Equestrian royalty has always been proud of the fact they trace their lineage back to the Princesses themselves. Too proud, in fact, to risk diluting the blood line. So cousin married cousin, whose children would in turn marry relatives. Naturally, a few unusual side effects resulted. Twins, triplets, and even quadruplets became more common, and many foals were born with club hooves or antagonistic personalities. The royal family became almost overwhelmingly unicorns, but occasionally a pegasus would be born. Puzzlingly enough, no alicorns were ever born. Not true alicorns anyway.
I was supposed to have a pegasus as a sister. My parents had already named her Credenza when they went for the last ultramagica scan. But somehow, she’d disappeared. Where there had once been twins, there was now a single filly.
The doctor assured my parents that it was normal, that it happened to many sets of twins, and that the pregnancy could continue as planned. Some complications were to be expected, but nothing drastic. But my mother was desolate at her loss, and she didn’t survive my birth.
My father had to care for his surviving filly alone. But how is one unicorn supposed to care for the first alicorn born in all of recorded history? And a strange alicorn at that! An alicorn who couldn’t fly, could barely use magic, and couldn’t feel the earth’s heartbeat beneath her hooves. I can’t fault him for his failings as a father, given the circumstances. It would have been enough to drive anypony to drink.
It was beautiful, almost, to listen as he would serenade the night on his violin. Smelling of whiskey and cologne, he would call to me “Cadenza! Mi amore Cadenza! So you come to visit me! Stay quiet, you do not want to wake your sister. ” I was always a little hurt that he didn't recognize me, but with the moonlight dulling my coat to a dusky purple, I was happy enough to pretend to be my mother and listen to him play.
It would be some time before I realized he wasn’t mistaking me for my mother, but for the sister I was supposed to have had. And by then, it would already be too late.
Twin Embolisation Syndrome: Also known as Vanishing Foal Syndrome. First discovered with the advent of ultramagica scans, where twin foals detected in the first 60 days of pregnancy often disappeared into one foal, the twin being reabsorbed into a placenta like fetus papyraceus. This is thought to occur, sometimes undetected, in up to twenty percent of all pregnancies. In rare cases, the twin is absorbed later in the pregnancy, leading to vestigial limbs on the surviving foal. In such cases, the surviving foal often experiences Survivor Guilt, or even a feeling of being two people, but no evidence has been found to substantiate these claims
-Equestrian Medical Reference
I wasn’t very old when I realized I wasn’t quite normal. The frequent visits to doctors, the way grown ponies would stare at me, and of course, the lack of any other fillies with both wings and a horn were obvious signs, even to a filly.
As I grew older, I started to understand why I was strange. Alicorns were powerful creatures, the incarnation of Equestria herself! That one would be born to two minor nobles was unthinkable! There were many rumors of course. I was Celestia’s illegitimate daughter, born in a surrogate mother, or Luna reborn, separated from Nightmare Moon in a terrible Zebra ritual.
But I knew that wasn’t true. I looked nothing like Princess Celestia. My horn was of normal size, and my mane didn’t move in an invisible breeze the way hers did. I was just a unicorn with wings, and the spitting image of my mother.
Oh, my poor, dear mother. For the longest time, I thought my mother had hated me. Why else would she look so sad in all of the pictures that had been taken of her while she was with foal? Why else would she have left me? And why else would she haunt me?
I saw her everywhere, in my dreams, out of the corner of my eye in crowds, even in my reflection. A purple pegasus filly, mane striped like my own, that followed me wherever I went. She was a silent spectator of my life for as long as I could remember. But then, at my eigth birthday party, she spoke for the first time.
My best friends in the whole world, Shining Armor and Fleur de Lis, were there to celebrate with me, and my father had pulled himself together long enough to present me with a book of sheet music and a promise teach me to play the violin. The day couldn’t have been more perfect!
“Happy birthday dear Cadance! Happy birthday to you!” Everyone sang as loudly as they could. A magnificent cake was brought out, one as big as I was! As eager as only a filly could be, I stood up in my seat to reach the top of the cake, where six enormous candles burned.
But when I went to blow them out, the singing around me grew quiet, and then stopped. I could see eyes reflected in the flames. As I watched them, they winked at me! I gasped, and the flames grew larger, brighter, taller than me, and then sprang free of the candles altogether. The fireball flew circles around my head and then landed back on top of the cake, now shaped like pegasus.
I fell backward, hoof over head, and hit the ground hard. The pony laughed, and glided down to me on wings made of smoke. I was terrified, because nopony else noticed a thing. In fact, they stood completely frozen, like time itself had stopped. I was alone with the fiery pony, who was becoming decidedly less flaming. In fact, she now looked like a normal pegasus filly, with a purple coat and a mane that matched my own. Could it be? She looks just like...
“Mama?” I asked, wonder in my voice. The filly laughed, but her eyes were sad. “Happy birthday Cadence. But don’t forget, it’s my birthday too. So I’m going to take this wish.” With that, the filly flew back to the top of the cake and blew out the candles herself. She disappeared, leaving behind nothing but smoke and a single purple feather. I watched the feather fall, slowly, to hit me right between the eyes. Without my noticing, the world came back to life around me.
“Cadance? What are you doing on the ground?” Fleur was standing over me, giggling into her hoof. I stood back up, and took a long look at the ponies now moving around me, the feather in my hoof, and the unlit candles at the top of the cake.
“I...” had no way to explain what just happened. The puzzlement on my face must have been explanation enough for Fleur. “You are sooo silly Cadance! I can’t believe you fell off the table!” She bounded back up to take her seat. “Come on, cut the cake!”
“Sure thing Fleur!” But I wasn’t paying attention to the cake. I nestled the feather into my own wing, for safe keeping, and then joined Fleur at the table. Shining Armor gave me a worried look from across the table, but I was lost in my thoughts. My ghost had talked to me, I had heard her! But... if she wasn't my mother, than who is she?