Alicorn

by Aldea Donder

Appendix: Previous Revisions

Author's Note:

Previous Revisions

Alicorn has been through numerous edits since its initial publication. Previous chapter revisions are recorded here for future record.

Chapter One

2011 Publication –

• Originally published as a one-shot sequel to Mommy Nearest by Fairy-Slayer. Content and tone are similar to that parent fic.
• Rainbow Dash expresses only minor, fleeting anger toward Celestia. Some unpalatable facts are brought to light, e.g. Celestia’s refusal to acknowledge her parentage on myriad previous occasions; these facts are quickly moved past, and the story ends with a moment of heartfelt reconciliation.
• Other challenges related to Rainbow Dash’s new rank and biology are not addressed (e.g. how being a princess will uproot her life, how others will perceive her differently, how her future ambitions will be affected, how her friendships will be affected, how she will grow into her magical abilities).
• Rainbow Dash is known as Princess Freyja in this version, in direct continuity with the original published version of Mommy Nearest.
• Celestia’s rationale for giving up Rainbow Dash for adoption (“Because you weren’t a unicorn”) also mirrors the original continuity of Mommy Nearest.
• Certain staples of the modern version of Alicorn are already present, such as the lullaby, but the overall structure and narrative are very bare-bones.

2012 Revision –

• Chapter remains in direct continuity with Mommy Nearest.
• By this point, the overall narrative of Alicorn had begun to take shape, and it became clear that developing and exploring a plausible mother-daughter relationship between Rainbow Dash and Celestia would be at the heart of the story. Therefore, any tearful reconciliation in Chapter One would come far too early. The chapter was revised to end with Rainbow Dash turning away from Celestia, refusing to forgive her, and refusing to acknowledge her as her parent.
• Rainbow Dash’s emotions are barely exposed. She expresses only minor sadness and very little in the way of anger or fear.
• Celestia’s point of view is unexplored outside of dialogue, and her own emotions are left mostly untreated.
• By this point, Rainbow Dash is known as Princess Aurora, not Princess Freyja.

2015 Revision –

• Complete rewrite. Chapter is no longer in direct continuity with Mommy Nearest. With this revision, the major narrative developments of Fairy-Slayer’s original fanfic are fully integrated into Alicorn.
• Several of the story beats remain the same: Rainbow Dash falls from a cloud and is brought back to town by Applebloom and Big Macintosh; the doctors are unable to provide remedy; Twilight Sparkle is unable to provide remedy; Zecora is unable to provide remedy; Twilight Sparkle writes to Celestia, who arrives and reveals herself to be Rainbow Dash’s mother.
• Several new scenes are written on the front end to examine Rainbow Dash’s station in life at the start of the story (i.e. dead-end job, aspiring to the Wonderbolts, looking forward to tryouts in September).
• The recurring thematic motif of the painting above the fireplace and the concept of “Good Enough” are introduced.
• Several dream sequences are provided to foreshadow the revelation of Rainbow Dash's parentage and provide examination into her unraveling mental and emotional state.
• A scene is written for Celestia in Griffi’la to foreshadow the Ascendancy story thread.
• Rainbow Dash’s reaction to hearing the truth from Celestia is now apocalyptic. Her anger, fear, and sadness are powerful.
• Celestia’s mental and emotional state are also investigated.
• "Because you weren't a unicorn" is struck from Celestia's list of reasons for giving Rainbow Dash up for adoption, as this was, in the author's opinion, too ignoble and accommodating of racism to stand as a justifiable rationale. Instead, Celestia cites a number of other reasons for wishing to recuse herself from the responsibility of raising Rainbow Dash, including her past failures raising Luna.
• The fallout between Rainbow Dash and Celestia follows the contours of the parallel scene in the 2012 revision, but the emotional punch is much more raw and faithful to Rainbow Dash’s loyalty and emotional nature.
• The scene showing Celestia’s introspection lying in the hospital with an unconscious Rainbow Dash is slightly overwritten.

2019 Revision (current version) –

• Celestia's introspection is rewritten.
• Paragraphs are removed showing Rainbow Dash being made to wear a bridle to restrain her from hurting herself, a holdover from Mommy Nearest.
• Several other minor edits.

Chapter Two:

2011 Publication –

• Chapter remains in direct continuity with Mommy Nearest.
• Celestia features at the beginning of the chapter, still in the hospital room with Rainbow Dash following their heartfelt reconciliation at the end of Chapter One. She briefly lectures Rainbow Dash about her horn when Rainbow Dash makes the mistake of referring to it as a “can opener”—thus, the origin of the can opener joke, eventually to be paid off in Chapter Seven.
• Rainbow Dash and Celestia are soon joined by Fluttershy, marking the first of several perfunctory appearances by the Mane Six in this chapter. Fluttershy’s inclusion contributes nothing to the overall narrative, nor do the follow-up scenes with Applejack and Rarity at the farm and Pinkie Pie at the party; these scenes are largely short and superficial, serving only to tick the boxes on mentioning the Mane Six.
• Rainbow Dash performs a sonic rainboom, which was noteworthy during the 2011 hiatus between the first and second seasons of the cartoon, as it was unclear then whether Rainbow Dash would keep her signature ability after the events of S1E16.
• There is a minor romance/shipping between Rainbow Dash and Big Macintosh during the scene on the farm.
• Numerous background ponies are included at Pinkie Pie’s party.
• The central narrative dilemma is beginning to take shape: Twilight Sparkle and Celestia share a picnic lunch, where Celestia conveys some trepidation about being a parent to Rainbow Dash; later on, the graveyard scene between Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle lays bare Rainbow Dash’s reservations about opening herself up to Celestia and betraying her adoptive mother and father. However, the tone of the chapter—as well as the chapter title itself, “A New Beginning”—are still notably upbeat. There is little to give the impression that Rainbow Dash has suffered as a result of growing her horn, and she and Celestia are quite cordial.

2012 Revision –

• Chapter remains in direct continuity with Mommy Nearest.
• Celestia no longer features at the start of the chapter.
• Despite following the revised version of Chapter One in which Rainbow Dash rejects Celestia, her emotional state is still muted, with boredom at being stuck in the hospital and fascination with her horn ranking chief among her concerns.
• Fluttershy’s scene is expanded.
• During her picnic with Twilight Sparkle, Celestia remarks on her intention to fly north to a place called Asgard, later to become Griffi’la in a future revision. This marks the initial authorial conception of the Ascendancy and the beginning of their role in the story, although at this primordial stage, their foreshadowing is still quite sparse.
• Celestia also asks Twilight Sparkle to speak to Rainbow Dash and convince her to come to Canterlot for her own protection, with the unsavory alternative that if Twilight Sparkle does not convince her, Celestia will order the Royal Guard to bring Rainbow Dash in by force. This would turn out to be an unfortunate narrative revision: because the threat posed by the Ascendancy was so ill-defined, and because Celestia's relationship with Rainbow Dash was so nascent, Celestia's request had the effect of causing readers to second-guess her intentions, turning them against her from an early stage.
• Later in the chapter, when Rainbow Dash visits her the graves of her mother and father, she asks their forgiveness for harboring certain feelings toward Celestia that she can’t control, rather than their permission to pursue a mother-daughter relationship with her, one step further along the path of making Rainbow Dash's alienation from Celestia a central plank of the story.

2015 Revision –

• Chapter is no longer in direct continuity with Mommy Nearest.
• Minor patch job to make the chapter compatible with the 2015 revision of Chapter One. Several narrative problems still persist, which these edits were simply insufficient at addressing.
• The chapter now begins with Rainbow Dash trying not to think about Celestia and the revelation of her parentage. While this is closer to the devastation she experiences in the 2015 revision of Chapter One, Rainbow Dash is still far too reserved and composed during the initial scenes and throughout the chapter.
• Tank is included at Pinkie Pie’s party, as by this point, he had been a long-established character in the franchise.
• The background ponies are excluded from Pinkie Pie’s party, making the event more of a small and intimate get-together among friends.
• Apart from the graveyard scene, tone remains problematic, and the catastrophic repercussions on Rainbow Dash’s emotional state are left unexplored.

Chapter Three

2011 Publication –

• Chapter remains in direct continuity with Mommy Nearest.
• Celestia makes a cameo at the start of the chapter, as at this stage, her mission in the Griffin Kingdom had not yet been conceptualized.
• Tristar is overly antagonistic while escorting Rainbow Dash into the Warrens. His rejoinders to Rainbow Dash cross the line into disrespect and insubordination.
• First published appearance of Luna in Alicorn. As this chapter was written nearly a month before S2E04 Luna Eclipsed aired, the story did not have the advantage of leaning on the character’s canon depiction. Instead, Luna’s personality takes inspiration from fanon portrayals, especially Progress by Andrew Joshua Talon. Here, she is portrayed as reserved, unassuming, something of a bibliophile, and tormented by guilt over her actions as Nightmare Moon. Over time, with future chapters and revisions, Luna’s personality would come to more closely resemble that seen in canon, with greater self-confidence and forthrightness, although it would never be an exact match.
• Several allusions to Progress are included as fan service (i.e. the abacus, the microwave).
• Sage Whitehoof is overly evasive about his identity, for no particular reason other than to prolong the reveal until the end of the chapter. He contributes almost nothing of substance during his introduction to Rainbow Dash.
• Rainbow Dash expresses aloofness toward Celestia at the end of the chapter, but still minimal hostility.

2015 Revision –

• Chapter is no longer in direct continuity with Mommy Nearest.
• Celestia no longer makes a cameo at the start of the chapter.
• Tank accompanies Rainbow Dash to Canterlot.
• Luna remains mired in her fanon characterization.

Chapter Six

2015 Publication –

• At time of publication, this chapter marked Shining Armor's first appearance in the story. The previous two chapters were published 4/1/2012, three weeks prior to the air date of S2E25 and S2E26, A Canterlot Wedding. As such, Shining Armor did not feature in the narrative prior to this chapter, nor did Cadance. The addition of these characters to the show posed several immediate challenges to the canon compatibility of Alicorn:

  • Cadance is an alicorn. The existence of a third alicorn other than Celestia and Luna retroactively created a problem in the first several chapters of the story: why was Cadance not mentioned or featured in Chapters One through Five?
  • The mechanism by which Cadance had become an alicorn—ascension—had also not been cemented yet, and would not be cemented until S3E13, Magical Mystery Cure. At this stage, Cadance's background and relation to Celestia and Luna were entirely speculative. The tie-in novella, Twilight Sparkle and the Crystal Heart Spell, would later establish Cadance as a pegasus who was adopted by Celestia and transformed into an alicorn due to an act of heroism, but this had yet to be conceptualized. As a result of Cadance's vague background, it was difficult to integrate her into the story with any amount of forward accuracy.
  • Once ascension was unveiled in the cartoon, Alicorn became even more incompatible with Cadance's canon depiction. In the internal logic of the fanfic, alicorns are born, not manufactured. Thus, it would be impossible for Cadance to have been born a pegasus and made into an alicorn at a later date.
  • Shining Armor is revealed as Captain of the Royal Guard in S2E25, A Canterlot Wedding. However, Alicorn had already given this role to Tristar. This was yet another plot point that caused friction between the show canon and the fanfic.

• This constellation of problems, which was later compounded by Twilight's ascension in the cartoon, led to a three-year hiatus in which the story was not updated. Although a draft was written as early as 2012, Chapter Six would not be published until 2015. Ultimately, the following compromises were made:

  • Cadance would retain her rank as princess, but she would remain an off-screen character as much as possible so as to not draw reader attention to her. To maintain compatibility with the narrative of the fanfic, she would not be presented as an alicorn, but rather as a pegasus. Thus, this chapter marks a critical divergence with the cartoon, and the point where Alicorn basically becomes an alternate universe.
  • Whereas Cadance was pushed to the background, it was decided that Shining Armor would feature in Chapter Six at the battle in Manehattan. His captaincy was reconciled by making him captain of the Unicorn Corps of the Royal Guard, whereas Tristar is captain of the Pegasus Corps.
• Because Shining Armor was not previously established as a character in Chapters One through Five, it was necessary to quickly write him during the battle at the start of Chapter Six. This has the downside of being contrived: in the span of a few paragraphs, Shining Armor is established to be Cadance's fiancé, as well as Tristar's friend and protégé. The tone and realism of the scene suffer as a result: why is Shining Armor reminiscing over old times in the middle of a major battle?

• There is uncertainty over the extent of Shining Armor's injuries.

  • After the battle, Shining Armor is described as climbing to his hooves, flashing Tristar a smile, and limping off the battlefield.
  • In a later scene, Twilight is described as having just come from a visit to Shining Armor in the hospital. Shining Armor is mentioned as having been "sedated" and "unconscious" with Cadance "wispy-eyed at his side," but with injuries non-threatening enough that he would be "out in a week."
  • This vacillating over the extent of the character's injuries was due to uneasiness about how dark the tone of the story ought to be.
• The word "terrorism" does not appear anywhere in this version of the chapter, also owing to concerns about tone.
• The primary argument deployed against Celestia in the newspaper (and later cited by Rarity in her argument with Rainbow) is that Celestia was guilty of failing to alert to populace of an imminent attack despite having foreknowledge of it.
• Tone is kept light during the hospital scene with Sweetie Belle.
• Celestia's rationale for keeping the operation a secret is that she wanted to capture the ringleader of the Ascendancy, and she feared he would go into hiding if she tipped her hoof by putting out a public alert. However, this smacks of an idiot plot. There's no compelling reason to believe the Ascendancy's ringleader would make himself a target in Manehattan regardless of whether the danger posed by the Ascendancy was made public. Indeed, despite keeping the operation quiet, Celestia apparently fails to capture the ringleader anyway. Thus, upon examination, Celestia's actions in this version of the chapter are almost indefensible.
• Uncertainty over tone continues into the hospital scene with Sweetie Belle. Pinkie Pie's antics are comical and light-hearted throughout. Rarity's father is described as having suffered no major injuries, and he takes a jovial disposition about the vacation. When the Cutie Mark Crusaders show up, their interactions with Sweetie Belle are played for laughs. Overall, the consequences of the events in Manehattan are not treated with any amount of gravity by the main characters, with Rarity being the lone exception.

2017 Revision –

• d

Comments

[BarrenBaron]

sounds good, keep up the good work man.

[Little Voice]

There will be vengeance on those that nearly killed Shining Armor and Sweetie Belle!

[Super]

It's not a bad update at all. Action is always nice :3

I'm with Grano... and I don't even like Sweetie :3

[AwesomeRainbowDash]

Enchanted ceiling, like in Hogwarts!

[Firedon]

I think that's a good idea, while I like reading long chapers, they sometimes are too much to read if you are in a hurry, so I will enjoy the small bits of the story Also it helps that I know that updates will come sooner because of the changes, so I hereby declare to be happy.
Good part by the way

[Wizardmon]

Celestia was "Breathing life into the fallen" does this mean that Sweetie Belle's father was saved?

[ymom2]

Son of a mother duck it updated!

[Beige]

Wow... This is getting seriously epic.

I like the idea you expressed in the post script. Having shorter yet more frequent updates would certainly be nice for this fic, since updates are usually sparse. However, I think it would be less confusinng if you left all the chapter segments seperate once the chapter itself is complete, rather than rolling them all into one. As long as it still says 'part x', it'll be fine.

Keep it up! Brilliant!

[djthomp]

Sounds like a good plan to me.

[UnovaBrony]

This is a nice strategy go for it. And Rarity is DEAD. No, Generosity is gone and now how will the Elements work? All is lost. Shining Armor was nearly killed. My heart was in shambles when I thought he died but that didn't prepare me for Rarity's corpse. You inspired me to make a fanfic myself. Thank you for inspiration!

[Trinary]

Anything that gives us more of your awesome story works for me! Oh wow, nice battle! The banter with Tristar and Shining Armor was funny and seeing Sage pwn that once disciple was awesome. And Celestia? Daayum!

But poor Sweetie Belle! I just wanted to hug her sooo baaad!

[clearshot01]

The strategy is sound, I like it.

[Alphaetus_Prime]

Hah, and this only got off my "Read Later" list yesterday! How convenient. By the way, Sage Whitehoof = Dumbledore.
547878 What. When did this happen, exactly?

[Dusty the Royal Janitor]

547878
548021
The heck are you on about? The story said nothing about Rarity's corpse. I'm pretty sure that Rarity is alive and well in Ponyville. It was Sweetie Belle and her parents that were on vacation here in Manehattan.

Furthermore, I'm pretty sure that even her parents aren't quite dead. After all, Celestia was 'breathing life into the fallen' and she said 'nopony would die this day' so I'm going to assume that they got saved.

Pretty crappy vacation if you ask me, though XD

And I'm glad that her parents got saved, or that it at least looks that way. It's gotten to be WAY too much of a cliche to have Rarity's parents end up randomly dead for no good reason. I can point to three fics off the top of my head where they just randomly are dead. and several more where they die over the course of a story. Dunno what people have against Rarity's parents. I quite like them.

[NeonEclipse]

*gets to the part where shining armor goes down*
t1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ_3khfcszaGFZ55uYgij0xQLxKYII-f82Am3yFYY2HljtD507wsvp7x47S4Q

[That_one_guy]

Holy fuck an update.

Holy fuck it's epic.

[ErekLich]

547878 Rarity isn't dead, her parents are.

As far as the updating, though, I'd much rather see complete chapters less frequently.

[Poniard Dagger]

i1142.photobucket.com/albums/n613/bombermanpyr/Doctor%20Who%20Reactions/tumblr_m2uc3dF5mh1rtxz73o1_500.gif

[Spanner]

547878
Did I missed something? When did Rarity die?548043

Ok good. I didn't know there was some "thing" about killing her parents. lol.

Great story. I had to re skim all the chapters to remember what was going on. I hope you spend some time on Twilight teaching dash. For some reason I like their clashing personalities. Oh and Sage is awesome, you really made it seem like he and Twilight had known each other well.

[KingOfTheMuffins]

My reaction at how great this was:

dfhgrirtuierwbtuibiwbgeiwbgiwebngiwbgilweg

That is all.

[Lagrangian]

I'm unclear: did Celestia save only the guards who were struck, or the civilians as well?

[StatusQo]

Rarity aint gona like the news she gets

[ScadianArcadium]

548329She tried to save everyone who was still alive; civilians, guards, etc. The thing is by the time she got there the majority of the civilians in the initial attack were already dead. Not even Celestia can heal that which has no life...in this universe anyway.

[Steben]

I don't like your update strategy. Bunching all the scenes together after you post them is going to confuse readers wanting to take a second read at your fic.

That bitter comment aside, Thank you for the update!

[please delete]

All hail Celestia.... The walking overpowered plot device! Seriously.

[Lagrangian]

548545

How do you know this?

[Jm4573r]

Sweetie Belle's mother wasn't at the train station with them right?

[Pleaseworkforonce]

love it and also i was pissed when i thought shining died and i dont get mad easily which is bad on part

[Twilicorn]

Sweetie? -sniff- I don't love her, but you make her loveable.

[Derpmind]

So, are you or are you not going to include Cadance as an Alicorn in your story? Because as awesome as the Canterlot Wedding episode was, squeezing all that stuff in left quite a few plot and continuity holes. You only have to make that episode cannon, or have Cadance be an Alicorn instead of a Unicorn, if you want to and think it will help your story.

[Rust]

I dislike cultists. They're so fanatical.

[Aldea Donder]

548851

Oh, I'm not too worried about the continuity errors wrought by that particular episode. They don't trouble me too much. All things considered, this fic took a much worse bludgeoning from Nightmare Night. That said, I'm not exactly going to lampshade those issues either. :)

548329

Guards and civilians both.

547878

Rarity is alive. So is Sweetie Belle, and so are Sweetie Belle's parents. Jeeze, you guys! Always assuming the grimdark!

[bcsnakeeyes]

okay this is good writing keep it up. i hope to hear more of this story soon.

[Melancholy]

548932 yay! No death is good.
Piecemeal but more frequent updates are also good.

[RealityCheck]

Yay, more update.
You have NO IDEA how long I've been following this story....

[Toolkit]

I am enjoying this story. I like how you incorporated Shining Armor. Keep it coming.

[Lagrangian]

548932
I was very glad to read that no one was going to die (according to Sage anyways), so I'm glad we're staying away from grimdark. :)

[Cloud_Surfer]

I like the idea of doing the piecemeal approach when posting the updates, as long as the quality stays the same. And I am so relieved that you made sure to include Sweetie Belle's fate in this. I don't think I could wait for the next one without knowing if she lived.

[Celestias Paladin]

The badguy learned a very important lesson, you don't frak with Celestia or her little ponies.

[Balancer]

This is the Celestia I know and love

[Dash Attack]

Thanks for adding Shining into the story. He is best Captain.

[Ashura_Fox]

Another great chapter! And I'd be in favor of the more frequent, smaller updates. I'd only whine about it if they cut off in the middle of a scene or something like that. As long as there's a coherent resolution at the break, then it's fine by me. ^^

[andmos]

sounds like a plan. but it is one thing, the plan can also backfire. that meens qvalety front of quvantety.

[Ryunaker]

The funny thing is...I was under the impression that Sweetie's mom wasn't even in the station, so I was wondering when people said both her parents were dead, where they saw her show up. Part of me did think her dad would end up being dead, though, by the way that Celestia presented things: “Take this filly back to her home in Ponyville. Find her parents. Make sure they’re well attended to.” I interpreted that as her not knowing where the dad was yet. But that can also be interpreted as, once you find him, take care of him. (Though I also would have thought she'd want to keep her and her dad together in that case...there's also the thought that Rarity is under guard watch, so she'd want Sweetie under guard watch, as well.) Complicated, with many possible lines of thought.

And that's how Equestria was made! I have no idea where that came from. :p

[Zervziel]

Ok, why can't Celestia magic all the dead ponies back to life?

[edgelesspigeon]

Cool, an update! While I like long chapters, I prefer this new method because the wait is not as long. I really enjoyed the chance to see things from Tristar's perspective. Yeah, he's an arrogant, unlikable jerk, but he has his redeeming qualities. He's not simply a one-dimensional bully, but an actual entity with his own motivations and feelings. Also liked how you managed to work Shining Armor and the new canon from the wedding episodes into this part. Keep up the good work.

[UseFistNotMouth]

Works for me.

[Utruiwe]

First, I really love this story.
For me the premise is astoundingly believable. Aside from mane-color and eye-color that make Rainbows and Celestias relation conspicuous, the idea of having a third princess with the sky as her domain makes sense to me.
Rainbow Dash fits that scheme perfectly her connection to the sky is apparent both in canon as well an in this story, as her cutie-mark can be easily interpreted to symbolize the sky.
Also her rainbow-trail sets her apart from all other pegasi, and there is her ability to do a sonic raiboom…
Aside from this already interesting premise the main plot seems really epic.

But now after reading chapter four starring Shining Armor I´m slightly worried, because I think that if you tried to press Cadance in it might really hurt this story.
(Although I must admit I don´t have an idea how the Luna eclipsed-episode influenced your intended storyline… first appearance of Luna -> Luna should have been the villain a second time? Nah… that doesn´t make sense)
So maybe you can make it work, but your story obviously splits from canon before the Canterlot Wedding episode, so there is no need to include elements from there, especially if they might hurt said premise of your story.
One last thing:
Celestias court wouldn´t have accepted Rainbow because she wasn´t a unicorn. How is this compatible with Unity (where rainbow grows her horn)? Are there unicorns that grow wings during that process? Because if Rainbows development is how it always works there would be no question of acceptance for the offspring of an Alicorn from the beginning…
Anyway, keep up the good work!

[Aldea Donder]

552724

Thanks for your review. Long analytical comments like these are always my favorites. They always give me something to chew on.

Luna Eclipsed didn't influence the intended storyline as much as it shot a bunch of holes in it. The biggest deviation from canon, of course, is that canon Luna is a loudmouth who speaks Ye Olde English, whereas the Luna in this story is much more subdued, withdrawn, and soft-spoken. Basically, Alicorn Luna = Progress Luna. Aside from that, season two didn't majorly break this fic, and I don't imagine this fic as having "split" from the main continuity—rather, this fic takes place in an alternate reality where everything is pretty much the same, except that Luna's personality is completely different.

A Canterlot Wedding made me wince a couple times (count me among the camp that really, really wishes Cadance had been a normal unicorn instead of an alicorn!) But really, it didn't do mortal damage to the story I have planned. Actually, I'm really happy the show gave us Shining Armor—as strange and annoying as it was to see Tristar supplanted by a different Captain of the Royal Guard, I feel like being able to include Shining Armor, an actual character from the show, really made the scene a whole lot stronger. It also helped the OC-to-real-character ratio, which is always a plus. Basically, I’m just gonna hand-wave that one and say, “Yeah, okay, well maybe Canterlot has multiple captains. Whatever.”

Let’s just hope the show never introduces a canon Headmaster of Princess Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns! Then I’ll be really screwed!

As far as Cadance appearing in this fic—she isn’t going to. I don’t have any plans to incorporate her at this point. At least not in any substantial role. There’s one scene down the line where I may decide to give her a cameo, but nothing major. So you can rest easy about that.

Finally, regarding your observation on Unity—this is a really good point! Let me begin to address it by pointing out, one of the main plot elements of this story is that there aren’t a lot of alicorns left in the world. That being the case, alicorn reproductive biology probably isn’t the most well-studied thing. Also keep in mind that Rainbow is the product of a union between an alicorn and a non-alicorn, which is something that’s rarely ever happened. In any case, the fact of the matter is that Celestia didn’t know ahead of time that Rainbow would someday “graduate” to alicorn status. Perhaps it’s a coin flip, with certain offspring from alicorn/non-alicorn partnerships inheriting the alicorn gene, thus giving you the Rainbows of the world, and others not inheriting it, thus giving you the Bluebloods. It’s a really interesting question, and it’s one that WILL come up in a later chapter—but basically, I just gave you the answer in this paragraph, so there you go!

[Scarves]

"Every smoldering step she took seemed to communicate just how royally pissed off she was."
BEST LINE EVER!