Starlight paced back and forth across the Balcony Room, not caring about the castle staff that was staring at him. It probably had a different proper name, but Starlight had never learned it, and its most obvious potential name – the Map Room – referred to an entirely separate chamber located near Canterlot’s library. As a result, the room that contained the intricate map of Equestria on its floor and the heavens embedded into its ceiling was, in Starlight’s mind, named after its next most defining features, the three wide, rail-less balconies that looked east, west, and north.
Starlight usually met with Luna here every dawn, and had for the past eight years, ever since she had returned to Canterlot and selected him to be her majordomo. A nocturnal creature by choice, Luna would set the moon and the stars, raise the sun, and then impart final instructions to him – while he would give her a final report on the course of the day, assisted by the half-dozen ponies that stood near the door, each carrying ledgers and scrolls – before retiring one story up, to her chambers in the tallest tower. Starlight would typically himself retire as well, for as long as the Princess chose to be a creature of the night, her majordomo could be little else. There were also servants present, who would typically take the royal regalia from Luna to be cleaned and polished while she slept; and rounding out the group were a pair of Night Guards, in this instance two unicorns, who were mostly around for ceremonial purposes.
Eight years of routine, never broken before. Until, that was, today. For that matter, yesterday had skirted uncomfortably close to breaking routine, as well, and Luna had given in to her baser desires near its start, when she had assaulted the wine cellar. And the revelation that the pink mare claiming to be Celestia really was an alicorn, then Luna and her flying off, utterly abandoning the Night Court – such as it was, what with three provinces in five of Equestria still refusing to send representatives to Canterlot, as they continued to not trust Luna’s rule – and basically wasting an entire night on Stars only knew what.
He wasn’t precisely worried. The sun had risen at its normal time, or at least so close to it that Starlight couldn’t tell the difference. So, at the very least, Luna was most likely alright. Nevertheless, her odd behavior over the past twenty-four hours…
At length, there was noise from the eastern balcony. Stopping in his pacing and looking up, he saw Luna alighting upon it, as gently and quietly as possible, for lying across her back was the pink alicorn, the ‘Celestia reborn,’ as she claimed to be, eyes closed. Starlight also noted – with a small amount of distress – that Luna’s regalia was missing, as was the fairly expensive dress that the pink alicorn had come to see Luna wearing.
Starlight trotted over to the Princess, heedless of the fact that his hoof-steps were making firm clack-clack clack-clacks on the tiled floor beneath him. “Your Majesty – ” he began.
Luna shot him a wide-eyed glare, which stopped him in his tracks, then nodded her head towards the sleeping alicorn on her back. “Quiet,” she ordered, her voice just barely audible, as she made her way forward at a considerably more quiet pace. “She hath had a long night and is soon to have an even longer day. Let her sleep while she can.”
Starlight blinked a few times, before nodding and looking behind him, to the servants that had apparently approached more delicately than he. “Take her from the Princess and – ” he began, quietly.
Luna, however, cut him off again, this time with a slight cutting motion made with one wing. “I shall carry her,” she said as she made her way past the servants and paid little notice to the ponies bearing scrolls and ledgers and an entire night’s worth of work that had been wasted.
Starlight frowned at that. “Majesty, there is no need to burden thyself – ”
“Remember, Starlight, that from my perspective, being a princess – being waited upon mouth and hoof – is still a relatively new experience for me next to how long I have lived,” Luna interrupted, not slowing her gait. “I have moved mountains. A young mare can hardly compare to that.”
Starlight bristled, slightly, at the rebuke. Of course Luna was fully capable of carrying the alicorn on her back; that wasn’t the point. Nevertheless, she was still the Princess, and so he nodded after several long moments – Luna not slowing down in the slightest – turning to the servants and the bookkeepers. “The Princess will continue to put the affairs of the Night Court on hold,” he instructed them. “I will call you when you are needed. With her Majesty’s permission…?” He turned back to Luna, looking for confirmation of his order – and a reaction to his not-so-subtle jab at her – but found himself looking at an open door, through which he just managed to catch sight of the billowing, starry tail of the princess. The Night Guards had also left without informing him, not that they were required to.
Starlight’s eye twitched as he briefly considered staging a coup, if only to get the Princess to stop ignoring affairs of state. Sighing mightily, he turned to the other ponies in the room and simply waved a hoof. “Go on, get some rest, it’s not as though Equestria is still barely recovering from twelve years of anarchy and abandonment…” he intoned. The collected ponies’ reactions were made of equal parts shock, dismay, and bemusement at so blatant a critique of the Princess and her twelve-year disappearance from Canterlot. Starlight didn’t give them a chance to respond, however, instead turning and setting off after Luna.
Catching up to her wasn’t hard; talking to her, however, was, as she appeared to have surrounded herself, out to a twenty-foot radius, in a circle of silence. Starlight briefly considered using the opportunity to ‘voice’ his appraisal of the situation and vent some frustration, but decided against it: just because he couldn’t hear himself when near Luna, didn’t meant that Luna herself was rendered deaf. Instead, he settled on following her, and the two Night Guards that escorted her, to the guest quarters that she had instructed the alicorn and her retainer to be set up in. Once she had arrived, she dispelled her radius of silence and knocked softly on the door.
The brown pegasus – Cartasole, was his name? – answered it within moments, as though he had been waiting for it. His eyes widened at the sight of Luna, widened further at the sight of the pink alicorn draped across her back, but – much to Starlight’s personal dismay – he kept his mouth firmly shut when he noticed that the pink alicorn was sleeping.
“She is fine,” Luna said quietly at a pleading glance from Cartasole, as she stepped into the room, horn glowing and lifting the pink alicorn from her back gently, guiding her to the bed and laying its covers across her prone form. Once she was settled, Luna retreated from the room, beckoning for Cartasole to follow. The pegasus did, but only after checking on the pink alicorn’s sleeping form himself.
“Thy mistress is merely sleeping,” Luna instructed the stallion once he was outside of the room and the door had been partially closed. “We spent the night talking, and flying, and dueling – ”
“What?” Starlight demanded.
Luna shot him a glare, but he had kept his voice down despite emphatically not wanting to, so she couldn’t really admonish him. After a moment, she turned back to Cartasole. “Though Cadenza is an alicorn, she is not my sister. I have known this since we met, but did not wish to immediately disabuse her of her belief – not before getting to know her better.”
Cartasole blinked several times as he took in this information. He looked surprised, but not terribly so, and seemed to be carefully considering what to do next. “I…will attend to her until she wakes,” he said solemnly.
Luna favored the pegasus a thin, but genuine, smile. “Please tell Cadenza, when she is ready, that I can see her at any time she desires.” She paused a moment, then leaned in slightly. “And please, ensure that she does not do something foolish, such as flee Canterlot in shame. She strikes me as the kind who might utterly overreact.”
Cartasole blinked several times at that, as though wondering if he was supposed to be laughing or confirming what the princess said. He settled on a nod, which Luna returned before bidding him leave. Even after he left, however, Luna remained still for some moments, simply staring at the door, before letting out a long sigh and closing her eyes. “I need a drink,” she said softly.
“Majesty…” Starlight said, his voice full of warning. Not that he could meaningfully follow through on any such threat, but the tone and concern was enough.
Luna let out another sigh at that, turning to look at him for a moment. “I have had a long night,” she said, beginning to trot away.
“Majesty, no,” Starlight insisted, galloping ahead of her – much to the consternation of the two Night Guards, still present, although they did not immediately act to stop him. “Thou hast been acting strangely since this Cadenza first arrived. She is but one of nearly three dozen impersonators of thy sister!”
Luna stopped her pace, staring down at Starlight. “She is an alicorn. I promise thee this, Starlight.”
“And I believe thee, Majesty,” Starlight responded. “But that does not change that this alicorn has incited thee to drink, thy first out of turn in years. Thou hast shirked thy responsibilities to the Night Court – ”
Luna rolled her eyes. “A single night will cause no harm – ”
“That does not change that thou hast been doting upon Cadenza like a mother doting upon a newborn foal, when thou hardly knowest her! I apologize, Majesty, but I must insist thou explain thine actions!”
Luna stared at Starlight. The purple unicorn blinked a few times, before remembering exactly who he had just shouted at, and opened his mouth to lamely add a ‘please,’ but then reconsidered and elected not to. Luna had chosen him from amongst a half-dozen potential candidates precisely because he had seemed unafraid to tell Luna when she was being foolish, and eight years of being the majordomo of Canterlot Castle had only increased that tendency in him. Luna had claimed that she valued such honesty from her staff – now seemed as good a time as any to put that to the test.
Luna blinked. After a moment, Starlight did too, glancing around him. He and Luna had moved – they were no longer in the hallways of Canterlot Castle, but rather inside a specific room, one that Starlight had never actually seen before, which given that he was the majordomo of Canterlot, was saying something. The room was shaped like a half-circle, and had a single large window along its curved wall, which showed Canterlot Castle and the city that surrounded it through it, but somehow no sunlight seemed to actually go beyond the sill of the window. The rest of the stone room was cast in dark blue and lit by thousands of glowing gems set into the ceiling – glow-gems which, Starlight realized when he looked at them, moved, heedless of their medium being solid stone. Despite the sheer number of gems, however, each gave off only the barest amount of light, such that the room was only dimly lit.
The room probably had walls, but the walls were completely obscured by shelves, containing trinkets and sundried, baubles and curiosities, far too many for Starlight to properly take them all in, or even a portion of them, except for the strangest – on one shelf, for example, was a pound or two of what looked like perfectly normal dirt. On another shelf, sitting by itself, was what looked like a half-melted golden ring. Beneath that shelf was a large, ornate golden box, and set atop the box was a simple wooden cup. A third shelf held a quartet of simple stones, each with three white lines across them; Starlight wasn’t sure why, but he was certain that there was supposed to be a fifth stone. The shelves and spaces of the room that weren’t occupied by random trinkets, meanwhile, held books, scrolls, clay tablets, and dozens of other writing surfaces, almost none of them in languages that Starlight could read.
The only other notable features of the room were a bed covered in blue sheets, large enough for several ponies – or one or two alicorns – to sleep on comfortably; and a wooden door, set into the center of the room’s straight wall and looking like it could open both ways.
Starlight fancied himself a fairly intelligent unicorn, but even a simpleton could have guessed where he was. “Y…your chambers?” he asked, as he looked around. Eight years, and he had never been in this room. In point of fact, he had at times wondered if this room even existed, wondered if Luna, rather than sleeping confined in a stone castle, instead assumed some ethereal state, or slept within the moon, or something else entirely. And if this was Luna’s room, then the only door of the room wouldn’t lead down, but instead, to…
…Starlight decided that, even if she was safely trapped within the burning heart of the Sun, he had no interest in finding out what Celestia’s former chambers looked like.
Luna nodded, as she trotted over to her bed. Even as she walked, the bed seemed to somehow shift, molding itself from a bed into a comfortable-looking set of sitting cushions, while a similar set, albeit smaller in size, appeared nearby. “Sit, Starlight. Thine indignation is…understandable.”
Starlight shifted in place slightly, before slowly trotting over to the cushions that Luna had created from nothingness and settled down on them, waiting for Luna to begin. The blue alicorn, herself, was staring at the stone floor beneath her, one hoof tracing circles on it, as though she wasn’t sure how to begin the conversation. She opened her mouth several times to do so, but each time closed it again.
Finally, she grit her teeth, closed her eyes, and forced herself to speak. “Corona – Celestia – is stronger than I,” she said. “She hath always been. It is not simply that she is older, for with beings as old as we, what does a few years either way matter? It is simply a part of what she is. And twenty years ago, she had taken the Elements of Harmony and sequestered them away. So, then, Starlight. When she issued her mad decree, when she ordered the outlying provinces to be evacuated, the ponies living there to come to Canterlot – when she sent forth the armies of Equestria to force this relocation, uncaring about the massive loss of life such a displacement would cause – how dost thou suppose that I managed to overcome her?”
Starlight paused at that, considering. He, in fact, hailed from one of those outlying provinces, Xenophon, on the border with the sovereign (though decaying) nation of Latigo. However, at the time, he had been little more than a colt. At length, he shook his head. “I…know not, Majesty. I had heard that thou used magic to split thyself in twain, with one of thee meeting her at her coronation, distracting her, while another part of thee readied the Elements. But…what does that have to do with – ”
Luna’s eyes remained closed. “Patience,” she interrupted. “I will come to that.” She took a moment to gather her thoughts again, before continuing. “Before my sister went mad, I was lonely. I was ignored by the ponies of the world, or so I felt. None cared for the nights that I labored upon. Ponies slept through them and were frightened of the darkness and held the light of the moon and stars in contempt. And I felt envious of my sister, who was always honored, always respected, always so loved by everypony.
“So I began to look at dark magic, to consider the possibilities offered by the vile magic of pacts and blood and the darkness. A plot formed in my head, Starlight, a terrible plot, one I am ashamed to speak of. I planned to overthrow my sister and bring about night eternal.” Luna laughed. “What was it you suggested yesterday? Nightmare Moon? That is what I wished to become, Starlight.
“But then Celestia began falling into insanity. She began taking a harder approach towards our allies, enforcing the laws of the land with greater vigor, creating new ones to control the population. She raised taxes and increased the size of our armies, and would hear advice and council from nopony. And so, slowly, ponies began to approach me, looking for aid, looking for an alternative to Celestia’s increasing intractability.
Luna shook her head. “I…I was so happy, to be needed. Gradually the ponies who came to be were able – though they did not know it – to pull me away from my dark magic. And though they spoke of the increasing harshness of Celestia, around me she still acted as she always had. Maybe a little more weary, a little less patient, but still the Celestia I had known all my life, since I was young, since the world was young.
“But that was not the case. Celestia had lost her mind, becoming Corona. You know what happened next: her order to relocate tens of thousands of ponies from the outer marches to Canterlot, heedless of the mass starvation such a displacement would cause. How I challenged her in the Day Court, how she proclaimed her intention to crown herself as queen. How I stole the Elements and fled before she could slay me in anger.
“But here, common knowledge ends.” Luna opened her eyes, looking at Starlight with a pained expression on her face. “Corona is stronger than I. But there was a possibility, a way to overcome her. The way I had planned to, years earlier.”
Starlight’s eyes widened, and he stiffened. “Dark magic,” he intoned.
Luna’s lips were pressed tightly together. “I split my body and my consciousness – and my power – in two, but not evenly,” she explained. “The vast majority took the Elements to the Everfree Forest and prepared a trap in our old palace there. But the smaller part of me did something else. I – she, really – created a calling circle, and summoned up from Tartaros a being of immense, dark power – a being that could give her the ability to fight Corona on nearly equal terms. Tirek.”
Starlight stood at that, backing away from Luna. “Thou made a bargain with Tirek?” he demanded. Tirek was a demon – there was no other way to describe him – and one of the darkest, vilest creatures that had ever attacked Equestria. Grogar had never stretched his hoof beyond Tambelon; the Smooze, though immensely dangerous, had been contained within a matter of days; but Tirek? Tirek had plagued Equestria for decades on end, manipulating it from the shadows, turning it towards his dark designs, thousands of years ago. It was, in fact, the reason that Celestia and Luna had come to rule Equestria in the first place – to guide it away from the corruption and debasement of Tirek. When he had finally been defeated, he had been cast down into Tartaros, never to harm anypony again, or so Starlight had believed.
Luna, at Starlight’s exclamation, shook her head. “There was no ‘bargain,’ Starlight,” Luna said. “And it was not me. I have never touched the power of Tirek. It was the other part of me.”
Starlight blinked a few times, before slowly – cautiously – sitting back down. “P…prithee, explain,” he begged.
Luna grimaced. “The other me did not make a deal with Tirek. Bound in Tartaros and trapped in a calling circle, he could do nothing to her despite her possessing only a fraction of my total ability. She took his power, left him as little more than a husk, and used that power to become the mare that challenged Corona at her coronation – to become thy Nightmare Moon.”
“It was a gamble. The other me, the Nightmare Moon, though much closer to Corona in terms of power, was still in many ways fundamentally me – could not fight Corona with all her power. But that was never the plan. She guided Corona to the trap I had laid in the Everfree Forest, battling her, weakening her. But there, I trapped not just Corona, but Nightmare Moon as well. I shared thy fears, Starlight. I knew that the black power of Tirek could corrupt me forever. So…when I utilized the Elements of Harmony…it was not solely on Corona. And Nightmare Moon – as she was naught more than a being of black magic tethered to the barest fraction of my existence – was destroyed even as Corona was banished into the sun…or so I believed.”
Starlight stared. “Oh…oh…” he intoned, rocking in place slightly when he realized where Luna’s story was going – how it was going to end.
Luna pressed on anyway. “Some months later, I noticed a gathering power in the Everfree palace, a power enough to pierce through the haze of liquor I was even then drowning myself in. I went there, and felt that power gathering together, coalescing, shaping itself at the site where I had used the Elements of Harmony. I did not know what was forming, but I knew from whence it came: it was an echo, of the part of me that had borne Tirek’s power, the part of me that had been struck by the Elements of Harmony.
“I tried to strike at the gathering power then and there, but the Elements themselves were protecting it. Nevertheless, I resolved that I was going to destroy it when whatever it was finally manifested, rather than risk some vestige of Tirek’s power being set loose upon Equestria. So I waited, for months on end, at the site of my sister’s banishment…”
---
Luna had not moved for days, instead standing tensed, at the ready. Whatever power was gathering, at the base of the statue that contained the petrified Elements of Harmony, it was coming to a head at long last. It would be mere seconds now before whatever it was, would be made manifest. A demon of some kind? A dark twin to Luna? The Princess of the Night did not know and did not care…
…there was a flash of pink-tinged light. Luna’s horn glowed as she lunged, ready to do battle, ready to strike down the evil made manifest. She had failed Equestria already by not noticing her sister’s fall into madness. She would not fail it again as she reached out with magic, preparing to…
…it was a foal. Her magic, her might, all the power of the Moon and the Stars, was about to come crashing down upon a foal. Luna gasped and pulled back, barely stopping a force that could cleave mountains in half from falling upon its intended target.
Luna stood as still as a rock as she stared down at the foal. The foal, a filly, was small, about the size that would be expected of any newborn pony, covered in a pink coat, with a mane of purple and cream white. Upon its brow was the tiny nub of a horn – while sitting upon its back were a pair of wings that started pink, but gradually faded towards blue towards the tips of its primaries.
The foal lay still on her side for several long moments, before its legs and wings twitched, and its eyes opened, large and purple. Her eyes locked onto Luna, and after a moment, she began kicking and scrambling around, succeeding within moments of lying down upon its stomach, though it seemed to take immense effort. After several long moments of panting, the filly’s hooves scrabbled on the tiles of the courtyard beneath her, trying to stand up. However, she was unable to do much more than barely lift her barrel from the ground – her dock too high in the air while doing so – before stumbling and falling over onto her side. The foal let out a little squeal of surprise at her fall, but seemed otherwise unhurt, sitting up again after a few moments – wings spreading for balance – before trying after several long moments to stand again.
Luna blinked, then grit her teeth and stood firm. “I am – ” she began, drawing upon ancient power to augment her voice such that the whole of the Everfree Forest could hear her. The reaction from the foal was instant, however – she squealed in surprise and fright, falling over onto her side. At first, the filly tried to scramble away from Luna, but tired herself out quickly, and so simply lay on her side, panting and staring at her in wide-eyed fright.
Luna’s scowl deepened. This was a trick. She was faced with a black intelligence that was appearing as a foal, perhaps even was a foal, but was simply trying to prolong its unnatural existence. And even if that wasn’t the case, even if it was just a foal – she was spawned from the black power of Tirek possessing a fraction of Luna and –
– and struck by the Elements of Harmony. Purified. Cleansed of evil and disharmony. Protected these past three hundred days – somewhat shorter than a pony’s normal gestation, to be sure, but not terribly so – by those same Elements from Luna’s every attempt to destroy her.
Luna was not certain how the thought had not occurred to her before now, but when it came, it felt as though a mountain had fallen upon her. The Elements of Harmony had struck the part of her that had carried the power of Tirek. The Elements would have utterly destroyed Tirek’s power – but not the part of Luna that carried it. That part of Luna would have been altered, however, changed – it would not be a true copy anymore, not a part of her that could simply be reclaimed, re-absorbed, but it would be…
Luna fell back onto her haunches, mouth hanging open slightly as she stared at the foal, who had begun to recover from her fright and attempt to stand again. After several moments, she succeeded, wings extended wide for balance, legs spread equally wide. This time, the foal didn’t fall over, though her eyes remained fixed firmly on the ground beneath her.
Then, gradually, she began walking forward. Towards Luna. Towards a being that she owed her existence to, towards a being that she had once been a part of, but from which she was now a separate entity.
Towards a pony that could only be described as her mother – as the filly could be nothing more, nor less, than Luna’s daughter.
More than a few of you guessed this already, but here we go: confirmation.
Why is Cadence Luna's daughter?
Because having her be related distantly through some forgotten other brother or sister really just raises a whole lot of questions that are really awkward to try and answer. I think things are just much simpler if Cadence is Luna's daughter.
But how can this work in the Mane universe?
I constructed Cadence's "birth" in such a way that slightly different circumstances could easily have her still exist in the Mane universe. We know that Nightmare Moon can split herself into multiple ponies; all that needs to happen is for Nightmare Moon to have been split apart when Celestia used the Elements on her, and for that part to kind of just be caught in the wake. It can still be made to work.
Originally I actually wanted a more natural conception and birth, but that simply does not work in the Mane universe, so this.
Sure is Past Sins up in here.
Unintentional, but unsurprising. I actually realized it after I came up with the idea.
I find it hilarious that as I was writing this chapter, Past Sins finally made it to FiMFiction.
I don't like this at all
Unfortunate.
---
Now that this is all out in the open, certain scenes that occurred earlier in the fic might have a completely different feel if you go back and re-read them.
........You know, I came up with all sorts of crazy theories with how this was gonna work....
This was not one of those theories....and honestly, this is alot cooler than my theories.
Nice! I like it. I'll admit it was a little confusing to read the first time through, but it's clever and compelling. D'aaaaaw! Sleepy Cadance is cute. Also, the guts of Luna's staff--from Starlight to Bitta Luck--daa-yum.
To be honest, in my writings I'm strongly leaning towards making Cadance a regular unicorn, like Blueblood, which is probably closer to what Faust would have done. Don't get me wrong, I LIKE Cadance as a character, much more than I thought I would. But I really don't see a need for her to be an alicorn. If Twilight and Shining Armor can be these amazingly powerful unicorns, then why not just have Cadance be a powerful unicorn who is also a princess or lesser royalty/nobility? It really wouldn't alter the plot of the wedding episodes any. You could still have Celestia officiate the wedding if Cadance is nobility without her needing to be an alicorn. But what do you think?
1191123
My vote, personally, is that the show shows her as an alicorn, so she's an alicorn. Though you could also use the out of her being a pegasus-unicorn like Alula, and not actually an alicorn.
But, ultimately, you should do whatever you think is best for your own fic.
Cadence is going to need a whole lot of threrpy after this, better call Dr. Katz.
1191158 I still think all Alicorns are really changelings.
1190990
Well, it's easier than the explanation I came up with, where the ancestors for every one of their "relatives" were actually adopted as family members during the time after Discord's defeat in order to provide a greater sense of control to a recovering world and over time the real origins were lost so the families that descended from those first ones still considered themselves blood relatives and were treated higher than the other families who were founded afterwards and everything coalesced into a decadent court that only got worse and worse and AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO EVER CONSIDERED THAT YOU COULD BE RELATED AND NOT BE BLOOD RELATIVES GAAAAAH!
...Sorry. Marathoned fic. Brain broken. Good chapter. Good story. Need...drink.
(Yeah, this one...is pretty good, I suppose. It's not what I would have done, a lot of it still has me scratching my head, and the last chapter has left me utterly lost, but...yeah, your story, and you did a good job so far. Now...I really do need to lie down.)
Read later. Too busy. You...are a phenominaly intelligent man/woman
I don't mind Luna being her 'mother', in fact that might be quite interesting indeed. I do mind the whole split her consciousness, draw power from a demon, and then trick her sister to defeat her bit. It just seems a little underwhelming. I like how you combined the Nightmare Moon canonish interpretation into the Luna-verse, but I just don't really like how that fight went down. Overall intriguing though.
The 'I' is out of place here.
I can only wait for more!
Words cannot describe my WOW!
That idea certainly beats my "Luna got drunk and pregnant then dumped the kid" idea.
Very interesting idea having Luna actually make a "deal with the devil" in the hopes of beating Corona, I'm assuming that with his power gone Tirek was banished back to tartarus and was to weak to do anything but die?
Of course that does leave me wondering on the nature of Tartarus.
Very interesting stuff having Luna already planning on going "Nightmare" only to be just barely drawn back out and if anything pandering to it so she could feel loved.
Overall great chapter
Recommended Changes in bold.
Other than that All I can do is add to the vast echo-chamber hugbox.
Oh I'm going to have fun with this.
What a !
But seriously, I like this explanation for Cadance, and it certainly is better than the drunken pregnancy theory that I was also wondering about.
1191352
I've considered that, and it would work fine for explaining Blueblood...but it leaves something to be desired for how to explain Cadence, since I've decided to accept that she's an alicorn, and decided that alicorns are true physical gods whenever I write them. I don't think they can just be born as part of some random chance, so Cadence needs to either be ancient in her own right, or else have been born recently and have a connection to Celestia or Luna or one of their siblings (and I already gave my opinion on giving them siblings).
(And as for Blueblood, I just like the joke too much that "Prince" is his name, not his title, and I'm sad that "Best Night Ever" never showed that)
1191429
It's how I've imagined it from the beginning. Further, it shows off something. People had assumed that the main difference between the Lunaverse and the Maneverse is that in the Maneverse, Luna turned to dark magic while Celestia remained pure; while in the Lunaverse, Luna remained pure while Celestia went insane.
However, here we see that in fact, in the Lunaverse, Luna was turning to dark magic even as Celestia was still going insane, and only pulled away because ponies started to go to her for help. So perhaps it follows that in the Mane universe, Celestia was going insane, and Luna was turning to dark magic, but ponies never fully abandoned Celestia, meaning that she never fell quite so far and her fight with Luna shocked her out of it all (with - perhaps - a twelve-years-or-so recovery time?)
Meaning that the point of divergence between the two timelines isn't a change in Celestia or Luna, it's a change in what the ponies around them did.
1191786
This was the original plan, and truth be told I kind of still like it better, but translating it over into the Maneverse is next to impossible without serious contrivance.
So, we get this, which I actually still like because it seems...deific. We're getting a first-person view, so the impact is somewhat lessened, but seriously, gods were born in this manner all the time. So it fits in with my idea that Luna is a god, and Celestia is a god, and Cadence is a nascent godling.
So... This means that technically, that Tirek guy is her father. I really like that Idea, it opens a whole bunch of possibilities.
A bit weird, and definitely remniscient of Past Sins, which I honestly didn't like, but here, you make it work.
1192646
In a way. Though you could also think of the Elements as her father. Or, since the Elements were kind of carrying her for eleven months, the Elements could be the mother, and Luna's the father.
Or any number of other ways.
1192726
It definitely makes alicorns seem more like gods. It kind of reminds me of the births of Athena and Aphrodite. Sure, the circumstances are completely different, but they were both highly unusual, just like this.
Also, that scene last chapter where Luna comforts Cadence as she cries becomes about five thousand times more heartwarming now that I've read this.
I love the G1 stuff in here. Also Cadance as Luna's daughter... it makes a lot of sense! And yes, her staff all have guts of pure steel. Bad. Ass.
1193420
I honestly don't know.
Luna certainly isn't a virgin; I don't think anypony could last as long as she has (my personal headcanon puts her at about 40,000 years, but I won't make that Lunaverse canon and prefer to keep it vague) without getting it on at least once or twice a millennium, and I imagine she's had a number of quiet affairs to slake her lust over the years (somewhat less since she became a Princess, stupid civic duties). But I don't think she's had children before. Whether this is because alicorns can't become pregnant in the "normal" way; or because they can but Luna's simply never concieved, either by chance or by choice (alicorns having full control over their bodies); or what, I dunno.
I've described her as sleeping, eating, and having a heartbeat, so certainly evidence would seem to suggest that, physically, she's just like any other pony, though it also takes a considerable amount of alcohol to get her drunk, so it's probable that her body has much higher tolerances than a normal pony's. That being the case, it's possible that her body simple exterminates any sperm long before it can reach her ovum (as happens IRL, with sperm only ever winning out because there's so many of them, and even then somewhere between 25-50% of all attempts at conception simply fail anyway. If they had to contend with the immune system of a god, on the other hand...)
...
MLP: Making you consider things you never thought you would before.
1193502
Might not be infertile, just that normal ponies aren't capable of impregnating a female alicorn, or at least it's tremendously unlikely.
(Male alicorns, on the other hoof, might have a 100% success rate with the reverse situation, and alicorn/alicorn pairings are more in-line with normal mortal attempts. Or something. I don't know, I don't plan into going into it too much).
We'll see.
1192397
I think you misunderstood me. I can really appreciate the whole Luna was going evil and only Celestia's insanity and her subjects needing her kept her grounded. Like the assumption that the reverse was true in M-Verse especially since we'll be seeing this Luna and that Celestia interact (would also be a nice moment for M-Verse Luna to realize that too). What I didn't like was that Luna had to resort to this dark corrupting magic to win against her sister in their fight however. Using it only for it to fail and the power of Luna's love for her subjects or desire to protect them, kind of what the Elements of Harmony seem to sort of seek out in their bearers, makes for a far better arc for her. The problem for me is that Luna's lust for power and love actually ends up being a good thing as the plans she had made kept Equestria safe when really it should have had consequences. Basically Luna knows that she was wrong to follow the Dark Magical path however if she hadn't Corona would be on the throne. Message just seems really confusing.
1193726
That's how messages are, sometimes.
Keep in mind that Luna is ultimately giving a simplified version of the tale simply to lead up to Cadence's "birth." The version shown in "Sympony of the Moon and Sun" is more about the battle itself and how things played out.
1193740
So the Symphony of the Moon and Sun bit was more correct? I can't see how her summary here is correct when compared to that stories summary of the fight. Of course the music was romanticized but the whole 'she was crafty and tricky part' that story rejected does seem to be exactly what you summarized here.
1193759
It's a fair bit more desperation than craftiness, actually. The "crafty and tricky" bit largely got rejected based on the idea that Luna was basically sacrificing pawns to get to the King, that she was in full control of the board the whole time and simply maneuvering Corona into position for checkmate.
Here, it wasn't so clean-cut. Luna could only beat Corona by outmaneuvering her, but Corona was not just making her own moves, she was sweeping pieces off of the board at the same time. Nightmare Moon wasn't winning the fight and was probably already dying by the time she reached the Everfree. Luna may have also not simply gone "Elements > Everfree > Sun," but instead spent at least a little time trying to contain the damage caused by Corona and Nightmare Moon, without being noticed.
But, ultimately, that's why this story is in the movies & tie-ins, rather than being "Episode 0" or something. At the moment it's pick-and-choose canon, and all I personally ever intend to reference from it is that Cadence is Luna's daughter by way of the Elements of Harmony and as a by-product of her battle with Corona, without going into further detail.
Does this mean that Luna will be giving Shining Armour the 'If you hurt her' talk when he starts dating Candice? That could be ... terrifying
Are we supposed to recognize the stuff on Luna's shelves?
th04.deviantart.net/fs70/200H/i/2012/088/7/8/baby_cadence_by_bronyboy-d4udp44.png
DAAAWW....
Anyway, this chapter was... well, not exactly unexpected, but a the same time nothing like what I had imagined. I'm not really sure what my opinion on this origin for Cadance is, not even sure if I will ever understand exactly how I feel about, and I'm not sure whether or not that is a good or bad thing.
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That's closer to my own personal head-canon (at least until S3 and the Crystal Kingdom come along to smash it all). She's still something more than a normal pony, a lesser allicorn if you will; a pony composed of the qualities of to tribes. Not RDD's pega-corn mind you, but rather a sort of demi-god, as compared to Luna and Celestia being more like proper deities (though even their I tend to rank them lower than RDD seems to).
Though of course for my Lunaverse contributions I will be remaining more or less consistent with RDD's interpretations on the matter.
1191352
Your not the only one; my favorite opinion on the matter, for the time being at least, is that Celestia and Luna became princesses by marrying into the already existing Equestrian royal family (even wrote a blog post about it). As such in my head-canon they are indeed related to Blueblood, but not by actual blood.
1193472
And that's how I'm fairly certain I rank them less than you do. In my head-canon both princesses are under 10,000 years old, and significantly so at that. I haven't settled on my math yet, but I'd currently place the outside end of their TOTAL lifespans at just shy of maybe 13,000 years, and possible as low as just over 8,600 years. Not truly immortal but functionally close enough to it for most purposes. They also actually were born, largely as a matter of random chance from a set of otherwise perfectly normal ponies, though it was still considered something of an unprecedented miracle.
Oh, and for the curious, I would peg my interpretation of Cadance as having a lifespan of around 320-480 years.
1192397
Good point i can imagine way's it could have happened but suffice to say none of them really work that well.
Deific is right, mythology is filled with interesting stuff like this, and as I read it does have a surprising amount in common with Aphrodite, while still being so fresh and original.
So great stuff all through, Filly Cadence was adorable
Of course now I'm even more worried about this "Crystal Kingdom bit"
I love the idea that it was the ponies who "decided" whether they lost Celestia or Luna it being in response to the choices they made was an excellent idea.
Not sure how to work with that age though it make me
1197040
First of all, DAWWW.
Second, I haven't seen many stories about Cadance's origins, but this one most certainly seems to make the most sense. I like to think of Cadance as a true alicorn but with less power than the two goddesses, and your version certainly seems to support this theory.
I suppose this could fit in with the Maneverse, but I hardly think Princess Luna would skip out on her own daughter's wedding. Unless, of course, she was drinking again...
Oh Lulu, you bad mother you...
And also, leave it to RainbowDoubleDash to make me wonder how alicorns get pregnant. Sigh.
1199056
In the Maneverse, Luna might not know. She would have been trapped on the moon when Cadence was "born," and have no real reason to believe that she'd ever be "born" in the first place. Celestia may have then not told her because frankly Luna's dealing with enough PTSD without also being a parent on top of everything else.
1199147
Possibly, though for something as significant as a wedding you think it might be finally time to let the cat out of the bag. More so, Luna would likely have asked her sister at some point where this third alicorn came from, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out something based on the time frame involved. And eve if Celestia felt it was too soon to tell Luna, would she truly never once in nearlly a thousand years have answered Cadances questions about her own origin, and if Cadance know would she realisticly never confront Luna on the matter.
I suppose it could be that M!Luna does know, but refuses to acknowledge the relationship. Seeing Cadance as at best an illegitimate offspring, and at worst a sad reminder of what she allowed herself to become. Though really, either just feels so very wrong to me.
Then again, then again we've never seen anything in canon to suggest that Luna is particularly (or even modestly) insightfully or empathetic, and the events of Night Night actually suggest something of the opposite.
Bah, don't mind me much though. I'm probably just over thinking it.
1197136
Most certainly, it goes a long way to dispelling any notion that one sister should be considered better than the other, because under a different set of circumstances they could have easily both gone bad and left Equestria ROYALLY screwed.
"Yes, Cadenza! I am your mother!"
"No! That's not true! That's impossible!"
Sorry, had to do it.
And should we be concerned that Luna appears to have the One Ring, the Ark of the Covenant, the Holy Grail, four of the five Sankara Stone and... some dirt? (Yeah I've got no clue what that could be, unless it's the dirt Galadriel gives Sam in the novel version, although he uses it during the epilogue.)
1202921
Yay, you noticed what they all are! Well, except the dirt, I honestly didn't know what the dirt was, I just felt that a being as uspeakably ancient as Luna would probably have some special dirt. Might be the dirt Galadriel gave to Sam, though I admit to never being able to read much of LotR, so probably not. Might be the original dirt from which earth ponies were crafted. I dunno (actually I have different head-canon for the origins of the three tribes, but whatever).
I also originally had the black scrolls of Fu Leng, the spear of Loginus, the crystal shard (from The Dark Crystal or from The Crystal Shard, take your pick), and basically I realized at four paragraphs in that I was ranting and so cut back.
1203611
I know what the dirt is!
If I may quote a great pirate:
"I've got a jar of di~irt, I've got a jar of di~irt"
1203611 I would ask where in the Seven Lower Hells she got that stuff, but then I realised you would probably just say magic.
Unless you were willing to actually give a legitimate answer about why she has those, or at least similar items.
“Thou made a bargain with Tirek?”
“There was no ‘bargain,’ Starlight”
And that's how Dinky was saved from getting her throat slit and being pornographically damned for all eternity!
...
You're disgusting.
Right in the HHHhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggg
Nice one. Of course, in my version of Equestria, alicorns are a lot more "common" (in that there are usually around 10 of them at a time) and that "alicorne-ness" is inherited (specifically, if both parents were alicorns, the child wil be a full alicorn which ages 1000 times slower than a normal pony and has mind-boggling power (like Luna and Celestia) whereas if only one parent is an alicorn, their foals could be either normal ponies or half-alicorns which while more powerful than normal ponies, aren't quite at full-alicorn levels and only age 10 times slower than normal ponies (Cadance is one of these in my version of Equestria and is a descendant of Celestia and Luna's dead uncle). All alicorns (whether half or full) bond with a celestial bodyand gain power over a concept associated with that celestial body though. Still, that's my headcanon and while you did things differently, I like the result.
1203611
Could the dirt be Jack Sparrow's jar of dirt from "Dead Man's Chest"?
...whoa, dude...
stream1.gifsoup.com/view5/4757049/sequelitis-fucking-genius-o.gif
Oh my gosh, wha can they be. Altimeres from W.I.T.C.H (Wich means that Luna knows of th guardians. In this World its Eleyon who is bearer by the way) the gems from Sailor moon, gems from a war long past? I hope-
1203611
That they aren't a reference to a movie I never saw...Why must you ruin my dreams?
Anyway, this explination is pretty dang brilliant. I find it kind of interesting that this is probably the third fanfic I have rea where Luna is Caence's mom, and it is done really well here. I love seeing the slpit between worlds, putting the choice into the ponies hands, thus making the nail a bit different than what I was expecting. I alos love Luna's choice in guards here, showing that she wishes to have ponies that are not afraid to show some backbone