The Price of Motherhood

by Rao the Red Sun

Paid in Full

Flurry Heart found her mother napping under a blanket on the southern veranda, near the middle section of the castle's primary tower rise. "Always this same couch, on the same floor, on the same balcony. Why do you like this one so much? They're all pretty much the same," she said to herself.

"Because, my dear daughter," Cadance answered, not quite as asleep as her daughter suspected, "We're just high up enough to look over the whole city, but not so high that everypony looks like ants. Plus, I like to keep an eye on the rest of Equestria, too. Can't do that looking away from it."

"You can't see beyond the snow fields from this elevation, Mom," Flurry replied with barely a trace of her more youthful eye rolling.

"I think you've been spending too much time with your aunt." Cadance opened her eyes to scowl at her daughter. "You're letting something as silly as line-of-sight get in the way of a perfectly good poetic moment."

"Yeah, it was an okay line, I guess." Flurry Heart nosed her way under the blanket next to her mother and nuzzled her. "I was looking at some old photo albums when I was in Ponyville with Aunt Twilight, and I realized something about you."

Cadance tossed the blanket up with her wings, grabbed it with her magic, and draped it over Flurry's head like an oversized bonnet. "Is it that I was a total babe, and that you're lucky to take after me so much?"

"No, Mom." Flurry Heart rolled her eyes and sighed. "I already knew that. You remind me on my birthday, on Dad's birthday, on your birthday, every holiday, and whenever you think a colt at school looks at me for more than two seconds. I won't ever forget, believe me."

"Good," Cadance said, smiling. "But I'll remind you tomorrow just to be safe. Now, tell me what you learned with your aunt?"

Flurry's eyes narrowed as she looked at her mother, sucking all the levity out of the lazy afternoon. "You're getting old," she said. "It's hard to notice changes when you see somepony everyday, but looking back at those old pictures it's obvious. Your coat's not as bright, your back isn't as straight, and if I look real close I can see a few grey hairs under the pink."

"Mothers age, sweet heart. It's not a ground breaking observation, I hate to tell you. Maybe Twilight is losing her touch as a tutor." Cadance smiled down at her daughter, but she'd lost some of her earlier mirth.

"But you... shouldn't be, right? I mean, that's not what we do. Right? I'm still growing, so that makes sense, but Aunt Celestia and Aunt Luna have looked the same basically forever, and Aunt Twilight looks about the same now as she does in her coronation photos."

"She's a little taller and her horn is longer, if you look very carefully," Cadance whispered to her daughter in a half hearted effort to steer the conversation anywhere else.

"Okay fine, but why are you the only one going grey and napping more?" Flurry asked, clearly not taking her mother's bait.

Cadance sighed, and draped a wing over her daughter. "Mothers age, dear. As I said."

Flurry pushed away from her mother's embrace. "You mean I'm the reason you're aging?"

"I am the reason, Flurry Heart, nopony else." Cadance gestured for Flurry to sit beside her again. "A while after you were born, your aunts asked if there was anything unusual about my pregnancy. Since there had never been a natural born Alicorn in Equestria, you were kind of a big deal. I said everything was textbook from conception to birth. That was a tiny lie of omission. Ever since we got together, your father and I were very—"

"—Mom—"

"—affectionate, sweetheart. But, no matter what, I didn't get pregnant. Which was great, for a while. But then we got married. I thought more and more about being a mother. One night, after... well, after, I thought about what would happen if I could never have a baby. Never make Shining Armor a father. I wanted you, Flurry Heart, more than anything else in the world."

"Mom, I—

"It was like a switch flipped inside of me, and I just knew. The cost of life is life, dear, and I paid it happily. A few weeks after that night, I started throwing up every morning and suddenly couldn't eat pickles unless they were fried and dipped in chocolate."

"So, you gave up—"

"Nothing, compared to what I got. Uncountable amounts of dirty diapers, I don't know how many thousands of cans of peas, a hundred and one tired tantrums, countless sleepless nights..." Cadance pulled the blanket off Flurry's head and wrapped it around them both. "One perfect daughter."

Flurry Heart fought back tears as she snuggled close to her mother. "Why lie? Maybe my aunts would like to be moms someday, too."

"They're smart mares, Flurry. They'll figure it out, if and when the time comes. Just like I did, and just like you would have if you had spent the afternoon chasing boys like a normal teenager and not hanging out getting existential with your mother."

Cadance and Flurry Heart sat together quietly, watching the afternoon sun trace it's shortening path across the clear Autumn sky. The air chilled as the sun dragged closer to the western horizon, but neither mother nor daughter felt like escaping back into the castle yet.

"Am I the same as my aunts? Or am I like you, because I came from you?" Flurry finally asked as the sun touched the peaks of the mountains.

Cadance hummed quietly to herself as she stroked her daughters mane under their blanket. "Only time will tell, Flurry. But, I'll tell you the same thing I told Twilight when we talked years and years ago: it doesn't matter. Not really. The joy in life comes from how we live, not how long."

"We should probably get inside before it gets any colder." Flurry hugged her mom tight and helped her up off the couch, not that she really needed it. "You know, Mom, you're pretty smart for an old mare."

"Comes with the job, sweetheart," Cadance replied, only momentarily annoyed at being called old. "Afterall," Cadance opened the door back into the castle and nudged Flurry though.

"Motherhood is magic."

Author's Note:

Expanded from my 5th Place entry in the January WriteOff, "Lie Me A River."

Happy Mother's Day. Call your mom.

Comments

[Jacques]

Sounds adorable! Will mark to read later

[Mystic Sunrise]

Cadance hummed quietly to herself as she stroked her daughters mane under their blanket. "Only time will tell, Flurry. But, I'll tell you the same thing I told Twilight when we talked years and years ago: it doesn't matter. Not really. The joy in life comes from how we live, not how long."

Shouldn't this mark the story as a sequal to Inquiry? Because this is taken from there. And I love that story by the way.

[Graglithan The Greater]

MY. HEART. ACHES!

This story was so sweet, but it also had that slightly sad undertone to it of inevitability. This was a wonderfully crafted work, and a perfect story to read for Mother's day (or the day after in this case).

[Thatsnoreason]

Mother ages.
Words to remember. And to respect.

[TitaniumTao]

I will be adding this to my Head cannon. After all I do think Twilight will be more like Cadance then Celestia or luna due to her domain in the end. I also have a feeling that She and Shining are also so linked.

[Esorial]

I figured that's where it was going. I'm not sure if this deserves the "sad" tag or not. Either way, it's a very good scene, and quite well written.

[meerkat8472]

Later...
"So, Mom, you're saying that unless I really want to, I can't get pregnant?"
"Well, erm... Probably?"
"Whew, that's a load of my mind."
"WHAT!?"

[TMH]

"WHAT!? You gave up your immortality to have a daughter?" Celestia shouted at Cadance lying on her deathbed.

"Yes," Cadance nodded solemnly, "And I'd do i-"

Celestia interrupted her, "Medammit! Do you know how long it's going to take to find a replacement for you? I'm going to have to plant evil, love stealing witches in all the backwater towns." Celestia sighed and murmured to herself, "Maybe I can get Chrysalis..."

Cadance interrupted her with a cough, "Well, you could always train the pony I gave my life for."

"You know that's impossible, she's a teenager. She speaks with all the 'lingos' and the 'low temperature felines', I can't reach these kids." Celestia air-quoted with a hoof.

Cadance facehooved, "You taught me when I was a teenager. Not to mention that 'lingo' was ancient when I was a teenager."

"I know! I'm really old Cadance, like really, really, really, really, really, really old, and I'm very busy, it takes me time to catch up with the vernacular of modern youth, and by the time I master it the kids are dying of old age. And they never even appreciate it when I deliver eulogies in the parlance of their spring years, 'flippin' A." Celestia scowled sourly at the wall. "But you were a peasant orphan literally born in the woods, you were really simple and easy to shape. Flurry is a 'wild dame' 'jiving' with her 'daddy-os,' I'll need to hire a translator for Sun's sake!"

"Glad to see you care so much about me dying, thanks bunches Auntie."

Celestia did a double-take, "Dying? Cadance you aren't dying."

Cadance did a double-take as well, "Wait. What."

Celestia continued, "No, alicorns are immortal, that doesn't mean immortal until you give it up, that means immortal. Your physical body is failing from the exertion of bringing a new alicorn to life. Your magical essence will just spend a while in a suitable place until you can re-form physically."

Cadance eyed her warily, "How long is 'a while' and what's a suitable place?"

"Err," Celestia shrugged and grinned sheepishly, "Well y'know, six, seven, maybe up to eight or nine hundred years."

"What?"

"Maybe a thousand, that's what happened to Luna after our little tiff. I beat the moon cheese out of her, but a thousand years on a desolate and totally lifeless rock and she was good as new!"

"..." Cadance stared at her, reconsidering her life choices.

"But you probably won't be going to the moon. Not unless you take a banana as your last meal, hahaha." Celestia snickered.

"What does that mean?"

Celestia looked back at Cadance like she'd forgotten she was there, "Oh, inside joke, maybe I'll tell you in a thousand years. Anyway, you'll wind up someplace related to your special talent. So, maybe inside a crystal ball on somepony's mantle or, eh, maybe, a, uhm, specialty toy." Celestia blushed.

"A specialty toy...? Oh... Oh. Oh! Oh God." Cadance looked down at her dying body, dreading death now that she knew what horrors awaited her in the afterlife.

"Oh me indeed." Celestia nodded solemnly. Then she spread her wings and walked to the window, "But you made your choice, probably should have asked why Luna and I never had kids, we have maternal instincts too you know, we would have recommended adoption. We'll take care of Flurry Heart for you, I'm thinking she'll be Princess of 'Jive Talk,' AKA things I'm too old to give a buck about. See you in a millennium Cady!" Celestia flashed a winning smile and dived out the window, leaving Cadance alone.

"When I get back Flurry Heart is going to owe me an eternity of pampering." Cadance sighed and then shivered. "I really hope I wind up in a crystal ball..."

She didn't.

Really enjoyed the story. It was very sweet and Cadance-y.

[Krimble]

8926975
Cadence was on her deathbed. It had been an amazing however-many decades since she gave birth to her daughter, and the process of raising her family and all the moments that came with it was something she would never trade away; not even for getting her immortal life back. Goodbyes were said, hooves were held, and Cadence's body felt increasingly numb. Cadence had no idea how long it would take for her to return to Equestria (preferably in a form that was neither sex toy nor crystal ball), but she would patiently await the moment when she would be able to see her daughter and aunts once more. Whether it be 10 years or 1000 years, Cadence would wait.

After she passed away, Cadence floated in the void. She had no idea how much time was passing, or if the passage of time was even a concept that still held truth wherever she was. Eventually, a bright light appeared in front of her, and Cadence did not hesitate to move towards it.

"Push! It's almost out!"

'Oh, God," thought Cadence as the light grew brighter, 'I had better not have reincarnated into a sex toy that just got stuck in some mare's va-'

"Push harder, Flurry Heart! Your daughter is almost here!"

'No,' thought Cadence wryly as feeling returned to her stubby limbs, 'This is much worse.'

Cadence decided to gift her daughter one small mercy and made an effort to struggle as little as she could, despite the disgust she felt from becoming intimately acquainted with the inside of her daughter's vagina. Still, as she was floated into her grown-up daughter's arms, she couldn't help but wonder if she herself looked this happy when she held Flurry Heart for the first time. Of course, Celestia was in the room, off to the side. When Cadence and Celestia's eyes met, Celestia winked and walked out of the room.

'...she KNEW.'

In that moment, Cadence made a quiet, but solemn, promise to make any future foal-sitting sessions she has with Celestia incredibly difficult; difficult and filled with especially unpleasant diaper-changing.

[Tatsurou]

Huh. Kinda reminds me a bit of Boss Monsters in Undertale. ...and makes an awful lot of sense when put that way.

[Rao the Red Sun]

8925070
It sure is! Kind of. More of a side-story. But definitely in the same vein. And thank you <3
8926395
I know what that is now, and I blame you. My eyes are forever tainted.
8926975
8927733
Great work, guys. I'm dying of laughter over here

And a big thank you to everyone else who read, enjoyed, and commented so far. I didn't expect this to get anywhere near the traction it did, so the overwhelmingly positive outlook means even more than usual.

[HB_DS2013]

8927791 Does this mean that Alicorns are pretty much Boss Monsters!?

[Tatsurou]

8931131
From the sound of it, yeah.

[DarkDMan]

Very nice and good on the feels!

[Ice Star]

I. Hm.

This is quite good.

[Thunderchaser23]

What a beautiful story.

[reflective vagrant]

I'm not dogging on the concept. It's as good as anything I could ask for. In fact it may just be me overcompensating for me digging too deeply into details of my story but: I felt the story was more feel good fluff than depth of characters. (not to dis on a mom paying THAT price) If that's all it was meant to be, it did great. I guess I was just used to reading stories with more.

long story short, I can see the intended effect and how it can pull at people's heartstrings, but it caused more of a "meh" for me.

[Rao the Red Sun]

9168042
It was originally written for a WriteOff mini round, which has a word limit of 750. I did fluff it up a bit to meet the 1k minimum here rather than expand it into anything more grandiose, so you're not wrong that it had a pretty basic goal. It also loses a little bit of luster the further you get from Mother's Day, which is (approximately) when it went live here. A happy coincidence, really.

So, don't feel bad at all for only hitting "meh" by any means. I appreciate anyone still stopping by this far after publication.

[Juria]

In a sea of really odd, and sometimes downright twisted fanfics involving Flurry Heart, this one really sticks out as one of the better ones. It's more realistic, and actually feels almost like something that could be made into an episode. Fantastic work!

[Rao the Red Sun]

9272165
Second time someone's said one of my stories could be an episode. I take that as very high praise. Thanks for stopping by :)

[Teikan]

The cost of life is life

prfff, say this to the clone