Her Birthright

by DougtheLoremaster

Chapter Six- Pandora's Box

The Pink Alicorn lay in a hospital bed, in critical condition. Hooked up to the best magical generator-prototype bits could buy, she gasped and struggled to breathe. Her one remaining wing was mangled beyond recognition: a twisted mass of bones and muscle. A team of medical Unicorn stood by it, furiously channeling everything they had into repairing it. Her other wing though, was completely gone, with a metallic alchemical construct being slowly fused to the stump that remained.

Her barrel, or rather what remained of it heaved in erratic intervals; the exposed organs, being held in place only by a magical barrier. Her remaining eye was wide as she mentally screamed in utter agony, the bloodshot appearance indicative of her inability to close it.

She glared, unblinkingly at Princess Celestia. She had warned her mother. She had warned Aunt Luna. Neither had listened, and now half the continent had been altered forever. Using her only good hoof to rip the mask off she gasped, with a hoarse, gravely, voice.

“You’ve opened up Pandora’s Box.”

With that she finally closed her singular, remaining eye, losing consciousness as the medical personnel frantically rushed to reattach the mask.

---

Cadance sat upright in her bed; a horrible pain shooting up her reconstructed spine. She panted, with a metallic breathing, looking around her in utter panic. Slowly, she came to her senses and realized it was just a dream. No, not a dream. A memory. Her robotic eye rotated in its socket, before she blinked both eyes in annoyance. Fifteen hundred years since that apocalyptic event, and still she trembled at just the mere thought of it.

“Nrrgh…Honey what time is it?”

Disturbed by the sudden movement, her wife rolled over and drowsily called out to Cadance, causing her to smile. Not once had Chrysalis ever asked about her scars or augmentation. Never once in the past twelve years had Chrysalis been anything but supportive; even when Cadance had renounced her claim to her mother’s throne. When she turned her back on her heritage, Chrysalis had been there for her.

Cadance leaned down and used her hooves to pull the comforter up onto her wife of twelve years.

“Go back to sleep, honey. It’s still daylight out.”

Apparently, that was all the Changeling Queen needed to hear, sleepily wrapping the silken sheets around her body and rolling back over; a loud snore emanating from her. Before she finished turning over, she had already gone back to sleep, Cadance gently kissed her cheek.

“Sleep well, I’m going to go for a walk, see what the children are up to.”

Cadance left their bedroom and started down the hallway, passing a massive nursery; Pegasi mares of every color were racing around tending to the hundreds of swaddled grubs, pausing just momentarily to give a respectful wave to Cadance before racing around once more.

She nodded and continued to the rusted door that led outside; her mind distracted by thoughts of that memory. She hadn’t thought about that for hundreds of years. Using her hooves she pressed lightly on the door, causing it to fly open with tremendous force; causing those outside to stop what they were doing as the door flew across the courtyard of the bustling military compound.

Above the fragmented concrete, a Pegasus stallion hovered, watching over a gathering of fifty or so infant Changelings currently attending Kindergarten. Cadance watched him shout down to a group playing Four Square.

“You four! Repair that. Now!”

The four immediately rushed, with tremendous speed and efficiency; having the door mostly repaired by the time Cadance took a single step. Watching in amusement as the Stallion approached her, Cadance took note of his features. He had white fur, and a midnight blue mane and tail. His cutie mark was that of a winged lightning bolt, making her chuckle at the thought. Staring down into his gorgeous emerald-green eyes, Cadance smirked.

“You seem to be enjoying yourself, Thorax.”

The Pegasus stallion gave a laugh and placed his hoof to the back of his head, blushing in embarrassment.

“Sorry, mom. I found this one during cleaning duty, and I really enjoyed the colors of his fur and mane and tail and…Do I look cool?”

Cadance gave the stallion a loving hug as she replied.

“Very cool, honey. So, what was this one’s name?”

The stallion seemed thoughtful as he talked through his thoughts.

“I think he was one of those Wonderbolt things…Um, Steve, no, Stew, no…Soarin! That was it. His name was Soarin.”

Cadance nodded.

“Well, that appearance looks good on you. By the way, where is your sister?”

Thorax placed Soarin’s hoof against his chin.

“Ocellus? I think she’s over on the runway. After repairing the damages, she gathered a bunch of drones to do flying lessons, I think.”

“Oh? They finally repaired the runway?”

“Yep!…oh wait. No. She wanted it to be a surprise! You didn’t hear it from me, okay?”

Candace patted her Changeling son on the top of his head, gently brushing her hoof through his transformed mane. Wrapping both of her wings, the metal one and the magically reconstructed one, around him in a warm hug.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t hear a word.”

Cadance’s working ear twitched slightly.

“Besides, it would seem you have something else more concerning to deal with besides your sister yelling at you.”

Thorax looked confused at the statement.

“Mom what are you-”

“Mama, mama! Us dids it!”

A tiny Changeling drone came running, stumbling every now and then as she approached Cadance, clearly proud of her achievements. Cadance glanced up and looked towards the door, desperately trying not to laugh. Trying to keep her voice even as she gazed into the overjoyed drone’s face.

“You certainly did, mama is so proud.”

Following her gaze, Thorax’s mouth dropped open in absolute shock. The door had been repaired alright, upside down and backwards, with the push bar facing outward at the top. Somehow, the four had also managed to turn half of the push bar to the inside as well; turning the door into an impressively impossible to open entryway. Leaning down, Cadance picked her child up with her tremendous strength in a single hoof. She nuzzled her daughter whispering gently to the drone; her voice raspy and distorted by her alchemical vocal cords.

“You did wonderful but maybe you should-”

The drone listened to her mother, before her eyes grew wide with realization. Frantically, she tried to squirm out of her mother’s grasp; running as fast as she could back to the others and started drawing a picture in the dirt. All of them immediately tore the door off the entryway and worked to re-attach it properly. Cadance smiled.

“Thorax, go assist your little sister and brothers.”

No sooner had she spoken his name, Thorax had rushed over and began directing them. Cadance, meanwhile, turned to leave, her thoughts a little lighter. These were her children and she loved them all. Though suddenly an image from the past resurfaced in her mind.

---

The Alicorn Twilight frantically searched the wreckage of Discord’s dwelling, tearing away the rubble with her hooves, her teeth, her magic; tears running down her face. Again and again, she murmured to herself.

“No, no,no. Please no. Where are you? Please no. Answer mama, please…Answer…mama.”

Behind her Princess Cadance stood trying to get her attention.

“Twilight, they’re-”

Whether by shock or denial, Twilight ignored her and continued her desperate attempts. Finally, three days later, her body gave out and she sat there, just staring at the mangled rubble of Discord’s Kingdom.

Suddenly her eyes darkened, and an unholy, guttural scream tore itself from her throat. Cadance, who had remained there to console her, could feel the winds around her swirl, with a massive hurricane developing all around them. The thunder crashed, and lightning struck the ground all around them.

Twilight looked at Cadance, while an aura of void magic engulfed her body, wrapping around her with tendrils of darkness.

I’m going to kill you…”

Her teeth grew into fangs, while her horn glowed with black magic.

“I’m GOING to KILL you.”

She slammed her hooves down in rage, causing the ground below her to spiderweb with cracks from the impact as she roared out in teeth-gnashing fury.

“I’M GOING TO KILL YOU ALL!”

Cadance screamed as Twilight launched herself towards her.

“Aurgh!”

---

With a sudden jolt, Cadance was brought back to the present; finding herself being threshold carried by Chrysalis. Chrysalis looked down into her wife’s eyes and chuckled.

“Well, look who decided to wake up.”

Cadance was confused, frantically inquiring.

“What happened? Where’s Twilight?”

Delivering a kiss to Cadance’s forehead, Chrysalis’s explained everything while using her powerful hindlegs to kick open the door to their bedroom.

“You let out a blood-curdling scream that caused every one of our children within Cloudsdale to freeze in panic. I woke up hearing you in distress and rushed to your side; just in time to see your knees buckle from fear. I raced to your side as fast as I could and just managed to catch you before you hit the dirt.”

Laying Cadance on the bed sheets with the most delicate of grace, Chrysalis’s voice grew suddenly grim.

“As for this Twilight of yours, baby, you know I’m not one to pry into your past, but considering this caused our entire Hive to momentarily panic, I think you owe me this one.”

Cadance lay there staring up into the concerned eyes of the one who’d been by her side for the past twelve years. She silently cursed herself; she hadn’t thought of that moment for hundreds of years. Why? Why has that memory come back now? Slowly, she nodded. Using the robotic synthesizer that served as her voice she spoke in a metallic, grating voice.

“You’re right. It’s just-”

Chrysalis lay down next to her and dragged a hoof slowly down Cadance’s barrel.

“Love, I’m here for you, and no matter what you may say, I’ll always be right here, beside you. Talk to me.”

Cadance let out a sigh of resignation, changing her position to lay her head on Chrysalis’s midriff.

“It’s not a memory I like visiting, but you are right I owe you an explanation. Twilight Sparkle is an Alicorn, like me. My cousin, actually; the spawn of Princess Luna and King Sombra of Tartarus. A hybrid. Unlike me, however, she had her wings taken by my mother.”

Chrysalis blinked in confusion.

“What could an Alicorn possibly do to warrant such a punishment from the Sun?”

“Fifteen hundred years ago, she lost control of her magical abilities and annihilated eighty percent of all life on Equus.”

“So, your body was…by her then?"

“Yes.”

Chrysalis shivered at the thought.

“That’s…But what could cause her to do such a thing?”

Cadance was quiet for a moment before uttering.

“Aunt Luna and my mother…slaughtered Twilight’s daughter…without mercy.”

---

“Mother, don't do this!”

Cadance yelled at Celestia, her own wings pinned back, denoting her fear. Celestia stared soullessly at her daughter; neither her posture nor her words gave any sense of life in the pure born Alicorn.

“The balance must be kept, my child.”

Cadance desperately stamped her hoof.

“You have to listen to me, if you do this, it can’t be undone. She won’t forget and she won’t forgive you!”

Behind her a just as passive voice commented.

“We maintain Harmony. There is too much Chaos. Those two are tipping the scale. How my daughter or you perceive our actions doesn’t matter. We will do what we have to.”

Celestia nodded stiffly.

“My sister is right.”

Cadance screamed.

“You don’t realize the monster you are unleashing! Twilight will destroy us all. Don’t do this!”

Luna spoke with an icy indifference.

“My daughter’s grasp of magic is far less than our own. And she is very intelligent. She would not be foolish enough to retaliate against us. We will do what we must to keep the balance. This discussion is over.”

---

“...I did my best to stop them. My mother and Aunt Luna didn’t have emotions; being pure born Alicorns. For Twilight and I though, our emotions were bestowed upon us at birth, as we were hybrids. And our emotions were tied directly to our magical abilities. They didn’t understand. They couldn’t understand what enraging Twilight would result in.”

Cadance slowly brought her metal wing to the front and placed her hoof upon it. The metal reacted and resembled the feathers of an Alicorn; having been constructed by the best metallurgy wielders at the time. She stared at her wing in silence for just a moment before continuing her explanation.

“When they destroyed Discord’s Kingdom, Twilight, who was out looking for the perfect gift for her daughter’s birthday, returned only to find the carnage they had wrought. She searched and searched, but she couldn’t find any trace of her daughter or Discord. And then her anger came to the surface; from pain to utter rage, Twilight lost her mind, and attacked me.”

Cadance placed a hoof to the artifact that served as her eyeball, the Alicorn looked over at Chrysalis with her good eye. Her wife gave her a reassuring nuzzle before giving her an encouraging nod; having been listening with great interest. Taking a deep breath, Cadance continued on.

“I woke up in a hospital room fifty years later, healers all around me, doing what they could to repair the damage. Mother was there, apparently monitoring their progress. She informed me the death toll was in the literal billions; with thousands of cultures and creatures completely wiped from the face of Equus. Extinct. Gone. Entire areas of land were uninhabitable, and Twilight had been restrained.”

Chrysalis raised an eyebrow in a bout of curiosity.

“Just restrained, not destroyed?”

Cadance nodded.

“A crime of such magnitude would normally warrant death, but Aunt Luna and mom found out they were outclassed, overpowered, and out of options. The battle was described as fierce, ending when Aunt Luna was sent to the moon to recover her health, while Celestia cast a last-ditch time spell; reversing the years of Twilight’s life until she was the Unicorn she was born as, and nothing more than a filly without her magic. Or memories.”

Patting her on the head, Chrysalis spoke gently.

“Truly a terrifying power, for Princess Celestia to only have been able to merely contain it. Still at least such a nightmare resolved itself. You’re safe here, with me.”

Closing her eyes for rest, the Princess of the Changeling Hive, Cadance, couldn’t help but wonder why now, of all times, had the memories returned? Her side of the family was known for Clairvoyance, and the last time it had happened, Cadance had foreseen the disaster that befell Equus. Could these memories be a warning? Cadance sighed, dismissing the notions and let the world of dreams take her.

Surely not, there is no way Twilight remembers what happened, right?

Outside, a heaviness hung in the air, as the winds in the sky began to swirl while a chill slowly crawled up the spine of all living creatures on the continent of Equestria.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

11837520
That’s not what I meant. What I meant was this: Why does her aunt want to give up her throne in the first place, especially if it’s going to only be taken by force?

[DougtheLoremaster]

11854241
Fixed the wording to make it a bit clearer. Sorry for the confusion.

[Killer20]

Ok every time you think this Story pulled something insane, it goes and does something MORE INSANE!

I love it!