Why Cadance is a Terrible Mother

by Boopy Doopy

First published

A diary entry from Flurry Heart, detailing why her mother, Princess Cadance, is the worst mother in Equestria.

Starvation. Humiliation. Unreasonable discipline. This is Flurry Heart's tale of just how awful her mother, Princess Cadance truly is, the abuses of whom being chronicled in her diary.

Written for the Cadance Is A Terrible Mom contest. Cover art by pabbley.

Dear Diary

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Dear Diary,

It’s me, Flurry Heart again. I’m writing today to explain how my mom is just about the worst mom in all of Equestria.

Now I know what you’re thinking: there are a lot of bad moms out there. Your mom can’t possibly be the worst. But that’s where you would be wrong. She blows everypony else out of the water. If there was a mountain of bad moms, she would be at the top of Mount Everhoof. She is the absolute worst there is.

How? Let’s take a look.

We can start with last night, for instance. I had just gotten home from school for the weekend (I stay at the School of Friendship on weekdays because, apparently, I have an “attitude problem”) and naturally went up to my room to relax to some music. And you wouldn’t believe how quick it was before she came banging on my door telling me how I “have the volume too loud” and how I “need to turn that music down” and “how can anypony stand to listen to Marevana”. I mean, I don’t criticize her music tastes or tell her to turn her music down, and honestly thought it was fairly rude of her to do to me. However, when I brought this up, she wouldn’t hear any of it, and told me that I was grounded for the weekend for “always endlessly talking back to her”. And now I’m cooped up in here and not relaxed, which means I’m going to be stressed when I go back to school on Monday and then I’ll get bad grades and fail all of my classes and flunk out of school, all because she didn’t like how loud my music was.

Apparently, turning down my music is more important than my education.

But that’s just one thing in a long history of mistreatment I received from her. Why, just a few weeks ago, she starved me! She deprived my growing body of the nourishment it requires, like the truly horrible mother she is!

It all started with a simple question. What do you want for dinner? A simple enough question, one that you would think wouldn’t cause an argument. Of course, if you thought that, you’d very quickly find yourself mistaken.

I, very respectfully, very politely, requested that we have cake and ice cream for dinner. And you know what happened next? She laughed at me! Like it was funny or something! As though I weren’t providing a serious answer to her serious question.

Then she rubbed it in by asking, “What do you really want?” It was like she thought I was a filly who didn’t know what she wanted. I’m almost thirteen! I can make my own decisions!

It only got worse from there when I told her that I really did want ice cream and cake for dinner. She told me that I had to pick something else, but we could have those things for dessert. Of course, she didn’t like it when I pointed out that she shouldn’t have asked what I wanted if she wasn’t going to make it in the first place, and after that, she told me she changed her mind and said that she was making hay and broccoli for dinner, since I “always want to have an attitude with her over every little thing”. I don’t see how I’m the one with the attitude though. She asked me a question, and I gave her an answer. It’s not my fault she didn’t like what my answer was.

And then, when dinner came, she was somehow surprised when I didn’t want to eat what she cooked. She knows broccoli and hay are my two least favorite foods, and she served them anyway, just to punish me for answering a question honestly. And, when I mentioned as such, she told me I could either eat what she fixed, or go to bed hungry. She really would let her own daughter starve rather than relent and fix me the ice cream and cake that I asked for, something I only asked for because she wanted to know what I wanted for dinner.

Not to mention, she constantly talks about how I need to grow up because someday I’m going to rule the Crystal Empire (which I can’t do without proper nutrition). Not that I asked to be born and have all this responsibility, I didn’t. It’s a lot of pressure! Not to mention, it seems boring. All these laws and rules and rituals and ceremonies I’m supposed to follow. I don’t see how she does it, and certainly can’t see myself taking her job. I’d much rather be an amazing Wonderbolt like Rainbow Dash or a cool wizard like Star Swirl. But no. I don’t get that choice, because she decided that she should give birth to an alicorn. Shows what kind of mother she is.

And then she does humiliating things to me, like dropping me off at school when all of the other ponies there don’t need their parents to accompany them. I mean, you ditch class one time and then you become some foal who needs to be taken to school by their mother? Not to mention, she calls me “sweetie” in public and hugs me and kisses my cheek when she drops me off each week, even though she knows how embarrassing that is. Even if I wanted to rule the Crystal Empire, which I don’t, I wouldn’t be able to if everypony looks at me as mommy’s little filly. I know she only does it to embarrass me.

And don’t even get me started on the time the Crystal Heart shattered. I mean, it technically is her fault, seeing as she was the one who decided to make me an alicorn. Like I said, I didn’t ask to be born. But seeing as I was born, I’m sure I just wanted to laugh and have some fun, and I’m sure my mom tried to go out of her way to make sure I didn’t. I mean, there was probably a good reason my scream shattered the Crystal Heart. A scream that loud can only be caused by a cruel mother such as mine. And yet, she and Dad constantly joke and laugh about it, as though her cruelty to me, which could have potentially frozen thousands of ponies, is some sort of joke. She didn’t seem to like it very much when I brought that fact up a few months ago, and was in a bad mood for the rest of the day because of it.

Every so often, she tells me how I’m just going through a phase and that I’ll grow out of it, and that I have a roof over my head and food in the kitchen and the resources of an entire country at my hooves, but what are all those things when she forces me to get good grades or go to bed at ten o’clock or “turn down that music this instant before I march up there and turn it down myself”? I mean, even if other ponies' parents did those things (which is a big if in my opinion), my mom is the Princess of Love. How can somepony say they love you when they just tell you to do a bunch of stuff you don’t want to do? I mean, sure, sometimes we do cool things, like have the Crystal Faire, or visit Princess Twilight’s castle, or take vacations to Los Pegasus, and sure, she says that in twenty years, I’ll realize just how silly I’m being, but I’m pretty sure that in twenty years I’ll still say she’s the worst mom ever. I mean, this is my mom who says I’ll also “grow out of my punk phase” and "out of this attitude that I have" when it’s not a phase, AND I don't even listen to punk! Marevana is a metal band! She just doesn’t understand that this is my life now! She doesn't understand anything about me!

Anyway, Diary, that’s all I have time to write about for today. I’m going to sneak out soon to see my friends, although I’m pretty sure she’s going to find some way to turn that against me, too, when she’s the one who grounded me for no good reason. But I promise I’ll write more tomorrow. For now, this is going to be me signing off for the day.

-Flurry Heart