Odd AU Crackship(?) idea... · 2:22pm Oct 9th, 2020
There's a story in the featured box that gave me an idea for a bit of a crackship of sorts...
So... Shining Armor and Cadance have been together for a fairly long time, right? And Cadance is the Goddess of Love, isn't she? What if, as young teens, the two of them, erm... made a mistake?
They named the resulting foal Twilight Sparkle, and gave her to Shiny's parents to raise, in order to spare the young Princess any embarassment. She was raised by her grandparents to believe that they were her parents, her father was her big brother, and her mother was her babysitter. Mr. and Mrs. Twilight did their best to give Cadance frequent opportunities to "babysit," letting the young couple spend as much time as possible with their child, but everyone involved felt that this arrangement would be easiest for all of them.
Not sure what to do with this idea, otherwise. I feel like it would add a lot of emotional weight to the relationship between the three, but otherwise I'm stuck. When is Twilight informed of what's actually going on? Does she figure it out herself? Does she have a special role in the Canterlot Wedding? When her mother takes the Crystal Throne, does she become Crystal Princess beside her? What's her relationship to Flurry Heart?
I feel like this would need to be developed into a full story, but outside of the one twist, I'm not sure where else to take it.
Any thoughts?
It's kind of every story where Sweetie Belle is Rarity's daughter (or Apple Bloom is Applejack's, but those are usually incestual <.<) but I don't hate it? Obviously, the conflict would revolve around Twilight finding out, and the question of when is, yeah, a big one. Maybe around the time of Flurry's conception/birth?
I don’t think I’ve ever seen this idea done before! Either way, it’s infinitely better than all the trash on this site that treat the “family secret” of Twilight and her family as incest. Seriously, that seems to be the common factor in far too much stuff on here. Having something that’s actually good will be such an awesome change of pace! Family-centered character drama is definitely something your writing handles so well too.
Hm... Timeframes seem a little bent, and to have Shiny as her father... hm...
How's this for an alternate twist: Cadence is a young teen princess from a foreign land who had to flee her home because she was pregnant, and the father was a powerful tyrant. (Yeah, could be Sombra, but I'd avoid that) So she flees to Celestia in secret for protection, and is kept away from the public eye for several years, with Night Light and Twilight Velvet as 'assistants' to her. Their teenaged colt and the secret foal get along so well together that Shiny starts to call Twilight 'sister' and Cadence (who ages very slowly) starts to develop feelings for the handsome lad as he ages up closer to her apparent age. When Cadence's Evil Assaulter passes away, she is torn between returning home to a hostile and bitter country or staying with the one family who has ever shown her love, and their unrestrained love of her daughter. Etc...
If done, I'd say go for the 'a year or two passes between chapters' like I did for My Farrier Lady, Sunspot. It lets you expand the scope to cover big things, while still showing off the small things.
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Could be an interesting story! I'll keep that in mind.
Re: timeline--my thought was that Cadance / Shiny were only about 12/13 when Cadance got pregnant (perhaps: before she got The Talk??), which would mean that Twilight is seperated from the two by only 14 or so years in age. That long of a gap between siblings is a little unusual, but Twilight Velvet tells anyone who asks that Twilight was a surprise baby (not a lie, after all!).
5374298 Now you've got me thinking about Celestia and Luna reminiscing about their youth and the troubles therein.
"Puberty for an alicorn..." Celestia dropped a sugarcube into her tea and stirred carefully. "It was difficult," she admitted.
"She set things on fire," said Luna with a smirk. "Including foolish young colts."
"Luna!" Celestia placed her spoon down and frowned at her sister. "It was only one colt. And besides, he was getting too cheeky for his own good." After a sip of tea, she added, "None of the rest of them actually caught on fire. They just... smoldered."
"The populace called it the Century of Flames," mused Luna. "Even though it was not a full century. Eighty years, at most.
This's such a fun idea! I see this as in-character for a lot of interpretations of Cadance, as well as all the Light(?) family. It spawns some interesting, fun, and heartwarming character drama that could go in so many directions.
On the one hoof, I could see this as totally compatible with canon. Cadance doesn't tell Twilight till she's already hero-worshipping Celestia, so it doesn't lead to any huge changes in her character... except for perhaps a fear that Celestia will give up on her too if she doesn't please her, and a background sense of embarassment which means she doesn't mention Cadance at all to her new friends till the wedding invitation makes her. And then, Twilight's quitely offered a throne in the Crystal Empire, but she refuses because she doesn't want to leave her friends. The interesting question would be Twilight's venom when Crysalis-as-Cadance used her full title in the wedding invitation. Also, her fears that "Now that he's starting a new family... we'll probably never see each other" take on a new significance. And, how much does Crysalis know?
Or, of course, things could go in a different direction. If we want to totally mix things up, Twilight's sister Flurry Heart was born an alicorn... was Twilight born one too? And maybe disguised under a long-term polymorph to disguise her parentage? That would go a long way to explain her excellent magic, but she would probably figure it out herself even if nopony told her... in which case she might keep it on at Celestia's request, but her self-image would be totally different.
Or, perhaps she isn't born an alicorn, but (thanks to her research if nothing else) she anticipates she might ascend into one?
This's fun!