Cadenceverse: The End of Harmony, The beginning of Twilight: · 7:54am Dec 29th, 2012
Cadenceverse: The End of Harmony, The Beginning of Twilight:
Cadence’s Origin & Birth:
The princess sisters met in the ancient castle of Everfree, where they had first established their rule, protected their little ponies, and waged war upon the beast Discord. Now they stood on opposite sides, the legendary Elements of Harmony between then.
Neither sister could, quite, remember how it had come to this, but they had to know who was right. The elements would not harm them, they were artefacts, tools at their disposal, certainly beyond Discords ken, but not theirs, the elements would know who was best fit to rule and their rivalry could be forever laid to rest.
Luna, deciding that two heads are indeed better than one, split herself in two. One clone attempts to take control of the elements, viewing it as a matter of intelligence and willpower rather than pure magical power, while Luna’s main body attacks Celestia, or vice versa. Celestia opts to multitask, fighting Luna and trying to win dominance over the elements. The elements do begin to activate and that’s when the whole matter gets completely out of control.
Both the sisters are fighting each other and for control of the elements; their duel is spreading chaos throughout the land, the weather rages and even to their celestial bodies have fallen out of alignment. Constantly being dragged back and forth the elements lash out at both powers. Surprised that “their” elements could turn against them and still distracted with their battle, the sisters had no way of mustering a defense against the magic’s they had accidentally invoked.
As Luna was banished, the connection to her clone was broken, given time her clone would have decapitated, but the shard of divine Alicorn magic began to mingle with the lingering magic of the elements, these energies began fusing together. After many moths had passed a foal was born, she was the first daughter of the Alicorns… and she was alone.
Notes:
I imagine a sort of egg/bubble was formed to protect Cadence and manage her creation/birth. The bubble itself could have been “thrown” landing far away from the princess’s battleground. Or it could even have been Luna’s own actions, sending her duplicate away from the battle in the hopes of using it as an escape route later, but with the traces elements power already attached to it as it was sent away. The construct could also have been blown away when the battle escalated or because Luna chose to have her construct “forge” a connection to the elements its connection allowed it to withstand the banishment and then to fuse with the elements. Or Cadence could have been born within Everfree castle assuming that’s where the final battle took place.
I am thinking of changing Cadence's origin slightly so that it's the combined ambient magic of both Celestia, Luna and the elements that lead to her creation.
I left it a little vague as to whether one of the princess’s or both had tried to make a grab for the elements; perhaps hoping for a power up or a bargaining chip, or if they had agreed to use the elements as a peace keeping device. At first they would simply try to activate the elements, whether it works or not is debatable.
Both view themselves as correct and decide that “winning” control of the elements will prove them right and determine who is fit to be the queen, while the other remains princess. The end result is the sisters essentially playing an epic magical tug of war with ancient artefacts, they only half understand.
I personally would still want Cadence raised in Cavallia, or similar to it, possibly picked up by travellers or refugees who couldn’t take care of a child permanently. I figure Cadence herself would be thought of only as a rare breed of pony, as opposed to an Alicorn, and would maybe have no active magic until she matures somewhat, or in a superman esc style of childhood, she has great power and no one’s sure how to handle it.
I like the idea of Cadence having a sort of holiday villa hidden in Cavallia that she goes to when she needs a break, no staff, sans that which she might be able to make herself and general peace and quiet, in a hidden alcove.
The Era of Twilight: Equestria:
With the disappearance of the twin princess’s the numerous pony states, town, cities and fiefdoms fell into chaos. The sun and the moon locked themselves to the horizon, signifying the end of Harmony in Equestria.
With the princess’s gone, many feared the return of entities like Discord, Tirek or the rise of new monsters such as Sombra, and some, though they would not say it out loud, feared the return of the princess’s themselves.
With the loss of their political leaders and the constellations ceasing their normal functions, Equestria was in a state of terror and chaos and many other countries weren’t exactly profiting from the state of twilight either.
When Celestia and Luna had ruled their fledgling nation, they had left the government and populace entirely dependent on them; everything had depended on the princess’s continued presence and magic to get anything done on more than a local level, communications broke down almost instantly.
With the princess’s gone, there was no strict line of succession or organised authority and the states began feuding. Blaming each other for the princess’s disappearance or their corruption and arguing over whom should lead the nation and attempting to establish authority over the other states. Equestria was no more.
Canterlot became a city state, with a number of powerful noble families already residing there; some families left and returned to their own holding, but many others remained, either out of patriotism or a desire to be the new king or queen of the nation. But due to so many high ranking and wealthy noble families trying to lead, it lacked the organisation and the internal cooperation needed to extend its influence much beyond its own local farm lands and some of the noble families nearby fiefdoms. Eventually a system of election is instituted, but only members of noble families can stand for election or cast votes.
Canterlot, eventually, becomes a large and prosperous state in itself, but there is friction between the noble families who stayed behind and the commoners they rule over, these problems persist for generations. They had access to the princess’s library, a great deal of wealth and armaments and other resources -such as the crystal caves- and a highly defensible position in the mountains. This allowed Canterlot to maintain its independence for centuries and they considered themselves the “true” heirs to the Equestrian Empire.
Cloudsdale would want to become a state unto itself, no longer tether to the earth ponies and unicorns, but it would naturally require food, Cloudsdale as a whole would likely fair the best and the worst. It would probably be among the few places to maintain something resembling its old power structure even after the princess’s created Equestria and it would have been less dependent on them to manage their affairs. I imagine a very tough few years before they manage to sort out a long terms deal with a large collection of farming communities, thus luring more pegasi to them and allowing Cloudsdale’s elite to spread their influence.
They could start offering fast, well trained and organised weather services and soldiers to guard against threats in exchange for food and compensation, but also to serve as guards/police for their “clients”. I imagine they’d have a council, with a nominal leader.
Most Fiefdoms eventually come to this sort of situation; some fracturing’s so much that they are little more than a collection of farming communities with no leadership beyond local, or become feuding city states and tiny fiefdoms, all with their own developing cultures and languages.
I have two ideas for Equestrian cultural development as a whole; one take is that they start falling back on tribalism and only association with ponies of other tribes when they need too. The other is that they form a sort of deal with at least one equestrian city and they work together to spread their combined influence. Overall because of the problem with Twilight, the ponies would be more innovative out of fear r in attempts to maintain their safety; this becomes a larger aspect of their shared cultures even a thousand years later
But the world’s troubles don’t stop there, with the princess’s gone, there is a sudden reappearance of monsters and they start to spread throughout Equestria. I imagine that the princess’s had bound, warded and sealed many places, entities and creatures. With the princess’s gone, these bindings would start coming undone, making everything worse and forcing a young Cadence to try and deal with these enemies. She can’t always do it perfectly though, for instance, she might re-seal Grogar imperfectly allowing him to escape later and in a much shorter time span.
Notes:
I expect there might be cults dedicated to both princesses, at least early on, many praying for their return or for divine favours.
I think that even once Equestria is united, because of its general “looseness” many states have different forms of election or internal government.
When Equestria is united many different states have different languages or at least speak with very different accents and have such a different culture that you can see they have been separated for a long time.
I imagine tribalism would start coming back at least to an extent, but the conflict would largely be caused by the loss of leadership and the unstable nature of twilight.
I would probably build on the other two tribes magic’s to an extent, I figure that with the world falling into turmoil, some may try to adapt and gain or increase their magical powers.
This post is mostly about Equestrias initial reaction to the disapearance of Celestia and Luna.
I will be doing the next post on Cadence herself.
I took this piece down to go back and add some art to it as I feel that helps dress the page up a little. Please tell me if it worked.
Questions, comments, ideas and critiques, would be greatly appreciated.
Also one thing I realized I would enjoy about about C!verse, both the fic or the idea of a T.V show is that Cadence embodies manyy stereotypical "pretty princess" ideals, both for ponies and princess's in general and the opportunity to play with and subvert such ideas would be incredibly enjoyable. Princess's are good with cute animals for instance, well Cadence had to win over Cerberus! I have a mental image of her riding him into battle.
I do wonder if a show on some alternate earth could pull it off.
