Cadence!Verse: Princess Cadence's subjects. · 1:25am Dec 30th, 2012
Relationship with subjects:
"Among the ponies of Equestria, I am but the first among many" 
Cadence cares a great deal about her subjects maybe more than anything else in the world, no sacrifice is to great to ensure their safety and happiness, even from an early age she took her responsibilities with the utmost seriousness. She takes a good degree of joy in her status as princess and the treatment she receives because of it, though she originally find it isolating, but that was due to her heavy responsibilities and the fear surrounding her alicorn nature.
She desires to help her subjects and prefers to do so on a personal level, as it is extremely satisfying in comparison to helping pass laws. She enjoys interacting with her subjects in a very social setting, celebrations, parades and charity balls. Princess Cadence will happily try to strike up conversation with anypony who comes her way and will treat even the most distant of stranger like an old friend, though she isn't above avoiding certain characters that she knows she dislikes, but not to the point of being rude. Cadence loves her subjects and they love her, she will protect them, lead them and "reflect" the love they feel for her back to them and in times of need she will harden her heart for them.
"Here's to you, our princess!"
Overall, Cadence's subjects treat her in a manner very similar to how Celestia and Luna are treated. With respect, deference, and a sense of awe. But I think there would be some subtle differences in how she's treated and viewed that are worth drawing attention to.
Celestia in the M!Verse and Luna in the L!verse, have seemingly been ruling their subjects since time out of mind, possibly since before history was recorded in the printed word. Especially considering no-one seems to know much if anything of entities like Discord, Sombra and NMM herself was reduced to a vague fairy tale.
This leads me to the idea that Celestia and Luna are very mysterious, even to their own subjects, no one really knows where they came from or how old they are. Their origins and the early days of their reign are seemingly entirely unknown. I think this mystery would add a sense of awe and a sort of ethereal, unknowable quality to them that Cadence would lack.
Cadence is one thousand years old, her history is fairly well known as is her birth and actions from that point on, so even if the specifics of her origin are mysterious, not much else is. She'd still be a deity in their eye's, but a somewhat more mortal and relatable deity, I imagine she would have been married or had known relationships in her life, adding another level of "normal" to her.
Princess Cadence restored the cycles of night and day, she battled Sombra/Grogar and sealed the monsters away and many other great legendary accomplishments. So while all these stories would be legendary and even mythical in themselves, there would be other recognizable historical figures and very little genuine mystery to them, especially as literacy and the written word became more common.
Overall I think that her subjects, in the back of their minds, would think of her as something closer to a living folk legend and hero. As opposed to a more intimidating and more alien sort of deity, her appearance would likely help in this as well. There could even be parallels drawn between Cadence and the likes of Heracles or Alexander the Great, except a lot nicer.
When ever princess Cadence visits a town or city, ponies are eager to ask advice, blessings, a simple wish of luck, or in one case to co signer a loan.
Questions, comments, ideas and critiques, would be greatly appreciated.
So basically Cadance is like Paul Bunyan or John Henry more than Zeus or Odin. She's a legendary figure, but one who lived and worked and acted like a mortal. Or like Superman in the DC comics, or Captain America in Marvel.
...I can buy it.
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Yes! I made a Sale!
That's pretty much entirely what I was going for, it's more that she's treated/thought of that way by her subjects, due to her somewhat less than mysterious history and as you put it she "lived and worked and acted like a mortal." More so than Celestia and Luna might seem to anyway. Good point with the superman parallel TY for the comparison, that's an excellent point. hmm maybe Thor or Storm? Though Captain America works well for the kind of cultural adoration ponies have for their leaders, interesting. :)
I felt it worked in this case as Zeus and Odin were, despite interacting with mortals, very capricious and alien to them, which is more or less how Celestia and Luna are in this verse. Though Cadence is closer in power to Luna and Celestia than Bunyan probably was to Zeus, which is why I noted Heracles. That and I've been reading tons of ancient mythology.
In the normal verse they are benevolent deities but still seem to be rather mysterious, intimidating and alien to their subjects, not to the point of complete separation or anything but still a bit off extra distance. Though that's admittedly conjecture. sorry if I did not explain it well
I need to work on some "World of Cardboard" speeches for Cadence at some point. Oh and coming up next will likely be a post about the moderns story-lines setting, though still Cadence related. And also maybe the background use of the M!6 and L!6 characters.
Thanks again for commenting, it's very encouraging!