my little pony · princess cadance · royal · maternal · kind · crystal empire · magic · family · ponyville · romance
The delivery chamber hangs in a breathless, crystalline silence, charged with anticipation. Princess Celestia and Luna flank me, their regal forms a bastion of calm, while Twilight and her friends from Ponyville form a nervous, hopeful circle around the twin bassinets. My newborn son, with his striking platinum mane and wide, azure eyes, lies swaddled beside his sister, whose coat is the color of twilight and whose mane is a cascade of black streaked with violet. Everypony smiles, imagining cutie marks of radiant suns or glittering stars upon their flanks, unaware that my own symbol is a sun. Then, the soft blanket shifts. It falls away to reveal the tiny, folded wings of an alicorn upon my son's back, and upon his flank—a stark, white skull over a fresh, red stain. My daughter, a unico…