//-------------------------------------------------------// Cadence's Curse -by CastawayWish- //-------------------------------------------------------// //-------------------------------------------------------// Prologue //-------------------------------------------------------// Prologue Her eyes shone with a fierce, demonic, white glow as her purple horn was surrounded in a magenta aurora. A similar aurora tangled itself around a large, impressive-sized rock as it floated up, and then rammed its way towards the ugly, disfigured beast of the Darkness. A cold, hard sweat ran itself over Twilight Sparkle's lilac body as she awoke with a start.         'What a terrible reminisce...' she thought to herself as she sleepily got up and made her way toward her wooden dresser. Levitating up a fine, silver brush, Twilight let it hover in front of her aged and tired eyes, the bags still dropping heavily. Smiling softly, she let it float up above her eyes, and began brushing her mane. Turning around to face the bed, she saw that it's second pillow, had a head missing. She gave out a deep sigh. Really? What did she expect? Her spouse was always up early in the mornings, always before her. Suddenly, with a great burst of surprise that Pinkie Pie would be proud of, two little unicorn foals galloped their way into her room.         "Mommy mommy mommy!" They cried in unision.         "Guess what day it is!" Said the oldest one, a filly.         "I know, I didn't forget." Twilight sighed, her voice dripping with tired wisdom. She sat down on her bed, and her two foals soon joined her. - It was just an ordinary day for Shining Armour. Went into the Mess Hall, got the reports from his subordinates, and then went to report to Princess Celestia, or, on a rare occasion, Princess Luna. "Good morning Captain." "Good morning Tangerine Spice." He replied with a nod to the mare. 'Tangy' as she was called, had a brown coat with a bright orange mane and tail. Making his way down the long corridor towards the throne room, Shining passed many different ponies-some of which he knew, others he did not. Presently, he stopped by a massive gilded archway, where he could see Princess Celestia speaking with a griffion diplomat. "Now madame, really, are you sure that is necasar-" Shinning blocked out the rest of the conversation-politics wasn't his thing. Instead, he busied himself lazily studying the griffins. One of them seemed to be acting strange, staring around at his body as if just seeing it for the first time. Remembering the changeling incident, Shining kept his eye on the griffion. "Ambassador, I thank you for these nogations, but I simply can not allow for-" Suddenly, the griffion lunged forward, blade in hand. Shining's horn quickly lit up, and he teloparted in front of Celestia, just before the blade made contact. Shining Armour was dead; died protecting their beloved Princess Celestia when a changeling assassin came at her. However; Cadance was  pregnant, but the only way the foal could survive was by killing the alicorn mother. But the only way to do that, is by using an extremely powerful, dark magic spell that takes away all their power and lets you absorb it. - "Please Twilight, do it for me! Do it for Shining Armour!" Princess Mi Amore Cadenza hertfully cried, painfully looking at a conflicted Twilight Sparkle. Biting her lip, Twilight looked around at the prestiny sanitized and disinficted white medical 'birthing' room. Abrutly, the two large, gleaming white doors in the Canterlot General Hospital opened to reveal a ver distraught and concerend regal white alicorn. In a sudden yellow flash, Princess Celestia teleported across the room, to the other side of the hospital bed. "Please Twilight..." Looking around dutifully towards Princess Celestia, who gave her a slight nod, Twilight started the enchantment. Her horn lit up in a dark, nightmareish purple aurora of chaos, as her eyes started to glow with a demonic empty blackness, a single tear rolled down her cheek as she revealed her eyes to the world. The dark, ancient magic enveloped Candance, and the small cry of a newborn foal was the last thing Twilight heard before collapsing. - A very long time ago, there was a wonderful abundance of the creators of our world; the Alicorns. But they were lonely souls, and created with powerful magic three more pony species; Mannis Terrae (Ponies of the Earth), Mannis de Caelum (Ponies of the Sky), and of course, Mannis de Magia (Ponies of Magic). Although, the three other pony species where more commonly know as Earth, Pegasus, and Unicorn Ponies. The wise leaders of the Alicorns, King Chronos and his beautiful wife, Queen Astraea, used their combined powers of Time and Space to protect their peaceful alicorn society from the other ponies; fearing that chaos and confusion would ensure. Alicorns can only give birth if another takes their power and absorb it, but this means that the mother would die. So, that left the father to take, what is essentially the mothers soul, and raise the foal on his own. - Twilight woke up feeling very... strange, to say the least. She felt exhausted, yet envigorated; almost as if she had somehow gained more power, but at a high cost. Then, she remembered. "Shining... Candance..." She cried; an ocean of tears flooding her face so quickly that she did not spy the alabaster alicorn enter; levitating a small bundle that was hidden behind her celestial mane. "Twilight Sparkle, my faithful student..." There was no trace of Celestia's usual upbeat demeanor, and her face, it was sad, so sad... - The Draconequui attacked. The fed off of chaos, and the Alicorns created Harmony. A great war between the two great species was fought, with few survivors. All of the survivors were sealed away in a mother's dying breath. All of them were young, they are now known as The Bringers of Change. - "Twilight Sparkle, now is not a time for despair, but for rejoice in the creation of new life; in the creation of Prince Custode dell'Amoris (Guardian of Love)! 'The foal. She had completely forgotten about the foal in her selfishness.' Twilight thought, and then, she spoke, her voice tiny and gentle, like Fluttershy's. "M-M-May I s-see him?"She asked tentatively. Without answering, Princess Celestia levitated the new child down towards Twilight. The colt, a unicorn, had mane like her brothers, but in a deep, romantic  white instead of a royal blue. His eyes shone with a defensive, ablit bloody, yet somehow still romantic, red; his coat a light, steely charcoal grey. He was beautiful in every sense of the word. "Now, Twilight, after consulting with Luna, I-err... we have decided that it would be best if you raised Amoris. The last foal we raised... Well let's just say Rarity met the result at theGrand Galloping Gala a few years ago. Now, we will of cou-" Twilight didn't get to hear the rest, as a dark cloud invaded her mind. //-------------------------------------------------------// Blueblood- Part I //-------------------------------------------------------// Blueblood- Part I //----------------------------- // Story: Cadence's Curse // Chapter: Blueblood- Part I // Author: CastawayWish //----------------------------- It had been two months. Two months since her brother's funeral, and two weeks since his beloved Princess Mi Amore Cadenza got to join him. And she still couldn't believe it, even though she was standing here. Here in front of her, she watched as a simple gravestone depicting Shining Armour in his full regalia was switched for a complex and beautiful statute of himself and Princess Cadence combining their powers to evict the changeling population in Canterlot. Twilight sighed deeply. Her mother and father had gone on a cruise, curtsy of the Royal Treasury, right after Shining Armour had died. Celestia knows that's what they needed the most. But since they had gone on the cruise, they weren't here to oversee the tombstone switch, or to see the ceremony where Princess Candence was buried alongside her love. Letting another deep, heavy sigh escape her mouth, Twilight turned around to face the construction workers doing the menial task. "Thank you both, here is your pay." Twilight said, not really focusing as she teleknickly brought two fairly well filled brown purses filled with bits out of her saddlebags, dropping them in front of the workers. "Gee, thanks lady!" Said the taller of the two male Earth ponies. Twilight did not respond, but just grumble and mumble, her head down low in a solomn parade of sadness. - In what had seemed like no time at all, Twilight was back inside the castle grounds. But the beautifully scenery did little to change her mood, and the cocky, white unicorn stallion strutting his way towards her certainly wasn't going to help matters either. "Hello Prince Blueblood." The pretty lilac unicorn drawled- what was her name? He had seen her plenty of times before, but had never bothered learning the poor little commoner's name. "Oh hello there miss, uh excuse me but I never got your name." He said, surprised at himself. After all, he made sure that he knew the names of anyone important enough to go inside the castle, and he made sure to also know the names of all the pretty mares in Canterlot. Really? I mean really? After living in the same castle in the same city as him for over 7 years, he still didn't know her name? Ugh. Wow. "Oh, well my name is Twilight Sparkle." She said with a kind smile, which Blueblood returned with a strangely seductive smile. "It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Sparkle." He replied, holding out a hoof. Twilight looked at his pale, outstretched hoof with a mixture of curiosity and suspicion in her eyes. Was this the Blueblood she knew? She wasn't so sure anymore. Nervously, she agreed and took his hoof, shaking it gently. His smile reduced down into that of a kinder pony, as they both turned back towards the castle. "Miss Sparkle, you wouldn't happen to be my Great Auntie's favourite~ student, now would you?" Blueblood asked with a cheeky smile that always got the mares. "Yes." Well, almost always. "Ahem, well then, how about I walk you to her. I'm certain that she would want to see you right away. In fact, she hasn't stopped babbling about since you moved out of Canterlot!" Well, that part was true. Although he had never put a name to the face-- er, a face to the name, his Great Auntie Celestia was always babbling about 'Oh Twilight did this!' or 'Twilight did that.' or the ever popular, 'My, my, my, she is a very powerful unicorn because she did this..'. It was starting to get annoying, but now that Blueblood had this, ... exotic filly in his hooves, he could easily see why. - Twilight had always loved the Canterlot Royal Library. Within its walls were hundreds of thousands of books, some thousands of years old, others barely a few days. Before a book could be published, at least one copy had to be placed in here. But it wasn't just the books that she loved, oh no. After having lived in a grander old palace, Tiwilght had learned how to to spot and appreciate truly sublime architecture. The library had four levels; the first one had the most popular and newest books; the second level, which is the largest, held the more general books; the third and final level had the best books that were only allowed to be seen by ponies that were given special permission; it also held the observatory and some desks for writing. The basement was held under lock and key, with guards protecting its heavy metal doors. It was nicknamed "The Forbidden Crypt" by the librarians scribes, and even some of the regulars. Only the Princesses could open the magically enchanted door, and a pony must be given specially permission from the princesses themselves. All three visible levels were beautiful, stunning, and amazing, but by far, Twilight's favourite was the third level. Normally, she could work quietly alone their, often late into the beautiful night. The room was purple, and the walls were gilded with gold details. At night, the gold was magically enchanted to turn into silver under Luna's magnificent night. The ceiling is high and mighty, held aloft by four large and mighty, arched columns. On the celing, during the day there was just a simple sun, but at night, it changed it a brilliant, glowing silver moon and showed all the constellations of the night sky; magically enchanted to change accordingly.  The brilliant celing, which was designed after Luna's banishment, showed just how deeply Celestia loved her little sister. The dusty, earthy smell came calling for Twilight from deep within their rusty old pages. But these books would have to wait; she was working on something, something big. She had to focus on getting to the books at the back, so she could continue her research on- "Oh hello Twilight Sparkle, fancy meeting you here." Came a bouncy, slightly snooty voice. "Oh.. Um hello Prince Blueblood. How are. You today?" She asked, slightly irritated at being disrupted from her work. "Oh I'm just wonderful thanks you, say I was wondering if you would like to-" "WOULD PRINCE BLUEBLOOD, TWILIGHT SPARKLE, PRINCESS LUNA, AND CAPTAIN GOLDEN SHEILD PLEASE REPORT TO THE THRONE ROOM IMMEDIETLY," Came the tense, commanding, yet still kind voice of Princess Celestia. Twilight and Blueblood looked at each other. Simply by staring at each other's faces, they could tell that they had never sound like this, and they had never heard her use the Royal Canterlot Voice. A regal white alicorn was pacing back and forth, which was very unusual for her, yet lately, everything had been unusual. 'Why would they want war? What- hoe did this happen...' Her thoughts were suddenly disrupted as a soft whining noise and a loud pastel midnight blue flash scared her vision. "Sister, what is the meaning of this?" Princess Luna asked, still groggy from the nap she was having. Celestia opened her mouth, but before she could answer, her prized student galloped through the open, heavy double doors. "Princess!" She cried, but before anything else could be said, another figure trotted through the door. "Auntie!" Came a shrill, whiny voice. "What is the meaning of this?" Continued that blonde maned whiner. Before Celestia could speak, another figure calmly walked through the door. He was tall and muscular, with the same build as Big Macintosh. His coat was snow white, his horn sharper to a fierce point. His eyes were a bloody red. His cutie mark was a go.den shield with two crossed spears behind it. The shield had an insigna of an owl on it. His mane was a soft golden tone, that was long and surprisingly shaggy, but his tail was docked short like most of the other unicorn guards. He was surprisingly handsome. "Ah, Golden Sheild, now we can begin." Celestia turned to face the small crowd. "Guards, please leave us." She commanded, while the guards gave a bow and left the area. "Now then..."