Description:
Deleted scene from my Cadance's backstory! :) I decided to not include it because there already was so much info in it, and I wanted to do a separate, full on reveal of Cadance’s bio dad and his family. And if that sentence makes no sense to you, you probably want to read that other one =P
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After the reveal of Cadance’s original identity, she and her parents were invited to dinner with her bio dad and his new family. Cadance had only met Loyal March and his wife, Étoile Matin, once before; right after the Princess had revealed Cadance’s origin.
Cadance was still very unsure about this whole business and agreed, but asked her parents before arriving if she could sit between them or if that was rude. It would be, as she was the highest titled of them and should be next to the host, but they told her it wasn’t, and Chanterelle quickly placed himself beside Lord March before anypony had the chance to tell of any seating arrangements. The other family was a bit put out, but just shuffled around and seated themselves on the other side of the table.
The dinner from then on was… awkward, at best. Étoile did her best at grilling Flicker on Cadance’s upbringing, maintaining a cold tone and slight glare, as Flicker grew more and more desperate for escape. Cadance got to finally interact with her half-sisters for the first time, and quickly found that the older one of them was less than happy with her. Her name was Fleur de Lis, and at just about a year and a half younger than Cadance, she’d been considered her father’s eldest and was set to inherit his title… until now that is. Cadance was apologetic, but also a bit miffed -it wasn’t like it was her decision! And secretly thought that her half-bio sister was a bit shallow to care so much about a title. Meanwhile, the younger one, Lulamoon, didn’t say much to Cadance at all. Just stared at the drama around her with big eyes.
The only ones who seemed to have even a bit of a good time was Chanterelle and Loyal March; Chanterelle happily talking about the food being served and asking for recipes, and Loyal politely listening and asking the servers to please give their guests a copy of the recipe for every single dish. They also got into talking about children, as that is almost the only thing they had in common, and how to raise them. And that’s where the similarities ended, with one talking about washing blueberry stains out of fur and one about selecting appropriate nannies and tutors. When Loyal and Étoile’s need for an appropriate governess in magic for Lulamoon was mentioned, Chanterelle could contribute somewhat and told Loyal about his cousin Showcase who lived in a village just outside of Canterlot. Her talent was teaching, and she did have a degree in foal-education as well as a minor in magic -maybe Chanterelle could ask if she was interested on behalf of Loyal?
All in all, their conversation consisted of one pony being very enthusiastic and trying their best to keep the conversation going, and one pony with a completely indifferent expression answering politely. Still, Chanterelle seemed to not take note of that, and continued to happily chat, much to Flick and Cadance’s confusion.
When asking about it afterwards, he seemed a bit surprised that they’d had such bad experiences -it seemed strange to him that they would be so unwelcoming to their faces when they’d tried so hard to be inclusive and nice with everything else. Upon receiving just further confusion to this, he realised that neither Flick nor Cadance had noticed what his food-obsessed mind had -the entire dinner had been prepared and presented in such a way as to be as welcoming to them as possible.
First, the food was plated and presented in the style which allows non-unicorns to eat each dish in one or two bites without their muzzle having to dip into the food. Everypony as also served their drink in the type of large glasses with straws that can easily be moved around with hooves and drunk from without having to lift them. Now, that wasn’t actually the part he’d noticed -not doing that when you had non-unicorn guests would be downright rude. It was that the other family had also eaten with their muzzles and used the same type of glass. There’s no precedent that (adult) unicorns will do this; there’s no reason to not allow themselves the use of magic, and could actually be viewed as a bit patronizing to the guests. But here, he at least got the impression that they’d realised Cadance might have a bit of an issue with her magic, and didn’t want to make her feel singled out.
On top of that, they’d had dinner indoors, away from any press or curious eyes, when this type of dinner in the summer should traditionally be outdoors. The chairs were clearly newly bought, with backs thin and far away enough that a pegasus (or alicorn) could move their wings around comfortably. And when he’d mentioned in passing how Flick was never overly fond of garlic, suddenly the fifth dish was a completely different theme from the others -like it originally had been something different and had been replaced quickly with something they’d had on hoof.
So somepony there had clearly thought things through and cared that they’d feel welcome. It was so odd that they didn’t act like it then….
——-
It took years before they actually got to know the other family well enough to begin to guess what had happened behind the scenes and why.
Luckily for us, we exist outside of this story and can take a peek into their thoughts and reasons right now.
When Loyal March married Mi Dolcezza, his main reasoning had been that, as a Lord, it was expected of him to marry and have an heir. That didn’t change much with his marriage to Étoile or the births of Fleur de Lis (née Fleur de Nuit) and Lulamoon; if he could have done so without his family’s extreme disapproval, he’d have gone a bachelor his whole life. So he’d gotten married and had children, while only doing what was socially and legally expected of him. Now, he did care about his children growing up into successful and healthy adults, but did it in quite an… odd way. Rather than actually stepping up and actually parent them himself, he picked both his wives for their desire to have children and their ability to raise them well without having to involve him; Dolcezza’s special talent being parenting and Étoile having worked as a nanny for several years. He provided all the monetary funds they could need, supplied the best tutors and nannies he could when Étoile requested help… hired the leading therapists in the city when his daughters asked for help with emotional and social problems… he’d do anything and supply only the best of the best in helping his kids grow up into as well adjusted and happy adults as he could -as long as he didn’t have to do anything directly of course.
He was the original reason the dinner was so catered to ensuring Cadance’s comfort -by asking his staff to see that everything was set up to make her feel as welcome as possible. Like with his other kids, he does everything to ensure that Cadance is happy and healthy -as long as he doesn’t have to do any direct parenting. Actually, this whole adoption thing suited him absolutely fine, and he’s marginally grateful to Chanterelle and Flicker for seemingly doing a good job. But aside from that, he doesn't much care about them. He’s polite to them, and would pay them back for their expenses regarding Cadance if asked, but only because it’s expected of him.
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Étoile for her part could best be described as loving in private, and cold in public. She’d the youngest daughter of a minor noble in Prance, and moved to Equestria as a young adult -working as a nanny for a few years to support herself while she figured out where to go from there -until she met Loyal March, and quickly agreed to marry him. Their first daughter was born not soon after, and her life settled into routine. As mentioned, she was very loving to her daughter, forgoing the usual nanny most nobles hire and instead caring for her by herself. She loved children in general, and would be calm, kind and gentle with the kids of the live-in staff, something which endeared her to them a lot. She didn’t have any patience for adults though, and could be downright rude and condescending with the staff themselves, something which made them dislike her a lot. Her relationship with the staff was complicated.
But she was happy for the most part, living without worry for money and raising her daughter. But there’s only so long someone can raise a child alone before they need breaks and adult company. She didn’t want to leave Fleur alone too much, but recognized that she needed to be in good mental health to raise her. So she made it a regular thing to take one weekend off every moon and go somewhere else. She tried to get Loyal to join her, but he didn’t much care for it. He never cared for it, or her at all, really. She’d known about this upfront and had been okay with it, but she was starting to grow so tired of him not caring about her.
One of those trips was to Las Pegasus. Lulamoon was born eleven months later.
The reason she grilled Flicker so thoroughly during the dinner is that Cadance is still a child; her husband's child at that. And, as mentioned, Étoile really does love children. She doesn’t care about Flicker and Chanterelle, but she does care about Cadance. And as Cadance’s… step-mom? It was her job to ensure that Flick and Chanterelle had raised her properly, and would be able to continue doing so now that Cadance was an alicorn. Hence, the interrogation, to figure out if she’d need to fight for custody. The fact that Flick was extremely uncomfortable didn’t much matter to her, as long as she could determine their character and parenting ability. She was also the reason the rest of the family didn’t use any magic during dinner. While the staff did prepare an appropriate dinner, bought chairs and thought about things like seating them indoors, Étoile’s thoughts were focused specifically on making Cadance feel welcome in her family. For one, she didn’t know how well the new alicorn could control her magic; if she couldn't do it well and they gave her utensils, it could end in disaster. If she could use magic well, and they didn’t give her utensils it would be very embarrassing for her. So, no uses utensils for anyone. The poor child deserved that at least.
-
Now, Fleur… As a filly, Fleur was a happy and healthy foal. Her mom was attentive and caring, she had many friends, and her dad bought her any toys she asked. As she grew older however, she realised just how… not there, her dad was. Most of the other kids either had two parents who cared for them, or they had good reasons for only having one parent. But her dad didn’t have reasons; he wasn’t away a lot, he didn’t have important work he did at home, he just… didn’t want to be with her it seemed. She tried to make him pay attention to her, first by becoming the top student in school (he gave her money because he’d heard that’s what you’re supposed to do when your children get good grades), then by acting out (he sent her to the best child-therapist in Canterlot) and by even faking an illness (the foremost doctor on the subject was flown in and diagnosed her with 'acting').
As she grew, she became more and more desperate for his attention. Her mom was great, she loved her mom, but she wanted to know why her dad didn’t care. And then, suddenly, she got it. His undivided attention. As his heir, she’ll one day have his title -and the only one who can teach her about that properly is him. So he does; it’s expected of him. One-on-one lessons every week. She loves it, and does her best to learn what he teaches her, hoping that he’ll finally be proud of her.
And then Cadance returns.
During dinner she’s therefore very very cold to her older half-sister. Not only does she get to have two parents that love her, not only does she get to be an alicorn and a princess, no, that’s not enough for Princess Cadenza apparently. She’s also gotta barge into Fleur’s life and take what little worth she’d have to her dad away. No more lessons, no more title to be passed down -now she’s just the second daughter, competing with a literal demi-goddess for her dad’s attention. Stars, she hates her.
-
At this point, Lulamoon is just a normal filly. Her mom loves her, she’d got a ton of friends and she’s getting really good at magic -her dad even said he’d hire someone to teach her! Sure, her dad doesn’t do much stuff with her, but at this point she doesn’t really care -she’s got her mom, her awesome older sister, and pretty soon, an awesome magic teacher. As far as Lulamoon is concerned, at this point in her life, everything is great!
Though, she could have done without the dinner. Strangers coming into her home, her sister being so angry she could almost taste it in the air, her mom practically growling at one of the strangers… she decided it was best if she just sat quietly and drank her raspberry soda.
———————————
After the reveal of Cadance’s original identity, she and her parents were invited to dinner with her bio dad and his new family. Cadance had only met Loyal March and his wife, Étoile Matin, once before; right after the Princess had revealed Cadance’s origin.
Cadance was still very unsure about this whole business and agreed, but asked her parents before arriving if she could sit between them or if that was rude. It would be, as she was the highest titled of them and should be next to the host, but they told her it wasn’t, and Chanterelle quickly placed himself beside Lord March before anypony had the chance to tell of any seating arrangements. The other family was a bit put out, but just shuffled around and seated themselves on the other side of the table.
The dinner from then on was… awkward, at best. Étoile did her best at grilling Flicker on Cadance’s upbringing, maintaining a cold tone and slight glare, as Flicker grew more and more desperate for escape. Cadance got to finally interact with her half-sisters for the first time, and quickly found that the older one of them was less than happy with her. Her name was Fleur de Lis, and at just about a year and a half younger than Cadance, she’d been considered her father’s eldest and was set to inherit his title… until now that is. Cadance was apologetic, but also a bit miffed -it wasn’t like it was her decision! And secretly thought that her half-bio sister was a bit shallow to care so much about a title. Meanwhile, the younger one, Lulamoon, didn’t say much to Cadance at all. Just stared at the drama around her with big eyes.
The only ones who seemed to have even a bit of a good time was Chanterelle and Loyal March; Chanterelle happily talking about the food being served and asking for recipes, and Loyal politely listening and asking the servers to please give their guests a copy of the recipe for every single dish. They also got into talking about children, as that is almost the only thing they had in common, and how to raise them. And that’s where the similarities ended, with one talking about washing blueberry stains out of fur and one about selecting appropriate nannies and tutors. When Loyal and Étoile’s need for an appropriate governess in magic for Lulamoon was mentioned, Chanterelle could contribute somewhat and told Loyal about his cousin Showcase who lived in a village just outside of Canterlot. Her talent was teaching, and she did have a degree in foal-education as well as a minor in magic -maybe Chanterelle could ask if she was interested on behalf of Loyal?
All in all, their conversation consisted of one pony being very enthusiastic and trying their best to keep the conversation going, and one pony with a completely indifferent expression answering politely. Still, Chanterelle seemed to not take note of that, and continued to happily chat, much to Flick and Cadance’s confusion.
When asking about it afterwards, he seemed a bit surprised that they’d had such bad experiences -it seemed strange to him that they would be so unwelcoming to their faces when they’d tried so hard to be inclusive and nice with everything else. Upon receiving just further confusion to this, he realised that neither Flick nor Cadance had noticed what his food-obsessed mind had -the entire dinner had been prepared and presented in such a way as to be as welcoming to them as possible.
First, the food was plated and presented in the style which allows non-unicorns to eat each dish in one or two bites without their muzzle having to dip into the food. Everypony as also served their drink in the type of large glasses with straws that can easily be moved around with hooves and drunk from without having to lift them. Now, that wasn’t actually the part he’d noticed -not doing that when you had non-unicorn guests would be downright rude. It was that the other family had also eaten with their muzzles and used the same type of glass. There’s no precedent that (adult) unicorns will do this; there’s no reason to not allow themselves the use of magic, and could actually be viewed as a bit patronizing to the guests. But here, he at least got the impression that they’d realised Cadance might have a bit of an issue with her magic, and didn’t want to make her feel singled out.
On top of that, they’d had dinner indoors, away from any press or curious eyes, when this type of dinner in the summer should traditionally be outdoors. The chairs were clearly newly bought, with backs thin and far away enough that a pegasus (or alicorn) could move their wings around comfortably. And when he’d mentioned in passing how Flick was never overly fond of garlic, suddenly the fifth dish was a completely different theme from the others -like it originally had been something different and had been replaced quickly with something they’d had on hoof.
So somepony there had clearly thought things through and cared that they’d feel welcome. It was so odd that they didn’t act like it then….
——-
It took years before they actually got to know the other family well enough to begin to guess what had happened behind the scenes and why.
Luckily for us, we exist outside of this story and can take a peek into their thoughts and reasons right now.
When Loyal March married Mi Dolcezza, his main reasoning had been that, as a Lord, it was expected of him to marry and have an heir. That didn’t change much with his marriage to Étoile or the births of Fleur de Lis (née Fleur de Nuit) and Lulamoon; if he could have done so without his family’s extreme disapproval, he’d have gone a bachelor his whole life. So he’d gotten married and had children, while only doing what was socially and legally expected of him. Now, he did care about his children growing up into successful and healthy adults, but did it in quite an… odd way. Rather than actually stepping up and actually parent them himself, he picked both his wives for their desire to have children and their ability to raise them well without having to involve him; Dolcezza’s special talent being parenting and Étoile having worked as a nanny for several years. He provided all the monetary funds they could need, supplied the best tutors and nannies he could when Étoile requested help… hired the leading therapists in the city when his daughters asked for help with emotional and social problems… he’d do anything and supply only the best of the best in helping his kids grow up into as well adjusted and happy adults as he could -as long as he didn’t have to do anything directly of course.
He was the original reason the dinner was so catered to ensuring Cadance’s comfort -by asking his staff to see that everything was set up to make her feel as welcome as possible. Like with his other kids, he does everything to ensure that Cadance is happy and healthy -as long as he doesn’t have to do any direct parenting. Actually, this whole adoption thing suited him absolutely fine, and he’s marginally grateful to Chanterelle and Flicker for seemingly doing a good job. But aside from that, he doesn't much care about them. He’s polite to them, and would pay them back for their expenses regarding Cadance if asked, but only because it’s expected of him.
-
Étoile for her part could best be described as loving in private, and cold in public. She’d the youngest daughter of a minor noble in Prance, and moved to Equestria as a young adult -working as a nanny for a few years to support herself while she figured out where to go from there -until she met Loyal March, and quickly agreed to marry him. Their first daughter was born not soon after, and her life settled into routine. As mentioned, she was very loving to her daughter, forgoing the usual nanny most nobles hire and instead caring for her by herself. She loved children in general, and would be calm, kind and gentle with the kids of the live-in staff, something which endeared her to them a lot. She didn’t have any patience for adults though, and could be downright rude and condescending with the staff themselves, something which made them dislike her a lot. Her relationship with the staff was complicated.
But she was happy for the most part, living without worry for money and raising her daughter. But there’s only so long someone can raise a child alone before they need breaks and adult company. She didn’t want to leave Fleur alone too much, but recognized that she needed to be in good mental health to raise her. So she made it a regular thing to take one weekend off every moon and go somewhere else. She tried to get Loyal to join her, but he didn’t much care for it. He never cared for it, or her at all, really. She’d known about this upfront and had been okay with it, but she was starting to grow so tired of him not caring about her.
One of those trips was to Las Pegasus. Lulamoon was born eleven months later.
The reason she grilled Flicker so thoroughly during the dinner is that Cadance is still a child; her husband's child at that. And, as mentioned, Étoile really does love children. She doesn’t care about Flicker and Chanterelle, but she does care about Cadance. And as Cadance’s… step-mom? It was her job to ensure that Flick and Chanterelle had raised her properly, and would be able to continue doing so now that Cadance was an alicorn. Hence, the interrogation, to figure out if she’d need to fight for custody. The fact that Flick was extremely uncomfortable didn’t much matter to her, as long as she could determine their character and parenting ability. She was also the reason the rest of the family didn’t use any magic during dinner. While the staff did prepare an appropriate dinner, bought chairs and thought about things like seating them indoors, Étoile’s thoughts were focused specifically on making Cadance feel welcome in her family. For one, she didn’t know how well the new alicorn could control her magic; if she couldn't do it well and they gave her utensils, it could end in disaster. If she could use magic well, and they didn’t give her utensils it would be very embarrassing for her. So, no uses utensils for anyone. The poor child deserved that at least.
-
Now, Fleur… As a filly, Fleur was a happy and healthy foal. Her mom was attentive and caring, she had many friends, and her dad bought her any toys she asked. As she grew older however, she realised just how… not there, her dad was. Most of the other kids either had two parents who cared for them, or they had good reasons for only having one parent. But her dad didn’t have reasons; he wasn’t away a lot, he didn’t have important work he did at home, he just… didn’t want to be with her it seemed. She tried to make him pay attention to her, first by becoming the top student in school (he gave her money because he’d heard that’s what you’re supposed to do when your children get good grades), then by acting out (he sent her to the best child-therapist in Canterlot) and by even faking an illness (the foremost doctor on the subject was flown in and diagnosed her with 'acting').
As she grew, she became more and more desperate for his attention. Her mom was great, she loved her mom, but she wanted to know why her dad didn’t care. And then, suddenly, she got it. His undivided attention. As his heir, she’ll one day have his title -and the only one who can teach her about that properly is him. So he does; it’s expected of him. One-on-one lessons every week. She loves it, and does her best to learn what he teaches her, hoping that he’ll finally be proud of her.
And then Cadance returns.
During dinner she’s therefore very very cold to her older half-sister. Not only does she get to have two parents that love her, not only does she get to be an alicorn and a princess, no, that’s not enough for Princess Cadenza apparently. She’s also gotta barge into Fleur’s life and take what little worth she’d have to her dad away. No more lessons, no more title to be passed down -now she’s just the second daughter, competing with a literal demi-goddess for her dad’s attention. Stars, she hates her.
-
At this point, Lulamoon is just a normal filly. Her mom loves her, she’d got a ton of friends and she’s getting really good at magic -her dad even said he’d hire someone to teach her! Sure, her dad doesn’t do much stuff with her, but at this point she doesn’t really care -she’s got her mom, her awesome older sister, and pretty soon, an awesome magic teacher. As far as Lulamoon is concerned, at this point in her life, everything is great!
Though, she could have done without the dinner. Strangers coming into her home, her sister being so angry she could almost taste it in the air, her mom practically growling at one of the strangers… she decided it was best if she just sat quietly and drank her raspberry soda.
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