Cadence
Age: 26

Flurry Heart
Age: 8

Shining Armor
Age: 27

Backstory

Cadance was raised in a strong, loving home. Daughter of Empress Amorine, ruler of the Crystal Empire, she had a lot to live up to. She always tried her best to listen and train, learning the ways of spirit healing and arcane battle. She soon learned all that her normal instructors could teach her and was started as an apprentice to Celestia, Luna always being there to help out as well.

She was very close to her crystal mother and pegasus father, Gregior [a foreigner], and sees Princesses Luna and Celestia as almost big sisters. They helped her find all the open doors of her magic, and she has made every possible effort to bring them higher in the Crystal Court.

When Cadance was 14, two refugees appeared on the steps of the Palace on a windy winter night. It was Twilight and Shining Armor [Rebellion AU- Twilight and Spike]. They explained how their home had been destroyed and their parents killed by Sombra’s soldiers, and also had a bit of useful information that their parents had gleaned in their work.

Empress Amorine took the two in as her wards, which meant that they would be raised and cared for in the palace (not necessarily as royals, but still in warm, comfortable rooms with plenty to eat). Shining begged the Empress to let him into her army, and soon he was going through the initial boot camp, showing incredible skill and resourcefulness.

Shining Armor and Cadance began to catch each other’s eyes across the room, sharing secret smiles and meeting in out-of-the-way places. When Shining became a captain, they officially began courting. Cadance’s parents were completely open to the relationship, seeing as the Empress’s own husband, Gregior, was a foreigner of common ancestry. After a few years of courtship, Shining proposed and they had a small wedding (well, as small as a royal of the Empire could have).

They had Flurry Heart a year later, much to hyperventilating-Aunt Twilight’s joy. Only a couple months after Flurry’s birth, however, Empress Amorine and Gregior were both murdered in their sleep. To this day, no one knows who or what killed them, only that both looked like they were in a frozen state of pain when their bodies were discovered the next morning.

As filled with grief as she was, Cadance swiftly ascended the throne, needing to assure the kingdom of her stability.

When Applejack came to the Empire with pleas for assistance against Sombra, Cadance was convinced immediately. She had always been horrified by what had gone on inside Equestria, and Applejack was the tipping point for her. She appointed Shining general of the section of the army she stationed to help with the Rebellion, and both her and her husband worked tirelessly to help in every way they could.

Flurry, in the meantime, was growing up much the way her mother was (if a bit more vigorously, with the coming Rebellion): trained in the ways of arcana from when she could just walk, Flurry was slowly but surely developing the magical skills of both her parents, with the obvious potential of surpassing them both (not that they mind). She wants to be like her Mami [Crystal version of Mommy] in every way possible, and her parents provided her with a simplified traditional leather-torso outfit for training.