This series is a ‘what if’ scenario where Dovewing chose Bumblestripe over Tigerheart. The arc where this takes place is right after Bramblestar’s Storm. To make this random, I used a number generator to determine the number of kits, a wheel with color palettes representing their family members, a personality wheel, a gender wheel, and a name generator. Additionally, I utilized Picrew to create the cats.
Bumblestripe tries to convince Dovewing to start a family with him, and eventually Dovewing agrees, throwing away all the feelings she had had for Tigerheart before. After the flood, Dovewing joins the nursery along with Cinderheart, and eventually Squirrelflight joins them as well. Dovewing gives Bumblestripe two she-kits, one looking like Bumblestripe’s sister, Briarlight, and the other looking like Dovewing’s father, Birchfall, and both have identical eyes. They named them Rosekit and Applekit, promising to protect their kits as they would their Clan.
Rosekit is a dark brown she-cat with amber eyes. She bears a strong resemblance to Briarlight, except for her amber eyes. Rosekit was the kit who always liked to be by her mother instead of playing with the other kits. She’d stay far away from Fernkit, Hollykit, Sorrelkit, and sometimes Applekit. As she grew older, she became more fascinated by StarClan and swore all loyalty to them instead of ThunderClan. On her sixth moon, Bramblestar apprentices her to Lionblaze, and her first day of training goes well, but deep down, she secretly wants to be a medicine cat to be closer to StarClan. She’s about to tell Bramblestar about becoming a medicine cat apprentice instead, but before she can, he calls a Clan meeting to announce that his son, Alderpaw, will be switching to a medicine cat apprentice. Rosepaw felt resentment build up inside of her for Alderpaw, and this resentment stayed with her during training.
One day, she got overwhelmed with all her anger for Alderpaw that she unsheathed her claws and slashed Lionblaze’s shoulder. When Lionblaze tried to calm her and tell her not to unsheathe her claws during training, she ran away. Rosepaw finds herself back at camp and into her nest, going to take a nap in hopes of connecting with StarClan. She finds herself in the presence of a speckled, golden-furred she-cat with blind amber eyes. The she-cat tells the apprentice that her name is Frecklewish and that she was sent by StarClan to help her. Rosepaw immediately believed her, telling her she’d do anything she asked her to do. Frecklewish told her to kill Alderpaw for her place as medicine cat. Before Rosepaw could ask any questions, she realized her sister, Applepaw, had woken her up. Applepaw asked her about training and if it was true that Rosepaw had slashed at Lionblaze. Rosepaw replied that she had and walked out of the den without Applepaw asking her any more questions.
Sparkpaw tries to tell Rosepaw a joke as she passes her at the fresh-kill pile, but Rosepaw growls at her and tells her to buzz off. While Rosepaw eats the squirrel she picked for herself, she thinks about what Frecklewish wanted her to do and asks herself if StarClan would really tell her to kill a cat for a position she wants. She decides not to worry about it and heads to her nest in the far corner of the apprentice’s den for the night. She met again with Frecklewish, but her blind eyes were cold with hatred. She yowls at her that she should’ve killed Alderpaw as soon as Frecklewish had told her, because he would be leaving for a mission soon. Rosepaw asks her why StarClan wants to kill Alderpaw when they’d picked him over her. Frecklewish slashes Rosepaw near her eyes, intending to blind her, but misses because of her own blindness. Rosepaw screeched in pain, which was enough to wake up both Applepaw and Sparkpaw. The two she-cats help Rosepaw get to the medicine den for treatment.
Days later, Leafpool asks Rosepaw what happened that caused her to get a nasty scar like the one she had. Rosepaw tells Leafpool everything: wanting to be a medicine cat, hating Alderpaw for stealing the position, excusing herself from training, meeting Frecklewish, and getting slashed by the supposed StarClan cat. Leafpool tells Rosepaw that she most likely saw a Dark Forest cat and not StarClan, explaining what the Dark Forest is to the apprentice. Rosepaw feels horrified that she had interacted with such an evil force and even considered killing Alderpaw.
Her injury healed partially; she still had a scar on her face that would stay forever. When she was allowed to train again, Lionblaze assessed her, and she successfully passed, bringing back four squirrels for the fresh-kill pile. She received her warrior name, Rosedrop, and her parents were proud of her and her sister. However, one day, Rosedrop began to feel betrayed. Rosedrop was assigned to a border patrol with Lionblaze, Thornclaw, and Dovewing. Thornclaw, leader of the patrol, told Rosedrop to check the border near the abandoned Twoleg nest, and Rosedrop padded over. She found her sister and a rogue exchanging tongues. She asked her what she was thinking, and her sister gave her the calm answer that she loved this rogue. Rosedrop called for the others and expected the two to move, but they never did. Before they came, the rogue slashed off the tip of Rosedrop’s ear, and she turned around and tackled him. Rosedrop could hear her sister begging her to stop, but she didn’t until she heard Dovewing’s worried mew behind her. Rosedrop snarled at the rogue before she told her patrol what happened. Dovewing asks her daughter why she’d choose the rogue over her Clan, and she replies that the rogue was willing to join ThunderClan for her. Dovewing looks over to the rest of the patrol, and hesitantly, they agree to take the two back to camp and let Bramblestar decide what he wants to do.
Rosedrop felt resentment bubble up inside of her when she realized Dovewing had been in a forbidden relationship before choosing Bumblestripe, and decided to become cold to the rogue her sister was mates with, whom Bramblestar had let in as a warrior. Rosedrop never visited their kits and didn’t support them when the imposter threatened to exile them for codebreaking. Like Bumblestripe, Rosedrop supported the imposter and wanted to be deputy when Squirrelflight was exiled. Rosedrop is always ready to fight and will do anything to protect her Clan and StarClan.
Applekit is a light brown tabby she-cat with amber eyes. She looks similar to Birchfall. She loved playing with Fernkit, Hollykit, Sorrelkit, Alderkit, and Sparkkit, feeling sad when her sister, Rosekit, didn’t want to play with them. She cheered for Fernpaw, Hollypaw, and Sorrelpaw when they became apprentices, and felt glad when they cheered for her as well. Applepaw was apprenticed to Whitewing, which she was excited about because Whitewing was her grandmother. She was an excellent hunter, but a bad fighter because she didn’t like hurting other cats. She always hyped up the other apprentices when she got back to camp, but always felt upset when Rosepaw didn’t like being hyped.
One day, when she was hunting, Applepaw found an injured rogue that was dying. She quickly grabbed cobwebs to stop the bleeding and tried to think of what else to use, but she wasn’t a medicine cat, so she didn’t know. The rogue rose his head and told her to find chervil, chew it up, and apply the juice to his wounds. Applepaw quickly ran off to find some, but came back moments later to ask what it looked like. The rogue tells her that it smells sweet and looks like ferns. She runs off again and finds the chervil, chewing it up as she runs back to the rogue. She rubs the poulice on the wounds of the rogue and stays with him until he feels well enough to walk back to his territory. He tells Applepaw that his name is Jack, and Applepaw tells him her name. He asks her if they’ll ever meet each other again, and Applepaw tells him they might, but that was for StarClan to decide. Jack asks her what StarClan is, and Applepaw tells him that they’re the ancestors that watch over her and her Clan every day. She hears Whitewing calling for her and tells Jack that she has to go back to training, but she’ll try to see him again one day. He promises he’ll be waiting here for her.
Applepaw hears that her sister slashed at Lionblaze while she was away, so she went to ask, and she got the answer of yes, but Rosepaw stalked away before Applepaw could ask why. She settled in her nest for the night, thinking about how distant Rosepaw was becoming as well as thinking about Jack. She’d liked the friendly tone he showed her, and appreciated that he didn’t attack her for trying to help. She decided that when she was finished with her training and became a warrior, she would visit the black tom more often.
Whitewing tells Applepaw that she’ll be taking her assessment, and Applepaw passes with two birds, one squirrel, and three mice. She earns her warrior name, Appleglow, and, just like her name, glows with happiness when she hears everyone cheering for her and her sister. The next day, Appleglow goes to visit Jack at the place he had promised to wait at for her to return to one day, and finds him with his tail curled over his paws. He tells her that he had been waiting every day, just like he had promised, and Appleglow tells him that she would visit him more often now that she was a warrior with the name Appleglow. He asks her about Clan life, and she explains everything. She tells him that she has to sneak away to see him because having any relationship with an outsider that isn’t from ThunderClan, which is her Clan. Jack becomes fascinated by the Clans and tells her that if they get closer, he might join ThunderClan for her. Appleglow becomes warm and ends up leaning on Jack.
Appleglow and Jack become extremely close, and Jack tells Appleglow that he’ll join ThunderClan to be with her. Not long after, Appleglow sees Rosedrop coming up the slope of their meeting place and asks her what she was thinking. Appleglow takes a breath and tells her sister that she loves Jack. Rosedrop called for other cats, and Jack stood up and slashed off the tip of her ear. Rosedrop and Jack start tackling each other, and Appleglow yowls at them pleadingly to stop. She stared at her mother when she came up the slope with Lionblaze and Thornclaw. Dovewing tells Appleglow that she had considered being with a cat from another Clan, but she had chosen her Clan over love. She asks Appleglow why she chose love over Clan, and she tells Dovewing that Jack would be joining ThunderClan. The patrol brings them to Bramblestar, and he agrees to let Jack into the Clan. He renames Jack to Nighteyes.
A few moons later, Appleglow and Nighteyes have three kits: Swankit, Frostkit, and Tinykit. Appleglow tells Sparkpelt and Sorrelstripe, the other nursery queens, that she wishes Rosedrop would visit her kits, but she knows her sister hates her and Nighteyes. Sorrelstripe reassures her that Rosedrop will come through eventually, but it never happens. While Appleglow was the only nursery queen, Bramblestar exiled her, her kits, and Nighteyes for breaking the code moons ago. Appleglow pleaded to stay because her kits were a moon away from becoming apprentices, and she couldn’t raise them without the help of her Clanmates. Bramblestar tells her that she’ll have Nighteyes to hunt for her, like she would have if she’d chosen to stay with him instead of her Clan. Dovewing and Bumblestripe protest, and Appleglow expected Rosedrop to object as well, but she just sat in the corner of the clearing with a grin on her face.
As Jayfeather and Lionblaze were also sent into exile, and Twigbranch to atone, Bristlefrost showed them where Squirrelflight was hiding. At first, Tigerstar didn’t want more exiles in his camp, but changed his mind when he saw the nursing queen among the exiles. When the cats argued about dens, they moved to the old SkyClan camp to hide, and Appleglow started to train her kits: giving Frostpaw to herself, Tinypaw to Nighteyes, and Swanpaw to Squirrelflight. It was only temporary until Squirrelflight took over ThunderClan and apprenticed Frostpaw to Honeyfur, Swanpaw to Flipclaw, and kept Tinypaw with Nighteyes.
