I’ve always imagined that in the battle with the dark forest, Mapleshade’s kits died.
It would be horribly ironic if one of her trainees killed them, like Ivypool or Hollowflight (probably on accident though, I imagine they’d be super on edge). Maybe someone was coming to attack Maple. And her kits, despite everything, wanted to help their mom.
So it led me down the thought process of what would happen if a kit or apprentice showed up in the duplex? And what kind of abilities would be given to them?
:(
I've been thinking about Mapleshade's kits in StarClan. maybe someone took them in. I imagine the rest of StarClan shielding them from their mother's actions. It must've been confusing for them as Ravenwing, Frecklewish, and Appledusk show up one by one in the stars. I imagine Appledusk doesn't know if he should tell them he's their father. At least in StarClan Frecklewish would get the chance to apologize to them.
but we're talking about the ddd!au! maybe they fell victim to the environment shifting around. the dark forest changed forms a lot due to Ashfur - maybe the same happens in StarClan. the idea of it being caused by one of Mapleshade's trainees is juicy. it being Ivypool hurts my heart, probably because she's already gone through so much and her pain kind of gets highlighted in my au since there's so much focus on Bristlefrost's state.
there are definitely kits in the au for them to meet! Tadpole is there with Hawkfrost.
maybe Mapleshade's kits are taken in by Spottedleaf and Frecklewish, who were sad that they couldn't have kits of their own or adopt until the kits turned up. Frecklewish definitely recognizes them and hides it from Spotted at first.
I'm not really sure about their abilities though, I'll have to think on that! they lived such short lives so it'd be hard to make them different from each other. maybe they have powers as a group?