Summary of Storm of Secretsby Beware The CarpenterChaptersPrologue - Chapter 9Chapters 10-19Chapters 20-26Chapter 27 - Epilogue(s)Prologue - Chapter 9Prologue – Canterlot Society: Cadance and Shining Armor never got married; the wedding was canceled, without explanation, a week before it was scheduled to happen. Shortly after this, Rainbow Dash fulfilled her dream of becoming a Wonderbolt. One year later, Dash has already become the team captain, and is wallowing in frustration at how easy it has been, and how short the Wonderbolts have come to matching her expectations: Spitfire aside; the rest of the team were sharing two brains between them. One of the brains was used to obsess over every minute detail of their public appearances; the other was dedicated to devising shortcuts, excuses, and any other scheme they could use to get by with expending the least amount of effort and risk. Occasionally a third brain would pop up; bringing with it that month’s gossip and get-rich-quick schemes but this one never stayed long, and Rainbow could only conclude that keeping track of three brains was simply too much effort for the team of eleven pegasi. Dash hates mingling with the Canterlot elite, and has lost all desire to have anything to do with the Wonderbolts, but she won’t admit it to anyone but herself, and can’t stand the idea of being a weather mare for the rest of her life. The Wonderbolts are scheduled to perform at Diamond Tiara’s middle school graduation party that evening; frustrating Rainbow Dash because preparing the Wonderbolts means she won’t have time to see Scootaloo graduate. Seeking comfort, Rainbow Dash goes to visit Rarity who, from an alternate history from the episode ‘Sweet and Elite’, had ended up staying in Canterlot, and has become a very wealthy, very successful fashion designer. Dash and Rarity talk briefly, about the energy shield, which had protected Canterlot ceaselessly for the last year, vanishing; before Rarity turns the conversation to herself. It becomes obvious that Rarity loves her wealth and fame, lost her generosity, and has assimilated into the conceited culture of the Canterlot elite. After listing to all she can bear of Rarity’s self-flattering rant, Rainbow Dash jumps out the window, and nearly commits suicide by splattering herself on the pavement beneath Rarity’s tower. Chapter 1 – Save Derpy Hooves!!! Soarin finds Rainbow Dash invites her to a magic show; to which Spitfire has booked a private viewing box for the Wonderbolts. Dash accepts and; hoping the off chance that the magician might be Twilight, slips backstage before the show but instead finds Trixie. Trixie tries to flatter Rainbow Dash and repeatedly suggests that they make an alliance, asking for Dash’s help in getting a performance in the Royal Palace too which Dash refuses. Trixie Eventually loses her patience and temper, insults Rainbow Dash and promises to ruin her. Dash lunges at her, but Trixie uses her magic to slam Dash against a wall. By the time Dash recuperates, Trixie has left to begin her show. The back door to the theater is locked so Dash steals one of Trixie’s cloaks and tries to sneak out, but Rapidfire finds her and tells her that she’s missing the show. Dash can’t think of an excuse and so reluctantly goes to the Wonderbolt’s viewing box to watch. The Wonderbolts love Trixie’s performance; and believe everything she says about saving Ponyville from an Ursa Major, and transforming herself into a dragon to infiltrate The Great Dragon Migration and foiling their plans to destroy Equestria. Trixie requires an assistant for her next trick, and chooses Derpy, who then bungles the trick by getting stuck half-way through a trap door. Trixie is furious and yells at Derpy, threatening to make her disappear forever. A red unicorn stallion, from the audience, teleports on stage and punches Trixie. Rainbow Dash is in love. Trixie’s assistants attack the stallion which he dispatches with relative ease; but accidentally sends the last one hurdling towards Derpy. The stallion teleports to take the hit for Derpy and is stunned; Trixie attacks him and is about to kill him when Dash tackles her. Trixie soon gains the advantage over Dash with her magic, but the red unicorn recovers and knocks Trixie unconscious. The red stallion helps Derpy get free, Derpy thanks them and calls them friends which Rainbow Dash vehemently denies; as she still herself to be at the top of the cool pyramid, while Derpy is like a stone which got lost on the way to the construction site and ended up falling in a ditch. Canterlot guards appear; Dash suggests splitting up, thinking the guards would arrest Derpy, but release her later as she hadn’t been involved in the fight, meanwhile she could escape with the red stallion. The red stallion agrees to her plan of splitting up, and teleports away with Derpy, leaving Dash alone with the guards coming towards her. Chapter 2 – Mysterious stranger Dash runs backstage, only to remember the back door is locked. She’s trapped! She starts kicking through boxes of Trixie’s equipment, looking for something to help her escape, and inadvertently lights the room on fire. The smoke blinds the guards and Dash manages to escape. The theater is destroyed but everyone escapes. Dash wonders if anyone recognized her under her cloak, but decides it would be best to pretend nothing had happened. She goes to her favorite restaurant for lunch and finds Derpy making a two foot tall sandwich at the make-your-own-sandwich bar. Dash asks about the stallion and Derpy says he didn’t say much but, left to go to the palace. Dash finds him and tries talking to him, though he refuses to tell her anything about himself except that his name is Silent Storm; making Dash even more fascinated. Storm’s never heard of the Wonderbolts, and Dash eventually convinces him to attend her performance. Storm seems to enjoy her sonicrainboom, Dash invites him to crash Diamond Tiara’s party, hoping he might do something interesting. Dash tries to teach Storm how to dance and several Royal Guards try to arrest them for the incident at the theater. Storm shows them a scroll, tells them they’re interfering with a classified operation and orders them to leave, which they do. Storm refuses to show the scroll to Rainbow Dash, and changes the subject to Dash and the Wonderbolts. She lies, saying she’s happy. Storm leaves to a restricted part of the palace to a locked room where Princess Celestia and Shining Armor are waiting for him. Shining Armor looks like he’s been tortured and is dying. Chapter 3 – Unexpected guests Twilight receives a letter from Celestia telling her that Shining Armor has been given leave and wishes to visit her; Twilight eagerly accepts and is visited by Storm, claiming he is Shining Armor after performing a body swap. Rainbow Dash daydreams about Storm. Shining Armor explains that after discovering the changeling threat; he was horrified that he hadn’t realized Cadance had been replaced by an imposter, and only found out from his investigation into the changeling threat. He realized that the amount of time he’d been spending with her wasn’t enough to maintain a marriage, or family, but couldn’t easily cut back on his security duties. He was afraid he would have to choose, until he realized that keeping his shield up for several weeks, though exhausting, had permanently increased his magical reserves. He did some research, finding if he used his talent specific shields while magically depleted, they would drain his physical energy, and permanently increase his magic capacity but only when the drain on his physical energy was the worst it had ever been. Shining Armor resolved to maintain the shield until he was nearly dead, hoping that his magic would increase to a level where he could keep Canterlot’s shield up indefinitely. With Canterlot under the shield, his duties would be lessened and he would be free to be with Cadance. Cadance didn’t want him to push himself as far as he did, afraid that he would permanently hurt himself. Four months ago, Shining Armor couldn’t stand letting Cadance see him as weak as he was becoming and asked her to leave until he was better. Twilight disapproves. After he dropped the shield, Shining Armor was exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally; and was fighting depression that was preventing him from recovering. Celestia instigated a plan to have him swap bodies; putting a healthy mind in a sick body and vice versa giving both a chance to recover. After the swap, Shining Armor was sent on holiday to Twilight to relax but also so Twilight could observe him as mind-magic is rare, poorly understood and the possibilities of side-effects are high. Twilight inquires about the friend Shining Armor swapped bodies with; but Shining Armor refuses to say anything about him except that he is trained in resisting dark thoughts and had an MQ of 411. MQ is used to measure a unicorns magical potential which, in most cases, is set from birth. Unicorns with MQs over 400 are called Alpha unicorns and include roughly point one percent of the unicorn population. Average unicorn = 100 MQ Twilight = 636 MQ Shining Armor (in his own body) = 678 MQ Celestia = 1220 MQ Chapter 4 - Overreacting Storm daydreams about Rainbow Dash, with thoughts that mirror hers, except he tries to rebuke them. He doesn’t want to interrupt her life, doesn’t think he deserves to be happy, and considers loving anyone foolish as it only makes their death more painful. As soon as he re-swaps with Shining Armor, he plans to leave using his portgem; a one-use crystal enabling a one-way, infinite-range teleport to the location where the portgem was inscribed. Twilight and Shining Armor visit Fluttershy. Cadance comes to visit Storm; unaware of the body swap. Storm tries to explain the situation but Cadance thinks he’s lost his memory and panics. She resolves to take him to Fillydelphia to heal and unveils a portgem of her own. Storm manages to knock Cadance’s portgem out of her grasp; she spins around to find it, and knocks over Storm’s saddlebag spilling his portgem which she grabs, believing it’s hers, and activates it. Chapter 5 - Second glances Twilight takes Shining Armor to meet Pinkie Pie; Shining Armor doesn’t respond well and Twilight thinks he needs to loosen up. She suggests the two of them play hide and seek in whitetail woods, for nostalgic value. Rainbow Dash is training the Wonderbolts with a game of cloud soccer; both teams try to cheat, and Derpy flies out of nowhere at tremendous speed, causing a six-pegasi pile up. She tells Rainbow Dash she has a letter from princess Celestia, but then realizes that she dropped it on the way. Rainbow Dash savagely berates Derpy. Since Ponyville is closer than Canterlot, Dash heads to the library to get Spike to request a copy of the letter. Shining Armor ambushes Twilight in the forest and slashes her throat with a sword. Twilight falls, and begs for mercy, Shining Armor decapitates her and then hacks her body into pieces. Shining Armor wakes up panicking in Twilight’s guest bedroom, freaking out because his fur is red, making him believe he’s soaked in blood. Twilight comes in and convinces him that she’s alright; he gives her a hug, saying he loves her. Rainbow Dash flies in through the window, and sees them embracing next to a bed; she screams at them and then leaves in frustration. Shining Armor is confused, Twilight is worried. Spike says he received a message from Celestia for him a few hours ago; Shining Armor reads it, races after Rainbow Dash, calling Twilight to follow him and for Spike to prepare supplies for a journey. Twilight and Shining Armor follow Rainbow Dash to Sweet Apple Acres, where Applejack agrees to help catch her. Storm and Cadance teleport into the Everfree Forest. Cadance is clueless. Storm mentally curses Cadance’s stupidity, but manages to show her the hidden entrance to an underground burrow. Chapter 6 – Reality Check Shining Armor, Twilight and Applejack catch Rainbow Dash; and Shining Armor explains the body swap. He also says that Rainbow Dash’s missing letter was ordering the Wonderbolts to assist in an emergency search and rescue for Cadance and Storm who are lost in the Everfree Forest. Rainbow Dash asks who Storm is and Shining Armor reluctantly calls him and Everfree Ranger. The Everfree Forest is the former capital of Discord, whose power still runs thick there. The forest is immensely bigger on the inside the inside then the outside and is inhabited by thousands of changeling and a race called terrormongers, telepathic monsters who sense and feed off fear and can conjure illusions, and control wild animals with their telepathy, who have been trying to invade Equestria for centuries, held at by Equestrian special forces known as Everfree Rangers. Cadance helps Storm into the burrow where he collapses. Chapter 7 – Thorns of Truth The war in the Everfree Forest is kept secret to prevent public fear from attracting or empowering the Terrormongers. The deeper into the forest you go, the more space is distorted and the stronger the Terrormongers become. The Rangers can fight them near the border, and protect Equestria, but can’t destroy the Terrormonger homeland, causing a millennia old stalemate. Magic works differently in the Everfree forest, disallowing long-range messaging to signal Rangers already in the forest. Storm’s post was on the vanguard of Ranger controlled forest; though Shining Armor doesn’t know exactly where; and wants the Wonderbolts to help him look. Twilight recruits herself and Applejack insists on coming. Applejack was close to her father, but he always kept secrets and disappeared into the forest for long periods; one day he didn’t come back so Applejack’s mother went looking for him and vanished too. Applejack wants to find out if her father was a Ranger, Shining Armor reluctantly agrees. Chapter 8 – Choices Dash tells the Wonderbolts that all the monster stories of the Everfree Forest are made up by the royal family, to keep people from finding out about the secret holiday resort that they keep hidden inside. She says that Cadance went to the holiday resort, but her bodyguard got sick and doesn’t want to come back alone and so the Wonderbolts are being sent to pick her up, along with Twilight, Applejack and a guy who’s like a park ranger. Dash hopes that underneath the selfishness and stupidity, the Wonderbolts really are the team she always hoped for, but will only show it if their lives depend on it. On their way to the library where they will re-group with the others, the Wonderbolts end up doing a spontaneous performance; infuriating Shining Armor who had hoped to leave Ponyville quietly. Dash argues with him, insisting that the Wonderbolts are up for the job. She goes upstairs and finds Spike telling several Wonderbolts that he’s a three-thousand year old dragon emperor, living in Ponyville with his unicorn assistant, and they believe him. The Wonderbolts, Shining Armor, Twilight, Applejack and Twilight’s pet phoenix Pyromite (from the egg Spike got in Dragon Quest) go to Zecora’s hut. Shining Armor and Twilight go inside to where Apple Bloom is asking Zecora for a stimulant to ensure victory in a set of Iron Pony contests she’s planning against Scootaloo; Zecora refuses. Shining Armor shoes her out; then reveals himself to Zecora, who yells at him, threatening to kill him. Shining Armor cowers and Zecora gives him a brief hug, saying she forgave him a long time ago. He tells her of the situation, she admonishes him for misleading Cadance, but agrees to give them necessary supplies for the journey, as well as Storm’s armor which he had left there. Chapter 9 – Last chances. The Wonderbolts ask Dash and Applejack if Spike is really a dragon emperor. Applejack says that Twilight hatched him, making Rapidfire think Twilight is his biological mother. Dash explains Spike’s background from the magic university, and the Wonderbolts ask if they can all get pet dragons too. Apple Bloom runs out of Zecora’s hut, excited as all the Cutie-mark crusaders are now huge Wonderbolt fans; and are writing a fan-fiction where the Wonderbolts need to save a baby dragon named Ekips, from an evil Alicorn princess. Rainbow Dash suggests the Wonderbolts do a private show for Apple Bloom but the Wonderbolts don’t see the point in a show for just one filly, who can’t afford to pay them. Dash tries to do a solo performance, but is distracted by her anger at the Wonderbolts and it comes out terrible. Trying to save the situation, Dash tells Apple Bloom that she’s under a curse that took away her flying skill and made the Wonderbolts lose their brains, their hearts and their courage; and so they’re going to a wizard who lives in the forest named Awes. Apple Bloom is skeptical. Cadance makes some medicinal tea for Storm; he still reguards her as an idiot but is beginning to soften towards her. He tries to tell her that he’s not Shining Armor, but she thinks he’s amnesic and promises that he’ll get better. The search party prepares to move out; Shining Armor has a portgem which was inscribed in Canterlot; so as soon as they find Storm and Cadance they can teleport back. Zecora promises to take Apple Bloom home and Rainbow Dash vouches for the Wonderbolts one last time. Author's Note I confess to having over satirized the Wonderbolts. My headcannon explanation is that a couple years before Rainbow Dash joined, Spitfire started training the Wonderbolts at extremely high altitudes, which very slowly gave the entire team brain damage to lack of oxygen getting to their brains. Dash was only a Wonderbolt for six months before displacing Spitfire and stopping the exercises, so it didn’t affect her too much. I began writing this improve; trying to mix the light tune of the show into a serious story, and there's a fairly large shift around this point to something darker and more serious. To me; this is about where it gets good - Chapter 10 Chapters 10-19Chapter 10 – Into Darkness A short ways into the forest, the party encounter one terrormonger and several changelings. The Wonderbolts feed fear to the terrormonger, making it a long and difficult battle. Applejack is critically wounded; four of the Wonderbolts take her to Zecora’s for treatment. The other Wonderbolts pretend to be hurt so they can also go home. Rainbow Dash quits. Chapter 11 - Rebirth The Wonderbolts leave, Dash confesses her deception, and Twilight convinces Shining Armor to give her another chance. Storm dreams Shining Armor’s proposal to Cadance at the Grand Galloping Gala which was badly botched by the commotion Twilight’s friends caused, which Shining Armor interpreted as a changeling attack. Storm wakes up and can hear terrormongers approaching the burrow from a distance, drawn by Cadnce’s fear that Shining Armor has lost his mind. He tells her the memory, Cadance relaxes and the terrormongers overshoot the burrow. Rainbow Dash feels elated after quitting the Wonderbolts. Shining Armor takes them to an unoccupied outpost where they find a suit of armor and weapons for Rainbow Dash. Shining Armor mentions that most Ranger tours are very short, and staying too long in the forest tends to result in violent insanity within three months. Rainbow Dash explains how she met Storm and, in return, Shining Armor agrees to say how he knows him. Chapter 12 – Tales of the past Shining Armor joined the Royal Guard at eighteen. At twenty he was made a Ranger and given elite training where he was partnered with Storm who was two years younger than him, had already been a Ranger for “some time.” Storm refused to speak of his past, and threatened to kill Shining Armor when he pressed the issue. Shining Armor and Storm were never close, and Shining Armor theorizes that volunteering for the body swap was because Shining Armor saved Storm’s life in the last major battle of the forest; Forest Jaws. When asked about the battle; Shining Armor tells them about a heroic Ranger Pegasus mare with a silver coat and golden mane named Denorious with a cutie-mark for a ray of light breaking through black clouds. Rainbow Dash is aghast when Shining Armor says Denorious had a wing power more than 20% faster that Dash’s record. Twilight tries to comfort her, but is then horrified when Shining Armor says Denorious had a higher IQ then Twilight. Denorious grew up in a corrupt and crime-ridden part of Manehatten, became a Jr Sheriff and was approached by the Rangers after she dismantled a syndicate that “foalnapped fillies from the bottom rungs of society and sold them as 'toys' to depraved stallions.” Denorious was the only commander able to lead the Rangers in large, coordinated attacks, by using her sonic boom which was one of the only sounds that the Terrormongers could not replicate. Shining Armor describes how Denorious turned the tide of Forest Jaws and saved Equestria. After the battle, Denorious was promoted and the Rangers advanced rapidly for six months; until Denorious went alone to try and rescue a lost band of Rangers and was captured by nine powerful terrormongers who tortured her for six days. By the time she was rescued, Denorious was nearly brain-dead. The Rangers took her to Celestia who was able to look into her mind and saw ‘memories’ of the entire world dying gruesome deaths only to be resurrected so they could die even more painfully. The only help that Celestia could offer was to block all of Denorious’s memories, true and false, and let her start life over. The mental block would be weak however; any reminder of her past life could bring the false memories back in an instant, permanently destroying her mind. Every Ranger is forced to swear, on penalty of death, to never attempt to contact Denorious for any reason. Although her sanity was restored, Denorious lost her cutie-mark when she lost her memory, she was blinded in one eye and suffered irreversible brain and neurological damage, destroying her intelligence and making complex motor difficult. The last thing Shining Armor ever heard of Denorious was that she had become a mail-mare and began calling herself Derpy. Chapter 13 – Side effects Shining Armor re-dreams the nightmare about killing Twilight – he is deeply disturbed. A band of Rangers find the rescue party and challenge Shining Armor, believing he’s Storm. Storm broke his oath in making contact with Denorious (Derpy). They say Derpy remembered her false set of memories the night after she saw Storm and committed suicide. Word is spreading, and any other band of Rangers that sees Shining Armor will kill him, thinking he’s Storm, believing he killed Derpy. Rainbow Dash counters these claims; she saw Derpy the day after she supposedly died, when Derpy interrupted the Wonderbolts to tell her she’d lost her mail. The Rangers retracts his demand to kill Shining Armor. Shining Armor explains about the body swap and the plight of Storm and Cadance. The other Rangers will spread the word about the rescue mission and say that Storm has moved his position to be even deeper in the forest than Shining Armor first thought. The Rangers say that, five years ago, Storm’s younger sister was killed by Manticores and Storm hasn’t left the forest since, yet hasn’t gone insane. They also say that Storm has an uncanny ability to predict enemy movements, causing some Rangers to believe he can see the future. Shining Armor remembers his dreams of killing Twilight; he begs her to go home, she refuses. Chapter 14 - Crown of Roses Storm dreams another of Shining Armor’s memories where Twilight is trying, very unsubtly, to pair him with Cadance. Storm enjoys the ‘dates’ and believes Cadance does too, but knows that Cadance’s parents would never approve of his lack of wealth, status or royalty but - “While it was totally inappropriate for Storm to ask Cadance out on a date, for Twily to set them up in an 'awkward' situation and for the two of them to 'humor her' was acceptable. It was a delicate game of tricking Twily into tricking them to spend time together, and then pretending to pretend to like each other. It could never last, and it could cost both of them dearly when they were found out, but so long as their love lives were being dictated to them by a nine year old filly, everything would be fine.” Storm wakes up, tries to remember where he was when Shining Armor was ‘not dating’ Cadance. He and Silver’s adoptive father Straight Hack had just died after a long, wasting illness, leaving them ‘orphans for the second time’. Victimized in fraudulent court proceedings, they’re cheated out of their inheritance and left with nothing. Rather than returning to living on the streets, they resolve to find the Rangers, which Straight Hack had once been a member of. Storm’s realizes he’d crying and Cadance is wiping his tears away. He wonders why he’d tried to remember his past when it was, “so much easier to just be Shining Armor.” Chapter 15 – Don’t get stressed Storm dreams about Shining Armor going to his friend’s house to retrieve Twilight’s books after his friend’s younger brother stole them hoping Twilight would, “stop being such a ‘know it all.” Shining Armor speaks to his friend, who easily retrieves Twilight’s books and promises to talk to his brother about teasing Twilight. Shining Armor leaves, thinking about how, “He was a good big brother, sticking up for Twily all the time.” Storm remembers when he was eleven, and killed two drunken teenage colts who had tried to rape Silver, who had been eight. Storm feuds over the similarities between his and Shining Armor’s lives, and relationships with their little sisters, except Shining Armor’s life had always been easier and better. He remembers that he used to hate Shining Armor but admits to himself that it had been out of envy. Shining Armor sends Twilight’s Pyromite back towards Ponyville with a message, but won’t discuss it with Twilight or Dash. The party makes camp; Rainbow Dash is keeping watch, thinking about Storm when Shining Armor wakes up screaming Twilight’s name after another nightmare, then tries to pass it off as testing Twilight’s combat readiness. He relives Dash from watch duty and begins pacing and muttering to himself; Dash notes that he’s acting like Twilight does when she’s panicking about something. Chapter 16 – Daughter of the sea Cadance feeds Storm a good meal, and he begins to appreciate her company. Trying to ‘jog his memory’, Cadance tells him about her past. There are hundreds of alicorns, but the vast majority are mortal with average magical and flying ability. However There are however, six cosmetic forces that require an alicorn to steward them, if one steward dies another will take their place and will gain immortality and a boost to their magic of about 600-900 MQ. Cadance’s mother, Searis, is the half-sister of Celestia and Luna, and steward of the oceans; ruling from her capital on Oatlantis. Searis has extreme difficulty letting go of the past; goes to great lengths to make Oatlantis resemble a long-past golden age, and regularly re-marries stallions who remind her of her first husband, with Cadance and Blueblood’s father being husband number fourteen. Searis knows that her golden days is still slipping away from her, and so for the last several centuries has slowly been becoming more unstable and depressed. Since her royalty has been the only thing that’s been consistent with her throughout the centuries, Searis clings to it desperately; and has become fiercely class-conscious, haughty, and borderline tyrannical over her stagnating country. When Cadance was a filly; she secretly began attending a proletariat music club with her nurse, but kept her identity hidden. When she was found out, her nurse was fired and replaced with a strict bodyguard Ashaw, her friends rejected her out of fear, and the music club moved, though Cadance still doesn’t know if they were ordered to or if they did it themselves to avoid trouble. After this Cadance became highly rebellion for a while and tried to cause trouble for her mother however she could; until she reluctantly admitted that her rebellion was accomplishing nothing but hurting herself, her mother, and the people she was angry at her mother for not caring about. Cadance visited Canterlot and was amazed at Celestia’s benevolence. At Cadance’s request, Celestia convinced Searis to allow Cadance to remain in Canterlot. For a while Cadance tried to draw Equestrian investment into Oatlantis’ economy, but few companies would tolerate Searis’s stringent restrictions, and so now Cadance believes the best way to help Oatlantis ponies is to make migration as easy as possible. Storm ‘remembers’ by himself that Cadance does a lot of volunteer work at hospitals. Storm asks her what her cutie-mark means but she says she wants him to remember that for himself. He asks for a hint and she moves to kiss him but he reluctantly turns away. Storm finds himself hoping that Shining Armor won’t come back; allowing Storm to assume his identity. His thoughts on Cadance begin to mirror the thoughts Shining Armor once had about her. Chapter 17 – Pain, Lies and False Hope pt 1 Shining Armor takes Twilight’s watch, letting her sleep in. Twilight is worried about him. In a flashback; Storm and Silver Thorn are sleeping in a field, and are attacked by wild dogs. Storm drives them off, but Silver is badly hurt. Storm breaks into a nearby house, looking for medical supplies, and is caught by Straight Hack who tends both foals, and offers to let them stay with him just for a little while until Silver heals. Storm doesn’t trust him due to past experiences with ‘helpful strangers’, made worse by the fact that Straight Hack’s cutie-mark is a ‘gigantic knife’ (sword), but believes Silver will probably die without the help, and so reluctantly accepts. Twilight tries to do a ‘follow up’ for Shining Armor’s condition after the body swap to which Shining Armor sarcastically complies, insisting that he’s fine. She asks if he’s been having nightmares, but he refuses to discuss it. Twilight backs off, and considers their parents, who both worked, “doing something important in the Restricted Archives, which Twilight never learned the details of.” Chapter 18 - Pain Lies and false hope part 2 Storm and Silver enjoy their time with Straight Hack. Storm expects Straight Hack just wants healthy foals for whatever he’s planning to do to them, and plans to run away as soon as Silver is able, but leaving is steadily postponed. Straight Hack begins teaching the foals self-defense. Shining Armor remembers coming back from his first tour in the forest, shell-shocked after what he’d seen, and finds Cadence crying because she was thinking about one colt she’d visited in the hospital who, after an accident which was his own fault, might never play sport again. Shining Armor decides he can never tell her of the Forest. Storm and Silver come to trust Straight Hack, and tell him about growing up in a mining town in a desert, just outside Equestria’s border, allowing ‘the company’ to cut corners on safety and workers rights. When Storm was ten and Silver was seven, the mine caves in, killing both their parents and the town; the company pulls out, leaving the survivors to fend for themselves. A group of Storm’s friends go to an orphanage in Trottingham, and send back a letter saying it’s nice there and that Storm and Silver should come. When they get there; the matron insisted that their friends had never been there, but seemed very eager for new children. Storm and Silver run away, permanently mistrusting ‘the system’ and so avoid any sort of charity or government assistance. They survive by scavenging, stealing and begging until they meet Straight Hack. Straight Hack adopts the foals, and they live happily. Chapter 19– In case I go crazy As the rescue party makes camp, Twilight offers to take first watch so Shining Armor can sleep. Shining Armor refuses, saying he will watch the entire night, and doesn’t plan to sleep again until they return to Canterlot; at least two more days. They argue; Shining Armor knocks Twilight and Rainbow Dash unconscious. The next day, Twilight and Rainbow Dash separate, contrary to Shining Armor’s orders and end up fighting, each believing the other is a changeling. Rainbow Dash is about to kill Twilight when Shining Armor appears, pulls them apart, reveals them both to be ponies, casts some fireballs into the tree-line and recklessly chases after the retreating shout of a terrormonger. Twilight chases after Shining Armor and finds him covered in blood and torn armor, surrounded by enemy corpses. When he sees her he throws her to the ground and yells that if she disobeys him again he will kill her himself. A moment later he realizes what he said and tries to apologize; Twilight is angry and terrified. Storm dreams another date Twilight set up between Shining Armor and Cadance. Eventually, they are in Shining Armor’s bedroom; his parents gone and Twilight asleep. Cadance initiates sex but Shining Armor believes they’d regret it later if they had sex outside of marriage. Cadance suggests eloping to Los Pegasus; Shining Armor offers a counter plan; he notes his rapid rise in the Royal Guard, and believes that in five or six years, he might have enough rank that Searis would let them get married legitimately, and Cadance agrees to wait. That flashback had been thirteen years ago. In the present day, Storm wonders what his life would have been like if he had eloped with Cadance thirteen years ago, before remembering that he’s not Shining Armor, but can’t immediately remember who he really is. He talks to Cadance, and tells her the truth about the forest, Rangers, and Terrormongers; Cadance takes it well and the two of them kiss. Storm remembers that Cadance’s special talent is a memory spell that makes someone remember the time when they were most in love; he asks her to cast it on him and Cadance agrees. The memory spell cannot comprehend Storm having two sets of memories so – “One set of memories would become his only memories while the other one would be locked away forever; and joy engulfed him when he realized that he got to decide. He chose the life he wanted.” Author's Note I confess I don’t really deal with emotional backdrop of ‘little ponies’ needing to kill; partly because when I was reading through Upheaval at the time which dealt with that issue very well, (and then some), but also because in the season 2 final, it seemed all the mane six (except Fluttershy) had no problem fighting/ killing changelings and then going on with their wedding like nothing had happened. Chapters 20-26Chapter 20 – Comes the Reaper Shining Armor, Twilight and Rainbow Dash are found by Pyromite and a large company of Rangers led by an alicorn named Reaper. They are the actual rescue party sent by Celestia to recover Storm and Cadance; Shining Armor was never meant to leave Ponyville, nor was he meant to draft the Wonderbolts. Shining Armor and Reaper argue, Shining Armor clearly acting irrational, insisting that he can’t do nothing while Cadance is in danger. Reaper questions them about the group of ‘Rangers’ they encountered in chapter thirteen; Shining Armor forgot to scan them for being changelings and the squad Shining Armor describes was confirmed dead last week. Shining Armor realizes that he told the changelings about Storm and Cadance, and let himself be mislead to a false location. He’s devastated. The squad that patrols the sector next to Storm’s knows the exact location of his burrow, but finding them may take as long as searching for Storm’s burrow to begin with. Rainbow Dash does the sonicrainboom; the signal Denorious had used to assemble the Rangers and a small army gathers. They ascertain the exact direction of Storm’s burrow; Reaper heads off with the pegasi, but Dash takes Shining Armor’s portgem and pulls ahead. The remaining unicorns and Earth ponies are meant to organize into three companies, but Shining Armor doesn’t wait and goes dashing off into the forest alone. Twilight follows him. Chapter 21 – Ignorant Bliss Storm believes he’s Shining Armor, and dreams one of his first meetings with Storm as they were both being trained by Zecora. Storm beats Shining Armor to a pulp, insulting and spitting on him as Shining Armor considers him psychotic. Zecora gives Shining Armor a healing potion and commands them to fight again, Storm demands a stronger sparring partner and Zecora offers to fight him next, Storm backs down and obliterates Shining Armor a second time. Silent Armor wakes up, and kisses Cadance. They discuss wedding plans and Cadance tells him that in order to get her mother to agree to the marriage, she’d blackmailed Blueblood into vouching for Shining Armor by threatening to assist Blueblood’s obsessive ex-girlfriend, Trixie, in stalking him. Cadance asks how deep in the forest they are, and Storm admits that he doesn’t know. Cadance is surprised as she’d assumed that this was his outpost, Silent Armor realizes that this borrow is Storm’s outpost and wonders why he had a portgem that led here. Chapter 22 – RUN!!! Cadance asks who Storm is and Silent Armor describes him, saying that Storm stays in the forest, hoping to redeem himself for his mistakes, but has only felt worse as time goes on. He says Storm used to hate the world, and had considered becoming a marauder, stealing, killing and raping as he pleased; but meeting Denorious had inspired him to be different. He’d loved her. Silent Armor concludes that Storm must be dead. He feels relived but Cadance is upset and Silent Armor wonders how Storm would have felt if he’d thought that just one person would actually care that he had died. Changelings find the burrow, and begin digging through the roof; Shining Armor and Cadance profess their love, and prepare for a final stand. Shining Armor gallops through the woods, but swerves from his course due to exhaustion. He trips over, Twilight catches up and Shining Armor realizes that they are in the glade from his dreams where he kills Twilight; with the two swords from his dream stuck into the ground. He can hear terrormongers close by and coming closer. Shining Armor screams at Twilight to run and uses his magic to push her as far away from him as he can, but Twilight only runs a short distance before turning back, unwilling to abandon him. Chapter 23 – Shadows of Death Shining Armor is convinced that Twilight will run; he takes the swords to defend himself. There is an extended fight which parodys Shining Armor’s nightmares, causing him to hesitate several times resulting in him being wounded. Rainbow Dash finds the burrow, and attacks the changelings who are digging through the walls. Dash and one changeling crash through the roof and into the burrow. Silent Armor kills the changeling, Cadance tries to attack Dash, but Dash disarms her, gives her the portgem and tells her to use it. Just as the portgem begins to activate, another changeling lunges at Silent Armor. Dash tackles it, but moves too far from the portgem and is left behind when Cadance and Silent Armor disappear. Dash fights the remaining changelings, the last of which transforms into a young pegasus colt which looks like a mixture between herself and Storm. Dash hesitates and the changeling attacks. Chapter 24 – Blood and Fire Twilight arrives to help Shining Armor. After convincing him that she is real, the two of them fight several terrormongers, in which they are both wounded. Chapter 25 – Recovery Rainbow Dash wakes up in a hospital in Uthraig; a diamong dog fortress city in the forest which acts as a base of operations for the Rangers in exchange for protection. Twilight and Shining Armor visit and tell her that when Reaper and the other pegasi reached the burrow, Storm and Cadance were gone and a changeling was drinking her blood. Reaper saved her and medivacted her to Uthraig, but she will need several weeks to recover. Shining Armor apologizes for his behavior to Dash and Twilight. Shining Armor and Rainbow Dash discuss her becoming a Ranger. Silent Armor and Cadance arrive via teleport back in Canterlot. They are concerned about Rainbow Dash, and Twilight, but begin planning their wedding. Chapter 26 – Crossroads Twilight explores Uthraig and learns more about the Rangers; in particular she becomes fascinated by an abandoned super-weapon program called the Manehatten project. She also sends a letter to Cadance telling her that everyone is alright and will be back in Equestria in a few weeks. Eventually the party joins a large group of Rangers and heads back to Equestria; when they reach Zecora’s hut- The other Rangers halted about a hundred meters off, not daring to approach, but Shining Armor had no choice and went to face Zecora alone.”I once had a student," began Zecora after Shining Armor had stood silently before her for five agonizing minutes which seemed like five years, "Who from the first time we first met; knew I'd met someone to whom I owed a great debt. To train them and teach them in the way they should go. To share with them knowledge, that in time they might grow; into a hero; a patron of light, whose mighty talents, could aid in the fight. The student advanced and became a dear friend; my love for them grew, as their path I did wend. With many great gifts, this student was blessed. It was not very long before they were one of my best. For strong was their body, and keen was their mind, their discipline sure, their courage refined; and noble the heart that led all of these, with the work of my student, I was very well pleased. But though sometimes their wisdom did leave me beguiled; more often by far; it was that of a child!" "Zecora, I never meant to-" CRACK! The point of Zecora's hoof shot like a lance into Shining Armor's jaw, dislocating it as his mouth swung limply open. "Do not interrupt." warned Zecora. "My thoughts you disrupt.” She cleared her throat, “In noble folly, my student sought to usurp, responsibility for the entire universe. They sought to save everyone, from forest to sea; from this crushing burden, they were never free. They denied they had limits, they denied themselves rest, addicted to struggle and to their endless quest. They drove themselves to exhaustion and then kept on going. Day and night they went madly on, never once slowing. Then, when those whom they cared for were lost deep in the trees, they did not wait or ask for help, not even from me. So overconfident in their own earthly power, they refused to show patience, for even an hour. They went out alone to rescue their friends; and that is where, sadly, my story must end. For this was the last of their lauded acts, from this final folly, they never came back. The rogues of the forest, broke her mind without mercy, she now lives in Ponyville, and calls herself, Derpy!" Shining Armor lifted his head in confusion, and was met with Zecora's gaze as anger; sorrow and disappointment huddled together in the cold recesses of her eyes. "I lost one student to selfless, thoughtless, hubris, folly. I do not wish to lose another, not in mind, not in body. You were shown grace where Denorious was not, but if you follow her path, you deserve what she got! I fear you've learned nothing from the fall of this mare, but your paths and your fates you must surely compare. You think her a leader? An example to all!? Despite her many fine traits, her pride was her fall! To push yourself further then what you can possibly do, these are not ideals to aspire to! Long was I grieved that after a year in my care, your training complete, you left like a hare. Not once returning, unless to seek aid, yet far greater errors I now see you have made. Shunned not only your teacher, but your future wife! Is this how you plan to live out your life?" Zecora touched Shining Armor's chest with her hoof and looked him silently in the eye for a long moment. He hadn't previously thought it possible, and never mentioned it afterwards, knowing no one would believe him, but he could have sworn he saw one lonely tear trickle down Zecora's face. “Now get out of the forest and do not return; until the face of his father, your firstborn has learned." Zecora grabbed his hanging jaw, wrenched it back into its socket, turned, walked into her hut and closed the door behind her, without giving him a chance to respond. Chapter 27 - Epilogue(s)Chapter 27 - Calm before the Storm Silent Armor and Cadance visit Shining Armor’s parents to invite them to the wedding. Shining Armor had never been close to his parents and Silent Armor surprises everyone with an outpouring of affection. Shining Armor, Twilight and Rainbow Dash visit Applejack who is recovering in her farmhouse. At the library, Spike tells them Cadance came looking for Twilight and asked her to come to Canterlot as soon as she could. On their way through Canterlot, Dash notices that the pegasi are preparing for a large hailstorm and Shining Armor explains that Luna has been buying shares in weather companies and scheduling storms for the day but warm, clear nights, to encourage Canterlot’s nightlife. Celsestia has gone to the griffon kingdoms to smooth political tensions after a griffoness was supposedly murdered by a pony. When they open the door to Silent Armor and Cadnace’s chamber, Silent Armor is overjoyed to see Twilight. "Twily!" exclaimed the white unicorn, jumping off the couch and racing down the stairs to meet her, "Twily you're alright!" Chapter 28 – Storm of Cadance Silent Armor is ecstatic to see Twilight, and runs to give her a hug. Shining Armor runs to give Cadance a kiss; she screams, and Silent Armor comes to Cadance’s ‘protection.’ The increase in Shining Armor’s magic was far more than expected, and having recovered rapidly the last three weeks, easily throws Shining Armor across the room. Rainbow Dash is disappointed that Storm doesn’t recognize her. Both stallions claim to be Shining Armor. Cadance; remembering what Storm told her about Rangers who stay in the forest going insane, and Storm having lived there for five years, gently tries to suggest psychiatric help. Shining Armor and Silent Armor both demonstrate a full set of Shining Armor’s memories by answering specific questions from Twilight. Shining Armor and Silent Armor have mirrored thoughts about each other, except Silent Armor considers killing ‘Storm’, believing it would be the kindest thing he could do for him at this stage. Chapter 29 - Truculence Twilight believes that Storm is trying to steal Shining Armor’s identity, as Shining Armor’s body, retrained to its new potential would have far more magical energy then Storm’s own body. She tries to trick Storm into re-swapping bodies with Shining Armor. After being backed into a corner by Shining Armor and Twilight, Silent Armor declares Shining Armor doesn’t deserve Cadance and tries to kill him. Twilight helps Shining Armor and the three of them fight briefly, before Cadance stops them. "What if..." Storm said slowly, "What if we both be Shining Armor. We can share Cadance." "Are you crazy!" yelled Shining Armor, "One of us has to be Silent Storm!" "WHY!?” Screamed Storm, his voice on the verge of breaking, “Why does Silent Storm need to exist!? He has no family, no friends, not one person who cares whether he lives or dies! Do you know why he’s spent the last five years, alone, on the front lines!? He's been trying to kill himself!!! Storm has lived every day for the last five years on the front lines hoping he would die; but it doesn’t work! The terrormongers can't do anything to him, they can barely sense he exists, he has nothing to lose and so there is nothing that he fears; and the changelings can't feed off him because there is nothing that he loves! That is the curse of the forest; only when it has taken everything from you and you want to die will it refuse to take you too! All Storm wants to do is die! So let's let him be dead!” Shining Armor seemed taken aback at Storms confession, Twilight continued her ardent glower, Cadance looked sorrowfully at Storm in sympathetic shock until she swallowed and orbited him until she looked him in the face, caressing his cheek in her hoof, "If you are Shining Armor...” she said slowly, “And if you haven't seen Storm in almost ten years... how do you know that?" "I don't know!" Shouted Storm falling backwards onto his haunches as if begging Cadance to ignore the undeniable; "But I don't care! I'm Shining Armor! I'm Shining Armor." Storm pounded himself on the chest with each word, as if the added emphasis would somehow make it true, "I'm... Shining Armor. I'm going to marry Cadance and we're going to have a family. I'm Captain of the Royal Guard. Twilight's my younger sister. I have parents. I have friends. I have people who love me. I'm... Shining... Armor." Twilight demands that he reverse body swaps; Silent Storm begs her to ‘forgive him’ but she says that if he doesn’t swap back with Shining Armor she never will. Silent Armor breaks and agrees to the body swap, and then immediately teleports away. Chapter 30 – Silence dies Storm appears on the roof of the tower, devastated that he will never be with Cadance, but then even more so when he realizes that he never loved Cadance and only felt Shining Armor’s love for her. He leans over the edge of the tower, and prepares to commit suicide, Rainbow Dash finds him and he recognizes her from the fight at the theater and Wonderbolt show. After hearing him say that he didn’t love Cadance, Rainbow Dash asks to run away with him, Storm refuses saying she would only get hurt, like Silver. When Dash doesn’t leave, Storm walks into the hailstorm she follows him. Storm lies down, thinking she’ll only be able to take the storm for a few minutes, but she lies down next to him and stays with him. After the hail ends, Storm tells Dash that he killed Silver Thorn, believing she was a changeling, describing the scene from Shining Armor’s nightmares. Rainbow Dash still wants him, but after repeated rejection, she leaves. Storm overhears Cadance arguing with Shining Armor. She had been out looking for Storm, but Shining Armor had called her back after he’d found Storm and Dash on the roof, and decided to give them space. Cadance berates Shining Armor for repeatedly shutting her out of his life in order to ‘protect her.’ She cancels the wedding indefinitely. Storm goes after Rainbow Dash. Chapter 31 – Wrap ups Rainbow Dash is moving out of her rooms at the Wonderbolt stables. Spitfire, who is resuming leadership of the Wonderbolts, sees her off. Spitfire mentions she is considering hiring the Flim Flam Brothers to help team management. Rainbow Dash visits Rarity whose sanity is waning and has begun collecting cats. Rarity resist’s Dash’s attempts to talk some sense into her, and Dash leaves; a micro-epilogue describes Rarity losing her business, and being incarcerated in a mental asylum. Rainbow Dash visits Scootaloo, and promises to see her again soon, but prompted by Scootaloo’s derivative remarks about Derpy which echo Dash’s previous sentiments, she decides to visit Derpy one last time. Chapter 32 – Derpy Hooves Derpy apologizes for losing Dash’s mail which turns out to have been inconsequential; and Dash apologizes for her previous shunning of Derpy. Dash asks some questions and realizes that although she’s clumsy, Derpy is still the fastest pegasus in Equestria, even though she doesn’t realize it. Epilogue: Celestia returned from Gryffindor a few weeks after the day of the thunderstorm: the murderer of the griffoness found, and the conspiracy behind it uncovered, not by Celestia’s Royal Guards, nor by the griffons led by the murdered griffoness’ vengeful husband, but by a small band of heroic vagrants, who wished to remain anonymous. Shining Armor was called to account for his defying of direct orders and reckless endangerment of civilian lives. Yet considering his service past and discrepant state of mind when he made his decisions, Celestia was lenient, placing him under suspension for six months, during which he was required to report to an officer of the crown on a daily basis. Princess Cadance was more than happy to be chosen for the position. Shining Armor and Cadance realized that there was a rift between them that needed to be sealed or else their relationship was already lost. It was not easy, and for a time, both of them were afraid that their love had died and was buried under the thick winter snows; but neither of them gave up and as spring brought new life and growth to the vegetation, so too did their rekindled affection. The following summer they began preparing for a third wedding, and this time, nothing got in their way. And that wasn’t the only wedding that Twilight attended that summer Second epilogue, placed at the end of Lost Chapters (Deleted Scenes): Twilight waits at the farmhouse with Applejack, (now recovered from her injuries,) and her family. Shining Armor did some research, confirming Applejack’s father was a Ranger, and has promised to send someone who knew him to take the Apple family to their parent’s graves. The guide turns out to be Storm, accompanied by Rainbow Dash who appears wounded though she refuses to discuss it. After arriving at a hidden graveyard, Storm goes for a walk to visit some other graves, Rainbow Dash goes with him, and Applejack asks Twilight why there’s a thirty foot statue of Derpy in the middle of the graveyard.
Prologue - Chapter 9Prologue – Canterlot Society: Cadance and Shining Armor never got married; the wedding was canceled, without explanation, a week before it was scheduled to happen. Shortly after this, Rainbow Dash fulfilled her dream of becoming a Wonderbolt. One year later, Dash has already become the team captain, and is wallowing in frustration at how easy it has been, and how short the Wonderbolts have come to matching her expectations: Spitfire aside; the rest of the team were sharing two brains between them. One of the brains was used to obsess over every minute detail of their public appearances; the other was dedicated to devising shortcuts, excuses, and any other scheme they could use to get by with expending the least amount of effort and risk. Occasionally a third brain would pop up; bringing with it that month’s gossip and get-rich-quick schemes but this one never stayed long, and Rainbow could only conclude that keeping track of three brains was simply too much effort for the team of eleven pegasi. Dash hates mingling with the Canterlot elite, and has lost all desire to have anything to do with the Wonderbolts, but she won’t admit it to anyone but herself, and can’t stand the idea of being a weather mare for the rest of her life. The Wonderbolts are scheduled to perform at Diamond Tiara’s middle school graduation party that evening; frustrating Rainbow Dash because preparing the Wonderbolts means she won’t have time to see Scootaloo graduate. Seeking comfort, Rainbow Dash goes to visit Rarity who, from an alternate history from the episode ‘Sweet and Elite’, had ended up staying in Canterlot, and has become a very wealthy, very successful fashion designer. Dash and Rarity talk briefly, about the energy shield, which had protected Canterlot ceaselessly for the last year, vanishing; before Rarity turns the conversation to herself. It becomes obvious that Rarity loves her wealth and fame, lost her generosity, and has assimilated into the conceited culture of the Canterlot elite. After listing to all she can bear of Rarity’s self-flattering rant, Rainbow Dash jumps out the window, and nearly commits suicide by splattering herself on the pavement beneath Rarity’s tower. Chapter 1 – Save Derpy Hooves!!! Soarin finds Rainbow Dash invites her to a magic show; to which Spitfire has booked a private viewing box for the Wonderbolts. Dash accepts and; hoping the off chance that the magician might be Twilight, slips backstage before the show but instead finds Trixie. Trixie tries to flatter Rainbow Dash and repeatedly suggests that they make an alliance, asking for Dash’s help in getting a performance in the Royal Palace too which Dash refuses. Trixie Eventually loses her patience and temper, insults Rainbow Dash and promises to ruin her. Dash lunges at her, but Trixie uses her magic to slam Dash against a wall. By the time Dash recuperates, Trixie has left to begin her show. The back door to the theater is locked so Dash steals one of Trixie’s cloaks and tries to sneak out, but Rapidfire finds her and tells her that she’s missing the show. Dash can’t think of an excuse and so reluctantly goes to the Wonderbolt’s viewing box to watch. The Wonderbolts love Trixie’s performance; and believe everything she says about saving Ponyville from an Ursa Major, and transforming herself into a dragon to infiltrate The Great Dragon Migration and foiling their plans to destroy Equestria. Trixie requires an assistant for her next trick, and chooses Derpy, who then bungles the trick by getting stuck half-way through a trap door. Trixie is furious and yells at Derpy, threatening to make her disappear forever. A red unicorn stallion, from the audience, teleports on stage and punches Trixie. Rainbow Dash is in love. Trixie’s assistants attack the stallion which he dispatches with relative ease; but accidentally sends the last one hurdling towards Derpy. The stallion teleports to take the hit for Derpy and is stunned; Trixie attacks him and is about to kill him when Dash tackles her. Trixie soon gains the advantage over Dash with her magic, but the red unicorn recovers and knocks Trixie unconscious. The red stallion helps Derpy get free, Derpy thanks them and calls them friends which Rainbow Dash vehemently denies; as she still herself to be at the top of the cool pyramid, while Derpy is like a stone which got lost on the way to the construction site and ended up falling in a ditch. Canterlot guards appear; Dash suggests splitting up, thinking the guards would arrest Derpy, but release her later as she hadn’t been involved in the fight, meanwhile she could escape with the red stallion. The red stallion agrees to her plan of splitting up, and teleports away with Derpy, leaving Dash alone with the guards coming towards her. Chapter 2 – Mysterious stranger Dash runs backstage, only to remember the back door is locked. She’s trapped! She starts kicking through boxes of Trixie’s equipment, looking for something to help her escape, and inadvertently lights the room on fire. The smoke blinds the guards and Dash manages to escape. The theater is destroyed but everyone escapes. Dash wonders if anyone recognized her under her cloak, but decides it would be best to pretend nothing had happened. She goes to her favorite restaurant for lunch and finds Derpy making a two foot tall sandwich at the make-your-own-sandwich bar. Dash asks about the stallion and Derpy says he didn’t say much but, left to go to the palace. Dash finds him and tries talking to him, though he refuses to tell her anything about himself except that his name is Silent Storm; making Dash even more fascinated. Storm’s never heard of the Wonderbolts, and Dash eventually convinces him to attend her performance. Storm seems to enjoy her sonicrainboom, Dash invites him to crash Diamond Tiara’s party, hoping he might do something interesting. Dash tries to teach Storm how to dance and several Royal Guards try to arrest them for the incident at the theater. Storm shows them a scroll, tells them they’re interfering with a classified operation and orders them to leave, which they do. Storm refuses to show the scroll to Rainbow Dash, and changes the subject to Dash and the Wonderbolts. She lies, saying she’s happy. Storm leaves to a restricted part of the palace to a locked room where Princess Celestia and Shining Armor are waiting for him. Shining Armor looks like he’s been tortured and is dying. Chapter 3 – Unexpected guests Twilight receives a letter from Celestia telling her that Shining Armor has been given leave and wishes to visit her; Twilight eagerly accepts and is visited by Storm, claiming he is Shining Armor after performing a body swap. Rainbow Dash daydreams about Storm. Shining Armor explains that after discovering the changeling threat; he was horrified that he hadn’t realized Cadance had been replaced by an imposter, and only found out from his investigation into the changeling threat. He realized that the amount of time he’d been spending with her wasn’t enough to maintain a marriage, or family, but couldn’t easily cut back on his security duties. He was afraid he would have to choose, until he realized that keeping his shield up for several weeks, though exhausting, had permanently increased his magical reserves. He did some research, finding if he used his talent specific shields while magically depleted, they would drain his physical energy, and permanently increase his magic capacity but only when the drain on his physical energy was the worst it had ever been. Shining Armor resolved to maintain the shield until he was nearly dead, hoping that his magic would increase to a level where he could keep Canterlot’s shield up indefinitely. With Canterlot under the shield, his duties would be lessened and he would be free to be with Cadance. Cadance didn’t want him to push himself as far as he did, afraid that he would permanently hurt himself. Four months ago, Shining Armor couldn’t stand letting Cadance see him as weak as he was becoming and asked her to leave until he was better. Twilight disapproves. After he dropped the shield, Shining Armor was exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally; and was fighting depression that was preventing him from recovering. Celestia instigated a plan to have him swap bodies; putting a healthy mind in a sick body and vice versa giving both a chance to recover. After the swap, Shining Armor was sent on holiday to Twilight to relax but also so Twilight could observe him as mind-magic is rare, poorly understood and the possibilities of side-effects are high. Twilight inquires about the friend Shining Armor swapped bodies with; but Shining Armor refuses to say anything about him except that he is trained in resisting dark thoughts and had an MQ of 411. MQ is used to measure a unicorns magical potential which, in most cases, is set from birth. Unicorns with MQs over 400 are called Alpha unicorns and include roughly point one percent of the unicorn population. Average unicorn = 100 MQ Twilight = 636 MQ Shining Armor (in his own body) = 678 MQ Celestia = 1220 MQ Chapter 4 - Overreacting Storm daydreams about Rainbow Dash, with thoughts that mirror hers, except he tries to rebuke them. He doesn’t want to interrupt her life, doesn’t think he deserves to be happy, and considers loving anyone foolish as it only makes their death more painful. As soon as he re-swaps with Shining Armor, he plans to leave using his portgem; a one-use crystal enabling a one-way, infinite-range teleport to the location where the portgem was inscribed. Twilight and Shining Armor visit Fluttershy. Cadance comes to visit Storm; unaware of the body swap. Storm tries to explain the situation but Cadance thinks he’s lost his memory and panics. She resolves to take him to Fillydelphia to heal and unveils a portgem of her own. Storm manages to knock Cadance’s portgem out of her grasp; she spins around to find it, and knocks over Storm’s saddlebag spilling his portgem which she grabs, believing it’s hers, and activates it. Chapter 5 - Second glances Twilight takes Shining Armor to meet Pinkie Pie; Shining Armor doesn’t respond well and Twilight thinks he needs to loosen up. She suggests the two of them play hide and seek in whitetail woods, for nostalgic value. Rainbow Dash is training the Wonderbolts with a game of cloud soccer; both teams try to cheat, and Derpy flies out of nowhere at tremendous speed, causing a six-pegasi pile up. She tells Rainbow Dash she has a letter from princess Celestia, but then realizes that she dropped it on the way. Rainbow Dash savagely berates Derpy. Since Ponyville is closer than Canterlot, Dash heads to the library to get Spike to request a copy of the letter. Shining Armor ambushes Twilight in the forest and slashes her throat with a sword. Twilight falls, and begs for mercy, Shining Armor decapitates her and then hacks her body into pieces. Shining Armor wakes up panicking in Twilight’s guest bedroom, freaking out because his fur is red, making him believe he’s soaked in blood. Twilight comes in and convinces him that she’s alright; he gives her a hug, saying he loves her. Rainbow Dash flies in through the window, and sees them embracing next to a bed; she screams at them and then leaves in frustration. Shining Armor is confused, Twilight is worried. Spike says he received a message from Celestia for him a few hours ago; Shining Armor reads it, races after Rainbow Dash, calling Twilight to follow him and for Spike to prepare supplies for a journey. Twilight and Shining Armor follow Rainbow Dash to Sweet Apple Acres, where Applejack agrees to help catch her. Storm and Cadance teleport into the Everfree Forest. Cadance is clueless. Storm mentally curses Cadance’s stupidity, but manages to show her the hidden entrance to an underground burrow. Chapter 6 – Reality Check Shining Armor, Twilight and Applejack catch Rainbow Dash; and Shining Armor explains the body swap. He also says that Rainbow Dash’s missing letter was ordering the Wonderbolts to assist in an emergency search and rescue for Cadance and Storm who are lost in the Everfree Forest. Rainbow Dash asks who Storm is and Shining Armor reluctantly calls him and Everfree Ranger. The Everfree Forest is the former capital of Discord, whose power still runs thick there. The forest is immensely bigger on the inside the inside then the outside and is inhabited by thousands of changeling and a race called terrormongers, telepathic monsters who sense and feed off fear and can conjure illusions, and control wild animals with their telepathy, who have been trying to invade Equestria for centuries, held at by Equestrian special forces known as Everfree Rangers. Cadance helps Storm into the burrow where he collapses. Chapter 7 – Thorns of Truth The war in the Everfree Forest is kept secret to prevent public fear from attracting or empowering the Terrormongers. The deeper into the forest you go, the more space is distorted and the stronger the Terrormongers become. The Rangers can fight them near the border, and protect Equestria, but can’t destroy the Terrormonger homeland, causing a millennia old stalemate. Magic works differently in the Everfree forest, disallowing long-range messaging to signal Rangers already in the forest. Storm’s post was on the vanguard of Ranger controlled forest; though Shining Armor doesn’t know exactly where; and wants the Wonderbolts to help him look. Twilight recruits herself and Applejack insists on coming. Applejack was close to her father, but he always kept secrets and disappeared into the forest for long periods; one day he didn’t come back so Applejack’s mother went looking for him and vanished too. Applejack wants to find out if her father was a Ranger, Shining Armor reluctantly agrees. Chapter 8 – Choices Dash tells the Wonderbolts that all the monster stories of the Everfree Forest are made up by the royal family, to keep people from finding out about the secret holiday resort that they keep hidden inside. She says that Cadance went to the holiday resort, but her bodyguard got sick and doesn’t want to come back alone and so the Wonderbolts are being sent to pick her up, along with Twilight, Applejack and a guy who’s like a park ranger. Dash hopes that underneath the selfishness and stupidity, the Wonderbolts really are the team she always hoped for, but will only show it if their lives depend on it. On their way to the library where they will re-group with the others, the Wonderbolts end up doing a spontaneous performance; infuriating Shining Armor who had hoped to leave Ponyville quietly. Dash argues with him, insisting that the Wonderbolts are up for the job. She goes upstairs and finds Spike telling several Wonderbolts that he’s a three-thousand year old dragon emperor, living in Ponyville with his unicorn assistant, and they believe him. The Wonderbolts, Shining Armor, Twilight, Applejack and Twilight’s pet phoenix Pyromite (from the egg Spike got in Dragon Quest) go to Zecora’s hut. Shining Armor and Twilight go inside to where Apple Bloom is asking Zecora for a stimulant to ensure victory in a set of Iron Pony contests she’s planning against Scootaloo; Zecora refuses. Shining Armor shoes her out; then reveals himself to Zecora, who yells at him, threatening to kill him. Shining Armor cowers and Zecora gives him a brief hug, saying she forgave him a long time ago. He tells her of the situation, she admonishes him for misleading Cadance, but agrees to give them necessary supplies for the journey, as well as Storm’s armor which he had left there. Chapter 9 – Last chances. The Wonderbolts ask Dash and Applejack if Spike is really a dragon emperor. Applejack says that Twilight hatched him, making Rapidfire think Twilight is his biological mother. Dash explains Spike’s background from the magic university, and the Wonderbolts ask if they can all get pet dragons too. Apple Bloom runs out of Zecora’s hut, excited as all the Cutie-mark crusaders are now huge Wonderbolt fans; and are writing a fan-fiction where the Wonderbolts need to save a baby dragon named Ekips, from an evil Alicorn princess. Rainbow Dash suggests the Wonderbolts do a private show for Apple Bloom but the Wonderbolts don’t see the point in a show for just one filly, who can’t afford to pay them. Dash tries to do a solo performance, but is distracted by her anger at the Wonderbolts and it comes out terrible. Trying to save the situation, Dash tells Apple Bloom that she’s under a curse that took away her flying skill and made the Wonderbolts lose their brains, their hearts and their courage; and so they’re going to a wizard who lives in the forest named Awes. Apple Bloom is skeptical. Cadance makes some medicinal tea for Storm; he still reguards her as an idiot but is beginning to soften towards her. He tries to tell her that he’s not Shining Armor, but she thinks he’s amnesic and promises that he’ll get better. The search party prepares to move out; Shining Armor has a portgem which was inscribed in Canterlot; so as soon as they find Storm and Cadance they can teleport back. Zecora promises to take Apple Bloom home and Rainbow Dash vouches for the Wonderbolts one last time. Author's Note I confess to having over satirized the Wonderbolts. My headcannon explanation is that a couple years before Rainbow Dash joined, Spitfire started training the Wonderbolts at extremely high altitudes, which very slowly gave the entire team brain damage to lack of oxygen getting to their brains. Dash was only a Wonderbolt for six months before displacing Spitfire and stopping the exercises, so it didn’t affect her too much. I began writing this improve; trying to mix the light tune of the show into a serious story, and there's a fairly large shift around this point to something darker and more serious. To me; this is about where it gets good - Chapter 10
Chapters 10-19Chapter 10 – Into Darkness A short ways into the forest, the party encounter one terrormonger and several changelings. The Wonderbolts feed fear to the terrormonger, making it a long and difficult battle. Applejack is critically wounded; four of the Wonderbolts take her to Zecora’s for treatment. The other Wonderbolts pretend to be hurt so they can also go home. Rainbow Dash quits. Chapter 11 - Rebirth The Wonderbolts leave, Dash confesses her deception, and Twilight convinces Shining Armor to give her another chance. Storm dreams Shining Armor’s proposal to Cadance at the Grand Galloping Gala which was badly botched by the commotion Twilight’s friends caused, which Shining Armor interpreted as a changeling attack. Storm wakes up and can hear terrormongers approaching the burrow from a distance, drawn by Cadnce’s fear that Shining Armor has lost his mind. He tells her the memory, Cadance relaxes and the terrormongers overshoot the burrow. Rainbow Dash feels elated after quitting the Wonderbolts. Shining Armor takes them to an unoccupied outpost where they find a suit of armor and weapons for Rainbow Dash. Shining Armor mentions that most Ranger tours are very short, and staying too long in the forest tends to result in violent insanity within three months. Rainbow Dash explains how she met Storm and, in return, Shining Armor agrees to say how he knows him. Chapter 12 – Tales of the past Shining Armor joined the Royal Guard at eighteen. At twenty he was made a Ranger and given elite training where he was partnered with Storm who was two years younger than him, had already been a Ranger for “some time.” Storm refused to speak of his past, and threatened to kill Shining Armor when he pressed the issue. Shining Armor and Storm were never close, and Shining Armor theorizes that volunteering for the body swap was because Shining Armor saved Storm’s life in the last major battle of the forest; Forest Jaws. When asked about the battle; Shining Armor tells them about a heroic Ranger Pegasus mare with a silver coat and golden mane named Denorious with a cutie-mark for a ray of light breaking through black clouds. Rainbow Dash is aghast when Shining Armor says Denorious had a wing power more than 20% faster that Dash’s record. Twilight tries to comfort her, but is then horrified when Shining Armor says Denorious had a higher IQ then Twilight. Denorious grew up in a corrupt and crime-ridden part of Manehatten, became a Jr Sheriff and was approached by the Rangers after she dismantled a syndicate that “foalnapped fillies from the bottom rungs of society and sold them as 'toys' to depraved stallions.” Denorious was the only commander able to lead the Rangers in large, coordinated attacks, by using her sonic boom which was one of the only sounds that the Terrormongers could not replicate. Shining Armor describes how Denorious turned the tide of Forest Jaws and saved Equestria. After the battle, Denorious was promoted and the Rangers advanced rapidly for six months; until Denorious went alone to try and rescue a lost band of Rangers and was captured by nine powerful terrormongers who tortured her for six days. By the time she was rescued, Denorious was nearly brain-dead. The Rangers took her to Celestia who was able to look into her mind and saw ‘memories’ of the entire world dying gruesome deaths only to be resurrected so they could die even more painfully. The only help that Celestia could offer was to block all of Denorious’s memories, true and false, and let her start life over. The mental block would be weak however; any reminder of her past life could bring the false memories back in an instant, permanently destroying her mind. Every Ranger is forced to swear, on penalty of death, to never attempt to contact Denorious for any reason. Although her sanity was restored, Denorious lost her cutie-mark when she lost her memory, she was blinded in one eye and suffered irreversible brain and neurological damage, destroying her intelligence and making complex motor difficult. The last thing Shining Armor ever heard of Denorious was that she had become a mail-mare and began calling herself Derpy. Chapter 13 – Side effects Shining Armor re-dreams the nightmare about killing Twilight – he is deeply disturbed. A band of Rangers find the rescue party and challenge Shining Armor, believing he’s Storm. Storm broke his oath in making contact with Denorious (Derpy). They say Derpy remembered her false set of memories the night after she saw Storm and committed suicide. Word is spreading, and any other band of Rangers that sees Shining Armor will kill him, thinking he’s Storm, believing he killed Derpy. Rainbow Dash counters these claims; she saw Derpy the day after she supposedly died, when Derpy interrupted the Wonderbolts to tell her she’d lost her mail. The Rangers retracts his demand to kill Shining Armor. Shining Armor explains about the body swap and the plight of Storm and Cadance. The other Rangers will spread the word about the rescue mission and say that Storm has moved his position to be even deeper in the forest than Shining Armor first thought. The Rangers say that, five years ago, Storm’s younger sister was killed by Manticores and Storm hasn’t left the forest since, yet hasn’t gone insane. They also say that Storm has an uncanny ability to predict enemy movements, causing some Rangers to believe he can see the future. Shining Armor remembers his dreams of killing Twilight; he begs her to go home, she refuses. Chapter 14 - Crown of Roses Storm dreams another of Shining Armor’s memories where Twilight is trying, very unsubtly, to pair him with Cadance. Storm enjoys the ‘dates’ and believes Cadance does too, but knows that Cadance’s parents would never approve of his lack of wealth, status or royalty but - “While it was totally inappropriate for Storm to ask Cadance out on a date, for Twily to set them up in an 'awkward' situation and for the two of them to 'humor her' was acceptable. It was a delicate game of tricking Twily into tricking them to spend time together, and then pretending to pretend to like each other. It could never last, and it could cost both of them dearly when they were found out, but so long as their love lives were being dictated to them by a nine year old filly, everything would be fine.” Storm wakes up, tries to remember where he was when Shining Armor was ‘not dating’ Cadance. He and Silver’s adoptive father Straight Hack had just died after a long, wasting illness, leaving them ‘orphans for the second time’. Victimized in fraudulent court proceedings, they’re cheated out of their inheritance and left with nothing. Rather than returning to living on the streets, they resolve to find the Rangers, which Straight Hack had once been a member of. Storm’s realizes he’d crying and Cadance is wiping his tears away. He wonders why he’d tried to remember his past when it was, “so much easier to just be Shining Armor.” Chapter 15 – Don’t get stressed Storm dreams about Shining Armor going to his friend’s house to retrieve Twilight’s books after his friend’s younger brother stole them hoping Twilight would, “stop being such a ‘know it all.” Shining Armor speaks to his friend, who easily retrieves Twilight’s books and promises to talk to his brother about teasing Twilight. Shining Armor leaves, thinking about how, “He was a good big brother, sticking up for Twily all the time.” Storm remembers when he was eleven, and killed two drunken teenage colts who had tried to rape Silver, who had been eight. Storm feuds over the similarities between his and Shining Armor’s lives, and relationships with their little sisters, except Shining Armor’s life had always been easier and better. He remembers that he used to hate Shining Armor but admits to himself that it had been out of envy. Shining Armor sends Twilight’s Pyromite back towards Ponyville with a message, but won’t discuss it with Twilight or Dash. The party makes camp; Rainbow Dash is keeping watch, thinking about Storm when Shining Armor wakes up screaming Twilight’s name after another nightmare, then tries to pass it off as testing Twilight’s combat readiness. He relives Dash from watch duty and begins pacing and muttering to himself; Dash notes that he’s acting like Twilight does when she’s panicking about something. Chapter 16 – Daughter of the sea Cadance feeds Storm a good meal, and he begins to appreciate her company. Trying to ‘jog his memory’, Cadance tells him about her past. There are hundreds of alicorns, but the vast majority are mortal with average magical and flying ability. However There are however, six cosmetic forces that require an alicorn to steward them, if one steward dies another will take their place and will gain immortality and a boost to their magic of about 600-900 MQ. Cadance’s mother, Searis, is the half-sister of Celestia and Luna, and steward of the oceans; ruling from her capital on Oatlantis. Searis has extreme difficulty letting go of the past; goes to great lengths to make Oatlantis resemble a long-past golden age, and regularly re-marries stallions who remind her of her first husband, with Cadance and Blueblood’s father being husband number fourteen. Searis knows that her golden days is still slipping away from her, and so for the last several centuries has slowly been becoming more unstable and depressed. Since her royalty has been the only thing that’s been consistent with her throughout the centuries, Searis clings to it desperately; and has become fiercely class-conscious, haughty, and borderline tyrannical over her stagnating country. When Cadance was a filly; she secretly began attending a proletariat music club with her nurse, but kept her identity hidden. When she was found out, her nurse was fired and replaced with a strict bodyguard Ashaw, her friends rejected her out of fear, and the music club moved, though Cadance still doesn’t know if they were ordered to or if they did it themselves to avoid trouble. After this Cadance became highly rebellion for a while and tried to cause trouble for her mother however she could; until she reluctantly admitted that her rebellion was accomplishing nothing but hurting herself, her mother, and the people she was angry at her mother for not caring about. Cadance visited Canterlot and was amazed at Celestia’s benevolence. At Cadance’s request, Celestia convinced Searis to allow Cadance to remain in Canterlot. For a while Cadance tried to draw Equestrian investment into Oatlantis’ economy, but few companies would tolerate Searis’s stringent restrictions, and so now Cadance believes the best way to help Oatlantis ponies is to make migration as easy as possible. Storm ‘remembers’ by himself that Cadance does a lot of volunteer work at hospitals. Storm asks her what her cutie-mark means but she says she wants him to remember that for himself. He asks for a hint and she moves to kiss him but he reluctantly turns away. Storm finds himself hoping that Shining Armor won’t come back; allowing Storm to assume his identity. His thoughts on Cadance begin to mirror the thoughts Shining Armor once had about her. Chapter 17 – Pain, Lies and False Hope pt 1 Shining Armor takes Twilight’s watch, letting her sleep in. Twilight is worried about him. In a flashback; Storm and Silver Thorn are sleeping in a field, and are attacked by wild dogs. Storm drives them off, but Silver is badly hurt. Storm breaks into a nearby house, looking for medical supplies, and is caught by Straight Hack who tends both foals, and offers to let them stay with him just for a little while until Silver heals. Storm doesn’t trust him due to past experiences with ‘helpful strangers’, made worse by the fact that Straight Hack’s cutie-mark is a ‘gigantic knife’ (sword), but believes Silver will probably die without the help, and so reluctantly accepts. Twilight tries to do a ‘follow up’ for Shining Armor’s condition after the body swap to which Shining Armor sarcastically complies, insisting that he’s fine. She asks if he’s been having nightmares, but he refuses to discuss it. Twilight backs off, and considers their parents, who both worked, “doing something important in the Restricted Archives, which Twilight never learned the details of.” Chapter 18 - Pain Lies and false hope part 2 Storm and Silver enjoy their time with Straight Hack. Storm expects Straight Hack just wants healthy foals for whatever he’s planning to do to them, and plans to run away as soon as Silver is able, but leaving is steadily postponed. Straight Hack begins teaching the foals self-defense. Shining Armor remembers coming back from his first tour in the forest, shell-shocked after what he’d seen, and finds Cadence crying because she was thinking about one colt she’d visited in the hospital who, after an accident which was his own fault, might never play sport again. Shining Armor decides he can never tell her of the Forest. Storm and Silver come to trust Straight Hack, and tell him about growing up in a mining town in a desert, just outside Equestria’s border, allowing ‘the company’ to cut corners on safety and workers rights. When Storm was ten and Silver was seven, the mine caves in, killing both their parents and the town; the company pulls out, leaving the survivors to fend for themselves. A group of Storm’s friends go to an orphanage in Trottingham, and send back a letter saying it’s nice there and that Storm and Silver should come. When they get there; the matron insisted that their friends had never been there, but seemed very eager for new children. Storm and Silver run away, permanently mistrusting ‘the system’ and so avoid any sort of charity or government assistance. They survive by scavenging, stealing and begging until they meet Straight Hack. Straight Hack adopts the foals, and they live happily. Chapter 19– In case I go crazy As the rescue party makes camp, Twilight offers to take first watch so Shining Armor can sleep. Shining Armor refuses, saying he will watch the entire night, and doesn’t plan to sleep again until they return to Canterlot; at least two more days. They argue; Shining Armor knocks Twilight and Rainbow Dash unconscious. The next day, Twilight and Rainbow Dash separate, contrary to Shining Armor’s orders and end up fighting, each believing the other is a changeling. Rainbow Dash is about to kill Twilight when Shining Armor appears, pulls them apart, reveals them both to be ponies, casts some fireballs into the tree-line and recklessly chases after the retreating shout of a terrormonger. Twilight chases after Shining Armor and finds him covered in blood and torn armor, surrounded by enemy corpses. When he sees her he throws her to the ground and yells that if she disobeys him again he will kill her himself. A moment later he realizes what he said and tries to apologize; Twilight is angry and terrified. Storm dreams another date Twilight set up between Shining Armor and Cadance. Eventually, they are in Shining Armor’s bedroom; his parents gone and Twilight asleep. Cadance initiates sex but Shining Armor believes they’d regret it later if they had sex outside of marriage. Cadance suggests eloping to Los Pegasus; Shining Armor offers a counter plan; he notes his rapid rise in the Royal Guard, and believes that in five or six years, he might have enough rank that Searis would let them get married legitimately, and Cadance agrees to wait. That flashback had been thirteen years ago. In the present day, Storm wonders what his life would have been like if he had eloped with Cadance thirteen years ago, before remembering that he’s not Shining Armor, but can’t immediately remember who he really is. He talks to Cadance, and tells her the truth about the forest, Rangers, and Terrormongers; Cadance takes it well and the two of them kiss. Storm remembers that Cadance’s special talent is a memory spell that makes someone remember the time when they were most in love; he asks her to cast it on him and Cadance agrees. The memory spell cannot comprehend Storm having two sets of memories so – “One set of memories would become his only memories while the other one would be locked away forever; and joy engulfed him when he realized that he got to decide. He chose the life he wanted.” Author's Note I confess I don’t really deal with emotional backdrop of ‘little ponies’ needing to kill; partly because when I was reading through Upheaval at the time which dealt with that issue very well, (and then some), but also because in the season 2 final, it seemed all the mane six (except Fluttershy) had no problem fighting/ killing changelings and then going on with their wedding like nothing had happened.
Chapters 20-26Chapter 20 – Comes the Reaper Shining Armor, Twilight and Rainbow Dash are found by Pyromite and a large company of Rangers led by an alicorn named Reaper. They are the actual rescue party sent by Celestia to recover Storm and Cadance; Shining Armor was never meant to leave Ponyville, nor was he meant to draft the Wonderbolts. Shining Armor and Reaper argue, Shining Armor clearly acting irrational, insisting that he can’t do nothing while Cadance is in danger. Reaper questions them about the group of ‘Rangers’ they encountered in chapter thirteen; Shining Armor forgot to scan them for being changelings and the squad Shining Armor describes was confirmed dead last week. Shining Armor realizes that he told the changelings about Storm and Cadance, and let himself be mislead to a false location. He’s devastated. The squad that patrols the sector next to Storm’s knows the exact location of his burrow, but finding them may take as long as searching for Storm’s burrow to begin with. Rainbow Dash does the sonicrainboom; the signal Denorious had used to assemble the Rangers and a small army gathers. They ascertain the exact direction of Storm’s burrow; Reaper heads off with the pegasi, but Dash takes Shining Armor’s portgem and pulls ahead. The remaining unicorns and Earth ponies are meant to organize into three companies, but Shining Armor doesn’t wait and goes dashing off into the forest alone. Twilight follows him. Chapter 21 – Ignorant Bliss Storm believes he’s Shining Armor, and dreams one of his first meetings with Storm as they were both being trained by Zecora. Storm beats Shining Armor to a pulp, insulting and spitting on him as Shining Armor considers him psychotic. Zecora gives Shining Armor a healing potion and commands them to fight again, Storm demands a stronger sparring partner and Zecora offers to fight him next, Storm backs down and obliterates Shining Armor a second time. Silent Armor wakes up, and kisses Cadance. They discuss wedding plans and Cadance tells him that in order to get her mother to agree to the marriage, she’d blackmailed Blueblood into vouching for Shining Armor by threatening to assist Blueblood’s obsessive ex-girlfriend, Trixie, in stalking him. Cadance asks how deep in the forest they are, and Storm admits that he doesn’t know. Cadance is surprised as she’d assumed that this was his outpost, Silent Armor realizes that this borrow is Storm’s outpost and wonders why he had a portgem that led here. Chapter 22 – RUN!!! Cadance asks who Storm is and Silent Armor describes him, saying that Storm stays in the forest, hoping to redeem himself for his mistakes, but has only felt worse as time goes on. He says Storm used to hate the world, and had considered becoming a marauder, stealing, killing and raping as he pleased; but meeting Denorious had inspired him to be different. He’d loved her. Silent Armor concludes that Storm must be dead. He feels relived but Cadance is upset and Silent Armor wonders how Storm would have felt if he’d thought that just one person would actually care that he had died. Changelings find the burrow, and begin digging through the roof; Shining Armor and Cadance profess their love, and prepare for a final stand. Shining Armor gallops through the woods, but swerves from his course due to exhaustion. He trips over, Twilight catches up and Shining Armor realizes that they are in the glade from his dreams where he kills Twilight; with the two swords from his dream stuck into the ground. He can hear terrormongers close by and coming closer. Shining Armor screams at Twilight to run and uses his magic to push her as far away from him as he can, but Twilight only runs a short distance before turning back, unwilling to abandon him. Chapter 23 – Shadows of Death Shining Armor is convinced that Twilight will run; he takes the swords to defend himself. There is an extended fight which parodys Shining Armor’s nightmares, causing him to hesitate several times resulting in him being wounded. Rainbow Dash finds the burrow, and attacks the changelings who are digging through the walls. Dash and one changeling crash through the roof and into the burrow. Silent Armor kills the changeling, Cadance tries to attack Dash, but Dash disarms her, gives her the portgem and tells her to use it. Just as the portgem begins to activate, another changeling lunges at Silent Armor. Dash tackles it, but moves too far from the portgem and is left behind when Cadance and Silent Armor disappear. Dash fights the remaining changelings, the last of which transforms into a young pegasus colt which looks like a mixture between herself and Storm. Dash hesitates and the changeling attacks. Chapter 24 – Blood and Fire Twilight arrives to help Shining Armor. After convincing him that she is real, the two of them fight several terrormongers, in which they are both wounded. Chapter 25 – Recovery Rainbow Dash wakes up in a hospital in Uthraig; a diamong dog fortress city in the forest which acts as a base of operations for the Rangers in exchange for protection. Twilight and Shining Armor visit and tell her that when Reaper and the other pegasi reached the burrow, Storm and Cadance were gone and a changeling was drinking her blood. Reaper saved her and medivacted her to Uthraig, but she will need several weeks to recover. Shining Armor apologizes for his behavior to Dash and Twilight. Shining Armor and Rainbow Dash discuss her becoming a Ranger. Silent Armor and Cadance arrive via teleport back in Canterlot. They are concerned about Rainbow Dash, and Twilight, but begin planning their wedding. Chapter 26 – Crossroads Twilight explores Uthraig and learns more about the Rangers; in particular she becomes fascinated by an abandoned super-weapon program called the Manehatten project. She also sends a letter to Cadance telling her that everyone is alright and will be back in Equestria in a few weeks. Eventually the party joins a large group of Rangers and heads back to Equestria; when they reach Zecora’s hut- The other Rangers halted about a hundred meters off, not daring to approach, but Shining Armor had no choice and went to face Zecora alone.”I once had a student," began Zecora after Shining Armor had stood silently before her for five agonizing minutes which seemed like five years, "Who from the first time we first met; knew I'd met someone to whom I owed a great debt. To train them and teach them in the way they should go. To share with them knowledge, that in time they might grow; into a hero; a patron of light, whose mighty talents, could aid in the fight. The student advanced and became a dear friend; my love for them grew, as their path I did wend. With many great gifts, this student was blessed. It was not very long before they were one of my best. For strong was their body, and keen was their mind, their discipline sure, their courage refined; and noble the heart that led all of these, with the work of my student, I was very well pleased. But though sometimes their wisdom did leave me beguiled; more often by far; it was that of a child!" "Zecora, I never meant to-" CRACK! The point of Zecora's hoof shot like a lance into Shining Armor's jaw, dislocating it as his mouth swung limply open. "Do not interrupt." warned Zecora. "My thoughts you disrupt.” She cleared her throat, “In noble folly, my student sought to usurp, responsibility for the entire universe. They sought to save everyone, from forest to sea; from this crushing burden, they were never free. They denied they had limits, they denied themselves rest, addicted to struggle and to their endless quest. They drove themselves to exhaustion and then kept on going. Day and night they went madly on, never once slowing. Then, when those whom they cared for were lost deep in the trees, they did not wait or ask for help, not even from me. So overconfident in their own earthly power, they refused to show patience, for even an hour. They went out alone to rescue their friends; and that is where, sadly, my story must end. For this was the last of their lauded acts, from this final folly, they never came back. The rogues of the forest, broke her mind without mercy, she now lives in Ponyville, and calls herself, Derpy!" Shining Armor lifted his head in confusion, and was met with Zecora's gaze as anger; sorrow and disappointment huddled together in the cold recesses of her eyes. "I lost one student to selfless, thoughtless, hubris, folly. I do not wish to lose another, not in mind, not in body. You were shown grace where Denorious was not, but if you follow her path, you deserve what she got! I fear you've learned nothing from the fall of this mare, but your paths and your fates you must surely compare. You think her a leader? An example to all!? Despite her many fine traits, her pride was her fall! To push yourself further then what you can possibly do, these are not ideals to aspire to! Long was I grieved that after a year in my care, your training complete, you left like a hare. Not once returning, unless to seek aid, yet far greater errors I now see you have made. Shunned not only your teacher, but your future wife! Is this how you plan to live out your life?" Zecora touched Shining Armor's chest with her hoof and looked him silently in the eye for a long moment. He hadn't previously thought it possible, and never mentioned it afterwards, knowing no one would believe him, but he could have sworn he saw one lonely tear trickle down Zecora's face. “Now get out of the forest and do not return; until the face of his father, your firstborn has learned." Zecora grabbed his hanging jaw, wrenched it back into its socket, turned, walked into her hut and closed the door behind her, without giving him a chance to respond.
Chapter 27 - Epilogue(s)Chapter 27 - Calm before the Storm Silent Armor and Cadance visit Shining Armor’s parents to invite them to the wedding. Shining Armor had never been close to his parents and Silent Armor surprises everyone with an outpouring of affection. Shining Armor, Twilight and Rainbow Dash visit Applejack who is recovering in her farmhouse. At the library, Spike tells them Cadance came looking for Twilight and asked her to come to Canterlot as soon as she could. On their way through Canterlot, Dash notices that the pegasi are preparing for a large hailstorm and Shining Armor explains that Luna has been buying shares in weather companies and scheduling storms for the day but warm, clear nights, to encourage Canterlot’s nightlife. Celsestia has gone to the griffon kingdoms to smooth political tensions after a griffoness was supposedly murdered by a pony. When they open the door to Silent Armor and Cadnace’s chamber, Silent Armor is overjoyed to see Twilight. "Twily!" exclaimed the white unicorn, jumping off the couch and racing down the stairs to meet her, "Twily you're alright!" Chapter 28 – Storm of Cadance Silent Armor is ecstatic to see Twilight, and runs to give her a hug. Shining Armor runs to give Cadance a kiss; she screams, and Silent Armor comes to Cadance’s ‘protection.’ The increase in Shining Armor’s magic was far more than expected, and having recovered rapidly the last three weeks, easily throws Shining Armor across the room. Rainbow Dash is disappointed that Storm doesn’t recognize her. Both stallions claim to be Shining Armor. Cadance; remembering what Storm told her about Rangers who stay in the forest going insane, and Storm having lived there for five years, gently tries to suggest psychiatric help. Shining Armor and Silent Armor both demonstrate a full set of Shining Armor’s memories by answering specific questions from Twilight. Shining Armor and Silent Armor have mirrored thoughts about each other, except Silent Armor considers killing ‘Storm’, believing it would be the kindest thing he could do for him at this stage. Chapter 29 - Truculence Twilight believes that Storm is trying to steal Shining Armor’s identity, as Shining Armor’s body, retrained to its new potential would have far more magical energy then Storm’s own body. She tries to trick Storm into re-swapping bodies with Shining Armor. After being backed into a corner by Shining Armor and Twilight, Silent Armor declares Shining Armor doesn’t deserve Cadance and tries to kill him. Twilight helps Shining Armor and the three of them fight briefly, before Cadance stops them. "What if..." Storm said slowly, "What if we both be Shining Armor. We can share Cadance." "Are you crazy!" yelled Shining Armor, "One of us has to be Silent Storm!" "WHY!?” Screamed Storm, his voice on the verge of breaking, “Why does Silent Storm need to exist!? He has no family, no friends, not one person who cares whether he lives or dies! Do you know why he’s spent the last five years, alone, on the front lines!? He's been trying to kill himself!!! Storm has lived every day for the last five years on the front lines hoping he would die; but it doesn’t work! The terrormongers can't do anything to him, they can barely sense he exists, he has nothing to lose and so there is nothing that he fears; and the changelings can't feed off him because there is nothing that he loves! That is the curse of the forest; only when it has taken everything from you and you want to die will it refuse to take you too! All Storm wants to do is die! So let's let him be dead!” Shining Armor seemed taken aback at Storms confession, Twilight continued her ardent glower, Cadance looked sorrowfully at Storm in sympathetic shock until she swallowed and orbited him until she looked him in the face, caressing his cheek in her hoof, "If you are Shining Armor...” she said slowly, “And if you haven't seen Storm in almost ten years... how do you know that?" "I don't know!" Shouted Storm falling backwards onto his haunches as if begging Cadance to ignore the undeniable; "But I don't care! I'm Shining Armor! I'm Shining Armor." Storm pounded himself on the chest with each word, as if the added emphasis would somehow make it true, "I'm... Shining Armor. I'm going to marry Cadance and we're going to have a family. I'm Captain of the Royal Guard. Twilight's my younger sister. I have parents. I have friends. I have people who love me. I'm... Shining... Armor." Twilight demands that he reverse body swaps; Silent Storm begs her to ‘forgive him’ but she says that if he doesn’t swap back with Shining Armor she never will. Silent Armor breaks and agrees to the body swap, and then immediately teleports away. Chapter 30 – Silence dies Storm appears on the roof of the tower, devastated that he will never be with Cadance, but then even more so when he realizes that he never loved Cadance and only felt Shining Armor’s love for her. He leans over the edge of the tower, and prepares to commit suicide, Rainbow Dash finds him and he recognizes her from the fight at the theater and Wonderbolt show. After hearing him say that he didn’t love Cadance, Rainbow Dash asks to run away with him, Storm refuses saying she would only get hurt, like Silver. When Dash doesn’t leave, Storm walks into the hailstorm she follows him. Storm lies down, thinking she’ll only be able to take the storm for a few minutes, but she lies down next to him and stays with him. After the hail ends, Storm tells Dash that he killed Silver Thorn, believing she was a changeling, describing the scene from Shining Armor’s nightmares. Rainbow Dash still wants him, but after repeated rejection, she leaves. Storm overhears Cadance arguing with Shining Armor. She had been out looking for Storm, but Shining Armor had called her back after he’d found Storm and Dash on the roof, and decided to give them space. Cadance berates Shining Armor for repeatedly shutting her out of his life in order to ‘protect her.’ She cancels the wedding indefinitely. Storm goes after Rainbow Dash. Chapter 31 – Wrap ups Rainbow Dash is moving out of her rooms at the Wonderbolt stables. Spitfire, who is resuming leadership of the Wonderbolts, sees her off. Spitfire mentions she is considering hiring the Flim Flam Brothers to help team management. Rainbow Dash visits Rarity whose sanity is waning and has begun collecting cats. Rarity resist’s Dash’s attempts to talk some sense into her, and Dash leaves; a micro-epilogue describes Rarity losing her business, and being incarcerated in a mental asylum. Rainbow Dash visits Scootaloo, and promises to see her again soon, but prompted by Scootaloo’s derivative remarks about Derpy which echo Dash’s previous sentiments, she decides to visit Derpy one last time. Chapter 32 – Derpy Hooves Derpy apologizes for losing Dash’s mail which turns out to have been inconsequential; and Dash apologizes for her previous shunning of Derpy. Dash asks some questions and realizes that although she’s clumsy, Derpy is still the fastest pegasus in Equestria, even though she doesn’t realize it. Epilogue: Celestia returned from Gryffindor a few weeks after the day of the thunderstorm: the murderer of the griffoness found, and the conspiracy behind it uncovered, not by Celestia’s Royal Guards, nor by the griffons led by the murdered griffoness’ vengeful husband, but by a small band of heroic vagrants, who wished to remain anonymous. Shining Armor was called to account for his defying of direct orders and reckless endangerment of civilian lives. Yet considering his service past and discrepant state of mind when he made his decisions, Celestia was lenient, placing him under suspension for six months, during which he was required to report to an officer of the crown on a daily basis. Princess Cadance was more than happy to be chosen for the position. Shining Armor and Cadance realized that there was a rift between them that needed to be sealed or else their relationship was already lost. It was not easy, and for a time, both of them were afraid that their love had died and was buried under the thick winter snows; but neither of them gave up and as spring brought new life and growth to the vegetation, so too did their rekindled affection. The following summer they began preparing for a third wedding, and this time, nothing got in their way. And that wasn’t the only wedding that Twilight attended that summer Second epilogue, placed at the end of Lost Chapters (Deleted Scenes): Twilight waits at the farmhouse with Applejack, (now recovered from her injuries,) and her family. Shining Armor did some research, confirming Applejack’s father was a Ranger, and has promised to send someone who knew him to take the Apple family to their parent’s graves. The guide turns out to be Storm, accompanied by Rainbow Dash who appears wounded though she refuses to discuss it. After arriving at a hidden graveyard, Storm goes for a walk to visit some other graves, Rainbow Dash goes with him, and Applejack asks Twilight why there’s a thirty foot statue of Derpy in the middle of the graveyard.
