It started off as something small, but then it began to grow rapidly. Various civilians began sueing the supers who saved them, using the injuries they've sustained and public property that was destroyed by the supers ‘saving' their lives. The first one involved the stallion who was originally saved by Iron Steed from an attempted suicide off of the Equestrian Bank company building, but in reality, he did not want to be saved at all. This was the first ever case brought against a super in the public eye, but it was sure to not be the last.

After the first case was settled against Iron Steed, a second one soon emerged regarding the passengers of the Ramtrak shuttle that the hero had stopped from plummeting off the edge when the tracks that it was on exploded. Even though it was a heroic act, the amount of damages that needed to be paid for both the passengers and the infrastructure ended up costing the government millions.

Soon, the floodgates of similar cases followed. About every super’s flaw was exploited, making the public believe they were dangerous criminals who did more harm to the civilians than good. It soon turned that when a super did anything heroic, for every one person that thanked them, a hundred more would condemn them. Meetings of supers were met with protests and riots, with some of them attempting to vandalize the headquarters of other hero teams.

What started as a local issue in Maretropolis soon began to spread… becoming an issue on the national stage. And with the public outcry, the politicians on the Canterlot courts held a meeting to discuss the issue. But one thing from that meeting would soon set the scale of what was to come next.

“I believe that all of in this room can simultaneously agree… that it is time for heroes to have their secret identity become their only identity. To either join the rest of the public and become civilians or go away.”

With the overwhelming amount of pressure from the public and the growing financial trouble from the numerous different lawsuits, Princess Celestia and her sister, Luna, both silently authorized the Superhero Relocation Plan. Supers were forced to hang up their costumes for good in return for being pardoned for past actions. To become civilians like everyone else, ensuring peace would follow without them.

So… Where are they now? These former champions of justice now live among us. Average citizens, average heroes. Quietly and anonymously living in order to make the world a better place for all creatures around the world.

The ringing of phones were heard, followed by the murmurs of every creature around, all waiting to be called to address an issue about their vehicle. Sitting behind one of the kiosks was Shining Armor, who had a 5 o'clock shadow growing, trying his best to stay awake. Ever since he had to hang up his suit, he had been working at different jobs… and with this one, he was working at the maretropolis location for the DMT. The department of motorized transports. With no real need for him to do anything physical, among other things, he had gained a lot of weight. Thankfully, part of it was hidden under his desk as he was trying to look over the paperwork in one of the files on his desk.

He looked up to the clock in the center, seeing an hour had barely past. A groan of anguish escaped from him. When he said he wanted to settle down all those years ago, he did not mean it like this, sitting behind a desk and hearing people complain about their vehicle problems. Back in his prime, he was one for trying to help the public… now though, helping the public was seen as just doing community service.

Though, it was just as he was thinking about this that the phone that was at his desk began to ring. Sluggishly, he picked it up using his left hand while having the right one reorganize the papers he was looking through. “You’ve reached the Department of Motorized Transports. Where would you like for me to-?”

“Hey there dear,” A rather familiar voice could be heard over the phone. The voice of his wife, Cadance, was speaking to him as Shining scanned the room to make sure nopony was coming towards him as he continued to listen. “I’m calling to celebrate a rather special occasion. We are now… officially moved in.”

As she was saying that, Shining could hear the sounds of what sounded like their baby daughter, Skyla, playing with something. Perhaps her toys maybe? Who knows. “That’s great to hear, honey… and the last two years don’t count because…”

“Because I finally opened up the last box… which was full of your nerdy games and collectibles, so now, it’s official!” Cadance said, alongside a fake laugh. Which caused her husband to sigh deeply as he tried to rub his eyes.

“It's not nerdy, it's authentic.”

“So Ogres & Oubliettes is authentic to you? I kind of see why…” His wife chuckled. “Even found your collectible puzzles and had to make sure I put them away before Skyla could play around with the pieces.” Around the time that he was listening to her speak though, he noticed a couple of his fellow co-workers passing by. One of them looking rather suspicious at him for a moment before wandering off.

“We’ll talk later about this. I gotta get back to work. Love ya, honey.”

“Love you too. It’s around that time for me to pick up the kids anyway,” He heard Cadance say to him. “Go save the world. See you later.”

And with that, the call ended. Leading the stallion to place his phone back on the ringer as he let out a deep sigh. However, he couldn’t exactly catch a break as the next person that came up to him was the last pony that he wanted to see right now.

His boss… and he wasn’t happy. “Armor…”

“Uh… my wife says hi.” Shining spoke.

“I’m not here to talk about that…” The stallion told him, looming over his desk. “I’m here to talk about the fact that you’ve been helping ponies contest their parking tickets and violations. Something that is not part of your job description, matter of fact your department. What? Do you think that what you’re supposed to be doing is optional to you?!”

“Well, someone needs to help them, isn't that what I’m doing?”

“Yes, but you’re supposed to be helping us by helping them! Do you have any idea as to what goes through my head in terms of how exactly I can keep this department branch open when you treating this facility like it’s some kind of charity case!?!” And like that, his boss stormed off, slamming the door at the back of the room with enough force to cause the papers that Shining had neatly put away to spill out and scatter everywhere. Leaving a disgruntled stallion to have to clean it up all over again.

Cadance opened the door to the principal’s office, having received a call about her son, Valiant Heart, just before she left home. Inside was not only the principal and her son, but what appeared to be her son’s science teacher. And from the looks of it, he wasn’t exactly happy right now.

“Welcome, Mrs. Heart,” The principal said, motioning his hand towards an empty seat. “Please, have a seat.” Her son cowered at the sight of his mom, looking nervous.

Valiant Heart was an Earth Pony, Cadance and Shining’s second born child, and their son. He was covered in a blue tinted, grey coat, with a dark blue and yellow striped mane and tail. Despite being an earth pony, he was rather flimsy looking, nowhere near looking towards the ideal strong or athletic type that most ponies would think of. He wore a simple green, button up shirt, with cargo shorts.

“Mr. Teach,” Cadance spoke, addressing the principal by his name. “Did Valiant do something wrong?”

“He's a disruptive student in my class, pulling off various pranks on me.” Valiant’s teacher answered in a professional tone that was holding back his anger.

“Mr. Beaker,” The principal now addressed the teacher, turning towards him. “Do you have any sizable proof to your claims that this student is being ‘disruptive’.”

“No!... I mean, yes!... I think.”

“I think you're getting too old for this.” Valiant spoke up. Causing his mother to roll her eyes for a moment.

“Oh yeah!? Guess what!? I hid a camera! And I’ve got you in the act!” That had the colt gasp for a moment and caused Cadance to shoot a glare at her son as Mr. Beaker walked over to the TV in the back of the room. Yet, as he was trying to get it to work… most of the tape came out as static and the only time that it seemed to work… was when he looked to have accidentally dropped a packet of pentos into a container of cola. Which had the students hide under the desk so they would not get caught in the explosion. Mr. Beaker smacked the TV and rewinded the footage, which showed the same thing.

“Mr. Beaker… I don’t think your ‘evidence’ here proves anything.” The principal then told him.

“It was working just a few minutes ago!” He turned and pointed at Valiant accusingly “What did you do!? What did you do to the TV and tape!?”

“Me? I’m just sitting here!” The colt said in response.

“... I’m sorry for wasting your time, Mrs. Heart.” The principal apologized before motioning them to exit. “I’ll need to have a chat with Mr. Beaker.”

“You're letting him go away again!?” Mr. Beaker yelled in frustration as Cadance and Valiant walked out. “That colt is guilty I say!! Guilty! Guilty!! GUILTY!!”

By the time that they had walked out of the door and made their way over to the car, Cadance noticed that her son looked… a bit different. Almost as if he either got away with something or that he thought he was let off the hook.

And around the time that they were driving over to go pick up his older sister, Cadance thought that the drive over would be the proper time to talk about it.

“... Val, this is the third time this year you've been sent to the principal's office.” Cadance spoke, using the nickname she had for him ever since he was a baby. But her comment just lead to Val letting out a sigh and not really saying anything in response. “You need to find a better outlet, a constructive one.”

“Maybe I could…” Valiant grumbled, before saying something that lead to Cadance immediately replying back. “If you would let me be part of the computer club.”

“Val, you know we can't do that.” Cadance replied back.

“But I promise not to make the computers run faster rate! I’ll not put any input into the mainframe! Pleeease!?” Her son pleaded, even going as far as to be looking directly at her instead of looking out the window.

“For the last time, Valiant, we know you have a knack for anything technological, but you need to be more social and interact with your fellow peers. You remember what the psychologist said about your… condition.” When she meant ‘condition’, she was referring to what would be her son’s powers. He could release a small electrical field around him that was invisible to the naked eye, and with it, be able to use any form of technology to his liking. Even going as far as to either ‘modify’ something to work better or combine more than one thing to make something new out of it.

“But there's other people in that club, and I’m not gonna mix the computers together to form a supercomputer.” Valiant pleaded again.

“Well, to make sure that doesn't happen, you just need to fit in, like what your father and I have done. We just need to be like everyone else.” Cadance insisted, pushing on the brake pedal as they approached a red light.

“But dad says our powers shouldn't be ashamed of! Our powers is what makes us all special.” Her son told her, almost like it was his last chance to try and convince Cadance to think otherwise.

“Everyone is special, Val.”

“Special, my flank.” The earth pony grumbled, before staring outside to watch everything go by. Sounding defeated in his efforts.

The last bell rang all around the campus of Maretropolis High as students began to leave their classrooms and make their way towards the exit. Sitting outside and drawing a flower in great detail was a pink unicorn with a swirly magenta and light blue mane & tail. Despite it being springtime, she wore a really thick, blue jacket, in combination with matching pants.

As she was putting the last details on her drawing, that was when she heard a voice above her that surprised her. “Hey, that looks pretty good.”

“EEP!!!” She jumped, quickly putting her stuff away. “Uh, y-you weren't meant to see that! That was for-” She stopped as she got a good look at the pony who complimented her drawing. It was Pound Cake, the new student from a town called Ponyville. He was a pegasus, covered in a creme coat and had a wavy brown mane & tail, wearing a black turtleneck.

“What? I was just telling you how nice it is,” He replied, before saying something as a look of realization was on his face now. “Hey… you’re that one girl in my art class… Flurry, right?”

“Uh… y-yeah, that's me. The lone, silent girl that sits in the corner… y-you're from Ponyville, right?” She asked, sounding nervous.

“Yep. Both of my parents run their own bakery called Sugarcube Corner over there. They had me come here to live with my Aunt Pinkie, who runs an extension bakery, believing it'll be better for me to learn responsibility.” Around that time though was when the pegasus noticed something as he looked back at her. “Hey, aren’t you warm in that jacket? It’s rather bright out.”

“Oh… it's for… fashion! Yep! Those popular girls won't know what will hit them they see me and everyone else wearing a jacket like this!”

“... But they wear jackets as well.” Pound told Flurry, who was left stuttering after hearing that and was having trouble trying to form a proper reply.

“Uh…” Like a living Deus Ex Machina, some honking was heard, with Valiant yelling.

“Come on, Flurry!”

“Oh, sorry, I gotta go! It was nice meeting you!” She quickly ran to the family's car, leaving Pound Cake alone.

“... She seems lovely.” He spoke to himself, waving goodbye as the car that Flurry got in drove away from the school and around the block.

Out of all the things that he missed from his life as being a hero, the second thing that he missed the most was the ironmobile. He had to give it up to the government as part of the Super Relocation Plan and now he had a car that was… well, rather small for somepony of his nature. His head was flat on the roof of the car, with his horn making a noticeable dent.

Then there was the fact that rush hour traffic out of the city was a complete nightmare. Every car was driving at a snail’s pace, with constant honking and everyone yelling at each other to move. If Shining had his old car, he would find some shortcut he could use to get around this blockade… but his daydream came to a halt by sompony honking behind him, despite Shining having nowhere to move. He needed to find a better job as soon as possible.

With what felt like an eternity, Shining made it home, his rust bucket of a car letting out a sputter as it came to a parking stop in his driveway. He let out a sigh of relief, getting out of his car… tripping on a skateboard, making him react and grab the car for dear life. A grumble escaped from him as he kicked the skateboard away from under his left hoof.

“Freaking kids.” He regained his balance and turned to see that, as he grabbed the roof of his car, he gripped too hard and left what looked like the grip of his hand on it. “Oh great!”

He closed the door, only for it to not close properly. Blocked by the dent, but it was something he did not notice as he tried closing it again… and again… and again. A growl escaped from him as he slammed the door shut… only for the door to fall off its hinges. Rage took over the stallion as he turned into his metal form, grabbed the door and tried to shove it back into place. His anger came to a stop as he saw a brown colt, wearing a spinning hat, sitting on a tricycle, watched him in shock. Silence fell as Shining went back to normal, awkwardly chuckled, and pushed the door back into place before walking into his house. Hopefully, he’d get the chance to try and relieve some stress that he had after a long day at work.

Again… Hopefully.

Author's Note

Now, we are in the present. And with it, we meet Shining and Cadance's children. Flurry Heart, the oldest of the three, who is a unicorn attending Maretropolis High and excelling at school despite social anxiety. Valiant Heart, the mischievous earth pony who is in the forth grade and who's habits sometimes get him in trouble. And lastly we have Skyla, the little pegasus who Cadance always has to keep an eye on.

We'll be seeing more of them in the next chapter... as well as going more in detail about the special... gifts that both Flurry and Valiant have. While also bringing back an old friend.
-Frost