12 - Tales Of The Past

“I met Storm right after I first became a Ranger.” Shining Armor was saying “I had just passed initiation as a Royal Guard, and was hoof-picked to go with a team of Guards to receive special training in the Everfree Forest. As Twilight knows, I joined the Royal Guards right out of high school, barely over the legal age limit of eighteen. I finished a three year training course in two years by taking every extra class I could so I was used to being the youngest cadet around and fully expected to be the youngest Ranger; then I met Storm. He was two years younger than me, and had already been a Ranger for some time. I don't know how or when he became a Ranger, or what he was before then, the amount of scars he already had and the fact he thought it was strange I'd never killed anyone before, was enough to tell me that it wasn't anything good. I asked him several times about his past and each time he refused to tell me. If I ever pressed the issue, he became angry, which I learned very early on was a dangerous thing to do.

One Ranger told me that his mother was pregnant with him when she got lost in the forest and was attacked by a terrormonger whose illusions made her go into labor, causing Storm to be born on the battlefield. The Ranger said that as his mother lay dying from blood loss, Storm was rescued and then raised by a pack of timber wolfs, before being found and tamed by Zecora and that he now hunts the terrormongers out of vengeance for his murdered mother. Needless to say I'm certain the Ranger was joking, though at the time it almost seemed plausible.

I asked several more Rangers where Storm came from but none of them seemed to know. I asked Zecora who advised that I should respect Storm's privacy if I wanted to earn his trust. Eventually Storm found out that I was asking about him and said if he wanted me to know about his life he would have told me, and made some very definite implications about what would happen to me if I kept digging; I haven't brought the matter up since. Now, if I had the chance to find out where Storm is really from, I don't think I'd want to know. I know he mentioned having a younger sister, but I don't think I ever met her.”

“Sounds like you two got off to a pretty rocky start?” mused Twilight.

“That would be putting it lightly.”

“So why did you keep spending time together?”

“Wasn't our choice; we were paired as training partners and weren’t allowed to swap (not that anyone would swap with me if they could). My first tour to the forest was for purely training purposes and lasted two months before being rotated back to Canterlot. I spent most of that time training with Storm and by the end of it we had figured out some sort of crud friendship. I rotated back several more times over the next couple years and each time I was again partnered with Storm, first for more training, then for real missions as we got older. I was better at all forms of magic except teleporting, he was better with blades and close combat. Together; we were a powerful team.”

Twilight smiled “It's good to hear you worked things out eventually. I'm guessing you two ended up being pretty close since he was willing to do the body swap with you.”

Shining Armor shook his head, “I think it's his way of thanking me for saving his life.”

“You saved him?” asked Rainbow in surprise.

“It was one of the last times we met, after that I got rotated back to Canterlot and on my next tour was assigned to a different partner. So I think, in his mind, this makes us even.”

“Can you tell us about it?” asked Twilight.

“It was at Forest Jaws,” after receiving blank looks from Twilight and Rainbow Dash, realization snapped back to Shining Armor. “Right, raw recruits” he murmured. “Forest Jaws was the last great battle of the forest and you should know about it if you’re going to spend any time here.” Both mares silently nodded and Shining Armor continued.

“It was about a decade ago, we had recently suffered heavy casualties in our skirmishes and the terrormongers took the opportunity to mass their forces for an all out attack. We tried to gather our forces, but failed to recognize some changeling infiltrators and so rendezvoused in a dozen different places. By the time we figured this out, it was too late to gather more than half our troops and by the time the terrormonger army had come as close as we could let them to the edge of the forest, we only had about eight hundred Rangers to stop at least three thousand terrormongers, not counting changelings and wild animals. Worse; they had built a terror throne; it's a sort of movable dais which amplifies the energies of terrormongers closest to it; the Horrorlords and their generals will ride on top and from there they telepathically command their army. Needless to say, without an Ursa Major to break their spells, we and Equestria were doomed.

We made our stand between the first and second dragon walls, and dispersed two dozen of our best Ursa handlers west towards to the only Ursa Major in the area. The terrormongers could have overrun us immediately if they were willing to sustain heavy casualties, but they were waiting for the sun to go down as their illusions are easier to create when natural shadows are already prevalent. Our bid was that we would get the Ursa before the sun went down and then launch our own attack; their bid was that we wouldn't get the Ursa in time and they would slaughter us throughout the night.

While the main camp prepared its defenses, small teams of Rangers were posted as sentries to provide advanced warning against attacks; Storm and I were one such team. I don't know where the chain broke, but somewhere along the line, one of the teams was killed without raising the alarm and without our flanks covered, Storm and I were attacked, without warning, on three sides. Storm took a blow to the head and was knocked unconscious; I threw him on my back and after some dead enemies, a few teleports, and a lot of luck, managed to get us both back to the camp. Zecora was there, and within a few minutes had him back on his hooves.”

Rainbow couldn't tell if Shining Armor was just thinking, or if he had really reached the end of his story, having told how he saved Storm. She waited for him to start again but after a few moments of watching him stare off into space lost her patience, “and then the Ursa herders got back with the Ursa Major and you smashed the terrormongers. Right?”

“No” said Shining Armor somewhat absent mindedly, “The terrormongers had set up an ambush for the herders outside of the Ursa Major’s cave. The herders were slaughtered with the exception of one pegasus who escaped back to the camp, to tell us we were all doomed.”

Shining Armor went back to his thinking and Rainbow started feeling annoyed. “I'm guessing you won the battle?”

“You guess correctly.”

“How, did you win the battle?”

Shining Armor stopped looking off into space and refocused on the mares, “There's something important that I should have told you about before I started this story.”

“What's that?” asked Twilight eagerly.

“It wasn't a 'what,' that saved us at Forest Jaws; it was a 'who'. A young pegasus with a coat of glimmering silver, a mane of shining gold and a cutie mark of a ray of light breaking through black storm clouds. Her strength and courage were matched only by her brilliance and honor; and her flying skills were beyond compare. When her legend is told a hundred years from now, those who hear will probably assume the story must have been exaggerated over the years, as her exploits were too incredible to be true. But I assure you that she was real, I saw her, and her name was Denorious.

Rainbow smirked when Shining Armor mentioned Denorious's flying abilities and looked lovingly back at her own two wings, “Sounds cool, maybe she's almost as fast as me, do you think?” Dash knew she was the only pegasus to break the sound barrier in centuries, and had first done so when she was just nine years old, (sure it took her ten more years to be able to do it at will, but that was beside the point). Even the Wonderbolts had thought the sonicrainboom was just a myth until she preformed it at the best young flier’s competition; the morons thought because they hadn't seen it and it was beyond what they could do, it was impossible for anypony.

“I think she'd mop the sky with you” said Shining Armor coldly, “She could do things that weren’t meant to even be possible such as breaking the sound barrier which she could do at will from the time she was seven. Shortly after Denorious joined the Rangers, we began catching an influx of changeling infiltrators, all trying to learn about some secret weapon they thought we had created which supposedly caused the freak lightning storms which were decimating their forces. It took us almost as long as the changelings to realize that what they had thought was lightning was actually Denorious, moving faster than the eye could see, leaving a trail of golden light behind her, and what they thought was thunder was really the sonic boom she created whenever broke the sound barrier.”

Rainbow repressed a wave of jealous fury and counter attacked, “Well... the fact that there were stories meant some of them got away. So she couldn't have been that good.”

“You don't know a lot about warfare, do you? By leaving one or two survivors to go back and tell the rest of the army about this mysterious ‘super weapon’; Denorious demoralized hundreds for every life she spared and sent dozens of infiltrators into our waiting grasp, looking for something that didn't exist. Leaving one or two survivors after each battle was genius.”

“Well... I still have the highest wing power of any pegasus ever recorded in Equestria: Seventeen point eight!”

“Twenty-one point four.”

“But that's, that's more than me! A lot more. Like... I'm not sure how much, but a lot.”

“About twenty percent,” piped Twilight doing some quick calculations. “No wait, slightly more.”

“Yes” confirmed Shining Armor, “Slightly more than twenty percent faster than Rainbow Dash here. Of course; that was when she first joined the Rangers. She kept getting faster after that and eventually peaked at somewhere around twenty-five wing power, which would be... forty percent faster than Rainbow Dash.”

“Forty percent!” yelled Dash; furious at this mare who had stolen her identity without even having had the courtesy to have done it to her face. “That’s... that's not possible!”

“And because you never saw it and it's beyond what you can do, it's impossible for anypony. Am I right?”

Dash could do nothing but grumble under her breath that there had to have been a mistake somewhere. “Cheer up Rainbow Dash” encouraged Twilight, “You're still the best flier I know and being second best isn't so bad.”

“Hey Twilight” said Shining Armor, “Remind me, what did you get on your IQ test?”

“One-seventy-two” answered Twilight proudly, “The highest in Celestia's school for gifted unicorns.”

“Well Denorious was a pegasus and never attended Celestia's school for gifted unicorns; if she had, she would have beaten you by thirteen points with her IQ of one-eighty-five.”

Twilight's jaw dropped and for a moment Dash wondered if she was about to go into cardiac arrest, “Are-are you sure you don't mean one-fifty-eight?”

“Quite sure.”

“She must be brilliant” whispered Twilight after a pause that seemed to go on forever.

“She was. Even in her earliest days as a Ranger, Denorious had a mind for war that bested veterans who had been fighting in the forest since before she was born; and her unique ability to create a sonic boom gave life to her brilliance. I already told you how the Rangers cannot communicate over long distances or the terrormongers will send fake messages. For some reason, a sonic boom is the only known sound which the terrormongers are unable to replicate, giving Denorious the unique ability to coordinate the Rangers into unified attacks, or give warning to impending invasions. In an endless sea of illusions and deceit, Denorious became the one shining anchor of truth upon which we knew we could rely. Rangers would flock to the sound of her sonic boom, while our enemies would flee from it as though it were death to them causing many Rangers to affectionately name her 'The War Drum of the Forest.'

She led by example in everything she did. She personified meekness, manifested courage and embodied hope. She would have died for any Ranger, and any Ranger would have died for her. The light she carried within her, spread from Ranger to Ranger, inspiring hope in the darkest of places, striking courage into frail hearts and multiplying the loyalty we felt to the cause and for each other. In more ways than I could ever understand, Denorious united the Rangers, and came to represent everything we were fighting for, and more.”

A hundred years? Dash didn’t believe his story now. There was no way one pony could possibly be all those things. Shining Armor was probably still mad at her for lying about the Wonderbolts and was making this up to irk her as a way of getting even. Next he'd probably say that Denorious wrote the Daring Do novels in her sleep, invented socks, and could juggle fifteen live camels with both wings and four hooves tied behind her back.

“As if that were not enough;” continued Shining Armor “to many of the Rangers she was the very image of beauty. Her loveliness was praised throughout the forest, yet almost always laced with infinite respect. So far as I know Denorious was never romantically in love with any Ranger, if she had he would have been the envy of the forest, but non-romantically, she loved everyone, and we all loved -.”

“We get it already!” Dash yelled. “She was ridiculously awesome in every way imaginable! Are you going to tell us anything about what she actually did, or just talk all night long about how great she was?!”

Twilight grinned cheekily at Shining Armor; “Careful B.B., you’re meant to be in love with Cadance, remember?”

The dreamy look on Shining Armor’s face was replaced by confusion, then embarrassment as he realized what Twilight was inferring. “Ummm… right.” He muttered finally.

Twilight giggled, Dash just rolled her eyes, impatient to find a flaw in Shining Armor’s story so she could prove he was exaggerating, “So what did she actually do?”

“Denorious grew up in a particularly crime ridden sector of Manehatten; she learned to fight at a young age and despite her small size, from her earliest school years, was able to defend herself and others from gangs of much larger attackers. Graduating school with high distinctions in almost every class, she took a position as a Jr sheriff in an effort to relieve the downtrodden city. Her first placement was with unit that had struggled for years against a rapacious and highly organized ring of criminals who foalnapped fillies from the bottom rungs of society and sold them as 'toys' to depraved stallions. All previous attempts to root them out had been thwarted, largely due to the rampart corruption within the police force itself.

Nopony really expected her (or anyone else) to be able or even try do anything, but three weeks after her placement, Denorious hit upon a trove damming evidence that lay the entire operation wide open. Apparently the leader of the Spikehoofs kept detailed accounts of the atrocities committed by each of his lieutenants, as a means of blackmailing them to ensure their loyalty, along with complete lists of corrupt officials helping him, 'clients' and 'sales'. If he went down, he wanted the power to take his entire operation with him, so that nopony would try to usurp his empire. The files were heavily encrypted and kept in the lowest cellar of his mansion, which was a virtual fortress of horrors, in an enchanted titanium safe, surrounded by thirty heavily armed guards and about two or three million bits worth of high tech security equipment and booby traps. Denorious broke in, tore through the guards, cracked the safe, stole the files, escaped, and then promptly cracked the cipher used to encode the records.

What ensued over the following months was a series of brief and bloody court proceedings; during which Denorious survived at least eighteen attempts on her life, through which she arrested an additional forty-five would be assassins. Thanks to Denorious, those few criminals who survived are spending the rest of their miserable lives in jail and hundreds of foalnapped fillies were rescued. Her resounding success brought Denorious offers for high ranking positions in law enforcement from across Equestria, and an offer from Princess Celestia to become her personal protégé; she refused them all, to become a Ranger cadet, believing it was the best way she could serve others.

Denorious tore through changelings and terrormongers, like a flaming whirlwind through paper. She first became famous when on a lone patrol, she discovered and destroyed an entire hive of newly hatched changelings, defeating the queen and scores of her offspring, just days before they would have embarked on their first raid. She became an officer when she foiled an attempt by infiltrating changeling sorcerers to revive the draconequus king Discord. Had they succeeded, Discord's chaos would have most likely spread random fear throughout Equestria, empowering the terrormongers for an all out invasion; without organized support from Canterlot, the Rangers would have been overwhelmed, and Equestria would have fallen. A few Rangers still debate whether or not this was the first time Denorious saved Equestria or if Discord and the terrormongers might have killed each other, giving us a chance to rebuild; but not one neighsayer has ever questioned that if it had not been for Denorious at Forest Jaws, Equestria would have certainly fallen into darkness.

When Denorious saw that the Ursa herders had failed, she went out alone and fought her way through the ambush which had slaughtered the Ursa-herders, then turned her full strength against the Ursa Major.”

“Wait a second” Dash challenged, “If getting the Ursa Major was sooooo important and if Denorious was sooooo good, why wasn't she with the herders to begin with?”

“Because while Denorious had mastered almost every other art of the Rangers, with everything else she was doing, she had never afforded the time to undergo the months of required training. Remember she was very young, barely a grown mare when this happened.”

Rainbow still wasn't convinced, “Well if it takes dozens of trained experts to handle an Ursa, how did Denorious do it alone? Did she just learn all the calls on the spot, and grow a horn to do the magic?”

“Denorious didn’t use the calls and signals to attract the Ursa; she attacked it. She began hitting the Ursa and its cub at supersonic speeds until it chased her all the way to the battlefield. If it ran from her she chased it towards the field, if it chased her she spun and led it towards the field, if it left the pursuit she turned like an angry wasp and attacked it again until it resumed its pursuit.

The sun had almost fully set, the terrormongers had begun their final push which would win them Equestria, and the Rangers were preparing to die, when over the din of battle we heard the sonic boom of Denorious, echoed by the roar of the Ursa Major. Seconds later the Ursa came into view as it ripped through the remaining trees that separated it from the battlefield, tearing a sudden gash of sunlight across the battlefield. It was the largest Ursa I had ever seen, rearing thirty stories on its mountainous green legs but she was outshone by the pegasus above her, shining like an angel of silver and gold in the light of the setting sun. The beasts controlled by the terrormongers fled at the sight of them, more fearful of the Ursa then any image the terrormongers could conjure. The Ursa inspected the battlefield for a moment, and then in another futile effort to catch Denorious, brought its great paw crashing down onto the terror throne, shattering the backbone of the terrormonger army in one blow. But that was nothing compared to what happened next.”

Twilight looked confused, “But if Denorious had just broken the majority of the terrormonger’s leaders in one hit, hadn’t you won the battle by now?”

“Not yet, there were still thousands of ordinary changeling and terrormonger soldiers to deal with. As you will remember the main point of having an Ursa Major was so we could link our minds to it for the double reasons of letting its senses enfold us to dispel the illusions and letting its calm indifference to the battle annihilate our fear. We had never used the spell en-mass on an angry Ursa before; nopony had ever been stupid or crazy enough to try. I don't know which unicorn cast the spell, but within seconds hundreds of worriers who had been retreating only moments before had had their minds linked to an enraged mother ursa protecting her cub.

Courage and rage literally exploded among the Rangers and an instantaneous counter attack began without leader or signal into the disorganized terrormonger ranks. I can't describe the feeling of power we all felt as we charged into the fray, heedless of the danger, as we kicked and slashed and blasted everything in sight, and our enemies fled and died before us like leaves before a fire.

Our mad courage might well have been the deaths of all of us if not for one final saving act by Denorious. Being the only one who was out of range when the spell was cast, Denorious alone realized that if the Ursa were to take a step, it could crush a dozen of us, and if it lay down, it could kill us all. Denorious flicked the ursa's left ear, causing it to swing its head left to try and catch her; then doubled back and flew straight through its gaping jaws. The ursa's head gave another huge swing, this time all the way to the right, missing her by a tail and before it could regain its balance, Denorious flew straight down, crashing into one of the ursa's toes. The Ursa lifted its paw at the same moment its head reached the end of its ability to stretch; making it lose its balance and come crashing down into the retreating terrormonger forces, crushing an estimated six-hundred enemies, yet miraculously not a single Ranger.”

“That’s it!” shouted Dash who could no longer contain her frustrated excitement and started flying in tight circles around the tree-house, leaving rainbow colored streaks behind her. “As soon as we get Storm and Cadance I’m going to find Denorious and see how fast she really is. Where is she!?"

Twilight shot an annoyed look at Dash then looked worryingly at Shining Armor, realizing that he only ever spoke of Denorious in the past tense, “Did she survive the battle?”

Shining Armor nodded, “She did survive, and was unanimously named Ranger One during the victory celebrations.”

Rainbow had calmed down enough to know her question hadn’t been answered but Twilight's was even though she asked first, “So when can we see her?”

Shining Armor glared at her, obviously furious at her attitude though keeping a rigid demeanor. “It's possible you may see her one day” he said stiffly, “But I don't know where she is, she couldn’t race you even if she wanted and every Ranger who fought beside her has now been permanently banished from her presence... under penalty of death.”

“What!?” Rainbow stopped midair and landed, “You’re kidding right she didn't become your leader and then just leave you all right after that did she?”

Shining Armors face showed he wasn't joking but he said nothing.

“Tell us what happened” begged Twilight, “Did the Rangers make her angry somehow?”

“For two months she led the Rangers. In those months, we pursued the tattered remnants of the terrormongers and changelings deep into the forest, taking ground daily, and suffering only minimal casualties. Many of us hoped that Denorious would lead us all the way into the terrormonger homeland where we would destroy them once and for all; but the new leaders of the terrormongers understood the enemy they faced in Denorious seemed to focus their entire war effort around killing her. Countless attacks were made and innumerable traps were set. She evaded them all, but one.

Fifteen Rangers were captured on deep patrol and used to bait her into a confrontation, she was still weak from a previous battle only hours earlier but set off immediately to rescue them before their minds were destroyed, not even taking time to gather reinforcements. But when she came for her lost Rangers she discovered that, rather than bleed the Rangers dry, the terrormongers had killed the Rangers outright. What Denorious thought to be her missing Rangers were in fact changelings. When she tried to help them, they attacked her, and were immediately reinforced by nine powerful terrormonger necromancers, Denorious was alone, and as of yet her absence was not even noticed.

Dash felt the skin at the back of her neck begin to crawl, as the lingering rainbows around her head dissipated. “Did you rescue her in time?”

Shining Armor continued at last as though the knowledge brought him unbearable pain “They tortured her beyond belief. Her captors believed that having caused their kind the most pain of any Ranger, she should suffer more than any Ranger ever had. An average Ranger who is unable to break free of a necromancer's illusions usually dies after about three days. Denorious was up against nine exceedingly powerful necromancers and lasted six. By the time we finally rescued her she was barely alive, shivering on the ground, unresponsive to our voices, recoiling at even the slightest touch and had even tried to gouge one of her own eyes out in an attempt to stop the images the terrormongers had forced into her mind.

We raced her to Canterlot, with almost half the Rangers in tow, where she was tended by Princess Celestia herself, as we camped in the courtyard, under the guise of Royal Guard training exercises. When Celestia looked into her memories however, they seemed to go on for centuries, where Denorious could do nothing but watch, and blame herself, as all life in the cosmos died agonizing deaths; only to be resurrected so they could die all over again, even more painfully. Despite all her power, Celestia was unable to remove Denorious's false memories, or restore her real ones. The only thing Celestia could offer was a memory block which would effectively give her total amnesia and remove her cutie-mark. This however, was just the beginning: Denorious suffered permanent neurological damage, making any complex muscle movement impossible, severe brain damage which robbed her of her intellect, and while her damaged eye could be made to look almost normal, she had lost all use of it.

The Princess informed us there was no way we could ever expect Denorious to return to the forest, which the Rangers accepted. It was decided that she should be retired, allowed to grow anew enjoying the peace she lost so much to win. Many Rangers fought for the right to be her caretaker in her new life but the Princess would not allow it. Celestia said the memory block on Denorious was weak, and if the memories of her past life were ever unlocked, then she could return to her previous state of endless pain and this time there may be nothing Celestia could do to heal her. The sight of anyone she recognized, the sound of any of our voices, the knowledge of the war or the forest could bring it all back to her in an instant and leave her mind broken forever. Celestia asked every Ranger to swear an oath, never to contact Denorious for any reason. This, the Rangers would not do.

Some of the Rangers either could not or refused to accept the loss of Denorious. A number of unicorns who claimed to know about mind magic, were certain that Celestia had miscalculated, and said that the true mind of Denorious would be able to break free of the false memories with the help of those Rangers who had known her best. It was irrational to challenge Celestia, I know, but emotions were running high over and a few dozen Rangers actually tried to break into the palace to find Denorious. Most of the army was neutral but I have little doubt that virtually the entire Ranger army would have been willing to storm the palace and overthrow Celestia, if they truly thought for one moment that it would help Denorious.

I was one of the only Rangers who openly supported The Princess. I had never used my energy shield on that large of a scale before, but I managed to seal the palace before it was too late and together, Celestia and I were able to convince the others that this was what was best for Denorious. In the end, the Rangers knew that there was nothing anyone could do to bring back the Denorious we all loved, and so we left, never again to see the hero who had sacrificed everything to save us.

Equestria will never know who Denorious was or how much she had meant for their freedom, and Denorious must never remember. But as for myself, Silent Storm, the Princess, and the Everfree Rangers; we will never forget.

Many Rangers still don't accept that Denorious is really gone. They say that she is just resting and that one day she will remember who she really is and return to the Everfree forest to lead us in our hour of greatest need. Its wishful thinking if you believe the Princess, but it gives the Rangers hope, and hundreds still wait for the day when her sonic boom will once again call them forth to battle.”

Twilight repressed a sob, “So that was it? You never Denorious again?”

“Not with my own eyes; but some Rangers have taken it on themselves to watch over her from a distance, although keeping their oaths to avoid direct contact. The last I ever heard about her was that after recovering in Canterlot, she became a mail-mare of a small town, and began calling herself Derpy.

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Chapter 13 >>> Side Effects