//------------------------------// // Prologue - Chapter 9 // Story: Summary of Storm of Secrets // by Beware The Carpenter //------------------------------// Prologue – 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.