This story is a sequel to Princess Twilight's Profoundly Peripheral Protector
Big threats were nothing new to Storm Kicker. Even before entering the service of Princess Twilight Sparkle, Storm's career had brought her head-to-head with some of the worst Equestria could offer, and more still—from water monsters in Canterlot to the changeling invasion. She knew when she agreed to be Princess Twilight Sparkle's bodyguard that it was probably only a matter of time before some new ancient evil broke loose, and she would need to be there, at her princess' side.
When Tirek began his assault on Equestria, Storm was ready to give her life in the service of princess. What she wasn't prepared for was Twilight sending her away. However, regardless of her princess' orders, Storm swore an oath to serve and protect her princess, and she will do what she must to fulfil it. Even if it means putting her life on the line in a hopeless battle against an enemy she cannot possibly defeat.
Storm, you tried your best and failed miserably, the lesson is: "Don't attack elder evils without a rainbow cannon."
Welcome to Equestria, enjoy your stay.
I thought that was a ponified Spiderman on the cover for a second. I'm now sadly disappointed for some reason it's not. xD
Yeah, that went about as well as expected. I feel sorry for Storm that she missed the epic laser battle, that's the kind of thing you really need to see to believe.
I'm pretty sure you meant either "At least, none of the stories Dad told me were that over-the-top." or something like "At least, none of the stories I heard from Dad were that over-the-top."
if Storm thinks she's hurt now, just wait till Rainbow and Cloud get their hooves on her. While I'm sure a few Kickers would be proud she managed to wear the armor at all considering it's reputation, these two won't so considerate.
So, just out of curiosity, is this going to be a thing, like "The Adventures of Storm Kicker: Guardian of Friendship" or something like that? Because if this story and the previous are any indication, that would be awesome.
4399026
An important life lesson we must all learn at some point.
This really makes me look forward to the part in The Lunar Rebellion where Celestia enchants the armor for Shadow to use.
The armor was going to let Twilight Sparkle wear it? Just like that? Sure Twilight's an alicorn princess, but...
So, the moral of today's story is "When you've successfully conned an ancient anti-magic artifact into helping you, don't charge the ancient power-stealing villain until you can double-team him with the quad-boosted alicorn library princess."
...that's a rubbish lesson, let's just go with something something Friendship and call it a day
4399530
The armor was using a loophole in it's "programming" to let Storm wear it. Shadow Kicker was/is a crafty one.
Nice story as always. I really liked learning more about the armor too since sunbeam just requested to enchant it in Lunar Rebellion, but it's obviously surpassed the power Sunbeam can put into it.
THE ARMOR! We finally get to see the armor in action!
And...that ending was really touching. Thanks.
Dawww...that ending.
I, for one, am now curious about Cloud being "fat".
Btw, I noticed two typos, but I'm on my phone right now, so I'm not really able to point them out.
No one seems to be paying attention to the important issue right now.
, and possibly who the "lucky stallion" is.
The reason behind cloud's "fattness."
Hah! Nicely done, Storm and shadow armour... guardian... thing! Way to work the system!
Also, Celestia, you are a muppet. You don't have your OWN set of magic-resistant armour? Yes, nevermind it might interfere with your own magic, in a crisis like this, that might be a good sacrifice to make (especially as it means Tirek can't easily get at it!) Actually, it wouldn't though, would it? Since the armour was willing to let Twilight wear it, one presumes it wouldn't block her magic. Yeah, you're definitely being a muppet, Celestia...!
Food for thought: What if Tirek somehow got a hold of the Alicorn Amulet?
4399530 Well let's think about it. I mean Shadow searched Storm's heart and memories, and had to have gotten a decent grasp of who Twilight was. Seeing as Celestia has made Twilight her personal student, an alicorn princess, entrusted her with all the alicorn magic in Equestria (which Shadow would know as soon as Twilight touched the armor), and that she's a previous element bearer, I doubt Shadow would countermand Celestia's ability to judge someone's character to the point that she wouldn't at least make a temporary exception.
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4399530
*Cough* The Failure Song *cough*
Storm/Twilight best Protector/Princess Ship!
*Alondro snipes Tirek through the back of the skull with a cold iron crossbow bolt traced with ancient mithril runes.*
When in doubt, shoot at it!
4400543
Considering what we know there is a very high likelihood that it wasn't a stallion at all. The question would be which of the particularly close lovers of Cloud Kicker brought it on. Since we know in that case it would be a born of love foal it would have to be a pony that Cloudkicker loves as much as the other loves her (and possibly desires a kid I don't think we have hard and fast rules on this aspect of reproduction yet).
4401580 or maybe she's just a little lazy...yeah never mind, she's pregnant.
Now all we need to figure out is who the significant other is, when's the wedding, and what she's going to name him/her. Pinkie can make the party arrangements. 
:IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
4401680, 4400022
Typos fixified. I expect my pre-readers to give themselves at least five lashes for missing each of them (never mind the fact that I was the one who messed up those words in the first place).
4402110 I tend to catch at least one each time I read one of your stories, or chapters, for that matter. Either I now have to volunteer to join your army or pre-readers, or suggest you give them more than five.
4402147
Either one is acceptable.
4402278 I'm a merciful sort, so I'll join your pre-readers, and your current ones can only have two, no, three lashes. How does that sound?
So, Shadow's armor, which was designed to fight in a war against pegasi and maybe earth ponies, is enchanted to be the perfect defense against magic users, but was not designed to protect against heavy physical blows.
Celestia, why you fail to design armor for the enemies being fought?
And apparently Shadow is handing out the armor like "you tried" stickers now... Poor Cloudy, you should have lied and said you planned to take the armor to Rainbow Dash... Or Twilight, or hell, any of the six would have worked. Actually, Pinkie in magic resistant armor would be hilarious to watch.
this is the part where you say "okay, bullcrap. Nobody's pure of heart, Sister, least of all you--- and late in the night when you were lying in your bed going over your past sins, you knew it too. Princess Twilight can't wait, EQUESTRIA can't wait, for your pure-hearted champion because there's no such thing. I'm all you've got, take it or leave it-- no, take it or SHOVE it, because I'm taking the armor and doing my duty whether you like it or not."
4402291
Works for me.
4403026 Let me know when you want me to pre-read, and when your current ones have had their lashes.
4402921 Magical artifacts are so hard to reason with...
4400677
Then he could leech off his own magic, which by virtue of being enhanced by the amulet would be greater, and then start leeching it again, and the infinite feedback loop for fun and profit
4399652
Indeed. There are some very specific limits on the armor to prevent anyone unsuitable from using. Arguably the limits go too far, given that Cloud couldn't get to the Armor in the middle of a crisis. Sure, Cloud was thinking that getting the Armor would validate her choices and prove she was a "real" Kicker, and that's not a good reason to go looking for powerful magical artifacts.
Whether her having a few somewhat selfish desires overrides the fact that her main reason for going for the Armor was to help her family and Equestria is questionable, but the current security spells don't deal with grey areas very well. Either your heart is pure, or it isn't.
4402460
Well, once we get to the forging of the Armor itself (which my current plans say will be at the end of "Rising Shadows") Celestia's reasons for setting it up as it is will fit. Suffice to say there were other concerns.
Shouldn't there be a Twilicorn tag?
4405144
Yes. Yes there should.
I cannot wait to read this! Quick question first. Where's the Inuhoshi-to-Darkpen cover art? That's kind of thing with your stories. Were they not available or what's up?
4405390
Inuhoshi's been a bit busy lately, and I wanted to get this story out while the Season 4 Finale was still relatively fresh in everyone's mind.
I for one would like to see the Rainbow Dash and Cloud Kicker follow up. Especially to see if Cloudy has gained some weight...
Oh good lord... Pinky Pie throwing a Foal Shower and Get Better Party all in one.
So when Princess Celestia constructed this, she used her Alicorn magic, correct?
4404130 In that case, the universe is doomed!
static.gamespot.com/uploads/original/394/3940757/2516400-1675514320-c163c.jpg
4406718
Quite, as the laws of Thaumodynamics state: "You always loose"
KICKEEEEEEERRRR
Awesome. Absolutely awesome.
I want to see a sequel to this that has Twilight and Storm together >.>
Um... I like this universe you've built, and that's the only reason why I comment, so don't take this as hate mail (comment), but I don't really like this story's conclusion. I mean, the story was great... But it was... stupid (that's not the word I want to use, but... It's how I feel about it.)
What I mean is, Twilight specifically ordered Storm to protect her friends and Ponyville, but she runs off, abandoning that duty. Then she comes back, finds her friends captured (kind of the thing she was ordered to prevent), and leaves them captured (I know this was brushed off with the 'just as safe in there' bit, but really?) and then rather help them, (which is odd because she already has expressed the knowledge that having others involved gives their enemies power over Twilight (as is exactly what happens)) she leaves them trapped and goes off not to do what she said was her true objective (giving the armor to Twilight), but rather she goes out to fight Tirek in direct and flagrant opposition to her orders, and even in opposition to her heartfelt speech to Shadow about overcoming her pride (invalidating said speech, because she goes right out and does what se said she wasn't intending to do)
So, my major issue with this story is that it just kills Storm's character for me. She knowingly and flagrantly disobeyed orders twice, abandoned her post once, made a heartfelt speech of understanding her duty and sacrificing her pride for it, and then immediately invalidates it by doing exactly what she swore to her ancestor (and Twilight) not to do, and then, in the end it has no real effect on the outcome anyway.
The worst part in my mind, is the fact that we can see as readers, that if she had just followed orders and kept Twilight's friends safe, then Tirek would have been at a disadvantage, no longer having Twilight's friends as hostages. Similarly if she had actually followed through and just brought the armor to Twilight like she said she would...
Also, as a final unrelated thought, if Storm did manage weaken Tirek so much from the form that Twilight was perfectly matched with, wouldn't Twilight have been able to overpower him before the hostages came into play? (That would have at least given some consequence to Storm's actions...)
That cover art, though.
You never cease to amaze me, Chengar. Storm is one of my favorite side-characters of the Winningverse and it was nice to see her in action. Loved the fight scene and narration, especially.
I also liked your characterization for Tirek. He had a lot of... I don't wanna say "personality" since he was kind of stone faced in the show. You took his already-solid characterization and brought him to life, and I really liked that, as brief as it was.
Honestly I was disappointed with this one.
Part of that is my fault for letting my expectations get so high. I had been putting off reading this until I had seen the final and I have really enjoyed just about everything else of yours that I have read so I was really looking forward to reading this. I got about a quarter of the way through before I just stopped caring. It's clear that this was very rushed. The quality of the characterization of Twilight and Storm Kicker is so much lower than in the previous story that its hard to believe they're supposed to be the same characters. They both seem extremely flat, their dialog and Storm's thoughts just mechanically put to paper to get from point A to point B. It read not so much as a story but as the summary of a story retold by someone who wasn't that interested in the first place.
I have genuinely enjoyed most of your other works but this one has missed the mark with me.
Every time I read one of your chapters, I find mistakes. No offense to you or your prereaders, I love your stories, but I can't help but think you might need a bit of help with your proofing. I preread and proof Diaries of a Madman, which as you may know is a massively long story, with very long chapters. It is also an extremely well-written story, with excellent attention to grammatical detail. Whatmustido is an exceptional writer and I've learned a lot working with him over the past couple of years. If you need someone else to preread, I would be happy to offer my services. I enjoy your work enough to consider it a privilege.
Still waiting to find out who knocked up Kicker, unless she really is just putting on a few pounds, Derpy's muffins are very tasty after all.