//------------------------------// // 45 - Truculence // Story: Storm Of Secrets // by Beware The Carpenter //------------------------------// Twilight stared wide eyed in curious horror at the magical debacle playing out before her. Both stallions were acting like Shining Armor, and for all intents and purposes, it seemed both of them believed they were. Just for a moment, Twilight wondered if she had been taken in by the red unicorn but quickly dismissed the possibility; she had the letter from Princess Celestia, and Celestia’s word was beyond repute. The red unicorn was Shining Armor and the white one was Storm; end of story. Mind magic was poorly understood, and most of the few spells that were known were illegal. There hadn’t been any true telepaths since the fall of the first alicorn kingdoms. Discord had apparently found them to be delightfully entertaining playthings and by the time Celestia and Luna had gathered the Elements of Harmony against him, nearly all of the telepaths who had survived his ‘games’ had become mad beasts of chaos, loyal only to Discord, and had needed to be sealed in Tartarus along with the rest of Discord’s creations. Nopony alive could hold a candle to the alicorn telepaths of old, and by the time of Discord’s defeat, barely a dozen alicorn and unicorn telepaths had survived with their sanity intact, including the Royal Sisters, and those only because their telepathy was too weak to attract Discord’s playful attentions. At the time it was believed, telepaths would soon become extinct, but then emerged pockets of pegasi and earth ponies who carried the latent gene, however faint, for mind magic, and traces of the ancient power still lingered to this day. Twilight and Shining Armor were descended from one such line and apparently, so was Storm. While she was in Celestia’s school for Gifted Unicorns, Twilight had spent many late nights secretly perusing the classified sections of the library. Despite her best efforts, the only mind magic she’d ever been able to make use of was enhancing some mnemonic techniques to make the concept of a mind palace a bit more literal for her then it was to most ponies, accounting for her phenomenal memory. Spike had downright refused to help with her research, and she’d been afraid to ask anyone else to help in experiments of questionable legality, but Twilight had carefully studied what ancient texts remained of body swapping and believed she understood the rudimentary mechanics behind a body swap enough to ascertain the truth. Storm, was lying. While it was possible that some of Shining Armor’s memories could have leaked through accidentally; Twilight was ninety-seven-point-two percent certain that Storm couldn’t legitimately think he was Shining Armor without at least some calculated decision on his part. Twilight saw two possibilities; one was that Storm was concisely trying to steal Shining Armor’s body, and was using a spell to mimic Shining Armor’s mannerisms to put on an act. The second possibility was that Storm legitimately believed he was Shining Armor. Given the accuracy of his imitation, Twilight believed the second possibility was the most likely scenario; but if it was the case Twilight was even angrier. It would have meant that Storm had cast a powerful memory spell over himself. A spell that complex would have taken at least days to develop; he couldn’t have had the energy to develop the spell after the swap meaning he had resolved to usurp Shining Armor’s body from the moment he heard about his condition, and then lied to Celestia to get what he wanted! If Shining Armor’s body was as powerful as it sounded then that could have easily motivated Storm to steal Shining Armor’s identity. Shining Armor’s body, once healed would have at least four times the energy of Storm’s old one, the ability to cast hundreds if not thousands of new spells he could never have dreamed of before, the chance to experiment with and create new spells for the good of ponykind. Twilight could only imagine what she’d do for an opportunity like that; she understood the thirst for magic and could sympathize if that’s what Storm was after, but was vehemently uncharitable towards his cause. No matter how great the prospects, no matter how tempting it was, you couldn’t just go and steal somepony else’s life! That was one of the reasons most mind magic was illegal to begin with; and that, was how a few unscrupulous unicorns like Storm, made all that fascinating research, along with the potential good it could bring, off limits to mostly law abiding unicorns like herself! Storm was a rotten liar, and the worst part about it was that Storm wasn’t just lying to her, Shining Armor or even Celestia; he was tricking Cadance, using her like she meant nothing to him! Twilight needed to help Shining Armor get his own body back. The spell itself was extremely simple, (accounting for the number of times it had been done by accident) and if both parties knew the spell and was willing; it wouldn’t take more than a few seconds. Also, assuming Twilight’s calculations were correct, if there was a mental lock over Storm that made him believe he was Shining Armor, it would break instantly when the body swap took place. Convincing him wouldn’t be easy though; now that Storm was committed to his path, he would probably be willing to say or do anything to keep Shining Armor’s body. Twilight knew Storm was lying but she couldn’t just come right out and say it. If he knew he’d been discovered he could take off running, and with that much magic it was possible that they might never catch him. She needed to be subtle about it and make him think she didn’t know who to believe; sooner or later he would slip up and then she would make him re-swap bodies with Shining Armor. ............................................................................................................................................................ Rainbow Dash threw open the last set of doors that separated herself from Storm and flew into the room. There he was! He was standing a bit closer to Cadance then she would have liked, but he was there and he was alright! Storm took one look in her direction and love, recognition and affection flooded into his face, causing Dash's heart to beat faster as he raced down the steps to meet her; he recognized- "Twily!" Storm ran straight past her like she didn’t even exist and threw his arms around Twilight's neck, drawing her close into a fervent hug. If anyone had been listening, (which they weren’t), they would have heard Dash's teeth grinding together. This was getting old. Dash's tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth as she watched the others argue in front of her, unable to think of what she should say. Both Storm and Shining Armor thought they were Shining Armor and believed the other was trying to steal their identity. It was hard to follow all the argument, but there was definitely something about Cadance being from outer space and engaged to a time traveling hippo. Dash couldn’t follow all the details but neither did she care; Cadance could marry whoever she wanted, just not Storm! Twilight quizzed both stallions for a while then got really quiet, her eyebrows furrowed like she was coming up with a new spell. Cadance seemed to be becoming more and more anxious as the argument wore on. From the look on her face Dash guessed she was starting to think that maybe both stallions were somehow Shining Armor, though she was still hiding behind Storm from the real Shining Armor. Rainbow Dash knew the truth. She had only spent a few hours with the real Storm, and in that time she had learned almost nothing of him yet still felt like she had known him her entire life. From everything she had learned about him since then, none of it had surprised her; it was like she was just coming to understand more of a riddle she had already seen written in every scar and muscle on his body. Dash knew that the stallion she had been traveling with for the last month wasn't Storm which, by process of elimination, meant Storm had to be the white unicorn. But she was the only one who understood that; well, except for Shining Armor, but he didn't count, and neither did Cadance or Twilight. Dash just wanted Storm to remember who he was and… remember her! The argument raged on, now cruelly complimented by the hurricane that had begun beating mercilessly against the glass windows. If Dash could just find some words, any words, she could work them to say what she needed to; but the stallions argued ceaselessly, broken by occasional intermittences by Cadance, without leaving her a word or moment of opportunity. "If you are Shining Armor;" rebutted Shining Armor for the bazzilionth time, "Why were Storm’s saddlebags next to you, with a portgem that lead to Storm's burrow in the forest?" "I don't know." insisted Storm, "My memory is still recovering from keeping the shield up for so long. I just woke up and it was there; but I was unconscious most of the time at that stage anyways so someone could have easily left it... YOU! You must have been in my room stealing my memories when I was asleep; when Cadance came in you hid and forgot your saddlebags." "Why would I be stealing your memories?" "So you could steal my identity! You've always been jealous of my life and this was your chance to take it!" “If I really am Storm, then how could I have even known about the shield and that you were weak? The affect that keeping the shield up was having on Shining Armor was kept top secret.” Storm glared daggers at Shining Armor, "IF, what you are saying is true, then I am doing nothing that you wouldn't do if you were in my situation." "Touché." Answered Shining Armor with a faint twist to his lips; “OK then; what do you propose we do?" “I stay as Shining Armor; you leave and I never hear from you again.” “Not going to happen.” "Well… let's take the wild assumption that you're telling the truth; you've been Shining Armor for the first half of his life, and I'll be him for the second half. That's fair." Shining Armor screwed up his face and shook his head, "It doesn’t work like that!" Dash was getting angry at Shining Armor’s stubborn pig-headedness. Storm was clearly getting stressed but he kept pushing… But if she took Storm’s side, wouldn’t she be encouraging him to think he was Shining Armor and stay with Cadance? If anything she should be angry at Storm’s stubborn pig-headedness to remain Shining Armor. Dash’s head hurt, she couldn’t support or oppose either side. “I have an idea!” Spoke up Twilight suddenly breaking into a wide grin; “Once I was talking with Celestia about the security measures the old alicorn kingdom needed for telepaths and she taught me a spell that would determine whether or not someone was in their original body. I could use that spell on you two and see whose telling the truth when they say they’re Shining Armor and then we know that the other one is Storm.” Storm looked at her suspiciously; “It seems awfully convenient that Celestia would teach you a spell that’s been obsolete for over a millennium.” “Would I lie to my own brother?” asked Twilight smiling up at Storm, Twilight then shot a side glance at Shining Armor and Dash could have sworn she gave him a wink. Shining Armor thought for a moment and then nodded, “What would this spell entail?” “It would work like a modified revealment spell; it wouldn’t be dangerous, only take a moment and would tell me which one of you was who they said they were.” “Is it really that easy?” asked Cadance hopefully, a hopeful smile beginning to make camp around the outskirts of her mouth. “Yes,” promised Twilight, “All I need is to scan both of them so that I could compare the results. But I’d need their permission; any shields would interfere with their results.” “You have it.” said Shining Armor, stepping forwards, “Scan away.” A small light issued from Twilight’s horn, briefly encompassing Shining Armor; Twilight screwed up her face slightly, nodded, and then turned to Storm, “You?” Storm looked uneasy, he shot a glance to Cadance beside him who gave an encouraging nod; “Fine.” Twilight shot a similar beam towards him as she had shot at Shining Armor, and then looked down, furrowing her eyes in deep concentration as she hoofed the floor. “Well?” asked Cadance anxiously. “The tests were… inconclusive,” admitted Twilight finally. She gave a small jolt, “I know! The spell was designed to confirm the identity of its target, and in both cases it came back as a ‘maybe’. What if the two stallions swap their bodies and then I do the test a second time. If the spell confirms that each of them is now in their own body then the mystery is solved; if the spell still comes back as inconclusive then they can just swap their bodies back again and all we’ve lost is a few minutes.” Storm recoiled violently, “No!” “What’s the matter Shining Armor?” asked Twilight wryly, “If you are Shining Armor this is a way for you to prove it, you don’t have anything to lose so long as you don’t have anything to hide.” “Storm is trying to steal my identity! The last thing I’m going to do is surrender my body to him!” “If Twilight’s spell is still inconclusive, then I will re-swap bodies with you immediately.” declared Shining Armor, “I swear.” “NO!” Insisted Storm, “I know you; if we swapped then you would refuse to re-swap and then you would have the stronger body.” “Sounds to me like you’re afraid of what the results will show.” said Twilight, just a little too smugly. Shining Armor stepped forwards aggressively, “Do you know how to do the body swap spell?” “Yes; and no I’m not going to perform it with you just to prove that I can.” “How do you know it?” “The spells not difficult and I’m good with magic.” “But if you know the spell it means someone showed it to you, or you at least read it, but that information is kept top secret. If Celestia didn’t show it to you then how do you explain knowing the spell?” Storm stopped, his eyebrows furrowing madly into ravines; “It doesn’t matter.” “Yes it does!” insisted Twilight, “The only way you could know the spell would be if Celestia either taught it to you or gave you a scroll telling you how to do it; which means-” There was a blinding light and when it cleared runes had appeared on the floor, leaving Storm Twilight and Dash in some sort of rectangular bubble. Storm was staring at Twilight incredulously from the other end; outside the bubble Dash could see Shining Armor’s mouth moving, but couldn’t hear the words, so she guessed this bubble was a sound barrier and Storm wanted to talk to Twilight alone. This realization struck Dash like a blow to the face; Storm didn’t even realize she was in the bubble with them, he didn’t even know she was there! Sure she was cringing behind a table, but that was no excuse! “Seriously Twily!? The only way? Like, there is no possible way I could have learned a spell I wasn’t supposed to? As in; notes to a tripplemax clearance spell have never got stuck in the seams of a book and filed in a declassified section of Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns to be found by a filly who thought she could improvise the missing lines. That never happened, right? And neither did that filly nearly burn herself alive, and destroy half the school, and would have if her older brother hadn’t saved her and then helped her cover it up so she wouldn’t be expelled!?” Twilight turned almost white as Storm’s secret knowledge rang out against her; “You-you wouldn’t.” Storm’s gaze softened slightly, “I never would. I made you a promise, but hypocrisy does not suit you.” The spell ended in a flash, once again granting Cadance and Shining Armor privy to their discussions. The former seemed patiently bewildered, the latter was furiously noticing Twilight’s lack of color, “What did you do to her!?” he demanded. “Nothing” said Twilight, looking twenty percent less sure of herself then she had a minute ago, “That he knows the design to the body swap means… nothing.” Shining Armor cast a worried glance at Twilight, and then turned aggressively on Storm, “Even if there are alternative ways you could know the spell, you haven’t given a reason as to how you do know it, or how I would know about the shield without being told. Neither can you explain why you had the portgem in your room when Twilight can testify I was in her guestroom when you and Cadance disappeared-” “But-” “And you most certainly can’t explain Celestia sending Twilight a message saying her older brother was about to visit her in ‘a red ponies body’. If you still don’t believe me, all we have to do is wait for Celestia to return, or if she gets held up in Gryffindor we can always wait for Reaper; after you went missing Cadance sent him with thirty veteran Rangers to retrieve you. They can all testify that there was a body swap.” Storm glowered angrily at Shining Armor, his chest heaving. He took one step backwards, touching his nose briefly to Cadance and then returned his guard to Shining Armor; “You can’t have her.” “If you were really Shining Armor you wouldn’t be afraid agreeing to Twilight’s test, as it is all you’re doing is delaying the inevitable. One way or the other, I will have my life back.” Storm’s pretense of conciliation snapped, and burned in an inferno of desperation and power. His horn began flaring a spectrum of brilliant colors and his voice took the din of a trapped animal, “You don’t deserve this life! You don’t deserve Cadance!” Shining Armor was yanked into the air by a ring of telekinesis that centered around his throat. Shining Armor’s horn flared with counter spells but they were dissolved under the glow of Storm’s magic and the ring grew tighter. Twilight gave a shout and ran in between the stallions, casting two spells, one directed at the energy around Shining Armor’s neck, the other a blast of energy that shattered against Storm’s hastily contrived shield. Seeing Twilight standing against him caused Storm, and his magic, to falter; making the ring around Shining Armor’s neck loosen. Shining Armor managed to breathe in and his horn glowed suddenly brighter, shattering the ring altogether. By the time Shining Armor landed perfectly on all four hooves, he was already casting his counter attack against Storm, backed immediately by Twilight. The spells of the three unicorns clashed in the center of the room; the windows shattered, and rain driven by hurricane strength winds came flying into the room where it was vaporized and forced back out the way it had come by the shockwaves of the unicorn’s battle. Storm’s horn glowed brighter than Dash had known possible, but whether from reluctance to attack Twilight, or his still weakened state, Storm’s spells began being pushed steadily back. The look on Storm’s face was one of broken concentration, wavering determination and rapidly mounting exhaustion; while the unicorn siblings wore masks made of solid conviction. This wasn’t right! Dash needed to do something - say something smart that would end this before someone got hurt; “STOP!” At the sound of her voice Storm let go of his telekinetic waves, opening himself up to the combined attacks of Shining Armor and Twilight who had only reduced their fury. Storm was thrown across the room and into one of the silver couches, knocking it over and landing with the couch pressing down on his chest. But Storm didn’t stay down; he had recognized that voice. He lifted the couch off of him, and stood up, looking to Cadance who was standing between him, Shining Armor, and Twilight; she was the one who had called out, stealing Dash’s thunder as if she hadn’t stolen enough from her already. “Please stop.” Repeated Cadance slightly more softly; she cast glares at the siblings as if asking them to stay away. One door burst open to reveal several palace guards, ready to charge, but Cadance quickly dismissed them, used her magic to close the door; the then flew to Storm’s side. “I-I think you should do what Twilight says, and try swapping bodies with the red unicorn, just for a minute. If Twilight’s spell still can’t confirm your identity then you can swap right back, no harm done. I love you; but I can’t marry you if we can’t even be certain who you are.” “What if when the test gives the same result, Storm refuses to swap back?” “Then we’ll arrest him and keep him horn locked until he agrees to swap back with you.” You just saw that Twilight and Storm’s bodies together can defeat Shining Armor’s; plus we’ll have the palace guards, I’ll help too, and so will Rainbow Dash.” Cadance gestured towards Rainbow Dash, Storm turned to face her as if it was the first time he had really noticed she was there. He stared at her open mouthed, not happy or elated but more just… surprised. "You!" he exclaimed, pointing at her with his hoof, "You're the girl who helped in the battle... in the burrow; you brought us the portgem, right?" "That's me." Dash nodded, devastated if that was all he remembered her for. Storm ran towards her, but only because he wanted a question answered, and only in the way that would leave him with that prancy alicorn coquette, "Do you know who I am?" "Yes." Storm breathed rapidly several times then looked away; "I'm afraid to ask." "You think I'll try to trick you?" "NO!" Yelled Storm, spinning back to her with mad, desperate eyes, "I'm afraid you might tell me the truth!" That sounded way too familiar to be a coincidence; Dash felt herself grinning at the nostalgia and then began laughing in delight as she realized that Storm was still in there somewhere. Unfortunately, she was the only one who got it and after a few moments she realized she was standing alone, chuckling like a lunatic; Shining Armor and Twilight were staring confused daggers at her, and Storm had moved back to Cadance's side. "What if..." Storm said slowly, "What if we both be Shining Armor. We can share Cadance." "What?" asked Cadance with a scowl... or, maybe it was a sly grin, Dash wasn't sure. "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!” “That’s not true!” Shouted Dash, “I love Storm! I care if he’s gone!” Dash lunged across the room and grabbed Storm and kissed him before he had the space of mind to raise his shields… no she didn’t. It’s what she wanted and expected herself to do, but when her conscious mind caught up with the fact that she was still standing at the bottom of the steps, looking as stupid as she felt, Dash felt like strangling her normally hyperactive impulses. After all those times they’d gotten her in trouble and letting them get away with it, now when she finally needed them they were awol; unfortunately, she couldn’t strangle them because she couldn’t find them… which was the problem to begin with! 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 softly 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 stalked up to him angrily; “Stop it! You’re lying, and everyone now knows it.” The white unicorn lifted his head, looking up at her his eyes had changed so they looked like neither Shining Armor nor Silent Storm, but something in between. He looked lost, like he wasn’t sure where or who he was. “Twilight” He begged, “Forgive me.” “No. Not until you make things right.” “How? I’ve tried; so, so hard; but nothing I do is ever enough.” “You need to give my brother his body back.” Storm’s face seemed to be breaking under its own weight, “I can’t.” “Then I will never forgive you.” Storm’s face broke; “I can’t forgive you for what you’re doing unless you stop it first.” The faintest, vaguest, slightest, glimmer of hope entered the sea of despair that Storm’s eyes were drowning in, “If I swap bodies with him; you’ll forgive me?” “…Yes.” Storm’s arms shot forwards and wrapped around one of Twilight’s hooves; “Say it now!” he pleaded, “Tell me you forgive me!” Twilight tried to pull away, obviously surprised, but Storm’s grip was unbreakable; “I forgive you.” she stammered. “Say it again! Mean it!” Twilight stopped struggling, she looked unsure of herself like she thought she’d made a mistake, but she fought down her dilemma and calmly looked Storm in the eye, “I forgive you.” Storm let out an exhale that seemed to go on longer then should have been possible, a sigh, a groan, a formless sentence, something like that. His grip on Twilight loosened and he slowly collapsed to the ground. When his voice reemerged, it was barely audible, “If someone if going to do a body swap with me, they should do it now.” Shining Armor hesitated for a moment and then stepped forwards; his horn began flickering a series of peculiar sparks. Storm didn’t bother to stand or even look at Shining Armor; he just lay there, like he was hoping it wasn’t too late to pretend he was comatose. Twilight stood back, her breathing becoming more rapid as if something terrible was beginning to dawn on her. Cadance crouched close beside Storm, and looked up at Shining Armor, her expression changing from clemency to anger but she said nothing. Shining Armor stood there, obviously wanting to proceed before Storm changed his mind and went back on his word. Eventually, a faint glow emanated from Storm’s horn, matching Shining Armor’s in pitch and frequency. Shining Armor bent down and touched the tip of his horn with Storm’s. Storm and Shining Armor glowed brightly for a moment and then Shining Armor collapsed next to Storm; though right now Dash didn’t know which was who. Cadance reached forwards with a wing to take the pulse of the white unicorn who opened his eyes and stood up at the touch of her wing. He looked down at the fur on his chest and legs then took a tuft of his mane in his magic and pulled it over his eyes to be sure. “It worked.” He smiled faintly, “I’m me again.” Cadance brushed past him to check the red unicorn, but then stopped when she saw he was breathing, unsure of if she should continue. After an endless moment; the red unicorn opened his eyes. He looked at Twilight, he looked at Shining Armor, he looked at Cadance, and then looked down into his own chest. Each moment his expression changed; confusion, hatred, longing and then finally, despair. “I’m so sorry” breathed Cadance, a tear grating down her cheek; she took a step towards Storm but it was too late. His horn flashed, and he teleported.