Cadance or Canterlot? Faced with an impossible decision, Shining Armor is compelled down a dangerous road. When things quickly spiral out of his control, he must face the possibility of loosing everything he loves.
After years of waiting, Rainbow Dash has finally joined the Wonderbolts but is now wishing that she never had. When a mysterious unicorn appears out of nowhere to save Derpy and disappears just as suddenly, Dash resolves to find him; following him into a world of dark secrets she could have never possibly imagined.
Twilight can tell her brother is hiding something, he promised not to, but he is. How is she meant to obey Celestia's command to help him, when he won't even tell her what's wrong? Every night he wakes up screaming, and every day he's more afraid. How can she make him trust her before, it's too late?
This is Cadance; can anypony hear me? We're trapped in the Everfree Forest. All I see are trees in every direction, but there's something out there; and it's coming closer. Shining Armor is sick, I think he's dying. Please, if anypony finds this message, send help.
Granny Smith, Big Macintosh, Apple Bloom
Have found somepony who might know what happened to mom and dad. Going to investigate. If I don't come back, know that I love you. Don't follow me.
Apple Jack
Look at them; the blissfully ignorant citizens of Ponyville. They think their freedom comes without cost. They believe the peace they enjoy has no price. They have no idea of the war that is waged, and the sacrifices made, to win these things which they take for granted. But that is how it must be. If they ever learned the truth, everything would be undone. Listen well to my story, and then never speak of it for as long as you live. If you tell even one pony, Equestria will burn.
Set one year, after season two, in an alternate universe where Shining Armor and Cadance never married.
WARNING: Contains some gore
Picture by Mouby
Considering that most chapters on this website are about 3000 words I've broken down the original chapter 1 into the prologue and chapters 1 & 2; and I broke the original chapter 3 into chapters 4 & 5.
When I deleted the original chapters all the comments that have been made so far were lost.
All the chapters have also been edited since they were last up (especially what is now the prologue)
Rainbow’s younger sister Scootaloo... wait...
younger sister Scootaloo
younger sister Scootaloo
younger sister Scootaloo
Wow...
986791
I know Scootaloo being blood related to RD is against the general perception, but its neither confirmed or denied in the series. Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom are both siblings of the mane six so this would fit the pattern, and it's not that uncommon for kids to idolize their older siblings.
Note: after the Cutie mark Crusader's performance, AJ, RD and Rarity came backstage and were each standing opposite to the Crusaders.
"It looks like the manure,"
"Hit the fan."
YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAaaaaaay.
997765
I've known Wolf Guardian since middle school. He's always had an issue with spelling, but the content of his works are always gold.
I actually proofread the prologue and first two chapters, pointing out most of the spelling errors you mentioned, but he may have lost my edit.
Also, I should mention. Wolf has a habit of foreshadowing pretty subtely. You may want to re-read some of the earlier chapters (especially Chapter 1) every time you read a new chapter.
Oh Cadance... how is love blind...? Or rather you get worried too easily... Now for Dash... Hmm... 2 couples (or 1 would be couple) with problems of their own... Let's just hope that RD doesn't go back to Ponyville for a visit... though I doubt it
most likely gonna happen for the plot.
To refferee
I very much appreciate your grammar/spelling punctuations, and I appreciate your overall comments on the chapter. But after I've fixed the mistakes they don't have any relevance to anyone else reading the posts. Would you please mind posting the corrections and the muses in separate comments so I can delete the former while keeping the latter? (I feel bad about loosing some of your muses in the previous comments I deleted.
)
PS. glad your enjoying the story. I've really been kind of sick this last week or so, so ch 6 may be a while in coming.
Hoo boy... I knew RD was gonna get into trouble but what with the body swap spell and well... Yeah... my mind is muddled right now
But man... was she ever cruel to poor Derpy...
Cockaleese
As long as the horde they're given
cared for by Celesta’s students
he got big, but came to himself and turned back
If you ran off by yourself, would be dead within a day
1. I think you meant Cockatrice.
2. Hoard.
3. Celestia's
4. I think you mean, came to his senses.
5. If you ran off by yourself, you would be dead within a day.
Hmm... Now that I have read till this point... will Fluttershy be added in? Since well ya know, she lives near that forest. Also focusing on AJ's parents that weren't mentioned but this begs the question; what about the parents for Fluttershy and RD? They could be touched on but would most likely detract from the story
Looks like I answered my own question.
1022732
Fluttershy will be mentioned a few more times and will play an important role 'offscreen' but isn't going to come into the main story again (that I know of, I know the main story but there's still a few details to work out but don't count on Fluttershy's return).
As for Fluttershy's and RD parents: Its true that they're not mentioned but I saw AJ's parents as more of a mystery.
1. AJ lives on what is clearly a generational farm but her parents are never mentioned.
2. Her brother seems to be extremely reclusive. Sometimes that can be a result of a traumatic childhood event that's never dealt with.
3. AJ has a near obsessive compulsive need to succeed and be reliable (to the point she runs away from home when she doesn't win first place in the Canterlot rodeo). Maybe she struggled with feelings of inadequacy when she was a filly. (Also if you knew your dad was some great rodeo champ, that would heighten the shame for failing to live up to his record.)
4. On at least one previous occasions she ran away from home. Her 'reported' reason was wanting to live a sophisticated life, but maybe it was right after her parents disappearance and she just didn't want to deal with the pain so ran to as different an environment as she could.
5. Despite arguably being the bravest of the mane 6, she is arguably the most scared of the Everfree Forest. However Apple Bloom does not share this fear as maybe she's too young to remember.
6. Element of honesty. Possibly ingrained as a hatred for the secrets that she was forced to live with as a filly.
7. Has probably spent hundreds of hours mastering the lasso despite the fact that it's usefulness is highly limited on an apple farm. Maybe she had another reason for learning it, like feeling close to her father.
With the others parent's it's basically a clean slate. I enjoy noticing the little strange or illogical things in stories and explaining them in my own.
OK first allow me to apologize for the long delay. 2 months is far too long but I've been pretty sick for a while
(actually because of a Chinese doctor with some acupuncture and herbal teas that I've been feeling better, sort of like Zecora only its a man and he doesn't rhyme). On the bright side I don't write perfectly linear but do big chunks at a time, so I have 3 more chapters that are almost done that should be coming out in the near future. 
As a note, chapter six ended up being like 14,000 words so I broke it down to two chapters. As a result there is no Cadance/Storm story but that will be coming back in and become a much larger and more interesting line of story.
And yes, the relationship between Shining Armor and Zecora will be given some more light later on.
Hope you enjoy it.
“You've told them about the terrormongers and the Rangers?
waiting for Shining Armor's tail to finish before speaking
did I here you correctly when I came in
1. Forgot your closing quotation mark.
2. Tale.
3. Hear.
Side Note: It's spelled Applejack as in one word, not two. Though Apple Bloom is correct it's just Applejack.
Did I hear a relationship with Zecora? Ooh sneaky, sneaky Shining Armor... Having an affair already?
1348028
Romantic affair?
No. But they know each other very well... 
1348028
Just as a side note; Zecora is easily old enough to be SA's mom.
1355331
Err... wow... now I know her fanon age
1356479
I don't think any of them have cannon ages and haven't seen fandom ages before so I've invented them (anthropomorphized).
I'll spell them all out later on in the comments of ch 9 (where they will be most relevant), but for now Shining Armor is 31 and Zecora is 59.
986791
This is Wolf Guardian new account; here's what's happened. Since they modified the site in September I haven't been able to log on. I've tried the 'forgot password' tab and that's been useless. I tried mailing knighty twice and then mailed all three moderators with their emails available and got no responses. I've got about five chapters ready to post (plus I've edited everything I already had up) so I've made a new account and re-posted the story. I figured putting everything up at once was a bit much so there's two new chapters up, and the others I'll put up over the last week as I do the final proofread. Sorry for the wait.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/60626/Storm-of-Secrets-Remastered
This is Wolf Guardian new account; here's what's happened. Since they modified the site in September I haven't been able to log on. I've tried the 'forgot password' tab and that's been useless. I tried mailing knighty twice and then mailed all three moderators with their emails available and got no responses. I've got about five chapters ready to post (plus I've edited everything I already had up) so I've made a new account and re-posted the story. I figured putting everything up at once was a bit much so there's two new chapters up, and the others I'll put up over the last week as I do the final proofread. Sorry for the wait.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/60626/Storm-of-Secrets-Remastered
This is Wolf Guardian new account; here's what's happened. Since they modified the site in September I haven't been able to log on. I've tried the 'forgot password' tab and that's been useless. I tried mailing knighty twice and then mailed all three moderators with their emails available and got no responses. I've got about five chapters ready to post (plus I've edited everything I already had up) so I've made a new account and re-posted the story. I figured putting everything up at once was a bit much so there's two new chapters up, and the others I'll put up over the last week as I do the final proofread. Sorry for the wait.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/60626/Storm-of-Secrets-Remastered
999201
This is Wolf Guardian new account; here's what's happened. Since they modified the site in September I haven't been able to log on. I've tried the 'forgot password' tab and that's been useless. I tried mailing knighty twice and then mailed all three moderators with their emails available and got no responses. I've got about five chapters ready to post (plus I've edited everything I already had up) so I've made a new account and re-posted the story. I figured putting everything up at once was a bit much so there's two new chapters up, and the others I'll put up over the last week as I do the final proofread. Sorry for the wait.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/60626/Storm-of-Secrets-Remastered
This is Wolf Guardian new account; here's what's happened. Since they modified the site in September I haven't been able to log on. I've tried the 'forgot password' tab and that's been useless. I tried mailing knighty twice and then mailed all three moderators with their emails available and got no responses. I've got about five chapters ready to post (plus I've edited everything I already had up) so I've made a new account and re-posted the story. I figured putting everything up at once was a bit much so there's two new chapters up, and the others I'll put up over the last week as I do the final proofread. Sorry for the wait.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/60626/Storm-of-Secrets-Remastered
This is Wolf Guardian new account; here's what's happened. Since they modified the site in September I haven't been able to log on. I've tried the 'forgot password' tab and that's been useless. I tried mailing knighty twice and then mailed all three moderators with their emails available and got no responses. I've got about five chapters ready to post (plus I've edited everything I already had up) so I've made a new account and re-posted the story. I figured putting everything up at once was a bit much so there's two new chapters up, and the others I'll put up over the last week as I do the final proofread. Sorry for the wait.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/60626/Storm-of-Secrets-Remastered
This is Wolf Guardian new account; here's what's happened. Since they modified the site in September I haven't been able to log on. I've tried the 'forgot password' tab and that's been useless. I tried mailing knighty twice and then mailed all three moderators with their emails available and got no responses. I've got about five chapters ready to post (plus I've edited everything I already had up) so I've made a new account and re-posted the story. I figured putting everything up at once was a bit much so there's two new chapters up, and the others I'll put up over the last week as I do the final proofread. Sorry for the wait.
http://www.fimfiction.net/story/60626/Storm-of-Secrets-Remastered