Storm Shadow woke up in his room in the tower of Canterlot. All his memories had returned, and Arcane had not been seen since the Summer Sun Celebration. Everything was going well. Cerulean’s brother had turned out to be under a spell and the red pegasus was now doing all he could to make up for the trouble he had caused in the past. Yawning, he got out of his bed and looked out the window. He had a spectacular view that included Ponyville, and the Everfree Forest.

“Nice view.” said a voice from behind him. He sighed, and turned around to see Final Hour grinning at him. She visited often enough that he was now used to her visits.

“What is it this time?” he asked.

“I just wanted to let you know that I’m going on a trip tomorrow.” she said.

“This concerns me how?” he asked tiredly.

“I won’t be coming back alone, and the pony I bring back will interest you.” she replied with a mischievous grin. This got his attention, and he was about to say something, when she turned and vanished.

“I hate it when she does that.” he grumbled to himself as he walked out of his room. He met up with his sister Aerial at the entrance to the tower.

“How’s it going sis?” he asked.

“I’m tired! Why do we have to wake up so early anyway?” she replied with annoyance.

“Well you can’t watch a sunrise if the sun has already risen, now can you?” he countered. She was about to say something, when Swift alighted besides them.

“Hey Storm Shadow! Hey Aerial!” he said with a grin.

“Hey Swift.” they replied in unison.

“Have either of you seen Cardinal?” he asked.

“I’m over here.” said a voice, and they turned to see Cardinal walking behind his brother Cerulean.

“How are you doing?” asked Swift.

“I’ve been doing a lot better since they removed that spell.” he said, without even trying to smile.

They talked for a while longer until Cardinal left with his brother and Swift flew off to patrol duty.

“I’ll talk to you later sis.” Storm Shadow said as he took to the sky. She waved in response and turned back to the tower.

He soared through the air, enjoying the freedom that flight provided. He flew until he saw a streak of color coming towards him.

“Hey Rainbow Dash.” he said as the cyan pony slowed to a stop next to him.

“Hey Storm Shadow, how’s it going?” she replied.

“Not too bad, though guard duty gets very boring at times.” he said.

“Well duh! All you do is stand around!” she replied. They laughed for a few moments before flying over to a nearby cloud to watch the rest of the sunrise.

Final Hour twirled her scythe as she watched Storm Shadow and Rainbow Dash. The sight of the two of them made her wish for a normal life. One where she could get a coltfriend for herself. She sighed as she vanished from the cloud she had been sitting on. Reappearing in the Everfree Forest, she began to walk along the path between the trees. The forest always calmed her down, and the inhabitants never disturbed her. She pondered her upcoming trip. It wouldn’t take long to reach her destination, but then she would have to bring the pony back to Ponyville. She had seen the pony in one of her dreams. Light blue coat with a snow white mane, ice blue eyes, and a snow flake with an icicle behind it for his cutie mark. Not a bad looking stallion in her opinion. It always snowed in the area where he lived, so a blizzard would probably go unnoticed.

“This should be fun.” She murmured to herself as she passed the hut of a zebra that annoyed her with her constant rhyming.

“Can’t she ever speak normally?” she wondered as she looked back at it. She continued walking for a few hours, before she got tired and vanished once more.

Storm Shadow watched Rainbow Dash fly away before he flew toward Canterlot. He had patrol duty in a few minutes, and he had to get his armor. Once he reached the armory and had his armor fitted, he walked to his place, and waited for his partner to show up. They never assigned him the same partner twice in a row for some reason. After a few minutes of waiting, he heard someone walking towards him, and turned to see Cardinal clad in white armor.

“Hey Cardinal.” he said.

“Hey Storm Shadow.” he muttered in reply.

“How are you coming along?” asked Storm Shadow.

“A lot better now that the spell is gone, but I’m still kind of nervous being here.” he replied. Storm Shadow nodded then sat down. He noticed Cardinal’s eyes continually looked down, and he hadn’t smiled once since the spell had been broken. Lots of ponies had tried to cheer him up, but none had succeeded.

“Listen Cardinal,” he said, “it wasn’t you doing all that stuff. The spell was controlling you. None of it was your fault.” Cardinal didn’t respond, but Storm Shadow thought he saw the faint flicker of a smile. Their shift ended a few hours later, and Storm Shadow headed toward the training area. He entered to find a female guard, easily dodging attacks from two other guards. When the two guards spotted him they stopped attacking and saluted. Noticing the salute, the female guard turned around and spotted Storm Shadow. She was a light yellow color with a blue mane that had a couple streaks of green in it. Her cutie mark was revealed to be crossed swords with a shield in the middle.

“Well who is this? A new guy?” she asked, looking at him with bright blue eyes.

“No, you haven’t met him because he was missing for a long time.” One of the guards told her. “This is probably the first time he’s been down here in over a month.”

“Oh, well in that case, welcome back!” she said with a grin. “My name’s Sideswipe.”

“I’m Storm Shadow.” he replied.

“So are you here to train, or just stand there?” she asked a moment later.

“I’m here to train of course.” He replied.

“Bring it on then!” she exclaimed confidently as she soared into the air.

He happily obliged, and soared after her. They met in mid air and practiced countering, dodging, and other important aspects of fighting. She, of course, dodged all his attacks, but he managed to dodge most of hers, which impressed her quite a bit. When they were done, they talked for a while before he left to go to his second guard duty of the day. This time his partner was Cerulean.

“Hey Cerulean.” said Storm Shadow as the light blue pegasus walked up. He nodded, but didn’t say anything. Storm Shadow tried to start up a conversation multiple times, but Cerulean never answered, and he eventually gave up. A few hours later after their shift ended, Storm Shadow was walking back to the tower when he spotted clouds moving over the Everfree Forest.

“That doesn’t look very natural.” he muttered under his breath, watching as the clouds moved toward some unknown destination.

Final Hour twirled her scythe absentmindedly as she led the clouds above her. It took longer to get to her destination this way, but it had to be done to get a good blizzard that she needed.

“Who can resist following a mysterious hooded pony? Especially during a blizzard.” She said to herself with a mischievous grin. She continued walking through the Everfree Forest, her crimson eyes scanning the trees with an ever present mischief in them.

“Oh this going to be so much fun!” she thought happily.

Storm Shadow watched the clouds disappear behind a mountain before continuing back to the tower. He was just about to enter when Swift landed next to him.

“How’s it going Storm Shadow?” he asked.

“Oh, good so far. how about you?” he replied.

“Same here. I heard you met the new combat trainer today.” he said.

“You mean Sideswipe? Ya, I met her. Why?” he wondered.

“One of the guards was talking about how you were able to dodge her so much. Nopony has been able to dodge her for very long, so I was surprised when I heard.” he said with a grin. Storm Shadow heard someone coming, and turned to see Sideswipe coming towards them.

“Hey guys! Did you hear? There’s a huge blizzard going over the Everfree Forest!” she exclaimed.

“What? It’s still summer though, how can there be a blizzard?” asked Storm Shadow.

“I don’t know but it just started a couple minutes ago. It’s heading away from us though.” she replied.

“Well, at least we won’t have to worry about it.” Swift said with relief, before walking to his room.

“Oh, I highly doubt that…” Storm Shadow muttered.

End of The Mysterious Newcomer.

Keep an eye out for my second fanfic in this series! Darkness Strikes!

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