Gleaming Shield (O&C)

*For this character's counterpart in the Shining Sparkle Saga, see Gleaming Shield (SS).*

**Gleaming Shield** is a young alicorn princess that born to Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor.

After the Pony of Shadows appears and turns Twilight Sparkle and her friends into stones, Gleaming Shield and her friends set out to find the Elements of Virtue, with her being tasked to find Mage Meadowbrook's mask, the symbol of the Element of Healing. After finding it, Gleaming is able to connect with the element and transform the mask into it.

## Personality

When she was a baby filly, she was very calm and only cried when she needed something or when she felt danger.

As a teenager, she is shown to care a lot for her family, doing everything to ensure they are okay. This caring side of her is also extended to anyone who gets hurt, causing her to help them, no matter the circunstances, like when she helps Skylar heal his wing even after he tried to attack her. Gleaming also tends to see the best of any creature.

Not only that, but she also becomes very dutiful to protect her world and reality. When she is tasked to search for Mage Meadowbrook's mask, she is very determined to find it and the thought of failing to her friends, who are also risking their lives to achieve their respective missions, can become overwhelming to her.

## Skills

It’s revealed that Gleaming Shield is very good with healing magic, with hers being very powerful due to her alicorn magic.

After she was able to get the Element of Healing, Gleaming's healing magic became even more powerful. With it, she can create a purple-glowing snow that is capable of healing any illness that can inflict any creature. An example of this is that her healing snow was able to counter the effects of Nundu's poison which proved to be too much powerful for a simple healing spell.

She can also use her magic for other uses, like enhancing her sense of vision, allowing her to see further distances or see through walls.

## Relationships

### Family

#### Shining Armor and Cadance

They are Gleaming's parents. They love her very much and do everything to protect her.

#### Topaz Blade

He is Gleaming's younger brother. She seems to love him.

#### Star Knight

Star Knight is Gleaming's cousin and they seem to get along very well. Their friendship is shown to be very great, mainly when Gleaming Shield shows her support after knowing Star’s condition as Jinchuriki and her worries when Star gets under Nine-Tails’ influence.

## Description in the Saga

### *Twilight and Blue Sword*

Gleaming Shield born somewhere in the chapter “Preparing to the Wedding”, but only appears physically in the next chapter, where she recognizes Dark Hole as not being her father, what makes her cry. Although, her mother though this was because she was sleepy, so she don’t understand what her daughter was trying to say.

### *The Light Kingdom*

Gleaming Shield appear in the chapters where Twilight and her friends were searching the red star seed. She becomes friend with Heartbeat quickly, as the last one was the General of Affection and had the ability to get along with foals.

### *The Taking of Tartarus*

She appeared in the second chapter, where his parents attend the Great Galloping Gala and she and her cousin Star Knight are held hostage by the Lord of Chaos who wanted to trade them for the key of Tartarus. Golden Paladin, honoring his duty to the royal family of the Light Kingdom, gives the key to the Lord of Chaos that releases the two babies.

During the events of "The Predators of the Night", she stays in the Crystal Empire with her father while her mother go participate in the Summer Sun Celebration.

In "The Shadow That Lives in the Mirrors", the Lord of Chaos sends the Wraith to attack the Crystal Empire. He is able to put almost all the ponies in the empire under his influence, including Cadance, excepting Shining and all the baby foals, including Gleaming Shield. Mirror Coat is able to save Shining and Gleaming from the Wraith, bringing them to the Light Kingdom. While Shining joins Golden Paladin and Mirror Coat to fight the Wraith, Gleaming is taken care by Twilight and Blue. She is returned to Shining when he returns.

In "Cold Loneliness", after the Snow Queen had frozen Cadance and Shining, Twilight takes Gleaming Shield to the Light Kingdom. After her parents are unfrozen, she is returned to them.

In "The Seventh General of the Light Kingdom", Scale attacks the Crystal Empire in order to get Cadance and Gleaming's respective lights. In the end, he is able to do that, turning the mother and the daughter into black stone. They are restored when Twilight releases all the lights Scale had captured.

In "Epilogue - Heartbeat's Special Gift", Gleaming Shield attends Star Knight's birthday party.

### *Finding True Love*

In "Spike... the Pony?", she attends Rarity and Shadow Claw's wedding with her parents.

### *Star Knight and the Nine-Tailed Fox*

In "The Power of Seeing", it's revealed that Gleaming got a younger brother named Topaz Blade.

In "The Demon Fox's Cloat", she attends Star's birthday party, but is put asleep by Leaf Mane's sleeping spores.

In “An Unexpected Meeting at the Bridge”, he goes camping with Gleaming Shield and, by her aunt’s request, Shining invites Star to go with them. After their trip, when they are returning, it’s revelaed that Shining told Gleaming about Star being a Jinchuriki and she reveals her support towards him. When they arrive to a bridge, they meet with Grogar and Ulysses and the latter taunts Star about Moonlight. Star is enraged and strikes him, using the Nine-Tails' power to make his attacks more devastating. The bridge starts to collapse from the stress of his energy and Gleaming Shield is knocked unconscious in the process. She is saved and revived by her father, and is then horrified by the damage that Star was causing to the surroundings. Ulysses is eventually able to force Star away from himself and closer to Gleaming and Shining. Seeing the lengths he's going to in order to retrieve Moonlight from the Chaos side, Gleaming tries to reason with him, but his second phase form leaves him unable to tell friend from foe and he attacks her. While Shining restrains Star with the sealing spell Golden Paladin gave him, Grogar heals Sakura's wound, saying that Star gets more powerful and dangerous if any of his loved ones are endangered and that he and the other villains prefer to have their job as easier as possible. Shining is able to suppress the Nine-Tails' influence, but his chakra leaves his body badly damaged. Gleaming Shield heals him and, when Star wakes up he can't remember what happened and gets worried about her injury.

In “Assault on the Light Kingdom”, Gleaming is strolling through the streets of the citadel of the Light Kingdom with Moonlight and Jonagold when the General of Chaos invades the Light Kingdom with his dark ponies. The trio is able to save a little filly and her grandmother from a gytrash and are allowed to help evacuate the citizens. She helps her mother and the others treating the wounded, while searching for more in the citadel.

In “Twilight’s Determination”, after the citadel is destroyed by the General of Chaos, she approaches Moonlight and starts to calm her down, seeing then Star returning to the Light Kingdom.

In “Star Knight VS General of Chaos”, Gleaming Shield tends her aunt when Tough Skin brings her. Attending to Twilight’s wishes,Gleaming contacts her father telepathically and Twilight, using this, convinces him to let Star fight the General of Chaos on his own.

In “The Rage That Consumes the Heart”, Gleaming is held by Tough Skin, who returned to the Pony World, when the shockwave of Star’s transformation throws her back. She rapidly recognizes this just like the other time Star transformed. Using her enhanced vision spell, she was able to see what happened to Gleaming Shield and that Star was now with six tails and, using the telepathic spell, she warns her father about that. After that, she asks Tough Skin to take her to Moonlight, as her wings are hurt and she can’t heal herself.

In “The Lord of Order’s Motivation”, she is seen curing Moonlight, seeing also that Star is no longer controlled by Nine-Tails. Later, she welcomes Star after his victory over the General of Chaos, celebrating it.

In "The Song of the Siren", it's revealed that she went to the academ to take refuge from the war and witness how Moonlight convinces Adagio to embrace the light and how they defeat Ulysses.

### *The Elements of Virtue*

In "A Bad Feeling", she comes to Ponyville to spend some days with her aunt, uncle and cousins. She is seen enjoying the party held outside the Golden Oak Library before the appearance of the Pony of Shadows.

In "The Pony of Shadows", she is seen watching her aunt Twilight and her friends battling the Pony of Shadows, seeing him turning them into stone. She then watches her cousin Star losing control over his powers and attack the Pony of Shadows, only to then be affected by the Curse of the Poisoned Heart.

In "The Pillars of the Pony World", Gleaming heals Star's heart and then watches Golden Paladin fixing his seal. She, along with the others, goes to the Mirror Library to ask Mirror Coat about the Pony of Shadows. He reveals to only know about his defeat by the Pillars of the Pony World on Ponhenge, as that information had been sealed. Taking a mirror portal by Mirror Coat to Ponhenge, Star is able to use a spell with his sage mode that causes a recreation of past events that showed how Star Swirl and the others defeated him.

In "The Elements of Virtue", Gleaming and the others try to figure out what to do with what they have discovered and realize they had to find Star Swirl's book, which had the spell to banish the Pony of Shadows. Knowing that they also need the Elements of Virtue, they are approached by the Lord of Order who explains to them about them. After he indicates them how to find them, Star Knight uses a spell on the Tree of Crisis that gives them the location of the Pillars' objects, with Gleaming being tasked to recover Mage Meadowbrook's mask, having to go to the oasis of the pony-panthers to start her search.

In "The Element of Healing, Part I - The Tale of the Jaquins", Gleaming Shield arrives to the oasis of the pony-panthers, where she meets with Chief Strongpaw. Despite he not being able to help her find Meadowbrook's mask, he takes her to someone who can, an elder pony-panther called Jade Dune. She tells Gleaming Shield about how Meadowbrook became the matriarch of their kind and that her mask could be with the jaquins in their home realm, the Serenity Valley. After getting that information, she flies to there.

In "The Element of Healing, Part II - The Realm of the Jaquins", Gleaming Shield arrives to the jaquins' territory, where she meets Skylar, a young jaquin, and his sister Vestia. They take her to Chief Zephyr to whom she explains her reasons to go to Serenity Valley. However, because of the rules and their duty to protect both the realm and Harmonia, Chief Zephyr refuses to let her in. Skylar, sympathizing with Gleaming Shield, decides to help her, despite his sister's protests and takes Gleaming Shield to Serenity Valley. Once there, they go to the palace, where she meets Igneous, Skylar and Vestia's older brother, and King Blackavar, their father. Despite explaining to him the reasons for her to be there, the king dismisses it and, after explaining to her the reasons for no other beings be allowed in the realm, he sends Skylar to take her back to the Pony World, despite her desire to help with the situation regarding the poison mist that is covering the realm. Gleaming Shield, however, does not want to give up and convinces Skylar to help her find Quita Moz.

In "The Element of Healing, Part III - The Winged Serpent and the Wild Leopard", she and Skylar search for Quita Moz. Eventually, they are able to find his nest and Gleaming, and only her, is able to meet him and talk with him. Quita Moz gave her then a magic jar that can trap anything in it and then Mage Meadowbrook's mask. With Skylar, she goes to Nundu's cave, where they find King Blackavar and his jaquins getting out, with some affected by the venom. After witnessing Skylar standing against his father and earning his respect, Gleaming, along with Skylar, King Blackavar and Igneous, go face Nundu. While Blackavar and Igneous distract Nundu, Gleaming and Skylar try to trap them. At that moment, the young princess notices a creature that is responsible for Nundu's behavior and she and Skylar work together to capture it. However, despite being able to do it and free Nundu, Skylar ends up poisoned by him. Gleaming tries to heal him, but her magic seems to not be enough. When she tries to use all the energy she has, she is able to awake the Element of Healing, turning the mask. With her new power, she is able to heal Skylar. When she brings the sealed creature to Quita Moz, he is able to see something in the fire and tells Gleaming to send a message to a certain pony. Before leaving Serenity Valley, she gives some of her snow to the jaquins to allow them to endure Nundu's poison. After saying goodbye to her jaquin friends, she leaves after Skylar opens the portal.

In "The Element of Sorcery, Part VII - The Return of the Sorcerer", Gleaming returns to the Mirrored Library with the Element of Healing.

In "Breaking the Stone", after Star returns with the Element of Sorcery, he, Gleaming and the other holders of the Elements of Virtue proceed to use them to free Rockhoof, Twilight and her friends from their stone prison. Despite they are able to free the former, it takes Blue and Star Swirl's combined magic to allow to break the magic of the Elements of Chaos, freeing the holders of the Elements of Harmony.

In "The Tale of Stygian", Gleaming watches Star Swirl as he tells everyone about his plan to stop the Pony of Shadows and later the Tree of Crisis revealing to everyone the location of the Pony of Shadows. However, after that, Moonlight confides to her and Galena her thoughts about the Pony of Shadows, causing her to ask Mirror Coat about his story.

In "Facing the Darkness", after talking about the plan to defeat the Pony of Shadows, she and the others go confront the Pony of Shadows at Arimaspi's territory. When they are about to banish him to the Limbo, Star is able to perceive Stygian and Gleaming and the others help him pull Stygian out of the Shadow, all while sending it to the Limbo.

In "Epilogue - A Prophetic Warning", Gleaming is seen talking with his friends during the party to celebrate the defeat of the Pony of Shadows. After noticing Golden Paladin, Gleaming approaches him and tells him about the prophecy Quita Moz told her about.

## Appearances

The Light Kingdom

Finding True Love

The Hidden Prince

The Prince of the Cursed Kingdom

Legends:

* Y - Appears and have an active role
* N - Do not appears and is not mentioned directly by the characters.
* B - Appears, but have a passive role or his or her appearance is implicit
* M - Mentioned directly by the characters.