MapleReed

MapleReed is the femslash ship between Mapleshade and Reedshine from the Warriors fandom.

Canon
Mapleshade is talking with Appledusk, where she states that she is pregnant with his kits. Appledusk is delighted, and is eventually whisked away by a RiverClan she-cat named Reedshine. Silently, Mapleshade tells Reedshine to leave Appledusk alone, because she has his kits, proving Appledusk to be hers. When Mapleshade gives birth to her kits, Patchkit, Larchkit, and Petalkit, the she brings them to see the river when they are a couple of moons old. She brings her kits to the river, where they swim perfectly. A RiverClan patrol, containing Appledusk, passes by. Appledusk spots them, and asks Mapleshade what she is doing. She reveals that she is showing them the river. Appledusk is delighted to see what good swimmers they are, but tells Mapleshade to never show them the river again.

Ravenwing had been watching the whole time, and he confronts Mapleshade. He reveals that he had an omen, which revealed the true father of her kits. Mapleshade begs him not to tell the rest of the clan, but Ravenwing says that he can't keep secrets from his clan. He reveals that he is sorry for Mapleshade and her kits. After this, he instantly returns to the camp. Once Mapleshade reached the camp with her kits, a clan meeting is assembled. Oakstar demands that Mapleshade reveal the father of her kits. After this, Mapleshade gets exiled from ThunderClan.

After her exile, she takes her kits to RiverClan, hoping to seek shelter there. However, all three kits are swept by a powerful wave. Mapleshade tries to save them, but Appledusk saves her. Mapleshade begs the patrol to help her kits. They comply, and help. However, they are too late, and the kits have died. The patrol leads Mapleshade to the camp, to have Darkstar sort everything out.

Appledusk explains everything to Darkstar and Reedshine, and says that it's Mapleshade's fault that the kits died. After this, Reedshine is confused, and Appledusk begs her for forgiveness. Reedshine forgives him, giving a look of love and concern. Darkstar asks if she can trust Appledusk anymore, but Reedshine defends Appledusk. Darkstar agrees to let Appledusk stay in RiverClan. The RiverClan warriors bury the deceased bodies of Mapleshade's kits, but refuse to let her stay in RiverClan, and then turn her away.

Later, Mapleshade gets a vision, and realizes that she would need to kill other cats to avenge her kits. The last cat that she realizes she needs to kill is Appledusk. She sees that Perchpaw is playing around instead of collecting moss like he was supposed to. She takes him hostage to use him as bait. Surely enough, Appledusk comes looking for Perchpaw, Reedshine following behind him. Mapleshade leaps out of the bush that she was hiding in, and pins down and kills Appledusk. Reedshine saw everything, and said that Appledusk would live on forever in his and Reedshine's kits, and their kits in turn, and that he would be a part of RiverClan forever. Perchpaw then leaps out of the bushes, and severely injures Mapleshade, which later caused her death.

Fanon
MapleReed is a moderately popular ship within the fandom. It gets a decent amount of fan art, including a few animatics or MAPs. Sometimes, you can even find rewrites about them, where they actually end up becoming a couple. There's also plenty of AUs floating around out there. Some people within the fandom enjoy thinking about what would happen if Reedshine defended Mapleshade instead of Appledusk.

Other people think that Mapleshade and Reedshine deserved better within the fandom, and then decided to put them together as a couple. This is what led to a majority of the sexuality headcanons for these two. This is also the likely root of the fankits that this ship occasionally gets. Another sprout comes from the AU where Mapleshade's kits survived, and she and Reedshine raise them together.

Fandom
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