The air immediately thinned. It still reeked of sulfur and ozone from the portal spell, but the oppressive stench of iron and phosgene that continually surrounded Satin Veil’s illusion of a mortal body was left in Tartarus.

The transport was inherently unpredictable, if only because the spell had been cast by Satin herself. Shining Armor emerged into a dark and misty world filled with overgrown, colorless trees. Although he was relieved to have so narrowly escaped eternal damnation, he still remained vigilant. Time in Tartarus flowed by Satin’s will; he could have been gone for mere seconds or thousands of years, or even backward. Thebe could still be waiting for him, to destroy the tiny fragment that held his soul and send him back to Satin Veil as a broken soul.

Thebe did not appear, however, and Shining Armor chastised himself for wasting thought on something so foolish. Satin had told him what he needed to do, that he was not yet ready- -it made no sense for her to send him back to Equestria just to die quickly and incomplete.

Knowing this, he devoted some thought to examining his location. There were a number of decrepit structures that had been overtaken by the growth of the forest, much like Toxic Shock’s base of operations. None of these were good landmarks, though- -until Shining Armor saw the enormous, vine covered castle looming over the tallest of the trees. It was the Castle of Friendship: he had been brought to Ponyville.

With that realization, something inside Shining Armor’s mind snapped. The feeling was something like being struck in the chest with a hammer, except that he could feel his thoughts starting to be torn apart. This was the town where his sister had lived, where he spent so many family vacations, where he had not been alone. He remembered how much Cadence had loved the quaint shops and spending time with Twilight, and this memory linked to something else, something far darker.

Shining Armor screamed and released a number of bolts of magic. Trees were struck, and their sap boiled in tremendous explosions. Even that did not relieve the pain, and he staggered across the uneven, eroded land.

He came to the border of a stagnant, fetid pond, and he realized that it had once been a river that a small bridge had crossed- -one he had walked on so many times before.

“No,” he said to himself. “No! I won’t allow this! I am Shining Armor- -I’m already dead! I can’t feel pain!”

With a tremendous surge of willpower, he forced the memories mostly to the rear of his mind. He collapsed onto the muddy ground, and became aware of the fact that he was not breathing heavily. Nor was his heart pounding in his chest; he had neither a heart nor lungs.

Slowly, he looked down into the water at his reflection. What he saw made him wince. He looked so much like he once had, and yet he was clearly no longer Shining Armor. His skin was gray instead of white, and taught over what remained of his skull. It was separated at parts, revealing the metal beneath, and his eyes, though still blue and bright, were empty and dead. His entire reflection was illuminated pink by the glow of the gemstone in his chest. Any semblance he still had to the original Shining Armor was simply an illusion.

In this, he realized something terrible. He turned his head away from the pool and covered his eyes. He could not bear to look at what he had become.

“No,” he said. “No, it can’t be…”

In his mind, something was wrong. He could remember the events of his past so clearly- -but every memory he possessed was broken and empty, devoid of any emotional content. No matter what memory he recalled, he felt nothing: memories of his childhood and his parents, and of so many happy Hearthwarmings with his sister; of the challenges and rewards of cadet school and rising through the ranks of the Equestria Royal Guard; of meeting the love of his life, Cadence. Even the memories of his wedding were empty and vapid. He could not remember what it felt like to love, or to feel anything at all except pain.

This had been what had caused his initial outburst, this terrifying realization that he was slipping into the void- -and recalling it again brought back the pain. He cried out and moaned, and then looked up at the mist around him. It was growing thicker, and, as Shining Armor watched, figures began to emerge.

Their bodies were narrow and skeletal, and their armor in tatters. They stared at him with their lipless, eyeless faces, unable to truly see but somehow able to see everything. They seemed to be waiting, as if they knew something. Each shade was nothing more than a shadow of a pony that had once been, and yet somehow Shining Armor could remember them all. He had been the one who had torn their souls out.

“What do you want from me?” he asked. “Why are you here?”

A voice passed through the air, appearing to drift in on the breeze.

“Remember…” it said.

“I can’t…I just can’t….”

“Remember…”

Shining Armor turned away from the ghosts and looked back into the pool of dirty water- -only to see another set of ghosts arise from the surface without producing a single ripple. Among them was a pale orange Pegasus, his eyesockets seeming to glow from within.

“Remember…” he seemed to say, even though Shining Armor had long-since sewn his mouth closed.

As Shining Armor looked out at them, he realized that the river was far wider than it should have been, and it now seemed to be flowing. On the far shore, where the fog was thickest, a tall pony stood. His gray body and black mane seemed to be made of shadows, and they continually disintegrated and reformed. Although Shining Armor could not see the pony’s face, he knew who he had been.

“Remember,” said the pony.

“REMEMBER!” screamed the ghosts that surrounded him, their whisper now deafening.

Shining Armor could resist no longer, and he felt the memories flow back into his consciousness.

Deep beneath the Crystal Palace, the air was cold and damp. No warmth from the upper palace reached into the dark sanctum below. It had been designed that way, constructed by a master of wincellers- -a pony who had long since met a mysterious and grizzly fate. Of course, aside from several dusty racks of unused vintages, this stone catacomb stored no wine.

It was in these depths that Shining Armor toiled. This system of tunnels and rooms had been built to his own design, to serve as a testing ground for his experiments. Those, of course, were far deeper than his primary laboratory, sealed away by spells to make them inaccessible to ponies that might mistake his endeavors for something sinister. It was those same tunnels that led even deeper, into catacombs dating to a time long before even King Sombra.

Atop the rooms below, however, was Shining Armor’s primary laboratory, where he was writing furiously at his desk. The designs of the spells seemed to flow from him, their elegant circular representations swirling from his quill like a beautiful dance, their letters and designs written in an alphabet of his own construction.

He momentarily paused, stepping aside to examine a diagram pinned to a large board. The image pictured was a blueprint of the Crystal Palace. Not the rooms and architecture, of course, but the actual important part, the transmitter that Cadence herself had designed. Pinned near this blueprint was a large image of the Crystal Heart itself, its angles and facets demarcated with various notes and equations.

To Shining Armor’s left, a centrifuge beeped, indicating that its cycle was complete. He opened it and removed the tubes within, examining them before adding them to the distillation apparatus nearby. In that, he was devising a new form of synthetic blood that would neither freeze nor rot. The previous recipe was already starting to lose effectiveness, and he would need a transfusion soon.

“Where…where is it,” said Shining Armor, looking for a crystal he had been examining. He pushed past the racks of robotic components dangling from the ceiling and on the shelves around the room- -the parts of ponies yet to be reborn into this world in a more orderly state.

Then he stopped. The legs and arms and necks above shifted on their hooks, propelled by a cold draft from far below. They clinked slowly, and in the distance he heard the dripping of water down the stone walls. There was something else, though. Hoofteps were coming down the long stone staircase that connected this area to the rest of the castle.

Shining Armor moved quickly, picking up his notes in his magic and shoving them into a messy pile in a folder. He knew that no living pony apart from him would be able to comprehend them, but he was still afraid that somepony might see them and stop him. He could not allow that- -not when he was so close.

He stood still as he heard the hoofteps cross close to the large wooden door on the far side of the room. Then there was a pause, and finally knocking.

“Shining?” called a voice. Even through the wood, Shining Armor could tell that it was Cadence. Before he could stop her, the door unlocked by magic and Cadence stepped in.

She was carrying with her a light, and Shining Armor instinctively recoiled. He had grown accustomed to the darkness, perhaps too much so. Normally he only worked by the dim light of a luminescent crystal, or even from the collected vials of Order fallout he kept on a shelf. Exposure to even mild light had become unpleasant.

“Shining?” she called again. She looked around in the darkness and saw him. She smiled- -if only weakly- -and approached. Shining Armor did not like that smile.

Yet, as she approached, he was reminded of how much he loved her. She was so beautiful, and her motions so graceful. In the thirty three years they had been married, she had not aged a single day, and the glimmer of her eyes- -even in this dim light- -gave him hope for the future.

“Cadence,” he said, stepping forward, ignoring the pain of approaching the light. He saw the concern in his wife’s eyes as she saw him. No doubt he looked pale, and perhaps too thin- -or perhaps she wondered why his body was almost completely covered in armor.

“It smells strange down here,” she said, covering her snout. Shining Armor had long since lost his sense of smell, but he was vaguely aware of what his laboratory smelled like. Chemicals, mostly, with strong hints of formaldehyde, ammonia, and phenylacetic acid- -all of which covered a much darker, sour smell that he desperately hoped Cadence was not aware of.

“Honey, I told you not to come down here. It’s just not safe.”

Cadence looked up at him, and he wondered if she knew that he was lying.

“Shining,” she said, looking more concerned than angry. “Are you okay?”

“Of course I am,” he said, smiling, but trying not to reveal that most of his rear teeth had fallen out. “Healthy as a horse. Why do you ask?”

“Because I haven’t seen you in a month.”

“I’ve been busy.”

“But you haven’t even come to bed. Do you sleep down here?”

Shining Armor could not tell her that he no longer slept.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I really am, but I’m so close. I’ve almost made a critical breakthrough. I’m almost done. And when I am, I promise I will take you on a trip. Anywhere in Equestria. Assyria, Saddle Arabia, Llamdoras. We can spend weeks together, just the two of us.”

“Shining. I’m really worried about you.”

Shining Armor smiled. “I’m fine. Is that what you came all the way down here to talk to be about? Because you really didn’t need to do that. Don’t worry about me. Soon enough, everything will be better.”

Cadence frowned. Her eyes turned away from Shining Armor, and Shining Armor immediately knew that something was wrong.

“What is it?” he asked.

“That isn’t why I came down here. I am worried, but I know that what you are doing is important to you, and you don’t like to be disturbed.”

“Then why are you here?” said Shining Armor, turning away and adjusting some reactions in a distillation system.

Cadence took a deep breath. “I just came back from a diplomatic meeting.”

“Oh?” said Shining Armor, comparing a vial of solution against a standard. “How did it go?”

“Excellent. Your sister is a born negotiator.” Cadence paused, and Shining Armor felt himself holding the vial for far longer than he needed to. He was incredibly proud of Twilight, and the Princess she had become- -but something in Cadence’s voice made him afraid.

“I wasn’t aware of any diplomatic meetings,” he said. “I’m afraid I’ve not been following current events.”

“Well…this is important. Twilight succeeded in normalizing relations with the changeling Central Hive.”

The sample and the standard in Shining Armor’s magic were both crushed beneath his magic, grinding them into sharp grit and deep, blood-like chemical solutions.

“Changelings?” he said, turning slowly. “Cadence, what were you doing with those filthy- -”

“Twilight asked me to come,” she said, her eyes narrowing. “And you were invited too, but you refused.”

Shining Armor could not recall doing so, but it was not outside the realm of possibility. Ponies often spoke to him while he was lost in thought, wandering through the castle or the city- -he often responded without thinking.

“That was a very dangerous thing to do.”

“No, it wasn’t. Twilight chose me- -chose us- -because of our history with them. But the negotiations went perfectly. It was the first time I was able to be in the same room with Chrysalis since our wedding. And she’s not nearly as cruel or vindictive as I thought.”

“She’s not a pony at all! Chrysalis is a horrible insect!”

“No, she isn’t.” Cadence was frowning, and for the first time she had raised her voice, if only slightly. “But she told me something.” She stared directly into Shining Armor’s eyes. “Shining…she bore your child.”

Shining Amor had a sudden desire to smash everything in the room- -but controlled himself. He allowed himself appear shocked, but modulated his expression to also appear incredulous. “Cadence, she was lying!” He laughed slightly, shaking his head. “I only have one son. Our son. It must have been some kind of diplomatic maneuver- -”

“He was there, Shining.” Shining Armor felt his breath catch in his thought. It tasted like formalin. “He was there with his mother. An all-white changeling. He looked just like you.”

“He’s a changeling! By definition, they can look like whatever they want! It’s all part of some kind of plot. We can’t trust Chrysalis, Cadence, you know that.”

“No. You don’t understand.” Cadence shook her head. “I know changelings. Celestia, I know them. They’ve haunted my dreams for thirty years. I know what they look like, and when I looked into his eyes…I didn’t see just another drone. I saw you.”

“You don’t know what you saw!”

“Yes I do!” she screamed. Her wings deployed aggressively, but she took a breath and calmed herself. Seeing her long, beautiful bicolor wings made Shining Armor wonder if he could sew a pair onto a unicorn cadaver and create his own alicorn.

Shining Armor also calmed himself. It was clear that his wife was not going to let this go. “Alright,” he said. “Fine. If you want to know so badly, yes. I am Holy Armament’s father. But he was conceived while I was under the effects of mind control! You can’t blame me!”

Cadence shook her head. Shining Armor saw tears welling in the corners of her eyes. “You don’t understand,” she whispered. She lifted her head and spoke directly to him. “I’m not angry that you have a son. I’m angry because you never once told me. I could have forgiven you for what you did with Chrysalis, but to keep it from me. To never once even try to be part of your son’s life, to leave Chrysalis to raise him alone? To never let Blackened know that he has a brother?”

“I’m sorry.”

“No, you’re not,” said Cadence, once again growing increasingly angry. “You never intended to tell me. You never expected me to find out! And it’s not just that! Look at all this,” she gestured to the laboratory. “I don’t see you anymore! You’re just down here doing- -doing Luna knows what! We used to go on walks, have dinner together, watch sunsets- -and the only times I ever see you, you just ignore me!”

“I told you. I’ve been busy.”

“We haven’t made love in sixteen years! I’d never cheat on you, Shining, but I have needs!”

“Cadence, honey…I’m close to sixty years old.” He hoped that she could not tell that his physical body had not truly aged beyond thirty; nor could he tell her that he had long ago sacrificed the organs necessary for love making.

“You could at least take the time sit with me, or lay with me! But no. You don’t. You come down here, or wander the streets at night.” She turned away from him and muttered. “If you hadn’t been so busy, maybe our son wouldn’t have grown up to be a murderer.”

She looked up at Shining Armor, and he looked down at her. Neither of them reacted. Shining Armor did not move to comfort his wife, or to reassure her.

“You are overreacting,” he said. “Calm down.”

“And YOU ARE NOT THE STALLION I MARRIED!” she screamed as she threw her hooves across one of the tables, shattering distillation equipment and sending hissing synthetic blood and pieces of laboratory apparatus skittering across the floor.

“Cadence!” cried Shining Armor, his voice becoming unnaturally high. Before Cadence could continue to destroy his precious work- -and potentially injure herself on chemicals and spells that she had no possibly way of understanding- -he grabbed her front hooves.

“Oh, now you touch me!” she said, smiling sarcastically. “All I had to do was break some of your stuff! This lab took my Shining away from me! I should just break it all- -and pull this place out of the ground!”

“Cadence, please! My work is important!”

“More important than me? Maybe if I looked like Chrysalis you would- -”

Rage suddenly filled Shining Armor’s thoughts, and his mind was momentarily rendered blank. Then he saw Cadence lying on the stone floor, moaning, a thin stream of blood coming out from the side of her mouth and from her nose. He saw his own hoof extended, stopped directly where her head had been seconds before.

“Cadence, I- -”

He froze when he realized what Cadence was holding. She had taken hold of his chest plate, and when he had struck her, she had been knocked back with enough force remove it.

“What?” said Cadence, rising slowly. She was clearly dazed; although Shining Armor was physically atrophied, Cadence had a very slight build. Even one punch had nearly rendered her unconscious.

She sat up and pushed the heavy plate off her body. “Shining, did you just- -”

Her eyes widened in terror as she looked up at her husband, and she let out a loud shriek. Shining Armor knew exactly what she was seeing, because he had performed the entire set of modifications himself. His chest had been pulled open and the ribs sawed away, exposing the system of black, magically charged, dead organs and machines connected to what was left of his internal viscera. Inside, he was hollow. His anatomy was no longer remotely recognizable as belonging to a pony.

Shining Armor looked down into the hole in his chest. He saw the undead organs squirming and writhing, and the deep red synthetic blood that filled his plastic veins. He took a breath, and saw his oxygen handling manifold open, releasing a hiss inside his body. In a way, he felt relieved. He had been keeping this secret for far too long, waiting for just the right time to reveal the good news to his wife.

“Shining!” cried Cadence, reaching out toward him but pulling back. “What- -what’s happened to you?”

Shining Armor smiled. “I told you,” he said. “My work is important.” He gestured to his open chest. “And this is my work.”

“You- -you did this? To yourself?” The shock on Cadence’s face turned to horror, and she clapped her hoof over her mouth as she stepped back. “Why?”

“Why?” said Shining Armor, confused that she did not understand. “Why, for you, of course.”

Shining Armor crossed the room, opening his folder and removing the spells he had been working on. He felt so happy, finally being able to give this gift to Cadence.

“For…for me? Shining, your body!”

“Of course,” he chortled. “For our love. You’re an alicorn, Cadence. You are immortal. You’re already one hundred twenty two years old. You will live forever. But I won’t.”

“Shining…”

“I can’t. This mortal body won’t hold on that long. Or, it wouldn’t. Not normally. Not unless I made some changes. But even this, it’s not good enough! I’m dying, Cadence.” He leapt across the room with agility that seemed to terrify Cadence, and pointed at the large diagram of the Crystal Palace. He lit his horn, and his magic coated it in the runes and notes that had previously only been recorded in his mind.

“But with this,” he said. “With this, I think it will work! With this, I never have to leave you! You never have to be alone!”

Cadence approached the wall gingerly and looked up at the diagrams. She had designed the Crystal Palace, and she no doubt understood what Shining Armor was attempting to express.

“It’s really quite simple,” said Shining Armor, hurriedly. “I can use the Crystal Heart! If these changes are made to the design, it won’t just feed on love and harmony- -it will feed on life-force itself!”

Cadence’s eyes widened. “But the ponies- -or subjects!”

“Don’t worry, I’ve thought about them too,” said Shining Armor, smiling. “It took me a few months, but look! They will only have a thirty five percent reduction in lifespan…well, most of the time.”

Cadence was now backing away. “Shining…why would you do this? Is this…is this what you’ve been doing?”

“Because with this I can live forever! And it’s not all I’ve been doing. Not by far.”

Several doors opened, and the sour smell from deeper within the complex momentarily overpowered the smell of the preservatives. Several dark figures moved in the dusty air beyond those doors, and then stepped forward.

“I’ve also built us new soldiers,” said Shining Armor, grinning as the half-mechanical corpses clicked and hummed up the stairs below, emerging by his side, their white and lifeless eyes staring through the holes in the armor bolted onto their skeletons. “To defend the Empire…to expand it, even!”

Cadence backed away, and cried out as she bumped into a mechanical pony leg hanging from the ceiling- -the same kind of leg that was attached to the nearest of the constructs.

“The murders,” she said, “they- -it wasn’t Blackened Shield at all! It was YOU!”

“I needed raw materials for my research,” sighed Shining Armor. He did not know why Cadence was reacting so poorly. When the process was complete, he would be bound to the Crystal Empire itself as an immortal being; if the Empire fell, he would die, and they would be apart. The thought of Cadence weeping over his grave was simply too much for him. He had needed a new army to protect her, to keep her from being sad like that.

“You’re- -you’re a necromancer!”

Shining Armor frowned. “Yes, I am. But not by choice. Only because I had to be. Because if I don’t defeat death, it will separate us- -it will take you away from me. The things I’ve done…the depravity I have stooped to. That’s why I don’t sleep. I can’t bear the nightmares.”

“This is insane!”

“Really?” said Shining Armor, now annoyed and growing angrier. “So my magic is evil? Disgusting? Except when it benefits you, of course. Then it is beautiful and great!”

“How would this possibly benefit me? Benefit our people?”

“It was my necromancy that allowed us to have a son!” screamed Shining Armor. “You’re an alicorn! You are sterile! Without me, you would never have had a foal!”

Cadence gasped, and started to shiver. She instinctively put her hooves over her womb. “Shining…what did you do…”

“I did what I had to, to make you happy!” His anger collapsed. “You were so sad back then. All you wanted was a baby. We tried and tried, and every time we failed it crushed you. I just couldn’t bear to see you like that.”

“Shining…what did you put inside me?”

“Essentially a construct,” he said, trying to simply the extremely complicated spell as much as he could. It had been, of course, his crowning achievement. “A program, designed to create a pony from flesh. It used my genetics as a template…and acquired a soul locally.”

“A…a soul?” Cadence gaped, and put her hoof to her head. “Is that why he looks like- -”

She gasped, and then screamed. Shining Armor knew exactly what she was realizing: why their son was a dark gray pony with black hair and red eyes. The spell had reached out and collected fragments of the nearest soul it had gained access to, incorporating them into a new pony.

“You impregnated me with King Sombra…” gasped Cadence.

“Not intentionally. Although his soul was actually a good fit. It stabilized the construction spell quite well.”

“You…our son…oh Celestia, what have you done, Shining?”

“I gave you what you wanted,” said Shining Armor, crossing the room past his new soldiers. “You wanted a son, and I gave you one. You wanted love, so I became a lover who can never die. You wanted to protect our citizens, so I built an unstoppable army. I’ve done all of this for you. Because I love you, Cadence.”

“But I didn’t want any of this!” Tears were now flowing down Cadence’s face. “I didn’t want this! Can’t you understand! I just wanted my husband! And YOU TOOK HIM FROM ME!”

“I AM your husband,” said Shining Armor, picking his wife up from the floor and into his arms. “I love you. More than anything. More than life itself. We will be together forever. And you will love me. You will love me for what I have given you…”

“NO!” screamed Cadence. She pushed Shining Armor away, and her horn glowed with powerful blue light. Beams shot forth from it, and Shining Armor’s soldiers were too unintelligent to react. Their bodies were ripped to pieces, their metal components melted and twisted under Cadence’s magic and their flesh reduced to charred, sizzling strips.

“Cadence, stop!” cried Shining Armor.

“You are a monster, Shining Armor!” shouted Cadence through her tears. “I loved you! I loved you more than anything in Equestria! But for this…this! Our marriage is over! I never want to see you again!”

She directed her magic directly at Shining Armor. He raised his shield, but it was as useless as wet paper in comparison to the power of an alicorn. The sheild shattered and his protective seals broke. The air around him superheated as the teleportation spell engaged, and he vanished into the void, weeping.

Shining Armor gasped as his eyes opened. His mechanical irises tightened against the light of the dark sky above. He gasped and rolled over in the grass-like plants on the muddy river bank. He looked around at the ruins of Ponyville, and saw that the ghosts had vanished. The river, likewise, was now little more than a stinking puddle.

The memory had taken its toll on him, and he wept alone in the darkness. It hurt him so much, to know what he had done to Cadence, to know that he had been the one who had driven her away, blinded to it all by his own ambitions. He had sacrificed most of his life with her for his ‘research’- -only to become a monstrosity that she could not bear to look at.

Even with all that pain, though, the memory was still not complete. In it, Shining Armor had still been alive, if only marginally so. He had been a necromancer, but by no means a lich- -the phylactery had not yet been created. There was another memory, he knew; one that was far deeper and far worse than what he had seen. As hard as he tried, though, he could not reach it. Every fiber of his being prevented him from recalling what exactly the flames and screams meant.

Shining Armor stood, and knew what he needed to do. He had to know, and the only being that could allow him to do so was Blackest Night. The only way for him to be complete- -and to have his fate sealed- -was to return to her.

He engaged his magic, and the forest around him shifted. The swamp-grown, warm-weather trees were replaced with tall boreal ones arising from frigid soil, and he knew that he was in the right place.

Before he could point himself toward the ancient church, however, a pony approached him. Shining Armor did not even need to turn to know that it was one of his ghosts- -but he did anyway. That was when he saw what it carried in its mouth, and he knew that something had gone terribly wrong.