Shining Armor's Despair

“Wh… Where are we?” Shane asked Karoma.

“These were once mines where your kind gathered jewels from. However, it has been long since abandoned. Not even your Quee- Princess, knows about it.” Karoma said.

“So… She’s here, right? My sis is here? HEY! SIS!” Shane ran around trying to find her. “IT’S ME! SH-” Shane tripped over something. He got up and investigated exactly what he tripped over. It was a unicorn that was slumped over. Its purple fur roughened and ridged, cut up and bloodied, though these cuts looked old and not properly healed… Or rather, they didn’t get the time to heal. Shane noticed the lack of breathing the moment he recognized who he tripped over. “N-no!”

“Yes. This is Twilight Sparkle, formerly Celestia’s Faithful Student before she sullied her reputation… Or rather… Ran with an idea and was proven right. As usual.” Karoma said. Flashbacks ran through Shane’s head.

All his memories show up again; his meeting with his sister, the invasion, his painful rejection, all of that replayed… but now he’s seeing them as he truly remembered them. As a white-coated unicorn.

“What say you, Shane Sparks, Captain of the Zangetsu Unit… Or more appropriately, Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard?” Karoma’s words stabbed like daggers. Shane remembered a moment when he and Twilight were kids, just fooling around and running around. No great destinies were to be fulfilled, nothing. Just them having fun.

However, the memory of him and his sister came to a screeching halt when they embraced. His memory began to crack apart like glass. A hellish purple miasma seeped from those exact cracks.

THUMP-THUMP!

Shane clutched his chest and slumped to his knees. He was so close to Twilight that his hand was just near her hoof. His hand began to crack with that same purple miasma. The cracks began to spread over his body and face.

“No… No…” Shane muttered.

“You shut out your sister from your life, and the one moment she tries to involve herself, you reject her like a black sheep. The one moment where she was looking out for you. I just find that hilarious! Ufufufufu…” Karoma held his two hands to his mouth to contain his recurring case of the laughing fit, but he couldn’t hold it any more. He cackled out in a laughter that filled the caves. “YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN WHAT HAPPENED WHEN SHE FOUND THE REAL CADANCE!” Karoma shouted. The cracks began to slow down.

“She… She found her?” Shane said.

“Yes… Truth is, she was a little pissed at how her faker made you, your friends, and her mentor leave her that the moment she was sent here by said fake, she found the real one, assumed her to be the fake and… well… Let’s say that the blood on her coat isn’t hers.” Karoma continued to laugh. He fell over and hit the floor, laughing like a mad man. “DWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!” The cracks began to go at a faster rate now.

“No… It’s all my fault then… I shut her out and… I killed Cadance… I…” A horn emerged out from Shane’s forehead. The cracks began to increase as more parts of what looked to be a monster appeared. “I’m sorry…” His body was almost coated in the purple cracks. “TWIIIIIIILLLLLLLYYYYYY!!!!!!” was the last thing he said before his body shattered. In his place was a white humanoid unicorn with a red visor where his eyes should be and a snarling set of teeth for his mouth. The unicorn turned his head towards the laughing Karoma. Karoma calmed down.

“Man, that was a neat trick! I am so glad I showed you where Twilight was. Ha-haaa. So, guess you’ll join my side, Shane?” Karoma asked.

“No. I’m no longer Shane. Shane was my Gate. He died to his despair and gave birth to me…” The monster’s body shifted shape. Back into the shape of Shane Sparks. “Unicorn.” Shane smiled, though a faint image of Unicorn’s face appeared through Shane’s face.