A Shining Sunset

Shining Armor, like all colts, began attending Canterlot Elementary School at the age of five.

He was so excited as his parents led him along the stone steps to the massive door of the academy. Normally, such an imposing sight would have frightened him out of his wits, for he had never been a brave child, but on this occasion he had completely forgotten that he was supposed to be afraid of things like this.

His mother gave him an especially tight hug, while his father proudly read the words above the door and beamed down at his son: "Bring to us your children and we will bring to you the leaders of tomorrow." They knew their child was destined for great things, and they couldn't have been prouder.

He had always been a quiet pony, but his smile quickly offset that; he smiled at everyone, even strangers, beaming with a radiance rarely seen out of children. When left alone, he would close his eyes and bump his hooves together to a whatever song he had last heard: when his parents noticed this, they decided he would be a great musician. When he began to count, they decided he must also be destined to be a great mathematician or professor. And while it did take him a while to begin speaking, and get the hang of basic communication, his parents assumed that any genius must have these minor setbacks, and assured each other that they still had the most special pony in all of Equestria.

Tearfully, they told their son that he had to go on without him, and that he would be fine, while he whimpered that he would miss them. After another tight hug and a kiss on the forehead, he was left alone in front of the doorway of his first class. With his mother's comforting presence gone, his fear returned, stronger than ever. Knees shaking, he struggled to move, but found himself paralyzed. His lip started to tremble, and just before he unleashed the impending torrent waiting behind his eyelids, he remembered the smiles that his parents gave him, right before they left. He knew he couldn't disappoint them; he sniffed, blinked back the tears, and strode inside.

He was met with thunderous applause and cheers. There has been a window next to the doorway, where entire class, teacher included, had been watching avidly, wondering if they would be having another classpony or not. He grinned back at them, feeling a similar joy to when he had made his parents proud.

It was a day unlike any other for Shining, where he learned much that he would keep within him for his entire life. He learned that not all applause and cheer was genuine, and that somehow people could laugh without it making him feel good. He learned that ponies could smile in a way that did not look, and wasn't nice or happy at all. He met many ponies that were happy to make friends that ponies that weren't him, and a teacher that decided his failures were a great way to get the class laughing.

As the year dragged on, he studied as hard as possible, and came to the inescapable conclusion that he was different in some way that made him impossible to be friends with. This would be a lesson he would keep within him for a very long time; where he doubted most everything else, he would not question this for years to come.

However, Shining Armor always had his adoring mother and proud father to back him up. For the next few months, though he always walked home in a slump, and came back with his head held high, comforted by his parents praises and care.  While he had yet to make a friend, he knew they would always be there for him.

Years later, when Shining armor was studying the disappearance of rules when the teacher looked away or left the classroom, he was told he would be a big brother. Nothing excited him more; a chance to make a friend, and be looked at as a cool pony (as he had observed in his fellow classponies) was something he had always wanted, and here was the opportunity. Shining Armor and his parents celebrated over their favorite meal of oats and leaves built into little houses, and laughed long into the night. And Shining Armor found himself full of hope for the first time in years.

He was corrected shortly after: his mother began lying around all day, complaining more than Shining himself ever had. He had maintained a near-constant state of despair after school, and while his mother had provided a shoulder to cry on less and less as time went on, she had given him less and less, and now that two years had passed, she would merely give him a pat on the head before returning to cleaning the dishes or washing something or other. However, Shining Armor had reserves of strength within him, and adapted: he grow into himself, depending less and less on her, and thus was able to persist on the few crumbs of affection she would pass out. But now that the announcement had been made, she barely even looked at him anymore, and would swat him away if he came asking for help; the last of her cares faded away, replaced by occasional promises which were, at some point before the comfort, followed by instantaneous transitions to cruelty and rage, which he could not explain. He soon learned that his mother was not a comfort, and began aiming for as much independence as he could muster

His father had avoided the role of comforter, and had mostly directed him to his mother when he would begin sobbing about his being picked on, or the teachers ' blind eyes, and so Shining did not notice such a major difference in him. They had a weekly game of catch (where they could take turns kicking the ball in the air and seeing if the other could catch it before it hit the ground), and Shining's dad would rustle his mane every time after letting him win, making Shining feel like the most talented colt in the world. But then his father starting coming home much later, and spending all his time at home cooped up in his office, citing something to do with bills or money. When he was free from work, he was avoiding his spouse, meaning he was either working or out of the house. He stopped remembering their weekly games, and, whenever Shining would remind him, administer a hoof to the child's ear and vocal lessons on how he didn't have time to engage in every whim of Shining's. Shining learned not to remind his father of their game, and placed his ball in the closet, where it found its permanent home.

The birth of Twilight finally came about, and with it, Shining Armor's parents disappeared. They now were only preoccupied with work and taking care of the filly, and taught Shining that any noise or complaint from him would be cause for swift punishment for his forwardness. Shining took to his room and stayed there after his lessons in bullying at school, nursing new bruises every couple of weeks (when his classponies had learned about the proper use of hooves). His only respite was that lonely room, left alone by parents who scarcely thought of their failure of a son. It was in his dimly lit room that he began to learn to hate.

At first, his hatred was direct unto his classponies, those who might have been his friends and instead made him a target. But as he grew older he accepted that he was disliked, internalized the knowledge that he would always inspire such in others. But then he reasoned that his fellows were not the only ones to blame: there were those who allowed this to happen; if the teachers and his parents wouldn't have turned away from him, he might have been safe,  left alone at the very least. They were supposed to protect him, but they had turned away when he needed them most. He thought of the parents of his fellow classponies, and of the support they gave their children. He thought of the support he might have been given, but had been denied. He thought about the debt he was owed, and how he would collect.

His rage toward them cooled in a cold, black bitterness, no longer forcing him to cry and scream (which had always landed him in trouble), but making him feel cold and numb, with occasional eruptions of fury, which he was always quick to hide. He had realized that showing how he felt was the quickest way to getting hurt, and soon learned how to act otherwise.

With these new lessons learned, he began to plot. Shining Armor promised that he would not stand for the life he was given, and would give back tenfold that which he had been given.

Shining no longer sought friends in the same way: he knew he would never be able to make the sort of connections he saw within other ponies. But he had held on to something stronger than that need; his hatred. He would teach them the coldness they had taught him; he would show them the closest friend they could ask for, and when he was let in, he would tear them apart. Perhaps it was his bullies that taught him that inflicting pain was good fun, for when he thought of the smoking shells of people that he would be leaving behind, he couldn't help but laugh.

By the time Shining was about to move to Lower Canterlot Middle School, he had perfected his act, drawing in a few potential friends from out of school, but was never able to get past the reputation the school had given him. He had watched the other ponies, and experimented in mimicking their action to other young colts and fillies that did not go to his school, and so far he had been able to sway them to his side. Fortunately, this was around the time his ditsy little sister managed to stumble into the tutorship of Celestia herself; not only would Shining have an indirect connection to the ruling princess, but they would also be moving to an area closer to the capital, meaning Shining would be going to a West Canterlot Middle School.

Twilight had been the shining star of the family since she entered, but Shining's hatred for her would vacillate; once he saw how innocent she was, he found it difficult to pin all the disastrous effects of her existence upon her, but all the same he experienced even more pain from her, and could never entirely get away from a coldness toward her. He knew couldn't blame her for taking attention that belonged to him, when it was the parents that actually chose her over him, and succeeded in avoiding such most of the time. Sometimes he would even have moments of fun with her, rare spots of light that gave him time away from his plans for those around him. But when Twilight brought him into a new district, giving him his perfect scenario, and the chance to meet the princess herself, he found himself feeling grateful for the first time. She didn't understand what he meant when he thanked her, nor did she understand that the kindness he gave in that moment was one of the few genuine kindnesses he would ever give.

But something else had been brought forth from the occurrence, a shadow that far overcame any light that surge of gratefulness created in him: Shining had noticed the princess. He had hated his fellows, their leaders, and most everyone, but he did not discriminate much in blame: they were all responsible, and they would all pay. But when Celestia smiled upon him and told him that he was cared for (it is likely that Celestia saw more of Shining than he suspected), he nearly erupted in rage, though his smile did not move an inch. It all came back to her, who spoke of kindness and friendship, who he saw as the root. She had allowed this to happen, he told himself, she who speaks of kindness and friendship but has never suffered. It was pony nature that had flung him out of the comforts of friendship, and it was Celestia who should have protected him. She was the leader of the world, and so she was ultimately responsible for the pain the world had inflicted upon him, he thought.

Every time Shining had made a mistake in his pretenses by which he'd make friends out of class, he could feel their cold eyes burrowing into him. He had been somewhat kind to Twilight (though he could not explain why); but he could tell that she too did not care too much for what he was when he didn't act. It had been made clear in his eyes: everybody would reject and harm Shining, merely for his existing. And Shining would make sure that everybody paid for it, starting with their god.

And so he smiled gently, thanked her for her care, and set himself to considering how to tear down a goddess.

Middle school had been a thrilling success. Shining had had a tough beginning, when he had to establish relations despite having no friendships left over from elementary school, but once the young fillies and colts got used to the new structures of the middle school, they started maturing (or acting like they did; it didn't matter much), and with that, they started looking for new friends. And so, by a little bit of charm and a pretense at whatever clothes or mannerisms a pony thought was mature, he got in.

He didn't have much luck with the rich and the popular, all of whom valued their muscles and money and looks, of which he was lacking. But he had the smile and the charm, and for all the ponies that had been cast out, that was worth more than gold. He ought to know. He almost felt sorry for the ponies he was using, but there were plenty of ponies that were hated less than he was and teamed up with the bullies to gain a little bit of camaraderie; they were no different than the bullies. They just were a little less lucky with their social position. So Shining brought them together in one great group of outcasts, and began considering how he might recruit those beyond the bottom rung.

He began playing the flugelhorn and getting involved in these ridiculous Oubliettes and Ogres games in order to gain support with some of the nerds, a group which had yet to be brought under his spell. In time he found himself actually enjoying the creation of music, the careful orchestrations of the brass giving him the control he had always wanted. But it was more than that: the flugelhorn itself was often rejected as some historical embarrassment, but Shining knew the value of what others discarded, and found a way to make his new classponies stare slack-jawed at him, if only at the strangeness of the sounds he made. His love of creation and control made him an avid music enthusiast, and while he never had the talent to become much more than an amateur, he often dreamed of reenacting some scene he had heard of in history class, where some mad ruler played while his city burned.

He found in Oubliettes and Ogres a love of control he never thought he'd find outside of his manipulations. Here, in broad daylight, Shining found himself able to show his most complicated schemes and plans in the form of a traveler within the maps his friends would create and his ability to set traps and stages within the maps he built. Poindexter, 8-bit, and Gaffer were the three nerds he found himself most associated with, with them being the closest things to friends he had ever known, though his hatred always prevented real connections from occurring. In addition to their use as sounding boards for his plans (which he would merely convey in a magical setting) and sources of ideas he may not have thought of, he also found himself having fun, though he would never have admitted it. Regardless, he found himself feeling lighter than usual in the company of these useful strategists. They weren't as devious as Shining was, but the way they could create situation with a board and couple pieces of plastic showed a cleverness Shining had not expected, especially from these socially inept ponies. They were of a similar mind to him, and in this he found something he might have called friends, had he met them earlier in his life. Furthermore, he was even able to place a few of his difficulties in manipulation on the board by creating a similar situation in more magical terms, and have them come up with the answers for him.

His parents had forgotten their assurance of his future greatness, but Shining had picked it up early, and never forgotten. He was going to be somepony: he would hold the strings behind everypony, and cut them all in one fell swoop. The world would fall, and everybody would feel what he felt, even for just a moment. There was just something about playing another pony that thrilled him, made him feel like he was in control of another pony in their entirety, their whole destiny, something that rarely happened in his younger days. Once the final scores of losers began flocking to him, he became addicted to the feeling of being in control, getting lost in the music he created in the minds and hearts of other ponies. It was a beautiful feeling, and he always kept in mind the day he would bring them down in one deafening crescendo.

As he ended the four years he'd spent at West Canterlot Middle School came to a close, Shining Armor had built up a steady following within the greater part of the student body (lacking only the few remaining "popular" cliques, which has been mostly shoved to the side in favor of the new unity of those left out), and established a few close friendships within the gaming community, specifically his group of O&O partners. But with a couple friends, each of which believed they were his right-hoof man, sprinkled throughout every group and potential group, he found himself with power, with the promise of more coming soon. He could not wait until high school.

And although Shining had already made a following he never expected, he had only begun. The family was visiting his sister in princess Celestia's castle, when the goddess herself came up to Shining, just as they were leaving. He was terrified of any contact with her; after all, his work and ultimate goal was a tearing apart of a world that she stood at the top of. But she mistook it for general nervousness around royalty, and he had a chance to pretend to be nervous, and then calmed down. His mother accidentally mentioned Shining, offhandedly that Shining would be going to Canterlot High when Celestia grinned and informed them that her niece Cadence would be attending there too. Apparently she was another alicorn princess, who Celestia intended to give power to. As the adults continued their discussion, Shining began to smile, barely able to keep a laugh from escaping himself.