Into the Light

The Crystal Empire was absolutely gorgeous. Now that there was no real imminent emergency I could actually stop and admire this place. Everything, as far as I could see, shimmered and reflected the light in beautiful ways. The shops, the streets, the ponies themselves! It was all so sparkly! I could stand here for years and never be able to describe how awe-inspiring this place was. I should go find a thesaurus and look up a few synonyms of beautiful.

I didn't have time though, the Elements of Harmony were set to arrive in a few moments and I wanted to meet them at the castle.

I had brought up that dreadful place, Ponyville, and that weird mare Sparkle just to see if Cadance had ever heard of either. To my immense surprise, not only was Sparkle Celestia's personal student, but she was also the Element of Magic. Meaning she had dealt with the majority of the evil-doers that had threatened Equestrian over the last few years. So why was she so afraid of me? Surely they didn't believe I was on par with the likes of Nightmare Moon and Discord. Right?

Then, as Cadance had gleefully continued to what she considered more important, Sparkle had also been foalsat by Cadance herself. I couldn't imagine how rich her parents were if they could hire a Princess to watch their filly.

So, I had heard all sorts of embarrassing stories of Equestria's savior, including how she would build forts out of books, and about her and Cadance's little dance. I would most definitely have to find a way to tease her about that later.

I had also learned that Shining Armor was Sparkle's older brother. Cadance's motives for watching Sparkle suddenly became much clearer.

Now that I thought about it, who were Sparkle's parents? They had to have been extremely proud. Their oldest married a Princess and their youngest was a defender of the land. Both of those were feats that entire families would pine after for generations, and they had achieved both at the same time. I might look into that later.

For now, I needed to get to the castle. I forced myself to focus on the world around me, instead of spacing out in the middle of the street like an idiot.

I looked at the ponies around me, and my stoic demeanor broke right there. I laughed. Well, more like giggled, but it was a lot for me. I couldn't help myself. The ponies passing me were all smiling, glittering just as much as the buildings around them. Everypony here was so happy, so inviting and friendly. Nopony feared me, or hated me. For the first time for as long as I could remember, I was actually happy. Once all this was over, I was never going back to Equestria. This was home. I would make this home.

I would need to actually get a house though.

That was future Silver's problem. Future Silver also needed to deal with Shining Armor still. But that's what the Elements were here for, in case things got out of hoof.

Hopefully they wouldn't.

I shook my head and spun on the spot. I really was going to sit here all day if I didn't get a move on. Passing more smiling ponies, I quickly reached the castle in the middle of the city. The guards let me in without a problem, which I still thought was amazing. I could just go wherever I pleased and they wouldn't do a damned thing. Well, I don't know if they would let me into Cadance's room, but any publicly accessible place, sure. Walking through the vaulting crystal halls, passing maids, servants, cleaners and who knew what else, I made my way towards the throne room.

Upon reaching it, I found it to be empty aside from a few sparkly guards. I tried not to giggle. Describing things in the Empire as 'sparkly' just sounded silly, even if it was true. The sparkly guards running around stopping sparkly bad ponies from terrorizing all the helpless, sparkly civilians on sparkly streets surrounded by sparkly buildings. I couldn't help giggling at that point, and I saw some of the guards glancing at me. The sparkly guards!

I burst out laughing, which probably didn't put them at ease at all. Getting myself under control, I moved to the center of the room. And sat. On the floor. That's generally what I did when I wasn't sure what to do. The Elements were due to arrive in a few minutes, but I didn't know what to do while waiting for them. Maybe I should talk to the guards! I don't think I've ever spoken to a guard while they were on duty. Usually they were trying to capture me. Made small-talk a little hard.

"Soooo..." I said to none of them in particular. "Are guards allowed to talk while on duty?" I heard them move a bit. Most would have missed it, but I'm use to noticing the little tells. It usually keeps me from dying quite so much. They were nervous, most likely didn't want to deal with me. Or maybe they were afraid. Even if I hadn't done anything in the Empire, reputation was powerful. Oh well. "I'll take that as a no," I said. We sat in deadly silence for a few moments, but eventually I heard something beyond the doors. Hooves. A lot of them.

I spun around on the spot to face the doors, the two ponies behind me startled. All the guards are so jumpy. And sparkly! I giggled again. I just couldn't help it, it was so funny, even if I was also equally sparkly still. Cadance assured me it would fade soon.

The doors opened slowly. There was general murmur of conversation, but that died as soon as they caught sight of me. Cadance led the group, six ponies fanned out behind her. They were the Bearers, each wearing their respective Element. Honestly, looking at them, I wouldn't be very intimidated if it weren't for their impossible track record. Six mares; two unicorns, two pegasi and two earth ponies. Cadance had told me some about them, and as far as I knew none of them had any combat training. Which meant they were parts of a whole but useless on their own. That might be important later.

"Good evening, Silver," Cadance said. "I hope the guards gave you no trouble getting here." She stopped just in front of me, the Bearers a few hoof lengths behind her.

"I think they're too afraid to look at me, much less stop me from doing anything." I replied. "I assume these are the Element Bearers?"

"Yeah!" The blue pegasus jumped into the air and pointed at me. "And if you think you're gonna hurt anypony you've got another thing coming!"

"Rainbow!" Twilight hissed, and dragged her to the ground by the tail with her magic. Cadance moved to my right and turned to face the Elements.

"It's fine," I said. "Cadance warned me of her attitude. I'm used to this kind of thing. Now," I paused for a moment to make sure I wouldn't be interrupted while Cadance moved to stand next to me, "do you all know who and what I am?"

"Oh!" The pink one, Pinkie Pie, jumped up. "Twilight told us you're a necromancer and you have all these crazy powers and you're really scary but you don't seem that scar-" the orange one clamped a hoof over Pinkie's mouth.

"Err...sorry about Pinkie," Appleflap? said. "She kinda says what's on 'er mind without thinking."

"Again," I said as Orange took her hoof off of Pinkie's mouth, "I was warned." I reached under my cloak with my magic, to which both Twilight and Rarity flinched. I sighed to myself. I pulled out the vial with Shining's soul and held it up for them to see. "Do any of you have any idea what this is?" They shook their heads, luckily with no more outbursts. "All right, well...time for some explaining." I saw Twilight perk up at that. Ah yes, Cadance had told me how much she loved to study. She was definitely going to hound me with questions when this was all over. I was, after all, a completely unknown subject.

"As you all know, I am a necromancer. You would think bringing the dead back to life would be easy for me, but that isn't really the case." I brought a hoof up to rub at my forehead. "Uhh...so if I try to bring a dead pony back to life with no preparation before their death, it works, but not really. This is kind of gruesome, so prepare yourselves." All of them shuffled around nervously. They probably didn't want to hear me talk about death. "They don't just wake back up, sane and healthy. Instead, their skin, muscles, tissues, organs...everything except for the skeleton kind of...melts away, and I'm left with a magically reanimated skeleton servant." They looked about ready to faint at this point. "In order to properly bring somepony back, I need their soul before they die." The yellow one collapsed. Really, already? All of them rushed to her, shouting and panicking. I reached out and felt her heart, she was definitely still alive. I turned to look at Cadance. "Was that too much for her?"

"I think so." She said. "Can you wake her up?"

"Yeah." I said. "One second. What's her name?"

"Fluttershy."

"Fluttershy." I repeated. I focused on her for a second, then she gasped. The panic around her redoubled, all of them asking if she was all right. They helped her to her hooves, the blue one, Rainbow, glaring at me.

"If...I may continue?" All I received were glares. "With a pony's soul, I can reanimate them completely. I've only ever used it on hospital patients and soldiers in too grave a condition to heal." Heh, 'too grave a condition', and they're dying, so they'll be in their grave soon, right? Get it? Oh well.

"Wait a second," the orange one said, "you heal ponies? How?" Darn. They missed it.

"I do. That's what I've been doing for the last four hundred-ish years. A necromancer's abilities goes beyond raising the dead and being evil. I can heal ponies by doing the opposite of of I would normally do. Instead of consuming a pony's life-force, or whatever you want to call it, I just...use my magic to reinforce theirs. At a certain point they can sustain themselves again, and at that point they are healed. Umm...in extreme cases in which a pony can't be healed like that, like when they're missing a limb or have a terminal illness, I can take their soul and bring them back once they die."

I wasn't done. "Of course, since I don't have time to wait around while they die on their own, I have to kill them." I got mixed reactions from that. A few were shocked, some angry, and Fluttershy looked about ready to faint again. I let them go for a moment before continuing. "I can assure you that their death is painless, and once reanimated, they usually don't remember it. There are limitations to this though. Not necessarily that they can only be brought back a maximum number of times, but that it can only heal so much. Birth deformities can't be fixed. I don't know why. For example: a pegasus losses the tip of their wing in an accident. I can heal that. If they lose their entire wing, I can't heal it. I have to kill them to fix it. If that pegasus had a malformed wing from birth, and then they lost that wing, a malformed wing would grow back." Silence reigned. They glanced at each other, at me, at Cadance. After a few moments orange spoke up.

"Now, you said before that to heal a pony you do the opposite of what you normally do. So what is it that you normally do?" She looked like she was ready to run me into the ground if I gave a wrong answer. Well, that would be her funeral, not mine.

"An ability necromancers were hated and feared for more than raising the dead. Let me start at the beginning. In order to heal a pony, I focus on them. Not magically or physically, but with some other sense you don't have. I can feel your heart, your fear, and if I really look, your soul. Now, everypony has a sort of shroud around them all the time, which is the state of their health. Or more accurately, how close death is to taking you. For most, like you six, it's nearly invisible. You're all perfectly healthy. For a dying patient in a hospital, it's like smoke around them. That's how I find dying ponies: I look for the darkest shroud. I can affect that shroud, doing what I told you before, how I healed ponies. What I really do, what it feels like I'm doing, is shoving that shroud off of them. But what old necromancers did was bring that shroud down upon ponies, bringing their premature death."

Again, silence. Maybe we should take a break to let them think about all this.

"It's that easy?" Rainbow asked. She looked like she was trying not to cry.

"Yes."

"Is there any limit to it?" Twilight asked.

"Not that I've found." I said. "That's why everypony hated us. We're unstoppable and unkillable to normal ponies."

"But the ones in the past were killed." She said.

"Yes," I replied. "Taking notes?" I squinted at her foalishly. "Anyway, yes, the first was killed by Celestia. It was a show of such spectacular power that the ponies of the time said he was 'hit by the sun'. It's the same way Celestia tried to kill me."

"Tried to?" Rarity said.

"Hold on," I said. "The second was captured, and for reasons lost to history, Celestia was unavailable at the time. So Luna decided to see if she, the necromancer I mean, had a limit on how many times she could resurrect. It would seem so. The third was the one that caused the most damage. He appeared just after Luna was banished, so Celestia was unable to fight him. She did, however, manage to convince the dragons of the time to help her. Turns out a volcano is a good substitute for the sun, as far as making sure ponies stay dead goes. Then there's me." I waved my hoof at them. "I've been healing ponies ever since I got my cutie mark, but that didn't seem to matter to Celestia. She thought it was a trick, and decided that the best kind of necromancer was a dead one. When she did the whole 'hitting me with the sun' thing, it didn't work quite right. I survived, and everything that had been restraining me was destroyed completely, along with the entire throne room. So I teleported off the mountain, and I've avoided Canterlot and Celestia like the plague up until now."

"Wait," Twilight said. "You teleported off of Canterlot Mountain? But that's impossible!"

"Impossible if you plan on surviving." I grinned at her. "Luckily, that's a condition I don't really have to worry about."

She gaped at me for a second, then slowly closed her mouth. "But...that's still too far to teleport in one go."

"Normally, it is, yeah, but I'm very old. I've been teleporting since before your..." I stopped to consider. If most ponies had foals at thirty-ish, and I was around four hundred and fifty years old...

I took a deep breath."Great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents were born." I gasped. That was hard. "I think I know what I'm doing." I heard a noise to my right. I looked, Cadance had a hoof over her mouth, trying to not giggle. "Just you wait till you're my age, Cadance," I muttered. "That said though, I didn't go down the entire mountain at once. I'm much better at teleporting rapidly."

I took a deep breath. "But we're getting extremely off track." I shook the vial in front of me. "Let's talk about souls, which is kinda the most important thing right now, and why you're all here. This is a soul, I told you that." My brow furrowed. "Wait, did I tell you that? I don't remember. Anyway, do you know who's?"

They murmured amongst themselves, but none spoke up. "It's Shining Armor's." That got their attention.

"Is it supposed to look like that?" Pinkie asked. Her mane was flat, she looked like she was about to start crying. Or maybe killing ponies. Possibly both.

"I was getting to that." I said. I turned to Cadance. "May I?"

"Sure." She said. I pulled another vial from under my cloak, uncorked it, and spoke the words I needed to. A silver substance began to leak out from her eyes and mouth, just as it had done in the hospital room. As soon as it was all in, I slammed the cork back on. I looked back the six. They were shocked, to say the least. I waited until somepony said something.

It was Twilight, or course. "T-that's Cadance's soul?" Her flickered between the vial and Cadance.

"Yes." I said. "As you can see, it's much lighter, almost silver. Her soul is damn near pure." I pulled out my last vial and repeated the process, but with my name this time. My soul was, unsurprisingly, darker than my coat. "Mine is much darker since I've committed nearly every atrocity possible. The color of a soul gives you a look at what they've done. Cadance here hasn't done much from the looks of it, though I wouldn't be surprised to learn that she's beat the hell out of a few ponies."

Now they were all staring at Shining's soul. "S-so..." Twilight said. "How did Shining's get so dark? He's not a bad pony!"

"I know. That's why you're here. I don't believe that this is just Shining's soul. I think that while he was out there, something found him as he died. It attached itself to him, and kept him alive, but not really."

"Not really?" Twilight pleaded. She didn't want me to tell her the Shining was going to die. Nopony ever wanted to hear that a loved one was beyond help.

"He is alive, clinically. He breathes, his heart beats, all that good stuff. But...remember what I told you about shrouds around ponies?"

They all nodded. "When a pony dies, permanently, their shroud thickens until I can't hardly see them through it. It feels like death, it smells like death, and it reeks of death. It's..." I wasn't about to admit I liked it. "sickening to be anywhere near. Luckily, it's only there for a fleeting second in most cases. With Shining though...he's had it since we found him. The doctors say he's stable and he should be recovering, but as far as I can tell he's dead. He's been dead since we found him."

Six voices rang out, Twilight crying, Rainbow was angry. Rarity was with Fluttershy and Applejack with Pinkie, who was also crying.

"Please!" Cadance called above the confusion. "We are not done. Allow Silver to finish." The voices died down, but I continued to hear sniveling.

"He is getting better. But you haven't asked yourselves a very important question yet." I waited. They all looked around, confused, but I was focusing on Twilight, who was staring at the ground.

She looked up at me slowly. "Why haven't you healed him?" She said, almost in a pleading voice.

"I can't." More confusion. They should just accept the fact that everything I said was confusing. It would save them time. "And that's what has me worried. I'm not willing to try and kill him and bring him back. I fear that if I do, I won't get Shining back, but whatever it is that has attached itself to him." Now Twilight was simply staring at me. She probably didn't know what to think.

Cadance stepped forward, spreading her wings slightly. "We called you here in the hopes that you would be able to cleanse him the same we you did to Luna."

"And if we can't?" Twilight asked.

"All lot of things could happen." I said. "One of which is the case in which he is completely possessed by something malevolent and powerful. In that case, I can do more than heal a pony with their soul. Twilight, I'll leave the choice to you and Cadance, but I can kill a pony with this." I shook the vial.

She took a step towards me. "Nonono no no, we'll find a way. We always do."

"Fine." I said. "Since I'm sure you don't trust me, you can keep this." I brought the container closer to her, waiting until she took it with her own magic. "You won't be able to break it, I promise." I sighed. "If you do need to kill him, pull the top off while at least forty-ish hooves away. Any closer than that and it'll simply return to him."

Her mouth moved without sound for a second before she finally spoke. "How does that work?"

"I'm...not quite sure." I admitted. "As far as I can tell, the soul can't make a journey that long, so it ends up dissipating. Since the soul needs to exist for a pony to live, the target pony just...collapses, as if they'd died of fright."

She nodded. "I don't want to do that. We...we'll find a way to save him. We always do."

"Yeah!" Rainbow jumped into the air. "I don't care what's wrong with Shining, we're gonna beat the heck outta whatever's got him!"

"Rainbow," Cadance said, "please, I know you want to help Shining, you all do, but right now we aren't certain of anything. Silver may be completely wrong, but no matter what befalls us, we must remain calm and prepared."

Everypony was silent, though Rainbow was still hovering. Twilight was staring at her brother's soul, Fluttershy was ducked behind her mane, Applejack almost looked lost, Pinkie's mane was still flat, but she didn't look ready to try and kill anymore. Rarity was idly twirling a bit of her curly mane.

Cadance took a deep breath, then continued, "That said, would you like to see him?" All eyes snapped to her, mine included. A chorus of positive replies, and Pinkie's mane poofed a bit. I didn't want anywhere near him though. I had done all I could, being near him would just make me unnecessarily upset.

Cadance began leading the ponies out of the room. "I'll be in my room if you have any need of me," I said. "Specifically, under the bed." Rarity turned for an instant to give me an odd look, but I didn't mind. At least one of them had heard me. That way, none of them could say I just 'vanished' when they find my room seemingly empty.

It has been surprisingly difficult to find a room with a bed tall enough for me to fit under. The poor pony showing me around had given me the 'grand tour' of various rooms, highlighting some of their most impressive aspects, bowing and smooth-talking the whole time. I honestly couldn't tell if he was trying to seduce me or simply scared out of him mind. Either way, he didn't seem to understand that the distance between the floor and the bed was all I cared about, not the the magnificent view (thought it was pretty good) or the walk-closet, or the personal bathroom that was early as large as the room itself. Seriously. Why would somepony need a bathroom that big? What did they need to do in there? Host a party? I didn't understand.

Finally though, we found a bed I could get under. After that, I had asked for blackout curtains. He looked like I'd asked him to shove a broom up his rear end, but he got them for me. I promptly shoved him out, set up the curtains, then dived under the bed.

I had been left alone for a few days, but Cadance had come in at some point, telling me I needed to get out and do something. As if I were a foal! But she had continued, saying that since the ponies of the Empire didn't remember the necromancers from before, and had missed the one before me entirely, they had no idea about me. I was free to do as I pleased without the fear of being seen.

That got my attention. To be able to walk around in the light? Really? Nopony at all would recognize me, nopony would cower, nopony would treat me any differently. That was enough to get me out. We had gone around to some of the most important landmarks of the city, Cadance talking about everything we went past, ponies smiling and waving at us. There was no hostility, no fear, no glances and whispering. We had returned to the castle near sundown, Cadance went to see Shining and I went back to my room. It had been the night before the Elements were to arrive.

Now I was under the bed once again, thinking about the encounter I had just had with the Elements. It hasn't gone as well as I had hoped it would, but it didn't go nearly as badly as I had feared it would. I suppose that's as much as I could ask. I truely hoped that they would be able to help Shining. If they couldn't, I didn't dare imagine what would happen. He might be permanently broken, mentally, tainted by whatever it was. He might be possessed, and we would have to fight him. Who would win? Would I be able to kill him if I had to? Could Twilight? He was her brother, after all, and from what Cadance had told me they were extremely close. She might not be able to fight him, even if he had every intention of killing her. I would have to try and protect them, if nothing else.

The Elements of Harmony should work though. They were made to root out disharmony, right? What was more disharmonious than a soul that had been corrupted? That raised the question though, what would it do to him? Destroy the darkness within him? Would it be impossible to separate the two parts forcefully, so he would just be killed outright?

Wait, if the problem is his soul, them he'll have to have it when they use the Elements. Well...if we kept the soul out of him until we're certain he's not imminently dangerous, then give it back long enough to fix him...

I didn't know. Trying to plan for something with so many unknowns and variables would never work. We'd call the shots as necessary.

Three knocks pulled me back to reality. I opened my eyes, but the room was still dark. Not that I couldn't see, but it gave no hints as to the time, and I really couldn't hazard a guess with my tendency to blank completely for long periods.

"Silver? Can I come in?" Of course it would be Twilight of all ponies. At least I wouldn't need to throw myself out a window this time.

"Yes," I called out. The door slowly slid open, a beam of light sliced through the room from the hallway, and Twilight poked her head in.

"Uhh..." She drawled.

"Right," I said, crawling out from under the bed, "it is kinda dark." I pulled the curtains back, but it was dark, nearly as dark as the room. It seemed I had been under there for a while. Seeing as that probably wouldn't be enough light, I turned back to the door and flipped a switch next to the door. A magic light came to life above us and I squinted a bit. It was very bright after being in total darkness for so long.

Twilight stepped into the room slowly, then shut the door with her magic. She stood just inside the room awkwardly.

"Did you want to ask something?" I asked, still squinting at her.

"Er, well, it's just something I've been thinking about since you explained everything." She shuffeled some and rubbed one of her legs with a hoof. I couldn't tell if she was just naturally extremely awkward or permanently terrified of me.

"Do you want to sit on the bed or something? I don't use it anyway." Her brows furrowed. "I stay under it, like I was before. And before you ask, no, I don't sleep. Or eat, or drink for that matter. I honestly don't know what I run on. Probably terror and spite."

She opened her mouth as if to respond, but didn't say anything. I motioned towards the bed with my head, this time she obliged. I sat down where I was on the floor while she moved hesitantly, glancing around the room. "I don't know if I'm going to be here long enough to need to sit down."

"If it's anything personal or regarding necromancers, it'll probably be a long-winded answer with a lot of explaining." With that, she carefully climbed onto the bed. I had to suppress a sigh. Was she really so afraid that any offense or quick movement would send me into a rage? Come to think of it, if she was that scared of me, why hadn't she brought any of her friends as backup? Or all of them? They were only effective as a group, after all.

We sat in silence, I fiddled with the end of my cloak with my hooves. I didn't want to press Twilight. If she had come to talk despite being terrified of me, she must have something important to ask.

"Why..." I looked up, Twilight was laying on her belly, staring at her hooves. She took a deep breath. "Ok, this is somewhat insensitive. I-if you don't what to answer, you don't have to." She was shrinking into herself as she spoke.

"Twilight," I said, "please don't be afraid of me. I'm not going to hurt you, or your friends. There's very little I won't talk about, and I promise I won't be mad simply because you ask a question." She still didn't look at me, but at least she looked less like Fluttershy.

She took another deep breath. "You...know the history of each necromancer before you. Know how they were killed, what mistakes they made. You have the potential to be an unstoppable villain, so why aren't you?"

I sighed. I swear, it's like these ponies wanted me to kill them. Also, what kind of question was that?

"I—," I sighed again. "I've always wanted to be a healer. And I don't like killing ponies." I rubbed my face with a hoof. "There's more to it than that, but it all boils down to those two main points." She was looking at me now, it was clear that wasn't what she'd wanted. She wanted more, but I knew this trick. I had been interrogated before. Leave the pony you want info from in silence, they'll feel awkward enough to continue. While I wouldn't normally fall for it, and I knew for a fact I could appear rather intimidating while sitting in silence, I figured that telling Twilight the truth would probably help with our relationship. I mean, if the Elements of Harmony, the very saviors of Equestria, said that I was ok, ponies might change their minds about me.

Plus, of course, Twilight was in direct contact with Celestia, and as far as I knew held a bit of sway with what the Princess thought. If I could establish friendly relations with her, she might be able to convince Celestia not to kill me, since I was sure she actually planned on getting rid of me when this was all over with.

"You want the long story, don't you?"

She nodded. I sighed. "Well, alright. Let's start with a few crucial details. I told you before that being near Shining and the feeling of death was sickening. It's not. It's actually the opposite. For me, and I know this isn't normal, death is like..." I couldn't think of the right word. "It has to do with my extra sense. The shrouds. I don't...feel them, necessarily, not the way you feel the bed right now. It's like I can feel, smell, and taste them all at once." There, finally.

"Knowing that, what do you think being near a pony that is perpetually dead and alive is like?" I asked.

She shifted, I could see her facial muscles twitching. Arguing with herself, trying to decide how to respond. Keeping track of what one pony was thinking was much easier than six. "It must be horrible to be able to sense it in so many ways, but you said it's not." She said. "If that's the case, do you enjoy it?"

I nodded slowly. "Mostly. That's why they all went off the deep end. Necromancers I mean. Killing ponies feels amazing, euphoric even. Being near death is like basking in sunlight on a beautiful, cloudless summer day. Surrounding myself with dead ponies would be like a permanent high."

Her ears were pinned back, she wasn't looking at me. Her eyes were flitting back and forth. "And I knew from the beginning that wasn't alright. I knew I couldn't lose myself, couldn't kill innocent ponies for the sake of a feeling. If I wanted that, I would just get into drugs. For the record, I've never done that either."

She hadn't moved much during that last bit, but her ears were more relaxed now. "So," she started, "being near Shining, who you said is-" She swallowed "-both dead and alive, would, would be," She clamped her eyes shut, her breathing ragged. She didn't need to finish though, I knew what she meant.

"Yes," I said. "And I don't like it. I wish it weren't true, but that's the way things are." I really did wish I was disgusted by death like everypony else. That would certainly make killing ponies that upset or annoyed me less appealing.

"Is there anything else you'd like to ask?" I said. She looked back at me and shook her head weakly.

"I wanted to ask about the shrouds as well, but you answered that." She took a long blink, and when she opened her eyes she looked somewhat more determined. "But I do have a theory. Does using dark magic affect a pony's soul?"

My ear flicked. That was an odd question. "I have no idea," I said. "Why?"

"Well, it has addictive properties, right? Can we take a look at my soul? I don't think I've ever done anything to merit having a dark soul. If it is dark though, that might give me an idea as to who has hitched a ride with my brother." Why would she be asking that? Has she used dark magic? I might as well ask.

"Have you ever used dark magic?" I asked.

She nodded. "I have. Princess Celestia wanted to make sure I knew what I was dealing with when we did our lessons on it."

I certainly had no idea why she would need to use dark magic, but I figured taking a look at her soul couldn't hurt. I pulled one of my remaining vials and uncorked it. I whispered Twilight's name. She gasped as her soul left her, watching it slide through the air. I slammed the cork back on.

"What did that feel like?" I asked.

Her mouth moved, but no sound came out. She swallowed and tried again. "L-like I just lost something I never knew I had."

I grinned and looked down at it. Silver, just as light as Cadence's, but with flickers of black deep within.

"It seems you were right." I levitated it over to her. "You're nearly as clean as Cadence, but black is visible within it."

She was too busy gaping at her own soul. At least Cadence had the courtesy to shut her mouth. "S-so, am I-"

"Going to hell?" I interrupted, "Eventually going to fall into the darkness and become a villain? I have no idea. But now that we know that dark magic does change a pony's soul, what does that prove to you?"

She started to bring the vial back to me. "Just pull the cork out." I said.

"Are you sure?" She looked dubious.

"Yes."

She did, her eyes crossed, body tensed and her magic flickered as it entered her again. I caught the vial and put it back in its place. "That felt weird." she said. She shook her head. "Uh, first, what do you know about Sombra?"

I raised an eyebrow. "The Shadow King? Not much more than myths and whatnot. He was the tyrannical ruler of the Crystal Empire before it vanished. He ruled with pain and fear, magically feeding off the hate of his subjects. When it reappeared the Elements..." I trailed off. "Wait!" I jumped up. Twilight flinched, though I think she was just surprised by my sudden movement. "Did you defeat Sombra? Seriously?"

She ducked and her ears pinned back. "Er, well, yeah, we did."

It was my turn to gape. How in the hell had they done that? Sombra was literally a legend, it had taken both Princesses to beat him down the first time! I took a deep breath and calmly sat back down. Suddenly that group of mares seemed somewhat more intimidating. Maybe a lot more intimidating.

"Okay," I said, "what does that have to do with anything, aside from the fact that you're suddenly really scary?"

"We're not scary! We just do what we have to. Anyway, Sombra was really strong. There is a chance we didn't actually manage to kill him. If that were the case..."

I realized where she was going, and the pieces began to fall into place.

"He survived, dormant," I said, "waiting for somepony to come along. He might have caused Shining to hurt himself, or maybe he just took advantage of the situation."

"And if he did survive," Twilight said, "He would only be a shadow of his former self. That would explain why Shining feels dead to you: Sombra was dead, to some degree."

"His dark magic may be protecting him from the magic of other's," I said, "which would be why I can't heal him. So I definitely shouldn't try to resurrect Shining, we'll probably get Sombra instead."

"But if that were true," Twilight said, "why would the Crystal Heart let him in?"

"Because Shining Armor is a citizen of the Empire."

We sat in silence for a moment, I was elated that we had found something important, something that might lead to a solution to this whole fiasco. Even if I didn't like the idea of fighting Sombra in the slightest.

"Should we tell the others?" I asked.

She gave me a funny look. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"

"None."

"Near midnight."

"So why are you here instead of sleeping?"

"I couldn't. My brother is dying and I had no idea why. I just kept thinking about it, about you, all of this," she gestured vaguely with a hoof, "and how I knew almost nothing." I nodded. Of course. I don't know why I thought that everypony was taking all this in stride. I had no connection to any of the ponies involved, so if everything turned sour I would walk off unfazed. But this was her brother, Cadence's husband. They loved him. They we're terrified they would lose him.

"So, we have identified the problem," I said. "Do we have a solution?"

"We have the Elements of Harmony," she said. "We should probably use those as soon as we can."

"So why not now?" I asked.

"What?" she said.

"Why do we not use the Elements on him while he's still unconscious instead of trying to fight him when he wakes up?" I said. Did she really want to have some sort of showdown with Sombra? I had been hesitant to use them before, since we didn't know what would happen, or even what was wrong with him, but at this point it seemed like the best course of action.

"That...yeah, let's do that."

Hopefully this worked. He could resist my abilities as a necromancer, which didn't even work like normal magic. Maybe the Elements of Harmony could simply overpower him.

Twilight hopped off the bed, a spring in her step. I couldn't blame her. We might just be able to fix all this before it became a problem. She opened the door and stepped into the hallway while I flipped off the light.

Closing the door behind me, I couldn't help but worry that Sombra was stronger than we thought.