A Crow in Shining Armor

Chapters

Calm Before the Storm
Shattered Crystals
Laid to Rest
Shining No More
Whispers
Flashing Hatred
Fallen Angel
Crimson Dreams
Victims, Aren't We All?

Calm Before the Storm

Nervous. That was a good word for how he felt. Nervous as all hell. His skin crawled, causing his body to shiver in angst. His blue eyes jerked back and forth quickly, scanning the crowd that had gathered down in the street. Hundreds, maybe even thousands of ponies, all sparkling and glistening in the early morning sun. His wife would probably say that it looked like a sea of diamonds, its waves moving slowly across the imperfect surface that occasionally broke due to some pony’s idea of a fashionable hat resting on top of their head.

All he saw was a massive ocean of judgemental eyes, ready to pin him down as the culprit. A vast sea of flesh about to hold him down, make him atone for his sins. For what he’d done to their princess.

In truth, he was more than just nervous. He was afraid, and it made him somewhat queasy that he could even allow himself to feel fear over such a joyous occasion. He was supposed to feel happy, not want to hide behind the nearest curtain like a guilty little colt. His body was supposed to vibrate from the warmth within his heart, not from the fear coursing through his veins.

They would all blame him the moment he stepped outside, he knew they would. Countless pairs of eyes would pin him down, strip him of his dignity and value and leave him in the dirt. They would judge his actions as well as his body, especially the latter. If not for his body and its needs, they wouldn’t even be here, and the crowd new that as well as him.

They would hate him for tainting their beloved princess. He sighed deeply and turned away from the window he was looking out through. His body pulsated together with his racing heart, and he was sure it came out so loud he could hear it clanking loudly against the crystal floor beneath him.

It took him a few seconds to come to the realization that the sound was actually not his heartbeat, but the sounds of hooves somewhere nearby, coming closer by the second. He directed his eyes towards the only door, one that lay on the other side of the room, aligned perfectly with the door leading to the balcony on the other side.

He’d never forget how he’d been standing on that balcony, watching the massive wall of blackness coming closer, hoping that Twilight would reach the Crystal Heart in time. His wife resting in his arms as she became weaker and weaker before him.

A feminine face appeared within the doorway, one covered in sleek, bright cerise fur, framed by a perfectly cut mane of violet, with streaks of gold woven into it. A few streaks of a brighter purple could be found within it, and it always reminded him of the colour of the roses in the royal courtyard.

His wife, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, slowly stepped inside the room.

Her dark purple eyes seemed to scan the room for a fraction of a second, before falling upon her husband, still standing over by the window, and she instantly smiled at him. Despite the growing anxiety within him, Shining Armor couldn’t help but answer her smile with one of his own.

She walked up to him in silence, pressing her face to his as she came closer. Shining closed his eyes for a few seconds, feeling just a little bit of his initial worries take a step back and give way for that tingling within his chest that he always felt when he touched his wife. Like butterflies fluttering in the stomach of a child that had just fallen in love for the first time.

If he could just remain like that for a little bit longer, he thought his body would let itself relax, but unfortunately, his wife withdrew her face from his all too soon.

“I don’t think I’ve been this nervous in my entire life.” He said slowly.

“You do look a little bit more white than usual.” Cadence said jokingly back to him. “Don’t worry, I’m sure everything will be fine.”

Shining Armor blinked his eyes slowly, keeping them closed a little longer than he would normally. He couldn’t help but feel guilty as he saw Cadence, even though he loved her more than anything in the world. If he’d just been a bit more careful, the future would have been different. If he hadn’t lost himself like he did, she could have been spared the pain she went through just a month earlier.

Her screams still echoed loud within his mind, and every time he tried to sleep he saw the blood on the floor around them it was the first time he witnessed the birth of a foal, and after what he’d seen, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to take part in another. And he hated himself for it.

The fact that he still had nightmares about the night that his daughter was born. He loved her just as much as Cadence and already longed for her to become just a little older. He always wished to hold the little filly one more time, and couldn’t see his life without her. Still he hated the moment she came into his life, and for this, he hated himself.

Maybe in time, he would be able to stop thinking about it; about the pain he caused Cadence.

He was pulled out of his ponderings by the sensation of something pressing against his lips. Because of his absent and worried mind, he didn’t have time to answer the kiss before it was over and cadence once again spoke up.

“Take a deep breath, Shining.” She said to him. “We’ll have to head down in just a few minutes.”

He sighed, a sad smile playing over his lips. “I’m ready, I just… have to try and calm myself a bit.”

“You’ll be fine, I promise.” Cadence replied with a smile. “So, let’s get going then.”

Shining Armor nodded and followed by his wife’s side as they exited the room, out into one of the many staircases spread out across the castle. At times he found himself wondering who was the genius that decided that a tower would be a good shape for a castle. He’d like to give him a medal in the shape of a slap in the face.

“Is Twilight already here?” He asked as they emerged into another hallway, one that led into the grand entrance. Just one more pair of doors, and he’d be out in the open, squared in by thousands of eyes.

“She’s waiting outside with her friends.” The princess of love answered, adding a quiet laugh. “It wasn’t easy to get that Pinkie Pie to stop bouncing around on the walls outside, but she promised to wait until Skyla is brought out.”

Shining Armor joined in her laugh. “That sure sounds like Pinkie.”

The grand entrance was packed with ponies, most of them part of the court and royal guard, as well as a few close friends. They all chattered away at each other, some with worried voices and others with a chirpy, happy tone. Everypony went quiet and turned their heads towards them as Shining cleared his throat in order to make themselves known.

It didn’t take many seconds for the crowd to react and move towards them. As they came closer, Shining could see a pair of violet wings reaching up from the crowd, moving back and forth as if its owner was trying to navigate its way through the ponies. He already had a hunch of who it could be.

Just a moment later a violet mare stumbled out of the crowd, almost tripping over as her wings got caught between a few of the ponies. A purple aura of magic yanked it loose, and she then directed her attention towards Shining with a massive smile on her face. He didn’t even have time to greet his little sister before she threw herself over him, locking him in a loving embrace.

“Twily!” He said happily, hugging his sister close. “I thought you were supposed to wait for me outside?”

“I couldn’t let you face this alone.” Twilight answered. One of her wings accidentally brushed over Shining’s face, almost making him sneeze. “Oh, sorry, these things still live a life of their own.”

“You should see Cadence in the morning.” Shining said with a chuckle. “I don’t think I’ll ever get used to her wings standing up and stealing away the covers from me.”

“Honey, don’t you think that’s a bit too private to talk about...?” Cadence added, giving him a long look.

He turned to look at her with a small smile. “Right, sorry.” He gave his wife a quick kiss before he turned back to Twilight. “Massive wing-boner.” He whispered to her, still smiling.

“Shining!” Cadence said, raising her voice slightly. Her husband looked back at her, the smile on his lips growing by the second. She stared him down, but a few seconds later his smile turned into laughter. Unable to stay mad at him, Cadence sighed and rolled her eyes before letting out a shy little giggle.

Now that he’d finally been able to laugh, Shining was able to relax enough to actually do something to help out during the event that was about to start any minute. He wasn’t really sure how he did it all himself, but in a matter of minutes he’d ordered the guards into formation, asking them to stand by within the entrance. After all, he didn’t see any reason at all to keep them around, nopony was ever going to try and harm them on such a good day.

He’d gone over the routine with most of the staff of the court before he went over to the small crib in which his daughter rested. He picked her up in his arms and held her close, slowly cradling her while she giggled happily at him. She tried to get hold of his mane as he cradled her, and he felt his heart melt, just as it always did. He felt Cadence walk up next to him, and he carefully placed Skyla back into the crib, giving her a small peck on the snout as he did.

“She’s so beautiful.” Cadence said, leaning slightly against Shining Armor’s side.

“Got that from her mother.” He answered with a smile. “Do you want to carry her?”

Cadence nodded. The crib lit up in a faint glow of pinkish light as Shining Armor’s magic picked it up, levitated it through the air and placed it down with great care on the back of his wife. They both turned around just in time to see the court gathering around the big doors leading outside. Shining swallowed down a lump in his throat.

“Let’s go, honey.” Cadence said to him, and they set off across the room towards the door.

As they walked, Twilight once again emerged from the crowds and joined up right next to Shining, not saying a word. He suspected her smile was so big it kept her from opening her mouth. The trio stopped right in front of the doors, awaiting the sound of trumpets that signalled their arrival to the ponies outside.

Shining’s heart beat faster by the second, and he wished he could go outside and meet the crowd right away and get this over with. He wished that Twilight could stand by him, but he knew that once the event had begun, she had to return to her place by her friends in the crowd. At least he would have Cadence next to him.

He felt something tug at his chest, and looked down to see what it was. He instantly recognised the colour of his sister magic, at the moment occupied with adjusting the small white emblem with a shield on that was strapped to his royal jacket. Shining looked at Twilight, giving her a sideways look. Her smile still refused to go away.

Suddenly, the air around them felt like it exploded as the loud noise of trumpets filled their ears. Their cue to exit the doors.

Shining Armor shook his head slightly to erase any thoughts that weren’t needed, letting out a loud sigh as he did. He did his best to relax every muscle within his body, and tried to look at Cadence for reassurance. Her brilliant eyes and smiling lips was all he needed.

He pushed the doors open and stepped out into the bright morning sun.

Shattered Crystals

“Mares and stallions of the Crystal Empire!”

Shining Armor stood next to his wife as she raised her voice to the crowd. It was impossible not to hear the tone of happiness in her voice as she spoke, and Shining did his best to keep up a smile as he too watched the crowd.

But the rain that poured down over his face and body made it hard to keep it up for long.

“I stand before you today not as your princess, but as your equal!”

He wasn’t even sure how it started; it had all become a blur. As they stepped outside the sun hit their faces and blinded them. He couldn’t even see the crowd cheering due to it, but he walked forwards next to Cadance.

It didn’t even take a minute for the sunlight to go away, hidden behind dark clouds that had rolled in with an unnatural speed over the horizon. Shining Armor shuddered at the sudden drop in temperature, and his eyes perked as the sound of rumbling thunder reached them from afar.

A storm was about to hit any minute, and he hoped they would have time to wrap it all up before it drowned them.

“I stand before you proud, as a mother!”

Of course, he’d been wrong. The rain fell merely minutes after the clouds covered the sun, and it drenched both himself and his wife, as well as the massive gathering of ponies before them. They didn’t seem to mind though, their smiles still shined brightly at them.

He suddenly felt something warm and soft brush against his right cheek. It broke through the rain and cool air, almost making him jump as it hit him. It was Cadance, nuzzling against the side of his face, giving him a smile and looking at him with big, almost begging eyes.

It made him realize that his thoughts of the approaching storm must’ve caused him to miss her last sentence, failed to hear her last word that served as his cue to lift Skyla up to the crowd. Now she was clearly trying to get his attention.

“I’m sorry, I was miles away for a few seconds there.” He whispered, before letting his magic course through him and shoot out of his horn.

With great care, he lifted the small foal wrapped in a blanket off of Cadance’s back and took it into his arms. He could hear a quiet murmuring go through the crowd before him as he slowly removed the blanket from his daughter’s face. She yawned slightly, looking up at her father with big, tired eyes.

Shining Armor had to force himself to look away from the child he held to instead direct his attention to the crowd. He locked eyes with them, expecting them to give him judgemental looks. Bu the only thing that met his gaze was smiles and beaming eyes. Genuine happiness, all of it directed towards him and his wife.

With a steadily growing smile he lifted the foal above his head for the crowd to see, and instantly a wave of cheering seemed to spread through the crystal ponies.

“Princess Skyla!” He proclaimed, feeling his heart skip beat after beat within his chest. Not because of fear or worry, but because of joy, and the feeling of every single drop of doubt within his mind slip away together with the rain.

The cheering grew louder, and Shining couldn’t stop himself from laughing and cheering too. As he looked to his side, he saw Cadance looking back at him, with something other than the drops of rain slowly streaming down her cheeks.

At that time, if not for the foal in his arms, he would’ve embraced her and wiped her tears away.

After a few more seconds, he was forced to once again place Skyla down in her basket and hand her back to Cadance, but the crowd was still as happy as ever, and he thought they yelled even louder as they shared a quick kiss.

After the initial reveal of the princess, the crystal ponies all had the chance to approach the royal couple and give them their support and get a better look at the little filly. Shining Armor didn’t mind the hoof shakes and hugs that they both received, it just made him even more secure in his newfound knowledge that they didn’t hate him for what he’d done.

In fact, they loved him, and wasted no time in showing it. He lost count of all the hugs and words of congratulations, it all morphed together into one long, loving embrace. He didn’t even notice the rain anymore.

Because of this, Shining Armor didn’t find it strange that the final few ponies that came up to them all wore grey cloaks with hoods covering their faces. He figured it was because of the rain that they wore it.

It all happened so fast. A single second was all it took. One simple blink of an eye, and Shining Armor’s life fell into pieces without him even realizing it until it was too late. He didn’t notice the pony that had circled around and placed itself right behind him. He didn’t see the tiny glimmer of steel as a flash of lightning reflected within it.

It happened so fast.

One of the cloaked ponies approached Cadance and drew her into one final embrace, and the cloak prevented anypony from seeing what happened beneath it. Shining could see the lips of the pony move, as if it whispered something into her ear. Then it withdrew itself from her, ending the embrace.

He didn’t understand why the pony rushed away from them so quickly. A few seconds later it had disappeared in the crowd. He looked back to his wife, seeing her sway on her hooves for some reason, like she was about to be ill.

“Cadance?” He said to her. “Cadance, honey, is something wrong?” Something sure felt wrong, and he felt fear once again come knocking.

The princess slowly turned towards her husband, her face one of surprise and pain. Her lips moved, but no words could be heard between them. Shining could have sworn that the world around them had stopped. Cadance swayed towards him slowly.

“Sh… Shiny…” She whispered under her breath, as if it took every ounce of life within her to speak.

Shining Armor was at a loss for words as he had to catch his wife as she toppled over into his arms.

“Cadance! What’s wrong, what’s going on?” He looked down at his wife with worry, his heart stopped and his body trembling. Her eyes looked like they would fall shut any second.

Another flash of lightning parted the heavens above them, and for a split second the light reflected brightly in something that was lodged in Cadance’s side. He understood instantly what it was, but he refused to believe it.

“No… Nonono, this isn’t real! Cadance! You have to stay awake, please!”

Her eyes flicked back and forth, threatening to close forever. She blinked slowly as the rain hit her face, streamed down her cheeks and over her body. Something red had already begun to form a puddle on the stone floor beneath them.

The crowd finally understood what was going on, and panic erupted in an instant. Screams of fear and anger filled the sky as the ponies all moved in different directions, some trying to run away and some trying to help the couple. They were stopped by more cloaked ponies, with dagges brandished and ready to be used.

Shining Armor still couldn’t believe what was happening, even though he saw it bright as day. The knife sticking out of his wife’s body, just behind her right shoulder. He knew what it meant to be stabbed there. He yelled to try and keep her awake as tears fell from his eyes, feeling her blood soak into his fur, making it turn almost black.

His wife was dying in his arms, and there was nothing he could do. If he pulled the blade out, she would bleed to death, and if he left it where it was, she would suffocate. He prayed to Celestia, Luna, Discord and whatever god there was that the blade had missed her lungs.

“Cadenza, stay with me…” He whispered as he lifted her up to his face, pressed herself against her. “You have to keep your eyes open…”

“Shining…”

“I’m here, sweetie, I won’t leave you.”

“S… Skyla...”

Cadance’s neck suddenly fell backwards. Her wings unfurled on the ground, becoming limp, just like the rest of her body. Her golden crown slid of her head and hit the floor with a loud clank that seemed to echo louder than anything Shining had ever heard.

His heart got swallowed up by a black abyss as he saw the small arms with purple gems bend and break. As if that one simple thing made it all a reality.

“C-Cadenza? You… please answer me, don’t… don’t go.”

Suddenly, a new sound filled his ears. A sound he’d heard every night for the last month. Reluctantly he looked up from his wife’s lifeless body, and saw another cloaked stallion holding his daughter. His eyes shot wide open in fear as well as anger.

“Don’t you touch her!” He yelled at the stallion.

The pony in cloak didn’t respond, he simply smiled devilishly.

“I’ll kill you if you hurt her! You hear me?!” Shining screamed to the stallion.

“Oh, I doubt that.”

Another voice answered his cries, one that came from behind him. He couldn’t turn around to face whoever it was due to Cadance, and he wasn’t ever about to let go off her. Ignoring the voice, he focused instead on the stallion holding his foal.

“I’ll give you whatever you want if you put her down!” He shrieked. “Anything! I’m a prince, I can give you the Empire, just please don’t harm Skyla!”

The stallion laughed at his words, for some reason. He reached up and removed his hood from his head, revealing a dark green face with brilliant red eyes. His teeth shined brightly as he smiled at the broken prince before him.

“Put her down?” He asked. “I can do that.”

More tears burst from Shining Armor’s eyes and he screamed at the top of his lungs as the stallion let the foal fall freely to the ground. She hit hard, and her cries became louder than anything he’d ever heard before.

He didn’t care about the movement behind him. He didn’t care that somepony pressed themselves against his back. His entire mind was focused on his crying daughter.

“Death to the Empire!” The green stallion shouted as he reared up on his back legs, kicking fiercely into the air.

Shining Armor didn’t register the cold steel that suddenly pressed against his throat.

“Long live Janus.” A voice whispered into his ears.

No pain came to him as the blade slid across his throat. He couldn’t feel anything at all anymore, only the sounds of Skyla. He wanted to get up and rush to her, but he couldn’t, his body had begun to turn numb, and something warm streamed down his chest and stomach.

Slowly, his vision turned black and blurry. The rain around him seemed to change direction and move horizontally instead of falling, and something cold pressed against the left side of his body. Cadance slipped out of his grip.

The last thing the prince saw was the green stallion, roaring in silence as he brought his hooves down hard upon the head of his beloved little baby girl.

Shining Armor slipped away, his eyes closing never to open again. Lying next to his dead wife in the rain, still trying to hold her close.

Laid to Rest

Twilight Sparkle had never been part of a funeral before, and never did she think that she would have to attend this one so soon. Never did she think she’d become a princess, only to have to bury her own brother a few months later. It wasn’t supposed to be like this, it was all so wrong. She wanted to grow old together with Shining, see his daughter grow into a mare before they both passed from this life.

It should have been old age that claimed Shining Armor, not the sharp end of a blade.

Her black dress swayed around her legs without making a single sound as she walked up to the open coffin displayed by the altar. At first, she focused her eyes on the small ornament resting upon the altar itself; a pillar adorned with a radiant sun in purest gold. Within the sun itself, a crescent moon had been carved in.

Celestia and Luna watched over them all. The ornament symbolised their final reunion, a stark reminder that one could always be redeemed, and a testament to the love within a family.

She had to force herself to look down in the coffin. Forced herself to remain, to look down upon the body of her older brother. The longer she looked the more real it all became, as if it didn’t sink itself into her mind until then.

There he had been, as clear as day. He looked peaceful, his eyes closed and a hint of a smile over his lips. He’d been dressed in the ceremonial funeral cloak that all royalty in Equestria wore for their final rest, and the hood had been pulled up slightly. No doubt to hide the scar across his throat, Twilight thought.

It was a good thing it had been covered up, she wouldn’t be able to stand seeing it. The thought of it made her skin crawl and her stomach turn; the thing that had ended his life still remained, hiding behind a piece of cloth. Like a mockery against both of them. She had never seen it, but she knew that the scar was massive, travelling from ear to ear.

Her body had shut down when Celestia took her aside a few days after the attack in order to let her know what had happened. The knowledge that one cut across his neck almost took his head clean off had become too much for her, and Twilight closed herself within her mind for weeks, just staring blankly off into space.

Now she had returned to some semblance of normality, and had begun her mourning. But as her eyes travelled across the masculine face covered in white fur and the long neck beneath it, her gaze fell upon a tiny part of the side of his throat where the cloak hadn’t been completely pulled up, and she instantly had to turn away.

A small glimpse of the sewn up wound could be seen, and it became too much for Twilight to look at.

Next to Shining Armor there was a second coffin, one that was a lot thinner since the body it contained was slimmer and sleeker. Twilight looked down, seeing the features of Cadance behind a thin veil covering her face.

It was difficult for the young Alicorn to look upon her, and it was difficult to think of her as the one that had taken so good care of her when she was but a foal, growing up in Canterlot. One of the best friends she had as a child, one that almost filled the role of a second mother. Her sister-in-law, undoubtedly one of the most beautiful mares in all of Equestria.

The memories of her felt distant, like a long forgotten song that the bards no longer sang, and only told of in legend. Something that once was so real that it became hard to believe it any longer.

And now this visage of beauty was displayed in the grand cathedral of the Empire, waiting to be put into the ground together with her beloved husband.

Once Twilight’s eyes fell upon the third and final coffin, she couldn’t take it anymore. The tiny little box, closed unlike the others, with a sea of flowers resting on top of it. It sickened her, and she had to turn her back to the trio of caskets.

Of course, all of this was already behind her.

The peaceful faces, the closed eyes and pursed mouths with a hint of a smile at their sides. The smell of lilies and roses in her nostrils, and the sound of church bells as the family was carried out through the gates.

Floating upon the shoulders of those closest to them, they made their last journey together before they would join in eternity. The rain poured down over the entourage as they brought them across the graveyard towards their final rest, but nopony cared about the rain anymore.

As a matter of fact, it felt fitting, as if the heavens themselves mourned the loss of their rulers. It offered a small slither of comfort to some of the ponies walking behind the coffins, their teary eyes hidden behind mourning cowls and brimmed black hats.

Twilight’s dress had already been soaked by the rain, and her mane rested flat against her face like a mask. Water dripped off the end of her hair, joining together with the other countless drops of water descending on them. The hemline of her clothing dragged in the grass, caught itself and tore on rocks and debris, but she didn’t care about it.

It was just a piece of fabric, something Rarity could sew together in a matter of seconds. It was of no value to her whatsoever. Once the funeral was over, she thought she’d never touch it again and just throw it away in her closet. It would wither away, eventually turn to dust as insects and time gnawed away on it.

Forgotten and unseen, slowly fading away in the eyes that once held it.

The coffins was slowly lowered into their respective holes. Shining to the left, Cadance to the right and Skyla in the middle between them. Twilight wiped her tears, but did her best to stay strong, tried to be there until the end.

A loud scraping sound could be heard, followed by a clank as the casket containing Shining Armor levelled out within the grave. It screeched loudly, tearing into everypony’s ears.

Twilight Sparkle had to turn away as she finally broke down into the tears she’d been holding back for so long.

Shining No More

Suddenly there was a tapping. A quiet, distant tapping, like a whisper from beyond. The sound of something sharp tapping against what sounded like a hard surface. It was an unnatural sound, one that wasn’t supposed to be. A forbidden sound, unwanted by the ears that heard it. Yet it was there, tapping ever so slightly.

Sounds weren’t supposed to exist, nor the ears that heard them.

There was supposed to be nothing at all, not even darkness and shadows, just a vast nothingness of the dead. Yet this tapping broke through and filled it to the brim, making it a reality. If the sound could be heard, it had to mean that somepony heard it, but that was not a possibility. For a pair of ears to hear, something needs to control them.

A brain has to be alive to register the waves. A heart needs to pump blood in order to keep said brain alive. That heart and brain died a long time ago, withered away, slowly buried in the sands of time. The tapping grew louder. The ears heard it, and twitched slightly. A movement that should never exist in this emptiness, yet it was there together with the sound. None of this was supposed to ever happen, yet it did.

Shining Armor opened his eyes.

His initial reaction was panic. Trapped within nothing but darkness, he could feel the walls getting closer, pressing into his shoulders. The ceiling bore down upon him, trying to crush his every bone and throw him back into the silent vortex of death. It was so cold, both his body and everything around him, it felt like ice pressing into his flesh. Sharp like blades.

A crack echoed within his ears as the ceiling above him broke. He pressed his face upwards, up against the splintered wood that had served as lid on his coffin. Sharp edges of the splinters slid across his face, and he felt a sharp pain dig into the sides of his foreheads. The further up he pushed, the longer the pain felt, moving down over his eyes.

He stopped pushing, realizing what he was doing. He was dead. Murdered together with… he was dead, but here he was trying to crawl out of his own grave. It wasn’t natural, not a reality, but not a dream. A dead prince wakes from the dead. He tried to crawl back down, force himself into the coffin and hopefully fall asleep yet again.

The prince didn’t want to be alive anymore, not after what had happened, which still burned his newly awakened memory. Shining slid his head down through the splinters, but stopped suddenly. There wasn’t much in the ways of pain, but he could still feel every little thing that happened, and right now, the splinters tore into his eye sockets.

They sliced around his eyes as he tried to squirm free from them, and no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t go any further down, as if they knew what he was trying to do and tried to stop him from doing it. He had no choice but the press up. When he did, the splinters instantly moved away, instead slicing down under his eyes, over his face. Granting him free passage from the land of the dead.

Once his head became free of the confines of his casket, he unconsciously drew in a deep breath, but no air filled his lungs. No matter how he tried, he couldn’t breathe properly, and he begun panicking once again, kicking and flailing to get loose, to get the air his lungs craved. The wood cracked loudly as his body slowly tore its way out, and the splinters created deep cuts in his skin.

Shining’s front legs slammed against the concrete walls surrounding his casket, and he felt his hooves crack slightly from the force bearing down upon them, but there still wasn’t any pain, only panic and the will to breathe. His hind legs kicked wildly, still lodged within the casket, eventually breaking free as it splintered. He pressed himself up towards the cold ceiling, hoping to move the massive heavy lid out of the way.

It proved impossible, as it seemed to weigh a ton, and his body was too weak to move it. He fell down on the floor, half his body resting above the broken lid of the casket where he was supposed to rest for all eternity. He wanted to just die all over again, get away from this hellhole. Something still tapped above his head, someone knocking.

A few seconds passed by. The seconds turned into a minute. Several minutes. Shining Armor finally realized that he didn’t even feel the need to breathe anymore; the lack of oxygen didn’t affect him at all. Because he wasn’t even breathing, his initial reaction of fear subsided, replaced by feelings of sorrow and anger. He just wanted to rest.

He wasn’t supposed to be here, not like this. Not without Cadenza. Not without Skyla. He didn’t know if he was alive or not, but he knew that no matter what, he didn’t have a life to return to. There was nothing left for him in this world except pain and misery, and he just wanted out. Didn’t want to face the world again.

Finally sick of it all and coming to the realization that he had no other choice, he fired up his magic and directed it towards the ceiling. With a roar, he arched his back against it while pushing with his magic as well. It worked, and the thick lid gave way ever so slightly, a small gap opening at the side.

Filthy water instantly poured over him.

The prince pushed harder, screaming louder as he strained his body to the max. the lid moved, raising itself high enough from the ground for him to climb out. Seeing no other way, he quickly reached up and heaved himself out. The lid slammed shut hard behind him with a deafening roar, and his face splashed into grass and mud almost drenched in water.

His body ached and it felt like his horn was about to break, but he forced himself to roll over on his back. Water dropped into his face, rain pouring down from the skies above. As he twisted his head slightly, he could see the lid that he had just lifted, and a gravestone at the edge of it bearing his name.

On top of it, sitting perched on the side, was a black figure. A big bird watching him in silence, occasionally jerking its head to smash its beak against the stone. Tapping, tapping upon his grave in which he would rest never more.

Reluctantly, Shining moved his head to opposite way, and felt himself break as he saw two other graves, looking exactly the same way as the one he crawled out of. The names Cadenza and Skyla had been etched into the mirror polished marble surface with golden letters.

Trying to move from the ground, he found himself stuck as if something held him back. He looked down, seeing the black cloth of a cloak beneath him being pressed down by his body weight. The funeral cloak he knew all too well. A cloak that dead royalties wore in their graves. Closing his eyes to shut out the image of the black cloth, he slowly raised a hoof up to his chest, shaking from fear as to what he would feel.

There was no heartbeat inside his chest.

It dawned on him. The truth came slithering up his spine slowly, making his skin crawl. It nestled itself down at the back of his neck before it travelled to the edges of his throat. He touched it, feeling a line break his skin. He instantly recoiled and unintentionally fell back on the ground. The truth wrapped around his throat, forced him to accept it.

Shining Armor was dead. He knew it now. His body was cold, there was no heartbeat, and he didn’t feel any pain. And his throat had really been slit. He was dead and buried, yet he’d awoken once again. That also meant that his wife and daughter was gone as well. The small hope he had that it had all just been a nightmare died away and left him in the mud, shaking as tears streamed from his scarred eyes.

His screams of agony tore through the night sky, loud enough to wake the dead.

Whispers

Everything looked so different, and not just because of the darkness or the rain that distorted his view. The world around him spun as if it moved on its own axis, independent from everything and everypony in it, and it threw him off balance as he almost dragged himself forward. He knew exactly which street he was on, but he didn’t recognise it.

Wherever he looked, he saw nothing but grey buildings, closed windows and barred doors. The usual gleam and sparkle that coated the Empire he loved was gone, replaced by darkened skies and the flow of water down the streets and rooftops. Flowerpots and other décor had been replaced by pipes that lead the water off the buildings and down into the gutters below.

The stallion almost toppled over as a flash of lightning illuminated the street, and what it revealed to him made him want to fall. Back in the day, the buildings would’ve reflected the light, but now there was nothing. Not a single reflection as far as his blurry eyes could see. Once the thunder roared above his head, his hooves skid across the wet street and he fell limp on his stomach.

The hood of his soaked cloak plastered itself over his face like a second skin, and as he lay in the streaming water he wanted nothing more than to sink away and drown. He didn’t think he could cry anymore, but his tears never stopped falling.

The Crystal Empire wasn’t the same anymore. Gone was the brilliantly shining gem of the north that Shining Armor once loved. It was dead and filthy, and not even the storm above seemed able to clean it.

His tears mixed with the water that had now been broken by his lifeless body, coursing around him like some cold aura he didn’t want. Ever since he woke up, he’d been crying. He cried as he sat and held the gravestones of his family, hugging them as if they were still alive and with him. He cried when he stumbled out of the graveyard and made his way into town.

And now he still cried as the water around him threatened to pull him with it. He found himself wishing that the storm could cause a flood and wash him away together with the rest of the filth, or that his hood would smother him. He didn’t care about the fact the he no longer needed to breathe, he just wanted out.

Something sharp suddenly pricked the skin of his neck. Three sharp needles that tore through the cloak and into his once living skin. It didn’t hurt him, it only caused him a slight annoyance as the needles began skipping up his neck and came to a rest at the top of his head. Then something even sharper slammed itself down on his skull.

Shining Armor knew what it was, but he didn’t want to acknowledge it, nor speak to it. As a matter of fact he never wanted to utter a single word ever again. The crying prince shook his head quickly, and the needles removed themselves for just a second before coming down even harder upon him, tapping away at his skull.

Fed up with the constant tapping, he stretched out two of his legs and pushed himself over in his back instead. The cloak wrapped around him like a wet cocoon, and the rain instantly drenched his face and smeared out the dried tears on his cheeks. He didn’t do anything else besides just stare up in the dark clouds.

A dark figure appeared before him and obscured his view. For a brief moment, he hoped it was an angel that had come to take him away, perhaps tell him they made a mistake and that he should return to his coffin, that he wasn’t supposed to be here. But it wasn’t an angel; it was that damn bird that had awoken him, the crow. It seemed to look down on him before rustling its wings and cawing slightly.

The prince felt it build within him before it entered his mind. Something he’d refused to do ever again, something a dead pony should never do. He hardly even opened his mouth as the words left him, and he felt like they were the first words he’d ever spoken.

“What do you want from me, feathered beast..? Why do you torment me…?”

Naturally, the bird didn’t respond, it merely twisted its head to the side slightly, looking like a dog trying to understand its master. But then it spread its wings again and took flight. Shining moved his head slowly, following the crow with his eyes. It flew down the street before coming to rest on a bent sign with a rusty old arrow pointing towards…

He knew exactly where it pointed to, and despite everything the prince rose to his hooves and stumbled after the bird, his mind or body not sure why he was doing so. He knew where it was leading him, and right now that was the last place he ever wanted to see again. Yet he followed the crow like a good little puppet hung from fate’s own threads.

The sign slowly came into his view, water running down its sides in streams. Despite this, he could still read the letters adorning it; he knew this sign, just like the rest of town, like the back of his hoof.

Town Square

Crystal Palace

The arrow pointed down a street to the right, and in the distance he could see a spire towering high into the grey clouds above. His home. He and Cadenza. The bird left its spot on the sign and flew off into the night, headed towards the palace, and Shining reluctantly followed it. Even though he’d rather turn around and head the other way, he couldn’t shake the feeling in the back of his head that the bird was actually trying to help him.

His hooves splashed as he slowly made his way towards the tower, swaying slightly in his step. To somepony watching him stagger down the street, they would just think he was as drunk as can be, and wouldn’t pay him any attention other than maybe a disapproving shake of their head. Little did they know that their prince walked the Empire once again.

Before he even knew he’d begun walking, he was there. Standing before him was the Crystal Palace, its mighty structure offering awe to anypony beholding it. To him, the now dull tower only offered memories he wasn’t sure if he wanted to have anymore. Memories of the life that was forever broken. He didn’t even want to look at it, but still felt himself drawn towards it.

As he approached the gates, Shining felt something tingle within him. For some reason, it made him think of a pair of bells, quietly rattling within his stomach. It grew more distinct the closer he came to… the spot. He could still see the blood before him, still hear the screams of the crowd and the wheezing breath of Cadance.

Even though it felt so alive and real in his mind, there wasn’t a single trace left of what had happened here. No blood stains or other clues that hinted at what had happened here. Nothing that told you that an entire family had been torn from this world on this very spot.

Shining Armor moved closer, his head suddenly filled with sounds and bright light. He blinked and twisted his head in hopes of getting away from it, but the more he tried the stronger it all became. He saw Cadenza, saw her smile. Saw her face the night that Skyla came to be, that look in her eyes that told him that she knew. Already then, she knew.

He stepped on the wet hemline of his cloak and lost balance for a second, his vision clouded by images of his wife stuffing herself with food, her stomach visible larger due to the foal. He’d laughed at how childish she’d looked, bits of food still stuck in the corner of her mouth and an almost guilty expression on her face.

Suddenly, the ground came rushing against his face as he tripped over.

Skyla came to the world; her first screams echoed loudly through the palace and woke everypony. They swapped turns from time to time when it came to who would get up in the night and feed or comfort the little pony. Shining never told anypony, but he was happier than ever when he was awoken at night by her crying.

Even though he barely got any sleep and his body has started to ache and strain, he wouldn’t trade it for anything.

His face slammed against the ground, water splashing as he came to a stop, but didn’t remain still. The prince kicked and thrashed about, his eyes closed and his mouth agape in a silent scream of pain as the memories poured over him.

Then there was a knife. Shining, sharp, the bolt of lightning reflected in it. Plunged into his wife. He could still feel her lifeless body in his arms, and he tried to hold her tighter, tried to get closer, but she crumbled into ash as he tried.

A pair of green legs, kicking wildly into the air. Something sharp sliding over his throat. The last breaths of his life. Skyla crushed before him. Janus.

Finally his voice returned to him, and he screamed straight into the air, not caring if anypony heard him. Each new memory tore through him like razors, cutting him apart and opening him up to every little piece of pain and sorrow. In a short moment of clarity, he was sure that this would kill him all over again.

Then, something happened that he wasn’t prepared for. Something so simple, yet so foreign. A sound, intruding on his suffering. A voice. One that didn’t echo inside his head, but rather right next to it. Somepony was standing by his side in the rain.

“Hey… Are you all right...?”

Flashing Hatred

“Hey… Are you all right...?”

If the stallion formerly known as Shining Armor had a beating heart, it would have skipped several beats when he heard the question. The moment it touched upon his eardrums, he knew something wasn’t right with it. He remained still on the ground for a moment, trying to process what was happening. Another memory, taken form in reality? No, it wasn’t the same, it was real.

Furthermore… he recognized the voice.

That’s what made it stand out so badly and that’s what was so wrong with it; he’d heard it before. During a time long ago, when rain fell on his shoulders and Cadance’s lifeless body still looked up at him. He knew the voice, yet his brain didn’t want to accept it. It didn’t want to accept the fact that the pony that had whispered those last words in his ears… now stood right next to him.

“Buddy, I asked you a question…”

Shining Armor flinched once the voice came back, this time louder. He became angry at the owner of it, whoever it was. This was the pony that had slit the throat of his own prince, and now he had the audacity to walk across the place where it happened. And he had stumbled right onto the very prince that he had taken from this world.

“You should get up from there; you might catch a cold or something.”

Slowly, Shining raised his head out of the water, his quiet movements easily mistaken for caution, when in fact it only served to mask the rage he felt inside him. He wanted to turn around, jump this unknown stallion and rip his heart out of his chest with his own teeth.

“A cold, it says…” Shining whispered, more to himself than the stallion next to him. “Oh, such beautiful irony…”

Slowly, he rose to his hooves, the cloak and hood still sticking to his body like a second skin.

“Did you say something?” The voice of his murderer replied. “Come on, I’ll help you back home, where do you li-“

Shining felt a hoof touch his shoulder. A warm hoof, blood still coursing through its veins. A stallion, very much alive. He instantly shrugged it off of him, slightly turning his head, getting ready to pounce, to tear through skin and smash bones to dust.

“Come on dear, let’s just go…”

A third voice suddenly entered the conversation. As it reached his ears, Shining instantly froze in place. He instinctively held his breath out of fear, ignoring the fact that he didn’t even need to breathe. Thunder roared over him, almost as if it had waited for this one dramatic turn of events before unleashing its deafening fury.

The voice was impossible to mistake. It was feminine, one he’d both been wanting to hear since he woke up, yet at the same time, he dreaded the thought of it. That meant he would have to meet the owner of it. The owner that he loved. Slowly he turned around, hoping the hood would cover his face.

At first, only the worried face of a stallion met him. He was about the same height as himself, but a little bigger, his body not as sleek around the legs like the prince’s. Orange fur covered his body, and a mane of different shades of blue lay plastered against his face. He’d never seen this stallion before, but he instantly knew how it was. The one that had killed him.

“We shouldn’t just leave him here, Twi.” The stallion said to the owner of the third voice, one that Shining still couldn’t see due to the hood covering his eyes. But he had now uttered the name that made his fears come true.

He looked just a little bit more to the left, but instantly threw his head to the side when a much smaller, violet body came into his view. Just as he’d feared, Twilight was standing right there next to him. He couldn’t let her see his face, not like this, not… next to his killer.

“I’m… I’m fine.” Shining whispered, trying to make his voice sound different than his usual tone.

“Are you sure about that?” He heard the voice of his little sister ask, followed by the sound of hooves against stone. She came closer. “You don’t look too good…”

“I’m fine, really. You should just.. get out of here.” Shining answered. “Get out of the rain.”

Shining made a move to get away, but the orange stallion was quicker. He walked in front of him and stopped him.

“We’re trying to help you here.” He said. “You should consider yourself lucky; the princess doesn’t just stop to help any drunk in the street.”

Suddenly, the stallion made a move towards Shining, trying to get a glimpse under his hood. Shining wasn’t fast enough in backing away from him. Something changed in the other stallion’s face as his eyes fell upon the scarred face of the prince.

“Maybe we should just go, Flash…” Twilight said behind Shining. “He obviously doesn’t want our help, and we shouldn’t force it on him.”

The stallion named Flash blinked slowly, his eyes strangely glazed as he looked at Shining. His face showed several different emotions at once, and he slowly backed away from the prince. His lips quivered, and only one word managed to make its way out between them.

“… You.”

Shining understood it was too late to hide any longer. The stallion before him saw him, saw the dead prince before him, and recognized him. It was too late for a lot of things, and Shining didn’t have any other choice than to turn around and run as fast as he could.

He galloped hard through the streets, tears yet again streaming down his face. He crossed street after street in his attempt to lose any potential pursuer. He skidded around corners, tumbled over in the water but got up again and kept on running. The crow caught up to him and flew just as fast right next to him, following his every twist and turn.

Eventually, Shining took a sharp turn into a dark alleyway, coming to a stop behind a big old trashcan. He wasn’t panting, didn’t need to, but his mind was racing with questions. The stallion that had killed him right in front of everypony had seen him, seen his face. He knew that he was back. And for whatever reason, this killer kept his own sister company. She had called him ‘dear’.

The thunder and lightning drowned out Shining’s screams as he slammed his hooves hard into his face, his mind twisting around itself. A part of him wanted to find this Flash and tear the flesh from his body, wanted to break his limbs and cause him as much pain as possible before his death. An eye for an eye, his mind told him.

On the other hoof, if he was courting Twilight, he couldn’t hurt him. If something happened to him, it would probably devastate Twi, and he didn’t want to cause her any more pain than he already had.

But deep inside, he knew. He knew that he would never find peace unless this Flash pony suffered the way he did. In anger, Shining rammed his face straight into the ground, childishly hoping it would somehow sort his thoughts out and give him a concrete answer as to what he should do. Nothing happened.

He raised himself up and did the same thing again, his neck cracking slightly as he strained it over and over. Then out of nowhere, a bright light filled his vision, similar to what he had seen earlier by the palace. Before him, he could see himself on the ground, holding his wife. It was as if he was watching his own death from the eyes of somepony else, and he saw Flash grab him from behind, place the blade against his throat.

Long live Janus…

Flash’s eyes breathed hate as he let the dagger cut deep. Shining could feel it again, its cold edge sliding across his skin, thin as a strand of hair. And he knew. He had no choice.

Flash needed to die.

Fallen Angel

“Hey, wait!”

Flash yelled as the cloaked stallion took off into the rain, his body trembling slightly. Not because of the rain or cold, but because of the face he’d seen underneath the hood of the cloak. He wasn’t sure if he even believed what he saw himself.

He took a few quick steps to follow, but the voice of the princess behind him stopped him.

“Flash, just leave the poor stallion alone.”

Slowly, Flash turned to look at her, doing his best to hide the fear that had begun to crawl down his spine. If he let her see it, she would understand something was wrong and never let him go. Or worse; follow him. If his innermost worry was true, he couldn’t let her see what was hidden beneath that drenched cloak.

Without another word, Twilight walked up to him, carefully pressing her face against his. “Please.” She whispered into his ear.

“I’m sorry.” Flash pulled his face back from her. “As captain of the royal guard, it is my duty to protect our citizens, right?” He managed to keep a straight face, managed to hold back what was really hiding behind it.

Twilight let out a sigh, knowing he was right. “I still don’t want you to go…”

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.” Flash said back to her. “I just want to give him some help, get him back home. Just head back home and I’ll be there in an hour, max.”

“Why can’t I ever say no to you…?” Twilight asked, giving him a slightly worried smile.

Flash answered her smile, and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. “That’s why.” He whispered before pulling back. “I’ll come back soon, I promise. Love you, Twi.”

Then he turned around, unfurled his wings and took to off into the rainy skies. Twilight watched him from her place, left just outside the palace. Once he’d disappeared into the night, she slowly turned around to head back inside, whispering to herself as she did.

“When you say it like that, it sounds like you won’t come back…”

Up in the clouds, Flash struggled to keep himself up as the heavy winds tossed him back and forth and the rain hit his face like a brick wall. He looked down, squinting his eyes to get a better look at the streets below. He didn’t really have anything to go on except the growing knot in his stomach, or the fact that a big crow had followed the other stallion as he ran off.

As he held his wings tight to his body and fell towards the ground, he could feel the fear building inside of him. He had to find this cloaked pony, there wasn’t any other option.

Quickly he spread his wings again when he came down just above the roof tops, and he kept a steady pace as he glided over the buildings and chimneys. He scanned the streets beneath him, hoping to see anything that could point him in the right direction, some sort of answer. Flash tiled his body sideways, making a tight turn through the air to follow another street.

Suddenly, his heart skipped a beat.

A few seconds later, the newly appointed captain of the royal guard landed right in the street, his hooves skidding a little due to the water on the ground. He hurried across the street towards a rusted old gate leading into an alleyway. The gate was barely hanging on its hinges, but the rust prevented it from moving. One of the bars on it was broken down the middle jutting out like somepony had kicked it open.

Hanging on the jagged edge of the broken bar, swaying in the wind, was a piece of filthy black cloth. Flash carefully sniffed on it; it smelled like dirt and something else, something a bit more… dank. He couldn’t put his hoof to it, but the smell reassured him. He turned his head and looked down the dark alley, trying to make out anything useful.

“Hello?” He called out. “Anypony down there?”

There wasn’t an answer, nothing but the howl of the wind. Seeing no other option, he took a few careful steps through the gate. With each new step, he hoped more and more that he had just seen things, that the face underneath the hood was just a battered drunk. Not the face he feared.

“I’m Flash Sentry!” He called out into the darkness again. “Captain of the royal guard! I only want to help!”

As his eyes became more accustomed to the shadows, he could see the area clearly. There wasn’t much in the alley, just an old trashcan filled to the brim with garbage, a few boxes on the opposite side of it, and a few glass bottles on the ground. He guessed it was bottles of apple cider. And then the alley came to a stop as a filthy wall ended it abruptly. There was a small space between the trashcan and the wall, wide enough for somepony to hide in.

The closer he came, the more he became sure there was in fact something behind the trashcan, something lurking in the shadows. He kept his eyes focused on that one narrow spot, and completely forgot to mind his step. As a result, Flash wasn’t prepared to struggle when he stepped on a bottle and felt his leg bend underneath him.

He tumbled face down into the trash, the glass bottle skidding the opposite way, clanking loudly before the sound of it ended abruptly. He didn’t pay it any attention as he was too focused on both the embarrassment of the fall, but also the pain that was now growing in his chin. Flash mumbled quietly to himself, and made a silent promise that he would get his guards on clean-up-duty the next day.

“You should get up from there; you might catch a cold or something.”

A chill ran down his spine.

Slowly, Flash spun around on the ground, dreading what he would see. The voice that had spoken behind him sounded raspy and hollow, almost like there was something wrong on the throat it came out of. His heart stopped once he saw the pony behind him.

Standing in the middle of the alley, just a few meters away, was a menacing figure, dressed in a cloak that looked like it was made from the shadows themselves. The hood still covered its face, but the silhouette made his body tremble nonetheless. Just the thought of what it was actually covering made his throat feel like it was about to close on itself.

“Or in your case, a sudden case of death.” The figure said, a distinct tone of pain coating its voice. Something cawed above them, and a moment later a big black bird descended over the cloaked pony, coming to rest on its shoulder. It ruffled its wings slightly.

“I…” Flash began, slowly forcing himself to his hooves. “… Who are you?”

“You don’t remember?”

“Show me your face.” Flash demanded.

“A face has no worth once the soul behind it has passed.” The cloaked stallion whispered in response, taking a quiet step towards him.

“I’m captain of the guard, and I order you to show me your face! As a citizen of the Empire, you will obey me.” Flash roared, trying his best to sound somewhat menacing.

The cloaked stallion took another step, slowly getting closer to Flash. Inch by inch, his shadow fell over his face.

“You have no authority here, captain.” The stallion stopped just inches away from Flash, his face still hidden in shadows, except his mouth. A sad smile played over it as he spoke. “You asked who I am.”

Flash reared back as the horn in the forehead of the stallion burst into a bright light, almost blinding him. Through this new light, he could see the face of the stallion in front of him. And what he saw almost made him scream.

“I’m an angel.” Shining Armor whispered.

His face was filthy and covered in dried blood, his eyes red and bloodshot. Long, narrow scars ran across down his face, straight across both his eyes like the make-up of some demented mime. The fur on his face was rugged and filthy, and he looked just like you’d expect a corpse to do. Flash couldn’t speak as his jaw locked in place out of fear.

“You-you- you’re…“ He began, stuttering and hacking.

“Dead?” The prince responded, gritting his teeth as he smiled. A sickening smell came out of his mouth and made Flash queasy. “Don’t worry; you’ll join me soon.”

Suddenly, Flash felt something warm wrap itself around him. He looked down, and saw a faint aura glowing around his body, pulsating slowly. He tried to struggle, but the magic encasing him was too strong, and before he even had time to call out, Shining pressed him down on his back into the ground.

“Look what you did to me!” The prince roared, his voice completely changed as he placed himself over the paralyzed captain. Shining reached up to his cloak and pulled the collar to the side, revealing a long, jagged line of stitches running across his throat.

Flash wanted to look away, but he couldn’t. He had no choice but to look upon the sewn-up wound that he himself had inflicted. He remembered the smell of blood in his nostrils as the crimson fluid gushed out of the prince.

“You brought this upon yourself.” Shining said, just before the light emanating from his horn faded away into blackness.

The magic still pressed Flash down harder each second, and he had trouble breathing properly as it not only put pressure over his chest, but also searched its way down his throat.

“I’m an angel, sent to collect you.” He heard the voice of the prince say.

The last thing Flash Sentry saw before he passed out due to the lack of oxygen, was a line of glistening teeth, grinning madly.

Crimson Dreams

Her fur was smooth as silk to his touch. Soft and inviting, beckoning him to press on further. Slowly, he let his hoof travel up her back to her neck, pressing himself closer to her as he did. A Small shiver coursed through her as he buried his nuzzle in her thin violet fur, taking in a breath of her scent. Lavender. He loved that smell, and she always wore it for his sake, and his alone. He couldn’t help but smile as he could hear her breathing become heavy.

She belonged to him, and nopony else. Her tiny body, all his.

Carefully he moved his nuzzle over her back, planting kisses down her spine, finally pressing slightly against the base of her wings. Another shudder.

“Do you love me?” He asked, whispering into her ear, his voice slightly strained as he fought every urge to force himself unto her.

“You know I do...” She responded, faintly panting. “More than anything.”

He kissed the back of her neck carefully, still smiling. “Then say it.”

Slowly, his mare turned around in, her big eyes looking back at him. They looked somewhat glazed over, and just a tiny bit closed, like she was about to fall asleep. He knew that there wouldn’t be much sleep tonight though.

“I love you, Flash.” Twilight whispered to him, smiling a bit as she did.

Flash didn’t respond, since her lips suddenly enveloped his own and prevented him from saying anything. After just a few seconds, Twilight pulled back, but he followed her with a smile, doing his best to keep their lips locked for just a little longer. She giggled and answered by pushing back, almost pushing him off of the edge of the bed.

The stallion grinned and pulled away from the edge, forcing her back and into the mattress. He rolled over her, feeling the soft skin of her belly rub against his own. The sensation moved further down, and he instantly recognised the feeling of his beloved grinding up against him. He tore his lips away from her for just a second, giving her a questionable look, as if to ask if it was okay.

Twilight nodded in answer to his unspoken question.

Slowly, Flash positioned himself better over her, his legs moving a bit on their own as his anticipation grew. They knew what was about to happen, and they seemed anxious to get to work.

“You ready?” He asked her quietly. Another nod in response.

Flash moved his hips upwards, looking down on her as he waited for just a few seconds. He wanted her to want it even more.

“Love you Twi…” He said, slowly moving down towards her. “Now and forever.”

He pushed himself down quickly, longing for the sensation he loved so much, wanted to feel his lover around him. But nothing happened. For some reason, he couldn’t feel anything. He tried to laugh it off, thinking he must’ve missed. He tried once again, and finally felt something envelope him.

But it felt… wrong. Not like what he knew she felt like, but just… wrong. Flash didn’t know what to think of it, but Twilight’s reassuring smile made him throw his worries out the window. Maybe it was just the wine he had earlier that made it all seem strange to him. Yet, the captain couldn’t keep himself away from looking down, just to be sure.

What he saw made his blood freeze, and a scream instantly pushed itself out of his lungs.

A red liquid had coated the bed sheets beneath them, and it now also covered his member and lower part of his stomach, painting his body in specks of crimson. He now understood why it had felt strange; a long black tear ran down Twilight’s stomach, opening up into a bloody mess of organs inside of it.

And Flash had pushed himself into her stomach, quite literally. He could see part of her intestines entwining him as if they wanted to pull him in.

“What’s wrong, dear?” He heard Twilight whisper. “I thought you loved being inside me.”

Flash was too terrified to feel her giving him another kiss. All he could see was red; a sea of blood and guts, threatening to swallow him up. He threw himself off of her, falling backwards off the edge of their bed. His back hit the floor hard, and he wheezed as every bit of air he still had left shot out of his lungs.

The sounds of something wet filled the room, and thick, dark blood began oozing down the bed in front of him. He could see Twilight crawling over it on her stomach, her insides spilling out as she moved. He shivered out of fear and disgust, unable to breathe as she crawled over the edge, her body falling limply to the floor like a ragdoll.

She splashed into the pool of her own blood, her intestines spreading out on the floor around her.

Flash breathed hard, doing his best to struggle out of the paralysis he’d found himself within. He wanted to run, run out of their house and into the street, run until he’s legs gave up. To scream until his lungs collapsed. Yet he couldn’t move, and couldn’t tear his eyes away from the bloody heap in front of him, his beautiful Twilight, presumably dead. She wasn’t moving anymore.

Something cold suddenly entered his mouth, and it was as this point that he realized it was tears. If it was fear, disgust, sorrow or anger that had created them, he had no idea. All he could do was to slowly blink them away.

Then Twilight’s mouth opened, and a distorted sound rang out across the room as she drew her dying breath, rustling like the deepest abyss. Flash finally broke through and screamed again. He screamed and screamed, his throat burning like coals as Twilight’s legs twisted and broke themselves to bend, allowing her to rise up in an angle no living creature could ever take.

His screams became nothing more than a loud pitch squeak, like the sound of a scared little filly. In the blink of an eye, Twilight was over him. He fell flat on his back staring straight up into her face as her head twitched slightly, almost as if something inside of her was broken beyond repair. Her mouth hung open to the side, and the rustling breath still forced its way out between her lips.

“Don’t you love me?” Twilight asked, talking through her breath like some broken recorder, plain and stiff. Dead.

Flash was unable to move a muscle. His body was completely frozen, and he couldn’t do anything when he felt one of her hooves touch his stomach rather clumsily before he felt it hit against his member.

“Doesn’t it feel good, honey?” The twisted voice asked as she began moving her hoof slightly. “Doesn’t it feel good to know that you are the cause of this?”

Flash just wanted to die. He hoped this was all just a horrible nightmare, and that he would wake up before she did anything else to him, or that he would just fall dead due to sheer terror.

“You know this is what they would do to me if you played your part.”

Suddenly, Flash felt something warm around him. It felt familiar, and he was sure he’d felt it somewhere before, that warm sensation encasing his entire body. Images of shadows and rain filled his mind, and for just a moment he was sure he could feel a cold breeze against his face. He realized it was magic, Twilight’s magic, slowly engulfing him. It was impossible to struggle, but he refused to accept defeat.

“I love you, Flash Sentry…” Twilight’s voice said.

The magic grabbed his limbs, pulling his legs out to the sides. He heard his own bones shatter and break as his legs twisted around, but there wasn’t any pain. He felt nothing as the broken bones tore their way out of his skin, parting his orange fur and caused blood to spurt out of him. He felt his wings move, spread out on the floor, and for some reason it felt more real than what had been done to his legs.

He could feel every little pull, could feel every feather spread apart as the magic pulled on him. He could feel the stress and pain as they bent in a way they weren’t supposed to.

“Rise and shine, captain…”

Flash screamed yet again as his wings broke apart.

Victims, Aren't We All?

“Rise and shine, captain…”

Flash Sentry didn’t want to open his eyes again. His body ached like it was on fire, and he couldn’t move. He was sure that every bone in his body had been broken, but strangely enough there wasn’t any pain besides the numbing ache. A sombre, burning sensation that moved throughout him like waves over water, like wind blowing across deep grass in a Meadow somewhere far away. Somewhere safe.

He wished himself gone, wished to be within that Meadow, that tiny bastion of freedom. Instead of the hard rock beneath him, he envisioned himself resting on a thin layer of freshly fallen autumn leaves, slightly damp against his skin and crackling like paper as he moved. He wanted to be there again. Back in the Meadow, in those memories.

It had been a long time ago, longer than he was able to imagine as the rain poured down over him. In his mind, it became the dying grass of the meadow, sliding over his fur like sleek fingers.

As the morning sun rose on the horizon, shining through the windows of the room he’d called home during his childhood, the young Pegasus leaped out of bed as if he’d been sleeping on springs that rocketed him into the air as soon as he woke up. He always took his saddlebags and packed them with either toys or books, perhaps parchment and quills. It didn’t matter; in the Meadow he could do anything he wanted.

He rarely brought food to the Meadow, didn’t need to. Apples and other fruit grew some ways into the forest, as well as edible berries and plants. His grandfather had been very stern in learning young Flash to know what was safe to eat and what wasn’t.

Every morning, he opened his window and took a deep breath of the early, crisp air. The feel of it filling up his lungs and the cool breeze blowing into his face had been like a rush of adrenaline for the young colt, a signal to his wings to spread open and take him to the skies above. Soaring through the clouds, he sometimes closed his eyes as he came closer to the Meadow. Slowly, he would let his wings relax, and for just a few seconds, he fell like a rock towards earth beneath.

Never had he missed. He always spread his wings again just a few feet of the ground, slowing himself down before coming to a stop in the unhindered, wild grass. It was a rush unlike any other, one that would stay with him into his grown years and be the reason he rose in the ranks of the royal guard. Nopony else had those lightning reflexes that he honed as a child.

Suddenly, something sharp touched against his forehead, lightly tapping against it. Over and over, it tapped into his fur with random pauses, reminding him of the lessons of Morse code he’d been part of in his training. In his mind, it instead became drops of dew falling from the red and yellow leaves above his head.

“Lenore…”

The Meadow stayed with him for many years after his childhood. Even after he left home, he came back from time to time, just to walk the paths of the forest, to lie down in the grass and once again taste the apples of his childhood. He would sit down and rest his back against the oak growing on the eastern side of the Meadow; marvel over how much it had grown since he was a child. Much like himself, he thought.

“Lenore…”

On a spring evening so long ago, when the birds still chirped slightly around him and the setting sun coated the sky in a veil of orange light, he’d felt it. As the wind blew across the trees and their leaves whispered unknown words of ancient wisdom, he felt another living being next to him. A pair of lips against his own, slightly trembling as the warmth of day slowly faded.

“Lenore...”

His first kiss. Forever nestled deep within the Meadow, somewhere far away. He longed to be back there again.

Flash opened his eyes.

He instantly wished he’d kept them closed, stayed inside his mind, inside the Meadow. Instead, he was greeted by the sight of grey clouds in the sky, looming overhead like a monster, like something hiding under his childhood bed, threatening to strike him down any moment and pull him into oblivion. After a few seconds, he saw a black figure against the clouds. Straight above his head. Thin and black, with a head titled sideways as its tiny eyes looked into his.

A crow.

It brought down its head and once again buried its beak into the skin on his forehead. The moment he felt the pain, he felt the urge to hit the bird with his hooves, smash it out of his face, only to realize he couldn’t move.

“Awake, are we?”

A second figure entered his field of vision, this one bigger, clearly wearing a hood with the horn of a unicorn sticking out beneath it. Flash once again remembered what had happened as the memories of the fear he’d felt replaced those of the Meadow. The cloaked stallion. That face, covered in scars. Twilight calling for him as he flew off into the rain. No matter how badly he wanted to reject it, he couldn’t deny it any longer.

Shining Armor was standing over him. Despite being dead for half a year, the prince now had him in his cold grasp.

Up in the skies, a flash of lightning parted the clouds, illuminating the face of the dead stallion before him for just a second. Enough to make Flash tremble with fear. Thin strands of dark blue hair hung over his face, unkempt and probably sticky from filth and grease. Beneath it, a pair of blue eyes that seemed more pale than he remembered them, partially closed, giving Shining a look of fatigue.

Deep scars ran down his face, both straight lines crossing over his eyes and down his cheeks. His mouth bore just a slither of a grin, a devilish smirk. That was a fitting word for it; a devil, returned from the dead, arisen from its grave.

The grin grew as the bird moved slightly, flapping its wings and coming to rest on the back of the undead pony. For a second, he tilted his head backwards towards the bird. Flash couldn’t help himself as a weak cry came out between his clenched teeth as his eyes found the deep cut crossing the throat of the prince. Sounding more like a silent squeak as it came out, Flash screamed in terror inside his head.

“Isn’t it fitting?” Shining Armor whispered, but Flash wasn’t sure if he talked to him or the bird, or perhaps himself. “Lenore.”

The prince turned his head and looked back down on the Pegasus. Flash was unable to answer.

“At first I thought she wanted to punish me…” The prince lowered his head towards Flash’s face. “But now I understand.” His face came even closer. “She brought me here. To you.”

Shining Armor raised his head back up, but Flash somehow felt like his own face was following him. It took him a few seconds to realize that he had been raised from the ground with magic, levitating on his back next to the face of the undead prince. The force of the magic pressed down on his body, a strange sensation he wasn’t quite used to.

“Now, I have some questions for you, Captain.”

The world spun around him, morphing into a grey mess of clouds and rain. Flash’s head began to hurt the more it moved, and as he finally came to a stop and saw the world upside-down, his eyes continued to roll slightly, refusing to stay still and making him even more dizzy. It felt as if his insides pushed up against his throat, wanted to escape out through his mouth. He kept it closed.

In the blink of an eye, the prince had pushed his head forward, pressing his face against Flash’s in height of his eyes. He stared straight into them without blinking. The fur of the prince was cold, colder than anything he’d ever felt.

“You’ll answer them to the best of your abilities, won’t you?” The prince asked, still not blinking. Flash felt a pair of hooves touch against the back of his head, moving back and forth and forced his neck to move, creating a nodding movement.

“Right!” Shining yelled, pulling away from Flash’s face. “First question; what do you want with my sister?”

Flash didn’t answer. He just stared at the prince, wishing he could fall dead right where he stood. The next second, pain coursed through his ribs as Shining slammed one of his fore hooves hard into his left side. The Pegasus grunted in pain.

“What was that?” Shining hissed in an almost jokingly tone, the same devilish grin building over his lips. “I can’t hear you.”

Another hit, this time directed to his right side. Flash groaned sharper, more sound escaping his lips.

“Why did you do it?!” Shining once again yelled, still with an almost happy tone, as if everything was just a bad joke and he was about to crack. The prince reached up his hooves and slapped them across the face of Flash, slapping his cheeks back and forth between them. It wasn’t painful, but rather humiliating.

Flash finally gave up, and hissed between clenched teeth. “I…”

“Oh, here it comes!” The prince shouted, coming to a complete stop and just staring into his eyes. “Let’s hear it.”

“… I… I won’t tell you anything… demon…” Flash hissed.

Shining’s face changed from the evil smirk into a deep frown, and his voice was deep and brutal as he spoke.

“Wrong answer."

A loud scream echoed across the town, somewhat hidden behind the sounds of rolling thunder. Somepony probably heard it, but ignored it, believing it was just some drunk kids messing around as the early hours of morning slowly crept closer. Nopony really cared about them anyway, it had become a norm to see drunken kids roam the streets at night. All too often they left a trail of vandalism behind them.

Flash stopped screaming once the pain subsided, replaced by the feeling of something warm streaming down his chest. It flowed down his neck and finally over his face, and he could see the slow stream of red blood as it passed his eyes. A crooked line ran across his stomach, not deep enough to be dangerous, but enough to cause severe pain.

It burned his flesh like a thousand hot needles pushed into him all at once, and he couldn’t stop his limbs from shaking.

The knife that had been used floated in the air in front of his face, suspended in an aura of bright pink magic. Fresh blood ran down the slightly curved blade, joining the drops of blood beneath him.

“Talk.” Shining’s voice demanded.

Flash stuttered, trying to form words through the haze of pain that had taken hold of his senses. Before he managed to speak another word, the flash of steel filled his vision, and for a split second he heard the sound of something tearing. Then the pain assaulted his body yet again, and he tried his best to hold back a scream but failed. This time, the blade had cut further down his stomach, drawing near to his groin. Upon realizing this, Flash tried in vain to break free of the magic that held him. His eyes became wide from fear as the knife once again moved slowly, coming to a stop with the edge a few centimetres away from his most sensitive parts.

“Answer me.” Shining hissed. “Or I’ll cut it off right here, right now.” The knife inched closer. Flash’s body clenched up as he felt the tip of the blade touch him.

“Fine!” He yelled, unable to hold back his fear. “I’ll tell you whatever you want, just please don’t…!”

The knife instantly moved away from him.

“See, was that so hard?” The prince said. “Now, why did you do it?”

“I was just following orders!” Flash cried out. “I had no idea they would kill you!”

“Yet you didn’t stay your blade.” The prince whispered.

“I had no choice; I thought they would kill me!”

Shining Armor suddenly sighed deeply. His head slouched down, and for a moment, Flash almost thought he was crying, or praying. Once the head came back up, he understood how wrong he’d been. The prince had pulled a circle of rusted wire from underneath his cloak, a wire covered in thick spikes. Slowly, Shining approached the helpless Pegasus.

“Wha-what are you doing?” Flash asked, stuttering in fear and pain.

“Keep talking.” Shining answered as he let go of the knife and instead grabbed the barbed wire with his magic. “Tell me about this Janus you mentioned before you cut my throat.” His voice was blunt, straight to the point.

“I don’t know who he is.” Flash said, feeling tears build up as the wire was wrapped around his hind legs. “I’ve never seen him.”

“Then why obey him?”

“Because he runs everything!” The Pegasus shouted. “He’s always been the true master of this kingdom, of all of you!” The wire wrapped tighter around his legs, its spikes bearing down on his skin without breaking it.

“You know, I found this in the alley.” Shining whispered behind his back. “Up until now I’d never realized just how… beautiful rust really is. Wouldn’t you agree?”

Flash yelped in pain as the rusted wire moved down his back, pressing against the skin over his spine, tearing through it slightly.

“I just followed orders!” Flash shouted once again. “I was supposed to infiltrate the royal family, gather information!”

“You just used my sister? Like a puppet?”

“No! Or at first maybe, but not… not now.” The Pegasus answered, spitting slightly as his own blood dripped into his mouth.

“Go on.” The wire suddenly wrapped itself around his neck slowly. “Why did you change your mind?”

Flash closed his eyes as he felt his tears mix with the blood. He didn’t want to answer, didn’t want to admit it. He’d never spoken about his feelings to anyone, especially not to an undead brother.

“I… Your sister is wonderful.” He began. “She truly is, and I…”

“You fell in love with her?” Shining answered. “I wish I could believe that.”

“It’s the truth. I would never hurt her.”

“But you didn’t hesitate to eradicate her family!” The prince shouted, and Flash suddenly felt his throat clench up as the barbed wire tightened around his neck.

The spikes tore through his skin, sinking slowly into his flesh. Their jagged edges cut their way in, burning his neck like coals. Flash couldn’t do anything but scream and hiss as his lungs was denied of air and his mind filled with pain and agony.

“Do you remember them?!” Shining yelled into the Pegasus’ left ear. “Mi Amore Cadenza!”

Shining quickly moved around Flash and began shouting in his right ear.

“Skyla, do you remember her? My Family, my wife and daughter!”

The wire around his throat loosened slightly, enough for Flash to talk, and he finally broke down into frantic tears, knowing his life was surely about to end.

“I’m so sorry!” Tears streamed down his face and snot had begun to build up in his nostrils, making his throat feel thicker. “Please, I’m sorry! I didn’t hurt them, it was Raven that killed your daughter, not me!”

“He didn’t kill her.” Shining whispered as he moved around, placing himself right on front of Flash Sentry’s face. “He crushed her head!”

“Please, don’t… don’t kill me…” Flash said, sobbing beyond control.

“Not yet. First I need you to tell me where I can find this little Raven.”

“Beloved Wings Hospital!” Flash yelled in response. “After they went out of business, he took it for himself. It’s where Janus keeps the girls before they enter the market, I don’t know anything else!”

Shining Armor tilted his head sideways; much like the bird did earlier. “Your friends make me sick.”

Without another word, he turned his back against the sobbing Pegasus and took a few steps away from him. Flash felt the panic inside of him build even more.

“Don’t leave me here!”

Shining stopped. The bird on his back turned to Flash and offered up a few quiet caws before the prince opened his mouth and spoke.

“My magic is the only thing holding you in place.” He began with a deep voice. “Once I’m too far away, it will let you go. You will then be suspended by nothing but the barbed wire, and the more you struggle the deeper it will cut. Eventually it will cut through your neck and kill you, unless the loss of blood doesn’t claim you first.”

Flash screamed in fear as Shining Armor turned away from him yet again.

“An eye for an eye. You cut my throat, now I cut yours.”

The screams of the Pegasus echoed loudly across the town as the prince slowly faded away in the rain and fog that had begun to build around them. After mere seconds, he was gone. The magic holding Flash instantly disappeared, and he felt his body fall a few inches before the barbed wire stopped him. It cut deep into his throat, slicing through his flesh, burning like fire.

After what felt like hours, the burning sensation felt cold like ice. Flash couldn’t scream anymore, couldn’t breathe. He couldn’t feel his body below his neck, and he let his head fall limp. Blood instantly gushed down his face, coating his eyes in a crimson curtain. It seeped into his wide open mouth, but he didn’t register the taste of iron as it touched his tongue.

The fog had grown thicker, rolling in around him like water unto the beach. He couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer, and let his eyelids fall shut.

Flash Sentry, newly appointed captain of the royal guard. Lover and companion of Princess Twilight Sparkle, sworn protector of the realm, passed into darkness.

The last thing he saw was Twilight, black as night but blindingly bright. Her eyes glowed in a bright blue light, and smoke seemed to rise out of them.

On her back, a pair of black wings unfurled, loose feathers scattering in the wind. They pulled him in closer into a final embrace, cradling him in the black wings of a bird. The wings of a crow.