A Crow in Shining Armor

“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.