I ran my hoof slowly over the bumps of Gummy's fringe. It always helped me think. I don't know why. We sat on a bench in the courtyard gardens at the spot where I wanted my family's memorial to go. There were more pressing matters but I'd already commissioned statues, a tapestry and a stained glass window in the likenesses of everypony I'd lost.

Sunburst adjusted his glasses and shuffled sloppily through his notes. "It's not a question of if but when," he continued astutely. "I am confident we'll have a working substitute that can emulate the power of the elements of harmony before the end of next year."

I puffed out my cheeks impatiently. "Are you sure this is the best, quickest option for freeing the princesses?"

"A lot quicker than waiting it out," he chuckled.

"Okay. I trust your judgement on this."

He cleared his throat. "I've also been thinking, since we need your power to pull it off, we should make the whole thing a public event, something really big and unifying."

My forehead wrinkled with worry at the thought. "Hopefully it works."

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess. I know you have a lot on your plate right now. It's almost like starting over from when the empire reappeared. I'll give you weekly updates. How does that sound?"

"Perfect," I nodded tentatively. "Thank you."

Sunburst turned away and immediately drifted back into his own head, piecing together who knows what. Gummy fell asleep in my lap.

Stepping back into power was easier than I thought. Yes, I was the most powerful being in Equestria but I also still had many friends and allies who'd weathered the previous regime and were eager to help rebuild. Also, being more popular with the masses than Sombra was a low bar to hurdle. Most ponies even viewed me as a hero but I did not count myself among them. How could I?

From the beginning, my motives were impulsive and self serving and I lost sight of everything but achieving revenge. I didn't boldly set out to save anyone. Liberating Equestria was just a byproduct of my own callous folly. I was a phony and a murderer. I couldn't forgive myself for what I did to Pinkie and I couldn't bear being in the public eye regardless of how I was perceived. I felt so isolated and dirty.

Spike appeared at my side, waving a stack of legal documents. "Hey, Shining, I have the first batch of tribunal death sentences for you to review."

"Goody, my favorite," I muttered, rubbing my face with one hoof, trying to wake myself up.

"Oh, and you have a visitor," he added.

"Audiences are over for the day," I frowned.

"I know but I thought you might make an exception for this one. It's Limestone Pie."

A foreboding chill ran up my spine. Why, I wondered. Why would she come all the way here to speak with me? My mouth was suddenly dry.

"Okay," I sighed fearfully. "Guess I will deal with that. Can you put those papers in my quarters?"

"Yeah, sure." Spike turned on his heal and departed.

I sat Gummy on the bench and promptly teleported to the throne.

Limestone stood rigid and alone before me, a sheen of sweat on her forehead. "Um, hi… your- your majesty." She bowed woodenly.

Mortified by her distant formality, I quickly raised a hoof. "You don't have to do that. Please don't do that. You don't have to treat me any differently."

Limestone sighed in relief and her shoulders sagged. "That's good. You have no idea how long I spent worrying about that on the train." She shook her head. "I don't know how to do any of this kind of stuff."

It didn't sound like she was here to air grievances with me but I remained on edge.

"Do you mind if we talk somewhere less stodgy?" I asked. "I honestly hate being in this room."

Limestone blinked in surprise. "Uh okay," she shrugged.

I teleported us to the garden where I was previously.

The corners of her mouth curled in amusement when she spotted Pinkie's old pet laying on the bench. "Oh, hi, Gummy. You look well." She patted the tiny gator on the head, making him squeak and close his eyes. "It's good you took him. He probably likes you better than anyone else." She looked around uneasily. "Wanna show me around the garden?"

"Yeah," I agreed slowly, still unable to deduce where she was going with this.

Her clear apprehension over her visit was making my apprehension worse. We walked slowly down the tiled path that meandered through the little jungle. It was always my favorite place in the castle and I'd made a habit of fleeing to it now because it held the best memories. It never tormented me like so many other spaces in the tower.

"Uh… it's been a while," she grumbled warily. "How is it going?"

It had been a while, at least for not seeing someone I thought I was going to be spending a lot more time with before everything went sideways. Up to this moment, I'd been avoiding their family. Going to them with Pinkie's body and telling them the truth was the hardest thing I've ever done but they deserved an explanation and no one else could give it. But after that, I was simply too ashamed to face them. It seemed reasonable to assume that that was a natural place to part and that they would want nothing to do with me afterwards.

I promised the Pies their farm and more and I delivered on that promise after taking the throne but in the wake of killing their daughter, I was afraid it came off as a cynical compensation for their loss instead of due reparations for how they were wronged by Sombra.

"It sucks," I replied, stopping on a little wooden bridge over a babbling brook. "But don't tell anyone I said that. It's bad for morale."

"Really?" asked Limestone, resting her chin on the railing to watch the fish. "I thought it would be just like getting your old job back. Is it so much worse?"

"Yes. No… I… I mean I can do this, it's just…" I sighed, conceding that I'd just have to level with her. Our faces were unrecognizable in the rippling water. "That night when I said I was going to get Pinkie and then I came back much much later, I actually never wanted to come back at all. I wanted to disappear into nothing and that feeling hasn't stopped since."

"Oh," she groaned painfully. "Listen, I know it's hard to not blame yourself for Pinkie but no one asked for this. It was Sombra above everything else. I'm not exactly proud of everything I've done either, especially in the last couple of years."

I turned away, leaving the bridge with my head low. "I could have saved her but instead I killed her," I sulked. That was a blunt fact that had kept me awake many a lonely night.

Limestone raced in front of me and jammed a hoof in my chest to stop me in my tracks. "Look, we can be sad all we want and wish we'd done this, that or whatever but it's not going to change anything. What matters now is what you do now. Like you said, you keep going and you do something healing. If you're really like a top, tops don't break when they fall over; they just need another spin. My family thinks you're a good pony who was just in a shitty situation." Her eyes dropped to the ground. "Actually, I'm the only one who talks like that but it's true."

Her claim shocked me to my core. How could they even stand me, much less think I was good. My mind circled back to the same millstone I could never get rid of. The ball was always squarely in my court. "If I'd just never gotten involved with her-"

Limestone put a hoof over my mouth and leaned in close for dramatic emphasis. "Then you wouldn't have saved me and the farm… or found your sister and liberated Equestria. Shining, we can only offer you half of the forgiveness; the other half has to come from you." She tapped my chest once more, much gentler this time.

I was dumbstruck by her profound words.

"You know Pinkie," she added. "If she were here, she'd be the first to say 'it's okay.'"

I thought about how the last thing she did was smile at me even after I cut her down. I stared back into Limestone's eyes quizzically. "Why did you come all the way up here?" I breathed.

Her eyes darted away evasively. "Well… um, because we do this thing for Hearth's Warming with the Apples where they come to our farm and it's the first time we've been able to do it in a couple years and you- you know it's sad because yours and our families are both smaller this year, we thought it would be nice if you joined us for Hearth's Warming." Unable to wait for my answer, she began backpedaling nervously. "The- the farm is kind of ugly and my family is boring but also weird and you don't have to come if you don't want."

"You came all the way here just to invite me?" I asked in disbelief.

"We would have sent a letter but you're probably already getting a lot of those and we wanted to make sure you actually got the message."

Overcome by the beautiful gesture, I swallowed the lump in my throat. "That sounds really great. Thank you. I'll be there." Without thinking, I put an appreciative hoof on Limestone's shoulder. She tensed up at my touch and I started to retract, not wanting to violate her personal space. Then, to my surprise, she wrapped both forelegs around my neck. I hugged back as tears began to flow down my cheeks and though it still hurt, I felt like everything I needed to get back up again was in that embrace.

I wiped my eyes after pulling away. "I thought you weren't good with this kind of stuff," I sniffed.

"I'm not good with receiving praise or embarrassment or expressing my own feelings… but I'm amazing at pep talks."

I smiled weakly. "You're not going home tonight are you?"

"No."

"Where are you staying?"

She shrugged. "I dunno. I was just gonna find-"

"No way," I interjected. "You have to stay as my guest at the tower… If… if that's okay."

"Yeah, she nodded amiably before her eyes grew huge in concern. "Just don't put me in any formal situations."

"I promise," I told her. "Stick a cupcake in my eye."

Author's Note

The End.
Thanks for reading.