At first, I trudge around the palace rather aimlessly, not sure of where to go. Our room is of course an option, but that’s where Cadence might go. I’m not ready to face her again right now.

I’m ashamed. I’m ashamed that I’m such an unworthy husband for Cadence. Rose Quartz may have been trying to kill me, but she was right when she said that I wasn’t good enough for the alicorn of love. How could I be? She’s an ageless beauty with tremendous power and matchless grace. I’m a dead stallion living a hollow mockery of life. Protecting others is my special talent and my life, but how can I protect somepony who’s greater than me in every way that counts? How could I presume so much as to think I could shield her against something potent enough to make her sweat? I would be brushed aside like dirt. Again.

I’m ashamed that I’ve been hogging the Crystal Empire’s princess to myself. She’s a tremendous gift to anypony around her, and all those in the empire love her. She spreads happiness wherever she goes. And yet, she has to stoop low to take care of obsolete, worthless me because she’s too kind and loving to ever let me rot and find somepony better able to make her safe and happy. I should never have proposed marriage. Everypony would have been better off if I had been her servant instead of spouse.

Odd as it may seem, I’m also ashamed of being ashamed. Some part of me knows that I’m just indulging in a pointless, whiny self-pity session. A lot of stallions would thank their lucky stars to trade places with me for one day, and here I am letting myself get broken by hooful of words. Even if I am not up to protecting Cadence as she deserves, she should get my best at all times, and this is certainly not me at my best. I’m sure that my bitching is hurting her, which only makes me feel worse about myself.

Eventually, I find that my hooves are taking me back up the castle floors, towards our chambers. I have no idea why, but frankly I do not give a buck at the moment. I let my unconscious self lead me, and soon enough I’m out on the enormous moonlit balcony outside our chamber. I’m sitting on a couch under the gazebo, though I don’t remember getting on it. I stare out at moon and stars and the Imperial City below, just thinking. The temptation to just throw myself off the edge and end it all is strong… but no, I promised I wouldn’t hurt myself. That promise, at least, I can keep.

I’m not sure how much time passes, but eventually there comes the sound of a voice from near the doorway.

“Shiny?” it says in a soft, almost mousy tone.

I turn my head to look at my visitor. It’s Twily – no, Princess Twilight Sparkle. She and her kind deserve better than childish nicknames.

“Princess Sparkle,” I bow my head to the living goddess stepping out onto the balcony.

She blinks and her mouth opens slightly. Then it closes, and her eyes look moist. “S-Shiny, what are you doing? It’s me, Twily. Your little sister best friend forever, remember? You don’t have to bow to me.”

“You deserve it, your highness,” I keep my head low. “You’re a hero of Equestria, several-time savior of the nation, pioneer of magic, and an all-around wonderful mare. You deserve to be royalty. You deserve immortality. Me?” I point a hoof at myself. “All I ever accomplished was marrying far above my station. I’m nothing.”

“Shining Armor, look at me,” my sister’s voice now seems more commanding. I meet her eyes, and they’re firm despite the small trickle of tears coming from them. “You are not nothing, you hear me?”

I snort derisively. “I couldn’t stop Nightmare Moon, couldn’t do anything against Discord, couldn’t even tell that my own bride had been kidnapped and replaced, fought Sombra and lost, and fought Tirek and lost. You, your friends, and Cadence had to bail me out of every one of those situations. How can I claim to be a prince, a husband, or even a stallion when I’m too fragile, too weak, too… mortal to protect anypony from anything?”

“I didn’t do any of that alone. I had my friends. I had the princesses.” My little sister takes a few more steps forward and puts a long lavender wing over my shoulders. “And I had my first friend and the brave colt I always admired: my big brother.”

“You shouldn’t admire me,” I answer her. “I’m a failure. Too weak to do anything useful, too stupid to accomplish the most basic of royal tasks, too worthless to cause anything but pain to the ponies I love.” I hang my head again.

“Shiny, look at me. Please.”

“Yes, your ma-”

She cuts me off with a hoof over my mouth. “And none of that servile nonsense. You’re my big brother and I’m your little sister, and nothing will ever change that. To you, I’m “Twily” or “Twilight”, not “Princess” or “your majesty”. You got that?”

I nod, and she removes her hoof from my face.

“Good,” she sighs, taking a moment to gather herself and wiping away some of the tears staining her face with her other wing. “Now, you are not weak, you are not stupid, and you are not worthless! You’re loved, Shiny. Cadence and I, Celestia and Luna… we all love you. You’re family. Where in the world did you get such utter horseapples in your head from?!"

I’m a little surprised at my bookish sister’s use of profanity, but I resist the brotherly urge to give her a cheeky scolding. I have no right to do that to a goddess.

Instead, I answer her question. “Observation. You’re strong, I’m weak. You saved the world, I got crushed. You’re ageless, I’m an insignificant mayfly in a false body.”

Princess Twilight’s gaze hardens. “So, you think that because alicorns have more magic than you, are stronger than you, you’re worthless to us?”

“Yes,” I respond, hanging my head again.

“You know who else thought that power was everything and friendship meant nothing? Lord Tirek.”

I start to protest the comparison. “I’m not-”

The alicorn princess cuts me off again. “You know who else thought that the strength of love between two ponies was a “ridiculous sentiment”? Queen Chrysalis.”

This is absurd. “But-”

“Do you think your wife has terrible judgment?”

I shake my head vigorously. “Of course not! But what does that have to do with-”

“So if Cadence has good judgment, of all the countless thousands of stallions she could have had, why do you think she picked you?”

“I… don’t know,” I admit.

“I had a husband once, if you recall. Flash Sentry, a pegasus. As an alicorn, I had an earth pony’s strength, while he didn’t. In the air, I could outfly him any day of the week. Heck, he didn’t even have a horn - couldn’t do the smallest piece of magic. By your logic, do you think he was worthless to me?”

“No way! Anypony could see that you two cared for each other!”

“So why would you think that being weaker than Cadence makes you worthless to her?”

“It… does!” I declare, feelings of shame warring with Twilight’s words.

My sister just shakes her head and smiles sadly, wrapping my unresisting form in a hug.

“Hello again.”

Those words echo throughout the cave. The voice that made them is strong. Deep. Masculine. And far more familiar than I would like.

I look up from where I lay sobbing, tear-blurred eyes searching the room around me for the pony I despise and yet feel indebted to. I locate him without difficulty. Before me once again stands the misty, grey form of King Sombra. He’s wearing the form of the handsome stallion rather than that of the warped tyrant, but he elicits a shudder from me all the same. I remember well what this pony did to the poor crystal ponies.

“Y-You,” I manage, after a few seconds of staring.

“Me,” he says, flatly.

I wipe the tears from my eyes with my soft wings. I can’t look weak in front of a spirit like this. No telling what he might try.

“I suppose I should thank you,” I say, after a few calming breaths.

“Thank me?” he says, cocking his head slightly.

I nod. “For telling me about Shining. All those years ago. If you hadn’t…” I trail off, fighting back against a fresh welling up of tears at the horrible thought of having been too late, of finding naught but my dead beloved. I sniff and wipe my eyes again.

There’s a period of awkward silence, as Sombra walks slowly throughout my ruined laboratory, passing through solid objects as only a spirit can. I watch him carefully, trying to judge his reactions. His face is flat, and remains that way as he walks past smashed furniture, torn books, chemical spills, and even half-formed pegasus organs.

It is only when he come within sight of the case containing the alicorn skeleton that he shows any sign of emotion. His eyes go wide, and then he hangs his head. He whispers to himself, probably thinking I can’t hear.

“Elysie… It has been so long… and I regret so much…”

“Elysie?” I ask, my curiosity overcoming the extremely limited respect I have for his privacy. “Did you know her?”

He actually starts slightly when I speak up, but quickly gathers composure. “Yes, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, I knew Princess Elysium rather well. Intimately, you might even say.”

My jaw drops when I process what he just claimed. “You…” I look at the remains of my murdered predecessor. “And she…” I shake my head. “I don’t believe you. You’re lying.”

“Am I? Why would I do that, in your line of reasoning?”

“To try and make me sympathize with you! I’m the alicorn of love, so you’re trying to make yourself seem like less of a monster by saying that you were once lovers with an alicorn princess and thereby implicitly comparing yourself to Shining Armor!” I declare, feeling proud to have seen through the ghost’s trick.

He raises a smoky eyebrow. “Indeed?” Sombra sighs and walks back towards me. “I do not expect you to believe that I am anything but a villain, your highness. You have read more than enough of my works to know the truth of that.”

“I have,” I confirm. “You murdered prisoners for experiments. You drank the blood of foals.”

He nods. “I did.”

“You murdered Princess Elysium, the very pony you claimed to have been intimate with, in cold blood to steal her power and throne!” I point accusingly at him.

“Guilty as charged, princess,” he says with bowed head and a look of remorse on his face.

“So why on earth would I believe anything you say now?”

“Why did you believe me twenty years ago?”

I freeze. All is silence for some moments, until I work up an answer. “For Shining,” I eventually manage.

The spirit nods. “So,” he continues, slowly, “you require aid. What is it you seek?”

“Help? From you?!” I blink. “I don’t want your help! I want your foul spirit exorcised from the Crystal Empire for good!”

“Then why did you not do so? You have had many years to learn a spell to banish the dead, or to find somepony capable of doing so for you. You might have called on the power of your Crystal Heart against me as you did once before. Yet you have done nothing of the sort.”

“I… I…” I stutter. Why didn’t I? I surely could have found some way to expel him from the empire forever if I had given the task my all, but I haven’t. Why not? I surely can’t have… can’t have wanted him to remain here.

Can I?

Nopony speaks for several minutes. I sob softly as the truth of the matter slowly dawns on me. I’m truly the worst pony alive, I think.

“I d-didn’t,” I at last confess, “b-because of S-Shining. Celestia… would have k-killed him… if n-not for y-you… and… a-and…” I stop to cry at the true depths of my hideous selfishness. How could I be so negligent a ruler? How?!

Sombra nods at me. It stings my conscience, badly.

“Well then,” the ghost speaks up. “Now that you have admitted to yourself what it is that you have done, perhaps you might tell me what it is you need?”

“It’s… It’s…” I still can’t manage anything between my terror for Shining and the crushing weight of guilt on me.

“It is your husband.”

I nod. “I h-hurt him… and C-Celestia… Celestia will k-kill him… if I d-don’t deliver…” I sniff and sob again. “And I don’t know! Don’t know what to do! I’ve tried everything I can think of, but nothing works! I can’t live… I can’t live without him!” I weep still more, shame at my pathetic weakness adding to my general feelings of despair. “Please!” I beg the ghost. “Please! You wrote…” I gesture towards ruined binders full of the slain tyrant’s notes. “All this! You must know something! You have to tell me! Please!”

Sombra looks… uneasy? He hesitates before answering. “There is… I am not certain if…”

“Tell me!” I shout at the spirit.

“I do not know…”

“TELL ME!!!” I roar in the Royal Canterlot Voice, the sheer volume rattling the cavern and shaking a shower of dust and pebbles from the ceiling.

“As you wish, princess,” he sighs wearily, with a slight bow. “There is a way, by which those who are dead can live again.”

“What is it?! Tell me!” I implore the king’s ghost.

“If I am to give you this…” he pauses, and there’s a flicker of… something in his emerald eyes. “This time, I wish for something in return. Nothing too extreme,” he adds quickly, shaking his ethereal head to try to dispel the notion. “Not your kingdom, or your soul, or…” Sombra gives a knowing look. “Your firstborn.”

My chest tightens at that. Even if I have Shiny back… I’ve already sold my own future children to a monster just to preserve him. What could this dead stallion want of me that I wouldn’t willingly part with to be a proper husband and wife again?

“A small personal favor, really,” he goes on.

I narrow my eyes. I don’t believe him… but I need what he knows.

“Name your price.”

Sombra smiles.

Author's Notes:

In the words of Rainbow Dash:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhMvKv4GX5U