Once upon a time, you were a mighty king. You ruled us all with truth and justice. You gave them everything they wanted, and you ruled fairly. Most of all, you ruled my heart; it always belonged to you. We had the perfect life… and then you ripped it all apart.

What happened over the course of that year? Why did you trust the wanderer from another land when he offered you his amulet? Why did you not destroy it when he was sent to the depths of Tartarus? I felt the raw power emanating from it even as you took it from his wraith-like hands—a ‘peace’ offering—a single day before his reckoning.

You were all in then; it was all about the magic, the power, the ‘endless possibilities.’ Why did you desire such strength so much? There was a light in you before then, but I watched you slowly turn to shadow. My heart called to you, but it was drowned out by the screaming desire for more: more energy, more control...

You wanted it all—no matter the cost.

There were those who rose up against you. Every night you would return to me, broken yet never beaten. The shadow repaired your mortal wounds night after night. Buy as you showed me your scars, I held you closer still; I tried to hold you closer than the boundaries of flesh allowed. On the last night we paired, you pushed a thousand shards of glass beneath my skin. A year later, you left me lying there to bleed, abandoned, cold…

Alone.

It was your choice. You let the dark powers infest your mind from within. It was too late to stop the process; you crossed the moral event horizon far too many times to count. Red flooded our glittering streets.

I took our blood, and ran to save us; I could no longer bear to watch you fall into shadow, into the depths. My voice alone could not pull your heart back together.

The Sisters came then, when they saw what you had become for themselves. I only wished you would salvage some part of yourself, that part that once knew love. You could save yourself—you only had to remember who you were! Who you had been! All you had to do was remove it from your neck, but you refused.

I hoped that maybe one day you would return, cleansed of your taint, with all the beauty I once knew. I only wanted to be there for you, close to you, always. It was our love that kept our people together, but your twisted ambitions—that accursed jewel!—shattered our perfect kingdom.

A thousand years I waited, reborn time and again, my memories always waking within my new body upon marehood. Always the same cutie mark, the same destiny. But the curse endured; centuries passed, centuries I spent hoping and waiting in vain.

And then, finally, you did come back. But even a millennium had not tempered your darkened crystalline avarice. I stood beside my twentieth husband since yourself, our love forming a protective spell. For days we held you back, he and I, until my energy waned and you rushed forth to collect your trinket.

It was nothing but a prize to you. I knew in that moment.

Power surged through my horn as I denied you of everything. I was free of longing for you, the Shining light that propelled me all I needed. You would not be saved; your own heart burst, and soon your body joined it in jagged shards.

Sorrow filled the broken pieces of my own heart, even as the one we created together all those years ago radiated its love over Equestria. But it was in that almighty outpouring that our hearts and minds were one, and in those seconds before your ethereal body shattered, I knew my choice was right.



You are no longer my king; you hold no power over me anymore. My fragile heart has been repaired by another, one more pure and far worthier of both my love and the love of our reawakened kingdom.

Sombra… you are a distant memory now. The Amore you once knew died long ago. Yet she lives on in me, one who bears her ancient name.

I am Princess Cadance, and I rule our empire with love, free from darkness and fear once again.

Farewell, mi amore.