Shining Dash

by Ianpiersonjdavis

Broken Hearts

Shining Armor didn’t like leaving Rainbow Dash alone downstairs, since it felt like he was ditching her.

At the same time, he didn’t want to drag her or anyone else into the discussion or even possible argument that he was about to have with Cadance as it was supposed to be a private matter between just the two of them and he didn’t want anyone else sucked in or feel compelled to take sides.

Much to Shining’s surprise, Cadance’s room was exactly as he had remembered it-while he had only been gone a few weeks, it felt like years since he had been there.

It was stylized to match the color scheme of her mane; pink, cream, and violet.

Cadance was still lying there, tucked into her bed-it seemed as if she had been resting all day-just as Flash had said.

Surprisingly, despite her lengthy bed rest, her mane remained relatively pristine.

Her eyes slowly opened as she heard Shining Armor enter her room and slowly sat up.

“Shining Armor…what are you doing her?” she asked, concerned.

“Something came up; Changelings were also invading Ponyville, only they were doing it discretely by abducting members of the community and slowly replacing them-some of them even made it to Cloudsdale.” He replied, seriously.

“Are you alright?” Cadance pressed, worried.

“I’m fine.” He assured her. “While I was staying in Ponyville I met one of Twilight’s new friends and she brought me a remedy from another friend…so I had a pretty quick recovery.”

Shining thought it would be wiser to leave out the part about the price of excruciating pain being a requirement for said recovery, so as not to worry Cadance any further.

“How is Twily anyway?” he asked. “Have you seen or heard anything from her since you woke up?”

Cadance shook her head.

“No. I’m sorry…I probably know even less than you do, whenever I ask someone anything they usually just tell me to get some rest.”

“Hm,” he grunted in response.

It made sense, with everything that had been going on since she was injured, the more Cadance knew, the more she would worry and the less rest she would get.

“You want to talk about the letter…” Cadance spoke softly, averting her eyes.

It was a statement, not a question.

“Yeah…” Shining breathed. “I’m sorry that you got hurt.”

“This isn’t about me,” she replied. “It’s about you-protecting you.”

“Protecting me?” he repeated, confused.

“As you know, I’ve wanted you to step down as Captain of the Guard for a while now…” Cadance reminded him.

“This is because I’ve always known that a stallion in your position constantly has his life in danger and that as long as you remain a part of the guard you will never be safe and I will always have to worry about whether you’ll come home safe, after all of the times we talked about it you refused so I eventually just gave up, but when you got hurt...” her voice trailed off.

“I got hurt protecting you.” He countered. “Besides, you don’t think I feel the same way about you?”

She looked at him quizzically.

“You are a princess by birthright and that means your life will always be in danger because of your power and political influence, we will always have to be on guard for attempts on your life.”

“Because it’s my duty and what is expected of me by my aunts and subjects!” Cadance protested. “You have a choice!”

“It’s my destiny to protect others!” Shining countered. “And even if it wasn’t, I would always risk my life trying to defend you because I love you! Wouldn’t you do the same for me?”

“Yes…” she whispered.

“Look,” Shining sighed. “Even if I did resign my position and hand it off to someone like Flash and we got married, that would change my status to ‘Prince’ or ‘King’ Shining Armor, right?”

“That’s typically how it works…” Cadance replied slowly.

“Which means that I would have to constantly be alert for attacks on both of us and there would be even more reason for others to want me dead, even if it’s just to hurt or blackmail you and it wouldn’t change the fact that if an arrow or magic blast was direct at you-I would still take it for you.” Shining explained.

Cadance couldn’t bear to look at him and instead focused on her bed sheets as tears began welling up in her eyes.

“I…I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I know what I did was stupid and selfish, especially with everything else you were going through…I just love you so much and I always worry about you…when I saw you get hurt like that-I was terrified-I thought that we would never get another chance to speak to each other again…”

Shining Armor slowly walked around her bed before embracing her gently so as not to disturb any injuries she may have still had.

“Hey,” he whispered, rubbing her back with a hoof. “I’m not going to lie to you and tell you I’m not upset, but I understand that you only hurt me because you were trying to protect me.”

“I’m sorry…’ she repeated. “I’m so sorry…I-I’m a monster.”

“No…no…you are the kindest, most loving mare that I have ever met…the last thing you could be is a monster.” Shining replied softly, yet adamantly.

Slowly, shakily Cadance returned the embrace.

“You…don’t hate me?” she asked quietly.

“No, I could never hate you.” He then released her before looking into her eyes. “Get some rest for me, okay?”

She nodded weakly.

Shining then kissed her on the forehead before getting up off the bed and exiting the room as he closed the door behind him.

While he was up all night thinking on the train on the way to Canterlot, he came to the realization that things would never work out between him and Cadance after the way things had been going after the Changeling attack and even after making up, he didn’t think things could ever go back to the way they were between them.

Fearing that telling her this now would only upset her further and interfere with her bed rest, he chose to wait until later-since Shining really did want her to get better.

Part of him wondered if his blooming feelings for Rainbow Dash were contributing the doubtfulness he had for himself and Cadance to have a real, blissful future together even if they did find some way around their current issues of constantly wanting to protect each other.

Ironically being the ‘Princess of Love’ meant that Cadance’s kind, loving nature was both her greatest asset and her greatest flaw when dealing with others as it had both helped and hurt her various time in the past and when it had been the former, Shining Armor had been their to assure her that it was strength that he wished was more common in the world.

Now he only hoped that when they spoke again to officially break up, that cherished trait wouldn’t disappear from Cadance forever.

Author's Note:

Sorry this one took so long, but I've also been working on a another ShiningDash one-shot called 'Date with a Daredevil' so I'm hoping that you guys who are interested in this ship will check it out when its done.

Comments

[Rainbow87dash]

God I can't wait for the next update!

[MegaMuffinss]

can't wait till next chapter and I hope you finish your one-shot soon, I'm really interested to see how that goes.

[Commander Hot Stuff]

I love this ship

[Ianpiersonjdavis]

3991936

Here it is; http://www.fimfiction.net/story/171476/date-with-a-daredevil

[Alicorn Korra]

4000938

I've read one-shoot and its awesome!

Please, continue this story!

[Ianpiersonjdavis]

4001988

Don't worry, I am.

[Clarity the Unicorn]

My heart blows up with otpness(?). I ship this so freaking hard, you don't understand. So. Freaking. Hard.