Shining Armor tried to slip into bed without waking his wife. Now that Flurry Heart was finally sleeping through the night in the nursery and Cadance wasn't keeping an ear open for her fussing, this was—at least in theory—actually possible, but still quite difficult to attempt. He moved with every bit of the careful caution he might have used to slip undetected through enemy territory, but it wasn’t enough; he was unable to keep the bed's frame from giving a faint creak as his weight shifted onto it, and Cadance's ear twitched towards him.
He froze, hoping that he might avoid waking her up entirely, but then her eyes opened, their gorgeous purple catching the glimmering moonlight that cast the room in stark shadows. Shining's breath caught for a moment, his heart beating a little bit faster. Cadance smiled at him with a drowsy warmth and reached a hoof to him, lifting the blanket as she did so in a silent invitation to cuddle.
With a gentle chuckle Shining took her invitation, fitting his body to hers with the ease of long familiarity. It had seemed strange, once, that she was as tall as he, and perfectly capable of being the big spoon when she wanted to be, but now it was the most natural thing in the world to let her curl herself around him. Tonight, though, she tucked her head beneath his chin instead, her horn nestling to his cheek, and gave a deep sigh.
"Long day?" he said softly.
"Yes." She sighed again.
"Need help relaxing?" he asked, putting the faintest hint of sly innuendo into his tone.
Cadance chuckled. "Maybe." She shifted and nuzzled against the side of his neck.
Shining's breath caught again as her muzzle touched him. He brought a hoof up to stroke her mane as she continued. "Ah. It's like
that tonight."
"Mmm," was all Cadance said. Her eyes were closed again and her nuzzles quickly turned into nibbles.
The touch of her teeth through the fine hair of his coat set Shining's heart beating faster, and he knew she could feel his pulse as she nippled and nuzzled where it pounded just beneath the skin. With the sensation came a flood of memories—of other nights, other times that had begun much the same way. He could recall the very first time vividly; that moment when all the world had changed in a way he never could have expected.
"Shh, don't wake Twilight," said Cadance with a giggle. The pair were in Shining's bedroom with the door shut, but only one thin wall separated them from the sleeping filly.
"Sorry," said Shining, but he was grinning unrepentantly as he said it.
"I know how to shut you up." Cadance practically pounced on him, pinning him to the bed and kissing him deeply. Shining moaned again, but this time the sound was muffled. Cadance's warm body was all along his, stirring his blood up, making his heart pound. He wrapped his hooves tightly around her, holding her closer, and parted his lips, his tongue meeting hers as she pressed it eagerly into his mouth.
Meanwhile her hooves were wandering, stroking and caressing his hide, while the kiss grew ever wilder and more passionate. He tried to answer her passion, pushing his tongue back against hers, pressing it into her mouth. She broke off the kiss, panting above him, and whispered, "I want you, Shining," into his ear.
He shuddered. "I want you too. I want you so much."
"Yes." She nipped his ear, and the twinge of pain he felt was impossibly exciting. He clenched his teeth on a loud moan and put his hooves over her cutie marks, pulling her hard against him. She wiggled in an unbearably arousing way, her breath loud in the quiet darkness. "I want you every way," she whispered. "I want every part of you."
Shining groaned. He knew perfectly well that Cadance was far older and more experienced than he, and the thought of what she might try was downright intoxicating. It was also a little bit intimidating, if he was being honest, but right now he was far too turned on to be the least bit worried. "Oh yes," he said in vague, breathless agreement, squeezing her cutie marks firmly.
A little shudder went through her and she lowered her head, nosing against the side of his neck. He could feel his own pulse pounding against her muzzle. She licked him there, and he groaned again, then gasped as she suddenly nipped the spot she'd licked. "Oh Shining..." She nipped again, a little harder.
He had to clench his teeth on a loud moan once more. It hurt, but in the best possible way.
Cadance was rocking her hips against him now, panting hard and fast, and once more she pressed her muzzle against the side of his neck, over the pulse point there. He lifted one hoof to stroke her mane, trying to decide if he wanted to make a move to take this even further. She'd done most of the moving so far, and he wasn't really sure what to do now that she seemed to have paused; maybe it was his turn.
"Stars," murmured Cadance against the side of his neck. "If you knew what I wanted to do to you, with you..."
"You can do whatever you want," he said instantly.
Cadance gave another little shudder, and her muzzle pressed harder against his neck, a gesture that was getting a little bit strange now. He could feel her entire body trembling, her wings half-unfurled, and when he opened his eyes a little ways to look at her, her own were squeezed tightly shut. He almost said something, then, seeing how she was obviously struggling, but he felt that whatever it was that she was fighting to contain, whatever strange act it might be, he still wanted her, and whatever came with it. "Whatever you want," he repeated softly, intensely, and tightened his hooves where the one cradled her head and the other her flank.
She drew in one long breath, and then with shocking suddenness she bit him, hard.
He let out a startled cry, loud enough that for a moment his mind flashed to Twilight next door, and fear joined passion. If she woke... But his mind was immediately ripped away from that fear to a very different one as Cadance shifted. She was no longer biting but instead sucking at his neck, and the sharp, continuing pain that came with it made him realize that she had broken skin. Now it was his turn to tremble; she was drinking his blood. He had half-expected her to do something strange, yes, but he hadn't expected that.
Confusion was foremost in his mind as she pressed her muzzle to his neck and drank. What was going on? Yet with Cadance's body still warm against his, and her soft, muffled moans telling him that however strange this act might be, she was enjoying it immensely, a certain passion remained. It was bizarre, but still more than a little sexy, and his grip, that had loosened in shock, tightened again, urging her hips to grind against his.
There wasn't really that much pain, either, as she continued. He was still more than a little baffled, but he held her as she sucked at his neck, until finally she lifted her head, still panting, but no longer trembling. Her eyes focused on him, and then widened in shock. "Sun and stars, I'm so sorry, Shiny. I hurt you. I didn't mean to..."
Realizing that for now the moment was over, he loosened his grip and let her roll off of him, though not without a certain amount of disappointment. "I'm pretty sure you did mean to," he said, shaking his head a little wryly. "Though I can't begin to understand why. Or how. Have you been hiding a set of fangs?"
She flushed, pink on pink. "Uh. Yes?" She gave him a small, hesitant smile that did indeed show a set of modest but quite sharp-looking fangs.
He blinked at her. "Cadance... please explain what is going on."
She looked away from him, her ears down, fearful, uncertain.
"Cadance..." He reached to her, pulled her to cuddle against his side. "Just tell me what's going on, I won't be mad."
She was stiff for a moment, then relaxed against him and sighed. "I'm an alicorn," she said with a little shrug.
"Yes, I'd noticed. The wings are very pretty. That doesn't actually explain anything, though."
Cadance couldn't help but let out tiny snort of a giggle. "Sorry. How are you so unflappable? I thought you'd be through the roof once you realized what I did."
"Guard training, I guess? It's not the first time I've seen my own blood, you know. Just usually it's a bloody nose when someone’s managed to get a spear butt in my face, or something like that." He shrugged, sitting up a little bit. "And everything else you did before was pretty nice."
"Yeah. I... got carried away. I'm really sorry."
Shining put a hoof to the side of his neck, feeling the injury carefully. It didn't seem to be too bad, and his hoof was bloodless when he pulled it away. There was a tiny spot of red on the side of Cadance's muzzle, though. That probably should have been a little bit creepy. Mostly it was still just baffling.
"So why does getting carried away mean biting me?"
"Alicorns are... not exactly what we let other ponies think we are. We're, well..." She fidgeted a little bit, rubbing her front hooves together. "We live as long as we do because we take tiny bits of life energy from other ponies. Celestia has promised me that it's not harmful. It's an energy that ponies replace naturally, because it's in the blood and they replace that. So for them it's nothing much. For us it's life, though. I've never had it happen, but she says if you don't get it, eventually you just... shrivel up. And going for very long without it makes you so hungry it feels like you're going to die. So we need blood."
Shining's eyebrows were up somewhere near his mane by now. "Uhm. Cadance, you're describing vampires."
Cadance gave him a sheepish sort of look. "Well, uh, yes. The old vampire legends were originally about alicorns."
"Vampires are supposed to shrivel up in sunlight. Celestia definitely does not shrivel up in sunlight. Neither do you."
Cadance coughed and looked away. "Ah. Yes, well... Celestia told me she started that one so that nopony would ever believe she was one. It's not true. Most of the stories aren't true. Just... the blood part is."
"I see."
"If it bothers you..." She shifted away from him, as if to get up.
Shining reached out and put a hoof on her shoulder. "It confuses me. It doesn't bother me."
"It's bothered most stallions I've known..."
Shining snorted. "Well they were stupid, then. You're not going to suck me dry, right?"
"No.
"And you don't sleep in a coffin?"
She giggled. "No."
"Turn into a bat?"
"Definitely not."
"Lack a reflection?"
"How would I do my mane without a mirror?"
"Have to stop and count small objects if they're spilled in front of you?"
Cadance blinked. "I've never even heard of that one."
"It was in a book I read once."
"Well it's not true either."
He grinned. "You just live a long time, which I already knew, and getting all steamed up makes you want blood, that's it?"
She blushed again, brighter. "Uhm. I want blood even when I'm not all, ah, steamed up. It was just that being so close to you when I was hungry made it really hard to resist. You, uh, smell really good."
He laughed. "So now I'm a plate of dinner, hmm?"
"You're a lot sexier than dinner." She flashed him a grin, a little sharper than he was used to seeing, but it wasn't a bad look.
"I dunno, I hear some ponies are into food. Maybe I could pour chocolate on you and we could both eat."
"Shining, you dork."
He grinned. "See, you're the same mare you were before you bit me. I still think you're smart and cute and sexy and amazing. This is weird, I'm not going to say it isn't, but I already knew you weren't like most ponies. I'm not sure this changes anything."
"Sun above, Shining, how did I ever get so lucky?" Cadance shook her head. "I'd kind of resigned myself to hiding the truth from everypony but Celestia, forever. And then you don't even blink when I slip up and bite you."
"Can I ask who you normally bite, since you don't normally bite me? And do you kiss them first?"
"Oh geez no." Cadance's ears went down flat and her smile turned sheepish. "You know the Sundown Squad?"
"Know them? They're only the elite fighting force I've idolized even more than the regular guard since I was a colt!"
"Well, they have certain additional secret duties, beyond just being personally assigned to Celestia."
"Oh. I see." He tilted his head. "So... you bite the Sundowners, usually. Does that mean I'm an honorary Sundowner now?"
Cadance let out another little snort of laughter. "Trust you to think of that first thing. Maybe you are. Though this was not much like the times I've taken from them. That's a kind of a ceremony? With you just now..."
"It was pretty hot," said Shining, his grin coming back.
"Stars yes." Cadance was blushing again, but her grin matched his, though it was still a bit more pointy.
"Well, now that me smelling like dinner isn't going to be distracting you, why don't we pick up where we left off? My parents won't be home until past midnight, so we have plenty of time."
"That sounds like fun to me," said Cadance. Shining bent his head to hers, their lips meeting in a soft kiss that swiftly turned heated as Shining pushed his tongue into her mouth. And when he felt the sharpness of her fangs there, well, that didn’t change anything about what came after.
Now, amid the moonlight and shadows of the bedroom they shared, Shining Armor held his wife close and blessed the circumstances that had made him unbothered by blood in his youth. The life they had was amazing, and if his barely-grown young stallion self had freaked out on that long ago night, he might well have ruined it all before it even truly began.
Instead he had an amazing wife, a perfect daughter, and things could hardly be better. And, as Cadance once again nipped lightly at his neck, teasing herself with what she so desperately wanted from him, he had to admit that he'd long since started to find their blood sharing more than a little enjoyable in an of itself.
That was what he called it in his mind, "sharing." He shared his blood with her, and she shared a special closeness with him. But as Cadance nipped again, harder, startling a groan of pleasure from him, he had little room left for thinking anymore. He wrapped his forelegs around her, holding her close, feeling her heat against him as she nipped and nibbled, her own breath coming fast too, her teasing driving them both half mad.
"Cadance, please," he groaned, and he felt that little shudder go through her, heralding that familiar, wonderful, strange, compelling moment when she let go of her self-control and bit down, fangs sinking in quick and hard, cutting through his hide so fast it almost didn't hurt.
They moaned together as she began to drink. He lifted one hoof to the back of her head, stroking her mane, encouraging her to take all she needed. She made a murmuring sound of pleasure against the side of his neck, but did not slacken her drinking at all. Shining sighed deeply, reveling in the knowledge that he was providing her what she needed, that his very blood was becoming part of her, strengthening the bond between them.
She finally lifted her head, pausing to kiss the little marks she'd left gently, and then she kissed him too. He tasted a hint of copper and salt—his own blood on her tongue—and it was thrilling. He rolled her over, pinning her beneath him, kissing harder and with ever more heated passion.
He broke off the kiss to look down at her in the moonlight. She was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen, lying dappled in shadow with a hint of his own blood staining her muzzle, and as he lowered himself to her, he knew that his life couldn't possibly be any better.
Quite some time later, as the pair lay tangled contentedly together, Cadance said, "You always seem to get extra fired up when I've been biting you."
Shining chuckled. "What can I say? There's something very exciting about it. Call me kinky, I guess."
"Mmm. My kinky stallion. I'm very glad you are." She nuzzled his cheek affectionately. "I thought, back when Celestia explained all this to me, that I'd probably be single forever, you know. She seems to be."
"I suspect that's mostly be her choice. She's... not like you."
"We're all different, it seems." Cadance paused, then, "Twilight wrote me again last week. She's still having a little trouble with it."
"Poor kid. She always was squeamish about blood. I worried a lot when I heard she'd ascended."
"She frets sometimes about hurting ponies in her letters. Dealing only with the Sundowner volunteers is helping, but she's obviously still concerned. You should write her again. I know she started writing me because I'm an alicorn like she is, but I think hearing from my, ah, 'victim' might help set her mind at ease a little better. And you are her BBBFF, after all"
Shining smiled. "I'll do that." There was a silence, and Shining, just a hint of concern in his tone, asked, "Flurry still hasn't shown any sign of, well...?"
Cadance chuckled softly. "No. None at all. When she starts shedding her baby teeth I'll keep an eye out for fangs, but she's not like us. Nopony has ever been born an alicorn before. I think she'll be something else entirely."
He nodded, his smile coming back. "I'm probably biased, but I can't help but think she'll be something wonderful."
Cadance smiled, and agreed.
"Yes... something wonderful."