Toxic Love

by Silvermyr

Epilogue. Everlasting Love

Cadance counted herself the luckiest mare alive. Her beloved had all right to hate her. He had all right to never want to see her again. He had every right to leave her, take his daughter with him, and find a mare who would not end up causing the second greatest disaster the Crystal Empire had ever known. He could do all those things, but instead, by some heavenly luck, he was here instead, cured of his maddening magic, and the immortality it would have brought him. It too had been filtered out together with the dark magic.

Cadance nuzzled closer to his warm, strong chest, listening to the calming rhythm of his heartbeat. She never wanted to leave. Here she was safe. Here nopony resented her, judged her, or pitied her. Here, there was only love, pure and strong. She felt a hoof on her side, under her wing as to rest over her own heart. ”… and then he was just gone,” she finished recounting the last fateful hours for Shining Armor. ”He swore to return.”

”He will return. To his cell,” Shining Armor said tenderly. He too did not want to dwell on such grim matters now. ”I… can’t believe you went though all of that for my sake Cadance. I’m so sorry for my part in all of it. If only I had understood how you must feel, every time I risked my life serving in the guard… How could I have been so blind as to not realize how hard it was for you?”

”No, don’t take any blame for this,” Cadance said. She looked up at his face. ”What happened had nothing to do with you. I fell in love with you, and if I cannot love you for defending Equestria, then I don’t deserve to be your mare.”

”Don’t say such things, sweetheart,” Shining Armor whispered and kissed the tip of her horn, sending a sweet tingle down her spine.

The two was silent for a few minutes, just resting in one another’s presence. Cadance broke it, whispering. ”Shining?”

”Yea?”

”How can you still love me?”

Shining Armor smiled and stroked her mane. ”It’s easy. I see you play with Flurry. I hear you laugh. I know how hard you work to give other ponies the gift of love. And I know you would walk through Tartarus and back for me. Loving you is as natural as breathing. I don’t think I could ever stop.”

”I don’t deserve you,” Cadance whispered and burrowed her face into his snow white coat.

”I have never deserved you for all the time I’ve known you. But yet somehow you still love me,” Shining Armor said and nuzzled her mane. ”But you should know better than anyone that love can work in strange ways.”

”Hmm…” Cadance purred. The empire was still fractured. Sombra was out there somewhere. Luna resented her. Twilight was disappointed and Celestia was hurt.

But for now, none of those things matter. For now, Cadance was at peace.

Author's Note:

Excellent job making it here, to the end! I hope you enjoyed this little story! Will I ever make a sequel? Maybe, if I can find some original premise that I feel can fit in well with this.

Until then, if anyone is looking for more stories about the Crystal Empire and its struggle against its old king, perhaps I might interest you in another story I wrote: Will of the Shadow Monarch.

Most author's love feedback...

Comments

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

Uh-oh, that doesn't sound good. Why don't you advertise this story a bit and put it in some groups?

[Silvermyr]

8935608
Corrected. Thank you for pointing this out to me. As you understand English is not my first language...

[RoyalBardofCanterlot]

Is there going to be a continuation? I love the scene with Shining and Cadence at the end. Very sweet.

[Silvermyr]

8965339
Show the world-
Ah, my god!
What's this?
Something's happening! I can't explain!
Something inside me, a breathtaking pain,
devours and consumes me... and drives me INSANE!

Suddenly, uncontrolled!
Something is taking hold!
Suddenly, AGONY!
Filling me, killing me!
Suddenly, out of breath...
what is this!? Is this death!?

//
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde- the musical.
You have an excellent taste in music, good sir.

[Ice Star]

So, is there going to be more Sombra and Cady stuff in a sequel from you? There's plenty of room for it.