Shining the Enduring

by Graymane Shadow

Show of Hearts

Shining watched from his perch on one of the ruined couches as several guardsponies and members of the staff struggled to shift the stone slab in an attempt to begin cleaning the sitting room. They’d been trying to move it for the past fifteen minutes, with various unicorns barking orders until somepony with more sense had finally sent for a team of earth ponies to help lift it.

“Still don’t know how you lifted that by yourself.”

Shining glanced over at Flash Sentry, who’d removed his helm to wipe at his sweat-soaked mane.

“Well, a mixture of being pissed off and terrified is a good magical enhancer, as it turns out,” Shining replied.

Flash barked a laugh, nodding his head. “I guess can believe that to an extent, but seeing as you kept cool enough to kill the blasted thing, you either weren’t that scared, or you’re the toughest pony I’ve ever known.”

“Like I said, I was pretty mad at the time,” he repeated. “I didn’t stop to think if I could. I just wanted it dead.”

“Either way, I’m glad you didn’t die. I hate to think of how we could have explained it to your wife.”

Shining raised an eyebrow. “Cadance is-“

“Shining!” The melodic voice of his wife cut through the undercurrent of chatter in the room as she half trotted, half glided into the room, making her way to his side. She plowed into him, wrapping her forelegs around his barrel and bumping the couch back a few inches.

Eager to put her at ease, Shining nuzzled against her neck, noting that she smelled like fire and ash rather than her usual soft perfumes.

“You’re hurt!” she said, noticing the bandages wrapped around his barrel and right leg.

“Not from the monster,” he quickly reassured her. “Just from my own clumsiness. They're just scratches, really.”

Pulling back, she took in the sight of the ruined suite more fully, her eyes widening.

“What happened, exactly?”

He took a breath, deciding how best to tell her. He was about to give it to her straight, but an idea popped into his mind, and he smiled.

“Well, honey, I have a confession to make,” he began. “I’ve always hated the décor in here.”

She half-laughed, half-choked, hugging him again. “And so you decided that the best way to communicate that was to ruin all my hard work by fighting a monster inside our rooms?”

“Uh, yes?” He gently pushed her back so he could see into her eyes, noting the worry and love in them. Gently giving her a peck on the nose before pulling her close again, he whispered, “Since you’re not in a full panic, I take it all four of you are okay?”

The hitch in her breath told him that she wasn’t, but he wasn’t going to press her on it in front of all these ponies. Later, they could both talk.

“I’m okay,” she lied. “And yes, the others are as well, though Twilight looked a little shaky.” She pulled him into another hug. “How do you know what happened?” she whispered in his ear.

“I only know a little bit. You'll have to tell me the rest.” Sliding off the couch, he pulled her close. “C’mon, you look dead on your hooves, and I’m probably not much better. Let’s find some place to bunk down for the night. Gotta be a room here somewhere. It’s a big palace after all.”

“Shining Armor, you are incorrigible. Princesses do not bunk down,” she scolded as they made their way into the hallway, but there was no venom in her voice. “We grace the bed with our presence.”

He grinned. “Well, how about you grace me with your presence tonight, Princess?” Judging from the faint coughs from behind them, at least a few of the guards had heard.

“Incorrigible!” she said, smiling despite her tiredness. “What am I going to do with you?”

“I’m sure you’ll think of something,” he replied. “That’s why I love you so much.”

---

The next morning, neither of them were in a hurry to get out of the bed they’d pilfered.

In truth, the bed was in one of the rooms saved for important visitors, and therefore hadn’t been in use, but Shining preferred to think of it as pilfering. It felt more roguish that way.

As was custom, Shining had woken up before his wife, and after checking with the attendant outside to confirm that Edge Sheen was stable and recovering, had returned to the bed to simply lay there and enjoy the feeling of being alive.

He hadn’t done that for longer than he cared to remember.

While Shining had joked last night about what they should do when they got to a room, reality had been much more serious. As soon as they were alone he’d asked her to tell him what had happened, which she’d done, though he could tell she was holding things back from him.

After that, he’d shared a toned-down version of the attack, trying to avoid how he’d been too tired to fight properly with his magic. She’d seen through it, and he’d ended up explaining his night terrors and insomnia.

To his surprise, she hadn’t looked hurt or upset, but had merely listened, neither judging nor commenting. Once he’d started talking, it had been like a dam in his chest had burst, and he’d poured out many of the things he’d been struggling with.

By the time he’d finished, he had felt drained, but in a positive way. And, instead of offering advice or chastising him for not telling her sooner, she’d merely given him a kiss and told him to get some rest.

Now, in the light of the day, he turned his attention to Cadance, who was just starting to stir. As her eyes opened, and he saw the love and warmth pouring from their depths, he felt like the sun had finally risen on his shadowed life.

“Morning, babe,” he whispered, a smile forming on his face.

“Morning, Shiny,” she replied, sliding her head forward to kiss him.

“Sleep well?” he asked.

She yawned, nodding. “Mostly because I was exhausted.”

“I think you can sleep the whole day if you want.”

She rolled onto her stomach, allowing her wings to stretch out. “Mmm…tempting, but I know you won’t stay with me, so I might as well get up too.”

He reached up and started gently caressing the wing that was hanging over him, drawing a gentle moan from her. “Duty calls?”

“Something like that,” she said, yawning once more as she pulled her wings back in. “I’ll probably end up making another trip to Canterlot in the next day or two. Celestia will want to discuss what happened.”

His face fell slightly at the prospect of being alone again, but he did his best to hide it.

Cadance wasn’t fooled. “You’ll be coming with me, Shiny. Even if you didn’t have some incredibly important information to share, I don’t want to let you out of my sight for a while.”

“Worried I’ll run away on a wild adventure?” he teased.

Normally, this would have provoked an eye-roll from her, but not now. She quickly slid over, pinning him to the mattress with her forehooves.

“Don’t joke like that, Shiny,” she said, her eyes boring into his. “Not right now, not when I almost lost you!”

“I’m sorry,” he quickly replied. “I didn’t mean-“

As quickly as she’d gotten hot, she cooled once more, and her gaze softened. “I know,” she said, sliding down to snuggle next to him. “I just…I’m worried.”

“About the meeting?”

“About the meeting, about Twilight, about you.”

He nuzzled her. “I’m fine, Cadance. I always pull through.”

“I want you to do more than pull through. I want you to trust me enough to share when things are bad, so I can help you.”

“I do trust you,” he started to protest.

“Not enough to be honest with me,” she replied.

He could see the building storm clouds of her argument, and decided to head them off straight away. “You’re right,” he admitted. “I do need to be more honest with you. But that goes both ways, Cadance. You held out on me last night, and I didn’t think you would do that. Now I’m worrying about you.”

She opened her mouth to reply, paused, then closed it again.

“If we’re going to help each other, we have to be honest with each other,” he added.

“I know,” she groused, clearly not thrilled about having been out-argued. “I…I’ll share more when we meet with the others. I don’t want to ruin this day.”

He frowned, but decided not to push harder just yet. “Promise?”

“I promise,” she replied.

“Thank you,” he said, kissing her. “Love you, babe.”

She was still miffed about having been rolled. “I love you too, you big meanie,” she replied, her lips pursed in a cute pout.

“And since we’re being honest, I have a secret I need to confess.”

“What’s that?”

He leaned in again, gently kissing the base of her neck and moving upward with successive smooches. “I figured today was going to be a bit of a weird day, so I ordered us breakfast in bed. Should be here in a few minutes.”

She tried to hold the pout, but he knew she loved sappy romantic gestures. His words had the intended effect, and he watched her face turn to a smile.

“My handsome stallion,” she replied, kissing him once more. “Well then, since we’re sharing secrets, you’ll love what I have to tell you,” she teased.

“Oh?”

She leaned in close. “If I’d known that a monster was what it would take to get you to admit you hated our rooms, I would have arranged for one to attack months ago.”

At first he laughed, but at the serious look on her face, he felt his jaw drop. “You’re serious?”

Now it was her turn to laugh, that rich laugh that he so loved to hear. It felt like months since he’d heard her laugh that way, and he wanted nothing more than to close his eyes and luxuriate in the feeling of it.

“Shiny, do you know what makes me happy? Truly happy?"

“Chocolates and sleeping in?”

She gave him a wry look. “Putting those two very important things aside, I’m happy when the stallion I married is happy. You never looked happy in our rooms, but any time I tried to bring the subject up, you would clam up and claim things were fine.”

“I thought you were happy with the way things were, and that was enough for me.”

“I was okay with the rooms. I’ll be much happier when we both have input on how they should look. Promise me that this time, when the decorators come around, you’ll actually speak your mind?”

“Even if I want to put the ugliest chair imaginable in the room?”

“So long as you don’t want comic book sheets for our bed, I think I can handle a chair or two,” she replied.

He grinned. “Then it’s a deal.”

“Good,” she said, leaning back against her pillow with a very particular smirk. “Now, how about you make good on that talk from last night, and come grace your Princess?”

At that moment, there was a knock.

"Breakfast is ready, Your Highnesses," one of the guards called through the door.

Shining paused, eyeing his wife, who was staring at him with one eyebrow raised, still smirking.

"You boys go ahead and have it," he called back. Then, lowering his voice to give it a husky tone, he added, "The Princess and I have some important business to attend to."

Comments

[NoMoreNormalcy]

*eyebrow wiggles*

Shiny, you hound dog.

[MelodiousCreschendo]

I smell a secret message.

[ObsPerson]

Uh oh, there's gonna be some aggressive hoof holding and heavy petting. Definitely just that. Nothing more.