How It All Began

View Online

Shining Armor walked down the corridor giving a nod to some of his fellow guards. He couldn't help but grin as he walked to his office, not only had he gotten to live his dream of becoming a guard but he even got promoted to Captain. The fact that his protection spell was second to none certainly didn't hurt his chances.

As he turned the corner, he passed some girls who giggled as he walked by. Girls were always going to giggle about him, it was a fact of life he knew and accepted. The thought of acquiring a very special somepony would on occasion cross his mind, but then he would just tell himself that the Captain of the Guard couldn't afford a love life. He had a duty to think of, a responsibility to uphold, he didn't have time for cuddles and kisses. Besides, even if he did the mare would become a target for Canterlot's enemies, a way to get to him by hurting her.

However, what he failed to notice was that the only mare of the group who wasn't giggling was none other than Princess Mi Amore Cadenza...or as she was known to her friends, Cadance... Cadi to those especially close to her. She couldn't seem to stop herself from staring "Is that...Shining Armor?"

"You know Shining Armor?" one of her friends asked.

"Well, yes, from a long time ago. I used to foal sit for his little sister; but the last time I saw him he was leaving for royal guard training."

"Oh! So you knew him before he was a guard! So what was he like back then?" asked her other friend.

"Well he was a lot skinnier back then, I can tell you that! But why is his armor so different from the others?"

"Didn't you hear? He got promoted to Captain recently."

"Really?" Cadance couldnt' suppress her delight. She knew that becoming a royal guard for Canterlot was always a dream for Shining Armor, so to not only realize said dream but to get promoted from it as well? Things were definitely looking more than a little up for the unicorn.

As Shining Armor finally approached the door to his office he saw Twilight standing there waiting for him. "Twiley!!" he called out. It was always joy to see his little sister, they hardly ever got to see each other after she moved to Ponyville. He ran over and ruffled her hair "How ya doin, Kiddo?"

Twilight laughed before pushing Shining's hoof away from her head. "I'm fine, BBBFF. I'm actually here because there's a book here about rare animals that I don't have back in the Ponyville library. My friend Fluttershy really wants to read it so I'm doing her a favor and checking it out so she can borrow it."

"Well that's awfully nice of you." Shining Armor couldn't help but be proud of his little sister. Going to Ponyville was the best thing that ever happened to her, before she was way too shy and just on the border of being anti-social. And now here she was going to great lengths just to get a book for a friend.

"But then I heard about your big promotion and just had to come congratulate you!" she threw her arms around him wrapping him in a hug which he readily returned.

"I'd love to spend more time with you Twiley, but I got some paper work I really need to get a head start on or else otherwise it will never get done."

They broke the hug off and Shining Armor was expecting his sister to get upset with probably saying that time together was more important than dumb old paper work, but instead she nodded in understanding.

"That's okay, I need to get back to Ponyville anyways. Don't forget to write okay?"

"Sure thing, Kiddo!" He ruffled her hair one last time before entering his office. His office had a strict military feel to it, a pen in it's holster on the desk, a suit of armor on the opposing walls for decoration, and a plush office chair behind the desk. However, what Shining Armor really admired in his office was the gold name plate on his desk. The light seemed to reflect of it as if it were some holy relic, reading the words 'Captain Shining Armor'.

Inside he sat in his office chair and immediately started on the first sheet of his paper work. Not even half way in to it and received a knock on his door.

"It's open." he called.

The door opened a crack and Princess Cadance poked her head through. "Shiny?"

"Cadi?"

It had been years since the two had seen each other and yet the old nicknames Twilight had given them still seemed to stuck. There was always a certain amount of...'electricity' between them but they had never really acted upon them.

"Wow." she said coming all the way in. "The royal guard training has made you...bigger."

He blushed at the fact that she had noticed his increased muscle mass. Royal guard training was at the very least to say, very rough; he had no doubt in his mind he was nowhere near the string bean he was before he enlisted. "Yes...well, ahem, thank you."

"You're very welcome. It has been a long time since we've seen each other," she leaned forward on his desk, her hooves resting her head as she fluttered her eyes at him. "We should take some time and catch up with each other."

Shining Armor leaned back in his chair, swallowing the large lump in his throat didn't seem to dwell his blushing. "R-Right..." he tried to think of more to say but with Cadance right there in front of him his mind was becoming a complete blank.

"So I was thinking, maybe the two of us could go out on a date sometime."

Shining Armor suddenly straightened up, the blush gone from his face and replaced with that of a serious expression.

"Absolutely not."

"WHAT?!" Cadance's shout literally blew the top off the building.

Shining Armor flinched at the volume of her voice. She still seemed upset but her breathing was steadying out. "Shining Armor, you and I both know that there is something..." she struggled for a moment, trying to find the right word. "SPECIAL...between us!!"

"I..."

"There's not another mare is there?!" she snapped. Cadance seemed almost...frightening, when she considered the possibility that she might have a love rival. "Because if there is, I promise you that there is no possible way she could make you as happy as I could!!"

Shining Armor sighed but outside of that hadn't moved an inch at the Princess's outburst. "There's no other mare." he stated calmly.

"Then what is the problem?!"

"I'm sorry your Majesty, but I'm the Captain of the Royal Guard and you're a legitimate princess. It is my duty to protect Canterlot, and all who reside in it, which just so happens to include the Royal Family. Such a relationship would be viewed as inappropriate."

"That's 'Cadance' to you!" she pointed her hoof almost dangerously at him. "And I don't care about what others think of me and I know you don't either! I know you like me back Shining Armor! I'm the Princess of Love for crying out loud, but what I want to know is what could you possibly care about enough to think we shouldn't be together?!"

"What I care about..." he took a moment to remember Cadance's demand to be called by her name. "'Princess' Cadance, is both mine and YOUR reputation! You are a princess, you can not afford to be seen fraternizing with the Captain of the Guards, especially if there are important dignitaries about! This is the world we live in, it may not be as pretty we'd like it to be but we still have to live in it just the same. This is how it has to be, not because the feelings are un-reciprocated but because this is how the world works."

"But..." she said weakly.

"I'm sorry your Highness," he did seem sincerely sorry. "but I've made my mind up on this."

This couldn't be happening! Cadance knew deep down in her heart that she and Shining Armor were meant to live happily ever after together, but he was ready turn his back on both of their feelings just so neither of them would look bad! Cadance bit her lip as her mind scrambled to find anything for a source of hope. She found it. "But what if...what if I could change your mind?"

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow at her. "I beg your pardon?"

"I know you like me back Shining Armor, and what's more is..." she leaned forward with a cocky smirk. "I can prove it!"

Shining Armor's blush seemed to return as he looked her up and down. "And h-h-how exactly would you go about 'proving' that?" Cadance choked back a giggle as Shining Armor's voice cracked on the word 'proving'.

"The Grand Galloping Gala is in three weeks, if I can get you to admit that you like me back then you have to become my very special somepony so we can one day live happily ever after in a crystal palace!" she gushed.

"Crystal palace?" He arched an eyebrow at her. She had obviously given this more thought that Shining Armor had given her credit for. "Whatever. And what if you lose?"

"I'll give in! I will accept that this world just can't accept the love between a Captain of the Guards and the Princess he's supposed to guard. I'll settle for loving you from afar!"

Shining Armor took a moment to weigh the pros with the cons. On one hoof this was likely to be a huge distraction to him, and three weeks was an awfully long time. On the other hoof this was probably the best way for her to move on without the shedding of tears, this way they could at least try to end it as friends. "...deal!"

He held out his hoof and she shook it. "You don't stand a chance, Shining Armor."

"We'll see about that."

"That's a very nice strong arm you have there."

Shining Armor yanked his arm back causing the princess to giggle at his actions.

Regaining his composure, Shining Armor offered her a smirk of his own. "Either way, in three weeks time this will all be over."

She returned the smirk. "Then our real life can begin."

"Either you will respect my wishes..."

"Or you will accept my kisses!"

Shining Armor blushed furiously "Stop that!!"

"NO!"

Day 1

View Online

Shining Armor was out on patrol, he and the other guards had a lot of preparations to make if they wanted everything ready for the Grand Galloping Gala. Buildings need to be inspected but that was only for the first week, best to get the mundane things out of way and check to see if everything was up to code.

He was currently crossing the bridge from one tower to the other when saw none other than Princess Cadance waiting for him. He was wondering when she was going to try something, he just wasn't expecting it to be the day after they made the bet. "Hello Shining Armor." she batted her eyelashes at him.

"Princess." he nodded at her.

There was a silent pause between them and Shining Armor didn't trust it one bit. "Is this where you're planning on trying your first 'attempt' against me?"

"Oh not at all." she feigned innocence. "I'm just here to have a polite conversation with you, that's all."

"Sure you are." his voice dripped with sarcasm. "Alright, fire away."

"Nice weather lately huh?"

"Yeah, the pegasus ponies have been giving us a lot of sunny weather lately. Not a cloud in the sky."

He smiled. Maybe Cadance did really just want to have a pleasant conversation; to show that they could still be adults despite the situation...

"Sooo, got any weekend plans?"

Or maybe not.

"As a matter of fact yes. I checked out one of my favorite books from back when I was in training. I'm going to sit down and enjoy it for all my worth."

"Well my weekend is wide open, maybe I can swing by and you can tell me all about it."

So that was her plan? Get some alone time and turn it in to a date, or more specifically when he was off duty. Taking an ordinary situation and turning it in to something she wanted it be, Shining Armor wasn't exactly sure how he was supposed to feel about that. She must have figured all she really needed to do was set up a time for it.

"Well Cadance, I see through your plan like cellophane. Unfortunately for you, I know exactly how to deal with it." Shining Armor thought to himself.

"I'm pretty sure the palace library has a copy of it, you can just go check yourself one out." he said with a smirk.

Cadance's eyes widened, he was on to her; but she wasn't ready to give up on her first plan just yet.

"It would also be nice to get out of the palace and hit a restaurant for a change, but all my gal pals are out of town."

"No they're not! They're right over there!" Shining Armor pointed past Cadance in to the castle behind her where two of her friends were waving at her, mouthing the words 'You got this stallion'.

Shining Armor wasn't sure what it was Cadance mouthed back to them but whatever it was must not have been pleasant because the other two mares ran off. Cadance turned back to Shining Armor offering him her best smile.

"They're leaving today."

"I'm sure. Anyways, I prefer to cook for myself."

Cadance brushed some hair out of her face. "Oh really? I'd love a private cooking lesson from Chef Shining Armor sometime."

"That won't be necessary. There are tons of cook books at the library."

Cadance gave him an angry pout for a moment but put it away and brought back her smile. "You bring up the library a lot, you know that?"

"Twilight has dragged me there on more than one occasion." he admitted.

Cadance giggled honestly. "That sounds like something she would do." Shining Armor laughed with her. "It really does."

She gave him a coy smile. "But you know, maybe libraries aren't so bad." she started to move closer to him much to his surprise. "Nice and quiet..." She had him walking backwards now as she attempted to get closer. "And cozy."

"Cozy?! I...what...you..." his mind scrambled to make sense of the situation, but with Cadance pressing forward continuously...he was grasping at straws.

Despite this Cadance giggled at his stuttering. "You're cute when you're flustered, ya know that?"

"I-I-I-I..." his ramblings was cut short when he felt himself bump in to something. He turned around to see one of his guard ponies, Shining Armor's blush almost instantly disappeared as he returned the salute given to him.

"Sir, all buildings are up to co...oh! Forgive me sir, I wasn't aware you were with the Princess."

"Yes he was!!" Cadance seethed at the guard.

"Not to worry private, me and the Princess have concluded our business."

Shining Armor bit back a laugh as Cadance's angry pout returned.

"Well Sir, I just wanted to report we have finished the inspection of the buildings, everything is up to code."

A light went on in Shining Armor head, this was perfect.

"What about the barracks? Did you remember to check those?"

"The barracks, sir?"

"Yes! Did you check the barracks, soldier?"

"Sir, the barracks aren't part of the Grand Galloping Gala."

Cadance narrowed her eyes at Shining Armor. "I see what you're doing!"

He pretended not to hear her. "So what?! The barracks is where we sleep, soldier! It's where we live!! We can't risk it not being up to code!"

"Well okay then sir, I'll just grab a couple of the other guards and..."

"No need for that, I'll go with you!"

"Well if you're sure, sir."

Shining Armor turned back to Cadance with a smirk all his own. "So sorry your 'Majesty', but I'm afraid I have to leave you now. Duty calls."

As he walked off with the guard, Cadance gritted her teeth in a very unladylike way. "You can't run forever, Shining Armor!! YOU CAN'T RUN FROM LOVE!!!"

"Sir, what is she talking about?"

"Oh don't mind her. She's just a little stressed from her royal duties."

"Sir, call me crazy...but I think she might like you."

"Are you looking for a demerit?"

Down in the barracks, everything seemed to be up to code...except for the beds, they were unacceptably messy for the royal guards. Normally Shining Armor would chew out the owner's of these beds but after his little run in with Cadance he felt it was easier to just fix them with the guard he brought in.

"Sir, I don't understand." The guard started as they placed the sheet on the bed. "You obviously like her back."

"And I'm not arguing that," Shining Armor said as he tucked the bed. "but we both have reputations to think of."

They moved on to the last bed and the guard started working with the sheets again. "But you do like her, right?"

Shining Armor once again tucked the sheets in. "Let's just say," he bounced a bit off the bed and caught it in mid air with a smile. "I have a thing for Pink Alicorns."

"Then why don't you just, I don't know, date her!"

"As I said before, we both have reputations to think of. The Captain of Guards can't be fraternizing with one of the higher ups who can sign his pay check."

Meanwhile, Cadance and her two friends were busy getting her ready for her next 'attack'. They were a green unicorn and a white pegasus.

"I can't believe you two were right behind me when I was flirting with Shining Armor!"

"Sorry Cadance, we just wanted to show you our support."

"By being right behind me where I couldn't see you?"

The green unicorn rubbed her neck in embarrassment. "Maybe we didn't think that part through."

"Oh never mind, I forgive you. But you girls have to help me pick out a dress next time."

"Don't forget the make up!" the green one chimed holding Cadance's beauty kit.

The white pegasus opened her closet and started to flip through the dresses. "I don't get it, why don't you just use your special love magic on him?"

It was true, Cadance's cutie mark was in love, her magic of using the feelings ponies already felt for one another and bringing them to the surface was truly unique.

Cadance applied some eye liner to herself. "Because then it'd be a hollow victory. Besides," she put on some lipstick. "I know he likes me back. I can see it in his eyes."

"You know what you should do." Her horned friend helped her apply some blush. "You should give him a flying tackle hug!"

"A what?"

"Oh it has just been the cutest trend! When there's somepony you're in love with you leap towards throwing your arms around them bringing bowling him over with the power of your love until you're both one big laughing love mess on the ground."

Cadance let this new information settle in to her brain, would a 'flying tackle hug' be an asset to her in this situation?

"....That does sound pretty cute!"

"And I found just the dress for it!" The white pegasus revealed a pink and blue miniskirt.

Cadance blushed. "The miniskirt?"

"Hey! I think we've established the standard flirtations aren't going to work here! It's time for the big guns!!"

Shining Armor and the guard from earlier walked in to the main hall. Everything seemed quiet...a little too quiet.

"Be on guard!" Shining Armor ordered. "We're not alone!"

"What?!"

"Somepony is watching us!" It was true, thanks to his royal guard training he 'feel' this mysterious pony watching them, waiting. He couldn't tell where though, this pony had hidden themselves well. The shadows were probably the best place for a pony to hide but they were a little cliche, an intruder now a days would try for something a little more original. This way their attack would be sure to remembered by all involved.

"If you're going to make a move..." Shining Armor announced. "Then I suggest you make it now while you have the chance!!"

The attacker came out of nowhere, the guard didn't have a chance to blink as it headed straight for Shining Armor. His poor Captain didn't even have the chance to put up his shield spell as the attacker collided with him in the air. The guard couldn't help but flinch at the sounds of flesh colliding with flesh, but when he opened his eyes the image before him would forever be burned in to his memory.

Shining Armor and Cadance laid in a painful heap on the floor.

"Owww!" moaned Shining Armor.

"Oww." Cadance echoed.

"Why would you do that?!" Shining Armor whined.

"I was told flying tackle hugs were romantic."

"WHO would find THAT romantic?! That was just painful!"

"I think I even hurt my wing a little bit."

"MEDIC!!!"

In the Hospital Wing

View Online

Shining Armor and Cadance were in the medic wing of the palace, getting patched up by Doctor Amora. She was a blue unicorn with a roll of hospital tape for a cutie mark. It was her standard procedure to treat all patients in beds since that was how she learned the trade. Shining Armor and Cadance didn't seem to mind, if anything a soft place to lay down seemed to help with their sores and aches. Doctor Amora always had some ointment around just for these kind of 'accidents'. Thankfully she only had minor injuries to worry about with both of them, but as who they received them was what really irked her.

"I swear, this trend has become my worst enemy! These 'flying tackle hugs' have given me more patients than I care to count! Honestly you two were lucky to get off with just minor injuries."

She gave Shining Armor a bandaid on his nose before turning her attention to Cadance.

"All week long I've been getting couples who've injured themselves with these 'flying tackle hugs'." She started to delicately wrap Cadance's wing. "Just about everything from black eyes to broken bones, all because lovers have decided to hurl themselves at each other! It's ridiculous!!"

When she finished wrapping Cadance's wing she let out a sigh of relief. "Your wing should be fine just so long as you stay off of it for at least a couple of days. Shining Amor, your injuries aren't anything a big rough stallion like yourself can't walk off, just don't get in to any fights."

"Ma'am!!" a guard poked his head in to the room, a look of urgency on his face. "We have another 'incident' with the trend. A couple seems to be mangled together in some way."

The doctor gave a heavy sigh. "Show them in."

"We can't Ma'am. We were uh told not to move them."

She slapped her forehead before slowing dragging her hoof down her face. "I hate this trend." She gave another sigh before picking up her medical kit. "Alright, I'm on my way. I'll trust you two to show yourselves out."

As she left the two merely sat quietly as they stared at the sheets on their bed. There was a certain embarrassment in the air with how they got their injuries, clearly neither of them wanted to bring it up because the silence between them was deafening. Shining Armor couldn't take it anymore, he had to break it.

"So..." Cadance looked up giving Shining Armor her full attention. "Let's agree that no matter what future attempts there will be, that they don't involve physical injury."

Cadance gave a soft laugh. "Sounds like a deal to me." She gave a sad smile. "This will be something to tell our children someday."

A furious blush raced across his face. "Children?!"

"Someday, when we're ready."

Sighing heavily Shining Armor shook his head. "Why is this so important to you anyways? I mean out of all the stallions in Equestria, why me? Why not some foreign dignitary? Or even a prince for crying out loud?"

"They're not you. They don't know what's really important, not like you do."

"And that's why you love me?"

Cadance looked at him with a sense of urgency. "Oh no! No! No! No! It's much more than that! My feelings for you have been there for a long time."

Shining Armor raised an eyebrow at her. "How long of a 'long time'?" He had to know.

It was Cadance's turn to blush now. "Since I foal sat for Twiley."

Shining Armor felt his jaw drop. He got up out of the bed and walked over to Cadance sitting on the foot of her bed. "That's an awful long time, Cadance."

"I know, but only recently did they..." her blush deepened as she searched for the right word. "'Blossom'."

Shining Armor sighed. "Listen, Cadance...maybe if things were different, like if we both were just a couple of average ordinary unicorns then..."

"Don't say that you don't love me back!!" Cadance said heatedly.

"What makes you so certain about that anyways?!"

"I'm the Princess of LOVE, Shiny! I know you love me back..." she stared up at his face, her eyes shimmering. "Because I can feel it."

"W-What?!" For the second time that day Cadance had made him feel hot and flustered.

"I feel the love you have me, Shining Armor. I feel it inside of your heart, and it overwhelms me. I also feel the love you have for your family too, but the love you have for me is different. It's wonderful and warm..." a dreamy smile formed on her face. "And bigger than I ever thought possible."

Shining Armor was now as red as a tomato and completely speechless to boot. He thought for sure Cadance would be laughing at him again over this but instead she maintained her train of thought.

"So you can go ahead and tell me that there is nothing there between us all you want..." her face turned serious. "But I will know that, that is a LIE!!"

"...I..." Shining Armor searched aimlessly for something, ANYTHING to say in response to this new information. Then, like a river, the words just came flooding out of his mouth. "Whether I love you or not is irrelevant."

"...What do you mean it's 'irrelevant'?! It's LOVE!! It's completely relevant!!" Cadance snapped.

"We each have our own path to follow, Cadance." He got up off of her bed and stared down at her with a very serious expression. "Mine is protecting the citizens of Canterlot, and yours is ruling over them. And love or not, those paths don't intersect."

Cadance started to visibly shake and Shining Armor started to feel guilty. "Poor thing, she didn't ask to have these feelings." He was about to apologize when...

"BUCK THAT!!!" Cadance snapped with a roar. Shining Armor jumped back at Cadance's sudden outburst, she had jumped off the bed with a deadly serious stare fixated on Shining Armor. "Paths smaths!!! You can talk about paths all you want..." Shining Armor found himself backing away from Princess Cadance as she made strides towards. "But I know in my heart of hearts that WE are MEANT to be TOGETHER!!!"

Shining Armor couldn't back up anymore, he had found the window to the wall. Just in time too, her expression finally softened, she placed a hoof on his cheek tenderly "And I know you feel it too."

Then Cadance did the most surprising thing yet. She kissed him.

"MMMMMMM!!! MMM!!!" was the closest thing Shining Armor could do to protesting, they were the only sounds that his mouth could make.

However, soon enough Shining Armor discovered, much to his surprise that he was starting to kiss her back. Which to Shining Armor simply didn't add up, his mind knew exactly why they couldn't be together and yet his body was working against it's wishes.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Shining Armor forced the kiss to break off. A whirlwind of emotions were written on Cadance's face, disappointment-that the kiss had ended, happiness- she obviously enjoyed that kiss, but most surprising of all was shock.

"You kissed back!" her tone sounded as if she needed to say it out loud just so she could believe it herself. "You kissed back!!" there was joy in her voice this time, and Shining Armor knew that could only mean trouble for him.

"Now Cadance, don't go thinking this proves anything!"

"Oh but it does prove something!" She twirled away in joy. "It proves you aren't the stick in the mud the other guards keep saying you are."

"They said WHAT about me?!" Shining Armor fumed.

"This is perfect!!" Cadance beamed reminding Shining Armor of the problem at hand. "I was afraid I wasn't making any progress at all with you."

"Okay, 1) You've only made one real attempt and that was this morning! 2) I STILL haven't admitted to anything!!"

If Cadance heard him, she obviously didn't show it. "Now all I have to do is just keep the love on and you'll be honest with your feelings..."

"Hey!! Are you listening to me?!"

"I'll win the bet!"

"Not if I have anything to say about it! But seriously, not one word is getting through right now is it?"

"And then we can start dating..."

"I could probably just say anything and you won't even notice will you? Like sunki-funkey-monkey, Pudding Face."

"And then we can announce our love to all of Canterlot!"

"That's what I thought. I'm just going to leave before you decide to capitalize on this moment."

Shining Armor quietly opened the window behind and started to stick his leg through it. Cadance didn't even notice as she was staring dreamily in to the distance.

"Oh and just think; we'll go on romantic picnics together and hold hooves." Cadance gushed.

As Cadance continued to fantasize Shining Armor quietly snuck out the window.

"HEY!!!"

Cadance was brought out of her fantasy as the good doctor was currently burning a glare at her.

"If the stallion can figure out it's time to go then why can't you?!"

Cadance looked around the room but Shining Armor was gone. "Shiny?" She suddenly felt very embarrassed. "That stallion could double as a ninja."

Cadance's Amazing Plan

View Online

Shining Armor walked in to the ballroom, looking left and right. Didn't seem like Cadance was anywhere around, he smiled and walked over to a couple of the guards. "Good morning, privates. How is the situation?"

"Ballroom is secure, sir. But I still don't understand, we've already checked all the buildings before."

"We must be ever diligent, evil never takes a vacation."

"Sir, permission to speak freely?"

"Granted."

"Sir, we've heard some rumors about you and Princess Cadance."

"Uh Oh." Shining Armor grimaced. "I knew it was only a matter of time. What's the word?"

"She wants to hook up with you and you hate her for it."

"Hate?" Shining Armor repeated. "Hate is kind of a strong word don't you think?!"

"Well it's true isn't it?" asked the second guard.

"I don't hate anypony! Our positions in society just conflict that's all."

The two guards shared a glace, not believing their superior officer for a moment.

"I don't hate her!" he reiterated. "Princess Cadance is a lovely pony. She's kind, generous, so sweet she'll give you a cavity, caring to a fault, smart, she always tell you the truth but only in the most gentle way possible, funny..."

Shining Armor seemed to drift out of thought and gave a content sigh.

"Uh, sir?"

He snapped back to reality. "Oh! Sorry about that! Where was I?"

One of the guards smiled. "I believe you listing to us all the many traits you 'didn't hate' about Princess Cadance."

"Right! Princess Cadance is a lovely pony, and any stallion would thank all the stars in the night sky above if she was interested in him but..."

Both of the guards stood shocked, staring behind Shining Armor with their jaws dropped.

"She's standing right behind me isn't she?"

"Not quite, sir."

Shining Armor turned around and saw not the alicorn which had been chasing him, but Princess Celestia herself.

"Princess Celestia!! Ma'am!!" Shining Armor instantly stood at attention saluting the figure head while the two guards mimicked him. Princess Celestia giggled "At ease soldiers. Shining Armor, I was wondering if perhaps I could speak to you alone?"

"Of course, ma'am." Shining Armor nodded before following Celestia out the door.

''I understand that you and my niece..."

"I swear I never lead her on!!!"

Shining Armor instantly regretted his outburst. Not only did he cut her off, but he jumped to a conclusion on her. He could easily get fired for such actions, just by being rude to the head Princess.

To his surprise she laughed at his actions.

"I see she's starting to get to you." she chuckled.

Shining Armor could only blush in response. 'Why me? What did I do to deserve all this blushing?'

"But I'm not here to talk to you about her advances towards you."

Shining Armor let out a breath he didn't even know he was holding.

"However, it does involve her. With the Grand Galloping Gala drawing ever nearer Princess Cadance is going to need a new dress, which is why I would like you to be her escort in to town."

Princess Celestia waited patiently as she let the new information process in to his brain.

"Yes, your majesty!" he saluted. "I will gather up some of the guards and..."

"Oh no, I don't believe that will be necessary. You should be all she needs."

Shining Armor blushed again and saluted. "Ma'am! With all due respect....NO!"

Celestia laughed once again. "My niece is right. You are cute when you're flustered." his blushed deepened. "However, all you are doing is helping her shop for a dress, you shouldn't be gone from your troops for too long I should think."

"But..."

"Shining Armor!" Celestia snapped. He stood at attention again. "As your commanding officer I hereby order you to take my niece dress shopping!"

Shining Armor hung his head in defeat. "Yes, your highness."

Up in her room, Cadance was going over her strategy to get Shining Armor to admit his feeling for her. At first she started out with charts and graphs but now she had a little model of Canterlot complete with little Shining Armor and Cadance figurines.

She took a moment to admire her work and grinned. "Twilight would be proud!"

She knelt down to finalize her strategy. "Okay the dress shop is the ultimate goal, but I have to warm up first with these shops first, if I'm lucky the words will slip out before the dress shop. But should the dress shop fail, I always Emergency Plan B."

Cadance picked up the figurines of her and Shining Armor. "And then Shining Armor would be all like 'I love you, Cadance!'" she made the Shining Armor figurine move as she talked. "And then I will be all like 'I knew it all along! Now we can live happily ever after in the Crystal Palace.'" she did the same for her own figurine. "And then he'll say 'Again with this Crystal Palace thing, what's up with that' and then I'll say 'I don't know! I just honestly feel that one day we'll end up in a Crystal Palace someda...'"

The sound of her bedroom door opening cut off her little 'play'. Poking her head in, it took all Princess Celestia had to keep from laughing at the site of her niece playing with little figurines of herself and the stallion she was chasing. She was currently sitting on the floor with her model in front of her, holding each figurine in one of her hooves.

"You're a little old to be playing with dolls aren't you Cadance?" chuckled Celestia.

"Auuuuuntie!!" Cadance whined. "I'm not playing, I'm strategizing!"

Celestia brought her hoof to her lips to keep her from laughing. "Well whenever you're done, I thought you should know that Shining Armor is here waiting for you."

Cadance hoofed pumped. "Yes!"

Shining Armor bitterly waited downstairs, what was it about mares that always left stallions waiting for them?! He took a breath of a sigh to calm himself down. The truth was he wasn't mad at her or even mares in general, he was mad at the situation. His fellow guards were snickering behind his back and he knew it too! Not that he could blame them, the situation was just downright embarrassing! It was as if he was ordered to take Cadance on a date.

"I'm ready!" a voice called down.

Cadance appeared at the top of the stairs with a purse on her good wing. "Notice anything different about me?"

Shining Armor squinted his eyes at her. "Are you...wearing different mascara?"

Cadance let out a high pitched squee of glee. "I knew you'd notice!!"

'This is going to be a long day.' Shining Armor thought to himself.

As he and Cadance walked down the street he couldn't but notice there was a spring in her step, which didn't spell anything good for him.

"Cadance..." he started.

She started to walk normally again. "You're calling me by my first name again. I take it you want to talk about something serious."

Shining Armor felt stunned, she was right, he hadn't been calling her by her royal title lately. A familiarity with her he wasn't even aware he had. He quickly shook himself out of his stupor, he needed to focus on what was important here.

"Cadance, I hope you still don't think that kiss from yesterday is telling you that you're going to win our little wager."

"Oh it didn't tell me that." He sighed in relief. "It told me something else entirely."

"What?!"

"It told me that you want this relationship to happen every bit as much as I do!"

"I do not!"

"Your actions spoke louder than your words, Shining Armor."

"Now you hold on a second!! I..."

"We're here!" Cadance cheerfully announced.

Shining Armor sighed in defeat. Maybe it was just better to get the whole thing over with. He walked with Cadance inside the building only to find a fast food restaurant waiting for him inside.

"What the...? Hey, this isn't a dress shop!"

"Oh didn't I tell you? I thought we could stop for lunch first, I kind of missed breakfast."

CADANCE'S AMAZING PLAN part 1

'Part 1: Soften him up in a public place to show him fun loving side, that way he can find a way to relate to me. This way he can see me more as a mare than a princess.'

"Cadance, we're supposed to be shopping for a dress!"

"Oh lighten up, Shiny. It's just a fast food place."

He sighed in defeat and followed her in. Somehow they had lucked out and there wasn't any lines for them.

"Where is everypony?"

"Oh we caught them in their slow period. Looks like it's just going to be the two of us."

Shining Armor swallowed a lump in his throat as Cadance walked up to the counter.

"Two hay burgers, two small fries, and two medium sized drinks please."

"That's a lot of food." noted Shining Armor.

"Well it's for you too, silly."

"Me?!"

"Yes." she smiled. "You." she gently pressed her hoof against his nose. "Beeeeeep."

He blushed. He wasn't sure why, but something about her action just seemed to make him blush.

"Order up!" the cashier announced.

Cadance picked up the tray. "Send the bill to the royal palace. Follow me, Button Nose."

Shining Armor blushed again but followed Cadance anyways.

She sat down at a table with only two chairs and started to eat her hay burger.

Shining Armor sat down adjacent to her but she noticed he wasn't eating.

"Well? Don't be shy, I bought them for you too."

"But I'm not hungry. I ate before we left."

Cadance swallowed her mouthful and let out a heartbroken "What?"

"I never go on duty with an empty stomach and unlike some other guards I actually enjoy my rations."

'Oh no! What am I gonna do now? My amazing plan hadn't taken this in to account. Think Cadance, think!!'

She quickly pushed his burger closer to him. "Oh but I couldn't possibly eat both of these all by myself."

He pushed it away. "Honestly, I'm so full I couldn't possibly eat a single bite."

Cadance and Shining Armor soon got in to a kind of reverse tug of war with the burger. However, Cadance pushed too hard and the burger went flying in to Shining Armor's face. The hay burger must have had extra sauce in it because his face was covered with it's condiments.

Cadance brought her hooves over her mouth. "Oh my goodness. I am so sor..." His laughter cut her off. After staring at him for a moment she found herself laughing with him, although she wasn't entirely sure what they were laughing about.

"I still don't want anything to eat, but I'll take some of those napkins you have there."

Cadance and Shining Armor were now out in the streets again, they had a good laugh back at the restaurant but Shining Armor insisted they get going. He had troops to command after all.

'Okay, part 1 was a mix blend. It didn't technically work but Shining Armor and I still had fun. However, part 2 is sure fire hit, there is no way it can fail!'

"Okay Shiny. We're here."

"What the...? Cadance this is a movie theatre!!!"

"I know, but there's this movie that gives out a special coupon for gala dresses at the end if you watch it with a date."

He blew some hair out of his face. "Let me guess, it's a romantic comedy?"

"Nope. Horror." she answered honestly.

Shining Armor couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at her. 'What's her plan this time?'

CADANCE'S AMAZING PLAN part 2

'Part 2: Use the scary movie to get cling to him during the scary parts. This way he will feel how natural it is for us to be together, then he'll start to realize we're meant to be together. Heh, I bet he'll blush so much he'll light up the whole theatre.'

As Cadanced started to giggle to herself Shining Armor took a step back.

'And now I'm starting to get concerned.'

Cadance and Shining Armor sat next to each other in the theater. Shining Armor was basically grumbling to himself while Cadance mentally prepped herself.

'Okay Cadance, you have nothing to be nervous about. You've studied this movie scene by scene, you know all the scary parts to make your move.'

The title screen of *VAMPONY vs ZOMPONY* appeared on the screen followed by a vampony suddenly appearing on the screen. As the crowd screamed Cadance tried to throw her arms around his neck but Shining Armor did something Cadance honestly didn't plan for. He sneezed. When he lurched forward she completely missed him, grasping only at air.

She sat back in her seat with a disappointed frown. 'It's okay, Cadance. It was a little much to hope for it to happen on the very first try anyways. However, I'll get him next time around, I just know it!'

Her wait for the next moment took exactly thirteen minutes, as everypony else screamed Cadance tried yet again to throw her arms around him. However, following the words of "Hey! A bit!" Shining Armor had bent down avoiding Cadance completely to get the small amount of money he had discovered.

'How is that possible?' Cadance thought to herself as she returned to her seat. 'Don't get discouraged, Cadance. You have plenty of other chances.'

However, fate seemed to be against her in this event. For on her next chance when she made a grab for him he had leaned back leaving Cadance with, once again, nothing to grab but air.

'It's not over! Not yet!!'

Cadance made several other attempts to cling to him, yet all of them failed. Her frustration on the matter was starting to get to her.

'Okay, I guess I'm just going to have to force the situation and hold his hoof!

Cadance was about to make her move but Shining Armor, for whatever reason, was now bored with the movie and chose to rest his head in the exact hoof Cadance was going to make a grab for.

To add insult to injury the credits started to roll saying that the movie was now over. Shining Armor got up from his seat and Cadance buried her face in her hooves out of frustration and embarrassment.

'This isn't fair!'

As Shining Armor and Cadance walked down the street their moods seem to be in exact opposite moods of one another. Cadance's was of depression since her movie scheme didn't work, while Shining Armor's was...

"I can't believe the coupon thing was actually real!" he beamed. "I mean I thought that was just another set up from you, but who would've thought a movie production company would actually try to bribe an audience with a coupon just to watch their horrible movie."

Shining Armor didn't like the movie, some ponies were scared by it but he trained to deal with far far worse. However, he couldn't help but feel a little happy since Cadance had actually been honest with him for a change, instead of just twisting the truth to try something with him.

"Yes well...that's cinema for you." she sighed heavily. The best lies always had a ring of truth to them. 'How could that have gone so wrong? You'd think I would have been able to cling to him just once. However, I am from done! It's time for Part 3!'

"We're here!" Cadance announced pointing at the dress shop.

CADANCE'S AMAZING PLAN part 3

'Part 3 is simple enough. Find the perfect dress to turn his head, one which matches me perfectly, which compliments my beauty, but most importantly makes Shining Armor blush like a tomato!! After he becomes captivated by my beauty I need to capitalize on it as much as I can!!'

As they walked in Cadance handed the coupon to the cashier clerk. She accepted it with a grin "Oh I see you tried our special promotion! Feel free to try on any dress in the shop."

"Thank you very much! Come on, Shining Armor."

"Excuse me?"

"Well I'm still going to need a stallion's opinion on how I actually look in the dress."

As he walked past the cashier he heard her whisper to him "Your marefriend is very lucky."

"She's not my...oh forget it!"

As he joined Cadance he found her looking over a green and sky blue dress. "This one looks like it might have potential."

She took it to the changing room which was basically a sheet covering the corner of the walls. "I'm going to change now so don't peek."

"Sure."

Cadance was surprised by his honesty in the situation...surprised and just a little bit disappointed. 'Don't you even want to peek a little bit?'

"I'm going to busy changing so I wouldn't notice you if you poked your head in, so don't peek."

"Fine."

"I have a habit of giving my full attention to the details of the dress, so don't peek."

"Fine."

"In fact I would say that..."

"CADANCE!!" Shining Armor snapped. "I don't know if you've noticed this or not, but we don't normally wear clothes!! Exactly WHAT do you think you'd be hiding from me?!"

"Well that's obvious, if you peeked you would see my............................huh. I guess you got a point Shiny."

She closed the sheet and changed in to the dress. When she stepped out she was disappointed to see Shining Armor's face didn't blush, he didn't even flinch.

'Maybe he's keeping it all bottled in somehow? I know! He'll probably stutter instead.' "Well Shiny? What do you think?"

"Looks good to me. Shall we go?"

She glared at him making him shrink a little. "I'd like to try some other ones on too, okay?!"

She tried on several other dresses but Shining Armor remained as unchanged as a sphinx.

'How is he doing this?! Do the royal guards get special training on ignoring a mare in a dress?! she stopped her mental rant for a moment to consider the thought. 'That might actually make sense. Can't have the troops distracted after all.'

"Princess Cadance," Shining Armor's voice snapped her back to reality. "I'm afraid I don't know too much about dresses, for me it was always the mare in the dress I cared about, but like I said I think I'm a poor judge in fancy dresses."

Cadance rolled her eyes, he was making this more difficult than it had to be. "Well look at it this way, you own a tuxedo right?"

"A tux? Oh I don't have one."

Cadance looked at him as if he just revealed some kind of horrible secret to her. "What? How could YOU not have a tuxedo?"

"Well the answer is actually very simple. I don't have have a tux because I'm not going to the Gala."

"WHAT?!"

"I'm on duty that night."

"NO YOU'RE NOT!!!"

"Cadance, please! Ponies are staring!"

She started to drag him off towards the stallion section of the store. "We are getting you a tux whether you like it or not!!"

Shining Armor would have objected but it was clear that she had made up her mind.

She had picked out a dark green tuxedo and handed it to him. "Here, try this one on." her voice had gone back to normal much to Shining Armor's pleasure. He would have said 'no' but this was obviously something that was important to her so how could he refuse?

As he disappeared behind the curtain for stallions Cadance let out a breath of relief. 'Okay, maybe I overreacted back there but Shining Armor needs to have a tuxedo! Especially if I want to have the Best Night Ever at the Gala, I'll talk to Auntie Celestia about getting him the night off.'

She blushed as she heard Shining Armor grunt and strain to get the tuxedo on. 'Okay, so maybe I picked a suit which was a few sizes too small to focus on his new build. So what? I'm only a pony! Being an alicorn doesn't make you perfect ya know?'

The curtain opened and Shining Armor stood in his tuxedo worth all his splendor. It hugged his body as much as Cadance thought it would.

'Worth it!!'

"I think it looks wonderful on you. What do you think?"

Shining Armor said nothing, standing as still as a statue.

"Shiny? What do you think of the tux?"

He opened his mouth but no noise came out.

"Is something wrong?"

Shining Armor fell to the ground, his face starting to turn blue.

"Oh my goodness, SHINING ARMOR!!! SOMEPONY HELP!!!"

The cashier from earlier came running over "What happened?!"

"I don't know!!" Cadance panicked. "He just stopped breathing!!"

It was then that Cadance noticed that Shining Armor was pawing at his tux collar. 'The suite is too small!! It's choking him!!'

"He needs mouth to mouth." the cashier deduced. As she leaned in to begin the procedure Cadance suddenly pushed her out of the way with a shout of "NO HE DOESN'T!!!"

Cadance quickly ripped his collar with horn opening his air flow back to normal. Shining Armor inhaled sharply as color quickly returned to his face.

"Cadance," he offered her a forgiving smile. "Next time, get my measurements right."

She smiled sadly down at him as her eyes watered up to the point of breaking, then without warning she threw herself on top of him, crying in to his shoulder.

Normally Shining Armor would have objected to such affection but by the looks of it she needed even more comfort and care then he did right now. He held her as she continued to cry, it lasted for maybe a moment or two but when she was finished a clearing of the throat brought their attention over to the cashier.

"This is touching and everything but I'm still going to need you to pay for that tuxedo you broke."

Cadance had felt quite embarrassed about their little skirmish in the dress shop. She was even having trouble looking the object of her affection in the eye. There was yet another awkward silence between the two as they walked down the street, and just like last time Shining Armor decided to break it.

"So..."

Unlike last time, however, he didn't have anything to go on.

"So..." she echoed. "I'm really sorry I almost killed you with a tuxedo."

Shining Armor chortled. "Don't worry about it. This is something we'll probably look back on one day and laugh."

Cadance let out a small laugh. "You must have known it was too small for you, why did you try to put it on anyways?"

"I was afraid you were going to freak out again if I didn't! Don't need anymore rumors going around about us!"

They shared a laugh dissolving whatever tension there was between them.

'Okay, we're both in a good mood now. It is the perfect time to put in to action Emergency Plan B!

CADANCE'S AMAZING PLAN part 4...AKA Emergency Plan B

"Shining Armor, it is starting to get late..."

He looked at the horizon and frowned at how the sun was setting. "You're right, I've been away from my troops for too long."

"Well I happen to know of a short cut. It should at least shave an hour off of our return trip."

"That would be a big help." He grinned.

"Terrific! Just follow me!"

'Emergency Plan B, I was hoping it wouldn't come to this because it seems kind of drastic. Cadance lead Shining Armor to a street which was littered with couples. 'This street is famous for mares and stallions getting together. It also has a reputation for being overly crowded meaning Shining Armor and I will get in to a lot of tight spaces. He'll see how natural it is for us to be together and then I'll hear those three magic words before you can say Crystal Palace.'

As they walked down the street her plan already started to take effect. Shining Armor couldn't help but notice that the majority of ponies on this street were couples. He suddenly felt very self conscious about being alone with Cadance.

The crowd got thicker and Cadance was practically leaning up against him. "Cadance, do you think you could..."

"I'm sorry Shining Armor, but in this crowd I have to stay close to you so we don't get separated."

Shining Armor's blush had reached a whole new level of red and Cadance was loving every minute of it.

"Isn't this nice, Shiny? Just the two of us..."

"Cadance...we've been over this..."

"But look Shiny, nopony is bothering us or spreading rumors. To them we're just another couple in the crowd, there is nothing wrong with what we have. It's only natural for there to be an attraction between us. Don't you think you could give 'us' a try?"

"Sure thing hot stuff!"

Cadance felt overjoyed, not only had her stallion finally said yes but he called her 'hot' to boot.

"Oh Shining Armor, I'm so happy I..."

"I didn't say that." he cut her off.

"Huh?"

Shining Armor pointed past her shoulder. "It was that guy!"

There stood a blue pegasus with blue hair wearing a Wonderbolt, his name was Soarin.

"Never thought I could get with a princess of all things, but if that's what you want Babe then you certainly won't hear me complain."

He gave her a wink which only made her skin crawl.

"I wasn't talking to you!!" Cadance cried.

"That doesn't matter, what does matter is that I'm here, you're here, so what's the problem?"

Shining Armor was suddenly in the space between the two winged ponies. Standing in front of Cadance to keep Soarin at bay, the look he gave him was like that a knight would give an enemy he had to kill.

"The 'problem' is that she's a princess!"

Soarin just seemed to laugh off Shining Armor's serious glare. "Oh I don't mind that at all."

"I mind!!" Shining Armor snapped. "I would expect a member of the Wonderbolts to have better behavior towards a princess."

"Wait a second...you're Shining Armor! Can't believe I didn't recognize you, dude, are you on a date with her?"

"Yes, I mean No! I mean....Grr...That's not the point!! The point is, leave her alone or you'll have me to answer to!"

Cadance felt her heart skip a beat, Shining Armor was defending her honor like something out of an old story book.

"Oh yeah, and what're you going to about it huh? In case you haven't noticed, I'm not one of your little guard ponies! You can't punish me because you aren't MY commanding officer. You have no authority over me!"

Cadance gasped. As much as she hated to admit it, Soarin had a point. He couldn't just order Soarin to go away like he would with a guard pony, this might actually lead to some kind of street fight.

"You're right, Soarin." Shining Armor grinned. "I'm not your commanding officer, so I can't punish you. However, I don't have to..."

"Come again?" Soarin really didn't like how the unicorn had phrased that. He was starting to get nervous.

"Because YOUR commanding officer is right behind you!"

"WHAT?!"

He turned around to be greeted with the sight of Spitfire looking absolutely furious at him. "Spitfire! Hi. How long have you been standing there?"

"Long enough to know you've been shirking off your training responsibilities TO FLIRT WITH MARES!!!"

The force of Spitfire's shouting was actually so strong it blew back Soarin's hair. He was really sweating now.

"When we get back, you're going to be doing so many laps YOUR WINGS WILL FALL OFF!!!" Soarin seemed completely pale, but Spitfire flew past him all the same and gave a salute to Shining Armor.

"Captain, I'm sorry if my wing pony gave you or your date any trouble. I thank you for keeping him in one place long enough for me to find him. I promise to keep him on a shorter leash from now on."

Shining Armor returned the salute. "Not at all. And just to be clear, myself and the princess are not on a date."

Spitfire smirked. "Kind of looks like a date from where I'm flying. But whatever, let me call you a chariot to get you back to the castle."

"That would be greatly appreciated."

CADANCE'S AMAZING PLAN part5........................................................................actually, the Amazing Cadance hasn't thought this far ahead yet.

'Stupid Soarin!! I almost had him!!'

Cadance paced back and forth in her room. This was starting to prove harder than she initially thought, she went over to her desk and looked at a photograph she had framed.

It was of her, filly Twilight, and a much skinnier Shining Armor. She knew what she had to do, she brought out a piece of paper, an inkwell, and a quill.

"I'm sorry Shining Armor. I was hoping it wouldn't have to come to this, but you've left me no choice."

Cadance sighed and started to write a letter. "I'm going to need..." a giant grin grew on her face. "Backup! Dear Twilight Sparkle..."

Back Up

View Online

Cadance waited at the Canterlot train station impatiently. Twilight had wrote back to her saying that whatever it was that Cadance wanted to talk about was going to have to wait a while. Cadance had lost more days than she would care to admit waiting for Twilight to get some free time, from the sounds of it she and her friends were having a lot of adventures in Ponyville.

When the train pulled up to a complete stop, Cadance let out a breath of relief. When Twilight exited the train, they spotted each other immediately and ran towards themselves to do their favorite nursery rhyme ritual from their younger days.

"Sunshine, Sunshine, Ladies Bug Awake. Clap Your Hooves And Do A Little Shake!"

They shared a laugh once they finished their funny dance. "I'm really glad you're here Twilight, I could really use your help. I know you said you were busy with your new friends..."

"Boy, I'll say, so much has happened I don't know where to begin!"

"Well I..."

"Let's see, Rainbow Dash won the best flyer competition in Cloudsdale..."

"Oh good for her. Now I asked you to co..."

"I just got a new pet, an owl." Twilight beamed.

"Yes Twilight, that's very nice but..."

"The funny thing is Spike was actually jealous. Can you believe that?" Twilight giggled.

"Really? Poor sensitive little thing. But Anyways I..."

"Oh, I'm sorry! I've been cutting you off haven't I?" Cadance rolled her eyes at the irony. "What was it you wanted to talk to me about?"

"I'm in love with your brother!!" blurted Cadance.

Cadance immediately regretted her decision. Her intent was to gradually bring it up in conversation and ease Twilight in to the situation, not to blurt it out like she just did. Heaven knows she thought the world of her brother, in her eyes nopony might be good enough him.

Twilight stood in stunned silence, letting the new information process. After a moment, Cadance started to get worried. "Twiley? Are you okay?"

"Oh..." she managed to squeak out.

"Uh-oh. Twilight, I didn't upset you did I?" Cadance frowned.

"My..."

"Twiley, it's okay. Your brother hasn't even..."

"SWEET CELESTIA!!! THIS IS AMAZING!!!" Cadance's hair was flown back by the sheer volume Twilight was cheering at. "Eeeheeheehee!!" Twilight giggled as she pranced in place.

Cadance smiled and wiped some sweat from her brow. It was both a relief and a joy to see her so happy with Cadance's feelings for her brother.

"You two make the perfect couple!! He's the most amazing big brother in the world and you're the most amazing foal sitter in the world, it's a match made in heaven!! When did he ask you out? No! Wait! How did he ask you out? Was it romantic?"

"Twilight listen, I know I love him but he refuses to acknowledge that he loves me back."

"What? I don't understand. How could he refuse to acknowledge his feelings? I mean, you're sure he loves you back, right?"

"Oh I'm positive about that, but that's what makes it all the more frustrating. He's being real stubborn about it!"

"Huh?"

"He thinks that because of his job, a relationship between the two of us would be 'inappropriate'. Because I'm a princess and he's just the Captain of the Royal Guard. It's like he thinks he'd be committing some kind of treason if he were to even try to love me back."

"What? But why...oh my sweet Celestia! It's a forbidden romance!"

"Huh?"

"A forbidden romance! I've read romance novels all about them, oh Cadance you are so lucky!" Twilight gushed.

"I haven't been feeling very lucky lately. You see, Shining Armor and I have made a bet. I have until the day of the Grand Galloping Gala to get him to admit that he loves me back."

"What happens if you win?"

"He will become my very special somepony and we'll get to live happily ever after and one day live in a crystal palace. But if I lose I have to let him go and accept the fact that we can't be together because I'm a Princess."

"Crystal palace? What?"

"Don't ask. Anyways, I've tried everything I can think of but your brother is as sharp as a tack. He sees every attempt I try coming!"

"Well we can't have that! Don't worry Cadance, he won't be able to stop our combined might!!"

Shining Armor was busy going over some paper work when suddenly a cold chill went down his spine. "What was that?" he shuttered.

Deciding that the best way to put it out of his mind would be to go on patrol.

Twilight and Cadance were up in her room where Twilight had found Cadance's Amazing Plan.

"This thing was really formulated, I'm impressed...but I do have some notes."

"'Notes?'"

"Don't get me wrong, Cadance. This was brilliantly thought out..."

Cadance puffed out her chest a little bit in pride.

"But it is way too cliche to work on my brother."

Cadance deflated a little bit. "What?"

"This is my brother we're talking about! If you want to get him to admit his feelings to you and himself then you have to get past his defenses. You have to be original, creative! And I know exactly what we're going to start with!"

Shining Armor's patrol had actually been pretty boring so far, maybe some of his troops were right when they gossiped about him being paranoid.

He was about to consider taking a break when one of the council ponies passed by him. "Sir!" Shining Armor saluted.

The council pony nodded his head to the captain. "At ease. Captain Shining Armor, I just finished collecting a survey from the troops on you. They say you might be a little uptight but that's to be expected from a stallion in the military, outside of that the one complaint they had is that they wish you could do more. Mighty fine job you're doing, keep up good work!"

Shining Armor smiled as he watched the council pony walk away. The council attended to matters in Celestia's place whenever she was too busy with other affairs, so technically speaking they were his bosses. To get praise from one of them was a big compliment to his performance with his duties.

"Okay, after reviewing your past attempts I think I'm starting to see the problem."

Cadance sat on the floor, listening to Twilight as if she were a teacher giving a very important lesson.

"What is it?"

"You're coming on too strong." she said bluntly.

"Excuse me?" Cadance couldn't help but feel a little bit insulted with Twilight's insensitive explanation. "I'm just trying to show him what's in my heart, how serious I am about this relationship!"

"However, that seems to be the problem. You're coming at him with all your feelings all at once and he feels like he has to dodge just to survive. No, what you need is a more subtle approach."

Cadance rubbed her chin in thought. "Subtle, you say; exactly what did you have in mind Twilight?"

"Dinner!" she retorted.

Cadance's face lit up. "You mean like a romantic picnic? Oh that would be wonderful and..."

"Whoa! Dial it back there, I just meant a dinner. Nothing fancy. He's told me he likes to eat in the mess hall alone, so we can probably take advantage of that."

"Dinner for two?"

"Yes."

"Oh! Maybe we could pay Octavia to give us some ambiance and..."

"Nothing fancy!" Twilight repeated.

Cadance frowned. "Then I don't understand. If there is going to be nothing fancy then how is it going to help me get him to admit his feelings."

"What we do is start off with simple conversation, nothing to do with love or the bet. He enjoys talking to you, I've seen it in him since I was a filly. However, this all only to play off our trump card."

"Trump card? What's our trump card?" honestly, with Twilight it could be any number of things.

"You are going to make the dinner! The quickest way to a stallion's heart is through his stomach after all."

"That...is brilliant! Why didn't I think of that?! Twilight, you're a genius!"

"Yes. Yes I am." Twilight beamed. "We can probably get everything ready before Shiny gets down to the mess hall if we hurry."

"It's time to dress for battle then!"

Twilight rolled her eyes as her former foalsitter applied her make up.

"Cadance, you're acting like putting on lipstick is the same as applying battle make up. We're trying to get him to admit he loves you, we're not going to war ya know?"

"War?" Cadance squinted her eyes. "Love is war!"

Twilight giggled. "That sounds like something Pinkie Pie would say."

The growling in his stomach told Shining Armor that it was finally time for lunch so he started to head to the mess hall. They always had the best ration bars in his opinion, always gave a guard exactly what he needed to carry on for the rest of the day.

As he started to draw closer he saw none other than his own beloved little sister waving at him from outside the mess hall.

"Twiley," he beamed. "What're you doing here, kid?" He trotted over to her, smiling bigger than he had all week.

"I came to visit, but just for the day. I heard you've been having some lady problems lately."

His grin faded away. "Oh great, word is starting to spread. That's just what I need. For whatever reason, Cadance has decided that we are in love."

"And are you saying that you're not?"

Shining Armor failed to fight back a blush. "O-Of course not! Especially when she just brings it out of left field like that!"

Twilight smirked. 'He so totally loves her.' "Were you about to have lunch?"

"Actually yes. Care to join me? I always wondered what a non-military pony would think of our ration bars."

"Sure, but let me ask you something. If Cadance isn't your type, then what is?"

Shining Armor opened the door for his sister as they went in. "It's not that she isn't my type, we just have different political positions."

"Okay but just for argument's sake..."

Shining Armor looked around the mess hall, they were the only ones there. 'That's odd, there should be at least a couple of other guards here.' The meals here are free for them after all.

"Shiny?" Twilight waved her hoof in front of his face to snap him back to reality.

"Oh! Sorry, Twiley. I guess my ideal girl would be...well for starters I'd like her to have multi-colored hair. The more the better. Especially if it is just free flowing, natural, not done up in any of those fancy hair styles. Secondly, she would have to be kind and caring, sympathetic to others in need. And not fat!"

"What?!"

"Well I also want a mare who can take care of herself."

"Oh."

"Being smart would be a plus, I don't want some bimbo. I'd like her to be fun too, in my line of work I could use a mare who knows how to have fun. However, I think most of all I would like her to have is hope."

"Hope?"

"This world we live in can get pretty harsh, to have a mare who looks on the brighter side of things...well, that would be exactly the kind of mare I could fall for."

Twilight took a moment to process this information. When she was done she gave a dubious look.

"You just described Cadance." she accused.

"No I didn't."

"Yes! Yes you did!"

"No I most certainly did not."

"You described her to a t!"

"Twiley I don't know what you're talking about. Let's just grab some grub, okay?"

"Fine." Twilight followed him to the counter, her knowing smirk completely missing his gaze. "Whatever you say."

Shining Armor grabbed a tray for both him and his little sister, but the food wasn't pre-made and waiting like it normally was. Shining Armor walked down to kitchen counter to ask the chef what was going on, who he found was not the chef. Who he found was Cadance wearing a chef's hat.

"Cadance?! Where's Chef Iron Spoon?!"

"We gave him the night off." Cadance explained with a smile.

"You can't just...wait...who is 'we'?" he asked before turning his entire attention to his little sister with the sheepish grin. "Twiiillley...what's going on here?!"

"Oh nothing BBBFF, I just thought it would be nice for you and Cadance to have lunch together..."

"Twiley..."

"And having her be the one to cook the actual meal, can't really hurt can it?"

Shining Armor blew some hair out of his face and rolled his eyes. "Twilight, I have enough problems with this bet without you getting roped in to them. And you..." He pointed his hoof over at Cadance. "You're a cheater! Teaming up with Twilight on me, she's my little sister for crying out loud!"

"You never said I couldn't use to Twilight to help me!" Cadance folded her arms across her chest.

"That's because I didn't think you would actually resort to it! This was just supposed to be between you and me!"

"But I heard several other ponies got dragged in to helping both sides and..."

"Stay out this, Twilight!" Shining Armor snapped.

"Okay then," Twilight smiled. "I'll just leave you alone to talk to Cadance all by yourself."

"Right...wait! What?! No, TWILEY!!"

However, it was too late; Twilight had made a beeline for the door which she promptly closed behind her. Shining Armor felt himself sweat as he heard the doors lock, and lucky him, he had no idea where the key was.

From the kitchen window Cadance spotted Twilight looking in. A devious smile formed on her face as her horn lit up; surrounded by Twilight's magic Cadance felt her hair become undone. Without it being done up in a ponytail or some other fancy doo Cadance found it was almost long enough to reach the floor. She gave Twilight a quizzical look who mouthed back to her the words 'Just trust me on this!'

Grinning she turned her attention back to the stallion who had earned her affection. He seemed to be on the brink of having some kind of panic attack. She cleared her throat, snapping him back to reality and herself.

"So..." Cadance flipped her hair. "Come here often?"

On this day, Shining Armor had blushed harder than he ever had in his life.

A Meal Fit For Two

View Online

'Stop staring at her hair! Stop staring at her hair! Stop staring at her hair!' This was the mantra Shining Armor chanted to himself.

"Shining Armor?" her voice cut through his train of thought like a knife.

He shook his head bringing himself back to reality.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"I asked if you were hungry. I prepared all your favorite dishes."

"Well I...wait. How do you know my favorite dishes?"

"Shiny, I think we know each other a little bit better than you might be willing to admit." she smirked.

Shining Armor leaned on the counter and gave her a smirk of her own.

"Oh yeah? Prove it!"

"Ask me anything."

'This is perfect! Mom always used to say that a good way to tell if you were in love was if you knew the pony inside and out! Once Cadance sees she doesn't know as much about me as she thought I'll be in the clear!

"Okay," his smirk was still going on strong. "Favorite color?"

"Purple. Same shade as Twiley."

"Lucky guess." His smirk weakened a little bit. "My goal in life?"

"You're living it."

His smirk was shrunk quite a bit.

"Favorite childhood hero?"

"I'm going to say that uncle of yours in the fancy uniform."

The smirk was gone now, all that remained was a straight face.

"Favorite animal?"

"Me. No that was just a joke. The real answer is dogs, because they're so loyal."

"Favorite food?" he was frowning in fear now.

She placed a full bowl on the counter "This tomato soup right here."

'I'm in trouble.' Shining Armor thought while swallowing a lump in his throat.

"Wait...the real answer is my MOM'S tomato soup. Nopony makes it like she does."

"Twiley gave me the recipe," Shining Armor took a spoon and decided to take a little taste. "I couldn't stop myself from adding a personal touch to it though so it may taste a little..."

"Better."

"What?"

Putting the spoon back he hung his head in defeat. "It's better than the soup my mom makes. I don't know what you did, but you've improved the flavor."

Cadance felt her heart soar as she failed to suppress her smile.'He likes my cooking!'

"Ya know Shining Armor, I'd be willing to bet that you'd know the answers to all those questions if they were directed at me."

Shining Armor thought for a moment and then stomped his hoof on the ground. 'Darn it, she's right!'

"Well then..." she flipped her free flowing hair and accidentally hit him in the face. "Let's find a table then, shall we?"

Shining Armor stood silently with his eyelids lowered until Cadance was leaving the kitchen. Then he spent the next two minutes spitting out stray strands of Cadance's hair which got stuck in his mouth.

Deciding it was all out now, he turned around to see Cadance carrying the food on a tray with her magic. Reluctantly he found himself staring at her hair again as she walked past him.

'Wow. Has Cadance always been this beautiful? No!! Bad Shining Armor!! Don't go thinking those thoughts!!'

Cadance sat down on the nearest table available and flipped her hair behind herself.

'Still, kind of hard to believe I never noticed her like this before. Maybe it was because I knew her so well it was hard for me to imagine her in this kind of light.'

"Care to join me, Shining Armor?"

The growling in his stomach answered her question for him. "Okay, but don't go thinking this means anything."

"Oh no! No! That's not the point of all this!" she stressed. "This is just supposed to be a nice meal for two. No worrying about the bet or love or any of that stuff. Just two friends having lunch together, does that sound okay to you?"

He sat across from her, giving her a suspicious look. "I suppose."

He patiently waited but nothing happened, he couldn't wait any longer. "Well?"

"Well what?"

"Aren't you going to pull something? Some kind of trap or flirt or something that will put me in an awkward position?"

Cadance placed her hooves on her lap and gave Shining Armor a very serious look. "What did I just say? But, to be fair I suppose I deserve that. With all of my advances towards you, you probably think I'm some crazy stalker who only wants one thing."

"Well 'stalker' is a little bit of an exaggeration I should think."

"What I'm trying to say here is 'I'm sorry'. Sorry for acting all crazy with you, the only thing it's done is cripple my own cause. I mean honestly, what part of my plans was supposed to get you to say that you love me?"

Shining Armor gave a cautious smile. "Okay Cadance, against my better judgement I'm going to trust you. Either way this turns out, I still want us to be friends."

The dreaded f word, Cadance was going to have to tread lightly now just to avoid it.

Shining Armor was enjoying the daisy and oats sandwich that was made for him when he suddenly stopped. He pulled out of his mouth a long blonde string of hair.

"Cadance, I have two words for you. Hair. Net."

The only thing Cadance could do was blush sheepishly.

Outside of that though, the meal had gone every bit as swimmingly as Twilight had predicted. They talked about small things like the weather, recent books read and things like that. It was a genuine good time to be had by all.

Time passed and the food was eaten, Shining Armor couldn't remember a time he had a more delightful meal. He patted his belly fully satisfied while Cadance smiled contently.

'I would be such a good wife!' she thought to herself.

"Well that was enjoyable but we still got a problem."

"Huh? OH! We're still locked in aren't we?"

"Yeah, but I've thought of a solution."

Cadance raised an eyebrow at him. "Really?"

"Eeyup. Just follow me to the door." As he got up he paused for a moment in thought. "Did I just sound a little southern there?"

"A little bit."

"Well I"m never going to do that again. Come on."

At the door Cadance tried the handle but it was still locked, she turned to the object of her affection. "Okay so what's your solution?"

He smirked. "Just hold on to me."

She didn't need to be told twice as she threw her arms around his neck. "I thought you said you weren't going to pull this kind of stuff?!"

"During the meal. But we're done eating aren't we?"

"Sigh! Fine!! Get cozy!!! Won't take long anyways!!"

His horn glowed bright with his magic and in a flash of light he and Cadance were teleported outside in front of the door.

"I didn't know you could teleport."

Shining Armor shrugged nonchalantly. "Turns out any unicorn can get it if they practice at it hard enough. Maybe there are some things you don't know about me after all."

Cadance returned the smirk he was wearing. "And I intend to find them all out."

".......You know you can let go now."

"Yeah. I know."

The stallion rolled his eyes as he politely took her arms off of him and started to walk back to the castle. "Thank you for the meal, Cadance. It was a very nice experience."

If Shining Armor had looked behind himself as he walked he would have seen his little sister showing up next to Cadance.

"You set up the mistletoe?" Cadance's eyes had never left Shining Armor's back.

"All over the castle. Time to go in for the kill. I gotta get back to my friends though."

"That's fine Twiley, you've already helped me so much today. Thanks to you, I know I'll get him!!"

Lovesick/Lovestruck

View Online

The day had gone downhill rather quickly for Shining Armor, somehow (he couldn't be sure but he had a pretty good guess) mistletoe was being hung all over the castle. Needless to say this raised many awkward situations with various ponies, especially considering it wasn't anywhere close to Hearts And Hooves Day or Hearth's Warming Eve.

He even had to order most of the guards to take them all down, he was currently on his way with a squadron to the ballroom where it was reported the majority was being hung.

Approaching the double doors the room he turned to give his troops a pep talk.

"Soldiers, somepony has hung mistletoe throughout the castle, the vast majority being in this room before us. With the Grand Galloping Gala quickly approaching we cannot afford for foreign dignitaries to get caught under them, otherwise it could cause an international incident. Understood?!"

"Sir! Yes, Sir!!" The soldiers saluted in unison, ever vigilant.

Shining Armor opened the door for them, as they passed by him his thoughts drifted back to his get together with Cadance.

'Why can't I get her out of my head? She's still the same old Cadance but...something is different now...'

"Shining Armor,"

He jumped a little higher than he would have liked to admit, but he quickly turned to see Cadance behind him.

"Cadance, I hope you're not here to try something."

"Actually I wanted to talk to you about the troops. They seem to be a very tight unit."

He smiled. "Oh thank you, that's actually because of me. I tried some new drills with them which really seemed to pay off."

"It shows. You've had quite the impact on them."

Shining Armor couldn't stop his smile, he was having a pleasant conversation with Cadance without the subject of love. "I'm really happy you know. I thought for sure you'd have try to pull something by now."

"Actually..." Cadance blushed and sheepishly pointed towards the ceiling, looking up Shining Armor saw mistletoe hanging above them.

"You..YOU...You set me up!"

"Sorry Shiny, I promise it will only be a peck this time."

"TROOPS!!! DEFENSIVE MANEUVER TWELVE!!!"

The guards swarmed towards Shining Armor and formed a defensive perimeter around him.

Cadance wasn't just surprised by Shining Armor's resourcefulness, she was impressed. To get them to perform so quickly and effectively he must have really cracked the whip on their training.

She brought a hoof to her chin, how was she supposed to get past these guards? A bad girl smirk crossed her face as the answer came to her.

She cleared her throat. "Ahem. As a Princess of Equestria, I hereby order all of you to take the rest of the day off."

They didn't need to be told twice, the guards quickly dispersed, dropping their weapons, saying things like "Sounds good to me." and "Good luck, Captain. I hope you have fun."

Shining Armor looked almost heartbroken as his guards left him alone completely defenseless against his self appointed love interest.

The grumbled word "Traitors" escaped his lips.

"Now Shiny, all I'm asking for is a peck..."

"I don't believe you!!" he snapped.

Cadance playfully folded her hooves (A/N: Hooves! Ugh!! Be so much easier if they had hands) so a little square hole appeared in the middle of them. "Laser lips closing in on target!"

"Laser lips?!"

"Well not really, I'm only playing."

Shining Armor let out a sigh of relief.

"I am going to kiss you though."

Shining Armor immediately tried to get out of Cadance's 'line of fire' but she was following him with her 'bullseye'.

"Come on Cadi, cut it out!!"

"Beep! Beep! Target getting closer!"

"Cadance this isn't funny!!"

"I'm just trying to get you to lighten up a little! Beep! Beep! Beep!!"

Shining Armor suddenly felt something behind him and saw he was backed in to a corner. "Cadance, knock it off already!"

Her response was a mere giggle. "Target locked!"

Shining Armor started to panic, he needed to think of something quickly. He had it! In a bright flash, Shining Armor's shield bubble was up keeping him from Cadance. "Ha! I outsmarted ya, how are you going to get to me now?"

Cadance rubbed her chin in thought. "How indeed..." she mumbled to herself. She had to admit, that was a pretty good move. How could she kiss him if she couldn't get at him?

The answer came to her in a flash of brilliance. She closed her eyes tight focusing her magic, in a pink flash she disappeared.

Shining Armor frowned, he looked all around the room but Cadance just simply wasn't there.

"Uh-Oh..."

In another flash of pink light, Cadance reappeared...in front of Shining Armor...inside his shield bubble...which was only intended to have enough room for himself.

"Oh. Nose to nose. Wasn't exactly planning this but I'm not really complaining either."

"I-I-I-I-I-I..."

"I wonder if we could fog this thing up?"

"Cadance!!"

"I'm only joking, Captain Serious."

"Did you ever stop to think that maybe I don't want this?!"

"If that were true than you wouldn't really be blushing right now, now would you?"

The shield finally dropped and Shining Armor stumbled back.

"You know you want us together just as badly as I do. So why don't you just give in?"

"Because...Because you're lovesick!!" Shining Armor quickly ducked around Cadance and darted off.

"Lovesick?" Cadance repeated. "I think the proper term here is lovestruck!"

(A/N: Okay, I know one of you was very very very very against the idea of a songfic chapter. But this is a fic about ponies who sing in the actual show. If you can't get with that I suggest you find a different franchise.)

Shining Armor dashed in to the garden coming to a stop on the stone bridge above the duck pond.

'I'm living the life that I've always wanted.'

Shining Armor looked down at his reflection but jumped when he thought he saw Cadance next to him.

'But with Cadance's advances I can't help but feel like I'm being haunted.'

He let out a sigh of relief when he saw she wasn't there. However, his ears started to twitch at the noise of wings flapping in the air. Thinking quickly he looked up only to flinch at sight above him.

'A princess has me in her sights!'

Cadance dove down at Shining Armor from the sky, a heart shaped bullseye covering her right eye as she shot giant hearts at him.

'Now I have to dodge her both during the day and Luna's night!'

Shining Armor quickly dove behind a bush to dodge his would be lover.

'Lovesick!'

'Lovestruck!' Cadance sang back.

'What can I do?" Shining Armor ran back in to the castle. 'How do you stop a princess from falling in love with you?!'

The scene changes and Cadance and Shining Armor and sitting on a couch.

'As the Princess of Love,' Cadance sang. 'I always know exactly who is in a pony's heart,' Cadance scooted closer to him and Shining Armor scooted a little farther away. 'And the love that he has I feel is so big that I never want to part!'

As she scooted closer again he found himself falling off the couch to try and get away from her.

'Lovestruck!'

'Lovesick!!'

'There's nothing I can do!'

Cadance threw her arms around Shining Armor's neck. At first he rolled his eyes at her, but then when he tried to get her arms off of him he found she wouldn't budge. He tried a little harder but still nothing, he was trying frantically now but it was to no avail.

A giant heart came up from the bottom of the screen changing the scene.

'But if his love is one that I want to keep,'

Cadance looked down at him from a balcony and blew him a kiss, however, his response to it was nothing but a dutiful salute. Cadance gritted her teeth and hit the railing out of frustration.

'then he needs to admit it's mutual by end of the week!!'

Cadance held her head with worry when she saw just how much time had passed on the calendar. It was coming down to the wire now.

'But even when I corner him in a room that's locked...'

Cadance had Shining Armor cornered at his desk. She leaned across it, fluttering her eyelashes at him, making him lean back in his chair.

'This stallion remains a rock!'

She closed her eyes and puckered up for a kiss, but when she only felt air she opened them to see window behind Shining Armor's now spinning chair was opened.

'Lovesick!'

'Lovestruck!'

'Both of our reputations are on the line!' Shining Armor sang. 'Her cute persistence is really putting me in a bind!'

Shining Armor turned around the corner coming literally face to face with the Princess of Love. Practically nose to nose, both were frozen in place with a blush until Cadance smirked at him.

'I try to escape her feeling which make me red!'

Fluttering her eyelashes at him, his eyes quickly darted to the corner where he saw a couple of ponies gossiping about them.

'But no matter what I try...'

Shining Armor dashed off down the hallway, locking himself inside his office.

'she's always just step ahead!'

He turned around and there was Cadance yet again. However, she looked different from when he just saw her. Her hair was done up fancy, her eyelashes seemed longer than usual, and she seemed to be wearing eye shadow.

'Lovestruck!'

'Lovesick!!'

The door to Shining Armor's office got knocked down as he raced out.

'I know that I can win and prove to him our love is not a sin.'

Cadance calmly chased after him at a relaxed speed.

'I know deep down inside that I am fated to be with him.'

She picked a random corner and waited patiently for her panicked beloved.

'No matter how much he struggles I wanna hold him tight.'

The speeding Shining Armor saw that somehow Cadance was right in front of him with her arms spread eagle for a hug. There was no time for a turn and he was desperately trying to stop but it was to no avail.

'Because I just can't let him go without a fight!!'

She wrapped her arms around him snuggled in to his neck but when he tried to slip away she pulled him in to her embrace firmly.

Meanwhile, up in the clouds, Soarin was sitting on cloud watching the duet down below, bobbing his head to the music.

"Soarin!!" a voice hollered.

"Huh? Oh, hey Spitfire."

"Don't you 'Hey Spitfire' me! You were supposed to meet me an hour ago for cloud busting!"

"Yeah I know, but it's just cloud busting..." Spitfire looked shocked for a moment but it quickly faded away as she started to burn holes in Soarin's oblivious head with her stare. "And then Captain Shining Armor and Princess Cadance starting singing this really catchy duet that I just had to...YOW!!!"

Soarin was cut off as Spitfire, his commanding officer, bit his ear.

"Slacking off on the job..." Spitfire said through gritted teeth. "Just to hear a song?!" She started to drag him through the air by ear. "You'll be lucky if you can hear anything when I'm done with you!!"

Soarin couldn't protest. He couldn't argue either. All he could do was go along with Spitfire to minimize the damage being done to his ear.

"Ow! Ow!! The ear!!! Ow! Ow!!"

Omake

Cadance pulls out a guitar from behind her back and starts to play. "You can love almost anyone, it's happy and it's free..."

"CADANCE!!!" Shining Armor roared. "We are NOT doing a crossover!! Do you understand me?!"

"Fine!" Cadance lowered her eyelids halfway and threw the guitar away behind her where it promptly shattered with a loud 'TWANG'. "It's kind of cheaty anyways."

Shining Resolve

View Online

Shining Armor groaned to himself. The huge stack of paperwork on his desk just didn't seem to get any smaller, if anything it just seemed to get bigger...which was odd...

Taking his pencil he gave the huge stack of paperwork an experimental poke. It was at this moment that the door to his office was kicked in. Through the cluster of floating paper in the air he saw Cadance standing in his doorway dramatically pointing a hoof at him.

"I'm going to love you!" she declared.

"Aaaaaagh!!" he screamed.

"And there is nothing you can do to stop me!"

"AAAAAAAAAAGGHHHH!!!" he screamed louder.

Shining Armor took off a like a shot, right through the back of his own window. Which, for some reason didn't hurt him, he didn't even feel it.

Shining Armor was now running through a black void, straining his body to escape his pursuer. His body begged him to stop but he forced it to keep moving anyways. Sweat poured out through him in a desperate attempt to cool down his body.

"You can't run forever, Shiny." Princess Cadance called out.

He made the mistake of looking over his shoulder to see that she was much closer than he thought. The eerie thing was she chasing after him with rather stiff legs, almost as if she were mechanical. He started to run faster.

"You cannot outrun me Shining Armor. I have wings!!"

Her wings were unfolded but she still seemed as stiff as a board, she was in the air but was more like she was being held up by some invisible force rather than using the power of flight.

Just as she was about to collide with him when a bright light engulfed his vision. When the light finally cleared Shining Armor was in a round room, he seemed to be surrounded by giant wooden structures which reached high in to the lights.

"Captain Shining Armor!" boomed a voice from above. Shining Armor squinted in to the lights to try and make out who said that, but due to the lights all he could make out was silhouettes of four maybe five ponies. "You stand before this council accused of fraternizing with one of our political figure heads."

It was then he recognized the voice, it was one of council member ponies. This was a court martial!

"Sirs, please! I beg of you to listen to me!! I tried to talk her out of it but..."

"Oh let me guess..." another voice cut in. Definitely another council pony. "'She came on to you.' How convenient for you!"

"What else could I have done?! If I were to just up and break her heart..." Shining Armor tried to plead but it fell on death ears.

"You could have just walked away!" the third voice snapped. "You could have just ignored whatever feelings you had and just continued your job anyways! You could have done anything but lead her on!! But noooo, not you, you had to act on those feelings! And by doing so you have betrayed your country, your comrades, and everything you were supposed to stand for!!! I hope you're happy!"

"No!! It wasn't like that!! Please, let me explain!! I..."

"We've heard enough!" a fourth voice snapped. "Shining Armor, this council has found you GUILTY of crimes against Equestria and it's ponies. Your position as Captain of the Royal Guard is hereby revoked, and you are banned from every form of military in Equestria."

Shining Armor shook his head in disbelief. "This can't be real!"

"But it is!" the first voice snapped. "We are all very disappointed in you Shining Armor. You're a disgrace to all who wear the armor."

The sound of a door creaking open behind him caused him to turn his head. Behind him were in fact a set of double doors, they seemed to be opening on their own but there something eerier going on. A red glow was coming from the opening, he pushed it open to investigate and was greeted with sight certain to haunt him for the rest of his days.

The city of Canterlot was on fire. Dragons were raiding the city, raining down balls of fire from the sky.

"This is just dreadful!" a voice said next to him.

He turned to see none other than Princess Celestia herself, watching the scene in horror. "If only there was a way to stop all this."

"Princess Celestia!" cried Shining Armor. "If you let me put up my protective spell I..."

"You can't do that, 'civilian'. Only members of the guard can defend and protect us."

"But...But..."

"That dragons do have a pony ambassador, and if I had a princess around his age to marry him as a peace offering it might stop this carnage but the closest we have is Princess Cadance."

"But..."

"But I shouldn't have to explain that to you should I?" she snipped. "After all it you who dragged her name through the mud, making her look like a slut to the rest of the world! Thanks to you, all of our allies have cut ties with us after seeing her behavior. They want nothing to do with us because of her affections towards you."

"N-No! That can't be true!"

Celestia turned away from him in disgust. "I had expected better from you! Take a good look Shining Armor, because this is all your fault!!"

Shining Armor needed to say something, do anything that could make this situation turn out all right. However, before he could come up with a solution, a giant dragon swooped down on him with it's flaming mouth open to swallow him whole.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

Shining Armor bolted upright from his bed in a sitting position. Cold sweat poured down his body, he panted out of breath.

"A dream? It was all a dream?"

He looked out his bedroom window to see the rays from Celestia's morning sun shining in. He made his way over to his bathroom, he needed to splash some water on his face.

The cold water felt good, like it was finishing a job his sweat just simply couldn't accomplish. He looked up from the sink to get a good look of himself in the mirror, he didn't like what he saw. He was pale, his regular white had gone to an egg white which was hardly ever a good sign.

"Am I...Am I catching a fever?"

There was only one way to be absolutely sure.

"Now say 'AAAAAAHHH'." Doctor Amora instructed.

"AAAAAAHHH."

She took her wooden tongue depressor out of his mouth and shook her head. She moved over to her counter to write in her medical report.

Shining Armor sat on the medical table, he had been wearing a hospital gown.

"Well, Doc?"

"Yes I'm certain of it. This is from stress. You need to relax or else your body is going to quit on you!"

Shining Armor frowned. "I admit. I've been on edge lately, relaxing has become...a bit of a challenge."

"Challen...? Wait a second!! Does this have anything to do with that princess that's been chasing you around everywhere?!"

"Um...kind of...and by kind of I mean exactly."

"Oh for the love of..." Doctor Amora buried her face in her hooves. "Would you just admit you like her back already and save everybody the trouble?!"

"But the time of the bet is almost up! I got two days left, three tops!"

"And why is it so bad for you to return those feelings anyways?! Whose it going to hurt?!"

"I'll tell you who! Cadance and I!" Shining Armor snapped. "Cadance will be viewed as desperate romantic which will her hurt her diplomatic relations, and I will be accused of fraternizing with, let's face it, a superior officer! Our reputations will be ruined."

Doctor Amora's first response was merely to roll her eyes.

"Well maybe if you just gave in then it would be better for everypony!" Doctor Amora snapped back. "You'd be able to get a good night's sleep and Princess Cadance could get her sanity back!"

"But..."

"No butts mister!! No matter what, you've got a decision to make and you'd better make it soon!" She started to scribble on a piece of paper from a notepad. "Doctor's orders!! You need to relax and get plenty of sleep in or else you're gonna regret it! One more push and you 'Captain' are going to be very sick!" She ripped off the piece of paper and shoved it in the captain's mouth. "My bill."

Shining Armor was back in his room, he had ultimately decided to ignore his dream. Since when were dreams supposed to make sense anyways? But his thoughts drifted back to his visit with the doctor.

"Would it really be better if I just gave up?" he mused.

The light from the window seemed to be shining off of something in his room. Whatever it was, it was nailing him right in the eye. It was coming from his trophy case, specifically the frame from a photo of his. He smiled when he recognized the photo, it was when he first got promoted, he was shaking hooves with his predecessor Captain Steel Shield.

"He handed that job over to me with the utmost confidence." he remembered it fondly. His gaze went to another picture next to it, his graduation from the academy.

"I still can't believe I graduated with honors. I was such a string bean."

On the shelf below it was a plaque which read 'For upholding the very virtues of being a guard'. He couldn't help but smile slightly at that one, it was before he even got promoted. Then he thought back to some of the other guards, not all of them were up to his brand of snuff; he doubted he could find a successor worthy of his title. He had even stronger doubts he could find a guard who could perform his shield spell, the closest pony who ever came to close to mirroring it was Twilight and her specialty in magic probably helped.

When he really thought about it, he had actually achieved quite a lot before his promotion. Each and every challenge turning him in to a better protector for every success. And now that he was facing his latest obstacle he was having a panic attack? Like he had to just lay down and take it like some kind of inevitability?

"NO!!" he shouted to himself. "I've faced plenty of tougher challenges and still come out on top!"

He went to his closet and pulled out his guard armor.

"I have come too far and accomplished too much to merely just surrender to the whims of a princess."

He gave his helmet a thorough polishing before placing it on his head.

"I have too many ponies counting on me..." now fully dressed in his uniform, he gave himself a salute in the mirror. "To fail now."

Cadance had been walking and talking with Spitfire through the castle, she decided she needed a military outlook on her 'tactics' on Shining Armor.

"Yeah, you're still coming on way too strong. Why do you have such problems with dialing back? What's wrong with subtle flirting?"

"But I don't have time for subtlety, the time of the bet is almost up! Surely you can relate to where I'm coming from."

Spitfire gave her a confused look. "How so? I don't have a coltfriend!"

"Oh come on." Cadance rolled her eyes. "Everypony, knows you have Soarin whipped."

"I do not!" spat Spitfire. "If he was whipped then he'd actually do what I tell him to!"

The too shared a giggled but cut it short when they noticed Shining Armor approach them. Cadance smirked 'Maybe now I can get him to throw in the towel.'

"Hey Shiny, you ready to..."

Cadance was cut off as Shining Armor suddenly leaned in to her. Cadance's wings had popped out in surprise, her face was becoming redder and redder, he was so unbearably close to her.

Cadance's thoughts were going a mile a minute. 'He's so close. What's he gonna do?? Is he gonna kiss me? What's he going to do?!'

Then Shining Armor smirked and slowly backed away. His smirk only got bigger as he saw Cadance's jaw drop as he started to turn around.

"What was that?" Spitfire asked.

"I don't know..." Cadance's hair suddenly frizzed up standing on end, pointed in every direction. "But I think I liked it."

"Game on, 'Princess'." Shining Armor truly felt his smugness had been well earned.

This was when the bucket of soap water fell on him. He looked up to see the window washer Hayseed Turniptruck (A/N: always sounded more like Turn-Up-Truck to me but whatever) sitting on his propelled bench but without his bucket of window cleaner. "OOPSIE!! SORRY ABOUT THAT!!"

Shining Armor sent him a death glare as he shivered on the ground. The soapy liquid had been as cold as ice.

"Hey!!" Shining Armor shouted with a shudder. "You're supposed to be cleaning those windows on the OUTSIDE of the castle!!!"

"I KNOW THAT!" he shouted back louder than necessary. Shining Armor swore, the whole castle could hear him. "BUT THERE WAS A SPOT ON THE WINDOW I COULDN'T GET FROM THAT SIDE!!!"

Shining Armor was about to chew him out when without warning he let out a sneeze so powerful his helmet came flying off. Looking at his reflection in his helmet he saw that ice cold liquid was straw that broke that his body's back. He was going to have to probably stay in bed whether he liked it or not. He was already starting to look paler. "Uh-Oh!"

Shining Armor's Sick Day

View Online

Dr. Amora was busy working at her desk filling out some paperwork. Her desk was always stationed just outside the medical wing so she would always be near by even when doing paper work. She would probably be done with it already if it wasn't for one thing...Princess Cadance. She caught the alicorn three times trying to take care of Shining Armor in some kind of nurse's outfit she got from Celestia knows where. But that wasn't the odd thing, oh no, the odd thing was she kept trying to move him out of the room bed and all.

The last time she saw her, she gave her a firm warning about how all this commotion was probably only going to make his health even worse. Dr. Amora was confident she got through this time because Cadance even left her nurse outfit behind. And now, at long last, she could focus on her paper work.

*SQUEEK*

"Tell me I didn't just hear that..."

*SQUEEK*

She let out a loud sigh as her eyelids lowered halfway. "Put him back!!" she said loudly enough for her 'intruder' to hear.

"But..." came a quiet voice.

"JUST...Put. Him. Back!"

Dr. Amora got up out of her desk, grumbling something under her breath which sounded like "I swear these two are going to be the death of me."

Into the med wing she found Princess Cadance behind Shining Armor's bed looking quite sheepish. Shining Armor was still in the bed snoring blissfully ignorant of the goings on.

"Really Cadance? Again?"

"Sorry...But I just know he'd be able to recover faster if he was in a familiar environment.... Like his room?"

Dr. Amora shook her head, the Princess was acting like a teenager who just took her parents chariot out for a joy ride without their permission. Most likely hoping not to get another ear full, pity it didn't work.

"Oh you 'know' huh? I spent twelve years in medical school but I guess I just don't 'know' about these things!"

Cadance visibly shrunk.

"I am the medical official here, so I think I know about his healthcare needs better than you! Understand?!"

"Yes, Ma'am." Cadance hung her head like a child being scolded by their parent.

"Listen, 'Your Majesty'..." Dr. Amora sighed. "I'm starting to get worried about you too."

"Huh?"

"You're starting to show the same symptoms Shining Armor did when he came in for a check up. Seems you've also been effected by this little wager you've set up." She started to circle Cadance, examining her. "Although definitely to lesser degree...hm...you're less pale than he was for starters and unlike him you're actually up and about. However, the level of stress is still there without a doubt and..."

"Um excuse me?" Cadance cut in. "But I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Stress, Hon. Your constant chasing him around never gave him a chance to relax and now he's paying for it. And by the looks of things it seems like you're having the same problem. Honestly, the two of you need to learn to just take a deep breath and calm the buck down."

This new information came to Cadance as quite a shock to say the least.

"Wait! Are you trying to tell me that he got sick...because of me?!"

"Well..." Dr. Amora paused in thought, trying to see if she could find the right words to put it delicately. "More or less." so much for delicately. "But it isn't like he helped."

"Then don't you see?" Cadance put her hooves on Dr. Amora's shoulders. "I have to be the one to nurse him back to health!! It's my fault!!"

She opened her mouth to retort but closed it when she saw a guard poke his head in to the room.

"Um Ma'am...you have some new patients."

"Sigh. Let me guess, more victims of that hug tackling trend?"

"Yes Ma'am."

"Figures. Alright, How many of them are there?"

"All together, there's twenty four."

"TWENTY FOUR?!"

"They came in groups of two Ma'am."

Dr. Amora facehoofed, which was actually hurt quite a bit considering she had hooves not hands. "Of course they did." Even though her eyes were closed she could feel Princess Cadance grinning at her ear to ear with hope.

"Grrrrr...ALRIGHT!" she turned quickly to the princess. "FINE! You can take care of him, but only because I'm going to need every bed I got just to treat these new patients! Get some guards to carry him on gurney up to his room while I tell you exactly how you're supposed to treat him."

Outside Shining Armor's door, Cadance was mentally prepping herself for the task ahead. Dr. Amora had told her exactly what she needed to do and even gave back nurse's hat saying something about how 'less is more'. However, Cadance was still feeling guilty over the fact that Shining Armor had gotten sick because of her.

"But that's okay." she said to herself. "Because I am going to set everything straight..." she started to open the door. "Starting right now."

"LOOK OUT A CHANGELING!!" Shining Armor shouted.

Cadance only had a fraction of a second to duck as Shining Armor's alarm clock soared over her head and out through the window.

"My poor Darling is delirious!"

Shining Armor squinted his crusty eyes. "Cadi? Is that actually you?"

"Yes, but please don't worry!" she said quickly. "I'm not here to flirt or anything like that, I"m just here to help."

Shining Armor stared at her, as if trying to figure out if it was a trick or not. After a moment he laid back down on his pillow. "Okay, but I'm still not going to marry you, because if I do then THE DRAGONS WILL COME AND KILL EVERYBODY!!"

"Dragons? What? Never mind." she started to wheel in a cart filled with towels Kleenex boxes and various other medical things. "Just try and relax."

She took a towel and wiped some of the sweat off of his face.

"I don't want to live in a crystal palace either." he announced. "I mean with the exception of diamonds, crystals are actually pretty fragle...fragger...fragiiiine...they break easy."

If she wasn't so concerned about him she might have found his slurring humorous. She started to dampen a washcloth in the bathroom sink giving him a nod to continue. He was sitting up now to try and emphasize his point, well at least he was trying to sit up, he was slumping forward leaning to the left.

"I mean what if somepony decided to throw ROCKS at it?! We...we'd be homeless...that would suck!"

She left the bathroom and forced him to lie down. "I could handle any trouble so long I had you by my side." She placed the cloth on his forehead which must have felt nice he started to smile.

"Why did you have to be so lovely?"

She returned the smile. "Because I had a wonderful stallion in my life."

"...wait...did we just flirt?"

"No Shiny, you complimented me and I flirted."

"Oh...well that's okay then."

"Now get some rest and I'll make you some soup."

"Tomato soup?" Shining Armor asked with hope in his voice.

"Vegetable soup."

"Aww..." his ears dropped back in disappointment.

"Sorry, Shiny. Doctor's orders. For now, try to get some sleep."

As she got to work on his soup her thoughts couldn't help but go back to Shining Armor. She couldn't help but feel guilty, he was sick and it was her fault. The very least she could do was try to help him get better. Yet as she put the finishing touches on the soup, she felt as if she were his wife or something, a thought which put a smile on her face.

She came back in to the room carrying the soup but there was no Shining Armor to be found.

"Oh no!! Shiny disappeared!! Even when he's sick he's a ninja."

"I did not disappear!!" cried Shining Armor.

Cadance searched the room for her patient but he simply didn't seem to be there. "Shiny? I hear your voice but I don't see you..."

"That's because I'm on the floor! I...I fell out of bed."

She went to the other side of the bed and, sure enough, there he was. His arms were spread eagle and his chin was resting his head on the floor, his right leg seemed to be tangled in a twist of the bed sheets. She placed the soup down and started to help him up.

"How did this happen? I left you laying down!" She asked as she helped him back in to bed.

"Well I sat up to see what you were doing and then the whole room started to spin and...Ah-Ah-AHCHOO!!!" Cadance wished she hadn't been within range when he sneezed but the sad fact of the matter was she all too close. A string of snot was connected from his nose to her hair.

"Sorry..." he said sympathetically.

Cadance failed to stop a full body shudder of repulsion. "Don't worry about it." 'Nopony ever said love wasn't going to be messy. Memo to self, see if a spell exists which can protect one against germs and other bodily fluids.' "Now lay down and I'll bring you your soup."

At first he did as instructed but when Cadance tried to spoon feed him he sat up. "I can feed myself Cadance."

"Fine then." Cadance said perfectly calm. She placed the bowl on his lap and waited patiently for him to begin.

Shining Armor made a grab for the spoon...and missed entirely. Looking at the piece of bed he just grabbed he commented "That's not it." He made another grab for the plastic spoon but his hoof ended up on the other side of the bowl while his target continued to be placed on the center rim of the bowl.

"Would you like some help?" Cadance offered.

"One more chance." his voice cracked. "The spoon is white so it blends in with the sheets. Now that I know where it is, I have a better chance of getting it."

He reached his hoof out just as his head started to swim, he thought his arm might have went too high but he knew he grabbed on to something. As his head started to clear he saw he had a firm grasp of Cadance's nose.

He took his hoof off of her quickly. "Sorry!" he blurted out.

To his surprise her only response was giggle which for whatever reason made him blush.

Shining Armor was not stupid though, it was stupidly clear that he needed help. And no matter how much pride he had as a captain, he always made sure he had the ability to swallow it just for occasions like this."

"Cadi..." he averted his gaze away from her. "Would you mind...feeding me?"

"Gladly." her voice seemed to radiate a peaceful aura which for the first time Shining Armor found to be soothing.

After that she spoon fed him his soup with her magic. Neither saying a single word during the feeding. When the soup had been successfully consumed she laid him back down on his back.

"Now that you've eaten your soup, you have to get a good night's rest. The Doctor says as long as you do that then you might be better in the morning."

Shining Armor at first didn't say anything, Cadance assumed it was because he looked like he was about to doze off, but as she started to leave she heard him say "Cadi?" She stopped in his doorway. "Thank you."

Smiling she closed the door behind her, only to let out a loud sneeze.

Omake

Outisde Shining Armor's bedroom, laying in a heap on the ground was none other than the ruler of the Changelings, Queen Chrysalis. A large bump was starting to form on her head very nicely, it was already threatening to become longer than her own horn. And while she was starting to see birds and stars circling her head in the sky, on the ground was Shining Armor's alarm clock completely smashed.

It was supposed to be a simple recon trip. Infiltrate Canterlot, find sources of love, then move back to hive and start a plot to invade. Naturally she had heard of the commotion going on between Captain Shining Armor and Princess Cadance so she deemed it worth looking in to. However, when she went to investigate... WHAMMO!!! She took a flying alarm clock to the melon, courtesy of Shining Armor. Only one question raced through Chrysalis' mind.

"How did he know?!"

Princess Cadance's Sick Day

View Online

Princess Cadance was absolutely miserable. She had been spending the entire day in bed getting acquainted with her new best friend, a tissue box. Her nose was runny and her cough was killing her, her head was pounding which was only as half as bad as her chills...hence why she was wearing her favorite pink bathrobe. One would think she'd be spending it alone but not quite, Shining Armor, her white knight, had come to return the favor she had given him...except the situation was exactly like the one before...

Cadance glared at him from her bed while he sat in a chair next to her reading a magazine.

"Say you love me!!" she snapped.

"No." he replied in a bored tone.

"Say you love me!!"

"No."

"Say it!"

"No."

"Say it!!"

"No."

"Say it!!!"

"No."

"As a royal princess I COMMAND you to say it!!"

"Your aunt says I don't have to obey any commands from you when you're like this."

"Aw shoot!"

"Now lay down and get some rest."

"Well I could do that..." a mischievous glint shined in her eyes. "Or I could give you a surprise snuggle!"

She threw her arms out to wrap around Shining Armor and bring him close. She felt a sense of victory as she hugged him...who was a lot softer than she expected...and smaller...and had button eyes...this wasn't Shining Armor.

She looked down at her childhood teddy bear and then back at Shining Armor whom seemingly hadn't even moved from his chair.

"Wait...how did you..."

"Cadi, you have a fever. Your aim isn't quite as well as may think it is."

"That's one possibility, the other is that you are a secret ninja who works for the good of Equestria!"

Shining Armor rolled his eyes. "Does this have anything to do with crystal palaces?"

"I don't know..." Cadance placed one hoof on her hip and pointed the other at Shining Armor. "You tell me!"

"If I was a real ninja you'd be asleep by now."

"Or maybe that's just what you want me to think."

"Cadi, you're delusional. It's the fever. Now please lay down..."

Instead of laying down she merely smirked at him. "You caaaaaaaare...♫"

"Oh for the love of..."

He placed his hoof on her forehead (mining the horn) and carefully pushed her back on to her bed against her pillow.

"Ha!! It will take a lot more than a really soft pillow...and a cozy bed...and...I'm just gonna rest my eyes for minute but don't think I'm not done!"

In a couple of seconds she was sleeping peacefully and Shining Armor let out a breath of relief.

"I hope you have some sweet dreams. I honestly mean that."

'Sweet' might not have been the correct word to describe the dream she was having. No, just like Shining Armor, she was having a sort of fever dream...one where she was a gunslinger of the old west.

"SHERIFF!! I'M CALLING YOU OUT SHERIFF!!!"

From out of a building came Shining Armor dressed as an old western sheriff.

"I thought I told you to take your feelings and scram!"

"My feelings belong with you, but more importantly..." she steeled her gaze. "They deserve to be reciprocated!"

Shining Armor steeled his gaze as well. "This town aint big enough for both our desires."

"Then I guess one of us is going to have to give in!"

A tumbleweed passed between the two of them as they stood adjacent to one another.

"DRAW!!!" shouted Shining Armor.

Cadance quickly blew a kiss at Shining Armor before he could move. He clutched his heart as the kiss allegedly connected and fell down.

Staring at his not moving form Cadance started to grow concerned. "I've heard of a kiss of death but this is ridiculous!"

Cadance's head swam a little as Shining Armor propped it up. "Sorry to wake you sleepy head, but you need to eat too. However, it seems I'm going to have to feed you."

She smiled at him. "I'm not complaining, Sheriff."

"What'd you call me??"

"Don't worry about it. What'cha got for me?"

"Just some soup." He pulled up a tray from the floor which had a bowl of soup on it.

"Like the soup I made you?"

"Nah. It's just regular tomato soup." He placed the tray on her bed and used his magic to levitate the spoon.

He spoon fed her and she quietly ate it. Not a word was said between the two until it was all gone.

"Shiny?"

"Yes Cadi?"

"I'm....sorry, for chasing you everywhere and pulling all these tricks on you. I'm just...I don't know...scared."

"Scared?" Shining Armor put the tray back on the floor. "Scared of what?"

"Losing you I guess. Shining Armor...you have become an important part of my life. I started to realize this when you left to pursue your dream, at first I thought I was just missing my friend. However, the more I thought about you the less platonic those thoughts got, and then one day it just hit me. Shining Armor...I'm in love with you. You can keep saying that we can't be together because I'm a princess or because you're a captain but none of that will ever change the fact that I love you."

Shining Armor looked at her as if it he was really seeing her for the first time. He hung his head, his darted as he searched for an answer, finally he rose his head with a look of the utmost focus on his face.

"Cadance, listen...maybe, if things were different I..."

The sound of snoring cut him off as he saw that the majestic Princess Mi Amore Cadenza had fallen asleep sitting up. He couldn't help but smile at the sight, her mouth was open and drool was starting to escape. Somehow he found the whole scene adorable.

He tucked her back in, wiping the drool away.

"You'll see Cadance..." he walked to the door giving her one last look before leaving. "It's better this way."

Cadance sat up in bed and gave a big stretch. A smile graced her lips. "Wow, I feel great!"

She jumped out of her covers and shook all her joints loose. Her time in bed came flooding back to her, how she confessed to Shining Armor. She smiled. "Things are probably going to be easier now. If I play my cards right I bet I could get him to confess by tomorrow."

She left her room and started to travel down the hall. Looking up at the ceiling she saw the mistletoe Twilight hung to be missing.

"I guess Shining Armor finally had them taken down. Oh well."

Upon a second look she could see that decorations hanging up. "Shining Armor must have cracked the whip on preparations. There literally isn't anything left to set up."

Turning in to a corridor she saw her two friend chatting...but they were in their Gala dresses.

"Hey gals..."

"Oh Cadance! We were just about to visit you."

"How are you feeling? Are you holding up okay?"

The concern on their face was a little confusing. "I'm feeling much better now, but what's with all the decoration? The Gala is still days away. And why the dresses, are you getting them fitted or something?"

Her two friends shared a concerned look.

"You might want to sit down, Cadance."

It was a little unusual but Cadance sat on the floor like her friend requested.

"You better brace yourself Sweetie, because I don't think you understand how long you've been out! The Grand Galloping Gala is tonight!!"

"What?! It only feels like I've been out for an hour! How long did that fever have me?!"

"Well Shining Armor was able to shake it off in a day because he's a military pony. He's sturdier, built to take it; you on the other hand, well...you're a princess. You were built to rule not fight."

The room started to spin as the gravity of the situation set in. No wonder she was asked to sit.

"We're sorry, Cadance. We know what this means for you."

It felt like her heart was breaking, it took everything she had to fight back the floodgate of tears.

"It means..." she fought back a sob. "It means I lose!"

Gala Reprocussions

View Online

Shining Armor sat at his desk or rather with his chin sitting atop his desk. This was the most he had ever slouched in his seat in the history of his life. A pencil rolled back and forth over his desk as his breath rocked it.

By all means he should be happy, he won after all, but all he was feeling was guilty. He kept telling himself it was for the best but he couldn't shake this feeling of shame. If his mother was here she'd probably make some comment about him being a heart breaker.

"Maybe I should make my rounds, get my mind off of this."

He put on his uniform and left the office to find the Gala already in full swing. He rolled his eyes, it had only felt like an hour's worth of sulking in his office but it must have been much more longer. Ever since his bet with Cadance, his perception of time had been out of sync with the rest of the world, he hated it.

He started his patrol towards the Western Tower, it wasn't often checked by this was precisely why he needed to do it on this night. He took note that he did not see any of his fellow officers out and about, something to possibly reprimand them about later, who else was going to be there should a commotion arise?

Climbing the stairs he saw a shadow move inside the tower room. He snorted determinedly, he didn't know what was going on, but he was going to find out. Upon entering he found none other than Princess Luna leaning on the rail of the balcony, looking down at the ponies below.

"Oh, Princess Luna. Apologies your majesty, I didn't know it was you who was up here."

"Tis fine. Thy name is Shining Armor correct? Captain of the royal guards?"

"Yes Ma'am!"

"Been hearing a lot of things about thee." Shining Armor frowned. "Fret not, tis good speak. However, I must know, when doust thou sleep?"

"Huh?"

"I have seen ye on both the day and night shift. Exactly when does thou have ye free time?"

"Simple. I don't. I work both shifts and sleep when I can."

"And here I thought myself and Tia were the hard workers. I suppose it tis another reason why Miss Mi Amore Cadenza loves you."

"Yeah..." Shining Armor shuffled his hooves sheepishly. "About her..."

"I take it thou regrets turning away her affections?"

"Yes! I mean no! I mean......sigh...I don't know."

Princess Luna said nothing, but sat patiently waiting for him to continue.

"I mean I did the right thing, right? This way her reputation in undamaged and she can rule properly. Do you think it was the right decision?"

"What makes something right is remembering it how it affects everypony as a whole. Not how it affects you, or Cadence, but everypony."

"Well that's what I was doing!!"

"Are thee sure? Perhaps ye should talk with Cadance."

"Cadance?"

"Yes. She may have a greater understanding of the situation than you might think."

Shining Armor's chat with Luna hadn't made him feel any better about the situation, but he decided to take her advice and find Cadance anyways.

Something was off though, some of the guards and local residents seemed...down? Almost as if the night itself was bitter sweet, a hallowed celebration as it were.

"What is wrong with everyone tonight?"

He came across two guards, a stallion and a mare who saluted him on sight.

"At ease!"

The guards relaxed. "What brings you out here, Sir?"

"I was hoping you all could explain why some of the local residents seem a little ... off tonight. Any idea what's wrong?"

"Permission to speak freely, Sir?" asked the mare.

"Granted."

"It's because you and Cadance were so cute together!" the mare practically whined.

"Excuse me?"

"I think what my fellow guard is trying to say is that some of us were kind of optimistic about your relationship with Princess Cadance. It seems like kind of a shame that the two of you didn't end up together."

"It was for the best."

"The best for you maybe!" the mare snapped only to get elbowed by her fellow guard. "Um, Sir! That is!" she said with a salute.

They just got on thin ice with their Captain, they could see it in his eyes.

"Sir, what I think my cohort is trying to say here is that everypony was happy for the two of you. The two of you deserved each other."

"A pon-Er Princess like Cadance deserves a pony of better stature than just a soldier!"

"Sir, is that what this has all been about? You thinking you're not good enough?" asked the mare.

"Hey! I didn't turn her away just because of me, I did it for everypony! This way I can continue to protect the ponies of Canterlot and foreign dignitaries will continue to think of her in the highest of regards!"

Both guards stared at him silently for a moment until the mare broke the silence. "What?"

"I think he might actually care for her too much."

They looked at each other before nodding in agreement.

"Sir, no matter what you decide, you are still our commanding officer and we will respect your choices...but before you go and decide anything permanent we both ask that you please go and see Princess Cadance."

"I was already searching for her."

Shining Armor had entered the ballroom, if he had to guess where she was, this was it. A crowd was already starting to develop. He didn't see her yet, but he did see the Wonderbolts invite Twilight's friend in to their private party. What was her name? Rainbow Dink? It didn't matter at the moment.

Through the corner of his eye he saw a multi-colored movement which seemed to match Cadance's hair scheme. He turned around only to see the crowd had gotten larger. He did his best to try and cut through it but progress was slow at best. Feeling fed up with the attempt he tried going around only to be met with similar results. He groaned in frustration, he needed to get out of this crowd now, he was just going to have to teleport out, he didn't even care where he ended up.

He lit up his horn and in a bright flash he was gone. It was in the garden that he reappeared in a flash.

The sounds of a dress rustling caused him to turn around where he saw exactly who he was looking for. Princess Cadance.

Shining Armor actually stood speechless at the sight of her. She was as white as a sheet and here eyes were red and puffy, as if she had been crying. What really broke his heart was her frown, as if she had her entire world come crashing down around her.

"Cadi?"

"Shiny?" she said it with such a horse voice it nearly broke Shining Armor's heart. She quickly cleared her voice. "Ahem. I mean, Captain...what can I help you with this evening?"

"Captain?"

There was something about hearing Cadance address him in such a formal way which just seemed to hurt.

"Listen, Cadance I..."

"I'm afraid that's Princess Mi Amore Cadenza to you."

Again, the formalities seemed to hurt. "Listen, about everything...I never meant to..."

"I'm sorry, Captain!" Cadance cut in. "You don't need to say anything! You've already made your intentions quite clear." She turned around held her head high. "I bid you good evening." There was a certain hiccup in her voice that told him she was fighting back the floodgate of tears.

As she walked back in to the ballroom Shining Armor felt as if she was walking out of his life forever. Now completely alone, the gravity of the situation seemed to hit him in full force.

"What have I done? I...oh dear sweet Celestia..."

A stone wall nearby was built to separate ponies just entering the garden from the flowers, so they wouldn't crush them accidentally. Shining Armor found it a good place to lean on. He threw his arms up on top of it, folding them before resting his head on top.

"I...I'm not even worthy of this armo..."

"Ow!! Stop it! You're hurting me!"

Shining Armor's head snapped up as he recognized Cadance's voice instantly. He practically threw himself away from the wall and galloped back in to the ballroom in the direction he thought he herd her. Perhaps faster than he meant to, he was already entering the ballroom searching for Cadance.

Cutting through the crowd turned out to be much easier than he thought it would be. It was over at the buffet table where he found her being poked and prodded by some foreign dignitary. He could tell by the fancy sash he was wearing.

"Oh come on, now." the dignitary started. "All I'm asking for is a simple feather so I can show my friends back home I met you."

Cadance clearly didn't like the way this guy was treating her, but if she wasn't careful about how she got him to leave her alone it could turn in to a diplomatic nightmare.

"Maybe you can't see who I am through those puffy eyes of yours but I am the ambassador to Istan-Bull so I think an alicorn feather would really help impress the dignitaries."

"I don't think you should have to rely on a feather from me to do your job!"

"Well considering how awful you look tonight I don't think a feather is too much to ask. I mean come on, I thought royalty cared about how they look; don't you know how you're looking in front of everypony? You're a mess! I mean you're supposed to represent the royal family and you don't even care! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha..."

*POW!*

The stallion stumbled back hitting the window wall holding his nose. "You jerk!! I think you broke it!!!"

Standing between him and Princess Cadance was Shining Armor with his hoof outstretched. "I hope I did!! You deserve it for harassing her!"

"Excuse me?! I am the ambassador to In..."

"Then you shouldn't need to harass the princess to do your job!" Shining Armor cut in. "How dare you treat Princess Cadance in such a way?! Exactly what makes you think it's okay to treat her this way?!"

"Calm down there, 'soldier'." the ambassador rubbed his nose. "All I was asking for was a feather. If she can't give me just one little feather for the sake of peace then..."

"I repeat myself; You shouldn't need to harass the princess to do your job!! Cadance deserves better than this!! I have more than half a mind to lock you up for this behavior!!"

"And why should you care?!"

The sudden question seemed to catch Shining Armor off guard.

"What do you mean?"

"Last time I checked the grape vine, you went through this big bet with her to prove you DIDN'T love her! Are you saying now you do?"

With the spotlight suddenly on himself, Shining Armor couldn't help but feel nervous. He steeled himself though, he knew what he had to do.

"Yes I love her!!" He took a moment to calm down but retained his serious composure. "I have always loved her. From the first moment I saw her, I loved her. However, because she was a princess I put her on a pedestal high above me so I wouldn't end up getting hurt, but then I grew up. I not only achieved my dream but I excelled at it to the point of promotion, so when Princess Cadance came to me with an offer of a relationship, I'll be honest, despite how I made myself look, I was happy about it."

Cadance's jaw had dropped as soon as Shining Armor had stepped in. And now, as she was absorbing this new information, color started to come back to her face.

"I turned her away though. As the Captain of the Royal Guard it was my duty to protect the Princesses from all threats, even threats to their reputation, even threats that came from dating a subordinate, threats from myself. I ignored my feelings for her thinking we would both be able to move on with our lives when everything was over but I was wrong! It isn't something either of us can ignore, I thought I could snipe our relationship before it even began but it was useless. We're already connected..." he turned to look at her.

"Cadance, I'm sorry. I thought I was protecting you, but all this time I was actually hurting you without even knowing it. Do you think you could ever forgive me?"

Cadance, while having regained color, had not moved one inch one way or the other.

"Cadance?"

He waved his hoof in front of her face but she still didn't move.

"Cadance?! Speak to me!! Snap out of it! React!!! Come on, get happy! Get mad! Get something other than stone cold paralyzed!!"

He was about to shake her in desperation when Cadance suddenly shot out and kissed him on the mouth. He kissed back, passionately. This seemed to lead to an uproar in applause from the ponies around them.

When they finally broke off the kiss Shining Armor was surprised to see Cadance laughing while tears streamed down her face.

"Cadance? What's wrong?! Why are you crying?! Why are you laughing?!"

"I'm just so happy!!" she threw her arms around him and sobbed happily in to his neck.

He hugged her back even as an odd commotion started behind her. It looked like Twilight's friend Rainbow Dash had caught a statue only for it to break in two. It was a very odd scene. Of course this was all before a pink pony catapulted a cake in to the air and on to Prince Blueblood's date, who proceeded to shake it all off in his direction in an attempt to get him dirty. Didn't get much weirder than that...or at least that's what he thought.

Then the doors were kicked open as an array of wild animals stampeded in. This caught Cadance's attention as well but she never did really let go of Shining Armor. As the dust cleared a yellow Pegasus wearing a green dress panted out of breath as she frantically looked around the room for the animals.

"You're... going... to LOVE ME!!!"

"NO!!! HE'S MINE!!! I JUST GOT HIM!!! YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM!!!" Cadance shouted back as she cuddled Shining Armor protectively.

Whatever chaos was being ensued seemed to be put on hold at this counter outburst. A small bit of laughter cut through the silence as Princess Celestia appeared next to the new couple.

"Cadance, I hope you don't mind but I was wondering if I could borrow your new boyfriend to organize a clean up for the recent disaster."

"Oh! Um Aunty...sure."

The ruler of Equestria beamed at this news. "Excellent! Now if you excuse me, I need to have a little 'chat' with a certain ambassador to Instan-Bull."

As Shining Armor left Cadance, after a promise to hurry up the job and spend as much time as possible with her after, he was greeted with lots of congratulations and pats on the back. He grinned, just as he was about to think all his worries were in his head he spotted the council ponies, they didn't seem happy. They whispered amongst themselves and then departed. Shining Armor frowned.

One week later...

Cadance couldn't have been happier. Now that she was dating Shining Armor, her life was exactly the way she thought it would be. She and Shining Armor were spending so much time together they were hardly ever seen apart. However, every now and then she did hear whispers of rumors, surprisingly enough they weren't about her like Shining Armor thought they would be. No. They were about Shining Armor.

They were usually things like 'I bet he used his relationship with her to get his job'. Cadance didn't pay it any attention though, she had Shining Armor and that was all that mattered.

She walked in to her living room and found Shining Armor waiting for on her couch like usual. She sat next to him and he put an arm around her. She sighed contently.

"Shining Armor, I was thinking maybe we could go on a picnic at the private garden on Wednesday."

"I'm afraid I won't be able to make that Cadance..."

"Huh? Why?"

"You see, that's the date of my court martial."

"YOUR WHAT?!"

The End

View Online

Cadance had calmed down some after a little while and was now sitting opposite of Shining Armor.

"I...I just don't understand. What in the name of Equestria could they have to possibly court martial you over?"

"Inappropriate misconduct with a political figurehead through the act of fraternization with romantic intent."

Cadance stared at him as if he were speaking some alien language. Then she realized her mouth was starting to hang open and shook away her cobwebs. "I-di-ja-WHAT?!"

"I loved you but because I'm just a common pony and not a prince they think that's a bad thing for Equestria. On both of our ends."

"No it isn't! How could our love be possibly considered a bad thing?!"

"Well for one thing it closes the idea of you marrying a foreign dignitary to improve relations and expanding the kingdom."

Her mouth started hanging open again, the more he spoke the less sense he seemed to make.

"What?! Equestria shouldn't depend on me marrying some far off pony I've never met before!"

Shining Armor shrugged sadly. "Maybe if I actually had some type of political pull we wouldn't be having this problem."

"But... but..." she stuttered helplessly. "You're a military pony! THE Captain of the Royal Guard! Shouldn't that count for something?!"

"It does, but not in the way you're thinking. You are a princess so technically you are my commanding officer, so our being in a relationship could be viewed as sexual harassment."

If any part of this conversation hadn't gotten her blood boiling before, this piece of news certainly did the trick. She was so angry she was literally red in the face.

"EXCUSE ME?!?!"

"On my half." he added calmly. "Us being in a loving relationship is me sexually harassing you. Because you're a princess I'm the villain here."

"SAYS WHO?!?!"

Cadance was seeing red, she had to know, who had the power... no, the gall to dare turn her happy world with Shining Armor completely upside down?!

"You think you're the villain??"

"NOBODY'S THE...Grrr! Whose behind all this anyways?!"

"The council ponies."

She was expecting Shining Armor to give an answer saying anypony else, even Blueblood would have made more sense. Council ponies were news to her. She couldn't remember the last time she even heard of one mentioned. "Council ponies?"

She stared at him curiously as he sat on the ground patiently waiting for her. "That's right."

"You mean a bunch of tie wearing, pencil pushing bureaucrats are trying to give my stallion trouble?!"

He smiled slightly at her description of them.

"They're a little more than that. When your Aunt is too busy dealing with other political matters the council acts on her behalf carrying out her authority."

Cadance scratched her head. It made sense, Luna wasn't quite back in the swing of things yet and running an entire country was a lot of work.

"So wait, then does that mean...?"

"Yes. They technically outrank you so you can't just wave your hoof and make their grievances disappear."

"But..."

*KNOCK!**KNOCK!**KNOCK!*

The door opened a smidge and a guard pony stuck her head in. "Shining Armor, sir? I hate to interrupt but it appears your date has been moved up to today. You have one hour, I'm sorry."

He frowned but he didn't hold any resentment to the guard.

"Okay, I'll be there."

The guard nodded and left. Shining Armor turned his attention back to Cadance and offered a sad smile.

"It's okay Cadance, I knew this would happen. I thought I could avoid it but there was just no fighting it in the end."

Shining Armor headed down the hallway to the courtroom where his judgement awaited him. His hooves hitting the floor created an echo through the eerie silence of the empty hall. He liked to think of himself as a brave pony, but with nopony around as he walked towards what was literally his dishonorable discharge there was a sense of vulnerability which stayed with him.

The giant double doors in front of himself gave him a sense of meek smallness which was all but foreign to him. He placed his hoof on the handle and took a deep breath.

"This is it Shining Armor. You saw this coming from day one. Now all you have to do is go in there and take your medicine!" His own pep talk was starting to fail; he hung his head as the gravity of the situation bore down on his mind. "Your dream will die..." a small smile graced his lips. "But at least you'll have Cadance. And in the end, that's all you need."

Opening the door he entered a circular room, there were three pedestals podiums of great height where the council ponies sat so they could look down on him. The only one who didn't seem to be sitting with a silent fury was the pony who sat directly across from Shining Armor. He was busy reading a piece of paper, most likely a report on Shining Armor's 'crime'.

"Shining Armor, thank you joining us today. Is there anything you'd like to say in your defense?"

Shining Armor shrugged. "I tried to fight my love for her but I was doomed from the start."

"Of course you were." A different council pony said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Well Shining Armor, I can't say we're proud of your decision. We feel like you've really let us down, but if you're not even going to try to defend yourself then I suppose we have no choice but to..."

Before the council pony could continue, the doors behind Shining Armor were thrown open. "WAIT!!!"

Even Shining Armor himself was surprised to see Princess Cadance running in to the room. He had never seen her look more scared in his entire life.

Finally stopping in the center of the room, she threw out her hoof in a pleading gesture.

"He shouldn't be punished for falling in love!"

"I beg your pardon?!" a council pony on the left snapped.

She certainly had their attention now. She swallowed a lump in her throat, steadying her nerves.

"I myself have learned a lot about love this past week. And one of the things I've learned is that it isn't something you can just control or demand. You can't just pick and choose when you can have love because love doesn't work that way! It does what it wants! It doesn't always make sense because it doesn't need to! It's crazy and powerful! Love can't be stopped, it needs to run free and wild!"

"Young lady!" the council pony in the center snapped. "We are not giving a court martial to Shining Armor because he fell in love!"

Cadance shrunk a little at the council pony's objection. Her ears folded back as she suddenly found herself feeling somewhat embarrassed. "You're not?"

"NO!!!" roared the council pony on the right. "He is free to harbor whatever feelings he likes, but acting upon those feelings is a completely different thing!"

The council pony on the left cleared his throat drawing everypony's attention on him.

"That's right! It's all about the choices he's made! He could have chosen to keep his feelings to himself! He could have chosen not to act on those feelings! He could have chosen to merely ignore you instead of challenging you to a bet..."

"The bet was MY idea!!"

"Not the point!" The council pony on the right snapped. "Shining Armor knew all to well what he was getting in to when he defended you..."

"Oh and he was just supposed to let me get harassed?!" snapped back Cadance.

"NO!!!" The center council pony roared. He had been the most even tempered so far but his frustrated outburst made it clear he wasn't happy with any of this either. "He was supposed to protect you like he did but diving in to a big speech about loving you has raised more than a couple of eyebrows with our visiting ambassadors! The expectations other countries now have of an Equestrian Princess has been lowered quite a bit because of him! Enough so that they're taking a second harder look at us! We might have to start from scratch with them all over again! And that's only IF we're lucky!"

Cadance was at a loss. She never expected the love life of a princess to affect foreign relations.

"And there's the other matter." The council pony on the left announced. "By responding to these feelings he has left a question of safety with our citizens."

"Safety?" Cadance echoed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that in the event of an invasion," the council pony on the right clarified, "Shining Armor's main focus would not be on the citizens of Canterlot like it should be but on protecting you, a waste of pony power entirely!"

"That isn't..."

"Cadance!" Shining Armor cut her off. "It's true. Back to the wall, if given the choice I WOULD choose you over Equestria!" Then for the first time Shining Armor glared back at the council ponies. "But that doesn't mean I would abandon Canterlot either!! Equestria, Cadance, to me they're both one in the same!!!"

"That is irrelevant!" snapped the council pony on the right.

"Irrelevant?! It's ENTIRELY relevant!!" Shining Armor snapped back.

"To the contrary, as soon as Shining Armor dawned that uniform, he knew that any relationship with the royal family would have to be strictly formal! By taking a course of action to create bonds greater than that of protector and protected he has betrayed all who wear the uniform!"

"That's insane! He..."

"Cadance!" Shining Armor cut her off once again. "He has a point. I knew from the start this was supposed to be just a job, I may have already been familiar with you but I could have found a way to do my job away from you, like at my desk or something; but no, I had to be out there with the troops... and you.

He said the last bit while resting a comforting hoof on her shoulder.

"Oh Shiny!!" Cadance sobbed before throwing her arms around his neck.

Shining Armor hugged her back before turning his attention back at the council members. "So go ahead! Court martial me! Black List me from military duty! You can even try to lock me up if you like!! No matter what you do, I am ALWAYS going to love Cadance and there is NOTHING you can do to keep me from her!!!"

Cadance broke away from Shining Armor a little bit to look him in the face. "Do you really feel this way?"

He smiled at her. "I always have. I think you've known longer than I have. Being part of the royal guard has been my dream since I was a colt, but I didn't have to take the promotion. I could have just turned it down and continued my dream where I was, but I think there was a part of me that just wanted to be closer to you. Cadance, I've know you longer than anypony; you're practically family to me. I think back to our time apart and there literally wasn't a day where I wasn't thinking about you. I wanted to always be near you without even knowing it. Cadance, I love you!"

"Oh Shiny!"

They were about to kiss when a council pony cleared his throat interrupting the two.

"Oh you guys are the worst!!" shot Cadance.

"This has all been very touching but I'm afraid it doesn't change anything. Shining Armor, you are guilty and there is nothing and nopony that can change that!"

"Oh I wouldn't say that!"

This voice, this voice which seemed to echo from everywhere yet nowhere at the same time. It didn't matter though, everypony in the room knew and recognized this voice. In a brilliant flash of light appeared Princess Celestia hovering above them all.

Immediately, everyone but Cadance bowed before her majesty's grace.

"Now then, what's all this I hear about a 'court martialing'? It would be a tragedy to lose somepony as valuable as Shining Armor."

"T-th-thank you, your highness." Shining Armor said quietly.

"P-p-princess Celestia, your majesty! Please try to understand, he's guilty of fraternizing with Princess Mi Amore Cadenza!" one of council ponies stuttered.

"If you've been paying attention to the captain since this 'bet' started then you'd know that isn't anywhere near true. He's been doing everything in his power to resist her because he was afraid of this exact scenario! Which is ridiculous because there's no reason for the court martialing to even exist."

"With all due respect your highness, he is of common birth. Not a prince!" a council pony argued.

"Ah, but if he should choose to marry Cadance in the future then he would become a prince through marriage."

Celestia took a small guilty pleasure at Shining Armor's immediate blush.

"But he is not a noble!!" another council pony continued. "Just a citizen he moved up through the ranks. His bloodline is ordinary not of royalty in the slightest bit."

"Ah but let's analyze that word 'Noble'. Noble doesn't necessarily apply to how or who one is born to, it can also be used to describe how one acts and behaves. And since Shining Armor has already stated that he was always in love with her but chose not to act on it in response to his sense of duty I believe that there is nopony more qualified to court my niece."

"But-But-But Princess Celestia..."

"Now moving on to other business. Shining Armor's commitment coming in to question due to feelings for Cadance."

It was the council ponies' turn to sweat now.

"I have a little theory I'd like to test. If everypony would join me outside..."

Shining Armor stood as rigid as a statue. Celestia had lead them out of the building to the castle garden. The council ponies and Cadance stood a few feet away leaving just him and Celestia in the center.

"Now then," Celestia started. "Shining Armor, I would like you to perform your shielding spell but while doing so I want you to think solely about your duty to protection."

He gave her an inquisitive look which was answered by a 'Trust-Me' grin.

"Ma'am! Yes Ma'am!!"

Doing as ordered he casted his protective shield dome which covered the entirety of the castle.

The council ponies seemed unimpressed but Celestia was almost delighted by his usual performance.

"Very good soldier. You may stop now."

"Yes Ma'am!"

"Now then, I want you to do it again but this time when you perform it..." she leaned down and whispered in to his ear not so quietly. "Think of Cadance."

Shining Armor's eyes shot open at this but a small, quiet smile formed on his lips too. He closed his eyes and did as he was ordered. Cadance had to shield her eyes from the blinding light of Shining Armor's spell, it was so much brighter now. She could hardly believe it, and unless she was mistaken, she could hear some feint screams in the distance.

When the light finally died down, Shining Armor's shield was placed not just over the castle but all of Canterlot. Everypony stood in awe as the shield stood bright and tall.

Cadance walked over to Shining Armor, his mouth still hanging open.

"Wow, Shiny... You did this?"

"No..." He turned to her with a small smile. "We did this. I never could have done this without my feelings for you. Your love makes me better, gives me strength! This... This right here is our love given form! Cadance... I love you!"

The two almost shared a kiss but a council pony clearing his throat rather loudly brought it to a halt. Cadance sent a scathing glare to them but only one shrunk under the gaze.

"This is all very impressive but our inter-nation relations..."

"Should not depend royalty marrying ponies they have never met!" Celestia cut in. "And further more, any country which would even think to propose such a thing is not one we should associate ourselves with. We are Equestria! We are strong, proud, and powerful, if that isn't enough for certain countries to ally themselves with us then we don't need them. And furthermore, this 'being born worthy' nonsense? No. I won't be having any of that. I have already discussed it with Princess Luna and we are in complete agreement, such a thing is to be abolished immediately! Now unless there is any further business to discuss with CAPTAIN Shining Armor..." She put and emphasis on 'Captain' to show that the court martialing was officially out of the question. "I suggest we continue this conversation inside." She turned to Shining Armor and Cadance. "Captain, you are dismissed. Cadance... take good care of our Captain."

As one of the two co-rulers of the country ushered the council ponies back inside, Shining Armor turned to his girlfriend with an amused grin on his face.

"Princess Celestia, my boss, your aunt, came in to save my job for the sake of preserving our relationship. How amazing is that? I mean I certainly didn't see that coming, who could have?"

"Actually I might have seen that one coming?"

"Oh really?"

"Yes really. Because there's a secret about Auntie Celestia that nopony but me knows, but since I love you I guess I could let you in on it."

Cadance leaned in close and whispered in Shining Armor's ear. "She has a crush on Donut Joe!"

"No! Really?"

"It's true! I swear!"

"How? Why??"

"Two words: Donut. Cake!"

Shining Armor laughed, he couldn't help it. He felt so light, this was supposed to be the doomsday of his career and yet he got to keep everything instead. His job, his love, and he had the blessing of one of the most powerful ponies in the world. He nestled his head affectionately against Cadance's.

"I love you."

"I love you too!"

They were about to kiss when a guard cleared his throat stopping them cold.

"Sir, I hate to interrupt...."

"Not too much I see." Shining Armor bitterly noted.

"But a bunch of thieves and wanted criminals got pushed outside the city when your shield went up... Sir!"

Realizing the news was mildly close to an accusation, the soldier quickly saluted to show respect.

The royal couple shared a small chuckle before heaving a sigh.

"I should probably get on this. Meet me in the garden later for date night?"

"With baited breath, but don't keep me waiting too long or else I'll be waiting for you in that famous Crystal Palace I'm always talking about."

Shining Armor laughed.

"If there ever is a Crystal Palace, I'll pop the question."

Shining Armor's little joke must have gone over well with her because Cadance was laughing like a little school filly.

A few weeks later...

Shining Armor was in the Canterlot library with Princess Celestia collecting books. There were some books which Twilight's Ponyville library simply didn't have, so when Celestia received the letter she asked Shining Armor to find the books on Twilight's list. Small talk was easier with his boss than he ever would have thought; they talked mostly of Twilight and Candace. All in all it was actually a pleasant chat.

"Of course Cadance still talks about her 'Crystal Palace' which is ridiculous. I can't even picture something like that being an actual thing. I told her

"Oh no, it can and already has existed."

"What?"

"Yes, Shining Armor. It was a part of the Crystal Empire which disappeared 1,000 years ago."

"Do NOT tell Cadance about it! I'll never hear the end of it!"

"Oh she already knows. She probably didn't want to tell you because she thought you'd think she was trying to extort an engagement out of you or something. It's probably nothing for you to worry about."

"... I'm buying an engagement ring."

"Whoa!! Shining Armor, don't you think that's a little fast?!"

"For Cadance? Not at all! Listen, if there's one thing I've learned there's no fighting love! Besides, now..."

Shining Armor put on his helmet and grinned mischievously. "It's my turn to chase her!"

Celestia giggled. "Yes, very well. Good hunting, Captain."

Shining Armor saluted her before opening the door. "Yes Ma'am! Thank you Ma'am!!"

He quickly ran out the door and sang out. "Ooooooooh Cadance!!

♪

The End

Author's Notes:

Been a while! YEARS!! Sorry about that! I guess time got away from me, the chapter was never quite "fluffy" enough for me, but again no excuses, but this is the end. I'm done with Cadance and Shining Armor now, not that I grew an issue with them but because I feel content with what I have created for them. I got a couple more pony stories in me though, SPIKE I'M LOOKING AT YOU, then I don't know what I'll do. Might quit all together. But for now I'm just going to be taking it Breezy. The more casual the better. Hope you enjoyed it, there won't be a sequel...by me. I'm going to open up the continuity here, if anybody here feels they care enough to do a sequel or whatever, they got my okay. I know there was no omake for this chapter but the best I could come up with was something about Cadance shouting at Shining Armor 'No more!! You'll mess up my hair!!!' but I couldn't figure out a way to present that in way that didn't sound rape-y. Hope you enjoyed this end to the story. I hope you felt was a good fluffy fic.

p.s. Donut JoexPrincess Celestia forever.

Cadance: The Shining Armor Chaser

by Captain-Brony

How It All Began

Day 1

In the Hospital Wing

Cadance's Amazing Plan

Back Up

A Meal Fit For Two

Lovesick/Lovestruck

Shining Resolve

Shining Armor's Sick Day

Princess Cadance's Sick Day

Gala Reprocussions

The End

♪