Have you ever been in love? Horrible isn't it? It makes you so vulnerable. It opens your chest and it opens up your heart and it means that someone can get inside you and mess you up.”
― Neil Gaiman

The first thing that Shining learned to love; really learn to love-- at least as much as you could love something that was beaten into you-- was order.

Order kept the wheels turning, order was what everypony strived for. Order in life, order in the unit, order in the family, all of these things is what the stallion had, at least in his mind, failed to do over the last few months.

And now, what was Shining’s life? Chaos: the enemy of order.

His marriage was now in shambles, he wouldn’t be able to hold a foal of his own in his hooves, and worst of all he was doubting himself. Through all of that though, like any good soldier faced with an uphill battle, he tried to grit his teeth and fight the good fight with every fiber in his being, a tactic that had worked so well for him over the years.

A tactic that was beginning to fail him.

As where every soldier knows that chaos is the enemy, they also know, in the back of their minds, that a soldier can only be pushed so far before he snapped. A guard may have been made of steel, but he was not rubber, so under constant pressure he will eventually be worn down to nothing.

This very thing was—much to his quiet dismay—happening to Shining Armor, and with the chaos came confusion and fear and tiredness. Especially tiredness.

He was tired of the sound of ponies saying how sorry they were for him. He was tired of the princesses’ tearful looks and hushed tones; the hopeless, dull looks that Cadence couldn’t stop giving him; his sister’s and father’s crying; and even his mother’s sad, reserved looks. All of these things did nothing but rub salt in the wound, and he was about ready to break a pony’s snout because of it.

It didn’t help when he saw all of the care that Cadence was getting. Instead of dealing with her demons alone like he was, the pink alicorn was almost constantly fussed over and given affection; a tactic that seemed to be working for her.

Though it shouldn’t have irked him that his wife was recuperating from their tragedy while he was still broken up about it, it was, and that hurt him even more.

So he did what anyone would do in this situation: he retreated to his mind, preferring his quiet bitterness over the outside world—although, because of that, he found he couldn’t sleep.

She looks so peaceful, the stallion thought as he looked down at his wife’s slumbering form-- watching her chest slowly rise and fall. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say she almost looked happy…

A thought came unbidden. When was the last time that I kissed her and said good morning?...

Snorting softly, the stallion rolled onto his back to stare up at his ceiling, once again retreating into his mind to think. I wonder if she’s been having nightmares…nah, Princess Luna wouldn’t allow that. Knowing the princess, I’d say she was having one of those dreams that make you smile before you open your eyes in the morning…

Looking over back at her, Shining lifted a hoof and gently touched her back, the alicorn wiggling with a little frown on her face. I wonder what she’s dreaming about, then…

Shaking his head, Shining rolled out of the bed and made his way toward his bathroom, flicking on the lights. Blinking for a few moments to help adjust his eyes to the light, he made his way toward to mirror to stare at his sorry state.

Due to the last three days of sleeplessness, the stallion’s eyes looked bloodshot and his coat looked even paler than usual. He cocked his head at his doppelgänger for a few seconds before shaking his head and yawning, making his way out of the bathroom.

“I’m not gonna get any sleep tonight,” Shining muttered to himself after some thought, looking at his sleeping wife one more time before trudging out into the bedroom and into the empty hall.

Remembering his days as a private in the guard patrolling these very halls almost drew a smile from him as he made his way down to the gardens, inhaling the cold night air as he walked through the trees to see a sight that almost boiled his blood. There, sitting down and looking up at the moon, was Ares.

Through the moon’s light he was able to see that the human almost looked as bad as he did, his stubble unshaven and his eyes just as bloodshot.

“What and the hay is he doing here?” The stallion muttered to himself as he looked at him. For some reason, Shining couldn’t help but make his way over to the human, his anger evaporating the closer he got to him.

After getting within spitting distance of him, Ares finally noticed him, raising eyebrow before looking back up at the moon, Shining joining him.

“Couldn’t sleep?” Shining asked, mostly keeping the anger out of his voice as he stared up at that big rock in the sky.

“Nope. You?” the human answered, his voice emotionless.

“Nope.”

The two drifted off into an uneasy silence, Shining’s anger slowly starting to rebuilt as he sat beside whom he suspected was the main architect behind all of his misfortune.

Here was the creature that he twisted and warped everypony he loved into befriending him—including Shining himself. That thought made him smile grimly for a few seconds. This human was trying to steal his wife...and he almost thought of him as a friend, in his own odd, strange way.

Like every stallion that joined the royal guard, Shining’s education consisted of not just combat training, but training of how to know ponies at a first glance better than they knew themselves, so he was able to get into somepony’s mind when he took the time to do it. Unfortunately, that already included himself.

When faced with some horrible thing, the mind, to help decrease stress in the body, will usually blame their misfortunes on something, even if they in fact were the ones that caused it.

A stallion does not cheat on his spouse, he gets back at her for some little thing that she did. Which is what Shining now did, laying all of the blame on Ares.

“You did all of this,” the stallion finally said, no anger in his voice.

Ares leaned into the stallion, Shining leaning back as the human chuckled darkly. “I did something, Shining,” he said quietly, hugging his knees to his chest. “I don’t know what I did, but I did it and it really hurts.”

Shining all but growled, tears starting to stream down his face as he continued to pointedly stare at the moon. “Just shut up and look up at that bucking moon.”

~~^^**^^~~

“Adjust your aim fifteen degrees and you should hit one of them, Your Highness,” Flash sweetly suggested as he hooves me another water balloon.

I nodded, eyeing a group of nobles that were happily chatting below us, completely oblivious to the fact that we were on the roof ready to rain a “bad day” down upon them—AKA, with water balloons.

“Put your back into the throw, Candy,” Ares added before yawning, the human looking like he was trying to keep from falling asleep. “I scared off the last group and Flashy here throws like a girl, so you’re our only hope.”

Sticking my tongue out in concentration, I cocked my leg back and aimed for a vest-wearing pony that was wearing a golden monocle—the Duke of Sandwich, if I remembered correctly.

With a slight grunt, the three of us watched as the balloon sailed through the air and toward its intended target, Flash leaning forward and all but shaking in excitement.

“Come oooon, hit them this time!” I heard him mutter as the balloon, taken by gravity and the wind, started its downward arc…

And hit the dead center of the crowd of nobles.

Flash and I groaned in disappointment and I had to use an invisibility spell to keep the crowd from seeing us as they looked around, shouting for us to come out.

“Well, none of us can hit anything,” a downtrodden Flash said as his shoulders sagged. “And I really wanted to hit that Count…”

I couldn’t help but crack a smile. “Flash, do the guard really do this sort of thing all of the time?” I asked the stallion, who couldn’t help but look insanely guilty under my gaze.

“W-well, um, we don’t do it all the time,” he said weakly. “I just—just thought with everything that’s been going on lately that you needed a pick-me-up Ares was hard enough to get to come with me, and when I tried to ask the captain—”

“He told you that he didn’t want to go, right?” I finished for him while I leaned over to nuzzle the stallion.

Flash just nodded and I sighed, forcing myself to give him a smile. “Well, thank you, Flash, that was really sweet of you,” I said, turning toward Ares, who oddly hadn’t said anything for a while. “Isn’t that right—”

“Zzzzz…..”

I stopped as I looked down at the human, who was fast asleep and somehow still sitting on the edge of the roof with a water balloon still in his hand.

Flash also turned toward the human, tsking disapprovingly when he saw his slumber form. “I was wondering when he was going to finally fall asleep,” he said as I wrapped a wing around Ares to keep him from falling off.

I sighed again, nuzzling the human’s cheek. “Ares and Shining haven’t slept in days,” I told my guard. And both are keeping their distance from me… “Auntie Luna told me that the two just walk around all night; I’m surprised that Shining hasn’t just dropped from exhaustion….”

I couldn’t help but grin at the stallion. “But I’m sure that my sister-in-law’s been keeping you up lately, huh?”

While I expected the stallion to get a little flustered—I was teasing him after all—but he exceeded my expectations.

I had to use my magic to keep him from falling off the roof in embarrassment. “P-Princess, I-I w-would never, Twilight and I—” he shimmered trying to get the words out while I carefully set him next to me.

He froze when I nudged him with my shoulder, a great, big grin on my face. “Calm down, Flash, I’m just teasing,” I assured him, Flash sighing in relief.

“We only went on two dates, Princess, I’d never do anything like that with Twilight already,” he told me, I guess still thinking I was trying to trick him.

I patted him on the back. “I know you wouldn’t, Flashie,” I leaned over to him, an eyebrow raised. “So you took her on another date, hmmm?”

He gave he a hesitant nod, looking away from me with a small smile on his face.

“Yeah…Twilight picked the place this time,” he quietly said, kicking his hooves in open air. “She was wearing a pretty blue dress and we went some weird little lake that was hidden behind a bunch of buildings…It was really, really nice…”

Aw, that’s really cute, Twilight, I thought. I didn’t think that you’d take him there...

“Oh?”

Flash nodded again, a blush creeping back to his face as he shyly tried to look at me. “Um, Princess, can I ask you something?”

A smile still on my face I nodded. “You can ask me anything you want, Flash.”

Since this little venture had honestly made me feel better than I had for more than a week, I thought I saw ready to deal with anything that the stallion was going to throw at me.

I was wrong.

“Princess, do you know what love feels like?”

I froze, my brow furrowing, pain starting to form in my chest as Flash looked hopefully at me. Do I know what love feels like? I think I do…

The stallion took my silence as encouragement to continue. “It’s just, that, I’ve really been feeling funny lately. I mean, I can’t stop thinking about her,” he gave me a small, dopey smile and his eyes glazed over slightly.

“I just want to hear her laugh; I want to see that little star in her eye when she succeeds at something.”

You can’t keep him happy, you’re no princess of love; how can you be when your stallion looks like he’s about to cry when he looks at you…

“I have a hard time sleeping, and, and she’s starting to get me to like reading, and I hated reading!”

I blinked back tears as the stallion pressed on, keeping that big, fake grin on my face before a little snore made me blink in confusion until I remembered that Ares was snuggling against my side.

I looked down at him while he nuzzled my side, muttering in his sleep while that odd feeling in my stomach started up again.

“--And don’t get me started on that weird stomach thing!”

I blinked when I heard that, my head jerking back to Flash. “What did you say?” I asked with a bit of worry, Flash blinking up at me in slight confusion.

“What was that, Princess?”

“About the weird stomach thing, what about it?”

“Oh…” I saw Flash’s internal struggle on how to put his feelings in words, and I let him work that out as I looked back down at the human.

“Erm, it’s just something that feels like butterflies flying all around in my stomach whenever I look at Twilight,” he finally muttered.

“—What do you think it means, Princess?”

I opened my mouth, then closed it, looking pointedly at the distant horizon. “I have no idea, Flash,” I lied calmly, staring at the horizon.

~~@@^^@@~~

“You know, I never liked being held while I was asleep.”

Ares looked over his shoulder at Shining, who he was back-to-back with, the two sitting out in the gardens again at night.

“Oh?”

Shining nodded tiredly while he looked off into the distance. “I would always either get too hot or too cramped; even when I was little and my mom was holding me,” the stallion had a bitter smile on his face as he leaned back harder into Ares. “Now that I think about it, she might be the one that made me dislike it.”

Ares hummed in thought. “When was the last time you’ve gotten any sleep, Shining?” he asked quietly.

Shining chuckled. “Probably about for as long as you, though I think I fell asleep in a closet this morning,” The two shared the kind of chuckle that only people that know hurt, confusion, and pain can share.

Wiping a tear from his eye, Shining adjusted himself until he was side-by-side with the human, both of them now staring at a tree that was being circled my fireflies for some reason. “You know, I can’t remember. Did anypony ask you what you were doing before you got here?”

The question befuddled Ares for a few seconds. “…You know, I really don’t remember getting asked that….”

“So what were you doing?”

Shining was answered with another little bout of laughter before Ares finally said, ”I was walking toward my brother’s dorm room to see how he was doing,” The human sighed. “It was my younger brother Alex. I remember that he was really nervous about the whole college thing and since everyone else was too busy I decided to go surprise him.”

Shining couldn’t help but snort in amusement. “You went to go see your brother?”

Ares shrugged. “I wasn’t doing anything crazy like trying to rip holes through the universe or anything if that’s what you were thinking,” he sighed. “I was just walking down some sidewalk, looking at some cute girl’s ass and then all there was was white.”

“Huh,” Shining muttered, the two drifting off in silence for a few minutes while crickets called to each other off into the distance.

“What were you doing before you saw my ass?” Ares finally asked while he fought back a yawn.

Shining shook his head. “I really have no idea,” he told the human. “But it almost seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it?”

The two looked at each other with smiles. “You’re telling me. I was just a guy that worked in his dad’s flower shop. Now I’m—“

“A pony cuddling fiend that happens to be friends with some of the most powerful beings on this planet,” Shining finished for him, the two now laughing before the ex-captain looked down at the ground somberly.

“Back then I was a prince that was too busy to give his wife a kiss in the morning…Now…*sigh* I honestly don’t know anymore.”

Despite himself, Shining couldn’t help glare up at Ares, who was still looking at the tree. “You know, for a while I really didn’t like you,” the stallion said calmly. “And it wasn’t even because you attacked me—“

“You hit me first, big guy,” Ares corrected, getting a snort from the stallion before he continued.

“Cadence was always a mare that always cared too much, and she showed me that when we met you. She’d worry over you like a little filly even when she worrying about her subjects. You weren’t just some weird alien that probably needed to be neutered—“

“Well, fuck you too.”

“—She saw just another pony that needed help. Then the two of you became friends and I started to feel like you were slowly trying to take me out of the picture,” his mildly angry glare turned tired as he slumped weakly. “When the princesses said that you weren’t a danger I honestly didn’t believe them.”

“I thought you were doing something to their minds for the weeks…and then when the doctor told us that Cadence wasn’t going to be able to have kids…”

Ares still didn’t say anything, though if Shining bothered to look up he would have seen the pain in his eyes.

The stallion laughed bitterly. “I can still see how hurt she looked, like somepony just told her that she died! And what did I do? Just stand there like a foal while she all but galloped away. “

“Then Twilight told me that you almost killed yourself jumping off a ledge to get to her,” Ares looked down at Shining, who was once again sporting a small smile. “If I wasn’t so suspicious of you I would have wrapped you in a hug. You helped give me and my wife hope!”

Ares watched as Shining raised both of his hooves in the air and shouted the last word, scaring some of the local wildlife, before slumping back down to look at him.

“So, I’m I going to get a thank you now?”

“Nope.”

The human snorted, looking back at the tree with slowly narrowing eyes. “Is it just me hallucinating or are those fireflies singing?”

Shining perked up his ears, listening carefully. “…It’s probably just the lack of sleep.”

“God, I hope so, going nuts isn’t going to help anybody right now.”

“Ares, have you ever been in love?”

Whether it was the lack of sleep that made Shining ask the question, or if it was just simple curiosity Ares couldn’t tell, though he couldn’t help but feel like he just got punched in the gut. “No, never,” he answered after collecting himself.

Shining just looked up at him for a long moment before softly snorting, nudging the human gently with a slightly knowing look. “Liar.”

Ares didn’t say anything in response to that naked comment. It was a comment that held no malice, anger, joy, nor pleasure; it was simply a comment.

Shining just gave the struggling human another little shove before he looked up at Luna’s moon. “You know, Cadence always liked to talk about love at first sight when the two of us were little,” he smiled at the memory. “She was just old enough to start being a babysitter, and for some reason my mom and dad agreed to let her babysit the two of us.”

He laughed quietly. “I was so mad that they thought they didn’t think I was old enough to watch my sister. For weeks I was such a complete bucker to Cadence. I’d ruin the bathroom and she’d have to clean it up—stuff like that—but then she kind of grew on me.”

“She’s really good at growing on people,” Ares commented with a little smile of his own.

“As soon as she got her cutie mark, she’d bring over these weird love books that tried to explain love and stuff like that. One of her favorites was ‘The Aspects of Love at First Sight,” Shining’s look turned slightly distasteful. “I always thought that it was a load of horseapples whenever she brought it up.”

“True love is a load of bull,” Ares quietly agreed. “How can you instantly love someone you’ve just met?”

Shining slapped him on the thigh. “That’s what I told her! ‘How do you know if your ‘true love’ isn’t some kind of loony’ I told her.”

The two stopped to collect themselves for a second, each of them silently wondering where is was going, and each of them kind of already knowing the answer.

“Love’s like a seed,” Ares finally muttered, not able to help himself with the flower metaphors. “You have to watch it, let it grow, and hope that it lives for a long time so you can enjoy it.”

Now Shining’s chuckle was slightly bitter. “So someponies relationships can either be daisies or—”

“Catmint,” Ares offered to the struggling stallion, making Shining look up at him in confusion.

“Catmint?”

The human shrugged. “It’s kind of like a really small, colorful plant that people sometime use as hedges. They last like fifteen years if you don’t fuck with it…. Look, I’m tired; I can’t think of any good meaningful plants right now.”

“Oh,” Shining muttered. “Not one I would have used but okay, Mr. Gardener…daisies or catmint, daisies or catmint…. Well, it doesn’t matter, any plant will die if you don’t take care of it, right?”

Now knowing where the stallion was going with this train of thought, Ares held his silence, which didn’t help anything.

Shining just nodded slowly to himself. “Right,” he muttered, the word tasting like ash when he said it.

~~@@^^@@~~

Why the hay does Auntie Celestia put up with this? I thought as I sat next to the mare as two stallions were having a yelling match with each other.

“If you Cloudsdale idiots wouldn’t have dropped the bucking ball, my vineyard wouldn’t be in ruin right now!” A grey earth pony yelled at a weather factory official, the two’s muzzles touching while a whole line of ponies behind the two were quietly taking bets on if they’d break out in a hoof-fight or not.

I knew this little tid-bit because a bookie—one of the guards—had quietly asked if I wanted to throw in a few bits. Naturally, I quietly chewed the stallion out, telling him that this was a throne room, not some nilly-filly gambling den!

…At least until Auntie Luna bet fifty bits on the Pegasus, then I bet on the earth pony…

Not that much, just ten bits, so I really don’t think I deserve that look, thank you very much!

I mean, unlike the last ten things that we’ve had to listen to, this is kind of important, but couldn’t this be solved in minor court? Maybe I could tell Auntie Celestia about how the Crystal Empire’s judicial system works; it really is more efficient than this!

The Pegasus squeaked angrily, looking like he was ready to hurt something. “Well, if you weren’t such a lazy flank and turned in your request like everypony else, then your vineyard would be bucking fine, you bucker!”

I leaned toward Auntie Celestia, murmuring, “Shouldn’t you say something? At least to stop a fight?”

“She will do no such thing, dear Niece!” Auntie Luna hissed, overhearing me. “We need to see if there is a scuffle!”

I rolled my eyes as Auntie Celestia continued to ignore the two of us, the mare still staring down at the two with her usual motherly smile before loudly clearing her throat, the two stallions stopping in their tracks to look up at her.

“Tell me, my little ponies,” she said. “Which one of you is truly at fault here?”

The earth pony snorted, pointing at the other stallion. “It’s obviously him, your Highness! My property is ruined because of him!”

My Aunt raised an eyebrow. “Oh? And it isn’t because of your procrastination in filing those rain requests?”

The stallion opened his mouth, only for it to snap shut while the Pegasus beamed.

“U-Um, well y-you see, your—“

“Free Flyer,” Auntie said, addressing the Pegasus. “I would appreciate it if you’d send a few showers Wine Dine’s way, I’m sure he’d appreciate it.”

The stallion saluted while the earth pony started to quietly grumble to himself, looking down at the ground childishly. “Don’t worry, Your Majesty, I’ll send the cry baby here a few storms.”

“You really are no fun, Sister,” I heard Auntie Luna say before a guard stamped the butt of his spear on the ground, finally singling the end of the day court.

As the last of the ponies left the room, I finally saw Auntie Celestia slump slightly in her chair and sigh in relief.

“Though I find all of my ponies precious, they do really seem to blow things out of proportion,” she turned toward her sister. “Tell me, Sister, is it this bad for the night court?”

Auntie Luna shrugged, hopping off her throne with the two of us following her. “Surprisingly, We seem to get the more sensible ponies, that is why we come to your court, Sister. The hoof-fights we have seen have been amusing—”

The three of us stopped in shock as we opened the throne room’s doors to see the unlikeliest of ponies, Velvet Sparkle.

The mare looked at the three of us with a sad little smile before turning toward me. “Cadence, Honey, would it be too much trouble if I could speak to you?”

I put a calming wing on Auntie Luna’s shoulder since she looked like she was about jump the mare, though, admittedly my mother-in-law’s was acting a bit off to me.

I turned toward Auntie Celestia. “Auntie, would you mind if—”

My Aunt nodded, giving me a sad little smile while wrapping a wing around her sister. “Of course, of course. Luna and I will be waiting for you in the kitchens. Come sister.”

Velvet ignored the princesses’ glares as best as anypony could as they walked past her before she trotted close to me, and to my surprise, hopping up and wrapping me into a hug before she broke down crying.

“Oh, Honey! You poor dear!” She cried as me, in shock and more than a little discomfort, awkwardly patted the crying mare on the back with a hoof.

Maybe the Changelings are trying to kidnap me again, I thought as I rocked Velvet back in forth, cooing calming things into her ear. If they are though, they must have picked the worst Changeling every, because this is NOT Velvet.

Deciding to throw caution to the wind, I carefully asked,” Um, Velvet,” I didn’t know how she’d take me calling her mom. “What’s wrong?”

The mare looked up at me with big, purple tear-filled eyes, nuzzling my cheek before she took in a shaky breath and looked down in shame. “I’ve come today…I’m sorry, for everything.”

My eyes widened in shock as Velvet started to trotted around me slowly. “I’ve known since before you got your cutie mark,” she smiled slightly. “I remember the first day you came to watch my little babies, you had this big bag in your mouth and you looked so happy…and when Night and I got back the whole house was such a mess…”

She laughed quietly, shaking her head. “I was ready to bend you over and spank you so hard that you wouldn’t be able to sit for week,” This time, both of us giggled. “And if the Princess hadn’t agreed to pay for the damages I probably would have….”

She looked over at me, wiping a tear that was falling down her cheek. “Somehow, the Princess talked us into letting you babysit again, then again, then again, until you were the only mare that I bothered to call.”

“Well, I was cheap,” I said with a weak smile. “How much did you pay me? Like ten bits and dinner, wasn’t it?”

The mare gave me another weak chuckle before she started to pace again. “I watched you grow up into in beautiful, smart mare that you are today, and I saw how you helped raise my kids. When Night and I weren’t home you helped Twilight with her homework and you kept Shining on the straight and narrow when the two of you were in school together. And when we were home, Night and I even helped raise you, the two of us teaching you things that those big shot ponies in the castle couldn’t.”

She looked down in shame while I walked over and placed a hoof on her shoulder. “Everypony thought you were this perfect mare that could do no wrong, and I was one of those ponies, until Shining came into my room with a big smile on his face, telling me how he asked you—somepony who was almost my daughter—out on a date.”

Velvet started sniffling again, so I wrapped my hooves around her, magicking a box of tissues and offering her one.

“Thank you, honey,” she said before taking one, dabbing her eyes and blowing her nose before she started on her explanation.

“When my baby said that you had taken his heart, I couldn’t help but feel anger. Shining was my baby boy, I watched him grow up from diapers, I loved him and cared for him since he was in the womb, and there was you, trying to ‘take’ him from me.”

I nodded, slowly starting to understand what she was getting at.

This mare has been an awful pony to you for years, A small part of me thought. All you wanted to do was love her son and she hated you for it…

She looked up at me pleadingly. “I don’t know when I started hating you, Cadence, but soon you weren’t that perfect mare that I watched grow up from a little filly, you were stealing my baby, and I thought you used your special talent to do it.”

I flinched slightly at that. Oddly, that wasn’t as farfetched as it sounded. Like most unicorns—or alicorns in this case, but since there’s only three of us let’s just say unicorns—I had some…problems with my magic when I was little…

Let’s just say that I accidentally caused a little incest, and leave it at that.

“For years I thought I was doing the right thing,” Velvet said, interrupting my inner thoughts. “That keeping you from my baby boy would be better for everypony. So I was mean to you and I gave you the cold shoulder when you were just trying to make Shining happy.”

That last sentence hit me harder than the thought of her apologizing to me, but I was able to keep my composure as she continued.

“What I didn’t know was that I was slowly ruining my marriage and my relationship with my kids because of my hate…”

She sat down on her rump and bowed her head to me as if in offering. “Cadence, I know that I don’t deserve your forgiveness, and I’m not here to ask it, but I want y-you to know, that with all of my heart…I’m sorry…”

She doesn’t deserve forgiveness, the little voice said as I looked down at her. Just walk around her and let this mare stew.

To the mare’s surprise, I wrapped my hooves around her, tears streaming down my face. “I forgive you, Mom,” I whispered, nuzzling her cheek. Everypony deserves forgiveness, I thought as we cried together, holding each other like we were afraid that the other was about to fly away.

“But I think I need to tell you something…”

“What’s that, Dear?”

I swallowed the lump in my throat. “I don’t know if Shining l-loves me a-anymore.”

Thinking that was different from saying it out loud, because voicing my fears almost seemed to give them life, and with that, it gave them the power to hurt me.

Velvet only wrapped her hooves around me tightly as the two of us wept in sadness and realization, understand and loss, pain and confusion.

~~@@^^@@~~

“You know, your mother came up to me this morning and apologized for being a bitch,” Ares told Shining as the two looked up at the moon from their new ‘meeting place’, Cadence’s hidey-hole/lake.

Shining nodded. “Yeah, Twilight told me. Did you know that Princess Luna’s been watching us sit together like this?”

The human snorted softly. “It’s always the blue, old-English talking people you have to worry about,” he said with some amusement. “They’re always the really, really smart ones.”

Shining smiled, sipping his coffee that Ares brought for the two. “Huh, is this from Pony Joe’s?”

“Yep, I figured if we weren’t going to sleep at night then we may as well get wired on caffeine,” Ares muttered, sipping his coffee distastefully. “God, I hate coffee…”

“Did you know that I almost hated my mother for years?” Shining said, ignoring the human’s comment. “All that the stuff that she pulled trying to rip Cadence and I apart,” he sighed, looking at the lake, which seemed like it was glowing. “But I could never really hate her…”

“Your mom’s just like thousands of moms, Big Guy,” Ares quietly said, staring intently at his coffee. “They ruin everything trying to protect their babies from monsters that don’t exist and become the monsters themselves.”

The stallion nodded, taking another sip of his coffee. “I heard from a friend that still lives two houses down from my parent’s house that my mom and dad were screaming at each other for days after we were there.”

The human looked down at the stallion, an eyebrow raised. “Oh?”

“I don’t know what dad did to get mom to see what she was doing wrong but he finally did…honestly, I don’t know whether to be happy, scared, or frightened about that.”

The two stopped what they were doing when they saw a big fish fly out of the water, wiggling in the air and snatching a firefly from the air, before it landed back into the lake with a splash.

Ares whistled at the sight. “Holy shit, there really are fish in this fucking pond.”

Shining’s knowing threw the human off as the stallion took a careful sip of his coffee. “…So Cadence brought you here?”

For some reason, this sounded like a trap, but, since he was tired, physically, mentally, and spiritually, Ares decided to answer.

“Yeah, she took me fishing when you all were out doing stuff,” was Ares’s careful answer. “I was ready to drown myself after the second hour though.”

Shining chuckled dryly. “Cadence didn’t take me out here until our fifth date, but I think she took Twilight here all of the time.”

Ares resisted the urge to add that Twilight was probably bringing Flash here for a little adult fun. If these little get togethers were less serious, Shining would’ve gotten that and more, but since this was two guys sitting around trying to get their feelings out while they fought off sleep deprivation, he was going to be serious.

…Though Shining couldn’t help but wonder why he picked that moment to snort in amusement.

“I’m sure that she just couldn’t think of anywhere else to take my ass,” Ares told the stallion, the two not really believing that, but Ares had to say it and Shining had to hear it, so it was said.

Shining snorted softly, cocking his hoof back and tossing his half-empty cup through the air and into the lake. “We each other’s first and last, Ares,” the stallion quietly said, looking down at his hooves. “So I always thought, privately, that it was weird Cadence got the cutie mark she did.”

“—Why?”

Shining leaned back on that great big old oak tree, looking up briefly at the old thing before he answered, “Like you said the other day, you need to let your love grow, because it was like a plant, right?”

The human nodded. “Yeah, that’s right.”

The stallion looked up at the human, his expression unreadable. “So we’re like gardeners then?”

Ares frowned. “…I guess…Where are you taking this, Shining?”

The stallion just sighed, still looking up at the stars. “Don’t worry about it, Monkey,” he almost affectionately muttered. “It’s just the sleep deprivation talking, making me way weird things.”

Shining got a nod while Ares closed his eyes. “Whatever you say, Velma,” the human muttered.

“Hey, could you do me a favor?”

Ares opened an eye to look at Shining, who was pleadingly at him. “…Depends, I guess…”

“Don’t take this the wrong way because I might seem awful when I ask you this.”

“Shining, I’m tired; just tell me what the fuck you want so I can pass out.”

The human had to swallow when he saw the desperation in Shining’s eyes. “Could you keep Cadence company for a while?”

“…And where will you be?”

The stallion blinked back tears before he looked up at the moon. “I think I’m going to leave the city for a little while; to clear my head so I can…think.”

Shining almost flinched at the angry glare he got but he held himself together long enough to explain himself. “I know it makes me sound awful, but I’m tired,” he couldn’t help but whimper quietly. “I’m tired of all of this crying and the sleepless nights, and the drama. I know it’s selfish, but…”

Ares looked down at him as the stallion trailed off, Shining looking like he was about to break down.

He wants to run like a coward, was Ares’s first thought before he shook his head.

No, that’s not it… All of this bullshit is about to break him. Me coming into his life, his mother, Candy not being able to have kids…even the strongest people can take only so much and it’s just been one heartbreak after the other for him and Cadence.

Shining almost flinched when he felt a hand touch his shoulder, the human giving him a little smile as Ares continued to think.

Maybe he has someone to talk to out there that’ll help him like Cadence has; like a bunch of guards or something. A thought came to him. But how is Cadence going to take THIS though? It’ll seem like he’s leaving her…

“What about Cadence,” he asked, Shining tensing at the question. “I’m sure you know that you leaving isn’t the best thing for her right now.”

Shining nodded, his head slung in shame. “Trust me—me being here isn’t helping Cadence at all. It’s you and Twilight and the princesses that are helping her get up in the morning…”

“—That’s bullshit and you know it, Shining.”

The stallion kept his eyes closed. “I know it is,” he agreed. “But it feels like I just need a few days alone… Please just tell me that you’ll keep Cadence happy while I’m gone…”

I should hate you for this, I should pick you up and throw you in this lake, I should tell you no…. No… I should tell you how I feel about your wife and how much it’s fucking with me. You should be here to keep me away from her…

Ares beat down that thought, nodding his head at Shining. “If you’re really set on going then I guess I don’t have a choice, huh?” he said ruefully while the two closed their eyes. “But if you don’t tell her that you’re leaving—and why you’re going—I swear to God I’ll find you and drown you in this lake.”

Shining smiled at the threat. “Don’t worry about that,” he said before yawning. “She deserves that much if I’m going to be a baby.”

Ares yawned with him, the two starting to lean onto each other. “Damn right, you’d better.”

“—Ares.”

“What?”

“How about while you’re watching her how about you get that stick out of your flank and stop being mopey all the time?”

The last thing the two heard before they passed out from exhaustion was Ares snorting in amusement.

…

I watched as Shining waved at me and Ares from his seat on the train for its early morning departure, Ares patting my shoulder with a smile while the two of us looked on.

Aunty Celestia and Luna had made their excuses on not coming to see Shining off, and Twilight and him had a little spat over it, so she wasn’t coming to see him go.

A small part of me was kind of happy that Shining was leaving; I almost thought that it would help ease the hurt a little bit--even if I was really hurting as I watched him slowly make his way through the train.

“Well, now that he’s gone we can have that crazy party,” he said conspiringly. “I know a mare that’ll buy us a keg.”

Despite everything, I giggled while I wiped a tear from my eye. “I know a place that we can buy a bunch of pizzas for really cheap.”

The human leaned down and wrapped me his arms around me in a hug. “Purple probably knows a DJ, so this if you want we can have a pretty bumping party.”

I sniffled, rubbing his cheek with mine as the train started to pull away. “No, I think I’ll just spend the next few days with my best friend, eating ice cream.”

I felt fingers running through my mane soothingly. “Well, I hope you two have fun. Call me if you two want to do anything later.”

I nudged him as he carefully picked me up, carrying me out of the train station like a foal and probably through a crowd of gawking ponies. “You know you’re a jerk, right?”

“I’m your jerk, Candy,” he told me quietly, which made me feel a lot better than I’d like to admit.

I nuzzled his cheek again. “You know, I’ve missed you lately,” I whispered, closing my eyes. “I’m so used to you making me smile or doing something silly that it’s weird when you’re not doing it.”

My ears pinned themselves against my head at the human’s guilty look. “I’m sorry, Candy, I’ve been down in the dumps for the last couple of days,” I squirmed as he scratched my belly. “But I promise, I’m feeling better now, and I’m here for you.”

I smiled. “I know, Shining told me that you threatened to drown him if he didn’t come back,” I chuckled. “The two of us laughed even though we knew it wasn’t funny.”

“So, Shining told you why he was leaving?”

I nodded. “I understand why he did it,” I muttered. “Honestly, if anypony needs some time off, it’s him…”

“So you’re not mad at him?”

“Not mad,” I said. “I’m just a little sore, but I’ll get better,” I told him, opening an eye to see the bags under his eyes. “…When’s the last time you got any sleep?”

Ares stiffened slightly. “I got some sleep the other day.”

“You liar; you look horrible.”

The human snorted in amusement. “You really know how to flatter a girl,” he said before yawning. “You know, if you weren’t so adorable letting me carry you like this I’d drop you on your ass.”

“Liar,” I said again, nuzzling the nape of us neck. “You need to get some sleep, and I guess I have to make sure you do, huh?”

I felt him shrug. “Your husband made me promise to watch you, so I guess that’s right.”

“Then take me to my bedroom, we have some sleeping to do until tomorrow, then I’m sure you have something for us to do.”

“I miiiiight have something for us to do…”

I smiled. You don’t know how much that means me, Ares, I thought, How much all of the things you’ve tried to do to help me and Shining, I thought almost happily while my heart gently fluttered. “It’s going to be fun, I hope?”

My smile grew when I saw his toothy smile. “We’re learning how to make cakes from one of the royal bakers,” he said with pride. “I have a guy that knows a guy that knows a princess. The best part about that is all we need to do is give her a few cakes as a bribe!”

“Well,” I said with warmth as the human carried me into my bedroom, laying me down on top of it and placing me snuggly under the covers before joining me a minute later.

“I can’t think of anypony else I’d rather do that with.”

Author's Notes:

Well, I guess Velvet isn't such a bitch now, huh?(And some of you guys thought that I was going to leave it like that...)

Oh, and I always like to think, in all of the worlds various governing systems, that somewhere, behind the scenes, that there's someone making bets about who's going to fistfight who after everything's said and done so I put that in this little story right here.

As usual comment, like, point out errors, etc...