She woke up to the click of the bedroom door closing and the faint clack of Shining Armor’s hoof on the tile. She sat up in shock as the sound roused her.

He gave her an apologetic look. “Sorry I woke you,” he whispered, “I meant get back sooner, but we got caught up in something and…” He shrugged and walked over to the bed. He took a deep breath, then hesitantly started to speak. “Cadence, whatever you might say, I’ve noticed you haven’t been happy since we started planning for the wedding. I don’t want to make you miserable. I didn’t mean to force you into anything; if this isn’t the right time, or if it’s too soon, we can postpone. I can—“

“No, Shining, it’s not that, it’s…” She put a hoof on his shoulder and sighed. As much as she didn’t want to do this, she knew now that she had to, or she’d never be able live with herself. “I need to tell you something. Promise me that you’ll listen to everything before… before you decide to hate me.”

He pulled back in shock for just a moment, then pulled her closer, the shock giving way to concern as he tried to comfort her. “Oh, no, what are you talking about, Cadence, love? I could never hate you. You know that. Come here.”

She put a hoof on his chest and pushed away from him before he could complete the embrace. “I know you couldn’t. Please, just listen. Please.”

He put his foreleg down and nodded, but the concern in his eyes grew stronger.

“I…” She took a deep breath and let it out in a rush. “I cast a love spell on you—on us. A powerful one. Just after Twilight was accepted as Celestia’s student, and you applied for the guards.”Her throat felt tight, and she had to choke the words out. “I was so afraid that it would be over for us without her. You’d been more distant and I… I didn’t want to lose you. I thought you didn’t love me anymore so… so I made you love me.” She finished in a whisper. As she said it, she felt a weight lift off her conscience. She’d done it; she’d admitted the truth to him. But she was by no means finished.

She had his attention now. His face had twisted to a contemplative frown. “So you’re saying… none of it’s real?” He said slowly. The pain in his voice wrenched at her, far worse than his anger had in her dream.

She slowly began to walk back over to him. “No, my love for you is real. I know that now. But for the longest time, I lied to myself, told myself that it wasn’t. That all I felt was the spell telling me to love you, and anything more I felt for you was my sense of duty, or love for Twilight, or some inexplicable twist in the magic.” She stopped a hooveslength from him, reluctant to reach out for him. “But what about you, Shining? Do you love me from the spell, or do you really love me?”

He reached out for her and pulled her into an embrace. “No, I do love you. I’ve always loved you, Cadence! No magic could ever change that, could make me love you more completely.”

She leaned into the embrace, savoring it, as it could be the last. She didn’t have to do the rest, didn’t want to do the rest. She could leave him like this and bask in his love for her. Was it really so terrible, to let him continue to love her? Even if there was a chance it wasn’t real?

She felt a jolt and her eyes flew wide open as she realized just how closely her logic ran to that of the creature from her nightmare. She couldn’t do that. She could never do that again, and she certainly couldn’t allow it to continue.

Reluctantly, she broke away from him. “Shining, I have to do this one last thing, to set things right. I’m going to remove the love spell. If you don’t feel the same afterwards, I’ll understand.”

He nodded and closed his eyes, standing patiently. “Okay. I’m ready.”

Her horn glowed as she cast the spell, a similar glow surrounding them both. A heart formed halfway between them before cracking and breaking into two separate hearts, which floated gently into their respective owners. The glow faded, and she felt the artificial love vanish, panting slightly from the effort of undoing so strong a spell.

He opened his eyes and looked at her, considering her with a frown. She felt a tightness in her chest, kept fearing he would turn into the raging avatar of her nightmare; kept fearing he would plunge her into an equally horrible reality with a simple “I don’t love you.”

At length, he spoke. “I don’t…I don’t feel any different.” His smile took her breath away.

“Neither do I.”

He leaned in toward her, and for the first time, she returned his intense kiss with a fierce passion of her own. All hesitation, all doubt had vanished, and she held nothing back. The false love of the spell had been a haze, had smothered the true love she felt for him, which now shone through without resistance.

They broke apart and simply stood, trying to catch their breath. Shining Armor finally spoke, just as she was starting to lean in for another kiss. “Cadence?”

She didn’t stop, and only deigned to respond when she felt his breath on her cheek. “What?”

“Let’s get married.”