Vinyl let out a little moan, briefly halting her tale. She and Octavia were lying on her big bed in what had become their favorite storytelling position. Vinyl stretched out on her back with her head propped on a pillow, gazing up at the flickering, candlelit ceiling through Octavia’s bangs.

Octavia was curled up beside her, resting on another pillow and giving slow and steady attention to her horn. In turn, Vinyl’s hoof rested between Octavia’s hind legs and stirred the fire that her story was lighting there.

Vinyl bit her lip and drew in a sharp breath as Octavia dragged her lips and tongue slowly, but firmly, across her horn from base to tip; Octavia usually limited storytime to nothing more than relaxed foreplay. With an effort of will, Vinyl pressed her fetlock harder against Octavia’s clit, rubbing the firm nub against the grain of her coat. She was rewarded with a gasp from above, and her head cleared a little again.

“I can’t tell my story if you’re gonna do that so hard, babe.” Vinyl leaned her head back a little to smirk up at her roommate, her hoof going back to gently teasing Octavia’s slit.

“I don’t want you to think I’m getting rusty, dear.” Octavia ran the hard rim of her hoof across the tip of Vinyl’s horn, eliciting another moan. “If this pretty pink pegasus of yours can pleasure a horn as well as you say she can.”

“She can, but you definitely haven’t lost your touch, babe. Love you.” Vinyl grinned, leaning back a little more and arching her back to peck Octavia’s lips. “Now, where was I?”

“I believe,” Octavia said, kissing the tip of Vinyl’s horn as she settled back against the pillow again, “that she had just finished servicing your horn as the music stopped.” Octavia parted her lips and slid Vinyl’s horn slowly back into her mouth, rekindling the blue glow of her magical arousal.

“Mmmmm, right.” Vinyl let the tip of her hoof slip back between Octavia’s slick folds, moving with the same slow, relaxed pace Octavia had returned to on her horn. “So, turns out she didn’t recognize me at first, but after I pointed out my glasses and we had a little chit-chat between songs, she wanted another piece of Pon-3.”

Vinyl was silent again for a moment, brushing her fetlock against Octavia’s clit while her lover switched tactics, trapping her horn between tongue and firm hoof. Her free fetlock clenched, wishing she could tell Octavia everything. As requested, she’d stuck with the story that Princess Cadance was just a nameless pegasus mare, but the hoof brushing her horn made it hard to hold back.

She’d felt something when Cadance had bumped horns with her. Horn kissing wasn’t something she’d experienced too often; Lyra was the only regular unicorn in her stable, and they didn’t see each other nearly as much as she would have liked. But thinking of Lyra at the moment, she reflected that what she’d felt radiating from Cadance’s horn was a bit like the feeling she got in her stomach whenever her mind turned to Lyra or Bon-Bon, or most especially Tavi.

Vinyl let out a soft groan as her horn was engulfed in the warm, wet softness of Octavia’s mouth once again. The warm burst of magic that Cadance had poured into her head shortly afterwards had had an effect on her, similar to the half-dozen cosmopolitans she’d guzzled during her set. Now that she could actually think tonight, although Tavi was starting to make that just as difficult again, it was easy to picture the princess in her mind, right there beside Tavi and all of her other regulars. Hell, Tavi would be ecstatic; one of her fantasies was to bed a princess.

Her horn began to tingle and she was wrenched from her thoughts as her body tensed up and a bolt of insubstantial magic discharged, vibrating her horn like a plucked string. Vinyl cried out her lover’s name, her hoof pressing against the gently yielding softness of Octavia’s thigh. Her free hoof darted instinctively down between her own legs in order to heighten her pleasure.

Vinyl’s chest rose and fell in shallow breaths as Octavia’s muzzle crossed her somewhat blurred line of sight, zeroing in on her lips. She had trouble actively returning the kiss, but Octavia seemed pleased at the effect she’d had on her unicorn lover.

“Aww man, Tavi,” Vinyl panted as Octavia broke the kiss. “What happened to foreplay?”

Octavia grinned down at her. “You were getting too worked up. I know better than to leave all that magic built up in your horn. Remember what happened last time?” An amused smirk crinkled her muzzle.

Vinyl blushed, her eyes darting away. “Hey, you said you’d been wanting to replace those drapes anyway.”

“Quite true, Vinyl love. But I think we can both agree that we’d rather stay in bed together than have to get up to put out a fire.” Octavia leaned down to nip at Vinyl’s ear playfully, eliciting another moan.

Her ear nibbling was short lived, however, as Vinyl quickly recovered her strength. With a combination of hooves and magic, she rolled and slid Octavia into her own former position on the bed, standing over her with a triumphant smirk. “Actually, I think I’d rather light a fire, babe.”

The blue glow of Vinyl’s magic surrounded Octavia’s right front fetlock, gently pulling her hoof toward her muzzle. Octavia let out a high pitched mewling sound as Vinyl traced her lips around the hard nail and slipped her tongue down into the middle, teasing the soft frog inside.

Vinyl grinned, enjoying the sight of Octavia squirming in pleasure. Having a preference for earth ponies, Vinyl had quickly learned about their own peculiar erogenous zones. Just as a unicorn’s horn or a pegasus’ wings became receptive once a pony was sexually aroused, so too did the soft frog of an earth pony’s hooves.

Most ponies shied away from hoofplay, but Octavia always kept her hooves in pristine condition, not entirely for that reason, but it was a nice bonus. As she moved on to Octavia’s hind hooves, tracing her tongue along her chest and belly along the way, Vinyl couldn’t help thinking of the princess and her long, slender legs.

Alicorns were supposed to combine the traits of all three tribes, and her wings and horn had certainly both been responsive. Vinyl wondered if hoofplay could turn Cadance into a puddle just as well as it always loosened Tavi up. She also wondered, wistfully, if she’d ever get the chance to find out.

“Viiiiiiinyl…” Octavia moaned.

Vinyl grinned, breaking out of a pleasant thought of herself licking a pink princess hoof while Octavia’s tongue worked up and down a long pink horn. She immediately looked down past the hoof she was still tonguing. As expected, the coat between Octavia’s hind legs was damp and matted, and the first couple inches of her long, silky tail were soaked through.

“Coming, babe,” she said huskily, planting kisses down the length of Octavia’s leg. “Same goes for you.”

Octavia beat against bed with her forelegs as Vinyl’s tongue worked its magic inside her. Another pang of regret crossed Vinyl’s mind as she ate out her lover. Once she’d gotten into the rhythm, Cadance had spent so much time—and done such a good job—pleasuring her that Vinyl’s break had run out before she could return the favor to her princess.

Octavia’s moans bordered on screams as Vinyl licked and sucked at her sopping marehood, alternating between the firm nub of her clit and the sweet slipperiness of her love canal. Vinyl couldn’t help wondering what Princess Cadance’s pussy would feel like inside and especially what she tasted like. She cursed herself for not at least sampling the latter. She’d had the perfect chance during their first go, but there was no way she could have known how the night would end up; at that point Cadance really had been just a random pegasus mare for all she knew.

Vinyl let her brooding go as she felt Octavia start to peak. She pressed her muzzle in with more force, bumping her snout against her clit and stretching her tongue deep inside her lover, flicking against a particular spot she knew quite well. Octavia’s lustful vocalizations hit a final crescendo and slowly faded as Vinyl gulped down the fruits of her labor and pulled back to give her surrounding coat a gentle, if not particularly thorough, cleaning.

Vinyl was met with a shaky kiss when she crawled up to snuggle beside her lover. She wrapped her hooves around the limp mare and couldn’t help giggling as Octavia gently licked her muzzle clean. When she finished and ended with another soft kiss, Vinyl shifted a little, rolling onto her back and cradling her lover with one arm while Octavia lay her head on Vinyl’s chest.

The two lovers simply held each other in silence for a while, basking in the post-orgasmic glow of each other’s company. Eventually, Octavia stirred a little, moving a hoof up to caress Vinyl’s belly.

“So, what piece of Pon-3 did your pretty pink pegasus get?” Octavia murmured, half into her chest, drawing Vinyl’s attention back to the oft-interrupted story once again.

Vinyl chuckled and moved her free hoof to stroke Octavia’s mane. “Same thing I just got from you, babe. She said she’d never eaten pussy before, but she picked it up really quick for a beginner.”

Octavia was silent for a long moment. The hoof she had on Vinyl’s stomach stopped cold and her whole body tensed up a little.

“Uh, babe? Something wrong?” Vinyl gave her shoulder a little shake, arching an eyebrow.

“I’m just a little confused, dear,” Octavia said quietly, her hoof still remaining fixed in place. “You seemed to imply just now that she was new to mares, and earlier you said that she didn’t recognize you at first.”

“Yeah…” Vinyl said cautiously, drawing the syllable out. She sensed a trap, but knew better than to go back on her word; Octavia’s memory was sharp as a tack.

“So then why would she have been pleasuring your horn in the first place?” Octavia’s tongue could be quite sharp as well. “Vinyl, I can tell when you’re holding something back, so spill.”

Octavia tilted her head and fixed Vinyl with a glare that was seldom used, but which the DJ knew was certain doom to challenge. Vinyl answered truthfully.

“Okay, okay! At first she thought I was her husband. I guess he has the same coat and mane color as I do and she was a little tipsy.” Vinyl scrunched her muzzle under Octavia’s intensified glare. “But it’s cool, we talked it over; no harm, no foul. Besides, round two was totally her idea.” Vinyl waved her free hoof frantically.

Octavia shook her head and planted her muzzle flat against Vinyl’s chest for a moment. “Oh, Vinyl…” Octavia lifted her head and fixed Vinyl with a pitying gaze. “Dear, haven’t I impressed upon you that you need to be more careful in selecting your paramours?”

She lay her head back down on Vinyl’s chest and let out a sigh. “I’m glad you don’t seem to be in any trouble, but I sincerely hope that your pegasus friend doesn’t run into any problems with her husband either.”

Vinyl gulped, resting her hoof back on Octavia’s mane. Her mind was suddenly overwhelmed with images of Cadance—no longer happy thoughts of partaking in princess intimacy, all her inner eye could see was a crying, distraught mare that she helped create. She shook her head, trying to dispel the unpleasant feelings.

“Yeah, me too.”

The bed springs creaked a little under the added weight as Shining Armor climbed up behind his wife. Cadance gave a shudder, feeling his hoof return to her flank. A deep breath hissed in through her clenched teeth as she felt the tip of his swollen member brush against her sopping folds.

Cadance buried her face in her damp pillow. Shining liked to tease her, which she usually adored, and even though she was clearly aroused already, it seemed like tonight would be no exception. Cadance let out a whimper as a pleasant tingle ran up her spine. His member nudged forward, bumping her aching clit, but he pulled away again, leaving her at the mercy of the relatively cold air.

The feeling didn’t last long; Shining’s hoof started to caress her and his teeth gently nibbled against her left cutie mark. Cadance fought to stay in the present, but her mind inexorably drifted back to her drunken haze in the club’s bathroom.

Her vision was a bit blurry, but that was definitely a bright white unicorn flicking a striped blue tail at her. Of course stallions always took less time in the bathroom, Cadance thought as she sauntered forward. Locking lips with him, she decided that she’d have to cut back on the drinks; she couldn’t even taste his beer over all of the cosmos lingering on her tongue.

She let her lips simply brush over the surface of his horn as they started to be more daring. Turnabout was fair play since he was up to his usual tricks, just teasing her with a hoof. When he went after her wings and started massaging them aggressively, She decided to change tactics. Perhaps a hornjob would get him to give her what she really wanted.

Cadance let out a moan. She felt a pressure on her dock as Shining gave her tail a little tug, breaking the train of her memory. Shining’s hoof was rubbing her clit in small circles, his teeth now nipping at her other cutie mark. A familiar heat began to burn hotter in her core, and as she sunk back into her memories, she felt torn in half between wanting Shining to hurry, or to keep to his usual, wonderful pace.

She hadn’t gotten what she wanted in the bathroom, and the reason was painfully obvious from the smooth, and rather damp, slit her hoof found between her supposed husband’s thighs. When the mare bumped noses and cracked a joke, part of her wanted to scream.

Unfortunately, her thoughts were a conflicting mess, and the alcohol certainly wasn’t helping matters. She was a princess, bigger and stronger than a little unicorn mare. She could easily run and summon a couple of guards to deal with the assault.

Except that wasn’t how it had happened. She, Cadance herself, had initiated it without checking to see who the pony was. It was hardly proper for a princess to ruin somepony’s life because of her own careless mistake, especially when the little unicorn was so immediately remorseful. And on top of that, she wasn’t even a stallion, so there was no cause to fret over the possibility of an unplanned pregnancy.

Cadance sunk her teeth into her pillow as she broke from her memories again. Shining’s hoof had been replaced by his tongue. Her stomach tensed up and her legs shook dangerously as his tongue played up and down her slit, teasing around her quivering entrance.

As he licked downward again, giving her clit the same careful treatment, Cadance called upon what little strength her sexually overwhelmed body possessed to lift her head from the pillow. She turned to Shining, opening her mouth to speak and coax him on, or even to beg if that was what it would take tonight.

All that escaped her lips was a squeak, followed by a long shuddering moan. In one slow, fluid movement, Shining repositioned, took a careful grip on each of her cutie marks with a hoof, and hilted himself inside her with patient care. He nickered above her as her inner walls gladly stretched to accommodate his thick member, squeezing back with gentle pressure.

Cadance felt new strength fill her limbs, keeping her upright as Shining’s warm presence filled her core and draped over her back. His hooves rested on her outstretched wings, and he nuzzled the small of her back, just between her wing joints. Even as her body recovered, her head swam again with the familiar feeling of a memory breaking to the surface, at once more distant, yet more connected.

A smirk curled Cadance’s lips as she headed for her quarters to retire for the evening. Her tri-colored tail swished from side-to-side, swinging from her strutting hips. The motion was enhanced by her extremely slender frame, only very recently grown up and not quite yet filled out.

Instead of the usual two guards, only a single unicorn in armor stood by the chamber door. Her grin grew wider as she strode purposefully down the hallway.

“Lieutenant,” she purred, “all by yourself tonight?”

Shining Armor grinned back. “It seems that my adjutant was needed on the training grounds, your highness. Short staff, you understand.”

“Well then, perhaps it would be better, more secure, if you were to guard me inside my quarters instead of in the corridor.” Cadance sauntered past, brushing her tail against Shining’s muzzle as she stopped in front of her quarters.

“I’m not sure that’s within regulations, your highness.” Shining’s face remained stoic this time, except for his eyes. They twinkled playfully as he winked.

Cadance turned, pointing her rump directly at Shining and lifting her tail to the furthest limits of decency as she looked back over her shoulder with half-lidded eyes. “I think it is, soldier,” her voice dropping to a husky tone she was only lately capable of. “As a Princess of Equestria, I order you to accompany me in my chambers for the night.”

The young soon-to-be-lovers wasted no time once the door was closed and locked, shedding armor and regalia. Foreplay was brief and fleeting as both were overeager to fulfill their desire.

Cadance nickered and stamped her hooves against the bed as Shining slowly parted her folds and joined with her for the first time. Compared to many nights together later in life, her first could hardly be called the best, but the warm feeling of the young stallion she loved cuddling her back and nuzzling her neck as they made love, was unforgettable.

Her wings quivered each time Shining slowly thrust inside. The hot, throbbing sensation of his stallionhood pressing in, filling her up, and intimately connecting with her blended smoothly out of her memory and back into the present. That Shining was a much more skilled lover now, and knew all the little quirks of her body only heightened her pleasure.

“Ooooh, Shiny!” Cadance’s voice pitched up in a high moan as Shining rutted her, his pace ramping up steadily. Unbidden, one corner of her mind sought desperately for a part of her tryst with Vinyl to connect the feeling to, but there was none; this feeling was a unique experience, so far.

Her voice dropped an octave, letting out a low groan as Shining hilted deep inside with a grunt of his own. Cadance’s back arched as she felt him nuzzle the side of her neck, their hips grinding against each other in a momentary break from Shining’s firm rutting.

Cadance turned her head and caught up her husband’s lips in a kiss. She moaned into his mouth as he shifted slightly, rubbing horns with her. Immediately as Shining began thrusting his hips again, Cadance felt the bedroom, the bed, even the night air itself drift away from her senses. Inside their own little bubble, only she and Shining existed.

She could feel the moment coming. Shining’s member throbbed inside as her passage and all of her muscles squeezed tighter in anticipation. Cadance clenched her teeth and squeezed her eyes shut, ignoring the tightly wound spring of her body as best she could, and focusing desperately on the feeling of Shining’s magic. She found the undercurrent beneath his power, that incomparable feeling of looking at her own magic in a mirror.

Cadance fixed her mind hard on Shining’s love turned to raw magic as a spark lit at the base of her own horn and shot upward. With one last hard thrust, Shining finished inside and Cadance’s spring sprung. Her body convulsed with a cry of ecstasy, her muscles clenching and relaxing completely out of her control.

She slumped down against the bed, Shining’s body following, draped over her like a blanket. After what seemed like an eternity of deep breaths, her body began to relax. Cadance’s eyes fluttered open slowly, and were immediately dazzled by the brilliant, persistent pink glow of an ethereal magic heart floating above her head.

Vinyl stared silently into the dark air of the bedroom, watching as wisps of smoke trailed from the charred wicks of the burnt out candles. Occasionally, Octavia shifted a little between Vinyl’s chest and forelegs—not quite asleep, but not far from it, either.

She gently buried her muzzle in Octavia’s silky mane, trying to clear her mind. But her bedmate’s earlier words still echoed inside her head, now interspersed with memories of all of her lovers—Cadance, Octavia, Lyra, Bon Bon, and others.

Vinyl couldn’t help remembering the look of horror on Cadance’s muzzle when she found a pussy instead of a dick between her legs. And it only got worse when she’d cracked a joke about it. Vinyl felt a sudden urge to crash a hoof into her muzzle, stopped only by the presence of the softly breathing mare cuddled up in her grip.

She settled for a quiet sigh. Sometimes she really needed somepony like Tavi to keep her in line. Not that she didn’t keep out of trouble most of the time, but it was all too easy to have one too many drinks on a rough night and make a mistake. She really was lucky that Cadance had accepted her apology so quickly.

Vinyl’s lips curled up as Octavia rolled a little again, tickling her muzzle as her mane slid across her nose. Tavi was level headed pretty much all the time, and just thinking about her would always make Vinyl smile. Freeing her muzzle before she ended up sneezing, Vinyl found her thoughts turning toward the only other married couple she knew well.

She and Octavia had known Lyra—first as a friend, then as an eager playmate—as far back as their college days. Between the three of them, they shared more than enough R&R to offset the pressures of their educational careers—at least until the culinary school party where Lyra met her soulmate.

Somehow Lyra had just known that she and Bon Bon were perfect for each other, and threw herself wholeheartedly into her new relationship. Bon Bon had been rather cool, almost cold at times, toward her and Octavia as soon as she found out just how close friends they’d so recently been with Lyra.

Vinyl had to admit that on her own, she probably would have lost a friend back then. But Octavia never let Bon Bon’s attitude get her down, or stop her from being the peak of politeness. And thanks to her efforts, and a little nudging from Lyra, just before they all graduated, the four of them were the good kind of cool. It certainly made for a fun graduation night foursome.

No one was surprised when Lyra and Bon Bon got engaged—although everyone was surprised that Bon Bon asked Lyra first, rather than the other way around. At the time, she hadn’t thought much about it, but now Vinyl had to wonder. She and Octavia had known each other—had been sleeping with each other, even—for years before Lyra and Bon Bon had even met. Yet, aside from some joking around, neither of them had ever tried to move their relationship beyond the friends with benefits stage.

Vinyl hugged Octavia a little tighter to her chest, Lyra still drifting through her thoughts. She’d put her heart and soul into hooking up with Bon Bon, so maybe that was the key. Maybe I need to take a string from Lyra’s harp.

“Mmm, Vinyl. Aren’t you asleep yet?” Octavia murmured, shrugging her shoulders a bit as she squirmed in Vinyl’s arms.

“Almost. Didn’t mean to wake you,” Vinyl replied automatically, the wheels in her mind still slowly turning. A light began to flicker on inside her head. “Hey, babe? What are you doing this weekend?”

“Hmm? I have a date with Parish on Friday night, otherwise I’m free.”

Parish, Vinyl thought, the name ringing a faint bell. No, strumming a faint harp. Vinyl suddenly recognized the name of the harpist from Octavia’s ensemble.

She’s going out with a stallion again instead of asking me out on a date. Vinyl squeezed her eyes shut, trying to think of a reason, until a single word echoed inside her brain. Foals. Octavia wanted to raise foals eventually. Vinyl shrugged. They could burn that bridge—find a stallion willing to stud for them—but first she had to get her hoof in the door.

“You wanna do something after that?” Vinyl asked, her resolve solidifying. “If you don’t mind two dates in the same weekend. I was thinking I’d let Neon have a shot at the main set for once. Take the night off and take you out somewhere, like old times.” Vinyl nuzzled Octavia’s mane for good measure and held her breath.

“I’d like that, Vinyl, love,” came the quiet reply, accompanied by a gentle kiss over her heart. “It’s been a while.”

Vinyl’s heart nearly leapt out of her chest, though a small portion of her mind—quickly ignored—wondered exactly why she was getting so excited over the prospect of settling down. She took a couple deep breaths to regain her composure. Maybe Octavia had just gotten so used to their usual routine that she hadn’t wanted to upset it. For a long time, she had too.

Vinyl spared one last thought for Princess Cadance. She was the Princess of Love, maybe that had something to do with it. Vinyl shrugged. Whatever it was, she felt happier than she had in a long time, ever since the bathroom at the club. She’d have to find a way to thank the princess later.

Maybe if Cadance squared things away with her husband Vinyl could get a threesome with her and Tavi, or even a foursome. They could make that one hell of a thank you. Vinyl hugged Octavia and gently stroked her mane, shaking her head and getting her mind back on things closer to home. She had until Saturday now to come up with something really romantic.

“Cool, babe. It’s a date.”

Vinyl yawned and closed her eyes, visions of Cadance and Octavia filling her dreams as sleep finally overtook her.

Cadance’s ear flicked in the dark bedroom as Shining’s warm breath tickled it. His strong arms circled her barrel and his chest rose and fell slowly against her back. Her eyes refused to close. They were fixed, but unseeing, on a shaft of moonlight casting a dim patch of light on the floor.

Relief spread itself across her mind like the warm, comforting blankets she lay under. Despite all her anguish for the past twenty-four hours, her love for her husband was no longer in doubt. Her memories of romantic moments with Shining, both in bed and out, burned as brightly as had the pink heart that was her love expressed through her magic.

But with the thought of her magical validation came doubt, nipping at her like the cold night air flowing in through the reopened bedroom window. It hadn’t burned quite as brightly, but her magic had produced the same effect with Vinyl. And even as she revelled in the renewed memories of her husband, she couldn’t shake off thoughts of the young DJ.

The ethereal pink heart, that reflection of her heart expressed in her magic, could not be denied. She’d produced the effect with Shining many times over. Especially at their wedding—though it came in a slightly different form by witness’ accounts—when her love and her magic powered Shining’s shield spell. The feeling in her horn and in her heart at the time had been the same.

Cadance let out a sigh, her wings rustling softly under the covers as she tried to piece together what she knew, now that she was relatively free of distractions. The alcohol and the smell of Vinyl’s arousal had been enough to light her fire, but something else about the DJ had pulled her heart into the equation.

Vinyl had mentioned a roommate and implied that they slept together on a regular basis, but also that casual sex was a normal part of her life. She thought back to the feeling of Vinyl’s magic coursing through her mind as they touched horns—that familiar feeling was undeniably love. Whether it was love directed at her because she was a princess, or love Vinyl shared with all her paramours, or love that emanated from some other source, Cadance did not know.

Whatever it was, feeling that love while pleasuring a mare for the first time in her life, knowing that her efforts elicited such a strong reaction, both mentally and physically, made her own body, heart, and mind respond. Even now, more than a day later, and with her renewed bonds with her husband, Cadance’s heart beat faster just thinking of the contented look on Vinyl’s muzzle, panting softly as she rested and recovered from the pleasure Cadance had given the her.

As Cadance pressed her head deeper into the pillow and closed her eyes to try and coax herself to sleep, another thought asserted itself in her mind. She was a princess and her domain was love, but until the previous night, she had only experienced love with a single stallion. Vinyl had demonstrated skill with both unicorn and pegasus partners on her body, and had expressed a desire to make ponies happy.

While she might emphasize the physical aspects, in some ways, Vinyl might be even more a champion of love than she herself was. She lived a lifestyle Cadance had no firsthoof experience with, yet it was one that she could learn about. To put her mind at ease, she was going to have to learn more about the ways and means of Vinyl Scratch.

At the idea of seeing the DJ again, her heart fluttered and she felt a slight stirring between her thighs. She turned her head a bit and peeked at her sleeping husband out of the corner of her eye. Cadance let out another sigh, mentally kicking herself for putting off telling Shining about her indiscretion.

I definitely have to talk to Shining.

Author's Note

The events of Desperation Manifestation take place between this chapter and the next.

Reading it is not absolutely essential, but it will certainly help. And if you've enjoyed this story, I'm sure you'll enjoy that one as well.