Dusk Shine's New Gleam

“Perhaps I should look into investing some of my bits,” Gleaming Shield said. “Which company has stationary manufacturing as part of its portfolio?”

Sarcasm wasn’t something Gleaming Shield often employed, but she believed it to be a better method than outright contempt for the paperwork that occupied her desk. Were the enemy to invade right now, they would be unable to capture her. All Gleaming needed to do was hide behind the impenetrable wall of papers.

“You could just let me do some of it, you know,” offered her secretary, a pegasus by the name of Westwind.

Gleaming scoffed. “Yes, I could, but then some bureaucrat would recognise your writing and reject everything in this pile, even the stuff I did. Or you’d get some self-pretentious supremacist prick who insists she can’t read wingwriting because, well, 'because', and then I’d have to redo it all by myself.”

Westwind was quiet for a few seconds, contemplating, before he said, “Wouldn’t it be better to have a unicorn secretary instead of me, then?”

“No, not at all,” Gleaming insisted. “You’re the best logistics pony I’ve ever had. I swear to Celestia sometimes the Guard would fall apart within three days without you over some minor quibble, like not enough oats in their morning meals, or their new horseshoes not being the right size.”

“I wonder if that’s supposed to be a vote of confidence in me, or a vote of no-confidence in everypony else,” said Westwind.

“It’s a vote for you,” said Gleaming, reassuring him. Given Gleaming Shield was planning on leaving Canterlot soon to move to Ponyville, she needed a stable roster of ponies to support her vice-captain when he inevitably became captain of the Royal Guard in Canterlot. While her vice-captain wasn’t quite as good at the administrative side of the job as Gleaming herself was, with ponies like Westwind around she wasn’t too worried.

Idly, Gleaming Shield took a glance at the clock. Lunchtime was coming up. More importantly, there was only forty hours until the Sword of Damarecles came down on her, only Gleaming was looking forward to it, and she would never describe her brother’s cock as a ‘sword’. A spear maybe, but not a sword.

Oh Princesses she was hungry, and it wasn’t for regular food.

There was a knock on the door. “Come in,” Gleaming Shield called out.

The door opened, and in stepped Princess Cadance. “Is this a good time, Gleaming Shield?” The pink-coated mare asked. “I wanted to discuss a few things about dinner tomorrow night.”

Gleaming took a look at the clock again, before directing her attention to her pegasus secretary. “Westwind, go take your lunch break now,” she ordered. “Princess Cadance and I have some things to talk about, preferably privately.”

“Yes, Captain,” said Westwind. He gave her little fuss, only taking several seconds to clean up his desk before he trotted out of the office, closing the door behind him.

As soon as he was gone, Cadance immediately turned around, and her and Gleaming Shield suddenly dropped to the floor.

“Sunshine, sunshine, ladybugs awake, clap your hooves and do a little shake,” said each mare as they went through an odd routine of peeking out from behind their hooves, following by bumping their hooves and then shaking their rear ends at one another.

Gleaming let out a little giggle. “Even now we still do this song and dance routine.”

“Well, it wasn’t for nothing I made you one of my bridesmaids,” Cadance said in agreement.

The captain let out a contented sigh as she remembered the fonder parts of that day, deftly choosing to ignore the other parts of the wedding between Prince and Princess. Then her eyes refocused past Cadance to see the paperwork back on her desk. “I’m going to take an educated guess and say you’ve got more paperwork than I do.”

Cadance followed Gleaming’s glance and huffed as she saw the pile of paperwork. “Something like that. Fortunately, Bluey does the lion’s share of the paperwork. It wasn’t just good looks I married him for. If I didn’t have him, I’m certain I would have borrowed Dusk away from Ponyville to spend a week or three getting through it.”

Gleaming Shield giggled again at that. During the time Cadance had been Dusk’s babysitter, Gleaming and Cadance had gotten to know one another well. Each was quite familiar with Dusk Shine’s quirks, such as his love of organisation. Bringing the Crystal Empire into the modern age would have been something he either fell in love with or the task that would finally turn him off of paperwork for good.

“I’m sure he’ll make his way down there again, if only for the books,” said Gleaming.

“Yes, perhaps. I’m a little bit envious of you, though,” said Cadance.

“Oh? Why is that?” Gleaming Shield asked.

“Well, once you move to Ponyville, Dusk will no doubt take care of most of your paperwork for you, so you can actually go out and about most hours of the day.”

“Wait, what?” Gleaming asked, her thoughts suddenly coming to a halt. “Why would you think I would be moving to Ponyville?”

Cadance rolled her eyes. “Oh, please. I’ve seen the way you two looked at one another yesterday at functions. It’s obvious you two are far more than brother and sister. Well, that, and Auntie isn’t quite as subtle with her hints as she thinks she is. So, tell me the details, Gleamy,” Cadance said, suddenly breathless with anticipation.

Gleaming Shield reddened. “I’m not telling you!” She insisted.

“Oh, why is that? Don’t be shy, I won’t blab to anyone, not even Bluey,” Cadance promised. “So what’s the scoop, girl? How did it start? Were you each in a hurry one day and only had one shower, and had to share? Did you literally run into him and fall head-over-plot? Was it a slow-burning thing where you slowly realised you loved each other, like loved-loved?”

“Cady!” Gleaming squealed.

“And what about when the two of you get into bed?” Cadance continued, either oblivious to or ignoring Gleaming Shield’s rising embarrassment. “Does he caress you gently like a gentlestallion, whispering sweet couplets into your ear? Or do you like it a little bit rougher as he pounces on you and makes your knees buckle with how good it feels? Or perhaps it’s the other way around, where you dominate him.”

“Cadance, stop, please, stop!” Gleaming Shield pleaded.

“Aww.” Cadance pouted. “Auntie mentioned what she did before. I’m sorry, Gleamy, you just looked so cute there, I couldn’t resist. You have the most adorable squeak, you know.”

“Yes, and I prefer only Dusk hears that,” Gleaming snapped back, only for her eyes to bulge as she realised what she had said. Gleaming slapped her hoof up in front of her mouth, but the damage had been done.

She would swear Princess Cadance had some feline ancestry, the way the pink-coated pony suddenly looked like the Coltshire Cat. Gleaming swallowed. Cadance had her dead to rights if the other pony wanted to resume her teasing again.

“Oh, relax. I already got my entertainment for today,” Cadance said, letting out a hearty laugh for several seconds. “In truth, I just came to check that you were going to be able to come to dinner at your parents’ place tomorrow night.”

“I will, if I can ever get through this pile of paperwork,” Gleaming Shield groused.

“And if you ask Dusk to help, you’ll end up getting distracted and fall even farther behind,” Cadance said.

“Yes, quite possibly. Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll hear all about it soon, since something Dusk and I thought was secret obviously wasn’t,” Gleaming said in a deadpan tone. Tease me once, fool on me. Tease me twice, still fool on me. Well Cadance, you won’t get to tease me again, I’ve had enough of this! Having been reduced to an embarrassed wreck for the third time in three days, Gleaming was certain she was inured to it.

“So, have you talked about foals yet?” Cadance asked, attempting to keep the subject on something she did indeed want to hear more about. "Me and Bluey would like to try for one soon, just as soon as things get settled down a little up north."

“Briefly,” Gleaming acknowledged, sparing the more savory details. “Dusk did mention that if, no, when we did have foals, they would be alicorns. Is that certain?”

“Yes,” Cadance confirmed. “Auntie mentioned the same thing. Her and Luna had foals thousands of years ago, but having to bury their children who eventually died of old age depressed them so much the two have had periods of either celibacy or lots of contraception.”

“Oh.” Gleaming sucked in a deep breath of air. Cadance had managed to do a good job of killing the mood in the room, along with just a little bit too much information about the older Princesses’ sexual exploits.

“So when you and I have foals, they’ll all be alicorns. I’m sure we can even babysit one another’s foals, so long as they’re not too rambunctious. Of course, I’m sure you’ll have plenty of time in Ponyville, once Dusk decides to do all your paperwork and you nurse your many, many foals,” Cadance added in a teasing manner. “Just make sure not to have too many, I wouldn’t want to feel like we’re having a reproduction arms race between Ponyville and the Crystal Empire, even if you do love your brother very deeply.”

“Cadance!” Gleaming whimpered. Unable to take it anymore, she quickly moved behind the desk, huddling underneath the piles of paper that surrounded her on every which side.

“Perhaps I overdid it?” Cadance asked herself. “Well, I can see why Dusk loves her, at least. She really is cute when she turns red like that.”

“Lalalah, not listening!” Gleaming said, though her voice was muffled.