NOIRE POV

"How do I look?" I said, turning around in my flashy new armour. It was the afternoon, the time where Shining said he was going to pick me up for my first day as a guard. A week had passed since Shining Armour (or 'Captain' when around other guards) recruited me, which was certainly shocking for everyone, even for the princesses. Speaking of them, Celestia and Luna left a couple of days ago but not before giving me some advice. Advice that still confuses me. "'Never think of your power as just magic'" Celestia told me before flying away with her sister in her golden carriage. I remember how serious she looked when she told me as if she had seen the world die a hundred times. At first, I thought she probably was just worried I would launch something more than a pen into the ceiling or just throw the pen into someone's eye.

Anyway, back to guard stuff, the training was exhausting but fulfilling. A whole week. 10 hours a day and by the LORD was Shining tough. He personally trained me to get me in peak condition. Before, I was not that muscular. I had some muscle on me but nothing to turn heads for. Now, I looked like I belonged in the guard, at least a little bit like I did. My muscles were starting to show themselves and I had memorised every form of self-defence and detainment known to guards. Shining spared me no expense, making sure my body was broken just so he could build me back up again like some kind of artist. To say Cadence was impressed was an understatement; she was ecstatic. She loved how Shining and I were spending more time together and sort of getting along. She even took the liberty of getting me my own set of armour. Most of these ponies were around 6 foot and massive, so wearing their armour would look like a child wearing their parents' clothes. The armour was a perfect fit. I don't know for the life of me how she managed to get my measurements though.

"Noire? You okay" Cadence said, waving a hand in front of me to try to get my attention. I quickly snapped out of my trance, looking at her attentively "I said you look like a stud in that. Any maid would jump at the chance to get with you" she said slyly.

"Really, because I think any mare who saw me who didn't know that I was would jump out the window" I countered "I'm not exactly a prize just yet." I knew I should've been used to this now but in my first THREE DAYS I managed to get myself impaled by a horn, almost destroy a marriage and nearly get decapitated by an immortal, moon-moving princess so, at that point, I was waiting for pigs to fall from the sky.

"Nonsense! You're just nervous about your first day. You'll be fine as long as you just listen to your orders, not speak unless spoken to and poker face" she said, showing me her guard impression "Although, that may not be a problem seeing as you look like that every day." I remember a part of my self-esteem shattering at that moment.

"I wonder why you aren't the princess of unintentional insults instead of love," I ask her.

A fully armoured Shining Armour came in, looking as ready as he usually is. "Love sounds nicer. A princess of insults would get a much longer line of butthurt idiots looking for comebacks to stick it to their friends" he said nonchalantly "Time for our patrol. Try to not screw up."

"Ah, I was wondering where my daily vote of confidence was" I countered. Over tie, our 'friendship' has improved slightly through our banter. We also made it easier to be around each other by arm-wrestling and the loser has to pay for the drinks. So far Shining has won every single one but he still pays, seeing as I'm flat broke. He may be warming up to me but I can't tell. Can't really get a read on that guy when he's in guard mode. Kind of like most of the guards around here. Back to the present, Shining gives Cadence a kiss before beckoning for me to follow him.

"Come on, before we go on patrol, we need to get you a sword. A guard without a weapon is useless in the face of danger," he said. I waved goodbye to Cadence and set off with Shining to the armoury.

SHINING POV

Noire looks decent in guard's armour and with his training lessons with me as well as his magic, he could prove to be quite a beneficial addition to our forces. Over the past week, I have come to know Noire whether I wanted to or not. How he feels about me, how he feels about Cadence, how he feels about ponykind in general. I realised he never wanted to harm our relationship and even if unintentionally, opened my eyes to who was really wrecking the relationship; myself. However, I am afraid of how dangerous he could truly be because we know he's more than just human. We ran many tests on him and we came up with nothing. Nothing in his heart, blood or brain that can explain what he could be. Cadence tells me to stop worrying about it but the fear still haunts me, which is why I started having therapy sessions secretly, paperwork and my 'apologising' (Yes I haven't finished; Not until she says so). Speaking of Cadence, our relationship has gotten better than before. We spend more time talking about our days, eat together and well... you know... the 'apologising' has been occurring more often.

"Hey Shining will this one work?" I snapped myself out of my delusion and found myself inside the armoury with Noire holding a longsword. The handle was black with a blue gem inside. I took the sword for further inspection and It was flawless. The blade was so sharp I almost cut myself. This was truly the work of a master blacksmith.

"Where did you get this sword, Noire?" I asked. I never saw this in the armoury and if I did, I would be using this sword myself but seeing as Noire found it he gets to use it. I trust him at least that much.

"It was just with the other swords on the railing. It confuses me though. It looks nothing like the other blades in here and when I picked it off the rail, I could feel it latching on to me" he said looking at the blade ominously "Almost like it was happy to see me."

I gave the sword back to him and he put it in one of the sheaths we had in the armoury "Well if it made you feel like that then it must mean you two were meant to be together. It is a common thing for a warrior to have a bond with their weapon. If a weapon is to light, it is too accepting of you. If it is too heavy, it is rejecting you. A sword must weigh just right for you to know in your heart that this is the weapon for you" Noire only stared at me for a moment before nodding and walking out of the armoury. I went after me thinking to myself When I picked up the sword, it was so heavy I could barely lift the thing but when Noire held it, he did it with no fuss. Does this mean Noire has more potential than me? I guess time will tell.

NOIRE POV

"AN HOUR?!!!" I exclaimed, gaining the attention of several ponies in the area. They were in the centre of the Crystal Empire, where business was booming and the snobbish nobles were abundant. Ever since the Crystal Empire, ponies have come from all stretches of Equestria to trade their products for the empire's large amount of gems. This explained why there were just as many normal ponies as crystal ponies.

"Don't yell so loud. Cadence doesn't know I'm here and I want this to stay a secret to stop her from worrying herself into a grave. Plus, this will serve as disciplinary training for you so suck it up" Shining said, walking into the building "Also, if you leave, I get to dock your pay."

"YOU DON'T PAY ME ASSHOLE!!!" I yelled back but the door had already slammed shut "dammit." I crossed his arms and leaned against the wall of the building, grumbling in anger. I gained a lot of staring ponies but they merely passed by. A lot of nobles looked at me in disgust and a few attempted to prod my side to see if he was alive or not.

Two guards passing by saw me standing and went over to inspect me. One of them, a copper brown earth pony smiled and asked "Who let a midget wear the armour of a royal guard. He looks much more like a bootlicker than a warrior. HEY YOU!!! If you're alive in there, lick my boots. They're getting a little dirty!" I only stared blankly at him. This caused the guard to get angry and readied a fist aimed at his face. I anticipated this, catching the fist before it could reach my face. The guard growled and tried to hit me with his other fist but before he could, I sent him flying back with an uppercut to his jaw. The other guard went over to the now unconscious stallion, yelling about how I would pay for this. I paid no mind to his empty threat and continued to lean there peacefully.

What would baggage Shining has that would need him to go to therapy I thought to myself, completely unaware of the crowd of ponies that had swarmed around me, wondering what they just saw.

SHINING ARMOUR POV

I was sat in a recliner chair like the one my therapist had. Because of my high position, I had the privilege of having Mr Mindful himself see to my therapy. He was a green unicorn with a grey mane. He wore a teal sweater over a white shirt and black tie. He tended to scratch his neck when he was thinking, which is what he was doing before leaning forward in his chair and looking at me intensely. "Concerning these feelings who have been feeling for 'Cadance'," he said using quotation marks as mentioning her actual name would ruin the process "My hypothesis is that this is a side effect of being under her control for a long period of time. You told me that you were under her control for a week, correct?"

"Yes, I remember 'Cadence' casting a spell on me a week ago and then nothing. The memories returned the night after I was freed" I said. I thought back to that night, the nightmare I had about her ravishing me. Me ravishing her. I remember the stain on the sheets when I woke up disgusting me to the extent that I spent half an hour puking my guts out.

"Now before we finish this session, I should remind you of the drugs you've been taking," he said, pointing at the bottle of pills he gave me marked "Neuro-Oxil" "They can stop the nightmares but you must only take 1 per night. Any more could harm your bodily functions we don't even know yet. I only gave you those drugs because you were insistent that I help you get rid of this side of you as soon as possible but I will not have you die for it." It was true that I was very persistent in using the new drug that Mindful had been developing. It helped how I was a prince and Mindful needed a test subject. I was lucky to not have died with the first dose he gave me a week ago and from what Mindful is suggesting, the new one would have the same risk. However, if it helped me recover from my 'side-effects' then it was worth the risk. "Thank you, Mr Mindful. You have no idea how much this means to me" I said, almost outside the door.

"Thank me when you're over her your highness," he said, mocking a bow. I chuckled at the display and left the room.

When I left the building, Noire was standing there silently before seeing me and left his position on the wall.

"So how did it go?" he asked impatiently. I chuckled at the sight, remembering my first day on the job. Being just as impatient as him. I was getting warmed up to him with every passing day and by this point, I could even consider us friends... Wow, that was not something I would've said a week ago. Maybe he just has that likeable personality that makes him easy to get along with. I should probably give him another test to see how he is around other ponies. Now that I mention it, I just introduced the world's first human in over 10,000 years so nonchalantly. Cadence should probably announce him to the public sometime this week. Wouldn't want people thinking he's some kind of monster like I did (and somewhat still do).

I digress, I smiled "Just great, now let's go back," I said merrily "Oh and for the next week, you will be assigned to a squad. I'll give you more details tomorrow," Noire nodded and followed me around the city to start our actual patrol.

It was night-time before I knew it and everyone was either heading to bed or doing their night shift (poor them). I was cuddling next to Cadence, her warm fur next to mine as we dozed off to the land of dreams but as we did I looked back to the bottle of pills and said to myself "I better wake up in the morning or else Cadence and Mindful are going to kill me..." before closing my eyes.

DREAMWORLD

All I could see was darkness until I heard a figure walking up to me. I couldn't see or move, only hear the footsteps grow louder and louder. A voice suddenly called out from the darkness "Why would you want to keep me out, my love?" My breath went cold at the voice I remembered too well; Chrysalis I didn't get i. How was this happening? Mindful's previous drug did the trick and the new one was supposed to be better than the last so why am I here, being toyed with by the woman of my nightmares? How come Luna hasn't picked up on this and stopped this? "I will ask again. Why would you want to keep me out? I loved you. Made love to you in a way that whore that runs around with exotic creatures could never do. She's going to eventually leave you for him, you know and you will come crawling back to me. When you do I will care for you, listen to you and hold you tightly," I could feel two soft orbs slide down my stomach as well as a wet tongue. The painful pleasure of feeling her unbutton my pants and grab my exposed member drove me up the wall. I had to stop her, I needed to stop her but I couldn't. My limbs wouldn't move, I couldn't use magic and a part of me wanted her to continue.

I could feel her tongue slowly wrap itself around my member and forcing it into her mouth, causing me to moan in pleasure. She took it all in stride and played with my balls. I couldn't take any more of this teasing and I raised my arms to hold her in place as I came into her mouth. "No... nononononononononononono" I repeated to myself. I could have used that movement to get away from her but instead, I welcome her love like a piece of scum. It was over though, as I pulled her off my member and forced her down on her knees and aimed my member at her lower lips. All sight returned to me and I found myself in my room with Cadence strapped down in a chair. Her eyes were stained red with tears and she was whispering to herself "Shining, you traitor". Before I could call out to her to tell her I didn't want this, I had already plunged straight into hell.

"Yes, my love..." she said as my vision returned to black...

CADENCE POV

I woke up in the middle of the night to find an empty side of the bed. I got out of bed and looked around to see if there was any sign. I saw a light coming from the bathroom and muttering. I slowly crept up on the door and peeked through the crack. I gasped in shock when I found Shining on the toilet masturbating while crying and muttering to himself.

"I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry..."

Author's Note

Yeah If there was any better time to add a sex tag to this, now would be the time. I was planning on not including sex in this story but now it feels necessary seeing as I've made so many innuendos.

Anyway, I hope you guys liked this Shining chapter. The next one will be focused more on Noire and after that, I plan on making the ending of this arc a straight answer on whether Shining trusts Noire or not and an explanation on what the ever loving butt-wipes is the 'code'.

26/09/18- Edited for pacing issues