At her King's Service

The soft light of a small lamp, resting on the bedside table, illuminated the room with its golden glow, casting shifting shadows on the walls and tapestries as the flame danced and swayed. On one end of the room sat the bed, large enough to almost take up the entire wall, its wooden bedposts finely sculpted and the curtains tied to them a deep and royal crimson lined with gold. The headboard was decorated with a detailed engraving in a heart-shaped pattern, and against it rested two tall and soft-looking pillows, snow white to match the delicate colour of the elegantly folded sheets.

Usually, elegantly folded. If one entered the room during the day. At that moment, though, the sheets were crumpled to a messy tangle of cloth resting at the bottom of the mattress, part of it dangling off the edge, occasionally pushed forward by the hooves of the two bodies entwined on the bed.

The snapping wet click of a kiss breaking sounded almost unnaturally loud in the otherwise almost silent room, far above the low murmur of hot breaths and bodies grinding against each other, and was soon followed by another, as Shining moved his mouth from his wife's to her neck and began to softly nibble at her flesh. His arms locked around Cadance's slender frame, he ran his fingers through her mane and over her feathers, lovingly stroking her. He dove up for another kiss, but was stopped by a hand pushing against his broad, muscular chest. He let go of his wife and used his arms to lift himself up, staring down at her with tired eyes and a poorly concealed look of hurt on his face.

"I'm sorry, dear, it's just..." Cadance looked to the side, biting the corner of her lips as she tried to avoid her husband's gaze. "I'm not feeling it."

With a tired sigh and a stifled grunt, Shining pushed himself to a side and turned to look up, allowing his body to fall on the mattress with a muted thud. He brought his hands up to rub the sleepiness off of his face, then settled his arms on his chest and stared at the ceiling. "I'm sorry," he said after a while.

Cadance failed to suppress a grunt, her expression hardening into a cold and bitter mask.

Shining tentatively moved a hand to her side, searching for her own, but was met with a snap of rejection as the alicorn swatted his away and pulled her arms up to rest crossed below her ample chest.

"Cady, I-"

"No!" the princess snapped, raising her voice above the normal speaking volume. "I'm done with this thing, Shining! I'm tired of having to hear the same exact thing every night, I'm tired of your excuses, and I'm tired of you saying you'll try to fix things. I don't want you to be sorry, Shining, I want you to do something!"

Shining's words caught in his throat. "I..."

Cadance let out a defeated exhale, covering her face with her hands and slowly inhaling to calm herself down. "Look," she began, propping herself up with an elbow to look at him, "I know you're tired, and I know it's hard, and I know that you dislike this situation as much as I do, but sometimes it just feels like you aren't trying. I just want you to be the way you used to, am I asking too much? Do you not love me like you used to? I don't know what to do."

"Cady," Shining breathed in a loving tone, shifting to lie on his side and look at her. "You know I love you."

"Do I?"

Shining frowned. "You can always check if you don't trust me," he replied, bitterness creeping into his tone.

"You know I'd never do that," Cadance replied, "You know I trust you." She looked down. "Though at this point maybe I'm just afraid of finding out," she added.

Shining's expression softened, turning to a sad smile. He stretched a hand towards his wife, caressing the upper slopes of her breasts before moving up her neck and to her chin, lifting her head to have her look at him. "I'm sorry, Cady, and I mean it. I'm just tired. It's been hard lately, having to train all the new recruits on top of all the rest. Just, let me get through this one, and I promise things will get better after."

Cadance looked at him, then she pushed his hand away with a scowl. "No."

Shining wore a confused expression. "Cady, what-"

"It's always the same, Shining. Always the same fucking story," the alicorn half-yelled. "First it was keeping up with Flurry, then it was fixing things after what Chrysalis had done, then more recruits to train, then it was making sure that everything was in order in the Empire during the holidays, then visiting Twilight, then it was fixing things after Sombra's attack, and now this! When was the last time you weren't tired? Do you think I am not just as tired as you are? Don't act like things have gotten worse now, Shining, this has been going for longer than I am willing to tolerate."

Shining opened his mouth to speak, then closed it and looked away. After a low exhale, he said, "You're right. It has been too long. But I am tired, Cadance, and I'm sorry, but I don't think I can give you what you want."

Cadance snorted. "You seemed eager enough to get things done when it was Celestia asking you a favour. Where was your tiredness then, uh, Captain? Not that hard for you to do something if it involves you taking orders. Did she have to whip you to convince you, or was that what she promised in return?"

Shining frowned, raising his tone as he asked, "Cadance, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying I should have seen it coming back when I saw you drooling over Chrysalis. Bet you wish she were the one you ended up with, wouldn't have to pretend like you wouldn't rather get your face sat on than having to use that dick like you're supposed to!" the alicorn replied, raising her already high tones, eyes threatening to burn a hole through her husband's face.

Shining lifted himself up, his expression hardening further, his tones sharper and louder as he rebuked, "Celestia's orders were highly important, Cadance, orders I had to answer to. But forgive me if I tried to get back here as quickly as I could. And for your information no, there was no whipping involved." He stared into the other's eyes, finding no change in her expression, and hissed, "Don't you fucking dare talk about my time with Chrysalis like that, you've got no idea of what I went through."

"Well you do have quite some energy left in you, it looks like. Are you really tired, or do you just not want to?" Cadance replied, almost sitting up.

Shining forced his lips closed against a flood of remarks bubbling from within him, reducing it all to a loud grunt.

The two stared silently at each other, for several long seconds, as the flame in the lamp danced. At last, Cadance lowered her gaze. "I'm sorry."

Immediately, all anger drained away from Shining's face, and he dropped back onto the bed, moving a hand to stroke his wife's mane. "It's alright. I get it."

Hidden from Shining's view, Cadance's expression grew to one of annoyance at the stallion's abrupt softening. Tentatively, trying to put just the right inflection to her words, she began, "What am I supposed to do? Go ask Sunburst for a ride? I know he'd do it, he can barely keep it in his pants every time he sees me. He'd at least put in the effort." She lay back onto the bed.

Shining gave an annoyed scoff, but nothing more.

"Hell, even Flash would be up for it. He's only worth something because Twilight's got him on a leash, and he'd still risk it all for a chance to tap this ass." A flash of indignation coloured her voice. "And you're throwing away the chance! Best fuck in the Empire and you'd rather cuddle!"

"That was impolite," Shining responded dryly. "Twilight would not appreciate that."

"Would she not?" the alicorn mockingly asked. "I know I wouldn't have had a problem with you giving some of the other cheerleaders a ride, would have shown those sluts what they were missing out on by not being me. Would have shut them up about how I was supposedly bullshitting when I talked about how much of a fucking stud you were, too. Shown those bitches I wasn't lying when I said you could go all night." She paused. "Guess that wouldn't be the case any more now, huh?"

Shining remained silent.

Cadance looked back at him. "I... I just want to go back to the way things were. I want to be with you, Shining. But you're not the same anymore. Ever since Flurry was born. What happened to the stallion who'd come back from a whole day of training and then fuck me for hours and hours? What happened to the stallion who railed me so hard he broke the bed on our wedding night?"

"I thought there was more to us than that."

"There is!" Cadance put a hand to her face. "It's just... It's not the same any more. You're not the same. This isn't the stallion I married. What happened?"

Shining swallowed, clicking his tongue, unsure of what to say. "It'll be alright," he tried after a bit.

"Will you try to make things better?"

The unicorn stopped for a moment. "Just... Just give me a month. I promise it'll get better, just, let me sort things out first, okay?"

Cadance looked to the side. Bitterness creeping in her tone, she replied, "Fine."

Shining drew back his arm, and used his magic to lift the blankets back up. "I love you."

"I love you too," Cadance replied. She turned to the other side, giving her back to Shining, and snuffed out the flame with a flicker of her magic.