Manehattan, Manehattan Hotel, Las Pegasus – April 3, 3:05 AM

“Oh, fuck me. Not even morning yet? Goddam…”

Shining Armor, the fabulous, blue-maned, unicorn Prince of the Crystal Empire, was about to vocally express his frustration before noticing he was not the only one in the hotel suite as a beautiful mare continued to sleep peacefully next to him oblivious to his brief outburst. Instead of lying his head back down on the pillow to drift back to sleep, Shining instead stepped out of the king sized bed rubbing his eyes as he walked out of the bedroom towards the dry bar located in the living room.

“I could use a buzz right now. So, what the hell?” The white stallion thought to himself as he poured and took a shot of bourbon which burned his throat yet satisfied his taste buds.

The bourbon shot was exhilarating to the point where Shining could not help himself but to indulge in more as his unicorn magic lifted the bottle to his lips and took a huge swig of the aged spirit as he started heading towards the hotel balcony which overlooked the lights and action of the Las Pegasus Strip below.

“Perhaps I should’ve went on the strip tonight since I barely get out this way.” Shining Armor thought to himself as this was a great party destination to temporarily escape from his problems; but ultimately, the mare in the suite with him this moment became his fixation for the night.

In his current circumstance, the only party he was going to get a taste of right now was running down his throat in the form of 75-year-old aged spirit. The night air had a slight chill even as Equestria changed seasons over to Spring a few weeks prior; however, spending the last few years in the Crystal Empire located in the arctic north has made the chill right now rather bearable, especially with the burning feeling of bourbon sliding down his gullet. Many of his recent years being married to the love of his life, serving as the Prince of the Crystal Empire, and being a father have made Shining Armor one of the happiest stallions in Equestria, or at least most of the time he did.

“Maybe I could’ve snuck onto the Manehattan coaster? It’s not like I can get air sickness on a roller coaster, right?” Shining spoke to himself as he chuckled realizing he could not correctly levitate the bottle to his lips in his current drunken state as if felt rather heavy to lift.

The great battle for Equestria against Tirek, Queen Chrysalis and Cozy Glow happened a little under five years ago now, and life has changed for the better as ponies, griffons, dragons, yaks, hippogriffs, changelings, and all other creatures across the land as they now feel like a single unit and no longer kept themselves separate from each other. All the lands opted to instead open their borders and provide hospitality to welcome all creatures into their lands along with the intention to maintain great unity in case there ever is another time to face evil comes about once again. But despite managing to reach what would be a period of happiness for every creature, the great battle is now just a memory for most as every-creature has gone back on with their normal lives, or at least almost every-creature.

“Aw! Shit, fuck, ass, motherfucker!” The drunken stallion shouted as he accidentally used too much power and levitated the bottle too high and poured a quarter of the bottle onto his head and mane.

The past year of Shining Armor and Princess Cadance’s marriage has been on a downward spiral as the couple have become distant and bitter towards each other and have unable to compromise and work together for the sake of their love and partnership. For the Princess of Love, her biggest issues with her husband has been the fact that he went back into the Canterlot Royal Guard as a trainer for new recruits without first consulting her about it, and now spends much of his time away in Canterlot, and thus is far from her and their ever-growing daughter. As for Shining Armor, he felt he has gradually went from a co-leader to a figurehead being reduced to minimal duties and being overshadowed as his wife started to gradually take on more leadership upon herself and started working overtime and gave lesser attention to her family, and on many days the Prince was the only one taking care of Flurry Heart and went to bed by himself on many night. It would be all this toxicity within their marriage up to this day that would be a result of this very night in Las Pegasus, where he may have committed one of his biggest regrets of his life.

“Um, Shining Armor? Darling?”

The Prince heard a voice call out to him from behind which startled him, and caused him to accidentally lose his magical grip on the bottle of bourbon and started its quick freefall to the balcony floor where it met an untimely demise shattering into countless pieces on impact. Shining Armor stared at the shattered glass before turning his eyes toward the source of the voice; it happened to come from the mare whom he shared the bed with tonight along with other things. The stallion knew the only mare he should share a bed with is with his wife; however, it was a split decision the moment he decided to hop into bed with another mare this night as it was mostly just to spite her as she has not been willing to show him any love to him for some time even before taking the new job at Canterlot. The mare in question he engaged in intercourse with tonight was not some random stranger or a callmare, but rather one of his sister Twilight’s friends he happened to meet by chance in one of the bars in the hotel: the white, fashionista unicorn Rarity.

She started to speak as her eyes shifted from looking at him to the broken piece of glass. “Um…I’m sorry for startl….”

“Well isn’t that fucking embarrassing?” He laughed at his mistake.

“I was trying to….”, She continued before getting interrupted again.

“I mean I just dropped like a 75-year-old bottle of bourbon! What a crime I’ve committed! I should be locked up for…”

“Keep your voice down.” The unicorn tried to calm the drunken stallion as she started to get a little infuriated at he failed to show the slightest bit of attention to her.

“Haha. Wha…what should I keep down?!”

She finally could not take it anymore. “Your fucking voice.”

Rarity then levitated the glass pieces as so nopony would hurt themselves and put her hoof over neck leading him back inside as he remained in his drunken state. She led him back into the bedroom and helped him onto the bed as he stumbled and fell on the mattress.

“Whoa what was the push for? Are you that desperate to have me?” Shining Armor chuckled.

The unicorn rolled her eyes and used her mouth to pull the blanket over the stallion and soon stepped out the room for a minute to find a trash receptacle to dump the bourbon bottle remains in. She assumed it was in the kitchen and was trotting towards it and, to her convenience, found a receptacle right at the entrance of the room. Using her front left hoof, she pressed down on the floor lever and dumped the broken glass inside, and as she completed the task questioned to herself how much Shining Armor drinks on average. Rarity stopped pondering and then headed back towards the master bedroom where she hoped Shining Armor remained rather than stumbling back towards the dry bar. Stepping into the bedroom, she was rather relieved to find the prince out of it and resting peacefully and at that moment felt it was time to get back to her hotel room also located within the Manehattan, Manehattan Hotel; however, it was a few floors below and it was nothing close to being as nice as this suite.

“Well, sleep tight darling.” She smiled as she trotted out.

“I will Cadance.”

Those words made her stop in her tracks. Then she ended up hearing next:

“Love you so much.”

Rarity remained in place for a few seconds taking in what she just heard and felt like she could not move another inch forward. But she knew she had to leave his presence right this minute as it was too much to bear and contemplate what she heard as she trotted quickly out of the hotel suite. It was then Rarity started to realize that Shining Armor also might consider this night as one of the biggest regrets of his life as she already had earlier tonight after they finished committing adultery. Shining Armor tonight may have caused irreparable damage of the relationships to his spouse and his sister, just as Rarity may have caused with her relationships with one of her closest friends as well as her own significant other.

Author's Note

A huge thanks to all of you for making it to the end of the first chapter. I know it was rather short and not enough story as of yet to form a concise opinion. This story is mostly a way to work on my writing, so any creative advice on writing better is greatly appreciated. Thank you and piece out.