“So you’ve got to tell me who it is? Come on, I won’t be mad, you know me.” Cadance’s voice was hard to read. It always was. She was an empath, so she seemed to never get the hang of telegraphing her emotions properly, at least not the complex ones, since she had gone her whole life recognizing them intuitively. It was something most ponies wouldn’t guess from just looking at her, not something befitting of the princess of love in theory, but it was something Shining thought was charming.
So here Shining was, looking into her eyes, brilliantly purple, and trying to read the emotion he saw in them. It was interest, he finally realized, she was just curious. She went on, “I can feeeeeel that you have a crush, Shiny. If you really think that the Princess of Love would be mad that you have a little crush, then--”

“Sunburst.” Shining said with a waver in his voice.

They were sitting at the table together. A wide, ornate table meant to host the most elegant of feasts, crystals of every color embedded into the table cloth, chandeliers, yes plural, casting sparkling reflections all around the high hall around them, throwing the moonlight that hit them through the windows into all corners of the room, and especially into Cadance’s eyes. Eyes that were definitely shocked.

She sat back in her seat next to his, composing herself very quickly. Shining had trouble being shy around Cadance, and he was recovering from being caught off guard with the question. Even so, in a situation as delicate as this, he kept his posture smaller, shoulders slouched apologetically with his eyes drifting back to his food. With anyone else he would try to press the advantage and take control, but he knew that he could be a little more vulnerable with Cadance. He wanted her to take control because, frankly, he thought to himself, she might know better than him right now. She might tell him that it is all in his head. She might talk him down. She could even…

“That is so cute,” she chirped next to him, her cheeks puffing out with a smile as she giggled.

This was one of the reasons he loved her, Shining thought as he slouched back in his chair, his eyes shrinking back in his skull for a moment. He had a thing for women that could keep him on his hooftips.

“Aw...Shiny. Look at me.” A long, delicate pink hoof seemed to glide in front of his face and tilt his head to look at her, his scruffy cheek being cupped in a way so soft and deliberate as to put his mind at ease. She could inevitably feel some of his tension dissipate, her empathy only getting stronger with touch. Her eyes looked worried, however; Eyebrows were drawn up tightly onto her forehead. As Shining met her eyes he lost himself. Days of guilt and worry and abject anxiety seemed to come into focus. He realized all at once how he hadn’t unclenched his jaw in half a week, how his upper back was tense, how his temples were tight; he realized how he hadn’t been contemplative and stoic all of this time, he had been scared.

The tears had hardly begun before she had pulled him into a hug. Her forehooves, longer than his, reached around his broad barrel easily and her long neck wrapped gently around the side of his head, nuzzling her into his mane. His burly hooves came up to reach around her slender frame in response, her moving her wings up and out of the way so he could close the loop of the hug.

There was something so sure, so still and unwavering about how Cadance hugged. With so much physical contact she could basically tell what he was thinking. For anyone else, this would be a terrifying thought, but with Cadance it made things so much more intimate. Even when she knew every little emotion, every fleeting flaw that gets hidden by the mind on a daily basis, every imperfection that Shining even kept from himself, even when she could feel every negative emotion, all the doubt and the false bravado, through all of it the hug never wavered for a second. Knowing that right now, right along with him, his wife was feeling his fears, it only made him sadder. Or, more than making him more sad, it made him comfortable to accept how sad he was. He knew that in this moment, no matter how hard he fell, she would catch him.

He wasn’t sobbing, instead he let out a few deep, fitful breaths, letting the tears fall freely onto his wife’s mane. The hug was like a conversation in itself. He could feel each thought start to bubble in his chest, and he could feel a slight reaction from her, her hoof rubbing broadly on his shoulder blade, her face sinking deeper into his mane, her chest rising and falling against his. It was a long hug, one that kept soothing a deeper and deeper level of his insecurities. It felt good. He wanted the moment to continue, and she could feel that from him, so they just sat, thirty seconds, a minute, two, the tears were done soon enough but he just wanted to hold her. He never wanted to lose her.

Finally, taking a deep breath of the lavender and linen smells of her mane, so simple yet so rejuvenating and lovely, he patted a broad hoof in the center of her back and began to shift his body weight away. She let him out of the hug, but kept her right hoof wrapped around his back. Staying close, she leaned her head against his, putting them forehead to forehead, their horns resting on the tops of each other’s manes.

“Why do you feel this way?” Her voice came out as a croak and his heart sank as he realized that she had been crying too. He swallowed as he felt like a burning hot rod was in the back of his throat and waited. He knew that she could feel him thinking, working out how to explain his feelings. She would never interrupt someone trying to introspect.

Pulling back he responded, “I thought it was wrong.” The answer was simple, but it cut to the core of it. It was wrong for him to feel this way. It was wrong for him to want somepony other than his wife. It was wrong for somepony who was straight to want a stallion. It was wrong for a father to want something that could change his daughter’s life forever. It was wrong. His eyes did not meet hers. He knew what she would want to say.

“You know what I want to say,” she said gently. This was her favorite tactic. Her and Shining knew each other well enough to play the, “you know” game often. It let them lead each other without being heavy handed.

“I do, but it’s just how I feel, Candy.” He finally met her eyes again. It crushed him to see the hints of pain that were still there. Pain for him. His eyes began to wetten again.

“Who in the Crystal Empire, who in Equestria, would make you think that you have anything to feel bad about?” Her delivery stiffened with her resolve.

“It isn’t just that,” Shining began, he didn’t want the breadth of the issue lost, “It is how guilty I feel for you--for Flurry Heart.”

“The heart does what it want’s, Shiny,” her tone shifted once again, this time to reassurance. “I know that you are faithful. I trust you. I would never be mad at you for getting a crush, being married is a long and hard journey. I just want you to trust me enough to tell me.”

“How can I be attracted to someone without wanting to cheat?” This was what Shining wanted to know. He had plumbed the depths of his mind to find a way to rationalize his feelings that didn’t involve him being a harlot, someone who wanted to risk his whole family for a passing fling.

“By not cheating.” Her face was plain again. Whatever emotion she wanted to convey was one that she didn’t do consciously. Shining took a moment. It was inquisitive, he finally reckoned.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, lets just say, right now, if you got the chance to sleep with Sunburst, would you?” She cocked her head just slightly.

“I would not, no.” Shining made sure his voice was tempered. He had questioned a lot about himself in the past few days, but he had never faltered on this.

“Then please, let go of this self-resentment. I’m not mad at you.”

There was a pause for a moment. Shining expected a weight to lift from him. This was what he had wanted from the conversation, after all. He was absolved. There was no catharsis. The same pit rested on the top of his stomach as before.

“There is a question that comes out of all of this, though…”

As soon as Cadance spoke again Shining could recognize the shift in her tone. Some heat already began to rush to his face.

“There are some spells, ones that have some more out-there effects, that I may have always wanted to try in the bedroom.” Cadence had this lovely pitch to her voice, a low note that she could let hang at the end of her sentences like a fishing line, and it certainly reeled Shining in. After last night with Sunburst, not seeing Cadance until tonight, and having no chances to hoof off in between, he was certainly along for the ride wherever this was going. “Guards!” Cadence cut off his thoughts, “Step out for a moment and make sure we aren't disturbed.” Really, right here and now?

“Really, right here and now?” Shining didn’t have time to react even. Cadance was marvelously forward when she wanted to be. As soon as the guards were out of the room her aura slid his chair back, and she dropped to the floor in front of him, her hooves making soft klacks on the crystal floor. He felt a gentle nudge pushing him back in his seat as she placed her forehooves on his thighs and set to work.

Her muzzle pressed into his sheath and her tongue darted out to begin probing at his head, lapping gently at the tip for a few moments, drawing a shuddering breath from Shining. Her purple eyes caught a glimmer of light in them as she looked up at him, nosing her way around his package, running her tongue in circles up and down the ring of his sheath a few times just before his cock began to slip forward. As soon as it crested the edge, she flattened her tongue and gave several forceful, slow licks from just under the base up to the head, massaging it further and further out with her ministrations.

“W-woah. You really do spoil me. I need to get sad more often.” Shining felt the edges of his mouth quiver with the feeling as he spoke.

She stopped for a moment, leaving his cock at half mast, and spoke, “It’s gonna be your birthday in a week, right? So I just have to make sure I give you 31 blowjobs by the time you turn 31.” She had a smile plastered on her face the whole time she spoke; she really did know the right ways to make Shining feel better. The smile was almost better than what she was doing. Almost.

She bent her head down and slid her face under Shining’s member, running the flat of her tongue from the bottom of the base of his cock up to the top, letting the stiffening rod flop off of her face as she moved. She repeated this motion on the other side, and then she died it again and again until Shining had finally dropped fully from his sheath, standing at full attention.

She gave a coy smile once she had him fully aroused. Shining knew her game; they both knew that he enjoyed anticipation. Predictably, now that every inch of his cock was on display, she ignored it entirely. From her position between his legs she rubbed her face on his right thigh, sliding in closer and closer until her muzzle was pressed in the crevice between his thigh and balls. Taking a deep breath, getting his scent to fill her nostrils, she pressed her tongue out and took a long, deep sampling of the region. Shining melted back into his chair, feeling the tension slip from him.

She let her tongue slip all the way from her mouth and traced the contours under his balls as she went over to his left thigh. Repeating the same process, again smelling the clean but distinct musk coming off of him, she set to work on his sack. Opening her mouth as wide as she could, she scooped his left nut up with her long soft tongue and suckled it gently into her mouth. Pursing her lips and drawing her tongue back into her mouth at the same time, she rolled it delicately in her mouth before gently letting it fall from her lips. She devoured his right in much the same passionate way.

Shining could feel the tightness in his lower groin as she edged him closer and closer with each passing moment. A thin line of runny precum had drizzled its way from his head, lazily hanging off the ridge, it finally dripped down onto his waiting thigh. Even this was not lost on Cadence however, as she ran her tongue from his groin outward and lapped up the emission.

“All right,” as she spoke he could feel her warm breath on the underside of his shaft. “Do you trust me?”

“W-what?” Shining had to take a moment and swallow before he could even find his voice.

“I want to try a little bit of a weird spell to make this more interesting. I don’t want to spoil the surprise though.” Her voice was very chipper as she spoke to him on the other side of his dripping dick.

“How weird?” Shining knew that his wife, Celestia bless her, could be quite devious.

“Hmmm. Compared to the things we have tried...an 8 or a 9 out of 10.”

Shining perked up, “Is a 10 the thing I really liked?”

She let out a mischievous grin, “It is, but I don’t have that here in the dining hall with me unfortunately. Besides it’s a whole different idea, what I want to try.”

“Hmm.” Shining was genuinely trepidatious. But he did trust her. “I do trust you.”

“Then close,” her words practically dripped into his lap, “your,” she certainly had a way about her, “eyes.”

Closed.

He let out a sharp gasp, feeling his balls clench immediately as she went almost all the way down his shaft in one gulp. Shining never knew if it was some kind of magic related to being an alicorn, or genuine endurance and control, but her throat was both as loose and as tight as it ever needed to be. Fully sheathed in her muzzle, he wriggled his hips and let a tacit moan fall out of his mouth he could feel the back of her tongue flex against his medial ring. She stayed there for a controlled moment, her breath hitting against his pelvis as she got control of her breathing. She began to slowly pull back, constricting her throat muscles as she did so, dragging his now flaring head against the walls of her neck. Finally, constricting the back of her mouth and pursing her lips as she pulled back to the edge of his cock, she ran her tongue along his head, teasing the ridges of his flair as she sucked hard, making a very stimulating vacuum for a moment.

She angled her head to perfectly avoid her teeth hitting the flair as she released his cock with a pop and left it standing at painful attention, soaked in saliva and open in the air. He still didn’t open his eyes when he heard the hum of magic begin. If he knew anything about Cadance, and he did, he knew a lot, he knew that in the bedroom when magic was in play it was best to relax. Something was going to happen somewhere, he was sure, and no matter where it was it would only benefit him to be loose for when it happened.

There was no such surprise thought, just a pause before a slight warmth radiated in the room, and then a set of lips touched the tip of his dick. Who’s though?

“Uh--”

“Shhh,” the voice that spoke was weird. It was not Cadance. A magic aura, one that was also not Cadance, it smelled faintly spicy--like a cinnamon spice more than a dry heat. Cadence’s aura smelled almost like grass. Perhaps a little sweeter, like Baby’s Breath filling out a bouquet. But this was all getting caught in the weeds, or the flowers, who was suckling the head of his penis?

“Uh...I guess I’m supposed to keep trusting you?” His voice was stiff.

“Mhm.” He couldn’t quite get a read on the voice. It was one that he had heard.

“This is you, right? You wouldn’t...um...bring another person in without asking me?”

“Mm-mm,” he could feel the bass of the new voice through the head of his penis. He was certainly interested in what was going on.

The new mouth, for what it lacked in the softness of Cadance’s normal lips, was very voracious. Cadance mawed at Shining’s cock, kissing and licking and making out with it for several moments, her tongue was now rougher but stronger and wider, making Shining shudder each and every time that same wide tongue licked flatly around his flair. There was more scruff around the mouth, that was for sure. However, just having a deeper voice and more facial hair didn’t necessarily lead to the conclusion that Shining assumed.

Cadance definitely didn’t have the same level of control with this new mouth. Wider feeling teeth grazed the top of his flair. It didn’t hurt, but the technique had surely taken a hit. Erstwhile, this new throat that Cadance had for herself had nowhere near the training. Shining felt it constrict and convulse a few times as his head reached the back of her mouth. Maybe it really is the alicorn blessing to not have a gag reflex, but that isn't anything he would be comfortable asking Celestia or Luna or...Shining wouldn’t want to ask any of the other alicorns.

What the new form lacked in muscle memory, it made up for with Cadance’s own brand of vigor for dick. Since she seemed to just not quite be able to deep throat, not right now with Shining being flared at least, she made a point of upping the tongue work. The new tongue was quite nice, too. Shining never assumed that having a less soft tongue would help, but it really did. Much more stimulation with every deep lick, lapping up the precum from his tip before swiveling it around his head. She moved on to run her new mouth and tongue up and down along the side of the shaft. Shining felt a tickle on his pelvis as some of Cadance’s new facial hair grazed him. Okay, the game was up, it was time for him to see Candy as a colt, clearly this was the surprise, she was trying to make him feel better about having an interest in stallions. Huh.

“Cadance?” He stared into his wife’s new blue eyes. The moonlight from the chandelier reflected through them and stared back at Shining. Her cream muzzle was nestled under the base of his cock, gently kissing at it. Her red mane draped itself just so slightly in front of her face. “Why Sunburst?” The question finally crystalized in his mind enough for him to speak it.

“Well,” She managed to emulate his vocal chords quite well. Minus her tone, she didn’t seem to have any handle of Sunburst’s affectations, though she did sound quite like him. “I thought that if I was gonna try to do the whole ‘gay fantasy’ thing, why not hit the nail on the head?” She bopped her wider white hoof on the head of Shining’s penis.

“This is...uncomfortable.” Shining shrunk back in his chair a bit, already beginning to wilt. He could feel the blush on his face start to form.

“I didn’t want to upset you,” Cadance stepped back, wiping her mouth and goatee, her eyes showed genuine concern.

“That’s...a lot. I don’t know. Is it even...I mean. Isn’t it kind of weird to use Sunburst’s body like this? That’s weird, right?” Shining was surprised that he had found such a cogent point. He was nervous already, but as soon as he stumbled upon it he found traction.

Cadance paused a moment, contemplating. Her eyes, Sunburst’s blue eyes, locked into that frozen expression, the ones she made when she was processing an emotion that she didn’t know how to make the face for. There was a light hum in her horn as she shimmered before Shining’s very eyes and left herself back in her normal form, still looking perplexed.

“Ask him.”

“Whhhaaat!? Ask him if you can take his form for sex? I can’t just ask him. Do--I mean--you know how embarrassing that would be, right?” Shining was fully blushing at this point, closing his legs and shrinking his posture to avoid looking at his wife.

“Oh I know,” she began, Shining could already feel the implication of her words and his cheeks were burning from it, “but I also know how much you like to make people feel out of their comfort zone, so I like it when you are forced to get some comeuppance.”

Shining simply stared at her, jaw slackened. She had so much control over the situation right now. So much control over him. He gulped and spoke, “well...if you wanted to let me try with a stallion, just to see if I like it, then--”

“No.” She cut him off tersely. “First, you would have to ask any other stallion, just the same and just as awkward. Second, and this one I know because I know you, you don’t want another stallion. You have a little guy crush on Sunburst. Just get some guts and ask, you never know what he’ll say.”

“Question, though…”

“Hmm?”

“Can you finish the blowjob first?”

Author's Note

Gonna try to keep the updates to at least one chapter per week, so let's see how this goes.