What is Love?

Author's Note: Horribly written WAFF bomb incoming. You've been forewarned.

Her Royal Highness, the Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, and the Knight Captain of the Canterlot Royal Guard, Shining Armor, had finally arrived.

Celestia had arranged for the youngest princess and her new groom to tour Equestria, starting at its western most point, moving all the way to the east coast city of Manehattan, and ending in Cadance’s home at the northern tip of the nation.

The first stop of their honeymoon was Hoofalulu, a tropical paradise of a volcanic island off the west coast of Equestria, slightly south of Los Pegasus, which was to be their next destination. It was a particularly popular vacation spot among pegasi, partly because of the warmth, and partly because of the wealth of updrafts and thermals that made for flying like nowhere else. The volcano that had formed the island had long since died, but one of Equestria’s largest and oldest dragons had taken the shell of the volcano as its roost, and the peaceful snores of a titanic sleeping dragon made for the pegasus equivalent of big wave surfing.

With the chaos of the changeling-interrupted wedding of two days ago, the planning and replacement wedding the day after, the rather wild reception of that night, followed by a several hour long pegasus drawn carriage flight the next morning, the newlyweds were absolutely exhausted.

It was only mid-afternoon, but as soon as the doors to their private suite closed, the couple slumped heavily, dropping any facade they had maintained in front of their small group of honor guard and servants.

Cadance stumbled over to the massive bed and fell heavily upon it, Shining Armor close behind her.

They both lay haphazardly on the bed, enjoying the feeling of stretching, before simultaneously turning to each other and laughing.

“You know...” they both began to speak before closing their mouths, smiling warmly.

“You go first, Shiny.” Cadance said gently.

Shining Armor sighed a bit at the nickname. Coming from anyone but his wife he’d find it annoying at best, but from her it was... kind of endearing.

“I’m tired.” he said flatly.

His wife giggled back. “So am I, dear. So am I.”

One ear twitched back and he had to look away.

“You know...” Shining Armor began, suddenly finding himself nervous. “There are... things. That are traditionally done.” He was carefully studying a particular credenza on the west wall of their suite. Cherry wood. Very well constructed.

“By a newlywed couple on their honeymoon, you mean?” Cadance asked slyly, moving a little closer.

“Erm. Yes.” He had the impression his wife was enjoying his discomfort.

Incredible how the planks of the wall fit together. Almost couldn’t tell where one ended and the other began.

“Well, tradition is important you know.” Cadance smirked, “Wouldn’t do for a princess to ignore tradition.”

He’d moved on to admiring a chandelier. Crystal from the north, if he wasn't mistaken. Nice and sparkly.

“Yes, well, that may be, but...” He was cut off by an incredibly light and modest kiss that nonetheless managed to turn his brain to mush. All thoughts of furniture left his head.

“What’s wrong, Shiny?” Cadance pouted at him, “am I not pretty enough? You don’t feel that way about me? Is my marriage to go unconsummated? Will my husband take a mistress and leave me all alone to wither?” she asked, faux-dramatically.

“What! No! I would never! I mean I would never take a mistress, not, you know, because I mean I really want to, but... ugh!” Shining Armor clapped a hoof to his face. He was always so cool and collected. Why was it that in all the years since he’d first met his sister’s foalsitter he’d barely been able to put together a single coherent sentence around her?

Cadance smiled wryly and moved his hoof away from his forehead with her own. “Relax, Shiny, I understand. I’m completely exhausted too. And I don’t think it would be very nice if one of us fell asleep during our first time... you know.” She waved the hoof she had touched him with in a completely ambiguous gesture.

And kept waving it. To Shining it looked like she had made a little spiral, followed by a jerky back-and-forth, then traced a chevron in the air.

She kept waving her hoof long past the time she needed to and they both stared at it as if it had a mind of its own before they burst out laughing.

“Look at us,” Shining Armor chuckled, wiping a tear from his eye, “dancing around the subject like a bunch of foals.”

Cadance snuggled up closer to him so that she lay in his hooves, her shoulders against his chest, before telekinetically wrapping the blanket around them.

“It’s okay. I mean, like you said, we’re both exhausted...” she took the opportunity to yawn and worm deeper into his embrace, “and we’ve got our whole honeymoon in front of us.”

"Our whole lives, you mean." he responded.

"Together." she agreed.

He laughed. “To think I’d marry a princess. And an alicorn at that.” He inhaled deeply, muzzle still embedded in her mane, considering what it meant to be a winged unicorn, and exhaled with a snort, causing his wife to giggle again.

Music to his ears.

“Stop that, that tickles.” she said, poking his hoof.

“Hey Cadance, do you think your mane is ever going to do the whole magical wavy thing Celestia’s and Luna’s does?” he asked.

“Oh, I don’t know. There’s never been another alicorn before, so it’s not like there’s much to go on, but I guess it might. Why do you ask?” she turned her neck to look at him as best she could.

He smiled down at her. “Because I hope it doesn’t.”

Cadance raised an eyebrow. “And why is that?”

He laughed and responded, “Because I like the way it smells.”

Cadance grinned and poked him again before wiggling closer. “Weirdo.”

“Hey, you married me.”

She ignored the jab and thought about his comments.

There had never been another alicorn before.

“Auntie Celestia was really surprised when she found out about me.”

“I bet.” he responded “She probably never thought to find a pony who could rival her for her beauty.”

“Oh look at the Cassaneighva now. Jeez, I’m trying to be serious.”

“Hey, so was I!” Shining Armor interjected. “Anyway, why was she surprised? I mean, there’s plenty of royalty.” His thoughts went briefly to a particularly obnoxious unicorn stallion.

“Yes, plenty of royalty, mostly left over from the days before the formation of Equestria proper, but no alicorns. Do you know why?”

Shining Armor shook his head.

“Because to be an alicorn means to be a representative of all ponies. Pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony alike. I mean, look at me, a pegasus’ wings, a unicorn’s horn, an earth pony’s strength and large size.”

Shining Armor nodded and poked his wife in the flank. “Yup. These are nice and big. Must be all that cake you and Celestia have taken to eating lately.”

His wife gave the foreleg her head was resting on a bite in revenge and scowled. “Hey! Keep that up, mister, and you’re never going to find out what it’s like to, uh...” she trailed off and fell back to repeated her hoof-waving motion, blushing, and Shining Armor laughed.

She bit him again.

“Anyway, to be an alicorn also means to have a special responsibility. To be the embodiment of something, one of the fundamental magics that makes up our world.” she continued.

“The Elements of Harmony.” Shining Armor said flatly.

Cadance remained silent before eventually speaking again, almost in a whisper. “Yes, but I think there’s something more. Or I wouldn’t be what I am. And Princess Celestia wouldn’t have been so shocked to find me.”

She thought silently for a long while. Considering who she was. What she was.

“You know,” she finally continued, frowning very slightly, “I’m kind of worried about Auntie Celestia.”

Shining Armor had almost fallen asleep in her silence. “Whyzzat?” he blinked blearily.

Cadance paused, thinking.

Remembering the stunned look on the older Alicorn’s face while she and Shining Armor floated back to the ground after their spell together. The brief flash of emotion that she was sure nopony else had caught. The way she had been slow to get up, and had disappeared until officiating the wedding the next day.

“Have you ever thought... she seems... lonely?” she asked, finally.

Her husband, more awake now, considered it.

“I guess I have, now that you mention it.” He thought over all of his memories of the princess, going back as far as he could remember. “I didn’t ever meet her before she took in Twilight, obviously, but... well you know Celestia. She talks to ponies all the time. As often as she can, really. But it never seems like she gets very close to, well...”

“...anypony except Auntie Luna or Twilight.” Cadance finished.

“And you.” Shining Armor added.

It was Cadance’s turn to reminisce. “You know, back when I was a filly, just after I had discovered that my special talent was to help bring out the love in ponies, one day when Auntie Celestia was distracted eating a donut, I tried to use my spell on her, just to see what would happen.”

That caught Shining Armor’s interest.

“And what happened?” he asked.

His wife grabbed onto the hoof he had over her shoulder. “Nothing.”

“Nothing?”

“Absolutely nothing. She didn’t even notice. Just turned around when she finished eating and seemed embarrassed that she had been caught snacking.”

Shining Armor frowned before Cadance continued the story.

“Later that day, I asked her if she was in love with somepony. And she smiled and said yes.”

Shining Armor blinked. “News to me.” he said.

Cadance nodded. “I was shocked too. So I asked her who it was, and she kept smiling and just said, ‘Everypony.’ It’s almost like she didn’t get what I was talking about.”

Another long silence followed as Shining Armor hugged his wife closer, growing warmer and closer to sleep by the second.

It’s just like her to be worried about someone else while exhausted and on her honeymoon. He thought.

“I love you, Cadance.” he eventually mumbled. “You’re perfect, you know that?”

She snorted lightly and responded, “I’m not perfect. There’s plenty of things wrong with me.”

The grip around her tightened.

“You’re perfect to me.” he whispered. “I love you.”

“And I love you too, Shining Armor. With all my heart.” she whispered back, only to be responded to with a snore.

Cadance laughed lightly as she too began to fall asleep, amazed at how lucky she was to be here, with the love of her life, a moment as perfect as could be.

How she wished every pony could experience this feeling, this glorious joy of complete acceptance and belonging.

Every pony.

As she drifted off to sleep, her light snore joining her new husband’s louder one, a single tiny spark gathered at the tip of her horn and jumped off with a tiny pop, just as, halfway across Equestria, another group of ponies had stopped to admire a particularly nice flower arrangement.

Her husband stirred slightly but did not wake, only attempt to move closer and renew his grip around her.

She smiled, and slept dreamlessly.