6/24/13

Glimmer was about halfway through her shift when she spotted a familiar, friendly face. Lily was dressed in short shorts and a spaghetti strap top that fit her slender but curvy body. She all but glowed as she approached Glimmer in the Crystal Castle corridor and met her with a huge hug. Although Lily was very timid and often hid her emotions from most ponies, in the time she and Glimmer had become friends, she had completely opened up and showed Glimmer the happy-go-lucky side of her. It made Glimmer glow inside thinking how good of friends they had become that Lily was willing to open up.

"Welcome back, Lily" Glimmer chuckled as she returned the embarrassment.

Breaking their hug, Lily held Glimmemr by the arms and beamed at her, the earth-pony mare was practically glowing. "I have the most wonderful news! I met this guy, well, we met before, but that's a long story! Oh! I can't wait to tell you all about him!"

"A wonderful guy, huh?" parallel to Lily's warm and welcomed presence came a voice connected to a pony that Glimmer, Lily, and most of the maids in the castle wished would disappear. Ritz Hooves, acting Captain of the guard stood a few feet away from the pair of maids, leaning against the wall, acting as cool as he thought he was. His creepy smile smeared across his face as he narrowed his eyes on Glimmer and Lily. "You don't have to talk about ME behind my back like that. Feel free to talk about how awesome of a guy I am even when I'm around."

"Isn't there something you should be doing right now?" Glimmer glared at Ritz, grateful the spell on her didn't prevent her from talking back to him this time. Maybe she's established enough of a hate-filled relationship with him that nopony would question her identity.

"I do have a few I want to be doing right now" Ritz made himself laugh as he got up off the wall and slithered closer to the two mares. "I'm looking at two of them right now."

"I MEANT something related to your job, you know? Being a Crystal Guard?" Glimmer stood between Lily and Ritz, her eyes locking with his. It bothered her that he never took her anger-filled expression seriously.

He smiled and took a step back, arching his back, and putting on a relaxed expression. "Captain. And I am. I just wanted to invite you two to the guard's party tonight."

"Another party?" Glimmer narrowed her eyes on Ritz. "Didn't you just have a party for the guards two days ago?"

That was another thing Ritz did that bothered Glimmer. He held parties for the crystal guards all the time, personally funded by himself. Must be nice to have all of his parent's money to spend how he likes. Even better when he can write it all off on his taxes. Shining Armor held parties for the guards too, but only around the holidays, and never to the extent that Ritz pushed it. With the amount of alcohol and 'entertainment' involved, you would think the guards were frat colts.

Feeling smug, Ritz held up a scroll that unrolled to a signature that looked like a sloppy version of Princess Cadance's signature at the bottom. "The princess signed for it. Said she might even show up, and cut loose a little. She's looking stressed lately. Poor filly. Must be hard, having her husband off to who knows where doing who knows what."

"I hear he writes to her all the time" Lily surprisingly chimed in, only to shrink behind Glimmer when both her friend and Ritz turned their attention to her.

"He does" Ritz's cocky attitude didn't waver. "About once, maybe twice a month. If SHE were MY gal, I would have sent down another hero to deal with, ugh, whatever he's doing. I'm sure it's really important."

The sarcastic tone in his voice was starting to piss Glimmer off. He didn't have a clue about how badly Cadance was suffering. Something held Glimmer back from smacking him across the face. She knew just doing that would probably get her in serious trouble, but the spell was probably stopping her too.

"Am I interrupting something?" Aqua Marine, the head maid appeared out of nowhere, shocking everyone, especially Ritz, whose expression went from shocked to annoyed, like he was just given some actual work to do. Aqua was a firm, tight-fisted mare, born and raised in the empire, all her family had been hired help for the Empire dating back to the early days of Equestria. She had an ocean blue coat that shined in the light, and a dark blue mane and tail she kept both tired up in buns. From behind a pair of narrow reading glasses, Aqua Marine returned Ritz's hard stare.

Ritz huffed and walked away, saying nothing.

"Glimmer, you are needed in the royal bedroom. Bring a plunger" Aqua addressed Glimmer as cold as ever, completely ignoring Lily as she walked away in a calm but speedy manner.

"Another clog? I'm so sorry. She always makes you deal with the worst tasks. They need to call a plumber" Lily put a hand on Glimmer's shoulder.

The clogged toilets were a way for Cadance to secretly send for Glimmer. They found it was an easy way to meet up and talk. There was never really a clog, Cadance would just put a small magical shield down the drain of the toilet and flush it several times, causing water to spread across the floor. When Glimmer got there, she used her magic to levitate the water back up and into the toilet. The whole clean-up took maybe five minutes, ten if Glimmer insisted on cleaning the found to make it smell nice. A faint hint of guilt longer in the back of Glimmer's heart, feeling bad for keeping the truth from her friend, but she had no choice.

Grabbing a bucket and some other cleaning supplies she knew she wouldn't need, Glimmer made her way up to the royal bed chambers as quickly as possible. When she got there, she shut and locked the door behind her before turning her attenuation to Cadance show as sprawled across the bed. Not look like she wanted some personal time, but more like she wanted to sleep for a week. Glimmer can't see her in such bad shape since they fought off King Sombra. And even then Cadance retained her color. The poor alicorn's normally pink coat looked like she had taken a bath in bleach, bags hung under her eyes, and her mane had random hairs sticking up here and there. Needless to say, she was a mess.

"Cadence?" Glimmer pushed the bucket aside and went to Cadance's side when she saw her state. It looks like Cadance had already cleaned up the mess she created. "Cady? It's me. Are you ok, Hon?"

"Yeah... Just... Tired" Cadance sounded annoyed and exhausted. If anyone had to guess, they would have thought she had been foal-sitting triplets or something. But no, Glimmer knew what was eating at her.

Glimmer rolled her wife onto her stomach and began messaging her the way she liked. There was so much tension in her shoulders and lower back, where she kept all her stress. Glimmer smiled when she heard Cadamce exhale, her body beginning to relax. After what felt like ten minutes or so, Cadance stretched her arms out and let out a yawn.

"Have you been getting any sleep at all?" Glimmer asked as she continued to massage her wife's back, making sure to pay extra attention to her stiffer parts.

"I... Not really" Cadance didn't feel like lying or putting up a front, not to the one pony she trusted most in the world.

"Bad dreams?" Glimmer took a shot at guessing.

"I just can't sleep" Cadance admitted before sitting up, bringing Glimmer's message to an abrupt end. The alicorn princess of love looked exhausted and defeated as she hung her head. "I hate to admit it, but I need a good bucking. I tried using not only all our toys but a few new ones I bought recently. I even paid 2,000 bits for a bucking machine. A BUCK machine, Glimmer! How desperate of a mare do I have to be!? And I'm supposed to be in the process of love! Ugh! Has it been 11 months yet!?"

"I'm afraid not" Glimmer spoke softly. She and Cadance had a few sessions where Glimmer would use a strap-on to make love to her, but she knew it wasn't the same as the genuine article.

Along with the power to help others' inner lights glow and help ponies find their true loves, Cadance also drew on the power of their love. Part of the reason for the wild and crazy sex life was to give her power. But most of this time that Glimmer had been playing the act of the made and dealing with her problems that seemed so small, Cadance had been suffering with her duties alone as well as being all alone.

'Can I tell her to do that?' the thought passed through Glimmer's mind, how to help Cadance and make it right. It made her insides turn and scramble. Feelings of guilt, of jealousy, of wanting to go cry in a corner and punch a wall all filled her head. 'How can I tell her to do THAT!? I'm her wife, er, husband, whatever! I can't just tell her to do that!... But if I don't...'

"Cadence" Glimmer ran a hand through her mane, her eyes falling from Cadance to the floor. But she forced her eyes up to meet the worried gaze of her wife. 'If she knew I was having a hard time with this, it wouldn't mean anything. I need to let her think I'm okay with it. Not for the good of the empire or the crystal ponies, but for HER sake. Come on, Glimmer! Make this believable!' A smile swept across Glimemr's muzzle, her eyes reflected gentle understanding, unlike anything she ever had before as she told Cadance "I think you should go out and find a stallion."

The words took a while to seep into Cadance's mind. When they did, a look of shock flashed across her own muzzle. "Glimmer! I can't do that!"

"I had a one-night stand" Glimmer was prepared to fight this out, even though it was killing her inside.

"But that was MY stupid idea" Cadance dropped her head, breaking the gaze, her loud tome fell to that of a mumble. "It was my stupid idea that caused all of this... You have every right to hate me for it, too."

Picking up Cadance's head in her hands, Glimmer raised it up and drew her eyes into hers. "I don't hate you. I could never hate you. I love you. And no matter what, as a mare, a stallion, or whatever, I'll always love you. It's because of that that I'm telling you to do this. You NEED some release. If you don't, you'll work yourself to death."

"You really want me to go out and buck some stallion to help relieve stress? A one-night stand isn't going to help in the long run" Cadance argued, her expression radiating dread and despair.

"I know, that's why I'm giving you my permission to do whatever you need to to feel better" The part of her that was the jealous Shining Armor was being silanced by reason and love. Cadence needed this and She couldn't provide it. "Whether it's a one-night stand, several one-night stands, several dozen one-night stands, or even a good friend who you have fun with on the side. Until I get back to the old me, I want you to do whatever you need to get better."

That last statement caused Cadance to run her hand through her mane and look at herself in the mirror above their bed. "I look like a mess, don't I?"

"And not the hot kind of mess I'm used to seeing in this bed" Glimmer joked, causing them both to laugh.

"If I do this..." Cadence started to say, her tone sounding nervous and cautious. "Is there anything you don't want me to do? Anypony to stay away from?"

"Just that jackass, Ritz Hooves" Glimmer's muzzle wrinkled as she spat his name. "I. Hate. That. Guy."

Cadence chuckled. "Yes. I've received several complaints from multiple mares about him. Although, from what I hear, he's quite the party animal."

"Yeah, about that, he's throwing another party, tonight" Glimmer continued to show her detest for the stallion.

"That might be a great place to hook up with somepony!" Cadence got up and ran to the bathroom, hopped in the shower, and started preparing.

"You seriously going?" Glimmer talked to her wife from the other side of their shower glass door.

"Don't you think it's perfect? Not only can I assess the situation with all these parties, but I can also find some stallion to hook up with and be back to work early in the morning! It's perfect!" Cadence didn't sense the hesitance in Glimmer's tone and hopped out of the shower, her body already looking a few shades pinker, probably from all the excitement.

Not having the heart to ruin her fun, Glimmer shot Cadance a smile, kissed her, and told her to have fun and be safe.

That night, Glimmer had dreams about Cadance bucking not one, not two, but five stallions from the Crystal Guard from the part. Ponies SHE used to be in charge of are now having their way with her wife, right in front of her! The next morning, Glimmer found her hand smelling heavily of her love juices as she pulled them from her damp sleep shorts.

'Is Cadance the sex fiend, or am I?'

Author's Note

Thank you all for continuing to follow my story. I hope it is still to your liking.

Things will start to go from bad to worse for poor Glimmer.

I hope you all enjoy