Cadance hated the train ride to Shining’s family house. She snorted in frustration as she tried to distract herself with a book. Flurry, bless her pure little heart, was absorbed in the Power Ponies comic book that Shining had bought her. The adorable little nerd had packed three different cosplay costumes for the three day Power Pony conference, and Shining had packed three matching costumes.

Of course they were going to be famous already, what with Flurry being a princess and Shining being a prince consort, but both Shining and Flurry had been determined to be dressed to the nines regardless. Flurry was getting to that age where a normal teenager would have wanted to go with her friends, but Cadance supposed she was lucky that Flurry was such an absolute dork. She had a much better costume coordination plan with her father, Shining, and it had taken very little convincing on Cadance’s part to get her to agree to have him as her chaperon.

A contingent of guards would make it hard for Flurry to enjoy the conference, or “Con” as she called it, but a lone guard in costume wouldn’t be a problem. Quadruply so if it was Flurry’s father. Cadance felt her cheeks flush at the memory of Shining’s fight against Sombra. Her husband was hot.

Shining was a certified bad-ass, frankly, and he’d go more than all out if something came after Flurry.

No, her anxiety wasn’t about Flurry for the coming weekend. Nor was it over Shining. He was going to have the time of his adorably dorky life. Her worry was about herself.

She had to make nice with the in-laws for three days. Twilight was easy—Cadance always considered her a close friend. Velvet was always polite, but there was a quiet air of judgment about her. Cadance got the feeling that Velvet didn’t particularly like her, even if she was the picture perfect example of an attentive host. That was all well and fine. Frankly, it was normal to have an odd relationship with your mother in law.

Then there was Night Light.

Cadance audibly growled, causing Shining to look up from his own comic.

“Already, Cady? Are you sure you’ll be fine for the weekend? We can just take you to the con with us.” Shining’s offer was earnest, and Flurry’s ears picked up. Cadance saw a grin forming on Flurry’s face as her eyes flickered between the two of them, dressing Cadance up in Power Pony costumes with her eyes.

Cadance frowned, imagining a weekend of ridiculous costumes and incredibly boring nerd stuff. She sighed, sending a pout towards Flurry, “No, No. I need to be on better terms with your parents. We get along great most of the time, it’s just… “

She trailed off, trying not to think about it.

Shining cut in, “Look, I know you and Dad have had some issues,”

She snorted, but didn’t say anything.

“But he’s a good guy. I know he’s a little weird, but our whole family is. You’re a little abnormal yourself, Mrs. Princess of Love. I’m sure if you give him a chance, you’ll see that he’s worth your time.”

Cadance angrily huffed. She couldn’t tell Shining what really bothered her about him, and that wedge alone was enough for her to hate Night Light forever. Shining looked at her innocently and lovingly, and her stomach sank. Guilt was something she’d never come to terms with, and in this case it wasn’t exactly guilt—not anymore. Nowadays it was a more complicated emotion.

A small part of her shouted that she should just tell him. A larger part of her silenced that idiot. Shining could never know exactly how terrible a pony Night Light was. The truth would destroy him—the stallion idolized his father.

She tried not to think about it, but the memories came tumbling back.

She was only a few weeks from graduation, and wanted Shining’s input on a matching outfit she’d selected for the final school ball. She’d also wanted to talk to him. They were both starting an intimidating chapter of their lives, and she wanted to affirm him that she’d be there for him. She was on track to study how to be a proper princess from Celestia herself, while he was applying to the Royal Guard.

Their hope was that she could pull some strings and get him assigned to her, but that might take some time. Until then, he’d be going through the same training everypony else did and get the same boring door guard assignments all new guardsponies started with.

At least that was their plan. She was terrified it wouldn’t work. What if she couldn’t talk to him while they were both in training? How long would it be? What would her first princess duty be? What if his first guard position was somewhere remote, like the crystal wasteland?

Worries like these hammered her mind, and she just wanted to settle them. A simple conversation would do it. So here she was, standing awkwardly in front of his family’s manor and waiting for somepony to answer the door. She should have sent ahead, she knew that, but in her disarray she’d simply come up with the excuse about the matching clothes and marched straight here.

Nervously she waited, tapping her front hoof impatiently. Rain started to slowly fall. She knocked, now even more committed. She certainly didn’t want to go back in the rain.

The door creaked open, and a young Twilight Sparkle peeked her head through the door, locking eyes with Cadance.

“Cady!” The younger mare shouted.

Cadance smiled back, relieved to see a friendly face. “Twily!”

Twilight pulled her inside out of the rain, and immediately spun around to do her silly little sunshine dance.

Cadance followed suit. Sure, it was ridiculous, and probably very embarrassing, but who was she to deny the whims of her once favorite babysitting charge?

“And do a little shake!” They both shouted together, laughing.

As she put her hooves on the ground, Cadance smiled. “Thank you so much for letting me in, Twily. Do you mind if I stay a bit? The rain seems to be picking up.”

While Cadance was originally a pegasus, no amount of feather oil would protect her mane from a sudden downpour, and she hated the thought of re-doing it.

Twilight nodded emphatically. “Of course! I’m halfway through a book about Lemurs and other nocturnal scavengers, but I’m sure Shining is here somewhere. And it’s about dinner time! Dad is making fried oat burgers!”

Cadance winced. That sounded particularly unhealthy. “Golly, Twilight, I’d love a fried oat burger, but I didn’t send ahead. Your father isn’t planning on me being here, and I wouldn’t want to impose.”

Twilight cocked her head. “Oh… I suppose that would be a problem. I guess you can have some of mine then. Dad says I eat enough for three ponies, it wouldn’t hurt to share one pony’s worth with my favorite babysitter!”

Cadance chuckled as she followed Twilight to the kitchen. A third of a filly’s portion would be hardly enough to politely feed a guest. She still had an easy out, and Night was unlikely to be rude about it.

Minutes later, Cadance found herself staring at a pile of fried oat burgers nearly the size of her head as Twilight happily dug into a pile comfortably twice the size of her head.

She wasn’t sure how it had happened, but now Twilight was reading her book and shoving burgers into her mouth. While it was very rude of the young mare to ignore a guest, Cadance wasn’t about to correct her on it, and the reading was very typical Twilight behavior.

What was atypical for Cadance was the other company for dinner. Awkwardly, Cadance looked over her pile of burgers to Night Light, the only other pony at the table.

“I’m terribly sorry for imposing, but I was in the neighborhood and needed to speak to Shining. Twilight invited me to dinner, and, well, I couldn’t say ‘no’ to her.” She smiled apologetically.

Night shrugged, and smiled back with a surprisingly disarming grin. “I’m happy to see you for the evening, Cadance! There’s plenty to go around, so feel free. I’m afraid that Shining and Velvet are out tonight, and they won’t be back for an evening or two. It was just going to be Twilight and myself tonight, and between you and me...” he winked conspiratorially before whispering, “She’s not great company when she’s nose deep in a book.”

Hiding her disappointment, Cadance chuckled as Twilight absent-mindedly shoved another burger in her mouth, completely oblivious. “Well, then thank you for your hospitality. Truth be told, I’m not sure I can eat this much. It’s a little… heavy for me.”

Night pointed at Twilight’s plate. “Just shovel over whatever you don’t want. She’ll eat it, and I wont be offended. That filly is basically an empty hole nowadays.”

Cadance moved all but one burger to Twilight’s plate, and Twilight didn’t seem to notice at all. The utter lack of a response from Twilight wasn’t exactly surprising. Cadance mused aloud, “Sometimes I forget how much she loves books.”

Night rolled his amber eyes. “I certainly don’t. Somebody’s gotta keep her alive. If no one stopped her, she’d forget to sleep and eat!”

Cadance warmly smiled. “Still, it’s adorable. You’re lucky your foals are so amazing.”

Night frowned slightly. “Speaking of my amazing kids, what exactly did you want to speak about with Shining tonight?”

She blushed, suddenly feeling awkward. Night always had probing questions, and wasn’t afraid to cut to the quick. It didn’t help that he had this presence about him that always made her quick to answer. Like she would get in trouble if she didn’t. “We were thinking about plans for after graduation, and I just wanted to make sure everything matched and we were wearing the same thing.”

He stared at her uncomprehending. “That hardly seems appropriate.”

She blushed, mortified that she’d mixed up her stories. “I misspoke. What I meant was, I need to coordinate what we’re wearing to the ball.”

Night raised an eyebrow, clearly confused. “You said something about after graduation?”

She swallowed dryly, glancing to Twilight in hopes of finding a distraction. Instead all she saw was a slightly shorter stack of oat burgers and an over-sized book. She turned back to Night and coughed.

He stayed silent, letting the quiet fill the room. His eyebrow lowered as he continued to stare at her. Cadance stared back, the silence making her uncomfortable as her eyes drifted down his chin and to his neck. He was in surprisingly good shape.

Cadance bit her lip as the panic slowly rose. Shouldn’t she say something? Shouldn’t he? The silence was growing louder.

Twilight loudly smacked on a burger.

Night continued to look at her incredulously.

She blushed, suddenly feeling overwhelmed and panicking as she blurted out the first thing that came to mind, “I’m going to marry him!”

Twilight stayed focused on her book, mumbling something, “Mhhhm.”

Night grinned wide and his eyes twinkled in amusement. “Oh really?”

Cadance’s blush grew deeper. “I didn’t mean to say that!”

He laughed, “No take backsies! Isn’t that right, Twilight?”

Twilight hummed from behind her book, “Mhhm.”

Cadance buried her face in her hooves, wondering how her night had spiraled out of control like this. “He doesn’t know! Please don’t tell him!”

Night continued to chuckle at her expense, “Of course not! In fact, it only makes sense to ask the father for permission first anyways. I do believe that’s the tradition.”

Cadance looked up to see him staring at her with a strange twinkle in his eye. “You know, I remember when I asked Velvet to marry me. Of course, we’d been together a little longer than you two love birds. Definitely lived a little more, too, you know what I mean?” He winked.

She stared blankly, trying to calm her frantic pulse. “Umm… no?”

His eyes darted to Twilight, then he shrugged. “What I mean is that Velvet and I tried each other out before we got married. A try before you buy deal.”

Cadance continued to stare, unsure of what he was getting at. “Yes, that’s dating.”

Night rolled his eyes. “No, well, yes, but no. What I’m trying to say is…” He took his hooves and gently started knocking them together over the table in a lewd fashion.

Cadance’s eyes drifted to his hooves in surprise. She’d never seen someone make such a rude gesture directly to her. She continued to stare uncomprehendingly as he repeatedly made the gesture.

He added, “You know? Come on, do I have to say it?” His eyes darted to Twilight. She was still completely absorbed in her book. Cadance’s eyes darted to his hooves, then his mouth, then to Twilight, then back to his hooves—which were still knocking.

Night sighed, giving up on the visual innuendo, “I mean sex. Velvet and I used to do the nasty all the time before we got married. We’d get busy. Like all ponies do.”

Cadance kept her eyes staring firmly at his chest. She refused to look up as she considered what he’d just implied. “We do not.”

Night kept on, “Really? You two have never done it? I knew Shining was a nerd, but to not stick a hot young bird like you, he’s an idiot. I’d have done you up six ways from summertime by now if I was him. Hell, I’d be the one sneaking out to find you, instead of you sneaking over here.”

Slowly, she let her eyes drift to his face, absolutely disbelieving the crass verbiage that she was hearing. There was no way any reasonable pony would be talking to her like this, certainly not the father of her future husband. Was she imagining the sudden change in his demeanor? Carefully, she defended her position, “I… do not sneak. I came to the front door and asked to see him. There may have been a miscommunication in the process.” She glanced awkwardly at Twilight. “But my intent has been, and continues to be honest.”

He furrowed his brow, then let out a laugh that was a little too loud, “An honest mare, huh? I don’t believe it. You know Velvet fucked at least fifteen other stallions before she met me? Probably more. None of them could really satisfy her. Then I took her all the way. She was even dating someone else when we met.” His smile seemed suddenly greasy.

Cadance’s eyes lingered on Twilight, who was still quietly reading the book. She nodded meaningfully. “Is this really appropriate dinner conversation, especially considering the company, Night?”

He shrugged. “Not really, but watch.” He cleared his throat and talked directly over the stack of burgers, “Twilight, your mother was a whore when I met her.”

Cadance covered her mouth as she gasped.

Twilight mumbled from behind her book, “That’s nice, Dad.”

Night deflated as he glared at Twilight’s book. “Sometimes I’m a little jealous of her ability to tune everything out.”

Cadance muttered to herself, “I’m very jealous.”

Night turned back to Cadance, looking a little wistful as he sighed and sank into his seat. “I miss the game, you know? I used to be quite the player myself. I couldn’t even guess at the wild oats I might have sown, but then I met the old ball and chain. And what a ball and chain she was.” His eyes got dreamy.

Cadance tried not to think about what he was saying, instead deciding to remove herself from this increasingly uncomfortable conversation. “I think I might be done with dinner, Night. Will Shining be available tomorrow evening?”

Night’s eyes drifted back to Cadance. “I don’t actually know. He and Velvet were planning on attending a music show in Vanhouver. Might be a day, might be two. I planned on making dinner for Twi and myself tomorrow as well.”

Cadance deflated. “I see.”

Night blinked. “If you two are getting married, do you want to see our rings? It might help you plan for the wedding if you know what he’s going to wear.”

Relieved to be off the topic of sex, Cadance’s interest was suddenly piqued. “Actually, yes. Is it okay to leave her?”

Twilight stared at her book, muttering quietly, “Okay, Mom.”

Cadance raised an eyebrow. “Twilight, I’m not your mother.”

“Mhm.” Was all she got in response.

Night laughed, “Whole different world, that one.”

Awkwardly, Cadance got up from her seat and grabbed her plate. Night did the same, and Twilight stayed silent, working on her pile of burgers. They went to the kitchen, dropped their plates in the sink, and then she followed Night across the house to his and Velvet’s room.

As they walked, he talked, “So this one mare I met before Velvet, she was the daughter of a duke. And she hated her daddy. I mean, really hated. So I set myself up to piss him off at the next ball we were at. Well, my plan went off without a hitch, and wouldn’t you know by the end of the ball she was riding my balls?” He laughed uproariously at his own story.

Cadance stayed politely quiet, suddenly regretting her decision to follow him.

The next story was about a drunken mare he’d found passed out. She was pretty sure that was considered rape, but apparently the drunken mare had been ecstatic to find him in her bed in the morning. The story after that was about a mare he’d dated for a while, only to discover that she wouldn’t let him do anal, so he’d left her tied up in her flatmate's bedroom before he was out.

Cadance was growing increasingly uncomfortable from his horrifyingly immoral stories, and by the time they made it to the door she was seriously considering turning tail and running, social politeness be damned. But when they got there, he hung his head and sighed.

“Now all those days are over, and I’m a father. I have two beautiful children, a smoking hot wife, and it looks like there’s someone else joining the family real soon. I’m sorry if I overshared a little. I just got caught up in the memories is all. Tell you what, you don’t share my list of indiscretions with Shining, and I won’t share that you’re planning on asking him to marry you. Deal?”

She should have said no. She should have high tailed it out of there and never agreed to a life of guilt and being an unwanted secret keeper. She didn’t realize that agreeing to this meant she could never tell Shining, her future husband, about exactly how bad of a stallion his father was. Instead, she was oddly moved by his confession.

Love makes ponies do strange things, and hell or high water, she loved Shining Armor. So she decided to stay the course, and stick it through. Besides, she was very curious about the wedding ring.

She nodded, suddenly serious. “I agree.”

He nodded back, and the deal was sealed. The door creaked open. “Come on in. Let me get the ring. I think I know where Velvet keeps the other things from our wedding, too.”

Cadance’s ears perked up curiously. “Other things?”

Night went to a walk in closet and started rummaging through it. “Yeah, we had a box… It had her dress, some pictures, the invitations, My ring and hers, our backup rings, the whole shebang. I’m sure it’s here somewhere…”

Cadance let her eyes drift across their bedroom. She hadn’t had a chance to explore it just yet, and the peek into their life was too tempting to resist. As Night dug around in the closet, she looked over family photos, a note pinned to the wall with instructions for when Velvet was gone, some artsy pictures of flowers, and an interesting candelabra. Something about it caught her eye, and she couldn’t figure out what. Each candle seemed to be made of different waxes, and they all had odd conical shapes.

“Night, what’s this candelabra for?”

He laughed, “Ha! Velvet would say that it’s for lighting, if you asked her. But I’m sure an honest mare like yourself noticed that it’s designed for something else entirely. It’s a little toy we use sometimes to spice up the evening.”

Cadance immediately regretted asking, and let her eyes drift to something else. “Oh… I see.”

His laugh dwindled down to an amused chuckle. “The candles are made out of different waxes and burn at different temperatures. You can take out each stick and they're designed with different things in mind. One’s just a dildo, it’s not supposed to be burned, a few are for dripping across her skin at different heat levels, one smells great to set the mood, that sort of thing. It’s a fun little toy, we got it at our favorite shop in downtown Canterlot. They also sell replacement candles. Have a few spares in the closet.”

Cadance stared blankly at the wall, horrified that her boyfriend’s father was sharing the details about his and his wife’s sex toys. She didn’t need to know that. She didn’t need to know any of that. And now she did. She knew that Velvet liked hot candle wax dripped across her, and now Cadance’s imagination was running with that information. Did they drip it on her snout? Across her belly? On her…

Night interrupted her thoughts, “We know the owner of the store, if you want I can set you up for a discount. Although, I’m sure an honest mare wouldn’t be interested in such a scandalous item.”

She could hear the smirk on his face. Her response was high pitched and nervous, “No thanks! I’m fine.”

Night didn’t retort, instead there was a loud “thump” and then his relieved voice called out, “Here we go! The whole box, as advertised. Come on in and let’s crack this baby open. I haven’t looked inside in a while.”

Cadance nervously smiled as she stepped into the closet.

Author's Note

Cadance was wooed by Shining Armor's slightly off key singing. While his voice certainly cracked, her heart did not. Twilight had encouraged them to get together, and then promptly lost interest in the project. Night Light and Twilight Velvet had kept themselves somewhat separate from their kid's social lives, encouraging them to grow on their own. This worked well for Shining Armor. Not so much for Twilight Sparkle...