Glad to be off the topic of the incognito sex toy, Cadance stepped into the closet to get a peek in the box. The closet was surprisingly large, almost a small bedroom in itself. There was a pile of dirty clothes, some hanging dresses, shelves of boxes and shoes, and plenty of floor space. In the middle of that floor space was Night, standing over the box. It was a white box, wrapped in lacy ribbons, and Night was untying them. As the final tie was undone, and the lid creaked open, she stepped just a little closer to look over his shoulder.

It was a marital treasure trove.

Inside was white lace, a few shiny bits of metal and gems, several scraps of paper and a booklet of photos. Night was staring at the contents with a far away look in his eyes. “It’s been a while…” He muttered.

Cadance desperately wanted to see the dress and the rings, but wasn’t rude enough to grab them with her magic, so she waited as Night slowly picked up the book of photos. He opened it up with surprising care, and smiled deeply as he looked at the pages. “Stars, she was so beautiful back then.”

Cadance leaned over his shoulder to take a glimpse. There was Velvet, dressed to the nines in a gorgeous white layered wedding dress, frills and all. A brilliant gold ring was around her horn, inlaid with glowing runes. Night was leaning against her, a shit eating grin on his face while his eyes looked just as starstruck in the picture as they did now. His plain black tuxedo was put to shame by the dazzling lacework layered throughout the dress. Velvet’s smile was as wide as her face, and she seemed to be crying happy tears.

Night sat back, quietly looking at the picture as he was lost in his memories. Cadance chimed in, “She really is something to look at. I’m not sure how I’m going to compete with her dress. That’s amazing.”

He blinked, nodding over to the box. “It’s right there if you’d like to take a look. We hardly go through this box anymore, and I think it deserves a chance for someone to see it again.”

Cadance levitated the frilly dress out, surprised at how much dress was hidden in the little box. “Wow… It just keeps coming.”

Night chuckled slightly, then started a rolling laugh. “I said something like that when I met her.”

Cadance pointedly ignored his crass comment as a blush formed on her cheeks. For better or worse, she was getting used to his off-color jokes. “This dress is absolutely fantastic! She must have spent a fortune on it.”

He glanced up from the photos to look at the dress she was holding in front of her. “Yeah it’s something all right. She never thought that she was the kind of mare to get married, so she actually did spend a small fortune on it. This isn’t it at its best, though. It’s best on a pretty mare. Shame that it doesn’t look like it would fit you, even though you’re young and hot.”

Cadance’s ears folded back, part in disbelief and part in confusion. “Excuse me?”

Night put a hoof on the dress. “It’s just that you’re bigger than she was. Don’t get me wrong, you’re absolutely stunning and if I was twenty years younger I’d be all over you, but Velvet and you are just built different.”

Cadance blinked, her mind unsure what to be offended by just yet. “And what, exactly, is that supposed to mean?”

He sighed, “You’re taller, for one. The hemline would be far too high. Also, you have wings. It would change the lay of the dress on your shoulders and flank, almost certainly ruining the presentation of the layering in the process.”

She sighed, surprised at his quick and comprehensive answer as she realized that he wasn’t trying to insult her. “I see.”

He glanced at her, then the dress. “Still, it’s a shame. I bet you’d look as good as she did if it fit you right. That kind of raw beauty only comes once in a lifetime.”

Cadance gently smiled, imagining her own dress. The layered lace was enigmatic, and she was sure she could order something with the same soul, even if it was a new design. “I’ll make sure Shining gets to see something just as pretty on his wedding day, then.”

Night opened the picture book again, slowly flipping through it. “As pretty as she was in the dress, a mare is always prettiest when you get her out of one.”

And there it was, the off-color quip that she’d been quickly growing to expect. This time instead of ignoring it, she retorted, “Well, at least Shining will have something to look forward to for after the wedding.”

Night glanced up, seemingly confused. “You’re not serious, are you?”

She frowned. “Whatever do you mean?”

“I mean that you’re not going to make him wait until the wedding?”

Cadance raised an eyebrow in surprise. “I’m a princess. There are certain expectations.”

He took his roof and rolled it over in an explaining gesture. “Yes, but I figured all that was just an act. You’re pulling my leg, right? You two have to have done something. You’ve been dating for a year now, and he’s crazy about you.”

Her eyes went wide. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business at all.”

Night bit his lip, standing up. “He’s my son. Of course it’s my business. I always knew he was a bit of an idealistic airhead, but I don’t want you ruining him.”

She glared. “I’m hardly ruining him! He and I decided this together. The most we’ve done is kiss.”

Night raised an eyebrow. “Well, that’s something I guess.”

She covered her face in embarrassment, she hadn’t meant to say that! Why had she just blurted that out?

Night somewhat angrily took the dress back from her. “Well, is he a good kisser at least?”

She continued to blush, stamping a hoof. “It’s not your business!”

He glared at her. “Are you sure about that, Princess? I mentioned that I was a bit of a player, and that I have no idea how many mares I bed before I met Velvet, right?”

Cadance frowned. “I believe you said something of the kind.”

He continued to stare at her, a strange glint in his eye. “How many of them do you think were married?”

She gasped, “You didn’t!”

He continued to glare. “I absolutely did. Committed mares were the easiest, and usually the most fun. I’m sure I mentioned that Velvet was seeing somepony when I met her. I didn’t mention that she was engaged to them. That dress wasn’t originally bought for me.”

She covered her mouth in disbelief. “You’re disgusting!”

He snorted, “Married mares who have never fooled around are easy targets for a pick up artist. And I don’t want Shining’s heart broken because the two of you never fooled around before getting married. All it takes is a few words, an unexpected touch, and then you’re feeling things you’ve never felt before.”

He stepped closer as his magic folded the dress and gently set it back in the box, He seemed almost angry as he spoke, “You need to have felt those things, experienced those emotions, been the target or the pickup artist once or twice to understand what it means to be actually devoted to somepony. It takes more than love. There are hundreds of stallions and mares like me and Velvet out there, just salivating at the chance to turn a pretty little loving couple like you two into a pair of broken hearts, simply for one more notch on their bed. And you’d be a royal notch. You will be targeted.”

His eyes pierced into hers and she glanced down, afraid to meet them. It felt like she was being scolded by a parent.

She shivered as she spoke, “Our love is not that weak.”

He rolled his eyes. “It’s not about the love, Cadance. I don’t doubt for a second that you love him more than anypony else. Artists don’t rely on love to get what they want. They rely on base, primal instincts. Pure, raw emotion that you can’t protect yourself from if you’ve never experienced it. The kind of thing that they mold like clay while the target has no idea it’s even happening. It’s not related to love at all,” He glared at the picture book, floating it up and flipping through it.

She looked up, still feeling like a foal in trouble as she watched him aggressively flip through the book. He held it out to her. “Here, look.”

There were two pictures hidden away in the innermost folio of the album, one on each page. Velvet, wearing her wedding dress leaning on one of the groomscolts on the left side of the book, while Night was leaning on one of the bridesmares on the right. The pictures looked oddly different from the rest of the album, as though they were captured by an amateur photographer.

The groomscolt was blushing, avoiding looking at the camera and his neck had little red marks that stood brightly against his green fur. His posture made him look nervous, but his face was one of ashamed enjoyment. Velvet’s hoof was placed firmly on his far shoulder, and her smile was a confident and knowing smirk. If you looked, you could see the shadow of something long, dark, and thin hidden against the neckline of his black tuxedo.

In Night’s picture the bridesmare’s dress was sloppy and tilted sharply to the side. Her eyes had deep, dark bags against her otherwise bright and cheery yellow coat. Immediately obvious was how strangely they were leaning into one another. From the angle the photograph was taken you could just barely see that their awkward stance was due to his back leg slipping over her waist, almost hidden by the canted, ruffled dress. The details of how that was happening were obscured behind her large curly blue mane, which upon closer examination was matted and frizzled, as though something sticky had dried in it and it hadn’t been brushed or washed in a few days.

Now that Cadance was looking at the mare’s increasingly obviously unkempt condition, she even saw a strange sheen around the mare’s snout. The mare’s mouth was slightly open, and she appeared to be drooling with a goofy smile as her tired eyes focused on something just beyond the camera. Night, however, was almost completely composed. His hair was slightly out of place, and his face was slightly flushed as though he’d been exercising. His smile, though, was just as predatory as Velvet’s had been.

“Velvet and I loved each other deeply. We still do. But we planned a last hurrah before our wedding. A sort of partnered… last work of art. These two were associates, not friends, that we invited specifically to be our last little adventure. They had no idea what they were getting in to. A week long all expense paid vacation to a resort destination for our wedding wasn’t something they could turn down.”

He smiled fondly at the pictures.

“By the deadline, our wedding day, they were too ashamed of themselves to even look at each other. Velvet trained her poor sap to do tricks for her whip, while I trained his little wife to beg like a dog and squirt like a hose for my cock. She barely stepped hoof outside of my hotel room for the entire trip, and by the deadline she’d spent more time with my dick inside of her than outside of her. Neither of them spent a single night in the room we bought them, and I know that she never even opened her suitcase—the dress was part of the wedding package. It’s how I got her to go into my room at first.”

He blinked, his smile suddenly flickering from excitement to a more reserved look of regret.

“Now I can’t even remember their names. We got married the last day of the trip while they awkwardly stood as far away from each other as they could during the ceremony. That was the first time they’d even seen each other since we’d split them up at the dock. They divorced shortly after their free vacation was over. Technically, everything was consensual, but Velvet and I knew better. What we did to them had nothing to do with love; far from it. It was a manifestation of pure, selfish ego. A simple contest of ‘Look what I can do.’ between us before we got married.”

Cadance was horrified. “That’s… disgusting.”

Night tapped the picture again. “Maybe, but it’s also how the world works, kid.”

Cadance glared at him, frowning as a sick feeling was in her stomach. She could see how some mares might be swayed by his looks, but his personality was abysmal. How could any mare deprave herself so low? “That’s not how my world works.”

He glanced at the mare in the picture, letting out a sigh. “It could very easily be, if you’re not careful.”

She ignored the comment, glaring angrily. “I don’t want to know any of this about you. Why are you telling me this?”

Night closed the booklet and put the pictures back in the box, He sighed. “If you’re going to marry my son, I don’t want you two to end up like our special guests did. Somepony will target you. When it happens, not if, I don’t want it to ruin your lives—like Velvet and I ruined theirs.”

She tried not to think about what he said, biting her lip with barely restrained rage. “Our love is stronger than that.”

He levitated out the ring, holding it up in the air over them. “It’s not about love, Cadance. Velvet and I love each other immensely. That held true when we met. Our love was dangerous, though, and we tore others apart. We loved each other, but we were bad ponies.”

Cadance stamped her hoof. “I don’t see how that makes it not about love. Bad ponies can love each other.”

He raised an eye at her. “Exactly. And bad ponies can love good ponies just as powerfully as they can love anyone else.”

She glared at him, suddenly feeling insulted somehow. “What are you implying, Night?”

He lowered the ring to eye height so he could see it more clearly. "Just that I love Shining very much, and that I’m worried about him.”

Cadance furrowed her brow and continued to stare as Night moved the ring right in front of her face. “The question I have for you, is ‘Is love alone enough to keep him safe?’”

Cadance’s eyes drifted to the sparking runes on the ring. It was a masterclass in white smithing, another gorgeous artifact to coat Velvet on her wedding day. Another beautiful thing ruined by the story that Night had just told her.

She frowned, taking the ring from him and looking it over even closer. Everything about it was exquisite, and now instead of awe she was filled with a deep sense of disappointment. “More than I care to explain to you.”

Night stepped closer, gently reaching for the ring with his hoof instead of his magic. He spoke softly, “Don’t be angry, Cadance. I’m only trying to protect my son.”

She held the ring tight in her magic, reluctant to let it go. “It’s a shame ponies only wear their rings when they get married, they’re beautiful pieces.” Her eyes glanced up to Night. “Even if they represent something wicked.”

He grabbed the ring, but still didn’t pull against her magic. “There’s nothing wicked about our love. Some of what we did, maybe, but that’s one of the things I’m trying to explain to you. “

She glared at him, releasing the ring to his grasp. “I’m not talking about your love. Is your story true? Or is this some sort of test?” Her eyes darted about, suddenly concerned that Velvet and Shining were hiding around the corner, waiting to pop in on a terrible joke.

Night pulled the ring to his chest, cupping it safely. “It’s true, but in a way, I suppose it is a test of sorts. Or, maybe it should be?” He squinted at the ring curiously.

She frowned. So not the kind of test where the others were waiting nearby. “What do I need to do to prove to you that I’m serious, Night?”

His eyes slowly rose from the ring and settled on her as his mouth curved into a disappointed frown. His response was slow. “That was exactly the wrong thing to say to me.”

She huffed, his games were getting frustrating. “I don’t care. What do I need to do to prove that I’m worth marrying him?”

Night bit his lip in contemplation, then glanced back at the wedding box. After a quiet moment, he looked back towards Cadance. “Okay. We can play it like that.”

“It’s not a game, Night. I’m serious—I love Shining. I want to marry him.”

Night took the ring out, and tenderly kissed it. He talked softly to it instead of her. “It’s always a game, Cadance. It’s just a question of who’s playing, and if the game’s important enough to win. It’s been that way since foalhood, the only parts that change are the games themselves.”

Something about the faraway timbre of his voice made her shiver. Frustrated at his obtuseness, she narrowed her eyes and glared at him. “Say what you mean plainly. I’m not a fan of cryptic riddles.”

Author's Note

Night Light and Twilight Velvet had an "unopen" relationship. They each had permission to sleep with who they wanted, but rarely had any desire to. Of course, this was years ago. Nowadays, it's a little more "traditionally" open. Of course, they still love each other immensely. And the sex isn't to bad either.