As The Sun Sets

"Honey! I'm home!" Shining yelled into the confines of the crystal castle as he pushed the door open. Cadance was just behind him, tittering at his antics. His voice didn't echo back to him.

Seems like a pretty successful day, if I do say so myself.

He took a deep breath, and let an ounce of tension flow from his back.

"Think Spike's in the kitchen?"

Shining fixed his attention to Cadance, "Oh, I forgot to mention, Spike's been working at the ponyville post."

Cadance smirked, "Spike the brave and glorious works in the post office? How humble." Her smile turned genuine, and slightly abashed as her stomach grumbled again.

"Alright you." Shining poked her in the barrel, "I remember the way, cmon."

It was a short walk, though Shining shortly and internally compared the size of his sister's castle to his own. The fact that he couldn't exactly tell for sure which was bigger was ever so mildly infuriating.

"Voilà" He said, opening the door for her when they arrived. It was the same as it was this morning, just clean, and lacking a purple alicorn sleeping at the kitchen island.

Wonder where she got off too.

"Perfect." Cadance's horn lit, and cabinets began to open of their own volition as Cadance began sifting through materials and objects. Several small cups of spices floated their way out of the topmost cabinet, and she eyed a box of crackers before eventually munching on a few, the bag in the box floating in her aura with a cracker floating out and into her mouth while she focused on finding something better to eat.

"Pass me one of those."

She did, it wasn't particularly fascinating, it was just a cracker. Shining didn't know why he suddenly took such an interest in the design of the thing, but he did. Probably just bored.

"Ahah! Now we're talking." Cadance levitated a whole cantaloupe out from a pull out cooler. With magic that could grind bricks into dust, she simply separated the fruit in half along the center and scooped all of the seeds onto a baking sheet that had just come to rest on the stove top.

Shining watched, slowly nibbling at the edges of a cracker as his wife did what she do.

The seeds got evened out and covered in sugar, the cantaloupe halves ended up on the counter with him.

She began searching around, her wings ruffling in irritation, "Shining, can you help me find the spoons?"

"I gotcha." He lit his own horn and opened up a drawer on the other side of the island, two spoons came floating out.

"Thank you, Love." She turned her attention to the fruit and several clouds of spices and salts came floating out of their containers to mix in the air. Shining spotted white pepper, and some kind of hay seasoning before it was all a homogenous cloud of 'stuff' that lowered itself onto the cantaloupe.

Cadance wasted no time, lifting a spoon in her aura and digging into the soft orange covered flesh of the fruit covered in flavour.

"Mmm... Food..." She mumbled over a mouthful.

Shining humorously exhaled through his nose and pulled the other half over to himself, she hadn't put any spices on his, as he preferred. He spoke as he lifted a spoonful to his face, "Did you turn the oven on?"

Cadance's slightly orange stained muzzle turned with her ears towards the oven in question, she did not, and she gave a mock frown and glare as she used her magic to light it and set the seeds cooking.

They ate together in silence. Shining wasn't worried about having to make conversation, that wasn't a requirement for them anymore. It never was for Shining, her company was enough for him. That and food, the food helped, he couldn't lie.

The door opened, "Cadance, Shining? Is that you?"

"Twily!" Shining abandoned his cantaloupe and went over to grab Twilight in a hug.

"Hey" She said timidly as he mussed up her mane. "Sorry I missed you guys this morning."

"Didn't you two talk?" Cadance said from the table, in-between bites.

How did she know that?

"I don't..." Twilight blushed, "This morning was pretty hazy."

"We did, you went on about magic, we found the bracelet though, it flew itself to Cadance."

Twilight sighed in relief, "Oh thank Celestia, I was... I thought I lost it."

"Did you figure anything out before it escaped?" Cadance asked from behind him.

Twilight walked up to the counter with him as she responded, "It uses an old... very illegal series of runic spells meant to take in information, and store it somehow. Have you ever read Tight Lense's theories of medical applications of teleportation?"

Shining recognized that name, "Hey, wasn't he a doctor?"

"Mhm. He tried to work out a way to individually subdivide thaumatic stabilization fields fine tuned enough to target parts of the body at range." She gestured out with her hooves, "Imagine just being able to teleport all of the bacteria making you sick out of your body."

Cadance responded, her tone even, "Or teleporting somepony's heart out of their chest from a distance away."

"Ah." Shining surmised, "So that's the illegal part."

Twilight nodded, "Except Lense's work was shut down, he never figured it out, and nopony else was allowed down that avenue of research. I can't tell if the... bracelet holds the solution, but I know enough to tell that's what it's trying to do. There wouldn't be another way for it to create a spell manifold."

"How does it actually change anything?"

"I don't know, I was trying to figure out where it was drawing energy from when it flew away from me."

Cadance shook her head, "Well, no use worrying about it now, I'll just have to ask Silver." Cadance rolled her eyes and mumbled to herself, "Probably why she left." Before stepping back towards the stove and opening it to check on the seeds. The smell of caramelizing sugar wafted into the room, along with the tint of smoke from whatever detritus was lying at the bottom when Cadance turned it on.

Twilight glanced at the fruit sitting on the counter, Shining realized that Cadance had already scooped out the entire interior of her cantaloupe half.

"Are those the seeds?"

"Mhm." Cadance let the springs in the oven shut the crystal cover down over the top.

I wonder where the tree got the idea to incorporate modern engineering in its structure.

"Oh!" Twilight straightened up, "How was your day? You guys went out exploring right? Spike said as much."

"Eh" Cadance waved a hoof, "We bought paint, I nearly blew up Applejack's trees, Sugarcube Corner was closed, then I teleported two goons out of town, flew around looking for food, then came back here."

"The flying part was probably the most exciting part for me." He sarcastically stated, smiling to himself as Twilight tried to work over the information in her head.

She settled on, "Wait, blew up?"

"Cadance tried some dark magic."

"Emotion Magic." She corrected, still staring at the oven's cover.

"What?! Why?"

Shining watched Cadance's posture imperceptibly change.

Mm, right, gonna have to mediate this.

Even though Shining was clearly on the side of, 'let's put it down, never touch it again, and never talk about what we did when we had it'. He wasn't about to gang up on her, especially since he already said his piece, he trusted her to listen to him the first time he said something.

"Turns out." Shining started, "Dark magic isn't nearly as corruptive as we thought."

Twilight twisted her head to look at Shining, half leering in concern, "Are... You too?"

"Oh no, not me. I'm not that crazy."

"Mmnot crazy" Cadance mumbled.

Shining could see the solution here. He just had to get Twilight's academic curiosity over her glaring and very valid concern for the subject. "Didn't you learn some Dark magic too Twily? To get into where the crystal heart was?"

"Well..." She was interrupted by Cadance

"It's called Emotion Magic. It's just... a different style of casting. It's not inherently evil."

"It's just inherently corruptive." Shining added.

"It doesn't feel very corruptive." Cadance countered

"Maybe it's just Silver rubbing off on you then." Once he said it, he wanted to have unsaid it

Ahhhhh.... crud...

Cadance's eyebrows furrowed, her calm smile morphed into pursed lips.

Uhhhhh

"Am I... acting differently? Have I been... getting corrupted?" She carefully asked, Twilight having fallen silent while observing the interaction.

"No. No-"

Cadance's head tilted in the way that said, 'don't mess up answering this', "Then what do you mean by, 'rubbing off' on me."

"Just..." Shining grabbed for some words that were equally true, and wouldn't end with him on a couch, "She's got a very domineering personality, you spend time with her every week, that's all."

"Alright then..." She said cryptically, her inquisitive frown morphing back into a dangerous smile.

"Uhm... so... What's it like?"

Shining chuckled internally

That wasn't how I thought I was gonna do it, but hey, we take those.

Cadance mulled over an answer for a second. "It's like..." She continued to think as she opened the oven again. "Like how you can... feel yourself extended into the magic. When it forms around your mind and expands it."

Twilight nodded along.

"When you cast with Emotion, it's like that, but it comes from your core rather than your... focus?" She turned around to Twilight, "Does that make sense?"

She nodded and added, "And the emotions take up their own space, they're you when the feeling extends, but it's not something you can control."

Cadance nodded and used her magic to wrench a seed out of the melted sugar over top of it, popping into her mouth, and letting out a zippy 'mm' of satisfaction.

"Honestly... it's too figurative for me to understand." Shining added, "I'm not good with this kind of magic stuff."

"Imagine if your..." Cadance made a face, "Actually, do you mind if I try something?"

Shining blinked once, "You're asking to-"

"Just this once?"

"Wait, hold on, what are you asking?"

"Cadance"

"Shining."

"I don't mean to-" Twilight suddenly shifted under the attention of both of the monarchs "I mean, well..." She turned to Cadance, "Is it dangerous? The spell I learned was."

"Definitely not." Cadance answered with absolute confidence

Both of the mares' attention turned to him.

Shining wondered if it was his fault every mare he knew was like this. "Alright."

Cadance smiled, "Okay. So." She began, stepping up to the island where Shining was seated, Twilight joined a moment later. "Love affected your shield spell before right?"

"Yes?" He questioned, obviously wondering where this was going.

"What if that wasn't an accident? What if that's how it works?"

Twilight scrunched her muzzle, "Did the spell you used to amplify Shining's shield spell the banish the changelings-"

"That was a complete accident. Yes." Shining answered for Cadance.

Twilight was making that concerned expression a lot tonight.

"Silver's already proved several different types of casting are compatible... so..." Cadance's horn lit with her normal telltale blue, but her eyes began to leak smoke as they always did when casting like this.

On the table, a little pink cube appeared, barely the size of Shining's hoof.

All three blinked at the thing.

"Huh." Cadance said

"What are you... How are you doing that?" Said both Shining and Twilight together, the words mixing together into soup.

Cadance's head tilted as the cube floated into the air, "Just the normal levitation charm, with a hint of love."

"And... that makes..." Twilight trailed off.

Cadance reached her hoof forwards and poked the cube. It spun lazily in place.

"Wait." Shining leaned forwards, "Is that solid?"

"Solid telekinesis?"

"It doesn't feel like hard light?" Cadance questioned

"I need to write this down." Twilight lit her own horn and several things flashed around her as a notepad and a quill already dipped in ink appeared in her telekinetic grasp. "Cadance, can you describe what you did?"

"Oh um." Cadance turned away from the cube. "I just thought about using the... intuitive levitation charm most unicorns learn, then did it with love instead."

Twilight's quill stopped, "Can you be a little more specific?"

"No?" Cadance nearly laughed. The cube seemed to get denser, though Shining was the only one who noticed. He lit his own horn and formed an identical cube on the table, made out his point shield matrix.

"How difficult was it to cast?" Twilight asked

"I barely had to try, it almost happened without me."

Twilight bit the end of the quill.

"Oh no. Don't even think about it Twi." Shining admonished

"Right... But, if we could recreate the effects! Who knows what we could learn?" Twilight had that little sparkle in her eyes of an unanswered question.

Shining took a deep breath, "Fine, but I'm doing it."

"Shining, you don't have to." Cadance said from across the table.

Twilight clapped her hooves in excitement and prepped her notepad again. Shining tilted his head in her direction.

She's got me already. Too far gone now.

"You said it was just... levitation done with love right?"

"Uh-huh."

Shining closed his eyes and lit his horn.

Levitating objects felt a lot like eating them, to him. That's what the analogy he always used was, at least. An object and it's properties became you, your properties, and with exertion, you could manipulate them the same way you could lift a hoof. He thought of levitation, and flexed the mental muscle, not pulling any of the spell form; he simply thought of Cadance.

Like adrenaline, the sensation of emotion came filling his core, up and out of his horn, so much like Cadance combining her magic with his. Then there was a blue sphere, the same colour as Cadance's eyes floating in the air next to her cube. Shining opened his eyes to see it. The glamour of the smoke leaking in the corner of his vision was a little distracting, but it didn't make his face feel any different.

"Oh, huh. It really is that easy."

"Well Shining? Do you feel corrupted yet?"

She asked the question sarcastically, but Shining planned on answering it very seriously. "There was a swelling sensation that passed through me as I cast the spell. Not nearly enough to overwhelm me, but it was there. It could have, say, if I tried to fill the entire room with the magic."

"Would you describe the sensation as magical, mental, or physical?"

Shining knew the answer to that, "Mental. I didn't really feel it physically, but it certainly felt like I did. A trick played by the mind."

Twilight continued to scribble as another, large cube appeared and formed a trio with the others.

"You said... You felt it?" Cadance asked, slight worry mixed with confusion.

"Yeah."

Another object joined the three, this one was a rectangular prism. "I don't..." Then another one, "I don't feel anything when I make them, it's just normal levitation to me."

Shining and Twilight shared a look.

Twilight spoke first, "How many can you make?"

Shining quickly interjected, "Let's not. I think this was a nice little research session, but you promised to cut back on this." He finished while looking at Cadance.

"I did." She nodded, and the smoke went away with the light on her horn. The objects fell against the island, and Shining's ears twitched as they made no sound, but they did not disappear. Cadance continued unaware, "I'm sorry I brought this up again, it just came to me and... What are you two-?"

Three objects sat there on the counter, unphased by any lack of magical channeling. Shining canceled his own spell, and the sphere fell and began to roll on the table until it came to rest against the larger pink cube.

"What am I seeing." Shining said

"Spontaneous thaumic draw?"

Twilight shook her head, "They're not drawing from the ambient. I have no idea how that's even possible."

Shining reached forwards with his hoof and pressed down on the rectangular prism. It was firm, but slightly malleable, like a foam sponge. He pressed down on it, and it compressed under his hoof until it was bulging out at the sides, then it silently popped. There was a flickering rush of magic, but that was it. No sound, no flash, it just disappeared.

The other three remained.

"I..." Twilight tried.

"Don't freak out on us now Twi." Shining said, chuckling to himself

"Right. This is fascinating, but I think we can safely pull our hooves away from the proverbial fire before we go too far." Cadance told herself. Twilight nodded along, vanishing her notes away.

"What were we talking about before..." Twilight looked back at the three magical objects sitting on the table. Shining saw her bite the inside of her cheek, and watched the gears turn in her head.

"Sugar cube corner being closed."

"Oh." Twilight tore her gaze away from the magic, "Pinkie and the cakes went to Canterlot today to renew a license or something, Pinkie came along to watch the twins."

"Will you send them our apologies for the strangeness that was right before Cadance's shower?"

Cadance waved a hoof noncommittally, "We can just go see them in the morning Shining."

Shining nodded, accepting that.

"So... you also said you teleported somepony out of town?"

Shining wanted to answer this one, "A pair of stallions trying to swindle rocks."

Cadance laughed at the description, covering her mouth with a hoof.

Twilight raised an eyebrow, "Flim and Flam?"

"I dunno, we never caught their names."

"Red manes?"

"Yup." Cadance was back to being all smiles

"Well, thank you. It's a good thing you got rid of them."

"Oh!" Cadance's wings unconsciously fluttered slightly, "And we fought a Lupus! And there was that explosion? What was up with that?"

Twilight made that face again, "There was another monster attack today?"

"Barely an attack, and barely fighting; we put it in a bubble and then sent it back into the forest. I can't believe I forgot about that." Shining chuckled

"Weird things and excitement have just become the norm."

"Ugh, I'm glad we sorted out the disaster funds."

Shining just now noticed that Cadance had eaten half of the seeds from the sheet, "Hey! Leave some for us!"

"Nope!" Cadance laughed, floating a bunch of seeds into her mouth at once

Shining got up over the table and swiftly moved over to the oven. Cadance brandished a spatula at him, something he was explicitly not prepared for. He used his magic to lift a wooden spoon from the sink and locked utensils with Cadance.

"En' Garde!" He shouted right as she bapped him on the nose and ran away while giggling.

"Twilight! Secure the confections!" He gave chase.

The next hour was spent play fighting with numerous kitchen implements. Twilight ended up going mad with power and the two royals had to band together to triumph over her legions of glasses and dishware.