The Queen of Canterlot

Cadence kissed Shining.

Changelings were insects. They did not have pair bonding instincts. Though they could love, and formed lifelong relationships, their language had no words for boyfriend or girlfriend, husband or wife. Romantic love was not a thing to be had with changelings, but with ponies, be it given freely or stolen. And perhaps in some instinctual, atavistic way, Shining conceptualized Canterlot as his hive.

He loved Cadence, and he quite directly understood that she loved him, but it never occurred to him to kiss her. When they were both sixteen, and they had been dating for some time, she finally became impatient with him not picking up on her hints. She demanded, “Shining, look at me,” and when he did, “Now lean forward,” and he did.

Then she kissed him.

His eyes went wide, and sparks shot through his limbs. Colors exploded in his mind, a world of alien possibilities opened before him. It was as though he’d been blind his whole life, and only then, he saw.

He saw what he could do with her love. He could change the world, banish the greatest of monsters, cast spells to cover or protect entire cities. He could be a tremendous force for good in the world, instead of a helpless observer of events. He could be Cadence’s protector, not merely a royal guard there to shoo crowds away, but a true guardian for an alicorn princess.

And he thought, he could raise a family, and there were terrible, alien dreams. Dreams of a hive full of eggs, nymphs, drones buzzing back and forth, all sustained by the pink pony who sat beside him on a throne of chitin. But in those dreams, Shining wasn’t Shining, and they weren’t Cadence’s children to bear.

The Cadence pulled back and asked: “Well?”

And Shining kissed her back, with all the intensity of a drowning pony clinging to floating debris. They made out in the shadow of Canterlot Palace, until Cadence said they had to stop. A princess couldn’t be seen with smudged makeup and hickeys on her neck.

“You’re perfect,” he told her and it was almost true.

She didn’t know.