Their honeymoon was in an isolated cabin nestled in a snowy clearing on the side of Canterlot Mountain. The bedroom had an easterly view. Every morning, Cadance and her beloved would rise together, peer out the window as dawn broke, and greet the day as husband and wife.

Or so she had fantasized when she booked it.

Their wedding night set the tone for the days to come. They undressed from their finery and slid beneath the covers together, but when Cadance reached out to stroke Shining's cheek, he pulled away and mumbled an apology. So Cadance, who slept fitfully and woke hours before him, greeted the morning alone at the kitchen table with a fashion magazine and a mug of coffee in front of her. 

Shining Armor was hurting. She'd seen it in everything he did from the moment they were reunited. His stance on the dais as she walked up the aisle, his steps as he twirled her in the castle garden, the nervous look in his eye whenever he dared meet her gaze. She knew why, too. It didn't take Twilight to put the pieces together. 

Cadance was loathe to press the issue, and wanted him to open up to her naturally, but by their fourth silent, awkward breakfast, it was clear that he was going to keep it bottled up unless she broached the subject first.  

"We need to talk, Shining." 

Shining Armor levitated his coffee mug, but only stared sullenly into its rim.

Cadance leaned forward onto the table. "You won't touch me. You barely talk to me. You spend your days in the woods, avoiding me, and when you come home, it's to sleep on the opposite side of the bed from me. Just getting you to look me in the eye is––"

"Don't." Shining set his mug down and stared at his untouched plate, a flush spreading across his cheeks. His eyes clenched shut, and Cadance could see a tremble in his shoulders. "Leave it alone."

"Don't shut me out," said Cadance softly. "Please, talk to me. Let me help." 

"You can't." Tears trickled in thin streams down his reddened cheeks. "You can't give back what she took away."

The words struck Cadance like a hammer blow.

"I woke up with her on top of me one night." Shining's voice was as thin and cold as the mountain wind, but rapidly grew louder and more frantic the longer he spoke. "I said we should wait, because we promised we'd wait, but the things she said, the way she felt and moved and smelled – she was [i]you[/i], Cadance, I swear she was. So I gave in, and I let her... I let her do things to me..."

Cadance pushed off her chair and rounded the table, folded her wings around her husband, and drew him close. He stiffened, then melted into her, burying his cheek in her neck and clutching her body as tightly as he could.

"She had you under a spell. You weren't yourself." With her wingtip, she stroked him from his ear to his mane. "I don't hold you responsible for anything you did under her influence, Shining Armor." She pulled away and cradled his face between her hooves. "I love you. I trust you. Nothing will ever change that. Okay?"

Shining turned his gaze away. "It's not just that. Every time I think about... us... you and me... um..."

"Canoodling?" Cadance supplied with a slightly impish lilt. "Foaling around? Makin' the two-humped camel?"

Shining chuckled, but it ended in a sigh. "I feel... wrong. Guilty. Dirty. I think I'm broken. And I don't know if I'll ever not be."

Cadance leaned forward and nuzzled him with the tip of her nose. "I don't mind waiting for you. Hay, I'm kinda stuck with you, anyway. Sickness and health, 'til death do we part... you were there for all that, so I won't repeat it."

He chuckled again as the last of his tears dried on his cheeks. "I'm sorry for shutting you out."

"There's nothing to apologize for, darling, and nothing for me to forgive." She let him lean into her again, and her eyes fluttered shut contentedly. "But... will you do something for me?"

"Hmm?" 

"If it isn't too much... will you at least hold me at night? It gets chilly all alone on my side of the bed."

She felt his lips spread into a smile against her skin. "I think that would be alright."