A Dose of Amnesia

Twilight peered across the street, being sure for the twelfth time that she had her timing absolutely right. Just as she planned, the cab was pulling in, pulled by two stallions. One had a brown coat and red mane, the other a black coat and blue mane, both pegasi. Their cutie marks were obscured by driver's outfits, red with gold embroidery, and they waited outside Canterlot's guard barracks chatting inconspicuously.

Twilight gave them both a nod, and they nodded back in turn. They'd already been paid, they knew what they were doing. Any second now, Shining was going to come out of those barracks, having finished his day of training. Twilight knew from experience that he was almost always the first to leave. From there, she'd have a two minute window to get him inside the cab and off the street before anypony saw who came to meet him.

But that didn't stop the riotous beat of her heart as she sat there plotting, waiting. Was what she was doing right? Was she even thinking clearly? She hadn't slept since last night, she'd been so busy studying and revising her plans that the idea of rest had taken a backseat, and in that time, she'd managed to concoct a brilliant, ridiculous, and convoluted scheme to finally bed her brother.

Maybe she was a little bit crazy. Jury were still out on that one. Thirteenth check was a charm, and in that moment, she caught a glimpse of a brilliantly blue maned, white coated stallion with squared withers and a small smile heading outside of the building. As usual, no one else was outside yet. Twilight didn't usually come to meet him at work, not too often at least, and he looked a little surprised when she bounded up to him, smile all about her. "Hey there, Shining. How are you feeling?"

She didn't want to sound too presumptuous, so she held off on any pet names. This situation was precarious, after all, and time was of the essence. He shifted in place, looking a little squeamish, but soon answered. "Hey, Twily. What are you doing all the way out here? Don't you have studying to do?"

"I've..." Twilight kept a mental count of the seconds ticking, but he'd smell a rat if things looked rushed, this had to be as organic as it could be. "I've been thinking since last night, and you were right."

Shining raised an eyebrow, as if that hadn't been what he was expecting to hear at all. "You really think so?"

All going to plan so far. Twilight nodded, not even needing to feign embarrassment for how very real the redness of her cheeks was. "Y-yeah, I do." She sighed, looking at the ground. "I've been keeping a lot of things, well, bottled up for a good while now, and they've been eating at me for a long time. Instead of sharing them with you when it might have been healthy, I kinda let it all fester inside me and then it just, well, burst last night. I'm really sorry about that."

Shining was silent for a moment, but he soon put a hoof on her wither, shushing her. "There's nothing wrong with you, Twily. You're just a little mixed up at the moment, that's all. How about we go for a coffee and relax for a little while, and when you're ready, we can talk all of this over."

Twilight glanced at one of the stallions on the nearby cab. This was his queue to speak up. "Hey, lady, you getting in here or what? We gotta be in the main plaza in twenty minutes, ride or we go."

Twilight blinked rapidly as if she'd forgot either of them were there, turning with a sheepish, apologetic smile. "Yes, just a second! I'm sorry!" She turned back to Shining with a shake of her head, lifting up a hoof and tapping herself on the skull. "Gosh, I'm so silly! I completely forgot that I called us a cab, and I've just left them sitting here! Sounds like they're in a hurry. I can get them to take us to a coffee shop in town square if you'd like?"

"Heh, why'd you hail a cab for us?" Shining nudged Twilight forwards, a little closer to the thing, but they still weren't inside. They only had a minute left before others started pouring out of those doors.

"Oh, I just know how tiring those long training sessions can be, Shiny. I wanted you to be relaxed, that's all! Also... it's on me, I guess at least the start of an apology for yesterday."

"Twilight..." Shining looked as if he was about to say something else, but faltered at the last second. "Thank you. Let's not keep these guys waiting any longer."

Twilight took point, opening the cab door and sliding on inside before allowing her brother to do the same. The moment the doors were closed, the cab took off, hooves pressing to the road at a brisk pace. They left the barracks behind just as the doors began to open again, and Twilight sighed in relief.

That was phase one over. She peeked to the right of her, looking at the saddlebags that rested on her flanks. She pressed a hoof against them, feeling at what was inside whilst trying not to make a scene of it. She already knew she had everything she needed, but nerves were essentially forcing her to be doubly sure. Everything was imperative right now, absolutely everything.

But for now, she'd play the part. "So, Shining, about last night..."

"You were drunk," Shining responded almost instantaneously, his eyes reassuring. "Ponies do silly things when they're drunk. We're going to work out why you feel the way you do, and we're going to help you get past it. I promise."

The words felt as calming as they did infuriating. She loved that he could be so supportive, but loathed equally the notion of ever 'getting over' the best stallion she'd ever met. "I wasn't actually that drunk," Twilight admitted all straight faced, not taking her eyes off of her brother for a moment. She bit her lip, knowing she was blushing hotly, but she could go through with this, she could be honest. "I... I was just trying to get you to make a move on me, so I was acting more drunk than I really was, and oh gosh, my voice is getting high."

Shining nodded, but Twilight felt the distinct impression that he was holding back on reacting. Did he want to call her a freak? Did these admissions only make her worse in his head? "It's alright, you can keep talking. Relax. Take it slowly, I'm here to try and understand."

She still had a fair amount of time, so she'd gladly take him up on that offer. This whole conversation might end up inconsequential, but it felt therapeutic to have all the same. "I've never really understood why loving you was so bad." Twilight's ears were perked, her chest barely moving between breaths, but she took Shining's silence as cue to continue. "I know a lot of ponies would look down on the way I see you. I just can't comprehend any reason they would, though. I know studies indicate that ponies that cohabitate are far less likely to want to pursue amorous relations, but I just don't think it applies to me! I don't think I'm entirely like other ponies, Shining."

And wasn't that the truth? The lengths she was going to in order to have a chance with him, the lines she was crossing... Was she just a confused, horny teenager after something that was best left untouched for both her sake and her family's? Could she get in trouble for doing this? What would Celestia or her mother think?

Shining had been mulling over her words for half a street now, and when he finally spoke, his voice was slow, careful. "I don't think you are either, and I never have. But that isn't a bad thing, Twily. The only bad thing is the fact that... well, while you might not see why other ponies don't accept it, I do. I just... you're my sister. Maybe that sounds like a terrible reason in the face of logic, but it's the one that matters most to me. I couldn't look at you in that way even if I tried, and believe me, I've tried before."

A blink as this new revelation dawned on her. Twilight looked dumbfounded. "What... what do you mean you've tried?"

"You really want to know?" He was met with an eager, bemused nod. "Fine. When I realised that you might have been...into me, however many years ago that was, I tried to entertain the idea of what it would be like to, well, feel that way towards you. I mean, you're my sister, and I know just how wonderful you are in every way, and I wanted you to be happy, so I thought that if there was even a chance I could bring myself to see the same thing in you, I could tell you, and..."

Twilight very suddenly had tears in her eyes. To think that it had torn Shining up too, but for entirely different reasons. Maybe what she was doing was incredibly selfish. Maybe she should cancel it all now, forget the plan, live with her problems and try to move on. Could she do that, or was she already too far gone? Indecision gripped her, lust and reason bouncing around her fragile, confused mind with no hope of balancing out, neither managing to win, but only throw more contention into the ethical quandaries this plan posed.

With a short sniffle, she wiped at her eyes, placing a hoof on his chest. It was a genuine thing. She just wanted to feel his heart beat for a moment, feel him as real. "You really tried to look at me like that? Honestly?"

"For quite a while, yeah." There was little hesitation now, the words were essentially pouring out of Shining. It was almost as if a veil had been lifted between them, but it was only superficial, as they were still shrouded on one side by the knowledge of what Twilight was about to do. "I tried to imagine myself holding you like a lover, kissing you, doing other things with you. Sorry, that's not very poetic. But honestly, even though I could see just how great you were in every way, you were the mare that would be perfect for any stallion but me."

Twilight was almost afraid to ask. "But why?"

"I don't know. A stupid, mental barrier. Socialisation, I guess. Just what we're brought up to understand as right and wrong. It didn't matter how sexy you looked, my brain could never compute it. It didn't matter if I saw you in the shower, disgust would win out in an instant, and all because of who you are to me. It's wired in my brain, Twilight. I can't just make it go away."

Twilight really hadn't expected the conversation to take this turn. This was unprecedented, and even as she hurriedly checked the street, seeing how much further they'd gotten, she realised she was running out of time. But she wanted to ask this next question more than anything else. "If you could, Shining, would you? If you could just... stop looking at me as your little sister and start appreciating me as a mare, if you could turn off that thing in your mind stopping you, would you do it? Would it matter that it was still wrong in some way?"

"Would it matter that it was still wrong? Of course," Shining repeated with a single nod. Then, a pause, and Twilight felt herself leaning in as she hinged on his pursed lips, waiting for his next words. "Would I do it if I could? In a heartbeat. That mental barrier I mentioned? I kinda hate it. The fact that I think you'd be perfect for any stallion but me? I'd be crazy if I wouldn't kill to be any other stallion. But I can't be. I'm me, and you're you. That's why this could never happen, and I'm sorry to say it."

And yet he didn't realise what she was attempting to do right at that moment... Everything he was revealing was throwing her head for a spin, contemplation and limited time mixing together and swirling her brain into dizziness.

Twilight then said something that she hadn't expected to come out with. Something that might have been the best thing she could possibly say in this situation, but might have been the worst. "What if I could take that feeling away from you for a little while? Just to let you see how it felt? If I had a real, serious way to make that happen, would you trust me?"

"Twilight, I'll always trust you. If you really thought you could do that... I don't know how that would work, or what would happen, but..." He closed his eyes, nodded a couple of times, and looked at her with a smile. "Yeah, I think I'd let you."

And the words just kept coming. She couldn't believe where she was going with this right now, but it felt like all or absolutely nothing in this moment. She had to tell him, she had to at least give him some indication, she couldn't go through with this otherwise. "Shining, I'm about to do something. I'm not going to explain it to you now, because I haven't got time, but it will make you see me as a different mare, at least for a little while. I'm going to put a spell on you, and maybe, just maybe, you'll look at me differently afterwards. If you don't want me to, tell me right now, and we'll turn this cab around, and nothing will happen. I promise."

Shining's lips were parted, shock on his face, but he soon steeled himself. He placed a hoof on Twilight's hind leg, giving her a light squeeze. "It's not going to hurt me, is it?"

"I promise I'd never hurt you, Shiny. Never ever."

"Then if you really think there's a chance it will make you happy, that it'll fix things, whatever it is, do it. I trust you completely, and I love you. Maybe once whatever this is happens, we'll both finally understand exactly where we sit with each other, and if we need to, we'll be ready to put it all behind us."

Twilight was suddenly breathing quite heavily, attempting to focus on the coming turn. He'd just given her permission. After all this, after everything, he'd said that whatever she had planned, it was alright. That she could cast a spell on him, and he wouldn't mind, if only so he might see her as something other than his sister. Twilight could hardly believe it, and she knew that as soon as they emerged on the next street, everything would be set in motion. "Promise me. Promise me right now that it's okay if I do this. I... I feel silly and like I've gone behind your back setting all of this up without telling you, and if you want to stop, just yell 'stop', Shining. Please, if you're doubting me at all, just do it."

Her lip was shaking, her eyes teary again, but he shook his head, watching as they careened around the corner. His eyes were on the road, Twilight's too, and there was the roadblock she'd paid to have set up earlier, the debris on the road, ponies walking down the nearby streets...

And they crashed, just as they were meant to.

Well, pretended to crash. Twilight used her magic to flip the cab to the side, making sure to cushion the fall and prevent the drivers, her, or Shining from being hurt, but to any onlookers, it appeared as if they'd fallen over the obstructions in the road. They fell with a loud crash, and with a final burst of her magic, Twilight rendered Shining unconscious. His muzzle as he drifted off was curved into a small smile.

"Help!" One of the drivers shouted after making a show of checking inside the cab, calling out to the surrounding ponies. "One of my passengers looks hurt, we need to get him to a hospital!"

Of course, he was fine. This had all been planned down to the smallest detail, from the spell that rendered Shining unconscious to the lines the driver spoke, the timing, the route, everything. No matter where Twilight had indicated she wanted to go, they would have taken the same path. He appeared peaceful in his sleep, and Twilight stopped to simply look at him for a little while. So much had happened so quickly, and she wasn't just talking about the 'crash'.

She was distracted by the head of one of the drivers poking his head through the door. "You guys have got some really screwed up family issues, you know. It's kinda hot, honestly."

Twilight tutted, turning to him. "Oh, shut up, Blooper. Go make sure the ambulance is coming."

"Give me my fifty bits first?" the film student turned driver for the day replied. "And there had better not be any scratches on the cab, or I won't get my deposit back for it."

"You're fine, my magic's too good for that, just—" Twilight opened her saddlebags, levitating out a bit bag that she'd labeled with his name. "Here. Now go hurry it up, I don't want too many ponies seeing us."

He rushed off, and Twilight made herself busy making sure that Shining looked as if he was truly out of it. When the ambulance arrived, he had to look as if he'd sustained at least a concussion.

With a little magical manipulation, it wasn't difficult to give off the illusion of a head injury. When the ambulance arrived, pulled by two paramedics, one came up to the car and opened the door, where Twilight was clutching to her brother. "Hello, ma'am. Don't worry, everything's going to be alright. Could you let us take a look at him?"

They checked him over, and true to her spells, he looked as if he was out cold. "Not good..." one of the paramedics said to the other. "Best to take him to the hospital just to be safe." He turned to Twilight. "Do you have his name and address?"

"Why, yes," Twilight replied, reaching into her saddlebags and pulling out a forged identity document that she'd spent many sleepless hours on. "His name is Bright Knight, and, well, it's all there." She passed it off to the paramedic, who quickly glanced at the papers.

"Alright, good thing you had ID on you, makes everything easier to document. And who are you to him?"

"His friend, Moonlight Flicker." She was surprised she was managing to stay so calm and collected while she was doing this, she personally thought the names were terrible.

"Alright, that's all good..." He jotted something down in a notepad, then gestured to a colleague. "Help me get him on a stretcher. We'll let his girlfriend ride in the back with him."

He said 'girlfriend'! Twilight could have squealed right there and then at the thought alone, but she had more important things to do, things that wouldn't allow her to lose herself just yet. Now came the task of placing the amnesia spell on him, and doing it without being noticed before he woke up. Twilight did seem to love making things hard for herself, but it was all going to be worth it in the end just for what would happen when Shining did wake up.

Or should she have said 'when Bright Knight woke up alongside the friend he didn't know, living a life he didn't remember?'. She had to wonder just what it would be like to interact with the stallion she had known for all of her life once he though he was another pony... would his personality change? Would they get along like they used to?

Twilight saved the most important questions for last as she watched the ponies carrying him away on a stretcher, suspended by magic. She got a good look over her brother's body then, even if he wasn't her brother right then, and as her mind began to wander, she found herself fixated on that thick, sheathed thing dangling between his legs.

The important, real questions that they'd be getting to the bottom of very soon were as simple as what his cum tasted like? What it would feel like to have him inside of her? And more than anything, how long could he go before tiring? Maybe they'd have to make it into a game, see who could tire the other out first.

'Bright Knight' might not have known it, but Twilight had been waiting her whole life for this. Hell, he'd be lucky if she didn't fuck his brains out on the hospital bed the moment he woke up. Restraint was boring anyway.