Catch

Student of the Game

Twilight snickered as her brother stepped onto the mat in the middle of their overpriced Las Pegasus hotel room. A too-small training gi struggled to contain his broad shoulders—a noble effort, though one that was likely doomed to failure—and a napkin-thin pair of nylon shorts hugged his haunches, covering his cutie mark while leaving his thighs exposed.

“I don’t know, Shining. Do you think it’s tight enough?” Twilight jeered playfully as she glided onto the mat herself, her newly gained pegasus-grace evident in her stride. Her own gi and shorts were as tight as Shining’s, but it seemed no amount of snug-fitting fabric could hinder her movements.

“What? Isn’t this how all the kids are wearing their gis?”

“The mares, maybe.” Twilight giggled, a cute sound that drifted up and away like a soap bubble. “Seriously, how can you even move in that thing?”

Shining glanced over his shoulder, admiring his training outfit. “But Rarity said I looked ‘rather dashing,’” he said, earning another soap-bubble laugh from Twilight as he mimicked her friend’s distinct inflection.

Ah, so Rarity was behind this—that explained everything. It was a poorly-kept secret that the seamstress had a crush on Shining, and she likely couldn’t bear the thought of concealing his wealth of rippling muscles, those pliable stones stuffed under his snow-white coat. Twilight watched the stones expand and contract with his movements as he drew near, suddenly aware of them in a new, strange and alarming way.

“What’s with the look, little sis? You’re not nervous already, are you?” said Shining, amused. He seemed perpetually amused these days, breezier, as if every sensation that skittered through his nervous system was cause for celebration. “Not that I blame you,” he continued, “I mean, have you seen what you’re up against?” A mist of magical light rolled up both his sleeves, and he flexed a bulbous bicep before kissing it with an exaggerated smack.

Twilight grinned at her brothers antics. “Take it easy there, killer. This is only a sparring match.” Taking her time, she sat down on her haunches, splayed her hind legs wide and bent forward at the waist, her stomach creasing as she touched her brow to her stifle.

Shining tilted his head and let out a sharp whistle, impressed. “Getting some training in before your big match with Sunset, huh?”

“Sunset and Trixie.” Twilight sat up, took a breath, then bent down and touched her other stifle, the movement slow and tantalizing.

“Two on one definitely sounds like their style,” he said, staring, mesmerized by his sister’s flexibility. “You sure you can handle both of them?”

“I’ve beaten them before. Both inside the ring and out.”

She rose back to all fours and glided closer to Shining, her lithe, streamlined frame enveloped in an aura of confidence—perhaps overconfidence. A wisp of purple light rolled up her sleeves, revealing two trim forelegs.

Another whistle from Shining, sharper, almost vulgar. “Looks like somepony’s been hitting the gym.”

“Don’t tease,” Twilight chided, though she was happy he’d noticed. “Now remember, Shining, this is only a sparring match. No magic, no compression locks, and when I tap, you let me go. Understand?”

“No problem, Mom. Should I go clean my room afterwards? Maybe take out the trash?”

Twilight gave his shoulder a playful shove, giggling again. “Shut up and get into position.”

Both fighters rose to their back legs and placed their front hooves on the other’s shoulders. Their foreheads came together, a white horn crossing with a purple one.

“Whenever you’re ready, Twily,” said Shining, pronouncing her nickname like a taunt.

Twilight spread her weight evenly between both hind legs. All traces of humor drained from her expression, and her keen eyes flicked over Shining’s stance, already searching for openings.

Shining attempted to match his sister’s focus, but he couldn’t flip a switch and shape-shift into a calculating predator the way his sister could. It was all mathematics to her, all angles and leverage and weight distribution and torque and timing. All of it scientific. Quantifiable. Predictable.

Her eyes flashed over his bent elbows, his shoulders, his staggered hind legs, and then finally settled on his face, reading his composed expression. She was already two steps ahead of him.

Shining shifted his weight.

Three now.

He made the first move, driving forward and slamming his massive chest into Twilight’s. She slid back on her heels as he trapped her in an unusual body lock, hooking one foreleg around her shoulder and other beneath her leg-pit. His forehooves clapped together behind her back, the sound like a door slamming shut, and he pushed his temple against her neck as the grip around her body tightened.

Twilight mimicked her brother’s hold, bending her stifles as she dug her heels into the mat to keep from being driven back any further. Both fighters pushed against each other, a pair of clashing deer with interlocked antlers, and already Twilight could feel the immense difference between her power and his.

But Shining had already made a mistake. A predictable one. He’d clinched too high against a smaller opponent, allowing Twilight to keep her hips below his. Catching his error, he squatted low and attempted a throw, but Twilight squatted with him, keeping her center of gravity below his.

She read his next move like a child’s picture book—an inside leg sweep—and countered with a sweep of her own. A crafty hind leg snuck behind one of his hocks and wrenched it from under him, sending both fighters toppling to the mat. They fell in a chest-to-chest embrace, and Twilight felt a jolt when Shining’s back struck the mat. Giving him no time to counter, she scooted her butt up his torso, stopping once her thighs straddled his chest.

A second later two lightning-fast forelegs snapped around Twilight’s waist, striking her sides then coiling like a pair of thick, white whips. The whips tried to roll her off Shining’s chest, but she bent forward and pinned his face under her stomach. A husky groan escaped him, smothered by the gi in his face, and he freed Twilight’s waist and pushed against her hips.

“Come on, Shining,” she taunted. “I know it’s just a sparring match, but you could at least try.” Her gi absorbed another grunt, and a grin touched her lips as Shining pushed harder, his haunches hovering above the mat as he fought to bridge out.

Sitting up a little, Twilight lifted her brother’s head and tucked it behind one of her forelegs, as if meaning to hit a guillotine choke. A flushed cheek adhered itself to her side while she under-hooked his forelegs and clamped her hooves together behind his back, trading the choke for a neck-wrenching cattle catch hold. With her thighs straddling his waist, Twilight sat up straight, yanking her brother into a sitting position and leaning back as far as she could.

Shining groaned in pain as she drove her shoulder down into the back of his head, rounding his spine and forcing his bottom jaw to dig into his own chest. The pressure on his neck made him squirm—made his heels rake back and forth along the mat, the bends of each stifle repeatedly curling and uncurling.

The hold was tight. The pain intense.

Growing desperate, Shining flexed his shoulders and tried to break the submission lock with raw strength, a new, arduous grunt rumbling on his parted lips.

“That’s better.” Twilight rocked her hips forward and arched her back. “Don’t make it too easy for me.”

Her grasp starting to loosen, she switched grips, interlocking her knees as she continued applying pressure to Shining’s neck. His compact muscles tensed and strained against her own, and the war of leverage versus brute strength stirred a sensual heat below her stomach.

Feeling his barrel expand and contract, the hard abdominal muscles squished against her crotch, Twilight scissored her thighs around his middle and crossed her back fetlocks. Then she waited for a contraction... and squeezed.

“I give, I give,” Shining panted.

Twilight ignored him. She closed her eyes and kept squeezing his ribs and wrenching down his neck. He tried to hold back an agonized bellow, but it hissed through his clenched teeth a little at a time, the noise breathy, feminine and pathetic-sounding.

This was bliss! Pure bliss! She’d beaten stallions as big and strong as Shining in the past, but she’d never controlled one so completely. It was an unrivaled sensation: the heady thrill of dominating your opponent with superior skill instead of speed or strength. Such a thrill was unknown even to many grapplers, those brawny novices who relied solely on power to trump their opponents.

Twilight felt Shining’s hoof slap against her elbow, and another soap-bubble giggle flitted up her throat, morphing into a carnal purr as it broke past her lips and escaped into the room.

“I said I give,” Shining complained, wiggling helplessly in his little sister’s grasp.

Twilight tossed her head back. “Come on, Shining, try to—nngghhh... break the hold.”

“I can’t. Cut it out, Twi, before you sprain my neck.”

Twilight’s muscles went slack but she didn’t let go. “Seriously?”

“Seriously.”

She gave his neck one more crank, his ribs one last tight squeeze, making him tap again, and then broke her hold with an annoyed huff.

Shining’s body flopped down on the mat like a caught fish on the deck of a boat. He lay on his back, coughing and massaging his neck while he stared up at Twilight, who was still sitting on him.

“You do know you’re supposed to fight back, don’t you?” she said, her tone taking on a familiar sardonic quality.

“I was, honest.” Shining sat up on his elbows. “Guess I’m just no match for you, Twily.”

“Get serious, Shining. I’m supposed to be in training, and I won’t get any better if you just lie there like a beached walrus.”

“A beached walrus?” said Shining. “Whoa, whoa, whoa… are you saying I’m fat? I mean, I haven’t been hitting the gym like you but—”

A giggle cut him short. Twilight tried to stifle the laugh, tried to take her sparring session seriously, but Shining’s thin smile beguiled her into longer, louder chuckles.

“What’s up with you tonight? You’re all flowers and bubblegum,” she said. “Not that I’m complaining.”

“There’s nothing ‘up with me’. I’m just... glad I got a few hours to roll around with my baby sis, that’s all.” Shining crossed his forelegs behind his head and looked off at an open window. “I hardly ever see you anymore, now that you’re a Princess and everything.”

“You hardly saw me before the wedding either, remember?”

Shining scratched his head, searching the windowpane for the right words.

“Yeah, I know. It’s just… confusing is all.”

Twilight laid down on her brother’s chest, surprising him. “What is?” Her nose hovered inches above his turned cheek.

“It’s just… first you left for Ponyville and then you came back and then you left again and then you came back as a Princess and now you’re here but you aren’t and you sneak away to Las Pegasus and Cadence never wants to wrestle with me and…” He stopped and smiled up at her, embarrassed. “I’m rambling aren’t I?”

“Tiny bit.”

“See, this is what I mean. I don’t ramble. You ramble. You’re the ramble-ly one. Everything’s all jumbled up.”

“I blame the minotaur.”

“Hm,” Shining said thoughtfully, as if his sister had touched upon some cryptic wisdom. “Why are we talking so much about me, anyway? What’s up with you, Princess? What happened to letting go after scoring a submission?”

“Sorry.” Twilight blushed and sat up, her hooves resting on Shining’s chest. “I got a little carried away.”

A carefree laugh eased her guilt. “Ah, it’s not your fault. I have that effect on all the pretty mares. It’s ‘cause I’m so squeezable.”

“That’s it, I’ve had enough of this guy.” Twilight stood up, trying to make a serious face despite her stubborn grin. “I’ll never get any tougher training with this clown. Where’s Shining Armor the soldier? The captain of the Royal Guard?”

Shining wiped the smile off his face and sprang to attention. “Right here, your majesty,” he said with a salute. “How may I be of service?”

Playing along, Twilight raised her chin in a parody of nobility. “Your matriarch demands contest. You have her permission to utilize your full fighting prowess.”

“As you wish, your majesty. I shall do my best.” A humble bow completed his pantomime, and he and his sister laughed and shoved each other on their way back to the center of the mat.

A breeze wafted in through the open window, massaging Twilight’s sweat-damp skin with downy fingers. She untied her gi and tossed it aside, letting the wind pamper her with cool kisses and touches.

Shining shrugged off his gi as well. He balled it up and tossed it on the couch resting against the wall.

Both brother and sister stood facing each other. Shining raised his right foreleg and pointed the flat of his hoof in Twilight’s direction. A knowing smirk canted his lips, baiting his sister, and the knife-edge glint in his eyes promised her a worthy challenge.

She pushed her left hoof into his right, and he pushed back, his leg and shoulder muscles starting to tense. With their front hooves welded together, they reared up on two legs, slowly, their free hooves rising, meeting, straining against one another.

“Ready?” said Shining, his voice a low, husky growl.

Twilight nodded—and the contest began anew.

Twilight squatted low and staggered her stance, heels digging into the mat as Shining fought to drive her backwards. Her limbs caught fire after only a few seconds of pushing, making her muscles ache and her tendons and sinews scream. Sweat rolled off her nose like rain off the face of an elm leaf, falling in fat, clear droplets that stained the mat with evidence of her effort.

A different kind of bliss flowered in her stomach and chest, perhaps a better kind. Not the thrilling rush of domination but the invigorating fear of being dominated, and the struggle, the tooth-and-nail scrap to prevent it.

She played Shining’s game for as long as she could—a power game, one she couldn’t possibly win—then quickly dropped to all fours, lurched forward and hammered her shoulder into his waist. As he overbalanced, Twilight sprang back to her hind legs, circled behind him and caught his waist between her fores.

He gasped, all too aware of what was coming next.

With her brow digging into his back—stifles bent, hips low—she exploded upwards and snatched the mat from under Shining’s hooves, the move a perfect synchronization of straining muscles and joints and tendons and sinews. Her head and shoulders sailed backwards, her spine arched—and then the mat jumped up to kick the air from Shining’s chest and the sense from his skull.

He laid prone for just one second, but it was one second too long.

In a flash of precise movement, Twilight swiveled into a north-south position and weaved her forelegs around Shining’s neck. She lacked the brute strength to finish quickly with a chokehold, or to keep Shining pinned with just her upper body, but he was still stunned, still groggy from the—

She yelped as Shining’s hips suddenly bucked and his body gave a violent twist, overturning her with ease. The choke loosened during the reversal, and he popped his head free before scrambling into full mount, his brawny thighs straddling his sister’s narrow torso. He bore his chest down on Twilight’s and over-hooked her forelegs, trapping them under his leg-pits.

She thrashed beneath him, feeling his heartbeat pound against her chest, a steady, excited thump, thump, thump that brought the warmth back to her insides. Planting her heels, she bent her stifles, straightened her hocks and arched her back, curving her spine like a “C” tilted on its side. She started to push off her right heel and twist left, but stopped when the thighs straddling her torso scissored her ribs and went taut.

She flopped down on the mat, grimacing, and then Shining muscled her onto her side. Quads like supple stone pillars enveloped her ribcage, squeezing hard, making her pant as she fought for breath. Her eyes bolted shut, and so did Shining’s as their foreheads came together, their faces flushed by a sweltering heat.

“Give?” He pushed the word into Twilight’s panting mouth like a kiss. She shook her head in refusal, her warm, sweat-stained brow twisting and turning against his.

He followed by releasing his sister’s forelegs and locking up her head instead. His naked chest smothered her nose and mouth, and his biceps flexed around her temples while his thighs continued crushing her ribs.

“Come on… let’s see that tap out,” Shining breathed, pouring all of his strength into the two holds. Muffled cries battered his chest as Twilight pushed against his swollen biceps. Sensing his imminent victory, he dug his bottom jaw into the crown of her head and rode out the last of her squirms and twists.

A dreamy kind of pleasure flooded his senses when he felt Twilight’s hoof slap against his hip. But he wasn’t finished just yet. Instead of releasing her, he broke his scissor hold and rolled Twilight flat on her back. His chest bore down on her muzzle, solid and heavy like the flat end of an anvil. He flexed his biceps to their max and drove his hips down into her stomach, hard, making the trapped fighter pant and writhe.

“That’s it,” he grunted. “Keep that up.”

Shining caught her hind legs in a grapevine pin and ground his chest against her muzzle, smearing sweat across her face. Desperate forehooves shoved at his hips, then his biceps, then his hips again, weakening more and more with every passing second.

“Not so fun when you’re the bottom, is it?”

No, not fun at all. The pressure on her head was overwhelming, as was the tightness in her lungs. Shining was too strong for her, too heavy and much, much too close. She tapped his hip a second time, only to have her hind legs splayed wider in his grapevine.

“Wait. Don’t quit yet.” Shining’s voice rumbled out as a husky growl. “Just let me…”

Coherent speech dissolved into low moans as he ground his hips against his pinned sister. She felt him harden, felt his shaft stroke her through a too-thin layer of nylon, and her taps became hard and heavy pounds.

Shining lost himself; he didn’t notice his sister’s frantic pounding for almost a full minute. When he finally did, he released his hold and sat up, embarrassed.

“Sorry. Was that too much?”

Twilight cleared strands of matted hair from her sweat-stained face. “Yeah, way too much. Good match, though.” She glanced down at the bulge stretching her brother’s shorts, then looked up quickly, pretending she hadn’t seen it. “Go again?”

Shining pretended he hadn’t see the glance. “Sure.”

As he stood up and returned to the start position, Twilight sprang to all fours and then leapt on his back, laughing as he dropped to his knees, his butt pointed toward the ceiling.

“Hey, no fair!” Shining laughed back. Balancing on his head and hind legs, he grabbed one of Twilight’s front fetlocks to stop her leg from slipping under his jaw.

The struggle began playfully, but turned serious. Twilight wiggled her fetlock free and sunk in a rear naked choke, her left knee gripping her right bicep. She arched her spine, drove her hips into the small of Shining’s back and flexed her leg muscles, eyes clamping shut as she bit down on her bottom lip and squeezed his neck.

She expected to score a quick submission, but instead of tapping out Shining sprang to his hind legs and reached both fores behind Twilight’s neck. Once he found a good hold, he bent forward and hurled Twilight over his shoulders, planting her hard on her butt. While she was stunned from the fall, he dropped into a sitting position and snaked his forelegs around her neck. Then he hooked his hinds around hers, bracing his hocks against the inside of her stifles.

“Your rear naked needs work, little sis.” Shining slipped the bend of his elbow under Twilight’s jaw, then grabbed his own bicep. “Pay attention, you might learn something.”

A near-silent gurgle escaped Twilight as her brother arched his back and flexed his forelegs. Cement-hard biceps swelled around her neck, seeming to grow larger and denser, and the hocks tucked inside her stifles flared out, spreading her thighs wide.

Panicked, she grabbed the mounds of cement flesh and fought to pry them apart, her own muscles bulging with the effort. Her mouth hung open slightly, cheeks turning blue as a gauzy black veil settled over her eyes—a filter that tinted the room a shade darker.

“You think you’re pretty tough, huh? Lasting this long…” A steamy breath carried the words to her ear. “Tap, baby sis, before I put you to sleep.” When she didn’t, Shining abandoned his leg hooks and scissored her waist. “Don’t be stubborn…” His hinds straightened, thighs going taut around her middle. “…tap…”

Twilight writhed in his grasp, refusing to quit. She felt her brother’s heartbeat thump, thump, thump against her naked back, a sensation that made her thighs tremble, even as she was slowly losing consciousness. Heat from his stiff length seeped into her lower back, saturating her pores and mingling with the warmth already spreading through her body.

He was so warm. So strong. So close…

With her hinds no longer trapped, Twilight pushed off her left heel and rolled to her stomach. At the same time, she pushed up on Shining’s biceps and just managed to drive her chin between her neck and the crushing forelegs.

Shining adjusted immediately. His forearm slid across the bridge of Twilight’s nose while his shoulder dug into the back of her head. Then, switching to a hoof-to-hoof grip, he drove his upper body down, crushing her skull between his shoulder and forearm.

“Nice move, Twily,” he laughed, “but I got you now.”

Twilight resisted a powerful urge to tap. Thinking fast, she popped her hips toward the ceiling and stood up on her hinds, creating a slope with her back. Shining’s face slid down into the mat, distracting him long enough for Twilight to free her head and roll Shining to his back again.

“Damn it. How did you just—”

His bewildered stammering ceased when Twilight sat forward and reached for his crossed fetlocks. He read her next move, released his scissor hold and quickly shoved her away before rising back to all fours.

Twilight sprang up a second after Shining did and tackled him. The two fighters pitched off the mat and rolled onto the carpet, a flailing, grunting, groping tumbleweed of intertwined limbs. Now the struggle was deftly serious. Breathy pants filled the hotel room, a sound their neighbors one suite over likely associated with a different kind of tumbling and grabbing and sweating.

The jockeying for position ended with Twilight’s rear planted on Shining’s face, her body facing away from his throbbing erection. From there she grabbed his mane and dropped onto her side, scissoring her thighs around his temples and smothering his face with her crotch. Her back fetlocks crossed and her quads flexed, hips wiggling as she ground her lap against her brother’s nose and mouth.

Shining groaned into the now moist nylon wall covering his sister’s sex, breathing in her muggy arousal. She rolled to her back and lifted her hinds high, stretching them as straight as possible. “Tap out,” she purred, expecting the end to come quickly.

To her surprise, Shining grabbed her thighs and tried to pry them open.

“Oh no you don’t…” Twilight grabbed him behind the head and buried his face deeper in her crotch. “You’re mine now. No more struggling. Just…submit…” She took a deep breath and flexed her strong quads, her firm glutes, her toned abdominals, setting each muscles to the task of crushing Shining’s skull.

“Your mine, Shining,” she repeated, her voice coming out shallow. “All mine. Say it. I want to hear you say it…” She rocked her hips, grinding her lap against Shining’s face while waiting for an answer that wasn’t coming.

At least not a verbal answer. Hearing his sister’s demand, Shining answered the only way he could. He circled his forelegs around her thighs, hoisted her onto his shoulders and then slammed her back down into the floor. Hurt, she broke her hold and managed to pull Shining into her closed guard. Her knees instinctively snatched both his front fetlocks, and her thighs scissored around his waist, the hold too loose to be effective.

Both fighters froze, eyes locked, chests heaving. Shining rested his forehead against Twilight’s, their horns crossing.

“We should… probably stop.” The words wafted into her open mouth.

“Yeah. We probably should.”

A long pause.

“Twily?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re still, uh...”

“Yeah...”

Another pause.

“You know... it wouldn’t hurt to have one more round,” said Shining. “I mean, you do have that big match coming up—”

“Oh, yes, the biggest—”

“And let’s be honest, you could use the training—”

“My rear naked does need work—”

“And it’s still early—”

“We’ve got all night!”

Giddy, Twilight shoved Shining off her lap and bounced back to all fours, shaking out her limbs as she warmed up for the next round.

They wrestled long into the night, trading a number throws and counters and submission holds, until finally they fell asleep right there on the mat, together, each fighter still locked in the other’s embrace.