Shining Armor wasn’t sure exactly when he first started ‘noticing’ Twilight Sparkle. It was after she had gone on to be Princess Celestia’s personal protégé, for certain. She was still the adorkable young mare she had always been; her nose stuck in a book, oblivious to the world around her. But something was different since she had really started growing up. Shining noticed how cute her flanks looked and how perfectly placed her Cutie Mark was to highlight her developing curves. How she would sometimes fall asleep in the most compromising of positions. How she would sometimes move her tail just the right way while she was concentrating, innocently exposing the alluring pinkness of her sex.

It would be bad enough for him to be lusting after his own sister if that were the only thing going on in his life. But he was married to Cadance. Married! To a mare he loved! And he still couldn’t get his mind off of his own sister. At first, he had tried to keep his mind off of his sister’s sexy little body by making love to his wife’s sexy little body, but it didn’t work for long. Soon he was imagining his sister underneath him in his wife’s place.

He thought about confessing his feelings to Cadance. She'll understand, he thought. She’s the Alicorn of Love. Besides, she was a Pegasus before and aren’t Pegasi into the whole polygamy thing anyways? But somehow he couldn’t imagine her allowing him to sleep with his own sister. He had tried asking Twilight if she would be interested in being more than simply a sister, but his awkward lines of questioning had only seemed to confuse her. As far as Twilight was concerned, Shining Armor would always be her BBBFF, nothing more and nothing less.

But Shining Armor needed Twilight. Needed her more than he needed Cadance. Needed her more than air or food or water. He even needed her more than he needed… well, a thing that he needed really, really badly.

Insert one colossally stupid idea, a forbidden magical spell and a secret that couldn’t be revealed without taking a sledgehammer to the windowpane of his relationships with both his sister and wife and he was set. He had come across a lot of forbidden magic as a result of his duties as Captain of the Guard. Included in one grimoire was a spell for cloning another individual. All he needed was a portion of that person in order to proceed. Twilight still maintained a chamber here in the palace. Shining Armor knew where Twilight kept her hairbrush. All he needed from it was a few strands of hair and he could proceed. Fortunately for Shining Armor, Cadance had a diplomatic tour of duty for a few weeks, Twilight was back in Ponyville doing her Friendship Studies and the princesses didn’t ask a ton of questions as long as he got results. (Well, Luna was asking a lot of awkward questions about certain websites Celestia had said she wasn’t allowed to look at, but that was another issue entirely.)

Shining Armor took the hair and the tome down to a portion of the castle that was reserved for guests, but hadn’t actually been used in years. Celestia had built the castle far bigger than it really needed to be, which sometimes made Shining Armor wonder if she were compensating for something. He found that he had to alter the spell slightly to get the results he wanted. He wasn’t as skilled a spellcaster as Twilight was, but he was still accomplished and had a lot of raw power backing up his talent. He set the book down on the bed and began to read the spell. Power began to gather around him, until the saturated air fairly crackled and his hair stood on end. Finally, Shining Armor spoke the last words of the spell and the magic came to a head, raising the hair off of the bed and coalescing around it. A spectral form began to appear; first blood vessels, then nerves, bones, muscles, skin and, finally, fur. The being twitched and moved spasmodically as it coalesced, then, almost anticlimactically, a perfect copy of Twilight was created on the bed. She was identical in every way, except for one. The adaptation Shining Armor had made to the spell caused the new Twilight to view him not only as a BBBFF, but also as the love of her life. New Twilight looked at Shining Armor with adoration in her eyes. “Welcome to life,” said Shining Armor and hugged her close.

“But why can't I leave, Shiny?” whined New Twilight. “I’m bored here with only the books you bring me and I miss you so much when you’re gone.”

Shining Armor pulled New Twilight close. “I told you why, Twily. Ponies wouldn’t understand how special we are to each other. They would become jealous and would try to take you away from me. They would perform experiments on you to study how clones work. I don’t know if I could protect you if others found out and wanted to hurt you. I can bring you books on how to use your magic. Would that help?”

New Twilight knew she couldn’t win against that logic. She couldn’t bear the thought of being separated from her beloved Shiny, much less being used for the horrible experiments he said that those awful scientists and doctors would perform on her. Then she had an idea. “But, couldn’t you talk to Princess Celestia? She’d protect me, wouldn’t she?”

“I don’t know how she’ll react either,” said Shining Armor. It was a lie. He was pretty sure he knew exactly how she would react. Badly. The magic used to create New Twilight was forbidden, though he hadn’t shared that with her. “Celestia might understand, but she might be angry that I made you. She has a special relationship with my sister. If she found out about you, she might be jealous that somepony besides her has a special relationship with you. She might take you away for her own uses now that my sister lives in Ponyville. I might never see you again.”

New Twilight was sad. She wanted to go out and meet other ponies. She knew nopony besides her BBBFF and she was lonely. But staying with Shiny was more important. If she had to give up meeting other ponies to do it, then she would endure.

Cadance arrived home early; her diplomatic negotiations with the Buffalo Nations for increased acreage for settlers in return for concessions regarding their stampeding grounds had taken less time than she had anticipated. Now that the initial conflicts had been resolved, it was easier to negotiate with the now-friendly tribal chiefs. She was looking forward to seeing Shining Armor again, as well as doing certain ‘extracurricular activities’ with him, as well. An Alicorn had needs after all. She had even gone out of her way to bring Twilight Sparkle to the capital for a surprise visit. Her brother would be thrilled to see his sister after so long apart.

Cadance couldn’t find Shining Armor in their suite, however. After asking around, she was told that Shining Armor had been ‘entertaining guests’ in one of the unused wings of the castle, with orders not to be disturbed. None of them seemed to know just who he was ‘entertaining,’ nor did they know for what purposes. Food, books and other supplies had been delivered there, but nopony had seen the individual with whom Shining Armor had been ‘meeting.’ This all smelled funny to Cadance. Making their way towards the wing, Twilight and Cadance noticed a distinct lack of servants. Usually there would be at least a few maids or other staff to keep the rooms clean.

As they came to the end of one hallway, they could hear voices. One of them was Shining Armor’s, though they couldn’t tell what he was saying. The other voice was disturbingly familiar, though they couldn’t place it right away. “Ohh, Twily,” said Shining Armor. “Right there, Twily, right there.” Cadance and Twilight looked at each other; mouths open as they tried to comprehend what they were hearing. Moving quietly, the pair came to the door, opened it silently and received the shock of their lives. There, on the bed was Shining Armor. And mounted on Shining Armor, thrusting away with a look of primal bliss on her face, was an exact duplicate of Twilight Sparkle.

When she finally regained her ability to speak, Cadance, using what Princess Luna would have viewed as a most impressive use of Royal Canterlot Voice, shouted, “Shining Armor, what are you doing? And who is that?”

Cadance didn’t remember much of what happened next through the crimson veil of rage at seeing her husband in bed with a duplicate of his sister. Her next clear memory was of the four of them standing in front of an extremely angry pair of princesses. Shining Armor had taken the brunt of her anger and it showed. Beaten and battered, he was barely keeping himself upright. New Twilight had evaded any physical retaliation and was now clutching Shining Armor tightly, wailing on and on about doctors and experimentation or something along those lines.

Twilight felt violated on so many levels. Finding out that her brother wanted to have sex with her was bad enough. He could have asked, for Celestia’s sake. It would still have been freaky, but at least she would have known. But the clone was even worse. Shining Armor had stolen her body, her mind, her very identity, and made a whole new pony based on it. Sure, New Twilight was innocent in that regards, but she couldn’t believe that her oh-so responsible brother had done such a horrible thing to her and to the clone.

“Shining Armor,” said Princess Celestia. She was livid; her alabaster fur was tinted red and there was fury in her eyes. “You have committed crimes most heinous and for that you shall be punished. You have used forbidden magic to steal the identity and everything that made your sister the special, unique pony that she is to make little more than a toy for your own perverse lusts. You have cheated on your wife with this ‘toy’ and not once did you consider the ramifications of how this would affect your sister or wife. This thing is your creation and disposing of it shall be your responsibility as well. You will eliminate her properly and, upon bringing back proof of your deed, we will discuss the rest of your punishment.”

“As you will, your majesty,” Shining Armor said sadly. Turning to New Twilight, he said, “I’m sorry, I really did care about you, but I have to do this.” Gently picking up his creation with his magic, he slowly and painfully carried her out of the throne room. New Twilight, unskilled in the use of her own magic, was powerless to resist.

As understanding dawned on her, New Twilight began to scream, “Please Shiny! Please don’t do this! I love you, Shiny! I love you! You made me, Shiny! I want to be with you! I want to make you happy I’ll do anything you want! I’ll make sure nopony finds out about us! I want to live! I don’t want to die, Shiny! I don't want to die!” Struggling uselessly, she continued to beg and wail long after she passed out of hearing range.

“Is killing her the right thing to do?” Twilight said after a time. “It seems so extreme. I feel so violated that she exists, but she’s as much an innocent victim as anypony else. She didn’t do anything to merit that.”

“Twilight,” Princess Celestia replied. “You saw for yourself why creating clones is forbidden. Everything that made you special was perverted to satisfy your brother’s most selfish desires and basest needs. We need to make an example, otherwise it just becomes easier to justify letting other ponies get away with it in the future.”

The divorce went through quietly, as did Shining Armor’s transfer to an obscure post in the far north that conveniently ‘needed’ an experienced commander. Shining Armor’s second in command was promoted to Guard Captain to ‘give him experience in command.’ Most ponies accepted the official story on Shining Armor’s departure, and the divorce was quietly buried under a sea of Canterlot scandal. There were enough celebrity divorces as it was for that particular royal disaster to quietly die beneath the weight of new scandals. Shining Armor had taken only a few possessions along with him: his uniform, a picture of his family, a few books and a lock of Cadance’s hair that she had given him upon their engagement. He hoped that it would be enough.

Shining Armor looked over his shoulder for the hundredth time that day. Even months after his exile, he was still unsure if his plan had truly worked, or if Princess Celestia had seen through his deception and was coming to punish him for not following her commands. Either way, he knew that he would likely be looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life. He had presented the severed horn to the princess two days after his sentence was passed down and she had seemed satisfied that he had gone through with the terrible act. It had taken him a long time to alter the cloning spell to make just a horn and he hoped that Celestia would not see through the imperfections that would have revealed his duplicity.

The small garrison he commanded didn’t ask any questions, for which he was grateful. Neither did the motley collection of citizens in the nearby border town. It was a long walk back to his personal quarters, made longer by the lingering effects of the poorly healed injuries he had sustained at the hooves of Cadance He opened the door to his private suite and was ambushed by the lavender figure that was waiting for him. “You’re finally home, Shiny,” New Twilight squealed. “You were gone forever today. Did something go wrong?”

“No, Twily,” he said, lovingly stroking her mane. It had been difficult to smuggle her up north with him. It had been torture keeping the whole thing under wraps so that nopony would talk. “I just had a lot of extra paperwork to do today. And I don’t move around as quickly as I used to. I hope that you weren’t too lonely.”

“No,” replied New Twilight as another figure came out to greet him. “Not since you gave me the best foalsitter in the history of foalsitters to keep me company.” New Cadance, cloned from the hair that Shining Armor had brought with him, nuzzled her beloved Shiny and Twily. The three of them collapsed into a pile of laughter and love. Though he was trapped in exile in the most backwater portion of Equestria, as long as he had his beloved ones, he was happy. And the ponies he had created were proving to be even more wonderful than the originals that he had left behind.

Author's Note

After reading a number of stories in which Cadance is fine with Shining Armor having sex with Twilight, I decided to try writing a story in which she doesn't approve.