The Sun is not Good

"I'll be honest, Twilight. I'm a little surprised at this visit. Not that its unwelcome, but usually you send some notice in advance," Cadence said as they walked through Crystal Spire, two crystal unicorn mares flanking the pair as they walked into Cadence's private chambers. The pink princess dismissed the pair with a wave of her wing before trotting over to her chair and fell back on a pile of pillows. "Ooof," she groaned in relief, shifting around a moment before hugging her distended belly. "Sorry. Moving around is getting a little more complicated."

"Are you excited? Or nervous?" Twilight asked as she considered her belly, remembering Pinkie mashing the words together at random. "Or nervicited?" she offered, trying to smile.

"More excited. Your brother is the nervous one. He doesn't seem to realize mares have been having foals forever and there will be unicorns with magic to help with any complications. Of course, this is my first baby too, so I have to admit I'm a little bit nervous." She sighed and settled into the cushions and regarded the younger princess. "Okay, so what's the matter, Twilight?"

"Matter? Why should anything be the matter?" Twilight asked with a nervous laugh.

"Twilight," Cadence replied with a warm smile. "You're my dearest sister in law, but the last time you rushed to me needing to talk it was to figure how much an A minus would hurt your chances of entering Celestia's school."

"It's not my fault I got acute and obtuse triangles mixed up," she muttered as Twilight's ears drooped. Cadence just smiled, always her foal sitter, and in many ways her first mentor. "It's that obvious?" she asked with a sheepish little smile.

"Well, you came here by yourself with no warning and you look like you just accidentally dropped your textbook on advanced arcanery in the Canterlot pond again. That tells me something's really bothering you," Cadance said evenly as she smiled at the purple mare.

Twilight closed her eyes. She had no clue where to even begin. "I'm... I learned some things that bother me. I'm not sure if they're even one hundred percent true or not, but I can't stop thinking about them." She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let it out. "Do you think that Princess Celestia is... good?"

Cadence tilted her head and blinked a little. "A good what?"

Twilight regarded her, not sure if she should be relieved or not at the baffled look. "I'm not sure. Just... good. A good person."

Cadence opened her mouth, paused, and considered. "I almost said 'of course', but I guess it really depends on what you mean by good, then. She's kind, certainly. Considerate. She cares, Twilight. If that makes a person good, then she's good."

"But do you ever thing she could... you know..." she wished that Cadence could read minds. It'd make this so much simpler. "She could... be bad?"

Cadence stared at her for a long while, "Yes. I suppose it's possible. If something truly put what she cared for at risk, yes. I wouldn't want to cross her. But it would be pretty unlikely." Cadence tilted her head. "Why do you ask?"

"I talked to Princess Luna about why she became Nightmare Moon. How she and Celestia grew apart," she said as she sat before Cadence. "She became a... um... well..." Twilight's cheeks burned. "A naughty princess... doing... things..."

"A what?" Cadence blinked, then her eyes popped wide. "Oh!" To Twilight's amazement she actually smiled and laughed a bit. Twilight flushed, rubbing her leg as she chewed her lower lip. "Well... she was a mare of the night, and that's when 'naughty things' usually happen. Today, I think more ponies think of me that way." She levitated over a tea set, setting on the table between them, not flustered in the slightest by this. "Why don't you tell me what she said, and I can give you a better answer."

Luna hadn't expressly forbade her from talking with anypony about this, so Twilight repeated the lesson and they shared a cup of red, raspberry leaf tea. Cadence smiled, laughed, blushed, frowned, and even cried at the end when telling her about Celestia banishing her foals. When they'd both composed themselves, the two princesses shared a hug. "I had no idea. No wonder you're upset, after a story like that."

"You don't think it's true, do you? Celestia and Luna couldn't have been like that!" Twilight said, swallowing. Celestia couldn't have done that! "Maybe Luna was lying for some reason? She said I had to accept it as true."

"Not quite," Cadence answered with a frown. "I think she didn't just want her story to be derailed by demands for proof and veracity, because how could she provide them? She's been gone a thousand years and there aren't many histories from that time to begin with. And telling a story like that... then being accused of being a liar... well... I know I couldn't take it." Cadence sighed and gazed out the window. "And as to her third rule, that was essentially for you to keep an open mind. She never demanded you agree with her, because if you're convinced Celestia is good then that story was just a waste of time."

"But it has to be ridiculous! I mean... Celestia and Discord? Discord? He has to be the most... the most... um... the most not a person to have sex with... ever!" Twilight said with a huff.

"Twilight, you and I both know that Discord can be charming when he chooses to be," Cadence said with a patient smile. "And if he was Celestia's first, it would both explain her attitudes towards sex back then and why she might want him redeemed now."

Twilight gasped, "You can't seriously think-"

"You'd have to ask Celestia," Cadance replied evenly. Twilight's ears flopped flat along her neck. She'd sooner stick her horn in a light socket. Cadence went on, "I could see why she'd want an immortal lover though. I... I love my husband, but I'm afraid what will happen in ten years. Twenty. Thirty..." She took a deep breath. "I hope the magic we've both touched keeps us together. I can't imagine outliving Shining, let alone my children."

And Twilight would rather stick her horn somewhere worse than touch that topic. "But... orgies? In the royal palace?" Twilight couldn't put enough skepticism in her voice as she fidgeted.

"Well, where else would they have it?" Cadence asked with a smile. "Lots of festivals and the like were based on sex. If there's a social event to mark the time when ponies can conceive to give birth at a predictable time then it smooths out the process quite a bit. Ponies find lovers at such events, and lovers become loves and make more ponies." She watched Twilight fidget. "Honestly, Twilight, a mare your age and education must know about sex by now."

The topic reared it's hideous head, leering at her. "Academically, yes, but I... um..." Twilight chewed her bottom lip and finally hung her head a little. "I haven't... you know... done it."

Cadence just smiled. "Well that's not surprising."

Twilight sat up. "What do you mean?" Being a bit more moble, she poured a fresh cup for both of them.

"Twilight, you've spent almost all your fillyhood as Celestia's student. You barely had a social life with mares, let alone stallions, and you're a unicorn," Cadence said with that patient smile. "No offense, but unicorns aren't... how to put this..." She tapped her chin thoughtfully. "Unicorns are more sexually complicated compared to other ponies, in my experience."

"How?" Twilight asked with a frown. "Wait... compare? How can you compare?" Twilight asked as her eyes popped wide. "Experience?!"

She smiled as she levitated over her tea cup. "Twilight, Shining armor wasn't my first. I was his, but he was my..." she paused and counted on her pinions. "Fifth? I'd already been with two stallions, one mares, and a griffoness." Then she calmly sipped as Twilight's paradigm got another thump.

Buh. Huh... fifth?! My foalsitter was a floozy! "Shining knows this, right?" A griffoness?

"Of course. Back when we were dating, I told him. Took him some time to process it as well." Cadence said calmly as she gazed at her over her cup. "Pegasi start sex earlier and have it more frequently than unicorns. We have to work together in the sky, and that fosters teamwork. When you have fifty mares and stallions finished with a major weather project, and emotions run high, you're going to get a few ponies 'working out' their excitement afterwards, onlookers or not." She waved a wing errantly above her. "Besides. It's the sky, and we're pretty perceptive. Somepony's gonna see sooner or later."

"But... what about getting married?!" Twilight gushed, and to her profound embarrassment Cadence didn't even twitch an eyebrow.

"What about it?" Cadence replied. "I understand many unicorns value virginity before marriage, but neither Shining nor myself particularly did. In fact, we made sure we were compatible in bed before agreeing to the marriage."

"Well... I..." Twilight's lips twisted around what she wanted to say. That she didn't like it. But why didn't she like it? Maybe from the idea that a bride should be touched by only her very special somepony... but where did she get that idea? It was never given word for word. It was just an expectation: unicorns were supposed to wait till they were married. Twilight had just assumed Cadence and Shining had as well. "I just think it's weird."

"I thought waiting was weird. It always makes more sense to me to make sure things are good in the bedroom before tying the knot," Cadence said with that ever patient smile. "By the time I started dating your brother, I knew what I enjoyed, and knew enough to help him learn what he enjoyed." She smiled and Twilight broke into a flush, "Our honeymoon was very pleasant when we could do all the things we liked, rather than fumbling over your brother's kinks."

"And what's that?" Twilight asked, and then flushed. "Nevermind, I don't want to know!" she blurted, and then wilted a little as her curiosity got the better of her. "Well..."

"Honestly, he's rather plain, but opened minded enough to try new things. Amorous and vigorous, which I'm fine with," Cadence said. "Fleur taught me that because unicorns are generally concerned with social standing and appearances, they don't start having sex till much older. Your brother aside, they're also a lot more... sexually perverse. All that repression can't be healthy." Cadence laughed, "The first time, he thought he was going to die. And I suppose he did a little. But he got over it eventually."

"Still... five..." Twilight couldn't imagine one.

"I am the princess of love, and sex is often an expression of love. Not always. There's lust too, and just honest pursuit of pleasure, but love too," Cadence said, her horn glowing as she summoned a magical window. A blue colt appeared within. "Azure skies was first, and we were both just working out what to do," she said, and Twilight let out an eep as she watched them do it. She tilted her head as the pair struggled to work out what went where and what to do next.

"Too graphic?" Cadence asked.

Twilight's cheeks burned horribly, but she shook her head. "I... I want to know. Seeing might give me some... ah... pointers...?" It was like watching a chariot wreck. She just couldn't bear to look away. No... she didn't want to look away. Twilight summoned up her muster. If she could face Tirek, she could handle a little explicit material, no matter how squirmy it made... places.

"Well, after Azure was Slate." And a buff black earth pony appeared, thankfully a stallion and not a colt. "He had more experience and knew what he was doing," she explained, and as Twilight watched, what he was doing was making a pegasi Cadence moan like a wanton strumpet. "Fleur taught me about sex with mares, and Gwen taught me what I didn't like." One after the next, Twilight was treated to a brief sexual display of fresh alicorn princess wearing heavy tack and harness, licking a mare under her tail followed by one of her tied up and being whipped by a peach furred, red plumaged griffon.

Huh. Why was she all... tingly? "What was that?" Twilight blurted as the image with the pink griffoness ended, then added abruptly. "Don't tell Shining I asked." That would probably blow what mind she had left.

"BDSM. Bondage and sadomasochism. The former was fun enough. The latter... not so much. It seems to be a bit of a griffon thing." she said as she smiled. "I came, but it just wasn't for me. Still, I definitely think Shining and I will do a bit of the former once the baby's here and things settle down." And enough. Twilight sat with her tail tucked. It was one thing to know in a vague, academic sense about sexuality, and another to be aware of how little she'd actually done. Cadence banished the projection and regarded Twilight somberly. "So, has learning about Luna made you start thinking about sex?"

And that brought it all back. "I... I don't know. Maybe. I never really thought of it before. And there's other things." Things she had omitted from their talk. Twilight hugged herself with her wings. "Cadence, do you rule the Crystal Empire?"

"Well, that's what everypony tells me," Cadence said with a smile and shrug. "I think there's other ponies as ministers that actually make the day to day decisions. I don't understand things like tax law and road construction, so if they tell me things need to be done then I decide if its going to hurt anyone. If not, then I usually okay it."

"How do you know they're not corrupt?" Twilight asked.

"I don't. I talk to my people and so long as they're happy, I guess I'm doing my job right," Cadence said with a shrug. "If there are any big problems, I write to Celestia and she usually has a whole scroll's worth of suggestions. Shiny also keeps his eyes open from problems that I might not see. He's been stepping up quite a bit more, recently," she said warmly as the door behind her opened.

"And I'll be glad when you can resume it, honey. Managing the crystal guards is enough for me," Shining Armor said as he trotted in with a stack of papers on his rump and two more levitated on either side of him. "I thought my ears were burning. Heya Twily," he said as he mussed her mane before he set the sack down with a thump. The stack unbalanced and slumped over, spreading paper everywhere. "Ugh, I don't know how you handle it, Cadance."

"I told you to just let Paperclip handle it, dear. She did before the baby," Cadence said with a wave of her hoof. "I was telling your sister all about our experience together." Shining Armor blinked in bafflement. "Intimately?" He glanced from one to the other. "In bed?"

The white stallion instantly turned pinker than his wife. "Oh, geeze, honey. Tell me you didn't." Cadence just smirked and he rubbed the back of his head.

"It's okay. I was curious about it... sex, I mean, not you two in par... oh horseapples..." she muttered, then jumped to her hooves. "Oh look! Papers!" She said as cheerfully as she could fake. "If you want, I could help you with those," she said as she levitated the disorganized stack. "I'd be glad to help you organize these!" She said brightly as she trotted the stack over to a near by table.

"I can't believe you, some times," Shining Armor said as he trotted to her and gave her a kiss, his flush fading before he walked to his sibling who worked to organize the papers into something useful. "Hey, Twilight. When I heard you'd made an unscheduled visit alone, I was worried. I didn't realize that Cadence was just making pegasi sex talk."

"You like it," Cadence replied with a smile. "And Twilight's a big enough mare to handle it too."

"Is she always like this?" Twilight asked with a flush of her own, gather up the scattered papers with her magic.

"If you get her started on the topic. Pegasi are all perverts," he said with a smile at her, and she stuck her tongue out at him. Twilight watched the pair, feeling something empty opening inside her that she hadn't recognized before. They loved each other. They could banter like this and not be offended or upset. Twilight cared for her friends deeply, but they didn't have... this. "You okay, Twilight?" Shining asked with a concerned frown as he helped her pile the papers on the desk.

"It's fine. It's..." Twilight sighed. "I didn't realize that other pony kinds had different attitudes on sex. I kinda thought everyone was taught if you did it before you were married, you'd have twenty foals and be destitute with all kinds of diseases."

"Mom never taught us that," Shining said. "It was 'you might end up with Twenty foals, destitute, and diseased. So don't do it till you're sure, and you're never really sure till you're married.'" He smiled and looked over his shoulder. "She saved me. Saved you too. Before we started dating, I was so horny that I wasn't thinking to well. Even you were starting to look... well, the fact you were my sister didn't matter as much as it should." He said with a flush. "Thank goodness Cadence pounced on me before you started estrus or I don't know what would have happened."

Twilight stared at him as her brain started to skip. "You... with me..."

Cadence called over from her cushions. "It's much more common with unicorns than more people realize." Shining and Twilight both turned to face her. "A lot of young unicorns have their first experiences with a sibling or parent because they just don't know what's going on. I've been trying to convince Celestia to adopt a more effective sex education program in magic kindergarden just so fillies and colts are aware of what's going to happen in a few years and what to do. Nothing as graphic as flight camp, but a colt should never start looking at their mother or sister just because they don't understand their biological urges." Cadence sniffed, "She didn't take the idea well."

"Yeah, some how I don't ever see Celestia putting 'The Differences Between Colts and Fillies' on the reading list," Shining laughed. "Might make the class more interesting if she did!"

"It doesn't have to be explicit. Just informative," Cadence said and then frowned. "Celestia feared young ponies would take it as encouragement."

Shining's rely seemed to fade away. "Well, sure, some might, but a filly in estrus is plenty encourag..." She missed the rest as she stared off. Everything that Luna had said came back all at once. Twilight's throat constricted as she struggled to breathe, her heart beat picking up in her chest. "Twilight?" Shining asked in worry.

"Papers. Organizing. Now," she said as she turned from them back to the table. The papers were trade documents of goods exchanged, each stamped and signed by their representative traders. Equestria's stamp was a sunburst, the Empire's a crystalline snow flake. Had both countries just be lax in altering their symbols to reflect the multiple princesses, or was there even an effort to change these?

"Something's wrong," Shining said softly as Twilight sought refuge in arranging the papers chronologically, assessing the data, and then reorganizing according to the goods traded. "I haven't seen her like this since before she left for Ponyville."

"She's just growing up," Cadence said softly. "And she's wrestling with some pretty big questions about Princess Celestia."

"Really? Who would know Celestia better than she would?" Shining asked, and before her talk with Luna, Twilight would have agreed. It was hard to think that someone you'd known your entire life wasn't the person you thought they were. She focused on the papers before her, trying to find the best way to organize them.

It also helped keep her mind off of Shining. She'd been too young to realize it at the time, but they'd been dangerously close. Shining hadn't just been her brother. He'd been her handsome brother, and before Cadence came along, he'd been... fond of Twilight. He might not have realized what he was doing then either. Her parents would rather die than talk about such embarrassing things. But if Cadence hadn't been her foalsitter... if Shining hadn't rutted Cadence with abandon while they thought Twilight was upstairs... what might have happened?

She'd peeked on them once or twice before Cadence explained that there wasn't anything bad happening. Then she'd been whisked away to Celestia's school and never given another chance to really learn what the two of them had been doing beyond an abstract word like sex.

Huh. That was odd.

Twilight almost missed the pattern in the numbers as she floated the sheets before her, frowned, and took out a piece of parchment and started to make notes. She missed Cadence and Shining armor talking behind her. Missed them slipping out. Missed dinner. She only became aware if it being night when she asked for more papers from a startled servant.

When the sun rose, she peered with bloodshot eyes at her notes. There was absolutely no denying it:

The Crystal Empire was being systematically exploited by Equestria.

"Hey, Twilight," Shining Armor said as he trotted in. "Another all nighter?"

Twilight slipped out of her seat and landed on her rump, lifting her eyes to her BBBFF. "Shining. You know those crystals Celestia has in the palace? The ones she uses for lighting and heating so she doesn't have burning torches and fireplaces all over? How many pumpkins do you think one of those is worth?"

"Uh? I don't know. Ten? Twenty? I'm not sure I understand," he said with a frown.

"Try five hundred and nine," she said sourly as she tapped the paper with a hoof. "I did the math.

"That's a lot of pumpkins," he said as he walked up, next to her. "This is what you've been working on all night?"

"The Crystal Empire exports hundreds of crystals for all kinds of magical use across Equestria. Equestria exports foodstuffs to the empire, but the values are way off. Equestria's getting twice as much in value from the Empire's resources as you're getting from Equestria." She held up her notes. "Why didn't I realize this at the summit? It was all right there!" She'd been so exhausted then, she hadn't actually been following what the princesses and committee members were actually discussing. What would she discover if she dug into the economics of the various cities in Canterlot? Were they all giving more to Canterlot than receiving in trade? It wasn't as if Canterlot exported goods to the rest of the realm!

"Twilight, it's not a big problem," Shining armor said. "I don't think that the Crystal Empire is going to fall to ruin just because Equestria's getting a better trade deal."

"But it's not fair," Twilight said, tapping the numbers as if all the proof she needed was right there. "If you reduced exports by forty percent, you could use that forty for trade with other lands! Maybe with the griffons or yaks."

"The yaks don't want crystals, except to hit each other over the heads with," Shining said with a roll of his eyes. "You've met their prince."

Okay, point. "Well, there might be other yaks less reactionary that would. It's an opportunity that the Crystal Empire is missing out on," Twilight said as she stared at the numbers. "How did I miss this?" she muttered, thinking back at the meeting with the various powers of Equestria and the Crystal Empire. She'd been so tired organizing that she hadn't been participating. Celestia...

Celestia had been in charge. Celestia had tasked her with organizing the summit. Cadance had been occupied by her pregnancy and Luna... Twilight glared at the pages before her. "I need to see more numbers. I need to learn more about what's actually happening in Equestria."

"Maybe you should talk to Celestia about this?" Shining suggested.

"No!" Twilight blurted, her outburst causing Shining to start in alarm. "No. It's fine. I just need to make sure of all my facts and figures before I do. I don't want to waste her time in case it's nothing." But it wasn't nothing. This was something gnawing at her that just wouldn't let up. Then it struck her. "There's also some one else I can talk to about this."

Someone else that knew Celestia once, intimately.

Discord.