The Dark Apprentice

Chapters

Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Interlude
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Interlude II
Chapter 7

Chapter 1

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

Do not discuss the contents of this letter with anypony. Not Celestia, not Spike, not even your own reflection.

Would you like to become my student as well? You may send your answer back with Phobomelos.

Luna

Twilight read the letter over. Then she read it two more times. Finally, she closed her eyes and read it again in her mind.

This was an interesting way to start the morning. Comb mane, prepare breakfast, have god-princess send a top secret offer of apprenticeship. One of those things did not fit into Twilight’s schedule, and Twilight on principle could not abide things that violated the schedule.

Princess Luna’s letter raised so many questions, and Twilight couldn’t answer a single one of them. Why was it so important that nopony know about the letter? What did ‘not even your own reflection’ mean? Who in Equestria was Phobomelos?

Most important to Twilight was the question posed by the letter itself. Would you like to become my student? Twilight didn’t understand why Luna would want her as a student, or why the princess couldn’t ask her in person.

She didn’t even know what being Princess Luna’s student would entail. Princess Celestia’s lessons were rigorous and difficult exercises of the mind that most unicorns couldn’t hope to accomplish. Now that Twilight lived in Ponyville, she was mostly self-taught. Would Princess Luna expect Twilight to move back to Canterlot?

Twilight sighed and rested her head on the kitchen table. She’d been so preoccupied with the letter that her cereal had gotten puffy and soggy in its bowl. She could hardly believe she was considering turning the princess down. “This isn’t fair,” she groaned, “I need more information!”

She slurped back some of her sopping breakfast cereal, lamenting the fact that by now the milk was also warm. She couldn’t say no to a Princess of Equestria—the idea was preposterous. And she couldn’t deny herself the opportunity to learn from an immortal. Twilight could scarcely imagine the kinds of things Princess Luna might have to teach her. History forgotten by historians. Magic unknown to unicorns. Secrets privy only to the divinities.

Yes. She had to say yes. An opportunity like this one was too good to pass up, even if it involved so many unknowns. And it wasn’t like she could ask her friends to help her decide, given Luna’s insistence on secrecy.

Twilight retrieved her quills, ink, and parchment and began to write her response. She made it as far as Dear Princess Luna before realizing she had no idea what to say. How did one formally accept an offer of tutelage from an alicorn? Something told her that at her age “Yesyesyesyesyesyes” was no longer an option.

Princess Luna’s letter had been succinct to the point of absurdity; Twilight decided to emulate it. She wrote Yes. Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle and rolled the parchment into a scroll. “Now what?” she asked to nopony in particular.

The letter had been waiting for her on her desk when she had woken up that morning; she had no idea how Princess Luna had gotten it there. You may send your answer back with Phobomelos. Twilight frowned. “Who’s Phobomelos?”

The shadow under her kitchen counter moved.

Twilight yelped as a dark form slithered out across her floor, then flowed upward onto itself to fill the form of a massive bird. Wings with strands of shadow in place of feathers stretched outward from a slim body, trailing darkness. A black, predatory beak glinted under liquid blue eyes as the creature regarded her.

Twilight didn’t move. “Err... Phobomelos?” she asked. The creature nodded. Twilight extended the scroll. “Um, here?”

Phobomelos took the scroll in a clawed foot before beating its black wings to soar over her head (she ducked) and out her window.

“Well,” Twilight said after she had gone. “That was strange.” Apparently she was going to be Princess Luna’s student. Maybe it was like taking a double major.

* * *

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I am glad that you said yes, though truthfully I doubted you would decline. There is much you still have to learn, and Celestia alone cannot teach you. Under me you will become one of the most capable ponies in Equestria. We will tap your true potential.

Know, Twilight Sparkle, that I am not Celestia. Studying under me will be entirely different from studying under her.

Read these next words well, my Dark Apprentice. Each night, you will travel into the Everfree, to the place I have marked upon the enclosed map. A carriage drawn by two of my personal guard will take you to my tower in Canterlot. There, I will personally instruct you until sunrise.

This will be done in total secrecy. As far as all others must be concerned, I never contacted you, and you have not seen me since the last time we met before this letter. You will not speak to anypony about your apprenticeship, or about me. Not Celestia, not Spike, not your own reflection.

As my apprentice, you will be granted certain privileges. You need not ever sleep again. Should you require any resources I have at my disposal, they are yours. This should be useful in keeping your lessons a secret.

You may break any Equestrian law so long as you act in my name. Note that your newfound immunity does not extend to the commandments of magic, over which I hold no power.

I will see you tonight, my Dark Apprentice.

Luna

Twilight tried to read the letter a second time, but her eyes slid over the words without taking in any information. You may break any Equestrian law.

What had she gotten herself into? How was she supposed to go the rest of her life without sleep? The final line of Princess Luna’s letter played again in Twilight’s mind, and she gulped.

I will see you tonight, my Dark Apprentice.

* * *

“Go into the Everfree Forest after dark” was pretty much the last thing Twilight wanted to be doing every single night.

She’d given Spike to Pinkie Pie for the night and set out for the rendezvous point. For safety’s sake, she’d taken the path to Zecora’s hut as far as she could before diverting towards the clearing that was marked on her map.

Twilight kept her horn at a steady glow and checked the map frequently. She reasoned that Princess Luna wouldn’t send her through a dangerous part of the forest, but the princess probably didn’t consider many things dangerous, being a divinity and all.

By the time she got to the clearing, Twilight was thoroughly spooked. She was surrounded by still things and shadows, and the sounds of the Everfree Forest at night were all strange to her. She had considered going back more than once. Each time she’d convinced herself to press on. One did not fail to follow an order given by a Princess of Equestria.

Just as Luna had said, a carriage waited for Twilight in the clearing, accompanied by two bat-winged guards. Each of them fell to their knees in a low bow as they caught sight of Twilight.

Twilight eyed the guards. “Why are you doing that?”

“You are Twilight Sparkle?” one of them asked.

“Yes,” Twilight said.

“Then you are our mistress in Princess Luna’s absence. You speak with her voice and act with her authority.”

“Um, okay,” Twilight said. This was different. Apparently Princess Luna had not exaggerated when she said that studying under her would be different from studying under Celestia. Twilight didn’t order guards around on a regular basis.

“Shall we depart, mistress?”

“Hmm?” Twilight said. “Oh, yes, I suppose we should. And please, call me Twilight.”

“As you wish.”

A short while later Twilight was enjoying the feeling of the cool night air through her mane. Despite everything, she was a little excited; the mystique of being a secret student of Princess Luna was intriguing. She hoped that she would be able to do whatever it was that the princess expected of her.

Wait, what would the princess expect of her? What if she made Twilight write a quiz? Or worse, a test? Or worse, an exam? Twilight hadn’t studied anything before she left! She was going to fail!

Relax, Twilight told herself. Deep breaths.

Twilight Sparkle was familiar with Canterlot Castle, so she was surprised when the pegasi driving her carriage pulled in toward an abandoned wing. Apparently Luna had taken up residence in the previously unused sections of the castle.

Or rather, the princess had taken up residence over the wing. The guards stopped her carriage adjacent to one of the castle’s tallest towers. Twilight stepped off of the carriage slowly, minding the gap.

There was no stairway winding around the outside of the tower, and no trap door leading inside. Apparently the only way to get to the top was flight. Indeed, there were also no railings or battlements—just a straight drop off the edge to Canterlot below.

The tower was completely open to the night sky, which was reflected in the polished black stone that made up what Twilight supposed she should call “the floor.” Luna’s tower was wide—perhaps sixty feet across—and perfectly circular. Tables, benches, desks, and bookshelves were clustered towards its center, each laden with candles and ancient looking tomes.

Twilight immediately felt a pull towards the latter. They were ancient tomes, after all. In Ponyville, Twilight was hard-pressed to find even tomes of the moldering variety. Maybe Luna would let her read them.

Directly across the center of the tower, Princess Luna sat on what was either a mattress or an extremely thick bedspread. She had her back to Twilight, but Twilight could still make out her ethereal mane drifting to and fro.

“Twilight Sparkle,” Luna’s voice reached her ears with perfect clarity, despite the distance between them and the fact that Luna was facing away from her.

Twilight knew that the princess couldn’t see her, but she bowed nonetheless. “Princess Luna.”

“You will tell the guards to leave,” Luna said without turning around.

Twilight tilted her head in confusion. “I—uh, alright.” She turned back to the two pegasi still flying the carriage. “I guess Princess Luna would like you to leave.” The guards didn’t move.

“No, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said. “You will tell the guards to leave.”

Twilight looked from Princess Luna to the guards. “Please leave?” she asked.

The guards still didn’t move. “No, Twilight Sparkle,” Princess Luna said. “You will tell the guards to leave.”

Twilight took a deep breath. “Leave,” she said. They still didn’t move.”

“Tell the guards to leave, Twilight Sparkle!”

Twilight gulped at Luna’s use of The Voice. “Leave!” she managed. Was this part of her lesson?

The guards pulled away wordlessly, their carriage arcing down into the night sky as they descended. Twilight was left with Princess Luna.

“Come,” the princess said. “Stand with me.”

Twilight slowly crossed the length of the tower, examining Princess Luna’s possessions as she did so. She didn’t recognize a single title off of the bookshelves, and what was more, there was no melted wax around any of the candles—Twilight wondered if they were everburning.

She reached Princess Luna and stepped onto the mass of deep blue blankets and cushions that seemed to make up the princess’s bed. Her hooves sunk into the covers, and Twilight realized immediately just how cold it was atop the tower. She stopped when she was behind the Princess.

“I said stand with me, Twilight Sparkle. You are not a shadow. Yet.”

Was that the punishment for failing to impress the princess? Twilight would get turned into a shadow? She shuddered, wondering if shadows could read.

“Sorry, princess.” Twilight said, moving forward so that she stood beside the princess. She looked out over Canterlot. Thousands of tiny buildings glowed with inner light, and above them, myriads of stars twinkled. It was an almost completely cloudless night. Twilight couldn’t help but feel a little vertigo so close to the edge of the tower.

“Do not call me princess, Twilight Sparkle. I am a princess to every other pony in the kingdom. To you I will be mistress. Try it now.”

Twilight worked her mouth for a couple of seconds. “Yes... Mistress Luna.”

“Very good,” Luna said. “But you hesitate, as you have done in all things.”

Twilight felt her cheeks begin to burn. This wasn’t how she pictured her first lesson going—She was being a disappointment.

“Do you know, Twilight Sparkle, what you are?”

“I...” Twilight began. “—I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

“The most powerful unicorn alive in regards to magical magnitude. Celestia knows as much.”

Twilight swallowed. “I never knew,” she said. She had, however, suspected.

Luna continued. “Your position as Celestia’s most trusted pupil also gives you more political power than any other pony in Equestria. I also hear that you have quite the intellect.”

“I—” Twilight didn’t know what to say. “Thank you, Mistress.” Was she really so important?

“Yes,” Luna said. “Celestia has made you capable indeed. But she has not made you worthy. You shiver as you walk through the woods. You hesitate to dismiss your own guards. You carry yourself like a timid school filly, not the twice-proved saviour of Equestria that you are known to be.”

Twilight bit her lip at Luna’s words. Did the princess really find her so meek?

“Please, Twilight Sparkle, take no offense at my criticisms. If I believed that you had nothing to learn, I would not have offered to teach you. I intend to teach you the dark arts, Twilight Sparkle. Spells that you will not even be able to cast without the night’s blessing.”

New magic. Twilight once again found herself very, very interested. “The night’s blessing?” she asked.

“The process by which I will make you my apprentice. You will gain command of new magics and lose your need to sleep, among other things.”

“Is that how your guards get their bat wings?” Twilight doubted she’d be able to keep her apprenticeship a secret sporting a pair of those.

“No, Twilight Sparkle. This rite is an entirely different ordeal. I can have only one apprentice.”

“I see,” Twilight said. Only one apprentice, and Luna wanted it to be her.

“You will learn more than just magic,” Luna said. “You will learn command. You will learn how to make others do as you bid them. I hear your leadership skills are already quite strong—we shall hone them, you and I. Confidence will become you, I think. Our training in the sexual arts will no doubt strengthen your resolve and make you—”

“Wait, what?” Twilight asked. “What arts? I didn’t get the bit about the arts.”

“Sex, Twilight Sparkle. I imagine you and I will be having quite a bit of it. Now, the—”

“Um, Princess, I don’t...” Twilight tried to think of a way to finish her sentence, her mind still reeling. Was Luna joking? Did Luna joke? She couldn’t have sex with the princess! She couldn’t have sex with anypony!

“Ah,” Luna said. “I see. Making love is a part of the night, Twilight Sparkle. It is the oldest ritual done in darkness. It is part of my godly domain. Becoming a skilled lover will comprise much of your studies.”

“But,” Twilight said, backing away. “I don’t, I can’t—”

“I see,” Luna said. “Are you a virgin, Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight swallowed at being asked such a personal question, but sensed that this was no time for timidity. “Yes,” she whispered.

Luna turned to face Twilight. “The rite is essential if you wish to become my student. And the rite, Twilight Sparkle, is a sex rite. Do you want to be my apprentice, Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight looked at Luna. The princess was beautiful—there could be no denying that. And studying under her was the opportunity of a lifetime. But when it came to her first time, Twilight had always imagined—what had she imagined? Certainly she could do worse than the goddess of sex herself.

But it wasn’t what Twilight wanted. It wasn’t why she had come to Canterlot. Truthfully, Twilight had never really concerned herself with stallions or mares. And now she was trapped atop a tower with the princess. Who wanted to take her to bed.

If she wanted to study under Luna, this was the price. And Twilight wanted to study under Luna. She wondered if it would hurt.

“Yes,” she whispered as a hot tear rolled down her cheek. “Do it.”

Luna regarded her for a moment. “Not tonight.”

“No,” Twilight said. “Please, I can do this. I want to be your apprentice.”

Luna sighed. “You have friends, Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight didn’t understand what Luna was getting at. “Yes.”

“Then seek their counsel. Tomorrow you will ask what it was like for them. You will decide only then. This decision should be made independent of your desire to be my student, Twilight Sparkle. Do you understand?”

Twilight nodded. “I—thank you, Princess.”

“The bed is ready,” Luna said. “You will sleep here tonight. I will wake you before dawn and send you off on a carriage.” Luna turned and began to stride towards her bookshelves. “And Twilight Sparkle?” she called back. Twilight looked up. “You would do well to relax.”

“I’ll try, Princess. Er... Mistress.” Twilight crawled under the poofy covers. Luna’s bed was actually quite comfortable, despite the fact that it was open to the night. She allowed herself to be lulled by the sound of Luna flipping through the pages of her books, and drifted easily into sleep.

* * *

“Awaken, Twilight Sparkle. Your carriage awaits.”

Twilight snuggled closer to Luna. “Mmmfrmrmr,” she managed. The princess was so warm.

“I realize this is earlier than you typically wake, Twilight Sparkle, but you must be in Ponyville before the sun rises. We are of the night, and secrecy is our prerogative.”

Twilight wrapped her forelegs around the princess and buried her muzzle in her luscious coat. “I don’t want to get up,” she mumbled.

Luna sighed. “You must. Do not make me use the voice, Twilight Sparkle. I was doing so well this week.”

“Voice?” Twilight muttered as her mind finally started to process information. “Whassa voice?”

“Twilight Sparkle!”

“Eyaaah!” Twilight leapt out of the covers as the wave of sound ruffled her coat.. The details of the previous night began to come back to her. “Where...?” she asked, looking around frantically. Luna’s tower in Canterlot. “Why...?” The princess wants to have sex with you. “What?” She didn’t, though. “Uh... oh,” Twilight said as her eyes fell on Luna.

Twilight took a deep breath. “You were with me in bed,” she said. “That wasn’t like that when before.”

Luna regarded her impassively. “It was not,” she said.

“That’s... rude,” Twilight said.

“Indeed,” Luna said. “But the memory of the feel of my body against yours should help you come to decision. It was not entirely unwelcome, I think.”

“I...” Twilight couldn’t think of anything to say. She had to figure out whether or not she’d let Luna take her virginity so she could become the princess’s dark apprentice and learn magics that no other pony was privy to. “I... should... go,” she said. “I have a... big day... ahead of me.”

“Indeed,” Luna said as Twilight began to step slowly towards the carriage.

Twilight climbed aboard and Luna’s guards began to take her to Ponyville without a word. Sex with Luna. Would she do it? Could she do it? The memory of Luna’s coat pressed against her face played in her mind. Twilight imagined what it would be like to have Luna hold her. To kiss her...

“Oh dear,” Twilight said. “This is going to be a long day.”

Chapter 2

“Hey Pinkie Pie!” Twilight called out as she entered Sugar Cube Corner. “I’m here for Spike!”

Spike came out of the kitchen wearing a lampshade on his head and holding a half-eaten cupcake. “Oh hey Twi,” he said. “Listen, do I have to come home right now? Because we were going to try something cool with pop rocks.”

“Spike?” Twilight asked. “Why are you wearing a lampshade on your head?”

“Duh!” Pinkie Pie called out from the top of the stairs. “Because he’s a lamp, silly.” She slid down the bannister.

Twilight looked from Pinkie Pie to Spike. “I see. Pinkie Pie has to get tired of you at some point, Spike.”

“No way, Twilight!” Pinkie Pie said. “He’s a hoot! Show her that thing you do with your tongue, Spike!”

“Oh, believe me,” Twilight said. “I’ve seen it.”

Spike threw himself to the floor at her feet, clasping his claws together. “Can’t I stay for just a little longer, Twilight? Please?”

You have friends? Then seek their counsel. An idea began to form in Twilight’s mind. “Let me talk to Pinkie Pie about it,” she said. “Upstairs. In her room. Where nopony can hear us.”

“Okay!” Pinkie Pie shouted. “Wait here, Spike!”

“Uh,” Spike said, eying them. “Okay?”

Pinkie Pie shot up the stairs, and Twilight followed her. When they were in her room, Twilight made sure the door was locked, then soundproofed the area with magic. She also tamper-proofed her soundproofing spell for good measure. “Okay, Pinkie Pie, I need to talk to you about something.”

Pinkie Pie nodded, smiling. “Uh-huh.”

“Look, it’s...” Twilight didn’t know if it was an okay thing to talk about with your friends or not. Was there a specific protocol she had to observe? “It’s...”

Pinkie Pie slowly leaned forward. “Uh-huh?”

“It’s about, I mean, I don’t think I can say it...”

“Say it!” Pinkie Pie shouted. “Say it say it say it I want to know!”

Twilight flinched. “It’s about.... se-eh-ex,” she said. drawing the last word out into a mutilated whisper. She flattened her ears against her skull and cringed, waiting for the fallout.

Pinkie Pie nodded. “Uh-huh?”

Twilight was noticing a distinct lack of fallout. A veritable absence of fallout as well as anything fallout-related. “Wait, that’s it?” she asked. “That’s not weird?”

Pinkie Pie scoffed. “Ptcha, Twilight. Why would it be weird? We’re friends.”

“I don’t know,” Twilight said as her face began to burn. “I just thought that it wasn’t really something ponies talked about. I don’t want to be nosy.”

Pinkie Pie cocked her head, smile never leaving her face. “You’ve never talked to anypony about sex before?”

“Well, no!” Twilight said. “I mean, when I was little my mother explained everything and gave me a book....” Twilight stopped and stared at the floor for several moments. “Yeah,” she said at last. “Pretty much never.”

“So you’ve never... you know?” Pinkie Pie wagged her eyebrows.

“No,” Twilight said. “Never. Being Celestia’s pupil attracted some attention from the stallions, but I always turned them down.” Twilight sighed. “I was never even curious.”

“But you’re curious now?” Pinkie asked.

“I could lose my virginity tonight,” Twilight whispered. She remembered that she wasn’t allowed to mention Luna to anyone. “I mean, I don’t want to grow old and die never having been with anypony, but I don’t know if now is the time.”

“So don’t,” Pinkie said. “You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”

Twilight frowned. “That’s the thing,” she said. “The more I think about this, the more I realize that I’ll always have doubts. It’s always going to be scary, isn’t it? And if I’m standing here, arguing in favor of it, then I have to want it at least a little, right?”

Pinkie Pie wrinkled her brow. “I suppose,” she said. “So who’s the pony?”

“Nopony you know,” Twilight said. “But they’re trustworthy. And...”

Twilight remembered waking up, safely nestled against the curve of Luna’s body. She remembered Luna’s breath brushing warmly past her ear. Physical contact with other ponies was almost completely alien to her, but being beside Luna for those brief moments had felt good. In more than just the way snuggling a teddy bear did.

“I’m attracted to them,” Twilight said. She immediately regretted how clinical the words sounded.

“So, yes?” Pinkie Pie said.

Twilight looked up. “Pinkie Pie,” she said. “What was it like for you?”

Pinkie Pie grinned. “I was young,” she said. “Really young.” A bubbly laugh escaped her lips as she stared at nothing in particular. “But it was my birthday.” Pinkie Pie giggled. “We were so terrible. But it was fun.”

“Fun?” Twilight asked.

“Yep!” Pinkie Pie said. “Tons of fun! It’s a whole new kind of fun, Twilight.”

“Huh.”

“I could show you,” Pinkie Pie said.

“W-what?” Twilight said. She did not just offer to sleep with me.

“We could have sex,” Pinkie said.

She just offered to sleep with me.

“Not now, obviously,” Pinkie Pie continued. “We’d have to get rid of Spike. But if you want to sleep with somepony, you should start with somepony you know, right? I’d be making you happy. It would be just like throwing you a party or baking you a cake.”

“I—” Twilight faltered with the words. “I’m sorry, Pinkie Pie. You’re my friend and all, but it would be... strange.”

Pinkie Pie snorted. “Only if you made it strange. You’ve gotta figure these things out sometime, Twi. What about just a kiss?”

Pinkie Pie was coming on to her. Pinkie Pie. Twilight felt her muscles tense, and a voice in her head started screaming at her to run away. “I don’t know, Pinkie Pie...’

“You need to relax,” Pinkie said. “It’s okay if you say no, Twilight.”

You would do well to relax, Luna had said. “Wait,” Twilight said. Pinkie Pie cocked her head to the other side. “It would be like an experiment,” Twilight said. “You’d be adding to my data set to help me reach a conclusion. And it would just be between friends.”

“Huh?”

Twilight’s heart raced. “Kiss me, Pinkie Pie.”

Twilight expected Pinkie Pie to say something in response. She thought that Pinkie Pie would slowly lean forward and let their lips barely touch. She figured she’d see it coming.

Instead Twilight found her Pinkie Pie lips on her own almost instantly. Pinkie’s eyes were shut, and her mane tickled the edges of Twilight’s face. But her lips! Twilight had once read that the lips were one of the most sensitive parts of the pony body, and now she didn’t doubt it. She could feel every millimetre of Pinkie Pie’s lips pressing against hers, wet with saliva. It wasn’t a tiny peck, either, Pinkie Pie worked her mouth against Twilight’s vigorously.

It felt good. Twilight didn’t have any experience she could compare it to: getting a massage? A hug? That steamy dream she’d had when she was younger involving Cadance?

“Silly filly,” Pinkie Pie muttered against Twilight mouth. Pinkie brought her forelegs up to wrap around Twilight’s neck and pull her closer. “You have to kiss me back...”

Twilight did. Or she tried, at least. The movements of her lips felt clumsy and inexperienced, but she thought she at least managed to passably emulate Pinkie Pie’s.

That was, at least, until she felt Pinkie’s tongue slide forward to press against her teeth. The rough texture was alien to Twilight, but not unwelcome. Without thought, Twilight opened her mouth wider so as to allow Pinkie Pie to continue her quest.

Tongues touched, and a high pitched groan escaped Twilight’s lips. Kissing. Kissing! This was why everypony had been so keen on mashing their faces together all the time. It felt good, really good. She let a foreleg wrap around Pinkie Pie’s neck. Had she really only wanted a peck on the lips just seconds ago? Now she didn’t want to stop. The rational part of her mind tried to cut in and remind her of something. That was nice. Twilight was busy kissing Pinkie Pie.

And Pinkie Pie was busy kissing Twilight. Their tongues snaked around one another as her hooves dug their way into Twilight’s mane. We’re making out, Twilight thought as Pinkie Pie pulled them to the floor. I’m making out with Pinkie Pie. They didn’t speak, other than Twilight’s occasional moan. Twilight was fine with that; she liked hearing the wet smacking of their lips and tongues running over one another.

It was perhaps ten minutes before the heard a knock at the door. Pinkie Pie pulled away, and the first sensation Twilight registered was that her mouth was empty. Cold.

“Spike!” she whispered. Her eyes shot open and she threw herself to her hooves. “We forgot about Spike! She wiped a bit of her—or was it Pinkie Pie’s—drool from the corner of her mouth. Then she undid her sound spell.

“Come on in!” Pinkie Pie called to the door. She climbed to her hooves and smirked as she bumped her flank against Twilight’s. Twilight blushed furiously. Had all of that actually just happened? Yes, she realized. Yes it had.

Spike swung the door open. “You guys have been in here a while,” he said. “Did you figure it out?”

“Huh?” Twilight said. “Figure what out?”

Spike gave her a confused look. “If Pinkie Pie can keep me,” he said. “That’s what you were talking about, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah,” Twilight said. “Yeah, it was. Pinkie Pie can keep you for another day.” She grinned like an idiot. “Pinkie Pie can do whatever she wants...”

* * *

“As in, sex,” Twilight said. “Your first time, specifically.”

Twilight and Rarity were the only two ponies in the carousel boutique. The curtains were drawn; pulled shut by Twilight. It seemed appropriate, given the subject matter. The result was that Rarity’s kitchen was dim as Rarity prepared them each a cup of tea. Twilight waited at one side of her tiny table.

“What?” Rarity said. She dropped a teacup to the floor, but Twilight caught it with her mind before it could meet an untimely fate.

“Really, Twilight. That’s not something you just come right out and ask a lady! Since when were you so... so forward?”

Since my first kiss! Twilight’s sang in her head. “I’m sorry, Rarity,” she said. “I just thought that it was something friends could talk about.”

Rarity ducked into the seat across from Twilight’s and began to nurse her tea. “We most certainly can, Twilight.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “But you have to whisper conspiratorially and lean in, like this.” Twilight did as she was told. Having friends was pretty strange sometimes.

“My first time was absolutely dreadful, darling. He was a highborn lout from Manehattan; I was an airy little teenager dreaming of a knight in shining armor. He wanted sex; I wanted a fairytale. It all came down to the fact that he was dishonest and I was gullible. He left the morning after. I was just another notch in his horn.”

Twilight gasped. “That’s terrible!”

Rarity shrugged. “I was devastated. It didn’t meet my expectations, but then, nothing would have, looking back. The first time is terrible for everypony, in some way. It was over a year before I tried again, and this time I made sure he was a gentlecolt.” Rarity sighed. “Yes, he was a very nice fellow. Terrible at sex, though. Very unfortunate, that.”

“So you don’t even care?” Twilight said. “That you were used your first time?”

Rarity chuckled. “Twilight, it was my first time. It’s always dreadfully embarrassing and horribly awkward. I mean, what did I expect? I got it over with and learned a valuable lesson about stallions in the process.”

“Huh,” Twilight said. “Thanks, Rarity. You’ve given me a lot to think about.”

“What about you, darling?” Rarity asked. “I hear the students in Canterlot can get quite... kinky?” Rarity tittered. “Surely you have some nasty stories to share.”

“Hmm?” Twilight said as she stood. “My first time? Call me crazy, but I’m thinking it might be tonight.”

Twilight’s teleport took her away just as Rarity’s teacup shattered against the floor.

* * *

Applejack heaved the bale of hay up into the rafters, a sheen of sweat glistening on her brow. “Don’t know why you’re asking,” she said in her characteristic drawl. “But I don’t see any reason not to tell ya. I lost it to my coltfriend. He’d sneak out at night and knock on my window.”

Twilight scratched furiously at the nape of her neck. Being in Applejack’s barn with all the hay in the air around her always made her itchy.

“Anyway,” Applejack said. “He came out one night and told me he was ready. So we snuck out here and I gave myself away right in that corner over there. Course then it was later in the season and there was more hay to lie on. We made like bunnies for near on four hours before gran came in round morning. Almost gave her a heart attack.”

Twilight was taken aback. “Four hours?” she asked.

Applejack nodded. “You unicorns have got your horn-play and them pegasi have their tingly little wings. Earth ponies have got stamina. And I’ve got more earth pony in me than any other stallion or mare in Ponyville.” She puffed out her chest. “You want to tumble with Applejack, you train for four to six weeks, load up on carbs, and bring plenty of water.”

“Huh,” Twilight said. “So how was it?”

Applejack frowned. “It was sex,” she said. “For four hours.” She turned away to heave another bale into the loft. “Was great.”

* * *

“I bet it in a race,” Dash said as they strode along the road leading out of Ponyville. Dash had finished her weather work in a small amount of time, as always, and it was a cloudless, sunny day. Twilight had caught her heading to Sugarcube Corner to relax.

“You what?” Twilight said.

“My virginity,” Dash said. “I bet it in a race with this colt, Blackblitz. If I lost, he’d get to screw me under the bleachers during our third period spare.”

Twilight took this in silence as they walked. Betting it in a race? That sounded so... well, it sounded exactly like the kind of thing Rainbow Dash might do, actually. “So you lost?” She asked after a time.

Dash sighed. “I tried. Really, I did.”

“But he was faster than you?” Twilight asked.

Dash scoffed. “No!” she said. “I meant I tried to lose, Twilight. I’d had my eye on Blackblitz for months. But in the end I just couldn’t do it. I had to win.”

“Wait,” Twilight said. “So you didn’t have sex with him?”

Dash waved a hoof. “No, we still had sex. The race was really just his way of letting me know he was interested. He was still up for it when we were finished.”

“So if you bet your virginity,” Twilight said. “What did he bet?”

“Oh, that,” Dash said. “If I won he had to get his friends to stop harassing Fluttershy. He did, and we were kind of a thing for awhile because he was boning me anyway, so they all knew she was off-limits.”

“Wow, Rainbow Dash. That was very good of you.”

“Yeah,” Dash said. “I’m pretty awesome.”

“So what was it like?” Twilight asked.

“The race? It was around the regular track, but we cooked up a thunderstorm and made it so that the windshear—”

“Not the race, Dash. The sex.”

Dash waved a hoof again. “Oh, the sex. Let’s just say he misunderstood what I meant when I said I liked it fast. He’d cringe for two months afterwards when I called him Blitz. Why are you asking all this stuff, anyway?”

“Well,” Twilight said. “I’m doing a study, sort of. Collecting data for an experiment I might perform, so to speak.”

Dash arched an eyebrow. “You’re getting laid tonight?”

Twilight gave a little pout. “That obvious, huh? I’m asking everyone.”

“Oh,” Dash said. “Well then ask Pinkie Pie. She’ll have sex with anyone.”

“Rainbow Dash!”

“What?” Dash said. “It’s not bad thing, she’s just being Pinkie Pie, is all. One time I walked in on her and Pokey at one of her parties and she said, “‘There’s always room for one more!’ and I was like ‘well in that case—’”

Twilight felt her face burn as she blushed furiously. “Rainbow Dash!”

Dash seemed to catch herself and gave a light laugh that sounded a little too forced. “Too much?”

“Too much.”

“Well don’t ask Fluttershy,” Dash said.

“Why not?” Twilight asked. Fluttershy was the only friend remaining for a complete data set.

“Virgin,” Dash said matter-of-factly. “And being Fluttershy, she’s... well, you know, shy, about it.”

“Right then,” Twilight said, wheeling on the road to face the direction of the library. “Data set is complete. Time for the next item on the checklist!” Twilight waited for Dash to ask what it was.

Instead Dash took off in the direction of Sugarcube Corner. “Have fun!” Dash called back.

Twilight reviewed item two of her mental checklist. Oh, she’d be having fun, alright.

* * *

Twilight got back to the library with six hours to spare before Nightfall. She spent four of them studying up on the library’s woefully inadequate selection of books on everything sex. Mostly stallion-on-mare, but plenty of techniques that could be adapted or re-imagined.

It didn’t help her come to any sort of decision. Luna was certainly a beautiful mare, yes, and she was trustworthy and interesting and was most definitely a skilled partner, if she was to be believed. How many ponies had dreamed of taking the Princess of the Night to bed since her return?

But Twilight was Twilight the Virgin. It was all she had ever been. When stallions and mares had approached her in Canterlot, eager to take a piece of Celestia’s prized pupil, Twilight had turned them down on the premise that she didn’t need intimacy to be the mare she wanted to be. That hadn’t changed. And if she slept with Luna, she’d never, ever be Twilight the Virgin again. She’d be giving up the starry-eyed preteen who mastered magic under the tutelage of Celestia, filing her away as another part of her life.

Frustrated, Twilight cast away her books and climbed into bed. I’m being ridiculous. The past is the past and I’m not giving up my childhood by accepting a perfectly natural part of adulthood.

And there was the matter of Luna. Luna, who had held Twilight close throughout the night. Who had demanded Twilight give the matter her full attention before coming to a decision. The Princess of the Night was beautiful, but what made her beautiful? Surely aesthetics were something that could be quantified.

The way her mane flowed around her head, exotic, cool, and filled with twinkling stars. The way a lock of the ethereal hair curled just above her brow, tucked neatly underneath her tiara. The sheer force in the princess’s gaze. The graceful curve of her belly into a powerful chest, the slant of her ears, the taught shape of her skin over her hindquarters, the way she looked so right when set against the night sky, the way her voice made Twilight listen with every fibre in her body...

Would Luna remove her tiara as she lay Twilight down? Would she take off her regalia, piece by piece, and let Twilight run her hooves across her bare body? Would she lean in, breath against Twilight’s mouth, and kiss her? Would she keep kissing her, working her way down Twilight’s body until...

Twilight didn’t need to call on what she’d read out of books to know what to do next. Under her purple covers, she slid a foreleg down past her waist and gingerly stroked it against her marehood.

She shuddered as a wave of pleasure coursed through her body as the aching need she’d brought on with her fantasies was somewhat abated. Twilight gave a little whimper and threw her head back, where it pomfed against the pillow. Her horn flashed once, and every blind in the library was drawn closed as the latch on the door turned.

Twilight thought back to kissing Pinkie Pie, the other mare’s tongue playfully tangling with her own and they used their hooves to pull each other close. But now Pinkie Pie went further, picking Twilight up and throwing her onto the bed before pouncing. They’d roll around, laughing and screaming in ecstasy as Pinkie Pie let Twilight explore. No boundaries.

Twilight jammed her eyes shut. Her mouth broke into a silly smile and she cried out, wrapping her hind legs around the hoof she was using to pleasure herself. She rolled onto her belly and bit into her pillow, tasting cotton.

But she wanted to taste Applejack. The mare said she’d made love for hours. How messy it must have been, when they were finished! Twilight would have leaned in licked the sweat off of Applejack’s powerful body, the cum off her freckles, and then they’d share a sticky kiss...

“Mmmph!” Her hoof and her bedsheets were getting soaked. Was this wrong, wanting to sleep with her friends? She was just fantasizing, but...

But Twilight wanted somepony there with her, at that instant. She knew she was abandoning reason. Her head felt fuzzy, and she couldn’t wipe the smile off her face, but her nethers felt so good. They burned, and the rest of her body was catching fire too.

Rarity would make her tea and they’d tell each other silly stories. Then they’d go up to Rarity’s enormous, soft bed and they’d lie down and Rarity would say this is how us ladies treat one another, darling. And it would be soft and gentle and slow but not any less sex, and they’d suck each other’s horns like only unicorns could...

Twilight spat her pillow out of her mouth and rolled back onto her back. “Auhhh!” she screamed, clamping her free foreleg over the other. She could hear her blood pumping in her ears as she bit down on her lower lip.

She would walk in on Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie screwing upstairs in Sugar Cube Corner and Pinkie Pie would shout, “There’s room for one more!” And Twilight would be stuck between Dash’s lithe, muscular form and Pinkie Pie’s soft body. They’d move against her, over her, flesh against flesh, and Twilight would come, screaming.

Then it would be Pinkie’s turn, and Twilight and Dash would work together, hungrily lapping at Pinkie’s marehood, sucking at her ears and her tongue. They’d make Pinkie Pie come too, and then share a victory kiss that tasted like the mare’s pleasure. Dash would be forceful and aggressive. She’d tell Twilight what to do. And Twilight would do it, she’d do whatever Dash wanted...

Twilight’s back arched involuntarily. “Ahhh!” As she touched herself, a tightness built inside her abdomen, and her thoughts became even more fuzzy. It wouldn’t be long now...

She could have Luna tonight. And she’d learn—learn!—how to please another pony. Luna would teach her, Luna would show her. How could Twilight stay afraid of this? Her body wanted it so badly she wouldn’t have been able to tear her hoof away if she tried.

Luna would lay her down and kiss her neck and face, and they’d touch each other and become wet and wanting. She’d run her tongue over Twilight’s horn as Twilight fondled her stiff wings, she slide a hoof between Twilight’s legs and show Twilight all the things she was doing wrong right now, and all the ways she could be doing it right. What would Luna’s marehood taste like? What would Twilight’s marehood taste like to Luna? When they kissed afterward, an aggressive, wet, needing kiss, would Twilight taste herself on Luna’s lips? After Luna had lapped up the juices of Twilight’s orgasm, would Twilight be able to savor her own flavour on Luna’s tongue?

Without thinking, Twilight switched hooves from her right to her left. She brought her right hoof up to her mouth and gave it an exploratory lick.

And it turned her on even more. What was wrong with her? Was she a deviant? Twilight shuddered in ecstasy as waves of pleasure coursed through her. Would Luna be proud? She put her lips around her hoof and began to suck. She was going to come, she was about to really come...

Luna’s body against hers, moving, sliding, Twilight feeling their flesh together. Luna’s tongue in her mouth, on her ear, across her marehood. Luna’s powerful forelegs on either side of her, pinning her, almost, as they panted together. Moved together. Came together.

“Mistressssss!” Twilight screamed as the full force of her orgasm struck. “Mistress! Ah! Ah!” She panted and moaned, her words lost on her own ears as every fibre of her being burned. Waves of bliss, of pure, unbridled ecstasy shot through her, and she felt herself coming from her hooves to her ears. Her nostrils filled with the scent of her sex, and her back stuck to the bed in a pool of her own sweat, and still Twilight kept coming.

At last she pulled her hoof away from her tender marehood, then collapsed on her bed, gasping. That had been... still was...

Something that Twilight really didn’t want to go without, now that she knew it existed in the first place. And she’d be seeing Luna that night.

She’d let her head clear, Twilight decided as she lay in bed. She’d let her head clear, and see if in the two hours remaining before nightfall she’d be able to find a good reason not to sleep with Luna.

It was not a long two hours. Or a long walk through the Everfree Forest. Or a long carriage ride.

She arrived at Luna’s tower in Canterlot just as the last light of sun had given way to the dark of the night, then she stepped off the carriage with smooth surety. She turned to the bat-winged pegasi that had pulled it there. “Leave us,” she said.

They left, and Twilight turned to the Princess of the Night, who sat much as she had the evening before, with her back to Twilight and gazing at the sky. Luna spoke:

“Did you come to a decision, Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight nodded, even though she knew that Luna couldn’t see. A faint smile graced her lips. “Do it.”

Chapter 3

The night was still.

The sky was perfectly cloudless, laid bare above them even despite the light of the city below. Luna had the moon shining bright and full, naturally, and its face glowed like a beacon, drifting slowly toward the apex of its journey across the sky. The only thing that reached Twilight’s ears was the silence itself, a lack of sound that made her feel bare and open atop the tower, like a babe without a blanket.

The night was still, and the tower was still with it. No candles burned this night, no books lay splain on the tabletop. Luna’s small assortment of possessions seemed even more spartan than before. The polished black surface of the tower reflected only the night sky.

The only movement, the only sound, came from the princess. Her ethereal mane drifted around her face and shoulders, its faint luminescence magnified by the lack of nearby light. Her chest stirred slowly with her breath as she observed the sky above, moving just enough to make Twilight catch notice. And when she spoke, her voice was quiet, but no less firm and controlled.

“What do you know of rituals, Twilight Sparkle?”

Twilight didn’t hesitate to answer, dipping into her expansive knowledge of magic. “Rituals are some of the oldest forms of magic,” she said. “In truth, ritual magic isn’t fundamentally different from say, a unicorn’s everyday variety.” Of course, if you went deep enough, nothing was very different from anything. Or at least in Twilight’s century, that was the dominant school of scientific thought.

“Not different at all, in theory,” Luna said. “Instead of shaping magic with thought and horn or wings or hooves, rituals use other prompts. In practice, they can be extraordinarily convoluted and impossible to fully understand. Did you know that a group of ponies telling stories around a campfire is a ritual?”

“It is?”

Luna nodded. “One of our oldest. There is magic in stories, and in warmth and light. A properly trained mind can harness it, shape it. The best storytellers of ancient times mastered the rite without even realizing it. But I digress. Rituals are part of my portfolio, Twilight Sparkle, and you will learn their ways.”

For a moment, Twilight completely forgot her reason for coming. Ritual magic was scorned as ridiculous by some unicorns and condemned as dangerous by the others. It wasn’t something that ponykind did anymore. And here was an opportunity to learn from a master. If Luna was telling the truth, they could erase centuries of misconceptions about a millennia old school of magic.

Luna stood and turned to face Twilight, and her turquoise eyes seemed to glow with inner light. Twilight suppressed a shiver.

“This ritual is very specific, Twilight Sparkle. The strongest ones always are. But there is also room for the care and attention that you deserve. If ever you want anything, you must tell me. Promise.”

“I...” Luna was offering Twilight an out, anytime she wanted. Just what exactly did this involve other than sex? “I promise.”

Luna smiled a small smile, then took a step forward and faced Twilight across her tiny table. “Twilight Sparkle, I ask you now for the first time: will you be my student?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes.”

Luna took another step, and her horn glowed. The table between them melted into shadows that sank to the tower floor and dissolved. It wasn’t like any spell Twilight had ever seen before. Luna continued to approach, her motions slow and smooth.

“I am the moon and the stars, and the infinite blackness between them. I am the devi of shadows and the asura of war. I am the lady of secrets and the goddess of sex. I ask you for the second time, Twilight Sparkle: will you accept my gifts and become my ward?

“Yes.” Luna was only feet away, now. Twilight could have counted the stars in her mane.

“Then I ask you for the third and final time, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said as she came even closer. “Will you seize the secrets of the dark? Will you bring joy to my allies and woe to my enemies? Will you supplicate yourself before me, body and mind?”

She leaned in, and Twilight trembled as she felt Luna’s breath leave a light trail along the side of her face and into her ear.

“Will you be the Dark Apprentice?” Luna whispered.

Twilight allowed a little silence to sit between them before answering, “Yes,” for the third and final time.

Rituals were certainly something else. Definitely different from unicorn magic.

Luna moved to Twilight’s side, and their coats meshed as she draped a heavy wing over Twilight and gently guided her downward. They sat, Twilight’s heart racing at the feel of Luna’s cool body against hers.

“Other protocols will need to be observed,” Luna said. “But I will be the one to observe them. Now you need only relax, Twilight Sparkle. Do not concern yourself with the ritual, or with me. There are no expectations of you on this night. Merely clear your mind and do as you will.”

“But I thought I was your student?”

Luna’s eyes flashed. “Make no mistake, Twilight Sparkle. You will learn on this night.”

Another tremor of excitement ran through Twilight’s body. When did they begin? Had they already begun?

Luna’s mane licked at Twilight’s neck and face as the princess turned her head to Twilight and pressed her lips against Twilight’s neck. Twilight felt the cool lips brush against her skin, then the moist press of her tongue. They’d certainly begun now.

“One thing you will spend time learning, my Dark Apprentice,” Luna murmured against Twilight’s neck, “is to relinquish the stigma and taboo placed on sex. It is a part of us, and we should never be afraid of who we are. No matter your tastes, or your desires, you are still a pony, and you should not be ashamed.”

Luna breathed a line of soft kisses down Twilight’s neck, brushing her mane away with a hoof. “Sex can only ever have as much meaning as we give it. Some ponies only ever make love, and some have sex as often and as much as it pleases them with no care. For some it is always a secret, and for others it is always a thing to be boasted of. We must respect these things, Twilight Sparkle. Always.”

Luna lifted her muzzle and placed it in Twilight’s ear. “You are too tense, my Dark Apprentice. Relax.”

Tense. Right. Ponies couldn’t have sex if they were rigid as a board, Twilight needed to relax! She needed to—

“Ahhh...” The press of Luna’s magic worked along her neck, back, and haunches in a massage that was instantaneously gratifying. “Wow,” Twilight said, their situation momentarily forgotten. She needed to know this spell.

“Will you be screaming, Twilight Sparkle?” Luna’s voice had taken on a heavier tone. “Will you keep this a secret or tell all your friends? Will you prefer my lips against yours, or my muzzle buried between your legs? These things are all yours to decide. And tonight you will decide them.”

Luna’s words shocked Twilight back into the moment. The princess was going to take her to bed. Here, tonight. Her wing was still folded over Twilight’s back, and their bodies still pressed together, the space where they met slowly grower warmer.

It wasn’t the only thing getting warmer, Twilight thought with a blush as she felt the rush of blood to her nethers. She couldn’t help it; everything about Luna turned her on. Her sleek form, that ethereal mane, her iron voice whispering into Twilight’s ears...

“Kiss me,” Luna said.

Twilight turned to the princess and found their muzzles only millimetres apart, and their eyes locked. Luna’s lips parted...

Every rational and irrational fear that Twilight possessed, every ounce of hesitation, was ignored as soon as she saw those lips open, felt Luna’s cool breath on her face. The effect was almost magnetic, and she couldn’t have stopped it even if she tried. Of course, she didn’t want to.

Their lips met softly, finding purchase against one another as Twilight leaned in. She drank in the feel of Princess Luna as she tried to remember how to kiss properly, but it didn’t seem to matter. Soon Luna had her working her mouth in slow circles, drinking in the Princess’s breath.

Twilight poked her tongue out, past the threshold and into Luna’s mouth, and the princess responded in kind. Luna’s tongue ran along her own as it travelled into her mouth, so careful and controlled that Twilight’s chest tightened with the thrill of it.

They shared the air from their lungs as well as their saliva, and Twilight’s kissing became ever more urgent. Luna’s kiss was nothing like Pinkie Pie’s. It was slow and controlled. It was powerful. Electrifying. Intoxicating.

It wasn’t enough. Twilight felt the thrill consume her, and the warmth between her legs became a fire. She needed more than just kisses. She needed Princess Luna, every inch of her. She wanted to do everything that two mares could do together, right now.

She leaned against Luna, wrapping her forelegs around the princess’s neck and pressing even harder with her tongue.

Luna pulled away, and a thin string of saliva trailed between their lips, then broke over Luna’s muzzle. Twilight’s mouth felt suddenly cold and empty.

“Shall I take you to bed, Twilight Sparkle?” Luna asked.

Twilight once again found herself staring into those turquoise eyes. “Take me,” she said.

Luna gave a smoldering smile, then moved forward, put her forelegs under Twilight, and picked her up without any apparent effort. She lifted them gently into the air with her wings.

“Truthfully,” Luna said, “sex can be had anywhere. But for you, tonight, we will do things traditionally.” She floated them over to the soft collection of sheets and pillows and gently placed Twilight down, laying her belly up with her legs splayed out at either end.

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, and Luna shushed her by holding a hoof to her lips. “It is important, my Dark Apprentice, that you last as long as possible. When the fires within threaten to overwhelm you, stay yourself. When you ache for release and the pleasure dulls, only to return again, don’t go over the edge.”

She leaned in and breathed in Twilight’s ear. “Do this for me, my Dark Apprentice, and you will experience more than you would otherwise.”

Twilight shivered. “W-what if I can’t?” she asked. She’d be the first to admit that her experience with these things was... minimal.

“You can,” Luna whispered. “I won’t push you harder than you can bear. Believe me, Twilight Sparkle. I will make you come when I want you to.”

Twilight trembled as she felt her stomach tightening. Luna leaned in, softy drawing a hoof over one of Twilight’s forelegs, and their lips against one another. She pulled herself closer, allowing more of their bodies to touch, as her mouth moved ever downward.

She kissed against Twilight’s throat, along her collar, over her chest. Each time her tongue would press out against Twilight’s flesh, leaving her coat damp with Luna’s passage.

Twilight leaned out and very lightly bit against the foreleg Luna was using to hold her to the soft mattress. Her sex was burning, wanting, growing wetter by the second.

As if sensing her need, Luna’s free foreleg drifted down across Twilight’s belly, over one of her hind legs, and onto her inner thigh. The Princess began to kiss her way back up Twilight’s belly, as her hoof stood, poised.

“Do it,” Twilight said, screwing her eyes shut. “Please.”

Luna obliged, sliding her hoof up Twilight thigh as her muzzle moved back up to Twilight’s neck. She stroked the edge of her hoof across Twilight’s love, and Twilight couldn’t help but let out a tight moan. How was it that this felt so much different than when she had touched herself?

Luna kept going, sliding her hoof along Twilight’s sex, and warmth surged through Twilight’s body. Her back arched, and her lips parted as she cried out.

Luna’s lips found Twilight’s, and their kiss was forceful and fast, lips and tongues wrestling against one another at a frantic pace. Twilight reached up with her forelegs and wrapped them around Luna’s neck, feeling the thick muscle beneath her princess’s soft skin.

Luna pressed Twilight’s head back into the mattress, then moved her free foreleg up to Twilight’s face, holding Twilight by the cheek just as the edge of her hoof found Twilight’s nub.

This time, Twilight’s moan was anything but high pitched. It was deep, throaty sound, made around Luna’s tongue as it worked itself against the inside of Twilight’s mouth.

As if in response to Twilight’s moan of pleasure, Luna broke away and moved upward, dragging her body across Twilight’s. Then she ran her tongue over Twilight’s horn, from the base to the tip.

“Ah!” Twilight’s surprise was audible in the short gasp of enjoyment she let escape her lips. She knew that unicorn horns were supposed to become a means of sexual stimulation when aroused, but she didn’t know that it would feel like that.

Luna kept going, running her tongue along Twilight’s horn in long, wet licks that covered it in saliva from the base to the tip. As she did so, Twilight started to feel a cold wind blowing against her skin. She looked up, past Luna, at clouds that were just beginning to gather around the full moon.

“Stay still, my Dark Apprentice,” Luna said as Twilight’s body gave an involuntary spasm. She leaned down to whisper into Twilight’s ear. “Or I won’t be able to fit it all into my mouth.”

Twilight gasped as Luna took the whole length of her horn, the wet and warm insides of her mouth sucking against it in a way that made Twilight moan. It was her horn. It was for magic. Her special talent. And here Luna was using it for... this. Was there a part of her that couldn’t be used for sex?

She felt the pleasure building behind her nethers, and a spot just above her groin began to feel strained and tight. It built and built, threatening to overwhelm her, and it was all she could do to cling to the edge.

Luna stopped just as Twilight was about to let go, and Twilight collapsed, an ache spreading out from between her legs as the pleasure ebbed. “I...” Twilight gasped. “That was...”

“Be still, my Dark Apprentice. We are not finished yet.”

Luna’s mane licked at Twilight’s chest as the Princess began to kiss her way down Twilight’s body once more. The warmth of her mouth was a welcome contrast to the near freezing temperature atop the tower.

Wait. Near freezing? It was true; the winds that had ruffled Twilight’s mane before were now causing it to billow, and they carried the chill of winter. Above her, clouds churned around the full moon. Strangely, Twilight didn’t find the temperature all that uncomfortable.

“Do you feel it, Twilight Sparkle?” Luna glanced at her, and Twilight saw her eyes gleam. “The night is cold.” She placed another kiss further down along Twilight’s belly.

It was freezing, colder by far than the air around Twilight. Her back arched as the sweat clinging to her coat froze around Luna’s lips. Again, Twilight felt no pain or discomfort at the sensation. If the warmth had been sensual, this was stimulating. Her mind was pulled out of its erotic stupor.

“The night,” Luna said, “is dark.” She drew her mane across Twilight’s chest, and it flowed over her body like liquid, drawing goosebumps wherever it touched. She kissed just above Twilight’s navel, and her mouth was warm once more. Twilight’s stomach tightened at how hot Luna’s mouth felt in the frozen air.

“The night is mine,” Luna breathed, her breath misting against Twilight’s sex. “And I am giving you a piece of it, my Dark Apprentice.”

Her muzzle lowered, and Twilight couldn’t contain the groan of pleasure that came with Luna’s tongue sliding its way between her lips. The Princess ran it up the length of her slit almost tentatively, as though savoring Twilight as she went. Then she did it again. And again.

Each time, Twilight moaned. She reached out with her hooves, grasping Luna’s head, her hooves pushing the princess’s ears away. She bit her lip, and her noises became muffled and subdued.

Luna moved upward, and her focus shifted as she drew Twilight’s nub into her mouth, sucking it between her lips and running her tongue across it.

Twilight’s eyes rolled back as she let out another deep, throaty moan, and she began to feel the pressure built once more. Every motion of Luna’s tongue was a wave, crashing against her meagre measure of willpower, daring her, begging her to come.

“Luna,” Twilight gasped. A bead of sweat ran down her face, leaving behind it a trail of frost. “Luna, I can’t... I don’t...”

Luna raised her muzzle, and Twilight looked to see that her eyes weren’t just reflecting the moonlight; they were glowing, thin rings of luminescence backlighting her turquoise irises like a light at the heart of a glacier.

Luna placed a foreleg down and pulled herself above Twilight, and a thin trail of fluid ran from her open mouth. The sight alone was almost enough to push Twilight over the edge. “Do you feel it, Twilight Sparkle? Midnight approaches, and with it the conclusion of the night’s oldest ritual.”

Above them, dark clouds obscured everything but the moon, which had moved to sit directly above Luna’s tower. The wind tossed Twilight’s mane in different directions, as if it couldn’t decide which way to blow.

“Do it,” Twilight said breathlessly. She gripped Luna’s coat as the princess moved over her. “Do it! Please, Princess, make me come!”

“Twilight Sparkle,” Luna whispered. She sat up, then grabbed Twilight’s hind legs and pushed them apart. “I claim you.”

She mounted Twilight, throwing a hind leg over Twilight’s belly and thrusting their sexes together. Luna began to move, and Twilight could feel their lips sliding against one another, over each other. She cried out again.

“I claim you by the light of the full moon in the dark of midnight,” Luna grabbed Twilight by the hips and flapped her wings, pushing them backwards along the tower. “I claim you by the winds of the storm and the frost of winter.”

A second beat of her wings pushed Twilight’s head over the edge of the tower. Twilight threw her head back and was overwhelmed by a sense of vertigo as Canterlot came into view below her. She pulled her head back up to look at the princess, who shot her a wicked grin. “I claim you by your will and my desire. You are mine, Twilight Sparkle.”

Her horn glowed, and pleasure surged through Twilight as Luna rubbed their marehoods together. It was a surreal kind of sensation, a jolt of magic that surged through her body and made her willpower melt.

Without her having ever been told the words, they came to Twilight. “Princess Luna. I—” she cut off to let out an involuntary moan, “I s-supplicate myself before you, body and mind. I will bring woe to our enemies and joy to our allies.” Twilight bit her lip to muffle a scream as Luna ground them together again. “I will seize the secrets of the dark!” she gasped.

Twilight didn’t realize how close she was, how much effort she’d been putting into holding back the storm, until she stopped.

Luna looked down at Twilight. Her voice boomed. “Then you are mine.”

Twilight’s orgasm was pure and total release from all the effort she’d put into keeping it at bay, coupled with an onslaught of pleasure like Twilight had never felt before. It was ecstasy delivered in waves that spread from her love to the tips of her hooves. She began to scream.

“Mine!” Luna bellowed.

Shards of ice chipped off of Twilight’s coat and were carried away by gale force winds, but Twilight ignored them in the throes of euphoria. Luna’s eyes were glowing, now, and Twilight’s breath came to her in great, heaving gasps between her screams.

“Mine!”

She came down from her orgasm staring up at Luna. The Princess was looking at Twilight with satisfaction, her wings spread. As Twilight’s panting became less intense, Luna leaned in, pressing their bodies together and running a hoof over the side of Twilight’s face. Her voice came slow, and subdued:

“My. Dark. Apprentice.”

Interlude

It struck Celestia like a bolt of lightning.

Nothing about her immediate surroundings changed. The fire still crackled merrily in the hearth, lighting her study with a warm glow. The rows upon rows of choice books that lined her bookshelf still sat, collecting dust. The cushion she sat on didn’t burst into flames or explode. Nothing dramatic occurred.

Except Celestia felt it, the magic, familiar magic, with every fibre of her being. Unicorn senses honed for millennia cried out at the vast expenditure of power that couldn’t be very far away at all. She didn’t cry out and throw herself to her hooves, but rather marked her page in the book she’d been reading and set it off to one side.

For a moment it was difficult to believe. But no, the signs were all accounted for. Luna had been especially secretive lately, and had moved to the tallest tower available, away from prying eyes. Celestia had thought—had hoped, that her sister would wait longer than this. She’d always known the time would come, but she’d expected it to come decades from now. Why was Luna acting so soon?

“A new Dark Apprentice,” Celestia whispered. Her sister had been among ponykind for so little a time, and already she’d made her choice and committed herself to the role of mistress and mentor. And Luna would not abandon the old traditions the way Celestia had. This pony, this new Dark Apprentice, would be blessed.

She rose and rang for an attendant, and a stallion was there within less than a minute to see to her needs. Even at midnight, the palace staff were at her beck and call. Only ever a single wall’s width away.

“Princess?” he asked.

Celestia nodded to him as he entered. “I need you to fetch somepony and have them meet me here.”

The request was odd, but the stallion was good enough at his job that if he was surprised at all it didn’t show on his face. “I need only a name, Princess.”

Celestia considered telling him to fetch Twilight Sparkle. The mare was, after all, directly involved in whatever came next, regardless of what that would be. But no. Twilight was far away in Ponyville, and the time to tell her would come soon enough.

“Bring me Shining Armor,” she said. “The Captain of the Royal Guard.”

* * *

“Princess,” Shining bowed with military perfection despite his ragged mane and bleary eyes. “I came as soon as I could.”

Celestia sighed. “I’m sorry I woke you,” she said. But I needed to talk to somepony about this. “Something has come up. It concerns your sister.”

Shining Armor immediately grew more alert, and he shed any regard for protocol. “Is she hurt?”

Celestia shook her head. “No, no, she’s fine, as far as I know. It’s nothing like that. It’s...” Celestia sighed again. “Do you know Twilight’s position? Her job title, in a word?”

Shining Armor tilted his head. “Twiley has a job? I thought she was a student.”

Celestia nodded. “She is. ‘The Faithful Student.’ It’s a position that has existed since Luna and I first came to rule Equestria. It exists outside of the military, outside of the government, outside of any organized system we use today. She doesn’t know that it’s a real title.”

“Wait,” Shining Armor said. His eyes flashed. “You made my sister take up a set of responsibilities without telling her?”

“Yes and no,” Celestia said. “You see, I haven’t recognized a Faithful Student in centuries. It’s been so long I’ve ignored the old traditions, forgone the blessing, and bestowed no extra duties on Twilight. I taught her, she learned, and when Equestria needed her, she rose to its defense like the hero she is. She fulfilled all her duties in spirit. That was enough.”

Shining Armor seemed to guess where Celestia was headed. “Until now,” he said.

Celestia turned to stare at the fire. “There was a parallel to the Faithful Student. Just as Luna is my counterpart, so the Dark Apprentice is the Faithful Student’s. Luna chose a new Dark Apprentice twenty minutes ago. I don’t know who.”

Shining Armor was silent. A log collapsed, sending out a shower of sparks. Celestia tried to think of how she’d approach what she had to say next. “The Dark Apprentice and the Faithful Student have never failed to have some kind of relationship with one another. They’ve shared scholarly pursuits, lifelong friendships, and even murderous hatred for one another in the past. Like it or not, Twilight will be coming into contact with this pony—and this pony will no doubt be one of the most capable individuals in all of Equestria. They always are. Just look at your sister.”

“Murderous hatred?” Shining Armor asked with an edge in his voice. “You’re saying Twilight is in danger?”

“Not at all,” Celestia said quickly, turning back to face him. “Luna and I are on good terms, better than ever. She’d never allow such a thing.”

“Well... then with all do respect, Princess... why am I here? Why aren’t you telling Twilight? Do you want me to find out who they are?”

Celestia nodded. It was a question she’d been expecting. “No,” she said. “Secrecy is Luna’s way. It would subvert her authority for me to ask a pony that we both hold equal command over to pry into her affairs. I’m not here to ask anything of you as my captain, Shining Armor, I’m here to warn you, as Twilight’s brother.”

“Warn me about what?” Shining Armor asked. “I thought you said Twilight wasn’t in any danger?”

Celestia turned back to the fire. She’d have to handle this delicately. “Her life, no. Her innocence, however...”

“Wait,” Shining Armor said, “what?”

“Part of Luna’s godly domain is lovemaking, or sex, or whatever you wish to call it. As such, the Dark Apprentice is typically well... trained,” she finished lamely. “And the Dark Apprentice always meets the Faithful Student in some fashion...”

“So you’re saying my sister is in danger of being seduced by a supernatural pony in service to your sister, the goddess of sex?”

“Yes,” Celestia said. “I understand that as her older brother you may feel the need to protect her from a pony who might use her carelessly. Maybe you feel as though nothing should be done, but I felt obligated to warn you.”

“Carelessly?” Shining Armor asked.

Celestia nodded, deciding for once to damn etiquette in favor of driving her point home. “Poor Twilight won’t stand a chance, I’m afraid. Luna always picks a bit of a whore.”

Chapter 4

Twilight gasped as the last tremor of pleasure left her body through the tips of her ears and her hooves. It had taken... a while for her first real orgasm to die down.

She thought that it would leave her feeling exhausted and spent. Or that once that heat died down, she’d feel left out in the cold, eager for more as though sex were some kind of drug.

“How do you feel?” Luna asked.

Twilight dragged herself back onto the tower—her head had still been hanging over the edge—and into a pool of melting frost. How did she feel?

Bliss. Sex was very much a drug, and Twilight’s brain was currently enjoying a fine neurohormone cocktail. Her breaths came deep and steady as she looked up at the sky. There was no tension anywhere—no muscle pain, no stress. It was almost therapeutic.

Twilight giggled. Sex therapy! She was high on sex!

“I see,” Luna said. “Take as much time as you need, Twilight Sparkle.”

Take as much time as you need. Twilight was just going to lie there and feel excellent for a little while longer, then. Her horn glowed as she harmlessly flashed the growing puddle around her into steam.

She grabbed the blanket beneath her with telekinesis and pulled it close, intending to wrap it around herself and snuggle in. The corners of Luna’s thick cover folded over her, then pulled tight.

Too tight. They were choking the life out of her, Twilight realized with a shock. She’d vastly overpowered her spell.

She tore her way out of the blankets, creating a snowstorm of fluffy down. Luna smiled as Twilight looked at her hooves. She’d only meant to loosen the blankets up a little. Instead she’d reduced them to a tattered mess as though they were made of nothing more than wet paper.

She’d also only meant to draw them close with her telekinesis. Not wrap herself up like Hearth’s Warming Eve gift.

My. Dark. Apprentice.

“Woah,” Twilight whispered.

“Close your eyes,” Luna said.

Twilight looked up at her. Luna looked back expectantly. Twilight closed her eyes.

“Point to Athura Valerius.”

Athura Valerius? Twilight thought, I don’t even know what that—

She pointed to Athura Valerius, a star not too far away from Arcturis. A star that wasn’t visible to the naked eye. A star that Twilight had never heard of or seen before in her life.

“Good,” Luna said, and Twilight opened her eyes. “Now tell me what time it is.”

Again, the knowledge filled Twilight’s mind instantaneously. “I don’t have to tell you,” she said, mostly just to prove to herself that was the case.

Luna shook her head. “Nay, my Dark Apprentice. You have perfect free will. Even I abide the laws of magic. Does the time of day come to you?”

Twilight nodded. “Two minutes fourteen seconds past midnight.”

Luna gave another one of her tiny smiles. “Good,” she said. “I have the same thing.”

Twilight pinged a couple dozen more stars in her mind in the space of a few seconds. “So I can feel the entire night sky now?”

“Indeed,” Luna said. “But you cannot change it.”

“And...” Twilight looked down again at the torn remnants of Luna’s cover.

“Faster,” Luna said. “Stronger. Almost impossible to tire out. You need not sleep, though you do need to eat. You can cast spells out of my own repertoire, now. Darkness will never hinder your vision, and most cold will not bother you.”

Twilight sat. “I don’t feel all that different.”

“You will,” Luna said, moving to sit beside her. Twilight felt the sudden urge to press herself against the princess’s lush coat again, to feel that cool softness.

“It may take some time to become used to, Twilight Sparkle: especially not having to sleep. I’m suspending your first week of lessons to give you time to relax and get comfortable with these changes.”

“Wait, what?” Twilight shot to her hooves.

Luna furrowed her brow. “Relax, Twilight Sparkle. You don’t need to learn anything from me for the next seven days. Just do what you would normally do. Frolic about in the daylight, and such.”

“But—but I came here to learn!” And have sex. We should do that again as well.

Luna cocked her head. “You truly wish to begin your studies now?”

Twilight gave Luna what she hoped was an honest expression. “I do.”

“Hmm. Come then.” Luna stood and strode to the center of the tower. There, a pool of shadow gathered, formed, and solidified into the table she’d dismissed earlier. “You will need books,” Luna said, “But what can you learn right away...” She began to pluck volumes off of her shelves. Volumes that looked to be a thousand years old at least.

Twilight perked up as she moved to stand by Luna’s side. She’d uncharacteristically forgotten about the books, having pushed them and everything but sex out of her mind to make her decision. Now, however, it was the prospect of sex that fled her thoughts in favor of books. Really old books.

“The Embrace of Darkness,” Luna read, placing a massive tome upon the table. “This should serve as a primer. The Shadows beckon... not yet. A Study in Ecstasy, yes. The End of Life, no. I doubt you’ll be killing anypony soon.”

“Wait,” Twilight said. “Killing somepony?”

Luna shrugged. “Ponykind writes books about everything, Twilight Sparkle, and a thousand years ago it was hardly peaceful. Now then, 200 Ways to Please Your Partner: Mare on Mare Edition. This should round out everything you will need concerning lovemaking.” She placed it on the pile.

“Wait,” Twilight said again, levitating the most recent book into the air to examine its shiny, manufactured cover. “This can’t be more than a couple years old.”

“Indeed,” Luna said. “I have been supplementing my collection with modern works, in an effort to learn what developments ponykind has made in the past thousand years.” She frowned at the book Twilight held. “Sadly, not much when it comes to the sexual arts.”

Twilight opened the book and peered at the slip inside the cover. “Did you... did you steal this from the Canterlot Library?”

“No,” Luna said quickly.

“Yes you did,” Twilight said. “There’s no checkout stamp.”

“Those books belong to the crown.”

“Yeah, but...”

“I’m the crown, my Dark Apprentice.”

Twilight put the book back with a grumble. “Well I’m a librarian,” she said, more to herself than to the princess. “Coulda just gotten a library card...”

“The Call of Shadows,” Luna said, plucking another book free of its shelf.

“Do these all have to sound so... dark?” Twilight asked.

Luna gave her a queer look. “You are my Dark Apprentice, Twilight Sparkle. I am the Princess of the Night. Would you like me to let you read The Blackest Night of Dark Shadows?” She pulled a slim black volume free from the shelf and waved it around. Twilight gave it a look of disbelief, and Luna shrugged before putting it back. “I wrote it in my teenage years,” she said. Twilight wasn’t sure if she was joking or not.

“You will take these home with you, Twilight Sparkle. Once you have read and understood all of them, I will permit you to read from The Book of Secrets.”

“The Book of Secrets?”

“The Book of Secrets.”

Twilight waited for an explanation, but none came. “So, what’s—”

“Secrets.”

Twilight peered at the princess. Her face and tone hadn’t changed at all, but... was Luna joking? She couldn’t tell. “Okay.”

“You may wish to tell Celestia of you apprenticeship, Twilight Sparkle. You can do so at any time and there will be no consequences.”

Twilight frowned. “What? I thought you said—”

Luna nodded gravely. “When you were a prospective student, I did not want you to tell my sister. I wanted you to make the decision for yourself. And you did, which...” Luna paused. “Surprised me,” she said at last.

“I know Celestia is an important part of who you are, Twilight, and I... do not want to damage that bond. Everypony needs somepony they can share everything with. Please, do not hesitate to tell her if you wish.”

Twilight eyed Luna carefully. “Is... Is Celestia going to be upset?” she asked. Luna was Celestia’s sister, she was a princess. She wouldn’t ask Twilight to do something that Celestia wouldn’t approve of. Would she?

“No,” Luna said immediately. “I’m certain that Celestia would not be upset with you.”

“But you’d rather I didn’t tell her,” Twilight said.

“I would rather you do as you wish in this matter,” Luna said. Again, Twilight could discern nothing from the expression she wore.

“Okay then,” Twilight said, resolving to write Celestia a letter in the morning.

Luna nodded. “Dawn is not until six thirty eight,” she said. “Hmm...”

“What is it?”

Luna put a hoof to her chin. “It has been some time since I trained a Dark Apprentice, Twilight Sparkle. As I recall, I would now teach you some astronomy. But you’re Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight understood. Except for the stars she couldn’t physically see, Celestia had taught her almost everything there was to know about the sky long ago. And now she could easily pinpoint the ones she couldn’t see with the naked eye.

“Or, because you are a unicorn, I would teach you some more basic magic. But—”

“I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

“Yes. We can move right into the darker powers, but not until you have finished your reading. And it seems a waste of our time together to have you sit here and read.” Luna seemed to consider things for a moment. “Kissing, then,” she said at last.

Kissing. Twilight felt a surge of girlish giddiness. She was going to learn how to kiss!

But wait. She’d already kissed Luna. And even Pinkie Pie, for that matter. Maybe she was a little inexperienced, but she was hardly terrible. Right?

“There is much to learn, my Dark Apprentice,” Luna said, striding back over to the bed. Was it just Twilight’s imagination, or was the princess sashaying a bit more than normal, now? Regardless, Twilight felt her eyes following her new mentor’s flank as Luna moved to lie down.

“Come,” Luna said. Twilight obeyed, eagerly settling into the lush cover before the princess. “Closer.” Twilight scooched forward until their faces were bare inches apart.

Looking into Luna’s eyes was unavoidable from this proximity, and Twilight couldn’t help but stare. She hardly noticed their color, instead focusing on their sheer intensity. Did the princess look at everything that way? It was as though everything Luna saw was hers for the taking, or even already hers. So much different than Celestia’s warm, calm gaze.

Don’t think of Celestia, idiot. You’re making out with her sister.

“Now,” Luna said. “Without coming any closer, show me that you intend to kiss me.”

Uh-oh. Body language. Not Twilight’s biggest strength. Twilight tried to give Luna what she hoped was a smoldering look, lowering her head and looking out from under her eyelashes. She immediately felt ridiculous, and started to blush.

“Mmm,” Luna said. “While very potent in its own right, blushing is not becoming of the Dark Apprentice.” Twilight blushed even more and tried to shrink.

“Feel not ashamed, Twilight Sparkle. It was a valiant effort. But I will teach you to do better. Telling a pony you intend to kiss them is a vital prelude to the act itself. And you do want to kiss me, do you not?”

“Er, yes,” Twilight said with a nod.

“Then you would do well to relax.” Luna paused.

Twilight waited for her to continue, but she didn’t. “Is something wrong, pri—mistress?”

“Nay, Twilight Sparkle. I just have the feeling that I will be telling you that often.”

Heh. Me, uptight?

“Oh.”

“In any case,” Luna said.

Then she gave Twilight the look.

It seemed as though all the cold intensity of her eyes shifted to focus solely on Twilight Sparkle, and her eyelids fell just enough to make themselves distinct. Her lips parted ever so slightly and curved upward into a daring smile. Her ears fell back a little, her nostrils widened, her head tilted down but also to the side...

Luna did a lot, and the result made Twilight’s stomach tighten. She tried to catalogue each individual change that went into the look, but she couldn’t. She was drawn to the whole, the smoldering stare of perhaps the most beautiful mare in the world, and was suddenly acutely aware of the fact that they were alone together on a remote tower, only inches apart. Inches that Twilight could cross in a second.

Luna raised an eyebrow. “Now you.”

Twilight pulled herself out of her reverie and back, having leaned forward for the kiss. She tried to remember exactly what Luna had done as she threw her own facial expression at the princess. She still felt ridiculous, but recalling the details distracted her from the absurdity of the task at hand. Her ears went back, yes, and her mouth kind of smiled like this...

“Better,” Luna said. “Now give me the most generic kiss you know.”

Gladly. Twilight leaned forward again and planted her lips on Luna’s, giving her a simple kiss with a light smack. It was, all things considered, not very exciting.

“The peck,” Luna said. “It’s likely what your mother gave you after tucking you in at night. What teenagers exchange after a first date and what colts and fillies exchange in treehouses. While a solid foundation, it is practically useless. You lingered too long and pushed too little. Try again.”

Twilight felt a tinge of embarrassment mixed with annoyance at being corrected, but she tried again nonetheless. She tried not to linger. She pushed a little harder.

“Better,” Luna said when Twilight pulled away. “Now show me that you intend to be kissed.”

Kissing Luna was making Twilight lose her focus, and she blinked a few times at the request. “Er... what?” How would that look differ from the intent to kiss look?

“Just try.”

Twilight tried. She couldn’t help but feel ridiculous, and another blush came to her face. This wasn’t much different from her intent to kiss look.

“Do not fear, my Dark Apprentice, the intent to be kissed is different for everypony.” Twilight heard her, but she couldn’t help but stare more at Luna’s eyes. They were either extremely bright, or glowing. She couldn’t decide which.

“Take a lock of hair and place it on the other side of you horn, on your left,” Luna said.

This shocked Twilight out of her thoughts once again. Rearrange part of her mane? She always split it evenly off her horn. Just like she always had it cut to a perfectly straight edge and uniform length. It was—well, it was more organized that way.

Confused, she did as Luna bid. “Good,” the princess said. “Tilt your head up more, the look should be subdued. Eyelids up. Ears straight. Relax, Twilight Sparkle. Now bite half of your lower lip. A little to your left. More smile, just enough to dimple your cheeks. Sultry, not cheery. Relax, Twilight Sparkle. Mmm, very good. I suppose I ought to kiss you now.”

Luna leaned in slowly until their muzzles were only an inch apart and Twilight could feel the princess’s breath across her face. She came closer, torturously slow, and brushed her lips over Twilight’s. The contact was electrifying, sending a tremor through Twilight’s entire body before Luna pulled away.

“The whisper,” Luna said, “is extraordinarily useful. Now you try.”

Twilight hesitated. She hadn’t been paying attention to what Luna had done, on account of the fact that her nethers were aching and all she wanted to do was pounce the princess for another round of glorious lovemaking.

“Can I, um, see that again?” Twilight asked.

Luna’s gleaming eyes looked unamused. “No,” she said. “You must learn not to lose yourself, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight gave an exasperated sigh. How could she manage to be frustrated and aroused at the same time? “I have no idea how to—”

“I’m not going to teach you by giving you tasks you’ll succeed at, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight let out another sigh. Fine, Princess, I’ll kiss you. She leaned in as slowly as she could, then clumsily brushed her lips over Luna’s. She felt about as sexy as a plate of unsauced spaghetti.

“Quite terrible,” Luna said after Twilight had pulled away. Twilight gave her a sullen “I did warn you,” look.

“Now,” Luna said, throwing her head back and sending a ripple through her ethereal mane. “Try to pay attention this time, my Dark Apprentice.”

* * *

Dawn would come in nineteen minutes, thirty three seconds.

Thirty two. Thirty one.

“The wave,” Luna said.

Twilight leaned forward and cupped Luna’s cheek with a hoof, pulling their muzzles together. The contact was brief, but deep, She kissed Luna head on, open mouth, and rolled her tongue in and up before breaking away with her lips slightly parted. She pulled away from Luna for the thousandth time that night, and a bead of sweat trickled down her forehead.

“Invite me to bed,” Luna said. Her expression betrayed nothing of how she felt about Twilight’s kiss.

Invitation to bed. Twilight frantically searched her memory, hoping not to break her streak. That’s the... right! Her face melted into one of eight come hither expressions she’d learned in the past six hours. Six hours she’d been sitting in the same spot, and not a single muscle in her body ached.

Except of course for the ones between her legs. First she’d been aroused. Then Luna’s steady stream of intentionally erotic kisses had made her wild. They’d kept going, for one hour, then two, and Twilight’s focus had faltered on more than one occasion. Her want turned into an ache that had grown into a distracting, physical pain... and still they’d continued, with her no less aroused.

“The twist,” Luna said, and Twilight complied, forcing herself to perform. Lock lips, tangle tongues, rotate the head and work the mouth, disengage. She wanted to scream at Luna out of frustration, then have the princess screw her senseless. Failing that, she wanted the lessons to stop so she could relieve herself on her own. This was insane.

“Intent to be kissed.”

Twilight resisted the urge to grit her teeth, and did her best to look like she wanted to be kissed. She did want to be kissed, just not on the lips. She wanted an end to this torment.

“The devourer.”

This one Twilight didn’t have to fake, because it was the devourer. It was lust unleashed, pure and unadulterated need.

She pounced Luna, wrapping both hooves around the princess and pressing Luna back as she forced their lips together. In went her tongue, forceful and expedient, and Luna’s met it in kind. Luna rolled back, and Twilight moved with her, landing on top of the princess as she pressed them together with no sense of patience or grace.

She dragged her hooves across Luna’s shoulders, bit Luna’s lower lip, slid her hooves over Luna’sr chest, and the embers inside her burst into a sudden flame, furious and demanding.

“Do you want me, Twilight Sparkle?” Luna growled into her mouth.

As if Luna hadn’t been watching her squirm for the past six hours.

“Yes!” Twilight hissed. Yes, yes yes.

Luna broke away and gave Twilight that terrible, intense look. “Tell me what you want me to do to you.”

“I... just... have sex with me again!” Twilight knew it was the wrong answer as soon as the words left her mouth.

Luna became suddenly rigid in her hooves, and Twilight wanted to scream in frustration. “One,” Luna said, “you will be more specific when giving orders. And two, you will call me mistress.”

Twilight’s head slumped onto Luna’s chest. “Please, mistress,” she said. “This hurts. How can one pony stay aroused for six hours?”

“They typically can’t, unless they’re an earth pony or the Dark Apprentice.”

Well aren’t I blessed. “What was the point of this?”

Luna rolled Twilight onto her back and sat astride her. “To teach you control,” she said. “To teach you to think when every fiber in your being wants you to feel. What would you do for relief right now.”

Anything. This is torment. She looked up at Luna, eyes pleading.

Fast enough to make Twilight gasp in shock, Luna pushed herself downward and brought her muzzle to Twilight’s ear. Her turquoise eyes gleamed, luminous. She spoke quickly, quietly.

“This is the night’s final lesson, my Dark Apprentice. If love is to be considered the light side of sex, then this is the darker. Sex is powerful, Twilight Sparkle. It can make you beg. A mare fully in control of her body and mind is unstoppable. She takes whatever she wants. What do you want, Twilight Sparkle?”

For you to shut up and—

Twilight spoke through gritted teeth. “I want you to put you muzzle between my legs, and I want you to make me scream.” Her legs were trembling. “Mistress.”

“Of course, Twilight Sparkle. Let me help you relax.”

There was no foreplay—or perhaps there was six hours of foreplay. Princess Luna simply slid down Twilight’s belly, planted a simple kiss on her navel—a peck, as Twilight now thought of it—and went to work devouring her sex.

Twilight thought that she would be finished almost immediately, but she was wrong. She’d been wound up tight, and as Luna’s lips and tongue ran over her folds and drew a circle around her clitoris, that tension began to loosen. It wasn’t the wonderful ecstatic pleasure she’d felt earlier—it was more like the relief felt upon scratching an itch. Except it went on, and on...

Her moans were barely more than ragged panting, at first, but as Luna worked, she felt her muscles begin to slacken. This was bliss, and damn Luna for keeping her on the edge for so long.

Damn Luna? Twilight Sparkle the virgin never thought like that.

You’re changing, and it only took a single night.

She pushed the thoughts from her mind. She wasn’t... she couldn’t...

Twilight sighed and let her mind fill with the hazy pleasure that came from Luna’s oral skills. She was fully unwound now, and now she was being pulled the other way, tightening in an altogether different manner...

She took the orgasm as soon as it came to her, letting a smile break across her face as she rode it, trembling, to its conclusion. Soft, throaty moans and rolled back eyes were her only way of showing Luna her appreciation.

“Get up,” Luna said after Twilight had finished. “Nine minutes to dawn; your ride will be here shortly. I’ll get you cleaned up.”

Twilight was stricken by her businesslike tone, but before she could say anything, Luna had spread her wings and taken off into the lightening sky. She circled around the tower, a streak of deep blue, and returned moments later with a dark cloud, which she pushed into the air above Twilight and kicked.

Freezing cold rain poured forth from the storm cloud, and Twilight was soaked in moments. “Thanks.”

Luna didn’t join her in the makeshift shower. She still looked pristine and flawless. “We’ll begin your lessons in other subjects as soon as you’ve read the books, Twilight Sparkle. Before then, you’ll learn more kissing. How to combine forms properly, how to kiss the body instead of the lips.”

“Are you going to torment me again?” Twilight asked, noting with satisfaction that the cold water wasn’t bothering her at all.

“Yes,” Luna said. “If you want real sex, you’ll have to get it from another pony, Twilight. I’m here to teach you.”

“You want me to sleep with other ponies?”

Luna blinked. “Of course. What else would you do with this skillset?”

“But I don’t know any ponies who...”

Pinkie Pie.

Luna smiled. “You would do well to relax, Twilight Sparkle. Find a pony who wants to sleep with you, and sleep with them. It’s that easy.”

The water from the cloud died down to a low trickle, and Twilight wrung out her mane as she stepped out of the rain. “I can’t just have sex with whoever I want,” she said.

“How would you know?” Luna said. “You’ve never tried.” The princess looked out over Canterlot, at a carriage being pulled through the air by two pegasi with bat wings.

Twilight walked to the edge of the tower to meet the carriage. Her carriage.

“I’ll see you tonight, my Dark Apprentice.”

Twilight looked at Luna. The princess was still beautiful and divine. But something was different. Twilight wasn’t as smitten with her anymore. Not after Luna had made her suffer for hours and then beg just to prove a point.

“Good morning, mistress,” Twilight said as way of farewell. She stepped onto the carriage, levitated her books in with her, and nodded to Luna’s guards to take her away.

Her journey back to the Everfree was not a pleasant one. Luna had made love to her, given her an incredible amount of power, then toyed with her. The worst part was that it had worked exactly as the princess intended. Twilight had taken in every iota of information the princess had presented her with. She knew twenty two kisses and eight come hither looks, all because the humiliation suffered by getting them wrong had driven them into her mind. And she knew exactly what it felt like to be at the mercy of another mare, to want them with every fibre in her being.

What was more, the way she’d spoken to Luna had been unlike her. She’d practically spat the word mistress, she was so angry. She’d never acted that way before, certainly not toward a princess. Twilight was in over her head, and there was one pony who she could always count on to make any problem seem solvable.

It was time to send a letter to Princess Celestia.

Chapter 5

Dear Princess Celestia,

That was about all Twilight had gotten done in two hours.

The sun shone through the library windows, but she didn’t feel at all tired. In fact, she felt quite the opposite—she was positively brimming with energy. Everywhere Twilight went, from the walk back from the forest to a simple trip to the bathroom, she couldn’t help the spring in her step.

It wasn’t just the magic that came with her dark tutelage. It was the sex. The glorious, wonderful sex that she’d never experienced before in her life. The birds sang, and Twilight could have sung with them. Last night had been amazing.

All the while, another part of her scorned her for feeling good about what she’d done. She’d given herself over to Princess Luna with—had it really only been a single day’s thought? How unlike her. But then, being indecisive wasn’t something to be proud of. The way she saw it, taking charge and making an informed decision was.

But then Luna had trained her in kissing and kept her on the edge of arousal for six hours. The ache had been unbearable. What had been the point? Did Luna actually want to teach Twilight anything, like she claimed, or did she just like being in control? Surely it couldn’t be the latter.

In that case, Twilight had overreacted. So Luna had strange ways of doing things—Celestia’s lessons were anything but orthodox, and they certainly did their job. Twilight had snapped at her for testing Twilight’s limits—something that seemed reasonable from an outside viewpoint, provided the limits in question had nothing to do with sex.

Why is sex so much different from everything else? And if she was okay with how everything had turned out so far, why would she want to write to Princess Celestia?

Because she’s Princess Celestia, duh. You tell her everything. In a way, Celestia was Twilight’s oldest friend. And Twilight had just slept with her sister.

Dear Princess Celestia,

So I slept with your sister last night and it gave me magical powers...

No, that wouldn’t do. Twilight frowned. She really needed to get the letter done. She had to pick up Spike—though he’d probably want to sleep in, and Pinkie Pie might even let him. There were a dozen things to do around the library, a couple books she’d like to read on transluminal spellcraft theory, and also the books that Luna had given her.

The books that Luna had given her. The corners of Twilight’s mouth curled upward into an involuntary smile. Naughty books, and not just the sexy naughty, either. There was magic that ponykind frowned upon. There was magic that they’d forgotten about. With the appropriate safety measures and a sense of caution, she could really have a blast. She pulled a book from the pile, opened to the first page, and settled in. Maybe some studying would help her clear her head.

* * *

Two hours later, Twilight was giving the book before her the most unamused look she could muster. True, the book could not see her, but it was the thought that counted. There was something to be said for a book over a thousand years old, and A Study in Ecstasy was exactly that.

Prithee, once thou holdest thy spell within thy consioussnesse, thou muste envisionne the shape of thy pleshure...

Twilight winced, remembering that a thousand years ago there was no such thing as standardized spelling. She’d read old books before, but typically they were updated versions, or came with annotations. This was absurd.

...Perhappes thine pleshure taketh the form of a well-endowed stallion. Perhappes thine pleshure taketh the form of a manticore, or perhappes thou turnest to more elephantine means...

(The most large and exotique molds are presented for thy perusal in yonder mal draconis catalogue, p. 224)

Twilight was debating whether or not she dared look at the catalogue when the library door banged open on its hinges, sending her scrambling to hide Luna’s books from view. She stuffed them into drawers, pushed them behind the desk, and hid them under other books, all the while cursing herself for the treatment she was giving the ancient tomes.

“Twiley?”

Twilight got up from her desk, turning to face the open doorway. She immediately forgot about her books, and her face became a look of abject confusion. “Shining?”

Her brother stood in the doorway, out of uniform, appraising the library. “So you live here now,” he observed, stepping inside and wiping his feet.

Twilight’s mind was still reeling with the shock of seeing him in the library. “What—Shining! Why are you here?”

Shining lifted an eyebrow. “I can’t pay my little sister a visit?”

“Not when you work for a living. It’s nine AM on a Wednesday. Aren’t you supposed to be at the castle?”

Shining cleared his throat. “I, uh, got the day off.”

Now it was Twilight’s turn to arch an eyebrow. “So you’ve had a day off for—what do you need, two weeks notice—and you decided to come see me without letting me know first?”

“Well, I, uh, didn’t exactly need to give two weeks notice.”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “You took a sick day without being sick?”

“I was given a holiday.” Shining Armor pawed at the floor with a hoof.

“But you’re the captain! The only pony who could just give you a holiday—” Twilight’s eyes widened.

“Princess Celestia,” Shining Armor said. “She gave me the day off so that I could come speak with you.”

Twilight only had only processed half the sentence before she blurted, “Luna, too.” At Shining’s befuddled look, she added: “Luna has the authority to grant you a day off. But—wait! Celestia wanted you to speak with me?”

Shining nodded, then stepped further into the library. “Look, Twilight, we have to talk about something.”

“That’s it? You came all the way to Ponyville on Celestia’s orders to talk to me?”

“Not on her orders,” Shining said. “She just gave me a day off.”

“And you decided to come here of your own volition,” Twilight said.

Shining Armor looked at her for a few moments. “Twiley...” he said, “aren’t you happy to see me?”

Just like that, Twilight’s suspicion fractured and fell away like a pane of glass. Here was her brother, come to see her in Ponyville, and she was interrogating him while he was barely through the door.

You’re way too on edge.

Well, maybe it was time to relax.

“Shining!” Twilight rushed forward and jumped her brother for a patented BBBFF bear hug. He caught her in his forelegs and rocked backward—she had, admittedly, been a bit smaller the last time she did this.

“Of course I’m happy to see you! You should have told me you were coming by and I could have made plans for us—”

Her brother made an incomprehensible squeaking noise.

“Huh?” Twilight asked. Another wheeze, almost like a word. “What’s that?”

“Crushing... me.”

Twilight released him immediately. “Oh!”

Shining pulled away, gasping. “Uh... wow, Twilight. No need to lay on the magic like that.” He rubbed his neck where she’d squeezed him.

Twilight gave a little “Heh,” flashing her brother what she hoped looked like an embarrassed smile. She’d have to work on controlling her new strength.

“So Celestia gave you a day off?” Twilight asked. “I was just writing her a letter, actually.”

“Oh?” Shining asked, “What about?”

I’m banging her sister.

“You know, odds and ends. Life in Ponyville is never dull!”

“So I’ve been told,” Shining Armor said. Then his expression grew serious. “Listen, Twilight. I’m just going to be forward here. It’s about the Dark Apprentice.”

Twilight’s blood froze. “W-w-what?” she said, stepping away from him. “You know about... about the Dark Apprentice?”

“Wait,” Shining said. “You know about the Dark Apprentice?”

“I—wait. How do you know about the Dark Apprentice?”

“Celestia told me,” Shining said.

“Okay,” Twilight said. “And what exactly did Celestia tell you?”

“Well,” Shining said. Then he frowned. “We should probably sit down. You still haven’t offered me a drink. I’m your guest. Didn’t mom teach you any manners?”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Welcome to my humble abode, dear brother. Can I get you some coffee or tea?”

* * *

“Okay Twiley,” Shining said, his hooves wrapped around a mug of cocoa (Cadance wanted him to quit caffeine, he claimed,) “the Dark Apprentice.”

“The Dark Apprentice,” Twilight said.

Shining shifted in his chair at her kitchen table, then nodded. “The Dark Apprentice.”

“Can we stop saying that?”

“Right,” Shining said. “The point is, you’re the Faithful Student, right? Actually wait, you don’t know that.”

“Sure I am,” Twilight said. “Celestia’s most faithful student. She calls me that all the time.”

“No no, Twilight, it’s a title. You are the Faithful Student. Celestia never did anything magical to you, and she never had anypony recognize the title, but she also never had you perform any duties.”

“The Faithful Student,” Twilight said softly. The information clicked. Twilight wasn’t stupid. “I’ve been Celestia’s underling for years now.”

Why hadn’t Luna told her that when she’d been offered a position as Luna’s student? Why hadn’t Celestia told her that when she’d gotten her cutie mark?

Come to think of it, Celestia hadn’t told her anything at all. Nothing about the Faithful Student, or the Dark Apprentice, or their supposed duties. Twilight remembered the words she’d spoken during the ritual. Luna didn’t seem too keen on holding her to them, and Celestia obviously wasn’t, but why keep Twilight out of the know concerning something so serious?

“So I’m the Faithful Student,” Twilight said. And also the Dark Apprentice. Maybe it’s time to break out the blatant lies. “So what? That doesn’t change anything, right?”

“Twilight, Luna chose a new Dark Apprentice last night.”

Twilight swallowed. Obviously he didn’t know who the Dark Apprentice was, which meant that Celestia didn’t know... but she was Princess Celestia. She was probably the smartest pony alive—Twilight didn’t see how she could hide her identity from the Princess even if she tried.

And you aren’t supposed to be trying. You’re supposed to be writing her that letter.

With Shining Armor, she’d keep feigning ignorance. “So Luna has a Dark Apprentice. That’s like, my counterpart, right? Maybe I’ll get to meet them.”

“No!” Shining shouted. “Twilight, the Dark Apprentice is... dangerous.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Dangerous. Do you know who it is?”

Her brother looked down at his cocoa. “Well, no, but they’re Luna’s apprentice, Twi.”

“So they learn about the moon and stuff. I like stargazing, remember? We’d probably get along fine.”

“They also learn dark magic, Twilight.”

Twilight shrugged. “I’m a magical consequentialist, Shining. You know that. Magic isn’t inherently good or bad, that’s up to the pony who uses it.”

Shining sighed and muttered something under his breath.

“Was that something about deontological ethics?” Twilight asked, narrowing her eyes.

Shining shook his head as if he was clearing his thoughts. “Look, it’s not just the dark magic. It’s, well, Twilight... the Dark Apprentice learns about... you know...”

Your brother is about to talk to you about sex. Mayday, Mayday!

“Seh-eh-ex,” Shining said, doing his best to look anywhere but at the mollified Twilight.

“Sex.”

“Yeah,” her brother said. “The Dark Apprentice gets trained to have sex with other ponies, Twilight. Taught how to seduce. And they always have some kind of relationship with the Faithful Student.”

I wonder if actually being the Faithful Student counts.

“You’re saying I’m in danger of being seduced by a pony I’ve never even met?” Twilight asked.

“You don’t seem to be taking this very seriously,” Shining accused.

“Why would I? It’s ridiculous.” Twilight got up from the table.

“Twilight, this is serious!” Shining said, standing up himself. “You could be... you could...”

“Have sex?” Twilight shot back over her shoulder as she moved into the library proper. “That seems like the worst thing that could happen. How horrible. I’m not thirteen anymore, Shining. I’m allowed to have sex if I want to.”

Shining stopped in his tracks. “Wait. Have you?”

Twilight spun to face him, mouth open. “None of your business!” she shouted.

“So no,” Shining said. “Look, Twilight, when you sleep with somepony it should be somepony you love and who loves you back. I just... I don’t want to see you get hurt by some pony who doesn’t care about you.”

Twilight gritted her teeth. “When I sleep with somepony it’ll be on my terms, not yours! What if I don’t want to be a romantic? What if I can actually take care of myself? Did you even consider that?”

Shining gave a sigh of exasperation and rubbed his temple. “Look, Twiley, I’m trying not to upset you here—”

“You’re failing.”

Shining ignored her and pressed on. “—But I’m just looking out for what’s best for you. I just want to be a good big brother here. And Celestia said Luna always picks a whore, so...”

Twilight practically snorted. “No she didn’t.”

Shining cocked his head. “Uh... yes she did?”

“Celestia called somepony a whore,” Twilight said. “Celestia. Really now.”

“Twilight,” Shining said, meeting her eyes. “She was pretty serious about this. I am too.”

Twilight looked at him and saw the honesty in his eyes. He wasn’t lying. “Celestia called the Dark Apprentice a whore?” she asked in a tiny voice.

“Yeah. Weird, right?”

Celestia thinks you’re a whore.

No, Celestia thought a random pony she’d never met before was a whore. So she hadn’t told Twilight what it meant to be the Faithful Student—Twilight had barely taken up the title anyway. Celestia loved Twilight. With all her heart.

Until she finds out you’re the Dark Apprentice, that is.

Twilight swallowed as she felt a heaviness in her chest.

“Anyway, maybe we should just get off this subject,” Shining said. “I’d hate to spoil a whole day with my little sis!” He ruffled her mane with a hoof. “What should we do, Twiley?”

Twilight shook her head to draw herself back into the present. “Uh... Spike!” she said. “I have to go get Spike from Pinkie Pie’s. Come with me?”

“Sure,” Shining said. “Don’t you have to finish your letter to Celestia first?”

Twilight looked back across the library at her desk, where the unfolded paper sat with only the words Dear Princess Celestia written across the top.

“No,” she said. “The letter can wait. What I had to tell her wasn’t all that important anyway.”

* * *

“Pinkie!” Twilight shouted as she pushed her way through the door to Sugar Cube Corner. “I’m here for Spike!” To her brother, she added, “You have to try their cupcakes. Or their strudels. Or just anything, really. Everything here is delicious.”

“Will do,” Shining said, eying the snacks on display. “All I’ve had today is breakfast.”

“Twiiiiiiliiiiiight!” Pinkie Pie appeared at the top of the stairs, then leapt atop the banister and slid down it with a grin. She hit the ground, rolled to her hooves, and pulled Twilight into a hug that Twilight was careful to ensure did not crush her friend to death.

But while Pinkie Pie slid down the banister, a newly awakened part of Twilight’s mind observed her, noting her cute bubble-flank pressing against the railing, the springy curl of her mane against her forehead, the dimples her grin pressed into her cheeks.

When Pinkie hugged her, Twilight felt a thrill ripple through her body and remembered what it had been like to kiss her only a day ago. The attraction came easily to her now, as natural as wanting to ask Pinkie Pie how her day was.

You totally want to have sex with Pinkie Pie. Twilight wasn’t sure exactly how she felt about the realization.

“And Shining Armor!” Pinkie Pie said, breaking the contact to hug Twilight’s brother. “We met at the wedding. Remember we met at the wedding?”

“How could I forget?” Shining said with a smile.

They began to chat, and Twilight, assuming Spike was still asleep, observed. Pinkie Pie had offered to sleep with her just yesterday, why would that offer be gone now? Pinkie apparently slept with loads of ponies. Pinkie would forgive Twilight’s inexperience, maybe even teach her a few things...

An image flashed through her mind, an image that was not at all unwelcome: Twilight, belly-up and clutching at pink bedsheets, as a wild mane bobbed between her hind legs. She was panting, sweating, her back arching for the inevitable moment where she would throw her head back and scream—

* * *

“Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said. “I’m going to have sex with Pinkie Pie.”

Luna smiled. “That did not take you long at all, my Dark Apprentice. Swell into twist.”

Swell into twist. Twilight leaned forward to cross the distance between her and Luna and pressed their lips together. It was slow and subdued at first, until Twilight’s lips opened like the petals of a blooming flower, and her tongue slid forward to swell against Luna’s, soft and wet. She leaned into the kiss, reveling in the intimacy before tilting her head to the side to deepen their contact.

Twilight pulled away breathless, careful to pull a tiny string of shared saliva with her and watch it break between them. It was hard to keep her focus when she was with Princess Luna. What had they been talking about? Ah yes, Pinkie Pie.

“Yes,” Twilight said. “Pinkie Pie.”

“And how do you plan on seducing her? Intent to kiss into whisper into nibble.”

Twilight was getting better at giving Luna the look. There was no shame in letting her features settle into that smoldering gaze, no hesitation before she quirked her eyebrows. She couldn’t match the intensity in Luna’s eyes—really, who in Equestria could—but that wasn’t to say her gaze wasn’t without force. The fact that she wanted to kiss Luna only helped things along.

It was painfully slow, the whisper, but then that was the point. It was a kiss that built tensions and expectations, a kiss that made the eventual peak all the higher. There was no skill or sensuality in just ravaging your partner like you were animals, just like there was no pleasure in skipping to the end of a good novel. As Twilight was beginning to understand, every part of sex needed the right amount of precedent.

As her lips moved closer to Luna’s, she became painfully aware of the tiny sliver of space between them, but slowed down nonetheless. The whisper wasn’t about releasing physical desire, it was about keeping it contained. She brushed her lips over Luna’s with a touch as light as a pegasus feather—then darted forward and tugged on the princess’s lip with her teeth, giving it a little nibble.

It would, Twilight thought, be an effective combination to use as an opening. She’d have to remember it. Twilight pulled away, slowly, and realized she still had to answer Luna’s question.

“Seducing her?” Twilight said. “Well, er... she propositioned me a day ago.”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “I see that you are setting the bar high.”

Twilight frowned. “It’s not about challenging myself. I’d just planned to sleep with a pony who wants to sleep with me. Build my knowledge base.” Twilight narrowed her eyes. “And I’m not sure that full-on seducing somepony just because I want them is ethical.”

“Ethics,” Luna said, nodding, as though she were speaking of a brand of cereal she didn’t care for. “So you’re going to take a friend of yours to bed. Tread carefully, Twilight Sparkle. Some ponies will let sex complicate things and ruin friendships. Make sure that both of you know exactly what you’re... in for.”

“I... thank you, mistress.”

“Will you be requiring a night off?” Luna asked.

Twilight considered this for a moment, then shrugged. “I hadn’t really planned a date. I mean, I figured I’d just talk to her about it and we’d come up with something. The Cakes are in the house with her, and they have two foals, so it’s not like I could just pop in for a... well, you know.”

Luna stood suddenly, and a ripple ran through her mane at the upset. “That is exactly what it is like, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight rose also. It seemed to her that for the moment, at least, their lessons were suspended. What was Luna talking about? “It’s not like I can just boot them out of the house because I want to sleep with their surrogate daughter.”

Luna smiled her subdued smile at Twilight before turning and walking to the edge of her tower. Twilight followed as close as she dared—she’d prefer to forgo the vertigo that came from standing so close to the edge. Instead she stood slightly behind her mistress as Luna looked out of the sparkling city of Canterlot. The City of Magic. A city that was built upward as much as it was built outward. From on high, the twinkling lights below were like a mirror of the sky above. Twilight began to understand the appeal of living in a tower.

“You want your friend Pinkie Pie, Twilight Sparkle. Why wait to see when the time is right? If events do not align to your liking, alter them. You have every resource of mine at your disposal. Take what you want.”

“But—”

Luna cut her off with a sharply raised hoof. “You are about to give an objection based in your moral inclinations. Argue about how it is wrong for a pony to claim what they want simply because they have the power to take it. You believe, Twilight Sparkle, that it is wrong to take what you do not deserve, and take what others have earned justly away from them.”

Luna turned around, ruffling her wings as she did so, and not for the first time Twilight was taken in by her grace. It was such a pleasure just to watch the princess move. She went from one moment to the next as though her body wasn’t something she’d simply been born with and grown into, but rather something that had been made for her.

In fact, Twilight realized, that may well have been the case. Had she forgotten she was in the presence of a god?

Luna lifted Twilight’s chin and looked into her eyes, and Twilight was stricken by the intimacy of the action. In a hundred kisses, Luna had never felt so close.

“I see in your eyes that I will never be able to take this belief away from you,” Luna said. “Nor should I. And I also see a great mind. A vast mind, an engine fueled by your intellect and guided by your ideals.” She smiled, then let Twilight go. The moment passed.

“You are a smart mare, my Dark Apprentice,” Luna said as she strode back to her newly replaced bedding. “I’m certain that between Celestia’s tutelage and mine, you can think of a way to take what you want and give everypony what they deserve at the same time.”

Twilight still stood near the edge of the tower, paralyzed by awe and desire. “What do you mean?”

Luna let out a throaty chuckle as she settled back into the blankets and ruffled her wings to get comfortable. “I mean, Twilight Sparkle, that this is now an assignment. If she is willing, sleep with Pinkie Pie before midnight, Saturday.”

Sugar Cube Corner was open every through coming day, and Twilight hadn’t even approached Pinkie Pie with the idea yet. What if Pinkie had plans? What if Pinkie wasn’t interested now that Twilight wasn’t a virgin?

“But how—”

“—Are you going to do it?” Luna asked. “You’re going to do it, my Dark Apprentice, with style, subtlety, and ingenuity. I have... faith in your capabilities.”

Faith. The word seemed to hang in the air between them before Luna’s eyes took on that unnatural gleam. “Prove. Me. Right.”

* * *

This is it, Twilight thought as she slid through the door to Sugar Cube Corner. My very first field work. Sex with somepony other than Luna, if everything goes right. It was Friday morning.

Pinkie Pie was behind the counter, cleaning out the crumbs left over in the displays. She looked up as Twilight entered. “Twilight!” she cried. “It’s so awesomely great to see you! I haven’t seen you since, like...”

“Yesterday?” Twilight offered.

“Yesterday!” Pinkie clapped her hooves. Then her face fell. “Are you here for sweets? Because I just sold the last of them. I didn’t bake anything new this morning because the cakes are gone and—”

Twilight held up a hoof to stop Pinkie before she took off. “I’m not here as a customer, Pinkie. I’m just here to see you.”

Pinkie Pie grinned. “I love it when my friends come to see me!” she cried. “I was just cleaning everything up before I close.”

Now for a little harmless question...

“Why are you closing so early?” Twilight asked.

“Oh!” Pinkie said. “Well, the Cakes all won some kind of vacation or something at a resort in Fillydelphia. They don’t even know who entered the contest. Mr Cake said it had to be Mrs Cake, and Mrs Cake says it had to have been Mr Cake, but secretly I think it was Pound and Pumpkin.”

“Uh... aren’t they only a couple months old?”

Pinkie Pie’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah,” she said. “And that’s why everypony underestimates them. Anyway!” she resumed her cheerful demeanor. “They weren’t even going to go! See, because, even I can’t run the whole place by myself. But I was like ‘Hello! You can’t turn down something like this! You gotta take what you get, Cup! Carpe Diem!’”

Carpe Diem indeed.

“So they’re all on a vacation,” Twilight said. “That’s great news. They really deserved it.”

“Uhuh.” Pinkie Pie nodded.

A little innocent question...

“So,” Twilight said, “we’re alone?”

And...

“Yep!” Pinkie beamed.

SEXY TWILIGHT ACTIVATE.

Twilight smiled.

Chapter 6

“In that case,” Twilight said, her voice falling. “We should spend some time together. Just you and me.”

Pinkie Pie flashed Twilight one of her flawlessly innocent grins from where she still stood behind the counter. “Sure thing, Twi! Are you sure you don’t wanna invite some of the others? We could get Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy and then we’d have enough players for team monopoly twister cluepalooza!”

Twilight stared at Pinkie Pie, uncomprehending.

“—The game of random physical strain, economic domination, and teeth-jittering suspense? Palooza?”

Twilight shook her head to clear her thoughts. Stick to the plan.

“Actually,” she said, sashaying over to the counter and leaning against it with her forelegs, stretching her body out behind her. “I was hoping to spend some time with you... alone.” The word practically dripped out of her mouth.

Pinkie Pie bobbed her head. “Oh,” she said. “You wanna screw. C’mon upstairs, Twi.” She winked.

“What.”

“Yeah, you know, the horizontal tango. You do wanna dance, don'tcha Twilight?”

“No!” Twilight spluttered, righting herself to stand in front of the counter. “I mean, yes! But, not... I mean, you weren’t supposed to say that!”

Pinkie Pie cocked her head and blinked. “What was I supposed to say?”

Twilight frowned. “I don’t know. More obliviousness? Childlike innocence? I was going to seduce you.”

“Oh,” Pinkie Pie said. Her face split into a grin as she threw a hoof-full of confetti into the air. “Success! You seduced me! Congratulations!”

Twilight sighed. “This feels so easy, though. I had the whole thing planned out. I had a two-hundred and thirty-three segment flowchart accounting for all seduction dialogue options. I practiced for hours!”

Pinkie Pie walked around the counter and put a reassuring hoof around Twilight’s neck. “We could pretend, if you like.”

Twilight sighed again. “No, it’s all right. I should have predicted that you would be... well, unpredictable. Classic Pinkius Piecius.”

“Twilight, we made out on my bedroom floor on like, Tuesday.”

“Okay,” Twilight said, “so maybe this was predictable. About as predictable as you get, actually. The thing is...”

Pinkie Pie leaned forward. “Uh-huh.”

“I don’t know. I guess I was just hoping for some kind of dramatic buildup of tension before we finally both surrender to our raging desire for one another and have a torrid bout of sapphic lovemaking. I mean, that’s how things play out in romance novels.”

“Oh,” Pinkie Pie said. Then she giggled. “Maybe you should have tried Rarity!”

Twilight snorted, then started wondering if Pinkie Pie had been serious or not. “I’m sorry, Pinkie Pie,” she said at last. “I don’t mean to say you’re not what I want. I just spent a really, really long time on the chart.”

Pinkie Pie brought a hoof to her chin. “Hmm. What did the chart say to do if I made you catch me before our torrid bout of... sapphire lovemaking?”

“Huh? It didn’t really...” Twilight looked up at Pinkie Pie.

Pinkie Pie looked back at Twilight, her eyes sparkling with mischief.

Twilight narrowed her eyes.

Pinkie reached out and tapped Twilight on the nose. “Boop! You’re it!”

“You aren’t seriously—”

“No magic!” Pinkie Pie called back as she cartwheeled over the counter and sprang off a tabletop into the kitchen.

Twilight stayed where she was, listening to the clatter of metal and porcelain as Pinkie Pie moved through her kitchen and into the other parts of the store. This was not what she’d had in mind for the afternoon. “That’s not fair! You’re Pinkie Pie!”

“Pfft,” Pinkie Pie said from someplace above her. Twilight turned to see her sitting atop the stairway banister. “What’s that even mean, Twi?”

“How did you—”

“I’m Pinkie Pie?”

“Then how am I supposed to catch you?”

Pinkie Pie slid down the bannister and landed not five feet from where Twilight stood. “Not by standing still, silly! You’ve gotta chase me!”

“Fine then,” Twilight said.

Then she pounced, pushing off with all four legs to carry her towards Pinkie Pie. Pinkie jumped out of the way with her uncanny agility and scurried up the stairway, and Twilight, who’d underestimated her newfound strength yet again, flew past where Pinkie Pie had been and smashed into a wall.

Literally, smashed. Wood splintered against her side as picture frames bounced off her head. She winced.

“I’m okay!” she said immediately.

Pinkie Pie stood halfway up the stairs, open mouthed. “Are you... sure?”

“Yep!” Twilight looked back to examine the pony-sized dent in the wall. “I can fix that,” she said. She’d had practice in the last couple of days.

“Okay!” Pinkie Pie said, now from the top of the stairway. “You can break whatever you can fix. But you still have to catch me!”

You can break whatever you can fix.

Twilight flew over the stairs, taking them four at a time, her hooves barely touching the floor. She skidded to a halt on the landing, bumped into the wall, then oriented herself to in time to see Pinkie Pie hop over the bannister to land on the counter below.

Twilight followed suit, clearing the bannister and landing on the countertop, which she continued to move through, shattering the wooden surface as well as three glass displays underneath before landing on the floor. The experience made her feel both heavy and invincible.

“Twilight?” Pinkie Pie asked from the kitchen door, an edge of worry to her voice.

“Don’t worry about me, Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said, intentionally charging her voice with cheer as she broke free of the remaining countertop as though it was made of toilet paper. “But really, do you want to stop?”

Pinkie Pie shrugged. “It’s fine as long as you’re okay.” Then she gave Twilight a suspicious look. “You never told me you could do that.”

“It’s nice to see you confused for a change,” Twilight said with a smirk. “Now get over here.”

Pinkie Pie retreated into the kitchen, and Twilight followed. Pinkie did a forward handspring over the island counter, and Twilight scrambled over it with all the grace of a rockslide. Pinkie ducked into the storeroom and closed the door, and Twilight unceremoniously burst through it.

“This is kind of fun,” she said, shaking the splinters off her back.

“You’ve never played tag?” Pinkie asked as she climbed out a window to scramble up the side of the house.

Twilight looked up, briefly pondering whether or not she could break through the floor without hurting herself, but decided against it. There was only so much she could smash her head into. She headed back for the stairs.

“You know,” Pinkie Pie said from where she sat on the sill of the hallway window. “You’re fast, but not fast enough!” She giggled and swung herself onto the floor.

Twilight grinned and watched her friend pant from exertion. She wasn’t sure exactly what about the rise and fall of Pinkie Pie’s chest or the heavy sound of her breaths she found so captivating; but suddenly she found herself reminded of just why she was there. It was a strong motivation.

Pinkie seemed to notice her staring and winked. “You gonna catch me, Twi?”

“Uh-huh.”

“And then?”

“Then,” Twilight said, “we are going to have really good sex.” She took off down the hallway at a run.

Pinkie Pie grabbed the edges of the window sill with her forelegs and pushed herself up and out, hooves over head, to flip back around the outside of the house and into the storeroom.

Twilight didn’t slow down, barreling out of the window with one foreleg on the sill and punching the other one into the siding lining the outside of Sugar Cube Corner. She slid down the side of the building, caught the ground floor window with her hind legs, then considered trying to flip herself head first into the storeroom. It was probably a bad idea.

Instead she slid down the rest of the way and crouched inside the window. Pinkie Pie was only five feet away, leaning casually against some sacks of flour.

Twilight didn’t hesitate, planting her hooves against the wall and springing across the room. She struck true, knocking Pinkie Pie back and into the bags of flour, where they landed in a dense white cloud.

Twilight breathed in a mouthful of flour and coughed. “Did I get you?”

From under her, Pinkie Pie gave an, “Mhmm.”

With a flash from her horn, Twilight waved the flour away to look down at her friend. Pinkie was coated in a thin layer of white dust, which led Twilight to assume that she was too.

Pinkie Pie blinked twice and then began to laugh, her belly jiggling against Twilight’s. It wasn’t long before Twilight started giggling along with her.

Then, mid laughter, Pinkie Pie wrapped her forelegs around Twilight’s neck and kissed her, a breathless, hard kiss, before pulling away. “Ghost sex!” she said with a grin.

Twilight’s breath caught, and then she found herself grinning. “You,” she said, “are absolutely ridiculous.”

She leaned in to kiss Pinkie Pie and Luna’s lessons flowed to the forefront of her mind. She knew two ways to steal another pony’s breath, four ways to increase their heart rate, another four ways to suggest they move on to other things, and three kisses that were just for fun.

She pushed herself forward to level with Pinkie Pie and brought her into an open-mouthed kiss that made her stomach muscles clench in a sudden wave of anticipation. Pinkie Pie let out a soft murmur of approval and pulled Twilight closer, causing their hair to mesh together. Twilight had once read that the nerve endings under hair were some of the most sensitive in the body. It wasn’t until now that she was starting to appreciate the fact.

Twilight inhaled the scent of flour and sweat through their kiss, then pulled away and paused. “You’re sure this is okay, right?”

Pinkie Pie cocked her head. “Uhuh.”

“I mean,” Twilight said. “We’re just friends. This doesn’t make us like, girlfriends, or something.”

“Nuh-uh!” Pinkie said, “this is just sex.”

“Right,” Twilight said. “I just... I don’t want our friendship to change, Pinkie Pie. I like things the way they are.”

A drunken laugh escaped Pinkie Pie’s lips. “Oh, Twilight...” she said as she pulled Twilight into another kiss.

This time Twilight pulled out the big guns, pressing her tongue into the other mare’s mouth in a thick, wet kiss that spoke physical need. Pinkie returned her fervor, letting out a light little moan. Twilight felt herself relaxing, satisfied with Pinkie Pie’s reaction. Her kisses hadn’t been able to do that a few days ago.

Suddenly one of Pinkie’s forelegs had left Twilight’s neck and was tracing a path between their bellies, sliding across her naval to stroke her sex.

“Mmmm...” Twilight heard herself groan into Pinkie’s mouth. Pinkie Pie traced another slow lap, harder this time. “Oh, oh Pinkie Pie...” Twilight froze as her stomach dropped out of her chest. “Oh.”

Pinkie Pie stopped immediately. “What’s the matter?”

Twilight gave her a look that was a mixture of embarrassment and horror. “I have no idea what I’m doing. Kissing is as far as my experience goes.”

Pinkie Pie’s eyes widened. “You mean you still haven’t...”

“Oh no,” Twilight said, “I have. Multiple times now. It’s just that I’ve always been... the recipient. I’ve never really done anything to... well, anypony. Except kissing. I know how to do that.”

Pinkie Pie let out another intoxicated laugh. “Yeah. Anyway, you’re in for a treat!”

Twilight furrowed her brow. “I am?”

“Yep! Giving is fun, Twilight.”

“But I don’t know how.”

Pinkie shrugged. “We’re both mares. You’ll figure it out.” She waggled her eyebrows. “And I can help you.”

Twilight looked down at the mare. On a whim, she flicked the flour off their bodies with a spell to get a better look at her partner. Pinkie Pie was on her back with her forelegs held in front of her, the tiniest sheen of sweat dampening her coat. Her belly rose and fell with her excited breaths.

“You’re incredible,” Twilight said. “I just want to—”

“Eat me up with a spoon?”

Twilight leaned forward and gave Pinkie Pie a kiss that was light but lingering before breaking away. Slowly, with a tiny amount of blush in her cheeks, she pushed herself back across the floor, never breaking eye contact, until she came to stop with her head just over Pinkie Pie’s naval.

Pinkie’s marehood was glistening, a pair of swollen lips that Twilight found both intoxicatingly arousing and a little bit intimidating. She reached out with a hoof, her blood pounding in her ears, biting her lower lip.

The first touch was anything but sexual. Twilight ran her hoof across the familiar organ, slowly so as to get a sense of each of its individual parts. She listed them off in her head as she did so, a comforting retreat into purely academic biology. The scent of Pinkie’s sex was overpowering, and began to dominate Twilight’s senses.

Pinkie Pie shivered under Twilight’s initial touch. It was a small thing, but it was mesmerising. Twilight knew from experience that the first touch was always so much different, so gratifying. Like settling into a hot tub, or breaking the surface of the water and taking your first breath. And now Twilight was giving it to somepony else.

Twilight stroked Pinkie’s marehood again, and Pinkie Pie shuddered and clasped Twilight’s foreleg with both of her own. Twilight moved her hoof slowly, softly, tracing its edge along Pinkie Pie erogenous zones, more enraptured by the way the mare reacted than by the idea of giving her pleasure.

Pinkie stretched and moaned as Twilight’s hoof-work grew more intense, and Twilight felt her own arousal burning its way through her nethers. She realized she was leaning in, breathing through her nostrils to experience even more of Pinkie Pie’s musk. She paused when her muzzle was barely an inch away from Pinkie’s marehood, and her eyes darted toward the other mare.

Pinkie Pie flashed her an encouraging smile. What the hay, Twilight thought, you like your own taste well enough, and that’s freaky.

Again as slow as Twilight could manage it, she stretched out her tongue, tasting Pinkie Pie on the air. She touched it ever so lightly to Pinkie Pie’s flesh and ran it up the length of her sex. She felt Pinkie’s hooves burying themselves in her mane and tried to remember how Luna had done it.

Luna had always been hard and fast, methodical, but Twilight didn’t feel like that was something Pinkie Pie would appreciate. Or maybe she would—this was Pinkie Pie, after all. Hard and fast wasn’t how Twilight wanted to do things, though. No, she would savour this.

She ran her tongue over Pinkie’s love again, pressing harder this time. She gave the cute little nub a flick, and was delighted by the way Pinkie spasmed and cried out. No, Twilight would not be quick about this, and she’d taken no formal lessons with the Princess. But that didn’t mean she hadn’t learned anything from their sessions. The technique was sound, but the method would be adapted.

Luna never poked and prodded with her tongue for long, but Twilight lingered, enjoying every tiny gasp and shudder. It was incredible how easy Pinkie Pie was being pleased, all from what Twilight considered to be a rather sloppy adaptation of oral foreplay.

Sloppy. Maybe Pinkie liked sloppy.

Twilight buried her muzzle in Pinkie’s marehood, feeling warm flesh against her nose. She lapped eagerly, and the hooves clutching her mane tightened as Pinkie Pie let out the low, relieved moan that Twilight was so familiar with. It wasn’t enough to go through the motions. She’d make love to Pinkie Pie with her mouth.

“Twilight!” Pinkie Pie cried.

“What?” Twilight said, lifting her muzzle to look at Pinkie Pie over her belly. “Was I doing something wrong?” A terrifying thought occurred struck her and she said, “Oh no! Did I hurt you with my super strength?”

Pinkie Pie’s gave her a look of utter confusion. “I was just calling your name, Twi...”

“Oh,” Twilight said. “As in, ‘Twilight I’m enjoying myself.’ Standard sex practice. Right.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah,” Twilight said, flashing Pinkie Pie a small smile that glistened with the mare’s own arousal. “It’s just, nopony’s ever said that to me before. Thanks, Pinkie.”

“No problem,” Pinkie Pie said. “That’s what friends are for!”

Twilight’s smile became a grin. “That,” she said, “and this.” Her muzzle descended again.

Objectively, Pinkie Pie didn’t taste good. But something about her made Twilight crazy. She made a mental note to look into chemical compositions later, then made a second mental note to turn off her brain and eat out one of her best friends.

Pinkie’s Pie’s breathing started coming in ragged gasps, and Twilight’s name filled the air around them alongside the smell of sweat and sex. Twilight pushed back the hood over Pinkie’s clitoris and lightly sucked it into her mouth.

Pinkie Pie went wild, digging her hooves into the back of Twilight’s head and screaming her name. Sweat rolled down the inside of her thighs, and Twilight felt her own excitement building. There was no mistaking the rising pitch of Pinkie Pie’s voice. Twilight was about to deliver her first orgasm.

“Twili-hi-hilight!” Pinkie’s voice zig-zagged over her name before breaking away into unintelligible gasps and moans. Twilight felt her tongue running through a new wave of hot, slick juices as Pinkie quivered, but didn’t let up. She rode Pinkie’s orgasm with her, until, with a strenuous but satisfied gasp, Pinkie Pie went limp.

Once again Twilight lifted her muzzle to gaze at Pinkie Pie across the mare’s belly. Pinkie gave her a lazy smile.

“Good...” she said. “Good first time, Twi.”

“That was incredible!” Twilight said. “The feeling of you, climaxing... I’ve never been more aroused in my life! You... I...” Twilight watched as Pinkie’s smile curled into a fantastic rendition of the come hither grin.

Twilight practically threw herself on the mare, pressing their mouths together in a desperately hungry kiss, one filled with tongues, spit, and Pinkie’s own arousal. “I want you so badly right now, Pinkie Pie,” she breathed into the other mare’s mouth.

Pinkie Pie giggled. “Do you want it right now or do we have time to go up to my room?”

Twilight had learned control. Twilight had learned to think when every fibre of her being wanted her to feel. With a thought, Twilight sent the both of them hurtling through space to come out three inches above Pinkie Pie’s bed upstairs, which they landed on with a pomf.

“We’ve got time.”

“Woah,” Pinkie Pie said. She wriggled out from beneath Twilight and jumped off the bed to rummage in her closet. “You know Twi, there are certain spells...”

“I know,” Twilight said. “But the ones I know how to cast I haven’t tested yet. Sorry, Pinkie, but safety first.”

“It’s alright,” Pinkie Pie said, poking her head into the closet. “I’ve got supplements!” Her head reappeared, and in her mouth was...

“Toys?” Twilight asked, eying the floppy latex cylinder. “Really, Pinkie, we don’t have to...”

“Pfft,” Pinkie said around the dildo. “I want to do something you haven’t tried, and I figured you wouldn’t have tried this yet. I want to do something to you that nopony’s ever done before.”

Yes, yes, a million redundant yeses, when you put it like that.

Twilight gave a tiny smile. “Okay.”

Pinkie Pie flopped onto the bed. “Just relax,” she said, pressing a hoof to Twilight’s chest and pushing her back onto the bed. She giggled. “And don’t forget to smile.”

Twilight felt Pinkie’s hooves run along her thighs, pushing them, spreading them to leave her exposed. Despite the fact that Pinkie had just told her to lie down, she hazarded a glance.

She watched Pinkie Pie lean down to plant a sensuous, open-mouthed kiss on the top of her marehood, and her breath hitched as Pinkie’s tongue swivelled over its surface. That was new. A moment later Pinkie Pie broke away and popped the end of her toy into her mouth.

“Hey, uh, Pinkie?”

Pinkie Pie raised her eyebrows, making it a question.

“Just go slow, at first, Okay?”

The toy fell from Pinkie’s mouth. “Twilight, have you not...”

“What? Oh. That. Don’t worry about that.”

Pinkie’s eyebrows went up even further.

Twilight shrugged. “Tricycle,” she said simply.

Now Pinkie’s brow furrowed. “Really?”

Twilight sighed and threw her head back onto the pillow. “Just put that thing inside me, please!”

“Oh. Right.” She picked her toy back up and leaned in to get to work.

It felt almost cold against Twilight’s flesh the first time it made contact. Not that it was unwelcome—just a little startling. Pinkie Pie, true to Twilight’s instruction, was slow. Agonizingly, tantalizingly slow. It pressed its way inside her, and Twilight felt her lips parting, first a little, then a lot, until she worried, despite all her knowledge of the biological side of things, if it would fit.

It did. It fit beautifully, tight enough to press on her from every angle and make her eyes roll. She took more and more of it, feeling herself stretch to accommodate the strain and hearing herself moan involuntarily. It filled her, thrilled her, until at last she gasped, “Stop!”

Pinkie Pie stopped.

“There,” Twilight panted. “That’s... good. Right there. Holy hoof, Pinkie Pie!”

“Mmm!” Pinkie Pie said in assent.

What was it that Pinkie Pie called it?

A whole new kind of fun.

Pinkie Pie drew her delectable little toy out, and the feeling of it, slick against Twilight’s inner walls, was intoxicating. Twilight rolled her head against the pillow and groaned as Pinkie Pie pushed it back in, bringing her to that blissful state of fullness.

Luna had taught Twilight restraint, always. Twilight had exercised it—through their hours-long lessons, through her rewards, and through everything she’d done with Pinkie Pie so far. But now she got to unwind. Pinkie Pie worked her sex toy into and out of Twilight with enthusiasm, and Twilight felt herself relaxing, letting events take their course...

Twilight’s hoof found Pinkie’s neck, traced the curve of it up to the back of her head and buried itself in her wiry mess of a mane. “Deeper,” Twilight gasped, “faster.”

Pinkie squeezed her thighs in reply, then obliged, causing Twilight’s moans to increase in pitch. I sound like I’m about to come, she thought, and she realized that she was. It had only taken minutes.

“Pinkie, Pinkie, Pinkie-I’m-going-to-come!” It felt good, really good to scream it out loud.

Her last bit of self-control broke and fell away like a pane of shattering glass, and Twilight let her orgasm run its course. Her voice broke out into fevered moans, her hips spasmed wildly, and her forelegs clutched at the sheets as her back arched off of the bed. It didn’t last very long, but it was the most intense she’d ever had. She could feel the blood pumping through her veins as her lungs labored to keep up with her ecstatic cries.

At last she collapsed back onto the bed and took in what felt like the first breath she’d breathed in minutes. She felt Pinkie Pie still gripping the toy inside her to pull it free...

“Leave it in,” Twilight commanded.

Pinkie Pie obeyed, rising to drape herself across Twilight and nuzzle her in the neck.

“That was amazing,” Twilight said. “I mean, just... wow.”

Pinkie Pie crept up and began to nibble on one of Twilight’s ears. “Mhmm.”

“So, Applejack said that earth ponies had, well, extreme uh, stamina.”

Pinkie bit down on the rim of Twilight’s ear, and Twilight gasped. “Mhmm.”

“And I thought, you said you had supplements, earlier, so, if you have a... collection and you didn’t mind staying in a little longer....”

In the space of a moment, Pinkie had rolled off of Twilight and back toward her closet. “Sure thing, Twi!” she said. “I’ve got all day!” She rummaged around awhile before heaving out a large, rolled up black stretch of cloth. Twilight eyed it with wonderment while Pinkie Pie set it on the ground, undid a strap tying it together with her mouth, then gave it a push.

It rolled out across her bedroom floor, from her closet to the far wall, revealing what Twilight immediately chastised herself for calling it a collection.

No. This was an armory.

Interlude II

Princess Luna watched from on high.

Twilight and Pinkamena made a most curious coupling: enthusiasm and inexperience. Well suited to wrestling around on the floor, to eager experimentation, to sloppy kisses and hastened climaxes. Artless, but fun. And for now at least, Twilight Sparkle still had much to learn from artlessness.

Luna frowned as she watched her newly gifted Dark Apprentice. It was a tiny thing, a simple turn of the mouth that was so small as to barely be an expression at all. Luna had done too much living to let a single instant’s emotion ever truly overcome her, but still she frowned, a slight expression that carried an even slighter displeasure. Twilight was keeping a secret.

Not from Luna, of course. That would not be of any concern. No, Twilight was keeping her secret from Celestia. This, Luna knew, was Twilight’s right, but still it vexed her: Twilight’s faithfulness should have driven the mare to truth, but now it seemed to be doing the exact contrary. Did Twilight fear Celestia’s disapproval? Luna rolled her eyes. In this age, who didn’t? Twilight would keep her secret, of course. Luna had learned that secrets were like candy: children, in their naïveté, would always overindulge.

She let the shadows flow back into the pupils of her eyes and turned back to her Canterlot tower. Twilight’s progress in her current studies was satisfying, and they could be suspended for the moment. It was time Luna taught her some of the darker arts, and that would require more care and attention.

The surface of the tower was polished until it shone like tinted glass. With a thought and a gesture, Luna drew an ancient bookcase out of the reflected moonlight, standing it in the center of the tower. She strode toward it and passed her eyes over the spines of books that had not been read for a thousand years, and the last vestiges of her frown vanished. Twilight would learn. Oh, how she would learn.

And let Twilight Sparkle covet her secret. Luna would stay the course. Still, plans would need to be rewrought, actions taken. And Twilight would eventually have to tell the truth. Luna had learned that secrets were like medicine: a small amount could be the proper cure, but too much was a poison.

Gods, of course, were immune to poison. Luna would need to divert Celestia’s attention, and the attention of a god called for an appropriately scaled diversion. Ten dozen things came to mind, but Luna ignored them. A disaster or a matter of state would be superficial and obvious. She needed to crush the root of Celestia’s curiosity, which would call for influence.

Who could influence Celestia most? It had once been Luna herself, but now she played second to Twilight Sparkle. Her frown returned. Neither of them would serve. Third?

Mi Amore Cadenza. She would do. Luna had but to reach out and play her like a rook on a chessboard. Again the frown left Luna’s face, a change that was still barely noticeable. Twilight’s eventual confession would carry all the more weight. Luna had learned that secrets were like silences: their true power was in being broken. And this one would break.

Until then, however, the sky would continue to turn. Celestia would rule benevolently from Canterlot. Twilight would continue with both sets of lessons. Luna would lurk and spy and stay her course, regardless of any moral boundaries that got in her way.

She smiled at that final thought, an expression so faint it was barely an expression at all.

Morals, after all, were very much like secrets.

Chapter 7

The midnight breeze was a cool kiss against Twilight’s coat and nothing more. If it was cold, it didn’t bother her—Twilight was beginning to wonder if she could even remember what being uncomfortably cold felt like. It had been three weeks since she slept. One continuous span of consciousness that oscillated between Dark Apprentice at night and Twilight Sparkle during the day. The mystique of her double life had lost some of its novelty, but her sessions with Luna were her favorite part of the daily cycle.

There was something comforting in the idea that when the sun went down this was what awaited her. It was an enjoyment she didn’t even know existed, and it wasn’t from sex or even the pleasure of leading a double life. In Ponyville she led her normal life, a thing that was sequential, structured. Wonderful, yes, but filled with responsibility and worry. Time with Luna always seemed to be cut away from reality, to be mystical, even.

Who knew that being the Dark Apprentice could be therapeutic?

“Are you paying attention to me, Twilight Sparkle?” Luna asked.

Twilight berated herself for losing her focus. “I’m sorry, Mistress. I let my mind wander.”

“Is that so.” Luna’s eyes seemed to harden. “Then tell me that you apologize, not that you’re sorry. I very much doubt you are sorry.”

Twilight hesitated. What was the difference? “I... apologize?”

“This is the third time your focus has failed you tonight. I almost feel as though you aren’t interested in my lesson.”

Twilight frowned, but it was a chance to speak her mind. “I just don’t really see how I’ll ever end up using this. Shadow routing, I mean.”

Luna arched an eyebrow. “Explain.”

“Well,” Twilight said, “It’s just... it’s night. There are shadows everywhere. The most efficient path is always just going to a be a straight line, isn’t it?”

“Shadows, yes,” Luna said. “But total darkness is still a flawless conduit, and it is not so abundant. And it is not always night, Twilight Sparkle. An accomplished academic such as yourself should know that it is also sometimes day.”

Twilight gave her a flat look. It was always so hard to tell if Luna was joking or if she was berating her. “That’s the thing. Even if it is day, and even if I can draw a path through twenty different shadows dark enough to give me a good coefficient, what’s the point? I can already teleport.”

“Coefficient,” Luna said with a slight amount of distaste, “you speak of the darker powers as though they were a school of engineering.”

“There’s definitely a clear relationship,” Twilight said. “I could draw us each up a chart, if you like. Power required is proportional to depth of shadow multiplied by—”

“Stop it.”

“—distance...” Twilight did her best to hide a small smile from the unamused princess. “How about I just make one for me?”

Luna narrowed her eyes. “There will be no charts, my Dark Apprentice. And you have yet to realize this spell’s true potential. You are not the only thing that you can send through the shadows.”

Twilight thought about this for a moment. “What kind of other things?”

“Words,” Luna said. “Spells. Sensations. There are things you can bring to yourself through darkness as well. Sight. Sounds. But first you will learn to do only yourself.”

Twilight sighed, but gave a resigned nod. She was hoping they’d cover ritual magic right away, but from everything she’d read it was sinfully complex—if it could be fully understood at all.

“Do not be so somber, my Dark Apprentice. Soon I will teach you to swallow the screams of others and make a secret of lightning.”

“Make a what?”

“A joke, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna said. She put a hoof to her chin. “Though it did sound good, didn’t it...”

Twilight shook her head. Luna had an extremely strange sense of humor.

“In any case,” Luna said. “The dawn approaches. Hit me.”

The words took a moment to register. “What?”

Luna’s eyes were steady and cool. “Hit me, Twilight Sparkle. As hard as you possibly can.”

Twilight realized that Luna was serious. “I can’t hit you!”

Luna raised an eyebrow. “Do you think you would hurt me? Do you think you could, even if I allowed it?”

“I—what? No. I still don’t want to hit you. Why are you asking?”

Luna gave an almost-imperceptible shrug. “A fair question, but one I won’t answer. Do you break things around your house in Ponyville? Door knobs, ladders, dishes?”

Twilight peered at her. “You mean... because of my strength? Not much. I use magic to handle objects.”

“I see.”

Twilight was becoming frustrated. “See what, exactly?”

Luna’s mouth became a flicker of a smile. “See tomorrow’s lessons. But we will come to those tomorrow. We are still not done with tonight. I know the real reason you find it hard to focus, Twilight Sparkle.”

A surge of hope warmed Twilight’s chest. “You do?”

“Yes,” Luna said. “We will return your lessons to the night’s oldest ritual, eventually. Until then, however, you will have to sate your lust elsewhere. I am not your puppet, Twilight Sparkle.”

Twilight sagged. There was something truly terrible about being introduced to sex and then cut off from it in favour of fascinating spells and enchantments. She couldn’t say which one she’d rather have.

“Don’t be so upset, my Dark Apprentice. I shall be occupied two nights from now. Lessons will be cancelled. You’ll have free reign of the entire night—and Pinkie Pie is throwing a party. I’m sure if you ask nicely she’ll let you play with her toys.”

“Huh,” Twilight said. She’d been meaning to get back to Pinkie Pie at some point, but with sundown to sunup dedicated to lessons, there just wasn’t much time. “Wait—how do you know she’s throwing a party?”

“I watch,” Luna said.

“You spy on my friends?”

Luna rolled her shoulders. It looked more like she was shedding blame than she was shrugging. “Celestia and I both keep a careful eye on Ponyville.” Her smile returned. “The six of you can be... quite entertaining.”

The book was floating in the air, and it was open. Its crinkled pages were played and lit only by a scant amount of candlelight. The library windows had been covered, leaving her in darkness, where, bathed in the purple light of her horn, she floated, the book splayed out before her.

Weightlessness was relaxing for her body, but keeping herself aloft strained her mind. That was all well and good, because Twilight wanted to strain her mind. She needed the practice, and she’d found that the best way to break in a new spell was to multitask it. So there was a piece of her mind that shut out the feeling of weightlessness, shut out the new spell she was trying, shut out the waves of pleasure that ran through her body like an electric current, and focused only on holding her in the air.

But it was only a piece, and the rest of her was far more receptive to the senses. Her breath came out in heavy sighs, her head rolled from shoulder to shoulder, her tongue hung just outside her lips, and her forelegs were pulled tight across her own chest. Her initial opinion of A Study in Ecstasy had been wrong, Twilight was beginning to realize. The book was aptly named.

But the magic she worked inside herself was not nearly strong enough; not by half. Twilight smiled a lazy, arrogant smile that she’d never used to possess. She had to go deeper.

The door opened. Twilight fell to the ground, and so did a book that was over a thousand years old. The cover and several pages came off and splayed themselves across her carpet.

Twilight shrieked. She hadn’t opened her mouth with any particular words in mind, but she’d certainly expected some to come out. Instead she got an animal cry, a sound of rage and humiliation.

“Hey Twilight,” said Pinkie Pie.

A twitch shuddered up Twilight’s neck and through her ear before setting up camp in her eyelid. “The door was locked!”

Pinkie blinked. “Was it?”

“Pinkie Pie, I’m naked in here!” Twilight said as she scrambled to think of a less compromising position.

Pinkie Pie stared at Twilight, her eyebrows going up in confusion.

“Okay,” Twilight said. “So I’m always naked. But still. The door was locked.”

Pinkie Pie blinked her eyes innocently. “Why?”

“Because,” Twilight said quickly. “I-I was... just... reading a book all alone, and...” Suddenly her thoughts turned to the carpet below her. What if there was a stain? An enormous, dirty, nasty stain that Pinkie Pie could—

Relax.

Twilight shook the thoughts from her head. Ridiculous. So what if Pinkie Pie caught her in the act? They’d spent two hours trying out sex toys just over a week ago. It was only Pinkie Pie. Only Pinkie.

“H-hey Pinkie Pie,” Fluttershy said as she stepped into the doorway. “Hey Twilight. What are all the candles for?”

Twilight fumed. Relax.

“I think she’s having a seance!” Pinkie said as she took in the candles for the first time. “Twilight’s talking to deeeeeead ponies!”

Fluttershy seemed to shrink into herself. “You mean... ghosts?”

“I’m not having a seance,” Twilight said. “Ghosts aren’t real. Now if you two could leave me for a moment...”

“Ghosts are so real,” Rainbow Dash said as she glided in through one of Twilight’s windows. “One time my faucet kept turning on when I wasn’t even in the bathroom. You can’t explain that.”

Twilight looked from Dash to the open window, then back to Dash. “That window wasn’t even open, she said. “I had the curtains drawn.”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I sprung it from the outside.” She nodded to their other friends. “Hey Pinkie Pie, hey Fluttershy. You guys here to invite Twilight to the party?”

“Party?” Fluttershy asked.

“Pinkie Pie is throwing a party tomorrow night,” Twilight said. “Now if all of you could just—”

“Hey!” Pinkie Pie said. “You can’t know that it’s tomorrow! I didn’t invite you yet!”

Twilight frowned and shifted where she sat. “Sorry, Pinkie Pie. What time is the party?”

Pinkie grinned. “Tomorrow!” she said.

“Great,” said Twilight. “I’ll be sure to come. Now if all of you could just leave me alone for a moment—”

“Oh goodie, Twilight!” Pinkie shouted. “I was hoping you’d say yes! There’s gonna be dance music, and candies, and non-dance music that we can dance to anyway, and money cake...”

Twilight rolled her eyes as Pinkie went on. All she had to do was sit there and wait for her to finish and for them to leave.

“What’s with the book?” Dash said as she picked up a loose sheaf of pages. “Inserteth thine horne—”

Twilight slapped the pages to the ground with her mind. “That’s nothing!” she said. “Just a book!”

“Really?” Dash asked. Then she narrowed her eyes at Twilight, seemingly confused. “You’re all sweaty.”

“No I’m not.”

“Uh...” Dash reached out and poked Twilight’s chest. “Yes you are?”

“Look,” Twilight said, “It’s a beautiful day out! Why don’t we all just carry this prying and inquisitive conversation outside? I could pack us a picnic! Why don’t all of you leave right now and I’ll meet you out there. Sound good?”

“You sure you don’t want to like, take a shower first?” Dash asked.

Pinkie Pie bounced on her hooves. “Ooh! I could help you pack the picnic!”

Fluttershy raised a hoof tentatively. “Do you want any help picking up these papers, Twilight?”

Dash splayed a couple pages out on the ground before her. “Hey Twilight these have some funky diagrams—”

“Ooh! I wanna see, lemme see!”

Twilight let out an exasperated growl. “Do I have to shoe the three of you away with a broomstick?” she shouted. The three of them looked up at her.

She waved a hoof, and her shadow left her side and swept across the floor before her, gathering pages as it went. When it returned to pool in vague shapes beneath her hooves, the pages were gone and it was notably darker. “I was masturbating!”

Nopony said anything as Twilight gave them each a look. “Okay? I’ve spent the whole morning using my prodigious magical talents to pleasure myself with a suite of spells that were in this ancient tome of sexy magic. It is the most absurdly simple, selfish, and impulsive use of magic that I’ve ever heard of, which makes me feel guilty, which makes it all feel so. Much. Better.”

Twilight finished and took a deep breath, then cringed a little while she realized exactly what she’d said. Did she really have to tell them that being naughty and indulgent turned her on? She swallowed and scratched the back of her mane. Fluttershy was blushing a bright scarlet. Pinkie Pie looked like she was suppressing the urge to giggle. Dash scratched her chin and said:

“You use candles?”

“Why wouldn’t I? The book said...”

Dash shrugged. “It just seems like a lot of effort for uh, flying solo.”

Twilight frowned. “Well what if it’s a unicorn thing? You can’t know for sure it’s a unicorn thing.”

Dash peered at her. “Right.”

“Silly filly,” Pinkie said. “You should do that in your room, not out in the open! When I was little Mrs Cake would always tell me—”

“Stop right there,” Twilight said, absolutely certain that she didn’t want to hear that sentence finished. “I would have used my room, but I was spell testing. I need at least eight feet of clearance on all sides, even for little things, ever since the incident with the carnivorous splinter beetles.”

Some of the red faded from Fluttershy’s cheeks as she approached. “Carnivorous splinter—”

Twilight waved a hoof. “It’s not as bad as it sounds. Those beetles were harmless. Now if you three could leave me alone for a second, I’m fairly certain I’m sitting on a small puddle.”

Fluttershy’s pupils shrank and her blush returned immediately. “Eww,” Pinkie Pie said in an unserious tone.

Rainbow Dash blinked. “A puddle? Come on, Twilight.”

Twilight gave her a flat look. “I’ve been at this for three hours, Rainbow Dash.”

“Huh? That’s not even—”

“It is for me. It’s a unicorn thing. Now you two should probably take Fluttershy outside before she faints.”

The three of them left, Fluttershy breathing something about how sorry she was for intruding, and Twilight let out a sigh as soon as the door closed.

She was surprised at how mild their reaction had been. Sure, Fluttershy had been too stricken to speak—and perhaps Twilight should have handled the situation more tactfully with her in the room—but Rainbow Dash had taken it all in stride. In retrospect, Twilight shouldn’t have been particularly surprised. The mare had a strange set of priorities sometimes, and she probably just saw stigmatizing sex as ultimately useless. Pinkie Pie, of course, didn’t care.

She wondered about her other friends. Would Rarity have considered Twilight’s admission scandalous? Would Applejack have seen it as a breach of propriety? She’d once thought it wasn’t an okay thing to talk about with any of her friends. Exactly how open-minded were they?

Still, it had been a terribly awkward situation, and not one that Twilight was interested in repeating. She’d have to be more careful in the future. And she also ought to apologize.

Twilight pulled the remnants of the book from her shadow and placed them atop a nearby desk. Then she followed her friends outside.

“Hey girls,” she said to them. “I’m really sorry about what happened back there. I didn’t mean anybody to—”

“No problem, Twilight!” Dash said, giving her a pat on the back. “A mare’s got needs.”

Twilight nodded. “Right then. How about that picnic?”

It was, all in all, a good picnic and an excellent afternoon. The previous topic of conversation was tactfully steered away from in favor, and life went on the way it normally did with her friends—messily and unpredictably. But there was a definite appeal to a day without nightly escapades and darker powers. A day of Twilight Sparkle.

But the day passed into night, and Twilight once again moved to the small clearing of the everfree where she expected to meet her carriage. Instead she found Princess Luna.

Who, ignorant of any and all visual cliches, stood in the center of a single shaft of moonlight observing her reflection in a pond.

“Good night, my Dark Apprentice.”

“Evening, Mistress...” Twilight said slowly. “Are... lessons to be held out here tonight?”

“Indeed,” said Luna, making a sinuous stretch that turned Twilight’s brain to different subjects entirely. Stupid divinity. “But first I must explain the nature of our lesson.”

She walked across the surface of the pond, her hooves making only the lightest ripples. Pegasus magic, Twilight wondered? Or something else? Regardless Luna came to circle her.

“I gave you power, Twilight Sparkle. Power that you shy away from. Last night you refused to hit me.”

“I don’t see why that’s a problem. Do unto others as you would have done to yourself. Celestia’s rule. And it follows from the exception that proves the rule to not do unto others as you would not have done to yourself.”

Luna gave a careless shrug and said in a voice totally unlike her usual cool tone: “Sometimes I like to be struck.”

Twilight’s pupils narrowed to points. Sweet Celestia’s Burning Blood and...

“But that is neither here nor there,” Luna said in her usual voice. “Tonight you will begin to learn the limits of your power, and in time you will come to know them with flawless exactitude.” She continued to pace around Twilight, all animal grace and poise.

“I have decided that fighting is not in you, Twilight Sparkle, not in the way I would require. And so your talents must be flexed in another fashion.”

Luna crouched down, a predator about to pounce...

Twilight swallowed as she realized she was the prey.

Luna grinned. “Run.”

And so it was that exactly ten minutes after dawn Twilight stomped back into the library covered in mud, branches and dirt, having spent an entire night playing the most panic inducing, terrifyingly fast game of tag she’d ever played with the immortal princess of the night.

She’d run into trees. And rocks. And the various monsters of the Everfree Forest, which had hardly been worth a second glance compared to the dark shape of Luna hurtling after her through the ridiculously dense underbrush, barely a sight or a sound.

She’d teleported. She’d shadowrouted. She’d bounded thirty feet into the air. She had, on the spur of a very poor decision, climbed a tree and done her best to stay quiet.

And she’d been caught again and again.

Always, Princess Luna would pin her to the ground and grin, and always the prey-like fear that drove her on would instantly fade, only to rekindle itself as soon as the chase began anew. If it was magic Luna was using, it was not any magic Twilight understood or knew.

It had not been the most enjoyable night as the Dark Apprentice. After all that physical activity Twilight just wanted to sit down read a book. She was working on a report of the relative boom in linguistic development in the seventh century for Princess Celestia, and historical reports to Celestia always merited extra research. The princess had, after all, lived through pretty much all of it.

But first she’d take a shower. She couldn’t show up dirty and unkempt to Pinkie Pie’s party, after all...