Twilight's Second First Time

Twilight popped back into existence right in the middle of Canterlot castle, startling several ponies who were gossiping nearby. Her olfactory senses were immediately assailed by raw, unconstrained stallion. She lingered for a moment, briefly considering dragging one of them to a guest room before shaking the thought from her mind and teleporting again elsewhere in the castle.

After several poorly considered landings, Twilight gave up and teleported herself straight into Celestia's chambers. She found herself facing the wall, and the frantic sounds of a pony behind her caused her to instinctively flag her tail for a moment. Forcing her tail back down, she turned around to see one of Celestia's pegasus maids, Downy Feather, who was startled from her task of laying out Celestia's supper and scrambled to prostrate herself.

"G-G-Good evening, Princess Twilight," she stuttered. "Princess Celestia has not yet finished lowering the sun, but she should be here shortly. Shall I let her know you are waiting?"

"Yes!" Twilight shouted.

"I mean, uh... yes," she repeated in a calmer tone. "I would appreciate that very much. Thank you."

Downy Feather nodded. "Can I get anything for you?"

"If you could bring me a st--" Twilight blurted, almost without thinking. Realizing what she had almost said, she scrambled for something else. "A... uh... a stalk. Of celery. With nut butter.”

Downy Feather flushed bright red. "Um, do you mean peanut butter?"

"Yes! Isn't that what I said? It's so gooey, and the way it sticks to everything ..."

"Uh... I'll... I'll go and get that for you, then, right away!" Downy slammed the doors to Celestia's bedroom open.

"...especially the roof of your mou... hey...!" Twilight had never seen one of Celestia's servants literally fly away to take care of their duties, but Downy took off down the hall like a bullet. "Huh. I wonder why she's in such a hurry."

With a quick flash of magic, Twilight had shut the door. No sense in risking the scent of a stallion near Celestia's chambers, where there was a nice... fluffy... bed...

No, no, no. Twilight shook her head. She absolutely could not - and would not - defile Celestia’s bed in such a way. She stood stock still, trying to avoid stimulating herself with her tail on accident and impatiently wondering when Celestia would arrive. A quick glance out the window revealed that the sun had indeed been brought below the horizon and the moon was now high in the sky.

"Auntie?" Even through the closed door, Twilight heard shouting from down the hall as the sound of galloping hoofsteps approached. "Auntie, are you there? One of your maids is flying in the hallways!"

Great. Prince Blueblood. Hide.

Twilight quickly jumped into Celestia's closet, slamming the door closed behind her and casting a spell to seal herself inside... and the air outside.

There should be enough air in here to last me at least an hour if I need it, Twilight reasoned to herself. Oh, of all the ponies who might approach me in this condition...!

The doors to Celestia's chambers burst open as the hoofsteps slid to a stop. Twilight peered through the crack in the closet door, hoping Blueblood would leave quickly.

"Auntie Cele--! Oh, she's not here." Blueblood glanced around the room. "And this room is a mess! There's even a spill on the floor! What even is...” Blueblood bent down and inhaled deeply. A snarl crossed his face. "That... That whore. She's in heat! She should know better than to serve Auntie while in heat. And not cleaning up after herself, either?"

Twilight reached down hesitantly and touched her nethers. Oh. That's why Downy had been so flustered. Like Cadance had warned her, the spell hadn't done anything to stop her from dripping fluids all over the place. She should have stopped in a washroom or something. Twilight flushed red, realizing she’d even flagged her tail at the poor pegasus.

"Why, when I catch that maid, I'll have to teach her a lesson myself,” Blueblood declared. “And I'm going to enjoy it."

"Enjoy what?" a very familiar voice asked.

"Oh, hello, Auntie... just a little chat with some of the castle staff. Did you know that one of your servants -- Downs is her name, I think--”

Even through the tiny crack in the closet door, Twilight was able to make out Celestia’s eyebrow twitching.

“--was flying in the castle halls? Auntie, you cannot let this go unpunished. When you see her again, send her to my manor for re-education."

"Why are you in my room, Blueblood?"

"I was looking for you!"

"And is it customary to barge into my personal bed chamber without being invited?"

Celestia glared at the closet door for a moment before returning her gaze to Blueblood.

"Err... no, Auntie. I will show myself out."

"You do that. And Blueblood?"

"... Yes, Auntie?"

"Mind your own business. I shall discipline my own maids, thank you."

"Yes, Auntie."

Celestia heaved a great sigh as Blueblood's hoofsteps faded away. The great door clicked shut as if it were much smaller than it actually was. Celestia craned her neck down to examine the wet spot on the floor momentarily before standing up straight again.

"It's okay, Twilight. You can come out now."

Twilight allowed her seal on the door to falter and flopped out onto the floor where she lay, gasping for fresh air. Masking her scent hadn’t stopped it from saturating the air in such a small space, it just prevented smelling it.

Celestia stepped back in faux-surprise before her usual, practiced smile spread across her face. "It is nice to see you have come out, my faithful student, but I'm afraid it won't suit your needs."

"What?" Twilight gasped.

"Never you mind, Twilight,” Celestia chuckled. “I am simply an old mare entertaining herself. Come, now. What is bothering you that you would violate my most personal space without permission?"

"N-n-nothing!” Twilight lied. “I just had some... questions."

"Questions?"

"About you, Princess... and Flurry Heart, I suppose."

"Me and... Flurry Heart?" A look of genuine confusion crossed Celestia's face. "I'm more than willing to answer any question you might have, but there's very little connection between your niece and I. Wouldn’t Cadance be a more appropriate target for your inquiry?"

“I’ve already spoken with Cadance,” Twilight snapped before she could catch herself. She slapped a hoof to her mouth.

Celestia frowned. “Is something the matter?”

Twilight stared at her hooves for several long seconds, trying to gather the courage to say what was on her mind. She didn’t have the courage to look up as she asked it. “Flurry... Why did you and Cadance manipulate my brother?”

Celestia reached out her hoof and pulled Twilight’s face up to look at her. “Is that what she told you?”

“Not in those exact words, no.”

“Oh, my precious student. Cadance and I may have hatched a plan, but we never manipulated Shining. You were too focused on my lessons to even notice, but Cadance and your brother had already been spending copious amounts of time together before ‘the big plan’ came to light. And while he was young and didn’t have any real input into the plan itself, we kept him involved and he never complained about it. ‘The plan’, as it was, wasn’t about manipulating Shining at all, though I confess it was about manipulating your parents.”

Twilight spent several moments processing that.

“I’m not sure that’s any better, Princess.”

“It’s a serious matter, Twilight. But even if other ponies can’t understand, you will soon enough.”

Twilight shifted uncomfortably.

“Now, you didn’t just come here to ask about your brother’s relationship.”

"Well, I was wondering. You've lived..." Twilight inhaled sharply, unsure if this would be taken in an insulting fashion. "You've lived a very long time. So long, in fact, that written history doesn't even mention where you come from."

"Yes, that much is true. Go on," Celestia urged.

"Well, when Cadance had Flurry Heart, you said no Alicorns had been born in Equestria before, but it made me wonder… Have you ever had children? Ones that were mortal, I mean, not alicorns."

Celestia paused, stunned into silence. After a moment, Twilight looked up and saw tears welling up in her teacher's eyes, threatening to spill over. None came, however, as Celestia regained her composure and blinked them away.

"That... is a very difficult question, Twilight. Surely you are aware that a mare's magic protects her eggs from insemination?"

Twilight nodded wordlessly. Silence reigned for a few moments while Celestia allowed that to sink in.

"I wanted children," Celestia finally spoke again, her words strangled with emotion. "I wanted them. More than anything. We didn't know how magical power related to conception in the early days, but not even Starswirl at the height of his power was able to provide an heir.”

"Wait, you had sex with Starswirl?" Twilight asked incredulously.

Celestia choked out a smile as she wiped a tear from her eye. "You already know he was my teacher and mentor in all things, Twilight. But all things means all things, and there are some things you can only learn in a bed."

At Twilight's stunned expression, Celestia chuckled and continued her story. "Luna and I were very young when we became alicorns; Luna hadn't even had her first estrus when it happened. Because of the way time seems to ignore alicorns, for centuries we thought Luna was barren, since she never did have her heat. On the other hoof, my every estrus would come and go without an heir to our kingdom, in spite of all of my efforts. Nopony knew how long alicorns would live, so there was always concern over what would happen if Luna and I passed without one. Centuries passed without any change. Then finally, one day, Luna did have her first estrus. She celebrated it. And the kingdom celebrated with her."

Celestia took a deep breath, and let it out slowly, eyes focused somewhere only her mind’s eye could reach.

"I had been too intoxicated with the possibility of Luna’s estrus to really stop what happened, but I would never have approved of it had I known. Still, it was quite the celebration, if you could call it such. We still don't know who the father was; Little Dipper was Luna's pride and joy, but afterward I couldn't bear myself to be around my sister or my niece. And Luna continued to celebrate every estrus the same way despite my disapproval, bearing more and more foals.

“As the years passed, my connection to the sun helped my magic become ever stronger, and unbeknownst to me, it was taking me further and further from my goal of motherhood. Luna's magic, however, had stagnated. And over the centuries, Luna grew jealous of my magical ability, just as I grew jealous of her womb."

“I had experienced hundreds of heats, with no child of my own to show for it. Eventually, I stopped trying to conceive. Then, after the connection between magic and fertility was discovered, I renewed my pursuit. It was not hard to find the most powerful mages in the land and bed them; afterall, who wouldn’t accept my invitations? But it still had never borne fruit. Eventually, after scouring Equestria for a partner with no success, I gave up on my dream of motherhood.

“Not long after, a teenaged pegasus named Cloudfall who was so disconnected from magic that he could not manipulate the weather came for an audience, seeking citizenship in Canterlot as he couldn’t survive well in Cloudsdale. Of course, in my questioning, I found he had always dreamed of being a father, which is why he wanted to settle down and find some good earth pony mares to herd with.

“I offered to have doctors examine him, and he hesitantly agreed. The doctors confirmed what I thought: he had no magic whatsoever. It was quite unusual.

“I met with Cloudfall in private after that, explaining that he wouldn’t become the father he wanted to be. He told me that he had read literature on the subject and already suspected that, but it didn’t stop him from dreaming of it. I sympathized this him and laid my own problems bare before him. It was an emotional moment for both of us. Eventually, he asked if he could hug me. I, perhaps foolishly, asked if I could kiss him. Things... escalated.

“Our inability to foal was a shared misery, but my dedication to him broke Equestria from the herds of old: The nobles, wanting to emulate me (as they are wont to do), created the institution of marriage, and begged me to formally marry my mate so that they could have their ideas validated.

"So I did. We were wed, and soon the nobles joined thereafter. But, in seeking monogamous relationships, the nobility started to splinter. No longer was it socially acceptable to lay with any mare or stallion one would wish. Those limited few who carried Luna's blood always saw themselves as superior - and others found themselves unable to rebuff that growing sentiment: Luna's children were all powerful mages within their own rights. This new social division made them extremely selective about their mates, and completely changed the face of Canterlot nobility as those with Luna’s blood were pitted against those who did not share it.

“Within only a few centuries, the division had gotten so bad that Luna even stopped holding her 'estrus celebrations'. She did not like how her descendants behaved, and though she wanted more children of her own, she could not police the behavior of literally thousands of her children's children's children acting like spoiled brats."

"So, Blueblood really is your ..."

"Narcissus is my distant nephew, yes.”

“Narcissus? Like, the flower?”

“Yes. That is his actual name, you see. Prince Blueblood is actually his noble title, given to the pony who has more of Luna's blood than any other living pony. And all of the nobles treat it with respect. Ironically, since Luna no longer provides them with fresh blood for their unions, and because they now stick to monogamy instead of the herding of old while obsessing over Luna’s bloodline, they are now so in-bred that they are of poor genetic stock, magically speaking, and Blueblood is no exception. Their power today primarily stems from financial empires that their ancestors built on Luna's reputation, not through any particular magical talents, as it had been in the past.”

"Why doesn't anypony know about this? If these nobles prided themselves on being Luna's own children, shouldn't such knowledge be widespread?"

"Twilight, what happened to Luna?"

"She…” Twilight paused for a moment. “...she became Nightmare Moon."

"Precisely. When your entire claim to power is through a blood relationship to a malevolent force that tried to destroy Equestria, it's time to start re-branding yourself. And that's what they did. It took them a few hundred years, but eventually, only a few of their own kind knew. Even the most studied historians of today have no idea, because the nobles themselves took action to stamp it out from memory."

Twilight nodded slowly. "I guess I wouldn't want to advertise my relationship with Nightmare Moon, either."

"Well, you never have before. There's no reason to start now."

"Wait, you mean... me? I'm related to Luna by blood?"

Celestia smiled. "As much as any other pony, certainly. Luna birthed over 200 foals across oevr two thousand years. Nearly every pony in Equestria today is related to her if you go back far enough."

"I suppose that makes sense. It would be silly to start calling her my granddam."

"Oh, you definitely should!” Celestia giggled. “I'm sure her reaction would be priceless."

"I think I'll pass," Twilight replied with a wry smile.

"Alas, it's well past time I retire to my bed, for the sun must rise in the morning. You should go into town and find a nice stallion, Twilight. Even if you don't conceive, it helps immensely."

"What do you mean, even if I don’t conceive? You think I wouldn't be able to? Like you?"

Celestia shook her head and grinned. "No, Twilight, I mean you need to get laid. Preferably tonight, before you lose complete control of yourself. Alicorn estrus is no laughing matter. Trust me, I know. I’ve had more of them than any pony alive.”

"W-what?" Twilight sputtered. "But that’s not…! I'm not in heat! Who said I was in heat?"

"Oh, my precious student... I wasn't born yesterday, you know. Far from it, in fact. While you may have masked the smell, the spell itself is as plain as day to me…” Celestia pointed a hoof behind Twilight. “Also, you’re dribbling all over my carpet. Go now; run along and find a stallion. You'll thank me in the morning."