She thinks of her sister.
She thinks of what’s been lost.
The Royal Guard is a poor substitute. Luckily, she has lots of them.
He’s on her back, throbbing inside her, and then it's over, another Guard spent.
*****
“Lucky,” she heard some of the other Guards whisper when she chose him, but they don’t know what the cost is.
Their regalia is spread around the bed, his and hers intermixed, almost like it was all those years ago with her sister.
He’s sound asleep, his tousled mane covering one of her pillows, his coat stained with sweat and her cum and the bed smells of lust and sex and if she’s being honest with herself, failure.
A princess has needs.
The Guards try, they do their best and is it strange to think of them as sons trying to please their mother?
She gets out of bed. Some nights she kicks them out after, other nights she wants the company, but either way it’s a poor substitute for what she really wants--what she really needs.
She makes her way to the balcony, stands on the chilly flags--barehooved--and looks up at the moon, looks up at the Mare in the Moon.
“I’m sorry.”
Every night she looks up to the moon, and every night she apologizes to her sister, and every night they’re not reunited. The Elements of Harmony don’t hear her plea.
*****
A hundred times, give or take, that’s how long it takes for something to become a ritual, that's how long it takes for a thing to become part of Palace lore.
That’s how long it took before nightly ‘armor inspections’ became something else, that’s how long it took before Commander Iron Shield realized that Princess Celestia wasn’t actually looking for the best soldiers but instead the best lovers.
That was about how long it took before she started noticing that a new kind of soldier was standing at attention before her every night.
They were easy to pick out; they didn’t have quite the same bearing as the regular Guard.
*****
She didn’t always pick Guards. Even with Commander Iron Shield’s unit ‘improvements’ there were times that she thought somepony else might fill the hole in her heart. After a while, there was a depressing sameness to the soldiers, and the castle had plenty of staff.
Part of the problem was that it was too easy. Some nights she’d think about that as she looked longingly at the moon. A chambermaid would never say no to her princess.
There were a few years that she went mad with her power, didn’t care who she hurt or how she hurt them. Nopony would dare say no to her, but she could see the fear in their eyes; she realized that her pillowcases were sometimes wet with tears and she resolved to be more careful in the future. Castle staff got relocated with generous bonuses and for a while she just stuck with the special unit of the Guard.
But it wasn’t the same.
Her loving subjects never would have broken her rule into phases, but she did. Never out loud, but it was always in her mind.
None of those phases did anything to fill the hole in her heart.
She changed slowly, and she was eternal in the eyes of her ponies. She watched over a constant cycle of fillies and colts playing in Canterlot and then growing to serve in the castle, until they grew old and retired and eventually died.
There were occasional wars and skirmishes and mostly peace and nearly every night she took a different pony into her bedchambers and then after went out on the balcony and looked up at the moon longingly.
Several hundred years post-banishment, she strongly considered absconding her throne, giving it over to somepony else. Some of Princess Platinum’s successors were grumbling that they ought to be in charge and it would be a welcome break to give them a chance at it, but she didn’t.
She did fuck Princess Platinum’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson completely senseless for an entire fortnight, along with three Royal Guards and a scullery maid and even that didn’t fill the hole in her heart.
*****
She didn’t always limit herself to ponies, either. There were plenty of other sapients in Equestria.
That came with its downsides, of course. After a six month assignation in Zebrica, her Guards adopted the brush-cuts that the zebras favored.
At least they didn’t try and paint stripes on themselves.
After the passage of centuries, she’d resigned herself to never again feeling her sister’s embrace, and settled into a sort of numbness that she hoped couldn’t last forever, even as she feared it might.
Each new student of hers was a new hope; each was carefully groomed and taught and maybe they’d be the one to find a way to bring her sister back, but they didn’t.
Sunset Shimmer could have been the greatest, but like so many before her, she went bad and got banished.
It only took a hundred times, give or take, before something became a ritual at the palace, but it took far longer before hope finally died in her heart.
It took the banishing of Sunset Shimmer. Even if her outward mien didn't show it, inside she knew another hope had died.
Nearly a thousand years of failure, and she was ready to give up. She had one last student, one last pony to pin her hopes on, and when that inevitably failed, it was time to conceive a different plan.
*****
The letter was a surprise.
My dearest teacher, my continuing studies of pony magic have led me to discover that we are on the brink of disaster!
She frowned. Her faithful student might not think so, but she welcomed a change. It would give the Guard a chance to do something; it would give her a chance to do more than eat cake, sit on her throne to settle petty problems, and be a change from her burning through the Guard night after night, one pony after another.
The mythical Mare in the moon is in fact Nightmare Moon, and she’s about to return to Equestria and bring with her eternal night! Something must be done to make sure this terrible prophecy does not come true.
The words on the page blurred, and she read it again.
And again.
Focusing on one key phrase: About to return.
For all her faults, Twilight was clever enough to stop the return of her sister, and that must not be allowed to happen.
She scrawled out a response, something that would get her student out of the way, and after sending it headed down to the archives to verify that there was indeed a prophesy of hope.
*****
It wasn’t fair to her student, but she wanted what she wanted, and she was still princess.
*****
Things turned out just fine in the end.
And she had to admit, breaking the spell that turned her sister evil had been more than she could have hoped for.
“I’ve missed you so much, big sister!”
“I’ve missed you, too.”
Their reunion was, at first, restrained. There was so much to do, and she could hardly believe it was true as she went through the motions, praising her faithful student and her friends, giving Ponyville first a glimpse at the new princess and then there was all the drama that Canterlot could offer.
She shielded Princess Luna as well as she could, and of course inside the castle all the ponies were in her thrall and would cope with whatever she told them to.
It was frustrating. Luna was overwhelmed, and she wanted nothing more but to retire to her bedchambers and make things what they were before but it wasn’t as simple as that, despite her wishes.
Still, she’d pined for a thousand years; a few days would pass like nothing.
*****
Luna wasn’t ready to pick up where they’d left off, and while that was frustrating, it was understandable.
And she had her guards.
Three of them this time, and she’d considered a fourth but sometimes they didn’t like that. It was no trouble to get two dicks in her mouth or even three if the stallions in question were well-hung and stood close and had a good sense of rhythm, but many of them really didn’t like the idea of touching dicks with another stallion even if they were doing it for her.
Usually it was hard to think of much else when she had three stallions; there was always so much to concentrate on, but not this time. The warm body under her could have been her sisters; the tongue on her clit could have been Luna’s instead.
Her guards were always submissive, even though sometimes she wanted to be dominated.
“Fuck me in the ass,” she whispered to one of them, and he hastened to comply.
Could she get them to fuck each other? She’d done it before, her cook--of all ponies--with her muzzle buried in the royal plot as the guards scrambled to follow her commands.
That was years ago, and best forgotten. It had been fun at the time, but had done nothing to fill the hollow spot in her being.
She closed her eyes and briefly considered the dick in front of her muzzle before taking it into her mouth as something to do. The third stallion hadn’t been deterred by his fellow’s close proximity and was suckling her teats. Once he got hard again, she could have him pound her pussy.
Sister. Her ears perked at the voice only she could hear.
We see you are . . . occupied.
“No.” Her words were muted by the cock in her mouth, and she should not have spoken aloud. All three stallions froze, undoubtedly worried that they’d been the one who had just displeased their princess.
“I’m--” The stallion in her ass grunted and came, hanging his head in shame, pulling out after only one spurt. His second and third got the one who’d been licking her nipples. He hung his head in shame as his friend frantically wiped off his face.
We would not want to interrupt your festivities.
“Please do,” she whispered.
For just a moment, she had a teasing view of her sister languidly rubbing a hoof over her dripping vulva, before it was gone. We remember how to please ourself. Do you not remember?
“I do,” Princess Celestia said. She spared her guards a moment’s glance. “Gentlestallions, forgive me, but an important matter of state has come to my attention.”
The three of them stood at attention as well as they could, given the circumstances. One still had a spray of cum across his face, and another was still fully erect, his dick glistening with her own saliva.
“You are discharged from your duties for the rest of the evening,” she continued. “And, should you find yourself in further need of release, a mare named Velvet Touch has recently come into my employ and I know she would love the attention of several royal guards. You would likely find her in the palace dormitories.” No doubt with a toy or two under her tail, or perhaps another willing mare or stallion.
She walked away as they were still gathering up their armor. Not into the hallway, not towards her sister’s room, not yet. It wouldn’t do to act desperate even though she was, even though she could practically feel the two of them coupled.
Instead, she slowly walked out to the balcony and looked once more at the moon, now lacking her sister’s familiar silhouette. She felt its cold light on her fur, warming her in a way that no legion of stallions ever could, and she basked in it until once again her sister’s visage mockingly filled her vision.
I’ve brought my thestrals back. There were a pair of them, a stallion and a mare. He was unsheathed and she was wet under her tail and they could have been fucking each other but she knew they hadn’t been, she knew that the stallion was damp with Luna’s passion. She could see it clearly how his jaw had clenched as he’d thrust inside her sister, deeper and deeper, filling her with his cum and all the while she’d had her talented tongue on the mare, her breath coming in shorter and shorter gasps as the stallion rode her, but never losing her concentration on the prize, her tongue speaking under the mare’s tail.
Almost without thinking, she touched a bare forehoof between her legs, trying but failing to tune out her sister’s mocking laughter.
Even the moon mocked her, a body which had been under her control for a thousand years but no more.
No more.
*****
She glided through the halls like a wraith, her arousal plain to anypony she passed.
She didn’t care; she was a mare on a mission.
Of course her sister had warded the door to her bedroom, and of course when she finally got it open, her sister was at the bottom of a pony pile.
Well, really more in the middle.
“I see you’re losing no time with your thestrals,” Princess Celestia commented dryly.
“They missed me.” Her voice was muffled.
“As did I.” She folded her legs and sat on the cold marble floor. “I assume you didn’t summon me to brag?”
“You could have all the ponies in the castle if you asked,” she said, finally bringing her head up. Her eyes sparkled in the dim light. “I’m sure that isn’t news.”
“They’re not you.”
“Nopony else is.” Princess Luna stuck her tongue out.
*****
There was a lot for them to talk about, a thousand years apart to cover. Most importantly, how they’d dealt with their own personal purgatories, how they’d tried and failed to fill the voids in their hearts.
And there would be a time to discuss that, perhaps in the sober light of day or the masking false light of the night, perhaps in the more neutral between-times, the fading light of day or the setting of the moon, but that was for later.
After she’d dismissed her thestrals, Princess Luna regarded her elder sister. “You came here without regalia.”
“As is proper.” She bowed her head. “We are equals.”
“Mmh.” Luna licked her lips. “I think not. Not tonight.”
“What do you mean?” It was a rhetorical question; she knew exactly what Luna meant.
“I mean get on the bed.” Luna’s voice was husky, commanding, and her hooves moved of their own volition across the bedchambers, led her onto the rumpled sheet stained with sweat and cum and who knew what else.
“On your back.”
Princess Celestia paused for a moment before complying, and her protest as silvery shackles magically materialized around her fetlocks, tugging her uncomfortably exposed.
Her sister climbed onto the bed, rubbing her muzzle teasingly along her vunerable belly and up her neck. “I could have my thestrals ride you raw all night long. One command, and it would be done.”
Luna’s hoof trailed behind her muzzle, touching the sensitive spots. “Or I could make you watch as they rode me.”
“Yes.”
“They would touch you here.” Princess Luna brushed her hoof across her erect nipples. “And here.” She slid her hoof alongside her aching clit, not quite touching, not yet.
“And you would just lie there and take it.”
“If that’s what you want.”
“What I want?” Luna frowned. “I want a thousand years back.” Her magic glimmered and a blade appeared, shimmering with magic. “Tell me why I shouldn’t.” She brushed the hilt against Princess Celestia’s ruff.
“We are nothing without each other.”
“Don’t think I’m not willing to take the risk.” Princess Celestia sucked in her breath as Luna turned the blade, touching the point against her belly. “I . . . I--”
“Yes.” It was a whisper, and as she spoke the blade vanished, a bad memory. “Take me. Make me pay.”
“I shall.”
“I’ve been a bad pony.” She shivered in anticipation.
“You’ve been a bad pony.” Princess Luna lowered her head and brushed her nose against her sister’s belly. “A very bad pony.”
She kissed Princess Celestia’s teats, hesitantly at first, before her tongue caressed her big sister’s nipple. “I--”
“Yes.”
Luna moved lower, kissing and caressing, and she had a moment to reflect upon how long it had been before she’d come so quickly.
“You’re making this too easy,” Luna complained.
“Not my intention, I promise.” How long had it been since she’d really felt helpless? Since she’d relinquished control so entirely?
“I should invite my thestrals back in.”
They both knew she wouldn’t.
She never could have counted the number of ponies who had been under her tail, the number of ponies who had sniffed curiously at her marehood before putting a hoof or a tongue or a dick against her, in her; she never could have expressed in words what made it different when it was her sister, but it was. A completeness that hadn’t been there for a thousand years. Pressure on a spot that nopony’s tongue or dick had been able to reach, a place that only her sister could reach.
She was bound and her muscles tensed and had no proper relief as she squirmed around on the bed, simultaneously trying to avoid the pleasures her sister’s tongue brought while embracing them, while becoming lost in them. Her horn sputtered and flickered and impotently shot spells in the ceiling, in the walls, and there was a warmth and fullness that had been missing for far too long; she hadn’t realized how empty she was until her sister filled her.
*****
Princess Luna’s throne was smaller and to the side, that was what ponies saw. She was secondary.
But in the bedchambers--that was what ponies didn’t see. Yin and Yang, two parts of the same. Luna was content to be subservient in the public eye because she knew who ruled the bedroom, who was on top where it actually counted. She knew, unfairly, every one of Princess Celestia’s weak spots, and used them mercilessly, and Princess Celestia took it every night without more than a token protest.
She had a thousand years to make up for, after all.
