Princess Celestia watched her reflection carefully, scrutinising every inch of it for any sign of something amiss. The shimmering pinks of her eyes stared back at her, softly lidded and wreathed above by golden eye-shadow. No hint, as near as she could tell, of the presence of magical influence. It was a finding that brought with it conflicting feelings of relief and frustration. The foremost sign of visual illusory magic was discolouration of the subject's irises. It was a long shot, but if whatever spell at play was a variant of some lower order magic, the base would be easy enough to spot, even if, by now only faint traces remained.

The Solar Princess couldn't help but be half-proud of her quick thinking. Asking her sister to examine her was out of the question, but Starlight had given her a perfect opportunity when she offered the plated slice of cake that was now smeared over much of her face. Under the guise of mopping up every last crumb, she had polished both the plate and the surrounding portion of table to a mirror sheen. From there, it was a simple enough task to inspect herself, with neither her sister nor Starlight any the wiser.

Her reflection knitted it's eyebrows, a tell that she was quick to correct. Subtlety remained key, she reminded herself, as a mound of light yellow filling dislodged itself and fell back to her plate. Starlight still had Luna's ear. If she gave her suspicions away without evidence, it would only present Starlight the chance to climb out of the pit she had dug for herself. She watched her reflection's tongue spill out from between gold-painted lips, the sight of it, with arms bent and hands clasped firmly behind its head expanding as she drew nearer. She pressed her tongue to the table once again, and chased the errant confection along its surface, taking one last chance to inspect the eyes that stared back, reflected in the saliva streaked stone.

"Princess?" the voice of her adversary drew Celestia's attention back from the woman in the table, her dark, immaculate skin, slathered with sweetness, the white of the frosting and the red of the jelly leaving it to look almost clown-like. "I hope I'm not being too forward, but you have a little..." she pointed to her own cheek with one hand, her other drifting up toward her choker and -

"Do I?" Celestia replied with a sour tinge to her voice. She touched her own hand to mimic Starlight's and found a small portion of what remained affixed to her face. The legs of the chair scraped against the tile beneath, the sound bouncing off the distant walls of the empty throne room and returning a moment later as hoarse sort of whisper. Careful not to waste even the smallest opportunity, she drew out the simple process of standing, turning it into a slow, languid affair as she stretched and twisted until she assumed her full, inhuman height. She surveyed her surroundings as she did, her dress shifting and soon going taught against her, trying in vain to accommodate the excesses of her supernatural figure.

'It simply isn't possible.' she thought. 'It should not be at all possible for a mortal to cast a spell powerful or complex enough to affect us the way that Starlight has...' The Princess bent herself in half, leaning down so that her hands met the floor, and the florid colours of her hair hanging before her, sliding her right hand up the length of her calf and thigh, exposed through the slit of her dress' side, until it reached its edge. Her hand slid beneath it, finding the thin sliver of fabric that was her waistband, stretched taught across her hips, and taking hold of it.

The list of spells that could alter perceptions was almost endless, but one of the many perks of godhood, was that she could discard most of it. For a start, she could eliminate mental magic as a possibility entirely. 'As a Princess, our mind is all but impregnable to mortal magic...' she reminded herself, the thought reverberating throughout her consciousness as she began to wriggle out of her panties, bringing them down the great length of her smooth, supple thighs. 'Our mind is impenetrable. Mental magic and mental manipulations do not affect us. There is never a reason to suspect either mental magic or mental manipulation...'

That only left illusions as a possibility.

Mental magic acted on the mind directly, but illusory magic affected only the senses. At its core, it was a relatively simple exercise. Optical and auditory illusions could be performed by children. Even the other senses could, with enough skill, be fooled, though altering a subjects sense of touch, or ability to detect magic, was solely the domain of master magicians. What unnerved Celestia was the sheer scale and complexity of it all. Multiple, overlapping layers of spells, each one in perfect synchronicity with the others, realistic enough to feel entirely real, and all of it obscured so as to only be experienced by one person...

Celestia knew her sister to be the only person capable of such a feat. She looked leftward, meeting her sister's eye for a moment, and catching an uneasy smile, the discomfort of her earlier outburst no doubt still weighing upon her. Celestia pushed the thought from her mind and stepped out of her underwear, crouching down and grasping them between her fingers. 'Luna is beyond suspicion.' she thought with a sense of utter finality. 'Our sister would never cast any sort of spell on us without our consent'.

She returned to her seat, panties in hand, and wordlessly began to run the soft, silken fabric along her face. The illusion had seemed entirely real to her when it was cast, but that was almost certainly because she had been caught off guard. No illusion was perfect. There were always seams, tiny details that the caster failed to account for. Once found, the magic was easily identified and dispelled.

She stopped to look upon the cloth in her hand, the shimmering, golden fabric that had, only a minute prior, been wedged between her legs, now slathered with cream and frosting. She had never inspected them all that closely, but even her undergarments were embroidered with intricate designs woven in bright yellow thread. Rarity truly had poured her heart and soul into it, no doubt just as Pinkie Pie had to bake the cake that now stained them. The thought of even a moment of their efforts going to waste brought with it a pang of guilt. Perhaps that was part of Starlight's plan. She had done well ingratiating herself with Luna, Twilight and their friends. Cornered as she was, there was little doubt she would cling to any evidence she could use to bring them to her side, 'proof' that she could use to cast Celestia as uncaring in opposition to herself. The Princess would not spare her even that remote possibility, and so, she spat out her tongue, and began licking her panties clean.

It wasn't, strictly speaking, impossible, that Starlight had managed to create the illusion alone, but channeling her magic through some sort of artefact was much more likely. Twilight had given Starlight the run of the castle, and worse still, she had even allowed her inside the Royal Vault, she thought, savouring the taste of her own musk, mingled with confectionery sweetness. Celestia hadn't noticed anything obviously out of place when she had arrived, or when she had taken her look around the room, but Starlight would've had more than enough time to hide anything she planned to use well in advance.

She took her panties from her lips and looked them over. They were damp now, just short of dripping, but otherwise spotless. She put a hand through either side of the waistband and stretched them wide, holding them out before her for Starlight to see. To Luna, it would seem an innocuous enough gesture, but Starlight would see she had once more been outflanked. "Much better." she chirped, and Celestia began to fold and lay them on the table next to her plate. "I hope I wasn't overstepping. I would hate to embarrass you."

Two options came to Celestia's mind. The first was to try to expose Starlight on her own. If she could detect a flaw in her illusions, if she could understand what artefact Starlight had found, or at the very least, how she was sing it, Celestia could disarm her, and prove her crimes beyond a shadow of a doubt. The second option was to have Starlight expose herself. Starlight was smart, but not nearly as smart as she thought she was. It was a delicate line she was walking now. Concealing this sort of magic from one princess would be difficult, but two, and one of them Luna, would be arduous. No doubt whatever method she had employed to hide her treachery had compounded the complexity of her spells even further. One minor slip in judgement would be all it took, and all her plans would disintegrate.

Starlight would have to make a move eventually, time was running out, after all. Even Luna would come to notice that no one was coming, that she had been lied to, but that still left room for Starlight to muddy the waters. She was, if nothing else, impressively deceitful. Hard evidence would win the day, and for that, Celestia would need to force Starlight's hand. She would bait her. The prospect of once more succumbing to her magic, to willingly giving herself over to it, felt as if she had swallowed a ball of lead. The image of her sister, prostrate before her, still haunted her, but she was a Princess. She was strong. She would endure. She would win. Starlight would make a mistake, or Celestia would find her out. One way or another, Celestia would see her exposed.

The Princess of The Sun leaned inward from her seat planting and elbow on the table's edge and cradling her chin in her hand. Her eyelids drooped and her expression softened, the contemptuous sneer turning to an apathetic moue. Starlight was Twilight's inverted image. She was all of her worst qualities, and tempered by none of her admirable ones. She was endlessly eager to prove herself, with an ego big enough to fill the castle, and as fragile as an eggshell. Every aspect of the Princess' demenour would tell the tale. That for all her planning, the Princess she sought to challenge and conquer was not just undaunted or unimpressed, she was bored.

"Perish the thought, Starlight." she sighed, her voice taking on the same bone-weary, edge that one took with a misbehaving pet. "I doubt you could embarrass me, even if you tried."

She drained her teacup to the dregs and gave it a lazy shove, sending it rattling to a stop halfway across the table, just out of reach, for Starlight to refill. There was a pathetic sort of childishness about the mage, Celestia thought. She sat in a chair fit for a Princess, with legs crossed, literally unfit to take the place of those for whom it was meant. She managed to prop herself up on the edge, reaching over the various plated pastries that lay between herself, the cup, and the pot, the plain white of her t-shirt riding up her torso as she did, revealing the slight band of peach flesh that was her belly and the open neckline giving a glimpse of the dull beige bra that cupped the mid-sized bust beneath, and just before them, the sole bit of ostentation, that tiny blue gem.

When this was over - when she was personally escorting Starlight to her cell in the depths of Tartarus, Celestia would need to ask her about it. Jewelry of any kind seemed dreadfully out of character for the sort of person who wore jeans to her own coup attempt. But perhaps she was reading too much into it. The gem, after all, was impressively unimpressive, and in that way, meshed perfectly with the drab aesthetic to which Starlight had seemed to dedicate her life. Just a single, blue gem, dangling by a silver chain, and bound to a thin, purple choker, the light cascading through it as it bobbed and swayed with the subtle movements of its owner. It was almost captivating to watch, and think of all the ways in which it was beneath her notice. All the ways in which it was meaningless, and not worth thinking about. She felt, in that moment, as if she could spend hours, perhaps even days, staring at it, and thinking of nothing other than its insignificance. She could even make a game of it. 'Starlights gem is meaningless.' she thought, as the idea drew her in. 'Starlight's gem is inconsequential. Starlight's gem is unimportant. We will not be suspicious of Starlight's gem. We will not ask others about Starlight's gem. We-'

"Sister?"

Celestia felt a cool hand on her shoulder, pushing against her and rousing her from her thoughts. She turned towards it, blinking rapidly, and saw Luna, her face with the same troubled expression about it. "Starlight asked you a question, sister."

Celestia looked back to Starlight, no longer stretched halfway across the table, but back in her seat, legs once again crossed, with tongs in hand. "Sugar?" Celestia shook her head, and watched as white wisps of steam curled upward from her slowly filling cup. With her free hand, she touched the edge of her mouth, finding it damp, and traced a path from it down the length of her arm, pooling at her elbow. She had been drooling. She reached for her panties, themselves still moist, and ran them up the length of her arm, dabbing at the edge of her mouth and setting them back down.

'Bored.' she chastised herself, 'We are supposed to look bored, not comatose.' When had she even started to - it didn't matter - she couldn't afford to make such mistakes, she needed to focus.

Starlight finished filling Celestia's a slid it back across the table, then topped up her own to the brink of overflowing, and added two sugar-cubes that sank and vanished into the faintly green fluid.

"As I was saying, you have my apologies, Princess." Starlight continued, reattaching the ends of their previous discussion, her spoon turning lazily in her cup. "I don't know what came over me. I know better than to be presumptuous in the presence of royalty."

Celestia watched Starlight intently, her expression still fixed in a lazy kind of disinterest that obscured a focused determination in the depths of her rose-tinged eyes. Any detail could be critical. A twitch of her nose, a wink of her eye, the idle way that one hand toyed with a ringlet of teal and purple hair, anything at all - 'Except the gem'.

Starlight's free hand withdrew her spoon from the eddying current it had made in her tea, and tapped it against the edge of her cup. The plangent tone of metal against porcelain hung in the air, and Celestia's ears perked at hearing it, recognising it as a C-sharp, and, as a matter of reflex, replying with the piggiest snort that she could muster. 'It is essential we understand how Starlight sets off her spell.' she thought as she struck the tea cup for a second time, and the Princess gave another, louder snort in response.

"That's quite -" Starlight struck her cup for a third time, the familiar tone once more resonating in the silence of the throne-room, and Celestia stopped herself mid-sentence. She put her thumb to the tip of her nose and flared her nostrils, pressed upward and gave a a third snort, loud enough to echo back from all sides, then added in a proud, joyous shout: "I'm a Piggy Princess!" before resettling herself and finishing her thought. "-alright. Part of - SNORT - being a Princess is - SNORT - developing a - I'm a Piggy Princess! - thick skin."

Starlight's spoon ceased, taking a sip and setting her cup back down, the smarmy smile she wore seeming to stretch even wider, if that was possible. "Sounds stressful."

There was an itch at the back of the Princess' mind that told her the fidgeting with the spoon was somehow significant. A nervous tic, perhaps? A sign that Starlight was finally beginning to comprehend the bleakness of her situation, or feeling the prick of Celestia's needling. "It can be. Much of ruling is. The public relations, the endless crises, the scheming. It comes to weigh on you after a while." She paused as Starlight began once again to tap her spoon. 'She's more annoying by the second...' she ruminated. The tone was higher now, a D-flat, and as effect followed cause, the Princess gave a parrot's squawk. There was, however, and upshot. Celestia now knew that she was getting to her.

"Well, you carry it well, Princess. I never would've guessed."

Celestia resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Flattering and obsequious, even in the midst of attempting to overthrow her, always plumbing new depths of shamelessness. "Just one of the benefits of experience, -" She squawked again. Louder, this time. It was obvious now that this was some kind of nervous tic. Frustration was no doubt beginning to take hold. "I suppose. It's sad to say that even something like... I don't know, treason? can become rather mundane after a while." A third tap sent Celestia leaping atop her chair, perched on the balls of her feet, her hands on her hips, and her elbows pointed outward, flapping as she cawed: "SQUAWK! CELLY, WANNA' CRACKER! SQUAWK!"

Celestia quickly retook her seat, again settling back into her aura of detached indifference, just in time for Starlight to reply. "Is that so?"

"The same sorts of people, worming their way into positions of influence, hiding in plain sight, and biding their time. If you've seen it once you've seen it a thousand times." One more push, that would be all it would take, somehow, she was sure of it. "But those are the sorts of things you learn to deal with when you rule over subjects with their free will in tact. I suppose that's something you never needed to worry much about, hm?"

"I suppose you're right." Starlight shrugged, Celestia's words, lobbed like a brick, seemed merely to bounce off Starlight's façade rather than shattering it. No discernible reaction save for Starlight reaching for her choker and -

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw her sister shift in her seat, but paid it no attention, her full focus still on Starlight, waiting for her to do... something. It didn't matter. She would make her move eventually, she had no choice. Soon enough, she would-

A shiver shot up Celestia's spine as she felt an eerie, unsettling sort of chill fall upon her shoulders, recognising it only a moment later as that of her sister's hands upon her, joined soon after by the bite of her frigid breath on the nape of her neck. The Solar Princess caught herself before she reacted, fixing in place without so much as a twitch. 'This is it.' she thought, taking her tea cup in hand and raising it her lips. Her eyes drifted to her left as if nothing were wrong, observing the empty space where her sister had been, or rather, still was. It had happened. Starlight had once again managed to cast her spell without her noticing. She needed to -

Her grip tightened and her jaw clenched as something rough and wet touched itself against her cheek. A tongue - her sister's tongue - no - an illusion, a pathetic attempt to unnerve her - a false sensation - little more than the manipulation of the air around her to give the impression of a - of a wet, slimy tongue, running itself up along the side of her face...

The Princess shuddered before she could help it, and saw Starlight's reaction. A trick to her lips and a gleam in her eye, as if something so puerile warranted even the a modicum of pride. "Is something the matter, sister?" Luna's voice asked with a soothing lilt, the soft rumble of it felt through the touch of her chest to Celestia's back, her words sounding as if her mouth were pressed to her ear.

'We must stay calm.', she told herself, as the finer points of Starlight's plan became clear in Celestia's mind. Twice now, she had conjured illusions devoid of subtlety. More vivid than any Celestia had ever experienced before, but also debauched and excessive. What she had hoped to get out of the first remained unclear, but for the second, there could be no mistaking its intent. She, too, wanted force a reaction. Until there was proof, it was Starlight's word against her own. But if Celestia's own sister turned against her, if she told Twilight or her friends that she was in an unfit state of mind, that she had been behaving strangely, speaking to unheard voices, that she was crazy, then perhaps Starlight could slither away.

Celestia turned to face the empty chair at her side, looking through the air at the precise point where she knew Luna's eyes to be. "Just a chill. A draft must have blown through." she said with perfect tranquility. Starlight would not make a fool of her. She would not turn her people against her. These despicable tactics would fail, and she would suffer for them.

"Perhaps, we should change the subject?" Starlight asked. Celestia felt the hands on her shoulders begin to shift, sliding downward, and taking with them, the straps of her dress.

'Focus.' the straps came undone, and a vision of her breasts laid bare appeared before her. Twin, voluptuous mounds unlike any others in all the world, incomparable in their size or weight, yet still high and firm upon the frame that bore them, their soft, creamy brown complexion slowly turning darker as wide, perfectly circular areola gave way to long, fat nipples. 'How is this possible?' the Princess looked down at breasts that were undoubtedly her own. Every detail, every milimetre, even the feel of their weight upon her, now unsupported, indistinguishable from reality.

'Focus.' the thought repeated in her. 'This isn't real. She is trying to distract us. We must not let her.'

Soon, the pale, glittering hands appeared in the periphery of her vision, slinking down along the slope of her chest and moving in slow, methodical circles along it. Celestia returned her cup to the table and took another deep breath.

'There is always a seam. There is always a fault.' Yet as she looked down at the hands - at herself - she could see none. The illusion was flawless. Every aspect of it, from the placement of the tiny glittering points of light that sparkled on Luna's skin, to the exact timbre and inflection of her voice and the feel of her breath as it brushed across her ear. An error, no matter how minor, a simple thread on which to pull, would be all it took to begin to unravel it, but even as the repulsive sight of her sister's hands, sinking and practically disappearing into her breasts, groping and pawing at her chest before her eyes, she could find nothing wrong.

"Tell me, what is the first thing the two of you are planning for after the coronation?"

The hands drifted lower, finding her nipples and first teasingly brushing against them, the chill of her sister's skin turning them to stone in an instant, and then idly flicking against them. "Tra-vel." Celstia said, correcting the hoarseness in her voice mid-syllable. Luna's hands continued to play, running the length of them, jutting out rigidly like little fingers pointed in Starlight's direction, occasionally flicking at them, up and down, as if it were all some surreal sort of game, and all the while leaving a warm tingle to spread across her chest.

She felt Luna's chin come to rest upon her shoulder, and saw the blurred outline of her of her milky-white features at her side. "Yes! We are planning on seeing the world! It will be a pleasure to finally travel, unburdened by diplomatic obligations." The words were punctuated by another pass of her tongue along the side of Celestia's face, a long, slow lash that left the impression of a fresh coating of slime dripping down along her face.

'Focus.' She needed to focus. This thing was not her sister. It wasn't even real. Somewhere in this room was an artefact. An item of immense magical power, and she needed to find it.

"That does sound nice. Anywhere particular in mind?"

The hand's grip turned to iron, taking hold of her with torturous force, pulling her taught and lurching her forward. Celestia winced, and tried to cover what threatened to be a strained mewl, with a cough, but once again, Starlight's expression betrayed her failure. She quirked an a bemused eyebrow, and the Princess silently cursed at her from across the table. "What was that, Princess Celestia?"

"Sssaddle Arrrabia..." Celestia replied from between pursed lips and gritted teeth. She was upright now, no longer leaning on her elbow, but stiff, with back straight. Her hands had begun to tremble as well, and she did her best to clasp them in her lap beneath the table to hide it. Starlight would surely have noticed, and was no doubt delighting in seeing her depravity baring fruit. She could only hope that her sister was somewhat less observant.

"An interesting choice for a first stop. Any particular reason?"

"I - wuh - was impr - impressed buh - by their - del-uh-gei-shun."

"Oh, yes, relations between our two lands have never been better following their most recent summit. My sister has ensured that Twilight Sparkle will have no shortage of allies upon her ascension."

Celestia gave a jerky, stiff-necked nod. Her thoughts still divided. She could sense nothing. Nothing. The source of this magic had been concealed to perfection. So much so that even Luna had still not sensed it.

The hands had turned gentler. Kneading and stroking rather than crushing, and now seemingly fixated on her left breast. In measured, purposeful strokes they ran the length of it, massaging her now, as the heady tingle of building pressure settled upon her. One long, slow pass after another, they traced the full length of it, thumb and forefinger, plucking at the end of her nipple, then returning to her chest. Over and over again in an unnerving rhythm.

Rank revulsion rippled through Celestia's mind as she realised, and saw one hand take hold of her half-empty tea cup and slide it beneath her still smarting nipple, the other still cradling her breast with its perversely soothing touch.

Starlight's prattle began to fade, as did thoughts of sensing magic or finding fault in the illusion. Never in all her years had she wanted anything more than to swat the hands away. She wanted to jump to her feet, to shriek in righteous fury, and to reduce the woman who sat across from her to a heap of ash. But she couldn't. That was what Starlight wanted. Luna would intervene in an instant, and besides, in Equestria, even Goddesses were accountable to laws.

'It's not real.' the words no longer felt as if they had meaning - like a spiteful joke she was playing on herself. It was real enough. Her cheeks burned in humiliation as the pressure continued to build. She - The Goddess of The Sun, The Eternal Ruler of Equestria, sat helpless - powerless, paralyzed with divine rage, hands folded, quivering violently in her lap, as beads of white warmness began to dribble down from her chest.

There were no more deep breaths. They were shallow now, quick, and just short of panting. Over and over again as more of her milk flowed into the cup and the shade of the tea turned lighter, the few seconds dragging on infinitely as the pressure and tingle in her chest began to dissipate. When she was done - when she was done leaking, as one final act of humiliation, she watched her sister's finger run itself up the front of her breast, taking up the few remaining drops. The finger put itself against Celestia's lips. Clearly wishing she would open wide, but when she didn't, settled for wiping themselves off upon her face.

Luna's face disappeared from her periphery, the hands going with her. Celestia glimpsed her as she appeared on her opposite side, sitting herself back in the chair, but all the while her eyes were on Starlight, who raised a hand to her choker, and -

"-but that's just my recommendation. I'm sure the two of you have your own plans as well."

Celestia's mind snapped back to the din of conversation, her eyes shifting to Luna, who's full attention was on Starlight, nodding enthusiastically to whatever it was she had said.

Everything was as it had been. The straps of her dress covered her breasts, and as she slowly touched her hand, still trembling slightly, to her face, she found none of her sister's saliva upon it. Nothing. She had endured the worst humiliation of her life, and she had learned nothing.

"It seems Princess Celestia might not like my suggestions as much as you do, Luna."

Dimly aware that her name had been spoken, Celestia stared vaguely ahead, wondering what it was Starlight had meant.

"Sister! What is the matter?"

Celestia's eyes were wide and wild, her mouth just short of agape. Flustered, she stammered: "I - I - nothing, Luna, nothing is the matter. I - I just..."

"Sister, if you are feeling unwell, you must tell me."

"Yes, Princess Celestia, if anything is the matter you know you we'll do anything we can to help."

"Nothing is wrong." She snapped. Regretting her tone the moment it crossed her lips, as Luna's expression only hardened and Starlight's gossamer thin veneer of concern gave way to outright jubilation.

"Nothing is wrong." she repeated in a calmer timbre, wiping the shock from her face as best she could.

She needed to keep her composure. Now more than ever. She had underestimated Starlight Glimmer. The depths to which she would sink. The tactics that she would employ.

She took her teacup in hand and forced it to stop shaking. She looked at the light green liquid within it, the images in her mind still sickeningly fresh.

'It wasn't real.'

She put the cup to her lips and drank, hoping against hope that it would somehow still her jangling nerves. As it poured into her mouth, and swallowed it in two deep gulps, one thought surfaced among the raging torrent.

It tasted sweeter than she expected...

Author's Note

In this installment of writing my way out of the corner I backed myself into... things get a bit weird, but Celestia will probably figure a way out of it... right?

Patch Notes: I made some small edits to the previous 2 chapters, nothing major, just trying to fit things together a bit better following the change in plans.

I dunno, this took forever, I'm moderately optimistic about the next one, but who the fuck knows. Can't wait till' AI gets real good and can write everything for me, so I can live out my days staring at blank patches of wall.