Author's Note

This chapter contains sibling incest. It's not subtle, and it pervades the second half of the entire chapter. Skip to the end and read upwards from there if it really bothers you, although this chapter in its entirety is pretty important for the story. Regardless of what you choose to do, I hope you enjoy this chapter.

Canterlot Curiosities

In spite of the entire situation, the cool air against her wings and coat really did relax Twilight. At least, she made herself relax. She had no idea what lay ahead, but if Princess Celestia could deal with it, there was no need to get herself worked up and make a fool of herself in front of her beloved mentor. If Princess Celestia found herself in over her head, then Twilight would need to be that vital support, somepony everypony else could rely on. Either way, she needed to be calm and collected for what lay ahead, regardless of what it was. She had done so before, and she could do so again. Sure, the last time that happened, her friends were by her side, but-

She banished those thoughts from her head, focusing on the brush of wind through her feathers and fur, the gentle caress against her skin. The wan but steadily brightening sunlight offered a small amount of warmth to her, and she chose to embrace that. She was strong and capable, she knew. Princess Luna believed in her, Rarity believed in her, and everypony - her friends, the ponies of Equestria, everypony - was counting on her. The worries didn't fade from her head, but the motivation she drew muted that selfish mewling. The flight gave her time to think, but it also gave her time to immunise herself against her fears and doubts. She drew on that strength as the mountainside city took up more and more of her vision, the emerging sun allowing her sharp eyes to make out the orderly lattice of roads and the meandering, wandering ponies who occupied them.

Even from her altitude, she could make out the indicators of the hex on the citizens; aimless walking, most leaning against a wall or standing in the middle of the street until another came up to them to interact. In any other context, on any other day, it might've looked like a normal, desirable social gathering, the sort that enriched the lives of all of the subjects of the kingdom. Twilight knew better, though. The parks had become congregation grounds for the affected denizens, clothes being shed and bodies pressed together, with more amassing from the streets and alleys like sediment flowing along a stream. Individuals joined a throng or became the nucleus as other pressed in. As she descended, making out more and more of what lay below, few bothered to look up, and none of them engaged with her. One stallion's eyes lingered on her as she swooped overhead, but his muzzle was swiftly grabbed by a mare, who pulled him into a deep, intimate kiss.

The gate to the castle was shut, and its drawbridge raised, barring access to anypony who wasn't a pegasus, or in Twilight's case, an alicorn. She'd expected some resistance, a challenge or a warning, but she was able to glide into the grounds without so much as a distant shout, bleeding off her excess momentum and carrying onward into a trot. The grass beneath her hooves gave way to paving, and she steeled herself as she moved with purpose towards the door set between the two curving stairwells. In this compound, surrounded by great stone walls and towering spires of pearlescent white and smooth, polished grey, and glimmering gold, she ought to have felt safe. It seemed impregnable, an obstinate, proud fortress, a courtyard in its own right - but it was too quiet for something so confident and imposing, and she herself had simply flapped in. The mare glanced upward at the tower, her intended destination, and tried not to let her mind wander to the worst; was Princess Celestia even here? Was she safe? Was...were the balcony windows shattered? It was hard to see from the ground, but it looked as if sunlight was gleaming on partial panes of jagged, fractured glass, a scattered web of cracks littering the surface, and in several places glass looked to be missing entirely.

"Halt!" a firm voice commanded, startling the princess from her nervous observations. Two guards stood in front of the great door to the castle - a cross between a gatehouse and a tower, she absentmindedly noticed. Their sharpened short spears were crossed at the blades to physically bar the way. "Nopony is permitted to enter the Royal Castle. I'm sorry, but you have to leave, your majesty."

"I need to speak to Celestia," Twilight spoke, taken aback by the challenge. There were few times she had been refused entry by the Royal Guard, and ever since she had ascended to alicornhood, their already friendly demeanour to her had soared to a reverence that she only found moderately disconcerting. If they were preventing her from entering the castle, that could only mean Princess Celestia herself had given the order. "There's a plague-"

"We know, your highness," the same guard replied, her tone professional and stern. "We have been given our orders, and we are not to permit anypony entry except specifically ordered by a direct superior."

As she processed those words, the strangeness of the situation came into sharp focus for her; she hadn't quite realised what was wrong with the scene, beyond her unexpected lack of authority, because it had been so brazenly staring her in the face, full-frontal and unapologetically obvious, but her brain caught up with her eyes, and she blinked. While their spearheads were crossed in a barring action, glittering in what must by now surely be the midday sun, only one of the two guardpony's was stood stiffly at attention as was expected. The other fidgeted and shuffled, her knees bending and her hooves clopping as she scuffed and grazed the paving stones, her empty hand clenching and unclenching in barely restrained restlessness. She kept lifting her hand from her hip and moving it toward her groin, but hastily forced it back down to her side again.

"I was asked by Princess Luna to come here," Twilight pressed, keeping an eye on the second guard's mannerisms. Uncharacteristic ill-discipline wasn't the only thing standing out about this mare; she was oddly light on armour, having foregone her cuirass and the majority of the underlayer. She still wore her sleeves, the braces, the spaulders, the helm, the leggings and the greaves, but the only protection afforded to her torso was the - quite literal - breastplates hugging her mammaries. The mare's smoke-grey coat was far more visible than it otherwise would've been, showing off a very trim tummy and the enviable curve of her slim waist and wide hips. Even the skirt looked too short, but that was wholly mitigated by how much it showed off the equally delightful toned thighs-

"I have to see Celestia," Twilight emphasised, shaking her thoughts from the alarmingly alluring shapeliness of the distracted guard. "I've been given instructions from Princess Luna herself."

"I don't disbelieve you," the other guard answered, remaining impassive. She was dressed the same as her colleague, Twilight noticed, but didn't exhibit any of the same symptoms. "But the only pony I'm authorised to accept alterations to my standing orders is the Captain of the Guard himself. Nopony enters while we're at our post, and we're at our post until we're told differently."

"Even though one of you is clearly sick?" the alicorn asked. The guard - her coat was almost the same colour as the alicorn's brother's - glanced sideways at the smoke-grey guardpony, who had stuffed her hand past her belt and was rummaging around under her skirt, eyes and knees squeezed together. With a silent sigh, the white guard refocused her attention on the purple princess.

"Duty comes first, your highness," she intoned, placing a hand on her hip. "Nopony is permitted to come inside, unless by direct order."

"I have to insist-"

The doors creaked open behind the guards, pulled sharply inward by somepony inside the building. Both guards snapped to attention, the distracted mare removing her now-slippery fingers from her skirt, and a figure stepped out, this one covering the gilded cuirass of the Royal Guard with a simple blue tabard adorned with a stiched sun set high on the chest. He stopped mid-step when he saw the alicorn. "Twilight?"

"Shining Armor," the princess breathed. "I need to see Celestia. It's about this plague."

"You shouldn't be here," her brother responded, resuming his stride towards her. "Celestia's dealing with the issue, and she already has all the help she needs."

"Dealing with the issue?" Twilight asked, incredulously. "There are ponies in the city who are stuck in some sort of trance. They barely reacted to me as I came here, and some of your own guards are sick." The smoke-grey guardmare gulped at those words, her damp fingers twitching a little. "Where is she? Where does she need me to be? I can help if you tell me what she's doing and what else needs to be done."

"The castle is off-limits," he reiterated. "She gave us specific orders to not let anypony in, and that if you turned up, you were to be kept to the library."

"The library?" For a moment, a thrill shot through her, excitement bubbling up at the prospect of being sent to one of the most beloved places from her childhood. It quickly died down again; her instinct to see instructions to go to the library as a reward for accomplishments or good behaviour, as used to be the case in her childhood, was quickly overruled by the oddity of the instruction in this context. "Why would she want me to stay in the library?"

"She didn't explain why, but those are your options. You can leave, or you can stay in the library, and that's it. You're not going to sneak your way around, and you're not-"

It wasn't exactly a shockwave which hit her, being far too gentle for that, but it was hard to describe as anything else. Some wave passed through her, like the heat rolling from an opened carriage door on a boiling summer's day. It seeped into her, permeating her skin and suffusing through her body, rushing up and down her limbs and settling around her groin. Her cheeks flushed, her shoulders slumped, and her head momentarily felt heavier and dizzier, as if she'd stood up too fast, or had sat in a hot room for far too long. It passed as quickly as it had arrived, and in its wake, she swore she heard a bellow, or a gratified moan amplified beyond anypony's ability to produce it without losing the integrity of its expression. Maybe her dizzy spell had simply made her believe she heard it.

The others felt it too. The smoke-grey mare collapsed to her knees, whimpering and panting heavily, her spear clattering to the ground beside her. Shining and the other guard's expressions wrinkled, but they remained upright until the effect faded, spotting an opportunity, Twilight shimmied between them, heading towards the castle doors. Behind her, Shining's voice made its way to her.

"Up on your hooves. Head back to the barracks, get yourself sorted, and send whoever's best rested to take up your post. Now, Twi- Twilight? Twilight! Hey, wait up!"

The clacking of running hoofsteps followed her into the hallway, but she didn't slow or look back. Her mind was awash with what Shining had told her - you were to be kept to the library. Why there, of all places? What could be so important it required her to be relegated to a single room? Was it so she would have enough books to read while she awaited her unspecified appointment?

"Wait a minute," she muttered to herself, coming to a halt and causing Shining to veer around her. "That has to be it. The answer must be in the library!" She set off again, striding past her brother and walking at a swifter pace towards the castle's sanctum of tomes.

"Stop running off!" Shining called after her, resuming his stuttering chase. "You're not allowed to wander the castle alone!"

"I'm not wandering; I'm heading straight for the library. The answer has to be there!"

"What answer?"

"The solution to this epidemic! Why else would Celestia send me to a library?"

"She's not the only pony who knows you're a bookworm. It's how I used to keep you occupied if I came back from a shift tired and you wanted to play, I'm sure she's doing the same."

"Oh ha ha. More than anypony else, Celestia knows just how many conflicts I've helped solved through research and study, and she just so happened to tell me to go to the library? The library in the heart of the capital of ponykind? She's telling me to find a way to fix this. I just know it."

Whether or not Shining Armor agreed with her reasoning, her explanation was sufficient to stop him questioning her further as they pushed open the gold-painted doors and stepped inside a place that was all-too-familiar for the purple pony. It had always been quiet, as was standard for any library of repute, but this time, the silence came from a complete absence; there was no quiet clop of hooves, no muted flap of wings, no rustle of paper being shuffled or pages turned, and no squeak or wheels or a clatter of a trolley being wheeled between shelves. It felt wrong to have a centre of learning and knowledge so uninhabited. In the past, she might've expected to enjoy having it all to herself, to be in a space where there was no minute noise evidencing another creature's existence, but now she found herself amidst the great loneliness, it was crushing. The second she walked in, the creak of the door reverberated like a gunshot, the meek noise amplified as if the room itself was angry at the disturbance. Had it always been this big? This expansive? This...hostile?

"It has to be here somewhere," she asserted, taking a breath and glancing around at the shelves set into the walls. "If we split up, maybe we'll be able to find it quicker."

"Find what, exactly?" Shining asked. "I don't know what you're looking for, how will I know if I've found it?"

"Look for books about plagues, curses, hexes," the alicorn listed, running her eyes over the titles. She knew these already - she'd read the majority of them - and none of them held any relevant information on whatever this was. "Illnesses, epidemics, prophecies..."

"That's a huge variety of topics."

"I know, but we don't even know what this is yet. That's why we're at the library, doing research."

"I think you're enjoying this just a little too much."

Twilight briefly giggled. "There are worse things I've had to do to save the day. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't happy this was where I ended up."

"Right...I'll search over here, then."

His hoofsteps moved away, leaving her alone to peruse the titles lining the shelves. As soon as he left, the emptiness pressed in around her, filling the absence her brother had occupied. She knew that didn't make sense - a vacuum couldn't fill a vacuum, that was an impossibility - but her rationality didn't help her as her meandering gaze walked up the books and further toward the ceiling, her neck craning back further and further. It couldn't be looking at her; the room didn't have a consciousness, any sentience or sapience to register her process, nevermind any sensory organs to observe her, but that instinct of being afloat among something greater than herself itched and itched.

The alicorn ran her fingers along the spines, seeking to replace the creeping, oppressive sensation emanating from around her with a sensation far more tactile. When that didn't quite cut it, she pulled several volumes from the shelf, opening them and skimming through the contents. She already knew there wouldn't be anything helpful in them, but the addition of visual stimulus to the comforting smoothness of the pages as she turned them mitigated the pressing discomfort. Replacing them one by one, she moved across, thumbing through the pages of the thickest texts in vain hope.

"There's something here with your name on it!"

Her singular focus shifted, immediately transferring from the words in front of her to the sound of her brother's voice. She returned the books to the shelf, instinctively sliding them back into their appropriate spots and trotting in the direction Shining's alert had come from, her hooves clacking uncomfortably loud on the floor as she hurried onward. It was only seconds until she reached him, no longer than a quarter of a minute, but the journey felt more like a hike in the inexplicably vast space. He was waiting for her by the main desk, and as she approached, he handed her a piece of parchment he'd been reading.

"I found it on the desk," he explained, passing it into her hands, along with a key. "It's for you. You'll probably be able to make sense out of it."

Letting her eyes drift down the parchment, it only took the purple mare a few seconds to recognise her mentor's handwriting, though it was scribbled with a hastiness that she hadn't seen before. It was as if it had been scratched with the final seconds of a deadline harassing the scribe, blotches of ink dripped from where the quill had been dipped and used hurriedly, some words crossed through and others noticeably untidy. The further down the parchment the writing went, the less cohesive it became, with the final few words being barely legible. The unease of a sightless observation, which had started to fade when Shining had called out to her, redoubled.

Twilight,

I am so sorry. Please forgive me for what you are about to learn. This key unlocks the restricted sex section. At the end of the third aisle from the entrance is a hidden door. It opens if you ask nicely with this key, just insert it into my tight the crack on the left. Cock Look on the first shelf to the left of the centre table, small white diary. Do not cum come all over a thick hard after me. I am sorry I've been such a naughty mare please forgive me I'll do anything for thisss sss jizzzzz issss

"It looks like Celestia's handwriting," Twilight spoke at last, having re-read it several times. Turning over the parchment revealed nothing further, and she turned her attention to the key.

"What did she mean about being sorry?" Shining asked. "What did she want you to forgive her for?"

"I don't know," the mare admitted, looking towards the padlocked gate she knew sat at the far side of the library. "Hiding information from me, maybe? Keeping secrets she thinks I'll be disappointed about when I discover them? She's left this key for me, and instructions on how to use it, but if this really is her writing...I've never seen her write like this before. Is this the answer we're looking for? Would it be in the restricted section?"

"We can find out," the stallion pointed out. "We have a key, directions, and no other leads."

"And if this is a trap?"

"Why would there be traps in the library? Who would be setting traps in this part of the castle?"

"Changelings, perhaps? Somepony impersonating Celestia to lure me, another princess, into a dark and shadowy part of the castle? If I'm the target, of course they'd set a trap in the library."

"Nothing is going to hurt my little sister." His tone sharpened into a protective growl as he said that, and she felt a warm wave of relief enshroud her. With a smile and a nod, she folded the parchment and stuffed it into a pocket, and started in the direction of the gate, the unicorn at her side. It didn't take them long to reach the gate, the key held between Twilight's thumb and forefinger ready.

"I'm glad you're here," she said, offering him a smile. "It's good to have someone I can count on with me." He reached out and gave her shoulder a squeeze, then cheekily ruffled her mane.

"Whenever you need me, Twilight."

She scoffed, but only half-heartedly pulled away. Taking a breath, she inserted the key, turned it, and winced as a chunky metallic click emanated from the padlock. The gate opened without complaint, granting them entry into a space that, on any other day, Twilight would've been excited beyond measure to access. Twilight counted the aisles - one, two, three - and followed the cryptic directions, walking to the stone wall at the very end. If she hadn't been told what to look for, it would've been very easily missed, just an unobtrusive, unremarkable crack at waist-height on the left of the wall. Crouching down, she slid the key in, feeling it slot into the mechanism hidden inside, and twisted. It was stiff, and she persisted for several seconds, the metal uncomfortably biting into her skin until, with a click, she succeeded, and after a moment, a low rumble passed through the floor and the grating of stone met her ears. Standing up, Twilight watched as the wall slid upward, revealing a passage on the other side.

"Another section of the library?" Twilight voiced aloud, stepping into the hallway beyond. The passage was lined with bookshelves, though these were far more sparsely adorned than the main chamber, holding only a few books. A short distance away, a decorative stone archway led into a rotunda, smaller in size but similar in design to the restricted section. "What's so secret that it needs to be hidden away from the restricted section?"

She looked at the few books on the shelves, their titles revealing no overlapping theme or topic to her - Cellular Biology, Genealogy of the Ancient Pony Tribes, 101 Dirty Jokes. She tried to find a common link, or to see which one of the writings might have caused Celestia to divulge the existence of this hidden chamber to her, but there was nothing. The books were novel, but she had no idea why they were stored in a secret chamber within the restricted section, which was itself reserved for far more powerful and dangerous knowledge; by comparison, these were mundane, notwithstanding their esoteric and eclectic nature. If not for the instructions leading her here, she wouldn't have been sure she was even in the right place, for all the clues it held. She turned to face Shining, his protracted silence registering to her as she caught him looking down the passageway, eyes fixated on something, his face a mask of awe.

Her question - "What are you staring at?" - became redundant as soon as she asked it, turning her gaze to the archway. It was impossible to miss, but her fixation on finding answers had caused her to dismiss it as merely a decoration when she'd first laid eyes on it. It was, in reality, a decoration, but unlike any she'd ever seen before. It was a marble sculpture of two ponies, a mare and a stallion, and the details on their bodies remained as sharp and defined as the day the grandiose statue had been carved. The stallion was stood, back arched so much he was practically bent at the waist, grasping the mare's upper thighs to support her weight, while her legs were wound around his torso and her ankles crossed behind his back. She held herself up with her palms pressed on her pedestal, her half-handstand working in conjunction with his hold to keep her vertical.

In itself, it might've been a public monument for a sports stadium, embodying the peak physical grace of a pair of athletes in the physically demanding rigour of their event, or perhaps at a theatre immortalising the beauty of a dancer or actor in the throes of performance, if it hadn't been for the nudity. The stallion's penis hung down to his knees, long and thick and oddly alluring, and the mare's full, round breasts hung down towards her shoulders, no less suitable for having been pulled by gravity into a whole new shape and perspective. Twilight had read about the traditions of ancient pegasi who engaged in naked sports like wrestling and sprinting, but this was unlike any sport that she had ever researched. The stallion's face was hidden between the mare's thighs, his muzzle presumably resting against her loins, and from the parted lips and closed eyes presented in her beautiful, artificial visage, whatever he was doing was satisfactorily pleasurable to her.

"This might be it," the alicorn spoke at last, breaking the silence into which she'd lapsed. Shining nodded wordlessly, and followed as his sister resumed their walk. The unicorn didn't look away from the marble mare as they passed under the exotic architecture, his head turning to face the fat teardrop breasts, the softness of the toned arms and belly, the slimness of her torso, the feminine curve of the waist that would make Rarity herself stop and admire the accomplishment. She understood why; she couldn't keep their bodies out of her view, and she found herself tracking the tight, dense musculature of the stallion, the hardness of his calves and quads and his rigid six-pack seeming to exceed the stone from which she observed it. It was perfect, an enthralling masterpiece of masonry, and it captured perfectly the proportions of a highly athletic stallion. No, not a stallion - this was an ideal, the epitome of what a pony could be, ought to be, in whichever society valued...this. She wasn't sure what 'this' even was, but she understood it, somehow, related to it, maybe even yearned for it? Why? Was it the beautiful detail? The artistry? Was that why she could envision the activity these two ponies were engaged in, which this one still moment represented? The actions they would take, the way their bodies would move, the noises they would make and the way the stallion would smell-

Twilight blushed, a dark red blossoming onto her cheeks, and she tried to shut her eyes to the visually invasive display. She didn't quite manage it, cracking open an eye as she passed under the arch, where the stallion cradled the mare's middle, his face lowered to her groin as if he were drinking from a spring. His glans was nearly at eye-level to her, and if she stretched upward, she could probably reach it with her lips. She shook the thought from her head - shivering as it left her - and pressed on to the table at the centre of the room. Reaching into her pocket, she retrieved the parchment and smoothed it out, insistently dragging her thoughts to the matter at hand.

"First shelf on the left of the centre table," she read, turning towards that direction. "Small white diary..." Stepping forward, she roamed her vision across the densely-packed layers of tomes, scrolls, and paper, clearing each level with a deftness that soon earned her a result. As promised, a pearlescent leather book, half the height or less of the others around it, sat wedged neatly into a corner, and after some wiggling, the alicorn managed to recover it. Marching over to the table again with a triumphant remark to herself, she laid it down and thumbed to the first page.

"I guess I was right," Shining opined, his attention diverted from the archway by her voice. "Celestia really did send you to the library for your bookworm skills, huh?"

His jibe fell mostly on deaf ears, with a brief roll of her eyes and a shake of her head, and his gaze fell once again on the larger-than-life stone mare while the alicorn read the familiar neat handwriting laid across the paper. The minutes progressed in near absolute silence, interrupted by the regular intervals of the rustle of paper as Twilight turned a page. It must've been ten minutes - though with both ponies engrossed in their own objects of fascination, neither of them could have given a precise answer if pressed - before both ponies turned to look at one another, an uncanny instinct the two had honed over their formulative years.

"Found something?" the unicorn guessed. "What does it say? Does it say anything about this plague?"

"It does, and doesn't," Twilight responded, frowning at the diary. "If I'm understanding this correctly..." Pausing for a moment, she smoothed out the scroll and looked from the scribbled instructions to the shelf where she'd located the diary. "The diary, the shelf - it's everything Celestia described, so what she wrote must mean what I think it means."

"That's good, right?"

"Well, we know what it is, at least. Or, we mostly do."

"And that means you can work out how to stop it, right?"

Twilight winced, her eyes running across the pages again. "I think that's the problem. We're thinking about this being a hex or a curse or a plague which needs to be stopped, but from Celestia's writings, stopping it was what caused this."

"I know you got better grades in school than me, but it almost sounded like you said 'stopping this plague caused this plague', and we both know that doesn't make sense."

The alicorn stepped closer to her brother, pointing to an entry for him. "Here; ...I desperately hope that I'm worrying over nothing, that I am merely exercising due dilligence, but I cannot help but fear what will happen should this banishment elapse as all the others have. I tell myself that it is different, that this was a slicing of an ailment from the world like the plucking of a splinter from skin and that the absence would heal on its own and the world would accommodate this, but about how much have I already been wrong? In recent years, Nightmare Moon and Discord escaped from their supposedly impervious prisons, and the Crystal Empire returned to the material plane. I thought at the time it was a malady that needed treating, but I can no longer see it that way. Perhaps time has healed those wounds that made me feel its treatment was necessary, but when I read my entries in this diary, I feel the same disgust and indignity for the mistreatment so many suffered as I did millennia ago. I have been wrong or misguided about so many things, and I am worried that my rash actions may come back and leave my subjects at the mercy of something for which they have no way of preparing. What is worse, their innocence, their ignorance of whatever chaos and torment they may have to endure, is of my own making, and the blame lays solely at my hooves."

"What...?"

"This isn't an unnatural plague at all; millennia ago, Celestia banished something native to Equestria, and now it's returned."

"But...if it's something that's meant to be a part of ponykind, why would it be affecting us like this? When magic returned to Equestria, it rejuvinated us. Nopony was incapacitated by everything righting itself."

"Not for magic, no," Twilight agreed. "But this isn't magic, something enhancing us. This is a natural part of how ponies work. Think of it like your immune system; you build up a resistance to winter bugs, and by the time you're a teenager, you feel fine. What if you were taken away and sealed away from all those germs and viruses for years, and then returned outside? You'd feel sicker than you ever had before, right?"

"So this plague is just, what? Feedback from something returning to us?"

"Like a torrent caused by a collapsing dam."

Shining fell into silence, his expression grim and pensive. After several long, solemn seconds, he asked, "Do we know what it is that was...'removed' from us?"

"That's more complicated," she admitted. "It's something that nopony in over a millennium has ever experienced, and Celestia was very thorough in censoring information about its existence, according to her own admissions."

"Why? What could be so awful about ponykind that it needed to be yanked from us and banished for eternity?"

"Apparently it caused conflict and threatened harmony. There are several entries detailing how early in her reign, Celestia witnessed ponies treating each other in attrocious ways because of this instinct. She saw how prevelent and persistent it was, and her fear that Luna would be subjected to the same treatment led her to vanquish it. In her mind, it was no different to Starswirl banishing the Sirens to another realm, or any other feat which we regard today as necessary. The diary also mentions a book which explains some of the more mechanical details, which ought to be nearby, because this is the only place in Equestria where these texts still exist...aha!"

Striding over to the shelf, her vision clamped onto a red book, she pulled it swiftly from its resting place, blew some of the dust from the cover, and tilted it towards him. "A History of Sex," she shared. "I don't know much about the what's, why's, when's, how's, or who's, but this right here explains everything we could need to know."

"What's 'sex'?" Shining asked, tilting his head. "You don't mean whether a pony is a stallion or mare, do you?"

"It's an activity," the alicorn answered, sitting down on the floor in the absence of chairs. "An activity caused by this instinct. It's almost like wrestling." At his questioning look, an eyebrow raised, she averted her eyes, sheepishly. "I did it this morning. At least, going by what the diary says, and how everypony else has been acting, I think that's what I did this morning. It relieves the symptoms you feel."

"So sex is like scratching an itch?" the unicorn posited, sinking down next to his sister to sit beside her. She nodded, having already cracked open the book and become engrossed in the lost knowledge housed in its pages. The rustle of demin attracted his eyes to her grating thighs. "What's it like?"

"It's..." Twilight paused, continuing to rub her thighs together as if they were beset by a particularly incorrigible irritation. With a noise halfway between a grunt and a sigh, she reached one hand down, flicked the button holding her shorts together, and tugged them down, along with her panties. "It's like this."

Two things had been niggling at the alicorn since she'd woken up that morning; a yearning for answers, and the growling hunger spreading through her loins. She'd managed to suppress the latter in pursuit of the former, postponing it for later consideration (although, she had to admit to herself, the release she received from Spike and from the manifestations inside the dreamscape had dampened the urgency of it), but right now, it had drawn to the forefront of her attention even with her hunger for knowledge. Balancing the book on her leg and brushing through the pages with the delicate fingers of one hand, she slid her other hand down to trace her fingers just as smoothly across her mons.

The mare focused on the book, improvising her exploration of her nethers based on how it felt, but she could feel Shining's attentive eyes on her motions. It was the first time since that morning that she'd closely examine her own marehood, but unlike then, there wasn't the same level of confusion or anxious uncertainty. Now, rather than the immediate concern of figuring out just what was going on, she indulged her curiosity, feeding her desire to learn properly. Shining watched as she started her slow investigation of her privates, her fingertips brushing across her surprisingly sodden labial lips tentatively, both far softer and more sensitive to contact than she thought they would be. They were engorged, fuller, and were spread like the petals of an open flower. Just a day ago, the thought that her anatomy was inviting something in to pollinate her would have repulsed her, but now, it felt right, as if that were the purpose of it. Now, it felt like the most natural thing in the world.

"Sex is touching your crotch?" the stallion asked, sounding equal parts baffled and intrigued. He pulled off his gloves and set them aside, fiddling with his couters and rerebraces and sliding them from his arms, followed in short order by his spaulders. An arm, conciously or otherwise, rested between his own legs, a hand resting against his groin.

"It's more than just touching," Twilight informed him, progressing from grazing the periphery to running her hands down the cleft of her vulva. She was soaked, as wet as she'd been when she woke up that morning, if not even wetter, and her fingers were drenched in her own produce after a few circuits of her valley. Coming to the hole which she'd only started to explore before she'd been interrupted that morning, she slipped a finger inside, easing a second next to it after a few probing plunges. "It's between at least two ponies-" Her mind flashed to the interaction between her and Spike, and the tentacles in the dreamscape, and she corrected herself. "-at least two creatures, and it usually involves a male and a female using their genitals to pleasure one another." The stallion's head turned toward the sculpted arch under which they'd walked, and when he turned back to her, she saw the connection he'd made in his head spreading across his visage.

"Here," he offered, sliding his vambraces off his arms and reaching across himself with his right hand to emulate the position of hers. "Let me help so you can read."

The acceptance came easily; Twilight withdrew her fingers from herself and let her brother replace the absence. Her slender digits were slick with copious amounts of her effluence as they emerged from her hole, and a brief glance at the sheen was all the thought the purple mare gave to the matter before she stuck them both in her mouth, suckling them clean. A tang hit her as her tongue swirled around her appendages, a pleasantly soft sour flavour that quickly flattened over her tastebuds and joined the rest of her saliva as she swallowed, leaving her feeling oddly proud with what she'd just done, like a child who'd gotten away with sneaking cookies from the jar. Wiping her fingers dry on her arm, she held the book more securely, and returned to scrolling rapidly through the pages.

Shining wasn't as distracting as she'd - latently, admittedly - fretted he might be, at least not at first. His touch was clumsy, his fingers meandering and walking across her flesh and scuffing through her fur, until he finally felt out her entrance. He prodded a few times, dipping down a tentative digit to survey and prospect, and clearly emboldened by her earlier performance, curled his two middle fingers inward, pushing them into her. He didn't stop at the first knuckle, nor second, her passageway eagerly accepting his advance, until the natural limits of his joints prevented him from twisting enough to push any deeper, and he resorted to stroking at her interior as his pinky and forefinger framed her vulva. Caressed inside and at her groin, his palm making occasional contact with her hood, his efforts started to take root, and she let out a minute sigh.

She didn't realise she was letting out regular audible exhales, even as soft as they were, until his anatomy was removed from hers, and the steady supply of pleasure ceased, leaving her wanting. Glancing at him, she witnessed him raise his soiled fingers to his muzzle, sniff at them, and give them an experimental lick. His eyes widened in surprise, and following her earlier example, he stuck them in his maw, suckling greedily. When he was done, Shining pulled his tabard over his head, unbuckled his cuirass and and lifted it from his torso, and shoved both aside almost carelessly, followed immediately by his greaves and attachments at his waist. She soon realised why he'd doffed the armour as he crawled around in front of her, lowering himself nearly prostrate between her legs. Looking up at her in a wordless question, his eyes flitting to the statue-arch, he waited for her to say something. She gave a nod, unwilling for him to truly stop.

The unicorn's approach was a battle between anxious uncertainty and novel excitement, the joyful apprehension in his eyes and the subtle trembling of his breathing weaving in and around the slow, hesitant closing of the distance. His breath billowed over her exposed region and warmed her through, his exhalations coming into contact with her fluids and suffusing into her moistness, the liquid amplifying the heat. Twilight tried to focus solely on the book - that was the purpose of Shining taking over, after all - but even as she scanned line after line and flicked to the next page, her instincts compelled her to glance at the stallion in between her legs, his lips making contact with her crotch, followed by the slow, careful drag of what was unmistakably a tongue up her slit. She bit her bottom lip as the tender tickle moved through her, the gentle, languid climb doing more to tease her than any of the prior experience she'd had that day. Another followed, minisculely more confident, and then another, until the cautious draw became a comfortable lapping.

"Centuries ago, sex was a normal practice among ponies," Twilight announced. She hadn't been asked a question, nor had she finished reading, but the effects of Shining's licking were making themselves known both on her mind and her body; her thoughts wandered away from the reading material, and her hips were gyrating in slow, unrequested circles. She knew if she didn't say something to focus herself, she'd fall into this completely depraved distraction, which was the opposite of why she'd accepted her brother's offer to sate her symptoms. "It looks as if it was chaotic, causing strife among ponykind and breaking down harmonious relationships. Celestia wanted to get rid of these relationship problems, and so she cast a spell to stop sex. It was something about conflict arising from love and romance, and babies, of all things." She let out a snort, which petered into a soft moan. "I-It looks complicated. I can see why she wanted to get rid of it all. B-But now, th-the spell has worn off, l-like with Luna's banishment."

"The stork delivers babies," Shining uttered, his words muffled against her crotch. The vibrations of his speech stimulated her beyond what his tongue and lips offered, the gentle tingle of his touch becoming a thrum that travelled deeper through her groin. "Ponies have babies all the time, without sex, and they've been having them for thousands of years. What does sex have to do with it at all?"

"Celestia's magic makes them for the stork, b-but it doesn't say who did it before her, th-though. I-I would have th-thought Star Swirl the Bearded, b-but it looks as if Celestia created the pr-process. Th-That d-doesn't m-make any sense. H-How did-?"

The alicorn's words caught in her throat when a sharp shot of pleasure rocketed through her. Her brother's tongue had passed over the apex of her marehood and ground against a hardened part of her which was drastically more sensitive than the rest of her soft, inflamed genitals, almost like a nipple reacting to the cold. At her gasp, his gaze flicked to her, and she nodded, silently urging him to repeat his movement. Following her direction, the unicorn slurped at the newfound nub, pinpointing the part of her causing her reaction and setting his attention solely on that part of her, leaving her whimpering and gasping and struggling to read through fluttering eyes. Her attention was divided now, unmistakably so, and she skimmed the book with an uncharacteristic haphazardness as the stallion's hands supported her thighs and his fingers compressed her supple flesh, his thumb caressing her skin and her fur.

"St-stop," she huffed at last, forcing the words out. "Stop!"

"What's wrong?" Shining asked, pulling back and frowning at her. His tongue flashed out to lick at his lips, which were coated in her vaginal juices. "Did I hurt you?"

"No," she assured him, pushing herself up onto her knees. "There's a lot more to sex than just cunnilingus."

"Cunning what?"

"Cunnilingus. The book says that's what you were doing to me. It's 'oral stimulation of a vagina', and 'typically involves using the lips and tongue on the vulva and clitoris', which is apparently what that hard bump you were licking at is called. It's usually hidden behind the 'clitoral hood', but it hardens when a mare becomes 'sexually aroused'." The unicorn blinked and nodded with the same expression he used to give when she explained something intellectually complicated to him as a child. "Anyway, oral sex is only one aspect of sex, and there are others which involve you a lot more. You should be able to do sex too, Shining. Let me show you."

He didn't object or obstruct her as her hands moved to his loins, grabbing the bulge tenting his trousers, the firmness beyond the soft fabric sending her heart fluttering. The stallion pulled his top upward, rushing it over his head and tossing it aside so he didn't miss the sight of his sister's groping. After a few self-indulgent squeezes and caresses, the purple mare unbuckled his belt, cast it aside, and dragged the trousers down Shining's hips and under his buttocks with some assistance from the stallion. If he had any reservations about her exposing his genitals, he didn't show it, his own hands joining her effort to untagle the fabric from around the burgeoning trunk. Together, they pulled, wiggling the garment down, his phallus straining until, like a caterpault let loose, it was freed and it sprung upward, slapping against his belly with a heavy PLAP!

"This happened while I was doing the cunny...cunning...the licking," Shining explained, lifting his legs so Twilight could remove his trousers entirely. "This is part of sex, right?"

"The book calls it an 'erection'," she responded, grasping the base of his phallus. "When a stallion experiences sexual arousal, additional blood rushes to the penis and makes it hard and stiff."

"Blood?" the stallion repeated, grimacing. "I'm swollen because my tackle's filled up with blood?"

"It's no different to your muscles or your lungs, or any other organ," the alicorn told him, caressing his male anatomy with her thumb. She could feel his pulse beneath the surface, a fact that captivated her interest both instinctually and intellectually. "What do you think happens when you do training drills or any other sort of exercise?"

"My blood usually goes elsewhere," he retorted. "Never to my junk."

The alicorn let his childish complaints go, her interest invested in the new state of his phallus. She'd inadverently seen it before on him and some other stallions, when it was in the normal soft and dangling state penises always were, but this was the first time she'd seen something so familiar transformed in such a way, and had the opportunity to handle it to her heart's content. Spike's shaft had been inside her before she could do more than take in its basic appearance, the tentacles had been entirely alien, and the illustrations and images she'd seen in the time since had been distant and non-interactable, but this was something she could examine and play with and use to indulge her growing desires. Her fingers encircled his girth to the best of her ability, her palm pressed against his hot skin, and she ran her grip upward, feeling the stallionhood throb and tremble in her grasp. Beneath his erection, two plump, round testicles hung, each the approximate size of eggs. They hadn't changed at all, but while before she'd never felt the need to know their anatomical name, nevermind pay them any visual attention, now she admired the sight of them, knowing they produced and contained the mysterious sticky gunk that had been all-too-present in her day so far.

It had to be a foot and a half in length and easily eight inches in circumference, going by the amount her hand could fit around, and its smooth pink surface was criss-crossed with veins like rivers on a topographical map. She brushed happily over his medial ring, drew her fingers around his glans, following the circuit of his corona and wandering onto the smooth, not-quite flat plateau of his crown. The round, dilated hole of his urethral opening was oozing what the book called 'pre-ejaculate', and she shamelessly coated her fingertips in it, basking in the feeling of that lukewarm liquid clinging to her. Conscious that there was a pony with his own wants and needs present, Twilight kept her fixation restrained and crawled forward after a reasonable amount of time on her tactile expedition. Settling between his legs, facing away from him, she leaned forward, continuing to pump his phallus at a strange but exciting angle. Not seeing him as she stimulated him, with her own loins exposed to him, thrilled her in a way she couldn't explain, nor cared to try to.

"Do you want to touch?" she invited, her tail flagged for his viewing pleasure and access. She didn't need to ask twice, or even add to her suggestion, before Shining sat up, reaching forward and caressing her sodden marehood. Two fingers slipped over her inner lips, gliding across the flesh and dipping slightly into her vagina.

"Like this?" he asked.

"Deeper!" she urged, groaning happily as the digits sunk further past her entrance, her breathing picking up as his knuckles came to rest against her exterior and the appendages inside her brushed at her walls. He withdrew slightly, then slid in again, penetrating her in soft, slow movements. Another finger was pressed against the first two, gliding into her with ease and providing a pleasant additional stretch to her asking muscles. She worked his erection, and he fingered her entrance, the two feeding one another's appetite and responses. It was good, but it wasn't enough.

"I need more," Twilight declared, straightening up. "Lay back down, and let me do the work, okay?" His fingers exited her as he complied, her passageway once again left empty. That was a temporary problem, she knew, as she brought his stallionhood to bear, his tip grazing her crotch and pressing between her netherlips. With his crown nestled against her orifice, her labia kissing the broad head of his erection, she savoured the moment, the feeling of him against her, before she lowered herself, letting her weight down. The pressure increased, his broadness exceeding her opening's ability to take him at first. She persisted, holding Shining's stiffness upright and wiggling to encourage him inside, her muscles relaxing and gradually stretching around the blunt end of the object of her desire, making steady horizontal progress. The more she stretched, the more intense the feeling of him became, her body becoming more and more aware of the true size of him, which only made her want it more.

The success was all the sweeter for its difficulty. With Spike and the tentacles, the shape of the insertions had provided for their penetration, spreading her apart and gaining access by innevitability. With Shining, there was no assistance, nothing helping her slide him inside save for her own determination and the swirling, beating demand of her growing hunger. When her lips spread around his tip, engulfing his glans and allowing her to embrace his shaft properly, the stretch translated into its own reward, like the satisfaction from the strain of early morning exercise. She was already soaking, lubricated with her self-produced fluids, and taking inch after inch of his penis in a steady glide was easier than trying to fit his crown, even with his substantial length. It was only when she felt the ridge of his medial ring press against her vaginal entrance that she paused for a moment, letting out a pleased whimper.

"Oh yeah," the alicorn sighed, wiggling her hips and lowering herself further again. The ring encircling his malehood passed her entrance easily enough, sending a tingle through her it spread her that bit wider to gain entry and brushed against her soft, sensitive walls. The voyage was swift, and her tush soon came to rest against the firm pelvis beneath her, the fur of her brother's coat offering a contrast of softness to his unyeilding body. Turning her head and looking over her shoulder, she was met with a wide-eyed look of awe from the unicorn, his mouth agape at the experience. Smiling at the sight, she put a hunch into practice and tensed her core muscles, squeezing his erection in her interior grip and watching with delight as his face contorted into a visage of unbearable ecstasy. "All the way in," she told him, enjoying making the superfluous statement. "I managed to fit every inch of your big, throbbing, tackle into me. How does it feel?" She rotated her hips, drawing slow, wide circles against his pelvis, her body, his reactions, and the book's description working in tandem to direct her.

"Ngh!" he grunted, clenching his eyes and his jaw shut. "K-Keep going!"

The mare didn't need to be told twice. Giggling softly, Twilight lifted herself up, only a few inches, before lowering herself down again, her lips kissing Shining's base before she reversed direction once more. With each ascent, she drew further away from his loins, retracting more of his stallionhood from herself, and giving herself more of him to slip back onto on her way down. As the distance of her rises and falls increased, and she became steadier and more confident, her speed increased as well, accelerating from a tepid shift to a moderate cyclical ride. It was harder to clench her womanhood around him while moving, so she focused on the vertical aspect of her efforts. Shining panted, huffed, grunted, groaned, his voice pushing her onward, encouraging her as sure as if he'd been speaking heartfelt words of encouragement to her. She wanted, needed, to hear more, to feel that melodious praise, and so she worked harder, her glutes and calves striving to lift her up over and over. She began to drop, letting her butt slap against the unicorn's groin, the impact its own source of pleasure as she impaled herself on his tool and drove herself down harder to feel that deep touch against parts of her that yearned for more. It was an incessant itch, her bouncing growing more frantic as she sought to scratch it, her own moans and squeaks and whimpers joining and then outperforming the stallion's own.

"I feel so full!" she exclaimed, shutting her eyes to better sink into the joyous thrums of pleasure, wilfully sacrificing one sense to empower another. His hardness was addictive, each drop and impact hooking her further into the craving for inexplicable, irrational indulgence. Her hands ran through her mane, the additional sensation adding a degree of stimulation she didn't know she wanted until her hair slipped through her fingers, caressing her in turn as she took simple pleasure in its presence. She ignored the complaints of her legs, the way she trembled slightly from the exertion, and just let the mindless cycle happen. Was this how it felt to claim a mare, like Spike had done to her? It was in reverse, sure, and she was still being penetrated, but the power she held over Shining, the unrestrained gratification of her base and animalistic impulses, it was rapturous.

Shining sat up suddenly and without warning, pressing himself flat against her back and reaching around to grab at one of her breasts, which had previously been jiggling and slapping against her own chest. His hands closed in around her mammary, fingers digging in greedily and squashing her supple flesh, his grip firm and strong, pulling from her lips a sharp "AHH!" It was harder to move with his adjustment, so she gyrated instead, rolling her hips back and forth and taking advantage of her relatively static position to flex and flare her inner muscles again, earning her a grunt from her brother. He squeezed harder, removing all give from her boob, until he was just holding her with aggressive need. 'Lust', the book called it. She resolved to use that word more. It made so much sense, seeing it - feeling it - in action like this. His grip loosened, and he lay back, resuming his supine position. Sensing he wanted more, Twilight bounced quicker, keeping her riding shallow and quick.

"C'mon, big bro," she urged, flicking her mane out of the way as she coaxed him towards taking over. It felt right somehow, her arms lifted to her head, playing with her hair. She felt more attractive doing it, particularly given her current activity. "Give me everything you have!" Taking control was fun, but it seemed the stallion had an impulse he desperately wanted to follow, and her own experience with being on the receiving end left her knowing that was just as fun, if not moreso. It felt more natural, too.

Her train of thought was interrupted when the unicorn's hand clasped her tail and yanked, firmly, sending a shock through the small of her back and up her body. She gasped loudly, squeaking out an "eep!" as the sharpness jolted through her. Her marehood clenched around him, her tunnel squeezing tightly around his iron-hard member and receiving a hot electric swell as his unyeilding organ resisted her soft flesh. She was shoved forward and had to catch herself with her hands, the stallion reminding her that he was in fact the highest ranking member of the Royal Guard as he swung his legs out from under her, knelt behind her, and yanked her tail again, hard. She squeaked again, gasping as his pull persisted. She bit her bottom lip, eyes widening and drool starting to dribble down her chin as the intense feedback in her lower back and loins redoubled. Her arms trembled, her upper body slowly closing distance with the floor, until her bust came to rest on the book that had started this entire ordeal. She had half a mind to move it out the way, but she didn't get the chance before Shining unceremoiously shunted his entire waist forward, burying his density in her waiting, wanting passage.

There was no patience or learning curve to her brothers thrusts, merely the mindless pounding of a male with a ravenous need. It wasn't as aggressive as Spike's bestial plunges, but it carried the same sentiment, and arose from the same desire, and that was more than enough. His pelvis slapped into her ass, the fleshy plapping of skin-on-skin filling the room as he took over and did as she'd requested. This time, it was her moans and nonverbal praises which began louder and more present, her declarations of pleasure readily forthcoming as Shining used the position and the angle to drive himself as deep as he could into her, driven by hot-blooded instinct and guided by the way she felt and sounded. She raised her hips, wanting to pull him in closer, and he leaned over her, planting his hands either side of her to support his new centre of gravity. His thrusts became much deeper with that change, and her exclamations became ever more nonsensical, just sounds that - although gibberish - communicated the depths of ecstasy to which she was being driven. She felt like she was leaking, dripping juices from her crotch onto the floor, though it was hard to tell what was what in this state.

"This sex-hex feels great," the stallion grunted, his pelvis slamming against her buttocks. "You say it's relief from...ugh!...from the hex? I think I'm about to be cured!" His words took a few seconds to process with the mare's addled mind, his increasing speed only rattling the thoughts in her head further, and it was only when he slowed down to adjust his position that she was able to piece together what was happening.

"Don't stop!" she blurted, her mouth producing the words without her concious input. "You're about to finish! The book calls that a 'climax', caused by stimulation to the genitals. It's something anypony can experience. Keep going! I want one too!"

The stallion rose to his hooves, lifting the mare by her hips so she was at crotch height, her back at a near 70 degrees decline. She lifted her legs to compensate, holding herself up as best as she could, but she was undone by the first thrust. Shining's shaft sank deep into her, filling her utterly and leaving no room for seperation between them, as if he'd become a whole part of her.

"Oh yeah!" she cried out, throwing her head back, her eyes snapping shut as his end tapped at the terminus of her vagina. "Agh, k-keep going!" It was a pointless request; he had no intention of stopping, his stumbling caused only by the necessity of adjusting and the inexperience with this activity. He withdrew until his tip tugged at her entrance - his 'glans' having 'flared', according to the book's lost wisdom - and slammed all the way back in once again, the glide of hot, hard meat against her velvety flesh like the strike of a match with the same rush of heat and satisfaction, his tip striking against her like a hammer against an anvil, her nerves sparking at his rough touch. Her hooves slipped as he pounded her, her legs parting with every successive slap against her butt, until she was doing the splits and the stallion had to adjust himself to account for the drop of her crotch. Out the corner of her eye, she saw him place his hand against the wall, supporting himself as he leaned forward and resumed his thrusts, his other hand gripping her leg to steady her.

Her brother's grunts became guttural, his growls and groans picking up in intensity and frequency with each passing second. In her core, Twilight felt the familiar coiling of pressure, the tightening and squeezing that preceded what she now knew was an orgasm, but it was clear she wasn't going to reach her release before Shining did. He was approaching his own finish far too fast, his rolling hips transitioning into rapid jerking as his own excitement built and threatened to spill over, and she was left to enjoy the hot ravaging and the cold of the floor against her breasts. Without warning, she felt fingers that weren't her own at her pelvis, and she latently realised she couldn't feel Shining's grip on her leg anymore. She gasped as his fingers brushed at the zenith of her vulva, seeking blindly until he passed over her clitoris, at which point his fingers brushed and stroked and strummed her nub, running in a walking cycle against her exposed, swollen pleasure-centre. She let out a loud grunt, her mouth falling open and her tongue lolling out, as she was rocketed towards the precipice of her own release.

They finished together. At least, it was probably simultaneous. Several things happened at once, at least in Twilight's perception, and she registered them in parallel as her mind hurtled into a whirling cacophony of stimulation and wonderful chaos. The pressure in her lower stomach spread through her body, warmth surging from her core to her limbs, her muscles tightening as it passed, her nerves letting off cracks and flashes of pleasure. Her mind was awash with soaring diziness, euphoria coursing through her body as the tension spread and refocused, returned and released again. She shook, trembling around the throbbing, pulsing malehood embedded deep in her, a steel rod which refused to yield to her contractions, yet flexed and swelled and spurted a welcome goopey mess into its natural resting place, Shining bellowing as his own body was wracked by the sensations of climax. The deposit was scalding, boiling, yet it didn't hurt her, and she welcomed the increasingly normal touch of its hot pooling. She felt wetness spray from her own crotch, spattering against Shining and splashing back against her, the floor drenched in the end result of their passionate play.

"D-Did I do it right?" the stallion asked after they'd wound down, pulling out slowly and carefully from her stretched hole. Despite his caution, she was tender, and the exit made her wince and groan as his flared end popped free, the alicorn's body protesting at the absence of his insert. Twilight pulled her legs in, sinking down into a prone position, her rear only slightly propped up. Even with her womanly parts ablaze, she could still feel the hot, wet ooze of his semen drooling from her interior, thickly seeping into a puddle beneath her. She should have cared about that, making such a gross mess in a library of all places, but she didn't, not at that moment. Taking several long seconds to pant and let out a jumbled murmur of pleasure, she controlled her breathing enough to formulate a response.

"I don't think it's a hex at all," she mumbled, reiterating her earlier point. "Everything that's been written, the hidden cache of knowledge, the way it all just works..." She let out a sigh as Shining pulled her into a cuddle, her sweaty body relaxing at his touch. "It's just a lifetime foregoing natural release."

"Celestia hasn't climaxed in over a millennium," Shining surmised. "Maybe that's why we can't get her out of her room."

"It must be torture for her, if this is how it's affecting everypony else. Could you imagine-" His words slapped her from her dazed state all of a sudden, like a swingball that had run its full course and smacked her in a blind spot on its way around. Her eyes shot open, and she sat bolt upright, her fatigue vanishing in an instant. "Celestia is here? I have to see her!" She jumped to her hooves, wobbling more than usual, but finding stability and steadiness in the accessibility of her goal. Haphazardly and swiftly throwing on her underwear and her overgarments in quick succession, she grabbed the book and strode towards the library proper, stopping to pocket the diary.

"Twi, wait!" the unicorn objected behind her. His protests fell on deaf ears, and he stumbled as he tried to dress himself to follow her, tripping over his underwear in his haste. "She's in no condition! Wait!" He cursed as he tried to gather up his other apparel, burdened with a greater amount than his sister had on her.

Twilight was familiar with the route to the princess' bedchambers, but this was the first time she'd dared to visit, something she'd never have considered doing without being explicitly requested had the situation been any different. As close as she considered herself to be to the senior diarch, she still considered the private quarters of a sovereign to be their own, and with as much respect as she had for Equestria's reigning princess, she'd never had reason to even approach the room. Today was far from normal, however, and with every step, she pushed back the discomfort that came from ascending the staircase to her mentor's bedchambers, justifying to herself the necessity of speaking to the alicorn given the seriousness of the situation. There was so much to discuss, so much she had to ask from somepony she'd always been able to turn towards in times of doubt or struggle, and surely Celestia would understand, wouldn't she? Shining Armor had said that she had to be confined to the library, so how would the solar princess react to being interrupted? Was she doing the right thing? Her stride slowed marginally, and a brief crack appeared in her resolve.

The roiling wall blew away her doubts, heat seeping into her skin as the wave passed through her, stumbling her. As she grabbed the bannister for support, a muffled cry rang through the halls, echoing from the stone. It was the same as she'd heard when she'd arrived at the castle, but louder and clearer now she was inside. It reminded her of spike's bellow, the way he yelled out upon reaching - what she now knew was - climax, but this one sounded less guttural, less bassy and masculine. It sounded a lot more feminine, more of a wail than a roar. In that moment, she steeled herself, resolute, and clomped onward, ignoring the burn flaring up in her loins once again. She couldn't afford to be selfish nor afraid right now, not when the very pony she'd come to see, the one who she still held out hope for wisdom and knowledge about the situation she found herself in, was approachable. Even better than books was the author, and if she'd had the ability to talk to Starswirl the Bearded, to reach back through time and pull him into the present, she'd do so in an instant in favour of pouring over his texts. With her resolve fortified, she pushed down the growing itch of her arousal, each step towards the princess' chamber a pitched battle between her discipline and her desire. By the time she reached the double doors - a voyage that felt as much of a trek as flying to the city had, and felt about as long - she was aflame with need, but her stubborness held out.

"Princess Celestia?" Twilight called as she threw open the doors. "I need to talk to-"

Without the barrier between her and the room, the full weight of the depraved goings-on hit her like a brick. The stench was the most immediate, but the noise and the sight were just as potent and prominent. The room reeked of what could only be described as bodies, with the scent of sweat and genital effusions hanging thick and swirling invisibly in the air. The reason for this was obvious, with a disorganised huddle of naked, exhausted guards sitting at the far side of the room, their penises in various states of turgidity and slathered in a mixture of female and male secretions, while some were stood unsteadily on their hooves in a swaying line leading to the bed. A few were stroking their stallionhoods, either masturbating or attempting to coax and maintain their erections after what seemed to be a prolonged shift of activity, waiting for their turn. None of them seemed concerned on the state of the room, with singed curtains and carpets, scattered furniture, or the shattered and blasted-out glass, the empty window panes now containing nothing to shut the room off from the open air. A faint breeze flowed into the room, ventillating some of the titillating stink that had settled like a fog.

"Yes oh yes oh YES OH YES!" Celestia hollered, her voice rising in both pitch and volume as she bounced atop a supine guard, furiously riding the writhing stallion, his own groans washed away amidst the alicorn's frantic yelling. "Cum for me, cum inside your princess!" Her hips were a blur, her weight slamming down mercilessly on the smaller pony's groin in a wild flail of gyrations and rolls and hops, desperation plaguing her actions. Her breasts didn't jiggle so much as flung themselves through the air, clapping together or slapping against her torso in what would've been a momentous sound but for the whirlwind of vocalisations and the agonised screaming of the beleagured bed frame and bedsprings. Celestia's wailing reached its crescendo, the guard arching his back as the forceful demand of his ruler compelled his climax, his face contorting into a painting of blissful strain. Rising up once more, the alicorn revealed the guard's member as she slid up most of the way, inadvertently showing Twilight the throbbing, veiny glory of the well-endowed servant, the rod pulsing as it pushed thick gushes of goo into the alicorn, exactly as she'd asked. Finally, she slammed down, right as the guard grabbed her ankles and thrusted brutally upward.

The scream was deafening, a seismic wail that made Twilight's vision wobble. A second later, the room was illuminated in a sudden bright flare, almost too bright to witness directly, as Celestia's wings, mane, and eyes glowed and shone more purely than any natural light, save for perhaps the sun itself. The conjoined equines thrashed, the white mare's hands snapping to her thigh and to her cheek, turning her face away and twisting her back to try and deal with the visible titanic flood of sensations coursing through her. Her crown was hurled from her head, the clatter as it hit the floor lost among the screeching and wailing and veritible storm of sound and light, and the gorget around her throat fractured as if constructed from cheap ceramics, splitting in two like a snapping elastic band and flinging fragments of gold across the room. Barely visible beyond the flaring light of Celestia's eyes, the mare's jaw was held open in a thoughtless exhalation, drool forming strings from her extended tongue which broke and splatted against the bed and the guard beneath her. Her own juices, spraying from her marehood, sizzled and evaporated as she produced them, leaving the stallion's semen to spurt from her overfilled and spasming vagina.

The broiling wave of heat lashed at the young alicorn again, driving her to her knees momentarily, and she doubled over as the petulant wail of arousal assailed her mind. She felt her own nethers grip at nothing, yearning to be filled again, and her underwear clung to her lower lips, caked in oozing stallion cream. When she looked up, forcing herself to take in the situation, she saw the guards flush and grow stiff again, their malehoods rapidly reaching full tumescence from whatever state they'd been at before. Forcing herself to her hooves, Twilight plodded forward laboriously, ignoring her trembling, unstable legs, and reached the bed, just in time for Celestia to dismount her latest stallion and usher him away, her frazzled mane fading back to its usual cerulean and heliotropic hues.

"P-Princess," she voiced weakly, her eyes widening as the white alicorn's head snapped around. Rather than the gentle strength she was so used to, all Twilight could see was a voracious hunger in those light magenta eyes, the eons of wisdom and refined authority absent and replaced with ferocity and mania. "Princess, I-I n-need to speak-"

Even in her feral state, the eldest alicorn of Equestria was powerful in her abilities, and Twilight didn't have a chance to react to the golden glow along her mentor's horn, nor fight back as her clothes were stripped from her, torn and ripped and yanked from her body, patches blackening and curling away where the intensity of the alicorn's magical focus burned them. Hoisted effortlessly onto the bed in the golden telekenetic grasp and dumped on her back, as naked as every other pony in the room, the purple mare was left defenceless as Celestia turned onto her front, spread Twilight's legs, and dove between her thighs, lips meeting lips and tongue lashing out in a flurry of motion.

"Mmm," Celestia hummed, snorting hot breaths across the smaller mare's vulva. "Delicious, tasty cum. Such a ripe pussy, so freshly fucked. I want it all." The words were murmured and muttered, muffled against Twilight's groin without a pause in the noisy slurping and slobbering. There was barely time to process what was happening, each movement of the diarch's dexterous muscle sending a new flare and flash of sensations through her pelvis for her brain to interpret, all of it happening so quickly she lagged behind in her comprehension. Flicks upward, left, right, down, slurp, drag, draw, wetness either from her own body or from Celestia's saliva, muscles squeezing and clenching, hotness radiating from every point of contact and brush against sensitive skin and flesh already rubbed raw by relentless pounding, and corresponding to every burst and swell of pleasure came an involuntary whimper and whine from her throat.

A gasp was pulled from Twilight's lips as Celestia slid her tongue inside, burrowing into her semen-saturated passage and waggling deeper. The stimulation was constant and ceaseless, any pause or respite entirely absent from the endless quest for satisfaction, and the purple mare could barely make out Celestia raking her tongue downward, drawing out the ejaculate and noisily slurping it into her mouth. She was afloat in a tempest, her mind and body battered from every angle, lurching in response to the change of direction and style of Celestia's heavy encroachment; the tongue brushed and touched at her marehood, lips pressed against her mound and sealed around her clitoris, hands stroked urgently along her belly and thighs, fingers grasping and scratching down her skin. Nowhere was safe from the animalistic assault, and no matter how she wiggled or writhed or squirmed, that pervasive pleasure persisted.

Twilight's climax was quick, both in how long it took for Celestia to drive her towards it, and how swiftly it crashed down around her. The older alicorn's lips sealed around Twilight's oversensitive nub, her tongue lashed at it hungrily, and the tension coiling in the purple pony's belly condensed and released within seconds, the warbling rush surging up her body and down her limbs. Her loins contracted, her legs clamping around Celestia's head as her vagina squeezed tightly, pushing out Shining's ejaculation from her womanhood, and the white mare lapped and licked as it oozed out, sending sharp throbs and flares through Twilight's crotch and lower belly. Her hands shot down, grabbing hold of the first things she came across, and pushed and pulled to stop the stimulation, her body protesting at the sheer amount of attention it was receiving.

"C-Celestia!" she whined, her back arching. "P-Please, i-it's me, T-Twilight!"

"Twilight?" came the familiar voice of the kingdom's ruler, much softer and more tender than it had been in the last several minutes. The licking slowed to a crawl and then stopped entirely. Small tremors continued to plague Twilight's lower half, but the worst of it ceased, allowing her to glance down. Her grip had found Celestia's ear and horn, her fists clenching the anatomy of the eldest alicorn so tightly it ought to have been causing the mare acute pain. Instead, the alicorn's eyes were fixated on her own, filled with disquietening realisation and widening in shock. Letting go immediately, the purple mare shuffled backward, putting distance between her nethers and the other princess' damp maw.

"I received your note in the library," the purple alicorn explained, beginning her conversation with as much clarity as she could through the distracting swelter of her mind's post-orgasm sluggishness. "I found the hidden chamber, and read your diary. I...I think I understand."

"I'm sorry." The words were awash with sorrow, the strength of the simple sentence piercing Twilight's heart painfully. "I never wanted this to happen. I never wanted anypony to experience this. I just wanted the trouble to stop, and I was foolish enough to think that I could cut past the complexities of equine nature and strip the world of something so fundamental. All of this is my fault, and now..." Celestia looked around, remorse painting her countenance as she took in the sight of her naked guards and the state of her room. "...I never wanted you to see me like this. I'd hoped you'd stay away, that I could recover before I had to address you and your concerns in person, as selfish as that was. I'm just so sorry."

"It's okay," Twilight spoke up, forcing herself to say the words. She reached out a hand to cup Celestia's cheek, tentatively caressing her mentor. "We can fix this. You know what this is, and we can all learn. We have the texts you kept hidden, and with your help, we can-" She hesitated. What could they do, exactly? Banish it again? Push the problem further down the road for another generation to deal with, just as blind and ignorant as they were today? Celestia clearly saw what thoughts were going through Twilight's mind, because she shook her head emphatically.

"No," the princess stated, firmly, and in that moment, the decisive ruler Twilight knew was back. "We cannot try this again. It was a mistake the first time, and while I cannot undo what I have done, I can at least learn from my error. You must do the same. I am only sorry that you have had to suffer for my arrogance. I am sorry everypony had to suffer for the decisions I made so long ago."

"Then what do we do?"

There was silence for several seconds, filled with the heavy beating of Twilight's heart, and the wet slicking of hands sliding over penises, before Celestia answered, "We must endure it. Lust must be allowed to return fully, to resettle into its natural place in the natural affairs of the world. All creatures must be allowed to regain their libidos, and integrate that aspect back into their lives, as we once did. It will take time, and there will be growing pains, but it is the only way forward. In time, Equestria, and the world, shall rise from this calamity of my own making stronger and wiser. Until then, we need to ensure society continues with as little possible disruption, and has guidance when it emerges from this frenzy."

"Equestria needs its princesses," Twilight deduced, wincing as she looked at her mentor's face. Already, the white mare's eyes were glossing over, and Twilight had to move her legs to avoid Celestia's wandering hands, which jerked back in startled realisation. Next to the bed, the guards were trying their best to not look impatient at all the talking, striving to remain professional even in the unprofessional circumstances in which they found themselves. "You have nothing to worry about - I will ensure your subjects...our subjects...are protected and guided."

"Good," Celestia answered, sighing and licking her lips. "They need to be dominated- to be guided, and I will not be in a fit state for some time. As soon as I stop needing a good dicking- as soon as I recover, I will reach out to you." A final shadow of remorse passed over her face before her visage took on another lustful expression. "I am so, so sorry, Princess Twilight. I hope you can forgive me for not eating your pussy- for forcing you to bear a burden you didn't deserve to carry. You deserve so much cum- so much more than to be cleaning up my creampies- my messes my messy snatch, oh fuck I need you to finger my pussy and eat me out like-"

"You don't need my forgiveness," Twilight interrupted gently, sliding from the bed and avoiding Celestia's reaching hands. The nearest guard gave her an appreciative nod and stepped up to take her place. "Take all the time you need. Equestria is in safe hands, and it'll be waiting for your return." Making herself turn away, she stepped out of the bedchamber, pausing briefly to recover the fallen book, and leaving the mentor she'd trusted all her life. A masculine grunt and a feminine whine saw her off, her exit serenaded by the steady, repetitive slap of flesh-on-flesh once again.

Shining Armor was waiting for her outside, frowning at her. His armour was still well-maintained, and if she hadn't been there herself, she wouldn't have believed he'd hastily doffed it for a passionate and vigorous session of sex, given how everypony else looked.

"That sounded..." he started, his sentence running off.

"It wasn't what I'd hoped," Twilight admitted. "I thought she'd have some plan, some way to just make everything right again, but even when I had her in the one moment where she was lucid, there was just regret and pain and resignation." She let out a weary sigh, and started down the stairs. "She confirmed what I think I already knew; libido - a creature's sex drive - is natural. Celestia suppressed it because it caused complications in relationships between ponies. It's like anger, or jealousy, or any other negative emotion, and now it's come back. We have to let it settle and learn to live with it."

"Even if all the bad things associated with it come back?"

"Even with all that, yes. Just think about how your anger can motivate you to take action to protect those you love, or right a wrong. Think about how envy is a byproduct of desire. We can't just deprive ponies of that without stripping them of all the good that comes with it, and even if we could, is that right? Do ponies deserve to be shaped into a perfect society by a ruler?"

"I guess not. It's just chaos at the moment, and I'm saying that as somepony who has to deal with chaos on a semi-regular basis."

"All the more reason to not mess with it in the future."

"Yeah, lesson learned, I guess." The silence between them lasted until they reached the corridor leading towards the library. "What now?"

"Now, we deal with this mess. Celestia is being tended to-" A billowing wave of heat and arousal passed through them, much weaker at this distance, and the pair merely gave a soft murmur as their fur warmed. "-by her handpicked guards. I need to speak to Princess Luna and inform her about everything that's going on, then return to Ponyville to make sure everypony there is safe." She looked down the hall to the library. "I'm taking the books with me. There's no purpose in keeping them secret any more, and their contents will be useful for figuring out everything about sex when we have time. After all this blows over, I'll devote a lot of time to reading and understanding them. Maybe I'll reprint them, and provide copies for everypony to read. Maybe I'll be able to conduct my own research into the topic, and publish my own theses." She looked intrigued at the idea for a moment, before shaking herself from the fantasy.

"I'd better stay here," Shining told her. "If Princess Celestia really is being looked after, then my duty is to those under my command. I'll make sure they're all comfortable, and dealing with the hex...reflux...thing-"

"Biological urges."

"Yeah, biological urges. I'll make sure they're okay. Do you want me to pass on any message to Cadance?"

"Just that I want her to stay safe."

"Right." He opened his arms for a hug, then paused. "Should I get you some clothes, or...?"

"Oh, right." The purple mare glanced down at her body, awkwardly and belatedly covering herself up. "If it's not too much trouble, just something simple?"

"I'll check in with the mares when I visit the barracks," Shining promised her. "I'm sure they'll be happy to lend something to the Princess of Friendship. I'll be fifteen minutes?"

"I'll meet you in the library," she responded, embracing him in a quick hug. "Thanks for everything, Shiny."

"Don't mention it. We'll probably both be busy for a while after this, so make sure you write, okay? I want to know how your research is going."

"You know I'll bore you with all the details." They shared a smile, then started down their seperate ways. "Fifteen minutes!" He gave her a thumbs-up as he strode away, leaving her to return to the library alone. As she turned away from him, her face fell into a concerned frown. Away from him, the weight of her responsibilities closed in around her, and she had nothing to distract herself.

"I hope my friends are okay," she muttered, worry creeping into her heart. "Please let Ponyville be safe."