Celestia’s eyes traced across the gilded walls of her sitting room, refusing to look at the source of her frustration—her stubborn student. He’d never completely denied her before, and she wasn’t sure how to respond to his sudden and unfortunately timed defiance. The fireplace flickered and cracked, illuminating the pair and casting dancing shadows as she evenly drew her breath to maintain her calm demeanor.

As tactfully as she could, she attempted to simply be direct and polite once more. Perhaps, against all odds, he was misunderstanding her. “Shining, this matter is far more important than you realize. You can’t take… your sister… with you.”

She hated calling that mare his sister. While they were technically brother and sister by blood, the reality was far more twisted, and the title of sister only stood to remind Celestia of the sheer perversity that she’d actively ignored.

Twilight Sparkle was indeed Shining Armor’s younger sister by birth, however, the relationship between the two was anything but familial. The most positive light that Celestia could cast on their relationship was that Twilight enjoyed being his willing concubine. Unfortunately, that would be an incredibly generous assessment of their relationship. The reality made Celestia shudder in raw disgust. Not many things still got under Celestia’s skin, but this was definitely one of them.

Shining stood defiantly with his blue eyes glinting in the firelight. “No. Twilight has to come.”

Celestia sighed. For the first time in a long time, she had no idea what to do. He’d been willing to leave Twilight in the castle for overnight diplomatic trips before; there was no way she could have foreseen his sudden and seemingly nonsensical impudence on the matter. Celestia wracked her brain, trying to determine the source of his out of character insubordination. The fire crackled, spitting a glowing spark into the air like a burning fairy of doubt.

She had been lenient about the tragic fate of Twilight Sparkle in deference to Shining’s raw magical strength, sheer potential, and otherwise flawless personality. One innocent mare had suffered so that many more would live. There was even a chance that Celestia could get lucky and…

No. That sort of wish was too much, and she was once again justifying her uncharacteristic leniency with an impossible hope.

It wasn’t that Twilight was treated cruelly, far from it. Shining always doted on the mare, going so far as to bargain for her to attend his personal lessons with Celestia as a secondary personal student. He regularly demanded that any boon or benefit he was to receive was duplicated for Twilight, or he wouldn’t accept it. Outside the three of them, Twilight was treated as much a royal Student as Shining was.

Maybe his current reluctance stemmed from far more a mundane problem. “Is she pregnant? I can take care of her while you’re gone.”

He shook his head calmly. “Of course not.” Blinking, he tilted his head slightly sideways and pursed his lips. “Look, neither of us have time to argue about this. I’m on your side. I always am. I know what you need me to do, and I need Twilight to do it.”

Celestia snorted, suddenly angry. Why was she putting up with this? This foal was trying to order her around just so he could have his little pleasure piece. This was far more important than he could possibly realize. He presumed too much, and her patience was wearing thin. “You don’t need to get your dick wet to check up on a few tasks, My Student. You will leave her here. She will be fine, and you can come back to her the day after the Summer Sun Celebration.”

Shining merely rolled his eyes at her uncharacteristic outburst, maintaining his unnatural calm. “We both know that’s not why you’re sending me.”

Celestia glared at him, the dimming anger still beating in her chest as her mind raced. Just how much did he know? “Oh? Then why am I sending you, my faithful student? Why don’t you enlighten me as to my own motivations?”

He used his magic to open up his saddle bags, tossing an old book to her hooves. She looked down, recognizing it immediately. It was a foal’s fairy tale. More importantly, it was one about her sister.

The one she needed Shining to kill tonight, because she could never bring herself to do it.

Her anger quickly turned to an icy dread as a similarly unnatural calm took over her. “This is… just a fairy tale.”

Shining’s response was quick, as though he expected Celestia’s cold dismissal. “Then for the sake of this fairy tale of sisters, allow me to bring my own.”

The dread grew into a hollow feeling, and within that hollow something dark was smoldering. How dare he compare them. “Your sister is nothing like mine was.”

While Celestia’s sister was currently a monster who had been beaten low by the tides of eternity, Luna had once been regal and just. In her prime she was a paragon of justice, and one of the few ponies Celestia had truly and deeply loved. The little mare known as Twilight was a debauched pervert molded and corrupted into something foul by Shining’s own hoof.

The comparison disgusted her, but there was at least one disturbing parallel between the two mares. Twilight’s pathetic state was entirely Shining’s fault, much like Luna’s current state was Celestia’s. Shining had raised Twilight from the moment she hadn’t needed diapers. Their parents worked full time, for the crown no less, and had allowed him to eagerly take little Twilight under his metaphorical wing before she could even talk.

From the time she was a young filly, he had been teaching her… things. Things that should have sent him to prison and the young filly to therapy. Had anypony else been aware of the actual depths of Shining’s manipulation and abuse of Twilight, that certainly would have been the outcome.

Celestia sometimes fantasized about quietly imprisoning him and throwing away the key. She could simply abandon this project and instead use her remaining time and energy to prepare Equestria for a smooth transition when she cedes to her mad sister. Shining would certainly make a nice looking statue. As tempting as it was, Nightmare Moon’s return was a far greater threat to her little ponies than one empowered sexual deviant who had already done the worst of his damage.

Shining approached Celestia, and gently put his hoof up to his chest in a salute, almost like one of her royal guard. “Celestia, I swear that Twilight and I will take care of this—but I need her to do it. Please, trust me.”

She glared at him, the rage and fury focusing her attention. Instead of incinerating him, she observed him. He really did look like one of her royal guard. Perhaps he could have made guard captain had she given him the proper training. To his credit, he didn’t wither under her dangerous glare. He never did.

All her plans, hopes, and dreams depended on this. He didn’t know how fully she was already committed to him. He didn’t realize the sacrifices she’d made for tonight, exactly how deep a price she had already paid. She’d known that she’d have to trust him. She’d molded him to be nearly perfect and, honestly, she did trust him.

She just did not trust his obsessive slave.

Celestia hated that she’d let the situation with Twilight get so awful. Celestia had chosen to be complicit in his crime. She had known what was happening the moment Twilight joined in their first magic lesson and “nuzzled” up next to Shining. A young filly shouldn’t nuzzle quite so intently, and Twilight had been very young then; not even old enough to get her cutie mark. Most ponies wouldn’t have noticed, or perhaps chalked it up to poor social skills, but Celestia wasn’t most ponies. She’d seen behavior like that before, usually just before deciding the unfortunate fate of some abusive stallion or mare.

Celestia had politely paused the lesson, and stepped out of the room to run a simple and cold calculus in a few moments of privacy. She’d told them that she needed to use the restroom. The math was unfortunately one sided. Shining was far, far too powerful to waste as a pawn. Especially considering the timing of the upcoming millennial anniversary. If ignoring what he was doing to Little Twilight was all it would take to keep him obedient and focused, then Celestia could ethically afford to expend the filly as a sacrifice. One pawn would suffer so Celestia’s board could have a queen. She’d made sacrifices for the greater good before, but this particular one had emotionally gutted her.

There was no time to find a replacement for Shining, and Celestia couldn’t find somepony as powerful. When Nightmare Moon was exhausted from imprisoning Celestia, somepony else would have to stop her. Only Shining could do it.

She groaned. There was no choice. She couldn’t convince him, and she couldn’t intimidate him. He wouldn’t go without his pet. “Fine. But only on the condition that you two not fool around. You and Twilight will not do anything even remotely sexual for two days.”

Shining nodded, raising his hoof from his chest to his forehead in a true royal guard salute. She blinked, disturbed by how practiced and fluid the action looked.

“On my honor, Princess.” He even had the proper response of a guard captain.

She ignored the strange sense of deja vu and redoubled her orders. “Aside from the obvious, that means no kissing, no nuzzling, no groping, no needy looks, and for everypony’s sake, make sure Twilight keeps her tail down. She has a habit of flashing you when she thinks nopony else is looking. I am dead serious, Shining. There will be no quickies, and no secreting away; I don’t even want you to touch each other unless it’s absolutely necessary. You will have separate rooms in the library hosting you, and you will each sleep in your own.”

“Yes, Princess.” Shining was now standing at attention, exactly like a trained soldier receiving his orders.

Celestia felt dizzy from seeing him, almost as though it was causing a strange sense of vertigo. She closed her eyes, and immediately felt better. “Shining Armor, if you do not manage this, I will be very displeased. If you fail due to a dalliance with… her… then I will remove that temptation from your future. Permanently. Do you understand?” It was more likely they’d all be dead by her mad sister, but Celestia couldn’t say as much.

This confrontation, and verbal admission that she tacitly allowed the situation made her feel sick. Celestia normally stayed quiet on the matter, choosing not to think about it most days. She allowed Twilight to participate in their lessons, and even moved the two of them into their own tower together. Sound proofing enchantments had been added to their door, and a privacy enchantment added to their windows. She’d only verbally chastised their closeness once, coldly advising them to “not be so affectionate in public” when Twilight’s nuzzling became a little too frivolous.

Shining had nodded in clear understanding, and it hadn’t happened since.

The worst and most damning evidence had been when Celestia barged into their room, through the privacy wards that she’d set up for them. She had wanted an immediate clarification on an answer he’d written, and she’d not thought to send a magical notification, or even warning.

The smell of sex had been overwhelming, and seeing a far too young Twilight’s glistening vulva hovering over her student’s impressively erect and equally wet penis had left nothing to the imagination. Worse still, Shining’s response had been truly harrowing.

He hadn’t been bothered, or even surprised by, the intrusion at all. Instead, he calmly asked what she needed while pausing his upwards thrusting. His unflappable temperament was one of the traits that Celestia usually favored, but a perfectly calm response from a teenage colt caught red hoofed mid coitus, with his under age sister no less, was soul chilling. On the other hoof, little Twilight had immediately shot Celestia a death glare that had taken a full five days to fade from her face.

It was quite literally the only emotion she’d ever seen on the placid mare besides pure adoration for her brother, or a neutral and studious face. Celestia had never seen the little filly the same after that, always instead seeing through Twilight’s calm mask and into how much she obsessed over her personal time with her brother.

At the very least, the incident had proven that both siblings were the only two ponies in recent memory willing to openly show share their displeasure with her. She supposed that, regardless of their relationship, they were clearly related.

Shining’s hoof stepped firmly back on the floor, creating a loud smack and refocusing Celestia from her daze. Celestia decided to open her eyes. It was just her student there, not that strange and dizzying royal guard, or the sexually deviant teenager she’d caught years ago.

His smile was an oddly amused smirk, quite a strange response to an uncharacteristically hostile ruling and threat from Celestia. “Of course, Princess. If things don’t work out, it’s not like we can all just… start over until we get it right.”

Celestia watched him intently, unnerved by his manner. Sometimes Shining made her skin crawl. As he turned to leave, she wondered how exactly she’d ever explain this when he was inevitably caught by the public.

While she had never caught them in the act again, it was mostly due to care on her part and not theirs. Somehow, everypony else seemed completely oblivious to their incestial situation. Even the meaning behind Twilight’s cutie mark had been embarrassingly obvious to Celestia.

The day Twilight had gotten her mark had left Celestia morbidly questioning the necessity of her choice to not intervene. She’d opened up a particularly old cask of wine that night, and drained it to the bottom while she contemplated all possible interpretations. She’d ordered another cask when she had narrowed it down to one.

Cutie marks were a personal thing, and only the bearer knew exactly what they represented. Celestia wasn’t an exception to that rule but she had more insight than most; she’d seen so many hundreds of thousands of marks over the years that she usually understood their symbolism far better than the marked themselves. Since Twilight received her mark after Shining Armor had, Twilight’s mark was downright obscene. Of course, you’d have to completely understand the nature of marks to see that. Celestia was likely the only one who could notice.

It happened, occasionally. A young filly or colt might worship a particular pony and get influenced by them enough to have it show up in their mark. Sometimes it was a family member; usually it was benign. Rarely, though, it was a sign of abuse. In Twilight’s case, she’d been forever marked as Shining’s thing. The tilted mark denoted corruption, or outside influence. In this case, Shining’s. The encased mark was about devotion, or faithfulness. In Shining’s mark it designated that he was devoted to protection. In Twilight’s, she was devoted to him.

The presentation of the marks made the closeness of their relationship clear, but the layering and positioning suggested just how truly depraved it was. Of course, both marks had far more meaning than just their relationships. Shining’s devotion to protection was augmented by remarkable magic, and the presentation of smaller stars around the whole design represented his influence on the world around him.

Twilight’s further interpretation was some magical connection to fate. Celestia was suspicious that since her surrounding stars were white, the strings of fate were tied closely to her brother. Far more likely, they might actually represented Twilight’s preference for being marked with his seed. Harmony usually saw fit to camouflage truly obscene marks as something vague, like fate.

After the cutie mark appeared, Twilight had grown even more slavish and obedient towards Shining. She constantly stared at his body with unabashedly focused and hungry eyes. Now, she was fully an adult and any semblance of self sufficiency or even self identity was seemingly gone. All that was left of the bright but awkward little filly was a very eager, and at this point incredibly well practiced, concubine. Twilight was studiously silent during lessons, and Celestia had absolutely no doubt that the only thoughts left running through Twilight’s head were how to better please Shining Armor between lessons.

While Twilight’s thoughts on Shining were plainly obvious, Shining himself was a little more inscrutable. Celestia had once asked Shining what he planned to do with Twilight when his studies were over and he was on his own. She was morbidly curious if he’d at least marry her, as socially unacceptable as that may be. He’d said, with a completely neutral and straight face, that he’d keep her.

The words had echoed around Celestia’s mind for weeks.

He’d keep her. Like some kind of object, or toy.

Celestia had been thoroughly disgusted, but hid it well. She’d smiled kindly and stated that “Twilight would probably like that.”

In every other aspect of his life, Shining was a complete gentlepony. He was impossibly intelligent, kind, a genius with magic, and a gorgeous physical specimen. Aside from his truly horrific relationship with his sister, he was the perfect stallion. He stopped to help strangers, he was understanding and compassionate, and he even remembered the castle staff’s birthdays.

Most interestingly of all, his magic power was comparable to her own. With only a few more decades of practice, he’d be on her level; whether he managed ascension or not. She couldn’t waste this opportunity over the fate of one unfortunate filly.

So she hadn’t.

The sacrifice of Twilight had not been in vain. Shining had advanced alarmingly quickly and across all fields of magic with Celestia’s tutelage.

His growth hadn’t gone unnoticed by the noble ladies vying for familial power, either. Luckily, he had little interest in mares that weren’t Twilight. The only time it had looked like it might become an issue, Celestia had quickly intervened. Afterword, she had warned him in no uncertain terms that no one was to find out about Twilight’s relationship with him while he was her student.

The end result was that Celestia had been forced to politely chase Cadence away from him, for fear that the younger alicorn would discover his horrible secret. It was a shame, they would have made an excellent pair in another life. Celestia occasionally had a flash of panic that Cadence had figured it out, and was working her own devious purposes. If Cadence had, she hadn’t said or done anything about it. Sometimes Cadence was more clever than she let on, but Celestia doubted she would allow this level of perversion to continue as Celestia had.

Celestia took a few meditative breaths, reconstituting her calm exterior and collecting her rampant thoughts before she returned to court for the day. The worst of it was almost over. She just needed one or two more days of faithful effort from Shining Armor, and then… well, he would still be an excellent pawn, but he wouldn’t be a necessary pawn. She could re-evaluate the Twilight situation then.

Assuming all parties were still alive.

Author's Note

Chapter 1. Entire story is about 30K words. Already written. Gonna publish a chapter a day or so. Maybe more. Dunno. Haven't posted anything in a while. Don't know who will like this or even what it is. Good luck, weird story. I'm counting on you.