Author's Notes:

If you have NOT read Liquid Pride, that's okay. You don't need to. Just go ahead and skip this chapter, or else you are going to feel really confused reading this.

A white earth pony sat on the beach of a remote island, looking wistfully at the sunset, pretending that she was the one lowering it below the horizon. Beside her, a blue earth pony ran her hooves over the sand sculpture, shaping it into her dream's desire.

"What do you think?" Luna asked her sister. Celestia looked at the sand castle.

"It looks just like home," Celestia said. As the sun set, the moon rose behind them, bringing its gravity with it. The tide began to come in, washing away Luna's sand castle.

"Damn it!" Luna cursed the moon that she no longer controlled. Celestia pondered upon the folly of the sand castle, its impermanence a metaphor for all things passing out of existence with time. Even Luna and herself, no longer immortal. Luna huffed out the last of her frustrations. It was not the first sand castle she had lost to the sea. The cool sea breeze began to blow ashore. "Come. It will be cold soon," Luna said as she stood up.

Celestia followed her back to the shelter that they had built when they had first been banished to this place. She joined her sister in the makeshift bed that they had put together from the palm leaves and coconut husks. She laid her hoof across her. Luna pushed her gesture away.

"I'm sorry Luna," Celestia apologized. "I love you. All I ever wanted was an eternity with you. No matter the cost."

"The cost was too great. You needed to be stopped. You needed to be stopped a thousand years ago, and again, after I returned," Luna said. Celestia felt her heart breaking.

"Did you really think me a villain?" Celestia asked.

"Yes," Luna wept into her pillow. Her memories flashed back to when she had Twilight fight Celestia and she, herself, tried to take over Canterlot. She rubbed her hoof on her forehead where her horn used to be. "But so was I."

"We really do deserve this," Celestia said, peering out the window across the small island they had been banished upon. "It's going to be cold tonight." Luna didn't budge. "Do we not, at least, deserve each other?" Celestia asked. Luna remained unmoved for a minute more. And then, she shuffled back toward Celestia's hooves. Celestia wrapped her hoof around her and held her close. Luna turned to face her. Celestia kissed her. Luna kissed her back.

"What do you think Twilight is doing right now?" Celestia asked. Luna snorted, recalling when she used to be able to walk the dreamscape. Judging from what she had seen of Twilight's dreams, the answer was obvious.

"Her brother, most likely."

"Oh, Shiny!" Princess Twilight Sparkle wrapped her hooves around her pillow and bit on it to stifle her squeals. She moaned as her brother continued to rut her senseless on her royal bed in Canterlot Castle. Prince Shining Armor spread his wings wide as he pounded his sister from behind. He leaned over and nibbled on the sensitive parts of her wings, eliciting yet another moan from her. "Mmm, my brother's cock feels so big!" she said.

"That's just because my little sister's pussy is so tight!" he said back, giving her flank a firm slap with his hoof. "Mmm, Twilie, I'm getting close!" Twilight's eyes crossed as she felt his magic playing with her clit, sending her over the top.

"I'm cumming!" Twilight cried, beckoning her brother to join her in climax. "I'm cumming from my brother's big cock!" Shining moved at a blinding pace, slapping his balls against her nub with each thrust. She felt him flare inside her. His shaft began to pump and throb. She felt her tunnel become flooded with his seed as he pumped load after load deep inside her. "Yes!" Twilight cried, "Cum inside me, big brother! Get me super pregnant!"

"Super pregnant? Really?" Cadance asked mockingly from her crib. "What? Is the foal going to come out wearing a cape?"

"Oh shit, you're awake?" Shining asked rhetorically.

"Obviously," Cadance said. "It's not like I can sleep through you two going at it like that. Do you really need to rub it in?"

"Sorry sweetie," Shining apologized.

"You are really into the brother-sister thing, huh?" Cadance asked. Twilight shrugged and blushed. "Let me out would you? I need more practice walking."

"Yeah, one sec," Shining said, pulling out of Twilight with a wet 'plop'.

"I'm gonna go clean up," Twilight said as she waddled to the bathroom, trying not to drip. Shining Armor reached into the crib and set the young foal Cadance onto the carpet. She stood and tried to walk but fell on her rump.

"It's okay. Try again," Shining coached. Cadance fell on her butt again as she tried to get the hang of walking.

"This is bullshit!" she cried out.

"Language, young lady!" Shining admonished with a chuckle. She glared back in mock anger.

"I'm older than you!" Cadance said. "It's just really frustrating. I remember how to do all this but my brain isn't developed enough. This is worse than being drunk!"

"You're getting better," he encouraged. "Do you want to sit on Daddy's lap while I work on my book?" he asked with a smirk. Baby Cadance blanched.

"Okay, first of all, the idea of you getting off to me looking like this," Cadance motioned to herself in foal form, "fills me with the urge to defecate. Speaking of," she pointed at her diaper, "I'm going to need a change. And secondly, No! Daddy's lap still smells like his sister's pussy!"

"Whoa whoa whoa!" Shining defended. "This isn't for you!" he said as he pointed as his yet-still-wilting erection. Cadance glared at him. "I mean, it was for you, years ago. And it will be again, some day. When you're older." She continued to glare at him. "Physically older! I mean this one in particular isn't meant for you." he amended. "What? Do I have to invent a whole new language?" She rolled her eyes and sighed. "And besides, I was only asking for you to join me to help with my autobiography. You were always better at writing than me," he said as he sat as his desk.

"Fine," Candace said. She crawled over to his side. "Help me up?"

"Ah, ah!" Shining scolded playfully. "Say it cutely." Cadance huffed and got up on her hind legs, flailing her tiny hooves at him.

"Upsies?" she asked.

"Oh, my little baby wants up?" he asked.

"I will end you," she growled.

"I love you too," he said. "Here's what I've got so far since last time." Cadance looked over his writing. His hoofwriting was appalling. It looked like a foal had tried to write while wearing mittens and riding in a carriage on a cobblestone road during an earthquake.

"Did you have a seizure while you were writing this?" she asked.

"No!" he defended. She gave him a sideways look. "Okay, I might have been having a few ciders while I was writing this," he admitted. She looked back at the paper and tried to figure out his hieroglyphics.

"I could tell my sister needed it bad. She looked at me sexfully," Cadance recited aloud as she read. "Sexfully? That's not a word! You made it up!"

"All words are made up!" he retorted.

"That's technically correct," Twilight said, appearing behind them. "The best kind of correct." She kissed Shining. "Sorry I took so long. There was... kind of a lot. What, were you saving it up or something?"

"No. You just turn me on that much," he said, giving her another kiss.

"Gag!" Cadance sneered.

"Aw, is my little baby still tired after her nap?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah. Tired of watching you fucking my husband," Cadance huffed and crossed her tiny hooves. Twilight just smiled.

"You can join in a few more years," Twilight said.

"I love you Cadie. But I love Twilight too. And to be fair, Twilight came first."

"Some nights," Cadance said. Twilight snickered.

"What?" Shining asked.

"Well, she's not wrong," Twilight admitted. She leaned over his shoulder and read his pages recounting everything that had happened to them. "Let me ask you Shiny, if you had to do it all over again, what would you have done differently?"

"Well for starters-"

"Your Highness!" the guard said from outside the door. "Your presence is required! It's urgent!" Shining put Cadance back in the crib as Twilight walked to the door. She pulled it open. The guard had his eyes averted.

"It's okay. My brother and I are... decent," she said. The guard looked at her.

"We've intercepted a pair of changelings claiming to be you and Spike the Dragon. They are demanding to speak to the leader of Equestria!" he reported.

"Bring them before me!" Princess Twilight said.

"Us!" Shining added.

"Bring them before us!" Princess Twilight Sparkle commanded as they headed to the throne room.

Prince Shining Armor and Princess Twilight Sparkle sat side-by-side on the two thrones in the Canterlot Castle throne room. The Royal Guards opened the grand doorway and ushered in the changelings that looked like Twilight and Spike.

"You stand accused of impersonating royalty and Number One Assistant thereof!" Princess Twilight began, addressing the pony with her appearance. "How do you plea, changelings?"

"We're not changelings!" the other Twilight said.

"We will see!" The Princess said.

"I'll handle this," Prince Shining Armor said. He marched forward and his horn glowed. The changeling nullification spell slammed them and washed over them without effect. "Strange. They're not changelings," he said.

"That what I just sai-" the other Twilight trailed off as she watched the prince walk back to the throne. "Why does my brother have wings!?"

"That's MY brother!" the princess growled protectively. "And you have some explaining to do! If you are not a changeling, then what are you? And why are you wearing MY face!?"

"I'm from another dimension. Another timeline!" the other Twilight said. "A pony, a unicorn named Starlight Glimmer, used one of Starswirl's spells to change something in the past! The Crystal Tree Castle-"

"Crystal Tree Castle?" the Princess asked, looking at the Prince.

"Never heard of it," Shining said.

"The one that grew in Ponyville, after I defeated Tirek!" the other Twilight said.

"Never heard of him either," he said.

"I've got to get back! Back to the past and fix what happened!" the other Twilight said. "But I need to know what to undo! What happened here?"

"You are from the past?" the Princess asked. "I have no memory of meeting my future self in this circumstance.

"Yes. I mean, sort of. I'm from the present. But a different present. I need to know what's different about this time so I know what to change when I go back!" the other Twilight begged. She shuffled her hooves nervously. The princess observed her. Her mannerisms were exactly as she would be. If it were a changeling, or some other shape-shifting creature, they'd done their homework on mimicking her. And she had time traveled before. It was a gamble. But a familiar one.

"Shiny, fetch your... book," the princess instructed.

"Okay. Be safe," Shining said as he got up. He kissed her before he left. It was not a brotherly kiss. She kissed him back. Harder. The other Twilight stood aghast, unsure of what to make of it.

"Are you two..." Spike asked nervously. The princess's eyes ceased following the prince and she turned to glare at him and then the other Twilight. She was blushing.

"Is this different in your 'timeline'?" the princess asked.

"A lot of things are different," the other Twilight said. "Where are Princess Celestia and Luna?"

"Gone," the Princess said simply.

"Gone? Gone where?"

"Banished. I'm not exactly sure where. But they have been stripped of their titles, horns, and wings, for crimes against Equestria."

"What!?" the other Twilight balked.

"You will understand soon enough," the princess said. Shining returned with his manuscript, detailing the events. The princess gave it to the other Twilight. She began to quickly read through it. "In short," the princess began to summarize, "Princess Celestia wanted to prevent my brother and me from using the Elements of Harmony together. The Elements are powered by the three types of love: between family, friends, and lovers. He and I are all three, the Triumvirate, giving me the ability to self-substantiate my ascension to an Alicorn."

"And she was able to turn me into an Alicorn," Shining said.

"Celestia had been stealing the life force of ponies to maintain her power and to... eliminate her opposition," Princess Twilight continued. "Luna had tried to stop her in the past, which lead to Celestia banishing her to the moon. A thousand years is a long time. She bid her time to scheme and enact her revenge when she returned. After overthrowing Celestia, she sought to consume the power of the Triumvirate for herself and kill me in the process."

"By the stars!" Twilight gasped as she read through the book detailing the events. "Starlight must have changed more, further back in the past than I realized!"

"Luna said that Celestia was acting as a result of a plague that had wiped out the Alicorn race, leaving only her and Luna as the survivors," Shining said.

"At the time, neither could be trusted," Princess Twilight cautioned. "So we can not be sure to the validity of the claim. There are no records from that time." She walked down to the other Twilight. "But if you really are who you say you are, then you know as well as I do that preventing the plague would be equally disastrous."

"To save an entire race, to change so much so long ago," the other Twilight said, "It would be a very different world in the present."

"If you could," the princess said to her alternate self, "If you could but steer her, both of them, from a path of evil. I-" She wiped a tear from her eye. "I miss her very much. There is so much I would change about this world. If that one thing could be undone..."

"But- but if I change it, if I change the past, your past," the other Twilight said. "You wouldn't be ruling in Canterlot. You wouldn't be..." she looked at Shining Armor and blushed. "... with him. Like this." The princess smiled. She could see it in the eyes of her alternate. Envy.

"I suspect that some things are meant to be in any timeline. It's fate," the princess said. Shining walked down to join her.

"And if he's anything like me," he said, "you should tell him how you feel. Because I'm certain that he feels the same way."

"But if I change your past," the other Twilight said. "You might not even exist!"

"Perhaps," the princess said. "Perhaps you and I never existed. Perhaps we always have, in separate dimensions. A world away, but just an inch from your face. In either case, you have your mission." The other Twilight nodded.

"I know what I have to do," she said with conviction. Her horn glowed and the spell opened a time portal above her, pulling her and Spike in. Both vanished along with the portal, on their way to a final showdown with Starlight Glimmer, over a thousand years in the past.

"..."

"What if she's right?" Shining asked. "What if she succeeds, and we are both erased from time?" Twilight put her hoof to his cheek and pulled his face to hers. She brought her lips to his as she stared into his eyes.

"Then kiss me, brother... one last time."