Author's Note

A large portion of this chapter will be back and forth dialogue.

Negotiations

Six hours had passed and Sunset and Moonlight woke up and headed out to the living room. There they found Twilight and Luna sleeping. Moonlight shook Twilight's shoulder and said, "Twilight, we probably need to get her awake and over to the palace. I know the queen is going to want to get started on these negotiations, get the tyrant out of here and ultimately form our own nation."

Twilight nodded, flashed her horn bright and yelled, "Luna, get up. If you want your sister back, we need to get going."

Luna shot up, "What-what?"

Sunset stated, "You heard her, if you want your sister back, we need to get going."

Luna asked, "What about breakfast? Aren't you three hungry?"

Twilight replied, "I am certain the queen will have a meal waiting for us. When she has visitors that stay the night, she provides breakfast for them, and for those of us who help her in handling them." She grabbed Luna in her aura and added, "Come on, up-up, we don't have all day."

Luna got up and was frustrated by the behavior of the three, Twilight in particular because she was behaving nothing like how she did when she was Celestia's protege. Life in the forest among all the other unicorns Celestia had wronged had changed her, changed her in a way that does not represent the values of Equestria, but the values of what will ultimately become the nation that Radiant Hope will ultimately establish.

Once they arrived at the palace they were greeted by Shooting Star who greeted them with a smile, "The queen and the princess are waiting for your arrival."

Sunset replied, "Well hopefully we can get this taken care of, get her out of here and receive what the queen wants."

Shooting Star opened the door for them and they headed in. In the throne room waiting for them was not just Queen Radiant Hope but also a lilac colored unicorn with a dark purple mane and tail with a gray stripe in it. She also had a four pointed star for a cutie mark, Princess Glimmering Starlight. When the queen saw them she said, "Ladies, Luna, shall we have some breakfast prior to getting down to business."

Moonlight replied, "We shall."

The two royals led them into the dining hall. Once they got sat down the chef came in to take their orders. Radiant ordered, "I would like eggs, hay bacon, oats and apple juice." The chef nodded and the others ordered the same. While what the queen had ordered didn't really appeal to Luna that much, she figured that it would be best if they ordered the same thing.

She turned to the princess and asked, "I did not see you yesterday, what is your name."

The princess replied, "I am Princess Glimmering Starlight, I was your sister's first protege, the first pony she sexually assaulted out at that castle."

Luna apologized, "I'm sorry she did that to you. Had I not been banished to the moon at the time I would have stopped....."

Twilight would be quick to interrupt, "Well you sure didn't stop her from doing that to me and you were back from the moon at that point so don't go feeding us those lies."

Radiant then wanted to get down to business while they were waiting for their meal. She began, "Luna, you do realize that the crimes your sister has committed are very severe and that she must be punished."

Luna replied, "I do understand that and if I am able to take her home, I will see to it that she is punished for her crimes."

"Luna, we will however not just release her and hope that you will punish her. Before we release her, we do have demands that must be met, demands that you may not like."

"Oh, and what are those?"

Radiant began, "Well for starters, we want all the territory that this forest encompasses along with everything spanning a ten mile radius outside of it as well. We feel that gaining possession of that real estate for our own nation will be somewhat sufficient."

Luna gasped, "Seriously, you are wanting all that territory and from the way you make it sound, you make it sound like that isn't all."

Radiant continued, "That isn't the only thing we want. For her release, we also believe that we should be the ones to decide your sister's punishment upon taking her back to Canterlot, a punishment which some of us will travel with you to ensure it is done."

Luna gasped, "What, you wish to determine her punishment?"

Radiant turned to Twilight causing her to state, "Some methods work better than others. Lunar banishment is a no-go because the stars freed you, solar banishment is a no-go because a solar eclipse could free her and we know you'd make that happen at some point. Banishment to Tartarus has its risks because if Cerberus was to leave his post, she could escape. Turning her into stone would also have its risks, the spell may not hold and she could break free."

Luna asked, "What about putting her in the dungeon? Her horn is broken and she could not escape."

Twilight countered, "Who is to say some goody-good guard or even you decided to release her. What we want is for her to be locked up where she will never harm another pony ever again."

Luna sighed, "The only option then would be for me to use the Elements of Harmony to tear open a hole in the fabric of space and time and toss her in, and then sew it shut."

Glimmering Starlight asked, "If you did that, wouldn't you be able to free her the same way?"

Luna replied, "Yes, I could if....."

Radiant interrupted, "Then we would need to bring those Elements back with us so that you could not betray every mare here by releasing the pony who sexually assaulted every single one of us here, save myself."

Luna flared her horn up in anger, "No! I will not sacrifice the Elements of Harmony! Without them Equestria could be doomed....as could your nation once you get it created."

Glimmering gave her a deep glare, "Could we trust you enough to keep those Elements? Could we trust you to not free her solely because she is your sister or you have demands from your citizens requesting it?"

Luna sighed, "You can trust me....but what about my sister's horn?"

Radiant snapped, "The horn stays with us. We can not risk you deciding to not only free her but find a way to restore her horn, thus restoring her magic."

Luna yelled, "We have no magic to restore horns and what would you want it for anyway?" She calmed down a bit and added, "I am sorry but I want her horn back."

The five looked at one another and Moonlight stated, "Well then, I suppose your sister's fate is sealed." She turned to Twilight who developed a sadistic grin on her face.

When Luna saw this she yelled, "Fine then, you can keep the horn."

Radiant continued, "And if you know how, we do want a spell that will cause the forest to grow out to where our border would be. We are forest ponies and we do not want unforested land in our territory nor do we want to have to wait decades for any trees we would plant to grow sufficiently to provide our territory with the protection we desire."

Luna sighed, "Well I will have to do some studying" she then turned to Twilight before continuing, "or during your time up in Canterlot you can do some studying. I know you could easily learn spells to cause trees to grow in nothing flat."

Twilight wasn't exactly thrilled with having to spend any more time outside of her new home than was absolutely necessary. She said, "Well hopefully this won't take too long. I don't want to have to be in that place any longer than I have to be."

Luna threw her hooves up in the air and yelled, "Fine! I'll study it so you can come back and hide out here as soon as possible." She then glared at them before asking, "Anything else?"

The five then looked at one another and all nodded. Radiant then said, "Nope. If you are willing to meet our demands, we shall release her, in Canterlot, where she will be immediately punished."

Luna felt as though Equestria was getting the raw end of the deal, having to sacrifice so much solely for the return of her sister, a pony who she would have to banish into limbo immediately upon her return. She did know though that it was either that or Twilight would kill her on the seventh day. She sighed, "Very well, you demands shall be met."

Radiant exclaimed, "Excellent!" She then turned to Glimmering and ordered, "Could you get our prisoner put in a cage and then bring her up here? I am certain our guest wants to get home at a decent time and I want to be able to create the nation of Unicornia as soon as possible."

The princess headed down to get Celestia put in a cage so that they could begin the long transport of her back to Canterlot. She wasn't sure exactly how the citizens of Canterlot would react to this but she was pretty sure that Radiant Hope and the rest of her delegation would likely make Celestia admitting her wrongs to the city another part of their demands for freeing her sister.