Wandering Moon: Return

by ed2481

Rating: mature
Tags: Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Human, Nightmare Moon, Romance, Princess Luna, Original Character, Adventure, Princess Celestia, Crossover, Sex
Length: 71576

Two years ago Luna returned from the Wasteland to find that her home had shifted dramatically from what she remembered. Even now she attempts to find a way to transport her lost love, Sarah, to her side, but a chitinous foe seeks to tear them apart.

Two years is a long time to go without seeing your true love, it’s even longer when you know that they’re trapped in a place like the Wasteland. Luna knows this pain well and has been desperately trying to find a way to bring the Lone Wanderer, Sarah Summers, her one love, to Equestria.

The Wasteland has not been kind to Sarah Summers. Every day a new scar or bruise is added to the collection, her only solace coming from Nim, her truest of companions. Together the two have forged onwards without Luna, doing their best to get through the day to day grind of violence and murder so popular out in the Wastes.

Meanwhile, a defeated Queen plots her dark revenge against the kingdom who so cruelly bested her and her ambitions may just hold the answers Luna seeks.

A Fallout 3 crossover, reading of the original story is strongly suggested.

Cover Art by WeaselK's work (link may contain nsfw)

Editing done by BlackWindinSocks and SwirlingBlade

Has its own tvtropes page

Published 2014-06-15 20:20:03 UTC
Last updated 2014-10-09 00:38:57 UTC

Return Chapter 2: Nightmares and Feathers

A rough hand grasped at her arm and Sarah’s vision swam as she tried to focus on what was going on around her. All she got was a bleary vision of a... cave? It might have been a cave, she wasn’t quite sure.

Nim... where... are we? the woman asked blearily

Oh... I’m not sure Nim replied, her voice just as unfocused. Last the last thing I remember was that we... we were talking to... she trailed off as Sarah’s vision came into focus.

The rough hand around her arm was a bloated, overlarge slab of flesh attached to a body that could probably be described with the same words. A pair of dull, misshapen eyes looked down at her with what she vaguely recognized as desire. The woman clenched her teeth together as her mind took stock of the situation she found herself in.

The room around her was darkly lit and Sarah could smell the near overpowering smell of decay drifting through the air. Of course, the entire fucking swamp smelled like that so it wasn’t exactly a ‘new’ experience for Sarah. Leering down at her was one of the swampfolk native to the area, the type that Sarah had taken to calling ‘Trackers’. It was only then the fact that she was currently both armourless and shirtless occurred to her.

“OH you finally awake!” the Tracker jeered in its broken english. “Good! Good! That very good!”

Nim, weapon, any weapon, Sarah snarled to her companion. She’d heard stories like this... what happened to the women captured by the swampfolk and judging by the noticeable bulge in the ‘man’s’ pants, the stories were not exaggerations.

Searching, stall it, Nim replied as she began to rapidly scan the room.

Make it fast, Sarah replied, her mental voice coming out a bit strained. “Er... yeah, good... hi.”

“You pretty, me Stan!” the Tracker said, his enunciation giving Sarah a headache after just a few seconds of listening.

“That’s... nice, I’m Sarah,” Sarah replied as she tried to calmly release her arm from his grubby, swollen fingers which more closely resembled sausages then actual digits.

Her efforts were in vain however because the thick bastards were locked around her like a vicegrip. The woman’s teeth ground together as ‘Stan’ increased the strength of his grip and sent a wave of pain roaring through Sarah’s body.

“No, no, no,” Stan said, shaking his head. “You going to stay there. You prove self strong enough to be wife! We have many childrens!”

“I’m... flattered,” Sarah grunted as she tried again to squirm away. “Really, I am, but I’m kind of seeing someo-”

“STAN NO SAY TALK!” the Tracker roared in her face, slapping Sarah across the jaw with its freehand. “We make strong childrens!”

NIM Sarah shouted within her mind. I NEED A WEA-

The woman’s mental shout was cut short as her free hand reached down and snagged a slim solid object from where it lay on the ground, bringing it up and obscuring it behind her hand.

There, I trust you can find some use for it, Nim replied.

Thanks, Sarah said gratefully as she felt the smooth object against her palm and Stan glowered down at her, licking his lips.

“Good, you not fight,” the Tracker stated, a wide smile crossing his face. “Dey alwys di when dey fight and then dey cannna make babies.”

Nim... would you mind doing the ‘talking’ for this? I feel like it would be easier if he was... distracted first, Sarah asked the alicorn.

...must I? Nim asked, her voice coming out disturbed before she let out a sigh. Very well.

“An tha’s bad because... because I wanna make yer babbies...” Sarah said, her voice turning coy as the cool dampness of the cave drifted over her breasts and she fluttered her eyelashes. “Yer so... sexa, Stan!”

“Relly?” Stan asked in surprise... what could possibly have been called a blush crossing his face. “Ah wasn’ spectin ya ta say thad.”

“Ya don captur ma huart,” Sarah replied, her face shifting into a look of sizzling seduction. “Now take ma!”

A gigantic goofy grin of excitement crossed Stan’s face and he let go of Sarah's free hand, it groping for something Sarah wanted no part of. Well... that wasn’t strictly true. As the malformed giant pulled his pants down Sarah surged forwards and drove the dagger of bone directly into the ‘man’s’ crotch.

Stan let out a bellow of sharp pain as the bone penetrated him and Sarah rolled to the side and then dashed past the keening Stan who was bleeding heavily. The woman ran forwards through the dark cavern, her catlike eyes tracking the environment as she went, helping her jump and dodge beneath giant roots.

Right between the testicals, well placed Sarah, Nim mentally complemented her as the woman dodged beneath another branch.

Thanks, good acting, Sarah replied as a scream of pure rage echoed down the corridor behind them and she heard the heavy, and in this case incredibly painful, steps of the Tracker chasing.

’Twas not hard, he was an idiot, Nim replied.

Before the conversation could get any further, a malformed face came into her vision. It was one of the smaller swampfolk, in its hands was a double barreled shotgun.

“Pa?” it called out uncertainly. Clearly it lacked Sarah’s night vision. That was something the woman could take advantage of! The woman didn’t stop sprinting as she closed the distance with the swampfolk and sent an uppercut into its lower jaw. The hick spun with the power of the blow and it dropped the shotgun. Sarah bent down to pick it up and grasped it in one hand before the swampfolk managed to react. Unfortunately, that was all the luck she had.

The little bastard recovered from her punch and sent one of its own at her, hitting Sarah in the sternum. She stumbled backwards, gasping in pain and ended up with her back against the wall.

“Whaddidya do to my pa?!” the mongrel screamed angrily.

“Stabbed him in the balls,” Sarah grunted as she brought the shotgun up and pulled the trigger... nothing happened. “You didn’t load it?!” Sarah shouted outraged by the hick’s stupidity.

“I-” instead of giving the thing more time to talk, Sarah brought the butt of the shotgun slamming into its larynx. The creature gasped in pain and Sarah brought the gun across in a diagonal smack to the side of its skull. The skull splattered and Sarah didn’t spare the bastard a single thought as she turned on her heel and continued down the way she’d been going.

She took off and ran for five minutes, continuing to dodge roots and rocks until she suddenly came to a dead end. Her eyes widened and she turned to run the other way only to find Stan walking slowly towards her.

“You gonna pay for all dat,” the swampfolk said menacingly.

The woman awoke blinking rapidly, her breath coming in gasps and her body drenched in sweat. Her eyes glanced over at Nim who was looking off into the distance.

“Another dream?” the alicorn asked in concern as she redirected her gaze at the woman.

“Yeah... ‘Stan’ again,” Sarah replied sourly. “I really wish you didn’t have to focus so much of yourself on keeping a lookout...” she added as she hugged herself against Nim’s side and shivered. Nim reflexively reached out with a wing and covered the woman with it, pulling her closer still.

“I know... I’m sorry, Sarah,” Nim said quietly, looking down at Sarah’s shivering self with concern as she bent her head and gave her a concerned nuzzle.

Sarah let out a long sigh as she pulled the muzzle close and hugged it tightly. “Just... don’t leave me, Nim,” she said quietly.

“You know I never would,” Nim murmured softly as she closed her eyes and simply held the woman.

This was hardly the first time the two had been down this particular road of conversation. Ever since Luna’s departure Sarah had become... possessive of her. Understandably so really. One of the only two people Sarah to whom she had gifted her heart, had vanished unexpectedly and the other was the only person on the planet who could help her through her night terrors.

Sarah’s breathing slowly returned to its normal rate and she released Nim. “Sorry,” the woman said, looking down.

“Think nothing of it,” Nim replied as she gave the woman a comforting nuzzle, trailing over her naked chest and shoulders. “You know that you can always count on me for anything, Sarah. Especially something as simple as comforting you after a nightmare.”

“Right... right...” Sarah said as a bittersweet smile crossed her face. “Imagine, Sarah Summers, the ‘Lone Wanderer’, having a nightmare,” she continued, her voice morphing into a dry mockery of Three Dog’s.

Nim frowned at her and the mare’s sea green eyes locked onto hers. “Sarah, hush yourself,” she said in a steady tone. “You are just as susceptible to nightmares as anyone else. No matter who you are or what you have done... there is always something lurking in the back of your mind waiting to cut you down.”

Sarah stared into Nim’s eyes for a long moment before she broke the stare and buried her face in her soft neck fur. “I’ll keep that in mind.”

“Please do,” Nim murmured as she gave the woman’s bare back another nuzzle, leaving a kiss as well before she pulled her wing over Sarah again. “Now then, it is not quite sunup yet, why don’t you get back to sleep?”

Sarah frowned against the alicorn’s neck. “I don’t know if I can,” she muttered. “I just don’t.”

“Well, it is either that or spend the rest of the night lying awake beside me while I do my best to help our body compensate for the lack of sleep,” Nim pointed out. “And while I would be fine with that, are you sure you would?”

Sarah let out a tired sigh into the soft fur and then nodded. “Yes... I am for today... we’re still another day out from the Capital Wasteland aren’t we?”

“That’s what the sign not too far back said,” Nim agreed with a nod. “Or at least that was the ‘one day marker’ I remember from the way up.’

“Well then, I think I’ll just snuggle,” Sarah said, pulling away from Nim’s neck and turning herself so that she was lying on her side against Nim, the mare’s fur against her chest. Nim smiled and leaned down to give her a soft kiss on the lips before she returned to gazing off in distance, though she did wrap her wing around the woman. Sarah let out a relaxed, or somewhere close to relaxed sigh and rested her head against Nim’s side.

Luna lay awake, staring at the night sky from her place on the balcony. Jackdaw was leaning casually against the railing, his keen thestral eyes ever vigilant despite his relaxed posture.

“Still think this was a better idea than getting drunk?” Jackdaw asked the Queen whose eyes were still skyward.

“Hmm...” Luna blinked and then glanced over at him “I’m sorry, Jackdaw, what was that?”

“I asked if you still thought this was a better idea than getting tossed,” Jackdaw replied with a shake of his head. “I mean, I’m all for staring at the heavens with a beautiful mare at my side, but well, you know.”

Luna snorted faintly and shook her head. “Indeed, though I am not exactly the mare of your dreams,” she said, a faint smirk crossing her face.

“No you’re-wait you’ve peeked?” Jackdaw asked with a raised eyebrow.

“I was bored and I did not think you would mind overly much,” Luna replied. “Though I must say... it changes by the day, still, I have never seen myself within those fantasies.”

“You’re my boss, Lu. We set the ground rules already,” the stallion replied before frowning. “Oh, we’ve got company at eight o'clock.”

Luna frowned and followed his gaze to see Celestia flying quietly towards her, the large white wings carrying her through the night air with ease.

“I’ll take off then, have a good chat, later, Lu,” Jackdaw told her with a smile as he flapped his wings and launched himself airborne, passing Celestia on her way in and giving the alicorn a smarmy smile and an admiring glance on the way by.

The elder alicorn gave the thestral a smile of her own before landing beside Luna and settling down next to her. Luna let out a sigh and leaned against her sister’s side.

“Hi, Tia,” Luna said softly.

“Hi, Lulu,” Celestia murmured in reply. “Another failure?”

“Another ten is more like it,” Luna replied dourly, her gaze becoming more unhappy. “And the strangest thing is... it shouldn’t be this difficult.”

“Oh?” Celestia inquired with a frown. “It isn’t as if reaching across the dimension gap is easy, Lulu. Especially when you’re trying to bring back someone someone who isn’t from Equestria.”

“I know!” Luna snapped angrily. “I’m not saying it should be easy, I’m saying that it shouldn’t be this HARD!”

Celestia flinched internally but kept her gaze sympathetic and leaned over to nuzzle Luna. “I know that you’re frustrated, Lulu, but yelling at me isn’t going to help anything,” she said in a lofty voice before adding in a quieter undertone. “But you may if you wish.”

Luna snarled but let out a sigh as her head slumped against Celestia’s. “I just... I just want them back,” she murmured. “I don’t know why I can’t just use Nim as a beacon... I know everything about her and she is technically from Equestria, so there should be nothing preventing it... but every time that I almost ‘catch’ her she slips from my grasp.”

The elder alicorn sighed and leaned down to nuzzle Luna’s head as it drooped down to the floor of the balcony. Her sister’s ears twitched beneath her attentions and Celestia smiled as she played with them for a moment.

“Enjoying yourself?” Luna muttered.

“Why yes, yes indeed I am,” Celestia said as she tweaked one of the ears. “I’m spending a beautiful evening beneath the stars with my darling sister, sharing in a bonding activity as old as time itself.”

Luna’s ears kept on flicking and she let out a snort. “And what activity would that be?” she inquired as she shook her head and glanced up at her sister.

“Annoying my baby sister,” Celestia answered with a smirk. “It is quite fun.” Luna glared at her and pulled away slightly, or tried to anyways, Celestia had wrapped a wing around her and pulled her closer. “Oh no, you’re not getting away that easily.”

Luna let out a shriek of surprise as Celestia pulled a pair of loose feathers out of her wing and began to tickle her mercilessly. The blue mare squirmed in an attempt to escape, but it was pointless, she was caught. The fact that she was belting out laughter loud enough to put a shouting minotaur to shame didn’t help matters for her.

It went on like that for close to five minutes until Celestia released Luna from her grasp and the blue alicorn collapsed on the ground, her breath coming in and out in great heaves.

“Sweet Christ, Tia...” Luna panted. “That was... not like you... at all...”

“Au contraire,” Celestia stated, giving her a nuzzle. “I’m your older sister, Luna and I lost you for a thousand years. I can’t stand to see you so unhappy... so I wanted to cheer you up.”

“And this was the best way you could think of?” Luna demanded, finally having regained control of herself.

“No, but it was the most fun,” Celestia replied deviously.

Luna stared at her for a long moment before her horn began to glow and several of her own loose feathers rose into the air. “Well of course, dear sister; you know this means war!” Luna cried out as her feathers descended upon Celestia.

“Well, I know an image that I’m going to have in my head for a while,” Jackdaw commented from where he sat on a cloud beside Tornado Kicker.

“Mhm,” Tornado replied sternly while privately taking care to notice where Luna’s feathers produced the most laughter. It might come in useful one of these days, or nights.

“Oh stop being so sober about it, Tornado,” Jackdaw said with a small smirk. “All you Kickers ever do is frown.”

“That’s not true,” Tornado stated, glancing at the other guard Captain with a slightly annoyed look too. “We also scowl.”

Jackdaw blinked for a second before a few chuckles escaped from his lips. “I guess what Cloud says about you is true,” he stated.

“Oh, and what does my niece say about me?” Tornado inquired placidly.

“That you really do have a sense of humor beneath all that iron,” Jackdaw answered.

“I’ve been known to,” Tornado agreed as he watched the mare he loved be tortured heartlessly. “How do you know Cloud?”

“Ran into her after one of her big shows,” Jackdaw answered casually. “She was hot and sweaty and my apartment had a shower.”

“I am oddly enough not surprised,” Tornado said after a long moment before he let out a sigh. “So, in all seriousness, how is Luna holding up?”

Jackdaw’s smile ran away from his face. “Same as she has been,” he answered. “I do my best, but I can only keep her happy for a few hours. I’m honestly surprised that, well... I’m monitoring her at all times for a reason.”

Tornado simply nodded slowly. “Thank you.”

“For what? Doing my job?” Jackdaw replied with a raised eyebrow.

“No, for putting so much care into your job,” Tornado said before he got to his hooves and stretched. “I’m going to take a small flight while this ‘war’ goes on. Keep an eye on them.”

“Will do,” Jackdaw affirmed, giving the other Captain a one winged salute. “Fly safe.”

“I’ll manage,” Tornado stated before launching himself away.

“Yeah, if night time flying runs in the family, I’ll bet you will,” Jackdaw said with a smirk before returning his gaze to Celestia and Luna who were currently chasing each other across the balcony armed with a wide array of feathers.

Return Chapter 3: An Elder Ultimatum

Return Chapter 3: An Elder Ultimatum

Chrysalis strode calmly down the corridor, her mind abuzz with the activity of her hive. Things were going smoothly on the building front and her special chamber was almost complete. The Queen smiled to herself and moved her head slightly to the side to allow a mostly mindless drone to fly past her on its way to the nursery with a small bit of love stored in the chiten around its mandibles.

She continued down the stone hallway for a time before her wings flared open and she sprang upwards into the hive’s complex inner space. With a few easy fluid motions the Queen avoided a few more of the drones along with an operator or two who nodded respectfully as they passed.

The passageway was lit from above by a green light, refracted thousands of times by a glasslike material that was formed through a combination of sand and changeling saliva and the tunnel itself had been laboriously carved and shaped from the ground up from a similar material. Each and every passageway had a purpose, and every one of those purposes served the Hive itself.

It was a beautiful system, far superior to any ‘earth pony architect’ or ‘unicorn city planner’ could ever think up and that made Chrysalis smile. Soon she would strike down the vile rulers of Equestria, enslaving Celestia and Cadence to be her personal bottomless supply of love while she dispossessed of the dragon Prince and Luna.

The rest of Equestria would fall without the support of its leaders and then she Chrysalis would without a doubt control the strongest and most expansive of all the Hives. Oh, she couldn’t wait until it came time to enact her plan it would be-

“Your Majesty, I hate to interrupt your thoughts, but something is required of you,” a feminine voice said from beside her. Chrysalis blinked twice as she drew herself out of her thoughts and turned to see one of her operators flying easily beside her. The operator was graceful and lithe, a short mane of pink hair fluttered around her head and a matching tail emerged from her rear end. It took Chrysalis a moment to think of the operator’s name, she may have only employed twenty or so of them, but it was still a bit of a challenge.

“Ah, your name is Reflection, that’s right,” Chrysalis murmured as the name returned to her before adding. “What business must I attend to? I have already informed each of the drones what their task is and I’m sure that you know your own assignment.”

“I do, and as do they,” Reflection said as she gracefully landed at the entrance of the corridor Chrysalis had been moving towards. Chrysalis frowned as she attempted copy the motion, only partially succeeding. Having played a model for so long may have made Reflection a bit too elegant for her tastes, the Queen would have to see how irreplaceable she was later.

“Then what could it possibly be?” Chrysalis inquired iritibly.

“Your elder sister is approaching, your Majesty,” Reflection answered humbly. “It was believed that you would appreciate being forewarned.”

Chrysalis blinked in surprise and then frowned deeply. “Which one of my older sisters?”

“Queen Aurora, your Majesty,” Reflection answered as the pair began to walk. “She sends her greetings, salutations, and demands an audience with you.”

“She would...” Chrysalis growled to herself. “Very well, I’ll meet her in the usual place then.”

“Very good, your Majesty,” Reflection said before her wings fluttered and she took off, heading back the way she’d come.

Why in Equestria would she be coming to visit? Chrysalis wondered to herself as she stalked angrily down the tunnel, changing paths after several feet and heading upwards. It took her only five minutes to get to her destination, and within that time she had prepped her ‘royal mask’ so to speak.

Chrysalis emerged into a room near the top of the Hive. It was a room of windows and columns while a single large balcony opened from the back. Her eldest sister already there, Of course she is.

Chrysalis’ eyes would have narrowed hatefully upon her sister if not for the time she’d just spent molding her face into a picture of calm. Aurora was everything that she wasn’t.

A well groomed mane of golden hair was tied back in a single flowing tail that descended down her smooth back like a wave of treasure. Her eyes were large and compassionate enough to hide the very sharp wit hiding beneath them and her form in and of itself was alluring.

Aurora’s chiten was a smooth teal and looked almost soft to the touch, unlike the shell of a normal changeling. More than that, she was... plump and waspish atop her beautifully segmented legs. Not at all like Chrysalis’ own thin, spindly figure which was balanced upon hole filled limbs. Aurora’s wings were folded neatly against her back, but even there Chrysalis could see their distinct glistening surface.

“Chrysalis, my dear little sister, how good it is to see you,” Aurora said as she stepped forwards and gave Chrysalis a nuzzle. “You’re looking very well.”

“Thank you, sister,” Chrysalis replied, hardly managing to keep her voice even as her sister mocked her. “You are looking as resplendent as ever.”

“Why thank you,” Aurora responded with a wide smile, displaying two barely noticeable fangs amongst what looked like a sea of velvet. “Your Hive seems to be prospering.”

“Well enough, I imagine yours is much the same,” Chrysalis said before a small insincere smile spread across her face. “So sister, what brings you to my humble Hive?”

“The Equestrian matter,” Aurora answered casually. “You see, I have been in the midst of negotiations with Celestia to ensure a lasting peace between our races.”

Chrysalis’ mask shattered and she stared at Aurora in surprise, rage quickly joining it. “What!?” she demanded.

“I’m suing for peace,” Aurora replied smoothly, as if her sister hadn’t just made a strangled noise that could have broken glass. “I do not wish to see a war between our kind.”

Chrysalis stared angrily at her sister. “Why not? They embarrassed me! Killed my children! Killed me! I’ve been expecting you to send word that you would aid me in my eventual counter attack! Instead I learn that you’re going to stab me in the back!”

“I’m hardly stabbing you in the back,” Aurora countered, her voice still smooth and precise. “I am acting for the good of our species. Also, whatever were you expecting to happen attacking their capital city and kidnapping Celestia’s daughter?”

“I was expecting to win!” Chrysalis raged. “And failing that, to have the support of my family there to help me.”

“Chrysalis... changelings are not meant for war,” Aurora said slowly, as if explaining the concept to a child. “True, we are not fragile creatures, but our best assets are our stealth, our deceit, our intelligence, and above all else, our tact. You have acted without using any of those assets and thus failed not only yourself, but your sisters. I am sorry that this has happened to you, but you brought it upon yourself.”

Chrysalis’ eyes glared into her sister’s golden orbs and a low hiss built in her throat. “GET OUT!” she roared. “GET OUT OF MY HIVE BEFORE I KILL YOU MYSELF, YOU INSUFFERABLE-”

“Hush,” Aurora stated simply, a wave of power flowing through her voice. Without meaning to or wanting to, Chrysalis’ jaw snapped shut. “I was not finished my explanation,” Aurora explained calmly, her voice like honey, clogging Chrysalis’ throat and preventing her from speaking. “As I was saying, we are going to be entering into an alliance with Equestria and if any of the Hives breaks it, the penalty will be the total destruction of said Hive and the death of its queen. No spare bodies, no mind link to another sister, no nothing. Only death.”

Chrysalis’ eyes narrowed and her jaws worked together as she tried to release the rage boiling inside of her. Unfortunately, she could not.

“I’m done, have a wonderful rest of the day, little sister,” Aurora said cheerfully, walking past Chrysalis and giving her a kiss on the cheek as she did so. Then she opened her incandescent wings and took flight from the edge of the balcony.

Chrysalis stared after her for a long moment and then let out a scream of rage and her hoof lashed out and crashed through the floor. Then she did it again, and again, and again. When she was finally finished, the floor in front of her had been reduced to chunks of rubble. The Queen turned her back on the floor and began to stalk back the way she had come. It seemed that if she wanted her plan to work, she would have to accelerate its pace. Then Aurora would see... her and the rest of her sisters.

Author's Note

Hope you guys didn't mind the shortness, but I figured it stood on its own well enough

Also BlackWindinSocks has created a Sarah Build if you

Return Chapter 4: Anger Management Through Hammers

“Confirm the crit,” Fancy Pants instructed.

Shining Armour frowned at his dice roller, the little box shaking slightly in his magic as he tried to keep it in the air. Cadance sat beside him and smiled encouragingly at her still recovering husband. Beside the two sat Donut Joe who was too busy trying to figure out which Feat he should use next turn to pay attention to Shining’s plight. Further over was Lyra whose lyre was setting an intense backdrop of ambient noise.

Shining let out a small sigh of effort as he picked up the d20 again and forced it into the small cylinder and gave it a swift shake before turning it upside down. He watched with bated breath as the small plastic dice bounced and spun on the wooden table. Finally it came to a stop, on the 20.

A hush swept over the table and Lyra’s lyre fell silent.

“Well, look at that,” Shining said with a small smirk as he glanced at Fancy Pants who was staring at the dice with a mixture of incredulity and intense hatred. “Looks like your Tzitzimitl just got smited by my holy blade.”

“But... I just started this encounter!” Fancy Pants cried in frustration. “This was supposed to take you guys like half an hour!”

“Well, that’s the way the dice roll, Fancy,” Cadance replied with a small chuckle as she gave Shining a nuzzle and a light pink glow emanated from her body. Shining remained perfectly still during the nuzzle, as if resisting the urge to flinch away, but he still smiled as Cadance continued. “Don’t get mad at us, get mad at them.”

“I’m not mad, just astonished,” Fancy Pants replied, glancing at Shining with a small flush. “I can't believe you just did that...”

“Freaking Paladin stealing all the kills,” Joe complained goodnaturedly.

“Oh yes, because the Ranger never does that,” Lyra retorted with a roll of her eyes

Joe was about to reply when the door to the basement opened and bright light flooded the room. “Fancy, I’m home!” a posh female voice called as Fleur descended the stairs and walked into the basement. The long legged model smiled at the others as she sauntered over and gave her husband a kiss on the mouth and then took up the seat beside him and pulled her character sheet out. “Sorry for taking so long, you know how busy the station can be.”

“Yeah, I’m not sure how they manage to get anyone off of that thing in a reasonable time,” Shining agreed. “Trust me, it’s a good thing that we’ve never had to evacuate the city, that train would make it a nightmare.”

“It’s not that bad,” Lyra said as she resumed her lyre playing. “Well, unless it’s Saturday night and... ah, sorry, Fleur.”

Fleur just chuckled. “It’s quite alright, it’s hardly your fault,” the mare said as she deftly pulled her rogue out of the box behind Fancy. “Now then, where were we?”

“I just got two twenties and killed Fancy’s boss in one hit,” Shining answered.

“It was pretty awesome,” Joe added with a chuckle.

“The boss that he’s been building up this entire time?” Fleur asked with a raised eyebrow as she glanced over at her husband.

“Err... yes,” Fancy answered with a grumble. “Lucky Paladin, I’ll have to find a way to pay you back, Shining.”

“Bring it on, Celestia Protects,” Shining replied smirking.

“Can we get back to killing stuff?” Lyra asked, having grown bored with the bickering.

“I... give me a few minutes, you just wrecked my plans for the night,” Fancy stated slowly as he began to dig through his papers. “The adventurers decide to camp for the night in front of the giant pile of decaying undead, talk amongst yourselves.”

“Heh, so, Fleur, how was Manehatten?” Joe asked the pink mare.

“Oh you know, stuffy and prim as ever,” Fleur answered, smiling as she shook her head slightly. “That is the only thing I regret about my choice of occupation, the ponies are awful.”

“Yes, my mother may be able to overhaul the way the nobles live, but even she cannot touch the modeling industry,” Cadance agreed with a small chuckle. “Still, I hope your trip wasn’t too bad.”

“Oh no, do not misunderstand me, I do still love the city itself,” Fleur said with a small smile as she thought about the bustling metropolis. “The lights, the fashion, the stores, even the average lay pony is full of interesting things to learn and new conversations.”

“That and the food is great,” Lyra added, chuckling. “I remember one time I got a gig there and they fed us stuff that would make Celestia blush from the price.”

“Unless it was cake, I don’t think she’d care that much,” Shining interjected. “That’s the only kind of food she really likes.”

Cadance rolled her eyes and jabbed Shining lightly with her hoof. “Now now Shining, my mother isn’t that obsessed with cake.”

“I don’t know, I was at the wedding and I swear she had fifteen pieces,” Joe stated, raising an eyebrow slightly. “That seems like an obsession to me.”

“Well, she did beat the stuffing out of that changeling queen, I bet that helped her work up an appetite,” Lyra reasoned.

“Even so, she’s never looked anything but healthy,” Fleur pointed out as she glanced down at the board and moved her rogue a little bit closer to Joe’s ranger. “Of course, those are just by my standards and they might be a bit... skewed.”

Fancy Pants looked up from behind his GM-ing screen and let out a sigh. “Okay, I’ve got something, want to get back to it?”

“Sure,” Shining said with a smile. “How much exp...”

“So, how’d it go?” Spencer asked her as the three of them sat in her house. The Ex-Enclave officer was gently stroking his dog’s head. He and Fawkes had found the mutt in the middle of a scrap yard when they’d been on a case to hunt down the man funding Talon Company.

“Confusing,” Sarah replied with a shake of her head. “Very confusing.”

“Isn’t everything you do confusing in one form or another?” Fawkes inquired as he leaned against the wall. “First it was the Aliens! Then it was talking brains! Then it was simulations!”

He is right you know, we have had a rather odd six months, Nim commented.

“Yeah, well none of it was morally confusing,” Sarah muttered as she looked into her Nuka Cola. “This was... not really my area of expertise.”

“Did it involve math?” Spencer asked with a raised eyebrow. “Or thinking critically?”

Sarah shot him a dark look but couldn’t help but smile at the joking smirk he wore. “Not unless you count weighing people’s lives against the future of a city math,” the woman answered, her voice lacking humor.

“Ah, sorry,” Spencer replied, looking down for a moment. “You know, you could always just stick around and help Fawkes and I solve some cases we’ve got.”

“Indeed! We would love to have you with us once more!” Fawkes agreed with a wide smile. “Four companions combing the Wasteland for lost items and missing persons!”

Sarah looked at the smiling mutant and chuckled. “Yeah... I just might do that,” the woman agreed, a hint of her smile returning to her lips.

That does sound rather fun, Nim admitted with a smile. Mayhaps we should take them up on this offer.

Maybe, we’ve still got to make a run for the Citadel tomorrow first, Sarah replied. “Thanks, you guys,but I’ve got to run by the Citadel tomorrow. If you’re still in town when I get back, then I should be free to help you out.”

“We should be,” Spencer replied.

“Well, it’s getting late, would you guys mind leaving?” Sarah asked, rather abruptly really but the road home had left her pretty tired.

“Err... sure,” Spencer said as he rose from his chair, he gave the woman a smile and headed towards the door, Dogmeat following along beside him.

“I look forward to having you accompany us once again!” Fawkes said happily as he walked over and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You have been alone for too long, Sarah.” The last line was delivered solemnly.

“Thanks, Fawkes, but I’m fine, really,” Sarah replied, smiling weakly up at the big mutant. “I’m just tired.”

“It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one, Sarah,” Fawkes told her flatly. Then he smiled. “Have a good night.”

As the mutant walked through her front door Sarah felt what little happiness she’d managed to gather about herself flow out the door after him. She let out a sigh and slumped against the couch.

That mutant is certainly very perceptive, Nim stated as phantom wings settled around Sarah. But you know, he is wrong, you are not alone.

“Yeah, I know,” Sarah replied with a small shake of her head as she got up from the couch and headed up the stairs. She really was exhausted from the trip to the Pitt, emotionally and physically. “Do you mind if I just sleep tonight?”

Of course not, Sarah, I was not going to suggest making love, Nim replied. Neither of us are ‘in the mood’ so to speak.

“No, I meant just sleep,” Sarah replied slowly. “As in... just fade to black and then wake up like a normal person.”

Nim was silent for a moment before answering. If you wish it to be so then it will, Nim answered calmly. Though I can’t help but wonder why exactly you’d want that.

“Well... I don’t know really,” Sarah answered. “I’m just not in the mood tonight.”

As you wish then, Nim replied.

Sarah smiled slightly. “Thanks, Nim, I love you.”

And I you, Nim said as she began to withdraw from the edges of Sarah’s mind.

Sarah let out a sigh as she pulled Daybreaker’s scabbard off of her back and lay it down on the rack she’d created that rose up from her desk. Then in a few simple motions she stripped off her vault undersuit and slid beneath the blanket, resting her head down against the home knit pillow.

She closed her eyes and just lay there. It had been a long time since she’d done that. Ordinarily she always slept with Nim, but tonight? She wanted something different. Maybe it was a touch of reality after the stressful and rather fantastical life she’d been living lately. Sometimes, there were days she wished she’d never met Luna, not many, but they existed.

That was as far as her thoughts traveled before sleep took her.

*CLANG*

Sparks flew everywhere.

*CLANG*

More sparks.

*CLANG*

Luna smiled.

*HISSSSS*

She dipped the metal into the water and steam rose up from it. The mare smiled more as she stepped away from the forge and removed her newly stained apron. Upon the suggestion of her sister, she had decided to take the day off of looking for ways to bring Sarah to her and instead focus on something else. So that is what she had decided to do.

Blacksmithing was something that she’d picked up on a whim centuries ago and found it enjoyable. Hammering into a piece of metal was a surprisingly good way to relieve stress. Well, there were some drawbacks. For instance, she was incredibly hot and sweat lined her fur and her normally flowing mane was plastered against the back of her head. In short, she was in terrible need of a shower.

The alicorn shook her head and turned away from the forge. She hopped into the air, her wings pumping massively against the still mid-morning air. In truth, it felt liberating to be outside of the library for once in a great long time for something other than eating in the great hall with her sister or attending public events.

Speaking of public events, Luna’s Day was approaching again and despite herself Luna’s heart soared high at the thought of having her own day devoted to her. Especially one that involved the sun not rising for the entirety of a it.

Luna smiled, sure, she was a bit narcissistic, so would anyone who had lived for as long as she had. She grinned even wider as a refreshing breeze swept over her wings and she glanced up to see Jackdaw pass her. The pegasus didn’t say much in the morning, according to him ‘it took all morning for his wit to wake up’.Even if his wit wasn’t awake yet, he most certainly was and the stallion’s wing beats were steady and even.

She landed heavily upon the balcony of her room and walked through the enchanted doorway, holding it open just long enough for Jackdaw to walk through after her. Then she gave the stallion a nod and walked into the sizeable washroom.

If there was one thing she had despised about the Wasteland, it was the lack of proper bathing places. Sure, she had managed to take a shower or two in Project Purity, but the water had been icy cold and had an off putting brown color. She didn’t even want to think the toilets, there were some things better off forgotten.

Her washroom on the other hand was a beautiful thing to behold. A full sized mirror ran across the upper half of one of the walls along with a sink that was littered with several combs and the like. She may not have gone through the elaborate ‘beautification ritual’ that Celestia did each day with a billion different conditioners and shampoos, but Luna still enjoyed having a straight mane.

Of course, the main focuses of the washroom was of course, the shower and bath. The shower was a simple thing really, but the water it projected from itself was pleasingly warm and the pressure was always strong enough to beat any of Luna’s cares away. The bath itself on the other hand was closer in description to a drainable pool than that of a bathing fixture, as befitted a mare of her size, it was fully walk in.

Luna smiled as she walked up to the shower and turned the handle until it was on full power with medium heat and let out a sigh as the water ran over her fur. She also flipped a handle or two by memory behind her and water began to fill the bath itself. The alicorn spent quite some time beneath the shower before she turned and walked into the true bath. As the water submerged her, the mare’s thoughts began to wander.

What shall I do with the rest of my day? she asked herself. I’ve already forged a few new sword designs and I don’t really want to take another shower until tonight... her thoughts trailed off as a sigh of true relaxation escaped her throat as the water’s temperature increased.It reminds me of the hotsprings in father’s cave... father.

She blinked twice as her eyes widened in surprise at her own foolishness. “I should see father!”

The mare couldn’t believe she had been so forgetful and selfish, she hadn’t actually gone to visit Jonathan since she’d returned!

This thought in mind, the joys of the bath no longer interested her and the mare teleported out of it, four towels immediately leapt off of a nearby towel rack at the command of her magic and the mare quickly set about drying herself in front of the mirror. As she did so, she couldn’t help but notice the small lines of grey within her astral mane. They were very faint amongst the constellations and stellar bodies, but still very obvious under studied observation.

The mare turned away from them. She’d gotten them saving the life of James, Sarah’s father. In the end, it had been for naught, but she still would have done it again if she had the chance. At any rate, only Celestia knew that they were unusual and in truth, it had been one of the hardest parts of the story to tell her sister.

That... and everything relating to Nim.

Still, even those thoughts couldn’t bring Luna down from the high that thoughts of seeing her father again brought to her. She practically skipped out of the washroom, causing Jackdaw’s eyebrows to rise in surprise.

“Wow, Lu, you’re looking peppy,” he said with a small smile. “Did those anti-depressant pills I’ve been slipping into your drinks finally start to take effect?”

“I’m going to visit my father!” Luna replied, the snarky comment passing right between her ears, for the most part. “And no, I’ve been returning the favor and swapping our drinks.”

“Oh, well that explains why my ale kept tasting like water,” Jackdaw joked as he followed Luna as she pranced down the hallway, sending a pair of confused maids scurrying in opposite directions as she all but crashed into them.

Celestia sat at the breakfast table within her private room, reading over the day’s news as she used her magic to peel an orange and levitated one of the slices up to take a bite of it. Spike sat beside her, slowly eating his way through a fire ruby. Shining and Cadance were nowhere in sight, though Celestia supposed that was because they had stayed up so late the night previous. Tornado watched from the doorway, prepared for anything and anyone to burst through the door.

“I really must find the time to visit this Blackstone unicorn,” Celestia murmured as she read over the day’s headlines. “He’s a very good fighter, but the fact that all of the buildings he enters catch on fire means that there’s still something he could learn about control.”

“From what I heard he’s not big on authority,” Spike commented as he took a sip of water to wash down the ruby. “Anyways, what have you got planned for the day, big sis?”

Celestia smiled down at him, she still enjoyed the title very much. “Not a great deal, little brother, I just need to meet with a farm pony named Applejack about a new shipment of cider and the prices on it for the upcoming holiday,” she answered. “Aside from that, I simply have to await the arrival of Queen Aurora.”

“May I be there when you two meet?” Spike asked curiously. “I’m interested to see what she’s like.” A small bit of fire licked around the side of his mouth. “And I’d like to be there if she tries anything.”

“I’ll handle it, Spike,” Celestia replied, though she smiled at her little brother’s spirit. “Though you’ll have the chance to meet her at some point soon. You are an Equestrian Prince after all.”

Spike frowned but shrugged. “Then it’s fine I guess...”

“Don’t worry, Spike, I’ll be there to make sure she’s alright,” Tornado Kicker added from the doorway, a smile on his face. “Trust me, we’ve prepared for this.”

“Alright, if you’re sure,” Spike said with a sigh. “I guess that means I’m still scheduled to hold court today then?”

“Yes indeed,” Celestia replied, leaning over to nuzzle him. “And an excellent job you’ve been doing of it so far by the way.”

“Thanks, it’s not too hard, I know more than enough about the different subjects to make decisions,” Spike replied casually, though his voice still held a very obvious note of pride.

Celestia smiled and then glanced towards the door, which was opened a second later by Luna who was smiling what must have been the biggest smile Celestia had seen her wear in the last two and a half years.

“Good morning, sister,” Celestia said, a wide smile rising up to envelope her own face at the sight of her sister’s. “I did not think that forging a few swords could bring you so much joy.”

Luna shook her her head. “No, though it did help rid me of quite a bit of agitation that had been building up,” the alicorn replied, chuckling lightly. “No, I am happy at the chance of seeing our dear father.”

Celestia’s face went blank for a moment and then she grinned. “I’m sure he will enjoy that greatly Luna, a wonderful idea!”

Luna smiled back. “I thought as such,” she said before glancing at Spike. “Would you care to accompany me... little brother?” she asked slowly. Even after two and a half years, the prospect of no longer being the youngest sibling was... strange for her.

“I saw dad a month ago,” Spike replied with a small shrug. “Besides, I’ve got court stuff today. Tell him and mom I say ‘hi’ though.”

Luna nodded and walked over to give Celestia a nuzzle along with one to Spike. “I’ll be off then, contact me if you need my help with the changeling today.”

“I doubt I will need to, but I thank you for the offer,” Celestia replied, returning the nuzzle. “You remember how to get to father’s cave?”

“Oh yes, it isn’t that difficult if my memory serves, it’s only been around five years...” she trailed off as she glanced at Celestia whose eyes had a slightly misty appearance to them. She frowned and then gave her sister another nuzzle. “At any rate, I will return either tomorrow or the day after.”

“Right, right, have a good time sister,” Celestia said as she shook her head and her eyes cleared.

“Oh, I’m sure I will!” Luna told her, turning back towards the door. “But first, a stop by the armory so that I may show him my new weapon!”

Celestia smiled after her sister even once the door was closed, it was good to see her smile for some reason other than being tickled into submission. The alicorn’s mind then returned to the monumental task that was rapidly approaching her and her mood darkened. The meeting with Queen Aurora was not going to be ‘fun’ by any definition of the term.

Sarah pulled on her modified hellfire armor and quickly went through a mental list of her equipment.

Ammo?

Enough .44 and 5.56 rounds to drown a few dozen men in their own blood, Nim answered.

Guns?

Strapped to your back and your hip respectively, Nim replied, her tone bored. The Stimpacks are in their place in your pack which is slung across your free shoulder.

And I know my blades are here, Sarah said as she patted the trusty shocksword on her right hip and reached around to let Daybreaker’s refreshingly cold hilt rest against her gauntleted hand.

It seems that we are ready, Nim said with a mental smile. Shall we get underway?

“Yeah, lets,” Sarah said with a small smile, it was time to visit the closest thing she still had to a father.

Return Chapter 5: Going Home

Shining Armor awoke as the sun’s rays beamed down through their partially opened blinds. He smiled as he felt Cadance’s warm fur against his back and let out a sigh of relaxation. That is... until Cadance shifted in her sleep and brought her muzzle down against the back of his neck. At that, the stallion froze in place, stiff as a board.

That’s right, you love me, my pet, a silky voice whispered through his mind and Shining felt a phantom tongue wash across neck.

It’s only Cadance, it’s only Cadance, he thought to himself as a cold sweat erupted over his body.

That’s right, my pet. It’s only Cadance, the silky voice replied and Shining winced in pained pleasure as he felt a pair of fangs slip into his neck. And you love me? Don’t you?

Stop! Stop it! Shining mentally shouted as he tried to buck against his unseen foe.

Oh my little pet, you know better than to fight me, the voice cooed in his ears and Shining contorted with pain as the fangs sank deeper and a flush of pure ecstasy pulsed through his veins. Ohhh yes my pet, you love that feeling don’t you? You love me most of all, even after these past six months, nothing she can do can compare to me.

Shu-shut up! Shining raged despite the feelings of sublime sexual bliss running through his body. Stop it!

I’m not even there, my pet. This is all in your mind, Chrysalis’ voice murmured as she bit deeper and Shining felt the flow increase. You can cut yourself away from me- she withdrew her fangs and moved them to a spot closer to his face. -you can shield your mind in adamantium strength barriers- she bit down and Shining let out a moan as more pleasure swirled through his body. -but in the end you will always be my little pet.

“SHINING!”

Cadance’s voice blasted through his mind and Shining’s eyes flew open to see his wife crouching beside him, her horn glowing a brilliant pink as her mane flowed out to either side of her head. Upon seeing him finally awake, Cadance lowered her horn down to gently touch the tip of his own and a soothing sensation traveled through Shining’s body. The stallion shuddered as the new sensation ran down his body and he felt his body beginning to relax.

When Cadance finally pulled away, he felt... better. The vile feeling of Chrysalis’ venom was gone and had been replaced by his wife’s pure love.

Shining just lay there for a long moment before he lunged sideways and pulled Cadance down on top of him, his eyes watering as he cried into her neck. She hugged him tightly and pressed herself against him, her soft form molding against his.

“It’s alright Shining,” she said softly over and over again until his shuddering breath had returned to normal and he finally managed to lift his head up.

“Sor-sorry Caddy,” he stuttered quietly. “It... it happened again.”

“I know,” she said as she gave him a nuzzle. “And you don’t need to apologize Shining. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“But... it keeps happening,” Shining said miserably. “That must mean that some part of me wants her.”

Cadance frowned for a moment and then leaned forwards to give him a hard kiss on the mouth. When they parted Shining was left gasping for breath and Cadance was looking down at him with hard eyes.

“It’s not your fault Shining,” she stated quietly. “It’s not your fault at all. That vile little bug hurt you very badly and your injuries just haven’t finished healing.”

“I... I feel her every time I go to sleep,” Shining said, trying to control the octave of his voice. “She’s there in my mind Caddy... everytime you touch me... I feel her.”

“She’s not here Shining,” Cadance said as she gently ran a hoof across his muzzle and he leaned into the touch. “She’ll never get close to you ever again. I promise you that.”

“I-I know,” Shining stuttered as tears began to form again. “By Celestia I just want it to stop.”

“Give it time,” Cadance said softly before she bent down to give him a lighter kiss. “Just give it time Shine. I’m here for you.”

“Yeah, yeah you always are,” Shining agreed as he began to regain control of himself again and pulled her closer to him with his forelegs.

Cadance just smiled and leaned against him.

Luna’s heart was aflutter as she glided down towards the massive cave mouth. It was nice to see that the area hadn’t changed that much since she’d been gone. She wasn’t sure what she would have done if her old home had become unrecognizable. She sensed Jackdaw somewhere above her, giving his Queen her space. The mare smiled softly to herself, despite his general jackassery, Jackdaw really was an understanding type.

The alicorn folded her wings easily behind her as she stepped across the smooth stone threshold to her father’s cave. A thousand memories raced through her mind and out of the corner of her eye she could have sworn she saw her younger self tackle her sister to the ground.

Luna let out a sigh as the familiar odor of dragon washed over her nose. It was a dark earthy smell, mixed with a bit of smoke. It tickled her nostrils for a moment before surging in so that it was the only smell in her nose. The mare didn’t wrinkle her nose, nor did she sneeze as others might have, instead she took in a deep breath and then let out another sigh.

She was home. More so than when she had stepped into the old castle. More so than when she had hugged Celestia tightly to her chest. There was only one thing that was missing to complete the sense of nostalgia.

That missing piece was completed a moment later when her father himself came around a corner, his deep purple scales catching on the enchanted lighting crystals. The dragon saw her and stared for a long moment before its gait ground to a halt and it locked its giant green eyes on her. Then, to her surprise, Jonathan sat completely still.

Luna frowned and looked up at him in confusion. “Father! I’ve returned!” she called up to him with a smile, smothering her confusion beneath a surge of joy as she raced forwards towards him. Jonathan simply looked down at her, his eyes hardening as she closed with him.

“Who said I was your father?” he asked her, his voice bland.

“I-what?” Luna asked, her hooves nearly tumbling out of from beneath her as she ground to a halt several feet away. “What do you mean by that?”

“Exactly what I said,” Jonathan replied, his voice still bland and emotionless. “After all, if you were to be my daughter then I would be your father and I can’t think of anyone less deserving.”

Luna blinked in confusion as she gazed up at his great head, her eyes becoming clouded. “What?” she asked in a small voice.

“Well, let us go through the list, shall we?” her father asked, looking down at her as a small puff of smoke left his nostrils. “You stopped visiting me, which I suppose is a minor offense considering that most dragons don’t visit their parents. Then, you began to wage a war against your sister for nothing but selfish reasons all because you apparently didn’t feel loved enough and I did nothing about it,” he continued, his voice growing lower and lower.

Luna’s eyes began to tear up, her father hated her. And when he put it like that, she couldn’t really blame him, could she? She’d been an awful daughter, and that was only magnified by the fact that she’d waited two and a half whole years before she’d come to visit him-surely there was no doubt that he despised her and prefered Celestia, just like everypony e-

“And then... then you get yourself banished and I end up spending a thousand years worrying about you because I love you so gods damned dearly!” Jonathan’s voice broke through her thoughts and Luna looked up to see that the purple dragon’s eyes were staring down at her pain as giant tears welled up within them. “I’m not angry at you, Luna...” he continued, his voice softening. “I’m... I was worried. So very worried... I just... I spent a thousand years thinking about how poor of a parent I must have been to make you think that you weren’t loved. So yes, I can’t think of a less deserving father to have someone as wonderful as you as their daughter.”

Luna’s eyes widened in surprise as Jonathan’s hand reached out and gently grasped her as he brought her up to his chest and held her against his scales. Tears rolled down Luna’s face as she leaned against his giant scaly chest. It was smooth and warm, the perfect thing for her to pour her grief into. A large sulfur laden tear hit her on the head but she didn’t care as she leaned against him, her emotions running through the gamut from sad to happy before finally settling on bittersweet.

She pushed herself away from his chest and her wings opened to project herself upwards until she was at eye level with her father. Then, with a simple flap of her wings she closed the distance between them and placed a single kiss upon his forehead before she flew back into his view.

“Father... you have nothing to be sorry for,” Luna said quietly. “It was not you who pushed me down my path, it was my own ego and arrogance...” she told him as her head hung down. “It is I who hurt you, not the other way around.”

“And yet it is you who paid the price for my inaction,” Jonathan said softly as his emerald eyes locked on her and Luna felt as if someone had stabbed her from the sheer grief within those twin orbs. “If I had left this cave and visited your forest castle then perhaps you would not have felt so alone. It is not a great journey by any means, yet no. I remained here and watched you and your sister’s scuffle turn into a war and I could not bring myself to intervene for fear of hurting either of you.”

Luna looked right back into those eyes and she smiled softly at him as her horn began to glow faintly. A giant magical handkerchief appeared in the air in front of Jonathan’s face and gently dabbed at his eyes and then vanished leaving the dragon dry eyed.

“It’s okay, father,” Luna said softly as she flew a bit closer to him. “You always were, and always will be, the best father a mare could ask for.”

“I wish I could agree,” Jonathan replied before letting out a sigh and shaking his head. “Sorry, Lulu... I’ve been holding that in for close to a thousand years,” he told her a small smile crossing his face. “And my it feels good to have let it out.”

Luna smiled back and closed the distance between them to kiss him once again on the forehead. “I’m glad,” she told him. “So... how have things been?”

“Oh, you know, the usual,” Jonathan said as he lowered his head to the ground and Luna followed him down. “Barb is sleeping the centuries away, I’m bored out of my gourd, young dragons try to steal my hoard and I roast their scaley flanks,” he listed off idly.

Luna lay down against his muzzle and gave him a nuzzle. “That does sound boring, father, I’m sorry that mother is still asleep,” she said with a frown.

“Oh, it’s not that bad, she’s nice and warm at least,” Jonathan replied with a quiet chuckle. “Besides, she always has the cutest smile on her face when she sleeps.”

“Well, that’s good,” Luna said with a small chuckle of her own before she let out a long sigh and rested her cheek against his. “Oh father...”

“Lulu...” he replied, sighing himself before frowning slightly. “So... Tia says that you finally found a lover?”

Luna’s face flushed scarlet. “Yes... yes I did.”

“Oh, well then, would you tell me of her?” the dragon inquired curiously. “I want to make certain that she is the right type of person for you,” he added protectively. “If she is not then I shall eat her.”

Luna opened her mouth for a moment and then closed it as she caught the joking look in his eye. Then she chuckle softly and began to giggle. “Trust me, father, she’s amazing, and she’d give you indigestion.”

“Well, then, tell me of her so that I can judge that for myself,” Jonathan insisted, giving her a nudge.

“Well...”

Celestia stood in the castle courtyard with a calm smile on her face, her true feelings hidden tightly behind her mask. Tornado stood beside her, fully armored, his face a mask of calm as well.

So, she’ll be arriving shortly, the stallion thought to the alicorn over their private link.

Yes, our pegasi are escorting her as we speak, Celestia said. They both already knew it, but it was a good way to relieve a small bit of the tension that was encompassing the pair. Tornado, my love, do not worry. Your mind and senses are shielded, as are those of every other stallion, mare, and foal in the castle.

I know. I’m not worried about that, Tornado replied, his head turning slightly to glance at Celestia.

You think that I could be at risk? Celestia asked, an eyebrow rising slightly.

Not particularly, but... well I worry about you, Tornado stated. Old fashioned stallion instincts, I know, but it doesn’t mean that I don’t.

A warm smile touched Celestia’s face before it was obscured once more by the mask, but it had lasted long enough for Tornado to see.

I thank you for your concern, but it is unnecessary, she stated, her mental voice calm and smooth. My mind’s defenses have been wrought over centuries, not to mention the passive enchantments that are covering the Castle. I may not be wearing enchanted armor like you or the other guards, but I’m certainly not ‘defenseless’.

Like I said, I know there’s no real reason to worry, but you’re still my mare, the fact that you’re practically a goddess doesn’t change the fact that I worry about you, Tornado said tenderly.

This time Celestia’s smile lasted until she spotted the shape of the incoming Changeling Queen along with her escort. The alicorn’s smile shifted from that of genuine happiness to one of civil politeness as the large shape of the Queen Aurora settled down on the flagstones in front of her. The changeling was just about Celestia’s height, if not half an inch taller and her every movement was graceful and sultry.

“Queen Celestia, you Majesty, how wonderful to finally meet you,” Aurora said with a smile that could have melted iron.

“Queen Aurora, your Highness, the pleasure is mine,” Celestia replied, her smile staying civil as she felt Tornado’s mind buckle down.

Aurora’s smile dimmed slightly at the use of Highness rather than Majesty, but only for a moment before it was back to its normal stunning power.

“Firstly, I would like to humbly apologize for the actions of my sister,” Aurora said as she stepped forwards, her eyes glowing faintly as a package left her saddlebags and floated up to Celestia wrapped in a golden aura. “Consider this gift the beginning of my repayment of the debt she caused.”

“I will,” Celestia replied in an almost dreamy voice as she stared straight into the changeling’s faintly glowing golden eyes, her own growing cloudy before they suddenly hardened. “Now then, are you done attempting to seduce me, or are you going to continue throughout the entirety of our negotiations?”

Aurora’s face fell for a moment and then she began to chuckle faintly. “Oh, so the stories are true are they? Mind like a hunk of granite?”

“Polished marble actually,” Celestia replied, a smooth smile crossing her face as she accepted the gift and teleported it to the room she used to hold potentially dangerous magical artifacts.

“Oh indeed, if your body is anything to go by, it seems like the songs were true,” Aurora commented idly as she glanced over Celestia. “As for trying to seduce you, I apologize but this is my natural state of being. I can no more ‘turn it off’ then you can change your fur’s color.”

“Well then I suppose I should warn you ahead of time,” Celestia began as she turned and gestured with a hoof for the changeling to follow her. “Every inch of the castle has been covered in mental defense wards not to mention anti-illusion wards and if I hear about anything happening that shouldn’t, I’m fully prepared to defend my ponies.”

“Of course, of course, I expected nothing less,” Aurora replied, a light chuckle leaving her lips as she nodded.

“Good,” Celestia stated, her smile still in place. “Now then...”

As Celestia and Aurora began to talk, Tornado fell in line behind them alongside the changeling Aurora had brought as an escort. His chitin was the same teal color as Aurora’s and had been shaped into the form of an elegant soldier. The changeling glanced over at him and smiled slightly.

“Echo,” he said simply.

“Tornado,” Tornado replied with a nod, though he kept his own smile to himself as the two queens dueled with words like rapiers. “Long trip?”

“Average,” Echo answered with a small shrug. “Lovely castle.”

“Thank you,” Tornado said, giving the changeling a sideways glance. “See anything you like?”

“I already have it,” Echo replied, his mouth opening into an almost predatory smile.

“As do I,” Tornado said, his own smile becoming sharp as a blade. “And you would be best to remember that if anything were to happen.”

“Of course. Though I ask for the same courtesy,” Echo stated casually.

“Of course,” Tornado stated as he glanced up at Celestia. The alicorn was casting a subtle look of approval back at him and Tornado smiled.

“So, I feel as if I should state a few things before we get down to brass tacks,” Celestia stated as she lead the changeling queen through the castle leaving servants staring open mouthed in their wake.

“Oh?” Aurora inquired with a slightly raised eyebrow as she looked over at Celestia. “And what would that be?”

“I know your angle in all this,” Celestia answered with a slim smile. “The changeling’s greatest allies are deception and stealth.”

“Yes, that’s fairly well known,” Aurora replied, chuckling lightly. “I’d think that someone as old as you would know that very well, Your Highness.”

“Oh I do,” Celestia replied before her horn began to glow gently and a slim sheet of paper and a pen appeared hovering in front of Aurora. “I’m also well aware of the fact that changelings do not like open warfare. Your sister and her Hive are proof enough of what happens when they attempt it without the might of the entire race behind them.”

“That’s true as well,” Aurora agreed, though a small frown appeared on her face. Then it cleared. “Ah. I see.”

“Do you?” Celestia asked, her eyebrow raising slightly.

“Indeed I believe I do,” Aurora replied. “You believe that I’m only here seeking peace because I will use it to strike against you.”

“The thought had crossed my mind, I will not deny it,” Celestia said with a small nod. “After all, spies and rogues work best during peacetime, do they not?”

“Oh very good,” Aurora stated, another light, musical chuckle leaving her throat. “Though, I must say, I’m rather affronted by these suggestions of deception. At the same time, I can’t help but be curious about the type of mind who could discover them.”

“It hardly took my modest intellect,” Celestia answered, shaking her head slightly. “But regardless, if we are too sign a treaty, I would like both of our kingdoms, our races, to come out ahead.”

“I’m not certain if that’s possible,” Aurora said, giving Celestia a wicked smile. “After all, if one of us is to win, then the other must lose.”

“Not to my way of looking at it,” Celestia replied, totally unaffected by the wicked smile or the sultry eyes. “I have not come up with a perfect solution yet, but I’m sure given time, the two of us can forge something worth honoring.”

Aurora remained silent for a moment before she shook her incandescent wings. “Well, if it means I get to spend more time in this beautiful castle, with its beautiful occupants, then I’m willing to work towards what you speak of,” she said with a smooth smile.

“Wonderful, I would much rather not crack your skull against the wall,” Celestia said with a nod of her head as she casually delivered the threat.

“I would rather avoid that as well,” Aurora replied calmly before her smile became a bit wider. “And I would hate for you to awake the next morning with everyone you care about dead.”

“Yes, that would be rather irksome,” Celestia agreed, the threat passing over her fur like water off of a ducks back. “The loss of your entire Hive might be an unfortunate outcome of that particular action.”

“We should probably end this before we get to the point of our countries being at war because of a simple one upping competition,” Aurora observed, a light chuckle leaving her throat.

“Indeed, it would be a shame,” Celestia agreed, chuckling as well. “Let’s try and avoid that, shall we Your Majesty?”

“If we can, Your Majesty.”

Return Chapter 6: Arrival

Return Chapter 6: Arrival

Sarah walked down the cracked asphalt road, her Enclave Power armor taking the bullets coming at her easily. She’d chosen not to forgo her helmet as had become her norm over the last six months, hell, even with one she’d gotten a few facial scars, so she didn’t have much to worry about from headshots at the moment.

Another bullet skittered off of her shoulder plate and Sarah let out a frustrated growl. She’d just wanted to walk to the Citadel, why in the hell did she have to run into a group of fifteen raiders?

Because in some ways we are very unlucky, Nim replied as she focused on the farthest raider and helped Sarah steady the aim of her Perforator.

Thip-thip-thip

A trio of bullets left the silenced assault rifle and the raider’s head exploded in a cloud of gore.

I know, but honestly, I thought we’d killed all the raiders in this area already, Sarah replied with a grunt as she changed targets and fired another trio of rounds into another of the raider’s skulls.

They are like radroaches, Nim replied as a bullet ricocheted off of Sarah’s forehead and making the woman flinch.

At least you can exterminate those fuckers, Sarah stated with irritation as a blood covered raider charged towards them.

The woman’s hands blurred as she slung the Perforator over her shoulder on its strap and pulled Daybreaker off of her back with one hand and the shocksword out with her other. The raider let out a shout of challenge as he brought the chinese officer’s sword held in his hand down at Sarah’s face.

Time seemed to freeze around Sarah as adrenaline pumped through her brain and Nim focused on her right arm. Daybreaker swung up at an angle, slicing through the officer sword’s faulty metal and the woman brought the shocksword stabbing into the raider’s gut in a single swift motion.

The body spasmed there for a moment before Sarah jerked him off of the blade in time to meet another raider who was charging her, this time with a baseball bat. The woman’s teeth clenched together in irritation, she didn’t have time to waste on this!

Daybreaker’s long blade surged through the air and slashed clean through the man’s wrist. He let out a scream of pain before she silenced it by punching the shocksword through his throat. The sickly smell of boiling blood filled Sarah’s nose despite her helmet’s filters and she pulled her blade out of the man’s new orifice and turned her head towards the other raiders who were still shooting at her.

If there was one thing that the Capital Wasteland’s raiders could have pride in, it was their god damned defiance in the face of adversity. First a group of giant super strong mutants had set up shop in the Wastes, but did the raiders care? Fuck no, they just shot them anyways. Next came the power armor wearing do-gooders against whom bullets didn’t do so well; so what did they do? They got missile launchers.

WHOOOSH

Sarah’s eyes widened in surprise as she spotted the missile flying towards her.

“FUCK!” the woman shouted just before the missile hit the ground in front of her. The woman’s breath left her body as she was thrown several feet backwards. Sarah rolled along the ground for a foot or so until she came to a halt and grunted with pain.

Sorry, I didn’t see him, Nim apologized. He must have been concealing it.

Remind me again how you do that with a missile launcher? Sarah replied as she pushed herself back to her feet, gritting her teeth against the waves of pain that traveled through her limbs.

The constant impact of small caliber weapons didn’t help. One thing that Sarah had learned in her time in the Wastes was that even with power armor on, being shot hurt. Sure, it might not make you bleed out or kill ya, but you could pick up a surprising number of bruises through three inch thick steel armor.

I believe they fold up, do they not? Nim replied as she located the man using the launcher.

I don’t really care, Sarah stated as she reached back to get the Perforator. She sighted the man and pulled the trigger, shooting the launcher right out of his hands before a pair of bullets violated his skull.

With the loss of their trump card, and the violent deaths of their fellows, the raiders’ resolve crumbled and they began to run towards the ruins. Sarah’s eyes hardened and she coldly shot each of them before they could even get close. As their bodies fell to the ground, Sarah took a moment to look down at her armor.

The missile had blasted the grey paint off of it and her experienced eyes could tell that it would take a bit of scrap metal to repair the damage to the lower section which had been closest to the blast. Still, the Hellfire armor had done its job and Sarah felt only tired and bruised rather than dead and bleeding.

Sarah walked up to the place where Daybreaker and the shock sword had been forced from her grasp and picked them up, carefully inspecting the latter blade to make sure that it hadn’t been damaged by the explosion. Luckily, it seemed that it hadn’t. The woman didn’t bother inspecting Daybreaker and slid the enchanted sword into her sheath on Sarah’s back and then returned the shock sword back to its sheath on her hip.

Well, that was a waste of fifteen minutes, the woman grumbled as she glanced down at her Pip-Boy.

Indeed it was, Nim agreed. Let us hope that nothing else gets in our way.

Yeah, let’s, Sarah stated with a mental sigh. She just wanted to get to the Citadel.

“This room must be magic proof!” Chrysalis told the drone in front of her emphatically. “The only magic allowed in or out of it must be mine.”

The drone simply nodded its head. It was not one of those gifted with speech so it was forced to rely on head motions.

Chrysalis smiled as she gazed around the room. It was not a large one, only big enough for herself and the half dozen workers who were finishing the task of magic-proofing the place. In the center of the room was a summoning circle made of silver which had been inscribed into the floor.

To the direct right of the summoning circle was a large green containment pod full of a special liquid. The walls of the pod could withstand anything short of an alicorn pounding on it and the liquid was specially made to restrict movement and fully immerse the target.

It would act as the storage container for ‘Sarah’ until Chrysalis was done with her work. Chrysalis however had decided to not risk closing the ‘top’ of the pod, she didn’t know how much air this ‘Sarah’ would require and she did not wish for her newest pet to suffocate.

The changeling Queen’s mind was abuzz with thoughts for the upcoming trials. Aurora was going to be in Equestria for several weeks so she could not risk sending Sarah to kill Luna until her bitch of an elder sister was gone. Once that had happened she could send Sarah without consequence. Surly, Celestia would kill the woman rather than take her prisoner, maddened by grief that she would be.

Actually... when she thought about it, it would be best to plant her sister’s name in Sarah’s mind. That way if Celestia did happen to capture her the woman would re-direct the monarch’s rage at Aurora and give Chrysalis even more time to plan her eventual take over.

Chrysalis smiled to herself. Despite her previous thoughts of speeding up her plans, she had decided to instead slow them down. Now that she was going to be forced to hold onto Sarah for several weeks, the changeling would have time to truly tear Sarah’s being apart and then rebuild her.

Honestly, this worked better for her. Chrysalis loved the process of breaking ponies to her will. Shining Armor may not have been her best work, he had a very strong mind and as such had been rather difficult to break down in the time she’d had to work with, but she had still enjoyed the process. The feeling of the musclebound stallion squirming beneath her had sent a rush of pure joy through the changeling and she’d loved every moment of it.

Once her quest to see Luna dead and Celestia murdered was finished, Chrysalis would be sure to capture both the stallion and his wife. She would keep them in cages across from each other, just out of reach with magic dampeners on their horns. Then the changeling would feed first upon one and then the other, draining them of their love. Once she was done, she would leave them there until their love built back up and repeat the process until they were both little more than husks.

Chrysalis let out a slight sigh as she turned her thoughts away from the wonderful future and back to the present.

“They appear to be done, my queen,” a voice said from beside her. Chrysalis turned her head to see one of her Operators, a low standing changeling who had only recently been hatched in an attempt to repair the loss of several operators in the field. She had a topaz mane and small eyes. Chrysalis dimly remembered that she’d chosen the name ‘Double’.

“Indeed they do,” Chrysalis agreed as she looked over the room which was now fully magic proofed. The changeling queen could sense the magic in the room being forced out through every pore in the wall, leaving only her own within it. “Now then... all I must do is tug on the connection of love that Luna feels for her... poor the magic into the circle... and drag her and any magic items she has through.”

“My queen... why would you want her to bring the magic items?” Double asked as she looked up at the Queen in confusion.

“Because, my spell is not overly specific,” Chrysalis replied with a small shrug. “Unlike what Celestia had with Luna. Because of that I can only project it in a rather ‘wide’ arc so everything she wears will be transported here with her.”

“But... then she may well be fully armoured!” Double protested. “Not to mention armed with the things that spit fire... do you really wish to bring her here like that?”

“No, not at all,” Chrysalis replied, enjoying as always the sense that her Operator didn’t know as much as she did. “You see, the journey here will destroy anything without a spell of some sort cast upon it as it tries to adjust to Equestria.”

“Wouldn’t that kill the target?” Double asked, her brows knitting together in confusion.

“No, because I am certain that a spell of one form or another has been cast upon Miss Sarah,” Chrysalis replied. “That, or the spell itself will defend her because she is the target.”

“Oh...” Double frowned before smiling widely. “You’re so smart, my Queen!”

“Yes, yes I am,” Chrysalis said smugly before she bent down to kiss the Operator upon the forehead, she really was an adorable little bug. “Now then, it’s time to bring our ‘guest’ here.”

Chrysalis closed her eyes and visualized the world with her mind. Uncounted numbers of strings of love sprang across her vision and amongst all of them three shone out brightest to her. That was fitting because they came from the three most powerful beings currently living on the planet. None of them belonged to either Cadance nor Shining Armor.

Strangely, Luna’s was not where she had expected it to be, and was instead out in the middle of the woods. Odd, but it did not matter greatly to her. The Queen took a moment to examine the link of chained love that Luna held closest to her heart and smiled as she plucked it. There was a rush of emotions, a flash of black hair, an oddly furless naked body, a warm smile and a pair of vast eyes that stared up at the night sky.

Chrysalis withdrew her mind from within the ‘cord’ and an almost serpentine smile curled across her face as she took hold of the cord and followed it to the other end across the empty divide of the void. She felt the ‘woman’ on the other end and secure in the knowledge that she had her target, the Queen’s horn began to glow.

Sarah smiled as the Citadel grew bigger in her vision. She was almost there.

Sarah... I feel something! Nim suddenly exclaimed in her mind.

What? Sarah asked with a frown of confusion. What do you mean you ‘feel’ something?

I mean that I feel magic tugging at us! Nim replied, putting aside her feelings to the opposite to make the woman she love happy. Someone is pulling us towards Equestria!

What?! REALLY?! Sarah exclaimed, stopping where she stood, a smile stretching across her face beneath her helmet. The thought of returning to her Luna roaring through her consciousness like a fiery inferno of heat and joy.

Yes! Nim replied. Though, it is not Luna.

... it isn’t? Sarah asked, her joy halting in its euphoric eruption as her smiled dimmed slightly.

No, I would recognize her if it was, Nim replied. BUT that in and of itself is not a bad thing. It could simply be the Archmage or one of the higher ups.

OH, okay, Sarah replied, her smile returning. Whoever it is doesn’t matter! I just want to see Luna again!

... as do I, Nim agreed quietly. Before Sarah could ask why her voice seemed so... uncertain, her world disappeared in a flash of green light.

The woman felt as if her entire body was being dragged through a very small crack between two very tight walls and her eyes burned as a searing green glow stabbed into her retinas. The woman let out a shout of pain that seemed to go on forever before suddenly the green vanished and she fell to a hard floor.

Something was wrong... the air around her was frigid on her bare skin and the only thing that she felt against her was Daybreaker’s scabbard. Something else was horribly wrong as well, not only was she naked... but her Pip-Boy was gone. The woman blinked twice in an attempt to clear her vision and to her surprise and horror, she found that her longest companion was gone.

Sarah! Dodge to the left! Nim shouted in her mind.

The woman’s mind, long oiled by instinct ceased to worry about her missing Pip-Boy and rolled to the left. A thud echoed in her ears as the woman’s eyes snapped to a bug like creature that was struggling to get back to its four strange legs.

Sarah’s hands went to Daybreaker and the sword sang as it was freed from its scabbard and the woman readied herself for anything as she scanned the chamber around her. A multitude of the bug like creatures were arrayed around her and Sarah caught sight of a larger one behind the rest.

That was all the time she had to process the situation before the bug that had already made a grab for her tried again.

Careful, you are not wearing your armor, the swing must be adjusted to account for the missing weight, Nim commented in her mind as Sarah brought the blade up at the leaping drone.

Daybreaker’s silver shaft clove through the bug’s body and a splash of green ichor splashed down across Sarah’s naked chest. The woman spun on her heel to do the same to another but it nimbly dodged to the side of the swing. Sarah leapt back from the return slash of the thing’s horn and prepared to strike again.

One on either side! Leap back! Nim exclaimed and Sarah followed through a second later, her bare feet barely finding purchase on the slick stone. Two of the drones almost crashed into each other but adjusted their course on time with the third and the three began to approach Sarah.

The woman grit her teeth together. Nim, we need a way out!

I’m aware... but I don’t see anything, Nim replied as she frantically scanned the room. I am also unable to draw any magic to myself despite the fact that we are in Equestria! The room is too tightly sealed!

Sarah didn’t have time to respond to that because the three drones suddenly sprang forwards at her, two of them flying on clear insectoid wings. Sarah froze and her mind shut down as her hands gripped Daybreaker’s comforting cold shaft. Then she brought the blade across in a sideways slash at the first as she stepped aside of it’s attack and the blade hewed through the nearest changeling’s skull. The next move brought the blade thrusting it into the grounded changeling’s back mid leap.

Unfortunately, as she was in mid swing towards the third one, a sickly green glow brought her arms to a standstill.

“Yes, I think that’s quite enough of that,” a voice like torn silk said as the tallest of the bugs stepped forward. “In fact, I would say that’s enough of that for the rest of your life.”

Her horn glowed bright and Sarah felt her fingers beginning to be ripped off of Daybreaker’s shaft, one after another. The blade itself may have been magic resistant to some extent, but her body most certainly wasn’t.

Nim! Can’t you do anything?! the woman demanded as she felt another finger slip away from her two handed grip.

Why do you think it is taking so long to happen? Nim replied angrily. Even with me within you, you’re not immune to magic! Especially within this damned room!

Sarah grit her teeth together and tried to hold onto the blade but it was in vain. Daybreaker clattered to the floor and one of the drones moved forwards to quickly take it in its magic.

“Now then... why don’t we get you situated?” the largest bug asked as she walked forwards.

“Who are you?” Sarah demanded, her voice a low growl.

“My name is Queen Chrysalis, but you may as well call me Mistress, my little pet,” Chrysalis said with a smirk as she closed the distance between herself and Sarah. The woman’s eyes widened as the changeling’s jaws closed around her neck and she felt a pair of light pricks.

The world faded to black and the woman’s legs buckled.

Return Chapter 8: Polite Conversations

“And this is Daybreaker’s replacement,” Luna said with a smile as her magic reached out to grasp the hilt of the blade on her side. “Crafting her helped me take my mind off of Sarah...”

She then drew the blade with a simple flourish, revealing a six foot long blade made of Damascus steel which traveled down to a wide upwards curving crossguard made of the same metal along with a hilt inset with a single sapphire in the form of a crescent moon. The length wasn’t the only impressive thing about the blade. No, that was what lay at the core of the blade. Running up the center of the length up till an inch away from the tip was a white crystal which glowed faintly in the cave’s slightly dimmed light.

Jonathan examined it for a long moment before raising an eyebrow at her. “What did I always tell you about including crystals in weapons? In the end all it really accomplishes is the lowering of the weapon’s overall durability,” the dragon said, frowning down his muzzle at her.

“Oh please, I am not so foolish as that, father,” Luna said with a roll of her eyes. “It is not a crystal at all, but rather solidified magic that I have shaped into the blade itself. It is as solid as the steel it is bonded to.”

Jonathan let out a small chuckle. “I know Lulu, I was just making sure that you knew,” the dragon replied as he tapped the long blade with a talon. “Though I have to wonder what you’re doing using a griffon Zweitalon. Daybreaker was nowhere near this length, are you certain you know how to use it?”

“In truth, I did not,” Luna replied with a small chuckle as she began to run the large blade through a pattern of surprisingly swift movements. “And none of the books I read were much help... none of the unicorns had my strength so they recommended slow powerful blows.”

“Well yes, that’s the way they were made to be used,” Jonathan stated a bit flatly before shaking his head. “This blade’s greatest power is its sheer weight Luna, it’s made to smash through armor and break the ones beneath them. It is not a blade for slicing and swift movements.”

“Indeed, which is why I have added this enchantment,” Luna replied with a small smirk as her horn glowed a bit brighter and the blade’s silver edges began to glow white like the crystallized magic at its center. Then she frowned for a moment as she looked for something in her saddlebags and then drew it out.

It was a smooth flat stone picked up on the way to his cave and with a simple thought she sent it up into the air and brought the sword’s blade hammering into it. There was a momentous grinding sound and the blade passed all the way through the other side of the rock, it falling in two pieces on the other side, the centers looking as if they’d been buffed down by a piece of sandpaper and were glowing a gentle red.

“That... is an interesting enchantment,” Jonathan observed with a frown.

“Yep,” Luna replied with a happy smile. “It’s designed to help the blade pass through anything short of magically reinforced steel. Given enough time and swing speed though, even that can be conquered if given long enough.”

“I see... and the catch?” Jonathan asked her as he continued to eye the sword.

“It’s total shit as far as channeling other spells go,” Luna replied casually with a small shrug, completely missing Jonathan’s slight frown. “I could count on Daybreaker to handle projecting a flame spell if it needed too... this one on the other hoof could not.”

“So you have specialized,” the dragon said with an agreeable nod. “That is not bad in and of itself, after all, at your level it is hardly likely that you will be called upon to perform a great variety of combat spells that you could not simply cast with your horn.”

“Exactly,” Luna agreed with a nod as she dimmed the enchantment on the blade and slid the massive length back into its sheath upon her side.

“What is her name?”

“I’m calling her Moonlight at the moment,” Luna answered with a small shrug. “I’m not sure if it works well or not.”

“Hmm... it might,” the dragon said before he glanced out the cave’s entrance. “Speaking of the moon, the time to raise it is fast approaching.”

Luna let out a sigh but nodded, he was right, Celestia might begin to worry if she was not back shortly. The alicorn leaned over and gave Jonathan’s muzzle a loving nuzzle.

“Thank you father,” the alicorn said softly.

“For what?” Jonathan replied with a raised eyeridge as he leaned into the nuzzle.

“For... being here for me even though I don’t deserve it,” Luna replied, giving him a kiss and then turning away. “Now then, I’d best be off, come along Jackdaw,” she told the stallion who seemed to be dozing near the cave’s entrance as she passed.

“Coming Lu,” the stallion replied easily, his eyes opening on cue as his hooves fell into line beside her. The pair’s wings opened and they took flight. Jonathan walked to the cave’s entrance to watch them go, a soft smile on his face. His daughters were safe and happy at last.

“Do we really have to carry out negotiations here?” Aurora asked as she once again looked around the grand dining hall, its enchanted ceiling displaying a brilliant sunset.

“We’re not negotiating yet,” Celestia replied with a small smile before she brought her glass of wine up and took a light sip of it. “To steal a phrase from my Archmage, we’re ‘brainstorming possible pros and cons of a certain action’. In this case, what we can both gain from a successful partnership.”

Aurora’s golden eyes blinked once and her eyes began to glow slightly as she brought her own glass to her lips and took a sip of her own. It was wonderful wine, even if it did nothing to sate her real thirst.

“Very well, I can’t say that I was unprepared for something of this nature, else I would not have shown up at all,” the Changeling Queen said with a small shrug. “What I seek to gain is rather simple really. My species lives off of the love, desire, and lust of others. While we are not unable to create these feelings ourselves, we cannot feed off of them. I, and the rest of the Queens, my youngest sister not included, want a supply of food.”

“And with the level of love that the average pony gives off, they make for the prime food supply, I know,” Celestia stated with a nod. “However, the average pony does not want to give up their love do they?”

“No, they most certainly do not,” Aurora agreed and despite her mask of neutrality, Celestia could tell that Aurora was doing her best to keep a note of sourness from injecting into her voice. She gave Celestia a long measuring look. “Despite the fact that the process is painless and in some cases rather invigorating, many of your subjects look down on us. I’ve heard tell of us being compared to Vamponies.”

“Well, you do drink blood at times, it is hardly unexpected for the comparison to occur,” Celestia replied before taking another sip of her wine.

As she’d expected, Aurora’s lips frowned faintly at her supporting such a saying, though the frown was hardly there for more than a single second.

“That only occurs if the changeling in question wishes it too,” Aurora stated. “Love is not found ‘in the blood’ as some novelists would claim but rather simply given off like an ambient aura that we can eat more of the closer we are to the pony in question both physically and emotionally. For instance, I can just barely ‘taste’ yours for your guard.”

Celestia nodded. “I know all of this,” she stated with a slim smile. “It is one of the reasons why I believe a real peace treaty can be established between our two races.” Aurora's right brow rose inquisitively and Celestia elaborated. “If you had to ‘suck blood’ to retrieve our love then I do not think any peace could be tenable, but because you don’t... we may just be able to hammer something out.”

“I wish I shared your optimism,” Aurora said before taking another sip.

“I imagine that you wish your youngest sister had not provoked us,” Celestia said casually as her horn began to glow faintly and she snatched a small pastry off of a passing cart which was on its way for farther into the castle. “That way, you could continue to feed unbeknownst to us, as you had been for years.”

Aurora raised an eyebrow once again. “Perhaps, though I would never admit to such a thing.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow right back at her before she took a bite of the pastry and chewed for a moment before swallowing. “No, you wouldn’t,” she agreed. “So, I have heard what you wish to gain, I suppose that means that it is my turn.”

“It would be the polite thing to do,” Aurora replied, her tone staying light and airy as her sensual body leaned back slightly in her seat.

“I want peace most of all, but as I’ve said, I want it to be lasting,” Celestia told her. “There are several other things that I feel your race could offer mine, and I do not think they would be overly difficult to supply.”

“I will be the judge of that,” Aurora stated, but waved a hoof for her to continue. “Go on.”

“Firstly, you have a simply magnificent talent when it comes to spying and intelligence gathering,” the alicorn explained with a smile. “I would very much like to make use of that.”

“Oh? Afraid that some of your nobles might turn against your ‘shackles’ are we?” Aurora asked in jest. “When last I checked, you had that situation fairly well in hand.”

Celestia chuckled and then took another sip of her wine and another bite of her pastry. “Oh, I do. It is not my little ponies who I would like your help with.”

“And who is it then?” Aurora inquired, batting her eyelashes at Celestia. “The minotaurs? The griffons? The diamond dogs?”

“Perhaps, but perhaps it is simply because I would like to have a force of spies,” Celestia replied, chuckling lightly. “After all, one more weapon on my back to protect my ponies is never a bad thing in my opinion.”

“Ah, so we are to be your weapons then?” Aurora asked innocently. “Picked up and thrown away when broken?”

“Hardly,” Celestia replied as her voice shifted into a more innocent and perhaps foalish tone. “No, no, one does not throw away a good weapon. You clean it, maintain it, and above all, hold it close to your breast where it will be safest. After all, what good is a weapon if it is covered in rust?”

“None at all,” Aurora replied though a small frown touched her face. “And is a weapon all you’d wish from us?”

“No, it is simply the one that I thought you would comprehend the easiest,” Celestia answered with a thin smile. “After all, you are a predator are you not?”

“Heheh, clever,” Aurora agreed with a slight nod of her head. “Of course, that means you have more does it not?”

“Indeed I do,” Celestia said as she began to slowly gather her aura around her. “Much of my life has been filled with violence Aurora and while I will not pretend that I have not seeked it out, I am very tired of it. The return of my dear sister from her self imposed exile has if anything increased this weariness I feel for it. I do not want another war. I do not want another rebellion. I do not want anything of the sort.”

“Those as old as you and I know that such a thing is impossible,” Aurora said as she leaned a bit closer forwards to Celestia. “The world is full of violence Celestia, it is as unavoidable as breathing.”

“I’m aware,” Celestia said lightly. “I am not an impressionable young school filly who thinks that all the problems in the world can be fixed by a rainbow of magic and love. This of course brings us to one of my other ‘gains’ from a treaty with your kind.”

“Oh? And what would that be, simply avoiding war?” Aurora asked.

“That and more importantly, setting a new precedent,” Celestia replied as a smile began to bloom on her face. “Equestria will be a nation of peace, and even our ‘enemies’ may come to be our friends.”

“I see,” Aurora said with a small nod. “So we are tools in more than one sense.”

“If you see it that way,” Celestia answered sweetly. “Of course, aren’t you the one who came to me bearing the branch of peace?”

“True...”

As this discussion was going on, Tornado and Echo stood not far off. The black pegasus and the teal changeling guard had remained silent for most of the conversation between the two monarch but at length a thought occurred to Tornado.

“So... you and your Queen are a ‘couple’ in the same sense that Celestia and I are?” the pegasus asked.

“Indeed,” Echo said with a small nod. “Why do you ask?”

“Well, she is your mother is she not?” Tornado answered. “Does that not make your relationship rather insestual?”

“We’re changelings,” Echo replied with a slight shrug of his insectoid wings. “We function much the same way that termites do in that regard, though I am not here simply for ‘reproductive’ services.”

“Hmm?” Tornado replied with a frown, not quite understanding.

“Well, let me explain it like this, and bare in mind, these are laypony terms,” Echo began. “In some insect species who live in colonies, and I will not deny that we changelings are very insect like, there is a single queen who gives birth to all the female drones. When nature says that it is time that queen gives birth to a single male and she mates with it so that she can produce more fertilized eggs or in other cases, they abduct a male from another colony and it does the job for them.”

“I see,” Tornado said, nodding his head slightly. “So, you changelings are the same?”

“In a way,” Echo answered. “You see, our Queens need a male to be produced every once and a while as well, unlike insects though, we are not ‘one offs’ to be mated with and then thrown to the side. Or rather, we may be... or we may not be depending on the Queen in question.”

“And I take it that despite the heavy lust that she’s emitting your Queen is not looking for other ‘mates’ then?” Tornado asked.

“For the most part,” Echo replied with a small shrug. “Much as I am loath to admit it, I cannot provide her with everything she needs to live. That is where you ponies come in.”

“Because we have the love,” Tornado stated with a nod.

“Yes,” Echo agreed. “Because you have the love.”

“I see,” the stallion replied. “So, who does she get to fill the void?”

“Random ponies mostly,” Echo answered. “We ask those who are out on ‘pleasure cruises’ or wasting a weekend in Las Pegas if they’d like to have a night of fun in exchange for a few hundred bits. They come and supply my Queen with love and then we return them to where we found them. It’s a fairly common method really.”

“Really?” Tornado asked with a raised eyebrow. “No offense, but I’d think that more ponies would feel uncomfortable about that kind of thing.”

“Not when they’re hammered out of their minds,” Echo replied, a slim smile crossing his handsome face. “Though there was this one stallion who volunteered himself, several times actually. In fact, he even found his way back somehow once. Great guy, probably the only one who I actually think of as worthy of my Queen.”

Before Tornado could ask who it was, the doors of the dining room and Luna walked in, a smile on her face. The smile didn’t dim one bit as Aurora turned to look at her, the full brunt of her charms washing over Luna.

“Oh, hello, you must be Queen Aurora,” Luna said as she walked forwards and gave the other Queen a half nod before continuing till she was occupying the seat beside Celestia. “I hope you don’t mind my barging in sister, but I assumed that if you were going to be doing anything important you wouldn’t be doing it out in the open like this.”

“It’s fine Luna,” Celestia said, giving the blue alicorn a quick nuzzle. “How is father?”

“He’s doing well,” Luna replied simply as she turned to Aurora who was eying her speculatively. “Yes?”

“You’re even more resistent to me then your sister,” Aurora stated, clearly intrigued.

“Oh, you mean the almost whore-like amount of lust you’re exuding out of your very pores?” Luna asked with a small chuckle. “There is only one woman I have eyes for, and you are not her.”

“I see,” Aurora said before her eyes caught sight of something else and she stood up from her chair to quickly close the distance between herself and Jackdaw. “Jack! I did not expect to find you here.”

“Aurora, what a pleasant surprise,” Jackdaw said as he leaned up to kiss her on the cheek. “When was the last time we saw each other? Two years ago?”

“That sounds about right,” Aurora replied, several layers of her mask melting away as a smile flared across her face. “So, this is what you meant when you said that you’d been thinking of a ‘new employer’.”

“Yeah it was,” Jackdaw agreed with a small chuckle as he glanced over at Luna who was half out of her seat, her eyes alight with worry. “Don’t worry about it Lu, Aura here and I are friends.”

“Is that what you call it?” the changeling Queen asked with a raised eyebrow before shaking her head and giving him a quick kiss on the lips before walking back to the table. “Pardon my rudeness, but it’s been two years, I’m sure you understand.”

Celestia just blinked twice and then turned to stare at the guard as he mossied his way over to stand with the others. Luna on the other hoof sighed. “I suppose I should not be surprised...”

Meanwhile, Jackdaw smiled as he approached Echo.

“Echo, long time no see,” the thestral said with a grin as he held up his hoof.

“Indeed it has been,” Echo agreed, giving Jackdaw a light hoofbump.

“... I really should have known,” Tornado Kicker said, glancing at Jackdaw and shaking his head.

“Oh, so Echo was talking about me again,” Jackdaw said with a small chuckle as he looked at the teal changeling with a smirk. “All good things right?”

“He was just saying how you’ve been used as a stud,” Tornado stated.

“Prized breeder actually,” Jackdaw corrected him with another chuckle.

Tornado gave him a long look and then shook his head. “You’re not worth it.”

“Now I’m hurt, I’m always worth it,” Jackdaw replied before glancing at Echo. “Isn’t that right Echo?”

To Tornado’s surprise, the teal changeling blushed and looked away. “Maybe...”

Sarah’s eyes were heavy as she looked around the dark room. By Nim’s count, it had been five hours since she’d originally awoken and her stomach was in the process of trying to claw its way up her throat and throttle her for abusing it so badly. In addition to that, her entire body was being swamped by a continuous ocean of pleasure that was beginning to feel more and more like pain the longer she experienced it.

I fucking hate being hungry, Sarah stated flatly, choosing to acknowledge that to the one that she was most comfortable with.

Indeed, I do hope they intend to feed us, Nim replied as her ‘wings’ settled around Sarah again. Of course, I rather doubt that she’d want to kill us in such a manner after all the effort that was put into our ‘capture’.

What’s with the air quotes? I think that bitch has pretty much caught us, Sarah replied with a rueful chuckle.

We are not captured Sarah, we are merely physically restrained within enemy territory while a guard waits outside the door, not captured, Nim replied. Capture does not come until you have run out of hope, and after a mere five hours, I hope you are not at that point.

Sarah shuddered as another wave of pleasurable pain ran through her and then let out a pained sigh. I’m not, thanks for the ‘encouragement’ Nim.

You’re most welcome, though I do not see what there is to be sarcastic about, Nim replied with a small mental chuckle

I don’t know, you tell me, you started it, Sarah replied, chuckling as well. Probably just to make me chuckle eh?

I have no idea what you could possibly mean, Nim retorted until she began to chuckle again. None whatsoever.

Sarah couldn’t help herself, she began to laugh, the alicorn’s tone was just so... contrary and innocent that she couldn’t help herself. The laughter lasted half a minute until the woman calmed herself down and a small smile spread across her face.

Thanks Nim, she said tenderly.

You’re welcome Sarah, Nim replied, her voice just as tender. Now then... I think it would be best if you got some sleep. You can’t resist evil with a tired brain after all, it’s like trying to drink milk without any chocolate.

Yes, and that’s a ‘crime’ if I’ve ever heard one, Sarah replied before she closed her eyes.

Return Chapter 10: Bug Bites and an Old Friend

Queen Aurora flopped down on the bed she’d been given and let out a sigh. “What a long day.”

“Agreed,” Echo said as he flopped down beside her and placed a kiss on her cheek. “But you handled it admirably.”

“Thank you,” Aurora replied as she leaned back into the luxurious bedding.

Then she gave him a kiss on the lips and pulled him close to her with her hooves. Echo smiled and let her lift his suitably smaller frame atop her chest so that he could lean his head against the bottom of her neck. Echo let out a sigh of contentment.

“This whole city... it’s so full of love,” the guard intoned.

“Yes, I can see what motivated my littlest sister to act the way she did,” Aurora agreed with a small chuckle. “Though as usual, she bungled it up in the execution.”

“Yes, yes she did,” Echo agreed with a small chuckle of his own. “So, what do you think of Celestia’s offer?”

“I think that it is doomed to failure,” she answered with a shake of her head before she leaned it back into the pillows. “But if nothing else, it will buy us time to prepare for the eventual war.”

“And if it doesn’t fail?” Echo inquired with a raised eyeridge.

Aurora chuckled at his tone, it was almost eager. “Well then, my little guard, you will no longer be needed,” she told him flashing her most sultry smile. “And I suppose I’ll have to move on to someone new, maybe one of those guard stallions perhaps. They seemed suitably impressive.”

Echo gave her an unamused look that was so flat that the Queen couldn’t help but smile.

“Oh, Echo, you know I wouldn’t,” she said with another grin before she pulled him in for a long kiss. When they parted Aurora smiled, her mask broken completely. “You’ve been with me for two hundred years now after all. It would take simply forever to train a replacement.”

Echo just snorted and gave her a kiss on the jaw. He was about to begin making his way down when there was a knock at the door. Aurora frowned for a moment before she identified the stallion on the other side.

“Oh, Jack, do come in,” she called sweetly.

“Don’t mind if I do,” Jackdaw said with a casual grin as he walked into the room, closing the door with the back of his heel. The stallion looked between Echo and Aurora for a moment before his grin widened. “You two started without me eh?”

“Hardly, we were kissing,” Aurora replied airily as she gave Jackdaw a seductive, almost predatory smile. “You’re more than welcome to join.”

“I think I will, after we go over a few things,” Jackdaw replied as his thestral wings sent him flying onto the bed and nestling down beside the Queen’s waspish figure.

“Oh?” Aurora asked with a small frown. “What things?”

“Well, firstly, my job is very important to me, and that means I’m a guard first,” Jackdaw answered, giving her a hard look. “Just like Echo is.”

Echo looked down on the stallion for a moment and then nodded his head. “Your first duty is to Luna and Celestia and anything that we say will be reported to them,” the changeling stated.

“Yep, and thus if I find out that you’re planning anything nasty, I’ll be forced to do my best to kill you both,” the thestral continued, nodding his head. “No hard feelings.”

“Of course not, Jack,” Aurora said after a moment of silence as she thought it over. “Now, is there anything else?”

“Yeah... if anything you’re more beautiful now than you were last time I saw you,” Jackdaw said wry smile. “Now that that’s out of the way... there’s only one question on my mind...”

“And what’s that?” Echo inquired as he glanced down at him.

“Who’s on top?”

Fancy Pants’ eyes blinked open blearily and came to rest on the modest old fashioned alarm clock that sat on the nightstand beside his edge of the bed. It read nine o’clock. The stallion let out a yawn and was about to drift back to sleep when he noticed something else. There were a pair of slightly cold, chitinous forelegs wrapped around his back. His eyes widened in surprise and he turned to stare at the changeling who was cuddling with him.

“You-you’re- Fleur wake up! You’re going to be late!” the stallion exclaimed, nudging the sleeping changeling mare with an urgent hoof. Fleur grunted, in a most unladylike manner, and rolled the other way so that she wasn’t facing him before she tried to dig her way deeper into the blankets. Fancy rolled his eyes at his wife’s theatrics. “Come now, my dear Reflection, you really must wake up.”

“Do I have to?” she asked with a pout that despite the fact he couldn’t see it, Fancy knew was on her lips.

“Yes, yes you do,” Fancy said, nudging her again with his hoof. “You wouldn’t want to miss your ‘train’ now would you?”

Reflection/Fleur let out a groan and slowly turned back to face him. She really was a beautiful mare, no matter which face she wore, all graceful lines and feminine beauty. It was a wonder that Fancy’s heart didn’t stop just by looking at her. Fancy Pants brought his neck down to kiss her on the cheek and she closed her eyes and let out a sigh as the love filled her. He would have kissed her on the lips, but they both knew their morning breath was atrocious.

“I guess there’s no helping it,” Reflection said with a sigh as her horn flashed and she was near instantaneously transformed back into Fleur. The mare let out a sigh and kicked the blankets off of herself and slid out of the bed as Fancy Pants did the same. “Thank you for waking me up, dear.”

“Of course,” Fancy replied with a light chuckle as he put on his monocle on and smiled as the magical piece of glass cleared his slightly foggy vision. “You know that I don’t mind at all.”

“Oh, I know,” Fleur said with a roll of her eyes as she grasped her travel bag in her magic and began to make sure that everything was where it needed to be. “You never have any trouble kicking me out of the bed, do you?”

Fancy chuckled as he walked over and placed a kiss on the side of her neck, causing Fleur to blush as even more love seeped into her.

“You know that’s not why I do it,” the stallion said lovingly. “It’s so that you don’t blow your cover and so that I don’t lose you, which would tear out my heart.”

Fleur sighed and leaned her head against his and for a long moment, the world was perfect. Then just as quickly as it had come, it left them and the mare took her head away.

“I’ll miss you,” she whispered desperately.

“I know,” he replied just as softly.

“I love you.”

“And I love you.”

With that said, the mare walked out of the room.

“Are you all ready?” Chrysalis asked the five Operators she’d chosen for the task of breaking down Sarah’s mental defenses. They were her eldest living children, minus Reflection who was still on her way back from her latest assignment.

“Yes, mother,” they all answered demurely as their horns began to glow and they brought them together with her own against Sarah’s forehead. Her cocoon had been turned on its side as she slept so that each of them could reach her.

Chrysalis waited for a long moment before joining her horn with theirs and the world fell away.

This time, she did not find herself in a forest. No, this time her surroundings were much closer to that of where she herself lived. The ground was cracked, broken and brown and the sky above was grey and featureless.

The changeling Queen frowned as she looked around spotted what looked like a giant fortress of grey stone and standing atop its battlements was Sarah herself. The woman stared down at the changeling and her five helpers for a moment before shouting.

“Alright bitch, no more tricks or mazes, come and take me!”

Chrysalis smiled smugly, the day before must have drained her more than previously thought. The fortress may have been visibly impressive, but in the land of the mind, things like that came and went with far greater ease than in the physical world.

“Forwards, children, let’s tear down her walls,” the Chrysalis stated with a small evil chuckle. She would pay for what had happened last time.

Not only was the environment different, but so was the force behind it. It felt... weaker, less experienced, soft. All of which pointed Chrysalis towards one conclusion. Sarah had been intending to kill her last time and the sheer effort of it had exhausted her mental prowess.

This thought only served to invigorate the changelings as they took to the air.

Are you sure I can do this? Sarah asked the invisible form of Nim as they stood atop the edge of the ‘Citadel’.

You’re very strong willed, Sarah, you’ll do fine, Nim replied as she gave the woman a nuzzle that managed to not ruffle her hair in the least. Just focus on what you want to happen and it shall work.

Right... focus, Sarah closed her eyes and stared at the closest changeling as it flew at her. A sniper rifle appeared in her hands and she seamlessly brought it up to focus on the changeling.

Then she pulled the trigger and the bullet shot down towards it. To her surprise, the changeling’s magical shield deflected the bullet to the side and it simply continued its flight towards her. Sarah’s eyes widened as she drew another lock on the changeling.

Sarah, you must WANT it dead for this to work, Nim informed her anxiously.

“GO FUCK YOURSELF!” Sarah shouted at the bug as she pulled the trigger again. This time the bullet shattered the shield and slammed into the changeling’s body. It’s flight wavered for a moment before it continued onwards towards her.

Nim, why didn’t it die? Sarah asked as she fumbled with the sniper rifle as a shock of unexpected pain ran through her body.

Sarah! Are you alright? Nim asked worriedly.

Gah, that hurt... this venom is turning more and more painful every time it runs through me, Sarah grunted as she dropped the rifle and created a copy of the Perforator, opting for something with a faster fire rate.

Nim looked at her worriedly. She hated putting Sarah in charge of this... but she just didn’t have enough energy to do what she had done before, nor to do much in the way of actual attacking. Much as she despised admitting it... she was not nearly as powerful as Luna. No where near strong enough to keep Sarah safe.

“SHIT!” Sarah yelped in pain as a blast of green flames lashed into her right arm. The limb was consumed in flame and she let out a scream despite the armor. Nim’s eyes widened in surprise and then she growled within her mind. She should have seen that coming!

Sarah! The pain isn’t real! This is your mind! You’re not on fire! Nim shouted at her.

TELL THAT TO THE FLAMES! Sarah screamed in agony as she desperately tried to smother the flames that were consuming her arm. The pain was worse than any she’d ever experienced before, enough to bring tears to even her eyes. The woman’s eyes fell on the arm within the flame and saw that it had been reduced to white bone.

Before Nim had a chance to do anything to assist the woman, the changelings touched down on around Sarah’s writhing form with Chrysalis directly in front of her.

“Well, well, well, it looks like I made it through with a Zero,” the Changeling Queen stated with a wide smirk. “And you... you went down far easier than I was expecting, my pet.”

Sarah stared up at Chrysalis, her body contorted in pain as she attempted to something, anything to keep the changeling away from her.

NIM! HELP! Sarah shouted desperately as she tried to claw herself away.

Nim was shaking with inarticulate rage at this point as Chrysalis began to slowly stride towards Sarah. “It’s time, Sarah... time for you to become my pet physically and mentally,” the changeling continued, licking her lips as she bent her face down towards Sarah’s.

Nim’s brain rushed forwards at lightning speed as the scene played out around her. Sarah was in danger, terrible, terrible danger and here she was standing here like a useless sack of wet paper. There was only one thing that Nim could think of to do that had the slimmest possibility of working. She did not have the strength left to kill the changeling’s drones, let alone the Queen Bitch herself, but... perhaps she did not have to do it intentionally.

“Oh if it isn’t a bunch of insects for me to play with,” Nim drawled slowly as she appeared before Chrysalis... though she was not herself.

No, instead she… or he appeared as the most horrifying beast to ever walk Equestria. A green dragon scaled talon extended down from his right leg and a brown furred hoof came down from his left. His wings were a mismatched set of thestral and pegasus while his arms were those of an eagle and a lion. A slim body stretched up into the head of an ass that twisted into the disturbing love child of a goat and an owl. A pair of horns erupted from his head, one a jagged stags and the other that of a ram. The monstrosity opened its mouth and revealed a single crooked tooth.

There are few beings capable of silencing Queen Celestia herself with their appearance alone and Discord was one of those creatures. With a single word he could reshape almost anypony he wished into a cracked reflection of their origin. A talon in your direction and you could lose your mind. Should he touch you, your flesh would liquify and be replaced by something... different.

Furthermore, in his thousand year rule over Equestria, he had personally instilled an instinctual fear in each and every species on the planet a dozen times over.

Nim had fought the beast as Luna for a very long time, she knew what he was like inside and out, down to the littlest detail from the twitch of his tail to the flaps of his wings. What she knew best was the sound of his voice... that squirly menacing tone that seemed to just leak its way into someone’s brain.

“I-I-I how, how can you be here?!” the changeling Queen stuttered as her Operators stared in abject terror at the beast. “You, you can’t be here!”

“Really? Whyever not?” Discord asked with a curious glance at her.

“Be-because Celestia and Luna killed you!” Chrysalis protested through a jittering jaw.

“Oh no, no, no, no,” he replied in amusement. “Those two pesky foals merely turned me to stone, hehe. My mind still wanders wherever it likes.”

One of the changelings mustered up the nerve to launch a beam of fire at him but Discord simply smiled indulgently at it, as if it was a child who had just discovered how to shit standing up. With a bored gesture he caught the beam of fire and twisted it into a balloon animal before sending it flying into the sky. The changelings around Chrysalis let out screams of absolute horror as their brains were assaulted with image after image of Discord in his prime, images that would drive the average pony insane.

In this case, they hemorrhaged. With casual grace Discord floated over in front of Chrysalis who was staring in horror at her five prized children who had fallen to the ground, bleeding from their eyes. The beast let out an amused, mocking chuckle as he gazed down at the now terrified changeling Queen.

“You know, Chrysalis, this whole thing has been pretty amusing for me,” he commented as a decanter of chocolate milk appeared before him and he took a long drag from the bottom. “I mean, yesterday was a treat and today... today you were soooo close to getting what you wanted.”

Chrysalis ground her teeth together and tried to look up at Discord, her eyes filled with anger... but there was something that prevented her from doing so. Some built in defense mechanism within her brain that stopped her from doing such a thing.

“I helped create your eldest sister you know,” he continued conversationally. “She started out as an ordinary little changeling, of course, back then changelings were just a bunch of bugs... but I, I gave them a real purpose.”

“I...” Chrysalis was unable to respond and every inch closer to her that Discord hovered was another that she retreated. She knew he was telling the truth... but only... only the Queens knew of their origin! This... this was REALLY Discord! This revelation shocked, no terrified her, so much that what came next caught her off guard.

Discord slid his arm around her neck and gave her a noogie, sending her mane flying in all directions as he drilled the flat of his talons into her skull.

“And by ME did you carry it out,” he said with a chuckle as he continued to noogie her. “You’re the A-typical Love Bugs now aren’t you?”

Chrysalis squirmed and clawed at him but nothing she did would allow her to break free of his grip. That grip suddenly tightened and Discord brought his jaws down next to Chrysalis’ ear.

“Now then, my little Love Bug, you’re going to leave this mortal’s mind, I claimed her as my new digs until I can upgrade to something better and I don’t want you traipsing around in here,” the draconequus said with a hearty chuckle as he slapped her on the back hard.

“But... but-but-but- why do you need her?” Chrysalis managed to ask around teary eyes, strange, she hadn’t even realized that she was crying.

“Because she’s an ape that walks upright and talks but doesn’t have any fur that ALSO EATS MEAT!” Discord exclaimed as he hugged her tighter. “Can you possibly imagine anything else twisted and strange enough to be used as my body?”

Chrysalis shuddered and finally broke free from his hold. She jumped away from him and within half a second she’d vanished from Sarah’s mind entirely.

Discord stood there in mid air for a long moment before he let out a sigh and wiped sweat from his brow as he began to slowly change back into Nim. The alicorn collapsed on the ground beside her love and let out a long sigh.

“Okay... I’m officially completely out of energy,” Nim said exhaustedly. “Luna better find us somehow or we’re dead once she realizes that the story I just told her is total bullshit.”

“Why... why wasn’t I able to help?” Sarah asked with a dark frown as she looked down at her now whole arm.

“Because Chrysalis has had centuries of practice where as you had a single night’s,” Nim answered tiredly, too beat to be sympathetic. “Now hush... I need to go to sleep.”

The world around them shifted back to Nim’s typical glade and the alicorn fell to sleep almost immediately. Sarah stared down at her for a moment before moving closer to her and lifting her head so that Nim’s face rested in her lap. A wave of pain roared through Sarah but she ignored it. Instead she placed her hands together and closed her eyes.

“Luna... God... whichever of you is listening... please... I need you, Nim and I need you,” she prayed softly before opening her eyes and staring down at the nearly comatose alicorn in her lap and began to run her hand through her mane, her jaw hardening. “Just wait, Chrysalis... just wait.”

Reflection touched down inside the Hive’s main hall and barely withheld an irritated sigh. The place never changed, ever. She began to walk down the corridor until she saw something odd. Double, a fairly new Operator was sprinting down the hallway. When she spotted Reflection her worried eyes shrank back to normal size.

“Reflection! You’re back! Thank Mother! We need you! We need you really badly!” the topaz maned changeling shouted.

“I just got back, what is it?” Reflection asked curiously, though she did allow a bit of ire to leak into her voice.

“It’s the prisoner again! She’s hurt mother again!” Double exclaimed.

“Prisoner? Which prisoner?” Reflection asked with a frown, there had to be several dozen.

“Sarah the human of course, you twit!” Double shouted, as if she was an absolute idiot.

Reflection stared at her for a long moment, barely keeping her jaw from falling open. “Okay... what do you need me to do?” she asked at last. “And wait, why are you giving me orders? I out rank you by quite a bit.”

“Nauh,” the little changeling replied shaking her head. “Five of the top Operators just died and I got promoted up to number two!”

Wow... was Reflection’s only thought before she said. “Okay... and what am I supposed to be doing?”

“Feed the prisoner so it doesn’t starve to death while I tend to mother!” Double replied before her little wings sprang into action and carried her off down the hallway.

“... guess I’ll just find my way there by myself,” Reflection stated flatly, shaking her head at Double’s behavior. “Oh well...”

Return Chapter 11: Reunion

Return Chapter 11: Reunion

Sarah leaned forwards against the edge of the cocoon, her breaths shallow and her eyes were darkly shadowed. Her stomach roared at her and her mouth was dry enough that she was almost at the point of trying to drink some of the liquid that surrounded her. The woman had lost a lot of weight, most of it muscle mass, along with quite a bit of fat. According to Nim, the mental beatings she took weren't helping either. Making all those defenses cost energy, and energy comes from food, or stored fat, which Sarah was rapidly running out of. In short, she didn’t quite look like a ghoul... but it was getting uncomfortably close.

As the grains of time continued to fall within her mind she dimly wondered how long it would be until Chrysalis came back to finish her off, surely it wouldn’t be too long and the woman knew she wouldn’t be able to protect herself. She didn’t even have Nim to fall back on, the alicorn was still sound asleep, unable to do anything more then snort or moan in her sleep.

The woman had once again tried to punch her way out of her prison but it was futile, if she couldn’t do it while at full strength there was no way she could do it now. Her head drifted even farther forwards and her eyes closed tiredly. However, before she could drift off the sound of chitinous hooves impacting off of the ground made her look up, her spirits sinking deeper as she saw the changeling approaching her.

Despite its exhaustion, her perceptive mind was still picked up a few things about the changeling. Firstly, it was a changeling that she’d never seen before, lean and graceful with an impeccable pale pink mane. Second, the changeling was staring at her with widened eyes. Thirdly, most importantly, she was carrying plate of bread and a glass of water! Despite herself, Sarah felt her mouth begin to salivate and it was all she could do to keep herself from moaning at the sight of the simple food.

Reflection stared at the human woman with open concern, she’d obviously been horribly abused by her... mother and the mare could see her ribs showing through the cocoon. Despite the ratty, half starved, appearance, Reflection was positive that this was Luna’s Sarah. If nothing else, she perfectly matched the statue in the garden.

As she drew nearer, Sarah began to shake in the cocoon, clearly trying to get to the food held in her grasp. Reflection glowered, her mother was going to pay for this atrocity, but that came later. Now, now it was time to introduce herself.

“Please hold still, Sarah,” the changeling said, her lyrical voice soft and steady. “I don’t want to spill any of this water.”

Sarah froze. “You’re using my name?” she asked, her voice cracking from dryness.

“Yes,” Reflection answered, giving her a smile as she brought the glass of water up to Sarah’s lips. “Now, I’m going to do this slowly alright? Don’t take big gulps or else it could go down the wrong pipe and you’ll be coughing it all up.”

Sarah glowered at her but nodded slightly as she pursed her lips just a bit to allow the water to trickle down her throat. Her eyes shot open in surprise, that water was pure, cold, and delicious! It flowed down the back of her throat, filling it with moisture and the woman let out a sigh as she drank more and more of it until the cup was half empty and the changeling pulled it away.

“But I wasn’t finished!” Sarah protested angrily.

“True, but you’ll probably want some to wash down the bread, right?” Reflection replied with a raised eyebrow.

“I... yes,” Sarah stated, looking down at the bread hungrily now that she’d been reminded that it existed.

“Small pieces again,” Reflection instructed as she broke the bread into a dozen pieces and sent one up to Sarah.

The woman sniffed it for a moment and then leaned forwards to bite into it. The explosion of flavors hit her like a ton of bricks and she fell back against the cocoon as a happy moan left her throat. This was the first time she’d ever had a bite of something that wasn’t two hundred years old or irradiated in some way other than Punga Fruit and she loved it.

Reflection for her part just raised an eyebrow as she brought the next bite up and the woman demolished it along with the next few. When the last peice of bread was gone and Sarah had drunken the dregs of the water glass the woman looked down at her and Reflection suddenly found herself under the inspection of a pair of incredibly perceptive eyes.

“You’re not one of them,” the woman stated quietly. “If you were, you wouldn’t have been so careful with me.”

Reflection blinked twice and then a small smile crossed her face. “You’re right,” she said with a whisper as she walked closer to Sarah. “I’m supposed to be here spying on my mother... but I’d say that you take priority,” she added, her voice even lower.

Sarah wouldn’t have normally been able to hear her, but her elven ears were good for some things. The woman’s heart soared. Someone had been listening to her prayer and the thought of Luna appearing to rescue her or even simply having this changeling help her escape from the cocoon overpowered her for a moment.

“Well... can you get me out?” Sarah replied after a long moment of silence.

“I could, but you wouldn’t get far,” Reflection stated with a shake of her head. “There are too many changelings and you’re far too weak even with my help to get out of the Badlands.”

Sarah’s heart fell but she hadn’t really expected that to be an option anyways... she wasn’t sure if she could even walk at the moment let alone run through ‘the Badlands’.

“I... alright, can you get radio Luna then? Tell her to come and rescue me?” Sarah asked slowly.

“I don’t have a here in the Hive,” Reflection replied before she shook her head. “But don’t worry, once I leave this room I’m going to fly back to Canterlot and I’m going to tell Luna about this. I may work for her sister, but she knows of me.”

“Okay... good... please... stop standing here and do it!” Sarah whispered urgently. “Chrysalis could come back at any second and I REALLY don’t think that I can win again. Nim’s unconscious and I’m running on dregs and-”

“I will,” the changeling replied in a soothing tone as she gave the woman kind smile. “I’m a fast flyer, just hang in there.”

Sarah noded frantically once and unbidden to herself, small tears began to trickle down her face. She was getting out of here! She was going to be reunited with Luna!

Reflection saw the tears and had to restrain herself from crying as well, the poor woman looked so incredibly tired and abused that it broke her heart.

“Goodbye,” the changeling said as she started walking from the room but on the way out she spotted something lying in the gloom off to the side. It was a silver sword with a scrawled note lying beside it in her mother’s script.

To any drone or operator, this sword is magical and most likely would clue that bitch Luna off to its location somehow, for that reason it is staying within this magic proof room. DO NOT REMOVE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!

Reflection frowned down at the note as she struggled with a decision. Should she or should she not take the sword? If she did, then Luna might show up at this very moment and that would be good... but she’d be armor and weaponless and who knew what might happen in that case. With a sigh Reflection shook her head, she had to get to Canterlot, now.

Luna sighed as she walked towards the armory to retrieve Moonlight, it was time to practice wielding the great sword’s length again. Her father had been more right than he knew when he’d said that she hadn’t been trained to wield it.

The blade was nowhere near as intuitive as Daybreaker had been and it lacked a certain ‘flare’ that Daybreaker had always carried about it. Still, the Queen did have to admit, the idea of carrying a six foot long blade into battle unquestionably had an appeal all its own.

She donned her armor, a simple set of steel that was enchanted to deflect most types of minor magic spells along with minor projectiles like arrows, and began to practice her swings. Moonlight slashed a blazing trail through the air, its Damascus blade creating ripples of power through the air as the sun high above beat down on her.

The alicorn lost herself in her training, ignoring the sweat that flowed off of her body and dripped to the ground beneath her as she swung, sidestepped, slashed, and pirouetted and smashed. After fifteen minutes the mare took a break to take a sip from a nearby water bottle and notice that Jackdaw was eying something in the sky.

“What is it?” Luna asked as she turned to follow his vision.

“Looks like a changeling,” Jackdaw replied as he reached for his mini-crossbow. “Want me to take it out?” He asked around the weapon’s handle.

“No, I’m perfectly capable of doing it,” Luna replied as her eyes narrowed on the changeling. “Besides, it would not have gotten this far unless it had clearance to do so.”

“True,” Jackdaw agreed, though he kept the mini-crossbow ready to use.

Luna frowned as the changeling drew closer and then her eyes widened slightly as she remembered where she’d seen her before. It was Refection, the spy that Celestia had planted within the Hive. She sheathed Moonlight at once and stepped aside, offering the changeling more room to land in the Courtyard.

“Your Majesty thank goodness I found you so quickly!” Reflection exclaimed immediately upon landing. The changeling then collapsed to her knees, panting heavily. Luna offered her the water bottle but Reflection shook her head and pushed it away. “Listen to me. Chrysalis has Sarah your lover held within her Hive and is in the process of trying to break her.”

Luna’s heart stopped beating for a second. “What?”

“Chrysalis, my mother, has Sarah, your lover, trapped within her Hive and has been torturing her for the past week,” Reflection repeated, adding more details this time.

Luna blinked and then her eyes hardened. “WHAT?!” she roared, her eyes glowing a fiery silver as magic began to swirl around the mare.

Her mane spread out beneath her helm until it was flowing all around her head in a display of nearly incomprehensible power. Reflection wilted under the sheer magnitude of her anger but quickly summarized where Sarah was being held and what had been done to her. With every sentence Luna’s anger grew more and more palpable until it Reflection could actually feel energy radiating off of Luna.

Jackdaw stared at the mare before taking a single step towards her and tapping her on the shoulder.

“WHAT IS IT?” Luna snapped at him.

“You go save your love, I’ll go tell Celestia to get her cake eating ass in the air and out there,” Jackdaw stated, not in the least bit phased by Luna’s residual anger. “I figure that she’s the only one who can actually ‘guard you’ in this case so...”

Luna gave him a firm nod and then looked at Reflection as her anger cooled a bit, of course... that did not mean it was gone. Oh no. It was there. It was most certainly there.

“Reflection, go to your love and you are relieved of any spying for the next month, thank you from the bottom of my heart for coming to me when you did,” the alicorn said as she did a quick equipment check, old habits falling into place. Sword? Check. Armor? Check. Magic levels? Double check. She was ready to go.

Before Reflection could say a word, Luna vanished with a flash.

Chrysalis stalked towards Sarah, practically spitting with rage. “You killed FIVE of my best children and you made me look like a coward you insipid little BITCH!” she roared as she reached Sarah and slapped her across the face.

Sarah’s only reaction was to grin.

Chrysalis growled and slapped her again. “I am going to do so many awful things to you Sarah. You think that what you put me through in your mind was bad? I will make you suffer hell like you’ve never even dreamed of!”

“I don’t really care,” Sarah replied, her smirk widening as energy flowed through her. A wave of pain wailed through her body but she ignored it and kept her smirk wide. “You think you can break me? You’re wrong bitch. Dead wrong.”

“We’ll see about that!” Chrysalis retorted before she bit down into Sarah’s neck, her jaws tearing into Sarah’s skin with a fury unlike any she’d used before and dark drops of blood began to leak from where they’d passed.

Sarah let out a moan as more of the pleasurable venom drilled into her body and despite herself her hips began to jerk rapidly within the cocoon.

“That’s right, you want to please me, don’t you my pet?” Chrysalis asked as she released Sarah and began to lick up the blood, making Sarah moan again as her tongue circled over her sensitive skin. “When I’m done with you, you’ll call me Mistress and then once that is complete you’ll plunge the knife into Luna’s heart!”

“Go-fuck-yourself!” Sarah gasped between waves of bliss that assaulted her mind.

Chrysalis was surely going to say something in response to that. It was probably going to be a brilliant retort of some kind. Something to really force Sarah to understand the hopelessness of her situation. However, something stopped her before she could.

The ceiling shook. It was almost imperceptible and ordinarily Chrysalis wouldn't have noticed it. However, it was impossible for the ceiling to be shaking this deep in the Hive, sure, it could have been an earthquake, but... only the ceiling was shaking. Upon closer inspection, it wasn’t the ceiling itself doing the shaking; it was the Wards.

Chrysalis’ eyes widened as the ceiling shook again, this time hard enough for Sarah to pick up on it.

“Oh, that looks neat,” the woman commented dryly. “I wonder who’s causing that.”

Chrysalis snapped her eyes away from the ceiling to stare at Sarah angrily. “I don’t know but I will be ready for the-”

The ceiling exploded.

Luna grimly blasted her way through the final ward with her horn and then slammed her hoof down. The ceiling gave way beneath her and she descended into the room. Her eyes easily took in the entire room in a matter of seconds. Sarah, her love was in a cocoon, Chrysalis, the bug was standing near her. The mare’s horn glowed brilliantly and the rocks that had been in the process of crashing to the floor were caught an inch above the ground and easy as thought, redirected right at Chrysalis.

The Changeling Queen barely had time to scream before a boulder slammed into her chest. Luna didn’t spare her a second glance as she closed the distance between herself and Sarah. Moonlight sprang free from its sheath and in a single movement the front of Sarah’s cocoon was torn open and the woman’s naked form toppled forwards only to be caught by Luna’s magic.

She would have been overcome by joy and relief at that very moment if not for the fact that her mind was still full of an incalculable amount of anger. So she set Sarah down on her back, the woman collapsing against her like a foal, and turned back to Chrysalis who was in the middle of trying to get up.

Out of the corner of her eyes she spotted a splash of silver to the side of the room and noticed Daybreaker lying there. Her magic reached out for her old sword and it jumped into her grip as she approached the downed Changeling Queen. Chrysalis had made it to her feet.

“You think this is the end of it? You think you can kill me surrounded by my chil-”

Moonlight’s hilt bottomed out against her jaws as its tip cleanly exited through her rear end. Luna stared at her, the incredible anger that she’d been holding in suddenly erupting with a earsplitting roar.

"SHE! IS! MINE!"

The words were not so much said as they were projected as pure energy into Chrysalis’ mind which had been unable to leave her now impaled body. That done Luna activated Moonlight’s enchantment and pulled down. The blade’s silver light flared as it chewed through the chitin and then its length exited her, the body falling to either side as what used to be internal organs seeped out from between the halves.

A topaz shape suddenly hurled itself at Luna but the mare caught it in mid air to see a small changeling grasped firmly in her magic. Luna barely paid it any attention as she stabbed Daybreaker through its stomach and then cut it in half lengthwise in a shower of brown ichor.

Then she glanced back at Sarah who was in the process of hugging her armoured neck as if it was in danger of disappearing, which considering everything, was actually a fairly legitimate fear.

“You are safe Sarah,” Luna whispered to her as her horn began to glow. Sarah, whose eyes were wet with tears as she whispered to herself.

“Luna... Luna... Luna.”

Luna appeared in the infirmary wing of the Palace, startling several nurses and a doctor. The alicorn staggered, the sheer amount of energy she’d just used twice and a row catching up to her almost immediately. Only the fear of Sarah hitting the ground beside her kept the mare from simply collapsing and she turned towards the doctor. He was a brown unicorn stallion with a foppish mane and an hourglass circled by a pair of snakes much like a caduceus. His name was Doctor Time and he was the royal physician who had moved from Trottingham.

“Doctor Time, please I need a bed large enough for her along with an I.V. drip... and a bed for myself, I think I’m going to pass out in a matter of minutes,” Luna said as the armor around her suddenly seemed to gain a hundred extra pounds of weight.

“At once my Queen,” Time answered in his normal unflappable Trotish accent, as if this sort of thing happened every day. “Chop chop everyone, you heard the Queen,” he called to the others as his horn began to glow and Luna’s armor vanished causing Sarah to fall two inches and then cling even tighter to Luna’s neck.

Luna blinked for a moment before she remembered that every piece of armor she or Celestia could wear was encoded so that the Doctor could remove it. After all, nothing is worse then a doctor who can’t do his job because there’s a hunk of metal in the way.

As the Doctor began to circle her, the room fell away from Luna’s perspective and she instead only had eyes for the woman who was currently hugging her, crying her eyes out. Unlike before, Luna couldn’t help herself. Her horn began to glow very faintly and Sarah rose from her back and she set her down standing on the floor in front of her. Sarah fell forwards against her but Luna caught her easily with her wings and brought her head down beside Sarah’s, cradling the woman gently against her chest.

“Do not worry Sarah,” she whispered in Sarah’s ear, tears streaming from her eyes. “I’ll never let you go.”

“Oh Luna... I finally found you,” Sarah said between a gasp. “I finally found you.”

Return Chapter 12: Sororicide

Celestia hovered over the Chrysalis’ Hive with Aurora beside her as the last drone brave or suicidal enough to challenge the alicorn and the other Queen fell back to the hive beneath them.

“I know that you’d rather me not do this, but it is the way I do things,” Celestia said calmly as she began to gather energy for her final attack. Her mane was whipping around her head like a demonic rainbow and the sheer amount of power already in her body would be enough to make the average being run shrieking away in terror.

“I told her what would happen,” Aurora replied flatly, not in the least bit frightened by Celestia’s open display of power. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a youngest sister to kill.” Her voice was icy and calm, her face a hard mask of emotionless marble. Celestia turned to face her for a moment before glancing back down at the Hive as even more energy rushed into her horn.

“Very well, I shall hold my energy until you’ve returned with proof,” the alicorn said with a slight incline of her head.

Aurora didn’t bother responding and her eyes flashed, teleporting her within the Hive’s bottommost chamber. It was there that she found Chrysalis frantically trying to figure out what to do. Her new body looked fresh and oily, barely minutes old. Despite that, her eyes were wide as she paced back and forth, completely wrapped up within her own mind and the mind of her drones.

“Sister,” Aurora announced her presence to the other Queen. Chrysalis’ neck jerked in surprise at her sister’s voice and then she turned towards her, fire in her eyes.

“How dare you call me that!” Chrysalis growled at her. “You have lead Celestia right to me!”

“No, that was your own foolishness,” Aurora replied in a steely, non caring tone. “I’m here to fulfill the promise that I made you not long ago.”

“What? You’re going to kill me?” Chrysalis demanded with a roll of her eyes. “As if you’d ever really do that. You’re a conceited self absorbed cunt, but you’re not about to murder your youngest sist-”

“Be quiet,” Aurora said, her power flaring around the words and cowing Chrysalis into obedient silence, no matter how much she wished to rage. “My words were this and this exactly ‘the penalty will be the total destruction of said Hive and the death of its queen. No spare bodies, no mind link to another sister, no nothing. Only death. I do not lie, Chrysalis,” she said quietly.

“ALL YOU DO IS LIE!” Chrysalis shrieked, regaining her control of her vocal chords through sheer effort of will. “You lie about loving your sisters! You lie about caring for your children! You lie about wanting peace! The only time you tell the truth is when it serves you!”

“Actually, I love each of my sisters dearly,” Aurora replied quietly. “I love my children even more and peace will give them more of a chance to live than any war ever could.” She stared at Chrysalis and the younger queen was shocked by the amount of... grief in her eyes. However, that grief was backlit by an almost incomprehensible level of pure rage. “And you. You betrayed me as a sister. You plotted against my plans. Always thinking for yourself and your own petty ego. You could have brought death to all of my children and all of your sisters with your actions and I can no longer ignore it.”

Her voice was tranquil but Chrysalis could feel the waves of power flowing through it and the hurricane of fury hiding just below the surface. Chrysalis bared her fangs at her eldest sister.

“All I ever wanted to do was prove that I was better than you! That I should have been the most powerful of us all! That I was the most deserving of-”

“Kneel,” Aurora said, cutting her off.

Unbidden by her, Chrysalis’ front legs gave out and she found herself staring up at her eldest sister who was suddenly incredibly close to her. Silently, Aurora leaned down and placed a soft kiss directly upon Chrysalis’ forehead. Chrysalis’ eyes widened in a combination of surprise and fear as her mind began to fog, numbing sensations beginning to flow through her body. Unintentional tears appeared in her eyes as Aurora gave her forehead another kiss and the numbing increased.

“Your other bodies have already been dispatched,” Aurora said quietly before she placed yet another numbing kiss on Chrysalis’ forehead, her magic oozing into the kiss. “Your free ranged Operators, with the exception of those who betrayed you, are being eliminated as I speak. Celestia is above awaiting my return with your head.”

“Si-sister,” Chrysalis managed to get out between numbed lips.

If Aurora heard her, she did not make any sign of noticing as she placed a final numbing kiss on Chrysalis’ face, this last one upon her lips. She broke it and then looked down at her youngest sister with a cold stare, all emotions leaving her face.

“Goodbye, Chrysalis,” she said, her right hoof became a blur as the segmented leg jammed itself through the center of Chrysalis’ throat, emerging out the back end with barely a sound. Chrysalis’ body fell forwards against the limb, sliding down Aurora’s leg slightly before the Changeling Queen brought it sideways and sliced cleanly through the side of Chrysalis’ neck.

The body slipped to the ground with a small thud and Aurora looked down at it for a moment as her eyes glowed and a golden aura enveloped the head, tearing it off of the few strands of soft chitin still attaching it to the rest of the body. Then she vanished, appearing in front of Celestia.

The alicorn looked over at her and her trophy for a long moment before nodding her head. Her horn glowed brilliantly and then a beam of pure energy fired from it. The beam expanded outwards as it traveled towards the hive and when it finally hit the stone structure, it began to melt.

The towering monolith of changeling engineering withstood the blast for a long ten minutes, it was a large structure after all, before finally collapsing inwards on itself. Celestia continued to pour energy into her work however until the very sand around what had once been a Hive turned to glass and there was a five mile wide stain of rapidly cooling ‘stone’. The alicorn cut off the flow and then turned to Aurora.

“Is there anything you would like to place here?” Celestia inquired neutrally.

“No, we will remember the consequences of Chrysalis’ actions without the need of plaques or monuments,” Aurora replied, her voice steady and calm. As if she hadn’t just killed her youngest sister.

“I see,” Celestia said, nodding her head as her horn began to glow and the pair vanished as the sun began to set, leaving behind only a wide swath of destruction.

Author's Note

Yes it's short but I figured it accomplished exactly what I wanted so no point in stretching it out further then it needed to be.

Return Chapter 13: Waking Up

“Thank you both for coming when you could,” Doctor Time told the two unicorns as they ran their horns over the sleeping, blanket covered form of Sarah Summers.

“Our pleasure, Doctor,” Sunset Shimmer replied, her horn a steady glow.

“Yes, our pleasure,” Twilight Sparkle agreed, though her tone was a bit downcast. “I’m not finding anything too abnormal, except for the fact that she has next to no magic of her own running through her body.”

“Right then, thank you for the help,” Doctor Time stated with a shake of her head. “This poor mare-woman sorry, has been through the wringer.”

“Well, there’s nothing else magical that I can find other than a small bit of chaotic magic,” Sunset Shimmer said with a small sigh as her horn’s glow dimmed. “Call us if you need anything else Doctor, we’ll always be happy to help the Queen’s consort.”

“Yes, yes we will,” Twilight agreed, nodding her head as the pair began to head for the door.

“You’re free to do whatever you’d like for the rest of the day, Twilight,” Sunset said with a smile as they started down the hallway, Rainbow Dash falling in behind them though she kept herself back a bit.

“Thank you, Master,” Twilight said with a nod of her head, her voice still a bit melancholy. Sunset stopped in her tracks and gave Twilight a searching look.

“Twilight, my apprentice, what is wrong?” Sunset asked the younger mare shrewdly. “Ever since we received word that the Queen’s consort had been rescued, you have sounded depressed. Surely you are not unhappy about our having located Sarah before something awful could happen to her?”

“No, no that’s not it,” Twilight replied, shaking her head. “It’s just... I was put in charge of finding a way to bring her here and... I was beaten by Chrysalis of all ponies.” She let out a sigh. “It’s just disheartening to know that my mind wasn’t good enough to find the answer even though I’ve had two and a half years to work it out.”

The mare looked down and a depressed breath made its way out of her chest. She looked up in surprise when a comforting muzzle nuzzled her and she looked up to find Sunset Shimmer giving her a soft, almost motherly look.

“Twilight, as my apprentice I can tell you that no mage succeeds all of their knowledge checks,” the Archmage said, motherly look still in place. “And believe me, you won’t always be behind, just keep up at the rate you’ve been going and I’m sure you’ll eclipse even me in your accomplishments.” She then gave Twilight another nuzzle. “If you haven’t already.”

“I... thank you, Master,” Twilight said, a small smile appearing on her face.

“Any time,” Shimmer replied before glancing at Rainbow Dash. “Help cheer this mare up, Rainbow Dash, that’s an order.”

“Aye Aye, Ma’am,” Rainbow replied as she walked forwards and pulled Twilight into a wing hug.

“Very good,” Sunset said with a smile as she looked between the two before vanishing.

Twilight glanced at Rainbow Dash who was smiling at her. “Cheer up, Twi, Sarah’s here, Luna’s safe, and Celestia is out there right now turning that Hive to glass, what’s there to be sad about?” she asked, giving her a nuzzle.

“I... I guess you’re right,” Twilight said, leaning into the nuzzle.

“Good, that’s what I like to hear,” Dash said with a grin. “So, want to go rob the pantry?”

Twilight’s expression brightened. “That sounds... fun.”

“You bet it will be,” Rainbow replied. “And after that maybe we can find something to do eh?”

“Yeah, yeah, that sounds good,” Twilight agreed with a nod before she gave Rainbow a peck on the cheek. “Thanks, Rainbow.”

“You’re welcome, Twi,” Rainbow replied, kissing her right back. “Now then, let’s go get us some food!”

Sarah awoke to the feeling of her bare skin rubbing up against something soft and fluffy. Wait a minute, soft AND fluffy? Nothing in the Wasteland was soft or fluffy. Her eyes snapped open only to be blinded by a shockingly bright light.

The woman let out a shriek of surprised pain and jerked her right arm up to cover her face but felt something tugging against it, holding it back and causing a lance of pain to run up to her shoulder.

Before she could do anything else she suddenly felt her body flop back to the bed, it was definitely a bed. The pain in Sarah’s eyes also faded away as if a wet cloth had been thrown over them.

“You’re alright, you’re in the Canterlot Castle’s Medical Wing,” a calm, british sounding voice spoke quietly beside her head. Sarah closed her eyes and took a moment to process the words, slowly breathing in and out through her nose as she adjusted.

Nim, are you awake? she asked quietly.

I awoke the moment you did... there’s so much magic in the air, he must be telling the truth, Nim replied almost instantly.

Sarah opened her eyes again and thankfully the lights were no longer blinding, though she could obviously tell that they were still very much on. Instead, her vision had become shaded by a dull green glow. The woman frowned and then turned in the direction of the voice. She found herself looking at a kind faced brown stallion with a foppish mane.

The woman suddenly realized just how sore her throat was along with how empty her stomach felt.

“Could you get me some water?” she asked, her voice scratchy.

“Of course, Miss Summers,” the unicorn said before looking over his shoulder and saying. “Nurse Oss, please fetch this young woman a glass of water.”

“Of course, Doctor,” the nurse chirped back and before she knew it there was a glass of water being slowly tipped up to her lips.

The water touched the woman’s lips and the woman’s eyes widened. It was better tasting than the water she’d gotten from the changeling! She tried to greedily drink it all down but the nurse, or perhaps the doctor took it away before she could.

“Careful, Miss Summers, don’t want to drink too much at once,” the doctor said with a kind smile. Sarah blinked twice and then nodded.

“Where is Luna?” the woman asked, her mind clearing as the most important question popped into her brain.

“Right here,” Luna’s soft voice spoke gently on her left.

Sarah turned to her left and found herself looking into Luna’s dark blue eyes from across the span of a single inch. Luna... her beautiful Luna. The alicorn’s mane was aestral and full of stars, her face a bit worn, and Sarah could see dark circles beneath her eyes. The woman felt her eyes begin to water and before she realized it she was crying, reaching out for the mare with the arm that wasn’t attached to the IV. Luna responded by bringing her great head down against Sarah’s so that they were eye to eye, her eyes beginning to water once again as well.

“Luna...” the woman let out a breath.

“Sarah...” the mare replied as their tears intermingled on the woman’s face.

“God I missed you,” Sarah whispered softly, so many emotions filling her mind that she was almost unable to speak.

“And I you,” Luna murmured quietly in return. “I looked and looked for a way to bring you to me... I... I failed you.”

Sarah blinked, that had not been what she’d expecting. She was silent for a long moment. And then a moment longer. Finally, she knew what to say.

“I don’t give a single fuck.”

Luna blinked. “What?”

“Exactly what I said,” Sarah stated. “I fucking love you, Luna. I know that you fucking love me. We’re together now and you got me out of that hell hole, so honestly why should I give a single solitary fuck about whether or not you got me here first?”

Then without a single thought Sarah pulled Luna in for a deep kiss. The alicorn stiffened in surprise for a moment before she softened and leaned into the passionate embrace. They stayed locked together for almost a full minute until Sarah finally broke the kiss and fell back against the pillows, feeling immensely weaker than when she’d started. Luna meanwhile took in a deep breath and glanced at Doctor Time and the various nurses, many of whom were staring at the two with wide eyes and blushing faces.

“Ah, young love,” Doctor Time said with a small chuckle. Then the Doctor glanced back at Sarah. “Though I’m afraid that that’s all the kissing you’re going to be doing for today, Miss Summers.”

“Yeah... that took a lot out of me,” Sarah said, letting out a large yawn as she leaned back against the pillows. Then something occurred to her. Nim, why haven’t you said hello yet?

I was... just trying to figure out what to say, Nim replied before addressing Luna. Hello, Luna.

Luna blinked at the short, almost wintery reception. Hello to you as well, Nim, I missed you greatly.

Which is why you’ve mentioned me so many times in the last few minutes, Nim replied dryly. I can just feel the love.

Luna was silent for a moment before she bent down and placed a tender kiss on Sarah’s forehead. There, that is for you, Nim, I apologize for forgetting you.

It’s... a start, Nim replied slowly before quietly adding so that Sarah couldn’t hear. Though we still have things to discuss once Sarah is up and about.

Alright, Luna stated before looking down at Sarah one last time, to her surprise, the woman’s eyes were closed already.

“How long will she be stuck in this room, Doctor?” Luna inquired.

“Given how little we know about whatever was injected into her bloodstream, we can’t say,” the doctor said uneasily. “It would be best that she is kept under observation for at least a month, maybe more. We can’t risk feeding her too much, either, she’ll have to be weaned on to proper meals.”

“I’m right here,” Sarah croaked indignantly. “No one falls asleep that fast. And really? A month?”

“Sorry,” the doctor replied, clearing his throat. “And a month is an optimistic estimate. Most likely, you’ll be stuck in bed even longer.”

“I’d argue with that... but I’m too tired,” Sarah grumbled before turning to Luna. “Will you... will you stay with me?”

“Of course,” Luna replied before casting a sour look at the Doctor. “I’d be in the bed with you but ‘somebody’ decided against that.”

“If a little discomfort now helps accelerate the healing process, then it’ll be worth it,” Time replied flatly.

“Very well,” Luna replied, rolling her eyes and then giving Sarah a nuzzle. “At any rate, I shall wait right here beside you until you are better, bathroom breaks excluded of course.”

“Of course,” Sarah agreed with a small nod before shaking her head. “I... I really am tired,” she added with a yawn. “G-night.”

“Good night,” Luna replied, giving her a final nuzzle before her horn glowed softly and she turned to the doctor. “Be honest, how long do you expect?”

“Three months, maybe more. It all depends just what effect the stuff that changeling was pumping into her,” the doctor muttered.

“Oh dear... I do not believe that Sarah will be capable of waiting that long,” Luna said worriedly. “She is not the type to enjoy ‘bed rest’.”

“Yes, she struck me as the sort. Still, it’ll be for her own good.”

“I know, I know,” Luna agreed with a small nod. “Whatever the case, I will be here with her until the end of it. Thank you for your service, Doctor Time.”

“My pleasure, Your Majesty,” the stallion replied with a small smile. “I’ll leave you two alone now, call if you need anything at all.”

“I will,” Luna promised before her horn stopped glowing and she set her chin down on Sarah’s stomach, letting out a slow breath.

Celestia sagged into her bed, letting out an absolutely exhausted sigh. She hadn’t done anything which required that much power in a long time. The mare’s glowing ethereal mane fell flat against her back and the mare was suddenly in the awkward position of knowing that she desperately wanted to take a long bath, but also possessed the knowledge that doing so would require getting up from the bed.

The alicorn let out a sigh and rolled to her side, meaning to start the painfully slow process of starting to get up. However, instead, she was met by the concerned gaze of a familiar black pegasus.

“Tia, are you alright?” Tornado asked her quietly.

“Yes... just bone weary,” Celestia replied, shaking her head despite, though a small smile did appear on her face at his concern. “It has been a long time since I used that much magic.”

“Ah,” Tornado replied with a knowing nod. “Would you like me to get the bath started?”

“I’d love you forever,” Celestia said, smiling radiantly down at him.

“You don’t already?” Tornado asked feigning surprise, raising an eyebrow questioningly at her.

“Just go start the bath for your Queen,” the alicorn retorted archly, though she ruined it by letting a giggle slip from between her lips.

“As you wish, your Royal Majesty,” Tornado said with mock formality before he strode over to the bathroom and entered it.

Celestia rolled her eyes slightly, but couldn’t help the smile on her lips. She lay there for a few more minutes before Tornado returned to her and bowed deeply.

“My most beloved of Queens, your bath has been prepared, would you like me to escort you?” he asked, still being formal in his quiet deadpan voice.

“By all means,” Celestia replied as she willed herself off of the bed, unable to keep herself from letting out a tired groan. “I suddenly feel as old as I should.”

“Are you sure you don’t need to see Doctor Time?” Tornado inquired, his charade disappearing to be replaced by real concern.

“No, no, it’s just magical exhaustion,” Celestia replied, leaning slightly against the shorter pegasus who easily supported her great weight. “You can’t melt a city without feeling like death warmed over.”

“I understand,” Tornado said with a small nod as he lead her into the bathroom and to the great walk in bath that took up the center of the chamber’s floor.

The water was steaming hot and Celestia let out a blissful sigh as she took a stride or two and then sank up to her ears in the water. When she surfaced, the mare let out a further sigh and waded over to the edge where a shampooed buff puff was waiting. She glanced at Tornado who was over by the door, looking very formal despite the occasional glance he shot in her direction. Celestia shook her head and began to soap herself down.

As she did so, her mind wandered back to the reason she was so tired. Chrysalis summoning Sarah was not something she’d ever thought would happen. In fact, it had begun to look like no one would ever be able to bring her to Equestria. But there she was, plain as day, lying in a hospital bed with her sister laid up beside her.

Celestia hadn’t had time to talk to Luna since she’d returned, all she’d been able to muster up was a quick scrying spell and even that had almost fully exhausted her, but to her delight, her sister looked overjoyed. Beneath all the worry and concern in her eyes, the elder alicorn could tell that her sister was bursting with joy. And that... that made Celestia happier than she’d been since she’d first seen Luna on the night of her return.

After watching her sister suffer for the last two and a half years, slowly becoming moody and depressed again the way she had been before her... banishment... had been excruciatingly painful for Celestia. She may not have repeated her mistake of neglecting her sister’s feelings as she had before, but the elder alicorn had begun to worry that Luna may have been on her way back down the slope of depression.

Another sigh of pleasure left Celestia’s throat as a sudden bucket of warm water was dumped on her back and she looked up to see Tornado standing there, a smile on his face.

“Pardon me, my Queen, but you seemed in need of assistance,” he stated with a smile.

“Thank you very much, good sir,” Celestia replied with a smile. “Once we are done here would you like to escort me on the way to visit my sister and her lover?”

“I can think of no better way to spend the evening,” Tornado answered, smiling as he leaned down and laid a soft kiss on her lips.

Celestia thought about replying with a joke, but instead decided to simply smile and then give him a kiss of her own before she returned to cleaning herself. She had to be presentable when she finally got to meet Sarah Summers, after all, this was to be the FIRST time she’d ever gotten to meet someone who had ensnared her sister’s heart... she had quite a bit of sisterly payback to deliver.

Return Chapter 14: Reading Poetry

Sarah’s eyes slowly flickered open from her dreamless sleep as the first rays of the sun began to set through a nearby window. The woman let out a small contented sigh as she leaned back into the incredibly comfortable pillow behind her head and smiled at how nice the simple act of doing that felt. Her eyes glanced downwards and she saw that Luna had apparently fallen asleep sitting on the floor beside her, using Sarah’s stomach as a pillow of her own. The alicorn’s breath came in and out with a smooth serenity and a look of the utmost peace was on her face.

Good evening Sarah, Nim spoke from within her. You seem happy this morning.

I am, Sarah agreed with another smile. Why shouldn’t I be? I have the two mares I love most of all in the world around me and no one is going to try and kill me here.

A pair of very fair points, Nim agreed quietly as Sarah felt her take control of her right hand and reach down to gently stroke Luna’s mane... there was something odd about the way she touched it. It as if Nim was... afraid of the gesture.

Nim, what’s wrong? Sarah asked as she continued to gently stroke the sleeping alicorn.

Nothing, nothing is wrong Sarah, Nim replied and in her mind’s eye she could see Nim looking away.

Nim, you know you can tell me, the woman said calmly. After all we’ve been through, you know I won’t judge you. Or you should at any rate.

Nim was silent for a moment as the woman’s right hand’s stroking continued, Luna unconsciously leaning into the affection. When at last she did speak, Nim’s voice came out harder than Sarah had heard it in years.

Sarah... there are two things wrong, Nim stated slowly. One... she failed us. She failed us utterly and entirely. I do not know how long it has been for her, nor do I know how long she spent researching a way to get us here, but in no way does that excuse the fact that Chrysalis reached us first, Nim’s voice came out as a low growl. Because our dear Luna was not smart or skilled enough, we almost died.

Sarah was quiet for a long moment as she took her hand back from Nim and stopped stroking Luna, instead simply contenting to leave her hand against the alicorn’s soft cheek.

I see, Sarah said softly. That had not occurred to her. Or more like, it had not occurred to her to be angry with Luna for that. As she’d told the alicorn the last time she was awake, it didn’t bother her that Luna hadn’t been the one to get her to Equestria. She was just happy to have the alicorn there with her. Let it go Nim.

I will not, Nim replied pointedly. If for no other reason than because she MUST hear it from someone other than her mind for the point to sink in.

Oh yes, because THAT is what she needs right? Guilt for something she had no control over? Sarah demanded, her tone becoming harder. Wasn’t that the kind of thing that got her kicked out of Equestria in the first place?

Yes! But... Nim trailed off and Sarah could feel her shaking her head. And that leads us to my second issue.

Sarah frowned. What’s that?

You... you love her more then me, Nim said quietly, her voice shaking slightly. I... this entire time I have been with you... loving you, helping you, caring for you... and yet... she was all you longed for every day.

Sarah was shocked by the grief in Nim’s voice. There was so much pain there that for a moment Sarah felt tears building in her eyes. Then, without a thought, the woman appeared within her mind to find Nim sitting in the center of the glade, tears rolling down her face. The woman’s eyes narrowed and before Nim had a chance to say anything, Sarah closed with her and pulled the mare into a powerful hug, her arms wrapping against the alicorn’s neck as she tugged her close.

The alicorn’s crying increased and Sarah began to rock back and forth as the one she’d come to rely on as her pillar of strength began to crumble. Nim continued crying for a long time, how long, Sarah didn’t know, but when her eyes finally began to dry the alicorn drew her head away from Sarah’s back and looked down at her with such... fear.

“Sarah... I... I don’t want you to replace me,” she said quietly. “I don’t want you to stop loving me because she’s here. I... I love you more then anyone or anything in the universe... I... I don’t want to lose you because of her.”

Sarah stared at her in silence before she gently moved forwards and placed a soft kiss on Nim’s lips. It was not a kiss with an overabundance of passion, there were no moans and no tongue, yet the woman infused it with so much love that the alicorn’s legs gave out beneath her and Sarah was forced to catch her lest she hit her head. The woman cradled her head for a long moment before speaking.

“Nim, you will never be replaced. Not by Luna, not by anyone. I love you dearly and you’ve helped me through far too much for me to even imagine ‘replacing’ you,” the woman said, her voice soft and intense.

“But-but Luna-”

“I love Luna too,” Sarah cut her off. “I love both of you equally Nim. I won’t forget one of you, I won’t pick one of you over the other, and I most certainly won’t stop loving one of you in favor of the other.” The woman then angled Nim’s head up so that the dark alicorn could look into her eyes. “Can you accept that?”

Nim was silent for a long moment before a sigh washed out of her lungs. “I... I suppose I can.”

“Good,” Sarah said before she bent down and kissed Nim deeply.

They held it for a long time before Sarah willed herself to return to the ‘real world’ and found Luna looking at her in concern.

“Is everything alright Sarah?” the alicorn asked worriedly.

“Yeah... I was just telling Nim that I wouldn’t replace her with you,” Sarah said as a frown appeared on her face. “Luna... is there a bathroom around here somewhere?”

Luna blinked and then nodded, using her magic to help Sarah to her feet, one hand clutching the mobile I.V. and the other on Luna’s back. Thankfully, the bathroom was not far away. Even better, it was made for alicorns so Sarah was not TOO uncomfortable. A quick handwashing later with actual hot water, a rarity that almost caused Sarah to stick her entire head under the water until Luna tapped her gently with a wing.

“Sarah, are you alright?” Luna asked, her face full of concern.

“Yeah, sorry... the hot water just caught me off guard,” Sarah said with a small blush.

“Oh, oh yes, I understand,” Luna said with an amused smile as she used her magic to turn off the tap and nodded back towards the door to the hospital room. “Now then, we should get you back in that bed.”

“Do I have too?” Sarah groaned, she was already growing tired of the bed and she’d only been in it for a day.

“Yes,” both Nim and Luna answered at the same time. The alicorn blinked and looked at Sarah with a small smile.

“Well hello there again Nim,” Luna said.

Hi... Luna, Nim replied uneasily as Sarah began her slow, limping process back to the bed.

“She was worried that I’d replace her with you,” Sarah told Luna as she hobbled along.

“Ah...” Luna glanced at Sarah with a frown. “I wouldn’t want that Nim... you’re a part of me after all and I don’t want to see you cast aside.”

Yeah... whatever, Nim said grouchily. As I said... we shall have words later.

The mare let out a small sigh and nuzzled the side of Sarah’s head as the two made it back to the bed and she helped the woman lower herself back into the bed. That was when there was a knock at the door to the room.

“Come in,” Luna called over her shoulder once she’d pulled the blanket back over Sarah’s naked frame, which naked mainly because they hadn’t had anything in something remotely in her size.

The door opened and an absolutely beautiful alicorn entered the room. She was tall and majestic with faintly glowing white fur. A mane of magnificent rainbows trailed off of her head and a pair of magenta eyes full of love looked down at Sarah with quiet joy. Sarah blinked a few times as she felt a... warmth of some kind flow off of the alicorn, filling her with a sense of strength. It was peculiar, ordinarily, Sarah only felt like that under the mid-day sun. It took her a few seconds, along with a few blinks, but eventually the sense of ‘beauty’ passed and she was left looking at a very stately alicorn.

“Hello sister,” the new alicorn said with a smile before she turned to Sarah. “And hello there Sarah, Nim, it is nice to meet you both.”

SHE KNOWS?! Nim exclaimed, a sudden bout of fear charging up from the cracks in her mind.

Apparently, and oww, please don’t shout, Sarah replied, wincing at the volume of the spirit alicorn’s voice. “You must be Celestia,” the woman said, doing her best to smile. “Luna’s older sister.”

“Guilty as charged I’m afraid,” Celestia said, giving the woman another smile while she stepped forwards and gave her sister a loving nuzzle.

Why would Luna tell her? She-she’ll have me killed! Nim continued, this time a bit more quietly in Sarah’s head.

“No I won’t Nim,” Celestia replied, glancing at Sarah with a small smile. “You’re a part of my beloved sister after all aren’t you?”

Nim fell silent. Sarah frowned for a moment before shrugging, it made sense to her.

“She is,” Luna agreed quickly while returning her sister’s nuzzle. “Anyways, to what do we owe the visit?”

“A sister can’t come down to the hospital to make sure that her sister and her lover are doing alright?” Celestia asked, giving Luna a small smile.

“Fair enough,” Luna said after a moment of thought.

“So, Sarah, how have you liked your time here so far?” Celestia asked, turning back to the woman. “Your time in the castle anyways, no need to mention the place which no longer exists because I turned it into a boiling puddle of slag.”

Sarah blinked twice and then a smile split her lips. “It’s gone?”

“Completely and totally,” Celestia answered with a firm nod. “I made sure of it.”

“Wow... thank you,” Sarah said, a bright grin appearing on her face at the thought of the wretched place boiling away.

“You’re very welcome Sarah,” Celestia replied, grinning as well. “Though you needn’t thank me. I’m an older sister, and destroying the ones who hurt her little sister’s lover so dearly is just one of the duties that comes with being that.”

“It is?” Luna asked with a confused blink.

“It is,” Celestia affirmed. “It’s just that up to this point you’ve never had any lovers to speak of so I wasn’t able to fulfil it.”

“Ah,” Luna said with a small nod.

“Back to your question... it’s very nice, I especially like the hot water and the soft bed,” Sarah said, getting back on track.

“Wonderful,” Celestia said, smiling widely as her horn began to glow and a small book appeared in the air in front of her. “Consider this a ‘welcome home’ present.”

Luna’s eyes widened when she saw the book, it was a small, leather bound book with a small moon carved into it. Sarah reached out and took it from her, her perspective eyes quickly glancing over it. Then, before Luna could stop her, she flipped it open to the first page.

“This is the Poetry Journal of Luna, if you are not Luna, do not read,” she read off before glancing at Luna. “You wrote a poetry journal?”

OH YES, Nim suddenly exclaimed in her mind, a wicked chuckle leaving her throat. I remember this.

Luna’s eyes were currently narrowed at her sister, looking more like reptile slits then alicorn eyes. Celestia simply returned the look with a smile and gave her sister a kiss on the cheek.

“Luna, do you recall how you would do whatever you could to inconvenience me when we were young and I had found someone to love?” the elder alicorn inquired, still smiling at her.

Luna gulped as Sarah’s eyes scanned the first page and then stared at her.

“‘My mind is like the midnight moon on a hot summer day, aloof and out of focus yet forever visible’?” Sarah asked her blankly.

Luna blushed a deep crimson and then turned to glare at her sister who to her surprise, was already on her way out the door. “Have a lovely day Lulu,” the elder alicorn called over her shoulder.

“‘To be as free as me, like a honey bee’?” Sarah asked again, this time beginning to chuckle lightly. “‘As I buzz about the tree’?”

“I... was very young when I first started,” Luna said with a pout. “I... I got better the longer I wrote!”

Sarah chuckled and then pulled the alicorn up for a kiss. “Well then... why don’t we put that theory to the test?”

Luna couldn’t help herself from smiling. “Sure... we may as well spend a bit of time doing that... after all.. nothing in here was that bad.”

I seem to recall us comparing our life to a volcano at one point, Nim commented with a small giggle.

Luna let out a sigh. She might as well just enjoy the time she spent with Sarah, regardless of the... questionable literature in front of them. So, with another small sigh, she came over to sit beside Sarah, resting her head on the woman’s shoulder and the three began to read.

Return Chapter 15: Grief

Return Chapter 15: Grief

Captain Jackdaw, Royal Guard, was many things. A thestral with enough handsomeness and charm to sweep a dozen mares, and stallions, into a single bed. An innovative soldier intelligent enough to assess a situation with a single glance and respond appropriately. First and foremost however, above all else though, he was a good damned friend. That was why he was currently standing outside of the door to Aurora’s chambers.

He’d just finished knocking when the door opened to reveal Echo standing there. The blue changeling had a hard, almost threatening scowl on his chitinous face. Apparently he’d been expecting someone other than Jackdaw because the moment he saw him, the scowl vanished. His expression didn’t become a smile, but all the same, it was not a scowl so Jackdaw took that to be a good sign.

“Jack,” Echo said slowly, the single name came out a combination of several different emotions attached to it, mainly surprise.

“Me,” Jack agreed. “Aura up for a visit from a good friend?”

Echo stared at him for a moment before letting out a hesitant rumble from within his chest. “I don’t think she’s really in the mood, Jack.”

“I’m just here to help, I promise, Echo,” Jackdaw said, giving Echo his most winning smile.

Echo continue to stare at him for a long moment, not quite sure whether or not to let him into the room when Aurora’s voice rang out from behind him, its tone calm and cool.

“Let him in Echo, you know as well as I do that he’s smart enough not to be here for a lecherous reason.”

The Queen’s tone may have been calm, but her voice itself came out as a rasp, as if her lungs were coated in sandpaper, not at all like the smooth, sensuous sound Jackdaw was used to.

The stallion frowned and then stepped forwards as Echo stepped aside and let him through. Jackdaw walked in, his quick thestral eyes quickly taking in the sights before him. The room was... spotless. Not a piece of trash, nor broken furniture littered the floor as he’d half expected it too. Queen Aurora lay on top of the bed, her head resting against a pillow. To Jackdaw’s slight surprise, there was not a hint of a tear stain, nor was there any visible sign of grief on her face.

“Aura,” Jackdaw said, giving her a small smile as he walked closer to her.

“Jack,” she replied, her voice smooth once more, much to his barely controlled astonishment. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I came to make sure that you were doing alright,” Jackdaw replied, closing the distance between the two of them so that he was standing before the side of the bed.

“Ah, I suspected as much,” Aurora said, closing her eyes. “Though, I anticipated you to be here earlier...”

“Apologies, I was watching Lulu and her lover,” Jackdaw said, casually flapping onto the bed so that his warm fur could brush against her tepid chitin. “I’m a guard first after all.”

“Yes, of course,” Aurora replied, her voice distant. “I should have expected.”

Jackdaw looked up at her, a line of worry crossing his face. Echo had taken up residence on Aurora's opposite side and without needing to be asked too, the pair of stallions leaned against the Queen. Jackdaw did not speak again, instead all he did was lean against Aurora, offering his silent, unjudging, and perhaps most importantly, loving support.

It took an hour, and night casting its wings over the world, before Aurora finally spoke.

“She was... always the most mischievous of them,” the changeling Queen said, her voice still smooth though Jackdaw detected a hint of a warbling break in it. “Always... always getting into trouble, always playing pranks on her sisters... and not one of them was intelligent.”

A great sigh traveled through the changeling Queen’s body.

“Her sisters... they always saw through them, which of course only spurred her to further acts of stupidity and.. and I suppose it was my fault,” Aurora said, her voice breaking a bit more. “After all... what mother cannot control her children?”

That caused Jackdaw to frown faintly. He thought Aurora was the eldest sister of them all.

“I did all I could for her... I counseled her, I trained her, I gave her more time than any of my other daughters... and yet... yet she never seemed to get any better,” Aurora continued, her voice straining to hold onto its rapidly dying smoothness. “Eventually, I just... wrote her off. I decided that she had had more then enough time to impress me with her talents, more then enough time to improve. So... I stopped paying her any attention.”

A slow shudder worked its way down Aurora’s body and Jackdaw leaned closer against her, for all the good it would do.

“Then... she attacked Canterlot in what I am sure was a bid to get my attention... well she got it alright,” Aurora said as her voice gave up on any attempt to hide her inner pain. Jackdaw winced at the tone and leaned up to place a soft kiss on her neck, letting his love flow through it. The Changeling Queen let out a soft sigh, appreciating the gesture but it was not enough to make her stop speaking, nor heal her torn voice. “I thought if I explained the situation to her, she would understand. That she wouldn’t do anything else foolish. That she would for once in her life be intelligent about the situation.”

“I guess it was a small hope,” Aurora murmured softly, her eyes finally beginning to tear up. “An ever so small one.”

“Aura...” Jackdaw said slowly, gaining her attention.

“Yes?” she asked, tiny tears rolling down her chitin, looking more vulnerable than Jackdaw had ever imagined her capable of.

“You did what you had to do,” Jackdaw answered quietly. “If you hadn’t ended her then Celestia would have, and she would have done it far more painfully than you did I’d imagine. After which, she’d probably have flown to your hive, or one of your sis-daughters and done the same.”

“No, she would have been far too depleted for that,” Aurora said, her voice taking on a tone of cold analysis. “But... it would have lead to war. I know. That doesn’t make it any easier.”

“I know,” Jackdaw said quietly. “Believe me... I know.”

Aurora let out a choking laugh. “Echo said much the same.”

“Huh, Echo, sounds like you’ve got yourself an echo,” Jackdaw said, glancing over at the changeling who rolled his eyes slightly as he pressed his neck against the Queen’s.

“It seems like it, first for everything,” Echo said softly.

The three remained silent after that for a long time before Jackdaw finally voiced the question that he’d been pondering for quite a while.

“I thought you were the eldest sister....”

“I shall explain another time Jack,” Aurora replied, her voice absolutely exhausted. “For now... I feel like rest would be best.”

“Sounds about right,” Jackdaw said as the Queen pulled the covers out from underneath them with her magic, golden eyes glowing, and then covered all three of them with one motion.

Then she turned to her right and wrapped her hooves around Echo leaving Jackdaw to cling to her back. The stallion didn’t mind of course, he was her friend, probably her best, but Echo was more important to her then he was, he’d been with her far longer. So, with a happy smile, Jackdaw nestled his head against the back of Aurora’s neck and closed his eyes.

Return Chapter 16: Hair of the Dog

Sarah’s eyes roamed around the room boredly. It had been a day since she’d first awoken in it and she was already sick of the place. The walls were too clean, the lights didn’t flicker, there was no coat of grime or century’s old decay on the floor, the windows weren’t coated with dust or even more commonly broken.

All in all, the place stood out to Sarah for one overall reason. It was entirely too clean.

And not blown up.

Or rusted.

Or... fuck, apocalyptic.

Should I find it worrying that you feel that way? Nim commented dryly within her mind as Sarah tried once again to force herself to her feet.

I don’t know, Sarah replied as she gritted her teeth and grabbed onto her I.V. pole with both hands and suppressed a groan of pain as she wrenched herself to her feet. All I know is that I’m not laying down any more!

Sarah, please lay down, you’re not yet ready, Nim said as the woman pushed the I.V. forwards and took an unsteady step after it.

It was just a week Nim, I was ready to go fight the Enclave a day after being out for a month, Sarah retorted as she gritted her teeth against both the vertigo and the pain running through her body.

Most of all, she desperately wanted to see Luna who had told her that she had to ‘see to something important’ which had forced her to leave the woman alone. Doctor Time and the nurses were also busy as well because once Sarah had staggered out of the room, none were to be found. She suppressed a shiver as the cool hospital air ran over her naked flesh, they still hadn’t gotten around to finding something she could wear yet, but ignored it. This was hardly the first time she’d forced herself to march out of somewhere with nothing on.

Sarah, please turn around, Nim thought to her, not wanting to take control of the woman’s weakened body in case she tried to struggle against the mare and ended up hurting herself further.

No, Sarah replied, pushing the wheeled I.V. forward further and took another step, her legs beginning to shake and shudder. I’m the Lone Wanderer, Nim, I’m not quitting this easily.

Sarah, your legs are literally trying to shake themselves to pieces, Nim pointed out while the woman passed the front desk of the room, heading for the large doorway.

They’ll stay together, I know they will, I have to see Luna again, Sarah stated, her eyes hardening as a low, lusty tone washed into her voice. I have to Nim.

... Sarah, what’s going on? Nim asked her worriedly.

I need to see Luna, Sarah replied, the I.V. moving a bit farther forwards. I don’t know why, but I really need to see her. Right. Now.

The woman’s voice sounded... desperate, as if seeing Luna again was the only thing that could stop something terrible from happening to her. A shudder ran through her body as a familiar, and much hated, warmth flashed through Sarah’s head.

Sarah! Get back to the bed this instant! Nim shouted in her head as Sarah began to shake, her fingers slipping on the I.V. as a sheen of sweat covered her palms along with the rest of her body.

I... I have to... see Luna, Nim, Sarah managed to struggle out, her breath coming out in rapid pants as more sweat pooled around her and her body shuddered even harder in place.

Sarah, it is the changeling venom, or more likely the lack thereof, Nim stated. You must return to the bed!

“Must. See. Luna.” The woman said aloud instead of mentally as she tried to take an uneasy step towards the door.

Thankfully, before she could get any farther, one of the nurses emerged from the bathroom. The white furred mare’s eyes widened in surprise at the sight of Sarah halfway to the door, covered in sweat and shaking like a leaf in the wind, but it didn’t stop her from quickly galloping up to her. As she approached Sarah, the nurse’s horn began to glow a deep blue and the woman’s shaking stopped as her body froze, surrounded by the glow.

“Stay calm, Miss Summers, I’m going to carry you back to your bed, alright?” the nurse asked, her voice soothing and gentle as Sarah felt her body beginning to float gently back towards the woman’s room. Sarah let out a groan of pain as another convulsion ran over her, causing the nurse shoot a worried look her way.

It didn’t take the nurse long to get Sarah back on the bed, the blanket thrown comfortingly over her as the nurse paged for the doctor. Doctor Time arrived a few moments later, a chart hovering next to his head as Sarah shivered and convulsed on the bed, finding it almost impossible to stay still even with the nurse doing her best to hold her still with her magic.

“What’s happened to her?” the doctor asked as he took over the task of holding Sarah down, his grip quite a bit stronger and gaining a bit more control over the woman whose eyes were wide with pain.

“I don’t know, doctor!” the nurse replied. “I got up to use the restroom and when I came out she was standing in the middle of the clinic sweating up a storm and shivering like she was in a blizzard!”

Nim, what’s happening to me? Sarah demanded in her mind as her body shook and stabs of pain shot through her mind.

I’m not sure! Nim replied anxiously as she tried to control the woman’s limbs. Like I said before, the best I can come up with is that this is being caused by the lack of changeling venom.

“It appears like what Captain Armor went through, though much more severe,” Doctor Time stated as he began to examine Sarah more closely. “Much, much more severe...”

Sarah’s mouth opened in a silent scream of pain and she forced her eyes closed as she tried to block out the pain coursing through her.

Nim-get my breathing under-control, Sarah gasped, her mind riding on the aftershocks of a particularly intense explosion of pain.

Trying, Nim retorted as she exerted her will on Sarah’s chest and lungs, doing her best to halt the woman’s rapid breaths into something more reasonable before she hurt herself. She was successful, partially. The woman’s breaths no longer came in rapid, uncontrollable pants but now came in great heaves that lifted Sarah’s torso off of the bed.

That-didn’t help! Sarah growled as she tried to control her body, finding it to be a painfully alien experience. Nothing was working the way it should! Her arms felt like limp noodles while her legs had turned to jelly and above all else, pain lanced through her brain every few seconds, stabbing through any coherent thought she could have.

“What are you doing here?!” Doctor Time’s voice exclaimed somewhere outside of Sarah’s current little world.

“Preventing her from dying,” the other voice, lyrical and oddly sensual replied. “Which will happen shortly if you do not let me help.”

Sarah let out a groan of pain as her body constricted forwards and her eyes were forced open so that she could see the new speaker. Unfortunately, the current level of pain spiking through her mind caused the image to be indistinct. All she really saw was that whoever the speaker was, they were teal colored.

The next thing that Sarah knew, a pair of fangs had slipped into her neck and... the pain stopped. It was an immediate thing. One second, the pain was overwhelming, the next, it was gone. Then Sarah remembered that there was someone biting her neck. On impulsive instinct the woman lashed out with her non-I.V. hand and her fist slammed into rock hard chitin. The woman let out a cry of pain as the fangs were forcibly dragged across her neck before tearing out of her flesh, opening up a pair of heavily bleeding wounds.

A second stab of pain roared through her as the previous pain returned, this time three fold.

Sarah, I believe whoever bit us was trying to help, Nim murmured in the back of her mind as Sarah felt a bandage pack being hastily shoved into her now bleeding neck. She detachedly thought about whether or not she’d torn open an artery and how long it would take her to bleed out if she had.

Before Sarah could contemplate that idea too heavily, the fangs stabbed into the other side of her neck and the pain departed, replaced by a small surge anesthetic like pleasure. The woman lay there, her bare chest heaving up and down against the bed for a full minute as her vision cleared enough to give her a good look at whoever it was that had saved her.

It was obviously a changeling, though one who looked almost entirely different then Chrysalis or any of the changelings who’d lived within her hive. Instead she was... curvier? Sarah’s mind swam as it tried to come up with a good group of words to describe the changeling currently attached to her neck. Her brain failed to do so and instead said ‘fuck it, curvier is what she is’.

Well this is new, Nim murmured. Yet painfully familiar.

Tell... tell me about it, Sarah said as the curvy changeling released her jaws from Sarah’s throat without even a drop of blood escaping from the wound which then began to heal itself completely. The woman flinched, half expecting the pain to come back, but it didn’t. Instead, the anesthetic like pleasure continued to stream through her system and she looked up at the changeling with grateful eyes.

“Thank you,” she managed to gasp out.

“It is my duty to make up for my sister’s mistakes,” the changeling replied with a simple shrug of her insectoid wings.

“What did you do to her?” Doctor Time asked with a deep frown.

“She was suffering withdrawal from Chrysalis’ venom, and a rather bad case of it at that,” the curvy changeling answered. “I gave her a very minor dose of my own to counteract it. It is not a permanent fix, but it should keep her from suffering long enough for her body to regain the will to fight it itself.”

That... makes a bit of sense I suppose, Nim muttered as she began to check Sarah’s body over from the inside out, making sure that nothing invisible to the outside observer had been ‘broken’. Inquire for more information, Sarah.

“What?” Sarah asked blankly, directing the question at the changeling. She had a... marginal idea of what she was talking about but it was a very miniscule margin.

The changeling turned back towards her, odd golden eyes looking over the woman silently for a moment and Sarah suddenly had the oddest feeling that she was staring down an angry deathclaw matriarch whose eggs she’d pilfered. Then the moment passed and the changeling answered her question as if it had never occurred.

“Chrysalis’ venom is designed to make those under its influence crave it in both in body and mind, the craving becomes worse the longer you are without it to the point where your body ceases to function,” the changeling answered. “I do not know the deeper designs of my sister’s plan for you but I’d imagine that she was going to use her venom to break you physically before breaking down your mental defenses from which point she would slowly wean you off the venom as she mentally conditioned you to do whatever it was she wanted. You would have become her willing slave, without a will of your own beyond gaining her approval.”

Sarah stared at her for a moment, a bit of the color draining away from her face. It was one thing to have an ‘idea’ of something like that happening to you, it was entirely different to be told in such a direct manner. Then the woman swallowed and met the changeling’s gaze as her perceptive mind caught something else.

“And that isn’t going to happen with your venom?” the woman asked as she dragged her torso up so that she was on equal ground with the curvaceous changeling. “After all, if one changeling thought it would be a good idea to turn me into a slave, why wouldn’t another?”

“Because I have no use for you,” the changeling said blandly, though she did incline her head slightly. “Though that was a good thought.”

“Errhm,” Doctor Time interjected with a small cough. “Perhaps, Queen Aurora, you could explain what you were doing barging into our hospital wing in the first place,” the doctor said pointedly.

Ah, so that’s who she is, Nim commented within Sarah’s mind. Interesting.

Sarah tuned her out for the moment, more interested in what the curv-Aurora had to say.

“I wished to see who I traded my sister’s life for,” Aurora said in a blank, unemotional, detached voice. Sarah felt a shiver roll down her spine but suppressed it, she’d faced bigger bugs than this one, and they spat gobs of acid! Aurora turned back to her and stared silently for a second as the woman’s eyes narrowed and then she nodded. “At any rate, it is fortunate I came by. You would be dead were it not for my intervention.”

“Speaking of which, you said that your venom will give Sarah here time to fight it off on her own; what did you mean by that?” Doctor Time asked.

“I mean that my venom will stay in her system long enough for her to start eating normal food and doing actual exercise again,” Aurora stated, turning back to the doctor. “Which by my estimate should be starting today.”

“She’s supposed to be bed-ridden for three months!” the doctor protested, causing Sarah’s eyes to widen in surprise. No way in Hell she’d be doing that.

“That is if she was a pony, she clearly is not,” Aurora stated blandly as she looked over Sarah and despite the blanket over her, Sarah felt astoundingly naked. “From what I can see, she more closely matches the body of a minotaur or possibly that of a gryphon, at least in terms of durability. Get her walking or running, teach her swordplay, anything to help her body back to full strength and feed her well, likely she eats meat.”

The changeling monarch then turned on her hooves and walked out of the room without even pausing at the door which opened for her automatically.

Doctor Time was silent for a moment before looking up at Sarah with a frown. “She... may be right,” the doctor said with a frown. “You are not exactly a pony... or any other creature that I’ve heard of living in Equestria.”

“Really?” Sarah asked sarcastically, Aurora's venom giving her a boost she’d been lacking before as she swung her legs sideways on the bed, gripping to I.V. with a hand as she pondered whether or not to rise.

Sarah, I think you may be forgetting something, Nim commented within her mind.

Oh? Sarah replied with a mentally raised eyebrow.

Yes, you lack pants, Nim pointed out reasonably.

Sarah blinked and then remembered the fact that she was naked. Truth be told, after a week of being naked she’d kind of forgotten about it. The woman frowned, she suddenly had the urgent impulse to slip into a comfortingly heavy suit of power armor. Yet none existed in Equestria.

“I’m going to have to fix that,” Sarah said to herself before glancing back at the doctor. “But first, I’m going to need some panties and a bra, at the very least.”

“A what?”

Sarah looked down at the stallion with a blank look, one she found being returned to her.

Sarah... not many species actually have breasts in Equestria, Nim commented in her head. Only the centaurs and the minotaurs, and I don’t recall whether or not they used anything nearly as advanced as humans do.

Sarah blinked.

Well then, I guess I’ll just have to explain it to someone who makes clothes... wait... does anyone here actually wear clothes?

Return Chapter 17: Tailor Made

Sarah looked down at the blanket she’d taken to using as clothing with a sigh as she walked along beside Luna, a hand placed firmly on the alicorn’s back for support. When she’d heard what had happened, Luna had been extremely worried, to the point where Sarah had had to push her love’s muzzle away to get her to stop nuzzling her. Following Aurora’s advice, Doctor Time had removed her from the I.V. and given her the clear to do as she liked, with the warning to come back to him if anything felt wrong with her.

Now, she and Luna were walking down the castel’s hallway towards what the alicorn had called a ‘launching zone’ where apparently they would catch a ride to the small town of ‘Ponyville’ which rested within sight of the castle. Sarah ignored the burning sensation coming from her legs as the pair walked along, simply glad to be moving without having to lug the I.V. around in front of her.

So, Luna, it seems that you have a great deal of respect from the guards, Nim observed as yet another guard gave the two a salute.

Indeed I do, Luna agreed with a small smile before she leaned over to give Sarah a warm nuzzle to which the woman responded by petting her softly with a single hand as she did her best to maintain her hold on the blanket.

Yeah, what’s up with that? Sarah asked, running her hand through Luna’s soft fur and doing her best to keep from stumbling or simply collapsing as the mare continued to nuzzle her gently. I thought you said that everyone hated you when you were ‘banished’.

Luna stopped nuzzling her and let out a slight sigh. It is true, I was hated by many for my actions... but Tia had a thousand years to dilute history. She turned me into a savior, a warrior of virtue who had left to fight monsters in a dark wasteland, Luna explained, a bit of guilt leaking into her voice. I... cannot fault her for doing so, hell, I am incredibly grateful to be honest, but...I can’t help but feel undeserving of the praise I receive.

Well, it is true after a manner of speaking, Nim pointed out begrudgingly, still not completely over her dislike for ‘herself’.

Luna snorted but shrugged her wings. I suppose you are right, Nim, thank you.

Nim merely grumbled mentally and Sarah couldn’t help but chuckle softly at it all. The three friends were back together at last! A sudden wave of emotion hit Sarah and almost knocked her off her feet as small tears appeared in the corners of her eyes. Before she knew it, she was hugging Luna’s head against her chest with enough force to make the mare struggle for breath until she was released. Sarah blushed lightly, though she was still smiling.

“Sorry,” she said aloud.

“What for?” Luna asked once she’d recovered, giving Sarah’s face a nuzzle and depositing a kiss on her nose.

“Nothing, absolutely nothing,” Sarah replied warmly, wrapping an arm around Luna’s side, signaling that they should continue down the hallway. “By the way, could you tell me why we’re not just using a tailor in the city?”

“Because I do not trust them the way I trust Rarity,” Luna answered easily as they approached the launching zone, the number of guards increasing dramatically by the second the closer to it they got.

Really? Whatever could she have done? Nim inquired curiously as she used Sarah’s eyes to subtly scan the area for anything overtly threatening as was the pattern they’d developed in the Wasteland.

“Do you recall our favorite cloak?” Luna asked, not bothering to use the mental link, taking the cue, Sarah nodded.

The one that father made for us out of giant spider silk and phoenix feathers? Nim asked with a note of nostalgia in her voice. Aye, I remember, warm in the coldest of snow and resistant to even the hardest of rainstorms. Why do you bring it up? It was destroyed in our battle against the unicorn Council so very long ago.

“Well, last Luna’s Day I was in Ponyville, visiting with the townspeople when I grew tired of the endless games and food so I sought out refuge in a particularly odd looking building,” Luna explained. “As it turns out, that odd building was Rarity’s store/home and she was there working late to finish a project for a customer named Fancy Pants. Upon seeing who I was, she invited me inside and we talked as she worked upon her order. Somehow or another the story of my cloak came up. A week later, a near identical cloak was delivered to the Castle with a note from her telling me that were I to ever need something strange that I should come to her.”

“Oh, so I qualify as strange?” Sarah asked with a raised eyebrow, leaning slightly against Luna.

“Not in my eyes, but to most tailors, yes, yes you would,” Luna replied, a small smirk on her face. “At any rate, I’m sure that she would be more than happy to create some clothing for you.”

“Good,” Sarah said with a small smile, running her free hand over her other arm. “It’ll feel good to have something other than goo or blankets covering my body.”

“I’d imagine so,” Luna agreed, nodding her head. “Also, Sarah, would you feel comfortable sleeping in my chambers with me, or would you rather sleep elsewhere?” she asked, her ears tilting downwards at the second idea.

“Of course I want to sleep with you,” Sarah replied, giving the mare an astounded look. “Where else would I sleep?” she asked, her right eyebrow rising above her slanted elven eye.

“One of the guest rooms I suppose,” Luna answered.

“Why would I want to do that?” Sarah asked with a frown.

“I don’t know... I thought perhaps in my absence, you and Nim had grown far too close to allow my presence,” Luna said slowly.

“I’ve been kissing you haven’t I?” Sarah replied, raising her eyebrow even further. “Sleeping next to you has been something that I’ve missed really badly to be honest, Luna. Nothing else is nearly as good of a pillow.”

Oh come now, I did a fine job, Nim stated with an indignant grumble. If anything, I was better.

“Yeah, but you weren’t ‘real’, Nim,” Sarah said before quickly adding. “And no, I know that you’re just as real as Luna is... you know what I mean so don’t get all mopey about it.”

I do not become mopey, Nim snorted indignantly.

“Yes you do,” Sarah replied confidently causing Luna to snicker, though she took pity on the spiritual alicorn.

“I do thank you for taking over my duties in my absence, Nim,” the alicorn said as they approached a silver carriage where a pair of thestrals were already being hooked into the proper straps and what not so that the carriage could fly properly. “Who knows what could have happened to Sarah’s head if it did not have a soft alicorn tush to sink into every night.”

“I don’t even want to think about it,” Sarah replied jokingly, marveling once again at the feeling of companionship between the three of them. “I might have gone mad due to lack of comfort out there in the radiation.”

And none of us would have wanted that, Nim stated, her voice trying to remain jovial despite the seriousness of the subject to her. At any rate, we should get on the carriage already, I’m sick of feeling every breeze on its way between our thighs.

Sarah silently agreed and stepped onto the carriage, quickly taking a seat on one of the padded chairs and pulling the straps of a safety harness taught around her waist as Luna did much the same minus the straps.

“Remind me again why I’m not just jumping on your back to do this?” Sarah said as the carriage began to move forwards under the horsepower of the two thestrals.

“Because, one; we don’t have any form of saddle prepared for you and it would most likely lead to you plummeting to your death. Two; you are far too weak at the moment to grasp onto my neck with enough strength to stay on, and three; I’m a Queen and can’t be seen being used as a ‘beast of burden’,” Luna answered as they reached the end of the launching area.

Sarah’s breath caught in her throat for a second as the wooden ramp disappeared beneath them and grey mountain rushed up at them before the thestrals carrying the carriage beat their wings harder and it soared upwards. The air rushed through Sarah’s hair and the woman couldn’t restrain a joyful exclamation at that, she really did love every part of flying out in the open air. Something about it was just... impossible to replicate, even with a vertibird.

The moment passed and Sarah looked over at Luna’s smiling muzzle, a smile of elation on her own face. Without waiting or asking permission Sarah reached up with her arms and pulled Luna into a strong kiss, the wind tossing their hair fluttering around their heads and concealing them from the thestrals. Luna pulled away first, a grin on her face.

“Feeling better are you?” the alicorn asked the woman.

“A bit,” Sarah replied with a small chuckle as she pulled herself closer to the alicorn, brushing against her warm fur and letting out a contented sigh as she leaned her head against Luna, the wind blowing through her hair. “As for me treating you like a beast of burden, I never did.”

What of when you needed her to haul those miniguns to the shop? Nim pointed out.

“She volunteered for that. I think,” Sarah replied with a frown. “I don’t really remember that well... it was months ago. But my point still stands, I never ‘used you’, Luna.”

Luna just chuckled. “I was not accusing you of doing so, Sarah,” the alicorn replied. “It is simply the way that things are here in Equestria.”

“Well that’s stupid bullshit,” Sarah replied with a snort. “Some of my best memories of us together happened in the air.”

“Mine as well, do not worry, once we are ‘official’ we will not have to deal with such petty concerns,” Luna told her, a small smile on her face.

Official? Nim questioned, a note of confusion in her voice. Are we to be married?

Luna blinked. “I had meant had you officially recognized as my consort... so actually... now that I think about it, yes, I suppose we will have to be at some point for that to happen,” she said slowly, as if working out the sentence in her mind. “I suppose there will have to be a ceremony of some sort as well.”

“Ceremony?” Sarah asked, sounding befuddled. “What type of ceremony? In the Vault you usually just asked the Overseer to make it official with a few words and in the Wasteland no one really even bothers with that much.”

Except in Rivet City, Sarah, Nim pointed out. Remember the wedding between Angela and Diego?

Sarah frowned for a moment and shook her head. “Kind of... I got drunk afterwards with Butch so it’s all kind of hazy.”

“The leather jacket wearing man we met when we returned to your home?” Luna inquired as she remembered the doomed enterprise. “Did he not stay there after we... made a mess of things?”

“He snuck out later,” Sarah replied with a shake of her head. “Anyways... what kind of ceremony are we talking about, Luna?”

“Most likely something pompous and rather unbearable,” Luna said, snorting slightly. “But it will be worth it I’m sure. If nothing else, being able to hold my wife close to me at night will be a joy like none I’ve ever felt before.”

“... likewise,” Sarah said as her mind slowly wrapped itself the horrible idea of a gigantic ceremony replete with ponies she didn’t know.

Luna leaned over and gave her a nuzzle. “Do not worry, I will do my best to make sure that it is a restrained celebration.”

Good luck, the nobles I remember were the type to throw lavish parties over the birth of the eighth colt in a single family. Ones that would go on for three weeks, I rather doubt they’ve changed that much, Nim commented wryly.

Sarah paled at the thought of such a thing going on because of her and turned to Luna, worry in her eyes. Luna just chuckled. “Have no fear, Tia has done a rather astoundingly good job of cleaning away the flaws of the nobles, so I do not think we will have to deal with that large of a ceremony,” the alicorn assured Sarah as she gave the woman a nuzzle.

“That’s good... I don’t think I could deal with that,” Sarah stated, leaning into Luna’s muzzle.

The pair lapsed into silence for a moment and for the first time during the trip, Sarah’s gaze wandered over the edge of the carriage and onto the ground below. What she saw made her eyes widen in almost instinctual surprise.

“Sarah, what’s wrong?” Luna asked, following her gaze and seeing nothing out of the ordinary about the lush, green farmland below them.

“There’s... so much green,” Sarah replied almost blankly as her mind tried to wrap itself around the idea. “Not... not even a speck of brown.”

Yes, I’ve told you, Sarah, Equestria is untouched by radiation, you knew this, Nim pointed out with a mental frown. It is not that astounding.

Sarah just blinked several times and nodded her head. “Yeah... yeah you’re right. It’s just... wow. That’s a lot of plants. It makes Sanctuary look like a clearing.”

“Sanctuary?” Luna asked her with a frown.

“Yeah... I’ll tell you about Harold and Bob later,” Sarah said as her eyes caught sight of a much more interesting sight.

The town that they were descending towards was a colorful thing, much more outlandish than any town Sarah had ever seen in the Wasteland. As they carriage came down, she caught sight of ponies turning their gaze up at it with a mixture of excitement and interest as a few pegasi flew in to get a closer look at the carriage's cargo.

Luna smiled at them but waved them away with a hoof, much as she loved the idea, she did not need an adoring entourage at the moment. She had the only escorts she wanted right next to her already.

The carriage touched down and Sarah unbuckled her restraints and put a hand on Luna’s back as she pushed herself to her feet. As the pair rose from the carriage, the ponies watching them began to stare at Sarah, a feeling that made the woman’s skin crawl slightly but she suppressed the urge to shiver or quake. Instead, her lips hardened into a fierce, almost predatory smile and she rested a hand lightly on Luna’s back. Strangely, none of the stares she was getting were hostile or angry, instead, they were just curious.

My word, they’re not in the least bit intimidated by either us or her, Nim said with a mental frown. How peculiar.

I’m wearing a bed sheet, kinda hard to be intimidating, Sarah pointed out.

True, but they are also in the presence of a Pr-Queen, you would think there would be some fear in their eyes, Nim replied as Luna casually smiled and nodded to various ponies in the crowd before she opened the door to an outlandish building.

It looked quite a bit like the carousel that Sarah had seen in Point Lookout, the mere thought of the place causing a shiver to run down Sarah’s spine. With a gulp, Sarah walked through the door and Luna followed right behind her, shutting the door behind them and thankfully blocking them off from the curious ponies on the outside.

Sarah’s first impression of the place was that it was incredibly... feminine. Ribbons and streamers of lace adorned the walls and the ceiling and there were mannequins of ponies suspended on poles wearing a huge variety of dresses scattered tastefully around the lobby. Before Sarah could get a better impression, she heard a feminine voice from behind a door near the back of the room.

“Now, now, Mister Daw, as much as I would love to catch up, I have important customers to attend to,” a light, slightly accented wom-mare’s voice drifted from the door as it was pushed open telekinetically. “If your heart is really set upon me, come back after business hours.”

“But Rarity, you are so incredibly beautiful, I don’t think I could-”

“Jackdaw, we have arrived,” Luna called, her voice carrying equal parts authority... and was that a hint of amusement?

“Oh, Queen Luna, it has been too long!” a white unicorn mare exclaimed as she walked out of the back room, her purple hair cascading around her head as she used her magic to tidy it into a more orderly shape. Sarah examined her as she came forwards, keen eyes noticing that she looked just a bit... flustered, hot and bothered maybe?

“Rarity! It has indeed,” Luna said with a smile as she stepped forwards, giving the mare a quick nuzzle before glancing back and gesturing Sarah forwards with a wing. “Rarity, this is Sarah, my consort to be.”

“Charmed,” Rarity said with a genuine smile as Sarah walked closer.

“Hi,” Sarah replied a bit blankly, surprised by the genuineness of the act. The last person who had given her that real of a smile upon first meeting her was Sierra, and she was crazy. “So... you’re going to make me some clothes?”

“I’ll do my best, darling, and I can assure you that if nothing else, they will be better than that... lovely bedsheet that you’re wearing at the moment,” Rarity answered with a smile.

“Good I was getting tired of being naked all the time,” Sarah stated, nodding her head. “So, what’s this going to involve?”

“Well, first off, we’re going to go this way into the back room which Captain Jackdaw so valiantly scouted out before you got here,” Rarity said as she began leading the two towards the room. Once through the door, Sarah found herself in a room full of mannequins and a huge amount of sewing equipment along with design material. Lounging in a chair near the side of the room was a blue furred thestral, a lazy smile on his face.

My word, you could make a fortune in caps out of all this if you brought it to the right people, Nim commented as she eyed the equipment. Is it odd that that’s the first place my mind went, Sarah?

I was thinking the same thing, Sarah replied as her eyes drifted back the blue pegasus, he must have been Luna’s personal guard.

“Hey, Lu, the place is clean,” Jackdaw said with a smile as he eyed Rarity. “And very, very pretty too.”

Rarity blushed and tittered a little as Luna gave Jackdaw a flat look. “Jackdaw, remember your rules.”

“No sex on the job, I know, I know,” Jackdaw replied with a shrug. “I was just lining things up for after I’m off the job.” Luna rolled her eyes and Sarah lifted an eyebrow as the stallion glanced at Sarah. “Oh, and hello to you, Miss Summers, I’m Captain Jackdaw and if you ever get bored of Luna, I’m here to offer my services as an intermediary or a third.”

Sarah gave him a flat look but the stallion just smiled good naturedly and she couldn’t find it within herself to get too mad at him

“Thanks but no,” Sarah replied as she pulled herself closer against Luna. “Luna and I are fine on our own.”

“Suit yourself,” Jackdaw responded before Rarity stepped forwards, her horn glowing slightly.

“Alright, darling, I’m going to pull this horrible table cloth off of you so that I can start getting your measurements,” the mare said with a smile. “Now from what Queen Luna has told me, you’ve never done this sort of thing before so I need you to stay calm. I know exactly what I’m doing with each one of the needles so you have no need to worry about me accidentally stabbing you.”

“... thanks?” Sarah said with a confused blink.

Rarity smiled and her magic wrapped around the bed sheets to pull them off and reveal Sarah’s naked body. The mare stared at her, as did Jackdaw, though not for the reason that he normally would have. Sarah’s body was covered in all manner of scars, bullet hole marks, energy blast burns, and things that even Luna would have a hard time describing properly, though there were no horrifying mutations, thankfully. Worse yet, not all of them had been properly stitched up nor had they healed cleanly.

Luna was staring as well, a great well of sadness building up in her throat. The weight of Sarah’s injuries becoming even greater than before in front of Jackdaw and Rarity. Of course she had noticed the injuries the day before, but the true cause had not occurred to her and she’d simply been too caught up in the fact Sarah had been returned to her.

Now that she was viewing the injuries within the light of Rarity’s studio, she was slammed by the truth behind the wounds .Because she had taken so long, because she had not been fast enough, because she had not been strong enough Sarah had suffered terribly.

“What?” Sarah asked blankly.

“You... your body,” Rarity said trying to regain her wits.

“I know it’s not very impressive,” Sarah said with a small sigh. “I didn’t think it was enough to silence three peo-.”

Before she could continue talking, Luna wrapped her wings around the woman, pulling her into a tight hug as tears began to flow freely down her face. “I’m never letting you go again!” the alicorn sobbed.

“What?” Sarah asked, caught off guard as she was pressed into the alicorn’s chest.

I think she means that it’s her fault that you are covered in scars, Sarah, Nim observed for the woman who blinked.

But she wasn’t the one who shot me, or stabbed me or... anything really, Sarah replied with a frown as she started to push Luna away. “Luna, umm... can we talk about this later? I really would like to get some decent clothes...”

Luna wiped away a tear with her wings and nodded slightly, looking over at Rarity who was doing her best to avoid looking at the two, small tears in her own eyes at the emotional situation before her.

“My apologies, Rarity,” Luna said with a small sigh. “The weight of my mistakes suddenly slammed into me.”

“Oh... it’s fine, dear,” Rarity said, letting out a long breath before a smile crossed her face, only a little bit forced. “Why don’t we get started?”

Author's Note

Hey guys, so, I’ve got a few ideas for what Sarah should wear and I’ve got a few items selected as definites those being a ‘little red dress’ along with a grey trench coat of some sort. However, I figured I should let you guys help out and volunteer a few outfits, mostly because I’m 50% colorblind and 100% fashion blind. Anyways, see you next chapter.

Return Chapter 18: Blue Milk

Sarah stood there as Luna projected an image of her old bra and panties over her body for Rarity to examine. The woman felt extremely self conscious, especially considering the way that the mare’s eyes occasionally glanced at her scars, but she swallowed her pride, she needed this.

Indeed, we can’t get in shape if we’re naked, Nim said with a small mental shake of her head. I just hope that this seamstress is as good as Luna claims her to be.

I’m sure she will be, Sarah said confidently. She’s Luna’s friend after all.

If she is her friend why does she insist on calling her ‘Queen’? Nim questioned but Sarah tuned her out, it seemed that Rarity was about to speak.

“So, just what is it you’re after? I imagine that these undergarments are simply for practical purposes, after all.”

“Yeah... I need some support to keep these from bouncing around all the time,” Sarah said, gesturing at her breasts. “I need to be able to wear them all the time, including when I’m exercising or fighting.”

“Hmm…” Rarity pulled out a roll of measuring tape and a notepad. “I can’t imagine why you’d want to keep fighting, though. Surely you have enough scars,” she commented.

“It’s not really about my ‘wanting’ to fight,” Sarah replied with a small frown. “I’m just sure I’ll have to at some point and I want something that can take it.”

“Sarah, there really won’t be any reason for that,” Luna told her, giving the woman’s shoulder a nuzzle. “But if you insist then I shall not stop you.”

“Thanks,” Sarah said before glancing back at Rarity. “So can you do it?”

“Something that allows ease of movement while covering up the… worst of the damage,” she noted, coughing politely at the last part. “Yes, I’m sure I can do something,” she answered smugly. “Is there anything in particular you had in mind?”

“A vault suit,” Sarah said with a smile.

“I’m afraid you’ll need to explain what that is,” the unicorn said apologetically.

“Ah, allow me,” Luna said as the image of the bra and panties was replaced by the standard Vault 101 jumpsuit.

Rarity stared at it a moment before laughing. “Oh please you cannot be serious.”

“What’s wrong with it?” Sarah asked defensively. “It’s what I grew up wearing until I was nineteen.”

“Oh, you poor thing. Now then, stand still, I need to make sure these measurements are correct,” she instructed. Sarah stood stock still as Rarity crossed her body several times with the tape measurer before writing a few things down on a piece of paper to her side with her magic.

“So... what’s wrong with my Vault Suit?” Sarah asked, not quite understanding why the mare had called her a ‘poor thing’.

“A jumpsuit like that is only fit if you’re working in a place where you’re expecting to get covered in filth, darling. You’re with royalty now, and your wardrobe has to reflect that,” the pony explained.

“But... the Vault Suit is comfortable,” Sarah replied with a frown.

“I’m afraid she is right, Sarah,” Luna pointed out gently. “You would not want to wear that in the palace.”

Nim? Sarah asked, looking for some kind of support.

... as much as I like the feeling of wearing them, I have to admit that the Vault Suit is not exactly something you can wear in Canterlot, Nim replied slowly.

Sarah let out a sigh. “Alright then, I’m done here,” the woman said with a shake of her head, turning her back on the two mares and walking out of the room. Or she was in the process of it when Nim spoke up in her head.

Perhaps there is something you could say to persuade this Rarity to do as you’d like, Nim stated. Or if you’d please, allow me.

Sarah gave her a mental shrug and relinquished control of herself to Nim. The woman turned around and walked back into the room, ignoring Luna for a moment as she focused on Rarity who was looking at her with surprise.

“Rarity, I think there’s something that I forgot to mention,” Sarah said smoothly. “You see, where I come from, the Vault Suit is a sign of wealth and power, those who are above the common wastelanders. Now, I understand that that’s not the case here, but I can think of no better use of your talents than in crafting for me a Vault Suit fit for God himself.”

Rarity stood there, gaping like a fish out of water. “I… I…” Luna meanwhile was shooting the center of Sarah’s forehead a very sharp glare but she said nothing aloud though she did very clearly think the words ‘dammit, Nim’.

“V-very well, though I will also make you a few other things,” Rarity stammered, hoping to regain some control over the situation.

“Thank you so much,” Sarah said, a smile crossing her face as she returned to full control. “What did you have in mind?”

Rarity grinned, a worrying grin that Sarah had seen a few too many times on the faces of drug-addled raiders. “Well…” she trailed off ominously.

“Nothing too fancy, Rarity,” Luna said quickly. “And nothing with too many gemstones.”

“Oh no, my Queen... nothing that bad...”

“That was fucking brutal,” Sarah stated flatly as she pulled the warm jacket around her shoulders tighter against the cold of the night, it was very similar to the one she’d looted from Colonel Autumn’s locker all those months ago. Beneath it was a plain black t-shirt and a pair of plain shorts. All together they were the most combat appropriate thing she’d managed to get Rarity to make her after six hours of exhausting ‘dress up’. A time that Sarah would throw in with storming Mothership Zeta as the most traumatic and painful experience of her life.

Okay, that’s a little melodramatic, Nim commented as the thought drifted by her. It wasn’t that bad, Sarah.

In response, the woman shivered, the thought of some of the gem-studded, overly lacy... fashion porn like things that Rarity had presented to her.

“Sarah, you’re being overdramatic,” Luna stated, unknowingly echoing Nim as she carried the rather large collection of boxes, each one coloured differently. “In the end you got a wide variety of clothes, all of which make you look very pretty.”

“Yeah... I guess,” Sarah replied, shaking her head, she’d lost the point of thinking of herself as ‘pretty’ a long time ago. There just wasn’t much point in the Wasteland, she had no idea how Sarah Lyons managed to keep her complexion and hair clean even in the middle of punching a Mutant to death without wearing a helmet. “I’m just glad it’s over.”

Personally, I like things that we requested when Luna had to go to the restroom... Nim commented as the images of the black, barely concealing lingerie flashed through Sarah’s mind. They fit you perfectly.

Yeah... I like them too, Sarah agreed, pretty she didn’t understand, sexy though? That she got.

“My word, you two have gotten good at that,” Luna commented.

“Huh?” Sarah asked with a frown. “Gotten good at what?”

“Quick, airtight mental communication, I didn’t catch any of that,” Luna answered, a proud smile on her lips. “That’s unbelievably impressive.”

“Thanks,” Sarah replied while frowning. “I don’t even think about it.”

That’s because I control it, Nim pointed out with mental chuckle that passed over to Luna’s mind.

“Ah, well it’s still impressive that you can hide things from me like that,” Luna said then she glanced over her shoulder. “Where has Jackdaw gotten off to?”

Sarah glanced around and quickly spotted the thestral, he appeared to be speaking to a large red stallion and a fuchsia colored mare. Her sensitive ears twitched lightly and focused on the conversation.

“... so I’m in town tonight and I was just wondering if the two of you would like to keep Rarity and I company tonight,” Jackdaw’s surprisingly charismatic voice sounded in her ears.

“Well... Jack, ya’ll did help us last Luna’s day...” the stallion said slowly, glancing at the mare beside him.

“That’s true, neither of us could reach the gutter in the dark,” the mare replied, a small frown on her face. “And you did do a really good job of cleaning it out.”

“Almost better then Ah could have,” the stallion agreed.

“Great so...”

Sarah stopped listening. “He’s setting up a foursome I think,” Sarah reported before glancing back at Luna. “Remind me why you have him as a ‘guard’ again?”

“Because... when he is on the job he’s very good,” Luna answered before glancing towards the inky black sky. “My word, we really were with Rarity for six hours.”

“Told you,” Sarah replied as she shook her head and glanced down at her Pip-...

She closed her eyes and let out a long breath.

It’s not there, Sarah, Nim said in her head. The sooner you stop expecting it to be... the less often this will happen.

I-I know... Sarah replied shakily, looking away from her naked, un-tanned wrist to find Luna looking at her with concern in her eyes.

“We do not have the technology here to replace what you have lost, but... perhaps I can find a substitute,” Luna said, easily guessing the source of the woman’s grief.

“A substitute?” Sarah asked, raising an eyebrow at Luna. “What kind of substitute?”

“One that is made of metal and weighs roughly the same,” Luna answered with a smile. “I may even be able to find some way to replicate a few of the original’s functions.”

“Really?” Sarah asked, surprise in her eyes as she looked at Luna.

“Of course, it shouldn't be too terribly hard,” Luna replied, giving her a nuzzle. “After all, it is only metal and a few enchant-”

She was cut off as Sarah pulled her into a tight hug, or as tight of a hug as Sarah was currently capable of which was still pretty damn tight. Luna resisted for a moment in surprise before she fully embraced the woman, pulling her tightly against her furry chest and wrapping her wings around her.

“Thanks, Luna,” Sarah said quietly as her face lay against the soft fur of Luna’s neck.

“You’re welcome, Sarah,” Luna replied, enjoying the sensation of having her cheek lean against the woman’s hair. “I would do anything for you, and making you a copy of a Pip-Boy is hardly a challenge.”

“I know, still... it’s the thought behind it,” Sarah replied before she released the alicorn. That was when her stomach rumbled into a roar and her eyes widened as she looked down at her middle. “Huh, it looks like all that modeling really got me hungry.”

“Well then we will have to find a place to take the edge off unless you’d prefer to eat back at the Castle,” Luna replied, gesturing with a wing back towards the carriage whose thestral ‘drivers’ were apparently in the middle of game of cards.

I do not believe we would make it that long, Nim commented as another rumbling roar split the evening air. Good God, Sarah, do you have a Deathclaw trapped down there that I never noticed?

Sarah shook her head. “Nope, though we’d better find somewhere to eat soon,” the woman declared before glancing at Luna. “Where do you suggest?”

“Well, that depends, are you looking for meat, or sweets?” Luna asked her, raising an eyebrow slightly. “I do know that the town has a gryphon approved ‘steak house’ where you could order some sort of meat though I’ve never been there, though personally I would recommend the sweets shop.”

“Sweets shop?” Sarah asked, her ears twitching slightly. “You mean someplace where they sell ‘freshly made’ Snack Cakes?”

Luna looked at her for a moment and then let out a small snicker. “Oh, Sarah, you are going to enjoy this place,” she said as she began to walk Sarah down the street using a wing to guide her.

“HI! Welcome to Sugarcube Cor-” the bubbly pink mare stopped mid sentence when she saw who it was that had just walked through the door and threw herself over the counter to land right in front of Sarah. “Oh my gosh! You’re NEW in town! And you’re with Queen Luna!” the mare exclaimed as she began hopping up and down in front of Sarah, her eyes wide and in Sarah’s opinion ‘crazed’.

... is she high? Sarah asked Nim as the mare began to spin off a string of incomprehensible babble to Luna. She reminded Sarah of either a Jet addict in the middle of a really good high.

... on life perhaps, we do not have Jet here in Equestria, Nim replied as the pair looked over the poofy maned mare.

“-and we were all like WOOO the Queen is here and stuff is awesome and we had this really great party and then we started drinking straight sugar and Luna drank me under the table and then I fell to sleep and-”

Sarah had the dim feeling that the mare was talking to her but it was really hard to concentrate on it when she was distracted two fold by both the fact that the pink pony’s lips didn’t seem to be moving fast enough to account for the words and more importantly, the incredible scents filling the bakery. Just the scent alone of the delectable baked goods was enough to make Sarah’s mouth water and she had to physically restrain herself from pushing the pink mare to the side and rushing up the counter.

Incredible... it has been over a thousand years since I saw this many sweets! Nim exclaimed and Sarah suddenly realized that it was not just ‘her’ mouth that was watering so heavily. Sarah, I do not care about politeness at this juncture and neither do you, interrupt the pint-sized word machine gun and get us something to eat!

“Excuse me,” Sarah said, trying to get the pink mare’s attention.

“And then the after that we kept on dancing it and it was really fun and silly because Queen Luna hadn’t really known how to dance and-”

“Excuse me!” Sarah interrupted, louder this time.

“Huh?” the pink mare asked, turning away from the thoroughly bamboozled Luna who was trying to remember if any of the things Pinkie Pie had said were true. “What is it?”

“I was wondering if you could please stop talking and get me something to eat?” Sarah said, her voice hard with both frustration and anticipation.

“Oh! Of course I can!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed with an almost maniacal grin. “I’m guessing that Queen Luna is going to be paying for things so I’ll start you off with a plate of cupcakes and we can go from there! Take a seat anywhere!”

Before Sarah could say a word the pink ball of fire hopped back behind the counter and Sarah looked up to stare at Luna. “Why didn’t you warn me that there was a Jet addict here?” she asked the alicorn as she headed over to a table close by to a table where a white headed griffon and pink maned pegasus were sitting.

“I had... forgotten,” Luna replied slowly, still trying to clear her head from the effects of talking to Pinkie Pie. “In truth, most of my last Luna’s Day is a blur to me.”

What is this ‘Luna’s Day’? Nim asked with an intrigued tone in her mental voice. And why do I like the sound of it so much?

“Luna’s Day is a national holiday set on the same night every year that I was ‘banished’, it is a celebration centered around loving me and the Night itself as well as remembering all of my wonderful accomplishments!” Luna answered with a grin of happiness on her face. “And now that I have been returned on the same day, there are dozens of new celebrations in my honor!”

Sarah stared at her for a long moment before beginning to chuckle softly. “That does sound like your kind of holiday Luna... way better than any of the ones we celebrated in the Vault,” the woman said with a smile.

Do you think perhaps we could get a Nim and Sarah Day as well? Nim inquired eagerly. Or if that doesn’t work, why not just a Nim Day?

“Hey,” Sarah protested without much venom.

Oh you know I kid, Nim stated consolingly before privately adding to Luna. But seriously, if you can set something up for me...

Luna simply chuckled softly and leaned forwards to give Sarah a nuzzle as Pinkie Pie returned, a plate of blue frosted cupcakes on her back which she then somehow managed to bounce up to the table without dislodging a single one.

“Eat up! I bet you’ll enjoy them!” Pinkie Pie said with an eager smile.

Sarah frowned for a moment before she reached out and grabbed one. She puzzled over the wrapper for a moment before pulling it off and then she took a bite.

The taste...

The taste was...

Sarah’s eyes widened so wide that Luna thought she must have been choking at first, then tears began to pour down the woman’s face as blue icing coated her upper lip which was quickly devoured by her tongue.

OH MY GOD THIS IS GOOD! the woman mentally shouted to both Luna and Nim. It’s like! It’s like my tongue is having an orgasm!

Luna blinked and before she knew it, Sarah had squashed the entire cupcake into her mouth, eagerly chewing it as she reached for another.

In short order, the woman devoured the entire plate of them, much to the joy of the watching Pinkie Pie. “Do I make good cupcakes or do I make good cupcakes?” the mare asked with a smile.

“Goodth cupcakeths,” Sarah said around a mouthful of crumbs. “Waterth?”

Sarah, don’t speak with your mouth full, Nim commented, though she could hardly blame the woman, the taste was indeed unbelievable after the Wasteland’s ‘large selection’ of foods.

“One water coming right up,” Pinkie replied, hoping away.

Luna looked at Sarah with a smile, happy that she’d finally found something other than ‘herself’ for the woman to smile over.

Three hours later

“I regret thi- BLARRGHH!”

Sarah puked blue vomit into the toilet, her face and throat contorting horribly as she emptied her stomach of the stinging, burning stomach acid. On the bright side, it was a cheerful blue color!

Luna stood beside her, gently patting her back, she’d been at this for at least ten minutes and she hoped that the woman’s stomach would stop torturing her so, unfortunately, considering that Sarah had just spent the last three hours eating various cupcakes and other baked goods...

Sunset Shimmer sat in her chamber reading a book on higher level runes. Of course, she knew almost all of them, but there were still one or two areas where she lacked the knowledge to fully create them. As she did so, she felt a small pulse of... something pass through the room. She paused in her reading and glanced around the room but nothing popped out to her.

The light blue paint that covered the iridium coated granite seemed just as blue as ever and the small runes carved into the floor appeared normal. With a small shrug, Sunset went back to reading while making a mental note to report the disturbance to Celestia at her first opportunity.

She wrinkled her nose, for some reason she smelled... chocolate milk.

Author's Note

Sorry for the wait, I've hit the dog days of summer where writing every day is unappealing, fortunately, I start college on the 23 so I'll have something else to do with my brain other then think about ponies so that should provide me with more motivation, you know, if it doesn't take up all my time.

Return Chapter 19: My Little Nightmare

“Never... let me do that... again,” Sarah groaned as she leaned almost drunkenly against Luna while the mare supported her on the way back to the carriage. “That... goes for BOTH of you!”

You’ll find no argument from me, Sarah, Nim replied with a groan of her own. She’d had to taste and feel every bit of the vomit as it left the woman’s stomach. Not to mention the convulsions and the horrible hacking along with the awful burning as the half dissolved sugar and stomach acid had raced up her throat.

“It just didn’t occur to me that you’d eaten too much,” Luna said while she gave the woman a worried, and highly sympathetic nuzzle. “You did space it out over three hours so I wasn’t paying nearly as much attention to it as I normally would have.”

“It’s fine,” Sarah muttered as Luna wrapped a wing around her and pulled her closer to her body. “Like I said... never again.”

Luna was about to reply when a voice spoke from behind her. “Hey, Lu, think you can handle getting back to Canterlot without me?” Jackdaw asked. Luna frowned and turned back to see the thestral hovering beside her, somehow silent on his bat wings.

“I suppose so, ‘plans’ for the night?” Luna asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Damn right, Ma’am,” Jackdaw replied, a grin on his face.

“Very well, report back when the sun rises,” Luna said with a straight face. Jackdaw blinked twice and gave her a long look with such a gobsmacked expression that Luna burst into snickers. “Oh, hehehehe, your face, Jackdaw.”

Sarah blinked uncertainly and then gave up trying to see and instead focused on leaning against Luna’s side without falling over... she felt incredibly weak now, all energy having been used up through the process of getting her new clothes and worse, the puking that she’d done.

Jackdaw scowled at Luna and shook his head. “You’ve got one sick sense of humor, Ma’am.”

“Oh, I know,” Luna replied with another giggle.”Seriously though, you are fully entitled to a night of fun, show up at some point before noon okay?”

“Okay, that I can do, Lu,” the thestral said, a wide grin on his face. “Heck, I’ll bring you some hay bacon if you want.”

“I think the palace kitchen would be able to manage that by itself,” Luna replied with a small shake of her head. “Get out of here, Jackdaw.”

“Aye, aye, Ma’am,” the stallion replied before flapping his wings and taking off in the direction of the Boutique.

So what service does he provide as your guard, Luna? Nim asked with a frown. I know that you’ve said that he’s very good at his job, but I fail to see what you could possibly need a guard for.

“That’s a good question,” Sarah agreed as she leaned against the mare.

Because even I can’t see everything at once, Luna answered simply. He’s there to watch my blind spots or to see things that I’m just not looking for.

“Makes sense,” Sarah replied, then she frowned. “Fuck this, I don’t care what they think.” Without warning the woman mounted Luna and then slumped down against her neck. “If anyone says anything... I’ll shoot them.”

With what gun? Nim inquired curiously.

“This one,” Sarah said, bringing up a finger and miming shooting it like a pistol. “Duh.” Then she let out a massive yawn and slumped further against Luna.

Luna glanced around the well lit streets and found that there were several night owls staring at the woman who’d just mounted their Queen in public, but none were saying much.

Is she asleep? Luna asked Nim with a frown.

No, she’s just well and truly exhausted, Nim replied. Do not make her dismount.

I wouldn’t dream of making her dismount, Luna replied, directing the thought towards Sarah.

Thanks, Luna, I love you... so much right now, Sarah replied slowly.

I thank you for that, though I can’t help but feel that in this case, you are just saying it so that you don’t have to walk, Luna commented wryly before she leaned back to face the woman and gave her face a loving nuzzle.

... Maybe, Sarah replied as she leaned into the nuzzle, closing her eyes happily, a smile on her sleepy face. And I’d kiss you but... you know.

Indeed, you need a good tooth brushing first, Luna said, nodding her head as she looked back at the direction of the carriage.

Sarah perked up slightly. “Wait... you have toothbrushes here?” she asked in surprise.

“Why yes, of course we do,” Luna replied with a small chuckle.

“Then the moment we get back to the castle... I want one!” Sarah said, putting more emphasis into it then Luna had heard her put into her voice since before she’d been kneeling in front of the toilet. “God it’ll feel nice to have clean teeth again.”

Should I be worried that that’s what she’s looking forward to the most? Luna asked Nim privately.

Well, she’s looking forward to bedding you as well, Nim replied neutrally. But she and I have been doing that for these last six months... mostly... so she is not quite so deprived of it as she is of the feeling of clean teeth.

Ah, Luna replied before she glanced back at Sarah again who was smiling at her.

“Don’t worry, I’ve been missing you too,” Sarah said with a small chuckle. “As much as I love Nim... sometimes you gotta do it in real life too...”

Luna blinked as she realized that Nim had been transmitting each and every word that she’d said to Sarah. Then the mare blushed darkly.

“Sorry, Sarah,” the alicorn said as they approached the carriage, causing the pair of thestrals who had moved to a lighted cafe table with their cards to jump to their hooves, though she saw them staring at Sarah on her back. “Take the carriage back to the Castle, I have my own precious cargo,” she called to them.

“But-but, your Majesty- we can’t just let you fly by yourself!” one of the thestrals exclaimed worriedly. “We could be relieved of our duty, Ma’am, not to mention the danger that would place you yourself at!”

“Don’t worry boys-” Sarah started before she was cut off by a loud yawn. “-I got this.”

The thestrals exchanged a look, neither appearing any more convinced than before.

“Ma’am, you don’t even have anything to keep her on your back if an assassin attacks!” the thestral on the right exclaimed.

“Nor if a dragon becomes enraged and attempts to chase you out of the sky!” the one on the left replied.

“I’m teleporting,” Luna said flatly, cutting off any further protests. “And when I get there I will send a notice to your commanding officer about the situation, have no fear.”

Heh, good thinking, Nim commented with a mental chuckle. Why did we take the long way down in the first place?

Because I didn’t know what we would encounter here and I wanted to have as much energy as possible on reserve, Luna replied as her horn began to glow.

Please tell me you’re not going to make your mane turn white again like what happened in the Wasteland, Sarah said as she started to cling to Luna a little tighter. That was... that was really bad. And that’s not even mentioning everything else that happened...

Luna shuddered at the memory her words awoke within her but she shook her head. No, I have more than enough energy to teleport both of us there, the guards and the carriage would be too much though, which is why I’m letting them make their own way home.

Well are we going to stand around here all night discussing this teleportation or are you going to do i- Nim was cut off by a bright flash of light before they appeared in a light blue room. -t

Sarah blinked as she looked around the room. A large bed was placed against one wall and a dresser with a large mirror leaned against another. In addition to that, there were quite a few bookcases as well with a smattering of book types.

“Your room?” Sarah asked as she levered herself off of Luna’s back and stumbled over to the bed.

“Yes,” Luna answered as she used just a little bit of magic to keep Sarah from overbalancing before she fell face first into the comfy bed. Sarah let out a low, happy moan as she pulled herself fully into the bed, it made the bed in the hospital room look and feel like a pile of blood and piss covered cardboard by comparison.

A most apt comparison, Nim agreed. Though I don’t believe you will be staying in it very long.

Why? Sarah replied before Luna’s magic pulled her back to her feet.

“Did you not want to brush your teeth?” Luna asked her, a small smirk on the alicorn’s face at her lover’s forgetful mind.

Sarah blinked and then nodded her head as her tongue tasted bile on the back of her teeth.

“Hell yes I do,” the woman said as a smile grew on her face. “Though... do you just have spare toothbrushes lying around or am I going to have to use yours? Because no offense Luna but that’s kind of gross.”

Says the woman who has spent the last six months of her life doing all kinds of horrible disgusting things to survive, Nim commented wryly.

“Well yeah, but it wasn’t sharing a toothbrush,” Sarah said with a blush. “That’s just fucked up.”

Luna stared at her for a moment before a giggle broke through her guard and before Sarah realized it, she had an alicorn hugging her, wings wrapping around her back as she was pulled against the soft furred chest. Soon, the pair were giggling and laughing like a pair of fools while Nim observed it all with a small grin from within Sarah’s mind.

“So you’re sure that you smelled ‘chocolate milk?’ in here Sunset?” Celestia asked the Archmage with a frown as she walked around the room. The white alicorn looked... anxious, not at all unlike she had on the night Luna had been set to return except now there was not a hint of happiness about her.

“Yes, I’m sure of it Your Majesty,” Sunset said, nodding her head. “I cast several investigative spells but I couldn’t come up with anything to track the energy I felt or the source of the smell.”

Celestia’s horn flashed several times as her eyes glowed a brilliant gold before she shook her head. “All of the wards seem to still be in place and none of Clover’s trap spells have been triggered... furthermore, I do not want to tear a hole through the floor to see if it’s still there myself... doing so could release it...”

“Release it?” Sunset inquired with a frown.

“Yes, it,” Celestia replied distantly as she continued to scan. “There is a reason why this room is so sturdily built and shielded.”

“I thought it was simply to contain experiments,” Sunset said, her eyes narrowing slightly as she thought over what Celestia had said. “You don’t mean to tell me that Discord is trapped down here?!”

“Your mind is as astute as ever,” Celestia said with a small frown. “Yes, this room was originally designed as both Clover the Clever’s Private Chambers where she could practice whatever spellwork she wanted without fear of hurting anypony, as well as the prison for Discord.”

“Why in Equestria would she want him so close to her?” Sunset asked. “Everything I’ve read about her, including her journals, indicates that she hated him with a burning passion.”

“Oh, she very much did,” Celestia said, shaking her head. “And I can’t say I blame her... Discord was an utter monster. The things he did...” she trailed off before shaking her head. “At any rate, she wanted him where she deemed the best pair of eyes in Equestria could watch him, namely right beneath her chambers..”

“I see...” Sunset said before nodding. “Yes, that does not surprise me considering everything that I’ve read.”

“It shouldn’t,” Celestia agreed. “She was a very ‘hooves on’ kind of mare, just look at the way she died.”

“Right,” Shimmer said, nodding her head. “But back to the issue at hoof... has Discord broken free without setting off the wards?”

A humorless laugh left Celestia’s lips. “I very much hope not Sunset, you’d never have actually made it to me before you were twisted into a pretzel and eaten,” the alicorn said dryly. “I think he was simply flexing his ‘muscles’ so to speak, not that it will help him any, he’s trapped, I helped pour the mortar myself.”

“Good...” Sunset stated, a shiver running through her coat, she actually had read several accounts of those who’d found themselves directly beneath Discord’s baleful gaze and she knew precisely what happened to those unfortunates. “Sorry to trouble you over nothing my Queen.”

“Think nothing of it,” Celestia replied, leaning down to give Sunset a light nuzzle. “I’m just glad that you noticed it, I’ll return tomorrow and reinforce the wards. Maybe add a few more.”

“Thank you, Celestia,” Sunset said, giving her a single nod. “Would you care for some tea?”

Celestia pursed her lips for a moment before shrugging slightly. “Sure, why not? A little tea never killed anyone.”

“You are an ass,” Sarah grunted, shoving Luna to the side. “Where is the ass? There she is!”

“Who, me?” Luna asked with a smirk as her horn glowed and Sarah’s hair began to dry. “It’s not my fault that you got your hair all wet.”

“Oh no, no, no I guess it was entirely my fault that the faucet glowed blue before it splashed water all over me,” Sarah replied as she glared pointedly at Luna.

“I guess it was,” Luna stated, a grin on her face. “But look on the bright side Sarah, now your face, hair, and teeth are clean.”

“Go fuck yourself,” Sarah stated flatly, though she couldn’t quite keep a grin off of her face, Luna’s happiness was infectious.

And here I thought that was what she had you for, Nim snarked from within Sarah’s mind as the woman sagged against Luna and the mare started back towards the bed. I guess you’ve given up that position have you?

Sarah snorted. “Not on your life Nim,” the woman said as they reached the bed and Sarah fell into it, beginning to take her clothes off. Damn it felt good for the woman to do that again at last. “Though, not tonight... too tired.”

“Well at least we can snuggle,” Luna said, assisting Sarah with her magic and enjoying every bit of it, there was something very special about clothing that made the process of simply removing it enjoyable. And that was coming from somepony who wore practically nothing other than a crown and a pair of ‘shoes’.

“Yes, we can do that,” Sarah agreed as she pulled her bra off and leaned against the alicorn’s soft fur. “This is nice... I think I’ve missed this the most Luna... just lying against you every night.”

“Oh Sarah, please don’t say such things,” Luna replied, a small smirk on her face. “It makes you sound as if you’re a character from one of those cheesy romance novels that Jackdaw reads when he thinks I’m not looking.”

“Fuck that, it’s the truth,” Sarah replied with a grin as she began to softly run a hand through Luna’s fur. “You’re so... soft.”

Luna smiled and cradled Sarah against her with her hooves. “As for you... I have missed every single part of you.”

“And you say I sound like a romance novel character,” Sarah retorted as she snuggled closer to Luna.

“Wait... they have romance novels in the Wasteland?”

Butch brought a few of his ‘favorites’ out of Vault 101 when he snuck out, Nim answered, Sarah’s mouth too close to Luna’s furry neck to speak. We tried one, it was boring.

“Whatever,” Sarah stated, as she pulled her face against Luna’s neck and placed her head down against the pillow. “I’m going to sleep.”

“Okay-” Luna frowned as she glanced down at Sarah, the woman’s eyes were closed and her body was already beginning to slowly rise and fall. It seems she acquired every soldier’s favorite skill in my absence.

Indeed she did, goodnight Luna, Nim said before the alicorn sensed she too fell asleep in mere seconds.

Well then, I may as well make the most of this, Nim thought to herself and pulled the sleeping woman closer as she shut her eyes.

“What an eventful day,” Nim said quietly to herself as Sarah leaned against her side.

“Yep,” Sarah agreed, she really was tired but she felt that Nim deserved a little love before she actually drifted off to sleep, after all, she had been feeling ‘neglected’ of late. Besides, it wasn’t as if Luna wasn’t getting to snuggle up against her in the ‘real world’ anyways. “But I’m glad it’s over,” she added as she ran a hand down Nim’s neck, luxuriating in the feeling of the alicorn’s soft fur.

“Oh, as am I,” Nim agreed, leaning down to give Sarah a tender nuzzle. “Any longer and I was beginning to think it would never end.”

“You and me both,” Sarah said with a smile as she leaned up to place a soft kiss on Nim’s lips. “And we wouldn’t want that would we?”

“Oh, no indeed,” a new voice, distinctly male and not at all familiar said to their right. It was a voice that made Nim’s blood run cold. “Because then, I never would have gotten the chance to see my little Nightmare, all grown up.”

Sarah got to her feet, frowning as she turned to the right. She found nothing. Nim’s eyes began to glow and she rose from where she’d been laying, horn a blistering blue.

“Oh come now, over a thousand years and that’s how my own creation greets me?” the voice asked, this time to the left. Sarah and Nim both whirled only to find nothing there. “That hurts, that REALLY hurts me Nightmare.”

“I know not of what you speak foul creature, but I know this, you shall regret such wo-” Sarah whirled to see a nightmarish mismatched creature holding Nim’s jaw closed with a single taloned hand.

“Oh hush my dear Nightmare,” the creature said with a small chuckle. “You know, you took a lot longer to appear then I thought you would, and you’re not exactly where I thought you’d be.”

Sarah didn’t really think about what she did next. There was some freaky thing handling her mare, there was only one real way to react.

“Let her go you bastard!” Sarah roared, charging at the creature.

“Such foul language,” the creature said, standing completely still as Sarah ran at him. Then just before Sarah’s fist connected with his face, he snapped the fingers of his free hand and her forward momentum stopped, her feet trapped in sticky pink tar. “I think a punishment is in order, what do you think my little Nightmare?” he asked glancing down at Nim who was doing her best to break his hold on her, struggling back and forth and trying futilely to bite him or flap her wings enough to get away. “Is that a yes? Sure, why not!”

Sarah’s eyes had barely a millisecond to widen before the creature brought his free hand forward and gently flicked her with a finger. The woman’s world went black as she felt herself being jerked out of the sticky tar and sent flying in the opposite direction.

“There, now that that’s out of the way, you and I have some things to talk about Nightmare,” Discord said as he lowered himself to the ground, dragging Nim down with him, hand still on her jaw. “More specifically, what my daughter is doing inside of this pathetic little alien instead of powerful little Lulu where I planted her.”

Return Chapter 20: Bonding

Author's Note

As it turns out, I only have one class on tusedays and thursdays for a while so... probably expect updates then depending on the workload

Return Chapter 20: Bonding

“You know, Nightmare, you don’t look like you’re enjoying this family reunion when you should be,” Discord said as he brushed his hand through her starry mane. They were curled up beside each other on the ground, one of his arms around her neck, paw still closed over her mouth, keeping it shut. Nim tried to grit her teeth or shake him off, her wings flapping against her back as she tried to scramble away from him.

His grip was hard as steel and she wasn’t moving an inch.

“Oh come on, my little Nightmare, don’t you want to talk to dear old daddy Discord?” Discord asked, a pout on his face, his free hand still running through her mane. Nim let out a snort of anger and began to yank away from him as blades, guns, lasers, and plasma rifles started to stab, blast, shoot, and boil his flesh.

Discord seemed to take this unsettlingly well. A bolt of plasma shot at his face and he opened his mouth to catch it, chewed it once, and then blew it into a sickly green bubble of boiling energy. A giant sword stabbed into his chest and he chuckled lightly as he pulled it out with his mind and used it to cut his nails. Two dozen missiles slammed into his stomach but the explosions turned to a light gust of wind and flowed around him.

“Oh good show, but are you done yet?” Discord inquired with an amused smirk. “I mean a lot of these are imaginative I guess, but they’re not really up to par with-”

A giant metal boot slammed down on him, crushing him flat as a pancake. Then it lifted itself up and came down again. Hard. Nim let out a small cheer and her wings flapped, sending her soaring away as Liberty Prime stomped Discord into the ground.

“COMMUNIST ENGAGED!” Liberty Prime proclaimed as his boot slammed up and down. Nim smirked and began to look for where Sarah had ended up within her own mindscape. “I’M A LITTLE TEAPOT SHORT AND STOUT~”

Nim froze in mid air, turning back to see something that made her heart drop out of her chest.

Liberty Prime was standing there, no longer crushing Discord.

Instead he was wearing a tutu and had one hand on his hip, the other arm straight out.

“HERE IS MY HANDLE! AND HERE IS MY SPOUT!”

Nim stared in horror as the giant robot skipped away, still singing, tearing down trees as he went. Then she felt a familiar paw on her shoulder and she had only half a second to realize she was back where she started.

“Heheh, amusing little piece of iron,” Discord commented with a chuckle. “I’ll have to see about getting one for my manor wherever in the sky I decide to put it.” Then his voice turned serious. “Now then, I think you’re done aren’t you, Nightmare?”

“My! Name! Is! Nim!” Nim roared angrily at him. “I am not a Nightmare!”

“Nim?” Discord asked, raising an eyebrow high. “You mean to tell me that you went to all the trouble of giving yourself a new name, getting rid of Nightmare, which is a FINE name by the way, and you settled on NIM?!” he asked, sounding incredulous and quite a bit miffed. “You didn’t even go with something creative like Eris or Titty Sprinkles or hell, you could have just gone with a classic and picked Discordia?”

Nim glared daggers at him. “I do not know what madness you have been speaking of for these last few minutes but I promise you, I am no relative of yours!” she exclaimed angrily, a mini nuke exploding against his face and doing absolutely nothing. “If I am anyone’s daughter then it is Luna herself!”

“Nah, you’re my kid,” Discord replied with a small chuckle. “I mean come on, the family resemblance is uncanny!”

A giant funhouse mirror appeared in front of them and Nim glared at it for a moment until she felt her features elongated and became more and more Draconequuish with every passing seconds. The mare let out a scream of agony and terror as her body twisted and shifted into a hideous mockery of the alicorn she’d once been.

Sure, her fur was still black, where she had any at all instead of scales, but instead of her normal graceful wings, she possessed a single black raven’s wing one side and draconic purple one on the other side. Her dark green eyes were now a vivid yellow and shone with malevolent light. Her starry mane flowed around her head and now shoulders though now instead of simply containing stars it possessed galaxies and swirling supernovae.

Most bizarre of all was that she now possessed arms and legs. They were not normal arms or legs though, no of course not, that would have been merciful. Her right arm was covered in black feline fur and ended in a large and clawed cougar’s paw while the opposite was covered in snow white owl feathers and ended in three curving talons, one of which appeared opposable. Her legs were a different story. The right leg was covered in black and white zebra fur while the left was that of a ram, muscular and full of power.

Her mouth, which was currently open screaming with pain, displayed a full set of vicious tearing teeth along with one snaggled, off center one at the front, something she’d had all along. The top of her head was topped by a swirling ram’s horn on one side and a doe’s horn on the other. Her ears were still her own, oddly enough. The new Draconequus’s tail was that of a snake’s, thin and tapered to a tip, covered in scales as black as midnight.

She felt Discord’s arm wrap around her. “Ah there we go, my little Nimmy-Cup now you look like the Draconequus you were always meant to be!” he exclaimed with a grin. “Isn’t it great?!”

Nim screamed and tried to claw him off of with her new missmatched cougar and owl talons. Sadly, they simply bounced off of Discord’s arm and he chuckled again.

“Oh come on, Nimmy-Cup, stop that, it tickles a little,” he said as he spun her around in a circle. “And now isn’t the time for that kind of game, heh.”

Nim’s glare would have killed a full grown dragon but the effect was ruined by the tears of pain running down her cheeks. The transformation had been... incredibly painful which made no real sense... nothing here was real! Why on Earth would it have hurt her?!

A pained breath left her and she let out a scream as she launched herself at Discord again only to find him evading every slash of her claws, as if she was moving in slow motion. This went on for some time until Nim ran out of energy and with a pained mewl she collapsed on the ground in front of Discord.

“That’s a good girl, you done your little tantrum now?” Discord inquired as he settled down beside her and scooped her into his lap. “There there,” he said, stroking her mane in an almost fatherly way. “You’ve got some real anger issues in you, kid, probably thanks to spending so much time in hot headed little Lulu but that’s okay, I can adapt.”

“What... what’s happened to me?” Nim asked slowly, trying to wriggle out of his grasp but it was impossible. His hands were just too strong... and a part of her didn’t really mind the way that he was stroking her mane. It felt... like something she’d been missing.

“You spazzed out and tried to hurt your daddy,” Discord replied with a small affectionate chuckle. “Not that I really mind, it was kind of funny really.”

“You’re... not my father,” Nim growled, though it was much more difficult to deny the truth of his words now than it had been before.

“Yes you are, silly goose,” Discord stated with another affectionate chuckle as he stroked her mane. “I created you quite some time ago.”

“I don’t... I don’t believe you,” Nim said as she tried snapping at his fingers, finding only air. A deathclaw jumped out of the woods at Discord but it was turned into a harmless salamander in mid air, which then fell into Nim’s jaws and without realizing what she was doing, it was down her throat, cut into a dozen pieces.

“Heheh, you’re quite the biter aren’t you, Nimmy-Cup?” Discord asked as Nim squirmed while the salamander trickled wetly down her throat. “Probably something else you picked up from Lulu.”

Nim glared at him and remained silent in his lap, doing her best to ignore both his hands and the salamander which had hit her stomach.

Discord rolled his eyes. “Fine, kiddo, I’ll give you proof that you’re the fruit of my metaphorical loins,” he said, snapping his fingers. A projector screen appeared in front of them along with a projector behind them.

A long time ago in an Equestria far far away...

Nim looked at him with an irked glance. They were in Equestria. There was only ONE Equestria!

“Oh shush, it’s a classic,” Discord said, rolling his eyes and pointing her head back at the screen.

Luna hung in the air, suspended on chains made of pink bubblegum. Her mane was limp and her breathing heavy. She had just spent the last two days trying to escape from her restraints, twisting and tuning in a futile attempt to break free of them. She stared up at the constantly switching sun and moon in the air and let out a little whimper. Tia was assuredly dead by now without her to watch her back. Everything and everyone she’d cared for was dead or in the process of being driven irrevocably insane by the vile demon who had come to plague Equestria.

A slight whistling caught her ears and she drearily looked up to see Discord strolling up to her, a honor guard of dancing buffalo pirouetting around him. His grin was the size of a house as he sipped chocolate milk from a bendy straw.

“Oh hello there, little Lulu, I just wanted to drop by to see how you were doing,” Discord said with a snakish grin. “I mean, besides wet and sticky of course.”

On cue, a raincloud appeared above her and chocolate milk rained down on the mare.

“Of course, that’s how I leave all the mares, and the stallions too,” Discord said with a smirk as he sashayed up to Luna and took her jaw in his talons. “Though you... you’re quite a catch you know that? So much magical potential, so much raw untapped power. So much.... venom!” he finished as the mare tried to snap his talons in half with her strong flat teeth.

“Let me go!” Luna raged quietly, knowing better than to hurt her throat by yelling.

“Now now, you know I won’t do that so I’m not sure why you keep asking me to,” Discord said with a small chuckle as he plunged a cotton candy covered hand through her neck fur, leaving pink smears as he went. “Not after you and your dreadful big sister tried to attack me. I’m just defending myself like any reasonable citizen.”

“You are not a reasonable citizen!” Luna snapped.

“Quite right, why would anyone want to be reasonable?” Discord replied pleasantly, a smooth smirk on.

Luna practically vibrated with anger in her gum prison but the globs of gum didn’t budge an inch. Discord stood there gloating in front of her ineffectual rage before he chuckled lightly. “Hmm... yes, yes I think I’m right.” A small spark of black energy appeared in his hand. “This little bit of energy is a piece of me that I hold very close to my heart.”

Luna glared at him, her eyes locked on the energy. “And... what do you plan on doing with it?”

“Why putting it inside of you to let it grow of course,” Discord answered as if that made some kind of sense.

Luna began to squirm violently against her restraints, her eyes widening even further. “You will do no such thing!” she shouted, panicking.

Without waiting, Discord grabbed her face with one hand and forced the spark of energy into her forehead. “There you go, all set. I can’t wait for my little Nightmare to drive you insane. Heheh, even if you end up beating me in the end, you’ll turn on your sister one day and in the resulting strife, I’ll be let free and then with my daughter riding you around by the haunches we’ll clean Tia dear’s clock, heh.”

Luna stared at him blankly. The moment that Discord’s energy had traveled inside of her, the mare’s mouth had dropped open, a line of drool running down the side of it. He smirked, she’d never remember any part of what had happened and when her ‘subconscious’ started leading her down the path of destruction, he’d be there to laugh, one way or another.

Nim stared up at her... father. He grinned down at her, snaggletooth on full display.

“Told ya you were my girl,” he told her.

“That... that changes nothing!” Nim protested, feeling hot tears rush to her eyes. “You-you’re a vile creature-I-I want nothing to do with you!”

“And yet, you have everything to do with me,” Discord replied with a smile. “Whether you like it or not, Nimmy-Cup, you’re a Draconequus through and through. Once you absorb enough magic you’ll be able to leave this puny little alien’s head and make your own body, and don’t worry, this will always be the default. No matter what spell you cast or how you reshape yourself, you’ll always come back to this form within a few hours.”

Nim stared at him, unable to contain her self loathing. She was... she was everything she hated. The most horrible being that she could think of was her father. She’d tried every bit of mental magic she knew but nothing was working against him. He was... just too strong.

“I...I don’t want that...I... I want to stay with... with Sarah!” Nim growled slowly, gritting her teeth and trying to make her unfamiliar eyes stop leaking.

“Well tough luck, kiddo, once you absorb enough magic, something that’s going on right now actually because I’m pretty sure ‘Sarah’ here is sleeping with her face buried in Lulu’s magic mane, you’re going to emerge from her mind like a bat out of Tartarus!” Discord exclaimed with a big grin on his face.

“I... will I hurt Sarah when I... come out?” Nim asked, her voice hoarse.

“Meh,” Discord replied with a small shrug. “It probably won’t though I don’t know why you’d care about this pathetic little alien.”

“Because I love her,” Nim stated, her eyes cutting into Discord.

“Hah, love, now there’s a thing to go mad for,” Discord replied, a cheerful grin on his face. “Kind of like why I’m here, heheh. I was just mad enough in love with myself to create a mini-me.”

Nim ground her teeth against one another and tried to squirm out of his grip again but accomplished nothing once more. “Just... what is your plan anyways... father? And... how are you here in the first place? Last time I checked you were hidden at the bottom of an enchanted well.”

“Oh, Tia moved me at some point and no matter how good the runes are, they can’t keep all of me contained,” Discord answered breezily, a light smile on his face. “Especially when I have a light like yours to follow, Nimmy-Cup. I just had to reach out and pull myself to you. As for my plan? Hah, you’re going to leave this little whelp’s brain, go into Lulu’s head, and wander downstairs. Then you’ll crack open my prison and we’ll go from there.”

“I’m not going to do that,” Nim said defiantly, her eyes narrowing. “You can rot wherever Celestia has left you.”

Discord frowned at her and his lips tightened. “No actually, you’re going to do what I tell you like a good daughter would,” Discord said, wrapping an arm around her shoulder and pulling her up so that his mouth was on level with her ear. “Or I’m going to kill this ‘Sarah’ that you seem to care so much about,” he whispered darkly.

Nim’s blood froze in her veins. “You... would.” There was no use denying it. Discord would kill entire countries if he wanted to. What was the life of the one woman that his ‘daughter’ loved to him?

Return Chapter 21: Return to Sender

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Return Chapter 22: Breakfast in Bed

Luna appeared in the midnight glade to find shattered chips of wood littering its grass. Several of the trees had been bowled over and there were blood stains scattered around their trunks. Then of course, there was the real center of her attention. Sarah and... a Draconequus, though one who was clearly not Discord. Sarah was cradling the creature against her chest, running one soothing hand down her back. Then she caught sight of Luna and smiled in relief.

“Hey,” she said simply.

“Sarah, are you alright?” Luna inquired as she walked forwards. “And... who is that in your arms?”

“It... it is me,” Nim’s voice spoke from the Draconequus, despondent, full of fear and self loathing.

The alicorn froze where she was and stared at ‘Nim’ in shock. What? How could this twisted creature be Nim? Was Nim not a part of herself?

“I... don’t understand,” Luna said slowly as she looked between the distressed Draconequus and Sarah with an absolutely baffled expression. Then she let out a small sigh. “But you can explain why Nim is apparently a Draconequus after you tell me what happened. Nim’s message to me was not exactly full of details.”

“Right... right...” Sarah closed her eyes and then gestured for Luna to walk closer to her.

Luna did so and assumed her usual position behind the woman, lying down so that she had someone to lean against. Sarah took advantage of that immediately and sank down into Luna’s soft fur with a grateful sigh. Nim looked at Luna for a moment, but was unable to keep her gaze as she hugged her odd, twisted body to Sarah’s.

“Tell me what happened,” Luna said once they were both comfortable against her side.

“I... suppose that I should do the telling,” Nim stated slowly before she took a deep, shuddering breath, and related the story of what she’d been told. “... please don’t hate me...” she finished, looking away from Luna. “I... I didn’t know... I didn’t know what I was guiding you towards... if... if I had... then I swear that I would not have... I...” she broke off, staring at the ground as Sarah ran a hand down her dark coated side.

Luna remained silent as she thought over all that Nim had told her, a deep frown on her face, then she let out a sigh. “It is okay, Nim... I should have suspected something like this long ago. Or... not listened to you when you made your suggestions. If I had done that then a great deal of hardship could have been avoided.”

“Yeah... but you'd never have met me,” Sarah corrected with a smile. “And personally, Luna... and I know this is going to make me sound like a selfish bitch, but frankly I don’t give a damn. Me having you here with me, with Nim, means more to me than almost anyone or anything in the Wasteland.”

“Truly?” Luna inquired with a frown. “You would not like to go back?”

Sarah frowned for a long moment and let out a sigh. “Yes and no... Yes I’d like to go back and tell Sarah and Spencer and Fawkes and a few others like MacCready that I’m alright... I really would... but... I don’t want to risk losing you again,” Sarah said, closing her eyes

The three of them sat there for a long time before Nim looked at Luna. “Luna... when I... ‘birth’ I suppose is the appropriate term... I’ll leave you both.”

“What?!” Sarah exclaimed in surprise.

“Why?” Luna asked incredulously.

“Isn’t it obvious?” the draconequus asked with a flat stare. “I’m not a part of you so there’s no reason for you to pretend to love me... and I’m a draconequus... I can’t stay here in Canterlot.”

“Pretend to love you?” Luna asked, the incredulity in her voice growing stronger.

“Oh. And what about me?” Sarah demanded with a small growl. “Have I been pretending these last few months!”

Nim looked at her for a moment before looking away. “You have Luna... she is perfect... I would know... why in Equestria would you want me as well when you have her?”

“Because! I fucking love you, you idiot!” Sarah shouted angrily. “What the hell else did you think I meant when I said that I got REALLY fucking angry at Discord for hurting you?! You’re the only reason that I made it through the Wasteland alive not to mention the fucking Chrysalis shit! I’d still God damn love you if you grew a dick, again!”

Luna blinked at that last comment. “She did what?”

“It was a very short phase...” Nim muttered before shaking her head. “But, Sarah... you have Luna.”

“Yes. I have Luna,” Sarah said, leaning over and giving Luna a hard kiss on the lips. “But I ALSO have you.” Without saying another word, she forced Nim up to her lips and gave her an even fiercer kiss.

Nim froze for a moment before she leaned into the kiss and for a few long seconds, the world fell away around them as Luna rested a wing atop the pair and brought her head down to nuzzle them both.

Unfortunately for all of them, things didn’t progress any further. “You know... as much as I would love to see where this goes... we should talk to my sister,” Luna said, rising to her hooves and giving Nim a kiss on the lips. “Though after we are done with that errand... I will show you the error of your previous words about my pretending to love you, Nim. You were with me through one of the worst times of my life... and even if you were at the cause of it in the end... it was not your fault.”

Nim just looked down for a moment before sighing. “Luna... I don’t know if I can stay in the Castle if I’m truly a Draconequus,” she said slowly. “I... I couldn’t show my face within the City... and if I did stay, the nobles would surely react badly.”

“Fuck the nobles if they object, I care not for their opinions and if they do object; then I shall tell them that when they can move the moon then they can take my place,” Luna stated flatly. “Besides, from what I have been able to figure out in my time here... the majority of the nobles are either harmless, or good ponies.”

Nim let out a small snort but still looked away. “If I stay then I’ll cause you both nothing but trouble and that’s something that I would never want...”

“Fuck it, we’ll deal with whatever trouble comes our way,” Sarah stated flatly as she pulled Nim closer against her chest. “Come hell or high water, the three of us are sticking together, God damnit.”

“Indeed we are,” Luna said, draping her wings over them both. “After all, we three conquered the Enclave together, did we not?”

“Or at least took back the Purifier together,” Sarah agreed, causing Luna to look at her questioningly. “I’ll explain later.”

Nim looked down, an uncertain expression on her face.

“Do I need to kiss more confidence into you?” Sarah asked her with a frown.

Nim blushed faintly but shook her head. “No, I suppose that I’m not going to manage to talk you to out of your love of me... for whatever reason.” She let out a small sigh. “Come now, we had best tell Celestia of these events... I can only imagine what she will say.”

“She’s what?!” Celestia demanded, her eyes aflame.

“Discord’s daughter,” Luna repeated, standing firmly between her sister and Sarah. “And I don’t care.”

Celestia frowned at her and visually did her best to control her newly lit anger. “You are telling me that it is her fault that you were so depressed, so incredibly lonely that you tried to overthrow me on the basis that you wanted someone to love you,” the elder alicorn listed off, her voice becoming low and deadly. “She is the one who took you away from me for a thousand years Luna. I was barely alright with her before when I thought she was a part of you... but the fact that she is directly related to the worst monster in Equestria’s history...”

You think I don’t realize that? Nim demanded, projecting her thoughts at Celestia. I hate who my ‘father’ is. I hate everything about him. I hate that I caused Luna so much pain... you so much pain too I suppose.

Celestia glared at Sarah’s forehead for a moment before letting out another angry breath. “Yes, well... what are we to do about this?”

“We’re going to get her out of my head, and then she’s going to live here with Luna and I,” Sarah said firmly. “And no, I don’t really give a damn about what you think.”

The alicorn closed her eyes and pondered what she should do. I do not like this at all, she thought to herself. But... I do not want Luna to resent me once more, least of all for harming those she loves.

“Very well... but if she does something, anything, to free her ‘father’ from his prison then I will kill her,” Celestia stated flatly.

Luna looked at her for a long moment before nodding her head faintly. “As will I.”

Sarah’s eyes widened and she stared at Luna. “What?”

“If Nim tries to free Discord from his imprisonment, then I will kill her,” Luna said, her voice dropping. “Though I truly hope that it never comes to that.”

It won’t, I promise you that, Nim said quietly. I would sooner kill myself.

Sarah’s eyes closed and she let out a sigh. “Please don’t talk like that Nim.”

“Indeed, not when we have a spirit of chaos to contain and a wedding to plan,” Luna stated, a slight smile spreading across her lips at the mention of the second. “And what a wedding it will be.”

Oh yes, may I be the bride’s maid? Nim inquired dryly.

“Of course not, you will be one of the brides,” Luna answered, a small smile on her face as she stepped back and nuzzled Sarah’s cheek.

...what? Nim’s voice was completely baffled.

“Duh,” Sarah said, a small chuckle leaving her throat. “Though... I’ve never heard of a wedding with three brides.”

Celestia let out a sigh and chuckled softly. “It is not horribly unheard of here in Equestria. Though... it has certainly never been between an Alicorn, a Draqonequus, and a human.”

“Hmm, indeed,” Luna agreed, a chuckle of her own leaving her throat before she turned serious. “Though our first priority of course is sealing away Discord.

“That’s actually rather simple,” Celestia said, letting out a breath. “He is bereft of actual power at the moment from what you have told me and was only able to reach you because of his... connection... with Nim. As such, Sunset should be able to manage some form of block or interference.”

“You’re delegating this sister?” Luna asked, aghast.

“Yes, what would be the point of having trained expert mages if I was going to do everything personally?” Celestia replied, raising an eyebrow at her sister.

“But... if Discord is a big enough deal for you both to threaten to kill Nim... then why wouldn’t you want to do this yourself?!” Sarah protested, clearly confused.

Celestia let out a sigh. “Because at the moment I’m more concerned about getting a potentially dangerous being out of my sister’s lover’s head.”

Sarah grit her teeth. “She’s not doing anything wrong in there.”

“Oh, other than the fact that I’d imagine that you look much different than a normal human should,” Celestia said blandly. “Tell me Sarah, do you all have pointed ears and cat eyes? What about pointed teeth?”

The woman glowered at her but couldn’t hold it for long. She had to admit, Celestia almost had a point.

“Fine. She was causing some mutations, but I’m sure it was nothing harmful, right Nim?” she asked.

... probably? Nim answered uncertainly. I don’t really know to tell the truth.

Luna shook her head and turned to Celestia. “How are we to do this?” she asked her sister. “Discord was very spare on his details I believe.”

He said that I would need to absorb magic, Nim answered. So... you two could try and just wrap Sarah in your energy and hope for the best.

“That sounds like a good idea,” Celestia said, nodding faintly as she glanced around her bedroom. “I wish we had somewhere more dramatic for this... oh well. At least it’s defensible.”

“You won’t need to defend yourself,” Sarah stated flatly as she felt Luna’s aura wrap around her head, gently cradling her.

“Of course,” Celestia said simply before her magic wrapped around Sarah as well. The woman closed her eyes as her skin tingled and Nim made a quiet, almost cooing sound in her mind.

Okay... that feels good... she said, her voice incredibly relaxed. It’s like... I’m taking a shower.

Sarah frowned but leaned forwards against Luna’s soft fur as their magic did its work, her eyes obscured by the swirling streams of energy that were pouring into her.

“Wow... you really are absorbing a lot,” Luna murmured as she looked down at Sarah, a slightly worried expression on her face. “I hope all this magic doesn’t interfere with your natural recovery.”

“It shouldn’t,” Celestia replied, horn still glowing as she walked closer to Sarah so that her sharp horn was pressed against the woman’s forehead. Sarah’s brows wrinkled slightly as the point penetrated her skin but didn’t go any further. “Sorry, but this should help me get the magic to her a little easier.”

“It’s fine, I’ve had worse,” Sarah replied as she ignored a small droplet of blood worked its way down her forehead.

I... I think I can come out... Nim said slowly, her voice becoming more faint in Sarah’s mind. Celestia... move your horn... it’s in the way.

Celestia’s eyes widened and she withdrew her horn immediately. A royal purple light emerged from the small hole and before Sarah, Luna, and Celestia’s eyes, a figure began to emerge. It was Nim of course, and the Draconequus forced herself out of the hole with a small exhale, the miniscule hole closing the moment she had. Then she began to rapidly grow until she was as tall as Sarah.

“...okay... gravity... is weird.” the Draconequus said slowly as she pulled herself up and then collapsed against Sarah chest. Then she smiled but the smile turned into a confused expression of pain, her face begining to change colors. “I-what-why can’t I-what’s going-on!?”

Sarah looked down at Nim, her eyes widening with concern. “What is it?! What’s wrong Nim?!”

“...” Nim tried to say something but her mouth simply opened and shut noiselessly like a fish out of water.

“I think she forgot to breath,” Celestia observed.

Sarah’s eyes widened and she looked at Nim whose face was turning blue. Thinking quickly, Sarah did the only thing she could think of to make Nim breath, punched her in the stomach, forcing the Draconequus to intake a breath. Nim panted for a few seconds as she got used to having to breath and then narrowed her eyes up at Sarah.

“You know... you could have... kissed me... or something...”

Sarah blinked twice. “I hadn’t thought of that.”

Luna looked between the two and chuckled softly as she bent down to nuzzle Nim. “Welcome to the world of reality Nim, where gravity is in full effect and you always have to breath.”

Nim frowned. “I kind of hate it... it seems like a pain in the ass.”

“Okay, how about this,” Sarah leaned down and pulled Nim into a kiss. When she released the once again panting Draconequus she smirked. “Still hate it?”

“Yes... though that was nice,” Nim replied as she coiled around Sarah’s body slightly. “I want to do more nice things...”

“I’m sure that can be arranged, though perhaps you should leave my room first,” Celestia said, a weary smile on her face. “It’s 5 in the morning...”

Sarah blinked twice and then nodded her head. “Okay, Luna... can you take us back to your room?”

“Of course, though this shouldn’t be too early for you considering that you raise the sun and all, Luna chided with a small chuckle.

“Shut. Up. Luna,” Celestia said, her words coming out like cheese passed through a grater, her eyes beginning to glow faintly.

Luna blinked twice. “Okay... see you... in the afternoon sister, bye!” with that said, the three vanished and reappeared in Luna’s bed with a ‘plumph’.

“You know... you don’t have to take orders from her,” Nim grumbled as she wrapped herself a bit more around Sarah.

“True, but I’d still rather not annoy my sister... especially considering the way her mane looked,” Luna said with a frown. “I think she and Tornado were doing some cuddling before we showed up. It may have contributed to her annoyance with you Nim.”

“That or she rightful hates me because I’m an evil abomination of nature,” Nim stated dryly. “Take your pick.”

“Hey, shush,” Sarah said, giving the Draconequus a firm look. “I’m already getting tired of listening to that... It’s not that I’m not here for you Nim, it’s just that...”

“It gets rather depressing listening to someone lamenting things,” Luna said with a small sigh. “Though, I will not claim that I’ve never done such. So, we’re here for you Nim.”

Nim let out a sigh and turned away before shaking her head and sighing. “You are right... there has been enough lamenting for the evening... let’s move onto something more... interesting.”

“Interesting?” Sarah inquired with a raised eyebrow. “What do you mean?”

“Well... everything I’ve known about love has been second hand... either through you or through Luna,” Nim explained slowly. “So... I was thinking that perhaps I could finally learn first hoof?”

Luna blinked. “You wish to have sex?”

“Yes.”

“Okay, I think I can get into that,” Sarah said with a small chuckle before she gave Luna a kiss. “Besides, what better way to spend my first morning recovered then eating a fine meal?”

“I can’t think of one,” Luna agreed as she nuzzled Sarah. “Though I hope you don’t mind splitting it.”

“The more the merrier,” Sarah stated with a coy grin.

Nim looked between the two and a small smile, the first she’d ever really had, spread across her lips.

Clop Chapter: Melted Chocolate

Author's Note

On the insistence of my editor (Blackwindinsocks) I decided to try my hands at a little clop, I hope it turned out well, please keep in mind that this is my first actual attempt (that I wrote myself) to do this so if it's not amazing, don't judge too harshly. To those of you who don't want to read this, don't worry, nothing plot relevant happens. Anyways, enjoy.

Clop Chapter: Melted Chocolate

Nim looked between the pair, a small smile on her face. “So... how are we going to do this?” she asked them curiously. “I mean... do I even have a vagina?”

“I’d think so,” Sarah said as she pulled her under shirt off revealing her supple breasts, their smooth curves rising up and topped by a pair of perky little nipples. “I mean... otherwise the fact that there’s something leaking against my knee right now wouldn’t make much sense would it?”

Nim blinked and looked down at Sarah’s knee which was leaning lightly against her thigh. Her eyes widened when she saw the narrow slit. To be honest, it was a bit of an oddity, like the rest of her body really. One half appeared to be covered in a selection of smooth, miniscule scales while the other was that of a zebra.

“Well, that’s interesting...” Nim said, or rather moaned as one of Sarah’s fingers trail playfully along the edge of her scaled lip.

“Hmm, a little harder than we’re used too, but I can adjust,” Sarah replied with a smirk as she bent down, her fingers beginning to play with either lip, slowly spreading the petals apart to reveal the inner ‘marehood’. To the woman’s surprise, it actually looked quite normal behind the lips, kind of like Luna’s only without such an obvious clit. The smell was of... dark chocolate.

“Okay, now that, that’s a little bit odd,” Sarah murmured to herself as the aroma reached her.

“Indeed it is,” Luna said as she bent her snout down to take a whiff. “Though, not at all unpleasant.”

With that said, Luna bent down closer and her long, flexible tongue, rolled out of her mouth and ran smoothly along the slit, only barely penetrating Nim. Nim’s body stiffened and her eyes widened in shock, electric tingles running down her spine.

“Oooooh,” Nim moaned softly.

“Wow... that’s an impressive reaction,” Sarah stated with a small chuckle. “How does she taste?”

Luna smacked her lips and grinned. “Like chocolate,” the alicorn said before leaning over and giving Sarah a long kiss. “See?” she asked once they’d broken it.

Sarah’s eyes were wide and she looked down at Nim who was staring up at them, small whimpers leaking from her lips.

“You know Nim, when I was talking about eating you, I was joking,” Sarah said, a smooth, seductive smile slipping across her face as she bent down in front of the Draqonequus’ parted legs. “But... I think I might just follow through with that promise.”

“Just fuck me!” Nim shouted, then blushed deeply. “I... sorry...”

“Well, someone is impatient,” Luna mused with a sly smirk to Sarah. “Of course, Sarah, you have been making love to her often enough before you came here haven’t you?”

“Yeah, why?” Sarah asked, turning away from Nim’s wet lips, causing her to let out a whine.

“It’s just that I have spent the last two years or so without having a single thing twixt my nethers while she has had your able tongue and fingers,” Luna said with a sly smile and a glance towards Nim. “So... I think it’s only fair that I get to feel them first.”

“YOU BITCH!” Nim exclaimed angrily but was unable to move thanks to a subtle spell from Luna keeping her laying flat on the bed. “HEY! NOT FAIR!”

Sarah smirked and looked at Luna with a grin. “Well Nim, she has a point, she hasn’t had me in a lot longer than you have.”

Nim gnashed her teeth at that, but Sarah ignored her for a moment and gave Luna a long kiss, pulling the alicorn’s head down into it, their tongues dancing freely. Sarah pulled away first and with a practiced gesture, long honed with Nim, managed to flip Luna so that she was on her back.

“Whoa!” Luna exclaimed, not exactly sure how she’d ended upside down. Sarah smiled down at her, catlike and smarmy. Then the woman brought a hand up to Luna’s neck and slowly ran it down her chest and down to her nipples, located just between her thighs.

“I’ve missed these,” Sarah murmured as she gently fingered the nipple of Luna’s right breast, getting a soft sigh from the alicorn in reply.

The woman smiled and brought her mouth down to gently lick and suckle at the nipple, savoring the sweet, musky flavor of her lover’s flesh. Luna let out a low moan and Sarah’s other hand left her nipple and moved down to gently play around the edges of Luna’s slit, never once moving into its wet embrace. Luna let out another moan and threw her mane back, the heavens shifting within it as her breath began to become more rapid.

“Sa-Sarah do something more!” Luna groaned. “I-I’ve been wit-without you for TWO YEARS!”

Sarah raised her mouth from Luna’s nipple and gave her a smooth smirk as her fingers continued to toy around Luna’s slit, still never once going inside of her.

“Would the pony princess like some more?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

“P-Pony Queen!” Luna retorted before thrusting herself up at Sarah’s fingers but to her surprise, Sarah’s fingers were no longer there. Instead, Sarah crawled forwards on top of her so that her mouth was inches away from Luna’s, her knee gently teasing against Luna’s wet slit.

“Well then your Majesty, you’re just going to have to wait for me to fuck you,” Sarah replied, a silky smile on her face.

Luna’s eyes widened, she didn’t remember this side of Sarah at all, though that aspect was less important to her then the woman’s knee continuing to rub provocatively against her slit.

“Bu-but Sarah it’s been s-s-so long!” Luna whined.

“And it’ll be even longer before I finally get you off,” Sarah replied, her smirk in place as her knee pushed a little more against Luna’s marehood. “But who knows... maybe you’ll like it all the more because of that.”

Luna let out a little whimper and from not far away, Nim echoed it. SHE deserved Sarah more than Luna did at the moment!

Sarah ran a hand down Luna’s neck as she moved back down the mare’s body, hand trailing all the way again and ending up back at her nipples. Luna let out a lewd moan as Sarah began tweaking them once again and fought down the urge to try and use magic against Sarah, that would be against the rules.

The woman grinned at the mare’s acceptance and her hands began to rove over Luna’s sensitive spots, paying special attention to her inner thighs along with a few playful rubs to the top of Luna’s tail making her groan something indistinguishable. She was now very, very wet and Sarah smiled widely as she bent down to breathe in the lovely smell of her mare’s sex and then very lightly ran her tongue along Luna’s outer walls, lapping up the natural juices and making Luna squirm beneath her.

“Mmm,” Sarah murmured before she pulled her head away and brought her fingers down to lightly rub the outer walls of Luna’s slit, putting just enough pressure on it to make Luna whimper and quake with excitement but not enough to fully make her moan. The woman looked up at Luna’s face to see that it was currently distant, lost in bliss of the moment.

Well, it seemed that her fingers had done their job well enough. Instead of continuing to play with her newest horse-toy Sarah used her hands to pull her pants off to reveal her bare bottom which just so happened to be facing Nim. The restrained Draconequus let out another whimper as Sarah’s toned ass and lightly leaking cunt came into view and she struggled valiantly to move up towards it but she found herself unable once again. The most she could manage was to raise a hand close enough to almost touch Sarah but she never made contact.

Sarah looked over her shoulder and gave Nim a smirk, wiggling her backside once before she got down on her chest. Her supple breasts rubbed softly against Luna’s luscious sheets as she craned her head closer to Luna’s marehood. It was just as exquisite as she remembered it and really... it was all Sarah could do to keep herself from diving in tongue first. An astral tail swung in front of her eyes and Sarah glanced up to see that Luna was smirking down at her, the woman’s obvious appreciation of her majesty much approved of.

“It makes a rather fetching sight this close doesn’t it?” Luna asked with a sly smile. “I bet it tastes even better.”

“Hmm, we’ll see,” Sarah said, returning the sly smile as she moved closer towards the light blue lips. “I don’t know though, I’ve tasted Nim before and she... well she’s pretty good.”

“Nothing but an illusion compared to me,” Luna replied as Sarah crept closer still, her mouth hovering in front of Luna’s drooling snatch. “Trust me.”

Sarah smiled and stuck a finger in her mouth, bringing it out dripping before she slowly ran it along the edge of Luna’s lips. Luna cooed softly at the touch but was clearly impatient to have the woman inside of her for she thrust herself upwards again and Sarah’s finger traveled within her. The woman smiled as the alicorn’s incredibly warm walls, wet and waiting further pleasure, clenched around her finger and the alicorn before her let out a low moan.

“Wow, you’re an eager little thing aren’t you?” Sarah asked with a grin as she tugged her finger out of Luna’s pussy and brought it up to her mouth, slowly licking it clean. “And there’s that taste I love...”

Luna smiled down at Sarah, doing her best to keep from panting at the after shock sensations of Sarah’s finger being within her. Sarah smiled right back and began to bring her face towards Luna’s drooling sex again but once again pulled away. Instead, she moved her mouth back up to Luna’s nipples and began to suckle on them, one after another as her fingers once again returned to teasing Luna.

Luna let out a low sigh though she also whimpered as Sarah continued to tease her.

“Oh for the love of everything just fuck me!” Luna begged.

“Pussy!” Nim shouted back, still immobile.

Sarah snickered softly and moved forwards so that her lips were touching Luna’s belly button and she began to move down, gently massaging the area around Luna’s open lips, preparing her for what was to come. The woman reached her nipples again and Luna let out a frustrated whimper as she lingered there, eagerly suckling from the tiny blue bulbs.

Then, with a small chuckle, Sarah moved back up. Luna let out a cry of frustration but before it could get half-way out of her mouth Sarah’s face slammed back down and into her marehood, her tongue working rapidly. Luna’s frustrated cry changed into a moan of orgasmic intensity as the woman finally granted her release. Sarah continued to lick, ignoring the flood of fluid to her mouth as Luna’s moans rocked the room. The woman continued to lick Luna’s inner walls, focusing most particularly on the mare’s sizable clit and she felt the mare’s walls clench against her tongue.

Of course, Sarah wasn’t the type to give up because the situation was tight so she glanced up at Luna’s bliss filled eyes and decided to up the ante. If Luna could have seen her face she would have shook with fear at the smirk on it, but instead the only warning she got before Sarah shoved her fingers into her tight, unexpecting ass.

“AHHH!” Luna let out a scream of surprise at the sudden intrusion but that was replaced by a moan as her fingers began to move and she lost herself in the feeling, a quiet, happy part of her mind extremely relieved that she’d had a shower before she went to bed.

Sarah smirked as Luna came again, unabashedly crying out her orgasm for all the castle to hear. The woman continued to move her fingers inside of Luna’s tight ass, though now the resistance had fallen away and she’d forced them even farther up it, wriggling like mad all the while.

The alicorn contorted beneath her, long, low, intense moans rolling out of her throat as Sarah fucked her, her eyes wide and full of bliss.

When sarah finally removed her mouth and her fingers from Luna’s weeping cunt and slightly less tight ass, her mouth and chin were covered in Luna’s soaping juices.

“Like that?” Sarah asked rather breathlessly.

By way of answer, Luna’s horn glowed and Sarah was pulled up to her face and found herself being violently kissed by the blue alicorn, her supple breasts pressing against Luna’s neck as she leaned up to get to her lips. Their tongues danced hotly against one enough, Luna’s determined to get every last one of her juices off of Sarah’s. Sarah let out a low moan as she leaned deeper into the kiss until she had to come up for air and gently pushed Luna’s head away.

They lay there, gasping for breath, Sarah atop Luna, their chests heaving against one another, love in their eyes as they gazed at one another, connected by a single trail of saliva.

“Oh God I love you Luna,” Sarah panted.

“And I love you Sarah,” Luna replied, going for another kiss.

However, before their lips could touch again, Sarah’s entire body stiffened as a pair of talons entered into her vagina, parting the walls easily. “Whoa!” she exclaimed as a long tongue traveled inside of her and her body contorted beneath the attentions of Nim who had finally broken free of the spell holding her down.

A low, almost beastile moan rolled out of Sarah’s throat and she bucked her rear backwards to shove Nim’s muzzle deeper into her. However, a sharp slap of fur on flesh stopped her. The woman let out a groan and looked back to see Nim’s cougar paw resting atop her bottom and the Draconequus’ jaws upturned into a smile as she leaned forwards and whispered in her ear.

“Oh no little Miss Dom... we both know that I’m the one in control of this show,” she whispered huskily into Sarah’s ear, her hot breath sliding across Sarah’s skin and making her shudder with anticipation as the words dredged up dozens of mental images. “You’re not going to get into this unless you’re screwing her,” Nim continued, gesturing at Luna who was looking up at them curiously.

Sarah smiled and before Luna had a chance to react, Sarah drove her fingers into the mare’s snatch, eliciting a low moan from the alicorn whose walls clenched instinctively around her fingers. Nim smiled in satisfaction and stood up behind Sarah’s rear again, a smirk on her face as she listened to Luna whimper and groan. Then, she slapped Sarah’s rear again before diving face first into the woman’s parted pink pussy.

Sarah let out a monstrous groan and buried her face in Luna’s neck, though her fingers never ceased in their mission to take Nim to new heights of pleasure as an orgasm rocked her body. Nim barely even noticed and lapped up Sarah’s delectable juices as her long tongue probed deeply into the woman. By this point, both Luna and Sarah were in the midsts of their own climaxes and Nim took her tongue away from Sarah to enjoy the sight of them squirming atop of each other.

Nim smirked like a cat who’d just discovered a bowl of cream. Then she moved her head down and gave Luna a long lick, setting the mare, who’d just begin to calm down, off again as her powerful tongue plunged into her.

“OH!” Luna shouted, a moan of passion leaving her and she moved her head forwards to kiss Sarah’s lips, sealing the pair once more, moaning into each others mouths as Nim worked on them both.

Eventually, Nim stopped and the pair slumped atop one another, panting even heavier now.

“Well, that was fun,” Nim said with a small chuckle as she slapped Sarah’s ass again. “Though... I think it’s my turn now.”

“Right...” Sarah said with a sigh, more from exhaustion then anything else, after all, this was the most physical activity that she’d gotten in a while now.

“Indeed it is... it’s her Majesty’s duty to make sure that all her subjects are happy,” Luna agreed as she gently pushed Sarah off of her and flopped down in front of Nim, pulling her down with her magic so that the Draconequus’ crying cunt was in easily within reach and moved her head forwards to lick up the moisture around the edges. Nim squeaked as Sarah’s tongue joined Luna’s and together, the pair made short work of her moisture.

“Ooooh yessss...” Nim moaned, this was... so much better feeling than when she’d been within Sarah’s mind, everything felt... real. No matter what she’d tried, nothing had ever really made her have her own orgasms within Sarah’s mind. She’d just been tapping into Luna’s memories to experience the same. This though... this was SO much more!

Without realizing it, Nim came, a scream of passion bursting from her lungs and her hips slammed upwards, forcing her lovers tongues into her wet, varried vaginia. The pair exchanged a glance and an evil gleam entered their eyes almost simultaneously. Together, they slowed their licks so that they were going brutally, torturously slow. Nim squirmed back and forth beneath them, her thighs pressing their faces so close together now that they may as well have been the same one.

Another scream of pleasure left Nim’s throat, shattering a nearby window as a bolt of energy left her finger and turned a chair into a bush. Of course, with their faces buried in her delectable muff, neither Luna nor Sarah noticed the later and her screams were too loud to hear the glass breaking.

Instead, all their attentions were taken up by the beautiful, delectable, delicious Draconequus before them. Nim’s cunt almost drowned them with chocolaty juices but the pair persevered and brought her to yet another screaming climax, windows throughout the wing shattering though by some magic neither Luna nor Sarah were affected as their eagers tongues drank down Nim’s fem-cum.

“No-no more,” Nim panted out after she came down from the latest high. “I-I-I can’t-again.”

Luna and Sarah withdrew their soaking faces from Nim and gave each other a glance and smiled. Sarah leaned down and kissed Nim hard on the lips and once they broke she whispered in her ear. “Now I never want to hear you saying anything about me not loving you as much ever again.”

Nim gave her a shaky nod before her head fell back to the pillows, her eyes closing immediately. Sarah smiled and curled up beside her, bringing the Draconequus up against her chest and leaned her head against Nim’s starry mane. Seeing this brought a smile to Luna’s lips and she joined the two, pulling them against her chest.

“I love you both,” Luna murmured.

“And I love both of you,” Sarah replied in turn.

“I’d say something but it would sound tired at this point,” Nim said sleepily before she snuggled against Sarah’s chest. “Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

Return Chapter 23: Of Birds and Bees

Author's Note

Hey guys, sorry for the delay, my brain keeps putting off working on this story for some reason, probably my old ‘don’t finish a story’ reflex kicking in, don’t worry, I’m doing my best to fight it down and kick it in the balls.

Return Chapter 23: Of Birds and Bees

Celestia let out a sigh as her cotton candy mane flopped down the side of her face. Apparently, when engaging in sex, odd things happened around Draconequus. Why this had come to a surprise to her, Celestia didn’t know. What she did know was that every window in the palace’s west wing, with the exception of her own stained glass ones, had been broken. To go along with that, a vast number of the Guards had found themselves assaulted by squirrels going for their acorns, her mane had been turned into stringy cotton candy, and Tornado’s body had been wrapped in wind.

“I knew I should have killed her,” the alicorn grumbled as she walked down the hallway, Tornado blowing along beside her.

“Yes, but then you would have broken your sister’s heart,” Tornado reminded her. “Besides, you already said that they were only temporary spells.”

“That’s true but...” Celestia trailed off as she saw a very odd sight. It looked rather like Aurora if the other Queen had sprouted antenna from her head and grown... another pair of legs. She was also sporting an incredibly annoyed expression on her face.

“Please explain why the buffet I was feeding off of turned me into this,” Aurora said, her voice on the bleeding edge of outrage. “I look like an insect.”

Celestia withstood the urge to smirk at that statement and instead simply nodded. “As it turns out, through a rather uncommon coincidence, we now have a non-Discord Draconequus living in the castle and last night she apparently lost control of her powers in the middle of a particularly extreme round of cunnilinguis.” It was a testament to how many times Celestia had said that this morning that she was able to do do it without stuttering or pausing.

To her credit, Aurora only stared at her in shock for a mere two seconds. Then she took a deep breath and let it out, her antena vibrating ever so slightly. “I see,” the wasp-like Changeling Queen stated carefully, her face inscrutable. “And I take it that you have this ‘non-Discord Draconequus’ properly contained?”

“I’m watching her closely, I can assure you of that,” Celestia said, doing her best to restrain herself from letting out another sigh.

“Good, I would not want another ‘Discord’ flying about,” Aurora said icily. “I doubt it would make our talks go any easier if the sun and the moon were in a constant state of flux.”

“Indeed...” Celestia said as she looked over her fellow monarch, Aurora seemed far more agitated than normal, not at all her normally ‘inviting’ self.

“Would you mind explaining where this new Draconequus came from?” Aurora questioned with a dark frown. “I would like to know if more are going to ‘pop up’.”

“It is actually a fairly confusing story and I do not have time to relate it at the moment,” Celestia stated briskly. “However, there should not be any more ‘popping up’ I assure you.”

Aurora frowned at her before shaking her head slightly. “I take that to mean that this was not at all planned for by you... interesting...”

“Where is Echo if you don’t mind me asking?” Celestia inquired, changing the subject. “This is the first time that I haven’t seen him at your side.”

“In our room,” Aurora replied flatly. “He has come down with a... flu.”

Celestia blinked twice and then nodded. “I see, my apologies.”

There was a sudden flash of light around her and Celestia’s candy mane returned to its normal flowing state and a similar thing covered Aurora, much to her relief removing the antenna and extra limbs.

“Hmm, I’d say that Nim just woke up,” Tornado mused with a small sigh of relief as the winds around him petered out and died.

“Yes... yes, so it seems,” Celestia agreed before glancing at Aurora who shook her head.

“Find the Draconequus and inform her that if this happens again I will do everything in my power to reduce it to an emotionless husk,” Aurora stated flatly before she turned and stalked off, tail twitching iritibly.

“Something bad must have happened to Echo,” Tornado stated, frowning faintly.

“Indeed... now let’s go find my sister and her... harem.” Celestia rolled her eyes slightly at the word, she knew it wasn’t quite the right word for it but it was the closest that fit it.

Luna was awakened by the sound of a tapping at her window. She blearily blinked awake to find herself spooning the sleeping form of Sarah as Sarah did the same to Nim. Her mind went blank for a moment before she pulled her brain back together. Sarah was in her ‘arms’ because they’d made love at last, Nim was in Sarah’s arms because of a very long, confusing ordeal. That was right.

Luna closed her eyes and leaned her head down against Sarah’s, gently nuzzling the woman’s chest from above and causing her to giggle softly as the fur passed over her breasts, the smell of choclate filling her nostrils. The alicorn smirked and then bent down to give her a kiss on the cheek.

“Good morning, my love,” Luna whispered in Sarah’s ear.

“Morning,” Sarah replied, leaning back and kissing Luna on the lips as she held Nim’s still obviously sleeping form in her arms. “I’ve been up for a while just enjoying... all this.”

The mare grinned and nuzzled Sarah again, savoring the feeling of the woman’s soft skin against her fur. Sarah repaid her by bringing a freehand up and running it down Luna’s neck, soothingly massaging it and rubbing out any ‘kinks’ she can detect. Luna let out a low sigh and moved so that her head was lying on Sarah’s chest between her breasts, her face looking down at Sarah’s beautiful, in her opinion, scarred face.

Sarah smiled and leaned down to kiss Luna softly on the lips as the tapping on the window got louder. The alicorn let out a small sigh and moved up to nuzzle Sarah’s face some more as the woman’s talented hands itched and scratched behind Luna’s ears and the sides of her neck getting another sigh out of the alicorn.

Luna grinned through the sighs and nuzzled Sarah’s face again, this time, giving her a kiss on the lips as her broad muzzle rubbed against her skin.

The tapping on the window became insesent and Luna’s ears flicked with annoyance as she lifted her head off of Sarah’s chest and looked at the balcony window. Hovering halfway up the height of the window was a very large jackdaw, it’s blue wings flapping iritibly. The mare frowned. That was an exceedingly large jackdaw. With a sigh she got up from the bed, pausing only long enough to kiss Sarah before she went over to the balcony window door and opened it, allowing the jackdaw to fly in and hover expectantly in front of her face.

“Hey! Lu! Get me out of this!” the jackdaw shouted at her, surprising Luna enough to make her head jerk back in utter shock. The voice that exited the bird’s throat was Jackdaw’s. “I mean, as much as I enjoyed last night’s show and wanted to join in, I stopped liking it when I got turned into a bird!”

“What the fuck?” Sarah asked, letting go of Nim and rolling to her feet, naked and not giving a single fuck about it. “How the hell did that happen?”

“I think it was when her magic was going off,” Jackdaw answered, pointing a wing at Nim’s sleeping form while somehow managing to stay in the air. “Oh, and you kind of hit the whole castle, also, her screams kind of shattered all of the non-enchanted glass.”

Luna blinked twice. “...fuck.”

“...fuck,” Sarah echoed with a blush. “She was screaming really loud but I didn’t think...”

“Yeah, really wish I’d asked to join,” Jackdaw grumbled.

“Wait... weren’t you doing that foursome with Rarity and those other two?” Luna inquired, frowning faintly. “Surely you could not have made it here in time to... wait, we started late.”

“Mhm, I kissed them all goodbye at around five which was right about when you three started going at it,” Jackdaw replied with a small chuckle.

“... you watched us have sex?” Sarah asked, her eyes narrowing slightly at the bird.

“Mhm, part of my duty to protect Lu,” Jackdaw said earnestly. “I have to be watching her constantly, anytime when she’s not using the bathroom anyways.”

“Including when I have sex?” Luna asked with narrowed eyes.

“Especially when you’re having sex!” Jackdaw answered emphatically. “Do you know how many ‘people’ have died because their lover betrayed them and sank the knife into them during sex?” Both Luna and Sarah’s eyes turned furious. “Look, nothing personal, Sarah, I’m sure you’re a wonderful woman and all, but what I’m saying is true,” Jackdaw defended.

Sarah ground her teeth together but Luna ushered her back with a wing and looked down at Jackdaw sternly. “We will discuss this later, Jackdaw, at the moment, I think we’d best wake Nim and get this worked out.”

Sarah shot the bird a glare before she walked over to Nim and nudged her twice. The Draconequus let out a loud yawn and blinked awake, a grin on her face. “It was real... it was all real,” she said quietly to herself.

“Yeah, yeah it was,” Sarah agreed as she reached down and pulled Nim out of the bed. “Much as I hate making you work early in the morning-” Nim snorted, Sarah knew that Nim was always willing to help her no matter the time of day “-you kind of blew out every window in the palace along with turning Jackdaw into an actual jackdaw.”

Nim stared at Jackdaw for a moment before chuckling. “Heheh, it’s a good look for one so baser.” Jackdaw rolled his eyes and motioned with a wing for her to continue, Nim frowned and narrowed her eyes, focusing on her as of yet untested powers. She reached down to her new, unfamiliar magic and withdrew a sliver of power. “Okay... I shall try and fix this.”

Jackdaw just hovered there, clearly impatient wishing that she’d get on with it. Nim extended a hand at him and the large bird’s form glowed briefly for a moment before his body twisted and twirled until it took on the appearance of a floating, flaming torch with eyes and a mouth.

“I didn’t mean to do that,” Nim said with an annoyed growl.

“Should I be worried about the fact that my head is on fire?” Jackdaw asked no one in particular.

Sarah facepalmed. “Nim, try again,” she instructed, placing a hand on Nim’s shoulder. Nim nodded and closed her eyes, focusing on the flaming piece of wood again and extended a hand towards him. This time there was a flash of light and when it cleared it was revealed that the fire on Jackdaw’s head had gone out, leaving him a simple piece of wood.

“Oh yeah, this is so much better,” Jackdaw stated, still more than a little annoyed at his predicament.

“Let’s see you deal with something like this,” Nim replied acidically, glaring at him, her fingers writhing in anger and frustration.

Luna frowned and then something occurred to her. In almost all the times that she’d observed Discord using his magic, he’d never really been the kind for grand sweeping gestures, nor was the the type to cast spells silently and without making a show of it. Instead, he’d just snapped his fingers...

“Nim, try focusing on what you want and snapping your fingers,” Luna suggested with a small frown. “I am not certain but perhaps it could work.”

Nim frowned for a moment before shrugging. “I suppose there’s nothing better to try is there?”

So, with a frown, Nim closed her eyes focused on Jackdaw’s old body and and pictured his current, wooden form, changing back into it. Then she opened her eyes and snapped her fingers. Jackdaw’s form glowed for a moment before the light dimmed and there he hovered in his normal thestral body.

“Yes!” Nim exclaimed, grinning. “I did it!”

“Yes, yes you did,” Luna said, smiling as she walked over and gave Nim a kiss on the cheek before glancing over at Jackdaw. “How are you feeling Jackdaw?”

“Better, much better now that my wood’s not made of actual wood or covered in feathers,” Jackdaw answered, shaking his head.

Sarah glanced over at him, frowning for a moment. “Jack, can you tell us about what’s happened to the rest of the castle?”

“Hmm?” Jackdaw asked before taking his eyes away from his body and glancing up at her. “Oh, right, let’s see, I don’t know everything but I do know that a lot of the castle staff had this sort of thing happen to them.”

Luna glanced at Nim. “Can you fix this?”

“Maybe... give me a moment or two as I try to figure out how this all works,” Nim answered, frowning once more as her eyes closed.

Then, she opened her eyes and snapped her fingers. A wave of gold shot out from her and washed over the castle, the sound of glass returning to its window frames and goblets resembling themselves echoing through the castle. When the wave passed, the Draconequus collapsed backwards, being caught by Sarah far before she could hit the ground.

“Easy there,” Sarah said, running a hand through Nim’s midnight mane. Nim smiled and leaned into the woman’s arms as her breath came in and out in light gasps.

“I’m okay... I’m okay,” Nim told her as Luna walked over and gave her a nuzzle. “I’m not a foal, you don’t need to mother me Luna,” she grumbled as she pushed the mare away and stood back up. “It just hit me as a bit of a shock, that’s all.”

“Yes, well forgive me for worrying,” Luna said, rolling her eyes before glancing at Jackdaw. “Jackdaw, could you do us a favor and make sure that everything is back to what passes for normal here?”

"Sure, Lu, and then I’m going to get some breakfast, being a bird didn’t let me fill up my stomach very much,” Jackdaw replied, nodding his head as he walked back towards the window. “See you in a bit Lu.”

Luna shook her head before glancing back at Nim and Sarah. “Shall we take a quick shower to get rid of any grime and then find ourselves some breakfast?”

“Sounds like a plan to me Luna,” Sarah agreed, nodding her head before she gave Nim a kiss on the cheek and began to lead the Draconequus towards the shower. Luna watched them both with a smile on her face as the pair began towards the other room, she couldn’t wait for the wedding. Then they’d be hers forever and she didn’t give a damn about anyone who said otherwise.

Chapter 24: Three kisses to last forever

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Return: Prologue

Return: Prologue

“And now, Celestia you will bow before me!” the bug like Chrysalis roared as Celestia lay beaten at her hooves. The white alicorn groaned and her horn sparked futilely in the bright mid afternoon air. All around them, the reception had gone silent as ponies stared at their defeated Queen in shock. The unthinkable had happened... Queen Celestia, the Immortal Goddess of the Sun had been bested by... by... by a bug!

“Hahahaha, you know, I’ve been planning this day for months now,” Chrysalis continued, bending down to whisper in Celestia’s ear yet keeping her voice loud enough for everypony assembled to hear it. “All my plotting, all my planning, all it really hinged on was you being too stupid to fail to recognize the fact that your own daughter had been replaced by an imposter. And it worked!”

Celestia made another feeble noise but other than that was unable to put up any form of defense to the taunting bug.

“Look at you, you’re nothing but a pathetic weakling,” Chrysalis said before kicking Celestia in the jaw and then walking over to Shining Armor. She then kissed him lightly on the cheek. “Shining darling, as your wife I’d like to request you dropping the barrier now sweetie.”

Shining Armor nodded his head stupidly and his horn flashed once. The massive force field erected around Canterlot fell in a single solid movement and the thousands strong force of changelings fell upon it in a black tide, destroying buildings and attacking ponies.

Or... that was what Chrysalis was expecting to happen. The reality was... rather different.

Instead of reaching the city... the changeling drones slammed head first into another invisible barrier. There was a moment of confusion that spread through the swarm. There was supposed to only be one barrier! The confusion turned to certain dread as one looked up to see another new barrier above them... they were trapped!

“What? What is this?!” Chrysalis raged in equal parts confusion and anger.

“This is what happens to those who attack my ponies,” Celestia’s calm and regal voice said from above her. Chrysalis’s head whipped back to see that Celestia was not only back on her hooves, but that the alicorn was also standing directly behind her, staring down at her with merciless eyes.

“I-but-how?” Chrysalis demanded in absolute shock. “I just beat you!”

“No. You did not,” Celestia stated, her face a mask of neutrality except for her eyes. Those purple orbs glared at Chrysalis with the fury of the sun itself and the Changeling Queen suddenly felt a new emotion. Absolute fear.

With little to no effort, Celestia’s golden aura wrapped around Chrysalis’s head and forced it upwards to stare at her children caught between the two force fields.

“Now you will bear witness to the punishment for your crimes,” Celestia informed her before glancing over her shoulder at a black coated pegasus. “Captain Tornado Kicker, please give the order.”

Tornado snapped a quick salute before turning over his shoulder and shouting. “Light them up boys!”

As she struggled in Celestia’s unflinching grip Chrysalis’s eyes widened at the command and a wordless cry left her mouth as the space between the shields suddenly exploded in a flash of bright blue electricity. For Chrysalis, who was simultaneously connected to each of the drones other than those on covert missions, the effect was horrendous.

Her body tried to contort in agony, wanting to twist in on itself as her children were killed in the thousands by the magical storm now raging between the two force fields. However, she was unable to. Celestia’s magic had taken hold of her entire body and held her still, forcing her to stare at the consequences of her actions. All that Celestia allowed was control of her lips and throat, both of which were too busy screaming out in unimaginable pain to do anything dangerous.

When her children were finally no more, the top forcefield dropped and a team of pegasi flew over, raising a large wind which then swept away the ash of obliterated changeling bodies. It was going to be used to help fertilize the fields of the nearby farming communities.

Still, Celestia did not release Chrysalis. She held her there in the air and slowly turned her back to look into her eyes which were still hot enough to make Tartarus look like a frozen ocean.

“I am Queen Celestia of Equestria. You are nothing but a momentary annoyance with delusions of grandeur who seems to think that I am a fool,” Celestia said, each of her words sharp enough to draw blood. “You sought to enslave my people. Make them nothing but mindless cattle from which you could siphon love,” Celestia said, her eyes burning into Chrysalis.

“You thought you could impersonate and enslave both my precious daughter and my son-in law. Two beings whom I have known since their foalhood. You had the audacity to ‘hide’ Cadence within the well mapped out caverns beneath my city,” Celestia continued, her voice becoming even sharper, each word becoming a fiery brand.

“Apparently, you also forgot about my sister,” she added with a hint of pride entering into her eyes. “Your little ‘coup’ was over the very second Cadence fell asleep in those caves, you arrogant insect.”

Celestia stepped away from Chrysalis and her horn glowed dimly causing the Changeling Queen to flinch but all Celestia’s horn did was repair the small black stain which had previously marred it.

“Now then, I know that your species’ Queens can jump from one body to another so long as you have one prepared which I imagine you do, so I won’t pretend that my killing you will be at all final,” Celestia stated as her horn flared, bringing forth a great golden blade from where she’d hidden it in the alter. “But I want you to know one very important thing about me Chrysalis,” she continued as she brought the blade up to hang over the Changeling Queen’s neck.

“What?” Chrysalis asked in a strangled voice.

“For those who harm the ones that I love the most, there is only one thing that I will deliver to them,” Celestia said in a firm measured voice. “Death.”

The sword fell, followed by Chrysalis’s head.

Celestia’s horn flashed and all that was left of the Changeling Queen’s body burned to ash. Then she turned to address the rest of the reception who were staring at her with utter awe.

“Well then, my little ponies, I do believe we have a wedding to attend, do we not?” she asked with a kind smile.

The black haired woman sat across from the man in salvaged power armor. Her dark, oddly shaped eyes scanned him thoughtfully and Ashur just knew she was deciding whether or not to try and kill him. Judging by the modified Enclave power armor she was wearing which had been painted steel grey and embossed with the logo of Lyon’s Brotherhood, he assumed that she probably could if she wanted to.

That of course was before he considered the customized infiltrator which he recognized as having once belonged to Everett hanging on her back and the technological marvel of a sword at her hip, not to mention the large one strapped to her back. All in all, the woman he now knew as Paladin Sarah Summers was not someone who he wanted as an enemy.

Meanwhile, within the woman’s head, an argument was going on.

I should kill him, Sarah thought. He’s responsible for the deaths of more people than I’ll ever know.

While that is true, we caution you to look at the options before you, the other voice in her head replied. Nim, previously known as Nightmare, spoke within her mind in a calm and measured tone.

Oh? Sarah asked with a raised mental eyebrow as she sipped at the water bottle she was holding within one of her armored mits. What are they?

You are already well aware of them. You are simply stalling, Nim replied pointedly. Yet we suppose if we must go over them then we will.

Sarah remained silent and set the water bottle down before moving a finger up to lightly brush a strand of hair from her forehead, ignoring the lingering pain from the ugly wound which had come courtesy of John Bear’s deathclaw gauntlet.

Very well, Nim stated, sounding a bit irritated. Our options are as thus; we either keep Ashur in power which will keep the natives of this place in a state of slavery yet will enable the area to become a superpower where Ashur here will eventually improve their lives. Or we help Wernher who plans on freeing the slaves immediately with no plan for afterwards which in our opinion will lead to the destruction of this city’s infrastructure.

Sarah was silent for a moment longer before she replied. Right... she let out a sigh. And that’s not even taking the child into account.

Were we supposed to? Nim asked. That is your job, not ours.

Sarah frowned and then nodded, turning to Ashur. “I’ll help you, Ashur,” she stated. “But only on a few conditions.”

“Such as?” the man asked her.

“Such as the eventual release of the ‘workers’,” she replied pointedly. “And I want you to make it so that everyone benefits from the success of the research on Marie.”

Ashur frowned for a moment and then nodded. “I’d planned to do both of those anyway,” he told her, shrugging slightly.

“Good,” she stated before running a hand through her hair. “So... I guess I should get to killing that sleazeball Wernher.”

“I’d think so,” Ashur agreed though a small smile crossed his face. “You know... I wouldn’t have thought someone like you would have sided with me.”

“Oh?” Sarah asked as she rose from her seat.

“Yeah... you seem too noble,” he replied.

Sarah was silent as she walked towards the door. As she walked through it, she gave one last parting remark. “I’m not all that noble.”

Luna stood on the balcony, overlooking the ponies celebrating below her. After the commotion of the afternoon it seemed like they wanted anything to take their minds off of how close they’d been to being ‘bug-chow’. Still, Luna smiled down at them. They were her subjects, her ponies, the ones she had dedicated the last two years to serving and protecting with iron hard discipline and the steel of her immortal mind.

With the thought of the last two years came a stab of pain. As happy as she was to be back in Equestria and as much joy as she gathered from the adoration of her subjects... there was still a giant hole in her heart. A hole which could only be filled by the woman she loved.

Luna let out a sigh and turned away from the scenes of revelry, her heart no longer in it. Instead, she flapped her wings and launched herself from the balcony, winging towards the garden. It did not take her long to arrive at her favorite part, the part she’d commissioned. It was a quarter moon shaped plot of dirt roughly the size of her bedroom through which a small stream flowed, a constant trickle of reflective water cutting it off from the rest of the garden.

Sitting in the center of the plot of dirt, on a small piece of concrete was a statue made of solid enchanted steel she had commissioned from a particularly skilled minotaur smith. It was the statue of her love. Sarah’s image had been pulled from her mind and recreated in perfect likeness in this statue, each and every curve of her body, each line on her face, every scar not covered by her rather bulky power armor.

Luna smiled as she landed in front of the statue and looked up at her lost lover with bitter sweet eyes.

“I know that you cannot hear me, Sarah, and I pray now as always that you have not passed yet,” she said, as she always did when coming here. “Today our plans worked. Thanks to myself and several others we were able to stop the Changeling Queen and her ‘children’ before she could unleash them upon our little ponies.”

The statue didn’t respond, it never did, of course. Luna let out a small sigh and lay down on the soft ground, not caring in the least how the dirt stained her coat. She and Celestia had searched for two years to find a way to return Sarah to her side... but it seemed that it was difficult to bring back something that had never been sent away. Their searching had ultimately been a failure and now here she was... with nothing but a statue and her memories.

“Now they are out there celebrating and here we are...” she trailed off and sighed again. “You know, Sarah... there are times when I question myself. Did you know that? Of course you did. You know me better than almost anyone else.”

“Am I the one who knows you better?” an unexpected voice asked from behind her. Luna turned to see her majestic sister walking towards her. Celestia looked radiant even in the moonlight and Luna choked down any resentment quickly, it was not her sister’s fault that she appeared beautiful any time after she’d drunken her morning coffee.

“However did you guess?” Luna asked with a shake of her head as she lifted her wing slightly and welcomed her sister to lie beside her, which she promptly did. Celestia wrapped a wing around her as well and gave the back of Luna’s neck a nuzzle.

“I have my ways,” Celestia answered with an amused and loving smile. It was the kind of effortlessly perfect smiles that would have driven Luna crazy a thousand years ago... but now she only saw the love. “At any rate, I thought I would find you here.”

“Am I really so predictable?” Luna asked.

“In some ways yes,” her sister answered before giving Luna another nuzzle. “Of course... you are also very difficult to predict at other times so in my opinion you are no easier or harder to predict than anyone else.”

“Thank you?” Luna said, her voice a bit confused. “Where are you going with this, sister?”

“Nowhere I suppose,” Celestia said with a grin. “Sometimes I simply ramble until someone shoves a hoof in my mouth.”

“Or a piece of cake,” Luna added with a small snicker. “Just how many did you have today? Ten? Twenty?”

“Fifteen, actually,” Celestia replied, sniffing. “After my little act, I thought I was deserving of a reward of some form.”

“Of course,” Luna said, leaning around to look at Celestia with merry eyes. “You did a very good job by the way. I thought the futile moaning was a nice touch.”

“Why thank you,” her sister replied. “I knew our time with that traveling show would pay off one day.”

Luna simply smiled and leaned against Celestia, allowing her slightly larger sister to take her weight. Celestia did so without comment and rested her neck against Luna’s. The pair stayed like that for several long minutes until Luna began to cry lightly.

“I miss her, Tia,” the younger alicorn said softly. “Every time I turn around I expect her to be there smiling back at me.”

“I know,” Celestia replied, knowing much the way her sister felt.

“And every time I am about to say something foolish, I expect Nim to speak within my head and call me an idiot...” Luna trailed off, tears still running down her face. “I just... I miss them both so much.”

Celestia simply smiled softly and gave her another nuzzle. “I know, sister. I know,” she repeated.

Luna just sighed and leaned against Celestia as her grief washed over her again. They stayed like that until the moon had changed its position in the sky and the sounds of partying had died down to a low growl instead of a loud roar.

“Thank you,” Luna said quietly.

“You’re welcome, sister,” Celestia said as she pulled Luna closer to her with a wing and gave her a kiss on the cheek. “I’ll always be here for you.”

“I... I know,” Luna said quietly. Celestia held her close for another moment before rising to her hooves. “Come now, sister. We are both tired and dirty from our day’s struggles, let’s go make ourselves slightly presentable.”

Luna let out a dry chuckle as she got up from her spot on the ground. “So long as we don’t need to share a single bath, I think I can agree to that.”

She spared the statue of Sarah one final look before she leapt into the air, following Celestia.

Return Chapter 1: Frustration

A monolith of stone rose up from the desert sand.

Outside the sun beat down mercilessly on the arid landscape below.

Within the base of the mound Queen Chrysalis paced restlessly.

The chamber around her was a light sickly green color.

Her jaws were clenched together in anger, rage and spite filled her narrowed eyes.

At her side was a much smaller drone. One of many identical drones.

His only distinguishable feature was his mind; created as a sounding board for the Queen herself. After all; one could not create a plan by oneself.

“Dammit, dammit, dammit!” Chrysalis raged. “Nothing works!”

“That is because you have been stomping back and forth for the last hour doing nothing but lamenting the failure of nothing,” her loyal drone pointed out.

Chrysalis turned on him and let out a low growl. “Then tell me, drone, what is to be done?!”

“I have no ability to think of that,” the drone replied. “Were you to give me more than nothing, perhaps I could think of something.”

Chrysalis glared at the drone and repressed the urge to crush its skull. It was doing what she’d created it to do after all, there was no point in losing another one. She’d already destroyed five and did not want to have to go to the trouble of making a seventh.

“Very well,” Chrysalis hissed. “Here are the facts you require. Six months ago I attacked Canterlot using a cunning plan, I was to imitate Princess Cadence, using her stud as a way to undermine Canterlot’s defenses. That plan failed and I was beaten off, my swarm of children, many of whom were actually thinking were killed.”

“I’m aware of that,” the drone stated blandly. “What I am unaware of is how this plan backfired so disastrously.”

The level of disinterest in the drone’s voice further infuriated Chrysalis. Of course, she had made it to be that way, but damnation if it wasn’t vexing to speak with.

“The plan backfired because Queen Luna was able to see into the dreams of Princess Cadence and discern my ruse,” Chrysalis explained. “As long as she is there and capable of doing that... no plan using subtlety will be capable of succeeding.”

“Agreed,” the drone stated. “Finally, we may be getting somewhere.”

“Did I ask for your opinion?” Chrysalis snapped angrily as she turned on the drone.

“I do not believe so,” the drone replied blandly.

Chrysalis stared at it for a moment before shaking her head. “What caused you to state what your opinion was?”

“The fact that you know the reason why your plans are doomed to failure,” the drone replied calmly. “Queen Luna.”

“Yes... but what does that tell me?” Chrysalis demanded.

“That you must eliminate Queen Luna in order to form any successful plot,” the drone answered her.

The fact hit Chrysalis like a ton of bricks... how had she missed it? Queen Luna was the lynchpin in her plan’s failure. If she was gone then Celestia’s Canterlot would be wide open for invasion. She grinned for a moment but as fast as it had appeared, her grin disappeared.

“But how am I to eliminate her?” Chrysalis asked blankly. “She’s infinitely more powerful than I am, and far too observant for any of my few remaining agents to get near.”

“Yet she can bleed and die just like Celestia can,” the drone replied simply.

“True...” Chrysalis trailed off in thought. “But... how do I go about killing her? Better yet, how do I get close enough to her to even attempt such a thing?”

The drone remained silent.

“Speak to me,” Chrysalis commanded.

Still the drone remained silent.

“I said speak to me!” Chrysalis roared. “You cannot have a spark of inspiration one moment and then lose it the next!”

“And yet that is the way every mind works, I am nothing but an extension of your mind,” the drone replied neutrally.

Chrysalis gnashed her teeth at its frustrating, yet impeccable logic.

It would seem that she had to puzzle it out for herself.

Strength itself was, oddly enough, not the strength of the changelings. No. That lay in deceit and cunning and spies. Chrysalis was not the only Changeling Queen in existence, nor was she the most lauded, yet Chrysalis did view herself as the most devious. The Badlands were her domain after all and they were not an easy land to keep free of other pests, the other Queens included.

Yet she did it. Her loss against Celestia and Luna were her first real losses in a very long time and perhaps, just perhaps she had grown arrogant. Putting herself in harm’s way. Despite her pre-prepared backup body, she had engaged the enemy directly, and for her reward, she had been smited. So, perhaps instead of attacking Luna herself... she used something else?

“Who could get closest to Luna?” Chrysalis pondered to herself.

“Her lover,” the drone stated emotionlessly.

Chrysalis frowned for a moment and then nodded. “I suppose that makes sense,” the Queen agreed, still frowning. “But... her lover is lost to the darkness, and inspite of her two years of searching, Luna, an all powerful alicorn, has been unable to retrieve her. What chance do I have of such a mean feat?”

“Luna loves her lover greatly, does she not?” the drone asked rhetorically.

“Obviously, else she would not be her lover,” Chrysalis stated with an annoyed frown. “What is your point?”

“Are you not the being with the closest grasp on love?” the drone asked. “For all that she has searched for a way to bring her love back to her, Luna may have overlooked one key facet of it.”

“Love...” Chrysalis’s mouth hardened into a cutting smirk. “She has not used the love!”

“Exactly,” the drone droned. “Love may be the line with which we can use to retrieve the Queen’s destruction.”

“Indeed... it may very well be,” Chrysalis agreed before frowning. “If we are able to acquire the Queen’s lover without her knowledge... then we may turn her against her and then send her off to kill her.”

“A wise plan indeed,” the drone agreed. “But its execution shall be difficult.”

“Yes... I will need a chamber free of any magic, blocked from the outside in order to bar the dreamwalker,” Chrysalis stated slowly as the wheels began to turn in her head. “It must also be insulated to prevent any channels originating from within.”

“Indeed,” the drone stated.

“Once I have her here within the hive, I can break the lover like I would any other good agent, turn her to my will, and yet leave her with the thoughts that she is her own until the time to strike comes,” Chrysalis said slowly, thinking over her thoughts. “And at night, after they have made love, she will stab the knife into the alicorn’s heart and Canterlot will be open for invasion once more, this time with Celestia’s rage pointed at the lover.”

The drone nodded ‘happy’ to have fulfilled its purpose.

“Wonderful... this shall lead me to a great victory,” Chrysalis stated with a wicked smile as she began to plot.

“Damnation!” Luna shouted, tossing the book away from her in a rage. Thankfully, the book was caught a few feet before it hit the window by Twilight Sparkle who calmly set it back down upon the table.

This was not the first time in the two years and six months that Luna had given into her frustrations. Oh no, this was the fourth time that very evening.

“My Queen, might I suggest that you take a break?” Twilight asked with a calm smile. “You know very well that you do not think as well when you’re angry.”

Luna let out a long breath and glared at the unassuming unicorn mare. The mare in question just looked back at her steadily. She had become remarkably skilled at withstanding Luna’s harshest glares, a skill that not many had ever mastered. The fact that she had an uncanny likeness to her dear friend Clover the Clever certainly didn’t help Luna’s inner rage, instead it made her feel guilty.

The mare let out a sigh and shook her head. “Thank you for your assistance in this matter, Twilight. I... suppose that it would be best if perhaps I took a flight to calm my nerves,” the alicorn said as she rose from the table.

“You’re welcome back whenever you’ve calmed down, your Majesty,” Twilight told her with a naturally happy smile. Luna sighed again, the unicorn was an enviously chipper mare so long as she had a book to read, a far cry from the pitiful wretch Luna had rescued upon her arrival in Equestria.

On her way out of the room, Luna nodded to Rainbow Dash, Twilight’s stalwart guard who was devoted to the point of sleeping within the same bed. Of course, that could be because they were together. Luna shook her head and carried onwards, the lives of the ponies around her interested her less than she liked at the moment.

Her research had brought her nothing but frustration and grief, yet she would not give up. She had attempted everything she, her sister, Twilight, and even Archmage Shimmer could think of. Using Nim as a focus for the spell? No, something about the spirit had made it impossible. Then would it be Daybreaker that formed an anchor perhaps? No, it had to be a living, intelligent being. Why not simply use Sarah herself as a target?

Because you could not bring to Equestria that which was not sent from it. Banishment, as it turned out, was easy. Summoning something that had been sent away from Equestria was difficult but doable... but summoning something that had never been native to Equestria? Ha, you may as well try to catch the wind with a butterfly net. Something living and magical in nature was required upon the other end.

Luna ground her teeth as she reached what she had desired. It was her own room, though she barely noticed the light blue carpet or the other features she’d chosen to adorn the place. Instead, she made her way to the heavily enchanted door to her private balcony and threw herself off the edge.

Her wings snapped open and she shot skywards again, swooping up into the clouds above the mountain in a matter of seconds. The alicorn let out a long sigh as the chilly water filled objects drifted through her coat and took a moment to relax in their embrace before pushed up and landed atop it. Clouds were strange things in Equestria, their interiors were cold and wet, yet the exteriors were hard and dry.

It was an enigma that Luna had only begun to think of once she’d returned from her... exile. It made for a good distraction from her real thoughts. She reached down into the cloud and pulled free a portion of it and brought it to her mouth, taking a long drink from the clear, cold, fresh, water stored within it. To think, something so simple as fresh water could be worth fighting and dying over.

Before she could think too deeply on the subject, another distraction presented itself to her, or rather, himself.

“Another unsuccessful attempt?” a casual voice asked from beside her. Luna turned to look at her new companion. He was a light blue thestral with a mane of even lighter blue and two grey eyes looked at her with a surprising amount of understanding despite his young age.

“What do you think, Captain?” Luna replied with a small snarl.

“Whoa, whoa, easy, Lu. You don’t want to be down one Guard Captain,” the thestral said, holding up his hooves.

Luna scowled at him for a moment longer before letting out a sigh. Captain Jackdaw, Jack to his friends, was Luna’s personal guard. He was devilishly handsome and to Luna’s surprise had both the wit and the skills to match his looks.

Her sister had advised him to her and after setting a few ground rules. They were rules that Luna thought would be standard, but apparently Jackdaw was a ‘special case’. The rules were as followed. Always be sober when not on break, no bringing home mares or stallions when on duty, and most importantly, no making passes at the Queen herself. He’d agreed to all of them readily enough and she’d accepted him. What she appreciated about the stallion was his casual nature in her presence, while other guards were very formal, he made it a point to be casual, almost to the point of disrespect.

“I suppose I couldn’t have that,” Luna said, shaking her head and looking back at the cloud. “It took a great deal of effort to get you in the first place,”

“That’s what all the mares say,” Jackdaw replied with a small chuckle. “Some of the stallions too.” Then he sighed. “But for what it’s worth, I’m sorry again.”

Luna snorted and shook her head. “And again I accept your sympathies... even if they will not help me,” the mare stated despondently before glancing at him with annoyance. “You did not have to follow me up here you know.”

“It’s my job,” Jackdaw said casually. “And of course I don’t like seeing my Queen all frowny and sad. That usually means that I’m doing a shitty job and then they dock my pay.”

Luna closed her eyes for a moment and then nodded, a small smile forming on her face. “Thank you for your concern, Captain,” she said quietly.

“Of course, Lu,” the stallion said with a nod as he got to his hooves. “Back down?”

“Back down,” Luna agreed.

The pair descended from on high and landed once more upon Luna’s balcony. “So... do you want to grab a beer?” Jackdaw asked Luna with a friendly smile. “I mean, you seem pretty down, Luna, and I’ve always said that a good drink will have you feeling on top of the world.”

Luna let out a sigh and shook her head. “Thank you, Captain, but no, I do not want to have a beer,” she stated tiredly.

“That’s what you always say,” the thestral replied, frowning. “Come on, Luna, one drink won’t kill you.”

“No, but one drink leads to ten, then to twenty, and before you realize it you’ll be guarding an alicorn singing ancient dragon hymns while lamenting the loss of her lover,” Luna retorted. “And nopony wants to bear witness to that sad event.”

Jackdaw let out a sigh. “Sorry, Lu, just trying to help,” he replied. “And I don’t know, I wouldn’t mind hearing an ancient draconic hymn, sounds interesting.”

“Hi fund ni mindoraan rot do nii,” Luna replied, a small smirk forming on her face. “Meyus joor keyrok.”

Jackdaw blinked twice before replying. “Los hi kopruzah? Zu'u lost pogaan kiinoot, ni pah do niin stahraal. ”

Luna now found herself blinking in surprise. “Where in Equestria did you learn ancient draconic?”

“I knew a dragoness, cute little thing with orange scales,” Jackdaw replied, smirking. “She started out wanting to eat me, and by the end of the day, she really had.”

“I... have no words,” Luna stated before a small chuckle emerged from her throat. “You never cease to surprise me, Jack.”

“Another part of the job, Lu,” Jackdaw stated, smiling up at her. “If I ever got boring you’d throw me out and my pay would get docked again.”

Luna snickered. “Well, you should have no fear of that happening, at this rate, you may well die of old age before you run out of interesting things for me to unearth.”

“Once again, part of the plan,” Jackdaw replied.

“What else is part of the plan?” Luna inquired curiously.

“Many things,” the stallion answered enigmatically. “And a happy you is the end result of all of it.”

“Well, I suppose you can consider that plan accomplished for the moment,” Luna stated, chuckling as the pair started back into the castle. Sarah may have still been lost to her... but at least she was in good company while she searched.

Celestia smiled at the two mares in front of her. “Very good, I hope you’ll keep me informed of the situation as it progresses,” she told them.

“Of course your majesty,” the one on the right, a simple cello player replied.

“We just thought that you’d want to know,” the mare on the left, a pink model agreed. “At the moment we’re not exactly sure how things will go.”

“Well, I’m still happy that you two decided to tell me,” Celestia stated. “Farewell.”

“Thank you your Majesty,” Octavia replied with a nod before she turned to Fleur Dis Lee. “I’ll see you at the party then?”

“Of course,” the model answered as they began to exit the throne room and left Celestia alone with Captain Tornado Kicker.

“Interesting,” Tornado stated while he glanced at Celestia. “I hope something good comes of it.”

“As do I,” Celestia stated before she got to her hooves and stretched. “Come, I believe that was my last appointment for the day,” she said with a sigh of relief.

“It was,” Tornado agreed, cracking his neck from side to side as he started after his charge. “An interesting day in Court if there ever was one.”

“Yes, yes it was,” Celestia agreed, draping a wing over her chosen stallion. “So, what do we have scheduled for the evening?”

“Shouldn’t you know that?” he asked with a small chuckle. “You are the all knowing queen after all.”

“All knowing my plot,” Celestia replied with a roll of her eyes. “I’m just kept well informed.” Then the mare smiled. “On the bright side, I’m just happy that the other changeling hives have finally gotten back to me with their alliance request.”

“That is good,” Tornado said with a smile. “Maybe you won’t have to incinerate any more of their armies.”

“That is the goal,” the alicorn agreed. “If one of them had come to me and told me how desperate they were before then I imagine that Chrysalis would not have attempted what she did...” she trailed off and looked down, her jaw hardening. “But that in no way means I forgive her, she tried to hurt my little ponies, not to mention my daughter.”

“I won’t argue that point,” Tornado agreed, his voice dropping as well. Over the years he’d started to consider Cadence to be his own child, after a sorts anyways, and the thought of her wasting away in the caves beneath the city infuriated him. “I’m still not sure why we’re making an alliance with the other hives in the first place...”

“Because, there are too many of them for us to fight,” Celestia replied simply. “They number in the billions and can produce soldiers at an unmatched rate... even my Sun could not kill them all quickly enough.”

“I guess,” Tornado replied. “But do we really have to host one of their queens?”

“She isn’t even here yet,” Celestia said with a frown down at Tornado. “And I expect you to be on your best behavior when she does get here.”

“What am I, your foal?” Tornado asked, raising an eyebrow at her.

“No, I think we both know that’s not the case,” the alicorn said, pausing for a moment to give him a light kiss on the cheek. “Now then, shall we find ourselves some dinner?”

Sarah let out a sigh as she sat against the side of the automated railroad cart. She still wasn’t sure if she’d made the right decision. Sure, Ashur represented an actual future for the Pitt, but it came at the cost of the workers, and not all of them could possibly hope to fight their way out through The Hole like she had.

The woman’s finger absently traced the scar again and then moved to something that she’d made a habit of doing, gently playing with her right ear. Its sharp point and sloping rise was still rather new to her even six months after it had first appeared.

“You’d think I’d get used to it,” the woman grumbled as she closed her eyes and let her mind slip into her mental garden. Nim was there waiting for her as always.

The alicorn’s jet black with fur, dark as the blackest night played softly within the moonlit green garden as her starry mane drifted calmly around her head, constellations and other things which Sarah didn’t know the name of, playing within it. She had long ago given up on wearing a pair of silver horseshoes, and instead went unshod. Her piercing blue green eyes were as stormy as always but Sarah had long ago learned to simply love the depth hiding beneath those seas.

As was her habit, Sarah walked over and flopped down against the alicorn’s side, the soft, incredibly silky feeling of her fur rubbing against the woman’s palms. Nim leaned forwards and gave the woman a gentle nuzzle, paying particular attention to the woman’s ears.

“They do not look bad, you know,” Nim murmured.

“I know, I know,” Sarah said as she returned the favor and ran her finger down the middle of Nim’s neck, the way the alicorn loved. “I don’t really mind... it’s still just a bit strange.”

“Ah, and yet lying against a beautiful alicorn within a garden conjured up in the middle of your own mind isn’t?” Nim asked with a small chuckle. “My dear Sarah, I don’t believe that makes any sense at all.”

Sarah chuckled and leaned over to give the alicorn a kiss on the mouth. She held it for a moment before releasing her and smiling. “I guess you’re right,” she replied. “Why bother?”

“That is what I always say,” Nim agreed, giving Sarah another nuzzle as the woman leaned against her contentedly. “So, what are we going to do about the Pitt when we get back to the Capital Wasteland?”

“Talk to Elder Lyons about it,” Sarah stated immediately. “He’s smarter than me about this kind of thing, and if he thinks I’ve made the wrong decision I’ll ride this thing back, walk into Ashur’s office, and shoot the bastard in the face.”

“Now there is a novel solution,” Nim replied with a smirk.

“I thought it was,” Sarah agreed. “Oh well, at least it was better then the aliens.”

She shivered as a part of her body which did not need to be reminded of that encounter shivered.

“I thought we agreed to never speak of that again,” Nim stated, frowning.

“Yeah, you’re right, stupid me,” Sarah said tiredly as she leaned against Nim’s side. “You’re watching for any problems outside right?”

“Of course,” Nim answered at once.

“Good... because I’m going to sleep,” Sarah stated, closing her eyes and leaning into Nim’s fur and letting out a relaxed sigh.

The alicorn looked down at Sarah tenderly before bending down to to give her a kiss on the forehead and laying a wing over her. They’d been surviving without Luna for six months now and Sarah’s pain was finally starting to recede, just a bit.

Nim was glad... Sarah had been suffering from that pain for far too long. The black alicorn let out a sigh, she too missed Luna dearly... but she’d been the source of quite a lot of Sarah’s pain... and sometimes Nim wondered if maybe... just maybe...

If Luna never returned; would it be such a bad thing?

Return Chapter 7: Love Bites

Sarah awoke with a groan, her head heavy and her eyes bleary. She took in a deep breath and then let it out again. This was hardly the first time she’d been captured, though she really wished it would stop happening. As she looked around, Sarah noticed several things; one, it was dark. Two, the lukewarm liquid that she was submerged in. It was strange stuff, it was not nearly as fluid as water, yet at the same time it was not as solid as the prewar ‘jello’ she’d had once. It hugged the contours of her naked body and Sarah took a moment to experiment with it but soon found her arms hitting the edge of the hard cocoon she was ensconced in.

You know, I’d make a quip about how often I find myself in this kind of situation, but it’s getting really old, Sarah told Nim.

Indeed, this really must stop happening to us, Nim agreed with a low throaty growl of annoyance.

So, know anything about our captors? Sarah asked her as she continued to probe the cocoon’s inner wall. Upon closer inspection, it appeared to be padded slightly, most likely designed to protect her, or anyone else trapped within it, from hurting themselves.

Changelings, Nim answered sourly. They were not a major force in the world last I was here, their leader then was Queen Aurora if I remember correctly. She never bothered to send an actual envoy when we reestablished Equestria, but she never caused us any real trouble either.

Okay, so, is the one that has us this Aurora? Sarah asked before shaking her head. Actually, scratch that thought. Tell me exactly what we’re dealing with here.

I am not the best source of information, but I suppose my meager stores are better than nothing for you, Nim answered. Changelings are insectoid creatures that live in large hives. They feed off of emotions, primarily those related to love, lust, desire, and admiration. Personally, I do not see much difference between the second and the third, but then again, my opinion hardly weighs heavily upon the mind of the bugs.

Sarah frowned and nodded her head. Okay... so they’re like the giant ants?

More or less, though unlike the ants, the Queens and some of the ‘operators’ are self aware while the ‘drones’ are less than that, Nim answered.

... you know an awful lot for someone who says she doesn’t know that much, Sarah put in, her mental voice chiding Nim goodnaturedly.

What can I say; I know both little and much at once, Nim replied with a dry chuckle. So, the question now becomes ‘how do we escape’.

Hell if I know, this is Equestria, your turf, not mine, Sarah said as she glanced around the chamber a bit more. Try our standard ‘go along with things until they give us a good opportunity’ trick?

Seems to be the best course of action, Nim replied just as the woman’s sensitive ears twitched and she heard the near silent sound of hooves on the floor.

Company, Sarah stated, careful to keep her eyes looking where they’d been. Now wasn’t the time to reveal that she could see in the dark. She pretended not to notice until whoever it was drew closer to them and began to speak.

“Good morning, good morning, good morning, my little pet,” a low, sultry yet inherently menacing voice murmured in Sarah’s ear.

With practiced ease, Nim made Sarah’s body jump in simulated surprise, meanwhile Sarah asked.

Did she just call me her ‘pet’?

It appears so, this should be ‘fun’, Nim replied as the voice spoke again.

“What? No hello for your master?” the voice of what Sarah assumed was the taller changeling from before, the one who had bit her, asked. “Come now, my pet you must have something to say to me.”

“Who-who are you?” Sarah asked, her voice coming out in faux terror. “Wh-where am I?”

“I am Queen Chrysalis, your master, pet,” she replied and Sarah dimly felt something stroke the back of her neck, it immediately reminded her of a piece of fire ant chitin. “As for where you are, you’re in my Hive, located in the Badlands. We’re far away from your precious alicorn Princess.”

So, running is out, Sarah muttered to Nim.

Seems that way, Nim replied as she thought. We’ll have to find a way out of this room so that I can contact Luna, most likely in the dreamscape.

Wonderful, Sarah grunted as she turned to stare at Chrysalis with wide eyes.

“Wha-what do you want with me?” Sarah gasped through her ‘fear’.

“I want a perfect little pet,” Chrysalis answered as something slithered across the side of Sarah’s neck. It was wet. The woman’s skin crawled at the touch and goosebumps spread across her skin.

“I will not be your tool,” Sarah said with a shake of her head as she tried to wriggle her way away from what was most certainly a tongue. Not needing to really put much ‘effort’ into the act. “Try getting a dog instead.”

“Oh, but a dog can’t do what I want, what I need,” Chrysalis replied and Sarah felt the tongue again. “Only you can do that.”

“And-and what do you need me to d-” Sarah was cut off as a gasp of pain rolled through her, coming from her neck.

Chrysalis had bitten into her and the woman arched her neck trying to break away. This proved fruitless however and Chrysalis kept her her grip as a warm feeling began to fill Sarah. The woman’s eyes widened as she began to feel... strangely warm and a low moan left her lips unbidden of her control.

Nim! What exactly is she do-doing to me?! Sarah gasped through the the unusual procedure.

Biting you, Nim replied.

You-you don’t say? Sarah demanded sardonically as the changeling released her and the warmth increased.

I don’t know, okay? Nim retorted uncertainly. Though, I must say, this is a most unusual feeling.

Sarah shut her eyes as another wave of pleasure ran through her and Chrysalis’ tongue trailed along the bite wound, lilting pleasantly over it.

“Oh my... that is some delicious love you have there,” Chrysalis said as she withdrew her tongue.

“What-what did you just do?” Sarah asked, her bottom lip trembling as the strange warmth spread further.

“Two things, my pet,” Chrysalis replied with a small chuckle as she walked around Sarah and the woman finally saw her face up close. A shock of messy mop of transparent blue hair fell about her narrow face and to be quite honest, she reminded Sarah of some of the chem addicts she’d met. “Firstly, I sampled a bit of your absolutely delicious love. Secondly, I injected you with a bit of a... let’s call it a drug shall we? All the other species do although I prefer ‘venom’ I guess it doesn’t really get the point across as well.”

Sarah’s eyes narrowed. If there was one thing she’d done her absolute best to avoid out in the Wasteland it was chem addiction. Of course, she’d taken a lot of Med-X in her day, but she’d always done her best to avoid it when possible.

“But... I’m not from here,” Sarah protested as another bubble of warmth exploded inside her and she had to snap her mouth shut to prevent another moan from escaping her lips. She shuddered in place for a moment until it passed. “Why... why would it work on me?”

“Because, my pet, changeling venom affects everyone,” Chrysalis replied with a soft lilting chuckle. “It’s evolved into a very potent tool over the millennia, not even the ‘mighty’ dragons are able to resist it.”

Well... that certainly explains the... pleasure, Nim said slowly as one of the waves hit her like a freight train.

Yeah, Sarah agreed, her face twitching as another wave slammed into her.

“Are you not going to fight me?” Chrysalis asked, her voice sounding a mite bit disappointed. “I have heard tales of your exploits with Luna, second hoof of course, but considering that she has been telling them to the palace with regularity, I expected more of a struggle out of you.”

Sarah thought for a moment and then stated. “Either I’m going to get out of this eventually and ram your horn so far up your cunt that it’s going to burst out your stomach, or Luna is going to show up and make you wish I had done that,” the woman stated resolutely before she gasped again as Chrysalis sank her teeth into her neck again, this time in a place that Sarah could actually see.

There was something almost fascinating about the look on Chrysalis’ face as she bit into the skin around her neck and Sarah saw that she was only really using the first half of her mouth to bite. As she bit down the changeling also moved her head up and down slightly in time with what must have been a silent drum beat. Another torrent of fire flooded Sarah’s system and for a moment she thought it was going to drown her before she suddenly felt Nim’s wings close around her.

The woman blinked and found herself in Nim’s embrace within her glade.

“Well... this is going to be very unpleasant,” Nim said after a long moment of silence passed between the two of them.

“Yeah, it really i-” Sarah was interrupted mid sentence as another moan tried to break through but she slammed her teeth shut and captured it before it could escape. “-is, it really is,” the woman agreed with a firm nod. “Can you shut it out?”

“Most of it, I’m afraid that I can’t cut off all of it... after all, it’s effecting your body, not your mind,” the alicorn said as she gave Sarah a nuzzle and the woman jerked softly. “In other words, your mind will remain clean and untainted... but your body may well be ‘hers’.”

“I’m going back,” Sarah replied.

“What?” Nim asked in shock. “Why would you want to go back?”

“Because I’d rather not have her finding out about yo-yo-you this early,” Sarah stated flatly.

“Sarah, please, I am more then capable of defending myself,” Nim replied with a scoff. “Especially within your mind. The only more defensible place would be Luna’s, but she’s absent, as usual.”

Sarah shook her head. They didn’t have time for this. Instead she opened her eyes and ‘came to’ just as Chrysalis lifted her jaws again. The woman saw four deep puncture marks in her neck and they began to bleed until Chrysalis’ narrow velvety tongue rolled over them and as she licked up the blood, the wound began to clot almost immediately. Despite herself, Sarah wanted the jaws back already. She scowled at the thought and glared at the Changeling Queen balefully.

“No, don’t think you’ll escape,” Chrysalis said as if no time had passed since she’d begun to bite Sarah. “Nor do I think your precious Luna will be here to save you any time soon. There’s no way she could know about you and this room is sealed magically to prevent any ‘dreamwalking escapades’ you might have been hoping for. I learned my lesson about that once already.”

Sarah shuddered as another burst of pleasure trailed up her spine but she just grit her teeth, refusing to give Chrysalis the satisfaction of another moan. On the bright side, that did give Sarah a bit of information as to why Chrysalis was doing this. She may not have joined Spencer and Fawkes on a large number of their ‘cases’, but something that Spencer had been very clear about was that there was always a motive of some sort.

For example, why did The Family abduct Ian West from Arefu? Because the boy had killed and cannibalized his parents and they were trying to ‘reform’ him.

Chrysalis’ motive was a bit simpler then that. She obviously wanted revenge against Luna for something.

Indeed, it appears that’s what she is after, Nim replied as she invisibly laid her wings against Sarah’s shoulders comfortingly. Wonderful, it seems that she is causing us yet more problems.

Sarah was too distracted trying to withstrain another moan of pleasure to notice the later half of what Nim had said. Instead she just glared more at Chrysalis and continued to fight down the feelings of almost orgasmic bliss that were floating through her entire body at once.

“Why would you do all this?” Sarah asked, playing stupid.

“I’ll explain later, when you’re more malleable,” Chrysalis replied before said before she leaned forwards and placed a kiss on Sarah’s lips, sending a new, nearly overwhelming flash of bliss through Sarah’s body. “For the moment, it’s because it’s rather fun.”

Then without another word, she turned and walked out of the chambers leaving Sarah’s incredibly hungry body alone in the room.

Sarah closed her eyes again and retreated to Nim’s glade.

Without a word, the alicorn wrapped her wings around the woman and pulled her close as she shuddered in the grips of the drug.

“T-this is worse then the aliens,” Sarah declared as her fingers shook and she hugged the alicorn’s neck tightly.

“I would agree with that,” Nim murmured as she did what she could to comfort the woman. “But do not worry, you will be safe in here Sarah. If she tries to take your mind then I will repulse her until she batters herself to bits against the walls.”

“Thanks Nim, I love you,” Sarah said softly before she looked up at the alicorn and leaned forwards to kiss her gently on the lips. The alicorn reciprocated the gesture and for a long moment everything was perfect. Then another shudder rolled through Sarah, this one originating at the base of her spine and she locked her arms around Nim even tighter.

“And I love you, Sarah,” the alicorn replied softly as she closed the woman off from the rest of the glade, preparing for the oncoming storm.

Return Chapter 9: Maze of Misfortune

Chrysalis ran her tongue along Sarah’s neck again before biting down for a third time in the last ten minutes. She felt the woman strain against her for a moment before she slumped in defeat. The Changeling Queen smiled and then bit deeper, her potent venom sliding into Sarah’s veins and spreading sweet sweet pleasure through her.

The woman couldn’t help but release a moan of intoxicated joy as the venom spread through her and to the changeling’s slight surprise she leaned over to kiss Chrysalis’ neck. Her lips pressed against the Queen’s with hot insistence and as the changeling broke the bite she glanced down to see that the woman’s eyes were unfocused and foggy.

“Luna...” the woman moaned as she strained her neck in another attempt to kiss Chrysalis.

“You must have come to associate me with Luna because I bring you the same pleasure she does,” Chrysalis murmured to herself before a smile spread across her face.

It was a bit sooner than she’d been expecting but there was no reason to complain about her plans being accelerated just a bit. Chrysalis’ smile widened at the thought and then she brought her own lips to Sarah’s and the woman moaned into her mouth as their tongues danced together. After a long moment Chrysalis pulled away, eliciting a whimper from Sarah as her body tried pointlessly to jerk towards her, hips first.

“Oh my, you are most definitely ahead of schedule,” Chrysalis murmured as she eyed the woman’s pathetic form. Then she smiled. “Wonderful, it seems that the time has come for me to perform some mental improvements.”

The Changeling Queen chuckled softly to herself as she walked forwards and lowered her twisted horn so that it was sitting directly against the woman’s forehead. Then with a simple push, she entered her.

It was dark, that was the first thing that Chrysalis noticed about Sarah’s mind. To her surprise, the area looked an awful lot like the Everfree Forest on the darkest night of the year. The trees around her were ancient and twisted things, covered in climbing thorny vines. The only part of the sky, and thus the only point of any actual light came from the moon above which was a barely visible young moon.

Chrysalis frowned for a moment. This was hardly what she’d expected. Then she shrugged, it made no difference really. Her horn lit up and a gout of fire lanced out of the tip and blasted into the vegetation directly in front of her. She kept the blinding flame going for thirty full seconds before she ended the blast to take a satisfied look at the destruction she’d wrought.

To her surprise, the vegetation was completely unharmed. Chrysalis frowned, that shouldn’t be, even within a mind there were rules, and plants were supposed to burn when put to flame. With a roll of her eyes Chrysalis focused her thoughts at the vegetation and attempted to tear it apart with her mind. For some reason, the vegetation completely resisted her efforts.

“What is going on here?” Chrysalis pondered as she looked around the clearing for some sort of path. “Her mind should not be anywhere near this strong, especially in her current addled state.”

The Changeling Queen was about to let out an irritated growl when she noticed a path through the vegetation to her right. She smiled, every mind, no matter how well protected, that a weak spot in its defenses exists and she had just found Sarah’s. Chrysalis walked forward confidently, ignoring the way the thorns clawed ineffectively at her chitinous hide.

She’d made it perhaps ten feet down the narrow passage when there was a slight beep from beneath her hooves. Chrysalis frowned and looked down but saw nothing.

Then her vision went green and her body was consumed by a blast of searing, burning, impossibly hot, pain. Chrysalis opened her mouth to scream but before before she could, her jaw boiled off. The changeling tumbled to the ground, her legs having ceased to exist as anything other than smears of melted protein. Incredible pain rushed through her mind and her vision faded.

Chrysalis opened her eyes and found herself standing once more in the clearing. Her brain took a second to collect itself before her jaw hardened into a sneer.

“You think that will be enough to deter me?” she arrogantly shouted at the sky. “I have broken the minds of much stronger beings!”

In response to her shouting something appeared floating in front of her face.

1

Chrysalis let out a low growl of annoyance and started off down the path again. This time when she heard the tell tale beep she launched herself backwards far enough to avoid the explosion of green plasma. The changeling sneered at the display as the plasma faded.

“You think that little toy will be enough to stop me? Hah, I have felt worse pain from earth pony foals,” she declared as she strode down the corridor.

She’d made it another few feet before an unseen tripwire snapped against her legs. She froze, raising a magical shield around her front but nothing seemed to happen. Chrysalis smirked and continued forwards, shield still up.

“BARK!”

Chrysalis’ eyes widened in surprise as her legs suddenly gave way beneath her and she tumbled to the ground. As she fell she saw a pack of wild dogs approaching her, one of whom had just hamstrung her. The changeling queen lashed out with a bolt of magic and sent one of the dogs flying but before she could do it to any of the others they charged her, falling upon her body with ruthless efficiency and tearing her apart with their unnaturally sharp fangs. The last thing she felt was the light sensation of one of them pissing on her face.

She came to in the clearing again and let out a furious snarl as another number appeared in front of her.

2

The changeling frowned to herself. Perhaps, just perhaps she had underestimated Sarah’s mental defenses. In that case all she had to do was retreat and...

She willed herself to leave the vile little clearing and for a moment it seemed to work but then Chrysalis felt a heavy weight slam into her back and sent her crashing to the ground, her spine broken, blood leaking out of her exoskeleton.

Her vision faded and then she returned once again.

3

“So that’s the way this is going to be,” Chrysalis said with a growl. “I’m going to have to make it through your little maze or else be trapped here in it,” she added, scoffing. “You think you are the first one to have thought of this? HA! I’ve been doing this for centuries, little mortal.”

There was no response.

Chrysalis sneered and set off down the path again.

The Queen was beginning to become angry. She had died nine times already within the twisted maze of a forest and that was far more than she’d ever ordinarily allow herself. Suddenly, she froze and a monstrous roar erupted from the woods to her right. The changeling’s eyes widened in surprise as a giant crocodile like creature that somehow walked on two legs leapt out of the forest and stabbed its claws into her neck and bore her to the ground.

Chrysalis was barely able to breath with the monster’s claws stabbing through her throat but she she did stay alive long enough for it to bring its head down to her level and-

CHOMP

4700 PSI snapped through the front half of her muzzle.

10

Chrysalis’ vision was foggy. She didn’t know what had happened. One second she had been walking down the path and the next... she had woken up strapped to a table with several gibbering green creatures leering down at her.

Once they saw that she was awake one picked up what looked to be a... model pony? With an evil grin it raised it over her and a red beam blasted out of its nose and the creature began to run it down the changeling’s center. Chrysalis let out a scream of pain as she was vivisected.

15

Just as Chrysalis was beginning to get a ‘feel’ for the maze a giant spectral paw slammed her flat against the ground. The air left her chest and she unconsciously sucked some of the muddy ground into her mouth. Before she could process this, the paw was removed and she blearily looked up to see an Ursa Major towering over her.

Despite none of it being real, Chrysalis’ blood froze at the sight of the fearsome predator before it reached down with its maw and almost gently picked her up in its teeth. The changeling was about to cry out with joy at the lack of further mutilation but then the Ursa tossed her into the air with a simple flick of its head. Then its jaws crashed together and Chrysalis’ front half tumbled down its throat as her back end hit the muddy ground.

21

Her hoof was sinking. Why was her hoof sinking?! Chrysalis glanced down at the offending hoof and saw that it was indeed sinking. With a frown Chrysalis tried to pull against the ground, which looked completely normal but all that accomplished was an almost elastic like resistance. Chrysalis gulped and continued to pull away, afraid to stop. Suddenly, something wet and cold began to rain down on her back and she lost her concentration on the tug of war.

With a rubber band like ‘snap’ she was flung face first into the the pit of now pink ground. She ‘tread water’ for a moment before she realized that all that did was get her more stuck! Her wings flared open... for a moment before they slapped back against her side, completely trapped by whatever substance she was submerged in. With a scowl of hopelessness the changeling sank into the ‘bog’, holding her breath until she no longer could. Her mouth instinctively opened and the sticky pink substance flooded in.

It was cotton candy. She was drowning in cotton candy.

33

Chrysalis was walking through the maze. She came upon a section with hedges on either side. Small black vines with blue thorns hugged the ground on either side of her but they seemed passive enough.She shook her head and continued walking, the place was making her jump at nothing. Unexpectedly, she felt something take hold of her hind legs. As whatever was grabbing her lifted her up into the air, she saw three vines from the forest floor rise up and grab her front legs as well as her head. With a scream of pain, she was ripped into five pieces.

47

As she walked through a particularly narrow corridor Chrysalis heard shuffling from above her. With rising dread the Changeling Queen raised her head, her horn already aglow. Strangely, she saw nothing. She frowned and continued walking. There was a light tapping on her back and Chrysalis whipped her head around to find that a massive spider was hovering on a string right above her. Chrysalis let out a scream of surprise as she was suddenly yanked up into the air as an almost netlike bit of web sprang closed around her hooves, drawing them together into a neat little ‘package’.

Once she reached its level the spider walked forwards on its previously invisible web and began to fully cocoon her. Chrysalis struggled but it was hopeless, she was trapped. That done, the spider walked up to her and sank its mandibles into her neck and began to inject its venom, liquefying Chrysalis’ insides.

50

She walked through the maze another clearing appeared. Chrysalis stepped forward with her shield raised, wary of any kind of attack that might come. To her delight, nothing grotesque jumped out at her she lowered her shield. Hopefully she had found a ‘blind spot’ within the woman’s defenses!

“CAW!”

At the noise, Chrysalis jumped as her hopes of a blind spot shrank. With a dark frown she scanned the trees for the source of the sound.

“CAW CAW!”

Chrysalis gaze locked onto the sound and her eyes widened. It looked like the horrific fusion of a human and a raven. Faster than Chrysalis could react to it, it had landed in front of her and leaned forward.

“CAW!”

The Changeling’s horn lit and a bolt of green fire shot at the creature but before it could hit even a single feather the crow had reached her and leapt onto her back. Chrysalis bucked and tried to remove it but that only sent its claws deeper into her and then with another mighty caw the crow began to peck through her side.

69

As Chrysalis walked through a rather open section of woods, she heard a quiet alluring hum and a gentle light coming from her right. The changeling Queen felt herself being inexplicably drawn to the light, and as she drew closer, she saw a large rectangular frame with openings just large enough to fit through. Her eyes gazed up at the bluish glow coming from the tube within and without a single thought she closed with it.

BZZZZT

“HAHAHAAHAH! I can’t believe you actually fell for that!” Sarah’s voice laughed in her ears as life left her body.

99

There was a light ahead of her and Chrysalis swept forwards and entered into another clearing. To her surprise she found Sarah sitting there, a casual smile on her face. “Oh look, you made it,” the woman drawled as she unsheathed Daybreaker from her back and charged forwards. Chrysalis tried to move but her hooves had been glued, literally, to the ground and the woman’s blade passed through her neck with a simple swing.

100

Chrysalis let out an angry roar of utter frustration and charged back into the tunnel only to stop in confusion. The entire layout was different, this time it offered her a branching path with three different choices. Every bit of progress that she’d made over the last few... hours was gone.

Double walked into the chamber where the prisoner was being held with a smile on her face. She was not very complex as far as Operators went, certainly nowhere near as smart as Reflection, but she was good hearted and loyal to the Hive which is what counted as far as most changelings were concerned. Balanced easily on her back was a plate with a few pieces of bread and a glass of water.

Her topaz mane wafted from one side to the other as she walked closer to the Queen who was currently in the process of brainwashing the strange ‘woman’ into being her newest pet so that they could get their revenge on the Equestrian Princesses. Double didn’t really understand it all, but what she did understand was that her mother had decided upon the course of action and that meant that it had to be right. After all, her mother was much older and wiser than her, she was always right.

Double frowned for a moment as she saw that her mother was still busy doing whatever it was that the process required of her. Of course, that meant that the prisoner wouldn’t be awake to be fed and she didn’t want to interrupt what was clearly a very complicated activity. Her brain churned through possible actions as her eyes idly drifted to her mother’s face and then her frown deepened.

It was hard to tell because her eyes were closed but it seemed like her mother was in pain. Her jaw was hardened into a hard edge and clearly expressed upon her features. That, and she seemed to be whining softly, or perhaps it was moaning. Double’s eyes widened as she realized that her mother was in trouble and the plate of food clattered to the floor as she rushed up to her.

“Mother! Can you hear me?!” Double shouted, her topaz mane bouncing from one side of her head to the other. “Please, mother! If you’re in danger let me know!”

She got no response of any kind. Double stood there anxiously, her hooves clip clopping on the ground as she pondered what to do. She could always leave the room and hope to find another Operator to help her, she doubted that the drones would be much help at the moment. However, if she left and something worse happened then she would be held responsible because she shirked in her duty and abandoned her mother!

Double knew that it was times like these that defined an Operator in the eyes of both the colony and her mother and she desperately wanted to be seen as something more than just a replacement for one of the others. So, with shaking hooves she reached up and shoved her mother away from the woman.

To her horror, Chrysalis let out a scream of pain as her mind was torn free of Sarah’s mental grasp and she hit the floor with a hard thud and lay there moaning. Double’s eyes widened in a mixture of shock and concern as she rushed over to her mother’s face.

“Mother! Mother are you okay? You looked like you were in such great pain and I had to help you! I didn’t know what to do so I just pushed you and I know that I should probably have run and gotten one of the older Operators to-”

The topaz maned changeling was silenced as Chrysalis’ forelegs suddenly wrapped around her and she pulled against her Queen’s chest, hard. Double let out a squeal of shocked surprise and struggled against her out of instinct for a moment before she felt her mother’s soft lips press against her forehead.

“Thank you, Double, thank you, thank you, thank you,” Chrysalis said in a soft voice as she hugged her daughter. Double wasn’t really sure what to make of this so she simply let herself be embraced and leaned back against Chrysalis’ chest, savoring the motherly contact.

At last Chrysalis released her daughter and gave her one last kiss on the forehead. “It seems that Sarah’s mind is far better defended than I originally thought,” the Changeling Queen stated darkly before she glanced back at the woman, who was looking at her with a smirk.

“Looks that way doesn’t it?” Sarah asked, though she did wince as another stab of pleasured pain ran through her.

Chrysalis glared at the woman as she returned to her hooves. “I will break you, Sarah. Have no doubts of that.”

Sarah just gazed at her blankly. “I really wish I could move my hands out of here.”

Chrysalis ground her teeth together and then stalked out of the room leaving a befuddled Double standing in the room with Sarah. The little changeling glared up at the woman.

“You hurt my mother!” she shouted angrily.

“Your ‘mother’ has been molesting me,” Sarah said before her eyes closed as more pleasure ran through her at just the thought of Chrysalis’ tongue on her neck. “She’s lucky I’m not free or I’d fucking kill her.”

Double’s wings snapped into action and she hoovered up to Sarah’s face and slapped her across the cheek.

“No one talks about mother that way!” she shouted before turning around and flying back to the ground. “And just for that, I’m not feeding you!”

“That... was fucking therapeutic,” Sarah said with a long sigh as she collapsed against Nim’s side.

“Indeed it was, it has been a great deal of time since I have been able to call upon that much of Equestrian Mythology,” Nim agreed as she gave Sarah’s face a nuzzle. “I sincerely wish that the other had not come along when she did, I had many more planned... and I doubt we will ever gain that great a chance to harm her again.”

“What do you mean?” Sarah asked as she idly stroked Nim’s mane.

“I mean that next time she will come with more support,” Nim answered with a sigh as she nuzzled the woman’s bare chest. “As much as it pains me to say it, Sarah, I will not be able to keep up that kind of offensive against more than one mind.”

“Well then, I’ll help,” Sarah stated, as if it was obvious.

“But... you are not trained for it,” Nim replied with a deep frown.

“I don’t particularly care, I’m not just going to sit around and let you do all of my fighting for me,” Sarah replied as she directed Nim’s head a little lower. Then she froze and realized what she was doing, and the fact that she was naked. “Fuck. Sorry, Nim... this venom stuff must be getting to me.”

“As if I mind,” Nim replied as she returned her head upwards and gave Sarah’s neck a nuzzle. “Actually, it might be good if you and I made love. It may help you deal with the constant stimulation.”

“You think so?” Sarah asked, her eyes suddenly hungry.

“Indeed I do,” Nim answered with a smile as she gave the woman a kiss on the lips, and much to her surprise the woman pulled her face against her as her tongue sought out her mouth. She did not mind very much though and leaned into the kiss until Sarah pulled away, a small line of drool connecting them.

The woman blushed and quickly swiped a hand through it. “Sorry... “

“As if I minded,” Nim replied as she leaned down and kiss her again, this time starting on her lips and beginning to work her way down.

Author's Note

Editors note:

We had many, MANY, more deaths planned for Chrysalis. However, if we put them ALL in you would grow bored. For example; Erlking, bigger boot, Kittens, Changelings, centaurs, and many more, as Ed and I are slightly twisted/sadistic. Hope you enjoyed what WAS included however.

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