Moondancer

Chapters

The Setup
The Plan
The Tower
The Librarian
Learning the Ropes
The Throne Room
The Bedroom
The Bed
The Maze
The Succubus
The Escape
The Shadows
The Return to the Library
The Summoning of a Succubus
The First Seal
The Transformation
The Ophidian Temple of DOOooM
A light meal
Turning tables
Ending the Game
The Confession
The Confrontation

The Setup

“So what is this? You invite me out to this rather rowdy cafe to discuss my birthday present and then give me a sizeable stack of reading material. I admit to being a little out of touch, despite your welcome lessons, but from what I remember birthday presents are supposed to be both a surprise and not require this much work from the recipient.”

“Well, Luna,” said Twilight Sparkle, desperately trying to ignore her rising blush, “I really didn’t know what to get you. I mean, you have everything you could want. I could have gotten Rarity to make you some more socks...”

“Ooh. I like socks,” Luna interrupted.

“But you already have lots of them. And I wanted to get you something we’d both remember. I thought about bringing in someone else for a threesome – they’re always fun – but we did that last year.”

“You really don’t have to get me anything at all, you know. Your friendship and love are the most precious things in the world to me.”

Twilight replied with a hopeful, shy, grin. “But that’s just it. I mean, I got the idea from Rainbow Dash of all people, but I think you'll love it. I’m going to give you me.”

“You?”

“Yes. Isn't it great? Rainbow suggested I do it like that silly Hearth’s Warming Eve cliché – sitting underneath the tree wearing nothing but a ribbon tied in a bow.”

Luna choked on her tea and blushing furiously, prompting Twilight to grin. Once Luna had recovered, Twilight continued.

“I see you like the idea,” she said with a leer, “but I don't think that that would be best. I can do that if you want, but I had something naughtier in mind.”

Twilight relaxed, losing her embarrassment and becoming more animated as she elaborated. “You see, I'm getting to know you. You’re a lovely and good person, but you’re a prankster at heart. You might like me as a present under the tree, all wrapped up and helpless...”

Luna struggled to maintain a calm demeanor while the thought of a cute Twilight Sparkle, wrapped up in ribbons and begging to be released danced through her mind. Twilight was clearly enjoying teasing her too much.

“But you'd like me even more as a victim walking into an epic prank.”

“I confess I do not understand. Please explain. It sounds... intriguing.”

“You love messing with people’s minds. On your birthday, I'm giving you mine to play with. I will teleport to the Castle of the Royal Sisters in the Everfree Forest, and there I will cast a very carefully crafted amnesia spell upon myself. While it is active I will only remember my life up to the week before the one thousandth Summer Sun celebration.”

“Oh.”

“Yes. I won't remember you, or this agreement, or anything that happened after that. I'll just be a very naive young woman alone in a scary castle. You have my permission to prank me. Or seduce me, if you prefer,” Twilight grinned knowingly, “You will know all my buttons better than I will, after all.”

Luna thought about Twilight Sparkle’s ‘buttons’. Luna thought about getting to use that knowledge on a naive and unsuspecting Twilight Sparkle. Luna’s blush threatened to become permanent. She and Twilight had explored each others’ fantasies, and they had slowly discovered that Twilight liked some very strange things, and Luna liked making Twilight happy doing those things. This had come as a surprise to both of them.

“I mean, it doesn’t have to be complicated. You could just have me wander around a haunted castle, scared out of my wits. Or, if you just want to,*ahem*, turn into ’NMM’, cast a lust spell onto me, and laugh as I submit to the night...” Twilight was surprised at how attractive the thought was to her. She shook her head and got back on track, “well, that’d be okay. But if you want to do something more elaborate, that’d be fine too.”

“I see. And this large stack of reading material?”

“That's me. Ammunition. Cheat sheets. Call it what you will. Everything I can think of about me since I was a girl. Childhood toys. Memories of the first time I, well, touched myself. What I was thinking of when I did. Every embarrassing secret. Fears. Crushes. Anything I could think of that you could use against amnesiac me.”

Luna had recovered her poise, and hid her excitement well. She was leafing through Twilight’s expertly compiled notes with an arched eyebrow.

“Snakes, hmm?”

“Ugh! It’s so silly. I know that they’re not slimy, or even malicious, and that they just want quiet, warmth and food… but the thought of even touching one just terrifies me!”

“A hairbrush?”

Twilight blushed, her mind already starting to question the wisdom of giving quite so much personal information to the puckish princess. Still, she thought, she was committed now. “Uh, yes. It’s on my dresser in the library. You know the one, with the long handle...”

“Hmm, this list of ’subjects’ is very long, isn’t it? So many interesting names… This ‘Moondancer’ turns up a lot, doesn’t she?”

“Uh, that’s why I suggested this cafe. She’s our waitress...”

“Big ’crush’?”

“The biggest. It wasn’t just that she’s beautiful,” Twilight’s eyes opened wide with panic, “but she’s not as beautiful as you! I love you! You know I–” Luna interrupted Twilight with her snickering, “*ahem* Yes. Well. She made beautiful things, and she’s really smart and cool. And I think she likes girls. And– Ugh. I couldn't even bear to look at her in university, in case she noticed me...”

“Ah.

“Well, thank you Twilight. You’ve given me a lot to think about. I think I’m going love my birthday present. I’m going to enjoy– What’s the phrase? ’Mindfucking’ you?”

Luna timed the remark perfectly, making Twilight cough and splutter into her tea. They both loved keeping score.

“You may go, Miss Sparkle. As you can see, I have a lot of reading to do.” Luna dismissed Twilight with an impressively languid offhand wave carefully crafted to drive her girlfriend crazy.

She watched the librarian’s surprisingly toned retreating behind with a smirk. When she was sure that Twilight was gone, Luna caught Moondancer’s eye and waved her over. She had a lot of work to do, but there was always time to meet new people.

Twilight sat propped up against some cushions on Luna's bed, reading some papers held in her magic. Luna was lying beside Twilight, as naked as she was. Twilight was using her magic, as her hands were currently cuffed to the bed frame up above her head. More traditional silken ropes kept her legs well apart. She was reading very carefully, not least because dire things were threatened if she dropped the document. Luna was ’helping’ her.

Twilight studiously ignored the bead of sweat rolling down her brow. She was reading what Luna had planned for her, and her overactive imagination was making it hard to maintain her focus.

“So, uh, it’s going to be a morality test?”

“Oh yes. I want to get to know you better.”, the tip of a deep blue wing started delicately stroking the inside of Twilight’s thigh, slowly working its way up her leg. “Your heroism fascinates me. What will you do when it’s really put to the test?”

“Mmmmm! Uhhhh... Shadow constructs?”

“Lovely things. So useful. They look– and feel–” Luna punctuated the remark with a quick pinch of one of Twilight’s already swollen nipples, “just like normal people.”

Twilight gasped. The magic field holding the papers wavered, then became steady again.

“I can puppet them with ease. They’ll be the extras in our little play, whenever I need something more substantial than an illusion. They could even take a more active role, should the occasion call for it.”

“Mmmmmm... Don’t stop...” The wing had reached Twilight’s crotch, and was now tickling her moist lips with a feather-light touch. “You'll, ah, you’ll be Moondancer?”

“And the demon. I’ve spent some time chatting with her and I’ve read your notes. I'll be very convincing.” Luna noticed a trickle of sweat that was rolling down Twilight’s neck, and delicately licked it up.

“Oooooohhhh....”

“I’ll set the stage as Moondancer, teaching you how to have fun. Then I will take advantage of your remarkably poor decision-making strategies, render you helpless, and take you captive as the demon. The powerful succubus will tempt you with dark magics and forbidden knowledge. And lots of kinky sex. Then you get the test: which side do you take, and will you win?

"Moondancer will likely fall, so how will you handle her ‘betrayal’? Will you take the 'good' side and lose? If so, you’ll be spending the night in chains, plaything of the demon and your corrupted lover. Or win, and have a grateful Moondancer teach you some special lessons? Will you side with the succubus and lose? You could find yourself trapped in the darkness, alone with it. Or maybe you’ll triumph with the evil by your side, and have an enchained Moondancer as a toy. So many interesting options...

“So if you're a good girl, fiery little Moondancer will fulfil all your wildest fantasies. Well, almost all of them. I don’t think we’ll be able to relocate to the Canterlot throne room. Unless… No. You’ll just have to settle for most of them. If you’re a bad girl– well, the evil succubus will have to ’punish' you. Either way, be sure to bring plenty of water, because you’ll be getting a lot of ’exercise’.”

Twilight’s willpower was great. It was more than matched, however, by her imagination. The thought of the game that they would be playing got the better of her, and she lost herself. Luna noticed the drool on her lips and grinned. A sudden tweak of her lover’s clitoris and a nip on her unprotected ear was enough to overwhelm her resistance, and she spasmed, arching her back with pleasure. Twilight’s magic fizzled, and the papers drifted to her lap.

“Oh dear! It looks like you’ve gotten bored reading my little plan, and lost our little bet. We shall have to find something else to keep you occupied.” Twilight’s eyes widened with realisation, but she was honour-bound to not stop Luna from placing the magic-dampening spell on her, or putting the gag in her mouth. Luna lowered her hungry mouth to Twilight’s pussy and began, slowly, to lick. Twilight gulped helplessly. It was going to be a very long night.

It was a little past mid-day when Twilight teleported to the entrance of the Castle of the Royal Sisters. The sky was clear and the sun blazing, her baseball cap only just protecting her eyes from the glare. She came prepared for adventure – a rugged jacket over her tank-top, fingerless gloves for climbing, a rucksack stuffed with plenty of supplies, denim shorts and some tough lace-up boots that could take a lot of wear and tear. Everything was carefully chosen to be in keeping with her possessions as a student.

As she stood surveying the magnificent ruins, she noticed a strange creature hovering motionlessly near the ruined bridge. Stepping closer to take a look, she realised with a start that it was a dead Ethereal Thought-Eater. Twilight cautiously approached the creature. She was so focused on the beast that she started when Luna stepped out of the shadows. They embraced and kissed eagerly. Twilight’s baseball cap fell to the ground, ignored.

“I prefer to work with real props wherever possible,” Luna said, gesturing at the limp grey monster once they had reluctantly separated, “particularly when working with someone as perceptive as you. I caught this nasty thing less than an hour ago.”

“So I see. You’ve put a lot of thought into this.”

“Only the best is good enough for you. Now, erect an aethereal barrier around the castle, let me get in character, and we can get started.” Luna’s eyes made no attempt to hide her excitement.

Twilight closed her eyes, gathered her prodigious power and cast a barrier around the setting of their play. As anticipated, she felt slightly drained by the effort, but not exhausted. Luna studied the shield briefly, then turned back to her lover, satisfied.

“Very nice. Now, it’s my turn.” The air around the goddess shimmered, and when it settled a beautiful young woman stood in her place. She was a touch taller than Twilight, slightly heavier built, and her long crimson hair was tied behind her in a ponytail. Blue eyes looked at her from above a lively grin. “How do I look?”

Twilight’s chest tightened, and her heart hammered. She was surprised by the strength of her visceral reaction to suddenly finding herself facing her old crush.

Much like Twilight, Moondancer looked like a spell-caster ready for a day of casual exploration, with a tight T-shirt under a denim jacket, stylishly frayed and torn jeans, and a colourful bandana in her hair. Her ankle-high walking boots looked ideal for scrambling. She looked mouth-watering.

“Uh, good. Really good. You sound just like her, too...”

“How about the smell?”, ’Moondancer’ asked with mock innocent curiosity, leaning in close.

Luna delighted in Twilight’s embarrassment. “I, er, wouldn’t know.” Twilight turned her head away, suddenly interested in the crumbling stonework beside the bridge. Her hand subconsciously rose to her neck, and she held it there a moment before turning back to ‘Moondancer’. Twilight was clearly disconcerted by her lover pretending to be her second biggest crush, particularly considering what she knew was going to happen. She could not, however, turn off her mind.

“Oh, wait– that bottom set of piercings: she got those after she graduated. You’ll need to lose them or come up with a story.”

Luna quickly removed the ruby-studded rings and stuffed them into a pocket in her jeans. The pierced holes they left in her ears disappeared.

“Oops,” said Luna, “I almost forgot the feedback spell,” she cast a spell that conjured a swarm of tingly swirling lights that briefly swirled around Twilight and herself, “There, now anytime you have fun, I have fun. Amplified. A lot. Any last things before we start?”

“Well, um,” Twilight prevaricated, “I-if I do, um, succumb to temptation, please don’t think too badly of me.”

Luna looked at her with compassion. “Don’t worry, Twily. I love you, not the Heroine of Equestria. I just want to get to know you better. I’ll love you just the same, whatever you choose.”

Luna stepped forward, lifted the cap a little and kissed her on the forehead. Twilight flinched at the sting she felt where Luna’s lips had touched. Twilight reached up, felt the welt forming where she had been kissed, and understood.

“Ouch. Well, happy birthday, Luna. Don’t worry too much about me. Remember: have fun.”

“Oh, I will. I’ve been looking toward to this.”

Twilight turned to face the hovering monster corpse and cast the amnesia spell upon herself.

Author's Note

This will be a clop-heavy story, but hopefully some fun and adventure shall be had as well. Hope you like it.

The Plan

“Twilight!”

Twilight staggered back with confusion, suddenly unsure of where she was or what was happening. There was a flash of silver magic beside her. The strange creature in front of her fell to the ground. Twilight, too, lost her balance and fell to the ground.

Everything was happening too fast. Where was she? What had just happened? What was that thing? Who had spoken? Twilight felt swamped by everything that was happening at once.

Twilight’s recovery was, however, commendably fast. Staring up at the sky above, she realised that it was a sunny summer day. Her forehead stung, but she was otherwise unharmed. Her backpack had cushioned her fall. She had a backpack. She was sitting on grass, but she didn’t recognise her surroundings. She must have gone hiking.

There was a crumpled creature in front of her. An Ethereal Thought-Eater, her encyclopaedic mind provided. It wasn’t moving, large bits of it were missing, and it looked slightly burned. It was dead. She had been attacked by an Ethereal Thought-Eater. Which was now dead. Ethereal Though-Eater attacks can cause disorientation and short-term amnesia. Her forehead stung. Ethereal Thought-Eaters are only to be found in the Everfree Forest. She had gone hiking in the Everfree Forest and had been attacked by an Ethereal Thought-Eater, causing her disorientation and amnesia.

She got up. There had been a voice to her side. Someone had killed the Thought-Eater and it hadn’t been her. She turned– and then everything fell apart again.

Moondancer was there. Moondancer was there. She was kneeling right next to her. Close. Moondancer was looking at her with concern. Moondancer was wearing a very tight T-shirt. She really was very close. Twilight was having a great deal of difficulty focusing.

“Twilight?”, asked Moondancer, “Are you okay? What’s wrong? Did it hurt you? Can you hear me?”

Twilight shook her head to try and clear it. “Uh, yes. I can hear you. What happened? Where are we? I mean, I think we’re in the Everfree Forest, but it’s a big place and I have no idea what we’re doing here. I think the Thought-Eater gave me temporary amnesia. Why is there a big barrier around this castle? What castle is that? What’s going on?”

Twilight might run out of breath, but she would never run out of questions. Moondancer knew this, so she hugged her to calm her down. When she pulled away, she noticed Twilight was silently blushing, and wouldn’t meet her eyes.

Moondancer sighed with relief. Noticing the bruise on Twilight’s forehead, she unslung her backpack and began rummaging inside. Whilst still rummaging, she began answering Twilight’s questions.

“Amnesia, huh? Right. Well, I'm Moondancer and I’m a friend from school. That castle is the Castle of the Royal Sisters– yes, in Everfree. We went looking for the castle, and found it too. Unfortunately we also found that it was full of those things.

“You refused to give up, so we lured them away from the castle, you then teleported us back here, and created a barrier to keep them out. Unfortunately, one managed to get close before you got the barrier up, and it attacked– Aha!”

Moondancer pulled out a small green pack of greaseproof paper from her pack. She carefully opened it to reveal a white, greasy-looking paste.

“I didn’t come prepared for amnesia,” she said, “but this this stuff should at least cure the bruise.” She sat Twilight down and began to lightly dab a spot of the healing salve onto her wound. The small amount of magical balm was almost painfully hot on Twilight’s skin – enough to make her gasp and tense – but when it cooled the pain was gone.

“Thanks, Moondancer,” Twilight said, rubbing her forehead where the welt had been, “White fire balm is handy stuff. You brought a lot of it, too.” She was eying the pack of balm in Moondancer’s hand; there was enough there to heal a battle-worn regiment.

Moondancer blushed. “Well, you never know when it might come in handy,” she said cryptically.

“Well, I’m grateful for your over-preparedness."

"Did it do anything for your memories?" Moondancer asked hopefully, "You look better, but you still seem a bit disconcerted."

"I still feel a little dizzy, and I can only remember up to the test on the Griffon Wars. Everything after that is a blur."

"Ohh. That's not good. That was seven days ago. We need to get you into the shade. Maybe some food will help. Hold on a moment. I think I saw somewhere."

Moondancer handed Twilight one of her canteens full of cool, refreshing water, and Twilight drank deeply. Moondancer then got up and started walking to a shaded archway some way past the bridge with long, easy strides, leaving Twilight slumped against one of the bridge posts.

"Wait!", called Twilight, "what if there are more of them? Or some other danger?"

"We counted them when we scried them out, Twilight. All the others are trapped outside. And, as you said when we came up with this plan, there wouldn't be any other living animal anywhere near a Thought-Eater nest."

“Oh.”

Twilight looked down at her canteen with pursed lips. She looked back up in time to see Moondancer go through the archway, and then stop.

"Yes!" shouted Moondancer, holding aloft a triumphant fist. She marched out of sight.

Twilight finished drinking and put the cap back onto the canteen. Soon enough, Moondancer came back in sight, grinning and eating an apple. She came to a stop when she saw Twilight, and stopped chewing. She quickly recovered, however, and jogged back to where Twilight was resting.

"Apples!" She said happily, pulling Twilight up to her feet with ease. She gave one to Twilight, and then lead her through to the archway. Behind the wall was a heavily overgrown garden, complete with several apple trees. Twilight slumped down in the shade of the nearest tree to eat her apple.

"Thanks. This is good," Twilight said between munches.

"Hey, no problem, Twilight," replied Moondancer, squatting against an opposite tree to enjoy her own apple, "We can wait here until you're ready to explore."

"Thanks" Twilight found herself studying the woman opposite. Much to her embarrassment, she caught herself staring at Moondancer’s chest. She blushed and looked away. It was no good; Moondancer pulled her gaze like a magnet.

"Like what you see?" Moondancer asked archly, looking highly amused.

"Yes! I mean– No! I mean... Urgh. I was looking at your T-shirt. 'Negative Entropy'. That's your band, right?"

"Ha ha! I kinda like you too, Twilight. Yeah, they're my band. When I graduate from uni, we'll go professional. Might have to do a few side-jobs to begin with, but we'll make it big soon enough. Rockstar life here I come!"

Twilight found her grin at the other's word fading when she thought on what Moondancer had said. Trying to keep the edge of disappointment from her voice, she said "You only 'kinda' like me?"

Moondancer sighed. "Twilight, you are the... Look. I like you, okay? I just haven't fully forgiven you for that skirt incident a couple of years back. It was really embarrassing, it was all your fault, and you lied to me when I asked you about it."

“The skirt incident? Wait! You KNEW I did that?”

“I knew that somebody put some slimy gunk on my chair. After I spent half the day walking around uni with people laughing at me behind my back. It looked like I had wet myself! Vista teased me about it for months! And worst of all, when I thought it might have been you, I asked you if you knew anything and you LIED to me!”

Twilight winced.

“Uh, Moondancer, I’m really, really sorry,” she pleaded with clasped hands outstretched, “That spell was an accident. Y- you walked away before I could– And when you came back to ask me you were really upset and I was really scared. And embarrassed. I'm really sorry.”

“Twilight, you lied to me and I believed you. I blamed someone else and they wouldn't speak to me for a term.”

“Moondancer, I’m really sorry that happened. I know how you must feel...”

“No you don’t!”

“I really want to make it up to you...”

“You don’t know how it felt. And you lied to me!”

“I’m sorry!”

An evil glint caught in Moondancer’s eye. “You want to make it up to me? You want me to forgive and forget?”

“Yes! I’ll do anything! Please.”

“Okay: give me your shorts.”

“What?!”

“Your shorts. The ones you’re wearing right now. Give them to me. You can spend a day walking around like that. I’ll give them back when I think you realise how embarrassing your 'accident' was for me.”

“Oh. Uh,” Twilight looked around desperately for help, for anything, but she was out of luck, “Oh no. Oh dear... O-okay”

I really hope I put on clean underwear this morning... thought Twilight. She stood up, red-faced, unbuttoned her shorts, and let them drop to her feet. It was far worse than she had thought: she was not wearing her usual underwear at all. She was wearing frilly, black-laced panties that she had never even seen before.

Moondancer was openly delighted at the sight. “Ha ha! Sexy! Do you normally go out dressed like that, or is that for me?" her tone turned mockingly knowing, "Were you planning on seducing me?”

“I don’t know!”, she wailed. Twilight wished the ground would open up under her feet. The heat of her blush and her suddenly churning stomach made her feel strange. She tried to pull down the tank top to cover her panties, but it kept rising back up, and she couldn’t hide them with her hands for the rest of the weekend.

Eventually, in resignation, she stooped down, picked up the shorts, and then threw them at Moondancer. “Here, take them.” She then stood with arms crossed and flushed face and bore Moondancer’s blatantly mocking ogling with poor grace. The heat in her belly just seemed to be getting stronger.

Moondancer finally stopped leering and said, “Well, spend today dressed like that and you might realise how embarrassed I was.”

Twilight shyly sat back down, propping her back against the tree trunk so that her bottom didn't come into contact with the ground. She continued eating her apple, her blush seemingly permanent.

Moondancer seemed taken with the ruins. She wandered around the orchard, looking up at the tower, walls, and battlements with some admiration.

“My mum would love this place, you know.”

“Well, you could bring her here, you know. It’s public land.”

“It’s wild land, Twilight. And mum’s an artist. I don’t think she’d be up for fighting off a swarm of thought-eaters, no matter how nice the view.”

“Sorry. Wait. I thought your family were craftspeople. Silverlight Constructs, yes?”

“That’s my dad’s side. Mum’s a sculptor. They both make stuff, but that’s about as much as they can agree on. They squabble over everything else, including me. It worked out okay, really. They were so busy arguing over how I should live my life that they didn’t notice me living it as I pleased. Fun!”

“Aww. That’s sad.”

“Nah, it’s okay. They do love me, and each other. I just find it easier to love them back when I’m living under a different roof. They can just be a little controlling sometimes. Dad really wanted me to follow in the family footsteps and take over Silverlight one day.”

“And your mother supported your musical side?”

“Ha! As if! No, she hates my music. If she had her way I’d be, I don’t know, playing violin in the Canterlot orchestra or something. Something refined. As I say, she and dad argue, I slip out the door and do things my way.”

Twilight absently polished off another apple, lost in thought. A lot had happened to her today, even discounting the amnesia, so she took some time to refind her balance. The bruise from the attack was gone now, and her methodical mind was free enough from distractions to start asking useful questions.

"Okay, I'm feeling better now,” said Twilight eventually, “From what I recall about Thought-Eater attacks, my memories will recover over a few days. All I need is a little patience. So we need a plan. That means we need a goal. What in Equestria were we doing looking for the Castle of the Royal Sisters in the first place?"

“Well, you see, I haven’t been doing too great in History...”

“Go on...” Twilight said in a warning tone.

“And, well, I really needed some extra credit if I wanted to keep my GPA up. And if I don’t keep my GPA up then my dad will insist that I drop all this ’singing nonsense’ and join Silverlight. And I don’t want to spend my life enchanting knick-knacks or what-have-yous. It was, kinda, the deal between me and him: I could stay at uni so long as I got good grades. If I flunk History, my singing becomes history, too...”

“But you're really smart. How could you be failing History?”

“I, uh, keep getting distracted," Moondancer blushed and looked away, "Anyway. I realised that Professor Tablets really doesn’t like me, and I’d really need something special to get me out of jail free. So I went to you. And you agreed to help. Out of the kindness of your heart.”

“I agreed to give up a weekend of studying to help you pull up your grade in History, because you haven't been paying attention in class, out of kindness? Moondancer, I did mention that Thought-Eater amnesia is only temporary, right? I’ll get all my memories back in a few days.”

“Oh. Um. It was kindness– honest. Maybe you were so frustrated with the quality of other people’s research that you felt impelled to go out there and show them how it’s done?”

Twilight looked at Moondancer with open suspicion, but sighed when she realised that Moondancer wasn't going to budge on her story. Moondancer, for her part, relaxed a little when it was clear that Twilight had let it drop.

"Okay, so what are we looking for here?"

“Uh, you didn’t say, exactly.”

“What?!”

"You found mention of this castle in some old book in the archives. You said that it was a key part of Equestrian history that had been forgotten, or buried, or something. You said we needed to come out here to prove your suspicions and dig up what happened here."

"Hmm. 'Castle of the Royal Sisters'. You have to wonder who that name refers to. Some people from before Princess Celestia? Before Discord? I’m not sure... this castle is in excellent shape… probably has a lot of preservation magics still working… looks younger than it is… it might be a thousand years old, but not five thousand… Uh, what I’m trying to say is: I'll need to think about it."

"That's why you're here, babe," Moondancer said with a grin.

Twilight was focussed, now, and barely even noticed Moondancer's remark.

"Right. So we need to explore the castle. We then need to escape the castle. Exploring should be easy; there shouldn't be any dangers apart from falling masonry, and the castle is in very good condition. Leaving will be harder.

"The problem is the barrier. It will last for several days, and we're trapped so long as it’s up. If I drop the barrier we’ll be swarmed by Thought-Eaters. We need a safe way of dealing with the Thought-Eaters. So, how did you kill the one that attacked me?”

“When they first showed up, I got this out.” Moondancer held up a thick and stocky wand. It was barely two feet long, had very little tapering, and bore runes cut so shallow that they were barely visible.

“Wow! I haven’t seen a siege wand in that style outside of a museum. It looks like Farcaster herself could have made it!”

“Yeah. Family legend says my great to the nth uncle was apprenticed to Farcaster. This thing is nearly three hundred years old. One of the first wands ever made, even. The trigger energy is sky-high, and it’s much slower to respond than a modern wand, but it hits like a rampaging Ursa."

Twilight took the wand, inspected it carefully, and then sighed. "It’s too slow. We'd be overwhelmed in seconds if we tried to use this." She returned it to Moondancer, who stuffed it back in her pack.

"Moving on, how are we for supplies?"

“I brought enough food to last a couple of days; we were only supposed to be gone for the weekend. Oh, and plenty of water. How about you?”

“Oh! Good question. I have no idea. Let me see what’s in my pack.” Twilight started emptying the contents of her voluminous pack onto the grass one item at a time. There was a small two-person tent, a bedroll, a couple of large canisters of water, a walking stick, and a coil of rope all strapped to the outside the pack. From inside, she took out an instant campfire, a towel, paper, ink, quills, a crude looking map of the Forest, her own over-generous supply of White Fire healing balm – “Huh. I must have been as paranoid as you when packing” – and a squeezy bottle containing some liquid that Twilight didn’t recognise. Twilight sniffed the liquid and squirted some onto her fingers, rubbing them together. “Hmm, smells sweet. Some sort of gel or oil. Maybe I was worried about stuck doors?”, she mused aloud.

Twilight reached into the pack for the next item, then suddenly stopped, turning bright red. She then hurriedly started stuffing everything back into the pack, clearly trying to hide the contents. “Uh, looks like have enough food for a couple of days too, and lots of water.”

“What is it?”

“Nothing. Nothing. Nope, nothing wrong here.” Twilight’s blush didn’t fade.

“Ooh, sounds like the fun type of ‘nothing’. Come on, Twilight, we’re both stuck here together. We need to trust each other, don’t we?”

“Plan! We need a plan! Let’s not get distracted by minor details!”

“Okay, okay. I’ll let you off. For now. What’s the plan?”

“Well, okay. Plan. We know the negatives, let’s look at the positives: we’re at the place we were heading to, we’re safe from the Thought-Eaters, there will be no other animal threats to worry about because the eaters will have killed them, and we are unharmed.

“The plan is simple enough. We have enough food and drink to survive several days, and we can supplement them with apples from this garden. All we need to do is wait until Firstday: I have a meeting with Princess Celestia first thing every Firstday. I am never tardy. When I don’t turn up for that meeting, she will ask where I am. She will then come to the castle to rescue us. She can pop my barrier like a soap-bubble, and if the Thought-Eaters decide to attack her then we can watch the pretty fireworks as they explode.”

“Heh. Vengeful, much?”

“Stupid Thought-Eaters”, Twilight grumbled, rubbing her forehead.

“Still, I like your plan. It sure is nice to have your own goddess watching over you.” Moondancer was very amused. Twilight just stuck her tongue out at her.

“So we explore the castle,” Moondancer continued, “camp out for a couple of days, and wait for divine intervention? Let’s do it.”

The Tower

Twilight and Moondancer got up. They strolled around the edge of the copse they had rested in, to survey their surroundings with more care.

“Look at that tower in the wall,” said Twilight, pointing, “It looks like it is still in good shape. If we climb it, we should be able see just about the whole castle grounds.”

“Good idea. Lets go. Lead on.”

Twilight gave Moondancer an odd look at that, and then blushed when she realised what she meant. Moondancer still had Twilight’s shorts, and was clearly planning on enjoying the view of her bepantied behind. Twilight’s embarrassment, however, didn't stop her from trying to sway her hips in an enticing fashion as they walked. Moondancer wolf-whistled appreciatively. Twilight stumbled, and then went back to trying to cover her butt with her shirt.

Twilight reached the foot of the tower and checked the stairwell. Shaking her head, she stood back and started looking for footholds. She was mapping a route up the outside wall in her mind, and it looked doable.

Having decided on a path, she made a noose on one end of her rope. She then used her magic to lift the noose up to the tower battlements and secure it to a huge block. Carefully tugging to make sure that it was secure, she turned to Moondancer.

“The stairwell is blocked, so we’ll have to climb the wall. Leave your backpack behind with mine. We can pull them both up after we're at the top. No point putting undue strain on our arms, or the rope. It would be best if we go up one at a time, too. That way we can catch each other if we fall."

"You go first. I want to enjoy the view.”

Twilight huffed, but acquiesced. She shucked her heavy pack to the ground, and started climbing the rope, finding footholds in the rough-hewn walls as best she could, and using little magic tricks to help her boots find better purchase. In a few minutes she crested the battlements. She pulled herself over, panting for breath.

Once Twilight was clear Moondancer took a deep breath, and started climbing herself. She didn’t know the tricks that Twilight had used, but managed to struggle her way up to the top. Twilight helped her over to the other side, and then used her telekinesis to easily lift both packs up to join them.

“Thanks," said Moondancer, "You okay? Looks like you scuffed your knee..."

Twilight sighed and inspected the damage. Moondancer conscientiously cast a hygiene spell on her hands, and then on Twilight for good measure. She then started fishing around in her backpack for the White Fire balm.

"I'm starting to think that you are getting injured deliberately," Moondancer said teasingly, "you must love this stuff." She dabbed Twilight's knee with the salve, looking at Twilight's wince with concern.

"Why would I like it? It stings like crazy. Ouch. Thank you."

"Hey, I'm not judging! I like getting tied up; we all like different things..."

"That is far too much personal information, Moondancer," Twilight said looking away.

Moondancer sighed. "Sorry, just trying to get you to open up."

"I suspect you're wrong, by the way," Twilight said, looking over the ruins, "We all may privately fantasise about, *ahem*, deviant activity, but the reality is likely to be very different. You may well find being tied up to be less enjoyable than you think."

"Heh. You never did accept my party invites, did you?", Moondancer said with a grin.

"What does that mean? What do you mean? You mean you..." Twilight spluttered into incoherence.

"Mmmmm..." Moondancer's eyes lost their focus, "Have you ever played 'spin the bottle' or 'truth or dare', properly? You can learn so much. I was really nervous, the first time. I had just admitted that I fantasised about being helpless as a 'truth', then Twinkleshine dared Lyra to tie me up. We were so nervous. It felt so good."

"Too. Much. Information."

"Is the great Twilight Sparkle afraid of learning something?"

"No! I'm just not interested..."

"Really? You have a theory that most fantasies are best left in the mind. I have anecdotal evidence that it is better to explore them. Are you going to abandon your theory based on my anecdote, or are you going to be scientific and experiment?"

"Not every hypothesis needs to be tested!", Twilight shouted desperately, "I don't need to know if my fantasies would be better in reality, I'm perfectly happy for them to stay locked up in my head, where they belong."

"So you do have sexy fantasises! Tell me."

"Augh! I'm going to do what we came here for, and survey the castle. Stop teasing– distracting me." Twilight moved to the edge of the battlements. Once she had calmed down a little, she began to actually see what was in front of her.

"This castle is huge! Look at all those buildings. This must have been a settlement of great importance before it was abandoned." She pulled pen and paper out of her rucksack and started to sketch a rough map.

Her sketching was interrupted when a hand appeared either side of her on the stonework and warm body pressed closely against her back. She tried to squirm away, but her friend wasn't having it.

"Just admiring the view, Twilight, no need to get antsy," Moondancer whispered into Twilight's ear, pressing her body even closer, "You're right, this place is huge."

"Stop that," Twilight said with insufficient vigour. When Moondancer took it to be a signal to grind her hips against Twilight's bum, Twilight just tried to ignore her and focus on mapping the castle grounds. The heat that had been steadily building between her thighs only increased.

"Wow," Moondancer said, "look at the size of your barrier. I knew you were powerful as well as smart, but, just, wow!"

"Arrgghh. Give me back my shorts!"

"Come again?"

"New hypothesis. You're acting like a sex maniac because of these stupid panties. If I'm wearing shorts, you can't see my panties. If you can't see my panties, you might calm down, and see how much you're acting like a fool. Out of sight, out of mind."

Moondancer laughed, and pulled away from Twilight. "It's not really fair, is it? With me as the only one with decent leg coverings."

"No, it isn't. Give."

Moondancer stepped back, and Twilight turned to face her. Moondancer grinned.

"I'll make it fairer. But first, I have a confession. We're not going to know if you planned on seducing me until you get your memories back. But I certainly planned on seducing you."

With that, Moondancer unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them off her shapely legs, revealing frilly silk panties, as bright red as her hair.

Twilight couldn't look away, and her face took on a very similar shade. Encouraged by Twilight’s reaction, Moondancer put on a little show. Stepping back a couple of steps, she turned to face away from Twilight, and struck a pose with her legs set far apart and buttocks clenched. Twilight watched dumbstruck as Moondancer bent down, and kept bending, until she was looking at Twilight between her spread legs.

Seeing that Twilight was stunned, Moondancer straightened up, and strutted back to Twilight until she stood mere inches from her.

One of Moondancer’s hands took Twilight’s and pulled it unresistingly to caress her breast through her ‘Negative Entropy’ T-shirt. That done, her other hand pulled Twilight’s head forward into a kiss.

Twilight moved her other hand to the other breast of her own accord. Still kissing, Moondancer grasped her wrist and guided the hand down her body, across her taut dancer’s midriff, to a lower point of interest. Moondancer’s panties were soaked.

Soon Twilight’s fingers were exploring the new world that was before her, just as her tongue was exploring Moondancer’s mouth. Her lust rose and she hooked her fingers around the panties and into the hot, damp cave they covered. Moondancer urgently followed suit, dipping her finger into Twilight’s honeypot.

With the careless fumbling of ignorance, Twilight did not seem to know what to do at this point, but Moondancer clearly knew the territory. Ever the quick study, Twilight mimicked with her hand what Moondancer was doing to with hers. It certainly seemed to be working as both girls were soon lost in a world of passion.

Moondancer started making quiet yips of pleasure as Twilight’s fingers found an area of interest. Twilight had just enough presence of mind to focus her attention there. Moondancer responded by speeding up the motion of her hand, sending shocks of fiery joy up Twilight’s spine.

“Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah! Aaaaaah!” Twilight shouted, head thrown back and eyes closed. A ripple of magic pulsed from her body, and then quietened.

Moondancer's hand quickly moved to replace Twilight's, to bring about her own orgasm. While she was nowhere near as vocal as Twilight, her own climax seemed to be just as satisfying. The two girls leaned into each other, panting hard. Moondancer was the first to recover.

"Wow! I mean I’ve heard screamers before, but you were loud!"

"That's it? The first time I have sex, and all you can say was that I was loud?" Twilight backed up against the wall, hugging herself. There was a faint buzzing sound at the edge of her hearing. She ignored it.

"That was your first– oops,” Moondancer reached out to Twilight with a placating hand, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I forget that you had a sheltered upbringing. I didn’t realise, I didn’t–”

Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She was smiling when she opened them again.

“I– I should have warned you,” apologised Twilight, “but everything happened so fast. I, uh, realise that people are more casual about, um, sex, these days, but I didn’t expect–”

“No, no! I moved way too fast. Your theory about your panties might– er, that is, you do look really sexy, you know.”

Some of the tension was leaving Twilight, “Thank you, then. I suppose I was always going to worry and be neurotic about my first time, so to have it happen in a whirl like that didn’t give my fears an opportunity to mess things up,” Twilight gave a little laugh, and her smile became more natural, “and while I had lots of ideas about the most romantic setting, I have to admit that having my first sexual experience while with a beautiful redheaded rockstar on the ramparts of a ruined castle wall has a certain je ne sais quoi.”

“It certainly trumps mine in the school swimming pool changing room, I’ll give you that,” said Moondancer.

Twilight laughed.

“That only just counts as sex, by the way,” said Moondancer, “Plenty more to it than a hand job," Twilight looked doubtful, but slightly mollified, "Friends?" That seemed to be enough for her, and they hugged.

Twilight looked down at her sodden panties and sighed; unless she wanted to walk around completely naked there wasn't much she could do to clean up. She decided to add 'find a stream' to the list of objectives, and live with the mess until then. She stood up and resumed her mapping of the castle. She did it with her usual diligence, but she still had a nagging feeling that her first time should have meant more.

Moondancer had some idea of what she was thinking, but refrained from commenting. She knew what was to come.

Twilight didn’t get far into her map before she put her quill back down again.

“Okay, now that we’ve cleared the air, what is that buzzing sound? ...It’s coming from your pack, Moondancer.”

“Oh!” Moondancer rushed to her pack, and rummaged around inside. After some searching, she triumphantly pulled out a small pink plastic lump that was vibrating furiously.

“What is that?”

Moondancer hesitated before responding.

“It’s a vibrator. That ripple of magic that came when you, uh, came, must have activated it. The trigger energy tends to be really low on these things, so that elderly stalwart, or aerial come to that, ladies can use them. You know how hard a time the other tribes have with wands. Do you want to look at it?”

Twilight recoiled, as if from a proffered dead rat. Moondancer gave her a look.

“I cleaned it thoroughly before we left, Twilight. I know how you get. You know, nevermind. Maybe later.”

Moondancer knelt down to stuff the now quiescent vibrator back in her pack. Twilight found her gaze drifting to Moondancer’s legs, and her panties…

“Right. Give me my shorts back.”

“What? You still have the rest of the day–”

“Don’t care. You’re acting crazy, and you’ve already agreed that my lack of shorts may be a contributing factor. This is a strange castle, not a bedroom. You need to be focused on our surroundings, not my behind.”

“Aww, Twilight–”

“Don’t want to hear it. You’ve already declared friendship, that’s good enough for me. Shorts. Now.”

“Fine. Be like that then. Spoil my fun. See if I care.”

“Thank you,” said Twilight, before putting them in her pack, for after she had cleaned up. She turned back to the castle, quill and paper in hand.

Moondancer tried to wait patiently for Twilight to finish her map. She failed, and instead started walking the battlements, singing a pop song to herself.

Twilight hardly noticed until the map was finished, but then listened to her friend’s song. Moondancer had a strong voice, a decent enough range, and if she had a little difficulty on one of the longer sustains then Twilight didn’t notice. Twilight applauded appreciatively when the song was done, and Moondancer bowed in gracious acknowledgment.

Then they started planning on how they would get off of the tower.

Without mountaineering gear or experience, neither felt confident about absailing. Twilight had heard that a quick, controlled descent could be achieved by wrapping a loop of the rope around one boot and braking with the other, but didn't want to push her luck.

In the end, Twilight lowered the bags down with her magic, and then tied the rope around her waist. The rope was loosely wrapped around one of the merlons, with Moondancer slowly feeding slack as required. Twilight meanwhile used her magic to ease small handholds and footholds into the thick mortar between the bricks, and slowly worked her way down.

It was nerve-wracking work for both women, but Twilight eventually found her trembling feet standing on solid ground. Once she had recovered, and the adrenaline had subsided, she waved to Moondancer, who in turn untied the rope and dropped it down to Twilight’s feet.

“What are you doing?!” shouted Twilight.

“Your way is slow and boring, Twilight!” shouted back Moondancer.

Moondancer then climbed unsteadily onto the top of the battlement, found her balance, spread her arms wide as if to embrace the sky, and dived off.

"Geronuffalo!"

Twilight easily caught her, but her heart rate didn't recover until she was sure that her friend was safe.

“See? That was much quicker and more fun than your way,” said Moondancer, oblivious to Twilight’s death-glare.

The Librarian

Twilight didn’t have an orgasm when she first saw all the books in the library, but it looked like she came close.

“Oh my gosh! Look at all these books! And they’re so old and so well preserved and so beautiful and *squee*” She clapped her hands together in delight.

“Easy, Twilight, easy. You can’t read them all today, and you can come back. What are we looking for? A history book?”

“Um, Moondancer…”

“What? Was that a stupid question?”

“Um.”

“Spit it out, Twilight.”

“Uh, if someone wrote a history book on why the castle was abandoned, they probably wrote it after it was abandoned.”

“Okay, yes, stupid question. You see? That’s why I brought you along. So, what are we looking for?”

“I– I don’t know.”

Moondancer fell back onto the shelves, laughing. Twilight glared. She also blushed.

“Can’t keep away from a library, huh?”

“Oh, shut up. Let’s look around since we’re here.”

“Okay, but no reading any books. Not unless they’re really sexy.”

“What?!” pouted Twilight, “Moondancer, just look–”

“No books, Twilight. We’ve got better things to do this weekend.”

“Come on! Please…”

“Wow, you really sound disappointed. Wait.” said Moondancer with growing excitement, “Do all these books turn you on? Do you want to do it on a pile of books or something?”

“No! Make a bed out of books? Who would do that? Just think of the damage to the covers, never mind how hard it would be. Ugh.”

“Ah well, you can’t blame me for trying.”

The pair wandered down the great library reading room, Twilight trying hard to not look at the book titles, and so avoid temptation.

“So, large quantities of books don’t turn you on. I won’t lie: I’m surprised. But we’ll find something. You were certainly turned on when you first came into the tent…”

“Can we please focus on the research?”

“Twilight, we are looking through a library that will not have any useful books in it. We’re in this castle for two things, and if you want to focus on research then we should leave the library right now.”

“But we only just got here!” pleaded Twilight, before relenting, “Okay, fine. We can talk about my sexuality if it means that we can stay here a little longer. Just look at the upper bookshelves... Yes, I was turned on when I got in the tent with you. Your striptease was, um, absorbing.”

“Good. We’re getting somewhere. You liked the show, eh? And you seemed to like the after-show party at first, too.”

“Well, it was the first time I’ve been, um…”

“The first time you’ve seen a beautiful naked girl up close? Well, one that isn’t you? It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Twilight, you warned me that you were… inexperienced. I was happy to let you ‘look around’ and get a feel for the lay of the land.”

Twilight was clasping her hands tightly together, and looking all over the room for something to say.

“But then when I offered to help, you cooled off…”

“That’s because–”

“Yes?”

“That’s because you became obsequious and servile. Passive.”

“Wait. That’s why you lost interest? My naughty servant girl act was that bad?”

“Ugh. Let’s just get out of here.”

“No. We are making progress here. What was wrong?”

“Moondancer, I am attracted to you. Really attracted to you. And part of that is because you’re smart, you say what you mean, you don’t back down, you don’t kowtow.”

Moondancer stared at Twilight for a moment, and then slapped her own forehead with the palm of her hand.

“Twilight. Are you seriously telling me that you got turned off because I tried to be nice, and not push so hard?”

Twilight nodded, clearly embarrassed.

“And I spent hours with my tongue in your pussy, wasting my time trying to get you off, and you didn’t say anything?”

“Um, sorry.”

“Twilight, first rule of sex: communicate! If you want me to be less ‘obsequious’, say so!”

“Sorry,” said a contrite and aroused Twilight.

“So, for example,” said Moondancer, turning to Twilight, “and tell me to stop the moment you feel uncomfortable by the way, how would you like me to push you against these shelves?”

Moondancer raised her hands to Twilight’s shoulders and walked forward. Twilight, wide-eyed, stepped back in step with Moondancer until her back hit the stacks behind her. Twilight started breathing faster.

“And then,” said Moondancer before leaning in to whisper into Twilight’s ear, “Order you to strip naked.”

Twilight felt paralysed by Moondancer’s proximity and the thoughts playing through her head. A tingle flittered down Twilight’s spine. Moondancer pulled back enough for Twilight to stare at Moondancer’s tongue as she licked her lips. Twilight whimpered, quietly.

“And then,” breathed Moondancer, “forbid you to move, or say a word, as I lick you to within an inch of your life. Would you like that?”

“Yes,” squeaked Twilight.

“Okay, good to know. Let’s keep going,” said Moondancer in a normal voice, turning back towards the entrance to hide her smirk.

“What?” asked Twilight, failing to hide disappointment.

“Twilight, you’re being rewarded for progress in exploring this castle, not your psyche. I now have a better idea of how to reward you. The question is, what are you going to do to earn that reward?”

The library was well-lit, with the windows in the high ceiling letting through plenty of the evening light. The shafts of sunlight coming in through the windows illuminated empty desks and chairs, rows of them stretching down a long chamber lined with dusty bookshelves heavy with books.

"I'm amazed at the state this place is in," Twilight commented, "after a thousand years untended, this whole castle should be nothing more than mounds of rubble buried under tall trees. This place should have been over-run with life, but it's dead. The protective spells on this place are incredible."

"Would that really be so unusual, if this place was as important it must have been? Canterlot Castle is covered in protective and preservative magics, from what I hear.”

"Canterlot is preserved because Princess Celestia insisted. She knew that she’d be around forever, and wanted everything to be built to last. Whoever lived here may well have had a similar outlook.”

“Makes sense, I guess.”

“Well, it’s a clue, at least. Look: there’s no signs of violence, and these books have been just abandoned. If someone had relocated, I would have expected them to take the books with them, unless maybe people feared that they would be carriers of whatever doom they were fleeing. More weight to the ‘disease’ or the ‘curse’ hypotheses, I think..."

“Books are heavy, Twilight. Maybe they just couldn’t carry them?”

“Uh. Okay, that could also be true. It does imply a quick exit though. This many books, a thousand years ago? Before the printing press? ‘Valuable’ doesn’t even begin to cover it.”

"All this is interesting, Twilight, but why are we still wandering around here?"

"I don't know. It's just... I've lived in a library almost all my life. I've spent years talking to librarians, helping them. I've spent ages wandering the Canterlot collection. I'm half thinking of becoming a librarian myself some day."

"Librarian, huh?", said Moondancer with a grin.

"What I'm trying to say is that I KNOW libraries. I know books. I can FEEL something here. I may be a librarian only in spirit, but I feel kinship for whoever loved and cared for this placed back then. Something is calling me here. Some voice that wants to be heard."

Twilight cast her eyes around, looking for something, anything, to catch her attention, but nothing did. Moondancer reached out to touch her arm when suddenly Twilight held up her hand. Moondancer froze. Twilight closed her eyes and stood still for a long moment, barely seeming to breathe.

She opened her eyes and suddenly moved with new confidence to the librarian's desk at the entrance. It was blackened and worn with age, and being near the door had done it no favours.

The desk was mostly clear: an ink well with centuries-dry ink, a puddle of wax complete with wicks sitting next to a pile of waiting lanterns, a plain looking penknife, a few other knick-knacks that were well-enough made to survive the heavy touch of time. Twilight's eye was drawn to a large glass paperweight. With a hesitant hand she touched it with a finger, which she then pulled back quickly when the weight started to glow with its own light.

The ball of light left the glass blob, drifting towards Twilight. Twilight backed away. The light stopped, and hovered over the ground. It flickered and expanded, until where it stood was the glowing form of a middle-aged, blue haired, green skinned, gentleman dressed in flowing black robes with silver highlights. He seemed to be in a state of grief, trying to collect himself.

Moondancer was shocked, mouth agape. "This isn't... What is that? This isn't part of..."

She cut off when the man started to speak to them in a whispery voice that barely carried, even in the still air. Both women leaned in closer to hear more clearly.

"... name is Moon Reader. Deputy chief librarian of the Library of the Royal Sisters. How can I help you?”

It took a moment for the women to recover from their shock. It was Twilight who spoke.

“Moon Reader, can you tell us what happened here? Why is this place deserted?”

It must have been the wrong question as it caused the apparition’s face to crumple in misery.

“P– Princess Luna is gone. My princess. How can you have a ‘Library of the Royal Sisters’ when there’s only one sister?

“I, we, were told that we must leave this place. I begged to stay, but the guard would not be argued with. Princess Celestia was still in mourning. S-She was sobbing every night in the main hall, begging the moon to forgive her blindness, she wouldn’t even acknowledge our presence. She was lost without her sister. What could we do?

“The library feels empty without Princess Luna. She never seemed to want attention, always kept her distance, but her quiet presence enfolded this place in a protective embrace. The protector of my dreams, ever since I was a child– How could I have abandoned her?! Why couldn’t I find the courage to tell her what she meant to me, to us?

"The court needed to move out. The castle was full of memories of Princess Luna, Princess Celestia seemed almost haunted by them. ‘If we move elsewhere,’ they said, ‘she may recover her senses and once again lead us’. Some wag suggested Canterlot. Princess Celestia loved flying in the mountain air, and it is so different from the Castle that she might not be constantly reminded of her sister. We had no better plan, so there they went.

"They told me that I couldn’t stay. The forest had turned against us and it wasn't safe. They forced everybody to abandon this place. They even abandoned the books! Too heavy, when the only way to cross the forest safely was to fly.

“Princess Luna was– I saw her face, two nights before it happened. I saw her eyes–

“I was ordered to go. I grew up in this library. I lived here, worked here, and never wanted anything else than to continue to do so... I was so scared.

"We all failed Luna. We all abandoned her. They left here rather than be reminded of that. I– I couldn’t leave. I couldn’t turn my back on her again. I couldn’t– I couldn’t– I–

"They, they buried my body in the garden. Princess Celestia insisted. I’m very grateful for that.”

The figure broke down into sobs, before retreating back to his crystal phylactery.

Learning the Ropes

"That... that was...", Moondancer was shocked.

"Incredible! A first-hand account from a thousand years ago!", Twilight was having difficulty holding back her enthusiasm, "Princess Celestia had a sister. Princess Celestia had a sister! This changes everything! She must have somehow died, but what could kill an goddess? And the princess blamed herself 'for being so blind'... I wonder what that meant? And Celestia was constantly reminded of her sister here, so they abandoned this place and relocated the capital to Canterlot! He said that the forest had turned against them; maybe the forest wasn't always as hostile when this 'Princess Luna' was around. Was she a Princess of nature? But 'Luna' suggests the moon, based on the language of ancient Roam. Does that mean Princess Celestia used to only control the sun? Or..."

"Breathe, sweetie.", Moondancer had recovered from her shock and was now merely amused by Twilight's response.

"Well, I have no doubt that this will get you your history credit, but, well, we can’t take him to Canterlot, can we?”

"He would never let us take his phylactery from here,” agreed Moondancer, “We can do a proper interview, I suppose, once he’s feeling better. And at least we know some of the answers to our questions now. We just need to find some supporting evidence. There must be something in the castle that will prove her existence and we can take with us…”

“Okay, so we now need to explore the rest of the castle.”

“Yup. But first, follow me.”

Moondancer led a bemused Twilight out of the library ruins and back to the grove of fruit trees in the garden. The sun was rapidly setting behind the castle walls, flooding the orchard with a last caress of golden light. Faint and distant birdsong could be heard over the babble of the small brook, and a warm breeze carried with it the fragrance of ripe apples.

Moondancer turned to face a deeply confused Twilight. She was smiling mysteriously. "Forgotten something, Twilight?" she asked with a raised eyebrow. Twilight clearly had, because her confusion remained.

“Reward for progress, Twilight. Rewards for progress. And this definitely counts. So, give me your pack, stand over there, and don’t move.”

Twilight awkwardly obeyed as best she could, fighting the urge to fidget.

“Good,” said Moondancer, she placing both Twilight’s pack and her own up against a tree. She took the coil of rope from her bag.

Twilight fidgeted uneasily amongst the trees at the edge of the camp. Moondancer pointedly ignored her, examining the coil of rope with a critical eye. The rope did not pass Moondancer’s inspection, and she started infusing it with magic. Twilight couldn’t quite make out the enchantment that Moondancer was using, but it seemed to make the rope more flexible. Twilight bit her lip.

“Undress, slave,” called out Moondancer, without bothering to turn to face Twilight.

Now satisfied with the state of her own rope, Moondancer then took the rope from Twilight’s pack, and started working on that.

She barely glanced at Twilight to check that the spell-caster was following orders obediently.

"No, no. Keep your boots on," Moondancer said, and soon they were the only item remaining.

Twilight stood nervously amongst the trees, completely uncertain about what to do with her hands. Moondancer nodded approvingly before standing back, judging Twilight's position relative to nearby trunks and branches.

“Right, let’s get started. As always, if you’re uncomfortable, if I’m moving too fast, if you suddenly need to pee, if you have an itch that needs scratching, if it’d be better if I went a little softer, or harder, or whatever, tell me. Okay?”

Twilight nodded.

“Good.”

Moondancer casually tossed both coils of softened ropes at Twilight’s feet.

Moondancer’s magic seized the end of one of the ropes and with surprising speed and competence, wound it with many turns around one of Twilight's wrists. Twilight shied away reflexively, but the rope held her arm fast. The other end shot up high into branches of a nearby tree, the coil at Twilight's feet quickly unspooling.

Twilight was staring into the high branches when she suddenly noticed movement on the tree-trunk. With startling speed something long and thin wound down around the trunk and snaked out across the grass to Twilight's feet. Twilight's even quicker reflexes caused her to scream "Snake!", and jump back until the rope on her arm pulled her short. She found herself at an ungainly angle, pulling at the rope on her arm, trying to scramble away from the other end of the rope in panic.

Moondancer sighed. The rope at the foot of the tree formed itself into a loose coil on the ground. "Step into the rope trap, Twilight," she said soothingly, "It won’t bite, I promise."

Twilight stammered an apology, and nervously set her foot in the centre of the coil. She blinked at the speed it wrapped itself around her boot and ankle. She was so transfixed by this that she didn't notice the other rope until it, too, had wrapped itself around her other arm.

With a yelp, she turned to see the other rope shoot up into another tree, this time pulling inexorably until her arms were gently forced into a great 'Y'. This rope too, streaked down the trunk of the tree, but when it hit the grass, the end reared up and slithered towards Twilight like a cobra. Twilight started, and then glared at Moondancer.

Moondancer laughed, and knelt at Twilight's free foot, looking meaningfully at Twilight. A briefly confused Twilight quickly caught on and shifted her stance until she was standing with her legs spread apart a little. Grasping the foot firmly, Moondancer lifted and carefully pulled it a little further towards the rope. Twilight’s foot was quickly entwined like the rest of her limbs and Moondancer stood back, behind Twilight, to admire her work. And Twilight's rear.

Twilight, for her part, tried to turn to look at Moondancer, but was held by the ropes. She pulled testingly at the bonds, and found that there was very little give, but they were at least reasonably comfortable. She did not need to fear rope burns.

“Does that feel okay?”

“Um, uh, yeah.”

“Cool. Normally I’d start with a light spanking or something like that to get the blood flowing, but this is your first time so we’ll take it easy. No spanking, no pinching, no surprises.”

“Thanks.”

Moondancer took a step forward and hugged Twilight closely from behind before walking back to the packs. She leaned back against a tree, arms crossed, and watched Twilight silently, a slight smile on her face.

Few guessed how ordered Twilight's mind was; her checklists were a faint reflection of the lists in her head. Wherever she was, whatever she was doing, she had in her head the task that she was doing and the task that would follow after and so on. Nested regiments of list guided her throughout her day; a small, dry voice in her head saying 'now do this'.

Once Twilight realised that the ropes would not give or fail, her attention turned to Moondancer but the dancer's stillness deflected Twilight's thoughts: Moondancer would not be hurried. The voice in her head faded. There were no tasks to be done, could be done, except 'wait'.

With a barely noticed sigh, Twilight let go of the great coil of tension that kept her forever moving forwards. A deep calm filled her, and she relaxed, trusting herself to the ropes. A graceful surrender.

"I think you get it," Moondancer finally said with a smile, "I was worried you might not."

Moondancer walked back to Twilight, placing each foot directly in front of the other, giving a highly seductive sway to her hips. When she reached her captive she leaned down and joined her in a kiss. She then pulled away and gracefully sat down cross-legged on the grass, in clear view of Twilight. Twilight waited patiently.

"Good girl. You’ve earned a nice reward.”

Twilight twisted in her bonds in anticipation, a heat flaring in her hips that longed to be quenched.

"But first, I'm going to look through your pack."

"What?!"

"I want to see what made you blush so much, earlier," Moondancer said with a grin, "and it's not as if you're going to stop me."

"That's private property. You can't do that."

Moondancer just laughed, carefully laying out the contents of the pack on the grass. When Twilight's magic snatched the pack away, she grinned and wagged a finger at Twilight.

"Ah ah ah! Good girls get gifts. Bad girls get punished, and don't get the happy ending," she taunted. Twilight paused, and then grumpily dropped the pack back at Moondancer's feet.

"Good girl"

It didn't take long for Moondancer to find what she was looking for: there was a modestly-sized dildo at the bottom of the pack. She pulled it out and waved it around with triumphant laughter.

"Ha ha! You were embarrassed by this? Well, it isn't very big, so I suppose I can understand. Don't worry, I won't hold it against you. Might hold it in you, but I don't think you'll complain if I do that, will you?"

Twilight hung her head, blushing, but refused to rise to Moondancer's bait.

“Sorry, that was mean of me. Well, this is a dildo. This bottle of sweet-smelling gel is lubricant. And this,” Moondancer quickly pulled something from her own pack, “is that vibrator you saw earlier. I will now demonstrate their use. For this I will require a volunteer. If you would like to volunteer, please raise your hand.”

Moondancer grinned at Twilight, who had her arms suspended above her head.

“Both hands? Excellent! I love an eager volunteer!”

Twilight found herself giggling at the joke.

“Alright. First we make sure that the volunteer is relaxed and ready.”

Moondancer stood up and casually removed her jacket and hung it on a low tree branch. The bandana soon joined it. Moondancer flicked her free hair off her shoulder and down her back. T-shirt, boots, jeans and underwear all followed with seductive grace until Moondancer was even more naked than Twilight. Twilight moaned eagerly.

Moondancer pulled a sleeping bag from the tent with her aura and placed it on the ground between Twilight’s legs, to give herself something to kneel on. Dildo, vibrato, and bottle of lubricant were placed neatly on the bag, ready for when they would be needed.

“Now, the toys easily lubricated but we need to make sure that the volunteer is too. Thankfully, the volunteer is capable of producing her own lubrication, if properly stimulated. I will now demonstrate a typical technique that should trigger this effect.”

She then kissed Twilight fully on the lips and then worked a trail of kisses down her body. Kneeling, she took position and started to work.

She started by kissing and licking the inside of Twilight's thighs, talking between kisses.

"Everyone is different, you know," *smek*, "so feedback is very important," *slurp*, "a good blow job is a cooperative affair."

"Mmmmmm" hummed Twilight with pleasure.

"Glad you agree." Moondancer's kisses were slowly working towards Twilight's damp pussy, each interspersed by a staccato phrase, "So please keep me informed. On how I'm doing. If you let me know. One way or another. I'll make you very happy. If you don't. I'll stop doing anything and just keep talking, which is probably not what you want me to do, so I’d suggest–”

"Um, faster please."

"Good girl."

Guided by Twilight's comments, Moondancer quickly got to work, licking around Twilight's shaved pussy. She then began teasing the lips apart with her tongue and slurping up the fluids that built up around them. By the time Moondancer's tongue was penetrating the folds and feeling for a little bundle of nerves that were proving to be a little elusive, Twilight had mostly descended to sub-verbal guidance of moans and sighs. When her tongue found what it was feeling for, Twilight shouted "Don't stop!"

This didn’t have the desired effect on Moondancer, as she took it to be an instruction to pull back. Twilight whimpered in frustration. Moondancer very quickly inserted the dildo where her mouth had been, and simultaneously used her aura to slip the small, inert, vibrator in another hole. Twilight bucked her hips, hard.

“Sorry, but it’s more fun this way.”

Moondancer took firm hold of the dildo and started pumping it in and out of Twilight in a steady rhythm, slowly increasing the pace based on the sounds that Twilight was making. Already close to the brink, Twilight didn’t last long and a great orgasm soon took her, her shout of joy loud in the empty orchard.

The dildo was forced out of Twilight by the clenching of her muscles, but Twilight wasn’t prepared for Moondancer’s little trick. The ripple of magic that came from Twilight was easily powerful enough to trigger the vibrator to start again, its incessant vibrations sending another wave of pleasure through her unprepared body. Another shout, and then another, and more, before Moondancer took pity on the convulsing woman, and teleported the vibrator away.

Twilight was slumped, the ropes seeming to support all her weight, so Moondancer held her tenderly while releasing her. It took a while for Twilight to recover her breath.

Eventually, Twilight looked up into Moondancer's eyes, "Wow. That was incredible. Amazing. Thank you."

"Heh. You're welcome. I had fun too. Let me know when you’re ready and we’ll take a look around the rest of the castle."

“What?! Moondancer, I’m exhausted. Today has been a really full day, and that’s just the bits I remember. Help me to the tent, we can do the rest of the castle tomorrow.”

"We're both exhausted, sweetie. Which is why I bought these," Moondancer levitated out of her pack a couple of small, bright blue, bottles. She took one for herself while Twilight looked at hers doubtfully.

"Uh, aren't these things dangerous?" asked Twilight, eyeing the energy drink.

Moondancer sighed, "Yes, if you take half a dozen of them at once. Or if you keep taking them, then yes, they are dangerous. If you just take one, so that you make the most of one-time opportunities, and then catch up on your sleep later, and don't touch them again for a month, they're fine. We will be here for a couple of days, and then that will be it. How much of those two days do you want to spend sleeping, and how much exploring the mysterious ancient castle and working through your naughty little list?"

Twilight popped the lid of the bottle and downed the contents in a couple of gulps. She suddenly felt more alert and energetic.

"Atta girl. Lets get our clothes back on, and then we can get going."

“Sure. One thing we need to do first, though. Where’s my checklist?”

Twilight started looking through Moondancer’s pack before Moondancer snatched it away and dug out the checklist. Twilight eagerly grabbed it and started ticking.

“Eee! Bondage (rope)! Check! Oral stimulation! (Properly, this time). Check! Denial! Check! Sex toy (dildo)! Check! Sex toy (vibrator)! Check! Wow, we did a lot for one session!”

“Easy there, Twilight. I’ve read that list and I’m pretty sure that ‘Orgasm (Checklist)’ isn’t on there anywhere.”

Twilight stuck her tongue out at Moondancer.

The Throne Room

“So, seeing as there’s no chance of either of us sleeping tonight, and as we can both conjure lights, can we finally explore the spooky castle?” asked Moondancer.

“Nope!” said Twilight, still looking down at her map.

“What?!”

“I know you’re eager to explore, Moony, but we really need to do things in the right order. We need to plan our itinerary. If Princess Celestia had a sister living here with her, she should have had rooms and so on, and they would likely have been left untouched, so as not to upset the Princess. If we’re lucky, she may have left a diary that has hints of what happened. Otherwise we may find ourselves rooting through a thousand-year old chest of drawers, hoping that she wore monogrammed socks…”

“I heard the other stuff you said, but: ‘Moony’?”

“Well, as we’re friends, and we’ve had sexual intercourse several times now, I thought we could start to use nicknames for each other. Or was that presumptuous of me? I don’t want to be overly familiar. Maybe I should have discussed it with you first? I mean we don’t really know each other that well, and I don’t really know the rules about using or assigning nicknames, so I really should have asked, or just kept on calling you Moondancer, it really is a very pretty name–”

“Breathe, ‘Twily’.”

“Eeee! You called me ‘Twily!’”

By the time that the girls had freshened up and redressed, the moon had risen, covering the castle in silvery light and dark shadows, making it look far more intimidating.

“Oooh, spooky! Bet you it’s haunted.”

“Moony, there’s no such thing as ghosts.”

“Then why are you standing so close to me?”

“No I’m not,” said Twilight, quickly stepping away.

“Don’t worry, Twilight, I’ll keep you safe. I know! You can have this. It’ll make you feel better.”

Moondancer fished something out of her pack and gave it to Twilight. It was her old seige wand. Twilight glared at Moondancer. Moondancer snickered.

“Moony, if there were such a thing as ghosts, I’m pretty sure that I couldn’t hit them with this wand!”

“But ghosts don’t exist, Twily. So you’re fine.”

Before Twilight could give (or throw) the wand back, Moondancer strode to the doors. Twilight sighed, stuffed the wand into her pack and chased after her friend.

The castle had withstood the steady grind of time well, but after a thousand years, it was showing it’s age. Past the entrance the ceiling was intact, but the entire place was pervaded by a slight stench of decay.

“Odd,” mused Twilight, “Still no signs of the Thought-Eater den. I’m sure that they would have sheltered in one of the accessible buildings, close to the bridge, but nothing.”

Twilight sent her light into the corners, trying to find their spoor.

Moondancer completely derailed this train of thought by grabbing her from behind.

“Ah!” jumped Twilight.

“Gotcha!” said Moondancer, before running further into the castle.

“Get back here!” shouted Twilight, chasing after her.

Moondancer slowed down when she burst through the double doors and into the throne room. Twilight was close behind her, but drew up short when she saw the great banners above the twin thrones.

Noticing that the light that Twilight was carrying had stopped, Moondancer turned to see her staring gape-mouthed.

“It’s true!” Twilight whispered, “The sun and the moon, separate…”

Moondancer remained unthunderstruck.

“I know! Cool, right? Ooh, I wonder if these thrones are comfy!”

Moondancer skipped to the Lunar Throne and made to seat herself. She was bare inches from her chosen seat when she was held frozen in a purple aura. Unable to move a muscle, she found herself floating through the air towards a red-faced Twilight Sparkle. Moondancer couldn’t tell if Twilight was scared or angry.

“Moondancer! You can’t sit on the royal throne! It’s for the Princess! Princesses. You’re not a princess!”

Moondancer’s posture was frozen at the point where she was sitting down, but Twilight had subconsciously angled her forwards so that they met eye-to-eye. Moondancer noticed that this left her with her butt sticking up high in the air. It was a posture she was very familiar with, and associated with a lot of fun and excitement.

“I mean we shouldn’t really be in the throne room anyway, unless court is in session! What were you thinking?!”

Moondancer tried flexing her fingers, or kicking back with a leg, but they were held fast. Aficionados of restraint had, over long history, explored the possibilities of magical bindings. They were at once the ideal that some people strived towards, and yet generally held in low regard, as most spell-casters could not even carry the weight of a person, let alone deny them any movement at all. Twilight Sparkle was not ‘most spell-casters’.

Moondancer moaned. She was the removal of a few minor pieces of clothing, and the application of a paddle, away from the gates of heaven.

“What am I going to do with you?”

“Punish me?” suggested Moondancer, hopefully.

“That’s right! I’m going to punish you, because sitting on other people’s thrones is wrong. And your punishment is… is… you must cook supper tonight! And tomorrow as well!”

“What?”

Moondancer was deposited gently on the slightly rotted carpet. Twilight turned to head towards the side-exit.

“Twilight!” cried Moondancer in disappointment.

“Don’t try to argue, Moony. My mind is made up.”

“Argh!”

Moondancer clenched her fists and stalked in front of Twilight.

“Twilight! Court has not been in session here for over a thousand years. Those decaying chairs haven’t been sat on for just as long. There isn’t a princess in existence who would want to sit in them, or care if I did.”

“But… but we’re archaeologists! Those thrones are priceless relics! Sitting on them could damage them!”

“Twilight.” said Moondancer levelly, “They have survived in an open-top throne-room for over a thousand years. They can take my weight for a few minutes. Anyway, their previous owners abandoned them, so they’re anyone’s property now. I could sell them at the Sixthday flea market if I wanted.”

“You can’t do that! Those thrones can tell us so much about life back then. Crafting techniques, the preservation magics they used, where they got the wood from…”

“Twilight, if you want to know any of that, you can just ask Princess Celestia. She has an hour a day she dedicates just to tutoring you, and answering your questions. I’m sure that you could spend fifteen minutes asking about ancient woodworking techniques without compromising your studies. It’d be a lot quicker than trying to take that poor chair apart and counting the rings in the wood.”

“Um, we should treat all things with respect? The chairs might be protected by strange magics? This is a strange and spooky castle and we need to be careful?”

“Twilight?” said Moondancer.

“Um, yes?”

“You’re panicking. Breathe.”

“Okay.”

“Good girl. Now, holding me in your aura in a non-sexual fashion was not respectful. As such I think that it is only fair to punish you. Having heard rumours about your cooking ability, I don’t think you’re going to be cooking anything whilst I’m around–”

“Hey! I’ve seen the castle chefs cook stuff lots of times. It can’t be that hard–”

“Definitely not going to be cooking anything while I’m around. So we’ll have to have a different punishment. Something topical, I think…

“I know,” continued Moondancer, “We are going to go looking for the Princesses’ bedrooms, to try and find something belonging to this ‘Princess Luna’, preferably her diary. When we find Princess Luna’s bed, we are going to have sex in it. Messy sex. All over the priceless, historic, relic-y sheets.”

Twilight went beet red and speechless. Moondancer grinned.

“Don’t worry, we’ll do it very respectfully.”

Twilight whimpered. Moondancer strode off to the corridors behind the thrones, and Twilight followed.

“I bet you want to find the bedroom now, huh, Twilight?”

“I– I don’t know.”

Moondancer laughed. She had just spotted some stairs.

The Bedroom

Twilight was calmer now. Moondancer was taking the castle very casually, but at heart Twilight knew that she had a point. If there was anything that Princess Celestia wanted from here, she would have retrieved it by now. No tourists would hazard the dangers of the Everfree Forest just to take photos of the place. The archaeological implications of the place were vast, but not really tied to any one thing. Sitting on a throne was fine. Searching the castle for clues to the past was fine.

Twilight was working her way up to ‘Moondancer trying on Princess Luna’s hats was fine’, but she wasn’t quite there yet. She decided not to stop Moondancer anyway, as the ‘punishments’ were sounding all too tempting and she did have some self-respect.

They had found Princess Luna’s rooms with ease, the great doors emblazoned with a silver crescent moon reminiscent of the one on the Equestrian banner. The lockless doors opened without resistance, the hinges still smooth after a millenia of neglect. The rooms beyond were high-ceilinged and airy, particularly so now that most of the roof had gone.

Moondancer had gasped with delight when she saw Princess Luna’s antechamber. Beautiful, elegant furniture lay about the room. Chaise-lounges were positioned beside small decorative tables, a squat credenza ran along one wall. It was still supporting crystal ornaments once highlighted with silver, now blackened by age. Tall, corroded, mirrors lined the wall where others might have hung paintings. There were the remains of a writing desk up against one wall, which looked like it had been smashed to pieces, and then set on fire, a thousand years ago. Some weapons hung on a rack near the desk, their steel still shining bright after all the long years. Despite the lack of a ceiling the carpet was mostly intact, and there was a faint odour of fresh lilacs hanging in the air, not the faint stench of rot that pervaded the rest of the castle.

Moondancer was quick to check out the drinks cabinet, and disappointed to find it empty. She moved swiftly on to a nearby wardrobe, searching for consolation somewhere inside its haphazard stack of hatboxes. She had tossed aside her bandana and was engaged trying on the various hats, inspecting herself in the small clear spot on a partially blackened mirror.

After some rationalisation, Twilight was able to leave her friend and wander deeper in the chambers. Moondancer’s sub-voclaised grumbles about the difficulties in finding a hat that matched her hair faded behind her.

Twilight found the bedroom passed the antechamber. The room had doors leading further back to the ensuite bathroom, now mostly covered in rubble, and a pair of towering veranda doors leading out to a balcony.

The great bed was huge, easily large enough to support half a dozen entwined bodies. The deep blue canopy had apparently protected it from the worst of the weather, and judging from the rocks resting on it, from falling masonry as well. The silken bedspread, cornflower blue shot through with silver thread, was pulled back in welcome.

Twilight decided that the decorative style could best be summed up as ‘intimate’, with the light she was holding showing dark-hued furniture, paintings showing romantic encounters, and a few strategically placed hangings and screens.

There were no books visible, but a blue crystalline pyramid sitting on a chest of drawers caught Twilight’s eye. The tetrahedron was about the size of a grapefruit, with runes around the base that hinted at magic. She leant in to inspect it more closely, very careful to not touch.

Moondancer, now styling a dark blue sun hat that was a thousand years out of fashion, joined Twilight to survey the bedroom. She quickly caught sight of the pyramid, and joined Twilight in inspecting it.

“Wait a moment, I think I know what this is! I remember this from an ancient stock book at home. It’s a scene recorder!”

“I haven’t even heard of them.”

“Ancient magical device. Required the combined work of several highly-skilled artisans. Bit like a video recorder and a projector all in one,” Moondancer set the pyramid on the dresser and tried to turn the thing on, “I wonder if it has anything stored… Hmm, mostly empty… Here’s something… Argh, stupid… Nearly had it… Wait a moment…,” Moondancer gave the pyramid a carefully calibrated blow with the back of her hand, “Ah hah! Here we go!”

An image appeared over the bed. It was flickering, slightly, but showed a great, dark-skinned woman with black-feathered wings mounting a bat-winged man who was lying on his back, with his legs over the foot of the bed. The woman was straddling the thestral, kneeling on the bed and riding his bucking hips. His face was twisted in concentration, hers was calm, almost serene.

Twilight was entranced, staring at the woman. She had high cheekbones, piercing cerulean blue eyes, and her hair was a midnight cascade of stars flowing down her back. Her lips were full, her smile commanding, and her powerful fingers looked dextrous. She lazily traced the well defined muscles on the man’s chest. Her every movement had a fluid grace, as though she was dancing to music only she could hear.

The woman, the princess, turned her head to look at something to behind her.

“You may begin,” she said in a beguiling contralto.

Two more naked people entered the flickering scene. One was a thestral woman with short-cropped black hair, wide hips and skin even darker than her mistress. The other was an aerial, his white skin and golden wings and hair a shocking contrast to the others. Graceful hips and compact body, he was not supremely well endowed but that didn’t seem to stop Moondancer’s approving looks.

Both man and woman were clearly aroused. The woman climbed onto the bed, straddled the thestral’s chest and began to minister to her mistress with long fingers and luscious lips. The aerial came up behind the princess, positioned himself with care and slowly thrust forward. The princess permitted a faint moan of approval to pass her lips–

“Shut it off! Shut it off!” shouted Twilight, her blazing face the same colour as Moondancer’s hair, waving her hands in front of her face in an attempt to not see the scene in front of her.

Moondancer laughed at Twilight, but she found the control to turn off the projection anyway.

“Now there’s something that wasn’t on your list, Twily,” said Moondancer, teasingly. She continued to make adjustments to the pyramid.

“Well,” said Twilight, ignoring the flaming blush on her cheeks and Moondancer’s comments equally, “We now know what ‘Princess Luna’ looked like. Phew.”

“And you like what you see,” said Moondancer, the faintest trace of sadness in her voice, staring at the pyramid, not looking at Twilight.

Twilight was slow to respond, “Well, she was certainly beautiful. And that voice! I could see a bit of Princess Celestia in her, I think. The cheekbones, the nose, the aetherial hair, of course…”

“And about as well endowed as well,” said Moondancer with a grin and a particularly inappropriate gesture around her chest region.

“Moony! What a thing to say!”

“Come on, admit it. You’d bang her in an instant.”

“Well, yes,” said Twilight awkwardly, “but we should still respect her privacy. Anyway, I’ve had enough of wasting my time mooning after someone unobtainable, and she’s trebly so. She died a thousand odd years ago, she was a princess, and judging by what we just saw, she wouldn’t have looked twice at someone as boring as me. Even if she were alive today, she’d be way out of my league.”

“The implication being that I’m not?” asked Moondancer, finally turning to face Twilight with a brittle smile and arms akimbo.

“Um, you are. You were. I thought you were. You are, aren’t you?”

“Twilight?”

Twilight took a deep breath and raised her head to look into Moondancer’s blue eyes.

"Moondancer, I've had a crush on you since we first met. I was afraid to speak to you: I was terrified you would reject me. Today... today has been amazing, thrilling, a dream come true, and beyond anything I imagined. You're an amazing person. And I was hoping, if you wanted, you know, you might, we might..." Twilight was cut off by Moondancer's finger on her lips.

"Twilight, I'm flattered. You're pretty amazing yourself. And I also had a crush. I jumped in with both feet when this plan– when I thought of this plan..."

"I'm hearing a 'but' here." Twilight said sadly.

"But, look, Twilight. Here, things are nice and simple. When we're back in Canterlot, life gets complicated, and gets in the way. We have different needs. I need someone who will go out with me to parties, I need someone who I can chat with for hours, I need a shoulder to cry on when things go bad. I can't stand silence; you sitting and reading a book for hours on end would drive me insane.

"You need someone who can keep up when you start talking about magic. You need someone who doesn't need your constant attention. You need someone who will know what to do when one of your experiments goes wrong and the world is about to end. You need someone who can keep you grounded when you get into one of your panics.

“The sex would be fantastic, but we both need more than that."

Tears were in Twilight's eyes, but she understood. Moondancer held her in a tight embrace for a moment.

"Don't worry, I'll still keep inviting you to my little parties. Just because we won't be an item doesn't mean we can't have fun."

"Ahem, um, thank you for letting me down easy, *ahem*,” said Twilight, clearing her throat, “So, uh, what's next?"

“While we’re here, we work through as much of your naughty little list as possible, and we become ‘friends with benefits’ when we get back.”

“Uh, what’s ‘friends with benefits’?”

“Hahaha! Don’t worry Twilight. I’ll explain it all to you. You’re going to love it, trust me. Friendship is Magic.”

“Okay. So, uh, what do we do with the pyramid? It’s the proof that there was a second princess here a thousand years ago. We can use it, even if it is the Princess’ bedroom video. I’m sure the Professor can view it with academic detachment, but getting him here safely might be tricky.”

“We can take it with us. With the way that this room is falling apart it might not last another century anyway.”

“Good point. To be honest, I’m starting to wonder what we could look for that we haven’t already found. I mean a diary would be good, we could look for that, but otherwise I’d say we’re done. We ask the Princess for permission, obviously, and then show our findings to the Professor. You get your ‘A’ and I, I get to come back as a proper archaeologist, hopefully.”

“You know what? I think you’re right. I’ll look for that diary and then we can say that the job is complete, either way. Which means we can spend the rest of our time here working on your reward.”

Twilight blushed, and idly trailed a finger along the counterpane, but didn’t argue.

With economic efficiency Moondancer tipped back her hat and started rifling through drawers beside the bed, and, when that turned up nothing, started working through the vanity.

Twilight slung her pack off her shoulder, resting it against the wall, and sat down on the great bed, happy to get the weight off her feet. The feather-stuffed mattress turned out to be in good condition, much to her relief; Twilight had no doubt that she would not be leaving the room before it was put to the test.

Twilight sighed quietly. She finally had a moment to think. Moondancer really was rooting around in the drawers like a vandal in a vicarage. It was impressive, but something wasn’t quite right. Twilight’s mind went back to the energy drinks. She hadn’t recognised the alchemist’s mark on the energy drinks they had so casually consumed hours ago. If Moondancer had been careless, she could have gotten them from some shady fly-by-night backstreet vendor.

It was possible that the cheap drinks required their imbibers to be energetic. Failure to do so could cause side effects, such as discombobulation, distractibility, and unreliable decision making. This could be dangerous in a castle that had not had its structural integrity surveyed in centuries.

The excess energy could be adjusting their priorities, Twilight reasoned. Twilight was very glad that her own mind was clear and unaffected, or they could both be in trouble. Her gaze drifted to Moondancer’s shapely butt. It almost seemed as if the moon had been perfectly positioned to shine light through the hole into the ceiling to emphasise just how good that butt looked.

“Ha!” said Moondancer triumphantly, holding up her prize, “Socks! Lots of socks,” she turned the long, midnight blue, thigh-length sock around in her gaze, “Not monogrammed though. Pity,” she stuffed the sock back in the drawer with its fellows.

Moondancer had to kneel down to root around in the bottom drawer. She also had to lean in, stretching her arms. This naturally gave Twilight an excellent view of Moondancer’s behind. It was very distracting.

Twilight needed to work out why Moondancer was acting strangely, with no thought for consequences, but doing so was impossible with that magnificent bottom within grabbing distance…

Before Twilight could do more than reach out to touch the heavenly sight, Moondancer suddenly sat up. Twilight snatched back her hand.

“Nothing. Oh well. Let me have a quick check of this pyramid to see if there’s anything else on here. Just in case.”

Twilight shifted uncomfortably.

Twilight thought hard. They both were bursting with energy. Moondancer was acting erratically. If Twilight’s hypothesis was right, things could get worse. They both needed to do something strenuous, to burn off the excess energy. Running around the castle in their current state and with the poor lighting would not be safe. They weren’t wearing the right clothes for jumping jacks. Moondancer really did have the most enticing smirk when looking at that pyramid…

Twilight stood up.

The Bed

Moondancer had just finished poking the buttons on the pyramid when Twilight stood up. She was startled when Twilight suddenly knocked her lovely new hat to the floor and kissed her. She was even more surprised when Twilight then seized her by her jacket and threw her onto the bed. It was a magically-assisted throw and Moondancer landed solidly on her back in the middle of the huge bed.

She barely managed to raise herself onto her elbows before Twilight crawled onto the bed and straddled her.

“Twily?”

“Sorry, Moony, but we need to have sex now. For medicinal purposes. Okay?”

The normally meek librarian had a wild look in her eye and a deranged smile. Moondancer felt a wave of desire flow through her. She had never been so turned on whilst not tied up.

“Okay.”

Moondancer was fully dressed and wearing her backpack. Twilight was fully dressed. These were problems. Magic solves problems. In a blink, both Twilight and Moondancer were naked, much to the surprise of the latter.

“Hey!”

“They were in the way.”

Twilight dropped her head to Moondancer’s neck, and started nibbling.

“Hooo…” said Moondancer, arching her back and staring up at the bed’s starfield canopy.

Twilight worked her way up Moondancer’s neck, kissing and nibbling until she reached Moondancer’s ear. Then she bit.

“Ah!”

Moondancer snatched a fistful of hair on the back of Twilight’s head and twisted her body. She and Twilight rolled until Moondancer was on top, staring into eyes as wild as her own. Still holding tight of Twilight’s hair, Moondancer kissed Twilight, bruising her lip on Twilight’s teeth in her passion.

Twilight gripped Moondancer’s shoulders, tried to roll her, but Moondancer wouldn’t budge. Instead Moondancer began kissing Twilight’s neck. Twilight changed her grip. Her magic flared, briefly, and she found the leverage she needed. Moondancer was soon flipped back on her back, but trapping Twilight’s arms under her body. Moondancer was unphased and didn’t let up on Twilight’s neck.

Twilight’s heart was hammering, each of Moondancer’s kisses was sending electrical tickles up and down her spine, and she couldn’t pull away with her arms trapped as they were. Twilight cast a spell.

Moondancer saw the flash out of the corner of her eye, but was having too much fun bucking her hips in another attempt to throw Twilight to care. Twilight, for her part, was lost in the feeling of Moondancer beneath her, Moondancer kissing her, and barely even noticed the casting. Until she felt the energy field of the dildo she conjured suddenly becoming trapped between their writhing bodies.

The feedback from the magical member made Twilight’s cry out in ecstasy.

Twilight wanted more. With a skill that she had no idea she had, she rode Moondancer’s hips until they bucked again. Pulled back. Aligned herself. Timed a steady forward thrust to coincide with Moondancer falling back onto the bed. She was inside.

“YES!” shouted Moondancer, flinging her head back.

Twilight pulled back, and thrust forward again.

Moondancer’s hand left the back of Twilight’s head and clawed down Twilight’s back. Twilight felt a trail of fire where Moondancer’s fingers had gone, and it felt wonderful.

“Ah!” shouted Twilight.

“Mmmhmm,” replied Moondancer.

Twilight deliberately rolled, pulling Moondancer along with her in a hug. Twilight took advantage of their tumbling to free her arms. They came to rest, gasping for air, with Twilight still on top of Moondancer, still rhythmically thrusting deep inside the willing woman. Both of Twilight’s hands found both of Moondancer’s wrists, after a brief struggle. Twilight pinned Moondancer’s hands behind her head and continued thrusting forward with her enchanted dildo, dizzy with new sensations.

The shaking caused some of the rubble to fall off the canopy of the bed and onto the floor with a crash. Neither girl noticed.

Moondancer grunted and moaned with each thrust, the pitch of her voice steadily rising until a rapid staccato of gasps escaped her lips and her face scrunched up, then relaxed. And then did so again. Twilight felt Moondancer’s grip on the toy between her legs tighten and tighten and she too came, before collapsing onto Moondancer.

Moondancer was gasping for air, Twilight was breathing deeply. Twilight tried to roll off Moondancer and onto the cool bedsheets of Princess Luna’s huge bed, but found that she was still inside the woman below her. With a wrinkled brow, she clumsily withdrew and rolled away, the magic dildo springing up to point at the bed canopy.

“Phew!” said Twilight, “That was fantastic! You’ll have to go energy drink crazy more often!”

“*Hah* Not me *hah*” gasped Moondancer, “That’s crazy.”

“Nope, definitely you,” said Twilight with smug confidence, “I’m a scientist. I’m level-headed at all times.”

“You pick me up, *hah*, and throw me onto the bed, vaporise my clothes, and I’m the one who’s acting crazy?”

“I didn’t vaporise your clothes!” objected Twilight strenuously, “I just, um,” continued Twilight with less conviction, “teleported them down to our tent. And mine. And your rucksack.”

“Let me guess, you can’t teleport them back?”

“Uh, no. I’m amazed I could teleport them down there in the first place. I was never that good at it. Don’t remember ever learning this ‘dong spell’ either, come to think of it…”

“Well, I certainly don’t mind you having it.”

“I don’t remember being this fit, either. You were always more athletic than me…”

“Oh, uh, that was last year. You probably haven’t noticed, but I’ve been spending more time at my job, less time on the track.”

“Job? What job? You have time to be a first-quartile student in a school for gifted spell-casters, have regular band practice, a social life complete with regular parties and hold down a part-time job?”

“Uh, that does sound rather busy, now that you mention it.”

“Moony, I’m worried. Are you pushing yourself too hard?”

“Twily, I promise. I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. Worry about what revenge I’ll take for your teleporting my clothes to outside the castle.”

“Oh yes. Sorry about that,” said Twilight, fidgeting awkwardly and glad she was far too hot from the recent exercise to blush.

“Well, it’s a long walk back to the tent, plenty of time for me to think of something evil. I’m sure we can find something around here to keep us covered until we get there. Huh. Weird how stuff like books, carpets and bed linen has survived when the stones of the castle are crumbling and falling in.”

Twilight dispelled her magical dildo and pulled herself up to a sitting position, noting an ache in her belly muscles. All the sex was giving her quite a workout.

“Oh, that’d be the preservation magics,” she said casually, “Organic stuff like books and fabrics respond far better to that kind of spell than bricks and gem stones… Now who told me that?”

“Ooh, I’ve just seen what I did to your back. Twilight, you’re bleeding.”

“What? Ow. Yes, I can feel that now. I can feel it quite clearly. Do you sharpen your nails or something?”

“Ha ha! They are weapons of war! No, not really. Anyway, just remember to tie me down the next time we have wild sex, and you’ll be fine. Just lie down on your belly. I can see that by purest coincidence, you left your pack behind. I’ll get some balm.”

Twilight grumbled, but complied, pulling her hair free from her back. Moondancer pushed herself off the bed and soon returned with the balm. She climbed onto the bed and sat herself down on Twilight’s bum.

“Here we go, this will sting a bit.”

“I know, I know, get on with it.”

Moondancer applied the White Fire balm to the marks on Twilight’s back. Twilight hissed: the balm was doing its job.

Satisfied that the wounds were healed, Moondancer twisted and threw the pat of balm to land back next to Twilight’s backpack, but didn’t leave her perch.

“Um, Moondancer, you can get off me now.”

“Now why would I want to do that?” asked Moondancer innocently, leaning forward so that her naked breasts pressed onto Twilight’s immaculate back.

“What?” said Twilight, struggling to get up, “We literally only just had sex! You can’t possibly want to do it again so soon.”

Moondancer rolled off Twilight disappointedly and allowed her to roll off the bed and onto her feet.

“Aww, come on Twilight. What’s the problem? We both enjoy it…”

“It’s just the energy drinks talking, Moondancer. Ignore them and let’s get going.”

“Okay, okay, how about this? If it’s the energy drinks talking, I obviously need to burn off more energy, right?”

“Burning off energy clearly didn’t work last time, Moondancer, I doubt the second time's the charm. Let’s just clean up the mess we made and we can go– Wait.”

Twilight froze, staring at the bed.

“Where’s the stain from my blood gone?”

“Magic self-cleaning bed?” suggested Moondancer, looking in vain for any sign of their bodily fluids, “Pretty neat. I want one. We need to test this function, of course.” She waggled her eyebrows hopefully.

“Hmm.”

Twilight ignored Moondancer’s entreaties, but did climb back onto the bed to search for evidence of their coupling, to no avail. Twilight paused in thought. She needed to actually see the enchantment in action. Spitting on the bed would just be gross. Most of the other options were far worse. Moondancer was pressing herself against her arm in a very endearing fashion. Her glance fell upon the perfect breasts that she had fantasised about so many times…

Moondancer certainly seemed ready to go again, and Twilight wasn’t feeling quite as sensitive as she had thought she was.

Twilight swallowed a smile and turned to Moondancer.

“So, let’s review. We have a bed that appears to clean itself with a powerful enchantment that has lasted centuries. We obviously need to experiment. I’m going to need a lab assistant.”

Twilight rose to her knees and pulled Moondancer up to share a kiss, wrapping her arms around her lover. Moondancer eagerly reciprocated both the embrace and the kiss. Moondancer shifter her legs almost subconsciously, so that her thigh was between Twilight’s legs, pressing gently against her soft lips. This arrangement also rested her own treasure against Twilight’s thighs with a most delightful pressure.

The women started pressing themselves against each other, slowly moving up and down, grinding themselves against each other.

“Mmm,” sighed Moondancer, “So, what are the perks of the job? I’m considering applying myself…”

Twilight laughed, “Perks? It looks like you’re pretty perky already…” She pulled an arm from around Moondancer for long enough to pinch one of Moondancer’s hard nipples.

“Ooh. Yeah…”

Moondancer wanted more. She could only press so hard, and she knew that she wouldn’t be able to get off from this stimulation alone. She tried to shuffle closer, but mistimed her movement against Twilight’s gyrations and the movement of the bed and fell to one side, pulling a laughing Twilight with her.

Twilight was clearly feeling a powerful need too, concentrating on grinding herself between Moondancer’s thighs, increasing the pressure. Moondancer followed suit, each woman shifting their legs for comfort and leverage until they were both supporting themselves with their elbows, looking over their sweat-soaked bodies at their partner.

Moondancer had both feet on the bed, but Twilight found she had one leg held high in the air. She paid it no mind, her entire focus was on pushing her pussy hard against Moondancer’s, revelling in the friction of contact from their gyrations.

It wasn’t enough. Moondancer knew it wasn’t enough, but couldn’t bear to release the pressure for the time it would take to change position.

Twilight soon realised the problem too, but had the presence of mind to think of a solution. Moondancer was suddenly held in a raspberry-coloured aura that lifted her up, above the bed.

“Twily?”

“Sorry, Moony, but I need a more controlled experiment. I can’t really observe well in this position, can I?”

Before Moondancer could complain, she was deposited on her back at the head of the bad. She was not, however, released from the aura. Moondancer struggled happily.

“So I need to ‘tie you down’ when we have sex, do I?” asked Twilight, scanning the room, trying to spot anything usable in the dim light. She was about to pull over one of the long silken stockings that she had seen earlier, when she noticed that the intricate headboard already had straps attached. “Ah, these look ideal.”

Twilight crawled to Moondancer and sat in her lap. She released one of Moondancer’s arms from her aura and lovingly guided it to a strap. Before she could even try to tie it, it wrapped itself around Moondancer’s wrist of of its own accord.

“Are you okay?” asked Twilight worriedly.

“Celestia, yes!”

“Okay.”

Moondancer playfully tried to wrestle with Twilight when the other arm was released, but with Twilight’s two arms against Moondancer’s one, and Twilight’s position giving her a weight advantage, its capture was a forgone conclusion. Moondancer could only watch helplessly as it too was bound by the bed’s magical straps.

Moondancer stretched her legs with a groan, she tugging at the immovable bindings on her arms.

Twilight was an intelligent woman. It stood to reason that if there were arm restraints that there would be something suitable for Moondancer’s legs too… It didn’t take long to find a row of matching pairs of long black straps down both sides of the bed. Moondancer was soon fully restrained, with her legs held wide apart and her need gleaming in the moonlight.

Twilight licked her lips in anticipation, and then set to work. She started by carefully licking around Moondancer’s treasure, delighting in the taste of her sweat. Moondancer informed her in no uncertain terms that there were other things she should be doing, and so Twilight quickly worked inwards. Lacking anyone to take care of her own needs, one of Twilight’s hands drifted to her own slit.

Moondancer was aroused and still a little sensitive, gasping her approval of Twilight’s actions. Twilight licked and twisted and contorted her tongue deep inside Moondancer, her face pressed hard between her thighs, her senses full of Moondancer’s taste, and the smell of her arousal, and the heat of her pussy.

Slurping and licking and searching for that place, Twilight worked feverishly. She was guided by Moondancer’s half-formed words, pants and moans. Her own hand worked to satisfy her own needs. Twilight found that her efforts were well appreciated; Moondancer seeming to be on the cusp where post-coital sensitivity was just short of being painful; everything Twilight tried was ecstatically received.

The sounds coming from Moondancer were losing coherence and gaining pitch at about the same rate. Twilight’s own excitement was making her lose coordination, both with hand and tongue, so she wrenched her hand back. Now completely focussed on Moondancer, she turned the hand to a different purpose: she pushed three fingers in and started pumping them in hard and fast. This freed up her mouth to suck on Moondancer’s clitoris. Twilight was getting familiar with the sounds Moondancer made when she orgasmed, and she liked them.

Twilight fell back on her haunches and brought her hand, soaked with Moondancer’s juices, to tend to her own need, furiously rubbing, kneading and pumping until she too came. Twilight lay on her back, staring at the canopy over the bed and seeing nothing. Her lungs burned and her arm ached and it all felt wonderful.

By the time Twilight was able to pull herself upright, Moondancer had used her aura to free herself from the straps on the bed, but she was still slumped against the pillows, recovering her breath.

“Wow! Now that’s what I’m talking about. Thanks, Twily. Wow. You were on fire!”

“Thanks. Gimme a moment, though.”

“No problem.”

…

“Why did we do that?”

“What? You need a reason for sex?”

“Moony, we had only just had sex; very satisfying sex. We should have still been in our refractory periods, or at least not so desperate for it. We’ve been having sex all day, which is great, but even so, that was just so… so sudden.”

“Well, you wanted to check out the bed, didn’t you?”

“Firstly, I wasn’t paying any attention at all to the damn bed, and secondly I could have just dribbled some water from my canteen if I wanted to see the bed clean up fluids. Why didn’t I think of that?”

“I see your point. You jumped me pretty fast the first time too. First time I’ve seen you take control like that. You were definitely acting strange and needy. Not that I mind. You could do that more often, if you wanted.”

“I– I had a really good reason. I needed to have sex with you. It was all so logical, so necessary. Why in Equestria–”

Twilight’s eyes opened wide, and then she jumped off the bed, pulling Mondancer with her.

“It’s the bed! The bed does more than just clean up afterwards!”

Moondancer suddenly stared at the bed as though it were a bed of nails.

“We were both fine until we got on the bed,” said Twilight, “Then we really needed sex. Once we came, the need went–”

“–And didn’t come back until we got off the bed, and then back on again,” finished Moondancer.

“Right. Wow, so that’s what a lust spell feels like?”

“They’re usually a lot less subtle, and don’t make allowances for sensitivity and the like. That is one weird bed.”

“Good to know,” Twilight turned to Moondancer with a smile, “Are you sure you still want one?”

“Are you kidding? That was the best sex I’ve ever had in my life! I’m just trying like mad to to think how to get it to Canterlot. Or maybe… commute from here?”

“I’m sure the thought-eaters will be wonderful neighbours.”

“Nevermind.”

“What’s the problem?”

“Ugh, I just really wish I hadn’t teleported everything apart from my pack down to the camp. My list was in your bag, not mine. I hate to leave actions unchecked.”

“Ha ha! Never change, Twily. Anyway, don’t worry. We can get to the list easily enough, but I don’t think anything we did was on the list.”

“What, really?”

“Think about it: nothing on that list had you on top, you didn’t have scissoring on there–”

“What’s scissoring?”

“My least favourite position. And what we were doing earlier. Don’t worry about it. And you didn’t have any lust magic on your list. Trust me, I checked.”

“Oh. Well, that does make me feel better. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

Princess Luna clearly had had a certain taste in clothing. Being a princess, ‘warmth’ had obviously not been an important consideration when selecting her wardrobe. Neither, judging by what Twilight and Moondancer found, had been ‘modesty’. There were a number of gowns, a chest full of leather outfits and a wide selection of lingerie including a bounty of thigh-length socks. The primary problem was that they were all cut for someone at least three heads taller than either woman, built like a stalwart, and had wings.

“Oh, right. Giant Princess is a giant,” grumbled Moondancer, “Don’t suppose you know any spells to adjust clothing?”

“Nope, sorry,” said Twilight, ignoring the nagging feeling in the back of her mind that she was forgetting something.

“Oh well,” said Moondancer, poking idly through the small pile of discarded clothing in case they had missed anything, “looks like I’m going to have a spectacular view of your ass on the journey back to our tent, then.” She didn’t sound too upset at the prospect.

“There might be some towels in the bathroom. Better than nothing.”

There were indeed towels in the bathroom, and a bathrobe.

“Dibs!” shouted Moondancer, grabbing the robe. It was deepest black, with a crescent moon embroidered into the back with silver thread. It was far too big, the tail dragging on the floor, and the wing slots flapped, but Moondancer loved it anyway.

Twilight resigned herself to making do with a couple of towels that she pulled out from under a small pile of rubble.

Shoes were equally difficult. Moondancer noticed a pair of sandals which she eyed critically. She carried them to a chair near the writing desk, snagging a dagger from the weapon rack as she passed. Moondancer stuck her tongue out the corner of her mouth and began working on the sandals. Twilight watched her work with amusement that changed to respect when she saw that the modified sandals would actually now fit her feet, even if they were as big as clown shoes.

“Thank you Moony, they look lovely,” said Twilight, taking them from Moondancer and trying them on.

“Hey, they’re mine! I made them–” Moondancer couldn’t finish her argument in the face of Twilight’s delighted, innocent smile. Grumbling, Moondancer tossed the dagger back on the rack and looked in vain for another pair of footwear that could be modified.

Twilight’s smile turned smug the moment Moondancer’s back was turned.

In the end Moondancer settled for wrapping some hand-towels about her feet and glaring accusingly at Twilight.

“You know, Twily, I realised we just did something else that wasn’t on your list,” said Moondancer, casually picking up the pyramid and toying with it.

“Oh, what was that?”

“Exhibitionism.”

“Hmm? Did we have an owl for an audience?” asked Twilight idly.

“Not that I noticed, no,” Moondancer’s idle stroll had brought her to the bedroom door, “but I did have the pyramid set to record just before you threw me onto the bed.”

Moondancer broke into a run, barely escaping Twilight’s grasp.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure that Professor Tablets will view our little show with ‘academic detachment’,” shouted Moondancer over her shoulder, dashing for the stairs.

Twilight couldn’t resist a smirk as she chased after the redhead, “Get back here, you backstabbing sex-mad pervert!” she shouted.

Moondancer was laughing, and running too fast; she skidded past the stairs and grabbed a baluster ornament with her free hand to arrest her motion. The ornament tilted and a trapdoor opened up beneath her. Twilight heard a startled shriek before the trapdoor slammed shut behind Moondancer, silencing the noise.

The Maze

Moondancer’s panicked response to the floor opening up underneath her had been to throw the pyramid high in the air. Twilight had a few precious seconds for reflexes she didn’t know she had to kick in, and just managed to catch the pyramid in her aura before it smashed onto the stairs below.

“Moondancer!” shouted Twilight desperately, but there was no reply.

Twilight tried to open the trapdoor with her aura, but couldn’t get a grip. She desperately pulled the ornament that had opened it under Moondancer’s feet, but nothing happened. She was about to smash the trapdoor to pieces when she realised that doing so might cause the wreckage to fall down and hit Moondancer.

With desperate haste Twilight blindly stuffed the pyramid into her backpack with her aura, and went back to pull on the baluster again, in the hope that it might work this time.

Twilight’s teachers had noticed her tendency to panic early on in her education, and Princess Celestia had insisted that time be spent giving Twilight the tools she would need to deal with it. When she wasn’t carried away by her imagination, Twilight could now take control in an emergency with ease. Unfortunately Twilight’s imagination had a massive carrying capacity.

Images ran through Twilight’s mind, showing all the possible terrible fates for Moondancer, and all the ways that Twilight’s inconsiderate actions directly lead to her tragic death. She could envisage all the recrimination and blame from Moondancer’s parents, Twilight’s parents, and Princess Celestia, and all the punishments that they would heap on her for her transgressions.

Twilight redoubled her efforts, pulling the treacherous baluster back and forth like a recalcitrant pump handle, to no effect. Twilight sobbed with desperation, adding her magic to the job. She only succeeded in wrenching the baluster from the railings, exposing a broken mechanism below.

Thrown off-balance by the sudden failure of the baluster, Twilight staggered backwards. Into the other baluster. Which activated a different trapdoor under her feet.

Twilight screamed in surprise as she fell, her rapid descent guided by a smooth metal chute. The closing trapdoor above her cut out what little moonlight there had been. The light of Twilight’s unfocused magic was only bright enough to show how little she could see, the darkness swallowing her sandalled feet.

Twilight sat, panting and wide-eyed, at the bottom of the chute. Her plummet had been harmlessly arrested by some ancient spell, depositing her not-ungently on a cold, hard floor.

Twilight summoned a light, to look around. She was in a small room. There was no sign of Moondancer.

Twilight’s backpack, which had fallen free during her fall, dropped onto her head with a thump. The light winked out.

Twilight crawled away from under the chute, and tried again. Her light illuminated a small, plain room, free of any decoration other than spiderwebs and an iron-barred door.

“Moondancer!” shouted Twilight. There was no reply.

“Okay, Twilight,” she said, “Let’s stop to think for a moment. This was a busy, inhabited castle. So that was clearly not a trap for thieves. It must have been a royal escape route, positioned so close to the princesses’ chambers! Two of them, one for each Princess. And they wouldn’t have come out in the same place, to prevent pursuers. Moondancer is probably fine, at the other drop point. We just need to meet up.”

Twilight stiffly rose to her feet, and donned her backpack.

“Moondancer! Don’t worry, I’m coming!” Twilight shouted, at the top of her lungs, and tried to open the door. It was locked.

The iron-barred door blasted outwards with a deafening roar. The wood from the door was reduced to splinters, and the crumpled remains of the iron banding punched through the opposite wall and kept on going.

There was a brief moment of silence, only punctuated by the tinkle of falling rubble.

Twilight coughed, expelling some of the stone dust that she had inadvertently breathed in. She looked down at Moondancer’s ancient siege wand in her hand with renewed respect. She carefully put it back in her pack. She checked to make sure it was secure. She checked again.

Twilight Sparkle stepped through what was left of the doorway, and set out to rescue her friend.

“Let’s see…” mused Twilight out loud, “Featureless corridor. Short. Turns at right angles at both ends, but has two joining corridors, forming T-sections. The nearest of which… Leads to another, similar, short corridor. With a plain door near one end. This… This is a maze!”

Twilight jumped up and down, clapping her hands in delight.

“A real maze! That I need to solve! Yay! Okay, Twilight, calm down. I really want to map the maze, but I don’t have an accurate measuring stick. Other than myself, and the floor’s dirty and these towels will just fall off. Okay, I need chalk.”

Twilight searched her backpack twice.

“I didn’t bring any chalk. I didn’t bring any chalk!. What kind of archaeologist doesn’t have any chalk with her? What was I thinking?! Okay, okay, I can do this. Um, um… …I’ve got it!”

Gingerly hefting the siege wand, Twilight held the tip to the floor and let a trickle of power flow through, as little as she could manage. The tip glowed. Just a little more… A steady flow of sparks erupted from the tip of the wand. Twilight traced the wand across the ground, leaving a light scratch on the hard stone.

“Right! Let’s get going!”

Twilight squared her shoulders, shouldered her pack, set her light to hover over her head, and set off.

The maze solving algorithm was good. Twilight needed to focus a little, to keep it in mind, and that helped keep other things from her mind. Like what Moondancer was doing. And where she was. And all the hazards that could be found in an ancient, abandoned ruin. And how long it would take to get back to the surface. And what people would think about all the damage she was doing to a historic ruin.

Unfortunately the algorithm was simple, so those other thoughts got into Twilight’s mind anyway.

She sometimes thought she could hear something out at the edge of her hearing, alone in the dark. Maybe it was a voice, or laughter. She thought she might be able to hear Moondancer calling her name, but she couldn’t be sure. She called out herself, of course, but her only reply was a mocking echo of her voice.

Twilight’s small purple light was really rather dim. It shed enough light that Twilight could see the way she was going, and not step on any of the star-spiders that scuttered around in the dark, but not much more than that. It seemed to more define the shadows, rather than dispel them, and Twilight’s active imagination was only too happy to speculate about what she couldn’t see.

The air in the maze was cool, far from the summer heat outside. Anyone would shiver in these circumstances.

The decor changed as she progressed. Suits of armour started to appear in places, standing guard over cobwebs and dust. Normally she’d gladly spend hours examining them in detail, but she forced herself to move on. Moondancer needed her.

That she felt that the suits of armour were watching her had nothing to do with it. Twilight’s pack was heavy. Too much water, and other items. That was why she was sweating a little.

Something in the darkness skittered away, spooked by the slapping noise of her jury-rigged sandals made on the flagstones. Twilight tightened her towels.

When one of the suits of armour fell apart behind her, Twilight nearly jumped high enough to touch the ceiling. The blast from the wand knocked the pieces of armour through two walls, the failing protective enchantments on the armour adding their own sparks and flares to the explosion.

Twilight put the siege wand back in her pack.

She picked up a thin dagger from the suit of armour as an alternative, and tested it against the stone. The enchantments on it were still strong, and the dagger left a mark on the stone. It wasn’t as clear a mark as the wand could make, but at least there was less of a danger of Twilight accidentally bringing the ceiling down on top of her.

Twilight retraced her steps back to the new passageway that the blast had created, and started again. If she kept making new branches in the maze, this would take forever.

“Slow and steady wins the race,” whispered Twilight, carefully drawing her next line.

Moondancer was probably lost like Twilight, but Moondancer didn’t panic, and even walking randomly they should have no trouble getting out before hunger or thirst became an issue. Everything was fine, and once they were reunited the maze-solving would go twice as fast. There was no need to hurry.

Twilight just needed to remind herself of that every now and then.

Maybe twice a minute, tops.

Twilight finished the line she was drawing, walked five paces to find that the corridor ended with a dead end. A now-automatic check showed that the walls were solid. Twilight stepped back to the line she had just drawn, and set about drawing another next to it.

Her work was interrupted by a light coming out of a corridor that caught the corner of her eye.

“Moondancer!”

Twilight hurried to look down the corridor, but the light was gone. There was a light just around the corner at the end of that corridor though. Blue. Definitely not a hallucination brought about by too much stress. Or dodgy energy drinks. Or too much sex. Twilight ran to the end of the corridor.

The blue light she was chasing had moved on to the next junction. Fast. No sound of footsteps. Twilight was pretty sure that there was no such thing as ‘too much sex’.

“Moondancer! Stop playing! It isn’t funny.”

No response.

Twilight chased after the light that was patiently waiting for her. Each time she got close to the light source, it blinked out and a new one appeared, always further out of sight. Around a corner, under a door, always leading her on.

The blue light disappeared for good when Twilight came around the last corner. Her heart leapt when she saw where it had been leading her – there was a room up ahead with natural lamp-light pouring out of a half-opened door.

She rushed to the doorway. Her towels were slipping, but she held them in place with her free hand as she ran.

“Moondancer!” she shouted, just in time to hear Moondancer’s orgasmic yell in response.

Twilight burst through the door and pulled to a halt.

Moondancer looked up from the sawhorse which she was strapped to, tried to blow away a lock of her hair that was stuck to her face with her sweat, and said breathlessly, “Oh, hi, Twilight.”

Twilight stared at the demoness standing behind Moondancer, grinning from ear to ear.

Twilight could look at everything but Moondancer.

The room was in great condition for it’s age. Two rows of caryatids, depicting men and women entwined in imaginative embrace, stretched down the room, supporting the high, vaulted ceiling. Lamps hanging from the ceiling were the primary source of light in the room, the braziers scattered about the room were responsible for the heat.

The long wall on one side was unworked stone, decorated only with tethering rings and chains along its length. The other side was dotted with alcoves; each alcove had its own black iron bar door, each door had a lock, and each lock had a key on a nearby hook. The cells were barely big enough for one person, and were completely free of fittings.

The sawhorse Moondancer was tied to was typical of the furniture in the room. Elsewhere a large wooden X-shaped cross festooned with straps reclined slightly on its own stand; pulleys hung from the ceiling near where one of the caryatids helpfully held coils of rope; a table was laid out with a selection of sex toys. Twilight could see a well-padded rack further back, and other forms of restraint.

The robe and hat that Moondancer had pilfered were hanging from a hook on one of the walls.

There was a demoness standing behind Moondancer.

She was a pitch black silhouette of a tall, shapely, horned, bat-winged woman. The lights in the room couldn’t make out any features at all, except blazing white teeth and gold, serpentine, eyes. Twilight could have mistaken her for a shape cut out of plain black silk were it not for the eyes, the teeth, or the soaked dildo that she held in one light-absorbing hand. Twilight unconsciously gripped her dagger harder.

Moondancer noticed Twilight’s stare.

“Uh, Twilight, this is, uh–”

“Entice,” said the demoness in a deep and musical voice, putting the dildo down on the table.

“Uh, yeah. Um, could you let me up, please, Entice?”

“Of course, my friend.”

The patch of darkness moved about the sawhorse, releasing the straps that restrained Moondancer, until she could climb off it and onto shaky legs. She soon found her balance and walked toward to Twilight.

“Are you okay, Twily? My fall must have given you quite a shock. It certainly did me.”

“What?! Moony, I spent hours looking for you! I was worried sick! And here I find you, fucking a demon in an actual sex dungeon! I– Wait. Wait a moment, I just need to do this–”

Twilight summoned a shield around them, cutting out the outside world. The only light inside the bubble came from Twilight’s hands. She raised her free hand to Moondancer’s forehead, and cast a number of spells in quick succession. Moondancer stood very still, suddenly noticing the dagger gripped tight in Twilight’s other hand.

“Okay, so you still have your soul, you haven’t been possessed, mind controlled, brainwashed (I think), or ensorcelled, it is really you, and you aren’t pregnant with its unholy spawn. That means that I have one question: What in Tartarus were you thinking?!”

“Uh, that you couldn’t find me, I couldn’t find you, and I couldn’t find a way out. Entice was really friendly, and she offered to help, in return for a little sex. Seemed like a good deal at the time. Oh, and risk-free, hot-as-Tartarus, succubus sex, Twily. That’s a once-in-a-lifetime chance if there ever was one.”

“‘Risk-free’? Its a demon! It wants your soul, you ninny!”

Moondancer smiled at Twilight.

“Uh, doesn’t it? All demons want to drag our souls to Tartarus. It’s what they want. The demonology textbooks are all very clear on the topic.”

“Twilight, I’m sure she’d love to drag my soul to Tartarus, but she can’t even leave the castle. She’s trapped here.”

“Um, what?”

“She’s sealed in. Stuck. Imprisoned. From since around the time the castle was erected, she says. So if she actually got your soul, she couldn’t actually do anything with it. Apparently she’s not even allowed to grab it anyway. Some binding or other from when she was summoned, from what she said.”

“And you believe her?” asked Twilight, with a cocked eyebrow.

“Yup. She’s a demon, so she can be bound with infernal contracts. We knocked up a quick one: she has to be honest with me, I had to give her a kiss. Which I have done. So she can’t lie to me. See?”

“You kissed her? It?”

“Yeah, I kissed her. She feeds on sexual energy, and she was really hungry. Been mostly dormant since the castle was abandoned. Turns out that Ethereal Thought-eaters don’t get it on quite as often as people. Our happy fun times woke her up.”

“So the ‘sex for help’ deal was–”

“My idea, but she was very happy to help. She suggested we use this room. So many fun toys. I’m kinda annoyed at you Twilight, by the way. You found us before we got to do anything. I thought we’d have a few more hours before going to find you, but nooo. It wasn’t to be.” Moondancer did look mildly disappointed.

Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Her grip on the dagger relaxed.

“Twily, you okay?”

“Sorry, yeah. Just processing everything. I understood that we weren’t exclusive, after our conversation earlier, but seeing you with her hurt a little. It’s okay, I just liked to pretend.”

“Aww, sorry, Twily. I’ve been having so much fun with you that I didn’t think how it must look like from your perspective. I was being inconsiderate. I am sorry. I really was completely lost, though.”

Moondancer opened her arms for a reconciliatory hug, which Twilight gave after some hesitation.

“I know, and I know you’re never going to just sit around and wait to be rescued… Okay. I want to talk to Entice. I’m going to drop the shield. Ready?”

As the shield dissolved around Moondancer and Twilight, it revealed to Entice the two women kissing.

The Succubus

“Hello, Twilight Sparkle,” said Entice, her slight smile shining brilliantly from the darkness of her face.

“Hello, Entice. Thank you for offering to help my friend, I think.”

“You are welcome, Twilight. You are also welcome for the little guiding light I sent your way,” it was difficult to tell, but Twilight thought that Entice was leaning back against the column behind her. She seemed to be in no hurry to speak.

…

“Sooo…. You’re trapped here?”

“Oh yes, since the castle was built, actually.”

“Who or what trapped you here?”

“Princess Luna summoned me, trapped me, bound me.”

“Wait, do you know what happened to Princess Luna?”

“I know everything about this castle, and what happened here, including Princess Luna’s fate.”

“Aaand you’re not going to tell me.”

“Well, you’ve just used up your three free questions. I could answer more. If you were to do something for me…”

“Something? What– You’re a succubus. You feed off sexual energy. Apart from Moondancer just now, you haven’t fed in a thousand years. And you want to feed off… me.”

Entice’s smile had broadened more and more, and she had moved closer and closer to Twilight, with every word that Twilight said, until she stood tall over the spell-caster, until Twilight’s vision was full of darkness and white, white teeth. She didn’t back down.

“Moondancer told me that you were smart. She was right. Moondancer was delicious, I assure you, but your power far exceeds hers, and I would love to have a taste. Would that be a problem, Twilight Sparkle? You’d enjoy it, I promise.”

“If– if I do, you’ll tell me what happened to Princess Luna?”

“I believe we have a deal, little one. Would you like to draw up a contract? We can make it delightfully explicit, detailing exactly how I may pleasure you, and for how long…”

“Tha– that won’t be necessary. You are already contracted to be honest with Moondancer. Just tell her honestly that you’ll go along with our deal, in word and spirit.”

“No? A shame. It can be such a fun game, slowly escalating the stakes for every question–”

“Tell her.”

Entice sighed.

“Very well. Moondancer, I intend to strap your friend to this sawhorse, tease her a little, stimulate her a lot, feed off the resulting orgasm, and then tell her what happened to Princess Luna. Oh, and let her go afterwards. You will be watching from the nearest cell.”

“I, uh, will?”

“Oh yes. I recognise Twilight’s type; she’ll love an audience. I’ll release you when Twilight has run out of questions she’s willing to pay for, I promise.”

“I’m standing right here!”

“Oh. Okay. Um, have fun, Twilight.”

“Moondancer! You can’t just watch me…”

“Oooh. You’re right, Entice, she does look quite excited.”

“Moondancer!”

“Mmm. Well, Twilight? Would you like your friend to watch? She might enjoy the view so much that she wants to join in, in her own way.”

“Um. Um. Okay.”

“Good girl.”

Entice glided to the nearest alcove and made a show of opening the cell and invitingly sweeping her arm to welcome Moondancer inside. Once Moondancer was in the tight space, Entice shut and locked it, hanging the key on the hook on the wall. She then turned to the nervous-looking Twilight.

“Well, Twilight. Let’s make you comfortable.”

Entice stepped towards Twilight, her smile now looking predatory. Twilight took a step back, raising her dagger instinctively. Entice stopped in her tracks.

“Still a little nervous, or having second thoughts?”

“Maybe a bit of both. I really really shouldn’t be doing this…”

Entice laughed, but with kindness.

“Oh, don’t worry, Twilight. I have no desire to harm you, you’ll be perfectly safe in my care.”

“I don’t know…”

Entice gracefully lowered herself to sit on the floor-cross legged. Twilight felt a lot less threatened, but didn’t come any closer.

“Twilight, do you remember the thrill you felt when Moondancer first kissed you? Or when you played your little games upstairs? That frisson of delight, that tingle down your spine, that fire in your limbs? Just a hint of danger spices things up wonderfully. Do you honestly feel that I will hurt you, or is this just a little too spicy?”

Twilight closed her eyes for a moment.

“I, I don’t think you want to hurt me, but… But I don’t want to be someone who sells her sex. For anything.”

“Well said, Twilight,” whispered Entice, and then said louder: “Then let me offer you a different way to view your current situation. There is a creature in this room who is suffering. Starving. She has done no wrong since she set foot in this world, and she has been hungry for a very long time. You can relieve her torment with ease, at no cost to yourself. Will you do so?”

“When you put it like that… I don’t know…”

Entice flowed to her feet, standing tall again. Her bat-like wings spread out as far as the columns allowed.

“How about a little gamble then? A minor variation of our deal. The rules are simple: you may do anything in your power to elude me, fight me, or hold me off. No spell off limits, no trick too dirty, no holds barred. For my part, I shall maintain my pledge to cause you no harm. However, I will attempt to capture you, restrain you, and have my way with you. If, after ten minutes, you are free and I am unfed, then I shall answer any and all of your questions fully and truthfully. If you are not free, than I shall merely tell you Princess Luna’s fate. How about it?”

Twilight bit her lip, her heart hammering.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

Entice threw her head back and laughed, “Don’t worry about that, Twilight. You really can’t hurt me. I know! I’ll add another victory condition for you: extract from me a grunt of pain and the contest is up and you have won. You really cannot lose, Twilight.”

“…Okay. If you’re sure.”

“Drop your bag, Twilight. Fight me, run, or surrender. We will both enjoy the outcome whatever happens.”

Twilight shucked her backpack and rested it against the wall, never taking her eyes off Entice. She tightened the towels that made her crude clothing, and then squared her feet. Raising her free hand in front of her, and holding her dagger behind, ready to strike, she took the stance of a battle-caster.

Entice grinned. “Begin.”

Twilight teleported out of the room. Entice teleported her back. Twilight blinked with surprise, but recovered quickly. She cast a spell of binding at Entice. Entice broke the binding with a gesture.

“Ha ha! You are strong, Twilight. This will be fun.”

A bolt of silvery light shot from Twilight’s hands and hit Entice in the chest. Entice took a step towards Twilight, reaching out a clawed hand.

Twilight slashed at the hand with her enchanted dagger. Moving faster than Twilight could follow, Entice grabbed the blade of the dagger in her hand and clenched her fist. Twilight tugged at the handle, but Entice held the dagger fast. When Entice pulled back, Twilight let go.

Entice put the handle in her mouth and bit down. She made a show of eating the handle of the dagger, and then eating the blade. A few sparks and pops sounded as the enchantments failed.

Twilight took another step back, and a stream of powerful magical blasts flew from her hands and smashed into Entice. Entice took another step forward. Before Entice could approach any more, Twilight raised a shield, to buy her time to think.

Entice stopped at the other side of the thickest shield Twilight could cast. Her smile was broad, her fangs gleaming. She picked a shred of metal from between her teeth and popped it into her mouth.

“Mmm, tasty magic, but you will be delicious. The spells you cast are boring. Let me show you one of mine.”

Entice tapped Twilight’s shield with a talon, and it popped like a bubble. Before Twilight could register what had happened, Entice threw a shimmering net of blue energy at her. Twilight felt it wrap around her body, and her hair stood on end as though she was standing in a strong static charge. Not noticing any other effect, she tried to cast another shield, but the spell fizzled.

She tried again. Fizzle. Fizzle. Entice waited patiently while Twilight furiously tried to cast spell after spell, but nothing worked.

“See, Twilight? Things become much more fun when you can’t rely on magic…”

Entice was standing between Twilight and the door she came through, but Twilight could see at the end of the room another door that seemed to be ajar. Her heart hammering, Twilight turned heel and ran for it. She barely covered a few paces when Entice teleported in front of her. Unable to stop in time, Twilight found herself unable to stop herself from running into the demoness’ waiting arms.

Laughing, Entice casually grabbed both of Twilight’s wrists and held them together with one hand. She then raised that hand above her head, so that Twilight was dangling in the air, her feet a clear foot off the ground. Twilight tried kicking the demon as hard as she could, but as anticipated, it had no effect beyond shedding the makeshift sandals from Twilight’s feet. The soft skin of the demon absorbed the blow without even hurting Twilight’s foot.

Entice walked back towards the sawhorse with long, confident strides, using her free hand to remove Twilight’s top towel. The other towel was removed with equal ease, and Twilight was fully naked by the time they reached the sawhorse.

Entice’s body gave off heat that warmed Twilight’s skin. She smelled of cinnamon. Twilight tried to struggle from the demon’s hands, but she could not escape, and the thrill caused her heart to hammer, her mouth to dry, and her pussy to dampen.

“Just say the word, Twilight,” said Entice, “and I’ll let you go. Of course, I won’t answer any of your questions either.”

Twilight shook her head, refusing to speak.

Once at the sawhorse Entice draped Twilight over it and used her greater height to lean on top of her to hold her down, pressing Twilight onto the padding. Entice might have looked like a featureless embodiment of the void, but Twilight could feel Entice’s breasts pressing into her back, her nipples hard with excitement. Twilight struggled mightily, surprised at how much she was enjoying her helplessness.

Entice ran her free hand down Twilight’s arm and gripped her wrist. Releasing the other hand, she set to work strapping Twilight’s wrist to the sawhorse. Twilight tried to her free arm to escape, but it was futile. The first of the straps was lovingly fitted, not too tight, and that arm released. The other arm was soon caught and brought to the other strap.

Once both Twilight’s arms were fully restrained, Entice brought her mouth to Twilight’s ear.

“See? Isn’t losing fun?”

Twilight growled. Entice playfully nibbled Twilight’s ear, enjoying her startled yelp, and then stood upright. Strapping down both of Twilight’s legs to the legs of the sawhorse was a trivial job for her. One more belt, across the centre of the sawhorse, was tightened for good measure before Entice stood back to assess her work.

“If it’s any consolation, Twilight, you would need to have power almost on par with a princess to defeat me. Now, by my count I have a good seven minutes to play with, and I don’t want to waste them.”

Twilight wiggled her hips enticingly, her glistening treasure on full display. Her view of the floor was uninspiring, but the sawhorse itself was slight; Twilight could bend her head to see Entice’s feet. It wasn’t a great view, and it hurt her neck, but it was better nothing, and she could at least see what the demoness was up to.

Entice laughed, and ran the smooth back face of a talon up Twilight’s leg, from the ankle, along her calf, up her thigh and pulling it away just before she reached Twilight’s flower. Twilight cried out with need. Taking mercy on her, Entice quickly lubricated a dildo in a practiced motion and brought it to bear. Twilight quickly clenched on her welcome intruder, but Entice had no trouble establishing a slow and steady rhythm.

“I’m almost disappointed, Twilight,” said Entice, “I prefer a little more challenge from my conquests, but you’re just too eager.”

Twilight didn’t respond with anything other than a slight moan.

Entice sped up the movement, the squelching noises coming from her new friend letting her know that lubrication wasn’t an issue. Twilight made her approval known through increasing the pace of her high-pitched gasps for air.

With a master’s timing, Entice removed the dildo just before Twilight could climax.

“Well, that’s my ten minutes up already. My, doesn’t time fly. Oh well, I’m now honour-bound to tell you about Princess Luna’s sorry fate.”

“Augh! Don’t you dare stop! Finish it!”

Entice was mildly surprised by the vehemence of Twilight’s reaction, but as she had had no intention to stop anyway, she obliged. Rapid, hard, rhythmic thrusts with the dildo, and, after a moment or two, a firm grasp of Twilight’s hair and a controlled tug and–

“Aaaah! Aaah! Ahhhh!”

Entice sucked in air and fell back against a caryatid. Twilight could see a flurry of sparks dancing across Entice’s skin, detailing contours that had hitherto been hidden. The tiny stars’ random dance slowly gained a purpose, flowing across her skin to where the demoness’ pussy would be, before fading into darkness. It took several full minutes for the succubus to recover, twitching and convulsing in ecstasy.

“Whoo! That was spectacular! Whee!” Entice giggled.

“What was I then? A damp squib?” Moondancer sounded more amused than offended.

“No no no, you were wonderful Moondancer. Really really wonderful. It’s just that, whoo! A thousand years! A Thousand Years and then, Wow! That would have been exceptional… Anytime!”

Entice staggered to her feet, her grace temporarily lost. She grabbed Twilight’s butt for support.

“Hey!” shouted Twilight.

“Oops, sorry Twilight. Thank you, by the way. That was heee,” Entice sloppily kissed Twilight on the cheek, “special.”

“Let me up, and tell me about Princess Luna.”

Entice clumsily released Twilight from her bonds, and graciously helped her up. Twilight looked around for her towels, but seeing them lying on the dusty ground put her off. She decided to do without them for the moment, and leant against the pillar opposite to the one Entice was propping herself up against. Thanks her recent experiences, nudity no longer seemed to be particularly important, particularly considering the nature of her company. She casually folded her arms under her breasts.

“Princess Luna?” she asked with a raised eyebrow.

Entice finally managed to get upright and visibly tried to regain her mysterious demeanor. This proved to be difficult, as the sparks were still flying and dancing across her body, and she twitched whenever a cluster of them were absorbed.

“Okay, okay. Princess Luna got corrupted by a Nightmare, decided to bring about Eternal Night as revenge for all her perceived slights, and Princess Celestia was forced to banish her to the moon.”

“WHAT?!”

“Sorry, Twilight, I had a long story prepared, but I just had the best, uh meal, I have had in a thousand years and drawing out the whole thing just seems rather silly right now.”

The Escape

“You have to understand that the fall of Discord was not the end of the chaos–” started Entice.

“Who?” asked Twilight with a wrinkled brow.

“I’ll tell you later,” said Moondancer, “carry on.”

“Discord was an elemental of chaos who was defeated by two sisters: Celestia and Luna. They were elevated to the rank of Princess for the deed, and together they reforged Equestria from the disparate city-states that sprang up during Discord’s reign and the interregnum. While Princess Celestia was practically prescient as a tactician and strategist, Princess Luna was righteous wrath made flesh. They were indomitable, the mistresses of war. Their enemies didn’t stand a chance.

“They were young back then, and their power set them apart. When there was no-one left to fight, they were slow to adapt. They decreed that their newly-reforged domain should have a capital, and they made it a castle. The Castle of the Royal Sisters. No-one argued, and so work started on this place.

“They were young. Still learning about themselves, learning statecraft, learning politics when dealing with other nations, learning diplomacy the hard way when trying to unite the four tribes. It was a hard time. Celestia was as beautiful as her bright-shining sun, and didn’t lack for suitors. She had children, grew into motherhood, and matured in time.

“Luna wasn’t the centre of attention. She didn’t have many suitors, her feats on the battlefield spawning rumours and legends that drove away all but the most foolhardy. She also struggled with her desires. She burned with need, but couldn’t satisfy herself without endangering the country that she had helped forge.”

“Mmmm,” said Twilight, without realising that she had spoken aloud.

“So while the castle was being built, she had an idea. The castle was to be warded against demons: an astral seal would be built into the foundations. Luna summoned a demoness in a tightly warded room before the seal was complete, leaving the succubus trapped inside its boundaries. Me. I was to be her naughty little secret. I cannot cross the seal, and the seal will last as long as the castle stands, and the castle– The castle will not fall.”

“Wow,” said Twilight.

She was leaning against a wall in the sex dungeon, listening to Entice tell her story. The demon was staring into the flames of one of the lamps, barely noticing her audience.

“It was difficult. I tried to help Princess Luna, as I was bound to do, but it wasn’t enough. She needed love, and that was something I couldn’t give her. Her sister grew distant, basking in the light of the worship of their people. Luna stepped back, into shadow. She thought her night was unappreciated. She stopped talking to her sister, to her people, to me. She only talked to the Nightmare, and it didn’t take long for Endless Night to make sense. Princess fought Princess, and Luna lost. She was banished,” Entice sighed, “and everyone left, leaving me alone. I spent most of the last thousand years sleeping, until you woke me.”

“That just opens up a dozen new questions! Why can’t this castle fall? How did Princess Celestia banish her sister? Where did she banish her to? Why is this not in any of the history books? Why is this place so well preserved? Why– You’re trying to tempt me, aren’t you?”

“Ha ha ha! Can you blame me, Twilight?” Entice smirked at Twilight, her doleful mood gone in the blink of an eye, “And you knew that from the start. You wanted to be tempted. So pick a question. You know the price.”

Twilight bit her lip, scanning her gaze around the room, at the toys, the furniture, the demoness…

“If you’re still uncertain, Twilight, we can play another game. Same stakes as before. I’ll even take on a handicap, if you want.”

“Why bother? The outcome would be the same, and you know it.”

“Would that be so bad?” asked Entice archly.

Twilight looked away.

“Twilight. I can answer all your questions, if you’ll let me. I can lay bare all the secrets this castle holds before you. Why deprive yourself of this knowledge? Please let me– Please let us both grow.”

“I– It feels wrong. And, and, what happens when your next answer leads to more questions?”

“We have a fascinating conversation?”

Twilight blinked with surprise when a thought hit her.

“That’s it! We can do this!”

“We can? Wonderful!”

“We can trade answers for answers! It’ll be great!”

Entice’s smile died.

“Twilight, I am an ancient and powerful demon. What knowledge do you have that I don’t?”

“Don’t you see? You’ve been trapped here for a thousand years. I can tell you about all the advances in magic, philosophy, and science since this place was abandoned. Now that’s a fair trade.”

Entice slowly shook her head, “Twilight, I would love to discuss recent Equestrian history with you. It’s true that I don’t know what’s been happening past these castle walls, but Twilight, I am hungry. It would be sheer torture to sit and talk with you, denied the touch of your lips. Why can’t you accept what I’m offering? I will never take more than you are willing to give.”

“Entice, I’m scared. I think that ‘What I’m willing to give’ would soon mean ‘Everything’ as I spend time in your arms.”

“Twilight, you’re a strong woman. You are no fool, drowning in knowledge when you but need a cooling draught. Twilight, I can feel your lust. Tartarus, I can see your need. You’re burning with desire. I can help. Anything you ever wanted, any fantasy… Twilight, why fight it?”

Twilight’s stance had shifted, arms that were folded were now hugging herself. She still refused to meet Entice’s eyes.

“Where does it end, Entice? I don’t– No. No, thank you. I can get my answers through hard work, study, and research. I can ask Princess Celestia. I’m going to confess everything to the Princess when I get back to Canterlot. I shouldn’t have asked the first question, I shan’t ask a second.”

“Not even Princess Celestia can teach you everything, Twilight, even if she wanted to do so. Think about it: Princess Luna was her equal, or nearly so. When she was banished, Celestia banished Luna’s magical knowledge too. Luna and I learned so much together. I would love to teach all that to you. Think about it: you could restore whole lost schools of magic back to Equestria! The magic of moonlight, shadows, dreams, and the tides could be yours to share with the world! Think of the potential!”

Entice spread her arms out and the room was full of shadows: silhouettes of women, of books, of cosmological symbols all circling the demoness in an unceasing array. One of the shadow women took on the colours of life and leaned towards Twilight and kissed her on the cheek. Shocked, Twilight brought a hand to her cheek. The shadow flitted away, losing all colour to become grey again.

“I can give you so much, Twilight, and ask for so little. Do you hate yourself so much, to deny yourself all I can give you?”

Twilight, wide-eyed, stared at Entice. Twilight shook her head as if to shake away an unwelcome thought. She took a deep breath, swallowed, and stood straight. The dancing shadows froze in place in anticipation.

“Okay. I have a question, and I know the price. But I get to choose what we do.”

Entice’s eyes grew round with pleasure and her smile seemed to stretch across the entirety of her face.

“Twilight, I wouldn’t have it any other way! You’ll not regret this, I promise! What’s the question? What do you want to do? Would you like to try to run again? I liked it when you did that last time. I could give you a head start.”

“My question is: ‘Why are the preservative magics here so powerful?’”

“Ah! A very good question, but I should warn you: when you hear of the Tree of Harmony, you’ll have a hundred more questions for me to answer. It will be glorious!”

“The Tree of Harmony?”

“Ah ah ah! Payment first, then answers. So what caught your eye? How can I make you happy?”

“I would like to try out that star,” said Twilight nodding to the device.

The star consisted of two solid-looking timber beams forming an ‘X’ with a third, horizontal, beam cutting across the ‘X’ at shoulder height. There were wrist restraints on the top of the two diagonal timbers, wing restraints on the horizontal bar, and ankle-cuffs at the bottom of the diagonals. The whole assembly reclined against an upright support.

“And could you please use my own toy? I’ve had it for years, and I just love how it feels inside me, even if it isn’t very big.”

“It’ll be my pleasure, as well as yours,” grinned Entice.

Twilight reached for her pack, but her magic fizzled and no aura formed. Miffed, she turned back to Entice.

“Could you please release my magic? We’ve already established that I can’t escape, and it really is very annoying to be without it.”

“Twilight, where would the fun be in that? How about this: I’ll be generous, and free up a little, each time we play. You’ll have all of it back in no time at all, I’m sure. I’ll even give you just a little back now, because I like you.”

Twilight could tell from Entice’s tone of voice that she wouldn’t be getting any more than that from her, so accepted with good grace. She was disappointed that the trickle of magic that Entice permitted her was not even close to be enough to even lift her pack, and so she walked over to it and crouched down to fish around inside.

It didn’t take her long to find what she was looking for. She cast a quick glance at Moondancer in her cell, noting her rapt attention, bit her lip, and hid her choice from her friend.

“Here, this end please,” she said Twilight.

Entice was momentarily confused when examining the makeshift dildo, but quickly recovered and smiled sweetly, gently guiding Twilight by the elbow to her choice of apparatus.

“We’ll save the chase for later, shall we? You seem to be eager to get started.”

Twilight paused briefly to rub herself sinuously against Entice, relishing the heat from the demon’s form. Entice hummed in approval, and then began to slowly bind Twilight to the cross.

Twilight didn’t struggle this time, choosing to just silently watch as Entice almost ritually strapped down her wrists one at a time. Both arms above her head. Legs spread wide. Entice ran a talon smoothly up Twilight’s leg and body. Twilight tried to shy away from the ticklish sensation.

“Don’t you just love feeling so exposed, Twilight?” asked Entice, turning her wrist so that the sharp end of her talons raked across Twilight’s stomach, too softly to break the skin. Twilight reflexively tried to curl away, but the restraints held her with ease.

Twilight shivered, and drew a deep breath. The heat in her loins was building; she twisted her hips…

“Mmm, you do like it. You know, I think there are a lot of things you’ll like. Next time, I’ll give you a little more magic, a light, and a head start. You can run for the entrance, and I’ll chase you. When I catch you, we’ll try the paddle. You’ll love it.”

Twilight didn’t respond, so Entice pinched her, eliciting a yelp.

“You’re right, we’re never going to get anything done by just talking.”

Entice leant forward and kissed Twilight on one of her nipples, the faintest of nips sending sparks down Twilight’s spine. Another kiss, lower, on Twilight’s belly. Twilight could feel Entice’s sharp teeth, but they only pressed lightly. Lower still, closer still, and Twilight was trembling with anticipation.

Entice’s long tongue teased Twilight’s slit, eliciting a moan, before pulling back.

“Oh, you wanted me to use your little toy, didn’t you?” she asked rhetorically.

Entice turned her back on Twilight and walked back to the table, her tail trailing along Twilight’s thigh as though loath to leave her. Twilight whimpered with need.

“Don’t worry, I won’t leave you without any company while I prepare.”

The shadows in the corners of Twilight’s vision twisted and stretched. They quickly took on an extra dimension, and three shadow women stepped forward. Colour flushed across their nude bodies, one red, one blue and one green, blazing their hair, and sparkling their iridescent wings. Each of the women glowed with an internal light.

“Ooh,” said Moondancer, clearly intrigued. The red shadow-women gracefully peeled off and flew towards Moondancer’s cell. The other two began kissing and caressing Twilight. Twilight moaned with approval. Entice didn’t seem to be in any hurry, but the shadows were eager and hungry, with searching hands and tongues.

“Just applying a little lubrication, Twilight. Hold on a moment more. Such an interesting toy, you have here. So many interesting grooves. Do they serve some purpose, amplifying your pleasure, you naughty thing? I do look forward to finding out.”

Twilight’s excitement was ramping fast under the shadow-women’s ministrations, and in anticipation on what was to come. Waves of pleasure surged up her spine, welcome fire from the sensations she was helpless to resist.

Twilight had a plan. She needed to hold out until everything was in alignment. The shadow-women appeared to be mindless, but they complicated things. Her arousal was rising higher and higher, Entice was stalking closer and closer to Twilight, dextrous shadow-hands were exploring and teasing her body, and mouths that did not need air were kissing and sucking and licking and it wasn’t time yet–

Entice’s a grin sharpened with anticipation at Twilight’s moans and twitching. Twilight was clearly at the edge of orgasm. Holding Moondancer’s now heavily-lubricated wand in her hand, the tip pointing towards her, Entice moved into position. A shadow-hand moved away from massaging Twilight’s slit, making space for the wand.

Twilight’s head swam and she was biting her lip hard, resisting the pleasures and building orgasm that threatened to overwhelm her and ruin her plan. She stared, fixated, at the wand, trembling in her bindings, at the brink of of a great force that her will could only hold back so long.

Entice was moving too slowly. Twilight couldn’t hold on against the ministrations of the shadow women. Entice must have detected her subterfuge. This wasn’t going to work. Twilight would fall under the succubus’ spell, trading pleasure for knowledge until she was unable to resist, the demon’s puppet. Twilight focused her mind, protection from the fears and feelings assaulting her, buying the time she needed. Just a little longer.

Twilight cried out when the wand touched her pussy, the barrier in her mind weakening at a terrifying rate. She arched her back, writhed in place, but did not come. One of the shadow women was pinching her nipples, tugging her hair. The other was exploring Twilight’s neck with her tongue and Twilight didn’t know which was pushing her closer to orgasm faster. Then Entice slowly pushed the wand inside her.

It was too much. Twilight couldn’t take any more, couldn’t wait until the wand could catch Entice by surprise, couldn’t even be sure it would even hurt her. The barrier in her mind dissolved in the blizzard of sensations that assailed her. With a great cry, Twilight convulsed in joy.

Twilight’s orgasmic energy was more than enough to trigger the wand, but the wand wasn’t pointed at Entice. It was instead pointed at the ground at Entice’s feet. Powered by a surge far greater than it’s designer thought possible, the energy blast coming from the wand smashed the ground, and sent an energy blast punching deep and far through the tiled floor. Unable to resist the power of the blow, a great hole opened up underneath the demon. The crack was deafening.

Normally Entice would have had no trouble avoiding the hole that had suddenly opened under her, but she had been overwhelmed by the feedback of Twilight’s orgasm, just as before, and fell back insensate, tumbling into the darkness below. Without her focus, the shadow women dissipated.

Twilight gasped for breath. She would have slumped to the ground if she were not held upright by the bindings around her wrists. Shaking her head, she unsteadily focussed her will on her restraints, praying that the magic that Entice her left her with would be enough to free her. Almost sobbing with breath, keenly aware that the demon would quickly recover her senses, she tugged at the straps with her aura.

It wasn’t enough. Every time she tried to focus enough strength to tease a strap open, it fizzled. The weaker force that she was left with was not enough to manipulate the thick leather.

“Argh!” Twilight cried out with frustration when her magic fizzled again.

“Twilight!”

“Moondancer! I can’t get free! We need to get out of here!”

“Twilight, I can’t open this door!”

Twilight flung her head back against the padded wood with new frustration. If she still had her magic, she could rip the door trapping Moondancer from its stays. Moondancer was not strong enough to do it. She continued to try her own bonds, trying to generate enough heat to burn through them. It didn’t look like it would be any more successful.

“Twilight, the key! Where’s the key to my cell?”

“On the wall!”

Moondancer tried to look, but it was out of sight. If she couldn’t see it, she couldn’t grab it with her aura. Her groping arm couldn’t find it, it was too far out of reach. Twilight tried to use a shape-changing spell on the straps, but it fizzled. Twilight could feel a pressure building up at the back of her head.

There was a clink and rumble at the bottom of the hole, the sound of masonry shifting and falling.

“Hurry!” shouted Twilight, pulling hard at a wrist. It did no good.

“I can’t see it! I can’t reach it!”

“Ahh!” Twilight couldn’t escape her bonds. Moonlight was trapped. Entice was getting up. Twilight stopped wasting her time on her own freedom. With a focus that she didn’t know she had, Twilight reached out with her aura and found its trembling strength was just enough to lift the key to Moondancer’s cell. With terrifying slowness, Twilight jerkily tried to lift the key from its hook. Her magic spasmed and the key flopped back down.

“TWILIGHT!” shouted an enraged voice from the bottom of the hole. Judging from the echoes, Entice had fallen into another vault.

Twilight tried again. Her magic spasmed, and the key went flying, landing on the floor. With a cry of triumph, Moondancer saw the key and yanked it to her in her aura. It was awkward, but it didn’t take long for her to unlock her cell.

“Go!” shouted Twilight, watching with alarm as shadowy shapes started streaming out of the hole, tendrils and grasping hands and chains feeling around.

Moondancer didn’t say anything, but ran to Twilight, and started feverishly undoing the straps.

“Go! There’s no time!”

Huge black clawed hands appeared either side of the hole, scouring gouges in the tiles. A dark head rose out of the hole, eyes now completely red, sparking with rage. Moondancer glanced behind her at the terror rising at her feet. She roughly grabbed the wand from Twilight’s grip, eliciting a pained gasp, and stood squarely between Entice and Twilight, levelling the wand at Entice. Time seemed to freeze.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion, and Twilight was unable to do anything other than watch. Entice pulling herself out of the hole. Moondancer pointing the wand at the demon. Entice was nearly out, and the wand was doing nothing…

It took an eternity for the wand to flare.

The blast knocked the demoness back down the hole, crying out with frustration. Moondancer dropped the wand and went back to work on Twilight’s restraints.

“It didn’t kill her! Go! We don’t have time!” shouted Twilight, but Moondancer ignored her. One wrist was free. Twilight fought the need to try to work on the strap on her other wrist - she would only get in Moondancer’s way. A roar of anger came from the hole. The other strap came free. Twilight worked on the strap across her belly. Moondancer cast a desperate look at the hole and kneeled down to release her ankles.

A roar of anger came from the hole. Twilight would only get in Moondancer’s way if she tried to lean down low enough to release the straps. She could still help. She dragged up the wand with her aura and snatched the slippery stick from the air with her hands. She levelled it at the hole, over Moondancer’s head, waiting for Entice to appear.

Twilight felt one foot come free. Strange shadow flames erupted from the hole. Moondancer set to work on the other foot, the work made harder with hands slick with sweat and trembling with adrenaline.

Entice’s eyes appeared in the darkness again. They had time to just widen in realisation before the blast from the wand slammed into the space between them. They disappeared back into the dark. A series of thuds marked Entice’s descent back down the hole.

Twilight’s final strap came free and she staggered forward trying to get off the cross. Twilight would have fallen into the hole herself if Moondancer hadn’t caught her.

Seizing Twilight’s arm, Moondancer practically dragged her away from the hole and towards the door at the far end of the room. Twilight didn’t need much encouragement, and soon found her feet. She pulled abreast of her friend, and reached the door at the same time as her.

They burst through the door to find themselves in a long corridor. Twilight slammed the door shut behind them, and Moondancer created a light.

The girls ran.

The Shadows

Twilight and Moondancer heard the door to the dungeon exploding behind them, and the fear gave them a boost in speed. It didn’t last long, however, and Moondancer was flagging. Her lungs heaving for breath, she staggered to a walk, clutching her side in pain. Twilight noticed the light that her friend was carrying slow down, and quickly came to a halt.

They were in a corridor, and Entice could move fast when she wanted to. Running wasn’t going to work. Twilight grabbed Moondancer’s arm and dragged her to a side door on the corridor. The door wasn’t locked, and Twilight pulled Moondancer inside the room, not bothering to close the door behind her.

The room was bare, probably a storeroom once, but empty now. The ceiling was low, the floor was made of flagstones and the wall undecorated whitewash. That was all that Twilight took in with a quick glance.

“Stop the light! She’ll see it!” said Twilight between deep breaths. Moondancer nodded, breathing hard, and let the light dissipate.

The room went black, and there was no light of any kind.

Twilight and Moondancer pressed their backs to the cold, damp, wall, trying to control their gasping for air. Twilight was the first to recover. Her mind ran through all the different ways that they could be scried. The darkness would help with many, but they were still breathing, and their lifeforce would be strong.

She needed her magic to shield them, and she had no magic. She tried to cast a spell, but it fizzled. She tried again. Fizzle. Again. Fizzle. Fizzle. Fizzle.

Moondancer could see Twilight’s look of panic by the faint light of the failing magic. She took the wand from her hands, Twilight was too focussed on her failed casting to notice.

Kneeling, Moondancer touched the tip of the wand to the floor, willing a slow trickle of energy through it, keeping the thaumic flow as smooth as possible. Using the same trick Twilight had used earlier, Moondancer started scribing on the hard flagstones. She ran the wand in a large circle around her, keeping the wand as steady as she could despite the lubricant and other fluids covering the thing. To her ears, the noise from the spark etching into the stone was almost as loud as Twilight’s attempts at magic.

The first circle done, she started on another, even larger circle around the first. Moondancer was breathing quietly by the time the second circle was complete, and Twilight had calmed.

Moondancer started on the runes between the two circles, here was one that looked like an ‘E’, and then an ‘L’, it was painstaking work, but Moondancer was methodical and knew what she was doing.

Twilight quickly worked out Moondancer’s plan, and tried to help by blocking the faint light of the wand from the door with her body.

Twilight watched Moondancer’s face as she worked, illuminated by the reflected light from the wand. The air between the two circles shimmered the light, as though hot air was rising from it. Soon it felt almost solid, and soon after that, the circle was complete.

The only light in the room winked out. Blind, Twilight groped in front of her until she found Moondancer, who guided her into the circle. They sat, back to back, and talked.

“We can talk, if we keep it quiet,” whispered Moondancer, “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay. Thank you for rescuing me. How you could undo those buckles with your back to that pit… Moondancer, thank you! Thank you!”

“Heh, don’t sweat it, Twilight. I wasn’t going to leave you behind–”

“‘Don’t sweat it’?! Moondancer, you’re a heroine! You just calmly released me while a hell-beast was climbing out of a hole behind you! I couldn’t do that. You save my life, my soul–”

“Twilight, stop it. Please. I’m not a heroine. Really. You’re a heroine–”

“Moondancer,” said Twilight levelly, “I have never done anything heroic in my life, and I don’t plan on starting any time soon. I’ll leave the heroic acts of librarianship to someone else, thanks. But you–”

“Please just drop it, Twilight. It was nothing. To be honest, I don’t think Entice was going to hurt us, she just wanted to scare us a little. We probably don’t–”

“Moondancer! Entice is a succubus! A very, very, powerful succubus. Even if she doesn’t want our souls, she wants to suck our life-force dry!”

“She’s just lonely, Twilight. She just wants to play the only games she knows.”

“Moondancer, she’s a succubus! They don’t get lonely, they don’t want to play. They are deceivers nonpareil. The most seductive, persuasive, convincing, liars that hell can spawn! You can’t trust them. Ever! What were you thinking?”

“‘What was I thinking’? What were you thinking with that trick? You could have been killed! And you didn’t give me a hint what was going on. One moment I’m getting freaky with a shadow-vixen and the next the world moves. For everyone!”

“How did you think that her little game would end? We would both be her sex-slaves, willing to do anything, including giving up our lives, for just one more kiss. It was worth the risk. And–”

“And?”

Twilight took a deep breath.

“And I wasn’t sure that you hadn’t already been corrupted. I wasn’t sure if you were on her side.”

“What!” hissed Moondancer, before barely regaining her composure and lowering her voice, “What do you mean, ‘on her side’?”

“Moondancer, you had been alone with her for some time. You seemed besotted with her. You had had sex with her. If I didn’t know better, I thought you wanted me to have sex with her. What was I supposed to think?”

“I– Twilight, I’m not a fool. I know enough about succubi. She is clearly trapped here. If she could have escaped by any means, she would have done so by now. So what’s her best option? Her ideal outcome? Feeding on a couple of girls until there’s nothing left? No. She needs company, she needs people more than food. She needs to show a couple of girls a good time, so when we go back to Canterlot, we send more people for her to play with. Tartarus, she could charge for it!”

“Moondancer, that’s not her best outcome.”

“Oh? What is?”

“Her best outcome is to convert her new guests into slaves who’ll direct others to come to the ‘hidden city’ for sex. And she needs to convert those others into slaves. Slowly, so no-one becomes suspicious. And then she brings those slaves together, and uses them. The only way that she can escape is divine intervention. That means Princess Celestia. And she can chose two options: either release her slaves to the Princess in return for freedom, or else convince Princess Celestia that such an atrocity has been committed here that the Princess unleashes the power of the sun on this castle, finally breaking the seal and letting her escape back to Tartarus, with a belly full of souls.”

“oh”

Twilight sighed.

“I needed to get out of there, and I couldn’t fight my way out. She’s really, really, powerful, Moondancer. She wasn’t kidding about having near-godly power. Her only weakness was that she seemed to be a little out of it, the first time she fed from me. That wouldn’t have lasted, so it had to be then. I’m just glad my trick worked.”

And then, in a smaller voice, Twilight whispered, “I also didn’t know how long I could have resisted her…”

“Okay, so how did your trick work? Why didn’t she recognise a siege wand when she was given one?”

“Because wands were first created by your great-to-the-nth uncle’s teacher three hundred odd years ago. Long after Entice went to sleep. She didn’t know what a wand was.”

“Oh. Huh. Well, she knows now.”

“Yeah,” said Twilight, and then quieter, “I hope we didn’t hurt her.”

Moondancer pretended not to hear her, and was quiet for a moment.

Before Moondancer could think of something to say, there was a faint light coming through the doorway. A moving light.

Both girls watched with wide-eyed silence, not daring to breathe, as the light approached. Twilight pressed close to Moondancer, who was doing the same to Twilight. The magic circle they were in blocked most sound, but they may not have been able to hear anything over the hammering of their hearts.

The light got brighter, and stopped at the doorway. The light entered the room. It was being carried by a woman

It wasn’t Entice.

The woman was short, with a full body and a round face. She had a kindly smile, and her greying brown hair was tied up in a bun. She wore a plain white, full-length dress and practical-looking shoes. Pre-classical, or post-erisian, low status servant garb thought Twilight. The servant held a lantern in one hand, holding it high and shining the light around the room. The movements of her mouth clearly showed that she was speaking, but Twilight couldn’t hear a thing.

The woman’s gaze passed right through the women in the magic circle.

The woman’s mouth was moving, as though she was calling out, but the power of the circle prevented them from hearing what she was saying. The woman walked across the room. She looked at the wall that they had slumped against and the floor where they were sitting, but her grey eyes never focussed on the pair who sat frozen with fear, not daring to breathe.

The woman was closer now, and the circle let a faint echo of her words reach Twilight and Moondancer’s ears. She was speaking with Entice’s voice: “You can come out, Twilight, Moondancer. It’s okay. I’m not angry. No-one’s going to hurt you. You must be cold and hungry. Come upstairs, and I’ll make you something to eat in the kitchens. We can talk. Just talk. You can come out, Twilight, Moondancer. It’s okay…”

The woman was endlessly repeating the same words again and again.

Seemingly unable to detect Twilight and Moondancer, the serving woman walked around the perimeter of the room, and then left to continue her patrol. Twilight managed to breath again.

The light gone, the room was again as black as soot.

“Oh thank Celestia that ward worked,” whispered Twilight.

“You should thank my grandma instead. Afterall, she was the one that taught it to me. Wards like that were all the rage when she was a kid, apparently.”

Twilight managed a weak laugh, “There’s always more to learn, it seems.”

“That was scary. I think we’re safe now, but we can’t stay down here forever. What do we do?”

“Well,” said Twilight, collecting herself, “That must have been one of Entice’s animated shadows. She was controlling over thirty of those during her demonstration back in the dungeon. She’s using them to search the entire dungeon, and has probably posted ones like that at all the exits. Sneaking out will be hard. Can you teleport?”

“Nope.”

“‘Nope’ as in ‘I can manage a few feet, but I end up a little singed, or–”

“‘Nope’ as in ‘I can’t teleport’. The S-T matrix collapses before I can finish energising the first lattice array. Every time.”

“Oh. Um, it’s really not that hard. Maybe we can have a quick study session and see if you can get the hang of it?”

“Twilight,” sighed Moondancer, “You do realise that there are a total of three students at the University who can teleport, including you? And maybe one in ten members of the faculty? I do not think I can ‘get the hang of it’ after a quick study session.”

“See?” said an almost irate Twilight, “That’s the problem! You just need confidence, but you see everyone else failing and think ‘I can’t do that’ and give up! Don’t give up, just let yourself go, and it’ll be fine.”

“I need a plan, Twilight, not a cheerleader.”

“Okay, a plan. We’re lost, but Entice isn’t. She’ll have placed her shadows to guard the exits, and they’re going to be standing still and holding lights. She wants us to come out, after all. We wait to see if there are any regular patrols for the shadows, then sneak out, and look for the shadows that are guarding a spot. That’s where we’ll find the way out. We use the wand to get rid of them, run out the exit and escape the dungeons… Actually, how long will these energy drinks last?”

“No idea, they came from you. They seem pretty amazing so far. You’ll have to share your fixer with me.”

“They came from me? I didn’t recognise the master’s symbol on the bottles. I have no idea who brewed them.”

“Well, you were a little… distracted, when you gave them to me to carry. I had a theory, but I wasn’t going to ask.”

“What theory?”

“Well, you tell Princess Celestia everything, don’t you? And I mean, everything. Soooo, maybe you mentioned your plans for the weekend to her, and she gave you a little something something to help you make the most of the opportunity?”

“WHAT?!”

Moondancer clamped her hand around Twilight’s mouth, too late to silence the shout.

“Shhh.”

“Sorry. You surprised me. I– I don’t know where they came from. I’ll let you know when I remember. Anyway. We use the wand on the shadow guard and run past. We are then on a deadline: the sound of the wand will attract Entice’s attention. She will chase after us. I don’t know if this ward circle will hide us from her direct gaze, but she’s so powerful that I doubt it. What we will then need to do is head for the library–”

“The library again?”

“Yes, the library. We need to research demon binding rituals, anti-demonic wards, any way to seal her inside the dungeons, or at least ward the orchard against her. Once we do that, we can wait for Princess Celestia, as per our original plan. The library has lots of nooks, crannies and hiding places, and Entice will have to search the entire castle grounds in person to find us.”

“Okay, that actually sounds workable. Let’s do it.”

“Great! Now we need to spend some time waiting, to make sure that we know any patrol routes, so that gives us time to work on your S-T matrices. Yay!” Twilight quietly clapped her hands in excitement.

Moondancer groaned. She was trapped.

The conjured servant woman made three more rounds while Twilight tried to teach Moondancer how to teleport.

After an hour or so of focused study, mental exercises, encouragement and guidance, Moondancer still could not teleport. Twilight saw that Moondancer’s temper was getting dangerously short, and finally agreed that they could now try and escape.

“Okay, so, how do we sneak up on the shadow people without a light? I literally cannot see a thing.”

“Um, I do have a little magic. It might be just enough for a small spell. It’s one of the first I learned, when I was a child. Here goes.”

Twilight cupped her hands together and tried to coax a magic spark to life, hiding the light from the door. The spark fizzled out the first few times, but Twilight stuck with it. Eventually the spell formed properly. Not daring to breath in case it popped like a soap bubble, Twilight wafted the spell to Moondancer, who blinked with surprise when it struck. It took two more tries before Twilight was able to cast the same spell on herself.

Moondancer waved her hand in front of her face.

“Wow! I can see in the dark. This is such a cool spell! And you learned this as a child? Why–” Moondancer paused with sudden realisation, “Twilight, did you learn this spell so that you could read past your bedtime, under the covers?”

It really was an impressive spell: Moondancer could even make out Twilight’s blush.

Twilight crouched in the darkness, eyeing the door that she was sure lead back to the main body of the castle. It was closed, but it didn’t have a lock. To be fair, it didn’t really need a lock: it had a large demonic creature that looked like a cross between an star-nosed mole and frog guarding it. The demon held its scaled body alert, and a deep red glow lived in its widely-offset eyes. It was continuously scanning the three corridors that joined at the doorway. The creature’s forelegs were much shorter and less powerful than its hindlegs, the many long, dextrous, pale, tendrils coming from its face were clearly chosen by Entice to restrain its victims without hurting them.

Twilight had slowly crept as close to the beast as she dared. Any closer and the light over the door would be sure to fall on her. She was waiting for the right moment to make a run for it, but she was not at all sure what that moment would be. She couldn’t wait too much longer though: her feet were tired, despite the amazing energy drink, and if she waited too long then a patrolling shadow would come up behind her. It would be the rotund gentleman; he had a broad smile, and carried a lamp, and a sloshing hip-flask which he often sampled.

Moondancer was pressed against the wall behind Twilight. She touched Twilight’s shoulder in encouragement, nearly making Twilight scream in surprise. The little yelp she did give caused the beast to swing its head around and focus down the corridor they were in. It was a long, tense, moment before it continued to survey the corridors.

Twilight took that as a good time to move. She looked back to Moondancer and got a nod of readiness. Twilight shifted her grip on the wand and summoned her nerve. She judged the distance between them, and the range of the wand, one last time and then silently sprinted towards the creature, wand levelled at its chest. Moondancer waited.

The beast saw her coming, turned to face her and made ready to leap, tendrils already reaching out towards her. Twilight tried to activate the wand, pouring her internal power into it, through it, and towards the monster. Time seemed to slow as the monster leapt, far more powerfully than Twilight had anticipated. She could see it rushing towards her, crossing the distance between them with a single bound.

There was a faint spark of light at the tip of the wand.

She saw the many tendrils reaching for her. The wand was too slow. At the edge of panic, she poured more and more energy into it, willing it to fire faster, harder. A tendril wrapped itself around Twilight’s wrist.

The wand finally flared into life, a torrent of power surging from the tip. Moondancer’s family wand was centuries old, but it had been made by a master craftsman. The original siege wands were designed to allow mediocre casters breach stone walls. Twilight was not a mediocre caster, and the beast was far softer than stone. The blast cone tore through the body of the creature and kept on going.

Twilight gasped as the blast struck the ceiling over the doorway, dropping rubble on the corridor and destroying a significant portion of the stairway.

Twilight turned to look at Moondancer, still standing against the wall, staring wide-eyed at the destruction. Twilight’s blood froze when she saw a light behind Moondancer, moving fast toward them. Turning to the doorway, Twilight could see a pathway through the rubble to the stairs. Rocks were still falling, and the passage would not be usable for long. It was time to move.

Twilight ran towards the exit. Moondancer made to follow, but then stumbled.

“Cramp!” she cursed.

Twilight heard her and looked back, aghast. Moondancer was lying on the floor of the corridor, clutching her leg. The smiling, rotund gentleman was running down the corridor as fast as he could. His body was twisting and reshaping itself, with ghastly cracks playing across his face and clothes, revealing darkness within, slowing him down.

“Go!” shouted Moondancer, struggling to her feet, “GO!”

Twilight hesitated and then turned on her heel and ran.

To Moondancer.

The man was going to get to her first. He wasn’t looking much like a man anymore, his whole body bulging and twisting. Twilight wasn’t going to get there in time. She couldn’t use the wand: she might hit Moondancer.

She was only a few paces away when the man toppled and collapsed in on himself. A swarm of creepy-crawlies broke out of the shell of his skin. Spiders and centipedes and bats and rats and snakes. A wave of the small creatures washed over and past Moondancer, who shrieked in terror and surprise. They didn’t stop, washing past her. They seemed to swell and stretch as they went, getting larger and larger, far bigger than their normal counterparts would normally get.

Twilight reflexively pulled away from the swarm, falling backward to the ground, and pushing herself away from them with kicking legs. The creatures formed a barrier between Twilight and her friend, but went no further. Twilight stared past the horrific barrier and met Moondancer’s eyes.

“Go!” shouted Moondancer.

Twilight was frozen in place. The snakes were watching her, swaying as if to music only they could hear.

Entice’s voice sang out from the darkness all around them, “Oh, there you are. Don’t worry girls, I really don’t want to hurt you. Stay there, and I’ll be with you in just a minute. I’ll show you the baths, and fix you something to eat.”

Twilight scrambled to her feet, backing away from the snakes.

“Don’t worry Twilight, I’ll look after Moondancer for you.”

Twilight stopped.

“Go!” shouted Moondancer again, desperately shooing her friend away.

Twilight swallowed and tried to edge forward, doing her best to avoid the great snakes blocking her path. She wasn’t a fan of spiders or centipedes, but it was the snakes that made her mouth dry, her heart hammer, and her skin crawl.

The nearest snake slithered to block her route to Moondancer. Twilight whimpered.

Twilight closed her eyes and ran towards Moondancer, flailing her arms to try and ward off snake attacks. She tried ignore wet crunch when she stepped on something. She knew when she reached Moondancer when she stumbled over her and fell to the ground herself.

Helping each other up, they ran, Moondancer limping a little for the first few strides. The creepy crawlies didn’t chase after them.

The Return to the Library

Moondancer was out of breath again. Her legs were tired. Her breasts ached from the running, and her arms hurt from trying to support her breasts. Twilight didn’t look to be in much of a better state. Moondancer was leaning against a wall, looking down the corridor behind them for a tell-tale light. It wouldn’t be long, but it might be enough time to catch their breath.

They had been eluding the shadows as best they could, but it was hard. They were making too much noise, and Entice’s conjurations seemed capable of hearing them from some distance.

Twilight was leaning against the wall next to Moondancer. Unable to run, she had to think instead.

Entice was careful where she put her minions. They were probably being herded somewhere, most likely to Entice herself. She had mentioned baths earlier, and a bath would be most welcome right now. And food. Backrubs from non-scary shadowy minions. Chatting. And then…

Surrendering would be so nice. No! Bad Twilight! No backrubs for you!

Twilight touched Moondancer’s arm and started a whispered conversation.

“I think we’re being herded towards Entice. She’s playing with us.”

“Yeah, that sounds likely. It would explain why we haven’t been caught yet.”

“And I think Entice is going to either be in either the baths or the kitchen, waiting to give us a hot bath, or a hot meal, or foot rubs, or something.”

“The fiend!”

“So we need to get out of here. Thing is, we probably want to find either of those places, because they’re just the right places to find a garderobe.”

“A what?”

“Medieval toilet. And wardrobe. It’ll have a tiny chute that will drop into the moat. Well, canyon in this case.”

“You want us to go down the toilet chute? Naked? Ew!”

“It won’t have been used for a thousand years, Moony. Do you have any better ideas?”

“Well, surrendering sounds pretty tempting right now…”

“No! No surrender! Not even for foot rubs.”

Moondancer sighed resignedly. There was a light coming from the corridor behind them. It was time to get going.

“Okay, I’m in. When offered warm baths, hot meals, and foot rubs, go crawling down a toilet instead. That’s my new life motto. Let’s go.”

For the first time that night, Twilight was delighted to see a dead-end ahead of them.

Entice’s fiendish abilities of temptation seemed to include cooking delicious-smelling meals. They had followed the scent once they found it, careful to avoid the patrols, and had soon come upon an open door with bright light streaming through. Inside they could see a simple table, with two steaming bowls resting on it, and a loaf of bread beside each bowl. Twilight’s stomach had rumbled. There had been no-one in sight.

Steeling her resolve, Twilight had turned away from the light and took the short side-passage. Which led to an (empty) pantry. Thankfully the garderobe had been down the other short corridor.

They peered down the chute. Even with Twilight’s night-sight spell, it was too long and dark to see.

“That’s a very small chute,” observed Moondancer.

“Too slow. Entice can’t be far away. Time for Plan B. Gimme the wand, and step back.”

Moondancer wordlessly complied. Twilight was getting better at controlling the wand. The gaping hole in the wall that opened out to the canyon was almost neat, and just the right size for them to crawl through. The noise was thunderous.

Not waiting for Entice or her minions to show, Twilight and Moondancer ran to the hole. Twilight helped Moondancer through and followed closely behind. They started to climb down as swiftly as they could. It was soon apparent that there was a problem with Twilight’s plan.

“Uh, Twilight? It’s a sheer hundred foot drop, and I can’t fly.”

“Um, I was hoping for more footholds. Or handholds. Or conveniently placed trees. Um.”

They had scrambled down a few body-lengths onto a small ledge, but didn’t look like they’d be able to get any further. Going back up looked equally difficult.

Twilight looked around desperately for anything that might help. The walls of the canyon didn’t have the convenient ledges, tree-branches, or other climbing aids that she had imagined. She could just make out the bridge across the canyon, high above and some way further down.

“TWILIGHT!” came a voice from the hole in the wall. It was Entice, and she sounded terrified, “Don’t move! Don’t move! I’ll come and get you! Everything will be fine! I promise. Just don’t move.”

Twilight looked to Moondancer in a panic, gripping her shoulders.

“Moondancer! We need to get out of here!”

The hole was large enough for a young woman to slip through. It was far too small for a large, winged, succubus. Fearful that masonry might fall on the women, Entice began pulling stones out of the wall and throwing them behind her. The hole was getting bigger, fast.

“How?!” asked Moondancer, her panic rising to match Twilight’s.

“Teleport! There!” shouted Twilight, pointing at the bridge, “I don’t have enough magic. You’ve got to do it. Fast.”

They could hear the crack and clink each time Entice pulled a stone out of the wall and threw it behind her. She was working fast.

“Twilight, I can’t teleport.”

Crack Clink

Twilight pulled Moondancer close and stared into her eyes.

“Moondancer. You can. I’ve seen you cast. You’re easily good enough to teleport. Your only problem is that you hesitate, double-check your casting, giving time for the S-T matrix to collapse. Moondancer, you can do it. Trust yourself. Trust me. You can do it!”

Crack Clink

“Twilight…”

“You can do it!”

Crack Clink

“Hold on! I’m coming!” shouted Entice from the hole, now big enough for her to climb through.

Twilight hugged Moondancer close.

Moondancer teleported.

Twilight stumbled. They had fallen a few feet onto the bridge, Moondancer landing with her usual grace, Twilight with a little less poise.

Moondancer laughed in triumph, and punched the air before Twilight tackled her with a hug.

“I said you could do it! Brilliant!”

“I am magnificent!” shouted Moondancer.

“Yes, you are, but we need to get moving before Entice finds us.”

The girls ran inside the walled compound, to their camp. The clothes that Twilight had teleported away were placed neatly on the sleeping bags. Moondancer scooped up the sleeping bags and the clothes in a great double armful, while Twilight shoved an armful of apples into Moondancer’s backpack, before they both ran to the library with their prizes.

They found a corner, deep amongst the arrays of law books a thousand years out of date. Twilight tried to organise their new campsite with some care while Moondancer used her wand to place several new, much larger, wards in strategic positions. They then at last had a moment to rest.

“Phew,” said Twilight as she dressed, “That was far too close. I don’t think Entice saw where we went, she was climbing through the hole feet-first when you teleported. She’s probably going to search the canyon first, before looking elsewhere.”

“So we have some time. Good. But do we have several days? It’ll be some time before Princess Celestia comes to look for us.”

Moondancer fished around in her pack, and offered Twilight a bar of chocolate, an apple and a bottle of water.

“Thanks,” said Twilight before munching on the apple, “Mm, this is good. But yeah, we probably don’t have more than a day before she finds us here. We need to implement the next stage of the plan: trap Entice inside the castle dungeons.”

“How are we going to do that?” asked Moondancer between bites of her own apple.

Twilight brightened up even more.

“Research! Yay!”

Twilight carefully coaxed the Moon Reader the ghostly librarian from his phylactery. Once he realised that he was being called on to find some books, he couldn’t be more helpful. It didn’t take long for them to find a ‘reasonably up to date’ plan of the castle, some blank paper, an inkstick, an ornate bronze inkstone, a selection of quills, and a few weighty tomes of wards and demon binding.

The plan was probably only missing a few of the secret passages and trapdoors the sisters loved to build, but Twilight was assured that it would do.

Twilight lugged all their finds to a reading desk inside their warded area. Moon Reader returned to his stone. Moondancer lay on her back on one of the tables, softly singing songs to the star-spangled sky.

“Okay, I think I’ve got it.”

“I’m all ears,” said Moondancer. She rolled over to face Twilight, propping her head on her hands.

“Right. So we need to ward Entice up inside the dungeons. That either means asking her very nicely to stand still while we put up a ward around her–”

Moondancer laughed at the idea.

“Yeah, let’s call that ‘Plan F’. Other option: find a deep, buried room that we can seal. It’ll need a thick wall all around, and a thick ceiling, so that Entice can’t easily tunnel her way out. It only needs to hold her for a few days until Princess Celestia can get to us.”

“Sounds good. Found any candidates?”

“Well, nothing perfect. The best option is this room here. It has thick walls, thick ceiling, the floor is bedrock. The plans don’t say what it was made to be; maybe it was a flood control room, a final refuge in case of invasion, or maybe explosive weapon test area. Whatever it was, it is almost perfect for us…”

“Almost?”

“I, uh, blasted a hole in its ceiling with your wand. While engaging in sexual activity with a she-demon.”

“Oops,” sang Moondancer.

“Even so, it’s still the best option. The room below was some vault of some kind, but it was directly above the sex dungeon. The walls are mostly bedrock. The doors are solid iron. The ceiling is thick too. You recall how deep the pit Entice was climbing out of was.”

“And you’re not worried about her just climbing out again?”

“Not if we ward that hole too. Here’s the plan. The hole in the ceiling is just small enough for us to put a triple-banded spirit seal around it. We can walk through, demons can’t, her shadow creatures can’t either. We then lure Entice into the vault. Well, I lure her into the vault. She seems to be more interested in me than you, I’m afraid.”

“You’re just that tasty, eh?”

Twilight shrugged. She tried to hide a smug smirk behind a straight face, and failed.

“Well, whatever reason she has, we know that she’ll happily chase me. So I run into the vault. She chases after me. You close the doors, and then place a final seal on the door. I run up the slope of rubble and out the hole, leaving Entice trapped.”

“Uh, Twilight, it would take me an hour to put a seal in the doorway. How long do you think she’ll spend banging her head on the seal on the ceiling before she tries the doors?”

“That’s where we need to get creative. We need to use a wax seal. Look, here.”

Twilight turned one of the books so that Moondancer could see the image covering one of the pages. The seal looked highly-complex and was titled ‘Falling Star’s Celestial Seal’.

“Oh, I’ve heard of that one in lots of stories–”

“I know, I know. You can break them, of course, but it takes weeks. Unless you’re divinely attuned to the astral plane. Which Entice isn’t. So we make two halves of this in wax and put them together on the door and hey-presto, one sealed door. It’s illegal, but I’m sure Princess Celestia will understand, and ask the police to not prosecute us. Or at least go easy on us. They’ll listen to her.”

“That’s comforting. If I end up going to prison, my Dad’s going to force me to join the family business for sure. When I get out at least.”

“So, what do you think?”

“Sounds great. How are you planning on luring her out of the castle so that we can seal the sex dungeon without attracting her attention? Oh, and how are you going to attract her attention after we’ve sealed the dungeon so that you can lure her to the vault?”

Twilight smirked openly this time, “Oh, that’s easy. And fun. We do know one thing that attracts her attention, after all.”

“Oh right. Sex.”

“Yup. So, I have not yet thanked you properly for saving my life and soul back in the dungeon, at great personal risk–”

“I said before–”

“Don’t want to hear it,” said Twilight, lifting herself onto the desk, straddling Moondancer. She stole a quick kiss before continuing, “The plan is this: we study the map, prepare the seals, and so on. Then I surprise you with ‘thank you’ sex. You like to try new kinky stuff, right?” Twilight waited for Moondancer’s silent nod, “So I get you to orgasm. Big time. Then we wait outside until we see Entice enter the library. She’ll spend ages looking for us in here, giving us time to get to the cellars. We do something similar once the ward is up in the dungeon, maybe use the stuff there, if we can find some quick-releasing manacles. Otherwise, um, you don’t mind vanilla, do you?”

Moondancer grinned, “I like your plan, Twilight.”

The girls set to work.

The Summoning of a Succubus

After memorising the routes that they would need to take, they split the tasks between them. Twilight gathered supplies, while Moondancer worked on the complex wax seal.

Twilight’s job was done first, and she decided to wander off for some recreational research. Moondancer was too enthralled in her task to notice. She was surprised to find herself enjoying the crafting aspect of it all, and was whistling happily to herself when Twilight came back to read her finds.

She didn’t even notice when Twilight finished her extra studies and started carefully grind up some more ink. A lot more ink.

Eventually Moondancer pushed back her chair with a satisfied sigh, and called Twilight over to inspect her work.

“Looks good, Moondancer. You’re really good at that.”

“Thanks. It was fun. I know I like to rag on my Dad, but crafting this kind of thing can be really satisfying. Beats waiting tables by a long shot…”

“Waiting tables?”

“Uh, nevermind. So, what, um, now?”

Twilight grinned.

“Well, we very stealthily take everything we need to our secondary observation area so we can move once Entice has left the dungeons. We then come back here and I get to thank you properly for saving me. Fair warning: you’ll want to go before we start. Entice clearly only feeds on orgasmic release, so I’m going to take my time to coax you to a really good one. Oh, it’s going to be so fun!”

“You’re not going to tell me what you have planned for me, are you?”

“Nope. I think your uncertainty will make it better. Well, better for me, anyway.”

Entice had shadows patrolling the castle grounds, but none were guarding the secret passage from the library to the second floor of the castle that Twilight had found on the plans. The wards that Moondancer had placed would keep the shadows out of the second floor of the fourth wing of the domestic legal section (C-F) where they had made their camp, so Entice would need to search there personally.

Finding a good hiding spot on the second floor landing of the castle proper was easy, as the shadows never looked up, and none patrolled that floor. Twilight almost felt like a child again, peering through the banisters at the shadows walking in circles in the throne room below. She had mapped out the routes that Entice could take from her lair in the dungeons over to the library, and they now had a good vantage point of the confluence of those routes.

Satisfied, Twilight turned to Moondancer,pressed her to the wall, and kissed her full on the lips. It was a long kiss, and Moondancer was happy to relax in Twilight’s arms. Eventually Twilight pulled away, and sensuously ran her hands up Moondancer’s sides to shuck her jacket off her back.

“Here?” asked Moondancer with confusion.

“Mmm, just your clothes. It’ll take too long for you to redress back at the library, so we’ll have to leave them here.”

“Okay, but I’m keeping my boots on.”

“Sorry. Not an option. I’ve got a plan and it involves your whole body, including your feet. We can go searching through the rooms for a pair of sandals if you like, it’s not as if we’re working to a tight deadline.”

“Nah, it’s okay thanks. The floors aren’t that cold.”

“Good. I wasn’t looking forward to waiting.”

Twilight kissed her again, and slid the jacket off Moondancer’s shoulders. The t-shirt was next, pulled over Moondancer’s head with her help. Twilight nuzzled Moondancer’s neck, trying to ignore the earrings dangling in her face, and kissed her breasts. Moondancer made approving noises.

Twilight had already removed Moondancer’s bra once today, she was a lot more assured this time. She casually tossed it onto the growing pile of clothes behind her.

Twilight kissed Moondancer again, savouring her taste, before kneeling in front of her. Her spell-caster’s dextrous fingers had no trouble with the button on Moondancer’s jeans, but she took her time teasing them down Moondancer’s toned legs, at which point she realised that she had forgotten about Moondancer’s boots.

Moondancer laughed softly at her while she hastily undid the boot laces and eased the boots off Moondancer’s feet one at a time. Twilight removed the socks and jeans at the same time, leaving Moondancer standing in her scandalously red panties. This time Twilight didn’t blush with embarrassment when pulling them down with her teeth.

“Mmmm,” said Moondancer, before Twilight cut her off with another kiss.

“So,” said Twilight once they pulled apart, “It’s time for my Prototype Entice Signalling System to get to the library. Run along, my pretty prototype.”

Twilight stepped away, letting Moondancer step away from the wall. Moondancer favoured her with an amused glare, and turned to the secret passage that would take her to the library. Twilight grin turned evil, and she spanked Moondancer’s rear as it passed.

“Ah!”

“Run faster, prototype! Ha ha!”

“I’ll get you, Twilight. See if I don’t.”

“Nuh-uh, I’m going to get you, remember?”

“Why did I agree to this?”

“Because you love it?”

“Dammit!”

Twilight chased Moondancer through the corridor, and then guided her to the long reading desk that they had been working at. The desk was clear except for the inkstone full of freshly ground ink, a bottle of water and a quill. There was an open book on an adjacent desk, turned to a page showing many complex patterns.

Before Moondancer could get distracted by the book, Twilight lay a sleeping bag down on the worktop, with a rolled up towel for a cushion. She offered Moondancer a hand to help her mount the desk.

Moondancer looked at the hand, shook her head, and smirked. She kissed Twilight on the forehead, and then swung one leg onto the table. Leaning forward, she smoothly ran her hands down her leg until she could clasp her foot like a ballet dancer. Twilight barely stopped herself from drooling. Moondancer straightened, leaned back onto her elbows, and lifted her other leg onto the desk.

“Good girl,” said Twilight, “Now just lie there, hands by your sides, and Twilight Sensai will take care of you.”

Twilight picked up the quill and carefully dipped it in the ink.

“Are you going to tell me what the pen is for–”

Twilight gently brushed Moondancer’s hair from her forehead and drew a small symbol there, between her eyes.

“Um, Twily?” said Moondancer.

“Yes, Moony?” said Twilight

“Why can’t I move my arms and legs?”

“Silly Moony. You can still move your arms, it’s just a teensy-bit harder with a paralysis rune, that’s all.”

Moondancer found that with effort she could indeed raise her arm off the sleeping bag.

“Um–”

“If you don’t like it, or feel worried, say ‘Red’, and I’ll dump this bottle of water on you. The ink’s water soluble, it’ll will wash right off.”

“Oh. Okay. Wow, I’m feeling really helpless here. I must admit that I’m surprised, I thought you didn’t like it when I’m subbing.”

“I thought I didn’t like it as well, but Princess Luna’s bed showed me that I do like being on top when someone is unable to resist the pleasure I give them. You aren’t doing what I want because you’re humouring me; you’re doing it because you have no choice.”

“I like this new you. She’s kinda hot, actually…”

“Mmmm. So can I continue?”

“Sure, get up here and put that tongue to good use.”

Twilight laughed.

“You don’t think I’d grind this much ink just for one little rune, do you? Moony, I’m not going to touch you with anything other than this quill. I’m going to write ‘thank you’ on your body in a way that you’ll really feel. Then, when I’m satisfied that you can’t take any more, I’ll let you cum.”

“You seem pretty sure of your control over that,” said Moondancer, smirking.

“Well, I think that’s my cue to do the next symbol.”

Twilight dipped her pen again and glided it down Moondancer’s body and drew a simple squigle just above her mons pubis.

“There, a reversed ‘raido’ rune. Hence ‘blocked flow’. According to the book, that should stop you coming before I bypass it with a true raido.”

“Wow,” said Moondancer, baiting Twilight, “and I thought Prof Grooves made runes sound boring. Do I need to be awake for this?”

“Let’s see how long you feel that way after I do this–”

Moondancer gasped when Twilight drew a new symbol on her belly with three quick strokes.

“Wunjo, bliss.”

“Woooh, it’s all warm and happy and… wow… Aww. Didn’t last very long.”

“Glad you like it. Don’t worry, I’m going to draw a lot of them on you.”

Twilight drew another rune, letting Moondancer ride the brief high before drawing another, and again and again. Occasionally consulting three separate books for guidance, Twilight started writing on her friend in earnest, practicing long, flowing script for each character. Not all the runes were wunjo, some tickled, some created a great pool of warmth, or sent a tingle down Moondancer’s spine. Moondancer was giggling and laughing at the experience.

Twilight drew one wunjo directly on Moondancer’s nipple, causing her to tense and gasp. The high from that one seemed to last a little longer than the previous ones, as did the effect of it’s twin that Twilight drew on Moondancer’s other nipple.

She then ran a trail of runes down from the breast, across her belly, towards her hips. The trail of runes diverted down one of Moondancer’s legs before it reached her pussy.

“Tease!” said Moondancer between giggles.

“I did warn you,” sait Twilight, without an iota of remorse.

Twilight kept drawing on Moondancer’s body, laying down a trail of short-lived joy from her belly down to her feet. The paralysis rune was essential, as Moondancer was twitching even with it. When Twilight reached Moondancer’s feet, she paused a moment.

“Twilight!” squealed Moondancer, “My feet are really sensitive.”

“Good,” purred Twilight, drawing a very large symbol on the sole of Moondancer’s foot.

“Nnnnng,” said Moondancer, her head arching back a little.

Happy with the result, Twilight continued her trail of joy back up Moondancer’s leg. She made a mistake on one rune and a spark flew off.

“Ow!” said Moondancer.

“Sorry.”

Twilight was getting too excited. She washed off the bad rune, took a deep breath and carried on.

She took a little extra time drawing the runes, much to Moondancer’s frustration, as she could feel the trail slowly working its way up the inside of her leg, towards her pussy. Moondancer was pretty sure that a joy rune on her womanhood would feel incredible.

Twilight grinned. She worked around Moondancer’s vaginal lips– “Come on come on come on come on” said Moondancer– and then drew joy on Moondancer’s clitoris.

“Yesssssssssss!” It was good, but Moondancer didn’t come.

It took a while for the joy to fade, but Twilight kept the trail up, running down Moondancer’s other legs.

“Twilight, *ha* this is fun an– *ha* and all. But I don’t *ha* think I’m going to come from this, if that rune *oooh* that wasn’t enough.”

Twilight smiled down at Moondancer, “Oh, Moondancer, this isn’t the main event. This is just the warm up. You’ll know when we get serious.”

“Hooo,” said Moondancer, “Well, I’m not complaining at the moment. Take your– *eeeeeeee*”

Twilight had just reached Moondancer’s other foot.

Having grown more confident and familiar with her runes, Twilight ran the trail up Moondancer’s leg, no longer giving her time to recover from each rune before placing the next, and then brought the trail back to Moondancer’s breasts.

“Mmmmmm? Done?” asked Moondancer, breathing hard and looking still a little blissed-out.

“Nope. That was the big one, but I want a few more. Then I’ll let you find out what I have in mind.”

She wrote an ancient Dionysian drinking song above Moondancer’s sternum, in an alphabet laden with runes of joy, adrenaline, and fire, each letter sending tingles down her spine and adding to the glorious ball of heat that was growing in her belly.

Twilight drew another trail, crossing Moondancer’s heart, along her arms and with a symbol on the palm of each hand that made her purr with delight.

“There. I think that that will do it. Now I’m going to modify some of the thaumic guidance matrix lines from from warding circles to set up some cyclical stimulation of these runes.”

Moondancer made a show of yawning, “Don’t worry, Twilight. This is all nice and boring, but the stars are out, and they’re beautiful tonight.”

Twilight glanced up through the gaping hole in the ceiling that Moondancer was looking through, and had to agree that she’d never seen the night sky so beautiful. She made a mental note to take a better look later, once her other concerns were dealt with.

Twilight drew a lesson of ecstasy on the canvas of Moondancer’s body, until her entire body was covered with runes and power lines and sweat. Moondancer’s breathing was fast, and beyond an occasional yip or squeak, she was unable to say anything intelligible, adrift on a sea of bliss.

She drew a crude thaumic guide loop that started at Moondancer’s left foot and traced a long, swirling, path across the loop of runes she had drawn between Moondancer’s feet and breasts. Another line, tracing the path of the boozy drinking song on Moondancer’s sternum, start to finish and looping back again. Twilight did the same for the third loop, and then stood back to admire her work.

“Right, I think we’re finally ready. Thank you for not falling asleep.”

“Mmmmm.”

“I know. According to my books, Succubi can sense the small ripples of magic that are shed when people engage in sexual activity. The guidance loop will stop the ripples from going outwards until I’m ready. Instead that ripple will flow along the loops, activating the runes as it passes.”

“Uhhhh?”

“Yup, the activated runes will generate new ripples for the loop. And so on. Positive feedback, with each loop being more powerful than the one before. It should be quite intense. I just need to place one last rune, to start it all off.”

“Oh.”

Twilight drew a simple rune on Moondancer’s solar plexus, leaving off only the small dot that was required to complete it. She over-filled her quill with ink and hovered the quill directly over the rune, where Moondancer could see the drop of ink form on the tip, swell, and then suddenly fall. It landed with a tiny splash just where it was needed.

The completed rune activated, triggering a spine-tingling thrill that sparked a ripple of magic along the guide-lines that Twilight had lovingly drawn all over Moondancer’s body. A bead of magic flowed along the lines in both directions. The runes gently flared and subsided as it passed.

“Mmmm,” said Moondancer.

The magic flowed across Moondancer’s body, activating the runes that elicited gasps, and sighs, and moans, as it went. Twilight had to restrain herself from clapping with excitement. The larger runes on the Moondancer’s hands, feet, nipples, and pussy all triggered stronger reactions from Moondancer, and a correspondingly larger increase in the size of the pulse of magic.

As intended, the ripples didn’t stop after a single loop, and kept on going for another lap. It would keep going indefinitely, feeding off the joy that pervaded Moondancer. This second loop was stronger than the first.

“Fffuuck!” said Moondancer when the beads of energy going in both directions passed the rune over her clitoris at the same time.

The third loop felt like a blazing trail of burning, fiery pleasure. Moondancer couldn’t come, blocked by the reverse raido rune, and her arousal just kept getting stronger.

There was no room in Moondancer for any rational thought when the fourth loop rocketed along its path, until the two opposite pulses met at the clitoral rune.

Twilight’s timing was a little off. She had drawn three loops on Moondancer, and had planned to finally allow her to climax when each loop was at its apex, but it wasn’t to be. She had to settle with waiting for the major loop to reach its peak before finishing the true raido rune and allowing Moondancer to come.

The ripple of sex magic coming from Moondancer shimmered in the air as it spread. The vibrator in her pack activated immediately. Twilight had a heart-stopping moment when she thought that it would be enough to trigger the wand as well, but thankfully it wasn’t quite enough. She heaved a sigh of relief before turning to her comatose friend.

Moondancer came to at the splash of water on her face, washing off the last of the runes. She was still breathing fast. She tried to speak.

“...”

“Are you okay?” asked Twilight, “Sorry about that. I got a little carried away.”

Moondancer blinked and tried again.

“...”

“Anyway, I’m pretty sure that Entice will have noticed that one. Her shadows will be here soon. We need to get moving.”

Moondancer was still staring vacantly at the ceiling, but finally managed to whisper.

“... ‘A little carried away’?”

“Yeah, sorry. Can you walk?”

“I’m amazed I can breathe. I didn’t even think it was possible to come that hard. Hold on.”

Moondancer dizzily tried to sit up. Twilight helped her down from the desk, and gave her a shoulder to lean on when they headed to the secret passage. By the time they reached it Moondancer was back, and firm on her feet. They closed closed the door to the secret passage behind them, careful to not leave tracks. They were soon back at the gallery that overlooked the throne room, and Moondancer slowly washed and dressed herself again.

Twilight watched the shadows rushing to the library from the safety of the balcony. She recognised some of them as the patrolling guards in the dungeons. When the wards stopped them from entering the library, Entice would have to turn up herself…

“I want a copy of that book,” said Moondancer.

“Books,” said Twilight absently, “and let’s see: there’s a copy of ‘Advanced Sex Magic’ in the restricted section in the Royal Canterlot Library, in the sex magic wing; I know you already have a copy of ‘The Runic Compendium’; you should be able to find the–”

“Twily?”

“Yes?”

“When we’re done here, write it down on a list.”

“Okay.”

Moondancer was almost fully dressed now, and was putting on her boots.

“Oh, and remind me to grab a copy of the books that are restricted in the Princess’ Library from this one, before we leave.”

“Moondancer! We can’t just steal books like that!”

Moondancer just laughed.

“I’m serious– Wait, *shhh*”

They watched Entice stride across the throne room floor, a giant black silhouette, wings partially outstretched. The moment she was out of sight, Twilight locked eyes with Moondancer and nodded. Moondancer silently got to her feet and donned her backpack.

They walked to one of the paintings on the wall. It portrayed an elderly stalwart lady with a florid face. Moondancer boosted Twilight so that she could poke the lady’s large painted nose, which opened the trapdoor under their feet, dropping them into the castle dungeons.

The First Seal

They had picked their trapdoor carefully, knowing that it would lead to a small cell close to their destination. It was a long way down, and the slide was exhilarating. It took Twilight and Moondancer a couple of minutes searching to find the mechanism that would release them from the cell.

Using Twilight’s night-vision spell, they sneaked through the corridors towards the sex dungeon. There were shadows patrolling the corridors, but they could be avoided with a little care, and the dungeon itself was unguarded. Entice clearly didn’t think that they would come back. At least not without some persuasion.

Once inside, Twilight stood watch while Moondancer etched the triple-banded spirit seal around the hole that lead to the vault below. It was nerve-wracking work. Twilight had two doors to monitor, and wished she could watch both at once.

The door at the far end of the room opened.

“Hsst!” whispered Twilight, tapping on Moondancer’s shoulder.

Moondancer looked up to see a shadow monster enter the far end of the room. It was a large, bipedal lizard with a stout tail and long arms with long claws. A long, drooping, stalk, with a brightly glowing green bulb at its tip, protruded out of the top of its head. The bulb looked like the lure on a deep-sea fish.

Before it could see them, the girls hid behind one of the caryatids.

The lizard-thing slowly walked down the length of the room, its bright green light casting strange dancing shadows.

Twilight was keenly aware that the column they were hiding behind was barely wide enough to hide one person, let alone two. Moondancer had her back pressed hard against the entwined figures that made the column, a lady and a werewolf in mid-coitus. The monster was getting closer.

Twilight pressed close to Moondancer, trying to get as close to the column as possible. Moondancer put an encouraging arm around Twilight’s waist, pulling her close. Twilight could hear the hammering of Moondancer’s heart.

The light was close now. Thankfully the lizard was walking down the centre of the room, and didn’t even seem to be looking to either side. Not daring to breathe, Moondancer and Twilight edged around the column as one, always keeping it between them and the light.

The monster was almost out of the door when Moondancer’s wand touched the stonework of the column with a faint ‘click’. The footsteps of the lizard stopped. The girls froze.

The green light moved back and forth, causing the long shadows of the caryatids to appear to gyrate amongst each other. No-one made a sound. A moment passed. The light swung away, and the lizard left.

Moondancer sighed with relief. Twilight waited a moment before allowing herself to pull away from Moondancer. Moondancer reluctantly let her arm fall away.

“Phew, that was close!” said Twilight, running a hand through her hair.

“Yeah,” said Moondancer, looking at Twilight almost wistfully. She shrugged, “I’d better get back to work.”

Moondancer once again knelt by the hole and tried to make a smooth continuation of her interrupted work.

Twilight wandered round the room while she worked.

“Hey, Moony? What happened to your robe? I mean that robe of Princess Luna’s.”

“Hold on a mo…” said Moondance, guiding the wand through a tricky part of the seal, “…My robe? Entice took it off me here. She put it on a hook over there. Why?”

“It’s not here. Neither’s my backpack. Even the towels I was wearing are gone.”

“Huh. Entice must have taken them somewhere. It was a really nice robe, but we’ve got more important things to focus on right now.”

“Moony, the hologram-recording pyramid was in my pack.”

“Is that a problem?”

“Moondancer, you’re not going to get your ‘A’ if we can’t bring back some solid evidence of Princess Luna. And we can’t come back for it, because then we won’t have an opportunity to remove the recording of us on that bed. If Professor Tablets realises that we used an ancient magical artefact to record a sex session on top of another ancient magical artefact, then you won’t be getting an ‘A’, you’ll be getting an ‘F’ for the whole course, and I will too. They’ll laugh us both out of university.”

“Twilight, breathe,” said Moondancer distractedly, “I’m sure we can work something out with the Princess. I really think that stopping Entice is our top priority now. The rest can wait.”

“You’re right. You’re right. But what if–”

“Twilight! Relax. We’ll raid Princess Luna’s rooms for a monogrammed handkerchief or something, and then tell them the whole castle burned down, fell over, and sank into a swamp. It’ll be fine.”

“Argh. I can’t believe you’re being so flippant over this.”

“Relax. Anyway, there’s nothing we can do about it right now.”

Twilight continued to pace around the room.

“There, all done,” said Moondancer. She stood up and stretched to get the kinks out of her back, while Twilight surveyed her work with an expert eye.

“That was quick. Good work, Moony.”

“Thanks, Twily. Now let’s get to the vault, summon Entice, and give you your chance to shine.”

Moondancer hopped over the seal she had drawn and inspected the hole. Twilight stepped over the seal, careful of her footing, and joined Moondancer. The hole had a steep decline into darkness, but Entice’s attempts to get out of it earlier had shown them that it was climbable. Twilight lead Moondancer down, scrambling over the loose rubble on her behind, feet first..

When they reached the bottom, they found themselves in a long, high, vaulted chamber. The room was lit from multiple magical light globes, which cast light on the furniture in the room. It was difficult to tell if the room was supposed to be a spell-caster’s workshop, or a continuation of the room above.

Near where the slope came out, the room was laid out like a magician’s study. A row of bookshelves, a writing desk, a blackboard, several tables laden with experimental gear that would have been state of the art a thousand years ago, a scrying mirror on the wall, next to an annotated map of Equestria... The fallen ceiling had clearly crushed a bookshelf, but someone had dug through and removed all the books from the debris and put them on a nearby table.

The blackboard had the workings of a complex spell chalked onto it. All Twilight could tell from a quick glance was that it was something related to traversing the astral plane.

Further down from the scholarly area, up against the far wall from the doors, was a double bed. It was black, the bedsheets were black. The chains and manacles at the corners of the bed were black. The were chains suspended from the ceiling. There were chains secured to the floor. There was a chest at the foot of the bed that could contain anything. Somewhat incongruently, there was a pile of books on a small table at the side of the bed.

There was no way for Twilight to escape the inevitable conclusion. This wasn’t a last refuge in case of invasion, or a pumping room to prevent flooding. This was Entice’s lair.

Moondancer eyed Entice’s bed warily. Demons don’t need to sleep.

“I suggest we don’t do anything on that bed. Considering what Princess Luna’s bed did, there’s no telling what Entice’s will do.”

“The bed was probably put there by Princess Luna, so I agree that we should stay clear of it. Thinking about it, I don’t think we’ll need to do anything to call Entice here after all. This is her lair. She’ll be back soon enough anyway.”

“Yeah.”

Moondancer and Twilight slowly looked around the lair. No wardrobe, the faint smell of cinnamon, a few gouges in the walls where Entice had taken out her frustration… Twilight looked around with great curiosity. Moondancer spent a long time staring at the claw marks.

“Is that the new plan, Twily? Just wait for Entice to show?”

“I think so. If we tried the other way, there’s too much risk we’d get distracted and not notice her coming. I’ll wait here, to stall her. When she shows up, I’ll run up through the hole. You wait outside, in hiding. When she’s inside, place the seal.”

“What if you don’t get out in time? She’s fast, remember.”

“If that happens… If that happens, place the seal anyway. Tell the Princess where I am when she shows up. She’ll save me.”

“Twilight, if Entice has you for that long–”

“I know, I know. But if as long as one of us makes it out, then Princess Celestia can save us both. Heh, I’ve– I’ve got to admit that the prospect– Being Entice’s playmate wouldn’t be all that bad, with Princess Celestia to save me after a few days…”

“Isn’t that just typical? The good girls get all the fun,” Moondancer grinned to take all the sting out of her words.

“If you want to change places…”

“Nope, your course is clear. Do you want me to chain you up before she arrives, save Entice the bother?”

“Moony! It’s not like that! I’ll try to escape, of course! It’s just, well, losing might not be all that bad. Entice seems to take care of her toys. There’d be a silver lining. That’s all I’m saying. Plus I have a backup plan I want to try with her. Get her on our side.”

“You like her, don’t you?”

“I– Maybe a little. It sounds as though she’s had a hard time, even if she is evil. Come on, get out of here, and get into position.”

“Hope she doesn’t spend too long in the library. Going to be pretty boring sitting alone in the dark, dodging those shadow dudes, waiting for her to show.”

“Well, if you’re worried, we could use this handy mirror…”

Twilight gestured to the scrying mirror on the wall. Moondancer facepalmed. Twilight and Moondancer gathered around it to see what they could scry.

Entice wasn’t at their camp in the library. Twilight quickly traced the route from the library to Entice’s lair. The path outside was clear. The throne room was empty. There was no sign of her in the corridor to the kitchen entrance. The upper level of the dungeon. The stairs down to the lower dungeon–

“Shit! She’s nearly here!” shouted Moondancer.

“Go! I’ll stall her. Seal the door, and let Princess Celestia–” Twilight stopped talking, as Moondancer was already up the hole and out of earshot.

Twilight took a few deep breaths, and settled down to wait for Entice to arrive.

She didn’t have to wait very long.

The Transformation

Author's Note

This section includes M/F Pony sexy times. There's a note in the text marking where it starts, and you can skip the rest of the chapter from that point on and not miss any of the story.

The Transformation

“I can’t believe you came back for me! I told you to seal us in!”

“Sorry, Twily. I can’t hear you over the sound of my awesomeness.”

“Oh, what am I saying? Thank you, Moony, for saving me. Again.”

“You’re welcome.”

“Uh oh!” said Twilight, seizing Moondancer’s hand.

“What? Oh dear.”

A shadow was moving towards them. It was the serving woman shadow from before, but larger now, and growing more so. Her hands were lengthening, her eyes blackening into a void. Her lamp was glowing bright with a strange orange colour.

Moondancer pointed the wand at her, but couldn’t bring herself to fire.

“Twilight, you disappoint me,” said the shadow, ranting in Entice’s voice, “You’re unworthy of my attentions–”

“Kill the light! Kill the light!” shouted Twilight.

Moondancer looked at the woman beside her, and then turned to the rapidly approaching shadow. Her own light blinked out, and a dark globe shot from her free hand to envelop the lamp. They were plunged into darkness. The sound of the shadow’s shouting was immediately silenced.

Twilight hesitantly cast her darkvision spell for each of them. They looked around. The shadow was gone.

“What happened?” whispered Moondancer.

“Phew, I’m glad that worked. Every shadow creature that Entice summoned had its own light source. You know you can’t cast a shadow if you don’t have any light.”

“Good call, Twily. Good call. Come on, let’s get out of here.”

They made their way to the surface with caution, dismissing the shadows that they ran into. It didn’t take long before Twilight and Moondancer were standing on the fresh grass in the orchard, triumphant.

Moondancer held onto Twilight’s arms, dancing amongst the trees.

“Ha ha ha! We did it! We did it! You even got the pyramid! We did it!”

Twilight couldn’t stop beaming.

Once they calmed down a little, they agreed to move back to the library. Any of Entice’s shadows that remained wouldn’t be able to pass Moondancer’s wards and it would be safe to rest there.

Back at camp, Moondancer offered Twilight her towel as temporary clothing, and Twilight did the best she could to cover herself.

“I can’t believe we pulled that off, Twilight. Good job.”

“Thanks,” she said, distractedly.

“Hey hey! Don’t look so down. We won. Entice is secure until Princess Celestia gets here. She’ll sort it all out, send her home, probably.”

“Yeah…”

“Twilight, are you okay? She’s going to be fine. Cavorting amongst the damned in no time. I bet there’s no place like Tartarus if you want to get it on… There! A smile. Come on, Twilight. We won.”

“I know. Thank you again. It’s just, well…”

“‘Losing might not be that bad’?”

“It would have been… interesting to learn the magics and lore she must know. I can’t help but feel that she could have told us so much.”

“I could see through a crack in the door, you know. And I could hear you.”

“You could?”

“Yeah. I was going to seal you in, just like you asked. But I thought that there wasn’t any harm in listening in, and watching–”

“And touching yourself?”

“‘Fingering myself’, Twilight. ‘Masturbating’ will do. Just. And, well, it was pretty hot. You were clearly digging it. But then you said that you couldn’t give in.”

“She was going to send me to get you, once I submitted to her. If I had my magic back, I don’t think you would have been able to escape.”

“So you held out for me? Thank you.”

“You’re a friend, Moony. I wasn’t going to let myself betray you.”

Twilight looked down at her hands. Moondancer leaned over and hugged Twilight tightly. Even so, she barely caught the tail of Twilight’s whisper, “…betrayed Entice…”

Moondancer cleared her throat after she released her friend.

“So,” she said, “We have a day before we get rescued, right?”

Twilight nodded.

“Right. You seem to be in the dumps. You need a distraction. So it is definitely time to work through the rest of your list. Let me get a look at it, and see if anything catches my fancy.”

Moondancer rummaged through her pack until she turned up the now-crumpled list, and browsed through it intently, with a wrinkled brow. Twilight found the familiar fiery lust start in her, but it was muted by her distant thoughts. She waited patiently while Moondancer pondered.

“Done, can’t do that you as you have no magic, boring, done, done, boring, oh! I’ve been curious about that one. Get up. We’re going for a walk.”

Moondancer climbed to her feet, and slung her backpack over one shoulder.

“Okay. So what have you chosen?”

“No idea,” said Moondancer happily.

“You have no idea?”

“Yup. You knew, I think, but didn’t tell me. Now neither of us know what will happen. Should be fun,” Moondancer lead Twilight out of the library and into the garden.

“I’m confused.”

“Sorry. Here’s the deal. When we were distributing gear between our packs, you gave me the potions to carry, and you got the tent. Two of the potions were the energy drinks. There are two more. You wouldn’t tell me what they did. You just blushed. Considering the rest of your list, it’s either going to be extremely kinky, or remarkably boring. Or possibly both.”

Moondancer pulled the two potions out of the pack. One was deep blue, and the other a bright pink.

“Wait, we’re going to just drink some unknown potions. Doesn’t that strike you as being rather risky? We don’t know what might happen.”

“Relax, Twily. There are instructions. And the alchemist’s mark on these potions is the same as the one on the energy drinks. You have no idea how good those energy drinks are, in comparison to the usual stuff.”

“Well, since you’re on a tight budget, I suspect your ‘usual stuff’ is a bathtub batch of brew-by-night swill. So I’m not too surprised.”

“Hey, if you could get energy drinks this good on the market, I would have taken up my dad on his job offer, just so that I could afford them.”

“What, he’s offering you a job after university, and you’re saying ‘no’?”

“Absolutely. He’s just trying to control my life. I’d do waitressing first, thank you very much.”

“Moony, are you crazy? A crafting job at Silverlight must pay a LOT more than the measly tips waiters and waitresses get. And you love making stuff. You should have seen your expression when you were making that seal.”

“Freedom is important, Twily.”

“True, but you’re choosing a job you’d hate, which would pay very little money, over a job you’d enjoy that would pay more. Why?”

Moondancer sighed.

“Twily, look. My father tries to control everything I do-”

“He let you go to university, is paying your tuition, paying for your digs, right?”

“Well, yes. But that’s not the point. I can’t just take the job after– Nevermind.”

“Moony…”

“Grr. No more family talk. Instructions! There were instructions! For the potions, that is.”

“Okay, so what do the instructions say?”

“Uh,” said Moondancer, scrambling through her bag, “Ah ha!” she said, triumphantly holding aloft a scrap of paper.

“‘For fun and games for impetuous fools, be sure to follow these following rules. Discard your clothes, remain calm, and you shall not come to harm. Twilight’s drink is pink, it is true, but her mistress’ drink is blue.”

“That… does not sound like the Princess.”

“Well, whatever. Strip, Twily. Make it sexy.”

Twilight levelly held Moondancer’s gaze and dropped her towel to the grass without any ceremony. Moondancer sighed.

“Okay, I suppose I earned that. Oh well. Catch!” The pink potion soared through the air to Twilight.

Surprised, Twilight fumbled the catch, and the potion fell to the soft loam. Thankfully the sturdy bottle didn’t break. She glared at Moondancer’s unremorseful grin. Twilight sighed, opened the bottle and drank deeply.

Nothing happened to begin with. Then Twilight felt something move inside. Her hips shifted. Losing balance, she fell forward, onto her hands and knees.

“Twily!”

“I’m okay!” said Twilight, trying to make sense of the stretching sensation that washed over her body. It was almost pleasant, if deeply disconcerting.

Looking down on her arms, Twilight saw them seem to turn golden yellow. And grow thicker, and fuzzier… I’m growing yellow fur, she thought.

Her legs felt too short, uncomfortable. Acting on instinct, she rose to standing on hands and feet, and it felt fine. She was feeling quite good, until her nose grew. And grew. And stretched and flowed and grew and…

Twilight yelped, and tried to touch her muzzle with her hooves wait, where did my hands go? and lost her balance and fell onto her side.

Moondancer watched the transformation with astonishment. The astonishment turned to howls of laughter as Twilight ungainly returned to her hooves.

Twilight glared at Moondancer.

“While I– Oh! I can speak in this form. Okay, why am I horse?”

It took a great deal of effort for Moondancer to fight off her laughter enough to respond, but she managed.

“Ha ha ha! Twily! You’re– Ha ha! You’re not a horse. You’re a pony. A pretty, yellow, unicorn pony with a red mane and tail, and,” Moondancer peered at Twilight’s flank, “yup, you’ve got a shooting star cutiemark. Does that sound familiar to you?”

“Yellow– Oh Dear Celestia, I’ve turned into Golden Prancer!”

Moondancer collapsed into another fit of giggles. Twilight tried to turn her head to get a better look at herself, and ended up chasing her tail. Moondancer’s noble effort to stand up again failed, overwhelmed with laughter.

Twilight quickly gave up on her tail, and turned her focus on Moondancer, growling at her until her laughter finally died.

“Sorry, Twily. But you have to admit, this is pretty funny. You’ve turned into the star of a series of childrens’ books. Which, I hasten to add, I only know about from my familial babysitting obligations.”

Twilight tried to facehoof. Her nose was bigger than it used to be. Now Twilight’s nose stung, and Moondancer was laughing again.

“Argh! And I can’t even look at myself. Moondancer, make a mirror. I need to see me.”

“Sorry, Twily. I don’t know that spell, and it’s not as if I brought my makeup kit. Unless you want to try climbing stairs with four legs to get to the mirror in Princess Luna’s bedroom, you’re going to have to imagine what you look like.”

“Grr– Wait. The pyramid. Record me. Then I can watch the recording.”

“Oooh, good idea.”

Twilight looked at the recording of her. She looked identical to the plucky unicorn in her guilty fantasies. The effect was incredible. She stared at the image until the recording ended and the illusion winked out. Moondancer was fiddling with the pyramid when she suddenly stopped and burst into laughter again.

“Allright! So I’m a pony. It must be temporary, we just need to wait it out. –Will you please stop laughing?”

“Sorry, Twily. But I just realised what this means. It means that you somehow convinced a master alchemist to make you a couple of potions that turn people into ponies so that they can have pony sex. I would have killed to have been there for that conversation. I can’t even imagine the colour of your face.”

“Wait. ‘Pony sex’? Oh Celestia! What was I thinking?!”

Twilight slumped to the grass, and covered her head with her hooves. It took two tries: the first time she nearly impaled one hoof on her horn.

“You were thinking ‘will being in the middle of a lethal forest, at a castle that hasn’t be disturbed for a thousand years, and behind the most powerful barrier I can errect, be enough so that no-one else ever finds out?’”

Twilight groaned.

“So. This is definitely a sexy fantasy for you. So you must know who I’m going to be when I drink this thing,” said Moondancer, waving the blue potion bottle, grinning “Clue me in. Who do you ship with Golden Prancer? Glitter Flitter? Whizzbang? Glory?”

Twilight mumbled something. Moondancer wasn’t going to let her get away with that.

“Louder, Twily. Tell me, or I might let slip–”

“Firelance.”

Moondancer gaped at Twilight. Seeing her friend’s reaction, Twilight kept speaking.

“When I, uh, you know. I ship GoldenLance. So that potion–”

Moondancer laughed with joyous wonder.

“This potion is going to turn me into a man! Well, a stallion. And a baddy too! Ha ha ha! Twilight! You deviant wench! Oh, I need to record this.”

The pyramid took only a moment to set, before Twilight could voice an objection.

Moondancer stripped in record time, making no effort to be alluring. Her speed and enthusiasm was just as welcome to Twilight. Her pony body didn’t seem to find Moondancer that special, but enthusiasm and eagerness were universal.

Now naked, Moondancer popped the top off the bottle and chugged its contents. She turned to Twilight with an excited grin.

Twilight watched as Moondancer transformed in front of her eyes. Her limbs changed first, arms and legs, and then her hips. With her dancer’s grace, Moondancer was able to retain her two-legged posture longer than Twilight, which was a mixed blessing as it let Twilight watch Moondancer grow a sizeable member.

Moondancer couldn’t keep his stance for long, and fell onto his forehooves just as Twilight had. He stood proud, an Earth Pony taller than Twilight’s Unicorn Pony, with blue fur, a white mane with blue streaks, broad shoulders, and a masculine scent that threatened to drive all reason from Twilight’s mind.

Moondancer was turning his head to examine himself when Twilight couldn’t hold back any more, and cantered up to nuzzle him.

“Whoa! Hold on, Twily. Still getting used to this. And I bet you have some complex fanfic you want to play– Whooo, you smell good.”

Twilight licked Moondancer’s long neck.

“Wooh! What’s gotten into you? Mmm, you look good but smell better.”

“I think,” said Twilight, between licks, “That I’m in estrus.”

Moondancer butted Twilight’s side with his head. Twilight grunted with approval, and then turned to sniff Moondancer.

“You can do that again. Mmm.”

Moondancer bit Twilight. Twilight didn’t object, and just tried to nuzzle Moondancer some more.

Twilight was now standing with hind legs slightly apart, and tail swishing side to side with considerable agitation. Moondancer, still acting on instinct, butted her a few more times, and sniffed excitedly at her hindquarters.

Something clicked in Moondancer’s head, and he stood behind the panting mare, reared up, and mounted her.

Twilight shouted her approval.

Acting on instinct, Moondancer rutted Twilight, and it felt great. He forgot himself, lost in the needs of the moment, allowing animal lust to overwhelm him. The thoughts and feelings were irresistible, and he saw no need to try to hold back.

It seemed to be over in an instant. Moondancer came, and came, and kept on coming. Twilight clenched tight and let loose a high-pitched squeal of joy.

They held their position, with Moondancer’s legs trembling, for a moment, before Moondancer backed away and fell onto all four hooves.

They returned to human form very quickly afterwards.

The Ophidian Temple of DOOooM

Author's Note

This section includes (very) mild pain play. That white fire balm that's been used elsewhere, roughly equivalent to candle wax. This section is again marked with an Author's note. If you do not wish to read that section, please skip from that note to the next section break, where the plot continues.

The Ophidian Temple of DOOooM

“No, no, don’t hold it so tight. You just need a gentle grip– There you go.”

Twilight had called a break after the transformation, and Moondancer decided to spend the time teaching Twilight some basic carving techniques. She had a simple knife, and easily found an apple tree branch to work on.

As far as distractions went, it wasn’t bad. Twilight was so focussed on not cutting off her own thumb that she was even able to mostly ignore Moondancer’s proximity. Moondancer’s jacket was open, so Moondancer’s breasts were separated from Twilight’s back only by the thickness of a couple of thin shirts.

Moondancer was pressing close, intent on the wood in Twilight’s hands.

Twilight carefully cut away a little more of the applewood, her hands guided by Moondancer’s.

“So,” asked Twilight, “When did you learn to whittle?”

“Oh, daddy taught me when I was knee-high. Couldn’t do much more than a clothes-peg back then, but I just loved making stuff. And being with him.”

Twilight cut away another curl of wood.

“It was great. But… I grew up, Twilight. And he didn’t notice. I was always just the little girl who sat on his knee. He didn’t want to let me be anything else. He had so many dreams for me.”

This was going to be a stick-man, Twilight decided. She tried to narrow the wood a little at one end to make a neck.

“I love carving. I love making things. But every time I do it, daddy just lights up. He won’t stop going on about how I’m clearly supposed to be a crafter. He talks about apprenticeships, rising through the ranks. As soon as I pick up a knife he maps out my whole life. I don’t– I had to stop. It hurt him, Twilight. It hurt. But I just want to live my life.”

Twilight didn’t know what to say, so she remained silent. Sticky the stick-man would need hair. Twilight was toying with an idea about leaving some bark to be his hair. Maybe cut some grooves in it?

“It’s better this way.”

Twilight hadn’t really thought her stick-man through. It looked as though he wasn’t going to have any arms. He probably would prefer to have arms, she thought. That’s funny, the sky is clear and I can see the stars so bright so pretty so why is it raining–

Sticky the stick-man was discarded, unfinished. Hugging was much more important.

“It’s a shame that your heat was so strong. And you had amnesia. I really wanted to know what scenario was supposed we were supposed to play out. The evil baddy, capturing Golden Prancer at last? I could have run with that, you know. You’d have been begging for it by the end. Not that you weren’t anyway, but– You know what I mean.”

“I’m trying not to think about it, thank you.”

“Come on, Twily. You cannot seriously tell me you didn’t enjoy it.”

“I’m trying very hard not to think about how much I enjoyed it. And the possibility that I may now be pregnant.”

Moondancer laughed shakily.

“Nah, don’t worry about that. Those were grand-master-ninja-alchemist level potions. No way would that happen. And I’m far too irresponsible to be a father. No, I’d be more worried that thing you have for bad guys. And girls.”

“It’s not my fault Firelance is sexy. Or Entice. She’s supposed to be sexy. It’s why she was made. Anyway, Entice is sexy. So what? She’s evil. And trapped. In the same room that she’s been trapped in for the last thousand years. More. And I can’t help her. But maybe Princess Celestia will send her to Tartarus if I ask nicely, and I’ll never see her again and I really need a distraction right now!”

“Okay, I think we both need one. And whatever aphrodisiac was in those energy drinks does not let up, does it?”

“It is rather persistent, isn’t it?”

“Right. Let’s go look at that list.”

Twilight sat still, hugging herself, as Moondancer read through the list for a third time. When the redhead growled in frustration and started a fourth, Twilight’s resolve broke.

“Come on! There must be something we haven’t tried.”

“Lots, but you really don’t seem to be in the mood for the tantric stuff, we lost half the toys with your pack, and I’m really not in the mood for the various ones where you just lie there while I tickle you, or ‘kiss your body all over’, or whatever.”

“So what are you in the mood for? Anything you want to do with, or to, me? Or should we just jump on Princess Luna’s bed, and see what happens? Or ask Entice for suggestions. Argh.”

Twilight turned away, clenching her fists with frustration.

Moondancer watched her with concern for a moment, and then sighed.

“Okay. There is one thing not on the list that we both might like. I wasn’t going to suggest it, but it’s starting to look like a good idea. What are your thoughts about candles?”

“Wax play? I’m, um, curious? And hesitant. I– does it hurt?”

“‘Not much’ up to ‘some’, depending on the candle, how high the candle is, blah blah blah. Pain is really not the point, anyway, Twily. It’s more about control, and giving yourself to someone else. Ugh, I’m not describing it well. But if you’re interested, but are afraid of the terrible pain involved, go grab a candle. We’ll drip some wax on your arm and see if you think you can take it.”

“Where from? Did you bring some?”

Moondancer facepalmed.

“I forgot the candles. Okay, forget that idea.”

Twilight sat back down again, relief fighting disappointment in her mind. And losing.

Moondancer, slumped as well, and then perked up again. “Oh wait! Idea!”

Twilight hugged herself again, disappointment’s advance being pushed back by a coalition between relief, hope, and curiosity. Fear and lust were fighting each other in a separate battle over the rest of her body.

“It’s a bit more sting-y than candle-wax, but how about White Fire Balm? We’ve got a tonne of it, after all. And you know exactly how that feels, so you know you can take it.”

Disappointment’s forces were routed by curiosity. Fear and lust stopped fighting when they realised that they were on the same side; they ganged up instead against Twilight’s beleaguered superego.

“...Okay.”

“How come I’m naked and you’re not?”

“Because, Twily, hidden under your adorable shyness is an exhibitionist dying to get out, and get attention. Plus it helps remind you who’s in charge.”

Twilight grumbled under her breath.

She didn’t stop putting as much sway as she could into her walk.

"Sooo," said Moondancer as they walked, "Did you like that thing where Entice chased you?"

Twilight stopped dead. Moondancer swung round to look at her.

"Where did that come from? I mean, yes, it was... thrilling. But Entice is a demon. You're not. I don't want to run away from you, Moony."

"Just asking," said Moondancer, holding up her hands defensively.

Twilight started walking again.

"Ugh. Sorry. How long do you think this aphrodisiac will last, again?"

"Still no idea, Twily, but I do know what will make you feel better for a while."

Moondancer stepped behind Twilight and grabbed her into a tight embrace. One of her hands explored her body.

"Eeek!"

Once Twilight overcame her initial surprise, she leaned back into Moondancer, relishing their closeness, and what her hand was doing.

Before Twilight could get too excited, Moondancer let her go.

"Aww, I was really enjoying that." Twilight's hand drifted down to where Moondancer's hand had recently been.

"Nope."

"Nope?"

"That's right. Keep that hand where I can see it. In fact, hands behind your back, missy. You can't be trusted."

"Mooooony," wailed Twilight, but she did as she was told.

Twilight was rather surprised when the handcuffs clicked in place. She ran forward a couple of paces, and twisted this way and that, but clearly couldn't free herself.

"How long have you had those on you?"

"Quite a while. I like to keep them handy. You never know when they'll be useful."

"Well, if you're not going to let me take care of my needs, you're going to have to do it yourself."

"And I will do so. In good time. For now, do you read 'Daring Do'?"

"Huh? What sort of question is that? Of course I read 'Daring Do'. These handcuffs are actually rather uncomfortable, you know."

"I know. You won't be wearing them for long, promise. Now, quick quiz. In 'Daring Do and the Crystal Skull', what happened when Daring was captured by the High Priestess?"

"The Priestess interrogated Daring for the location of the Crystal Skull. It was quite steamy, really--"

Twilight stopped, wide eyed.

"Yup. You are Daring Do. I am the High Priestess. We are heading to Entice's little sex dungeon, that is 'The Ophidian Temple', where I am going to interrogate you until you tell me where I can find the Crystal Skull. Only differences: I'll be using White Fire Balm rather than tallow. Oh, and you will not be rescued by a cute animal companion. Sound okay to you?"

Twilight froze. Twilight moaned quietly. Twilight bit her lip. Twilight nodded. Twilight was hoisted into the air by Moondancer's aura.

Moondancer laughed with a booming voice that belied experience on a stage.

"Too slow, Ms Doo. Too slow. You aerials need to learn your place! Without your vaunted wings, you are nothing!"

"Tribalist! Foul consort to serpents! Let me go!" said Twilight, struggling. Moondancer's aura wasn't as strong as Twilight's, but it was adequate to the task of holding Twilight in the air, free to thrash and kick without risk of either hurting or freeing herself.

"Oh, I'll be happy to do so, Ms Doo. Just as soon as you tell me where I can find the fabled Crystal Skull. Oh! Wait. Timeout."

Twilight stopped struggling, irritation fighting frustration on her face.

"You do actually remember what happened to the skull, right?"

"The Jade Smuggler stole it from Daring two chapters ago. Come on, Moony. The book came out a month ago. Of course I remember!"

"Just checking. That information is your safeword. Tell me where it is, and I'll let you go. Oh, but hold out long enough, and we can do that scene where Daring turns the tables on the priestess later, if you want. Good? Good. Any questions before we begin?"

"Shouldn't we do this in the library, not just above Entice's room? I mean Entice might not--"

"Entice will love it, I promise. If she can't have you, I promise that she'll want to be nearby when I have you."

"Um..."

"Twily, if we do this then Entice gets a little lusty lunch before the Princess sends her home. So we can either do a sexy recreation of the Daring Doo interrogation for your favorite demon to snack on, or we can play 'Charades' in the library. Which do you want?"

"...Fiend! I'll NEVER tell you where the Crystal Skull is. You'd sequester it in a museum!"

Moondancer laughed maniacally.

"Struggle all you want, Miss Doo. Soon you'll be begging to tell me where you hid the Skull."

"Noo!"

Moondancer highly enjoyed watching Twilight's enthusiastic struggling, which showed off her naked body to good advantage.

For her part, Twilight was caught up in her role and excitement. She forgot all about the handcuffs as she did her best to show off her long legs to Moondancer. She was breathing hard by the time they reached the dungeon.

"Behold! The Ophidian Temple!"

"By Discord's right talon! What a wonderful example of a third-century pre-erisian vaulting! The stonework is beautifully joined, despite the temple-builders' reliance on obsidian tooling. Just look at those cornices."

Moondance rolled her eyes in exasperation.

"What? I'm supposed to be an archaeologist."

"Your supposed to be my captive. The Ophidian Temple is scary, not an example of exquisite pre-copper-age masonry."

"Eeeeek! Oh no! The dread Ophidian Temple!"

"Better. Now hold still while I tie you to the bed. Altar. I meant Altar."

Moondancer levitated Twilight over to the plain, low bed not far from the seal that they had put around hole in the floor.

It's hard to undo handcuffs from a struggling maiden, so Twilight obediently stood still while Moondancer fiddled with the keys. She even gamely allowed Moondancer to strap one wrist to a corner of the bed before she resumed trying to escape.

It didn't matter so much anyway, as Moondancer was stronger than Twilight, and had full use of her magic. Moondancer had no trouble strapping the other wrist to the other corner. All Twilight's struggling achieved was to force Moondance to lie down on top of her to hold her still while strapping her down. Twilight had difficulty thinking of this as anything other than a tremendous victory.

Mindful not to hurt Moondancer, Twilight stopped kicking long enough for Moondancer to secure each leg to the other corners of the bed. She was now lying on her back, spread-eagled and fully exposed to Moondancer's whims.

Panting, Moondancer climbed off her captive.

Panting, Twilight struggled against her restraints.

Both were well satisfied with the situation.

"Mmmm, keep struggling, Ms Doo," said Moondancer, caressing Twilight's leg, "I'm going to enjoy this."

"I shall escape! I shall foil your dastardly plans! I--" Moondancer pinched one of Twilight's nipples, and twisted it. A flurry of emotions crossed Twilight's face. Twilight moaned with need.

"All I want to hear from you, Miss Doo, is the location of the Crystal Skull. I promise you'll tell me soon enough. Why don't you tell me now, and save yourself some pain? It's your choice."

"Never!" croaked Twilight.

"Oh, thank you, Ms Doo," said Moondancer, briefly pinching that much harder, "Serpentor does so appreciate willing sacrifices."

"Huhhhh."

Moondancer released Twilight's nipple.

"Ms Doo, you are an archaeologist, or so you say. So I shall generously show you one of our tribe’s sacred healing rituals. I'm sure you'll just love assessing the deeper cultural implications."

"I feel honoured," said Twilight sarcastically, twisting her wrists in her bonds.

Moondancer produced a pack of White Fire Balm.

"Remember, tell me where the Skull is and you shall be freed."

Moondancer smeared a short line of balm on Twilight's thigh. Twilight tensed for a moment. The balm flared with heat, and Twilight hissed in a lungful of breath. Then the burning faded, leaving behind a deep warmth that spread delightfully across her body.

"The location of the Skull, Ms Doo."

"Mmm ...Never!"

"Very well," said Moondancer, making no effort to hide her smirk.

Moondancer changed her grip on the pack, and dragged a trail of balm that ran along Twilight's thigh, swirled around her belly, and traced the contours of her chest until it finally stopped at her shoulder.

Before the trail had even finished, the start of it blazed into heat. Twilight arched her back on the bed as the fiery feeling traced the path that Moondancer had mapped. The wash of pleasure that followed behind was delicious.

"Again, Ms Doo. The Skull?"

"Mmmmmm"

Moondancer leaned over Twilight's body, propping herself on the mattress with one arm. She could now dab the balm wherever she pleased, which she then did. Taking care to avoid the most sensitive places, Moondancer randomly placed spots of the balm all across Twilight in rapid succession.

There was no way for Twilight to remember the sequence of locations, so when each spot in turn flared with heat, it came as a surprise. Twilight squirmed and moaned. She was sheathed in sweat now, and breathing hard and fast.

Eventually Moondancer pulled back, and waited for Twilight to regain focus enough to look at her.

"Impressive endurance, Ms Doo. You've almost persuaded me that I need a different plan. Almost. One last chance. The Skull, please. Or I shall see how sensitive you really are..."

"Nuh," said Twilight, shaking her head for emphasis.

"Eloquent and witty as ever, Ms Doo. Very well."

Moondancer touched the balm to both of Twilight's nipples with taunting slowness.

"Aaaaahhheeeooooooooohhhh."

Moondancer conscientiously wiped the drool from Twilight's mouth, and then undid the straps holding her friend down. Twilight lay limp on the bed, staring at the ceiling.

"...whooo."

"I think you liked that rather too much, Ms Doo. You win."

Twilight looked at Moondancer in confusion as the latter's magic aura took hold of her once more.

Moondancer lifted Twilight off the bed and held her in front of her. Twilight's mind slowly drifted from the zone, and her awareness returned.

"Allow me to change tack," said Moondancer, "I admire you, Ms Doo. In fact I find you extraordinarily attractive. So, let me make you an offer: tell me where the Skull is, and I shall be yours. Simply tell me where you last saw the Skull and I shall be your slave. Punish me for my previous treatment of you, if you like. This room is well equipped for you to do so."

Twilight opened her mouth to claim her prize, but held still at Moondancer's raised finger.

"Or, Ms Doo, refuse me for the last time, and I shall have no choice but sacrifice you to the demon in the pit!"

Moondancer nodded to the hole in the floor, surrounded by the wards to stop Entice from escaping. Twilight froze.

Entice's voice rose from the darkness.

"Feed me, Priestess! Your goddess, Serpentor, hungers!"

"Entice?" called out Twilight, startled.

"Come back to me, Twilight. You know you need to be punished for all the naughty things you've done."

"Well, Ms Doo? Tell me about the Skull, and you may use me as you please. Or deny me, and the demon shall have you!"

Twilight noted with alarm that she was drifting towards the hole, held aloft by Moondancer's telekinetic field. She opened her mouth to answer, but no words came.

"Who has the skull?"

"Come to me, Twilight. Uh, ‘Ms Doo’. Come."

Twilight gaped, trying to work out the answer to the question. Moondancer's telekinesis kept moving Twilight across the floor.

The pit was black.

Twilight knew the answer to a question, but couldn't bring herself to say it. Instead she stared at Moondancer, paralysed by indecision.

The darkness of the hole started to roil and twist. Tendrils of shadow seemed to stretch from the surface towards Twilight.

Twilight's glacial drift finally brought her to the wards, and across them.

"You can still escape, Ms Doo. You haven't forgotten where the skull is, have you?"

"Nuh," said Twilight.

A searching tendril of darkness touched Twilight's foot, and wrapped around her ankle with astonishing speed. It grew in girth, and began winding itself up Twilight's leg.

"I would be your slave, Ms Doo. Don't let the darkness have you. The Skull!"

"Nuh," said Twilight, struggling against the aura, against the tentacle, helpless to both.

Another tentacle stretched out of the void, and found Twilight's other foot. It too twined itself around her leg. The first tentacle had stretched all its way up Twilight's leg, and the tip began gently rubbing Twilight's clitoral hood...

"Last chance, Ms Doo."

Moondancer didn't look worried, or angry. She looked... Sad. Happy. Fond.

"Never!" shouted Twilight.

The telekinetic aura winked out. The tentacles pulled Twilight down into the void.

A light meal

Moondancer knelt beside the wards that surrounded the hole that Twilight had just been pulled into, taking care not disturb them, nor cross their boundary.

"Entice! Princess Celestia will be here in a couple of days. If she finds you've hurt her favourite student, she'll go all Solaris Invictus on your scaly butt. Treat my Twily right, you hear?"

"I shall treat her like a princess!" purred Entice's voice, "Just the way I treated Princess Luna, when she placed herself in my care."

"Moony!" called out Twilight, concern for her friend strong in her voice.

"It's okay, Twily. I just need to do some serious thinking. About a lot of things. And you are far too distracting. Entice will take good care of you. Have fun. I'll see you in a couple of days."

“Moondancer, if Princess Celestia finds me as a demon’s sex-slave because of this stunt, then we are going to have words”

Moondancer managed to suppress her laughter long enough to blow a raspberry down at Twilight and then start walking away.

“Moondancer, you backstabbing strumpet, get back here!”

“Have fun, girls,” called out Moondancer, “I’ll see you later.”

Twilight shouted imprecations up the hole, but Moondancer was clearly not coming back.

“Aww, don’t worry, Twilight,” said Entice from behind Twilight, “We’ll have our revenge, I promise.”

“Aaah!” said Twilight, spinning around to see the succubus looming over her. Twilight backed away, warding off the succubus with her arms.

“Twilight!” said the demoness in alarm, reaching out to her.

Twilight saw the succubus’ arm stretching towards her and leapt back. The back of her heel caught on something, and she fell backwards, arm flailing. She landed much sooner than she thought she would, and the landing was far softer than the cold, hard floor.

“I was going to say, ‘You’re standing right behind my bed’, but I think you’ve worked that out.”

Twilight jerked upright, but wasn’t fast enough. The animated padded manacles that had restrained Entice had been repaired, and were easily strong and fast enough to pull Twilight down, spread eagled, onto the bed.

“I see you’re keen to get started,” said Entice, her grin taking a predatory gleam.

“Wait!” said Twilight, futilely struggling with her bonds, “You don’t want me like this!”

“Oh, but I do, Twilight, I do,” purred Entice as she approached.

“But there’s no challenge! You know you prefer it when there’s a little risk. How about a– a contest of wit?”

“I must admit, I am intrigued. Do go on.” Entice lazily trailed a talon across Twilight’s bust.

“We– we could have a game of chess! If you win, then I’ll be yours until Princess Celestia saves me, and I’ll even ask her to release you; if I win, you let me go.”

“Hmm, too risky. I’m not going to let you slip through my fingers that easily. And I abhor chess. Let me offer you a counter-proposal. I set a challenge. If you fail, you’ll be mine as you say. If you succeed, I won’t let you go, or give you back your magic until you leave, but otherwise I’ll be your slave for a year. How about it, Twilight?”

“A year? I’ll be rescued in two days.”

“Dear Twilight, think about it for a moment. I can’t teach you shadow magic, dream magic, Moon magic in a couple of days. I could teach you enough to get you started, over the course of a year. And that magic may be the key to understanding Princess Luna’s banishment – she is exiled to the moon, after all. Think how happy Princess Celestia would be, to have her sister back!

“Just keep me your naughty little secret for a while, and everyone can be happy! You learn new magics, Princess Celestia gets her sister back, Moondancer gets to have fun, and with the games we’ll all play over the year, I’ll get the sexual energy I’ll need to reclaim my rightful place in Tartarus. I’ve been stuck here for a very long time, Twilight. Another year, a year of joy with Moondancer and you? I can stand to wait a little longer before going home.”

“…What’s the challenge?”

“I will release you from the bed and give you a task. It will not require any special abilities or knowledge that you do not have, and everything you need to complete it will be in this room. I will not interfere with your completion of the task in any way. Tartarus, I’ll even help.”

“Uh, what task? How will I know that it’s fair?”

“If you insist, after you have failed the task I will create a shadow with the intelligence, knowledge, skills, and abilities of an average twelve year old child, and have them complete the task. If my shadow can’t do it, you win. Does that sound fair to you?”

“…Okay. Deal.”

Entice’s smile widened to show the points of her teeth.

“Unbind,” she said to the bed, and the manacles holding Twilight fell away.

Twilight quickly got off the bed. Entice turned to her bookshelf and took out a book, seemingly at random.

“This is, hmm,” Entice angled the book to read the cover, “Mist Walker’s ‘Principles of Shadow Magic’. It’s a bit dry in places, as I recall, but a worthwhile read nevertheless. This is very possibly the last remaining copy. Here.”

Entice handed the book to Twilight’s trembling hands, but placed her hand on top of the cover to prevent Twilight from opening it.

“What? My challenge is to not read the book? No problem. I can wait,” said Twilight smugly.

“No, Twilight. Your challenge is to destroy the book.”

“What?!”

“Destroy it. You may use anything in this room to complete your task. You have lots of options: I’d be happy to provide you with oil and the means of making a flame, or you could take ink from the desk and soak the pages in it. You don’t even need to destroy the entire book, really. Grab a few pages at random, tear them to pieces, and eat them; I’ll even provide some wine to wash them down with. Do it, and I’ll crawl to your feet, and lick them too, if that’s what you want.”

“It’s the only copy of this book in existence!”

“Possibly the only copy of that book in existence,” shrugged Entice, “There may be other copies elsewhere. I don’t know.”

“It’s a thousand years old!”

“Closer to two thousand, actually. Mist Walker lived before the reunification of the tribes. Anyway, what do I care? I’ve already read it. Destroy the book, Twilight, or be my slave.”

“I can’t do that!” said Twilight, horrified.

“Are you sure, Twilight? I’ll need to punish you for running away from me, twice, and sealing me up in here. I’d be a very obedient slave, I promise. I’d do anything for my mistress…”

Twilight dropped the book on Entice’s table as though it were hot, and backed away from it.

“Oh dear. It appears that you’ve failed your task, and I shall have to take on the burden of being your mistress…”

Entice floated towards Twilight, carried by her great wings, her arms outstretched.

“Wait.”

“Twilight, you’ve delayed enough. You’ve lost. I’ve won. I want my prize.”

“Not yet. You haven’t won yet. You need to prove that you can do it.”

“Ha ha! You doubt that I can destroy a book?”

“Oh, no. I’m sure you can destroy the book. I can tell that you like them: just look around. But I know that you’ll destroy it if you have to. The thing is,” said Twilight with growing confidence, “I win either way.”

“Would you care to explain your reasoning?”

“Entice, you’ve already lost. You said I could use anything in the room to destroy the book. I chose to use you. So, either you destroy the book for me, at my command, and so win the contest for me; or else you fail to destroy the book, proving that you can’t do the task that you set me, and so again making me win. Since you do actually like your books, and you lose either way, you might as well just fall to your knees before your mistress.”

Entice stared at Twilight, the fires of her eyes blazing bright.

Twilight smiled. Entice hissed.

Twilight’s smile opened into a grin.

With an angry growl, Entice awkwardly knelt before Twilight.

Once on her knees, Entice leant forward and touched the horns on her head to the ground at Twilight’s feet.

“Good little demon,” said Twilight.

“How may I serve you, mistress?” asked Entice, not looking up from her position on the floor.

“Well, ‘slave’,” said Twilight, “Let’s start–” Twilight was cut off by the rumbling in her belly.

“Change of plan, mistress?” asked Entice. Twilight didn’t need to see the demon’s face to know that she was smirking.

“Fine. I’m hungry. Feed me.”

“With pleasure, mistress.”

Entice courteously conjured Twilight a heavy fur robe and a seat, both of which Twilight took with some suspicion. For her own part, Entice knelt at Twilight’s feet, even though her height put her head close to the same level as Twilight’s.

Entice held out a hand, palm forward and fingers outstretched, and made a show of retracting her claws, leaving normal fingers. Entice swirled those pitch-black fingers in the air, and she were suddenly holding a single small profiterole, draped with melted chocolate.

Twilight reached out to take the confection, but Entice pulled it out of reach.

“Ah ah ah! It’s more fun without hands, mistress,” she said.

Entice offered the profiterole again, and Twilight leaned forward to take it from Entices fingers with her teeth.

The soft pastry melted in Twilight’s mouth, and its rich cream filling made her moan in delight. She ate swiftly.

“Another.”

Entice swirled her fingers again, conjuring another profiterole, this one coated with even more chocolate. Twilight eagerly gulped it down.

Entice crushed the third with two of her fingers, smearing them with cream and chocolate. Twilight barely hesitated before taking Entice’s fingers in her mouth, sucking the goodness off them, and licking them clean. The faint taste of cinnamon added spice to the taste. Entice lazily pulled her fingers from Twilight’s lips.

The fourth was held temptingly in Entice’s fingers, just out of Twilight’s reach. Twilight watched as Entice grinned, and then opened her mouth wide to reveal her long, forked, tongue. Entice leaned forward, wrapped her long, dexterous, tongue around the profiterole and pulled it into her open mouth. It sat there, temptingly.

Twilight took the hint, and dived at Entice. The kiss was sloppy, but Twilight didn’t mind. Her tongue explored Entice’s mouth, and she wrestled with the demoness for the pastry until Entice meekly surrendered her prize. This one tasted the best of all.

Twilight’s momentum had carried her forward into Entice’s lap, and when she pulled back, she found herself straddling Entice as the demoness lay supine on the floor, wings spread. Twilight’s robe had fallen open. Twilight looked down on her, smiling.

“I’m still hungry, Entice. Some slave you are.”

“A thousand apologies, mistress. I hunger too. I beg permission to allow us both to satiate our needs.”

“Hmm, what do you have in your naughty mind?”

Entice’s grin just grew wider.

“Oh, alright. I give in. Go ahead.”

“Thank you, mistress.”

Entice’s spell was cast with a kiss, delivered neatly to Twilight’s forehead. Twilight felt a tingle, but nothing more. Her hunger remained unabated.

Entice lay back down on the floor, and conjured a blob of cream formed into the shape of a flower, and placed it on her lips. Twilight leaned down to take it, and another kiss.

The rose was nice. The kiss was delicious, the sensation of Entice’s supple lips on hers was curiously electric. Cinnamon swirled through her senses.

Entice trailed her fingers from her lips, down her neck, and further. Where her fingers went, they left a trail of cream. It started palest white, stark contrast to the perfect black of her skin, but as the trail descended down her body it slowly turned deep red.

Twilight started at Entice’s lips, a gentle peck, a taste, and followed the trail down. She was shocked to find that she could feel lips on her own face. It took another lick for her to realise that she was feeling the sensation of a tongue, her tongue, running along her skin, just as it was touching Entice’s. Entice had cast a feedback spell on her.

Twilight lapped up the trail of cream as it traced it’s way down Entice’s throat, shivering at the feedback she felt along her own neck. Entice gave a happy little moan. As the trail reached Entice’s breasts, the cream turned red. Strawberries. Entice had slathered her breasts with cream and strawberry sauce, and Twilight couldn’t hold back.

Licking and slurping and giggling, Twilight feasted on Entice’s bounty, her own breasts practically glowing from the feedback. Entice played with Twilight’s hair, keeping it from the mess.

The trail went further down. The strawberry red slowly turned chocolate brown around Entice’s navel. Ever the scientist, Twilight performed a thorough investigation to establish the presence of said navel, with her tongue. She was ticklish there, and she giggled and squirmed at the sensation.

The chocolate sauce stretched further down, and the trail was getting hot. Twilight knew where she was heading, and she was desperately looking forward to finding her destination. The feeling of her tongue on Entice’s belly made Twilight laugh, but she started to pant as she worked her way down to dangerous territory.

The chocolate ran out at the clitoral hood. Twilight barely noticed, so intent she was on quenching the fire that had grown in her loins. Thanks to her playtime with Moondancer, and the power of the feedback spell, Twilight had a very clear idea of what to do.

They were both highly aroused by now, Twilight was even groaning with need, but she still couldn’t resist teasing around Entice’s labia with her tongue before diving in.

Twilight explored Entice’s pussy with her tongue. Slow and steady licks swiftly got faster, harder, and wilder. Entice moaned, and arched her back. The demoness’ hands stopped toying with Twilight’s hair, and were now holding her head.

Twilight’s senses faded. She couldn’t keep track of what was her and what was Entice. She could feel her tongue on her pussy, her hands on her head, her wings trapped under her body instinctively trying to unfurl, the heat that was build in her… That heat, that double heat, that promised so much… but she needed to hold on.

Twilight gasped for breath each time Entice let her up for air, and then eagerly pushed back down. The feedback spell sent each flick of her tongue back to her own pussy, causing jolts of electricity to run up her spine, and the fiery pressure that she could barely hold back to build even higher.

With one hand on Entice’s hood, the other deep in her own treasure, Twilight worked almost desperately, trying to bring Entice to orgasm before she herself came. Fast and hard rubbing, her tongue flicking constantly against that most delightful place, Twilight held back a whimper. It was too much. She needed to hold on just a little longer…

Entice howled as she threw back her head. Her hands slammed to the ground, and clawed furrows into the stone floor. Almost there…

Twilight snatched her hand away from Entice’s swollen clit, took it all into her mouth, and sucked.

“Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!” “Aaaaaahhhhhhhh!”

Entice thrashed beneath her as she came. Twilight slumped forward, lungs burning, vision blurred, hips twitching from the aftershocks that blazed up her spine.

Entice recovered first. The sparks that flowed through her body when Twilight came were a flood, but the torrent passed before Twilight could even focus her eyes. The succubus shifted them both to a more comfortable position, and used a sequence of subtle cantrips to clear themselves up, and undo the feedback spell that had devastated them both.

“Uhhh,” said Twilight.

Entice cuddled her closer.

“Um,” Twilight tried again.

“Hmmm?”

“Yeah.”

Entice laughed quietly.

Turning tables

“So, are you fully recovered now, mistress?”

Twilight sat straight in her chair, her fur robe protected her modesty once more, her hair neatened, and her blush was almost entirely faded.

“Absolutely, ‘slave’. Now. Serious question. You mentioned dream magic. Can you see, enter, or change people’s dreams? If so, what’s your range?”

“Oh. Yes, yes, yes, and long. Why do you ask?”

“I was thinking that you could teach me your magics in my sleep. In Canterlot. That is, me in Canterlot, you here. Uh, if you can…”

Entice appeared delighted.

“A wonderful idea mistress! I’d love to do that. Now that I’ve seen your soul up close, I can find it almost anywhere. It would be rather tiring, though…”

“Tiring?”

“Oh yes. Such a long range. You’ll have to visit in person every month, to help ‘recharge my wand’. In fact, we’d better work on building a surplus of energy right now, if you’re leaving in only a couple of days…”

“Oh!” The blush was back in full force.

“Oh, come now, Twilight! You have your own demoness sex slave at your beck and call. Were you really planning on spending our time together studying?”

Entice was highly amused. Twilight shrunk into her robe, cheeks glowing bright.

“Awww, I’m sorry Twi– I mean mistress. Don’t you want to play? You could punish me for teasing you, or stealing your magic. Maybe you’ll be able to force me to give it back, if you’re strict enough…”

“Well, I did, rather unwisely, drink an energy drink of unknown origins that appears to have contained some sort of aphrodisiac, so I suspect that I wouldn’t be able to concentrate for long anyway. I’m not sure how to go about punishing you, though.”

“Oh, don’t worry mistress, I’m sure anything you do will be sheer torment.”

Twilight looked at Entice, her doubt and disbelief plain on her face.

“Alternatively,” said Entice musingly, “How about your ‘friend’? She callously handed you over to a demoness, fully expecting you to be enslaved. Surely a little revenge is in order? Think of all the fun we could have, luring her here. You could punish her. I think you’d both like that, and I’d love to help.”

“Moondancer! Is she okay? She’s been all alone in the castle for hours! Where’s your mirror?”

Entice sighed.

“Twilight, I don’t think you quite get the idea of ‘revenge’. Alright, alright, let’s look in the mirror.”

Moondancer was in the library, carving something from a apple branch. She was softly singing a jaunty song to herself as she worked. The table she was working on was covered with the remains of a very large meal. Wood shavings lay all about her feet.

“Truly, her situation looks desperate, mistress, but together we can save her.”

“Turn off the mirror, Entice. She’s fine. She and I’ll talk, later.”

“Are you sure, mistress? No threesomes?” Entice sounded disappointed.

“Nope. Greedy demoness. Naughty greedy demoness. Naughty demoness who needs to be punished!”

“Yes, Mistress!”

Twilight pulled Entice away from the mirror and towards the bed. When they reached it, Twilight threw Entice onto the bed (with Entice’s help).

The chains once more came alive, and shot towards the bed’s occupant. Entice spread her arms and legs to make it easy for the chains to bind her. Twilight noted with some amusement that there was even a small, delicate, silver chain for Entice’s tail.

Once Entice was properly restrained, Twilight clambered onto the bed and straddled her captive.

“Aha! You’re mine now, slave! Prepare to be punished!”

“Noooooo!” Entice struggled against the chains, careful not to actually break them.

Twilight felt for Entice’s breasts and, once she found them, pinched one of her nipples, hard.

“Aaah! Mercy, mistress! Mercy!”

Twilight let go of the nipple and sat back with frustration.

“Sorry, but this just isn’t working; I can tell you’re just humouring me.”

“Mistress, I am sorry, but I am considerably stronger and more durable than yourself. I am bound by my word, not by these chains.”

“Alright, be less strong and less durable then. Or make me stronger, tougher. Help me feel in control.”

“Mistress?”

“Entice, you are clearly far more powerful than your fellow succubi. Your strength, power, and endurance is nearly divine. I believe that part of that is not innate, but the result of magic. Give it up. Or give it to me. Temporarily.”

“Very clever, mistress. You are not quite correct, a great deal of my power came over time. This bed, those chains, would hold me fast originally, but I have been the consort of a goddess… I could pass on some infusion of my power. It wouldn’t last long, but yes… Please release me, mistress, if that is your desire. Command the bed to unbind me.”

“Uh, bed, unbind your– oh.”

At the word ‘unbind’ the manacles on the bed released themselves and fell away, freeing Entice. The succubi sat up, Twilight shifting out of the way to allow her to do so. Entice motioned Twilight closer, and caught her in a tight embrace. Entice kissed Twilight.

The kiss was electrifying. Twilight felt power from Entice flow through her, infusing her limbs. The power kept on coming, until Twilight’s head swam and she felt as light a feather. It seemed to take forever for the power to stop coming.

“Wow!” said Twilight.

“There,” said Entice, “That is as much as I dare give. You are now stronger than I, and almost as durable. Please sit, mistress.”

Twilight, unused to incredible strength, nearly launched herself into the ceiling trying to sit on the edge of the bed.

“Wooooh,” said Twilight, impressed.

Once Entice was happy that Twilight was sitting calmly, and was not going to do the room any damage, she began rooting around inside the chest at the foot of the bed. It didn’t take long for her to pull out a large pair of black panties.

Entice took one of Twilight’s legs and slipped the panties on. Twilight stood, very carefully, to help Entice slip the panties on her. She was surprised when the panties shrunk to fit her hips.

“Uh, why am I wearing these?” asked Twilight.

“A moment longer, mistress, and all will be clear.”

Entice then took a large dildo from the chest and offered the base of it up to the panties. There was a *click* and the dildo held in place.

“Wow! I can feel that!”

“Yes, mistress. You now enjoy a temporary new member, complete with all the sensations that they come with. Do not worry for its strength, this toy was used by my previous mistress. It can take a lot of ‘rough and tumble’. Now, stand here, please.”

Twilight complied, a curious look on her face. She didn’t resist when Entice took one of her arms and lifted it in the air so that the manacles could bind it, nor did she resist when Entice repeated the exercise with her other arm, nor indeed when Entice bound her legs in a similar fashion. Her frown did deepen though.

She now stood spread-eagled, just as she had done the first time she was in this chamber.

“Entice, why are you chaining me up?”

“Mistress, I am merely trying to demonstrate a point, while also providing us both with entertainment. You do not appear to understand command, mistress, allowing me to do as I please without any objection. If you wish to dominate me, you must take charge.”

“Okay. Release me, slave.”

Entice laughed.

“Mistress, you are merely obeying me once more. Allow me to clarify. While you are empowered, I will not obey you. If you want me to do anything, you must force me to do it. If you want to do anything to me, I shall resist. Do you understand?”

“And these chains…”

“Are trivial to repair. They’ve been broken many times before. Unfortunately, I must say the same for the bed. If you wish to play with me, I suggest we do so on the bare floor. With your new resistances, you should feel no more discomfort than I.”

Twilight stood motionless, in thought. She then turned to the chain on her right arm. She gripped the chain in one hand. She pulled down, experimentally, and the thick chain snapped at its mooring into the ceiling. The rest of its length fell to the ground with a loud clatter. Twilight grinned.

She tugged at the chain on her other arm, and it failed, noisily, when the bolts securing the mooring onto the ceiling pulled free. She curiously hooked her fingers under one of the manacles and pulled outwards, and laughed as pieces of the mechanism went flying. It had offered no more resistance than a paper bracelet.

Twilight laughed.

Twilight kicked a leg, and then the other. The chains were broken, but the manacles remained, so she knelt down and slowly pinched the metal between thumb and forefinger. The metal gave way under the pressure from her fingers, like plasticine. Neither manacle could take that treatment for long, and soon Twilight was free.

Twilight turned to Entice and beckoned her forward. Entice shook her head, and crouched, spreading her arms and folding her wings close to her body, a wrestler’s stance. Twilight was happy to see that Entice’s claws were still sheathed.

Twilight stepped forward, and made a grab for Entice, but the succubus dodged out of the way.

Time suddenly seemed to slow for Twilight. Where previously Entice’s movements had been faster than she could track with her eyes, they now seemed to be lazy. Sounds changed to long, drawn-out, low pitched noises.

Twilight twisted her arm and made another grab, missing Entice by the slightest of margins. Entice leaned forward, to grab Twilight. Twilight ducked under Entice’s swinging arm, allowing Entice to ever-so-slowly fall forwards. With Entice’s balance slightly off, it was trivial for Twilight to step behind her and grasp her hips with both hands.

Entice tried to spin around. She was strong. Stronger than the chains. But not stronger than Twilight. Twilight tightened her grip, and lifted Entice, still struggling, into the air.

Entice kicked out with her feet. Twilight saw one of Entice’s feet gouge chunks of stone from the wall. Twilight’s eyes tracked the chunks as they drifted through the air. She had to resist the urge to drop Entice and snatch them from their flight.

Twilight reminded herself that she had a demon to bring to heel. She changed her stance, throwing Entice to the ground. Before Entice could lift herself back up, Twilight fell on her and knocked her hands from under her. Twilight took Entice’s arms and twisted them behind her back, over her wings.

Entice’s tail wrapped around Twilight’s leg and tried to pull her off-balance, but it wasn’t strong enough. Twilight shifted her grip to hold both of Entice’s arms with one hand, freeing up the other to unwind the tail from her leg. A moment’s thought suggested a practical use for the succubus’ tail, and Twilight used it to tie Entice’s arms together, knotting it tight.

Entice struggled to free her arms, but her tail held tight. Panting, Twilight made herself comfortable on Entice’s back. Time sped up to its usual rate. Entice was at Twilight’s mercy.

“So, what am I going to do with you, then, you naughty demoness?”

Entice turned her head to look to Twilight.

“If you are after suggestions, mistress, I suggest you listen to the device currently attached to your panties.”

Twilight laughed. She had a writhing, struggling succubus beneath her, a formerly indomitable enemy, and she liked it. A lot. It gave her a few ideas.

“I think I’ve just realised what your horns are for, Entice. Let me see.”

Twilight climbed off Entice and knelt down in front of her, knees spread. She took a horn in each hand, and used them to pull Entice’s head to her dildo. Entice’s long tongue flickered out of her mouth, eagerly reaching for the faux member.

Twilight let go of Entice’s horns in shock when the tongue teased and licked its length. The dildo fed sensations into Twilight as though it were more sensitive than the real thing.

Entice wriggled closer, allowing her to wrap her tongue around the dildo. Twilight moaned, and quickly regained control of Entice’s horns. She pulled hard until Entice’s eager mouth fully enclosed her dong.

“Mmmmm” said Twilight, luxuriating in the feeling of Entice’s lips and tongue working on the dildo. She arched her head backwards, and gaped at the ceiling without even seeing it. Her hands fell away from the horns, finally giving Entice the freedom of movement for her head to bob back and forth, working up a proper rhythm.

Twilight was breathing fast and sweating hard when she suddenly rebelled against the joyous feeling from the dildo. She seized Entice’s horns once more and pulled her off the dildo. Entice whimpered with her need.

“Sorry, Entice,” panted Twilight, “Being passive again. Bad. Can do better.”

Before Entice could question Twilight’s meaning, she found herself flipped head over heels until she landed on her back, her bound arms and wings trapped beneath her. She tried kicking Twilight, out of irritation of her treatment if nothing else, but Twilight’s semi-divine reflexes were more than adequate to allow her to knock aside the blow and move forward to kneel between Entice’s legs.

Twilight once again found herself moving with reflexes she didn’t know she had when she guided the dildo to a target that she could not see. Entice’s unrelenting black form prevented her features from being visible, but Twilight could feel the heat, and the dampness of Entice’s pussy, and pressed home sure and true.

“Much better!” Entice growled with approval, clamping down hard on the dildo deep inside her. Twilight gasped at the heat enveloping her.

Guided by instinct, Twilight pulled out and pushed herself back in with steady, powerful strokes. Entice was gripping her with incredible strength, and radiating the heat of the inferno, but to Twilight all that meant was ecstasy.

There was a rhythm here that Twilight had felt before with Moondancer. A steadily increasing tempo, a growing need that could only be resisted for so long. This time, however, there was far more power to her thrusts, and an excitement that forced bubbles of gleeful laughter from her lips.

Entice grunted each time Twilight pulled back. The succubus arched her back to try and keep their hips joined, but Twilight wouldn’t have it, pulling the dildo almost entirely out of Entice. She held there for a moment, and then pounded downwards with reflexive power that smashed the invulnerable demoness back onto the stone floor with enough force to make the bedrock crack and the room thunder.

The recoil from each thrust threw them a little way into the air. Entice tried to dig her heels into the ground to stop them from moving across the room, but it didn’t do any good. Twilight saw them getting closer and closer to the bed with every thrust. Catching sight of a bracket on the floor, securing a broken length of chain, she took action. With one hand she grabbed it anchoring their motion. The metal whined and twisted under her fingers, but she moderated her strength enough that it held.

Twilight fell back to pushing herself deep into Entice with renewed vigour. Entice was panting with joy each time the downward thrusts caught her breath. Entice’s legs were no longer needed to stop their drift. She angled them upwards and wrapped them around Twilight’s hips, allowing her mistress to pound her into the ground with that much more force.

The resistance, the growls from Entice, Entice’s legs wrapped around her body and squeezing tight, holding the writhing succubus down, holding Entice’s horns with one hand to save herself from being bitten, the illicit thrill and the excitement and the power–

For all of Twilight’s new strength, she was no more able to resist the orgasm threatening to overwhelm her.

Glorious fire surged up Twilight’s spine, setting fireworks in her head. She cried out loud and clear when she came, and then came again.

Entice’s shout was louder, bucking her hips, and gripping the dildo even harder, triggering another orgasm for Twilight. A constellation of stars exploded across Entice’s midnight body.

Twilight collapsed against Entice, breathing hard, her sweat mingling with that coming from the demoness.

Entice was slow to recover, gasping and twitching with secondary orgasms, but she eventually quietened. Lifting herself on one elbow, the succubus ran a hand through Twilight’s sweat-tangled hair. She caressed Twilight’s arm, and her tail entwined possessively around Twilight’s leg. They lay like that for a long time.

“Hey?” asked Twilight.

“Mmmm,” said Entice.

“Didn’t I tie up your arms and tail?”

“You tried, mistress. I am sorry to say that I was still humouring you.”

“Oh. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, mistress,” said Entice, kissing her on the forehead, “Would you like to try again?”

“Not right now, thanks. I think that the energy drink ran out some time back there, and I’m feeling sleepy.”

“Sleep well, mistress. I shall repair the room while you rest, and we do this again when you awake. Maybe I’ll conjure some oil. Wrestling is much more fun when we’re both slippery.”

“‘kay. G’night.”

Entice carefully carried her mistress to the bed, ensuring that the chains did not bind her.

Exhausted, Twilight slept.

Ending the Game

Twilight woke to find the glowing orbs that lit the room dimmed to almost darkness. She was lying on her side, facing the pile of books on the bedside table. A warm, protective wing was stretched over her as an impromptu blanket, and an arm that absorbed all light was draped over her torso. Twilight was grateful to find that Entice’s claws were still sheathed, as Entice was possessively cupping one of her boobs. Twilight could feel Entice’s body pressed against her back, Entice’s breath on her shoulder, and the now familiar feeling of Entice’s tail wrapped loosely around her leg. It felt good.

Entice immediately noticed that Twilight was awake.

“Did you sleep well, mistress?”

“Yes, thank you, Entice.”

“Good. How can I serve you today? Would you like to continue where you left off last night?”

“I’m not sure,” said Twilight sleepily, “I enjoyed it, but, well, it was a lot more fun when you were trying to make me– eep.”

Twilight could feel Entice’s grin.

“No, no, speak your mind, mistress. If you would prefer, I would be delighted to pretend that the tables were turned, and that you were resisting my will. I would love to wring orgasm after orgasm out of you, while you futilely try to resist. Would you like that, mistress?”

“...yes” said Twilight, in a small voice.

“Then kiss me, mistress, and I shall take back most of what was given. I will, however, permit you to retain some endurance. You will find that I can be quite demanding of those that refuse to betray their friends at my command.”

Twilight rose to her knees, and faced Entice. She took a breath, and let it out in a puff. Twilight closed her eyes, and leaned forward for a kiss.

Twilight had expected to feel drained at the very least. She thought that it might even hurt. She had forgotten that legends were full of people who willingly gave up their soul for a single kiss from a succubi’s infernal lips. She was beginning to understand why. The kiss blew Twilight’s mind, opening it up to every pleasurable sensation traversing her body, every part of her emanating dizzying joy. This was no orgasm, it was the feeling of physical bliss.

When the kiss was over, Twilight let herself fall on the sheets, insensate. The loss of her unnatural strength was nothing compared to the loss of Entice’s lips on hers, but even that pain passed with surprising swiftness, leaving only a burning lust that she knew would not be easily satisfied. Twilight levered herself back upright, shaking her head to clear it.

“Ready?” asked Entice.

“Wow,” said Twilight.

Entice grinned.

“Oh. Um, yes. Ready.”

Entice rolled away from Twilight and off the bed. Twilight yelped with surprise with the speed at which the bed manacled her, pulling arms and legs apart. Entice’s kiss had indeed reclaimed Twilight’s short-lived strength, and the chains held her tight. Satisfied that her ‘slave’ was ready, Entice straddled Twilight, wings spread wide and talons extended, laughing exultantly.

“Ha ha! You’re mine, now, slave. I shall make your fantasies take form before your eyes and pleasure you with infernal skill! Resist all you want, slave, but I shall have my fill! Ha ha ha ha ha!”

“No! Have mercy!”

As before, shadows collected and then took the form of her night-time fantasies. Shadow-Moondancer stalked towards the bed with a little black dress and a wicked smile.

“Oh, wait,” said Twilight in a normal voice.

The shadows froze in place.

“Is there a problem, mistress?”

“How do I tell them, that is, you, to, um, ease up?”

“I can read you easily enough, mistress. If you prefer, though, ‘red’ for ‘stop’, ‘yellow’ for ‘break’, and ‘green’ for ‘go’ or ‘harder’?”

“Okay. Green,” said Twilight, looking hungrily at the simulacrum of Moondancer.

“Twily, I still haven’t forgiven you for the skirt incident,” said a grinning shadow-Moondancer, “If you want my forgiveness, you’re going to have to earn it.”

Twilight noticed with a mix of excitement and alarm that other fond fantasies were forming an orderly line to the bed, clearly intending to take turns. She tried to work out what she felt about that, but then Shadow-Moondancer bit her nipple, and all coherent thought fled.

The shadows took turns.

First shadow-Moondancer, kissing and teasing and nibbling while Twilight tugged helplessly on her bonds, longing for relief. Only when Twilight was so far gone that she could barely speak did shadow-Moondancer use mouth and hands to give Twilight her long-sought-after climax.

Entice groaned with joy, her orgasm synchronised with Twilight’s.

Then shadow-Cadance came, dressed in an unadorned pink silk sari, and drove off Moondancer. The princess tenderly freed Twilight from the bed, and offered to kiss any boo-boos better. Twilight had none, but offered up her body for kissing anyway. First her wrists, then her arms, then her neck… Each part offered was kissed with increasing passion.

When Twilight’s hands got too busy, Cadance pushed Twilight down onto the bed, and danced for her. Swaying her hips and twirling to an unheard beat, Cadance gracefully shed her sari, unwinding it from her body and wrapping it around Twilight’s. Twilight was feeling too distracted to resist. Cadance’s hips hypnotised Twilight until Cadance was naked and only Twilight’s most sensitive areas were left exposed. It was but the work of a moment for Cadance to then bring Twilight to orgasm.

Entice arched her back in ecstasy.

Shadow-Cadance looked over her shoulder as Twilight was still recovering, and ran off, saying that she couldn’t be caught by the guards. Cadance wasn’t caught, but Twilight was. She was still wrapped up in the sari, so Guard Amethyst Wings, and another handsome aerial guard that Twilight didn’t recognise, had an easy time capturing her.

They debated about what to do with their prize, until they settled on sharing her. The new guard, ‘Flash’, took her from the front, while Amethyst took her from behind. Twilight was sandwiched between the two, far more full than she ever thought she could be, and loving it.

Twilight’s orgasmic cry as she came was echoed by Entice’s own response.

Footsteps on stone stole the attention of Twilight’s captors, and the two gallants fled as fast as their wings could take them. When shadow-Princess Celestia stood into the light, Twilight could not find it in herself to blame them.

Princess Celestia was resplendent, luminescent, and glorious in her cloth of gold robe. Twilight would have fallen to her knees if she were able, but she was still bound in Cadance’s sari. With a wicked smile, shadow-Celestia levitated Twilight, and unwrapped her. She did not, however, return her to the ground.

Twilight’s stammered excuses for her predicament stuttered into silence when shadow-Celestia revealed the very familiar hairbrush she was holding. She had barely ever even dared to fantasise about this, but Twilight was helpless and exposed, and shadow-Celestia knew entirely too much about how Twilight liked to use the hairbrush.

Twilight nearly fainted when she came. Entice quite possibly did, as shadow-Celestia, and her aura holding Twilight aloft, both disappeared. Twilight landed with a thump, but was too far gone to notice.

When she had recovered her senses and her breath, Twilight slowly stood on shaky legs. The clop of hooves on stone was loud in the room. Twilight knew her fantasies well. Firelance. Twilight didn’t know what to think, or do. She wanted Firelance. She didn’t want Firelance. Caution warred with desire, the hooves got closer, and Twilight panicked and ran.

She was halfway across the room on shaky legs when the floor fell away around her. She was left standing on a small island of stone, surrounded by a plummeting drop into bubbling lava. It was an illusion, but it was a very good illusion.

Before Twilight could test the ground, Daring Doo swung from a rope. She wore an adventurer’s gear, complete with a pith helmet, and a tight khaki shirt. She had numerous coils of rope about her person. Shadow-Daring Doo’s wild smile, illuminated by the lava below, made Twilight burst into laughter. This was a familiar fantasy, and a comfortable one.

As always, Daring had an escape potion, but was loathe to give it up. As always, Twilight suggested that they gamble for it. Knucklebones. As always, Twilight lost each bounce, and, as always, she gladly paid the forfeit where Daring bound a limb. As always, a button or two on Daring’s shirt popped loose each time Twilight fumbled a catch.

When she was fantasising in bed, Twilight never got further than the third bounce before matters reached a climax. This time, Daring was topless by the time that Twilight was helpless, her playing hand the last limb to be tied. Daring took her prize, teasing another orgasm from Twilight, before flying away.

Before Twilight could think about her situation, Ahuizotl’s henchmen found her. Using a magic staff to make a bridge over the lava, they carried her, hogtied, to Ahuizotl’s throne room.

Entice was playing Ahuizotl, her costume comprising of a cheap foam hand impaled on her spiked tail. Illusions made Entice’s bedroom into a lavish oriental throne room. Her henchmen included shadow-Amethyst and shadow-Flash (wearing different, skimpier, armour), and both shadow-Cadance and shadow-Moondancer were at her feet.

Both women had metal collars, with chains that were tethered to the ground, but neither seemed to notice as they were both far too engrossed in making out with each other. Twilight had to look away.

Entice-Ahuizotl laid Twilight out on an altar. There was talk of sacrifice, and ancient gods, but Twilight was having too much fun to be paying much attention.

This game was interrupted by a loud knock on the door.

Everyone froze.

There was another knock.

“Hold on, Twilight, I’ll go get it,” said Entice-Ahuizotl, lifting her face from between Twilight’s legs. The foam hand went flying into darkness with a flick of her tail, and the illusionary hall faded away.

Twilight had no idea what Entice was planning on doing as the succubus strolled to the great sealed doors. Doors that no force on Equestria, short of Princess Celestia, would be able to open.

Her confusion didn’t stop Twilight from admiring the sway of Entice’s hips, exaggerated by the swish of her tail.

Entice turned the door handle and pulled. The seal on the door broke with a bright flash of silvery light.

Twilight gaped.

Moondancer stood on the other side of the door.

Moondancer was fully dressed, with her backpack on her back, and a bundle in her arms. She shifted the bundle onto a single arm, freeing up the other to wave at Twilight.

“Hi guys. Sorry to interrupt the fun, but it’s only a few hours before my shift starts at the café, and I’d kinda like to freshen up before I get back to work.”

Entice took the bundle from Moondancer, and hugged her close. Moondancer hugged Entice in return.

“Oh, hey Twilight. Really sorry to interrupt your fun. I, uh, grabbed all your stuff and brought it down here. Thanks so much for inviting me to your thing, it’s been real. You are both definitely invited to my next party.

“Uh, Twilight?”

Twilight was still staring at the door.

“Door. Open. Seal. Big seal. Celestial Seal. Broken.”

“Aww, Twilight you are so adorable when you’re confused.”

Moondancer walked down the length of the room, past rows of shadows waiting patiently to play with Twilight. She paused a moment beside shadow-Moondancer to compare her own bust with the shadow’s, and then moved on.

Twilight’s gaze left the door to focus on Moondancer, and then switch between her and Entice.

“Wait, you were plotting with her all along? That doesn’t make any sense. What’s going on? How did you know about a castle you didn’t know about, to contact a sleeping succubus, and make a deal to bring me here? What’s going on?”

“Sorry, Twilight,” said Entice, “Looks like time’s up. And we were having so much fun. I’ll send you back to Ponyville, and then tidy up here.”

The ropes and chains restraining Twilight disappeared with a wave of Entice’s hand.

“Ponyville? Back? What?”

“Oh, can I tell her?” begged Moondancer, “Can I?”

“Oh, all right. I was looking forward to it, but you really made this weekend special for us, so go ahead,” Entice’s voice changed in tone and pitch, and her body wavered and shifted until Princess Luna was standing in the room, naked.

“Who are you?! What– Princess Luna is a succubus?! Wait– The world has gone crazy. Tell me what?”

Moondancer knelt down next to the bed, so that she could look Twilight straight in the eyes.

“‘Shazam’.”

The codeword dispelled Twilight’s self-inflicted amnesia spell. Twilight mouth dropped open in shock as her memories of her life after her time in Canterlot all came rushing back to her.

Luna laughed. She also removed the magical inhibitor she had placed on her girlfriend, as it was clearly no longer needed. Moondancer waved a hand in front of Twilight’s cross-eyed face with some amusement.

“I think we broke her.”

“My Twilight will be fine, Moondancer. It’ll just take her a moment to get back up to speed, that’s all,” Princess Luna sighed, surveying the room, arms akimbo.

“It’s going to take a while to repair all this damage you two caused, you know. Then I’ll have to clear out the sex gear, and get this place back to being a safe room.”

Moondancer looked around admiringly.

“You did a great job setting this place up. It’s a real shame I never managed to get captured a second time; a girl could have real fun in a place like this…” Moondancer wistfully eyed the shadow constructs patiently queueing to please Twilight, “How much time did we say Twilight would have to free me from you, before I became your slave? Four hours? Mmmmmmm. Ah well, maybe next time.”

“A missed opportunity, perhaps. Still, if you don’t need to get back home immediately, I can spare a little time…” said Luna, she waved at the array of shadows, “Anything catch your eye?”

Moondancer eagerly surveyed the shadows, pausing at the Royal Guards, “No Captain Shining Armour, huh? That’s a pity.”

“What?! Moondancer, he’s my big brother!”

“Welcome back, Twilight,” said Luna, “I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. Come here and kiss me.”

“Awww,” said Moondancer, watching the kiss. She was startled when a heavy hand landed on her shoulder, turning her around.

An accurate simulacrum of Shining Armour stood behind her, with a serious expression. He was flanked by two burly royal guards, one on each side. Moondancer couldn’t hold back her grin, no matter how hard she tried.

“Sorry, ma’am, but you’re going to have to come with us. Some items have recently gone missing, and we’ve had an anonymous tip off that you might know something about it.”

“Ah! Officer, you surprised me. There’s surely some mistake!”

“No mistake ma’am,” said Shining Armour, who then turned to the other guards, “Search her. Thoroughly.”

The two guards seized her arms with practiced ease while Moondancer struggled. Shining Armour took Moondancer’s backpack from one of the guards, and casually rooted through it.

“What have we here?” he asked, pulling out Princess Luna’s dressing gown, much to Moondancer’s surprise, “Stealing from the crown? Dear, dear me. I think we’re going to have to go hard on you.”

“Hey, I lost that!” Moondancer turned to look at Luna.

“Play along, dear. You can keep it as a souvenir; I’ve taken out the wing-slots and lifted the hem a touch. I’m afraid I can’t let you keep the pyramid that you were planning on running off with; I need to put it back in my sister’s private collection before she notices it missing. I have yet to decide whether or not to redact the contents first…”

“Sweet! I love that robe. Ah,” she turned back to Shining Armour, “The robe was a gift! Princess Luna gave it to me!”

“A likely story,” said Shining Armour, “No, I think we’re going to have to show you what we do to thieves around here,” he turned to shadow Daring Do, and gestured to the coil of rope she was holding, “Excuse me, ma’am, could I borrow that?”

He took the rope and held it aloft so that Moondancer could see it clearly.

“Eeek!”

Twilight turned away to Princess Luna, “I do not need to see my brother fucking Moondancer, thank you very much,” then in a much quieter voice, “he already took Cadance from me, after all.”

“Aww, sorry Twilight. Don’t worry, I’ll distract you,” said Luna. She sat down onto a chair, and pulled Twilight down onto her lap.

“Can’t you just disapparate them?”

“Silly Twily, that would be rude. Moondancer is still playing with them.”

“If you insist. You did a great job of playing as Moondancer, by the way. You really picked up her mannerisms and expressions very well. I’m impressed.”

“Thank you. I only needed to keep up the disguise for a minute or so, of course, but I take pride in my work.”

“Wait, a few minutes? I was with you for most of the night–”

Twilight cut off when Luna kissed her nose.

“Silly Twily. Did you really think I’d pass up the opportunity to throw you two together and see how you got on?”

Twilight turned, shocked, to look at Moondancer. She then wished she hadn’t. Moondancer’s jeans and panties were now on the floor about her feet. Moondancer’s hands were tied behind her back, and she was bent over a table. The shadow of her brother was spanking her with almost as much enthusiasm as Moondancer seemed to have in being spanked. Twilight looked away again.

“Yes, Twily, that is the girl you lusted after for several years in silence. You have excellent taste, by the way. And yes, she swapped places with me within minutes of the amnesia spell, so if there’s an inch of her body that you haven’t explored yet, it isn’t for the want of an opportunity. Consider it a gift for being such a wonderful girlfriend. You’re welcome.”

“Buh?”

“Moondancer is right, you are adorable when you’re confused,” said Luna happily.

Twilight buried her head in Luna’s shoulder to hide her blush.

Luna was true to her word, and set about distracting Twilight. The sounds of Moondancer’s spanking faded into the distance.

Luna had forgotten to remove the spell that took Twilight’s pleasure and fed it, amplified, into her. Twilight’s climax left Luna stunned for a moment. Twilight looked around, slightly breathless, thinking that the lack of the sounds of spanking meant that the coast was clear. It wasn’t.

Moondancer was now completely naked, trussed up on the bed, on her back, with her legs held high in the air by the same rope that had held her wrists before. Shadow Shining Armour was now naked as well, and thrusting hard and fast into the ecstatic Moondancer.

Twilight turned her attention back to her girlfriend, trying to block out the sounds coming from behind her.

Moondancer was now wearing her new robe, and a grin that threatened to split her face. Luna had modified the symbol on the back to more closely match Moondancer’s cutiemark, and Moondancer couldn’t be happier.

She perched on the edge of the table, facing both Luna and Twilight.

“Well, ‘thanks’ again, I guess. I really do need to get going if I’m not going to miss my shift. Here,” said Moondancer, reaching into her backpack, and pulling out two presents wrapped in black silk, “I made these for you.”

She handed a bundle to each of her friends. Luna’s gift was an applewood carving of Twilight, her arms open to embrace the world. Twilight’s was Luna carved from a dark wood, her arms also open. The pair delightedly brought the statuettes together, and blinked with surprise when they came alive, hugging each other.

“They had a text on the principles of animation in the library. Wanted to give it a go. Hope you like them.”

“They’re wonderful, Moondancer!” said Twilight, “Thank you!”

“Glad you like them. I hope my dad likes his too…”

Moondancer pulled a third statuette from her pack. It was Moondancer, as a girl, with a wide toothy smile and a bow in her hair. All three of them watched the animation of the statue slowly aged up to match the young woman holding it. The wide smile, and the bow in her hair, stayed the same.

“I’m sure he’ll love it,” said Twilight, “When are you going to give it to him?”

“Next weekend, if I can get the guts to do it. Then we can have a long-overdue talk.”

Twilight slipped off Luna’s lap to give Moondancer a hug, with Luna then rising and hugging them both.

“Oh!” said Moondancer, “Before this get all too blubbery, here’s a couple of backstage passes for our next show. Hope you can make it.”

Twilight took the tickets, and then realised that she wasn’t wearing any clothes and had nowhere to put them. She ended up putting them on the table, next to a pile of books covered in flakes of masonry.

Luna opened a portal that led to what appeared to be the living room of a large shared house, complete with discarded musical instruments, laundry on the radiators, and partially uneaten food on the table.

“Hope that my housemates aren’t hogging the shower again. See you later, Twily, Princess.”

Moondancer waved goodbye before stepping into the portal, carrying her pack and the rest of her clothes. Twilight heard the first portion of a brief exchange between Moondancer and one of her housemates, before the portal closed behind her.

“She stole a couple of books from the library, didn’t she?” said Twilight, still staring at the space where the portal had been.

“Yes,” said Princess Luna, “Yes, she did.”

“Darn it.”

Luna hugged Twilight.

“That was fun. Thank you, Twily.”

“It was fun for me too. Still, I’ve got to ask: ‘Entice’?”

“Hey, when Moon Reader blew my story open, I had to come up with something in a hurry. I think she was quite fun.”

“She was very fun. She was also completely invulnerable, and was able to cast spells at grandmaster level, and beyond, in at least five schools of magic. A little unlikely, don’t you think? A normal succubi would be too weak to raise her head after being sealed up for a thousand years.”

Luna shrugged, “You bought it, love. That’s all that matters. Maybe we can try it again next year, and give Nightmare Moon another chance to come out and play.”

“I can’t tell if you’re joking or not. Do you really want to do this again next year? Did you really like it?”

“I really did.”

“Good. Happy Birthday, Luny.”

“So, did you learn anything from your experience?”

“Hmm. ‘Dear Princess Luna, today I learned that my fears of being turned down by Moondancer prevented me from learning so much about so many things, and stopped me from making a good friend. Oh, and I also learned that while I prefer being tied up, tying up other people can be fun too.’”

“Very nice. We may have to explore that second bit in more detail, later.”

“I’m looking forward to it. In fact, I don’t have to be back in Ponyville until this evening. Why don’t I help you patch up some of the holes I made in the walls, and then I can have another ‘showdown’ with Entice before heading home?”

“Sounds like a great idea, Twily. I’ll join you shortly for the tidy-up, but there’s something I need to do first.”

“What’s that?”

“I need to see Moon Reader. I hadn’t realised that he was still here, still loyal after all those years, and after all I had done. I need to see if I can help him, finally, rest in peace.”

The Confession

Exhausted as much by adrenaline as the actual tower climbing they had done, Twilight and Moondancer decided to take a break in the orchard. With a little exploration Twilight had found some pear trees that had some edible fruit, and Moondancer had found a small stream bed. The summer heat had turned the brook into a trickle, but there was enough water for them both to freshen up after their recent diversions.

Supplementing their rations with fruit, the girls ate their supper. The peaceful surroundings made things feel positively civilised, and Twilight was happy that they were both once more fully dressed. Once the meal was finished, Twilight sat cross-legged under a tree, her map open in front of her, and engaged 'lecture mode'.

"I've been thinking about why the castle would be abandoned, and have identified a few possibilities. In order of likelihood, they are: A) Disease, B) Environmental Changes, C) A Terrible Curse, D) Political Intervention, and E) Invasion– oh! And F) Whimsy. In order to identify the most probable cause, we shall have to search for evidence for or against each possibility.

"Normally this would be an impossible task, but the preservation spells on this castle are strong. If there are any written records then they may have survived. We should start with this part of the building here," Twilight pointed to a structure on her map, "which appears to be a library."

"How can you tell?"

“It has big, tall, clear, glass windows that let in lots of light.”

“That doesn’t really prove anything, you know. It could instead be a ballroom, for instance.”

Twilight grinned.

“I could also see an awful lot bookshelves through those big, tall windows– Hey!”

Twilight knocked aside the pear core that Moondancer threw at her. Moondancer stuck her tongue out at Twilight.

"Sorry, couldn’t resist,” said Twilight, “But we should definitely head out to the library first. So many old books..." Twilight had a distant, dreamy look in her eyes. "This is going to be so exciting!"

"You got that right!", said Moondancer, with only a hint of sarcasm.

"Well, I think tomorrow we can inspect the library. We may be able explore the castle grounds as well, if we make good time. We might have to start work on the rest of the castle on Firstday, before we're rescued. We will certainly need to do lots of field trips out here to get to the bottom of things."

"Uh, we're not going to do anything more today?"

"The light is already fading a little. We could miss vital clues if we work in the dark. Anyway, we need to pitch the tents while we still have light. Don't worry, I'll come back. My very first dig site. It's going to be great!"

"Uh, could we at least look around the castle? We might get lucky and find something straight away..."

"What's the urgency? There'll be plenty of time to do the castle later. If you want history credit, you have to do things properly."

Moondancer looked a little panicky. She took a deep breath and sighed. "Okay, Twilight, I have a confession. Another one. I was going to keep quiet about it so you'd enjoy it more, but..."

Twilight looked at Moondancer suspiciously, but kept silent.

"You see," she said, gaining confidence, "You didn't actually agree to come out here and help me out of the goodness of your heart. I asked for help, but you weren't really interested. So, I, uh, changed into some other, er, tighter, clothes and made you an offer."

"Tighter clothes?" Twilight asked, with rising pitch, and rising blush.

"Yeah. I knew you liked me, and I was desperate, so I offered you a deal. You would help me get extra credit for History and I'd, um, help you with some extra-curricular practical biology."

"What?!"

"Uh huh. You kinda turned beet red, but agreed. I need something to show Professor Tablets by the end of the week, or I'm done for. So we agreed that you'd, come out and, uh, cut a few corners. We'd give History and 'Biology' 'equal time'. It had to be out here, you were terrified of others finding out. After hearing you come, I can see why. That's why I've been playing with you. Well, one reason why. You are really cute. And why you're wearing that underwear; you knew you'd be getting lucky."

“What?!” Twilight recoiled, “You mean, you mean– You, we, did that only because I’m paying you? I, I– I need to think.” Twilight struggled to her feet.

“No!” Pleaded Moondancer, “No! Twilight! It’s not like that! I like you! I really do! Please…”

Twilight turned to run through the garden and across the bridge, but drew up short when she reached the great barrier she had raised earlier. Moondancer approached slowly, careful to keep her distance and avoid panicking her. Twilight had her back to her, staring out over the ravine that surrounded the castle.

“Twilight! Please listen to me,” said Moonlight, some desperation coming through in her voice, “It’s not like that. I’ve wanted to– I’ve wanted you since first year, but you were never interested. How many parties did I invite you to? How often did I try?”

Twilight was clutching her sides, and slowly shaking her head.

“Twilight, when I realised what– When I thought of asking you for help, I thought I had an angle. A way to meet you half-way. I thought we’d both want the same things: to study history, and to have a little fun. There were lots of other people I could ask. I could have flirted with Lined Notes; he could have helped me get enough extra credit to pass, and I wouldn’t even have had to share his bed.”

“Moondancer. This is a lot to take in. This is not like me. I can’t believe I agreed to this, this arrangement.”

“Twilight, when you agreed, you told me that you wanted me ever since our first swimming lesson together. Tartarus, I packed a swimsuit and plenty of lube just so you could– No. Twilight. You did agree. You wanted this. You even gave me a list of all the stuff you wanted to try. You said you wanted the thrill. Please believe me.”

“It– It’s true that I first noticed you during that swimming lesson. I never told anyone that. But this just isn’t like me.”

“Twilight, what would it take? You dressed yourself this morning, including those panties, and I’m not the one who shaved your pussy.”

Twilight turned to face Moondancer.

“I gave you a list? Do you still have it?”

“Yes! Yes, it’s in my pack. Hold on.”

Moondancer feverishly rooted around in her backpack, before triumphantly pulling out a long roll of paper. She closed the distance between them to hand it over.

“That’s my handwriting, and, uh, it is the kind of thing I– Um. Wow. I really had the guts to write this? ‘Erotic massage’? ‘Bondage’?! ‘Spanking’?!”

“I did actually warn you that your ‘erotic massage’ would likely end up just being me groping you, with a lot of lube involved. You didn’t actually seem to mind that much.”

“Oh… Moondancer, I’m really sorry I doubted you. But, do you really want to do this? I mean, now that we’re out here, we could just explore the ruins. That would get you your extra credit. No need to, um…”

Moondancer took another step forward, into Twilight’s personal space. Moondancer tentatively reached her arms around Twilight’s waist, and gently pulled her forward until their hips were touching. She looked deep into Twilight’s eyes.

“Twilight, I promise you: if you had actually turned up to any of my parties, I wouldn’t have rested until we had done at least half of that list. You are not getting away from me that easily.”

“Ha ha. I’m doomed, am I?”

“Absolutely. No escape. Is that a problem?”

“Well, there is one problem,” said Twilight, secretly delighting in the slight edge of trepidation in Moondancer’s eyes, “If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it properly.”

“Huh?”

Twilight pulled away from Moondancer to fish quill and ink from her pack.

“Moondancer, don’t you know that half the fun of lists comes from checking the completed items?”

The quill was quickly dipped in the ink, and a big, clear check was placed next to the line that read ‘Fingering’.

“There!” said Twilight, beaming.

Moondancer smiled, shaking her head in bemusement.

“Okay, Twilight. Our original agreement was this: every time we make progress with our exploration, we do something from your list. You okay with that?”

“Sounds good.”

“Great, then let’s get our camp set up. Might as well pitch the tent in the orchard, so we don’t have to lug it around when we explore.”

Moondancer struggled with the tent. Twilight watched. More specifically, she watched Moondancer’s butt.

“I’d help you set up the tent, Moondancer, but I haven’t been camping before, and we can’t find the instructions…” she said, helpfully.

“Ungh, no problem, Twi. I– Grr– I can manage,” said Moondancer, trying to work out which way up it should go. She was on all-fours and Twilight was really enjoying the view, complete with the slight frisson of guilt. She really should be helping…

“–Wait. I’ve only checked one item on this list. Are you telling me that after finding this castle, making it safe, mapping it out, and making a plan, I’ve only earned one item?”

“Twilight, *huf*, I would love to review *unf* the tally and reward you appropriately, really,” said Moondancer, with as little frustrated sarcasm as she could manage, which was admittedly still a great deal, “But I really need to get this blasted tent set up. I promise, once that's done, I’ll be only too happy to fuck your brains out, or whatever.”

Moondancer fell back in surprise when a lilac glow surrounded the tent. The tent righted itself in a blur, the guy ropes shot out and anchored themselves to tree roots, or were pegged to the ground. The tent inflated with a snap, and the tent poles flew in to support the canopy. The bedrolls followed fast behind. Moondancer blinked; it had all taken a few seconds.

“Wow,” Moondancer turned to smirk at Twilight’s nervous grin, “Eager, much?”

Twilight just blushed.

“Well, that saved some time. And I do owe you something for our progress so far.”

Moondancer stood tall and casually undid the band that held her hair in its ponytail. The band was casually tossed to land near her pack, the bandana following after. With a shake of her head, her long red hair floated free. She met Twilight’s eyes and grinned.

“I don’t know about you, but it’s been a long day, and the sun’s pretty warm. I think I need to cool down a little.”

Moondancer slipped out of the jacket and let it drop to the ground. She gripped the hem of her t-shirt with both hands. Twilight nervously bit her lip, her eyes fixed on Moondancer. With agonising slowness, Moondancer pulled up the shirt, exposing a toned midriff and then a balconette bra that was as scandalously red as her panties. Soon the shirt, too, was added to the pile of discarded clothes.

“Liking the show so far– No, no, Twilight, don’t turn away. This is for you, after all.”

Twilight’s blush was bright, her hands flexed nervously, and she didn’t know where to look. Moondancer grinned wickedly, clearly enjoying Twilight’s excitement and unease.

It is hard to remove boots sexily, so Moondancer settled for deftly untying both sets of boot laces, and removing both boots and socks telekinetically. Twilight admired skilled use of magic, after all. The jeans came down slowly, pulled down by Moondancer’s magic. She gyrated her hips, with arms akimbo, as they fell.

It seemed to take forever for Moondancer’s cutiemark to show itself. The silver-crescent-moon-draped-with-red-silk cutiemark had haunted Twilight’s fantasies since that first swimming lesson. Twilight had suffered many a long night fantasising outlandish scenarios where she could get to see it up close. Twilight yearned to be that silk.

Moondancer stepped out of the jeans when they reached the grass, and kicked them aside. She was now only wearing the bra and panties.

“Twilight, could you help me with my undies, please?” she asked Twilight.

Twilight jerked her head back with surprise, but nodded. She nervously tried to walk around Moondancer to reach the bra strap, but Moondancer stopped her.

“Nope, sorry Twilight. You’re going to have to reach around.”

Blushing furiously, Twilight reached both arms around Moondancer and fumbled for the catch, her face held uncomfortably (and delightfully) close to Moondancer’s breasts. She quickly released the bra strap and stood back. Moondancer dropped it on top of the growing pile, letting her breasts free.

“Ah, that’s better. Thanks Twilight. The panties, now, please. Ah ah ah! Not with your hands. Or your magic. You may use your teeth…”

Twilight’s blush was the same colour as Moondancer’s panties. Her fantasies had never been this good.

“Keep trying… *Oooh* Nearly there… That’s good… There you go! Good job!”

Twilight slowly worked the panties down, getting an excellent view of Moondancer’s cutiemark, landing strip, and her excitement.

“Good girl. Now, I’m going to have a little lie-down. If you want to lie-down with me, do take your clothes off first.”

Moondancer knelt down onto all fours, and turned away from Twilight, to crawl into the tent. Twilight’s heart thudded at the sight Moondancer presented of herself. Twilight mentally calculated how long it would take to remove all the clothes she was wearing, and groaned.

“Twilight,” called Moondancer from inside the tent, “do hurry, or I might get started without you…”

Twilight blinked. She teleported out of her clothes, boots and all, and eagerly crawled inside. Her clothes hung suspended in the air for a microsecond before collapsing into a pile next to Moondancer’s.

Twilight Sparkle and Moondancer dressed silently, casting subdued glances to each other. Twilight awkwardly did a re-inventory of the items in her pack, and tried to arrange them neatly while she waited for Moondancer to get ready.

“Let’s check out the library,” said Twilight, “There’s still some light.”

“Okay.”

They walked through the garden to the great castle doors in uncomfortable silence. Twilight pushed open the rotting remains of the doors with her magic and peered into the dimly lit foyer. She entered cautiously, while Moondancer stood back, chewing her lip.

Twilight turned back to Moondancer to say something, but caught herself.

Moondancer had been absently staring at her butt, but blinked and raised her eyes to Twilight’s face, startled.

“Nevermind,” said Twilight.

“What?”

“Nevermind.”

“No, what?”

“Urgh. I was just going to say that it looks safe, but you really didn’t look too worried, so nevermind.”

“Twilight, I’m thorry–”

“No, really. It’s fine. I’ve been thinking things through: this will go a lot quicker if we skips this stupid ‘reward sex’ business. With no distractions to slow us down, you’ll get your ‘A’ easily by the time we’re rescued.”

Moondancer took a step back, alarmed.

“Twilight, no–”

“Moondancer. It was a stupid idea, as we have amply proven. Don’t worry, we’ll get you your ‘A’ and never speak of our stupid agreement again. Okay?”

“No! It’th not thtupid. We are doing thith!”

“It is stupid. Childish. I’m sorry! Alright? I’m sorry. It’s my fault. I shouldn’t have made this idiotic deal–”

“No! It’th my fault! I wath puthing too hard–”

Twilight smirked, and then look chagrined.

“Argh,” said Moondancer, and then held up an arresting finger. She shucked off her pack and quickly got out the White Fire balm. Moondancer took a deep breath.

“Moondancer, no. Please, it’s my fault! I’m sorry. I should have…”

Moondancer glared at Twilight and then put some of the balm in her mouth. Twilight winced in sympathy. Moondancer yelled in pain.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck, that hurt! Owwwwwww!”

“Moondancer–”

Moondancer held up a blocking hand to quiet Twilight, and took a deep breath before gracefully rising back to her feet.

“No. Twilight. No. I did not just stick White Fire Balm in my mouth just to hear you apologise. Listen.”

Twilight swallowed and hugged herself, but didn’t speak.

“Twilight, do NOT apologise. You did nothing wrong. We ARE going to spend equal time– No, fuck that. We are going to have SEX. We are going to have lots of sex. Twilight, not everything that people do in bed works. Please believe me. We tried something. It didn’t work. That means we need to try something else. We are NOT just going to give up because you don’t like oral sex. Forget my bloody history grade. This is more important.”

“Moondancer, you tried. You really really tried. You tried to give me cunnilingus for so long that your tongue got a lisp. I just don’t think that I’m, you know, sexual like that. It’s okay. I don’t mind. I love my books, and learning stuff, and–”

“Don’t give me that. You were sexual enough on the wall. We just need to find what turns you on, that’s all.”

“But–”

“No buts. Twilight, you told me you were really looking forward to this trip. If it turns out that the only thing that makes you come is being fingered while you map a ruin from on top of a crumbling wall, then I promise you that is what we’ll do.”

Twilight stifled a giggle.

“No, I’m serious,” said a broadly grinning Moondancer, “You find something I can put in a report, we’ll tear up the map, climb up the nearest pile of rocks, and you can map the place all over again. We’ll do it however many times you like! Although I may try to persuade you to make your map while standing on a small rock or something; climbing that tower did a number on my jeans.”

Twilight couldn’t hide her giggles now.

“Thanks, Moondancer, but mapping doesn’t really turn me on. Well, um, not that much anyway.”

“Promise still stands, Twilight. We’ll find out what it takes. Come on, let’s find that library. We’re wasting light.”

The Confrontation

“Twilight! It’s simply wonderful to see you! Oh, but where are my manners? It’s rather draughty here. Let me close the door.”

Entice clicked her talons. The door behind her slammed shut.

“And the window.”

A gesture, and a deep blue shield appeared to block the hole in the ceiling. There was no way that a shield that thick could be breached by anything less than heavy siege equipment. Even the wand would likely not be enough, and it was in Moondancer’s pack anyway. Twilight took a step backwards, alarmed that her escape route was gone so quickly.

“Now, would you like a drink before I punish you for running off, and leaving me all alone?”

Setting her shoulders, Twilight took a deep breath and raised her head to meet Entice’s burning eyes.

“Hello, Entice. I don’t need a drink, thank you. You may kneel, though, while I decide what to do with you.”

Entice roared with laughter that shook the room, nearly deafening Twilight.

“Kneel? Twilight, I think the excitement has gotten to your head. Have you forgotten who is in control here?”

Entice closed the distance between them with shocking swiftness until she was towering over Twilight. Twilight didn’t flinch.

“Twilight, I’m considerably older than you, more powerful, and more knowledgeable; I’m better, faster, stronger than you in every conceivable way. You don’t even have any magic. Now, you may kiss my feet, and I may be feeling generous enough to forgive your hubris. Maybe.”

Twilight smiled up at Entice.

“Oh, I know who’s in charge here, Entice,” she turned her back to the demon, looking around the room, “This is a nice place. Been your room for a long time?”

“Don’t push it, Twilight…” growled Entice.

“Oh? And what will you do? Kill me? I doubt it. Hurt me?” Twilight walked past her, trailing a finger along one of Entice’s smooth talons, “I don’t think so. You need me. You see, you’re not the only immortal who likes me. I know Princess Celestia.”

“Celestia!” spat Entice. She dropped to the floor, and span to face Twilight again.

“I’m her personal student,” Twilight grinned, stepping close to Entice, staring deep in her eyes, “She’ll be looking for me, in a couple of days. She knows about this place. She’ll know about you. And when she comes, what will she find? She finds me hurt, finds me dead, broken, ensorcelled? You’ll wish you were trapped in this dingy little room for another thousand lonely years. Have you ever seen her angry? I haven’t, but there are stories in the history books. Her wrath is legendary.”

Entice stepped back a half-step. Twilight moved foward to match.

“I don’t think you want that. But there is another option,” Twilight’s fingers traced the contours of Entice’s unresisting body, “She comes here and find her favourite student happy, healthy, and of clear mind? There’s only one person in Equestria who can free you from here, Entice. Only one goddess who can break the seal that binds you, and send you home. And if I ask her nicely…”

Entice let out a puff of hot, cinnamon-scented breath, but didn’t take her eyes from Twilight.

“So, here’s how it is going to go. You’re going to give me my magic back. You’re going to answer all my questions. You’re going to run and fetch at my command. And if you’re very, very, obedient, I might let you feed a little, while we wait. Maybe,” Twilight smiled tightly up at the succubus, “Until then, though? Kneel.”

The blazing fury in Entice’s eyes bored into Twilight’s soul, but Twilight held her gaze. A bead of sweat formed on Twilight’s forehead. Entice cocked her head to one side, and smiled, showing several arrays of pointed teeth. Her chuckle was warm, rich, and embracing.

“Oh, Twilight. You almost had me,” she said, shaking her head, “You really are very convincing. But you forget: I knew Celestia, before her sister fell. Yes, she took students, and you clearly have what it takes, but Twilight, Twilight… She doesn’t like bad girls. Her favourites don’t run away to mysterious castles without telling anyone where they’re going. Her favourites don’t cause wanton destruction wherever they go. Her students don’t treat their girlfriends like this–”

Entice snapped her talons, and Twilight’s pack appeared in her hand. She reached inside and pulled out the recording pyramid. It treacherously showed Twilight throwing Moondancer onto Princess Luna’s bed. Twilight teleporting off Moondancer’s clothing. Twilight biting Moondancer’s ear…

“–no, Twilight. I don’t think Princess Celestia is coming to save you.”

“But it’s true!”

“Hmm, she might have changed, but no, probably not. What to do? What to do?” Entice tapped a talon to her teeth, producing a clicking noise loud in the quiet of the room, “I know. You may have noticed I like to gamble on occasion, Twilight. When the odds are in my favour, of course. But I’m true to my word. So how about it? Fancy a roll of the dice?”

Twilight had backed away from Entice, looking around the room for a weapon.

“Well, Twilight? Do you like to gamble?”

“What do you have in mind? Give me back my magic, and a head start, see if I can make it out of here?” asked Twilight hopefully.

“Ha ha, no, not this time. No, I have something else in mind. I get my ten minutes to play with you. If you manage to last ten minutes without feeding me, I’ll play along and pretend everything you said is true. I’ll be your properly obsequious servant, absolutely obedient to your whims,” Entice turned sideways to Twilight and stretched languorously, wings flared, showing off her exciting, dark, profile, “If you fail to hold out, though, then we agree that you are my naughty little student, and that you need to be punished,” she turned her head turned to look at Twilight, “How about it?”

Twilight looked around, but couldn’t see a way out. There were no weapons in the chamber; Entice had no need of them. Her heart was hammering in her chest. She was already feeling the start of the warm heat between her legs. Losing might not be all that bad…

“Okay.” said Twilight.

“What’s in the chest?” asked Twilight, backing away from Entice’s glowing grin.

“Relax, Twilight. My bed, the chest, its contents, they’re all for punishing naughty girls. You’re not a naughty girl, are you? You’re not going to fail, after all. And if you don’t fail, you’ll never need to know what toys I have waiting for you, or what they do…”

The first feeling of warm, wet, need flowed down Twilight’s spine, accumulating between her legs. She kept backing further away, but took care to stay clear of the bed.

“Now, now. The clock doesn’t start until I say it does, so stand still. We’re both going to enjoy this.”

Twilight had tried circling around the table, keeping it between Entice and herself. Entice dealt with that strategy with ease, pushing the table up against the remaining bookshelves. With that last strategy gone, Twilight found her back to the wall, nowhere to turn. Entice loomed over her, knowing smile under hungry eyes.

Twilight acceded to the inevitable, and stepped forward, hands at her sides, and closed her eyes. Nothing happened. Twilight opened her eyes a peek.

Entice had been waiting for her attention. Her claws seemed to leave a silver trace in the air behind them as they flashed in the light. Tatters of fabric fell to the floor. Twilight’s shirt was cut open from neck to navel. Twilight gasped, and tried to hold the flapping ends together to maintain her modesty. A portion of the centre section was gone and the ends didn’t quite meet.

The next cut was just as quick, cutting through both padded jacket and tank-top sleeves on Twilight’s left arm. Twilight reflexively jerked that arm away, exposing her right arm for Entice to shred the clothing protecting that side. For all her speed and power, Entice’s claws hadn’t even touched Twilight’s skin.

“Let it go, Twilight. If you win, I’ll clothe you in silks and furs that would befit a Princess. If you lose, you won’t need clothing again.”

Twilight shook her head, and didn’t let go of the remains of her tops. Entice smiled.

Reaching forward, she gently hooked a talon under the belt-line of Twilight’s panties. The talon drifted down her leg, the denim of the shorts shearing with almost no resistance in a long *rrrrriiiiipp*. Again Twilight twisted away, again it merely exposed her other side to a similar attack. Soon the remains of her shorts and underwear were only held in place by her clenched legs.

Entice tenderly took one of Twilight’s hands, and turned it so that the wrist faced her. She ran a claw down the inside of her arm, tickling her skin without scratching it. The claw ran down Twilight’s wrist, to her hand, and cut through the fingerless glove. Entice hooked a claw into the glove and pulled what was left of it off Twilight’s hand and let it drop to the floor.

The other hand was taken, the other glove removed. Without her hands to hold it in place, Twilight’s top fell to the floor. Twilight clutched her hands to shield her breasts. Entice knelt at her feet. Twilight didn’t pull away fast enough to stop her from catching a foot. Again, the razor-sharp claws did their work, and both boot and sock were cut through with ease, and fell to join the growing pile of destroyed clothes. The other boot fared no better and Twilight was now entirely naked except for the tatters of cloth between her legs. The increasingly soaked cloth between Twilight’s legs.

“There, isn’t that better? Don’t worry if you’re feeling cold, I’ll warm you right up.”

Entice’s wide leer was enough to make Twilight take a step backwards, letting the last remains of her clothes to drift onto the rest of the shreds.

Entice’s hands moved, too fast for Twilight to see. The succubus scooped up Twilight in one arm and carried her to a space near the bed. One of Twilight’s hands was lifted high in the air, and a padded manacle hanging from the ceiling snapped around it. Twilight tugged futilely at the chain, but Entice didn’t give her much time to test its strength before the other arm was manacled as well. Her legs followed soon after.

Twilight stood spreadeagled, defiant, and very aroused.

Entice leaned in and whispered into her ear, “My ten minutes start now.”

“What?!”

Entice laughed.

“My game, my rules, and I can’t let you just stall for time.”

Twilight’s eyes flicked to the door. Entice caught the glance.

“Waiting for your friend to somehow rescue you? That should be amusing.”

No, thought Twilight, Moondancer has had plenty of time to seal the door. I’ve already won. I just need to play along until Princess Celestia rescues me.

“Nothing to say? Don’t worry, you’ll see little Moondancer soon. When I know that you’re mine, I’ll send you out to recapture her. I like you so much, I’ll even give her to you to play with.”

Twilight blinked.

“Let’s get started, shall we?”

Entice clearly knew what Twilight liked, from the feeling of helpless exposure, the casual displays of power, the chains… Twilight tried to pull her leg away when Entice ran her hand up it, but the chains held easily. The hand flowed around Twilight’s side, descended to her bum, and squeezed.

The succubus leaned in, and licked Twilight’s neck in one long movement. Hot breath down her back as the demon pressed close. Entice embraced Twilight, pressing their bodies together, sharing a growing heat, and then stepped back.

“Now, I looked through your pack, I hope you don’t mind, and I found a real toy. Not that silly stick of yours.”

Entice had found the dildo. Unlike the wand, it was the perfect shape and size to get Twilight going. Entice had even lubricated and warmed it beforehand, not that either action was needed with the heat and fluid coming from Twilight.

The dildo slipped into Twilight’s pussy with little resistance, and Entice began to move it back and forth with confidence. Twilight drew a deep breath, but didn’t respond otherwise.

Entice was clearly in tune with Twilight’s arousal, and tried to vary the frequency of the dildo to bring Twilight to a fast and needed orgasm. It took her a couple of minutes to realise that it wasn’t working. Twilight was resisting her, and her ardour was fading.

“Come on, Twilight. You know that you’re a bad girl. Don’t fight me. You know you want to come. You’ll love what I’ve got in store for you…”

“Sorry,” gasped Twilight, “Got a headache.”

Entice cast a diagnostic spell.

“Liar. Very well, if you want more, I shall provide more.”

Entice removed the dildo and stood. Twilight’s loins ached for the missing dildo, but she said nothing. Entice casually tossed the dildo behind her and placed her hands on either side of Twilight’s head.

“Luna wasn’t just the mistress of shadows, she was the mistress of dreams. Let me show you a combination of the magics, and make your fantasies come alive!”

A new light appeared in the room, as bright and rosy as the dawn. Moondancer stepped out of the shadows, wearing a swimming suit. She grinned wickedly at Twilight, and approached. Entice stood aside and let her work.

Moondancer leaned in and nibbled on the nipple on one of her breasts. Twilight groaned.

“B– big deal. So I fancy my friend. So what? Your shadow isn’t very convincing–” Twilight couldn’t finish when the shadow Moondancer’s hand dropped to her slit and teased its way in.

“Oh, there’s more where she came from, Twilight. Many, many more.”

Another light, another shadow. Tall, masculine, an aerial built for flying, lithe and muscular. Long purple hair, a wide, innocent smile. He was naked, and ready for action. Twilight was shocked.

“Guard Amethyst Flight! I– I never told anyone–”

Amethyst didn’t hesitate, walking around Twilight. The shadow Moondancer’s hand started moving faster, her hungry mouth moving freely over Twilight’s body, kissing and nipping, just the way Twilight had fantasised so many times. The aerial stood directly behind Twilight and pressed forward. Twilight felt his slick erection press against her, find a groove, slide into position, strong hands on her waist, he pushed in–

Twilight nearly came right there. She cried out loud, bucked her hips, but didn’t come. Her two lovers moved in synchrony, holding, kissing, caressing. Twilight’s senses swam, but she held on.

A rosy glow caught her eye, and Princess Cadance stepped out. She was naked. Where shadow Moondancer was excited, and Amethyst Flight was stoic, Cadance was smiling serenely. She was holding up a hairbrush in one hand.

“You’re a very naughty girl, Twilight. What have you been doing with this hairbrush? You’re going to have to show me, so I can punish you properly. You’re going to get spanked, young lady.”

Twilight trembled, and then raised her head defiantly.

“No.”

“Hmm?” asked shadow Moondancer, curling her fingers to just barely touch a spot that made Twilight whimper.

“N– No. I’m not going to give in.”

“Are you sure,” whispered Amethyst Wings in her ear, timing it to coincide with another thrust.

“I– I’m sure. If I give in, I’ll be betraying Moondancer. The real Moondancer. I’m not going to do it.”

“Argh” growled Entice with frustration. She waved a talon and the three shadows disappeared.

“I’ve still got three minutes. I’m not done yet, Twilight.”

Entice said a command word, and the manacles on Twilight’s wrists and ankles sprang open. Twilight staggered forward, her weight no longer taken by the chains, but Entice caught her with one arm. Twilight pulled away and stood tall and proud, opposite Entice.

“I detest the lack of subtlety, but you leave me no choice. Let’s see how you–”

Entice didn’t get to finish her speech. The real Moondancer leaped through the doors, smoothly levelling the siege wand at the succubus. She sprinted down the length of the room, and was almost halfway when the a blast of silver light finally shot from the wand and struck the demoness.

Entice had turned to face the intruder, and the blast struck her full in the chest. She flew back against the wall with a thud, and then fell forward onto the bed. Moondancer reached the stunned Twilight, grabbed her wrist, and dragged her towards the door.

Twilight was quick to recover. She snatched the pyramid on the way past, and sped on to the door, keeping pace with Moondancer.

Entice struggled up, only to be grappled by the chains on the bed.

“LET ME GO, YOU STUPID BED!”

Entice ripped one of the chains from the bed, the sound of the woodwork splintering filling the room. Twilight didn’t look back. They were nearly at the door when the next chain was wrenched free with a loud retort.

Ploughing through the door, she gripped on the right hand door and slammed it shut, Moondancer doing the same with the other side. Twilight leaned against the doors in desperation, watching as Moondancer hurriedly pulled out the wax seal from her pack.

They could both clearly hear the sound of the last two chains shattering in quick succession.

“Get back here, Twilight!” roared Entice.

Moondancer slapped the seal on the door. It flared with silver light, and a tracework of magical lines flowed across the door. Twilight gasped with relief and pushed herself to her feet.

The boom when Entice collided with the doors sounded like thunder, but the seal held. Twilight and Moondancer stepped back, staring at the door. Another BOOM, but the seal didn’t give. Entice pounded on it in a cacophonic fury. The seal stayed strong.

“TWILIGHT!” shouted Entice from behind the doors, “Come back!”

“Sorry, Entice,” whispered Twilight, before turning down the corridor that started a long path to the surface, Moondancer by her side.

“Please!”

Twilight didn’t look back. The sound of the hammering on the doors faded behind them.