Moondancer

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.