There were a few types of parties in the Castle Blood Moon. The most basic ones were sleepovers, usually organized by Sparkla. Those happened almost every night and took place in one of the spacious rooms of the castle.

Vampire youth, as well as their human allies and even some other kin from Rebellion, gathered and discussed the latest news and gossips, especially about recent Patriarchy actions. In addition, they exposed social injustices in their own lands and made suggestions about improving life in neighboring villages – how to increase the percentage of women among hunters and other jobs with high social status, how to make people of darker skin color be more prevalent in various positions of power.

At first, Twilight was very excited about such discussions. She even introduced some “equity and diversity” projects of her own. But then she had quickly run out of ideas. And, to be honest, others were out of original ideas too. As time passed, Twilight found out that new speeches and discussions were revolving around the same topics and new projects were essentially the old ones, just with non-essential additions and described in different terminology.

This discovery dampened mare’s enthusiasm quite a bit. She decided to cut back on disputes and during sleepovers spend more time reading books and studying spells in the corner of the room. Sparkla didn’t mind. After all, defeating Patriarchy and creating a society where everyone was absolutely equal in a chance to get a job and ability was impossible without strong magic and complex spells. And there were still many speakers remaining to keep vampire princess entertained as a host.

They-Gay had hosted parties too. Those happened only once a week but had a lot more people attending them. To accommodate everyone, activities usually took place outdoors, on the castle’s grounds.

There was much larger and diverse entertainment program – artists and craft-masters were welcome to show their finest works, especially if they were praising Rebellion’s cause, proficient warriors and mages demonstrated their skills and even competed with one another. They-Gay themself participated in some events, making guests amused both with their impressive fighting techniques and a stand-up comedy numbers, not always funny but still very passionate and engaging and, most importantly, always safe and inclusive. Though you couldn’t expect anything less from “the beacon of hope” for the whole Great Rebellion.

Most of all, Twilight herself wanted to witness a Martial Arts Tournament, like the one she saw in the holo-recording the other day. Sadly this event was held only once a few months and she had to wait. However, They-Gay organized a few training sessions were fellow battle mages taught alicorn pony some basics of combat magic. And later they even had a smaller tournament for magic users only. As an extra surprise, They-Gay had signed up Twilight as one of the competitors.

Alicorn had bested two of her opponents but lost the third duel. She really hoped that no one noticed she did that on purpose – it was too much anxiety for her to even be in the ring, totally newcomer in combat magic, with over a hundred spectators.

Actually, that was the only thing she didn’t like about They-Gay’s parties. As cheerful and sociable as they were, They-Gay always pulled her into some activity or contest. Even if Twilight had some interesting spell or chapter in the book to study, they always dragged her out of the room and on the stage.

The only reason she allowed such an attitude to continue was that usually after all the distraction she indeed felt her spirit on the rise. When the festivities were at their end and people around her were resting on the grass before finally leaving, pony sometimes even had a feeling like she was home. Had she similar parties in her own world too? Could be someone there who also ‘forced’ her to have fun?

The third type of party that Twilight encountered was Queen Angelica's. And pony was infinitely glad that those weren’t the ones she was dragged into. In fact, the only time Twilight stumbled upon one was when she was looking for Sparkla, wandering in the labyrinth of Castle Blood Moon dungeons.

After entering one of the heavy wooden doors Twilight didn’t even understand at first what she came upon. There was a semitransparent folding cloth screen in front of her that shielded the most of the hall further on. From behind it she heard moaning, the kind of people make of pleasure, especially of the carnal kind. At least, that was her first guess. She even discerned numerous silhouettes of naked bodies, male and female alike. And with her cheeks reddened she was going to leave this… attraction.

But then she had heard a snap of a whip and another moan, this time one of pain (or at least Twilight thought it was) made pony freeze in place. What kind of orgy was that?! As thoughts were rushing through pony’s mind, she started to hear more subtle sounds – chains rattling, ropes creaking, some bleating of a person that was gagged, a splash of unknown liquid spilled. There was more whip snapping too. And other sounds that she wasn’t able to guess, or more importantly didn’t want to guess. Now, the pony wasn’t even sure if moaning was one of pain or pleasure.

Twilight didn’t know how much time had passed as she was standing in front of this deeply unsettling spectacle but she finally got a grip on herself. As pony now was able to move, she was going to leave this place immediately. But at this very moment, two sections of the screen went aside and another person entered from that side. This person was no one other but Queen Angelica.

“Oh, I was wondering who was standing here,” she said in a sticky-sweet tone. “Welcome.”

The only clothes on her were black knee-high high-heel boots and a leather bikini bottoms with something attached to them, that at first Twilight had mistaken for a large baton. Nothing else. Queen’s long almost black with the only tint of purple hair was flowing down unbridled. And her large gorgeous breasts, the only two things that violated traditionally perfect proportions of a tall fit body, were freely swinging in time with her hips as she made her steps towards Twilight.

The ‘baton’ was swinging too because it wasn’t attached to the bottoms’ side but to the front. Twilight realized now what it was. After all, princess Sparkla gave her a book about various sexual practices as a part of ‘exploring sexuality’. However, pony never imagined that strap-on dildo could be that big. How it would fit… well, anything human? Or pony…

The one thought that she’ll have to participate in something like this, made Twilight weak in her knees. She stumbled and instead of going to the door bumped at the wall. She hit some instruments hanging there. Instruments?

Pony quickly turned her eyes to the things she just touched. And couldn’t take her gaze from them. Various blades, ropes tied into complex knots, gags, lots of stuff she couldn’t begin to imagine the purpose of… and several more strap-on dildos, some looked even bigger than Angelica’s.

Suddenly, one of the dildos that pony just touched, made a click and dozens of spikes came out of its ‘head’, so it started to look like a battle mace. Mare’s eyes widened in shock and she turned to the Queen, unable to do anything but to stare at her with dazzled expression.

“He-he,” Queen giggled as she perfectly understood what question took over the shocked pony. “You see,” she bent a little towards Twilight and lowered voice into a conspirator whisper.” Some boys like it rough.”

And then she made a thrusting motion with her hips, making her strap-on go up and forward. There was still some distance between Angelica and Twilight, but pony felt like the dildo is going to hit her on the nose. Luckily that didn’t happen or pony would faint for sure.

“Oh, here you are!” exclaimed Sparkla, nearly making pony jump. She appeared at Twilight’s side without her noticing.

“Oh, my Sparkle!” exclaimed Angelica. “Do you and your pony wish to join us?”

And for the longest moment in her life (at least the life alicorn could remember) Twilight’s heart stopped as she wondered if her princess will accept the offer as another opportunity to “explore sexuality”.

“Oh, sorry mom,” quickly replied Sparkla. “We are just too busy.” She grabbed pony in a hasty hug and pulled towards the door. Twilight trotted along and tried not to fall as she could barely control her legs. “And I’m afraid my Horsey isn’t ready for such... intense experience.”

In a few moments they were out of the chamber and as the massive door was closing, another whip crack and a moan came from somewhere beyond the wooden screen.

“I have some business to attend too,” they heard Angelica deep voice before the door was shut completely.

This all was before Twilight got her name and before she started to really object Sparkla’s petting. And yet, that night vampire princess haven’t as much as touch her ‘horsey’ and left pony alone. Pony being quite thankful for that.

Later Twilight was pondering if Sparkla’s hasty retreat from her mother’s chamber showed that the princess was actually caring and aware of the pony’s emotions. Or was it just motivated by a selfish desire not to share her pet with anyone else? Was Sparkla disturbed by her mother’s antics too? Or vampire princess’ lust and urges towards her four-hoofed companion were inherited from that woman?

The only thing Twilight was sure of, she didn’t want to participate in such ‘party’, regardless on what side of spiked mace strap-on she would be. And she would try to avoid Queen Angelica’s chambers at all costs.

That’s why when Sparkla’s butler Bow came and brought to Twilight a personal invitation from the Queen to become a guest at Castle Blood Moon Royal Gala, she became quite agitated. What if this was going to be another BDSM orgy?

“No, no, no,” assured her Bow. “It all be quite civil. Royal Gala is actually a very official business. Princesses, tribe chiefs, and other royalty will be invited to the castle from all over Edenia. Or at least from the parts of the planet that aren’t under the Patriarchy.”

“Why?” suddenly asked Twilight. “Are there no royalty in Patriarchy?”

“Well, there are of course,” answered Bow with a baffled expression on his face. “But they are enemies, you know.”

“But do they need to be?” explained Twilight. “Sure, white men at the top will never abandon their privilege but there are those who are at the bottom, those who are oppressed.”

“Remember that dark thrall that nearly bitten off Sparkla’s head?” Twilight asked Bow because he was the ‘adult supervisor’ that she ended up with while re-watching the battle holo-recording.

This was kind of funny, considering that he was younger than Spakla but as a human looked his age of almost thirty, while her appearance was still of a teenager. Butler also made a lot of comments during the playback of the battle and, to Twilight’s surprise, demonstrated quite some knowledge in tactics and general insight into many details.

Vampire princess missed her final death by a hair – at the last moment, They-Gay threw their hammer and hit the monster at the back of its head, making the beast to open its jaws and free girl’s head that was almost separated from the body. Together with other warriors and arrived reinforcements they were able to finally make Patriarchy forces flee. However, Sparkla herself was out of commission for several hours. Daylight profoundly reduced her regeneration, and it took her a lot of time before she could even speak.

“If not for They-Gay and their reinforcement, that thing could wipe out the entire squad. Or even larger force. Imagine if we could turn it to our side!” Twilight continued.

“This creature must be intelligent. Sure we can communicate and show that being equal among equals is better than being a slave sent to the battle by a bunch of white dudes, who don’t care,” she made a pause to collect her thoughts. “We have designed so many programs to ensure equity. We could make another one specifically for that creature. Or even better, make it join the ones existing. For example, it could join the one that ensures the equality of black people. After all, this creature has dark skin or carapace or whatever.”

“Excuse me, my Twilight,” Bow interrupted her. “I think you misunderstood the idea. Simply having dark skin doesn’t make you black.”

“It doesn’t? Why?”

“Well. It’s complicated. You better consult Doctrina about human race oppression dynamics and historical injustices across the dimensions topics. ”

“Ugh!” Twilight made a sigh of pain and suffering. “Why there are always some complications come up that no one even mentions beforehand?!”

“Also, if you must know,” Bow took that complaint to heart. “There were actually a few attempts of negotiations with the Patriarchy. And all of them failed. I know, because my mother participated in one of them.”

“You have a mother?” exclaimed Twilight in surprise. “Oh, sorry. Of course, you have. That was silly.” she tried to make an excuse. “It’s just you never mentioned her. You only talk about your gay dads.”

“Yes, I don’t usually talk about my biological parents. Especially around other LGBTIQCAPGNGFNBA folk, as that could remind them that same-sex couples can’t have children without adoption or magic. That wouldn’t be very supportive for LGBTIQCAPGNGFNBA cause,” explained Bow. Judging by his calm and friendly tone he wasn’t mad at pony at all. “But I guess with you it would be fine to talk about them. My mother and father died when I was very little. It happened when standing against the Patriarchy turned in all-out war. And they were two among scores of first victims.”

Twilight wanted to express her condolences but didn’t know what to say. And a second later Bow continued.

“Actually, my adoptive dads took more than a dozen of the war orphans to their home and, just like me, raised all as their own children.”

“Wow! That was such a great act of bravery and kindness,” this time Twilight didn’t have to search for words. “And they managed to raise you such a dignified person.” She made a pause. “Honestly, I think that the story of how they adopted you and other kids would only help to make people more accepting of same-sex couples as parents.”

“It may be so for some,” Bow shook his head. “But for others just a reminder of the war and that in less dire circumstances I would be raised by a straight couple.” He made a long sigh. “Look, it’s all complicated. Because…” Butler stopped, thinking of how to better end this conversation.

“Because, even if you’re a man that loves another man, that doesn’t make you LGBT – ik – ap-…” Twilight stumbled while pronouncing the acronym as she saw Bow’s eyes widen in a shocked expression.

He stretched his hand, dipping his fingers in Twilight’s mane.

“Oh, my!” he exclaimed and gently tousled pony’s hair. His face became content again and he smiled in approval. “Twilight, one day you will become a great Warrior of Social Justice.”

Author's Note

This chapter is dedicated to “Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance” Episode 8, that I’ve watched recently. As well as all other shows that have same-sex couples that are having kids without explaining how.