“Right, well I’ll go and prepare the ritual for copying the key to the static portal. Be back in a bit.” I said as we entered the main hall. I proceeded to enter a small room adjacent to the main courtyard, which was a small place filled with runes and glyphs. I nicked my palm on my fang again, though this time the cut wasn’t as big, and let it fall into the small pool at the center. From there I used my magic to shift the floor to allow the scattered runes and glyphs form a greater one, the combinations were many but I needed a specific one.

Once it clicked into place, the blood flowed along the engraved lines and shapes. The magic of the glyph was propelling the movement, as there was no incline. The rest of it would need Twilight here, so I made my way back to the main hall where I left her and Schnitter.

Apparently the two had been talking, and I was a bit curious so instead of rounding the corner I peeked around it. I saw Twilight going through one of the bookshelves while Schnitter sat on a table, swinging her cloaked legs like a child.

“-ong?” I heard Schnitter’s voice say.

“What?” Twilight asked.

“How long have you loved Luna?” Schnitter apparently repeated. Now I was really curious, I barely noticed my face flushing up slightly. I don’t know why, but that prospect gave me a tingly feeling all throughout my body. I’ve never experienced it before. I listened on as Twilight replied.

“Well we became friends a while ago, so I guess since then. I love all of my friends a whole lot.” Twilight said. My heart fell a little bit and I couldn’t figure out why. What’s wrong with me? I should be happy she loves me as a friend. That’s more than I had before that Nightmare Night.

“Not what I meant and you know it. Come on, you’re either hiding it well or you haven’t realized it yourself. Lord knows she hasn’t realized it either.” Schnitter said. What was that supposed to mean? Apparently that’s exactly what Twilight thought as she said those exact words.

“Oh come on you didn’t see how jealous she looked when I half-kissed you and when you said it would have been your first? She had a particularly sour expression. I’m good at reading people, and we’re like sisters. Almost as much as her and Celestia. She totally likes you, if not loves you. And I just know that you’ve already fallen in love with her.” Schnitter explained as if it was obvious.

“Knowing her, she probably still can’t figure out why she was jealous. That’ll just be all the more hilarious to see when you confess.” She continued. I peeked around the corner again, then, and saw that Twilight was looking at the ground. I could see that her cheeks were a deep shade of pink and she was glaring at the other girl in a sideways glance.

“I... I-I...” Twilight stammered and remained silent for a little bit. “...Last night...” She answered the first question. Right about then was when my face flushed up something fierce. “She... I was a wreck and she was there for me and she knew exactly what to say and...” She continued.

“I didn’t know what it was... I’ve never fallen in love, but now that you say it so plainly it only makes sense...” She finished. Schnitter was giggling like mad. I decided I was eavesdropping long enough, and if I took any longer then Schnitter would suspect something, so I composed myself and walked around the corner.

“Sorry I took longer than I thought, I took longer than I normally would setting up the right glyph pattern.” I said. It was actually true, though it was only by a few seconds rather than minutes. “Come on then.” I continued, beckoning towards Twilight. She looked at Schnitter, who giggled, and then quickly came to me. Just before we rounded the corner I looked back at the icy haired girl. She winked.

She totally knew I was there, probably the entire time.

I couldn’t help but grin at that, and the last thing I heard was a bout of laughter.

“This is... Intimidatingly intriguing.” Twilight said when we entered the room. I closed the door, which left nothing but a hanging lit candelabra to give the room light. Even then it was just barely, but as I focused my magic the pattern on the floor around the tiny pool of my blood started to glow. It created a rather pretty low-light feel to the room.

“Right, normally this would be a big long ritual in which powers are exchanged and whatnot, but the key to the static portal is rather unique among keys. My blood. This particular pattern is the locking mechanism for it, and what needs to happen is that it recognizes your life force, and therefore your blood. In order for that to happen, my life force must come into direct contact with yours.” I explained. She looked like she was thinking for a while after that as she pieced it together. Her face paled slightly. She figured it out.

“So if the fastest way to get directly at my life force was for Schnitter to kiss me... does that mean I have to... drink your blood?” She asked. Honestly I could just inject my blood into her bloodstream, but that would take time and would be rather painful. So I simply nodded.

“Suddenly I find myself wondering if it’s worth it...” Twilight mumbled. I couldn’t help but burst into laughter.

“R-Right... so... how is this gonna happen?” Twilight asked. I thought for a moment. I had an idea, a mischievously glorious idea at that.

“Close your eyes, and don’t worry. My blood shouldn’t be too bad, especially since I’ve had some of yours.” I said. She gave me a funny look and I chuckled, I couldn’t stop grinning. She just sighed and closed her eyes.

It’s my turn.

I bit my arm so that a good amount of blood filled it, quickly healed the wound, grabbed twilight’s face and pressed my lips to hers. Her eyes shot open as I pushed the blood into her mouth. When it was all in I backed off slightly, wiping a little that was leftover off. We were both blushing, but she looked like she was eating something very strange.

After a moment she swallowed and sighed in relief.

“Not too bad, I should think, right?” I asked, grinning mischievously. She was breathing a bit harder than normal and she gave me a very peculiar look. My blush had dissipated, but hers was still in full force.

“It was... actually kind of good...” She said. Then she looked me dead in the eye for a moment and I saw something in them. It looked like hesitation, but then it turned to confidence as she stepped towards me.

My eyes were wide with absolute shock, I was frozen in surprise and I was in heaven. She had came right up to me and kissed me, still was actually. When I finally got over the shock I kissed right back. It kind of went back and forth until we stopped to catch our breath.

“I guess she was right...” Twilight said to herself, an embarrassed smile on her face. I grinned.

“Yes,” I started, quickly pecking her on the lips. “yes she was.” I finished. She gave me a look then and I laughed some more. “Yes, I heard everything. And yes, the feeling is fairly mutual, still figuring everything out.” Said.

“S-So uh... What now? Is something supposed to happen with the key thing?” She asked after a moment, her face regaining it’s normal color as she quelled her embarrassment for now. On a side thought, I’m extremely happy that she’s able to be like this after what she went through. Back on topic, while the injection method is incredibly painful, this method is only a little better.

“Sorry, should have warned you.” I said. She was about to ask what I meant before she suddenly collapsed in my arms and started convulsing. I saw a few of her veins on her neck popping out as the glow from below turned to a blaring light.

Those veins, with the deliciously magnificent blood that was like sweet nectar flowing through them... So inviting... So...

Twilight had stopped convulsing, so I noticed when she flinched suddenly. I was about to ask why, but I realized that sweet delicious nectar was filling my mouth.

Oh lord, I just... I just bit her and... and I’m feeding without her permission... What the hell? But wait, normally blood wouldn’t be so good if taken by force... What’s going on?

I disengaged my jaws from her neck within seconds of first biting down, but I had lost control and was drinking like mad... I had almost taken as much as the last time. I took a few breaths and almost dropped her, instead I quickly pulled her close and I felt tears coming to my eyes.

“Oh lord I’m so sorry, I-I-I-I don’t... I don’t know what... I didn’t even know what I was doing until... u-unti-” I started frantically apologizing, but I was interrupted. Interrupted by an even sweeter tasting pair of lips. The kiss deepened as tears continued running down my face and we started breathing through our noses.

It finally ended, and I was filled with a certain feeling of emptiness because of it. It was silly, I know, but that’s what I felt.

“I don’t taste all that bad myself... You’re fine, Luna. You haven’t fed in over a thousand years except for me, so I think it’s only natural you’d be overwhelmed... You didn’t suck me dry, that’s all I’m worried about.” She said after a few moments of silence. You can’t even imagine the level of relief I felt at that. There was one problem, though.

“I’ve never even come close to losing control before now, not once. Not even when people cut their fingers on silverware or hurt themselves near me, or even that one time my sister intentionally cut her finger and was shoving it in my face to try and tease me... But with you... I just... I just couldn’t resist.” I explained. Twilight got back on her feet, albeit a bit shakily, and pulled me into an embrace.

“Just tell me if you feel it again, and we’ll do something about it. Be it getting it off your mind or presenting my neck. What’s a bit of blood between us now anyways?” She said. I nodded with a giggle, embracing her back. We stayed like that for a bit until I heard the very familiar sound of a very particular someone failing at trying to contain their laughter.

“Schnitter if I could I would kill you...” I growled. Twilight and I both looked over at the door at the same time, me with contempt and Twilight with surprise and perhaps a bit of horror.

“Try all you like, I’m still the one who taught you everything you know about how to use your scythe!” The girl cackled as it flew open to reveal her sprinting away, laughing madly. Twilight nearly collapsed again. I facepalmed.

“Don’t worry, she means well...” I sighed and led Twilight out back into the main hall. When we got there, though, we found Schnitter glaring at the door.

“What...?” I asked. Schnitter turned around, her eyes glowing white as shadow started flowing away from her.

“Intruders.” A rather intimidating version of her voice said before she completely disappeared. Oroboros, who had flown off onto a chair when we arrived, looked up and returned to his place around my shoulders.

“Let’s go watch Schnitter make true her name.” I said, her name meaning Reaper in a more ancient language. We left the castle to find Schnitter in front of a few grinning men. A couple of them looked familiar.

“Come out and play, little bitches!” One of them called.

“We slaughtered nearly fifty of you in seconds, what makes you think you’re any better?” I said. I could feel Schnitter in her statues, ready to strike these men down. She was waiting for my command, since I was here the judging of whether or not they could enter was up to me instead of her. I at least wanted to know why they were here or how they got here.

“Because those that you slew were only a fraction of one of us! We are ten strong, hundreds of times more powerful than the ones that faced you!” The same one yelled back.

“Oh well good then. You’ll give my guardian a nice fight I hope.” I said. The man looked at Oroboros, who had lazily looked in the man’s direction, and laughed.

“That little lizard?! Hah!” He exclaimed, taking a step forward.

“Not quite.” Schnitter’s voice came. She formed like she did last time, only this time when she was hole she put her hand out. An incredibly simple scythe with a wooden handle and steel blade formed there and she took it and expertly spun it.

“Mistress?” She asked. I grinned.

“Eat up their lives, you were looking a bit thin from just Twilight’s.” I said. The skeletal face under the hood grinned and she turned to face the ten vampires. They all bared their fangs and hissed, which made them seem like much less pure vampires than the last one. Schnitter did the same, though hers was much more intimidating without a face. They charged at each other and it was over quick.

She ruthlessly cut down three of them with one fell sweep of her scythe, their blood and life force flowing into her now open mouth and their flesh crumbling to ash. As she was doing this, five of them all charged and embedded their weapons into her. She seemed not to notice.

She grabbed one of them by the head, crushed it and threw the corpse aside to crumble to dust. The four with their weapons still in her body tried to pull them out, but she quickly spun and decapitated them with her scythe. She cleaved another in half vertically, leaving only the leader.

He was shaking and frozen in fear as Schnitter pulled her scythe from where it had embedded into the ground and closed her mouth as the last of the corpse’s life force flowed into her. He screamed as, with a snarl, she dashed at him. It was cut short as her jaws clamped over his throat. She proceeded to rip it out and spit it onto the ground before grabbing his spine, which was showing through the new hole of his still gargling neck, and brutally pulled. The thing shattered, but was still intact above where she grabbed. He crumbled to the ground, but his eyes still frantically moved around in terror.

She just turned her head, surprised he was still alive, and put the blade of her scythe between his eyes.

I started clapping. I looked over to Twilight, who looked a bit surprised at the brutality Schnitter used. After a moment, though, she smiled and joined me. Schnitter took on a much fuller form of flesh and did a bow as she touched back down to the ground and the scythe disappeared. All of the ashes blew away on a soft breeze, falling into the void below.

Author's Notes:

huzzah for 3 am writing shenanigans!
it went quicker than I wanted it to, and there's much more to come next, but for now I bid thee adieu and goodnight