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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“What is her name?”

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

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

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

“Thank you father,” the alicorn said softly.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“True...”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meanwhile, Jackdaw smiled as he approached Echo.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks Nim, she said tenderly.

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

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