The Assassin's Song

by Productive faffer

The life of an assassin: questions, the constant threat of death and the fact that you work until your dying breath. However, one refuses to be intimidated by death, refuses to live by the rule of 'killer 'till killed' and above all, he refuses to be denied his answers. His question is as follows: who, or what, is behind his final contract? And just where will it lead him?

21. R and R

Chapter Twenty one: R and R

Something was wrong.

It was one of those things in life, one of those things that have been drilled into the minds of all ponies since the days of Starswirl, one of those things that all ponies can relate to; if you just know something is wrong, you're not in for a good day.

This is what Luna thought when she'd awoken, at five in the morning on the dot so she could raise the moon and prepare for night court, but she got that feeling. You know, that feeling, the one that doesn't linger in your gut or your spine or anywhere really. It's just somewhere, everywhere yet nowhere, and when you try to concentrate on it, it scrambles. She didn't like this feeling; it gave her the sensation that her own mind was keeping information away from her, like she didn't think she could handle it. Well, she'd show her; she'd show herself that she could handle whatever she was keeping from herself.

With a newfound resolve to make herself look dumb (cue evil laughter) she stretched her limbs and got up. It was at that point the feeling of supreme grogginess hit her. As she sat up, she had to rub sand from her eyes, a cute little yawn escaping her, but with nopony around to enjoy it was kind of wasted, and reached to the skies with her fore-hooves as she stretched out her spine, more than a few cracks sounding as she did so. She scratched her head slightly as she looked around, her horn sparking to life as she lit the candles in her room, preferring something more…what was the phrase 'old-school' in her personal quarters, rather than the more modern light bulbs and switches. Taking leave of her bed and sheets, she stood over them and looked down at them absentmindedly.

"Oh my" she murmured as she looked down at her screwed up sheets, strew around pillows and the fact that she seemed to have vacated her grove last night. Ursa-teddy had joined her in her sleep last night, though she couldn't remember getting him from atop the wardrobe she always kept him sat on. Nor could she remember snuggling down with him last night, that said, she couldn't really remember the last time she'd slept with her teddy bear at all. Biting her lip in slight worried confusion, she made her bed with her magic, placing Ursa-teddy back on his spot before she approached her vanity.

Sitting down before it she looked over her appearance; mussed up mane and tail; tired eyes and face, hay, she had a trail of dried up drool going down her face; not to mention the tear marks below her eyes.

Then it hit her.

She could suddenly remember what she'd been doing last night, why she'd been holding Ursa so close to her body, why her mane, tail and face were in such a state, but above all, why she'd cried herself to sleep. Last night, she'd been thinking about Blood Moon.

She looked back into the mirror, swallowing slightly as she held back her emotions. She wouldn't allow herself to go back to being a weeping wreak, wouldn't allow herself to be sent down that road down her old foalsitter, wouldn't allow herself to-

'Damnit.'

She had already leaned her head on her vanity as her shoulders shook, her eyes closed to try and curb her tears, a few stifled sobs leaking from her maw. She rested her head on her fore-hooves, the tears leaking into her fur as they escaped her eyes.

"After all these years, he can still make me cry" she managed to mumble out between sobs. "Damn you Blood Moon" she muttered out "why did you have to leave us daddy" she asked nopony in particular. She wasn't sure who she was referring the word 'daddy' to; maybe it was her true father, Nocturnal, or perhaps it was the stallion who'd actually been her dad, Blood Moon. She shook the thoughts from her head, unwilling to have an internal debate right now, and wiped the tears away from her face.

'Get a hold of yourself Luna, this is exactly what he wants.'

The princess of the night looked into the mirror looked and found her rather disagreeable reflection looking back at her. She decided she'd need to shower or something before she could set hoof outside her room and go to night court, or even raise the moon. No doubt Tia would notice her state and ask her about it, and the last thing she wanted was to start talking about Blood Moon with her. She made her way to her washroom, or 'suite' as they were supposed to be called. She didn't really care what it was called, just as long as there was hot water blasting down at her. How grateful she'd been when she'd learned about this, washing back in the old days had been, quite ironically, a rather messy procedure as even as princess of Equestria she hadn't had access to something as marvellous as running water, so she'd always cleaned herself in wash basins or in streams. Then again, washing in streams had been the start of one or two rather…pleasurable encounters. Pushing away that one hot, sticky and memorable autumn evening, she stepped into the shower and turned the tap to the 'on' position, letting the pleasantly warm water spray onto her, quickly wetting her fur, mane and tail, sticking it to her body in a manner that would give any stallion a very hard…time thinking straight. She made sure the water was a pleasant cool, not boiling hot like her sister liked it, mainly because she was princess of the night and she was used to the cold, rather than her sister's hot sun. All showering styles aside, Luna quickly took to lathering herself up and washing herself before she washed away evidence of her crying by cleaning her face. And doing a thorough job of it. Once done, she left the shower and dried herself with a magically gripped towel and left her bathroom.

Upon leaving her suite, she sat at her vanity and looked over her face; she was looking much better now, mainly because she didn't look like she'd just cried her eyes out. She looked around the table, which to her utter smugness was void of any makeup, and found her comb, picking it up with her magic, which was the same shade and colour as her mane and tail, and ran it through her mane, reclaiming some order to it, unaware that her big sister had done the same thing when she'd woken up this morning.

It suddenly occurred to her that the feeling hadn't gone yet; she still felt something was wrong. Well, not her but a part of her did. She frowned. At first she'd thought it had been something of outside influence, then she'd assumed it was her state but it appeared she'd been right the first time. She decided to see if she could catch her sister on her way to bed and ask her about it, find out if she had the same feeling. She should be done with day court by now after all. She trotted to her door, and that's when the feeling worsened; it went from something was wrong, to something dark and foreboding. Swallowing slightly, she pushed it open to…

Nothing. Nothing was wrong, her sun was casting a warm orange glow through the window above the door, that door, the door to his old room, the room between her and Celestia's room so he was right between them, close to them both but giving them privacy, far enough away so he could let them deal with problem by themselves but close enough to offer his council should they need it. His door was locked shut, the pitch black door with his blood red cutie mark engraved upon it, the ouroboros and blade cut down the centre of the door so it could open while retaining its pattern. With both an enraged and longing look on her face, she managed to tear her gaze away from the door. How Tia could ignore it every day was beyond her. Despite the dark door lingering on the edge of her vision, the rest of the hallway seemed normal, no disasters, no demons hanging around in the halls and, from what she could tell, Tartarus was still keeping everything in wraps. But something still felt wrong.

Covering the short distance between their rooms, Luna knocked her hoof on her big sister's bedroom door. She got no answer. She frowned; any other day, she'd have assumed she was in the shower, maybe still asleep, but today…she wasn't quite sure, she just got the idea her sister was unavailable for a reason she should be concerned about. She put tried the door; it wasn't locked, so she pushed it open. The lights were off but there were still embers in the fire, the fire Celestia was still sat in front of, a thick book resting on the arm of the chair and the princess of the day sleeping soundly. Luna smiled slightly at her sister, trotting over to her sleeping form, stopping next to her before she nudged her sister's shoulder slightly to awaken her. When she did, the princess of the day grumbled in her sleep, shifting slightly and knocking the book off of the side of her chair. It fell the short distance and the large book opened when it hit the ground.

The pages it had fell to held and picture on each page. The first one was of Luna's first (hundredth) birthday. It looked like the kind of party Pinkie would throw; party hats, cake, WAY too may candle for such a young looking pony and all their friend and family. Luna was sat behind the cake with an exited smile on her face looking at Celestia, while said big sister was stood to the left of the dark filly, holding a big midnight blue box wrapped in deep black ribbon out to her with a big smile on her face. Illumination and Nocturnal were standing behind Luna, Illumination with a motherly smile on her face that Celestia had picked up within only a few years and Nocturnal with a small smile on his face. Blood Moon lingered on the side, sat in his comfortable shadows, a lopsided grin on his face as he watched Luna and Celestia celebrate the younger's birthday. Faust was sat next to him, a smile on her face to match Illumination's.

Luna looked to the other picture; it was an image of Celestia and a phoenix chick on her head. The filly was looking up with her eyes, a big grin on her face as the chick padded around on top of her. Luna remembered this day; it was the day Philomena had hatched. Blood Moon had found the egg in his travels shortly before being hired by Nocturnal; he'd kept it in his bedroom window the whole time, practically raising the thing like he'd done with her and Tia.

There were suddenly two additions to the page, two dark patches on the parchment around the pictures.

"It's been a while since we last looked through this hasn't it" a voice said, close by Luna. She looked up to find Celestia looking up at her, her face tired and groggy from having just woken up. She looked down at the book Luna had been looking through just now; she looked at the pictures she'd been looking at and grinned slightly, picking up the book in her magic. "I remember this one" she said, looking at the picture of the party "you still have the teddy I made for you, don't you Lu-Lu" she said, prompting a small blush from Luna.

"Yes" she murmured. She glanced back at the picture, more specifically her old foalsitter, before she helped her sister off of the other chair in front of the fire. "How was day court sister" she asked her sister as she lead her still tired sister to her bed.

"I didn't hold one, I cancelled it" she told Luna. The younger sister put her elder on the bed, frowning slightly.

"What do mean, 'cancelled it'?" Celestia sat on her haunches, flicking her slippers off unceremoniously before she took the armour off and dumped it next to her bed, after which she took her tiara off and hung it from the bed post.

"I mean what I said Lu-Lu" she said before giggling. Luna, once again, frowned.

"Tia, are you well? You seem…different somehow. And I'm not talking about how you-" she sniffed the air around her sister. "Tia…are you drunk" she asked her sister. In response, Celestia suddenly started weeping, leaning on her sister's shoulder.

"Ohhhhh, you weren't meant to know that" she moaned between overly dramatic sobs. Her tears suddenly cut off when she grabbed her sister's cheeks, holding them in her hooves as she looked into her sister's eyes. "Who told you" she demanded "was it that lemon who appeared in the fruit bowl" she turned the dark pony's gaze to the fruit bowl sitting on a table at the side of her room, eyeing it with suspicion as she leaned on her shoulder, looking at it with her. "I don't trust him" she whispered conspiratorially "he just appeared there, and I still don't know how" she told her sister. Luna blinked once.

"Tia, I put… um, him there. You haven't been getting enough citrus in your diet, remember?

The chef asked me to put the lemon and oranges in your fruit basket so you could get some citrus in your system" she said. Celestia whirled her little sister back to her, holding her cheeks in her hooves as she held her, pushing her cheeks together and forcing her mouth into an 'O' shape.

"It was you all along" she said dramatically. Luna nodded, just a little bit scared of drunk Celestia. They looked into each other's eyes for a long while before Tia burst out laughing wrapping her hooves around her sister's neck. "Oh, you always were the little prankster" she playfully scolded. Luna frowned.

"Was I" she muttered. She thought back to all the times Celestia had planted a glass of water, or that one time it was custard, above her door and watched as she walked into the room and suddenly be drenched. That said, she did have a knock out wet look. She shook the thoughts from her head and turned her attention back to her still drunk sister. "Celestia, don't you still have to lower the sun" she asked. As suddenly as she'd started, her laughter stopped. She sat up and looked her sister in the eye.

"The son? What son, I don't have foals" she exclaimed. "Silly Luna" she slurred, shaking her head. She then looked to be thinking about something. "OH, the SUN. I thought you said son" she explained before she burst out laughing again. "Silly Tia, eh? Silly Celestia" she scolded herself, shaking her head. "Silly Tia" she muttered. Her eyes suddenly rolled up into her head and she fell back, quickly falling asleep, snoring in a very unladylike manner. Luna face-hoofed. Celestia jolted awake again. "That was weird" she exclaimed "I dreamt I was in the middle of a war; it was me and all the cakes in Equestria fighting off-hic-off all the celery sticks. It was amazing, but so many muffins lost their lives" she stifled a laugh "because I ate them" she laughed, falling back onto her bed, laughing uncontrollably, her whole body shaking. Luna frowned.

"Wait, you court marshalled your troops- oh, damn it Tia! Why did you start drinking anyway" she asked. Celestia sat up, swaying slightly as she did so, propping herself up on herself Luna. She stared into her eyes and fell asleep again, butting Luna in the head. "Ow" the darker princess grunted in pain, rubbing her head where her sister had bumped her after she had rolled off her head, snoring again. After another five seconds of sleep, Tia jolted awake again.

"AH" she screamed, looking around herself as she did until she found Luna, upon doing so, she wrapped her in a hug, looking around her room as she held her. "Luna! Are the broccolis here" she whispered loudly. Luna blinked.

"Um, no" she answered. Tia nodded.

"Oh, good" she said clearly relaxed "they had me ambushed, the profiterole bodyguards were dead, not even commander strawberry made it out alive" she told her sadly "he was a good dessert" she continued as she sat up again.

"Well…I'm very sorry for your loss" Luna said unsurely. Celestia, once again, fell onto Luna, wrapping her in another hug.

"Thank you Lu-Lu, you didn't know him, but you still respect his memory." Luna's face had gone slack.

'Please don't tell me she's going to ask me to attend this profiterole's funeral.'

"You're a good little sister" Celestia continued "you're the best little sister a pony could ask for. I know I don't show it enough but you really, really are. I love you Lu-Lu" she said, squeezing her sister so hard that even the battle hardened princess of the night struggled for breath.

"T-that's alright Tia" she struggled out, patting her sister's back. Celestia drunkenly shook her head.

"Nnnn-n-no, no it's not" she told her, sitting up again. Luna helped her up, getting tired with going in circles. "It's not okay, I don't show how much I appreciate you nearly as much as I should" she scolded herself. She looked her sister in the eye again, before her head cocked to the side and she looked over her sister's face. "So-hic-such a pretty Lu-Lu" she murmured. Luna shook her head at her sister's antics.

"Come on Tia, let's get you to be-" she was cut off when Celestia moved forwards and pushed her lips to Luna's, causing the princess of the night's eyes to snap wide open and a blush erupt across her face. It didn't help when she felt her sister's tongue creep into her maw. She pulled back so fast she fell onto her back, pushing herself away with her fore-hooves.

"CELESTIA" she exclaimed "what's gotten into you" she demanded. Celestia's response was to giggle and point a hoof at her sister, between her hind legs.

"I'm-hic-I'm not sure, but I know what you want put into you" she told her, pointing at Luna's moistened marehood. Luna looked down her body, spying her aroused sex and blushed harder, reaching forwards and using her hooves to pull her tail up, between her legs.

"T-Tia, get a hold of yourself. We both know how you get under the influence." Celestia laughed so hard she fell off her bed and onto the struggling Luna.

"Un-" she burped "under the influence" she repeated, snorting slightly in laughter. "You mean piss-blind drunk" she corrected, sniggering at the end. When Luna went to answer, she was cut off when a jolt of pleasure shot up her spine; Celestia had used her tail to tease around her marehood. "And horny as buck" she added in a sultry manner.

"T-Tia, stop this" she told her, using her hooves to throw her sister off of her. Celestia may have had superior magical skill, but she'd always been much physically stronger, not to mention a better flyer. The princess of the day landed gracefully on her side, making a rather arousing display of leaning her head on her fore-hoof and tracing patterns along her fur low down her belly with the other.

"Oh, come on Luna, lighten up a bit" she slurred. Luna shook her head again.

"No, you seem to be forgetting we're sisters. You can't go…kissing me like that" she told her. Celestia watched her for a second before she rolled onto her back, laughing.

"Maybe not, but it doesn't look like you didn't enjoy it" she laughed. Luna rolled her eyes before she eyed the seat Celestia had been sat on. She trotted over to it and looked around for a second before she found an empty bottle of Appaloosa apple mugging. The princess of the night shook her head, but upon doing so she noticed another bottle, a thinner one, stuffed down the side of the seat. This too was empty and, by the smell of it, had contained a particularly strong brand of unnameable cheap whiskey. She picked this bottle up in her magic, reading the label; damn, that was strong whiskey, if Celestia wasn't an alicorn she'd likely be sleeping for a few weeks.

"Tia, where did you get this" she asked her sister, who was leaning against her bed with her hind legs wind open, rubbing between them shamelessly.

"Oh, the magic door gave it to me" she answered lazily, pointing her spare hoof in the direction of a cabinet in the corner. Tearing her eyes away from her masturbating sister, Luna looked to the spot she'd pointed out; it was an wine cooler, but leading away from it were a bunch of empty bottles of liquor, some more tasteful than others. "The leprechaun in there was very nice to me" she continued as she started rubbing herself harder.

"Will you please stop that" Luna pleaded, not exactly comfortable with the sounds of hoof on marehood coming from her sister. The princess of night followed the trail of bottles, picking them up, one after another. There were a few dozen in all, each one stronger than the last, as she got closer to Tia's seat, she found that some of them had been necked quickly before being thrown and smashed against the wall.

"They said mean things to me" Celestia slurred from her position, still clopping, when she saw Luna looking over the broken glass. Luna her raised eyebrow.

"Really" she muttered. Turning away from the smashed bottles, she looked back at her sister.

"Why did you drink so much" she asked as she trotted towards her sister, having disposed of the glass by slinging it out of the window, down the side of the mountain and into the valley below Canterlot. Luna looked at the seat her sister had been sat on; she went back to the seat and looked at the photo album that had been left there by Celestia. She swallowed slightly as she picked it up, the book having been left open on the same page it had fallen open on. She looked back at her drunken and masturbating sister, and came to her conclusion. "Were you looking through this Tia?" Her sister nodded head heavily.

"Yeah, I foun-hic-found it last night and I couldn't stop looking through. Then the leprechaun asked me if I wanted a drink, and I noticed I was really thirsty so I had a glass of wine. Then another…and another…the rest is a little fuzzy" she said, scratching her head slightly. Luna trotted back to her sister, the book in her magical grip, and sat next to her.

"I thought we agreed to only look at this once a year, you know, on his birthday…" Celestia's hoof had returned to her marehood, rubbing it up and down gently.

"Yes, I remember-" she hiccupped and moaned at the same time "but it was just sitting there, and I'd just been talking to Skulduggery about the hit Blood Moon had done on Fancy's place" she told her. Luna whipped her head over to Celestia.

"WHAT? You mean he was here, in Canterlot?" The princes of the day put a hoof to Luna's mouth.

"SHHH, don't talk so loud, Lu-Lu might hear you" she said. Luna frowned.

"What are you talking about, what hit? Was Blood Moon here?" Celestia hiccupped again, the reflex leading into a moan as she pushed her hoof into her pussy some more. "Stop that will you" she scolded, pulling her big sister's hoof out of her nether regions.

"No" the white mare argued, sounding like a filly again as she crammed her hoof back into her femness stubbornly. "If I wanna clop" she hiccupped again, looking at Luna with a 'derp' look on her face, her eyes out of focus as she spoke "I'll clop." She pulled her hoof out and pointed it at Luna. "It's my pussy" she slurred "it's mah hoof, I'll do what I want with 'em" she told her before she put the same hoof around the back of Luna's head "now, c'mere" she told her, pulling their lips together again. Luna pulled back quicker this time, putting her hoof on Celestia's chest and pushing her back.

"Stop it Tia, your drunk and depressed. That said, I don't know why you're so horny but-"

"I think it's because I accidently drunk-drank, I'm not drunk, who's calling me drunk" she demanded. Luna frowned.

"But you are-" Celestia lunged at her.

"Naughty Luna" she disciplined as she pushed her down, following her to the floor, and pinned her before planting her lips to hers, pulling back and licking erotically around her sister's muzzle. "Telling big sisters she's drunk when she's not." Luna rolled over, just like Blood Moon had taught her, and pinned Celestia down.

"Tia, you are drunk, and what were you saying, about why you're so…turned on?"

"Oh, that. I think I drank one of Cadences love potions gone wrong accidently" she told her sister. Luna frowned.

"Love potion gone wrong" she repeated. "What do you mean, 'love potion gone wrong'?" Celestia's horn lit up and Luna floated off of her, but Luna's own magical aura pushed out against it, dispelling it, and dropped down onto her again but Celestia had flashed away. Luna landed on the ground where her sister had just been and looked around, biting her lip in worry; Celestia could be anywhere in Equestria right now, her teleportation's were amongst the most powerful of spells in her arsenal of spells. She suddenly heard a small moan from beside her and she looked to Tia's bed and her face slackened; Celestia was lying on her bed, her fore-hooves below her body and her flank pushed into the air, her hooves playing around in her marehood.

"She was looking for ways to cure love potions" she answered, her hooves still invoking her blush and moans regularly "she was making up some basic potions and trying to sy-hic-synth-" she moaned again, pushing her hooves further into her pussy "Oh, that's good… synthesize antidotes to them. She couldn't find an antidote to all of them, so I offered to hold on to the few she couldn't, maybe try to find a cure to a couple of them myself" she hiccupped and giggled again "so much for that idea" she spluttered out before she burst out laughing again. Luna trotted over to her and frowned.

"Wait, you mean you that you drank a love potion and now you're wetter than Neighagra falls" she concluded as she stood next to her sister's bed. "Wait a second, doesn't that mean she made a potion that inflames the loins." Celestia nodded slightly.

"Yeah, it enfla…inflaaaam…inflame- turns you into a whorse, yeah, she did. Co-hic-cool, huh?" Luna nodded slightly.

"It is, indeed, spectacular" Luna muttered. "Anyway, what were you saying before that? Something about Blood Moon?" Celestia nodded again, straightening up as she did so and sat on her flank, propping herself up with her left fore-leg while her right remained between her hind-legs.

"C'mere Lu-Lu" she said, motioning her head in her own direction. The princess of the night hopped onto the bed, sitting on the other side, keeping well away from her masturbating sister. Littler good it did when Tia scooted over to her, hoof still between her hind-legs, and sat beside her. "But, I want you to promise me that you won't tell-" she hiccupped, moaned and burped all at once, the reflex leading to the express of pleasure that ended abruptly with the gas forcing its way out. "You-you can't tell Luna, if she found out I don't know what she'd do" she told her sister. Luna frowned.

"O-um-kay" she answered. Celestia shook her head, moving next to Luna and sitting beside her, putting a hoof over her shoulder.

"No, we need-" she sneezed and looked a little blank before she giggled a little "need a way to seal it, like a-like a" she looked to be in pretty intense thought. "Lu-Lu, what am I thinking about?"

"A…pact" she offered. Tia brightened up massively.

"Yes, that's it" she exclaimed, pulling Luna's face to hers, kissing her again. Luna let this one linger longer before she pushed her sister off her.

"TIA, will you stop that!" Celestia looked like she was about to cry.

"It's not my fault, you're the one sending me all of these mixed signals" she argued. Luna gaped.

"'Mixed signals'" she demanded "and just how am I sending you mixed signals?!" The princess of the day's 'derp' look returned.

"You're the one getting me off" she told her. Luna face-hoofed.

"No. I. Am. Not! You're doing it to yourself" she told her, gesturing at her clopping sister. Celestia looked down at herself, finding her hoof slipping in and out of her royal marehood, rubbing around it and tickling her clit.

"Well what do you know" she murmured. She shrugged, pushing deeper inside herself. "Anywho…what were we talking about?"

"Blood Moon" her sister supplied. Tia nodded.

"Oh, yeah, I remember now" she said. "A pact" she muttered before looking up at her sister. "Alright, you must swear, to never, ever ever ever ever ever ever ever, repeat a word of this to princess Luna of Equestria, princess of the night. Not under pain of torture, death or any other threat. Do you agree" she asked. She spoke in an official tone, but the sight, sound and smells of her clopping sort of killed it.

"I agree" Luna answered, promising to never tell herself what Celestia was about to tell her. Tia nodded.

"Good" she said, before she looked around herself. "We need to seal this with something" she muttered. She glanced down at her hoof. "Ah, perfect" she said holding it out to Luna. Said dark mare looked down at it.

"What" she asked. The princess of the day rolled her eyes.

"Clean it off" she told her "as a symbol of your fidelity" she added. Luna, not for the first time in this meeting, gaped at her sister.

"You're kidding me, right" she told her "you-you're-you…Tia, stop being drunk" she told her. Her mind suddenly snapped back to what they had originally being talking about. "Can you please, just tell me what you were saying about our old foalsitter?" Celestia shook her head, shaking her hoof at her sister a little.

"Uh-uh, I can't have you telling Lu-Lu. You clean off my hoof and I'll tell you" she told her. With narrowed eyes, blushed cheeks and a few muttered curses escaping her maw, Luna complied, taking her sister's hoof in her own and letting her tongue slip out and take a delicate taste of her sister's juices. The taste was enticing, hot like the sun, as sweet as cake frosting and as enflaming as waking up in heat. The princess of the night quickly found herself lapping the clear but most defiantly present juices from her sister's hoof; even in her drunken state, Celestia revelled in holding such a dominating position over a pony, she may be princess of Equestria but she couldn't help her sexual nature. A princess got what she wanted, sure, but not to this extent, not anymore anyway. She smirked slightly as she looked down on the mare lapping her royal hoof clean, doing a thorough job of it; she was enjoying herself, this…what was her name? Huh, some ruler she was, she didn't even know the name of this strange pony lapping her hoof clean. Tia shrugged, shuddering slightly and putting her other hoof to her pussy as she felt the mare take in a good load of juices with her tongue. Giggling slightly, the princess of the sun pulled her hoof back and lifted the dark mare's gaze to her own. "There's a good filly" she cooed. Luna blushed harder, biting her lip slightly; she hadn't meant to get that…immersed by it.

"Th-thanks" she said quietly. Celestia giggled again, holding her hoof to eye level.

"My, my, little one, you really got into that" she pointed out, rotating it and finding no remaining marks. Celestia cocked her head to the side and winked playfully. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were enjoying that more than I was" she told her. A smirk found her mouth. "For somepony so skilled with their hooves, I'd say they'd have gotten in a LOT of practise with their own, Lu-Lu" she teased, giggling and hiccupping at her sister's blush. Luna just frowned.

'Dose she recognise me or not?'

"Then again, after so long on the moon, Lu-Lu, I'd say your hooves are the only partner your royal little pussy has had in millennia. Because I KNOW, you haven't had the chance to get with anypony in the last few years you've been here." She's started advancing slowly on her sister, sliding her body across her bed with her fore-hooves, leisurely moving bit-by-bit to her silent sister, who was blushing anxiously at Celestia's accusation. "Tell me Luna, am I wrong? Have you been pulling guards into your room every other night ever since you got back, letting the peasants mount you, having a low born cock slide into your royal cunt? Or were you more resourceful?" Luna didn't say anything, but the way she looked down slightly when Celestia had spoken the second option told the princess of the day everything. She grinned. "Ah-huh. I thought so" she told her. Luna had now gotten to the edge of the bed, and although she could have easily stepped off, her mind was lost to her in the way her sister was speaking to her. "You're hooves ever get sore, use any dildos? Did you use any-hic-magic; I know you know the spells" she told her. "Did you ever consider coming to me for help" she asked with a sultry grin on her face, complemented by the drunken blush lingering on her cheeks. "Ever want to buck your big sister? Want to see me cum, want me to make you scream?" She inched her grinning face closer and was about to push their lips together again before Luna flashed away from her sister, reappearing on the other end of the bed with a cushion clamped between her legs.

"Tia, stop it, you're making me…" she looked up her sister's body, her unnaturally perfect body. They were a stark contrast from each other; Luna had a tight and petit body, taunt and perky butt, a tiny waist and small hips. Celestia was more buxom, her flank was round, heart shaped and perfectly jiggly, her hips good, wide and inviting while her waist was on the opposite end of the scale, small and tight, leading to her aforementioned hips and ass.

'Starswirl's beard, she's hot.'

Luna quickly shook the thoughts away from her head, looking back at her sister to continue her sentence but she was cut off when she cast her gaze over her body. Even though it was scheduled to be a cool night tonight, Celestia was still shimmering with a sheen of sweat over her perfect white coat.

"Yes" Celestia prompted, her voice huskier than Luna had ever heard it before.

"Y-you-you're making me uncomfortable" she tried, lying about as well as Applejack. She steeled herself, sending her mind back to a place she never wanted it to go; her lessons with Blood Moon.

"If one angle isn't working, try another. Think of life like a riddle; if you concentrate on one angle, you'll never find the answer, so keep looking for other directions to strike from and you'll soon find the answer. And remember, there's a difference between stabbing somepony in the back, and slitting their throat, so there's no such thing as a cowardly blow."

He'd always finished it with "but do me a favour, and try and limit using somepony close to them as a weapon. You're almost guaranteed to get results but it's not right to involve somepony innocent." She tried to block away that memory, simply because it casted him in a positive light. Once more shaking unwanted thoughts from her head, Luna got the conversation back on track.

"What were you saying, about Blood Moon?" Celestia shrugged, plopping her head down on the bed.

"Oh, that. He was seen in Canterlot or something" she told her nonchalantly, her hoof going back to work between her legs as she lay on her back. Luna blinked.

"What" she demanded. Celestia shrugged.

"Yeah, he was-hic-he was after somepony called… Lock Pick, I think, there was a massive battle, blood and gut everywhere" she giggled "kind of like an entrails cocktail or something." She cocked her head to the side, as though thinking about something. "I could go for a cocktail right now" she murmured.

"What" she repeated "why" Luna asked. Tia expression darkened a little.

"He was helping somepony out, protecting Ponyville from the Goldhooves I think. They were going to take the place over but he got wrapped up in it somehow-hic-banging Mayor Mare herself no doubt" she added. Luna's eyes had snapped open.

"You know where he is" she blurted. "And…and you're sat here, talking" she glanced at her sister "and…clopping your time away. Why aren't you down there with the royal guard, ripping him limb from limb?" Celestia was waving her spare hoof to stop her.

"No, no you don't-" she burped "don't get it. It's because the reason he was here was-"

"To Tartarus with the reason he was here" Luna exclaimed, moving towards her sister. "Tia, why aren't you going down there after him yourself? Celestia, you and I both know that normally you'd be down there killing him yourself!" She frowned. "What's going on?" Celestia had sat up, her hoof still lingering in her femness but wasn't moving as rapidly.

"Lu-Lu-"

"Don't call me 'Lu-Lu' at a time like this" she told her sister "why don't you understand that our old foalsitter, the assassin Blood Moon, is in Ponyville with your student and the elements of harmony. I mean, the only reason I didn't tell you was-" She cut herself off, her hooves snapping to her maw to try and claw the words back in, Celestia's 'derp' face locking in confusion as her drunken head tried to process what she'd just heard

"Whu? You-" she burped again, this one bringing up the scent of apples "you knew he was there already? And you didn't tell me." Luna was paralyzed, unable to move or think as her accidently slipped words quickly backed her into a corner she couldn't get out of.

"Umm, yes" she squeaked. Celestia was still for a second, swaying slightly as she eyed her sister's face. She pulled her hoof from her marehood and looked at it for a second before popping it into her maw, sucking her nectar from it as she eyed Luna with a face showing drunken thought. After a few minutes of doing so, she pulled her hoof from her maw and lapped at it a few times before she spoke.

"You bitch" she murmured, lunging at her sister and wrapping her hooves around her neck, clamping her lips to her sister's, pushing her down to the bed and laying on top of her, kissing her sloppily and noisily, her tongue sneaking in, groaning just a little bit. Luna let it happen for a while, half-heartedly pushing at her sister before flipping and pinning her down. "I could never stay mad at you Lu-Lu, I love you too much" Celestia told her. Luna smiled slightly, Celestia giggling goofily and opening her fore-legs for a hug. After a moment's consideration, Luna obliged, dropping down and holding her sister back. Tia moved them up the bed, resting their heads on the pillow and cuddling. The smell of sex and booze lingered in the air, but neither cared anymore. After a while, Celestia sat up and her horn sparked to life, the photo album floating over to them. She opened it and peered through. "Do you ever miss him" she asked her sister quietly, still holding her in her fore-legs.

"Honestly? I think about him every day and I still can't figure out how I feel. Half the time I want his head on a pike, the other half…"

"You just want to hug him again" Celestia finished. Luna nodded once before she frowned.

"Tia, are you still drunk?" As if on cue, the princess of the day burped.

"Very" she answered. Luna nodded again, not really surprised nor bothered. "Lu-Lu, why didn't you tell me that you knew where he is?" Luna cringed slightly, biting her lip a little.

"It-it's because I… well, you know how you asked me to try and find him through his dreams, but never could, I've been using his dreams to…well…inflict a bit of…revenge on him. I… found him again, but I stumbled across somepony dreaming about him. He'd kissed her, saved her from…a horrible fate. When I pressed him about it he sort of…snapped" she muttered. Celestia snorted a little in laughter.

"Snapped" she repeated "how so?" Luna looked down.

"Well…he brought back a few memories, he…reminded me that…although he may have left…he had been there for us…" Celestia held her tighter.

"He'd been our foalsitter" she continued.

"Our father" Luna murmured, tightening her own hold. "I just…I couldn't give him up, not when…when he brought back memories like that. I just couldn't bring myself to do it" she told Celestia.

"It's alright" the lighter princess said, nuzzling her sister and kissing the top of her head "I forgive you." Luna smiled and nuzzled her back.

"Tia?"

"Hmm."

"Are you still drunk?" Tia hiccupped.

"Why do you keep asking me that?"

"Because I can't decide if you've flushed it from your system with magic or not." Celestia shrugged.

"Where's the fun in that" she asked as she got unsteadily up. "Now, come sister, I must lower the sun and you raise the moon" she said. She sounded impressively regal and sober when she said that, but the illusion was broken when she burped again, her 'derp' face coming back. "When did I eat garlic" she muttered to herself, staggering away before she looked up in thought. "Lu-Lu" she said, looking back "how in the hay do we lower the sun?" Luna burst out laughing, not believing that her sister could forget something she'd been doing for longer than the 'bit' had been in circulation. And that was a long time.

"Don't worry" she said, getting up "I'll show you how." Luna trotted to her swaying sister and helped her trot safely over to the balcony. After a few fail tries, the princess of the night waking up the princess of the day nearly nine times and the sun dropping from the sky like a rock in water, the moon was finally in the sky, one of Luna's pre-planned star patters accompanying it. Luna let her sister lean on her as she guided her back to her bed, letting her drop gracelessly into it. Luna's plan had been to let her sister sleep the booze off but she been pulled off her hooves by Celestia when she'd fallen into bed. "Tia" she giggled "let me go, I've got to get to night court." Celestia responded by spooning her, holding her down and rubbing her femness into Luna's rear end.

"I love you Luna" Tia told her quietly. Luna smiled slightly and held her sister's fore-hoof in her own.

"I love you too Tia, but I must get to night court." She tried getting up, but Celestia had pulled her in further, using her magic to pull the covers over them.

"No" Celestia groaned unhappily, snuggling into her sister. "No, I don't want you to go" she told her sister. Luna giggled, trying to get up again, causing her sister to moan again, holding her down. "Luuuu-Luuuu, don't go" she wailed.

"I'm sorry Tia, I've got to" Luna argued. Celestia shook her head above her.

"No you don't, I know you hate the nobles as much, probably more, than I do. I called off day court because of Blood Moon, why don't you call off night court too" she suggested.

"Because one of us has got to rule our country" she answered. Celesta gave a mocking gasp of shocked offence. She got up and flipped her sister onto her back, pinning her down and proceeding to tickle her with her wings. Luna responded by laughing uproariously, struggling under her sister's hold as she tried to use her strength to throw her off again but couldn't focus her efforts when her sister's strangely skilled feathers ran over her nerves the way they were.

"You meanie" Celestia scolded, a dopey grin on her drunk face, the pink blush on her cheeks making her look impossibly adorable. "I could rule this country with my maw clamped shut" she boasted.

"You-you-hahaha-you're not getting me in on that bet-ha, stop it, stop it-bet again. We-haha-we both know how it turned out last time" she managed to struggle out between bouts of laughter. Celestia kept her grin on her face.

"Y'know, I should punish you for that, for being so mean to me" she said, her wings slowing down and her face moving into her sister's. "I should torture you, maybe send you back to the moon" Luna bit her lip slightly, not liking that threat "or" Celestia said at length, resting on her sister's body. "There could be something so much more…" she stole a surprise peck from her sister's lips, Luna mentally damning herself for letting it happen "satisfying, I could do" Celestia finished.

"Tia, got to bed, you're drunk" Luna told her. Celestia ignored her.

"Tell me Lu-Lu, what I-hic-I was saying earlier, about when you MUST have been getting…bored, shall we call it, on the moon. I was right, wasn't I" she said. Luna averted her gaze, unwilling to look at her sister.

"Tia, I've got to go to night court" Luna tried. Celestia giggled and crossed her hooves on Luna's chest, resting her head on them.

"Come on Lu-Lu, you can tell me" she cooed, her words accompanied by a teasing of pleasure creeping up Luna's spine as her sister's tail brushed past her opening, a whispering tease of friction passing between them.

"Well, I-I of course I sort of…had to, I mean, up there so long, I didn't have anything to do besides go over bad memories, regret doing something as foolish as that and-and…"

"Clop your brains out" Celestia finished. Luna nodded rapidly, her eyes squeezed together.

"And you haven't had a stallion in the whole time you've been here, hmm?" Again, Luna nodded rapidly. "Lu-Lu, I love you, if you're feeling…frustrated at all, I can help you" she told her. She raised her head slightly and removed one of her hooves before she rested her head again; she brushed her hoof along her sister's full lips, pulling it down to reveal the pinker skin hidden behind.

"I-I…night court-"

"Luna, you and I both know you'd rather be here than there on any day of the week" she told her sister.

"T-Tia-"

"Lu-Lu" Celestia cooed, speaking at seductive length. Luna locked her eyes on Celestia's, trying to get out of this in anyway shape or form. She took in Celestia; her cheeks still held that cute, pink drunken blush; her breath still had apple and alcohol on it; her face was about as arousing as heat itself; but no matter how much she wanted the mare laying on top of her, she couldn't get the fact out of her head that the mare was her sister. Her drunk sister, who was kissing her again.

'Ah, to Tartarus with it.'

Luna's fore-legs wrapped around her sister's head and pulled her further in, Celestia grinning into her maw, and let her tongue slip in.

"There's a good filly" Tia cooed as she pulled back a little. Luna ran her tongue roughly up her sister's face.

"Shut up and buck me" she told her sister. Celestia's drunken grin came back, even wider.

"Yes ma'am" she whispered as their hooves got to work on each other. It never occurred to Luna that she hadn't cancelled night court as she started moaning into her sister's maw.

---

Twilight woke up, though she didn't open her eyes. Her mind was unsettled, it hadn't really been settled all day, not to mention all night. Her dreams had been strange, in the manner that she hadn't technically had one; it had been a night of pure black, as though she'd been trotting around Ponyville illuminated only by shadow. She could tell the buildings apart by the silver smog that lingered in the air. She'd been trotting through an infinite town her with thoughts consuming her, though perhaps 'consuming her' was the wrong word. They seemed to invade her mind, batting the door down and crashing on her mental couch and stealing all her ciders. First to the forefront of her mind had been, to her surprise actually, Scootaloo.

She didn't exactly regret telling the filly she'd mother her, should Blood Moon truly take her in that is, but she wasn't exactly…looking for foals, not at her age anyway, though at the same time…she remembered getting frustrated at this point, damning the mental battle going on inside her head. The dream had sort of…personified these thoughts, made them solid; the mist had formed Scootaloo, looking between Twilight and one of the shadow buildings. It was soon revealed to be the orphanage of Ponyville; Twilight had suddenly felt a presence to her side and spotted a stallion of shadow, his face, body, mane and tail quickly revealing Blood Moon. Scootaloo continued glancing between the ponies and the building and Twilight suddenly understood it; it was between having a family and loneliness, and it was her decision what happened. Her answer had been obvious, and was made clear when Scootaloo galloped towards them.

The scene had cut out, and she had replaced it, her and Blood Moon; the smog had formed the town hall, her and Blood Moon dancing around within it. Her and Blood Moon, the stallion she loved. She'd looked to the floor, wondering what he had been doing at the time; Blood Moon was out on a job, killing somepony. She didn't know how she felt about that; she'd hoped that he may be less…willing to go through with murder so easily. That said, she'd have been lying if she's said she was truly surprised by it; he was fifteen thousand years old and was stubborn and set in his ways. He'd known her for just over a week now, so he likely wasn't going to change his ways just on her word.

In her dream, she'd looked up again, to find the scene had changed again; now it was just her again, her only, the day her life in Ponyville had begun. She was laying on her front, the book on Equestrian history lying open in front of her, the legend of the mare in the moon being read by her. It set of a small chain reaction of thought into motion; her life had gone from her simply being a gifted unicorn, to Celestia's student, to the element of magic and so on. How her life had changed so, and it had only gotten stranger and more eventful when she'd met Blood Moon, the main difference being that she was getting involved in some pretty dangerous situations; she'd frowned, since when did she need a stallion to look after her, she was a perfectly capable mare and a powerful unicorn, so how come this stallion, who'd meandered into her life, was now looking after her. She'd have to grill him about that.

Twilight shook the thoughts from her head, not wishing to dwell on it. She suddenly noticed a heat in front of her face, and felt in get closer to her face. She grinned slightly as she felt her coltfriend kiss her, the stallion's lips brushing past hers.

Fluttershy murmured slightly in her sleep, wondering what her dream had just been, trying to get a grasp on it before it flitted away from her again, but she lost it before she could find it again. She felt a warmth close to her face and instinctively shuffled towards it until she found it to be another pony. She grinned slightly, Blood Moon had gotten home last night and she kissed him good morning without opening her eyes.

Twilight furthered her and Blood Moon's kiss, pushing her tongue into his maw, feeling him grin and return her gesture by copying her and pushing his tongue into her own mouth. She put her hoof over his side and pulled him in, feeling his wing do the same and-wait, wing? Twilight opened her eyes to find her butter yellow friend kissing her. She stopped for a second and Fluttershy frowned slightly, opening her eyes to find out what the problem was. Upon doing so, she saw Twilight and her eyes opened slightly. They lay there, staring at each other for a second before they shrugged and closed their eyes softly and restarted their kiss again, moving in even closer as they held each other in their hooves. They separated after a while and leaned back.

"Bet you never thought we'd end up like this when we first met" Twilight whispered. Fluttershy smiled bashfully.

"No, not really" she admitted. They stayed silent for a while until they both had the same thought.

"Fluttershy?"

"Twilight?"

"If I'm kissing you..."

"And I'm kissing you…" Their eyes widened a little.

"Where's Blood Moon" they asked in tandem. Both got up, looking around the room and not spotting the dark stallion, only their friends and Sand Stalker. They trotted silently for the door and pushed it quietly open before they trotted downstairs. Upon doing so, they found Blood Moon, Rarity and the fillies all wrapped up together; Blood Moon and Rarity were close up to each other, his tail over her rear-end and the fillies between them, Scootaloo in Blood Moon's grasp, Sweetie-Belle in Rarity's and Applebloom between them, cuddling up to the stallion's loose fore-leg. The embers of the fire they were sleeping next to were dying down as they approached, having been light all night and lacking additional fuel. Fluttershy and Twilight's hearts melted at the cute little sight. "D'awww" they fussed at once. The sounds of their shared love for the adorable scene stirred Rarity, prompting her to grumble slightly, still retaining her lady-like manner as she did so, as she woke up. The seamstress looked up and around, her mane a little mussed up and her eyes tires. She saw her friends and smiled at them, scratching her head a little.

"Morning" she greeted, Twilight and Fluttershy returning her welcome with one of their own as they helped her up. Sweetie-Belle and Applebloom followed her up, blinking the sand from their eyes. "Morning Sweetie-Belle" Rarity said, wrapping her sister in a hug. The mini pony smiled and hugged back.

"Morning Rarity" she said back. Twilight went to Blood Moon and nudged him to try and awake him.

"Blood Moon" she said at quiet length, a small smile at her face as she watched the bubble on his maw expand and contract as he breathed. She poked him a few times when she got no response. "Blood Moon" she repeated. Her smile turned to a grin. "C'mon Mooney" she said, tugging on her ear lightly with her teeth.

"T-Twilight" a small voice said. Said mare looked down to see Scootaloo looking up at her, prompting Twilight to smile slightly.

"Morning" the magenta mare said, pulling her from the hold of Blood Moon's hooves. "Looks like daddy's not getting up" she said, having not released the filly from her grip just yet. Scootaloo looked back at her sleeping father.

"I'll help" she told Twi. They both took to nudging him and repeating his name for a little while.

"Come on Blood Moon, time to get up." No answer.

"Wake up daddy" Scootaloo giggled, nudging him with her head. Still no answer.

"Blood Moon, come on" Twilight told him. Much of the same.

"Daddy?" The pair of ponies glanced at each other.

"Blood Moon" Twilight asked, sounding alarmed. She glanced back at the other mares and fillies in the room, all of which were exchanging glances between each other in sudden worry. Hunter and Dusk made their way over to them from their spots from the couch landing and stopping next to him; Dusk clambered up his head and started squeaking into his ear while Hunter pecked at his head. "Blood Moon" repeated Twilight, more pushing him than nudging him, her eyes widening as he refused to awaken. "Blood Moon" she shouted into his ear, her voice panicked as the phoenix and mouse glanced at each other. The sound of heavy hooves lumbering down the stairs prompted her to look up, upon doing so she found that the rest of the elements of harmony, Spike, Feather Heart and Sand Stalker had heard the noise and come down to investigate.

"What's with all the ruckus" Sand Stalker asked, looking around the room. Silence was his answer. That, and the look of general concern. "What's going on" he asked, his tone reflecting the mood.

"Blood Moon won't wake up" Twilight told him, still nudging the dark stallion with her hoof. He immediately cantered over to them, easing the killer over onto his back, Hunter flapping off of him, taking Dusk with him and placing him on the arm of the sofa while the bird perched on the back of the chair.

"How long has he been like this" he asked, pulling the stallion's eyelids open to look at the eye. Rarity answered.

"When he got back last night, he seemed to be in a bad way. I patched him up to the best of my ability and he went to sleep. H-he seemed fine at the time" she told them. The merc nodded.

"Anything seem weird at the time" he pressed. Rarity shook her head. "Anything look strange to you about the wounds?"

"The only thing that struck me was the blood loss, I can only imagine how much he had left, never mind how much he'd actually lost." Sand Stalker scratched the back of his neck.

"Blood loss, huh?" He expression showed nothing but thought. "Well, he's alive, else he'd be gone by now" he murmured. He rested his hoof on the murderer's chest and let it linger for a while before he frowned. "Uh-oh" he muttered. Twilight looked panicked.

"Uh-oh? Why 'uh-oh'? Uh-oh's not good, so why the uh-oh?" Sand Stalker didn't answer for a second.

"I can't find a heartbeat" he told her simply. When Twilight gasped, Fluttershy mimicked the action, followed by Rarity and then Feather Heart. Sand Stalker looked the assassin's body up and down, checking for anything out of the ordinary. He put his head to the assassin's chest, listening for something, anything, that could have been a sign of life. "C'mon buddy, wake up, don't go dying on us not, in front of everypony" he muttered to the pony's body. He lay with his head on the assassin's chest for nearly ninety seconds before he heard a very, very feint:

Bum-bum

He immediately looked relieved as his eyes widened in respite and relaxed his body slightly, before straightening and looking at Fluttershy.

"Bring me a mirror" he told her.

"What" she asked in timid confusion.

"A mirror, a piece of glass, something, anything that you can see condensation on" he clarified and explained. Fluttershy nodded and turned to get something, only to find Pinkie with a small hoof-held mirror in her hooves directly behind her, her signature smile on her face. With a quiet 'thanks' she turned back to Sand Stalker and gave it to him. He held it over the assassin's maw and waited for a while, his eyes constantly glancing over the killer's body for further signs of life. After a while of confusion from the mares and silence from the stallion, a puff of light mist gathered on the glass of the mirror. He closed his eyes slowly and straightened up again. "Alright, he's breathing, got a beat but he's not conscious" he told them. Everypony gave a small sigh of relief, something that confused Sand Stalker, apparently the only one who could remember the dark stallion was immortal. Sand spoke up again. "I take it the bandages are from your 'first aid'" he asked. Rarity gave a very slight huff.

'First aid; understatement of the year.'

Twilight's eyes widened when she suddenly noticed how many bandages were across her coltfriend's body, not to mention how thick they were. Rarity had done a good job of it but she was still worried about the condition of her stallion. Sand Stalker had apparently picked up on Twilight's thoughts and spoke up.

"We should take a second look at him; me and Fluttershy have a more practiced hoof with this sort of thing so if any of the wounds have been missed we should pick them out and heal them" he glanced at Rarity "no offense" he added. Rarity shrugged her slender shoulders; the grin on her face telling him that she got the point. "Twilight, you should be able to help too, with your magic" he told her. The mercenary suddenly had the assassin on his back and was taking him into the kitchen, the mares following behind, looking ever so slightly anxious and the assassin's pets bringing up the rear. Twilight lifted Blood Moon off of the mercenary's back and rested him on the table top.

"What happened here" Applejack asked as she looked over the bloody spot Rarity had been fixing up Blood Moon on last night as Hunter and Dusk sat on her hatless head.

"That's where I was taking care of him last night" the white mare answered. Meanwhile, Sand Stalker had taken one of the kitchen knives from the wooden knife-block and cut through the bandages, revealing the wounds beneath. Sand Stalker's eyes widened and a few Arabian curses leaked from his muzzle.

"What is it" Twilight asked, her studies allowing her to understand a few of the worse words. Sand Stalker said nothing, simply prompted her to his side. When she got there, her eyes did the same as his; there was a violent gash on his side, reaching all the way along his side from his now slightly torn cutie mark and up to just below his neck. It was stitched up well, but was still visible to the naked eye.

"You sewed this up" the mustard merc asked Rare. She nodded. He looked back at the piece of artwork that Blood Moon's wounds and put a 'not bad' look on his face. Fluttershy, meanwhile, had been looking over her favorite stallion's wounds and body, looking for any that Rarity hadn't noticed while she'd been sewing him up. She'd apparently found them all and sewed him up properly.

"He looks alright" she supplied the ponies in the room "I don't think Rarity missed any" she added. Sand Stalker nodded silently and took the bandages Fluttershy had offered him. Both Pegasi took to wrapping up the dark stallion, carefully covering up his fresh scars and battle wounds tightly; Fluttershy seemed slightly nervous for it, her lip in a constant state of being bit while her big, innocent eyes were filled the sight of her unconscious coltfriend, covered in new scars, pushing out from the rest of his skin and dark grey fur and adding a blatant level of ugly to his body. Sand Stalker, however, seemed in his element, his days in the army having taught him how to save lives as well as take them. Twilight looked on, silently, wishing she could do more to help them help her coltfriend.

After a small while, Blood Moon was wrapped up again and ready to be moved to more comfortable surroundings. Twilight levitated the assassin onto Sand Stalker's back, who carried him gently up the stairs and rested him on the bed Blood Moon and Twilight, and more recently Fluttershy, had been sharing. When he was resting comfortably on his back, the rest of the ponies gathered around him and his pets took to their perches.

"I never thought I'd see him so…" Rainbowdash trailed off.

"Helpless" Sand Stalker finished for her. The cyan blue Pegasus nodded without a word. Everypony else felt the same way; it was seemingly impossible transformation from the master assassin that was Blood Moon to the crippled stallion before them. Feather Heart glanced at Twilight and Fluttershy, spying the concern in their faces. Before she allowed herself to think about it she turned her gaze to Rarity; just as much concern on her face as the other two mares. She shook her head again, getting her thoughts on track. She moved over to her.

"Rarity, could I speak to you" she asked quietly. The white mare nodded quietly and moved to the other side of the room with her. When they were appropriately far away from the rest of the ponies, Feather spoke up again. "Listen, I know this is a little inappropriate but…did Blood Moon say anything about the contract last night?" Rarity glanced back at Blood Moon's unmoving body.

"Yes, he told me that Fancy Pants was behind it, but he was being blackmailed by the Goldhooves to do it" she told her "I can only guess from that, that he was…successful in his…endeavour" she told the secretary. Feather Heart nodded slightly.

"Alright, thanks" she said quietly. They went back to the congregation of ponies and looked over the assassin.

"Alright, we're not doing anything standing here worrying, everypony go about your business" Sand Stalker said, his tone of voice leaving no room for argument. The majority of the mares and fillies went about the room, retiring to their beds. Only Twilight, Fluttershy, Feather Heart and Scootaloo refused to move; Scootaloo was clinging to his chest; Feather Heart was stood at the bottom of the bed; Fluttershy was lying besides him, resting on her front with her hooves beneath her; and Twilight was stood beside the bed, her hoof resting on the assassin's.

"We're gonna look after him" Twilight said, gesturing to Fluttershy. Sand Stalker shrugged and didn't offer an argument.

"I've got to report this to Mayor Mare; tell her about how it went" Feather Heart told them. They nodded. "Give him my best when he wakes up, will you?" Twilight nodded. She didn't know the secretary well, but from what she'd seen and heard of her, she seemed nice.

"Sure, see you" she answered. Fluttershy offered a small smile in way of goodbye and Feather Heart nodded slightly as she went. Fluttershy looked up at Twilight.

"What do we do" she asked quietly. Twilight moved closer to the bed and ran her hoof over the assassin's fore-head.

"We look after him" she answered just as simply.

They did just that. The day went by slowly, each second stretching into a minute and each minute into an hour and each hour seemed to stretch into an immeasurable amount of time. None of them could really bring themselves to do anything; even Sand Stalker seemed more… quiet. Twilight, Fluttershy and Scootaloo watched over the assassin, Scootaloo simply refusing to leave him alone while Twilight and Fluttershy made sure there were no developments in his condition. They didn't know if there were any infections, nor were they willing to risk it, and Twilight couldn't use any magic to heal him or even check the wounds, because she didn't know the spell to check somepony without their own brain waves to guide her to the pain receptors that were fired up. Fluttershy took care of the more 'hooves-on' aspects of his recovery; keeping him comfortable, warm, changing his bandages now and then and doing what she could to keep his wounds clean.

Blood Moon responded to very little, if anything at all, and it was all they could do to keep themselves calm when he seemed to have stopped breathing. Sand Stalker had solved that problem when he'd hit the assassin so hard he'd probably broken some ribs, but had gotten his breathing started again. All the time they watched over him, Rarity would always seem to be watching his shallow breathing, his lack of facial expression and any signs of life. Her looks at him lingered, lingered longer than anypony else's, and her focus couldn't go anywhere else. As night fell, nothing had changed; Blood Moon was still unconscious, Twilight, Fluttershy and Scootaloo were still sat next to him and everypony else seemed awkwardly quiet. As quiet as the almost dead un-killable stallion.

---

Luna and Celestia rolled apart from each other. Their sixth round so far. Luna hadn't a clue how powerful either Cadence's 'love potion' was or how powerful Celestia's libido was but she didn't really care right now, all's she really cared about was that she was finally getting some relief that wasn't coming from her own hooves. She didn't even care that it was Tia bucking her; she was having too much fun. With juices on their muzzle and cum in their mouths, they re-joined their lips again for the umpteenth time that night and groaned into each other's maws. The sheets were strewn about and drenched in sweat, both Alicorn's love juices and cum staining numerous spots; the pillows having already put their hat on, packed their suitcases and left the scene; their screams and groans of pleasure had attracted the attention of no small amount of palace staff and guards, all of them either wondering what was going on or wide eyes and ridged at the concept of what they really hoped wasn't going on up there, going on up there.

Panting in exhaustion and pleasure, Luna crawled into her sister's open fore-legs as they hugged again, Celestia's horn aglow in golden magic as she used it to thrust Luna's dark blue rubber horse-cock into her, while Luna did the same with her own magic, thrusting Celestia's white and gold dildo into her royal marehood, both losing a light pant when the rubber cocks thrust inside them.

"I'm so glad you came around" Celestia said breathlessly, her words punctuated with sharp gasps.

"Me-me too" the princess of the night replied, her own breaths slightly ragged. Luna turned over in her sister's grip and lay on top of her, their lips back together. The white mare's hooves had feint grooves around them from where Luna had tied her up earlier; while Luna's rear end was red raw with pain from where Celestia had spanked her. "Can you think of anything else" she asked when she pulled back. Tia put a hoof to her chin in thought before she looked to her left and levitated the small notepad over to them as Lu-Lu rolled back over, lying beside her while they held each other.

"Let's see; we've scissored, sixty-nined, used our dildos, BDSM, I've spanked you" she said, pulling out the rubber horse cock and slapping it against Luna's ass, the younger sister gasping slightly.

"You sure did, Tia" Luna purred, her sister responding by chuckling, reengaging their kiss and grinding the sex toy between her Luna's butt cheeks before she crammed it roughly back into her femness.

"Now, let's see, what else" Celestia continued as she used her magic to lift the princess of night off of her before rotating her and plopping her back down, their sexes in each other's face. Luna quickly took the gold and white dildo in front of her face in her hoof and thrust it into her sister's pussy, her tongue working at Tia's clit. Celestia pulled the dildo from Luna's marehood and ran her tongue along it, getting a good load of Luna's sweet, night-cool juices before she kissed the tip. "It's just not the same as a real, big, sweaty, pulsing, stinky dick inside you" she sighed longingly as she rubbed the sex toy up and down Luna's slit "and you won't let us bring in one of the guards" she pouted. Luna giggled and bucked her pussy into her sister's face.

"No, you're all mine tonight" she told her. The princess of the day giggled in response before a near insane expression washed over her face and she spun the rubber stallionhood in her hoof and stabbed the huge rubber cock into her sister's tight ass. The combination of optimal size differences prompted a primal scream of agony and pleasure from Luna's maw, the darker princess throwing her head back and a dark red blush igniting across her face. "OOOOHHHH YES" she growled her voice primitive and fueled by pure and unbridled ecstasy. Luna gasped heavily as her head rested on Celestia's stuffed slit, a wide smile on her face.

"I never knew you were such a sex-fiend, sister" Tia giggled. Luna answered with a particularly powerful thrust with her hoof.

"Coming from you, Molestia" the darker princess retorted. She went on to cram her muzzle into the princess of the night's marehood, getting a good whiff of Luna's scent, her nose pushing against her clit. The marehood's owner shuddered and groaned, squirming her opening into Celestia's face as the princess of day smiled and used her tongue to probe deep inside her cunt, withdrawing her sister's cum and juices on her oral organ. Luna hummed in pleasure as she relaxed into ecstasy, absentmindedly pushing the dildo in and out and teasing around Celestia pearl softly. "And you accuse me of being the clopper of the family. From the feel of it, you've been eating out every mare you've come across" Luna playfully taunted. The white mare gasped and laughed at the same time, shoving Luna's rubber member deep into her ass, going until the base of the horse cock almost disappeared inside her tight ass-ring. Tia lifted Luna with her magic and flipped her around until they were face-to-face again and mashed their lips together. Celestia rolled them over until she was on top, having pulled her dildo out and crammed the wrong end of it into her femness before she thrust it back into Luna's pussy, the princess of the night suddenly treated to a double penetrating from her sister and the dildo stuffed up her ass.

"That was mean, you big meanie" she pouted. Luna lay with her legs spread wide for her sister, as her fore-legs rested on her chest, her whole body moving in tandem with each thrust.

"I-I-I, oh buck, ohhhh buck ahh" was all Luna could come out with in response. Celestia grinned at her sister's squirming, sweating form and stopped thrusting into her. The princess of the night looked over her body at Tia. "C-come on, what are you waiting for? Horny right here!" Tia shrugged and leaned forwards.

"You're a little whores aren't you, a little slut. Admit it Lu-Lu" she ordered with a sultry grin "even when I'm the one with the…how did you put it, 'heated loins' you just can't help but spread your legs" she told her. Luna's expression turned hurt, and slightly sour, as she rested her head on its side.

"Tia, now you're the one being mean. You know I don't like being called a slut or whorse" she murmured. Celestia eyes widened for a second and she fell forwards onto Luna.

"Oh, oh I'm so sorry Lu-Lu. I-I forgot" she admitted. Luna smiled grimly and wrapped her legs around her sister's neck. As they lay together, a small chiming caught their attention. They looked to the clock in Celestia room.

"It…it's alright sister" Luna said quietly. She wasn't sure if she was being sincere or not.

"Five o'clock" Tia observed. Luna had looked at the clock too and looked back at her sister with a sultry grin on her face.

"Then let's make this one count" she said told her sister. The princess of the day chuckled as she got up again, before they started grunting in bliss and pleasure as Celestia started thrusting into her sister.

"Y'know Lu-Lu, I'm getting a strange sense of pride right now." As her body was thrust forwards, Luna had raised an eyebrow.

"Y-you're proud I want you bucking me?" Celestia shrugged.

"Love works in mysterious ways" she answered before Luna clamped her lips on her sister's and got lost in the whirlwind of pleasure that was getting bucked by her sister.

---

It was the second day of Blood Moon's recovery, and things were not going well; when Twilight, Scootaloo and Fluttershy woke up, the stallion they were sleeping around was hot. Uncomfortably so. Impossibly so. The fever had come from nowhere, and it didn't seem to want to go back there. His whole body seemed to have lit up in a small inferno, as though a volcano had erupted inside him. Twilight had used her magic to try and sooth him, a few basic medical spells to calm down his immune system so it would stop burning up his body to possibly fatal degrees while it burned up the infection that had set it off, but none had worked. And they knew it was an infection, because his wounds told them so. Despite the amount of disinfectant Rarity had applied to the open wounds, apparently an infection had gotten in anyhow, something that confused the seamstress to no end, considering how much of the sterilizer she'd applied. The largest of the wounds that plagued his body seemed to have developed a huge, ugly, blistering boils along the spots the needle had gone in, yellow and hideous from the infected puss that they hid within.

To make matters worse, everypony was in a panic; Fluttershy was in the air, floating around in freaked out circles, going rapidly around as she clopped her hooves nervously together, one of which was wrapped in bandages to cover the burn on her hoof from when she first checked his temperature by putting her hoof to his head and getting second degree burns for her trouble; Applejack was having a hard time keeping Scootaloo calm, alongside Sweetie-Belle and Applebloom who were laying besides her wide-eyed and distressed form, while Applejack tried to reassure her that things would all turn out alright; Rarity had started blaming herself, trotting around in circles in the same way Fluttershy was going around in the air and muttering gravely to herself; Rainbowdash was feeling useless, sat on the side-lines and being forced to watch and not take action, that being perhaps the thing she hated most, the fact that Ponyville's most awesome Pegasus was useless; Pinkie Pie had lost her smile, prompting everypony to do the same, and her colours were darker than usual, though thankfully her mane and tail hadn't gone straight; Spike was in much the same position as Rainbowdash, reduced to sitting on the side-lines and watch everypony act out. Hunter and Dusk watched from their spots next to the assassin and Twilight's bed, observing the ponies with confused expressions on their faces. Only Twilight and Sand Stalker seemed to be right of mind, Twilight trying to calm everypony while the merc poured through Fluttershy's books on illness for the fifteenth time to try and found out what in Equestria was going on with the assassin.

"Come on everypony, calm down" the magenta mare implored her friends. Her words were lost on them as they continued to panic. Fluttershy, to her credit, seemed to have at least heard an echo of something from Twilight's lips and stopped her crazed flying and whipped her head at her.

"Twilight, how can we calm down, look at him" she told her, gesturing at the stallion on the bed; his breathing had gone from shallow and nearly none existent to laboured and hard, his chest rising and falling hard and deep. "If he gets any worse he could die" she exclaimed. Sand Stalker glanced up at her.

"Fluttershy, you do know he's-"

"But do you really want him to go through all of that pain? If he dies he'll come back but…" she trailed off and looked over him "at what price" she finished. The mustard Pegasus and purple unicorn went a little quite at that; if it were them who were in Blood Moon's position, would they be willing to go through so much to come back? Sand Stalker wasn't sure how much pain he would go through, but Twilight couldn't help but shudder whenever she thought about how much torture he'd go through just to come back to a life she wasn't sure he all-together liked. Fluttershy had gotten closer to him and lay down beside him.

"W-what if he gets worse? What do we do" she asked hopelessly. Her answer was a shrug and a nervus lip bite.

"I…I don't know Fluttershy…I just don't know" Twilight told her, hanging her head. Sand Stalker looked up at the rest of the ponies.

"You may wanna give us some room" he told them "I don't know if this is contagious and I'm pretty sure Blood wouldn't forgive me if I let you all stay here and risk you getting whatever he's got" he told them. They all nodded and left the room one by one, Scootaloo refusing to leave his side until Rainbowdash picked her up in her fore-hooves and flew out of the room with her. He looked back at Blood Moon. "How's he doing?"

"Oh my" Fluttershy whispered as she pulled her hoof away from his fore-head, the scorch

mark smoking slightly. "His temperature has shot up" she told the gathered ponies. Sand Stalker raised his eyebrow.

"Again? That's the fifth time in an hour, what's he up to?" Fluttershy hesitated.

"Thee hundred and ten" she answered "it's a miracle he's still alive" she added quietly, not wanting to admit it. Sand Stalker had heard her and shrugged.

"He's as stubborn as a mule with a cinder block tied to each leg. He's not likely to go down without a fight."

"And we're not willing to let him go down at all" Twilight told him. The merc turned to her.

"What do you suggest we do? Fluttershy's a vet, not a doctor; I'm a field medic, not a doctor; and you don't have the spells to heal this thing either." He looked back at the burning assassin. "What do we do" he asked. Twilight thought about it for a while until she brightened up.

"Who did we go to the last time we needed a cure for something" she asked. The mustard mercenary raised an eyebrow.

"That zebra? Zecora." Twilight nodded.

"Yeah, I should be able to teleport to her hut and bring her here. I'll be there and back in no time." Sand Stalker thought about it; they had no better option to go with, no other plan and there wasn't much he could do here anyway.

"Alright, but try to be as quick as you can" he told her. Twilight nodded, focused her magic in her horn, pictured Zecora's hut and, with a flash of light and magic, appeared outside the alchemist's hut.

With an urgent spring in her step, Twilight cantered over to Zecora's door and knocked on it, hopping in one place in hurried panic. When it opened, she wasted no time.

"Blood Moon! In bad shape! Need help bad!" Zecora blinked.

"Huh?"

"Blood. Moon. In. Bad. Shape. Need. Help. Bad." Zecora face-hoofed

"Why don't you take it slow, so you can tell me what I need to know." Twilight closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and pushing her hoof away, using the stress reliving technique Cadence had taught her.

"Zecora, Blood Moon's in a bad way. His temperature has shot up, and nopony knows what to do" she explained, slower this time. Zecora put her hoof to her chin and nodded.

"Hmm, I see. Come inside, and I'll try to help thee" she told her, opening the door and stepping aside. Twilight nodded and entered, trotting inside Zecora's hut. The door closed itself as Zecora stepped away from it and the zebra looked around her shelves. "Tell me Twilight; what brings you here to me in such a plight?" Twilight sat at the table to the side at the room at Zecora's invitation, a cup of hot brew before her.

"Well, Blood Moon got back from…" she fished for an appropriate word "a job last night, and when we found him yesterday morning, he was in a pretty bad way. This morning he developed a fever and I think an infection. Nopony knows what to do." Zecora put a hoof to her chin.

"I see, you were wise to come to me" she answered. Twilight brightened up.

"So you can help him! Oh, thank you Zecora" the purple mare exclaimed. The zebra smiled kindly.

"I'll see what I can do dear Twilight, but first you'll have to give me details of Blood Moon's plight" she told the unicorn. Twilight nodded as she cast her mind back to her coltfriend's condition.

"Well, his scar had all boils and puss where the needle went in and he developed a really bad fever this morning which just won't stop going up." Zecora nodded.

"Tell me about the things that were used, they were un-abused?" Twilight raised an eyebrow.

"You mean was the needle clean?" Zecora nodded. "Well, they were Rarity's needles, I'm pretty sure it would be hard to find a hospital more sterile" she commented. The zebra smiled and chuckled.

"You'll find no argument from me to be sure, but to be honest I'd say it's as simple as a temperature" she said with a slight shrug. The magenta mare bit her lip slightly.

"Alright, but I'd appreciate you coming over just to make sure." The black and white equine smiled kindly.

"Of course my friend, I'll see this through to the end" she reassured. The zebra packed a few pink, green and clear bottles into a brown saddle-bag before she threw her brown travel cloak on and trotted over to the door. "Well, I'm ready to go, shall we make it so?" Twilight nodded, stood and trotted over to the zebra mare, standing close by when the flash went off as they disappeared from Zecora's hut, before reappearing back at Fluttershy's cottage.

"Come on, he's upstairs" the purple mare told the zebra as she cantered to the door and swung it open. The ponies in the front room turned to look at them, finding the pair of mares looking back.

"Twi? When did ya'll leave" Applejack asked, her eyebrow raised in confusion.

"I teleported, no time to talk, gotta get to Blood Moon" she blurted as she rushed past them, spinning the orange, pink and white mares as she passed them by, Zecora following close behind. Twilight opened the door to Fluttershy's room and went straight to the dark stallion in her bed. "How is he" she asked. Sand Stalker shrugged.

"He hasn't changed much, but I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing" he answered. He looked to Zecora and nodded a gentlecoltly nod. Zecora shot him a short lopsided smile before she moved to the assassin and looked him over. She checked every inch of him, his hooves, his legs, his mouth and tongue, even his unmentionables. Looking back at the mares with a blush on their faces and the stallion with a raised eyebrow, she rubbed her chin in thought.

"Strange" she muttered, glancing at the merc "you say there has been no change?" The elderly stallion blinked at the rhyme before he shrugged.

"Pretty much, yeah. Well, his temperature's gone up again but given how often that's been happening, it didn't seem important." The black and white mare cocked her head.

"His temperature you say? What is it now, if I-ow" she exclaimed when she put her hoof to his fore-head, pulling it back when it scorched her, flapping it to relieve the pain and sucking on it with an aggravated look on her face.

"Four-fifty, last I checked" Fluttershy murmured. Zecora looked back at the stallion.

"That is something I don't doubt" she murmured before she looked around the room "would you care to tell me what this is all about?" Twilight went on to explain how Blood Moon had acquired his wounds, how they had found him yesterday and what had happened this morning. "You don't say" Zecora commented when the purple unicorn had finished "quite the eventful day." She looked back at the wounds on the assassin's body and took a more thorough look at them; the zebra prodded around the ugly yellow/green sores, watching as they bounced back into shape when she pushed down on them; Blood Moon cringed slightly in his sleep every time she pushed down on them, but beyond that they got no reaction. She cocked her head to the side and bit her lip in thought before she looked back at the other ponies. "Hmm, it seems that they cause him pain, but I doubt they will be his bane" she told them as she pulled some things from her saddle-bag. "Pain relieving ointment ought do the trick, but give him a shot of this, should he get more sick" she explained to the gathered ponies. She gave Twilight a dark green bottle of something that didn't look nice to…well, anything with. She placed the green bottle on the bedside table, the dark stallion somehow shuffling away from it in his slumber.

"Do you have any idea what this all is" Sand Stalker asked from the side lines. Zecora looked back at him for a second before she examined the boils again.

"I am not sure, but I may have a way to find out more" she told him. Zecora trotted over to the chair the Pegasus had been sleeping on and picked up his sword from its scabbard, holding it in her maw and carrying it to the assassin, the blade's owner watching with a raised eyebrow, and took it in her hooves; she carefully stabbed the point of the weapon into one of the sores, the puss within seeping out of it and onto the blade. She raised the blade and supposedly infectious mess to her face, examining carefully.

"Wanna tell me why you're screwing with a stallion's blade" the merc asked. Zecora glanced at him before she went back to examining the stuff on the weapon.

"I'm trying to answer your question" she told him pointedly "do you have another suggestion?" The mercenary grunted at her answer. Zecora cocked her head to the side and took a clear bottle from the saddle bag; she angled the blade down into the opening and let the puss drip inside; she spun the bottle a few times to let it mix. The mixture bubbled and suddenly started raging inside the bottle; Zecora's eyes widened and she crammed the cork inside the bottle neck and held it away from her as it exploded slightly inside the, thankfully, reinforced glass container. Everypony had dived for cover; Twilight hiding behind the bed, Fluttershy cowering behind her coltfriend, Sand Stalker putting a wing in front of his face and Zecora holding the bottle as far away from her face as possible as she turned her head away. Once the pintsized catastrophe was done with, everypony looked back at the bottle which had black smoke rising from the bottle around the cork.

"By the sweet golden sands, what in Tartarus was that" Sand Stalker demanded. The zebra blinked a few times in utter confusion at what had just happened.

"I…I do not know, but the reaction was not supposed to happen so" she told them.

"What was supposed to happen" Twilight asked.

"It was supposed to change hue, to tell us the purpose of the goo" she explained.

"Combustion was not my assumption" she murmured.

"So, do we know anything from that" the merc asked. Zecora took another look at the phial in her hoof and looked at the colour; it had gone from its ugly yellow/green to a dark and murky puke green/yellow that made the zebra want to throw up slightly. She uncorked it to try and get a better reading from it and took a-

"AH, NO! PUT IT BACK IN, PUT IT BACK IN" Sand Stalker told her, having clamped his hoof over his muzzle in an attempt to block the smell, but it had already gotten in, already invaded his nostrils with no intention of getting out again. Zecora was only too happy to oblige and slammed the cork back into the bottle, but it was too late; Fluttershy and Twilight had already dashed out of the room with speeds Rainbowdash would be proud of so they could get to the bathroom and then the toilet so they could spew their guts up. The zebra tried to hold her ground against the rising-no, she was already out of the room and in the bathroom, following Twilight and Fluttershy in the great Equestria pastime that was throwing up. After fifteen minutes of the sounds of heaving coming from the white-tiled room, the three mares trotted wobbly back into the room, Fluttershy still a bit green, and sat wearily down again. "So…you were saying" the mercenary asked quietly. The zebra swallowed slightly before she answered.

"I…I am not sure, nothing like this has ever happened before. For as long as I have used this potion, has it caused such a commotion" she told them "the colour, the smell…this hasn't gone well."

"Noted" the merc muttered "but do you have any idea about what all this is all about; the boils, the puss inside and this temperature…I've been around a bit but I've never seen anything like this" he told them, shaking his head slowly. Twilight scratched her head slightly, silently agreeing with the merc. Zecora looked the assassin up and down, the wound on his side holding her attention most before she looked back at the phial in her hoof; she didn't recognise the colour, puke green hadn't been one of the colours her mother had told her about when she'd taught her the identifier, but green tended to mean that whatever the reactant was healing or at least un-harmful to the pony. That said, the yellow hue troubled her, seeing as it tended to mean that whatever was in the substance was acidic. Healing and acidic? How does that work? Blood Moon wasn't moving, his breathing was deep and heavy but didn't seem strained, that said, his temperature hadn't gone down at all, he still sweated heavily and his wound was still badly infected, or whatever the sores were. She ran a hoof over her face, not knowing what to do with the dark stallion.

"What should we do with him" Fluttershy asked from his side. She put her hoof over the stallion's fore-head, feeling the heat radiating from him, and decided something needed to be done with him in order to keep him from dying.

"Leave him be for now, there's nothing we can do for him when we don't even know what's wrong with him" Sand Stalker said, retiring to his seat. Twilight wanted to argue with the mercenary but couldn't think of an argument, they really didn't know what was up with the stallion so there was nothing they could do for him right now. With a deep breath through her nose, Twilight nodded slightly and rested on the bed next to Fluttershy and Blood Moon. Zecora scratched the back of her head unsurely, her Mohawk shifting with her movements, and took a deep breath in though; the stallion's condition troubled her, but what troubled her more was that she didn't know what his condition actually was; it sort of got on her nerves.

"I agree" she told them "bit I'd like to take some of this with me, to try and find out what it's all about" she said. None of them offered an argument as she burst a few of the boils and set the contents into a few empty bottles found in her saddle bag. She spotted Twi and Fluttershy's grim looks and gave them a reassuring smile. "Do not fret, I don't think his condition is much of a threat" she told them before trotting over and putting a reassuring hoof on the Pegasus's shoulder. "Simply do as I said" she told them, gesturing at the potion resting on the bedside table "and you'll soon wake up the sleepyhead" she told them, patting the mare's shoulder softly before she stood up and left them.

After a small while in silence, Twilight spoke up.

"So, what do we do" she asked everypony, yet nopony. Sand Stalker was sat on his chair, his head propped up with his left fore-hoof and his face set in a look of frustration. Fluttershy was lying next to Blood Moon, or at least as close as she could get with his temperature, and Twilight was sat close by him, sat on her haunches. Before long everypony else had come back up the stairs, asking what was going on and how Blood Moon was fairing. She answered their questions with a tired voice, avoiding Pinkie's query about what all the heaving sounds had been about earlier.

When night came again, little more had changed; Blood Moon was still unconscious, Fluttershy and Twilight hadn't left his side, Sand Stalker was still quiet, the rest of the elements of harmony were quiet with worry and Scootaloo was still next to him, though she kept her distance at Twilight's recommendation. It was an unnatural silence that took hold of Fluttershy's cottage, so much so that the critters had come upstairs to investigate the lack of noise; Angle Bunny padded over to 'Shy, sitting next to her and rubbing her head comfortingly, before Fluttershy grabbed him and snuggled down with him, glad for some comforting company. Hunter had flapped off the bedpost and landed next to Twilight, who petted his head as he cooed softly at her. Twilight moved next to Blood Moon on the bed, beside Fluttershy, Angel and Scootaloo, the four of them soon falling asleep.

---

Celestia's eye fluttered open and her mind unscrambled. The task took her awhile, having drunk almost half her own weight in booze and having, from what she could only guess, a pretty rough night last night. She sat up, her alcohol stricken mind and body making it hard on her. As she raised herself, she felt something holding her down; she grumbled slightly and looked down at what was preventing her from getting up, she supposed it was her sheets tangled or something, but what she found was her sister, princess Luna laying down with a satisfied smile on her face as she cuddled her sister lovingly. Celestia smiled slightly at the image before she realised what it entailed; her sister was sleeping with her, suggesting she hadn't gone to night-

'Oh, by the sun' she thought when she remembered what had happened last night; it was fuzzy, unclear and she wasn't sure if her mind was playing tricks on her. She looked around for evidence pointing to what might have happened last night; the sheets were strewn around and sweaty, upon closer inspection she found a few tears in them and stains she didn't like the looks of on them; the air around them didn't smell right, it wasn't clean and was heavy with a scent she'd never want to smell in a position like this. She threw the covers off of her and took a look at her body; sweat cast a shimmer over her body and made her stink of perspiration, but she'd take BO over the stench of sex any day; her hooves were caked in a sticky, almost invisible fluid but with a dainty lick, it was clear that it was marehood lubrication; she noticed the taste lingering on her tongue, she swirled her saliva around her mouth and got a taste for what it was, and it all became clear as to what was in her mouth.

With a heavy blush she pulled away from her sister, struggling free from her Luna's fore-hooves and standing up, backing away from the bed. Luna had apparently felt her sister's escape and woke up with her, blinking her eyes open against the bright glow of the moon. Luna yawned deeply as she stretched her fore and hind legs out, a few cracks sounding as she did. The princess of the night grumbled slightly to herself as she woke up, rubbing the sand from her eyes before she spotted her sister stood beside the bed, smiling kindly upon slight of her.

"Morning Tia" she greeted. Celestia smiled unsteadily at Luna's salutation and didn't offer a reply.

"L-Luna…why are you in my bed" the white mare asked uneasily. Luna's expression dropped slightly.

"I…take it you don't remember what…happened last night" Luna mumbled. Celestia swallowed timidly.

"Oh…I remember alright." The darker mare looked at the lighter one, wondering if her remembering was a good thing or a bad thing. "Luna…last night…did you…" When she trailed off, Luna couldn't help but feel just a little insulted when she said 'you'.

"It was more of an 'us' sort of thing. Hay, you started it" she argued. Celestia put a stern look on her face, aimed at her sister.

"You let it happen, do you realise what this could mean if anypony found out about this, our reputation would be ruined, if anypony found out about the two of us doing something like that, they'd have the worst kind of blackmail on us, and there'd be nothing we could do about it" she exclaimed, pacing back and forth throughout her rant.

"Well don't act like this is just my fault, you're the one who started kissing me!" Celestia rounded on Luna.

"And you're telling me you couldn't stop yourself! Couldn't stop me? Luna, I was drunk and under the influence of some kind of…"

"It was a love potion gone wrong" Luna spat. "Or don't you remember that either?" Celestia narrowed her eyes.

"Yes, actually, I do. One of the ones that inflames the loins?"

"Or turns you into a whorse, as you so eloquently put last night" Luna retorted. The princess of the night had stud up now, standing chest to chest with her sister, both snarling into each other's face.

"Are you accusing me of being a whorse" Celestia demanded. She kept her voice low and threatening, hissing her words out violently but calmly.

"There's no accusing about it" Luna shouted, her voice on the opposite end of the angry-scale. "You have no idea about the way you were acting last night, do you" the darker mare demanded "because if you did, you'd know that you're more at fault here than me!" Celestia's expression went patronising, her eyebrow raised with it.

"Oh, really? Care to elaborate, dear sister?" Luna snorted, the blast of air visible through her muzzle.

"Oh, proof you're after, huh" she asked as she started trotting around her sister, Celestia watching as her sister went in circles around her. "How's about all the times I tried to get to night court, but you insisted I stay." She trotted around Tia, swaying her flank in a display of visual sarcasm. "Or maybe, the nice leprechaun living inside your liquor cabinet" she growled into Celestia's face, pointing her hoof at said cabinet. "Or how about 'it's my pussy" she mimicked, slurring her words "it's mah hoof. I'll do what I want with 'em'?" Celestia was now blushing, and refusing to make eye contact with Luna as she continued to remind her what she'd done last night. Luna continued to list what Celestia had done last night; it was supposed to be common knowledge that Luna and Celestia were 'co-rulers' but anypony who knew anything about politics knew that Celestia was the dominate sister between the two, and at the top of the food chain in Equestria; she answered to nopony and nopony told her when she'd done wrong. This was her chance to turn the tables on her, let her know what it felt like to have somepony on top of you.

'Bad choice of words Luna' the princess of night thought.

Luna rounded on Celestia quickly, in an attempt to hide her sudden blush, and continued with her rant. "Piss blind drunk and horny as buck, perhaps" she asked, pointing a hoof at Tia. "Or maybe my favourite; when you told me to clean off your hoof, which was covered in your juices I might add, just so I could get you to tell me about Blood Moon" she blurted. Celestia raised an eyebrow and Luna, once more trying to claw back the words, clamping her hooves to her maw.

"Blood Moon" Celestia repeated, looking down in thought before she snapped her gaze up and locked it on a suddenly scared Luna. "I remember" she mumbled before her expression hardened "you knew where he was" she asked, her eyes narrowed.

"Celestia-"

"YOU KNEW WHERE HE WAS AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME!" She roared in the Canterlot voice, blowing the air around Luna and whipping her mane and tail around her.

"Tia, listen to me-" Celestia pounced and pinned the princess of the night down. Although, unlike last night, the darker princes was more terrified than simply uncomfortable.

"DON'T CALL ME TIA AT A TIME LIKE THIS" she roared, Luna's face getting blown around from the force "HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME YOU KNEW WHERE HE WAS!" Luan suddenly got angry and threw the princess of day off of her, rolling to her hooves.

"YOU'RE ONE TO TALK" she retorted once Celestia had landed on her hooves "YOU DIDN'T TELL ME YOU KNEW WHERE HE WAS" she demanded. Celestia snarled at her as they advanced until their muzzles were pushed up against each other.

"Because I knew you wouldn't be able to handle it" she answered. Luna snarled back.

"I'm not a filly anymore Celestia" she told her sister savagely "I can take whatever you can take" she barked. Celestia sneered, an ugly expression on a pretty face that did no good for her looks.

"Ha, little Luna thinks she can take old uncle Blood coming back" she laughed, hurting Luna deep in her chest "don't you remember Lu-Lu" she asked, using the pet name mockingly "you already told me you spoke to him in his dreams" she said, leading back and prodding Luna's head, causing the dark mare to cringe slightly. Celestia trotted away, shaking her head. "Get ready to lower the moon you silly filly, we'll talk more on this later." Luna gaped.

"WHAT" she roared in the Canterlot voice. "HOW DARE YOU TALK TO ME IN SUCH A FASHION!" Celestia turned back to her sister to find her cantering up to her. "YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SPEAK TO ME IN SUCH A FASHION" she told her sister, jabbing her in the chest with her hoof. Celestia grabbed her hoof in her own when she went to pull back and put her face in Luna's.

"No right? I'll tell you what my right is; my RIGHT is that when you start acting like a filly, I'LL DAMN WELL TREAT YOU LIKE ONE!" Luna raised an eyebrow of her own.

"Acting like a filly? How, pray tell, am I acting like a filly?"

"Because" Celestia seethed "I told you, I. Damn. Well. TOLD you, NOT to let him TALK. When I told you to try and find him, I ordered you, not to let him speak. And it was for precisely this reason, because I knew you wouldn't be able to take it, I knew you wouldn't be able to keep him out of your head you FOOL!" Luna's hoof struck the ground so hard the marble flooring cracked and splinted.

"You 'told' me? You 'ordered' me" she asked. Luna turned away, and started shaking; Celestia, from her angle, thought her sister was crying but when she turned back she found that Luna hadn't been crying. She'd been enraged. "You. Don't. Tell. Me." Luna's neck twitched as an unfathomable amount of rage bubbled beneath the surface. "ANYTHING" she bellowed, the sheer power of her voice throwing a few of the guards around the palace off of their hooves. "I AM PRINCESS LUNA, PRINCESS OF THE NIGHT AND YOU DO NOT RULE ME!"

"You dare defy me sister, do not think yourself above treason Luna" she hissed. Luna glared.

"Don't you even realise what this is sister? This is you're inability to take responsibility for your actions! YOU got drunk! YOU drank the love potion! YOU let slip that you knew where Blood Moon was. This is on YOUR head Tia, not mine!" Celestia rolled her eyes.

"Bull shit, if you hadn't been such a whorse last night this wouldn't have-" she didn't get any further before Luna slapped her.

"You know I hate being called a whorse Celestia" Luna told her with tears threatening to spill. Celestia rolled her eyes again, rubbing her cheek where Luna had struck her. She didn't let it show but it hurt like buck.

"Oh, grow up Luna" she told her sister. Luna growled.

"'Grow up'" she demanded "you're the one who needs to grow up. You can't see that you have some kind of problem, do you? You can't see past your own royal snout that you're at fault here and that this all happened because of you! You keep trying to pass blame onto me, not for the first time, and it's all because you can't see that it's your fault! You can't see that although I may have…gone along with you, it was you who convinced me with your…talk of clopping on the moon and not having any company in more than a millennia. Why can't see that you seduced me Tia?" Celestia snorted dismissively.

"Because it wasn't me who went along with it, now do as I say and-" Luna had tried to strike her sister again, but the white mare caught it out of the air. When Luna tried to pull back Celestia wouldn't let her, her eyes half lidded in laid back rage before she pulled her in and slammed her fore-head into the bridge of Luna's nose and sent her stumbling back, blood leaking from her muzzle and tears falling from her eyes. "Do as you're told Luna, and NEVER try to strike me again, else you'll have much longer to get to know your hooves" she told her. Her voice was emotionless and as cold as the void, her tone commanding and damning. Luna stood again.

"So that's it, huh? I put a hoof out of line, back to the moon" she said, making motions with her hoof to show her flying back there. Celestia stood straight, taller, further exerting her authority and superiority over her little sister. Luna put a hoof to her muzzle and checked for blood, finding it on her hoof when she pulled it back. She looked back at her sister, sniffled a few times before she turned and galloped for the door, unwilling to let the tears spill just yet.

When she got into her room, the princess of the night slammed the door shut and held it closed with her body as she started to bawl her eyes out, cantering for the bed and leaping onto it, pulling Ursa-teddy over to her and sobbing into her hooves. She almost managed to hold her sobs down and stay quiet but she soon felt her wails ripping through her system as she sobbed louder than seemed possible, her sobs rang through the whole castle, prompting more concerned looks from the guards and staff as her sobs rang through the halls of the grand palace. Luna didn't want to be alone right now, she wanted somepony to be with her.

She wanted her foalsitter.

A/N: Despite the fact that you're all figments of my imagination, as I am a figment of yours, I present to you chapter Blackjack, my favourite number of the whole alphabet.

Weren't you gonna ask them something?

Quiet voices, I'm getting to it. Since this marks the point of an upturn for the quality of Assassin's Song (He means after this chapter) I was hoping one of you out there could me the tremendous favour of drawing Blood Moon. I'd do it myself only-

You have no talent in drawing.

...

What?

This is my disapproval face. Get to know it.

I'm a figment of your imagination faffy, I can't see you face.

...

Productive faffer out