Chrysalis and Celestia both sat and blinked owlishly at the empty table that had previously hosted Twilight and Sunset, until Chrysalis leaned back into her chair and scratched her chin with a hoof in amusement. "So those two dorks?"
Celestia nodded with a small grin. "You couldn't tell? I guess you haven't seen them together until tonight. All nervous glances and blushes, it was adorable."
"Gross." Chrysalis spat, the amused smile on her muzzle completely contradicting her statement. "Well, with our chaperones off trading spit, and the wait staff looking increasingly furious, I think it's time for me to get going." She said with a sigh of contentment as she stood from the table. "Thank you for the pep talk, I may have blown my shot but I still think you're very sweet."
Chrysalis gave a predatory grin as she said it, but followed it up by giving Celestia a rather warm and friendly hug, or at least as warm and friendly as one could be with a chitinous shell. Celestia returned the embrace. "Thanks Chrysi, I had a lovely time."
"Ugh I hope that name doesn't stick..." Chrysalis groaned, again contradicting herself with a smile. "Well I'm off to try and come up with a new scheme to annoy a different white pony, I'm sure I'll see you again before you leave, maybe we can get lunch or something." She suggested casually, before turning towards the front door and swaggering away, lazily waving a hoof in goodbye.
"I'd like that, good luck Chrysi." Celestia muttered to herself happily before turning back to her wine glass. Before she could take a sip however, a rather grumpy looking Maitre D' stormed up to her table, fixing her with a burning glare.
"Mademoiselle, I am afraid to inform you that this establishment is absolutely appalled at you and your associates' behavior tonight. I must demand that you pay for all of your meals and any damages right this instant or I'll be forced to inform the guard!" he practically snarled, looking ready to snatch the wine glass from her wispy magic.
"Uhhhhhh..." Celestia cast an eye around the dining room just in time to survey Twilight and Sunset's empty, glass, and wine coated table, another empty table coated in silly hats, fake moustaches, and an utterly absurd quantity of confetti, and finally down to the shattered remains of a chair leftover from her and Chrysalis' little scuffle. "I...well...you see the problem is I don't really have any mo..."
The Maitre D' tapped one hoof impatiently.
"Hark! Hold your tongue knave! Dos't though even know who thou art interrogating so rudely!" Came an almost painfully loud shout from a nearby table as a blue pegasus ran toward them, her dining partner conspicuously missing. "Wait, damnit, I mean, hey buddy, give it a rest, don't you know who she is!"
Celestia squinted at the pegasus for a moment. "Lu...?"
Luna held up a hoof to cut Celestia off. "Lay off my sort-of-sister, alright? You know damn well we have more than enough bits to cover all of this."
The Maitre D' looked singularly unimpressed. "And you would be..." He sneered, twirling a hoof expectantly.
Luna glared at him before remembering her current appearance. "Oh, right, one moment." With a quick flash of her horn, the Princess of the Night was restored to her usual self before their eyes.
The Maitre D's jaw hit the floor just as quickly, before the rest of his body followed just behind as he threw himself into a grovelling bow. "Please excuse me your highness, I didn't recognize you."
"Whatever..." Luna rolled her eyes with a huff. "Just bill the Royal Treasury...and get us a few bottles of wine to go." Luna added as an afterthought. "Come little Celestia, so far my sister hogged all your time in Canterlot, why don't we have some quality time at the castle?" She asked with a friendly smile.
"Uh, sure Luna, not like I have a way to get back to Ponyville anyways, though can you not call me little?" Celestia asked with a roll of her eyes. It was one thing to realize your "little sister" was in fact much older than you, but having her stand so much taller as well just wasn't fair.
"Awww, but you're just so tiny!" Luna pouted, before grinning and wrapping a wing over Celestia's shoulder. "Come, we away, into the night!"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Despite her best efforts, Chrysalis couldn't stop smiling as she waltzed down a dark alley, headed towards the outskirts of Canterlot. She had to admit, she had really enjoyed her dinner date, even if it had ended in technical failure. While she was sure that Celestia would have been plenty fun to get in bed, maybe having a friend wasn't so bad instead. She paused and made a gagging motion. What was she thinking? If this kept up, she'd up singing kumbaya with Twilight Sparkle and her obnoxious cohorts. Still, maybe there was something to this friendship nonsense.
Before she could take that thought any further, the alley was suddenly filled with an absolutely blinding light in front of her. Chrysalis slammed her eyes shut and threw a foreleg in front of her, mercifully blocking out the harsh glow. Eventually she took a peek through one of the many holes in her leg and found that most of the brightness had faded, allowing her to see an enormous and imposing figure standing at the end of the alley, wings fully extended and sharp horn pointing high into the dark sky.
"Queen Chrysalis...what is a stain like you doing in my city?" A familiar, stern voice bellowed at her.
"Awww horseflies..." Chrysalis whimpered, immediately both terrified and secretly excited as the true Princess Celestia finally came into focus.
"I would have thought you were smarter than to try and come here..." Princess Celestia growled, "Though intelligence was never your strong suit..."
Chrysalis steeled herself, continuing towards her nemesis and huge crush. "I still had enough to trick you Princess Dumbass!" She spat with a cocky grin, at least until a golden glow jerked her up into the air by the scruff of her neck. "Yipe!"
Princess Celestia floated the now blushing and coughing heap of Changeling Queen towards herself until they were barely an inch apart. "I suppose you did, and I still haven't had the opportunity to punish you for that now have I?"
Maybe it was just hopeless optimism, but for a second Chrysalis could have sworn that the Princess's voice had turned almost...husky as the threat was delivered.
"It looks like I'll finally have the opportunity to rectify that tonight." Princess Celestia whispered with an almost evil smile, if the Princess of the Sun was even capable of such an expression. "And luckily, I have a special dungeon set up just for you in the eastern corner of the 2nd floor of the palace."
2nd floor dungeon? That couldn't be right. Chrysalis mentally conjured the image of the castle map her spies had brought her, trying to remember if there really was a dungeon or torture room located in such an odd location. Her eyes widened in surprise as she finally remembered the full layout. "Wait isn't that your bedroom?"
"Not tonight it isn't..." The Princess grinned mischievously before leaning forward and taking a rather hard nip at Chrysalis's ear, causing the changeling Queen to squirm in her magical grasp just before they both disappeared in a golden glow.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sunset's leg kicked in annoyance out over the edge of the large bed as she stirred from what was probably the deepest sleep she'd ever had. Her eyes fluttered open and she gave a large yawn before attempting to roll over, only to find that she was all tangled up in a pile of twisted blankets and Twilight. Her eyes widened in surprise as she surveyed the snoozing alicorn wrapped around her, only for the expression to be replaced with a lewd grin as the events of the past several hours came rushing back.
Carefully, she extracted herself from Twilight, noting the nearby clock indicating that it was still the middle of the night. She figured she'd grab a glass of water before curling back up to sleep through the night. Once she was free, she slowly lowered herself down off the bed, wincing slightly as her back legs hit the ground. "I'm not gonna walk right for days..." She whispered to herself with a giggle. "Who would've guessed Twi'd be into that kind of thing, it's always the quiet ones..."
Making sure to open and close the bedroom door as quietly as possible, Sunset headed off in the direction she hoped led towards the kitchen. After about ten minutes of wandering, she started closing in on her intended destination, but as she came up to the kitchen doorway, she stopped short.
All the lights were still off, plunging the room into darkness, but Sunset swore she could hear something across the room. It sounded like fluffy shuffling, and weird, low moans. Sunset let out an annoyed sigh, "It's gonna be reformed villains sneaking around the castle again, I just know it..." She muttered to herself before using her magic to flip a nearby light switch.
The kitchen was suddenly flooded with light, giving Sunset just enough time to spot two ponies on the other side of the room. It appeared that a vaguely familiar sky blue unicorn with a blu-ish white mane had shoved a light purple unicorn with a darker purple and teal mane against the wall, and was now vigorously trying to shove her tongue down the other's throat, and both were enjoying it immensely, at least they had been, until the lights came on and they saw Sunset.
Starlight Glimmer immediately shoved Trixie off of her, a panicked look on her face as she stared at Sunset. "I...this isn't...we weren't...wait...who are you?" Her expression quickly morphed from fear to confusion as she realized she had no idea who the intruding unicorn was.
Trixie just looked slightly dazed, though she was still grinning.
"I'm um...wow...sorry to intrude...I'm Sunset Shimmer, former protege of Princess Celestia, former criminal, and sort of Twilight's marefriend, I think..." She rattled off after a pause, giving them both a sheepish grin.
"You think?" Starlight asked curiously.
"It's...not official yet, I guess." Sunset admitted with a blush and a small shrug.
"Oh...huh, that's new." Starlight offered with an awkward smile. "I'm Starlight Glimmer...former criminal, and current protege of Princess Twilight." She added with a chuckle. "Oh and this is Trixie, my......best friend." Her smile turned guilty as she said it. Trixie just rolled her eyes amicably.
"Sure you are." Sunset gave an amused snort. "Well I was just gonna grab a glass of water and head back to bed, again, sorry for interrupting." she said as she set to the task of grabbing a glass and floating it to the sink. "Maybe I'll see you girls in the morning and we can properly introduce ourselves."
With her task completed, Sunset slipped back out of the kitchen, making sure to turn the light back off again as she left, and made haste back towards Twilight's room before anything else extremely awkward happened. Unfortunately she wasn't quite fast enough to miss the loud groans that immediately started up behind her.
"NOW TURN AROUND SO TRIXIE CAN SHOW YOU THE TRUE MEANING OF FRIENDSHIP!"