Celestia licked her lips in anticipation, and Mr. Xanadu cracked his neck. The two, and indeed the remaining kidnappers, were locked in an epic battle of skill, wit, and dominance. The slightest wrong move, the slightest sign of weakness, and the whole thing could come crashing down as an opponent completely cleaned up.
Mr. Xanadu looked Celestia dead in the eye, and cleared his throat. "Ms. Skies..."
Celestia smiled and fluttered her eyelashes. "Yes?"
The stallion looked down at his cards. "Do you have any threes?"
Celestia looked down at her own cards, which were helpfully being held up for her by Ms. Razzmatazz. "I'm sorry, but Go Fish."
Mr. Xanadu groaned and levitated a card from the deck in front of him. He sighed and put it in his collection. "I don't have any luck today, do I?"
Celestia lightly snickered then looked down at her own cards. "Well it's my turn, I guess." She frowned slightly and scanned her opponents for a moment. "Ms. Fallow, you wouldn't happen to have any princesses in your possession, would you?"
Ms. Fallow grimaced. "Yeah, but I only have one." She slid a single card towards Celestia. Her face split into a wide grin, and she nodded to Ms. Razzmatazz, who promptly placed Celestia's four remaining cards on the table.
"That's four of a kind!" Celestia smiled and bumped shoulders with Ms. Razzmatazz as a replacement for a high-hoof. "I'm out."
Her opponents groaned in defeat and threw their own cards on the table. "I only needed one more seven and one more six!" Ms. Fallow huffed. She glanced over at the cards of Mr. Xanadu. "And just my luck, you had them both!"
"Well, ladies and gentlecolt, that was a fun game." Celestia shifted in her seat to get a little more comfortable. "Would you like another round, or would something more challenging be of interest to you?"
Mr. Xanadu gathered up the cards and began shuffling them. "What do you have in mind?"
Celestia chuckled in a manner that reminded her of a Con Mane villain. "Does poker sound appealing to you?"
Immediately the faces of all three ponies brightened and they eagerly nodded. "Yeah! We can use the money we got from you as betting currency!" said Ms. Fallow.
"That sounds like a wonderful idea." Mr. Xanadu levitated the bag of bits that the group had taken from Celestia during her kidnapping and began dealing out the stacks to the individual players. Celestia thanked her captor while Ms. Razzmatazz dealt each pony five cards.
* * * *
Princess Luna took a deep breath as she sat down in front of the cell holding one of her sister's captors. The unicorn was still passed out, and now he was resting in one of the palace's jail cells. Luna glared and a growl played at her lips. "Soon your secrets will be mine."
After relaxing her body a little more, Luna ignited her horn and closed her eyes. She let a blanket of pure magic fall over her. She reached out with her consciousness and scanned the immediate area for any life forms around her. Given her proximity to the prisoner, it was naught but a second until she sensed his presence, and she reached out to connect her magic to his subconscious. She would find his dreams there.
The instant her magic touched his mind, she felt something akin to being pulled forwards by a great force, and when the feeling ceased, she opened her eyes to find herself in what appeared to be a palace. She frowned, but mused that it was not unusual for ponies to have dreams of grandeur. Of course, he could be dreaming that he was a servant.
She extended a bit more of her magic until she was disguised as a dark blue unicorn. Given the reason the hoodlum was unconscious in the first place, it would likely benefit her cause if she wasn't interrogating him as herself. She could catch more flies with cake than promises of incineration.
Luna quickly limbered up, then trotted down the hall towards what seemed to be two large doors guarded by two stoic unicorn ponies in heavy armor. To Luna's surprise, they both smiled when she approached. "Ah, you're here," said the one on the left. "Go on in, he's waiting for you."
Luna raised an eyebrow in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"You are the escort that Prince Nacarat ordered, are you not?” the second guard asked.
Luna opened her mouth to insist that she was no common mare of the evening, but she remembered that she was technically in disguise for the interrogation, so she might as well play along. She could quickly turn this dream into a nightmare if it got too out of hoof.
Doing her best to hold back the urge to vomit, she gave both of the guards her best seductive expression. "Why of course I am," she cooed. "I shall go in at once to... see Prince Nacarat."
The guards inclined their heads in a slight bow and the one on the left pushed the door open for her. Luna thanked him and walked in, sticking her tongue out in disgust once she knew they couldn't see her.
Sighing to herself, Luna began walking across the room. On the other side was a large, golden throne encrusted with every kind of gem she could imagine. On said throne reclined the hoodlum who had taken her sister. She had to hold back more feelings of disgust when she saw that he was flanked by two mares, one of whom was fanning him with a palm branch, while the other fed him grapes right off the stem. She fought the urge to facehoof as she stopped in front of the throne.
The stallion looked up when he heard her approach and grinned at the Luna. "Ah, you're here!" With a wave of his hoof, the two mares next to him bowed and exited the room. The stallion sat up in his throne and beckoned Luna a few steps closer. "So, you're the mare that they sent for my... entertainment."
Luna once more fought the urge to obliterate the insolent fool, but she forced a smile on her face. "Yes. I have been sent to do whatever it is you... desire and..." Her charade faltered ever so slightly as the stallion's grin widened with her every word. "I was... uh..." She growled to herself. "Tia, the things I do for you."
The stallion chuckled and hopped off of his throne. "You must be new." Luna grumbled something very unprincess-like to herself as the stallion walked up to her. "Well let's go somewhere private, shall we? I'll help you out."
The stallion beckoned Luna towards a back room, and Luna followed. She promised to order his execution the moment she had the information she needed, but for now the charade would need to be upheld. She rued that forcibly reading his mind would be unethical.
The stallion threw the doors of the back room open, revealing a room almost as large as Luna's room in the castle. The one defining feature, though, was that every square inch of the floor was covered in plush pillows that admittedly looked quite comfortable. Nacarat sat down on one of the pillows and indicated that Luna should do the same.
Luna placed herself two pillows away from him. "I suppose you wish to be intimate now, yes?" she deadpanned.
To Luna's surprise, the large grin that the stallion had sported to this point faded into a look of embarrassment. "Ah, yes... that." He looked uneasily at the ground and scratched the back of his neck. "See... I was kinda hoping you knew more about that." His eyes shot up and he held a hoof to forestall Luna's response. "N-not that I don't know what... that is! It's just that..."
Luna actually did facehoof that time. In fact, she double-facehooved him. "You are joking. You must be joking."
"Well, no," the stallion admitted, "but if you don't want to because I don't know that's cool too. We can do other stuff."
Luna removed her hooves from her face and glared at him. "Oh? What do you suggest, hmm?"
The stallion's smile returned full force at the question, and he bounded over to her and literally pushed her onto her back. Before she could obliterate him, he placed one of his hooves on her belly and began rubbing.
"How... how dare you place your hooves on me in such a manner?!" Luna sputtered. "I demand that you cease giving me a belly rub at once!"
The stallion chuckled, but did not stop. "It's okay, I used to be a professional masseur. I know what I'm doing."
"That matters not!" Luna snapped. "You shalt take your... your..." Luna's protests were cut off when a wave of relaxation hit her, and the condemning words she was going to say died in her throat. "Oh."
The stallion smirked at her. "Again, I used to be a professional masseur. When you get tired of this, just let me know and I'll give you one of my Equestria-famous back rubs, okay?"
"That... that..." Luna inwardly groaned as all thoughts of her mission drained away. "Me dammit."