//------------------------------// // CH 35.3 Twilight's Decree // Story: Twilight's Nightmare // by Nightsclaw //------------------------------// Twilight looked at the drying ink on the parchment upon which her first royal decree was written. With a few motions of the quill, her will was written into law. With her signature and sealed with her magic, it went into effect.  Just like that, she had forever changed the world. It was not as spectacular as using the Elements of Harmony. Power comes in many forms, Twilight. Night lazily commented. Twilight thoughtfully hummed in response. Night was right. Even without using her Alicorn powers to influence ponies, she had to be careful. A careless word in a letter could alter another ponies life.  She double-checked for the fourth time. Her eyes critically analysing every single character on the page. Yet again it was perfect, no errors in the hornwriting nor loophole in the wording. These words were a direct response to Celestia’s letter. The warning of the expected influx of ponies and those that would seek to impede them. She had expected some resistance, but not the level of threat towards those seeking her aid Celestia’s letter implied.  A sad smile graced her face as she once again looked at her former mentor’s kind words. The praise for her doing the right thing to help her ponies. It was almost a form letter. It would have once made her feel nice. She would have hugged it to her chest and felt the smile trying to split her face as she pranced around. Now, now a part of her just felt empty. With Night’s extensive experience assisting her, Twilight had seen how it was the only logical response Celestia had open. She, the former student, had dictated the actions of the all-powerful Alicorn of the Sun. Any other action would have likely led to a civil war or at least caused the ponies to doubt the ‘perfect’ Princess of the Sun. Twilight shook her head, trying to banish the bitterness. Ever since that conversation with Candice, she was finding it hard to not think of Celestia in a more negative light than she likely deserved. Celestia was a ruler and had to make difficult choices and made them she did. Even if she seemed to pick the wrong answer far too often. Would I be able to do better? Twilight thought as she gazed at her quill. It was truly mightier than both blade and spell. Her body moved on its own, as Night assumed control. Her hoof went to her chest as she took a deep breath in, holding it for a moment she exhaled pushing the hoof away. Twilight smiled softly, she could take a hint. She went through Cadance's breathing technique a few more times. Thank you. You are welcome, Twilight. Night answered tenderly. If we can complete this swiftly, can have an early lunch? Twilight laughed, she could not help it. Again the former Nightmare was content with simple affection and creature comforts. Night was not a bad pony at her core. Something must have caused her to attack Celestia in the past. Instead of asking, she thought back. We can have some treats to tide us over. That will be acceptable. Night responded formally. The expectant joy that radiated from their connection brought to mind a filly Night prancing around going ‘yes, yes, yes!’  Twilight turned her eyes to the disguised changeling she now had in her employ. “Emerald, would you fetch a tray of daisy sandwiches and some cookies, please.” Emerald performed a respectful bow and made to leave. Twilight's gaze followed her, she was beautiful. Warmth seeped into her chest from Nova’s golden necklace. ‘There is going to be cookies’ Twilight tapped out with a hoof hoping to distract Nova with something less disruptive. ‘Cookie, Cookie, Cookies’ Nova tapped back with enthusiasm. Night’s laughter in Twilight’s mind was pure and nothing like the evil cackle or Nightmare Moon. Trying not to laugh herself, Twilight levitated her decree in front of her. Gently blowing on the parchment to ensure it was dry, she moved on to the next step. Carefully she infused the paper with the needed magic to make it uneditable, not even a single word would be able to be altered ever again.  Twilight hummed thoughtfully, wondering how the nobles would try and get around this decree. Unless something was fundamentally changed, they would try. A small part of her was looking forward to it, she wanted to put some of the stuck up nobles that doubted her in their place. The petty nobles were really nothing more than insects before even her physical might, let alone her arcane power. It did not help that Night heartedly approved of her thoughts. She could feel a sense of contentment at that realisation of her power. She paused, she could not tell if that emotion was Nights, her own or both of them in harmony. A larger part hoped no innocent got hurt before she managed to save them. She was the protector of her ponies that Celestia should have been. She was not going to allow ponies to die just for political expediency.  She let her eyes look over the compiled list of deaths for young and unborn foals. How many of them were accidents or normal illnesses? How many of them were actually hybrids that met an unfortunate end?  Twilight mused, trying to think of any way that Celestia might not know about these possible horrors. Despite her hopes, there were only a few options. Either she did not care, or she did not know. Neither was a good thing.  Her magenta magic wrapped around the decree with an effort of will she pulled. A complex spell away formed around the parchment. Instead of tearing in half, two intact copies now floated in her aura. Performing the same feat twice more, she now had eight. One she teleported to Spike with a small gem and a note asking him to send it to Celestia. Two went to the town hall. One to the first Nightguard her magical senses could locate. Another was teleported straight to the receptionist in the Canterlot hall of records. The rest she sent to her study of filling later. It was done, truly done, and the rest of the world knew about it. She lay there, waiting for the anticipated cookies. Excitement, nervousness and contended satisfaction warred within her. Twilight could feel Night felt proud of her, she was really a Princess and was starting to truly accept everything that meant. Finally, the cookies arrived. Being the calm one as the two mares she shared sensations with lost themselves in the ecstasy of fresh cookies straight from Sugar Cube Corner, made Twilight shake her head a little as she was slowly chewing.  At least her magic was still free to continue the paperwork. Thinking for a moment, she deposited a few cookies into one of her dimensional pockets. She did not know when she might need to distract Night or Nova. Twilight picked up another and bit into it. They were very good cookies.   Finally setting the last of her paperwork down, she took a calming breath and let it out in a happy sigh. Night seemed to not be paying attention, and it seemed Nova was resting or at least at peace.  Twilight was glad for Emerald’s company. The changeling’s expert hooves were doing a lot to keep her wings and pegasus wellspring aching down to a level she could almost ignore it. Another content groan escaped her and a hoof in just the right place released even more tension.  Having her leylines tended to was raw pleasure, this treatment on the other hoof just left her relaxed.  “You know, if Chrysalis opened massage parlours, she could have taken over the world and nopony would have complained.” “I somewhat doubt she would have been happily providing a service for food when she could just dump ponies into pods to extract what she needs instead.” “A pity, it would have been a path to peace,” Twilight said. “With the hatred between your Queen and my former one?”   “Celestia is not a Queen,” Twilight stated. Emerald looked to one of the walls as if she could see thought it. “Little Star is in a panic.”  “Where?” Twilight was on her hooves in an instant. Her foal needed her. “Just outside the castle.” Emerald pointed through the wall.  Twilight’s teleport happened so quickly she almost startled herself. Appearing outside, she was immediately tackled by her daughter. “Mummy, Mummy, you got to help Scootaloo.” Twilight pulled her daughter into a hug, holding her tight. “What has happened my Little Star?” “I don’t know, but she is bleeding and she is up there.” Star pointed. Little Star was not being quiet, and even though it had only been seconds, a small crowd had started to gather. Candice burst from Rarity’s window heading straight for the erratically flying filly. Whatever was happening Twilight needed to know right now. Lighting her horn, she teleported both Candice and Scootaloo to her, catching them gently in her aura to arrest their momentum. Candice just said “Hi.” and then looked at Scootaloo as she stuffed her in progress uniform into a dimensional pocket.  Scootaloo started babbling, making seemingly incomprehensible noises. “Calm down and start from the beginning,” Twilight said in a caring tone. She only noticed she had used her Alicorn persuasion after it was already done. “There was a pony and some other ponies and a griffon. They were trying to hurt the first pony, they even tried to hurt me.” Scootaloo said as calm as could be. She turned so the long cut on her rear leg could be seen. Little Star immediately ran up to Scootaloo and started healing her. The still flowing blood moved back to the wound and pulled it closed, healing it without a mark.  Scootaloo and serval of the other ponies that were now gathered around were staring at the now missing injury with wonder. Scootaloo continued her tale. “He saved me and told me to fly and get you. On the way, Rainbow found me. She flew off to help him and told me to get to town as fast as I could.” The timing was too convenient. This had to be due to her announcement to help the hybrids. Twilight looked up to the crowd. “Everything will be fine, I will deal with this,” she said confidently. Looking at Little Star and Candice, she spoke in whisper speak. “This may be a diversion, I need both of you to keep Ponyvile safe.”  Little Star snaped her helm on, a determined light in her eyes.  Candice nodded and placed her wing on Little Star for a moment, acknowledging the order. In her own version of whisper speak she replied, “Go, the town will be safe.” Twilight felt her body crouch and her muscles tense. In a burst of physical power, she felt herself leap into the air, adding a new crater to the ground.  Letting herself slip free from her flesh body, she returned to her bastion.  Twilight appeared in the center of her library and teleported right to the door with Rainbow’s cutie mark on it. Her magic almost ripped the door off its hinges as she violently opened it. She only barely noticed the clouds, sports and Wonderbolts themed sections of Rainbow’s wing. She paused for only half a heartbeat, noting how big the Darring Do section was.  Twilight raced straight to the lightning bolt-shaped pedestal that held the book with the animated quill writing in it. Rainbow spun around and bucked the earthpony, rolling over their collapsing form, using it to shield herself from an incoming crossbow bolt. Twilight could hear Dreams approaching, but did not even look up. Twilight flipped back a bit and started to read, looking for anything that would tell her where her friend was. “Where are you, Rainbow!” She almost growled in frustration.  Rainbow’s eyes picked out the stallion that saved Scootaloo. He was in a bad situation, on the ground and nearly helpless. It seemed like some griffon was taunting him and two pegasi held him down. A fancy looking unicorn held a blade to his neck with their magic.  “What the buck?” Rainbow said. She knew there were some bad ponies in the world, but this close to Ponyville? She shook her head and focused. They attacked Scoots, they looked like they were about ready to kill that stallion. She was a Wonderbolt, she was trained for this. The blade to the stallion’s neck meant that all of her flasher tricks were out. She would have to do this by hoof and make sure to control the blade. At least it was only held in a unicorn’s aura.  Carefully she pushed her speed right up to the limit so she would not perform a sonic rainboom. She could not have a flash of light catching their attention.  Two seconds to impact.  This was going to be awesome and she would be telling tales of this for years. It might not look as spectacular as some of the things she had done, but she was a hero and no misguided attempts with Mare-Do-Well trying to humble her, would change that.  One second to impact.  Yah she might have gone a little overboard with the attention-seeking, yea she might like showing off, but she was still... Half a second to impact. Rainbow cut herself off, her attention narrowing to every motion, every action. She felt her ego take a back seat as her training stepped forward. She did not have time to read the whole book, especially with Rainbow’s running mental commentary of how awesome she was. Twilight plucked one of her own feathers and shaped it into a quill. She flipped forward to the first blank page she could find. Hastily she wrote three words in glowing magenta text.  WHERE ARE YOU?  Out of habit, she checked her position. Rainbow’s eyes glanced to Canterlot in the distance. Angles, distance and vectors sorted themselves in her mind in an instant as she slipped past a bolt of some sort of magic. Twilight did not even consciously see the distance and vectors from Celestia’s city. Her mind was already rapidly translating that in the hyper-dimensional mathematics needed for the coordinates for an accurate teleport. She added a bit of altitude as a safety margin. Destination at hoof, Twilight ran for the exit of her library. Her hooves thundered on wood and then the hard surface of Night's realm. She had the teleportation spell formed in her mind by the time she dove back through the obsidian floor into her body.  Night was pushing their body hard. Alicorn magic augmented every motion of her wings. Her panting breaths barely kept up with the demand for oxygen. Twilight forced power into her horn and in a flash of magic they teleported.  Twilight appeared from her teleport hundreds of body lengths in the air. She surveyed the scene below her as she hovered in place.    Rainbow was in a bad situation, she was trapped. Not buy her opponent’s superior skill, no she was traped by her need to protect the unknown pegasus. She could not take full advantage of her speed and Wonderbolt training.  Rainbow danced, her motions seeming erratic and chaotic, but all of them were precise and deadly. Her eyes blazed with her Element. She would not abandon anypony. She was beautiful. Twilight could feel all the tempting things that Night wanted to do with Rainbow once all this was over.  As she watched, Twilight could not help but feel it was an entrancing display of skill just for her. Both of Rainbow’s wings were charged with lightning as she lashed them towards her foes, forcing them back. The arks of electricity scaring the land and filling the air with the scent of storms. Twilight could feel Night’s admiration and desires growing with each second Rainbow held her own. Twilight just watched trying picking what spell to use to end this conflict. She started to craft a selective stun spell that would not affect pegasi. That would halve the number of combatants. The griffon moved so fast that she seemed to teleport. She appeared and was a fraction of a second away from running Rainbow through with an impressive sword. Twilight did not think. Her highly capable mind did not form any plans. She vanished in a blaze of blinding magenta magic. She appeared in Rainbow’s place, her friend safely in the air in her former location.   The enchanted iron blade slid though her coat and into her flesh. Pain erupted in her side as relief washed through her, she had been in time. The pain was nothing compared to her time on the altar. A too-wide grin plastered itself on her muzzle.  A detached part of her mind noted that this was a new way to get a chance to study its enchantments closer. The blade was honed to an impossibly sharp edge and would cut armour as easily as flesh. She would have to study it later. Now though, she had more immediate things to do. She turned her head to face her attacker and let out a madding laugh. “Is that the best you can do?”  The griffon leapt back, letting go of her sword. A delightful look of disbelief spread on her face. “Twilight!” Rainbow's panicked voice called out. An instant later a small pain burst in the side of her neck. A crossbow bolt had stuck, and it was nothing but an annoying splinter. A moment later, and a rainbow blur slammed into the archer. The pleasant sound of bones breaking filled her ears. Her horn flashed, and a dome shield surrounded the area, she would not have any of her toys escape. Twilight let her gaze browse over the selection of targets. She licked her lips, oh the things she could do to them. She let her senses extend, spreading her wings so her feathers could feel the air. Every beath and motion of every living creature painted itself in her mind’s eye. Every use of magic, down to the smallest ripple along a horn or wing, revealed itself to her.  Twilights body lunged, the blade still within her burned as it sliced into her with the motion. It was a remarkably sharp blade. She would definitely examine its enchantments more later.   As Twilight moved, she could feel Nights hundreds of years of experience guiding her as she lashed out with a hoof. There was a satisfying sensation of impact as her raw strength shattered both front legs of one pony. It was horrifying how easy it was, the bones snapped like brittle sticks. The griffon that had stabbed her flicked her wing out in a well-practised motion. A volley of darts headed towards the unknown pegasus that Rainbow had been protecting.  Twilight’s tail flicked out, catching each one in a separate animate tendril. Thank you, Night. Twilight thought as she lit her horn again and raised a smaller shield around the griffon’s target.  With her expanded senses, she did not even need to look to tell how Rainbow was doing. Her every motion channelled so much pegasus magic, she was sure Celestia could feel each wingbeat from Canterlot. The new edge of lightning aspected magic occasionally danced with it, letting Twilight know her friend was taking advantage of what Night had taught her. Out of the eight combatants, two had been dealt with. The archer Rainbow impacted was now unconscious on the ground with at least some broken ribs. The one that Twilight herself had hit was still screaming rolling on the ground with his two broken legs.  One griffon, two unicorns, three pegasi left. Not really enough to even have fun with. Twilight thought regretfully. She paused, that did not seem quite right. Was that her thought? She could not trust herself, she had to end this now and without killing anypony.  Her horn glowed brightly as she grabbed each of her foes in her powerful telekinesis. Each was pressed to the ground by an irresistible force. The one unicorn that tried to resist legs buckled. The sound of snapping bones made Twilight wince internally, but Night did not let that show to any outside observers.  Twilight took a deep calming breath, trying to banish the last of the bloodlust. As her chest expanded, the sword once again made itself known.  Night manipulated her currently flowing mane, pulling both the blade and bolt from her flesh. Twilight idly noticed how the sensation of her own blood on her coat was almost a non-issue. The blade playfully twirled around as she advanced upon the griffon. “Rainbow, are you and your ward alright?” She called out without looking to them. “Yea, fine. He could use some healing though before we move him.” Twilight lit her horn and launched a general-purpose stabilization spell at the currently unidentified stallion they had saved. That would tide them over until they could get more comprehensive care.  Turning back to her captives, she let that too-wide grin form on her face again.  One of the unicorn's horn lit, Twilight could feel the teleportation magic forming on it. She had so many options on how she could stop it. Shatter his horn. Alter his exit coordinates. Raise a teleportation ward. Disrupt his spell and let the energy burn him. By the amount of power he was channelling, it was going to be a long-range teleport. He must be trying to go somewhere important. Night commented.  “Hmm,” Twilight nodded, ripping the coordinates from the spell and watching the fool waste so much energy teleporting to exactly where he was. “Oh don't worry, I will get to you in a moment,” Twilight said sweetly. Keeping the others pined to the ground with her magic, she lifted the griffon into the air before her. The foul beast would pay for attacking her ponies. Ponies were not prey.  “You will learn nothing from me.” The griffon bravely said. “Oh, I will, there are so many experiments I can perform on you.” Twilight could feel the glee building inside her. “So many experiments I could never do for ethical reasons, and here we have you, a volunteer.” The griffon spat at her. The undesirable liquid slid down her muzzle. Twilight’s eyes glowed white as her anger flared. She could feel the griffon’s body start to break as her magic started to roll them up from the extremities in. First, her talons started breaking one by one. Twilight, are you sure you want to do this? Night cautioned.  Twilight paused, holding the target of her rage in her magic, only narrowly avoiding crumpling them up into a little ball. She could see the look of terror on the griffon’s face illuminated by her own glowing eyes. This is something the old me would very much enjoy watching. So, Twilight, who are you going to be? Night asked. Twilight glared into the eyes of her victim. Yes, they had done wrong, yes, they deserved this and far far worse, but she would not just give in to those feelings. Taking the magic and twisting it, she added more spell runes. Some of them had only recently started to learn. A feral grin crossed her muzzle. She had a wonderful idea.  With a flash of magic, her prisoner was gone, replaced with an appetising looking potted plant.  Having made her example of the griffon, she turned to the first pony, the one that tried to teleport away. Ripping them from where they were cowering and suspending them before her in her aura.  She pulled a single leaf from the plant and slowly ate it. “Now you will tell me everything.”