New Reign

by Dream Seeker

Court of Law:Arc 1, Chapter 2

Twilight was reading. No, that was an understatement. Twilight had just read up on the history of all of Equestrian law. She had woken up really early, before sunrise. She had scheduled her reading so she could watch the sun come up. She finished with a sigh, but a knocking on the door jarred her. She opened the door to find Luna, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Have you forgotten? You must raise the sun. I have already lowered the moon."
Twilight gulped. "But I don't know how."
Luna raised an eyebrow. "You didn't read up on it?"
Twilight's jaw dropped. "They have books on it?!"
Luna smirked. "Only one, Celestia wrote it for whoever was coming after. You didn't see it?" she pointed at a large, golden book in the middle of the room.
Twilight looked confused. "How could I miss that?"

At that moment, Luna and Twilight both realized that the sun still wasn't up. In her panic, Twilight tried to lift it with pure telekinesis. She grunted, and her horn glowed brighter than usual, until finally the sun began to rise. Luna's jaw dropped in astonishment.

"Not even Celestia could raise the sun with telekinesis! She crafted a special spell that would sling the sun around our planet, instead. You must be more powerful then Celestia! It must come with being the Element of Magic."
Twilight's jaw dropped. "Celestia designed a spell to raise the sun? Not levitation?"
"Read about it, in the book. Any moment now, your new advisor will be coming to talk to you about Equestrian law."

Twilight was to busy reading to hear the second half of the sentence. A couple minutes later, the new advisor walked in to find the floor covered in notecards, and Twilight still reading Celestia's book.

"Aheh-hem?" the new advisor coughed.
"Oh... Sorry..." Twilight blushed. "Are you my new advisor?"
"Yes. My name is Alexandria. I was chosen due to my ability to copy literature, including important documents. My ability should save time spent copying documents manually."
"Oh, yes. Wasn't there one document that was fifty seven pages long, and needed to be copied and signed four hundred and thirteen times?"
"Yes. It took over a year for them to finish signing all the copies. I take it then, that you know a lot about modern Equestrian law, as that document is very obscure."
"Oh, yes. I read all about it this morning."
Alexandria raised an eyebrow. "All of it, in one morning?"
Twilight blushed. "Yes?"
Alexandria looked impressed. "That's faster then I read. Of course, you are a Princess. But I digress. If you know about Equestrian law, how about some tricky questions. If two nobleponies both have claims on a 12 acre tract of land, how do you divide it?"
"You pick one to divide the tracts, and the other chooses one of these tracts to own."
"How can you tell if a deal is fair?"
"If all parties agree on whether or not it is fair."
"Hmm... All right, if a griffon hunts for prey on a noblepony's land, how much does the griffon have to pay in fines for poaching if the griffon killed two rabbits and a squirrel?"
"Trick question. There is no fine, but the griffon goes to jail for one year per life taken."
"All right." said Alexandria, suitably impressed. "Let's try this out in front of a real court."
Twilight looked nervous. "Already? I... Ok. Where?"
"In the throne room, of course."

a few minutes----------a few minutes----------a few minutes----------a few minutes----------

Twilight shuffled nervously in her seat. She felt uncomfortable sitting in the seat of her now deceased mentor. As the first group of feuding ponies walked up, she tried to sound confident.

"What is wrong, my little ponies?" she asked, modeling Celestia's voice as best she could.
"He... he sat in my reserved seat at a concert!" one of the ponies exclaimed. "I had to... ugh... sit next to a common farmpony! The nerve!"
Twilight began to frown, but stopped herself. Really? She thought to herself. Do they have to bring this to a Princess?
"Ah'm sorry, it wasn't clear to me. Ah was told ta sit where ah pleased, and ah'm a good friend of the manager."
"Humph. That means nothing. You must pay me 2,000 bits as a fine, according to Equestrian law 218-749-A."
"Um... Wasn't that law repealed a decade ago?" asked Twilight
"Uh... Well... I did not know that! The unicorn noblepony declared, uncomfortably."
"Did you really... Did you also not know that there are no reservations for concerts, aside from the seats reserved for Royalty and Diplomats, according to Equestrian law 184-274-D?" Twilight asked, an eyebrow raised.
"Um... no...OHMYIAMLATETOANAPPOINTMENT!" he said stiffly and walked out, as quickly as etiquette would allow him.
"Thanks!" said the farm pony who had taken the seat in question. "Ah knew somthin weren't right bout his claims."
"You're welcome." said Twilight, smiling and waving. "Goodbye!"
Alexandria smiled at Twilight. "These nobleponies expect you to not know enough about Equestrian law to properly hold court. Look!" she pointed. "Many of them are leaving, now that they know you actually understand the laws!"

a few hours later----------a few hours later----------a few hours later----------

Back in her room, Twilight sighed. So many ponies had problems that needed a Princess to solve! "Ugh..." she groaned. "I'm gonna make a law that requires a fee of 10 bits to consult a Princess... Maybe then they won't come as often..."
"Actually, that wouldn't be a bad idea." said Alexandria. "Many just come to try to squeeze a few bits from whoever they can. This crowd is actually smaller then some of the days I've seen here."
"Fine!" Twilight stomped. "Consulting fee of 10 bits. How do I make it a law?"
Alexandria raised an eyebrow in surprise. "You don't know?"
"Well, I only read about the laws, not how to create new ones. I didn't think I'd need to create one so quickly."
"It takes one copy for the archives, one copy for you, one copy for Princess Luna, one copy for me, one copy for every Equestrian Noble House, and both you and Luna have to sign each copy, after formally announcing it during a full moon at 7:00 on the dot, with clear weather conditions, outside in the Castle Courtyard, with at least one representative of each of 7 Noble Houses. Meaning that essentially, 7 noble houses have to agree for the law to be passed. Not to mention the difficulty of finding a time when a representative of each of 7 houses are available, during a full moon, at 7:00, with clear weather."
"Nrgh!" Twilight groaned. "Passing a law is that hard?"
"Yes. But that only covers certain laws, other laws are harder to pass."
"Noooooooo!"
"Good thing we're done for today. I'll start planning a way to convince all the nobles this is necessary."
Twilight stopped. "You would do that?"
"Of course! As your advisor, it's my duty! I would even dare to say, my duty as your friemd."
"Of course you're my friend! You're the only pony who's on my side, it seems."
"Ah hope we count as on yer side, Twi!" Applejack said as she walked in, the rest of the Elements close behind.
"Obviously!" Twilight exclaimed, smiling. "What are you here for? And how did you get in?"
"We came to help, of course! Each of us have different talents that could help you create new laws, dear!" declared Rarity.
"And we came in through the front door. The nice guards knew who we are!" Pinkie bounced happily as she replied.
Twilight frowned. "It's really hard to create new laws. So many rules and restrictions apply!"
Alexandria just smiled. "I have an idea, that just might work..."

Author's Note:

So, this is chapter two. A like/comment/favorite? If you have a question about Equestrian Law, just ask in the comments. I'll have an answer!
Again, credits for Alexandria go to Elric of Melnipony, link to info on Alexandria on title page.

x amount of time----------x amount of time----------
above is how I will do time skips, from a few minutes to a few centuries. (Yes, there will be over a century long time-skips, in one or both arcs 2 and 3)

Comments

[Minevera]

Paragraph layout is something left to be desired. I have also found the majority of it rather uninteresting and too fast-paced.

[Dream Seeker]

I'll try to fix the paragraph layout, I'm trying to fast-pace it on the uninteresting portion so we can get to the interesting stuff, coming soon, but if I leave out a lot of the uninteresting stuff you would have no idea why or how things happen later on. Reasons for later on plot points are in next chapter. Nobleponies get angry for "boring" reasons. That being said, thank you for your feedback.

[CookieDo]

Can vinyl scratch play his wubs on full blast?

[Actanion]

Haha you know Twilight, you can always establish a dictatorship and disappoint all those ridiculous protocols that carry the bureaucracy.