An evergreen update? Is it my birthday already?

Welp its clear as day. Celestia is a cunt.

Well I'm very happy to see this update.

And technically, didn't Twilight lose first because she used a lethal attack? That broke the rules laid out beforehand. I'd also like to know why Celestia is being such a giant flaming cunt.

One thing we know for sure. Aeron is going to need some SPF 9000 sunblock petty soon.

kinda disappointing every single fic i read where trixie and twi fight trixie lose was kinda expecting her to win this time
but the lethal attack kinda broke the rules

Ohhhh very well written duel! Glad to see more of this universe.

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Yes, Twilight did indeed lose, or she SHOULD have, but would YOU go up to Celestia and tell her that her student screwed her over? Especially with the way she's been acting? I dunno about you, but I LIKE not being a pile of ash.

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Death doesn't scare me. I look forward to it, so yeah, I'd tell her right to her face her student used a lethal attack and lost, and if she doesn't honor the agreement she's an even bigger flaming cunt than I first thought. And if she gets trigger happy then right in front of all of her subjects, they begin doubting her qualifications and begin to fear her, and Luna will be pushed to work against her. So it's win/win if you confront her over it.

Damn that fight was epic.

If they ever make an MLP fighting game like Mortal Kombat X where each character has a variant, Trixie should definitely be like the one you portrayed in this chapter.

First

When I posted this I couldn't see any other comments.

I have a feeling people don't like my comment. Im not certain tho.

Well damn, Trixies got some game, also got me wondering how the changeling invasion will play out, and what's got Celestia so on edge. Perhaps a malevolent outside force... Ah Well, who knows?

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Not even close mate.

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Well luna could have told celestia that twi broke the rules without becoming a pile of ash.i doubt celestia would murder her own sister in front of a bunch of nobles and the element bearers.

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When I wrote it I was the only one in the comments. Guess everyone else's comments didn't show for me. I have been deceived!

Trixie's certainly grown. This is by far the closest thing to a fair and even duel I've seen fought between the two.

“Just make sure you fight fair,” Dash blurted out, poking Trixie in the chest, “No dirty tricks, you hear!”

Using dirty tricks is part of a fair fight even batman one said that his martial arts masters final lesson was to do anything to win including throwing sand in your opponent’s eyes or tripping him and just never letting him get back up. In fact, a common practice in medieval sword matches was to wrestle your opponent to the ground using your sword to grapple them and then beat them to death with the hilt of the sword to get through armor. This is a (mostly) unaltered image from a medieval dueling manual to prove my point.img.memecdn.com/when-i-first-met-a-guy-who-was-half-swording_o_3992223.jpg

“This isn’t one of your stupid mystery novels, Rarity. The Princess says he’s a threat and I know where my loyalties lie.”

This reminds me of another fic where rainbow has to choose between her friends and the ideles they would want her to have, in that fic she chose to join the people trying to bring the princesses down because she knew even if her friends would hate her this would be the best for them all.

I'm surprised at Pinkie for not getting involved in the talk, then again she has good reason to. It's nice to see that AJ and Rarity are questioning the suspiciousness of everything that's transpired.

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Well the rules weren't that you weren't allowed to kill your opponent it was that you have to stop once they surrendered or were unable to fight meaning that Twilight killing her would have been the equivalent of Mike Tyson killing his opponent, she still would have won it would just be considered an “accident” if Trixie was still fighting before the final blow.

Either way, most of Trixie's attacks could be considered “deadly” that sword pony part was very deadly and if the blunderbuss went through the shield it would have been extremely deadly, so a spell that almost kills your opponent seems like its well within the rules.

Whoa, now this is freaky. Just a couple days ago, I was thinking about this story, the last chapter, and what was going on with Celestia. And tonight, just before going to bed, I check the site and see an update to this story.

And what an update it was!

The duel between Twilight and Trixie was a lot more intense than in the episode! Both showcased some pretty incredible spells.

If the comments about Spike were part of Trixie’s plan to get under Twilight’s skin and get her riled up, then she succeeded... and almost lost her life in the process.

Now, some would argue that Twilight actually lost the duel, due to using a lethal spell. However, it seems that outside of Celestia, no one else, not even Twilight herself, knew just how lethal it was. Had they known, I’m sure that Trixie would have been declared the winner, due to Twilight using deadly force.

Maybe Celestia could have pointed it out, but with the way she’s behaving, I doubt she would.

Speaking of which, I was hoping that we would find out the deal with Celestia. I mean, it was mentioned that she’s likely stressed with: Aeron refusing to come back with Sweetie Drops in the first place; the Royal Wedding preparations; and the recent threat made on Canterlot. But that doesn’t give a clear answer to her behavior. Even Luna has noticed the change in her sister’s attitude.

What are Aeron and Trixie going to tell Luna? Surely not just a recap of what they’ve been up to since they left Equestria. Could it be that they discovered something in the sewers that could pose a problem for Canterlot?

“Princess Luna,” Trixie spoke up, “I know you have very little reason to trust us after what happened earlier, but for the sake of everypony in Canterlot I beg you to hear us out.”

I think that might be the case.

Great chapter! Looking forward to the next one!

Oh I had imagined how this fight would turn out, and I have to say I am not dissapointed in the slightest!!!!! Now it's time for Celestia to get her comeuppance!! And hopefully Luna will have a hoof in this fight~ Also glad to see that you haven't bailed on your stories or us yet!

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Remember in the start of the duel Luna states that it was not a battle to the death, but til submission or the inability to fight. Therefore, if Twilight had killed Trixie it would have been murder.

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The difference, is that the spell she used was straight up, Kill or Miss. There was clearly zero way that trixie wouldn't have died from it, so the "It would've been an accident" excuse wouldn't fly. The blunderbuss, after breaking through the shield, would have lost so much momentum, that at worst it would have left a nasty bruise. And the Card Ponies literally could not have killed twilight. The way they worked relied on using psychosomatic effects, and psychosomatic effects can't kill the person experiencing them.

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That's why you always refresh the page after you finish reading.

With the wedding coming up and Cadence "growing distant", Shining Armor seems remarkably clear in his mental faculties. Mayhaps the Queen is focusing her subtle mind influencing capabilities on another pony in this timeline. Maybe a figure of power who's been acting oddly out of character lately...

Methinks Celestia is under changeling control like Shining Armour was in the show.

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Agreed. Once she noticed Cadance's change in behavior Celestia most likely confronted her directly instead of going to Aeron, believing that she could handle whatever he'd warned her about on her own.

Cue the changeling mindfuckery.

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I would. Twilight broke the rules of the Duel the moment she used a Lethal attack on Trixie, one Celestia KNEW was a Lethal attack from how she screamed at her to stop.

By all intents and purposes, Twilight forfeited the Duel the moment she used it, and the sole reason she 'Won', was because of a Technicality... And that no one in the room, would dare speak out against Celestia. So yes, Celestia here is being an absolute cunt.

And By the way? Shining Armor did NOT sound distaint UNTIL Twilight almost Blew Chrysalis' Cover before the wedding! The only way for Celestia to be like that because of Changeling Magic, is if Celestia was REPLACED By a Changeling, NOT being controlled! So the only reason she is like this, is because of increasing Paranoia.

I mean, it's too much of a Cop Out if Celestia was 'Under Changeling control and thus, Helpless'! In the Words of Alastor Moody, "BECAUSE THEY HOODWINKED A POWERFUL MAGIC OBJECT/CHARACTER!!"

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That's where your wrong twilight seemed to only have a vague idea of what the spell would do, and of course, you can die from psychosomatic effects they made her bleed so bleeding out was on obvious possibility, and even if you don't count that it obviously had enough of a physical effect on her to make a stab wound to the chest just as fatal as an actual stab to the chest. Also, there was no whey for Trixie to know that about the shield it could have been solely made to deflect spells like a slightly hardened mirror and the ball could have gone straight through the point stands that it was very deadly.
8817949 and boxing matches aren't “to the death” but if you kill someone in the middle of it it's still not a member it's an unavoidable hazard of the sport.

Well, Trixie did not win, but se sure lost with style. The fight was well worth the wait.

I forget, did Aeron know about mlp?

Trixie’s, Marvelous Menagerie

As soon as i saw this it reminded me of this scene from 'Tales Of Berseria':

Goddamn time to wait months for next update.

We need more

8818026
You forget the rules. If that battle were to go on long enough for Twilight to bleed out from particularly nasty paper cuts, then they've got BIGGER problems.

8818039

Pretty sure he doesn't have the "advanced knowledge". That aside, it's apparent that this is gonna end up a flaming trainwreck as the Changeling Invasion gets closer and closer. I'd be interested to know how Chrysalis is getting Celestia so wound up tight yet being unable to affect Luna much at all.

...This is assuming it has the same scenario as the show.

This is going to be great, I think.^^ Eager to see more, as usual.:D

Loved it, though, it's only made me yearn for the next chapter more. I can't wait for Aeron to find the real Celestia(I firmly believe Chrysalis has replaced her). It might also be interesting if Aeron and Celestia team up in some sort of symbiotic relationship where Aeron shares his power with Celestia to compensate for any lost power she might be missing due to Chrysalis, perhaps give her a big enough boost so that she doesn't lose against Chrysalis in their inevitable confrontation.

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Twilight didn't know the attack was lethal she literally said she remade it from rumors and old documents and Celestia only mentioned it to her which is one reason she was shocked and worried.

Also it wasn't targeted at Trixie but at her Illusions just the blast wave is what nearly killed Trixie

...and I can't help but feel that Celestia is Chrysalis, but at the same time, that doesn't make sense, since she knows things that only Celestia would know. Something's definitely up, as many characters are pointing out.

welcome back WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN

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That's just technicalities. And Technicalities were deemed to be enough reason to declare twilight the winner, which means, logically, that technicalities should be deemed enough reason to disqualify Twilight. I think that's the REAL root of the problem here.

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Yes, he does. He even pulled a "What fun is there in making sense?" on Discord, and warned Celestia to look out for abnormal behavior from Cadance.

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Actually yeah, he does know about mlp. He told Celestia he did on his first trip to Canterlot(in a jar)

nice. Looking forward to the next chapter.

technically since Luna said the fight wasn't to the death the ruling was wrong, twilight lost do to intentional lethality. furthermore celestia taught her reckless and irresponsible spells and her even dueling in the first place was a disgrace. WHEN WELL SOMEONE CALL THEM OUT?

seriously at some point you have to have people other then celestia start throwing there wait around, at least have the guardian of tartarus deny her a chance to throw aeron in. honestly at this point her actions are deplorable enough most guardians of prisons for monsters would take her inside.

8818095

8818039
He has knowledge of up to season 2, not sure how much further(dimly remember a comment "Trust Twilight Sparkle"?). He explicitly said he didn't want to influence the timeline too much, but recent events may have forced his hand...

Least I HOPE that is what he's talking to Luna about.

8818125
... how could she not know a spell called 'Solaris lance' that basically a single spike of solar heat would be lethal? sorry no twilight is too smart to not know that, she intentionally broke the rules.

Reason, at last.

So Celly is having a MAJOR burnout, that it even affects her judgement and mentality, coming/going on? I wonder if trapped in a cocoon for a few minutes could relieve that? I mean as ruler she must have plenty of stress and all that stuff.
She could listen her sister's and student's opinions more thou...

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She's unnerving Luna by thinking nightmare moon is returning.

Celestia is known for being such a kind and loving ruler Chrysalis probably has changelings around her siphoning all her love.

This update was a pleasant surprise. Hoping the next chapter doesn't take too long.