Twilight's Nightmare

by Nightsclaw

Fragments: Rule Breaker

Author's Note:

3/12

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The echo of a scream jolted her awake. One moment, a flaming sword rushed towards her. The next, it was gone. Rule Breaker did not open her eyes so much as realise that they were already open. She stood there, already almost in a battle-ready stance.

Knowledge didn't so much hit her as she realised she already knew it. This body was Candice, and the only way anypony she was meant to care about was going to survive was if Candice used an ability of hers in exactly the right way, and they tuned it just so.

"As there was no time to ask, mother-daughter dumped me here just to do it. Great… thanks, mum. Buck my life. Sorry, Candice. I've got this, just sit back and enjoy the ride."

The only thing more novel than having wings was casting magic through them. Power thrummed through the alien limbs as the magic danced to her whims. The field effect should have been perfectly symmetrical, but that was wasteful, so she chose for it to do something different. With a little more magic and a nudge from her talent, what should have been two overlapping spheres became a massively reinforced V-form. Another nudge and the part of reality that was about to calculate the angles of reflection and refraction through hyper-dense magical flux got a little drunk before her talent hit it over the head, dragged it off and just declared how things were going to go from now on.

She wanted to cackle in glee. Telling reality who was boss was always such a rush. Regrettably, it just did not have the same feel to it when confined to the privacy of her head, or, well, Candice's in this case.

Defenses in place and vastly improved she had time to think. Just what exactly am I defending against anyway? The memories rushed in like a flood, not that she really needed them with what she could see before her. Oh, never mind, I see now.

With the doubled-up time magic, there was almost enough time to get bored. At least it was pretty to look at. The cataclysmic magic, seemingly reduced to slow-motion art, made a strange backdrop for the game of mini golf that Discord played with the frozen ponies.

Now what? She checked through her inherited memories. What? Nothing. By Celestia's fat flank, I'm bucked. If you get me killed just after getting back, I'm going to find a way to bring you back just to rip your ears off

A sting in her chest stopped her rant. Perhaps insulting Candice's love literally less than a millisecond after her death was in bad taste. Fine, you trust her. Let's see if you're right. Oh, hi, by the way. I'm RB. I guess you're my new body… sorry you did not get a choice… and you know all this.

With nothing more to do, well, not a thing she could do without dooming those sheltering behind her, she watched and considered what was to become of her and her new roommate.

As she plucked at the connections, her roommate watched through their eyes in growing dread. Loss, guilt and helplessness seeped in form Candice. She wanted to help, but what could she say? What could she do? The very fact she was here meant that Candice's love was already gone. If she could have, she would have sighed. Touchy-feely things were not her scene, but Candice needed her. Even though she had never done it before, she knew exactly how to do it. She folded her soul around Candice. The intimacy of the magical embrace was enough that it would have brought heat to her cheeks if there had been enough time for the blood to flow.

It's just a hug… She thought to herself, trying not to dwell on the fact it was her first. Twilight had given her life so she could be here so that she could mount this defence. We're going to get through this. Not that she knew how yet, but Candice did not need yet more negativity.

So she watched, holding Candice close. It felt nice, familiar, right? This was the sort of thing Twilight had intended, which was a whole other can of worms to deal with. She wanted to sigh. At this rate, she was going to end up with a week's worth of sighs on backorder. She ignored the fact like she ignored the confusion in her heart. What was she even meant to think about possibly loving a mare she had only just met, thanks to her dead sister-mother?

She avoided the internal confusion and instead waited for an opportunity to come knocking.

What had been a directed strike against Twilight became multiple fans of hoof thick beams as each now crystal feather acted like a horn and played return to sender with a horrible aim.

Every lance of solar energy that hit the reinforced wedge inexplicably deflected straight up instead of taking potshots at the surrounding hills, mountains and clouds. Unfortunately, Twilight proved terrible at aiming. Over half missed entirely. The other missed both the solar horse and the area Rule Breaker protected.

The ones that avoided the wedge were an entirely different matter. Pony-wide holes were just gone. A second later, anything within two or three Celestias of their paths melted to molten glass. I'm sure there is nothing important over there…

Wait, how am I seeing this? Oh, Candice's sunglasses spell. Well, this is over-engineered. She half teased, half complemented her roommate.

In slow-motion pyrotechnics, Twilight's flesh lit and then detonated off her as every molecule of liquid explosively vaporised. It was beautiful until you considered what it truly was. In its wake, an undead skeletal Alicorn coated in magenta crystal emerged from the blast, not exactly under its own power.

Badass! So going to use that for my album cover. RB's excitement quickly vanished, first due to her own guilt and then by crushing despair from deep inside.

Candice's soul became a block of ice, but RB just held it tighter. It's going to be alright. It was a lie, it was lame, but it was all she could think of as she tried to channel Cadance and Velvet.

Then, the crystal skeleton dragged itself to its hooves.

Round two.

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Comments

[Iso_the_Werewolf]

Metal af

[dragonus85]

11823807
Album cover indeed