A long walk down a Dark Road

by Chaos Nightmare

Chapter 2: The Duel

Author's Note:

Here's another chapter, sorry this disappeared and got canceled. mood and stuff caused me to doubt my writing ability.

I've also deleted the Past parts of the story due to some retcons I've made

As Twilight sat alone in her old, dusty, room of a library. She realized that nopony had been here for the three months since she had left with Spike to Ponyville for the Summer Sun Celebration. She sighed as she thought back to the event where she had met Trixie and the incident that led her to being here. Though soon after her mind went to another place, Shining had said that Trixie used an old dueling law to skip the investigation. The only law she knew that was anywhere near capable of that was from the 16th amendment. Something that you’d have to dig deep in equestrian law to find if you didn’t know about it or where to look. From what she knew of the law it wasn’t something exactly taught even in the most obscure law classes, so how did she know of it?

Twilight sighed it wasn’t wise to focus on a puzzle without all the pieces, so as she stared off at the night sky, she went to her old bed and went to sleep. She would need all her energy tomorrow, something told her that Trixie wasn’t going to play fair.

---

As Night turned to day, Twilight was awoken by a loud knocking on her door. “Miss Sparkle, Princess Celestia has requested your presence before the duel.”

Twilight, still half asleep, groggily got out of bed and wondered what was going on before the reality of the situation slapped her in the face. “Oh right Trixie.” she muttered to herself as she slowly trotted towards the door. Before the guard escorted her to Celestia’s dining hall.

“Twilight.” Celestia greeted casually as breakfast was being served. “Come take a seat.”

“Thank you Princess.” Twilight said as she took a seat, though she knew Celestia had clear other motives as this wasn’t a normal procedure for someone under Twilight's condition. “So what is it you wished to speak to me about?”

“I’ll be honest with you this was a failed attempt at getting article C-45 happen between you and Trixie, but she declined my offer, saying she wanted to meditate before the match.”

“Article C-45?” Twilight asked, confused.

“Its an addendum to the dueling law in the 16th Amendment, implemented about a century after then the amendment itself, it in simple terms is ‘If the two individuals who are dueling can make an agreement before the duel is supposed to start, the duel is called off and both parties walk away clear of charges’ or more importantly for Trixies case, she would have been paid from my account rather then your families.” Celestia explained.

“So clear the air before anything rash happens?”

“So to speak, yes. But I feel Trixie needs to prove to both herself and Equestria she is as great as she claims. You don’t know how badly you damaged her reputation. She may need to show Equestria her true strength.” Celestia explained as pancakes were brought in. “Now I did plan to make sure you both were fed, so enjoy some breakfast, then we’ll meet with Trixie.”

---

I sat in my cart eating the last of my food. It wasn’t much considering I only had one piece of bread left and some jam from my trip, as my stomach growled I wondered if I should have taken Celestia’s offer for food. But knowing her she’d probably try and get Article C-45 used and have me talk it out with Twilight.

“Ms Lulamoon, The Princess sent me to escort you to the dueling grounds” a Guard spoke, it sounded Like Shining Armor’s voice. As I trotted out of my cart I saw that I was right. As we were walking to the arena I smiled.

“Ah Captain Armor, what an honor to escort me The Great and Powerful-” I started to say in a smug tone.

“Yeah, I heard about you, The Great and Powerful Trixie.” he said unamused. “Look, just because I understand your argument for going against my sister, doesn’t mean I have to put up with your act.”

I rolled my eyes. “Fine geez, it's called Character Acting. No need to get huffy.”

I could see his left eye twitch as I said that, “Huffy?” he asked. “No, no no, I'm annoyed that some two bit magician who found an old law document is threatening the integrity of my family’s legacy just because she couldn’t keep her lies small.”

“Whoa calm down, you wouldn't want the other guards hearing you have an opinion on a prisoner, pretty sure that's a violation of the guards oath.” I said smugly, Shining armor grunted in frustration as she was right as much as he hated the fact she called his sister a prisoner.

“We’re here.” He said as he was slightly annoyed at my antics.

I smiled and said “thank you for the escort.” He simply grunted and walked away.

The gate to the arena was still closed so I had a few minutes to think. I took a deep breath to mentally reset myself before the fight. From what I knew of Twilight she had a greater pool of magic to pull from and was trained by Celestia, but had limited spells, Arcane bolts, Teleportation, and Levitation, were her only combat spells if I recall correctly. Where I knew I had a greater range of spells. Arcane bolts, Elemental magic, Teleportation, Levitation, Healing, Shields and a few others I can’t think of right now. As I was in the middle of thought the gate opened. It was time.

---

As I walked onto the arena I saw that It was a large circular Colosseum with rocks in random places meant to simulate unstable terrain, this was clearly meant for guards training in recent centuries as the dueling law was mostly forgotten about. After a moment of looking I saw Twilight Sparkle standing at the other entrance also clearly looking around for some advantage. “Trixie,” she said with an annoyed tone.

“Sparkle.” I replied with a smug tone. “Are you ready to lose?” I asked.

Before Twilight could respond Celestia spoke. “Mare’s and Gentleponies, this is a duel between Twilight Sparkle and Trixie Lulamoon. Due to the nature of this duel I expect the combatants to fight fair and clean. Now begin!”

I started off the fight with a medium thunderbolt spell over Twilight's Head to which she narrowly dodged by teleporting to on top of a rock and launching three arcane bolts at me. Childsplay I thought to myself as I easily dodged the first two and created a barrier for the third, while secretly placing magical seeker mines around the arena.

I smiled as I cast a few fireball spells each aimed at Twilight, she teleported away from the first two only to be caught off guard by one of my mines. As she was launched into the air she looked around for some kind of advantage before another thunderbolt spell hit her, spiking her to the ground.

“Twilight!” a few voices shouted from the stands. It seems her friends were also here.

I walked towards her as I smiled, this fight was clearly over, which was a shame as I had a few strategies I wanted to use before the fight was done. I grabbed Twilight with my levitation and noticed she was barely conscious. I whispered something into her ear before I teleported to Celestia who was in the stands. “Here. I believe I’ve won.” there was clear anger in Celestia’s eyes but she remained composed.

“Very well Miss Lulamoon, you’ve won. Captain Armor take Twilight to the infirmary while I deal with Trixies Case.” Celestia ordered.

“Yes Princess.”

Comments

[nightshroud96]

Will this continue?
Pretty curious on how the whole Keyblade stuff will be involved