> A long walk down a Dark Road > by Chaos Nightmare > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue: The end has come > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I awoke in a strange grass covered field, I glanced around as I had no idea how I had gotten here. “Shit, was I drugged last night?” I muttered to myself as I rose from the ground and began looking around for any sign of what happened to me. There were no forests nearby nor any signs of human activity around, recent or otherwise, it was as if I was just placed down here by random chance. “What the hell happened” I muttered while looking around my pockets, my phone was missing, so was my wallet and keys. I had a dark realization as I shouted “Shit.” and pulled my shirt up and frantically started looking for any stitches on my body. I sighed when I couldn't find any indications that I had any of my organs stolen. Which raised the question, ‘what happened to me and where was I?’ “Ah I see you’ve awoken.” A voice spoke from behind me. I quickly turned around to see a man sitting on a leather chair that was definitely not there before drinking from a mug. “Where are my manners? Why don’t you take a seat.” the man said as he waved his free hand in a circular motion and a second leather chair appeared out of thin air. “What the hell!” I said jumping back a bit. The man chuckled as he spoke, “I take it the memories haven’t come back yet.” he smiled and with a wave his hand I started to see flashes of light around me. I began to see flashes of memories from the past day. It was all blurry but I could make out some details. I began to remember. I was returning from camping out in the wilds of British Columbia with some friends when we hit some kind of a military roadblock, apparently something crazy was happening, some kind of doomsday cult or something had been causing problems all over the world and the military was being overwhelmed. Many cities in North America had been taken over by looters and it wasn’t safe to return to the city anymore. My friend who was driving called it a bluff to deal with crazy people and drove onto the off road much to the disagreement of me and my other friend. My memory gets a little fuzzy after this but the next thing that I remember was that sometime right before midnight I was laying in a pool of blood with a bullet wound in my shoulder and some prick saying something about he would have let me live if I just told him where some girl I had no info about was. The very last thing I remember before waking up here was the sound of a gun firing. I collapsed on the ground as I began hyperventilating and struggled to ask the question “I’m I dead?” The man chuckled and said “No, no.” before he took a sip from his mug. “You were saved at the last moment by me.” The man explained as he rose from his seat and the grassy field we were in started to spin and change around us to show what he was talking about. “See yesterday or rather the day you remember as yesterday was December 21’st 2012, the day the Mayan calendar ended as well as the day that some theorized the world would end and those theories were right in a way,” The world around us changed back into a grassy field as the man sat back down in the leather chair and finished explaining “In other words yesterday was a test to see if the end game would Humanity band together to fight the darkness or keep squabbling amongst each other for dominance as a greater threat appeared.” “So why am I here? I didn’t fight if I remember correctly I was a coward yesterday.” I explained. “Yes you were but you fell under the rules I had in place for yesterday.” He said as a book appeared in his hands “You were peaceful yesterday you didn’t fight or harm anyone so by the rules I made up for this test you passed, you are of course you are free to return to your world as if yesterday never happened with no memory of it happening, or you can take the more interesting option.” “What would that be?” I asked curious. “Power, knowledge, whatever you want. With a catch, once you choose this option there is no going back to Earth, understand?” “*Gulp* understood. But is it just the one thing I can get or can I get multiple things?” “Take as much as your heart desires.” The old man explained. “First I want to know the full story of the Xehanort Saga of Kingdom Hearts.” “Weird, may I ask why?” The man asked. “Two reasons, the first is a test, to see what you can offer, the second is to help me learn some things.” “Alright, but this might hurt.” The old man said as I was about to ask why before a small bolt of lightning hit my head. “GAH!” I shouted, grabbing my head in pain before falling to the ground as a flash of every Kingdom Hearts cutscene played in my head at once. “Warned you. Knowledge isn’t an easy thing to add to someone, but eh you got what you wanted, so what-cha gonna do with that knowledge?” I got off the ground with a heavy breath “I want the No-Name Keyblade and some more knowledge this time on magic.” The old man smiled as he waved his left hand in a circle and the Keyblade appeared in my hand. “Now I think you know what happens next.” he said as the small bolt of lighting struck me again. “Now this time I didn’t give you all the knowledge you were expecting at once, gotta let you learn and master it after all.” “Uggg.” I muttered getting up from the ground and shaking myself off. “Okay I think I’m ready to go, just send me off somewhere where I can have an interesting adventure.” “Alright and ‘May your heart be your guiding Key.” the old man said as I vanished. In the forests north of Ponyville Trixie Lulamoon sat down at her camp watching the stars, “Tomorrow night is the night Eh Luna?” She mused to herself as she took a bit out of her dinner. She smiled as in a few weeks she’d be in the town of Ponyville, where she could make some bits and then be off to Canterlot. She sighed as she looked up at the moon and muttered “May your heart be your guiding Key” > Chapter 1: The challenge > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the city of Canterlot, a blue unicorn sits in the hallway to the throne room of the castle. As she waited,  some passing guards whispered to each other. Probably gossiping about her failure in Ponyville no doubt. The blue unicorn, Trixie, sighed as this had been a recurring thing in the past two months, ever since her trip to Ponyville. Though she knew it would all be over soon enough.  “Miss Lulamoon, Princess Celestia will see you now.” The assistant to the princess answered as the door to the throne room opened. Trixie rose from her seat and began to walk into the great hall of Celestia. As she walked towards the throne she noticed some glass art that depicted the recent defeat of Nightmare Moon. “Miss Lulamoon, what may I help you with?” Princess Celestia greeted. Trixie bowed and lowered her head greeting the Princess. This wasn’t the first time she met Celestia, all though this was the first time as Trixie. “Hello your highness, I have a problem. See, a few months ago, and I’m sure you’ve heard this through rumors and the such, i had an encounter in the town of Ponyville with your student Twilight Sparkle-” “Oh you're that Trixie.” Celestia interrupted, her eyes narrowing for a brief moment. “Er- yes. Well, I guess I can skip the majority of the explanation and say that I overheard her letter to you and I want to correct some things she omitted.” Celestia looked confused. “What do you mean?” “Well, for starters, she made me seem like I was bullying her friends. In reality, I was trying to do my performance while they were heckleing me. See I’m a Traveling Magician and I had decided to perform in Ponyville. I take it you’ve also heard the Ursa Minor part, but did she tell you what punishment she gave to the two colts who agitated the Ursa Minor?” “No, but judging by the fact that you are bringing it up it's something noteworthy.” “Mustache spell.” Celestia took a second to fully understand what she just said, due to its absurdity. “Did you say she punished them... with a mustache spell?” As Trixie nodded Celestia looked worried. “So what is it you wish for?” Celestia asked, concerned. “Well as much as I want compensation I don’t think it will fix the damage to my reputation, see for the past few months after my trip to Ponyville, I’ve tried to forget about it as just a bad show. Though, due to those two colts and your student’s actions I’ve been mocked and unable to gain any work due to it.” “So you want a formal apology from my student and compensation? Unfortunately I’ll need to run a minor investigation into this before I can give your request any thought.” Trixie sighed before saying “Then by my legal right, I enact dueling law C-147, from the 16th amendment.” Celestia couldn’t help but stare at her in shock.. “Miss Lulamoon, you don’t need to do anything that drastic. The investigation will only take a month tops.” “A month I don’t have, I spent the last of my bits coming here. I don't really have any other options.” Celestia somberly sighed. “Well as much as I don’t advise doing that, you are in your legal right. Miss Inkwell, bring me my writing quill.” Five hours passed as Twilight frantically walked the halls of Canterlot train station. “Twilight, there must be a good reason why Celestia called you here on such short notice.” Her dragon assistant/little brother said, trying to reassure her. “Unfortunately it isn’t, Twily.” A Royal guard spoke from behind her. “Shining Armor?” Twilight asked, surprised. “Celestia asked me to bring you to the castle and fill you in on the situation.” “Why what's going on?” Spike asked. “Well, you remember two colts bringing an Ursa Minor from the Everfree forest to prove some magician was everything she claimed to be?” “You mean Trixie? Yeah why?” “Well it seems that Trixie brought up some things you failed to mention to the Princess.” Shining explained. “What sort of things? I was thorough in my friendship report.”  “Well for starters did you really have to give those two colts a reward for doing something so dangerous?” Shining armor berated his sister as Twilight’s face went red when he said that in embarrassment. “Well that and the fact your friends antagonized her would have been enough for our family to have to pay for damages. But it seems Trixie is impatient, or more accurately so out of money that she couldn’t wait for the month to have an investigation done.” “Investigation, why would there be an investigation?” Spike asked. “Here’s the thing, you handled the situation with Trixie and those two colts poorly. You claimed she was a bully, and had rewarded the two colts for doing property damage and reckless endangerment, then framing as a moral victory when she ran.” Shining pointed out, “These things alone would have gotten you a bad grade, but due to Trixie’s reputation being damaged the investigation would have shown how much you, and our family would have had to pay her in damages.” Shining explained.  “But Snips and Snails were just colts so putting them through any other punishment would have just been cruel” “Unfortunately, Celestia doesn’t see it that way. She would see your punishment more as a reward that would encourage them to do more reckless acts like that in the future. But back to why I mentioned Trixie is being impatient, see she put down an old dueling law where if she wins the investigation is skipped and she gets her bits, but if she loses her case is thrown out.” “Wow, she must be desperate if she’s willing to risk a guaranteed win.” Spike said as Twilight glared at him “What? Shining said so himself she was guaranteed to get bits from our family.” As the two arrived at the castle, Shining looked at the ground. “The duel will be tomorrow. However due to the Coltbelt law I’m going to have to have guards escort you to your room. Where you will be unable to leave till the duel.” “Coltbelt law isn’t a house arrest law?” Twilight asked. “Yes, unfortunately since you are technically a guilty party in this case, you do fall into this law.” Shining explained with some guilt on his face. “Spike can also not stay with you as per the law. I’ll take him back to Mom and Dad’s place.” “Don’t worry Twilight, I'm sure you’ll beat Trixie.” Spike said as two guards escorted Twilight to her room. > Chapter 2: The Duel > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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.”