Equestria Girls: Dark Duel Stories

After Applejack and Rarity were all dueled out and when we say that the clock was getting closer to 5, we decided to head over to the park. It was about a block away from school, so we figured it wouldn’t be long before Lux arrived, since he had walked home from school. Sure enough, our patience was rewarded when, not five minutes after we had arrived, we saw Lux riding down the street on a ten-speed bicycle. I looked at my watch and nodded, impressed that he had arrived right on time.

“Hi, Sunset Shimmer,” he said shyly as he approached. He stood awkwardly before us as we all sat on the edge of the fountain in the center of the park. “Hi, Sunset’s friends,” he added with a small wave to the others.

I stood up and introduced Lux to each of my friends, one-by-one. It went pretty well, except when Applejack and Fluttershy had to restrain Pinkie to keep her from leaping up and giving Lux a big hug. Once we were all familiar with each other, Lux asked the big question.

“So, are you all duelists?” he asked hopefully.

We all nodded in unison. “Duel Monsters is pretty popular at Canterlot High,” I explained. “A while back, a student brought some of his cards for everyone to see, and everyone went crazy for the game, vowing to go out and learn the rules and get their decks. It was amazing how quickly the game’s popularity spread,” I added thoughtfully.

Lux smiled pleasantly. “That’s good,” he said, sounding relieved. “A lot of the kids at my old school made fun of me for collecting Duel Monsters cards; a few of them even tried to beat me up and steal them, which is one of the reasons my mom had me transferred to a different school.”

Applejack gave him a curious look. “Why did you transfer to Canterlot High, Lux?” she inquired.

The boy rubbed his shoulder uncomfortably. “I, uh, I’d rather not talk about it,” he said quietly.

I nodded respectfully. “Well, would you like to duel one of us?” I suggested. “After all, since you’re new to Canterlot High, it would be a good idea to make a few friends so you aren’t lonely.”

Lux looked thoughtful for a few moments, before nodding slowly. “Yeah, a duel would be nice,” he said clearly. “Which one of you would like to go first?”

I cleared my throat and stepped aside as my friends all stood up. “Actually, we were going to let you choose who you wanted to duel,” I explained. “Applejack uses a pretty well-rounded deck, Fluttershy uses Naturia monsters, Pinkie Pie uses a Madolche deck, Rarity runs Crystal Beasts, and Rainbow Dash has Elemental Hero cards,” I added. “Choose whoever you want; we’re all excited to see how good you are!”

Lux looked to each of my friends, nervously studying them to decide who he should pick as his dueling partner. After a long silence, he finally turned to me. “I’d like to duel you,” he said quietly.

The girls all gasped, and I took a slight step back. “Are you sure about that?” I asked cautiously, “After all, you saw me duel Trixie earlier; you want to duel me knowing that I can summon a monster like Red Nova Dragon with little trouble?”

Lux shrugged. “It’ll be a good challenge,” he pointed out, pulling a duel disk from his backpack and strapping it to his arm. It was an unmodified model, with the default grey paint with red-and-blue highlights. There was a piece of duct tape holding part of the blade together, and it was badly scratched in some parts. “Some… some kids tried stealing it from me and breaking it,” he explained sadly. “I got it back before they could do any serious damage.”

I nodded slowly, realizing that not only was he serious about wanting to duel me, but also that it probably wasn’t going to do any good trying to talk him out of this. I strapped my own disk to my arm and drew my first five cards. “You can have the first turn, if you’d like,” I offered kindly.

Lux shook his head slightly. “You go ahead,” he replied softly.

I drew a sixth card and studied my hand. Hmm… no way to properly set up for Red Nova Dragon right away, but I can still bring out some decent players for the first turn, I thought carefully. Then again, maybe I should go easy on him and not summon Nova at all?  “I summon Flamvell Firedog!” I declared, placing my chosen monster’s card onto my duel disk as it appeared in front of me in a flash of fiery light. “Since I control a Flamvell Monster, I can also summon my Neo Flamvell Origin,” I added, placing a second card next to my Firedog. A small fireball with a blue core appeared, and a nervous-looking face stared out from inside the flame. “Now, I’ll tribute both of my monsters to Synchro Summon Flamvell Uruquizas!”

As I spoke, the two monsters I had just summoned were enveloped in a pillar of flame, and the flame died down to reveal a black-and-orange-armored man with burning fists standing in their place. “After that, I’ll set two cards face-down, and end my turn,” I concluded. “You’re up, Lux!”

Lux nodded as he drew a card from his deck and studied his hand. “I’ll summon Jain, Lightsworn Paladin!” he stated, placing a card onto his duel disk. There was a burst of gold light, and a heroic man with white-blond hair and white armor stepped out onto the field, his red cape billowing dramatically behind him. “I’ll attack Uruquizas with Jain, and his special effect kicks in; Jain gains an extra 300 attack points, destroying both himself and your monster,” he explained.

I nodded. “Not unless I have a trap card to use,” I pointed out, revealing one of my set cards. “Sakuretsu Armor! Your attacking monster is destroyed, and Uruquizas is safe,” I said confidently.

Lux’s face fell as his monster exploded the moment its sword connected with Uruquizas. “Okay,” he said slowly, looking over the cards in his hand, “I’ll activate Lightsworn Sanctuary, and follow it with Charge Of The Light Brigade,” he said as he placed a pair of cards down in his spell/trap zone. “Now, I have to send the top 3 cards from my deck to the graveyard, but I can add a Lightsworn monster directly to my hand,” he explained, and quickly looked through his deck for a monster he could choose. “I’ll take Minerva, Lightsworn Maiden,” he said finally. “Now, I place a Shine Counter on Lightsworn Sanctuary, and I can special summon my Wulf, Lightsworn Beast that was sent to the graveyard by Charge of the Light Brigade!”

There was another golden flash, and a white wolf-man was standing on Lux’s side of the field, wielding a large, golden staff. “Next, I’ll use Lightsworn Sanctuary to send Felis, Lightsworn Archer from my hand to the graveyard, and bring Ryko, Lightsworn Hunter from my graveyard to my hand,” he added, placing one card from his hand into his graveyard slot, then removing another card and adding it to his hand. “Finally, I’ll set three cards and end my turn,” he said, looking up at me nervously. “Your turn,” he said with a small smile.

I nodded, drawing a card from my deck. “Okay, I’ll summon my Neo Flamvell Sabre,” I said as I placed a monster on my duel disk, summoning a lightly-armored creature holding a large, blazing sword. “Normally it would have 1500 attack points, but it gains an extra 600 since you have less than 4 cards in your graveyard,” I explained.

Lux quickly flipped one of his face-down cards face up. “I activate my trap card, Vanquishing Light!” he declared. “By tributing Wulf, I can negate Neo Flamvell Sabre’s summon and destroy him!”

I smirked cleverly. “I’ll activate a face-down card of my own; Flamvell Counter!” I replied. “By banishing the Neo Flamvell Origin in my graveyard, I can negate your trap card, and summon Neo Flamvell Sabre successfully! Now that you don’t have any monsters on the field, I’ll attack your life points directly with Flamvell Uruquizas!”

Lux’s eyes seemed to shine as he flipped a second card face-up. “I’ll activate Glorious Illusion, allowing me to bring Wulf back into the battle!” he said triumphantly, and the monster that he had tributed moments before reappeared on the field, powerful as ever. “Now, since you’ve no choice but to attack Wulf, I’ll activate Lightsworn Barrier,” he added, flipping his final face-down card face-up. “I can negate your attack simply by sending the top two cards from my deck to the Graveyard,” he explained, taking two cards from his deck and placing them in the graveyard slot on his duel disk. “Now that I have a total of 5 cards in my graveyard, you’re Neo Flamvell Sabre goes back to his original 1500 attack points, and thus unable to follow-up Uruquiza’s attack.”

I examined my hand and the cards laid out on the field. “I’ll set one card face-down and end my turn,” I said finally, impressed by Lux’s quick recovery.

Lux nodded and drew a new card. “I’ll activate Solar Recharge by discarding Minerva, Lightsworn Maiden, so I can draw to cards and send the top three cards from my deck to the graveyard; two for Solar Recharge, and one from Minerva’s effect,” he explained. “Next, I’ll summon Raiden, Hand of the Lightsworn, and activate his effect!” he declared, summoning a tan-skinned, shirtless man that wore a billowy, blue scarf and carried a golden dagger. “By sending two cards from my deck to the graveyard, he’ll gain 200 attack points for each Lightsworn monster he sends.” As he explained the effect, he looked at the top two cards of his deck. “Two monsters, giving him a 400 point boost; a grand total of 2100 attack! Also, since one of the monsters was another Wulf, Lightsworn Beast, I can summon him immediately,” he added, placing another staff-carrying wolf-man on the field.

“Next, I’ll use Lightsworn Sanctuary’s effect to trade a Lightsworn in my hand for one in the graveyard,” he said, shuffling through the cards in his graveyard. “I’ll take Gragonith, Lightsworn Dragon by discarding Lumina, Lightsworn Summoner,” he said finally. “Then, I’ll summon Gragonith by sacrificing the Wulf I summoned with Glorious Illusion last turn!” he declared, and one of his Wulf, Lightsworn Hunters vanished, being quickly replaced by a gold flash and a white dragon with a golden, lion-like mane and a glowing horn. “Gragonith gains an extra 300 attack points for every different Lightsworn monster in my graveyard, giving him a total of 3200 attack points! Gragonith, destroy Sunset Shimmer’s Flamvell Uruquizas!” he declared, and the dragon responded by raising its head into the air as its horn fired a ray of white light, disintegrating my monster.

I gritted my teeth as my life point meter ticked down to 6900, and looked up to see Lux’s other two monsters were eager to attack as well. “Wulf, destroy her monster, and Raiden, go for a direct attack!” he declared, and his two monsters charged at me with their weapons raised.  Wulf’s golden staff obliterated my Neo Flamvell Sabre, and Raiden’s dagger passed through me harmlessly; my life points weren’t so lucky, though, as I heard my duel disk beep frantically as the meter dropped to 4200 points. “After all that, I’ll end my turn,” he said finally.

I drew a card and narrowed my eyes in frustration as I once again failed to draw a card that would help me summon Red Nova Dragon. Oh well; Red Dragon Archfiend as decent attack, and his effect isn’t terrible, either, I thought as I placed a spell card on the field. “I activate Rekindling, allowing me to summon all the fire-attribute monsters in my graveyard with 200 attack!” I declared, and the field became bathed with fire as my Flamvell Firedog, Neo Flamvell Sabre, and Neo Flamvell Origin appeared before me. “Next, I’ll normal summon my Flamvell Dragnov, and send Dragnov, Sabre, and Origin to the graveyard to Synchro Summon Red Dragon Archfiend!”

My three chosen monsters vanished, and Red Dragon Archfiend burst onto the field in a flash of red light, letting loose a threatening roar at the opposing monsters.

Lux looked confused by my action. “But Red Dragon Archfiend doesn’t have enough attack to destroy Gragonith,” he said slowly. “And even if he did attack, I can just negate it with Lightsworn Barrier.”

I nodded. “That’s why I’m going to activate Forbidden Lance,” I replied. “Red Dragon Archfiend loses 800 attack, but now he becomes immune to all spells and traps for the rest of the turn. On top of that, I’m going to activate Level Limit, Area B, which changes the battle position of all monsters to defense if they’re higher than level four, except for my Red Dragon Archfiend.

“Now, my Red Dragon Archfiend will attack your Gragonith, Lightsworn Dragon, which will activate his second ability, automatically destroying all defense position monsters you control!” I said triumphantly, and my Red Dragon Archfiend sprayed the field with a wave of black fire, causing all of Lux’s monsters to writhe in pain before vanishing from the field. “Now, I can attack you directly with Red Dragon Archfiend!” I added, and my dragon fired a bolt of black flame at Lux, knocking his life points to 5800. “Since my Neo Flamvell Sabre couldn’t attack, he’s automatically destroyed by Red Dragon Archfiend’s effect at the end of my turn,” I said regretfully, and my monster vanished in a flash of red light. “Your move, Lux!” I said, my confidence restored now that I had one of my most powerful monsters on the field.

Lux drew a card and smirked. “Looks like it’s my turn to summon my own signature monster,” he said happily. “Come on out, Judgment Dragon!”

There was a brilliant explosion of golden light, and a beautiful dragon with feathers of the purest white emerged from the glowing vortex. It stared at Red Dragon Archfiend with admirable respect, as if it saw my monster as a worthy opponent. “I’ll activate my dragon’s effect: at the cost of a thousand life points, I can destroy every card on the field except for Judgment Dragon!” he explained, and his life points went down to 4800. Just then, Judgment Dragon bowed its head, and a storm of golden meteors cascaded from the sky above us, bombarding the field with holy fire. Red Dragon archfiend reared back its head and roared in defiance, but there was nothing that could be done to save it from the graveyard. “Next, I’ll activate Twin Swords of Flashing Light - Tryce by sending Felis, Lightsworn Archer from my hand to the graveyard. Now, my Judgment Dragon can attack twice during the battle phase!” he cried, and Judgment Dragon fired a pair of golden fireballs from its mouth, each attack doing 3000 damage.

I stared in shock as the field cleared and my life points ticked to zero. “Wow… you’re a great duelist, Lux,” I said with an impressed smile. My friends all stood up behind me and cheered loudly.

“That was the most awesome duel I’ve ever seen!” Rainbow Dash cried happily. “Next time we hang out like this, I wanna have a try at Lux’s deck!”

Lux rubbed his shoulder and smiled shyly. “It wasn’t that big of a deal,” he said softly. “After all, Sunset wasn’t able to summon Red Nova Dragon; if she had, there’s no way I could have won.”

I shrugged. “That’s still up in the air at this point,” I said modestly. “Hey, Lux, what’s your first class tomorrow?” I asked, changing the subject.

Lux thought about his for a moment. “Uh… Chemistry,” he said quietly.

I smiled kindly. “You’ll be in the same class as me and Pinkie Pie tomorrow; would you like to sit next to us?” I offered. “We ended up getting the short straw for our current project; the class was divided into groups of three, and we got stuck as one of the groups of two,” I added.

I swear I could hear the boy’s heart thumping in his chest. “Oh… are you sure?” he asked nervously, “after all, I might not have been at the same level at my old school as you guys are now.”

Pinkie skipped over to Lux and beamed at him. “Look at it this way; you can go with me and Sunset, or end up stuck in a group of kids you don’t even know!” she said sunnily as she “booped” him on the nose with her finger, then skipped back to her former spot.

Lux pondered this for a moment. “Well… I guess since I know you two already, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to partner up with you,” he said finally. Just then, we all heard a quiet beeping sound, and Lux pulled a cell phone from his pocket. It was a very simple phone, probably one of those pre-paid devices that get a limited number of minutes each month. “I’ve gotta go; something’s come up at home,” he said worriedly. “I’ll… uh, I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” he said with an awkward wave as he hopped onto his bike and peddled away.

The others got up and stood next to me as Lux sped away on his bike. “Well, that was an interesting match,” Rarity said after a long silence.

Fluttershy nodded. “He seemed more confident in himself when he dueled, didn’t he?” she asked thoughtfully.

I nodded in agreement. “He’s probably been dueling for a long time,” I replied. “Maybe he feels like he’s in his natural element when he’s got a duel disk on his arm and a deck of cards in his hand.”

Rainbow Dash patted me on the back. “Well, one thing’s for certain; nobody needs to find out about how that went down,” she said teasingly. “I’m sure Lux isn’t the kind of guy who will go around bragging that he beat you, and the rest of us are your best friends; we wouldn’t say anything that would hurt your reputation!”

I smiled and rolled my eyes. “Well, if anyone asks, don’t lie just to uphold my title of ‘Canterlot High’s Number-One Duelist’,” I said sternly. “Of course, that doesn’t mean I want you to go telling everyone you see about it,” I added quickly, and we all burst into laughter as we began to walk home from the park.

~-~-~-~-~

“You’re certain that she is the one?”

The black-haired boy was kneeling in a darkened alleyway before a tall, slender man cloaked in black robes that concealed his every feature. “Yes,” he said respectfully. “She mustbe the one in possession of the other half of the key; why else would my piece have led me to this school?”

The robed man nodded slightly. “Very well; if your intuition has you convinced that she has what we are looking for, then you may duel her, and when that filthy cur devours her soul, bring me the two halves of the key; you may keep her deck if you wish, but it will not matter once our master has been released from his slumber,” he said wickedly.

Just then, the shadowy silhouette manifested itself beside the boy, and rushed at the robed man with a threatening growl. The man responded by holding out an open hand, which grabbed the creature by its throat. “Learn your place,” he hissed menacingly as the shadowy figure choked under the man’s grip. “You are nothing but a by-product of our master’s imprisonment, and that is all you ever shall be!” He spit in the creature’s face and threw it to the floor. It’s body laid on the floor for several moments before fading away like a cloud of smoke, and the robed man turned to the boy addressing him. “You really must keep your pet under control,” he said in an irritated tone. “I may have been gifted the power to see spirits thanks to my servitude to our master, but it does not mean I like dealing with that thing whenever it decides to throw a tantrum.

“Go now, and defeat this ‘Sunset Shimmer’. Defeat her, bring me the other half of the Key of Nightmares, and the world will finally know what darkness truly is.”

The boy nodded and briskly walked away, tucking the broken key amulet underneath his jacket as his mysterious contact cackled wickedly.

“I’ll get the key,” he muttered under his breath, “but don’t think you’re going to be the one getting all the credit when our master is finally released.”