The Legend of Fauna

When Twilight awoke, she couldn't remember when she fell asleep, but it was very clearly sunrise now. Upon the groaning noises that exited Twilight, The sorcerer, who was still very in the room looked up from his spot on top of Twilight's desk. To the left of wall facing desk, closer to the bed than the door were a pair of bags that she had never seen before. The green one looked to be a more modern looking backpack, but with an unusual layout. The main Pocket was split up into four quadrants each about the size of a textbook, laying on it's spine cover, with a second pocket slightly smaller, but with no extra zippers, or pockets to it. On the front was a third section, not quite as big as the first two, but unusually square for something that looked to be made of a cloth vinyl mixture. The Violet one was a different kind of bag all together. Likely some form of duffel bag but it also looked to be made to wear long-ways across the back. It was covered in pockets, and both bags looked full.

“Ah, Good morning, Master Sparkle. Whilst looking for things to accommodate you, I found a room filled to the brim with various cloth material within the school. I saw that the bag you had intended on using looked... out of shape, so I took the liberty of making new ones for the both of you. It is simply fascinating to see all the information on clothing and garments out there.” Twilight was too groggy to question anything in her life, now that it had recently become so crazy, so she just rolled over Spike and moved to the bathroom. The boy had not yet started to wake, but the full weight of his almost hundred pound sister on top of him caused him to move.

“What the? Who the? Huh?” Twilight put her hands over her ears and her head on the bar. “Get up Spike, My trading card made us clothes...” Even her own words started to confuse her. It was too early in the morning for this. It was one thing to barely sleep, but to sleep more than eighteen hours was too much for her. The boy rose from his spot on the bed and began to sit up from his position. After he moved, he realized he felt far more comfortable in his clothes than he remembered. Then he noticed he was not wearing his shorts or tee-shirt, but was wearing pajamas made of some form of silk. “What am I wearing?” Andromeda took this opportunity to answer.

“Silk, of the spider variety I believe. Woven and constructed with a hint of magic, you shall be able to wear those pajamas for the rest of your life. The spell I put on them will have them grow with you, the moment the magic detects a change in your size. When Amethyst discovered the 'growth-tracker' spell as she called it, she began selling to high paying clients and giving them to the poor in her city. Each of my siblings and myself founded one of the various cities in this land. Hers is now known as Heartland.” Andromeda levitated the green bag on to the bed next to Spike without so much as removing his eyes from the duel disk he was vehemently swiping across. “What's all this?” The question puzzled Andromeda at first but then he realized the boy was scouring through his new back pack.

“Your other garments and all of those books that you had on this desk. I found the Devil Summoner series quite interesting. It appears to be such a colorful and bright little set of books, but inside is quite a dark tale of a few teenagers.” Spike had finally awoken to the name of his new set of manga. “Whoa. You read all of it? Like, the whole twelve volumes?” The sorcerer looked up at the boy from his reading. “Yes, I did. Being picture books, It was not very hard to absorb. As a matter of fact, it took me about fifteen minutes to complete the whole set.” The sounds of Twilight spitting in the bathroom floated into the main room of the dorm, and the pajama clad girl walked out with a little toothpaste under her lip.

“Oh man, you weren't kidding. It takes me that long to read through one volume of anything. Your reading speed is jank man.” Spike had a similar thought, but let it go in trade to look through the bag. He unzipped the second pocket, and pulled something black, something violet and something green out of it. Upon unfurling the tightly wrapped clothes, each was a full set of clothing. He put the green and black set back in the bag as best he could, and walked off into the bathroom. “Hey, Twi, you've got toothpaste on your lip still.” Twilight rubbed at her face with her sleeve and examined the new white-teal stain on them.

“Oh damn it. This happens every time. Now I have to wash these things. I hope that place we're going to be staying has a washer and dryer set. Hey Spike, did that letter say anything about where we were staying?” Spike had yet to finish brushing his teeth, so he spit several times before finally saying anything. “No, just that some guy is supposed to meet us at the station. And uh... I may or may not have blackened you sink.” Twilight sighed. Even the sinks at home are black because of Spike's occasional misfires. “It's whatever, don't worry about it. Are you almost done? I need to change. Oh yeah, speaking of which, what did you make me?” Andromeda levitated Twilight's new bag to her and pulled out a skirt and rather ornate billowy shirt.

“I looked up modern girl's clothing, and found that this was the kind of 'fashion' that you teenagers typically wear.” She looked at him in with disdain. She was not pleased with the particularly girly outfit. “Uh, I'm not your average teenage girl, in any sense.” Spike had exited the bathroom and was now wearing a light gray hoodie with Green and Violet Accents, A dark green tee-shirt with a Lime green symbol on it that resembled a set of talons, and a pair of indigo violet cargo pants. Twilight pointed at her brother, who was now standing by her bed. “I want stuff like that. I don't really like girl's clothes as it is and the, ugh, 'trendy' stuff is way away from my style. Skirts and dresses are something I wear over pants and shorts, if at all.” The sorcerer's brow lowered. He was wearing his mask again, but if she could see his mouth, it was likely making a frown.

“Ah... I see. Well, I will take a little time, but I can transform what I have made for you into a similar fashion to what I made for Master Spike. I understand you do not like your outer wear, but, do I need to correct the underwear as well?” Twilight began to scavenge through the bag and found several sets of lacy panties and bras. “YES, YES, OH DEAR GODS YES! What even!? How did you!? You know what? I don't care. Remove the lacy crap and they're fine, holy shit.” She couldn't even. This is that feeling when those stereotypical pretty girl airheads felt when they were asked a normal algebra question. There were no words to describe it.

“Is there anything you need to have adjusted Master Spike?” Said the Sorcerer with a tinge of exasperation in his voice. “Oh, no, this stuff is perfect! It's all in my favorite colors and everything. Thanks Andromeda!” The sorcerer let out a relieved breath and levitated the violet bag to himself and began trans-mutating articles of clothing together. He drew a circle out of magic against the wall he was facing, and then the clothes would somehow magnetically stick to it. He would then run a pattern over the clothes within the circle, write a few of the runes around it, and press his hands against the circle. Upon doing so, the circle would glow a bright indigo violet light, and envelop the clothes. Once the light disappeared, a set of pants with a similar lined design to Spike's landed on the desk in front of his crossed legs. He repeated this process twice, until he reached the undergarments, where he just pressed them each in his hands and turned the lacy underwear into solid colored, plain stuff. It took him about ten minutes to do the five pieces of clothing and then he levitated them over to Twilight.

“I hope these will be more to your liking, Master Sparkle.” He was clearly displeased with having to redo his hard work. She unfolded each piece and examined it carefully. Once she was satisfied, she retreated to the bathroom to change. When she came back, she was wearing light gray cargo pants with indigo and pink lines across it's edges, A Violet shirt with her Mage's mark in the center, and an indigo zip up hoodie, with every seam lined in either violet or pink. “Now this is what I'm talking about. But uh... we're going to a town that's kinda swampy. It's gonna be hot and humid there this time of year and you kinda made us more winter clothes.” Andromeda continued to work on Twilight's clothes, and replied without so much as turning his head.

“Ah, but in truth, this is not the case. As Master Spike's pajamas will grow with him, the clothes I have made for the both of you will adjust themselves according to the weather. They appear as light winter clothes, but if you were to run a mile in them, they would feel nonexistent. A similar magic that Amethyst invented is enchanted in these sets to feel as if they aren't there when you are hot, and completely stop wind and trap heat when you are cold. As I said, Amethyst was quite the genius when it comes to garments and armor.” Twilight was impressed.

“That's pretty impressive. That kind of magic must have never made it through the 'great nightfall' or whatever it was. I would ask another question, with what I expect has a long answer, but what time is it? We really need to be out of here by eight thirty.” Andromeda continued working. “Eight o'clock on the dot.” The girl sat down on her bed in her new wind breaker like clothes and started rubbing her chin. “Eight, huh? We should probably get some food before we go... Do you mind if we run to the cafeteria to get breakfast before we go?” The sorcerer warped her duel disk, a violet wallet, and a lanyard with a few keys on the end off the desk to Twilight's hand.

“Not at all, Master Sparkle. I would prefer it if you did, actually. I still have a few more sets of yours to alter, and it will take me about twenty five minutes to do it.” He was already finished with the third set of clothes. “Did you make eight sets of clothes? Dude, that's more than I normally wear in two weeks. But thanks anyways, I'll probably use em' all. Come on Spike, lets go get some food.” The boy followed behind Twilight to the door but just before she exited, Andromeda stopped her.

“Master Sparkle, there is a boy down in that room you're headed for with white hair and dark violet eyes. He's rather tall for his age, being sixteen like yourself, and more inclined to electrical magic than anything else. If you make it down there and see him, I believe you should speak with him. I feel like you two would get along well.” Twilight stopped in her tracks.

“Um, what? You want me to go talk to some random guy? What am I even supposed to talk about?” The sorcerer continued working on her clothes, but the corner of his eye raised, and he looked to be smiling. “Why, the magic game of course. And for added measure, you know both of his parents quite well.” The sorcerer laughed quietly to himself and teleported the two siblings to the cafeteria. Twilight blinked.

“What the- He warped us seven floors down the building!? And for the love of-” Standing not but ten feet away from them in line for breakfast was another first year student, nearly a foot and a half taller than the five foot two inch Twilight Sparkle, with bright white hair, and was seeming to give off lightning. “Hey Twilight, Isn't this the guy?” The girl put a hand over the boy's mouth. “Shut up!” She said in a hushed tone. “I don't even know him!” Another voice came from in front of them. “Well, you could know me. Hi. My name is Zeus.”

The gargantuan boy stepped out of line and was now a mere foot away from Twilight. She noticed an oddity about his hair, in that the roots were different colors. Dying hair wasn't a very common practice among the people of Fauna as bright colors were typically natural, but this guy had dyed his white. His roots looked to be... green... blue... violet... and pink. The guy looked to be pretty manly for a sixteen year old, and having pink in his hair was likely not something he wanted for his personal image. His large hand was outstretched to be shaken and Twilight obliged, fitting her comparatively tiny hand in side of his mitt. “Oh, uh... I'm Twilight.” What do I do? This isn't normal! People don't just introduce themselves to me! I have a bad reputation! People stay away!

“Oh ho ho ho, you're the Twilight Sparkle aren't you?” Oh great. He already knows my reputation. “Mom and dad talk about you a lot. You're kind of famous in my family.”  Wait, what? “They both always went on about how you're some kind of ridiculous duelist. Hey! You wanna duel right now?” Stimuli overload has crashed Twilight Sparkle.exe “She'd love to, but we don't really have the time for that. We've gotta eat and go in the next twenty minutes.” Twilight was still fixated on a blue screen in the distance that no one else could see, and the older boy and the younger boy started to talk.

“Time huh? I can fix that. You know, there's a special sect of electric magic that involves dimensional pockets.  My brother and my uncle actually discovered this sect of magic, but I just so happen to be the most proficient manipulator of this magic in the current age.” The dragon boy went wide eyed. “Your brother is Apollo Sombra?” The giant nodded. Prideful kid to say the least. “Yep. My name is Zeus Sombra, if you believe it. But as I was saying, Dimension pockets take place in another form of reality alongside our own, and if you have the know how, you can control time within them. I personally am the inventor of that specific function of dimension pockets.” Twilight Sparkle.exe has begun rebooting.

“Hold on a sec. You're Apollo Sombra's brother?” Without breaking his crossed arms, he replied in the same prideful tone. “Yeah. He's been gone for the past week with my dad doing something or other, but we're supposed to hang out next week. His office is at the top of K.C. in Middle Canterlot. You can see just about all of Fauna from it.” Twilight let out a breath. “Eh, it's not the top of Canterlot Castle. I bet it has a whole bunch of cool tech in it though. That's one thing Canterlot castle doesn't have everywhere. Everything runs on those weird old runes the Queens use.” The teenage boy blinked. “You mean the Harmonian Runes the queens use. Standard Runes are a completely separate thing.” Astounded by the correction she knew to be true, she then remembered something both he and Andromeda said.

“Who did you say your parents were? I don't recall being told that information, and the only adults I'm close to outside of my parents are the queens. Oh, and by the way, you should probably dye your roots again. Celestia's hair is showing.” The color in the room faded as she said the words. Everything but the two boys and the girl seemed to lose all hues and stop moving indefinitely. The entire world around them was frozen. “Alright, ya caught me. I let my mouth get the better of me. I'm sure you would have eventually found out about the four of us sooner or later.”

The taller Mage began scratching his head. “She is gonna be some kind of pissed when I get home. Gah, shit. She probably knows already. By the time I unfreeze this field, I bet I get a call.” He began to circle around himself muttering to himself. As he did, Twilight began to observe more things he did similarly to Celestia. The way he put his left hand to his mouth and bit on his index finger when he's thinking. The seemingly inability to slouch (wings or not). And most importantly, his eyes. The same dark violet with gold flecks along the iris. The more she looked at him, the warmer she felt. What in the world was wrong with her? She needed to do something to get out of this situation, and fast. She didn't know what was going on, but the more she looked at him, the more warmer her body seemed to get, and the muddier he thoughts were. Didn't he suggest a duel earlier? “So uh, um. How long can you uh, keep this up? You said you uh, wanted to duel right?” Now she felt tong tied. What in the hell is going on?

“Oh yeah. Might as well duel ya while we're here. uh... you okay? You're looking a little... sweaty?” So it was just her. “Yeah, I think so. I just suddenly started feeling really hot. Is this because of the pocket dimension?” The boy resumed his finger biting position and vigorously running through the side effects of being inside of a pocket dimension, but none of them involved the addition of heat energy... why is she...? “Wait. Neither of you know what's going on here? Oh gods this is hilarious!” The girl removed her magic jacket, and tied it around her waist, but that didn't seem to do anything. The older boy began to feel nervous, and Spike just pointed at him and laughed.

“For Divinity's sake, this is the best thing I've ever seen! Hahaha!” Twilight still completely unaware of the situation, slapped spike's shoulder in frustration. “Come on, out with it! What do you know that we don't?” The older boy joined in. “Yeah, what's uh... wrong with, uh, her.” Spike just continued to smile wider. “Oh gods, now it's you too! Hahaha! Sweet Hearths warming, just duel already!” The dragon boy was now clutching his stomach and tearing up in laughter, almost crouching on the floor. The girl circled her self with a yell of frustration. Why was she so hot? Why was he suddenly tong tied? Would a duel really help? “You know what! Fine! Let's just do it and get it over with already!” Spike fell over.

“For the love of Tartarus Twilight, phrasing! Hahaha!” The two teenagers just stared at the dragon boy with resentment. They both loaded their duel disks, and the machinery started up with a whir and a wine. Twilight's custom violet duel disk with it's indigo blue matter wave, and Zeus' academia standard with a bright yellow matter wave. The disks shot a beam of light at each other, then both systems said in various voices “Duel mode activated. Opening MR Field.” “You ready for this? I'm one of the grand total of four pendulum users in the school.” The air had seemed to settle and Twilight felt more in her element, but even warmer than she was earlier.

“And I'm the top student duelist, and Mage, in the school. Are you ready for me?” The boy was caught off guard by her words, and suddenly he started to feel light headed. But he also felt better than ever. He'd never felt like this before. “Now that's what I want to hear! Let's do this!” “DUEL!” The MR field flashed the word DUEL in unison with the players across the invisible screen in the middle of the field, and both players drew five cards. “How about a coin toss so start this off? I've had enough duels just decided to start for this week.” Spike interjected. “You dueled once yesterday. Yesterday was the first day of the week. How is that too many?” Twilight developed a vein on her forehead. “Can you just, I don't know, maybe, shut the fuck up?” She was not in the mood for Spike's sarcasm right now. More because she didn't know what she was feeling at the present moment, and less because he was being a prick.

“Man, they did not joke about the mouth of the purple princess. You're almost as bad as mom. Alright, I'll flip.” The boy tapped an option on his duel disk screen and a matterwave coin the size of a plate began floating in front of him. He grabbed it, tossed it up, then kicked it mid back flip. Twilight thought it was impressive. Wait what? Since when do I compliment people? The coin landed on it's thin edge and began to spin in a circle, until it came to a stop on player one. Zeus was first up. “Alright! Lets get it on!” The younger boy began to crack up again.

“Seriously, dude, what is so funny? Ah, whatever. First off, I set the Pendulum scales with the scale 1 Horobot Second hand, and the scale 6 Horobot Hour hand! Swing pendulum swing! Open the gates of time and let my monsters come out! Horobot Minute hand, Horobot Time piece, and Horobot Back plate!” When all was said and done, Zeus' field was covered in dark steel colored manikins each holding what looked to be weapons fashioned out of clock pieces. The two in the pendulum zone were moving according to the clocks on their duel disks. Each piece of clock was a different color, and the moving parts all coincided with the current time, provided that was possible in this weird colorless bubble.

“Interesting.” The boy put his hands to his hips and leaned inward on his toes. “Interesting? How so, if I may ask.” The girl couldn't discern whether that haughty tone was sarcasm or not, but proceeded anyways. “To be honest, I'd never seen it done before. I've never really concerned myself with the other summoning methods since I've always been such an adept fusion user, and nearly half of the student body uses fusion on top of that.” The boy leaned back to a straight position with a different kind of smile on.

“Ooh, so that's what this is about. I bet mom's deck was something to see yesterday for you huh?” the girl crossed her arms and adopted a pout. “You could say that. You could also say that she completely stomped my face in the ground, almost to a literal sense. That was not a fun game.” Fun game? Fun game... where did she get that? It's about winning not... The boy cut her thoughts off. “She probably didn't enjoy it either. A few hours after she came home, around eighteen or so, she started moping about it for a good few hours. 'Why do I always do that?' she'd say. Mom loves to play the game, but she hates to completely destroy like that. The problem is that she doesn't know how to hold back when she uses her own deck. She won't even duel me with her deck. She's used it exactly one time on my older brother a couple years ago, and he's the only one whose witnessed first hand what she can really do.” On Apollo? The C.E.O.?

“Celestia beat Apollo Sombra into dust?” The boy was confused, but then corrected her statement. “No, She did that to Zeph. He was kind of an ass at the time, though. Pretty sure he deserved it. From what he told me, he lost without even taking a turn. She did this crazy quadruple synchro summon that ended up in level 12 8000 attack monster with a super ridiculous effect.” Zeph? Like, the guy that was supposed to meet them at the train? “Wait a sec, let me get this straight. First, Celestia was complaining about beating me?” The boy nodded.

“Yeah. She was not happy with herself, and if I remember correctly, she was on the phone with dad for over an hour about it.” There's that dad again. Who even is this guy? “Okay, and next, you have more than one brother, and an older one named Zephraim?” The boy nodded again. “Well, I didn't call him that, but that is his name. Mom is about the only one who does call him that.” Twilight was searching her head for anyone who might be the father of the three, but who? Andromeda said she knew both his parents, so who had she come across that could be his dad? “So, whose your father? You said he talked about me too.” The boy scratched his head. “Well... I'm really not supposed to disclose that one... you know what? How about this. Beat me, and I'll let you talk to him.” There was a solid chance of that happening, but did she want to bet on him? Her head was swimming, and her body uncontrollably hot. Staring at her opponent only made both worse. At this point she was stuck with him, so why not?

“Alright. Deal. You done?” It was still his turn. “Oh right, uh, yeah one more thing. I tune, the level 4 Minute hand, the level 2 Back plate and the level 2 Time piece! Pendulum opens the gate, and synchronization unlocks time! The father of wisdom reveals the past, present, and future! Synchro summon, Horobots Grandfather Time!” Instead of a Manikin, This monster resembled something between a cyborg and an android. It looked human, yet was completely made from machine parts, all in ornate gold and dark steel like the other monsters he used. And rather than holding a massive weapon made from a clock piece, the monster looked to be wearing the pieces of a grandfather clock as armor.

He wore plated metal along his body to look like static robes and carried a staff with a moving pendulum that was headed by a clock face. If nothing else, he looked like a grandfather made of machine. What interested Twilight the most was the card type though. A synchro-pendulum card. Half monster, half spell, and somehow, it had scales to it. How would this card ever make it to a pendulum zone? It seemed simply impossible, as a synchro monster cannot be placed in the hand. “What's the story with this guy? I've never heard of a synchro pendulum card before.” The boy returned her a sly look.

“I guess you'll just have to find out, won't ya? I end my turn with that.” Twilight didn't like that. She opened the field view from her disk and selected the cards on his field, but for some reason, the card effects were either encoded, or written in a language she couldn't read. It had 2000/3000, so there must be some kind of defensive effect to it. In any case, she was going to try and banish it. It was a pendulum monster, so if it was destroyed, It would just come back once he got a 9 in his high scale, or worse, the 11 scale synchro monster would take that place, opening the door for something bigger. “Fine then. I draw.” The boy raised his hand after she took her card.

“And so the effect Grandfather activates. Every time you take cards from your deck, I can send one pendulum monster from my field or graveyard face up to the extra deck. With that, I'll send minute hand forward in time.” The old machine tapped his staff on the ground four times, and a bell rang out four times. The monster's ghost was sent from a dark void to a white one. So this is what it did. Grandfather Time was a replenishment tactic.

“Hmm... I see. I guess I just won't fix my hand until I get rid of him. First off, I activate the effect of Star fusion. I send Star Magician Copernicus and Shooting star Unicorn to the grave to fusion summon! From the brightest center of the greater galaxy, come forth, Star Spiral, The galaxy Magician!” Like Andromeda, this monster was a Galaxy magician belonging to the Star archetype that Twilight's deck was made up of. He was much smaller in overall stature than Andromeda, but was far more armored. He was plated at every joint to the end of his limbs, and was wearing a curved knight's helm that receded into a point with a small ball of light at the end, much like the tutor's caps that Andromeda and Copernicus wore. His robes followed the indigo blue, violet, and gold color scheme as most of her cards did, but he wore no flowing cape or long flowing robes. Instead, this monster looked more along the lines of a Mage-knight, with a long hilted great sword that had an ethereal spiral of light at it's end.

“Once per turn, I can banish one monster from my hand or grave to have Spiral banish one monster you control. I banish Unicorn from my grave. Go, Vortex Drain!” The Mage-knight started to run towards the old machine with a black hole beginning to from at the end of his sword, but as he connected, Grandfather Time became transparent and Hour hand in the pendulum zone exploded. “Good try, but when Grandfather would be banished or sent to the grave yard while I control a pendulum monster in it's scale, I can destroy that monster, and put him there instead.” The girl seemed unphased.

“I figured it was defensive, but now you're left open.” The boy wagged his finger at her. “Not quite. When Hour hand is destroyed by a card effect and sent to the extra deck while I have a Horobot in my pendulum zone, I can target one Horobot in my graveyard and special summon it.” And just as he said, Time piece was revived with the large clock face the manikin was holding being used as a shield. Twilight began to rub her fingers on her chin.

“I see. It's good to know Celestia taught you at least as well as she did me. But, now that you can't send your cards back for a pendulum summon, I can start fixing my hand. I activate Gathering Stars! I tribute Spiral to add Star monsters with combined levels equal to his! I add the level 3 Star Magician Sagan, and the level 4 Star Magician Hubble! Next, I activate the effect of Sagan. I can banish him from my hand to target one Spellcaster in my graveyard and special summon it!” From a black hole in the floor, the red eyed Mage knight arose and returned to his position.

“I see. You were definitely trained my my mom. Nobody else teaches resource management better than her.” He certainly wasn't wrong. Neither player had really gone negative yet, all things considered. “Mm-hmm. Now, Since I have two banished monsters, I can activate the other effect of star fusion. By sending Unicorn and Sagan back to the deck, I add the Star Fusion in my graveyard to my hand! Then I activate it, fusing Star Magician Hubble and Shooting Star Longhorn in my hand! He who holds the power of heaven in his hands, come forth and show the majesty of the galaxy! Appear, Magic Star Andromeda, The Galaxy Magician!” Like the previous times, the Two star monsters came turned into Hydrogen and Helium atoms and circled each other until they collided in a violet light, which was Twilight's queue to put Andromeda's card on the field, but when she did, a small white orb with crane wings appeared and handed Twilight a piece of paper and began reading in his voice.

“Dear Master Sparkle, I apologize for this, but you and I are currently on separate planes of reality, and I cannot participate within this duel.”

-with love, Your ancestor, Andromeda.

The two boys were completely dumbfounded by the rather aristocratic, upper-class, scholarly man's voice coming from the ball of light and Twilight was completely enraged. “Who the Fuck does he think he is!? That old bastard is my Trading Card! He does not get to decided when I summon him or not! This is fucking bullshit!” Spike tried to defend Andromeda. “Well, It's not like it's his fault! You heard him, he's not in this uh... plane or whatever.” Twilight turned her enraged face towards her brother, and started to march toward him, with her empty right hand beginning to glow with a very intense, very bright violet. She was intercepted by Zeus before she could reach him though.

“Hey, hey, hey, now. Hold on a minute, your brother is right. I don't really have any grasp of what's going on, but we are not technically, currently, in the same dimension as the rest of our world right now, so unless your, uh, trading card can lock on to my signature and teleport or warp in here before I cast the pocket, he can't just get in here. He has about a split second window to do it, and My parents and my aunt are about the only ones who can even do that.” The boy was trying his best to calm down the raging Twilight, but after he put his hand on her shoulder, she suddenly felt strange, and walked back to her spot, continuing to curse at Andromeda.

“That spiky haired old bastard! If he had the time to write this message, then he fucking knew this was going to happen in the first place! Damn it! And you! You make me feel weird! Don't touch me again!” The boy slowly backed away from the cowering Spike to his side of the duel field. Even the monsters seemed concerned for Twilight. “O-okay. Alright. I totally understand. Won't do that again. Do... do you want to summon something else...?” The girl began to furiously scratch at her head. “Sure, fine, whatever. I don't need him anyways. I summon Star Milky-way, the Galaxy magician.” How she managed to say that with zero enthusiasm, the two boys will never know.

She placed the card on her matterwave, and this time, the violet light faded to reveal a relatively Tall woman who, like Andromeda and Spiral, was clad in heavy robes and Armor. She was less armored than Spiral, and nearly a foot taller than him. She had a breast plate with what Zeus liked to call, 'Boob molds' because they were exactly that. As far as armor goes, the 'boob molds' were completely impractical and would usually cause more harm than good.

Back when His mother and aunt started leading the unified country, they had a mass gathering of all the blacksmiths through out the land, and had a serious discussion on how female armor was to be made. For whatever reason, the Mages and Angels believed that the breast plate for women should be a breast holder too, and that is what caused many a broken female sternum back in the days where battle was a monthly to weekly thing. Her arms were completely unarmored from the forearms down, and her legs were armored properly, covering every area that would normally be a target. She wore heavy looking large billowy robes with a hood that hid most of her face underneath the armor and carried a large Anyanese style spear with a curved blade at the end. The blade itself was a conglomeration of galaxies and nebulae up to it's sharpened edge, where it was a metallic violet like the rest of the galaxy magician's armor.

“Ugh. Boob molds strike again. I just can't understand how that was ever even a thing, and to this day, I still don't get it.” Spike shot his comment back. “Hey! You knock that crap off! That chest is glorious!” Twilight planted her palm firmly on her forehead. “Oh my gods, you pervy little ten year old.” Alarm bells were going off in Twilight's head, ringing about something that related to her comment, but her train of thought was stuck at the station. “Whatever. When Milky-way is summoned, I can Target one Star Magician monster in my graveyard and equip it to her. Milky-way's original attack and defense is equal to the combined attacks of Hubble and the Shooting Star monster used to summon her, so at the moment, she's sitting at 4000 with Hubble equipped to her.” Twilight was trying hard to not go slap the shit out of her little brother, and it was killing her enthusiasm.

“Wow. That's a lot of attack.” Twilight started to regain her spirit. “Yeah, and if you don't have any more tricks left, I'm gonna end you with her. Because he was re-summoned, Spiral can attack this turn. I attack back plate with Spiral!” The Mage-knight took his great sword in both hands, and held the blade down at the side of his hip behind himself. He came up to the shielding manikin, and slashed upward through it. The manikin fell over in two halves, and then dispersed into particles.

“Well, that's a shame, because I do, indeed, have more tricks. The pendulum effect of Grandfather activates when a monster I control is destroyed and sent to the extra deck! I can target an other face up Horobot in my extra deck and special summon it!” The old machine, now in the pendulum zone, opened a hole in the sky and Hour hand was summoned in defense position. But Twilight only smiled. “Ooh, good try, but this is probably going to hurt a little more than you thought. Ya see, when Longhorn is used as a fusion material monster, that monster gains the piercing effect. Milky-way attacks Hour hand!” The boy scratched his head.

“Oh. Well crap. Uh, before that happens though, if Hour hand is special summoned, I can add a Horo trap card to my hand. I'll add Horology beginning to my hand.” He bowed to Twilight in an old fashion curtsy, and Twilight returned it. The female Galaxy Magician jumped from her spot on the field next to the Mage-knight and began to spin her spear in the air as she did. She stopped and lowered the spear as she descended, cutting through the defending Hour hand, and sending a light blue wave of energy through the ground toward Zeus. The boy managed a barrier to defend himself, but just like her duel two days ago, she cracked his barrier to the point where it looked like shattered glass. “Oh, come on! This one is freaking new! There's no way the limiter is already broken!” The boy released his barrier and began to wave his hand from sided to side with a pathetic smile on his face.

“Oh, no, that wasn't you, that was me. You see, I'm a really specialized kind of Mage. If the magic is outside of electric affinity coming from me, I'm actually kind of pathetic. So much for the son of an immortal queen right? I don't duel around here a lot because this happens pretty much regardless of who I'm dueling.” So she wasn't over producing magic. No, that wasn't right. The weirdness of her body was definitely producing more magic than normal for her, the MSD was just working with the limiter correctly, for once.

“Oh, good. Uh, I mean... I don't want to hurt you, so... yeah.” Wait. Her face was hot. Didn't that mean something? “Yeah, uh, no worries. I'm fine. Is that all?” What was it that triggered alarms in her head earlier? This 'being unable to think properly' was really starting to bug her. “Oh, yeah, I'm done. Go ahead.” The boy drew his card, and for a moment, Twilight thought his face looked a little red. “Okay, so, Since I've got less than a thousand life points left, I can activate Horology beginning from my hand! When this card is activated, I can destroy one monster in my pendulum zones to add one pendulum monster to my hand! I destroy Second hand, to add Horobot Click spring, and set the left scale with it! I then pendulum summon! Swing pendulum swing! Open the gates of time and let my monsters come out! Horobot Second, Minute, Hour hands! Horobot Time piece and Back plate!” The five manikins all appeared from the white circle of lights in the sky above his field and descended at once. That big monster was probably next.

“And like last time, Hour hand allows me to add a trap card to my hand! I add Horology End! Now that all of our players have arrived, It's time to synchro summon!” Twilight interrupted. “Quick question, is it just you and your mom, or does your whole family use Synchro summons exclusively?” The interruption cut off his momentum and he just sighed.

“It's not exactly exclusive, but yeah, just about all of us use synchros. Athena and I are pretty exclusive to it though. Dad's more of an Xyz guy, Apollo likes fusions, Zeph likes to try and use all of them, and to be honest, I really don't know what all mom has. You probably know more about her deck than I do. Now, can I do the thing?” Who is Athena? “Do you have a sister too?” He put a hand to his head. “Ugh., yeah I do. Her name is Athena. I'm going to do the thing now, k?” Twilight was about to ask about their ages, but then he did the thing.

“I tune the level 2 Second hand, the level 4 Minute hand, and the level 5 Hour hand! Pendulum opens the gate, and synchronization unlocks time! The grand tower which stands above Time itself, Come forth! Horobot Temporal Clock Tower!” The synchro summon was different this time. Rather than the standard green rings and stars aligning, they just gathered in the center of the clock face that Minute hand turned into. The seven stars formed two hands on the clock face, and began to spin faster and faster, white and yellow light illuminating the entire bubble of time. When the light faded, Before her was a gigantic Machine piece man like Grandfather, but this was much... different.

It was almost as big as the Time bubble itself, and looked more like a Golem. It's face had few features save for a glowing yellow eye, and the large gold gear of a clock ticking underneath the ethereal eye. It's arms and legs were each separate spire looking objects with columns and spikes all along the limbs until it's joints. In it's massive machinery hands was a large club like object that held a clock face that was separated into two rings, one rotated with a dial that pointed to a specific spot on the outer edge, and the other the inner edge, as if the minute and hour hands were still and the face moved. It was truly a Tower.

“Dear gods, this thing is huge. It's almost as big as Celestia's monster was yesterday!” The boy ran his fingers through his hair, clearly proud of the statement. “Why yes, it is isn't it?” He didn't know if that was true because he missed their duel yesterday. “He has 4000 attack points, and a rather fun effect. When Click spring is used as a pendulum scale during a pendulum summon, Any Horobot that would be sent to the grave is destroyed instead, so that synchro summon put my hands back in the extra deck. On top of that, When Second hand is used for a synchro summon, The monster summoned by that effect gains Attack points equal to it's level times 100, in this case, 1100 attack.” Second hand's ghost appeared above Tower and Spun it's hand-lance around in a circle, stopping when it pointed straight up. The monster obtained a yellow glow, and it's attack raised to 5100.

“Next up is Time piece's effect. Once per turn, If this card was pendulum summoned, I can target one monster and destroy it! Lets get rid of that poorly armored woman magician!” Twilight had prepared for something light that happening. “Yeah right. I activate Copernicus' effect! When my opponent activates a monster effect, I can banish him to negate and destroy it!” The boy tapped the screen of his duel disk.

“You're famous remember! Everyone has a counter to that card! I activate the effect of Back plate! When a monster I control would be destroyed by a card effect while I control this pendulum summoned card, I can negate that effect!, and as such, Milky-way is destroyed!” Twilight did the same. “Better luck next time! If Milky-way would be destroyed, I can destroy her equipped monster in her place! And, since Hubble was destroyed by a card effect, I can add one Star Spell card to my hand! I add Death Star Singularity!”  Dear gods, what does that do? The Boy thought. That does not sound good. I need to try and end this, now.

“Alright, now lets use Tower's effect! Once per turn, I can target one monster my opponent controls, and banish it! I'll get rid of her this time!” Shit. I need that. Do I have a way to stop him? Longhorn! “Not so fast! I activate the effect of Shooting star Longhorn in the grave!” The boy sighed. “What, again? Does every card you have do something like that?” Twilight sheepishly nodded. “Yeah, kinda. Anyways, The effect is negated, and Temporal Clock Tower's effects are negated until the end phase.” The Mage boy shook his head.

“Well crap. So much for the rest of my plan. I attack Milky-way with Tower.” The Giant Machine raised it's clock-club above it's head, nearly stretching the time bubble to it's limits, then brought it down on Milky-way. The resulting explosion of sheer kinetic energy almost knocked Twilight on her ass, and shattered a small portion of the barrier she put up. “Geez, Is this part of your electric magic? That was an insane amount of force!” The boy shrugged

“Honestly, I have no idea. From what mom tells me, This game doesn't run on normal magic, and instead uses 'the soul arts' as she put it. But for another answer, Could I produce that much force with my magic? Probably not. If I gave my all to a bolt of lightning, maybe, and even then, I'm terrible with attack magic, so highly unlikely.” Soul arts? Andromeda mentioned that yesterday, yet she still didn't know anything more than where it originated. “Ugh. Even what she does tell me doesn't even begin to cover the things I don't know about this stupid game. And I know a hell of a lot about this.” The boy put his hand on his head and ran his finger through his hair. “Well, I set one card, and end my turn. You're up Twi.” Twi? What the hell?

“That thing you just said? You should, like, not say that anymore. My name is Twilight. The end. No more, no less.” The boy started to scratch his head again. “Geez, and here I thought we were friends. I can't give you a nick name?” Friends. Was this what Andromeda was talking about? Once again, Twilight felt warm and flushed in her face. “Well... maybe. We'll see if I don't finish you off right here!” Twilight drew, and It was just the card she needed. “First off, I activate the effect of Star fusion in my graveyard! By sending Longhorn and Copernicus to the deck, I add it to my hand! Then I activate the effect of Death Star Singularity!” Ahh, crap here it comes! As long as it doesn't kill me, I'll win right here! Thought the boy.

“When my opponent controls more monsters than I do, I can destroy all monsters you control!” A white dot spawned in the center of Zeus' field. Black electricity started to form around it and it began to suck his monsters toward it. “Crap! This is global, I can't stop it!” The ground began to vibrate with growing intensity, and the machines on his side of the field began too compress and fold into the white sphere as the black electricity grew into larger bolts of energy, until finally, there was nothing left. “And after that's done, I get to add a star monster to my hand! I add Shooting Star Pendulum!” The boy started to laugh like a mad man.

“Hahaha! You've fallen into my final gambit! I activate the effect of Horology end~!” Crap. He had a trap set. Shit. “When My opponent destroys monsters on my field, I can inflict damage to you equal to their combined level times 500! It's all over for you, Miss Sparkle!” I can't believe it. I honestly never thought that me blowing up his field would have this kind of repercussion. And now, for the very first time, I need to use Pendulum's other effect to avoid losing. “If I'm going down, I'm taking ya with me, Bitch! I activate the effect of the Shooting Star Pendulum in my hand! By banishing it, both players take effect damage inflicted by the opponent!” The Mage boy was stunned, His gambit was going to work, but he was about to take his own 7500 damage.

“Gods Dam it!” The massive ball of fire that spawned from the rotating numbers of 0 through 23 was intercepted by the rotating Shooting Star Pendulum, and then split into two fires, one in each direction toward each player. The two were intercepted by barriers, which then shattered, and the teenagers were sent flying. When they both landed, their life point counters met at zero, and the invisible screen flashed draw across it. Spike rushed over to his sister and helped her up.

“Twilight! Are you okay?” The girl was still a little battered from the blast, but she was more concerned about the other boy. She got up and darted over to him. Just as the siblings reached the boy, he had begun to sit up. “Hey, are you alright?” She picked up his hand to help him up, but as she did, a shock went through her. Suddenly, she could see the boy's aura radiating around him. While it was thin and smokey, It was a warm yellow color. It had a similar smell to Celestia's, but overall was sweeter to the taste. She could feel a slowing pulse, and could hear a ringing tone. He tried to pull himself up with Twilight's help, but the sudden assault of senses caused her to fall on top of him. When she looked up, their noses were almost touching. They stared into each others eyes for a moment, and then Twilight finally understood what had been going on the whole time. She got off of him as quickly as she could and stood up.

“Oh, uh, sorry about that... I, uh, got at l-little distracted.” She realized that she had started to twirl a strand of hair with her index finger. Spike put his hands to his mouth in the shape of a cone. “Attention passengers, the plane has finally landed!” Quicker than he could react Twilight punched the dragon in the shoulder with enough force to knock him on his butt. “Uh, don't worry about it... uh, do you want to get breakfast with me?” The girl was very confused at the moment. She began running through all of the biology textbooks she had read and tried to identify just what exactly her body was doing, but the swampy feeling of infatuation was currently keeping her from clear thought.

“Sure. That sounds great.” The boy released his bubble of time, and the three were returned to where they were standing when it was cast. They joined the line of people who were completely unaware of the near hour that had just passed in between seconds, and even more so of the new bond Twilight had just gained. And then, just as Andromeda said, they talked about the magic game.