The Legend of Fauna

It was 13:00. The sun was in the sky, the air was warm and dry. The entire town of Pony Ville was relatively silent from up above. The odd circular shape that the village aligned to only had one or two people every now and again out in the streets, and the even rarer few who saw the old angel over head gave looks of detest and fear his way. But that wasn't his problem. He was off toward the opposite end of the town where his son Blaze lived, in the building just above the small town. Lately, he'd been receiving a lot of negativity, being the only Angel policeman on Pony Ville's small force, with him and his daughter being the only ones who have a vantage point to see the murders that have taken place.

The case had become rather tense lately because the fourth murder had already happened and there wasn't even a suspect yet. The old Angel continued to think about this as he flew over the small town until he spotted his son's house. His wife was named Fire, and she was a fantastic show woman on top of being an architect. There weren't many who could manipulate clouds like that woman could, and the house they lived on was more proof than anyone could need.

Tall columns jutted from the dense cloud that made the floor, giant arches that raised to the top of the sky, rivers like that of Cloudsdale that split into the colors of the rainbow. Of course, that was likely more inspired by their daughter than anything.  The house itself was three stories tall, with a good acre of dense cloud as a base.

Aerolite was a strange substance that was found at the tops of caves all over the world that, like an Angel, could stand upon cloud. The material was then used to fit other materials above, such as steel and wood. Most believe there was a strange magic involved in Angels that allows them to stand on condensed water vapor, and any Angel would tell you that was probably true. Many angels describe the texture of a cloud to those who can't feel them to that of cotton, or the wispy fur of an animal. Aerolite was the complete opposite.

The otherworldly metal was unnaturally heavy when it was picked up, but when it was placed to a ceiling of some kind, it just sticks. The Council of Science and Magic has only recently ascertained that the metal is anti-magnetic, and pushes away from the earth due to it's reverse magnetization, but the stuff also stops when it reaches clouds as well. The magic behind it seems to from the same vein as Angels, but there still isn't much information on how it works.

Raid has always been skeptical of the stuff. It had been around since before Celestia and Luna arrived on the scene, and he's always been wary of it. It never felt... natural to the touch. Even on hot days, where the sun would beat down on it and make even clouds hot to the touch, the stuff was always colder than ice. As he started to get closer to the house, he began to hear arguing coming from it.

“I've told you a thousand times already, I cannot afford that!” Said the man's voice. Good chances said that Blaze and his daughter were arguing over things she wanted again. Her mother made quite a large sum working for the city of Cloudsdale as an architect after she retired from the military with Blaze to settle down. She was very popular, made several buildings for the higher ups in Cloudsdale that quite honestly looked better than some of the buildings in Upper Canterlot.

“So what am I supposed to do then? Continue to be alone in this stupid back water town!? I hate this place! Why would you even move here!?” The young girl's voice was just about as agitated as the father's. At this point Raid had already landed on the yard of the cloud house, but decided to let the conversation play out before announcing his arrival. The man inside sighed. “Look, I have my reasons. I just... needed to get away from Cloudsdale. That's all. Can't you do something that doesn't require you to fly all the way back there? Maybe even try and make friends here?” Raid heard a loud stomp on the wooden flooring inside the house.

“Make friends here, that's just rich dad. I don't want anything to do with these lowly country trash people!” A loud slapping sound came from inside. “Don't you ever call the people here something like that again! You think just because your parents loved you enough to give you anything they could that you're above those with less!? I raised you better than that! She raised you better than that!” There was a long silence before anything was said again.

“Fine! Whatever! I don't need this, I'm out of here! If mom were still around, we wouldn't even be here!” The sound of stomping came from inside, and Raid hid behind the western wall of the house. The front door was thrown open, and slammed back, and the short rainbow haired teenage Angel girl flew off in the direction he'd come from. The sound of the door opened again, and the similar haired father stepped out.

“Well she isn't, and we don't have much of a choice...” Blaze was wearing navy blue pants, a black belt and a white undershirt. On his wrists were two bracelet like objects, one Raid knew to be a police issue telescoping duel disk, and the other a military issue wrist taser. He had thin rimmed black glasses, and very pale, violet blue wings with five feathers that matched his hair at the end of each wing tip. He walked forward until he was off the Aerolite that sat under the main house and the porch and in the yard made solely of dense cloud. He stopped to watch the girl fly away, and simply fell onto his back, wings splayed out to catch the sun.

“Hey there son.” Said the old Angel as he stepped out from the shadows. The man sat up quickly, then stared down his father. “Oh. You made it.” The younger Angel flicked his wrist to get the screen to come up and check the time. “You're five minutes late. What's up with that? Pretty weird for a train conductor to be late.” The old Angel walked out and sat next to the rainbow headed man. “Fer one, I wasn't late, and two, there was a real heated conversation goin' on, and I didn't want ta interrupt. Now tell me, what's been eatin' at ya? It's not like ya ta move outta the blue like this.” The younger Angel folded his wings up and leaned in on his elbows with his hands together to rest his chin on.

“I got fired.” Fired? From the force in Cloudsdale? How? “What in the hell!? Why didn't ya tell me when it happened!?” The younger Angel looked ashamed. “How could I? I'm nearly fifty years old, I have a raging teenage daughter who has little to no respect for me, and my wife was killed by a perpetrator I could never catch! What little pride do I have left to discard by coming to my father crying for help!?” The old man didn't have a response to that. His poor son had been through just as much as he did around the same age. “And besides, It's not like I was fired for doing something wrong. Damn corrupt city!” He pulled a gold piece of metal out of his pocket and threw it off the cloud. Likely his badge from when he worked for Cloudsdale

“Look, will ya just tell me what happened at least?” The old Angel put a hand on his son's shoulder. The son sighed. “It was about a month ago. I was on duty that night in the inner city. I... pissed off some of my higher ups by investigating Fire's case again, so they purposefully put me in a bad neighborhood. As per usual on my inner city trips I arrested at least four thugs for possession, and a couple more for harassing an old woman. Unknown to me, one of those little bastards just so happened to be the chief's son. And to be honest, I wasn't being a very good cop at the time either. I gave them a warning before I beat the crap out of those kids. I felt bad at the time for doing it but his kid went so far as to try and sue me for brutality.” The old man shook his head.

“Blaze, this is the third time... you know better...” The man punched the cloud, and put a hole through it. “I know! Alright? I get it, I have a temper, and it just takes over some times!” He put his hands over his face and surrounded himself in his wings. “I'm a failure! What did Fire even see in me? I'm just so pathetic! My daughter hates me, my life is in shambles, and now I'm barely surviving in that summer house Fire left behind for Rainbow! I was never supposed to live here!” The old man tried to console his son.

“Hey, now. There ain't no need fer that. What did yer mom and I always tell ya when ya had a bad day?” The younger man put his wing down to look at his father. He wasn't in tears yet, but he was just a step away from them. “The sun... always rises in the morning...” The old man rubbed his son's back. “That's right. And what does it mean?” The younger man sighed. “Regardless of what happens... tomorrow will always come...” The old man smiled. “So what do ya intend ta do when tomorrow comes ta make it better?” The younger man stood up and stretched his arms.

“Hell if I know. If this town weren't in such desperate need of officers, I don't think I would even have a job right now.” The old Angel stood up beside him. “Whatever ya do, ya need ta get off yer damn self pity. Yer daughter doesn't respect ya because you don't respect yerself. Who is she gonna look up ta if yer actin' like it's the end of the world?” The old Angel turned his son to look him in the eyes. Magenta irises on each side. The younger Angel sighed again “Yeah, I know it's just... I don't know how to deal with her now. Her mood swings from left to right in an instant, and we just moved here, so she can barely make it all the way back to Cloudsdale on her own to see her friends for a few hours. And you heard what she said! She thinks so low of the people here, I don't know that she'll ever even try to get used to living here. Ugh. Why can't it be like the old days when we used to just sit in the sun together? What happened to that little girl that would fall asleep in my lap as the sun set started to hit the water?” The younger Angel sat down again, and the older put his hands on his shoulders.

“Oh come on now, this is exactly the kinda talk I was talkin' about. She's just insecure, that's all. With any luck, she'll grow out of it. But until then, at least try ta act confident in front of her. So you got dealt a shit hand again, and ya know what? Make the most out of it. Yer not homeless, and ya still have her.” The younger man chuckled. “Of course. Dad is always right, isn't he? Why couldn't I just become you by now?” The younger man looked to his father.

“I hate ta say it, but I think ya did. If ya remember correctly, my kids both ran off in their teens just ta get away from a home without a mom ta keep on em.” The younger man threw himself to the side of his father's legs. “Yeah, I guess we did, didn't we? How is Ruby anyways? Is she... still okay? I know that Crystal's death hit me hard, but... she lost her father too.” The old man rubbed at his chin. “She's started ta cheer up more so lately. I think she's come ta terms with it, and that other family she's got ta lean on is real sturdy. I actually saw her ta the reunion today if ya believe it.” The younger man put his hands under his head.

“Really? You? Visiting the Apples? After that fallout a few years back?” The old Angel nodded. “Surprisingly enough, they acted like nothin ever happened. Even the old bag that started the fight said it was nice ta see me.” The younger Angel closed his eyes. “That sounds about right. That family just doesn't seem to know how to hold a grudge. I envy it, really. Ever since ten years ago, I just... can't seem to let any of that pent up anger and hatred go. Crystal's death only made it worse, and I just don't know how either of those affected Rainbow. She hardly talks to me anymore.” The old man sat back down, slowly this time. His joints were bothering him again.

“As far as I can tell, all teenage girls get like that at some point or another. But... I think there's something special goin' on. I drove a couple a people here that said they're gonna be livin' here fer a while. Maybe she'll make friends with them. The girl that was with em... she... was a little bit different than everybody else I think.” The younger man sat up to look at his father. “Different? What do you mean by that?” The old man nodded. “I'm not really sure... she's got an air about her. Funny, she really reminds me of them queens ya know?” The younger man thought for a minute.

“Huh... well. It's whatever I guess. I just hope she doesn't get caught up in this serial killer case. We don't have any leads, but if our timing is right, the next murder is going to happen at the end of the week. I've gotta say, this case has been a weird one dad. Starting on the tenth of June, a murder has taken place on the outskirts of town every seven days. You know how this place is built on top of some crater like structure right?” The old man thought back to when he was flying over here. The entire town was in a giant circle, and it did sort of cave inwards.

“I guess I could see that.” The son nodded. “Well, every single killing that's taken place has been on one of the six exits at the edge of the main roads. After the first one, we didn't have a clue as to who, what, when, where, or why, but the second one happened in the same way with a different race of person. Duel disk on, Hole through the chest, and a bloody mess on the ground. The third happened, and a Terran was killed that time, but the same things were done to the body. With a pattern developed, we assumed the next one would be on the north west exit and the victim would be a Mage again like the first murder, but it happened to another Terran instead on the opposite side of town. It wasn't until this last murder did we notice that it's beginning to look like some kind of cult magic or something.” The old man's eyes went wide.

“Ya don't think this is necromancy do ya?” The younger man nodded. “Unfortunately, that's what it's beginning to look like. We've informed the Queens about this, but they said they don't have anyone to spare at the moment. But some guy directly under Luna is supposed to help us out tomorrow to try and prevent the next murder from happening. If the pattern holds up, tonight is going to be the next one, and the victim is either going to be a Mage or an Angel.” The old man scratched at his head.

“Dear gods... ya don't think... they'll actually finish it do ya?” The younger man shook his head. “If it really is black magic, then they only have two more places they need to kill, and we have just enough officers to keep both under surveillance. We should be able to keep anyone else from being hurt again. Just... pray they don't have another way to complete it if we do manage to stop them.” The old man observed the stoic look on his son's face. It was likely that he didn't know it, but when he was actually invested in his job did he ever look so much like he used to. He was born with a shield destined to show up on his right shoulder after all.

“Well, I'm confident ya can stop this crazy black magic. Just make sure yer daughter is home tomorrow night. If the next target is just some Angel in town...” The younger man's eyes widened, and he bolted up to standing. “I never even...! Rainbow!!!” Blaze started running and unfurled his wings. He started to flap, and once he did twice, he shot off in the clear blue sky. “Why you little! He's just gonna make things worse between em!” The old man did his best to get a running take off, but his body wouldn't allow it.

“Bah. This just ain't happenin' anymore. I'm too damn old fer this shit. I'll just go inside and wait until he gets home with her ta stop the fallout. Heh. He's just as dumb as I used ta be. Like father like son they say.” The old man put his wings back on his back and opened the door to the house. “He'll be back eventually. Might as well start somethin' ta eat.” He shut the door, made his way to the kitchen, and started to think of what to make.

***

“Damn it! I can't do anything around here! Nothing but friggen sand here and desert there! There aren't even any trees in this stupid place! Ugh! I hate this town!” The rainbow headed Angel girl had circled the town twice now, and she wasn't wrong. The only tree in the area was almost exclusively a library, and didn't really fit in with the rest of the town. The town itself was about the size of a small district in Cloudsdale, and she could make it from one edge of the town to the opposite edge in no more than five minutes of lazy flying. She continued to search the place for something to do now that she was angry with her father. He wouldn't even take her to Cloudsdale to see her friends, nor would he buy her tickets to the concert they were going to tonight. Unbelievable.

“This stupid place doesn't even have a gym.” She said as she was low flying above the buildings. She traveled further in the air to get a better look over all. There was a cloud maybe a thousand feet just above the town hall, so she landed on the top of it's spire, then jumped and flew as fast as she could to it. She grabbed the edge of the cloud, then used her momentum to swing her body on top of it. Thirty seconds, not bad. No Wonderbolt would ever take that long to fly a simple thousand straight up, but it was faster than any of this country trash could even muster. Maybe her dad could... but, then again, who cares about that washed up old man. Whatever. She quickly checked behind her to see if she had made a vapor trail. One of her family's traits on her father's side was the ability to split light on water depending on how fast they flew. It was thin, but present.

“Damn. One of these days, I'll split the whole sky into color again...” The girl grunted at herself. Ever since she performed that amazing feat almost seven years ago, she couldn't accept anything less than the best from herself. She was the best. There was no question. It couldn't be a fluke. People don't give you the nickname 'dash' for being anything but number one. But... she had never been able to do it again since that day. What happened to her? Wasn't she the best? Of course she was. There's no question. She finally settled her thoughts and observed her surroundings. To the north east, there was that weird red forest. Something about it just made her skin crawl, and she wanted nothing to do with it. A little south of that, almost equidistant from the town and the forest was a small cottage.

“Huh. Wonder who lives there. Kinda weird that it's so... far away from the town.” She then directed her attention to the town directly below her. The only buildings that stood out were four of them. Town hall, directly under her. The clothing store to the east that looked waaay out of place here. Too friggen fancy for this backwater trash. The bakery that looked like it was made out of candy to the north west of town hall.

“Food is relatively hard to screw up... I think... Maybe even the trash in this town can make something decent. Really hope so. Gods know I can't cook worth my life. It's a miracle dad's food hasn't killed me yet after all these years.” And finally, there was the tree library at the south west edge. “How did that thing even manage to grow in this desert? Let alone get big enough to carve a building into. It's friggen humongous! Man, I don't even get how grass grows here. This place is just some random mix of stuff that makes fuck all sense. Gods, I need something else to do.” Just as she fell back into the cloud, she noticed something on the north west of town. It was a pathway that looked like... normal dirt. “Wait, how did I miss that?” Rainbow stood up, and swooped down in that direction.

“Since when was this here? Seriously, there is no way I missed this, I circled this damn place three times. There is no way-” She cut her sentence off. As she was saying it, all the color in the world evaporated. Everything but her own body simply lost color and stopped moving. The wind she was using to coast on quit and she had to flap quickly to catch her balance again.

“What the hell!?” The words echoed. It was almost like she was inside a giant room. “Holy crap, this is insane!” Just after she stopped talking she heard another voice. “What in tarnation? What the hell happened!?” The voice was coming from the direction she was facing. The air almost felt gooey to fly in, the entire world was just... stopped. Whoever that was, she was thinking the same thing. Rainbow headed toward the voice, and now there were four. She could hear some words and at one point she thought she heard some one say “Sit down already!” but couldn't be sure.

The weird echo box effect that was present earlier had faded. Her instincts told her to keep silent as she approached. She wasn't sure how this was even happening, much less what these people could do if they found her. Who knows? Maybe this is how those people were getting murdered. She moved further down the path, and it opened up to a giant apple orchard. There were trees every where, the grass looked clean cut and soft unlike the partially dead stuff in town, and even without color, she could tell that all the apples on every tree were bright red and healthy. How did I miss this? This place would have totally stood out earlier! She thought to her self.

She remained quiet, and noticed the four people with color in the center of the front yard. There were a ton of people here, maybe even more than she'd ever seen in town at any point. The four of them were talking, but they had grown even quieter. There was a blonde girl that looked like a cowboy, another girl that was dressed... normally? She had indigo hair with streaks of purple and pink in it.

Then there were the weird ones. Two dudes, one looked like some kind of knight, the other looked like some kind of fairytale Mage. She quietly landed in a huge apple tree just at the edge of the depression that turned into the farm house's front yard. Surprisingly, the tree didn't even seem to notice her weight on it. Not even the leaves made a sound. Strange. She only weighed around sixty pounds to begin with, but even the thin tree branches were like standing on Aerolite. It felt... unnatural.

“I assure you, It is the truth. You see...” She heard the knight say. He then started to take off his armor on his left shoulder, then he turned to the blonde girl to show her his Terran's mark. It was just three apples in a circle. Weird. Haven't I seen that somewhere? But what happened next was even weirder. The blond girl looked shocked to see it, then rolled up her own left sleeve. On her left shoulder was the exact same Terran's mark.

Whoa. That was off the charts weird. Marks were unique to every person, even people who have the same talents and ideas. Marks were never the same. They talked more, and the blonde girl started to get sad for some reason. The other three looked more and more concerned, and then she started to cry and the knight guy hugged her. Even from this distance, she could tell the knight was likely the most charismatic person she'd ever seen in her life. And then, she looked more intently at the knight. Not only was his Terran's mark the same as the blond girl's, but he looked like her too. In fact, that might even be the blonde girl's dad. And the sorcerer looked a lot like the indigo haired girl. What was the deal? Suddenly, the blonde girl jumped up on the table.

“Well then! Let's get to it! Come on!” She was from here for sure. Her words weren't even bent into some weird southern fashion, and she still had a thick accent. The blonde girl pulled the indigo haired girl up on the table with ease and then gracefully made a few hops to the other table across from where she was. Then the extra weirdness happened. She took a card off of her disk and the knight disappeared. What the? There's no friggen way. Was he a card? How in the hell? Then the sorcerer tapped his staff to the ground three times, and color started to flood the world.

Right from where his staff touched, everything began to move again. As the wave got closer to Rainbow, she started to feel an intense wind. She tried to jump and escape into the colorless part of the world, but the wave was too fast. When it caught her, she suddenly couldn't see anything but a white void. It felt like her entire body was being ripped to pieces. She tried to scream, but nothing would come out, just silence. She closed her eyes, and prayed for the pain to stop, then it did. She didn't hurt any more, so she opened her eyes. She was flying, riding a wind current, and she was about a mile or two from where she was a second ago.

“What the hell?” When she realized she said that out loud, she immediately put her hands over her mouth and checked her surroundings. There was no one around. She was still over the dirt path with a little grass here and there that cut through the sand. Then she thought to check the time. The sun hadn't moved. And there was no way that at least half an hour hadn't passed. In that sticky air, it took her at minimum ten minutes to make it to where she was hiding. She checked the duel disk in her pocket. It read 13:30. “There's... no way... this can't be right.... I left the house at 13:10! What the hell just happened?!” The rainbow headed girl began to fly as fast as she could down the dirt path to the farm, but then she stopped once she got half way down it.

“Wait... what if they notice me? I... I'm not exactly the most inconspicuous... person... shit! My own awesomeness could get me in trouble here! Okay, let's think about this Dash. Some crazy crap just happened like an hour ago that I guess doesn't exist anymore. And you don't know how it happened, much less why it hurt so bad. And it hurt a lot. If I could never experience pain like that again, I think I could die happy. So... I'll go hide in the tree again! Nobody was looking that way in the crowd of frozen people, they were all looking at the table the indigo haired girl was standing on... for... some reason... Okay. We head to that same tree, and we watch.” She looked around herself, and sighed after she realized no one was around.

“I... really need to stop talking to myself.” Rainbow made her way to the tree she was sitting in earlier. It was in the same position she left it in, but this time, it gave a little when she landed, and the leaves rustled. She collapsed her wings as quickly as she could because some red haired woman looked off in her direction. She took a step toward Rainbow, but then was pulled back by some other person to the duel. Over the crowd, she managed to hear “Ah set one card, and then we battle! Since this is a family reunion and all, I'll have Ephraim attack Andromeda first!” The knight guy from earlier jumped in the air, and then she heard something else, but, this was like it was coming from inside of her own head. And it was the same male voices from earlier.

Well is this not the fun turn of events! You get to meet Minerva again! The sorcerer's light blue barrier flared up as the knight guy approached. You and your pet names for inanimate objects. Just get it over with already. You won't be sending me away anytime soon. The knight's face seemed to darken somehow. Oh well, if you insist. The Halberd the knight was using smashed down on the sorcerer's barrier, and made a two tone note. At the same time, the sound waves became visible and started to crash into the indigo haired girl, who suddenly had a violet colored barrier that cracked a little every time the waves crashed into it.

“Must be a Mage- ho! What the?” Her leg started to vibrate intensely and produce a note of it's own, which seemed to finish the chord that was coming from the other two. Rainbow reached to the source of her vibrating, and locked on her duel disk. A green light was coming from her deck. She pulled it out of her disk and took the glowing, vibrating card from it. It was the card she received in the mail not but a few days after she finally came to live with her dad. “What is...? Prismatic Avian, Loyalty Valkyriana... wait a minute...” The image in the card was that of an angel woman with light blue, white, silver, and rainbow wings wearing thin Angel's armor with a sword in one hand and a shield in the other. She shared hair with with Rainbow, and irises too.

“You look... so much like... dad...” The other two stopped resonating, and the ritual monster in her hand did the same. She put the rest of her deck in her disk and kept Valkyriana out. The duel continued, and both girls had come to an even point. The indigo haired girl seemed to bet everything on a draw, and she was rewarded for it. She then got two more cards, and it looked like she had the duel won. But the blonde activated the trap, and then the sorcerer and the knight collided in a fiery explosion and both of the two girls were sent flying into the crowd. The field displayed the word draw, and then both girls were crowd surfed back to the center of the two tables.

An old woman with pale blonde silver hair began to speak to them both. They were then joined by an Angel with some kinda monochromatic scheme to him, and a very tall, very big guy with bright orange hair. Then the Angel seemed to take over the conversation. For some reason he had his coat zipped up. She couldn't think of why though. The monochrome Angel called out to someone, and a little boy with purple bat like wings and green hair ran over to the group, and the indigo haired girl grabbed him and rubbed her fist into his head, making a smile at the same time.

They were talking and he eventually handed the blonde a picture, and then her expression sort of dropped and she handed it back. He looked excited to hear her reply, and then they made their way out of the farm. But the Mage girl was stopped by the old woman. She handed her a card, then sent her off to her group. The group started to head out of the farm, and then Rainbow decided to follow. She got down from the tree, ran the opposite direction, and flew upward until she was sure no one would notice her from the ground. She kept altitude and followed the group until they reached the edge of town. Then the group stopped.

Suddenly, the Angel and the Mage turned around staring directly at her, and then the Angel threw a bright violet chain at her. Rainbow tried to avoid it, but it wrapped itself around her foot just as she tried to get away, like it was alive or something. The chain itself felt like it was burning against her skin, and in her desperate attempts to free herself, her wing was caught in another chain she didn't see. She came crashing to the ground, and screamed out as she fell several hundred feet. She watched as the sky grew further away and closed her eyes. The chains evaporated, and then her descent started to slow down. Then she noticed she was being held. She looked up to see the monochrome Angel in the white coat slowly hovering down to the ground. She started to lose feeling in her leg and her left wing. The numbness started to spread through her body, and she passed out.

***

The Mage and the Angel reached the Terran and the Dragon, but neither of the two seemed to notice them leave. “So where is this Rarity going to be?” Said the Angel. The Terran scratched at her head. “It would be relatively off color fer her ta be anywhere but her shop. Y'all seen that fancy buildin' near the center of town on the north east side?” Then the dragon boy chirped up. “Ooh! You mean that building that's all round and purple and stuff right?” Oddly excited he was. “That would be the place. It'll take us about thirty minutes ta get there if we walk. The farm is about a mile and a half from the town, so that's assumin' that we can walk a mile in about fifteen minutes.” The Angel nodded.

“Sounds like a good assumption. Don't know about Stripes or Spike, but that's a slow walk for me.” The Indigo haired girl loaded up a punch to hit the Angel with, but he side stepped it and she fell into the sand. “What the hell man! Use my friggen name!” She said as she tried to get up. “Oh, whatever. If we're going to be around each other a lot, you are subject to nicknames. As a matter of fact, you're all subject to nicknames. Be prepared for reduced syllable and ironic names, all of you.” The blonde girl put one hand on her elbow and the other on her chin.

“My name's already a nick name. What would ya call me different?” The Angel put his hands behind his head. “Stripes, Green, and Apples, respectively. However, our stowaway will likely keep the name she has, as it's pretty obvious, if that is in fact who she is...” Twilight caught back up with the group. “Stowaway? Is there someone-” The Angel put his arm around her shoulder, and pulled her in close. “Nobody turn around. I think I know who that is, but I can't be sure if it's not an enemy. So here's the plan. Apples, how good are you with a rope?” The girl decided to give the nick name a chance, since it wasn't far off from her other one.

“Is that even a question? Ah live on a farm with livestock.” The Angel nodded. “Great. Next is you Stripes. I need you to make a magic chain that's long enough to catch a cloud.” Catch a cloud? “Like, how long are we talking here? I just dueled for the third time today, I don't know what I'm still capable of.” A voice chimed out from Twilight's pocket. “Oh, no, Master Sparkle, your current Magic capacity is still full for at least four to five more duels. I'm not quite sure how, but you've been tapping into your soul arts to play, and it has been taking much of the strain of the magic game off your body, and more importantly, away from your raw magic pool.” Twilight sighed. “Thank you my little poindexter. You've been a great service to our cause.” An audible huffing noise came from her pocket. “Says the real poindexter here. Regardless, she has the ability to make multiple chains of a greater length at the moment Master Zephraim.” Twilight grunted. “Fine whatever, yeah I'll make you a chain.” The Angel released the Mage.

“Great. Get on that, I need two and they must be able to reach about a thousand two hundred feet. My guess is that this girl is following us either out of curiosity or by order of someone, and if the latter is true, we want to surprise her. Once we reach the edge of town, you need to toss one chain to me, and one chain to Apples. From there, we just need to get the chain close enough for Stripes to grab her with it. Once that's done, send a couple of volts through her body, and she should lock up in mid air. I'll fly up and catch her to make sure she doesn't fall to her death, and then we'll question her.” The sheer quickness of the plan he made coming out of no where made him a little bit scarier than Twilight originally thought. Definitely his mother's son, that's for sure.

“Do they call you a tactician too?” She said as she laughed a little. The Angel crossed his arms. “Not funny Stripes. Just be ready with that spell, got it?” Twilight waved at him. “Yeah, yeah, I got it. Attack magic is my forte, this should be nothing.” There was silence for a moment as the quartet walked down the dirt road in between the farm and the town until Applejack broke it.

“So uh, how does he talk from yer disk? Is he like, a Navi or somethin'?” Twilight took her disk out of her pocket and turned the screen on to see Andromeda playing one of her games. “I guess? This was his doing, and Andromeda kinda just does whatever he wants inside of the disk.” She said as she pointed to the Monochrome Angel. “Well, that is not entirely true. While I have no internet access, like I do at the moment, I simply must find a way to entertain myself. However, I am having difficulty reaching the objective of this level. Do I hit the invisible block once, and then use it to get to the top of the flag, or do I just run and jump at maximum height to catch it?” Said the Sorcerer's sprite on the screen as the red plumber jumped over bricks and into a pit.

“Oh, I love that game! Hit the block first, that's the best way to do it.” The dragon boy fell back in line to watch Andromeda play Super Mario with Twilight after giving his suggestion. The Angel then answered the Terran's question. “The system recognizes him as both a Navi and a user. As such, he has access to the voice program that normal Navi use to speak prompts and commands to the user, but with his own vocabulary that he can add to instantaneously when he records a sound byte. In a sense, Andromeda has basically become the duel disk, and has free range of everything that goes in and out of it.” The blonde girl nodded.

“So, he's his own entity and not some kind of crazy magic projection right? Ah've seen those, and they weird me the hell out.” The Angel shook his head. “Nah, this was something Apollo came up with, totally his idea. You see... there's a person who we both know that is really against manipulation of soul magic, or what most people know as necromancy or black magic. Since we respect that person a lot, he's found ways to do it without all of the nasty stuff. I wrote part of the program, and he debugged and fixed it all up with the magic to support it.” The Terran tapped her finger to her lips.

“Apollo, Apollo... Where have Ah heard that name before?” The Angel put his hands behind his head. “Billboards, advertizements, magazines, TV. The list is endless, he's the current CEO of the Kiebzen Corporation.” Applejack snapped her fingers. “Yeah, that's it. Wait. He helped ya write a program!? How do ya know that billionaire?” The Angel smiled at the girl. “Heh. Let's just leave it at, I grew up with him. So what about you? You said you built those IR things out of habit. Are you a programmer or something?” The blonde nodded.

“A little bit. Ta be honest, Ah'm just good with my hands. Ah've always been able ta build things and solve puzzles real easy. If Ah can see the finished product, then Ah can usually figure out how ta get it there from scratch. Ah always liked ta tinker with stuff, so when my dad finally got a hold of an old desktop years back, Ah learned how ta take it apart and put it back together. The programmin' thing came after Ah nearly broke the operatin' system a few years after dad passed away while Ah was tinkerin' with it. Luckily Ah was able ta fix it, but from then on Ah started ta get inta the technical side of it. This of course became a hobby and Ah sped ahead of the rest of my class learnin' bout it. Eventually, Ah just got fed up with school cause Ah wanted ta put what little free time Ah had inta it rather than school, so Ah opted fer a test instead of the whole four year schoolin' fer a high school diploma. Ah scored top marks anyways in everythin', cept Faunin. This damn language is so friggen complicated. Apparently there's a rule that says Ah can't make conjunctions with any combination of pronouns and nouns that Ah want, so that kept me in school fer it. That's why Ah graduated in my first year of high school rather than skippin' it entirely.” The Angel sighed.

“Man, I wish I was that driven. I was the same way, but totally the opposite in terms of work ethic. I made pretty low grades as a whole because I just didn't care about it. I took a few classes here and there seriously, and I made top in each of them, but other than, that it was pretty lack luster for my final transcript.” The blonde put her hands down and followed the question line further. “So what did ya end up doin' right? Ah mean, Ah didn't have the luxury of just blowin' it off, Ah still have ta help big Mac run the farm. Bein' outta school just gives me time ta keep workin' on projects Ah want ta finish without droppin' off the work load.” The Angel scratched at his head.

“Uh... Art, computer science, and battle techniques I really focused in on. Although home economics was pretty easy as a whole, and I was actually really good at Faunin. I just never did homework, nor did I do assignments if it ran past class time, which killed my grades.” The blonde crossed her arms. “So ya do art, huh? What's yer Angel's mark?” The Angel debated on whether or not he should show it. Eventually he decided she might as well see it since it might become a point of interest. After all, this was the girl he decided he liked out of the six of them. He unzipped his coat, as the interrupter had settled earlier, and removed his right sleeve. On his right shoulder were three hexagons, one black, one gray, and one white that followed the pattern of his hair and wings. On top of that were a sword an ax and a lance that crossed over each point where the hexagons touched.

“So y'all have a battle type mark. Ain't seen many of them round these days.”  Marks were split into several categories based on what was depicted in them. The three major categories were literal, symbolic, or abstract. Within those, the types of marks split into more and more categories until finally you reached your five type mark which was usually an accurate account of what you wanted to do in life. That is, if your mark isn't abstract. People with things like heavenly bodies on their marks were typically abstract types and sometimes never figure out what it meant to them. His own mother was one of the few to actually decipher what her abstract Mark meant, and it took nearly an entire natural life for her to do it.

“You could say that. Most of my family have them, and we believe that it's really my father's fault. Saying his early twenties were blood soaked is a pretty harsh understatement. My dad is a pretty crazy Mage.” Applejack took a step in front of the Angel and started to walk backwards. “Huh. I guess yer mom's the Angel then?” The Angel waved the statement away. “Terran. I'm the odd one. They're my biological parents, but my father never knew who his was, and my mom's parents were both Terrans. My dad's mother was a Mage, so we believe that his father must have been an Angel or something.” And he was really telling the truth. Except for the whole 'my mother is also an ascended immortal, so that might have something to do with it' part.

“Interestin'. Ya got siblings right? What about them?” The Angel nodded. “An older brother, Mage, 28 years old. An older sister, Terran, 24 years old. And a younger brother, Mage, 16 years old.” The Terran seemed to be cataloging all the information she was taking in. From behind them, the Dragon and the Mage were watching Andromeda play when he finally beat the level he was stuck on.

“See, I told you that you had to Jump it. It just takes timing.” The dragon boy was upset that his tactic didn't work. “Oh, whatever Twilight. You just didn't want my idea to work. I totally beat this level like that.” The Mage retorted back at him. “Spike, Spike, Spike. That's simply just not how this works. There is no way that you could beat this level like that unless you had a power up from the last level. I'm not saying you're wrong, but you are.” The Dragon boy crossed his arms and flared his wings out. “Whatever. Hey! We're almost to town! Are you guys gonna catch that person that's been following us now?” The Angel took out his duel disk which then displayed a mirrored surface.

“Stripes, after I put this away, want you to turn around with me, and toss me a magic chain. Apples, when I throw the first one, and Twilight catches her with it, she'll toss one to you and you need to aim it at her wing. Chances are that she'll try and escape, so be ready for a moving target.” The two replied in unison. “Got it.” the group walked five steps, then Zephraim put the disk away. He and Twilight turned on their heels and she created a violet chain of magic energy that started to flow out of her right hand and passed it to Zephraim. The Angel girl far above them stopped dead in her tracks after the two looked directly at her. Zephraim threw the chain as hard as he could and almost beat Twilight's creation speed as she was making it come out of her hand. The Angel girl had just noticed the chain and started to move away, but wasn't quick enough for Twilight.

She moved the chain as it rocketed toward the Angel girl and wrapped around her foot. At the same time, Twilight tossed another chain out of her left to Applejack. The girl started to take a certain length of it, then she spun it in her right above her head. She tossed it, and it flew even harder and faster than Zephraim's did, and Twilight almost lost the entire chain. Twilight had just enough time to wrap the chain around the Angel girl's wing as she was currently struggling to remove the chain around her leg. She then sent an electrical pulse through the chain, and the girl just stopped moving. The Angel girl screamed, and Zephraim took off.

Twilight reeled her chains back into her hands to keep the excess magic from burning off as heat, and Zephraim caught the girl. He descended quickly at first, then brought himself to the ground gradually, and landed with the girl in his arms. Her head was an entire rainbow of colors going from violet to red and back. She was wearing a light blue short sleeved jacket over an almost white tank top that had a hint of blue in it, with dark blue athletic shorts that had yellow lightning bolt style streaks running down either side. Under those, strapped on her right leg, was a holster with a green pentagon shaped duel disk inside it.

Her wings were the same blue as Raid Fume, but this girls feathers along the bottom of her wing followed the rainbow pattern of her hair, at least for the last six feathers, with one of each color off her head. She was also wearing what looked like military issue combat boots. As a matter of fact, Zephraim was wearing the same ones. “Ladies and Green, meet Rainbow 'Dash' Fume.”

The two girls looked at the one in the Angel's arms. “That's probably the most accurate name I've ever heard for a person. Is this girl related to the train conductor?” The blonde was confused by the information Twilight had that she apparently didn't. “Train conductor? Who is this chick?” The male Angel moved the girl in his arms to his back, and took a picture out of his coat and handed it to Applejack. “As previously stated, Rainbow 'Dash' Fume. The royal express conductor's granddaughter on his son's side, like Ruby Apple on his daughter's. She also happens to be one of the six chosen to receive the Ancient cards like you and Stripes here.” The blonde nodded.

“So, not exactly my cousin, but my cousin's cousin. And a party member Ah guess?” The male Angel agreed. “Yeah. How many volts did you put through her anyways, Stripes? She's like, out cold.” The male Angel started to walk into town with the other Angel on his back and other three followed. The Mage replied in a matter of fact tone. “It's current that kills, not volts dude. And with that out of the way, like fifty or so milliamps. Not enough to kill her, but enough to make her muscles stop working.” All but the dragon boy were surprised to hear the normal response. “Did... did she teach you that? I know she's done a few assassinations in her time, but... really?” The Mage girl just smiled and nodded, and the dragon boy had taken the girl's duel disk.

“That's my sister. Knows exactly how to inflict the pain without killing. She almost electrocuted me once, but my body has some kind of weird property that keeps current from passing through anything but my scales. So it's just the initial pain I feel.” The male Angel put his free hand to his face. “For the love of Divinity, mom.” The Terran caught some of the muttered statement. “What was that?” The male Angel quickly retracted his statement. “Oh, it doesn't matter. You know what? This makes three for six. Let's just get the next one, and move on with life. Wait a minute, I think she's waking up.”

The Angel girl on his back started to mumble to her self. She tightened her grip around him and then pressed her body into him, trying to not wake up. Finally, she yawned, and opened her eyes. She could see the town, the various buildings to the sides of the main road. She could see the blonde to the left of the object that was obscuring her vision, and to the right she could see the indigo haired girl and the little boy with the weird wings. They were all staring at her. Confusion and awareness were beginning set into the groggy rainbow haired girl, and then she realized she was holding onto a male Angel, whose head was the obstructing object.

“Welcome back to the world of the living sleeping beauty.” His face had turned to smile at her, and she stared in his green and gold eyes for a moment, then jumped off his back. “Hold it! Who are you people? Wait a minute... didn't you electrocute me!? What the hell happened just now!?” The female Angel's voice was frantic. The Terran immediately went into damage control mode, and tried to calm her down. “Now hold on there sugar cube, no body is gonna hurt ya. Cain't be too careful these days, what with all the murders goin' on, but yer safe now.” The rainbow haired girl's eyes started shifting from one of the four to another. “Don't you lie to me! My dad is a cop! I'll... I'll get you all locked up if there's anything weird going on here! Tell me who you are!” The male Angel stepped forward, only to have the female step back.

“Cool your jets kid. It wouldn't matter if your dad's a cop or not because I'm above him. See? Look, here's my badge.” The man took a small silver coin out of his pocket and tossed it to the skeptic. She snatched it out of the air and inspected it. It had a strange symbol on it that she thought she'd seen somewhere before. A large rounded E with a smaller circle just past the point that made the middle line of the E and a C inside of that. She flipped it over in her hand and read the embellished text on the other side. “Zephraim Black I., Eclipse Core... You... You're one of the special ops!?” The man nodded and walked closer toward the Angel girl.

“Yes, yes I am. And you are Rainbow Fume. The most promising young flier in Fauna with a pending reserves application, a recent move from Cloudsdale, and the daughter of Blaze Fume and Firefly Bright, correct?” The girl stood at attention and saluted the male Angel who was now standing with proper posture. “Yes sir.” The man put his hands behind his back and began to circle the Angel girl, as the others stared in amazement. Twilight didn't know how much authority he actually had, and Applejack and Spike didn't know what the Eclipse Core was. The man had adopted a dark smile and came behind the Angel girl and put his hands on her shoulders. Twilight suddenly felt an itch on her left hand.

“Now, ms. Fume, or, Dash as many seem to like to call you, you received a card from the Day Queen recently didn't you?” The Angel girl was beginning to feel uncomfortable. “Um... yes sir?” Rainbow didn't know what to do. This guy was way higher in rank than anyone she'd ever met in her life, but... he was acting kind of creepy. “Not a very confident answer from someone who has such a reputation. Hmm... that makes me... doubt. I believe a test of skill is in order!” Twilight had figured out why her arm itched. “Absolutely not! You are totally bullshitting Zeph! I will not do this again for the fourth time today. No way. No.” The man put his head next to the Angel girl's.

“Ms. Dash, our friend here does not seem to want to be your test partner. So I will give you a choice. You're holding my badge which is a two sided coin. Let's say the side with the Core symbol is heads, and the one with my name is tails. After you flip the coin, you will tell us it's result. If the coin lands heads, Twilight here will be your opponent. If the coin lands tails, you will duel me. Does that sound alright?” Rainbow was now very conflicted. That Indigo haired girl, whose name was Twilight apparently, was disrespecting an officer of one of the highest ranks in Fauna. But he was also being really really creepy. “Uh, I-if that's what you want sir...” The man squeezed her shoulders and released her.

“Perfect. If you would.” Rainbow shuffled her wings. The drill sergeants at ROTC camp last summer weren't nearly as... touchy as this guy was. She could handle some guy screaming in her face, but the kind of calm this guy had was almost frightening. But, orders are orders. And hey, if she got to know this guy, maybe he could pull some strings for her in the future. Finally she could do something that would make her dad... bah, screw him. I'll do something worthy of me! She thought. She started to spin her arm in a circle, and when she had rotated three times, she tossed the palm sized coin in the air. The coin shined in the midday sun as it spun in the air, and just as it came down close enough to reach, the Angel behind Rainbow snatched it out of the air. “And survey, says!” The Angel uncovered the coin off the back of his left hand and revealed the EC symbol. “Rainbow versus Twilight!” Twilight slapped her fore head.

“Gods damn it. I fucking knew! I fucking knew you were going to do this! I do not want to do this! I've had enough of this today! I tied your brother, I lost to you, and I tied her! I'm done!” The Mage girl started to walk off, but Rainbow was not going to take no for an answer. “What's up, Stripes? Afraid of losing again?” That was likely not a smart decision for Rainbow to make. “No. No, no, no, no, no, you did not just fucking call me Stripes!” The anger radiating from the Mage was visible as a violet smoke around her edges. Rainbow almost backed down, but decided to egg her on. “Yeah? So what if I did? What are you gonna do about it?” Twilight debated electrocuting this girl for real now, but then levitated her duel disk out of Spike's hands.

“Just to see you suffer, I won't kill you. Because I could have. Just now. So let's duel and get this over with. I'll beat you in the sand, and we'll be done. The end.” Rainbow was not thrilled with that response. “Kill me? What the hell!? You DID electrocute me! Oh, no, I'm gonna beat the hell out of you!” With Twilight wearing a duel disk, the two girls charged at each other, but were stopped by the much stronger blonde. “Hey! Yer both bein' idiots! Just duel it out! There ain't no reason ta be fightin' with each other!” The blonde kept the two at bay, and then the man pulled the Angel girl back. “Your task is to duel. Got it?” The man kept his calm and terrifying voice and increased the eye contact he had with Rainbow. This was a fight she was not going to instigate.

“Y-yes sir. Hey! Stripes! Lets play the game!” The girl took an impressively athletic jump back for being who she was, and readied the disk. Applejack rolled her eyes. “This can only end well.” Rainbow slapped her disk on from her leg holster and the metal rings hidden in the pentagonal device slid out and connected around her arm, then telescoped until they met each other around her arm. A green U shaped matterwave appeared out of the disk, and then the Angel and the Mage both shouted “DUEL!” In unison as the MR beams connected. The area was bathed in light, and the duel began. Twilight immediately started playing.

“I'll electrocute you again, bitch! First off, Since I don't control any monsters, I can special summon Shooting Star Serpens from my hand! Then, while I control a Light monster, I can special summon Star Magician Azophi!” The girl slapped the two monsters on her matterwave and just as quickly did they appear one after the other. The first was a large serpent made of teal light with dark lines and dots inside of it that formed a constellation. The second was a man wearing heavy looking robes with a dark beard that scraggled itself down to where his thin neck would have ended and a thick mustache. He wore a tutors cap that had a small ball of light at the very end of it.

“Next, I'll normal summon Shooting Star Stallion. Then I activate the effect of Azophi! While I control him, I can send cards I control to the graveyard to fusion summon! 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!” The Mage girl raised her hand to the sky above the monsters, and it darkened. She started to glow in a pale violet smoke the seemed to flow off of her body, and the monsters began to spin around themselves into the dark sky. From the dark hole in the sky the caped Magician began to float down. “I don't remember what you said exactly, but guess what? You were right. I was one step away from killing her!” Andromeda sighed and turned to Twilight.

“Master Sparkle, you mustn’t let your anger get to you like this. We need to-” Another voice came from the other side of the field. “Oh, what's wrong, Andy dearest? Afraid of a little fight with your sister? Afraid I'll pound your face in the ground, again?” The left most card in Rainbow's hand was vibrating with a green light. “Valkyriana, you are not helping-” The sorcerer was cut off again. “Ya know, after all these years, ya still haven't fixed that problem where ya KEEP OPENING YOUR MOUTH!” The sorcerer was filled with an emotion he had long suppressed. “When we kill the bitch, I want the last hit!” The Mage girl nodded. “Then I guess we have a plan! Give me Copernicus!” The sorcerer turned back to the rainbow haired girl and had a fire in his eyes.

“Copernicus it is!” The sorcerer tapped his staff to the ground once, and the card was ejected out of Twilight's deck into her hand. “Then I activate Star Fusion! I fuse Serpens and Copernicus to fusion summon! Lightning inside spirals, tornadoes of dust and light! The Galaxy is tied and spun in either direction, Star Barred, the Galaxy Magician!” Tritium was formed and from it descended an... interesting looking sorcerer. Armored on only his joints and neck was the male sorcerer with bright, short magenta hair under a hood, wearing heavy looking robes like Andromeda. He carried what could be justified as an anchor over his shoulder in one hand, and a simple wand with a clear gem at it's tip in the other. His face was scarred in several places, but most notably was a very straight scar that went through his left eye all the way down his face to his jaw line. Very interesting indeed.

“When Barred is fusion summoned, I get to add a Star spell card from my deck to my hand. I add Shooting Star Comet Phase, then I activate Shooting Star Barrier from my hand! I set one, and its your turn, stalker!” The opposing girl's feathers started to puff up in her wings. “Stalker!? First you guys stop time or whatever and then make it feel like I'm being ripped apart and then you ELECTROCUTED ME! I was making sure you guys weren't the ones killing people these past few weeks!” The Mage looked astonished, and then she and the sorcerer shared the face with each other.

“How did she get caught in the pocket!?” The sorcerer started to snap his fingers nervously. “I... I'm not quite sure. I haven't exactly practiced a new spell in a very long time. I honestly have no idea what the range was that I ended up casting, but the rest of the Apple family was frozen by it... Master Zephraim!” The male Angel shook his head. “Don't even bother, I don't know. My brothers are the Mages. You know that. Is this really important right now?” The sorcerer continued to snap his fingers. “How could she have... you intend to summon Valkyriana, do you not Master Fume?” The rainbow headed girl realized she was being addressed by the sorcerer.

“Oh, what? Uh, yeah, kinda. And I prefer Rainbow, or Dash, or a combination of the two in that order, if you're referring to me. What about it?” The girl was skeptical about speaking with the sorcerer who was apparently a card. “If you would, please start your turn. I need to speak with her.” The Angel girl's feathers had settled and she nodded to the sorcerer. “Uh... sure. Man, this is really weird.” The male Angel laughed and waved at the girl. “Welcome to my life. And get used to it, because you're gonna be living in it for a while.” The female Angel was unnerved by his laughter, but drew for her turn.

“Well whatever. I draw! First off, I summon Prismatic Avian Foot Falcon!” The monster summoned was a half human sized falcon wearing a camouflage military uniform all in red. The falcon itself was white with a single red feather coming out of the top of it's head. It carried what looked like an old model artillery rifle from the days before magic projectiles became the norm in war. Twilight though it must have been an automatic rifle judging from the large clip on the top of the gun.

“Next up, I activate the effect of Prismatic Avian Bastillatician from my Hand! It's treated as an equip spell card, and adds three effects to Foot Falcon. One, I can attack directly with it. Two, Foot Falcon gains 800 attack and defense, and three, if Foot Falcon would be destroyed or tributed, I can send Bastillatician instead.” A spell card? Twilight wasn't having it. “Ooh, yeah, I don't really like that so I'll activate the effect of Barred. While I control a face up Spell card, I can negate the effect of a card that would target a card on the field, and destroy it.” The magenta haired magician threw his anchor into the actual card representation of the spell on her field, then a light blue chain appeared from the end of the wand to the top of the anchor. He spun the anchor with the spell in it above his head, and sent it forward until it hit the phantom bird in Rainbow's spell and trap zone, then the bird in the large motorcycle like side cannon was shattered.

“That's really annoying. But that's not about to stop me! I activate Prismatic Avian Shield Wings from my hand! His effects are similar, and all Prismatic Avian monsters share the third effect. Infantry gains 500 instead of 8. Next, I activate Prismatic Sphere Ritual! By sending monsters from any zone to the graveyard whose levels are equal to or greater than the ritual monster I summon, I can ritual summon that monster! I send the equipped Shield Barer, and the Foot Falcon for a total of 7! The crystal of endless potential takes light and refracts it into all the colors of the world! Burst through the prism, Prismatic Avian, Loyalty Valkyriana!”

A large clear orb appeared on Rainbow's side of the field. The two monsters flew into it, and their colors were morphed into white. A blue flame engulfed the crystal orb, and began to shatter as the light inside became brighter. The orb exploded into crystal shards that scattered various colors wherever they landed, and from where it was, the Valkyrie stood. She was an Angel with wings like no other. Her top feathers were silver, which then was followed by a row of white ones, and finally blue feathers all along the bottom with five more colors of the rainbow as feathers at each wing tip. She wore a dark red and gold lined shirt with thin Angel's armor on her chest, shoulders, and along each wing. In her left was a sword that eerily resembled the one Zephraim carried, so much so that it might very well be the same one, but had a cloud with a thunderbolt at the end of the hilt. She carried a shield in her right that had the same cloud and bolt engraved in it that was made of what looked like silver and bronze.

Like the player, Her hair was a full range of color from ROY to G to BIV. Her eyes were the same magenta as the player as well, and in all honesty Twilight believed Rainbow would look exactly like her in ten or so years. Her right eye was scarred down her cheek, and she wore a strap around her head that had a bead with three feathers tied to the end of it. One light blue, one pale yellow, and one dark red. Above her cleavage and along her legs until her red boots was netting that darkened her skin to a tone just below what her face showed. And much like the player earlier, she carried a cocky smile.

“Andy, my big bro, It's just been so long since I last saw ya. How's it been buddy?” No longer speaking through a card, the woman's voice was clear now, and it was slightly raspy, as was the player's, and carried an up-town accent like she was from north heartland or something. The sorcerer crossed his arms. “And as always, it is a pleasure my snide little sister. Now tell me. How did this girl make it into my pocket dimension?” The valkyrie stabbed her sword in the sandy town street, and walked up to the sorcerer.

“Oh come on Andy, bro, don't be like that. I haven't seen ya in forever! Give me a hug!” The player on the opposite side was dumbstruck by her monster moving to and then hugging the sorcerer on the opposing field, and the Mage on that side was just as confused. The sorcerer grunted, muttered something in some language, and gave into the hug. “Sigh. Your instigations and your affections will find you trouble yet again my sister. Now will you just-” The valkyrie gut punched the sorcerer and hopped back to her spot. “Ephraim! Ephraim I know you're hearin' this man, you gotta see this! He fell for it again! Oh my gods, he friggen fell for it! It's been four thousand years Andy! When ya gonna learn!?” The valkyrie was on one knee clutching her gut laughing at the sorcerer, who was doing the same, but slowly starting to radiate a light blue and black glow.

“You... insufferable little...! Twilight!” The suddenly deep voiced and very angry sorcerer called the his player's name and she responded as if she were nine again. “Y-yes?” He moved to her and leaned town to put his hands on her shoulders and look her in the eyes. “I want you to win next turn. And I want you to do whatever you must to allow me to punch my sister in the face as hard as possible. Better yet, make that the winning play. Got it? I want to be the one that destroys her. Are we clear Master Sparkle?” The girl was suddenly reminded of her childhood before she had ran away. She was reminded of the many times after the accident that her drunken father called her name the same way right before he beat her.

“Y-yes sir...” Said the cowering Mage. The sorcerer turned and floated back to his own spot and starred daggers, no great swords, at his sister who was still laughing. “Rain- ha ha, Oh gods, Rainbow, my girl, ya can't let this lump threaten us like that! We're the best there ever was right? Let's show him up, huh!” The player in question was still recovering from the fact of what had just happened, so she shook herself, stretched her wings and returned them to her back and continued her turn in this bizarre duel. “So, uh, when I use sphere ritual and it's in the grave, I can return it to the deck to add one of the cards used for the ritual summon back to my hand. I add Foot Falcon to my hand! Then I activate the effects of Foot Falcon and Prismatic Avian Infantry Eagle by equipping them to Valkyriana!” The sword and shield toting valkyrie gained a shoulder mounted Gatling gun on her right and a shoulder mounted rifle on her left.

“That's my girl! Birds of a feather, stick together!” Said the valkyrie encouraging Rainbow on. For a moment, she thought of her mother. “With that, she gains 1300 attack and defense, and the tribute slash destroy thing. With that, Valkyriana is at 3700 attack and defense points! Now Valkyriana attacks Andromeda!” The Valkyrie gave a wicked smile to the sorcerer. “Ooh lookie here, big bro. Somethin' else that hasn't changed! I'm real glad that ya haven't lost that big punching bag look with this new chick!” The valkyrie flew above the field, and then started a dive bomb toward the sorcerer. “Not so fast! I activate the effect of Barrier! I can banish one monster from my graveyard to keep him from being destroyed! I banish Stallion!” A teal barrier enveloped the sorcerer, and the guns on the Valkyrie's shoulder plates started to fire at the sorcerer.

“Tell her whats up Rainbow!” The youngest Angel nodded. “Oh yeah, when Valkyriana Attacks, both monsters switch attack and defense values until the end of the damage step, so you get to take 1700 straight rather than 1200. Have fun with that, Stripes.” The Angel girl had clearly been roped into the valkyrie's up beat-ness and was beginning to follow her speech pattern. At the same time, Twilight was rejoining Andromeda's enraged Mages club. “You so did fucking not!” The valkyrie's bullet fire started to hit her target, and each projectile that was shot from either gun reflected and hit the girl's barrier, making small cracks with each one. Then the Valkyrie was close enough to stop firing, and she swung at the sorcerer. The sword and the barrier collided, and like earlier, two tones rang out. This time, the sound waves produced were bright green like one of the colors in both the female Angel's hair, and the notes E and G were sounded out all around the two player and three spectators. As the waves moved out further, Applejack's disk began to glow a bright orange and ring out with the C tone from the last duel. The cord rang out in an oddly beautiful harmony around the five, and when Valkyriana returned to her place and the waves ceased, so did the chord.

“It happened again!” The Terran spoke up in response to the Angel girl. “Again? What do ya mean by that?” The Angel girl turned to her. “That thing that your disk did! Her card did the same thing while you two were dueling! And it happened twice!” The Terran girl ejected the still faintly glowing pendulum card from her deck and examined Ephraim. She could still feel him lightly vibrating in her fingers. “Huh... it's... kinda like hittin' three keys on a piano don't ya think?” Twilight joined the other girls.

“I think that's exactly what's like. I've been told on more than one occasion that I have perfect pitch, and that was a complete C major chord. When we dueled earlier, the notes G and C rang out from each of our clashes... considering there are seven cards total, then I think we have a major scale of cards here...” The three girls looked off in their own direction in thought as to what this could mean for them, then the two monsters on the field yelled in unison. “Hey! We're not/We ain't done here yet! Get back in this and finish her/him!” The two monsters turned away from their respective players to glare at each other. Twilight tried to calm Andromeda down.

“Hold on dude. Weren't you paying attention? I think there's something to this! This is more important than some stupid sibling rivalry!” The sorcerer grabbed at his face and pulled his mask off. “Master Sparkle, while I do agree you have your point, I need this! Look at me! I. Need. This. Win. If I ask anything of you at all, this is what I ask of you now.” The sorcerer was struggling to keep his voice under control as he spoke to the girl. On the other side, Rainbow was receiving a similar talk. “Rainbow, Dash, my girl. We gotta beat his sorry ass. I can't let my own freakin' brother beat me again. I chose you because you were the best. There ain't no one out there better than you. Ya gotta do this for me!” The girl shied away from the woman who was staring her in the eyes.

“I... I don't know about this. I think Twilight has a point. That letter from the Queen was really insistent about the urgency of the mission... I...” The woman put her hands on the girl's shoulders. “Hey, come on. That can wait! She knows you're the most loyal person to the crown in the world! Just cause you got a job doesn't mean ya wont take a detour every now and again to get there right?” The young Angel girl was persuaded to continue the fight. “Yeah! No mission ever goes as planned! We can do this! Come on Stripes, lets finish this! I set one card, and end my turn!” The Mage girl was also struggling to keep her calm. She hated the nickname 'Stripes' more than any other name she'd been called her entire life. Even being bullied for being anti social in her elementary days, the name Stripes never seemed to leave her side as a constant reminder to why she hated people in the first place.

“I swear to divinity, I you call me Stripes one more time, I'll personally electrocute you while I pull you in and out of a pocket dimension! You'll wish you could die after I'm done with you!” The rainbow headed girl decided not to pick at this again, and just try and pass the turn. “Geez, cool it man. It's just a nickname. And I ended my turn, just go already.” The fuming Mage drew a card. “Holy crap. I think I can really do it. But for a safety measure, I activate my set card, Star Comet Phase! By banishing two monsters in my graveyard, I can draw two cards!” The girl looked at the top of her deck and noticed something strange about her cards. The top two had an odd feeling about them. Ignoring her senses, she drew her cards anyways. Then she simply gasped at what she drew.

“Holy crap. I can do it. First, I activate the effect of Star Destruction! By banishing my last in grave Star monster, I can destroy all spell and trap cards you control!” The Angel bit her thumb. “Shit, this isn't good. I activate the effect of my trap card, Prismatic Fortified Nest! If union monsters equipped to a monster I control would be destroyed, I can target one union monster in my grave yard and equip it to a monster I control. That card is unaffected by your cards until the end of the damage step!” The valkyrie's shield turn into a cannon with large metal plates on either side to keep the resemblance of a shield intact. After that resolved, an explosion went off behind the valkyrie. The two cards that were equipped to her shattered, and her shoulder plates reverted to normal.

“Well, I would normally say that still poses a problem, but really, I've got this for sure now. I then activate the effects of Star Explosive Wave and Super Giant Star on Barred and Andromeda each. First off, Explosive wave adds 1500 attack to Barred. It has another effect, but that won't come into play here. Next, Super Giant Star adds 500 to Andromeda with this effect: If Andromeda destroys a monster, my opponent takes that monster's attack points as damage.” The Anchor wielding Mage gained a glow that seemed to shoot small waves of fire off every few seconds around his body in the same way solar flares were presented. Andromeda gained an outline made of fire around his body, and he gave the valkyrie a wicked smile of his own, and a much scarier one at that.

“Oh crap! No, no, no, no, no! This can't be happening! I've never lost! This can't be happening!” The Mage felt a little pity for the Angel girl. “Funny you say that. I think I said the same words a few days ago, and this will be my first win this whole week. Barred attacks Valkyriana!” The sorcerer and the valkyrie never lost eye contact with each other. The Anchor wielding Mage swung his Anchor in a circle, then slammed it into the valkyrie. She blocked it with her shield, which then reverted to it's original form, and rainbow was slid back a few feet due to the shock waves from the impact.

“Because of Bastillatician, Valkyriana is not destroyed, but he goes to the graveyard in her place!” Twilight shrugged. “It really doesn't matter at this point, but this is the way he wanted it to go down, so here it goes. Andromeda attacks Valkyriana.” The sorcerer's wicked smile widened, and he spoke with an unusually deep voice. “Oh, dear sister, I has been quite a long time hasn't it? Come now... give me a hug!” Unlike one would think the valkyrie's face would look, at the moment, she simply looked disappointed.

“Andromeda... here I thought you beat your old habit so many years ago. Very well then. If being this angry at something stupid like my childish jabs can bring this side of you out, I'll have no choice but to detain you again if you ever get out of hand.” In that single moment, the woman sounded... like she looked. Her tone was stoic, her face was stone. She looked like a Hero about to sacrifice themselves for a greater good. She dropped her guard, her sword, and shield, and held her arms out. “Alright big bro. Come and get your hug.” She said in her accent as she smiled with tears in her shut eyes. The enraged sorcerer approached the Angel woman at a rapid speed, spinning his staff in one hand like a madman, as a fiery blade formed out of the stars on the end. He charged and ran the staff straight through the Angel woman. She coughed up some blood, but grabbed the sorcerer.

“Heh... see? That wasn't so bad... was it?” The Angel woman faded around the sorcerer in particles of light, and the sorcerer simply sank. He fell to the sandy ground on his knees with his eyes wide, and his jaw dropped. His staff had fallen, and he stared at his hands, both covered in his sister's blood. “Oh gods... what... what have I done...?” Around the same time, the staff shot out a blast of fire at the Angel girl. Completely defenseless, the girl tried to flee, but couldn't move. The sorcerer stared at the Angel girl, and then warped himself in front of her.

“Valkyriana... I am fool...” The blast connected with Andromeda and the Angel girl was protected from it's wrath. The sorcerer faded with the rest of Twilight's field, and the Mage girl stared dumbfounded at the scene. Did... she really win? This didn't feel right. This felt... awful.