Rainbow Dash, a blue mare pegasus with a multicoloured mane that resembled a rainbow, paced impatiently in a circle while she mumbled complaints about the new upcoming rules announce just days after she learned the old ones.
She couldn't fully understand what the new mechanics were and how they would impact the game she had only just begun to enter but she knew one person who could teach her. If the rumours were true then her old friend would be able to help her learn the only way she knew how, by seeing it for herself.
She gripped the belt case that held the deck she put together with the help from her friends in the Wonderbolts. She searched and bought cards for weeks to her piece together a strategy she was confident in.
Rainbow Dash shifted the duel device clasped to her left forehoof, the stange machine called a Duel Disk for reasons she didn't care to know that could bring her deck to life for the single purpose of dueling. She had never experianced it in action from a duelists point of view but she was confident it would only be awesome. She turned over the device to reveal a thick silver band with a deep blue gem. A Duel Band, according to Twilight it was developed to allow any magical creature to use levitation but it was an overwhealming failure due to its low capabilities. It was later picked up and adopted by hooved duelists to allow them to play the game with all hooves on the ground.
A crack drew her attention to the treeline of the secluded spot she choose to meet her friend. Out of the trees emurged a young drake teen. Tall, slender, with polished purple scales and soft green underbelly. He wore fashion from the other world, loose fitted pants and a dark open front jacket.
"Hey, Rainbow." Said the drake.
"Sup Spike?" She replied.
The drake smiled and waved his hand dismissively, "not much, just glad to be back home. Feels like forever since I've been here last."
The mare chuckled, "I know the feeling. Since joining the Wonderbolts it feels like I'm gone more often then I'm here."
The two shared a knowing smile before Spike brought them back to why they were here.
"You really want to do this? I do have the prototypes but the system is still being worked out."
Rainbow gave a cocky grin, "what's wrong, afraid I'll beat you?"
"To a rookie? Hardly." countered Spike.
The two now sported arrogant grins as their duel disks hummed to life. "Duel!" They shouted in unision.
They both drew five cards from the top of their decks.
"Challenger goes first." declared Spike.
"Of course," replied Rainbow, "I'm always first."
She looked to the field to see the drastic changes. The pendulum zones were gone, instead the left and right most spell zones had the pendelum zones incorperated into them. She knew this meant that if she was to use pendulums she'd have to reduce the number of traps she could set.
She gazed towards the upper field to see two extra zones between her and her opponents field. She knew these new zones were only for monsters summoned from the extra deck.
While the changes were drastic she was confident she was uneffected, 'they messed with pendulums and gave us two new zones, nothing I need to worry about.' She though to herself.
Rainbow levitated her hand and placed it into the small clasp built into the device to hold the cards for the players.
Spike rose a brow, "not use to the band yet?"
"Not yet," she replied, "I've only had it for a few days." She looked up to meet Spike's concerned gaze, "but I'm good enough to beat you."
Spikes concern turned to confidence, "nothing can hold back the great Rainbow Dash, right?"
"Exactly!"
They both laughed before the mare activated her first card. With a flick of her head, she slammed a card onto the disk. "I activate Foolish Burial, this lets me send a monster from my deck to the grave." She checked her deck from the screen on her disk. "I send Doppel Warrior to the grave."
A card slid out of her deck and she moved it to an empty chamber on her disk, the grave.
Rainbow then played another spell, "I activate Tuning. This lets me add one Synchron monster from my deck to my hand then send the top card of my deck to my grave." She looked to her screen again. "I add Junk Synchron to my hand." The deck slid out a card that she took. The disk then shuffled her deck and slid out the top card. She placed it into her grave.
"I summon Junk Synchron to the field." A short yellow humanoid machine with two engines mounted on its back and a rip cord on its side appeared before them. "Then I activate his effect and special summon one level two monster from the grave." Dash grabed a card from the grave, " I summon Doppel Warrior!" A human soldier in a black cloth uniform with an odd blue gun like weapon in its hands appeared on one knee.
She began to emit a squeak of joy that startled Spike before she began to jump excitedly on the spot. "I summoned my first monster and it was so awesome!"
The drake said nothing, he just smiled and let her enjoy the thrill while he reminisced about his own first time. Soon the duel continued.
Rainbow checked her hand quickly. "I activate Quickdraw Synchron's effect from my hand, by sending one monster from my hand to the grave I can special summon Quickdraw from my hand. I send Quillbolt Hedgehog to the grave!" A blue humanoid machine that wore a red cape, a worn brown stetson and held a laser pistol appeared on the field.
She looked to her screen and tapped it a few times. "From my grave I activate the effect of both Quillbolt Hedgehog's, if there is a tuner on the field I can special summon them from my grave."Two small hedgehogs covered in metal bolts appeared on the field.
"The second one was from Tuning?" He questioned.
"Yup." Rainbow Dash smiled triumphantly, in one turn she had filled her normal monster zones.
Spike felt his excitement grow. He knew she was going to surprise him but he was not expecting this. His anticipation grew as he waited for Dash to continue her turn but also felt saddened at what he knew was going to happen.
Dash threw her hoof upwards, "I tune my Junk Synchron with Doppel Warrior!" Junk Synchron pulled on its cord and vanished into three spheres of light that created a set of circles around Doppel Warrior. The monster was engulfed by a pillar of light. From my extra deck I sunchro summon Junk Warrior!"
From the pillar of light emurged a tall humanoid machine covered in thick blue plate armour with gold trim. From its shoulder were two golden race car like wings. Its long scarf flailed heroicly in the wind and it clutched its knuckle duster in its thick, heavy right arm. It stared at spike from its red goggle like eyes.
Spike was pulled back to Rainbow as she declared more. "When Dopple Warrior is used in a synchro summon I get two Doppel Tokens!" Two transparent Dopple Warriors appeared on the field. "These guys are level one and have four hundred attack."
The drakes eyes widened as he realise what had happen, she had summoned her synchro monster into the extra zone to free an extra space to summon her tokens.
"When Junk Warrior is summoned he gains the attack of every level two or lower monster on the field!" Dash yelled.
'2300 atk' appeared before the monster. With a roar of the engines on its back the numbers rose to '4700'.
Spike could only marvel at the monster Rainbow had created, it was far above what he thought her capable but he knew this was as far as she would go.
She threw her hoof up and yelled, "I tune Quickdraw Synchron with Quillbolt Hedgehog!"
A long silence filled the field, the mare turned her gaze to the disk to see a notification that declared an invalid command.
"I guess this is when I explain the extra zone in a bit more depth." Dash looked to Spike in askance. "The extra zone exist to allow you to summon from your extra deck because extra monsters can't be summoned to the normal monster zone anymore."
"But there are two extra slots." she said.
"Yeah, but when one has been summoned into, the other become owned by the opponent."
The mares eyes widened in horror as she realised she was locked into only one synchro at any time. Swiftly they became confident again. "That's fine, I still have the strongest monster. I doubt you'll beat it in battle." Rainbow placed a card face down that appeared on the field in the spell/trap zone, "I set a card and end my turn."
Spike took note that it was set in the pendulum slot. "Before I start my turn, you can still summon extra monsters from the grave to the normal monster zones. Draw!" He drew a card from the top of his deck.
Spike considered his hand carefully. Junk Warrior, as it stood, would make short work of him if he wasn't mindful. While she hadn't declared it, she had summoned her weaker monsters in defense. He wondered who tought her, he couldn't imagine her play defensivly in any respect by her own accord.
He shook his head and summoned a small rabbit that wore a safety helmet, much to the mares surprise. "I summon Rescue Rabbit then activate its effect. By tributing it I can special summon two level four normal monsters with the same name from my deck."
The rabbit vanished down a hole and two bipedal winged dragons appeared, their scales were made of raw gems. Sharp, dangerous, and beautiful.
Rainbow checked the monsters to see that they had '2000 atk'. She gulped as she checked her defense monsters. The Quillbolts displayed '800 def' and Quickdraw Synchron showed '1400 def'.
Her attention returned to Spike as he continued to explain his monsters effect, "at the end of the turn they are summoned through rabbits effect, they are destroyed."
Dash was caucious, she knew Rescue Rabbit was used to get a free Xyz monster to the field.
"I send one normal monster to the grave to link summon Link Spider from my extra deck."
Rainbow's eyes widened is surprise as one of his dragons vanished and a small spider appeared in the extra zone with '1000 atk'. "This is they new prototype card that is being created by all four worlds together, right?!" she asked in excitement, as she rose to hover in the air.
"One of five being tested right now, I got two of them." Spike calmly replied but could not hide his excited smile. "It's the worst kept secret right now but Link will be the newest summon mechanic. And you get to see them in action first hand."
Dash checked the card but was instantly confused by what she saw. "Spike, it got no levels, and its defense is missing."
He laughed lightly, "that's because it doesn't have any to begin with. Link monsters are summoned by meeting the link requirement and the minimum summon requirement unique to the monster."
Dash looked at the cards text, '1 Normal Monster'. She then looked at the link number '1'. "So," she began slowly, "so Link Spider needs one monster, and it needs to be a normal type."
"Exactly," said Spike excitedly, "all monsters count as a single link but Link monsters value is equel to their link number."
"Okay, but what's this arrow pointing down?"
Spike looked at the cards image to see an arrow on its art border. "This arrow is used in the link monsters effect and any monster zones the arrow is pointed at becomes linked. So I can use that linked monster zone as an extra zone."
Rainbow Dash was silent for a moment before she quietly responded, "so if I had a link monster I could have synchro summoned again."
Spike griminced but nodded, "so long as you had enough linked zones."
Rainbow said nothing as she stared at the new monster with an unreadable expression.
"I continue my turn," declared Spike, "I activate Link Spider's effect. Once per turn, I can summon one level 4 or lower normal type from my hand to it's linked zone. I summon Gene-Warped Warwolf."
A four armed white demon with black markens across its body appeared on the field with '2000 atk'.
"I overlay Alexandrite Dragon with Gene-Warper Warwolf," both monsters were pulled into a swirling black vortex, "to Xyz summon Daigusto Emeral."
A green winged human clad entirely in emeral green armour orbited by two spheres of light appeared from the void and landed behind Link Spider.
Dash checked the new monster to see '1800 atk'. "You gave up two monster that were stronger for that, why?"
Spike grinned, "to bypass the destruction of Alexandrite and to use its effect! I use one overlay," one of the spheres of light vanished and Emeral pointed to its right, "to special summon Alexandrite Dragon from the grave!"
She watched as the gem encrusted dragon returned to the field. She understood the genious of the play, it may have a slightly lower attack but he won't lose a monster when he ends his turn.
"Battle!" Rainbow snapped back to attention, Spike's voice has become harsh and commanding. "I attack Quickdraw Synchron with Emeral!"
The emerald knight lunged forward, a murderous charge for her monster.
With a panic she activated her face down card, " I use Scrap-Iron Scarcrow! This negates one attack and resets itself on the field."
The scarecrow sprung up from the ground before Quickdraw. Emeral reacted with an enraged shout as it tore through the distraction with its two shields. Pieces of metal flung past Rainbow Dash whom heart hammered in her chest from the sudden turn of events. Up until now she found the projected monsters fun when they were summoned but to see them try to kill her monsters was terrifying but also exciting. For a brief moment, she felt the same thrill when she would perform a dangerous stunt.
"I attack Quickdraw with Alexandrite Dragon!"
Rainbow could only watch helplessly as her monster was torn apart by the merciless dragon.
"Link Spider, take care of her Quillbolt Hedgehog!"
Rainbow slid her monsters to the grave. She still had Junk Warrior, Doppel Tokens, and another Quillbolt but she could not shake the excitement that gripped her. She looked to Spike with greater respect, he faced this pressure constantly in each and every match. The one duel he had that she watched personally was so violent it had torn up the field, a rare instant where the magic in the world had brought the monsters to life and yet he and his opponent still waged their personal war with beaten bodies and smiles on their faces. She couldn't see herself going that far for this game, but he has. She knew she needed to end the match fast, no matter how strong her warrior was, Spike would find a way through it. Dash had no more doubts about that.
The perspective of a duelist, was too similar to her battles against the big bads of her past.
"I set two cards, turn end." Dash looked to Spike, he radiated confidence and excitement, his experssion betrayed the expectation he had for her. In that moment she felt her fears melt away and an eagerness pushed her forward. She was going to win, no matter what.
"Draw!" She shouted, a feeling washed over her that she couldn't comprehend. She only knew she needed to push forward. "From my hand I activate Raigeki! All monster on your side of the field are destroyed!" The clouds gathered overhead and blackened, a loud rumble echoed out.
Spike barked a laugh, "I activate My Body as Shield! I pay fifteen hundred life points to negate and destroy your card!"
The clouds parted as a collosal bolt of lightning landed upon Spike. When the light vanished Dash looked to the young drake with sheer awe, steam rose from his body. His life point desplay changed from '8000 lp' to '6500 lp'. But she gave him no room to rest.
"Junk Warrior, crush Link Spider!"
The warriors engine roared to life as it lunged forward, the heavy fist clenched as it made to end the creatures existance.
"I activate Safe Zone!"
Junk Warrior was upon the monster, its engines roar shook their bone as the warrior brought its fist down on the Spider. The ground cracked and warped under the force of the punch. Chunks of rock and clods of dirt were thrown upwards, one smashed to pieces against Spike's head, a scale fell free.
"Safe Zone protects my monster from destruction and it can't be targeted for card effects!" Spike shouted in defiance
Link Spider crawled out of the hole as Junk moved back to its master.
Rainbow looked to her screen, Spike's life counter read '2800 lp'. She turned her gaze to Link Spider, it had no defence value so it could not be moved to defense mode. One good attack and she wins. "I end my turn."
"Draw!" shouted the drake.
Rainbow gulped, he had three cards in hand. '4700 atk' is a lot to fight but she knew he had something, he never once lost his confidence.
Spike took a breath and stepped forward, "I activate Emeral's effect. I use my last overlay unit to revive my other Alexandrite Dragon."
The mentioned dragon appeared on the field. with a roar.
"I send one Alexandrite Dragon, Daigusto Emerl, and Link Spider to the grave to link summon Gaiasaber, The Video Knight!"
A digitally rendered horse mounted knight appeared from out of the forest. Parts of their body was covered in white and gold armour and the knight carried a large white lance. Yet they looked and felt incomplete.
Rainbow noticed it had '2600 atk' and the trap, Safe Zone, had been destroyed when Link Spider left the field. "Why did you wait until now to to summon it? You could have saved some life points." She asked with a frown.
Spike chuckled as he looked away and rubbed his kneck. "I wanted to get them both on the field but it didn't really work out."
Rainbow was stunned into silence. She giggled then quickly fell into an uncontrollably laughter that the drake couldn't help but join in. Soon they settled down, the tension they felt from the last few turns had eased away.
They both gave each other a nod, a silent agreement that this duel was about having fun.
"I normal summon Ancient Gear Knight." A rusted mash of gears and plate metal in the shape of a man with a lance for a forearm and cog shaped shield appeared on the field. "This monster is a gemini monster so it's treated as a normal monster until I summon it again while it is face up on the field."
Spike tapped his duel disk with a frown. "I overlay my last Alexandrite Dragon and Ancient Gear Knight to summon Daimond Dire Wolf."
The two monsters were pulled into a black vortex and from it a large wolf of pale blue fur, black plated armour with red trim encased its paws. From its back and legs towered large blades of ice.
"I activate Diamond Dire Wolf's effect, by targeting a beast I control and a card on the field I can destroy them both. I target Dire Wolf and Junk Warrior!"
The wolf howled and two large spears of ice formed above the field. Rainbow could only watch helplessly as a spear pierced her warrior.
In an instant she had lost her strongest monster yet she didn't feel anger nor frustration. She was looking forward to the rest of the duel.
"I know you have Scrap-Iron on the field so I won't attack." She turned to Spike who frowned at his disk. "I set a cards and end my turn."
She drew her card wordlessly and smiled at what she got. "I summon Synchron Explorer, when this card is summoned I can special summon a Synchron monster from the grave. I summon Junk Synchron."
The yellow machine tuner popped out of the ground with a thumbs up.
"I tune both of my Synchron monsters to synchro summon another Junk Warrior!" The two monsters vanished into a pillar of light and Junk Warrior returned to the field. Spike felt annoyed as he watched its attack rise to '3900' because of the presence of the two tokens and one Quillbolt. Rainbow grinned as she switched her monsters into attack mode and pointed at Spike's only monster. "Junk Warrior, destroy Video Knight!"
Junk Warrior's engines roared to life as it charged the knight. I activate "Malevolent Catastrophe." Declared Spike. This card destroys all spell and trap cards on the field.
Rainbow's only set card was destroyed as Junk Warrior struck Video Knight, destroyed it and inflicted thirteen hundred points of damage. Spike grit his teeth, Dash's remaining monster had a total of sixteen hundred attack, far more then what was needed. With a sigh he stood open armed as she declared her last attack orders and Spike's life struck zero.
Both duelists sat outside at an open cafe. They enjoyed a cold drink to help them cool down from their duel.
Rainbow looked sideways to Spike as they leaned back. A small grin on his lips since his defeat had perked her intrest. "Feeling good?" She asked.
Spike rose a brow and turned to face her. "Yeah, much. Thanks."
"For kicking your flank?"
Spike barked a good natured laugh. "Yup, exactly." He turned back to the mare to see her look of curiosity. He sighed but yielded to her, "the tournament was tough. Every fight was against duelists who were as strong and determined to win as the last."
Spike streached and Rainbow leaned forward.
"It was a month of battles to win. When I lost it felt like I hadn't tried hard enough. I became obcessed with winning for the sakes of it and started to forget what it was like to have fun."
"Is that why the battle phase was so intense, you needed to win?"
"Sorta, yeah." replied the drake. "But after we laughed I started to feel silly and found myself wanting to duel for fun again. Weird right?"
Rainbow chuckled. "Sounds like you need to relax once in a while. Tell ya what, if you ever feel the pressure getting to you come find me, I'll beat the happy back into you."
Spike laughed freely for a few seconds. They both sat in a peaceful silence for a moment before he spoke up. "Thanks Rainbow, I'll be sure to do that."
"Yup, and next time I'll beat your real deck, not that half hearted test deck." She replied with a toothy grin.
"Heh, I'd like to see you try." Came Spikes reply.
They both glared at each other before they began to laugh again. When they calmed down they sat quietly before Dash left her seat.
"Well, it was fun Spike but I got things to do and clouds to nap on, bye." With that she took to the skies and vanished over a rooftop.
When she was gone his grin fell. 'Fun huh?' He thought to himself. 'I hope I can remember that in my duels to come.' The drake left his chair and began his walk to the crystal castle, a solemn smile on his lips.
Author's Note
This thing was put together as practice in a single sitting with no plan nor spell check. (PS3 is surprisingly limited.)
I am sorry for whatever mess you witnessed.
This duel and oneshot takes place after the events of a story I had planned to write but couldn't settle of some details.
Originally it was suppose to be educational but I suddenly wanted some sort of depth to it and ended up mixing in my story ideas from another story I never did.
Spike was also suppose to win but it wouldn't have been as meaningful.
All this was made up as I was writing it. This story was so not suppose to go the way it did, lol.
(Pokemon and Yugioh. Wonder what else I can mess with.)
