Sunset Shimmer looked out the window of the bus as the passing countryside brought her a sensation of peace. Far removed from endless tall buildings, paved streets, crowded sidewalks, a Starbucks on every block, and so on was a nice change a pace. The endless grazing lands before her and corn fields that stretched out as far as the eye could see reminded the flame haired girl of the world that she had been born in. It was nice to have a friendly reminder of her homeland.
However, there was also a sense of worry that even the memory of Equestria couldn’t undo. Looking away from the window, she saw her fellow Rainbooms doing their best to keep themselves entertained before they made it to their destination. Rarity was looking over one of the many fashion magazines she had brought with her, flipping through them at a blazing page. Fluttershy was looking over her notebook at one of their latest songs to see if it needed any tweaking. Rainbow had her headphones on and was rocking out hard to a song that everyone else could also hear due to the volume being maxed out. Thankfully, everyone was able to tune it out by now. Twilight was typing away at her laptop, occasionally pausing to scratch Spike’s back. Applejack was munching on one of the snack she had brought with her, apples of course. And Pinkie Pie…
“Oooooh, I just can’t wait!” she cried out as she bounced around the bus like a pink rubber ball. “Going back to Camp Everfree for another fundraiser concert! Not only that, but we get to do all that fun camping stuff all over again for the rest of the weekend! This is just so exciting! Can anybody else think of anything more exciting than this? Because I know I sure can’t!” Pinkie appeared next to Twilight, causing the girl to bounce in her seat. “But I bet you’re just a teeny tiny more excited than the rest of us Twilight. Getting to see Timber again soooo soon, hmmm?” This statement got the nerdy girl to blush while also getting the attention of some of the other girls.
“Well, I guess I am,” said Twilight as she looked down, biting her lower lip as she did. “A little anyways.”
“And I bet I know what you’re doing on your laptop darling,” said Rarity as she set down her magazine and turning to face Twilight. A sly smile graced her face. “Another one of your checklists for a marvelous date with your strapping boyfriend perhaps?”
“Should I get more fireflies, just in case?” asked Fluttershy as she thought back to the last date Twilight and Timber shared.
“Actually no,” replied Twilight as she was eager to talk about anything else right now that wasn’t so personal or embarrassing. “Just writing down some ideas for new Genex cards to send to Industrial Illusions. You know, trying to get them some actual support cards that might help them out a bit.”
“But ah thought ya did that last weekend,” said Applejack with a raised eyebrow. “Ya showed be like thirteen different card ideas.”
“I think it was two weeks ago,” commented a thoughtful looking Pinkie Pie. “I’m super sure about it because I was babysitting for the Cakes while video chatting with Twilight.”
“You’re both right,” said Twilight in a dejected tone. “Ever since my duel with Princess Twilight, I’ve been trying to convince Industrial Illusions to update some of their older archetypes or just give support to the ones they never gave before. Especially Genex due to the fact that they have so many monsters but no real support cards to assist them. But they have been tossing out all my ideas because they have nothing to do with the lore of the cards.” Twilight then crossed her arms looking hurt. “At least, that’s what they’re saying. I think the real reason is that they won’t do it because I might be the only person in the world who seriously plays them.”
“Are you sure,” began Sunset, but caught herself. The last thing she really wanted was to dump the worries that had been inside her since the duel between the two Twilight’s. Especially not now when they were all looking forward to a fun weekend. She didn’t want them to spend it worrying silently like she was. However, now that she had spoken, everyone was looking at her right now. Even Rainbow Dash, who had been nudged into the conversation thanks to Applejack. So, with a sigh, she continued. “Are you sure you should be worrying about support cards when there are bigger issues?”
“What, like comics?” asked Rainbow Dash.
Sunset rolled her eyes. “No, like the fact that Twilight’s monsters don’t act like normal holograms!” she said. “Every time Twilight duels with them they seem to have a bit more, I don’t know, personality. It’s like they’re alive.”
“Really?” asked Pinkie. “I always thought that Twilight hacked into her duel disk to add those animations. Or that she somehow got the new patch before any of us. I really like that they added all sorts of new summoning animations, attack animations, dancing animations, and-”
“Pinkie!” shouted Sunset, causing the hyper pink girl to flinch. Sunset let out a sigh before speaking. “I’m sorry for shouting, but this is serious. I already checked for something like that and found nothing. This might be Equestrian magic at work.”
“Really?” deadpanned Rainbow. “Equestrian magic has somehow infected Twilight’s duel disk.”
“No, her cards,” said Sunset before she turned her attention to Twilight. “Remember when I asked you to duel using my duel disk?” Sunset paused to allow Twilight to confirm this with a nod. “Well they acted the exact same way they did when you play with yours. Meaning that the magic has to be in your cards somehow and its giving them life.”
“Sunset, sugarcube, they aint nothing more than holograms,” said Applejack firmly yet kindly. “Even if they are alive somehow, they can’t be doing nothing serious ta any of us. An aint ya the one telling all of us to embrace the magic?”
“But that’s magic controlled by us,” stated Sunset who couldn’t believe that she had to explain this to them. Couldn’t they understand the dangers involved? Apparently not since they all looked at her blankly. So after giving an exacerbated sigh she continued. “Magic that gives life to the lifeless is very difficult and considered a dark art. This is because no one knows how they will act or do. They could become violent and start attacking people-”
“Ah, Sunset,” interrupted Pinkie. “You do remember that they are holograms, right? They can’t really hurt us if we don’t want them to.”
“But what if that doesn’t work?” demanded Sunset while she slammed her hand onto the seat in frustration. “What if the magic that is slowly bringing them to life soon allows them to gain physical bodies? Who knows how they’ll react. They could become confused and violent, attacking people at random! Also, we have no idea where this magic came from or if Twilight’s the only one who has it! What if there are more people out there whose cards are acting like Twilight’s or something else? What if other people go looking for these enchanted cards? What if the Dazzlings find out about this new magic and decide to go hunting for it while we’re away?”
-x-
At that very moment the door opened up, revealing Adagio in all her terrifying glory. “Alright Rainbooms! It’s time for you to suffer for everything you’ve done…to…us?” As Aria walked into the room with her head down, focused on her smart phone, Adagio looked around the empty music room. “Where are they?!? I thought they had practice here every day!”
“I told you that school is closed on Saturdays,” grumbled Aria. “While we wasted time sneaking in here, they’re probably out doing their friendship crap. That or they have a music gig. Told you we should have stayed in bed. That or actually go to work.”
Adagio slapped herself on the forehead loudly before slowly lowering it across her face. As soon as her hand left her face she spun around to glare at the only other Siren in the room. “And I told you that we need to get our hands on those geodes that they have. You’ve heard the rumors about what happened at Camp Everfree and what those idiots can do now. I bet if we could get just one of them we might be able to restore our lost powers.”
Aria looked up from her smart phone with a deadpan expression. “Ok, so your big plan was to kick down the door and loudly announce yourself to anyone who happened to be in here at the time? Why didn’t we just find their homes and steal the geodes while their asleep or something like that?”
“Because I want them to know I’m coming so they’ll be in a state of constant fear and terror,” growled Adagio. “Besides, they’d never expect something like this.”
Aria sighed as she looked down at her smartphone. “I feel like ever since we kicked Sonata out of the house you’ve been acting dumber to make up for her. Like you miss that half wit or something.”
Adagio gritted her teeth as her eyes seemed to glow red with rage. “I do not miss that backstabbing blunderhead,” she fumed with rage. “Now, help me search this room. Maybe we’ll get lucky and those idiots left one of their geodes in here. Or maybe we’ll find out what their plans are for the weekend.” As she turned around to start looking, Adagio heard her phone ringing. Annoyed, she pulled it out and saw that the caller was none other than the blue skinned Siren she had just been talking about. Hoping that Sonata was calling to beg for forgiveness or something, Adagio accepted the call with the intent of yelling at her some more. “What do you want?”
“Hey Adagio,” came Sonata’s cheerful voice. “I was just wondering if you and Aria were coming in today. Your shifts started about an hour ago. If you two are just running late again then-”
“We have better things to do then wasting our time at that crappy taco dump,” yelled Adagio. “Like trying to restore our lost powers so that everyone here will love us!”
“…so you’re not coming into work,” said Sonata, her voice sounding dejected.
“Very good Sonata,” mocked Adagio with a grin. “You managed to figure that out all by yourself. I’ll be sure to give you a gold star.”
“I’m sorry Adagio, but it looks like now I’ll have to fire you and Aria,” replied Sonata bluntly, causing Adagio’s eyes to widen. The words seemed to echo in Adagio’s head while reality seemed to break all around her. Had the Siren heard right? That the idiot on the other line had the power to fire her? No, it had to be some sort of mistake. A bluff or…or something! There was no way that moron was in any way above her!
“Y-You idiot, you can’t fire ME!” screamed Adagio into the phone.
There was a pause for a minute, making Adagio think that Sonata was going to cry or apologize for this lame joke. However, neither of those things happened. “Geez Adagio, there no need to yell into the phone and hurt my ear,” complained Sonata. “Also, I actually can fire you. I just got the promotion to day manager this morning and my training just started! Isn’t this great!”
“But…But,” stammered Adagio as her brain tried to process this information.
“Oh, right,” she heard Sonata say, probably talking to someone else on the other side. “Look, I’ll need you and Aria to turn in your uniforms by the end of the week if you want your last paycheck. I’ll also be sending a questionnaire to your place to ask about your experience working at Taco Loco. You don’t have to do it, but any feedback we can get to help improve is, ah, welcome. Well, gotta go!” And with that, Sonata hung up the phone as Adagio stood there with her mouth hanging open.
-x-
Back on the bus, Applejack moved over to Sunset and sat next to her. “Sugarcube, there ain't no use in worrying about a bucket load of what-if’s,” she said while placing a hand on Sunset’s shoulder. “The Sirens try anything an we’ll make’em sorry. As for Twi’s deck, maybe ya might wanna give it a tad more time before ya start assuming something bad might happen. Twi sure doesn’t think something’s wrong, right sugarcube?”
“Of course not,” replied Twilight as Sunset turned to face her. “Ever since I dueled against Princess Twilight, I’ve felt closer to my deck. Sometimes it even feels like their supporting me, encouraging me to continue.” She then looked around the bus. “I just wish all of you could experience this as well. Then maybe Sunset would be less worried.”
“That would be so amazing,” exclaimed Pinkie as her eye lit up with joy. At lightning speeds she pulled out her deck, grinning at it. “Just imagine all the adventures we could have! Me and my deck, solving the greatest mysteries of the City of Canterlot. Then when we’re done we can be chilling out in the school yard and never working too hard.”
“Ah, I don’t know about that,” said Fluttershy as she gave Pinkie a weary look before pulling out her own deck. “But I do like the idea of having more people supporting me. It would be like having friends that you never had to say goodbye to because it’s time to come home or that a place doesn’t allow you to bring in your cute little friends.”
“I think I get enough support from my folks,” said Rainbow as she too pulled out her deck. “But if Sunset is right and other people have magically infused decks then maybe we’ll have to duel them like in those animes and manga! Another awesome adventure for the Rainbooms!”
“But aren’t any of you worried about this?” demanded Sunset as she looked around.
“Darling, it’s not like we’ve never had to deal with this sort of situation,” replied Rarity as she gave Sunset a look that said ‘please calm down’. “It’s not like we don’t share some of your concerns because, frankly, they’re not unfounded fears given everything we’ve been through. But we have managed to deal with all of our past threats by working together and supporting each other. So that’s just what we’re going to keep doing.”
Sunset scratched the back of her head. While this was in no way ideal for her, she had to concede that Rarity had a point. All they could do right now is watch the situation and then try to handle things if it got out of control. Plus, as Sunset looked over at Twilight, her purple haired friend was handling this very well. It wasn’t like it was back in Camp Everfree with Twilight freaking out and becoming paranoid about the magic over taking her. Perhaps she was just worried over nothing.
So, with that out of the way for now, Sunset turned the rest of her body to face Twilight. “So then, what kind of cards are you working on?” she asked hoping to move the conversation in a more pleasant direction. For a moment, Twilight blinked at her before grinning wildly.
“Well, the play style for Genex Allies in general is that they like to stay on the offensive while manipulating attributes in order to give them various advantages,” she said as she looked at her laptop. “So, for starters, I thought a field spell might be a good start. The idea I came up with is fairly simple: whenever you change the attribute of a monster on your side of the field draw one card. If you change the attribute of one of your opponent’s monsters then you can draw two cards. It’s a fairly decent effect that will help give me a plus whenever I use Chemistrer or Changer. Then there’s a continuous spell card that will allow me to change the attribute of one card on the field per turn. A card like this will help with my synchro summons because many of them need a specific attribute and without them they might as well be normal monsters. I also thought up this quick play spell card that allows me to tribute one Genex monster on the field in order to summon tokens equal to half of that monsters level. These Genex Tokens will machines and will count as all attributes. Finally, there is a trap card I thought of that will protect all Genex monsters on the field from my opponent's card effects for the remainder of the turn.”
Sunset smiled. “Well, maybe someday Industrial Illusions will go back to Genex. Actually I wish they’d go back and update a bunch of their older archetypes.” Her eyes then narrowed as she spun around to sit back down, arms folding as they did. “Or, at the very least, take Lavalval Chain off the banlist or bring Rekindling back to semi-limited. Stupid jerks.”
“Hey now,” said Applejack with a brief chuckle. “Ya just need ta-”
“Ah, girls,” said Pinkie, with a strange hint of fear in her voice that got everyone’s attention. Very slowly, Pinkie stood up in her seat and pointed ahead in the direction the bus was heading. As she did this there was an unmistakable look of shock and horror that was rarely ever seen in her. All of the Rainbooms looked ahead to see what had shaken up their pink friend…only to let out a collective gasp.
Ahead, they could see the sign for Camp Everfree getting closer by the moment. But they could also see the construction equipment as well. Tall wrecking balls were raised above the tree canopy hung motionless. Bulldozers, cement mixers, and all sorts of machinery began to line the road as well as some machinery that none of the girls recognized. There were a few people there as well, putting up a large sign next to the Camp Everfree entrance. It read: Future home to Fun-Fun Land and the World’s Largest Parking Lot!
“What the,” began Rainbow Dash.
“How is this possible?” demanded Twilight as she closed her laptop and began to check her smartphone. “I was texting with Timber just last night. He would have told me if there was anything wrong with the camp!” Her eyes then widened. “No signal?” One by one, the rest of the Rainbooms pulled out their own smartphones only to find that they too were without any signal.
“Something is really wrong here,” commented Sunset as she stared at the zero signal sign. Last time they were all at camp, the signal strength wasn’t the greatest but it was still there. Add in the fact that a bunch of people looked like they were preparing to tear down everything only made things worse.
Things only got worse as they entered the camp ground. All of the tents that they had stayed in had already been demolished with a mobile office put up in its place. The sundial that Principal Celestia’s class had made as the camp gift now lay in ruins as was the gazebo. Even the dock had been destroyed (again) with its wreckage floating in the water. The other buildings were, thankfully, still standing. Yet somebody had decided to put a large target on them as if it were a game. But, worst of all, was what they all saw laying in the middle of the campground. Or rather who. Timber and his sister, Gloriosa Daisy, were just laid there as the few workers within the camp seemed to ignore them. Even from where they were, all of the girls could see the massive bruises and blood they were both sporting as well as the duel disks they both wore.
Before the bus fully stopped, Twilight ran out followed by the rest. As they ran towards the fallen camp counselors Sunset noticed something odd. None of the construction crew tried to stop them nor told them that this place was off limits. Instead, they took one look at the girls before grumbling and heading off in different directions as if to clear the area.
“Timber!” shouted Twilight as she got on her knees next to her fallen boyfriend. Now that they were all closer, Sunset could see slash marks on the boy’s chest and arms. Almost as if he had been attacked by a rather large animal. Gloriosa had similar marks across her stomach as well as scorch marks.
As Twilight lifted Timber’s head, the boy managed to open his eyes before looking at the nerdy girl weakly. “Hey, Twilight,” he whispered in a strained voice.
“What happened here?” asked Sunset quickly.
“They just…showed up,” whispered Timber. “Tried calling…the police but the…phone lines were done. No signal. Guys in charge…challenged us to a duel. Don’t…remember finishing.”
“Well don’t worry Timber,” said Rainbow loudly as she pounded a fist in her palm. “We’re going to get the jerks you did this to you.”
“HAHA,” came a loud voice behind them. “I’d love to see you try. My lawyers will toss you to the curb before you knew what happened.” Everyone turned to see a short, blue skinned man with a black receding hairline standing there looking smug in his pinstripe suit. Behind him was a thug that looked more like a 1920’s gangster than anything else.
“I’m guessing you’re the ruffian behind all this?” asked Rarity with a scowl.
The short man grinned. “Indeed I am little lady,” he said while puffing out his chest. “Name’s Well-To-Do and I’m here to help this land achieve its full potential. To help progress move along while providing jobs to so many people in need.”
“By turning it into a theme park?” asked Applejack as she raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t forget largest parking lot on the planet,” laughed Well-To-Do. “I really have to thank my new partner for showing me this here land. Never would have come across it. Only problem I’ve had were those two hillbillies standing in the way of putting food on the tables of my workers. Well that just wouldn’t do. Said a whole lot about this being family property and getting mad at me for some reason.”
“Ah, that’s because this is their land,” said Pinkie Pie as she looked at the short man in confusion. “You can’t just take whatever you want.”
This caused Well-To-Do to throw his head back laughing. “Oh honey, that’s a good one,” he chuckled before pointing at the fallen siblings. “See, those two said something along those lines. So me and my partner challenged them to a duel promising to leave if they won.” He then gave a wicked grin. “A shame that they passed out before we got to finish, would have loved to see them cowering a bit more to the power of progress. But I guess it doesn’t matter in the end. We won so the land is mine. Now we can clear out all these dump trees and get rid of all the stupid animals.”
“YOU TAKE THAT BACK!” screamed a red faced, demon eyed Fluttershy.
“Oh, don’t worry sugarcube,” said Applejack as she cracked her chuckles. “Because we’ll be kicking these here no good varmints out of dodge before they have the chance ta destroy one little birds nest. Rainbow, ya mind super speeding Timber and Gloriosa ta the hospital before getting the police here all slicked split?”
“Sure thing!” replied Rainbow as both hers and Applejack’s geodes began to glow. However, the glowing light they gave began to float away from the geodes causing Rainbow to trip as she tried to use her super speed. As for Applejack, she didn’t feel so much as a drop of the power she felt when she used her geodes power. All of the girls watched in horror, following the trail left by their magic as a woman walked towards them while holding a very familiar device.
“We’ll will have none of that ladies,” said Cinch as the magic flew into a perfect replica of the device Twilight had made back at the Friendship Games. The same device that had stolen everyone’s magic and had turned her into Midnight Sparkle.
“Ms. Cinch, what are you doing here?” demanded Twilight. “And how did you get your hands on that? I thought it was destroyed!”
“I happen to be Well-To-Do’s new partner,” replied Cinch as she walked over to man, standing beside him with her arms behind her back. “After all, I needed a new line of work after I was forced out of Crystal Prep. No thanks to you Ms. Sparkle and the rest of your magical friends. As for the device, I managed to copy its blueprints before I left. It seemed a shame to let something with so much potential go to waste like its creator has.”
As Twilight gritted her teeth, Sunset moved behind her friend while placing a hand on the nerdy girl’s shoulder. Sunset eyed the pair, thinking that this had to be some overly large revenge scheme like you’d see on TV or in the movies set up by Cinch. Well-To-Do had said it himself, that he was only here because Cinch pointed it out to him. A place that Cinch was sure to hate. It was a place that the student of CHS had done a lot to keep open. It was the place where Twilight’s boyfriend called home. It was also a place that might have more Equestrian magic. If that last part was true, it would make everything all the sweeter for Cinch. While they were tearing this place up, Cinch could look for more magic while Well-To-Do made a profit…somehow. Honestly, Sunset was a little confused on that part since a person shouldn’t legally be able to pull off something like this without some form of penalty. Also, wouldn’t there be a whole lot of people who would be up in arms over destroying an entire forest like this, blasting it on social medias to raise support?
Was his Equestrian counterpart like this as well?
Sunset averted her eyes for a moment to look at the camp siblings still on the ground. As she eyed their injuries, Sunset began to wonder if Cinch was the one who had really done this. She had Twilight’s device and there was no way of knowing if she had gathered together more magic from other locations before this encounter. Maybe some stray magic here or there had given her the power to do this.
“I won’t let you get away with this,” growled Twilight.
“Neither will I,” said Sunset as she stood up. She then pointed a finger at the pair. “Since Timber and Gloriosa were unable to finish their duel with you, I’ll challenge you in their place. Loser leaves Camp Everfree for good!”
Well-To-Do through his head back to laugh. “Oh that’s rich dolly,” he chuckled. “The land is already mine at this point. Why would I or my partner do-”
“Very well,” interrupted Cinch as she smirked. “But only on the condition that this be made a tag team duel. Also, your partner in this little duel to save your beloved camp will be Twilight Sparkle. Those are our terms.”
At this, Sunset bit her lower lip while glancing over at Twilight. She had expected them to make this a tag team duel, however she had hoped that Twilight wouldn’t be a part of this. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust her friend or the upgrades she had done to her deck. It was just that Sunset didn’t know if they were enough to make a difference when the stakes were so high.
“I accept,” said Twilight as she stood up, shocking everybody. Calmly she adjusted her glasses while narrowing her eyes which were focused on a smirking Cinch. Twilight opened her mouth to say more, but was interrupted as all of her friends gathered around her looking shocked.
“Twilight, darling, please take a moment and think,” said Rarity. “That horrible woman is trying to bait you, rile you up so you will feel worse if you lose. Don’t give her that satisfaction!”
“I’ll take your place,” growled Fluttershy. “Nobody hurts my animal friends and gets away with it!”
“I just want to deck that magic stealing creep,” said Rainbow Dash before realizing she was standing in the presence of two girls who also stole magic at one point in their lives. “Ah, present company excluded.”
“Girls,” said Twilight. “I have to do this. You all heard what Cinch said, she wants me in this duel whether I want to or not. If I don’t, then there is no way we can save Camp Everfree.”
“But she’s up to something,” argued Sunset. “She’s probably planned all this out so there’s no way we can win.”
“Also I don’t think that they’ll keep their word,” added Pinkie as she looked over at Well-To-Do. “A guy who thinks he can take land just because doesn’t seem like the most trustworthy person to me.”
“I know,” agreed Twilight. “That’s why I think that Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy should make a break for it into town while everyone here is distracted by the duel.” Rainbow opened her mouth to say something, but Twilight cut her off. “I know that your super speed is gone Rainbow and it’s a long way to town. So we’ll stretch out the duel as long as we can. Also, there’s a chance that Fluttershy’s magic will come in handy. Maybe she can talk to the animals to find a quicker route.”
“I guess that does sound like a good plan,” said Fluttershy before glaring at Well-To-Do. “But I’d like it a lot better if I was the one dueling.”
Meanwhile, as the girls were talking with each other, Well-To-Do had lost much of his humor as he glared at Cinch. “Hey now,” he growled. “We’ve already gotten the camp. Don’t go flying off on your own over some stupid grudge.”
“In case you have forgotten, this was part of the agreement we had,” replied Cinch as she adjusted her glasses. “I not only showed you this place but am also sharing with you the magic I have collected. The only thing I want in return is to see Twilight Sparkle crushed in every conceivable way. Besides, there’s no real risk in this duel. I was the Principal at Crystal Prep and I knew all of my student’s decks. Twilight Sparkle’s was easily the worst there. No matter how good Sunset Shimmer is her partner will be the weak link we can exploit.”
“And what if she’s improved or gotten a new deck?” demanded Well-To-Do. “What if they manage to win?”
“As unlikely as any of those possibilities are, I’m sure your men will be able to handle a bunch of girls,” said Cinch as she pulled out the device to look at it longingly. “After all, as long as I have this I can steal their magic whenever they try to use it. Even if they try to fight back, they’ll just make me stronger.”
“Alright,” said Sunset loudly, gaining the villains attention. “We’ll duel.”
Author's Note
For those wonder who Well-To-Do is, just watch this
Next chapter will be the duel
It was several minutes later and the duelists were set. Sunset and Twilight stood on one side of the open field with the mess hall besides them and the camp siblings behind them. Both had on their duel disks which were currently shuffling their decks. On the other side stood Well-To-Do as well as Cinch, both wearing their clearly modified duel disks. It was hard to miss Twilight’s magic detecting/stealing device attached to Cinch’s duel disk as well as the cables connecting it to her teammates. Finally, off to the side, were the rest of the girls from Canterlot High and Granny Smith. All of them waited with baited breath for the duel to begin.
“Connecting,” said a female mechanical voice. “Tag Team settings accepted. Opponents found. Displaying order now.” In the middle of the field appear portraits of all those participating in the duel with a number in each ones upper right hand corner to indicate the order. Twilight had a one, Cinch had two, Sunset was number three, and Well-To-Do had four.
“Looks like I’m going first,” whispered Twilight, more to herself than anyone else as all four of them drew their opening hands. Once the cards were in her hands, the portraits vanished only to be replaced by smaller windows in front of each of them to quickly go over the rules of how a Tag Team duel would work. While Sunset already knew the rules fairly well, she still glossed over them just to make sure. Each team would have 16000 life points and whichever team lost all their life points first lost the duel. Each duelist was forbidden from attacking with their teammates monsters or looking at their teammates hands. If your teammate gives permission, you are allowed to tribute their monsters for an advanced, special summoning, or monster effects. Each person had their own section of the field and, if it were empty, that meant you could be attacked directly. If something like that were to happen, and your teammate had a monster, then they have to option to intercept the attack.
“Duel now commencing,” announced the female voice.
“Let’s duel,” said all four of them at once, signaling that they were all ready.
“I draw,” said Twilight as she drew her first card. Sunset watched on as Twilight looked at the six cards in her hand, hoping Twilight got a really good opening hand. Judging by the calm look she had, it was possible that she did. “First up, I’ll summon Genex Ally Powercell in attack mode!” As Twilight placed the card on her duel disk, a beam of pixels shot down from the sky in front of her. Before hitting the ground it seemed to ‘flip’ revealing Powercell as it landed on the ground. This level 4 monster with 1700 attack points was a mostly yellow android with bits of red and a blue visor where its eyes should have been. On both of its arms were oversized spark plugs that crackled with black electricity. The monster looked around the field… before looking like it was having a panic attack and running to hide behind Twilight. Everyone watched as it seemed to hold onto Twilight’s hips while its entire body shook.
Sunset watched as Twilight smiled and gently touched his hand. “There now,” she said in a manner that closely resembled Fluttershy. “It’ll be ok. There’s nothing to be afraid of.” Twilight’s monster seemed to increase its grip on Twilight while shaking its head.”
“How utterly pathetic Twilight Sparkle,” sneered Cinch, gaining the two’s attention. “Not only are you still using those outdated scraps of paper, but to think you would stoop so low as to manipulate your duel disk like this.” She then sighed. “Well, I suppose you could throw off lesser duelist with such a cheap trick. But it only shows how far you have fallen.” At this, Powercell released Twilight and moved in front of her, holding out his arms as if to shield her even though they were still shaking.
“Don’t worry Powercell,” said Twilight as she separated two cards from her hand. “We’ll show them how powerful you and the rest of the Genex line can really be! I’ll set two face downs and end my turn.”
“I seriously doubt that,” commented Cinch as she drew her card. She glanced over her hand and grinned. “While I may no longer be an educator, I’ll happily give you a lesson in dueling. So pay attention. First, since you have two spell/traps cards on the field, I can special summon Escher the Frost Vassal from my hand.” In front of Cinch appeared a figure decked in blue and white armor, sitting crossed legged while staring at Powercell. “But he won’t be here for long because I’ll tribute him to bring out something far better: Zaborg the Thunder Monarch!” Escher vanished from the field and was replaced with a much larger figure in silver armor who had lightning moving between his open hands. It’s attack points were 2400. “Now, since he was tribute summoned, I can destroy one card on the field. I believe that even your friends with their lower tier education will have enough intellect to figure out who’s being destroyed. Zaborg, eliminate Powercell from my sight!” Zaborg raised both his hands towards the sky while thunder could be heard in the distance. As Powercell took a shaky step backwards, a massive bolt of lightning descended upon Zaborg who proceeded to catch it and mold it into a ball.
“Not so fast!” yelled Twilight as she pressed a button on her duel disk. “I activate the counter trap: Dark Illusion! It activates when you target one of my dark monsters with a spell, trap, or monster effect. Not only do I get to negate the effect, but destroy the card as well!” Cinch gritted her teeth as ribbons etched with runes wrapped around Powercell right as her monster’s effect was launched. When the ball of lightning hit Powercell it bounced off of him and was flung back destroying Zaborg.
“Oh yeah!” shouted Rainbow Dash as she pumped her fist in the air. “Not looking so smart right now, are you Cinch?”
“A lucky move, nothing more,” growled Cinch. “I’ll place one card face down and end my turn.”
“Then I’ll draw,” said Sunset as she drew her card. “I’m just going to place one card in defense mode and that will be it.”
“Finally!” cried Well-To-Do as he drew his card. “I’ll start by summoning my Jumbo Drill in attack mode.” In front of him appeared a blue machine that had two arms which ended in three drills on each. Its attack points were 1800. “Ah, this card takes me back to the day when I brought an entire drill team to a wildlife preserve a few years back.”
“THAT WAS YOU?!!” screamed an enraged Fluttershy. “Do you know how many animals were hurt because of that?”
Well-To-Do shrugged. “So some stupid animals got hurt?” he said. “Who cares? They were standing in the way of progress! Just like these two girls are doing right now. So, Jumbo Drill, show them what we do to morons who stand in the way of progress and destroy that face down monster!” The drills on Jumbo Drill began to spin rapidly as the machine moved on its tracks towards Sunset’s face down card. Once it was close enough, both arms descended downwards breaking the card in two and revealing a small creature made of stone.
Sunset smirked. “The card you just destroyed was my Laval Miller,” she announced. “When it’s destroyed in battle, I can send two of my Laval monsters to the graveyard.” She then pulled her deck out of its slot and began to look through it. “First I’ll send my Laval Lakeside Lady to the grave followed by my Laval Handmaiden. Once Handmaiden is sent to the graveyard, and there is at least one other Laval monster in there with a different name, I can send another Laval monster to the grave as well. So I’ll send my second Laval Handmaiden to the grave followed by activating her effect to send my third! Finally, I’ll activate my third Handmaiden’s ability to send my Laval Forest Sprite to the grave.”
As Sunset sent her card to the grave and placed her deck back in its place to get auto-shuffled, Well-To-Do through back his head to laugh. “Fat lot of good that will do you. Now here are some real monster effects for you! My Jumbo Drill does piercing damage and then goes into defense mode after it battles!” Sunset grunted as hers and Twilight’s life points dropped to 14600. “Now I’ll finish my turn by placing a face down card.”
“Ok then,” said Twilight as she drew a card. “First I’ll summon my Genex Ally Bellyflame in attack position!” Another pixel beam shot down to the ground next to Powercell, ‘flipping’ to reveal Twilight’s next level four monster. This red android had 1700 attack points and was mostly red. Lacking any hands it instead had flamethrowers at the end of its arms with similar ones on its shoulders. In the middle of its rounded chest was a large red light which glowed brightly. When it appeared on the field, Bellyflame spun around while flames shot out of all its flamethrowers to give it a double ring appearance. “Now that I have him on the field, Powercell can show off his ability. See, he’s a very generous machine who loves to help out other monsters as long as they are compatible. Meaning dark attribute. So as long as he’s on the field, Powercell will give them 500 additional attack points!” At this point, electricity became visible around Powercell’s plugs while Bellyflame’s attack points rose to 2200.
“Is that all you got?” demanded Well-To-Do with a laugh. “Powering up one stupid monster?”
“Who said I’m only powering up my Bellyflame?” asked Twilight with a grin as she held out a card from her hand. “Now I’ll play my newest card: Ties of the Brethren! With this I can pay 2000 life points in order to select one monster on my field and then I get to special summon two more monsters that have matching type, level, and attributes from my deck so long as they have different names. So I’ll target my Powercell and summon my Genex Ally Duradark as well as my Genex Ally Crusher!”
As she said this, her duel disk ejected two cards out from her main deck while her side’s life points dropped to 12600. Then, after she pulled them out, she slapped them both onto her duel to bring them both out. Crusher appeared first in defense position, a humanoid looking machine with dirty yellow heavy duty plating that only partially concealed a system of gears inside of it. To make it look even more run down, one of its eyes was red while the other was replaced with an old style scope. What it lacked in appearance, it more than made up for that with its 2000 defense points. Duradark appear next, looking far more sophisticated. This android was mostly black with blue circuitry glowing all over its body and a red visor with computer code running across it. It appeared on the field with its arms crossed as if to give itself a look of utter confidence. Its attack points were 1800, but thanks to Powercell they rose to 2300.
“Somewhat impressive,” commented Cinch dryly as she looked at the monsters before her. “You managed to get four of your best non-tuner main deck monsters on the field. However, you know that cards affect not only prevents you from special summoning for the rest of this turn but also keeps you from attacking.”
“I know,” replied Twilight calmly. “So before I end my turn I’ll play another new card: Heavy Metal Raider!” When Twilight inserted this card into the field spell card slot, the entire area they were playing in changed. It became a bit darker as dozens of older machines from the games past began to surround everyone playing. There were monsters like Slot Machine stomping its giant metal feet on the ground, Pendulum Machine swinging its blade near Cinch’s head, and Launcher Spider pacing around the outside of the field on its many legs.
As Sunset took all this in, she noticed that Rainbow and Fluttershy were backing away from the duel. This most likely meant that they were going off to get help like Twilight suggested. To be honest, this was probably the best time to do it since the field was now more cluttered than ever thanks to the field spell and making it harder to notice if anyone had left.
“As you end your turn, I’ll play a real spell card,” said an unimpressed Cinch. “Reveal face down: Fires of Doomsday!” Black flames erupted in front of Cinch creating two small creatures that looked like they were made of black smoke, a single eye on each of them. “This cards creatures two Doomsday tokens which I can only use for the tribute of a dark attribute monster.
“Now I draw,” continued Cinch as she drew a card. She looked at it and smirked before her hateful gaze became fixated on Twilight. “So much work put into a somewhat decent move only to receive a failing grade. I’ll activate the spell card Raigeki which I’ll use to destroy all of those substandard monsters on Twilight’s side of the field!”
“Not if I can help it!” shouted Twilight as she activated her own face down. “I activate the trap known as Magic Drain! This card negates the activation of your spell card and destroys it.” As she said this a ghostly vampire like spirit came out from her trap card towards Cinch. “However, you do have a chance at negating my trap. All you have to do is give up another spell card in its place.”
As she watched this, Sunset couldn’t help but that this was a very risky choice for Twilight to make. It relied too much on luck for her opponent not to have a spell card in her hand. If she did, then she would have to decide if tossing away another card in her hand was worth it or not. Most likely, this was one of Twilight’s older cards that she had yet to replace with something better. For Sunset, personally she would have gladly given up one spell card just to clear the enemy’s field.
“I’ll let it go through,” said Cinch as the vampire ghost bit into her spell card and destroying it. “As much as I would love to see your face when all of those cards you care so much about are destroyed in one blow, I think I’ll savor the feel of destroying them one at a time instead. That and I couldn’t possibly give up this continuous spell card: March of the Monarchs! With this card in play my tributed monsters cannot be targeted or destroyed by card effects! So with that protection in play I can now remove one level five or higher monster in my graveyard to special summon my Lucius the Shadow Vassal!” As Cinch removed her Zaborg from the graveyard, a small dark hooded creature with red eyes appeared on her side of the field next to her tokens. One of its hands was outstretched with a black sphere hovering above it.
“When you remove a monster from your graveyard, my Bellyflame’s effect activates giving him two Genex counters,” said Twilight as a number two appeared in red light in its chest. “For each Genex counter on this card he gains 100 attack points!”
Cinch laughed. “A few extra attack points will be meaningless as you will soon find out Miss Sparkle. I tribute my two tokens as well as my Lucius in order to summon The Wicked Dreadroot!”
-x-
Meanwhile, in the forest, Rainbow Dash was running as fast as she could while mentally beating herself over the head. Here she was, running away to get help, while her friends were dueling in order to buy them time. The worst of it was that nasty bitch Cinch. It was easy to see that she hated Twilight and used every chance she got to demean her purple friend. While Twilight was handling it well for now, who knew how long she could keep that up? How much longer until Cinch got under her skin and she began to make poor moves?
Worst of all was that fact that Cinch had stolen her magic. Had it not been for that, she would already have either taken down all of the goons at the camp or been in town getting help at this very moment. Instead, Cinch was using it for…something. Something that would help her get what she wanted. It burned Rainbow up so much that her powers were being used to hurt her friends that she nearly ran head first into a tree. Thankfully she was able to dodge it at the last minute.
“Rainbow Dash, we need to hurry,” said Fluttershy as she began to match Rainbow in speed. Seeing this caused Rainbow to blink in confusion. Had she been so focused on her thoughts that she was slowing down? Well that just wouldn’t do.
“Don’t worry about me,” shouted Rainbow as she picked up the pace. “You should be worrying about yourself. It’s a very long way to town and I don’t think that you’ll be able to keep up at this pace.”
“I’ll be fine,” commented Fluttershy. “I can handle some discomfort if it means taking down that meanie Well-To-Do for everything he’s done.”
Rainbow let out a laugh at this. She wasn’t surprised Fluttershy was still angry at Well-To-Do and that anger was fueling her right now. Once she finished laughing, the rainbow haired girl opened her mouth to tell her friend that discomfit would be the least of her worries right now but paused. Her eyes opened wide as she and Fluttershy stopped in their track as a dark, foreboding aura filled the area. What made it all the worse was what was mixed in with it. Both girls could feel the Equestrian magic all around them, but it was as if someone had twisted it into something wicked.
-x-
Cinch stood tall and proud as all of her monsters were engulfed in shadows that began to crawl behind her. Quickly, the shadows began to grow while swirling around to create a towering twister of terror. As it spun around, the wind picked up to the point where Sunset was having a hard time keeping her ground as was Twilight. Both girls had their arms raised to protect themselves from this monster that was being summon, never noticing Cinch as she pressed a button on the magic stealing device. Then, with a savage roar, the twister exploded to reveal the upper torso of a giant green winged demon that cast a shadow on all of them. Its attack points were 4000.
As it looked down upon them with a grin, Twilight noticed all of her monsters were getting weaker. They slumped over, some holding each other for support as their attack and defense points were cut in half. Crusher’s defense became 1000 while Powercell’s attack became 850. Bellyflame, who thanks to his counters and Powercell’s effect was at 2400, now became 1200. Lastly, Duradark’s attack dropped to 1150. The same thing happened to Well-To-Do’s drill whose attack became 900 as well.
“Now then, I believe even those in the back row can figure out my monsters special ability,” said Cinch as she eyed Twilight’s side of the field. “But just to clarify, I’ll spell it out: all monsters other than him lose half of both their attack and defense points! Now time to attack. Dreadroot, destroy Powercell with Dreaded Cleaver!” As Powercell fell onto its rear while holding up a trembling hand for mercy, The Wicked Dreadroot raised one of its massive arms to swing down at the smaller robot. Sunset saw Cinch watching in glee as the fiend’s claw slashed through the air while sending out red blades of energy that flew towards Powercell. The attack hit causing the Genex monster to go flying backwards into Twilight who tried to catch it. She succeeded, however instead of having Powercell pass through her or something she was knocked down as well. But there was more.
“Twilight!” screamed Sunset and her friends as Twilight lay there, staring up at the sky. It was like she was in shock or something. Sunset noted that there were now slash marks on her shoulders that were bleeding enough to leave large stains. Sunset wanted to run over to her, to make sure she was ok. But fear kept her feet from moving. All she could do was stand there with her eyes fixed on her friend.
Then, everyone turned to look at Cinch as she began to chuckle while their life points dropped to 11450. “Oh my, looks like she might be down for the count. A pity, I thought that she might actually last longer.”
“What did you do to her?” demanded Rarity from the sidelines.
“Oh, just showing her the fruits of the labor she abandoned for friendship,” replied Cinch with a smirk while gesturing to the magic stealing device. “I discovered that when you hook one of these things up to a duel disk, the damage becomes real. Now I can cause her as much pain as she inflicted upon me.”
“Grrr! SHUT UP YOU BIG JERK!” yelled Pinkie. She then pointed at Cinch. “Twilight did nothing to you. You were the one who forced her to enter the Friendship Games and you’re the one who told her to use the magic she accidently collected.”
“Pinkie’s right!” shouted Sunset. “After everything you did, getting kicked out of Crystal Prep was the least you deserved!”
“You know nothing,” remarked Cinch coldly as she looked at Sunset. “I dedicated most of my life towards that school. Back when I started my first day there, it was just like any other run down and overcrowded school. As the years went by I helped raise the standards and pushed our students to succeeding until it became one of the best schools in the country. That school and its reputation were to be MY legacy! I was supposed to be the greatest Principle the school had ever seen! But it was all destroyed because of ‘friendship’ and ‘magic’. Had there been no magic at Canterlot High, things would have played out differently. Had Twilight not brought this device, I would have still be Principal! Now you will all pay for what you’ve done to me and I will use the very same things that ruined me to destroy YOU!”
“Now that’s a load of hogwash if ever ah heard it,” remarked Applejack. “Ya just…” Applejack words trailed off as she stared in the direction where Twilight lay. Sunset and everyone quickly turned their heads to see that all of Twilight monsters had surrounded her. Genex Ally Crusher was kneeling in front of her in a way that looked like he was prepared to take any blow that came in her direction. Powercell and Duradark had their arms behind her back as they helped her get to her feet. As for Bellyflame, it looked like he was doing his best to see if there was any more damage done to his owner.
“Th-Thank you,” Twilight managed to say as she got to her feet. She swayed forwards a bit, but her monsters caught her. She smiled at her helpers before slowly moving forwards.
“Twilight, are you ok?” asked Sunset. As much as she wanted to know how Twilight’s monsters where able interact with her, Sunset’s main concern was the well being of her friend.
“Not really,” replied Twilight as her monsters got back into position. “But I can still duel. For now at least.”
“Oh ho,” cried Well-To-Do. “Methinks the duel should end right here since you’re cheating Miss Sparkle. You’re monster should have been destroyed yet he’s still there on the field. Shouldn’t tampering with your duel disk like that qualify for instant disqualification?”
“If anyone should be disqualified it should be the two of you,” stated Rarity as she eyed the magic stealing device. “After all, you duel disk has been modified to hurt your opponent.”
“Maybe, but that’s not against the rules,” responded a smug look Well-To-Do. “All it does is…enhance the experience of playing the game. We didn’t hack into the system to make our monsters indestructible.”
“Sorry to disappoint you,” said Twilight while wincing a bit. “But the reason Powercell is still on the field is thanks to my field spell, or did you forget about it. Each monster of my dark machine type monsters, once per turn, won’t be destroyed in battle. Also, as long as the field spell remains in play, they get a power boost equal to the damage I took!” As Twilight said this, Powercell’s attack points went up to 4000.
“Impressive,” replied Cinch dryly. “But the effect of my monster is still in play so it still gets cut in half.” Now Powercell’s attack point went back down to 2000. “Hopefully next turn I’ll be able to do something about that field spell of yours so that junk can be put in its place! I end my turn.”
“Alright then, I draw,” announced Sunset as she drew her card. As she looked over her hand she thought about the situation she and Twilight were in. Right now, both Cinch and Well-To-Do had one monster each as well as a face down card on the business man’s side of the field. Twilight had four monsters and one card in her hand while Sunset had six cards now but no monsters. If Sunset summoned a monster, Dreadroot would cut its attack and defense points if half making her an easy target.
We need to get Dreadroot off the field, thought Sunset. But with that spell card on the field, I can’t target it with effects and I don’t have any non-targets cards in my hand right now. Guess I’ll just have to make the most out of this turn.
“First off, I’m going to summon my Laval Burner to the field in attack position!” she shouted. The ground in front of her began to crack allowing lava to pool. From that pool rose a figure who looked like a gorilla whose body began to harden into rock while its hair remained in its more liquid like state. Normally, it’s attack points would have been 2100 but thanks to Dreadroot it dropped to 1050. “Normally, you can’t summon a level five monster to the field without a tribute. However, since I have at least three Laval monsters in the grave with different names I can special summon him. Next, I’ll activate the effect of my Lakeside Lady which allows me to remove her and one other Laval monster sleeping in the grave to destroy one face down card on the field. Three guesses which on that is.”
As Sunset removed the card from her graveyard, a pool of lava appeared around Well-To-Do’s card. He yelped in surprise at this and all but shrieked when a little girl with flaming hair rose out of the lava to touch his card at its center. Within moments, the card began to burn from where she touched spreading outwards until there was nothing left.
“Now with that set up out of the way things can really heat up,” continued Sunset. “I’ll normal summon my Laval Cannon in defense mode. When this guy is normal summoned, his effect activates letting me summon one Laval monster that was banished. So lets welcome the monster I used to help out with Lakeside Lady’s effect: Laval Handmaiden!” More lava spewed from the ground to form a humanoid shape. When the lava hardened, it became a bluish skinned man with a cannon in place of one of his hands. As soon as he finished forming Cannon pointed his name sake to the spot next to him and fired. The ground cracked from the blast to allow more of the earth’s blood to rise up. From there, a woman with flaming hair and wearing a blue hoop skirt rose upwards. “Now I’ll tune my level one tuner Laval Handmaiden with my level five Laval Burner to Synchro summon the level six Lavalval Dragun!” A large pillar of light erupted in front of Sunset as Handmaiden became a green ring while Burner became five white stars. Moments later a large, yellow and red pterodactyl like creature appeared above Sunset’s head. On the back of this creature was a small rider holding its reins. At first, it’s attack points were 2500 but dropped to 1250.
“Wait, wait,” cried Pinkie as she bounced up and down. “I think I’ve seen this before from an old show about a bunch of teenagers with attitude!”
Sunset fought to keep from rolling her eyes as she continued. “First, since my Handmaiden was sent to the graveyard I can send another Laval monster from my deck to the grave. So I’ll choose to send Laval Magma Cannoneer. Next, I activate the special ability of my Dragun. Once per turn, I can add any Laval monster from my deck to my hand. However, I also have to discard one Laval monster from my hand afterwards. Coming to my hand will Laval Coatl and then I’ll send my Laval Lancelord to the grave.”
Well-To-Do yawned. “Is there any point to this?”
“Moron,” said Cinch with a sigh as she looked at her partner. “She’s thinning her deck while setting up her graveyard.”
“That’s true,” said Sunset as her deck was shuffled by her duel disk. “But you’ll have to wait a bit longer to see my big move. So for now I’ll attack your Jumbo Drill with my Dragun!” Lavalval Dragun beat its massive wings while the figure on its back pointed to weapons it had on its wrists down towards the drill. In the blink of an eye, the entire field was covered in flames and Jumbo Drill melted on the spot. “I’ll place one card face down and end my turn.”
“About time!” shouted Well-To-Do as he drew his card. He looked at it before smirking. “Well, well. This card takes me back to when those eco nuts were trying to protest my last big lumber operation. Something about that land being home to some endangered species or whatever. I summon Night Express Knight!” Train tracks appeared on the field as a large train rolled onto Well-To-Do’s right side. “I can summon this level ten monster by simply reducing its attack points to zero. Sort of reminds me of how I reduced the pay checks to those third world orphans I have in my sweatshops.”
“WE GET IT!” shouted AJ. “You’re a slimy businessman. Stop bragging an get dueling!”
“Is it my fault I have actual accomplishments that have made me one of the richest men in the world?” asked Well-To-Do. “Now, since I normal summoned an earth machine type monster, I can bring out my Heavy Freight Train Derricrane to help me flatten you.” A large, yellow train appeared on Well-To-Do’s left side. “That makes two level ten monsters which allows me to create the overlay network! I’ll Xyz summon Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max!” As a spiraling pool of darkness appeared in the middle of the field, Well-To-Do threw up his arms while his two trains were pulled in. A moment later a ball of light shot out from the center only to land behind the summoner. The light then became two trains with what looked like a castle tower connecting the two that also had a massive cannon pointing towards the sky as two orbs spun around it. Its attack points were 3000 but dropped to 1500.
“Now let's see here,” said the smug businessman as he looked over the field. “I could attack that girl with the glasses…but that field spell of hers would just make her monsters stronger. So it looks like you’re up Red. But before I attack, I’m going to remove one of my overlay units to dish out 2000 points of damage. A bargain! Well, for me that is.” As he said this, one of the glowing orbs circling the train shot into the barrel of the cannon. Moments passed quickly before it fired its load upwards before its fell on a wide eyed Sunset. The blast sent Sunset flying through the air, screaming in both shock and pain as her teams life points dropped to 9450.
Sunset hit the ground hard. Tears fell down her face as she tried to get up. She could see her friends calling out to her with looks of utter horror on their faces, but all she could hear was a ringing noise. While she stumbled to get to her feet, Sunset saw that her attire had dozens of burn holes in it as well as parts of her skin looking singed. Slowly, the ringing began to fade to allow her to hear the world around her. But it didn’t return in time for her to brace herself as Well-To-Do’s monster attacked her Dragun and knocking it out of the sky with cannon fire. It fell to the ground, knocking Sunset down again due to the impact before it exploded. As Sunset got onto her hands and knees while heavily panting, her team’s life points dropped to 9200.
“Poor little girls,” laughed Well-To-Do. Sunset, still panting due to the pain she was in, raised her head slightly to look at him. “Almost half of your life points gone and you’re looking like this. I guess that’s the price you pay for standing against progress! Hopefully you’ll wise up before your life points get to zero. Don’t know what happens then, but judging by how you’re looking now…” As his words trailed off, Sunset felt a very large pang of fear within her. If she was feeling like this right now, would she and Twilight die if their life points reached zero? Was Cinch and Well-To-Do willing to kill just to get what they wanted?
Sunset Shimmer didn’t want to die.
For a moment, Sunset remained where she was. Her eyes turned to look at Twilight who was staring at both Cinch and Well-To-Do in a way that was clear that she wasn’t going to give up. But was it worth it? Sunset didn’t want to see her friend die, not like this. Thankfully, there was a way to save both of them. All Sunset had to do was surrender. Camp Everfree might be destroyed, but at least they’d all be alive and safe. Maybe Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were able to make it to town or at least able to make a phone call. Maybe…
-x-
At that moment, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were still moving in the direction towards town. At least they hoped they were. For Rainbow, it felt like they had been running around in circles with very few signs to show that this wasn’t the case. To make matters worse, that wicked feeling of magic hadn’t vanished yet. Instead it seemed to be growing stronger, reaching out as far as it could while leaving a cold feeling in Rainbow’s gut. Both girls knew that something was seriously wrong. So much so that Rainbow was willing to ask for directions just to speed this along.
“Are you sure about that Mr. Crow?” asked Fluttershy as she jogged alongside Rainbow. The crow perched of her shoulder made a squawking noise while its wings beat. The pink haired girl nodded at this before turning to look at her friend. “He says that if we keep going straight we should make it to the town.”
“That’s good,” said Rainbow. “Can you ask him how much longer?”
Fluttershy nodded before relaying the question. The crow made several noises while Fluttershy visibly paled. “Oh my,” she said. “He, ah, said that at the rate we’re going we should reach it just before sundown.”
“WHAT?!!” screamed Rainbow as she skidded to a halt. “That’ll take too long!”
“I know but there’s nothing we can do,” replied Fluttershy who had also stopped. Quickly she pulled out her phone only to frown. “I would have thought by now we would have at least gotten a little bit of reception. But I’m still getting nothing.”
Rainbow gritted her teeth. “Fine then! We’ll just have to keep running until we get something. Then we’ll call up the police and-”
“You’ll do what little macaw?” came a man’s voice. Both girls turned around to see a large, powerfully built man with a red Mohawk standing several feet away. He was wearing a construction uniform while carrying a small device in his rather large hands. What was surprising was that his voice was oddly…robotic.
“Ah, who are you?” asked Fluttershy.
“I am Worker 16 little flamingo,” he replied.
-x-
As Sunset was about to place her hand over her deck as a sign of surrender, movement caught on Twilight’s field caught her attention. It was Duradark turning its head to look at her before raising a hand to shake a finger in disapproving manner. It was almost as if it had read her mind and was telling her not to do it! Sunset glanced over at her Laval Cannon still on the field, its back turned to her still. Once more, Sunset felt jealous that her monsters weren’t like Twilight’s. He was just a hologram with no personality. He couldn’t comfort her or help her stand. None of them could. Looking back at the Genex Allies, Sunset saw that Bellyflame looked like it was ready to charge across the field at any moment. Duradark seemed to be standing there stoically once more while Powercell was peering over his fellow androids shoulder, still shaking. Crusher had a hand on the ground, as if he were gripping it for support or something. Then, finally, there was Twilight standing up despite being in the same amount of pain that Sunset. Neither she, nor her monsters, looked ready to give up without a fight.
Lowering her head down, Sunset lowered her head before rising. There was pain but the flame haired teen did all she could to ignore it as well as her fears. If her friend felt this strongly about continuing to fight, then the very least she could do is not throw in the towel. Besides, if their opponents got away with this here then they might do it somewhere else in the future. They would continue to use Equestrian magic to hurt people in order to get what they wanted. That was something Sunset knew she would have to prevent at all costs!
“Heh,” sneered Well-To-Do as he placed a face down in the spell/trap card zone. “Guess kids these days aren’t all that bright. Maybe I should do something about that like tearing down a few schools. Go on and take your next turn.”
“Oh I will!” said Twilight as she drew her card. She looked at it for a moment before looking directly at Cinch. “You weren’t wrong. I admit that if I hadn’t been seeking magic during the Friendship Games then you would still be Principal.”
“But Twilight-” shouted Rarity in surprise.
“No Rarity, it’s the truth,” Twilight said calmly. “All I can say is that I’m sorry. I never wanted anyone to get hurt or to lose their jobs because of my curiosity.”
“Well,” said a somewhat surprised Cinch. “It's good to hear you finally saying that. But if you think I’m going to-”
“However,” stated Twilight firmly, interrupting Cinch. “You also had a hand in your own dismissal. If you hadn’t blackmailed me into going, then none of that would have happened. If you hadn’t pressured me into unleashing all that magic then I would never would have become Nightmare Sparkle. We both are to blame for what happened!” Cinch gritted her teeth, hands shaking in rage as Twilight continued to talk. “And even if I were solely to blame for what happened, you have no right taking out your anger on innocent people who are just trying to give people an enjoyable camping experience. You have no right to destroy this forest. So starting now, I’m taking control of this duel and stopping you with all of my friends!”
“You think you can stop me?” demanded Cinch as she stopped shaking and began to compose herself. “That is a nice fantasy, but the reality is that nothing in your deck can save you. And if your friends take one step onto the field, then you lose.”
“I’m not just talking about Sunset, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, Rainbow, and Fluttershy,” said Twilight with a knowing smile. “I’m also talking about the friends within my deck!” As she said this, Sunset watched as all of Twilight’s Genex monsters nodded in agreement. “After all we’ve been through together, after all the insults that have been thrown our way, I refuse to toss them aside just to win. Now to take down Dreadroot! I summon Genex Ally Changer in attack position.” Taking up her last monster slot was a white android with a yellow visor whose attack points were 1200. “Since I summoned a dark attribute monster, Crusher’s affect activates allowing me to destroy one card on the field.”
“Have you forgotten my spell card?” demanded Cinch. “March of the Monarchs protects my tribute monsters from being targeted or destroyed by card effects!”
“I haven’t forgotten,” said a smiling Twilight as she pointed to Cinch’s spell card. “Because that’s the card I’m going to destroy!” As she said this, Crusher opened up his arm compartment to take out a black sphere. He then took aim in the direction Twilight was pointing at and threw it with all his might. The orb hit its target, sucking the spell card into the sphere before it fell to the ground and exploded. “With that card out of the way, Duradark can target Dreadroot with his special ability to remove one monster on the field with the same attribute as his own!” Duradark nodded before he held up a hand towards Dreadroot, coding running across his visor as he did so. A hole opened up in the middle of its palm and, like a black hole, began sucking everything into it. Dreadroot began to be dragged towards Duradark, clawing at the ground in order to stay away. But it was no use. Soon he was sucked into the hole in Duradark’s palm which closed immediately after.
“My…My field,” said a shocked Cinch as she looked upon Twilight’s monsters. Sunset looked on as well as all the monsters on the field regained their original attack points. Well except for Powercell. Thanks to Twilight’s field spell, his went up to 4850! Cinch saw this and point a finger at the mechanical plug. “How is it-”
“Remember Dreadroot cut its original attack as well as the bonus attack points it got from my field spell,” said Twilight calmly as she crossed her arms, flinching slightly from the pain. “Those were both separate things that were stack on top of each other.” Twilight then held up the last card in her hand, revealing it to everyone as Genex Ally Birdman. “I will now use the effect of Genex Ally Birdman it bring Duradark back to my hand and special summon Birdman in its place.” As Twilight said this, Duradark seemed to ‘flip’ sideways and becoming pixelated once more before shooting up into the sky. Another pixel beam shot down, revealing Twilight’s green mechanical birdman. “Next up, I’ll use the effect on Changer to change Crusher into a fire attribute monster.”
“What’s the point of all of that?” demanded Well-To-Do, who was staring at the ridiculously overpowered Powercell.
“Just getting ready for a Synchro summon of my own,” announced Twilight. “I tune my level three Birdman with my level four Crusher to Synchro Summon the level seven Genex Ally Triforce!” Both Birdman and Crusher leapt into the air with the tuner monster becoming three green rings and the non-tuner becoming four shining stars. Then, leaping out of the light and landing in a superhero landing pose, was a large white android with a large cannon replacing one of his hands. Its attack points were 2500 originally, but thanks to Powercell they rose to 3000. At the same time, the number on Bellyflame’s chest went from two to three and its attack points rising to 2500. “Since a monster on my side of the field was sent to the graveyard, Bellyflame only gets one counter. Now, it’s time to attack. Genex Ally Powercell, attack Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max with Overload Strike!” Powercell nodded as the plugs on its arms began to put out more power than ever before. It suddenly sprinted towards the Rail Cannon while preparing a punch. When the attack connected, Sunset could see the plug piercing the metal hall before electricity began to fly around Well-To-Do’s monster before it exploded. Well-To-Do was then thrown back as his sides life points went down to 14150.
“W-What is this?” wailed Well-To-Do as he felt his side and winced. Quickly his head turned to look at his partner. “Cinch, I thought you had that damn thing set so we wouldn’t feel anything!”
“I-I don’t understand,” said a confused Cinch as she examined the device. “It didn’t do that last time we dueled. Did I overload it when I took those girl’s magic?”
“Now I activate the last effect of my field spell Heavy Metal Raiders,” continued Twilight, her voice becoming more pumped as she smiled proudly. “Once per turn, when one of my dark machines destroys a monster on the field, I can special summon another one from my hand. So guess who’s returning to the field?” A pixel beam landed in the open spot on the field, revealing Duradark once again. “And since he was special summoned from my hand, he counts as a new monster. Meaning he can attack this turn! But first Genex Ally Triforce will attack Cinch directly!”
As Triforce pointed his weapon arm at Cinch which began to glow with power, Well-To-Do activated his face down. “I don’t think so little girl. Activate trap card: Time Machine! So come on back Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Gustav Max and block that attack!” Triforce’s attack, a massive dark orb of cracking energy, was launched towards Cinch only for the rail gun to move in to block it. When the attack made contact, the rail gun exploded creating a large cloud of dust across the field. “HA! Now that tin can of yours is also destroyed. All that work to summon it…and…WHAT?” Well-To-Do couldn’t believe what he was seeing, but as the dust continued to settle Triforce was still there with its arms crossed. “That’s…That’s…THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE! HE SHOULD HAVE BEEN DESTROYED! YOU HAVE TO BE CHEATING RIGHT NOW!”
“My field spell, remember,” said Twilight calmly. “My monsters are allowed to survive being destroyed in battle once each per turn. However…” As Twilight’s voice trailed off, Triforce appeared in front of Well-To-Do with its weapon pointed directly in the businessman’s face. “Since a fire attribute monster was used as Synchro material for Triforce, it can now inflict damage to your life points equal to the attack points of the monsters it destroys.” Before Well-To-Do could say anything fire shot out of Triforce’s weapon, blocking the villain from view. When the attack faded and Triforce was back on Twilight’s side of the field, the businessman was seen on his knees with his suit having dozens of large burn marks as he stared out into the distance. Finally, he fell to his side while his teams life points dropped to 11150.
“I’m not done yet!” shouted Twilight as she pointed at a startled Cinch. “Duradark, Bellyflame, Changer: attack Cinch directly!” All three monsters nodded before jumping into the air. Duradark’s finger retracted while his hand turned into a blaster which fired a small black energy bolt at Cinch, knocking her down while her life points dropped to 8850. Then came Bellyflame, both flamethrower arms active as fire washed over a screaming Cinch. As her life points dropped even further down to 6350 Genex Ally Changer dealt her a powerful flying kick, dropping her to 4650. “I end my turn.”
“That was amazing!” cheered Pinkie as she bounced up and down.
“Sure was,” agreed Applejack. “Heck, if this had been a regular duel, Twi would have won this match. Nice ta see them two gettin’ taken down a peg or two.”
“Looks like that field spell you added to your deck is working out fine,” said Sunset with a grin. “Wonder if you could have done as well with the field spell you suggesting making for the Genex.”
“That’s, ah, a work in progress,” said a red faced Twilight. Movement caught their attention, all the girls turning their heads to see Cinch getting to her feet. Her hair looked messy, with strands coming out everywhere. One of her eyebrows was smoking and there were dark patches all across her dress as well as her skin.
“You little,” she said between gritted teeth. “How dare you hurt me!”
“You are the one who started it,” said Rarity, with hand on her hips. “They’re only playing by the rules you created after all.”
Cinch glared at Rarity, her eyes radiating pure hatred. “No more talking from the sidelines!” she shouted before turning to look at Well-To-Do. “Are you going to get up at some point?” At first, Well-To-Do just laid there with his back leg twitching slightly. Cinch opened her mouth, looking ready to yell at him again only to have the dirty businessman get onto his elbows.
“Turn. That. DAMN. THING. OFF!” he said through gritted teeth while giving Cinch a death glare.
“If that were possible, I would have done so before that last attack,” snapped Cinch. “The thing must be malfunctioning.”
“Well we can’t forfeit or else I’ll be out millions,” responded Well-To-Do as he got onto his feet.
“Forfeiting is not an option at this point,” Cinch responded as she looked at Twilight. “Not when I have no idea how the magic will react. It could very easily do nothing or…kill us for losing.”
“Then that means we have to win,” said Well-To-Do, his voicing shaking slightly but remaining in control. “Then, when this is over, we’re going to have a talk about how this partnership is going to work from now on. Understand?”
“Crystal. I draw.” With that, Cinch drew her card and looked at it. “I pay Hand Destruction. We all have to discard two cards and then we get to draw two cards. Since I don’t have any cards in my hand, I can just draw two.” With that, everyone who could discard did so before drawing two. “Next I play my Edea the Heavenly Squire in defense mode.” Appearing in front of Cinch was a warrior decked in silver armor and a golden glow surrounding it. “Its ability next allows me to special summon one monster with 800 attack and 1000 defense points from my deck. So I’m bringing out my Eidos the Underwold Squire in defense mode as well.” Another monster appeared on Cinch’s side of the field, wearing black armor that had several large spikes on it to give it a more sinister appearance. “Finally, I play one card face down and end my turn.”
“Then I draw,” declared Sunset with a grin. She then pointed the card at Cinch. “It was a mistake allowing anyone else to draw cards Cinch. Because of that, I already have the card I need to end this duel!” She tapped a button on her duel disk. “I play my Rekindling spell card to bring out as many fire attribute monsters that have 200 or less defense points from my graveyard. All I need are these two, Laval Lancelord and Laval Forest Sprite!” Two large cracks in the ground appeared in front of Sunset, gushing out flames and lava before revealing a man who was made of stone with a mask covering half of his face as well as a small boy who’s arms and legs looked like they were made of molten rock. “Now I will tune my level two tuner Laval Forest Sprite with my level six Laval Lancelord to summon my Red Dragon Archfiend!” A large pillar of light was created in front of Sunset and, when it faded, a massive creature of red and black with three wicked horns on the top of its head appeared in the air above her. It let out a roar as its 3000 attack points were proudly on display.
“Now, since I have at least three Laval monsters in my grave with different names, I’m allowed to special summon the two Laval Coatls from my hand,” continued Sunset as two small pterodactyls emerged from the lava spilling onto the field. “Now I’m going to double tune them with my dragon to form my ultimate Synchro monster: Red Nova Dragon!” Once more, there was a pillar of light created by the summoning. However, this time there was a powerful wind that was pushing against everyone there. After a moment, the light was replaced by a pillar of flames before Sunset’s monster exploded out of it. This new dragon was mostly red with bits of black and its wings looking more like the top fin from a shark. Its attack points were 3500 but then began to rise to 7000!
“Now for my normal summon,” announced Sunset to the shock of everyone there. “I summon my Jet Synchron in attack position.” A jet engine with a face and arms appeared on Sunset’s side of the field. “Now I tune him with my Laval Cannon to Synchro Summon the level five Jet Warrior!” Again, another pillar of light followed by a new monster appearing on the field. This one looked more like a machine than a warrior, mostly coat black with bits of white here and there as well as a jet engine attached to its back. As an added bonus, Red Nova gained another 500 attack points since there was another tuner in the graveyard. “Now, its effect activates! When Jet Warrior is Synchro Summoned to the field, I can target one card my opponent controls and send it back to their hand. So Edea is out of here!”
The girls on the sidelines cheered as the silver armored squire was launched off of the field and returned to Cinch’s hand. “This is it!” said Rarity as she clapped her hands. “With only one monster left on the field they should have no trouble bringing their life points to zero this turn!”
“I sure hope so Sugarcube,” said Applejack. “But remember, a lot can happen in a duel.”
“Now for my battle phase,” said Sunset as she pointed to the dark armored squire. “Jet Warrior, destroy her Eidos!” Jet Warrior powered up its engines before launching itself across the field. In the blink of an eye, the monster rammed its fist into Eidos causing him to explode. “Now you’re both wide open. Red Nova Dragon, finish this!” At Sunset’s command, the skin on her dragon seemed to ignite as it flew towards the pair. Cinch looked like she was about to activate her face down, but before she could Well-To-Do held up a card.
“I activate the effect of my Construction Train Signal Red,” he said as a small train with flashing red lights on top appeared on the field. “Now this monster becomes the target of your attack and it can’t be destroyed in battle!” The girls groaned as Sunset’s monster smashed into Well-To-Do’s latest train, watching as it rolled over several time but still stopping on its wheels.
“So close,” cried Pinkie as she got onto her knees, her hands gripping her hair. “They were so close!”
“Don’t worry Pinkie,” said Rarity as she place a calming hand on Pinkie’s shoulder. “They are still in the lead.”
“There’s nothing more I can do this turn so I end,” said Sunset as she dragon returned to its place above her head.
“Then I’ll draw,” announced Well-To-Do as he drew a card. “Now it’s time to give me the home field advantage! I play the field card Revolving Switchyard!” In an instant, all of the classic old machine type monsters that had been hanging around the field vanished while the darkness lifted. Now all the duelist found themselves on a circular platform with train tracks on it. All around them there was steam and train tracks that went in every possible direction they could imagine, with beams of light shining down upon them from the sky. While this was happening, Powercell’s attack points dropped to 1700 without Heavy Metal Raiders to help power him up. “Now I’ll play my Monster Reborn in order to bring back my Night Express Knight back from the grave while activating the effect of field spell which allows me to special summon one level four earth machine type monster from my deck and then it become a level ten! So I’ll summon my Ruffian Railcar to the field!” Both monsters moved on the tracks behind Well-To-Do, stopping on both his right and left sides. Ruffian Railcar looked like a red train with a fanged face, ready to bite off someone’s head at any moment. “Now to overlay these two level ten beauties so that I may finally crush you!” In the middle of the field appeared a spiraling pool of darkness which sucked in both of Well-To-Do’s monsters. What came out were four trains pulling what looked like a giant robot with a cannon for a head as well as arms. Its attack points were at 3200 and defense points were at 4000.
“I Xyz summon Number 81: Superdreadnought Rail Cannon Super Dora!” exclaimed Well-Do-To proudly. He then looked around the field with an assumed look. “Now then, what to destroy? Since I use my field spell I can’t do any damage, but that doesn’t mean I can’t swat some pesky flies.” His gaze fell of Powercell who began to tremble more than ever. “Hmm, that little piece of trash managed to destroy one of my trains. Now that just won’t do.” He then looked over at Duradark. “But as much as I would love to crush him like I would those damned eco-nuts standing in the way of progress because I’ll destroy some endangered species’ home, I think that I should get rid of the one that will actually be a threat! Number 81, ready the cannons and destroy Duradark!” All three cannon’s on Well-To-Do’s giant train turned and pointed at the Megaman-like robot who stood its ground. Sunset watched as Powercell moved next to it, shaking it as if to say move. But, as the cannon’s fired, Duradark just shoved Powercell off of him before turning to look at Twilight to give her a thumbs up. A moment later, Duradark exploded with its pieces flying everywhere. While neither Twilight or Sunset took any damage, Twilight was blown back by the attack with Duradark’s arm landing next to her before it vanished.
“Don’t worry Duradark, I’ll keep going,” said Twilight as she slowly got to her feet. She then glared at Well-To-Do before pointing at Bellyflame. “Because of a monster on my side of the field was sent to the graveyard, Bellyflame gets another counter.” At the same time the number on Bellyflame’s chest changed to four as his attack points rose to 2600.
“Ha, you think I care?” demanded Well-To-Do. “On my next turn, I’ll be sure to destroy it so I can stop hearing about those dumb counters! So make your move nerd, but don’t get any funny ideas about destroying my monster with any effects. I can detach a material in order to make it immune to such things until the end of the turn.”
“Fine,” responded Twilight as she drew a card, now equaling three in her hand. “I summon Genex Recycled to the field!” Appearing next to Genex Ally Triforce was a small, android that looked like it had been made of junk. Wires were hanging out of its square head as it stared off with its unblinking green eyes. “Now, I can tune my level one tuner Genex Recycled with my level seven Genex Ally Triforce to Synchro summon my Genex Ally Axel!” There was then another column of light and when it faded Genex Ally Axel appeared on the field. Like all of Twilight’s monsters it had a humanoid appearance, but there were wheels where its feet should have been which it used to zoom around the field as if it were skating at ninety miles per hour. When it got to its summoner, Axel shot one of its legs forwards while the other bent low so it could twirl around in place before standing with a fist pump toward the sky. Everyone there looked at the now still robot with its white steel coat, purple visor, odd looking hoop attached to its back, and what looked like a card launcher attached to one of its arms. Its original attack points of 2600 rose to 3100 thanks to Powercell. Also, as this monster was summoned, Bellyflame got another counter raising its attack points to 2700.
“Great to see you again Axel,” said Twilight. Her monster said nothing, instead moving backwards so it was standing next to her with a hand on her shoulder and nodding at her. Sunset saw Twilight smile as more confidence filled her face. “I now activate Axel’s effect: by discarding one card from my hand I can special summon one level four or lower monster in my graveyard.” Calmly, Twilight discarded her card. “So I’m bringing to the field the very card I just discarded: Genex Ally Remote!” A card shot out of Axel’s card launcher which he caught and held up in front of him. The hoop attached to his back began to fill with a golden light before there was a sudden flash and, when it cleared, a small sphere bodied android with a remote for a hand appeared on Twilight’s side of the field. “Now I Synchro summon again! This time I’ll tune my level three Genex Ally Remote with my level four Powercell in order to Synchro summon Dark Strike Fighter!” Once again, there was a blinding pillar of green light before Twilight’s new monster appeared onto the field. This level seven machine had 2600 attack points and looked like a transformer that had gone from jet mode to its humanoid appearance. Also, despite being called Dark Strike Fighter the majority of its body was colored orange.
Sunset watched in confusion as all of Twilight’s monsters went back to their original attack points. All except for Bellyflame who only went down to 2300 and now had a number six on its stomach. Was that Twilight’s plan, to power up Bellyflame? Or was there something more to it. She had to admit that she didn’t know much of this card or its effects and she couldn’t ask Twilight what she was doing. All she could do was hope Twilight had a plan.
“Now I activate the effect of my Dark Strike Fighter!” said Twilight as she pointed to her Changer. “I tribute my Changer in order to deal damage to you both equal to its level times 200. Changer is a level three monster so that means it deals 600.” Changer saluted the other monsters on the field before vanishing with Bellyflame getting another counter bringing the total to seven and its attack points becoming 2400. As that happened, Dark Strike Fighter flew high into the air before launching three missiles at the evil duo. The earth exploded around them as their life points dropped to 4050. “Since I can only activate this effect once per turn and none of my monsters can take down that train, I’ll end my turn.”
“Very well then,” responded Cinch. “But as you end your turn, I activate my face down card and it should look familiar if you were paying attention in class: Fires of Doomsday!” Again, dark flames appeared in front of Cinch and, when they faded, left her two tokens. Cinch then drew her card, looked at it, and threw her head back to laugh. “HA HA, this is perfect. Just the card I need to finish you all off for good. First, I remove my Eidos in order to activate his effect which left me special summon one monster in my graveyard whose attack points are 800 and defense points are 1000. So return to the field Escher the Frost Vassal!”
As Cinch’s monster returned to the field, Twilight pointed to Bellyflame. “Don’t forget about Bellyflame’s effect,” she said. “Since a card was removed from your grave Bellyflame gets two counters.” With its counters at nine, Bellyflame’s attack was at 2600.
“So it is,” replied Cinch without a trace of worry or care. “But you should realize by now that I have monsters in my deck that make such effects utterly meaningless. If you thought Dreadroot was dangerous, then let me introduce you to The Wicked Avatar!” As Cinch played her card, a black orb appeared above the field to cast a shadow on all those below while a cold wind seemed to blow in all directions. Both teenage duelists raised their arms in order to protect their faces while Cinch’s tributes rose off the ground towards the mass above. Like in a horror movie, all three of them were pulled in while reaching out for help that would not come. When they were finally consumed, The Wicked Avatar’s body began to ripple at random places before its form began to shift. It gained claws, sharp fin like wings, and many more until it resembled Red Nova Dragon. Sunset watched as its attack points, which were 0, began to rapidly climb until they were at 7100.
“This is one of the best cards in my deck,” said Cinch as she gestured to her monster as it dripped black goo onto the ground. “The Wicked Avatar will always be 100 attack points higher than the strongest monster on the field. Also, for the next two turns, no one can activate spell or trap cards. This…This is what true power looks like. But if for some reason you have any doubts, allow me to elevate them by attack Red Nova Dragon!” With that, The Wicked Avatar sent out tendrils of black goo towards Sunset’s monster. They wrapped around the dragon’s neck, arms, wings, and torso before pulling back towards to source. As Red Nova got closer, Cinch’s fiend began to lose its shape so that it could surround the dragon in an orb. With that done, Sunset could see an explosion within Avatar while her life points dropped to 9100 before the Avatar turned into Well-To-Do’s Number monster. “Sadly, there is nothing more I can do. So go on and make whatever pathetic attempt you want. It won’t matter.”
“We’ll see about that!” yelled Sunset as she drew a card. As her friends yelled their encouragements, Sunset stared at the card in despair. She had hoped to draw a card that would clear at least one of their fields, but she didn’t. Not that it would have helped since all of their spell and trap options were out of the question for the next couple of turns. Seeing what she had drawn made her want to fall to her knees. She could do maybe a move or two with this one card in her hand, but neither of them would be enough. Her strongest card, the one she had worked hard to get onto the field had been destroyed before it could do any real damage. Heck, she hadn’t been able to destroy one monster with her best! So what could she do right now?
Looking over to her side, Sunset saw Twilight watching her. It was clear that Twilight could see the despair in Sunset’s eyes. But how could she not feel like that right now? She had sent most all of her tuners to the graveyard as well as most of her playmakers! She had already used Rekindling! Even if she hadn’t and she had just drawn the card it would be useless! So how was she supposed to get either opponents cards off the field when the only cards she had in play was a monster whose effect she had already used and a face down-
Sunset’s eyes widened in realization before looking down at her face down. She had forgotten about that. Smiling she raised her head to look at both Cinch and Well-To-Do.
“I’ll start off by activating my remaining Lakeside Lady in my graveyard,” she announced. “I’ll remove her and my Handmaiden to destroy my own facedown card!” Both villains looked on in confusions as Lakeside Lady appeared next to Sunset’s face down to burn it. “Next, I’ll summon my Laval Canon which allows his effect to activate! Now I can summon to the field one monster that was removed from play and I choose my Laval Handmaiden!” Handmaiden erupted from the ground, tossing a red hot stone in the air and catching it as she waited for Sunset to make her move. “Now here’s something that isn’t getting old anytime soon: I tune my level one Handmaiden with my level four Canon to Synchro Summon the level five Lavalval Dragon!” Another pillar of light appear on the field but this time something different happened. When the light faded, the ground cracked before a long thin dragon made of molten lava shot into the sky. Its skin began to harden into red stone while two rows of white hot rock formed at the top of its head and went all the way down to its tail like the rigid scales of an alligator. The dragon flapped its wings as it sat down in front of Sunset in defense mode.
“So, is that your big move?” asked Cinch. “Another pathetic Synchro monster? Surely you must have some other tricks up your sleeve or am I giving you too much credit?”
“My guess is she blew everything with that last dragon!” laughed Well-To-Do.
“Just you wait,” said Sunset with a smirk. “While Lavalval Dragon may not have the raw power that my Red Nova did, he does have a certain ability that will take care of your monsters. By sending any two Laval monsters from my graveyard back into my deck I can send one card on the field back into your hand. So say goodbye to The Wicked Avatar!” As Sunset removed two cards from her grave and put them back into her deck, Lavalval Dragon dug into the earth until he could longer be seen. A moment later, the ground beneath The Wicked Avatar began to crack.
“Oh no you don’t,” said Well-To-Do as he detached one of the material from his number monster. “I activate the effect of my monster which makes one monster on the field immune to effects other than its own for the rest of this turn. And since the material I sent was Ruffian Railcar, at the end of this turn I can add one level ten earth machine type monster to my hand!”
“Ok then” said Sunset with a shrug and a grin. “Then I’ll target your monster next!”
“Are you stupid?” demanded Well-To-Do. “All I have to do is use my other material and then-”
“No you can’t,” interrupted Sunset as she sent more cards back into her deck while cracks appeared around Well-To-Do’s monster. “Your card states you can only use that effect once per turn. As for me, it never states at any point that there is a limit to how many times I can use my monsters effect!” With that, the ground beneath Number 81 was launched into the air by a geyser of lava. Sunset watched as her monster returned to her while Well-To-Do put his monster back into his extra deck. While that was going on, The Wicked Avatar’s attack points changed to 2700. “So now I’ll just put my Jet Warrior in defense mode and call it a turn.”
“Fine, but I get a monster in my hand when you end your turn,” reminded an agitated Well-To-Do. “So come to me Heavy Freight Train Derricrane! Then I draw.” Well-To-Do looked at his new card angrily. “I will crush all of you with the strongest card I own! First I’ll summon my Night Express Knight and then special summon my Heavy Freight Train Derricrane! Then I’ll activate my field cards effect to let me special summon a level four earth type monster from my deck and turn it into a level ten monster. So come out Ruffian Railcar!”
“You idiot!” snarled Cinch as she looked over at her teammate as three large trains appeared behind him. “There was no need to do that! Now they won’t take any damage!”
“Shut up!” yelled Well-To-Do. “I am going to crush them just like I do to anyone who stands in the way of progress! My progress that is! I overlay my three level ten monsters in order to build the overlay network!” Another spiraling darkness appeared in the middle of the field before sucking in the three trains. What came out looked like a mix of purple spaceship and giant robot. The machine towered over everyone with its 5000 attack points. “Welcome Superdimensional Robot Galaxy Destroyer! Hahaha!”
“Well, at least its boosting my monster’s attack points,” commented Cinch as she looked at her Wicked Avatar. It had now taken on the appearance of Robot Galaxy Destroyer and had 5100 attack points. “That’s something to be thankful for.”
“Now to keep that little brat from sending this mighty machine back to my extra deck,” said Well-To-Do as he pointed to Lavalval Dragon. As he did, Robot Galaxy Destroyer’s hand launched towards the dragon to flatten it upon impact. When it returned to the giant robot, Well-To-Do ended his turn.
“I draw,” said Twilight as she drew and then grinned as she held up a card. “I summon my Genex Ally Volcannon!” A pixel beam appeared on the field again to reveal a red android wearing a welding mask. On its back was a steel drum that had tubes coming out of it that connected to a blaster like weapon on its shoulder. As soon as he appeared on the field, Volcannon cracked his knuckles. “Now I activate Volcannon’s special ability. By tributing a fire attribute ‘Genex’ monster on the field, I can destroy one monster you control and deal damage to you equal to that monsters level times 400.”
“You…YOU CAN’T!” screamed Cinch. “You don’t have any fire Genex monsters!”
“Right now, you’re correct,” replied Twilight with a nod. “But you are overlooking two things. The first being that I have another card in my hand.” Twilight flipped it so her opponents could see that it was Genex Ally Chemister. “I can discard this card so I can change any monster on my sides attribute to whatever I want. This brings me to the other thing you have overlooked: Bellyflame! I know you haven’t attacked it because of its special ability: when he is destroyed in battle you take 300 points of damage for each counter on him. So I’m going to change Bellyflame’s attribute to fire and tribute it to destroy your Avatar!” The top of the steel drum on Volcannon’s back opened up as Bellyflame went flying through the air, turning into fire as it went into the drum. Once inside, the drum closed as pressure gauges on Volcannon’s body began to rise while at the same time it’s blaster pointed at Wicked Avatar. Volcannon looked like he was bracing himself as he held up a hand to count down with his fingers. When he was out of digits, red hot liquid metal shot out of the blaster and coated the Avatar which screamed in agony before it was destroyed in a massive explosion that was so large that Twilight and Sunset had to cover their faces. When the two girls lowered their arms, both Cinch and Well-To-Do were laying on the ground while breathing heavily while their life points dropped to a mere 50. Both looked like they had run a marathon through a series of burning building, crutching at the grass to try and stand.
“This…THIS SHOULDN’T BE HAPPENING!” roared Well-To-Do before taking several deep breaths. “No, it’s ok. We can still win. I have my machines so our life points should be safe.”
“You moron,” groaned Cinch without looking at him. Her cold eyes were focused on Dark Strike Fighter. “It’s over.”
“I activate the effect of my Dark Strike Fighter,” said Twilight calmly as she took Volcannon’s card off her duel disk. “I tribute my Genex Ally Volcannon to duel damage equal to his level times 200.” And with that, four missiles were flung towards the two and ending the duel.
Author's Note
Well this was a long one. Hope you all enjoyed it. The final chapter will be out... as soon as I get done with Twilight's Kingdom of Steam!
Sunset stood there panting, a hand holding her side as the smoke from Twilight’s last attack covered their opponent’s side of the field. In the middle of the field, holographic portraits of the two Canterlot High girls were on display with the word ‘winner’ shining brightly above them. If they could connect to the net, this win would have been recorded by the people who made the duel disks for use in determining who got invited to the next major tournament. But that didn’t matter to Sunset right now. All that she cared about was knowing that it was over as well as confirming that those two weren’t dead.
It turned out she wasn’t the only one who wanted to know. Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Applejack seemed to be silent as well as they watched with bated breath. Well-To-Do’s crew was looking at each other, wondering what to do. Some were actually loading up their trucks with their equipment since their boss had lost. Even that gangster looking guy who was with Well-To-Do seemed taken aback by the loss of his employer.
As the seconds ticked by and the holograms faded, so too did the smoke. Lying on the ground with their faces in the dirt were Cinch and Well-To-Do. The scorch marks and holes in their clothing were still there with Cinch’s duel disk sparking madly. It was only as the holograms of everyone’s monster faded away that Well-To-Do clutched at the earth to signal that he was in fact alive. Seeing this, Sunset and Twilight let out sighs of relief at the same time as the dread that had been slowly glowing inside them faded. It appeared that you didn’t die when you lost.
“No,” said Well-To-Do as he raised his head showing that there was a cut on it now which was causing him to bleed all over his face. “No! NO! NO! NO!” Quickly the rich man got to his feet, wincing in pain as he did. Angrily he looked around to see his workers. “What are you all doing? Don’t go putting away the equipment! We have a job to do here and it’s not going to be stopped by some stupid high school girl!” One man stepped forward, looking nervous. Sunset could see his twiddling his fingers as he opened his mouth, most likely to remind his employer about the deal. It must have been obvious for Well-To-Do as well who snarled in the direction at the man. “Or do you want to lose your minimum wage jobs?”
“Hey, you promised!” shouted Pinkie loudly.
“That’s right,” agreed Rarity with a nod. “I would think that a member of the upper class-”
“Did any of you think I’d really keep my word?” he demanded, interrupting Rarity who huffed. “Ha! That’s a real laugh right there. Boys, tie these girls up and throw them in a ditch somewhere.” He then shot a glance at the guy dressed like a gangster. “And if they give you any trouble, shot the old broad.”
Now all the workers where looking on in shock and horror at their boss. It was bad enough he was going back on his word. However, none of them thought he’d sink so low as to kidnap several young girls or threaten to kill an old grandma.
“Do you really think you can get away with this?!” shouted Sunset as she stepped forwards. “Sooner or later someone will come looking for us.”
Well-To-Do shrugged. “If that happens, I’ll just say I have no idea where you went. Don’t worry about me, I’m good at covering my tracks. Take for example that bus of yours. Before the night is done, it’ll be scrap metal and my pockets will have a few extra dollars!” He then took a few steps towards Sunset while grinning ear to ear. “And let's say someone does come here looking for all of you. By then, it’ll be too late! I will have destroyed this entire forest and paved it over with all of you buried alive!” Well-To-Do pointed a finger at Sunset while continuing to grin insanely. “That’s what I do to people who stand in the way of my progress! You’ll all be dead and gone while I make a profit on this land. Every single tree will be cut down and turned into toothpick. Every animal, fish, and bird will be killed before I stuff them to be sold online. Then-”
“Say that again you son of a bitch!” Sunset and Well-To-Do blinked right before the short money man was punched in the back of the head. It was then that Sunset noticed the giant of a man standing where Well-To-Do used to be, looking enraged while Rainbow and Fluttershy sat on his shoulders.
“Ah,” sighed Fluttershy as she grinned dreamily. “You have no idea how long I’ve waited to see that.”
“Who did that?!?” demanded Well-To-Do as he picked himself up off the ground. He turned around…before falling on his hands and knees. “W-Worker 16? W-W-What are you doing here? You should be out there in the field!”
Worker 16 walked over to Well-To-Do and picked him up by the shirt with one hand easily. “These two birdies told me you were not building the bird sanctuary like you told me you were. You lied to me.”
“Wait…what?” said Twilight, blinking in confusion.
“Yeah, apparently Well-To-Do got this big guy on his side and got him to work for free by telling him they were building a bird sanctuary,” said Rainbow Dash as she patted the guy she was sitting on shoulder, rolling her eyes as she did so. “He’s been out in the forest since they got here setting up jamming equipment to keep people from making phone calls and accessing the internet.”
“Didn’t he think that was a little…off?” asked Sunset as she raised an eyebrow.
“Or illegal?” added in Applejack as she crossed her arms.
“He really likes birds,” said Fluttershy, like that explained everything.
“You,” growled Well-To-Do getting everyone’s attention again as he swung about to try and free himself for Work 16’s grip. “You won’t get away with betraying me like this! Do you have any idea how many government officials I paid off? Do you have any idea how many connections I have? I’m Well-To-Do! My connections are limitless! I swear, if I’m not down on the ground within the next ten seconds, I’ll make sure that all of your families are living in ditches fighting stray dogs for their next meal before the night falls! TEN! NINE! EI-”
Well-To-Do’s voice was suddenly drowned out by the noise of police sirens. Everyone turned to look as dozens of cars sped into the camp site as well as an ambulance. The police cars surrounded positioned themselves at various locations around the camp, their occupants quickly getting out while pulling out their very visible handguns to point at the works. As many on the cops began ordering the workers still holding things like chainsaws onto the ground, a few moved their cars in order to block the exit. Sunset looked over at Well-To-Do whose blue face had gone pale white as he surveyed all.
“Yeah,” said Rainbow Dash with a cocky grin. “We might have made a little phone call before headed back to camp.”
Sunset smiled as Worker 16 lowered Well-To-Do onto the ground, a dozen officers approaching the short man. “Stay on the ground and put your hands on your head!” shouted one of the officers. While this was going on, paramedics approached Sunset and Twilight to examine their bruises while Timer and Gloriosa were put on stretchers. Twilight kept her eyes on her boyfriend, looking like she wanted to go check up on him but the medic examining her shook his head.
“You can’t do this to me!” screamed Well-To-Do, drawing attention back to him. “Do you have an idea who I am?!”
“You have the right to remain silent,” said the officer escorting him to the cop car. Or at least was trying to. Well-To-Do, despite his own injuries, was hopping about and shaking his head like a rabid animal. “I strongly suggest you use that right.”
Well-To-Do clearly didn’t agree. “This isn’t over by a long shot! My lawyers will have me out before I miss my dinner! I’ll be back and then-” At that point, the mini-millionaire was thrown into the car with the door slamming in his face. Sunset could see all of the girls grinning and shaking their heads at this. The only one who didn’t was Pinkie who was walking over to the car. Well-To-Do, who had his hands on the glass, stopped his yelling as Pinkie approached.
“I don’t think you’ll be back,” she said while looking at the man with pity. “I’m sure the writer had a blast writing such a one-dimensional villain, but I don’t think the readers are going to miss you at all.” Well-To-Do looked at her in confusion as the car began to depart the camp with Pinkie waved goodbye. Everything was looking all wrapped up until Twilight let out a gasp that startled everyone around. Sunset turned to look at her friend who was not staring at the departing car or any of the officers who were now questioning the workers in the area. Instead, she was looking at the spot where Cinch used to be. It seems while everyone was focused on Well-To-Do she had slipped away with her deck, leaving behind her malfunctioning duel disk.
-x-
It was several hours later and Sunset found herself standing by the lake, looking out as the sun brightly reflected itself against the water. Dressed now in her spare camping attire, Sunset couldn’t really focus on the beauty before her. It surely wasn’t easy since all of Well-To-Do’s former employees were busy fixing up the camp. Both Timber and Gloriosa (who were both recovering in the hospital) had decided not to press charges against them as long as they restored the camp to its prior condition. So there they were, hard at work fixing everything they had destroyed in their short time here. Some were even making their own little additions. Like Worker 16, who was busy working with Fluttershy to build a small bird sanctuary like he had wanted.
Speaking of Worker 16, he had spoken to the Timber and her sister about adding some security for the camp. Apparently he knew a guy who always wanted to ‘range the fuck out of a park’ as he put it. Some guy named 17. Weird.
However, it wasn’t the noise of the workers around her that was keeping Sunset from enjoying the view. It was Cinch. After they told the police about how she was involved, the authorities began searching the area for her. So far, all they had come across were some Jeep tracks about a couple of miles away leading towards the main highway. It was possible that Cinch had gotten away. While the police had put out a warrant for her arrest, Sunset couldn’t help but to worry about the damage she could do until she was finally caught. She knew about magic and had the technology at her disposal to capture it. While she had left behind the device that had stolen Applejack’s and Rainbow’s magic (which thanks to Twilight’s help had been returned to them), it didn’t mean that that was the last time they would see it. With enough time, she could rebuild the device before heading out to gather more magic. Who knew what she could do then? Perhaps she could take control of minds or hurt other people like she had done today.
Thinking about the duel, Sunset pulled out her deck. As she examined her cards, she couldn’t help but think about how unhelpful she had been during the match. She had stuck to her old strategy, making sure the grave was full of tuners so when she summoned her dragon it would be powerful enough to defeat any opponent. Ever since she had first come to this world, it had always worked out for her. But now…
“Sunset,” came Twilight’s voice from behind her. The red and yellow haired girl turned around to see Twilight, who was also sporting her backup attire, walking towards her. “Some of the girls thought that, since we’re here, we might as well make the most of it. Want to go hiking or something?”
Sunset shrugged. “I don’t know. Got a lot on my mind.”
“Like?” asked Twilight.
“Just…worried about Cinch I guess,” said Sunset before looking down at her deck. “And how useless I was when we faced her.”
Twilight looked at her for a moment before folding her arms behind her back. “Well, it’s not like you did horribly. I mean, we did win after all.”
“Only because of you,” said Sunset with a sigh, her shouldering slumping as she did. Slowly, she looked up from her deck to face her friend square in the eye. “I…I thought that I’d have to do all the hard work. That your deck just wasn’t good enough. Then, when it looked like we might lose, I worried about what that would mean. For all we knew, we could have died! I was ready to give up!”
“But you didn’t,” said Twilight.
“Only because your monsters told me not to,” snapped Sunset. Seeing the shocked looked on Twilight’s face Sunset took a breath as well as a step back while turning to look back at the water. “Sorry about that. I just wish I could have done more or had the same connection you do with your deck.”
It was then that Sunset felt Twilight’s hand on her shoulder. “The only reason I was able to do so well was because I had my friends with me, willing to help improve myself as well as my deck. If it hadn’t been for all of you, I’d still be playing the same strategy I had back when I face Princess Twilight. I don’t think either of us could have won if I had played like that.”
“Guess that makes sense,” said Sunset as she looked at her deck again. “Maybe it’s time I made some changes as well.”
“Are you going to get rid of your deck?” asked Twilight. Sunset shook her head.
“No way,” she said as she pulled out Prominence, the Molten Swordsman. “Me and these cards go back a long time. I just need to update some of their support and change up some monsters in my extra deck. Maybe, if I put as much of my heart into this deck as you have with ours, then maybe I’ll gain the same connection.”
“Ok,” said Twilight as her hand slid off Sunset’s shoulder. “But in the meantime how about you come hiking with us. After all, you won’t be able to make any changes to your deck until we get back home.”
Sunset nodded. As she turned around, she saw Twilight’s retreating figure as well as something else. There, in-between the two girls, stood a man whose skin was like rock holding a flaming sword. He looked down at Sunset with his green eyes which seemed to look into her soul. She said nothing as she looked back, knowing who this was. It was Prominence.
“More battles will come,” said the monster before her. He then planted his sword into the ground before taking a knee in front of the flame haired girl. “Help us grow stronger so that we may fight by your side.”
-x-
Meanwhile, back in the city, Adagio was pacing back and forth in the apartment she shared with her fellow siren. Trash littered the floor surrounding the worn and used furniture that they had managed to salvage during their time in the human world. On any other night when they had not been out collecting energy, Adagio would have been bemoaning the fact that times had were reduced to this. She would have been thinking back to when they lived in better conditions, back before employers wanted at least high school diplomas for the higher paying jobs. Back before the internet so they could better lie through their teeth about their past work experience or give out fake Social Security Numbers. Those were the good old days.
This night, however, found Adagio angry at something different. “How dare that blue moron fire US! After everything we’ve had to put up from her, after everything we’ve done to help that idiot out! That ingrate! How are we supposed to survive without a paycheck from that hole?”
“Maybe we should have actually gone to work,” murmured Aria as she laid on the couch that smelled of wet dog. Her attention was not on her sister siren, but instead on the websites she scrolled across on her smartphone. “Speaking of work, we’re going to need to find a new job soon. We need to pay the rent for this place and, more importantly, our phone bills. Maybe we could try the local grocery store. They are looking for greeters and some other lousy positions.”
“No!” growled Adagio before crossing her arms. “I am sick of lowering myself to jobs. Remember back in the good old days when we ran inn after inn for centuries? Morons traveling by to see three pretty girls as we served them food and sang by the fireplaces. Nobody to ask us if we were experienced or too young to be doing something like that. We never went hungry back then or worry about getting kicked out onto the streets.”
“Times have changed,” grunted Aria as she got up. “Besides, you complained about that life back then as well. That it was beneath us and we should try to get a job in a palace or something like that?”
Growling some more, Adagio pointed at her sister only to be silenced by a knock on the door. The two looked at each other as another knock was heard by them. Could it be the landlord? They were a tad late on their rent…by four weeks or so. He was the only one these days to come knocking at their door. Everyone else in this crap hole knew very well not to bother them. For a moment, Adagio considered pretending that no one was home only to realize that the lights were on meaning that someone was most likely home. Sighing to herself Adagio walked over to the door as she began to plan out how to handle this situation. Perhaps she could force herself to cry? No, she had tried that three times already and the act had grown stale. Perhaps she could try matching his aggression with her own? Might make her feel better but he held all the chips in this situation. Make him mad enough and they would be on the streets before they knew what hit them.
Deciding that lowering herself to begging might work out best, Adagio opened the door to find a very thin woman standing there. “Hello,” she said in an upright manner. “I heard through my sources that you know about magic and hate the Rainbooms. Perhaps we could come to an arrangement…”
