Laughter filled the living room of the apartment overlooking upper Canterlot. It was a large, spacious room that could easily fit over two dozen people in it without anyone feeling confined. It helped that there were no walls separating the kitchen from the dining room as well as the living room so as to give the place a more open feel to it. One of the walls was a large bay window which overlooked the city, perfectly positioned to allow the people inside to watch the sun set without any obstruction. The other walls were painted white with doorways leading to two of the three bedrooms in use at the moment. The floors were made of well polished wood with several rugs strategically placed here and there. Three white sofas, one two seater and two three seaters, were placed so that they boxed in a long, short table while also ensuring that no matter where you sat the people seated there had a perfect view of the TV attached to the wall. Much to Star Hunter’s dismay.

More laughter filled the room as the crowd watched what was on the screen, some of them nearly choking on their snacks which they got from the table. On it were various sized bowls of chips and pretzels as well as several different collared cans of soda. But there was something else; in the middle of the table was a large chocolate cake made by Pinkie Pie with the word ‘Congratulations’ written on the top with the backs of cards on either side. Several pieces had already been cut out, placed on paper plates with a stack of plastic forks next to them.

Right now, however, Star Hunter wasn’t eating a thing. Instead he sat in the two seater couch, next to his girlfriend Moondancer, dressed in a back denim jeans jacket with a white shirt underneath as well as regular jeans with his head buried in his hands. While Moondancer had a hand on his back, Hunter could hear her giggling both at his embarrassment as well as what was on the screen. Peeking from between his fingers, Hunter saw that her fits of amusement were causing crumbs to fall onto her purple sweatshirt and a matching plaid skirt. More than once she had to adjust her glasses (which were still bandaged along the nose area) so that they wouldn’t fall off her cute light yellowish gray face. The only thing that didn’t look a mess right now was her hair which was a brilliant amaranth with purple and violet streaks running down the middle, styled so that part of the top was tied up while the rest followed down her neck.

Off to the side on the couch whose back was facing the window were Wallflower Blush and Autumn Blaze. Wallflower was wearing her usual brown sweater and jeans, her dark green hair falling onto her lighter green freckled face as she laughed and barely able to hold onto her plate. Autumn was in the same boat as her friend as she too was having trouble sitting there due to all her laughter. Today she was wearing a new outfit, a top that looked like green scales along with a whitish open cut blouse and matching skirt. Her curly, lion-like mango colored hair bounced as she laughed while her cheeks turned red. Both girls also looked like at any time their laughter would cause tears to fall from their eyes.

Still, it was nothing compared to how Lightning Dust was reacting. The girl was on the opposite three seater, laying on her back. Her turquoise hands were on her stomach as she kicked the air in front of her over and over again as she howled in laughter, her amber hair slicked back as it rolled from side to side along with her head. Like with some of the others, she had food on her clothing which consisted of a black jacket with yellow lines going down her arms, a light blue shirt with a lightning bolt and three stars on it, and grey pants. It amazed Hunter that she could laugh like this for so long, seemingly never pausing to come up for air! Just out of reach from her legs was Pharynx, who was sitting there holding his plate away from Lightning. Thankfully he was not laughing like the others, but there was amusement in his face as he shifted his attention from Lightning to the screen and then back again. The only other guy in the room was wearing a white and blue striped long sleeve shirt and jeans over his dark cyan skin. His dark crimson hair was slicked back, except for two sections that seemed to stick up like horns.

“Can we please just turn this off?” begged Hunter, head still firmly resting in his hands as he heard another fit of laughter fill the room.

“Why?” laughed Lightning, grinning broadly as she got onto her elbows so she could look at the screen again. “This is priceless!”

Hunter let out another groan as he looked up sadly at the screen where an old home movie was playing. The quality of the film was not great, made from an old video camera that had belonged to Hunter’s dad before he begrudgingly switched to digital. What they were watching now was one of the many videos that had been transferred to DVD. DVDs that had been left at Hunter’s old home after his parents skipped town, taken in by his Aunt Star Chart before the house was put up for sale. DVDs that had been found by a snooping Lightning Dust.

The one they were currently watching was one of the oldest ones they had as indicated by the grating of the images, magnified thanks to the plasma TV. To be honest, Hunter couldn’t even remember where the film had been shot at. Some lake house his parents had rented when he was younger was the best guess he had. Hunter could tell that his father, or whoever was controlling the camera, was a far distance away from the action taking place: namely a mock sword fight between Hunter and Chaser. Both of them were using old, broken fishing poles designed for small children as their instruments of combat as they swung them around like they were a mix of broad swords and fencing weapons. It…It was so embarrassing for him to watch. Over and over they swung their makeshift weapons at each other, hitting arms and legs and even at times poking the other in the chest before knocking the other into the shallow, seaweed-invested water. Often the loser of the bout would come out while tugging the green water life off of his face or covered in muck. The worst they had seen so far was when the boy that had been Hunter came out of the water with a couple of crawfishes in his hair, causing him to panic as Chaser swatted them with his fishing pole.

“Come on, you looked so cute back then,” giggled Moondancer before placing a kiss on his cheek.

“It’s just some good natured ribbing,” said Pharynx, pausing from looking at the scene to watch Lightning roll off the couch in a fit of laughter. Now, even after falling on her back, she was still laughing like she had just heard the greatest joke of all time. “Just think of it as a humbling experience, Captain.”

“Yeah well,” began Hunter as saw Chaser jumping into the water, grabbing large handfuls of muck in both hands. Before the image of his younger brother could be shown hurling them at him, Hunter reached for the remote and turned off the screen. “Consider me humbled. And all good things must come to an end.”

As Hunter reached to grab his plate of cake again, the laughter was beginning to die down. Thankfully, Hunter’s action had not ruined the good mode of the celebration party for him being named Captain of the Canterlot Dueling Team and Lightning Dust being named Vice-Captain. Everyone was all smiles as they went back to their food…except Lightning Dust. The girl was crawling off the ground still laughing her head off like she had never seen two kids pretending to sword fight with fishing poles before. Or maybe what she thought was so funny was who those two kids would turn out to be. Regardless, Lightning managed to get onto her feet before plopping down into Pharynx’s lap. Much to his, as well as everyone else’s confusion.

“Yeah well, still don’t know why they made you Captain when you didn’t even win your match,” said Lightning as she took Pharynx’s plate for him. Quickly she took hold of the fork, scooping up a piece of cake, and then took a bite. “Wouldn’t it make sense to go with someone who won their duel? Like one of us girls?”

Moondancer rolled her eyes at this. “That was a bad match up,” she said. “Besides, Coach Luna was the one who picked him since he’s the only one in this room who passed the entrance exam at Crystal Prep.”

“Not to mention that you only won your match because of the cards he gave you,” added Pharynx causing Lightning to become a little nervous, gulping loudly. “Nearly all of us took some of Hunter’s cards and it helped us all out.”

“Also, he is the only one of us with a one of a kind deck,” said Wallflower. “I mean, who hasn’t dreamed of having the creator of Duel Monsters giving you a deck that no one else has? Then having that same man build us an area for dueling!”

“Speaking of which,” said Moondancer as she looked at Hunter. “How’s it going with that deck? Finally gotten the hang of it?”

Hunter didn’t respond right away, instead reaching for his belt where his deck box was firmly attached. With a flip, he opened the lid to pull out the numerous cards. “I think I have. It plays very differently than my old Shaddoll deck, but I was able to pick up on the game play fairly quickly. It did need some help from some other cards and, with what I’ve added, I’ll be able to use fusion, synchro, and XYZ monsters. So far, in all my practice matches with this deck, I’ve been able to use at least two of the three in one round.”

“That,” began Lightning as she stared at Hunter, pointing a fork in his direction. However, as the seconds passed, she seemed unable to come up with anything to say to counter any of the points raised. Or, maybe, it was sinking in that Coach Luna was the one with the final say thus making any argument with them mute. Finally she let out a sigh of defeat as she leaned back a bit into Pharynx’s chest. “Fine, I guess I can settle for being Vice Captain…for now at least. So oh wise leader, what’s it like being Captain?”

Hunter let out a small groan as he put his deck away. “So far a lot of meetings for the future,” he said while thinking back to when he was last inside Vice Principal/Coach Luna’s office. “On Monday I’m meeting with Principal Celestia and Coach Luna to go over rules. Things like dueling request form submissions, how school wide tournaments will be handled, recruitment of a JV Dueling Team, how practices are going to work, some tag team training, and so on. Just a lot of stuff to help get the team off the ground before we get our next match.”

“And…what am I doing?” asked Lightning as she raised an eyebrow.

Hunter let out a sigh before smiling at her slightly. “You get the dreaded duty of filling in for me with the team,” he said. “Basically, right now, you can schedule practices and run them however you see fit while I’m gone.”

For a moment, Lightning was silent as she took this in. Then she scooped up another piece of cake before pointing her fork at Hunter. “So, you’re telling me that I get all of the perks with none of the work?” she asked before eating her cake.

“Up until we’re done,” said Hunter. “And any other time I can’t make it to practice.”

“AWESOME!” cheered Lightning as she punched the air, still holding the fork. Bits of cake crumbs and frosting fell down on her, but she didn’t care at all. “Hey, maybe being Vice Captain won’t be so bad! And if I do a good job, maybe it’ll help me get your position next year. I can’t wait to tell Rainbow about that during soccer practice!”

“Guess that means the rumors are true then,” said Pharynx, causing Lightning to turn her head around to look at the boy she was still sitting on. “I heard a rumor that Coach Iron got canned. That and maybe you and Rainbow have made up.”

“Yeah, feels good now that we cleared the air. Even better now that I can put this awesome body to use,” said Lightning who oddly wiggled her rear on Pharynx’s lap a bit. Despite Lightning’s smirking face blocking most of his view, Hunter could still see a bit of Pharynx’s face. Enough to know that the other boy was blushing now. “We’re going to be busting so many heads that people will be talking about how awesome we are for years to come! Not to mention the duel between us!”

“So that is happening,” said Moondancer as she leaned forward in her seat, resting her chin in the palm of her hand. “I heard from Rainbow that you two still haven’t decided on a date to have your big throw down. Any reason why? I would have assumed that it would have been the first thing you two did as soon as you saw the dueling arena.”

Lightning smirked at that. “Well Four-Eyes, we plan on giving this our all,” she said. “Our decks got new support and we both agreed to give ourselves time to both get them and fine tune them. It’s going to be a duel on a whole other level.”

“Oh that reminds me,” said Pharynx. “I got something for you Lightning for your duel. If you wouldn’t mind getting up I could…” Lightning looked torn for a moment in Hunter’s eyes. Like she wanted to see what he had gotten her but really didn’t want to get up. For a brief moment, he spared a glance at Moondancer who shot him back a knowing like. Both of them had been speculating on whether or not these two were into each other or if there would be a love triangle between Pharynx, Lightning, and Sweetie Drops. When he looked back, Hunter saw that Lightning had decided to stand up with a groan allowing a very awkward Pharynx to quickly dig into his pocket for a card encased in a plastic cover. He handed the card to Lightning who looked at it briefly before a hand went up to cover her mouth.

“I,” she began before suddenly surprising everyone as she rushed Pharynx, pressing her body tightly against his while their lips locked for several long seconds. When it was over, Pharynx looked like he had no idea what had just happened as Lightning just sat next to him like nothing had happened at all. She was just grinning as she stared at the card in her hand. “This card. I have been opening packs all week hoping to get this card! Rainbow isn’t going to know what hit her!”

“That…I…” mumbled Pharynx as he stared into space, his cheeks burning red.

“Looks like there’s someone else who doesn’t know what hit him,” whispered Moondancer into Hunter’s ear.

“Hey, don’t forget about us!” said Autumn loudly, gaining everyone’s attention. “Because we have something to celebrate as well. Principal Celestia has given the thumbs up on this year’s play!”

Lightning let out a small groan. “Please tell me you aren’t doing another Disney play,” she groaned. “I am so sick of seeing people putting on their own Frozen or High School Musical!”

At that, Autumn puffed out her chest while holding her head high. “Please, give me a little credit here. We decided to go with a musical classic: The Phantom of the Opera! And it is going to be awesome! I already have Trixie working on the pyrotechnics and other special effects so we can get it as close to the original Broadway production! She’s already brought in several samples and they are amazing! Even better, I have already picked out our star: Wallflower Blush!” At that point, Wallflower (who had been drinking her soda at the time) looked like she was about to choke. She had to set her drink down, coughing and pounding her chest as Hunter and Pharynx got up to help her. But before either of them could take more than a few steps, the girl seemed to calm down.

“Me?” gasped Wallflower as the two boys went back to their seats.

“Of course you,” said Autumn as she wrapped an arm around her friend. “There is no one better suited for the role. You shall play the ever important role of Christine, the chorus girl who has always sung in the background and never noticed until you are finally given your time to shine thanks to the help of the mysterious Phantom. There you will become entangled in mystery, death, passion, romance!”

“I guess when you put it that way,” began Wallflower, looking down while her entire face as well as her ears were tinted scarlet. Yet, before she could finish her sentence, the door to the apartment opened with a bang. All of the members of the Dueling Team jumped in their seats, looking over to see a woman talking on her phone.

“And I’m telling you it’s forged,” growled Hunter’s Aunt Star Chart into the phone, slamming the door to the apartment behind her before making a bee-line to the fridge. Even from where Hunter sat, he could see that Star Chart’s free hand was clenched in an angry fist as she looked menacingly before her. It didn’t stay closed for long as she quickly opened the fridge, grabbing a can of beer, and then twirling around while kicking the door closed with her foot. In the process, Star Chart’s long flowing dark indigo hair swirled around her but not to obstruct her piercing yellow, almost slitted eyes. Today she was wearing a black, form fitting dress over her grayish skin. Finally, she was also wearing her silver cross around her neck which she always wore no matter what.

Everyone watched her as she brought her head back to down some of the beer, before quickly shooting her head back up. “Listen to me; you’d better have proof that I signed that document because I’m willing to fight this in court if I have to! So make all the threats you want but you won’t be seeing a single penny from me!” Harshly, she ended the call before looking like she was ready to throw the phone on the ground before stomping on it. She seemed to reconsider this, thankfully, as she saw that there were guests. That or she realized she was about to destroy a $1000 phone.

“Sorry about that,” she said, walking over to the teens before plopping down on the couch next to Pharynx, her well sized breasts bouncing as she did so. Both teens on the couch stared at her, Lightning shooting an annoyed glared at the mounds while Pharynx looked more like he wanted to look away but found it very difficult.

“What was that about?” asked Hunter as he watched his aunt gulp down more beer.

“Nothing much,” said Aunt Chart as she moved the half drunk can away from her mouth. “Just the First Canterlot Bank demanding that the overdue loans your parents got were paid. Right now they’re on the line for over one hundred thousand dollars.”

“Well, that explains how we were getting by without either of them working,” muttered Hunter, thinking back to the last time he had seen his parents. He could still see them sitting in front of the TV, fast food wrappings littered across the floor along with assorted junk. Just sitting there watching old footage of Chaser, crying over his fall from grace as the house became more and more unlivable. They barely even seemed to register that he was leaving; paying more attention to one of the awards Chaser had gotten which had become uneven. Not even the final notice from the Hollow Shades Credit Union had seemed to get their attention. Hunter then let out a heavy sigh. “So, why are they calling you?”

Aunt Star Chat let out a dark laugh before setting her drink down on the table. “Yeah, I was kind of wondering that as well until, low and behold, they told me that apparently I was a co-signer on the loans.” Again, Star Chart chuckled darkly. “Probably the only way the bank would give them a penny. Anyways, since they can’t find those two, they’re demanding that I make payments in their place. Like that’ll happen.”

“I’m sorry,” said Hunter, guilt building up in his gut. But almost at once, Aunt Star Chart held up her hand.

“Hey kiddo, I’m not blaming you in the slightest,” she said, her eyes softening as she looked at Hunter. Slowly she gave him the kind smile she usually reserved just for him when he was having a bad time at family gatherings and the like. “The only person who you are truly responsible for is yourself. And don’t worry about me; I can handle a couple paper pushers like them.” She then waved him off before he could say another word. “But enough of all this downer talk. We’re at a party right now! So let’s celebrate while we can!”

This got a cheer from the rest of the team, Hunter giving his aunt a small smile as she reached over to pick up her beer can. He watched as she held it up high, as if to make a toast, only for there to be a loud knock at the door. Everyone became silent, Hunter seeing in the eyes of everyone there the same questions: Were they too loud and the neighbors came to demand they calm down? Or was it the bank, perhaps sending some loan collector? They all sat in silence for another moment or two waiting. When no more sounds were heard, Aunt Star Chart turned back to them while lowering her can back to her lips. But before she could take a slip there was more knocking on the door, louder this time.

“Fine,” growled the lone adult in the room as she got up. Quickly she made her way across the apartment, the knocking continuing the entire time. When she reached it, the woman swung the door open while looking like she was ready to tell whoever it was off. Only her words died in her throat as she saw two men in suits and trench coats standing at the door. And one of them was holding a police badge.

“Is this the home of Star Chart and Star Hunter?” asked the one holding the badge. When Aunt Star Chart nodded in the affirmative, the man nodded as he put the badge back into his coat pocket. “I’m sorry to tell you this, but there has been an incident. Star Chaser has escaped.”

Author's Note

Well its the next week