My Little Duel Monsters

by supersaiyanmikito

First published 1st of October, 2011

"Yu-Gi-Oh! Crossover" - An ancient evil from Celestia's mysterious past has resurfaced sending Equestria into darkness, now it's up to the help of a prince from a faraway world to banish the darkness or lose everything.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Crossover
*Note* Takes place sometime after the Season 2 Premier, "Return of Harmony."

Princess Celestia's past is a mystery to most and nopony truly knows about the details of her life during the thousand years Luna was banished to the moon. Mistakes were made, enemies were fought and most were lost to the times... But there is one mistake she made that continues to haunt her to this very day...

But when a mysterious pair of ponies appear in Ponyville, an ancient evil long forgotten reveals itself. Can this five thousand year old Pharaoh really save Equestria with a simple deck of cards?

Chapter 1 - A New World

It was a nice summer day in Domino City. The sun was bright, people were going to and from work and of course, the everyday ‘Duel Monsters battle to the finish!’

“It won’t be long now until your title is finally mine Yugi; you don’t stand a chance this time. You’re down to your last 700 life points with no monsters on the field and I have my Blue-Eyes White Dragon out on the field. You can’t win!”

Yugi Moto; currently Yami; and Seto Kaiba, Domino City’s biggest rivals were having another battle to determine who was better. Kaiba had set the match to take place on the second biggest building in the city, second to KaibaCorp headquarters. Their battle overlooked the entire city.

“Don’t be so sure Kaiba! It’s my move!” Yugi placed two fingers and the top of his deck and dramatically drew his next card. He then slowly turned the card over so he could see it. “Alright Kaiba, watch this! I activate my first face down card, Pitch Black Power Stone!” Yugi pressed one of the buttons of the back of his Duel Disk, causing a face down card to slowly flip up revealing a trap card. “This card gives me access to 3 extra spell counters.”

“HA! A couple measly Spell Counters aren’t going to help you!” Kaiba was always arrogant. He never realized when he was beat. “If that’s your best then I suggest giving up now.”

“You thought that was all?”

“What are you planning!?”

“I activate my other face down, Miracle Restoring!”

“OH NO!”

“Oh yes… By removing 2 spell counters from my Pitch-Black Power Stone, I can summon the Dark Magician that is in my graveyard...” The stone began to glow. “Now come forth my monster!” The blue sphere created by Yugi’s Miracle Restoring card exploded in a large blinding yellow light. When the light cleared, a new monster stood on Yugi’s side of the field. “Come out my Dark Magician!” The monster was well known as Yugi Moto’s signature monster, a staff wielding wizard wearing purple armor and a large pointed hat.

“Yugi, I won’t let you defeat me again!”

“Sorry Kaiba, but I already have duel in the palm of my hand.” Yugi took the last card he was holding in his hand and slid it into one of the slots on the back of his Duel Disk. “I activate Polymerization to merge my reborn Dark Magician with the Buster Blader in my hand!” Yugi’s final card flipped up and moved in between Yugi’s Dark Magician and Buster Blader. The two monsters started swirling together into a weird vortex as look of utter fear appeared in Kaiba’s eyes as though looking into the eyes of Death himself. He knew what was coming. “Now I summon Dark Paladin, the ultimate wizard! There was another explosion as a single monster with an appearance similar to Dark Magician but his armor was blue with a red trim and he was wielding a long bladed staff. He twirled the staff several times up above his head before slamming the end on the ground sending out a mass of shockwaves. The force nearly pushed Kaiba off the building.

“I know you have experienced with this monster in the past Kaiba...” Yugi was right. This was the same monster he used to defeat him in the Battle City finals. Kaiba would never forget that battle. The day where he lost his Egyptian God card and the day where he and Yugi were sent back in time to find Egypt in ruins. “As you know, Dark Paladin gains 500 attack points for every dragon on the field and in the graveyard. You have 4 dragons in your graveyard plus the Blue-Eyes White Dragon on your field. That means my Paladin gains 2500 attack points!”

Kaiba suddenly lost all confidence. “But that is enough to-”

“Take out the rest your life points... Now my Paladin, attack and destroy his Blue-Eyes White Dragon!”

Kaiba began to yell out in anger like he always does. “I won’t let you win again, especially not with same monster! I activate my face down card, Enemy Controller!” A giant video game controller appeared in front of Kaiba head. “Go controller, Up, down, left, right, B, A!” The button pressed themselves down as Kaiba called of the inputs.

“Kaiba, don’t you realize that cheating gets you nowhere?” Yugi’s sarcastic remark only made Kaiba angry. “By discarding a card from my hand, my Paladin is able to negate your magic card.” Yugi plucked out a card from his hand and slid it into the open slot on the front of the Duel Disk.

“NO! THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE!” Dark Paladin blasted the controller, turning it into a smoldering pile of plastic.

“Face it Kaiba, you’ve lost...” Dark Paladin held his staff up high yelling a battle cry. “Dark Paladin, attack Kaiba’s Blue-Eyes and end this duel!” Dark Paladin twirled his staff before slamming it against the ground. The impact sent out a massive blade-like shockwave that sliced through the ground leaving a large line behind it.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!” The wave passed through Kaiba’s dragon cutting him in half like butter. Kaiba stood there holding his arm in front of his face trying to block out the smoke that was covering the field. The massive explosion could be seen the city streets.

“It’s finished...” The wizard standing on Yugi’s side quickly vanished and Yugi retracted his Duel Disk into its off state. He walked up to Kaiba who was now on one knee.

“Why? Why can I never defeat you?”

“No matter how many times you ask, the answer will always be the same.”

“Yah yah, the heart of the cards and all that junk...” Kaiba stood back up looking down at Yugi.

“Until you can truly grasp the heart of the cards, you’ll never win. You let you’re jealousy and arrogance cloud you’re mind.”

“Listen Yugi, I don’t need any of your magic mumbo jumbo in order to win. I am a champion duelist, and eventually I will defeat you and claim what is rightfully mine.”

“Kaiba...” Yugi had some frustration in his voice.

“Enough...” Kaiba rose back to his feet again and towered over Yugi. “I’m not going to listen to your garbage anymore. Since I did drag you up here I am willing to give you a ride but I want to hear no more heart of the card crap.”

“Alright, I accept your offer.” A helicopter with the logo ‘KC’ on the side appeared in the distance. It came and touched down on the building. Roland, Kaiba’s right-hand man signaled for the two to get on.

“This is our ride Yugi. Better get on now, I’m not waiting for you.” Kaiba and Yugi hopped into the chopper and set off. The trip was pretty standard, for a while anyway... Yugi spent the trip staring outside the window, not really focused on anything. Then he looked up at the sun that was almost completely set on the horizon.

"Yugi…"

“Huh?” Yugi was a bit startled. He looked back at Kaiba who was looking out the other window. He was not paying him any attention. He looked back outside at the sun again. “That was strange…” While he looked out the window, he noticed something odd about the sun. He tried to focus in on but all he could make out was a very faint figure. It had wings and what looked like to be a pointed head.

“Yugi? Hey Yugi...” Kaiba held out his arm and snapped his fingers a couples times. “Hello? Is anybody in there?”

“Huh?” he turned back to Kaiba.

“It looked like you were in a trance or something. I guess that is pretty normal for you though.”

“I thought I heard a voice…”

“Not again...”

“I’m being serious Kaiba. It sounded like someone was calling for me and I thought I saw some image in the sun.”

“You know staring at the sun is not healthy for your eyesight?”

“Hmm…” Yugi reached into his deck box and pulled out three cards, Slifer the Sky Dragon, Obelisk the Tormentor and the Winged Dragon of Ra. He stared at them for a short bit. ‘Could this be somehow connected to the god cards? Or perhaps…’ He looked down at the Puzzle hanging around his neck. ‘Perhaps it’s something inside my Millennium Puzzle?’ Suddenly, his puzzle and the god card in his hand started to glow. “What the?”

“Yugi, what’s with light show!?”

“I don’t know. The gods are reacting for some reason!” ‘Does it have something to do with the voice I heard?’ It was bright. They couldn’t see anything but each other.

“This better not be another trick, Yugi!”

“I’m not doing this Kaiba! The gods are doing this on their own!”

The chopper rocked and shook. Roland was having trouble keeping the chopper stable. “Mr. Kaiba, what is going on back there!?” He tried looking back but even his sunglasses didn’t stop the bright light. He gripped onto the controls and tried to stabilize the spinning chopper; it took a few seconds but he eventually got things back on track. He sighed and wiped the sweat off his face. He activated the autopilot and stepped back where Yugi and Kaiba were. Only now they were nowhere to be found. “Uh… Mr. Moto? Mr. Kaiba? Anyone?” He was completely alone. “Oh boy, Mokuba is not going to be pleased when he hears about this…”

Yugi and Kaiba found themselves falling in the center of a large blue and orange vortex. Neither of them had any idea what was going on. Yugi looked over towards Kaiba who was yelling and looking down into the void below. Kaiba seemed to flash blue for a fraction of a second. Yugi wasn’t sure but it felt like the blue aura was making the shape of something. Yugi suddenly flashed purple, just like Kaiba did. The edge of the vortex was very slightly transparent; Yugi could see what looked like mountains and landscapes outside. As he looked down into the black void below him, a pair of red eyes looked back at him. The faint shape of a pair of wings came into view before he blacked out.

Seto Kaiba awoke with a splitting headache and no idea of what just happened. He slowly opened his eyes to see he was in some kind of hospital. A feeling of relief fell over him knowing he was still alive. He’s already lost his soul twice, once by Pegasus and again by Dartz, and he didn’t want it happening again. However something was off. He felt a little uncomfortable in his current position, like there was something on his back.

“I’m glad to see you are awake.” Kaiba turned and saw something truly unexpected and terrifying. A small white horse standing next to the bed... Talking to him!

“What the!? What are you!?” Kaiba jumped at the sight of this thing. “What is going on!? Where am I!?”

“I thought you would react this way. Your friend was the same when he learned he was a pony.”

Kaiba thought for a second before responding. “When he learned he was a-” Kaiba looked down at his hands... or at least what was left of them. His hands were flat like hooves and he had grown wings that were sticking out through holes in his shirt. He had a dark blue coat and a brown mane that resembled his normal hair. “WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME!?” He charged at the horse nurse and grabbed her. “You better tell me what is going on here!?”

“Just go into the waiting room. Your friend will explain everything.”

“You better be right.” Kaiba released the pony and slowly trotted out of the room, eyeing the weird white pony that stood by the bed. As Kaiba left the room, he saw a violet-color pony with spiky black and yellow hair and a blue jacket. “YUGI!” Yugi turned around; his eyes were now innocent and hair was not as spiky as before. “You better explain to me what’s going on here RIGHT NOW! This better not be one of your pathetic illusions.

“Well…I’m not really sure myself. I pretty much had the same experience you did.” Yugi voice had also changed, making him sound like a child.

Kaiba groaned. “First I’m sucked up by some bright light then I wake up to find out I have been turned into some idiotic cartoon horse! This is downright humiliating!”

“At least we are not alone.” Yugi looked around the hospital waiting. There were no humans at all; just ponies of many different colors. Some ponies had wings, some had horns and some had neither. “Wherever we are, these horses seem to act just like the humans in our world. I haven’t seen a single human since we got here.”

“How do I know we were not just thrown into another digital realm like before?”

Yugi looked down at his hooves. “That is a good point but somehow I don’t think that is case. We have newly shaped bodies but I still feel… Me… If you understand what I am saying.”

“Well I refuse to stay in some little town that looks like it’s from a cartoon made for girls. There is no way this is real!”

“Kaiba please, we need to focus. There must be somebody here who can help us.”

About that time, a lavender horned pony come in through the front door and approached the receptionist. “Hello, I was informed you recently had a couple odd ponies come in, a purple unicorn and a blue pegasus.” The mare pointed over towards Yugi and Kaiba. “Thank you Miss.” The horned pony approached them. “Hello.”

“Hi?” Yugi replied reluctantly. “Do you know us?”

“I got a letter telling me to head over to the Ponyville Hospital to meet a pair of ponies, a purple unicorn pony and a blue pegasus.” She looked up at Yugi’s head. “Wait a minute, where is your horn? I was told you were a unicorn.”

Yugi placed his hoof on his head and felt around. “Well, the nurse said I had a horn when they brought me in but it seems to have mysteriously vanished.”

“Strange… Anyway, my name is Twilight Sparkle. What about you?”

“My name is Yugi Moto.”

Twilight turned to Kaiba. “And you?”

Kaiba didn’t respond too well. “Now you listen here, I am the president of the biggest gaming company in the world and I demand answers as to where we are or I’ll face the entire weight of the Kaiba Corporation!”

“Woh Kaiba, calm down...” Yugi interrupted. “She is clearly here to help. The nicest thing you can do is listen to what she has to say. You are here to help us right?”

“Of course!” Twilight peeped. “I wouldn’t be where I am today if I didn’t help ponies in need.”

“Good because needless to say, we are a little lost...”

“That’s OK! Why don’t you pick up your stuff and we’ll head over to my tree house.”

“Tree house?” Kaiba questioned. “This is going to be a looooooong day...”

Ignoring Kaiba, Yugi had walked up to front desk and was talking with the pony. “We’re here to pick up our stuff. I came in with Duel Disk, a deck of Duel Monster cards and a necklace that looked like pyramid.”

The desk attendant raised her eyebrow. “A Duel what now?”

“Oh uh...” He had forgotten that he was in a completely different world, one where Duel Monsters appears to have never been invented. He had to think of something. “It’s a round thing with wings-like things you slide into your arm...” The attendant continued to look in disbelief but pulled out a box with Yugi’s stuff anyway. “Thank you ma’am.” He reached into the box and pulled out his Duel Disk. It took a little effort but he eventually slipped it onto his front left hoof. Next he took his belt and wrapped it around his waist. Luckily his box still had his cards. Finally, he took his Millennium Puzzle and wrapped it around his next. The second he dropped it and it fell on his shoulders, Yugi froze and jerked back with a quick burst of light.

“YUGIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!”

Yugi’s hair had spiked outward and a horn spontaneously appeared on his head. “What the, where am I?” Then he looked down at his hooves. “AH, where are my hands!?”

Twilight was confused about what just happened. “Um… Well his horn is back but what exactly is going on?”

“Slow down there Yami! Everything is ok.” Yugi felt an arm on his shoulder. It was Yugi’s spirit standing behind him that only he could see.

“Yugi? What exactly is going on?”

“Well that’s what I am trying to figure out Yami. From what I can tell, we have been transported to another world and we have become some kind of miniature horse called a pony.”

“Well that would explain what that weird light did but why are we ponies?”

“Hmm... Maybe ponies are the dominant species in this world? They seem to do everything humans do back in our world.” Yugi pointed his hoof over to the lavender unicorn. “That is Twilight Sparkle. I think she wants to help us out and she seems nice enough.”

“You mean that purple one standing by... Standing by... Is that? Is that Kaiba?”

“Yeah, needless to say he is a little disgruntled right now...” Yugi looked back at the Pharaoh and looked him over. He looked pretty much the same as him just slightly different hair and a horn. “Oh, so THAT is what happened to my horn!”

Yami was confused. Using his hoof, he felt his forehead. Sure enough, there was a little stump sticking a few inches out of his head. “Huh, would you look at that.” As he touched it, a golden spark shot out. “Oh, it’s magic…”

“Maybe that is why you have a horn and I don’t. You have a history with magic and I am just a normal person.”

“Interesting… So what do you propose we do now that we are here?”

“Twilight said she would take us to her home. She didn’t say anything about what is going on but she is the only lead we have.”

“I guess it’s better than nothing…” Yugi vanished and Yami approached Twilight.

“What was that all about?” Twilight asked. “First you grow a horn and then you begin talking to yourself. What is going on here?”

“Huh… I guess I have quite a bit to explain…”

Yugi, Kaiba and Twilight headed though Ponyville towards Twilight’s home. On the way, Yugi tried to explain the situation between him and the real Yugi. “So you see, I am a completely different person then who you met back at the hospital. Yugi and I share a body and we can swap at will.”

“So what is your name then?” Twilight asked.

Yugi stopped for a moment. “Well, I don’t actually know...”

“I don’t follow…”

“There is a lot about my past I don’t know; all of my memories were lost. All I know is that I am pharaoh from Egypt over 5000 years ago and that I somehow became sealed within this-” Yugi grabbed the puzzle around his neck and showed it to her.

Twilight examined the puzzle. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”

“It’s actually one of seven Millennium Items as they are called. This one is the Millennium Puzzle.”

“So if you can’t remember your name, what do they call you?”

“Most people just continue to call me Yugi since we share a body but I am called Yami or Pharaoh on occasions.”

“So, Yami, are you really over 5000 years old?”

“If what I have been told is true then yes.”

“That is amazing! You are even older then the Princess!”

“The Princess?”

Twilight nodded. “Princess Celestia, she controls the sun. I’m also her number one student and personal protégé.”

Yami’s mind stopped. “Can you repeat that? Controls the sun?”

Twilight chuckled at Yami's ‘joke’. “It’s not like it moves on its own. Who ever thought of a colony where nature controls itself? That’s why the Everfree Forest is so weird.”

Yugi’s spirit appeared again. “They control nature here?” Yugi asked.

“This world is quite unusual. I am quite interested to see what else this place has in store. Maybe we will find out the reason we were brought here. I get the feeling our puzzle had nothing to do with us being here.”

“Yeah, I have that feeling too. This doesn’t seem like anything we have experienced in the past.”

“Hey guys, we’re here.” interrupted Kaiba. They were now standing in front of a large hollowed out tree. “Well, at least now I can see how the economy of this world is...”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Twilight replied.

“Don’t mind Kaiba... He owns KaibaCorp, the biggest gaming company in the world and I imagine he is not exactly happy with the living conditions.”

“KaibaCorp? Is that why his cutie mark is a large KC?”

“What the heck is a Cutie mark?” Kaiba asked.

“All ponies have a cutie mark.” She pointed to the stars on her flank. “It’s supposed to appear on your flank when you discover you’re special talent.”

“That’s... strange...” Kaiba looked over at Yugi’s flank. He had a golden eye much like the one that appeared on each of the Millennium items. Suddenly Yugi reverted back to his normal state. His cutie mark changed to a black smiley face.

“How about we go in?” Yugi asked. “It will be nice to get some relax after today…”

“I’ll have Spike warm up some tea for us.” Twilight pushed open the door. It was completely dark inside. “Huh, Spike must be over at Rarity’s place. Now, where is that light switch?”

The light flashed on and a large amount of ponies crowded the 3 ponies in the middle. “SURPRISE!”

“What in the world is going on here?” Kaiba shouted.

“Why it’s a party of course.” A hyperactive Pink pony came bouncing out of the crowd. She looked like she had too much coffee. “When I heard there were new ponies in town, I knew I had to throw a surprise party because I do that with every pony! But first I had figure out where you were going and I thought “Duh” they are going to Twilight’s place because all the new ponies go to Twilight’s! So I called everyone in town for a surprise party and here we are now! So, were you surprised? Were you, were you, were you!?” The pink pony stood directly in front of Kaiba, almost making contact with his eyes.

“Get out of my face... or some… pony is going to get hurt...”

“Aww, don’t be such a party pooper.” She then turned her attention to Yugi. “How about you, what’s your name?”

“Pinkie Pie! You couldn’t even let them get acquainted before throwing a party?” Twilight yelled.

“Yep...”

“Pinkie Pie, you are so random...”

“Sooooo, are you going to introduce those two?”

“Oh, of course! This here is Yugi Moto and Seto Kaiba. They are from uhhh...”

“Domino City...” Yugi added.

Pinkie Pie began to look at them. She had a weird look in her eyes that he couldn’t place his hoof on... “Okie Dokie Loki!”

“I guess since everyone is here already, I’ll introduce you to my friends.” Twilight asked.

“You do whatever you want.” Kaiba replied. “I’ll do what I want…”

“Whatever… You already met Pinkie Pie. She is… Interesting… Don’t question what she does or how she does it. Trust me; it didn’t end well for me. Anyway, let’s meet my other friends.” Twilight pulled Yugi through the crowd. Yugi found himself in front of 2 new ponies. “Girls, this is Yugi. He is the one Pinkie is throwing this party for.”

First one to speak up was the orange earth pony wearing a hat. “Well hello Yugi, my name is Applejack.” Yugi shook her hooves. “It’s always nice to see new ponies around, at least ones that are not jerks…”

“Um… Yeah…” Yugi replied.

Next a light blue pegasus with rainbow hair stepped up. “My name is Rainbow Dash, best flier in all of Equestria.”

Suddenly, Applejack smacked Rainbow over the head. “You just met him. Can’t you at least wait before you bragging like that?”

“I don’t really mind.” Yugi replied. “She reminds of a friend I have back home. He may be a bit of a loudmouth but I know he means well and that he has the potential to do great things.”

“You sound like you know a lot about friendship.” Twilight replied.

“That’s because all my friends and I all share a powerful bond.” Yugi raised up his left hoof. “The ink may have faded but we all carry a symbol of our friendship right here on the back of our hands.”

“Like a drawing? Is that what you’re cutie mark is?”

Yugi looked back at his cutie mark to see the same face Tea had drawn on their hands. “Yep, exactly the same.”

“A friendship cutie mark?” Applejack asked. “Now ain’t that sumthin. You’ll fit in just perfect with us.”

Yugi turned back to Twilight who appeared to be looking around. “What is it Twilight?”

“I can’t find Rarity or Fluttershy…”

“Oh, they are over there.” Rainbow pointed over at the other side of the room where a white unicorn and a yellow pegasus were approaching Kaiba. “They look like they are talking to that blue pegasus over there.”

“Oh no, not Kaiba…” Twilight muttered.

Rarity and Fluttershy had approached Kaiba who was in the middle of reading a book. He stopped when he noticed he was being watched. “Can I help you something?”

“Oh, well Pinkie Pie told us you were one of the new ponies in town and I wanted to meet you.”

“Well good for you. Now leave me, I don’t feel like talking.”

“My how rude. We are just trying to welcome you into Ponyville.”

“Well it was not my choice to be here. I’d rather be back home. I have a company to manage.”

“Oh you run a company? What kind of company.”

“A gaming company, the biggest and richest company in the world.”

“So you make board games or something?”

“No, we develop software and equipment for the game of Duel Monsters. Now can you please go away?”

“Oh come on, we are just trying to be nice. Can’t you at least show us this duel monsters or something.”

“You want to see a Duel Monster?”

“Indeed…”

“Alright then…” Kaiba closed his book and stood up and held his left hoof into the air. The wings on his duel disk came out and rotated up connecting at the ends and rotated back down to the outer edge of his arm. He placed his right hoof on his deck. Despite not having fingers, he was somehow able to grip his cards just fine is if he had fingers. “How about I show you my almighty Blue-Eyes White Dragon!?” He held the card up and threw it down onto his duel disk. A large rainbow projection appeared behind him forming a giant creature. Soon the features became clear. It was large white dragon with a round snout and dark blue eyes. It gave an extremely loud roar that got the attention of all the ponies in the party.

“DRAGON!!!” Pinkie Pie screamed. All the guests suddenly ran for the door trying to get out. In less than a minute, everyone was gone except for Yugi, Kaiba, Twilight, Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity and Fluttershy who was currently hiding behind Rarity in fear.

Yugi approached Kaiba. “Seriously, Kaiba… What did you go and do that for?”

“Hey, she wanted to see a Duel Monster and that’s what she got.” He remarked sarcastically.

“Couldn’t you have shown something a little nicer?” Rarity asked. “You scared Fluttershy half to death.”

“What do I care? People are usually in awe to the power of my Blue-Eyes White Dragon.”

Yugi sighed and held out his left as his Duel Disk rotated into place. He drew a card from his deck and threw it down. Yugi’s ace monster, his Dark Magician materialized in front of him. The cowering Fluttershy opened her eyes to see the large man in purple standing in front of her opposing the scary dragon. “What… Is that?”

Yugi turned back to Fluttershy. “That is my good friend, the Dark Magician.”

“Oooh…”

“Hey Yugi…” Twilight interrupted. “Mind telling me what is going on here? Why is there suddenly a dragon and some magician in my library?”

“These are Duel Monsters. It’s a game we play back home.”

“So is that what the device and cards are for?”

Yugi nodded. “Uh Huh, it’s a really famous game back home. It even has some historical importance. I could show you how to play the game if you want.”

A pink blur busted in through the door and a grinning Pinkie Pie was now standing in front of Yugi. “Did you say game!?”

“Then it’s settled. I’ll show you how to play Duel Monster. First thing you need to know is that there are 3 kinds of cards, Magic, Trap and Monster cards…“

Yugi had begun explaining the game to the six ponies sitting around him. It was like teaching Joey all over again. It was quite a nostalgic experience. Maybe, he thought. Maybe this will be quite enjoyable. However, unknown to him, there stood a figure. I hooded pony standing outside watching the action unfold. Pulling up her left forehoof, she raised her Duel Disk, drawing the card from the top of her deck. She stared at it with her violet eyes. “Won’t be long now...”

Author's Notes:

Last Update - 8/11/2013

Chapter 2 - Twisted Darkness

It had been a good 3 hours since our heroes had arrived in this new world run by ponies. At first it was a bit intimidating teaching a species that never even heard of the game but after teaching them about duel monsters, Yugi had grown quite fond of the six ponies. There was something interesting about them but he couldn’t quite figure it out. Either way, it didn’t really matter. He needed to find a way back home. He didn’t want his friends to worry.

“I think that’s about everything there is to know.” It took a while but Yugi thought he finally taught them to play. Sadly, they didn’t have any extra cards so Yugi just let them use his cards. Twilight seemed to like his Dark Magician, and Fluttershy wouldn’t let go of his Kuriboh. It made sense.

“Wow this is a complex game!” Twilight exclaimed. “I wish you had more cards then we could duel.”

“Yeah, sorry Twilight, it was quite sudden and I couldn’t bring any more cards.”

“Ooh ooh! Maybe Kaiba will let us use his!” Pinkie Pie chirped.

Kaiba looked over at her with an irritated glare. “In your dreams...” After a few weird looks, Kaiba went about his business. The light that had pulled them into Equestria also seemed to bring along his suitcase that contained his hidden laptop. His brother Mokuba carried one as well. He thought he could get in contact but to no avail. So instead he decided he would use this time to figure out his current dilemma. “Shouldn’t we be trying to find a way back?”

“Awwwwww... You can’t go yet... You haven’t even done anything yet. You’ve just seen siting there talking to your suitcase”

“It’s a laptop that I’ve been using to try and find a way back...”

“Well why don’t you duel Yugi so we can see a duel?”

Kaiba gave a glare at Yugi. This might be his chance to get back at Yugi. But that wasn’t important at the moment. “I already dueled him shortly before we came here. I need to do more research so I can adjust my deck.”

“How about us?”

“I don’t play with dweebs. Besides, you don’t even have any cards.”

“She can use mine Kaiba.” Yugi interrupted.

“Oh come on!” He was stuck. If Kaiba wanted to get anywhere, he had to duel a... Pony... “Fine, but after this I am done. I don’t have time to waste with you losers.”

“Great! Now let me fit her.” Yugi removed his Duel Disk and fitted it onto Pinkies left arm. Her eyes grew as she gazed at it like a huge diamond. “Alright, you’re all set up. Remember what I taught to you.”

“Okie dokie loki!” Pinkie Pie bounced away and got into a position several feet away from Kaiba. Kaiba was less than entertained. He was dueling against someone who had never dueled before. This was going to be easy.

“Hey, Pinkie Pie?” Applejack intervened. “Ah know your ich’n for a duel and as much as ah would like to stay, I got some applebuck’n tah do...”

“Oh! Ok!” Pinkie knew that Applejack was a busy pony so she didn’t care if she left.

“Come on already!” Kaiba shouted. He held out his Duel Disk. “Projectors launch!” Two small devices this wings darted out the sides of his duel disk. After hitting the ground, the wings retracted and device flipped over releasing a multi-colored light. “Let’s duel!”

Applejack was approaching Sweet Apple Acre. She could see her little sister Apple Bloom waving to her. “Hey Apple Bloom. I’m back from Pinkie’s party.”

“How were the new ponies?”

“One was a bit of a jerk but the other was really nice. He showed us this weird game from where he comes from called Duel Monsters.”

“Ooh, is it something I can get a cutie mark for!?”

“Well ah don’t think the game actually exists here. These ponies come from a faraway place.”

“Aw… I would like to at least see what this Duel Monsters thing is…”

“I can arrange that if you want…” Applejack and Apple Bloom turned back to see a strange pony standing outside the gate of the farm. She had a black robe that covered most of her body. All that could be seen was a tiny bit of her light blue legs.

“What do you want?” Applejack asked. Apple Bloom was hiding behind her back hooves.

“What do I want?” She held out her front left hoof through her robe. She had some circular device on her arm. It looked kind of similar to what Yugi and Kaiba were wearing but it was black. A single monster zone shot out from the center and two wings extended out from the sides with two more zones on each wing. The device lit up and five red arrows appeared on the length of the blade. On the circular part, a pair of red eyes and a mouth lit up and a 4000 appeared between the two eyes. “What I want is your soul…”

“Oh, I wanna go first!” Pinkie placed her hoof on the top her deck and drew her starting hand. “Ooh, how about this one!” Pinkie set her card down on the disk. Her monster began to materialize. Though was had come was not what Yugi had expected. Her monster was nothing but a little brown ball of fuzz. It made a little squeal.

“Kuriboh…” Yugi groaned as he planted his hoof on his forehead.

“AHHH, it’s so adorable!” Fluttershy jumped towards the creature sitting in the field, but instead of grabbing it in a hug, she flew right through it and landed in the dirt. She looked back in confusion. “What happened? Why can’t I touch it?

“It’s only a hologram.” Kaiba explained. “All the monsters in this game are just holograms.”

“Oh...” Fluttershy sulked back to her place next to her friends.

“My turn you pink freak!” Kaiba drew he first card. “Let me give you a real lesson about Duel Monsters…”

“But Yugi already taught me how!”

“Well clearly he didn’t teach you well enough. If he did, you wouldn’t have left such a weak monster on the field undefended, especially in attack mode.” Pinkie looked confused. “Now I will show you why… I summon my Lord of Dragons!” Kaiba’s monster appeared on the field as a tall man in a blue suit. He was wearing bone armor over his whole body with dragon feet as shoulder pads and a cape.

“Now I activate the magic card known as Flute of Summoning Dragons! This allows me to call forth two dragons from my hand and summon them straight to the field.”

“Oh no!” Yugi yelled.

Kaiba’s Lord of Dragons grabbed a hold of the flute and blew into it. “And now use my flute to summon the two Blue-Eyes White Dragons from my hand!” A pair of white lightning bolts rained from the sky striking the ground. The lightning bolts then formed into two copies of the same dragon that appeared in the library earlier that day.

“Blue-Eyes White Dragon number 1; attack her puffball with your White Lightning Attack!” Kaiba’s Blue-Eyes opened its mouth and charged a white ball of electricity. The dragon unleashed a humongous energy beam that blasted through Pinkie’s Kuriboh shattering it like glass and flew towards Pinkie.

“YIKES!” Pinkie ducked down covering her head as the blast hit her. She didn’t feel any pain but it fell like being pushed by a windstorm. After it was over, she looked up confused. “Wait, what happened?”

“The monsters are only holograms remember? None of it is real…”

“Oh yeah, right!” Pinkie regained her Cherie look.

“Now go, my second Blue-Eyes, wipe her rest of her life points!” The second dragon did the same as first. This time the beam went straight for her directly.

“Aw, it’s over already?”

“Well that was fast.” Twilight stating the obvious. “We didn’t even see the duel. It was over on the first turn.”

“She clearly had no idea what she was doing.” Kaiba responded

“You didn’t even give her a chance!”

“You’re not supposed to let your opponent get a chance.”

“Break it up!” Yugi interrupted. “Don’t listen to Kaiba, he just really competitive.”

“Yeah but still...”

Suddenly, there was a loud bang that echoed through the sky. “Huh? What was that?” Everypony turned to see dark clouds forming over Sweet Apple Acres.

“What’s going on?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t know...” They’re questions were answered when a large monster began rising from the ground. It was visible all the way from the library. It was humongous, as big as Canterlot Castle. It was a blue creature with spiked shoulders and had a few large horns on its head.

“Yugi, are my eyes deceiving me or is that Obelisk the Tormentor!?” Kaiba questioned.

“Yes but... That’s impossible. There is only one copy of Obelisk and I have him!” Yugi reaches for his deck box on his belt pull out his deck spreading it in front of him. He skimmed through his cards and gave a look of horror. “No… no no no!” He skimmed through his deck several more times.

“Don’t tell me you lost him!”

“Not just him, Slifer the Sky Dragon and The Winged Dragon of Ra are missing as well. Someone must have stolen them from my deck while we were in the hospital.”

“Hey Yugi.” Twilight asked. “What exactly is the problem? I thought Kaiba said Duel Monsters are not real.”

“Not these cards Twilight. Obelisk the Tormentor, Slifer the Sky Dragon and The Winged Dragon of Ra are not normal cards. They are known as the Egyptian God Cards and they hold a power far greater than any mortal can possibly imagine. In the wrong hands they can cause irreversible damage to anyone unfortunate enough to face one of these beasts.”

Twilight’s ears drooped down. “Why would simple cards hold such a dangerous power?” About that time, Yugi and Co. could see a small yellow filly running towards them. “Apple Bloom, what is going on!?”

Apple Bloom stopped for a few seconds to breath. “Twilight, Applejack’s in trouble!”

“What happened?”

“Applejack had just come back from Pinkie’s party and she told me about that new game of yours and some strange pony appeared out of nowhere. She said she wanted to duel my sister for her sole or something.”

Yugi froze. “Wait, did you say she wanted to duel for her soul?”

“Uh, yeah?”

"Yami…?" Yami’s spirit appeared next to Yugi. "You think someone from our world followed us here?"

"Possibly, Twilight says Duel Monsters doesn’t exist here and then out of nowhere this happens only a few hours after we show up. The timing is too perfect. We have to be on our guard." Yugi nodded.

Yugi turned to Twilight. “Twilight, we need to find Applejack now! I think she might be in serious trouble!”

“Right!” As soon as they started moving, something unusual happened. Obelisk turned completely black like a silhouette and the dark clouds above it parted creating a large hole in the sky. The large form of Obelisk then started breaking down into a cloud of black smoke that rose up into the air creating a tornado like spiral that funneled upward into the sky. Finally, a single bolt of black lightning came down and the struck down where Obelisk once stood.

“That can’t be good…” Yugi muttered before they ran off to help Applejack.

They finally arrived at Sweet Apple Acres. There was nopony in sight no Applejack or anyone. All that was left was some strange black mark on the path. It almost looked like it was burned into the ground. Something about it sent shivers down their spines.

“APPLEJACK, Applejack where are you?” Twilight shouted.

“Your friend is not here anymore…” Everypony turn to see a single pony leaning up against an apple tree. She was tossing an apple up air, constantly throwing and catching it.

“Who are you and what have you done with my friend!?”

“I told you she is gone. I sent her to place where she will spend the rest of eternity.” She said, pointing to the black mark on the path.

Everypony gasped. “You... You KILLED HER!?” Twilight screamed. “You killed my best friend!?”

The figure snickered. She acted like she was all high mighty. “Maybe, maybe not… What are you going to do about it?”

“I am going to destroy you!” Twilight charged her magic, focusing on the about-to-be-dead pony in front of her. “TAKE THIS!” Her horn let loose a power stream of purple energy directly at the pony. Right before impact, a black barrier formed around the pony and the attack ricocheted off her hitting a nearby tree. Twilight was left utterly confused. “How did you block my attack so effortlessly? Nopony is that strong!”

The still mysterious pony stepped forward. As she walked forward, the Pharaoh appeared next to Yugi. "Yugi, that pony is using shadow magic."

"Are you sure Yami?"

Yami nodded. ‘Yes, I can see the darkness practically seeping out of her."

“You don’t seem to have any idea what you are messing with…” A cloud of darkness started flowing from underneath her cloak. “I control a power unlike anything ponykind has ever witnessed-” She lifted her right hoof up and pointed at Twilight. “And you Twilight will witness my power first hand!”

“FINE!” Twilight growled. “I’m going to warn you, I’m not afraid of holding back my power when you hurt my friends!” Twilight tried to step forward but Yugi stopped her. “What?”

“Twilight, this pony is using shadow magic. Let me take care of her.”

“Sorry Yugi, but this is personal.” She pushed Yugi off of her and approached her opponent. “Alright, so how do you want to do this, a magic duel?”

“I have a better idea…” She held her left hoof revealing a duel disk. “How about we play a Shadow Game?”

“NO! DON’T DO IT!” Yugi yelled.

The pony laughed as her duel disk started glowing. A small black ring formed on the ground and grew outwards passing the ground under Twilight and stopping right behind her back hooves. Twilight looked around at the new barrier that was now streaming a black fire blocking her escape. “What is going on?”

“I sealed us inside so nopony can interrupt our duel.” She held up her duel disk and activated it.

Twilight tried stepping back but slammed into the barrier keeping her inside. “You want to duel me… with a game Duel Monsters? But I don’t have any cards or a duel disk…” Twilight was cut off by a rainbow colored light covering her arm and fanning out. An unusual looking Duel Disk had materialized on her arm. It had a unique design completely unlike Yugi and Kaiba’s disks. The center was a dark purple circle with a pink 6-pointed star. The edges all slightly protruded of the circle. “But... how?”

“Hmm... It’s just as Master predicted, Celestia knew this was going to happen so she placed a spell on the Elements of Harmony to magically create your deck for you in your time of need…”

“Wait, what do you mean the Princess expected this would happen? What does she have to do with this?”

“You will find out soon enough… That is of course if you manage to beat me but you are not leaving this duel alive!” Twilight couldn’t tell why but something about this pony was familiar.

“Twilight, be careful!” Yugi shouted. He was worried this duel could turn ugly, she wasn’t experienced like them. This would be her first duel, but Twilight was smart. She would figure something out.

“Let’s get this duel started already. The faster I can destroy you Sparkle the better!”

Twilight grunted and held up her left hoof. Five individual star shaped zones shot out from the center in all directions from her duel disk and rotated around to the outside of her arm making up the five slots. “Bring it…”

The hooded pony chuckled and raised her duel disk. “Alright then… Let us duel…”

“Since I am clearly the Superior here, I’ll go first.” The hooded mare drew her starting six cards. “I’ll start off by summoning this monster face-down in defense mode. That will be all for me…”

“Now it’s my draw!” Twilight shouted as she drew. ‘Ok Twilight, just remember what Yugi taught you. You got to think ahead and plan out you’re moves. Now let’s see… what is the connection between all my cards?’ She scanned her cards for a moment, and then a certain magic card caught her eye. ‘That’s the card!’ “I’ll start my turn by summoning a monster called Magical Exemplar in attack mode!” Twilight’s monster materialized as a human woman with a green robe, long hair and gold jewelry around her forehead and neck.

‘Alright, hope this card works…’ Twilight lifted her duel disk and a hidden card tray slid out from under her deck zone. “I play a field card, Magical Citadel of Endymion!” Twilight set her card in the tray and it retracted into the duel disk. All around them, a huge city began to form. In four separate corners were a tower and a giant tower formed behind Twilight. The city was surrounded by several arcana rings.

“What in Equestria is this?”

“This… is my citadel… Let me explain, every time a magic card is activated, it gets what is known as a Spell Counter. These Spell Counters can be used to power my monster’s effects. Not only that but many monsters in my deck have the ability to stock up on Spell Counters themselves. Magical Exemplar for example gains an additional two counters every time a magic card is activated.” Twilight’s monster held her hands facing each other and two black orbs with a strange triangle formed between them. “Next I activate Spell Power Grasp, this lets me add one counter to any card on the field and I choose my Citadel. And as an added bonus, my citadel gains an addition counter and my Exemplar gains another two!” Two more orbs appeared around both Twilight’s tower and her monster. “Spell Power Grasp also lets me search my deck for another copy of itself.” Twilight pulled out her deck and plucked out a single card and put it into her hand. “Now I can activate my Exemplar’s special ability. By removing her spell counters, she can summon a monster from my hand or graveyard with the same level and by removing all four of her counters; I can summon a second Exemplar from my hand!” The four black spheres landed on the ground next to Twilight’s monster forming a portal. From that portal a complete duplicate of Exemplar appeared next to the first one.

‘Twilight is doing great.’ Yugi thought to himself. ‘She is playing like she’s been playing the game for years.’

“Next, I’ll equip one of my Exemplars with the Shooting Start Bow spell card. This card may lower her attack power by a thousand but it allows her to attack you’re life points directly!” A white winged bow appeared in one of the monster’s hands.

Twilight smirked. ‘Now even if her face down monster is a trap, I’ll still get a shot at her life points. I may not do as much damage had I just attacked but better safe then sorry.’ “And of course my monsters all gain Spell Counters from my magic card.” Both her Exemplars gained two each and her tower gained one more sphere giving it 5.

“Now, my Magic Exemplar will use her new weapon and bypass your face down monster!” Her monster aligned the shot and fired a glowing arrow flying over the card and hitting her opponent. The hooded pony clenched her chest as it hit her.

“Now I’ll attack your face-down monster with my unarmed Magical Exemplar!” Twilight’s monster held her hands together and began forming a ball. She fired the ball and blew up the hooded figure’s monster. The face down card flipped showing a young purple armored wizard before being blown up.

“Not like it matters. Whenever Apprentice Magician is destroyed, I can immediately summon another from my deck to take its place.” The pony placed another monster face down.

“That will be all.” Twilight, felt amazing. This duel was exhilarating! It was like nothing she had felt before. On paper it sounded a little boring but after such an amazing first move. It was obvious there was more to this game then she had first anticipated.

The hooded pony was growing frustrated. “It’s my turn and I’ll start my turn by activating the Magical Dimension spell card.” Upon sliding her card into her Duel Disk a weird coffin in chains appeared behind her. “With this, I can tribute a spellcaster on my side of the the field to summon an even stronger spellcaster from my hand.” As the coffin opened, her face down magician jumped up and got into the coffin and it closed again. The pony chuckled and a single card in her hand became covered in a purple magic aura. She lifted it up and roughly slammed the card onto her duel disk. “Please welcome to the stage, the Dark Magician!”

“WHAT!?”

‘Oh no…’ Yugi thought. ‘Her opponent is a Dark Magician user! This could be bad.'

The all too familiar card appeared in front of Twilight. The very monster she was ogling not even 20 minutes ago was now appearing out of the coffin with the most terrifying stare she had ever seen. This Dark Magician was nothing like Yugi’s. It had black armor and white hair and an extremely creepy smile.

“Oh, and did I forget to mention that Magical Dimension also destroys one monster on your side of the field?” The pony pointed over at her monster with the bow.

“Not my Exemplar!” Twilight screamed. The coffin that her Magician appeared from reached out with shadowy tentacles and pulled Twilight’s Exemplar wielding the bow into the darkness. “At least her spell counters won’t be going to waste because when a monster with spell counters is destroyed. The counters move to my Magical Citadel giving it a total of 8 counters."

“Not that you’ll get the chance to use them. I activate Foolish Burial! This lets me send a monster from my deck straight to my graveyard.”

“But why would you sent a monster you haven’t even summoned to the graveyard... Wait!” Twilight was remembering back to when Yugi was teaching them to duel.

“Just because a monster is sent to the graveyard, doesn’t mean it’s gone. There are a few cards that can summon monsters that were sent to the graveyard earlier in the duel. One card in particular is called...”

“Monster Reborn!” A huge glowing symbol appeared behind the pony, rising out of the ground. “This lets me bring any monster from the graveyard and summon it to the field.” The ground below them shook and a familiar blue figure rose up behind the pony.

“Obelisk!” Yugi and Kaiba yelled simultaneously.

The creature was even more massive up close. Twilight had begun to shiver; she had never seen something so large and terrifying. “Ahaha-ahahaha-AHAHAHAHA! How does it feel Twilight! How does it feel to stare into the face of death? Who is Great and Powerful now!?” Twilight’s attention instantly changed from the growing beast to her opponent. The clues were finally adding up. There was only one pony that would use the term Great and Powerful.

“TRIXIE!?”

The pony stopped laughing. “Well... Well... Well... So you finally figured it out...” Trixie slowly removed her hood. She was very similar as before but she looked like she had been through hell. Her mane was all messed up and she was covered in cuts. “Surprised?”

“Trixie, what happened to you?”

“What happened to me...? What HAPPENED TO ME!? YOU HAPPENED! My life was just fine until you destroyed it!”

“What did I do?”

“Because of you, I LOST THE ONE PONY WHO WAS MOST IMPORTANT TO ME!” Twilight recoiled and Trixie seemed to calm down. “Over the years, I’ve seen many ponies who don’t exactly think my magic is that special.” Twilight seemed to be confused. “What? You thought you were the only ones? Many ponies try to outclass me on stage and fail.” Trixie took a deep breath and looked into the sky. “But there was one filly, her name was Starlight Shine. She came to my trailer and asked for an autograph one day. I didn’t think much of it at first but she came back the next day and I ended up breaking her heart... Once I learned the truth about her I was crushed, so I offered to take her in and train her myself."

“So what happened?”

“I needed more time to prepare, I didn't have the proper supplies or experience yet. I also wanted to visit my mother so she could give me proper advice. On the way I ended up here in Ponyville. It turns out the news of a psycho unicorn and an Ursa Minor spreads fast… I stopped getting letters from her and I suspect she wasn't getting mine either. So I decided to go and visit her myself and set things straight. When I got there, I found out she had moved on. She had completely forgotten about me… And our promise…”

“How can you know for sure she had forgotten and what promise are you talking about?”

“Our personal lives is not for you to hear Sparkle, you ruined my life enough already. I could handle the home and my things but Starlight was the first true friend I ever made and after losing her I felt like I had lost everything... I just couldn’t take it anymore…”

Atop the highest point within the Everfree Forest, Trixie stood, hooves barely along the edge of the cliff. She looked down. It was a 30 story drop. It would be impossible for a normal pony to survive that long.

"My entire reputation was shot; I lost my only true friend… It felt like my entire life was meaningless… I just wanted nothing else but for it to end…" Trixie's eyes began to water but her tears never touched the ground. "Starlight... Goodbye..." Taking a single step, Trixie slid of edge, going into a nearly endless fall. Her tears began to burn her eyes from the sheer force of the fall. "I was about to hit the ground but something appeared below me, like a kind of darkness. There was nothing I could do so I just fell into it." Trixie became completely surrounded by the darkness.

“The Great and Powerful Trixie, so we finally meet...”

Trixie recoiled. “Who’s there? What do you want with me?”

“Why, I want to help you of course…”

“How, I have nothing left!”

“Your wrong, you do have something left… Your power, you can use it to turn your life around…” Trixie’s ears perked up. “Yes, I can see you’re interested…”

“Yes, I’ll do anything to get my life back. Please, I’ll do anything!”

“Just relax my child, and open yourself to the darkness.” A dark smoke began to consume her, she could no longer breath. "Don't struggle against it, let it in and embrace it. Embrace the darkness and you will become the most powerful unicorn in all of Equestria!”

Trixie began to scream as the darkness completely took hold. The smoke surged into her body as her power grew more powerful than ever. Then, Trixie opened her eyes and the pain stopped. She was no longer falling in the darkness. She was completely unharmed at the top of the cliff she jumped from. She looked down at her hoof to see an unusual device attached to it. “Where did this thing come from?”

“That my dear Trixie is your new life. Draw a card from your deck and place it on the blade of the duel disk. Once you do, your true power will be awakened, not even Twilight Sparkle can compare."

Trixie's eyes opened wide. She looked down at the deck and drew the card causing single zone shot out from the centerpiece and two wings shot out from each side of the zone. Trixie stared with wide eyes at the card, it was shrouded in a kind of black aura. "Something about the card was mystifying, like I could hear it talking to me. It promised me great power and all I needed to do was play the card." Trixie slowly lowered her right hoof and set the card on the duel disk. As soon as it came in contact, her disk exploded into a flurry of black lightning threatening to take her over.

“You must gain control Trixie. This is not my power, its yours!"

Trixie focused as hard as she could. She stood up on her hind legs and screamed into the sky. The black smoke started flowing out from her body as her scream changed into a devilish laughter. “I’M COMING FOR YOU TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” She came back down on her front hooves. “And when I find you... you are going to pay…”

Nobody said anything. Her story was not the kind they expected from Trixie. It was few minutes before Twilight finally spoke up. "You... Tried to commit suicide?"

"I HAD NOTHING TO LIVE FOR! You took everything I had! Master promised me a new life and a chance for revenge. I wasn't going to pass that up. Of course, Master was missing a key component. Without it our plans would never work.”

“The Egyptian God cards!” Yugi exclaimed.

“Exactly, without the god cards our greatest weapon is powerless. However, now that we have them, we are unstoppable. You’re little farmer friend was the perfect test to try out my new power. It went way past my expectations.”

Twilight was starting to become upset. “Trixie, I can’t say I know you all that well but I want to help you. Don’t fall for the darkness, it will only cause you more harm in the future.”

“SHUT UP! I accepted this power so I can finally destroy you and have you out of my life forever!”

“Please don’t...”

“Nothing you say will stop me!” Trixie stood back on her hind hooves and screamed into the air holding a card. Black lightning was flowing around her leg and the card. "This monster can only be summoned while I'm in control of an Egyptian God and a creature of Darkness and sending them to my graveyard!” Obelisk and Dark Magician began to dissolve into a black mist and swirled into the air creating a funnel between the clouds and Trixie After a few seconds, a black lightning bolt came down through the funnel and struck Trixie. Two red scars began forming on Trixie’s forehead from the back of her scalp, one on each side. They were shaping like lightning bolts leading to her eyes then rounded around her eyes forming a sort of eye liner. Once the scars circled around to the front tips of her eyes, the red light faded leaving a black mark. “Stolen past and taken peace… Awaken the darkness and engulf the world in your cleansing shadow!” Trixie opened up her eyes. They we no longer the usual purple color, they glowed a bright red and no longer showed to reflect any light.

“Trixie?”

“The Great and Powerful Trixie is gone...” Her voice sent chills down Twilight spine. It wasn’t her normal voice anymore; it was like Trixie had a second more sinister voice talking behind her normal voice. “You may now call me ‘The Dark and Malevolent Trixie!’” Trixie broke into a maniacal laughter that echoed through the sky.

Twilight was on the verge of tears. “What have they done to you...?” Twilight wiped away her tears. “If you really want to go through with this, you leave me no choice…”

Suddenly, Trixie’s shadow that was resting upon the ground began to rise up behand, taking on a physical form. The shadow began to morph into a horrifying image, a tall bird like creature with massive wings and red scars on his head just like Trixie and a pair of red glowing eyes. “Behold, the most powerful creature in existance! Iseris, Destroyer of Harmony!” The monster leaned its head back charging black energy in front of its face. Once the charge started releasing lightning, the monster blasted Twilight’s Exemplar with a black and white energy beam.

“Agh...” At the moment her monster was destroyed, Twilight began to feel on tug in her chest. She pushed it aside and put her focus back into the battle. “You didn’t even command it to attack!”

“I don’t need to; he is fueled by my inner darkness, my inner hate. He will destroy anyone I want to see destroyed!”

“He may not have as many attack points as Obelisk but that doesn't matter… Not only is Iseris immortal, but if your life points hit zero while he is on the field... Well... Your going to find out soon enough...”

“In that case, I will just have to destroy it!” Twilight drew her next card.

“Before you make your move, there is something you should know. At the beginning of every one of your turns, Iseris inflicts you with 100 points of damage for each DARK monster in my graveyard. Purgatory Discharge!” An array of black tentacles shot out from Trixie’s graveyard and lashed at Twilight causing to her lurch back.

She felt it again. “When there are 6 or more counters on my Citadel, I can remove 6 of them to special summon Endymion the Master Magician from my hand…” The spheres around the tower circled together creating a warp gate and a new monster came flying out. It held a striking resemblance to Yugi’s Dark Magician but its clothing had a golden trim and it wore a large cape.

“When Endymion is summoned to the field by this effect, I can return one magic card from my graveyard to my hand.” Twilight’s Shooting Star Bow ejected from her graveyard and she put it in her hand. Twilight began to think of her options. ‘I can end this battle right now if I wanted to. If I were to equip Endymion with Shooting Star Bow and the Mage Power card in my hand, he would have 3200 attack. However, that alone is not enough. But I do have my Spell Power Grasp in my hand. If I play that face down, Endymion will go to 3700 which would be enough to deplete her life points to zero... But...’ Twilight looked up at the dark creature looming over her. ‘If I can defeat that creature, maybe I can break the hold it has on her and I can help her...’

“Trixie doesn’t have all day!” Trixie shouted.

Twilight knew what she had to do. It didn’t matter what she had to do. She had to help Trixie. “I activate Endymion’s special ability. By discarding the Spell Power Grasp in my hand, I can select and destroy one card on the field.” Twilight slid her card into the graveyard and Endymion started charging his staff. He let loose a stream of lightning and aimed it right at Iseris. The blast landed right on target and the field burst onto a frenzy of explosions. “Yes!”

“I don’t think so Twilight.” The smoke cleared revealing the still standing shadow. “Iseris cannot be destroyed by spell, trap or monster effects. And just for clarification, magic cards don’t work either…” Twilight gave Trixie on odd look. “In this world, Magic cards are called Spell cards. I guess the Pharaoh's world is just that primitive that it's still using the old term. So don’t think you can loophole spell effects by using magic, it doesn’t work…”

“In that case then… I equip Endymion with the Mage Power spell card.” Putting a large emphasis on the word Spell. “This boosts his power by an additional 500 points for every spell and trap card on my field including itself.”

“Go Endymion; attack Iseris, Destroyer of Harmony!” Endymion launched a purple electrical ball this time.

“That won’t work either!” Iseris retracted itself into its shadow and avoided the attack. The attack exploded a short distance from where Trixie was standing. “Iseris can’t be destroyed in battle either. Unfortunately since it's in attack mode I still take damage...”

“But, that’s not fair! If I can’t destroy it with spell, traps or monsters, how can I beat it?”

“You can’t! I warned you that Iseris was immortal meaning there is no way to destroy him!"

“But that... You can’t... oh...” Twilight looked downwards. She had a chance to win and she blew it. If only she knew the power of Trixie’s monster. “End turn...”

“Giving up are we? What a pity...” Trixie drew her card and looked at it for a second. “I activate a spell card known as Cursed Greed. If I control a Level 10 or higher DARK monster, this lets me take possession of a random card from your hand.” When the card materialized on the field, a large black hand shot out and grabbed Twilight’s Shooting Star Bow. The hand retracted back and the card reappeared in Trixie's hoof. “Thank you so much for donating to those in need. I equip Iseris with your own Shooting Star Bow!” Twilight expected to see Iseris holding her white bow, but what she got was completely different. Iseris was now holding a black flaming bow. The arrow was made entirely of a dark purple fire.

“Hehehe…” Trixie pointed over at Twilight. “Iseris, attack Twilight with Shadow Star Bow. Make her suffer for all the pain she caused me!” The shadow held up the bow and shot its flaming arrow at Twilight. The arrow plunged into her chest.

“AHHHHHH!!!” Twilight shrieked in pain. Standing on her hind legs, she looked down. The flaming arrow stood there, sticking out of her chest.

“TWILIGHT!” Her friends yelled at the shriek.

“Why... (pant) why does it hurt so much?” Twilight was in shear pain, she felt the arrow like it was real. “I thought these were... (cough) just holograms...”

“Ha, normally yes but not this time?” Rarity and Fluttershy ran up to help Twilight, but was blocked by the barrier. “While normally these are nothing by harmless holograms but while Iseris in on the field, all the damage you take is real!” Trixie slowly walked up to Twilight. “Like I said, Iseris is made from my inner darkness, my hate…” Trixie’s smiled, her mouth almost reaching ear to ear. “Every time I see you in pain, it just makes me so happy. I enjoy seeing you suffer!” Sticking her tongue out, Trixie began to make a very disturbing cackle. “Don’t expect a quick death. I’ll make sure to squeeze every... single... last... breath... and saiver it!”

“You monster!” Rainbow yelled.

“You ruffian!” Rarity yelled.

‘That’s it! I won’t let this continue on anymore!’ Yugi’s puzzle began to glow and shake. A large beam shot into the air and surround Yugi.

“YUGIOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!!”

The light evaporated to revealing a whole new Yugi standing on his hind legs, his front hooves on his hips and his eyes closed. He was no longer wearing his coat, it was now attached to his neck and hanging off like a cape. He opened his eyes and pointed at the blue unicorn. “Trixie! This Shadow Game has gone on long enough!” Slowly Yugi began to walk towards the barrier.

“Girls...” Rarity asked. “Are my eyes deceiving me or did Yugi just grow a horn?”

“His voice changed too!” added Pinkie.

The barrier, which had thrown the ponies back earlier, stood no chance to the power of Yugi’s Puzzle. Upon touching the barrier, Yugi’s head lit up with golden eye and the barrier shattered like a rock through thin glass. “One thing you should know about me Trixie, I don’t take lightly to people hurting my friends…”

Trixie was genuinely surprised. “So this is the five thousand year old Pharaoh I’ve been hearing so much about...”

“So you have heard about me...”

“Master warned me about your power. Bringing you to Equestria was the only way to get the Egyptian God cards so it was risk we were willing to take.”

“That was a pretty foolish move on your master’s part.”

Twilight’s friends had begun to run over and help her up. “Yugi, what’s going on? Why the sudden change in attitude?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“I’ll tell you later, but right now, Twilight needs to get some medical attention. I’ll deal with Trixie...” Using his magic, Yugi slipped off Twilight’s Duel Disk and slipped it onto his own hoof.

“Right! Don’t show Trixie any mercy!” Yugi simply nodded as the 4 ponies carried Twilight away. The only ones remaining were Yugi, Kaiba and Trixie.

“Trixie, can’t you see the darkness has clouded your mind?! Can’t you see what you doing here is wrong?”

“She is just getting what she deserves.” Trixie replied.

“She had nothing to do with you losing Starlight!”

“She ruined me, made her parents forbid me from ever seeing her again!”

“You have nobody to blame but yourself...”

“Shut up, you don’t understand the relationship me and Starlight had!”

“I understand perfectly. She was your friend and you’re afraid of being alone.”

“No, I’m not doing this for me; I’m doing this for her!”

“What?”

“Enough of your talk! Make your move so I can destroy you then go onto Twilight!”

“Fine, my draw!” Yugi had no cards left, he placed his hoof on Twilight’s deck. ‘Heart of the Cards, guide me…’ Yugi drew his card...

“Don’t forget, you take three hundred points of damage from Iseris’s effect! Purgatory Dicharge!” The tentacles came out once again and slashed at Yugi.

Yugi felt it, this duel definitely was real. “It doesn’t make a difference; I still have a chance to defeat you!” Yugi looked down at his last card. ‘Joey, I hope this works as well for me as it does you.’ “I activate Cup of Ace!” A small golden goblet appeared in the center of the field. and started spinning “If the cup stops upright, I am able to draw two cards from my deck. However if it stops upside down you get to draw instead.”

“You’re putting the fate of this duel in a coin flip?”

“Yes, because I have my friends and the Heart of the Cards at my side. Something you could never understand.” The cup spun several times in air before slowing down. ‘Come on heads…’ It continued to slow down until finally coming to a halt. “Upright!”

“No way!”

“Now I am allowed to draw two cards.” Yugi drew his new cards. ‘Perfect, just what I needed.’ “I activate the Book of Moon magic card! This allows me to target any monster on the field and flip it face down into defense position and I use it on your Iseris, Destroyer of Harmony!”

“But, Iseris is only protected against cards that destroy it!”

“Exactly, with your monster face down all his power is gone!” As Trixie’s card flipped upside, the marks on her face disappeared along with the red glow in her eyes. “Now if I recall right, you said that even though Iseris is unbeatable, you can still take battle damage?”

Trixie didn’t like where this was going. “Yeah…? But Iseris is in defense position so you can’t do damage, or did you forget?”

“Normally any monster in defense mode is protected against battle damage... However, there are ways around that. I equip Endymion with Fairy Meteor Crush! Whenever a monster equipped with this card attacks a monster in defense mode, the difference between its attack points and your monster’s defense points are deducted from your life points!” Endymion started emitting a bright golden light also growing stronger from Mage Power.

“But Iseris has no defense points! Attacking him with piercing damage is basically like attacking my life points directly!”

“Exactly… Endymion, attack her face down monster and finish this duel once and for all!” Endymion twirled his staff and fired a purple sparking ball at the shadow. The blast passes right over card as it flips up and lands its mark on Trixie, exploding into a perfectly circular explosion.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!” Trixie fell over on the ground, she was covering her head.

“You brought this upon yourself Trixie. You gave yourself to the darkness and hurt my friends.”

“Do you think I care? You can’t stop me and neither can Twilight! I'm already in possession of your god cards I will make sure all of you suffer when I send your souls to the shadows!” There was a poof of smoke and Trixie disappeared. Yugi turned back and approached Kaiba.

“Nice recovery Yugi. That dweeb had a chance of victory before she got hurt but she screwed it up.”

“Kaiba, she had her reasons. She wasn’t going to let the darkness take away Trixie.”

“Spare me the details. Though as much as I want to get back home it doesn’t seem like we will ever get a chance. You heard what they said, Duel Monsters doesn't exist here. That probably means they won't let us leave until the mastermind behind this whole scheme is dealt with…”

“For once, I agree with you...”

It was dark. There was nothing aside from two hooded figures standing in the room looking into a reflecting pool in the middle of the room. There was a puff of smoke and Trixie appeared before the two of them.

“Look who it is?” said the larger one. “Looks like the Great and Powerful Trixie got her flank handed to her.”

“It wasn’t a total bust, stupid.” Trixie growled. “I managed to get the God cards and I defeated that hic of a farmpony.”

“But you failed to beat Miss Sparkle. She is the biggest threat of the six.” The shorter one added.

“What was I supposed to do? That Pharaoh has incredible luck.”

“It’s not luck… Master warned you about the Pharaoh’s power. He has the power to manipulate the heart of the cards at will, even though he himself doesn’t know it yet.”

“Doesn’t make a difference, you lost the duel and wasted your turn. Tomorrow it’s my turn to create some havoc.” The larger one replied.

“My my, aren’t you impatient...” said the smaller one. “If you’re so into getting this started then I’ll go with you. Your attack on that party pony will act as the perfect distraction so I can sneak in take out that shy pegasus pony. I need her out of the way so I can get to Miss Rarity.”

“So you two are just going to leave me outta this?” Trixie asked.

“We need you to watch over the Pharaoh and his little buddy and make sure they don’t do anything funny. Besides, Twilight is in the hospital, you’ll never get to her in that state.”

“Alright.” said the larger figure. “So me and smarty-pants here will go tomorrow and take out our targets. He will go and get the shy one while I go and get my revenge on that stupid pink party pony. She will pay for what she did!”

“Fine, I’ll wait here and watch. At least I will get to see Twilight cry in agony when two more of her closest friends are gone. Oh, I almost forgot, here.” Raising her hoof, Trixie pulled out two cards from her Duel Disk. “Here are the other two god cards, Slifer the Sky Dragon and The Winged Dragon Ra.”

“Slifer is mine!” The larger one called.

“I’ll be taking The Winged Dragon of Ra.” The smaller one replied. “Only makes sense.”

“These god cards are exactly what we need the summon Iseris.” said Trixie. “With him by our side, we can’t lose!” The three of them broke into maniacal laughter. Their laughs echoed for miles but nopony heard, not except for one, a mare upstairs looking out a large window holding a devilish grin on their face...

"And so the next phase begins…”

Author's Notes:

Last Update - 8/13/2013

Chapter 3 - Forgotten Times

Nearly 24 hours had passed since the two duelists had mysteriously appeared in Equestria. Only yesterday did Yugi and friends witness the birth of a new evil, Trixie and the beast known as Iseris. In an unexpected twist, Yugi’s God cards were stolen right from under his nose and Twilight’s close friend Applejack was gone as a result. It was reaching around noon when Yugi went to visit Twilight in the Ponyville hospital. She was awake and faring well, luckily. She had a bandages wrapped around a head and chest.

“Hey Twilight, are you alright?” Yugi asked, back in his regular form.

“It’s ok...” Twilight sounded quite tired. The whole ordeal with Trixie left her weakened. “The doctor says will be out in 3 days...”

“We are just lucky you didn’t sustain any major injuries. The only major hit you took was the arrow.”

“When that monster attacked me… it felt so real… The arrow piercing my chest was a lot more painful than my physical injuries show...” Twilight was about ready to pass out again when there was a knock on the door. “Come... In...” The door opened and someone walked in. It was a large pony. Her bright coat glistened in the sun coming in through the window and her rainbow flowing mane blew through the wind. “P-p-p-p-princess? What are you doing here?”

“Hello my faithful student.” Celestia replied. “I can see you are healing well.”

“No Duel Monsters card will take me down that easy...”

“Hmm...” Celestia then turned her attention to Yugi. “I can see you made it to Equestria safely my Pharaoh.”

Yugi gasped before switching places with Yami. “So you know of me, you must be the Princess Twilight told us about.”

She nodded “Yes, I am Princess Celestia. I must say it’s quite rare to find a being older then myself. It’s quite an honor to meet you Pharaoh, though I wish I had brought you here under better circumstances.”

“What do you mean you brought me here…? Wait!” Yugi remembered back to when he and Kaiba where on the chopper. “That was you who were calling to me!”

Celestia nodded. “Yes, I am indeed the one who contacted you. Our world has many connections to other worlds through various portals and I exploited one of them to reach your world. During my youth I had a strange fascination with learning about other worlds and yours was rather interesting to me.”

“So what brought your attention to me?”

“Well... At first your world wasn’t anything special until I did a little research on your history and how your people used to fight it out with otherworldly creatures. Of course Yugi Moto wasn’t born yet so I couldn’t have met him however I did have a vision.”

“A vision, like future sight?”

“Yes, I have the unique ability to see short visions of the future in my sleep pertaining to future dangers. In one of my visions I saw you Pharaoh and how your spirit became intertwined with this boy Yugi Moto. I decided to return recently to check if my theory was correct and it looks like it was. You hold power over your cards unlike any other being in your world; you have the Heart of the Cards on your side.”

“But I don’t understand how do you know so much about Duel Monsters and the Heart of the Cards? Twilight told me Duel Monsters didn’t exist in this world.”

Celestia sighed. “Well, she is mostly correct. Duel Monsters doesn’t exist here, at least not anymore.”

“What exactly do you mean?”

“You see, Duel Monsters did exist many, many years ago. It was just as famous of a game as it is in your world, believe or not…” Celestia dropped down her head and looked at the floor. “But something happened…” Celestia slowly approached the window and looked out. There were many ponies just going about their day. “Twilight, I want to ask you a question, a hypothetical question.” Twilight nodded. “If you were to ask any one pony in the entire world what the biggest threat to Equestria and most evil is, what do you think they would say?”

Twilight thought to herself for a second. “Well… Depending on where they live and how much they know their history, they would probably say either Nightmare Moon or Discord…”

Celestia chuckled to herself for a second. “Yeah, I guess they would… Both Nightmare and Discord were pretty dangerous and there are many other threats out there you haven’t even heard of however…”

“What is it?” Yami asked.

“As evil as Nightmare Moon and Discord are, there is a much worse evil out there. One who almost completely destroyed Equestria.”

“Princess, what are you saying? Is this evil we are dealing with really more dangerous than Nightmare and Discord?” Twilight asked.

“Worse… This evil is my creation…”

Twilight was shocked. “Wha- What? What do you mean you created it?”

“I guess I should start from the beginning. Twilight, as you are aware I was forced to banish my sister to the moon over a thousand years ago. I thought I could handle ruling Equestria on my own but after 200 years, the effects started taking its toll on me…” Celestia’s horn lit up, projecting a field inside the room. Within the field, a visual of her story came onto focus.

A brown dirt covered stallion approached a pair of large doors guarded by two soldiers in armor. “I’m here for an audience with the Princess. I have an appointment.”

“You may enter.” The two guards moved their spears out of the way and allowed him to pass.

The door opened to reveal a completely dark room. The pony stepped into the dark room. “Hello? Princess?” He continued forward.

“State your purpose peasant!” A voice boomed from the darkness. The stallion looked forward to see a pair of pink eyes looking at him through the darkness. Suddenly, a golden light emitted from above the eyes revealing the face of a not so benevolent Celestia. She had bags under her eyes as well as a thin layer of black going around her eyes.

The stallion slowly approached her. “P-p-p-p-princess…”

“STATE YOUR PURPOSE!”

“I-I come to ask you when we could possibly get our daughter back… We miss her so much…”

“You’ll get back your daughter once you have paid off your debt. I sent her to the doggy mines to dig up gems to pay it off but so far she has done nothing but waste my time.”

“But she is just a filly, take me instead!”

“The Diamond Dogs prefer younger workers; they won’t work with adults… But your debts are piling up so I feel we may need another worker. Since we can’t take you or your wife, I think we will just take your son. He is young enough and he will remind you to not skimp out on your payments.”

“NO, PLEASE!” The doors flew open as 2 guards came in dragging a crying colt along the floor.

“DADDY!” The colt yelled out.

“Please, stop this!”

“GUARDS!” Celestia yelled. “Get this pony out of here…”

“STOP!!!” Twilight screamed. “Please... I can’t watch anymore of this...” The vision disappeared. “Princess, what happened to you?”

Celestia looked at her hooves in disappointment. “After I banished my sister, I went into grieving. I thought I finally put it all behind me but I was wrong. Eventually it started to eat me up on the inside until I turned into a tyrannical monster, one even worse than Nightmare Moon and Discord.”

“Princess Celestia… I had no idea…”

“I have feared this day since you became my student. I had hoped you would never find out but if you hate me now… So be it…”

Twilight was shocked. “Princess, I could never hate you. You are the nicest, kindest, most understanding pony I have ever met.”

“Don’t lie Twilight, I know you live in constant fear that I will banish you or send you back to kindergarten. I’m nothing but a-“

“That is quite enough…” Yami spoke up. “Princess, you can’t let you past mistakes hold you back. You can’t just bottle them up but you can’t just let them roam free and take over your life like they are now. You made a mistake, I have too. I was once so focused on winning a duel, I played an evil card and in the end I lost due to my selfishness and greed. I will never forget that day; Yugi gave up his own soul in order to save mine… I was devastated… But in the end Yugi reminded me to just move on and not let it control me. You need to do the same.”

“I wish it were that easy… The grief I had bottled up inside of me and I let it out in anger against my own subjects and it ended up nearly costing me the life of myself and every pony in Equestria. I didn’t realize it at first but that colt from that vision set off a chain of events that led to the near destruction of Equestria. During his escort to one of my slave camps, the carriage ended up going missing in the Everfree Forest, the passengers were never found. I sent a research team into the forest to find them, one of which was a brilliant pegasi who went by the name of Lord Crawford. He discovered some kind of hidden ruins with art of monsters and told of battles from ancient times.”

“The same thing happened in my world. A man named Maximillian Pegasus was out on research in Egypt and found a tomb almost exactly as you described. He got a stroke of inspiration and turned the so called ‘Shadow Game’ told in the ruins into the game we called Duel Monsters. Am I to assume that is what happened here too?”

“Exactly; the game caught on like wildfire on became an Equestrian-wide sport. Eventually, the three beasts known as the Egyptian god cards came into my possession and I used them to control the Duel Monsters industry. I even invented my own kind of monsters; a kind that doesn’t exist in your world; Synchro Monsters.”

Yami nodded. “I am aware of what Synchro Monsters are; I witnessed them first hand not too long ago when a time traveler named Paradox tried to change history. While I don’t know exactly how they work I do know they are very powerful.”

“So what happened?” Twilight asked, continuing the conversation.

“Shortly after Duel Monsters came into the picture, I discovered one of my Diamond Dog slave camps had been destroyed. Every pony and Diamond Dog was still alive but they were all lifeless zombies, like their very souls were extracted from their bodies. The entire camp was also covered in what would only be described as black scorch marks.” Twilight and Yami looked at each other for a moment. “What I hadn’t realized at the time was that it was the same camp I sent the colt’s older sister to. Her name was Midnight Rose; she was the daughter of gardeners with a special talent for making any flower bloom even in the dead of night. A very beautiful talent but it was all wasted when I sent her to the slave camp to dig for gems.”

“So what does this Midnight Rose have to do with the story?”

“Midnight Rose… Is the original Dark Summoner.”

“What?” Both Twilight and Yami said in unison.

“She somehow acquired a mysterious power while in the camp and escaped leaving the place in ruins. A couple years after the events at the camp I held a Duel Monsters championship in Canterlot. The reward was five hundred thousand bits and a chance to duel against me using the Egyptian god cards. It was the chance of a lifetime to duel against the god cards themselves so of course many ponies entered.”

“I’m assuming this Midnight Rose entered too?” Yami asked.

“She didn’t just enter…”

Thousands of ponies were all crowded around a large arena sitting in the stands. In the center was a large rectangular arena. It was a large Duel Monsters arena with the main center area and two separate standing areas for the contestants. In the red corner was a light pink earth pony mare with a dark red mane curled up and shaped like a flower. In the blue corner was a blue unicorn stallion with a white mane.

“It looks as though this is going to be another easy victory for our beautiful Rose!” A voice yelled. It was an announcer up in a watch tower using the royal Canterlot voice. “Midnight Rose has shown spectacular strategy and gameplay. Over the course of this entire championship, she hasn’t even taken one point of damage! Will the trend continue?”

“Let’s see how you handle this!” She swiftly drew a card from the deck that was lain down on the panel in front of her. “I’ll start off by using the effect of my Glow-Up Bulb from the graveyard. By sending the top card of my deck to the graveyard, I can summon it from my graveyard.” Rose’s newly revived monster was a small patch of dirt with an eye poking out. It had a white flower on its head. “Now, I think it’s time to end this! I’m tuning my Level 1 Glow-Up Bulb with the Level 3 Lonefire Blossom and Seed of Flame already on my field!” Glow-Up Bulb flew into the air and burst into a large green ring while the other two monsters flew into the ring before transforming into small white spheres. The monsters exploded column of light and rose pedals.

“Synchro Summon! Black Rose Dragon!” Floating behind Rose stood a huge black and red dragon. Its wings were almost entirely made of roses.

The unicorn looked in horror at the display in front of him before screaming “Please, don’t attack me! I forfeit ok? Just please don’t attack!” The stallion ran off stage carrying his tail between his legs.

“Hmm… Pathetic…”

“Wow! Just the sight of Midnight Rose’s Black Rose Dragon made her opponent cower in fear and forfeit the match!” Rose turned back and the elevator on the side of the arena lowered her down. As she reached the bottom, the announcer was there waiting for her. “So, how does it feel to win the biggest Equestrian Duel Monsters Championship to date and win without even a scratch?”

She glared at the announcer. “I haven’t won yet, not until I beat the Princess…”

“Ooh, calling out the Princess! Yes, in case any of you in the audience have forgotten, the Champion of this amazing tournament gets a shot at dueling the Princess herself, Celestia!” Celestia was at the top of the bleachers in a small private box. She was tapping her hoof on the side of her throne with a disgruntled look on her face. She groaned as she stood up and flew out the box down to the arena. “Alright, it’s the time for the duel you've all be waiting for! Rose may have a perfect record but Celestia has access to the three most powerful cards in all of Duel Monsters, the Egyptian God Monsters!”

Celestia landed down next to the arena in front of Rose. Her horn lit up and a deck of cards flashed into existence. She levitated it over towards Rose and she grabbed Rose’s deck from her hooves. “You should be honored to hold the god cards, but this is a one-time thing. Don’t get used to it.” The two of them shuffled each-others decks for a few moments and handed them back to each-other. Celestia turned back and started walking to her side. “Good luck… You’re going to need it…”

“You’re the one who is going to need it…” Celestia chuckled at her statement, but what didn’t notice was that Rose had slipped a card into her own deck after Celestia had shuffled it.

The pink pony and white Alicorn both stepped up on their own platforms and were lifted up to the panel. “Let’s get the match underway!” The announcer yelled.

“LET’S DUEL!”

“Since I am your Princess, I get the first move.” Celestia drew her card and grinned. “I’ll start things off by activating my Solar Recharge spell card, by discarding a Lightsworn monster from my hand to the graveyard, I can draw 2 cards and then I must send the next 2 cards of my deck to graveyard!” Celestia placed down a monster to the graveyard space, drew 2 cards then placed 2 more cards in her graveyard. As she placed the cards in the grave, a bright light started shining from the sky into the field.

“What is going on?” Rose asked.

“When Solar Recharge sent two of my cards to the graveyard, it sent my Lightsworn Beast Wulf. When he is sent straight from my deck to the graveyard, I can summon him!” Celestia monster appeared. It was a white humanoid wolf with very thick armor and holding a spear.

“Now I summon Lightsworn Summoner Lumina.” The monster was a female with blond hair and a while dress.

“I activate the effect of my Summoner. By sending one card from my hand to the graveyard, I can summon a Lightsworn monster from the graveyard.” Celestia discarded yet another Lightsworn to activate her effect. “I’ll use it to bring back the card I discarded for my Solar Recharge earlier, Jain, the Lightsworn Paladin!” Jain was a tall woman with white armor, a shield and a sword.

“AMAZING!” The announcer yelled. “The Princess has managed to summon three monsters in just one turn. She now has enough monsters to summon one of fabled god cards. Could she be planning to summon one already?”

Celestia just chuckled. “I can tell you he is not far off. In fact…” Celestia grabbed a single card from her hand and revealed it to Rose. “I have one in my hand right now.” Celestia placed the card back into her hand. “Lucky for you I already summoned this turn so I can’t summon him this turn…” Celestia looked down at her deck and picked up 5 cards. “Since my turn is over with, I am forced to send 5 cards from my deck to the graveyard because of my Lightsworns. Don’t think of this as a disadvantage; no; the more monsters I send the graveyard the more power I have!”

“Typical tyrant…” Rose grunted in disgust. “We’ll see about that!” Rose drew. “I activate Graceful Charity. This lets me draw 3 cards as long as I discard 2 cards afterwards.” Rose drew her cards and examined her hand for a moment before discarding. When she did, two small dandelions appeared. “Just like how you summoned your Lightsworn Beast, when my Dandylion was sent to grave, it leaves behind two Fluff Tokens.”

“Now I summon my Lonefire Blossom.” The monster was small flower with a bulb spewing fireworks.

“I can activate my Lonefire Blossom’s special ability! By releasing a plant type monster I control, I can summon a new plant from my deck to replace it. I release one of my Fluff Tokens!” One of the dandelions dissolved and was replaced by a strange looking plant covered in brown vines with a small pair of eyes. “I summon Copy Plant!”

“My Copy Plant has the ability to take on the Level of any monster on the field so I will have it copy the Level of my Lonefire Blossom!” Copy Plant started shift it vines around changing its shape until it was mostly comparable to her Lonefire.”

“The stage is set; I’m tuning my Level 3 Copy Plant with my Lonefire Blossom and my remaining Fluff Token!” Copy Plant transformed into three green rings that surrounded the other two monsters. “Chilling flames engulf the entire world. Pitch-dark flower, set into bloom!” The sphere burst into light forming a massive pillar between the rings.

“SYNCHRO SUMMON! Grace this battle with your presence, Level 7, Black Rose Dragon!” From the vortex of petals emerged Midnight Rose’s ace monster, the massive black dragon with red-rose wings.

“Not bad peasant, but you will have to do better than that…”

“Well how about this then? When Black Rose Dragon is summoned, it has the ability to vaporize every card on the field!”

“What!?”

“Go my Black Rose Dragon, destroy every card on the field! Black Rose Gale!” Rose’s dragon opened its mouth and gathered energy before releasing a powerful whirlwind upon the field. All of Celestia’s monsters were nothing to the attack and were blown away with ease, shattering like glass. The winds soon overcame Black Rose Dragon, destroying it in the process. When the destruction was over, the field was completely cleared of monsters. “Now that your field is cleared, I can activate this! Go Monster Reborn!” Rose threw down her card and a purple portal opened in the ground. A new and completely unscathed Black Rose Dragon rose from the portal. “Since Black Rose Dragon destroyed all your monsters last time, I will use it to attack your life points directly!” Black Rose once again charged its fire breath but this time it more condensed, aimed directly at Celestia who had just put her guard up. Celestia groaned as the fire threatened to throw her backwards off the platform.

Celestia quickly regained her composure. “You got lucky; I’ll make sure you suffer dearly for that…” Celestia quickly drew her card, as her eyes turned to the card her mouth widened into a horrifying smile. “Now you will see what happens when mess with ME! When there are 4 or more Lightsworn monsters in my graveyard, I can summon THIS, my ultimate beast!” Celestia held the card high. The clouds above her began to part, shining a bright light onto the field. “Radiant beast, decent from the heavens and cast your judgement on these pathetic fouls! Come forth, JUDGMENT DRAGON!” Out from the light descended a massive winged dragon. It was covered in grey feathers and had blood red talons. It also had several long tendrils coming from its snout giving it a bit of a mustache. It roared into the sky shaking the very ground beneath their hooves.

The crowd cheered and roared for their Princess. “OH MY! Princess Celestia has just summoned her most powerful monster outside her god cards. This is truly a rare sight!”

“Now let me show you how you really destroy a monster... By giving up 1000 of my life points, I can activate my dragon’s special ability.”

Judgment Dragon slowly started to rise up high into the sky. He expanded his wings and a bright light beamed down form he wings onto the field. “Destroy her monster with Light of Destruction!” The light solidified until the field was completely covered in white. “You see, like your Black Rose Dragon, my Judgment Dragon also has the ability to wipe out every single card of the field. However unlike yours, mine doesn’t destroy itself in the process.” As the light cleared, Black Rose was completely gone, not even a pile of ashes. “Now that you have nothing to protect you, Judgment Dragon is going to attack your life points directly!” Judgment Dragon tilted its head back and opened it mouth. “Rays of Judgment!” The feathered dragon released an incredibly bright yellow ray towards Rose impacting the ground in front of her. She grabbed onto the edge of the area for leverage.

Celestia picked up 4 more cards from her deck and placed them in the graveyard. “I send 4 more cards due to Judgment Dragons ability and with that I end my turn…”

“Your pathetic dragon doesn't scare me! Ha, I activate the spell card Pot of Greed. This lets me draw 2 cards from my deck. Now I activate Premature Burial. By giving up 800 of my life points I can summon a monster from my graveyard. Be reborn my Black Rose Dragon!”

“Just give it up already…” Celestia groaned as the dragon pulled itself from the ground.

“Now I activate One for One. This allows me to discard a monster from my hand and summon a Level 1 monster from my deck.” A little white furry ball appeared next to Rose’s dragon. “What do you think of my Spore?”

“Now I play the spell card Seed of Deception, this allows me summon any low level plant from my hand. Welcome out Dark Verger.” Rose’s new monster was just a small weed with two large leaves with eyes.

With only 1 card in her hand, Rose held the card up high. “Now for the finishing touch… I play the spell card Flawed Treaty!” She slammed the card onto the field. “Let me explain how this card works. This lets me take one card from my deck and add it to your hand. In exchange, you cannot attack next turn.” Rose searched through her deck and pulled a single card out and threw it towards Celestia. She looked at it with question. “Now I use Flawed Treaty’s second effect. By giving up my battle phase this turn, I am allowed to declare the name of a card. If that card is in your hand, it’s added to my hand!”

“So… You plan to take the card you just added to my hand right?”

"Not quite… I call the name…" Rose held her forehoof into the air. "SLIFER THE SKY DRAGON!"

Suddenly, the entire audience gasped and went silent. Celestia’s face was struck with terror as she looked at her hand, the god card that she had so foolishly shown Rose was about to be used against her. The card glowed with a yellow aura and Celestia shot it towards Rose. “You don’t have any idea what you’re doing…”

“I know perfectly well… I sacrifice Black Rose Dragon, Spore and Dark Verger!” The three monsters turned into a pure light and launched into the sky. The clouds parted and greeted the offerings with a light. A large form appeared above the cloud. It was a large red dragon whose body seemed to go on forever. It had a second mouth up on its nose and many rows of teeth.

The entire audience had gone completely silent. “That ends my turn…”

Celestia drew. She looked up nervously. "Since you have no cards in your hand, Slifer is powerless. That was a foolish mistake on your part."

"Do you think I care? Thanks to my spell card, you can't attack this turn and you don't have enough life points to activate your dragon’s ability."

Celestia grunted and looked down at her hand. Her eyes were drawn to the trap card Rose had given her; she placed it face-down. "Just go..."

“My draw!” Rose examined the card with a smile. “This duel is over; I play a spell card known as Blue Rose Offering! First I must give up half of my life points.”

“Now by removing a Black Rose Dragon from my field or graveyard from play, I can summon a new monster!” Several thick thorns shot out of the ground curling around each other forming a sort of cocoon. A black light was emitting from inside the cocoon. The light slowly dissipated and the cocoon started to crack. “Come forth, Violet, Knight of Thorns!” The cocoon exploded revealing a new figure. It was a tall women covered in purple vines, almost like armor. Her sword was like a giant thorn and a pair of red eyes could be seen under her helmet.

“Oh my!” The announcer yelled. “Black Rose Dragon transformed into some sort of knight. Is this Rose’s true ultimate monster?”

“I’m activating Violet’s special ability. By remove a plant-type monster in the graveyard from the game, I’m allowed to draw one card, but if it’s a spell or trap card, it goes to my graveyard." As she placed her hoof on her deck, a small black spark of electricity ran up her leg. She jumped at this feeling and stared straight forward for several moments. Finally she drew it. She chuckled and turned her attention to Celestia. “Princess, do you fear death?”

“I don’t fear anything. I am a god, I am the ruler of this land and I fear nopony.”

“Is that so? How about your subjects?”

Celestia recoiled a bit. “What are you saying?”

“Do your subjects fear death? Do they feel they are safe living under your rule?”

“Of course they do. I am most powerful being in existence. Nothing can stop me.”

“Do they really?”

“I am their ruler. They respect me.”

“But does being a ruler truly mean they respect you? Is it really respect… Or is it fear?”

“What are you implying?”

“You’re the most powerful being in Equestria, how do you know your subjects don’t worship you because they are afraid of you?”

“Shut up you worthless trash! I don’t have to listen to your crap. GUARDS!” A swarm of armored pegesi with spears all approached Rose. “Get rid of this pest, this duel is over.”

“Your right, it is over…” She held her last card up. “FOR YOU!” The sky blackened and Slifer began to dissolve into a black powder. “I sacrifice Slifer the Sky Dragon and Violet Knight of Thorns!” The remains of Slifer and Violet began to swirl into the air creating a tornado-like vortex. “Stolen past and taken peace… Awaken the darkness and engulf the world in your cleansing shadow!” As the two monsters were sucked up into the clouds, a black lightning bolt came down the struck Rose. The shock of the lightning threw all the guard ponies back and the very foundation of the area shook beneath them. Rose pulled her head back and looked into the sky as two scars began to form across Rose’s forehead. They started on her hairline and formed around the edge of her eyes. She tilted her head back and looked at Celestia. Her eyes suddenly changed into a blood red color.

Before Celestia could say anything, Rose’s shadow began to expand and rise up out of the ground creating a winged silhouette. It had jagged edges at the corners of its head and bright red eyes with red scars like Rose. “What… Is that?”

Rose slowly climbed over the card panel and onto the field. Parts of the arena began to spark and malfunction as she slowly walked towards Celestia. “You’re about to feel the wrath of my ultimate creature; Iseris, Destroyer of Harmony. My name... Is Midnight Rose, I will be the one to destroy you and put an end to your terror once and for all!” Celestia slowly stepped back, something about the new creature made her uneasy. Rose lifted her hoof and weakly pointed at the Princess. “Attack…” The shadow jumped out of the ground and flew up towards Celestia’s dragon. A black flaming sword appeared in its hand as it came down cleaving it in half. Before Celestia could even react, she saw the creature going for her. She flapped her wings in an attempt to run but barely got off the ground before the sword made contact. Celestia screamed as the sword’s slash left a black burning scar across her chest. She slowly fell to the ground and hit the dirt with a thud.

Celestia tried to pull herself from but found it difficult due to the pain. “Rose… What are you doing?”

“What, you still haven’t figured it out?” Rose leaped down from the dueling platform and came up close to Celestia. “I’ve had enough of your rule. You’re nothing but a heartless tyrant who does whatever she wants with who she wants. You sent me to one of your slave camps to pay off the ridiculous taxes you enforced on my family and everypony else. But oh that was not enough. My eternal slavery wasn’t enough for you. You had the gull to force my own little brother into a slave camp too?”

“But… I…”

“Don’t even try to make up excuses… In fact, I don’t think you even remember what happened to my brother do you?” Celestia just stared back at her. “Let me remind you… Thanks to your strict rule about being late, your pathetic excuse for guards that were holding my brother attempted to take a shortcut through the Everfree Forest just to make it to the labor camp in time.” Rose leaned up close. “Can you guess what happened?” Celestia pulled back. “While they were following the path through the Everfree, the ground collapsed underneath them and everypony in board fell into a RAVINE!”

Celestia gasped. “Wait, I remember that! But… I was only told the group went missing, the bodies were never found. How do you-”

Rose snickered and a faint black aura formed around her. “That is for me to know and you to find out. All you need to know is that I am now more powerful than any pony in Equestria. Even you…” Suddenly, Rose was tackled to the ground by a group of armored guards. “Hey! Let go of me!”

“You’re under arrest for assaulting the Princess, unauthorized use of black magic and resisting arrest.”

Celestia motioned the guards to hold her down. “No, you have already proven yourself to be much too big of a threat. Simple incarceration won’t do…” Celestia began to slowly rise into the air and six small colored stones appeared around her. The stones began to spin around her creating a multi-colored tornado. “The Elements of Harmony will seal your soul in stone, trapped forever, never to be released.” As the elements were about to hit max power, they suddenly stopped and faded. “What? What happened with the Elements?” The stones slowly faded in color until they were pure grey and then a small sphere of stone formed around the stone. The 6 stones dropped to the ground, nothing but rocks. Celestia could only look at the elements in horror.

“Ha… AHAHAHAHAHA!!!!” Rose laughed. “Oh how unfortunate, it looks like karma has finally caught up to you!”

“What exactly are you saying?”

“Isn’t it obvious? The elements won’t accept your call anymore because you’re a tyrant!” Suddenly, Rose seemed to explode with energy and the guards were launched away. The dark creature returned behind her and launched itself towards Celestia. Before the monster could reach her, Celestia grabbed her cards and the once Element of Magic and then teleported away.

Rose started laughing even harder. “YES! RUN! RUN LIKE THE PATHETIC COWARD YOU ARE!”

It had only been a few hours since Rose attack Canterlot and the city was already in flames. Anypony who didn’t side with Rose had their soul stolen from their very bodies by her new creature of darkness. Everypony else who was left teamed up with Rose and turned against Celestia, realizing that she was nothing but a tyrant who controlled them.

Celestia watched Canterlot fall from the balcony of her castle. Tears started forming from her eyes as she looked at the now powerless Element of Magic. “How did it come to this? Did I really turn into a tyrant?” Celestia trotted over to the vanity mirror beside her bed. She was shocked to see the black liner around her eyes. Even though she knew it from lack of sleep, to her, it looked just like the black scars Rose had on her face. For just a second she could swear her eyes flashed red. She then looked down at her attire. Her new crown was significantly larger then when Luna and she ruled, as a sign of dominance. Finally, her hair was no longer shimmering like a rainbow like it normally did. It was becoming jagged and turning a faint orange, almost like a raging fire. She looked at the mirror one last time. “No…” Instead of her reflection, she saw a twisted and deformed version of herself. Her whole coat was a very faint orange, her main was a raging inferno and she was now where flat golden headpiece where her crown was. “I’m turning into my sister…” She quickly knocked her crown to the ground and slammed her hoof down on it shattering it to pieces.

Then, a loud explosion could be heard from outside, followed by a large group of frightful screams. She was about to fly out and do something but she quickly stopped herself. The Elements were gone and she was powerless against Rose. As she was turning around, her eyes glanced at her Duel Monsters deck. On the top was Slifer the Sky Dragon. Celestia picked it up and looked at it for several moments. “Rose… She somehow used these… Cards… To create a beast of unparalleled strength...” Then, Celestia picked up the deck of cards and threw it at a nearby wall, spraying the cards everywhere. “Stupid cards… They have caused nothing but trouble.” The Princess slowly stepped back outside to the balcony, sky had become dark by nighttime and Luna’s moon could be seen. “Oh Luna… I’m so sorry... I’ve spent so long grieving over what I did to you, now I am turning into the very thing I banished… Please… Just give me a sign… Tell me how to fix this I will become a better ruler, a better pony in general.” Then she heard a sound, it sounded like the crinkle of paper. She glanced back down at her cards spread across the floor. The Element of Magic had somehow rolled across the floor and found its way to her cards. It slowly rolled around the cards, somehow navigating its way around the cards until finally coming to a stop on top of one. With her magic, the Princess picked up the stone and glanced at the card underneath it, and then her eyes gleamed. “Thank you Luna, I understand now.” Celestia levitated the card and the element to her side, spread her wings and flew off to her and Luna’s original castle in the Everfree Forest.

“So you discovered a way to beat Iseris?” Twilight asked.

“Thanks to sister’s sign, I realized what I needed to do. Since the Elements were useless, I had to find a way to harness its power into a Duel Monster’s card.”

“Of course...” Yami replied. “Since Iseris is immune to pony magic, if you infuse it within a card it may actually work.”

“So Princess, did it work?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, it did. Sadly I only had access to the Element of Magic since I left the other five behind but the single Element was more than enough. After I created the card I confronted Rose. It was the most difficult duel I have ever had in my life but she was overconfident and I won. After that I released a spell over all of Equestria that removed the memories of past events including the creation of Duel Monsters.”

“So what did you do with the cards?” Yami asked.

“Many of the cards were destroyed in the uprising, including the God cards but whatever was left I sealed away.”

“Where did you seal them, if you don’t mind me asking?” Twilight asked.

“You haven’t figured it out?” Celestia slowly approached Twilight and put a hoof of her chest. “They are inside the Elements themselves…” With her magic, the Princess levitated Twilight’s new duel disk over to her. “I used a special spell to seal them within the Elements so if the future element bearers were to ever combat the same magic I encountered all those years ago, the elements would grant the holder the power to fight back.” At that moment, there was a loud bang and the sky turned dark. There was a thunder storm brewing. Yami stared out the window. A look of horror had fallen upon both him and Celestia.

“Yugi?” Twilight asked. “What is going on?”

“Slifer the Sky Dragon...”

Author's Notes:

Last Update - 12/17/2013

Chapter 4 - Loyalty and Betrayal

The day after Twilight was hospitalized, Pinkie had decided to go and get supplies for a Get Well Soon party. At the time she had decided to decorate Sugarcube Corner for the inevitable Welcome Back party. “Hey Pinkie Pie, where did you want me to hang this banner?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Ummmm... How about over there!” Pinkie pointed at the staircase leading upstairs. Rainbow Dash flew up and hung the banner up on the railing then pinning the other side up against the wall underneath the stairs.

“So tell me again why we are setting up a party now? Twilight doesn’t get out for three days and what about Applejack?”

“If we are going to be fighting evil, I want to be ready with a party the moment they are back!”

Rainbow Dash flew back down and simply gave Pinkie a distraught look. “Hey Pinkie Pie?”

“Yes Dashie?”

“Am I the only one feeling a little-” Dash hesitated for a second. “Well... Guilty about what happened to Trixie?”

Pinkie Pie dropped her smile and stared at Dash. “Why would you feel guilty?”

“Well, after everything she said I can’t help but feel a bit like a hypocrite. I brag all the time about what I do and ponies praise me for it. She does the same and she gets tomatoes thrown at her. Only difference is I do it because I enjoy it, but she has to do it to make a living.”

“When you say it like that she almost sounds like the Wonderbolts. She performs for ponies and they give her bits because they like her.”

“She just wanted to be recognized and she lost everything for it, even her closest friend…”

Feeling upset for her friend, Pinkie walked over hugged Dash. “It’s not your fault... Trixie is just going through a phase. I'm sure Twilight going to help her.”

“But what about Applejack, we have no idea what happened to her. She could be dead for all we know.”

Pinkie thought to herself for a moment. “No, I don’t think she’s dead. It’s just this feeling I have… I don’t know where she is but my Pinkie Sense is telling me she is still alive somewhere…”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Besides, next time Trixie shows up I want to be the one to take her down and save Applejack.” The pegasus held up her left hoof like a fist. “If what Trixie said is true then all of us should be able to summon our own duel disks and decks whenever we are about to battle.”

“I wonder what decks we will all get? Yugi’s deck was cool and all but it didn’t feel right to me, the deck Twilight got fit her almost perfectly and it’s like she already knew how to play it.”

“I’ll probably get some kind of super awesome flying monsters that are so fast my opponent won’t even know what hit them!”

“Maybe I’ll get something food related; or maybe party related!”

“Pinkie… Do you ever think of anything but parties and food?”

Pinkie suddenly leaped forward and wrapped her hooves around Rainbow Dash. “I think about my friends too!”

Rainbow Dash just sighed. “Oh Pinkie Pie…”

As the two ponies were embraced in a hug, the back door quietly opened up. A hooded figure stuck her head and in and looked around. “Perfect, everypony is in the front…” She quietly tiptoed over to one of the stoves trying to not make a noise. She extended a clawed arm outward and pulled it away from the wall. “Careful...” She turned the stove enough so the back was showing. Snickering to herself, she held up her right claw and swiped at the large cords causing them to limp to the floor. With one last snicker, she pulled out a box of matches.

In the other room, Pinkie and Dash were still locked in a heartwarming hug, until Dash began sniffing. “Pinkie... You smell that?” Both of them continued sniffing.

Suddenly, Pinkie's eye went wide. “Dash; we need to get out NOW!”

“Why?”

“NOW!!!” With her hooves still around the pegasus, Pinkie launched towards the front door.

Behind the shop, the hooded figure opened the box revealed a bunch of sticks with red and white tips. “Sayonara suckers...” Taking one of the matches, she quickly swiped it across the black sandpaper, lighting the tip on fire. Turning her back to the shop, she tossed the lit match directly into the open window. Almost instantly, Sugarcube Corner exploded into an incredible blaze. Several of the passing ponies jumped back and screamed at the sudden inferno.

Pinkie Pie watched in horror as her home was burned to the ground, the light reflecting off the glare in her eyes. Her eyes started tearing and her hair completely deflated. “No...”

The surrounding ponies were all talking amongst themselves for a few minutes as the fire died out. After the fire was completely gone, Mr. and Mrs. Cake had finally returned from getting supplies. The second they saw their shop, they dropped their saddlebags and ran over to help Pinkie. “Pinkie dear, what happened!?” Mrs. Cake asked.

“I... I don't know...” Pinkie stuttered. “I think it was a gas leak…”

“But you take great care of the appliances Pinkie Pie.” Mr. Cake spoke. “How did this happen?”

“Better question is how did the fire start in the first place?” Rainbow Dash interrupted. “The Cakes were gone the whole time and it’s not like we had anything cooking in the back room…”

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie’s mane flared back up into its normal poofy state and she bolting into the wreckage of the house. She moved the charred remains of her bed to reveal a metal bucket slightly jittering around. She pulled the bucket off the ground only to be greeted by a small pair of eyes. “Oh Gummy! I was afraid I lost you! I'll never let you go!” She relentlessly kissed her little alligator. “I don't know what I would do without you...”

Rainbow Dash was inspecting the back of the shop-that-was-no-more when something caught her attention. There was small white match box was lying on the ground just outside the building, it wasn’t as damaged at the other objects and was only missing one match. “Uh, Pinkie Pie… You might want to look at this…”

Pinkie and the Cakes all approached her, she held out the box to them. “A box of matches?” Mr. Cakes ask.

“It must have been Trixie; I knew she wouldn’t stay hidden for long!”

“Wait, the great and powerful Trixie?”

“But isn’t Trixie a unicorn, and a really powerful one now?” Pinkie asked. “Why would a unicorn need matches to start a fire?”

“Who said anything about the weak and lame Trixie?” An unknown voice called. Rainbow Dash suddenly turned around to see a large hooded figure standing on top of a still-standing support beam. Pinkie and the others had noticed to. “I'm quite surprised Pinkie Pie. I was not expecting you to smell the gas leak that fast. That's quite impressive...” The figure jumped off the support beam, landing with a loud thud. “I was hoping the explosion would have finished you off but obviously I was wrong...”

Rainbow Dash jumped at the large hooded creature standing in the center of the charred rubble. “ARE YOU INSANE!? You just burned down my friend's home!”

“Collateral damage...”

“Collateral... You sick jerk!”

“Look who's talking...” The figure snickered before pulling out her left claw from her robe. She was wearing a very familiar duel disk.

“That duel disk... So you ARE working with Trixie!”

The figure started laughing. “Come on, Trixie is nothing but a useless braggart; she couldn't even handle Twilight Sparkle. Unlike her, I won't fail!” The unknown figure held her left claw up and her duel disk snapped into place and lit up with red lights. “Come on you pink freak!”

“Hang on! If you’re going to fight anypony then fight me!”

“I’m not here for you Dash, I want the pink one…”

“Well too bad, you have to go through me first!”

The hooded figure thought for a moment. “Alright, how about we make a compromise…?”

“What kind of compromise?”

The figure simply snapped her fingers. A large black ring formed under her and shot outward like a shock wave, launching Mr. and Mrs. Cake backward out of the wreckage. The wave barely stopped outside the remains of Sugar Cube Corner creating a black flaming barrier trapping not only her and Rainbow Dash, but Pinkie Pie inside the wall. “I'll let you duel me, however... If you happen to lose...” She held up her arm pointing the pony behind Rainbow Dash. “She pays the price...”

Dash gasped. Turning back, she saw Pinkie Pie stepping back towards the wall. She then turned her head back to the still unknown arsonist. “What; no way! I would never put my own friend’s life at stake over a stupid card game like that?”

“Heh... I'm not giving you a choice...” The figure held out her left claw and positioned her duel disk in front. “If you really care for your friend then you will do it.”

“Hmm, fine!” Rainbow Dash held out her front left hoof. A circular multi-colored light engulfed her arm as small white disk materialized. Bringing her hoof up to her head, a small golden stub came out of her duel disk and split in half creating a holographic card tray. The neon lights upon her duel disk were slowly changing between all the colors of the rainbow. “I won’t allow you to touch a hair on Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow Dash continued to stand her ground on the opposite sides of the shop of her opponent casting a death glare into her enemies yellow eyes.

“Rainbow Dash…” The pink pony whimpered.

“LET'S DUEL!”

In the mist of darkness, Trixie and another figure were watching over the duel at hand. “Who does she think she is!?” Trixie complained. “Going around insulting me like that; some nerve! When she gets back, I am going to rip her a new one!”

“Trixie, behave.” The other figure spoke. “Besides, Master will deal with her later. I am sure the Master won’t appreciate her reckless behavior, especially setting the shop ablaze like that. We need to defeat the Elements in a duel, not torch them alive…”

Trixie simply crossed her hooves and huffed. “Well I’m still going to punch her when she gets back…”

“You do that… Meanwhile I guess it’s my turn to jump into action.” The figure revealed his silver horn as it started glowing. “While she deals with the Elements of Loyalty and Laughter, I will deal with Kindness and Generosity…” There was a flash of light and he was gone from view. “Hope your ready Miss Rarity… Because you’re about to feel suffering like no other…”

“I call first!” Rainbow Dash swiftly drew her card leaving a small wind trail. ‘Aw yeah, this monster will definitely do some damage!’ “I summon Zeradias, Herald of Heaven in attack mode!” From the sky dropped a beam of light exploding into a green and white winged figure with red horns wielding a forked lance. “Let's see you handle this guy!”

“Ha, what do you think of THAT! 2100 ATK points right off the bat!” The hooded figure didn’t react however Dash’s monster did. His body suddenly started to fade and crack before exploding into light particles. Rainbow Dash jerked back in shock. “What!? What just happened to my monster?”

The figure chuckled. “If this is all you got then this is going to be the easiest duel ever. It’s obvious you didn’t actually read the card. You glanced at its high ATK and didn’t even bother to see if it had any effects.”

Rainbow Dash looked down at the card and read it to herself. ‘If this card is on the field but “The Sanctuary in the Sky” is not on the field, destroy this card.’ “Are you kidding me!? If I don’t have that card then I can’t use it?” Rainbow Dash sighed and slid the card into her graveyard. “If that’s what I need to use it then I just need to get it; I play Terraforming!” A single card slid out from Rainbow Dash’s deck. “This lets me add one filed spell from my deck to my hand so I’m adding the very card I need.” Dash then held her duel disk up and a slot shot out from the side of the disk and she slapped the card in. “I play the Sanctuary in the Sky filed spell.” The clouds above slowly began to shift around and form together. With a glow of light, the clouds formed into a sky palace with a large staircase on the front and a statue in the middle.

“Your monster is already gone, much good it will do you…”

“That’s why I’m playing Monster Reborn to bring Zeradias back from my graveyard.” A purple hole opened up in front of Rainbow Dash and her monster leaped out back onto the field.

The hooded figure just shook her head. “What a waste of a perfectly good spell card…”

“Don’t criticize me, just take your turn.”

“At this rate Dash, this duel is going to be over too fast, even for you.” The figure drew her first card. “Since I control no monsters and you do, I can summon my Blackwing - Sirocco the Dawn without tributing another monster.” The figure’s monster appeared as black feathered humanoid bird with a blue feathered head.

“It’s too weak to beat my Zeradias.”

“That’s why I’m calling in backup with this card.” She slid another into her disk and a spell card appeared on her field. “My Summoning Madness spell card… This card allows me to summon twice this turn as long as I throw out a card in my hand… I discard Blackwing - Gladius the Midnight Sun.” She slid her card into the graveyard. “This allows me to summon Blackwing - Blizzard the Far North!” This bird was much smaller than the last looking like a traditional bird but with light blue and black feathers.

“Blizzard the Far North’s ability activates when it’s successfully summoned allowing me to summon another Blackwing from my graveyard.” The graveyard portal opened again to reveal another humanoid black bird with knight armor and two swords.

“And that’s not all!” The figure plucked a card from her hand and revealed it to Dash. “When there is a Blackwing monster on my field I can special summon Blackwing - Gale the Whirlwind from my hand!”

“What, are you kidding me!?” Dash screamed. Yet another bird formed on the field, a near black dark blue bird with green feathers on its head.

“No way… Four monsters just like that?” Rainbow Dash was slowly stepping away in fear, not expecting a swarm of monsters so effortlessly.

“And if you even think about stopping this pain train you have another thing coming… As long as my Summoning Madness is in play you can’t prevent my monsters from being summoned and all spell and trap cards are useless when I special summon a monster!”

“That’s not fair!”

“That’s not all; I activate Gale the Whirlwind’s special ability! It has the ability to cut your monster’s ATK and DEF points in half!” Gale swung its wings blowing a gust at her Zeradias making it struggle.

“Oh no…” Rainbow Dash muttered to herself.

“And it’s about to get a lot worse.” Pulling her right claw back, she reached out and pointed at her monsters. “Now my Level 2 Blizzard the Far North tunes Level 5 Sirocco the Dawn!”

“Wait what!?” Dash got her answer immediately. Blizzard flew up high into the air changing its body into two orbs of light and Sirocco started floating up towards it. The two spheres suddenly transformed into two large green rings scanning down Sirocco’s body turning into a yellow wire-frame. The wire-frame also suddenly changed into five spheres like Blizzard and exploded into a beam of light flowing through the center of the rings.

“I Synchro Summon; Level 7 Blackwing Armor Master!” This new monster was much larger than the last few; it could hardly be considered a bird anymore. It was a large humanoid figure covered in black armor with red trimming and a single red eye in the center of its beak. It crossed its arms and let out a loud screech before extending its arms back out.

The hooded figure held its claw out and clenched its fist. “But I’m not done yet! Level 3 Gale the Whirlwind tunes Level 3 Gladius the Midnight Sun!” A completely replay of the last summon happened this time with Gale turning into three rings and scanning over Gladius turning into three spheres.

“I Synchro Summon; Level 6 Blackwing - Nothung the Starlight!” This creature was another large humanoid-like bird with shoulder pads, a cloak and a massive black and white sword. Putting its left claw on its arm, it swung around its sword as though showing off its skills before holding the sword up high.

Rainbow Dash stared eye at the large monsters with terror. This was nothing like she had experienced with Trixie. “How… How did you do that? Yugi never told us how to summon like that!”

The figure chuckled. “Probably because he doesn’t know how... Yugi and Kaiba come from a world where Synchro Monsters have yet to be invented. Let me give you a little tutorial; when you have a tuner monster, you can summon a Synchro Summon from your Extra Deck by tuning it with non-tuners and adding up their level to equal to Synchro Monster. It’s basic math but of course only someone as great as me can Synchro Summon at this caliber.”

“You know everything you did was basically pointless…” Pinkie finally spoke up. “Your monsters before had more total ATK than your new ones.”

“SHUT UP! It makes no difference; I’ll still crush Rainbow Dash!” She pointed her claw upwards at Nothung. “I activate Nothung’s special ability! When this monster is successfully summoned, he deals you 800 points of damage!” Nothung held his sword into the air and fired a bolt of lightning into the sky before coming right back down on Rainbow Dash.

“But that’s not the end; your monster also loses 800 ATK points!”

Dash quickly recovered and went back into position. “Is that all? Even with that damage you can’t beat me this turn.”

“You obviously have no idea what you’re talking about! Nothung the Starlight attack Zeradias!” The giant blade wielding bird suddenly bolted forward towards Rainbow’s monster and slashed it straight down the middle. As Dash held her right hoof up to block the wind, a yellow glow formed around her.

The hooded figure recoiled back. “What the; why didn’t you take any damage!?”

Rainbow Dash snickered a bit. “As long as my Sanctuary is on the field, I don’t take any damage when my Fairy monsters battle. It’s like Pinkie said, if you didn’t combine all your monsters like you did you would have beat me in the first turn.”

“You can’t hide behind your little pixies forever.” The figure reached out her hand and pointed at Rainbow Dash. “Blackwing Armor Master, attack her directly!” The figure’s Armor Master charged forward holding its right arm back before thrusting it right towards Dash causing her to grab her chest.

“Hope you liked that because there is more where that came from Rainbow Crash!” At that moment, Rainbow’s eyes widened. She looked back up at her enemy and stared at her face hidden by the hood.

“You… Only ponies from Cloudsdale use that name…” Rainbow Dash released her chest and regained her composure. “I get it now… That’s why you hate me and Pinkie Pie so much…” Pinkie looked over at Rainbow Dash with a confused look on her face. “There is only one pony I know who would hate Pinkie Pie so much and would know that name… Or should I say griffon…?”

Saying absolutely nothing, the hooded figure finally pulled her hood off revealing her feathered face. “Dash…”

“Gilda…” The two stared down for several moments, completely unmoving.

“Oh my gosh, Gilda!?” Pinkie screamed.

“I’m surprised it took my best friend so long to recognize me…”

“You’re no friend of mine Gilda…”

“Because you abandoned me for these… LOSERS! They call you the Element of Loyalty yet you couldn’t even stay loyal to your best friend!”

“That’s because I grew up! I realized that you’re not a real friend; you’re just a bully and a jerk that only cares about friends who are cool!”

“Yeah, so? We were friends far longer; does that mean nothing to you?”

“No, not when you’re being a massive jerk to everyone I care about. My new friends actually stick up for me and understand me in a way you never could!”

“Understand you!? Who understands you more than me!? I’ve known you since the day I moved to Cloudsdale and I know more about you then any pony!”

Rainbow Dash groaned loudly in frustration. “Gilda, you are not above this like you think you are! You don’t know the meaning of loyalty!”

“You getting the Element of Loyalty was a total flub!”

“I EARNED IT FAIR AND SQUARE!”

“There is no way a traitor like you could get the Element fair. I know your kind; you believe that just because you have some kind of magical artifact that now you’re the Princess of Equestria. Well you’re not; you’re just another worthless pony who cares about nopony but themselves! Well guess what, that pretty little Element is USELESS against me!”

Rainbow took a step back, fear filling her face. “You… You sound just like Trixie…” Gilda didn’t move or respond. She just threw a card into her duel disk causing a face-down to materialize on her field. Rainbow took that as ending her turn and drew her own card. “Whatever you and Trixie have planned, we won’t let you do it…” Rainbow Dash examined the card she drew and thought for a moment. A light bulb suddenly went on in your head. “Alright Gilda, let’s see how you like this… I play the continuous spell card Fountain in the Sky!” A second smaller sanctuary appeared next to her first one and latched itself to her sanctuary. This had a large circular fountain with a waterfall going of the temple.

“Cute…” Gilda replied.

“And with that I summon the Shining Angel!” A new fairy appeared in front of Rainbow Dash; a tall man with a white robe, golden wings and a halo.

“Shining Angel, attack Gilda’s Blackwing Armor Master!”

Gilda did a double take. “What, are you stupid?” Shining Angel elegantly flew towards Armor Master but the birdman quickly retaliated destroying him in seconds with a slash of his arm. When the monster exploded, it left behind several light particles floating the air.

“Due to the effect of my Sanctuary I take no damage, but it doesn’t end there…” She pointed up to the second part of her sanctuary floating up in the air. “When my Fairy monsters are destroyed, my Fountain activates…” The light particles flew up to her fountain and the fountain began to drip water on her making Dash glow. “I can remove them from play to regain Life Points equal my destroyed monsters ATK points.”

“Shining Angel’s ability activates now. When he is destroyed in battle, I can summon a LIGHT Attribute monster from my deck with 1500 ATK points or less.” A light shot out from her deck and on to field revealing an exact duplicate of the monster she just had. “I summon another Shining Angel!”

Gilda squint her eyes a bit. “What are you planning…?”

“Shining Angel number two, attack Blackwing Armor Master!” Once again, Shining Angel charged at Armor Master only to be destroyed effortlessly and just like before, its light caused the fountain to rain down on Rainbow Dash. “Now my fountain gives me 1400 Life Points…”

“And my Shining Angel’s special ability activates!” Once again, another Shining Angel flew out from her deck.

“Shining Angel number three, attack Blackwing Armor Master!” Once again, the monster attacked, was destroyed and its energy allowed the fountain to flow.

Gilda’s eye grew wide and she let out a growl. “You little CHEAT!”

Rainbow Dash grinned. “So you figured out my strategy huh?”

“You allowed all your monsters to suicide on purpose just so you could keep regaining your Life Points!”

“Bingo, who’s the smart one now?”

Gilda scoffed. “Take all the Life Points you want, it isn’t going to matter in the end when I destroy you!”

“In that case…” Dash motioned her hoof at the field. “I use Shining Angel’s special ability!” Another light flew from her deck and onto the field. This time it was a large orange ring. “Since I already used all my Shining Angels, my Nova Summoner will take its place.”

“Nova Summoner, attack Blackwing Armor Master!”

“Are you kidding me!?” Nova Summoner charged at Armor Master and was promptly destroyed like the Angels before it and like before, its light charged up her fountain.

“Nova Summoner’s effect activates when it’s destroyed!”

Gilda groaned in frustration. “Let me guess… It lets you summon another copy of itself…?”

“You’re catching on; Nova Summoner can bring a Fairy monster with 1500 ATK or less from my deck to the field.” With that, another light came from Rainbow Dash’s and materialized another Nova Summoner.

“Nova Summon, you know what to do!” Like before, the cycle repeated again with her monster being destroyed and it restoring her Life Points.

“I think that’s enough for now… I use Nova Summoner’s special ability to summon a third Nova Summoner to the field in defense mode.” The ring monster reappeared on the field and took on a blue color.

“Now even if you destroy my Nova Summoner, I can use its special ability to summon a different monster from my deck and protect my Life Points…” Rainbow Dash slid a single card into her disk. “I’ll throw down a face-down and end my tu-”

“NO, YOU DON’T!”

Rainbow Dash jerked back. “What?”

For a moment, a flash of red could be seen in Gilda’s eyes as she motioned her card. “I play the continuous trap; Drain Force Draw!” Gilda’s face-down flipped up to reveal a trap. “Since your Life Points are higher than they were at the start of this turn, this trap card allows me to draw 1 card for every 2000 Life Points that you gained this turn!”

“Uh oh!” Pinkie Pie yelled. “You gained a lot of Life Points this turn!”

“7000 to be exact; that means I get to draw 3 new cards!” Gilda swiftly drew the cards from her deck. “However I take 400 points of damage for each card I draw from this effect…” Gilda’s trap card suddenly shot a bolt of lightning at Gilda who took the blast fairly well.

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie gasped simultaneously. “That’s not all my card does however, as long as Drain Force Draw is on my field, I can draw a card every time you recover Life Points, so long as I give up 400 points in return.” Gilda suddenly laughed into the air. “Go on; keep increasing your Life Points. The more you do the more cards I get!” She continued to laugh. “You’re lucky my trap can only be played at the end of the turn or else I would have drawn a lot more cards.”

Rainbow Dash took a step back. “You… Do your worst, your trap doesn’t scare me!”

Gilda just grinned and drew her card. “You’re going to regret those words… I summon Blackwing Bora the Spear!” Another bird appeared in front of Gilda, this time humanoid-like one with a red-feathered head, yellow hair-like feathers on its head and a massive drill in its right arm.

“Bora the Spear, attack Rainbow Dash’s Nova Summoner!” Bora lunged forward aiming its drill at Rainbow’s monster. “When this monster attacks a monster in defense position, it inflicts piercing damage!”

Rainbow Dash grinned this time. “Not like it matters, I can’t take damage thanks to my filed spell…”

Gilda grinned back. “I activate the quick-play spell Mystical Space Typhoon!” A vortex of wind formed around the sanctuary and slowly it started breaking apart. “This card destroys one spell or trap card on the field so your Sanctuary is no more!” The sanctuary finally collapsed in a pile of rubble behind and promptly vanished. Gilda’s monster finally finished its attack and speared right throw Rainbow’s Nova Summoner making it explode.

Rainbow Dash stood her ground against the explosion. “My field spell may be gone but I still have my other cards. Not only does my fountain will give me an extra 1400 Life Points but my Nova Summoner allows me to summon another monster to replace it.” First her monster powered her fountain causing it to rain down on her.

After that a light shot out from her deck onto the field; this time it was another angel-like creature with a blue robe and large white wings. “I summon a monster known as Honest.”

Gilda tapped her index finder to the side of her head. “Did you forget about my trap card!? Every time your Life Points increase I can draw a card for 400 Life Points.” The griffon drew another card from her deck and was lightly zapped by her trap card.

Gilda didn’t see it but Rainbow Dash grinned. ‘At this rate she is going to drain all her own Life Points away herself. This will be easy!’

Gilda regained her composure from the card that shocked her. “Now then… I’ll have my Nothung attack Honest!” Nothung lunged forward this time raising his sword overhead. He flew above Honest and came down slashing it in half and making it explode.

“My fountain restores my Life Points again!” The fountain rained on her like before.

“And my trap card lets me draw again!” Gilda replied drawing her card.

“I told you, gain all the Life Points you want. It won’t make a difference, especially now that you’re wide open for a direct attack!” Blackwing Armor Master shifted his stance. “Armor Master now has a straight shot at your Life Points, go!” The armored bird lunged forward stabbing Rainbow Dash in the same manner as before but this time she just shrugged the damage off.

“You’ve managed to give your Life Points a boost but at this rate you won’t last long… I’ll destroy you and everything you love!” Gilda threw a card into her duel disk making it appear on the field. “I’ll throw down a set card and end my turn!”

Rainbow Dash said nothing; she just looked down at the ground. “Gilda… Tell me something…” Gilda didn’t reply, she just stood her ground looking at Rainbow Dash. “What kind of garbage did this Master of yours put in your head?” Gilda’s expression instantly changed to that of worry and took a step back. “According to Trixie there is some kind of master involved and I know that isn’t you…”

“Master… She offered me a chance…” Rainbow’s face hardened, trying to listen to her words. “She gave me a chance to destroy the one who gave me false hope…”

Rainbow gasped and took a step back. “False… Hope…?”

Gilda closed her eyes. “You… You actually gave me hope that I could be someone and that friends were real… I’m a griffon, there is no so such thing as friendship where I come from; we are some of the greediest jerks in Equestria. When I first met you in Cloudsdale, I was just a shy little fledgling and you offered your hoof in friendship… Then those ponies STOLE IT AWAY!” Gilda suddenly opened her eyes with the most horrifying death glare Rainbow Dash had ever seen.

“Those… Those eyes…”

“You ponies are all the same! You spread the word of friendship and go around acting like your saints, but YOUR NOT! Friendship is nothing but false hope that leads to disappointment and I plan to eradicate that starting with you two; the one who stole my friendship and the one who allowed it to be stolen!”

“Gilda, I didn’t mean to steal Rainbow from you!” Pinkie called. “I would never intentionally hurt a friend and my friend’s friends are my friends!”

“Shut… UP! You were never my friend and never will be!”

“They messed you up in the head Gilda!” Rainbow replied. “Pinkie Pie didn’t steal me from you, it was your own fault our relationship was broken. It was your choice to treat my friends like trash and I won’t allow it. Don’t let them mess up your head like they did Trixie, we aren’t the bad guys here!”

Gilda just snickered to herself. “Trixie… Like I would ever compare myself to that excuse for flesh…” Rainbow Dash took another step back. “Trixie is driven by her angst and sadness; having the one she loved the most torn away from her. She is an emotional wreck that can’t even live her own life without being acknowledged…” Gilda reached out her right claw and clenched it into a fist. “I’m doing this because friendship is nothing but a joke and must be destroyed!” The griffon then unclenched her fist and pointed at Rainbow Dash. “You two stole my pride and honor and that is what drove Master to me. The pink spaz could have fought her own battle but like the best friend you are you had to defend her and once I beat you, you will have to live with the burden of failing her forever… That… Is why friendship is garbage…”

Rainbow Dash had her eyes closed now and said nothing. She simply placed her hoof on deck. “It’s my… TURN!” She drew the card with all her might creating a powering gale in front of her. “I will never allow you to hurt my friends!” She slammed her card into her duel disk as hard as she could. “I play Memories in Ruins! By banishing a filed spell from my graveyard, I’m allowed to draw 2 cards, but I’m now allowed to play any field spells this turn!” She drew two more cards just as roughly as the last card, afterwards her face-down flipped up. “Now I play Miraculous Descent! This card allows me to summon any of the Fairy monsters I previously banished! Return to me Honest!” A beam of light came from the sky and Rainbow Dash’s Honest floated down back onto the field.

“That monster won’t help you…”

Rainbow Dash suddenly made a horizontal motion with her right hoof. “I activate Honest’s special ability!” Honest started glowing slowing turning into pure light before hopping into Rainbow Dash’s hoof. “It has the ability to return directly to my hand. Next, I play a continuous spell card…” As Rainbow Dash slammed her card into a duel disk, a large podium appeared behind her with two large walls with curtains on the sides. “Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen. This allows me to special summon a Fairy type monster from my hand as long as there are no monsters on my field.” She once again slammed another card onto her duel disk. “I summon Airknight Parshath! This monster normally requires a sacrifice but Valhalla lets me summon it without sacrificing another monster!” A large centaur appeared in front of Rainbow Dash with a blue and gold armor, several white wings and carrying a sword and shield.

Gilda smirked. “Another pitiful monster…”

“It’s still more than a match for your Bora the Spear!” Rainbow’s monster reared back letting out a battle and charged towards Gilda’s smallest bird.

Gilda’s smirk suddenly turned into a maniacal smile. “I activate the trap Sonic Guard from my hand!”

“You’re activating a trap card from your hand!?”

“While I control 2 or more Blackwing monsters, this trap allows one of my other Blackwing monsters to take the hit instead of my Bora!” Blackwing Armor Master quickly flew in the pathway of Airknight’s attack and blocked Bora. “My trap also gives my Armor Master a power boost, increasing his ATK equal to Bora’s ATK points!” A whirlwind of feathers spiraled around the two birds creating a tornado-like shield them.

“Not only are you taking a huge chunk of damage but come next turn I will have a straight shot at your Life Points!” Rainbow Dash didn’t respond. “What’s wrong; too scared to admit you failed?”

A glimmer of light flickered in Rainbow Dash’s eye. “I activate Honest’s effect from my hand!” As Rainbow slammed the Honest card into her graveyard, a bright light engulfed Airknight Parshath. “By sending Honest from my hand to the graveyard, my Airknight Parshath gains your monster’s ATK points!”

“6100 ATK points!?”

“Go, Airknight Parshath, destroy her Blackwing Armor Master!” Rainbow’s monster charged at Armor Master and let out a powerful diagonal slash across its crest causing a massive explosion. Gilda held her up right claw to block the gale force of the explosion.

“I’m still in this game!”

“That is where you’re wrong; I activate the spell card Rage of the Archlord! When a Level 5 or higher Fairy monster on my field destroys your monster in battle, this card blasts you with 2000 points of damage!” Rainbow Dash slammed the card into her spell and trap zone with all her might. “THIS ENDS NOW!”

Rainbow was cut off guard by a sudden loud buzzing sound emitting from her duel disk. “Wha-What!? Error!?” Her duel disk was flashing between a red X and the word “Error” printed in red. Before she could ask anything else, she heard a faint laughter from behind the explosion cloud. The smoke cleared to reveal Gilda laughing maniacally like earlier and worst of all, her Blackwing Armor Master was still standing.

“Surprised?”

“How did Armor Master survive!? You didn’t activate your face-down card!”

“I didn’t need to, Blackwing Armor Master can’t be destroyed in battle and since you didn’t destroy it, your spell card doesn’t work.”

“No…” Rainbow Dash lowered her head. “I was so close!”

“It’s ok Dashie, you did your best…”

The pegasi looked down at the now worthless card in her hand when she suddenly remembered something. “When Airknight Parshath inflicts damage to your Life Points, I’m allowed to draw 1 card!” She drew the card with all her might and turned it over so she could see. ‘Lumenize; that card lets me negate one attack and have my monster gain the negated monster’s ATK… I can still do this!’ With a flick of her wrist, she put her trap card in the duel disk. “I’ll throw down a face-down and end my turn!”

“Try what you want, it won’t matter… You have no chance… You never had a chance!” Gilda held her right claw high and a black light engulfed it. “My turn, I DRAW!” As Gilda drew her card, it left a trail of black fire behind it. “You still haven’t noticed my Blackwing Armor Master’s special ability and now’s the time to unleash it!”

Rainbow Dash took a step back. “Special ability? What about not being destroyed in battle?”

“That is only one of its effects; its other effect is triggered when it battles another monster. Take a look at your Airknight Parshath…”

Rainbow Dash looked up at her monster. At first she saw nothing but then her eyes quickly gravitated to the small black metal stake in its shoulder. “What is that?”

“That is what’s known as a wedge counter, Armor Master leaves that behind on any monster it fails to destroy.” The griffon then pointed upward at the wedge. “And since your monster has a wedge counter, Blackwing Armor Master has the ability to take away ALL of its ATK points!” The wedge within Parshath suddenly vanished causing the monster to kneel down in pain.

“No!”

“And I’m not done yet, I play Monster Reborn!” The purple graveyard portal opened up and a large humanoid Blackwing flew out on to the field.

Gilda closed her eyes. “I bet your wondering why I brought Sirocco back…? Lucky for you none of my monsters are tuners so I can’t Synchro Summon…” She suddenly opened her eyes again with a flash of red. “Unlucky for you my Sirocco has a special ability!” She raised her claw and each of her Blackwings started to emit a strong vortex around them. The strong wings all flew up into the air and crashed down on Sirocco the Dawn. “Sirocco has the ability to absorb all the ATK points of my other Blackwings!”

“WOWIE!” Pinkie Pie screamed. “That is a lot of ATK points!”

Gilda then placed her right claw on her waist. “As much as I would love to just slaughter you with my whole army of monsters, Sirocco’s effect prevents anyone other than himself from attacking when he uses this effect… However…” Rainbow didn’t like the look Gilda was giving her. “Blackwing Armor Master… Blackwing Nothung the Starlight… Blackwing Bora the Spear…” The three monsters all lined up in front of her and she called them. As she held up a card in her hand emitting a powerful glow, the three birds were sucked into the sky as beams as light. Suddenly, a gigantic lightning bolt followed after striking the middle the field. “I summon the Egyptian God, Slifer the Sky Dragon!” Gilda took the card and slammed it down onto her duel disk. The sky above them was parted by a massive beam of light and a new monster descended. The large red dragon was coiled around in the sky giving off a near endless length. It stuck its head and arms out from the clouds and roared into Rainbow Dash’s face.

Rainbow Dash took a couple steps back with sweat beating down her face. “Your monster may be big but its stats kind of suck. It wouldn’t matter anyway since Sirocco the Dawn prevents you from attacking with it.”

Gilda chuckled to herself. “Didn’t you learn anything from Trixie? The god cards are nothing in comparison to our real weapon…” Gilda held up another card in her hand and revealed it to Rainbow Dash; the pegasi lost all color in her face when she saw it. Gilda grabbed the shoulder of her hood and tore the entire robe off ripping it to shreds. Now with her wings free, Gilda flew up and hovered several feet in the air. “I sacrifice Sirocco the Dawn and Slifer the Sky Dragon in order to summon my ultimate beast!” The two monsters did a very familiar motion, swirling into the air creating a dark funnel into the sky. A large black lightning bolt came down and struck Gilda where she flew. Gilda had her arms outstretched and screeched into the air being overtaken by the power she was now filled with. The two lightning bolt shaped marks burned into her forehead and leaked into the purple eyeliner Gilda naturally had creating a large black circle around her eye. She also stretched out her wings which were quickly overtaken by a black color from the tips of her feathers leading all the way down to the base of her wings. She finally came down and hit the ground with a thud, opening her blood red eyes. “Oh yeah, now THIS is real power!”

“Be careful Dashie!” Pinkie cried. “Remember what happened to Twilight when Trixie played that card!?”

“Yeah, anything that monster does is real…”

Gilda chuckled to herself again. “Witness the glory that is Iseris, Destroyer of Harmony!” As Gilda slammed the card into her disk, her shadow stretched outward behind her before pulling itself off the ground; however this version was significantly larger then Trixie’s version. With Trixie it was about three times her height, this one was at least ten times her size and roared with black flames

More sweat fell down Rainbow’s face. “What in Equestria? Why does it have so many ATK points!? Trixie’s only had 3000!”

“The reason is simple moron. Iseris’s ATK strength is determined by the ATK of the DARK monster used to summon it plus an extra 500. Sirocco had 8600 points so Iseris has a grand total of 9100!” Rainbow Dash took a couple steps back before hearing some loud hoof steps come in from behind her. She turned around to find the Pharaoh and Princess Celestia were now arriving on the scene.

“Oh no!” Yami yelled. “She already summoned Iseris!”

“Well, look at who decided to show up… You’re too late; nothing you can do can stop me now!” Gilda simply grinned and made a horizontal sweep with her right arm. “I activate my face-down card!” Gilda’s face-down card flipped up and started to glow. “Remember how Sirocco’s ability prevented my other monsters from attacking? Well my monster has to attack now!”

“WHAT!?”

“Last Assault forces my monster to attack this turn ignoring any effects that prevent them from doing so! It also prevents you from activating any cards or effects when I attack!” A bolt of lightning suddenly shot out from Gilda’s card and struck Rainbow’s face-down turning it photo-negative. Rainbow’s eyes went wide as though staring into the eyes of death itself; Pinkie Pie had nothing to say either. “It’s been fun, but all good things must come to an end… ISERIS, ATTACK!!!” Using its wings, Iseris conjured up a black flaming tornado, launching it at Rainbow Dash. Several ponies in the watching crowd start to cry and panic.

“Oh dear Celestia!” Mrs. Cake cried. As soon as the tornado made contact, Rainbow Dash started screaming in absolute agony; her voice reaching a pitch in which rivaled Rarity. She was feeling pain like nothing she had ever felt before; it was like being hit by a thousand lightning bolts. After what felt like an eternity, the tornado finally dissipated. Everyone watched as the smoke cleared. Standing there on her hind legs was Rainbow Dash. Nearly half of her body was charred black and her eyes were rolled into the back of her head. She had her mouth open, breathing heavily, pumping her chest back and forth with every painful agonizing breath. Then she began to tilt forward...

“RAINBOW DASH!!!” Pinkie screamed.

Rainbow Dash kept falling and falling and falling. A million thoughts were going through her head. 'I failed... I failed Yugi, I failed Twilight... I failed Pinkie Pie...' These thoughts were causing tears to come to her eyes. 'l failed all of you... I'm... A failure...' She hit the ground with a thud.

Gilda couldn't help but start laughing “When you mess with me, expect to get messed up...” Then Gilda turned her attention to Pinkie. “Since you lost that means it’s time to pay up!”

No idea what to do, Mr. and Mrs. Cake banged on the barrier keeping them away from the pink mare. “Stay away from her!” Mr. Cake yelled.

Gilda snickered “Too bad, a bet is a bet and I need to collect…” Gilda walked on by Rainbow Dash and closed in on Pinkie Pie who was being pushed back against the barrier. Pinkie Pie turned back and looked at the Cakes with a look of fear they have never seen in her before. Before she could turn back, Gilda’s claw had wrapped around her neck and lifted her into the air.

“You… *gasp* don’t have to do this…”

Gilda leaned in close and looked her in the eyes. “Yeah, I kind of do…” Right below Pinkie Pie, a strange black hole like portal opened up in the ground. It was letting out a small series of sparks that zapped her hooves. “Sayonara dweeb…” Gilda released Pinkie Pie’s neck letting her fall into the miniature black hole. Her legs were suddenly dissolved into black particles which were all being sucked in.

“RAINBOW DASH!”

“Pinkie… Pie...” Rainbow Dash could only watch as her best friend evaporated into nothing and was pulled into the black abyss. The pink earth pony held out a hoof hoping somepony would grab her but nothing came. Her hoof was sucked in as well and with a flash, the portal vanished leaving a black mark on the ground like seen at Sweet Apple Acres.

“Hmm...” Gilda took a few steps up to Rainbow Dash, inspecting the damage. She looked down upon her defeated ex-best friend. “Loyalty is a bitch isn’t it?” Suddenly, Gilda socked Rainbow right in the gut with her right claw, knocking her on to her back. She then followed to grab Rainbow by the mane and hold her right up to her face; nose to beak. Rainbow Dash’s expression was one of total fear and it made Gilda feel wonderful. Her eyes were shaking violently and were covered in tears. “Let this be a lesson to you...” Using her mane like a handle, Gilda turned around and chucked Rainbow Dash’s motionless body directly at the Cakes. Before she could hit the barrier, the Cakes split apart allowing Rainbow’s body to shatter the barrier like glass and fly right between them. The mare bounced like a rag doll before rolling over and stopping on her face. “Never… Screw… With ME!” Gilda flapped her wings and shot off into the air into before anypony could stop her.

With the barrier gone, everypony ran over to help Rainbow Dash; the Cakes were the first to get to her. Mr. Cake used his nose to pick up Rainbow Dash and put her on his back. “Don't worry Princess; I'll take her to the hospital.” Mr. Cake ran off with his wife in tow.

Tears were streaming down Celestia’s eyes as she watched the mare be carried away. “Rainbow Dash… Pinkie Pie… I’m so sorry…”

Author's Notes:

Last Update - 12/26/2015

Chapter 5 - Connections

It was a bit past noon. Rarity had gone over to meet Fluttershy for their usual spa day. They were a little behind today however, with Twilight being hospitalized, Fluttershy had grown too frightened to leave the sanctity of her cottage.

“Fluttershy dear, we are running quite behind. I promised Aloe and Lotus we would be there an hour ago.” Rarity was getting frustrated. It was a tradition of hers to go to the spa with Fluttershy but she just wouldn’t budge.

“Sorry Rarity but... I just don’t feel safe... With that scary looking shadow hurting my friends I just... Eep...” Fluttershy jumped as Angel Bunny had tapped her leg and crossed his arms. “I’m sorry Angel but I can’t leave you here alone...” Angel simply shook his head in disappointment.

“Fluttershy, that creature can’t hurt you unless you fight.” Rarity tried to reason with her but it was quite difficult. “Please Fluttershy, you can’t stay cooped up in here forever.” Fluttershy cowered down under her coffee table still whimpering. “Come on girl! Pony up!” Rarity’s tone changed to bit more confident Rarity. “Remember that dragon? You were afraid of it at first but after seeing it attack us, you stood up and stared it down to crying. Where is that courage?”

“I... I just can’t...”

Rarity fell down disappointed. “Looks like I’m going alone today-”

BANG!

“WHAT WAS THAT!?” Rarity ran outside to look for the source of the explosion. What she saw frightened her. There was a huge red dragon flying through the sky. It was similar to the giant blue creature summoned by Trixie. Fear started flowing into her as Fluttershy slowly creeped outside her cottage.

“R-r-r-rarity? What is that thing.” Fluttershy asked. Angel was hiding behind her leg. Even he was frightened by this creature.

“I’m not sure darling... My guess it’s one of those ‘Egyptian God Cards’ Yugi was taking about.” Suddenly, the dragon evaporated into a cloud of black mist slowly rising into a sky. The mist spiraled upward creating an elegant but creep upside-down tornado. She knew what was about to happen. “No, not now!”

BANG!

A large bolt of black lightning fell from the sky striking the middle of Ponyville. Their fears were confirmed. It was ‘just’ like Trixie.

“Slifer the Sky Dragon... Such a majestic creature ain’t it not?” Rarity and Fluttershy turned to find the source of the male voice. There was a pony standing in Fluttershy doorway. He wore a black cloak with a hood covering his face.

Rarity was the first to speak up. “Hey you, just what are you doing here, and whats happening over in Ponyville?”

The figure snickered a bit then trotted out of the doorway. “My partner is currently taking care of your party crazy friend...” This sent a chill down Rarity’s spine.

“You... You ruffian! Don’t you DARE hurt Pinkie Pie!” Rarity was now panting like she had just ran a mile nonstop she looked like she was about to hyperventilate.

“My word... Such rude remarks!” The figure flicked his hood a little revealing his silver unicorn horn. “You’ll learn to not say such things to royalty! Until I’m done with Fluttershy, I need you quiet!” His horn glowed and a weird blue mist formed around Rarity hogtying and gagging her. “Ah, much better...” He turned to look at Fluttershy cowering behind a tree. He charged his horn for a second before shooting a fireball burning the tree to the ground.

Fluttershy simply squeaked trying to hide behind the charred stump. “Please... Go away... Leave us alone...”

The figure took a couple steps forward before raising his from left hoof revealing a duel disk. He held it out and disk activated springing out a single slot. The slot spread out 2 more times on each side forming the full 5 slots. “You’ll have to beat me in a duel first...”

Fluttershy continued to hide behind the stump. “No... I won’t...”

“Yes, you will...” Using his horn, he created a black shockwave that stopped just short of Fluttershy. “Now, shall we begin?” Like with Twilight, Fluttershy’s hoof glowed with a rainbow light and a butterfly shaped Duel Disk materialized onto her leg. It was similar in shape to a Battle City Duel Disk as it had to flaps that rotate into place. The flaps were shaped like angle wings. The figure grinned from within with hood he knew she had no chance at victory. She was far to shy to fight with the big boys. “Let’s Duel!” [???LP:4000]

“Please... I don’t want to fight...” [FluttershyLP:4000]

The duel was starting. The still hooded figure went first. “Hmm... You have no chance, not with this good of a starting hand!” He slid his first card into the spell/trap zone. “I activate the spell card Cost Down. By discarding a card from my hand, I can summon a high level monster with 1 less sacrifice.” He slowly took a card from his hand and slid in into the his graveyard which looked like a creepy red smile. “Next I summon my first monster! Go, Ally of Justice Omni-Weapon!” The monster materialized as a crazy looking blue cannon with several arms and an oversized drill [ATK/2200]. “Lets see you handle him... End my turn with 2 face-downs...”

Fluttershy had yet to draw her hand. She was absolutely frightened. “I... I don’t want to do this...”

“You don’t want me to hurt your friend do you?” He said turning he head to Rarity.

“You wouldn’t!”

“Yes I would. I’ll tighten her restraints and crush every bone in her pretty little body. How about a little example...” His horn started to glow and more magical straps started forming around Rarity’s body, causing her to panic and scream through the gag.

“Please stop...”

He didn’t stop, he kept tightening and Rarity kept screaming

“Stop... Please stop...”

“Oh...” Fluttershy finally got his attention. “I didn’t hear you. I was listening to the pained screams of Miss Rarity. Its such pleasure to my ears!” Rarity heard that. All she could think of was how crazy he sounded. Pleasure from torturing her? That’s just sick... “So your finally going to go?” Fluttershy nodded. “Good...” He finally released his grip on Rarity, once again focusing on Fluttershy.

*Gulp* “My draw...” Fluttershy slowly drew her card trying to drag it out. *Squeak* “I... I summon Naturia Cherries... In defense mode...” She continued to move slowly. Taking about 10 seconds just to put her card down. Her opponent was tapping his hoof in frustration. Her monster was just as the card said, a cherry... [DEF/200] “I... I... End my turn...”

The figure burst out in laughter. “That’s it!? You really do suck don’t you?” He drew his card. “I summon Ally of Justice Cycle Reader.” The monster appeared as small mechanical grey and yellow spider. [ATK/1000] “Now Omni-Weapon will attack your Cherry!” Using its oversized drill, the monster blew a hole straight through Fluttershy’s monsters.

“At least my life points are safe...” Sighed Fluttershy.

“Don’t be so sure... When my Omni-Weapon destroys a light monster, I can draw a card and if its a low level dark-attribute machine, I can summon it instantly.”

Fluttershy looked at him with a puzzled face. “But... My monster was an earth-attribute...”

The pony pointed at his trap card. “When I destroyed your monster, I activated my DNA Transplant trap card. This card changes all monsters into a attribute of my choosing, and I choose light!” Fluttershy gasped in horror. “Now let’s see what I get...” The pony drew his card, chuckled then revealed his card. “Well well well, Ally Salvo, a dark machine...” His monster appeared as black ball coated in purple lightning. [ATK/400] “Now your wide open for an attack!”

“I.. I activate my monster’s effect...”

“Huh?”

“When Naturia Cherries is destroyed and sent to the grave, I can summon 2 more...” Fluttershy ejected her deck and spread it out in front of her. Her eyes darted left and right searching her deck.

“Any day now...”

“Oh! There they are!” Fluttershy finally found the cards she was looking for. She took then out and place them face-down. When she put her deck back into her duel disk, it started to shuffle itself. “Eep!” Fluttershy jumped and covered her head.

The opposing pony face hoofed. “Your duel disk is programed with an auto-shuffler, stop being so pathetic...”

“Oh, uh... Ok...”

“Can I go now?” Fluttershy nodded. “Good, because now my 2 remaining monsters will destroy the 2 Cherries you just summoned!” His monster vaporized her face-downs like nothing. “Don’t think your safe yet, I activate my second face-down, a card known as Urgent Tuning.”

*Squeek* “What does that do?”

“This card allows me to Synchro Summon during my battle phase, as long as I have the appropriate monsters!”

“Synchro? Yugi never taught us about those...”

“Well I’m about to! I’m tuning my Ally of Justice Cycle Reader and Ally Salvo!” [3+2=5] Cycle Reader formed into 3 neon green ring that overlapped the black sphere turning it into 2 while glowing orbs. “When the stars descend, it will call upon the start of catastrophe. Synchro Summon! Ally of Justice Catastor!” The rings exploded into a bright light. Gold and silver spider legs started to slowly reveal themselves from the light.

Fluttershy was frightened. She could hear the monster. Its sound was unlike anything she was ever heard of. It sounded like razor blade scraping against metal with a faint humming. As the light cleared, the monster finally revealed itself. It was large gold and silver creature with 4 legs. It body arched downward and it had a golden mask-like cover on its head with a glowing blue eye.

The figure broke into a maniacal laughter after seeing the rise of his ace monster, Ally of Justice Catastor. [ATK/2200] “Hahahaha!!! You can’t beat me now! Catastor is unstoppable. I’m holding your life in the center of my hoof.” He continued to laugh almost non-stop.

*Squeek* “Please stop... I don’t want to fight... I don’t...”

“Too bad, Ally of Justice Catastor, ATTACK!!! Catastrophe Beam!” Catastor started charging energy into its glowing eye into the glow had become incredibly bright. “FIRE!!!” It released it beam directly at Fluttershy, exploding on contact and knocking her back.

Fluttershy was shrugging to get up. Her wings were all cut up and she had scratches all over her body. “I... I thought only Iseris could do real damage...” [FluttershyLP:4000→1800]

“Is that what Trixie told you? If that’s the case, then you should look at your back leg...” Fluttershy turned around to see the magic shackle on her leg used to keep her in place. “I’ve always liked to play my games with some... Shall we say... Conditions... Every time you take damage, that shackle with shock you with a powerful electricity.”

“Why... Why do something like that? Why do you want to hurt me and my friends? We didn’t do anything to you...”

“Didn’t do anything... DIDN’T DO ANYTHING!?” The figure was now screaming at the top of his lungs. “Ok... Ok... Gotta stay calm... Can’t blow my cover just yet...”

Rarity noticed this pony was starting to act kinda... Weird... She couldn’t place her hoof on but she felt as though she knew this stallion. She knew him from somewhere...

“Its... my turn...” Squeaked Fluttershy. ‘I need some to protect me from his creatures.’ She drew her card. ‘This will help...’ “I summon Naturia Dragonfly in defense mode... Fluttershy’s monster appeared as simple red dragonfly. “That’s... All...”

“Are you going to do anything? You might as well place your hoof on your deck and surrender so you don’t have to go through the pain I’m about to inflict you with. Omni-Weapon destroy her Dragonfly!” Omni-Weapon once again charge forward with its drill arm, slamming it into her Dragonfly, but something was wrong. “Why isn’t my attack working!” His monster attack was doing nothing. The dragonfly was completely unaffected.

“My Naturia Dragonfly can’t be beaten by monsters with over 2000 attack... and both of your monsters have 2200...”

The figure was shocked, she actually put up a decent defense, however... “Don’t think for a second that you’ll beat me. You may have ‘overlooked’ my Catastor’s ability. It instantly destroys any non-dark monster it goes into battle with.”

Fluttershy gasped. “No, my dragonfly!”

“Catastor, obliterate her dragonfly!” Catastor fired its laser, destroyer her dragonfly and creating another large explosion. “Since your monster was in defense, your safe this turn...” Fluttershy didn’t move. “Did I stutter? Its your move...”

“I... Can’t... I won’t...”

“Suit yourself then...” The pony turned back to Rarity and began using his magic again.

“I’m sorry Rarity... I can’t do it...” She could hear Rarity trying to scream again. It hurt her to do but she couldn’t go on. She was too scared.

Rarity continued to scream underneath her gag. The binds were crushing her. “How about we turn things up a notch?” Said the figure. Pointing his horn at Rarity, he fired a constants stream of electricity direct at her. Rarity began to squirm on the ground, convulsing her chest forward. “Yes! Suffer Rarity! Suffer!” Occasionally her skeleton would flash for a second.

Fluttershy just continued to lay there watching her friend suffer. She could stop him but she was far too scared. She looked at Rarity, seeing the pain in her eyes. Why couldn’t she be more assertive? Why was she always so scared? Her friend was in trouble. She had to help. If she continued to to nothing, Rarity will die. No! She wasn’t going to stand for it! Finally, Fluttershy stood. “ENOUGH!”

The figure stopped instantly. Looking back at her. “What the?”

Fluttershy stood up. Confidence flowing through her. It was time for her to take over this duel. “Right! My draw!” She skimmed the cards in her hand, formulating a strategy. “First off, I summon Naturia Pumpkin. [ATK/1400] When Pumpkin if summoned, I can summon another monster from my hand. I summon Naturia Beetle. [ATK/400] Now I play the spell card Monster Reborn in order to revive my Naturia Cherries!” [ATK/200]

The hooded stallion look at her. “Just what are trying to accomplish here?” Then it hit him. “No, you not going to-”

“Now, I’m tuning my Cherries with my Pumpkin and my Beetle!” Just like with her opponent, her Cherries turned into a single green ring that overlapped her 2 other monsters. “The power of Mother Nature will bring life to a fierce beast to protect her precious land. Synchro Summon!” [1+4+4=9] The light beamed down and hit the ground. Thick green vines started to grow out from the hole. “I summon you, Naturia Leodrake!” [ATK/3000]

The hooded stallion snickered. “You got lucky. There is nothing you can do to win this fight.”

“Don’t you think it’s over. I won’t let anypony hurt my friends! Especially not some torture-crazy lunatic!”

The stallion broke out into laughter. “You won’t let you hurt you friends huh? Oh God that is rich!” Eventually he fell onto the ground laughing and kicking his silver legs in the air.

“What so funny?”

“It’s funny because I’m not the one you should worry about!”

“Huh? What do you mean by that?” Fluttershy looked up and noticed a large figure in the air. It came down quickly making a loud thud upon landing. Fluttershy instantly recognized the creature. “G-G-Gilda?”

The figure turned to look at his partner. “So, how’d it go Gilda?”

She snickered. “Even better then planned. Pinkie Pie has been disposed of and Rainbow Dash is done. You should have seen the look in her eyes.” Gilda licked her lips. “Delicious! She was so frightened, I wouldn’t put it past her if she was traumatized for the rest of her life.”

Fluttershy looked down at the ground. She couldn’t believe it. Applejack... Pinkie... Even Rainbow? She couldn’t let this continue. “How dare you... HOW DARE YOU! I don’t care who are, who you work for or what you plan on doing to us, but you do not, I repeat, YOU DO NOT HURT MY FRIENDS!!!”

Gilda and hooded figure jumped at the unexpected anger. “What the heck happened to the shy personality I saw last time I was here?” Asked Gilda.

“She was like this at the Gala too.” Said the figure.

“I AM GOING TO DESTROY YOU!!! Naturia Leodrake, destroy his Ally of Justice Omni-Weapon!” Her Lion reared up before making a giant leap and pouncing on top of her monster. Using its claws, it tore the monster to shreads. [???LP:4000→3200]

“Bravo Fluttershy, bravo... I will admit, you definitely made a change for the better. You destroyed my Omni-Weapon and you put a dent in my life points.”

“I set one card face-down and end my turn...” ‘He may think he has me backed into a corner with his Catastor’s special ability, but I am prepared. The second his monster attacks, he will trigger my Mirror Force trap card, leaving him wide open.’

Her opponent drew her card. “First I activate Pot of Green allowing me to draw 2 cards.” His duel disk flashed with the words ‘Draw 2.’ “Hahaha... HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! Oh how convenient is that! First i will summon my Ally of justice Unlimiter. But this is only the beginning, I activate a spell card called Generous Monarch.”

“What does that do?”

“Generous Monarch let’s me choose a card in my hand and give it to you.”

This only confused Fluttershy. “Why would you give me your cards?”

“You’ll see...” The figure took hold of a single card in his hand and threw it over to Fluttershy. She caught it with her open hoof.

Fluttershy looked at card with fear. Why did he give her this card? She stared at the gold bordered card he had tossed to her. “Is... is this...”

“That’s right Fluttershy, I’ve handed you my Egyptian God Card. The Winged Dragon of Ra!” Gilda started chuckling in the background. She clearly knew what was happening. “You know what, I’m actually feeling so generous today, I’m not only going to give you Ra, I’m even going to help you summon it.”

“What?”

“I activate the spell card, Rushing into Battle. This forces you to summon a high level monster from your hand.”

“You mean now I have to summon it?”

“YES! DO IT! SUMMON THE WINGED DRAGON OF RA!”

“Umm, ok?” Upon placing the card down, Fluttershy’s duel disk erupted with lightning “EEP!” She couldn’t control the electricity flowing the card. She fell onto her flank unable to keep her balance anymore. Out from the sky, a giant sphere floated down from clouds. It was Ra, but it wasn’t. Ra was still trapped in orb. “Wheres the dragon?”

“In order for you to summon it successfully, you must now recite the chant written upon the card.”

“Chant?” Fluttershy looked down at her card. There was in fact a chant written on the card. The weird thing was that it wasn’t there a minute ago. “But... I can’t read that. I’ve never even seen this language before.”

“I thought not. The text can only be read by members of the royal family and I-” The pony finally pulled off his hood, showing off his shining silver coat and glistening gold mane. “Fit that role perfectly...”

Rarity and Fluttershy’s eye shot wide open. The pony that had been terrorizing them this whole time was none other then Prince Blueblood. Princes Celestia's far removed nephew.

Great beast of the sky, please hear my cry.

Transform thyself from orb of light and bring me victory in this fight.

Envelop the desert with your glow and cast your rage upon my foe.

Unlock your powers from deep within so that together we may win.

Appear in this Shadow Game as I call out your name, Winged Dragon of Ra!

At that moment, the sphere above their head began to glow and transform. It grew wings, legs, arms, and a giant ring. The golden dragon glowed brightly in the sky, the sun reflecting light off its gleaming coat. “Feel the wrath of the almighty Winged Dragon of Ra!” [ATK/0] Blueblood looked back to see Rarity. Her face was bright red. “Oh, I’m guessing your surprised to see me huh? I guess I’ll let you let out your anger...” Blueblood finally released the stream of magic keeping Rarity’s mouth shut.

“YOU! I should have known a stuck up jerk like you would join Trixie!”

“Such harsh words for a lady.”

“Don’t you talk to me like that. Your hardly a gentlecolt yourself!”

“BECAUSE OF YOU! You ruined me. After you humiliated me at the Gala, nopony respected me after what you did. They all just laughed at me for getting told off by a... By a... MULE!”

Rarity was practically fuming. Her entire coat turning a bright red. “You... I’LL KILL YOU! WHEN I GET MY HOOVES ON YOU, YOUR DEAD!”

“Please stop...”

“I’M GOING TO BREAK YOUR HORN AND SHOVE IT DOWN YOUR THROAT!!!”

“Please Rarity... Stop...”

“I’M GOING TO SHAVE YOUR MANE AND STRANGLE YOU WITH IT!”

“ENOUGH!” Rarity stopped, finally snapping back to reality. She recognized that voice. The voice of Fluttershy. “Rarity please. I can’t stand to see you like this. I didn’t become friends with a murderous pychopath. I became friends with the most generous dress maker in Equestria. Don’t let your anger make you forget who you are.”

Rarity shook her head, regaining her composure. “Your right Fluttershy. I let my anger get to me.”

“Don’t worry about it. You were just confused, like I was at Gala...” A tear could be seen sliding down her cheek. “Just... Don’t lose site of who you are. Remember your mark, remember your element...”

“Oh, Fluttershy!” Rarity was full blown crying now. “Thank you, that really helped. You really are a good friend Fluttershy...”

Suddenly, a maniacal laugh coming from the half-hooded stallion standing across from Fluttershy. “HAHAHAHA! Yes, this is just delish! Listen to your friend Miss Rarity. It will be all the more satisfying when I take her away from you!” It was time for him to strike. All he had to do was win. “By tributing Ally Unlimiter, I can double the attack of my Catastor.” [ATK/2200→4400] Blueblood looked down at the last card in his hand. Somehow he felt that the others knew what we was going to do. There was only one thing he would do. It was time for him to finish this. “Now, I sacrifice Catastor and The Winged Dragon of Ra!” Ra formed in a black mist wrapping around Catastor before spiraling into the air. It was time. The black bolt struck Blueblood creating all too familiar scars upon his forehead. “Oh Lady Rarity!” he said in a singsong tone. “If you thought I was uncharming before, then your in for a rude awakening my pretty...” Blueblood opened his mouth revealing a not so pretty sight. He had vampire fangs and a tongue like a snake. “Unlike that pathetic excuse for Unicorn, I am quite strong with the darkness. Trixie could only dream of being this powerful. The darkness in my heart rivals that of Nightmare moon herself!” Blueblood stood up as an explosion of energy spiraled around him. The black aura engulfed his entire body.

Both Fluttershy and Rarity watched in horror at the dark creature rose from the ground. “Eep...”

“Where’s all the confidence you had a minute ago?” Blueblood held his hoof in the air. “I summon, Iseris the Destroyer of Harmony! [ATK/4900] Let me guess, you were originally planning on springing your trap when I attack?”

“Oh, I... ah...” Fluttershy squeaked.

“Let me guess, Mirror Force?”

“How did you-”

“Hold on a second!” Yelled Rarity. Blueblood looked back at her. “Trixie told us Iseris could only be summoned by sacrificing and Egyptian God and a Dark-Attribute monster, but your DNA Transplant is making all your monsters Light.”

“Simple, the monster must be of Dark origins. Since Catastor was naturally a monster of darkness, he was the perfect sacrifice.”

“That’s not fair!”

“I’m not the one who made the rules.” Blueblood turned back to Fluttershy. “Now... Lets end this... Iseris, ATTACK!” Iseris’s eyes start to glow red before firing a large laser just like Catastor.

Rarity closed her eyes. “I can’t look!”

The attack punctured a hole straight threw Fluttershy’s monster before landing it mark on her. The ground exploded under her as a red beam was shot into air. Though there was no screaming, no sound. Fluttershy just stood there unmoving in the small crater. Her eyes rolled back into her head and there was smoke emitting from her body. [FluttershyLP:1800→0] “Rarity... Don’t forget your element...”

Rarity gasped. Her friend had just been blasted with most lethal attack she had ever seen, yet somehow she was still standing. “Thank you Fluttershy, I won’t...” Slowly, Fluttershy began to fall forward. A small void appeared directly under her as impacted the ground. The void completely sucked Fluttershy in. She was gone. Rarity began to cry. Not to a large extent. Just enough for it to be visible. “Fluttershy, I will never forget you...”

Blueblood looked over his accomplishment as the scars on his head disappeared. All that remained was a small black scorch mark where Fluttershy had stood. “Looks like my work is done. So long suckers!” His horn glowed and ‘poof’, he was gone along with the restraints holding Rarity down. Gilda had snuck off sometime during the explosion.

Rarity trotted over to the small crater looking at the scorch mark along the ground. “Oh Fluttershy, you didn‘t deserve this... It should have been me...” With tears streaming from her eyes, she turned and galloped back to Ponyville. Gilda had mentioned Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. She hoped it wouldn’t be true but in her heart, she knew it was real. “Please my friends, please be ok...” At this time, she was the only remaining Element of Harmony remaining unscathed. It was up to her now.

To be continued...

Chapter 6 - Forgive and Forget

Deep within Ponyville Hospital, Twilight Sparkle was fast asleep in her bed trying to recover from were duel with Trixie the previous day.

“WAAAAHHHH!” Twilight’s eyes shot open and she bounced in air sending her blankets flying at a cringing whine that had just entered the room. “No! I won’t do it!” Trying to get up, Twilight looked over to see a small unicorn filly with a bright blue coat and a white mane with blue stripes. She was locking the door.

“What in Equestria is going on?”

The filly turned back to look at Twilight. “Oh, I didn’t know somepony was in here.” She then ran over to Twilight and jumped up putting her hooves on the bed. “Sorry if I scared you Miss.”

“Oh, it ok...”

The filly starting looking up and down Twilight body. Her body was a bit banged up and she had a few bandages around her chest. “What happened to you?”

“Eh, I got into a little fight. Don’t you worry about it... What about you? You ran in screaming a newborn foal.”

“Its just that... I’m scared...”

“I kind of figured that out. What are you scared of? Doctors trying to give you a shot?”

“No, I’m scared of the operation...”

“Why is a filly of your age getting an operation!?”

“Its my horn.” The filly poked at her horn a few times. “For some reason, I’ve been completely unable to perform magic. I’ve tried and tried but I can’t do it.”

“Well, don’t give up hope...”

“My parent have been trying for months to figure out why I can’t do magic. The doctors say my mind and horn aren’t mentally connected and my mental signals aren’t making contact.”

“My my, that’s some pretty complex stuff for a filly.” Twilight lightly tapped on the filly’s head. “I have a feeling your going to be powerful unicorn when you grow up.” Twilight stopped tapping. “But your going to need to go though the operation if your ever want that to happen.”

The filly nodded. “Thank you Miss.”

Twilight attempted to get out of bed. It put a bit of strain on her but eventually landed on the ground wobbling a bit. “Now you should probably go back to your room. The doctors are probably looking for you.”

“Ok!” Twilight decided to help escort the little filly out of the room. After she opened the door, the filly went running out down the hall.

“Ah, kids...” Suddenly, she heard a ton of voice coming from down the hall. She looked down and noticed about 4 doctors quickly pushing a stretcher down the hall. “Oh, I hope nopony has been hurt too bad...” When the doctor ran past, the world nearly froze around Twilight when she saw a rainbow maned Pegasus on the stretcher with a breather mask on and covered in burns. “Rainbow Dash! NO!”

As they rounded the corner, Twilight looked the other way and found the Cakes had been following behind them. “Oh Twilight! It was absolutely horrible!” Said Mrs. Cake. “That horrible Griffon came back!”

Twilight’s ears perked up. “You mean Gilda?”

“Yes! She burned down our shop, summoned some black monster thing, attacked Rainbow Dash and now Pinkie Pie is missing!”

“Wait wait wait! A black monster thing?”

“Eh, it came out of her shadow.” Said Mr. Cake. “It has wings and freaky red eyes.”

Twilight began to rub her head in frustration. “I can’t believe it... Gilda’s a shadow servant too?” The frustration was really starting to get to her. First Trixie, now Gilda? Who else could could be one? “Listen, just to be safe, avoid anyone wearing a black hooded robe.”

“Oh yes, we will!” Mr. and Mrs.Cake turned back down the hall. Just as they were leaving, Yugi and Celestia showed up.

“Twilight, my faithful student! What are you doing out here?”

“I saw the doctors run by with Rainbow Dash...”

“Yes, unfortunately we didn’t make it in time. I’m also afraid your friend Pinkie Pie was banished to the Shadow Realm...”

Twilight looked down at her hooves. In just one day, everything had taken a turn for the worst. The only ones remaining were-. “Twilight!” Everypony turned back and saw Rarity in a full gallop down the hall.

“Rarity!” Yelled Twilight. “Whats going on?”

Rarity was heavily panting. “Twilight! They got Fluttershy!”

Twilight recoiled back in shock. “No... It can’t be...” She began to gather up her mind at what was happening. “Who did it? Trixie? Gilda?”

“That’s the thing! Your not going to believe this but it was Blueblood! Prince Blueblood is working along side Trixie!”

“Oh...” Celestia sighed. “That is quite troubling...”

Yugi was looking between all the ponies that had gathered in the hall. “Perhaps we should head back into the room so we can recap and go over everything that we know.”

“Good idea Yugi.” Celestia replied. Twilight, Rarity, Yugi and Princess Celestia all headed back into the room.

Twilight slowly pushed herself back on the bed and put her head down. “I can’t believe This is happening... We defeated Nightmare Moon with no problem and though a little rocky at first, we eventually beat and resealed Discord... But why are we having so much trouble with simple pieces of cardboard? It doesn’t make sense...”

“Your not alone Twilight.” Said Yugi. “Duel Monsters is a dangerous game. He have to get serious, no more holding back!”

Twilight started looking left and right around room. “Hey, wheres Kaiba? I haven’t seen him all day.”

“He is back at the library doing some simulations in hope of finding a way to beat Iseris.”

“He isn’t going to find one.” Replied Celestia. “There is only 1 card that can beat it.”

“Speaking of which...” said Twilight. “You never got a chance to tell us how you beat Iseris all those years ago.”

“The only way to beat Iseris is though the use of one specific card.”

“Do you have the card on you?” Asked Yugi.

“Sadly no, Its locked in a sealed room in Canterlot Castle, much like the Elements of Harmony. I couldn’t let it fall into the hands of the Shadow Servants. That would be disastrous.”

“Hey guys?” Asked Twilight. “Can’t we just reprint the card and use it, I mean it is just cardboard...”

“NO!” Roared Celestia. “It doesn’t work like that! The card was enchanted by the Elements of Harmony 800 years ago! I can’t just make another!”

Twilight backed up. She had never seen Celestia get so mad before. “I’m sorry...”

Celestia shook her head and shrugged it off. “No, I’m sorry for yelling at you... Your just not understanding the situation we are in. This isn’t a just some colt’s card game. This is life or death. If we can’t the beat Shadow Servants, they will destroy everything... I witnessed the destruction all those years ago. The only was I was able to escape it was by erasing everypony’s memory as well as the memory of all those that lost their lives. Everything I had worked for was destroyed just like that. I practically had to rebuild Equestria again completely from scratch...”

Everypony in the room simply looked at Princess Celestia not saying a word. Finally, Twilight spoke up. “No, we wont let that happen!” Twilight pushed herself up and stood up on the bed. “We’ve defeated the worst of the worst. We have proved several times that nothing can beat our friendship. They’ve already gotten 4 of us but isn’t going to stop me. No Destroyer of Harmony is going to stop us!” Using her magic, Twilight levitated her Duel Disk and slipped it onto her left hoof. “We will show that FRIENDSHIP... IS... MAGIC!!!” Upon saying the last word Twilight’s Duel Disk turned on rotated into place.

“That’s the spirit!” Yelled Rarity.

“Friendship is a powerful thing.” Added Yugi.

“My faithful student...”

Twilight extended out her hoof, holding out in the middle of the ponies. “To friendship...”

Rarity extended her hoof. “To friendship...”

Then Yugi. “To friendship...”

“I’m proud of you Twilight, you’ve grown so much since the day you came to Ponyville. I’m glad to have you as my student.” Finally, Celestia held out her hoof, finishing off the circle. “To friendship...”

“ALRIGHT!” The 4 ponies said, lifting their hooves in a break.

As the ponies broke their circle, a dark figure sitting atop her throne began to laugh. “Oh Celestia... You never cease to surprise me.” The figure stood up and began her decent down the stairs to her seat. “However, the Pharaoh might become a problem... Yami is neigh unbeatable. If he gets that card then there is no way I will beat him, even at full power.” She turned her attention to the reflected pool in the ground The only thing she saw was Princess Celestia joining in a laugh with the 3 ponies. Spitting at the sight, she turned her attention the large window within the room. Trotting over to it, she stared up at the moon. Then it hit her. “Trixie! Blueblood! I require your presence in the throne room!”

On que, the unicorns trotted into the room. “What is your need Master?” Asked Trixie.

“I need you two to head over to Canterlot to perform a little... Task...”

“What would that be your highness?” Asked Blueblood.

“Celestia and the others will be heading their soon to acquire the one thing that can beat us. I need you to cut them off.”

“Yes, Master...”

The figure turned her head to Trixie. “And Trixie, your failure to defeat Twilight Sparkle yesterday was quite a disappointment.” Trixie nervously looked down at her hooves. “However, I’m giving you a chance to redeem yourself.”

“You are?” Asked Trixie.

“Go with Blueblood to Canterlot Castle and crush Celestia. Make her feel pain like I did. I want to see her quibbling at my feet. Make her suffer... Do you understand my request?”

Trixie thought about it for a second. She wanted her to beat Celestia? No, that couldn’t be it. She knew her Master wanted Celestia for herself. She clearly wanted something else. She just had to figure it out. “Y-Y-Y-Yes Master... I understand...”

“Good... You may leave...” In a flash of light, Blueblood had disappeared. Reaching into her robe, Trixie threw down a smoke bomb, exploding into a cloud of smoke. When the cloud cleared, Trixie was gone. Then Gilda walked into the room.

“What about me your highness?” She asked.

“Gilda, I have something I need to discuss with you first...”

“What would that be?”

“To put it simply, although you succeeded in capturing your target, you still failed your assignment.”

Gilda recoiled back. “What!? That’s bull!”

“You may have captured the Element of Laughter but you left the Element of Loyalty incapacitated and in case you didn’t know, we can only send ponies to the Shadow Realm if they lose a duel.”

“Yah, and?”

“And, because of the state you put her in, she CAN’T duel!”

Gilda hesitated, thinking about her mistake. “Ah... Well...”

“The fact is, we can’t send her to the Shadow Realm until she is back on her feet. So you better come up with a pretty good idea because I’m not assisting you this time around.”

“Yes Master. I’ll fix this problem and capture Rainbow Dash.” With a screech, Gilda flew out an open window.

“I swear, why are the strong ones always so dumb?”

“Miss Sparkle, I’m asking that your get your rest.”

“No, I have to help my friends!” Twilight was trying to wrestle her way out of the hospital but the doctor kept holding her down. “I must go!”

“No Miss Sparkle, you must stay here. You are in no condition to do anything.”

“I’m fine.” Said Twilight as she jumped off the bed. As soon as she landed, she started wobbling nearly fell over but the nurse caught her. She let out a nervous giggle. “I guess not.”

They had originally planned to take Twilight to Canterlot to get the card but the doctors all suggested she stay in bed. Celestia thought that maybe it was for the best. “Listen Twilight, don’t worry, we will get that card and be back soon. As long as I have the Pharaoh, there is nothing to worry about.”

“Maybe we should get back to the library and check on Kaiba before we leave.” Suggested Yugi.

“Good idea. He may be a valuable asset to us.”

“Alright. Rarity?”

The unicorn turned to Yugi. “Yes?”

“You should probably run home and pack up. Who knows how long we will be in Canterlot.”

“Your right. Plus I can’t just leave Sweetie without somepony watching her.”

“Just meet us at the library when your ready.”

Rarity turned and made way for the door. “Be back soon.”

Yugi turned his attention back to Celestia. “We should go.”

“Indeed.” Yugi and Celestia turned to the door and starting leaving the room. Celestia stop in the middle of the doorway. “Twilight, just stay safe.”

Rarity was in a slow trot down the hallway. She was still in the hospital. As she walked past a slightly open door, she heard the sound of a heart monitor. With curiosity getting the best of her, she peaked her head inside. Her eyes watered at the sight of her rainbow maned friend completely unconscious, battered and bruised. “Oh Rainbow, you didn’t deserve this...” She put her hoof on Rainbow’s mane, lightly brushing it.

“Pinkie Pie...” Rainbow muttered.

Rarity gasped. Looking closer, she realised Rainbow was still unconscious. “Oh my, sleep talking?”

“No... Pinkie Pie... Failure...” Suddenly, Rainbow Dash started struggling. Her chest was heaving up and down. “No!” Rainbow’s heart monitor started to accelerate. The beats were getting faster.

“Oh, no! I think she is having a nightmare!” Rarity didn’t know how right she was.

Rainbow Dash was lost. Lost within her own mind. She wandered aimlessly in the darkness. She had no idea where she or anything else was. “Hello!? Anypony here!?” Her voice echoed for mile yet nopony heard. “Hello!?”

“Rainbow Dash...”

The pegasus jumped. “What? Who’s there?”

“Rainbow Dash...”

“Who’s there!? Come on out and fight me coward!” She said, getting up on her hind legs.

“Rainbow Dash...”

Rainbow was getting fed up with these strange voices. “Alright... Come on out so I can clobber you! I’m done with these games!”

“But we’re not Rainbow Dash... No, we’re just getting started...”

All around her sides, she noticed 5 black portals opening in the ground below her. “What’s happening?”

Out of one of the portal rose a familiar purple unicorn. “Rainbow Dash, you shall pay for your crimes against humanity.”

“Twilight?”

Next came an orange earth pony. “You betrayed us supercube...”

“Applejack? What are you talking about?”

Third came a yellow pegasus. “I’m sorry. I can’t be friends with a killer...”

“Fluttershy...” Rainbow’s eyes were starting to tear up.

Forth, a white unicorn. “It your fault she’s gone...”

“Rarity? What are you talking about? Who is gone?”

“Me...” a voice came from the fifth and final portal. Out of the voice came a pink bubbly earth pony. “You killed me Dash...”

“No... It wasn’t my fault...”

“You promised you would keep me safe...”

“Pinkie Pie, I’m sorry... I tried... Please understand... I tried!”

“Sorry isn’t going to cut it...”

“Please Pinkie Pie! I tried as hard as I could! I was just not strong enough...”

“That too bad... Because now we must get rid of the traitor...”

“Pinkie Pie?”

Out of nowhere, Pinkie Pie pulled out a fully lit torch. “Burn the traitor!”

“No...”

“Burn the traitor!”

“No!”

“BURN THE TRAITOR!”

“NOOOOOOOO!” Rainbow Dash yelled at the top of her lungs. She had betrayed her friends. Betrayed their trust. She was a failure...

Yugi and Celestia approached Twilight’s tree. They needed to check up on Kaiba who had been couped up all day. The door slammed open as Spike came running out in a panic. “Make it stop!”

“Woh buddy! Whats going on?” Asked Yugi.

“Its Kaiba!”

As Yugi opened the door to the library taking a quick look inside his eyes widened at what he saw. The floor was littered with crumbled up scrolls, the trash can looked like a mountain, and Kaiba was an absolute mess. His mane was shriveled up and he was no longer wearing his white jacket. He was slamming his hooves on his laptop. “Chance of success, 0%.”

“RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! THIS CARD IS PISSING ME OFF!!!”

Yugi stepped back a bit but eventually entered. “Kaiba, what are you doing?”

“I been trying to find a way to destroy that ROTTEN CARD! Thousands of decks, tens of thousands of combinations and NOTHING WORKS!” Kaiba sat up out of his seat and looked over at his computer. “Dumb simulator...” With his hoof, he slapped the top of his computer shut. Sitting back down, Kaiba crossed his armed in frustration before looking over at Celestia. “Who‘s the new broad?”

Yugi shifted his eyes to the Princess. “Oh, this is Princess Celestia. She says that she knows a way to beat Iseris.”

Kaiba’s eyes widened. “WHAT!? She knows how to beat that thing!?”

Yugi nodded. “Ya, there is a card she has locked in a vault over in Canterlot Castle. We’re headed over there to get it.”

“Hmm, interesting.”

“You don’t have to come with us. Though we are bringing Rarity along since there is nopony available.”

“Oh, can I go!?” Jumped Spike.

Yugi thought for a moment. “Eh, I don’t know...”

“Come on! I never get to go to Canterlot. Twilight always just leaves me behind.”

Yugi stared at him for a second. “Alright, you can come.”

“YES!”

“Just stay out of trouble...”

There was a knock at the door and Yugi went to answer it. When he opened it, he the Rarity standing outside with a pair saddlebags over her back. “Sorry if I took too long. There was a bit of trouble regarding Rainbow Dash.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“I’m not exactly sure. She kept muttering things like ‘failure’ and ‘traitor.’ Yugi just rubbed his chin. “Oh, I hope nothing back is going to happen. Deep down, that pegasi’s mind is as fragile as Fluttershy.”

“I know what you mean. The more confident you are, the more you break down when you fail...” Yugi quickly shifted his gaze over to Kaiba before shifting back to Rarity. “Anyway, since Twilight isn’t able to come with us, we’ve agreed to bring Spike with us. Hope you don’t mind...”

“Oh no, it fine. I kind of like Spike’s company.” Out of the corner of his eye, Yugi noticed Spike was lightly floating above the ground.

“Our ride should be here soon.” Interrupted Celestia. “It will be arriving right outside the door.” Celestia exited the room and the others followed. Except for Kaiba of course. “Ah, there it is.” She pointed her hoof up into the sky. There were a pair of carriages being pulled by a couple of pegasi in armor. After they landed. Celestia climbed aboard, beckoning the others to come up. Yugi joined Celestia while Rarity and Spike took the other carriage. The pegasi then took flight, carrying them to they’re next destination, Canterlot.

As they flew over the land, Yugi gazed at the setting sun. ‘I have a bad feeling this isn’t anywhere close to being over.’

A ghostly figure appeared next to Yugi. “No, its only just beginning...”

To be continued...

Chapter 7 - Full-Hearted Generosity

High in the clouds of Equestria, two golden chariots flew carrying three ponies and a baby dragon. Yugi and Celestia occupied one while Rarity and Spike the other. Yugi looked down upon the ground checking out all the sites. He had seen many places before in his world but this was a completely new experience. Then something came to his mind. “Hey Princess, can I ask you something?”

Celestia turned her eyes towards him. “What is it?”

“Well, there’s been something that has been bugging me for a while now. Back when we were with Twilight, you mentioned that you had a sister that you once banished. What exactly was that about?”

Celestia sighed. “It’s a long story, even further back then our history with Duel Monsters. You see, many years ago, both me and my sister Luna ruled this land together. I ruled over the day and she ruled over the night. She can even walk among the dream world and see the very dreams of ponies, a very powerful ability.”

“So what happened?”

“Back in the day, ponies slept through the night and worked during the day. She felt as though nopony cared about her and that nopony knew what actually did for them. She just couldn’t stand being ignored constantly, both by our subjects and me... She just wanted somepony to know she actually existed. That is when she became Nightmare Moon, and tried to plunge Equestria into eternal night. I fought her… And lost… There was only one way to defeat her… The Elements of Harmony… I wasn’t the only one tied to the elements, she was as well and I feel that might have contributed to the why Elements won’t respond to me anymore. I wasn’t there for her when she needed me and now thanks to my mistake, she forever lost 1000 years of her life… Now she lives in an Equestria she doesn’t fully understand and among ponies that don’t understand her…”

“I understand perfectly.” Yugi replied. “The Pharaoh is not much different. Something happened 5000 years ago and his spirit sealed within the Millennium Puzzle I carry around my neck. We are still trying to figure out what exactly happened all those years ago.”

“About a year ago, Luna finally broke out of the moon and tried sending Equestria into eternal night once again. Unknown to anypony else, I sent my number one student to ponyville and make some friends. I knew all along that she had the potential to be the Element of Magic and all she had to do was awaken the other five Elements.”

Yugi raised his right hoof as like he was counting fingers. “Six Elements… Twilight, Dash, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy and Applejack... But wait, don’t you need all six of them for them to work? Wouldn’t that mean the Elements can’t be used anymore?”

“You’re quite smart Yugi. While it is true the Elements wouldn’t work now that three of the bearers have fallen, the Elements wouldn’t have worked anyway. Whoever is controlling Iseris has access to a kind of magic like I have never seen, normal pony magic doesn’t work against it. The only kind of magic that seems to work against it somehow has a connection to the game of Duel Monsters.

“Shadow magic...”

“What?”

“Shadow magic is what we used in ancient times to call upon the spirits of Duel Monsters to fight for us. Its likely Equestria has some kind of history related to Duel Monsters just like my world and this evil got a hold of it.

“It’s very possible; I had to use a rather unorthodox method to create the card I mentioned. I had to use a bit of Iseris’s own magic combined with magic from the Elements. I’m surprised it even worked.”

“Shadow magic is not necessarily evil; it’s all based on the one controlling it. Shadow magic can simply be described as opening a portal to another realm where the monsters are real. By making that card, all you did was harness the power of the shadow realm and infuse its power and Elements into a card.”

“I guess I still have much to learn about the world of Duel Monsters…”

Trixie was slowly sneaking through the inner walls of Canterlot Castle. Just as she turned a corner she noticed a ground of armored ponies walking her way. She quickly jumped back and hit behind a pillar. She could hear them conversing with each other as they walked by.

“So what happened to Celestia? She ran off without saying where she was going.”

“I overheard her talking to her sister that she was going to Ponyville to meet up with some 5000 year-old Pharaoh. They were talking about something called ‘Duel Monsters.’”

“There have been several reports of gigantic beasts appearing over Ponyville then disappearing quickly after.”

“I heard about that. There were reports of giant blue bipedal beasts, mile-long red dragons and gold-plated dragons. What’s weird is that all reports say they just hover in the sky and then disappear and every time they appear, an unscheduled storm occurs.”

“What is going on around here? I’ve been trying to ask Princess Luna but she has been coped up on her room ever since Princess Celestia left.”

Suddenly, a new castle guard come running up the hall. “Hey, we have reports of an intruder in the castle.” Trixie started to sweat. “Spread out and search the castle.” All the guards run in multiple and seemingly missed Trixie hiding behind the pillar.

“That was close…” Trixie continued down the hall the guards were blocking. Around the corner, she saw a pair of two large doors. As she was about to open the door, she was interrupted.

“Halt! Stop right there.” Trixie spun around to see one of the guards that she was eavesdropping on just moments ago. “Nopony is allowed to enter her highness’s room, especially one who snuck into the castle.”

Trixie just grinned. “And what do you plan to do to stop me?” The guard simply moved closer pointing his spear at her. “Fine, have it your way.” She held up her hoof and extended her duel disk. After that, every resident in the castle could hear a loud scream. All the guards quickly started running towards the scream but Trixie didn’t care. She opened the large door and approached her new target.

After a long ride, Yugi and the others had finally reached Canterlot. The chariots came down and landed right at the front gate. The three ponies and baby dragon hopped out and slowly walked up to the drawbridge that was currently up.

“Give me a second...” Spoke Celestia. Her horn lit up a bright yellow and the drawbridge came down. When the bridge was finally down, Spike jumped onto to Rarity’s backs and the four of them headed in.

“So where exactly is this card we are looking for Celestia?” Yugi asked.

“It’s up in a secret vault alongside the Elements of Harmony.”

“You mean that room Discord broke into?” Rarity asked.

“Yes, but luckily he never found the card; it’s hidden within the vault itself. I took extra special precautions with this one.”

The main room came into the view. It was a large hall with entrances to both sides. There was also a big stairway in the middle splitting into two more sets of stairs. However, all eyes lay upon a hooded figure standing directly at the bottom of the staircase. He flung off his hood revealing his face. “Hello Aunty Celestia, happy to see me?”

“Thrilled...”

Blueblood frowned. “Don’t be too enthusiastic. Thou knew I would be here.”

“Blueblood, how could you tarnish our family name like this?”

“Tarnish our name? PAH! Your stupid sister already did that...”

Celestia’s hair burst into flames as the Royal Canterlot voice echoed through the castle. “DON’T YOU DARE TALK ABOUT MY SISTER LIKE THAT!!!"

“Oh, quite a touchy subject... You always were overly protective of that useless sack of garbage.”

“SILENCE!!!”

“Or what Tia, are you going to send me to the moon?” Blueblood mocked. “You seem to have forgotten that your feeble unicorn magic is useless against me…”

“You little...”

“Oh and I wouldn’t worry about Luna. She’s in good hands...” On cue, there was a loud explosion. Celestia’s eyes shot open and she bolted back out the door. She looked up to see the massive image of the Egyptian God, Obelisk the Tormentor hovering over a balcony near the top of the castle.”

“That’s my sister’s room! Where are all the guards!?”

“Trixie and I took care of them all. Speaking of Trixie, it looks like she is almost finished disposing of the Night Princess.”

“Not if we get to her first...”

“Ah, but before you go I have a little score to settle...” Using his hind legs, Blueblood lifted himself up and slammed his hooves down onto the ground sending out a ring across the floor. Spike held on tight to Rarity’s mane as the wave slid right under them and stopped. “This time, your my opponent milady.”

Rarity stepped back a bit. “You want to duel me?” She looked back at Spike and gave him a concerned look. “Spike, you better get back…” Rarity held her left hoof high in the air and it started glowing. The light burst into multi-colored sparks and a new duel disk materialize on her hoof. The centerpiece was a large white diamond; connected to the center was a 3-slot golden card tray. The tray extended out and a secondary tray came out from the side making it a full 5-slots. “Alright, this is for Fluttershy; you and me.”

Blueblood put a smirk on his face. “You know what? I’ve got a better idea... How about we make this a 2-on-1? After all, your dragon friend is in the barrier too.”

Spike stepped back. “But... I don’t have any cards.”

“Oh that’s right, only the Elements of Harmony have a deck in this day. Since your unable to duel, I guess that means it’s the Shadow Realm for you.” A black portal began to open under Spike and he began to sink.

“Spike no!” Rarity yelled.

Unknown to everyone, Celestia’s horn started glowing. In a flash, a Battle City-like duel disk appeared in front of her. “Hey Spike!”

He turned his head back and saw Celestia throw the Duel Disk towards him. He jumped and caught with both hands dispelling the portal underneath. He looked at it for a second before looking back at Celestia. “Princess... How did you?”

“Did you really think I would forget about you? I’ve known you since you hatched, I’m not going to lose you like the others.”

Spike slid the disk onto his arm and it rotated into place. “Uh, I didn’t see all of Yugi’s explanation about how this game works...”

“Don’t worry Spike, I’ll help you out.” Rarity said. “I watched Blueblood duel Fluttershy so I know all of his strategies.”

Spike blushed a bit. “Thanks Rarity...”

Celestia and Yugi turned to each other. “Princess, we should go and help your sister, and then we can get that card.” Yugi suggested.

“I know a way around without using the grand stairs.” Celestia added. Yugi nodded and the two ran out through the left side door of the room.

“Now what do you say we put this ruffian in his place?” Rarity asked.

“Let bury him into the ground!” Spike added.

“Such crude remarks...” Blueblood responded. “Now, since this will be two against one, I think it’s only fair I start the duel with 8000 life points.”

“That’s fine with me.” Rarity replied. The two of them stood in a triangle in the middle of the foyer. Rarity and Spike had their sides facing each other. Spike stood to the left of the stairs while Rarity stood on the right. Blueblood stood right in front of the stair activating his Duel Disk.

“LET’S DUEL!!!” [LP:4000] [LP:4000] [LP:8000]

“Mind if I take the first move milady?” Spike asked.

“Of course you can, dear.”

“Alright!” Spike drew his first card. “I’ll start by summoning Armed Dragon LV3!” The monster appeared as a small red and black dragon about twice the size of Spike. [ATK:1200] “Next I’ll set one card face down. I’ll pass on to Rarity now...”

“Now I draw and I summon Gem-Knight Sapphire in defense mode.” Rarity’s monster was a large man-like creature made completely of sapphire. [DEF:2100] “That’s it for me. Take your best shot Blueblood.”

“I intend to...” Blueblood drew his card. “Let me show you how a real Unicorn duels. You may think you know my deck but you’re wrong. My Ally of Justice monsters may be powerful but they pale in comparison to these beauties. When you have a monster on the field and I have none, I’m allowed to special summon this monster from my hand without sacrificing. Say hello to Cyber Dragon!” Blueblood’s first monster appeared as a large silver dragon towering them in size. It had no hands or legs, just a simple body like a snake. [ATK:2100] “Since that was a special summon, I’m still allowed to normal summon this turn. I’ll call out my Cyber Valley!” This second monster highly resembled his original dragon but appeared more organic. [ATK:0] “Now I am going to show the power of Cyber Dragon. Destroy Armed Dragon with your Strident Blast!” Cyber Dragon held back it head and small lights began flowing from the wires coming from its neck.

“Hold on Blueblood!” Spike yelled. “I activate my face-down card, Threatening Roar!”

“What?”

“This card stops your machine’s attack dead in its tracks.” The card released a pulse across the field and Cyber Dragon slowly let up and dropped it head back down.

“Fine, you’re safe for now. I’ll end my turn with a face-down.”

“Alright, I guess it’s my turn again...” Before Spike could make his move, his dragon started glowing white. “Woh! What’s happening?” The white glow began to change. It grew in size a spawned a few new body parts. [LV:3→5] The white silhouette dissipated and revealed an evolved monster. [ATK:2400] “Dude! What was that?”

“I think your monster just got stronger.” Rarity replied.

“It did? Awesome!” Spike shot a glare at Blueblood. “Now my Armed Dragon is stronger than your Cyber Dragon but first I summon Spear Dragon!” The monster appeared as a mid-sized blue dragon with nose like a sword fish. [ATK:1900] “First I’ll attack with Armed Dragon!” Spike’s dragon opened it mouth and several shockwaves fired out, Cyber Dragon to burst to pieces. The shards of metal from the dragon rained down from the air and Blueblood covered his head. [LP:8000→7700]

“How dare you inflict damage upon me!” Blueblood yelled.

“Don’t think it’s over just yet. My Spear Dragon has yet to attack and since your Cyber Valley has no attack points, this is going to do a lot of damage.” Spear Dragon then lunged toward Blueblood’s monster. “Cyclone Blast!”

“Wait Spike!” Rarity called.

“Hah! You just triggered my monster’s effect!” Cyber Valley started to glow and exploded into a light stopping Spike’s monster.

“What?”

“When Cyber Valley is attacked, his effect activates allowing me to remove him from play to end the battle phase immediately before you can do any damage.” The glowing light then shot up into the air swirled downward into Blueblood’s duel disk. “I’m also allowed to draw one card.” Blueblood took his card. “Thank you kindly...”

“I walked right into that one…” Spike looked down at his hand. “Since I can’t do anything else, I’ll just put a card face-down.” Once Spike's turned ended, his dragon started glowing. “Armed Dragon is evolving again!” His dragon grew to an unspeakable size. [LV:5→7] It let out a roar that shook the ground. [ATK2800]

“My turn again.” Rarity said drawing her card. Her face beamed. “Ooooh, this will definitely help. I play the spell card Gem-Knight Fusion!” Rarity took the card, and over dramatically slid the card into a spell slot. “This let’s my combine my Gem-Knights into a new fusion monster.” Taking a card in her hand, Rarity placed a new monster down. “I combined Gem-Knight Sapphire with the Gem-Knight Amber in my hand.” The two monster swirled together into a vortex, completely swallowing them up. “Now I summon, Gem Knight Aquamarine!” Rarity’s new monster was definitely more bulky than the previous two. It wore thick blue armor and a cape. [ATK:1400] “Now since Spike was such a dear and cleared your field, you’re wide open for an attack.”

“Uh oh...” Blueblood muttered.

“Gem-Knight Aquamarine...” Rarity thrusted her right hoof right at Blueblood “Attack Blueblood’s life points directly!” Aquamarine lunged forward with a shield-like weapon with a blade, stabbing the prince is the chest. Blueblood grabbed his chest and let out a quite growl. [LP:7700→6300] “After my monster attacks, it goes into defense to protect my life points. Luckily, he has quite a bit of defense.” Rarity’s Gem-Knight took a defensive stance. [DEF:2600] “That’s all for me. It’s your move...”

Blueblood was still holding his chest from the previous attack. “I’ll make you pay for injuring me...” He drew his card and a sinister smile appeared on his face. “OH YES! I couldn’t have asked for a better draw!” Blueblood slammed his card onto his disk. It let out a bunch of red light covering the field. A figure began to appear in the light. Then a sound came. A humming sound...

Rarity’s eyes widened at the familiar sound. “Oh no...” A pair of legs followed. Once again, Rarity shivered.

“I summon Ally of Justice Core Destroyer!” The light finally cleared. The monster held a huge similarity to Ally of Justice Catastor from Fluttershy’s duel but it was quite smaller. [ATK:1200] “Core Destroyer may not be as strong as Catastor but his ability is just as deadly. Whenever he battles a monster who is Light attribute, that monster is immediately destroyed before the battle even begins.”

Rarity looked at him with confusion. “But we don’t use Light monsters...” Then her eyes shifted to Blueblood’s face-down. “No... Your face-down card!”

“Ah, so you remember? I reveal the permanent trap card DNA Transplant!”

“What does that do?” Spike ask nervously.

“DNA Transplant is a powerful card that lets him change the attribute of every monster on the field to an attribute of his choosing.” Rarity replied. “His Ally of Justice monsters gain special abilities power when faced against light monsters. That’s how he beat Fluttershy...”

“Exactly!” Blueblood yelled. “Ally Core Destroyer, attack Spike’s Armed Dragon!” Core Destroyer built up its energy within it eye, making it glow a bright red. Then fire a laser directly at Spike’s monster disintegrating it and created a massive cloud of smoke. “Lucky for you, like Catastor, Core Destroyer can’t inflict damage when it destroys a monster by its effect...” Then, something started to stir from the cloud. “Huh?” Suddenly, out of the smoke cloud floated a bunch of pink color thorned spheres that charged towards Blueblood. “What’s going on?”

“It’s simple Blueblood...” Spike replied. “By destroying my dragon, you unleashed a trap I had set last turn.” As the spheres hit Blueblood’s duel disk, it started to spark and Core Destroyer exploded. “What happened to my monster?” Blueblood’s duel disk suddenly started spewing out cards from the deck zone and into the graveyard

“When you destroyed my Armed Dragon, you unleashed my powerful Deck Devastation Virus trap card! This virus infects your hand, deck and field destroying every monster that has 1500 Attack or less.”

Blueblood groaned and looked down at his deck. It was significantly smaller than before. “I place two cards face-down. Make your move.”

Spike drew his card. “Alright... I think I’ll have my Spear Dragon attack your life points!”

“Spike!” Rarity yelled.

“I activate my Draining Shield trap card!” A small rainbow barrier formed around Blueblood just as the Spear Dragon made contact. “This trap blocks your attack and all the attack points of your monster get added to my life points.” [LP:6300→8200] “Your little virus stunt may have put a dent in my deck by life points are back to full power.”

“Aw man, I can’t believe I screwed up again...” Spike moaned. “I should have seen it coming.”

“Don’t worry, it happens to us all.” Rarity replied.

“Yeah but-”

“Just let me take over from here...” Rarity drew her card. “Hmm... I’ll just place two cards face-down and end my turn.”

“That’s it!? What a joke!” Blueblood chuckled. “You failed to beat me and now you are going to pay the price!” He swiftly drew his card and turned his eyes to it. He slowly began to chuckle before breaking into a full crazed laughter. “Oh how ironic fate can be… You left me for some… Beast… And now he has doomed you to an end filled with nothing but pain and suffering!”

“What do mean?” Spike asked nervously.

“Thanks to your virus, you’ve set the stage for the most lethal monster in my whole deck… I play Overload Fusion!” The ground slowly below them started shaking and several cracks began to form in the tiled floor. “This destructive card allows me to remove any number of machine type monsters in my graveyard from the game as long as at least one of them is named ‘Cyber Dragon.’” One by one, cards ejected from Bluebloods graveyard. “I remove twelve of the machine type monsters in my graveyard from play!” The floor tiles began overturned and a large machine arose from beneath the castle. It was nothing like they had ever seen. It had a head and tail that looked exactly like Blueblood’s Cyber Dragon but it had this extremely bulky centerpiece in the center of the body with several holes. Suddenly, several extra heads started to form from the holes, all of which just like Cyber Dragon.

“What is that thing?” Rarity asked.

Channeling the Royal Canterlot Voice… “BEHOLD THE MOST DESTRUCTIVE MACHINE IN MY ENTIRE ARSENAL, CHIMERATECH OVERDRAGON!” As the beast’s twelfth head formed, it unleashed an ear splitting roar, shattering every window within view. [ATK:9600] “Prepare to meet your doom!”

Yugi and Celestia were running through the hall when they were stopped by a sudden earthquake and a roar so loud, they couldn’t even move. “What is that terrible sound!?” Yugi asked. It was no good, the roar was completely blocking out their voices. Suddenly, the stained glass windows around them started to shatter and fall to the ground.

The two continued to hold their heads down until the sound finally stopped. Celestia stood back up. Her mane had gone frizzy from the sound. She simply shook her head and put it back in place. “I’m not sure what just happened but I fear it has something to do with Blueblood.”

“Me too...”

“We’re really close to Luna’s room. It should be just down that hall.” Celestia pointed to a pathway a little down the hall.

“Then let’s go.” Yugi bolted down the hall turning around the corner. At the end was a large pair of doors. He pulled at the door but they wouldn’t open. “It’s locked...” He turned back to see Celestia viciously running at the door. Yugi jumped out of the way at the last second as Celestia reared up and smashed the door right down. They rushed in to see Luna barely standing. Her body was covered in scratches and bruises. Her opponent hadn’t put up a barrier.

“Thou have not beaten us yet vile fiend...” Luna whispered. She had an unusual monster on the field, a large white and golden dragon. It had a single yellow sphere orbiting around it.

Standing before her was a familiar blue unicorn. Her eyes glowed red and she had Iseris’s black scars on her head. “You fail to see that Trixie has you beat already. This next attack is going to finish you off.” She turned to look at the intruders. “Well, what have we here? Come to save your weakling of a Sister, Princess?”

“LET HER GO!” Celestia roared.

“You’re too late! Iseris, attack the Princess’s monster and end this duel once and for all!” Iseris pulled its two wings together and formed a large black sphere of lightning between them before firing it at Luna’s monster. Luna just stood there as her monster was vaporized. [LP:0]

“LUNA!” Celestia jumped forward to grab Luna before she hit the ground. She looked down at her fallen sister. “No Luna, please. I’ve already lost you once…”

“Its… Too late for me… Goodbye sister…” The dark portal forms beneath Luna and she dissolved until there was nothing left. She was gone. Then Celestia turned back to Trixie.

“You’ll pay for this…”

“Sorry, but I have to go and tell my master the news. Though I will have to thank your sister for the duel, it was very… Interesting…” Trixie let out a maniacal laugh. “It’s time Trixie made herself scarce.” Trixie threw down a smoke bomb and vanished.

Celestia continued to sit in her position where she held Luna. Yugi trotted up and put his hoof on Celestia’s back. “Princess, stop worrying about her, she will be fine.”

“Yugi...”

“If what you say about her being banished for a thousand years is true, she can handle herself, but it’s your duty to get her out.”

“Those thousand years... Nightmare Moon... I wanted nothing more than to save Luna...”

“Then do it! Stop worrying and save her! What would Twilight think if she saw you right now?”

Celestia stopped. She looked up at a photo frame of Twilight sitting on her dresser. “Twilight...” Finally Celestia stood back up. “Your right Yugi. I can’t sit here mopping all day. Twilight would never forgive me...”

Yugi simply smiled at the Princess. “That’s the spirit!”

The Princess went over and opened the door. “Let’s go. We need to hurry and get that card.”

Yugi nodded. “Right!”

“Neither of you stand a chance against my Overdragon.” Blueblood looked his ‘victims’ with confidence. “Before I attack, I will summon my Doomcaliber Knight, just for some extra insurance.” Blueblood’s monster appeared as a black horse rider with a shield and sword. [ATK:1900] “Now the time has come… Overdragon, attack Spike’s monsters and wipe out the rest of his life points!” Overdragon started charging energy within one of its twelve heads. Spike pupils shrunk, looking into the face of death. “Evolution… Result… BURST!!!” The dragon fired a large white electrical laser towards Spike’s dragon. The shot exploded into sparks covering the entire field. Blueblood could not help but break into a maniacal laugh during the whole scene.

As the smoke cleared, a battered and bruised Spike could be seen. He was still standing on both legs. [LP:1100] “I’m… Not done yet…”

Blueblood was stunned. “How are you still alive!?” He looked up at his dragon. I was much smaller than it was before the attack and it seem to be letting out sparks. [ATK:4800] “What happened to my dragon’s attack points!?”

“Hmm...” A voice came from the smoke. The smoke cleared to reveal Rarity with a smirk on her face. There was a new spell card next to her. It had a picture of a goblin within a magnifying glass. “You like it? It’s a nifty card known as Shrink. I activated it right before your attack hit, cutting your dragon’s attack in half!”

“I had him squirming in fear at my dragon and you MESSED IT UP!” Blueblood pointed at Rarity. “Overdragon, attack her Knight with your Evolution Result Burst!” One of the dragon’s other heads started to charge up.

“What are you doing Blueblood? Your monster already attacked this turn!”

“Ah, that’s the wonder of Chimeratech Overdragon. For every monster removed to summon him, he can attack. Since I removed twelve monsters, he has the ability to attack twelve times!”

“What kind of sadist uses a monster that can attack twelve times!?”

“That is why Overdragon is my favorite monster. There is no kill like overkill and Overdragon does just that.” Overdragon finally released its charge and vaporized Rarity’s monster.

When the smoke cleared again, light blue shards could be seen floating around Rarity. “Ha, by destroying my Gem-Knight, you triggered its special effect. When Gem-Knight Aquamarine is sent from the field to the graveyard, I can choose one monster you control and return it to your hand.” The shards launched themselves towards Blueblood’s Overdragon. Suddenly, Blueblood’s Knight jumped in the way, blowing up on contact. “Wah... What happened?”

“When you activated the effect of your monster you triggered the effect of my Doomcaliber Knight. By sacrificing himself, he can stop your effect.”

Rarity let out a small growl. “You’re the same as you were at the Gala. Letting someone else take the blunt of anything thrown at you… You spoiled mongrel…”

Blueblood snickered. “While the master doesn’t exactly approve of my methods, they get the job done. Now luckily for you, Overdragon can’t use its multiple attacks to attack directly so the two of you are safe this turn. And since my turn is over, Overdragon regains its power.” [ATK:4800 →9600]

So, it’s my turn then...” Spike drew his card and frown appeared on his face. “I set a monster face-down on the field and end my turn.”

“It’s my turn now.” Rarity drew her card and then turned to Spike. He was sweating and looking at his cards. ‘Poor Spike, he doesn’t seem to be drawing anything he can use and he keeps blaming himself for all the traps Blueblood has been using.’ She looked down at her cards. ‘I’m not getting anything good either… Wait a minute, that’s it!’ “I activate Card Destruction! This forces us to discard our entire hand and draw a new hand.” The three of them dumped their hands into the graveyard and drew new hands. Rarity looked over her cards. ‘Ok, much better.’ She then turned to Spike. He was no longer sweating and had a large grin on his face. ‘Looks like Spike also got a good draw.’ Rarity looked through her cards again. “Ok, first I’ll summon Gem-Knight Emerald.” [ATK:1800] “But he won’t stay around long because I activate my face-down card; Gem Enhancement. This card lets me trade in my current Gem-Knight for a stronger one.” Emerald vanished and a new monster appeared in its place, a large knight with full white armor and large crystals on his shoulders. “I summon Gem-Knight Crystal!” [DEF:1950] “I’ll end my turn with a face down… Do your worst Blueblood…”

“I will...” Blueblood put his hoof down to draw his card, but the second he touched his duel disk a small black spark went up his leg. Blueblood simply smirked then the top card started to let off a black glow. With all his might, Blueblood drew the card and left a black trail behind it as he drew. “I’ll start this turn by activating the card Monster Reborn!”

“No…” Then Rarity’s fear turned to confusion. “Hold it; you removed all your monsters to summon your Dragon... You don’t have anything left to summon.”

“Not quite… While it’s true that I removed my monsters to summon my Overdragon, he only requires that I remove machines to summon him. That means that anything that is not a machine is still in play, just like this next monster. I’m sure you remember it from out last encounter Rarity.” A giant staff rose up behind Blueblood and started glowing red. The sky turned dark and lightning could be heard.

The sky exploded with light as the Dragon of the Sun appeared. It roar was could be heard for miles. [ATK:0] “Sadly, he won’t be staying long... I have something much worse in store for you.” Blueblood took a card from his hand and held it up in the air. It was shrouded in a dark aura. “I sacrifice Chimeratech Overdragon and The Winged Dragon of Ra!” Ra dissolved into the black mist while Overdragon melted into a black sludge and swirled into the air, coming back down as a black lightning bolt striking Blueblood. Blueblood stood up on his hind legs as the familiar scars appeared on his head. “HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!” His shadow then came up of the ground into a familiar form but he was different. Iseris has twelve heads protruding from different parts of his body, just like Chimeratech Overdragon. In a booming Royal Canterlot Voice, Blueblood spoke again. “YOUR FINISHED RARITY! I’LL DESTROY YOU, YOUR FRIENDS AND YOUR PRESIOUS LITTLE DRAGON! [ATK:10100] Iseris, attack Miss Rarity’s Gem-Knight Crystal!” Iseris’s multiple heads started charging a black electrical blast similar to Overdragon.

“Hold on!” Rarity yelled. “I reveal my face-down card; Waboku. Until the end of this turn, we can’t take any damage and neither of our monsters can be destroyed in battle.” Iseris fired its attack and a barrier appeared over Rarity that reflected the attack.

Blueblood looked at her with displeasure. “ENOUGH OF YOUR PATHETIC STALLING! YOU CAN ONLY HOLD OUT FOR SO LONG BEFORE YOU EVENTUALLY FALL!”

Yugi and Celestia had reached the final stretch. A long hallway surrounded with stained glass windows. To Yugi’s surprise, none of them had been broken by the event earlier. Celestia ran up to a door adorning a sun. “I need to minute to unlock the seal.” Celestia aimed her horn forward a thrusted it into a small hole in the door.

Yugi took this time to look at the windows. The designs made him a little curious. He first took notice to the mural of a black alicorn flying over six ponies. The spirit of the Pharaoh appeared next to him. “Hey Yugi, what does this remind you of?”

He inspected the mural closely. “Those six ponies along the bottom look a lot like Twilight and her friends and the black one looks kind of like Princess Luna.”

“Not Luna, Nightmare Moon...”

“Luna’s evil alter ego?”

“Yes, I think this may be some kind be a mural to those events Celestia mentioned.”

“Just like how your past was engraved on the stone tablets.” Yugi turned and trotted to another mural. It had a dragon holding puppet strings attached to three ponies. The Pharaoh noticed and followed him. “What is it about that dragon that makes me feel uncomfortable?”

“I can sense some kind of weird energy. It’s not shadow magic, it’s something else…”

“That’s not all. Look at his body! That’s not a normal dragon.”

“I think you’re right, it looks like he adorns parts of a whole bunch of different animals, like a Chimera.”

“I don’t know what that thing is but it gives me the creeps.” Yugi stopped when a bright light came from the door Celestia was opening.

“It’s open.” The Pharaoh vanished as Yugi trotted over to the open door. Inside the room was a small box sitting on a pedestal. Celestia lifted the box and handed it to Yugi.

“Is the card inside this box?”

“No, that box holds the Elements of Harmony. The same Elements Twilight and her friends used to save my sister.”

“If it isn’t here, then where is it?”

“Here...” Celestia put her hoof on top of the pedestal and pushed it down. The pedestal slowly sunk into the ground until it was completely gone. Once it was gone, a small compartment opened in the wall behind it. A single strip of stone emerged from the wall with a single card standing upright. Celestia then used her magic and revealed it to Yugi. “Here it is. This card has the power to destroy Iseris.”

“So, what do we do first?”

“First we need to help Spike and Rarity defeat Blueblood...” Celestia held the card up and pointed her horn at it. The card swirled around in the air and was engulfed in a green flame. “I just hope we were fast enough...”

“WHY ARE YOU WAITING!? TAKE YOUR TURN ALREADY SO I CAN DESTROY YOU!”

Rarity turned to Spike. “Spike, this is it. Make this turn count…”

Spike looked down at his deck and gulped. He slowly lowered his fingers onto his deck.

This was it; Spike only had one chance to win. The duel depended on his next draw. He placed his fingers on his duel disk and prepared to draw. “Wait...” He clenched his hand over his stomach. Something was coming up. Suddenly, he let out a loud belch and covered his duel dusk in flames.

Rarity recoiled back. “Spike, manners!”

“Sorry Rarity...” ‘That was weird. It felt like the Princess was sending me something but nothing came out...’ Spike shook his head. “Alright, my draw...” Spike placed his fingers down again and drew his card. As the card came out of the deck slot, a bright light started overtaking him. He slowly pulled the card out holding out as far to his right as possible. Once he saw the card, his mood completely changed. “I’ll start off by playing my own Monster Reborn and I use this effect to bring back my Armed Dragon LV7.” [ATK:2800]

“Like that is going to help you.” Blueblood added.

“I’m not done, now I play Level Up! This allows me to upgrade my dragon even without destroying any monsters. Armed Dragon, evolve from Level 7 to Level 10!” Spike’s Armed Dragon started to grow even bigger, its new size rivaled that of Blueblood’s Overdragon. [ATK:3000] Finally, he looked down at the card he had just drawn. ‘Alright, let’s see what this card can do…’ “I activate-“ The absolute second Blueblood saw the card, all the color drained from his body.

“HARMONY FUSION!” Suddenly, a small multicolored vortex appeared up above Spike’s head. Spike’s Armed Dragon LV10 and Rarity’s Gem-Knight Crystal then transformed into two glowing stars and shot upwards and flew into the vortex. The vortex slowly condensed before erupting into a six-point star shaped pink explosion. The explosion released a massive shockwave with a deafening screech. The shockwave could be seen for miles.

Celestia let a single tear escape from her eye as she saw the blast radiate over Equestria. “He did it, Spike played the card…”

Back at Ponyville, Twilight pulled her head up to window barely catching a glimpse of the familiar shaped wave. “It’s… So beautiful…”

Kaiba also opened the door to the library to see the blast. “What in the world is that!?”

As the explosion dissipated, all that remained was a large new creature completely covered in light. It was a dragon, but no ordinary dragon. It was large white dragon cover in diamonds and crystals. Its scales were a light blue and it bore large semi-transparent diamond armor. Spike looked upon his new beast with pride. Rarity’s eyes were glued to the monster, it beauty pulled her in. Blueblood looked in terror of the monster. Finally Spike spoke up. “Through the strength of the bond between me and Rarity, we have created a new monster. Be born, Translucence Diamond Dragon!” Its enchanting roar echoed through the sky. [ATK:3000]

Blueblood face changed from fear to glee. “Hahaha! Sorry good buddy but your monster only has 3000 attack points. Good try though....”

“We are not finished yet…” The boys turned to Rarity as she pressed a button on her disk, flipping up her final face-down card. It was a large ring surrounded by fireballs. “I activate the trap card, Ring of Destruction, and put it on Iseris.” The ring disappeared and reappeared around the neck of Iseris.

“Just what are you trying to accomplish? Iseris is unaffected by trap cards. Your trap is useless…”

“Don’t be so sure Blueblood.” Spike replied. “All I have to do is discard one card from my hand and my Dragon can negate the effect of any monster on the field.” Blueblood recoiled in terror. “Face it, you lost, we won!” Spike was giggling like child then he turned to Rarity. “Can you believe it, we actually him beat!” Rarity had her eyes close and her head was tilted to the ground. She almost looked sad. “Rarity?”

“Spike… I’m afraid you’re only half right. Blueblood HAS lost but…”

“But?”

“When Ring of Destruction destroys a monster, it does damage to ‘both’ players, not just him.” Rarity opened her eyes and turned to Spike. “Once that bomb goes off, Iseris will be destroyed, taking both me and Blueblood with it.”

“ARE YOU INSANE!?” Blueblood yelled. “Do you really plan to destroy yourself just to save this… Beast?”

“But Rarity, my dragon has the ability to prevent us from taking any effect damage.” Spike replied.

“Spike…” Rarity replied. “Translucence Diamond Dragon only prevents the controller from taking damage. You control the Dragon, not me… And… I wouldn’t want it any other way…”

“What are you talking about? I will gladly give you control of my drag-”

“Spike!” The baby dragon recoiled at Rarity’s sudden anger. “There is nothing you can do. This is my choice to make! I couldn’t live with myself if I let anything happen to you.”

“But I... I can’t... I won’t... I’ll find another way to defeat Blueblood”

Suddenly, Rarity was in front of Spike and was holding him in the air with her front hooves. Spike had shut his eyes. “SPIKE! LISTEN TO ME! What is more important? Me or Equestria?”

“I...I...”

“If you truly love me, you’d this for me...”

Spike’s heart stopped. Did she really just say that? This was the hardest choice he has ever had in his life and quite possible hardest he ever will make. A choice between possibly dooming Equestria or letting the love of his life be lost, maybe forever... Then he felt something... Something warm... He opened his eyes. He saw Rarity. Her eyes were closed and right in front of his face. She had kissed him... Right on the lips no less. After a few seconds, she stopped and pulled and away. Her eyes stared right into Spike. “Rarity... I’ve made my decision...” Rarity reached over and grabbed Spike’s right claw. Slowly, she dragged it over his duel disk. “I discard one card from my hand to activate the effect of Translucence Diamond Dragon, disabling your monster’s ability...” Those words hurt him more than anything in the world but it what Rarity wanted and that’s all that mattered.

“Thank you Spike...” At that moment, the collar around Iseris started blinking. “Ten seconds…”

On the other side of the room, Blueblood had gone into a full panic. “No, please!” He looked down at the cards in his hand. “There must be something I can do!?”

“You have exposed yourself for the spoiled brat you are. Nine… This sacrifice is my final act of generosity. I don’t care if I am forced to give up my own life, as long as I can take you down with me and protect my friends! Eight…”

“No, I refuse to go down with ‘you’ you filthy peasant!”

“Seven…” Blueblood swiveled around and charged energy in his horn before firing a blast at the barrier. The beam just bounced off the barrier, not even making a dent. “Six… Five…”

“You pathetic little worm. I knew you would fail me eventually…”

Blueblood’s ears perked up. “Master, is that you? Please help me!”

A small stream a black sparks started flowing outside the barrier and a new pony flashed into view leaving a still smoking scorch mark on the ground. She was wearing a robe like Blueblood but the hood seemed a bit more jagged. “You sicken me Blueblood. Your nothing but a coward who lets others take the fall for his shortcomings. Your scum who doesn’t understand a thing about what we stand for.”

Blueblood shuttered. “What do you mean? I’m your best duelist!”

The mysterious pony broke into laughter. “You’re really are pathetic. You actually thought I had even a shred of respect for somepony as selfish and spoiled as you.”

“WHAT!? No, please, I’m sorry!”

“Goodbye Blueblood...” The pony sparked a couple times before teleporting away in a flash. Blueblood turned back to see nearly all the lights on the ring had gone out.

“Two…” Rarity counted closing her eyes. “Goodbye Spike… Stay safe…” Finally, the ring stopped blinking before exploding. Blueblood screamed as the explosion engulfed his entire body. [LP:8200→0] Spike crouched down covering himself from the explosion as a barrier formed up around him blocking the explosion. Spike only barely opened his eyes enough to catch Rarity get suddenly blasted by the flames. [LP:4000→0] The entire explosion was contained within the barrier creating a dome of flames. Eventually the fire dissipated leaving the two ponies lying on the ground with a black smoking hole forming underneath the two of them. Spike quickly ran over to Rarity and grabbed her hoof. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at him. “Spike… I just want you to know that I will never forget you…”

Spike clenched onto her hoof tighter. “I won’t forget you either.” Rarity closed her eyes one last time before bursting into a cloud of black particles that were pulled into the black hole, leaving behind the usual scorch mark and Rarity’s Duel Disk. Spike looked over where Blueblood was. He was already gone leaving nothing but a mark and his Duel Disk. He saw one of Blueblood’s cards that were scattered on the ground was covered in a black fire. As he approached it, he noticed it was Iseris’s card. The fire quickly burned the card until it was completely gone leaving nothing but burned paper. He barely turn his head when another card caught his eye. He bent down and picked it up. “The Winged Dragon of Ra…”

“Congratulations young dragon.” Spike spun around to see the strange hooded pony from before again. “Keep that Egyptian God card, think of it as a reward. Without Blueblood the card is useless to us anyway.” There were a few more sparks and the pony was gone again.

Just then, Celestia and Yugi arrived from the east hall. Celestia stopped for a moment to look over the damage. “What happened here?”

“Princess Celestia, your back!” Spike jumped up and started hugging Celestia’s leg.

Yugi looked around for a second. “Where’s Rarity?” Spike’s mood suddenly changed, and then Yugi noticed the two marks on the field. Yugi took the hint and simply turned away.

“It was her choice; she sacrificed herself so I could go on.” Spike held up Harmony Fusion. “Translucence Diamond Dragon… A monster made from the bond between Rarity and me…”

Celestia trotted up to Spike and held out her hoof. “If I may?” Spike held up the card and Celestia levitated it up. “800 years... I had hoped to never use this card again...”

“They will not get away with this…” Yugi replied. “I won’t allow Rarity’s sacrifice be in vain. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and now Rarity… I promise I will find a way to bring you back.” He turned back to the Alicorn and dragon. “I may not be from this world but you greeted me and open arms and claimed me as you’re friend. This world is like a second home to me now and I refuse to let it fall into darkness. It’s up to us to protect Equestria. It’s up to us to protect our home!

“Sorry Yugi… But I can’t help…” Both the boys turned to the Princess. “I’ve done enough damage as it is. It’s best I don’t get involved. It’s all up to you Yugi; you and the others are Equestria’s last lines of defense.” Celestia began to trot up the main staircase when she stopped. “Tell Twilight I am sorry…”

Author's Notes:

Update (2/12/2014): Went through and revised the chapter with spelling and grammar fixes and added BOLDING to point indicators.

Chapter 8 - Protégés

Less then an hour ago, Yugi went off to Canterlot with the Princess, Spike and Rarity. Twilight wanted to go as well, but the nurse claimed she wasn't in any condition to leave so she stayed behind for they’re return.

“I really hope they’re ok...” Sighed Twilight. She was laying on her back staring up at the ceiling. Several things were going through her head. Then she noticed her door was slightly open. It wasn’t open by much, but enough for someone to see in. Twilight adjusted her head so she could see outside. There were a small pair of eyes looking in. “Is that you little filly?”

The blue coated filly laughed nervously. “You saw me huh?”

“Trust me, I used to do the same thing back at the academy...”

The filly giggled. “Well you are pretty interesting.”

“How am I interesting?”

The filly thought for a moment. “Well, you helped me get over the fear of my operation. You said I may become a powerful unicorn someday.”

“I wasn’t lying either. Your just like me when I was your age. After I witnessed the Summer Sun Celebration for the first time, I wanted to learn everything I could about magic. The Princess inspired me to become what I am today. She even accepted me as her personal student.”

“I guess we are the same. Back in Manehatten, I spent a lot of time in the hospital. They were still trying to figure out what was wrong. Admittedly, it was pretty boring. I wanted to play with friends. I didn’t care about magic.”

“What got you into magic then?”

“Well, while I was in the hospital most of the time, I liked to sneak out every now and then so I could explore the outside. My favorite thing was going to the fair during the summer.”

“The fair is always fun.”

“Yeah! It is, but last year was the greatest ever.”

“What happened?”

“Well, it started out fairly simple…”

The small blue coated trotted along the path, looking at all the attractions at the summer Manehatten Fair. The fair had everything. Rides, games, candy. “Hmm, what should I go on first?” The filly looked at the various rides. “Maybe I should go on the Ferris Wheel, or maybe the…”

“WELCOME FILLIES AND GENTLECOLTS!” Boomed a voice. The filly swung her head around to find the voice. She saw what looked to be a caravan surrounded by ponies. She trotted up the crowd. She tried looking through but the group was too thick. She poked one of the mares in the group.

“Hello? Miss? What’s this group for?” The mare just shrugged and turned back. The filly grunted in frustration. “I guess I’ll have to get through it!” She ducked down and slowly crawled through the crowd, pushing her way through.

“COME ONE! COME ALL!” Boomed the voice again. The filly shoved the last few ponies out of the way and ended up right in from of the Caravan. “COME AND WITNESS THE AMAZING MAGIC OF THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE!” Out of nowhere, the Caravan folded out, transforming into a giant stage. Suddenly, there was a poof on stage and a blue unicorn with purple clothing appeared.

The entire crowd ‘ooh’ed and ‘ahh’ed. “Woooowwwww…” Said the filly.

“Watch in awe, as The Great and Powerful Trixie performs the most spectacular feats ever witnessed by pony eyes!” The unicorn stood up on her hind legs as fireworks blasted through the air.

The filly looked around. Some of the crowd was cheering but there was a good portion talking amongst themselves. “So what?” Said a colt from the crowd.

“What makes you so special?” Said a mare.

“Your just a braggart.” Said another.

“Well, well, well…” Said Trixie. “It appears we have some neeeeeighsayers in the audience. Who is so ignorant, as to challenge the magical ability of The Great and Powerful Trixie?”

“Oh, and just how are you so ‘great’ and ‘powerful’?” Said a mare from the front.

“I’m glad you asked. Why only the Great and Powerful Trixie has magic strong enough to vanquish… The Dreaded… URSA MAJOR!” The horns on the stage suddenly shot fireworks into the sky making a large neon blue bear.

“Cool!” Said the filly.

“When all hope was lost, the ponies of Huffington had no one to turn to but The Great and Powerful Trixie stepped in and with her awesome magic, vanquished the Ursa Major and sent it back to its cave in the Everfree Forest!” The neon bear in the sky was confronted by a neon Trixie waving her want, shutting the light on the bear off.

“I’ll challenge you!” Said a mare from the audience. She was a yellow earth pony with brown hair. She had a beach ball cutie mark. “Can you do this?” The mare pulled an oversized beach ball and jumped on top of it. She flipped upside down and started balancing on her nose.

“Oooooh” Said the crowd.

“Yawn…” Replied Trixie. She levitated her hat off her head and pulled a tiny hair clip from her mane. She held it in front of her before launching it into the mare’s ball. The ball sputtered and wheezed before flying into the air with the mare still holding on. “Who next?” The crowd remained silent. “Well then, once again The Great and Powerful Trixie has proven herself to be the most amazing unicorn in all of Equestria.” Trixie turned away. “Was there ever any doubt…”

A short time later, the filly retuned to Trixie’s caravan in hopes of meeting her. She knocked on the door. There were a couple step heard inside and then the door opened. Trixie didn’t look too happy. “What do you want?”

“I… Uh…” The filly stuttered.

“Well? Spit it out!”

The filly jumped back a bit. “I… Just wanted to say I liked your show…”

Trixie glared back at her. “Really?”

“Yah, I can’t do magic yet but I really want to learn how.”

“Is that all you came to say? Trixie is quite busy you know…”

“Oh, sorry. I was just hoping I could get your autograph.”

“Really?”

“Really!”

“Five bits…”

“Five bits?”

“Hey, Trixie needs to make a living. In case you didn’t realize, her shows are free. Trixie lives on donations and tips.”

“Well… Ok…” The filly reached into her bag and pulled out a few bits. “Here, this should be enough.” Trixie took the money and went back into the cart. She came out a minute later with a picture of herself and a quill. She simply wrote her name in fancy letters and handed her the picture. “Thanks Trixie!” Then she ran off.

“So, you got inspired by this ‘Great and Powerful Trixie?’” Twilight asked nervously. “She sounds amazing!” Twilight was obviously lying but maybe this would help her learn a bit more about Trixie’s history.

“Yeah! The other ponies didn’t seem all that impressed but I thought she was amazing. The idea of using magic that doesn’t really have a use but looks cool seemed interesting.”

“But aren’t you afraid of being yelled at like Trixie? I’m sure you don’t want people trying to outdo you like with her.

“Trixie has her reasons.”

“What?”

“Well, the next day I was let out of the Hospital. My parents discovered I snuck out so I wanted to take them up to fair to meet Trixie.”

“Come on! I want you to see this!” The filly was practically dragging her mother towards the large stage from the previous day. The display was mostly the same as the day before. She boasted a couple times, got a few rude comments from the audience. Afterward she went to visit her again in her trailer. She knocked a couple times. “She is so amazing!” When Trixie opened the door, she looked down and simply rolled her eyes.

“What…?”

“I brought my parents to meet you!”

“Great, is that all you wanted to say?” Trixie turned back to head inside. “Now if you don’t mind, get lost…”

“Woh woh woh!” The filly’s father interrupted. “Don’t you talk to our little girl like that!”

“Hey, Trixie didn’t come and bother you when you’re off duty.”

“She is just a filly. You shouldn’t be so rude to her.”

“That’s the only way she will ever learn her place.” The parents recoiled back slightly. “You think life is all fun and dandy, huh? Well, let me tell you something. Being nice will not get you anywhere. If you’re not firm and blunt, people will backstab you at the first chance they get. She needs to learn that you simply can’t be ‘taught’ magic. You get good at it through intense personal training. Being taught by someone else will only hold you back. You need to find your inner fire by yourself and use it yourself. That’s why I don’t take lightly to the criticism. It’s MY magic and MY talent. Nobody else can control your destiny.”

“…” Trixie stopped and looked down at the poor filly who was on the verge of tears. “So… You say at the hospital cannot help me? Am I never going to perform magic?”

Her mom snuggled up close to her. “Don’t you listen to her sweetie. The doctors will find a way to fix your horn…” The filly struggled out of her mom’s arms and ran off. “Now look what you did!”

“Her horn… What did you mean by fixing her horn?”

“She suffers from a Mislinked Horn! She can’t use magic without an expensive operation.”

Trixie expression changed. She looked down at the ground in shame. “I didn’t know…”

“Yeah, you didn’t…”

“Please… Let me talk to her...”

“No, you have done enough damage.”

“Please, I know how I can help… Just trust me…”

“And what if you make it even worse? You think I am going to take that chance?”

Trixie looked down and then looked back at the inside of her home. “I’ll pay for the operation…”

“Wha… What?”

Trixie re-entered her cart and came back with a rather large bag. “Here is my life savings. Take it… If I really do cause more harm, I’ll leave you alone and you can spend that so she can get her operation.”

“This… I can’t-“

Trixie held her hoof to the mother’s mouth. “Trust me…”

The filly was hunched over by a nearby lake. Trixie words constantly ringing through her head. Was there really nothing they could do to help her?

“Hey…” She turned her head back and saw Trixie standing behind her. She wanted nothing to do with Trixie and just buried her face into her hooves. “Listen… I’m sorry about what I said earlier… It was not my place to tell you that.”

“Why did you say it then?”

“Because I was trying to protect you…”

“Protect me from what?”

“Ridicule… Ponies respect those trained by the professionals but even more if they are self-taught. A random pony from nowhere with an amazing power, you don’t realize how big of a deal that is. But…”

“What…”

“Then I learned of your little problem. Mislinked Horn, that’s a rather rare condition.”

“So they told you didn’t they?”

“Yes, and once I heard, I had to come back and talk to you. You see, I’m familiar with the condition. My mother had the same thing.”

“She did?”

“Yes, and she beat it without an operation…”

“Wow, she really did?”

“Yes, and it was all through her hard work and research. She found a way to re-establish the broken link with mental training.” Trixie leaded back and started looking up at the sky. “She was a great pony mother, so talented. They say because she managed to get through her condition naturally, she was much stronger than an average unicorn. She was even accepted into the School for Gifted Unicorns.”

“Where is she now?”

“Last I heard she was working at the school help Celestia with her ‘new’ protégé. That was several years ago though. I haven’t heard from her in ages.” Trixie stopped and looked back over to the filly. “I know I said you should deal with it yourself but I need to ask you something…”

“What?”

“I want to train you. Mother told me how she overcame her condition and I still have a relatively good idea how it works… Of course… If you want to…”

The filly’s eyes went as big as saucers before she tacked Trixie to the ground “THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU!” Trixie could feel the filly’s tears rolling down her chest.

“It’s ok, just let it out…. Sister Lulumoon is here to make things all better. I’ll make sure you become just as powerful as my mother, if not stronger…” The filly continued to cry into her chest, then a though came to Trixie. “You know, we have been talking this whole time and I realize I never asked for your name…”

“My name?” Trixie nodded. “It’s Starlight…. Starlight Shine…”

Starlight Shine…

Starlight Shine…

Starlight Shine…

“Miss? Are you feeling ok?”

Twilight broke out of her sudden trance. It was her, the main reason for Trixie’s defection was standing right in front of her. “Sorry, I was just thinking of something. If Trixie was going to teach you how to break through your condition without surgery, why are you here getting one?”

A stream of tears started running down Starlight’s face. “Because she never did… After our talk, she said that she would be unable to train me right away. She said she wanted to track down her mother first and give her the news she had a protégé. After that, she would return to train me like she promised. While she was away, she started sending me letters. She gave me some tips on keeping my mind calm to prepare me when she returned, but she never did… One day, my dad was reading the newspaper when he saw an article from Ponyville.”

‘Oh no…’

“It said that a crazy blue unicorn invaded the town bringing a creature of mass destruction. I obviously didn’t believe it. Those papers always blow those events out of proportion. I tried sending letters but my parents always stopped me. They trusted Trixie and she turned out some psycho unicorn. They thought she would be a bad influence. Eventually I got a letter passed them but I never got a reply. I have no idea where she is now…”

“I’m so sorry that happened.”

“It’s all that Twilight Sparkle’s fault…” Twilight flinched at this remark. “She ruined Trixie… She upstaged her and chased her out of town. I bet she was the one who brought that creature in. Trixie takes pride in her work, she would never intentionally do anything to harm her reputation. It was that stupid Twilight Sparkle… The newspaper even tries to play her off as the hero! Can you believe that! She is nothing but a monster! I will NEVER forget that name… Twi-“

“Twilight Sparkle?” Came a voice from outside. Twilight instantly froze up in pure terror. The nurse came in through the door carrying a wrapped box. “Miss Sparkle? I have a package for you…” She looked at the mortified Twilight and then at the little Starlight. “Am I disturbing something?”

“Twilight… Sparkle…” She turned to the still frozen unicorn. “You… It’s you…” She jumped onto the bed and got right to Twilight’s face. “YOU! IT’S YOUR FAULT TRIXIE IS GONE!!

“Please, can you calm down?” Twilight replied.

“Calm down? CALM DOWN!? DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU DID TO ME!? I can’t believe I actually opened up to you. I thought you were my friend… You’re probably going use this to harm her even more you monster!”

“Please Starlight… Trixie is just... Misguided… I am only doing what needs to be done…”

“By what? Ruining her life?”

“Starlight, Trixie has taken on a dark path. I don’t want you following suit.”

“Dark path, you would say that…”

“She is a serious threat to Equestria right now. She has to be stopped before it’s too late.”

Starlight just huffed. “Serious threat to you… Your just afraid Trixie is going to throw you off your little high chair. You’re nothing but a monster who ruins pony’s lives!” Starlight jumped off the bed and made her way to the door. “Good bye…” Starlight slammed the door HARD, even patients several rooms away could feel it.

The dark figure peered out her window, staring out into the moonlight. Then with a bang, Trixie appeared in the room. “I have retrieved the Princess of the Moon…”

“Oh? Did you now?”

Trixie nodded. “It was easy. She was clearly inexperienced with the game and had virtually no idea what she was doing.”

“As expected, Celestia was around when Duel Monsters was created but Luna never was.”

“It was like taking candy from a filly…”

“Speaking of fillies, I have something interesting to share with you. It appears there has been some… Tension… So to speak…”

“What exactly do you mean?”

“It appears Twilight has had a rather nasty encounter with an old… Protégé… Of yours, if I am not mistaken.”

“You… You mean Starlight?”

“Starlight began some idle conversation with our little Twilight. Once Starlight discovered who she was talking to, things got a bit out of control.” The figure walked over to Twilight and put a hoof on her head. “I want you to go to her. Mend her wounds Trixie. You ARE the only one she fully trusts after all…”

“What should I do with her? I could never put Starlight in harm’s way. She is like a sister to me.”

“I know she is… And how fun would it be to have you’re little sister there to cheer you on while Sparkle falls to her knees?”

Trixie stood still. She didn’t know what to think. Was she really going to be reunited with the only pony who ever cared for her? The thought of seeing Starlight made her happy but sick at the same time. “Can I really show my face to her like this? I don’t feel right letting her see me as a follower of darkness…”

“Are you doubting me?”

“No Master, I could never doubt you. You gave me reason, it’s just… Starlight…”

“In that case…” A dark aura shrouded the pony and started flowing into Trixie. “Let me open your eyes a bit.” Trixie struggled at the new power flowing into her body. It was like nothing she had ever felt before. As fast as it started, it was over. The aura disappeared and the pony removed her hoof from Trixie. “Now Trixie, are you ready to reunite with your sister?”

Trixie opened her eyes. They were glowing a bright red. “Yes, sister and I shall finally be reunited. Neither of us will alone anymore…”

Author's Notes:

Sorry it took so long for this story to continue and with such a short chapter. I guess I just needed a break from this story... A long one... Anyway, now this story has FINALLY been updated I can continue. I'm going to try to shuffle between this, Oblivion and Sweetheart to keep the story writing from becoming stale. Its gets annoying just writing one story consistently. Especially when it's something like this story that requires a ton of pre-planning.