Rise of a Duel Master
by Caecae97
First published
Spike has entered the Battle City Tournament. As he aims for the finals, he discovers secrets, both dangerous ones, and ones about himself. How will Spike handle these dark and mysterious secrets.
The Battle City Tournament has begun. Spike Drake is a contestant who is in it to win. While he duels, he will gain more cards. However, there's trouble in town. With his Millennium Collar, he keeps in contact with his friends to make sure they're safe, and keeps tabs on rivals, and a villainous group known as the Thestrals. The Thestrals are looking for something in Canterlot, but what exactly are they looking for? Nobody knows, but they are ruthless towards people who stand in their way. Will Spike be able to stop them, or will he fall victim to their evil ways?
Origin
It was a normal day for a young boy named Spike Drake. He recently started playing Duel Monsters, a popular card game. His friends were much better at it than he was, but he didn't mind. He was in his house when he heard the doorbell ring. When he went to get the door, he saw the mailman with a package for him.
The mailman asked him, "Spike Drake?"
Spike nodded saying, "Yes, that's me."
The mailman handed over the package, "Special delivery from Astral Drake."
Spike sighed and thanked the mailman. He brought the package into the house and opened it. He read a letter from his father, "Dear Spike, I'm sorry I wasn't able to meet you to give you this. It was an artifact I found while I was examining the pyramids in Saddle Arabia. I thought you would like it. I'll be coming home in two days, so I hope to see you when I get back. Love Dad."
Spike raised an eyebrow as he read the letter, and sorted through the packing peanuts and saw a choker. It was gold and had silver spikes on it. It did look cool, but when he took it out of the box, he noticed the same eye symbol that was on Twilight's Millennium Puzzle.
Twilight was an old friend of Spike's from when he was young. Spike had been bullied in class a lot, and Twilight stood up for him, and they became best friends fast. Twilight's other friends also accepted him into their group of friends.
He decided to call up Twilight and ask her to come over. When Twilight picked up the phone, he asked her, "Hey Twilight, can you come over some time? My dad sent me a package from Saddle Arabia, and he gave me a choker that has the same eye symbol as the one on your Millennium Puzzle."
He remembered how Twilight came into possession of her Millennium Puzzle. Her grandfather had it in his toy shop, and Twilight's curious nature got the best of her. She had started on the puzzle over 10 years ago, and it took 8 years for her to solve it. Her grandfather found it in a Saddle Arabian tomb back in the 60's. He'd never been able to complete the puzzle himself, but Twilight never gave up, and eventually she solved it. Whenever Spike had come to play with Twilight, her grandfather always tried to get her to give up on the puzzle, but he could never figure out why. What he did know is that there were two messages inscribed into the box the puzzle was in, that said "The person who solves this puzzle will have their wish granted." and "The one who solves me, will receive my dark knowledge and power."
Twilight answered, "Ok, I'll be right over, just don't put it on your neck." After getting off the phone, she rushed over to Spike's house and took a look at the choker Spike showed her. She asked Spike to close his eyes for a moment.
Spike sighed and closed his eyes saying, "I still don't understand why you make me do this."
Twilight sighed, "Thanks." She let her ponytail down, and sat in a meditative position. She took a few deep breathes before standing up. Her skin was a few shades darker and her voice took a more stern tone. She told Spike, "I recognize this, it's the Millennium Collar. If I remember correctly, there's nothing about it that's dangerous. It allows you to form connections with people, and with those connections, you can communicate telepathically with the people you've connected to." She put up her ponytail and said, "Did I answer your questions?"
Spike nodded and said, "Yeah, in a way, yes you did. Your other self says its safe to put on." He unhooked the back of the collar and wrapped it around his neck. He felt a small pinch when he clicked the collar in place, but ignored it.
Twilight smiled saying, "It looks good on you Spike. I'm going to go meet the others to get something to eat, you want to come?"
Spike nodded and followed Twilight out of his house and into downtown. When they met with their other friends, Sunset Shimmer saw the Millennium Collar around Spike's neck and asked, "Is that a Millennium Item? My Millennium Ring didn't detect it at all, that's odd."
Spike had completely forgotten about Sunset's Millennium Ring. He berated himself for forgetting the incident from a year ago. Sunset had found the ring while she was out on an internship with an archeology team. She had kept the ring for herself instead of telling her superiors about it. Trouble was, the Ring apparently had some sort of curse, for real. There was an evil spirit trapped inside the Ring, and it took control of Sunset's body. The spirit caused a lot of trouble, and Sunset had even temporarily became a Duel Monster.
When that happened, Twilight, Spike, and the others found a way to defeat the evil spirit that was controlling Sunset. Twilight had to defeat Sunset, and force the spirit out of the ring. During that final battle at Montgomery Discord's tournament, they all saw the evil spirit forced out of Sunset's body, and it was destroyed by a beam of light from Twilight's Millennium Puzzle.
Spike nodded and told Sunset about the Millennium Collar. While they were eating their lunch they heard people talking about a tournament. Then, all of a sudden, one of the televised billboards lit up and brought up an announcement. Starlight Glimmer, the head of Duel Monsters Inc. came up and told people about the Battle City Tournament that was coming up in a few weeks. He said, "In order to enter the Battle City Tournament, you must be at least Duelist Rank 5. Those under Duelist Rank 5 are not permitted to enter the tournament. If you wish to enter, you'll need to be Rank 5 by the tournament date. The tournament will take place all throughout Canterlot, wherever Duelists meet, that is the battleground."
Spike watched the announcement. He pulled out his smartphone to check his Duelist Rank and saw he had just reached Duelist Rank 5 recently, so he planned on entering. He continued to listen to the announcement and was surprised when Starlight said wherever duelists meet is the battleground. "Hmm... a battle royal style tournament. Sounds really interesting."
Twilight adjusted her glasses and commented, "It's just like Starlight to go big or go home with these sorts of things."
Rainbow Dash chuckled, "Yeah, you're right about that. But Spike just recently made it to Duelist Rank 5, so this will be his first official tournament."
Applejack tipped her hat, "Well, I say there's nothing to lose by entering."
Sunset Shimmer pointed out, "If you were paying attention, you would have heard Starligh say that we have to make wagers on our cards, winner gets a card from the loser. I'll enter, but I'm not interested in betting my cards."
Spike nodded, "Yeah, I'm entering, but I'm worried about losing my cards."
As the group split up after lunch, Spike headed back to his house. He got ready to go to bed when he realized his Millennium Collar wouldn't come off. He started pulling at it, and it still wouldn't come off. Twilight was probably asleep by now, so he'd have to wait until morning to find out why it wouldn't come off.
The Next Day...
Twilight had arrived at Spike's house after she got a text from him about the Millennium Collar and sighed, "I talked with my other self, and we looked a bit more into the Millennium Collar. Apparently, it never comes off until its owner dies. Obviously, we're not going to force it off. If the Collar is somehow forced off, I'm worried it might cause harm to you. We'll just have to find out more about it as time goes on."
The Tournament Begins
It had been two weeks since Starlight Glimmer had announced the Battle City Tournament. Today was the day that the tournament began. Spike was checking his deck and sighed, "Even with the cards that Twilight's grandpa sold me, I'm not sure my deck's good enough yet... No, I just have to follow Twilight's advice... The heart of the cards. As long as I believe in that, I can still win the tournament. I just have to be confident."
When Twilight walked in to meet Spike, she told him, "That's right Spike. As long as we do our best, we'll have no regrets."
Spike smiled and nodded, picking up his deck and placing it in the slot for it in his duel disk. As Twilight and Spike went to meet up with the others, Spike wondered about what his friends' decks were like. Twilight's deck was well rounded, not focusing too much on one type. Pinkie Pie had an obsession with Toon Monsters, which were some of the hardest cards to use in a duel. Rainbow Dash's deck was full of heavy hitters, but her monsters didn't have much in the defense department. Fluttershy wasn't much of a duelist, but her beast deck could get her far in the tournament. Applejack's deck was full of monsters that were equal in defense and attack. Rarity used lots of feminine monsters, mainly her Harpy Lady cards. As for Sunset, Spike wasn't completely sure what her deck would have, since the last time he saw her duel, it was against Twilight in the Duelist Kingdom tournament.
Rainbow Dash sighed, "You know, once the tournament begins, we're rivals."
"Still, there's eight of us, and twelve spots in the finals. If we're lucky, we'll all be in the finals." Twilight tried to keep her friends in high spirits.
Spike nodded before saying, "Oh, that reminds me. I've heard there's some trouble in town lately. I've been getting used to the Millennium Collar. I can connect us together so we can trade information if we notice anything."
Twilight nodded, "That's not a bad idea Spike. If we're connected, we'll be able to talk to each other when we need to."
Spike took a deep breath and closed his eyes. He placed his hands over the eye symbol on the Millennium Collar and opened his eyes in a stern face. The spikes came out of the collar, connected by thin wires. The spikes pricked the girls on the back of the neck, and then returned to their place on the Millennium Collar. Spike didn't say anything, he just thought, "Is it working?"
The others communicated their approval of the telepathic connections, and then Rainbow Dash talked aloud. "Let's get going! I'm ready to duel!"
Another voice called out on the televised blimp in the sky, "Ok, I'm getting incredibly bored waiting for you people to get ready, so start the damn tournament already." The voice was Starlight Glimmer. It was just like her to just rush ahead and start the tournament early.
Spike started walking away saying, "Later, hope we make it to the finals together." waving his hand as he walked away. Soon enough, Spike had a duelist challenging him. Spike accepted the duelist's challenge and said, "I'll be wagering my Baby Dragon"
The duelist pulled out his own card and said, "And I'll wager my Blue-Eyes Hellfire Dragon."
The two duelists shuffled their decks and put them in their deck slots. Spike drew a card and looked at his hand. He currently had Crass Clown, Lancer Dragonute, Polymerization, Blue Medicine, and Raigeki Break. His Lancer Dragonute was his best card at this point, so he placed it in Attack Mode and laid Raigeki Break face down. "I summon Lancer Dragonute in attack mode, and lay one card face down, and I end my turn."
The other duelist drew a card, and Spike could tell by the look on his face, he didn't have a good hand. But the duelist still played his cards. "I summon Man-Eating Plant in Defense Mode!" after he played his card, he ended his turn.
Spike drew his next card and looked over his current hand. He had a Pot of Greed card he could play. He decided to go for it and play the card, "I activate Pot of Greed from my hand, allowing me to draw two more cards." he send Pot of Greed to his Graveyard and drew two more cards. One of the cards he drew was Armed Dragon Lv. 5. He could tribute his Lancer and summon it, but he decided to hold off, for now, since if he summoned monsters that were too powerful for the other duelist, he'd keep summoning defense mode monsters, keeping his Life Points safe until his deck ran out of cards. He took the other monster card he'd drawn, Evilswarm Zahak. "I summon Evilswarm Zahak in Attack mode, and my Lancer Dragonute attacks your Man-Eating Plant! And with my Lancer's special ability, even though your monster is in defense mode, you still take battle damage!"
As his Lancer Dragonute stabbed the Man-Eating Plant, the other duelist growled as his Life Points fell from 4000 to 3100. He chuckled and told Spike, "Lucky shot. It won't happen twice."
Spike smiled and said, "I should hope not, it'd be no fun if you kept placing monsters in defense mode. But that's the least of your worries. Now that your Man-Eating Plant is gone, my Evilswarm Zahak can attack your Life Points directly!"
"S-Shit!" the other duelist guarded himself against the attack, despite holograms not actually doing any real damage, but still guarded as his Life Points fell down even further, stopping at 1250. "D-Damn... you're strong, but I'm not giving up!" The duelist drew his card and smiled, "Nice! I summon "C" Shine Ranger Black in attack mode! With 2000 attack points, he overpowers you Lancer Dragonute!"
Spike winced from the light after his Lancer was destroyed after his Life Points dropped to 3500. He dusted himself off and said, "Not bad, but not good enough." he drew another card and smiled. "Well, let's see if you have a card to stand up to this. I sacrifice my Evilswarm Zahak to summon Armed Dragon Lv. 5! It's 2400 Attack points crush your Shine Ranger!" once his opponent's monster was finished off and the other duelist had only 850 Life Points, he smirked, "And I'm not done yet. As I end my turn, I send Armed Dragon Lv. 5 to the Graveyard in order to summon Armed Dragon Lv. 7 from my deck! Since I've ended my turn, Armed Dragon Lv. 7 can't attack. But next turn, it's all over."
"That won't work if I summon a monster in defense mode!"
As the duelist set down his defense mode card Spike chuckled, "I activate my trap card, Raigeki Break! By discarding one card from my hand, I can destroy your monster!" Spike sent his Blue Medicine card to the graveyard, and once it was his turn again he said, "Game over. Armed Dragon, attack his Life Points directly!"
As Armed Dragon Lv. 7 shot out holographic fire, the other duelist's Life Points fell to zero. As the holograms faded away, Spike walked up to his opponent and smiled, "It was a good duel. I enjoyed our duel, but I still win our wager."
The duelist sighed, "Yeah, it was fun, but a bet's a bet. Here, take my Blue-Eyes Hellfire Dragon."
Spike took the card politely out of the other duelist's hand and said, "Thanks. You were a decent duelist, but it looks like luck wasn't on your side. Maybe we can duel some other time."
Spike has won his first official tournament duel. But the Battle City Tournament has only just begun. Will Spike be able to continue winning and obtain the six locator cards to win a spot in the finals?
Find out in the next chapter...