//------------------------------//
// Duel 18: Gold's Trial 
// Story: Yu-Gi-Oh! Friendship is Dueling 7: The Malefic Menace 
// by Bahamut0 
//------------------------------//

	"Why does this feel so familiar?", Gold said as he observed where the door had led to. It was pure darkness save for a small white window. "Well, at least there's something to interact with here. Might as well see what it does." Gold walked up to the window, and an image started to materialized. "What...?" Gold was caught off-guard, but his eyes adjusted. But once he could see, Gold was looking at a sight he thought he'd never see again. It was his family. His family back in Equestria. Gold had a small smile as he watched the earlier years of his life. Those were some of the happiest days of his life. Back when he still had a place to call home in Equestria, and people who he could call his family. But Gold's smile soon faded as the window into his life moved on. To the darkest part of his life. When the happy world he once knew came crashing down around him. "This is a moment I never wanted to see again. Not this." The window showed the day Gold had lost his parents. "That was the worst day of my life.", Gold said with a frown. In the window, Gold's past self was weeping. "I swore from that day I'd never cry. But remembering this still tears at my heart..." Suddenly, the floor beneath Gold began to ripple. And Gold slowly descended. The window then moved on to another scene of Gold's life. It was when he was looking around for a place to call home. "Because I was different, no one chose to accept me. No matter how nice I was." The rippling darkness below Gold seemed to suck him in deeper. "From then on...I swore I'd never let anyone see me hurt that much. No one would see how much being alone crushed my spirit. So I just hid it away." Gold was now down to his knees in the darkness that was sucking him in.

"I've been able to hide my insecurity of being alone so well, no one's been able to see it." Gold then thought of Pegasus and Sunset. "Not even the people who gave me a new life. It's only now that all the pressure's really hitting me." Gold then looked down from the window, and saw that his body was being swallowed up! The floor seemed to be slowly dragging him down! Gold panicked and tried to get loose! But the more he struggled, the more the floor dragged him down! His struggling only seemed to make it worse! The floor kept slowly dragging him down! Gold then came to a realization. "So that's why I saw all those moments in that window. It was meant so that despair could drag me down.", Gold said as his head drooped and he closed his eyes. "That window purposefully showed me the worst moments of my life..." Gold's eyes then shot open! "But despite all that, I found what I was looking for!" Gold's eyes turned dragonic as crystals began to slowly form on his back! "Maybe I had some dark moments....but that's when the light shone the brightest! I fell so I could rise to the occasion!" Gold tore his arms free of the darkness that was dragging him down! "I woke up someplace new, and I found a new family! But most important...." Gold's mind flashed to Sunset. "I found someone to love!" Gold then sprouted crimson crystal wings! "I'M NOT ALONE ANYMORE!" Gold broke free with a strong flap of his wings, and flew towards the window! Gold smashed his way through the window! And when he broke through, Gold found himself sitting in a pure white area with a warp at the center of the room. "Maybe once all this is over, I can tell Sunset about all that hidden sadness. Because if I'm truly not alone, then I shouldn't be afraid to tell her that I'm scared." Gold stepped onto the warp with a small smile as he closed his eyes, and opened them to find himself back in the main hall. "We're halfway there."