My Little Pony: Dueling is Magic Chapter 1: A New World
*********************\
After saving the future from Paradox, Yusei prepares to return to his own time. But when the Crimson Dragon veers off course in the rift, Yusei finds himself in a strange new world... populated by talking equines. Yusei meets Twilight and her friends and becomes their friend as well, even teaching them how to duel. But something isn't sitting right with Yusei and he soon learns why he was brought here when an ancient enemy reappears and goes on a destructive rampage.
*********************\
The rift. The space outside of time. Yusei didn't quite know what to call where he was. But he didn't mind being there. It was a place filled with light, incredibly bright light, but he could see just fine. The Crimson Dragon flew above and ahead of him, creating a path for his D-Wheel. Yusei thought back on his last adventure, glad that he'd made new friends across time, even meeting the legendary King of Games. He smiled at how determined Yugi was to support his friends.
Jaden had impressed Yusei. Though young and a bit reckless, Jaden had heart and always looked on the bright side of things. Yusei chuckled at how excited he got when Yugi had played the Dark Magician. He must have been a big fan of Yugi's.
Yusei's thoughts drifted to Paradox. What he said... a future brought to ruin by Duel Monsters. Could that be true? Yusei wished he could have asked what happened, but he, Yugi and Jaden had destroyed Paradox before that. The man was determined to kill Pegasus, but Yusei still wished he could have saved Paradox.
Maybe I can save him, thought Yusei, if I just prevent whatever future he was talking about. But I'll do it my way, without hurting anyone.
Suddenly, the Crimson Dragon roared and turned sharply to the left. Yusei leaned over to catch the turn in the path it created, trying not to fall into the void. A new light appeared in front of him, one that was blinding. Finally, I'm coming home, he thought.
*****
"Are you sure about this, Rainbow?" asked Fluttershy. "I mean, you've only been able to do it twice before."
"Of course I'm sure!" said Rainbow Dash. She flapped her wings a few times. "This time I'm totally gonna do it! That sonic rainboom is mine!"
"O-okay, if you're sure," Fluttershy said nervously. Dash jumped into the air and began flapping her wings, gaining altitude quickly. Once she thought she was high enough, she doubled back and began her free fall, throwing one hoof out in front of her and locking her wings at her side. Dash approached the sound barrier and a trailing cone formed around her.
I'm gonna do it! she thought. I'm really gonna do it!
Dash reached the sound barrier and stopped in midair. The cone rebounded and flung her into the sky.
*****
Yusei looked around. This isn't Neo Domino City, he thought. He was in the middle of a meadow. A light breeze created ripples in the grass and rustled the leaves of a few nearby trees. "Maybe I wound up in a park?" said Yusei.
Just then, Yusei heard a noise, like someone yelling. He looked around, but saw nothing. When he looked up, he saw a multicolored something falling right at him. Yusei dove out of the way as the object flew over his D-Wheel and crashed into the ground nearby. Yusei stood up and looked over to where the thing had crashed. A cloud of dust hid it from him, but he heard a slight groaning and new that someone was there.
"Hey!" he said, rushing over to the small crater. "Hey, are you all right?"
The dust cleared and Yusei's eyes widened. Laying on her back in the small crater was a small blue pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane and tail. Her eyes were spinning in two different directions. She shook her head quickly, rolled over and stood up.
"Yeah," she said, her voice cracking slightly as she dusted her self off, "I'm okay. Geez, I can't believe I still can't do it!"
Yusei, in his confusion, was at a loss for words.
"I mean, I've done it twice already, and you'd think I'd be able to nai-yaaaah!" The pegasus had turned around and spotted Yusei. "What the hay are you?!"
"I could ask you the same thing," said Yusei. "Where am I? Is this the Duel Monsters Spirit World?"
"The what?" said the pegasus. "No, this is Equestria!"
"Equestria?" repeated Yusei.
"Yeah, you know, home to ponies everywhere, ruled by Princess Celestia," said the pegasus. "I'm not ringing any bells, am I?"
"Sorry, I'm not from around these parts," said Yusei. "I'm Yusei. I'm from Neo Domino City."
"Neo Domino City? Never heard of it," replied the pegasus. "Anyway, I'm Rainbow Dash, best flier in all of Equestria!"
"Huh. Nice to meet you, Rainbow Dash," said Yusei. "So, uh..."
"Rainbow! Are you okay?"
Yusei turned around and saw another pegasus, yellow with a pink mane, flying toward them. She spotted Yusei, squeaked, and hid behind a tree.
"Fluttershy, it's okay!" said Rainbow Dash. "Sorry about that, she's pretty shy around strangers." Fluttershy peeked out from behind the tree. "Come on out, Shy!" said the blue pegasus. "This is Yusei. He's from... uh... where again?"
"Neo Domino City," replied Yusei. He smiled at the yellow pegasus. "It's nice to meet you, Fluttershy." Fluttershy just gave a little, "Eep!" and ducked behind the tree again. Yusei chuckled.
"So, what exactly are you?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"What am I? What do you mean?" asked Yusei.
"Well, you're obviously not a pony," answered the Pegasus. "You look more like a monkey. Are you a talking monkey?"
Yusei laughed. "No, I'm not a talking monkey," he said. "I'm a human."
"Yeah, I have no idea what that is." Rainbow Dash jumped into the air and flew over to Fluttershy's tree. "Hey, Fluttershy. Do you know what a human is?"
Fluttershy poked her head out from behind the tree. "No, I don't," she said.
"Come on out, Fluttershy! I promise he's cool," said Dash. She grabbed one of Fluttershy's hooves and pulled her out.
"Um... h-hello," said Fluttershy softly. She looked behind Yusei and saw his D-Wheel. "Um... if you don't mind my asking... what's that?" she asked, pointing a hoof at the red motorcycle.
"That? That's my D-Wheel," said Yusei.
"What's it for?" asked Rainbow Dash.
"Dueling, mostly, but I also use it to get where I'm going," Yusei explained.
"Does it go fast?" asked the blue pegasus. She gave her wings a few excited flaps and rose a bit higher into the air. A mischievous twinkle appeared in her eyes.
"Yeah, it goes pretty fast," replied Yusei.
"How about a race? See that town over there? I'll race you to the big tree in the middle!" She pointed off to the distance. Yusei saw a small town with a very large tree in the center. He smiled.
"You're on, Rainbow Dash!" he said as he got back onto his D-Wheel.
"Oh, and you can call me Dash," said the pegasus. "Readysetgo!" And she took off.
Yusei smiled and revved the engine of his ride. "Talking ponies," he said to himself, "now I've seen everything."
Fluttershy just flapped her wings and said, "Go Rainbow!", almost whispering it. She chuckled and flew off after the racers.
*****
Twilight slid the book she just finished back into its place on the shelf. It was about lunch time so she decided to go to the kitchen and make a daffodil sandwich. She saw Spike coming down the stairs and heard his stomach rumble.
"Eheh... I guess it's lunchtime," said Spike.
"I was just thinking that," replied Twilight. "I'm gonna make a sandwich. Do you want me to make you something?"
"Nah, that's okay. I've still got a bunch of gems left over from the last time I helped Rarity in the mountains," Spike answered. "I'll just grab some of those out of the cabinet."
"Okay," said Twilight. As she started toward the kitchen, there was a thud against the front door, followed by a strange screeching sound. "What was that?" Twilight asked as she turned around. She heard voices outside.
"You okay, Dash?" said a male voice she didn't recognize.
"Yeah, I'm fine," came Dash's voice. "I've had worse crashes."
"Yeah, I saw one earlier." The first voice chuckled.
"Laugh all you want, but I still won the race!" said Dash as she opened the door and sauntered in. "Heya Twi," said the pegasus when she noticed her friend.
"Hi DaaaaAAAAAAA!" A tall figure on two legs walked in behind Rainbow Dash.
"You know, Dash, you DID have a head start," said the figure, "and you flew over most of those buildings. My D-Wheel can't do that- oh." Yusei noticed the unicorn staring at him. "Hello."
"Twilight, this is Yusei," said Rainbow Dash. "He's a... was it 'hoo-man'?"
"Human," Yusei corrected her. He turned back to Twilight. "I'm not exactly from around here."
"Yeah, heh heh... sorry for staring," said Twilight. "Anyway, I'm Twilight Sparkle, and this is my library."
The two-legged creature wore a strange outfit. Brown boots and black pants covered his legs while a blue coat covered a black shirt with a red design on the front. He also wore a pair of brown gloves. His knees, shoulders and elbows sported strange orange circles. He reached up and removed the red helmet he was wearing. The back layers of his hair pointed up and back, with gold highlights running along the larger spikes. His bangs hung down in his eyes, but they did not obscure them. Twilight saw that his eyes were bright blue. Beneath his left eye was a jagged, yellow mark that ran down the side of his cheek.
"Twilight, you've gotta see this guy's ride, it's so cool, and almost as fast as me!" said Dash excitedly. "Come on!"
As Dash flew outside, Yusei turned to Twilight and asked, "Is she always this excitable?"
"All the time," said Twilight, rolling her eyes. She and Yusei followed Rainbow Dash outside. A red, two-wheeled vehicle sat in front of the step. The back half above the rear wheel looked like a chair, with the head curving over where the rider would sit, and two arms coming out of the side. The front of the strange device was unlike anything Twilight had seen before.
"It's called a D-Wheel," said Yusei. "Where I come from, people use them as transportation and for dueling."
"And where exactly are you from?" asked Twilight.
"Near as I can tell, another world," Yusei answered. "Dash tells me this isn't the Duel Monsters Spirit World, but this obviously isn't my home either. Honestly, I don't know where I am."
"So, how'd you get here?" asked Twilight.
"That's kind of a long story," said Yusei.
"Well, I was about to take a break from my studies and get some lunch," said Twilight. "Why don't we go inside and get some food, and you can tell me about it?"
"That sounds like a good idea," said Yusei.
"By the way," said Twilight, "what do humans eat?"
*****
Twilight, Spike and Yusei sat at the kitchen table. Twilight munched on her daffodil sandwich while Spike popped little gems into his mouth. Yusei quietly munched on an apple. Rainbow Dash had already left because it was almost time for her shift on the weather team to start. Some rogue clouds had formed over the Everfree Forest and were drifting towards Ponyville.
"So, how'd you get here?" asked Twilight.
Yusei looked down at his apple. “I should probably start with how I got where I was before I came here,” he said. “I'd gone out riding with a couple of my friends when a man on a huge D-Wheel came up behind us and challenged us to a duel. I decided to take him on myself, but when I did... he stole my best card and then took off with it. A little later, I found out that he was using my card in a time period when it didn't even exist, and he was doing a lot of damage with it.
“That man's actions started to destroy my time period because he was changing the past. With the Crimson Dragon's help, I followed him back in time.”
“I'm sorry to interrupt,” said Twilight, “but what's the Crimson Dragon?”
“I'm not really sure myself,” said Yusei. “I've heard it said that it's an ancient god. Personally, I think it's just something that's looking out for us. It shows up every 5000 years to battle against wicked gods called the Earthbound Immortals. When it does, it marks five humans like me as Signers.” Yusei removed his right glove and pulled back the sleeve of his jacket. A mark resembling a dragon's head was branded on his arm.
“Cool!” said Spike. “Hey, you think I could meet this Crimson Dragon?”
“The Crimson Dragon's not really a talker, Spike,” said Yusei.
“Oh...” said Spike, disappointed. He grabbed an emerald and popped it into his mouth.
“That's sort of like a Cutie mark,” said Twilight.
“Cutie what?” asked Yusei.
“It's these marks that appear on our flanks,” said Twilight. “Everypony gets one. It represents our special talent, the one thing we can do best. Mine represents my ability to use magic better than anypony else!”
“I see,” said Yusei.
“So, what happened next?” asked Twilight.
“Well, when I got to where that man was, I saw him using my card to attack somebody else,” Yusei continued. “The Crimson Dragon blocked the attack and the man fled.
“The person he was attacking was Jaden Yuki. He could apparently communicate with Duel Monsters spirits, so that man wanted him out of the way.”
“Duel Monsters spirits?” asked Twilight.
“Right, I guess I should explain that too,” said Yusei. “In my world, we play a game called Duel Monsters. The card game itself is fairly recent, only about twenty years old or so, but Duel Monsters seems to have existed for a lot longer than that. There's really no telling how old the game is. But one thing's for certain: The spirits of the cards live in their own world.”
“Wow,” said Twilight. “What a strange place you come from.”
“I guess. Anyway, Jaden and I looked at some old news articles and found out where the man was going to strike next, so we followed him further back in time. You see, he was planning to kill the man who created the Duel Monsters card game, Maximillion Pegasus.”
“Oh no!” said Twilight. “That's horrible!”
“Yeah, it is,” said Yusei. “And he succeeded, in a sense. Jaden and I got there just after he used some of the other cards he stole to destroy the part of the city where Pegasus was. We found someone else there and took him back to before it all happened.
“The person we found was a- no, the legendary Duelist, Yugi Muto, the King of Games. He was the best there ever was. We asked for his help in stopping that man's plot and he agreed.
“When the man finally showed up, he called himself Paradox and told us why he wanted to kill Pegasus: He said that Duel Monsters had destroyed the world in the future that he came from, and that he was trying to prevent that future from happening by destroying Duel Monsters.”
“Was it true?” asked Twilight.
“I don't know,” said Yusei. “I don't know if he was telling the truth or not. He might have been. Even if he was, though, a future that's gained by sacrificing someone else isn't right!”
Twilight's ears lowered. She felt a pang of guilt, but she didn't know why.
“Well, the three of us challenged Paradox to a duel,” Yusei continued. “We beat him, but just barely. Yugi got my card back for me too, and we managed to save the future. After dropping Jaden off in his own time period, I was following the Crimson Dragon home when it changed directions and brought me here.”
“Wow,” said Twilight. “That's quite a story. And I'm glad you managed to save your future. But I can't help but wonder-”
“Twilight!” came a voice from the front of the library. “You in here?”
“In the kitchen, Pinkie!” called Twilight. “Come on back!”
A pink pony with a curly mane hopped into the room. She had no wings or horn that Yusei could see, but she was talking a mile a minute. “Hi Twilight! I just wanted to let you know I came up with a super-delicious new chocolate cupcake recipe and you should come to Sugarcube Corner and try one before they're all sold out and they're really good so I thought that I should come tell you about them, but when I came over there was a big red thing on two wheels sitting outside your door and I tried to figure out what it was, but I gave up and came inside so I could ask you about it and hey, who's this?”
“Oh, this is Yusei,” said Twilight. “The red thing outside is his D-Wheel. Yusei rides it to go long distances.”
“Oh, that's neat!” said the pink pony. “Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie!”
“Yusei.”
“Oh! You know what would we should do since you're new in town?” said Pinkie. “We should throw a welcoming party! I'll go get it set up!” And with that, she dashed out of the room.
“What just happened?” Yusei asked Twilight.
“Oh, that's just Pinkie Pie,” Twilight answered. “She throws a party for everypony that's new in town. Actually, she throws parties for just about every occasion she can think of. It's her special talent, after all. You saw the balloons, right?”
“I'm not sure what I saw,” said Yusei. He smiled. “Just a lot of pink. She was bouncing around a lot.”
Twilight chuckled. “Yeah, she's like that. But she's a great pony to have around, and she loves to make ponies happy.”
“She definitely got me to smile,” said Yusei.
“We should probably head over to Sugarcube Corner,” said Twilight. “Pinkie can get a party set up in a matter of minutes. I don't know how she does it, but there you go. Do you want to come, Spike?”
“Sure!” he said. “Rarity might be there!”
“She's always at Pinkie Pie's parties, Spike,” said Twilight. She turned to Yusei. “Come on, I'll show you around town while we're out.”