The alarm on Yurik’s phone slowly woke Yurik, still exhausted from the previous night’s events. His sore muscles only served to remind him of the reality of it all, dashing any chances that it was nothing more than a carefully constructed dream. Yurik turned his body out of bed and walked to his phone beside his deck. Going onto Safari, he went to the Blast Fitness website and looked up the schedule for the day, only to be greeted with a single message where the list of classes were supposed to be.
All classes on Saturday, May 17th are cancelled due to… unexpected events.
Yurik sighed despondently, with nothing else to do, and knowing he wouldn’t get back to sleep, walked to his dresser. Opening the drawers and rummaging through the contents, he pulled out a pair of black gym shorts and his light-grey school gym shirt. Looking back onto his phone, he went to the website for his bank, putting in his username and password. Yurik nodded to see that his account had amounted to just under a hundred dollars.
$92.41.
Not a penny out of place, Yurik thought.
Grabbing a single-strap backpack and stuffing his phone, wallet from the dresser, and a ring of only a couple of keys, he slung the backpack over his shoulder and walked out of his bedroom. Before he could turn towards the stairwell to the first floor, he looked up at the attic entrance, sealed up and keeping its great secret hidden. Yurik smiled, reaching up on the ends of his toes and giving the doorway a gentle scratch.
“Sweet dreams,” Yurik whispered.
Feeling better with himself, he gently strode through the halls and down the stairway to his destination.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
The Faber house’s garage door opened, emerging from it on a black bicycle was Yurik, his left hand on his handlebar, the right holding a garage door opening remote. As he and his bike left the driveway, Yurik pressed it’s button once again, allowing it to close behind him as he rode off the driveway and onto the street.
As Yurik began to hook the remote onto the strap of his backpack by the metal clamp that was screwed onto the back, a young woman emerged from the front door of Alice’s house. Sure enough, Alice ran to catch up with Yurik’s bike, wearing a grey tank-top and grey sweatpants.
“Hey!” Alice panted as he slowed himself to a comfortable jogging pace for Alice. “You’re up and about. Good for you. Kieran would like this.”
“I’m normally up by this time anyway,” Yurik told her. “Zumba class usually starts in about a half hour, but the classes all got cancelled, so I’m out running to the store.”
“Really? What for?”
“I need to feed Twilight some form of breakfast when she wakes up. I know she’s from another world, but I don’t see how I can go wrong with apples or carrots.”
“You should ask her this when she does wake up.”
“Hopefully, it’s nothing I can’t get here on Earth, or nothing I can’t afford. I mean, canceling my class doesn’t help me any in that regard.”
“That’s right, speaking of…” she suddenly exclaimed, pulling her shirt partially up to reveal an envelope wrapped by the waistband of her sweatpants.
Alice slid the parcel from her pants and handed it to Yurik.
“What’s this for?” he asked.
“It’s from Kieran!” she answered. “He thought he should still contribute to her well-being. There’s one for each of you! See ya’!”
Nearly without any warning, Alice turned left at a four-way intersection making Yurik break hard as he was about to speed past the stop sign. Stopping only half a foot above the line, Yurik looked right, then left, watching Alice continue her jog down the other street. Not a car was nearby the intersection, allowing Yurik to take the time to observe the envelope and its contents.
Yurik pulled three pieces of paper from the envelope. The first was a business card with nothing but a phone number printed inside of it. The other two items were identical paper checks, one written out to Yurik Clayer and Walt Faber from a Ms. Stella Carmichael, each in the amount of 2,000 dollars.
Yurik felt something block his breathing as he carefully examined the numbers, commas, and the decimals on each check clearly. Realizing that this wasn’t a joke, he felt frozen in place at the intersection, completely unaware of–”
*BEEEE*
A Nissan Xterra was directly behind Yurik, its driver angrily blaring his horn at Yurik’s clumsiness. Yurik immediately hopped onto his bicycle with a tremendous start, spinning the pedals as fast as his feet and the gear he was set on would allow.
“Sorry!” he shouted with a flustered, embarrassed blush on his face and a weak backhanded wave. “Sorry, sorry!”
Yurik continued straight down the street, heading towards the next street he would need to turn on to get to the market.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Yurik stepped inside his house from the side-garage door, pulling out a Jewel bag filled with farmstand bags of Fuji apples and carrots. The sound of sausage sizzling in a pan wafted through the floor of the house, and feet could be heard stepping around inside of it. Before Yurik could enter the kitchen, Evey had stepped out from inside the foyer, overjoyed to see Yurik inside the house at this time.
“Yury!” she cheered. “I thought you had class today.”
“Me too, Evey,” Yurik answered with equal enthusiasm, stepping inside the kitchen with Evey following him in, “but then all the classes got cancelled because of that planet that appeared up there last night.”
“Yeah! I heard that big white alicorn will grant the wish of whomever finds those other ponies from up there! One of them even crashed around here somewhere! What if we find it?”
“Evey,” scolded her mother, turning away from the stove, “we are not bringing one of those aliens into our house, I don’t care how peaceful they are!”
“But suppose one was lying at our doorstep begging for our help,” Yurik prodded, placing his bags of food on the counter. “Would you turn her down then?”
“I would stay by her side until the police could handle it.”
Yurik instinctively looked around for Walt, knowing a ruckus would be caused by such an answer.
“Say,” Yurik asked as innocently and coyly as possible, “where’s Walt?”
“He’s upstairs editing the musical. He’ll be down for breakfast,” she responded with a more genuine smile. “I know how rare it is that we’re all here for breakfast.”
It was at this time that Walt and Evey’s mother noticed the apples and carrots on the counter across from the oven.
“Yurik,” she wondered, “you’re not doing what I think you’re doing with those, are you?”
“What?” Yurik asked, keeping up his oblivious façade. “I wanted to put some apples in the pancake batter and I thought we were out of carrots.”
“Are you going to try and catch one of those ponies?” asked Evey, louder than what Yurik was expecting.
“No, Evey,” Yurik chided, feeling a cold sweat on his brow and a nervous smile on his face, “this is just a big coincidence.”
Evey’s mom sighed with exhaustion. Between staying up and watching the shocking news the previous night and not getting nearly enough sleep as a result, the last thing she wanted was a heated argument about Yurik’s supposed fib.
“Give me one,” she demanded passively. “Go tell Walt the sausage is almost ready.”
“‘Kay then,” Yurik responded, sneaking a ripe apple as well as Alice’s envelope into his grasp. “You can make my pancake last. I think I dropped something in the attic last night and I need to find it.”
“Already planned on it,” she responded, as if this wasn’t news to her.
Yurik ran up the stairs with his apple concealed behind the opposite side of his body facing the kitchen. Walking up to the attic entrance, he pulled the string and the stairs down, flipping the bottom set down to the floor. Before he ascended, he knocked on Walt’s door and slid his check underneath the door.
“Breakfast is almost ready,” he warned him.
Yurik climbed up the stairs, Walt barely running into the attic steps as he stepped outside his room with the check in his grasp.
“Yurik!” he shouted up. “Be careful!”
Walt then looked down at the check he had received and saw the amount written on it. Walt immediately tensed up, unsure what the meaning or the origin of this small, but significant, windfall.
Between the noises down below and Walt’s yelling, Twilight slogged her head up to see Yurik coming at her with an apple in his hand. Recognizing the fruit, she used all of her strength to appear perky and thankful for the breakfast she would receive.
“Is that for me?” she asked him.
“Yeah,” Yurik responded guiltily. “I know you speak the same language as us and all, but I wasn’t sure what you kind of ponies ate, so I took a shot in the dark with an apple.”
“Oh,” she said, already lifting it up towards her mouth. “Thank you.”
Twilight sniffed the air as she chewed her food and tested the flavor of the apple. Immediately, something felt off about the smell.
“Is that meat you’re cooking?” asked Twilight.
“Yeah,” Yurik responded. “We humans are omnivorous, but we can’t consume raw meat, so we need to cook it in order for it to be edible.”
Twilight looked at Yurik with an unsure and skeptical look on her face.
“I mean,” Yurik said, feeling offensive, “we don’t eat ponies, so…”
“I wasn’t worried about that,” she said. “In all honesty, we’re a little omnivorous too. We drink milk, consume eggs, and some pegasi I’ve heard of have fish in their diets.”
“Really?” asked Yurik as she continued eating the apple.
“But I was just kind of bewildered is all; that a race as intelligent and advanced as yours needs their meats cooked before consumption.”
“Yeah, I think you’ll be getting to know us a lot more during your time here,” Yurik said with a slight chuckle. “Speaking of, I have some errands to run today, and mom’s going shopping a little later this morning while Evey, my sister, is doing her dance class. You should be able to–”
“Wait,” Twilight interrupted, “your last name is Clayer right? I heard it on from that device on your arm last night. And Walt’s last name was different. That means…”
“Yurik!” shouted Walt from the foot of the attic stairs.
“Listen,” Yurik quickly spoke to Twilight, “Walt will still be here while we’re gone, so you can check out the house for a bit before we come back. I need to see what Walt wants real quick.”
Yurik stood back up and ran back down the stairs to the house, leaving Twilight to come to a conclusion that seemed to trouble her the more she thought about it. In the hallway, Yurik met a flustered and confused Walt, who held his check up to Yurik as the only statement he needed.
“Yeah,” Yurik explained quietly. “Alice gave one to each of us; two-thousand each. They were from Kieran to help us with taking care of Twilight.”
“And how are we supposed to explain to mom that we somehow became two-thousand dollars richer once she sees our accounts?” hissed Walt.
“I’ll have to call Kieran about that. I think she also gave me his phone number.”
“Neither of us are depositing anything until we come up with a cover story. I mean, who’s this Stella Carmichael broad?”
“Again, I have Kieran’s number. I’m sure he has a plan for it.”
“Then get to it.”
“Walt!” shouted his mother. “Yurik! Breakfast!”
Yurik and Walt looked back at each other with slight determination.
“Settle this after breakfast,” ordered Walt as the two of them made their way to the stairs.
“I’m going out a little later. I can do it in private then.”
“Even better,” he said, still sounding nonplussed.
From up in the attic, Twilight, seeing the attic door still down, flipped the stairs back over with her magic and lifted the door up, closing it and concealing herself.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Yurik exited his garage in his casual attire and backpack on his bike, the back of his waist-tied hoodie underneath his rump on the seat as it rode off down the street. Promptly after Yurik and his bike, a Kia Forte sedan next to Walt’s motorcycle backed out from the garage, following the same path that Yurik traveled on. Walt stood at the living room window, watching as everyone left to do their business for the day.
With both vehicles out of sight, Walt jogged up to the stairs, climbed up them, and went through the hallway, hopping up and pulling the string to the attic door, swinging around it and flipping the bottom steps down.
“The coast is clear Twilight!” Walt called up.
Immediately, the clip-clopping sound of hooves traveled towards the stairs, where Twilight eagerly trotted down the stairs, much to Walt’s surprise. Twilight took a breath and gleeful sigh as she looked about the halls and their very comforting sky-blue color.
“Wow, Walt,” Twilight complimented, “your house looks very nice.”
“Thanks,” Walt said. “And you… go down the stairs very well.”
Twilight giggled at the awkward compliment.
“It’s as if you think we don’t have stairs in Equestria,” she joked, already heading down the hall to see the rest of the house.
“If you want,” yelled back Walt, “I’ll let you tool around on my iPad when you’re done.”
“That sounds great, Walt. I’ll see you in a bit.”
Finally, Twilight disappeared at the end of the hallway, going off on her own. Walt stood purposelessly in the halls before he realized he was still standing in his spot. Leaving the attic stairs open, Walt went back inside his room to continue his work.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Standing beside his bike in a vacant Red Lobster parking lot, Yurik looked around him as he dialed the numbers from Alice’s envelope, which he held with a vicious pinch. As he put the phone to his ear, he stuffed the note into his back pocket, listening in for the dial tone. After only a single ring, the connection had been made.
“Where are you?” Kieran’s voice asked.
“You knew it was me–” he began to ask.
“Where are you?”
“I’m standing right next to a cop, alright!”
“Don’t make me ask you again.”
“I’m at a Red Lobster, and it’s not open yet, so no one’s around. Don’t worry, I’m not stupid.”
“I know you’re not, just don’t act like it. Either way, what did you need me for?”
“You… well, Alice gave Walt and I two checks for two-grand. Not that I don’t appreciate it and all, our mom checks into our bank accounts every day. I just want to know what story we should tell her and who this Stella person is who supposedly ‘wrote’ these checks for us.”
“Like you said, you’re not stupid. I’m sure whatever story you tell her will clear up. Do you have any ideas?”
Pulling the phone from his ear, Yurik breathed out with a sense of frustration, but then put the phone back to answer him.
“I was thinking about it being a graduation present from Alice’s ‘godparent,’” he replied with a shrug. “And… she gave Alice some money and she wanted to support us too. I don’t think Alice has a godparent, so I think it won’t be too suspicious”
Silence went on the other line.
“Hello?”
“I was merely thinking about it,” Kieran said. “My apologies. And no, Alice has no real godparents. Just be sure to let her in on the story and everything will be alright.”
“Thanks. And there was one more thing.”
“Yes?”
“What plans have been made for Twilight and dueling? I mean, she might be able to use a duel disk with her magic, but I just wanted to know: Is there going to be a duel disk for her that she can use properly?”
“As a matter of fact, a duel disk is being created and modified for each pony that was shown on last night’s newscast, including a miniature for that dragon.”
“And decks?”
“We thought it would be best if we let them choose upon bringing them along with us when we find them. However, one is at your home right now, so you and Walt have a perfect opportunity to find the right deck for her.”
“I see… either way, that’s all I needed. I’ll let you go now.”
“Very well.”
“Thanks for–”
With a click on the other line, the connection had ended. Yurik pulled his phone away and looked at the screen as if offended by the text that simply read, “Call Ended.” Shaking his head in dismissal, Yurik rode from the Red Lobster parking lot and west of it, monitoring the traffic on the intersecting street ahead.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Walt leaned intently into the screen of his Macbook Pro, editing the footage from Cabaret on Premiere Pro. As he clicked, dragged, and cut footage on the timeline, the only thing about him that seemed to move at all was his breathing chest and his blinking eyes. A pair of Bose headphones on his head seemed to all but erase the world around him. Even as Twilight walked into his room, he didn’t mind her at all.
“Walt,” she began to say, “your house is wonder…”
Her voice mumbled off as she realized Walt wasn’t listening to her, yet alone hearing her. Twilight used the silence to look about the room, which was covered all over with film posters, many of which appeared slightly abstract and abnormal. Having seen enough, Twilight turned back to Walt.
“Walt?” she asked again.
Still, no answer. With a disrespected frown, Twilight pulled the left headphone off his ear, making Walt jump in fright, spinning in his office chair to see Twilight standing before him with an equally shocked expression.
“Sorry,” Twilight began, rubbing the back of her head with her hoof, “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“A simple tap on my chair would have been sufficient,” Walt panted.
“Like I said, I’m sorry. I just wanted to say that your house is wonderful.”
“Oh. Thank you. I too am sorry that you’re only confined to one room of it, and it happens to be one of the dirtiest.”
“I don’t mind, actually. I’m just enjoying your and Yurik’s company more than I dislike my accommodations.”
Twilight then peered over to Walt’s computer screen, transfixed and amazed by his technology.
“What is that?” she asked, walking over to it. “It’s just like those things we saw Princess Celestia on last night.”
“Those were televisions,” Walt explained. “This is a computer, and they’re more like the duel disks that Yurik and I use.”
“What do you use these for, then?”
“The better question is,” Walt said, “what aren’t they used for? You can use them to browse the internet, create documents, listen to music, watch movies, or even what I’m doing, editing them.”
Walt scrubbed the playhead over the timeline of his editing software, mystifying Twilight with what she was seeing. However, she noticed a familiar person on the preview on the upper right hand corner of the screen.
“Wait!” Twilight asked. “Stop! Who’s that guy in the suit?”
“Who?” Walt asked with a sly smile. “Him?”
Walt posed on a perfectly creepy still of Yurik dressed and painted in his Emcee costume and makeup, producing a wide, open mouthed smile as he danced with two women in traditional German dresses and blonde pigtails.
“Is that…” she gasped.
“Uhuh,” Walt said with a devilish nod.
However, Twilight seemed to find Yurik’s flamboyant appearance rather uplifting and funny, as told by her ever growing smile.
“Yurik performs in musicals?” she asked.
“Uh, yeah,” Walt said, feeling disappointed at his short-lived reveling. “But, uh, me and my friends shot all of this.”
“And you’re filmmaker?”
“Yeah,” he responded with higher confidence. “I’m just busy right now editing all of our stuff from last night’s performance. Sorry, if I’m not much of an entertainer.”
“That’s quite alright. I understand how fun a job can be if you’re having fun with it. Besides, what I wanted to do right now is to learn Duel Monsters.”
Walt suddenly grew a confused and off put expression.
“Huh?” he questioned. “How can you do that? You don’t even have a duel disk or even a deck yet.”
“I thought that maybe I can learn using Yurik’s deck and play you. You know, just without the holograms, hehe…”
Walt sighed. By the beaming grin on Twilight’s face, she looked ready to learn with a tremendous eagerness, she was going to learn how to play one way or another.
“Listen,” Walt said, walking over to his desk where an iPad with a narrower screen was charging on a chord, which Walt detached, “you can tool around with this for a while.”
He also grabbed a stylus with a soft rubber ending, handing both over to Twilight.
“I have the full Duel Monsters Rulebook and Guidelines on here,” Walt said. “You can read that while I work.”
“Wait a minute,” Twilight wondered, dumbfounded again. “You can read books on these?”
“It’s more convenient than reading them on a laptop computer like mine, but yeah–”
Walt felt the tablet being snatched from his hands, already floating in Twilight’s grasp.
“Eee!” she squealed with delight. “I promise I won’t hurt it.”
“Just don’t try folding it like a book,” he instructed gravely. “Swipe the stylus across the screen when you want to go to the next page.”
“Thanks, Walt,” she said, hopping onto his bed and setting herself down. “I think I can handle it from here.”
Twilight began to swipe and tap the stylus over the iPad’s display, nearly seamlessly navigating herself to the Duel Monsters rulebook as if she had owned it herself. Walt, seeing that she was where she needed to be, set himself back to his desk.
“And if you can’t,” Walt sighed under his breath, “the Guardiaboliques owe me a new iPad.”
Walt clamped his headphones over his ears and reached for his mouse, resuming his previous job while Twilight preoccupied herself with hers.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Yurik rode his bike from the parking lot of a long strip mall with only a couple of fast-food restaurants surrounding it. Yurik looked up at the various signs and titles of the stores and the contents inside through the windows. Upon seeing the sign he was looking for, reading “Card Comp,” he braked his bike to a stop beside a handicapped parking sign, dismounting it, spinning the bike around, leaned it onto his kickstand, and locked the bike around the sign.
As he walked up to the store, his phone rang. Stopping as he pulled his phone from his pocket, he looked on the caller ID to see it was Walt. Smirking, Yurik tapped the green phone icon on the display and put the phone to his ear.
“I’m at Card Comp now,” Yurik spoke, sidling the window of the shop. “Also, I called up Alice, and she agreed to vouch for my story.”
“Wait…” Walt asked. “What story?”
“About our checks. That Stella woman is going to be a godparent of Alice’s, and those checks are graduation presents that she gave us too.”
“Jesus,” Walt hissed. “Do you really think that’s going to hold up with mom?”
“As long as Alice plays along like I know she will, it should.”
“Yurik… Could we at least have talked about this together before we settled on something?”
“I called Kieran to ask how we were supposed to explain his checks, and he told me to come up with an answer. That’s the first thing that came to my mind and…” Yurik tossed his arm up in an exasperated fashion, “…he thought it was solid. I guess I got a little carried away and told Alice right afterwards. I’m sorry.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________
“Whatever, man,” Walt said, sitting at the desk in his room while leaning back on the chair. “I guess that’s our story and we’re sticking to it. But you’re going to have to explain this to mom if she starts getting suspicious.”
“I know,” Yurik said on the other line. “I wouldn’t throw you under the bus like that.”
Behind Walt on his bed, Twilight continued to skim through Walt’s iPad, practically addicted to the new piece of technology. Suddenly realizing Walt was on the phone with Yurik, she perked her head up.
“Is that Yurik?” she asked. “I want to talk to him too!”
Before Walt could respond to Yurik’s assuring words, the phone was torn from Walt’s hand and flew towards the side of Twilight’s face, the receiver held to Twilight’s ear.
“Yurik!” she said. “I’m talking to you from this device! Isn’t that great?”
“Twilight,” Yurik said to her, “it’s a bit hard to hear you. I think you might have the phone upside down.”
“Really?”
Twilight spun the phone about so that the receiver was now at her mouth and right-side up.
“Better?” she asked.
“Much,” Yurik said, the louder noise proving to shock Twilight as her head jerked away from the phone with a twitching ear. “Anyways, I was just going to ask what Walt wanted.”
“Here, I can tell you!”
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Yurik listened in on Twilight’s words as she told him, carefully listening for any others around him.
“Walt let me read the rules on that Duel Monsters game you guys play,” she said, “and I just skimmed over the bits I learned or figured out on my own from last night, and I just finished the rules a couple of minutes ago. I was just asking that now that I know how to play the game, can I borrow your deck and play with Walt?”
Yurik was unable to finish the last sentence Twilight had spoken, heavily impressed by her supposed learning ability.
“Yurik?”
“I’m sorry,” he responded. “Did you say you read the entire rulebook?”
“Yeah! And I wanted to borrow your deck so I can play Walt.”
“Wow… okay. Actually, here’s what you can do. Go onto Safari, that’s the icon of a blue compass with a white arrow, and go onto cardcomp.com searching for decks. I’m actually at one right now, and I needed to pick up some things there, and while I was there, I thought I could look at some possible decks for you to own.”
“Really? You’d do that for me?”
“Yeah, sure. You should be learning to play with your own deck as opposed to using someone else’s. You’re going to want to look up the available decks at the Naperville location, because that’s where I am now. I’m sure Walt can help you.”
_________________________________________________________________________________________
“Alright,” Twilight chirped. “Then that’s what I’ll do! I’ll see you when I get home, Yurik!”
Twilight giggled as she lobbed Walt’s phone to him, who nervously managed to catch it with both hands. Sighing with relief, Walt put the phone back to his ear.
“Quite the character, she is,” Walt said.
“I’m sure you’d be too if you were on a relatively peaceful alien world with new technology,” replied Yurik.
“Fair enough, I guess…”
_________________________________________________________________________________________
“Twilight might need some help while I’m picking up our cards. Can you please take a break for a bit and help Twilight out. I owe you big time for doing this for me.”
“Yurik,” Walt chided, “you don’t have to worry about jack. Just have a good time in there.”
“Call me when you find something.”
“Of course. See ya’.”
Yurik heard the phone click off, allowing him to put the phone back into his pocket and walk into the store without fear of revealing himself or Walt to any nosy passersby.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
A cashier handed Yurik two paper sleeves of cards that read “Clayer, Yurik” and “Faber, Walt,” along with a serial number upon them. Yurik gave a nod to the cashier as he slipped the cards behind him into his backpack, heading for the front aisle of shelves where decks were stored.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Roughly half an hour had passed as Yurik continued to browse the shelves of cards inside the store, making mental notes of each one that seemed moderately suitable for someone like Twilight, ignoring the ones that appeared completely incompatible.
As he wandered the store to find another shelf, his phone had rung again, the caller ID identifying the caller as Walt once Yurik looked at the screen. Pressing the green icon again, he put the phone to his head.
“Yes?” he asked.
“We found three potential decks,” Walt said. “One of them honestly looked pretty good, but it’s expensive.”
“Yeah? And what’s that?”
“It’s this new Mechjic deck.”
“Right,” Yurik said, looking at a display featuring a trio of gold armored android-like magicians and wizards in robing of a cybernetic design. “This looks to be deck they really want to push. What were the other two?”
“One was called Maganimal.”
“Yeah, I saw that one on the shelves. The effects are okay, but the monsters look really tacky.”
“And the other one was a Crystic deck.”
“Hmm… I didn’t see that one. Perhaps someone already bought it.”
“Then I guess you’re going to have to choose between the expensive good deck and the tacky-looking inexpensive deck. Did you make up your mind?”
Yurik looked up at the display for the Mechjic deck, seeing a large text display for the price reading, “Only $79.99!” Yurik cringed a bit, then looked to the shelf where the Maganimal deck would be. Yurik stared at the shelf for a while before he heard Walt’s voice.
“Hello?”
“Yeah, yeah,” Yurik sighed, heading to the counter, “I’ve made up my mind. I’m coming home right after.”
“‘Kay then.”
Walt hung up the phone, allowing Yurik to conduct his business with an available clerk whose attention was caught.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Twilight stood on her hind legs inside the attic, her front hooves on the sill of the closed window as she stared cautiously at Walt and Evey playing together in the front yard as their mother watched them from the driveway. Twilight seemed to heavily enjoy watch the two of them frolic and laugh, even if she couldn’t join them herself. As feelings of nostalgia crept into her heart, imagining the laughter of her missing friends from Equestria, she began to feel lonely and afraid once again, beginning sulking underneath the window.
“Yury’s home!” cheered Evey’s muffled voice through the window.
Suddenly, Twilight shot up to the window to see Yurik and his bike riding up to the house on the street and turn into the driveway, Walt’s mother stepping aside for him to ride in. Twilight stepped away from the window and to the side of the attic doorway, barely refraining from hopping up and down on her front hooves.
As she heard the sound of shoes walking up from the stairs and to the hallway beneath her, she felt her front hooves run in place, too eager to see the deck she had received. Finally, the door to the attic was lowered along with the bottom steps, allowing Yurik to jog up them in twos, quickly meeting the excited Twilight circling him like a dog greeting its owner.
“Yurik!” she said. “I want to see! I want to see what deck you got me.”
“Well,” Yurik said, almost as if disappointed in himself as he reached into his bag, “I got you what I could. I still hope you like it.”
Twilight herself looked a bit disheartened as Yurik pulled out a taped-shut plastic case with a deck inside. Nonetheless, Twilight kept up her appreciative smile.
“That’s quite alright,” Twilight said, taking the box from Yurik’s hand and removing the tape. “I’m sure whatever you got me will be just…”
Twilight couldn’t finish her statement as she removed the cards from the opened box and read them, most of the card titles reading “Mechjic” on them. She jerked her head up to Yurik with an astonished look on her face. Yurik merely shrugged, as if his gift were merely nothing. Twilight squealed, nearly dropping her new deck and ran over to give Yurik a hug.
“Thank you so much, Yurik!” she exclaimed. “I can’t wait to use these!”
“Shh,” Yurik hissed, kneeling down to Twilight’s level. “You still have two people in this house that can’t know you exist yet.”
“Oh, right…” she nervously billowed out, “sorry.”
Twilight, much calmer than before, gave Yurik another thankful hug, which Yurik was happy to return.
“I’m certain you’ll help save your friends with a deck like that,” Yurik said, rubbing her back.
Suddenly, Yurik’s phone began to go off, slightly confusing him. Looking at his caller ID, he recognized the number as Kieran’s from the number. Patting Twilight off of him, he stepped away from her and answered the call.
“You’re safe?” Kieran asked.
“I’m in my attic with Twilight,” Yurik responded. “Also, I got her a deck that she seems to like.”
“That’s good to hear. What is your and Walt’s schedules this weekend?”
“Well, I was planning on going to tonight’s performance of Cabaret at school while Walt films.”
“I see. What about tomorrow?”
“I actually perform that night and Walt is helping with streaming that performance online.”
“So, it seems Sunday is out of the question. Is there any way you could find a way out of going tonight?”
“What are you asking me?” Yurik asked, walking further into the attic away from Twilight.
“I want to test you all in action duels, including Twilight. If you say she has a deck, I want her to test out her duel disk. The sooner we can get this done, the easier it will be for all of us to find her friends. I also want to explain our progress on our search, and I cannot do this over the phone.”
Yurik, hearing about the prospect of participating in an action duel, put his free hand over his open mouth and jumped up giddily, trying to get his excitement out of his system, much to the very perplexed. Once he finally com
“Well, I don’t think Walt and I can just bail without a good reason to that we can really back up.”
“That’s alright. I’ll contact Alice. I know a reason she can give.”
“Really? You think she can do it?”
“I know she can. Just be sure to let anyone else you know about it when Alice tells you and Walt.”
“What is it?”
“You’ll just have to find out. She’ll plan everything out. I’ll see you then.”
With a click on the other line, Kieran ended the call. From behind, Twilight approached him, her head cocked in uncertainty.
“Yurik,” she asked him. “What’s going on?”
“I think we’re heading back to the headquarters,” he responded. “Just read over your deck and be ready when we need to leave.”
Yurik walked over to the stairs and walked down them calmly, leaving Twilight alone with her deck. Taking Yurik’s words to heart, she walked over towards her mattress with her deck as Yurik shut the attic doorway behind him.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Yurik walked outside his front door to the front of the yard where Walt and Evey were playing and their mother just watched them.
“Yo,” Walt asked in a mocking manner, implying he knew the answer, “what took you so long?”
“I put our cards in our rooms, and then I got a call,” Yurik explained. “It was Mary, just calling to see how we’re holding up since last night.”
Yurik continued to walk closer to Walt until his face was right near to his ear.
“We’re going to HQ today,” Yurik whispered very softly. “Just follow Alice’s lead.”
Walt looked confused by the news, but refused to question him for fear of revealing them both.
“What did he say?” Evey asked Walt.
“Aha,” Walt laughed nervously, “nothing. Nothing you should worry about.”
“So,” Walt’s mother said, “now that you’re all here, I wanted to ask you: what does everyone feel like for dinner?”
“Are the Hawks playing tonight?” asked Yurik.
“No,” Walt said, “tomorrow.”
“Then I’m fine with whatever,” he told Walt’s mother.
“Why did you want to know that?” she responded.
Unbeknownst to Walt, Yurik, and Evey, Alice ran from her front door and towards their house, confusing Walt’s mother.
“I just thought that pizza would have been good game-time food, is all,” Yurik said.
“Yurik!” shrieked Alice. “Walt!”
Yurik and Walt, understanding what was happening now, turned to Alice with a feigned sense of concern as she stopped before the two of them, panting.
“Alice,” Yurik consoled, “what happened! What’s the matter?”
“Getting… three free… tickets… to see… Bon Jovi tonight… is the matter,” Alice breathed in sheer exhaustion.
Walt and Yurik acted stunned to this news, the latter most of all.
“Are you serious?” Yurik asked, getting nearly as excited as Alice appeared.
“No,” Alice panted, “I’m screaming like an idiot towards your house because I like messing with you!”
“I’m sorry,” Walt’s mother objected, “but Yurik and Walt are attending tonight’s performance of Cabaret.”
“Mom,” Walt argued, turning to face her, “I can call up the guys and let them know they’ll be down a man. Yurik doesn’t even need to be there!”
“Please don’t make me beg,” Yurik groaned.
Walt and Evey’s mother looked reluctant about the situation, but their pleading faces and Walts case made it more difficult to deny them.
“I’m guessing you’ll be driving them?” she asked.
“So we can go?” Yurik responded.
“Yes,” she relented, “just be sure to let your friends know you aren’t going to be at the school!”
“YEAH!” Yurik and Walt both screamed in excitement. “Oh, this is going to rock!” Yurik shouted.
As Yurik and Walt celebrated, Evey approached her mom with a touch of sadness in her face.
“So does this mean we’re eating alone again tonight?” Evey quietly whined.
“I’m afraid so,” her mother said. “Don’t worry, when you’re their age, you’ll understand.”
Walt suddenly broke away from his faux celebration as he looked back to his mom.
“Oh,” he mentioned, “but before we leave, we need to stop at the bank.”
“Why?” wondered his mother, “I doubt you’ll be needing that much cash.”
“I don’t plan on withdrawing, I’m making a deposit.”
“A deposit? Of what?”
Walt turned to face Yurik and Alice, who, while looking apprehensive of explaining their newly-given money to Walt’s mom, knew that it would have to be done sooner than later. Yurik drew a long sigh and opened his mouth to answer.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Yurik and Walt walked out of their front door to Alice’s van in the driveway, each one carrying a bag for their duel disks as well as their checks. Walt’s mother promptly saw them out, confused by their extra baggage.
“Really?” she asked. “Do you need to bring your duel disks?”
“They have this cool turf field in front of the Hofbräuhaus,” Walt explained. “We’re going to get pumped up before the show!”
“Just don’t and go spending all that money in one place. That should go into your savings!”
“Come on,” chided Yurik, “we’re going to need some spending money.”
“Fine, just don’t take out more than a hundred.”
“No promises!” Walt dismissed with a wave of his open hand.
From the attic window, Twilight read the sign, preparing herself to get inside Alice’s van with her deck in her magic grasp. Watching as Yurik and Walt stepped inside and closed the doors, Twilight’s horn charged up bright, and with a burst of light, she and her deck disappeared, another flash appearing inside the van, which went unnoticed by Walt’s mother as she walked back into the house.
“Welcome aboard,” Walt greeted her as she set herself on the van’s floor.
“I hope she didn’t see me,” said Twilight with a pang of worry.
“Whatever,” Yurik brushed off. “If she did, she probably thought one of us were taking a selfie.”
“Oh,” Twilight accepted. “…What’s a selfie?”
“So,” Alice asked, “are we all ready to ‘rock?’”
“Let’s go!” Walt ordered.
With everything settled, Alice’s van pulled out of the driveway onto the street. The air was rather comfortable inside the van, their lies having been sufficient in evading suspicion. The calm silence was broken as Yurik turned to Alice with a betrayed look on his face.
“Really?” Yurik exclaimed. “Bon fricking Jovi?! You absolutely suck, Alice!”
Twilight looked somewhat offended by the way Yurik spoke to his friend, but she seemed to take it in stride, as told by her gleeful giggles.
“I had to make the story halfway convincing, you know?” she asked. “But you know who doesn’t suck? You two guys. You really pulled it off there! You guys were born to be in the Guardiaboliques.”
Twilight sighed, knowing that their confrontation was merely in jest.
“So,” spoke Walt, “what’s the plan?”
“I’m sorry,” Alice responded in a snarky tone, “but didn’t Yurik tell you?”
“No, actually. He warned me about going to HQ today and then you came along to pick us up.”
“Well then, since you asked, we’re going to test you guys out for action duels; see how well your bodies are tuned up.”
“Action duels?” Walt shouted, jumping out of his seat. “You guys have a solid vision generator?”
“Of course we do,” Alice responded with a chuckle. “It’s actually the best way to train the other Guardiaboliques.”
“That’s going to be so awesome! I want to go first!”
“Well, since you’re so eager, and have already dueled Yurik, how’s about you take me on?”
“Yeah! …Wait, what?”
_________________________________________________________________________________________
From an observatory window on the very center of one of the longer walls of the dueling hall of the Guardiaboliques headquarters, Yurik and Twilight watched in complete wonder as the duel between Walt and Alice seemed to draw to a close, while Kieran watched with simple intrigue.
================
Walt:
LP: 600
Alice:
LP: 500
================
The inside of the hall was set to look like a cliff-laden jungle with an Aztec pyramid at one of the ends, where Walt was flying atop the back of his Tungsten Dragon above the foliage, escaping Alice, who stood atop of her iron clad praying mantis monster, Cao Cao, the Mantis Warlord, which flew at the yellow dragon from the trees.
Tungsten Dragon
ATK: 2700
Lvl.: 8
Cao Cao, the Mantis Warlord
ATK: 2800
Lvl.: 9
“Cao Cao,” ordered Alice, pointing at Walt’s monster, “attack Tungsten Dragon!”
“If you’re just going to whittle my life points away,” Walt taunted, “you might as well quit while you’re behind.”
“But I’m not,” she declared, pulling a card from her hand that featured a brown “A” on the backing, “because I won’t. I activate the action spell card Jungle Fever!”
Whipping the card into her spell/trap slot, a card appeared, featuring cartoony green vines attacking a black human figure in an explorer’s outfit.
“Another action spell?” Walt shouted.
“Just found it right before I came up here,” Alice said, “and this card reduces the ATK all non-EARTH attribute monsters on the field by 500.”
“500? But that means…”
“I’ll have just enough to finish you off.”
Suddenly, a swarm of insects flew up from the trees and swarmed around both Walt and Tungsten Dragon, who swatted at the buzzing cloud in annoyance and discomfort.
ATK: 2700 -> 2200
“Now,” Alice concluded, “finish him off, Cao Cao! Red Scythe Slash!”
Flapping its wings even harder than before, Alice’s giant insect flew towards Tungsten Dragon, its bladed arms raised up to slice. With a hard metallic clang against Tungsten Dragon’s abdomen, Walt faltered off his dragon and fell down towards the pyramid below, screaming in both fear and pain from the recoil of the attack.
Walt’s Life Points: 600 -> 0
Alice wins.
Despite its body writhing back from the fall, Tungsten Dragon managed to catch Walt in its claw and hugged it close to its body as it fell backwards, its face contracted in preparation for its rough landing.
“Walt!” Yurik and Twilight both shouted.
Alice, in slight nervousness, watched high in the digitized sky as the back of Tungsten Dragon collided with the top of the pyramid, sliding down it with Walt still held tight in its grasp as it slid down and into the trees behind it, coming to a stop.
Walt opened his eyes to find that he was unharmed, and as he sat up upon the chest of his dragon, it looked up to him, smiling gleefully to see its master alive and well.
“Atta’ girl,” Walt cooed, rubbing the chest with his hand.
The dragon shifted its head towards Walt’s face and give it a gentle lick, slightly covering his torso, cheeks, and the front of his hair in saliva. Walt couldn’t help but laugh in wonder, too impressed that he could pet his dragon and get licked by it.
The field began to fade away as Alice landed besides Walt and Tungsten Dragon with her own monster, sliding off its back as it faded along with more of the field, revealing the bleak and industrial hallway in its original form. Walt finally managed to hop off of his monster as both it and the monster’s saliva faded away from the field, leaving it barren once again once the generator ceased moving or functioning.
“Hey,” Alice said, offering her hand, “nice one back there.”
“Heh,” chuckled Walt, still winded by the unforgettable experience, but managing to shake her hand, “you too.”
“I take it that that was your first action duel?”
“And I hope it’s not the last.”
“I’m sure it won’t be.”
Walt and Alice made their way to the exit doors, continuing to chat about the duel they had completed. Up in the observation chamber, Kieran was talking with Yurik and Twilight.
“He should be here any moment,” Kieran assured the two of them.
“I sure hope so,” Twilight said, “I can’t wait to see my duel disk.”
Just then, two sliding doors opened, revealing a smaller, younger looking man with short black hair, a tight dark-gray t-shirt, blue jeans, and black fingerless, leather gloves. In his hand, he held a magenta-colored duel disk with a blade disk attached to the side and a deck already inside the proper slot, as well as a wide sock whose color matched Twilight’s coat with a gold tip.
“Yurik,” introduced Kieran, “Twilight. This is Donald Crowe. He’s our technical specialist and hacker extraordinaire.”
“Hi hi,” he excited greeted in a light English accent, reaching out for Yurik’s hand. “Pleasure to meet you both at last.
Yurik shook Donald’s hand, who then moved to shake Twilight’s hoof.
“Nice to meet you too, Donald,” she greeted. “Is that my duel disk there?”
“Ah?” he asked, unprepared for the topic shift. “Oh! Yes, this is yours. Now,” he explained, presenting the device before her. “Kieran had told me about your ability to use magic, so I didn’t have to make that many adjustments. In other words, everything is in place where it normally would be on a duel disk.
“However, the one major difference is that I’ve coordinated the blade disk to be placed a few inches from your chest when it is active. Also, the extra deck slot will be facing away from the body so the cards won’t be so close to your chest when you take them out, granted you have an extra deck, of course.
“I do have a little of everything in my extra deck,” Twilight responded.
“Hm?” questioned Kieran. “Even fusions?”
“Those purple monster cards? Yeah, I have a few.”
“I see,” accounted Donald, “then this will definitely come in handy for you. But like I said, the duel disk functions like it always would. You have a matching iPad D that’s connected with your duel disk. However, I would like a few minutes of your time before the duel, to fine tune the placement of the blade disk to your preferences.”
“That sounds reasonable,” answered Twilight. “Let’s get going then!”
“Follow me to the lab,” Donald requested, motioning his arm to show her the way.
Twilight followed Donald out of the room, just as Walt and Alice entered in, each with content smiles on their faces.
“Wow, Walt,” Yurik joked, “way to totally blow it.”
“Hey,” defended Walt, “you try playing her!”
“I would love to, Walt,” he responded, walking to the exit, “but Twilight’s almost ready for me, and I have to go and duel her, so… have fun with that!”
Yurik quickly slipped out of the room, taking any chance for Walt to defend himself away from him. Alice laughed at Yurik’s defensive maneuver while Kieran looked out from the observation window, waiting for both Yurik and Twilight to arrive inside the room.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Yurik stood in front of the center of the room, staring down at the opposite door where Twilight would eventually emerge from with his duel disk on his arm. From up in the observation balcony, Kieran, along with Alice and Walt, watched the door, expecting Twilight to walk inside at any moment.
Finally, the door opened up, and Twilight calmly walked inside with her duel disk and specialized sock over her right hoof, looking Yurik dead in the eyes with determination, Yurik giving her the same response. Finally, Twilight stood before Yurik at the center of their arena, ready for the game to begin.
“This is it,” Twilight said, “but I’m going to warn you right now, I’m really good at these types of games back home, so don’t even think about taking me lightly just because I learned this game this morning.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it, Twilight,” Yurik responded. “I never let up on anyone, even for newbies.”
“Newbie, huh?” she replied with a smug, playful smirk. “Prepare to eat those words, buster!”
“Not on my life!” responded Yurik, detaching his blade disk from his duel disk.
Twilight detached her blade disk from her duel disk’s body with her magic, and the both stared each other down, awaiting the field they would be playing on.
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Inside the observational balcony, Donald stepped inside the room with an iPad D in his hands.
“Now,” he wondered aloud, looking at a display on the screen featuring several different icons of various locations upon it, “what field should they play on?”
Kieran, Walt, and Alice turned to see him approach the window with this tablet still in hand.
“I’m sure whichever you choose will be sufficient,” Kieran remarked.
“Fine then,” decided Donald, pressing the icon featuring a seemingly endless expanse of skyscraper roofs with colorful playground structures connecting them, “action field: Parkour Park!”
_________________________________________________________________________________________
Inside the dueling room, Yurik and Twilight looked below as the solid vision generator tilted and whirred into life, shining purple beams that reflected into the glass floor where the stood. The floor began to shine brightly as Twilight and Yurik found themselves elevated off the floor, only to find them both standing on a concrete surface.
All around them, more buildings rose from the ground, some rising higher while others stayed below them. As the building where Yurik and Twilight stood finally came to a stop, the sky and the rest of the atmosphere began to cover the ceilings and walls, completely removing any traces of the dueling hall from sight. As this happened, various structures began to connect each of the buildings seemingly at random, from monkey bars, tubed slides, plastic chain bridges, among others.
With the field seemingly set, both Yurik and Twilight tossed their blade disks out, where they circled around each other and returned to their owners, Yurik’s stopping at the top side of his duel disk, while Twilight’s stopped about four inches away from and about three inches below the center of her chest. Both of the blades phased out of the lights from the sides of the duel disks, fully taking form with a total of seven zones each as their decks shuffled inside their slots.
“Connection complete,” a computerized voice announced. “Yurik Clayer vs. Twilight Sparkle. Draw.”
As instructed, each duelist drew five cards from their decks, Twilight’s hand being held in a magic aura just above the right blade.
“And now it begins…” Twilight spoke.
“Let’s go, Twilight!” Yurik shouted. “Action…”
“DUEL!” Yurik and Twilight both shouted together.
================
Yurik:
LP: 4000
Twilight:
LP: 4000
================
At that moment, a sphere with shining golden cards appeared in the sky, soon bursting as the cards scattered over the numerous rooftops in a random fashion.
“Get her good, Yurik!” Walt cheered for his friend, supporting himself with his hands on the glass.
Alice and Kieran observed stoically as they awaited for either player to make the next move. Donald appeared to be neutral as well, observing data on his iPad screen while occasionally looking out at the duel in front of them.
“I’ll take the first turn,” announced Yurik, walking back to the end of the building, glancing backwards to see a red halfpipe slide down to a building about seven feet away and ten feet down. “And with that, I end my turn.”
Status: Hand: 5 Life: 4000 Monsters: 0 Pendulum Zones: 0 Pendulum Scale: – Spells/Traps: 0
Twilight gasped with disbelief as Yurik ran off and jumped onto the slide feet first, disappearing from Twilight’s sight as he zoomed down to the next building. Twilight ran after him and peered over the building’s edge as Yurik shot to his feet upon reaching the next building over, ran over, and picked up a card with a brown “A” backing, turning back to face Twilight with a confident smirk.
“So that’s how you want to play, huh?” Twilight asked. “Fine then. My turn. Draw!”
With a magic aura over her deck, a card was plucked out from the slot with the aura placing the card into her floating hand. Quickly observing her hand, Twilight levitated a single pendulum monster from it.
“I place the scale 4 Mechjic Helium in my pendulum zone,” Twilight said, laying the card in the rightmost zone of her right blade.
Appearing on the left side of Twilight’s field was a green cyborg in a white robe and a dull-red scepter.
Mechjic Helium
Pendulum Scale: 4
Alice and Walt marveled at Twilight’s new deck while Kieran squinted with expectance.
Mechjics? he questioned. This match should prove interesting.
“Now,” explained Twilight, “I use the pendulum effect of Mechjic Helium. This card lets me normal summon monsters with one less tribute than necessary.”
“No way!” Alice exclaimed. “Yurik, why would you leave your field open?!”
Twilight’s monster held its now shimmering staff to the sky, a plethora of stars appearing in them.
“And the monster I choose is…” Twilight exclaimed, picking a monster from her hand, “Mechjic Lithium!”
Placing her card on the rightmost zone of her left blade, another android appeared from a blue portal that appeared before Twilight, which was covered in a cyan, glowing armor and a silver robe. Mystical markings were printed on the hands and fingers of its metallic hands and forearms.
Mechjic Lithium
ATK: 2200
Lvl.: 6
“Jesus,” Walt gasped from inside the balcony. “Do you think we gave her too strong a deck?”
“There is no strong or weak decks,” Kieran responded, looking adamantly at Yurik, “only strong and weak duelists.”
Walt, understanding completely what was meant by this, looked out to Yurik, who looked slightly disappointed, but not disappointed enough given his current situation.
“Battle!” Twilight declared, flying up a foot or so and pointing out at Yurik below. “Mechjic Lithium, attack Yurik directly! Alkali Assault!
The markings on the magician’s outstretched fingers began to glow bright until a small blue ring with similar markings appeared at the fingers’ tips, aiming at Yurik. Just then, a bolt of lightning shot out from the ring’s center towards Yurik.
“Dude…” Walt gasped.
Right before the bolt could hit Yurik, a bright burst of light appeared between him and the spell, deflecting it away much to Twilight’s confusion.
“What?” she shouted.
The light suddenly sprouted wings and took the form of a pegasus with a brightly shining mane and tail, which served to surprise Walt, Alice, and Donald in the observatory.
Pegassist of Light
ATK: 1700
Lvl.: 4
“What is this?” Twilight asked. “How did you summon a monster on my turn?”
“I activated the effect of my Pegassist of Light,” Yurik responded. “When my opponent declares a direct attack, I can special summon this card from my hand and end the battle phase.”
“Huh… Very well then.”
Twilight picked up one purple card in her hand and slipped it into the back slot of her duel disk.
“I place one card face down and end my turn,” she said as the enlarged card backing appeared behind her monster.
Status: Hand: 3 Life: 4000 Monsters: 1 Pendulum Zones: 1 Pendulum Scale: – Spells/Traps: 1
Yurik ran up a rickety rope bridge to the next building forwards, Twilight fluttering herself forwards, he monsters and set card moving with her. Yurik spotted yet another action card at the center of the building, running to it and standing guard over it, turning to face Twilight yet again.
“What is he doing?” Kieran pondered to himself. “He already has an action card, but he can’t have another.”
At that moment, Kieran read the strategy and gasped slightly.
“I see,” he said. “He’ll have another action card to use once he uses the one he picked up.”
Back inside the arena, Twilight was flying above the building Yurik had previously been on, keeping a close eye on Yurik and his intentions.
“I knew someone like you would be useful with that deck,” Yurik complimented, “but I know my deck has enough strength in it to still take yours on.”
“I’d like to see,” Twilight challenged. “You might be very surprised.”
“Fine then. I’m really good with surprises. My turn! Draw!”
Yurik drew his card, surprised to see what he had with him. Taking another card from his hand, he presented both cards to Twilight, already knowing what was about to happen.
“I set the pendulum scale with the scale 3 Armored Unioncorn and scale 8 Unioncorn of Light!” he declared.
Yurik placed both cards on the outer zone of his two blades, causing two pillars of light to appear on both sides of Yurik’s field. The right pillar housed the same bright, white unicorn from Yurik’s duel with Walt, while the other unicorn in the left was a bit larger and stronger, and its dark grey coat were covered by an ebony-black armor. A bright 3 and 8, respectively, appeared over both of Yurik’s monsters.
Armored Unioncorn
Pendulum Scale: 3
Unioncorn of Light
Pendulum Scale: 8
Twilight stared out at the armored unicorn, mystified by the new monster that Yurik was wielding.
“I can now special summon monsters from my hand whose levels are 4 through 7,” Yurik spoke.
The multi-point star began to appear in the darkening sky as Yurik grabbed one monster card from his hand.
“Pendulum summon!” he shouted.
As he placed his card onto his blade, a red portal opened up beneath the center of the star, a magenta beam crashing down to the ground from it. With a wave of its wings, Yurik’s ace monster blew the smoke and dust surrounding it away, revealing itself almost immediately as it stared down Twilight’s monster.
“Come to me, Twilight Alicorn!” concluded Yurik.
Twilight looked warily at the alicorn monster, almost as if looking at a warped reflection of herself.
Twilight Alicorn
ATK: 2500
Lvl.: 7
“Now,” Yurik proclaimed, throwing his hand up into the air, “I activate the effect of Twilight Alicorn! Once per turn, I can target two monsters in my pendulum zones and special summon them to my side of the field!”
Twilight Alicorn’s horn began to glow as a similar aura began to cover the monsters on both ends of Yurik’s field.
“I special summon my Armored Unioncorn and Unioncorn of Light,” he continued. “Summon shine!”
The two encased monsters suddenly vanished along with the aura, the two of them suddenly appearing beside Twilight Alicorn and Pegassist of Light.
Armored Unioncorn
ATK: 2100
Lvl.: 6
Unioncorn of Light
ATK: 1900
Lvl.: 4
“Whoa,” Walt exclaimed, looking at Yurik’s Armored Unioncorn, “a monster of his that isn’t level four? Color me impressed! This must be one of those new cards he got today.”
“But two of his other monsters are level 4,” Alice commented. “And both of them are the light component of his deck’s archetypes. That means…”
Twilight grimaced, bemused by the situation she was now in.
“I now overlay my level 4 Unioncorn of Light and Pegassist of Light,” Yurik declared.
Both of Yurik’s mentioned monsters morphed into two yellow beams of light that spiraled around each other in the air as a red portal formed over the gap between the two buildings where Yurik stood and Twilight hovered above.
“With these two monsters,” continued Yurik as both beams flew inside the portal, “I construct the overlay network. Xyz summon!”
A bright shining light erupted from the red portal, a large, white alicorn mare with a golden tiara and plating over the bars of its wings emerged from it. Its mane and tail, just like the monsters used to summon it, was a flowing wave of light. Two orbs of light orbited around it as it gracefully set itself down from the air with massive beats of its wings.
“Show yourself,” Yurik announced, “Allicorn Queen of Light!”
Setting its hooves down, the alicorn mare flared its wings out, casting a bright light onto Twilight and he monster.
Allicorn Queen of Light
ATK: 2400
Rnk.: 4
“Wow,” Donald said to Kieran, “you told me this guy was special, but this is still pretty amazing.”
“Calm yourself, Donald,” Kieran advised. “Just wait until you see the Mechjics in proper use.”
Donald looked back out to the glass, wondering what Twilight would do in response.
“Now,” Yurik ordered, “battle! Allicorn Queen of Light, attack Mechjic Lithium! Sharp Shine!”
With a bright glow from the white alicorn’s horn, a shard of light shot out from it, heading straight towards Twilight’s monster.
“My Mechjic Lithium cannot be destroyed by battle,” Twilight explained.
As promised, the spell struck Twilight’s monster, but did not seem to harm it as it recoiled back from the spell’s strength.
“However,” she said with a wince, “I take double the battle damage from battles involving it.”
The cyborg spellcaster began to glow bright and spark up before it discharged in a fiery pop, throwing Twilight back several feet with a pain-riddled grunt.
Twilight’s Life Points: 4000 -> 3600
Twilight flew back to her monster, looking at Twilight Alicorn with foreboding feelings
“Twilight Alicorn,” shouted Yurik, “you’re up! Attack Mechjic Lithium!”
Twilight Alicorn’s horn shot a beam at Twilight’s monster. Once the beam hit it, the android glowed bright as its discharge struck Twilight. However, Twilight felt a much bigger shock with this blast, her vision changing as she was hurled back.
A dark cave–
Twilight came to, realizing she was falling before swooping down then up at the field, straightening her mane and taking relaxing breaths.
Twilight’s Life Points: 3600 -> 3000
“What…” she panted. “What was that?”
“Twilight!” called Yurik. “Are you okay?”
Twilight jerked her head to Yurik, not wanting him to worry.
“Uh, yeah!” she responded. “No problem. That hit was sure a doozy!”
Twilight uncomfortably chuckled to Yurik’s oblivious content.
I’ll need to tell Kieran about this, she deduced.
Yurik, seeing nothing else to the turn, reached for a single trap card in his hand and placed it inside the proper slot on his duel disk.
“I place one card face down and end my turn,” Yurik finished.
Status: Hand: 2 Life: 4000 Monsters: 3 Pendulum Zones: 0 Pendulum Scale: – Spells/Traps: 1
Twilight was still completely floored by the vision she had just seen, unable to slow her breathing.
What just happened? she asked herself. I don’t know where I was, but I feel like I was physically there for that moment after that attack. Just… what is up with Yurik’s card?
“Twilight!” called Yurik. “You were so eager to make me eat my words and now you look like you’re having a panic attack. Do you need to call it quits here?”
Twilight, realizing what she was in the middle of, shook her head of her worries.
That’s right, she decided. I have a duel to win now. I’ll focus on my visions afterwards.
“I’m fine, Yurik!” called Twilight. “Just wait until you see my next move! Ready?”
Yurik grinned in anticipation, as did Walt and Alice from the balcony. Donald looked more mystified by it all while Kieran kept his stoic frown.
“My turn!” Twilight called. “Draw!”
As Twilight’s card was drawn from her deck through her magic, she glanced up at it, only for a feeling of sheer adrenaline rush into her mind. A blue dot formed on the card, only for it to link to the center card of her hand in a similarly colored line, which then linked to the right card and then the left at a breakneck piece. With the connection and her purpose clear, Twilight’s eyes suddenly looked to Yurik, which bore into his with extremely confidence that completely shocked Yurik greatly.
“I place the scale 9 Mechjic Mercury onto my last pendulum zone,” declared Twilight.
Her magic threw the card onto the rightmost zone of her left blade, and from the blue pillar that formed on Twilight’s right side of the field, a swirl of liquid metal swirled out and formed into a fully metallic humanoid being with a metallic cape and a metallic staff, its only other defining features being electronic circuits running over its body and the two yellow slits it had for eyes.
Mechjic Mercury
Pendulum Scale: 9
Just then, another pillar formed around both Mechjic Helium, with a 4 appearing high above it while a 9 appeared above Mechjic Mercury in the pillar.
“Now that I have two monsters in the pendulum zones,” explained Twilight, “I can special summon any number of monsters from my hand whose levels are 5 through 8!”
The sky began to darken as the lined star appeared over Twilight’s field high above.
“O magic machines,” chanted Twilight, “show thee a power when sorcery and science become one! Pendulum summon!”
With a single wave of her aura, the entirety of Twilight’s hand was placed on the available zones on her blades. Yurik watched in fright and amazement as a red portal opened below the star and launched three yellow beams of light that landed on the front lines of Twilight’s field, creating a wall of light that obscured Yurik’s vision, as well as those in the observatory, making all but Kieran block their eyes, who was entranced by Twilight’s sudden passion.
The light faded, revealing a nearly full wall of monsters. The first was a purple coated android with a black-and-white checkered robe, the second a shiny brown armored robot with a golden robe, and finally, a cybernetic magician with and terribly rough and unpolished, but shiny armor, a white robe, and a silver staff.
“Appear!” Twilight commanded. “Mechjic Nitrogen! Mechjic Copper! Mechjic Silicon!”
Standing straight and firm, Twilight’s four monsters stood defensively for their master behind them.
Mechjic Nitrogen
ATK: 2400
Lvl.: 7
Mechjic Copper
ATK: 2100
Lvl.: 7
Mechjic Silicon
ATK: 2000
Lvl.: 5
“No…” shuddered Yurik. “No way. Look at how strong she is.”
“I’m not done,” Twilight said, pointing her hoof to the shining silvery cyborg. “I activate the effect of my Mechjic Silicon. When this card is summoned, I can reduce its level up to the number of monsters currently on my side of the field. There are four monsters, so I will reduce its level to 1!”
Donald, Walt, and Alice gasped at the ability, each one concluding something awful.
“Does that mean…” Walt wondered.
A counter appeared next to Mechjic Silicon that featured its ATK and level. At once, a flash covered the entire display before the level on the counter changed from 5 to 1.
Mechjic Silicon
Lvl.: 5 -> 1
“Now,” Twilight declared, “I tune my level six Mechjic Lithium with my level one Mechjic Silicon!”
Mechjic Silicon leapt up into the air before it burst into a single star floating about in the air. As Mechjic Lithium leapt up, the star changed into a green ring that transformed Twilight’s monster into its orange-lined outline with six stars lined up inside of it. A bright beam passed through the center monster before the beam grew out to the width of the green ring.
“Synchro summon!” called Twilight. “Mechjic Gold Cyber!”
Appearing from the beam was a massive, muscular cyborg with golden armor and a golden staff with a spiral-cut crystal on the end of it, flexing its chest in an attempt to intimidate Yurik.
Mechjic Gold Cyber
ATK: 2800
Lvl.: 7
“I activate the effect of Mechjic Gold Cyber!” Twilight declared. “When this card is synchro summoned, I can draw one card for every other spellcaster type monster on my field, which means I draw two cards!”
With another appearance of her aura over her deck, two cards were pulled out from the top of it, which were promptly added to Twilight’s hand.
“And now she has more ammo,” Alice commented. “And she still has another opportunity for a summon.”
“Next,” Twilight continued, all to Yurik’s complete exhaustion and disbelief, “I will overlay my level 7 Mechjic Copper and Mechjic Nitrogen!”
The two monsters transformed into an orange and a purple aura as the swirled about each other and flew down towards a red portal at the center of Twilight’s field.
“With these two monsters,” Twilight went on, “I construct the overlay network! Xyz summon!”
Upon the two auras flying into the portal , a slender, but tall android in silver armor with a silver staff with a similar crystal head to Mechjic Gold Cyber’s, a pair of light orbs floating around the monster.
“Appear!” Twilight ordered. “Mechjic Silver Cyber!”
Standing more proud and reserved than Twilight’s gold-armored behemoth, the silver-plated robot pointed its staff at Yurik offensively.
Mechjic Silver Cyber
ATK: 2500
Rnk.: 7
“I’m not finished quite yet,” persisted Twilight.
Yurik reeled back, completely in denial that Twilight could do more this turn. Walt and Alice walked closer to the glass, wanting to see Twilight’s imminent act for herself.
“Finally,” Twilight explained, pulling a green card from her hand and revealing it, “I activate the spell card Mechjic Fusion!”
“Impossible!” Yurik shouted as he put the card into her duel disk. “There’s no way!”
“This card lets me target two Mechjic monsters who are on my field or in my pendulum zones that are listed as the fusion material monsters on a Mechjic fusion monster card and special summon it, treating this special summon as a fusion summon!”
“Just…” Yurik wheezed, his wobbling knees buckling underneath him, “how?”
“The monsters I will fuse are my Mechjic Helium and Mechjic Mercury in my pendulum zones.”
Right then, both of the monsters on the ends of Twilight’s field began to stretch out into a black portal that warped the space around them, where they swirled together into a nearly endless string inside the portal. Suddenly, a bright light shone out of the portal, Yurik too spellbound to cover his eyes.
“Fusion summon!” Twilight declared. “The ultimate future! Mechjic Platinum Cyber!”
Floating out from the portal was an illustriously armored cyborg that dwarfed the other two on Twilight’s field, as well as carrying a large scepter with an ornate circular piece upon the top.
Mechjic Platinum Cyber
ATK: 3000
Lvl.: 10
Kieran could not help but gasp at the outstanding feat that she had just accomplished. Walt, Alice, and Donald were also aghast at what Twilight was able to accomplish, as well as what Yurik now had to go up against.
Pendulum summon, accounted Yurik incredulously, synchro summon, xyz summon, and fusion summon… all in the same turn?
Yurik looked up to Twilight, who looked down upon Yurik and his now meager field of monsters with a sense of ease and assurance as she stood behind her own field of monsters.
Twilight, Yurik continued to muse, my god…