"So we know our plan. But how are we supposed to find Paradox?", Twilight asked. "It's not like he's just going to open a portal to let us into his lair."
"No...I'd say he'd bring his lair to us!", Steele said as a gigantic castle patterned after the malefic armor worn by the corrupted dragons materialized almost out of thin air! "Looks like he's been expecting us."
"Then let's not keep him waiting.", Burst said with determination. "Let's get Starlight back!" And the group entered the castle where they would face the duel of their lives. But as they entered the main floor, a seal with the malefic pattern appeared on the floor and seemed to separate them!
"So good of you all to come!", Paradox's voice said in a mocking tone. "But all of you against little old me hardly seems fair. So I decided to split you up! Have fun trying to get to me now! HAHAHAHAHAHA!" Most of them were split into groups of two: Celestia with Moon, Golden Rise with Sunset, Ace with Shadow, Steele with Rainbow Dash, Burst with Inferno, AJ with Rarity, and Pinkie with Fluttershy and Twilight. Each team was transported to a different part of the castle.
"I guess we should have seen this coming.", Sunset said. "There's no way he'd stand a chance if all of us dueled against him. Golden put his hand on her shoulder.
"Hey. At least we get to spend more time together!", Golden said with a smile. Sunset couldn't help but chuckle at hearing this.
"I guess this counts as our first date.", Sunset said with a small smile. "Now to see if we can find a way to Paradox." The two of them explored the area they had been sent to and came upon an arena-like area. "I guess Paradox likes to entertain a lot."
"Yeah. And I think we're the next act!", Gold said as he noticed the doors had locked behind them! Soon a swirl of shadow appeared and a figure materialized from it. It was Sunset's past self.
"Great. What sort of illusion are you this time?", Sunset asked annoyed.
"Oh I'm very real sunny! I'm the part of you that hungered for power and the part that once ruled Canterlot High! But you cast me out and now I have my chance at revenge! Just you and me!"
"Actually it's going to be Sunset AND me against you.", Gold said as he activated his duel disk. "I'm not letting her face you alone!"
"How sweet.", Sunset's dark half said with an evil smile. "Your boyfriend can keep you company in the shadows!"
Gold and Sunset: 16000
Dark Shimmer: 16000
"I'll go first!", Dark Shimmer said. "I summon Dark Dawn Knight in attack mode and set a card face-down! I end my turn."
"I'm up then!", Sunset said. "I set a card face-down and summon Blue Flame Swordsman! Then I'll equip him with Lightning Blade to boost him by 800 points! Destroy her knight! Blue Flame Slash!"
Dark Shimmer sneered as her monster was destroyed. "Perfect! Now I can activate my trap! Eclipse Summon! When a dark monster I control is destroyed, I can special summon a level seven or higher dark monster from my hand or deck! Now I can bring out my most fearsome beast! Rise Fallen Light Dragon!" Soon a large dark-red dragon with with demonic wings and a fiery mane descended. "Do you like it? It was made to resemble the demon form you took when you tried to use Princess Twilight's element! Now its effect activates! I can destroy all monsters on your field and inflict their attack points as damage to you during my turn!" Sunset and Gold braced themselves as the flames crashed against their life points!
Gold and Sunset: 13400
Dark Shimmer: 15200
"My turn!", Gold said as he drew a card. "Perfect! I play the spell card Light Sanctuary! This lets me special summon two spirit tokens in attack mode with zero attack and defense. That's all for my turn."
"No sense wasting Fallen's effect, so I'll just destroy one of your tokens by battle! WHAT?!", Dark Shimmer said as she saw that both tokens were still standing! "How are your tokens still there?!"
Gold smirked. "I may have taken a serious hit, but my tokens can't be destroyed by battle!"
"Turn over.", Dark Shimmer growled.
Gold and Sunset: 10400
Dark Shimmer: 15200
"I don't know how much more we can take! Huh?", Sunset noticed a rainbow colored glow coming from the top of her deck. "What is this?" As she drew the card, Sunset ponied-up! "Just what we need to turn the tide! I play the spell card Harmonic Fusion! By sending fusion materials from my hand, deck, or extra deck or banishing them from my graveyard, I can fusion summon a monster that lists those monsters as fusion materials! I fuse Guardian Eatos, BLS, and Stardust Dragon to bring out my true ace card! Come on out! Stardust Luster Guardian Eatos!" As Sunset called her name, a majestic monster descended from the heavens. She had the body of Guardian Eatos, the wings of Stardust Dragon, and armor like BLS but in Sunset's colors. "Now I get to activate her effect! I can banish a monster my opponent control until the end phase! Or I can negate any card effect that destroys a card or cards and destroy that card! And if I destroy a monster by battle I can make a second attack! And I think I'll go with the first effect! Celestial Banishing!" Soon Fallen Light Dragon vanished in a flash of light! "Now Eatos! Attack her directly! Cosmic Flame Slash!"
"Prepare to meet the light!", Eatos cried as she charged forth and slashed at Dark Shimmer directly!
"Aaagghhh!", Dark Shimmer screamed as she took the full force of the attack!
Gold and Sunset: 10400
Dark Shimmer: 11700
"This isn't over!", Dark Shimmer snarled. "I play Eclipse Rebirth! This revives Fallen Light Dragon! But I'll put him in defense mode because of those effects of yours and end my turn."
"My time to shine then!", Gold said. To Sunset's surprise, Gold ponied-up too! But instead of normal pegasus wings, he had flaming phoenix wings! "Nice! I tribute my tokens to summon my ace card! Join the party Crimson Dragon!" A dragon that looked almost exactly like Blue Eyes descended. But instead of white scales it had bright red scales and a dark red underbelly and its eyes were yellow and it had crystal wings!
"Time to light up this duel!", Crimson shouted as he landed!
"Good to have you on the field Crimson! Now for your effect!"
"Right!", Crimson said as he fired a bolt of red energy that destroyed Fallen Light Dragon!
"Now that your dragon has been destroyed, Crimson gains attack equal to the destroyed monster's attack! And now you're wide open!"
"Impossible!", Dark Shimmer howled.
"Attack her directly Crimson!", Gold cried out as Crimson gathered up a huge amount of energy and his wings began to glow! And once the energy was at its peak, Crimson let loose an enormous beam of red energy that his Dark Shimmer dead-on! "That's it for my turn."
Gold and Sunset: 10400
Dark Shimmer: 5700
"That's it! Now I'm not going to hold anything back!", Dark Shimmer roared. "I play the spell card Red Giant! This revives Fallen Light Dragon and doubles his attack points! Destroy Crimson Dragon!"
"I don't think so!", Sunset said. "I activate my trap! Negate Attack! This stops you monster from attacking and ends the battle phase!"
"Curse you! I end my turn!", Dark Shimmer fumed.
"Now it's my turn! I activate Eatos's effect! I banish your monster until the end phase! What do you say we end this together Gold?"
"Sounds good to me!", Gold said with a smile.
"This can't be!", Dark Shimmer howled as Sunset and Gold's monsters charged up their attacks!
"Celestial Flare Blast!", Sunset and Gold said together as Stardust Luster Guardian Eatos and Crimson Dragon fired a beam of crimson energy that destroyed Dark Shimmer! When the dust cleared, all that was left was a malefic parallel gear that crumbled into dust.
"Gold that was amazing!", Sunset said as she hugged him tightly. "But how did you pony-up?"
"You know how I said Pegasus adopted me? Well he adopted me after I came from Equestria to this world. He loved me like his own son and taught me to love my cards.", Gold said with a fond smile. "And there's something I wanted to tell you Sunset. I loved you from when I first saw you. I know you got out of a relationship a while back, but I'm here if you'll have me."
Sunset smiled and kissed him on the lips. "There's no guy I'd rather have Gold. Because you always rise to the occassion."
"You do know how corny that line was right?", Gold said with a joking smile.
"Like you weren't going to say 'my shimmering sunet'.", Sunset said with a giggle. Soon a warp appeared that led back to the main entrance. "Looks like our date is going to have to wait." The two of them headed through the warp and back to the main entrance. When they looked around, they noticed a large door that seemed to be the way to Paradox. There were several chains that bound it shut, but one of the chains seemed to vanish. "Looks like we need to beat Paradox's minions before we can face him ourselves. I hope the others are doing as well as we did."
Meanwhile Celestia and Moon were trying to find their way through the area of the castle they were sent to and found themselves in what looked like a throne room. "It looks like we won't be leaving quite yet.", Celestia said as she saw a barrier surrounded the whole room.
"I've got a bad feeling about this.", Moon said as she saw a swirl of shadow form and a figure materialized. When the figure fully formed, Nightmare Moon was shocked to see herself!
"So this is how weak I've become? I'll take joy in crushing you!", Nightmare Shadow said. "Good luck trying to beat me! I'm the best and most powerful part of you!"
"No you're not! You're the worst of me! ", Moon said in defiance! "And I'll prove it by beating you!"
"We'll prove it Nightmare.", Celestia said to her. "This is something you shouldn't have to face on your own."
"C-Celestia..."
"Let's take her down!", Celestia said with a confident smile!
"Right!"
Celestia and Moon: 16000
Nightmare Shadow: 16000
"I'm up first!", Celestia said. "I summon Alexandrite Dragon in attack mode! Then I'll set a card face-down and end my turn."
"My turn.", Nightmare Shadow said with a dark smile. "I discard to summon Fear Knight! And now I'll activate his effect! Once per turn, I can make the attack of one of my opponent's monsters zero! I choose Alexandrite Dragon! Now destroy her dragon! Darkness Slash!"
"Ngh!", Celestia winced as she took damage!
Celestia and Moon: 13500
Nightmare Shadow: 16000
"You may have gotten one hit in, but too bad for you that you can only activate his effect during your turn!", Moon said. "Now it's my turn! I draw! Nice! I summon Night Maiden! and when she's on the field her effect activates! I can tribute her to special summon Night Queen Nyx from my hand or deck! And now that Nyx is on the field, she gains 300 attack for each dark monster in my graveyard! Destroy Fear Knight! Moon Crescent Slash!" Nyx executed a strike so swift only a silver streak was seen as Fear Knight was destroyed!
Celestia and Moon: 13500
Nightmare Shadow: 15200
"Time to pull out my trump card. I play the spell card Supreme Nightmare! By discarding all dark monsters in my hand I can special summon my ultimate beast! Rise Nightmare Dragon!", A pitch-black dragon soon materialized from the shadows. It had sinister azure eyes and wings made of dark mist. "Now for his effect! I can discard one card and make a direct attack! Nightmare Oblivion Breath!" Nightmare Dragon howled as it fired a stream of concentrated shadows that struck Moon directly! "With that, I'll end my turn."
Celestia and Moon: 9500
Nightmare Shadow: 15200
"We can't give up yet!", Celestia said. "As long as we can draw cards we're not finished!" Soon a rainbow colored flash went off on the top card of Celestia's deck. Once she picked up the card, Celestia ponied-up. "And I think this card is just what we need! Harmony's Light! I send Sun Princess Solaria from my deck to the graveyard to special summon Solaria the Day Paladin! Now that she's on the field her effect activates! Whenever she battles a dark monster her attack points double! Also she's unaffected by card effects and gains 300 attack for each light monster in my graveyard! Destroy Nightmare Dragon! Day Break Strike!"
"Time to send this bad dream to the graveyard!", Solaria said as she unleashed a blast of light from her sword that destroyed Nightmare Dragon!
"I end my turn."
Celestia and Moon: 9500
Nightmare Shadow: 12600
"A lucky shot! But it's too bad your monster can't do piercing damage! I summon a monster in defense mode and set two cards face-down! I end my turn."
"Those face-down cards won't protect you from me!", Moon said as she ponied-up and drew the card that was shining at the top of her deck! "I play the spell card Harmony's Light and send Night Queen Nyx from my field to the graveyard to summon Nyx the Night Guardian! Now I activate her effect! I can banish all of my opponent's spells and traps until the end of my turn! Also she gains 500 attack for each light and dark monster in my graveyard! And since you control a defense mode monster Nyx can attack you directly! Lunar Saber Slash!"
"Agh!", Nightmare Shadow screamed as she took the full force of Nyx's attack!
"I end my turn."
Celestia and Moon: 9500
Nightmare Shadow: 8600
"If I defend I get hit directly and if I attack I have to deal with a monster whose strength doubles! However there is one way out of this! I play Nightmare Cataclysm and pay half my life points to destroy all cards on the field! What?!", Nightmare Shadow was in shock when neither Solaria or Nyx had vanished from the field! "How is this possible?!"
"Neither Solaria or Nyx can be destroyed or targeted by card effects. The only way to defeat them is in battle! Let's end this Moon!", Celestia said.
"Right!"
"Impossible!"
"Eclipse Slash!", Celestia and Moon shouted together as Solaria and Nyx unleashed a tremendous blast of energy from their swords that wiped out the last of Nightmare Shadow's life points! After she faded away, a malefic parallel gear crubmled away.
"Well this is new.", Celestia said as she noticed her new wings and tail. "But not unwelcome."
"Well now you literally have the body of a goddess.", Moon said with a joking smile. "Poor Burst might get a nosebleed from looking at us!" Soon a warp back to the main entrance appeared and the two of them went through it to find Sunset and Gold there. Another one of the chains that had the door to Paradox was broken. "Sunset, how many were left when you got here?"
"After Gold and I won our duel, we saw that there were six left. And I'm guessing that since you and Celestia won yours, there's only five left. So it looks like we need to beat Paradox's minions in order to unlock the door. I just hope everyone else is doing well."