//------------------------------// // Turn 1: Wake up // Story: Cardfight Vanguard: A New Dawn // by Darkened Paradise //------------------------------// “My Vanguard…” She groaned, her body feeling heavy and weightless at the same time. “Please, my Vanguard…” She struggled to open her eyes, but she was just so tired… “I am here, my Vanguard…” She reached out for anyone, anything...and she felt something warm embrace her. “Please Wake up, my Vanguard…” Sunset Shimmer opened her eyes as she felt something wet fall on her cheek, only to be blinded by a brilliant flash of white light. ----- Sunset blinked as she suddenly came to, holding her forehead to hopefully hold back the headache that was coming. The headaches had been more consistent recently, amongst other things. Before she could even begin to process, she was pushed over, sending her sprawling over the school’s steps. “Stupid Demon Bitch.” “Shoulda known she was just faking it.” “Can’t believe we bought her act.” “Hope she gets whats coming to her.” Sunset froze at that. Ever since a certain web page had started spreading rumors and airing out the dirty laundry of the many students of Canterlot High, using her face no less, any good will she had built up was thrown out away. Ignoring her bleeding knee, she reached for her things, only for various students to get in her way or kick it out of reach. Sunset groaned quietly, pulling herself to her feet with the available handrail, holding herself steady as she was shoved and pushed around. After what seemed like forever, the flow of students slowly dwindled, leaving Sunset alone. With a pained grimace, she went about collecting her things, sighing as some of her books and whatever assignments she had done were ruined. What a good way to start the weekend, right? To make matters worse, the late bell’s shrill alarm signified that she was also late to Home Room. Biting back the urge to yell in frustration, she limped into the building, not caring about her dirty and messy look. As she finally made it, she ignored the looks, the glares and the harsh whispers around her, slumping into her seat with a pained groan of relief. All she could do was just tune everything out. She could only shut herself away from everyone else, and endure. When lunch finally rolled around, Sunset made her way behind the west wing of the building. Despite the cold weather and the blistering winds of winter (the coldest Canterlot ever had in years, oddly enough), Sunset found warmth in solitude. Classes were at least kept in line by the teacher, but for her, the cafeteria would be the equivalent of a sheep trying to eat in the middle of a forest full of wolves. Yeah, she may have been passive ever since this whole mess started, but she wasn't a complete door mat. (Well, at least not to the extent of...her.) Sunset shook her head, trying, but failing to, dislodge thoughts of the five who had abandoned her. The harsh words, the teary eyes and the disownment played in her mind, bringing tears to her eyes. Her sorrow turned to rage as she threw her salad in a random direction with an intelligible scream. “Ow!” Sunset’s rage quickly turned into confusion as she turned in the direction of the cry. Her confusion turned into horror when she realized what she had done. Sunset ran over to a pinked haired girl who was crouched over, sniffling as she held onto a rapid bruising mark on the girl’s forehead. “I’m so sorry!” Sunset said, going into her bag. Pulling out a handkerchief, she made a makeshift ice pack, offering it to the girl. “I didn’t mean to hurt you! I was just so frustrated about something and I-!” The sound of the girls sniffling cut Sunset off. She took Sunset’s offered makeshift ice pack, holding it where she was hit, but said nothing else. Taking a better look at the girl before her, Sunset could barely recognize her from anyone she knew at Canterlot High. Her pink hair was kept at shoulder length, but styled in the shape of a crescent moon. She wore a long sleeves maroon turtleneck sweater and dark grey short skirt under a dark purple jacket that reached her knees and a pair of leather boots. She looked at Sunset, her yellow eyes full of tears from the pain. “I’m, I’m sorry,” Sunset said weakly, turning her eyes downward. Turning around, she walked back to where she sat. “W-wait!” the other girl said, grabbing Sunset’s sleeve. Sunset turned around slowly, just to see the girl she had mistakenly injured looking at her with a determined look. “Uh, yes?” Sunset said, a little taken aback. “I said I was sorry, so-!” “Are you okay?” the other girl asked her. Sunset blinked in response. “What are you talking about? I’m the one who should be asking you that!” “I’m fine, but you don’t look so good,” the other girl said, looking straight into Sunset’s eyes. “Do you want to talk about it?” Sunset continued to stare the pinkette in disbelief. “No, I’m fine,” Sunset said after a pause. “Look, I’m sorry for accidentally hitting you with my lunch, and-” She was cut off when the pinkette pulled her into a hug, resting her chin on Sunset’s shoulder. “I finally found you,” the pinkette said, her voice wavering. Sunset could feel the girl shaking in her arms, to her confusion. Just who was this girl? “Um, who are you?” Sunset asked, awkwardly patting the pinkette’s back. “Oh! Excuse me!” the girl said, pulling away quickly as she wiped the tears from her eyes. She took one of Sunset’s hands into her own, and smiled brightly. “My name is Harriet Magi. You can call me Hari.” “Uh, pleasure to meet you Hari,” Sunset said, still nervous. “So, why have you been looking for me?” Hari said nothing, but held onto Sunset’s hand gently. Despite her the awkward silence, Sunset couldn’t help but feel relaxed around this girl that she had literally met just now. Before the redhead could say anything, the ending period bell rang. Looking a bit disappointed, Hari let Sunset’s hand go and ran off towards the school, waving to the befuddled girl. Sunset watched her go, before looking back at her own hand. To her surprise, the pinkette had left a card before she left. “Cardfight Vanguard?” Sunset read aloud, flipping the card over. To her surprise, she found a small hand drawn mini-map, complete with directions to go there after the school day ended and a card depicting a young (she assumed) pink haired boy wearing a dark blue stage magician outfit and a similarly colored top hat that had a small cartoonish bat-shaped eye patch over their right eye. “‘Masked Magician, Harri?’” Sunset read aloud, reading through the card’s effects. As she pocketed the card, her phone chimed with a message. Looking it over, she frowned. Rainbow, of all people, wanted meet her after school? Alone in the gymnasium? Sunset shut off her phone with a scowl; the prismatic haired jock was the last person she wanted to talk to. ------ After an hour long bus ride to the city (due to the snowy weather and icy roads), Sunset finally arrived. From the outside, it looked like a normal business building, with a backlit sign underneath the second floor windows proclaiming ‘CARD CAPITAL V-Z’ and an a-frame sign pointing out a stairwell leading store directly. Taking a deep breath, she made her up the stairs, and into the pass the glass door that led inside. The first thing her eyes came across, after adjusting from the sudden dark to bright light, was the amount of cards sitting in glass cases against the walls to her left and in front of her. In front of her, the cases were separated by a wide screen smart television and a keyboard was underneath it. To her right, there was a small front desk with a register, and just behind the desk was a wall of premade decks, deck boxes, deck sleeves and various other supplies. There was no one manning the register, but a large dog (a Saint Bernard) of various colors (mainly white, brown and black) lay asleep. “There she is! Sunset, over here!” Sunset looked up, and found Hari sitting at a table by the window. There were other people around her, just as colorful and eccentric looking as her old friends did. Sitting next to Hari was a younger pale skinned girl with black hair styled in two buns, wearing a light green long sleeved shirt a yellow scarf around her neck, well worn jeans and a pair of loafers. She looked up as she cleaned her thin wireframe glasses. Sitting across from her was another girl, wearing a dark blue knee length, with a silver silken top that covered her shoulders and arms and a pair of dark brown boots over her feet. Her blonde hair was tied back in a neat ponytail, which kept it out of the way of her azure blue eyes. Finally, sitting across from Hari was another girl with fiery reddish hair, similar to Sunset’s own red, albeit a deeper shade of crimson, her eyes matching her hair in color. Despite the snowy weather, she wore a dark red and silver tube top that showed off her figure and left her shoulders and back bare, and a similarly colored dress that reached her ankles. “I’m so glad you could make it!” Hari said, walking over to Sunset and leading her to the table. “Girls, this is Sunset, the one I told you about earlier!” The three other girls looked at Sunset with greater scrutiny, which unnerved her. “Sunset, these are my friends Bamboo Sprite,” Hari started, pointing out the bespectacled girl with buns in her hair. The girl nodded to her politely, and then went back to her book. “Greetings,” Sprite said softly, not sparing Sunset a small glance as she flipped a page. “Across from her is Paige Gallant.” The blonde gave Sunset a polite smile and small wave. “Hello!” Paige greeted, getting up and walking over to Sunset, offering her a hand. Sunset took it cautiously, and Paige gently shook. “And next to her is Ardent Danseur.” The other redhead gave Sunset a cocky smirk. “We’ve got one more with us, but they’re running late,” Ardent said with a shrug. “Come join us,” she continued, patting the chair next to her. Sunset made her to way to the offered seat, only to squeak in surprise as the other red-head suddenly wrapped one of her arms around the pony girl’s shoulders. “No need to be so nervous!” Ardent said with a laugh. “We’re all friends here!” Sunset stiffened as her face was suddenly in the other girl’s chest. “Ardent, your making the poor girl burn up,” Bamboo said softly from her book, flipping a page. “Hmm? What do you mean? She’s fine!” Ardent said, looking at Sunset. “See? She’s fine!” Sunset didn’t say anything, her face as red as a tomato. With a small push, she removed her face from the other girls bust, to Ardent’s bemused smile. Hari, looking embarrassed, laughed uneasily before clearing her throat. “So, Sunset, thank you for joining us! I wasn’t sure if you were going to make it or not.” Sunset turned her attention to the pink haired girl. “Well, when you said that you finally found me, I just needed to know what that was supposed to mean.” Hari pushed her fingers together, looking a bit nervous. “Well, you see…” “Um, not to be rude,” Paige spoke up. “But we have a game to finish, don’t we?” The blonde pointed down at the table between them, where a spread of cards was laid out. “Ah, right! Sorry Paige!” Hari said, looking embarrassed. “I’ll explain more after this game, okay?” Sunset nodded, and looked down at the cards. On Hari’s side was a single stack of cards, and on Paige’s side were six cards, in two rows of three. “Oh, forgive my ignorance, but may I know what game is that?” Sunset said, nervously. “Its called Cardfight Vanguard,” Ardent replied, as Hari drew a card from her deck. “Basically, its a game where we become Vanguards, the ones who lead, on the Planet Cray, and lead our units into battle against other Vanguards! The whole point of the game is to deal six points of damage to your opponent, which causes your opponent to lose their link with their Vanguard and lose the game.” “What do you mean by, ‘lose their link’?” Sunset asked, confused. “You see, when we play, we become the Vanguard,” Bamboo continued, flipping a page. “Like Ardent said, we are leading our own followers, or our ‘Rear-Guards’, into battle. When we lose the game, we lose our link, that is until the next game starts. Its as simple as that.” “Final Turn!” Hari declared, pulling everyone’s attention back on her. Sunset’s vision became blurry, as everything else around her started to become hazy and unfocused. When she came to, she found herself standing over a silver and blue pristine city scape. All the buildings around her matched those two colors, and any other color seemed to not exist in this place. However, in the center of it all, were several humanoid figures on two different sides. On one, there stood a lone figure clad in violet stage magician clothing, wearing an large top hat and wielding a black cane with a pink gem cut to look like a cartoon-ish looking bat. On the other side were three similarly armored women, all of them clad in silver and blue armor. In the center stood the tallest of the three, wielding a shield resembling the moon and silver spear the shape of a crescent moon. Her white cape waved in the wind, and her blonde hair was kept in place by a silver tiara. The figures to her left and right were nearly identical, except that the one to her left wielded a short sword, and the one to her right wielded a great-axe, both weapons having some semblance to a phase of the moon. “What's this place?” Sunset asked, confused about what happened. Looking at her hands, her eyes widened and she nearly panicked at the fact they were see-through and ephemeral. “Its over Hari!” the knight in the center declared, holding out her spear. “There’s nothing you can do!” “We’ll see!” the lone child magician shouted back, smiling as she raised her scepter. “Now, let the true stars take the stage!” The staff’s mouth opened up and let out a thick purple smoke that enveloped her. A bright flash of light illuminated a taller, more imposing figure in the smoke, and one burst of wind revealed a taller and more majestic looking version the child before, while standing before a giant purple dragon. “Come, performers of the Pale Moon Circus!” the older woman called out, removing her top hat with flourish. The same smoke from before pooled out of the hat and flooded the field, revealing a large chimera like creature to their left and a young woman in a dark black, red and purple dress, holding thin swords in between her fingers. “Bring it on!” the shield-bearer knight yelled, hunkering down behind her shield. A bright flash of light shot forth from their clash, making Sunset shield her eyes with hands. “Sunset? Are you okay?” She blinked. Looking around, she saw the concerned faces of the Hari, Ardent and Paige giving her looks of concern while Bamboo was giving her a bored stare. “What, what happened?” Sunset asked, holding her head. “You kind of spaced out there,” Ardent said, nodding to Hari, who went to a nearby vending machine for a cold drink. “That and your eyes got all strange and glowy.” “Wait, what?” Sunset said, sharply looking up. “Easy, easy,” Ardent said, patting Sunset’s back. “It just more or less confirms what we’re looking for.” “What do you mean?” Sunset asked, her suspicion growing. “Actually, here; it’d be easier if I just showed you. Look at these,” Ardent said, going into her pocket and pulling out six different cards. Sunset immediately recognized two of them, as they were just played in game just now, Masked Phantom, Hari and Blaster Blade, High Lady Gallant. On the other cards there various different creatures and humanoids. One depicted a young woman wearing a fiery red tube top that left her tanned skin exposed, and a deep reddish purple dress that exposed a lot of the woman’s legs. Their vermillion red hair was kept in place by a golden tiara, and lightning and fire danced around them. The next card depicted a bipedal panda, clad in robes befitting a professor, although the setting placed them in a garden. The next card depicted a woman wearing and skintight white and blue jumpsuit, something akin to classic superhero suits, that had an eagle motif, their identity being hidden behind a mask resembling the upper half of an eagle's beak. Finally, the last card depicted a woman clad in what Sunset could easily say was a pirate’s outfit, complete with cutlass and tricorn hat. “Dragon Dancer of the Turbulent Skies, Tiamat,” Sunset read the names of the cards,  each one sounding more and more familiar to her. “Nature Professor, Nimue. Hidden Hero, Taka-Wing. And...and...Vampire Princess of Starlight, Nightrose?” Sunset clutched her head as a sharp pain shot through it... “Please remember, my Vanguard…” Sunset let out once last gasp before she lost consciousness... “Captain on deck, you undead wretches! A good evening to you, Captain, sir!” When she came to, she found herself on an old, decrepit yet still seaworthy vessel, sauntering from what she assumed were the Captain’s Quarters. The one addressing her, a man with deathly pale white skin, wearing a blood red leather harness over his bear chest, black leathers over his legs and feet as well as a black jacket over his shoulders like a cape. The man smirked to her, bearing rows of sharp looking fangs. “Tis a good night indeed, my dear first mate Colombard!” Sunset heard her voice say, before taking a drink from the bottle she was holding. The coppery taste of blood flooded her mouth, yet, despite Sunset’s urge to vomit,  whoever she was looking through seemed to enjoy it! She tossed the bottle to this ‘Colombard’, who smiled and took a swig from the same drink. Sunset walked over to the port side of the ship, pulling out a looking glass to gaze upon a small fortress looking island, protected by a neon green barrier. “We’re almost upon them, Big Sis,” Colombard said softly, putting the bottle down as he approached. “The others have sent message that they are en-route as well, give or take several hours.” “Has our scouts returned with anything?” Sunset...no, Nightrose...asked softly, putting her looking glass away. “Other than their skulls without their bodies, no,” a new voice said. Colombard and Nightrose looked overboard and saw a young girl clad in similarly designed clothing as Nightrose, but was worn more conservatively than the captain. With a burst of water from the various octopus tentacles on her back, she landed on the deck with a bow. “Parting Shade, Report,” Sunset said, her voice stern. Before this new face could explain, everything faded away again… When she came to, she found herself on her back, her head resting on someone’s lap. “Are you alright?” a familiar voice asked softly. Sunset winced at the bright light obscuring her vision. “Who…?” “Rest, my Vanguard,” the voice said, a gentle hand placing itself on her forehead, giving some reprieve from the bright light. Sunset stiffened at the title given to her, but a new person took one of her hands in their own. Turning over, this new person had silvery white hair tied back in simple pony tail and was wearing a yellow tank top, black cargo pants and a black jacket over her waist. “We came running as soon as Paige called us!” the silver haired girl said, smiling at Sunset. “My name is Eagle Eye, by the way.” Sunset pulled herself up from a lying down, and sat herself upright against the wall. Holding onto her head head, she looked to her right, only for her eyes to widen at the sight of girl with dark blue hair, kept short (by her nape) and yellow eyes, wearing a dull yellow jacket over a black and white shirt that had a purple butterfly on her chest, and a white skirt. “Nightrose…?” Sunset asked, the name slowly coming from her lips. The blue haired girl smiled and nodded slowly. “Its been a while, hasn’t it?” To Be Continued