//------------------------------//
// Chapter 6: Ancient Rules 
// Story: Yu-Gi-Oh: Dark Crusaders 
// by RuinQueenofOblivion 
//------------------------------//

Sweetie's eyes fluttered open as she looked up at the ceiling of her room in the Paramount hotel. She sighed a little as she got up and looked out the window again to see the city in hopes that maybe there was someone out there and it had all been some terrible dream.

No luck of course, there was no one outside just like there had been no one out there earlier. The entire city felt like it was dead except for the occasional duelist, and only one of them that they had met so far had been friendly.

She reached into her bag and pulled out her Kozmo deck. When Rarity had found out what deck she was making, she had of course asked why. Sweetie didn't have much of a reason to be honest, except for one thing that she had experienced when she was getting new cards.

She took out Kozmo Farmgirl and looked at her card for a long moment. This was her favorite card in the deck, and more than that she felt like there was something about it that reached out to her sometimes, though she didn't really understand what it was or why.

She sighed and put it back in the deck as she put it away. She headed back out of the room, figuring right now what she needed was a glass of water, she headed to the small kitchen area and got a glass out and was about to pour the water when she heard a yawn from the pull out bed and looked over to see Scootaloo sitting up.

"Oh, hey Sweetie," she said as she stretched out. Sweetie blushed a little since in the dim light she could see that her friend was dressed in a bra and shorts.

She hadn't been more thankful for the darkness than she was right then.

"Hey Scootaloo," Sweetie said with a soft smile as she turned a light on and sat down on the bed.

"So, I have a weird question," Scootaloo said.

"What's that?"

"Well, we're probably trapped alone in this city, right?"

"Yeah?"

"So, why do we still have power for lights and running water?" Scootaloo said and Sweetie blinked a little, she hadn't thought about that.

"I don't know, maybe whoever this mysterious benefactor of ours is they're helping us out," Sweetie said with a shrug. "That or whatever the Society is up to is keeping it running for some reason. I really don't know."

"Yeah, me neither," Scootaloo said with a shrug as she realized that Sweetie could see her, she blushed and quickly tried to cover herself up with the blanket.

"Oh come on Scoots, its not like we haven't seen each other in our underwear before," Sweetie said with a chuckle.

"Yeah, when we were kids, and you weren't so..." Scootaloo said and blushed deeper when she realized what she was about to say. She tried not to look at Sweetie who looked at her friend curiously for a moment.

"Weren't so, what?" She asked.

"Nothing... just, thinking out loud," Scootaloo said and blushed deeper. "I guess I just didn't think about that, and after earlier..."

"Hey, you helped me out by giving me your jacket," Sweetie said with a smile. "Scootaloo, you're a good friend, no matter what you've always been there for me. Same with Apple Bloom of course but..."

She let that thought trail off for a moment as she blushed a little. She found her eyes wandering a little bit over Scootaloo's chest hidden by the blanket and Scootaloo shook her head.

"Yeah, I know what you mean," she said. "Look Sweetie, I..."

"Yes?"

Scootaloo froze, how was she going to finish that sentence? Did it even really matter what she felt about her friend? There wasn't exactly a lot of opportunities for dates or whatever in a city that had been overrun by a crazy cult, so could she even really tell her right now?

Heck did she even understand what she felt for the girl? Maybe there was something there, or maybe there was nothing and she had just been reacting like this because they were friends.

But at the same time, if she did feel something for Sweetie and there was a possibility of her returning those feelings, what if she waited too long? What happened if they lost to the Society? She didn't want to think about that right now. Still, maybe she should tell Sweetie... there was something about the young woman, her soft skin, her kind eyes, her cute butt...

She shook her head as she tried not to think about that.

"I was just wondering if you wanted to sleep out here, with me... as friends I mean!" Scootaloo said and facepalmed internally at what she had said. "I mean its been a rough day, and, well, I was just thinking maybe..."

Sweetie just laughed as she laid back on the bed and gave Scootaloo a smile. "I wouldn't mind doing that at all," she said and grinned a little. "You know, fair's fair."

She took off her nightgown and pulled the sheets up over her a little as she gave Scootaloo a smile. "See, this isn't so bad is it?"

"No, not really," Scootaloo admitted with a sigh.

"Besides, at least we're not in that Equestria place Sunset is from," Sweetie added. "She once told me that they almost never wear clothes there."

Scootaloo laughed a little at that. "Well, I don't know maybe its a pony thing."

"Yeah, I'm sure it is," Sweetie said as she rolled over and closed her eyes.

Scootaloo watched her friend for the longest moment before she turned around and closed her eyes too.

00000

"Meanae, I am glad that you finished your mission," the woman seated on the throne said as she took the flash drive and gave it to one of her other servants. "Was there any difficulty in carrying it out?"

"No ma'am, I did it without problem," Meanae said with a nod. "Though, I'm still a little worried about those three girls."

"As am I, perhaps we should make our presence a bit more, known soon," the ruler said with a shake of her head as she looked between the two duel monsters spirits she had tasked with watching them. "Is there anything to report on them that we don't know already?"

"No ma'am," G.G. said with a shake of her head.

"Well..." Meanae said and paused a moment. "It may be nothing, but sometimes when I see them I get a, strange feeling coming from their decks. It may be nothing, but I don't know if I should be worried or not."

"I see," the woman on the throne said and rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "This may be something worth looking into, perhaps there is something that we don't know yet."

"Understood your majesty," Meanae said with a nod. "How much should we tell them about what's going on?"

"We need to tell them as much as we can," the Queen said with a shake of her head. "Tell them what they need to do to stop the Society. Or, at least what we hope is what they need to do."

"Understood your majesty, we will tell them tomorrow," G.G. said and bowed.

"Very good," the Queen said and the two left as she clapped her hands and an old balding man dressed in a lab coat with glasses appeared. "Magical Scientist, I have a project for you."

"Excellent," the spirit said as he took the flash drive from her. "I've been waiting to get my hands on this information for awhile now."

"Yes, well don't take too long, we need this set up as quickly as possible," the Queen said.

"Yes your majesty," he said and bowed as he scurried off to start working on his project.

The Queen watched him go and shook her head after a moment. She didn't like having to deal with him, but he knew more about technology and science than most spirits in her employ did, and that was what was going to give them the advantage here.

She just hoped that it was going to be enough.

00000

A few hours earlier.

"I'm sorry, but if there is any magic involved in Manehattan, I don't think its related to Equestria," Sunset said as she walked into her living room with Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack behind her. "I'm sorry, I just don't know what kind of force could be behind this."

"Are you sure?" Rarity asked. "Darling, our little sisters are in that city and they could be in..."

"She's right," Twilight said as she came in. "Equestrian magic has a very specific frequency, but this dome is on a different wavelength. Whatever we're looking at in Manehattan, it isn't Equestrian magic."

"Uh, do we want ta know how yah found that out?" Applejack asked.

"Well, see Shining Armor is in the military and I asked him to fly a scanning device on a drone really close to the dome..." Twilight said and rubbed the back of her head. "Well, I mean he's safe and its not like anyone's been able to enter the city at all."

"Alright, well that answers one question at least," Rarity said with a shake of her head. "So, if its not Equestrian magic, then what are we looking at here?"

"Well, I did some research into the history of magic in our world," Twilight said. "And interestingly enough a lot of it seems to be tied into the history of Duel Monsters. See if we go back to Ancient Egypt for example there was this Pharaoh who is said to have sealed away something called the shadow games. And then there's the stories from awhile back about Duel Monsters coming to life and rumors about Atlantis, and that's not even going into what happened..."

"Uh Twi, we don't really need the whole history lesson here," Rainbow Dash said. "Do you think that we can maybe get into the city?"

"Well, short answer, no," Twilight said. "We don't know anything about the magic used to create the dome. Getting into the dome is not going to be easy, and may even be impossible. I wish I had better news for you, I'm sorry." 

The three women sighed a little as Applejack hugged Rarity. "It'll be alright sugarcube, they'll make it out of there, Ah'm sure of it."

"Do you really think so?" Rarity asked as she looked in the taller girl's eyes.

"Ah know so, they're strong kids, if anyone can make it out of this they can," Applejack said with a smile as she kissed Rarity lightly on the lips. "Ah know it."

"I hope you're right," Rainbow Dash said with a sigh as she brushed her hair back. "I'm worried about Scootaloo, I mean after my folks adopted her things haven't been easy for her and now she's stuck in there. I, really hope she's going to be okay."

"Don't worry, she will be," Rarity said and she nodded at Sunset. "Do you have any suggestions as to what we can do?"

"I'll send word to Princess Twilight, maybe she'll be able to help," Sunset said with a shake of her head. "I wish there was more I could do, but we don't really know a lot about what's happening so we don't really know."

"Yeah, here's hoping we'll find something..." Rarity said with a shake of her head. "Who do you think might be behind this?"

"I don't know, but whoever it is, I hope they can be stopped," Sunset said and the others nodded.

00000

Above the city of Manehattan the man walked back into his throne room and looked at Eternal Bliss who glanced up at him. "Is there anything new to report?"

"The dark's chosen ones have survived an encounter with someone," Eternal said as she tapped the card. "The Devil is now in play, this spell danger."

"For who?"

"For all of us."

"So then what do you suggest?"

"We need to approach with caution," Eternal said as she shuffled her deck. "Perhaps its time to move into phase two of the plan already. We need to get as much light energy as we can ready, so we have to make sure that everything is in place."

"Perhaps you're right, the forge has finished the last of the cards for now," the man said as he took a seat again. "The Light has been good to us so far."

"Indeed," Eternal said as she turned around and looked at him again. "Shall I send word to the first of the Acolytes to move into position?"

"Yes, send word to them to set up and send a few more of our servants," the man said as he took out his tablet again. "Perhaps we can send someone to get in their way tomorrow, what options do we have."

He scrolled through it for a long moment before he nodded and tapped one of the options. They were a professional duelist in the city which was going to make things harder for whichever the Crusaders wound up dueling her. Plus ironically enough she ran a deck that was stolen from the Society's cards.

"Very well, we'll send her," he said. "In the morning, our power is too weak at night in this darkness. In the meantime, the Acolytes will start to move into position."

The fortune teller nodded and looked back at her cards. She wasn't ready to draw another card yet, but she knew that whatever was going to happen next was going to be hard to do.

"Perhaps we should send someone else as well," she suggested and got up and took the tablet from him. "Like these two, what do you think?"

"Hmm, curious..." he said and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "Perhaps that could work, it will certainly make things difficult for our would-be heroes. Alright, but one of them doesn't even know how to duel or have a deck."

"The Light will provide," Eternal said as she sat back down. "They will figure something out, I am sure."

The man on the throne nodded as he leaned back and waited. Now it was just a matter of waiting to see what was going to happen next.

00000

Sweetie's eyes fluttered open the next morning and she blushed a little when she realized that Scootaloo had laid up against her sometime over night. She smiled a little and wrapped her arms around her friend gently as she smiled a little in her sleep.

This wasn't too bad, it was actually really nice to feel the girl's warm body against her. Given everything that was going on, she could get used to this kind of thing. Though, she was still worried about everything and the fact that something could happen to them at any moment.

Scootaloo shifted lightly in her sleep and sighed happily as she snuggled up with Sweetie. Sweetie closed her eyes and just enjoyed the feeling for awhile before the door to the other room opened and Apple Bloom came out of her bedroom.

"Yah know, if ya'll wanted ta spend time together, all yah had ta do was say so," Apple Bloom said as the two girls' eyes shot open and they blushed.

"This isn't what it looks like!" Sweetie said as Scootaloo was trying to wake up.

"Really, ya'll are in yer underwear and snuggling with each other, what else does it look like?" Apple Bloom asked with a smirk.

"We weren't..." Scootaloo said and blushed more. "She and I just... umm..."

Before there was anything else there was a knock on the door. Sweetie and Scootaloo quickly got their clothes on and grabbed their duel disks as Apple Bloom looked through the peephole.

She blinked in surprise when she saw two women on the other side, one of them had long brown hair and was dressed in leather while the other was blonde wand dressed in a magician's outfit.

"Who is it?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Ah have no idea, they look like cosplayers or something," Apple Bloom said as she opened the door a little. "Can Ah help ya'll?"

"We're here to try and help you," the brown haired woman said. "We're working for the Healing Darkness, we can tell you what's going on in the city."

"What should we do?" Apple Bloom asked as she looked at her friends.

"Alright, we'll let you in, but don't try anything," Scootaloo said as they readied their duel disks just in case this was a trap set by the Society.

"We're not working for the society," the blonde woman said with a shake of her head. "We just wanted to give you some information, once we're done we'll leave."

"Okay, why do you look like duel monsters cards then?" Sweetie Belle asked. "I mean you're Gagaga Girl and you're Meanae the Thorn, right? Are you cosplaying or..."

"Well, not exactly," Meanae said and looked over at Gagaga Girl. "I told you we should've used illusion magic, G.G."

"Look, we're Monster Spirits," G.G. said with a shake of her head. "We look like those cards because we're the monsters they were based on, I know it sounds crazy."

"We went to a high school that was nearly turned into an army of brainwashed zombies, got targeted by three crazy singers trying to feed on our emotions, and then there was the time rifts in the fabric of reality were created," Sweetie Belle pointed out. "Yeah, this isn't exactly the weirdest thing we've ever encountered."

Meanae and G.G. just blinked and exchanged looks. "I see... that would explain a lot," Meanae said with a shake of her head before she looked back at the Crusaders. "Anyway, as we were saying we were sent here because our leader decided that you needed to know more about what is going on."

"Well, we do know that the Society of Light is invading the city and we're the only three not affected for some reason," Scootaloo said.

"Unless ya'll know somethin' about that," Apple Bloom added.

"Well, yeah we were the one's that protected you, or I was at least," G.G. Said with a shake of her head. "But you need to know more than that. The fact of the matter is that the Society of Light has become more and more dangerous since they were defeated at Duel Academy."

"Well I mean that was a bit of a set back for them obviously," Meanae said and shook her head. "I still remember that nightmare."

"But they've never set their sights on something this big before," G.G. added. "Which worries us that they might have something big planned."

"What exactly is the Society of Light's end goal here?" Scootaloo asked. "I mean, everything considered they're a cult right? What do they worship?"

"Its called the Light of Destruction," Meanae said. "Its a wicked form of Light as I'm sure you've realized by now. It wants to either enslave or destroy all life in the universe, a sort of cosmic force of evil. Its nothing to be trifled with, but the Society and their leader are definitely under their sway."

"Their leader?" Sweetie asked.

"Yes, he was once a pro duelist and the former Equestrian champion," G.G. said.

"Wait, you mean..." Scootaloo said as her eyes went wide, she remembered who they were talking about, and he had been one of the best duelists around until Rainbow Dash had taken the title away.

"Victor Lux, he was always a strange one to say the least," Sweetie said with a nod. "He did used to use light type monsters a lot, is it possible he's been working for the Society this whole time? Why are they back now anyway?"

"Well after Sartorious was defeated by Jaden, Lux was one of the few duelists still under the Light's sway for some reason so he rebuilt it from the ground up," Meanae said. "And his defeat by a certain Rainbow haired woman isn't helping, but I wouldn't exactly trust him to play by the same rules Sartorious did."

"Yeah, I mean he's already taken over most of the city," G.G. said.

"Yeah, but we can deal with the Society," Scootaloo said. "They're not exactly a challenge so far, even if they have most of the duelists in the city."

"Its the Four Acolytes of the Light you have to worry about," G.G. said. "They're his most powerful followers and dangerous duelists that know how to play the game in ways no one has ever seen. If we can take away the power of their light and the control over people, it will, in theory, diminish their hold on the city."

"Or it may make Lux stronger," Meanae pointed out. "We don't really know, and his giant flying castle isn't helping matters any."

"But the point is that your only hope is to take out as many duelists in the city as you can, especially the Acolytes," G.G. said. "We're going to be providing what help we can, but there are limits on our presence in the human world."

"Wait, what about Trueman?" Sweetie Belle asked. "What's his stake in all of this?"

"He's, dangerous," Meanae said with a shake of her head. "The Darkness has many aspects, and while we work for the Benevolent Darkness, the manifestation of what is good about it, he works for NIghtshrowd, Nightshrowd is a malignant force that wants nothing more than to cloak the world in darkness and bring together all the dimensions into one, and it makes him dangerous."

"So, what are we supposed to do if Trueman comes back?" Scootaloo asked.

"Duel him, that's the best I can suggest," G.G. said. "He wants to give his master more power and because you're the chosen ones, you've been granted some bits of dark power of your own. I'm afraid that its going to make you a target for Trueman and maybe even other forces of darkness that make it into the city."

"I see," Sweetie said. "And let me guess, we can't just walk out of the city?"

"And no one can get into it either," Apple Bloom added.

"I'm afraid so," G.G. said. "But we're going to give you all the help we can get through the stashes and anything else. There's something we're working on as well, but I can't promise it'll be done soon."

"I see," Scootaloo said with a shake of her head. "We're really the only hope Manehattan has aren't we?"

"If not the whole world," Meanae said.

"Here, take these," G.G. said as she reached into her pocket and took out three cards. The three friends each took one and blinked a little when they saw that they were blank other than that they were spell cards.

"What are these?" Scootaloo asked as she looked at the card in her hand strangely. "They don't seem to have anything on them."

"They're special cards we were told to give you," Meanae said. "When you're ready, you will know what they're for."

The three friends looked at the cards they had been given strangely for a moment and sighed as they thought about it.

Now they just had to figure out what they meant.