Sleep was a very fickle mistress as far as Red was concerned. Normally, he was used to staying up for extended periods of time so that he could steal cards from Sector Security's vaults and escape before sunrise, usually met with heavy resistance from Security forces. However, between being rudely awoken in the middle of the night, having two life or death Duels, one of which being a Riding Duel, and a lengthy discussion about the potential danger facing Equestria, which was interrupted so that Luna could lower the moon, Red wanted nothing more than to reach Twilight’s guest room he was inhabiting for the time being and go to sleep.
“Well Luna, that was fun and all, but right now, I just want to go to-” Red began to say, before he was interrupted from a 50 story tall building emerging from the ground right behind him and Luna, as well as all of Ponyville suddenly turning into a big city not unlike Manehattan with the the skyline suddenly changing from the middle of the day to the middle of the night.
“What the-How could this be!?” Luna questioned “We had left Manehattan last night, and I lowered the moon to make way for my sister to raise the sun! How could time have been rewound like this!?”
“No, Luna, I think there's a Duel going on! But based on the fact that the Skyscraper Field Spell is active, I'm worried about who it is that's Dueling!” Red hurried to turn a corner, and both to his relief and confusion, instead of finding another human Dueling, he found two fillies Dueling, one of which having an orange coat and purple mane, while the other had a pink coat with a tiara of some sort on top of her bright purple mane
“So what? We've had a change in real estate! My Dragon is still stronger than your Hero!” the pink filly called out
“Yeah, but not for long! When an Elemental HERO battles a stronger monster, Skyscraper gives it 1000 ATK!”
“Wait, what!?”
“Elemental HERO Flame Wingman attacks your Cyber Dragon Infinity! Skydive Scorcher!” The orange filly’s monster jumped from a radio antenna on top of one of the buildings, engulfing itself in flames, and charging towards the cybernetic dragon in front of it, which it punched a hole through
Pink Filly 2300 LP -> 2100 LP
“And that's not all Diamond Tiara! When Flame Wingman destroys a monster by battle and sends it to the Graveyard, you take damage equal to its original ATK!”
“What!?” Diamond Tiara looked up at her once proud dragon, only to see that its eyes were now lifeless, as it began to fall apart directly on top of her
Diamond Tiara 2100 LP -> 0 LP
“Wow! That was great Scootaloo!” A yellow filly with a bow in her hair called out, running towards the orange one
“Um, guys? Shouldn’t we make sure Diamond Tiara is alright?” A white unicorn filly asked, gesturing over to the crumbled remains of the Cyber Dragon Flame Wingman had just punctured
“I’m okay!” Called out Diamond Tiara, as the Solid Vision began to dissipate
“Hey, sorry to interrupt, but where did you get those?” Red said as he walked up to the group, pointing towards their Duel Disks
“Huh? Oh, these? Rainbow Dash gave them to us!” Scootaloo said, flapping her tiny wings as fast as possible to hover slightly above the ground
“She said that Starlight made more of them. Oh, and I’m Sweetie Belle, and this is our friend Applebloom! What’s your name?”
“The name’s Red, and Starlight made more Duel Disks how exactly?”
“Ah don’t know, somethin’ about her fancy magic.”
“Right, well, I guess I’ll get better answers if I confront her directly, nice meeting you!” Red began to walk towards Twilight’s castle, assuming that Starlight would be there, but was stopped when he heard Scootaloo yell to him
“Wait! Rainbow Dash told us you were an awesome Duelist who gave her these Duel Disk thingies, you wanna play?”
“Maybe later, but for now I gotta go, sorry!” Red responded, now running towards Twilight’s castle, Luna following behind him
“But doesn’t Starlight know the dangers of Duel Monsters?” Luna asked “Surely, she would have seen the bullet holes in your guest room, right?”
“I’m not sure, but that isn’t normal, Duel Disks aren’t supposed to have portable Solid Vision with mass projectors, and you saw that kid, Cyber Dragon Infinity fell apart right on top of her but she was no worse for wear, what happened last night isn’t natural.”
“Hey, wait up!” Red heard call out to him as he felt something keeping him from moving
“W-what the hell!? My body won’t move-! What’s going on!?”
“Yeah, sorry about this, but I had a feeling you would just run past me if I didn’t, but hi! My name’s Sunburst!” Red was lifted up and turned around to see an orange unicorn in what he guessed to be a blue cloak talking to him, the unicorn’s horn glowing light yellow, just like his entire body
“Sunburst...oh yeah, you’re the guy who’s supposed to help me get home, right?”
“Yeah, but it’s going to take some time, even with talented unicorns like me and Starlight with help from Princess Twilight, dimension magic is incredibly difficult, so it’s going to take a lot of time.”
“It’s alright, I spent some time in yet another alternate dimension, and I’ve got a guy there working on a way to get me home, so don’t worry about it, just, put me down, alright?”
“Oh! Of course!” Sunburst dispelled his magic, dropping Red, who proceded to fell on his face due to the sudden change in how he was oriented “Oh! Sorry about that!”
“No, it’s fine, I’ve had enough Riding Duel crashes for this to be nothing to me, and even then, the ground is way softer than back home.” Red stood up and saw the massive stage that he, Luna, Sunburst, and a large group of ponies were all standing in front of with raised curtains “Say, what’s this stage for?”
“It’s a show that my friends Trixie and Starlight are doing today! Apparently it’s to show off this new ‘Dual Creatures’ thing or something.”
“Duel Monsters!” a blue unicorn in a wizard hat poked her head out from behind the curtain to correct him
“Right, well I just got here so I don’t know much about this Duel Monsters game. Oh! It’s starting!”
The curtain on the stage pulled back to reveal a large white and blue dragon, along with two unicorns, one blue wearing a wizard’s hat and cloak, the other pink, who Red recognized to be Starlight
“Come one! Come all! Come to The Great and Powerful Trrrrrixie’s Duel Monster Demonstration Tour!” The blue unicorn said, and almost as if it had a cue, the dragon on the stage flew into the air, turning its blue wings red, as the crowd watched in amazement “Now, today one of you lucky ponies will get to try out this new spectacle by Dueling The Great and Powerful Trixie AND her Great and Powerful Assistant Starlight Glimmer! Who will it be?” Trixie scanned the crowd for eager ponies, only to have her eyes lock on Red, who stood out more than anyone else “How about the tall, red, and two legged creature? Surely he wants to try!”
“No.”
“What?”
“No.”
“Wha-Why not!?”
“Because I don’t want to.”
“Well fine! Is anypony else willing to Duel?”
“We sure is!” Called a voice from the side of Trixie’s stage as two humans, both of whom were wearing Duel Disks on their left arms, walked on stage “We ain’t no stinkin’ ponies, but we’re ready to Duel, ain’t dat right Tristan?”
“It sure is!” The other one responded, raising his Duel Disk “You ready to kick some serious ass Joey?”
“Well then, it appears that we have our challengers!” Trixie stated loudly, as Starlight walked up to her
“Uh, Trixie? You sure these are good show opponents? They seem a little dangerous, you sure we can take them?”
“Oh of course Starlight, I am Great and Powerful after all! Alright then, so in order to Duel, you’re going to need some of these Duel Disks-”
“Oh, we already have our own!” Tristan said, as both he and Joey activated their Duel Disks, the wings on both sides extending before uniting above the deck slot before sliding into place alongside the Graveyard slot
“Perfect! Now then, it’s time!” Trixie shouted shouted
DUEL
Trixie/Starlight 16000 LP
Hand: 5
Joey/Tristan 16000 LP
Hand: 5
“Red, shouldn’t you go up and Duel in their place?” Luna asked
“No, I’ve done my history work over the years, and from what I’ve learned, those two are Katsuya Jonouchi in the green jacket, and Hiroto Honda in the brown trench coat, although I’m not sure why they’ve changed their names to Joey and Tristan. Anyway, Jonouchi’s deck relies heavily on cards with random effects, meaning that while he consistently ranked high at tournaments, he lucked out on all his wins, and he’s an idiot on top of that, while Honda has no Dueling history, and he’s also an idiot, so I have no doubt in my mind that Starlight and Trixie can beat them, provided that they’re using even half decent decks.” Red responded
“But that’s still a massive risk! Go and stop them!”
“I can’t, they’ve already activated their Duel Disks, and once a Duel starts, the Disks won’t accept anymore challengers until the current Duel ends. Relax, it’ll be fine”
“I’ll go first!” Trixie shouted “When I control no monsters, I can Special Summon Linkslayer from my hoof, er, hand!"
(Level 5, 2000 ATK 600 DEF)
"Now, when I control a Cyberse monster, I can Special Summon Backup Secretary from my hoof, er, hand!"
(Level 3, 1200 ATK 800 DEF)
"Now I Normal Summon my Draconet!"
(Level 3, 1400 ATK 1200 DEF)
"When Draconet is Normal Summoned, I can Special Summon a level 2 or lower Normal Monster from my deck in Defence Position! I Special Summon my Bitron!"
(Level 2, 200 ATK 2000 DEF)
"Lastly, when a Cyberse monster is Normal Summoned to my field, I can Special Summon Boot Staggered from my hand!” (Level 5, 2300 ATK 500 DEF)
“So you all but emptied your hand just to summon a bunch of low level monsters?” Tristan asked from across the stage
“Yes, but it was so that I could do this! Appear! Uh, something, something, something, I use Digitron in the Link Marker! Appear, Link 1! Link Spider!" (Link 1, 
"Yes! It worked! Now, I activate Link Spider’s effect! Once per turn, I can Special Summon a Level 4 or lower Normal Monster to its Link arrow!” I Special Summon Bitron!” Trixie shouted, but nothing happened. Trixie continued to shout “Summon Bitron!” but to no avail until Starlight pulled up her field view.
“Uh, Trixie? You can’t actually use Link Spider’s effect, you summoned everything to the rightmost zones, you can’t actually summon Bitron.” She said, showing Trixie her field layout, Backup Secretary taking up the Main Monster Zone Link Spider pointed to.
“I knew that! So anyway, come back! Something, something, circuit, uh, I use my Link 1 Link Spider, Backup Secretary, Draconet, and Linkslayer in the Link Markers! Appear! Topologic Bomber Dragon!" (Link 4, 3000 ATK, 
"Now, I’ll set one card face down and end the turn.” A giant card appeared in front of Trixie, while most ponies in the audience were intimidated by her dragon, Luna included.
“Well then, I’m impressed that she managed to turbo out Topologic Bomber Dragon on her first turn, but she emptied the shit out of her hand to do it, I just hope she has that that face down card of hers is Scapegoat, otherwise she probably won’t be able to make use of it.” Red said.
“Wha-How are you able to say that so casually with a dragon like that right in front of you!?” Sunburst asked, practically yelling through his fear.
“My deck is full of dragons that visually speaking, make Topologic Bomber pale in comparison. If you think Trixie’s dragon is terrifying, just wait until you see me in action.” Red responded.
“And now it’s my turn!” Joey shouted as he drew.
Trixie/Starlight 16000 LP
Hand: 1
Joey/Tristan 16000 LP
Hand: 6
“In a tag Duel, I may not be able to attack on da first turn, but I can still smash yer monster with card effects!” Joey said “First, I’ll activate my Catalyst Field Field Spell card!” A flap opened on the rightmost side of Joey’s Duel Disk that he slid his card into, and as it closed the skyline in Ponyville changed to a bright purple as all the clouds disappeared. “Thank to dis change in scenery, not only can I Normal Summon Gemini monsters without tributing, I can Normal Summon dem’ twice per turn! First off, I Normal Summon my Red-Eyes Archfiend of Lightning!”
(Level 6, Gemini, 2500 ATK 1500 DEF)
“Wait, Red-Eyes? Red, isn’t that your deck?” Luna asked.
“Yes, but I run the Equip variant, as it lends itself better to Riding Duels where Speed World restricts my Spell Card usage, Jonouchi seems to be running the Gemini variant, but to his credit, anything would be better than those accursed gamble cards history recorded him using in his time.”
“Now, using Catalyst Field’s second effect, I Normal Summon, or I guess you could say Gemini Summon, my Red-Eyes Archfiend of Lightning!”
(Level 6, Gemini, 2500 ATK 1200 DEF)
“Wait, you summoned it twice? What point was there to doing that?” Starlight asked.
“Well you see, normally a Gemini is a Normal Monster, but by Normal Summoning it while it’s on da field, it becomes an effect monster wid’ a special power! And now I’m using dat power to wipe out all your monsters with lower Deffence Points than my Archfiend’s ATK, primarily dat dere dragon of yours!” Red-Eyes Archfiend of Lightning generated powerful electricity between its two claws before throwing it at Trixie’s Topologic Bomber Dragon, who was unfazed by the powerful surges of electricity. “Ay what gives!? That dragon shoulda been blasted to high hell!”
“It’s a Link Monster you dumbass!” Red shouted. “It doesn’t even have Defence Points in the first place!”
“Whatever, I’m still blastin’ it to hell! I use the third effect of Catalyst Field! Once per turn, I can Banish one of my Gemini monsters that has its effect to destroy one monster you control! I Banish my Red-Eyes Archfiend of Lightning to destroy your Bomber Dragon!” Joey’s Archfiend disappeared into thin air as Trixie’s Topologic Bomber Dragon exploded, leaving nothing but a giant card in front of her. “I set two cards and end my turn!”
“Well, my turn! I draw!” Starlight shouted as she waved her hoof in front of her, pulling up all the cards in her hand
Starlight/Trixie 16000 LP
Hand: 6
Joey/Tristan 16000 LP
Hand: 2
“For my first move, I activate my Pot of Desires! I banish the top ten cards of my deck face down, effectively removing them from the rest of the game entirely, and draw two cards!” Starlight watched as her Duel Disk emitted a screen with an animation of ten cards being removed from the top of a deck with a list of the banished cards appearing before her. “Good, nothing important.” she thought. “Now, I activate my Spellbook of Secrets! This lets me add a Spellbook card from my deck to the hand! I’ll add the Spellbook Magician of Prophecy, who I immediately Normal Summon!”
(Level 2, 500 ATK 400 DEF)
“Now I activate Spellbook Magician of Prophecy’s effect, letting me add another Spellbook to my hand, and I select my Spellbook of Knowledge, which I immediately activate! This lets me send a Spellcaster I control to the Graveyard to draw two cards! I send my Spellbook Magician of Prophecy and draw two more cards! Now, I activate my Ancient Leaf! If I have more than 9000 Life Points, I can pay 2000 of them to draw two cards!”
Starlight/Trixie 16000 LP -> 14000 LP
“Will you stop drawing and actually summon another monster already!?” Tristan yelled.
“Maybe, it all depends on my next few draws!” Starlight responded “Now I activate my Pot of Greed! This is like all my previous draw cards, but there’s no cost to pay!”
“AAAAHHHH! Stop stalling and actually Duel already!” Joey yelled.
“Show me where it says in the rule book that I can’t draw all these cards and I will!” Starlight responded. “Now I play Swords of Revealing Light!” A giant version of the card Starlight appeared in front of her, and with it, several swords made entirely of light flew directly in front of Joey and Tristan “For the next three turns, both of you will be unable to attack us! Now I activate Double Summon! This lets me Normal Summon again this turn, and I’ll use it to Normal Summon my second Spellbook Magician of Prophecy in Defence Position! And I’ll use his effect to search out my Spellbook of Secrets!”
(Level 2, 500 ATK 400 DEF)
“Now I’ll set three cards face down and end my turn!”
“During the End Phase, Catalyst Field will return my Red-Eyes Archfiend of Lightning!” Joey shouted as his monster returned
(Level 6, Gemini, 2500 ATK 1200 DEF)
“Well then, looks like it’s finally my turn!” Tristan shouted as he drew
Starlight/Trixie 14000 LP
Hand: 5
Tristan/Joey 16000 LP
Hand: 6
“Now then, these swords sure are an annoyance, but don’t worry, I have an out! I activate my Cosmic Cyclone! For the low cost of 1000 Life Points, I get to Banish a Spell or Trap on the Field! And my choice is these Swords of Revealing Light!” A cyclone appeared from Tristan’s card, which not only blew away the swords Starlight had blown away, but also caused them to dissipate entirely
Tristan/Joey 15000 LP
“Now that that’s taken care of, I summon my Cyber Dragon Core!”
(Level 2, 400 ATK 1500 DEF)
“When Cyber Dragon Core is Normal Summoned, I add a Cyber Spell or Trap to my hand! I add my Cyber Repair Plant! Now I activate my Machine Duplication! First I target a Machine type monster, such as my Cyber Dragon Core, then I Special Summon two more copies of it from my deck!”
“What’s even the point of that?” Trixie asked “Your ‘Dragon’ only has 500 Attack! Trixie can run over it with even her weakest monsters-” Trixie was interrupted when she saw the monsters summon through Machine Duplication
Cyber Dragon (Level 5, 2100 ATK 1600 DEF)
“That is very much a different Monster than what you just used!” Trixie screamed in terror
“Oh, did I forget to mention? Cyber Dragon Core’s name changes to just ‘Cyber Dragon’ while it’s on the field or in my Graveyard, and Machine Duplication only checks for namesake!” Tristan elaborated
“No, this isn’t right…” Red thought to himself. “Honda was never smart enough to abuse name changing like that, or any of the rulings related to it…” Red then took a closer look at Joey and Tristan’s faces, realizing that they both had black sclera “Those eyes-! Starlight! These aren’t the real Jonouchi and Honda! Try harder to kick their asses in a single move!” Red shouted.
“Got it! Finish him in a single move, finish him in a single move, finish him in a single move…” Starlight responded, trying to find a way to end the Duel that exact turn.
“Look, is your little talk finished yet? Because like it or not, I’m activating my Power Bond! This lets me summon a Machine type Fusion Monster and double its Attack, but during the End Phase, I take damage equal to the Attack boost!” Tristan shouted as he slid Power Bond into his Duel Disk’s Spell/Trap card slot.
“Ay, Tristan, you sure you know what you’re doin’?” Joey asked, with Tristan showing his hand to Joey as an answer. “Heh heh! I knew I could trust ya Tristan!”
“Now, I fuse the two Cyber Dragons on my field with the Cyber Dragon in my hand and summon my Cyber End Dragon!”
(Level 10, 4000 ATK -> 8000 ATK 2800 DEF)
“Now I activate my Limiter Removal! This will double Cyber End Dragon’s Attack, but destroy it at the end of the turn!”
(Cyber End Dragon 8000 ATK -> 16000 ATK)
“Woah, not good!” Starlight said, looking up in fear at the power of Tristan’s Cyber End Dragon.
“You know what the best part is? Cyber End Dragon inflicts piercing damage, so while your Magician is in Defence Position, you’ll still take the damage! Battle Phase! Cyber End Dragon attacks your Spellbook Magician of Prophecy! Evolution’s End!”
“Not so fast!” Starlight retorted “I activate my face down Defence Draw! This reduces all battle damage I take to 0, and then I get to draw a card!” Starlight’s Magician was incinerated by the blast from Cyber End Dragon, but her face down card flipped itself face up to create a barrier as a card was added to her hand display.
“Damnit! Well that’s not the only means of attacking I have this turn! I activate my De-Fusion! This will return my Cyber End Dragon to the Fusion Deck and Special Summon all three Cyber Dragons I used for the Fusion Summon!”
“That’s right!" Starlight shouted, having just remembered something that Red told her while explaining deck building to all of her friends while she was present. “Chains resolve backwards! So I’m activating my Ring of Destruction! I was hoping to win through Exodia’s instant victory condition, but this will do just fine!” A giant ring with grenades around all angles materialized around all three of Cyber End Dragon’s necks, entrapping them as it could only squirm hopelessly in a meaningless attempt to remove the explosive necklace.
“Um, Starlight?” Trixie asked “You do know that your card is GOING TO MAKE US LOSE AS WELL, RIGHT!?”
“Oh don’t worry Trixie, I’m prepared! I also activate my Rainbow Life Trap Card! I’ll discard Exodia, the Forbidden One as cost, and for the rest of this turn, whenever we would take effect damage, we gain that much Life instead!”
“Wait, Cyber End Dragon currently has 16000 Attack, so that means-!”
“Tristan you idiot!” The ring around all three necks of Tristan’s mechanical dragon exploded, causing a massive explosion that completely enveloped both humans.
Starlight/Trixie 14000 LP -> 30000 LP
Tristan/Joey 15000 LP -> 0 LP
“We’re not done with you just yet!” Red shouted as he ran up on stage and tried to punch Joey in the face before he had the chance to dissolve into a card, although as the smoke dissolved, he realized that he was just swinging at thin air, as they had both dissolved into cards. “Fuck! We could’ve questioned him about what was happening! Well, might as well look at the cards they left behind…”
Red-Eyes Dice
Trap Card
When a “Red-Eyes” monster you control battles another monster, select and apply 1 of these effects:
*Roll a 6 sided die; that “Red-Eyes” monster gains ATK equal to the die result X 300 until the End Phase
*Roll a 6 sided die; your opponent’s battling monster loses ATK equal to the die roll X 300 until the End Phase
Fighter’s Spirit
Quick-Play Spell Card
Target 1 Warrior type Normal Monster you control, it gains 2000 ATK until the End Phase
“God fucking damnit, I should’ve known Jonouchi would drop a stupid die related card, and Honda...I’m not sure if this is even good or not, but whatever, they’re cards, I guess I can sell them when I get back home or something.”
“Thank you! Trixie’s Duel Monster Demonstration Tour will be taking a quick break!” Trixie shouted as she used her magic to close the curtains to the stage again.
“So, Starlight,” Red began. “I was told you made more Duel Disks. How and why did you do that!?”
“Well, I used a conjuration spell I learned a few years ago to make a few casings out of some rocks my friend Maud found but didn’t need, then I used a copying spell to make more of the circuitry inside the one you gave me, and then I gave them out to some of my friends. I mean, it’s a fun game, so why not share the fun?” Starlight explained.
“Starlight...Couldn’t you have waited to talk to me about making new Duel Disks? This is kind of a big deal.”
“Sorry, you want me to go collect the Disks I handed out?”
“No, that would just make you seem like a total bitch, let’s just be thankful you survived that encounter, Luna and I need to talk to you and your friends about what’s been happening since last night back at the castle.”
“Well, that would explain why you were missing this morning, what’s up?”
“Guys?” Trixie said. “We better go back on soon, crowds don’t normally like to wait long, you willing to help out for a second showing Red?”
“Fine, I might as well.”
Trixie used her magic to open the curtains again and amplify her voice. “Welcome back! Now, for our second showcase, my Great and Powerful Assistant Starlight Glimmer shall Duel a visitor from another world! Now come on introduce yourself.”
“Uh, the name’s Red! Red Rocket! I hope you're ready for a good show!” Red said as he switched the deck in his Duel Disk for another deck in his hoodie pocket
DUEL
************************************************************
“Those two were complete idiots.” A creature in Tartarus thought to itself “But no matter, they were at least able to give me the last drops of fear I needed to regain my full power. I believe I shall leave this infernal place quietly, and perhaps focus my efforts on paying a visit to my old friend Starswirl, after all, I must repay him for giving me this ‘vacation’ as it were.” The creature grabbed a device on his arm similar to a Duel Disk and pulled a Duel Monster card from it “I activate Emergency Teleport!” And with his command, the creature faded out of Tartarus, and into Equestria.