//------------------------------// // Monster Tamer – Fluttershy vs Sour Sweet (Part 2) // Story: Duelists of the Friendship Cup // by DrakeyC //------------------------------// Duelists of the Friendship Cup   Monster Tamer – Fluttershy vs Sour Sweet (Part 2)   -Fluttershy Life Points: 900-   -Sour Sweet Life Points: 2200-   Sour Sweet drew with a growl and a glare. “My move!” She looked at her drawn card, slipped it into her hand, and pulled out another. “I summon ‘Amazoness Sage’.” A woman with a pale beige cloak and blue hair materialized in front of Sour Sweet, a wooden staff adorned with animal teeth in her hand (1400 → 1600/700). Sour Sweet pointed. “I switch my Amazoness Princess to attack mode. And now, Amazoness Queen attacks Ronin Raccoon Sandayu!” The Queen hefted her sword and hurled it across the field. “I reveal my Trap card ‘Draining Shield’!” Ronin Raccoon held up its arm and a glowing disk appeared over it, projecting a barrier of green energy around it. “Your attack is negated and I recover Life Points equal to your monster’s attack points!” The sword hit the green barrier and shattered into sparkles that kept going and washed over Fluttershy.   -Fluttershy Life Points: 2500- Rainbow Dash pumped her fist. “She took the lead!” “Not for long!” Sour Sweet snapped. “Amazoness Sage, attack the samurai!” The sage raised her staff and shot a beam of yellow light. Ronin Raccoon endured the hit, its heels digging into the ground.   -Fluttershy Life Points: 1900-   “Since Amazoness Sage attacked, her effect activates, letting me destroy a Spell or Trap on your side of the field. I choose Roaring Earth!” The sage chanted and sent a rippling wave of magic from her staff. Roaring Earth shuddered and shattered. “Next, Amazoness Princess attacks Ronin Raccoon. This also activates her effect, summoning an Amazoness monster from the deck in defense mode. I call out ‘Amazoness Fighter’.” A particularly muscled woman in furred green armor rose from the ground, pounding a fist into her palm (1500 → 1700/1300). Amazoness Princess hefted her spear and threw it, the blade piercing Ronin Raccoon’s armor.   -Fluttershy Life Points: 1500- “I set a card and end my turn.” A face-down card materialized in front of Amazoness Queen’s throne. Sour Sweet crossed her arms. “Make your move.” “I will.” Fluttershy drew and held her hand towards Cat Shark. “I’ll begin by activating Cat Shark’s special ability. I detach its Xyz material to grant Cat Shark double the stats this turn.” The feline fish puffed up as a blue aura lit over it (500 → 1000). “Then I use the Spell card ‘Pot of Avarice’. I return my two Nimble Beavers, Mogmole, Hane-Hane, and Baby Raccoon Ponpoko to my deck, and draw two cards.” Fluttershy looked at her new cards and held out another. “I activate the Spell card ‘Cross Breed’. I banish Ronin Raccoon Sandayu from my field and ‘Dark Desertapir’ from my hand. Since these two monsters have the same Type and Attribute, a monster with those same stats can be added to my hand. I choose ‘Chow Chow Chan’.” As Ronin Raccoon dissolved, a ghostly black tapir appeared behind Fluttershy. “Banishing Dark Desertapir triggers its effect, reviving a Beast monster in the Graveyard. I revive my Baby Raccoon Tantan in defense mode. Then, I overlay Baby Raccoon Tantan and Catnipped Kitty! Using my two Level 2 Beast monsters, I construct the overlay network!” Fluttershy put her hand over her duel disk as her two monsters turned transparent and slid together. “I unite the powers of the raccoon and the cat, to summon a brave new animal guardian!” She held out her card. “Xyz Summon! I call forth another Rank 2 Number 64: Ronin Raccoon Sandayu, in defense mode!” Another samurai jumped out of the portal, twirling its spear and stabbing it into the ground when it landed. “I activate Ronin Raccoon’s ability, and detach one of its Xyz Materials to summon a Kagemusha Samurai Token with attack power equal to the strongest monster on the field. Right now that’s my current Token, so I get a second copy.” The ghostly red image of the Kagemusha Samurai lit up and split into two (2600/0). “And now, to attack.” Fluttershy drew back her hand. Sour Sweet sneered. “Yeah, not yet, you don’t. I reveal my face-down card ‘Amazoness Shamanism!” Glowing magical glyphs appeared under each of Sour Sweet’s monsters. “First, every monster I control is destroyed. Then, for each of them, I can revive an Amazoness monster from my Graveyard in defense position.” Sour Sweet’s four monsters lit up and exploded in showers of green magical sparks. “I destroy my four monsters, and revive in their places Amazoness Sage, Amazoness Fighter, Amazoness Princess, and Amazoness Baby Tiger. “Summoning Amazoness Princess activates her effect, letting me add Amazoness Call from my deck to my hand.” Light shone from the Graveyard on Sour Sweet’s duel disk. “Also, now that an Amazoness monster has been destroyed, the effect of Amazoness Village activates, letting me summon an Amazoness from my deck with a Level equal or lower than that destroyed monster. I’ll target Amazoness Queen as the monster that was destroyed, and summon a second Amazoness Queen!” Amazoness Queen materialized in her throne, her sword between her legs. In a row in front of her, Amazoness Sage, Princess, and Fighter, kneeled with their arms crossed over their chests. At the end of the row lay a small tiger with a ring on its tail (500/500). Sour Sweet grinned. “Go ahead, attack all you like. I just hope you remember my Amazoness Queen’s effect.” “I do.” Fluttershy frowned and looked at her hand. “I can’t deal any damage to you now, but I won’t let you damage me, either.” She took a card from her hand and held it up. “I activate the Spell card ‘Swords of Revealing Light’!” Gleaming swords of pale yellow energy rained down from the sky, stabbing the ground around Sour Sweet’s monsters. “This card remains in play for three turns, and for those three turns you’re forbidden from attacking me. With that done I end my turn.” Sour Sweet’s duel disk beeped and ejected the card for her draw. She picked it up and looked back at Fluttershy. “Ya know, I hate to admit it, but you’ve been one of the most annoyingly persistent opponents I’ve had in a long time.” She smirked and shook her head. “I never would have expected a duel this interesting from a Canterlot student, of all people. You’ve really put on an impressive duel today.” Fluttershy slowly smiled. “You really mean that?” “Nah.” Sour Sweet’s smirk turned into a vicious grin. “I’m just screwin’ with ya.” She drew her hand back and slotted a card into her duel disk. “I activate the Spell card ‘Fusion Recovery’ and return Polymerization and Amazoness Swords Woman in my Graveyard to my hand, and then activate Polymerization!” A sparking purple vortex appeared behind Sour Sweet. “I treat my Amazoness Baby Tiger as ‘Amazoness Tiger’ and fuse it with my Amazoness Fighter!” The two monsters flickered and were drawn up into the vortex. Sour Sweet held her hand up. “Prince of the jungle and brawler of hunters, combine your ferocity and strength and awaken the predator that even hunters fear!” Her card ejected from her duel disk and she snatched it up to slap it on her duel disk. “I Fusion Summon ‘Amazoness Pet Liger’!” A pillar of dark red light burst out of the trees behind the Amazoness Village. The earth shook and the trees parted, revealing a massive liger, pale beige with black stripes. Armor plating with spikes covered its shoulders, gleaming blue against the dark orange of its mane. It prowled up next to Sour Sweet, glaring at Fluttershy with one red eye, the other closed by a jagged scar, and roared at her (2500 → 2700/2400). “Isn’t he something?” Sour Sweet smiled and patted the monster on one of its armored portions. “He isn’t as cuddly as your little runts, but I think he makes up for it with brutality. You should also know he’s quite protective of his Amazon trainers. You see, as long as Amazoness Pet Liger is in play, you’re forbidden from attacking any Amazoness monsters except for my liger.” Sour Sweet held up another card. “I activate Amazoness Call now, and add from my deck to my hand ‘Amazoness Archers’. Then, I set two cards and end my turn.” The card backs shimmered in front of Sour Sweet. Fluttershy tensed. “I know what you’re trying to do.” “Oh?” Sour Sweet batted her eyes. “Do tell.” “One of those facedown cards is Amazoness Archers. If I try to attack, you’ll use it to lower the power of my monsters and force them to attack you. The only target they can attack is your Liger, and Amazoness Queen would prevent my stronger monsters from destroying it, so it could crush my weaker ones.” Fluttershy shook her head. “If I were to try and attack, I’d lose this duel.” “Bingo.” Sour Sweet smirked. “Care to try it and test that?” “No. But I think I know a flaw in your plan.” Fluttershy drew her card and looked down at it. “You only have one copy of Amazoness Archers, because if you had drawn another copy before now, you would have used it already. You might have drawn a second copy last turn. But you would also have used Fusion Recovery before if you had it, so you probably drew that.” She smiled confidently. “One of those facedown cards is Amazoness Archers, and the other is a bluff!” Rainbow Dash cheered. “That’s my girl!” Rarity nodded. “She’s followed the game perfectly to deduce such a trick.” “Well, whoop-dee-doo.” Sour Sweet scowled. “Aren’t we so clever? So what, it doesn’t matter if you know or not, the card is still there, ready and waiting.” “Actually, it does.” Fluttershy placed her card on her duel disk. “First, I activate the Spell card ‘The Big March of Animals’!” The field shook as auras of green light lit up over her cards. “With this card, for every Beast-type monster I control, all my Beasts gain 200 attack points!” “Nice one!” Applejack called. The Kagemusha Samurai Tokens grew larger and their katanas longer (2600 → 3400), Ronin Raccoon’s polearm got a larger blade (1000 → 1800), and Cat Shark’s fins grew longer and sprouted claws (500 → 1300). “So you powered them up, big deal.” Sour Sweet shrugged. “It is, because now, my Kagemusha Samurai Tokens have enough power to take the lead in this duel!” Fluttershy pointed. “Kagemusha Samurai Token, attack and destroy Amazoness Pet Liger!” The ghostly red warrior drew its katana and charged. Sour Sweet sneered. “You idiot! I activate the Trap card ‘Amazoness Archers’!” The card flipped up and lit up red. “This saps the attack power of all your monsters by 500 points, and forces them to attack!” “I don’t think so!” Fluttershy called back, holding up a card. “From my hand I activate the effect of Chow Chow Chan!” A small dog wearing a red kimono appeared in front of Sour Sweet and pounced on the hologram of Amazoness Archers, forcing it back down. “By discarding Chow Chow Chan when you active a Trap while I attack, that Trap is negated!” Sour Sweet gaped. “No!” Amazoness Archers exploded and Chow Chow Chan faded away. “And now my attack continues safely.” Fluttershy smiled. The Samurai Token reached Amazoness Liger and raised its katana over its head. Sour Sweet’s expression of shock suddenly turned into a sneer. “One tiny little flaw in your deduction, by the way. My second facedown isn’t Amazoness Archers. But it isn’t a bluff, either!” She reached to her duel disk and tapped the screen, the card flipping over and rising into the air. “I activate ‘Trap of Darkness’!” The front of the card shimmered and clouded over in dark purple mist. “This card lets me pay a thousand Life Points, and then I can copy the effects of a Trap card in my Graveyard.” Sour Sweet laughed. “Guess which one?” Fluttershy’s eyes widened. “Oh no.” “Oh yes!” The clouds on the front of Trap of Darkness cleared, revealing Amazoness Archers. The card lit up and shot out a flurry of arrows, striking Fluttershy’s monsters. As they growled in pain from the arrows, their eyes began to pulse red. Sour Sweet crossed her arms. “So much for your attack.” The Kagemusha Samurai Token (3400 → 2900) stumbled to its knees at the arrows and swung its katana into the Liger’s paw. Amazoness Liger snapped its paw up and flung the Token away.   -Sour Sweet Life Points: 1000- The red-eyed animals on Fluttershy’s field began to creep forward, eyeing Amazoness Liger. Fluttershy bit her lip and stepped back. “It didn’t matter which card I tried to destroy. You tricked me…” “Welcome to the big leagues. Now, where were we? Ah, yes, I think you have another attack or three to declare.” Fluttershy looked down and whimpered at the glowing eyes of her monsters. She sank to her knees swallowed heavily. “I… I attack Amazoness Pet Liger with my other monsters.” As soon as she finished, the horde ran forward. The second Kagemusha Samurai Token reached the Liger and stabbed its shoulder. The katana glanced off its armor and the Liger knocked it back.   Sour Sweet Life Points: 800- Ronin Raccoon (1800 → 1300) jumped up and descended with its polearm. The Liger glared up at it and rose on its hind legs to swat it to the ground, keeping its paw on the raccoon to slam it into the dirt. -Fluttershy Life Points: 100- Cat Shark ran up to the Liger’s paw and jumped to bit into it. The Liger lifted its limb to glare at the cat hanging off of it by its teeth. Sour Sweet smirked. “And this is how our duel ends; with a whimper.” With a growl, the Liger stomped its paw, shattering Cat Shark.   -Fluttershy Life Points: 0- Radiant Hope raised the microphone to her lips. “The first duel of the Friendship Cup is decided! The winner is Crystal Prep Academy’s Sour Sweet!” On the projection of the tournament standings, Fluttershy’s portrait greyed out and receded back into the row of Canterlot High duelists, while Sour Sweet’s lit up purple in its row. “As if there was any doubt?” Sour Sweet gathered her cards from her duel disk and snorted. “I’m just annoyed it took so long.” She tossed her hair and marched back to the Crystal Prep bench, crossing her legs. On the field, Fluttershy slowly pushed herself to her feet, she turned off her duel disk and began to extract her cards from it. “You rock, Fluttershy!” The cheer from the crowd drew her attention. The assembled CHS students cheered and clapped again, shouts of encouragement and congratulations among them. Fluttershy, her face red, bowed and hurried over to the bench where her friends were on their feet. “Ya did good, hun,” Applejack said, nodding. “Yeah, you whooped butt!” Pinkie chimed in. “Thanks. I did my best.” Fluttershy put a hand on her chest. “I’m sorry I couldn’t win.” “Don’t be.” Rainbow shook her head. “It’s one duel out of seven. We’re still in this.” Before Sunset could add her compliments to the conversation, Hope spoke again. “We will now choose the opponents for the next round. After the second duel there will be a brief intermission before continuing with the third duel.”   On the display the rows of students began to blink again, blue and purple cursors highlighting a portrait and enlarging it before moving on. After several seconds the cursors stopped and the portraits grew to encompass the screen.   “Our next duel is decided! Canterlot High’s Jacklyn Apple will face Crystal Prep’s Sugarcoat!” The students clapped politely. Applejack adjusted her hat and raised her duel disk. “Well, that’s mah cue.” She nodded at the group and walked onto the field. On the Crystal Prep bench, Sugarcoat stood and followed Applejack. When Applejack stopped at her side of the field, Sugarcoat paused next to her and turned her head. “I heard you’re one of the best duelists at this school.” Applejack nodded. “That’s right.” “What’s your record?” “From the last semester? 39-4.” “Hmph.” Sugarcoat pursed her lip. “You’ll do.” She turned forward and continued to her side of the field, swiftly spinning to face Applejack. “What’s that supposed to mean?” Applejack called, glaring. “I would have preferred to face Sunset Shimmer. She seems the one of you most likely to pose a challenge for us. But your record is adequate enough.” Sugarcoat raised her arm in front of her. “I’d prefer you at least make me exert effort to win. I have no patience for unfulfilling duels.” Applejack’s glare turned into a small smile. “Well then, ya came to the right girl. I’m gonna give ya a duel ya won’t soon forget!” “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves.” Sugarcoat pressed the button to activate her duel disk, the device projecting a card tray of pale purple light. Applejack activated her own disk and her tray swung outward and lit up. “And now let the second duel begin!”