Friday's lunch was chicken and rice tortillas, a surprisingly tasty dish if one was willing to try it. Those that weren't, or had dietary restrictions and reservations, were eating the standard pizza and/or salads. And in the case of Rarity and her friends, doing so while also watching Twilight and Pinkie set up their Chaotic decks.
"I think she uses Danians." Sunset whispered the spectacled teen, "Better use the Dragon Pulse, they usually have low courage."
"But Vinta has much lower wisdom than courage," Rarity countered, "Twilight, you’re better off giving Vinta the Staff of Wisdom."
"Sorry Sunset, but I think Rarity's right." Sunset shrugged and watched Twilight finish choosing her cards.
"Alrighty! Sci-Twi verses Pinkie Pie, start!" Pinkie said, revealing her creature to be, a Mipedian.
"I thought you used Overworld cards, Pinkie?" Applejack asked.
"I did, but then I got this Underworld booster pack so my Overworlders could use some more fire attacks, and I was like 'Wow, these guys are really cool too.' So I started playing both, but then I learned about the Mipedian ability; Invisibility: Surprise, and I thought, 'These guys are just like me. They love to throw surprise parties!' so I got a bunch of Mipedian cards, and then, the other day when we were at that card shop, I-"
"We get it!" Rainbow said, covering the girl’s mouth, "We get it, you like all the tribes. So, are you two going to play or what?"
Pinkie took a bite of her tortilla, "It's Twilight's first time playing, so she gets to choose the location."
"Thank you, Pinkie." Twilight gave her location deck a quick shuffle, then drew the top card. "Mipedim Oasis. Looks like this will be a very quick game."
Fluttershy checked the location's Initiative, then compared Twilight and Pinkie's cards. "Malvadine has more courage than Vinta, so Pinkie goes first." Sunset gave Rarity and Twilight a look that both said, 'I told you so' and at the same time 'best of luck.'
"Let's start things off simple, Squeeze Play."
"I'd hardly call 25 damage simple." Twilight snarked "But luckily I can even the playing field with this," she revealed the Staff of Wisdom "and this." she played a Delerium card, dealing the exact same damage to Pinkie's creature.
"Windslash. Five damage."
"Fearocity, ten damage."
"I reveal and discard my Liqualizar, giving me the ability to use water attacks. Now Steam Rage does five damage."
"Nice move Pinkie, but I think I'm going to win. I use the Mugic, Song of Recovery. This heals my creature by ten, and gives it Air 5 as well."
"Ohh, nice. Wait, not nice."
"I'm afraid so. Now my Unsanity does, ten... damage." Twilight stalled as she realized her attack would fall short.
"You played a good game Twilight, but I win. Torrent of Flame, ten damage."
Twilight sighed and began putting her cards back in her deck. "Good game."
Applejack swallowed her bite of tortilla. "Don't feel too bad Sugar Cube, you just got unlucky that you both got that boost on your first attacks from the location. If it had just been you, I'm sure you would have won."
Rainbow grabbed two of the cards in Pinkie's discard pile, "How come these fire attacks get a boost from a water user anyway?" She gave the cards back to Pinkie and took a bite of her pizza.
"I think it's because it's a STEAM Rage and a TORRENT of Flame." The curly haired girl answered.
"Makes sense to me." Fluttershy said after swallowing a bite of her salad. The rest of the group couldn't really argue with Pinkie's logic and reserved themselves to finishing their various lunches.
"So," Applejack restarted the conversation, "How did you girls do on the Novel test?"
"It wasn't too difficult." Sunset remarked, "Part of it was a little tricky for me, but the rest wasn't too bad."
"Which part?" Rainbow asked.
"Nice try Dash, but you know you aren't supposed to know what's on the test before you take it." The prism haired teen just slumped her shoulders and went back to her lunch, though with less enthusiasm than before, what with the reminder of the test next class period which she once again had barely studied for, despite the offers of assistance from her classmates Fluttershy and Twilight.
Rarity was just about finished with her lunch, but when she looked at the clock her eyes widened. "Something wrong?" Sunset asked.
"What? Oh no. Just remembered something I need to do today." She got up from the table, "Excuse me, I must relieve myself." And with that, she left. Most of her friends resumed eating, but the former Equestrian kept watching the pearl skinned girl as she exited the cafeteria. It was probably nothing, but Sunset's time as the head of Canterlot High's rumor mill told her that her friend was hiding something.
= = =
Rarity made a light jog over to her locker and pulled out her Scanner. A few button pushes and a whoosh of energy later, and she was once again in the Chaotic Port-Court. It didn't take long for her to find her sister and her friends sitting at a table.
"Did I miss it?" she asked, pulling into an empty seat.
"Nope, they jus' started." Apple Bloom answered. On one of the screens, Lightning Dust (as Krekk) was flying around a large stone cavern, with the lower levels of the location being flooded with red orange lava. On a rocky ledge was what looked like a cross between a mushroom and a very angry ant. The creature was currently lobbing fire balls at Lightning.
"You're going down, Rookie!" the creature called, throwing another Flame Orb. Krekk dodged it by flying behind a stalactite which shattered as the attack made contact.
“Ember Swarm!” Krekk threw his arm back as glowing embers flew towards his opponent. The attack exploded against the creature’s chest in a direct hit.
“Wow, she’s really good at flying.” Rarity observed.
“Yeah, she figured it out almost as fast as I did.” Scootaloo said, praising Lightning while also boosting.
“Time to clip your wings.” Back in the battle, Lightning’s opponent was getting really fed up with her continuous dodging. “Windslash!” Several arcs of razor sharp air sped towards the air-born Underworlder.
Lightning Dust dove towards the lava to try and avoid the barrage, but more of the attacks were being launched. She managed to avoid one, only for another to cut through her right arm. Though her arm remained in one piece, the pain was very much real, and distracting. Two more Windslashes struck both her wings, causing her to fall towards the lava.
‘Pull up pull up pull up pull up!’ Against all odds, she somehow managed to flap her wings enough to get her to one of the rocks jutting out of the lava.
The other Chaotic player watched her miraculous recovery with a definite feeling of anger. “Time to finish this. Shadow Strike!” Just as in her match against Rarity, malicious shadows raced towards Lighting to finish her off. But, just as lightning never struck the same place twice, Lightning Dust never fell for the same trick twice.
The second before the attack made contact, a glowing red shield appeared on Krekk’s arm. The shadowy attack struck the shield and dissipated.
“Nice try, Tharax!” Lightning taunted, “But this Dragon Pulse will protect me from any of your fear attacks.”
“Then I’ll just have to burn you to Kingdom Come!” His hands burst into flame, “Torrent of Flame!” Krekk rolled out of the way, but still took some damage from the heat of the attack.
“Flame Orb!” A ball of pure fire launched out of Lightning’s hands and exploded before her opponent, sending a large amount of stone and dust into the air as well.
But Lightning wasn’t finished with her assault, “Inferno Gust!” The scorching wind further damaged her opponent and destroyed the rocky ledge he was standing on. As he began running backwards to try and escape the collapse, Lightning put her hands together to charge up her last attack.
Tharax found he had trouble outrunning the crumbling ledge but managed to grab a rock that was jutting out from the new cliff. Looking at his opponent, he found him/her standing with an ethereal blue sphere with a red core between his/her hands. “Oh no.”
“Ektospasm!” Throwing her hands forward, Lightning launched the attack towards the trapped target.
“No no no NO!” Was all he managed to get out before he exploded into code.
= = =
The gold haired athlete walked up to the table like a prom queen. “I hope you all found my victory sufficiently entertaining.”
“An impressive display of power, Miss Dust.” Rarity congratulated, “I did enjoy that little flourish you added to that last attack.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it.” She said with an overly dramatic bow. This girl was reminding her more and more of Rainbow Dash.
Apple Bloom stood up, “Well, now that we know you tow can handle yourselves in the dromes, are you ready to see what the real Perim is like?”
Both the older girls began smiling quite excitedly.
“Bring it on.”
“I am quite ready.”
“Great. Lightnin’, you’ll be with me. Sweetie will be with her sister.”
“And Scootaloo will be…”
The purple haired teen shrugged, “I’ll be collecting some scans by myself. I’ve got a match in a few days that I want to be ready for.” With that she ran off towards the transport pads.
“We’ll be in the Riverlands. Where are you two going?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Forest of Life, lots a’ good spots to check out in there.”
“Then we will see you two later.” The two groups parted and made for different Transporter pads. After selecting the desired location, the two sisters disappeared in a familiar whoosh of energy.
= = =
For the most part, it looked the same as when she had had her first battle here. The same damp brown rocks, same rushing river, and the same not quiet blue sky overhead. The major difference this time was that Rarity was still Rarity. It also felt real, not that she couldn’t feel anything during her matches, but now she could feel the rock through her boots, she could feel the wind on her own skin.
“Ow!” And she could feel the mosquitos biting her neck. “I should have packed some bug-spray.”
“Come on Sis,” Sweetie said, “I want to show you somewhere real cool.” With that, the younger of the two ran off, leaving her big sister to follow.
Unbeknownst to both, however, from underneath a rock, a pair of blood-red eyes followed them.