Dueling Around Canterlot

by Darthvalgaav


Stealing Sunset (Rainbow vs. Ember)

Sunset raised her hand above her eyes to shield them from the light of day as she walked out the doors of Canterlot High along with hundreds of other students. The sun was shining without the obstruction of clouds giving the students clear blue skies as far as the eyes could see. There was a gentle wind blowing but that only served to keep them cool on this slightly warmer than usual day. It seemed like this was a perfect day to take one’s time to walk home.


Or to go on a road trip.


“SUNSET SHIMMER!” screamed Pinkie Pie who was jumping up and down to get her attention. Not that it was hard as several people around the hyper pink girl had crouched down a bit while also covering their ears. But Pinkie paid them no mind as she continued to grin madly while waving her arms wildly for Sunset to notice. Calmly, (and apologizing to everyone within earshot) Sunset moved through the crowd to reach said friend to see that she wasn’t alone. Standing alongside Pinkie was Rainbow Dash, Sonata Dusk, Twilight Sparkle, and Applejack. All of them standing there with their backpacks looking heavier than normal.


“Hey girls,” said Sunset as she stopped in front of them. “Are we waiting for anyone else?”


“Nah,” said Rainbow with a wave of her hand as they all began to walk out towards the street. “Fluttershy couldn’t make it because of some type of emergency at the animal shelter. Something about a chinchilla invasion and they needed all hands on deck.”


“Rares was going to come back had to cancel at the last minute,” said Applejack as she walked besides Sunset as they all headed in the direction of the Apple Family Farm. “Seems that her folks roped her into takin’ Sweetie to the dentist at the last minute.”


“Ah man,” sighed Pinkie Pie looking dejected. “They’re going to miss all the fun games I had planned for on the road. Plus I found so many fun places in Sire’s Hollow we can visit if there’s no freaky magic.”


“NO!” shouted Rainbow as she threw up her arms before bringing them down to grab Pinkie by the shoulder. “Don’t you dare say that! There has to be some action there. Some wild, dark Equestrian magic running amuck or something. ANYTHING!” As Rainbow said this, Pinkie just sort of stood there was an odd forced smile on her face as she looked around for help.


“Well,” said Sunset as she placed a hand on Rainbow’s shoulder, causing her to avert her attention from Pinkie to Sunset. “It is just a hunch right now. But we do know there has been Equestrian magic flying around the place so there is a good chance. All we need to do is be patient while we look for it. Besides, without everyone here we might not be able to stop the magic if there is any. For right now it might be better to think of this as a recon mission.”


“And I brought something to help with that,” said Twilight gaining the groups attention. With an excited grin, Twilight pulled off her backpack and set it on the ground. The group watched as their friend unzipped it, reached in, and pulled out a device no larger than a pocket watch. Except, it looked shockingly familiar. The device was round with a black surface that had purple lines going through the middle. Everyone’s eyes widened at the sight of it while taking a step back except for Sonata.


“Ah, Twi,” began Applejack with a gulp. “Is that doohickey that ya was using back at the Friendship games? The same one that stole all our magic and turned ya inta a demon gal?”


“Oh,” cried Sonata as she looked at the device. “I thought it was a new digital watch. You know, the meaning of life and all that. Also, it’ll turn you into a demon? What kind? Is it the one where you lose your legs and instead get a snake's tail? Because I meet those jerks back in Grease and none of you would like them! They leave their old skin lying around the place where someone can trip!” Sonata stopped as she noticed that everyone was staring at her. “What?”


“Ah, as fascinating as that is I think we better get back to it later.” Twilight then pulled out a pad of paper and made a quick note. “Note to self, research the possibilities of other half human creatures there are in the world as well as how old Sonata is.”


“Hey, it's rude to ask a girl her age!” snapped Sonata as Twilight sheepishly put away her notepad.


Thankfully, Pinkie Pie was on the scene as she quickly swung her arm around Sonata’s neck. “Ahhh, don’t take it too personally. We just want to make sure we have enough candles to put on your birthday cake!”


Sonata’s eyes lit up at that. “I get a birthday cake?”


“Let’s put a pin in that for now,” said Rainbow Dash quickly, causing the pink and blue girls to moan. Rainbow however ignored them as she instead focused on the device Twilight still had out. “Listen Twi, I don’t feel very comfortable with you having that thing. The last time you had it you couldn’t control it when it was sucking the magic out of us at random! I do NOT want to go through that again.”


Twilight, it seemed, didn’t seem to take Rainbow’s objection too seriously as she waved it off with a hand gesture. “There’s no need to worry. When I made this model I made sure not to include any containment units. What I did do was scan the magical frequencies of our geodes and program this device to exclude them while doing its scans of the area which I can control with the simple press of a button. Not only that, its hooked up to the world clock and has a gps locator in it!” As Twilight spoke, the excitement in her voice continued to rise and as did it reflected in her eyes. Yet when she was done talking she seemed to notice all the blank stares she was getting. Sighing, she came down from her excitement high to continue. “Basically, this one can’t steal any magic, it only detects magic that isn’t ours, and it will always give us the correct time.”


“Oohh,” went everyone except for Sunset as she suppressed a chuckle. As Twilight looked dejected as she put her device away, Sunset felt more confident than ever about today. Once they got to AJ’s place where the band's bus was parked, they would head off to Sire's Hollow in search of the incident that Sunset had read about only a few days before. At first she thought that they would have to go around asking people there about what had happened, meaning it might take a long time, Twilight’s device would allow them to cover far more ground as they drove. Then, once they found whoever had the magic, they would just need to determine if the magic had fully possessed someone and then deal with it once everyone was free. Easy.


Just then, several black cars with black tinted windows came to a screeching halt on the side of the road next to the girls causing them to stop in surprise. As they blinked in surprise, several of the doors opened revealing men and women in black suits along with a blue skinned woman a few years older than them in white. As these people exited their vehicles, Sunset noticed that they were surrounding them so that they couldn’t make a run for it. As the woman in white began to approach them, Sunset quickly grabbed both Applejack and Rainbow’s arms to hold them back. Both girls looked at her with questioning looks but a simple jerk of Sunset’s head led them to see what she had seen: that several of these people in black were pulling out guns and tasers.


“Is your name Sunset Shimmer?” asked the blue skinned woman as she stopped in front of the flame haired girl. Not knowing what was going on, Sunset merely nodded. Seeing this the woman in white gestured to a couple of the people surrounding them. “Then we have confirmation. Take her away.”


“What?!” shouted Sunset right before she was grabbed by two men. As she resisted, she saw that her friends were getting ready to fight. But at that moment, the unmistakable sound of guns begins cocked was heard. All around them, the weapons were being pointed at the girls while Sunset was forced into one of the cars with the blue skinned girl getting in behind her. Then, a moment later after all of the others had gotten back into the cars, they all speed off.


-x-


“What was that about?” shouted Rainbow as she watched the cars speed away. Fists clenched, she looked in the direction they had been heading while berating herself. She should have taken the chance to super speed and steal their guns. If one of them had fired, she was at least 90% confident that she could have pulled her friends out of harm’s way.


“I-I don’t know,” stammered Twilight.


“Could be some secret government organization,” suggested Sonata as Twilight pulled out her weird gizmo again and opened it up. “Like a super secret group that goes around collecting magical artifacts that maintains its cover by claiming they are really IRS agents or something. They might think that Sunset has one of these artifacts that allow all of you to become magical girls.”


Rainbow shook her head, trying to blot out the ramblings of the Siren turned friend as she kept her eyes on the road. She had to do something NOW! She could feel the energy moving into her legs, screaming to go off chasing after them. But could she do it by herself? Could she save Sunset from a group of armed men? Well of course she could! She was Rainbow Dash, awesomeness made flesh! Not only was she fast enough to chase after them and knock all their guns out of their hands but she had also read every single Daring Do book out there. This was a classic abduction scenario so she should be fine.


Still…


“I’m going after them,” Rainbow said quickly. “The rest of you try to follow!”


“Wait,” said Twilight as she looked up from her gadget. However that was all Rainbow heard before zooming off in the direction of the cars.


-x-


Ember sat by the door, her eyes flickering between the window and the girl they had just abducted. As of now, they had no flashing lights of the police just grass and trees scattered about along the roadside. Not surprising seeing that the Kaiba Corp holographic technology had been implemented on their license plates to disguise who they were. Even if those girls had managed to make out a partial and called the police it would have been a wild goose chase. To help matters, the other cars were going off in different directions all over town with only them staying on route. So far everything was going according to play.


Still, it was strange. Looking at the girl next to her that resembled her boss/friend, it was odd to see her looking so nervous. Even the men who were in the car with her looked more than a little confused as the girl looked around confused. Still they kept their guns on her, filled with training round bullets. They wouldn’t kill her just cause her some minor bruises for the time being.


“Look,” said the Sunset Shimmer look-a-like. “Ah, I think there has been some sort of misunderstanding. If you just let me go we can forget all about this.”


“That’s not for me to decide,” said Ember as she turned to look out the window again, barely registering a ringing now up by the driver. “Orders came from above. But, even if it were up to me, I still wouldn’t let you go just like that. We need to know who you’re working for and what you plan on achieving with this charade.”


“Charade?” echoed their captive.


“Madam, we might have trouble,” called the driver causing all of the Kaiba Corp personal to tense up. “One of the cars was stopped.”


“What?” cried Ember as she sat up a bit straighter. “How did that happen?”


“They, uh,” stumbled the driver, his ear pressed against his phone. “They said that it was that multi-color haired girl. She…ran up to them? They’re not making a lot of sense.” Ember frowned at that. It was unlikely that someone could run fast enough to keep up with a moving car going 45 to 50 miles per hour. Even less likely that someone could catch up to a car on foot when the car had a head start. Well, unless she knew a short cut and headed off in that direction. But that would imply that she knew where that car was going. Not likely since she had just put this team together to grab the fake Sunset Shimmer.


As Ember puzzled over this, the driver caught her attention again as he dropped his phone. Looking at his reflection in the rear view mirror, Ember could see his expression. His eyes were more alert now with a look of disbelief. Still not hearing any sirens, Ember turned her head to look around…and was taken aback by what she saw. The rainbow haired girl was running at them on foot. What’s more she was quickly gaining on them with a smirk on her face! This shouldn’t be possible. No normal human could do something like that!


“Ma’am, what should we do?” asked one of the men as the girl caught up with them, now running alongside the car. They all tensed up as their pursuer began to tug on the door handle, trying to open it as she kept running.


“We do our job,” said Ember as she reached down to grab her modified duel disk from underneath the seat. It was shaped like the head of a bronze dragon with fins on both sides and a life point counter running along the top from its snout to the back of the head. “I’ll take care of her. The rest of you make sure that the package gets to where it needs to go.” Without saying another word, Ember turned to the door to see the rainbow haired girl was still there trying to open the door. Calmly, she undid the lock allowing the door to open. The teenage speedster zoomed around it with a cocky grin that faded when Ember launched herself forward, slamming into her.


-x-


The world seemed to roll around Rainbow Dash as her mind tried to catch up with what was happening. She knew that she had managed to stop two of the black cars as they moved across the city. One had freaked when they saw her and had run off the road. The other had stopped, the driver apparently freaking out that there was a real life superhero or something like that. Neither one had Sunset. The third one might have had her. However, Rainbow never got the chance to see for something had opened the door to the moving vehicle and slammed into her. Now she was barely aware of anything as she rolled down the side of this hill.


Eventually she stopped, landing on her stomach. As she looked up Rainbow saw the woman in white had rolled down the hill as well, but much more controlled than her so that she stopped in a crouching position. As the other woman stood, the teenager knew that this was just a minor setback. She knew what a broken leg or arm felt like (having had it happen to her more than once in her sporting career) so she knew nothing was broken or even sprained. All she had to do was super speed out of her and get back to the car.


“Later,” said Rainbow with a smirk, getting up as fast as she could. But it wasn’t as fast as she did when she super speeded. She tried to run but the other woman managed to block her path and push her down. As she fell on her back, Rainbow’s mind was trying everything it could to figure out what was going on? What happened to her speed? Where was her magic? Had it been stolen? Rolling over, Rainbow reached to take hold of her pendent in the hopes that it was all she needed to do to recharge it or whatever. Only…it wasn’t there. Now beginning to panic, the sports star of Canterlot High began to check the ground around her with her eyes as well as her palms only to find nothing. It didn’t take her long to realize that her pendent was probably on that hill somewhere. And the only way to get to it and save Sunset would be to get past that woman.


“Not so fast now,” said the woman with a smirk as Rainbow stood up.


“Get out of the way,” growled Rainbow as she pointed a finger at the woman.


“Not going to happen missy,” came the reply. “The only way you’re going to get past me is when I receive a phone call from my boss. That or you defeat me in a duel.” As she said this, the woman held up her wicked looking duel disk. Suddenly it opened its mouth to reveal a deck inside while at the same time the outer fin began to extend outward to create a sort of card tray.


At first, Rainbow didn’t reply as she was confused. Why take a chance at a duel when she was here, seemingly at this woman’s mercy. Was she that confident in her own skills that she could defeat Rainbow? Or maybe it was a way to distract her. Rainbow remembered reading in one of her Daring Do books where a one shot minor villain posed a challenge to Daring in order by his henchmen more time to search the ruins and make a break with the loot. Perhaps that was what was going on right now. This woman was trying to buy time for the car to get to where it was going and then Rainbow would never be able to find it! She could refuse and try to get her pendent, but could she get past this woman and find the pendent? No doubt whoever this was wouldn’t be standing idly by while she looked.


“Guess I have no choice,” said Rainbow as she took off her backpack. Setting it on the ground, Rainbow opened it and quickly pulled out her duel disk before tossing it out of the way. She then pulled out her own deck and inserted it into her duel disk to activate it. “I’ll be sure to make this quick!”


“Connecting,” said a female mechanical voice from their duel disks. “Opponents found. Displaying order now.” In the middle of the field appeared a flat holographic image of a portrait, only on one side was Rainbow Dash while the other was the woman in white whose name appeared below her portrait: Ember. The image began to spin round and round, faster and faster as their duel disks shuffled their decks at an equally quick speed. Eventually the portraits stopped spinning, ending on Rainbow Dash.


“That was what I was hoping for,” said Ember as she took the top five cards from her deck and added them to her hand. As she did this both of their life points became visible at 8000.


“Don’t be too sure about that,” said Rainbow as she too had five cards. “I draw!” With that, Rainbow had six cards in her hand. Quickly she scanned what she had, thinking about her first move before placing a card face down on her duel disk. “For right now I’ll set this monster in defense mode and end my turn.”


“That’s all?” asked Ember as she drew her sixth card quickly. “Well then this’ll be easier than I thought. I’ll start by special summoning Hieratic Dragon of Tefnuit in attack mode.” As Ember slapped her monster card onto her duel disk, a large golden egg descended from the heavens on her side of the field. As it lowered, parts of the egg began to break apart to form some sort of armor made for a slender frame that was then quickly filled up by a dragon like being made of white light. It floated there with an impressive 2100 attack points with its hind legs barely touching the ground with its feather like wings flapped gently.


“Wait a minute,” said Rainbow as she checked her disk. “You can’t bring out that monster. It’s level is too high!”


“Tsk, tsk,” went Ember before gesturing towards her dragon. “Don’t tell me you don’t know about special effects. While it is true that this monster is level six, I am allowed to special summon it from my hand if you control monsters and I don’t. It just can’t attack this turn. But that won’t matter soon because now I’ll be tributing him to special summon my Hieratic Dragon of Su in attack mode.” In a flash of light, Ember’s monster vanished as another egg descended downwards. Once more it broke apart, becoming armor for another dragon of light. This time its attack points were 2200. It also blue with a more defined form. Rainbow could make out it’s glowing red eyes, sharp white teeth, and the three energy horns on its head. But she also noticed something else: another egg was descending from above. One with zero attack and defense points. “When Tefnuit is used as a tribute, I am allowed to special summon one normal monster from my hand, deck, or graveyard to the field but its attack and defense are reduced to zero. So, from my deck I’ll summon Hieratic Seal of the Dragon King in attack mode!” Another golden egg descended from the sky, lowering itself next to Su. Only it did not open up. It just seemed to float there content in its form.


“Seal of the Dragon King is a Gemini monster, so while it does have an effect its still treated like a normal monster until it is normal summoned for a second time,” explained Ember. “Now that I have two level six monsters on the field I can build the overlay network!” A dark vortex appeared in the middle of the field with golden star like lights twinkling as they were sucked inside. “Mighty king with the fierce roar, blast through the heavens to tear them asunder! Xyz summon Rank 6: Hieratic Dragon King of Atum!” Rising from the vortex was another egg, but larger that the first. It opened up to form more elaborate armor that might fit an angel. But that was not what filled it. Instead, dark blue energy began to fill it to form a humanoid dragon with mighty wings. It stood upright on the ground, its clawed arms kept in a pose ready to attack with its 2400 attack point body while twin orbs orbited it. “Now I’ll use his effect: by detaching one of its xyz materials I can special summon one dragon type monster from my hand, deck, or graveyard but its attack is changed to zero. So from my deck I’ll be summoning my Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon!” As Ember said this, Atum grabbed one of the material orbs in one of his clawed hands before chucking it to the ground. There it formed a portal to allow a well known monster to rise up. Like her other dragons, its body seemed to be made of energy which in this case was a light blue color. It also had something like armor that was containing its form which was a much darker blue with a red trident at the back of its tail. While Galaxy-Eyes had been declawed (figuratively since it still had very sharp claws ready to tear into Rainbow) the monster still towered over the teenage girl as it roared.


“Since all I’ve been doing is special summoning I am still allowed one normal summons,” continued Ember as she held up a card. “So normal summon Hieratic Dragon of Gebeb in attack mode.” Another egg descended from above, only it was less golden colored and more orangish red with silver colored lines. The egg opened up to form more basic armor as another humanoid looking dragon made of gold energy appeared on the field. Gebeb slammed onto the ground in a traditional superhero landing causing rocks and dirt to fly up while its fists were raised to attack. Its attack points were 1800.


“Now let's begin the attack!” shouted Ember as she pointed to Rainbow’s face down. “Gebeb, let's see what she’s hiding!” Gebeb crouched down a bit before launching himself across the field with enough force that more dirt and rocks were kicked into the air. The dragon pulled back a fist before punching the face down card once it was close enough; revealing that the monster Rainbow had hid was large blue plane…with whisker marks on the front it seemed. Gebeb’s fist was implanted into its side, quickly pulling out as a projector at the end of each of its wings activated to create two more blue planes.


“You just activated the effect of my Mecha Phantom Beast Hamstrat,” declared Rainbow with a fist pump. “When it gets flipped, it special summons two level three Mecha Phantom Beast Tokens to my side of the field which I’ll play in defense mode.”


“I suppose you think that will protect you from me,” said Ember with a smirk. “Well it just so happens that you’re not the only one to get more monsters on the field. When Gebeb destroys one of your monsters and sends it to the graveyard I get to summon another normal dragon monster from my hand, deck, or graveyard. Then it’s attack and defense points are dropped to zero. So I’ll be bringing out my Hieratic Seal of the Sun Dragon in defense mode!” Appearing on behind Ember was an egg that was the size of a small mountain, towering over Rainbow so much she took a step back. “Now that that’s done, I’ll attack one of your tokens with Galaxy-Eyes.”


As Galaxy-Eyes threw back his head, Rainbow’s hands balled into fists as she raised them to chest level. “But what’s the point? They both have zero attack points and my token is in defense mode. Nothing’ll happen!”


“That’s why I’m activating his effect,” said Ember with a snap of her fingers. “I can banish both him and the monster he was battling from the field until the end of the battle phase.” With that, both one of Rainbow’s tokens and Galaxy-Eyes vanished from sight. “Now for my last attack! Atum, destroy her last token.” Atum growled as a ball of energy appeared in its clawed hand. The dragon then thrust it in the direction of the token sending a beam of energy at it, destroying Rainbow’s token. “With that, I end the battle and my turn.” At that moment, both Rainbow’s token and Galaxy-Eyes returned to the field. Only Galaxy-Eyes was no longer at zero attack but instead 3000!


That’s why she attacked with it, thought Rainbow as she drew her sixth card. Once it was banished, the effect of Atum was canceled out. But something here doesn’t add up. Gebeb allowed her to get another level eight monster onto the field. She could have Xyz summoned up a badass rank eight monster at the end of her turn. Instead, she left me an easy target. Is that a distraction or is she planning on making something bigger next turn? Not going to happen!


“Alright then,” said Rainbow as she held up a card. “First I’ll normal summon my Mecha Phantom Beast Raiten to the field in attack mode.” From above them, the sound of a propeller was heard. Both looked up to see a brown plane that looked like it had come from either WWI or WWII. As it looped it the air both duelists could see its 1500 attack and defense points. However, what was strange was its level. When it first appeared on the field it was a simple level four monster. But then it went up to level seven.


Rainbow chuckled a bit at her opponent’s confusion to this. “Think of my tokens as my air support, helping out my monsters in different ways. Take Raiten, by discarding a card from my hand, I can summon another token like so.” Smirking calmly, Rainbow discarded a card from her hand while a mechanical arm appeared at the tail end of her aircraft. From there, another projector appeared creating another token out of thin air. With two tokens on the field Rainbow’s plane went up to level ten. “The card I sent to my graveyard was Mecha Phantom Beast O-Lion. By banishing this card from my graveyard I’m allowed another normal summon. So I’ll bring out my Mecha Phantom Beast Megaraptor in attack mode!” Shooting from the clouds at an incredible speed came a greenish jet fighter that resembled a pterodactyl. The nose of the fighter had a visible jaw with equally visible teeth as well as cold yellow eyes. It had four extra jet boosters along its upper body and talons instead of wheel that looked ready to grab prey. At first its level was four but quickly rose to ten as it shot across the field so fast that it nearly knocked Ember down.


“Now to activate Megaraptor’s effect,” declared Rainbow. “By tributing one of my tokens, I can add one Mecha Phantom Beast monster from my deck to my hand. So I’ll be adding Harrliard to my hand.” As a card shot out from Rainbow’s deck, one of the tokens on her side of the field flew away into the sky. At the same time, the level of both her level four monsters dropped down to level seven.


“Now time for my attack!” shouted Rainbow. “Megaraptor, attack Gebeb with Sidewinder Assault!” Megaraptor seemed to let out a cry as it shot into the air high above the field before several missiles were fired at the dragon. Gebeb cried out as the world around it exploded, with flames everywhere, while Ember’s life points dropped to 7900. “Now Raiten, crack that golden egg!” As Megaraptor returned to Rainbow’s side of the field Raiten took off, firing a barrage of bullets at the giant egg. As it got closer, Raiten lifted upwards so it could both skim the surface of its target while also continuing to fire. Once it reached the top, Rainbow’s old plane looped itself while the egg exploded.


“You think that matters?” asked Ember. “All you did was take out my weaker monsters. Next turn, you’ll be sorry you did that!”


“Maybe,” said Rainbow with a shrug. “But it’ll be difficult with what I’m about to do. With my battle phase ended, I’m going to build the overlay network!” With that, the overlay vortex portal reappeared on the field and sucked up both of Rainbow’s monsters. “The engines turn allowing metal wings to take to the sky! Mankind’s dream becomes a reality moving faster and faster! Xyz summon Rank Seven! Mecha Phantom Beast Dracossack!” Flying up out of the portal came a white plane with 2600 attack points and two spheres orbiting around it. With three engines on each wing, this mammoth plane took the sky with ease as it suddenly began to transform slightly. Its tail began to grow longer, thinner as it swished back and forth. Its front opened up to allow a mechanical head to emerge that resembled a snakes or perhaps a dragons while two tiny arms grew out from its under belly. There was also a small green rocket ship on its back.


“Pretty neat, don’t ya think?” said Rainbow as the shadow of her own monster was cast over her.


“I suppose,” said Ember while giving it a passing glance. “But it’s nowhere near as impressive as my Galaxy-Eyes.” At that, Rainbow’s Mecha Phantom Beast gave a loud roar.


“Ah, you’re hurting my big guy’s feelings,” chuckled Rainbow. “Now watch this: by detaching one of my monster’s materials, I can summon two more Mecha Phantom Beast tokens to the field. Which I’ll do right now and summon them in defense position.” Another projector appeared at the end of Dracossack’s tail to create the tokens giving Rainbow a total of three. “Now as long as I have at least one token, this bad boy can’t be destroyed by battle or card effects.”


“I think I get what you’re doing,” said Ember as she lowered her head slightly to give herself a more dangerous appearance. “Trying to make it so that I’ll have to waste three attacks before I can destroy that plane of yours. Nice idea in theory but like the Spruce Goose it won’t be flying for very long. All I gave to do is attack with my Galaxy-Eyes and it will be banished, not destroyed, until the end of this turn. And when Galaxy-Eyes comes back he’ll be stronger than ever! It’ll be easy to deal damage to you while taking out those dumb tokens!”


“Then it’s a good thing that my monster has another effect,” declared Rainbow causing Ember’s eyes to widen. “By tributing one of my tokens, I can destroy one of your cards. The only downside is that I can’t attack with Dracossack this turn. But I can live with that if it means taking down Galaxy-Eyes!” Ember let out a gasp as one of the tokens flew towards the small green rocket ship on Dracossack’s back and merged with it. In the blink of an eye the craft shot forward at incredible speeds, creating a cone around its nose before slamming into Galaxy-Eyes and destroying it. “Then I’ll throw down two face downs and tell air traffic control that you are a go!”


“Then I draw,” said Ember as she drew her forth card. Quickly she picked one card from her hand to hold up so Rainbow could see it. “I activate the spell card Trade In! This card lets me discard one level eight monster in my hand to the grave in order to draw two cards. So I’ll send my Hieratic Seal of the Sun Dragon to the grave to draw twice.” Quickly Ember drew her cards, looked at them, and then held up one. “Next I play my Hieratic Seal of Convocation which lets me add one Hieratic monster from my deck to my hand. So I’ll be adding another Su.” Ember paused as a card was ejected from her deck. After taking her card, the auto-shuffle function of her duel disk activated. “Now, I will normal summon Hieratic Dragon of Eset in attack mode!” As Ember set her card on the tray, another egg descended from the sky. Like before, it opened up to create armor for a dragon made on pure energy. This time that dragon was purple with claw-like hands on both of its wings like a bat would have. A stream of energy also seemed to be pouring out of its head, the helmet on said head having silver fins attached to the side.


“Normally, I would need a tribute to summon this level five monster,” said Ember calmly. “But I am allowed to special summon him by decreasing his attack points to 1000.” At that moment, Eset’s attack points dropped from 1900 to 1000. “Next I’ll use Atum’s effect to special summon one dragon from my hand, deck, or graveyard. So from the grave I’ll bring back my Hieratic Seal of the Sun Dragon!” Atum grabbed one of the sphere’s circling around him and proceeded to fling it towards the ground, summoning up the egg once again. “Now for Eset’s other effect; he can target one other Hieratic monster on my side of the field and, until the end of my turn, all monsters on my side of the field become the targeted monster’s level. So I’ll target my Seal of the Sun Dragon! That gives me the two level eight monsters I need to create the overlay network!”


As the portal appeared on the ground once again, Ember gave her opponent a cold smile as she began to chant. “Great dragon granted with the burning force of the sun. Let your light leave my foes in ashes. Xyz summon Rank eight: Hieratic Sun Dragon Overlord of Heliopolis!” From the portal came flames not unlike a solar flare, so bright and powerful that Rainbow was forced to shield her eyes. When the light finally began to dim, Rainbow beheld a dragon so massive that she had to crane her head upwards just to see its chest. What she could see was that it wore golden armor and that it’s ‘body’ flickered about like flames of red and orange hues. It’s large hands ended in claws that could easily destroy dams if is so desired. To cap it all off this monster had 3000 attack points.


“Now I’ll show you the price for flying too close to the sun,” commented Ember. “To start with, I’ll activate my monster’s special ability: by detaching one of its materials, I can tribute any number of monsters in my hand in order to destroy an equal number of cards on your side of the field. So I’ll tribute my Su and Nuit to destroy those two tokens you believe will protect you.”


As the Overlord Dragon absorbed one of its materials and Ember sent the two monsters from her hand to the grave, Rainbow braced herself. “I don’t think so! I activate my face down: Scramble!! Scramble!! I can activate this quick play spell card when you outnumber my non-token monsters. Now I can tribute any number of my Mecha Phantom Beast Tokens to special summon an equal number of Mecha Phantom Beast monsters from my deck. However, there is a catch. Since they had to speed to my field they have to return and refuel at the end of this turn. So I’m calling in Mecha Phantom Beasts Coltwing and Turtleracer in defense mode!” At once, both remaining tokens on the field flew off into the air and out of sight while two new crafts appeared in the distance. One of them looking like a giant white plane with two large propellers, one on each wing, with its front looking like a horse’s head. As this monster began to fly to Dracossack, showing off its 1500 defense points, its propellers shifted vertically to look like twin helicopter blades so it could hover. Turtleracer looked like a plane with a turtle-like shell on its back as well as having a very turtle-like front piece. This monsters defense points were 2000 and took position on Dracossack’s left.


“So you stopped my effect,” said Ember unimpressed. “Well you’re not the only one who gets to special summon a monster. Since Su was tributed for Overlord’s effect, I get to special summon another normal monster again. So I’ll take another Hieratic Seal of the Dragon King.”


“Not bad,” replied Rainbow as Ember’s monster appeared on her side of the field in defense mode. “But I can still do you one better. When Coltwing is special summoned while I control another Mecha Phantom Beast then he can give me two more Mecha Phantom Beast tokens!” In the air appeared the twin tokens formed from a projection device on Coltwing.


“Grr, fine then,” growled Ember looking very much annoyed at this point. “I’ll attack with Atum first and destroy one of those tokens.” Atum wasted no time in firing a beam blast at one of the tokens on the far left side, seemingly just as eager as its owner to get rid of them tokens. However, before the beam hit Turtleracer flew forward and turned in a way so that its ‘shell’ intersected the attack. When it was all said and done, both Rainbow’s monster as well as the token were still on the field.


“Sorry, but Turtleracer has an effect of its own,” said Rainbow, grinning broadly. “See, he looks after his little buddies so that the first one that would be destroyed each turn isn’t.”


“So you’ll still have at least one token when this is over,” grumbled Ember. “Then I might as well take the time to do whatever damage I can. Overlord Dragon, attack Dracossack!” Ember’s dragon let out a roar before flames were fired down the sky, washing down upon Rainbow’s largest plane. When the flames died off, the only effect it seemed to have was stream rolling off the metal beast as well as Rainbow’s life points dropping to 7600. “I’ll place one card face down and end my turn.”


As Rainbow’s Turtleracer and Coltwing took off into the sky, Rainbow drew another card making the total number she had in her hand three. “Yeah know, if you hadn’t kidnapped my friend I would be able to enjoy myself more.”


Ember smiled ruefully at that. “I must agree. While your cards are annoying I am enjoying the challenge. However, I must do this for the sake of my friend.”


“What?” asked Rainbow as she stomped a foot on the ground. “How could kidnapping Sunset help your friend unless he was some sort of weirdo who needs help?”


“Because the person you know as Sunset Shimmer isn’t the real Sunset Shimmer,” stated Ember in a dead serious tone. Rainbow looked at the girl in shock, taking a step back as she continued to speak “This may come as a surprise to you but we did a thorough background check on her and confirmed that she infiltrated your school some time ago using this false identity. You may think of her as your friend and bandmate, but that is a lie. My boss and best friend, the real Sunset Shimmer, wants to know why she stole her identity and possibly who she is working for.”


“Ok,” said Rainbow as she waved both hands in the air. “Ok, I think I get it but this is all a really big misunderstanding.”


“Oh?” asked Ember.


“Yeah. You see she is Sunset Shimmer but not the Sunset Shimmer of this world. She comes from this magical world of talking ponies where she used to be the student of this powerful pony who could move the sun and I just realized now how crazy this must all sound right now.”


“…Did the school put something in the water or are you big on happy brownies?” asked Ember as she gave Rainbow a deadpanned look. “Because those are the only polite explanations I can think of right now for why someone would believe such an insane story.”


“…Let's just get back to the duel,” said Rainbow as her shoulder hung slightly. She then muttered to herself, “Couldn’t have been a very good background check. How the heck did they miss all the crazy magic happening? Or me flying about with tiny blue wings?”


“Are you going?” shouted Ember.


“I am,” said Rainbow as she held up a card from her hand. “And I’ll start with this card called Pot of Duality. With this I get to pick up the top three cards in my deck, pick one to add to my hand, and the rest get shuffled back into my deck.” Rainbow paused to draw said cards, looking at them briefly before keeping the middle one and putting the rest back into her deck. “Next I’ll summon the monster I got during my last turn: Mecha Phantom Beast Harrliard!”A brown jet fighter came soaring through the sky with a front end that looked like that of a lion and what looked like missiles that ended in claws. Its attack points were 1800. “Now I activate his effect. I can tribute of my tokens to special summon one monster from my hand. So I’m flagging down my Mecha Phantom Beast Tetherwolf!” As one of Rainbow’s tokens flew off into the sky, the sound of a helicopter could be heard getting closer. As it appeared in the sky above the multi-color haired girl, both duelists could see elements of a wolf in this black vehicle. It’s attack points were 1700.


“I’m a little worried about that face down card you got so I’ll play my face down card: Aerial Recharge!” exclaimed Rainbow as her face down was flipped up. “This card gives me a token once per turn. But during both of our end phases I have to give up a token.”


“Crap!” swore Ember as she activated her card. “I’ll use the power of my Hieratic Seal of Reflection to tribute my Hieratic Seal of the Dragon King to negate and destroy your trap.”


A smirk appeared on Rainbow’s face as her card was destroyed. She had a feeling that Ember had wanted to save that card to use against her Dracossack in order to save her Overlord Dragon. If Rainbow had used its effect, then she would have been out of tokens and leaving monsters vulnerable to attack and without their effects. Ember knew by now that as long as Rainbow could get more tokens then her plan wouldn’t have worked anyways.


“I activate the effect of my Dracossack!” announced Rainbow as she thrusted her hand forward. “I’ll give up one of my tokens to destroy your Overlord Dragon!” The last of Rainbow’s tokens flew up to merge with the green rocket ship on top of her planes back. Like before it shot forward at nearly the speed of sound, crashing into the chest of Ember’s monster and destroying it. “With that done I now remove its last overlay unit to get two more tokens! Now it's time for my attack!”


“With what?” demanded Ember as she looked at Rainbow’s airborne monsters. “Dracossack is the only one on your side of the field that has enough attack to destroy my Atum and he can’t attack this turn!”


“Oh, you’ll see,” said Rainbow with a grin. “Tetherwolf, attack her Atum with Howling Blitzer!” At her command, Tetherwolf began to prep several missiles. With the sound of a pack of howls howling in unison they fired at the dragon who looked like her was about to swat them away with one of his claws. “Now, during the damage step, I can activate my monster’s effect. By tributing a token I can raise my monsters attack by 800 until the end of the damage step.” Still grinning, Rainbow watched as one of her tokens jetted forwards so fast that it caught up with the missiles. Before their eyes the token seemed to merge with the attack, creating an energy glow around them to give them more attack power as well as increasing their speed. Atum couldn’t react in time as the attack flew past his claws to strike him dead in the chest. As he exploded Ember’s life points dropped to 7800.


“Don’t forget I have another attack,” said Rainbow as she gestured to her Harrliard which flew towards Ember without haste. Instead of firing the entire missile, only the claw like nails attached to them were fired causing Ember’s life points to drop down all the way to 6000. “And with that I’ll turn it over to you.”


“Then I draw!” yelled Ember. She looked at the only card in her hand…and scowled. “I place one card face down and end my turn.”


“Bad luck, huh,” commented Rainbow as she drew making the total number of cards in her hand two. “Then I guess I’ll finish this right here and now. Dracossack, you’re up first. Take a bite out of her life points!” Dracossack let out a primal roar as all of its weapons fired. Missiles and bullets flew the air towards their target.


“Not so fast,” declared Ember. “I activate my face down, the quick play spell Silver’s Cry. This allows me to special summon one normal dragon type monster in my graveyard. So I’ll bring back my Hieratic Seal of the Dragon King in defense mode!”


Rainbow shrugged as the egg reappeared on her side of the field. “Ok then, I’ll continue the attack and smash that egg.” Without mercy, Dracossack’s attack laid waste to Ember’s monster and destroyed it without any difficulty. “Well that was a waste of good ammo. Thankfully I have two more monsters to attack you with!” With that, Harrliard and Tetherwolf launched their own attacks, causing the ground around Ember to explode wildly. The blue skinned woman held up her arms to defend herself but still went flying backwards as her life points dropped to 2500. “Guess I’ll call it a turn here.”


“Then I draw!” shouted Ember as she drew her card. She looked at it for only a moment before playing it. “I activate the spell card Pot of Desires! With this, I banish the top ten cards in my deck face down and then can draw two cards.” Rainbow said nothing as Ember proceeded to do this risky move, one that she would never have done. While drawing cards was good, the chance was great that you would banish your best cards. Plus they would be face down meaning you would be unable to target them with any effects. However, as Ember looked at her two cards, it seemed like she had gotten very lucky. “First I play Monster Reborn and I’ll use its effect to summon back my Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon. Then I’ll special summon another Hieratic Dragon of Eset to the field.” At once two very familiar looking dragons reappeared onto the field. “Now I will use the effect of Eset, targeting my Galaxy-Eyes so that all Hieratic dragons on my side of the field become level eight. Now I can use my two level 8 monsters to create the Overlay Network once again!”


Rainbow braced herself as the vortex return, sucking up both dragons as Ember began her chant. “The shattered stars sing as the night ends. The cry of the dragon echoes through the entirety of space. Combine now to form a new might. Xyz summon Rank Eight: Number 62: Galaxy-Eyes Prime Photon Dragon!” Coming out of the vortex was a dragon with 4000 attack points. Like Galaxy-Eyes and so many of Ember’s monsters it looked like a creature of energy whose form was trying to be contained by its arms. Most of its chest was visible as were the underside of its arms and parts of its legs. The armor on its wings reminded her of large open pincers as energy shot out of the opening. “I’m not done yet. I’ll advance overlay this monster to bring out something better!”


“What?!?” shouted Rainbow as she vortex returned. It didn’t seem possible. That Galaxy-Eyes monster looked pretty tough making seem unlikely that Ember could bring out anything tougher.


Ember’s chant seemed to prove her wrong. “Ready to rage war across the cosmos, with rage and stars in your eyes. Arm yourself now my instrument of ultimate destruction! Xyz Summon Rank 9: Galaxy-Eyes Full Armor Photon Dragon!”Emerging from the vortex was a much more normal looked Galaxy-Eyes Dragon compared to the one he had been summoned from. His armor covered much more of his body including the tips of his claws while also being the deepest shade of black Rainbow had ever seen. His attack points were the same as Prime Photon Dragon but had three materials orbiting around him instead of two.


“This still isn’t the best card in my extra deck,” commented Ember in a would be casual tone. “But it is a close second. I activate my monster’s effect: by removing one of his materials I can destroy one face up card on your side of the field. So I’ll target your last token.” As one of the sphere’s around Galaxy-Eyes vanished, the dragon made a palm thrust motion towards the token. While no energy came from the palm, Rainbow quickly felt the air pressure created by that motion which nearly knocked her back. Her token was not so lucky as it exploded in the air. “Now with that taken care of, I can now begin to dismantle your air support. Galaxy-Eyes, destroy her Dracossack.” Ember’s monster wasted no time reaching Rainbow’s plane, seemingly disappearing and reappearing right in front of it. Both claws grabbed Dracossack’s wings before snapping them off like they were twigs while at the same time sending a kick to its underbelly. The craft exploded in the air causing wreckage to fall across the battlefield and Rainbow’s life points to drop to 6200. “With that there is nothing more I can do. Your move.”


“Gladly,” said Rainbow as she drew her card. Briefly she looked at the three cards in her hand before looking back at the field. Ok this went from good to bad in like ten seconds flat. That monster of hers can destroy any card I got and then attack with a really big body. I need to hope my next draw will give me something good or else I’ll lose for sure and then they’ll do who knows what to Sunset.


“I’ll place this monster in face down defense mode and then switch the rest of my monsters to defense as well,” said Rainbow as a face down card appeared on her side of the field in front of her. At the same time her other two monsters landed on the ground to show they were in defense as well. “That’ll be it.”


“Looks like the tables have turned,” commented Ember as she drew her card. “I’ll play the card I just drew which should look familiar to you: Hieratic Dragon of Gebeb!” Rainbow gritted her teeth as the muscular dragon reappeared on Ember’s side of the field. While far smaller than Galaxy-Eye’s it would still pack a huge wallop if it attacked her. Not only that, it would help reinforce Ember’s side of the field when it destroyed a monster. And there was nothing Rainbow could do to stop it.


“I’ll activate my Galaxy-Eyes effect once again,” declared Ember with a grin. “This time I’ll destroy your Harrliard!” As another material vanished, Galaxy-Eyes Full Armor Photon Dragon made another palm thrust to generate enough air pressure to destroy Rainbow’s plane. “Now I will attack your Tetherwolf with Galaxy-Eyes and avenge Atum!” Galaxy-Eyes moved at speeds faster than the eyes could see across the field and stomped on Rainbow’s helicopter. As it exploded, Rainbow brought up both arms in order to better protect herself from the flames and light.


“Now Gebeb, take out her last line of defense!” Gebeb launched himself off the ground with his fist pulled back so as it destroy his target with all of its might. However, as he neared Rainbow’s card flipped over to reveal a plane that looked like a mix between a stealth fighter and a manta ray. Its wings were folded up-ward and around over itself with a long thin tail running behind it. There were also to red lights on it that could have been mistaken for eyes. What’s more, its defense points were 2100. Since its defense points were greater than Gebeb’s 1800 attack points, Ember lost 300 life points which brought her down to 2200.


“Sorry there,” said Rainbow as she lowered her arms to reveal a grin. “You just attacked my Mecha Phantom Beast Stealthray. And since he dealt damage to you, I get a token!” As Rainbow said this, the thin tail of Stealthray moved to point next to it and began to project light from its end. Moments later another token appeared on her side of the field.


“It won’t last,” said Ember as Gebeb returned to her side of the field. “Next turn, both it and your token will be destroyed. Not like it matters anymore. By this time, the fake Sunset Shimmer will be at her destination so we can find out what sort of game she’s playing at.”


“I’m telling you, she is Sunset Shimmer!” yelled Rainbow as she stomped her foot on the ground in frustration. She then brought her hand to her deck, ready to draw. “And if what you say is true then I have no more time to lose! I draw!” As Rainbow drew her card, an arc of rainbow colored light followed her card. She looked at it for only a moment before grinning.


“You might not have shown me your best, but that doesn’t mean I can’t show you mine!” declared Rainbow. “I summon Mecha Phantom Beast Aerosguin!” Appearing in the sky above them came a zeppelin…that looked like a penguin. It was an odd sight to be sure as both duelist could make out the line in the penguin shaped balloon. Its attack points were 1600. “This little fella has the ability to remove one Mecha Phantom Beast from my graveyard in order to give me one of my tokens. So I’ll remove Dracossack to do just that.” As Rainbow removed the card from her graveyard, a ramp opened up on Aerosguin before a token came flying out onto the field.


“Now everything is all set,” said Rainbow. “See Aerosguin and Stealthray are like most of my monsters, their levels increase by the levels of all the tokens on the field. Since I have two tokens, my two level three monsters are now level nine. That allows me to create the overlay network!” Ember’s eyes widened as the vortex appeared on the field, both of Rainbow’s monsters flying into it. “High above our heads, above the clouds is where you fly. Free to move as you please, free to assist in battle. Come forth now mighty fortress of the Mecha Phantom Beasts! Xyz Summon Rank Nine: Phantom Fortress Enterblathnir!” A light shot out of the vortex and into the air. Moments later, the enter sky as far as either woman could see was filled with mechanical parts. Only Rainbow knew that above this massive flying ship was an entire aerial runway as well as enough ammo to justify its 2900 attack points.


“S-So what if it's big?” shouted Ember as she gazed at the fortress above her. “It might be able to take out my Gebeb, but Galaxy-Eyes-”


“Won’t be around to see it,” interrupted Rainbow. “See, what makes this carrier 20% cooler than the rest of my monsters is that it has four different effects that I can choose from. So I’m going to use one of them right now: by detaching one of my materials I can banish one card you control. And I choose Galaxy-Eyes Full Armor Photon Dragon!” A beam of green, yellow, and red light washed over Ember’s mighty dragon from above to pull it up and away from the field. The monster tried to fight it, kicking and screaming as it was then pulled it a portal that appeared in the air.


“Next I’ll play the spell card I drew last turn and end this so I can help my friend!” shouted Rainbow as she played the card. When she did, the size of her Phantom Fortress began to grow more in size (if that were possible) while the noise from its engines increase. While all this was going on the Phantom Fortress Enterblathnir’s attack points rose to 5800! “Limiter Removal will double the attack of all my machine type monsters until the end of this turn and then they’ll be destroyed! More than enough to end this duel! Now attack with All Out Assault!” As Rainbow pointed to Gebeb, planes began to fly off the aerial runway as did many other types of aircrafts. As they flew down, firing their weapons along the way, the fortress itself began to fire laser beams as well as bullets and missiles. It seemed like this truly was an all out attack that dropped Ember’s life points to zero.


As the holograms began to fade, Rainbow sprinted off across the field to reach the hill. Ember stood where she was as Rainbow passed her, keeping her promise. Yet there was no way for her to know that while she began to look for her pendant Sunset Shimmer was being led down a hallway at gunpoint where her double sat waiting.