//------------------------------// // Episode 4: For Princess Twilight // Story: Yu-Gi-Oh E-QUEST // by DakariKingMykan //------------------------------// EPISODE FOUR The girls called an ambulance and Twilight was rushed straight to the hospital. She was now lying in bed while hooked up to life-support and a respirator. “What’s the deal, Doc?” asked Rainbow. The man went over Twilight’s charts and read the monitors, “Her breathing is slow, and her blood flow is steady, but she’s just not conscious at all. To be honest, I’ve never seen anything like this.” The girls couldn’t tell him about Twilight’s soul, feeling he’d never believe them, but seeing their friend lie so still and so helpless. Fluttershy felt her arm “She feels a little cold.” “It’s a typical drop in temperature.” said the doctor “People who are unconscious, the temperature fluctuates. It’s not serious. But I don’t understand why she won’t wake up. For now, it’s best to let her rest, we’ll see what happens then, but I think we should contact her family.” “No!” Rarity snapped “I mean… No, that won’t be necessary.” The doctor was confused. “Um, I think what she means is, we’ll let them know.” said Applejack. The other girls nodded nervously, and their fib fooled the man which meant their secrets were safe. “Where’d Sunset go?” asked Pinkie. Rarity could see out the window of Twilight’s room and saw Sunset sitting on a bench outside the hospital, and you never would have seen her so sad and downhearted! Poor girl, her mind was spinning in circles with grief and anger, and worse, she knew she couldn’t use any magic to reverse the curse of what happened. She didn’t even know what kind of magic it was they were dealing with, and even still, they didn’t have Twilight’s soul. “How could this happen?” Sunset kept asking herself “What did Twilight ever do to deserve this?” Then she remembered what those two creeps had said; “Enter the tournament, or else!” Sunset rubbed her head in frustration. That’s when someone approached her-- Human Twilight, with Spike tucked up in her backpack, and they looked just as sad and downhearted as she did. “Rarity sent me a text. I was ever so shocked.” “Me too,” added Spike “How did this happen?” Sunset told them everything, about the two creeps in the strange world, and trapping Princess Twilight in a card. “All this just to get you to enter the tournament?” asked Spike. Sunset clenched her fists, “Those blackmailing monsters!” she growled “If only I knew who they were or what magic they were using. I just know it isn’t Equestrian.” “You don’t know?” asked Twilight. “Well, it’s more like I don’t remember.” replied Sunset “When I was Princess Celestia’s student, back in Equestria, I studied all kinds of spells, forms of magic, and even magical history. But it’s been so long since I studied up on such things, and I’ve been here in this world making my new life, I just can’t remember.” “Can’t you go back to Equestria and look for it in a book?” suggested Spike. Sunset immediately refused the idea, “I wouldn’t even know where to start looking. It would probably take days, weeks even. Besides, if I suddenly showed up in Equestria without Princess Twilight, that would raise suspicion. I could never even try to tell them about what happened. Ever since I’ve reformed, I’ve been responsible of guarding Equestrian Magic in this world, and making sure it isn’t abused.” She didn’t have to go about how nervous she was, but Twilight thought she was being silly. “Sunset, I know this feels nerve-wrecking, but we can’t just do nothing about it.” Spike agreed, “So what are we going to do? And by “We” I mean “You.” Sunset thought it over, then stood up, and held her head high, “There’s only one thing to do. I’m going to enter the Friendship Cup to save my friend.” She then thought back to how Twilight helped her see the light from her evil ways, and started her on the path of goodness and friendship. If ever there was a time for her to repay the favor, this was it, and she sang a song in her mind as a montage of memories zoomed past her—from when she was evil and how Twilight helped reform her. She looked down at me and she saw a girl A girl that was lost and quite lonely She saw past the dark and held out her hand, And for the first I could see clearly She wasn’t my foe, she didn’t want to fight She only wanted to help make things alright I thought she was crazy, but in the end, It was clear that I had a friend A friend to the end, A friend to the end, With hearts so true I could take it, A friend to the end, A friend to the end, I promised to her I would make it. ...My friend to the end. I won’t let her down, my path is quite clear I’ve gotta do what I can to save her form the bad The evil better beware, I’m coming there to save The best friend I ever had A friend to the end, A friend to the end, With hearts so true I could take it, A friend to the end, A friend to the end, I promised to her I would make it. A friend to the end, A friend to the end, With hearts so true I could take it, A friend to the end, A friend to the end, I promised to her I would make it. ...My friend to the end. The images and the song faded away into her mind. “Well, I guess I better go and start preparing.” she said, and then she headed on home. No sooner had she left did the others all come out from the hospital. “Where’s she going?” asked Applejack. Twilight told the girls everything. For the past few days, a week before the tournament Sunset seemed to be spending a lot of her free time focusing on her cards and all the many possibilities they could make. She didn’t even want to come to Pinkie Pie’s big “School’s Out” party on the last day of school and just kept right on studying and preparing. Then again, Pinkie Pie had already canceled it anyway, still upset over Princess Twilight’s condition in the hospital. The other girls visited her practically every day to see if she was doing any better. “She doesn’t look as pale now.” said Fluttershy. “We’re doing everything we can to keep her stable,” said a nurse “But that’s all we can seem to do. We just don’t know how to wake her up.” “Ooh, Ooh, we do,” chirped Pinkie “We just have to get her soul--” she stopped when Rainbow covered her hand. The nurse was confused, and the other girls grinned innocently. The nurse shrugged and went off. “Pinkie Pie,” Rainbow whispered “Don’t spill the beans!” “Sorry, I just forgot.” Rarity looked down at Twilight’s motionless body. Applejack placed her hand on her shoulder, expressing her own sadness for it all too. “Has anyone heard from Sunset?” she asked. “No,” answered Fluttershy “She’s too busy preparing for that duel tournament. She even turned off her cell-phone and everything.” The girls had never known Sunset to be like this-- so focussed, so determined. The girls decided to go and see her after they had left the hospital. Sunset lived in a small apartment a few blocks away from Canterlot High, which was no completely closed up for summer. It was never explained how Sunset payed for her rent, or how she ever came into possession of the apartment to begin with-- and it was best not thought off. Twilight knocked at the door, “Sunset, it’s your friends.” No response! Twilight knocked again, but there was still no response. “Maybe she’s not home.” said Pinkie. Rainbow wasn’t convinced and reached for the doorknob and found it was unlocked. “Rainbow Dash!” snapped Rarity “It is highly rude and unethical to just waltz into somebody’s home.” Rainbow ignored her and opened the door. Inside the apartment, it was all one room-- kitchen, living-room, and doorway to the balcony, the bathroom, bedroom, and closet. However, the place seemed to be a little messy. Shoes and jackets were fallen on the floor instead of nearly placed or hanging in the closet. The curtains were all drawn shut making it a little dark inside. The kitchen was in a little bit of a mess. The bedroom door was wide open revealing the bed was unmade and the sheeters were draped over the side. Then, there was Sunset, sleeping on the couch, surrounded by dirty dishes, bags of takeout food and on the coffee table were a whole bunch of cards, strategy guides to the game, and notes Sunset had made of her own. There was also a musty odor from the lack of cleanliness and the pieces of leftover food lying around which made Rarity want to gag. “She’s really let herself go over this.” said Spike. Sunset began to wake up. “Huh? Girls?” she groaned. “Your door was unlocked.” said Applejack “We wanted to check in on you, and it’s a good thing we did.” Sunset realized as if for the first time just how much she had been overdoing it with all this studying. Naturally, the girls helped her clean up the apartment, and soon it was all spic and span. “The tournament is tomorrow, and I’ve done nothing but make sure I’m ready for it.” Sunset explained, and she showed the girls her participation badge she had received when she signed up. The girls all looked back and forth at one another, and agreed to show her. “Sunset,” said Rainbow “They’ve all agreed to enter the tournament with us.” “What?” asked Sunset, and she looked at the others, and each of them pulled out a participation badge. “We signed up too, just today.” said Pinkie. Sunset couldn’t believe her eyes and ears, “But girls…” “But nothing.” said Applejack “We may not have wanted to enter this before, but now we got a sure-fire reason to.” “We’re going to help you save Twilight.” chirped Pinkie. Sunset began to smile, “Are you sure you want to do this? This is no ordinary tournament. You all saw; there’s something evil lurking afoot. What if it tries to get us again? We could end up just like Princess Twilight.” She looked at Rarity, “And what about you? You’ve barely gotten used to your new deck yet. You need practice.” She was starting to fret and panic for her friends’ safety, but Fluttershy approached her, and gave her a huge glare-- The Flutter-Eye Stare, which stunned Sunset into silence. “Sorry I had to do that,” said Fluttershy “But we’ve made up our minds.” Rarity agreed, “While I can admit I wish that I had more time to practice before getting involved in such a tournament.” she paused and giggled nervously “The point is, we owe it to Princess Twilight for all she’s done for us.” Applejack nodded “We’re entering that tournament, and we’re going to look out for one-another too, just like the friends we are.” All the others agreed, and Sunset proudly put her hand out before her, and each of the girls stacked their hands on top of one another. Human Twilight placed her hand on top too, though she never showed a participation badge. “I’ll be there for you girls too, even if I’m not dueling.” The girls were most grateful to her and promised to look out for each other. Spike wanted to say something, Twilight shook her head at him. “For Princess Twilight!” said Sunset. “FOR PRINCESS TWILIGHT!!” cheered the girls. On the night before the tournament, Sunset woke up in the night to get a glass of milk, only to discover a blank envelope stuck by a magnet onto her refrigerator. “What’s this?” she wondered. She knew the girls didn’t leave it, which made her suspect perhaps it was another trap sent by those wicked creeps who took Princess Twilight’s soul. Had they comeback to blackmail her more, even now that she was going to enter the tournament? Still, there was only one way to know for sure, and she grabbed the envelope and opened it. Inside were several different colored, but blank Duel Monster cards, and among them was a card that was blank on both sides. “What are these supposed to be?” Sunset wondered, but there was also a small letter inside, which read: “Place these cards within your Extra Deck, they will help you to rescue your friend, but leave the completely blank card out until you are truly ready to unleash its power.” That was it, and Sunset couldn’t have been more confused, and she considered throwing the cards away figuring they were useless, until she grabbed them all in her hand at once, and began to have a strange vision. Bright flashes of light shone before her eyes, There she was, dueling, and people were cheering for her, and then she was unleashing a hoard of monsters, but they were only shown in silhouette form and she couldn’t make them out, but regardless, the final flashes were of she and Princess Twilight sharing a hug. Sunset gasped as the vision ended, and she held her head in shock wondering if what she saw was trustworthy. She looked down at the blank cards, and reread the letter. She still wondered who sent the cards to her, but she felt she would have to put her trust in it all. The big day arrived! Fireworks were going off in the sky around the Magic World Theme park. The place was a beautiful sight to behold with many rides and attractions, preferable pink and blue rollercoaster tracks. There lots of concession stands with loads of food and goodies, and all kinds of carnival games. There were even some people wearing big mascot costumes handing out balloons to little children, and some of them were even singing the Magic Land theme song. Magic, Magic Magical Land Let’s all have a magical day Everyone have some fun Cuz that’s the magical way! At one side of the park families and friends were all gathering at one side of the park, but all duelists were instructed by park workers to enter through a side entrance. All duelists were to show their participation badges as proof of entry, and if they were approved, those without a duel disk were handed one to keep, even after the tournament. The girls had already shown their badges, collected their disks, and entered the fairgrounds. “These are kind of neat.” chirped Pinkie “Told ya.” gloated Rainbow. Rarity still thought it rather awkward to always be wearing hers, but she knew she’d have to suck it up and get with the program. This was hardly the time to be thinking about fashion sense. “So, we’ve entered the tournament.” said Applejack “But how do we get Twilight’s soul back?” Nobody had the answer to that a bit. “Hey,” Flash called as he rushed up to the girls. He was very surprised to see all of them, except Human Twilight, had entered the tournament. “I thought you all didn’t want to enter?” The girls hadn’t told him of what happened to Twilight either, knowing he wouldn’t take it well and they didn’t want anyone else to worry and panic. Instead, they told him that Twilight had to head back to Equestria earlier as there was an emergency that only she could deal with. “Um, you see…” said Applejack. “We all just had a sudden change of mind.” said Sunset “We thought we’d all duel together, so that way it increases the odds of us all winning the tournament.” The girls all went along with the fib and nodded, and Flash bought it. “I really wish Princess Twilight was here though,” he said “I mean, if she wanted to maybe we could’ve enjoyed the theme park.” The girls held in soft giggles. Then, people began to gasp and chatter, “It’s him!” “I don’t believe it!” “He’s really here?” The girls turned and saw none other than Masquerade entering the area, which was why many of the people were fretting. Rainbow’s features hardened at the sight of him. In all the chaos and stress that had been occurring she had forgotten about when she lost to him the other night. She was just about ready to march straight over and give him a piece of her mind, but Sunset held her back and shook her head, telling her not to do it at the risk of getting in trouble. Masquerade did notice them as he walked by, “It’s those kids again.” he said silently to himself “Oh, well, it just means more morons for me. I’ll crush them along with every other loser.” He continued walking further along, while Rainbow continued to glare at him, “That guy really steams me up.” Fluttershy felt a shiver crawl down her back. “He kind of scares Me.” she whimpered The others just thought of him as an empty threat, but Flash warned them “He’s not the only one. There are many elite duelists here. They may not look like it, but you have to treat everyone here as a tough contender.” This deeply worried the girls, preferably Sunset. Soon, registration was finished, and all the duelists had signed in. All were instructed to gather, by a huge rollercoaster in the back of the park where the Prince Brothers were waiting to greet them all. All the spectators at the park were kept behind metal crowd control barriers, but they were permitted to view, and the announcement was broadcast all over the park via TV screens and speakers all over. “Welcome Duelists! I am Rubeus Prince, headmaster and owner of Magic Land.” His brother nodded and added, “I am Loki Prince, Co-Director and chairman of events.” Rarity sighed as hearts danced around her face, “And the man of my dreams.” Her friends all rolled their eyes. Rubeus and Loki looked and could see the girls in the crowd. “Good, they’ve taken the bait.” Rubeus thought “Phase one has been completed.” He and his brother looked at each other and nodded. Rubeus then addressed the crowd, “Welcome to the Friendship Cup Duel Monsters Tournament. I can see by the many number of participants, this will be an event to remember.” Loki agreed, “But brother, perhaps we should explain how the tournament works?” “Indeed so, brother.” said Rubeus. The Rules were simple, as he explained… “There may be over one-hundred of you here, but only a total of eight duelists will be able to make it to the final round, and how it’s decided is very simple. Take a look down at the screen on your duel disks.” The duelists all looked down, and could see the little monitors which showed their pictures, and a glowing ring with a little trickle of green within it, like a piece of a pie, and with a reading of 5% in the center. “Those are you Duel Meters, much like a scoring system. Every time you win a duel, the meter will increase by 10%, but if you lose it will drop by 5%., and as you can see, each of you begins with a score of only 5%, and much as I believe you’ve already guessed, if your duel runs out, you will be out of the tournament. So duel your best and struggle hard, because only when you have earned a complete 100% on your duel meter, you will be instantly qualified to come to the finals. You will then return here to this ride, The Cosmic Coaster, to be verified.” Sunset gazed down at her duel-meter and thought deeply, “Which means if I lose my first duel, I’ll be out of the tournament just like that. I can’t let that happen, I can’t get knocked out just yet until I figure out where Twilight’s soul is.” She also felt into her jacket pocket, the blank cards she had brought with her. The duelists all seemed to get the rules, but they all began to ask. “How do we know who we’re facing?” “Where do we have to go?” “Patience!” called Loki “It’s really quite simple,” The duel screens as well as the TVs all over the park then demonstrated with a kind of slot-machine system. “Our computer system has registered you all, and will randomly pair up two duelists. You will then be given the location of where you must travel to in the park for your duel to begin, and what time you should be there. If you’re late, you’re out; simple as that.” Rainbow didn’t like the sounds of this, “That means we could end up facing practically anyone at all.” “Oh, my…” whimpered Fluttershy, and she looked over at Masquerade and thought “I sure hope I don’t have to face him after what he did to Rainbow.” Rubeus then announced, “And to make it even more interesting, not only will no two duelists face each other twice during the tournament, but we’ve also added a sudden new rule… …All cards that can bring forth an instant, automatic win are strictly prohibited!” The duelists all gasped, and many began to complain and whine that it meant they would have to throw out cards they were hoping to use to win the tournament easily. “And furthermore,” said Loki “Only duels during tournament hours shall count for your scoring. You can have warmup or friendly duels outside, but they will have no effects regarding your stance in the tournament.” With all the basic rules understood, Rubeus wished the duelists all the best of luck, “Remember, only one… just one of you… will walk away One-Million Dollars richer. So take an hour to shuffle and restack your decks according to our rules, because when the sky lights up with fireworks, the first duels of the day shall begin.” Sunset inserted her deck into her duel disk, along with the blank cards in her Extra Deck. “Let’s do this!”