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// Diamond Skin and Silver Steel (Diamond/Silver vs. Snips/Snails) part 2 
// Story: Dueling Around Canterlot 
// by Darthvalgaav 
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In what seemed like no time at all for Diamond Tiara, the lunch bell finally rang. It was an odd feeling for her since, normally, the day seemed to drag its feet getting to this point only for it to be over in a heartbeat. Then the day would go back to dragging as they attended class after class until they were finally free. It seemed like those around her felt like she usually did as her classmates jumped to their feet and raced out the door towards either their lockers or straight to the lunch room. People were talking, wanting to get in as much conversation time as they could until the period ended.


But for Diamond, the day had been a blur leading up to this point. The rich girl seemed to drag her feet as she headed towards the courtyard where her tag team duel was to take place. All day long she had tried to get a word in with Silver Spoon to tell her to just stay out of this. To just leave her be and she’d somehow fix this mess even if she had to give those two every penny she owned. However she never got the chance. Every time she tried to whisper to her during class a teacher seemed to turn his or her head in that direction, almost catching her in the act. Or they would be patrolling the rows, looking for whispers or note passers when they were being given time to do their school work. It was as if there was some great force at work keeping her from protecting her friend.


Now, Diamond knew she wasn’t what most people would call…nice. Sure she was rude to many of the students here from time to time and liked to brag about her wealth. But what she had been forced to do for Snails was so humiliating that she wouldn’t wish it on anybody else. Not even the losers in the CMC! Yeah, it was that bad. So of course she wouldn’t want that to happen to her best friend!


In what seemed like mere moments, Diamond was walking out the doors and into the courtyard. There several other students were eating their lunches, enjoying the nice weather as they ate. Diamond also noted that there were some people doing more than just eating their lunches as they talked to their friends. Underneath a tree she spotted a pair playing a game of chess while a few others were kicking a ball around to blow off some steam. Plenty of people had their phones out, most likely checking MyStable and the like. Some were even having duels of their own, eating protein bars or something similar to not waste time. She also noticed a few members of the staff like Miss Cheerilee and Vice-Principal Luna were out enjoying the day as well.


It didn’t take Diamond long to find where she would be dueling. Snips and Snails had made a big deal out of the event, encouraging more people to witness this than ever before. The pair stood in the middle of a cluster of students looking proud of themselves while Silver watched them with a look of utter loathing. All three of them had their duel disks on, waiting for her to arrive so they could begin. Slowly, Diamond walked over to them while pulling her duel out. Now she knew there was no way she could talk her way out of this, not with this large of a group that had shown up. Not to mention Silver standing there waiting.


“Silver,” said Diamond as she approached. “You-”


“I’m helping you and that’s final,” said Silver in a serious tone while Diamond put on her duel disk. “So don’t try talking me out of this.”


“But you don’t have to do this,” hissed Diamond. “Look, I can like totally-”


“Let’s get this show on the road,” shouted Snips, earning a great deal of cheering from the crowd. Looking around, Diamond could recognize a few of the faces watching. Rumble, Truffle, Twist, those three CMC members, and Pip. Along with them were people like Trixie who was glaring at Snips and Snails with loathing that Diamond agreed with wholeheartedly. Nodding, Diamond raised her duel disk and accepted.


“Connecting,” said a female mechanical voice. “Tag Team settings accepted. Opponents found. Displaying order now.” In the middle of the field appeared portraits of all those participating in the duel with a number in each one's upper right hand corner to indicate the order. Much to Diamond’s disappointment Snails was going first followed by herself. Then Snips would take his turn with Silver finishing up. The good news was that their side would get the chance to attack first, however if those two managed to set up a good field…


“Ah, I draw,” said Snails slowly as he drew his card. With six cards in his hand he looked at them amazingly quick for someone like him before holding out a card. “I play the Enchanting Fitting Room. I, ah, pay 800 life points and then I get to look at the top four cards on my deck. If any of those cards are level three or lower normal monster then I can special summon them. The rest get shuffled back into my deck.” As Snips and Snails life points dropped to 7200, he slowly picked his four cards. Once in his hand Snails barely looking at them before setting all four onto the field. “I special summon Ojama Yellow, two Ojama Greens, and Ojama Black!” Once again, Diamond’s disgusting nightmare returned in the form of those four monsters in Speedos. Ojama Yellow was a yellow (duh) humanoid creature with eye stalks and large red lips. Ojama Green was more muscular looking with a single eye. As for Ojama Black, he had a bit of a potbelly and a larger than normal nose. All four monsters had zero attack points and 1000 defense points.


“Next I play my field spell Ojama Country,” said Snails as he continued his turn. At once the field around them changed so that behind the two boys appeared a rocky hillside with stone mushroom like buildings all over the place. “As long as I control an Ojama monster, the attack and defense of all monsters on the field get ditched.”


“Switched,” corrected Snips.


Snails blinked. “Isn’t that what I said?” he asked. The boy then slowly shrugged before holding up a familiar looking card. “I play Polymerization to fuse together Ojama Yellow, Green, and Black into Ojama King!” One of each colored Ojama was then pulled up into the sky, grinning and laughing as they did so. “Oh great and wise King of all the Ojamas. With great form and mind, bless this field with your greatness. Fusion summon Ojama King!” And there he was, another Speedo wearing freak as far as Diamond was concerned. His body was shaped like an egg with large lips, eyes stalks, and a large nose. His arms and legs looked tiny on his massive frame making anyone who looked at it wonder how it could even move around. While his original attack was zero it instantly switched with his 3000 defense points. “Now my King has a decree: three of your card zones can not be used as long as he’s o the field.” Appearing on three of her monster card zones were large X’s, just like Diamond knew there would be.


“Ok, ah…lets see,” continued Snails as he looked at his hand. “Oh right! Now I play Fusion Recovery to get back my Polymerization card and one monster used in a fusion. I choose Ojama Yellow. Then I will use Polymerization to fuse Ojama Yellow with the Ojama Green on the field.” Once again the two monsters rose up into the sky, spinning and laughing as they did so. Out of the corner of her eye, Diamond noticed a new face in the crowd: Vice-Principal Luna. She was watching this all with something like interest as Snails did his second chant. “Two Ojamas weak on their own combine your might. Together you may take up a blade to serve your lord. Fusion summon Ojama Knight!” Appearing next to King was what looked like Ojama Yellow in a full suit of armor. His original attack of zero was changed with his 2500 defense points. “Now his effect goes off, blocking two more card zones.” Knight pointed his sword at Diamond’s field, a beam of light shooting out of it and breaking off so it hit her remaining monster card zones. Now it was impossible for her to summon a monster.


“Finally, I’ll play two more spell cards,” said Snails while Snips grinned broadly. “Two copies of Ground Collapse. These spell cards do the same thing as Ojama Knight: sealing two card zones a piece. So I’ll take your four of your spell card zones.” More X’s appeared on Diamond’s field, leaving her with only one spell/trap card zone in the middle. Looking up, she noticed that Snips looked like he was having a panic attack. He was making gestures to Snails which the skinny teen failed to notice. “I, ah, end.”


“Great,” said Diamond as she drew a card, making the total in her hand six. While looking over her hand, she briefly considered how those two losers were going to play. Obviously they were afraid of her dragons which was why they had sealed off her monster card zone. However, why didn’t Snails used those Ground Collapses on Silver? Part of the tag team rulings stated that if one team member had no monsters then the opposing team could attack them directly. Of course, Silver could use her monsters to help protect them if such a thing were to happen. And that’s sort of what wasn’t make much sense to Diamond right now. Snails had been able to seal away most of her plays, but he could have hurt them much more by uses those spell cards to block all but one of Silver’s monster card zones. It would have prevented so many plays and hampered them so much. Was it because Snails was just so used blocking just Diamond or had it been because he didn’t understand the rules of a tag team?


Looking down at her hand, she had the right cards to make some excellent moves…if she could put any of her monsters on the field! Still at least she had a step up card.


“I play the spell card Dragon Shrine,” announced Diamond as she played her card. “This lets me send one dragon card in my deck to my graveyard and the card I choose is my Blue-Eyes White Dragon. And since that was a normal monster I can then send another dragon type monster to my grave from my deck. This time I choose Dragon Spirit of White. Then I end my turn.”


“Ahh, too bad,” mocked Snips as he drew. With six cards in his hand, he grinned as he looked them over before pulling one of them out. “I’ll start by activating the effect of my Cyberdark Cannon. By discarding this monster, I can add one Cyberdark machine to my hand. So why not Cyberdark Edge?” A card slide out of her deck, allowing Snips to take it with a slight flourish. “Now I’ll summon Cyberdark Edge in attack mode!” Appearing on his side of the field was a machine with 800 attack and defense points, making Ojama Country pointless for him. The machine looked like a mechanical bird whose feathers had been replaced with scythe like blades and insect like pinchers near its mouth as well as its tail.


“Now for his effect,” continued Snips proudly. “I can now equip one dragon type monster in my graveyard as long as it’s a level three. Then it gains the attack of the equipped monster making Edge really, really strong! So I equip Cyberdark Edge with Cyberdark Cannon!” What happened next made Diamond glad she hadn’t eaten yet. Coming out of the ground was a disgusting, worm/maggot like creature that didn’t look a thing like a dragon! Sure it had wing-like horns on its head, but it also had several tendrils coming out near its mouth. This purple and yellow thing was then lifted up so that the pinchers on Edge could clamp onto it, increasing its attack to 2400.


“Don’t think I’m done just yet,” said Snips gleefully as he pulled out another card from his hand. “I activate the effect of Cyberdark Claw. By discarding this card I can add one Cyberdark spell/trap card from my deck to my hand. So I’ll be taking my Cyberdark Impact! Next I’ll play Double Summon which allows me to normal summon again this turn! So I play Cyberdark Horn in attack mode!” Cyberdark Horn was another monster with 800 attack and defense, living up to its name with four large horns like spikes coming out of its skull. This machine had a thin body, with edgy blade like wings and several claw like spikes coming out of its underbelly. There were also a number of wires coming out of its sides and from its large open jaw came a single green light.


“Just like with Edge, Horn lets me equip it with a level three dragon type monster from my graveyard. And I just so happen to have another one there,” said Snips as another monster came out of the ground. Cyberdark Claw was like a perfect match for Horn. Its body was yellow with dozens of green glowing oval on it, and six legs that ended not in feet but instead large curved talons. It almost reminded her of the claw in one of those claw games at the arcade. Cyberdark Horn’s underbelly spikes clamped into the back of Claw, its attack rising all the way to 2400.


As Snips looked proud of himself, Diamond noticed something out of the corner of her eye. It was Vice-Principal Luna. A hand was resting on her chin with a suspicious look in her eyes. Like maybe she didn’t believe what she was seeing or something. But those two couldn’t be cheating. Duel disks these days had a number of safety features that prevented people from cheating.


“With that I place a face down and end my turn,” said Snips loudly as he crossed his arms, head raised high.


“Then I draw,” announced Silver as she drew this time. With her had full, she looked at her hand to see what she could do. “First off, I’ll like summon my Valkyrie Sechste in attack position!” Appearing from the sky came a young girl with short brown hair riding a tiny pony. She was dressed in a steel battle skirt with black leggings and a matching top that exposed her shoulders all the way down to her hands. In one hand she had a small shield while in the other was a tiny sword. Her attack was 0 and defense 2000 until they were flipped around due to the field spell in play.


“Wow,” whispered Snails as he looked at her monster. “She’s really cute. Maybe cuter than Trixie.”


“Hey!” shouted the blue skinned girl in the crowd, her cheeks turning red. “The Great and Lovely Trixie will not stand to let a comment like that go unpunished!”


“If you think she's cute now, well, wait till you see what she can really do,” said Silver with a grin. “During my main phase, her effect allows me to send the top two cards from the top of one of your decks to the grave. Snails, you know what to do.” Snails blinked for a moment as he stared at the monster who just winked at him. Dumbly, he nodded and deposited the two cards into the grave. “Next I’ll play the spell Book of Moon. This card lets me target one monster on your side of the field and flip it face down. And the monster I choose is Ojama King!”


“Ah, I always knew books were bad,” moaned Snails as he flipped his fusion monster face down. As he did, Diamond’s side of the field began to free up giving her three monster spaces. She looked over at Silver who gave her the thumbs up.


“Now for the big finish: I play the continuous spell card: Goddess Urd’s Verdict,” continued Silver Spoon as she played her card. Appearing beside her was a woman in a pink dress and short blond hair holding a staff with a large blue stone in it. “Now one of Urd’s effects is that you can’t target or destroy any of my Valkyrie monsters with card effects. But you don’t, like, have to worry about that right now. Instead worry about its other effect. Once per turn I can declare a card name and then target a face down monster. If my guess is right then it get banished. If I guess wrong then one of my cards gets banished. So I believe that Snails’ face down card is Ojama King.”


“Wow!” cried Snails in surprise as he removed his card. “How did you know?” Everyone there except for Snails facepalmed. Hard.


“Sadly that's all I can do this turn,” said Silver as she lowered her arms. “Make your move Snails.”


“Oh, ok,” replied Snails before drawing. He looked at the one card in his hand for a second or three before acting. “I activate the effect of Ojama Country. So I, ah, discard an Ojama card from my hand to special summon one Ojama monster in my grave. Now I bring back King.” Everyone around began looking at each other as Snails looked down at his graveyard slot, waiting for the card to come out. It seemed that he had forgotten something very important, making Diamond feel all the more pathetic that she kept losing to him.


“You can’t bring back King,” said Snips finally, looking like he was losing his cool a bit. “He wasn’t sent to the grave, remember? He was banished!”


Snails’ eyes lit up. “Oh, right,” he said. “Then I’ll just bring back Ojama Green in attack mode.” In a flash of golden light, Ojama Green returned. “And since I discard Ojamagic, I can now add one of each normal Ojama monster to my hand. Then I attack Diamond directly!” Ojama Knight readied his sword and made a forward lunging slash at Diamond.


“I don’t think so!” shouted Silver Spoon. “Valkyrie Sechste, protect Diamond!”


“Uhhh,” went Snails as his monster’s blade was intercepted by Valkyrie Sechste’s tiny shield. However it wasn’t enough as Ojama Knight’s sword cut cleanly through hers. Valkyrie Sechste cried out as she got diced in to before vanishing before their eyes. While their life points dropped to 7500, it could have been a lot worse. “I guess I end my turn.”


“Then I draw,” said Diamond as she looked over at Silver. She gave her friend a nod of thanks for everything she had done thus far. If it hadn’t been for her, then she would still be stuck with no moves and would have lost a great deal of life points. And now, with six cards in her hand and four free card zones, she was ready to help out. “Ok, first I play the spell card Trade In. So, like, I can discard one level eight monster to my graveyard in order to draw two cards. So I drop another Blue-Eyes White Dragon into the graveyard.” Taking a breath, she dropped her dragon into the grave in order to make her draw hoping for something good. When she saw what she had, her eyes widened. “Now I think it’s time me and Snails played a different type of game.”


Snails blinked slowly at this. “Like musical chairs?” he asked. “I used to love playing that game.”


“More like bingo,” clarified Diamond as she played a spell card. On her field, a bingo ball machine appeared with dozens of moving balls within it. What made this machine special was that the balls were captured by one of the three heads of Blue-Eyes Ultimate White Dragon. The other two heads were outside the glass ball, clearly where the balls were dumped. As Diamond saw the confused look by her opponent, a display screen appeared before her and she selected three cards. With each card she selected, a ball flew into the mouth of the middle Blue-Eyes head and came out of one of the other two with a picture of the card Diamond had chosen. “This is Bingo Machine, Go!! I reveal three cards that are either Blue-Eyes monsters or spell/trap cards that list a Blue-Eyes in the text. Then you get to choose one of them and it gets added to my hand. The other two get shuffled back into my deck.”


Snails hummed as he looked at the cards. Diamond knew any of the three would help her out greatly. The first was a normal Blue-Eyes while the second was Alternative Blue-Eyes. Both monsters she could use in her hand right about now. The last one was Burst Stream of Destruction. With this card, if she controlled a Blue-Eyes, she could destroy all the cards on either opponents field.


“I choose the original Blue-Eyes,” said Snails at last. When he said this, the ball containing the picture of the original Blue-Eyes began to glow before flying into Diamond’s hand. The other two lit up and went into her deck before being shuffled.


“Alright then,” replied Diamond as she held up another spell card. “I now play Return of the Dragon Lords! Think of it like a Monster Reborn for dragons levels seven and eight like Dragon Spirit of White!” Appearing on Diamond’s field now was a large pale white dragon that looked a lot like a Blue-Eyes. Its attack was 2500. “When this monster is special summoned, I can target and banish one spell card you control! So say goodbye to Ojama Country!” Spirit of White began to glow, the field seeming to dissolve as it did returning them back to the school courtyard. With the field spell gone, both of the Ojama monsters looked diminished in size and strength as their attacks went back to 0. The only one who wasn’t affected was Snips who didn’t look too worried.


“Next I play another spell card: Silver’s Cry!” shouted Diamond as she grinned. “This card lets me revive a normal dragon in my graveyard. Like Blue-Eyes White Dragon!” Everyone heard an ear piercing cry before the ground in front of Diamond erupted revealing the classic boss monster of the game in all of its 3000 attack point glory.


“Now it’s time for some payback!” shouted Diamond as she pointed at Ojama Blue. “Dragon Spirit of White, take down that blue turd with Spiritual White Lightning!” Diamond’s monster began to inhale, streaks of white energy moving towards its mouth and collecting into an orb. The dragon then closed its mouth and, when it opened, unleashed dozens of thin laser beams at Ojama Blue. The beams sliced through the Ojama with the ease of a knife cutting through warm butter, leaving behind an ugly mess before it was destroyed.


“When Ojama Blue is destroyed I can add two Ojama cards to my hand,” replied Snails as their team’s life points dropped to 4700. “I choose Ojama Red and Ojama Delta Hurricane!!”


“I’m not done yet!” shouted Diamond as she glared at Ojama Knight. “Since you both still control monsters, I can activate Dragon Spirit of White’s quick effect to tribute it in order to special summon the Blue-Eyes White Dragon that YOU put in my hand!” Spirit of the White let out a cry before vanishing in brilliant light which, when it faded, revealed a second Blue-Eyes on the field. “Blue-Eyes, show that knight what happens when you challenge a real dragon! White Lightning!” Diamond’s dragon roared loudly as its jaw began to filled with dancing bolts of electricity. It then fired a large stream of it at Ojama Knight with enough force that Snails was knocked onto his ass. As Snails began to get up, both his and Snips’ life points dropped to 1700.


“I’ve got one more attack,” said Diamond as she glared over at the last Ojama on the field. “Now my second Blue-Eyes will destroy Ojama Green!” Another compressed lightning beam fired from Blue-Eyes mouth, hurtling towards Snails’ last monster to finish this duel. Everyone around watched with baited breath before letting out a shocked cry as a light see through green barrier appeared on the field.


“I activate my trap card: Draining Shield,” said Snips as his team’s life points rose to 4700. “Not only does it negate that attack but we also gain life points equal to the attacking monster.”


“I end my turn,” said Diamond as she tried to hide the worry from her voice. She had known that destroying Ojama Blue would help Snails get the card he needed for his big comeback combo. He had them all right there, in his hand waiting for his next turn. That was why Diamond pressed the attack the way she had, wanting to finish it before he could do so. Her father would have called it a huge risk/reward and she had failed. Not only were they prepared to clear out one of their fields but regained a large amount of their life points back.


“Then my draw,” cried Snips as he drew, four cards now in his hand. “First I’ll play the spell card Foolish Burial which allows me to send one of my monsters to the grave. So I’ll be dropping my Rainbow Dark Dragon.” Grinning, Snips took the extended card from his deck before placing it in the graveyard. “Next I activate my own Polymerization to fuse the two Cyberdark monsters on my field and Cyberdark Keel in my hand to create Cyberdark Dragon!” All three of Snips’ monsters rose high into the air, Keel looking more like a mechanical eel, as Snips started his chant. “Puny dragons should flee in fear as three great machines combine. Together they use the might of the beast against them! Fusion summon Cyberdark Dragon!” As the chant went on, the three monsters seemed to combine. Horn became the head connected to Edge’s body while Keel became the tail. It’s size also tripled creating this huge machine chimera monster. However, despite all of that its attack was only 1000.


“First off, the two monsters that were equipped to my Cyberdark monsters get their effects,” said Snips smugly. “When an equipped Cannon is sent to the graveyard I get to draw a card. As for my equipped Claw, I get to add one Cyberdark monster in my grave and add it to my hand. So I choose Edge.” Snips then paused for a moment, adding the two cards to his hand. “Now as for my Cyberdark Dragon, its effect activates allowing me to equip a dragon of any level to it so it can gain its attack points. So I choose Rainbow Dark Dragon!” Cords from Cyberdark Dragon shot into the ground as Snips began to dance about, pulling up a large grey scaled serpent like dragon with black feathered wings. The clawed underbelly of the Cyberdark monster began to latch onto the dragon, raising its attack points to 5000! “Oh and get this: Cyberdark Dragon gets even more attack points! That’s right; 100 for each card in my graveyard. And since me and Snails are sharing the same grave well…” His words trailed off as a dark green aura surrounded his monstrosity, growing more in size as its attack was raised to 6800!


“O-Ok, so you got a big monster with big numbers,” said Diamond as she fought to keep from taking a step back.


“Well that’s not all I’m going to do,” commented Snips in a sly tone. “Now I will summon my Cyberdark Edge again and equip him with Cyberdark Claw!” Once more Snips summoned his scythe bird creature and combined it with Claw to create a 2400 attack point blades monstrosity. At the same time, Cyberdark Dragon’s attack dipped to 6700.


“Now it's time to attack!” announced Snips, pointing a finger in the air in a dramatic fashion. “Cyberdark Dragon, destroy one of their Blue-Eyes!” Cyberdark Dragon obeyed the command instantly, letting out a roar so powerful that the people around could see the shockwaves it created. Diamond brought her own hands up to protect her face as she was forced back by the attack. But still…


“I activate my Return of the Dragon Lords sleeping in my graveyard!” she screamed over the noise. “By removing this card from the grave, I can negate the destruction of one of my dragons. However, I will still take the damage.” As removed the card from the grave, a light blue glow surrounded her monster to protect it while her side’s life points dropped to 3800. “Guess that’s all you can do. Your other monster isn’t strong enough to take down either of my dragons or Silver’s monster!” Silver Spoon nodded at this as she watched Snips.


“Oh, there is still more I can do,” snickered Snips, surprising both girls. “See, Cyberdark Edge can attack directly by cutting his attack points in half.” Diamond felt her eyes widen as Cyberdark Edge’s attack dropped to 1200 before its wings began to glow. They then began to move making a horrible screeching noise as they did before the glow flew from the them and into both Diamond and Silver. Both of them bent down slightly, the crowd wincing as their life points dropped to 2600. “Now, since Cyberdark Edge was equipped with Claw the equipped monster’s effect goes off. See when a monster Claw is equipped to does damage I can send one monster in the extra deck to the graveyard. So Shooting Quasar Dragon goes to the grave, giving my Cyberdark Dragon another 100 attack points.” True to his word, Snips’ monster grew in strength to 6800. “Now that my attack in done, I can show you all what else I can do! I play the spell Cyberdark Impact! By send Edge, Keel and Horn back into my deck from my hand, field, or graveyard I can then summon another Cyberdark Dragon!” Snips removed the two machines from his grave, adding them back to his deck along with the one on his field before sending two more cards into the grave. Now a second large monster identical to the first appeared on his side of the field. “Just like before I can equip one of the dragons in my graveyard to this monster. Cyberdark Dragon, gain strength from Shooting Quasar Dragon!” Both rich girls watched as the cords shot into the ground, pulling out a large thin white dragon before latching onto it like a parasite. When it was over Snips had two monsters before him with 6700 attack points, making her own dragons look like light weights.


Diamond felt her legs begin to shake, almost threatening to give out on her. She honestly didn’t know how they were going to win! Once Snails started his turn, he would destroy everything one of them had! And who knew what else Snips’ had?


“Snails,” began a smirking Snips. “Be sure you use your combo to clear as much of the field as you can. I’ll finish this off on my next turn.”


“Right,” replied the other boy with a nod while Snips did that annoying laugh he did at times. The one that sounded more like a cough he was trying to keep under his breath.


“Then I guess I’ll draw,” declared Silver as she drew, four cards now in her had. However, rather than looking at her hand, she turned to look at Diamond. “I’ll take care of Snails’ hand. You worry about Snips’ monster.”


“But how-” began Diamond in confusion.


“Trust me,” interrupted Silver. Diamond didn’t know what else to do other than trust in her friend. So she nodded before Silver looked back at her hand and picked up the card she just drew. “First I’ll set this card face down. Then I’ll play the spell card: Card Destruction. With this we all have to empty our hands and then draw an equal number of cards.” She then smirked at Snails. “So, you know, that combo you both were counting on goes, like, up in smoke!”


Snails looked worried by this fact as everyone ditched their hands. However, Snips did his best to remain positive. “So you managed to stop Snails,” he bolstered. “Big deal. All you did was make my dragons stronger.” Indeed, both Cyberdark Dragons did grow more powerful, their attack rising up to 7300.


“Silver,” began Diamond after she had drawn a new hand. “Thanks for that.”


“Don’t get all sappy about it,” replied Silver as she took her own cards. “Its, like, what friends do. Right? You need help and I’m there for you. Same as if things were reversed.” She then turned to look at the pair in front of her. “Now, back to the duel! I activate my face down card Monster Reborn to bring back a card from any graveyard. So welcome back Valkyrie Sechste in defense mode!” Once again, Silver Spoon's young monster appeared on the field, hiding behind her pony. “Now her effect activates which allows me to special summon one Valkyrie monster from my deck. Storm onto the field Valkyrie Brunhilde!”


Above everyone’s heads came the sound of a horse neighing followed by the clopping of hooves as they galloped closer. Those around turned their heads to the skies above to see a woman on horseback flying towards the field. As she got closer, they could all see that she was wearing sexy movie style armor that showed off her midriff, shoulder, and arms. Her skirt was made of metal and her top offered little to no protection. Her hair was green and long, almost touching the back of the horse with a winged helmet on her head. In one hand she held a large sword and in the other a powerful looking shield. Brunhilde’s attack was 1800.


“Brunhilde gains 500 attack points for each card my opponent controls,” explained Silver Spoon. “So with three monsters on both your fields her attack rises by 1500!” Brunhilde’s steed whinnied as it reared on its hind legs, the monster’s attack becoming 3300. “Next I’ll summon my Valkyrie Dritte in attack mode!” Galloping from the sky came another young female warrior on horseback, her attack being 1000. She was dressed in a similar fashion as Brunhilde, except that her helmet was red. “When Dritte is normal or special summoned I can add any Valkyrie card from my deck to my hand. So like I choose Valkyrie’s Embrace!”


“So what? None of them are powerful enough to take down my dragons!” Snips pointed out.


“Totally true,” said Silver. “But Brunhilde won’t have any problems with Ojama Green…” Snips blinked as Silver’s words trailed off, looking at her in confusion. Slowly he looked over to Snails’ side of the field and, to his horror, saw the little green abomination standing here in attack mode while picking his nose. What’s more was that Snails’ didn’t have any face down card to dissuade Silver from attacking! Diamond smiled as she watched Brunhilde charge forward, slicing off the head of Ojama Green as she did and dropping their life points to 1400.


“I’ll be sure to blast her with my dragons when my turn comes up!” shouted Snips.


“Ah, like, no you won’t,” said Silver as she flipped over her Valkyrie’s Embrace card for them to see. “Because this card will totally stop you from doing that. See, first it lets me target one of my Valkyrie monsters and one of yours. My monster, let's say Dritte, changes to defense mode while your monster, like the Cyberdragon with Rainbow Dark Dragon equipped to it, gets banished!”


“NO!” screamed Snips as Dritte’s steed turned to its side, his own monster vanishing from the field in a glow much like the northern lights. The pudgy teen then looked back. “Fine, destroy one! But I still have another and because Rainbow Dark Dragon is back in the grave my remaining Cyberdark Dragon get another 100 attack points.”


“That’s fine,” she said. “I end my turn.”


“I draw,” announced Snails as he drew, his hand total being six. He looked at the card he had drawn and blinked. “Hey, wasn’t I supposed to draw my-”


“Snails!” screamed Snips in a panic, moving a hand across his throat quickly as sweat began to form on his forehead.


“Ooohhh, right,” said Snails slowly, confusing everyone there. “Hmmm. I’ll summon Ojama Blue in defense mode and then place two cards face down.” Again Ojama Blue appeared on Snails’ field, taking a knee and crossing its arms across its chest as it did so. At the same time two face down cards appeared behind it. “I end my turn.”


“Ok,” said Diamond as she drew her card. But as soon as she did, Snails thrust out a hand causing both of his face down cards to flip face up.


“I activate Ojama Trio and Ojama Dou!” he announced. “Together, these card place a total of…what’s 3+2?”


“How is he…” began Vice-Principal Luna from the sidelines, her eye twitching as she looked at one of her students.


“It’s five mate,” yelled Pip who was standing close to the VP.


“Oh, right,” said Snails dumbly. “Anyways, I get to put tokens all over your monster card zones. Three for Diamond and two of Silver.” Diamond took a step back as Ojama Yellow, Green, and Black appeared on her side of the field, either snoozing or picking their noses as they took up space. On Silver’s side of the field, Ojama Blue and Red appeared with Red looking like a round headed imp with blood shot eyes. “Whenever they are destroyed you lose 300 life points.”


As Snips began to laugh, Diamond began to look over the cards in her hand with a great deal of worry. Sure, both of those idiots believed that Diamond couldn’t summon anymore dragons…which was only half true. She was limited to two spots right now but she had a spell card that could help her bring out her best monster. The only issue with that was that it still wasn’t stronger than Snips! All of their hard work for nothing because all Snips had to do was attack then…they lost. Then everything would be over. Her mother would either find out she lost a duel or find out that she was waiting on Snips and Snails every whim! She would be forced to leave all of her friends behind. Maybe…Maybe she could just pay them to forget about this and hope her mother never found out.


“You can do it Diamond,” yelled Silver. But Diamond shook her head. Maybe if she had Shrink or something like that in her hand… which she didn’t! None of her cards could help her out. Maybe Blue-Eyes Alternative White Dragon, but thanks to Snails she didn’t have the space to summon it unless she wanted to tribute both of her Blue-Eyes. But she didn’t have that card.


Slowly, Diamond looked down at the card she had drawn…and her eyes widened in surprise! She read the text on the card three times just to make sure she was reading it right before smiling. She then looked up at Snips who was still grinning, thinking he had this match won. Oh how wrong he was right now.


“I tribute both of my monsters in order to normal summon my Blue-Eyes Solid Dragon!” announced Diamond as both her monsters vanished into golden lights, replaced by another dragon that looked a lot like the normal Blue-Eyes. The difference was in the wings that looks like multi-colored stained glass windows that shone brightly as the dragon roared loudly. Unlike the normal Blue-Eyes, this monster had only 2500 attack points causing Snips to snicker.


“What can you do with that weakling?” he asked, laughing into his hand as he did.


“Well, for starters, when Solid Dragon is summoned I can target one face up monster on the field and negate its effects,” said Diamond. The laughter died instantly as Solid let out another roar as it rose into the air, light from the sun shining down upon Cyberdark causing its attack to drop to 1000. “And I’m not done! I play Dragon’s Mirror. This spell card lets me remove monsters on either my field or graveyard that are listed on a dragon fusion type monster and then I can fusion summon that monster. So I remove all three of my Blue-Eyes White Dragons to summon NEO BLUE-EYES ULTIMATE WHITE DRAGON!” Exploding from the ground came all three of Diamond’s Blue-Eyes as they shot towards the sky. They twisted and turned around each other, almost as if they were dancing in the sky with one another before merging into one creature.


“The mightiest of all dragons roars with its three heads,” chanted Diamond as her monster took form. “Reborn from old, with triple the fury it proves its might! Fusion Summon Neo Blue-Eyes Ultimate White Dragon!” On her only open space remaining was a classic monster with 4500 attack points, three heads looking down at Snips as he fell onto his ass. The sight was satisfying to the rich girl. Sure she could have ended this all with just her Solid Dragon, but after all the times she lost to Snails she needed to let out all of her frustration with the only attack that best symbolized it. Her only regret was that she couldn’t attack Snails instead to win the game. “Now, FINISH THIS ONCE AND FOR ALL!” Snips’ monster never stood a chance as all three heads of Neo Ultimate fired at the same time. The force of the attack caused Snips to roll backwards as his monster shattered into thousands of tiny pieces and his life points dropping to zero.


“No,” muttered Snips as he slowly got on his hands and knees while the holograms around them began to disappear.


“Guess maybe we should have stacked our decks better,” said Snails as he lifted up his duel disk to look at it. Diamond looked at him with her jaw open wide while Snips looked like he was about to have a heart attack. As the chubby boy ran over to his friend and then quickly placing a hand over his mouth Diamond took notice of the crowd around her. Snails words and Snips reactions said it all for the lot of them. Many were looking either shocked or appalled that they would do something like this while others had their fists clenched and shaking with anger. The angriest among them being the people that they had made wagers recently. She too found that both her hands had become fists, nearly destroying the cards she held.


“That…That’s,” began Snips as he stood up, a hand held out. But before he could say anything else, the crowd charged.


“GET THEM!” screamed someone in the crowd, drowning out VP Luna who seemed like she was trying to maintain order of some kind. But no one there was paying her any mind as they all wanted to get their hands on the pair of cheaters, to either confirm what the idiot had said or just to make them pay for everything they had been doing recently. The pair of boys ran, knocking several others out of the way in an effort to break free. Then, in what seemed like the blink of an eye they escaped and were running down the street without looking back.


-x-


“Daddy?” Diamond Tiara had walked into the dining room later than she normally did to find her father sitting there. His suit coat was off, hanging from the back of the chair he was sitting on with his shirt partly off. He sat there, slightly slouched, with a glass of whiskey in front of him, the ice slowly melting in it as he looked at it.


At the sound of her voice, the older man turned to look at her. “Hey there pumpkin,” he said, trying his best to hide how tired he looked. Not like that was possible. There were dark rings around his eyes which looked like he was having trouble keeping them open right now. Still, he turned to pull out a chair next to him before gesturing her to sit down. “How was school?”


“It was,” began Diamond as she sat down, pausing as she tried to decide what to tell him. Perhaps nothing. After the duel, things at school were not looking so good for the two idiots. Both Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna had gotten involved, finding out about the wagers the pair had been making. Because of that (along with a combination of their recent tardies, poor grades, them running out of school, and the cheating) Principal Celestia had decided to expel the two. As for the victims they had all gotten off with a warning never to do that on school property again or else they would be facing either detention or suspension. The whole school had also been told that if things like this continued then they would ban dueling at the school except for the after school activities.


For Diamond, it meant that her nightmare was over for good. At least with dueling and the twin dummies. As long as no more rumors floated around the school about her having to do things for Snails she was likely to stay here. And if her mom had been spying on her that day then she should be proud of the victory Diamond had scored. At least she should be.


“It was good,” Diamond eventually finished. Perhaps she had taken too long to say this because her father was giving her an odd look at the moment. One that made her feel like he was trying to see something inside of her. After a moment or two he sighed before turning in his seat to look at her, his arms crossing in front of his chest as he did so.


“What appeared?” he asked in a voice that told her not to lie.


“I,” began Diamond, wondering if she even could lie before sighing. No, it was time to tell her father what had been going on. Or, at least some of it. “I was having some trouble with this boy. I kept losing to him and didn’t want to play against him but I had to show him I was his better and-”


“Ok, ok I get it,” interrupted Filthy Rich with a wave of his hand. He then ran a hand through his hair, sighing as he did. “I swear, Spoiled we are going to have a serious talk about this later.” There was a pause before looking down at Diamond. “Sweetie, I don’t know everything that happened but you don’t have to always prove that you’re better at everything. Sometimes it's best to know when to bow out gracefully.”


“But Mom keeps saying that I need to-”


“Never lose to anyone? Especially those who are lower class? Well I disagree with that,” interrupted Filthy firmly. “Princess, there are plenty of times when I have to admit that I failed. Why, back when your granddad was around I made a serious bad investment. One that, if I hadn’t backed away when I did, I would have lost everything including your granddad’s faith in me to run the family business. See…in the end, everybody loses from time to time. What sets us apart from most other people is that we have more to lose when we fail completely. So it’s better to know when to cut our losses than to continue on out of pride. Or to know when to ask for advice or help.”


Diamond nodded, thinking about what she could have lost today if Silver Spoon hadn’t helped out. She would need to say thank you in a big way.


“So, any reason you didn’t ask me for help?” asked Filthy as he picked up his glass, taking a sip.


“I knew you were busy Daddy,” replied Diamond instantly.


“Well, that was very considerate of you,” said her father as he set down his glass. “But just so you know, I am never too busy to help you out when your in trouble. Especially if some boy is giving you trouble. Just say the word and I will bury him so deep he will never be found.”


-x-


At the same time, both Snips and Snails shivered for some reason as they walked down a dark street. All around them all they could see were boarded up buildings with graffiti on them in all shapes and colors. One even had a picture of some sort of mixture of animals with weird eyes that Snips could have sworn had moved a few times.


“Why aren't we heading home?” asked Snails lazily. “My feet are starting to hurt.”


“Because our homes will be the first place those people look!” shouted Snips as he threw up his arms. “You saw them back there! They’ll tear us to teeny tiny pieces the first chance they get. Or…Or they might string us up when we get to school!” He then let out a sigh. “Guess we weren’t ready to fly solo.”


“Maybe we could, ah, say we’re sorry?” suggested Snails.


“Doubt that will work,” grumbled Snips. “But I guess there’s nothing else we can do. No one will ever take us seriously or respect us now. We’re finished.”


“Oh, I wouldn’t say that,” said a voice as fine as silk coming from behind them. The two boys turned around to see two hot girls standing there. One had twin-tails with a frown on her face. The other girl had a massive hairdo and forehead, standing there smiling at them. “I believe we could help you find everything you’re looking for.”