It was at that special time when the day was giving sky to the stars and moon above Canterlot High as Vice-Principal Luna stood on the blue platform of the school’s dueling arena. Normally hidden underneath the basketball court, its large silvery steel walls rose a foot or so high into the air. The asphalt that normally would have been below her had been replaced with green steel with white boxes to show where one’s cards would be placed. Finally, across from her own stand which was raised high into the air, was another similar box painted red.
Slowly, Luna’s hand felt the cold interface before her where cards were once placed in a time before the invention of the duel disk. Off to the side was a cable jack that could connect to a person’s duel disk if they so choose. However, most students who dueled here didn’t bother with such things, preferring to use the console before her. Briefly, she remembered the days when having one of these things was a necessity to have a holographic duel requiring vast arena’s that held many of them. That for a school to own one of these was the envy of the district. Yet those days were far behind her, much like how the day had turned to night above her. Soon, this old dueling stadium would be retired, for it was so old that it could not support all of the new game mechanics.
A car driving into the faculty parking lot drew Luna’s attention from her musing. Turing around to see if she needed to reprimand whoever was there, she quickly spotted her sister’s car. As Luna pressed the button to lower herself to the ground she watched as Celestia got out of her car. Once both sister’s had their feet on the ground they approached each other ignoring the trees that had recently been stripped of all their leaves. Both women could see their breath in the air before them, but were able to ignore it for now as well as the slight shiver that went down their backs. The light of the fading day was lingering behind Celestia as the stars twinkled behind Luna’s back, the two of them meeting the other halfway.
“So, how did it go, sister?” asked Luna, crossing her arms as she spoke. She noticed Celestia shiver again, nearly dropping the briefcase she held with one hand. Luna could tell that her sister wanted to go inside to warm up yet her feet remained where she was.
“One of the better meeting’s I’ve had with the school board,” replied the Principal with a hollow laugh. “But for the most part they seemed to like the idea of our school competing against other duel teams. No doubt our recent improvement against Crystal Prep worked in our favor.”
Luna nodded in acknowledgment of this. Duel teams were quickly popping up within every school; joining the ranks of things like football, hockey, baseball, track, and other school sports. In the simplest of explanations they were a team of people who played Duel Monsters. Six students from each school would face off against six from another school using both the latest ban list and format. Nearly every half of the school in the state had their own Varsity teams, their duelists walking around with their letter jackets proudly. It was the type of sport that anyone could play really regardless of any physical handicap.
For some time now, both Celestia and Luna had been working hard to have their school join these ranks. However, several things had kept them back. Mainly, she school didn’t have such a grand reputation with dueling. The previous rules that prevented students from using extra deck monsters outside of fusions as well as using previous formats had given them the sad reputation as being stuck in the past. Some had even wondered if they believed that students at their school believed they could summon any monster from their hand, regardless of the level. Not to mention their farther poor history when dueling Crystal Prep which was not exactly kept secret from the masses. The idea of going up against other schools was seen more as a joke than anything to be taken seriously.
Recently, however, things had changed. Ever since the mysterious appearance of Twilight Sparkle at the Autumn Cup, things had been slowly improving. New rules for the in-school tournaments were already being drafted to allow various types of summoning mechanics as well as an overhaul in the schools ranking system. The students seemed to be getting along with each other better, a feeling of school pride swelling inside of them that was bolstered by the victories against Crystal Prep. In short it seemed like things were on the rise. That they were ready to take that first step into the world of inter-school dueling.
Yet…
“I’m sensing a ‘but’ somewhere,” sighed Luna with a deadpanned look. “Let me take a guess: Spoiled Rich?”
“Got it in one,” said Celestia as she slightly hung her head. No doubt thinking of the woman who headed the school board, an arrogant rich sow of a woman who loved to have power over others. “Ultimately she feels like it’s a waste of time and resources. Even though most of the equipment will be things that the students have to pay for themselves, she is worried about the rest of the spending. The cost of fueling the buses, paying the driver, getting us the latest dueling stadium or some sort of updated arena. She still finds it hard to justify having a simple inner-school tournament that, as she puts it, wastes teachers’ and students’ time and money. So doing it with other schools was out of the question even with our few victories.”
“How did you counter her?”
“By reminding the entire board of the chance to get additional donors,” said Celestia with a ghost of a smile. “Tramping Heights High recently received a large donation to their school from a pro-duelist who happened to be impressed by their schools dueling team. The money didn’t just go towards buying them more state of the art duel disks, but funding went towards the art programs. Before that, Hope Hollow received a sizeable donation from Tike Footwear who also sponsors several duelists in the pros. It wasn’t just the school that got some money, but they also donated a new park set. Schools around the country are receiving these sorts of donations almost every week from companies who are scouting out the best up and coming duelists to sponsor.”
Luna hummed as she mulled this over while she noticed her sister beginning to shiver a bit more as a powerful wind blew. “You would think that they would focus more on places like Crystal Prep since it’s a school designed to train the next generation of duelists.”
“W-Well,” began Celestia through chattering teeth as she began to move towards the school clearly having enough of the cold. “T-That i-is true. P-Plenty of c-companies are s-still sponsori-ing students fro-om places like C-Crystal P-P-Prep, but they d-don’t m-make for g-g-good headlines.” At that moment, Celestia opened the door to the school with Luna right behind her not bothered by the cold as much. Celestia sighed as she rubbed her arms repeatedly, allowing the warmth to return to her. “Think about it: People love to root for the underdog. And it looks better for the companies who help support people like that who don’t have programs like at Crystal Prep.”
Celestia then began to move down the hallways heading towards her office. For what reason, Luna didn’t know but she followed her sister nevertheless. “That convinced at least half of the board to stand against Spoiled Rich. So we made a deal: Our school is going to set up a temporary team and duel Appleloosa High this Friday. If we manage to duel them and come out with acceptable results then the team will be put on a more long term triall basis to see if the cost of having such a team will be detrimental to the school. If not then the team stays. But that’s only if we do well at the match. If we fail there then the idea is scrapped until further notice.”
“Pity she wasn’t a duelist herself,” mused Luna as the two approached Celestia’s office. The two paused while Celestia fished out her key with Luna continuing. “You might have been able to finish it then and there if you challenged her.”
“If only that’s the way things worked in the real world,” muttered Celestia as she opened the door. Flicking on the light which nearly blinded the Vice-Principal with its brightness, the two entered the clean and pristine room. Calmly Celestia moved behind her desk while placing the briefcase on the counter before folding her hands. “Besides, I shouldn’t use force to resolve this. I have confidence in our students to do their best. That is all we can hope for.”
Luna nodded. “Very well then. I guess I’ll inform Sunset Shimmer and her friends to report to your office first thing in the morning.” Luna was about to turn around and bid her sister goodnight, but stopped herself when she saw the expression in Celestia’s eyes. They had widened considerable and a hand had been raised ever so slightly. Whatever was wrong? Surely they were going to use their most popular duelists to win this…right?
“Actually, I was thinking about that on the ride here,” admitted Celestia as Luna looked at her curiously. She then paused to let out a small sigh, her eyes looking down at the desk. “Sunset Shimmer and her friends, well, there is a chance that they might be tempted to use their magic to win. Or it might happen beyond their control. While their magic alters memories to make their opponents more…forgetful of the events as well as accepting to the fact that they lost, it will be harder to cover up if more and more people are seeing it in the open. Let’s also not forget that magic damages the footage files of any recording device. I don’t want to think about what will happen during a live duel that is being aired on TV or on the web. Twilight Sparkle of Crystal Prep used that to help show her fellow classmates that something beyond the normal was going on.”
At that, Luna nodded. At this school, part of her job was to maintain order and see to it that anybody breaking the rules was firmly disciplined. But not just her students but also the people who enter this school during events. Normally that meant putting a stop to pranksters looking to ruin other people’s hard work or overseeing drug tests to make sure none of the athletes from either school were using anything to boost their performance. This she could easily see where Celestia was coming from. If the coach from the other school recorded the duel and decided to play it back to the dueling team to show how they lost and how not to make the same mistakes in the future, he or she would be surprised to see all of their footage of those duels inaccessible. Probably more so when they realized that no one could recall how they lost exactly. No doubt they would begin to look into it and as more evidence that something foul was afoot they would no doubt accuse Canterlot High of cheating.
“What’s more, we have plenty of students here at our school who are skilled duelists,” continued Celestia as she opened her briefcase. “We can’t solely rely on Sunset Shimmer and her friends to solve all of our problems. Other students deserve to have a chance to represent Canterlot High as well as take home some of the glory.” Luna watched as Celestia pulled out two vanilla collared folders, each with a student’s picture on them. “When I was originally planning on putting this team together, I had also looked up a couple back up students as well. These two in particular caught my eye.”
Vice-Principal Luna looked down at the two pictures, recognizing them both immediately. One of them was Star Hunter, older brother of Star Chaser who at one time had been a duelist with a promising future. That was until it had been revealed that he had been cheating in order to the entrance exam for Crystal Prep along with several prior duels thus ending his career before it ever truly began. Following that, Chaser had gotten in trouble with the law from trying to rob a store and ending with him caught red handed poisoning several of Canterlot’s athletes in an attempt to take their place. Thankfully, Hunter was nothing like his brother as far as Luna could see. She had never had him sent to her office nor had she ever been informed of any ill behavior of his in class. As for the boy’s skills as a duelist…
---Flashback---
Luna was patrolling the halls, looking for any after school stragglers and the like, when a large monster appeared outside. Startled by its sudden appearance for a moment, Luna had jumped back while placing a hand over her heart while her back was pressed against the lockers. She stared at the humanish shape outside the window, looking like a marionette grabbed in purple attire. Purple strings of energy were whipping around about it as its lifeless eyes stared downwards.
As Luna realized a duel was happening outside, she moved towards the window and looked down three stories to see who was dueling who. At once she noticed Hunter, a teen with light brown skin and a similar yet darker shade of hair, standing in front of the giant monster. Dressed in a black button up shirt and jeans, he kept his gaze on his opponent. On the other side was one of the members of Flash Sentry’s band, Dull Roar. On his side of the field was an old classic: Elemental Hero Shining Flare Wingman. The green skinned warrior was covered in silver armor with upturned wings on his back, radiating light in an attempt to fight back the darkness created by Hunter’s monster. Also on the field was a face down card.
From what Luna could see Dull Roar looked confident as he made sweeping gestures with his hand. From what Luna knew about Shining Flare Wingman, it not only gained more attack points with each Elemental Hero in the graveyard but it also inflicted damage to his opponent equal to the destroyed monster’s attack points. And that face down was clearly something meant to protect it. Turning her attention to Hunter, he showed only a ghost of a smile before saying something that Luna could not hear. But whatever it was rattled Roar, causing the boy to take a step back and breaking his confidence.
Luna then watched as Hunter continued his move. First he summoned a monster that Luna knew very well: Dark Armed Dragon. The large beast rose from the ground, half the height as the fist monster and covered in blades. He then summoned another monster, something that looked like a spell caster that then let him add a card to his hand before fusing it. What took the wizards place was a creature that looked like a silver knight being pulled on a chariot by some deformed demon. From there, the match was over. Roar tried to activate a trap when the largest monster attacked only for it to be negated and destroyed somehow, his Shining Flare Wingman being cut to ribbons. Following that the other two monsters attacked him directly, ending the match soundly.
---End Flashback---
Coming back from her memories, Luna turned to look at the other picture. It showed a girl wearing a purple sweatshirt and a matching plaid skirt. She wore glasses that were bandaged right about her light yellowish gray nose. Her hair was a brilliant amaranth with purple and violet streaks running down the middle, styled so that part of the top was tied up while the rest followed down her neck. Luna recognized her instantly as Moondancer without having to look at the name, a good student with very high grades. In fact, Luna didn’t know if there was any student in the school taking more honors classes than she was! She had also heard rumors that she was dating Hunter but those didn’t concern her that much. Now if she had heard that the two of them were doing something inappropriate on school grounds that would be a different story. As for her dueling history Moondancer’s record was limited. In fact she rarely ever dueled. But when she did…
---Flashback---
“This can’t be possible!” yelled a boy in a posh accent, drawing Luna’s attention from her lunch. It had been a nice day, one without too much sun as well as a cool breeze that had begged Luna to have her break outside for a change. With a sigh, she set down her meatball sub before getting up to see what was happening. Hopefully it was nothing since she wanted to finish it while it was still warm. If it was something serious she would at least be there to deal with it.
As she turned the corner, Luna saw that two students were in the middle of a duel. Not uncommon during breaks. The one who had shouted, a boy with slicked black hair and a yellow jacket, had his back facing her. His fists were clenched tightly; body shaking from head to toe despite having two monsters on his side of the field while his opponent had none. One of them was a twin headed dragon made out of water that surged around its massive form. The other was one that, despite only seeing it from its back, Luna knew by name: True King Bahrastos, the Fathomer. It was a massive, serpent like creature of blues and purples with white wings that seemed to float from its back.
“I did all the calculations!” cried the boy as he gripped his hair. “This isn’t possible!”
“That’s what you say every time,” said his opponent, Moondancer. Her field was surprisingly empty of any cards, only specs of ash dancing in the air. Yet she appeared completely calm, checking her smartphone for something while the teen before her was having a freak out. “Only fifteen minutes left for lunch. Great, just great. I’m not only missing most of my free time when I could be doing something worthwhile but I have to deal with you again. The least you could have done was try to make this more interesting than adding one card that might have had a chance of stopping me.” Moondancer then pocketed her phone before reaching to draw.
As Moondancer drew, flames erupted around her causing Luna’s eyes to widen. The boy cried out in an over the top fashion as figures began to emerge from the flames, looking down at the water monsters as steam began to roll off their forms. Then, in less than a minute, the duel ended with the boy falling to his knees in defeat.
---End Flashback---
“Well, these two are skilled from what I’ve seen,” agreed Luna as she set down the documents. “But we’ll still need four more. Do you think we’ll be able to find them in time for this match?”
“I believe so,” replied Celestia calmly as she put the folders away. “There are plenty of students to choose from. Even the ones who never entered the Autumn Crown should be up for consideration. Perhaps we could use this as a chance to let them shine for a change.” Luna watched as her sister blinked before a look similar to enlightenment appeared in her gaze. “And I think I just thought of one. Lightning Dust!”
---Flashback---
It was a lovely mid-autumn morning as Celestia got out of her car in the faculty parking lot when the sound of a crash caught her attention. Without bothering to close her car door, she raced as fast as she could in the direction of the noise fearful for what might have happened. Could there have been an accident in the student parking lot? Or had the softball team broken one of the windows due to an early morning practice? Again? Oh how she hoped it was the latter.
Turning a corner, Celestia quickly spotted three of her male students huddled around a fallen motorcycle. No, that wasn’t exactly right. It was a D-Runner! The bike once had a shiny black coat to it with bright yellow lightning bolts running down its sides. Now, however, it was scuffed and scratched up in various place along with shoe prints along the sides as the boys continued to kick it. One even kicked it so hard that the lightning shaped card tray in the front broke right off causing the three to laugh wildly.
The sight of this made Celestia eyes narrow while her fists clenched. This sort of behavior was something that no teacher or principal would ever tolerate. It was clear grounds for expulsion!
“HEY YOU JERKS!” screamed a voice causing not only Celestia to pause for a moment but the three boys as well. In that moment a blurring figure came racing towards them leaving a trail of dust in her wake before punching the first teen in the jaw. There stood Lightning Dust, her turquoise fist in the air and her amber hair slicked back. She was dressed in a black jacket with yellow lines going down her arms, a light blue shirt with a lightning bolt and three stars on it, and grey pants. The girl glared at the three as she breathed in and out. “THAT’S MY BRAND NEW D-RUNNER! DO ANY OF YOU KNOW HOW LONG IT TOOK ME TO SAVE UP FOR THAT?!?”
“Crap,” grunted one of them.
“Damn, I was hoping we’d be down before this bitch got back,” said another.
“It’s your own fault for bringing it here,” said the one who had gotten punched as he got to his feet. Blood was running from his lip, but he didn’t seem to mind it at all. “With all the enemies you have here, I’m surprised there wasn’t a line and a ticket booth set up for people to take shots at this hunk of junk!”
Lightning growled as she moved over to her fallen D-Runner, taking out a spare duel disk. “I’m going to take out all three of you losers,” she said as she put it on. “Or are you three to chicken as to fight someone who can punch back?”
There was no hesitation as all three of them pulled out their own duel disks. “We’re not afraid of you,” shouted one. In response, Lightning grinned as she activated her duel disk.
---End Flashback---
Luna frowned as her sister continued finished the story. “Lightning was able to defeat all three of them with some level of difficultly. Then, once the duel was over, I approached them to dish out some punishments. The three who had damaged her property were suspended for a month while Lightning received a day’s detention for punching him.”
“One of several she’s had this year,” replied Luna as she rubbed her forehead, thinking back to all of the times she had had that girl sitting in her classroom for detention or hearing about her from other people at the school. Yes, Lightning was both a talented athlete as well as a duelist and her grades were slightly above average. She was a driven girl to be sure, but her interactions with other students had caused incidents like the one Celestia had described since she first walked through these halls. Lightning was reckless in her passion to be seen as the best, sometimes injuring others in the process and seeming not to care. As an example, Luna knew why each of the boys were so angry at Lightning as to damage her property on school grounds. One of them had taken issue when Lightning, in an attempt to quickly get into position for a three point shoot in a basketball game, had knocked over his younger sister in order to get to that point with the result being a broken leg. It had been deemed an accident, but there seemed to be a lot of accidents where Lightning was involved. Another one of the boys had a friend on the soccer team who was limping after Lightning’s foot collided with his leg when trying to steal the ball.
Celestia, it seemed, was thinking along the same lines as her. “I know she has her issues,” began Celestia speaking in a tone that screamed to Luna that she would not like the outcome. “But maybe being part of a team where everyone is on equal footing. Plus I don’t think she can hurt anyone with holograms.”
“She may not be able to hurt them physically, but her words might be enough,” retorted Luna. “Lightning can be harsh when she thinks that others are not pulling their weight.”
“Still, it wouldn’t hurt to give her a chance,” insisted Celestia. Luna juts sighed while fighting the urge to shake her head. The tone her sister had used meant that the subject was closed. “So, do you have any suggestions?”
Luna brought a hand to her chin, thinking for a moment. She had seen so many duels this year alone that it was a bit hard to keep track of them all. Still there were a few that stood out to her. As well as the students who used them. Students like…
“How about Pharynx?” she suggested causing Celestia to look thoughtful for a moment.
“Pharynx,” echoed Celestia. “Isn’t he the one how helps out with school security during events?”
Luna let out a small smile. “Without even needing to be asked. Him and Bon-Bon make a good team. That’s the reason they didn’t join in for the Crown or the Cup, they were busy making sure that the rest of the students would be safe. He might be overzealous at times, but his heart is in the right place I believe.”
Celestia nodded. “Oh, I am aware. But have you ever seen him duel?”
The Vice-Principal didn’t answer right away, instead thinking back to the days leading up to the various events at school. Every day after school, she would see both Pharynx and Bon-Bon dueling each other. The young man was one of those duelist who didn’t bother with any extra deck monsters, instead preferring to tribute to gain a field advantage. It might not be the fastest deck in the world, but he clearly understood it and had worked hard to make it fast enough to put up a really good fight.
“He’ll do us proud I believe,” said Luna at last. She then sighed. “That still leaves us with two more students.” Folding her arms, she tried to think of another student to suggest. “How about Flash Sentry?”
“Hmm, he is one of the best duelists in the school,” admitted Celestia as she rested her chin on her hands. Slowly the older of the two women closed her eyes in contemplation before opening them again. “Perhaps not. He is close to Sunset Shimmer. And I would still prefer to allow other students to participate in this team.”
“Well then I would suggest not picking Snips and Snails,” said Luna in a firm tone. “Those two might be good duelists, but they have a history of poor decision making. The last thing we’ll want at this match is them embarrassing the school for some half baked idea.”
“I…tend to agree with that more than I’d like to admit,” said Celestia who shuttered. Most likely thinking of all the ways those two could get in trouble Luna surmised. Then, very suddenly, Celestia straighten up as her eyes went wide. “Oh, remember that one time we were called in to deal with the school play last year?”
Luna scrunched her face, doing her best to recall. However, there had been many times they had been called down to deal with this or that. In fact, she doubted if there had ever been a play that they hadn’t been called down to settle a dispute of some kind. One of the most notorious problems was with casting, students arguing with each other on who got to play who. But, if it was last year, the memory that stood out the most was…
---Flashback---
“Come on, everyone wants to see superheroes these days,” said Snips loudly as both Celestia and Luna appeared in the doorway. Before them was a large auditorium with a large number of students sitting in the front who were all looking up at the stage. The stage was empty, the red curtain blocking everything that was backstage with both Snips and Snails standing in front. The two boys were wearing shirts that tried to make them look over muscled, with devices on their heads, and plastic oversized things that might have been guns. Well, maybe futuristic guns that were pink for some reason.
“Yeah, we need to, uh, go with what people want,” agreed Snails.
“No, no, no,” said another voice as a girl stood up. She had reddish hair that was curly and gave the impression of a lion’s mane. She wore an off white dress that had a reptilian scale like pattern on the side. This girl, Autumn Blaze, leapt onto the stage before twirling around to face the crowd. “We can’t do that!”
“Why not?” demanded both boys at once.
“Because we need something that will cheer people up and entertain them,” stated Autumn. “Something with music, comedy, and fun! Like, for example, a variety showcase where groups can put together something small. Or maybe drama like The Phantom of the Opera!” As she spoke, Luna noticed that several of the heads around her were nodding in agreement. Some looked excited by the prospects. “But a Youngblood comic adaptation? One with mass shootings? That’s more likely to get us all expelled before the first curtain call!”
“You don’t know that!” shouted Snips as he pointed at Autumn. He then turned to the rest of the group present. “Right guys?” Even from where Luna was standing she could see that all of the students there were firmly on Autumn’s side. Many of them were averting their gazes while others looked on with utter disapproval. It seemed like even Snips and Snails realized this as they took a step back. “Ah, how about we duel for it? Winner gets to decide.”
Much to everyone’s surprise, Autumn shrugged with a grin on her face. “It it keeps the two of you from dragging this out any longer than it needs to be then sure,” she said as a friend tossed Autumn her duel disk. She caught it and with a flourish attached it to her arm. At the same time the two boys went to get their duel disks. “Wait, you want me to duel both of you?”
“Well it is our idea,” replied Snips sounding a bit more confident.
“And it’s the only way we stan-oof,” went Snails as Snips elbowed him hard. “I mean, yeah.”
“Then we might as well make this fair,” said a new voice next to Autumn. Everybody jumped, including Luna and Celestia. Even from where they had been standing with a clear view of the entire room they had somehow failed to notice the girl with light green skin and dark green messy hair. She wore a brown sweater and jeans, her duel disk on her arm.
“Where did you come from?” asked Autumn as she looked at her partner, a hand over her heart as she spoke. Yet her voice didn’t sound frightened. If anything she sounded excited. “Are you like some sort of ghost that haunts the school? Because, if you are, that would be amazing! We could have the best special effects with you appearing and disappearing! Can you sing? Please tell me you can sing!”
“I’m Wallflower Blush,” replied the green girl as she rolled her eyes. “And I’m not a ghost! I’ve been sitting next to you since this all started. I said hello to you and everything!” She then paused for a moment with a considering look on her face. “And yes, I can sing.”
“Celestia, do you think we should get involved?” asked Luna as Snips and Snails got back onto the stage with duel disks equipped. “If what Autumn said is true there is no way we can allow something like that to take place.”
“Agreed,” replied Celestia. “Still, it looks like they are trying to handle things themselves. If they win then there will be no need for us to get involved. If they lose then we’ll be here to remind them that we cannot allow any such violence to take place on stage, fictional or not. Besides,” Celestia paused to allow a brief smile. “This looks far more entertaining than the paperwork back at our offices.”
“…You have a point,” agreed Luna as she turned back to the duel about to take place.
---End Flashback---
“Autumn Blaze or Wallflower Blush?” asked Luna for clarification.
“Why not both,” suggested Celestia. “From what I saw, both girls would have given even Flash Sentry a run for his money had they been able to take part of the Crown Tournament. And that will give us six students, enough to make the team complete.”
Luna gave a nod, glancing at a wall clock. The hour was growing late now and both women would need to be getting home soon. “Every well then,” said the Vice-Principal calmly. “I suppose now all that remains is to find a suitable coach to lead the team and inform him or her of our choices.”
“I don’t think that will be necessary,” replied Celestia with an odd smile on her face. “Because you will be coaching the team until a full time replacement can be found. You have been talking about taking on more responsibility for a while now so this is the perfect chance.”
Luna’s eyes widened at that. Had she heard right? Was Celestia appointing her as coach without even asking? Yes, she had been talking about more responsibility…but not like this. She had been thinking about getting herself a dog! Or maybe a goldfish or something!
“Sister,” began Luna before pausing to swallow loudly. “A-Are you sure you would rather do this? I mean, you have been pushing for this just as hard as I have. And you did decently against Sombra when you dueled.”
Celestia paused to give her sister a knowing look before standing up and turning to look out the darkened window. “Starting at the end of this week I will be leaving to attend the annual Leaders in Education conference. In other words, six straight days on non-stop boredom as I listen to lecture after lecture. If you would care to go in my place then by all means.”
Luna hung her head at that. “N-No,” said Luna. Without waiting to be excused or saying anything, Luna walked out the door knowing that she had a long night ahead of her. Not only did she need to brush up on the rules while also filling out all the paperwork but also consider who to ask should the six they had selected decide they didn’t want to join. Still, it had to be less stressful and boring than going to one of those conferences.