“Does anyone know what’s going on?” asked Sunset as she moved through the hallways along with the rest of the students of Canterlot High. Around her were her friends, all looking confused as they walked with the flow heading towards the stadium. Well, most of them looked confused. Twilight looked like a stranger had just kicked Spike onto the freeway while Rainbow looked like Christmas had come early.
“No more than the rest of ya’ll,” said Applejack with a shrug.
“Who cares?” asked an excited Rainbow Dash. “Whatever is going on just got me out of a biology test. I could seriously use some more time to study.”
“I was prepared,” mumbled Twilight as her head hung low, both Sonata and Fluttershy patting her on the back. “I had all my pencils in a neat row, memorized all my cue cards, theorized all of the extra credit problems. Now the test is probably going to change.” Twilight then gasped as her head lifted. There was now a sparkle in her eyes while a joyous smile appeared on her face. “Maybe the test will be harder! Something to challenge us!”
At that, Rainbow shuddered. “Let’s hope not,” she said, giving Twilight a dirty look.
“I just think that it’s weird to suddenly call the entire school into the stadium like this,” pressed Sunset, doing her best to keep them all on topic. “Even the teachers looked confused.”
“Oh, I’m sure it's nothing,” commented Rarity with a wave of her hand. “Probably just Principal Celestia and Vice-Principal Luna wanting to make sure we appreciate being given such a marvelous place to duel, rather than having to do it outside. They’ll likely be going over rules, telling us how to schedule fields during lunch, and so on. Hmm, they could have invited Mr. Sombra over to say a few words.
“I guess that makes sense,” said Sunset as they left the hallways of the school and into the open air outside. There the students moved across the walkway towards the open double doors of the stadium ahead. Yet despite what Rarity had just said, she couldn’t help but think that something more was happening. Something that might just end up affecting all of them.
-x-
“Please Mrs. Rich, don’t you think you have taken this too far?” asked Documented. Both he and Spoiled Rich were in one of the locker rooms of the stadium, a large room with the walls lined with rows of small lockers meant to hold a backpack. A few feet from the walls were long wooden benches which were probably designed so that students could set things down without having to bend down. There were no sinks or bathrooms in this room as the public bathrooms were just down the hall, leaving only a single door in and out of this place.
Beyond that door, Documented could hear the students as they filled the stadium. It was impossible not to as their steps pounded above their heads while several voices were heard moving just outside their door. Sweat began to form around his face as he looked at Spoiled. She sat there on one of the benches, duel disk on one arm looking very calm.
“Hardly,” replied Spoiled in a smooth tone. “This was Celestia’s idea after all. If she really wants to protect her sister’s job than I’m more than willing to play her game. Of course I will honor the agreement she made; if she loses both of the sisters will be removed from this school.”
“But-” began Documented, but was silenced as Spoiled stood up. She looked at him like she always had: like an annoying fly to stick her nose up into the air at. That was something that all the members of the School Board hated about her. The way she looked down at people who had to work hard to make it to where they were while she had been born with a large amount of wealth before wedding a man whose wealth far surpassed her own.
“Both parties have agreed,” said Spoiled. Her tone was near patronizing, as if she thought she were speaking to a child. It was also meant to say the matter was settled. And, sadly, Documented knew that it was. Her mind was set.
-x-
“Sister, please. You don’t have to do this,” begged Luna. The darker sister was sitting in their own locker room, identical to the one being used by Spoiled on the opposite side of the stadium, watching as her sister inspected her deck. Both women could hear the sounds of the students moving through the building, their ears alert for the announcement that the duel would begin.
Guilt was building up within Luna. How could this have happened? That damned video was from so long ago and it barely sold mainly because advertisement of it could only be found on late night television. Specifically between the hours of 2 a.m. and 5 a.m. According to what she was told only sixteen tapes were sold while the rest went to distribution centers. Once or twice since then she had tried looking up her old videos finding herself pleased to know that her searches came up with everything but that video. Heck, the producers never even had a web page. So she had felt confident that it was an embarrassing chapter of her life that was over. So how did this happen?
“Luna, you’re my sister,” said Celestia, her back facing Luna as she continued to go over her cards. “I’m not going to let that woman push you around like that.”
“But if you lose then the school loses you as well,” insisted Luna. “Think about it. If the both of us are forced to leave then that witch can put whoever she wants in our places. But with you here at least she can’t do whatever she wants!”
“You have a point,” admitted Celestia without pausing from examining her deck. “But we have been running this school together for years now. I trust you more than anyone else in this building. And there is no one else I would rather have at my side.”
At that, Lune let out a sigh. It was probably pointless right to argue any further. “Now I feel even worse for not telling you about why I’ve been so busy lately,” she said. At that, Celestia paused in her examination. Slowly, she turned to look at Luna before her gaze was averted.
“Yeah, about that,” began Celestia slowly. “I have been wondering why you’ve canceled so many of our sister times. If you don’t want to spend time with me I understand.”
At that Luna couldn’t help but roll her eyes. “Sister, it isn’t about you,” she said with a sigh. “I’ve been taking online college courses at night.”
Celestia’s reaction to that was surprising, if not alarming. The first thing that happened was her head jerking upright, almost in alarm before she spun around so quickly that Luna was taken aback. Her eyes held the appearance of shock and her body seemed to tremble slightly. Was she…afraid?
“That’s what you’ve been doing?” asked Celestia, her body slowly trying to calm down. Now she looked nervous.
“…Yes,” replied Luna slowly after a pause. “Well, every night except last night. An old friend wanted to get together for dinner.” Luna then let out another sigh. “I didn’t want to tell you because I didn’t know if I would be continuing it. The plan was to wait until the end of the classes to see how I did. Then, if I was doing well I would tell you.”
“So you’re going to be leaving anyways?” asked Celestia looking like she had calmed down but with her shoulders hung. Luna stared at her sister for a moment before answering, realizing what she was going through. She was fighting to keep her sister’s job when Luna was planning on moving on anyways. A part of Luna blamed Spoiled yet knew, deep down, that this was on her. Yes, Spoiled created the situation but Luna should have told Celestia her plans earlier. Then, maybe, Celestia wouldn’t have made that challenge.
What’s more, it wasn’t like Luna didn’t have options if she lost her job. Sombra had made it clear that he would be willing to help her get into the pro-dueling league. There, she could make a nice sum of cash while trying to take her courses. Even if she didn’t do that, she could always get another job at another school. All she needed was a letter of recommendation from Celestia and a few of the other teachers. Heck, she might even be able to get one from Documented! Perhaps in the heat of the moment Celestia forgot to consider those things.
“Well, if you win, it won’t be for a while,” she said, trying her best to encourage her sister. That and to not make her think that she was doing this for nothing.
Her words seemed to do the trick as Celestia nodded, smiling at her before placing her deck in her duel disk. “Then I’ll be sure to win. If you do decide to go back to school, you’ll need all the financial help you can get.”
-x-
For several minutes, the entire school sat in their seats either talking to each other or looking down at the field below. Many had noticed that there was only one duel field present at the moment, one that encompassed nearly the entire floor. Those who saw this speculated on just what was going to happen. One popular rumor was that they were going to have Sombra dueling Vice-Principal Luna once again to celebrate the construction of the stadium. Others thought that maybe it was another dueling celebrity wanting to show off their skills to the students. A few even joked that a couple teachers got into a fight and were going to duel each other. Those who either didn’t notice this or didn’t care, just chatted with their friends.
“Attention students,” came a male voice over the P.A. system within the stadium, silencing everyone within. “You have all been pulled from your classes to observe the duel between Principal Celestia and the Chairwoman of the School Board, Spoiled Rich.”
As the voice on the P.A. system finished speaking, multiple things began to happen at once. On the ground, Spoiled Rich walked onto the field from one end while Celestia and her sister appeared on the opposite. At the same time, students were looking at each other in confusion as to why this was happening. Diamond Tiara, on the other hand, for a moment tried to hide by covering her head with her hands while also curling her body into a ball in her seat. This was short lived for Silver Spoon nudged her friend until she righted herself before pulling out her phone and sending a message. In another part of the stands was Pip, who was moving quickly along the stairways to get as close to the Vice-Principal as he could who was leaning against the wall to watch this.
“I hope you’re ready for this Celestia,” said Spoiled, her voice being easily carried throughout the stadium as she pointed at her opponent. “Because I’ve been waiting for this moment for a long time. Once you lose, both you and your sister will be out of here!”
“I’m well aware,” replied Celestia calmly, closing her eyes and taking a breath as the crowd above her began to talk even more rapidly. Plenty of students loudly voiced their confusion, some even swearing aloud. Thanks to the size and the volume, these specific dirty mouthed student’s identities were left unknown.
Both elder women raised their dueling arms to show they were ready. “Connecting,” said a female mechanical voice from their duel disks. “Opponents found. Displaying order now.” In the middle of the field appeared a flat holographic image of a portrait, massive when compared to the normal one. As it spun around, one side showing a sweetly smiling Celestia while the other was Spoiled with her nose in the air, the students began to settle down as they waited to see who would be going first. The image began to spin round and round, faster and faster as their duel disks shuffled their decks at an equally quick speed. Eventually the portraits stopped spinning, the crowd cheering as the image landed on Celestia.
“Looks like I’ll be going first,” announced Celestia as she drew her opening hand. Spoiled said nothing, merely drawing her own cards and briefly glancing at them with a superior smile on her face. The sight of Spoiled being so calm, hardly even looking at what she had drawn did not bode well for those who saw it.
“I draw!” yelled Celestia. With six cards in her hands, the crowd watched as she looked them over to quickly formulate her plan. “First, I’ll discard Hecatrice so that I can use its effect to add Valhalla, Hall of the Fallen from my deck to my hand. Then I’ll play it!” Appearing behind Celestia were several marble pillars as well as red silk curtains. Following that a stairway rose from the ground leading to a marble throne of some kind. “Since I control no monsters I am allowed to activate its effect: once per turn I can special summon one Fairy from my hand. Now show your respect to the Goddess of Wisdom herself: Athena!”
As Celestia placed her monster on her duel disk, a woman appeared on the steps behind her. Each step she took was followed by a clang caused by the silver spear/trident she carried in one hand while the other held a white shield that had golden rims. This woman was dressed in a white, Greek styled dress that seemed to emit a soft glow around her as well as a silver-bladed helm that covered her long white hair. Soon she took her place in front of her summoner, slamming her weapon into the ground with a clang as loud as thunder as her attack points were displayed at 2600.
“But there’s more because now I activate the spell card Celestial Transformation,” Celestia continued as Athena smiled. “This spell card allows me to special summon one Fairy from my hand at the cost of its attack points being cut in half as well as being destroyed at the end of the turn. So I’ll summon Agent of Judgment-Saturn!” The students gasped as, in the middle of the field, a small scale replica of the planet Saturn appeared. Then, from the gaseous planet, came a purple skinned figure with equally purple wings. This man was dressed in white robes with a thick, dark purple line going down the middle as well as a white headdress that had golden lining. His original 2400 attack points dropped to 1200 as he landed on the ground and the planet above their heads faded.
“Since I summoned a Fairy type monster, Athena’s effect activates dealing 600 points of damage directly to your life points,” shouted Celestia as the Goddess pointed her spear at Spoiled. From it emerged an owl made of white light that flew through the air, colliding with Spoiled’s gut. The other woman took several steps back as her life points dropped to 7400.
“A lucky move,” growled Spoiled as she looked coldly at Athena.
“Well, there’s more to that move,” said Celestia in a matter of fact tone. “Because now I tribute my Agent to summon Tethys, Goddess of Light!” Agent of Judgment vanished in a flash of blue light and was replaced by a winged woman who floated a foot off the ground. She was dressed in an elegant white dress, trimmed in gold whose bottom was stripped and the strands pointed in every direction. Her wings were not attached to her body, but blue orbs floated behind her shoulder blades and the wings floated just above those. Her attack points were 2400.
“Since I summoned another Fairy, you know what that means,” said Celestia as Athena pointed her weapon at Spoiled again. Another owl went flying towards Celestia’s opponent, ramming into her.
“These little tricks are eating up your hand,” sneered Spoiled as her life points fell to 6800.
“True,” admitted Celestia as she looked at the two remaining cards in her hand. “I’ll set a face down and then pass it to you.”
“About time. I draw,” said Spoiled as she drew her card. With six cards in her hand, Spoiled glanced at them before looking down at Celestia. “Now it’s my turn to teach you a lesson. The difference between a commoner like yourself verses a member of high society.”
“Go ahead,” said Celestia as Spoiled reached for a card in her hand. But before she could play anything, Celestia had already pressed a button on her duel disk. “I activate my trap card: Jar of Greed. This lets me draw one card.” Spoiled frowned as Celestia drew a card. The Principal looked at what she had drawn before showing it to Spoiled. “I just drew Zeradias, Herald of Heaven. Since I drew him Tethys, Goddess of Light’s effect activates allowing me to draw once more.”
“Pitiful,” sneered Spoiled. “All that work to draw two cards. But I suppose I should have expected as much.” Calmly, Spoiled inserted a card into her duel disk. “I’ll play the spell card Pre-Preparation of Rite. Now I can add two cards from my deck to my hand. One ritual monster and the ritual spell card that lists that monster’s name.”
-x-
“So she uses a ritual deck as well,” said Sunset as she looked down at the field. For a moment she sat there, thinking hard about what kind of deck she might be using. This was a little difficult since she really didn’t know that many ritual decks in the game. Not many people played them. In fact she knew of only one person in the school and, luckily that girl was seated just a few seats away from her. “Hey Sonata, any idea what deck she might be playing?”
Sonata looked at her and shrugged. “No clue,” she said. “I don’t even use that card.”
“What?!?” cried Rainbow, who was seated in the row right behind the two girls. “But that card is perfect for a ritual deck like yours.”
“You would think that,” said Sonata as her gaze turned to the ceiling, sighing as she did so. “I mean, I was excited when it was announced. It sounded like I could search any of my ritual spells and any monster…at first. Only thing is that my ritual cards don’t list the full names of my ritual monster.” Sonata then looked rather thoughtful. “In fact, I think that most ritual decks these days do something similar. One ritual spell card that works for the entire archetype. So, if I had to guess, she’s probably using older ritual monsters.”
“So that means that Principal Celestia has a good shot at winning, right?” asked Fluttershy who was seated next to Rainbow. “I mean, I’ve never seen her duel before, but she seems to have some powerful monsters on her side of the field.”
“Yeah, come to think about it, I’ve never seen Principal Celestia duel as well,” admitted Sunset. “In fact, I don’t think Princess Celestia back in my world knew how to duel. But she does seem to be doing well.” Yet as she spoke Sunset, along with the rest of her friends, could not shake a foreboding feeling around them.
-x-
As the girls spoke, Spoiled’s deck began to shuffle rapidly. When it stopped, two cards slid out from the top which Spoiled took. “Now to play my new cards. I activate the ritual spell card Black Illusion Ritual. By tributing the Millennium-Eyes Illusionist in my hand I can ritual summon one of the oldest and most powerful monsters in the game.” Appearing in front of Spoiled was a large golden jar with horns on its sides and an Egyptian styled eye engraved in the middle. On both sides of the jar were golden burners. As Spoiled sent a card from her hand to her graveyard smoke was emitted from the jar as the image of the monster she had sent appeared within the purple haze before quickly being sucked back in.
“Born of the darkest arts,” chanted Spoiled as the jar began to grow and morph. “Created to be the ultimate weapon. Come now to serve at your master’s call. Ritual Summon: Relinquished!” The jar’s color began to change, turning from gold to a greenish grey. As it grew to double the size of Spoiled, parts of the front rose upwards as if they were the shell protecting the wings of a beetle but on the front. Thick arms began to grow from its sides, ending in gauntlet-like hands with talon-like digits at its end. The creature had no feet but ended in a point like a top as it hovered above the ground. And above that point was a round hole that served as the creature's mouth, pulsating and drooling. Finally, a single eyestalk came out right above its mouth which held the ‘eye’ symbol on it. This creature had no attack points.
“Now, since I special summoned Relinquished my Millennium-Eyes Illusionist returns to my hand,” continued Spoiled as her card shot out of her graveyard slot. “Then I’ll activate the effect of my Relinquished, absorbing Athena into it!” As she said this, the mouth of her ritual monster began to inhale. The crowd watched as both of Celestia’s monsters braced themselves with Athena impaling her spear into the ground in order to keep her ground. But the force was too great, her hand slipped from her weapon. Tethys tried her best to reach out but it was too late as Athena was devoured by Relinquished. The students gasped as they all saw Relinquished’s ‘wings’ lower themselves as if to protect its body, Athena now half consumed within the monster’s body. What’s more, the monster’s attack rose to 2600!
“Let’s see how well you deal with this,” said Spoiled with a smirk as she pointed to Tethys. “Relinquished, remove that prissy eyesore from my sigh!” Relinquished’s eye began to glow purple before firing a beam that struck Tethys in the chest. The Goddess cried out in pain before exploding.
“My monster!” yelled Celestia as her life points dropped to 7800.
“I believe that’ll do for this turn,” said Spoiled. “Lets see if you can squirm your way out of this. But I doubt it.”
“We’ll see. I draw,” yelled Celestia as she drew her card. With four cards in her hand, she looked at her options before placing a card in her spell/trap slot. “I play the spell card Cards from the Sky! By banishing one Light Fairy monster from my hand, I’m allowed to draw two more cards. So I’ll be saying goodbye to Zeradias, Herald of Heaven.” Calmly, Celestia pocketed her monster before drawing two more cards. “Next I’ll play the spell card Shards of Greed which will help me out later. Unfortunately there’s nothing else I can do this turn so I’ll end it here.”
“How sad for you,” said Spoiled with a bit of a laugh as she drew. With six cards in her hand, she merely glanced at them again before looking back at Celestia. “I suppose this is the best someone of your class can manage. A pity, but not surprising at all.” She then placed a card on her card tray. “I summon Armageddon Knight in attack mode!” Standing next to Relinquished was a warrior clad in old, rusty samurai-ish armor with a red scarf covering his face. His attack was 1400. “When this monster is summoned, I am allowed to send any dark monster from my deck to the graveyard. Something like my Thousand Eyes Idol.” Once again, Spoiled’s deck began to shuffle itself rapidly before spitting out a single card which its owner sent to the graveyard.
“Let's cut your life points down, shall we,” said Spoiled in a mocking tone. “Both monsters attack her directly!” As Armageddon Knight ran across the field, Relinquished fired another eye laser at Celestia which hit her in the gut. Sent backwards by the blast, Celestia’s life points dropped to 5200. Armageddon Knight’s attack was next, slashing at her as Celestia continued to fall to the ground. By the time the Principal had landed back against the ground her life points had dropped all the way to 3800.
“Utterly pathetic,” sneered Spoiled as Celestia slowly got back up. “You don’t even have enough wits about you to know when it's in your best interests to stay down.” Nose raised again, Spoiled picked out a card from her hand and slid it into one of the spell/trap card slots. “Not that I think I’ll need it, but I’ll place one card face down and end my turn.”
“Then I draw!” yelled Celestia as she drew her card, the total in her hand now four. “First of all, my Shards of Greed gains a counter. Then I’ll play the field spell Sanctuary in the Sky.” Opening up the side of her duel disk, Celestia slid in the card. As she closed it a valley of clouds appeared overhead with a temple seated upon them. “Then I’ll place one card face down and then set two more cards. That’s all.”
“Yes, that’s all,” commented Spoiled as she drew her card. Calmly she added the card to the rest of the ones in her hand, giving her a total of five. “I’m not sure why, but I expected you to at least try to put up more of a fight. Let's see what pathetic monster you have hiding there. Armageddon Knight, cut it down now!” Armageddon Knight did as its master commanded, racing towards Celestia’s face down card and slicing it in two. As it did, the image of an orange reef appeared in its place sliced in half moments before it was destroyed.
“The card you just destroyed was my Nova Summoner,” said Celestia as a screen appeared in front of her. “When it’s destroyed in battle I can special summon another fairy to take its place. As long as its attack is 1500 or less that is.” Celestia began to scroll down the screen until she found what she was looking for. The crowd watched as her deck began to shuffle once more before a card popped out from the top which was then taken and placed on her duel disk. “So please welcome The Agent of Wisdom – Mercury!” Appearing above them was a greenish blue planet as another angelic figure descended downwards. This figure's skin matched the planet’s, and he wore blue sleeveless robes that showed off the tattoos on his shoulders. In one hand he carried several stone tablets and his attack was 0.
Everyone around looked on in confusion as Celestia’s monster hovered in front of her in attack mode. It was strange to see this since, well, Celestia would lose nearly the rest of her life points if her opponent attacked. Some even guessed that that’s what she wanted based on the slew of face down cards she had. But that seemed a little too obvious. This went for Spoiled as well, looking at the new monster on the field and then at the back row where the two face down cards could still be seen.
“Alright Celestia, I’ll call your bluff,” she said at last. “Relinquished, attack Mercury!”
“I activate my face down card!” shouted Celestia as Relinquished fired another purple beam towards her. At the same time, it hit an invisible barrier. “It’s called Draining Shield. Not only will this card protect my monster but I’ll also gain life points equal to the attack of your monster.” Grinning, Celestia looked at the readings on her duel disk showing that her life points were now at 6400.
“Pitiful,” sneered Spoiled. “I’ll set one more card face down and end my turn. I end my turn.”
“And I get to draw,” said Celestia as she drew her card. As she did, the tome Mercury held began to glow. “Now my monster’s effect activates. Since I held no cards in my hand during your last end phase I get to draw another card. Not only that, but my Shard of Greed gains another counter. With two on it, I can send it to the graveyard in order to draw two more cards.” By the time she was finished, Celestia now had four cards in her hand.
“With that out of the way, I special summon The Agent of Entropy – Uranus!” declared Celestia with a triumphant grin on her face. Once more a planet appeared above before a winged angelic figure descended to the field. Only this one looked more like a fallen angel, with four black wings and tattered black robes. The only part of his clothing that looked intact was the large golden collar around his neck. His skin looked like that of a pale, blue zombie and his hair was light blue while he held in both hands a staff. In that staff was a large red stone that let out a soft glow. His attack was 2200.
“His effect allows me to special summon him from my hand as long as Sanctuary in the Sky is on the field,” explained Celestia as Spoiled looked like someone had put dog droppings under her nose. “He also has another effect which I’ll use right now. By sending my Agent of Miracles – Jupiter from my deck to the graveyard, I can adjust Uranus’ level to match. Mean he goes from a level five monster to a level four. And guess what? Uranus is a tuner monster. So I’ll tune him with my level four Mercury.” At that, her two fairy monsters flapped their wings as they rose up into the sky. While up in the air, Uranus transformed into four green rings while Mercury’s body broke apart into four stars. The stars flew into the tunnel created by the green circles as Celestia began her chant. “The planets align, opening up a portal to the divine. Galloping on wishes and hopes, come forth true hero! Synchro Summon level eight: Avenging Knight Parshath!”
A pillar of white light came through the tunnel created by Celestia’s monsters and from that arose a centaur-like creature. It’s entire body was white and glowed with what felt like a holy radiance. On the back of its horse half were white wings which were protected by gold and blue armor at the joints. Its upper human body was protected by blue armor on its chest while it carried a white sword of light in one hand and a golden shield with a large green gem in it in the other. It’s attack points were 2600.
“Congratulations Celestia,” said Spoiled in a mocking tone. “You finally got a monster on the field that’s as strong as my Relinquished. Not like it will do you any good. If your plan was to attack me in the hopes that both monsters will be taken out, you’d better rethink your plan. Relinquished will survive by sending the monster equipped to it to the graveyard!”
“Who said I was done,” countered Celestia as she held up another card. “I still haven’t normal summoned yet. So I summon to the field the Agent of Mystery – Earth!” Above Celestia’s head was the unmistakable image of the earth. Flying down to the field from it was a white skinned and robed woman with green wings that slowly changed to blue. In one hand she had a staff with a blue orb at the end. “When I normal summon Earth, I can go through my deck to add one Agent monster to my hand. Unless I have Sanctuary in the Sky in play that is. Instead I can add one Master Hyperion!”
“But before I do anything with him, I’ll tune my level 2 Agent of Mystery – Earth with my level eight Avenging Knight Parshath,” continued Celestia as her monsters rose again. Earth turned into two rings while the Avenging Knight became eight stars, quickly turning into a pillar of light. “Noble loin of the divine. From thy sacred service, I call to you to ask for your aid. Synchro Summon level 10: Leo, the Keeper of the Sacred Tree!” Appearing from the portal was a massive lion that towered over Celestia and Spoiled. Most likely, it would have been larger if they were not indoors. Everyone could feel the power of this 3100 attack point monster, even Spoiled who backed up a step as Leo roared. Leo was clad in white armor, with bits of green seen underneath it. On its back were curved spikes which twisted to its front with what looked like insect wings draped on it. Its mane was made of rose petals and Leo wore a white helmet with large black horns coming out of it.
“And I’m not done just yet!” said Celestia. “I remove Agent of Mystery – Earth from my graveyard in order to special summon the star of my deck: Master Hyperion!” As she removed the card from her graveyard, a figure rose up from behind her. This one was massive, hiding the students seated behind the principal from view as jets of flames burst out from around this monster. Students cried out as the flames came close to touching them while others who were close began to feel claustrophobic due to the amount of space this creature took up. Master Hyperion was a man, of sorts, dressed in ornate armor of black, gold, and orange. His silver face was looking down, but not at the duel that was taking place. No, instead it seemed to stare at the solar system which floated in the air between his two outstretched silver hands. His attack was 2700.
“I activate the effect of Master Hyperion,” announced Celestia. “By removing one Fairy from my graveyard, I can destroy one card on your side of the field. So I’ll banish my Tethys, Goddess of Light to have him destroy Relinquished!” Spoiled gritted her teeth as Celestia’s duel disk spat out a monster card followed by Relinquished bursting into flames before exploding.
“By destroying my Relinquished, you activated the effect of the Illusionist Faceless Magician in my hand allowing me to summon him to the field in defense mode,” declared Spoiled. Before her appeared a frightening sight of a robed figure on one knee. On his right shoulder was the dollish head of a girl while the opposite had a similar head but of a boys’. As for this creature's own head, it was smooth and featureless save for the massive smiling lips. Its defense was 2200.
“Since Sanctuary in the Sky is on the field Master Hyperion can activate his effect for a second time,” continued Celestia as she tried not to look at the creepy spellcaster now on the field. “So this time I’ll banish my Athena that just returned to my graveyard in order to destroy your Illusionist Faceless Magician.” Once more another card was ejected from Celestia’s graveyard as her opponent’s monster burst into flames. But, instead of melting like normal it melted onto the field as if it were made of wax. Quickly the liquefied remains of the Faceless Magician began to form a summoning circle. The circle then began to glow as Relinquished reappeared on the fiend in defense mode.
“As you can see, my Magician has another effect,” said Spoiled with a smug smile. “When destroyed by battle or card effect, it returns Relinquished to the field. Sadly, I can only use each of its effects once per turn.”
Celestia gritted her teeth before pointing at Armageddon Knight. “Leo, destroy her Knight,” she shouted. Leo pounced at once, his front paws coming down on Armageddon Knight with the force of two semi-trucks. A massive force of wind was sent out in all directions, forcing Spoiled to brace herself while her life points dropped to 5100. “Master Hyperion, destroy Relinquished once and for all!” Master Hyperion didn’t move at all, but Relinquished was lifted high into the air before bursting into flames once again.
“With that I end my-”
“Not so fast Celestia,” interrupted Spoiled. “I activate my face down card: Relinquished Fusion! I banish my Relinquished and my Armageddon Knight in my graveyard to bring out something far more frightening!” Dark clouds appeared above the dueling arena as Spoiled began her chant. “Mystic forces far and wide, opening up the eyes of possibilities. Add to the hunger of this loyal servant to make it an unstoppable terror. Fusion summon Millennium – Eyes Restrict!” Descending from the clouds was a massive version of Relinquished, easily the size of Leo. Only this one now had gold skin with hundreds of eyes all over its body. Instead of a point at its bottom there was a thorny circle and above the thing that passed for the creature’s mouth were two glowing green eyes. It still had the eye stalk, but the eye was now decorated with a sort of crown as well as an Egyptian styled beard. This monster had 0 attack points.
“Now that he’s been summoned I’ll activate the effect of the Millennium – Eyes Illusionist in my hand,” continued Spoiled. “By discarding it, I can target one of your monsters and equip it to my Millennium – Eyes Restrict! I think your Leo’s power is more suited for someone like myself.”
“That’s-,” began Celestia, but her words were cut off as Millennium – Eyes Restrict began to inhale. Leo tried to fight it by digging his claws into the ground but it was no use, he was just dragged towards the monstrosity while leaving claw marks in the ground. Everyone watched as Leo was consumed, Millennium – Eyes Restrict’s ‘wing’ coming down to protect it while Leo was merged with it. Now Spoiled’s monster had 3100 attack points.
“Now, to further show you your place, I activate my other face down: Imperial Order,” laughed Spoiled as her card flipped face up. “From now on, all spell effects on the field are negated. That means no more drawing cards, no more special summoning monsters from your hand, and when I attack you’ll feel it.” Spoiled paused to smirk wickedly at Celestia. “Oh my, how rude of me. It’s still your turn. Go on.”
Celestia let out a growl. “I end my turn,”
“Then I draw,” said Spoiled as she drew. With three cards in her hand, Spoiled fanned them briefly as her trap card began to glow. “In order to keep my Imperial Order up and running, I am forced to give up 700 life points during each of my stand by phases.”
-x-
Meanwhile, back in the stands, Sunset and her friends were on the edge of their seats as they watched the duel. Even Fluttershy, who normally would have been curled into a ball on the ground doing her best to hide behind the seat in front of her. Instead, she gripped her seat with both hands tightly as a look of rage appeared on her face.
“That big meanie!” growled the normally sweet-hearted girl, her eye twitching as she did. “How dare it do something like that to such a kind, gentle looking loin? It’s downright criminal.”
“Ah, yeah,” muttered Rainbow as she leaned away from Fluttershy. “But, why didn’t Spoiled Bitch activate that trap at the start of Principal Celestia’s turn? Or at the start of her turn so she didn’t have to pay the cost?”
Applejack looked over at her friend with a disapproving look. “First of all Rainbow, it’s Spoiled Rich,” she said.
Rainbow merely crossed her arm. “I know what I said,” she replied, earning a sigh from AJ.
“It’s not too difficult to understand if you really think about it,” said Twilight, keeping her eyes on Spoiled’s field. “Imperial Order is a limited card, one that also affects her side of the field as well. If she used it too soon then she wouldn’t have been able to activate her fusion spell or any of her ritual spell cards after that. Meaning she feels confident that Principal Celestia can’t destroy it.”
“And it was still Principal Celestia’s turn when Spoiled summoned that monster,” continued Sunset. “Principal Celestia might have had a spell card that could have helped her. It seems unlikely, but there was a chance.”
“But, Principal Celestia can still win…right?” asked Pinkie. Nobody, however, answered the pink skinned girl.
-x-
“I believe it's time we ended this exercise in futility,” continued Spoiled Rich after her life points had dropped to 4400. Smugly, she pressed a button on her duel disk so that a screen appeared in front of her. “I activate the graveyard effect of my Relinquished Fusion.”
“But your trap card,” began Celestia. However her words died in her throat as she watched a spell card slip out of Spoiled’s graveyard.
“Oh Celestia. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that the devil is in the details,” laughed Spoiled. “Imperial Order only negates the effects of spell cards on the field. Now then, by removing this card during my main phase my Millennium – Eyes Restrict gets to absorb another monster. Like Master Hyperion for example.” Students cried out in dismay as Celestia’s only remaining monster was sucked into Millennium – Eyes Restrict. When it ended, only one of Master Hyperion’s hands was seen sticking out of the creatures ‘wing’. At the same time, Millennium – Eyes Restrict’s attack rose to 5800.
“Impressive, isn’t it,” said Spoiled as she gestured to her monster. “This is the power of an upper class deck. With this, I can even destroy my daughter’s silly Ultimate Blue – Eyes. Nothing can stop me from getting what I want. Millennium – Eyes Restrict, take her down!” All of Millennium – Eyes Restrict’s began to glow gold before beams of light shot out of them. But instead of going in every direction, the beams bent a few feet away from the monster so that now all of them were heading towards Celestia.
“I won’t go down that easily!” shouted Celestia as she pressed a button on her duel disk. “You might have taken away my spell cards, but I still have traps! Like this one: Miraculous Descent! With it, I bring back my banished Earth in defense mode!” Agent of Mystery – Earth appeared on the field in defense mode, kneeling with her arms covering her chest. But she wasn’t there for long as she was instantly destroyed by Millennium – Eyes Restrict.
“You might have saved yourself that time, but how long do you think you can hold up?” sneered Spoiled. “I end my turn!”
“Then I draw!” announced Celestia. At first she looked hopeful at the card she had drawn only to look downtrodden. Instead of adding it with the other two cards in her hand, Celestia quickly placed it on her duel disk. “I place one card face down and end my turn.”
“Seems like you used up all your steam last turn,” mocked Spoiled as she drew. As she added the card to her hand, giving her a total of four cards, her trap card began to glow again. Frowning, she saw that her life points were now 3700. “I hope you’re not trying to run out the clock as it were. Millennium – Eyes Restrict, destroy her monster!” Once more, golden beams of light came out of all the eyes of Millennium – Eyes Restrict which bent so that they now targeted Celestia’s face down monster. When they hit, the monster was revealed to be another Nova Summoner.
“When Nova Summoner is destroyed and-”
“Activating its effect?” interrupted Spoiled. “I don’t think so. I activate Millennium – Eyes Restrict’s quick effect, allowing it to absorb another monster from either your field or graveyard. And I choose your Nova Summoner!” Millennium – Eyes Restrict began to inhale once again, the ground being uprooted by the suction. Soon enough Nova Summoner was pulled out from the ground and consumed by Millennium – Eyes Restrict, becoming a part of its body as well as adding its strength to it. Now Millennium – Eyes Restrict had 7200 attack points! “And just so you know, monsters with the same name as the monsters consumed by my Millennium – Eyes Restrict cannot attack nor can they activate their effects! On that happy note, I end my turn.”
“Then I draw!” shouted Celestia, desperation in her voice as she drew. She looked at the card she had drawn before slipping it in her spell/trap card slot. “I’ll set this card and…and that’s all.” As her turn ended, Celestia hung her head in defeat while her hands were clenched tightly.
“Then time to end this,” cried Spoiled gleefully as she drew. With five cards in her hand, her trap began to glow once more and dropping her life points to 3000. Spoiled didn’t mind as she picked one of the cards in her hand and held it up. “Just in case I banish the four cards in my hand along with the fourteen cards still in my extra deck face down to special summon Eater of Millions!” Now appearing on her side of the field was a large creature about her size, lizard-like with a row of very sharp teeth. Its body was long, the projectors showing it to go out through the double doors of the stadium. As for its attack points, right now they were at zero.
“This monster is very special as its attack is equal to the number of face down banished monsters times 100,” said Spoiled as she crossed her arms, her monster’s attack rising to 1800. “Of course it can grow stronger. At the start of the damage step, it can banish whatever monster you have face down. So it’s power will only continue to grow! Now, Eater of Millions, attack!” Eater of Million began to exhale, sending duel monster cards flying at Celestia at frightening speed.
But as they neared her, Celestia raised her head so that everyone could see her smile. “I activate my trap card: Skill Drain!” she announced. As her life points dropped to 5400, the cards that were flying towards her disintegrated in mid-air. At the same time, steam was coming off of both Spoiled’s monsters as they now looked sick.
“W-What have you done?!?” shouted Spoiled as her monster’s attacks went to 0.
“Skill Drain is a trap that negates the effects of all monsters on the field,” said Celestia calmly. “All at the cost of 1000 of my life points.”
“There’s no way,” yelled Spoiled. “There’s no way you could have drawn that card!”
“Spoiled, why do you think I used Cards from the Sky when the duel first began, giving up my only means of defending myself,” asked Celestia as she stared at Spoiled. “Ever since I saw your ritual monster, I knew my best chance to claim victory was to get this trap card. So I’ve been taking every chance I could get to dig through my deck hoping to draw this one card. Now, you have monsters with no attack points and a trap card which will continue to eat away at your life points while preventing the two of us from using spell cards.”
“I…I end my turn,” growled Spoiled, her eyes narrowing dangerously.
“Then I draw,” announced Celestia, drawing her card in a sweeping motion. Now with three cards in her hand, she placed one on her duel disk with a slight smile. “I summon the Agent of Miracles – Jupiter to the field in attack mode!” Above their heads appeared the gas giant Jupiter and, like before, an angelic figure descended from it. Jupiter had rust colored skin with bright red tattoos on his body. His pants and headdress had a very Egyptian feel to them, both looking like they had been made out of white cotton. His attack points were 1800.
“Time to free my monsters from your monster,” stated Celestia. “Jupiter, destroy her Millennium – Eyes Restrict!” The Agent of Miracles, who had been floating in the air, soared over to Spoiled’s side of the field as his right fist began to glow green. Once he was close enough, Jupiter let out a cry of rage before sending his fist right into Millennium – Eyes Restrict’s main eye. The whole school watched as Restrict’s body looked like it was expanding, as if it were a balloon being filled with too much air. Eventually Spoiled’s monster exploded, sending bits and pieces everywhere which dissolved as soon as the pieces touched the ground. At the same time, Spoiled’s life points took a hit dropping to 1200.
“I end my turn,” said Celestia.
“I can still turn this around!” roared Spoiled, a look of utter frustration on her face as she drew. Before she could look at what she had drawn, her life points dropped again thanks to her own trap card stopping at 500. With a twitching eye, Spoiled looked at what she had drawn and moved to put it in her spell/trap slot. However, when she did her duel disk rejected the card as a screen with a large red X on it appeared before her. Frustration growing, Spoiled tried her hardest to put it in again. To play the card she had just drawn. Yet the result was the same.
“I…I play one card face down,” panted Spoiled, her duel disk finally accepting this order. “I’ll also switch my Eater of Millions to defense mode before I end my turn.”
“I draw,” said Celestia. After drawing her card she looked at it and quickly placed it on the field. “I summon my Mystical Shine Ball in attack mode!” With a flash and a ‘pop’ sound, a glowing white sphere with 500 attack points appeared on the field. “Now both monsters attack and end this duel.” Jupiter took off like a jet while Shine Ball just seemed to scoot across the field. With another passionate cry, Jupiter rammed his glowing fist into Eater of Million. Like with Millennium – Eyes Restrict, its body began to expand more and more until Eater of Millions exploded. By then, Mystical Shine Ball, reached Spoiled and just…began to glow brightly. That was it. It wasn’t even a blinding light, more like something that would annoy a person. But at least it got the job done as Spoiled Rich’s life points dropped to 0.
As the holograms began to fade, Spoiled fell to her knees in shock while the stadium erupted into cheers. Students were standing and jumping, clapping and hollering madly. Normally Luna would be on them like a whip, ready to remind the students that this sort of behavior was not allowed and to punish the ones who were going overboard. But instead she looked besides herself with relief, slumping against the wall as Pip managed to somehow get besides her.
“It’s over,” said Celestia, more to herself than anything. Yet as she began to turn around she caught movement from Spoiled’s side of the field. The rich woman looked ready to kill, teeth clenched tightly.
“Do you really think this is over?!?” she yelled, causing the stadium to be filled with boos.
“Madam Chairwoman,” said Documented loudly as he approached his superior. “Please, let's try and be a good sport. You both put up a good match and-”
“How long Celestia?” shouted Spoiled, a glint of evil in her eyes as she interrupted Documented. “How long before your students find that video of your sister? How long before their parents are in an outrage when they find out that you let her teach after that?”
Celestia stood there, looking shell shocked with her mouth hanging open. Around her, the boos had stopped and were replaced by whispers. Curiosity was now in the air, not helped by the look on Documented’s face. His eyes were wide with shock, sweat now appearing now his face as he looked around nervously. Then there was Spoiled who looked like she had triumphed! Spoiled straightened up and-
“Vice-Principal Luna’s video isn’t that bad,” came a familiar voice. Celestia’s eyes went wide as did Spoiled’s as they both turned to look at who had spoken. There, standing next to Luna (whose face had changed from blue to a burning red) was Pip who looked back at them innocently.
“You’ve seen the video?” asked Celestia.
Pip tilted his head a little. “Seen it?” he echoed. “I own three copies.”
-x-
“Oh yeah. Just like that. You’re all doing great!” came Luna’s voice from the television within the library. Only the Luna on the scene was a bit different than the one sitting in front of it with her face still bright red, hands hiding her face. This Luna was younger, maybe around eighteen years old. Her body was fit and slender while her blue hair was tied in a tight ponytail to keep it from falling into her face. This younger Luna’s body also glistened with sweat as she moved her body across the screen, soaking her sports bra and skin tight pants as she brought her knees high into the air. Cheesy music played in the background as she and several other people in the video worked out.
Standing around the embarrassed Luna were only a handful of people. Celestia was there of course, looking like she couldn’t decide whether to laugh or shake her head in exasperation. Documented was doing his best to keep his face neutral while shooting death glares at Spoiled. Meanwhile, Spoiled was doing her best not to look at anyone in the room. Then, finally, there was Pip the owner of this copy of the video. He had just returned from his home (with approval from Principal Celestia of course) with one of the copies of his videos. Now he stood there with a look of pride.
“Pip,” said Celestia slowly after a bit. “Where did you find this?”
“Well,” began a smiling Pip. “After I found out that Vice-Principal Luna was Nightmare Moon I knew I just had to find out if she was ever in anything else. I couldn’t find anything online, but there’s this old pawn shop that me mum likes to take me to sometimes. The place had a small stack of the tapes, all in mint condition! Funny really. Must've passed them by every time I visited in the past and never noticed them.”
“And you bought three because?” inquired Documented.
“Well one was to watch, naturally. The second I keep under lock and key to preserve. I mean, once everyone found out that Vice-Principal Luna was Nightmare Moon those things would be hunted down like crazy. Someone might even try to steal it! The third is a back up that I keep in a safety deposit box in the bank.” Pip’s tone throughout all of this sounded like all of this was the most natural thing in the world. But as he finished talking, it seemed like he finally read the room. As if talking about his fan love of Luna had distracted him from so long that the real world was now catching up with him. “But, ah, what’s so wrong about these videos. I mean, doesn’t seem like a reason to fire anyone.”
“No, it isn’t,” said Documented, his voice sounding like he was in a losing battle to restrain his anger. “It seems like the school board was horribly misinformed about the contents of the video.”
“I did no such thing,” said Spoiled quickly as she turned to Documented. There was a fire in her eyes that had greatly dimmed since the beginning of this whole ordeal. The way she held herself showed that she had lost a great deal of her former bravado, like she was running on steam or sheer force of will right now. But she did her best to sound confident. “Everything I said about the video was true. From a certain point of view that is. Why, I even asked Luna about the contents and she agreed. And as a mother, I would have been horrified to know that one of the adults in this school had been involved in something like this.”
“You purposely misled us,” Documented growled. He then turned to the Vice-Principal whose face was still red. “Miss Luna, please, for the sake of my own sanity, why didn’t you just explain that this was just a poorly done work-out video. If you had done that you could have saved us all a lot of time!”
Luna didn’t say anything at first, but slowly looked up at Documented with an expression that caused all of his anger to ebb quickly. “This is mortifying,” she sniffed before turning to look at the video. “I never noticed anything while I was making it, but…look at me in that outfit covered in sweat. The only reason I got that job was because I was slightly attractive. All to sell someone else’s workout because Heavy Weight’s appearance wouldn’t attract people. And it still didn’t sell. So I couldn’t even help with that! It was just another one of my many failures!”
“I don’t think you did badly in it,” said Pip. Luna turned to him with a frown on her face that made him shrink a bit.
“Pip, the only reason you bought that wasn’t because you thought you could lose weight or stay fit,” she said. “It was because I just so happen to be in it. That doesn’t exactly fill me with pride.”
“Well,” said Celestia as she stepped forward. “Be that as it may, my sister wasn’t the one who started this whole mess. And while her silence only made things worse, I think we can all understand past regrets. So I hope her termination will be rescinded.”
Documented, must to Spoiled’s shock, nodded. “I will make sure of it,” he said. “However, there might be some slight disciplinary action taken. Nothing too extreme given the circumstance as it is.” He then glanced over at Spoiled. “We will also make sure that something like this never happens again.”
With that, Documented walked out of the room without a single word of goodbye. As he moved towards the door everyone saw him ram his hand into his pocket and pull out his phone. Seeing this Spoiled rushed out after him, her cheeks turning red as she did so. When the doors closed the three that remained could hear the loud voices of the two which slowly softened as she moved away.
For a moment, no one said anything until Celestia cleared her throat. “I guess I’d better get back to my office. Plenty of forms to fill out because of this mess.”
“Sister, wait a moment,” said Luna before Celestia could take more than a few steps. “I…I’m sorry for everything. And thank you for sticking up for me like that. If there’s anything I can do to repay you all you need to do is ask.”
Celestia turned to look at Luna, with a smile on her face. “Oh Luna, you’re my sister. You know I would do anything to make you happy. Besides, we were meant to work at this school together.” She then paused for a moment as if something crossed her mind, her smile faltered for a moment. “But, since you’re offering, could you not cancel any of our other nightly traditions? Other than the Tuesday and Thursday ones of course since they mean so much to you. I just feel so lonely without you.”
Luna looked surprised by this, but nodded. “Of course sister,” she said.
Then, as Celestia walked towards the door, she heard Pip say, “I actually do work out to those videos.”
-x-
Luna groaned into her phone, listening to Sombra laugh his ass off on the other end. It was much later that night, not that she could tell as she sat alone in her basement. In truth she had bought this place specifically because she liked the old fashioned look of the basement. The walls were covered by wood paneling, making it easy to hang up pictures and other things with candlestick lighting sticking out of them. What was an interesting design was that if you pulled on the right one, part of the wall would open up leading to the washroom. On one side of the basement was a stone fireplace, large enough so that she could lay in it comfortably. Not that she would of course. But it was the perfect spot for her to have a roaring fire on a cold winter night as she read a book. Far better than one of those fake fireplaces. Luna was sitting on a stool directly across from the fireplace where her bar was situated. Not that she drank or anything. She had imagined a time when she bought the place, having friends and co-workers visiting her and having small parties. Not like that ever came to be. Instead she used it as a workstation, away from any distractions in the house and only getting up to get a drink from the mini fridge.
“It’s not that funny,” groaned Luna into the phone, one hand rubbing her temple as she did so.
“So, what did you tell the kid?” Sombra managed to ask between his laughter. “To make sure he worked out three days a week?”
“I regret telling you this,” sighed Luna as her shoulder slumped, Sombra still laughing. “I just wanted to tell you what happened. And that we won’t be able to meet next week. I made a promise to my sister not to cancel any of our other traditions.”
“Alright, alright,” said Sombra as he calmed down. “I understand. She did a lot for you. We’ll just figure something else out. Maybe we could get lunch or something.” He then paused for a moment and, when Sombra spoke again, his voice sounded far more serious. “So, do you have any idea who sent Spoiled that video?”
“If I did I’d ring his or her neck,” stated Luna, anger flashing in her eyes for a brief moment. “I did call Documented on my way home to ask if he knew how Spoiled came into possession of the video. All he could tell me was that it was sent to her home anonymously.”
“Do you think it might have been the same person who sent Starswirl that note?” questioned Sombra.
“What?” was all Luna could say.
“I mean, it is a theory,” said Sombra quickly. “Someone sent a note to Starswirl that ruined your life. Then, for years, nothing. You’re out of the picture, fading into the background. Then shortly after the world finds out you were Nightmare Moon another anonymous is sent to your boss to get you in trouble. Fits a pattern.”
“Maybe if there were more than two instances,” Luna stated. “Besides, if this was really the same person as back then, what’s the motive? It’s not like I announced that I was returning to dueling or anything like that. And that happened so long ago. What would be the point in trying to ruin my life?”
“Luna, I don’t need to tell you that some people can hold a grudge for a very, very long time,” said Sombra in a serious tone.
That was something that Luna couldn’t argue against. She had seen students who had held grudges against her for what they claimed was an unfair punishment, interrupting their plans for detention and the like. Heck, some of them had long since graduated and still gave her the cold shoulder. So yeah, people could hold a childish grudge. But this? It just seemed too extreme. What could she have done to piss someone off that much?
“I really hope that isn’t the case, Serious Sombra,” said Luna after a bit. “The last thing I want to do is spend the rest of my life looking over my shoulder waiting for another message to arrive.”
“I’ll take a look into it,” said Sombra. “Just in case the two are connected. If nothing else we can find out who sent that Spoiled woman that tape and then you can decide how to handle it. At the very least you’ll know who did it. I think the best place to start is at the pawn shop. Who knows what’ll I’ll find.”
Luna, despite talking on the phone, nodded. “Yeah, that sounds go-” Luan suddenly cut herself off, her eyes widening at a memory from after the last time the two of them had dueled. Slowly she looked at the phone with suspicion. “Sombra, you weren’t planning on going there to also see if they had any of those tapes, were you?”
“…Noooo,” replied Sombra in the most unconvincing tone Luna had ever heard.
-x-
Meanwhile, within an office, a figure stood in the dark looking down at an open draw. Slowly the figure reached in to pull out a copy of Luna’s workout video. Even with the lack of light, the figure could see Luna smiling on the cover.
“Looks like I didn’t need my insurance after all,” said the figure aloud as it turned its head towards the trash can next to the desk. If anyone else had been in the room, it would have appeared that this person was about to chuck it in the trash and be done with it. But the figure seemed to pause halfway as if reconsidering it for a moment. Tilting its head, the figure thought about it for a moment before shrugging and putting the tape back into the drawer. Once inside, the figure locked it with a key before heading out.