Yu-Gi-Oh E-QUEST

by DakariKingMykan

Episode 52: Part 2: Crushing Classes

Raven had come along, since Celestia awoke --she didn’t remember passing out.

Raven used her powers to meld everyone through the door, where they found Twilight completely unconscious.

“I’ve never seen anyone sleep this much.” said Applejack “And I’ve seen Granny Smith sleep through the rodeo shows.”

“I’ve seen this before,” said Raven. “She’s lost within her own mind, struggling with memories of her past, and she won’t wake up until she finds her strength.”

“Oh, poor Twilight.” sighed Fluttershy.

Twilight was so still and silent, she didn’t even hear them or stir in her sleep.

“Come on,” said Applejack “At least now we can get her out of here.”

Everyone agreed, and gave her a stare, which she recognized too well. “Fine, I’ll carry her.”

“I wonder what she’s thinking about now?” wondered Rarity.

“So do I.” added Celestia “One never knows what one can feel when in deep devastation.”

Twilight was still running from the cards that were chasing her, and she was starting to get really tired and sweaty.

“I can’t… let them… get me!” she panted “I can’t… see those… memories… again!”

The cards only seemed to gain on her, getting slightly faster and faster every second. There was no way for Twilight to outrun them, especially with no place to duck and hide either.

Finally, she tripped and fell flat forward, and the cards all loomed over her and came right down as she screamed.

After a bright flash of white, there she was at Crystal Prep Academy on her first year.

“Oh, no!” she begged “No, no, no!! I can’t bear this!”

She tried to close her eyes, but even she knew from the start that dreams didn’t work that way-- she couldn’t just tell it what to do, or wake up instantly-- even with her eyes closed, the images were still there and not willing to let her off that easy.

Back to her first year of high school…

At first she was very nervous, and she got the freshman’s rush-- bigger kids always making it hard for the newbies.

Still, Twilight was determined not to be too deterred and remained as focussed as ever to succeed in her new school.

Of course with her super-brain, she aced tests and assignments without much of a sweat. She became popular with the brainy kids, who were just like her, and all of them were seniors.

In just her very first semester, she not only became the youngest member of the school’s math team, but because of her expertise, she qualified to represent the school in the International Math-A-Thon that was going to be held in Japan…

…Something that First-Year students never could dream of achieving.

Her schoolmates were overwhelmed and praised her.

“You’re awesome!”

“I spent years studying, and you already surpass me.”

“Make the school proud.”

“We’re all with you.”

Young Twilight never felt so warm, so accepted. “Is this what friendship is all about?” she wondered “Being praised, and having people accept you?”

She thought back to her friends at Duel Camp, which suddenly struck her-- she had been so busy with her studies in her school and everything else that she hadn’t contacted them in a long while.

She also looked at her email and realized she had so many unanswered messages from all her friends, and many of them asked:

“Where are you?”

“Are you even alive?”

“Why don’t you answer?”

She tried to answer them all, but she got no response, which gave her a sick feeling inside, but she couldn’t let it worry her now. She had to focus on the Math-A-Thon.

Twilight herself remembered it well, “That day I came to Japan, I couldn’t have been more thrilled.”

The images changed, and there she was, with her family in Tokyo. Shining Armor was with her too to give her support, while Cadance had to stay behind at the academy.

“I’m so proud of you, Twily, and I know the school back home is too.” he said to her “Remember, even if you don’t win, you’ll always be Number-One to me.”

She was ever so flattered, and soon it was time to get cracking at those numbers.

Students from many schools all over the world competed, solving problems and equations that were huge enough to make people’s heads spin, and the event was broadcast worldwide.

Twilight was phenomenal, the way she hammered her way to the finals.

This made Twilight herself shudder, and she remembered what was coming next.

It was the final round, Twilight Vs Masquerade, an American pro-gamer who had been hired to substitute for a student from a school that was unable to attend due to having their appendix removed.

“I think you’re doing a noble thing.” Twilight said, trying to be polite, but he scoffed at her, “I’m only doing this because I was offered a big cash settlement if I win. I don’t care about the kid or the school…

…Got it?!”

From that moment sparked Twilight’s hatred for him, as well as her determination to take him down… which she failed.

He was incredibly phenomenal, solving the equations faster than she could solve one.

He even revealed his secret, “When I’m not competing in a tournament or working for a game company, I use my free time to study. After all gaming requires strategizing and working with all those numbers and sciences as well.”

So Twilight lost, receiving only second place, and a small cash settlement, not very much, and a silver trophy, while Masquerade won it all for the school he represented, and got his cash settlement.

Twilight was crushed.

Twilight herself remembered the crushed feelings as well, and they hurt her, and only made her feel worse at what was going to follow all that!

Meanwhile, Sunset and Rainbow were staring each other down.

“It’s my move now.” said Rainbow “I draw!”

“Remember,” called Sunset “…One Day of Peace is still in effect.”

Rainbow was aware of this. “That was a slick move last turn, but it doesn’t mean I can’t make one either, especially when it’s about to blow you to pieces!”

Sunset clenched her fist with nerves.

“And it all starts with this; the spell HEAVY STORM!”

“Ah!” cried Sunset, and the winds began to billow like crazy.

“It’s time to blow every spell and trap on the field away!” called Rainbow “And that includes your pendulum cards!”

The winds began to blow towards Sunset’s field.

“Hold on!” she shouted, “I play the trap PENDULUM BACK!”

“What?”

“Before your storm wipes out my pendulum cards, I can add two monsters from the graveyard to my hand, as long as their respective levels are within the Pendulum Scale itself.

That means Xiangke Magician and Dragoncaller Magician are back in my hand.”

Rainbow growled, and Sunset’s cards were all destroyed.

“Well, anyway,” said Rainbow “Without your Harmonizing Magician, your monsters grow even weaker now-- by 200 points.”

“As for me, now I summon RAIDRAPTOR – SHARP LANIUS!”

Both her monsters were stronger than Sunset’s.

Rainbow’s eyes gave a huge glowing flare of energy. “I’m feeling it now!” she hollered “Go get ‘em boys!” and she sent her monsters to attack.

Both dragons were gone, but Sunset took no damage.

“Remember,” she called to Rainbow “Pendulum Monsters go face-up in my Extra Deck.”

Rainbow didn’t seem too worried “But now that the battle is over, I play Sharp Lanius’ special ability: Since it attacked this turn, I can summon one “Raidraptor” out the graveyard, and I choose Satellite Cannon Falcon!”

Her mighty falcon returned and cawed madly.

Sunset looked back and forth between the three mighty birds, and Rainbow felt proud of herself as she looked up at them too.

“Now I play RAIDRAPTOR – SANCTUARY. Since I have three Raidraptors out, I can draw two cards.

Then I play one, facedown, and that ends my turn.”

She looked up at Ultimate Falcon, knowing it couldn’t harm Sunset this turn, but by this time, One Day of Peace had worn off.

Suddenly, the elevators opened, and the rest of the gang came out into the arenas.

“Oh, great, more of the nerd herd is here.” grumbled Masquerade

The gang ignored his presence and took their sears away from him, setting the motionless Twilight down softly in a chair.

“About time you guys got here.” called Rainbow.

Sunset then noticed, “What’s wrong with Twilight?”

“She’ll be alright.” called Pinkie, and then she gasped at the three monsters on Rainbow’s field, and how Sunset’s field was bare.

“Okay, what did we miss?” asked Celestia.

The gang onboard the camper could see the entire gang together too.

“Twilight!” cried Shining Armor “She’s not moving! What’s happened to my sister?!”

“Yo’, take it easy!” said Vic.

“How can I take it easy?! That’s my little sis down there!”

Cadance grabbed her husband and shook him hard shouting “Get a hold of yourself! She’s with the others. Whatever’s happening, I’m sure she’ll be fine.”

“I share that understanding.” said Luna “You must not let yourself get so worked up.”

Shining Armor didn’t know how much more of this he could take. He really wanted to be down there to help Twilight.

Robin and Kori looked at the screens.

“Now that everyone’s all together, we can put the plan into action.” said Kori.

“Not just yet.” said Robin “We still need to wait until the duel is over. Once the final attack is made, Terra will rush in, and so will we.”

Sunset was worried for Twilight, but she was grateful that she and the others were all here now.

She gave her hair another flick, hoping Terra would see if from far out.

…She did!

“Okay, this is it.” Terra said to herself “Now I just have to wait until the duel ends. Come on, girls!”

Sunset and Rainbow both had the same idea now, but they couldn’t just end the duel where it was, feeling that if they kept dueling they could keep their act up.

Little did they know, The Prince Brothers were already onto them.

“If they think they have this all figured out, they are in for a big surprise.” thought Rubeus.

Loki thought the same thing, “In the end, the only ones who will be winning are us, but we can at least humor them for a while and let them think they’re getting away with it.”

It was Sunset’s turn.

“I draw!” she hollered.

“Now I’ll activate MONSTER REBORN!"

Rainbow gasped, but then she decided. “…Not this time!” shouted Rainbow “I activate RAPTOR’S GUST!”

“Ah!” cried Sunset.

“The trap negates the activation of a spell card while I have Raidraptors in play, and that means, your Rebellion Dragon goes bye-bye.”

Sunset watched as her spell was blasted and shattered.

But rather than be upset about it, Sunset smirked, “You think it’s that easy to get rid of him, huh?”

“Huh?

“I’m got a surprise for you Rainbow, but that was just a ruse to get you to waste your trap.”

"Say what?!"

“First I’ll set Stargazer Magician in the Pendulum Zone, and no other.”

Her magician appeared.

“What? Why no other monster?” asked Rainbow.

“Oh, you’ll see.” replied Sunset.

“I play GRACEFUL CHARITY, so now I draw three cards, and then discard two.”

After sunset drew, she had three cards in hand, and really liked what she had, and she knew just the cards to discard too.

The spectators were all feeling hot and sweating bullets watching the two girls duel.

“It’s hard to decide which of them to cheer for.” said Rarity “…I think I feel faint!”

Everyone ignored her this time, and Fluttershy held Twilight up, softly tipping her face towards the duel. “Look Twilight… Sunset and Rainbow are dueling. Please wake up. They need your support too.”

Twilight remained motionless as ever.

“…Nothing.” sighed Applejack

They all turned back to the duel, and Sunset made a move.

“I activate RE-XYZ.”

Rainbow gasped, “I know that! It lets you Xyz Summon from your graveyard using the correct monsters that are in there.”

“That’s right…” hollered Sunset, “So once again, I overlay Level 7 Dragoncaller and Dragonpit Magicians, in order to Xyz Summon my faithful ODD-EYES ABSOLUTE DRAGON again!”

Her dragon reappeared, and roared.

“I may not be able to do too much, but I can do this!

…go, Odd-Eyes, attack Cannon Falcon!”

Rainbow winced, and the other spectators gasped.

“But that monster’s stronger than Sunset’s dragon!” cried Pinkie.

Celestia was not convinced. “I think I know what she’s doing…”

She was right too, as Odd-Eyes attacked Cannon Falcon and blew itself up.

“Sunset didn’t even use its ability to block the attack!” wailed Rarity.

Sunset smirked, “Since Absolute Dragon was destroyed, Odd-Eyes Rebellion Dragon can return to the field!”

In a big flash, her strong dragon had returned.

“Well I’ll be a-- She summoned it without actually Xyz Summoning!” cried Applejack

Celestia remembered how the dragon trounced her.

“Now…!” shouted Sunset “Odd-Eyes Rebellion dragon, attack Cannon Falcon!”

“What?!” cried Sunset “But their attack points are equal! They’ll destroy each other!” and indeed, both monsters attacked each other and were destroyed.

“All part of my plan.” explained Sunset “Now I activate Odd-Eyes special ability; by destroying Stargazer Magician, instead of going to the Extra Deck, I can now place Odd-Eyes in the Pendulum Zone!”

The dragon reappeared in the light, and its Scale read 4.

Rainbow was most impressed, as was everyone else.

“That’s incredible!” she remarked “But even still, it’s the only card you have in play now.”

Sunset snickered, “Think again!”

“Huh?”

“Now that the battle is over, I activate Odd-Eyes Pendulum ability, which lets me place a Pendulum Monster from my Deck into the other Pendulum Zone.”

Rainbow growled.

“I think I’ll choose Scale 8 XIANGSHENG MAGICIAN!”

Her magician appeared like magic, and the pendulum began to swing.

“Now I can summon as many monsters from Levels 5 through 7.

…Behold my monsters!”

Three shots of light beamed onto the field, and her monsters appeared.

The monsters all stood before her like a huge wall of protection against the opposing creatures.

Rainbow was nearly at a loss for words as she thought, “I can’t believe it! I actually thought I could stop her from Pendulum Summoning, and she goes right out and turns the tables again.”

Sunset thought deeply as well, “My plan didn’t work out the way I hoped, but at least my monsters can protect me now. Ultimate Falcon can only weaken their attack points, but as long as my monsters stay in defense-mode, I should be safe for a while.”

Rainbow then shot a smile, “Got to hand it to you, Sunset, you sure know how to handle those pendulum cards.”

“Thanks, I guess…” replied Sunset “You’re not so bad yourself with your Xyz Monsters, but right now I end my turn.”

Rainbow nodded, “It’s my draw!”

“What?” said Sunset “You’re not going to use Ultimate Falcon’s ability?”

“Not this time.” replied Rainbow “I have an even better idea.”

“What do you suppose Rainbow’s planning?” asked Rarity.

“Whatever it is, it better be huge if she’s going to clear out all those monsters.” said Raven.

“I play POT OF GREED.” said Rainbow “Now I can draw two more cards like you did.”

She drew her two cards and compared them to what was in her hand, and grinned wickedly.

“…Time for me to turn the tables on you, again! You may be great at Pendulum Summoning, but like you said, I handle Xyz Monsters with awesomeness.”

Sunset clenched her fist.

“I play RAIDRAPTOR - NEST!

With the spell in play, once per turn, if I have at least two Raidraptors in play, I can add a “Raidraptor” from my Deck to my hand, and I choose, RAIDRAPTOR – VANISHING LANIUS, which I summon right now!”

“And during the turn that it gets summoned, I’m allowed to summon another monster--RAIDRAPTOR – FUZZY LANIUS!”

“She’s got three level four monsters in play!” whimpered Fluttershy, and she softly patted Twilight’s face, “Come on, Twilight, don’t you want to see this?”

Twilight still didn’t so much as give a flicker.

Rainbow raised her arm up, “Now I overlay Fuzzy Lanius, Vanishing Lanius, and Sharp Lanius to build the Overlay Network!”

Her three monsters vanished high up, and Rainbow thought she may as well chant again…

“From the shadows comes a force to great,
It’ll crush everything at a fantastic rate!

I Xyz Summon RAIDRAPTOR - RISE FALCON!”

Everyone gawked at the monster, and there were no doubts why Rainbow summoned it.

“I activate Rise Falcon’s ability!” she hollered “By using one Overlay Unit, it’s attack points now increase by the power of your Odd-Eyes Pendulum Dragon!”

“So that’s why you didn’t weaken my monsters!” cried Sunset.

Rainbow teasingly winked at her, “And that’s not all. Since Fuzzy Lanius was sent to the graveyard, I can add another one to my hand, but that’s the least of your problems, because Rise Falcon has the power to attack all your special summoned monsters!”

Sunset growled.

“Go Rise Falcon! Wipe em’ all out!”

Her Falcon cawed and flew up high, and then it swopped down, and fired its massive fury at all of Sunset’s monsters, blowing them all away!

“I’m wide open!” cried Sunset.

“You bet you are,” agreed Rainbow “… Go Ultimate Falcon; direct attack!”

Her mighty beast charged up its power, and unleashed it straight at Sunset knocking her down and dealing her a full 3500 points of damage!

“Whoa! What a shot!” Applejack exclaimed.

“Sunset never had a chance against that!” added Pinkie.

Rainbow gave a snicker, with her flaming aura of her game playing reaching its peak. “Now I’ll place one card facedown, and I end my turn, which means Ultimate Falcon now deals you damage!”

Sunset was zapped again!

“Ooh! She doesn’t look so good!” cried Fluttershy.

“One more attack and she’ll be… she’ll be…!” Rarity couldn’t hold it in anymore and fainted int her seat.

The others all sighed in annoyance. The last thing they needed was another one of their friends passed out. At least Rarity was plain and simple, but Twilight was still well out of it.

Rainbow suddenly blazed with flames and let out a roar. Her gaming spirit was really full now! “I am so feelin’ the flow!” she called, and then she felt “Hey, that’s kind of catchy.”

Then she focussed on Sunset. “Even I don’t think you can make it out of this one Sunset!”

Sunset trembled with fury, but at the same time, astonishment at Rainbow’s playing.

“She really does have me backed in a corner. One more attack like that and I’ll be finished.”

She then turned to look over at Twilight. “I just she was awake. Whether I win this duel or not, we’re all going to have to be ready to fight.

I wonder what she’s thinking.”


Twilight was dreaming of the time after the Math-A-Thon…

There she was floating in her memory of confronting Masquerade outside the building in the back alley as he was leaving.

“Hey!!” she called to him.

He stopped, but didn’t turn to face her.

Shining Armor came looking for her while her parents were still searching for her after she had just run off.

“Twily, let it go!” he called to her, but his sister would not budge.

“I’m not angry that he beat me. I’m upset that he makes a mockery of education and studies, and that he just uses them for selfish gain. That is totally unacceptable!”

“Twily!”

Masquerade felt most insulted by what she had said, and he turned round to face her.

“How old are you?”

“What business is it of yours?”

“You’re a smart girl, or you claim to be one. Then you should be able to tell that it’s none of my business of your age.” then he shouted straight at her “…JUST LIKE IT’S NOT YOUR BUSINESS TO TELL ME HOW TO LIVE MY LIFE!! GOT IT?!!”

Even Shining Armor wasn’t going to take that.

“Hey, back off pal!” he growled as he approached him “My sister’s just upset, and I agree she’s taking it a bit far, but no one talks to her that way!”

Masquerade only snickered “How cute; the big bro standing up for the little sis. I think I’m going to gag.”

Shining Armor looked ready to hit, but Twilight stepped forward, “I demand we settle this once and for all!”

Masquerade glared at her, “You want to settle things with me? Do you have any idea what you’re asking?”

“I didn’t ask. I demanded! I won’t let you insult me, my family, or the world of education the way you do.”

“Oh? And just what did you have in mind?”

Twilight wiped out her deck, and a duel disk she had built herself over the months.

“I know you duel, so why don’t we settle it that way.”

“A duel?” he asked “Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Shining Armor tried to protest and get Twilight to stop. He even tried to pick her up, but she put up a huge angry attitude. “I’m doing this for us, for the world! He needs to be taught a lesson.”

Masquerade could only snicker, “Teaching a lesson is one thing; learning one is another.”

So they had their duel, and Twilight went first, managing to summon all three of her Lunalight Fusion monsters, but leaving no other cards in play, and she wasn’t able to attack on her first turn either.

Then Masquerade, using his Manticore of Darkness strategy, summoned Exodia, and knocked her flat on the street with all her cards scattered about.

“TWILIGHT…!!” Shining Armor cried as he dashed up to catch his sister as she flew back, crashing into him and they both landed with a thud on the ground.

Twilight was shaking miserably. “How did he do that?” she whimpered “He completely wiped me out just like that!”

Masquerade only shook his head at her, and then came those words…!

“You’re the weakest opponent I’ve ever had. How a kid like you made it this far in the Math-a-thon, I’ll never know.”

Then he was gone, leaving Twilight in tears of shame, humiliation, and crying in her brother’s arms as he held her tightly.

Twilight herself felt the blow to her chest hard, and it hurt just as much the first time she felt it.

“That defeat and humiliation changed me for the worst!”

Twilight eventually returned home, and the reception she received was not good from her school mates.

They kicked her out of the Math Team, looked down upon by the others, and even made fun of.

“Look, it’s the Math-Chump.”

“Guess she made a little miscalculation.”

“No, we did, and that was ever thinking she had what it took to win.”

Things only got worse as Twilight’s friends from duel camp were finally accepted into Crystal Prep themselves, but they were not happy to see her, still mad at her for losing contact with them.

“You abandoned us to make it into High School early.”

“I bet this was her plan from the start.”

“She just used us to get ahead in life, and look where it got her.”

Twilight tried to deny this, letting it slip that she attended duel camp to boost her social status to make it into school.

“…Point proven.”

“Don’t call us.”

“...Because we won’t be calling you!”

Poor Twilight, alone, unappreciated, humiliated and defeated, from that moment on she stopped believe in friendship, and preferred to keep to herself, locked up in her dorm room.

To Be Continued…