//------------------------------// // Chapter 33: Traitor // Story: Yu-Gi-Oh! Equus // by moviemaster8510 //------------------------------// Alex and Tom rode back home to see Carolyn’s van parked in the garage, meaning that everyone was safe at home, or at least, Shining Armor and Cadance were tended to. Alex and Tom walked into the front door and saw Twilight, her friends, Carolyn, Sarah, and Thomas in the house. “What happened?” asked Twilight, coming to greet Alex and Tom, but her face was mostly blank. “Hold on,” quietly ordered Alex. “Sarah, I need you to call Lisa and Jenny. We’re going to have a visitor.” “A visitor?” asked Pinkie Pie, perking up. “Goody! I’ll have to throw a welcoming party for them!” “Pinkie Pie, hold off on that. This is much more serious.” “That’s okay! I’ll just write ‘This is serious,’ right on the cake! It’ll be perfect.” “…Never mind. Tom is going to call Reese and Emma while I go up to call John and Claude.” “Why?” asked Twilight. “What’s going on?” “There’s someone coming over. Her name is Zelda. She helped me out in a duel against Gilda. Then she–” “Gilda?” barked Rainbow Dash. “That coward goes and picks a fight with you and not me? I’ll be sure to give her a piece of my mind next time I see her.” “Anyways, she seems to be related to Rae in some way and–” “And you’re letting her into the house?” asked Twilight, clearly frightened. “Alex, what are you thinking? She could be working for her as some kind of spy!” “Ooh!” quipped Pinkie. “So is this a super serious secret spy party?” “PINKIE!” yelled Alex and Twilight in tandem. Pinkie was unbelievably at a loss for words. “I’m… just going to go over here.” With that she ran upstairs, sure to not ruin the conversation further. “Alex, how could you do this?” questioned Twilight, now sounding hurt, “I thought you were concerned for our safety!” “I am. And that’s precisely why I’m bringing her here. She’ll be here in about forty-five minutes, please be ready.” “Oh, I’ll be ready for her,” seethed Twilight, her horn glowing. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Reese and Emma were the first ones to come by. Alex met them at the front door as they got out of Reese’s car that was parked on the street walking on the grass to get there. “So,” said Reese, “you really trust this person? ‘Cause from what Tom was going at, it sounds like we should do anything but.” “Ignore him. I have a real good hunch about this one.” “Alright, but if he harms Emma in any way, you’ll be the one taking the blows.” “Reese!” scolded Emma. “Let’s just get inside.” “Did we interrupt anything?” asked Alex. “Please. We’re high school graduates on summer vacation. What’s to interrupt?” Good answer, thought Alex. Lisa and Jenny were next. They both arrived in Jenny’s car and parked behind it. Alex, like with Reese and Emma, greeted the two at the front door. “I’m sorry if I interrupted anything important,” said Alex. “Don’t be,” answered Jenny. “If this person is who you say she is, then I want to be in on it too.” “Besides,” quipped Lisa. “We’re a team.” “Yeah,” said Alex. “Get in. She’ll be here in a half hour. Feel free to help yourself to a drink.” Alex allowed the two girls into the house to let them wait. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Alex was getting nervous. John and Claude had not shown up yet, and Zelda would arrive in five minutes. Thankfully, Alex saw Claude’s car pull up and park onto the street. Relieving Alex even more was when John came from the passenger’s side door. “It’s about time you showed up,” remarked Alex. John retorted, “I know you have little else going on this summer besides the Chicago World Dueling Championship and saving the world, but I was busy getting some things straightened up at the game shop. I would have come either way. You didn’t need to worry.” “So,” spoke Claude, “is she coming soon?” “Very,” replied Alex. “In fact, I need you to stay out here while I get everyone else. Please hold on.” Alex walked inside the house, leaving his two guests to wait. But they didn’t have to wait long. Not soon after Alex entered the house, Claude and John noticed lights in the sky that were descending down above them. “Alex,” yelled Claude, “you might want to hurry up! I think she’s here!” Alex was way ahead of him, as he, Tom, Reese, and Rainbow Dash were already outside, the rest of them pouring out of the house. Zelda’s aircraft floated down towards the street, where it landed. It was still relatively light out, so every was able to get a good look of the woman riding the machine. Of everyone in the group, Rainbow Dash was the most impressed, and partially a little jealous. A human who can fly? thought Rainbow Dash. I bet she’s not as good as me! Zelda hopped off of it and walked towards the group. Twilight rushed in front of the crowd, standing defensively, teeth bared and horn glowing. “Explain yourself, Zelda!” she demanded. “Who are you? Why have you come here? What do you want from us?” Twilight wanted to continue to ask questions, but found herself pulled back into the group by her tail. Applejack walked out front from where Twilight was pulled, and attempted to apologize. “Sorry about her,” said Applejack. “I’ll try and be a bit more polite, but I think it would do us all some good if you done answer those questions my friend asked of you.” “My name is Zelda Buchanan,” she explained simply. “I’ve come to explain myself to you. What I want is for you to help me, and vice versa.” “And why should we do that?” asked Twilight, still angry. “Because I truly wish to help you. Especially after all that Rae has done.” “What do you mean by that?” asked Alex. As Zelda explained her story, Applejack listened in, making sure she wasn’t telling some sort of tall tale. “I was a mechanic living in Boston. Being an only child, my father wanted someone to carry over his legacy of being a mechanic, even if it was his daughter. I worked countless hours working alongside him. I had even gotten to the point by age ten where I could even disassemble and reassemble cars all by myself. “One day, my father took me to ride in an old biplane for my thirteenth birthday. The experience changed my life forever. Seeing how much technology could accomplish, specifically enabling human flight, right alongside the birds in the sky, I knew what my purpose in life was. “Not long after, I soon got bored of doing cars, though, and I wanted to make something extraordinary. Something that would allow me to fly too. I used spare parts from my dad’s shop, along with broken duel runners that were donated to me to make a machine I could call my very own. My very own flying machine “The press hounded me throughout the years and months I spend perfecting my vision, heavily anticipating the one day I would test it. I can still remember that day. October 20th, 2011: My first and only test run. _________________________________________________________________________________________ ................................................................................................................................................................ _________________________________________________________________________________________ Zelda was in the Public Garden, just west of its famous pond and just east of the statue of George Washington, standing on her flying machine. It looked like a long, metallic, wheel-less skateboard with many wires running on it, several of which ran up Zelda’s back and into two mechanical gloves. Zelda closed her eyes to concentrate, but found it difficult, given the flash of many cameras pelting her vision. “Here we go, here we go, here we go,” nervously whispered Zelda to herself. Zelda pinched the thumb and middle finger on both hands together. She snapped them, causing the board to come to life with an electric whir. More camera flashes. “No turning back now.” Zelda pinched her thumb into the knuckle of her index finger, causing the board to hover about two inches off the ground. Along with more camera flashes, the crowd murmured excitedly. Zelda smiled, knowing that her invention seemed to be working, so she continued to pinch her fingers together, raising her machine higher and higher into the air, all to the awe and wonder of the crowd. When Zelda was high enough where her board was higher than the trees, she began to put her machine to work. Gently balling her right hand into a fist, the board moved forwards, going faster the tighter she squeezed. She soon found herself over the easternmost edge of the park and flying towards downtown. Shifting her weight on her left foot, her machine responded by turning left, allowing her to encircle the park in a counter clockwise motion. Many mystified onlookers kept their gaze on her as she flew. Getting in a more comfortable rhythm, she squeezed almost as tight as she could, allowing her to zip around the park in a circuit at almost eighty miles per hour. The crowd that now formed below was now brought to cheering. Zelda smiled, a tear being wiped from her eye by her extraordinary speeds. She had achieved her dream. _________________________________________________________________________________________ ................................................................................................................................................................ _________________________________________________________________________________________ “Oh yeah!” spoke Lisa. “I remember that on the news!” “Yeah!” said Jenny. "That was freaking awesome!” Twilight’s apprehensions began to lift after hearing her story being well-received in terms of legitimacy by everyone else. “I remember that too, actually,” said Thomas. “After knowing about that, I tried getting my company to contact you about a position in the mechanics field. However, they said you were–” “Taken,” finished Zelda. “Yes, not even a day after that test, I was contacted by an “R,” who invited me to her company building in in New York. I had not heard of this person before, but if they were offering me work, it would be really dumb for me to decline without seeing what they could do for me. “That’s when I met Rae. She initially frightened me with her insistence on wearing that creepy mask, however, she claimed that she was willing to pay me top dollar to extend the possibilities of my glider. When she brought me down to her basement workshop, I knew I was being given an offer that I couldn’t refuse. She had all the state of the art tools, equipment, and even blueprints of machines I didn’t know she had access to, such as the Harrier jet which I based my current glider off of. “On top of that, she offered me a luxury penthouse suite, complete with maid service, a private chef, a pool, and even top-of-the-line health insurance that would make most European countries jealous. Before I could accept, however, I was made to be promised that I couldn’t work outside of her, lest I share her secrets with another employer. I accepted on one condition. A seven-figure check for my father and a formal goodbye. She accepted. On Saturday, the 22nd of October, I packed my bags and said goodbye to my father.” “What happened then?” asked Reese, becoming interested. “Did you ever work with Kyle?” “Yes, I did. Strangely, the only times we ever conversed was when we dueled. Seeing my love for flying, Rae had taken my old Scrap deck and replaced it with a Gusto deck. There were even a couple of cards within it that never existed, made solely for me. Rae’s affluence never continued to surprise me. Never… “One day, about a month or so before Equestria’s appearance on Earth. I was tasked with something… odd from Rae. She had told me about finding these new designs for D-Pads that she wanted me to develop. I told her that because of their design, they would be hardly, if not, completely unfunctional and/or impractical. All she told me after that was that ‘she would take care of it.’” “What do you suppose that meant?” asked John. “I found out soon enough. Having been much more familiar with the tools that Rae let me use, I was able to finish the entire set of duel disks that she wanted from me while having enough time to work more on my glider. However, on the eve of the day of Equestria’s appearance near Earth, everything changed. _________________________________________________________________________________________ ................................................................................................................................................................ _________________________________________________________________________________________ Zelda walked into the center a large, dimly lit, circular room. There were no windows to see out of. Just wall. “What do you need, Rae?” asked Zelda. “Just be a good girl and stand there,” she said thorough an intercom. “What?” The wall, floor and ceiling lit up, turning the room a bright white. Zelda’s hair began to stand on end until she was levitating in the center of the room, frightening her. “What is this?” asked Zelda. “You have been a very good asset to me,” explained Rae. “However, now is where I need your full service to me.” Two bright halos appeared from nowhere inside the room, one appearing near the tip of her left hand, the other wrapping around her head. The halo near her hand began to slowly scan her hand, a silver gauntlet appearing over the area where the halo had been. Zelda’s arm felt like it was being torn to shreds and then re-grafted onto her from the hand up. Zelda screamed in agony. “Please!” she screamed. “Make it stop!” “Not yet.” The halo around Zelda’s head then began to glow black. Zelda now felt a second pain in her, like a spear was being driven into her brain. Zelda continued to scream for mercy, all to no avail. As Zelda’s gauntlet D-Pad finally finished forming on her arm, the halo around her head had transformed into a pair of black aviator goggles. Her process finally complete, the room grew dark again, and she floated back onto the ground, paralyzed in pain. The back wall disappeared, revealing Rae, along with several other figures, all of which frightened Zelda to tears. _________________________________________________________________________________________ ................................................................................................................................................................ _________________________________________________________________________________________ “That’s when I met Gilda, Trixie, Chrysalis, Flim, Flam, Grant, and to a greater extent, Kyle,” continued Zelda. “Rae came to me and told me about them, her powers, and her plans for her minions and I to destroy a land which I haven’t heard of before. All I could as was, ‘Why?’ She only answered, ‘Revenge.’ I then asked, ‘Why me?’ To which she said, “You were the best.” My seeds of treachery had been planted that day by her own hand. It was only a matter of time before I would rebel. “She further explained to me the goggles she had created that day would be able to control my glider through my willpower alone. Things especially got better for me when her spell to summon the Stone of Equus cards backfired, allowing me more time to Using my newfound technology, I practiced using my glider and tuned it up every day, going from the early hours of the day to the wee hours of the night preparing for my escape. The only thing that continued to haunt me was Rae’s power, and what she could do if she caught me. However, it was Alex’s use of the Elements of Harmony that inspired me to carry through with the plan. “The next night, I opened the garage for my glider and flew for it, my only things I took with me were my glider, the duel-disk that was magically grafted onto my arm, and the clothes on my back. I made one last stop before I continued my escape: my dad’s shop. All I could tell him was to lay low, and that one day, I would come back for him. I haven’t seen or heard him since then. “I continued to travel onwards stopping in random towns and cities in the northeast and southeast states, all in an attempt to get Rae and her minions, who were undoubtedly after me, off my trail. Not until yesterday did I make it here, so I can help you defeat Rae and gain my life back.” Twilight was still unsure about Zelda’s story, but she officially changed her mind upon seeing Applejack’s watery eyes. Only a true story such as that would bring Applejack to such emotions. Twilight now felt like she could trust Zelda. “Whatever comes at you,” said Alex, “you can certainly count on us to be there for you.” “Yeah!” agreed Rainbow Dash. “With your knowledge of Rae and her goons, you’ll be a really valuable member of the team.” Zelda bowed her head and smiled. “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you so much.” “Now,” said Carolyn. “Let’s get inside. I’ll prepare some tea and coffee.”