It's Time To Duel!

by DagaYemar


Turn 7: White Dragon's Roar vs. Royal Magical Library

Kaiba Twilight

4000 4000

“No sense drawing this out, so I’ll start with my best!” Twilight declared, taking a card from her hand and slamming it onto her disk. “I summon the Royal Magical Library in defense mode!”

The ground around her feet rumbled and shook, and a huge wooden bookcase burst up from the floor behind her. Several more shelves rose up after the first, forming a half ring around Twilight’s side of the field nearly twenty-five feet high. The shelves creaked with the weight of the tomes they contained and little trails of dust fell down here and there. Several podiums floated on platforms about the higher shelves, each on held aloft on a dull green crystal sphere.

Kaiba snorted. “This is your best? I don’t know if anyone has told you yet, but that lousy piece of furniture doesn’t even have a single attack point! Or is your deck just so second-rate that it really is the best you’ve got?”

“Laugh while you can,” Twilight said, jerking a thumb over her shoulder, “but I’ve got complete faith in my cards. In fact, I predict that you will not be able to get past my library at all!”

“You’re delusional! A monster that weak won’t last a single turn against me.” Kaiba growled, crinkling his cards as he clenched his hand in anger.

Twilight smiled and selected another card. “We will see, won’t we? In the meantime, we are in a library. So how about something to read? I activate the Spellbook of Secrets!”

High up on the bookcase, one of the tomes suddenly lit up in a bright aura and levitated off its shelf. The book floated down on a beam of light before Twilight and she caught it, opening it to a random page and flipping through the pages with pleasure until she found the spot she wanted. As she read one of the orbs behind her lit up with an eldritch green light from within. The book faded away in her hands as a card popped halfway out of her deck.

“Was there a point to all that?” Kaiba asked impatiently, crossing his arms and tapping his foot pointedly.

“That book works a bit like an index, allowing me to find any other spellbook in my library and move it to my hand.” Twilight explained, picking out the odd card from her deck. “I think I’ll save this one for a little later when it can be of more use. Instead I’ll just lay these two cards face down and end my turn. Let’s see what you’ve got!”

“Heh. Very well, but you're going to regret asking for it!” Kaiba said, drawing his card to start the turn.

“Hey Yugi, you use spellcasters.” Mai said, leaning down a bit so she could talk into his ear. “Do you know what that pile of books can do? Is it as powerful as she claims?”

“I have seen the Royal Magical Library before.” The Pharaoh said, thinking back to the card shop Yugi’s grandfather owns. “It's not very rare and it does contain a special power, but to do what she’s claiming… I wonder just how she’s planning on using it…”

“I summon X-Head Cannon!” Kaiba declared, continuing the duel. A robot materialized on his field and leveled its shoulder-mounted cannons down at Twilight.

The duelist stood her ground defiantly. “Is that all? Like I predicted, it’s not strong enough to attack!”

“Then you need to be paying better attention!” Kaiba declared, throwing his hand out dramatically as a card appeared on his field. “I activate Photon Lead! This lets me summon any monster I’ve drawn from my deck, so it’s a good thing I drew Z-Metal Tank this turn!”

Twilight’s library glowed as another robot appeared on the field, this one a large yellow vehicle with huge tank treads. A single robotic eye on a stalk poked out from the center on the tank and regarded its opponent in a calculating fashion. Sparks of electricity slowly built up between the two monsters until they were connected by a web of lightning.

The first robot rose into the air on the bed of electricity and hovered above the tank, which was drawn up after it. A hatch opened on the back of the tank; a perfect circle of black that the Cannon’s base slammed into like a key into a lock. With a loud snap of clamps locking into place the two monsters finished transforming and dropped back to the ground with an earthshaking thump.

“As you have probably already guessed, these two monsters are a little special.” Kaiba said, smugness dripping from his words like icing. “I can combine them together into one much stronger monster with an attack of twenty-four hundred! Which means it’s time to say bye-bye to that library you’ve put so much ‘faith’ in. Blast it to bits!”

During the few seconds it took for the twin cannons on the machine’s shoulders to charge Twilight thrust out her hand at one of her face-downs. “I told you it wouldn’t be that easy, remember? I’ll use my Reliable Guardian to raise the library’s defenses!”

A magical aura surrounded the Library seconds before the cannons fired. Its beams were halted in their tracks by the magic protection scant inches from the wizened books. For a little bit the attack strained against the magic as if it might break through anyway, but then they gave up all at once and faded away.

Kaiba
3700

“And that’s three!” Twilight continued, gesturing at her library. All three of the orbs now glowed with a bright green aura. “Every time one of us uses a spell card, the Royal Magical Library generates a spell counter. Thank you for helping me charge up, it’s making my job that much easier!”

“Play around all you like.” Kaiba growled, playing one card face down. “Maybe if you struggle enough I might even start to care. Now take your turn before I fall asleep!”

“Not just yet, I’ve got one more card to play!” Twilight interrupted, activating her other card. “Let’s put those spell counters to use. I activate the Pitch-Black Lode Stone!”

Her card flipped up and vanished, leaving a large red crystal floating in deep shadow on her field. It pulsed with a deep blood-red light and the library responded, shuddering a little with a rustle of dried pages. The green glow leeched out of the orbs about the library and shot across to the stone, revolving around it like electrons in an atom.

Kaiba grunted as Twilight drew her card and studied her hand. What was the point of that move? If she’d left those counters on the library, she could have spent them to draw another card. So why shift them to a card that can’t make any use of them?

Applejack shuddered and rubbed her upper arms. “Urg, it always creeps me out when she’s usin’ them Pitch-Black cards.”

“What can you say? They’re too useful for her strategy.” Rarity replied with a shrug. “But I do agree they could have done with a more tasteful design…”

Twilight smiled and finished picking her card. “Well, it’s not the most optimal time but it’ll have to do. I summon Rune, Research Librarian to the field!”

A young woman dressed in green clothes appeared on her field, cocking one hand on its hips and tilting its head to the other side. It looked the combination robots up and down like she wasn’t impressed by what it saw, then looked over its shoulder at Twilight. Twilight nodded to it and picked another card out of her hand.

“Alright, now to give her something to read. I activate the Spellbook of Power!” Another book shot off the bookshelf in a stream of magic and deposited itself into Rune’s waiting arms. The monster glowed as it began to read the book’s contents. “This spellbook grants Rune an extra one thousand points of magical power, not to mention adding another spell counter to the Magical Library. And now she’s got just enough attack points to defeat that Cannon of yours. I attack with Shining Flashcards!”

The book dematerialized from out of the spellcaster’s hands, leaving them surrounded in a heavy emerald aura. Rune flicked its hands and they were suddenly bristling with squares of pure silver energy. It threw its hands wide and hurled a cloud of the shining papers in a blazing gale. The energy blades struck and detonated all about the robot, quickly obscuring it in a cloud of smoke.

Kaiba
3600

Twilight’s hand drifted towards her deck. “And that spellbook had one more trick up its pages. Now that Rune’s destroyed a monster, I can take any spellbook I want from my deck and add it to my hand-”

“You might want to check your work, girl.” Kaiba interrupted. “I think you are a few steps ahead of yourself.”

“What are you talking about…?” Twilight trailed off with a gasp as the smoke started to clear from the field. The X-Head Cannon was slowly revealed, completely unharmed by the magic barrage. The same could not be said of the tank though, as it was broken and falling apart by the second. With a clang the Head Cannon disengaged from the other monster and the tank fell apart into a pile of scrap.

“I discarded the weaker monster to save the stronger.” Kaiba said callously, crossing his arms. “That means your little bookworm didn’t destroy anything on her own, so no cards.”

“Alright, I get it…” Twilight grumbled, setting another card on the field. “I’ll just put this face down and end my turn. That means my Pitch-Black Lode Stone draws off another spell counter from the library.”

Kaiba snorted derisively as another green light joined the other three orbiting her trap and drew a card to begin the turn. “Whatever. I’ve got a way to put a stop to your little light show for good. And the first step is to summon Saggi the Dark Clown!”

A multicolored monster somersaulted out of a burst of light next to the Cannon. It stopped in midair, floating with its legs crossed and its head cupped in one of its hands in a bored way. It grinned and revealed that all of its teeth were sharpened to points.

“And you were making fun of my monsters…” Twilight said archly, clearly unimpressed with the clown.

The rich boy crossed his arms and grinned to himself. “You know, I was half-convinced this duel might actually get interesting eventually, but I’ve got you figured out. You’ve got nothing in your deck but these weak little magicians and you rely entirely on spell cards to make them a threat. Which makes me wonder… what if I were to get rid of all your spells?

“I activated the trap card Patient Zero!” he declared, throwing a hand out suddenly at his trap. The card flipped up and a simple syringe full of a clear fluid floated out of the card image. The needle shot forward and embedded itself in the clown’s neck. Saggi shrieked and flailed about, trying and failing to reach the needle. A dark flush started to spread out from the point of impact on the monster and out of the center of Kaiba’s trap.

“Patient Zero lets me search my deck for any virus I need,” Kaiba continued, fanning through his cards with his thumb and snatching one out with barely a glance, “And apply its effects immediately! Taste the power of Magic Removal Virus Cannon!”

As Kaiba cast the card he picked contemptuously aside, a black wave washed over his Patient Zero card, swapping the violet with green as the Virus spell took its place. A blackish flush washed over Saggi as well, but instead of transforming into something else the clown dissolved into a pile of dust and debris. A futuristic looking weapon rose out of the pile, aimed directly at Twilight’s rapidly horror-drawn face. She threw her arms up defensively as it launched a beam of sickly green energy and it slammed into her duel disk.

“NO!” Celestia exclaimed.

“TWILIGHT!” her four friends shouted in chorus.

Kaiba threw back his head and laughed. “Direct hit! Your deck has now been infected, forcing you to send every spell card straight to the graveyard!”

Twilight’s face fell as she held her deck up and looked at it in anguish. Trails of green lightning crackled around it as she pulled the cards out and started separating them. Clouds had started to gather ever since Fluttershy had played Discord and now they passed over the sun, dropping the field into a darkness that seemed deeper than it should have. Finally Twilight was done, depositing nearly half her deck into her grave slot. The disk automatically shuffled her cards when she put her deck back in, but it looked pathetically small now.

“Geez, that’s a tough blow!” Joey said with a wince of sympathy. “There anything she can do ta turn it around, Yug?”

Yugi hummed thoughtfully and a small smile ticked the corner of his mouth. “Perhaps. She does have one option, but it remains to see if she knows how to use it…”

Twilight, meanwhile, couldn’t stop staring at her deck. My whole strategy revolves around my spells! I’ve never faced a card as powerful as that before! No wonder Seto Kaiba has such a terrifying reputation. Can… can I even win now? Without my spells, how can I build up the counters I need?

She looked up and saw Kaiba standing with his arms crossed, clearly still glorifying in his last move. The field really did seem much darker than it should have been, almost more like an early evening than mid-afternoon. But because of that darkness she was able to notice a green glow just behind her out of the corner of her eye. She half turned… and noticed that one of the orbs on her Library had been activated. Somehow, she’d gained a spell counter.

Was it from his trap? Did the trap activate the Virus spell, instead of just copying its effects? She wondered, before her eyes widened with sudden realization. Wait, of course! There is still a way for me to gain counters. I just need to provoke Kaiba into using HIS spells!

“What’s wrong?” Kaiba asked. “Have you given up yet? Your deck’s got nothing left.”

Instead of answered right away, Twilight turned and looked at her friends. The hope on their faces, and Fluttershy’s still unconscious form, dispelled any lingering doubts of what she had to do. “My deck has plenty left, Kaiba. This is one duel I can’t afford to lose! Let’s continue!”

“Hmph!” Kaiba grunted before thrusting his arm out. “Well, don’t say I didn’t try to be merciful! X-head Cannon, blast that magician to pieces!”

The cannon lowered its barrels and unleashed a duel blast right in Rune’s face. The spellcaster shied away at the last second and the attack hit it in the side, shattering it into shards and smoke.

Twilight
3700

“Not so fast!” Twilight said, holding her arm up against the smoke. “There are five spell counters on the field now, so when Rune is destroyed I can draw a card!”

“So what? I’ll play one card face down and end my turn.” Kaiba concluded, setting the card and crossing his arms. “Go ahead. Let’s just see what you possibly have left.”

“Just watch!” Twilight said, drawing and studying the three cards in her hand. Exactly what I needed! I may be down to just my monsters and traps, but that means I am more likely to get the “specific” monsters and traps I want!

“I’ll start by playing this card face down, and then I’ll summon Scholar’s Apprentice!” A young girl with pink hair spun out of a pillar of light on her side of the field. The girl produced a wand from somewhere and shot off a cute salute at Kaiba with it, smiling and giving him a wink. A small green orb of magic swirled around her head in a little halo.

“The apprentice enters play with her own spell counter,” Twilight explained, pointing dramatically. “But she won’t have it for long, as I’m going to use it right away on her special ability. You’re X-Head Cannon switches into defense mode!”

The young magician gestured with the wand and the green ball zipped off and started revolving around his machine. With great reluctance the Cannon crossed its metal arms and leaned over, bowing its head. The apprentice hopped in place excitedly and twirled its wand, preparing to attack and destroy the monster.

“Do you think I’m just going to let that happen?” Kaiba cried, activating his face down. “Command Silencer stops your attack in its tracks and lets me draw a new card!”

A strange totem pole appeared out of his spell card and waves of sound poured out from the speakers set about it. The apprentice dropped to its knees before it and pressed its hands to its ears in pain.

Twilight also had her hands over her ears, but she dropped them with a grimace of relief as the sound tapered off. “Urg… fine. That’s still one more spell counter for my Library, which goes straight into the Lode Stone when I end my turn.”

“Then I’ll go!” Kaiba spat, drawing a second card. “First I’ll summon the Kaiser Sea Horse in defense mode.” A blue fish-man appeared on his field, kneeling and clutching a trident in its webbed fist. “Now I’ll use my Cannon to once again crush your monster!”

The robot powered up once again and unleashed its twin energy blast. The apprentice hid it face in its arms as the energy exploded on either side of it and it shattered into fragments. The concussion rippled Twilights clothes, but she made no other reaction to the attack.

Twilight
3600

“So fast!” Rarity exclaimed, holding up a hand daintily to her lips. “He’s hardly giving poor Twilight any time to think!”

Pegasus nodded. “That’s the point. Kaiba-boy is trying to pressure your friend into making a mistake in haste. He’s got her on the ropes… and he knows it.”

“That’s all. Go!” Kaiba shouted.

“Not just yet!” Twilight said, sweeping her hand dramatically. “Before your turn’s over, I’m going to use my trap card, Hidden Spellbook! This allows me to shuffle any two spells from my graveyard back into my deck.”

“Awesome move! Way to make a comeback!” Pinkie cheered happily.

Twilight shifted through the many cards that her disk had slid out of the grave slot before returning all but two of them. For a few seconds she held onto those cards, but she sucked in a deep, steadying breath and slipped them into her deck. The automatic shuffle system kicked in immediately. Alright, that’s a good start. I’ve got one-third of what I need to win in my hand and one-third on the field. Now I just have to hold on till I draw the last piece!

She drew and glance briefly at her new card before placing it onto the field. “I summon the Spirit of the Shelves. This ought to hold me for a few turns!”

The books in the Royal Magical Library seemed to sway on their shelves and a rustling filled the air, as if a breeze was upsetting a thousand dry pages. Slowly a ghostly figure appeared, floating out through the bookcases as if it had been there the whole time. The specter raised its empty gaze and settled it on the enemies before it.

“As long as I have a Library on my side of the field, the Spirit of the Shelves’ attack points go up to two thousand!” Twilight pointed at the X-Head Cannon. “Spirit! I’m tired of that thing blowing up all my monsters. Get rid of it for me, OK?”

The ghost floated forward, its ethereal robe billowing as if suspended in water. The robot looked up at it as it rose up, and the gears in its neck made a whirring noise. The spirit’s eyes flashed in anger at the sound like the god of all angry librarians and it swooped down upon the Cannon in an instant. It wasn’t clear exactly what the spirit did then, but Kaiba’s monster detonated a moment later, whatever it was.

Kaiba
3400

“And that’s not all!” Twilight lectured proudly as a bright light enveloped her. “When the Spirit of the Shelves destroys a monster, I gain life equal to the number of spell counters on the field times one hundred!”

Twilight
4200

“Heh…” Kaiba chuckled, completely unaffected by the loss. “Big mistake.”

“What do you mean?” Twilight asked suspiciously.

He smirked and drew, before shooting her a glance so intense it made her back up a step. “You should have destroyed my Kaiser Sea Horse this turn instead. You see, if I sacrifice it to summon a light attribute monster, it counts as two sacrifices.”

“Oh no!” Yugi shouted in realization.

“Too late!” Kaiba declared, slamming a card onto his disk with triumph. “I summon the legendary Blue-Eyes White Dragon!”

A pillar of light shot out of the ground around his remaining monster and disappeared into the cloud cover above. The light vanished off and for a little while nothing happened. Then a large, shining form descended, the clouds billowing off its scales like water. The fearsome dragon was soon revealed completely for all to see and it roared, declaring its presence on the field in a commanding way.

“Wow… ah can’t believe ah’m actually seein’ the Blue-Eyes in the flesh…” Applejack said, momentarily awestruck. Rainbow nodded, too similarly stunned to comment.

“Now let’s see, who should I destroy…?” Kaiba gloated, smirking down his nose at her. “That annoying ghost or your precious library? Eenie, meenie, minie… you! Blue-Eyes, unleash your White Lightning!”

The Blue-Eyes opened its jaws wide and a terrifyingly large ball of electricity gathered in its maw. With another roar the lightning burst forth in a stream of destruction straight down at Twilight’s field. Her Spirit of the Shelves was engulfed by the attack, wailing in horror as it dissolved into less than nothing. Twilight threw up her arms and strained against the wind produced by the blast, struggling not to get thrown from her feet.

Twilight
3200

Kaiba threw back his head and laughed. “You know, I like that look of shock on you! How about I make it permanent by destroying all our hard work! I activate A Wingbeat of Giant Dragon!”

A golden glow began to surround his dragon as he explained. “The good news is this spell requires I return my Blue-Eyes to my hand, so you get a reprieve from its fury for now. But as a parting gift, every spell and trap card on the field is blown away in its wake. So say goodbye to all those spell counters you’ve been so carefully collecting!”

“AHH! I can’t let that happen!” Twilight cried, throwing her hand out to one of her two face-downs. “I counter with Anti-Spell!”

Kaiba’s dragon finished transforming, turning into a dragon-shaped living flame. The fire being let out a roar and swooped down from the sky towards Twilight’s field. But at the same time a pair of green orbs stopped revolving around the Lode Stone and shot forward to intercept it. Right before contact the orbs clashed together and transformed into a huge magic circle suspended in midair like a shield.

The flaming dragon slammed into the magic circle with a crash that shook the tower below. The flames raged about but proved unable to bypass the barrier. The circle dissipated, taking with it the last of Kaiba’s spell. A smoky haze laying heavily in the air above them was all that was left of the clash.

“Whooo, that was close…” Twilight said, putting a hand to her chest and breathing a sigh of relief. “I had to spend two of my spell counters to activate that trap, but since that Wingbeat of Giant Dragon was a spell, I get a least one of my counters back.”

Kaiba grunted and set a card on the field. “Whatever. I end my turn.”

“Eh?” Joey exclaimed before breaking out into a wide grin. “Look at that! Kaiba’s wide open!”

Seto shot him a glare that caused Joey to take a step back before remembering himself. “Don’t offer me your weak insights, Wheeler. It’s just an embarrassment. Now watch.”

Twilight drew her card for the turn and compared it to the one in her hand. After a moment she sighed and set the card she drew. “All I can do is play this face-down.”

Once again Kaiba laughed at her. “See? You’ve been getting lucky these last few turns drawing monsters, but no one can keep that up for long. Now watch a real turn!”

He drew and played the card after barely giving it a glance. “Card of Demise! This card lets me refresh my hand up to five cards, provided I discard my whole hand five turns from now. Not that this duel will last that long, especially after I summon Y-Dragon Head!”

Electricity surged around his field as he summoned his latest robot. The machine flapped its metal wings and hovered menacingly.

“Next I will use Soul Release to remove up to five monsters from any graveyard I wish. And I think I’ll be using it to eliminate the X-Head Cannon and Z-Metal Tank.”

“Why would you do that to your own monsters?” Twilight asked in confusion. Out of the corner of her eye she noted the second spell counter appearing on her library, but Kaiba no longer seemed to care about conserving spells.

“Because there’s more than one way to summon a monster!” Kaiba declared, playing yet another card. “I use the spell Dimension Fusion to return them to their rightful place on my field!”

Kaiba
1400

The air rippled and shimmered as his two machines once again made an appearance on either side of the dragon. Sparks of static quickly surrounded the three monsters as they rose into the air, repositioning above each other. With a loud clacking sound the dragon’s wings retracted into its body, which was pulled up and connected to the round base of the Cannon. The circular shutter opened on the back of the tank and the dragon slammed down into it, completing the combination.

“Behold the complete form of my XYZ Dragon Cannon!” Kaiba declared, spreading his hands wide. “And now that it’s complete, it has a new ability. By discarding one card, I can take down any card on your field. Such as that Royal Magical Library, which has been an eyesore for far too long!”

As Kaiba discarded a Vorse Raider from his hand, the barrels on the Cannon’s shoulders lowered and began to collect energy. At the same time a pair of hatches opened on either tank tread to reveal more cannons and the dragon’s mouth opened, exposing yet another barrel. All five cannons fired at once and laced Twilight’s bookcase with their deadly energies. The whole thing caught fire instantly and the air was filled with the burning remains of books. With a heavy groan the shelves collapsed backwards and filled her field with dust and burning embers.

“And my monster still has its attack left!” Kaiba cried, and the Dragon Cannon unleashed another barrage. The blasts dispersed the cloud of smoke in their wake, revealing Twilight taking the attack directly in the chest. She was blown backwards but somehow managed to stay on her feet, albeit shaking with the effort.

Twilight
400

“Hold on, Twilight!” Rainbow shouted, clutching her hands. Her friends all called out encouragement, but that last attack had driven the breath out of her and she was too busy panting to respond.

“How was that?” Kaiba demanded triumphantly. “Wasn’t it you that said I was never going to destroy that card? Well? Are you ready to give up yet?”

Twilight muttered something, and Seto leaned forward. “What was that? I didn’t catch it.”

“I said,” Twilight whispered, her voice growing louder as she drew a card. “You should have finished me off when you had the chance! I activate the spell card Pot of Greed!”

“You saved two spells out of all your deck, and you chose that for one of them? Why?” Kaiba asked, furrowing his brow in confusion.

Because it lowers the number of cards in my deck! Twilight thought as she lay her fingers on the top two cards. If I can just draw the REAL spell I wanted to save… come on, I’ve got a 22.3% chance of finishing it right now!

She drew her two new cards and held them up hopefully, and her face fell when she saw the spell wasn’t among them. Glancing up and gritting her teeth, she grabbed one of them and slapped it onto her disk. “Well, not what I was hoping for, but this should end it all right now! I summon Little Level Leveler!”

A small girl in a frilly dress popped into existence in midair before Twilight. When the girl’s feet landed on the ground a shimmering magical circle appeared and a breeze seemed to ruffle its clothing from below. Tiny fragments of white magic in the shape of butterflies began fitting about around it.

“Little Level Leveler’s special ability lets her destroy one monster on the field whose level is equal to or less than the number of spell counters on the field.” Twilight shouted.

Kaiba grunted and cut his hand sharply. “Then you had better check your math! With my monsters fused together, their level is now eight, and you only have five counters!”

“Not if I use the Pitch-Black Power Stone!” Twilight declared, activating her last trap. “It automatically generates three fresh spell counters, giving the Leveler just enough power to blast your tin soldier apart!”

Her trap card pulsated and each of the three points on its triangle glowed bright green. At the same time a bright green aura surrounded the little girl and suddenly there were scores of butterflies at its back, gathered together in a pair of clumps that almost looked like wings. The twin trails rose up from its back and shot forward in a surge of tiny, flapping wings. The stream hit Kaiba’s monster right in the X-Head Cannon’s chest, carving a hole straight through to the other side.

Twilight pumped her arms in celebration as his monster detonated in a giant cloud of obscuring smoke. The smoke swirled around for a few seconds… and then suddenly bulged out on the sides. The Metal Tank dove out of the cloud to the right and the Dragon Head when out the left, each one settling on new spaces on the field. Between them, the smoke cleared just enough to reveal Kaiba chuckling to himself with a shit-eating grin.

“Wha-what just happened?!” Twilight cried, taking a step back in surprise.

The smoke cleared a little more, showing that Kaiba had also used his face down card. “Just my De-Fusion. I split up the Dragon Cannon before you could destroy it, so all your little girl took out was the X-Head Cannon. Too bad, so sad.”

“No…” Twilight muttered, before looking at her last two cards. “I’ll set this face down. And… I have to end my turn…” Her Lode Stone pulsated once more and all three counters were drawn off her Power Stone, which faded away now that it was empty.

“Then it’s time to finish this!” Kaiba shouted, drawing a card and not even sparing it a look. “I sacrifice my two machines to summon the Blue-Eyes White Dragon once more!”

The robots glowed white before disappearing in a blinding flash of light. When it faded the Blue-Eyes was floating on the field above Kaiba’s head and it let loose its iconic roar.

Kaiba dramatically thrust his hand out palm up and his voice rose into a commanding stage tenor. “Blue-Eyes! This battle has gone on for long enough! Finish it!”

In answer, the dragon roared and let loose another blast of pure white lightning from its mouth. The blasted took the little girl full on and it disintegrated almost instantly. The blast passed over twilight and hid her from view.

Kaiba threw back his head and roared with laughter, but his mirth faded to nothing as he noticed that his Blue-Eyes wasn’t fading away. “That should have ended the duel. What did you do?”

“That same thing you did; saved myself with a face down.” Twilight replied, as the light faded to show her still standing. “This card is called Pitch-Black Phylactery. Not only does it prevent all damage I took from that attack, but now I get new spell counters equal to my Leveler’s level!”

Her remaining trap, like all the other Pitch-Black cards, pulsated sickeningly as it activated. Four blobs of green light rose out of its surface and shot forward to join the rest around the Lode Stone, which could now barely be seen under its cloud of counters. The Phylactery card faded away, its job done.

“You’re only delaying the inevitable!” Kaiba spat, looking at his remaining card for the first time. “Looks like I’ve got a Pot of Greed as well.” He activated it and drew two new cards. He scowled at them, set one on the field, and then crossed his arms, clearly waiting for her to make a move.

“Whoo…” Rarity sighed, placing a hand to her chest. “I don’t think this duel is good for my heart…”

“I know what you mean.” Joey replied. The two of them blinked, realized they were agreeing on something, and turned away from each other pointedly.

Twilight took one more calming breath and touched the top card of her deck. Alright, only a 14.3% chance of this being the card I need, and if it isn’t… no, I can’t think about that! I need to trust that this is the card! For my friends! For everyone the Discord card could hurt if I let it go free! This is the last card!

She drew.

“Well?” Kaiba barked. “Did you at least get something to guard with?”

“No,” Twilight said, and then broke out into a wide smile, “Not to guard. I’ve got all I need to finally attack!”

“What?!” Kaiba exclaimed.

“I use my last spell, Magical Incarnation Process!” Twilight shouted, activating it. The spell counters on her trap card spun about into a frenzy, going faster and faster before shooting off into the sky. They arced and slammed down onto the ground, collecting into three piles of green fire. Rising out of these flames came a trio of figures, vaguely humanoid and composed entirely of emerald energy.

“This spell brings my spell counters to life!” she explained, “For every four counters I use up, I get a new monster. And each one has twelve hundred attack and defense points.”

Kaiba tilted his head back angrily. “So what? That’s far too low to take on my ultimate monster!”

Twilight shook her head and held up her last card, the one she’d been holding onto since the beginning of the duel. “Alone, they are no threat, like you say. But together, they can help me bring out my deck’s true power. One of the god cards I got from my mentor!”

“WHAT?!?” Kaiba shouted, shocked to his core.

“God card?!” Yugi, Joey, and Mai all said in unison.

Pegasus shot a sideways look of shock at Celestia. “You gave them to her?” Celestia smiled and kept her eyes on her student.

All three of her magic tokens raised their arms and shot off in a trio of emerald streams of light into the clouds above. There was a blinding flash from behind the clouds and they were pushed aside as something descended down through them. The figure shone like the sun, its very presence dispelling the gloomy aura that had been clinging to the field lately. Its clothes and long rainbow-colored hair flowed like water around it, and it didn’t need to beat its wings as it descended to the field.

Everyone looked up at it in awe, but because of where she was standing Twilight was the only one to notice something strange in the newly revealed sky. For a few seconds, it looked like there was a bank of stars in the sky on the other side of the castle, back in the direction of the docks and helicopter pad. Then the sky seemed to shimmer and the stars vanished, but she was sure that they had been there.

Twilight shook her head and set aside that mystery for later; there was something much more important she had to deal with right now. “Behold Solis Tia, the Heliosphere! The Goddess of the Rising Sun, she brings forth a light that reveals every hidden secret. Every card is laid bare before it!”

Kaiba’s face down card suddenly became transparent, revealing itself to be an Attack Guidance Armor. At the same time a hologram of the card in his hand rose up from that card and showed that he was holding a Polymerization. It began to glow with a green aura.

“And now that every card is revealed, Solis Tia gains one thousand attack points for every spell card!” Twilight said, as her goddess glowed with the stolen green energy of Kaiba’s card.

“So what?” Kaiba shouted, recovering enough of his reserve to bare his metaphorical fangs. “That only means our monsters are equal! You don’t have enough cards to overcome me!”

“I never said I was finished!” Twilight returned, “And neither is Solis’s effect. Now you dragon is going to lose one thousand points for every trap card we have, and I count two!”

“NO!” Kaiba screamed as the Blue-Eyes was wrapped in a violet aura. His trap and her Lode Stone were covered in a similar light and the dragon roared again in defiance as its power was stripped away. This can’t be happening! The only one who can beat me is Yugi! Who does this girl think she is?

Twilight spread her arms and Solis Tia did the same. “It’s over, Seto! Daylight Radiance!”

The goddess glowed brighter and brighter until it was painful to look at. The dragon was transfixed by the light, first as a silhouette, then as a single streak of matter, and then finally nothing.

Kaiba
0

The blinding light vanished as their duel disks disengaged, and just like that the first round of the tournament ended. Twilight dropped to her knees and wiped an arm over her sweating brow. That duel had taken a lot more out of her than she was comfortable admitting.

“Bah!” Kaiba shouted, spinning on his heel and stalking towards the exit. “Whatever. I didn’t want to take part in this farce of a tournament anyway, so this works out just fine by me! I’ll let myself out.”

“Grrr… why don’t you try being a graceful loser, you rich-!” Joey started, but Yugi caught him by the arm and held him back.

“Let him go. It’s probably the best we can expect out of him.” Yugi said, and Joey calmed down enough to nod sagely.

“That was amazing, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash shouted, dashing forward and eagerly helping her to her feet. “You just beat Seto Kaiba! The Seto Kaiba! How did it feel?!”

“Exhausting…” Twilight said honestly, and then peered worriedly over RD’s shoulder. “What about Fluttershy? Has she woken up yet?”

Pinkie was sitting with Fluttershy’s head in her lap and she shook her head. The news dampened Twilight’s mood and she crossed over join the rest of her friends.

“I’m also concerned about that.” Pegasus said, speaking loud enough to address everyone present. “I propose we wait fifteen minutes before starting the next round, if for no other reason than to get the poor girl more comfortable. I’ll have one of my staff take a look at her and see what’s wrong.”

“Thank you, Maximillion.” Celestia said, bowing her head in gratitude. A couple of suited men rushed up and helped carry Fluttershy as they led the rest of the party inside.

As they started walking, the Pharaoh stepped up to Pegasus and put a hand on his shoulder. “You never mentioned there were other God cards.”

“Well… that’s because there aren’t any others. Not yet, anyway…” Yugi raised his eyebrow, but it was Celestia who answered his unasked question.

“They were designed by myself, and in fact are why we are here today.” The girls perked up their ears and listened in as Celestia continued. “See, there has been a lot of magic disturbances lately which we’ve just barely been able to hold off on our own. As I understand it, you’ve had your share of dangerous magic here as well, but you’ve had the God cards to deal with it. So when I talked to Maximillion on the subject, we came up with this little competition, to see if my girls are ready to handle a power like the Gods.”

“You mean…” Twilight said, staring down at her deck in a new light.

“Indeed.” Celestia nodded. “If Maximillion’s team wins, it means we don’t have what it takes to handle Gods, and he also gets to study my card designs to find ways to improve them. But if we win, then he will acknowledge your ability.

“And then he will tell me how to turn the three special cards I gave you into God Cards.”

A little earlier…

“Is that Discord?!” Spike cried out in fear as he stared out the window of the helicopter.

“I do not understand how it can be, but it is.” Luna replied, looking over his shoulder. “The situation must be more dangerous than I feared. We must land immediately!”

The pilot nodded and swung the copter around, angling down to land on the private helicopter pad adjacent to the castle. As soon as the wheels touched down the two passengers were out of their seats and hopping out the door. Luna turned to give the pilot some final instructions, but the words lodged in her throat as the pilot suddenly slumped forward in his chair, unconscious.

At the same time, Spike shout out in surprise. “Hey, someone was waiting for us!”

Luna spun around and saw that the path to the castle was blocked by a man wearing a black hooded cloak. The hood was up and it hid his face from view. The man was giving off such an aura of menace that she immediately knew that the pilot’s plight was his doing.

“Who are you?” she demanded, taking a step forward to place herself between Spike and the stranger.

The man stepped forward like a sleepwalker, but his voice was strong and even. “Nobody important. But my Master won’t allow you to interfere with his work on this island. So you two are going to stay put down here with me.”

“Yeah right!” Spike shouted, and before she could stop him he ran out from behind her.

The man thrust out his arm but Spike was too nimble, easily ducking low enough to go under it without breaking stride. But instead the air seemed to ripple and Spike found himself halted in midair. Some unseen force hurled him backward and he yelled out in surprise, barely managing to keep ahold of the steel briefcase he was in charge of. Luna backed up and caught him in her arms, but his momentum caused her to fall back against the helicopter.

“What… what was that?!” Spike sputtered as she sat him down.

“There must be more behind this stranger than first appears.” She said, but was interrupted as something flew through the air towards them. She reached up on reflex and caught the object, which turned out to be a duel disk.

The man had thrown it and doing so had caused his cowl to fall back. The man had stubble all down his chin and wore shiny black sunglasses. A bandana patterned after the American flag held back the man’s dirty blond hair.

“Well, if you're that eager to get past me, then duel for it.” The stranger said, pulling back the cloak to show he was already wearing a disk. “But you know, there’s quite a penalty in it if you lose!”

Luna gritted her teeth and stood up, buckling the disk onto her arm. Spike sat up and grabbed her arm as she drew her deck out of her pocket. “No! It has to be some kind of trap. At least use these…”

He fumbled with the latch to the briefcase, but Luna lay a calming hand over his and drew his attention back to her. “Those cards are not for me. Keep them safe.”

She turned to her opponent and slammed her cards home in the disk. “This man seems to have some kind of power at his disposal. If he intends to stand in our way, then it falls to me to show him what power really is!”

Bandit Keith grinned and held up his disk at the ready. "I'd like to see you try!"


Next time on Yugioh: It's Time to Duel
Trigger Happy vs. Clear Night's Sky