//------------------------------// // Chapter 23: Danger // Story: Yu-Gi-Oh! Friendship is Magic // by moviemaster8510 //------------------------------// This chapter's featured card: Meklord Emperor Granel Effect Monster Level: 1 ATK: 0 DEF: 0 Attribute: EARTH Type: Machine This card cannot be Normal Summoned or Set. This card cannot be Special Summoned except by its own effect. When a face-up monster you control is destroyed by a card effect and sent to the Graveyard, you can Special Summon this card from your hand. This card gains ATK and DEF equal to half of your Life Points. Once per turn, you can select 1 Synchro Monster your opponent controls and equip it to this card. This card gains ATK equal to those equipped monsters' combined ATK. During your Main Phase, you can select 1 of those equipped monsters, and Special Summon it to your side of the field in face-up Defense Position. Cont. from Trixie and Gilda vs. Derpy Hooves and Doctor Whooves Trixie’s Turn: Trixie activates Heavy Storm, destroying all spell and trap cards on the field. Trixie then attacks Derpy Hooves’ Inzektor Exa-Beetle with (ATK: 1000 DEF: 1000) Arcana Force XXI – The World (ATK: 3100 DEF: 3100). Derpy Hooves and Doctor Whooves’ Life Points: 4400 -> 2300 Trixie then summons Arcana Force III – The Empress (ATK: 1300 DEF: 1300). During her End Phase, because of Arcana Force XXI – The World’s heads effect, Trixie can tribute two monsters she controls to skip her opponents turn, choosing Arcana Force XXI – The World and Arcana Force III – The Empress. Trixie ends her turn. Status: Hand-2 Life-8000 Monsters-0 Face Down Cards-0 Gilda’s Turn: Gilda activates the effect of Meklord Emperor Granel (ATK: 4000 DEF: 4000), choosing an opponent’s synchro monster and equipping Meklord Emperor Granel with it and gaining ATK equal to the ATK of the monster equipped to it, choosing Doctor Whooves’ Avenging Knight Parshath (ATK: 4000 -> 6600). Gilda attacks Derpy Hooves and Doctor Whooves directly. Derpy Hooves and Doctor Whooves’ Life Points: 2300 -> 0 Trixie and Gilda win. As Gilda made her final attack, Trixie emanated a scarlet red glow from her unicorn’s horn, which enveloped around Meklord Emperor Granel. The stream of energy that came from the monsters laser gun arm had a similar red color to it. When the attack connected, the red aura converged into two beams which entered into the chests of the two ponies. They both screamed in agony as the beam pumped into their bodies. When it was finished, their fur grew lighter in color, their manes and tails turned white, and their bodies looked considerably more wizened. They then collapsed on the ground without making any more movements or sounds. Trixie and Gilda looked over their victims and ran away from the heart of the Everfree Forest where they dueled. Scott, Rarity, Lucas, and Fluttershy were lounging outside at a café. They were all finished for the day and had the rest of it to kick their feet up and have a little fun with friends. Sammy and Spike were also there taking a small break as they casually walked by the café. Suddenly, 4 royal guards began swooping down by the nearby hospital with 2 stretchers, a pony lying on each on. Everyone ran to the guards to see who was injured. On one stretcher, lied a normally brown pony with a dark brown spiky mane and tail and an hourglass for a cutie mark, but now his coat was much lighter and his mane and tail were now white. His face seemed to have no expression as his mouth hung lifelessly open and his eyes looked milky. The same could be said for the grayish blue pony with the light yellow mane and tail. Her coat was now a lighter grayish blue and her already light hair turned milky white. Her eyes looked to be aiming in different directions. Scott knelt down besides the two ponies and put his ear to the brown one’s chest. He took a sigh of relief and said he was still breathing. He put his ear to the light grayish blue one’s chest. He looked much more nervous. The ponies assumed the worst. “Oh my,” he said, “this one seems to have an extremely irregular heartbeat.” The crowd then sighed with relief. “Oh, and that’s a good thing?” asked Scott dumbfounded by their apparent apathy. Spike stepped up. “Derpy’s always had an irregular heartbeat. It doesn’t seem to affect her though.” Scott at first froze from the sheer lack of logic of that claim, but decided to dismiss it. “Just do your best to see what’s wrong with them,” said Spike to the royal guards. “Spike, send a letter to the princess to see if she can help.” “Way ahead of you,” said Spike already finishing his letter. He then sent it off. “I sure hope they’re okay,” said Sammy on the verge of tears. Next to Fluttershy and Charley, nobody cared for animals, especially horses and ponies, more than Sammy did. Spike tugged on her skirt and Sammy knelt down to Spike’s level, and he gave her a comforting hug. After only a couple seconds into their embrace, Spike belched out a letter which scared Sammy into dropping Spike on the ground. “Ouch,” he groaned. He then picked up the letter and read it out loud. “Dear Spike. Judging from the symptoms that you described in your letter, I fear that the spell this perpetrator used was the Soul Locking curse. It’s a highly illegal and very powerful spell that possesses an afflicted pony's soul and replaces it with a lifeless duplicate after he or she loses to the spell caster in any kind of competition. The loss of the soul will cause significant aging effects to the pony on which the spell was cast. This duplicate cannot be removed without outright killing the pony, nor will killing the spell caster break the curse. The only way for a pony to be rid of this curse is for somepony to defeat the caster of the spell in the same competition that the afflicted pony lost to. I hope this helps in any way. Your Beloved Ruler, Princess Celestia.” “Oh, gee,” said Sammy angrily and sarcastically, “I wonder who it could be.” Scott was too busy looking up the dueling records on his D-Pad tablet to register Sammy’s sarcasm. “Hang on,” he said, “I’m working on that now.” Sammy scoffed at his stupidity. He then stopped typing and began talking again. “It looks like the last two duelists that these two faced before being found comatose in the woods were our dear old friends Gilda and Trixie.” Spike was quickly relaying Scott’s new information to the Princess again. Within minutes, he got another reply, which he relayed to the crowd. “Dear Spike, I appreciate your efforts in finding out who could do this…” “Really?” asked Scott incredulously. Spike continued. “…but unfortunately the troubling thing about this curse is that if captured, the spell caster will not usually oblige to allow him, or in this case, herself to lose a competition and break the curse. The only way to stop Trixie and Gilda at this point is to find them, duel them, and with any luck, defeat them. I will have my royal guards find them and defeat them, so hopefully the EFDC will continue without any more civilian casualties.” Spike even got nervous reading that last sentence, knowing that there would still be royal guards more than likely sacrificing their lives to try and stop them. “Best of luck to all of you. Your Beloved Ruler, Princess Celestia.” Spike suddenly started shaking. A quarter of him was certain that the guards would find and defeat her, but was only providing the sanity and reasoning that kept him from having a full on panic attack, because the other ¾’s of him was certain that all of the guards would be defeated and that she would be going after more innocent civilians. “Oh my god,” said Sammy. “What about the others? They’re still out there and they don’t know any of this.” Every pony and person within earshot began spreading the warning to every pony and person they could. Sammy reached Maddie, Charley, Twilight Sparkle, and Zecora, who were finishing their duel by the entrance to the Everfree Forest. Maddie and Charley fought valiantly, but they were no match for Twilight’s tricky spell counter deck and Zecora’s devastating Gravekeepers deck. “You dueled well. Do not fuss,” said Zecora, “but you should think twice next time before dueling us.” They were shaking hooves when Sammy found them. She explained to them the situation and the danger they were all in. They all ran back to the safety of Ponyville. Scott and Lucas found Applejack and Apple Bloom dueling two members of the pegasus aerial team, Soarin and Spitfire, while Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie cheered them on at Sweet Apple Acres. Even though they were in the middle of their duel, Scott and Lucas interrupted it with their bad news. The ever humble Wonderbolts in fearing for the safety of innocent civilians decided to forfeit the duel to Applejack and Apple Bloom so they could rush inside their house for safety. Soarin and Spitfire offered a lift to Scott and Lucas, but they said it would be in the best interest of everyone if they were to literally keep low so as not to be easily spotted by Trixie and Gilda. They then ran to find others. Spike found Alex and Orion near the school having just finished beating Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara in a duel. He told them about what happened and they all rushed back to the town. By the time everyone had gathered back to Ponyville, the 1st dueling day was over. The mayor then made a special announcement in the town square, where Scott, Spike, and Sammy were sitting on the platform where the mayor would be giving her speech, having more knowledge about this than anyone. “Everypony,” said the mayor to the crowd, “as many of you know, there has been a terrible accident here today.” The rabble then began yelling out at the mayor for dismissing the incapacitation of two innocent civilians as an accident. The mayor couldn’t seem to calm the crowd down, so Lucas stood on the platform and grabbed the mike. “HEY!” he boomed using his powerful rock star voice. The crowd quieted instantly. “Now,” he said, “I know many of you are scared for your lives, and you have every reason to. From what we were told by the princess herself, these two assailants used a very powerful spell known as the Soul Locking curse.” There was murmuring amongst the crowd. That spell had not been practiced in many years, and for good reasons. And now somebody was using it on innocent duelists. “It is a highly illegal and very powerful spell that can only be broken by defeating the spell caster, who we’ve identified as Trixie, with her partner, Gilda the griffon, in a duel. Shouts of, “You have to be crazy!” and, “We’re not risking our lives to duel them!” “Listen!” shouted Lucas again. “I know the prospect of dueling them sounds dangerous and could cost you your lives, but they won’t stop just because you will. If they aren’t defeated, not only will we not be able to save the lives of the ponies who were cursed today and anybody else who failed to defeat them, but there’s also the chance they could win the tournament, defeat and effectively assassinate Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, and gain the wish promised by their defeat, and who knows what they will do with that kind of power.” The crowd, at the mention of Princess Celestia’s life being taken, began getting riled up. “Do you want to hide in your homes and watch as Trixie and Gilda bring chaos to this land?” he asked. “NO!” cried the crowd in unison. “Do you want to see your beloved Princesses die?” “NO!” “Or do you want to take them down once and for all?” The crowd made a deafening cheer towards Lucas’ impromptu rally. “I am not one to lead a witch hunt, but they will not shirk their prowess for any pony of any age to see that they are defeated; they will take the life of a child to see that they get away with their malicious acts.” The crowd began booing again. “Make no doubt, I cannot promise the safety of every pony here who wants to duel and defeat them, but when your friends, family, and loved ones’ lives are on the line, what does your safety matter? If you want to risk your lives for a truly noble cause, your safety should be the last thing on your minds. Now tomorrow, I’m going to search every square inch of this land to find them and destroy them. In the almost 2 weeks that I’ve been here, I have made some wonderful friends here that I could never replace, and I will be damned if I see that they die because of my negligence. I will gladly risk my life if it means I can ensure theirs.” “And I will risk mine,” joined Scott standing next to Lucas. “And mine!” said Orion joining the two. “And mine!” said Alex joining the three, followed by Sammy, Spike, Maddie, and Charley. Every pony in the crowd then began yelling, “And mine!” one after another. “Now,” said Lucas in a climactic tone, “when that 8 o’clock bell tolls tomorrow morning, we will show these sons of bitches what happens when they mess with us. Viva la Equestria!” The crowd was going nuts with Lucas’ speech. It took a whole ten minutes for the crowd to quiet down and get to bed to be well rested for the long day ahead of them.