Turn 34: A Crumbling Friendship
“I can’t believe you…” said the pegasus. “You…”
“I-I didn’t…” the unicorn stammered. The two stood at the top of a grassy slope as the dark clouds poured rain onto them.
“You…”
“What happened?” the earth pony asked, panting as she caught up to them.
The pegasus shook, tearing up, yet clenching her teeth as she glared at the unicorn. “Is this what you wanted?!”
“N-no, but… Luc—” The unicorn collapsed onto the ground, a bright, red bruise on his cheek.
The pegasus struggled against the earth pony’s grip. “Stop it!” pleaded the latter.
“He deserves it!” shouted the pegasus. “I saw them together! Here!”
“What’s she talking about?” asked the earth pony.
The unicorn raised his head and glanced toward the hill’s abrupt end, its edges still continuing to crumble as the rain poured.
“No… you can’t mean…”
“He did it…” the pegasus grumbled. “It’s his fault… he’s the reason why…” She began to sob.
The unicorn struggled to his feet as he said, “But I’m telling you I—”
“SHUT UP!” the pegasus broke out of the earth pony’s grip and slugged the unicorn. “I was wrong about you! They were all right! I should’ve listened to them.” The ground began to crack as he absorbed more blows from the raging pegasus’s hooves.
As the ground crumbled, the unicorn fell into the abyss, staring at his attacker’s burning eyes.
“You did it,” her voice echoed. “You deserve this. It’s all your fault!”
“No… I…”
“You did it. You deserve this. It’s all your fault!”
“NO!” he shouted, as the blackness completely surrounded him.
“You did it. You deserve this. It’s all your fault!”
“NOOO!”
Steel Heart sprang up from the ground, breathing heavily.
“Where am I?” he wondered, glancing around. All he could see was the cold gravel beneath him branching in several directions into pitch black. “A cave?”
“So you’re awake,” said a male voice.
“Who’s there?” Steel Heart asked, eyes in the direction of the voice. Hoofsteps were heard approaching him.
“And here I was wondering how long I’d have to be stuck here watching you.” A pegasus wrapped in a black cloak descended from the darkness above. His mane was almost as black as the cloak he wore and his coat was a light brown. “You plan on getting up today?”
Steel Heart rose to his hooves. “Where are we?”
“Tartarus.”
The crystal unicorn froze. “Tartarus…? Am I…”
“Dead? Ha!” the pegasus laughed. “No, you’re anything but dead. I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t order anypony to watch over a dead body… then again, knowing my luck, they would probably tell me to. What a shock that would be.”
“Last thing I remember is… walking around Princess Twilight’s castle…” Steel Heart thought. “After…”
“What don’t you get?” said the pegasus, continuing to glare.
“But, Lucid… I didn’t…” Steel Heart replied.
“Go. Away. We are not friends anymore. Let’s go, Rouge.” Lucid turned away and stormed off. Rouge gave a sorrowful glance towards Steel Heart before following her friend.
“Are you even listening to me?” asked the cloaked pegasus.
“Huh? Sorry.” Steel Heart scanned what little he could see in the vicinity once more.
“Uuuuuugh, why am I the one who has to put up with this? Now I have to explain again. As I just said, you’ve apparently been chosen by the higher-ups. No idea what it’s all about, though. It’s not like they ever tell me anything. I’m just the unlucky pony who has to babysit some crystal pony who can’t pay any—” the pegasus stopped to notice that Steel Heart was missing. “WHY. ME.”
Yusei remained silent as he leaned against the wall beside the entrance to the hospital room with his arms crossed, his mind constantly replaying the events of his latest Duel. Fluttershy, Starlight, Spike, and the three younger mares waited outside the room as well, restless.
He couldn’t help but wonder how it all happened. As far as he and Twilight knew, it was the Elements of Harmony that the Arcadia Movement was after, yet his opponent Rudith sealed Steel Heart within that Disharmony Synchro Monster.
What were they missing?
“Excuse me,” said a white-coated female earth pony wearing a hospital cap. “We need to get through here.”
Apple Bloom and her young friends cleared the pathway as the nurse and another unicorn mare, whose mane was blue and her coat also white, were pushing a stretcher with a unicorn stallion with a black mane and purple coat laying on top.
“Do I know you two?” asked Starlight, glancing at both unicorns.
“Uhhhh, no…?” the unicorn stammered, beginning to sweat.
“Alright, then.”
The nurse and the mare continued to push the stretcher down the hallway.
“Huh… I could swear I saw them before,” Starlight mumbled.
A stallion with a brown mane and tail and amber coat emerged from the doorway.
“You’re free to visit them now. Both of your friends are in stable condition,” he stated. Spike and Apple Bloom rushed inside, followed quickly by Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. “I’ll send Nurse Redheart in a bit to check up on them.”
“Thank you, doctor,” Starlight replied.
The doctor nodded before trotting down the hallway past Yusei.
“Yusei, are you coming with us inside?” asked Fluttershy.
“Yeah,” he answered.
Yusei, Fluttershy, and Starlight slowly walked through the doorway to see Apple Bloom on top of her older sister, crying as they both hugged each other.
“What’d the doctor say?” asked Scootaloo.
“He said Ah’ll be fine. Ah was lucky it was nuthin’ that couldn’t heal over time,” replied the cowpony.
“What a relief…” Sweetie Belle commented.
Applejack then smiled at Fluttershy and Starlight, both of which responded in kind. They and Yusei then walked past her bed towards Twilight and Spike, who were in each other’s embrace.
“How are you feeling?” Starlight asked.
“I’m feeling alright,” answered Twilight. “I’m not sure what happened, though. I just… suddenly passed out.”
“We were so worried!” Fluttershy stated.
“Sorry about that. …Yusei?”
“He met up with us after you collapsed,” said Starlight. “It was right after we saw this big dark ring in the sky a little ways from where we were.”
“A… dark ring?” the alicorn repeated.
“Yeah. It was strange. It looked like it was carrying a pony before being covered in darkness or something. …What?” Starlight noticed not only Twilight, but Applejack also staring at her. “…Did I… say something?”
“He completed the ritual,” Yusei said.
“What did you say?” Twilight responded.
“That man, Rudith… he used Steel Heart to perform the ritual.”
“I-I-I… I don’t understand…”
“Not only that, he used some stone around his neck along with…” Yusei pulled the star-shaped rock out of his pocket and held it in the palm of his hand.
Twilight’s expression turned pale as she levitated the rock to her hooves. “My… my Element… how…”
Yusei hung his head. “I don’t know how he figured out how to use it for the ritual, but it’s clear now that the Arcadia Movement is able to use your Elements for this.”
“And you… you didn’t stop him…? You were chasing after him, weren’t you?” she asked softly.
“…Yeah.”
The alicorn began to raise her voice. “So what happened? Didn’t you believe hard enough in your cards? Your Deck didn’t come through for you?” Twilight said sarcastically.
Yusei remained silent, taken aback by her remark.
“Twilight, please calm down,” Fluttershy spoke.
“No! He was supposed to stop him. He was supposed to stop that ritual. He was supposed to save Steel Heart from that human.” Twilight turned her head back toward Yusei. “Why in Celestia’s name could you not do that?!” Tears ran down the alicorn’s cheeks.
A brief silence filled the room.
“Yusei? I think you should leave.”
“…I understand.” He began walking toward the exit. “You’re right. Despite all my efforts to stop him, I failed. I’m sorry.” Nopony spoke as he left the room.
All eyes turned once more to the alicorn trying to regain her composure. Twilight lifted the covers off her body and prepared to get off the bed.
“Twilight, what are you doing?” Spike asked.
“I need to go and rescue the rest of our friends,” the alicorn replied.
“But you haven’t fully recovered yet!”
“I can’t just stay here when everypony else is out there suffering!”
“Sugarcube,” Applejack spoke up. “Listen, Ah know how ya feel, but if ya can’t take care of yerself, Ah don’t think you can expect to save anypony else.”
“But—!” Twilight then noticed the bandages around the earth pony’s stomach. Reluctantly, she laid back down in the hospital bed.
“So… um… what about Yusei?” Fluttershy inquired.
“What about him?”
“Did you really want him to leave?”
The alicorn paused. “Right now, I think it’s best if we try to rescue them ourselves. I don’t want to take any more risks.”
“Is it just me, or are we missing somepony?” Scootaloo interrupted.
Everyone glanced around.
“Hey, where’s Starlight?” asked Spike.
Yusei glanced back at the hospital once more as he left the building. He stopped on the way to his Runner, hearing approaching hoofsteps. He turned his head towards a small group of townsponies, expressions filled with rage. The unicorns in the mob held rocks with their horns.
“He’s one of those ‘human’ creatures that attacked us!” shouted a stallion.
“Get him!” yelled a mare.
“But I’m not—” Yusei was cut off by a rock flying past his head. “Not good.”
He sprinted towards his Runner as he was being pelted. He lifted the armrest so that he could board his Runner, only to be yanked away. He turned to notice several unicorn horns glowing while he was being lifted off the ground.
Several ponies, including the pegasi and earth ponies, began gathering stones to hurl at the human. A small number of others began sprinting forward.
Yusei closed his eyes and braced himself. When he felt himself drop to the ground, he opened his eyes to see a barrier between him and the angry townsponies.
“That’s enough!” shouted a mare, appearing next to Yusei.
“You’re… Starlight?” The human rose to his feet.
“How could you defend this thing?!” asked the caramel-coated stallion stepping forward. “He and his kind came into Ponyville and terrorized us! They’ve done nothing but hurt us all since they got here!”
The unicorn glanced back at Yusei, who only responded with hanging his head.
“I don’t think this human is like the others,” Starlight stated.
“What makes you so sure?!” exclaimed a mare with a cutie mark depicting a carrot. “There’s no way he can be trusted!”
“Get him!” yelled another mare, “He's probably going to try something if we don't stop him now!”
“Yeah!” the mob shouted.
Starlight gulped as the mob approached, banging on her magic barrier. A bright flash lit the area, forcing everyone to turn their eyes away. As the light faded, the townsponies noticed that Starlight, the human, and his machine were no longer before them.
“Find them!” shouted the stallion. The mob scattered in an instant.
“We should be fine here,” Starlight panted. “I teleported us to the edge of Ponyville near the forest.”
“Are you alright?” Yusei asked.
“Yeah, but I should be the one asking you that.”
“Yeah… I’m fine.”
“So… Yusei, right? I don’t think you’re really all that bad, so do you mind explaining what’s going on between you and Twilight and why you left?”
“Because of this,” Yusei answered, holding up a card.
“A… card?”
“In my world, it’s common to find people who play this card game: Duel Monsters. However, there are those who use it to fulfill some grand objective, even going so far as to trap others inside them.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. They’ve even used Synchro Summon as a means of doing so.”
“Synchro Summon…?”
“It’s a way we call forth certain Duel Monsters to fight alongside us, but…”
Starlight looked at Yusei in curiosity.
“It’s not something to be used to hurt others. Not for some ritual to trap others within monsters.”
“Twilight didn’t seem to think too highly of it.”
“She isn’t wrong to think so.”
“What do you mean?”
“The first time I Dueled against an opponent wielding a card that had someone trapped inside, it was against a man named Callos. He had the card which had Twilight’s friend, Fluttershy, sealed inside.”
“What?!”
“I was lucky to find a way to save her, with Twilight’s help. Then in my last Duel, I was chasing down a man named Rudith. He had captured a pony named Steel Heart. I was trying to save him, but… I failed. He performed his ritual and sealed him inside his Disharmony Synchro Monster.”
“You mentioned ‘ritual’ a couple of times. Tell me, did it happen to look like…?”
“Wh-what’s that?” Fluttershy gasped.
The others looked looped up into the sky to see seven black stars aligned vertically through a black ring. They then noticed a pony being lifted into the ring.
“What in Equestria?!” exclaimed Starlight.
“So… you saw it?” asked Yusei.
“If that’s what it looked like, then yes,” Starlight answered. She couldn’t help but feel disturbed at the memory of what she saw, now knowing what it meant.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what it was. I did everything in my power to prevent him from Summoning that monster. If he couldn’t Summon that monster without losing, then he wouldn’t perform the ritual. That’s what I thought, anyway.”
“What happened?”
“He went through with the Summon, even at the cost of losing. Even…”
Rudith
LP: 50 – 750 = 0
SPC: 0
Steam flew out of Rudith’s Duel Runner before it crashed into a tree and exploded.
Yusei gasped in horror as he caught up to the wreckage. As the monsters vanished, he pulled his Duel Runner to a stop. The smoke cleared, with a darkness appearing beneath Rudith and his Runner.
“Wait!” he exclaimed, leaping off his Runner and sprinting towards Rudith. The blackness forced Yusei away as it smothered his defeated opponent before vanishing completely. “No…”
“I doubt she wants anything to do with me right now, so I’m heading out alone,” Yusei stated, grabbing his helmet from the compartment beneath the seat of the Runner.
“Well, you did everything you could. You saved Fluttershy, didn’t you?” Starlight said. “I don’t think you’re a bad human just because of one mistake. I’m sure Twilight will forgive you once this is all over. She forgave me, after all.”
He turned toward the unicorn. “What happened?”
“Long story short, I pretty much brainwashed an entire town and when she and her friends fixed that, I… retaliated by trying to go back in time to prevent her friendships from ever happening.” Starlight winced upon finishing her brief summary.
“I see.” Yusei donned his helmet and boarded his Duel Runner.
“Where are you going?”
“To follow the only lead I have on where my friends are: Canterlot.”
Steel Heart continued to tread through the darkness.
“HEY!” a voice called out from behind him.
The crystal pony looked back.
“What’s the big idea?!” exclaimed the cloaked pegasus. “You shouldn’t walk away when other ponies are talking to you! I have the mind to—”
“That’s enough, Fortune Minor,” stated a mare’s voice. “Or perhaps you’d like to clean Tartarus again… on top of your other duties.”
The pegasus immediately shut his mouth.
“Go, you have other things to deal with, don’t you?”
Fortune Minor flew away without protest.
“Steel Heart, isn’t it?” asked the cloaked unicorn, appearing from the darkness.
“How do you know me?” Steel Heart replied.
“I know of you… and I know why you’re here.”
He could only glance at her in curiosity.
“You’re here because we’ve chosen you. You have a lot of potential.”
“For what exactly?”
“Power. Power that you can use for revenge on those who deserted you.”
“But… I… I don’t…”
“You’re thinking… you don’t want to hurt them, do you? Your former friends? They don’t think of you as a friend anymore, remember?”
Steel Heart didn’t respond.
“If you continue to follow them, you will only face rejection like you already have countless times, like all the times before. Follow us and you can pay every single one of them back.”
“Didn’t you already say you chose me for something? Seems like I was dragged into this against my will if you’re asking me here instead of back in Equestria.”
“We believe this would be in your best interest. However, if you really want to return now and chase after them again only to fail, be our guest. Right here is your alternative: Embrace the fact that they’ve left you for good and accept our offer of power… power that will allow you revenge.”
Steel Heart began to hesitate. “Why do all this for me?”
“Like you, we seek justice against those who wronged us. Now, what will you do? The choice is yours.”
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Geez Twilight, how thickheaded are you? You think Yusei would just let Steal Heart be absorbed into the monster?!
Glad to see this updating again, although it's been so long I have to reread it to get caught up.
finaly I've waiting for a long time now. I think its the best chapter yet keep it up my friend
Maybe Twilight should get her own deck or something. This has to be the first time I've seen Yusei lose
7381806 Well, if I recall, a flashback in 5D's second episode showed Yuesi losing to Jack when the two lived in Satilite together.
Cool.