Chapter 2.5: The Machinations of a Majestic Matriarch
Ponyville, and all of Equestria, was in complete Bedlam. The newspapers and media were all over the story and Ponyville and the Everfree were under quarantine by orders of Celestia and Luna themselves. Cleanup crews were attempting to repair the damage done to Equestria by the human gods, but the collateral damage was far greater than anypony had previously suspected; Ponyville had been almost completely wrecked, and several ponies were as of yet unaccounted for by the rescue teams. Twilight Sparkle and her friends, however, were more interested in the cause of the disaster, and that’s what the wracked librarian had summoned them to Golden Oaks for.
“And so that’s what happened girls, that’s what this disaster means,” Twilight explained, her friends muzzles wide open in shock. Pinkie Pie was still shaking after the near deaths of the Cake family, and had barely spoken a single word since it had happened. Her hair had flattened from the pain and stress in addition.
“But what are these shadow games you speak of? They sound frightfully dangerous!” Rarity squealed.
“From what I know, these games are used by these aliens to settle bets, grudges, and for fun.”
“But how could anypony find this meaningless destruction fun?!” Fluttershy cried, her eyes strained with tears; a number of her chickens had perished in the conflict.
“Where they are from, this game is not usually dangerous. It’s because they arrived here that these games have become real. Because our worlds have come together, the shadow games played by these “humans”, are about to become deadly for all of us.” Twilight replied to the distraught mare.
“Well these ‘humans’ have another thing coming if they think we’re gonna let them destroy our planet!” Rainbow Dash growled, smashing her hoof onto the table the seven were sat around.
“Rainbow, didn’t ya hear Twilight? It ain’t their fault! Somepony else is manipulatin’ them!” Applejack argued.
“AJ’s right, Rainbow. These humans seem to be mostly decent and nice, but I’d be lying to say that a few of them have malicious intent. One of the two that arrived here was a seemingly pleasant and good-willed character, and even the other seemed like the game was somehow influencing him. I’d place good bits that those two aren’t the ones we should be worried of. They could even be possible allies,” Twilight answered. Rainbow Dash grunted and relaxed back into her chair, mumbling to herself as she did so. The other mares and dragon sat at the table quietened down, absorbing the information their leader had told them. It was certainly a large deal of information to have to absorb, and they wouldn’t have believed it if they hadn’t seen the aliens for themselves. It was then that Pinkie Pie finally muttered out some words.
“Whoever is behind this must die,” she muttered, almost inaudibly. The others turned their heads to her, curious as to what their friend has said.
“What did you say dear?” Rarity questioned.
“Whoever is behind this must die,” she mumbled again, still without anypony hearing her.
“Ah beg yer pardon sugarcube?” Applejack inquired again.
“I SAID, WHOEVER IS BEHIND THIS MUST DIE!” Pinkie screamed, her voice ripping through the air like a knife. The others gathered were stunned at her out of character behaviour, particularly her weeping, pained and angry eyes.
“I AM GOING TO PERSONALLY KILL WHOEVER IT IS THAT WAS RESPONSIBLE FOR ALMOST MURDERING THE CAKE FAMILY. I SWEAR TO CELESTIA THAT I WILL NOT REST UNTIL THEIR HEAD RESTS ON A BURNING SPIKE IN THE TOWN SQUARE!” she screamed. Her eyes began to turn manic and malicious, panting and with tears rolling down her face. The others sat in awkward silence, until the shy little Pegasus shifted from her seat, trotted over to the crying pink filly, and wrapped her hooves around her neck. In a heartbeat, the hyperventilating Pinkie was reduced to a crying and wailing mess in her friend’s forelegs. The rest of the Mane 6 watched in awe as Fluttershy whispered sweet words of comfort into Pinkie’s ears. After a few moments of comforting, Fluttershy retracted from the hug and the two mares returned to their seats. An awkward silence permeated the library, punctuated only by the infrequent sobs of the pink party planner. Twilight cleared her throat and spoke up,
“In any case, we need to speak to Princess Celestia urgently and inform her of all we’ve learned, especially about these blank cards I received.” She levitated the gold sarcophagus into the middle of the table and removed the cards from its confines. The other studied them in wonder, marvelling at their alien nature. Suddenly, a fanfare echoed in from outside, heralding the arrival of the ponies solar ruler. Twilight and friends dashed out of the library in a flash, the librarian reinserting her cards into their coffin before hurrying out with her friends.
Celestia was not happy, not happy at all. It was a perfectly normal day in Equestria and all of a sudden; BOOM! extradimensional crisis. Celestia had wanted to keep the human world a secret from her little ponies for so long now, ever since she had witnessed the true evil of humanity; the wars. Humans battled each other not with words or wit, but with clashing iron and sounding bronze. They killed for pointless reasons, and so many had died for nothing. Celestia was lucky that ponies as a race were so long lived and hardy, but human lives were cheap and dull, very little ever achieved their true potential. It was only recently, with the introduction of card games, that humanity had finally been pacified. And then this happened. When Celestia had received the reports of the human presence in Equestria, she knew that some eldritch force was at work, and knowing what she had learned about humanity over the last 50 years, it was not something to be taken lightly. She sighed, the shadow games were returning. Celestia gazed out onto her subjects, noticing her elements of harmony sprint their way towards her. She smiled as Twilight stepped up to her, all six ponies and dragon bowing before her.
Time Turner hadn’t slept in weeks. Every time he tried to doze off, his mind would be tormented with those images, images of space, time, and countless wonders, but juxtaposed with frightening horrors, terrible pain and unimaginable loneliness. His mind was wracked with pain and doubt and fatigue, and he’d even visited dream therapists in Canterlot for help, who were yet to provide him with a satisfactory response. They talked of him being unsatisfied with his life and creating this character, this Lonely God, as a way to escape his boredom, but that his creation was taking over his mind. He could not believe that that was the case; he loved his life and job. He had three doctorates in temporal physics, electrical engineering and cosmology, and was well regarded as one of, if not the smartest earth pony in all of Equestria, easily contesting that intellect of Celestia’s protégé herself. His family and friends had been confused as to why he’d put his effort into something as mundane as clockmaking rather than joining the Royal Science Academy or something similar, but he’d argued that the organisation was unfairly biased against non-unicorns, and besides, there was something about clocks that made him happy. Still, the therapists must have had some point to them, they were also trained professionals and he himself had no better alternative. Time Turner sat at his desk and toyed with one of his most recent clocks, a beautiful timepiece crafted from finest ash that stole the image of a growing tree sprout, with the clock face seemingly organically sprouting near the top of the shoot. His exhausted face glowed with pride, despite his fatigue, he really did love his clocks. There was only one that he possessed that he did not like. It wasn’t really a clock, more of a small box, intricately carved with strange geometric circles and with a bizarre clock face adorning the top. The lid was hinged and secured with a clip, which he knew to open to show a small compartment space, roughly enough to store a small pack of playing cards. There was also a second clip at the bottom of the box, one which would open to reveal a secret compartment almost one centimetre in width. He guessed it might be big enough to store almost three playing cards. Despite knowing of this compartments existence ever since he came into contact with the box (When his father gave it to him as a gift at the age of 13, stating it was time for him to have his birthright. He didn’t understand what he meant at the time and still does not to this day.), he had never actually opened it, and there was some strange compulsion inside of him to not open it at all. That same compulsion also seemed to force him to keep the box and make sure that nothing entered its main compartment, and yet was also the one that made him want to get rid of it and keep it away from him, like it threatened everything he was. He knew he was just being silly though, it was just a weird little box. Turner ceased his meddling and returned to his bedroom. Hopefully all this would blow over soon.
“So, your highness, now you see the truth; that all of Equestria is in grave danger,” Twilight finished, drawing her speech to her Princess to a close. Throughout her monologue, Celestia’s eyes grew sad as her worst fears were affirmed. She motioned her ponies to be silent and rose to her hooves.
“You seven will stay with me in Canterlot Castle until further notice. Twilight, with these unknown cards, you are more of a threat to us that you yet realise,” Celestia commanded. The seven assembled friends gasped in shock, taking in the severity of the situation. Twilight meekly nodded and motioned for her Princess to continue.
“This decision shall be effective immediately. You have half an hour to pack.” Twilight and co. were extremely shocked to see this side of the Princess; commanding and dominating. However, they decided to abide by Celestia’s wishes, and in half an hour exactly, they were all ready to travel to the castle. A stern and worried look was struck across the princess’s face and her look alone told the ponies that things were not all as well. Celestia faced her faithful ponies.
“You will now accompany me to the castle,” she commanded, motioning to her nearby Royal Guards to fetch her sun chariot. Twilight and her friends looked among each other nervously as Celestia boarded her mount and signalled the ponies to join her.
Twilight had been in Canterlot Royal Library for almost three hours now. She and the others had arrived at the castle at around three o’clock and led into their secure quarters, while Celestia had gone to council with Luna and Discord, no doubt debating what was to be done. Twilight had seen this opportunity to do some of her own private research, and as of yet had had no luck. She scanned through the last few pages of the book in her hooves before sighing and returning it to its shelf. The Library itself was a towering monument of design, its cylindrical shape tearing into the sky and piercing the clouds around it. On the inside, the bookshelves and walkways were organised in a helix formation, with small sets of steps separating each landing. Twilight had worked her way up almost three quarters of the library, and had read every book on interdimensional and interstellar transport and the possibility of unknown types of magic, but as of yet had found nothing of interest. She turned from the bookshelf and trotted up to the next level of the helix, approaching the next bookcase. She reached her hoof out to a particularly dull green book and tugged it from the shelf. To her surprise, she heard a faint click, and a small air vent in the side of the wall pinged open. Twilight raised an eyebrow in amusement.
“Well, this is interesting,” she smirked, before shuffling herself into the vent, keeping her wings clasped tightly against her body.
Twilight could never have predicted what was to happen next. As she stepped through the vent, she felt her body squeeze and twist, shrinking down to the size of a pin. The previously small air vent was now a cavernous hallway, reaching out into the darkness where Twilight had no way to tell what was beyond. She took a breath and did the only thing she could, she began to walk. After what seemed like hours (but what was really about 30 minutes and 1 metre) she arrived at a doorway set against the steel frame of the hall. She shrugged to herself and nudged the door open, and gasped at what she saw. A room about the size of one of the guest bedrooms in Celestia’s palace greeted her view, decorated with ornately carved wood and lined with bookshelves, each one glistening with some bizarre magic that she daren’t tamper with, and fore-centre of the room was a set of steps with lead upwards about a metre to a bookstand, with one ornate tome sat solidly on its lap. But what was the most astonishing about the room was what was situated directly in the centre; a magnificent rotating floating globe of energy, the magical power swirled with rich blue with flicks of green and brown dashed across the surface, their combined appearances giving the impression of a solid block of colour. Twilight’s mouth gaped in awe at what she was seeing; it was a magically conjured representation of the planet that had appeared in the sky.
“This is... incredible!” she whispered, and in a flash of brilliance decided to try and date the spell that had conjured this orb. Her horn flashed and a stream of information rammed its way into her brain, sending her mind reeling and throwing her onto the floor. She panted in exhaustion as she tried to fathom the message in her brain,
“That thing is... four and a half billion years old!” she screamed, the sheer age of the orb, and logically also, the planet, messing with her very mind. It was so old, she thought, so impossibly old, and far more power must exist in that world than on Equestria. She stumbled back to her hooves and took a deep breath, before analysing the rest of her surroundings. A simple analysis spell on the bookshelves revealed the books to be the ones supporting and feeding the magical orb with its power. She decided not to tamper with them, but instead decided to step up to the pedestal in the centre of the room. Her hooves clacked against the steps as she shakingly approached the book and dusted off the cover. It was a blue book lined with a green spine and trimmings, with a gold binding around the hardback. Its title simply read,
“Earth”.
“That must be the name of the planet,” Twilight reasoned. She undid the bindings and opened the book...
“What? It’s just blank pages!” she cried in confusion, as the blank pages that greeted her only seemed to torment her curiosity. She continued to scratch at her scalp for a moment before a series of black smudges began to form on the paper. Twilight snapped to attention as she stared directly at the morphing black markings. They began to shuffle amongst themselves and settled into two coherent sentences below it. Twilight read the words aloud,
“Omnipedia, the Free All-Knowing Encyclopaedia to Earth. Enter your search query.” She raised an eyebrow in confusion,
“Well that was weird. I guess I’d better enter something in then.” Twilight rummaged in her saddlebags and withdrew a quill and ink pot, before dipping the tip into the black liquid and scratching out a word on the paper,
“Shadow Games”. Instantly, the black smudges multiplied and reformed into several pages worth of information, which Twilight’s librarian brain scanned and analysed nearly instantly. To say she was fascinated and terrified would be the understatement of the century. After finishing the long read, she stepped down from the podium and rested on the floor, sobbing into her hooves; her homeland was doomed, these Shadow Games were going to destroy her world, just like in her vision. She continued to sob, when a fire rose up in her body and fuelled her heart with a dedicated determination, the kind that only forms when ones home, friends and family are in danger; the desire to not let anything come to harm to those you love. Twilight rose on four legs and marched straight back up the podium, fire burning in her eyes. She withdrew her quill once again and began her marathon study session, looking for something, anything that could help her protect her friends.
“Earth”
“Humans”
“Deities”
“Greek Gods”
“Egyptians”
“Duel Monsters”
“England”
Queen Khaos snapped her head up from examining her deck and whipped her head around frantically, as if a fly had flown in front of her face.
“Something’s wrong,” she hissed, “Deadly wrong.” Khaos returned to her seat and sat down anxiously, there were stray thoughts permeating her head, thoughts which she could not sift and separate from one another. She cursed her chaotic brain under her breath before knocking her skull against her palm and setting her mind in order. As the thoughts began to settle and connect, her smile began to twist upwards as a plan formulated inside her mind,
“Of course, why did I not take the legends so seriously? The myth of the twin orbs was an Equestrian classic folk tale even before my beloved draconequi’lings seeded the planet, why was I so dumb to not consider their existence? But this makes the plan all the more sweet! I no longer need to conquer Duel Monsters on Earth, nor own all the Olympian cards, just enough to crack the arcane paradigm.” She rose again to her feet and began to pace around the room,
“But to get that power, I will need the Olympian monsters themselves, if only some. The only other cards that could possibly hold the same power as them are all owned by the one duelist I will not fight, so that is not an option, but seeing as I need the Olympian monsters anyway, I might as well continue with the previous plan.” Suddenly, her expression changed to one more malicious and her face contorted into a scowl,
“But that pony knows of the Earth Orb, she must not tell anyone, lest my plan be made public. She must be disposed of.” She nodded her head in agreement of her plan, before motioning for one of her draconequi guards to call to her.
“Kakophony darling, would you be a good boy and dispose of the Twilight Sparkle girl for me? There’s a fine little avatar of discord,” Khaos cooed, the draconequi’s face turning dreamy with love, before shaking his head right, saluting and answering his queen,
“Of course mother dear.” His voice was a horrific clash of sounds, like a brass band all playing different songs in different keys simultaneously. His mother smiled, she liked his voice. Kakophony smiled happily before spinning on his heels and running to the doorway, evaporating into fire as he went. Khaos smirked and smiled to herself, she really loved her good little boys...
Twilight awoke back in her bed in the castle, her eyes straining against the new light from Celestia’s sun burning through the window. She heaved herself upright and flexed her wings outwards, shaking the cobwebs from her bones. Twilight smiled to herself; another crazy dream she told herself, although she didn’t even believe that. She heard the scampering of feet from outside her doorway before it burst into her room through the wooden door.
“Twilight, come on! Get up! You were supposed to meet the girls with Celestia almost fifteen minutes ago,” Spike the dragon exclaimed. Twilight went apeshit.
Twilight had dashed off from her room at the speed of fucking light, no end to the mindless sputterings of ‘tardiness’ spewing from her mouth. She ducked around several twists, bends and corners until she arrived at entrance to the hallway which she thought would lead into Celestia’s throne room, the castle was so big sometimes she got lost in its never ending passages. Twilight stepped around the corner of the archway and found herself, much to her confusion, in the palace courtyard. She noticed her five friends, all standing in the centre of the elaborate gardens, in the one area cleared into a rectangle for tennis matches. Worried looks were plastered on their faces and they murmured amongst themselves fearfully. Spike finally caught up with Twilight, who raised an eyebrow.
“Girls? Why are you all out here, we’re supposed to be with Celestia!” she questioned. The assorted ponies turned their heads to look at her and their eyes began to water and their lips began to quiver.
“We tried leaving, but we can’t get out of the gardens,” Rarity explained, shivering. Twilight snorted in amusement.
“What do you mean ‘you can’t get out’? The exits right here...” she explained, trailing her voice off as she turned to look at the archway from whence she came, only to be greeted by the interior of groundskeepers supply hutch. Her eyes narrowed in fear as the realisation kicked in. At that very moment, her mind lost its grip on the situation and her head tilted to the side as her focus left her. She went apeshit again. Twilight pinballed around the garden frantically, looking for a way out of the gardens. Her friends tried to explain some ideas to her to help, but she was lost in her own little world. It was one voice that snatched her attention.
“Excuse me, are you Twilight Sparkle?” It was a voice that screeched of metal being scraped and hammered against a whetstone and dragged through gravel. The tone of the voice alone snapped Twilight from her trance, who then spun around to greet her mystery interrupter. She was very shocked when she saw a miniature draconequus, appearing in a wreath of flames, staring back at her.
“Um, yes? Is there something you want?” she asked, noticing one of the strange blade devices strapped to the draconequus’ arm. She knew what the beast wanted.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to eliminate you,” the monster replied. All at once, Twilights friends burst into aggression, shouting obscenities and insults at her assailant. Even Fluttershy joined in on the fun.
“Just who do you think you are?!” Rainbow Dash squawked.
“My name is Kakophony, and I’m sorry, but I must destroy your friend,” Kakophony replied.
“Now just what in tarnation makes ya think we’re gonna let you do that, huh?” Applejack seethed.
“Because she will agree to duel me, and lose,” Kakophony explained.
“Like fudge she will, Twilight is a pacifist, she’d never fight scum you, and even if she did, you wouldn’t stand a chance!” Pinkie growled.
“But I will,” Twilight sighed, lowering her face. Her friends looked at her in shock.
“What do you mean, Twilight?” Fluttershy whispered.
“You don’t fight, Twilight, you wouldn’t do this. Just refuse and he can’t do anything,” Rainbow appealed.
“But she knows the challenge already, does she not? She has read from the orb and knows of the game, so she knows what will, and must happen,” Kakophony grinned, earning a look of confusion from the other ponies.
“What ever does he mean, Twilight?” Rarity appealed.
“He means we’re going to play a game, and the loser will lose more than just face,” Twilight explained vaguely, answering fewer questions than providing them. Kakophony smiled briefly.
“So then, shall we begin?” he questioned. Twilight’s face calmed down enough to look the Draconequus dead in the eyes growled,
“One thing I want to know first; who do you work for? You’re obviously not a lone ranger, you have an employer, one who wants these things done for him. Or even her. Who is this being?!” Kakophony snorted and scratched his clawed talon through his lions mane.
“Should you survive this game, I’m sure you will find out soon enough. But, as I have no intention of letting that happen, you will never know!” he laughed, earning nothing but a blank stare from the alicorn princess.
“Let’s duel,” she spoke calmly. Out from nowhere, Twilight’s deck box appeared in front of her face, and she smiled knowingly. The box’s lid removed itself from the main body and from its depths, raised a deck of cards, encased in chains. The gathered ponies (and dragon!) gasped in shock at the sight and Twilight set off a spark of magic that clashed with the chains, snapping them effortlessly. Instantaneously, her eyes flashed a brilliant white-gold that shone beaming light above the whole tennis court. The Draconequus took his side of the court as he continued to watch the pony undergo the ancient magical ritual. Into her mind, and the minds of all assembled ponies (and dragon!... again...), flooded images; texts, messages and knowledge of the game of Duel Monsters, the knowledge Twilight learned from the orb the previous night, and the contents of Twilight’s almost untouched fetish-gear cupboard. All of these things buried themselves deep into their brains and in a flash, they knew everything. They knew of the rules, the cards, the strategies and the history, everything that Twilight had seen. The cards themselves developed faces and shuffled themselves, while another hoof-blade, a duel disk, manifested itself around Twilight’s fore-left hoof, with the shuffled deck inserting itself into the deck holster. Twilight took a battle stance and drew five cards into her hoof with her magic, while her friends were busy recuperating from their mental assault. Kakophony, Servant-Son of the Queen of Chaos and Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Equestria, locked eyes, and Twilight spoke in an unusually confident voice,
“The first move is mine...”
DUEL START
---------------------------------
TWILIGHT SPARKLE LP: 4000
KAKOPHONY LP: 4000
TWILIGHT SPARKLE TURN 1:
DRAW PHASE:
Twilight raised a hoof to the deck slot on her new duel disk and slowly pulled a card from its body. She glanced at it, her mind abuzz with new strategies and rules. She knew how to play this game now, and being the genius student of Celestia, she was going to win it. Twilight’s muzzle raised into a grin, her horn glowing as she prepared to cast forth her monsters from her cards. Kakophony smirked in amusement at the pony’s confidence, there was no way she’d be able to beat him, the son of Khaos himself!
STANDBY PHASE:
MAIN PHASE 1:
“First I active the Spell Card - Instant Fusion!” Twilight cried, slapping the card down onto her duel disk. The gathered ponies gasped, the combined shock at seeing Twilight participate in one of these dangerous games clashing with the onslaught of foreign knowledge that was assaulting their brains. Kakophony raised an eyebrow in amusement.
“With this card I can Special Summon one level five or lower Fusion monster from my fusion deck. It is destroyed during the End Phase, but that’s not going to matter!” The holographic image of the card rose from the tennis court grounds and shone with a bright blue light. From the flash, a half opened tin can appeared, floating in midair, the word “FUSION” struck across its label. With a loud pop, the can exploded, sending waves of heat and light from its core. Twilight and her friends shielded their eyes from the light, while Kakophony merely blinked. Twilight looked back up, finally realising the danger of her situation.
“By Celestia’s beard, this is much more dangerous than I imagined!” she thought to herself, before steeling her resolve and continuing with her turn.
“With Instant Fusion, I Fusion Summon my Kamionwizard!” From the cloud of smoke where the can used to be stood a dark humanoid warrior, clad in black armour and trimmed with red lining. Its face was an intimidating battle plate and its scythe was nothing short of intimidating too. The ponies jaws dropped at the sight, Twilight had just summoned one of the earthlings!
“What are ya doin’ Twilight, you know those humans aren’t completely trustworthy, why are y’all getting one to fight for yer?” Applejack questioned, voicing the concerns of all gathered ponies. Twilight was about to answer her friend when a serrated voice answered for her.
“These monsters aren’t real living things; they are just constructions of magic. Completely harmless to anyone not participating in the duel...” Kakophony smirked. A rainbow hued mane dashed over to where the draconequus was standing.
“Why you little!” Rainbow Dahs’s voice cried, before colliding with the thin air and bouncing away from him. The ponies gasped in shock and Kakophony chuckled.
“You still don’t get it do you?” he taunted, “This is a Shadow Game, you can’t interrupt it!” Rainbow Dash growled and gritted her teeth, her fellow ponies dashing forward to help their fallen comrade.
“No one can leave until there is one winner,” the draconequus continued, “One person will win this game, and that one person will leave intact. The other... will die.” The ponies jaws dropped, even Twilights. She had expected some horrible fate to befall her if she had lost, but this was beyond her expectations. She steeled her willpower and continued her move.
“Now I use my Normal Summon for this turn, come forth; Junk Synchron!” she cried, slamming down her second card onto the duel disk. From the bladed metal shot a small robot-like creature, seemingly constructed from discarded metal and fabrics. Twilight smiled and flicked out her hoof.
“Because my Junk Synchron is a tuner monster, I can tune him with my Kamionwizard to Synchro Summon my ace monster. Come on out, Arcanite Magician!” The pots and pans warrior reached into his side and pulled on a motorboat cord, letting a loud grumbling like the revving of engines echo through the air. The warrior promptly disintegrated into three bright green rings, with three little white stars hovering in the middle of the hole. Kamionwizard leapt into the hole as well and also disintegrated, but this time into four stars. Twilight smiled and the ponies looked on in awe as a beam of light shot through the middle of the rings, breaking them apart. The light eventually died down to reveal a humanoid magician, clad in arcane white robes and clutching a glowing green staff.
“Say hello to Arcanite Magician.” Kakophony’s laidback attitude lapsed for a moment and he genuinely began to feel some fear.
“A powerful Synchro Monster out on the first turn? Impressive!” he chuckled behind quavering breath. Twilight stared daggers at the draconequus, before placing two other cards into her duel disks slot.
“I set two cards and end my turn.”
END PHASE:
---------------------
STATUS:
TWILIGHT:
LP: 4000
HAND: 2 CARDS.
MONSTERS: ARCANITE MAGICIAN (2 SPELL COUNTERS).
SPELLS/TRAPS: 2 FACE-DOWN
KAKOPHONY:
LP: 4000
HAND: 5 CARDS.
MONSTERS: 0.
SPELLS/TRAPS: 0.
-----------------------------
KAKOPHONY TURN 1:
DRAW PHASE:
The draconequus drew his card and look at Twilight and the ponies with slight distain. His face contorted into a smile as he began his turn.
MAIN PHASE 1:
“First I activate Dark Hole, destroying all monsters on the field!” he growled, slamming his card onto the disk.
“No! My Magician!” Twilight cried, as a black energy swirled around the battlefield. The valiant Arcanite Magician tried to resist its pull, but was ultimately sucked into its centre, where it shattered into a thousand pieces. Kakophony grinned wildly as he watched the carnage and Twilight’s despairing look. He drew his next card from his hand...
“I summon Evilswarm Castor!” he declared, the monster rising from the image of its card. It was a hulking monstrosity, clad in thick plate armour and a red cloak, the very essence of it exuded horror and sadness. Twilight and the ponies looked on in fear as the spawn of chaos continued with his move.
“When Castor is Normal Summoned, I can Normal Summon one additional time this turn, so long as the monster is another Evilswarm monster. Say hello to Evilswarm Heliotrope!” Right next to the previous monster, a second beast crawled its way from its card. This one was armed in rusty plate armour and clutching a sword sword in its dilapidated arms. Twilight looked on in horror at the beating she was about to receive. Her friends attempted to shout words of encouragement to her, but her mind was not resting easily. Kakophony knew that this was going to be a decisive moment in the duel, one way or another.
BATTLE PHASE:
“Now, Heliotrope and Castor, attack!” The two armoured attackers lunged towards Twilight and slashed their weapons across her fur. Twilight was knocked back from the force of the blows, her body tossed against a nearby statue. She impacted the cold stone with a crush and fell to the ground in a messy heap, her cards having been dropped to the floor.
“Twilight!” the gathered ponies gasped, cantering over to their fallen friend. Rainbow Dash and Applejack both attempted to lift the fallen alicorn to her feet but were stopped by the invisible barrier. Twilight came to, covered in scraped and bruises, one of her wings having been twisted grotesquely in the fall. She smiled at her friends and steadied herself on all hooves.
“It’s alright everypony, I’ll be fine,” she comforted.
“But Twilight, your wing!” Fluttershy appealed, tears streaming down her eyes.
“And you’re about to lose the duel!” Rarity added.
“I’ll be fine girls, don’t worry about me, I have a plan.”
“Oh I’d LOVE to hear that!” Kakophony snarked. Twilight snapped her head around angrily to face the offending monster.
“Oh, don’t you DARE take that tone with me! I am an Alicorn Princess of Equestria, personal student OF CELESTIA HERSELF! AND I WILL NOT BE DEFEATED BY SOME DISGUSTING ABOMINATION OF NATURE!” Twilight bellowed,
shocking even the draconequus himself. However, he regained his composure and simply nodded at the damaged mare.
“Whatever you say, Princess.”
Evilswarm Castor and Heliotrope <--> Twilight
Twilight - 2700 life points
Twilight: 300 LP
MAIN PHASE 2:
“Now, my turn isn’t over yet! I overlay my two monsters to Exceed Summon my Evilswarm Ophion!” Kakophony grinned. Twilight paled as the two monsters jumped towards each other and vanished into red light. From this light burst the newest monster. A scaly black dragon, lined with plate-like armour and with wings of burning blue steel greeted Twilight’s eyes. Two red stars orbited around the monster, which Twilight gathered to represent the Xyz Material Monsters. The draconequus laughed quietly before continuing his turn.
“I now detach one Xyz Material Monster to add one Infestation card to my hand. I choose Infestation Pandemic and instantly set it!” he declared, as the malicious dragon bit into one of the passing red orbs, pus and pestilence oozing from its shattered body. A small shard of light slipped from the orb’s remains, which flew into Kakophony’s hand. He, however, merely flicked it away, the shard coming to rest on his side of the battlefield. He grinned and leered at Twilight,
“Your move.”
END PHASE:
---------------------
STATUS:
TWILIGHT:
LP: 300
HAND: 2 CARDS.
MONSTERS: 0
SPELLS/TRAPS: 2 FACE-DOWN
KAKOPHONY:
LP: 4000
HAND: 3 CARDS.
MONSTERS: EVILSWARM OPHION.
SPELLS/TRAPS: 1 FACE-DOWN
-----------------------------
TWILIGHT TURN 2:
DRAW PHASE:
Twilight anxiously reached her hoof towards the top card of her deck, her forelegs trembling all the way. She was about to pull the card when a familiar voice speared her mind.
“I shall help you,” was all it spoke. Twilight grinned as the top card of her deck began to glow a familiar white, and Kakophony’s smirk fell from his face.
“Oh no,” was all he said. Twilight reached out and pulled the card, a trail of pure magenta magic following the card. A glowing purple image of a pentacle etched itself on the floor underneath where Twilight stood and the card was added to her hand. She smiled and began her turn.
MAIN PHASE 1:
“First of all, I activate my Book of Moon spell card, changing your Ophion from attack mode to face down defence mode, thereby stopping his restricting effect!” Twilight declared, the image of an ornate blue book flying out onto the battlefield. Kakophony merely snorted and countered.
“Are you for real? I activate my face-down Infestation Pandemic, protecting my Ophion from your effects until the End Phase!” he said simply, earning a groan from the ponies but a grin from Twilight.
“What’s so funny?” he exclaimed?
“I activate my face-down card, Dark Bribe! This negates your card effect!” Twilight growled. The face down card sprang upwards and the Infestation Pandemic card fizzled out mid spring. It exploded into dust and the card disappeared. The Book of Moon then continued it job and flipped the Ophion into face down defence position. Kakophony looked on in confusion.
“But wait, I don’t understand! If you had Dark Bribe, why didn’t you just negate Dark Hole, instead of waiting for your monster to be destroyed?!” he asked, bewildered. Twilight chuckled lightly.
“Do you think I didn’t see all this coming?” she chuckled, earning a confused look from the defending draconequus.
“What?” he stated in bewilderment.
“As soon as I saw you play Dark Hole I knew immediately what it meant. Judging by your nature, I worked out that your tactic was to inflict as much damage to me as possible so that you could win without causing a fuss. If you didn’t end this duel quickly, you would alert the guards, who would no doubt be here before you could win. So I reasoned that you were going to summon two smaller monsters to inflict maximum damage, so I saved my card for later when it might be of more use. It was a big gamble but ultimately it paid off. I also knew that you were not going to risk leaving your monsters out for a turn too long as well, so I reasoned you would also prepare for an Exceed Summon later in the turn in preparation for my comeback, were one to exist. The moment I saw Ophion gain you that Infestation Pandemic, I knew my plan had worked out. And suffice to say, I have always had a back-up plan, even if my Arcanite Magician would be destroyed. I knew from my vision that I was going to gain a god card eventually, and I can’t do that if I’m dead. I knew that card would come to me just before I was about to lose and no later, helping me turn this entire duel around in one turn. And now you will get to see my long standing plan right now,” Twilight explained, earning herself dropped jaws from all around, including Kakophony. Spike nodded his head,
“She had it all planned out from the start, even that strange new card.”
“Twilight’s one smart cookie!” Pinkie chipped. Kakophony stared on in terror,
“Wha-what are you going to do?” he quivered. Twilight chuckled and thrust her card onto the battlefield.
“Since I control no monsters and have one Spellcaster type Synchro Monster in my grave, I can Special Summon Hecate - Mistress of Magic from my hand!” From the blue-hued card burst forth a titanic shadow, a shadow that was so tall and mighty it obscured part of the sun. Kakophony stared wide-eyed in terror.
“I never even got to use mine!” he squealed. Twilight didn’t even hear him; she was too busy focusing on the forming titan.
“Hecate, reduce your size! Join your me, your friend, in battle!” she bellowed, and surprisingly, the titan agreed. The shadow shrunk down to a normal humanoid size, approximately a third taller than Twilight. The mane 6 all stared in wonder, as for once, one of these gods were being used for good rather than destruction. The shadow eventually solidified itself, forming into a beautiful woman, visually in her early thirties, clad in magnificent purple robes and a crown of horns. But the woman was not as normal, for there were two illusionary faces hovering in mid air next to her own. One held the image of a beautiful young girl of eighteen, while the other was depicted with the face of an old woman of around sixty. The ponies were enraptured by her strange appearance, while Twilight was busy with the rest of her move.
“I’m not finished, I summon Lyla - Lightsworn Sorceress for my Normal Summon, but she won’t be staying around for long.” The sorceress appeared onto the battlefield clad in her white robes, but she had the look about her that she knew she wouldn’t be there for long.
“I now activate my face-down, Miracle Synchro Fusion!” Twilight continued, Kakophony now visibly sweating.
“This card allows me to banish the Arcanite Magician in my graveyard and the Lyla - Lightsworn Sorceress I control to Fusion Summon one monster from my extra deck that requires a Synchro monster as one of its materials. I summon Supreme Arcanite Magician!” The Miracle card exploded into light and from its brightness, none could see into its heart. When all eyes returned to the field, Lyla was nowhere to be seen, but in her place stood Arcanite Magician, this time clad in elaborate black armour, trimmed with violet lining and indented with green gemstones. Rarity almost fainted with all the fabulous. Kakophony was now sweating buckets and was simply waiting for his destruction. Twilight grinned.
“I activate Hecate’s effect. Once per turn, I can place a spell counter on every monster I control. Seeing as my Magician came with two, this adds him to three and Hecate is on one!” The two faces on either side of Hecate siphoned off from her body and both passed through Arcanite Magician’s staff, charging the green gem at its tip with power. The two faces then returned to Hecate, who grinned as she also began to glow a great green.
“Now, Hecate’s other effect increases the ATK of all monsters that have a Spell Counter on them by 200 for each one. This puts my Magician at 4000 ATK points, enough to destroy you for good!” Twilight cheered, Hecate turning around to nod at her master. Twilight returned the gesture and looked towards the mess of a draconequus before her.
“You threatened me with death, and roped my friends in with this just to torment them, all for the sake of fun, and now you will face your punishment,” she said, “Hecate - Mistress of Magic, and Supreme Arcanite Magician, ATTACK!” Hecate lunged at the face down Ophion and killed the fuck out of it, before the Magician aimed its staff directly at Kakophony and set off a beam of raw green magic. At the last minute, Kakophony pushed his talon inside his own body and pulled himself inside out; removing him from harm’s way of the blow. The blast simply struck the tennis court, leaving a dark charred crater where the light had hit. The monsters vanished from the battlefield and the invisible barrier disintegrated. The ponies rushed up to greet Twilight, who had almost fallen over with the effort.
“You were amazing Twilight!”
“Fabulous darling, your Magician has already inspired me on a new fashion range!”
“Shut up Rarity!”
“Well I never!”
“Splendiferous!” All of these were among the many compliments Twilight received before she lost her focus and blacked out from her injuries.
Time Turner still couldn’t sleep, his attempts had still ended in failure. More images of that hairless monkey in a pinstripe suit and a blue box ricocheted through his mind, and nothing he could do could shake the images. He burst from his bed and fell onto the floor with a loud crack. While the first thing he should have realised was that his nose hurt like fuck, instead it was, “Why is my floor now made of stone”. He stood up to see he was in a small room. Although he didn’t really see, as there was no light. He just sort of... felt. He groaned as he saw that his box had followed him to this strange place. He picked it up and prepared to leave the room, but something in his mind told him not to leave, some urgent voice that told him there was unfinished business here. He picked up his box and rattled it in annoyance, but was surprised to see the box begin to glow with golden light. Small particles with coloured mist filtered out from the bottom of his box, and he looked down to see that the secret compartment had been shaken loose. While it had not opened, he could see through a crack. As he smelt the golden vapour, his mind was assaulted with more memories of the strange being. He immediately snapped the compartment shut, but not soon enough to see what he was looking for in the corner of his eye. He swallowed nervously and walked towards it...
Twilight awoke several hours later, returned to her bed with her body completely healed from her injuries. She raised her groggy head from the pillow and attempted to scan her surroundings. She heard muffled voices around her, each with a worried and nervous undertone. After almost a minute of confusion, a grey veil was lifted from her eyes and her head began to clear. She was surrounded by her friends, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Spike, while the two princesses of the sun and moon stood before her in addition. There were additional guards posted around her room’s door and windows, each one horns charged for any potential invaders. Her friends all wore expressions of fear and confusion, and Celestia herself looked on in resignation. She stepped towards Twilight’s bed.
“Good morning Twilight. Are you feeling better?” she asked the damaged mare. Twilight rubbed at her eyes with her hooves before answering,
“Um, yes princess. My head hurts a little though.”
“Following Grimoire-Tier magical healing, migraines are a common side effect.” Twilight’s eyes snapped open in surprise and she lurched her back upwards to sitting bolt upright.
“You did WHAT?!” she screamed in shock, earning herself awkward looks from her friends. Luna stepped forward to answer.
“You had suffered from three broken ribs and a pierced lung. We couldn’t have you dying on us, especially after what happened today, so we had to resort to the extreme magics. You’ll probably be unable to use magic for the next week or so and you should try to avoid strenuous physical activity during that time,” Luna explained. Twilight’s face paled as the princess explained her story, while Fluttershy began to cry into Pinkie Pie’s arms. Celestia placed a hoof in front of her sister.
“That’s enough Luna,” she commanded, walking up to beside where Twilight lay.
“While I am apologetic for my next instruction, an instruction I have already demanded of your friends, I am afraid it may be necessary for the survival of Equestria.” Celestia continued, Twilight’s anxiousness turning into a strange curiousity.
“After your friends explained to me the results of this “duel” you participated in, and the events that lead up to it, I have determined that this new threat is too great to be ignored. As a result, I ask you and your friends to journey to this new world, seek out the two beings that first came here, and investigate this new danger. Luna and I will protect Equestria in any way we can in the meantime. This is the most important moment in Equestrian history everypony; not only have we received first contact with an alien species, but our entire planet is in danger at the same time. As the foremost defenders of our world, you seven are our greatest hope,” Celestia finished. Twilight’s jaw would have dropped on any other day, but judging by previous events, she wasn’t that surprised. The other ponies looked towards their friend in expectation, eyes slightly watered at the prospect of their mission. Twilight looked towards the sun matriarch and the lunar goddess.
“I accept,” she said solemnly. All the other ponies nodded their heads in agreement and Celestia motioned for them all to follow her.
“Come with me,” she said softly, walking from Twilight’s door. The other ponies followed her and Twilight jumped from her bed, grabbed her duel disk with deck and followed her friends from the room.
The ponies walked their way through the castle hallways, following their princess through the maze that was the Canterlot Castle. Eventually, they arrived into a small, dusty and cramped room. There was almost no light in the room, the only lamination being provided by the horns of the princesses themselves. The room itself was littered with old furniture and equipment, every piece was draped with old moth eaten cloths. Celestia cantered over to the largest one and used her magic to tear the cloth from its mount. Twilight noted that the dust was slightly disturbed from the ground, but was unable to comment on it due to the reactions of her fellow friends. The ponies gasped as they were greeted by the magical mirror Twilight had followed Sunset Shimmer through early that summer. Celestia nodded at the reactions of the ponies.
“Yes, this is another portal to the human world, and when I said we were meeting a new species, that was not entirely accurate. Twilight has been to this place before, but this time, your form will not shift upon your entering this world; the presence of the planet itself is providing too much magical interference,” she said, earning her a gasp from the ponies.
“So we FINALLY get to visit this place!” Pinkie squealed excitedly.
“Yeah, this is gonna be so cool!” Rainbow Dash added.
“Girls, this is no joking matter! We have a really serious mission to do!” Twilight appealed, exhausted from her ordeals. Her plea silenced her fellow ponies, and Celestia merely shook her head, smiling as she did so. She knew that this might be the only time they would be able to enjoy a laugh for the rest of this ordeal. She looked back towards her ponies and motioned towards the portal.
“Good luck my faithful subjects, all of Equestria is behind you,” she said. The other ponies looked among one another nervously, and Luna only watched intently. Eventually, they began to walk through the portal one by one. Eventually, only Twilight and Spike were left. Spike looked towards Twilight intently and sighed.
“Guess we’re going again, huh?” he said. Twilight merely shrugged.
“I guess so,” she replied, before they both stepped through the portal. Celestia and Luna looked at each other awkwardly, before Luna spoke to her older sister.
“Was it wise to use our foremost means of defence as a distraction, sister?” she asked. Celestia didn’t even look at her.
“We need as much time as we can to see if we need to use military force. We have the new technology to almost completely annihilate that planet if needs be, and I plan on using it if it means saving my ponies,” she answered.
“But what of the humans on Earth? They are innocent in all of this,” Luna pleaded, revealing her knowledge of the alien face. Celestia’s face remained stern.
“If it means protecting my ponies, I will do anything,” she answered, “We need to be ready for anything to change at the drop of a horseshoe. Luna, arm the megaspells.” Luna’s jaw dropped in shock.
“But sister!” she pleaded.
“No questions!” Celestia replied, snapping her head around to face her sister, eyes burning with rage, “Do as I say!”
Luna glared at her older sister, before turning away and walking off.
“Of course, Princess Celestia.” Celestia sighed, this was not going to end well.
Kakophony exploded into existence before his mother’s feet, his eyes wet with the still lingering fear of his last encounter. Khaos looked at her son in mild amusement before raising her voice.
“You lost, didn’t you?” she asked calmly, earning a nervous glance from her offspring.
“Y-y-yes mother. How did you know?” Kakophony quivered. Khaos merely chuckled.
“Why do you think I sent you?” she laughed, earning a confused glare from her son.
“Ex-ex-excuse me?”
“I sent you to her to see if she possessed one of the Olympian god cards, not to actually kill her. If she hadn’t, then that’s too bad, but if she did, then we have all sorts of games we can play,” Khaos smirked. Her son’s eyes illuminated, seemly ignorant of his mothers lack of faith in his duelling abilities.
“What would you like me to do next then mother dear?” he asked.
“Rally the duel slaves, they shall compete in the game just as planned. Make sure they know what to do,” she commanded. Kakophony nodded frantically and rose to his feet.
“Of course mother, anything for you mother,” he chattered, before running off on his mismatched feet. Khaos cackled
in delight.
“And so, the real battle begins...”
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3178662>>3178573 Yeah, you'll have to show me how to do that XD And if you read on I'm sure you'll find out who it is... And see you then!
Hmm. Is Turner going to obtain Kronos?
3186832 Its a possibility. I was hoping for a really epic arc with him where he has lots of adventures and finds himself along the way. Then I realised I wouldnt have time so I cut out the adventure.