Yu-Gi-Oh! Equus

by moviemaster8510

Chapter 29: Present

Tuesday, May 22, 2012 - Thursday, 24, 2012

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A couple days had passed since Trixie’s ambush. Rainbow Dash was sent to the hospital in Ponyville via Celestia, where the doctors there would have an easier time dealing with a pegasus than a human would have.

Once Rainbow Dash was treated, she was transferred to the Edwards Hospital in Naperville, where all of her friends could more easily visit her without having to travel to Equestria and back for a mere visit. Despite her injuries, Rainbow Dash enjoyed her time in the hospital, where she got to meet some of the children who became fans of her when they watched her in the Riverwalk Tournament. When Rainbow Dash wasn't tending to her fans and her friends weren't tending to her, she stayed in bed to read the latest Daring Do book.

For whatever reason, it seemed ponies healed much faster than humans, and Rainbow Dash was happy to be discharged from the hospital and brought back to the Emmitts Thursday morning. She was advised, however, to keep as much weight off of her shoulder and make as little arm movement as possible to speed up the healing process. Since Rainbow’s right arm was the injured limb, that would make dueling an impossibility for a while.

Despite this, she was very supportive of her friends as they began training to take on Rae and her minions each day at the Naperville North soccer fields. Although loyal to her pony friends, she was considerably supportive towards Tom and Alex. She would always be the most supportive of Tom, seeing as how she considered him her best human friend, and she felt supportive of Alex, seeing as he was easily one of the strongest duelists among their group.

John, who was still working with his own final days of school before summer break, made an effort to train hard as well, knowing that his well being was in jeopardy along with everyone else. Claude was always absent, but he claimed it was so he could spend as much time at his home with his pregnant wife and be there for her if Rae or her minions attacked them.
With school over for the seniors, training was easiest for them, as their only focus was on getting stronger for Rae’s army. Jenny and Lisa often came as well wanting to fight this out every step of the way.

Thomas and Carolyn would sometimes come to watch as their two boys would duke it out.

“Perhaps I should give them their graduation present early,” said Thomas as he continued to watch.
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Friday, May 25, 2012

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“You did what?” asked Alex excitedly.

“Shut up!” yelled Tom.

Alex and Tom looked out on the driveway to see two new duel runners parked there. There was a solid black one for Tom and a sharp red one for Alex. Both vehicles shared a resemblance to the motorcycle that Kaneda rode in the film Akira.

“These are our first completed, state-of-the art models of the new line of duel runners,” mentioned Thomas, “and I thought it would be a fitting graduation present to a pair of great duelists, students, and sons such as yourself.”

“That’s awesome!” exclaimed Tom. “Thanks, dad!”

Alex had called Thomas “Mr. Emmitt” ever since he first met Tom in kindergarten. Even though Thomas was as much of a fatherly figure as he could receive, Alex could never bring himself to call Thomas “dad.” However, this was too kind of a gesture to do that to Thomas.

“Yes,” agreed Alex. “Thank you very much, dad.”

“You’re most welcome,” said Thomas.

“Wait,” said Rainbow Dash. “I heard you need a license to ride one of these things. Does Alex even have a license yet?”

“No,” answered Alex, “but I do have a permit. I've tested a few in the past for fun, but I just never felt comfortable riding Mr. Emmitt’s duel runner. All I need to do now, though, is take my riding test.”

“When can you do that?”

“Tomorrow, if I want.”

“Really? That quickly?”

“Sure. I just have to get to the DMV nice and early.”

“Whatever. Hey, Tom. Wanna try yours out?”

“Do I?!?” yelped Tom in a cartoonishly over-the-top manner.

Rainbow Dash and Tom were quick to speed away to the nearest riding duel track so Tom could test his new present.

“Don’t worry,” said Alex to his quickly furthering friends. “I’ll join you soon enough.”
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Much later that night, Alex was in outside on his driveway going over his deck and new duel runner, making sure he’d be prepared for his duel tomorrow. He was sure to leave out all of his normal spells so he could easily add in speed spells when he got them. He also examined the bells and whistles of his new vehicle so it wouldn’t be difficult to ride it the next morning.

There were two slots on the silver bar at the top of a black, shield-shaped plate where the gas tank would be, which he deduced were his monster and spell/trap card slots judging by how Thomas’ duel runner worked. There were four buttons aligned in a square on the left side of the right handlebar and two buttons on the right side of the left handlebar. The four buttons were put in this order from top to bottom on the left side of the square to the top to bottom on the right side: P, N, R, D.

Must be the transmission, thought Alex. And it’s automatic too. Nice.

He thought about giving it a test run, but he knew that riding such an exquisite model of duel runner would garner some attention, and if he was caught riding it without an actual license, he would get in very big trouble. But he figured that riding around the block a couple of times just to be sure wouldn’t hurt.

Taking his key from his pocket, he placed it in the ignition and turned it, bringing his motorbike to life. He was incredibly surprised by how quiet it was. He supposed that because all duel runners ran on 100% electricity now, it was to be expected. On the top screen just above the center of the handlebars, he looked at the gauges. The engine temperature and energy level gauges were represented by green and red bars at the top of the screen, while the speedometer was just a number below the bars that would tell him how fast he was going.

Alex the looked at the top button on the left handlebar, which had the Speed World 2 logo on it. Alex pushed it for grins. Alex the noticed that the screen on the black, shield-shaped plate had changed. It was just a red banner across the screen that said, “No duelist in immediate vicinity.”

Alex then pressed the button below the Speed World button, which had a picture of the screen. The bottom screen changed again to show a choice of 4 screens that were labeled with: Duel Mode, Rear-View, Duel Viewer, and Radio/MP3. Alex touched the Radio Screen. Alex was dismayed to get a loud burst of static that could have woken the entire neighborhood. Alex fidgeted quickly through the controls to turn the volume off.

I’ll have to try these out another time, he thought.

Alex proceeded to shut the vehicle off, put the keys back in his pocket, and sneak back upstairs to his room so no one would know he was gone. Unfortunately, he was stopped by a familiar voice.

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash called loudly from Tom’s bedroom window. He then saw the rainbow blur try to tackle him. He ducked as she tried to dip into him.

“Rainbow!” hissed Alex, trying to be loud enough to make himself heard but soft enough to prevent waking everyone. “It’s me, Alex!”

“Alex,” whispered Rainbow Dash, landing on the ground in front of Alex. “What in the hay do you think you’re doing?”

“I was just going over my bike so I can be ready for tomorrow.”

“Dude, you need to relax. You’re going to do just fine. I mean, it’s not like you’ve never ridden one of these things before.”
“I know, it’s just that with a brand new model like this, I couldn’t be too sure.”

“I can see that. There is one thing I’m sure of, though.”

“Yeah? What’s that?”

“If you don’t go to bed and get some sleep, you aren’t going to be ready regardless.”

“Hehe,” giggled Alex. “You’re right. I’ll see you in the AM, Dash.” Alex walked to the front door and entered as quietly as possible.

“I know you’ll do well,” whispered Rainbow Dash as she flew back into Tom’s bedroom.
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Saturday, May 26, 2012

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After a hearty pancake and sausage breakfast, Alex went to his room to grab a heavy jacket for his riding duel test. Upon opening his closet door, he found a brand new jacket that he hadn’t seen before. It was a sleek, black, leather jacket. When Alex picked it up from the hanger, it felt light in weight, but it’s material was durable.

“Do you like it?” asked the voice of Thomas from his doorway.

“What even is this?”

“It’s the second third of your graduation present: a perfectly good duel runner jacket.”

“Wow, thanks. And you just said second third. That’s the last third?”

Thomas smirked.
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Alex walked out of the house and to his duel runner with his new jacket on and a motorcycle helmet: a candy red Bell Mag-9. Alex also wore a pair of black gloves with special ends on the fingertips that allowed for the use of touchscreens. His wrist dealer with his deck in it was also firmly fastened to his left wrist. Tom followed him out with a similar jacket and helmet on him, although Tom’s jacket was brown and his helmet was black.

Thomas rode out of the garage on his own duel runner with his helmet on, ready to escort Alex to the DMV where Tom would follow and support Alex.

“Ready?” asked Thomas.

“Ready,” answered Alex as he put his helmet on and flipped the visor down over his eyes.

Thomas, Alex, and Tom rode away, with Alex ready to finally get his license.
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As the three of them arrived at the DMV, Alex was relieved that he’d be one of the first people in line. It was still just going to be a couple of moments until the doors opened, but Tom walked up to Alex to check something.

“You should probably go ahead and switch your wrist dealer to riding duel mode.”

“Huh?”

“Here, like this.”

Tom took him through the motions, detaching the deck holster and attaching it to the top of the graveyard slot, and then turning it so the deck was facing in a 3 o’clock position relative to Alex’s hand.

“Thanks, dude.”

“Sure.”

An older woman inside the DMV unlocked the doors, allowing the people inside. Alex was third in line, and thankfully for him, he was the only one so far getting his duel runner’s license. When it finally came time for him to go, a young woman at the counter took care of him.

“How may I help you today?” asked the woman.

“I’d like to get my duel runner’s license,” said Alex.

"Excellent. Do you need some speed spells?"

"Very much so."

"It's thirty dollars for thirty cards."

Alex gave the woman his debit card while he picked the ones he liked. Alex's purchase was approved, and the woman gave him his receipt.

“Alright, now I just need you to fill this out.” She handed him a small piece of paper asking for his name, birth date, address, email, phone number, etc. After Alex filled it out, he handed it back to the woman.

“Alexander Yuwell?” she asked in a more surprised tone.

“Yes, I know about what happened two weeks ago,” said Alex, annoyed that that was probably going to be brought up, “but I’d like–”

“No, it’s not that,” she reasoned. “I just… never mind. Please sit down and wait for your instructor to call you.”

“Uh… thanks,” said Alex flatly, slightly embarrassed that he might have demeaned this innocent woman.

He sat in the waiting room with Tom and Thomas, hoping that this wouldn’t take much longer. The DMV had a reputation of being a hellhole, and it was certainly upholding that reputation.

“What was all that about?” asked Tom. “Could you be any ruder to her?”

“You know,” argued Alex. “I was hoping that when Celestia told people not to mention what happened at the tournament, that they wouldn’t do that.”

“First off,” said Tom, “it was just one person. Second, you can’t seriously believe that everyone would stop mentioning that incident cold-turkey just because Celestia said so. I mean, what you did was incredible. You should be proud of something like that.”

“I just hate having all that kind of attention,” said Alex, “especially since that whole thing was out of my control.”

“She just said your name.”

“It was the way she said it. Like I was something to be revered or something.”

“Well, you are the Element of Passion,” mentioned Tom with a nudge. “It’s kind of hard not to gain some fame after that.”

“I don’t mind being famous,” said Alex. “I just don’t want to be a constant center of attention. I’ve heard from Twilight that despite defeating two evil entities named Nightmare Moon and Discord with the Elements of Harmony in the past, they don’t have to deal with all that crap; life resumes for them as normal. That’s all that I want.”

“Whatever, man,” Tom ended.

“Alexander Yuwell, please meet your instructor outside.”

“And for the record,” said Tom, “she wasn’t freaking out because of your name. She was ready to assign you to a specific duel instructor.”

“Specific? What's that supposed to mean?”

Alex, Tom, and Thomas walked outside to see who their instructor was. Upon opening the door and seeing him, Alex couldn’t help but gasp. Before him was a familiar African-American male on a gleaming, silver Triumph Trophy SE motorcycle while clutching a black helmet in his right arm. It was Claude.

Comments

[JustForgetMe]

Nice one. When he was all "A couple times around the block won't hurt." I was all "This should be interesting." But I guess that there'll always be another day for baddies to pop out of the woodwork and ruin things.

[shuffleking113]

1260589 I agree, not only would Alex have a close duel with an enemy, but would have gotten in serious trouble with the Emmitts, not to mention the law.