Dueling Around Canterlot

by Darthvalgaav

Diamond Skin and Silver Steel (Diamond/Silver vs. Snips/Snails) part 1

Diamond Tiara stood there, her hands full of cards as she looked across the field. Before her was a village of strangelooking rocky huts with odd, disgusting creatures walking around wearing Speedos in the background. Staring at her from across the field were two monsters, one looking like a giant egg man with eyestalks coming out of his head while the other was a knight with similar eyestalks…with a red Speedo on the outside of his armor! Who would do something like that? As for herself, Diamond had nothing. No monsters to protect herself from the attack. No trap cards to surprise her foe. Just an empty field and a hand full of cards that she could have used if she had only gotten the chance.

“Now for the, ah, attack,” said Snails slowly in his normal goofy tone. “Ojama Knight, attack her directly!”

“At once my lord,” said the monster in an annoyingly high pitched voice that grated on every single nerve Diamond had. Diamond Tiara braced herself as Ojama Knight then raced across the field, sword in hand, before slashing her across the chest. As she fell to one knee her life points dropped as well, stopping at 1000.

As the dust began to clear away, Diamond looked up at her opponent who still had that dim witted expression on his face. Slightly sloughed over with his tongue sticking out, you could put his picture in the dictionary next to the word stupid and no one would complain. Not even him! Next to Snails was his best friend and slightly smarter stooge Snips who looked like he was about to wet himself with delight. Chubby and short, the boy seemed to be having the time of his life watching as Diamond even though he wasn’t the one dueling her. A wave of revolution swept over her as she realized what was about to happen. She was going to lose this duel. TO SNAILS! How could she? She had a Blue-Eyes deck as well as access to some of the best support cards money could buy. She was smarter than her opponent in almost every way she could think of. But somehow, in a single turn, Snails had prevented her from doing anything.

“Ojama King, you do, ah, the same,” said Snails. The egg man spread his arms before leaping into the air only to do a belly flop on top of Diamond, bringing her life points to zero.

As the holograms began to fade around her, Diamond saw that there were more people around her. Faceless people in the crowds, light shooting out of their eyes and mouths as they grinned sadistically at her. The rich girl tried to stand up but her arms and legs had been chained up as if by magic of some kind. She then noticed that on her designer shirt there was the word ‘SLAVE’ written in large bold letters. Frantically, Diamond raised her arms to her clothing and tried desperately to rub them out while the sound of the crowd laughing at her as well as the rattling of her chain filled the air around her. But it was no use. The words refused to come out! Looking up, Diamond saw both Snips and Snails towering over her with the same bizarre smiles on their face. Together they reached down…

Diamond shot up from her bed, panting as she sat up while sweat rolled down her skin. The room was pitch black save for the light coming from her electric alarm clock. She didn’t bother to look at it, just lying back down as she fought to keep her breathing under control. Despite the warmth of the house the girl shivered while pulling the blankets closer to herself.

Things were not good for her, not good at all. She could remember how this whole ordeal started. She and Silver Spoon had been walking home several weeks ago, talking to each other, when Snails suddenly approached them and challenged her to a duel. Not only that but he had also made an odd challenge: if he won then she would have to feed him during their shared lunch period! Frankly the idea was sickening as well as degrading for a person of her stature. It was enough to make her want to reject it the moment she heard it. But she didn’t for two reasons. The first had to do with her mother. Spoiled Rich had always told her that she should never show weakness nor should she ever lose to those of lower standings. That it would affect her in the eyes of high society. While Diamond was sure she could have played it off like it was beneath her or that the demand was so outrageous that she wouldn’t even consider it, rumors would more than likely spread that she was scared of dueling him. That she was scared. That she was weak. If her mother ever found about it then Diamond would never hear the end of it. She might even order her to duel Snails, demanding to know how the duel went as soon as she got home.

The other reason was, well, that she was confident that she could, in fact, win. Diamond Tiara was not some rich little girl with a deck of cards, bragging about their worth and having no idea how to play. No, she knew the game well. She always tested her decks with online simulators and with her best friend. She dueled with other members at the country club full of the rich and influential families in the area so it wouldn’t matter much in the eyes of her mother if she lost. And most of the people she dueled there really, really good! So despite Silver Spoons warning about the duel, she agreed on the condition that Snails not bother her again when she won.

Sadly, things had not played out well for Diamond. Not in the slightest. She had lost in a truly humiliating fashion the likes of which she had never experienced before in her life. Snails had gone first and, in one turn, prevented Diamond from summoning anything and none of the cards in her hand could help her. She was helpless, watching as his disgusting monsters attacked her over and over again until her life points were gone. She had to keep her word, even though she groaned about it every day on her way to school.

Turing onto her side, Diamond thought that it should be behind her. But it wasn’t. Snails had challenged her again and again with the stakes growing more and more revolting. If he won she would have to feed him during lunch and rub his shoulders. If he won she would have to feed him, rub his shoulders, and rub his feet. Clean his locker and so on. Each time Diamond had lost. When she went first she managed to get a powerful field set up only to be completely destroyed by those gremlins he called monsters while Snips watched gleefully from the sidelines. When he went first she was prevented from doing anything. It made no sense. How could somebody as stupid as Snails be able to do all of this?

She knew it wasn’t just her. Diamond had seen Snails dueling Micro Chip once in passing, witnessing the loss as well as Snips reminding the nerd of their deal. That if Snails had won then Micro would have to do their homework for a week. Then there was the rumor that they had dueled Granny Smith in order to get more food for their lunch. Diamond had heard a grand total of five rumors with five different people being the victims, all of them sharing similar details to her own duels against the Snails.

Diamond closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Today was to be the last day of her recent deal. No doubt he was going to challenge her again, upping the stakes. Hopefully this time she would win.

-x-

Breakfast was a silent affair as normal within the Rich household. Diamond sat there, nervously eating her breakfast while glancing around to see if her parents would be joining her. Her father, Filthy Rich, normally ate breakfast with her so they could spend what little time they had together before going off. Sometimes he would help her pop some last minute questions before a test, like how he would ask her to spell various words that would be on a spelling test as she ate. Lately, however, he had been very busy as he was in a hostile takeover of the business of somebody named Well-To-Do. Something about him being caught in a major crime, his stocks being low, and he could do…something. Most of his business talk went over her head. And it was clearly leaving him very stressed. She had seen it in the few times when she had seen in these last few weeks, looking tired and worn before putting up a good front for her. Spoiled Rich was a different story. Most morning’s she was nowhere to be seen, having breakfast in a fancy yet public place to better show off her status. With the new money that her father hoped would be coming in she was busy making plans on what to do with it. Sadly, this wasn’t most mornings.

“I tell you the way these schools are being run,” Spoiled muttered as she entered the large dining room, her heels clicking with each step she took. In one hand she held a tablet from which she read while in the other was a smoothie. The elder woman was wearing her normal condescending frown as she sat down. “Just what is Celestia thinking? Subpar standards for hiring teachers. Just letting any riffraff attend. Honestly, that place shouldn’t even allow those low class peons to attend. It’s no wonder that test scores are so low these days.”

Diamond bit her lower lip as she put her spoon down. She wanted to remind her mother that it was a public school system. While she was the head of the school board, that did not give her the right or the power to make such changes. She knew enough that all they did was establish policies and the like, but she doubted they had enough power to reject students based on their family’s income. She didn’t, however, since she would rather not get into anything with her mother first thing in the morning.

“Then there is that sister of hers,” Spoiled continued, not seeming to notice that Diamond was still there. “Always thought it was wrong to hire family. Conflict of interests while graining another voice within the school to agree with her. Perhaps I need to show them who’s in charge over there. Get Celestia to stop fighting me on some of these issues.”

Having heard enough, Diamond stood up and picked up her bowl. She was about to bring it to the kitchen when her mother suddenly looked up. “Diamond Tiara, just what do you think you are doing?” she snapped, setting down her tablet. Her eyes narrowed dangerously at the girl as she gulped.

“I just thought I’d,” began Diamond.

“Putting dishes away is servants work!” snapped Spoiled again in a harsh tone. “It is not fitting for someone of our class to clean up after themselves. That’s what their paid for.”

“I was just trying to be nice,” said Diamond. However, despite this she set the bowl down on the table. As soon as she did, one of the maids rushed into the room as if sensing work that needed to be done. Quickly it was removed and the area polished before the maid vanished from sight, never saying a word.

“We are rich, Diamond,” said Spoiled as she stood up. She then walked over to her daughter, looking as imposing as she could. “We don’t have to be nice. We pay people to do the job for us and we expect it to be done accordingly with their heads lowered. That is there place. Your place is above them. You are not equals in any way.” Spoiled sighed as she shook her head. “This is exactly the thing I have been telling that Principal of yours. All this talk of friendship and equality is simply utter nonsense. People do not just help each other out just because they like each other. If anyone out there is willing to help, they expect something in return. Like, say, access to our money. Do you understand?”

Diamond merely nodded, not wanting to say anything that might get her mother really going. Hopefully she would end it here and Diamond would be able to leave for school. No such luck.

“While I have your attention there is something I have been meaning to talk to you about,” continued Spoiled as she moved back to her seat. As she sat down Spoiled began to move her finger around the rim of her glass slowly as she gave Diamond a piercing look. “Certain rumors have been coming to my attention that you have been seen with two boys. That you are acting like some love stricken girl, desperate to gain their attention. I am sure these are just rumors. However, given the fact that my source is normally very reliable I thought I’d double check.”

“T-There’s no one at school that I like,” said Diamond quickly, her blood turning to ice as she said this. “At least not like that.” Her heart began to race, fearing what might be coming.

“That’s good,” replied her mother coldly. “I would hate to think that a daughter of mine isn’t living to her full potential. But, if I find out you are lying to me, then I will send you to St. Misery’s All Girls School for the Elite like I wanted to. And believe me when I say I will find out sooner or later.” Spoiled then tapped her finger on the table several times, watching as Diamond’s eyes widened in fear. “Your father probably thought it would be more cost effective to send you to public school despite my own objections. But if I find out that you haven’t been holding yourself to the expectations I have set out then I will simply have to put my designer heels down. St. Misery will set you straight making you a proper lady of high society.”

-x-

“What kind of a name is St. Misery?” asked Silver Spoon as the two walked to school. This was one of the little pleasures of ‘commoner life’ that Diamond had managed to get past her mother. She had explained it as a chance to cheaply burn calories without needing a gym membership so she could look her best while also getting some window shopping done. It made sense to her mother since on the way from their mansion to the school was littered with plenty of trendy shops…or at least the bare minimum of what her mother considered acceptable for her to look at. It also helped free up the limo without having her daughter resort to using public transportation. In reality, it gave her more time to talk to her best friend. For both of them to vent their frustrations going on in their daily lives without worrying that someone might overhear them. Someone like a limo driver who might overhear them talking about something his employer asked him to listen for and reporting back.

“I don’t know,” said Diamond as she lowered her head to sigh. As she did, that new blue haired student ran past them with a breakfast burrito in her mouth. “All I know is that it made my mom ‘the proper lady of high society that she is today’. In other words it will make me into a proper bitch.”

“Yeah, like totally,” agreed Silver with a half laugh. Diamond could only smile weakly as she looked at her friend. “So, what are you going to do?”

Diamond sighed. “I guess I have to win this time when Snails challenges me,” she replied.

Silver made a face, slowing down a bit as she did while placing a hand on Diamond’s arm. “Or, and I’m just throwing this out there, you could just say no,” replied her friend. “Diamond, no one is forcing you to do this. All you have to do is say no and no one will think any less of you.”

“My mom will,” muttered Diamond as she lowered her head. “You remember that time I lost that election for class president back in the third grade? She like completely flipped out! The only reason she stopped berating me was because Daddy came home early. And that was back when I had an ‘excuse’ as she put it! Now I don’t know what will make her explode more. The fact that I lost several duels to Snails or if I refused to duel him to prove I’m better. She might send me away to St. Misery just for that!”

“Well, like, maybe you could talk to your dad?” suggested Silver. As she did, the trio of girls who called themselves the CMC (she wasn’t sure what it stood for) shot past them. One of them was riding a scooter while the other two were on bikes. “You could totally ask him to get that witch off your back. Or at least for some advice. You know he would totally help you out if you asked.”

Diamond sighed, shaking her head as she did so. “Look, can we like just drop it for now?” she asked. “I just want to-” As the two turned a corner to see two familiar faces waiting to greet them, the sight of which stopped Diamond in mid-sentence. Snips was wearing his normal black shirt with a large silver scissors on it, his back pressed against the wall with his arms crossed. If she had to guess he was trying his best to look threatening or at least tough. Snails, on the other hand, just sort of stood there in his green sweater vest looking at them with a dopey smile on his face. As Snails raised his hand to greet them, Snips moved over to him so as to quickly punch the idiot on the shoulder before returning to his spot on the wall.

“Hey, why did you,” began Snails as he began to rub his shoulder before his eyes suddenly widened. Like he had remembered something very important. Then he too crossed his arms, wincing slightly as he did so, and giving both girls a similar look as his buddy. “Hey there Diamond Tiara. You ready to duel again today?”

“Yeah,” said Snips with a grin. “You never know. Today might be your lucky day.”

Diamond stood there, feeling utterly trapped as she did so. She knew the right thing to do was to refuse. To tell him to take a flying leap and make her way to school as fast as she could. But she was afraid to. Her mother had just told her that she had some source at school that told her about what she was doing for this guy. If she refused and rumors started to spread would she hear that as well? But if she did agree to duel and lose again she would almost certainly find out! The only way out of this was looking like she would have to duel him and win. But could she after all of this time?

“Hey, haven’t you two dummies pushed this far enough?” snapped Silver Spoon, moving forward so quickly that two boys flinched. With hands on her hips Silver focused all of her attention at the pair. “You beat her in a duel. Several in fact. There. Now how about you find someone else to bully for a while?”

“Well actually,” began Snails as he raised a hand. Only he was stopped as Snips raced over to him and placed a hand squarely over the taller boy’s mouth, standing on his tiptoes to do so.

“What’s the matter?” asked Snips, a touch of nervousness in his voice as he spoke. Slowly he released his friend who began to rub his mouth slowly. “It’s not like Snails here is forcing her to do anything she didn’t agree to. Or dueling her for her lunch money or like that. No, just making my friend a bit more comfortable during lunch. How is that so wrong?”

“Well right now I’d rather just pay you to stop,” grumbled Diamond.

Snails brightened at that. “Oh alright,” he said. “How about-” Once again he was silenced by Snips who almost tackled the boy to the ground.

“What my friend meant to say is how about one more duel,” he said while giving Snails a meaningful look. “But this time for all the marbles.” Snails mumbled something that could have been ‘but I don’t have any marbles’. “If you win, not only will we leave you alone for good but we’ll both owe you one favor. No matter what you want we’ll do. But if Snails here wins again then you will become our slave for the rest of the year!”

Diamond felt her blood running cold when he said that. There was no telling what those two would have her do! Plus, knowing them, they might just call her during any time of the day demanding that they do the most annoying things for them. Like maybe brushing their teeth or doing their chores. What’s worse was that it would no doubt make it harder to hide something like this from her mother! How would she explain herself vanishing at any time of the day? Even if it contained to at school, whoever was spying on her would surely see it.

“Fine then,” shouted Silver Spoon, shocking the other three with her sudden outburst. Her normally grey cheeks had turned bright red as she looked at both the boys in angry. Her fists were clenched tightly. “If this is for all the marbles then let’s do it right! Tag team duel. Boys vs. girls. If we lose then we will both be your slaves for the rest of the year. But if we win then you both will leave us alone unless one of us needs a favor!”

“Silver,” whispered Diamond, grabbing the other girl’s sleeve as she did so. While Snails had his normal oblivious reaction to all of this, Snips grin made her feel even more uneasy. It was the kind of smile where Diamond would expect his to start rubbing his hands together before laughing evilly or something like that. Well, if he wasn’t still holding Snail’s mouth shut that is.

“Deal,” said Snips as he let go of his friend. “We’ll do this during lunch period. Just don’t try to back out when you lose.” With that, Snips began to walk away while Snails stood there looking confused. A half a second later Snips returned to grab Snails and dragged him away. Now the two girls stood alone as first period drew ever closer. But neither of them were thinking about that. At least, not Diamond Tiara for she had spun around on her friend and grabbed her by the shoulders.

“Why did you do that?” she demanded as she tightened her grip with trembling hands. “This is my problem.”

Silver rolled her eyes. “Because you, like, need help,” she said as she took a step back and crossed her arms. “I get why you’re not asking your mom for help, but just going along with all this is totally insane! And if you won’t ask your dad for help then its up to me. At least this way we can watch each other’s backs and help each other.” Diamond opened her mouth to say something. That she didn’t want Silver to be in the same position as her. That it wasn’t worth it. But Silver stopped her from saying a word simply by raising a finger. “I am not going to lose you because you refuse to ask for help. Now let's get going to school.”

-x-

Elsewhere, Snips and Snails were sitting in an old deserted alleyway close to the school. As alleyways went, this had to be one of the cleaner ones in the city, having only a few puddles in various places of who knew what as well as a couple of blue dumpsters which they were sitting next to on the ground. Thanks to these large blue bins of steel, a person could look down and not spot either of them. The ringing of the first period bell was another thing they could be thankful for as it meant there would be fewer people on the streets right now. Fewer people to take such a short cut to school. At least, that’s what those two believed.

There, Snips went to work on his friend’s duel disk. In one hand he had a small black device with a number pad on it, with wires sticking out of it that ran into Snail’s duel disk. With his tongue sticking out of his mouth as he worked, Snails began to tap in the code that he had been given. On the ground next to him was a piece of paper with the written codes that he needed.

“Ah, Snips,” said Snails suddenly. “Don’t you think we might be going a bit far with this?”

“Relax,” replied Snips as he looked up at his best buddy. “We got this one in the bag. No one has been able to figure out what we’ve been doing. As long as we have this,” he paused for a moment to point to the paper, “there’s no way we can lose.”

That piece of paper had changed their lives in more ways than one. Snips had been on the net, totally not looking at sites he shouldn’t, when he stumbled upon something amazing! It was common knowledge that duel disks had certain features that made cheating nearly impossible. For example, if anyone had tried to tamper with the auto-shuffler the duel would not engage or announce tampering for all to see. The program to decide who went first was randomized. According to this one site, however, there was a way around all that with these codes. It only worked on certain older models and required a special device, but it would work.

So the boys decided to try it out. After inputting the codes into Snails’ duel disk and stacking his deck in a certain way, they started a duel to see what would happen. Their duel disks connected and, like they had programmed, Snails went first. Not only that, the auto-shuffler appeared to move his cards around but when Snails drew they were in the same order he had put them in!

At first it had been just some harmless fun. Just them stacking cards so they could get their best combos out faster when playing against each other. Well, maybe they did play against some of their other friends just for fun. No big deal, right? That was until they had been challenged to a duel with another kid from their school demanding that they use the ante rule. With the codes still in their duel disk and their decks stacked in just the right way, they had won easily while collected some very nice cards. Cards that sold for $50 each online! It was then that an idea had sparked inside Snips’ head. They could use this to become more than just other people’s lackeys. With this, they could earn some much needed respect and get other people to do stuff for them for a change!

What had helped expedite this was Trixie’s dismissal of them. Prior to that point, they had only gone after Diamond since she had been one of the major people who looked down at them. But when they had been caught helping that pretty Eye Candy lady, Trixie said she never wanted to have anything to do with them again. Alone without anyone to command them any longer, Snips and Snails decided it was time for them to become their own bosses! No longer would they be at the whim of others. Now others would be at their wins through these wagers. What could go wrong?

“Just thinking we might be going overboard with this slave thing,” said Snails in his dopey voice. “She was willing to pay us just to stop.”

“Right, right,” said Snips with a grin. “But that was just to get us to stop. Just think how much she’ll pay us to set her and her friend free after we win? We could ask for anything and she’ll do anything to pay it.”

“Ohh,” went Snails as he stared blankly ahead. “But won’t we get in trouble somehow?”

“Please,” replied Snips as he waved off the concern, going back to entering the codes. “So far the school’s done nothing to stop us. And as long as no one figures out that we’re cheating then everything is good. Don’t worry about it.” With that, Snips returned to his task. He still had a few more codes to put in before Snails could start stacking his deck to best suit the duel. Then he would have to do the same for himself. It would take a long amount of time, probably causing them to miss their first period classes. Maybe even second. But right now this was far more important for them.

Comments

[ArcanaMaverick7]

An Ojama Deck, huh? That's tricky to beat when they get the right cards. Which is exactly what's been happening.

I'm hoping that Spoiled gets put in her place when someone tells her off and that Diamond Tiara can do what she wants with her friends at school.

I'm wondering how the tag team match will go since they'll likely have more monster card zones to use, which would cripple an Ojama Deck's main strength of limiting the field. For now, I'd just like to see what cards Diamond and Silver go with for the duel. I can see the CMC cheering them on if they talk before the match, like helping them work on a strategy.

[Ri2]

...Those cheating bastards. I hope they get creamed for this.

Well, mainly Snips. Snails is just a pawn in his friend's amibtions.

[ArcanaMaverick7]

9696812
Given the strategy for their cheating, it'll be crippled unless they both use an Ojama Deck against Diamond and Silver. If just the one Ojama Deck, then the girls will still be able to kick some ass.

[Ri2]

9696935
Why is that?

[ArcanaMaverick7]

9696945
If you check out the chapter's start again, Diamond Tiara's field was locked out. An Ojama Deck's main strength is preventing your opponent from getting monsters out to beat them. Most Ojama monsters have zero attack points and require cards that swap their attack and defense or power them up. If the tag duel has 10 monster card zones instead of 5 because of two people on each side, one Ojama Deck won't be able to secure victory for the boys unless they have copies of the cards that can seal the card zones.

[Brony-wan-kenobi]

9696952

9696945
It could be that Snips uses a deck that works just as well. For example, dragons love being in the graveyard in order to be special summoned to the field. Image if Snips used a gravekeepers deck, it might shut them both down. Or a deck that halts special summoning

Right now wondering what Silver Spoon's deck is and how it might help