Rarity enters a strange password into her Chaotic scanner. Should be harmless, right?
The Hu-mane 7 have all discovered the TCG Chaotic. They play with each other and have a generally good time.
But like most card games, there is something else lying just below the surface.
So when Rarity enters a password into her Scanner, she is plunged right into the middle of a much bigger game, where the stakes are a little higher than normal.
It was an average day at Canterlot High, the school day had just ended and the student body was either going home to work on homework, heading out with friends to goof off, or hanging out in the cafeteria playing card games.
One of the students, a white skinned girl named Rarity, was getting her book bag sorted when she was approached by two of her friends.
"Twilight, Sunset!" she greeted, "How was your day?"
"Pretty good." the orange skinned girl, Sunset, responded. "We wanted to see if you and the rest of the girls wanted to hang out for a bit."
"I'd love to, Darling. But we may have to wait on the others for a bit."
"Really? Why?" Twilight, the spectacled violet one asked.
Rarity chuckled a bit, "Come, I'll show you."
The three girls entered the cafeteria, several of the tables were occupied by students playing a number of different card games. At one table near the end of the room were four girls sitting together. The blue skinned tom-boy, Rainbow Dash, and the orange country blonde, Applejack, were seated across from each other, a couple of trading cards set out on the table between them. A yellow skinned pinkette named Fluttershy sat next to Rainbow, holding what looked like bulky blue smartphone. The final member of their circle of friends, the bubbly Pinkie Pie, sat at the head of the table, watching the exchange.
"And that brings your creature down to zero energy AJ." Rainbow taunted as the other girls walked up. "Hey Sunset, Rarity, Twilight. You're just in time to see me win this game."
"We'll see, sugarcube," Applejack remained calm, despite Rainbow's taunts, "We'll see."
"I know trading card games are popular in this world," Sunset, who was also a unicorn from a parallel dimension, said. "But I'm not familiar with this one."
"Me either."
"It's called Chaotic." Pinkie answered, "It used to be pretty common, but disappeared a few years ago. But it's gotten a sort of second life recently."
"How do you play?" Twilight asked.
"Well, for starters, you have five different types of cards: Creatures, Attacks, Battlegear, Mugic, and Locations. Right now, AJ and Dashie each have only one creature on the field."
"Soon to be just mine." Rainbow added.
"When the battle begins, the attacker draws a location card from their location deck, and chooses an attacking creature and a target creature." Pinkie made sure her friends were still following along. They nodded to show that they were.
Rainbow drew a card of a sideways pile of cards to her left, "Runic Grove." The picture on the card showed a withered looking forest with leafless trees covered in glowing blue symbols. "Frafdo attacks, Blazier."
"Now they each draw attack cards and take turns trying to bring each other's energy down to zero."
Rainbow went first, "Vine Snare, deals five damage."
Applejack looked at her cards, and smirked, "Vine Snare, fifteen damage."
"Wait, they just used the same attack." Twilight inquired, "How come AJ dealt more damage?"
"Attacks deal different amounts of damage depending on the stats of the Creature using them." Rarity explained, "Vine Snare will deal five damage no matter who uses it, but if the creature can use earth attacks, then it will deal an extra five damage."
"And Blazier has Earth 5, meaning when he hits with an earth attack, another five damage gets added to it." Applejack said, leaving her opponent frustrated.
"Yeah, well how about this?" She removed a card from underneath her Frafdo, it was a grey card with a picture of some kind of gun firing a stream of water out the barrel. "By tributing his Liquilizer, he can use water attacks."
Sunset looked at Rarity, "Uh, what just happened?"
"Each creature is given a battlegear, or a weapon when the players are setting up their decks. It can increase the damage you deal or lessen the damage you take."
Rainbow played another attack card, "Rip Tide, ten damage."
"Pebblestorm, ten damage."
"Skeletal Strike, twenty damage. One more attack and I win."
AJ looked at her cards, and grimaced. "Let me guess, you don't have any attacks that can take me out?" Rainbow put her hands behind her head, "If you want to surrender now, go right ahead."
Applejack looked at the field for a bit, then paused. A smile grew on her face. "Hey, Twilight. Remember how Pinkie said there was five kinds of cards?"
"Yeah, the Creatures, Locations, Attacks, Battlegear, and... um."
"That last one is called Mugic. And it's how I'm going to win." Rainbow looked nervous, "Mugic are like magic spells that you can play on a turn as well as your attacks."
"But, only generic Mugic can be played when Runic Grove is the location!" Rainbow looked a little desperate.
"That's all I need." she drew a card who's image didn't look like anything really. It was just a pink mass of light. "Decrescendo deals five damage. And my attack is Windslash, which is another five damage, leaving you with zero energy."
Rainbow looked at Fluttershy, who had been quiet the whole time. She just looked at Rainbow Dash and shook her head. "Applejack wins."
Rainbow hung her head and held out her hand, "Good game AJ." the farm girl grabbed her hand and shook it firmly
"Hey, don't sell yourself short, Dash. You had me on the edge right up to the end."
Pinkie stood up and stretched her arms, "And that class concludes today's class of Chaotic 101. Any questions?"
"Just one," Sunset said, "Where can we get some of those cards?" Twilight nodded her head in agreement.
"Well," Rarity said, getting her friend's attention, "I do happen to know the perfect place to go shopping for all thing TCG." = = = "Tada! Here we are." The group had arrived in front of what looked like a house that had been turned into a store. The sign above the door just said 'GAME' in sharp, stylized letters. Inside the building were packs of trading cards of every variety; Duel Monsters, Pokemon, Bakugan, Dungeon Dice Monsters, and of course, Chaotic.
"Wow, it's like a gamer's playground in here." Twilight marveled, looking at a rack of duel disks on one of the walls.
While Rarity greeted the shopkeeper, a short old man who's spiky grey hair stuck out under his bandanna, Sunset looked at the different Chaotic Starter Packs. They seemed to come in four different colors: red, brown, yellow, and blue. She picked up a red pack, on the front was a picture of a muscular creature with horns. "Is there any difference between the colors?"
"Those colors tell you what tribe that's a Starter Pack for." Applejack explained. "There are four different tribes of Creatures in the game, and each one has different strengths and weaknesses." She picked up a yellow pack, "Mepedians, like these and Underworlders like the ones you're holding work alright on there own, but while Underworlders will charge in without a plan, Mepedians are good at sneak attacks. "She pointed at one of the brown packs "Danians work great as a group, but get them on their own and they're easy pickin's." She picked up a smaller booster pack that was blue, "Personally, I prefer Overworlders. Strong on their own and even stronger together."
The shop keeper walked over, "If you're interested in Chaotic, I have something that may interest you." He went behind the counter and pulled out a box from under it. "Behold, the Scanner."
Inside the box were several boxlike devices identical to the one Fluttershy had been holding earlier. "What are they?" Twilight asked.
"They're a tool built to help Chaotic Players keep track of their creature's stats, which can be tricky in the middle of a game. They also let you battle other players online, they have a phone attachment, as well as a camera."
"I don't know Gramps," Rainbow said, "Kind of just sounds like a simpler version of a cell phone to me."
"But, if you had one of your own, you wouldn't have to wait until Fluttershy wasn't busy so you could use hers." Applejack said.
"And you could battle anyone online, instead of just your friends." Pinkie prodded.
"Well..."
"I almost forgot." The shopkeeper said, "Each scanner comes with it's own set of Chaotic cards as well."
"Sold!" Rainbow snatched a red Scanner from the box before anyone had a chance to blink.
While her friends laughed at her antics, Rarity looked at the scanners in the box. One of them, a blue one, seemed to be beckoning to her. Without thinking about it, she too had purchased a Scanner. By the time the group had left; Applejack had two Overworld booster packs, Twilight had a Mepedian Starter box, Sunset had an Underworld Scanner and Starter box, and Pinkie had an Overworld and a Danian booster packs.
The Shopkeeper waved as the group of friends left his shop, leaving him with a great deal more money in the cash register. "Such a nice group of friends." He thought to himself, "I wonder how long it will be before one of them learns about the real Chaotic."
"Okay, Sis, let's get you started." Rarity was back home in her sister, Sweetie Belle's rome. Both the girls had finished their homework and were now working on building Rarity's Chaotic deck.
Rarity, despite knowing a great deal about the game, had never really had any cards of her own. Anytime she played it was against her sister, spitting her deck between them. Now, with Rarity's new Scanner and cards, her little sister was going to help her make the best deck possible.
"We should probably start by looking at the cards you got with the Scanner, and I'll give you cards that work well with them."
She opened up the cardboard box containing her Scanner, behind the device was a small tinfoil package containing around thirty or so cards. After opening the package, she divided the cards into their different card types.
All in all, she had ten Attack cards, five Locations, Mugic, Battlegear, and Creatures. In addition, she had 3 rare foil cards. The first of these was a Skeletal Strike attack card, the second a Mugic called the Song of Geonova. But what Rarity was most interested in was the third card, an Overworld creature. She looked like a humanoid gazelle or antelope dressed in a green tunic dress. "Lomma" Rarity read her name aloud.
"Now that's one tough creature." her sister commented. "It looks like you have mostly Overworld cards here, so I can give you locations and attacks that will work to your advantage, like Rustoxic, Pebble Storm, and the Riverlands."
The two stayed up a while longer working out the finer points of Rarity's deck. Afterwards, Sweetie helped her get her Scanner started up, while Rarity set up her online Chaotic account, 'Lady Lomma' seemed a fitting screen-name somehow. Sweetie wanted to get her cards 'scanned' into her scanner, but her big sis decided they had done enough for the night, and that they could do that in the morning.
Early the next morning, rarity had her entire deck scanned into her Scanner. She was about to head off to school, but noticed something on her Scanner's screen. It was a string of letters and numbers, not unlike the codes on the bottom of her cards. Except this one was saying to enter it into her Scanner's main page.
She didn't remember reading about anything like this in the instruction book, but she guessed she could have missed something. Slightly cautiously, she entered the code into the Scanner, and nothing happened.
"Weird." She muttered to herself. Well, no time to dwell on it now, she had to get to school. She stuffed the scanner into her book bag and her deck into a holder that she clipped onto the outside pocket. And like that she was ready for the day. << Slightly cautiously, she entered the code into the Scanner, and her entire world became a flowing tunnel of white. When it ended, she found herself in a huge open building that most defiantly was not her bedroom.
She was standing on a white circle that was part of a ring of similar circles. The floor of the building dropped down to a second floor a few meters to her left, and she could see a number of other people moving about, or sitting at a table in what looked like a food court. Above her were several large screens showing... something, she couldn't quite make out what.
"Okay, I've been teleported to somewhere I've never seen before. Not the strangest thing that has ever happened to me." She muttered to herself.
A noise half-way between a fizz and a whoosh emanated from behind her. Turning around, she saw a yellow skinned girl a few years younger than she was. Rarity recognized her as the sister of her close friend and the close friend of her sister. "Apple Bloom?"
"Rarity!?" The country girl exclaimed. "What are you doing here? HOW did you get here?"
"I have been asking myself that same question since I got here. One moment I'm at home setting up my Chaotic Scanner, then I'm here, where ever here is."
Apple Bloom looked at the older girl for a moment, then started laughing to herself. "So that's what happened. I was worried Sweetie's Scanner had gone haywire." She took the pearl girl's hand and pulled her to the railing overlooking the lower floor. "Welcome to Chaotic."
"I don't follow."
"You're in another world. The world of Chaotic, or part a the way there. What's important is that here, folks play Chaotic for real, instead of just with cards."
Play for real? Another world? "Okay, I am going to need you to explain one more time, slower and with more details."
"No time for that." turning around, Rarity saw some kind of robot. It was about the size of a backpack, but hovering a few feet off the ground so it's head was about eye level with her. "The young miss has her first match in five minutes at the Crellin drome."
"Alrighty then." Rarity again found herself being dragged by the red headed girl, this time out of the building and onto a moving sidewalk that was carrying the two girls towards another large building. This one was blue and round shaped, with a wave of white metal beams around the back half.
"You have played Chaotic before, right?" Apple Bloom asked her.
"Of course I have. Who do you think Sweetie Belle practices with?"
"Okay good. Now, I'm going to try and make this brief. Y'all are going to be playing Chaotic, except instead of just playing with cards, y'all are going to become the creatures. Ya still with me?"
"Yes, I think so."
"If'n it's anything like my first battle, you should be good to go from here on in. I'ma go watch from the big screen." And her only connection with reality was running away from her. Great.
She looked at the massive building, a circular door opened in front of her. Stepping inside she found a massive room with data lines covering the walls. Directly in front of her was a small slot on a stick in the floor. In the center of the room was a mass of rotating curves. Behind that was another sick thing, and another girl, who looked as confused as Rarity was. She had lime colored skin and yellowish gold hair that was combed back over her head. She was wearing a black leather jacket with yellow stripes on the sleeves, and a purple shirt with a black lightning pattern under that.
"Rarity Belle." The mass said in a distinctly electronic voice. "Chaotic screen name, Lady Lomma. And Lightning Dust. Chaotic screen name, Eightyeight MPR. Please step forward."
Both girls walked up to the sticks in front of them, "Dock your Scanners." Looking at the slot, she found it was the perfect shape to hold her Scanner, which she just realized she had been holding the entire time. Once she put it into the slot, a massive, clear white board appeared above it. On one half was the Chaotic symbol above a ring of white squares that seemed to come out of the board. The other half was blank, save for a yellow border that connected with the right side of the board, while the left end expanded into a small rectangle. Below this board was four more circles of squares: green, purple, grey and blue.
"Normally, Chaotic players are required to win a number of online matches before they are sent the scanner codes that allow them to enter Chaotic. However, both of you acquired Scanners that were already programmed with the codes admitted."
'So that's what that code was.' Rarity thought to herself.
"Since you both managed to enter Chaotic at roughly the same time, your first battle will be against each other. Assemble your fields for a one-on-one match."
"So," The other girl, Lightning, called from across the room, "Do you have any idea what's going on?"
"I guess they just want us to play the game."
"Select your creature from the blue dial." The mass instructed.
Rarity looked at the dial, then started clicking it down with her hand. On the left side of the board, her Creature cards started ticking by. Through the hologram, she could she Lightning doing the same thing.
'Okay, time to start thinking strategy. If it's a one-on-one battle, I should use a creature that can hold their own without much help.' That could be a power house like Arias or Viqtarr, or... 'Guess I might as well live up to my screen name.' She placed Lomma on her board.
She guessed the other three dials were for the other card types. The grey dial brought up her battlegear. 'Lomma's disciplines are all alright, and she deals five extra damage with water attacks. So I guess I should use something like, the Ring of Na'arin.' For mugic, she choose the Song of Resurgence, just in case the battle went south. When she touched the icon for the mugic, it turned into a blue heptagon, she placed this in the yellow rectangle to the left of her field.
"Choose ten location cards, then place them in the white Location Randomizer."
"Thanks for the tip, Gyro." Lightning bantered at the spinning object above them.
Rarity looked through her locations, thanks to Sweetie Belle, she had ten locations, but that was all she had. So she was stuck inputting locations that would help her, like Cordac Falls, and the Riverlands; but also locations that could hinder her, like Runic Grove and the Storm Tunnel.
"Players, lock your decks. Press the red button located on the top of your scanners." Both girls did so. The dials under the board disappeared, and Lightning's half of the board became visible. Her creature was a yellow winged gargoyle with one eye and his tounge hanging out.
"Since neither of you have been in a drome match before, you may decide among yourselves who will be the attacker."
"I'll let you initiate the attack." Rarity was surprised to hear her opponent relinquish the initiative like that, but she wasn't going to argue with it.
"Very well, Lady Lomma, you will be the attacker. Spin the Location Randomizer." Rarity gave the white dial, which hadn't disappeared like the other dials, a hard flick with her wrist. Her locations flashed by quickly, before slowing and stopping on a canyon river. "The Riverlands." Rarity breathed a sigh of relief. "Now, choose your attacking creature and target creature."
Rarity took another look at Lightning's creature, in the white line underneath the creature's picture, was the creature's name. "Lomma attacks, Krekk."
"Touch your creature cards."
Both girls put their hands against their cards, causing the holographic board to disappear. Their hands became wrapped in a glowing field of white energy, which started crawling up their arms until it had enveloped their entire bodies.
When the energy dissipated, instead of two human girls, were two creatures, in the flesh and blood. "Mirror. I NEED A MIRROR!" Lomma, formerly Rarity started screaming. "Oh I just know something has happened to my hair!"
"You have hooves and horns, and it's your HAIR you're worried about?" Said the winged demon man that used to be a high school girl. "And what about ME. I just grew WINGS! That's... actually kind of cool when I think about it."
"Let the battle, begin." The spinning mass started to glow white, and the next thing either of the former girls knew, they were once again teleported, this time to a rocky cliff over looking a rushing river.
Scootaloo's code materialized in Chaotic at the same time as her best friend's, Sweetie Belle, did. They had agreed to meet up with their other best friend, Apple Bloom, for a real breakfast, and not the cold rushed breakfast she had had before school. They found their fellow Crusader sitting at a table in the dining center, watching one of the big screens playing a live Chaotic drome match.
"Morning, Apple Bloom." Scootaloo greeted, "Who's battling?"
"Ya'll are not gonna believe this but, it's Rarity."
"WHAT!" Screamed the pink haired girl, drawing the attention of many of the other Chaotic players, and knocking out Scootaloo's right ear. "You mean my sister, Rarity!?"
"Yup."
"But, HOW? I just helped her set up her online account and Scanner last night."
"Well, according to what the Drome Master said, that Scanner she got, as well as the one her opponent's got, had the Chaotic code already installed. Guess that means she didn't have to wait for it like we did."
"Lucky." The crusaders had all gotten their code Scanners at the same time, and had received their passcodes within days of each other. Scootaloo had been the last of her friends to get her code. But she broke even with that by being the only one of her friends to actually win her first match. Speaking of...
"Now, choose your attacking creature and target creature."
"Lomma attacks, Krekk."
"Touch your creatures."
Rarity and the other girl did, turning into the antelope woman and yellow gargoyle respectively. While the two of them freaked out like most first time players did, the players watching the match began laughing at their antics.
"Man, two newbies facing each other in the drome. This should be fun to watch." one boy with white skin and pink hair said.
"Doubt it." said another boy with red skin and orange hair. "They'll probably be too freaked out to do anything."
"Don't be too sure." Sweetie Belle challenged, "My sister is pretty resourceful. I'm sure she'll figure out the game before too long."
The boys just sneered and continued watching the match.
"Let the battle begin." The drome master declared.
= = =
Rarity looked down into the river. Yup, that was Lomma's face looking back at her. She had technically been turned into an anthro-pony several times before, but that had only been her ears and a tail growing out of her hair. Now she had hooves, ears, antlers, or maybe they were horns? Rarity couldn't tell. Too late did she notice the splash of yellow behind her reflection.
She felt the heat explode on her back. "Now this is awesome!" Her opponent cheered, her yellow hand smoking slightly.
Rarity slowly picked herself up. "How did you do that?"
"You'll have to figure that out yourself." She/he fired another blast of fire at Rarity, knocking her into the river. The churning waters made the already difficult task of swimming in a different body next to impossible. It was sheer luck that she managed to grab onto a rock jutting out from the shore.
She crawled out of the river, coughing up a small amount of water. Overhead she could hear Krekk calling out for her. "Come on out Rarity! Let's finish this game!"
= = =
"Told ya this would be boring." The orange haired boy jeered. His cronies chortling along.
"My sister isn't finished yet!" Sweetie Belle yelled back. 'Come on sis, don't let me down.'
= = =
Rarity closed her eyes and concentrated. She had used magic before, so maybe she could use attacks the same way. She could feel something, some power within her. No, within Lomma. This was her power, her strength.
Lightning was legitimately worried now, she hadn't meant to blast her into the river. What were the rules for injurys not caused by attacks? "Seriously, girl, where are you!? Are you alright!?"
"Just fine."
Lightning turned around and saw a well soaked Lomma finish crawling up onto the rocky ledge overlooking the river. "Riptide." A stream of water gushed out of her hand and snaked into her chest, flinging her back several feet. It felt like she had been hit point blank by a hose on high pressure.
Rarity's hand felt like it had been held up to the shower tap, some resistance but not enough to hurt. Actually, she felt the water from the river still clinging to her body start to evaporate a little, leaving her with a revitalized feeling.
Lightning rose to her feet, "Glad to know that you're alright." She dropped into a fighting stance, "Now let's get chaotic."
= = =
"I told you Rarity could do it!" Sweetie was nearly jumping out of her seat with excitement. The orange haired boy was covering his ears so he didn't have to listen to her cheering. Apple Bloom and Scootaloo were smiling, proudly, but still managing to contain their excitement.
Several tables behind them, another figure was watching the match. Her eyes casually watching these new players who managed to figure out the game so quickly.
= = =
Neither of the girls moved for a few seconds. Each one preparing a move and counter-move. A large wave hit the rock ledge.
"Inferno Gust!"
"Steam Rage!"
Scorching winds clashed with boiling water vapor, leaving both girls winded. However, once again, Rarity's attack left her with a revitalized feeling, despite the growing weakness she also felt.
Lightning noticed this about her as well, 'I've been hitting her with a lot stronger attacks.' She internally thought, 'So why does she look so much more energized than me?' She grit her elongated teeth. "Flash Kick!" She threw her right foot forward, a blue-green apperation of the foot continued forward and hit Rarity square in the chest.
"Spirit Gust!" She called out, launching a pale, spirit like gust of wind at the yellow creature. This time, she felt nothing back from the attack. No pain, no calming sensation, nothing.
Lightning Dust saw this as well. 'That's it!' she yelled in her head, 'The Riverlands heals creatures who use water attacks.' Knowing this, she decided to switch strategies, and ran.
"Hey! Where are you going?" Rarity called out.
"Torrent of Flame!" She was answered with a stream of fire blasted into her face.
Lightning ducked behind a rock, if she was going to do this, she needed time to concentrate. She went back into Krekk's mind. Images and scrapes of memory came running into her head; Gothos Tower, facing Drakness in the Coliseum, spying on- there! She felt a weight around her neck that hadn't been there before. 'Rule number one: Always play on your terms.'
Rarity chased after her opponent, when suddenly the whole world shifted. Unlike when she was deposited here from the drome and when she first ported into Chaotic, there was no flash of light or feeling of being transported. It was more like the location itself changed, instead of her changing location. And what a location.
She was underground in some sort of cave. All around her were cells, with crude looking bars in front of them. A large column rose up into the ceiling, it to was pocketed by cells.
A large sphere of energy exploded just a few feet to her left. She turned around and saw Krekk in front of one of the cells. "Welcome to the Underworld prison. But most people just call it The Pits." He launched another sphere of energy at her. This one exploded right at her hooves, throwing her back a good distance.
= = =
"What in the hay jus' happened?" Apple Bloom asked.
"Don't know, I've gone up against Krekk before, and that never happened." Scootaloo responded.
The figure in the back was now devoting her full attention to the battle.
= = =
Rarity used the cell door to pull herself up. She knew one more attack would finish her. She looked up at her opponent. But with the only light being from the candles and torches on the walls, it was difficult to see anything. 'Wait, the shadows. That might work.'
"Game over, Rarity. Ember Sw-"
"Shadow Strike!" Lomma's shadow suddenly gained a red outline and began crawling up the wall. The ledge Lightning was standing on suddenly crumbled and broke, sending her falling to the bottom of the pit. When she landed, Krekk's body exploded into a frenzy of letters and numbers.
Lightning was once again standing in the drome, with Lomma standing across from her. "The winner of the match: Lady Lomma." The drome master said before Lomma was once again wrapped in the white coded energy and she was once again Rarity.
Both girls removed their scanners from the slots they had been sitting in. Lightning walked over to Rarity with a very sour look on her face. "You." She grabbed the pearl skinned girl's shoulders. "You are unbelievable!" A wide grin spread on her face. "I totally didn't see that last attack coming."
Rarity wrapped her arm around the lime girl's shoulder and the two of them walked out of the drome, "Hey, don't sell yourself short... Lightning Dust was it?" Lightning nodded. "You had me on the ropes for most of the battle. Especially when you changed the location. That was you, right?"
"Guilty as charged."
Both girls returned to the building where Rarity had first arrived, and found a number of other players applauding them.
"That was incredible!"
"You two were smoking in there."
"You got to tell me how you changed the location."
"Okay people, lets let the new girls have some space." The crowd dispersed to let the Cutie Mark Crusaders through. "So," Scootaloo continued, "How does your first drome battle feel?"
"It was awesome!" Lightning exclaimed. "I can't believe I was actually able to shoot fire out of my hands. Well Krekk's hands, but it was still awesome."
Sweetie Belle smiled, "How 'bout you Sis? How does it feel to be a winner?"
"It feels pretty good." She realized she hadn't yet introduced her sister to her new friend. "Sweetie, this is Lightning Dust. Lightning, this is my little sister Sweetie Belle," Sweetie did a small curtsy, "And her friends, Apple Bloom and Scootaloo." Apple Bloom also curtsied while Scootaloo gave a small salute.
"Wait a minute. Aren't you all supposed to be in school right now? Oh dear, I'M supposed to be in school right now. Ms. Harshwhinny is going to be so-"
"Woah! Calm down Sis. Here, I'll take you back." The sisters walked to the circular floor design that Rarity had first been standing on when she arrived. "Stand on one of the red circles, and push the red button on your Scanner."
= = =
Sunset walked to her locker with Rarity, both thoroughly exhausted from their first hour Novel class. "The least she could do is have us read something at least partially uplifting." Rarity complained.
"Don't like Of Mice and Men?"
"It's not that I don't like it. It just leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth."
Sunset opened her locker and swapped out her books. Then she heard a sound that was halfway between a beeping and a ringing coming from Rarity's locker. "What is that?"
Rarity pulled out the Scanner she bought yesterday. The red button on the top of the Scanner was flashing. "I don't know. I only finished the set up this morning." She pushed the button, and her eyes began to glaze over. Two seconds later she looked around her in confusion. "But how- I was just- how could I have-"
"Rarity! Are you okay?"
Rarity looked at Sunset as if just seeing her. "Yes. Sorry, just a little, disoriented." She put the scanner back in the locker and shut the door. "I'll see you later Sunset." With that she left.
Sunset watched her leave then looked back at the closed locker. She then shut her own locker, her mind's internal gears beginning to turn.
= = =
Watching the Belle sister's codes disappear, Lightning Dust gave a short whistle. "From holodecks to transporters. What's next?"
"So," The orange skinned girl, Scootaloo, asked, "you going to head back to your school?"
She shook her head, "Teachers are having some sort of conference today, so I got the day off."
"Want to hang out with us?" Lightning just shrugged and joined the two at one of the tables.
Apple Bloom waved one of the robots over, "Three plates of pancakes and a bottle of hot maple syrup."
"No butter on mine." Scootaloo added. The robot hovered away. "Okay, we have a couple of questions for you."
"Fire away."
"First, how did'ya change the location like that?"
Lightning crossed her arms, "Sorry kids, that's a trade secret."
"Fair enough. Second question, why didn't you fly at all during your match?"
Lighting froze, then promptly facepalmed hard enough to move her chair back.
Rarity opened her locker and took out the blue device. From what her sister told her, she could send a part of her, her code as her sister called it, into Chaotic and still leave the rest of her here to finish school. 'Well, I might as well give it a try.' She hit the red button on top of the scanner and was whisked away to Chaotic. She saw all three Crusaders and Lightning Dust sitting at one of the tables.
"Well, the triumphant returns." the golden haired girl joked when she saw Rarity walking towards them.
"Very funny." She chuckled as she sat down.
A robot floated up to their table, "Would you like anything for lunch?" It asked.
"You girls hungry?" Sweetie asked the group.
"I don't know about the rest of you, but I could go for a sub-sandwich." Scootaloo suggested. The rest of the table agreed that that sounded good.
"Five sub-sandwiches, two without tomatoes," she double checked with her sister to make sure she guessed her order right "and turkey meat."
"Could I get beef instead?" Lightning asked.
"Make it four with turkey and one with beef. Also five glasses of two percent milk."
"You got it." the floating droid then left.
Rarity looked at the scanner in her hand, she had Lomma's scan on the screen. "Lightning, when we were battling. Did you, remember anything that, felt like it wasn't your memory but..."
"But belonged to Krekk?" she finished the fashionista's sentence. Rarity nodded. "I sure did, and I take it you saw some of Lomma's memories."
"I-She was on patrol with Staluk. Then she was testing a new Torrent Krinth- whatever that is." Both girls looked to the younger trio for some answers.
"Okay, do ya remember how we told y'all how you transport from Earth to Chaotic?" Apple Bloom asked, both girls remembered, "Well, that's jus' the first step. You can also transport from Chaotic, to Perim."
"Perim," Sweetie picked up the explanation, "is the world where the Chaotic game is real. Like, really real."
"You mean, that's where the real Lomma and Krekk and Riverlands are." Lightning said. The Crusaders nodded.
"I take it you've all been there."
"Eeyup." Apple Bloom said imitating her brother, "See the transporter will take you to Perim as well." she pointed at the transport pad where a green haired girl in a brown striped sweater was getting on. "You select one of your location cards and transport your code to that location." The girl vanished in a flash of white. "Once you're there, you can use your scanner to scan other locations and any creatures, battlegear, or mugic you find. Then you can use those scans in your drome matches, and online matches."
"Just be careful if you do." Scootaloo added, "Most creatures aren't very trusting of humans." At this point the robot returned with their lunch.
Apple Bloom took a bite of her sandwich, "Well, it more depends on which tribe your dealing with, Overworlders are usually cautious, but they are known to be more open than the other tribes."
"Overworlders. Those are the creatures with the blue cards like Lomma and Vidav, right?" Lightning asked.
"Right." Sweetie Belle continued, "They're mostly human-like or animal people. They control the most territory: mostly forests, mountains, rivers and lakes; with a scattering of different villages and castles. The only major city is Kiru City, the capital."
"What about the Underworld?"
"It's mostly subterranian, hence the name. There is a lot less conformity between the inhabitants. In fact, if it weren't for the ruling body, the Underworlders might start destroying each other. They are also very hostile towards humans. Apparently, we taste good. I'd try and avoid the Underworld if I were you."
Considering some of the 'adventures' her sister and her friends got up to in the past, Rarity was glad they had learned to set some boundaries. However, she was deeply worried by Lightning Dust. She was looking at her scanner with the same look in her eyes that Rainbow Dash got whenever she and Applejack got into one of their dares. It was a look that said 'challenge accepted.'
Scootaloo swallowed a huge bite of her sandwich, "Yeah, your better off exploring Mipedian territory. They control the desert of Al-Mipedim and live mostly around the various oases. They're mostly lizard people and very cool once you get to know them."
"Yeah, if you can find them." Apple Bloom muttered into her milk cup.
"This coming from the fan of the tribe with the least territory."
"Hey, the Danians may only have one major location, but it's plenty big enough for the whole tribe." She pulled out her brown colored scanner and showed the rest of the table a location scan. "Behold, Mount Pillar." It looked like a collection of termite mounds connected by thin bridges.
"Are you insinuating that that thing is a mountain?" Rarity asked.
"Yup. The Danians have carved out the mountain into their home. Gotta admit that's pretty immpresive."
"Yeah? Well those bugs have a long way to go before they're the rulers of Perim."
"And I suppose the Mipedians are going to work up the courage to launch an invasion any time soon?"
"Okay girls," Rarity quickly got between the girls before an actual fight broke out, "there must be some non-violent way you can solve your argument."
"There's a Mipedian versus Danian match going on in the Hotek drome right now." Sweetie Belle suggested. All the girls looked at the screen Sweetie was pointing to. Two boys had just finished setting up their battleboards. The orange skinned boy with a brown buzz-cut had a brown Danian with large green eyes as his creature. The green skinned boy with the baseball cap had a green Mipedian who looked a little like a neighponese dragon wearing armor.
"UltraMax," the drome master said, "Since you accepted Lizardman's challenge, you will be the attacking player. Spin the location randomizer." The orange skinned boy gave it a spin. "The location, Forest of Life."
"Ibiaan attacks Uro." Both players were wrapped in the white transformation energy, leaving behind a huge brownish red bug standing on four legs with two arms, and a large yellowish green dragon lizard in their places.
"Oh, this ought to be good." Scootaloo said, "There is no way Uro is going to let some bug get the best of him."
"Yeah yeah, just watch an see."
The screen showed the Danian, Ibiaan, climbing over a fallen tree. He was scanning the tree line intently, when he was hit from behind by a buzzing sphere of embers. Spinning around quickly the insectoid launched a stream of pebbles at the spot where the attack had come from. Uro suddenly burst into existence as the stone projectiles made contact.
"Wha-What was that?" Lightning asked.
"Ah told you," Apple Bloom answered, "Mipedians are cowards. They're too scared to face their enemies head on so they use underhanded techniques like invisibility to win." Scootaloo shot the young cow-girl a dirty look but said nothing.
Back at the match, Uro was sucking in air before letting it out in a piercing scream. Ibiaan grabbed the sides of his head, the Shriek Shock attack overwhelming him. Before he had a chance to counter attack, Uro had hit him again, this time with a wave of blue-white Spirit Gust attack.
"I will admit Apple Bloom," Scootaloo said with a smirk, "Danians can be dangerous, when they're together. In a one on one match like this however, they don't stand a chance."
Apple Bloom was going to make a retort, but found she didn't have to as Ibiaan activated his battlegear, a Vlaric Shard. The pale blue crystal glowed as nearly a dozen vines erupted from the ground around Uro's feet. Before he had a chance to flee, he was thoroughly immobilized.
"You were saying?" Scootaloo took another bite of her sandwich, aggressively.
It looked like Lizardman was starting to panic, he began cutting away at the vines with swipes of razor sharp air. Unfortunately UltraMax wasn't finished with him. He hit him with a Delerium attack, followed by a massive shout which tore his opponent free from the vines. "Game over, Uro." the insectoid said as he closed in on his prey.
"Ember Swarm!" The same fiery attack from the start of the battle hit Ibiaan square in the face. For a moment nothing happened, Ibiaan just stood there with his head pointed at the trees overhead. Then he brought his head down with a force, and from his mouth came a stream of rust red particles. The spray enveloped the Mipedian before he exploded into code.
The screen returned to the inside of the drome room. "The winner of the match, UltraMax." The drome master announced.
"See. Ah told you Danians are better than Mipedians." Apple Bloom said triumphantly.
"You only won one match. I bet if I took you on right now, I'd trounce you."
"Listen, I'll take you on anytime anywhere!"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"Yeah?"
"Yeah!"
"They are going to be doing this a lot, aren't they?" Lightning asked.
"Oh yeah." Sweetie Belle answered as she finished her lunch.
Rarity was only half listening to the two younger girls argument. Halfway through the match her scanner went off with a notification from the drome masters. 'Lady Lomma. You next Chaotic match is scheduled for tomorrow, at 10:30 AM Central Standard Time. Your opponent will be StoneDraagon.' Rarity wasn't worried about becoming a creature again, she was actually kind of looking forward to it. No, she was worried about her first match against a Chaotic player who had a lot more experience than her.
Tomorrow came quicker than Rarity would have liked it. When bell rang letting the students know it was time to head to third period, she felt even more nervous than she did yesterday. Sending her code to Chaotic, she for a moment hoped she could just let her code deal with the match while she got to continue on with her school work, but there was no such luck as she was her code.
She was on the moving sidewalk leading to the Crellin Drome when she got a call on her scanner, it was Scootaloo. "Hey Rarity. Sweetie just told us about your match today. Got your strategy planned out?"
"Not really." Rarity confessed.
"Oh, well good luck any way." Her scanner went blank. 'Just the kind of pep talk I needed.' Rarity thought to herself sarcastically.
The doors to the drome opened and Rarity entered. On the other side, her opponent was already waiting. He was a large teenage boy with mud colored skin and pale blue hair styled into two spikes. His clothing was a rumpled and stained denim jacket littered with holes, on the left side was a rough design resembling a large dragon.
"I take it you are StoneDraagon?"
"And you're the newbie who got into Chaotic by accident." The boy gave a snort, "I wasn't expecting you to look so prim and proper."
Rarity gave her clothes a once-over, "And what is wrong with looking proper, might I ask?"
The boy slid his red scanner into the Scanner dock, "It's just going to get messed up when I beat you."
Rarity slid her blue scanner into her slot, "Oh it, is, on."
= = =
In the Chaotic food court, Lightning Dust and the CMC watched the two players set up their decks. A few tables away, the same orange haired heckler from Rarity's first match sat with a bunch of other unpleasant looking individuals.
"Gee boss," said a purple skinned boy whose blonde hair covered his eyes, "Why did we all have to watch this match? It's just some fancy girl, Clump is going to trounce her."
"Yeah!" Said another portly teen, "I got scanning to do."
"You will do what I tell you to do!" the ginger snapped. The rest of the group shut up and waited for the match to start. 'There is something about this girl,' he thought to himself 'something that I don't like.'
= = =
Rarity dialed through her creature cards, she was tempted to use Lomma again but decided to try out a different creature instead. 'Laarina is the only other female creature I have, and I'm not ready to try living in a boy's mind just yet.' So she put the four legged scout onto her battle board.
For battlegear she choose the Elixir of Tenacity, and for Mugic she went with the Song of Resurgence. Once her locations were selected the battle began. "Lock your decks." the drome master announced. StoneDraagon's creature was a repulsive looking Underworld troll. 'Fitting.' Rarity thought to herself.
"The attacking player will be... Lady Lomma. Spin the location randomizer." Rarity gave the white dial a good twist, for it to fall on, "Gigantempopolis."
"Laarina attacks, Kughar!" Rarity shouted. As the white transformitive energy collected around her, Rarity felt her waist suddenly grow longer and heavier. When it passed, she was about a half foot shorter than she was, and had four legs growing out of her abdomen.
Her opponent stood a few feet taller than before, and with bulging muscles to match his weight. "Let's get chaotic!"
= = =
Rarity was having trouble just walking as Laarina, how was she going to fight? She had materialized outside the city's gate, on top of what looked like stairs, except that each step was ten feet tall. She debated between going inside the city to look for her opponent, or staying outside. It would make sense for him to be in there, but something in Laarina's mind was telling her to stay out of the city.
Her debate was cut short when the stone above her exploded into gravel. Turning around quickly, she saw her opponent several meters behind her. "Power Pulse!" He screamed, from his fists came a barrage of green energy fists which hit Laarina square in the chest. She was sent flying backwards and down a few of the oversized steps. Somehow finding her footing again, she saw Kughar charging towards her, slowly making his way down the steps. She fired off a Steam Rage attack, but it had little effect on the muscular figure.
At times like this there were two options, Fight or Flight. The survival instinct of standing and fighting off the danger, or running away. If it had been Rainbow or Applejack standing there, they would have fought back against the Underworlder. If it had been Fluttershy or Twilight, they would have chosen to fly away. Sunset and Pinkie might have gone either way, standing their ground or fleeing. But they weren't there, Rarity was, and she choose the third, unmentioned option. She sat down, closed her eyes and did nothing.
= = =
"What is she doing!?!?" Sweetie Belle screamed. The rest of the Crusaders were equally confused.
= = =
Clump had reached his opponent, only to find her sitting down, motionless. In hindsight he could have ended her right then, right there. Instead he did what anyone would do in his position, question it. "What are you doing? Are- are you giving up? Figures, a girl like you can't play the game right." Sighing he lifted his hand, in his palm was a sphere of pure fire. "Any last words before I finish you, pretty lady?"
Laarina placed her hands on the ground in front of her. "Lavalanche." Immediately the stone under Clump's feet turned into red hot magma, burning his hide and washing him further down the stairs.
Rarity stood up and breathed a sigh of relief that her gambol paid off. "Now for a recharge. Song of Resurgence!" If anyone had been watching her battle board, they would have seen one of the blue heptagons over Laarina's picture fly into the blue mugic icon on the left side of her board.
As the seven Mugic notes went up the scale, Laarina was bathed in a pinkish white light that wrapped around her with pink and blue ribbons. The light and music filled her with energy, giving her the strength to fight back.
Down at the bottom of the stairs, Clump had finally recovered from that girls sneak attack. He heard the sound of the Mugic, and he knew that it had healed her injuries. But she had made one fatal mistake, she made him angry. The Lavalanche had melted a trench into the stone stairs, making the climb back up a bit easier. At the top of the trench, Laarina stood there waiting.
"Ash Torrent!"
"Rustoxic!"
Rust met heated ash between the two combatants. Each was saved from any serious harm from the attacks, but still suffered some damage from the spray. As Kughar continued to make his way upward, Rarity ended her attack and moved away from the trench. "Quick Exit!" She fired a small beam of white light at the Underworlder, momentarily blinding him and driving him further into a rage.
He launched an Ectospasm attack at her, making her drop to three legs an stopping her retreat. But before he could bring down the final attack, Rarity let out an ear splitting scream. "Thunder Shout!" Clump had to hold his ears in pain, his eyes forced shut by the wind that was emanating from her mouth. When he opened them, he was back in the drome, as himself, with Laarina standing triumphantly on the other side.
"The winner of the match, Lady Lomma."
= = =
Rarity approached her sister and friends, but instead of congratulating her on her win, her sister looked like she wanted to hit her. "What were you thinking!? Do you have any idea how close you were to getting coded when you pulled that little stunt? Ten energy. You only had ten energy left. If he had attacked you, you would lost the match."
"I was aware of the risks involved. But I needed time to cast my Mugic, not to mention learn how. If I attacked him then and there, it wouldn't have been enough. I had to make him lower his guard."
"Well you certainly accomplished that." Lightning commented. Sweetie was still upset with sister, but had to admit that her plan did work.
= = =
Clump came back to the rest of the group with his head held low. The rest of the group jeering him.
"You can't even beat one newbie girl."
"You don't deserve to be called a Dragon."
"Kick him out of the Horde, Boss!"
Clump looked at the red skinned leader of the 'Dragon Horde,' his back was turned towards the defeated player. "Boss, I'm sorry, I don't know what happened. That girl, she was-"
"Quiet." He interrupted his flunky, "I wasn't sure before, but after seeing that match, I'm now positive about what needs to be done." He turned around slowly, then leaned in very close to Clump's face, making him swallow in fear. "We're going to take down that girl."
Clump breathed a sigh of relief while the rest of the boys were just confused. "Uh, Garble? What are you taking about?" One of them asked.
The leader, Garble, took out his scanner and began sifting through his scans. "I've seen that girl battle twice now. Each time it looked like her back was against the wall, only for her to turn it around and pull out a win. It may just be a coincidence. But I've maintained my record by not believing in coincidences." He looked up at his men. "I want you guys to stay away from her and those three Crusaders she's got as her cheering team. Same for that other newbie girl, Lightning something. If you're in a scheduled match with them, do what you want to, but don't antagonize them." His mouth curved into a wickedly toothy grin, "Not until I give the word that is."
Friday's lunch was chicken and rice tortillas, a surprisingly tasty dish if one was willing to try it. Those that weren't, or had dietary restrictions and reservations, were eating the standard pizza and/or salads. And in the case of Rarity and her friends, doing so while also watching Twilight and Pinkie set up their Chaotic decks.
"I think she uses Danians." Sunset whispered the spectacled teen, "Better use the Dragon Pulse, they usually have low courage."
"But Vinta has much lower wisdom than courage," Rarity countered, "Twilight, you’re better off giving Vinta the Staff of Wisdom."
"Sorry Sunset, but I think Rarity's right." Sunset shrugged and watched Twilight finish choosing her cards.
"Alrighty! Sci-Twi verses Pinkie Pie, start!" Pinkie said, revealing her creature to be, a Mipedian.
"I thought you used Overworld cards, Pinkie?" Applejack asked.
"I did, but then I got this Underworld booster pack so my Overworlders could use some more fire attacks, and I was like 'Wow, these guys are really cool too.' So I started playing both, but then I learned about the Mipedian ability; Invisibility: Surprise, and I thought, 'These guys are just like me. They love to throw surprise parties!' so I got a bunch of Mipedian cards, and then, the other day when we were at that card shop, I-"
"We get it!" Rainbow said, covering the girl’s mouth, "We get it, you like all the tribes. So, are you two going to play or what?"
Pinkie took a bite of her tortilla, "It's Twilight's first time playing, so she gets to choose the location."
"Thank you, Pinkie." Twilight gave her location deck a quick shuffle, then drew the top card. "Mipedim Oasis. Looks like this will be a very quick game."
Fluttershy checked the location's Initiative, then compared Twilight and Pinkie's cards. "Malvadine has more courage than Vinta, so Pinkie goes first." Sunset gave Rarity and Twilight a look that both said, 'I told you so' and at the same time 'best of luck.'
"Let's start things off simple, Squeeze Play."
"I'd hardly call 25 damage simple." Twilight snarked "But luckily I can even the playing field with this," she revealed the Staff of Wisdom "and this." she played a Delerium card, dealing the exact same damage to Pinkie's creature.
"Windslash. Five damage."
"Fearocity, ten damage."
"I reveal and discard my Liqualizar, giving me the ability to use water attacks. Now Steam Rage does five damage."
"Nice move Pinkie, but I think I'm going to win. I use the Mugic, Song of Recovery. This heals my creature by ten, and gives it Air 5 as well."
"Ohh, nice. Wait, not nice."
"I'm afraid so. Now my Unsanity does, ten... damage." Twilight stalled as she realized her attack would fall short.
"You played a good game Twilight, but I win. Torrent of Flame, ten damage."
Twilight sighed and began putting her cards back in her deck. "Good game."
Applejack swallowed her bite of tortilla. "Don't feel too bad Sugar Cube, you just got unlucky that you both got that boost on your first attacks from the location. If it had just been you, I'm sure you would have won."
Rainbow grabbed two of the cards in Pinkie's discard pile, "How come these fire attacks get a boost from a water user anyway?" She gave the cards back to Pinkie and took a bite of her pizza.
"I think it's because it's a STEAM Rage and a TORRENT of Flame." The curly haired girl answered.
"Makes sense to me." Fluttershy said after swallowing a bite of her salad. The rest of the group couldn't really argue with Pinkie's logic and reserved themselves to finishing their various lunches.
"So," Applejack restarted the conversation, "How did you girls do on the Novel test?"
"It wasn't too difficult." Sunset remarked, "Part of it was a little tricky for me, but the rest wasn't too bad."
"Which part?" Rainbow asked.
"Nice try Dash, but you know you aren't supposed to know what's on the test before you take it." The prism haired teen just slumped her shoulders and went back to her lunch, though with less enthusiasm than before, what with the reminder of the test next class period which she once again had barely studied for, despite the offers of assistance from her classmates Fluttershy and Twilight.
Rarity was just about finished with her lunch, but when she looked at the clock her eyes widened. "Something wrong?" Sunset asked.
"What? Oh no. Just remembered something I need to do today." She got up from the table, "Excuse me, I must relieve myself." And with that, she left. Most of her friends resumed eating, but the former Equestrian kept watching the pearl skinned girl as she exited the cafeteria. It was probably nothing, but Sunset's time as the head of Canterlot High's rumor mill told her that her friend was hiding something. = = = Rarity made a light jog over to her locker and pulled out her Scanner. A few button pushes and a whoosh of energy later, and she was once again in the Chaotic Port-Court. It didn't take long for her to find her sister and her friends sitting at a table.
"Did I miss it?" she asked, pulling into an empty seat.
"Nope, they jus' started." Apple Bloom answered. On one of the screens, Lightning Dust (as Krekk) was flying around a large stone cavern, with the lower levels of the location being flooded with red orange lava. On a rocky ledge was what looked like a cross between a mushroom and a very angry ant. The creature was currently lobbing fire balls at Lightning.
"You're going down, Rookie!" the creature called, throwing another Flame Orb. Krekk dodged it by flying behind a stalactite which shattered as the attack made contact.
“Ember Swarm!” Krekk threw his arm back as glowing embers flew towards his opponent. The attack exploded against the creature’s chest in a direct hit.
“Wow, she’s really good at flying.” Rarity observed.
“Yeah, she figured it out almost as fast as I did.” Scootaloo said, praising Lightning while also boosting.
“Time to clip your wings.” Back in the battle, Lightning’s opponent was getting really fed up with her continuous dodging. “Windslash!” Several arcs of razor sharp air sped towards the air-born Underworlder.
Lightning Dust dove towards the lava to try and avoid the barrage, but more of the attacks were being launched. She managed to avoid one, only for another to cut through her right arm. Though her arm remained in one piece, the pain was very much real, and distracting. Two more Windslashes struck both her wings, causing her to fall towards the lava.
‘Pull up pull up pull up pull up!’ Against all odds, she somehow managed to flap her wings enough to get her to one of the rocks jutting out of the lava.
The other Chaotic player watched her miraculous recovery with a definite feeling of anger. “Time to finish this. Shadow Strike!” Just as in her match against Rarity, malicious shadows raced towards Lighting to finish her off. But, just as lightning never struck the same place twice, Lightning Dust never fell for the same trick twice.
The second before the attack made contact, a glowing red shield appeared on Krekk’s arm. The shadowy attack struck the shield and dissipated.
“Nice try, Tharax!” Lightning taunted, “But this Dragon Pulse will protect me from any of your fear attacks.”
“Then I’ll just have to burn you to Kingdom Come!” His hands burst into flame, “Torrent of Flame!” Krekk rolled out of the way, but still took some damage from the heat of the attack.
“Flame Orb!” A ball of pure fire launched out of Lightning’s hands and exploded before her opponent, sending a large amount of stone and dust into the air as well.
But Lightning wasn’t finished with her assault, “Inferno Gust!” The scorching wind further damaged her opponent and destroyed the rocky ledge he was standing on. As he began running backwards to try and escape the collapse, Lightning put her hands together to charge up her last attack.
Tharax found he had trouble outrunning the crumbling ledge but managed to grab a rock that was jutting out from the new cliff. Looking at his opponent, he found him/her standing with an ethereal blue sphere with a red core between his/her hands. “Oh no.”
“Ektospasm!” Throwing her hands forward, Lightning launched the attack towards the trapped target.
“No no no NO!” Was all he managed to get out before he exploded into code. = = = The gold haired athlete walked up to the table like a prom queen. “I hope you all found my victory sufficiently entertaining.”
“An impressive display of power, Miss Dust.” Rarity congratulated, “I did enjoy that little flourish you added to that last attack.”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it.” She said with an overly dramatic bow. This girl was reminding her more and more of Rainbow Dash.
Apple Bloom stood up, “Well, now that we know you tow can handle yourselves in the dromes, are you ready to see what the real Perim is like?”
Both the older girls began smiling quite excitedly.
“Bring it on.”
“I am quite ready.”
“Great. Lightnin’, you’ll be with me. Sweetie will be with her sister.”
“And Scootaloo will be…”
The purple haired teen shrugged, “I’ll be collecting some scans by myself. I’ve got a match in a few days that I want to be ready for.” With that she ran off towards the transport pads.
“We’ll be in the Riverlands. Where are you two going?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Forest of Life, lots a’ good spots to check out in there.”
“Then we will see you two later.” The two groups parted and made for different Transporter pads. After selecting the desired location, the two sisters disappeared in a familiar whoosh of energy. = = = For the most part, it looked the same as when she had had her first battle here. The same damp brown rocks, same rushing river, and the same not quiet blue sky overhead. The major difference this time was that Rarity was still Rarity. It also felt real, not that she couldn’t feel anything during her matches, but now she could feel the rock through her boots, she could feel the wind on her own skin.
“Ow!” And she could feel the mosquitos biting her neck. “I should have packed some bug-spray.”
“Come on Sis,” Sweetie said, “I want to show you somewhere real cool.” With that, the younger of the two ran off, leaving her big sister to follow.
Unbeknownst to both, however, from underneath a rock, a pair of blood-red eyes followed them.
