NaNo2014: Shadows of Friendship: Part 22

((Second update today, yesterday's writing went up @ 1:20am or around there...))

“But...” Further discussion was cut off by the bird swooping in for another attempt. Twilight heard Fluttershy yelp and Applejack snap, “No yer don’t, yer feathered menace!” before there was sound of hooves connecting with something hard.

With a painful screech the bird went tumbling down the ledge, nearly hitting Twilight on its way down and fell further again, below the fog line. The unicorn peered over the edge, trying to see it but there was too much mist in the way for her to see what had happened.

“Twilight? Yer okay?” Applejack bellowed down to her, sounding worried. “Where’re ya?”

Twilight thought for a moment then sent up a flare of light, an emergency beacon that had been the first thing that Celestia had ever taught her, just in case something happened. At the time she had not seen the use for it, but now, with her friends out of sight, she recognised that it would help.

The burst of purple light that her power manifested bathed the area in a slightly eerie glow, but allowed the ponies on the trail to see each other. Pinkie Pie waved down to Twilight who could not help but smile ruefully and wave back.

Applejack started tying her rope around herself as Twilight tried to work out how far up the side of the cliff she could get via her ledge. The answer was not very far and the unicorn let out a frustrated huff. She had been learning a teleportation spell when Celestia had stopped her studies for the holiday and she was not sure how confident she was that she would be able to cast it and not put herself a couple of foot to the left or right. Appearing in the middle of the rock face would be a gruesome way to go and would not aid anyone and placing herself in midair would be just as bad.

Twilight’s train of thoughts derailed when Applejack threw the other end of the rope down to her. “Tie it roun’ yerself.” The earth pony filly called down, “I’ll pull ya up.”

Twilight was not too sure about it. She knew Applejack was supposedly very strong, Pinkie had mentioned her strength being impressive several times and part of being an earth pony was being stronger than the other two types, but she was not sure that it would be enough to manage her weight. Still she followed direction, trusting her friend and let out a startled yelp as her hooves left the floor.

She was a few yards off of being safely on the higher ledge when there was a deafening screech and the bird was on them, seizing the rope and dragging both Twilight and Applejack into the air. Neither pony knew what to do as they were pulled higher and higher into the air, easily losing their other friends in the fog. The only one that managed to keep up with the bird was Rainbow Dash and even she struggled a little with her injuries.

Twilight kind of wanted to demand that the bird put them down, but she had no idea how far it was to the floor below and she did not have wings. Her Alicorn form did but she did not know how to cause the change and she refused to risk another pony’s life on a whim. Applejack seemed to be of a similar mind as she remained silent right up until they passed a ridge and the bird let go, dropping them both. They only fell a foot before they connected with solid ground, but it felt like a blessing to both ground bound ponies. A tainted one as the huge bird landed in front of the and squawked at them furiously, pecking at the air just in front of them, but a blessing none the less.

“What is tha’ bird?” Applejack asked as she narrowly avoided being pierced by the huge beak, which snapped the rope connecting the two ponies.

Twilight laughed, a nervous, slightly hysterical laugh as she realised she did not know. Once again she did not know something important. This whole day so far had been full of things she did not know or could not remember and she was going a little bit crazy because of it. She was the one with the answers, she never ever either did not have answers or could not find them out. “I don’t know, I really don’t know...”

“I do.” Rainbow called as she hovered between Applejack and Twilight, glaring at the huge clearly carnivorous bird before her, “It’s a winged-beast. A duel monster, just like those Silver Fang. Must be the third task.”

They did not have a chance to discuss further as the duel monster in question took off, the down draft nearly knocking both non-winged ponies off of the ridge and sending Rainbow Dash tumbling through the air. Twilight saved her from being pierced by the sharp beak of the worrying quick, but not very agile bird by blasting the winged-beast with a bolt of her magic. It let out a screech and tumbled a few feet and by the time it had righted itself, so had Rainbow.

The pale blue pegasus swooped over the heads of Applejack and Twilight as she tried to row for height, only to find that she did not have the strength left in her to manage more than a few yards higher. That was fine though as Applejack managed to tie the cut rope together and make a lasso that she used to catch one of the creature’s legs as it chased her. Twilight grabbed her as she started sliding forward and tried to prevent the bird taking off with them holding onto the rope by conjuring a heavy weight that she tied to the end with her magic. It helped a little, giving Rainbow a chance to buck the bird in one of its eyes, causing it to let out an agonised screech and lash out at everything in range. The rope snapped again and both earth pony and unicorn went tumbling as the now half-blind duel monster tried to eat Rainbow.

The pegasus was no foal and knew she could not outrun the bird as she was. Instead she took cover in a narrow cave that provided enough cover that the winged-beast would not be able to get her.

“Hey!” Twilight yelled, casting another beam at the duel monster and fumbling for her deck, aware of at least one thing within it that could fly, “Leave her alone!”

“I think yer made it mad.” Applejack commented nervously as its head snapped around and it narrowed its one good eye at them, as if deciding that it really did not like them and they looked tasty. The screech it let out as it turned towards them, deciding to come back for Rainbow Dash, was deafening and all three ponies covered their ears with their hooves to try and block out the high pitched squawk. 

That gave the bird the opening it needed, allowing it to rake the ridge and seize Twilight in its talons. The unicorn let out a terrified and pained cry as she was once again wrenched from the solid ground, this time crushed in a painfully tight grip.

This was it. She had not only failed to beat Nightmare Moon’s trials, not only failed Princess Celestia when she had been counting on her, but she was going to die here. She could not breathe with the talons squeezing her so hard and even if she could, the fall when the bird dropped her would kill her.

“Hey!” Twilight let out a sharp squeak as Fluttershy of all ponies flew up in the bird’s face. She could not see what was going on, but she could hear that the normally placid and sweet pegasus was furious, “You do not hurt my friends!”

The winged-beast hovered in place, its grip loosening slightly as it squawked at her furiously.

“No. You put her down right now!” Fluttershy snapped, her tone sharp and stern. Twilight could almost imagine her pointing at the ground with her hoof.  

The bird shook its great head and yet its grip loosened again and Twilight found herself having to adjust herself so she did not slip between the claws and fall to her doom.

“Put. Her. Down.” Fluttershy demanded again. The unicorn was stunned as the bird actually chirped, the tone sounding apologetic as it moved towards the rock below. Fluttershy descended with it, moving into Twilight’s field of vision and look she was giving the creature explained its sudden obedience. Twilight herself would not want to disobey the pegasus if she was looking at her the way she was staring at the winged-beast.

It slowly and carefully released Twilight onto the ground and bowed its head apologetically before taking off, the down beat blowing everyone back as it took off into the sky. Twilight was surprised to see a rather frazzled looking Rarity and a slightly less bouncy than normal Pinkie Pie were there too.

NaNo2014: Shadows of Friendship: Part 3

“No problem Twilight!” Spike nodded, keeping a tight grip on the saddle bag as he returned to Dark Moon’s side.

“Since this is just a demonstration duel and apparently your letter is so important, how about we both start with just a thousand life points?” Lightning asked as he stepped into the red circle on the other side of the grid and stepped on his sigil. His side of the grid lit up in a blue that was so light it was almost white, the same colour that White Lightning’s magic had always been before his horn had snapped. “Mares first, of course.” He gestured to her in a mocking version of a bow.

“One thousand points is fine by me.” Twilight agreed, only to become startled when the box in front of her circle lit up with the number ‘1000’ in it.

“No more having to do life points manually.” White Lightning boasted to the crowd, “The DuelRune grid does that for you.”

Twilight was actually impressed as she placed her deck on the square of solid light that had appeared in front of her. It was hard enough to make runes do anything like addition or subtraction without manually putting in the input, yet alone making them remember things. Somehow he was literally getting the runes within the grid itself to change in order to provide the life point counter and while it would mean that you would have to reset the grid for every duel, which meant a little more maintenance, the purple unicorn could quite easily see the benefits and doubted that many people would object.

“Two cards face down.” Twilight informed Lightning, “And I summon the Coltic Guardian, in attack mode!”

The DuelRune grid shone brightly for a moment, then a young Eath pony stallion appeared before her in a swirl of autumn leaves, with a deep, mossy green coat and long, neatly platted, yellow mane and tail, protected by impressive looking silver and green armour and holding a sword between his teeth, over which he glowered at White Lightning.

“Since my Guardian can’t attack this turn, it’s your move.” Twilight continued, gesturing to her former classmate.

“One move is all I need.” White Lightning smirked at her, “Come forth, my might Blue Eyes White Dragon!”

Twilight gulped as her Coltic Guardian was dwarfed by the huge white scaled dragon that appeared in a blaze of light and a crackle of electricity. The mighty dragon seemed to peer down at the opposing creature as if contemplating whether to eat him for lunch. To her Guardian’s credit, he did not do anything more than peer up at it in reply as if considering the best way to strike the beast down.

Though Twilight did not appreciate the difference, the crowd did and while some outside the ring of spectators were terrified of the dragon, those who knew enough about the DuelRune grids to know that before the monsters had always been kind of static and nowhere near this interactive, were impressed.

“Blue Eyes!” Lightning called, over confident grin plastered across his features as his three thousand attack point beast stared down at Twilight’s fourteen hundred attack point Warrior, “Destroy her Guardian and end the game!”

The huge dragon, which was easily the same height as the nearby buildings reared back it’s great head and opened its maw, building up a blast of light and electricity before loosing it to strike the Warrior below who did not stand a chance.

Or would not have done if Twilight had not called out, “I don’t think so!” with a grin as she activated one of her face down cards, “Magic Cylinder! It negates your dragon’s attack and you take the same amount of life point damage as its attack points!”

The beam of light entered one of the two multi-coloured cylinders and exited the other, shooting straight back at the dragon, who let out a furious roar and shattered into a million tiny, shimmering pieces.

White Lightning’s life points hit zero almost instantly.

“I don’t remember that being in your deck.” Lightning commented, his tone neutral though his expression was anything but. Instead an odd mix of curiosity, anger and excitement featured prominently upon his face as Twilight stepped off of the sigil and packed away her deck.

“I might not have played much since you left school, but I’ve kept upgrading my deck.” Twilight replied with a nervous smile before turning to her companion, “Spike, we need to go.”

“But Twilight…”

“Now, Spike.” Twilight’s tone brokered no argument. The dragonet scurried to Twilight’s side as she settled the saddle bag back on her rear. Before he could climb up the unicorn levitated him onto her back and the crowd parted for her again, this time more in awe than anything. Before anyone could say anything about how easily she had won that duel, Twilight galloped away to somewhere a little more private.

“You know,” Spike commented when Twilight finally slowed down, “We could have done the letter there rather than racing away like that.”

“I didn’t want to cause a panic.” Twlight shook her head, using that as the excuse rather than the fact that she had felt awkward being stared at by that many ponies and that White Lightning had creeped her out a bit. It did not help her mood at all that seeing his broken horn reminded her that while her special talent was magic, it could be taken away from her just as easily as Lightning had lost his and she did not know what she would do if she ever lost it. “Now please Spike, take a letter.”

“Fine, fine.” Spike grumbled, pulling out a quill and parchment and putting it to paper. “Ready.”

“Dear Princess Celestia,” Twilight started, smiling slightly as Spike started scribbling it down, rather proud of the young dragonet who had worked so hard to learn how to write. She had been studying under Princess Celestia for as long as the baby dragon had been alive and Spike had been desperate to help her in any way he could. In the end she had caught him copying her written work in a rather sloppy scrawl and had started teaching him in what little spare time she had. “I have been diligently continuing my studies and have found that we may be on the precipice of disaster...”

“Pre-ci…” Spike looked at her in obvious confusion causing her to sigh and remind herself that he was still learning the language. He was a baby dragon after all.

“The edge?” She tried instead, discarding some of the bigger words she had been about to offer in the place of ‘precipice’ and nodding when Spike wrote that down without a problem. “I have found evidence that the Mare in the Moon is in fact the Alicorn Sorceress, Nightmare Moon and that she plans to return during this Summer Sun Celebration to try and bring an eternal night.” Twilight dictated slowly enough for Spike to keep up with her. “Something must be done before this disas… can happen.” She changed what she was going to say midword, reminding herself that Spike wouldn’t be able to spell it, “I await your reply, your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Twi...light...Spar...kle.” Spike finished the letter off with a flourish and a grin.

“Alright, Spike, send it.” Twilight ordered, only to frown when her companion hesitated, “What?”

“Now?” The purple dragon asked even as he rolled up the letter and sealed it with a thin red band. “I mean she’s going to be really busy with the celebration, it’s only a couple of days away.”

“I know, Spike, but that’s the point. If Nightmare Moon is returning, then the Princess has to be warned.” The mare replied, frustrated, “I’ve wasted enough in responding to Lightning’s bait as it was and it’s imperative that she gets that letter right away.”

“Imperative?” Spike asked confused.

“Important!” Twilight exploded in frustration, trying not to take it out on Spike but unable to bottle it up much more when she knew she had taught Spike the meaning of ‘imperative’ last week.

“Alright, but you’re allowed to have fun.” Spike objected, before loosing a small green flame that seemed to burn up the letter. The ashes floated in the air for a moment before becoming sparkles that shimmered as they shot upwards, over the rooftops and headed towards the palace. “And I bet she already knows. I mean its Princess Celestia. She knows everything.”

“Even if she does, at least I’ve sent my letter. I couldn’t just find out that without trying to warn her.” The filly replied, feeling a weight lift off of her shoulders as she trotted towards the library that was home. It had not started that way. Originally it had been her and a few books, but over the course of her studies she had steadily built up her own personal library of research texts and copies of books she had found interesting in the stacks of the school and palace libraries.

She always felt more comfortable amongst the lengthy volumes than she did amongst other ponies and after running into the one pony she had both looked forward to seeing again and dreaded meeting once again she wanted nothing more than to return to her beloved books and hide until she was certain he was gone.

Spike seemed to know what she needed and the moment they were through the door, he cleared a space for her on the desk and pulled a golden box down from its hiding place behind a huge text on dragon care that Twilight had memorised years ago when she had first hatched him.

Twilight herself dumped her bag by the door and flopped down on the cushion next to the rather worn wooden desk, staring at the box for a few moments before seeming to make up her mind and opening it.

Spike knew why she had hesitated before opening the golden box. It contained the fragments of an Ancient Equigyptian artefact that her dam-sire, Treasure Trove, had brought home from one of his many trips abroad. Supposedly it was cursed but neither Twilight nor Spike had seen evidence of such a thing. Inside the golden box with its odd eye like symbol were about fifty pieces of an ancient puzzle that Treasure Trove had said was ‘the ultimate test.’ Twilight had been trying to complete it for about eight years.

Not how this is going to go in Clanverse

Yugi watched the Nile flow past and realised something.

This was it.

The war with Voldemort was over, Atem had gotten his name and memories back, and tomorrow they were going to Duel for possibly the final time.

Tears flowed down the Hikari’s face.

It wasn’t fair.

It was and it wasn’t.

It was fair because if Yugi won, Atem would finally get to rest, after five thousand years.

But it wasn’t fair because they’d been a team for over ten years and Atem wouldn’t be having to make this journey if the Death Eaters hadn’t killed the body that he’d been using for the last seven years in the final battle against Voldemort, causing the Pharaoh to end up back in the Puzzle, and inside Yugi.

Atem had once sworn that they would always be a team, and yet now he was going to leave Yugi forever.

He’d explained his reasons, saying that he couldn’t let the shadows fall into the wrong hands, that he couldn’t share Yugi’s body for the rest of Yugi’s life and that it was time for him to find out where and when he’d come from.

Yugi had fought to get Atem’s name for him, to help him defeat Zorc, but now, with his deck set and the cruise boat heading down the River Nile, it had sunk in that this was it, their last night as yami and hikari.

Yugi wiped his face with the back of his hands. He had to let Atem take over to construct his deck. He and the Pharaoh had had a conversation earlier, in which Yugi had demanded that Atem didn’t go easy on him. It was supposed to be a test of Yugi’s true skill and whether it was time for Atem to leave. It wouldn’t be a proper test if Atem went easy on him, and had told the Pharaoh he would be furious if Atem dared to go easy on his hikari.

For this reason, Yugi had left the Gods out of his deck.

They were Atem’s cards, he’d been the one that had won them in Battle City, and he was the one that they answered to without question, even Yugi had trouble with them on occasion.

Yugi closed his eyes and entered the corridor between the Soul Rooms, knocking on Atem’s door and waiting.

Atem pulled it open, took one look at his hikari and opened his mouth, “Yugi…”

“I’m ready, I think.” Yugi said before Atem could say too much more, “I know you have to do this, and I still want you to go at me full pelt. It won’t be fair if you don’t.”

“I know.” Atem said, his voice tinged with sadness. “Should I knock on your door when I’m ready?”

“I think I’m gonna go to sleep.” Yugi said, looking at the ground, “I want to be at my best tomorrow, so you can have the body… if you want…” Yugi trailed off.

Yami put a hand under his Hikari’s chin as he realised how badly he was shaking and tilted the young man’s face up.

Tears flowed down Yugi’s face.

“We don’t have to do this.” Atem said softly, though Yugi could tell his heart wasn’t in it, “Ask and I’ll stay.”

“I can’t.” Yugi whispered back, “It’s unfair to you and it’s selfish of me.”

“Yugi, you’re the least selfish person I’ve ever known!” The Pharaoh protested, “I don’t have to leave, I don’t really want to…”

“You do though, or you wouldn’t have asked me to ask you to stay!” Yugi blurted out, “It’s time for us to move on and move apart and…” Yugi’s voice cracked and he fled into his soul room, locking the door and locking Atem out.

Atem just stood there for a few minutes, not really knowing what to do or say. Everything Yugi had said was true, Atem did want to finally rest, and he did want to leave Yugi in peace… asking Yugi to ask him to stay had been Atem’s final get out clause, and if the Pharaoh was honest with himself, he was scared.

He took control of their body and smiled sadly at the view that he opened his eyes too.

The River Nile, the river a deep blue to match the skies reflected in it, where the river mud didn’t tint it, in front of them as far as the eye could see. The night sky, beautiful and peaceful, the stars that twinkled reflecting in the waters…

Atem wondered if Yugi had chosen this especially for him.

The Pharaoh sighed and turned away as someone came up on deck, heading for his… no Yugi’s room and the last time he’d ever construct a deck for a Duel.

-----------------------------------------------

“Yu…” Harry trailed off before getting too far, the young man in question looking over at him out of old habit. Crimson eyes and a more regal pose told him that this wasn’t Yugi, but Yami… sorry Atem… who’d been given control of their body. “Atem.”

“Harry?” Atem asked as he looked over, confused, “Yugi and I thought everyone was asleep.”

“Can’t sleep. I guess you’re ready for tomorrow though.” Harry half asked and was surprised when Ya…Atem shook his head. “But…?”

“Yugi’s deck is prepared, I have to make mine.” The Pharaoh looked wistful and unhappy, “Yugi knows most of my tactics but he’s demanded I give him a proper duel. To be fair to Yugi I can’t go easy on him any more, I stopped years ago. He’s nearly had me in so many tournaments now that I really think tomorrow he might actually beat me officially.”

Harry smiled sadly and then tried to cheer up as a shadow crossed Yami’s face, “How’s he taking it?”

“Hard.” Yami admitted, “I think no matter what happens tomorrow, it’s going to be hard on him. He’ll need his friends more then ever.” The Pharaoh’s hand went to the chain around his neck without him thinking, the silver cartouche that Tea had brought him, on a much shorter chain then the Puzzle, caught the moonlight and the hieroglyphs that spelled the Pharaoh’s name sparkled in the light.

“I’ll be there for him.” Harry said, with a determined look that didn’t look out of place or unusual on the seventeen year old teenager who’d survived a war, killed a Dark Lord and saved most of the school. “We’ll always be your friends too, you know that right?” He asked the Pharaoh who looked surprised and then nodded.

“I know.” Yami said, sounding grateful, “Thank you Harry.” Yami nodded and walked down the stairs to the lower levels, heading for Yugi’s room.

Harry watched him go; unsurprised that he’d seen tears in the Pharaoh’s eyes.

Yugi and Yami may have thought that everyone but them was asleep but actually no one was.

Some of the group had been dreading this point for years; others hadn’t long been initiated into their group but knew that Yami would move on tomorrow.

The Pharaoh thought they were all friends of Yugi’s and were coming to support the hikari in his final duel with his ‘brother’ but the truth was they were all coming to watch and say their farewells.

Joey, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Tea, Tristan, the Muto twins’ Grandpa and Yugi’s parents, Malik, Isuzu, Obeon, even Seto and Mokuba were all coming to watch the Ceremonial Duel and say goodbye if Yugi won.

It wasn’t fair for Yugi and Yami to have gone through so much, only to be ripped apart once everything was settled.

But then nothing in their lives ever had been fair, and maybe it was time for Yami to rest.

Harry just wasn’t looking forward to watching the Mutos be forced into a duel in which a real victory meant losing a friend.