NaNo2014: Shadows of Friendship: Part 20

“Yeah, right, I’m supposed to believe some awesome flying squad was just passing through the Everfree when a demonic Princess passed through and just happened to tell them that the best flyer in all of Equestria was passing through? The only part I believe is that I’m the best.” Dash snorted, “And even if it was true, you introduced yourself by attacking me and when you lost sight of me, you went after my friends and that’s not okay. Now go away, I’m not joining your team and I’m not letting you hurt my friends, not even Princess Twilight. I might not know her very well, but she’s worth a million of you.”

“Wrong choice, Rainbow Dash.” The mare growled out, launching herself at her. Dash narrowly escaped the strike by folding her wings, jumping off of the cloud and dropping like a stone out of the sky. The three evil pegasi followed her down at high speed, not wanting to lose her, only for Dash to open her wings at the last minute and pull up. The mare managed to copy her antics, soaring up after her, but the two stallions collided with the ground, hard and burst into clouds of purple and black mist.

“Two down.” Rainbow panted, trying to ignore the pain in her side and the complaints of her wings as she climbed again, fully aware that the mare was on her tail. “Just one to go…”

“Yes,” The mare shot up in front of her, forcing Dash to break hard, making her let out a pained whimper as her muscles, which were pushed to their limits, screamed for her to stop. “But that last one is me,” The mare smirked, “Nightingale. And I always deliver.”

“Yeah well, not this time.” Dash snorted, diving down and skimming the river, trying to keep an eye on where Nightingale was. “How the hell does a Shadow creature have a name, anyway?”

“If you have to know,” Dash started and nearly tumbled into the water as Nightingale pulled up alongside her, looking smug, “My brothers and I were normal ponies before we were banished to the Shadows. We live there now and when we’re defeated in this world, we just end up back in the dark. You’ll be joining us soon. Nightmare Moon has sworn it.”

“No way.” Dash snapped back, barging Nightingale and rowing for height, fully aware she was slowing down, “Even if you get me, my friends will fix it and I’ll be me again before you know it.”

“Not if your mortal form is dead.” Rainbow did not have time to react to that as Nightingale collided with her and forced her down into the river. The pair of pegasi plunged into the deep river, just down from where the others had crossed and Dash found herself caught in the currents.

Nightingale transformed into purple mist and fled, leaving Rainbow in the river alone. She struggled and fought against the current desperately heading for the surface, but the current was too strong for her and her muscles were too heavy from the heavily draining flying she had been doing before. The lack of rest between her practises and now and the fact she had had no chance to take a deep breath before she had been plunged into the waters did not help as she struggled for air.

Then, just as her world was going dark something orange plunged into the river next to her and grabbed her before pulling on a rope with her teeth. Somepony had to be on the other end of it as they were slowly dragged to shore but Dash was not conscious to see them touch down on dry land.

Twilight watched in stunned horror as Fluttershy shoved Applejack aside and started trying to get Rainbow Dash breathing again, her shock breaking a little as she heard cackling from above. She looked up as a shadow passed over them and revealed itself to be the same pegasus mare who had driven Dash into the water.

Something in Twilight snapped when she saw the mare was coming in for a fresh strike as they tried to save their friend and the puzzle glowed brightly, the same changes overcoming Twilight’s form as she stared up at the pegasus.

Nightingale pulled up sharply when she saw the unicorn grow taller and wings sprouted from her back. Wide purple eyes narrowed and turned a bitter, angry ruby red as the heavily damaged wings spread to cover the alicorn’s back and rump and dark magic swirled around her like flames. She was no fool. She recognised power when she saw it and the alicorn before her was nothing but power.

Still she had sworn that she would deal with the Princess and her guards when she had been summoned. Nightmare Moon had promised freedom for her and her brothers if they managed it so alicorn or unicorn, Princess Twilight was going down and going down hard.

“What’s the matter, Princess?” Nightingale sneered, glad at she did not have to outrun an alicorn in the skies. Rainbow Dash had proved a surprisingly good challenge and Nightingale was tired and sore. Up in the skies, however, she had the advantage. “Too afraid to fly? Oh wait, you can’t. Those wings wouldn’t lift a butterfly, yet alone a fat mare like you.”

Twilight glanced over her shoulder when she heard Rainbow coughing and spluttering behind her, bringing up the water she had swallowed and the momentary distraction gave Nightingale the opening she was looking for. She rammed into the Alicorn, sending her sprawling before rowing for height.

The Princess ignored the concerned calls of her allies as she carefully watched Nightingale’s flight trajectory. Just because she could no longer fly, it did not mean she did not know what to expect of an aerial combatant and the pegasus was overconfident. She chuckled darkly as Nightingale swooped in to finish her, taking a leaf from her earlier battle and calling up a card from her deck but not a monster this time.

Instead the mare, who, if her muzzle and ears were any indication, was actually of a similar shade of coat to Rainbow Dash, went crashing into a wall of light and bounced off, hitting the floor hard. One wing wrenched out of place in the collision leaving the pegasus in a great deal of pain as she picked herself up and just as ground bound as Twilight.

“You’ll pay! You’ll pay!” Nightingale screamed at her as she charged her, lowering her head with the intent to ram the alicon. Twilight dodged it easily and tripped the furious shadow spirit. She stumbled and staggered a few steps further than she had intended giving the Princess enough time to blast her with the same spell she had been using to keep the creatures from earlier at bay.

It sent Nightingale tumbling, the already injured pegasus going sliding across the ground before coming to a halt at the water’s edge, her goggles going tumbling into the river. Fear was clear on her features as Twilight approached, she knew she could not win. That had been clear from the moment that she had lost her ability to fly, but accepting defeat meant losing her chance to get her and her brothers out of the dark void they had been trapped in for so long. Even now if she died she would just return to that dark place instead of moving on. She had to get away.

The Princess seemed to have no intention of letting her do that as she stood before her, anger clear and magic crackling around her. Nightingale cowered, hoping that showing that she knew she was beaten would get her off lightly or make the Alicorn make a mistake.

“You hurt my friend,” Twilight snapped, her voice stern and disapproving as she glowered down at the terrified shadow spirit, “Trespassed in my soul, and you’ve lost at your own little twisted game.”

That was far too true for Nightingale’s liking and she let out a whimper before begging, “Please,” She tried, “I’m sorry. I didn’t know...”

“Yes you did, don’t lie, it only makes it worse.” The Alicorn hissed at her, cutting her off, “You were aiming to kill Rainbow Dash when you drove her into the river.”

“Please, I’m sorry,” Nightingale backed up, knowing she was in trouble, “Please, I’m beaten, you don’t need to...”

“Twilight.” Fluttershy called, causing the purple former-unicorn to perk an ear up, twitching it slightly in her direction. It was the only indicator that she had heard the pale yellow pegasus but Fluttershy cantered up to the Princess’s side and then stood between her and Nightingale. “You’re better than this. You’re not Nightmare Moon.”

Red eyes narrowed a little further as Twilight harrumphed and backed up a couple of steps, giving the flyer a little more room, her anger clear. “She hurt Rainbow Dash.”

“I know.” Fluttershy informed her, her voice stronger than normal. She had a soft but worried smile as she glanced towards the blue filly who was looking a little shaky but otherwise okay, “But Rainbow’s okay now. Princess Celestia wouldn’t want you to fall to the power and neither does Rainbow, right?” The last was directed to Rainbow Dash who shook her head, “See?”

“But...” Twilight started.

“A little kindness goes a long way.” The animal loving pegasus pony told her softly, before looking at Nightingale, “If we let you go, will you leave us alone?”

“I...yes, I swear.” Nightingale nodded rapidly, having already decided to stay far away from the possessed Alicorn in the castle in the middle of the forest and terrified of the dark flames licking around the Alicorn before her. She was fully aware that the Shadows she could feel from the Princess could do so much worse to her then kill her current form and send her soul back to the darkness and wanted nothing more than to get as far away from her as possible. If she could not win, after all, she had to survive, for her brothers.

“She’s not a threat. You can let her go.” Fluttershy told Twilight with all the care offered to one of the more dangerous creatures the pegasus dealt with on a daily basis. The angry Alicorn snorted but backed up a little more, watching as her friend turned to the Shadowbolt. “Are you hurt?” She asked, showing the same concern that she gave any pony.

Nightingale looked started as she nodded, extending her wrenched wing as far as she could. Fluttershy let out a worried sound as she started examining it, “This is going to hurt and you’ll need to rest it.” She warned, “I’d say for you to get this done properly by a Doctor, but do shadow things even have Doctors?”

“N...no.” Nightingale admitted, startled by the question, “You want to heal me?”

“I can’t heal it, but I can put it right so it’ll heal right by itself.” Fluttershy offered, “If you want. I mean.”

“Y...yes, thank you.” She stammered, nodding rapidly. Her form would reset when she was sent back into the darkness but she had no intention of going back yet and a functional wing would go a long way to helping her avoid the demon Alicorn that taken over the forest.

C.N. April 2014: Digital Distraction Part 13

The flight had been long, the hostesses rude until they had seen that she had actually been booked into first class and wasn’t just trying to sneak in, the airplane food had been expensive and she was really just looking forward to a good rest before the demo started.

She still wasn’t sure if she had gotten an invite on her own merits. Though the letter she had gotten with her invitation had requested her attendance as both a reporter and a gamer, she had not received one until after her talk with Pegasus. She had a sneaking suspicion that the CEO of Industrial Illusions had bribed them to let her in.

She had been one of the last to arrive at the docks and had been surprised to find she recognised the greater majority of the people there. Almost all of them were World Class Duellists. The only one who wasn’t looked like Kari Ironhide and was fussing at the Duellist in question.

Unable to resist finding out who else had been invited to this shindig, she made her way over. Kari recognised her and though she didn’t look in the mood to deal with her, when Dani said hi, she at least made the effort.

“D.M.G.” Kari nodded to her, putting on a smile she obviously didn’t feel, looking as tired as Dani felt. “You were invited?”

“Yeah, free advertising for them I suppose.” Dani replied, trying not to feel insulted at the surprise in the English Duellist’s tone, “I figured I’d make the rounds, find out who’s here so I can report on everything properly.”

“If I were you,” The woman with Kari who looked like an older version of the Duellist warned, “I’d steer clear of Yugi.”

“Thanks for the warning, Miss...?” Dani asked, frowning slightly at the warning considering she had never had a problem with getting an interview from Yugi up until now and didn’t see why she would.

“Ironhide. Ombre Ironhide. I’m Kari’s sister.” Ombre replied shortly and a little sharply.

“Are you taking part in the beta?” Dani prodded for information, curious about the sister she had never heard of before.

“I’ll be around.” Ombre replied cryptically but not very helpfully. “But perhaps your attention would be better off focused on the invited guests? I bet you’re champing at the bit for an interview from someone.”

“Ombre.” Kari’s tone was sharp as she glowered at her sister, “Be nice, Dani’s one of the few, rare, nice reporters...normally.”

“Nice?” Ombre laughs, “Have you read what she’s written recently?”

“I’m taking the hint.” Dani winced, suddenly remembering that Kari worked for the company that she had been slagging off for the last couple of days. “It was nice seeing you again, Kari.”

She slipped off back into the crowd, avoiding Kaiba like the plague when she saw him, not particularly wanting to get yelled at when she felt like crap. As she made the rounds, taking comments from each Duellist as she passed, she noticed a pattern. There wasn’t a single one who looked completely with it.

All of them were feeling a bit run down for some reason or another when she asked after their health. None of them had slept properly in the last couple of nights and when she finally got to Yugi Mutou, the King of Games, she could see why Ombre had warned her off.

Everyone on the Duelling Circuit knew about there being two Yugi Mutous. At least everyone who either followed the circuit closely or could sense the Shadows as she could. The ‘nice’ Yugi tended to only be around before or after tournaments, or when there was a large gap between rounds. While the Yugi who was out at the moment, the ‘scary’ Yugi, tended to be the one who Duelled opponents into submission. The one who when the chips were down kicked ass and took names. The one who, supposedly, had saved the world multiple times if you believed the rumours.

Four years ago she wouldn’t have. She hadn’t believed in the magic behind the game that had become so madly popular around the world. Now however, she knew about it in great detail, had run into it firsthand. She had barely escaped her last run in with magic alive. And now she was heading back into a dangerous situation where she would be in way over her head.

She was tempted to talk to Yugi about it. A lot of people were convinced he was a magician or sorcerer or something similar. Especially with all the rumours that followed him about magic and mayhem.  It was possible that he would know how to counter act whatever the ShadowSwords, the people Pegasus had sent her to investigate, were up to.

One look at him told her that was a bad idea though. He looked like he was in a foul mood, one that promised pain to anyone who dared cross him. Now was probably an incredibly bad time to ask him about magic. If he was a sorcerer, then he would probably turn her into a toad. If he wasn’t, he would decide she was a lunatic and never give her an interview ever again.

No. This was her task, she would just have to get on with it and hope that they weren’t playing with magic yet. Pegasus had promised her that there would be help on the way if she did get in over her head, but she wasn’t sure how far she could rely on him. After all the CEO of Industrial Illusions was a business man. She could easily believe that if it would be best for his company he would leave her to hang,

She was glad to see the boat dock. She was looking forward to getting a night’s sleep before she got started on her great adventure. The queue seemed to line up automatically and file onto the boat with none of the excitement she would normally expect from a group of avid gamers going to demo some new technology. It was weird and it worried her.

It wasn’t a luxury cruise ship. She hadn’t expected one considering that Dimension Software were a relatively small company in comparison to some of the companies that they were competing against. They had stretched to relatively comfortable rooms though and when she looked at the itinery on her bedside table, the menu looked like someone had dropped a lot of money into it.

She couldn’t help but wonder how much of this was being paid for out of the coffers of Dimension, and how much of this was being paid for by SharpShade, the ‘offical’ company that the ShadowSwords were using as their cover to earn money to continue their less than legal activites.

She still didn’t know exactly what they were up to. Pegasus had said that they were still using Industrial Illusions resources to get what they wanted because he hadn’t managed to flush them out of his company after he had stopped working with them and that they had used those resources to find information about powerful duellists worldwide. She had a horrible feeling that she knew what they wanted them for.

She was pretty damn certain that when it all went down, her backup wouldn’t have time to arrive, but there was nothing she could do about it. Pegasus refused to send anyone in ‘just in case’ in case it all went wrong and everyone died.

“Okay,” Dani told herself as she flopped back onto her bed, “I just have to work out their plan, stop them and save a boat full of Duellists, no pressure...”

C.N. April 2014: Digital Distraction Part 9

“Excuse me?” She waved her hand in front of the suited man in front of her, “You know, not that I don’t appreciate the free limo ride but I kind of had plans for today.”

“I’m sorry, Miss Green, but Master Pegasus was most insistent that we find you.” The guy did look apologetic at least.

Green went quiet. She was a reporter in the Duelling world, so she had run into the C.E.O. of Industrial Illusions before. He had never had her brought in for a meeting before and she couldn’t think why he would do so now. She had been a little rude about Kaiba Corp’s recent total system failure but she hadn’t belittled Industrial Illusions once the entire time.

“Did he say why?” Green finally asked, looking a little worried.

“He said you would understand if I were to mention ‘four years ago next Sunday.’ He also told me to offer you anything you wanted from the drinks bar.” The goon informed her.

Green paled at the mention of four years ago. She remembered what happened four years ago all too well and she had hoped that no one else had known about it. It had been a little event she had gotten involved with purely by accident and had been the most involved with magic she had ever gotten. It had also changed her world and left her trying to re-centre herself and understand how her world had changed for weeks.

“If we’re going to be talking about four years ago, I’ll take a glass of whatever is the strongest thing he’s got in that bar.” She grimaced, “I’m going to need it.”

The goon chuckled and poured her a glass of champagne. “This is the strongest thing in the bar, enjoy.”

“This glass is probably worth my entire week’s wages.” Green said as she swirled it around gently before taking a sip, “And I probably should have eaten before drinking this.” With that she downed the glass.

“Another?” The goon asked, “We’ll be pulling into Industrial Illusions London in another minute or so.”

“No, one is quite enough.” Green could feel the haze settling in already, helping her relax about what was to come, “Especially with your boss waiting for me.”

The goon nodded and when the car pulled up he followed her, still holding the open bottle and the used glass, both of which he put on the table next to her. “Master Pegasus will be here shortly.” He promised, “If you need anything, I will be right outside.”

“Thank you.” Green nodded to him. There was no need to be rude to the staff when they were only trying to do their job after all.

The goon nodded back and left the room. Green was there for less than ten minutes before the door opened again and Maximillian Pegasus walked through the door.

“Ah, Dani-girl!” He grinned at her cheerily, “Sorry about the pickup, but you see there’s something rather urgent come up and I’m afraid it just couldn’t wait.”

“Mister Pegasus.” Dani shot to her feet and offered her hand, “It’s an honour sir, but...”

“If I thought there was anyone better for the job, I would have sent my men to pick them up instead.” Pegasus informed her, “However, there wasn’t and you’re perfect for what I have in mind.”

“I’m not magical.” Dani shook her head, “Surely there’s someone with magic who’d be better suited to sort out this mess. I can’t...”

“You can and you must Dani-girl.” Pegasus interrupted, “You see, I have a rather large problem and to be quite frank you’re the only person who can get in there and solve it before it turns from a big problem, to a mass murder.”

Dani went very still at that. “Mass? But it only takes one...”

“Not this time, not as far as they’re concerned.” Pegasus shook his head. “And it’s that time again. I know you aren’t normal, Dani-girl. None who are touched by the Shadows as you were four years ago are ever ‘normal’ again. But that isn’t entirely why I asked you here today.”

“Oh?” Dani asked, wondering how much he knew of her ‘changes’ in the last four years and how it had made her job easier.

“I find myself in need of your skills as a reporter and as a Duellist.” Pegasus explained.

“What skills as a Duellist?” Dani pointed out, reminding the head of Industrial Illusions that she was just as famed for her lack of Duelling ability as she was for her reporting skills.

“Not your skills with the game, Dani-girl, but your skills with the monsters.” Pegasus chuckled, “Your deck loves you and you love them. More importantly you talk with them, not to them or at them. When you step into the VirtualNet, they will aid you because of that. That’s what I need. Someone I know I can trust with my secrets, who I know will not rest until she has uncovered the truth and protected as many people as she can and who I know will be protected in turn.”

“What is it, exactly, you want me to do?” Dani asked, confused and curious, “And what VirtualNet?”

“You haven’t heard, Dani-girl?” Pegasus looked far too amused by that, “I thought you were on top of everything.”

“Apparently this slipped through the gap.” Dani grouched, trying not to get mad and wondering if she should have skipped the glass of Champaign if Pegasus was going to talk circles around her.

“Well, Dani-girl, it all starts with a group called the ShadowSwords...”