Chapter 15: FrostFire

Hope and her friends were waiting outside of Blitz's hospital room. Rainbow Dash, Soarin', and Daring were inside, talking to him about the crash. Once he had woken up, he had to be sedated again so he wouldn't start flipping out from having an IV in his foreleg (he gets freaked out by needles). Zach was able to postpone the next duel until everypony was sure Blitz was fine. Zach would have been in the hospital, had he not needed to keep the crowd entertained.

"Kuri!" Kuriboh appeared beside Hope. She and Dinky had used Kuriboh to send messages back and forth to each other when they were younger.

"Hey Kuriboh," Hope replied, "Blitz is fine. Daring said that her and her parents are going to stay here with Blitz. We'll be on our way to the stadium."

"Kuri kuri!"

Kuriboh disappeared and Hope said, "We need to get to the stadium."

The Pie twins hoof bumped, "We are so going to beat Dagger.

"Wait," Honeycrisp said, "Do any of us know what kind of deck he uses?"

Everypony shook their heads and Honeycrisp continued, "Well, the others were expecting a psychic deck, but they got a twilight deck. You need to be careful when dealin' with something you don't understand. Remember when you tried to bring that parasprite home?"

Everypony shuddered at that memory. Somehow the Pie twins had snuck a single parasprite into their room. One day was all it took for the whole town to be overrun. That was a really bad day.

"We'll be careful," Cinnamon promised, her and her sister doing the motions for a Pinkie Promise.

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The twins were standing across from Dagger. Cinnamon was wearing a pink and blue duel disk on her left foreleg. Dagger was wearing a black and red duel disk on his right arm.

"Let's see what the duel is going to be," Zach said from his box. The symbol for an Action Duel appeared on the screen.

Discord spoke this time, "It looks like we're having another action duel. This time, the action field shall be Smash Brawl Stadium."

A wave of light caused the duelists to appear on a risen platform high above the stadium floor.

Discord snapped his claws and the action cards spread over the stadium.

Cinnamon and Cherry Pie: 8000

Dagger: 8000

"We'll go first," the twins said, Cinnamon drawing a card, "Let's see, we'll discard this spell to summon Frostbite Knight (ATK 2300)." A large warrior covered in grey, frosted armor appeared. "Now we banish the spell Frozen Burst. This allows us to pick a random card from your hand and send it to the graveyard." A futuristic gun appeared in Cherry's hoof. She shot the middle card of Dagger's hand.

Dagger grinned, "Thank you ladies. The card you just forced me to send to the graveyard was my Volcanic Scattershot. This allows me to hit you with five hundred points of damage." A graveyard portal appeared and the Scattershot came out. Dagger grabbed it with his free claw and threw it at the twins. The jumped out of the way, but it turned around and two heads split off. The heads hit the twins from the back, knocking them down.

Pies: 8000-7500

"Er, we'll set a card and end our turn."

Dagger drew his card, "I summon Volcanic Slicer (ATK 1800)." A monster that looked somewhat like a metal dinosaur appeared. "I activate Slicer's effect and deal you another five hundred points of damage." Slicer breathed fire at the twins, who barely dodged the scorching flames.

Pies: 7500-7000

"Now I activate Blaze Accelerator. This allows me to send a pyro with five hundred or less attack points and destroy a monster you control."

"We activate our trap, Frozen Flame. We can send a Frozen spell in our hoof to the graveyard to negate an effect that destroys a Frostbite monster we control."

A wave of Frost covered the Blaze Accelerator.

"Too bad, though that was another copy of my Volcanic Scattershot."\

"What?"

Pies: 7000-6500

Cinnamon drew, "So what do you think we should do?"

"How about this?" Cherry replied, poking at a card.

"Okie dokie lokie. We banish Frozen Ring from our grave to special summon a Frostbite Draco from our hoof (ATK 2600)." A medium sized dragon appeared, its scales covered in frost. It was unable to fly. "Guess what, Frostbite Draco can't be affected by your cards, so your fancy fire gun won't work. Frostbite Knight, attack Volcanic Slicer with Frozen Sword Fury." The knight slowly began to move and slashed at the pyro.

Dagger glanced up and one of his arms snatched an Action Card that was blowing around in the breeze. "Action Card activate. Avoid!"

Slicer dodged the oncoming blade, but the sword and knight couldn't stop its attack. It went and slashed at Dagger, who effortlessly blocked the attack with his duel disk.

Both twins' jaws dropped and they exclaimed, "That was amazing!"

"You may have blocked one attack," Cherry said, her expression going back to serious, "But you can't stop this one, even with a fancy Action Card. Frostbite Draco, attack!"

The dragon shot a blue flame from its mouth, destroying Slicer.

Dagger: 8000-7200

"We'll end our turn."

"Then I shall draw," Dagger said as he picked up the top card of his deck. He frowned before stating, "It appeared I drew a trump card. I wish I had drawn it later, but I suppose I might as well play now. I tribute my Blaze Accelerator to bring out Tri-Blaze Accelerator." The cannon disappeared and one with three barrels appeared. "Now I shall tribute my Tri-Blaze Accelerator to summon Volcanic Doomfire (ATK 3000)." A fiendish biped with fire coming out of it in various places appeared. "Volcanic Doomfire, destroy Frostbite Draco with Volcanic Cannon!" The monster shot fire from its mouth, destroying the dragon and leaving some melted water on the floor.

Pies: 6500-6100

"Why did you do that?" Cinnamon asked, "You could have dealt more battle damage from destroying Frostbite Knight."

"That is true," Dagger confirmed, "But if I destroyed the Knight I couldn't do this. Go, Volcanic Chain!" Volcanic Doomfire shot another burst of flame at Frostbite Knight, destroying it."

"How could you do that?" Cherry yelled.

Dagger's eyes narrowed, "I used the effect of Volcanic Doomfire. When he destroys a monster in battle, I get to destroy all of you other monsters and deal you five hundred points of damage for each one. Volcanic Doomfire shot a third blast of flame, causing the twins to scream as it hit them.

Pies: 6100-5600

The force of the blast sent Cherry flying. She was forced over the edge of the high stadium and began to fall.

"Doomfire!" Dagger hissed the name and the monster rushed over to the ledge and plucked the pony from midair. It sat her down and walked back over to Dagger's side.

"Y-you saved me," Cherry said, amazed that a being she was told was evil saved her.

"I merely didn't want to lose my opponent before the duel was over." "And if she perished the tournament would have been canceled, forcing me to start back from almost square one." "It is your move."

Cinnamon silently drew, "I set a card and end my turn."

"It appears that the mind has broken before the body, interesting."

Dagger drew, "He started to attack, but the twins activated their card, "Go, Frozen Blitz! We get to bring out a Frostbite monster from our deck. Come forth, Frostbite Tortoise (DEF 2500)."

Dagger grinned, "Thank you. I activate the effect of Volcanic Queen from my hand. I get to bring it to your side of the field for the cost of your monster (ATK 2500). I'll set a card and end my turn."

Cinnamon drew, "I end my turn." Volcanic Queen turned and breathed fire on the twins.

Pies: 5600-4600

"That was the effect of Volcanic Queen," Dagger explained, "You have to get rid of a card when you end your turn or you lose a thousand points. Now, I draw! I activate Brain Control. I'll gladly pay eight hundred points to regain control of my Queen."

Dagger: 7200-6400

"Doomfire, Queen, end this duel."

The monsters grasped the twins and pulled them away from the floor.

Pies: 4600-0

The high floor began to fade away, losing density. The two monsters lowered the twins to the ground while Dagger spread his wings and glided to the ground.

"And Dagger is now the last duelist to make it to the semifinal round of the tournament!" Discord announced, "This round will be tomorrow."

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Zach and Discord were in a room at the castle. Discord was holding a small stack of cards.

"Are you sure this will work?" Discord asked.

"Of course," Zach replied, "We need a lot of proof for the forbidden cards. Are the devices ready?"

Discord materialized a tablet and held it out, "All four. They took hours to perfect. Why couldn't we just take the cards and lock Dagger up?"

"Because Celestia said we have to try this 'by protocol' first."

"Who came up with this sort of protocol anyways?"

Zach kicked a back hoof to knock a binder under a bed. Discord gave him a weird look and pulled it out. The title said: Contingency Plans for Every Scenario Plausible in Equestria.

"Really?"

Zach sighed, "Ditzy kicks in bed. I write in it when I have a hard time falling back to sleep."

Discord flipped through the binder, "Weeping Angels? How is that plausible? And this is coming from me."

"Reasons!"