“Pie Family Countertops,” said Limestone Pie as she sat behind the desk of her family’s business with the phone pressed against her ear. Briefly she shifted a tad so that she could rest the phone against her ear, secretly wishing her parents would authorize funds to get a freaking Bluetooth so she could more easily use the PC. You know multitasking? Sadly her parents, who technically still owned the business, were on the slow track to modernizing. It took a whole year of Limestone doing everything in her power to convince them to get a website! “This is Limestone Pie speaking. How may I help you?”
“Hello, I’m, ah, you see my mother’s birthday is coming up,” began the voice on the other end, causing Limestone to roll her eyes. This was one of the things she hated about running the business from this end. She could deal with the gruff looking men who delivered the sheets of stone to their lot which she and her sisters would cut up before installing for the customers. She could manage her irritation as people came in to ‘just browse’ as they went up and down the showroom where she now sat, looking at all the samples of the materials they used before going home. Ok, it got on her nerves a little bit when people complained about the prices and tried to get a better deal. But this? She didn’t care about the why someone was buying from them or their life story! If you wanted to buy something from them all Limestone cared about was if they could pay!
“Well, my daddy and me thought she might like some custom made countertops,” continued the voice on the other line as Limestone checked out the family’s website. She could see that several people had sent left messages for her, but they were all ‘do you do installations’. Seriously, was there anyone who read the site? It wasn’t like they didn’t say it at the top of the page! “We were thinking marble if you had any.”
Ok, that got Limestone’s attention. “Yes, we do,” she said while dollar bill signs appeared in her eyes for a hot second. “As the city’s number one supplier, we offer a wide variety of colors and patterns to match just about any kitchen or bathroom. And with our new payment plan it will be easier on your wallet. All I need to do is check your credit history and-”
“Actually, I was thinking we’d just pay in cash,” interrupted the person on the other line causing Limestone to pause. Oh, cold hard cash. So much better than credit.
“That’s fine,” said Limestone. “If that’s the case, why don’t you and your father come down to the shop. Here you can see all the samples we have to offer as well as see how they feel to the touch. Then we can go over costs. The only thing you’ll need is the measurements for the counter space.”
“Oh,” said the voice on the other line. “Would we really need to do that?”
Limestone frowned again, taking a hand off the keyboard to rub her forehead. “Yes, you would,” she said trying her best not to sound as annoyed as she felt right now. “Once you picked out the marble, we’re going to need to know the size and dimensions of the final product so it will fit nicely into your home. If you really don’t want to come down, then you would have to use the website in which case we would accept credit or digital check.”
“Well, daddy was hoping you would come to us,” explained the voice, sounding a little worried. “He wants to see the samples in the kitchen so we can get a better idea what will look good and what won’t. Plus we don’t have anything to measure with.” Getting more annoyed with this call, Limestone was about to tell her that they didn’t do home calls. To just take her smart phone into the kitchen or whatever, pull up the website, and get an idea like that. There was no need for her to waste her time heading out like that! But all those thoughts were silenced by what the caller said next. “Of course we’ll pay extra for the inconvenience as well as any travel costs. Would an extra thousand cover it?”
“Of course!” said an excited Limestone as she quickly pulled out a pen and spare piece of paper. “Just give me the address and I’ll be right down.”
About a minute later, Limestone was locking up the store and putting up a ‘Stepped out for a bit’ sign. She had also changed outfit at a remarkable speed. Before she had worn torn jeans and a blouse, stuff that she didn’t think anyone would mind seeing either on the floor or at the local club scene. Now was a different matter as she wore her best steel grey suit with matching jacket, minus a tie. On her shoulder was a strap attached to a binder full of color samples, with the word Marble written on the outside. She had thought about bringing a few other sample cases, but carrying just one of these was enough to put some strain on her back. Plus these samples were expensive, the stuff in the book accumulating into at least three thousand dollars. It was one of the reasons why the binder was kept on the premises at all times. Limestone, however, felt that this was more than a good enough reason to break said rule.
While dimming the light and locking up, she wished that there was someone else who could watch things around here for her. However, since this was a family owned and operated business, her choices were very few. Both her parents were out speaking with suppliers, leaving her to run things until they returned. As for Maud, she didn’t really work at the family business anymore. Ever since she got her fancy degree she had become busy with her work at the museum, talking to little kids about fossils and the like. Or something like that.
That left her with two choices and both were out of the question. Marble Pie was not the most social person in the world. She would only work in the back, cutting up the material rather than dealing with other people. In a way, she was the lucky one since she didn’t have to deal with other people…at all. She worked by herself and only ever talked to members of the family. While it seemed nice, Limestone knew that she had to deal with things she didn’t want to if she was going to truly take over the family business when her parents retired. As for Marble, she had been in charge of the floor and phone once. To say it didn’t go so well was an understatement.
Then there was Pinkie…
Speaking of the Discord, Limestone saw Pinkie as she exited the side door and locking it behind her. The bright pink pie sister was sitting on the porch (their house being directly next to the shop) dressed in her diner shop blue dress and apron, strapping on her roller blades with that ‘without a care’ smile of hers. If Marble was too antisocial for the job than Pinkie Pie was too excitable and friendly for the job. True she helped out the family plenty of times planning tent parties to attract potential new clients and the like. But trying to have her fill out forms or sitting still long enough for someone to fill out the paperwork was like asking for a miracle.
“Hey sis,” said Pinkie when she noticed Limestone. Waving excitedly, Pinkie leapt to her feet before rolling over to Limestone with her hands behind her back. “What’cha doing? Heading out for some coffee or something? If you want I can get you some. I’ve got some time before I head off to work.”
“No,” said Limestone quickly. She had had too many experiences of Pinkie getting them coffee. Most of the time it was 50% coffee and 50% percent sugar. “I’m in a bit of a hurry. Meeting with a client whose going to be paying cash.”
“Cash?” echoed Pinkie, tilting her head and looking utterly confused.
“Yep,” said Limestone as she pulled out the keys to her car with rested in the parking lot. With the push of a button, she started up her lime green car allowing for the AC to begin blasting. Sure it wasn’t the warmest day ever, but she preferred to ride cooled. “I’m heading over there right now. They’re paying me an extra thousand dollars just to meet them at their home! I cash! In fact, they’re paying it all in cash.” As Limestone reached for the car door, Pinkie swiftly snatched the address from her hand. “Hey, give that back!”
Pinkie said nothing, she just stared at the paper with a worried look that irritated Limestone to no end! Gritting her teeth, she reached out to try and grab the paper but Pinkie, using physics known only to her, managed to roll out of the way with seeming to move any part of her body. Limestone reached for it again with the same result, Pinkie moving just out of her reach without looking up from the paper.
“Limestone, are you sure you got the right address?” asked Pinkie. “I’m pretty sure I did a ‘Sorry You’re Leaving the Neighborhood Party’ for the family that used to live there last week. I think it was the Pickle Family. They had this dog named after a piece of meat. I think his name was-”
“Your point?” growled Limestone as she reached for the paper again, this time managing to get it out of her sister’s hold.
“Well, I haven’t thrown a ‘Welcome to the Neighborhood Party’ for that house yet,” explained Pinkie. “As far as I know, no one has bought it yet.”
“Again, your point?” growled Limestone.
“I just think it’s weird,” said Pinkie, a worried look coming over her face. “I mean, countertops are expensive. And they’re paying it all in cash? Plus getting you to come to them alone? This just smells bad. Worse than that time I left a couple of large tuna out in the sun to soak with garlic and compost.” Limestone remembered that time all too well. so well in fact that a hand flew up to cover her mouth, even though the scent had long since passed. No one knew what had compelled Pinkie to do that, even to this day.
As Limestone gulped, doing her best to push back the horrid memory from her mind, a small voice inside her agreed with the insane pink one. Yes, this did feel odd. In fact, it felt very odd. As long as Limestone had been helping run the family business, she had never once met a person who was willing to pay in cash. She had heard her parents talk about it before, but had never seen it. Nor had she met someone so willing to get her to come over to their house. Willing to pay a thousand dollars just so they didn’t have to leave the house? Well that did throw up some red flags.
However, Limestone dug in her heels. “It’ll be fine,” she said as she made her way to the car. Pinkie tried to grab a hold of her, yet because of her skates Limestone was able to just push her away. With Pinkie rolling backwards, the more aggressive sister was able to get in the car and out of the driveway, tires screeching as she did so. For several long moments, Limestone was able to see Pinkie keeping up in the rearview mirror. That is until she put more pressure on the pedal. Then Pinkie was nothing more than a pink dot in the background and nothing at all.
For several long minutes, Limestone drove well above the speed limit all to make sure that her sister wasn’t following her. ‘There’s nothing to worry about,’ thought Limestone as she drew closer to her destination. The houses she began to pass changed from your average, well to do homes to the ‘we’re stinking rich and we want everyone to know it’ type of homes. Many of them with three stories, large lawns that would take a day to mow without a riding mower, and just looked like you would have to sell both your soul and your first born child’s just to rent a single room for an hour. To add to it, many of these homes had those very expensive cars parked in their driveways as if to show them off to any passerby. Yeah, it was that kind of neighborhood.
‘Nothing to worry about,’ thought Limestone as she began to relax a bit, slowing down her speed to avoid getting a ticket. ‘Probably meeting with some rich jerk whose just used to people coming to him. Or maybe some guy who won the lottery, cashed it all, and is trying to upgrade. Who knows?’ Shrugging to herself, Limestone let out a sigh. ‘Yeah, Pinkie is just jumping at shadows. With all that ‘magic’ or whatever going on with her life and dealing with who knows what has made her paranoid. There can’t be a threat hidden behind every door or whatever.’
For a while, Limestone was able to enjoy the car ride in almost complete silence. But when she arrived at her destination, some of that dread began to return with renewed force. The house was in good shape, a three story building with a large arch-like entryway and painted bright white. But the lawn looked like it hadn’t been touched in some time, with bits of trash scattered about it. As Limestone pulled into the driveway, she could see through the large windows that there was nothing inside. No couches, no chandler, no anything. Just white walls and ceiling from what she could tell. What’s more the ‘For Sale’ sign was still firmly planted in the group.
After parking her car, Limestone pulled out the directions to make sure she had gotten them right. She had, leading her to two possibilities and both were very likely. One was that someone had really, really recently bought the house. Perhaps they were super excited to get started making it their own or they were going to fix it up more before putting it back on the market. Yet offering to pay with cash? The other option was that this was all some sort of prank. A joke that she fell for hook, line, and sinker.
“Well, gone this far,” muttered Limestone with a frown, unbuckling her safety belt as she did so. “Might as well knock on the door. I swear, if this is a prank…” She let the threat hang as she opened the door; not wanting any passerby hearing what she would crush if given the chance.
Calmly she got out of the car, doing her best to keep her expression soft despite the anger and embarrassment she felt inside her, and approached the door. A door that seemed to open by itself as she drew nearer.
-x-
Pinkie Pie let out a sigh as she rested her head on the counter of the restaurant, her normally poofy hair laying flat. Through half lidded eyes she watched as her co-workers skated about the place, taking orders with friendly expressions or delivering their orders. The place was full enough to the point where they weren’t dead but not full enough to make her feel bad about not helping. Nor was she hearing anyone complaining about it. There seemed to be a silent agreement between them that Pinkie was allowed to wait on the sidelines until her smile came back.
But for the last hour and a half, nothing had changed. All she could do was think about Limestone.
The bell over the door rang again, signaling that someone had either entered or left. There was a brief flash of purple and the colors of bacon causing her head to rise just as two of her friends sat down in front of her. Sunset was looking extra, super duper happy right now. So much so that her pupils had turned into large stars and her cheeks had puffed up. Weird, she thought she was the only one who could do that.
“Hey Pinkie,” said Twilight as she sat down. As she did, Twilight reached out a hand to grab Sunset by the arm and guided her to the chair next to her.
“Ah, what happened to Sunset?” asked Pinkie as she lifted her head off the counter.
“The ban list just updated,” said Twilight while at the same time Sunset let out a squeal of joy.
“It finally happened,” exclaimed Sunset as she brought both her arms in front of her chest and began to wiggle. “Finally, after so long Rekindling is back to three! I have been waiting for this day for like forever. At last my deck can use its powers to its full advantage!”
Twilight rolled her eyes as she placed her elbow on the counter and then propping her head on top of an open palm. “Yeah, and meanwhile Genex still don’t have any new support. I swear they’re not reading my emails at all.” She then let out a sigh. “Well, anyways, I thought we could come here to celebrate and check in on you. We just heard about Applejack’s date and…” Pinkie watched as Twilight did a double take, her eyes widening as she did so. Her gaze was fixed on Pinkie who, upon nothing this, did her best to force herself to smile. However, that smile was the fakest of all fakes. She knew it and more than likely Twilight knew it.
“Pinkie, is everything ok?” asked Twilight. The worried tone she used seemed to reach Sunset because at that moment, she seemed to come back to earth from whatever realm of happiness she had been in.
“Oh of course I’m fine,” said Pinkie as she waved it off. For a moment, they all remained where they were staring at each other before the pink one sighed. “Not buying it huh.”
“Not really,” said Twilight.
“Not a chance,” agreed Sunset.
Pinkie let out another sigh. “It’s Limestone,” she explained. “She got this call from someone who lives in a house that hasn’t been sold yet, telling her to they want to buy counters with cash and that they wanted her to come to them for extra thousand dollars. It just feels…off.”
“WHAT!?!” shouted both of Pinkie’s friends, causing said pink girl to jump in surprise.
“That has to be the most obvious trap I’ve ever heard in my life!” shouted Sunset. “I can remember back when I was living in Equestria Princess Celestia had me read this book about the ways Diamond Dogs kidnapped ponies. Or at least tried to. They would leave a trail of diamonds and gems towards a spooky, dark where they would ambush them. Only they rarely got anyone because nopony was that stupid to fall for such an obvious trap!”
“Anyone with common sense would think that this was suspicious,” agreed Twilight. “Please tell me you did something Pinkie.”
“Yeah, I did,” said Pinkie as she slumped back onto the counter. “I called my parents and they told me not to worry. That they were going to call her and if she didn’t answer they would call the police. I also called Maud to see what she thinks. She agrees with our parents.”
“Well, I’m going to call Shining Armor just to be on the safe side,” said Twilight as she pulled out her phone. “If something is going on then every second co-” Twilight was cut off as something began to beep in her pocket. For a moment she sat there, as if frozen by the noise while her pupils contracted. She looked…scared. And her fear seemed to infect the other two without knowing why.
Slowly, Twilight reached into her pocket with a shaky hand to pull out what was making the noise. When Pinkie saw it she became confused. It was Twilight’s magic detecting thingy. But why would that cause her to be scared? All it did was detect when other people were using magic and…oh. Now she understood.
Slowly Twilight opened it and her eyes widened. “Pinkie,” Twilight said in little more than a whisper. “I think we better get to your place. Right now.”
-x-
The door to the Pie family business was wide open when Pinkie, Sunset, and Twilight arrived. That alone was odd since Pinkie’s parents had drilled it into the heads of all four sisters to keep the doors closed at all times. But to make matters worse, there was no alarm going off nor had her phone alerted her to a break in.
“Limestone,” called out Pinkie. With a doughnut in hand, ready to infuse it with magic in case she needed to blast some creepy person, she walked in through. All around her were displays of various counters that they made, as well as designer sinks and the like, with their prices on display. In the back of the room was a desk were Limestone normally sat, doing sales. Near it was a door that lead into their parents office which had been left ajar. Even though the lights were off and it was dark inside, all three girls could make out movement.
“Limestone,” called out Pinkie again, a tremble in her voice now. She quickly glanced behind her to see her friend. Sunset was holding Twilight’s device which was beeping at them rapidly. Whatever the magic was, it was close. As for Twilight, she was focusing on her own geode in case her own brand of magic was needed.
A rustle was then heard in front. Looking forward, Pinkie saw Limestone standing in the doorway in a way that made Pinkie drop her doughnut. Her sister stood there with her suit looking disheveled, as if she had been in some sort of fight or something. In one hand was a small sack, like the one her parents kept in the safe in the office. She knew that they always kept a large sum of money in there for emergencies or in case someone did pay in cash. It was always kept there until the end of the week before all the extra proceeds went to the bank. No doubt Limestone had taken it from the safe.
But that wasn’t the reason that caused Pinkie such alarm. No, it was the fact that Limestone was smiling. With eyes wider than anything that Pinkie had ever seen her sister have before, she smiled a big fake toothed smile at them. Like she was being forced to do that or something. As a person who loved to see people happy and smiling, she could tell that Limestone’s heart wasn’t in it. Probably because of the thing on Limestone’s neck. It was a large mass of pinkish purple and a few other spots of color on it, with tentacles wiggling around. Pinkie could see that in the area around Limestone’s neck where it was attached there were heavy veins visible under the skin.
“Are you girls seeing this?” gasped Twilight.
Sunset placed a hand over her mouth. “I wish I wasn’t.”
“Hello sister,” said Limestone as she walked forward. Her smile never wavered even as she dropped the bag next to her. “You’re home early.”
“W-What happened to you?!” demanded Pinkie. “What’s that thing on your neck?”
“Oh, you can see it?” asked Limestone, a bit of surprise in her voice. “Funny, nobody else could see it. Isn’t it nice?” Calmly, she petted the thing as if it were some sort of cat or dog. In response the…thing made a gurgling noise that caused all the other girls to cringe. “My new friend gave me this and now everything is wonderful. I don’t have to worry about anything anymore. There’s no anger, uncertainty, or anything else that might trouble me. I now know my place in the world. Just doing what I’m told to do. Soon everyone will be like this. No more fighting or hating each other. We’ll all be the same, united in friendship. Isn’t that nice?”
“Ah noooooo,” said Pinkie as she stepped forward. “That isn’t friendship at all. That’s, like, slavery. Who in their right mind would think that’s a good idea? It’s like saying killing half of all life everywhere would save the universe or something.”
“You think that way now,” said Limestone as the thing on her neck began to pulse rapidly. “But don’t worry. As your sister, I’ll help you and your friends to understand. Just let me transfer all of our families funds to an offshore account. My friend needs it to help her start the new world order.”
“Again: NO!” yelled Pinkie. “You’ve wanted your whole life to take over the family business for mom and dad. I can’t let you throw away all of your hard work because some big meanie is controlling you.”
Limestone was silent for a moment…but the thing on her neck wasn’t. It began to pulsate vulgarly and oozing some sort of slime from the ends of its tentacles. Pinkie could hear Sunset falling to her knees while making a gagging sound. As for Twilight, she had pulled out another device from her pocket which she shoved into Pinkie’s hand. Looking down, it looked like a smart phone…but with a deck and graveyard slot? There was also another space sort of like an indent as if she were supposed to put something in there.
“Put your geode right here,” said Twilight quickly. Pinkie looked at her for a moment before shrugging and doing what she was told. As soon as the gem was in the slot, a dome of cotton candy pink energy surrounded the magical stone while the rest of the device came to life. It soared from her hands and attached itself to her wrist. Once attached, five balloons made of energy appeared on one side of it starting with yellow then blue and then back to yellow.
As Pinkie stared at it, the thing on Limestone’s neck divided. While the mass still on Limestone’s neck began to replenish itself, the part that had split off launched itself away from her and towards Pinkie. On instinct, Pinkie raised her arms to shield herself. But the thing never touched her. All of the girls watched as a pink bubble of energy suddenly appeared in the air while Pinkie’s geode glowed brighter. As the mass vanished, so too did the bubble.
“Twilight, what is this?” asked Pinkie as she moved her arm around, surprised that it made a noise like a lightsaber.
“This is the new magical duel disk I’ve been working on since we last ran into Cinch,” said Twilight with a hint of pride in her voice. “Model 275 is powered by our geodes and will protect our magic whenever someone like Cinch tries to steal it. My theory was that the magic of our gems would be filtered into the holograms giving us both protection from other sources of Equestrian magic as well as the ability to fight them. So far, the theory seems to be holding up. On another positive side, using the gems to power the hard light technology has made the device far lighter.”
Pinkie Pie blinked at her friend. “And you just happened to have this on you right now?” she asked.
Twilight blushed. “Actually I was hoping to get some real world field tests in soon,” she said. “So I’ve been carrying it around with me since I finished it. Right now I’m just glad it hasn’t exploded.”
“Works for me,” said Pinkie in a chipper tone as she slid her deck into the slot. At once the auto-shuffler activated, shuffling the cards in her deck while the screen showed off her life points. “So all I have to do is duel my sister, beat her, and she’ll be free of that mean old nasty thing controlling her. Right?”
“Well, I hope so,” Twilight admitted. “Like I said, it hasn’t gone through any testing since I haven’t been able to find a suitable subject afflicted my Equestrian magic. But it should work in theory.”
“Alright then,” said Pinkie as she took a stance, determination in her eyes. “Limestone, get your game on!” Everyone, including Limestone and the creature on her neck, made a groaning sound.
“Very well then,” said Limestone as she pulled out her own duel disk. “I’ll defeat you so I can continue helping out my friend. Then, maybe we can all become friends. Wouldn’t that be nice?”
“Connecting,” said a female mechanical voice from their duel disks. “Opponents found. Displaying order now.” In the middle of the room appeared a flat holographic image of a portrait, one side showing a happy and smiling Pinkie Pie while the other showing a snarling Limestone. The image began to spin round and round, faster and faster as their duel disks shuffled their decks at an equally quick speed. Eventually the portrait stopped spinning, ending on Pinkie.
“Don’t worry Limestone,” said Pinkie as she drew a full hand of six cards. “I’ll save you and put a real smile on your face. And it looks like I’ve got the perfect card to start: Toon Table of Contents. This spell card lets me add any Toon card from my deck to my hand.” As Pinkie inserted the spell card into her new duel disk, a large cartoonish book appeared in front of her. At once the tome opened out, creating a cloud of dust that flew up into the air. Yet Pinkie didn’t seem to mind it at all. Instead she ran a finger down the wording. “Personally, I think this card should be renamed Toon TV Guide or something like that. Oh well.” She then suddenly pulled a card which glowed a golden hue out of the book. Once it was in the air the book slammed shut while the text of the card could now be seen.
“The card I picked will take us to the happiest place in the world: Toon Kingdom!” exclaimed Pinkie happily as she played the card. When she did, the floor beneath them transformed into a book which suddenly opened up and propelled them into the air for a brief moment. As all four girls fell down onto paper, a large pop up castle appeared behind Pinkie with balloons and confetti flying about the place. “But to activate it, I sadly have to say goodbye to the top three cards in my deck, banishing them face down. It’s sad. Three smiles we’ll never get to see. The upside is that this card counts as Toon World while on the field.
“Next I special summon Toon Mermaid in attack mode,” continued Pinkie as she placed one of her cards on top of one of the balloons. On the field appeared a giant white clam with cartoonish eyeballs on top of it. The shell opened up to reveal a giggling mermaid with green hair along with a bow and arrow. It had an attack of 1400. “But she won’t be alone because I’ll also be normal summoning Toon Masked Sorcerer.” Bouncing onto the field was a figure in a red robe with extra long fingers. Unlike the fleshy fingers, the monster looked like its face was made out of metal or was wearing an iron mask. A mask that did not prevent him from showing off his own toothy smile as well as the extra large eyes. His attack points were 900.
“Since I can’t attack, I’ll set one teensy weensy card face down and end my turn,” finished Pinkie Pie. Her final card appeared on the field, leaving her with just two cards in her hand.
“I draw then,” said Limestone who grinned the entire time. She briefly looked at the six cards in her hand before setting two in her spell and trap card zone. “First I’ll set these two cards and then summon Alpha the Electromagnetic Warrior in attack mode!” Appearing on the field was a slender figure whose body looked like it was made out of grey minerals. Horseshoe-shaped magnets decorated the monster’s body including on top of its head. In one hand it hand a shield while in the other it carried a staff or spear with coils wrapped around it. As sparks flew across its body, all three girls could see it had 1700 attack points. More than enough to deal with either of Pinkie’s monsters.
“When this monster is normal or special summoned, I can add one level eight Magna Warrior from my deck to my hand,” explained Limestone as she began to search her deck. “So I choose Valkyrion the Magna Warrior.” Limestone then paused for a moment as the thing on her neck began to make louder squishing noises. Then she looked up at Pinkie, her smile growing wider. “Now I will attack! Alpha, destroy her Masked Sorcerer!” The current of electrical power in Alpha’s weapon increased right before it leapt into the air. Once it was overhead, it appeared to the three Rainbooms that lightning was striking the weapons.
“Oh no you don’t,” said Pinkie as she removed the top card from her deck. “Toon Kingdom has the power to prevent one of my adorable toons from being destroyed by battle or card effect. All I have to do is remove the top card from my deck from play.”
“I know,” said Limestone. “But you’ll still take the damage.” With that, Alpha’s weapon landed on Pinkie’s toon. The Masked Sorcerer jerked about, its body being surrounded by yellow light with only its skeleton being visible. When the attack ended, its body looked a little charred but still there. As the toon took out a brush to dust itself off, Pinkie’s life points dropped to 7200. “I end my turn.”
“And I begin mine,” said Pinkie as she drew. As she looked at the three cards in her hand Limestone pressed a button on her duel disk.
“I activate the trap card Rock Bombardment,” she said her card flipped face up. “This card lets me send one rock monster in my deck to the grave to inflict 500 points of damage. So I’ll send the original Alpha the Magnet Warrior to the grave. Sorry sis, but those who stand in the way of true friendship will get hurt.” Coming out of the trap card was a single large boulder that shot across the field. Both of Pinkie’s monsters moved in an effort to try and block it only to be flattened as a result. In impacted Pinkie, knocking the air out of her lungs as she fell on her back while her life points dropped to 6700.
“Pinkie,” cried Sunset and Twilight together as they rushed to their friends side. As they knelt beside her both girls could see tiny cuts in her clothing as well as a bit of blood coming out of her mouth.
“It’s just like with Cinch,” exclaimed Sunset in a worried tone. “Whatever Equestrian magic is controlling Limestone is also making the damage real.”
“Pinkie, please,” said Twilight as she checked her friends pulse. Thankfully, Pinkie opened her eyes while coughing loudly.
“Does it hurt?” asked Limestone. Both Sunset and Twilight turned to look at her while Pinkie slowly sat up. While Limestone’s smile remained fixed, there were small traces of tears coming out of her eyes. “It hurt me as well. But I deserved it because I fought back like how you are now. I was too stubborn to see the truth, how all of the world could unite in eternal friendship. But soon you will learn and then you’ll be like me.”
“Pinkie this is dangerous,” said Sunset. Pinkie did not say anything, only getting back onto her feet which looked at little shaky at the moment. “We can go back and get the others. We can pony up and-”
“No,” said Pinkie as she looked intently at her sister. “I’m not that hurt right now. It just caught me off guard. I’ll be fine.”
“But-” began Sunset yet fell silent when Pinkie shook her head.
“I don’t like seeing my sister like this,” she continued. “With that fake smile and that thing controlling her body like that. I bet deep down she’s suffering, being forced to be like that. If I run away right now she’ll have to spend more time like that! So I Pinkie Promise right here and now that no matter how much pain I go through I’ll save her.”
“Are you going to continue or forfeit?” asked Limestone.
Sunset opened her mouth to say something only to have Twilight grab her wrist. “It’s too late to do anything now,” said the purple girl as she pointed to the thing on Limestone’s neck. “If this is anything like the duel we had at Camp Everfree, then I don’t think Pinkie’s life is in danger. But that thing. It already tried launching itself at her once. It might try it again if Pinkie loses or gives up. We have to let her try and stop this.”
“Ok, I tribute my Toon Mermaid in order to special summon Toon Dark Magician Girl in attack mode!” announced Pinkie as her Mermaid vanished in a puff of pink smoke. In its place was the iconic blonde spellcaster, only smaller and more cartoony. It sat upon a floating book with an attack of 2000 attack points. “Sadly, I can’t attack with her on the turn it was special summoned. But what I can do is attack you with Toon Masked Sorcerer. And since you don’t control any Toon monsters he can attack you directly!”
“Before you do that, I activate the quick effect of Alpha the Electromagnetic Warrior,” said Limestone as Pinkie’s Masked Sorcerer pulled out a rather large wand from its robes. “By tributing it, I can special summon any Magnet Warrior in my deck to the field. So I’ll special summon Gamma the Electromagnetic Warrior in defense mode!” Electrical energy began to surround Alpha until it became so bright it was nearly blinding. Several moments later when the light began to dim all the girls saw that a new monster with 2000 defense points was standing on the field. It was a bulky, heavy looking monster with a horseshoe magnet around its neck, magnet bars on its rounded arms, and coils around its circular shoulders. It had no mouth but gazed forward with its yellow eyes.
Pinkie didn’t respond to this, simply allowing her Masked Sorcerer to unleash its attack. The masked toon twirled its wand in his oversized hands sending out stars that looked more like pillows past the Gamma and hitting Limestone. The direct attack looked like it did very little when compared to what Limestone had done to Pinkie, pushing her back a bit while Limestone’s life points fell to 7100.
“Thanks to my Masked Sorcerer’s effect, when he inflicts damage then I get to draw a card,” said Pinkie as she drew. Pinkie then looked at the new card and jumped into the air happily. “All right! I just drew my Toon Dark Magician. And since I haven’t normal summoned yet I’ll tribute both of my toons on the field in order to bring him out so he can play!” Both of Pinkie’s toons puffed out of existence in clouds of smoke and pink bubbles. When the smoke cleared, a small version of the Dark Magician was there, sitting on a floating tome. It’s attack was the same as its original: 2500.
“Pretty neat right,” said Pinkie Pie happily. “Not only is this card super duper cute, but he also has a trick that the original doesn’t have. By discarding a toon card or a Manga Ryu-Ran from my hand I can either special summon any toon from my deck or add any toon spell/trap card from my deck to my hand. So I’ll discard my Toon Defense in order to call up Toon Dark Magician’s BFF: Red Eyes Toon Dragon!” As Pinkie Pie said this last part, she jumped into the air once more and upon landing discarded her card for cost. In response, Toon Dark Magician got to his feet so he was now standing on the book and began to run, the pages flipping instead of tearing as he did so. When he finally stopped, he reached into the book, searched around for a moment as various odd noises were heard (like car crashes and screeching cats) before pulling out a smaller toon version of Red Eyes.
“Oh Pinkie, don’t you know this is all pointless?” asked Limestone as her head jerked to the side. “I’ve dueled you plenty of times before. I know what your desks weakness is. All I have to do is get rid of Toon Kingdom and you’re finished.”
“That’s true~,” replied Pinkie in a sing-song tone. “But I also know what you’re trying to do as well. So right now we’re playing a game to see who stops who first. So I’ll pass it to you for right now.”
“Yes,” said Limestone as she drew a card, making a total of five cards in her hand. “And it looks like you’re too late to stop me because the card I just drew is Beta The Electromagnetic Warrior!” Quickly Limestone slapped the card onto the duel disk causing a light-ish red monster to appear on the field with 1500 attack points. Its limbs were thing, with coils wrapped around them connecting them to the more bulky parts of the body. Horseshoe shaped magnets made up its four digit clawed hands as well as acting like horns on the top of its head. “Now that he’s on the field, I can use his effect to add one Magnet Warrior to my hand. Well, as long as it’s level four or below. So I’ll add my Delta the Magnet Warrior.” Calmly Limestone added the card, her grin never wavering. But her head looked like it was trying to shake ‘no’.
“Now the field is all set,” continued Limestone. “Since I have Alpha, Beta, and Gamma on both my field and graveyard I can remove them from play in order to special summon Berserkion The Electromagnetic Warrior!” Instantly, both of the Electromagnetic Warriors on the field began to break apart while pieces of Alpha shot out of the pages of Pinkie’s book. The parts began to circle and connect around Alpha. Beta began to reinforce its legs while Gamma reinforced its upper body. Alpha’s weapon transformed as well, becoming more sword like with still retaining its magnetic appearance. When it landed, it was a 3000 attack point giant.
“Looks like I win this match,” said Limestone. “Berserkion has the power to banish one level four or lower Magnet Warrior in my graveyard in order to destroy one card you control. And I just so happen to have one. Pity, I was saving Alpha for later but I can’t allow to attack me directly with either of those dumb looking things you call monsters.” At Limestone’s works, both toons began to cry large crocodile tears. Toon Dark Magician even blew his nose on his robes. “Now Berserkion, destroy Toon Kingdom!” Berserkion instantly took a hold of its sword with both hands and plunged it into the pages it was stepping on. While it did, electricity around its body began to grow to the point were the pages caught fire.
“Now destroy Toon Dark Magician,” said Limestone.
“I don’t think so,” said Pinkie as Berserkion raised his sword and looked like it was getting ready to do a running charge. With a press of a button, Pinkie activated her face down trap. Then, something odd happened. Everything and everyone began to float as if gravity had been turned off. Berserkion flew past both Toon Dark Magician and Red Eyes Toon Dragon, both of whom were playing patty cake. As for the girls, Limestone found herself upside down while Pinkie, Twilight, and Sunset were doing their best to keep their skirt up. “Meet my Zero Gravity trap card. The closest thing to being in a bouncy house I could find! Isn’t it the funniest thing ever!”
“Well it is interesting,” said Twilight as she jerked herself to the side. “Seems like the magic isn’t just making the damage feel real, but also some of the effects of the cards. This needs to be studied!”
“I feel sick again,” moaned Sunset right before her cheeks began to bulge.
“Don’t worry, it doesn’t last forever,” said Pinkie. “When it does end, all monsters switch their positions!” As soon as Pinkie said that, gravity returned to normal. Thankfully for the humans they weren’t up that high so no one was hurt…badly. Most of the girls landed on their heads, with Pinkie’s hair acting like a spring to propel her to her feet. Only Twilight landed on her feet naturally. But on the field, all of the monsters there were now in defense mode.
“Fine then,” said Limestone as she managed to get to her feet. “I end my turn there. You go. But know that next turn will be your last!”
“Then I draw,” said Pinkie. As she looked at the card in her hand, her eyes widened. She then looked at the only other card she had…and grinned happily. “Sorry but I have some sweet moves for you. First, I’ll discard my Manga Ryu-Ran in my hand to have Toon Dark Magician search out another copy of Toon Kingdom and add it to my hand! Then I activate it again!” Once more, Pinkie removed the needed cards from on top of her deck from play to bring back goofy pop-up book setting. “Now with this card up, I have everything I need. Except for a card that makes cupcakes. Wouldn’t that be amazing?”
“I see, you plan on attacking me directly now that you have your field spell back,” stated Limestone. “But I’ll still be in the game. Neither of your monsters have enough attack points to finish this. And even if you do special summon another monster, I know for a fact that none of them can attack the turn you summon them.”
“Well that’s true,” admitted Pinkie. “But there is another way to get another monster on the field. Like, oh I don’t know, using a spell card.” Pinkie then placed her card in the proper slot while a giant hand reached out from the castle to grab hold of Berserkion. Limestone’s smile vanished as her monster was dragged back into the castle, kicking and trashing the entire way. Once it was hidden behind the paper walls, construction sounds could be heard along with a cloud of smoke.
“W-What is that?” asked Limestone. “What did you do to my monster?”
“Oh, just a little equip card called Comic Hand,” explained Pinkie. “I can equip it to one of your monsters, take control of it, and it then becomes, wait for it…” At that moment, the drawbridge to the castle came down revealing Berserkion. Only now it was smaller, with large white eyes with pupils and carrying a balloon sword. “A Toon!”
“No,” whispered Limestone as the thing on her neck began to shake wildly. “I still have a trap card. You wouldn’t dare try to attack me. It could wipe out your board!”
“Ah not really,” said Pinkie. “See, I’ve dueled Limestone plenty of times to know that she likes to dump her normal Magnet Warriors into the grave with stuff like Rock Bombardment, Foolish Burial, Delta, and so on. Then she uses her trap: Backup Soldier. Thing is, it can’t be used unless you have at least five monsters in the graveyard. I’m guessing that’s what that card is there. And since you haven’t been able to use it, it just proves that Limestone is fighting you.”
“What are you talking about?” asked Limestone. “I am Limestone. A better Limestone thanks to friendship.”
“Nope,” replied Pinkie simply. “That might be my sister’s body, but I know you’re not her. The real Limestone has been fighting you this entire time. If you were my real sister then you would have been able to use that trap card by now or would have brought out the fusion monster in your extra deck. Plus there’s the fact that I can see it all over her face. She might be trapped behind that fake smile but she’s fighting you with everything she has! Now I’ll set her free with an all out attack!” As Pinkie said this, she pointed at Limestone. Red Eyes Toon Dragon was the first to do so, pulling out a bubble blower and creating tiny red energy bubbles that floated across the field to explode on target; dropping her life points to 4700. Then came Toon Dark Magician, holding his staff out before him and spinning around before falling onto his butt as an energy blast was fired. The attack hit Limestone right in the chest, knocking her down this time while lowering her life points to 2200. Before Limestone could get up, Berserkion had already pounced. The transformed toon thrusted his balloon sword downward, impaling the thing on her neck as her life points dropped to 0.
-x-
“Well the good news is that you don’t die when you lose a duel,” said Twilight. It had been about an hour since Pinkie had finished the duel and now Limestone sat in her chair as Twilight examined her with one of the many devices she was now carrying with her at all times. It was her magical signature device, the one she had used the first time she appeared at Canterlot High to examine the statue. Sure it looked like something straight out of Ghostbusters…because she was a fan of the movie and thought why not. Besides, it wasn’t like its shape interfered with its function. “Or lose your soul or anything like that.”
“Wait,” groaned Limestone as she tried to sit up, Twilight device beeping loudly as she did so. “There was a chance of that happening?!”
“Well I was 99% sure that nobody here would die if they lost the duel,” explained Twilight as she pocketed her device. “I mean, we had run into something like this before and we came out fine. But there was the chance it might have been different. As for the soul thing, the odds of that happening were very, very remote.”
“But you still brought it up,” groaned Limestone.
Twilight coughed into her hand as she looked away for a brief moment. “Let’s not dwell on what might have been or my little slip of the tongue,” she said as she looked back at Limestone. “Do you remember anything at all that happened before you got taken over?”
Limestone leaned back into her seat. “Bit and pieces,” she admitted. “I remember walking into the house, but everything after that is…broken. I can remember words, commands, and watching Pinkie getting hurt. Those were the moments that were the strongest.” She then closed her eyes. “Oh God, I could have really hurt her. Damn it! Why was I so stupid for walking into a trap like that? I should have known better.”
“We all make mistakes,” said Sunset, speaking up for the first time. “Trust me on this.” Twilight turned to look at her, seeing that she hadn’t moved from the spot where Limestone had stood during the duel. She was on her knees, examining the spot with a magnifying glass with the magical journey laid out next to her. New words had been written in, detailing to Princess Twilight what they had experienced and asking if there was any magical items from Equestria that could have done this. Hopefully the Princess would be able to help.
“And we’ll help you get back on your feet,” said Pinkie as she came into the room, carrying a cup of coffee. “I already put the money back into the safe so, hopefully, mom and dad won’t know anything went wrong.” With a smile, Pinkie set the mug down on the counter. “And don’t worry, well find out who did this to you and make sure they don’t do it ever again.”
Limestone gave a small smile at that. “Well, as long as you don’t do it alone…and punch whoever did this in the gut once for me. Promise? Because nobody, and I mean nobody, makes me smile like that and gets away with it. My cheeks are still sore!”
“Pinkie Promise,” said Pinkie.
-x-
Elsewhere, a girl walked down a cold and lonely street all by herself. The sun was beginning to set while the street lamps began to glow. The wind blew, creating a soft chill that the girl ignored.
Things did not go according to plan. The target had been a bust. She had thought it would be easy. That if she went after a larger company, there would be more safeguards in place to keep company money from just flowing out into her account. Not to mention the retribution that would follow her even if the person she befriended was caught. A smaller company wouldn’t have the same resources and shouldn’t be able to do anything to her with all their funds gone. But it hadn’t worked. Something, somehow had stopped the power she had learned to master. Perhaps there was someone in this town with powers similar to her own.
That thought caused her to freeze on the spot. Other people like her? That might change things, but what should she do? She could run away from them before she was found out. There she could work on the new world order of friendship without having to deal with obstacles like that. Or there might be many more out there who could oppose her. No, that won’t do. She needed to nip this in the bud so that perfect unity and friendship could spread across the world. A world where everything was equal.
Whether people wanted it or not.