Duelists of the Friendship Cup
Hysteric Party – Pinkie Pie vs Lemon Zest
“The next round of the Friendship Cup is set! Canterlot High’s Pinkamena Pie shall face Crystal Prep’s Lemon Zest!”
“Yay!” Pinkie jumped up into the air, a burst of confetti shooting from her shoulders. “My turn!”
Lemon Zest stood up from the Crystal Prep bench and stretched. “About time, I was getting bored.” She began to walk out onto the field, when there was a rush of pink and blue in front of her.
“Hi there!” Pinkie grinned in Lemon’s face and grabbed her hand to quickly shake it. “I’m Pinkie Pie!”
“Uh, yo,” Lemon smiled back, grimacing as Pinkie shook her hand hard. “I’m Lemon Zest.”
“Cool. So like, on a scale of one to ten, how fun do you want this duel to be?” Before Lemon Zest could even open her mouth to respond, Pinkie held up a hand. “Trick question, the answer is always ten!”
Lemon grinned. “Dude, you’re totally speaking my language right there. I’m always tuned to ten. Sometimes even that’s not high enough.”
“I know, right!?”
“Will the two duelists please take their positions at the field?” Luna’s voice droned from the speakers.
“C’mon, let’s go.” Lemon nodded over Pinkie’s shoulder.
“Oh, yeah. Over there, gotcha!” Pinkie winked and skipped over to her spot on the dueling field. She held up her duel disk and activated it, swinging out her arm as it clicked together and lit up.
Lemon walked to the other end of the field, turned, and held up her arm. She pressed the activation button on her duel disk and a tray of bright green energy projected from the front.
“Hope you’re ready for this!” Lemon called. “Ya seem cool, which is why I ain’t gonna go easy on ya!”
“You got it!” Pinkie nodded.
“Let the third duel of the Friendship Cup begin!”
-Pinkie Pie Life Points: 8000-
-Lemon Zest Life Points: 8000-
On the display board the portraits of the two flashed, then stopped with Lemon’s lit up. “Crystal Prep will take the first turn.”
“Sweet.” Lemon drew her opening hand from her duel disk and fanned them out. She smiled wide and pumped her fist. “Already loving it!” She grabbed a card and slapped it on her duel disk. “I activate the Spell card ‘One for One’. This lets me discard a monster card from my hand, and then I can summon a Level 1 monster from my deck.”
Lemon twirled a card in her hand and slotted it into her duel disk, then tapped a prompt on her screen. “I’ll get rid of ‘Morphtronic Cameran’ and summon ‘Morphtronic Celfon’!”
A large yellow cellphone appeared in front of Lemon Zest. A sheen of light washed over it and it broke apart, transforming into a large yellow robot with bright pink eyes. The screen of the phone cracked down the center and swung back, forming a pair of wings (100/100).
Lemon tapped on her duel disk again. “I activate Celfon’s ability. Once per turn I can roll a die, and whatever the result is, I can reveal that many cards on the top of my deck and summon a Level 4 or lower Morphtronic monster among them.” Lemon snapped her fingers. “Go, Morphtronic Speed Dial!”
Celfon thrust out its chest, made up of the top half of the phone form’s dial pad. The numbers lit up in rapid sequence before stopping on ‘4’. “Awesome!” Lemon grabbed four cards from her duel disk, looking over them, and nodded. “I’ll bring out ‘Morphtronic Remoten’!”
A white remote control for a video player appeared next to Celfon. The screen blipped to life to show a pair of eyes as arms and legs cords shot out of its sides (300/1200).
Lemon nodded at Remoten. “Next I’ll use Remoten’s ability. By banishing a Morphtronic monster in the Graveyard, a Morphtronic with the same Level can be added from my deck to my hand. I’ll get rid of Cameran and get a second one out, and then I’ll summon him.”
The card ejected from her duel disk and she swiftly slotted it on the card tray. A large red camera appeared in front of her and transformed into another robot, the flash of the camera mounted on the back of its arm (800/600).
Pinkie gaped. “Those monsters are so cool! Oo, oo, do they combine into one super-duper-awesome giant robot?”
“No. But they do combine into something even better!” Lemon held her hand up. “I tune my Level 3 Morphtronic Remoten with my Level 2 Morphtronic Cameran!” Morphtronic Remoten burst apart into three glowing green rings. The rings floated around Cameran and began to spin, while Cameran glowed yellow.
Lemon smiled. “I align the frequencies of my remote control and my camera together, and home in on the signal of a high-tech prodigy!” She brought her arm back and raised her duel disk, her hand poised over the back of the device. A card snapped out from it and she grabbed it and placed it on her duel disk. “Synchro Summon! Come on out, Level 5, ‘T.G. Hyper Librarian’!”
The rings around Cameran contracted and then exploded out, revealing Lemon’s new monster. A tall, slim humanoid figure in a white and black robe stood in front of her, a white cloak trailing down its back. It raised its head, concealed by a military cap and glasses, and snapped an arm out, a book tracing out in green light and then popping into existence in its hand (2400/1800).
Lemon lifted a card in her hand. “Next, I’ll banish Morphtronic Remoten from my Graveyard, to Special Summon ‘Morphtronic Smartfon’.” A slim smartphone materialized in Lemon’s line of monsters and snapped apart, the pieces within unfolding to form hands and feet. The top of the phone popped up, revealing a slim pair of red eyes (100/100).
“I’ll activate Smartfon’s effect. It’s kinda like Celfon’s effect, but instead of summoning a Morphtronic monster from the deck, it adds a Morphtronic card into my hand. Go, Morphtronic Messenger!” Smartfon’s screen on its chest began cycling through numbers, stopping on a two.
Lemon picked up her two cards, frowned, and held them out. “My two cards are ‘Power-Up Adapter’ and ‘Air Cracking Storm’. Since neither is a Morphtronic card, I have to add them back to my deck.” She placed the cards on top and her deck automatically reshuffled.
“Aw, that sucks for you,” Pinkie pouted.
“Yeah…” Lemon held up her hands. “But don’t worry, I’ve got one more move anyway. I’ll tune my Morphtronic Celfon with my Morphtronic Smartfon!” Smartfon turned into another green ring that rose up and lowered over Celfon. Lemon extended a hand into the air. “I align the frequencies of my cellphone and my smartphone together, and home in on the signal of a high-tech speedster!” She grabbed her card from her duel disk and put it on the tray. “Synchro Summon! Rolling out, Level 2, ‘Formula Synchron’!”
Lemon’s new monster was shaped like a race car, with legs emerging from below it and arms from the sides between the wheels. It stood next to Hyper Librarian and rested its hands on the car part that formed its chest (200/1500).
“When I summon Formula Synchron, its effect activates, letting me draw a card. Also, performing a Synchro Summon activates the effect of Hyper Librarian, letting me draw again.” Lemon picked up her two cards and folded them into her hand with the rest. “I think that’s good for now, so I’ll end my turn.”
“Cool!” Pinkie grinned as she drew. She looked at her card and held it out. “I pay a thousand Life Points, and activate the Spell card ‘Toon World’!”
A shower of sparks and a cloud of pink smoke billowed into the air behind Pinkie. A large green book with cartoon characters spun out of it and hurled into the air, landing in front of her and springing open to reveal a pop-up city rising from the pages.
-Pinkie Pie Life Points: 7000-
“What the heck is that!?”
Pinkie paused and turned her head to see Applejack staring at her. “Pinkie, you said you had a fancy new deck with Xyz monsters and stuff!”
Pinkie shrugged and held up her hands. “Eh, it wasn’t really clicking with me. This deck is way more fun! It has cartoon dragons in it! Cartoon dragons make everything better!”
Applejack slapped a hand to her face. Rarity slumped forward. “She’s going to lose, isn’t she?”
“Yup,” Rainbow muttered.
“Anyway, where was I?” Pinkie turned back to Lemon Zest and looked down at her hand. “I summon ‘Toon Masked Sorcerer’!”
A circular portal in front of Pinkie opened and a purple and red mist poured out, solidifying into the shape of a humanoid figure in a purple robe with a long, bright red shock of hair. The figure shook its head, its face covered by a bright blue mask, and sat down in front of Pinkie (900/1400). “I guess that’s it, so I’ll set three cards down and end my turn.”
“That’s it?” Lemon put a hand on her hip and frowned. “Come on, dude, gimme something to work with here!”
“Sorry, bad hand.” Pinkie shrugged again. “I didn’t have any other monsters to summon yet. Maybe next turn!”
Rainbow’s eye twitched. “Does she even know this is a tournament!?”
“That sucks. Here, let me pick up the slack!” Lemon drew and reached to her hand. “I activate the Spell card ‘Junk Box’. This lets me revive a Morphtronic in my Graveyard, but it’ll be destroyed at the end of my turn. I revive Morphtronic Celfon.” The hologram of Lemon’s Spell card broke apart into scrap metal that rapidly reformed into the yellow robot.
“I activate Celfon’s effect, Morphtronic Speed Dial!” The six numbers on Celfon’s chest lit up and stopped on 3. Lemon picked up the three cards on her deck and flipped one out. “I summon ‘Morphtronic Magnen’ in defense mode.” A blue horseshoe magnet materialized in front of her and turned a pale blue, light gleaming on its surface (800/800).
“And now, I tune my Level 1 Morphtronic Celfon with my Level 2 Formula Synchron!” Lemon held her hand up as Formula Synchron turned into green rings that encircled Celfon. “I align the frequencies of my cellphone and my speedster together, and home in on the signal of a musical marvel!” She placed her card on her duel disk with a grin. “Synchro Summon! Rock on, Level 3, ‘Martial Metal Marcher’! I summon you in defense mode!”
A squat robot built of brass rose in front of Lemon, its body formed from old musical instruments, with arms made from horn pieces and the pipes of an organ mounted on its back. A screen on its chest lit up and displayed volume levels as it raised its arms and blasted a soundwave out (500/2200).
“Summoning Martial Metal Marcher activates the effect of my Hyper Librarian, letting me draw a card. I also get to use my Metal Marcher’s own ability, which is to revive a Tuner monster in my Graveyard with its effects negated. So Formula Synchron is coming right back.” Lemon drew as Formula Synchron rose next to the Metal Marcher.
“Next, time to attack!” Lemon pointed across the field. “T.G. Hyper Librarian, take out that Toon!” Hyper Librarian brought its hands together and formed an orb of pale blue light. The orb sparked and shot a beam of energy across the field.
“I don’t think so!” Pinkie called. “I activate my Continuous Trap card ‘Toon Defense’!” A long wooden crook extended of the Toon World book and hooked around Masked Sorcerer. “When you try and attack a Level 4 or lower Toon monster, I can change it to a direct attack instead!” The crook pulled Masked Sorcerer into the book, leaving Hyper Librarian’s energy attack streaming towards Pinkie.
“So now you’ll just take the full force of the hit!” Lemon cried.
“Nope! I use my second Continuous Trap ‘Spirit Barrier’!” A glowing field of yellow energy encircled Pinkie. Hyper Librarian’s attack struck in a shower of sparks and dispersed. “With this Trap, as long as I control a monster, any damage I take from your attacks is reduced to zip-zilch-zeee-ro!”
Lemon grinned. “So I can’t attack your monsters with that first Trap, and my attacks don’t hurt you because of the second. Not bad.”
“Thanks!” Pinkie smiled back as Masked Sorcerer emerged from Toon World, dancing from either foot.
“Time to step it up then.” Lemon Zest held out a hand. “I end my Battle Phase, and then, I tune my Hyper Librarian with my Formula Synchron!”
Formula Synchron’s twin green rings floated over Hyper Librarian. The monster inside sparked as metal began to gather around it and circle it. “I align the frequencies of my librarian and my speedster together, and home in on the signal of a mechanical powerhouse!” The metal condensed around Hyper Librarian and lit up. Lemon pumped her fist. “Synchro Summon! Take flight, Level 7, ‘Power Tool Dragon’!”
The metal shell shattered, revealing a large, gold, mechanical dragon with silver plates of metal running down its back to its tail. Its right arm was an electrical screwdriver bit, and its right a large shovel claw. Red eyes flashed to life and it flew over the field, circling behind Pinkie to return to Lemon and alighting beside her (2300/2500).
“Awesome!” Pinkie cheered. “I was hoping you’d pull out a big baddie monster like that!”
“You were?” Lemon replied, confused.
“Yup, because now I get to activate this! My Trap card ‘Toon Mask’!” Pinkie’s Trap shimmered and turned into a large mask of a cartoon ogre. “This card lets me choose a monster on your field, and then I get to summon a Toon monster from my deck with the same level!”
The mask oozed black ink from behind it, and the ink swelled and grew into a monster’s shape. “Since your Power Tool Dragon is Level 7, I’m gonna summon the Level 7 ‘Red-Eyes Toon Dragon’!”
The mask shattered and the ink dripped away, revealing a cartoon black dragon with stubbed wings, an oversized mouth, and large red eyes. It flapped into the air in front of Pinkie and let out a high-pitched roar, flexing its claws (2400/2000).
“Cool.” Lemon nodded. “I’m not quite done, though. I activate Power Tool Dragon’s special ability. Once per turn I can take three Equip Spell cards from my deck, then you randomly pick one of them and it gets added to my hand.” Lemon reached to her duel disk’s screen and tapped through the display. The holograms of three cards appeared in the air over Lemon’s head. “Okay, go for it.”
Pinkie scrunched her face and murmured, her eyes turning back and forth. She put her hand out to point as she spoke. “The left one! No, the right! No, the center. Ah, no, wait, the right again! Can I use my phone-a-friend?”
“Here, lemme make it easy for ya,” Lemon chuckled. “It’s three copies of the exact same card, so it doesn’t really matter.”
“Ooooooh. That’s kind of a clever trick, actually.” Pinkie smiled. “Okay, take the middle one.” The cards vanished and Lemon took the card that ejected from her deck. Pinkie brushed off her forehead. “Phew, for a second there I was kinda worried!”
The sound of a palm hitting the owner’s forehead resounded from somewhere behind her.
“I’ll set a card and end my turn.” Lemon smiled. “Your move again.”
“And what a move it’s gonna be.” Pinkie drew and looked at her card, and gasped. “And it just got even better! I activate the Spell card ‘Toon Rollback’!” A film reel appeared from her card and wound around her dragon, then shimmered and was absorbed into it.
“This card lets me select a Toon monster I control and attack twice with it this turn!” Pinkie tapped on her duel disk. “Next I’ll use my Red-Eyes Toon Dragon’s ability to summon any Toon monster from my hand. Come on out, ‘Toon Dark Magician’!”
The Toon World book billowed with purple smoke. A small wizard in bright blue and red robes flipped out and posed, pointing a staff at Lemon (2500/2100).
The Canterlot crowd cheered as Pinkie put a hand on her hip. “How’d ya like that?”
“Nice!” Lemon nodded. “Too bad Toons can’t attack on the same turn you summon them.”
“Yeah, that’s a bummer. But on the upside, they get to attack you directly as long as I have Toon World on the field! And it’s only one of my Toons that have to wait to attack. As for the others…” Pinkie spun and thrust her hand out. “Red-Eyes Toon Dragon, double direct attack!”
Red-Eyes Toon sucked in air, its jaws glowing orange. Its wings flapped quickly as it rose into the air and snapped its head down, shooting two fireballs toward Lemon Zest. She grimaced and raised her arms as they collided.
-Lemon Zest Life Points: 3200-
“Next, my Masked Sorcerer attacks!” The Masked Sorcerer stretched its hand across the field, its fingers crackling. As the smoke cleared around Lemon it thrust its palm into her face and exploded the energy. The Sorcerer wagged its tongue and drew its hand back, flashing a ‘V’ sign.
-Lemon Zest Life Points: 2300-
“When my Toon Sorcerer damages you, I get to draw a card.” Pinkie drew, looked at her card, and shook her head. “This card’s no good, so I’ll use it to activate my Dark Magician’s ability. I can discard a Toon card from my hand to summon a Toon monster from my deck. I discard ‘Toon Dark Magician Girl’ and summon ‘Blue-Eyes Toon Dragon’!”
The Toon World book closed, spun, and opened on a cloud of silver smoke. A silver-blue dragon flew out, bright blue eyes glaring at Lemon as large white fangs shone in its mouth (3000/2500).
“And on that, I’m gonna end my turn.”
Lemon Zest took a deep breath and rolled her neck. “Okay, playtime is over then, huh?”
“Sorry, but when I play, I play hard!” Pinkie said with a stern look.
“I can work with that.” Lemon smirked as she drew. She reached to her hand to put the card aside and took hold of another. “I’ll start by activating ‘Morphtronic Accelerator’. This lets me return ‘Morphtronic Boomboxen’ from my hand to the deck to destroy a card on the field. I’ll get rid of Spirit Barrier!” Lemon’s card fired an orb of orange light across the field; it struck Pinkie’s Trap and shattered it. “Then, I get to draw again.” Lemon drew and looked down at her card, then went back to her hand.
“Since I control a Machine-type monster, I’ll activate ‘Iron Call’ to revive my Morphtronic Smartfon. And then I’ll summon ‘Morphtronic Vacuumen.” A green and yellow vacuum cleaner appeared in front of Lemon. Its suction head swiveled around to reveal a pair of eyes, and the suction hoses on its side rose as limbs (0/0).
“Now, I’ll tune my Vacuumen with my Smartfon.” Lemon put her hand over her duel disk and leaned forward as Smartfon turned into a green ring that hovered around Vacuumen “I aligned the frequencies of my smartphone and my vacuum together, and home in on the signal of a flying scout machine!” She grabbed her card and held it out.
“Synchro Summon! Reporting in, Level 2, ‘T.G. Recipro Dragonfly!” A small red and green insectoid robot appeared in front of Lemon, a propeller blade set into its midsection spinning to keep it in the air (300/300).
Lemon licked her lips. “And now everything is in place.”
Pinkie tilted her head. “What do you mean? That thing doesn’t look very nasty.”
“It isn’t, but I really don’t have much use for it. I just needed a Level 2 Synchro monster. The one you really wanna be worried about is my Martial Metal Marcher.” Lemon jerked her thumb at the machine. “See, he’s a Synchro monster, sure, but he’s also a Tuner monster. Which means everything is in place for this!”
Lemon spread her arms out. “I Tune together my Level 3 Martial Metal Marcher, Level 2 T.G. Recipro Dragonfly, and my Level 7 Power Tool Dragon!”
Pinkie’s jaw dropped. “All three of them!?”
Martial Metal Marcher turned into three golden rings that began to spin. Dragonfly and Power Tool Dragon flew into the middle of the ring, sparks shooting between them as they hovered closer.
“I align the frequencies of my scouter, my musician, and my dragon together, and home in on the signal of the ultimate battle mech!”
The three monsters lit up yellow and sent a column of light up into the sky. The sky, already getting darker in the early afternoon, turned overcast. Thunder rumbled and lightning flashed. Lemon looked up and stretched out her hand.
“Synchro Summon! Seek and destroy all in your path! Descend, Level 12, ‘T.G. Halberd Cannon’!”
A bolt of lightning struck the ground behind Lemon. From the flash of light, a massive robot stood up. Streamlined black limbs were covered in orange and yellow armor, glowing brightly. Its head, silver and sculpted in an expression of stern determination, rose from its main body and its eyes flashed to life. It raised its hand and the image of a gigantic polearm appeared as a green wireframe, before it materialized for real. The robot gripped it tight and twirled it over its head, then planted it in the ground (4000/4000).
Pinkie stared, her eyes wide. “T-that’s a big monster!”
“You think he’s big now, wait until you see him up close!” Lemon pointed across the field. “T.G. Halberd Cannon, attack Toon Masked Sorcerer!”
Halberd Cannon leapt up into the air, spun its halberd to point down, and then began to descend. The blade began to glow and crackle with energy.
“Wanna activate Toon Defense now, or are you gonna let it connect?” Lemon asked.
Pinkie frowned. “I’m gonna take a lot of damage either way, so I’ll make it a direct attack! Go, Toon Defense!” Toon World stretched its crook out and pulled Toon Sorcerer into the book.
“Cool. Though, if I’m being honest, I was just being polite and letting you pick first. It really doesn’t matter.” Lemon shrugged.
“Why not?”
Lemon pressed a prompt on her duel disk screen. “I activate my face-down card ‘Limiter Removal’! At the end of this turn all of my Machine monsters will be destroyed, but until then, their attack points double!”
Across Halberd Cannon’s body, sparks flew and wires and gears popped out of its joints. A pair of rocket boosters on its back activated and shot it toward the ground faster (4000 → 8000).
Pinkie’s face fell. “Crud.”
Halberd Cannon’s polearm stabbed into the ground in front of her and erupted in a massive shower of lightning.
-Pinkie Pie Life Points: 0-
Pinkie let her arms fall to her sides. “Well, that didn’t work.”
“Hey!” Lemon ran up to her and held out a hand. “You still pulled out some great moves there! That was fun!”
“Really?”
“Yeah! I mean, ya know, not to be mean but I knew I was gonna win anyway, but it was cool playing it out.”
“Thanks!” Pinkie grinned and shook her hand vigorously. “Maybe I can lose to you again sometime!”
Rarity rested her cheek on her fist. “This is either very infuriating or very endearing and I’m not sure which.”
“Ah am,” Applejack muttered, her arms folded.
Sunset watched Pinkie come back while Lemon Zest returned to the Crystal Prep bench. “Come on guys, we’re not out of this yet. We can still mount a comeback!”
“Yeah, right,” Rainbow snapped. “We’re screwed.”
“We will now choose our duelists for the next match. After this duel the tournament will continue tomorrow.”
“Who even cares?” Rainbow called. In her normal voice she said, “Let’s just go home and call it a day. We can’t lose the tournament if we aren’t here to play in it.”
Rarity gave a grim nod. “I have to say, going home to catch up on sewing seems a more productive way to spend my weekend than watching us humiliate ourselves here.”
“No!” Sunset jumped to her feet and moved in front of them as Rainbow went to stand. “Look, yeah, it sucks that Crystal Prep has better cards than us, and we’re one duel from having no chance. So what?” Sunset slammed a fist into her palm. “You guys were the ones who were enthusiastic about doing our best in this tournament. You can’t give up like this.”
Sunset closed her eyes and took a breath. “I know it sucks. I’ve been saying it along with all of you. But we came here to try our best. Until that fourth duelist’s points hit zero, we’re still in this. So even if it’s a long shot, we might as well try, right? It’s just like in a duel, no matter how badly we’re losing, one card can still turn it around!”
She opened her eyes. “Who’s with me?”
The other girls on the bench stared at her, their mouths hanging open and their eyes wide.
Sunset blushed and looked between them. “Well, it wasn’t my best public speaking…”
“Sunset?” Rarity raised a hand and jabbed a finger to the side.
Sunset turned her head and saw where Rarity was pointing – the display board.
Her expression morphed into a copy of theirs.
“The final duel of the day is set! Canterlot High’s Sunset Shimmer will face off against Crystal Prep’s Twilight Sparkle!”
Why can’t Pinkie take things seriously? Good grief...also that duel between Sunset and Twilight should be intresting.
Okay, now this is just getting ridiculous. Now CHS only has one chance left to stay alive. Honestly, now I feel the way Sunset described in the last chapter. If they don't win the next duel then might as well give up.
9347794
Agreed. The 'let's do our best and hope we make a comeback' line is such a cliche. The characters in the story are being to echo the readers patience. Itll be hard for Sombra to talk them into giving up their free time. Twilight might lose...and that will be that. They won't be dueling each other in a tie breaker because the odds that such an event could happen at this point has been made laughable. But if by some miracle that does happen, why would Crystal Prep pick robo Twi to duel? She lost. Something like that should have been saved for the end.
On a side note it's good to finally see Crystal Prep FINALLY using a summoning method other than fusion. It's just sad we had to wait so long. Also I would have thought Lemon more of a Lunalight player. You can easily not include their pendulum cards and it would fit more with her personality. But I guess since the first two had fusion decks...
so for this story, Lemon Zest uses Morphtronics? ...I'm okay with this
Oh of course with Sunset's turn next she'll win.... Oddly I'm not excited. Maybe it's because I was hoping for at least one of the others to win instead of just it being a curb stomp.
Huh... Morphtronic T.G.s... why didn't I thought of that...
Sorry for the delay. I kind of couldn't get past Sunset marching up to get verbally eviscerated by Sombra for a while. Though the pay to win advantage is as frustrating here as it is in real life, and the whole "advanced mechanics" thing rings false when those mechanics revolve around basic addition and matching numbers. Granted, that's part of Yu-Gi-Oh anime logic, but still.
In any case, a fun duel. It'll be interesting to see how protagonist plot armor fares against someone who knows and cares about the actual rules of the game.
9347871
Plot armor will win. It always does.
9347858
Yeah I have no interest in this crap since it's been too one-sided.
9347858
This story is too one-sided. The actual Friendship Games had keep these even. I have no investment in this crap.
9347900
However what would save it is if it turned out.... Crystal Prep is actually cheating.
*pumps fist* Yes, I knew she'd win!...
Ahem, I mean, so sad to see Pinkie lose, let's all root for Sunset to turn it around, hehe...
But seriously, these Toons had no chance.
This was actually the first chapter that I was looking forward to, reading Pinkies duel with a smile on my face. It captured the idea of a cartoon, taking me away from the dregs of reality. It was also nice to see a duelist from the Prep who wasn't angry or emotionless. But sadly, just like a cartoon, when the duel ended I was back with the dregs.
I am not looking forward to Sunset vs Twilight for several reasons. Firstly I am not invested in either character. Sunset has come off as something of a sheltered rich girl. She is trying to remain positive and pump up her friends but is failing to realize why they are feeling down. They all put a lot of time and money into upgrading their decks. AJ even put together a whole new desk just for this. Not one of them has come close to winning and while having fun is important its had to have that when everything is so one sided year after year. Contrast to them, Sunset is using a magically powered deck that didn't cost her a dime and can change at a moment's notice. Preparing for this tournament has cost her nothing. Even if she does win it won't be because of skill or effort but rather whatever bs she can pull out. As for Twilight, the author still hasn't given her a personality or a reason to like her and root for her. There has been time where we could have learned about her but those chapters seem to only show her not understanding other people.
Then there is the beat down. It's hard for me to get pumped when this is the fourth duel in a row where Prep has won including Sombras duel. I was ok with Pinkies duel because it was at least entertaining to read while all the other duels have not. Not even the original Frienship Games were this one sided, keeping up everyone's spirits up so even when they lost the first round they were proud of the fact that they came closer than ever before.
Finally, we know Sunset is going to win and that as unlike as it sounds so will the others. The losses this far have been done in a manner to raise the stakes but done without consideration to the overall narrative. The readers will on longer be wondering if CHS can win this match because now they have to if its suppose to go down to the wire.
9347858
Agreed
9347898
Sometimes that's hard to do. The game shop where I go to play Yugioh is 99% filled with casual plays. Those that do play in real tournaments either bring a different deck or will let you know just to be fair. One time, a game shop two towns over was getting remodeled and all of its Yugioh players came to ours. The problem was that it was a situation much like this story: all of them were highly competitive players. The only difference was that there was far less variety with their decks. By the end of the second round most of the casual players had left and those that remained were on their phones during the matches against the competitive players. When this happened again the following week every casual player I knew turned around and went home
At least Lemon Zest and Pinkie Pie got along during their battle. Now we move onto Sunset vs Twilight.
Seriously? Now CHS can't lose the next 4 games or it's tournament over...unless Sombra does his insist on completing all the duels thing. Also, a 1 chapter duel when all the previous were two parters? Just a bad idea dude.
Finally, while I appreciate the "Duling is meant to be fun" mindset Pinkie has, constantly losing is not fun, it's depressing. This is why I run decks for fun and decks for winning, cause among friends it's not about winning, but in a tournament winning is the point...so yeah. This chapter kinda fails for me.
9347898
It would help if SOME OF THEM would you know. ACTUALLY GET A WIN IN.
9347959
Yeah they were all Goki/Knightmare lock downs making it impossible to play or do anything. I stayed only because I was hoping to play against one of the other casuals. But I do hope I made my point
Well this chapter was..."Morphanominal".
9347962
Actually it would be funny if Sunset lost, no one from Canterlot High showed up, and Sombra had to call them all up in the hopes he could convince them to come back
Sunset
GET YOUR GAME ON!!
....I’m not surprised Pinkie pulled that. Though the deck does fit her well. Love this one, and I’m itching to see the next duel.
9348084
I'm sorry?
Sunset going to win for sure, and honestly it's sad i'm not excited what so ever. This been a one side battle and set up for Sunset to pull the winning bit to save everyone.
Boring, boing boring. Couldn't be Pinkie Pie or Rarity nope. nope nope...I love Sunset don't get me wrong, her pulling a win POINT a win, but COME ON! She has to be THE WIN to save everyone. You set it up where a Blind deaf mute, dog could seen it coming.
9348203
Please you're forgetting that Shining Armor, Crystal Preps best duelist is still waiting in the background. He'll win and CHS will lose. For all we know Sunset will get their only win just so this tournament will continue to the next day
9348241
That not the point.
What i meant was Sunset makes the win to continue the tournament, not win the entire thing.
if it had been Pinkie or Fluttershy or maybe Rarity verus Sunny Flare and she won, would been a perfect set up for the next match.
But it's obvious who going to win next, and it's Sunset facing Sci Twi, was hoping be exciting match, but again we all know Sunset going to win.
So obvious and boring sorry. Can't get pumped up.
9348250
Ah, I see. I had hoped that Applejack would have won since she was the one to make the most effort into improving. Plus she is one of Canterlots best duelists so it would make sense. Or, like you said, have Rarity duel next to get them pumped. Sunset vs Twilight should be at the end.
As the story is now, there's no real stakes as it builds it's pointless tension.
9348110
I think he was pointing out the typo of "rrr" instead of "my". Which... seems to have been fixed by now. Guess you figured that out for yourself.
Otherwise, yeah, have to agree with what lots of others here are stating. Somehow, this is starting to replicate the sins of various Yu-Gi-Oh anime, with the merits in short supply. I get raising the stakes, but it's been done to such an extent now that there can't be any narrative surprises, leaving the outcomes of the next four matches locked down, unless dark magic interferes with the plot earlier then I expect it will. This is really starting to strike me as a fic that is better binge read rather then as it updates; far less frustration at these plot directions if it turns out by the end to be part of some grand master scheme all along.
But you know what? The only adjustment needed would be Fluttershy eeking out a win against Sour Sweet - she was close enough anyway, with both duelists having 0 cards at the end, so a little restructuring to the end would have been all that was needed. The next two duels could be left the same. Then, we've have the Crystal Prep students taking the tournament more seriously, explaining the next two losses for CHS despite their upgrades. The trope of the underdogs taking an early lead and making the Goliaths wake up and play for keeps is used often for a reason. With a 1-2 record at this point, it could go either way, and while the pattern of basically alternating wins and losses is predictable, it's the best option for a reason. Besides, both MLP and Yu-Gi-Oh are predictable shows by nature. And what we have here is even more predictable by now, alongside lacking any tension.
King of a pity; I enjoyed this duel a great deal more then the Applejack one. Short and sweet and kind of fun, and having Lemon Zest not being a jerk helped quite a bit. I'm torn on the appearance of the Toons. On the one hand, they're an archtype I have fondness for. But I have to wonder what caused the author to backpedal on her using Madolche, given he wanted to in DotAC, but couldn't due to no Synchros, xyz or Pendulum monsters being allowed. And when even the characters remark on how Toons as an archtype can't keep up, despite new recent support... yeah. That said, I was really hoping to see cool moves with (kind of) classic Toon cards like Toon Briefcase, Mimicat, Comic Hand, heck, even Shadow Toon for a close win, because why not? A surprise win would have given some weight to playing with what gives you the most fun, as well as decks sometimes not drawing what you need for Lemon Zest (though given the search capabilities of Lemon Zest's deck, it would be tricky to handle right, I'm sure). In some manners, the duel almost read like intentionally ignoring the audience, which I doubt we would have felt much at all has this not being the third consecutive loss.
While the shakeup of breaking up the rising hierarchy of the CHS students in terms of the order of their duels, with Sunset being next rather then last, is interesting, it's hard to drum up much enthusiasm. Because, well... I'll let Darthvalgaav say it:
Yeah. Compared to Rainbow Rocks, so little focus has been given to Sunset that it's hard to care for her all that much, and we've gone on about this version of Sci-Twi enough already. Couple that with the next duel using Pendulum monsters, the archtype that basically killed my reinterest in modern-day Yu-Gi-Oh a couple of years back, and... yeah, next duel has a lot going against it. While I still suspect there is a plan going on behind both these characters, the wait is excruciating by now, making it harder and harder for it to possibly satisfy.
At this point, I'm just feeling very little personal investment from the author (despite an update after 3 weeks rather then 4, which was nice I suppose). The prose is all done professionally, if still kind of dialogue-heavy at times. But the soul that burned through DotAC, and which was still strong early on here, and I'd even say right through to the end of Fluttershy's duel, is flickering in the wind like a weak candle by this point.
So yeah, I'll keep reading to the end, as will most of us, but it's starting to become more of a grind, and less of an entertainment.
I don't think you guys are giving Drakey here enough credit. I'm partial to some of his plans so let's see how things develop from here, okay?
9348306
...and the blow falls.
It's not that we don't have faith. It's that the wait, the buildup, it starting to grate. Maybe it will be all worth it, and we'll look back on what we thought now and laugh about it. Can't know until then, though. I'm less aggravated then most, but my excitement is dwindling. As recent as the Fluttershy duel, it was still quite high.
9348310
9348306
That's the reason why I haven't dropped and down voted this story yet. I know Dracey is a great writer...which is why reading this story has been disappointing.
9348272
Yeah...I already know what will happen, if i'm guessing right, but won;t say. Have to see if I'm right.
I have to admit this story is something of a guilty pleasure for me. On one hand the previous story had a stronger narrative and Twilight made an excellent audience surrogate. But if this story has one advantage over that one, it's that the duels feel far more fleshed out if only due to access to the extra deck is now in place for more then just fusions.
I can see where a lot of people are coming from when they point out various problems with the plot, but to me at least expecting ANYTHING involving Yugioh in any capacity to have airtight logic is silly. Need I remind people how in GX we were informed that rare cards require armed military escort? Let's not pretend there arent flaws in both sides of the source material.
That said I think it WAS a waste to have Pinkie lose. Not only is there enough Toon support these days to have made this a proper two part duel, but Pinkie Pie was practically born to be the kind of wildcard who comes from behind with a surprise win. It would have been interesting to see if Sombra stood by his lecture to Sunset or if we might have seen the first crack in his demeanor.
But now instead of having some real tension as to who will win or lose the last few duels, the outcome feels obvious if only for the fact that one more loss will bring the story screeching to a halt.
Not to mention you should NEVER EVER run Toon defense instead of Astral Barrier. The only advantage the former has is it's searchable, literally that's it. Otherwise its a complete downgrade that only works on low level toons instead of ALL monsters. Even if Pinkie had any xyz the trap that made up half of her defensive lock work wouldn't have been compatible. But this is just a pet peeve so don't take it too seriously.
It has been worth reading for Sombra and duels like Applejack's but I would reccomend taking your time on the next chapter and try to get it JUST right. I assure you we can afford to wait a bit
9348310
9348331
I'll just toss out then for my end something I'm content to reveal, as it was already in my author notes - the Applejack vs Sugarcoat duel was a slog to write. Both had myriad complex card effects to keep track of with how they cycle cards around, and several times large parts of the duel had to be scrapped or re-written, or I stalled with no idea where to take it. I had no intent for the Venom Dragons to be included, but unless I wanted AJ to lose with Sugarcoat barely scratched, there was nothing left to do but let AJ bring them out.
I overestimated the power of Predaplants and underestimated the power of the Magnet Warriors; Applejack's Predaplants are a terrible archetype and Sugarcoat's Magnet Warriors move so quick she could have crushed Applejack as swiftly as Lemon did to Pinkie here. Both archtypes also have a short list of members limiting my creative options when writing them.
Also, while I have no problem with Applejack or Sugarcoat as characters, neither gave me much personality to work with, nothing like Fluttershy's budding confidence, Sour Sweet's snark, or Lemon and Pinkie's antics. I tried to go for a sort of "let's have an honorable duel as worthy enemies" thing that didn't really come through well.
So, if the feeling among reader is that the Applejack vs Sugarcoat duel had a step down in quality from what was before... yeah, my heart wasn't in it. It was difficult to write on multiple levels. That said, I assure you my enthusiasm for this story is very much present - if it wasn't I wouldn't still be writing it. I had a lot of fun writing the Lemon vs Pinkie duel and have a lot of great plans for the second half of the story, and it all kicks into gear properly with the Sunset vs Twilight duel.
9348698
Well Predaplants do have other fusion monsters. Two actually which is a shame since they do have a good concept but didn't get more support. But if it was such a slog perhaps rethinking AJs deck might have been called for.
Still I think the point has been missed. While I am upset that AJ lost, I am more upset how one sided the story has been.
umm is there something wrong with seeing this since this is the sequel
9348777
9348306
Of course this was coming..... I knew it was coming.
Look dude. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.... if the others HAD SOME WINS. Don't try and go 'Oh but this is set up-' or anything. I know that it's setting stuff up. But the problem being.... the others are playing so badly JOEY WHEELER could curb them in a manner of Five Turns.... JOEY FREAKING WHEELER.
It's too bad Pinkie lost but I love the idea that she has Toon monsters which is perfect for her bubbly personality. Lemon Zest with Morphtronic monsters was nice too. Uh-oh. Sunset vs. Sci-Twi off the bat. This'll be interesting.
9348110
Bad touch screen miss click sorry rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Kinda knew Pinkie was gonna lose this Duel regardless of what Deck she'd ultilized. This is turning out to be like WWE Survivor Series 2018 except Sunset's win is gonna matter under the Crsytal Prep clean sweep.
I get that Pinkie is in it for the fun but... If she'd used Toon Dark Magician's other effect to grab Shadow Toon she would have won.
Feels like we missed a great oppertunity to show that every deck has the potential to win.
OR perhaps even better, Pinkie could have revealed afterwards that she had the card in her hand and chose not to play it.
Please tell me Rainbow Dash or Rarity willl win.
I never thought Pinkie Pie would use Toons in her duel. I thought she was gonna use Madolches. Still, I like this story.
Fun fact, I played the Toon World theme when Pinkie Pie activated Toon World.