“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!” Red screamed as he was nearly ripped in half traveling through the portal back to Equestria, being launched out Twilight’s artificial portal, breaking his fall on a pile of books Twilight conveniently left just in case, patting over his entire body to make sure that he was still a human and none of his bones were broken. “Ow...Fucking hell, that Sunset girl is so smart, you think she’d work with both Twilights to make a smoother portal...Well, no matter, I promised I’d get these to this world’s Twilight and her friends, not like they can use them without me around yet anyway.”
Twilight and all her friends were formed around the Cutie Map, discussing what to do for the day, as well as try and figure out how to make their schedules work around Twilight’s Friendship School .“So, Twilight, just how are we supposed to teach at your school and still do our own jobs?” Rainbow asked “I mean, the Wonderbolts spend every other day training! How am I supposed to keep up with them if I have to teach at school?”
“Yeah, and ah’ve been workin’ the farm ever since ah was a little filly.” Applejack added “And ah’ve got lots o’ chores to do everyday, how the hay am I supposed to keep up with a curriculum on top of all that?”
“Yes, and I have three stores spread out across Equestria darling.” Rarity pointed out “Now, Sassy Saddles and Coco Pommel are both quite skilled managers, but I would still like to check in on them from time to time, and even then, the Ponyville boutique doesn’t have any employees, mainly because it’s also my home.”
“Mr and Mrs Cake are used to me being away for long periods of time, so I’m really flexible.” Pinkie stated “So you can count on me anytime!”
“I just wonder, what was this ‘Red’ person like?” Fluttershy asked “And how is he doing in that alternate world?”
“I don’t know, I’m just worried Sunset can’t help him find his way home, I mean, I’ve barely heard from her since I sent him to their world!” Twilight was panicking out loud to all her friends “I mean, what if it was his world but he contracted some fatal illness and couldn’t afford the medical bills?”
‘Twilight-”
“Or what if he got run over by one of the weird motorized carriages that world has?”
“Twilight-”
“Or what if he was killed by some of the rogue magic Sunset’s been writing to me about!?”
“TWILIGHT! I’m right here!” Red shouted right behind her, with Twilight’s friends rushing to see him again
“Oh, deary, what ever did you do with your ensemble?” Rarity asked, using magic to highlight the black button up shirt Red was wearing under his hoodie
“You mean this? Well, it’s a long story, but the shorthand is that I had to win a racing tournament with a cash prize, so I spent it on a shirt and supper. Also, before I forget, Sunset and the other Twilight wanted me to give you guys these.” Red took off his backpack and proceded to take out what appeared to be eight wristbands with screens or varying colors, matching the coat colors of Twilight and her friends, as well as Spike’s scales.
“Wait, you’re back!? But I thought that you were from the world beyond the mirror!” Twilight exclaimed “Also, what even are these?”
“Well, during my time in the alternate world, I learned quite a bit about alternate dimensions, first off, different dimensions have different frames of time, and can work on different rates of time, for example what would be an hour in one world could be a second in another, hence why if you were to go to that world, what you would find futuristic and whimsical, I could find archaic and outdated. Second off, every world has its own form of spatial energy, or ‘markings’ for its inhabitants, which I think is why I didn’t turn into a Pony, I’m not ‘tuned’ to this world, and as such don’t follow its physical limitations like you do, rather, I still follow the physical limitations of my world.” Red looked back at Twilight’s friends after his lengthy explanation, only to find that while Twilight was eagerly taking notes, the rest of her friends looked at him in utter confusion, except for Rainbow Dash, who had fallen asleep “Right, well, as for your other question, these bracelet things are Duel Disks, Sunset and the other Twilight made them so that you don’t need to be able to handle physical cards to use them, unlike my Duel Disk.”
“Hold on!” Pinkie interrupted, rushing right into Red’s face “You mean we don’t need to hold physical cards to use these!?”
“Well, no, you don’t-”
“Woo hoo!” Pinkie excitedly slammed her front left leg onto the pink Duel Disk before rushing back to face Red. A transparent screen appeared in front of Pinkie, with countless Duel Monsters cards listed on it, which Pinkie waved her hooves on seemingly at random in order to make a quick deck “Duel me! Duel me! Duel me!”
“Well, if you insist.” Red activated his Duel Disk, with the outlines of the field appearing between them “Hey Rainbow! Wake up!”
“Huh...? Wait, is Red Dueling...Pinkie?”
“Yes, and ya would’ve heard why if ya stayed awake!” Applejack said
“Oh shut up!”
“Girls! Be quiet!” Rarity chimed in “This isn’t some sporting event, they need to concentrate!”
DUEL
RED 8000 LP
HAND: 5
PINKIE 8000 LP
HAND: 5
“I’ll go first!” Pinkie cheerily called out “Let’s see...first, I’ll play 7 Colored Fish!"
(Level 4, 1800 ATK 800 DEF)
"Now I’ll play my “A” Cell Breeding Device! Now, I’ll play 7! It is now your turn.”
“Right, I draw!”
RED 8000 LP
HAND: 6
PINKIE 8000 LP
HAND: 2
“So, first off, I’ll play my Graceful Charity Spell Card! First, I draw 3 cards, then I discard 2. I’ll discard my Gem-Knight Crystal, and Gem-Knight Obsidian. This activates the effect of my Gem-Knight Obsidian! When Gem-Knight Obsidian is sent to the Graveyard, even just to pay a discard cost, I can Special Summon a Gem-Knight Normal Monster from my Graveyard! I Summon my Gem-Knight Crystal!”
(Level 7, 2450 ATK 1950 DEF)
“He turned an even 0 card into a plus 1!” Twilight excitedly said, trying to write down everything that was happening in the Duel “Spike, you’re writing this down too in case I miss anything, right?”
“Well, yeah, but what do you mean by ‘even 0’ and ‘plus 1’?”
“Oh, well you see, at first he had 6 cards in his hand, and after drawing 3 cards from Graceful Charity, he discarded 2 of them, losing 3 cards from his hand in exchange for drawing 3 cards, but thanks to the effect of what he discarded, he wound up with 6 cards in his hand as well as a high level monster on his field!”
“So, if he discarded 2, what’s the other card he lost?”
“Graceful Charity Spike! He had to remove it from his hand to play it!”
“I don’t get it.”
“Ugh, just keep recording Spike.”
“Now I activate my Pot of Greed! This card allows me to draw two more cards! Now I activate my Brilliant Fusion! This lets me summon a Gem-Knight Fusion Monster by using monsters in my deck as material. I’ll fuse my Gem-Knight Lapis and Gem-Knight Lazuli to summon my Gem-Knight Lady Lapis Lazuli!"
(Level 5, 0 ATK 0 DEF)
"Now, granted, Brilliant Fusion reduces the summoned monster’s stats to 0, but that doesn’t matter too much. Now, Gem-Knight Lazuli’s effect activates! When she’s sent to the Graveyard by a card effect, Gem-Knight Lazuli lets me return a Normal Monster from my Graveyard to the hand! I’ll return my Gem-Knight Lapis!”
“Wow, Red is managing his cards perfectly!” Starlight exclaimed “It’s a shame Trixie isn’t here to see this, I mean everypony else is getting a first rate show basically!”
“Considering what happened last time Trixie was here, I’m glad she’s missing this…” Twilight said under her breath
“Now, I activate my Gem-Knight Fusion! I’ll fuse the Gem-Knight Lapis, Emerald, and Sapphire in my hand, to summon my Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant Diamond!"
(Level 10, 3400 ATK 2000 DEF)
"Now, I could probably win with this board, but let’s keep building a board! I Normal Summon my Gem-Knight Alexandrite!"
(Level 4, 1800 ATK 1200 DEF)
"Now I use his effect to tribute himself and Special Summon Gem-Knight Garnet from my deck!"
(Level 4, 1900 ATK 0 DEF)
"Now, I activate my Gem-Knight Lady Lapis Lazuli’s effect! Once per turn, by sending one Gem-Knight monster from my Main or Extra Deck to the Graveyard, I can inflict 500 damage to the opponent for each Special Summoned Monster on the field!”
“WHAT!?”
“I’ll send Gem-Knight Ruby from my Extra Deck to the Graveyard, and now, because all 4 Monsters I control were Special Summoned and your 7 Colored Fish was Normal Summoned, you take 2000 damage!”
“Aww…” PINKIE 8000 LP -> 6000 LP
HAND: 2
“Now I activate my Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant Diamond’s effect! By sending a face up Gem-Knight from my field to the Graveyard, I can Special Summon a Gem-Knight Fusion Monster from my Extra Deck, ignoring it’s summoning conditions! I’ll send my Gem-Knight Lady Lapis Lazuli to the Graveyard, and summon my Gem-Knight Master Diamond!"
(Level 9, 2900 ATK 2500 DEF) His effect gives him 100 Attack for every Gem-Knight in my Graveyard!"
(Gem-Knight Master Diamond 2900 ATK ->3700 ATK)
"Now, I activate his other effect! By banishing a Gem-Knight Fusion Monster from my Graveyard, Master Diamond copies its effect! I’ll banish Gem-Knight Ruby from my Grave with this effect!"
(Gem-Knight Master Diamond 3700 ATK -> 3600 ATK)
"Now I activate Gem-Knight Master Diamond’s borrowed effect! Once per turn, I can tribute a Gem-Knight Monster I control, and until the End Phase, Master Diamond gains that Monster’s ATK! I tribute Gem-Knight Lady Brilliant Diamond!” (Gem-Knight Master Diamond 3600 ATK -> 7100 ATK)
“Oh...This is going to be painful, isn’t it?” Pinkie asked, sweat dripping from her forehead in anticipation of what she assumed to be great imminent pain
“Pinkie! I’m ending this in one attack! Prepare yourself! Gem-Knight Master Diamond attacks 7 Colored Fish! Royal Radiance!” Gem-Knight Master Diamond flew directly towards Pinkie’s 7 Colored Fish, slashing at it with enough force to cause an explosion with the smoke completely enveloping Pinkie and her entire side of the field “And that, my little ponies, is how you OTK in style!”
“Only, one problem.” Twilight added
“Huh?”
“Gem-Knight Master Diamond only has 7100 ATK, while Pinkie’s 7 Colored Fish was in Attack position with 1800 ATK, so if Pinkie has 6000 LP left, that leaves her with 700.”
Red looked down at his Duel Disk, only to be disappointed when he saw the LP totals
RED 8000 LP
HAND: 2
PINKIE 700 LP
HAND: 2
“Fuck. Well, Gem-Knight Garnet attacks directly, I guess.” Red’s Garnet Knight threw a barrage of fireballs at Pinkie, causing her to go flying from the impact. PINKIE 700 -> 0 LP
“Wait, did you just beat her in one turn?” Rainbow asked “That was so awesome!”
“Oh, it was awesome alright!” Applejack “Awesomely mean! That girl wanted to play your little game for more than a week, and when she finally can, ya beat her before she even gets ta’ enjoy it!”
“Yes, I do agree with Applejack.” Rarity added in “You really ought to be more considerate towards the Ponies around you! Imagine how you would feel if you wanted to play a game badly, and when you finally got the chance, you were beaten spectacularly like that!”
“Well, Duel Monsters is a competitive sport where I’m from, and in my case, often times a matter of life and death for me and my friends! So if anything, take this as a lesson to use actual deck ideas instead of just playing cards randomly and hoping for the best!”
“Wait, how could something like Duel Monsters be a game of life and death?” Starlight asked “I mean, it’s not like some magical force steals away your soul if you lose or anything.”
“Well, you’re not entirely right...” Red said “...But you’re also not entirely wrong.”
“What?”
“Well you see, Duel Monsters is based on forms of dark rituals performed in Egypt, a country in my world, around 3000 years ago known as Shadow Games, in those dark rituals, the loser would be forced to endure a hellish form of ironic punishment known as a Penalty Game.”
“Did somepony say game!?” Asked Pinkie, dashing over to the rest of her friends, not even noticing that her mane was on fire
“No Pinkie, it’s not the kind of game you have for fun, Penalty Games would more often than not kill whoever was forced to endure it that was somehow related to their greatest vices in life.”
“But wait, Twilight beat you in a Duel last week, so why didn’t you suffer a Penalty Game?” Starlight asked
“Because Penalty Games are a product of a Shadow Game, and Shadow Games are all but extinct, humans aren’t capable of magic like Ponies are without the use of an ancient magical artifact, and all of those have been sealed away, hopefully forever.”
“But wait, if you don’t have to worry about Penalty Games, how is Dueling a life or death matter?”
“...Well, I didn’t want to tell you this, but the truth is, in my world, I’m a highly wanted criminal for countless accounts of several crimes, mainly theft of government property.”
“WHAT!?”
“You’re a criminal!? Gimme one good reason why ah shouldn’t buck yer face in!” Applejack angrily shouted, walking forward to try and build distance between Red and her friends
“Wait, Applejack-”
“Quit yer bellyachin’ Starlight! He outright admitted to bein’ a big time troublemaker! Ah don’t want any of yall gettin’ hurt!”
“I’m with Applejack! You wanna hurt my friends, you gotta go through me!” Rainbow shouted, flying over to where Applejack was, backing Red into a corner
“WAIT!” Starlight shouted, teleporting between Red and Rainbow and Applejack “Stop and think about this for a second! This is just like the incident with Stygian! Or the time I tried ruining your friendship!”
“I agree with Starlight.” Fluttershy said “I didn’t get to meet him like the rest of you, but I still think he’s worth hearing out.”
“Are you sure about this Fluttershy?” Twilight asked “He could be very dangerous and trying to hide it for all we know.”
“It’s alright Twilight, and besides, if he turns out to be a bad person, we could always feed him to Harry the bear.” Fluttershy winked at Twilight without Red noticing, and had a wink reciprocated towards her
“WHAT”
“Well, go on! Tell us your story! Unless you would like to be bear food that is, I mean, Harry has been saying that I should try to make a new kind of salad recently…”
“Ok, ok, no need to feed me to a bear, so yes, I’m a highly wanted criminal with a reputation of being extremely dangerous, but hear me out: The local police force is extremely corrupt, I’m widely regarded as a local hero!”
“Oh really now? And how is that?” Twilight asked
“Well, first off, I think I should say that we’re way out in the countryside, so the higher ups almost never come to check on them, and when the higher ups do come to check on things, they’ve become masters of bullshitting! For years now I’ve been trying to convince someone high on the chain of command to make an unexpected visit to check on things, but it came to no avail, so a few years ago, me and my two best friends Kevin and Patrick decided to form an underground resistance of sorts.”
“Right, and what makes the police corrupt exactly?”
“Well, because they have almost no moderation, they can get away with almost whatever they want, and now they’re basically a violent gang with badges, police brutality and unwarranted arrests are all too common. They put away a lot of innocent people and beat them to death basically, and the few who do get out of their jailing system are on the verge of death and don’t last long.”
“Oh dear, that sounds awful!” Rarity said “Whatever could they hope to achieve through such a brutish method?”
“Security. They think that by committing various atrocities, they’ll secure the public’s safety, and I’ve already told you how well that turned out.”
“Wow, sounds like you have it really tough.” Starlight added
“Yeah, and while the resistance is just the three of us, we do our best to be a pain in Security’s ass, my role in that is to break into the vaults where they store confiscated cards, steal them, and take them back to the card shop we use as a front to sell and put food on the table. In fact, I was on a run to our ‘supplier’ when I was forcefully brought to Equestria through a portal that somebody couldn’t control.” Red said, giving Starlight a fierce glare
“Wait, if you run a store that primarily sells stolen goods, how do you maintain stock?” Rarity asked “Or do you also make cards yourself?”
“No, while singles are a major part of card shops, we get most of our money from buying and selling booster packs like any regular store, a booster pack being a group of between 5-9 cards depending on the pack in particular selected from a certain group of cards known as a Set, although we also make custom packs of like, 60 cards for when I ‘receive’ too many cards from our generous ‘supplier’ or when they just all suck.”
“Wow, it sounds like you live a hard life, I mean, you have to put yourself into danger on a regular basis for the sake of your friends, and you have to run a store!” Starlight said, relieved that the subject was changed “How do you do it so easily?”
“Oh, I’m not the one who handles the behind the scenes shit, I just get supply and teach kids how to Duel, it’s Kevin who deals with the bills. Say, you said you don’t have card games here in Equestria, so how about I teach the lot of you some proper deck building concepts? I mean, those Disks I gave you have every card in my Disk’s database loaded onto them, so how about it?”
“Sure! Sunburst had his train delayed so he won’t be here for a few more days, and even then it’ll take time to make that spell to get you home, so why not?”
“Yeah, this looks pretty cool, and I wanna try one of those Riding Duels you told us about last week!”
“Rainbow, ya can’t ride anything, and ah doubt you could control yer speed with those Speed Counter thingies!”
“Don’t worry Applejack, I could probably make a spell to control Rainbow’s speed based on her Speed Counters, and I’d LOVE to learn more about this game!”
“Well, I would just love to see those dazzling Gem-Knights of yours at anytime, so yes! Please teach us!”
“Rarity! That’s Red’s deck! You could at least have the decency to build your own!”
“Rarity, I agree with Pinkie Pie, I think you should make your own deck, and I wouldn’t mind learning, it looks like a fun distraction.”
“I’ll go make some snacks, but don’t start without me, ok?”
“Sorry Spike, but if you want to hear the full thing, you’re gonna have to be-” Red tried teasing Spike, but was immediately silenced when Spike hurried out and back with boxes of popcorn in a fraction of a second “But-h-how did-w-whatever, so! The first important rule of deck building is to include the following cards no matter what: Pot of Greed, Graceful Charity, Upstart Goblin, Monster Reborn, and Solemn Judgement…”
**************************************************************
“Oh thank you Auntie Luna!” Prince Blueblood said, having just been saved from a nightmare by Luna “I have no clue what I would have done without you! Those...Country Ponies...were just so uncouth, it was terrifying!”
“Yes nephew, now if you will pardon me, I have other dreams to attend to-”
“But Auntie Luna, don’t you want to stay behind in my dream? Surrounded by noble Ponies who truly appreciate the status that royalty carries?”
“Blue Blood, you know that as Princess of the Night, I have the responsibility of overwatching everypony’s dreams, not just yours, now farewell.”
“But Auntie Luna-”
“Goodbye, Blueblood.”
“Wait, I’m still your favorite nephew, right?”
“...I am leaving now, Blueblood.” Luna opened a portal to the rest of the Dream Realm, when out of the blue she heard a disembodied voice calling her name
“Luna...Princess Luna...Sister…”
“Sister!? What is it!?” Luna closed the original portal she made and exited the Dream Realm, and ran for Celestia’s room as fast as she could “Sister! What is wrong!?”
“Equestria is in peril, this time, I don’t think even Twilight can contain the danger!”
“Not even Twilight can contain it?”
“No, according to my dream, a ancient deity wants to take revenge upon Equestria for something, and cards appeared to be a common theme for some reason, but I also saw Manehattan burning to the ground, and after that, it ends…”
“Wait, did you say that cards were a common theme?”
“Yes, but what could it mean?”
“Princess Twilight may not be able to contain this threat, but I believe I know somepony who can! I’m returning to Ponyville immediately!”
**************************************************************
“Yes, now my minions, you are the first of my recreations, although I’m still too weak to exit Tartarus, I can communicate with you telepathically, so do you understand your missions?”
“Yes master.” Said a large man in a white tracksuit “I am to go to Manehattan and make our presence known to the residents of this world, generating the fear for you to return.”
“And I am to go eliminate the only one who can stop us.” Said a younger man dressed all in black, standing on the outskirts of Ponyville “With the new card you gave me, it’ll be a cinch!”
“No, do not underestimate him! No matter what you do, turbo out that card as fast as possible! It is the only out you possess to his Master Diamond!”
“Yes master, I will not underestimate him.”
“Good...Now both of you, go! You have much to do!”