Duelists of the Friendship Cup

by DrakeyC

Hysteric Party – Pinkie 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!”

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.

“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.

“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.

“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 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!”