//------------------------------// // In which this author attempts to give you an exposition dump with a rather short duel // Story: Love of the Draw. // by Zoom zoom //------------------------------// Chapter 5: In which this author attempts to give you an exposition dump with a short duel. Edited by UltimateRuin009 “Get down from there,” remarked Applejack, as she was bucking from a large oak tree in the premises of Sweet Apple Acres. Sure she had a big ol’ knife pressed up against her neck just a few nights ago, but nothing ever stops the country mare from doing her work. Draw Blank, looking as if he was already used to his ghastly form, was still flying around like a pro, doing barrel rolls and such. “Buzz kill.” he remarked slyly. “Well excuse me for still being freaked out that Ah’m being followed around by a ghost only Ah can see!” With one mighty kick from a rear leg, the old apple tree split where the orange farm pony hit, leaving a large indent on the tree. Draw whistled as he saw this, “That seems like a great way to get out some anger.” He chuckled when he saw Applejack’s frustration, whose frown only grew larger. “Ah just don’t get it,” said Applejack. “How can you not be even more freaked out about this? Darn it, you’re enjoying yourself more now than when you had a body.” “Well that’s because of two things,” explained the body-less stallion. “First is that you’ve been out for over a day because of what happened. I had an entire day to come to terms with this. Second, I’m freer now than I ever was alive. No scrambling for money since I don’t need to eat or drink anymore and no more getting suspected of being too close with little fillies.” “Still,” said Applejack waving a hoof through the stallion’s astral body, “Ah wouldn’t be happy about this. Plus… it is sort of mah fault after all. If Ah didn’t get caught, ya’ll wouldn’t have agreed to that darn duel.” “Never said I was, but considering the fact I can’t do anything about it now, there’s no point in dwelling on something stupid. The only way I have to live, if this is even living, means I should probably change how I used to do things.” “That’s just it though.” This time there wasn’t a cracking sound but that was because Applejack had missed the tree entirely and fell on her belly. She got up and tried again before continuing. “Ah have this here friend who might be able t’ help. But thanks to that gosh darn card tournament, she ain’t at the there library, and Ah’m too far behind in work t’ just go all over town looking for her.” “Isn’t there going to be an opening ceremony for this stuff first though? Wouldn’t she be there then if we went with you signed up? Out of curiosity of course.” “That’s just the thing. Ah’m not signed up because Ah thought Ah’d be too busy to compete this weekend. Liked you said, Ah slept nearly a day. The time for me to join was up last night.” This buck went perfectly and she started to load everything together. Draw Blank chuckled, “Yeah, about that...” Before he could finish, a large Diamond Dog came bounding out of the trees holding a large bag. Thankfully, it was only their newest friend, Grumble. The diamond dog wore a large smile as he stopped moving and exclaimed, “Master, I got you signed up like you asked, but you were asleep when I came back. Here, I brought you all the cards I could get from ponies that were going to throw them away, and a starter deck.” Applejack stared at the dog while Draw Blank floated above Applejack. Suddenly Applejack could feel her mouth move as Draw’s voice came out of it. “Thanks Grumble. If I may ask for one more thing though.” “Anything master,” yapped the dog happily. “Talk to this girl’s family to see what you can do about helping around the farm for the weekend. Also can you catch Applejack here up on what’s happening? I bet this is kinda crazy for her to deal with after the train incident with your “friends”.” Finally getting control over her mouth again Applejack turned to Draw who had spun down to seem as if he was standing next to the dog as he set down the bags. “How the hay did ya’ll do that?” “Grumble shall explain,” said the dog taking a seat on the ground and beckoning Applejack to do the same. She did so reluctantly. “Grumble was confused as well at first about this but boss told us to defeat Element of Harmony in a duel.” “Run that by me again sugercube,” said Applejack perplexed. “I wasn’t the real goal,” said Draw simply, “You were. They only challenged me because they knew you couldn’t play the game right. They didn’t think their master would send them all to get somepony they could easily beat.” “Grumble was told to use orb and win duel to get soul of loser at that it was adult pony in caboose of train. Since new master was not target of the orb it took his body but left his soul with the element. That’s you.” The dog’s long fingers pointed at Applejack. “So that means…” started Applejack. “That these elements of harmony are the real goal. Meaning your friends you told me about on the train are in danger. Heck I think one of them is already-“ “WHO!” shrieked the mare, jumping to the diamond dog since Draw wasn’t an option. “Which of my friends did these weirdoes take?” “Grumble doesn’t know,” said the dog ducking and avoiding the mare. “Two teams were sent. Other team went to Canterlot.” “Rarity,” said Applejack slowly, “oh my gosh, Ah got t’ go find her!” Before either of her companions could say anything more Applejack was off. Grumble doubled back for the sack of cards while Draw floated along with Applejack easily. “If I may help, she’s at the opening ceremony I believe.” Applejack stopped so suddenly the dog running after she tripped and the cards in the sack spilled all over the floor. Draw took this time to look over the haul that had fell face up. Most of the cards were indeed useless as they required a certain strategy to even use them. But a good amount was still workable and would help fix the shortcomings of the deck they did have of them. Applejack shook herself and focused on Draw, “Now why the hay didn’t you tell me that earlier then? If Rarity’s safe then how did you know they are after us?” “First,” replied Draw, “it’s very funny, and cute to see how worked up you can get. Second question is that it was only a guess. I don’t have any magical powers or background. My line has been a pure earth pony for at least the last thousand years and only. Meaning that if they were also sent to Canterlot and the princesses were not attacked that leaves the only thing that makes logical sense. For some reason they needed to beat you in Duel Monsters so I’m guessing there is something else about this I’m not getting.” Applejack decided to not tell Draw about the fact his eye’s changed during that last duel he had. Draw was right, if neither princess were reported in danger it was the only lead they had. No need to escalate the issue further. She looked at the pile of cards, “And this game is supposed to be the only way we can fight back?” “Why else challenge you to this when it was obvious that the dogs didn’t have all that strong a deck? Most these days need an extra deck unless they have ways to shut out the opponent from using one.” “So what are we waiting for?” said Applejack. “Let’s make a deck.” *** “So do yah think we can win with these cards?” Applejack asked this of Draw as she fastened her deck into an earth pony made saddle to hold it and the extra deck with a latch for the side deck. “Can’t really tell, at least until we have a real duel with somepony. The remaining cards are enough for another deck to practice on, but none of them work together. So, do you wanna name it or something?” Draw floated randomly spinning counter clockwise as he said this. It was annoying to see for the orange pony but it was something she could handle to see, she would often have to see the town’s local weather mare fly around in circles. Grumble had started gathering the cards not being used back up. “Grumble will see about helping in orange pony’s place. The two of you should get going.” “Right,” said Applejack propping up her trademark hat and starting her way to Ponyville square. Draw floated beside her, still spinning slowly as he did. “You know,” she said to her companion, “If I didn’t know any better I’d say you enjoyed being like that.” “It’s the way I live my life Jackie,” replied the soul, “work with what you have to the best of your ability and you will have no regrets. I may be…whatever, but I can do all kinds of things I couldn’t when I had my own body. Life gives you lemons and all.” “Yeah, Ah’m more the mare who makes them take those lemons back,” said Applejack now at a full gallop. “And don’t ever call me ‘Jackie’ again. Just call me AJ.” The square was full of ponies all gathered with their own make shift belts to hold their decks as they looked onto the stage Trixie normally had set up whenever she was in town ever since learning her lesson in Porco Rico about showing off. Applejack excused herself through the crowd. Most of them recognized her and let her through. A few had questioning glances as to why Applejack would even be there. “Not much for having fun I guess,” noted Draw as he saw this. “Well Ah’m usually working whenever Ah’m not out. Ah only got interested in this because Rarity was taking into it somehow, she was the last of my friends Ah thought would like somethin’ like this.” She finished pushing through to the edge, seeing Rarity was perfectly fine somewhere far in the crowd. In fact she saw most of her friends, all except Pinkie Pie. That tugged at her stomach a bit but she put it out of her mind since she would be jumping the gun. It would be best to discuss this with all her friends. From the stage blasted a familiar blue coated mare, who’s mane and tail were as white as the scales of the dragon she rode on. The illusion of Trixie’s favorite monster was hovering, leg claws nearly touching the wooden floor of the stage and spotlights pointing at the one and only, who stood on all fours and looking down from the head of the beast. “Ladies and Gentlecolts, welcome to the first of what I hope will be many bi annual duel monsters card event. How is everypony feeling today?” Applejack was amazed at the crowd’s reaction. Trixie certainly had won the town back over in such a short time and everypony seemed hyped for the approaching event, many of them stomping in unison. The blue unicorn smiled at this, “Very well then. Now allow me to introduce the head sponsor of this event to kick off our proceedings: the one and only princess of the night, Luna!” Unlike the last few times Applejack had seen the princess, this time Luna had come up with a far lighter shade of fur and a mane that was just of normal hair, unlike her older sister’s mane. She looked the same as the first time they had officially met when they had defeated Nightmare Moon. Still keeping up her regal stance despite the difference making her look smaller and meeker, she began in a normal voice to which the rest of the town kept quiet. They didn’t want their princess to be forced to be as loud as she was on Nightmare Night. “Greeting citizens, many of thou from the far corners of our great and glorious kingdom, We welcome you to this festival game tournament in hopes we can all get along well for the sake of a good mood and undoubtedly fun times. For those of you confused about our appearance, we can tell you now that we are perfectly fine. Sorry, I am perfectly fine. My powers are a bit muffled in the presents of my sister’s sun and it we both felt it would help you all to see I am no different than all of you during this event. “Now then, on to the rules of this weekend’s event: First of all, all the normal rules of this ‘Duel Monsters’ card game apply to the duels you will all be taking part in. You are free to duel as much or as little as you wish but you must duel at least three times a day until you qualify for the finals. Each of you will be given two special silver bits and a band to keep them on. Your bands will be able to hold ten of these bits and anypony with a full band at the end of the weekend will be in the finals taking place three days from now. With over a hundred participates this should allow for a decent amount of finalists. “Lastly when you all signed up you were given a chart with the cards forbidden from your decks and the limitations as announced by the creator of this fine game: J. Pegasus. Unfortunately Pegasus could not be present for this event but he did send his thanks for allowing his game to get so popular and offers the finalists here the choice between several cards that will be revealed at the finals.” “That’s fairly standard,” commented Draw. “And don’t worry AJ, the guy hasn’t changed that list much unless he brings out a new booster, since he hasn’t in about five years. All the stuff in our deck is within the rules unlike the deck I used on Tornic.” Applejack stayed quiet as Luna continued. She went on and on about various items and how all the dueling stages were set up around the place with unicorn guards to power the illusions for the monsters to pop out. She even addressed a mishap with trying to make a magic Frisbee that displayed the monsters which explained why most of the guards had some kind of eye cover or a patch over their eye. She wished for everyone to have fun before finally making it to the end. “To demonstrate just how each duel will play out I offer any of you ponies to come and duel my sister’s student, Twilight Sparkle, on this stage. For this demonstration alone, Twilight will be using a deck made by my sister herself with some of the best cards in the game. Who here is up for the challenge?” A few ponies raised their hooves, but it was a griffin that pushed past all of them and got the rest to lower their hooves at the sight of her. Applejack recognized her immediately, with the grunge feather-do and the arrogant smirk of this griffin in particular, Gilda. Rainbow Dash’s old friend that wasn’t too friendly last time she was in town. Based on the body language she was using she didn’t learn her lesson about being mean unlike the blue unicorn who had backed away and was talking to Twilight about something. Gilda puffed her chest and stared Luna down. Luna didn’t even give her the time of day, “Twilight Sparkle, if you’d please get ready.” Twilight followed Trixie to one end of the stage as Luna took Gilda. The two were going to do the unicorn guard’s jobs for this duel. “Hope you’re ready to lose,” said Gilda with a smug look on her face. Both players clapped their hooves/claws together and as they opened them the magic from the unicorns followed to give a display with fourteen card spots. The top row of seven was for the grave and field areas with the five allowed monster zones. The bottom held the main and extra decks on each side with the spell/trap zone between them. The crowd stayed silent as they watched the two intensely, curious to see what cards their day ruler used. “DUEL!” Twilight: 8000 Gilda: 8000 “I’ll go first if, that is okay with you,” said the unicorn drawing her card. “I set a monster in defense mode and set three cards face down on the field, your move Gilda.” “Is that a good move?” Applejack whispered. The pony next to her shrugged. Draw Blank who floated above her replied, “Not exactly. It will let her be prepared for anything, but in return there are quite a few cards that could destroy a spell or trap card easy, too easy. If I was in the same situation I’d only set two in case something was wrong. But since I don’t know what face downs she has I can’t be sure. We’ll just have to see how this plays out.” “My turn,” said the Griffin drawing her card. She looked at it and smiled, “I’ll start by discarding the Harpy Queen I just drew to the graveyard in order to bring the field spell: Harpies’ Hunting Ground to my Hand and play it.” The illusions around them morphed the stage to look like a wild field similar to the card. “Next I’ll summon my Harpie Lady #3 in attack mode.” She waited, Twilight did nothing. The creature poured out of the card till it was high in the sky. Draw Blank chuckled as he noticed one male pegasus spread his wings looking at the female creature, only for the girl next to him to nudge him and give him her best glare. Gilda continued, “So with Hunting Grounds effect I have to target one spell or trap card on the field and destroy it.” The blue haired Harpie swooped in and crushed one of the back row cards, from the picture it had when the giant illusion of the card came up, it was Mirror Force. “Next I play Elegant Egotist. This lets me summon another Harpie if I already have one from my deck, and I have 3. The downside is with the third I have to destroy my Hunting Ground. But it’s a fine pay off for no traps to worry about and I have more monsters.” So gone went Twilight’s Spell Binding Circle, and Scrap Iron Scarecrow. “Lastly, I think I’ll remove my Queen from play in order to summon Garuda the Wind Spirit.” “Five monsters,” cried the crowd in unison. Draw Blank was the only one who didn’t react. Gilda smiled, “This game is mine. Harpie Lady #1’s effect boosts every one of them by 300 attack points. So Harpie #2 attack that monster in defense mode, if your monster has a flip effect it is negated when she kills it.” “It’s Sangan,” called Twilight. “And when he is destroyed I get one monster with 1500 or less attack from my deck to my hand, so no flip effect. I choose Kuriboh.” “Fine,” said Gilda. “I’m guessing it will block my Harpie Lady Sisters attack so everyone else still gets through in this as all of them go in for an attack.” Gilda was right and Twilight was pushed back the winds of the monsters’ attack except for the sister’s attack which was stopped by the fluffy creature that popped out momentarily to protect Twilight. Twilight: 2900 Gilda: 8000 “Bad move,” said Draw with a shake of his head. “What do you mean?” asked Applejack confused. “Ah just learned this game and even ah can see Gilda’s at the clear advantage.” “She used her best stuff too early,” He said simply, “She could have just used two of those and saved the last two monsters in case Twilight has something planned. Now she may have a field advantage, but she has no cards defending her monsters and no backup plan since she has no idea what she’s going to draw and has no hand. Unless your friend’s deck is completely useless, she should still be able to take out this entire strategy just by taking out that Harpie #1 with the right monster. Heck our deck could easily get around this most of the time.” Twilight took a deep breath as she pulled her next card. “Well,” she said simply, “it looks like this duel is over already.” Gilda laughed, “Already? Well I can’t blame you. My cards are too awesome and unbeatable.” “I wasn’t talking about you,” replied Twilight, “I’ve won.” “You?” the question Gilda posed was mixed with total laughter, “How could you get out of this?” “Like this,” Twilight said with her smugness added. “First I summon: Zero Gardna to the field.” The weird creature holding a giant metal zero was weird enough. But everyone was baffled at the fact Trixie had used her magic to display that this thing had zero attack and defense to work with. Gilda didn’t even make a remark because she didn’t see where this was going. Draw however had his eyes bulge a bit. “Next, I send Sangan and Kuriboh from my grave to the deck in order to summon Exodius the Ultimate Forbidden Lord!” “I still fail to see how that is going to help,” Gilda said. “What card could you possibly have that would end the duel with two monsters with no attack points and one card in your hand.” “Because the final card I play is Diffusion Wave Motion. So by paying a thousand life points my Exodius will be able to attack all your monsters this turn. Finally I use the effect of Zero Gardna, which makes Exodius unable to be defeated in battle and I take no damage. Meaning by the end all five Forbidden Lord cards in the Princess’s deck will be in the grave and I win the duel.” Gilda’s jaw dropped as Exodius attacked Garuda and the sisters first, finishing by attacking each Harpie Lady in order. Each attack making the muscles in its limbs grew. Twilight: 1900 Gilda: 3200 With all five cards in the grave the monster burst and Exodia, the strongest monster in the game stood before the griffin. It swatted the poor griffin in one slap to finish the duel. The hand passing through her but still caused her to duck from it. By the rules of the card, Twilight had won with Celestia’s deck and she carefully put the cards away and handed them to a guard to stepped up after, trying her best to hold back her glee. Gilda however did not take it so well. She immediately cried out and swooped down at the unicorn, claws extended. Twilight was busy with the guard and didn’t notice this, but the pink aura of Trixie’s magic still caught her by the tail and pulled Twilight out of the way. “Cease this at once,” she said pulling Twilight behind her. “If you stop now Trixie will forgive you for lashing out as the tournament has not started. But physical violence will not be permitted. If you should continue….” “…You will have to deal with me,” finished Luna walking next to Trixie with her guard forming a wall between the griffin and Twilight. Gilda growled at this but finally agreed to back down. “We’ll have a rematch later then with your real deck. No more hiding behind other ponies when you do.” Twilight nodded, though Gilda couldn’t see it as she flew off. It was at this point Applejack and Draw approached with the other elements coming on the stage from different parts of the crowd. Pinkie was still not with them but checking on Twilight took priority. “I’m fine,” she insisted dusting herself off. “Gilda isn’t scary. I’ll just have to keep a closer eye out is all. Besides, Princess Celestia suggested I have fun at this even so I could study how different people dueled. She said something about how cards reflect the pony or something.” Draw Blank nodded at this, to which Applejack voiced her agreement on his behalf. “I can’t believe Gilda,” said Rainbow Dash while glaring in the direction the griffin had fled. “I invited her so that we could try to make up and this is how she treats my friends after last time? Maybe I shouldn’t bother with her anymore.” “Don’t say that Rainbow,” said the white unicorn Rarity. “No matter what she is still important to you, so maybe try again in a few years. I think most of this anger she’s holding is just her going through something in her own life. If Pinkie tried and wasn’t even her friend, you shouldn’t give up so easily.” “I guess,” Agreed Rainbow, “but it’s going to be a very long time before I try extending a hoof to her again.” “Well with that settled,” Luna said with a sigh. “Why don’t we get back to starting this thing?” She turned back to the crowd. “As you can see we’re not very kind to cheaters so I suggest to all of you not to break the rules of this tournament. Everything starts and noons so please spread out now and have fun.” “By the way Twilight,” Trixie began to inquire as she adjusted her hat, “Where is Celestia’s deck?” “I gave it to that guard,” answered Twilight looking around for him. “He was right here.” “He ran off,” said Draw lightly floating around Rarity. Unable to stop him Applejack just yelled, “Then why the hay didn’t you say anything about it?” Twilight was taken aback, “but I just did.” “Not you,” corrected Applejack. “He’s a guard,” said Draw returning to Applejack’s side as he felt her stare. “Figured he was taking it to a safe place to avoid thieves, most would either want those cards or at least make sure they couldn’t be used against them. You don’t even want to know how annoying it was to hear this one colt wine after he was disqualified for throwing someone’s cards off a boat.” “Well it looks like he was the thief then,” said Applejack. “But why would he want to steal cards?” Draw Blank shrugged as Applejack’s friends looked at her in confusion, they all remember the time where Applejack tired herself to near death getting half of the apples of her family’s orchard. “Guess Ah should explain,” Applejack proclaimed. "But first, 'ave any of y'all seen Pinkie?" Elsewhere, a black unicorn in gold armor teleported into a room to place the cards he had stolen on a pedestal. “As you ordered my liege,” he said chaining back into his natural changeling form. “Very good,” said the bubbly voice of the pink pony. “At this rate the seal will be broken in no time. Join your siblings and your previous queen in the lower chambers for now. The food I promised is already there. A group of self loving diamond dogs, they failed in getting me the two powers I sent them to retrieve. A bit stale for your tastes but soon you will all have all the food you could want.” The changeling bowed to the pink earth pony. “Thank you, my liege.” Then he teleported out of the room, leaving only the pinkie pony with black and red eyes and her throne. On top of the thrown was a display with seven slots. One had a crystallized blue balloon with another pony inside. This one looked just like the pony outside only with normal white and blue eyes. The pink pony was obviously crying for something and banging on the crystal. But nopony could hear her. “Don’t worry,” said the dark eyed pony. “Your friends will join you soon enough.”