It's Water vs. Nature - Who Will Win?!
“WHAT!” the voice of Applejack, head of the Apple Family in Ponyville, echoed across the market place. Causing passersby to glance in her direction.
Applejack was sitting at one of the mushroom tables of the Prancing Filly restaurant, sitting across from one of her friends, Twilight Sparkle. The well-read unicorn was holding a daffodil sandwich in her magic, floating it a few inches away from her mouth, ready to eat the tasty food. But the look of shock and slight anger on her face, tells ponies that the unicorn may have said something, offensive.
“You heard me Applejack.” Twilight says in a calm manner, before taking a very small nibble of her sandwich, chewing then swallowing it before speaking up again. “I think the Nature Civilization is boring to play with.” Applejack didn’t seem to take kindly to that remark, as she snorts at her friend.
“Is that right little miss bookworm.” Applejack retorts. “And what makes you think my Nature Civilization is boring to play with, cause if ya ask me. I think that Water Civilization deck you always trot around with, is nothing but a no good waste of space.” Twilight gasps actually gasps in shock—along with a few bystanders—after hearing what her friend had just said.
“A waste of space! A waste of SPACE!!!” Twilight fumed, her calm demeanor faltering a bit.
“My Water Deck is, NOT, a waste of space. This deck has won me many tourney’s while I still lived in Canterlot, and remember Applejack, I won Ponyville’s recent Kaijudo tournament last month.” As the unicorn stated her victory, and the prowess of her personal Kaijudo deck, Applejack just rolled her eyes.
“Oh please Twilight. It took you nearly forever to win your bouts, and even longer when you went up against Derpy and her Darkness Deck in the finals!” Applejack remarked as she remembered the final match of the Kaijudo tournament.
“That’s because I plan out my plays, and because of those plans, and strategy, I was able to win all my battles.” Twilight gloated, a little bit of her Canterlotian pride seeping out to the surface. “Unlike you and your Nature deck. You burn through your resources so fast, that you eventually end up high…and dry.”
A few of the ponies ‘OOOHHHHHED’ at Twilight’s comment about the earth ponies play style, which caused Applejack to grinds her teeth out of irritation, while Twilight levitated her glass of cranberry juice up and began drinking from it. while giving a cheeky smile to her friend. But the earth pony regained her composure, mostly, and removed herself from her seat of straw. And stood off to the side of the mushroom, a determined and challenging look on her face. Twilight kept her eyes on her friend, a looking of uncertainty on her face as she wonders what Applejack is up to.
“Well, in that case—” the apple farmer reached under hat, and pulled out a black and green deck case. “Then let’s have ourselves, a DUEL!”
Ponies turned away from Applejack to look over at Twilight, and as the unicorn took a long drawn out sip of her juice—while staring down her friend—from placed the cup down and stood up from her seat. Then with a flash of magic, a black and blue deck case appeared beside her head, held tightly in her violet aura.
“I, accept!” Twilight says with a leveled voice. “Let’s take this to the Battle Shop.”
The earth agreed, and stuffed her deck case back under her hat, and then both mares trotted off with a crowed of ponies following behind them. Back at the restaurant, the waiter stallion looked at the half-eaten food with a sigh, and brought the remains back to the eatery to be thrown into the garbage.
The Battle Shop. One of the more larger buildings in Ponyville, is a game shop where ponies can play all sorts of card games with state of the art magic induced battle boards, allowing for miniature illusions of the cards to appear, and act like one would expect the card to be or do. The doors to the shop snapped open as Twilight and Applejack, along with their entourage of followers, entered the shop and made their way to the front counter. Where an adolescent pink unicorn mare stood, looking a little nervous as the two determined ponies approached.
“Uhhhh…hello?” the mare said to the pair, a little nervous at the intense aura surrounding the pair. “How can I help you today?” Twilight approached the counter, deck case still floating beside her, as spoke to the young mare.
“My friend and I need a table to play at, are there any available ones at the moment?” the mare looked at her schedule booklet, which shows the list of fourteen tables and the ledger that shows which ones are in use today.
“We do have a few tables available right now, would you like—”
The two mares and the group of ponies left the counter, and headed into the shop. A small pouch of bits was tossed over the crowed, and landed with a soft clink on the counter, causing the mare to look back and forth between the crowed and the pouch.
Maneuvering through the large interior of the shop, garnering the attention of other ponies, whether they were customers being helped by a shop associate, or occupying one of the tables playing their own games, Twilight and Applejack made their way to the very back of the shop. Where the four remain empty game tables stood. Choosing the one closest to the back wall, the two mare’s sat down on the comfy look stools, and began un-packing their decks from their cases. As the mare’s fiddled with their cards, the tables enchantments began to activate, causing the surface to develop a very small glint.
On the surface a small display screen appeared, where the words ‘What type of game are you playing today?’ were displayed. Twilight placed a hoof on the screen, where it flashed a bright light for a second—scanning her mind through touch—and began to create two playmat diagrams on its surface. Once their decks were ready, both ponies placed their decks on the designated spot, and watched a small silver coin image was created.
“I call heads.” Applejack claimed.
“Tails for me then.” Twilight responds. The coin was then tossed into he air, spinning round, and round for a few seconds. Before landing on the table with a slight ‘clink’…and showing that it landed on tails. Which of course made Twilight very happy. “Looks like I get to go first.”
Applejack clicks her tongue in annoyance as the pair drew their starting hands. Twilight draws a new card, and places a card in her starting hand into her Mana area. It was now the farmer’s turn, and as she draws her card, and places one into her own Mana area. This slow progression goes for a few more turns, Twilight because most of the cards in her deck require preparations before it really gets rolling, while Applejack needs a few more cards to play some of hers but once she has what she needs, she can steam roll. But once both mares managed to generate four Mana, the game really got started.
“I think it’s time to get this duel on the way Applejack.” Twilight says to her friend as she plays her 5th Mana card and then taps her 3 of them, and plays her first creature. “I’ll start off Water’s advancement with a Reef Gladiator.” As the card was played, the table creature a small illusionary image of the bipedal water monster. Applejack just chuckled at the creature.
“Looks more like a Reef Weed, if you ask me.” Applejack then draws a new card, places her own 5th Mana card before tapping 4 of them, and summoning her own creature. “I summon forth my Bronze-Arm Tribe.” The image of a green coated anthropomorphic equine creature, spear and shield in hand then appeared on the table.
“And with its Harvest Ability, I can place the top card of my deck into my Mana pool.” Applejack then slid the top card from her deck to her Mana, but she was distracted as Twilight chortled. “And what’s so funny?” Applejack asked as Twilight calmed herself.
“Oh nothing, it’s just that little creature is no threat to my Reef Gladiator.” Twilight remarked as the table displays that her creatures power of 3000, Applejack’s only has 1000.
“It ain’t always about the power level Twi.” Applejack countered as Twilight draws a card, and plays her 6th Mana and taps all of them to play her next creature.
“True, and here’s a good example of it. I summon General Finbarr.” Once the card was played, the table creature the image of a VERY small blue skinned creature, riding on a hexagon platform. “And now with Finbarr’s Hoverhex ability, I can return a creature on the Battle Zone to the owners hand, so by-bye beast kin.”
Applejack growled as she slid the card back into her hooves, and began her own move. Unfortunately, Twilight’s monster aren’t able to attack, Finbarr because it was just summoned, and the Reef Gladiator because it’s unable to attack because it has the Guard ability, preventing it from even being able to attack. After placing her 7th Mana Applejack taps 4 of them to re-summon her Bronze-Arm Tribe creature, and again, its Harvest Ability comes in handy as Applejack was able to play her 8th Mana card.
“Now that I got more Mana, I can tap my other 4 so I can summon, Chief Thorn-Bringer!” the table generated what looked like a clattering wooden doll, wielding a spear, and having tangled and while hair.
Twilight gave the creature a once over before starting her turn, placing her 7th Mana on the table. But instead of playing a card right away, the mare studies the cards in her hand, deciding on what her next move should be. As for Applejack, she simply waited for her friend to play her turn, and unlike most ponies—like Rainbow Dash—Applejack waited patiently until her friend makes a move. And after a few more seconds, Twilight finishes her turn.
“I summon Reef Prince Glu-urrgle—” the table then created another VERY small blue skinned creature, standing on its hands and hold its legs up like arms. “And with his Tech Support ability, I can look at the top 4 cards of my Deck, choose one to place in my hand while the rest go to the bottom of my Deck in any order I want.”
Twilight’s magic then drew the four designated cards, and began looking them over. But unlike before, the unicorn didn’t take long to decide what she wanted to do, and placed the 3rd card into her hand. While the other three were re-organized, and slipped to the bottom of the deck. Once that was over, Twilight made the first attack of the game, by having her General Finbarr to attack one of Applejack’s 5 shields, which the table had the image of the little monster fly half-way across the table, before firing two pale green energy blasts. The apple farmer took the center card, and placed it in her hand, but a small smile was hidden behind her hand of cards. Once Twilight’s attack was over, Applejack began her turn with 9 Mana now.
[Shield Count: Twilight/5 – Applejack/4.]
“Okay Twilight, let’s see you handle this little move.” Applejack says as she taps 6 of her nine Mana.
“I evolve my Bronze-Arm Tribe into, Bronze-Arm Gladiator!” as the earth pony places the new creature on top of the previous card, the crowed of ponies that followed the two mares watched as Applejack’s creature transformed, now resembling a green skin bipedal creature with four arms, and wielding two large tree trunks with chains on them.
“But that ain’t all I’m doing.” Applejack then taps her last three cards as she places a card in her discard pile.
“With my last three Mana, I cast Mana Lightning! So now when one of my creatures attack, I get another Mana.” Twilight actually looked worried as the table created a portal above itself, and a green lightning bolt struck Applejack’s gladiator.
“Now I make my own attack with my Bronze-Arm Gladiator to attack, TWO, of yer shields!”
Applejack’s monster makes a battle cry, before charging across the table, it’s four arms wielding its tree trunk weapons. But instead of attack Twilight’s shields, the four-armed monster instead attacked Twilight’s Reef Gladiator, by which the unicorn used it’s Blocker ability to take the attack.
Normally this fight would end with Applejack’s creature winning, but Twilight’s creature has an ability called Heart of Water, giving the creature another 3000 Power. Making it’s original 3000 Power to 6000, so long as all of Twilight’s Mana cards are those of the Water Civilization. The ponies watched as the two monsters battled for a few seconds, before Applejack’s crushed her friends creature, but was shot in the head by Twilight’s. Destroying the both of them since they had the same 6000 Power scaling. The small crowed of ponies gave out both equal sighs of relief for Twilight, and groans of disappointment that Applejack didn’t get any of Twilight’s shields.
“Darn it!” Applejack griped. “I thought I had you!”
“If I didn’t have my Reef Gladiator you would have.” Twilight remarked as Applejack continues her turn, using her Chief Thorn-Bringer to declare another attack, and only ending up destroying one of her shields. After the attack was made, and Twilight took her shield card she began her own turn, gaining her 8th Mana card.
[Shield Count: Twilight/4 – Applejack/4.]
“Now that I have the Mana I need; I can play this creature that I got thanks to Glu-urrgle.” Twilight then taps all of her Mana cards and summons her newest creature.
“I summon one of my prime creatures, Finbarr’s Dreadnought!” the table then produces the most impressive looking creature thus far into the game, which was the image was a massive city like structure, being carried by a large four-legged machine. All of the ponies, even Applejack, marveled at the sight of the impressive creature…despite its model only being over half a foot tall.
“Now while I can’t attack with it yet, I can still attack with my two Cyber Lords.”
Twilight’s two monsters went on the offensive, Finbarr again firing energy beams from his platform, and Glu-urrgle placing its feet on the table, and having cybernetic patterns rush forward as they sparked with electricity. Two more of Applejack’s shields were broken, leaving her only two left…BUT Applejack got a big smile on her face as she picked up her second shield card.
“Sorry to say Twilight, but you ain’t going to be able to use that impressive creature of yer’s, thanks to THIS!” Applejack then plays the card she drew. “You just gave me my Root Trap spell, and since it has a Shield Blast effect, I can play it for free.” Twilight gasped in worry, as well as the ponies cheering for her as Applejack continues.
“With this here spell of mine, I can target one of yer creatures…and put it in the Mana zone.” Twilight little cheer circle all ‘NO!’ as Twilight grumbles as she places her creature on the back row.
[Shield Count: Twilight/4 – Applejack/2.]
“You certainly got lucky with that card AJ.” Twilight commented on her friends surprise move.
“It may have been luck.” Applejack says as she crosses her forelegs. “But in this game, the luck of the draw can turn things around.” The farmer then drew a card from her deck to begin her turn, and after playing her 10th Mana card, Applejack was determined to mount her counter attack.
“I tap all of my Mana cards, and summon another Bronze-Arm Tribe and one of my most trusty creatures, Mighty Shouter!” as another anthropomorphic equine appears on the table, and Applejack gains her 11th Mane, the image of a large and very bulky green skin elephant giant wielding a massive tree as a giant club. “Now I’ll have my Chief Thorn-Bringer mount another attack, but this time…I’m attacking your Glu-urrgle!”
The Spirit Totems hands glowed with blue energy, and thorn covered roots erupted from the table, and made their way across the table. Twilight’s own creature panicked and scuttled around, as the roots tried to pierce it, but the little water creature couldn’t avoid the attack for long, and was snagged by a cluster of roots that erupted from the table beneath it. With the Spirit Totems victory its apply named Seeds of Victory ability activated, giving Applejack another Mana card from her deck, now giving the earth pony 12 Mana cards in total.
“I’m catching up to Twilight!” Applejack smirked as Twilight smiled back as she draws a card from her deck, and placed a card in her hand onto her Mana zone. Bringing the count up to 9.
“Maybe I should go on the defense for a bit.” Twilight muttered to herself as she scanned her cards over. After looking over her cards, Twilight taps 5 of her 9 Mana, and plays a new creature. “First I summon the Tide Gulper to my Battle zone.”
The ponies watched as, what could be described as a living ball of torrential and rapid moving water appeared on the table. But the ponies attention went from the large ball of writing water, to Twilight tapping the last 4 Mana cards. “Now I cast the spell, Cyber Cyclones. This spell has both of us choose one of our creatures and return it to our hands.”
Twilight returned her only other creature, General Finbarr to her hand, while Applejack returned her Bronze-Arm Tribe back to her hand. Twilight then ended her turn, as she’s unable to declare an attack, or play anymore cards, Applejack began her turn. Again, gaining another Mana card to now have 13, but she only taps 3 of them to summon a single creature, as she believes she has this match in the bag.
“To kick things off I’ll summon Headstrong Wanderer.” The table then generated a bipedal creature that was about the same height as the Bronze-Arm Tribe creature, but it was covered in long shaggy fur, and is wearing a tunic made out of big leaves. “Next I’ll attack your shields with Chief Thorn-Bringer.”
The Spirit Totem slammed its right hand on the table, where several thorn roots emerged in front of Twilight shields, and began to lash at them in a wild flurry. As Twilight takes one of her shields, she gives a smile as she plays it instead of adding it to her.
“Thanks for the free creature Applejack, for now I summon Cryo-Nucleus.” Applejack then watched as the creature—which she indirectly helped summon—rises from the table, looking like six large silo’s with various mechanical looking tendrils on top of the silo’s.
“Enjoy that monster while you can Twilight, because this game is mine!” Applejack then taps her last creature to go on the final offensive.
“Mighty Shouter, destroy her last two shields!” living up to its card name, Mighty Shouted unleashed a loud roar like a trumpeting elephant.
“I block with Tide Gulper!” Twilight says as she taps her monster, causing it to activate. “Sorry AJ, but you’re not taking the last of my shields this round.”
“Maybe not, but I will be destroying your monster.” Applejack pointed out as Twilight’s monster took the brunt of the attack, but it wasn’t being destroyed. “What?!”
“Sorry Applejack, but my Tide Gulper has the Powerful Blocker ability, and it gives my creature +3000 Power.
The table then displayed the two clashing monsters own Power scaling for the ponies. Mighty Shouter has a solid 6000, while the Tide Gulper has a moderate 4000. Normally, this would spell doom for the water monster, but as Twilight has stated, because of its ability the Tide Gulper now has 7000 Power. More than enough for the creature to shrug off Mighty Shouters attack, and declare its own attack…by charging at the beast kin as a whirling mass of water. Applejack groaned as her trusted monster was defeated, which was shared among her own cheer squad, while Twilight gives a sigh of relief as she survives for another round.
[Shield Count: Twilight/3 – Applejack/2.]
“Saved by the skin of yer teeth, eh Twilight.” Applejack remarks as the unicorn draws her next card.
“Yeah, but don’t think you got me on the ropes just yet.” Twilight says with a level of confidence as she places her 10th Mana card on her Mana zone. The unicorn then taps 6 of them, to play a few cards.
“I’ll play another Reef Gladiator, and I play the spell Tenuous Trove which allows me to draw 2 cards, but I must discard one other card.” Twilight discards first before drawing two new cards, one of which causes a smile on her muzzle.
Since none of Twilight’s monster can attack, except for Cryo-Nucleus, Twilight chooses to end her turn early. The reason why she did not attack right then and there with her only attack, was because she has something else in mind to beat her friend. But the main reason was she wasn’t sure what kind of card Applejack would get, if she would attack, it could’ve caused some kind of trouble to hinder her plans.
As Applejack began her turn, adding her 14th Mana to the large pool she already has, the farmer then plays another Bronze-Arm Tribe creature, which was evolved into another Bronze-Arm Gladiator. Now if Applejack attacked now she could easily win the game, but Twilight has two creatures that can block her monster. Even if she attacks with all three of her creatures, Twilight would only have to block two of the attackers, and the lose one shield. But Applejack wanted to end this game in one fell swoop, but the only cards in her hand were spells, and none of them would help with the current situation she’s in. So for the time being, Applejack ends her turn. Twilight draws her latest card from her deck, which was then added to her Mana, giving her a total of 11.
“Time to bring back an old friend, and this time I don’t intend to have it relegated to my Mana zone.” Twilight says as she taps eight of her Mana cards. “I summon another Finbarr’s Dreadnaught!”
As Twilight’s favorite monster get’s re-summoned to the Battle zone, Applejack groans in annoyance. If she doesn’t destroy that creature, she knows that Twilight will win with it, since it has the Double Break ability like her Bronze-Arm Gladiator. So it’ll be able to destroy her last two shields, allowing Twilight to declare the winning attack on her next turn.
“Your move AJ.” Twilight says as she ends her turn then and there. Applejack draw’s her next card, but instead of adding a Mana card she instead goes on the attack by playing two cards.
“This ain’t over yet Twilight, first off I evolve my Headstrong Wanderer into, Bronze-Arm Sabertooth.” the smaller beast kin creature’s body glowed green, before changing into another four-armed beast kin. Although this one more feline like, and wearing armor and wielding a variety of weapons. Once the Applejack has summoned her powerful creature, Applejack declared an all-out attack!
The first was with the Bronze-Arm Gladiator and the target was the dreadnaught, but Twilight simply blocked it with her Tide Gulper, causing the mass of swirling water to stand in front of the large mechanical behemoth. And as the gladiator clashed with the wall of water, the liquid monstrosity rose up like a tide, and literally ate the beast kin in one gulp. The battle continued as the Bronze-Arm Sabertooth made it’s attack, all four arms ready to strike as it leapt high into the air. But during its decent the Reef Gladiator meet it in mid-air, firing a few coral blasts from its arms, but was hacked and shred to pieces by feral beast kin. Applejack grumbled and groaned as she lost one of her two most powerful creatures, leaving her only with her Chief Thorn-bringer and Bronze-Arm Sabertooth. True it could attack one of Twilight’s shields, but on the next turn…the unicorn would destroy her two shields, and finish the game with the Cryo-Nucleus.
“I end my move.” Applejack submitted as she leaned back into her chair. Twilight drew a card, deposited into her Mana zone bring the count up to 12.
“I declare an attack with my Finbarr’s Dreadnaught, to take your last two shields.”
The mechanical behemoth began making industrial noises, as parts of its body glowed with energy, then from giant creature a large tidal wave of water came gushing out of its narrow head. the water flooded the entire table, and actually spooked the crowed to back away from the table to not get wet—forgetting that it is all just an illusion—and watched as the raging wave destroyed Applejack’s two shields. Leaving her bare. Not saying a word, Twilight ended the game by tapping her remaining monster, causing Cryo-Nucleus to unleash a blasting wave of ice, striking Applejack dead center.
The table cleared itself of all creatures, and on its surface it displayed ‘Twilight Sparkle is the winner!’ in flashing lights. The small crowed was split in two. Half cheered for Twilight’s victory, while the other half was moaning and groaning that Applejack lost. But for the two friends, they put their decks away, and shook each other’s offered hoof.
“Well…ya beat me today Twilight, it was a good game.” Applejack said to her friend, being a good sport. Twilight nodded as she replies.
“It was close Applejack. If I didn’t draw my Gladiator, and then my Dreadnaught when I did, you would’ve won the game.” Twilight says to her friend. Her small smile faltered a bit as the unicorn rubbed the back of her head. “Applejack, I’m sorry for saying that your deck is boring. It was actually quite thrilling to play against.”
“And I’m sorry for saying your deck is a waste of space.” The farmer rubbed her muzzle as she snickered. “Gotta say, you were tough to beat, especially since you kept shutting down most of my most powerful attacks.”
“It’s always good to have a few cards that can block in coming attacks.” Twilight giggled as she knows how many times those blocker cards saved her tail in almost all of her matches.
After giving each other a well-deserved good game hoof shake, the two mares stomachs growled, causing them to blush slightly…as they remembered not finishing their lunch. The two ponies then left the Battle Shop, thanking the clerk for the use of a table, and the crowed of ponies watching them and cheering them on, the unicorn and earth pony made their way back to the Prancing Filly. Hopefully, the waiter isn’t miffed of them leaving their food on the mushroom table, or not leaving a tip.