It's Time To Duel!

by DagaYemar

Turn 4: Toon Terror vs. Winner! Winner!! WINNER!!!

“I apologize for not using a duel disk, but old habits die hard.” Pegasus explained as he shuffled his deck, the podium he’d used earlier rising out of the ground. “Let’s see, how should I begin… ah! I’ll activate Spell Economics!”

The card appeared and shone solid white, fading to reveal a large, demonic-looking abacus sitting on the field. Its beads rustled as the thing flexed as if stretching sore muscles and a single eye at its base slowly blinked open.

“A little creepy, but one does not get to my position in life without knowing how to manage one’s resources.” Pegasus said gaily, selecting another card from his hand. “I’ll set this one face down on the field, and then I will activate my Toon Table of Contents! This allows me to pull any Toon card out of my deck and straight to the field, so long as it’s within the pages of Toon World. And what better place to start than the title page? Welcome back to Toon World!”

An explosion of pink smoke shrouded the field for a moment and Pegasus’s signature card spun into existence. It bounced a little in midair and opened to a random page, pop-up buildings and grave markers springing up on cue. The abacus suddenly clacked into motion, the snapping of its beads almost drowning out the familiar music.

“Yay!” Pinkie clapped, nodding her head along to the music. “That card is just so much fun! But wait, didn’t you have to pay a thousand life points last time?”

Pegasus smirked and waved one finger at her. “A smart businessman need not worry about the little details, with some clever accounting. My Spell Economics finds all kinds of reserves for me and completely covers the additional costs of all my cards. But enough of the bean counters, Toon World needs a star! I summon the sisters of send-up, the Toon Gemini Elf!”

The book shuttered a little and dislodged some left-over pink smoke, which drifted down to the field in the form of a fluffy pink cloud. A pair of toons grew up out of the cloud like rubbery plants and stood with their backs to each other. They laughed mockingly behind their raised hands at some private joke.

“And with that I’ll turn it over to you, my dear.” Pegasus said formally, giving his opponent a slight bow from the waist over his podium.

“Pegasus’s Toon deck is fast, but it’s also very heavy on his life points.” Celestia said, crossing her arms. “With all these cards bolstering his life back up, he’s essentially gotten rid of his deck’s only weakness. It will take quite the stroke of luck and skill to defeat Maximillion now.”

“Here we go!” Pinkie shouted excitedly, and then peered intently at the cards in her hand. “Hmm… OK! I’ll set two cards on the field, and set this monster in face-down defense mode. That’s it for me!”

“…Or she could do that…” Celestia said in disbelief, her arms sagging to her side in surprise.

“Heh, kinda rare ta see a monster played face-down.” Joey remarked, scratching his head. “It’s pretty obvious that monster is a trap, though. Why else go through tha trouble to hide it?”

“What were you thinking?!” Rainbow shouted. “You remember that his monsters can attack directly, don't you? Your usual tricks aren’t going to work on him!”

“You should listen to your friends. Are you sure you don’t want to reconsider your move?” Pegasus suggested.

Pinkie held up her hands, grinning like a fool. “Nope, I’m good!”

“Very well, can’t say I didn’t offer!” Pegasus declared, drawing his card to start the turn. “I’ll activate Pot of Greed and draw two new cards from my deck. Next, I will discard one card to activate Cost Down, which lowers the level of every monster in my hand by two whole stars.

“And now I’m afraid we must bid adieu to the Sisters. So sorry you couldn’t stick around for very long, but it’s time for the star of the show to arrive! Please give a warm welcome to… the Blue Eyes Toon Dragon!”

The Gemini Elf duo clasped their hands together and grinned wickedly before stretching straight up into the air like taffy. They bent back and disappeared into the pages of Toon World like a piece of slurped spaghetti, and the book slammed shut. It spun a couple of times before ballooning out, barely able to contain the creature emerging from its pages. With a burst of smoke and confetti the book popped open and a small, giggling dragon rose out and floated down to the field.

“You snake!” Kaiba spat, displaying more emotion than he’d previously shown so far. “You swore to me you’d never use that card ever again!”

“Oh, you don’t really expect me to neglect an innocent toon, now do you?” Pegasus replied smoothly. His dragon turned and shot a wink and thumbs-up in Kaiba’s direction. Kaiba gritted his teeth loud enough for the others to hear them crack.

“Now where was I?” Pegasus continued, as his face down card flipped up and his abacus clacked once more into motion. “You remember Ultimate Offering, don’t you? At the cost of five hundred life points, which my Economics card allows me to skip, I can summon once more. Introducing the Toon Dark Magician Girl!”

The book popped open again and a figure floated out of the pages, spinning in place before tripping on thin air and tumbling forward with a cute cry. It looked just like the monster Yugi played on his duel, but much younger and wearing slightly oversized clothing. It sat up and tilted its hat back, smiling adorably at the audience.

Pegasus clapped his now empty hands sharply for attention. “And that’s all she wrote! Toon Dragon, attack Miss Pie directly!”

The dragon shot forward and grinned menacingly down at its target. It began drawing in an enormous breath, its sides expanding outwards like a balloon as it gathered power for its attack.

“Not so fast!” Pinkie interrupted, throwing her hand out towards one of her traps. “Where’s the fun if the game ends this early? I activate High Roller!”

Her trap card flipped up and a large, six-sided die appeared in front of the two duelists; a red one in front of Pegasus and a blue facing Pinkie. The dice spun in place for a moment before launching forward, striking each other once in mid air and falling back to the ground. When they finally tumbled to a halt the red one was showing a three and the blue one a six. The Toon Dragon, who had been holding its breath this whole time, opened its mouth in relief at no longer having to wait, but only air came out of its mouth as it deflated.

“Oooh, sorry, but six beats three!” Pinkie laughed. “I’m afraid that if you want to attack me, you need to beat my roll first! And High Roller is a continuous trap, so the fun is just going to keep on and on!”

“A challenge…” Pegasus mused, and then dramatically pointed. “Alright, I accept. Let us roll the dice for my pretty Magician’s attack!”

Once again the dice appeared in front of them and shot forward, striking each other and spinning across the field. This time the red die stopped on a one and the blue on five. The Magician Girl, who had been following the dice closely, sighed in disappointment. It spun around along with everyone else when Pegasus grunted in pain. A red aura surrounded the card designer and he gripped the sides of his podium tightly.

“I forgot to mention, but there’s a penalty for either of us rolling a one!” Pinkie explained, popping a finger into her mouth thoughtfully as she tried to remember if she’d forgotten anything else. “I mean, it’s not very exciting if there isn’t a little danger, right?”

“…I suppose not. Looks like that’s the end of my turn.” Pegasus replied, straightening up and salvaging a little of his dignity. The Magician Girl floated over and patted the dust off his shoulder apologetically.

“Well! I thought that was the end of the duel.” Mai observed, but then frowned and tilted her head to the side. “Not a very reliable card though…”

Rarity laughed haltingly and offered her a weak smile. “Pinkie… likes to give her opponents a chance, you see. It works more often than not, surprisingly… ah heh heh heh…”

Pinkie drew her card, added it to her hand, and then took a deep, steadying breath. She suddenly threw her arms out wide and started speaking in a loud, attention-seizing voice. “The stage is set, the party’s prepared, and the show’s about to begin! Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to Pinkie Pie’s Crazy Carnival of Fun!”

“…oh no, she’s doing the whole routine…” Twilight sighed, face-palming softly. Her friends also wore similar expressions of slight embarrassment.

“Think you have what it takes to win my games?” Pinkie declaimed, flipping her face down monster into attack position. “Then try your hand with my Dice Jar! We’ll each roll a die, and whoever rolls the highest deals damage to the loser equal to five hundred times whatever they rolled!”

“So it’s just a matter of luck?” Pegasus asked, but he received no reply as Pinkie’s monster rose out of the ground.

It was a gaily painted cylinder, with a creepy smiling face on both ends. The jar spun horizontally as it rose into the air, the distinct sound of tumbling dice coming from inside it. It slammed to a stop when it was about ten feet up, one face pointing at each duelist. The mouths stretched open and a slate grey die flew out of them, landing at their feet. Pegasus’s die read five and Pinkie’s read two. Immediately the mouth of the face pointing at Pinkie started to glow as the jar prepared to unleash upon its master.

“Whoops, can’t have that. I activate Trap of Board Eraser!” Pinkie said quickly, using her other trap. A blackboard eraser appeared in midair above the jar and fell directly onto it. The jar was engulfed in a cloud of white chalk dust instantly and its two faces coughed and sputtered. The cloud disappeared after a few moments, but by then the glow had vanished from the mouth facing Pinkie.

“So, all of that basically amounted to nothing.” Pegasus observed.

“Not nothing! We had fun, didn’t we?” Pinkie said, selecting another card to play. “And since we are now such close friends, how about a little sharing? I’ll use my Spider Web to borrow that Cost Down you just played!”

The spell card appeared on her field and glowed white. A strand of white silk shot out of the middle of the card and stretched across the field, spearing the desired spell in Pegasus’s graveyard. The sticky strand retracted, pulling the card into Pinkie’s waiting hand.

“Kinda similar to that move you pulled against Celestia, isn’t it?” Pinkie asked, tapping the card against her forehead in a salute. “Let’s see, I just have to discard a card to activate Cost Down, right? That will allow me to summon Monty 3-Cards with only one sacrifice!”

Pinkie placed one card from her hand into her grave slot, and her Dice Jar vanished from the field. In its place a masked man in a sharp red suit appeared, spreading its hands in a sweeping gesture over a card table set before it. A deck of cards lay in the center of the table and the man started to shuffle them with exaggerated motions.

“Monty’s got a special game he loves to play,” the party girl explained, holding up her duel disk and dramatically placing a finger on her deck. “All you have to do is guess what kind of card my top card is, and you’re safe. Go ahead, take a guess! One in three is a winner!”

Almost on reflex, Pegasus’s hand drifted up to his left eye, but he clenched it into a fist and dropped it back to his side. “And if I guess wrong?”

Pinkie shrugged. “It’s only a thousand life points. Nothing to worry about if you get it right!”

“Yes, nothing to it…” Pegasus sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. He glanced back up with renewed determination. “Well, you wouldn’t play that card if it weren’t difficult to guess, so I will choose Trap card!”

The gambler finished shuffling with a snap of its deck and slowly raised its hands out from the stack. The top card rose off the rest in a glowing aura between the monster’s hands until it was about chest high. A wave of light passed over the card, wiping away the black face to reveal… a Necro Gardna.

The red aura engulfed Pegasus once more.

“Oh, such a shame, the correct choice was monster!” Pinkie declared, sending the card to the graveyard. “Using his skill is all I can do with Monty in a round, so I’ll just set a card face down and end my turn there. Good luck on your next try!”

“That’s quite the interesting style you have there,” Pegasus said thoughtfully, drawing his card and studying it. “But you’ve not dealt with the same problem you had last turn. Namely, my two little toons which can still attack you directly. Although now the danger is even worse, because now I have the Toon Cannon Soldier!”

His book slapped closed and spun once, popping open once more to deposit a purple robot onto the field. It bounced around a couple of times and gave its rubbery turret nose a flick, making a sound remarkably similar to the twang of an antenna.

“Cannon Soldier, the first attack is yours!” he cried, and the robot reached behind its back and produced a couple of cannonballs. Before it could stuff them into its waiting mouth, however, Pinkie’s High Roller activated again. The two dice were sent spinning, landing on a two for Pegasus and a four for Pinkie.

“No problem, round two! Magician Girl, you’re up!” The sorceress smiled in excitement and threw Pegasus a victory sign, before studying the dice with serious intent. Once again the dice rolled, showing a red six and a blue one. The red aura surrounded Pinkie this time, who hunched over dramatically for effect.

The Magician Girl’s grin stretched from ear to ear as she excitedly raised her little wand into the air. Magical power collected around the end in a blue sphere, and the sorceress launched it with a sharp swing.

“Congrats!” Pinkie exclaimed as the attack grew close. “But I can’t let that get through! I activate the effect of the Necro Gardna in my graveyard!”

Moments before the magical attack connected, a ghost wearing armor appeared before the girl and caught the blast on its crossed arms. The attack exploded, waves of energy passing harmlessly on either side of the duelist. The ghost vanished as the attack fizzled, leaving Pinkie smirking and untouched. The Magician Girl slammed her hands to her cheeks and whined in frustration, stamping her foot petulantly on the empty air.

Pegasus frowned. “Well, you can only do that once. Third time’s the charm, Toon Dragon. Roll the dice!” Again the two dice flew off, finally falling on one for Pegasus and three for Pinkie. The red aura struck once more, hunching him over in pain.

“Waaahhh!” the Toon Magician girl cried, balling her tiny fists up and shaking them back and forth. It flew over to Pegasus and started comically bopping him over the head to get his attention, and then pointed firmly at Pinkie. There were tears in the corners of her eyes.

“Are you sure?” Pegasus asked, and when the toon nodded he straightened up and glared at his opponent. “It seems my little magician is tired of all your good luck. So I will honor her last wish and activate my Toon Cannon Soldier’s special ability!”

The robot grinned in anticipation and opened its mouth absurdly wide. A swirling vacuum quickly sucked the sorceress into its waiting maw, and the robot chomped down when it was engulfed. It chewed a couple times, and then a bulge appeared traveling down its cannon-like nose. The robot quickly sighted and fired a blue beam in the shape of a ghostly Toon Magician Girl. The ghost shot across the field and slammed its wand across Pinkie’s head.

The ghost toon stuck out its tongue at the girl as it vanished from the field, leaving Pinkie rubbing her head and frowning. “Well, that wasn’t very nice of her. It’s not like I was doing it on purpose.”

“No, but she always did have a short temper.” Pegasus sighed, shrugging and shaking his head. “Anyway that’s all for me. It’s your turn.”

“Then let’s see what’s behind Door Number 1!” she cried, instantly reverting back to her previous excitement. She drew her card and used it to point at her trap. “At the start of my turn, Needle Wall activates! Now let’s see how your luck fares; what happened next is completely random!”

Her trap card flipped face-up and the numbers one through five appeared on the ground on Pegasus’s side of the field. Two of the numbers were directly below his monsters, which traded a worried look with each other. The numbers blinked randomly on and off a couple of times before falling silent. For a few moments nothing happened.

Then in a split second spikes grew out of the ground around the Toon Cannon Soldier and flat sections of the earth rose up and slammed together like two hands clapping. The robot was crushed by the two spiked slabs and duel shards flew out from the sides in all directions. Pegasus’s last monster’s jaw dropped in disbelief as the slabs retreated back into the ground.

“Ooh, bad luck!” Pinkie said consolingly, “Needle Wall takes a monster zone at random on your field and destroys any monster on it. The odds were in your favor for it missing, but you never know with these things, do you?”

“Does she have any cards that rely on anything other than blind luck?” Kaiba grunted, before smirking as an idea flashed through his head. “Then again, her deck is very similar to someone else’s I could name. Though I wouldn’t have thought it possible that someone else would build a deck like that on purpose.”

“Grr, you take that back, Kaiba!” Joey shouted, waving his fist in Seto’s direction. Kaiba barked a laugh and turned away.

“You gotta admit, though, that your decks are similar.” Yugi said, trying to distract his friend. Joey sniffed and nodded, conceding the point and pointedly turning his attention back to the duel.

Pinkie activated the spell card she’d drawn and the card appeared on the field. “And for the next game, I’ll use Cup of Ace! I’ll send this card spinning and if it lands right side up, I get to draw two cards. But if it lands upside down, you get two cards! Ready? Here we go!”

The spell card leapt up into the air, spinning like a saw blade until its face was a blur. It hung in the air dramatically for a moment before shooting down and impaling itself in the ground. Upside down.

“Ah well, you win some, you lose some.” Pinkie sighed, and then dramatically pointed to her monster. “It’s a good thing I still have Monty 3-Cards! We’re tied one game apiece this turn so far, so this is the tie-breaker. You remember how it works; just pick what kind of card is on top of my deck!”

Pegasus calmly drew his two free cards as her monster started shuffling again. He glanced quickly through his new hand and turned his attention fully on his foe. “Hmm… I believe I have it.”

“Oh? Have what?” Pinkie asked.

He raised his hand slowly and pointed with confidence at her monster. “How your deck works. And if I’m right, then the top card of your deck is going to be a spell card!”

Monty slammed its hands together over its deck when Pegasus made his prediction, drawing its hands out slowly. Once again a card floated up from the top of the deck and its black face wiped away to reveal a Book of Moon spell card.

“Wow, good guess!” Pinkie gasped, placing the spell in her grave slot. “Guess that’s it for me. Your go!”

Rainbow blinked in disbelief. “How did he do that? Can he read minds or something?”

“Well, funny you should mention that…” Joey laughed, tapping his cheek like he was trying to come up with a way to explain a complicated subject. “I mean, he shouldn’t be able to anymore, but…”

“My turn!” Pegasus declared, drawing another card. “Thanks once again to my Spell Economics, I don’t have to pay anything to summon a second time using Ultimate Offering. So here come two more toons; my Toon Mermaid and a returning favorite, the Toon Masked Sorcerer!”

The book shuffled through its pages before finding the spot it wanted, popping two more monsters out from its bindings. The mermaid and the sorcerer shoved at each other, each trying to get the center spotlight. They eventually settled their differences and dropped to their spots on the field, each hovering over a number.

Hmm, I probably shouldn’t summon any more monsters while that Needle Wall is out… “That should be enough. I’ll send out the Mermaid for the first attack!”

The dice appeared yet again and rolled. But this time when they finally stopped, they were each showing a one.

Pinkie blinked and stepped back a step. “Ooh, that's a little unfortunate…”

“What is it? Don’t we both lose five hundred points, or does something else happen?”

“Well…” Pinkie started, rubbing the back of her head, but she was interrupted as her trap glowed blindingly white. A gigantic glowing explosion engulfed the field, knocking both of them backwards off their feet. When the smoke cleared there was nothing left on the field but a couple lines of fading smoke.

“High Roller doesn’t react very well to extremely bad luck.” Pinkie giggled apologetically, climbing back to her feet.

“Sweet!” Rainbow Dash cheered. “Without that Toon World, he won’t be able to summon anymore of those wacky monsters anymore.”

“Well… that’s not exactly a good thing.” Celestia said, wincing in anticipation. “He’s very attached to those toon monsters…”

Indeed, Pegasus had an odd expression on his face as he was getting to his feet. His features were hard, and he seemed to be focusing far too intently as he glared at his opponent. “Well. I suppose it’s time to stop playing around.”

“Oh I don’t know about that. There’s always time for playing-”

“I activate the Card of Sanctity!” Pegasus interrupted, playing his remaining card. “Now we each draw until our hands are full. We can’t start over with empty hands, now can we?”

“Okie dokey lokie!” Pinkie said, shrugging and drawing until she had six cards in hand.

Pegasus studied his hand for a second and selected a card, still talking without his usual, carefree tone. “I activate the spell card Double Summon, which allows me to bring out Jigen Bakudan! In two turns, this monster with detonate and destroy every monster on my field, but in the meanwhile it’s immune to battle. Not that it matters much against you.”

A clay doll appeared on the empty field, floating ominously with its arms dropped lifelessly to its sides. A clock face on its forehead started to tic slowly around its small circular path.

“What do you mean?” Pinkie asked. “About it not mattering?”

Pegasus held up his hand and selected a couple more cards. “You haven’t played a single monster to attack with this whole duel, so I believe your entire deck is full of effect monsters that pick away at your opponent’s life points. So I have nothing to fear from leaving my defenses wide open. I will play two cards face down and end my turn.”

Pegasus stood unmoving, waiting for Pinkie to make her next move with exaggerated calm.

The party girl didn’t disappoint. “Well, it’s a new turn and a new hand, so get ready for a brand new round of fun and games! We’ll start off with a little quiz show; little in the fact that there is only one Question for you to answer!”

The spell card appeared on her field, and Pinkie held up her duel disk dramatically. “OK, contestant, can you name the first monster that was sent to my graveyard this duel?”

“The first monster?” Pegasus asked, and then frowned as he concentrated on the question. Could it be that Necro Gardna? No, she removed it from play when she used its effect. Which means that the first card must have been…

The card designer smiled triumphantly. “You sacrificed your Dice Jar to summon Monty 3-Cards, so Dice Jar is the bottom monster!”

“Whoopsie! Sorry, but you’re completely wrong!” Pinkie exclaimed as her graveyard slot started to glow. “Now I get to summon the monster in question to the field!”

“What are you talking about? Dice Jar was definitely the first monster you lost! Unless…” Pegasus froze as he thought back…

…

“Kinda similar to that move you pulled against Celestia, isn’t it?” Pinkie asked, tapping the card against her forehead in a salute. “Let’s see, I just have to discard a card to activate Cost Down, right? That will allow me to summon Monty 3-Cards with only one sacrifice!”

…

“You discarded a monster when you played Cost Down!” Pegasus accused.

Pinkie nodded emphatically. “Yep! Sorry it was a trick Question, but not every game has to be fair! Now step back and give my Trump Dragon room to shine!”

A circle of light appeared on the field and a shining golden dragon rose out from it. It spiraled about in the air a few times before coiling in on itself above them. Golden light radiated off its scales, making it hard to look at it directly.

“There it is; Pinkie’s trump card.” Applejack said, and then grimaced. “No pun intended… then again, knowin’ Pinkie, the pun was probably completely intended. Pegasus is about to find out how wrong he was to assume she never attacks…”

“Next I will activate Trap Booster,” Pinkie continued, discarding another card to activate it, “Which in turn lets me use Dragon’s Rage right away! Now it doesn’t matter that I can’t destroy your monster! Trump Dragon can just blast right through your defense and take out your life points!”

“Wait, Pinkie, I’ve never seen you use those cards before.” Twilight interrupted.

“Oh, I just had a feeling I’d need them, so I added them before we started!”

“I… wait, what? That’s not how… oh, why am I surprised…?” Twilight sputtered, holding a hand to her forehead.

“Now before my dragon attacks, we’ve got to play another game!” Pinkie said playfully, dropping a hand to the top of her deck. “We each send the top card of our decks to the graveyard and if I discard a monster with a higher level, Trump Dragon gains an additional thousand attack points! Ready?”

Pegasus sighed and picked up his top card, then sighed again as he revealed it. “Thousand-Eyes Idol. Only a one star…”

“Oohh, tough luck!” Pinkie exclaimed, showing off her card. “My Mask of Darkness only had two, so you were really close too! Now my dragon has enough attack points to end this all right now!”

The dragon roared and uncoiled itself, flying down at the living time bomb. It opened its jaws and sparkling golden fire danced about its jaws.

“Do you think I’m just going to let that happen?!” Pegasus declared, activating one of his traps.

“Yah-huh! Trump Dragon can’t be targeted by any traps!” Pinkie teased, leaning forward and putting her hands on her hips.

“Then it’s a good thing Dragon Capture Jar doesn’t target specific monsters!” Pegasus returned. His trap card flashed and disappeared, leaving an intricately carved pot in its place. A swirling vortex of wind caught up the Trump Dragon and sucked it towards the open end of the jar. The dragon tried in vain to fight against the current, but it quickly vanished from sight.

“Oh! Uh… this isn’t good!” Pinkie gulped, staring at her empty field. “Let’s see, I’ll place this card face down and then activate The Shallow Grave! Now we each can summon a monster from our graveyards either face-up or face-down.”

“Used up nearly all cards in your new hand, and this was the best you could do?” Pegasus taunted, as Pinkie placed her monster face down. He selected the Thousand-Eyes Idol he’d just discarded and played it face up. The little fiend popped up on the field, the many eyes all over its body blinking open and closed nervously.

“For my first move, I think I’ll return your dragon to you!” Pegasus slapped a card onto his podium. “I’ll use Remove Trap to destroy the Dragon Capture Jar!”

“What? Why would he do that?” Twilight demanded, but if anyone had the answer they didn’t offer it. Cracks spread over the ceramic jar before it shattered into pieces. Pinkie’s dragon uncurled itself from the tight ball it had been forced into and flew swiftly back to her side.

“Thanks!” Pinkie shouted, but then tilted her head to the side in confusion. “But Twilight’s right, that wasn’t a very good move. Wasn’t it better for you to keep it locked up all tight?”

“The jar would have kept your monster safe from my Jigen Bakudan,” Pegasus explained as he selected his next card, “And that’s unacceptable if I want revenge for my toons! No, I think I’ll offer my Idol as a sacrifice in my Black Illusion Ritual!”

A small pot appeared behind his monsters, flanked on either side by a goblet. Smoke wafted out of the narrow top of the pot and flowed over the many-eyed creature. The idol dissolved and the smoke reversed, floating back down the pot’s neck. The container started to sweat drops of liquid, its surface quickly turning slimy and slick. It began to bulge outward, the eye shape taking on shape until it was a full circle on a stalk. The rest of the pot unfolded into the body of an ugly fiend creature. It floated silently on the field.

“Well, that thing isn’t creepy or anything…” Rarity sniffed.

Pegasus threw his arm out dramatically. “Enjoyed having your Trump Dragon back? I’m afraid your reunion will be short lived. This is my dark side personified, the terror known as Relinquished! And there isn’t a creature its power cannot overcome!”

The circular section of the monster’s stomach suddenly turned midnight black and a vortex once again pulled her dragon forward. It was instantly swallowed up by the hole, which solidified into a flat stomach once more.

“And now your dragon is once again mine, giving all of its attack power to my Relinquished!” Pegasus declared, as his monster pulsated with its stolen power. “Now, I could just wait for Jigen Bakudan to explode next turn, but I feel it would be fitting to end this duel with a bang. Relinquished, attack her last monster!”

Still in complete eerie silence, the eye on the fiend’s stalk began to glow. It fired a bright laser which struck the face down card, flipping it over and revealing the monster hidden beneath.

“That’s right; it’s the triumphant return of Dice Jar!” Pinkie exclaimed as the monster rose spinning up from the attack. Cracks spread slowly over its clay body, but clearly it was going to stay intact long enough for its ability to take effect.

“You’re going to trust this entire duel on a throw of the dice?” Pegasus demanded.

Pinkie shrugged. “I have so far. No reason to stop now, is there?”

“Fine then, let the fates decide!” At these words the Jar stopped and spat a die out at each of their feet. Pegasus stared down at his result and smiled triumphantly. “I’ve got a four!”

“And mine is a five. Looks like I win after all!” Pinkie returned, as the face on the jar pointing at Pegasus opened wide and started collecting power. Its body fell apart just as it launched a blast of twenty-five hundred points of damage straight down at Pegasus. Everyone on the sidelines leaned forwards excitedly as the attack closed in.

But at the last second Pegasus’s trap flipped up and caught the blast on its face. The card back faded away to reveal a five-sided metal panel absorbing the energy. As soon as the last of the energy disappeared the panels folded in on itself, shaking slightly as arcs of lightning played over its surface.

“I’m sorry, but I could see that move coming a mile away. This is my Reflect Barrier, and it’s going to send that power right back at you. The duel is mine!” Pegasus slammed his hand down on his podium and his trap unfolded, releasing all of its contained energy. The blast seared across the field… and slamming into Pinkie’s activated trap.

“So yours is called Reflect Barrier? Mine’s named Barrel Behind the Door!” the party girl laughed, “Your turn! Catch!”

Her trap glowed brightly as the power was sucked into it and it fired it right back where it came from. Pegasus cried out and threw up his arms to cover his face as the attack blew over him, singeing trails of smoke up from where his cards lay on the podium.

Pegasus sighed and started collecting his cards before the podium sank back into the ground. “Well, that was certainly unexpected. After all that effort, I’m still just going to be watching from the sidelines…”

“That was SO MUCH FUN!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing over and shaking Pegasus’s free hand vigorously. “I love your toon guys! It was sooo cool seeing them all up close like that!”

Pegasus’s disappointment at being eliminated couldn’t stand in the face of that enthusiasm. “Indeed, Ms. Pie, that was quite a good show. You should be very proud of your victory.”

"I have to ask you something. Remember back when you said you figured out my deck and were able to pick just the right card? How did you do that?"

"Well, my dear, listen close." Pegasus leaned in and tapped the side of his nose. "To be perfectly honest... I just guessed." The two of them started laughing like they were sharing a private joke.

“Yeah, well enough of tha warm complements, I wanna duel!” Joey declared, running onto the field and turning to point at the girls. “I’m gonna go next, so who’s going ta be my opponent?”

The three remaining girls looked at each other and it was Rarity who sighed first. “I suppose I will take the next turn.”

“You? You don’t look like you’re very strong ta me.” Joey stated.

“Looks can be deceiving, you cur.” Rarity replied, kneeling down and unzipping her valise to retrieve her disk. “Allow me to show you just how strong I really am!”

…

“We’re almost in sight of the island! We should arrive in about twenty minutes.” The helicopter pilot said, craning back over his shoulder to talk back to his passengers.

Luna looked over and favored him with a nod. “Thank you. Please go as fast as you can.”

She glanced over to her companion and Spike gave her a nervous smile, clutching the metal briefcase closer to his chest protectively. She smiled reassuringly to him, but quickly turned back to staring intently out the window for any sign of land. It wouldn’t do to let anyone else see how worried she really was.

“I must put a stop to this tournament immediately!”