05. The First Final Match!
-PINKIE PIE-
Today’s the big day!
Today was the day I dueled Twilight Sparkle for the title of World Champion! Or at least, world champion between the two of us, this time… for now. I mean, it’s not like this was gonna be our only duel or anything and no matter who won I’m sure the other would win eventually too and we were pretty evenly matched and…
Never mind! That’s not what’s important!
What was important was that I woke up next to Fluttershy, since she let me sleep in her bed last night, and threw myself out of bed with a hop, skip and a jump. I couldn’t contain my excitement and I was sure that Fluttershy felt the same way so I screamed her name right in her ear to wake her up, and judging by the way she jumped off the bed I’d say I was right about her being excited.
“Fluttershy! Are you ready to watch me totally own Twilight Sparkle!?” I jumped up on the bed and bounced up and down, totally unable to contain my excitement!
“Um, okay.” Fluttershy was kneeling next to the bed covering herself with a sheet, and shaking with what I was pretty sure was anticipation. “But Pinkie, it’s…” Fluttershy took the sheet off her head and looked at the clock on the wall, groaning like a zombie when she saw it. “Pinkie, it’s six AM.”
“Right! Plenty of time to work on my deck so that I can destroy Twilight!” I jumped up with my fist raised in the air and bonked it into the ceiling which gave me a fright so I curled into a ball mid jump and fell back on the bed, hitting it hard enough to bounce off onto the floor.
“Don’t you need more sleep?” Fluttershy yawned, crawling back into bed. She just sorta belly flopped onto it, she didn’t even cover herself with blankets or anything.
“Nope!” I pounced on Fluttershy, who looked at me really weird and her eyes were all red and itchy looking for some reason. “Do you need eyedrops, Fluttershy?”
“No.” She said. “What I need is… breakfast. Can you go get breakfast from Taco Town?”
“Taco Town?” I replied spuriously. “Isn’t that like a forty-five minute walk from here?”
“Yup.” Fluttershy said while laying her head down on a pillow and recovering herself with blankets. “But I really like…” she yawned “their breakfast tacos. No meat, just eggs and cheese.”
“Okie dokie lokie!” I said with a salute, hopping over Fluttershy and onto the ground next to the door. “I’ll be back lickety-split with our breakfast tacos!”
“Thank you, Pinkie Pie.” Fluttershy said wistfully, almost like she was drifting off to sleep or something.
****
-TWILIGHT SPARKLE-
The first thing I thought of when I woke up this morning was how much nicer it was to sleep in my pajamas instead of in my clothes. I didn’t wake up all sweaty. The second thing was that I was gonna destroy Pinkie Pie! Well, maybe not destroy. But beat her at a card game, definitely.
I got up and walked to my kitchen, fixing myself a bowl of cereal and getting some early morning coffee, all the while looking at my deck to search for last-minute improvements to make. Had to make sure I considered every option.
Pinkie’s deck was based on Pendulum Summoning and Xyz Summoning, so Spell\Trap removal and Special Summon negation were key. That said, I didn’t have a ton of negation stuff, but even still I had some Effect negation, some Spell\Trap removal and good monster removal, and I was pretty confident that my monsters were by and large far stronger than hers. Pinkie was an excellent duelist and I was definitely a little nervous about our match today, but I was feeling pretty confident that I could beat her.
I was rather enjoying my early morning breakfast, and it was early morning, like the sun hadn’t completely risen yet. It was very uncharacteristic of me to up this early but it was nice today. At least until my mind started drifting toward Rainbow Dash.
I was over the shock of seeing her again at this point, but that just made room for surprise, and a little embarrassment, at just how happy I was to see her walk back into my life. After our duel cleared the air a bit, I remembered all the things I really liked about her, all the adventures we used to go on together and the fun we used to have.
These thoughts were quickly jolted out of my brain by the sudden slamming of Pinkie Pie into my window inches from my face. I was shocked but I didn’t even jump or scream, I just dropped my spoon into my cereal and stared, wide-eyed and slack-jawed, at Pinkie pushing herself up against my kitchen window.
“TWILIGTH SPWKLE!!”
“Yes Pinkie Pie?” I said, my expression still in ‘how is this possibly even my life’ mode.
“You wnanna go to Taco Town wif meh?!” Her voice was muffled by her face being pressed right up against the glass of the window. “Also you’re going down later today! Just thought I’d let you know!”
“Thanks for the heads up.” I stared unblinking into an unmoving, mashed up Pinkie Pie who still refused to step away from the window. Suddenly I just started laughing. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at but it made me happy to see Pinkie… just being Pinkie.
“Yeah, Pinkie.” I said, still giggling. Pinkie was laughing now too, but she was still smacked up against the glass. “I’ll go to Taco Town with you.”
****
After hitting Taco Town for breakfast, Pinkie Pie headed back to Fluttershy’s place to pick her up while I headed straight to the bookstore. I was sitting in the lounge area waiting for Pinkie and Fluttershy to show up, and in the meantime I texted Rainbow Dash to ask if she was still coming to watch the duel between Pinkie and I. But I didn’t get a response, which made me a little nervous.
“There you are, Twilight!” Pinkie said as she and Fluttershy approached me.
“Yep, here I am.” I said tepidly, trying to ignore the anxiety starting to build up over Rainbow Dash.
“What’s wrong?” Ever-observant Fluttershy immediately picked up on my anxiety though, which made it slightly difficult to ignore. “You seem a little tense.”
“I’m just… I want Rainbow to watch our duel.” I sighed in frustration, looking at my phone. “She said she’d be here but she isn’t picking up her phone at all.”
“Oh, I’m sure she’ll show!” Pinkie blew a raspberry and dismissively batted her hand. “If there’s anybody who’ll stand by a commitment, it’d be Rainbow Dash!”
“That’s right, if she said she’d show up, then we should trust her.” Fluttershy added with a bright smile, holding her hands graciously in front of her.
“I hope you guys are right.” I groaned and stood up, stretching my limbs and trying to get Rainbow out of my mind so I could focus on the duel. “But for right now, what’s important is our duel, Pinkie.”
“Heck yes!” Pinkie thrusted her fist at me and I hesitantly touched it with my own fist, assuming that’s what she was going for. “Let’s go have the most daring, dastardly, dizzying, daunting, dandy, decisive duel in the history of forever!”
“Let’s.” I said with a chuckle. How could I resist such an invitation?
As Pinkie and I stepped into the arena the crowd became tense. They were looking forward to this match almost as much as we were. It was a welcome feeling after the lukewarm response to Pinkie’s duel with Button Mash and the internal rollercoaster I had to deal with against Sea Swirl. I listened to the voices in the crowd for a moment and there were several people rooting for either of us, which was nice to hear. I looked toward the crowd to try and find Rainbow, but no luck.
“She’ll be here, Twilight.” Pinkie said with a smile and a thumbs-up.
“Yeah.” I replied pensively. I wasn’t convinced but I wanted to believe Rainbow’s promise and buy into Pinkie’s optimism. But for now, I needed to focus. “Let’s this do this, Pinkie!” I said, preparing my Duel Disk.
DUEL!
Twilight Sparkle vs. Pinkie Pie!
“I’ll start us off!” Pinkie said exuberantly, dancing around on her side of the arena before slamming a monster down on her Disk. “Performapal Handsome Liger!”
Pinkie’s monster was a bishonen with black Super Saiyan hair, red samurai armor, a katana the size of his upper body and a white sleeveless coat that flowed behind him like a cape. What a perfectly ‘anime protagonist’ move to start with.
“And that’s all!” Pinkie said with a skip and a prance. “It’s your move now, Twilight!”
The monster had 1800 ATK and its ability allowed Pinkie to search for a Pendulum card if it killed a monster in battle. Was she trying to set up a combo or just testing the waters to see what I’d play?
“Uh, Twilight?” Pinkie tilted her head, putting her hands on her hips and taking a step forward. “You there?” It was then that I suddenly realized I’d been silently staring down Pinkie’s field for like a minute and a half.
“Y-yes, Pinkie.” I stammered bashfully, nervously adjusting my glasses. “My move!” I drew my card and looked at my opening hand with contempt. High Priestess of Prophecy was decent, but with only one Spellbook card in hand she didn’t help me right now. That said, Spellbook of Secrets is always great to see and I could accept the Strength. “I summon Strength of Prophecy!”
My short-red-haired, red cloaked, giant-mace-wielding magician hit the stage in a blaze of glory, but with only 1500 ATK she wasn’t enough on her own to take down Pinkie’s Liger. So I used my Spellbook of Secrets to add Spellbook of Power to my hand.
“I activate Spellbook of Power!” I said, a mystical red glow bathing my magician and increasing her ATK to 2500. “Not only that, but with my Strength’s effect I can now return the Spellbook of Power to the deck and give her another 500 ATK!” 3000 ATK was more than enough to deal with Pinkie’s 1800.
“Twilight, I’m not sure you really considered my feelings with this move!” Pinkie said teasingly, making me smile.
“Sorry to burst your bubble, Pinkie, but I’m going to win this duel!” I needed to win this. I needed to show Pinkie, show Fluttershy, and especially show Rainbow, who with a quick cursory glance of the crowd I could tell still wasn’t here, that I was smarter than anyone else, more skilled than anyone else, more determined… I needed to win this.
My red-haired magician ran at Pinkie’s shocked Liger with her mace, smashing the cool cat into smithereens with one swift swipe and bringing Pinkie’s Life down to 2800. Not only that, but because of Spellbook of Power’s effect I was able to add Spellbook of the Master to my hand, but I could use that on a later turn.
“I’ll activate Foolish Burial Goods, which allows me to send one Spell card from my deck to the graveyard.” I said. The card I chose was Galaxy Cyclone, which would come in handy later when Pinkie inevitably activated her Pendulums. “It’s your move, Pinkie.” I said with a confident smile, noticing Pinkie’s slightly dismayed expression as she probably began to realize that she was out of her league against me.
“That was pretty good, Twilight!” Pinkie said, resuming her natural exuberance. “But now it’s time for my amaaaazing comeback! I summon Friendonkey and, using his Effect, Trumpanda!”
Performapal Friendonkey was a small grey donkey with a shifty-eyed face, wearing a tiny top hat and a giant bow tie. His Effect let Pinkie Special Summon another Performapal from her hand or graveyard, and the Trumpanda she summoned with it was a doe-eyed panda bear with equally strange taste in fashion and a giant trumpet wrapped around its body. More relevant to me however, was the fact that both monsters were Level 3.
“Friendonkey! Trumpanda! Overlay!” Pinkie shouted, raising her hand triumphantly into the air as her monsters became starry black energy and ascended into a portal above her.
A beam of black and blue swirling light shot down as the portal closed, the mass of energy shifting and squirming around until it took the form of a snake-like blue dragon with six blue leathery wings stretching from its sides and claw-like horns on its head.
“Leviathan Dragon!” Pinkie yelled happily as her new Xyz Monster hit the field. “I’ll detach one Energy card from Leviathan Dragon in order to increase his ATK by 500, making him 2500 ATK! Now attack Twilight’s Strength of Prophecy!”
With the buff from Spellbook of Power ending at the end of my turn, my 2000 ATK magician was a sitting duck for Pinkie’s Leviathan Dragon. The serpentine creature opened its maw and crackling purple and blue electrical energy formed in its mouth as me and my magician braced ourselves for her destruction. A beam of bright lightning shot forth from Pinkie’s Leviatahn and tore a hole straight through Strength, causing me to wince in pain as my monster was killed and my Life was reduced to 3500. I was still in a good position, but losing my only monster was pretty rough.
The crowd cheered for Pinkie’s powerful card and the party girl lapped it all up, waving and blowing kisses to people in the crowd. It made me angry… no, it made me jealous. I wanted that attention… at least, I thought I did. I wanted something, some kind of recognition of my ability… some kind of validation of my value.
I felt like if I didn’t win this duel that everyone would know what I already did, that I was worthless, not worth their time or attention; a frail, pitiful person only worthy of derision and mockery. I needed to win… although I was disheartened when I once more looked into the crowd and found no sign of Rainbow. She definitely wasn’t coming.
“My move!” I shouted angrily, gritting my teeth. It was time for me to get serious, and in a roundabout way the Spellbook of Eternity I drew was the perfect card to enable that. “I summon Temperance of Prophecy!” My slender, brown cloaked magician appeared in a mysterious light, holding a chalice in each hand and her face framed in shadow by her hood. “Now I’ll activate Spellbook of the Master!”
By revealing the Spellbook of Eternity in my hand I could copy the effect of the Spellbook of Secrets in my graveyard, adding Spellbook of Power back to my hand.
“Now I’ll activate the effect of my Temperance.” I said coldly, adjusting my glasses.
“Uh-oh!” Pinkie said, taking a step back and looking on in dismay.
“That’s right, Pinkie! You should be pretty nervous right about now!” I declared as my hooded magician raised her chalices into the air and they started overflowing with black mist, enveloping her and destroying her before dissipating into thin air, only to be replaced by a flicker of black flame, and from that my leathery winged, skull-faced giant demon with a glowing orange sword. “By sacrificing Temperance on the turn I use a Spellbook Spell Card, I can summon Prophecy Destroyer from the deck! Now I’ll add to his power with the Spellbook of Power!”
My demon was bathed in an eerie red glow that washed off of him like a crimson mist. He growled and snarled as he lurched forward and sliced Pinkie’s dragon in twain from the bottom up, reducing her Life to 1800. And due to Spellbook of Power’s effect, I was able to add Spellbook of the Rudra to my hand.
“Your move, Pinkie.” I said intensely, staring Pinkie down. I knew needed to relax, I could feel it. I was getting too worked up over this game and I needed to remember that this duel was supposed to be fun. But I wanted to win so badly, no, I NEEDED to win. There was no other option for me, I had to win to assert my value. I felt the same way against Rainbow, against Cherry Fizzy and Sea Swirl, but for whatever reason I felt it even stronger against Pinkie.
Perhaps it was simply that the more duels I won the more intense my need to win again became, or maybe it had something to do with proving that I was the best player in our friend group, as if that meant something. Either way, that attitude wasn’t going to end well for me, but in my blind lust for victory there was no way I could see that.
For her part, Pinkie took a deep breath as she began her turn. Instead of bursting out into theatrics she slowly, calmly looked at her hand… and then cracked a big smile and started dancing all around her side of the arena.
“Ladies! And! Gentlemen!” She shouted, raising her arms to the crowd as if to embrace them all in an enormous hug. “Watch as the grand and spectacular super-duper amazing Pinkie Pie wows and shocks you with her fantastic and unbelievable comeback! We’re gonna start the finale right here, right now, on this turn!” Pinkie turned back to me, her eyes burning with confidence and determination. “Show must go on!”
Pinkie activated her Pendulum Scales, setting Performapal Guitartle in one and Performapal Lizardraw in the other, destroying Lizardraw and using its Effect and Guitartle’s Effect to draw two cards. It was a strategy I had seen her use countless times. All the while, she’s entertaining the audience with dramatic speeches, dances and over-the-top performative gestures. The crowd’s loving it, cheering along with her and watching her moves with bated breath.
A part of me wanted to join in on the fun as well, but all I could do was shake with conviction. I felt a surge of red hot energy coursing through my body, burning me up inside. I even started to become angry with Pinkie Pie for all her dramatics, even though I knew how important they were to her. But I just didn’t care, all I wanted was to win this tournament and prove I was the best.
And the more times I repeated in my head ‘I need to win this’ the more tired of the phrase I became. I was slowly starting to resent that feeling of needing victory at any cost but instead of taking any kind of measure to work through those feelings all I did was become bitter and angry with myself for having them.
I knew that looking at one of my best friends as an obstacle between me and a fleeting feeling of self-worth was horrible, but I didn’t think I could stop myself from feeling that way, I couldn’t see any way out of that mindset. To me, the idea that if I failed to defeat Pinkie I was a loser and she and Fluttershy would laugh at me and not want to be friends anymore was true, something inarguable that I just needed to deal with, but I was well aware how poisonous that thought process was despite not having the tools to change it so now I just had a burning feeling of anger and need-to-win-at-any-cost-determination along with a gross sinking feeling of bitterness and self-loathing.
As you can no doubt tell, I am very good at dealing with my emotions.
“Now I’ll set Performapal Gumgumouton in my other Pendulum Scale!” Pinkie said as she placed her gumdrop sheep onto the field. “Which allows me to Pendulum Summon monsters from Levels 2 to 5! Come forth, my friends!”
Three bolts of light shot down from another portal hovering above Pinkie Pie, the lights of those bolts taking shape and becoming a dark brown doofy looking donkey with big googly eyes, a knife juggling man in a purple suit with a giant top hat that covered his eyes, and an orange lizard in a dapper red suit with, like seemingly all of Pinkie’s monsters, a bowtie and top hat.
“Performapals Secondonkey, Dag Daggerman and Lizardraw hit the field!” Pinkie proudly declared. Since destroyed Pendulum Monsters go to the Extra Deck instead of the graveyard, Pinkie was able to Pendulum Summon Lizardraw even though she destroyed it with its Effect. “Using Secondonkey’s effect I can add a Performapal from my deck to my hand, and I choose Stamp Turtle!”
Pinkie summoned her new monster to the field; it was a wrinkled, bearded old man turtle with a big stamp and round orange glasses. As weird looking as the monster was, it was a key card in Pinkie’s deck that allowed her to easily summon her best monsters, seeing it made me very nervous because it meant I was in trouble.
“I’ll use my Stamp Turtle’s Effect!” Pinkie said proudly, dancing across her side of the arena. “It raises the Level of itself to 5, and of Lizardraw to 4! Now with the Level 4 Secondokey and Lizardraw, Overlay! And using the Level 5 Dag Daggerman and Stamp Turtle, Overlay!”
The monsters became that same starry black energy from before, joining together and being absorbed into a galactic portal, two bolts of black energy bursting forth from it. The first monster became a brilliant white knight in golden armor holding two mighty swords. The other was a red dinosaur with enormous orange claws not only on its hands but on its shoulders and legs as well.
“Everyone, please welcome Utopia and Volcasaurus!” Pinkie said, the crowd going absolutely nuts for her two Monsters. “Now then, I could use Volcasaurus’ effect to destroy your Prophecy Destroyer, but my poor dinosaur can’t attack directly if it uses that effect and you only have one monster, so let’s make this more exciting! Utopia, attack Prophecy Destroyer!”
Utopia’s 2500 ATK matched my Destroyer’s ATK point for point, it was a standoff. My devil met the blade of Pinkie’s knight with his own sword, standing his ground and ever-so-slightly pushing back against the knight, making a breakthrough against him and charging at him. It looked as though Destroyer slashed through Utopia until it was revealed that what he sliced was actually a gumball shield created by Gumgumouton, whose ability was able to save one of Pinkie’s monsters from battle once per turn. My Destroyer was not so lucky to have a defense like that, and Utopia made quick work of him by slashing through his torso and bifurcating him.
All the while, Pinkie’s Volcasaurus was charging a blast of superheated magma in its mouth, the bursting ball of boiling lava shooting forth from its maw directly at me, blasting me in a holographic explosion which still caused me to wince, not helped by the fact that I was now reduced to a mere 1000 Life.
“I’ll set one card!” Pinkie said with a wink. “Your move, Twilight!”
I needed to turn this around, now. And as usual, I drew just the card to do it; Spellbook Star Hall. With this and my Spellbooks of Rudra and Eternity, I could make a comeback!
“By revealing three Spellbook cards in my hand,” I said, a prideful grin creeping onto my face “I can Special Summon my High Priestess of Prophecy!”
My gorgeous ace monster hit the field in a glow of dazzling light. Adjusting the white wizard’s cap upon her wild mane of pink hair to be just so, and cloaked in radiant white garments, she lit up the field with her amazing presence. I felt calmer with her by my side, and I knew we could win this.
“Now I’ll banish three Spellbook cards from my graveyard to revive my Prophecy Destroyer!” I said, banishing the Spellbooks of Secrets, Power and the Master.
A mad cackle was heard as a glowing sphere of pitch black energy hovered in the air next to my Priestess, eventually forming into the sword-wielding devil we all knew and loved.
“Next, I’ll banish the Galaxy Cyclone in my graveyard!” I said, Pinkie jumping in shock. I couldn’t exactly blame her for forgetting that I sent this card to my graveyard on my first turn. “It allows me to destroy one face-up Spell or Trap card on the field, and I choose your Gumgumouton!” Pinkie’s gummy sheep’s ability to protect her monsters was going to put a huge kink in my plans if I let it slide.
“Now I’ll activate Spellbook Star Hall!” I exclaimed. A wall of mirrors surrounded the arena, a pitch dark sky reflected in their screens and one shining beacon of light hovering in the air above. “Let me explain how this works. For every Spellbook card I play, a star will shine in the mirrors of my Star Hall, and for every shining star my Spellcaster monsters gain 100 ATK.”
“Wow, Twilight!” Pinkie said gleefully, hardly able to contain her excitement as she bounced all around. “You’re really pulling out all the stops! I’m so honored to be having such an intense duel with you!”
At first I didn’t know what to say, it almost felt like Pinkie wasn’t taking this seriously, which frustrated me and even made me a little angry. But I could see the passion in her eyes, the electricity that sparked through her as she scanned the field and the light shining in her as she waved to the crowd.
“Thank you.” I said with a genuinely warm smile. “Now let’s finish this!”
“Let’s see what you’ve got!” Pinkie nodded fiercely.
The only problem though… Pinkie’s face-down card. I could use the effect of my High Priestess to destroy one card on Pinkie’s field. While her two 2500 ATK monsters would soon be weaker than my monsters thanks to the Star Hall, her Utopia had the ability to completely negate attacks by detaching Energy. It had two Energy cards and I had two monsters, which meant I had no choice but to target it with Priestess’ destruction effect.
The cards in my hand were mostly not great. Invocation, Spellbook of the Rudra, and Spellbook of Eternity. I could take the gamble on using Rudra, drawing two cards at the cost of my only other Spellbook, but there was no guarantee I would draw anything I could use. Or I could use the Spellbook of Eternity to return one of my banished Spellbooks to the hand, regaining the book of Power and dealing massive damage to Pinkie’s Life… provided that her face-down didn’t wall me.
I had to go with my gut. And my gut said…
“I use the Spellbook of Eternity!” I declared. “I can use this to revive one of my banished Spellbooks, such as Spellbook of Secrets!”
I activated the Spellbook of Secrets, adding Spellbook Magician of Prophecy to my hand. I summoned him to add Spellbook of the Master to my hand, using its effect to add Spellbook of Power to my hand, then I used the Spellbook of Rudra to sacrifice my Magician and draw two cards. Charioteer of Prophecy and Chocolate Magician Girl, neither of which could I use this turn.
“Wow!” Pinkie said, grasping her cheeks. “Color me impressed, Twilight! My head’s spinning a little bit!” My two monsters’ ATK, after all those Spellbook shenanigans, was raised to 2900, more than able to contend with Pinkie’s two monsters, and I still had one more Spellbook to play.
“Thank you, Pinkie.” I said with a smile and adjusting my glasses. “But you haven’t seen anything yet! I activate my Spellbook of Power Now I’ll use my High Priestess’ Effect, banishing the Spellbook of Power, increasing the ATK of my Prophecy Destroyer to 4000!”
My devil was bathed in the red glow of the Spellbook of Power as several shimmering stars glistened in the mirrors of the Star Hall.
“Next, I’ll use my High Priestess’ Effect, banishing the Spellbook of Power from my graveyard to destroy… Utopia!” My Priestess held her hand aloft, magical green energy flowing into it until it formed a small sphere which she then shot forth into Utopia’s chest plate, shattering him to pieces. “Prophecy Destroyer, attack Volcasaurus!”
My devil blitzed toward Volcasaurus, jumping into the air and striking down on the dinosaur, slicing it clean in half, the two sides of the destroyed beast falling limply to either side of the Destroyer before disappearing, reducing Pinkie’s Life to 300.
“Now, High Priestess!” This was the moment of truth… time to see if Pinkie really did have an ace in the hole! “Attack her directly!”
My Priestess leaped into the air and gathered magical energy around her, charging a beam of lightning and shooting it directly at Pinkie Pie… but then being stopped by a golden shield. It was Utopia.
“I activate Xyz Reborn!” Pinkie cheered, and the crowd went absolutely wild. “This card allows me to revive Utopia from the graveyard, with the Reborn card attached to him as Energy! So by detaching it, I can negate your High Priestess’ attack!”
“Clever, Pinkie…” I said, breathing tensely. “That was a good move.” Still though, if I could make it to next turn there was no doubt in my mind that I would win. And I could still fortify my monsters’ ATK with the Star Hall. “My Spellbook of Power lets me add a new Spellbook to my hand since my Destroyer killed your monster, and I choose Spellbook of Wisdom, which I’ll set face-down. My turn’s over, Pinkie… let’s see what you can do.”
Looking over the field it appeared that I was at an overwhelming advantage. I had two 3000 ATK monsters on my field, the Spellbook of Wisdom I had face-down would make both of them immune to either Spell Effects or Trap Effects for the turn, and not only did Pinkie have but one Monster on the field, one that couldn’t even use its Effect now, but she had zero cards in hand.
But this duel wasn’t over until it was over.
The way Pinkie’s deck worked, her Monsters almost never appeared alone. She had so many creatures that searched for other allies or revived them from the graveyard or some such that they must have taken up half her deck. It was entirely plausible that she topdecked a winning card right here.
“Final turn!” Pinkie said confidently, drawing her card and hoping for a miracle. She looked at the card with a blank expression for one second before bursting into a beaming smile. “Ladies! And! Gentlemen!” She declared, reaching her hands toward the audience again. Not good for me. “I hope you’ve enjoyed this epic duel between two best friends, because now it’s time to ride into the finale!” Pinkie looked at me with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face, and I still wasn’t sure if she was about to win this or not. “And Twilight… good game.”
And that was the moment I knew that she won. My heart sank like a stone as I waited for the inevitable.
“I summon Performapal Skullcrobat Joker!” Pinkie said with palpable excitement. Her monster was another stage magician, with wild blonde hair, a black and purple clown getup and a big ratty old top hat. “When this card is Normal Summoned I can add a Performapal from my deck to my hand! Now, Dag Daggerman, set the Scale!”
A second copy of Dag Daggerman? I wasn’t overly familiar with Pinkie’s purple-suited trickster’s effect, but since she placed him onto the Pendulum Scale it enabled her to Pendulum Summon monsters with Levels 3 to 5… but she had no monsters to summon.
“So now what, Pinkie Pie?” I asked, starting to tremble with anxiousness.
“Dag Daggerman’s effect.” Pinkie said, fighting back tears. “When he’s place on the Pendulum Zone I can add a Performapal from my graveyard to my hand. So come on back, Performapal Handsome Liger!”
I chuckled softly as I saw Pinkie Pendulum Summon a second Level 4 Monster. I didn’t know exactly what she was planning but I knew this was over. It didn’t take long for my laughter to turn into gritted teeth and clenched fists however as I waited for Pinkie to end this.
“Handsome Liger! Skullcrobat Joker! Overlay!” Pinkie shouted. Another burst of starry energy, another portal, etc. This time her monster was a pitch dark dragon with blades adorning its arms and wings, and a very snakelike head. “Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon! I activate my Dark Rebellion’s Effect! By detaching both his Energy cards, I can absorb half the ATK of one of your monsters, like your Prophecy Destroyer for instance, and add that ATK to my monster!”
Dark Rebellion’s wings opened up and started crackling with purple electricity. It spread its wings and a bright light shone as the lightning shot towards my Destroyer, weakening him and bringing him to his knees as Dark Rebellion absorbed his power, reducing Destroyer’s ATK to 1500 and increasing Dark Rebellion’s to 4000.
“Dark Rebellion Xyz Dragon, attack Prophecy Destroyer!” Pinkie said. The dragon lunged forward, its wings and arms glowing with that purple lightning again, and it dashed right through my devil, showering it with electricity before blowing it up and destroying it… reducing my Life… to 0.
I fell to my knees as the announcer declared Pinkie the winner. I punched the ground and felt tears start to form in my eyes. How could I let myself lose? I was so angry and disgusted with myself, I know it was irrational, I knew in the moment that it was, but I couldn’t help feeling completely useless, and the self-awareness that those feelings were poisonous did not help in the slightest, in fact that just made it worse.
But then Pinkie walked up to me, offering her hand.
“That was a great duel, Twilight.” She said with the kindest, warmest, brightest smile on her face, tears streaming down her cheeks. She really had a lot of fun, and I could see in her eyes and her smile that she saw me. She didn’t look down at me for losing, to her I was still the same Twilight Sparkle now that I was when the duel started. It was okay that I lost, it didn’t affect her view of me one bit. I needed to hold onto that realization because I knew it was going to be fleeting.
Pinkie’s smile shone over me like the first ray of sunlight after a thunderstorm and it made me remember for just a moment why I loved this game so much. Yes, I was still upset that I lost, but I could be happy that Pinkie, one of my best friends, won. And I knew I would have to really look inward and find out why winning a gosh darn card game was soooo important to me, but for right now it would be enough just to happy for Pinkie Pie.
“Congratulations, Pinkie.” I said, taking her hand and getting off the ground to wrap her up in a big hug, one which she happily reciprocated, as I began to cry as well. “That was a great duel.”
****
While Pinkie was getting her rare cards from the tournament manager, I decided to steal a moment away for myself to check in on Rainbow Dash. I headed over to the lounge area and sat in one of the plush chairs, grabbing my phone.
“What the heck, Rainbow Dash?!” I texted her. Maybe a softer approach would have been better, but I couldn’t deny that I was really mad. “You said you would show up for my duel with Pinkie but you completely bailed on us! What gives???”
I waited a few minutes, expecting some simpering non-apology, but hoping for a more reasonable excuse. Then I started worrying that maybe something bad happened to her and I began freaking out. I took some deep breaths and remembered how strong, smart, resourceful and clever Rainbow is, then remembered how flighty, irresponsible and brash she is and suddenly her just bailing on me became a much more reasonable answer than that something happened to her.
Five, maybe ten minutes passed. No answer. I looked at my phone again and became livid when I saw the little ‘seen’ checkmark next to my message. I was about to send another volley of angry texts, jamming on the keys and making typos left and right, but then I realized, who cares? My anger wasn’t going to endear me to Rainbow Dash nor was it going to help me in anyway. Not only that, but at least it was a relief to confirm that she was still okay.
I sighed heavily, throwing my phone onto the ottoman in the center of the lounge area and cradling my face in my hands.
“Are you okay, Twilight?” Fluttershy walked up to me and timidly put her hand on my shoulder for a brief moment, before I looked up at her and she instinctively took her hand back.
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I groaned, grabbing Fluttershy’s hand softly. “I’m miffed at Rainbow for ditching her promise.”
“That is awfully unfortunate.” Fluttershy knelt down beside my chair and put her other hand on top of my hand, making a kind of hand sandwich. “And it doesn’t really seem like her at all, at least not the Rainbow I remember. She always took commitments very seriously.”
“I know.” I grumbled, squeezing Fluttershy’s soft, thin fingers. “Maybe she’s just changed for the worst because of her obnoxious girlfriend.”
“Maybe…” Fluttershy said in order to humor me. She didn’t like to say mean things about Rainbow’s gf, preferring to give her, and everybody else for that matter, the benefit of the doubt. “But I think Rainbow is just going through a rough time.”
“What makes you say that?” I asked curiously. I mean, anybody would have a bad time being shackled to Whiplash but I wondered if Fluttershy saw something that I didn’t.
“Um, well…” Fluttershy looked away bashfully, reclaiming her hands and twiddling her fingers. “I don’t know.” I hung my head and sighed. “I think it’s just a feeling I have in my gut.” I looked down at Fluttershy and saw the conviction in her eyes. She still looked meek and unassuming but I could tell she knew what she was talking about and she believed it. And I trusted Fluttershy’s gut, as long as she believed it, I believed it.
“You may be right.” I muttered with a half-smile on my face, leaning back into my chair and wishing I could disappear inside it. “So what do I do then? Where’s my part to play in all this, and how do I fix what Rainbow and I broke?”
“If we’re still Rainbow Dash’s friends,” Fluttershy said “then we should support her through her tough times. But it’s important that we support her in ways that she actually wants to be supported in. We can’t just help her in our own ways and ignore her feelings.”
“Alright, I get it.” I said drolly. “You don’t have to lay it on so thick.”
“Sorry.” Fluttershy toyed with her braid.
“And sometimes you have to support your friends in ways they don’t want! Or at least, in ways they don’t know they want to be supported yet!”” Pinkie added, coming up from behind Fluttershy and putting her arms around the small girl before picking her up off the ground. Fluttershy looked surprised by the sudden glomping but she didn’t seem too concerned, in fact I could see a hint of a smile as Pinkie wrapped her arms around her.
“I’m… not sure that’s great advice.” I said with a nervous chuckle. I mean, that’s pretty much what I was doing with Rainbow and it wasn’t working. “So Pinkie, how did it go with the prize? Did you give Fluttersh-” as I was speaking Pinkie started making very unsubtle gestures behind Fluttershy’s back, instructing me to stop talking, and stopped as soon as Fluttershy looked over her shoulder at her.
“Give me what?” Fluttershy asked, her eyes lighting up as she turned around to Pinkie Pie.
“Give you…” Pinkie stuttered, but then you could see the lightbulb come on in her head when she smiled. “Give you a great big hug for coming out and watching me and Twilight duel!” Pinkie embraced Fluttershy in one of her patented spine-crushing bear hugs. “You’re the greatest!”
“Um… thank… you.” Fluttershy grunted between struggled breaths for air.
“Uh, Pinkie? You’re crushing Fluttershy again.” I said.
“Oops!” Pinkie dropped Fluttershy and backed away from her, leaving Flutters panting and bending over with her hands on her knees. “Sorry Fluttershy!”
“It’s okay.” She said with a smile. She regained her composure and stood to the side to look at both of us. “You know, I’m very proud of both of you girls.”
“Really? How come?” Pinkie said enthusiastically, dancing a little jig back and forth.
“You both did your very best, even against each other.” She said. “And you both fought very hard against some really tough opponents to make it to the finals of the tournament. I know it was just a small local tournament in a bookstore, but it was still a series of really difficult fights! And you both did amazing.”
“Thank you, Fluttershy.” I said earnestly as I wrapped a strand of hair around my finger, feeling very touched and a little bashful by Fluttershy’s heartfelt and kind words.
“Oh Fluttershy…” Pinkie said, bawling her eyes out. “You’re so kind!” Pinkie charged at Fluttershy to wrap her up in another hug, but Flutters dodged to the side just in time and Pinkie fell face-first to the ground. “It’s okay! I had this coming!”
“And Twilight, I know you’re upset about missing your date with Rainbow,” I averted my gaze in embarrassment as Fluttershy spoke “but if it’d be alright with you guys, I’d like to take you both out to lunch to celebrate.”
“That would be really kind of you, Fluttershy.” I said with a smile. “I’ll happily take you up on that offer.”
“Me too!” Pinkie added, springing up off the floor and startling both me and Fluttershy.
“Can you just give me one second alone with Pinkie Pie first?” I asked, standing up out of my chair and dusting off my legs.
“Of course.” Fluttershy bowed. “I’ll slowly head outside and wait for you guys, but please don’t be long, okay?”
“We’ll be there quicker than a cheetah with a jetpack!” Pinkie said with a salute. “That’s a Pinkie Promise!”
“Thank you.” Fluttershy laughed and walked off, Pinkie staring at her as she walked away, not even noticing as I sidled up beside her.
“Couldn’t do it, could you?” I asked teasingly, a catlike grin on my face.
“Oh Twilight, I tried!” Pinkie exclaimed tearfully in a panic, grabbing me by the sweater collar and shaking me. “I tried to give Fluttershy the rare card but I choked! She was just standing there, so cute and beautiful with the red setting sun behind her, perfectly framing her white dress that billowed in the light breeze…”
“You have a crush on Fluttershy, don’t you?” I asked, looking at Pinkie who responded first with a sudden jolt in her body. “Also she’s wearing jeans… and a hoodie.”
“Do… youuuu have a crush on Fluttershy?” Pinkie asked inquisitively, stroking her chin and looking at me with a squint. “I mean, it’s not really a crush so much as one of those girl crushes that lesbians get on other lesbians when they’re not sure whether they want to be a girl or be with them, y’know what I mean?”
“Not even remotely.” I scratched my head. I didn’t feel attraction all that often so I was sort of out of my element when discussing crushes. “But it seems like you might have a crush. You wanted to give her those super rare cards, you couldn’t because she was so ‘cute and beautiful’ that it distracted you, and seemed to alter your memory for some reason but that could just be you being Pinkie Pie.”
“Remember that time we all turned into cheez doodles so we we could go into Arnold’s mouth and save him from the chest demons?” Pinkie said, not skipping a beat even to blink.
“Uh, is my point.” I said, baffled by Pinkie suddenly bringing up… The Magic School Bus? For some reason? “Well, whatever. It’s none of my business. Still though, you should give her the rare cards if you want to give them to her.”
“Maybe you could give them to her for me?” Pinkie said with a precious smile.
“I could?” I replied incredulously. “Wouldn’t it mean less coming from me?”
“Not really!” Pinkie shook her head vigorously. “All that’s important is that she have the gift, not that it’s given to her by me! It’s not like I want her to like me or anything, we’re already friends it’s fine!”
“What did you just say even?” I tilted my head. I was starting to have trouble understanding what Pinkie was getting at and I couldn’t figure out if it was because of Pinkie or because of the four hours of sleep I got last night catching up to me. “Never mind. If you want me to give her the cards, I’ll take them off your hands.”
“No! No!” Pinkie was about to hand me the cards before suddenly yanking them back. “I changed my mind! Maybe! I dunno!”
“Then for now,” I said with an amused smile “why don’t we just go have a nice dinner with our mutual gal pal Fluttershy?”
“That’s a good idea.” Pinkie put the cards back in her deck box and breathed a sigh of relief. “I like that idea!”
“So do I.” I grabbed Pinkie by the hand and headed for the exit. “Let’s go, Pinkie.”
“Right behind you!” Pinkie slid her hand out of my grasp and put her arm around me instead.
As it turns out, I couldn’t stay mad at Pinkie for winning our duel, she was great. I realized that putting all your self-worth into a game is ridiculous and that just because you lose every once in a while doesn’t mean your friends won’t respect you or that you’re some kind of loser. Loss happens to all of us. Better to just accept it and move on, I say. And hopefully I’ll remember that for the next loss.
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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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I agree, that main characters should feel defeat just like anyone else will. It always bugs me incartoons or anime when there's a main character who never loses at anything. They don't learn any lessons that way, and it cheapens the story imo.