It was the worst of games
“What do you mean Button Mash can’t come?!”
Mountain Pass had to wait until Scootaloo stopped shaking him by the shoulders like a ragdoll before answering. “I don’t know! He just sent me a message on Harmony telling me he couldn’t make it today!”
Scootaloo snatched Mountain Pass’ iPone and angrily typed — more smashed than typed to be honest — a message to the tardy colt. They were in front of the tournament’s area in the middle of town. Great banners had been raised in honour of Luna and the 3rd anniversary of the game. Hundreds of foreign ponies of all shapes and sizes had arrived with their decks and taken place at various tables strewn across the area. Scootaloo kept throwing anxious glances at them, her right back hoof tapping the ground while she waited for Button Mash’s reply.
“What?!”
“What?” Mountain Pass gingerly poked his head around her hooves to take a look at the screen.
Sorry, but there’s a video game convention in Manhattan and Firebrand’s Emblem’s creator will be there. There’s no way I can miss it.
Mountain Pass cringed as Scootaloo tightened her grip around the screen of his phone. “Uh, Scoots?”
“That—” she snorted. “That bastard!”
He recoiled at her words. “Wow, language!”
“I— I’m sorry, it’s just—” she had to sit on her haunches and take a deep breath to calm herself. “This was our big chance to make ourselves known. And he blew it for all of us.”
Granted, what Button Mash had done was pretty douchey. “We’ll find a way to—”
“There is no way, Mountain!” Scootaloo grasped at her own face, panic taking over. “He was our main way to victory with his Sun Artifact deck. Without him, I— I don’t know what we can do!”
Mountain Pass thought and looked around. Card Flip fumed silently, as was her habit, and Blue Drift looked almost embarrassed.
“I’ll do it.”
Scootaloo looked at him with wide eyes. “What?”
“I’ll take his place. You said it yourself, my deck can take it slow and beat almost anyone as long as they don’t get too lucky.”
“Yeah, but, I mean— argh! Damn him to Tartarus!”
“So, that’s a yes?”
She sighed and gave a short nod. “Don’t forget that your main goal is to stall and spot people for Blue Drift and Card Flip to take on.”
“I can manage.”
She glanced at the crowd again. Those were all serious players, far from the others players in Ponyville, who mostly played casually. She snapped toward them, her face suddenly confident. “All right, everypony!” She stomped a hoof on the ground. “Today, we win. We might get out of this bruised and broken, but by Celestia, we will win this!”
“Really?” Card Flip grinned. “You stole Rainbow Dash’s speech?”
“Shut up.” There was a hint of a blush on Scootaloo’s face as she turned away from them. Sometimes, Mountain Pass doubted she would have started to play if her idol and almost sister hadn’t been in the game. She was shaking slightly, probably out of anger for Button Mash. Despite her outward confidence, she did get swept up easily in her own emotions.
“The game will start soon!” A tall white unicorn stallion announced. “Everypony, please get to your seat.”
“Good luck, everpony,” Blue Drift said.
Card Flip chuckled. “Won’t need it. Scoots, Mountain, we’re counting on you.”
Scootaloo and Mountain flashed a smile, and the four foals bumped hooves. “Luck is for chumps. We have skills. To victory!”
Before they went to their tables, Scootaloo caught Blue Drift by the shoulder. “Oh, Blue, before I forget. Try to make your games last long and build up your defences. We just need to keep you under three losses. Don’t overextend like last time.”
The navy Unicorn nodded. “Don’t worry, Scoots.”
Mountain Pass turned away from the fillies and took place at his seat, a far way from the rest of his team. Before him, a serious looking Earth Pony took out his deck and set it on the table.
“Hi! I’m Mountain Pass!” The foal extended his hand to shake, but the stallion ignored him. A spike of irritation shot through him. His opponent could at least acknowledge him.
The stallion plopped a Rainbow Dash figurine on the table, summoning her fortress. Mountain Pass’ Luna followed suit. If that guy wanted to give him the silent treatment, he would make sure his defeat would be a slow and unforgiving one. They rolled dice, and Mountain Pass rolled higher. He drew his ten cards. He had the perfect hoof to defeat him in about 4 turns, and at maximum 7. He calculated his odds, discarded them, and redrew a new hoof minus one card. He smirked. Life drain, big defences. He would win a battle of attrition of several dozen turns.
For his opponent, the match had probably been the most gruelling and boring experience of his entire life. The stallion had an elbow on the table, his head resting on his hoof, sighing as Mountain Pass stole back the life he had lost and stopped his Pegasus army from attacking.
For Mountain Pass, however, it was an entirely different game. Barely keeping an eye on what was going on at the table, he scanned the battlefield around him in search of the weaker opponents he could find. As his own battle continued, more ended around him, replaced by other competitors. None of them seemed viable for Blue Drift or Card Flip. They had all strong decks, and their turns lasted for minutes on ends sometimes, probably gauging their opponent’s next move and calculating which cards had the best chance to end the game as quickly as possible. He winced when he saw a Unicorn mare destroy a stallion’s Cloudsdale with a heavily armoured and armed Earth Pony on her third turn. The Sun Artifact decks were so fast these days.
His heart skipped a beat, and he glanced to where they were seated. Blue Drift was fighting the same opponent, keeping him busy with magical barriers and other Magic shenanigans. Card Flip was nowhere to be found. She had probably moved to another table.
“I said I concede, kid.”
Mountain Pass started. The stallion had picked up his cards and was huffing, a little red x floating above Rainbow Dash, indicating he had lost his match. Mountain Pass nodded and took off with his own deck toward Scootaloo.
“Bad news,” he said as he reached the Pegasus filly who had just finished slamming her hundred strong army into her opponent’s Celestia’s castle and was now shaking his hoof. “I don’t think I can find anyone who could have any chance of being defeated by Card or Blue.”
“Yeah, I noticed,” Scootaloo replied with a grunt, her deck all but vanishing with how deftly she replaced it in its box. “Strong competition.”
“Contenders!” The announcer’s voice sounded through the square, magically amplified. “Prepare to face your next opponent!”
Mountain Pass and Scootaloo gave each other a subtle hoofbump and went their separate ways again.
He had trouble focusing at all on the game. He went through the motions, trapping his opponent’s Sun Artifact deck behind a wall of Scarecrows that prevented his opponent from hitting him. All the while, he had only eyes for the crowd, but if there had been anyone with a deck bad enough to lose to the only ones who could take on Luna directly, they had hidden themselves perfectly.
“Good game, kid.”
“Next game, contenders!”
“You sure know how to hold them back eh? Are you even listening?”
“Next game!”
“Easy game, Mountain. You shouldn’t be playing a Moon deck in this meta.”
Still nothing. It was so boring. There were only the same few decks repeated over and over, like he was trudging through a swamp.
“Next!”
“I spent four thousand bucks on that deck!”
“Next game!” The announcer sounded fired up. His mane was practically sticking to his neck. Mountain Pass felt the same, his losses totalling to two now. The rounds were almost over. Tartarus, the game was almost over. He never thought he’d ever think that, but he couldn’t wait to get back home.
“Mountain Pass?”
Blue Drift was looking at him.
“Blue?” He set his hand on the table, ignoring his opponent’s impatient sigh. “What’s wrong?”
She hesitated, and pulled her Big Macintosh figurine from her bag. The farm pony looked downtrodden, mane drenched by a small raincloud floating over his head. Three little Xs marked Blue Drift’s three strikes.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled.
Everything seemed to crumble around him. His match, their efforts, the announcer yelling into his megaphone, nothing mattered anymore. They had blown their only chance at winning.
All because he hadn’t been able to find a good opponent for Blue Drift in time.
“I’m sorry,” Mountain Pass whispered at the downtrodden filly. “Since when?”
“Like, twenty minutes or so.” She sighed and kicked a pebble. It barely rolled to his chair. “It’s not your fault. I know I was supposed to make my games last, but I always thought I could catch my opponents unaware, and…”
“You got cocky?”
She nodded. “Well, I’ll just get out of here before she catches me.”
“Before who catches you?” A frigid voice spoke behind them.
Blue Drift froze and slowly turned her head to the voice.
Behind the Unicorn, a flaming Pegasus snorted, her small wings aflutter with rage. “Why does it sound like you were about to run away like Card Flip, Blue Drift?”
Blue Drift let out a small yelp. “I— I thought I’d go cool off and meet you after— “
Scootaloo advanced toward the Unicorn with heavy steps until their noses were touching. Even though she was almost a head taller than the smaller Pegasus, Blue Drift backed away, tripping over herself and landing on her haunches.
“What. Were. You. Supposed. To. Do?!” Scootaloo buzzed several inches above the ground, ramming into Blue Drift with each word.
“Keep my games long until Mountain Pass found me opponents I could beat,” she mumbled. “But— “
“And what did you do instead?”
Blue Drift looked to the side, to Mountain Pass, who caught her gaze with a sorry look. “I overextended.”
“Augh!” Scootaloo fell to the ground with a thud. Her head hung low. “Now we have no chance of beating Luna!”
“Scoots, it’s not her fault,” Mountain Pass said. “She— “
Scootaloo zipped to him and booped him hard on the chest. “It is her fault. I warned her and she still decided to try and kick her clouds before they were black.”
“Uh…” He remembered her using that once, but he was too busy playing his cards to remember.
“Pegasus expression.” She fell back to the ground and snorted. “Well, I’ll try to do it myself then.”
“Do what?”
“Beat Luna, dumbass.” She chuckled as his nose scrunched at her swearing. “I’m confident enough in myself to maybe have a shot.”
“Scoots, she plays Eldritch Vortex and Entanglement, both of which completely nullify your strategy!”
“I—” She stomped her hoof. “I’ll get lucky!”
Mountain Pass played Hour of the Nightmare, and his opponent conceded. “Yeah, what did you say back then? Luck is for chumps?”
“This is different!”
“I don’t think it is.” He crossed his forelegs over his chest. “I think you’re a great leader, Scoots, but you lose your nerves too easily.”
“I don’t have time to stay calm!” She was almost yelling, her wings flapping erratically. “This is our biggest chance to make ourselves really known and she blew it! Now, the only thing we can do is hope I get the most amazing starting hand to win this.”
“I think you should let me go against her.”
Silence hung in the air. Scootaloo looked at him, taken aback. “What?”
“This is the final round.” He gestured to the now empty tables around him. “You and I are the only ones left. Just concede, and I should be able to beat her if I handle my stuff correctly.”
Her wings twitched, the slightest movement to break her frozen state. “You lost to me.”
“I usually win. Listen, Scootaloo, I don’t want to argue. I just want to finish this and go home. This isn’t— this just isn’t fun!”
Scootaloo stared at him with dagger eyes. She stepped around the table, bumping into the Earth Pony that had just finished packing up his deck, and took place on the chair. She pulled out her Rainbow Dash figurine and slammed it on the table. Her rainbow fortress sprung to life, and her life counter set itself to twenty.
“Scoots…”
“Turn four Rainboom.” She shuffled her deck and threw the dice.
He rolled his own dice. She started. “All right.”
She drew her cards and put four back into her deck without even looking at them. “All luck.”
“Scootaloo, you should really— “
She slammed a Cloud on the field. “Cloud. Turn.”
He drew his cards and winced. All Shrines. Damn his rotten luck. He placed one on the field. “Turn. Scoots—”
The Pegasus ripped a card from her deck, tapped her Cloud, and slammed an amulet on the board. “Storm Pendant.” Two extra mana appeared above the pendant as she tapped it, although a lightning bolt shot from the pendant and dealt three damage to her. “Pegasus Vanguard.”
Two Pegasus Vanguard rose from the table, cracking their necks and getting ready to strike. “Turn.”
He placed another Shrine on the board and his own Lunar Pendant, with effects mimicking those of the Storm Pendant. He gladly took the three damage. “Moonguard. Turn.”
Bat Ponies carrying shields rose from the table and positioned themselves defensively.
Scootaloo huffed. “Rainbow Factory. Pegasus Knight. Turn.”
The Factory let out a cloud and a heavily armed pegasus joined the fray accompanied by the Factory’s smaller token.
Mountain Pass drew, and his eyes narrowed on the card. “All right.”
Scootaloo tapped her hoof impatiently against the table. “So?”
He dropped the Shrine on the table. “Turn.”
Scootaloo drew without even looking at her card and smirked. She tapped out and slammed a card on the table. “Sonic Rainboom!”
Rainbow Dash stretched her wings and took flight. She rose higher and higher before diving down to the table. A high-pitched whine filled the air, and an explosion of colours burst as the Rainboom struck the board. In the aftermath of the destruction, Scootaloo grinned triumphantly. “I win! I told you I’d win!”
Behind her, Blue Drift sat on a bench, looking downtrodden. She fiddled with her hooves, looking down on the ground.
Mountain Pass scooped his cards off the table. He rose from his chair, and the metal legs ground against the floor with a screech. “I really wanted to test my deck against her, you know.”
Scootaloo blinked. “But—”
“This is supposed to be a fun game,” Mountain Pass said. “I’m not here to get yelled at and bossed around. Neither is Blue Drift.”
“I—”
He turned and went past her. There was a pit in his stomach. All the anger, all the boredom, all the impoliteness he had been subjected to, everything was coming home to roost. He bit down on his words, and trotted away silently.
He took place on a bench next to Blue Drift, who squirmed a bit as he plopped down. Scootaloo looked at them, wide-eyed.
“And for the grand finale!” The announcer rolled his Rs and pointed at Scootaloo. Spotlights shone at her. “Please welcome Princess Luna!”
Scootaloo stood in silence while the Princess made her way to the arena. Despite his anger, Mountain Pass couldn’t help but stare at her. The ethereal midnight-blue beauty made her way down the beaten path like it was a red carpet, head held high, her veil-like mane flowing in a wind that wasn’t there.
The alicorn stopped in front of Scootaloo and frowned, and the audience held their collective breath. Luna cocked her head to the side, like she was judging the foal below her.
“Little Scootaloo!” In an instant, her entire demeanour changed. She straightened like she was about the bounce, and her wings fluttered in excitement. A wide grin illuminated her face. “Why, I didn’t know you played this game!”
Scootaloo opened and closed her mouth a few time, struggling for words.
“I have to admit I didn’t think I would ever see you again.” She reached a wing under Scootaloo’s chin and lifted it gently. “After that incident in the forest, you grew so brave, I barely could detect your dreams. You greatly impressed me. You acquired such self-control and poise.”
Scootaloo’s ears went flat on her head. “You think so?” Her voice wasn’t proud or accepting. Rather, the words had come out meek and hesitant.
Luna nodded. “Wouldn’t you say so yourself?”
There was a long lull in the air, like the world itself had stopped breathing. Scootaloo stood under Luna’s gentle gaze, choking on her words. “I— I—”
“Yes?” Luna tilted her head. “Is something wrong?”
Scootaloo took a deep breath. “It’s not true.”
“What do you mean?”
The Pegasus turned to the benches. Mountain Pass caught her gaze and started. Tears flowed down her cheeks.
“It’s not true.” Her voice was wet with regret. “I spent all day yelling at my friends and pushing them to do things they didn’t want. I entered the tournament with them because I wanted us to do something serious with this game, but…”
She kicked off toward them and tackled them off the benches. “I’m so sorry!”
“Scoots, you’re suffocating me!”
Ponies shuffled uncomfortably around them. Luna’s regal laughter sounded, followed by the sound of hoofsteps. “My, my, little one. It seems you have learned a valuable lesson today.”
Scootaloo got off her friends with a blush. “I think so.”
The Princess lowered her head closer to them. “Now, how about a game?”
Scootaloo rose her head and met her gaze. The stare between the two ponies lingered for a while before the Pegasus lowered her eyes to the ground. “I wouldn’t have beaten you anyway.”
“But this tournament requires one last finale,” she said with a grin.
Scootaloo nudged Mountain Pass. He started up and stepped forward. “Can— Can I play against you in her place, your— your Highness?”
Luna chuckled. “Just Luna, please. And I would love to play against you.”
In the end, it was the only good part of the tournament. Even though his defeat came swift, Luna wielding her cards with astonishing ease — she was part of the design team after all — the three rounds they played against one another more than made up for the rest of the day.
“Once again, Princess Luna stands victorious!”
Both ponies shook hooves with a grin and waved at the crowd. Everything had gone by so fast, the world seemed to be spinning around them. He had met a Princess — his favourite princess — and played against her in his favourite game. He couldn’t have asked for more.
And, finally, he took the way back home.
“You know, I’m really sorry for what I said and did back then.” Scootaloo still looked down at the ground, ashamed. “I was such a bad friend.”
They nodded and shrugged. “Stuff happens,” Blue Drift said.
“And you never got that card you wanted either, Mountain,” the Pegasus continued. “And—”
“I don’t care, I played against Luna.” He tried to keep an even tone, but he knew he sounded like an excited schoolfilly.
They split up near Sugarcube corner and made their ways back to their respective home. He always felt a pang at his heart when he saw Scootaloo turn to the Ponyville Orphanage.
“Scoots!”
She stopped and turned to him, head tilted.
“Why don’t you stay at my place tonight?”
She beamed. “Really?”
“Ye—”
The orange bolt tackled him to the ground yet again. They got up, laughing, and dusted themselves before heading to Mountain Pass’ home. They crossed the threshold with a quick “hey” to Mountain Pass’ parents before heading to the colt’s room.
In a blink of an eye, they had placed down their placemats and gotten our their decks.
“This time,” Mountain Pass said with a smirk, “I’ll beat you.”
Scootaloo shot him back her own smirk and rolled the dice. She began. “Cloud. Turn.”
He drew a hand, and froze. In between his hooves were nine Shrines. Nestled between two of them, the face of a terrifying Nightmare-twisted Alicorn stared back at him. In the corner of the card were written five words.
Thanks for the game.
— Luna
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So is this a Magic the Gathering fiction?
Awww, this was cute! I was sure this was going to end in an epic final showdown between Mountain and Luna, so the friendship lesson caught me by surprise, but it made for a nice ending. Would love to see more of this secret team of card game conquistadors. ^^
Sooo... If that's a plainswalker card, what is the starting loyalty points and summoning cost for it? Or is it just a joke card?
I, too, was expecting an epic showdown at the end, was nice to see it take a different turn.
9148249
It's from the Ponylude set, and is actually sort of a misprinted card, I think. This card is the reverse face of Nightmare Moon (hence no loyalty cost, since you can't directly cast her). The correct double-sided version can be seen here.
9148232
>be me
>no idea for a fic
>friend calls
>"hey let's play Magic but don't bring your fucking Atraxa deck"
>holdmybeer.jpg
9148242
Glad you liked it! I actually wanted that ending too, but Scoots kinda came in strong, so I decided to shift it to her learning that she can get a bit too carried away. Anyway, I prefer more emotional and grounded endings to epic battle ones.
9148258
Thank you! As I said to Hawthornbuny, I tend to prefer more emotional endings to epic battles. I honestly wasn't too sure how it would look, so I'm glad you seem to all like it
I don't think I've ever seen the Uncanny Valley apply to card games before. This is just enough like Magic to make the differences stand out all the more, especially when it comes to trying figure out how the color pie is arrayed, to say nothing of how some cards are apparently printed at "anime Blue Eyes White Dragon" rarity. (Though that's slightly more understamdable if the game's only three years old. Slightly.) And apparently there aren't any multicolored decks? There certainly don't seem to be any figurines for them.
Still, if I look at the story from a literary perspective rather than one of game design, it's a good tale of being aware of whose faces you're stepping on as you race for your goal. Even with the Orphanloo—a long-held pet peeve of mine; no fault of your own—this was still fun. (That said, do be careful about schizo tech. Magical holograms are one thing, but cell phones carry massive amounts of technological implications that Equestria just doesn't support.) Thank you for the story.
9151818
. I was mostly a vessel for competitiveness.
True, I kinda just went over the card game without much thought because I'm kinda crap at designing that kind of thing
And sorry for Orphanloo, I can never resist shoving it in my stories about her. Too many years of reading fantasy where every protagonist is an orphan somehow
.
Overall though I'm glad you enjoyed it
.