Venture and Twilight were sitting on a bench in front of the school's statue. Venture had told her about Sunset Shimmer and they were both waiting for her.

“She's usually here by now” Venture said.

Twilight looked towards Venture “Maybe she got held up?”

Venture pondered for a moment “Maybe.” He looked towards Twilight and asked “Want to have a cardfight in the mean time?”

“Here? Now? What if she shows up in the mean time?”

Venture stood up “She can watch. Do you know what the cards in your deck do?”

Twilight pulled out her deck and looked at it “Most of them if not all, I may be a little slow” she said in a slightly timid voice.

“That's fine, I'm sure she won't mind too much.”

Twilight smiled and got up from the bench. And stood behind the table “Err...Their are crumbs from people eating” Twilight wiped the crumbs off with her hand.

Venture laughed “Now place a card with a grade 0 unit face down in front of you. You can tell the grade by looking in the top right corner”Venture placed his card in front of him and shuffled his deck.

Twilight did what Venture said. The cards had a black back with a white border with filled corners, in the corner there was a small blue circle with a design that looked kind of like the inside of computer and surrounding the circle were curved rectangle with some lines coming off them either going towards the edge of the card or towards the small circle.

“Okay, what now?” Twilight asked.

Venture looked up to Twilight “We would normally play rock-paper-scissors. But since this is your first time, would you want to go first so it would be easier for me to explain”

Twilight thought for a moment “Okay, I am fine with that” she said smiling.

“Okay then. Have you shuffled your deck?” Venture inquired?

Twilight picked up her deck and shuffled the deck “Now I have” Twilight gave off a awkward kind of giggle.

Venture laughed “It's okay” he put his hand on top off his deck “Now we draw five cards from the top of the deck” Venture draw the five cards in his right hand and put them in his right hand.

Twilight did the same as Venture “Anything more?”

“You may now put back any units you don't want back in to the deck” Venture put back three cards from his hand on top of the deck “You then shuffle your deck again and draw the same amount you put back” Venture reshuffled his deck and draw three more cards. Venture looked at Twilight “I recommend make sure you have a grade 1, 2 and 3 in your hand. Also, I would put back any trigger units which have yellow at the bottom of them”

Twilight put two cards back in to the deck and shuffled the “Okay, first card and second card”

Venture smiled “Now, the match is ready to begin” Venture put his hand on the card in front of him “Now, be ready to flip your card face up. While flipping your card, say the phrase 'Stand up, Vanguard!'”

Twilight nodded “Okay then, I am ready” she said with a slight bit of worry her voice.

They looked at each and made eye contact and said in Sync “Stand up, Vanguard!” they both flipped their cards face up.

“Fullbau, call forth your storm of darkness” Venture said after flipping his card.

Twilight thought quickly “Um...Crimson Lion Cub, Kyrph. Um...your true battle is about to begin” she said nervously.

Venture looked at her card “Gold Paladin? And it's not the starting card from the trial deck” Venture looked up at Twilight “Did you get that deck of someone?”

“Yes” Twilight said while nodding “I got it off my brother, he used to play this game but then stopped playing. He gave me his cards and this deck” Twilight smiled.

“So that's how you know Vanguard” Venture looked at his deck and put his hand on it “Anyway, you start each turn by drawing a card from the deck” Venture draw a card from the top of his deck “After this you can do what is called a ride, this is when you put a card which is 1 grade higher or the same grade as your current Vanguard.” Venture took the card from the far left of his hand “Like this. I ride, Blaster Javelin” he then stacked the card on top of his first card.

Twilight was watching Venture “Okay that seems simple enough” she said with confidence.

Venture looked up “Now, any on ride effects activate now. Fullbau’s activates.” Venture picked up his deck “I get to search my deck for a card called Blaster Dark when I ride over Fullbau with Blaster Javelin” Venture looked though his deck for the card he was looking for. He pulled a card out from his deck “I then reveal the card and put it in my hand” Venture showed Twilight the card and put it in his hand.

“Okay, anything else?” Twilight asked.

Venture nodded and looked at Blaster Javelin “Blaster Javelin's skill activates. When Fullbau is in the soul, which is all the cards under the top card, he gains 2000 power. This takes him up to 8000 power” he looked up at Twilight “One more thing, after you ride you can then do what is known as a call. Which is where you place down a card of the same grade or lower on the Rearguard circle. The Rearguard circles are circles which are to the right and left of the Vanguard, there is three more Rearguard circles behind the Vanguard circle and the Rearguards to the sides of the vanguard”

“Okay, that makes sense”Twilight said nodding.

Venture pulled a card from his “I call Black Sage, Charon” Venture put down the card behind Blaster Javelin.

“Now I would attack, but you can't attack on your first turn. So I end my turn” Venture did a gesture like passing something over to someone.

Twilight nodded and drew a card from the top of her deck “I ride Precipice Whirlwind, Sagramore. And Kyrph moves to the Rearguard.”

She moved Kyrph to behind the right Rearguard circle “Then I call Knight of Elegant Skills, Gareth” Twilight placed Gareth behind her Vanguard.

“Okay, are you going to attack or call more units?” Venture asked.

Twilight looked at her hand “I'll attack” Twilight held her hand close to her face with both hands.

“Then to declare and attack, turn the card you're attacking with on it's side and choose the target of the attacking.” Venture said looking at Twilight “You can only attack units in the front row unless it says on the card it can”

“Oh, okay.” Twilight turned Sagamore on his side.

Venture pointed at Gareth “You can give the power of the units on the back to that of the front row”He pointed up to Sagamore “This is called boosting”

Twilight looked up at Venture and back down to her cards “Then I boost with Gareth, that puts Sagamore at 14000 power” Twilight turned the card on it's side.

“Okay, now reveal the top card of your deck and check for what is called a Drive Trigger” Venture said.

“Okay.” she took the top card of her deck.

“Does it have a mark in the top right corner?” Venture asked.

Twilight nodded and showed Venture “What does this do?” the card in her hand was called Dantegal.

“That's a Trigger, when you reveal a trigger on a Drive Check you can give 5000 power to a card of your choice” Venture explained “There's four types of triggers: Critical, Draw, Stand and Heal Triggers. You just got a Critical Trigger, besides giving you 5000 extra power, you get to give a Critical to a unit” Venture continued.

“Hold on, I think I remember what this does from watching my brother” Twilight “So, I give all effects to my Vanguard. Right?” Twilight asked.

Venture nodded and smiled “Yes that's right, so instead of taking one damage I take two, also put that card in your hand”

Twilight smiled and put the card in her.

“I now put the top two cards of my deck in the Damage Zone. When someone gets six cards in their Damage Zone, that player loses the game” Venture explained “Now, Damage Check. First card, Blaster Javelin” Venture put the card to the left of the playing field “That is where the Damage zone is”

Twilight was following what Venture was doing, nodding to show she understood.

“Anyway. Second card, Abyss Healer. She is a Heal Trigger”

“What does that do?” Twilight asked.

Venture looked up to Twilight from the card he just checked “Besides give 5000 power to something, if I have the same or higher damage than my opponent I heal a damage” Venture placed down Abyss Healer in his damage zone and removed Blaster Javelin from his Damage Zone and placed it behind his deck.

“Why did you place it there specifically?” Twilight asked.

Venture looked up from what he was doing “Oh. This is the Drop Zone: all healed, retired, guard and destroyed cards go here. That's just to name a few reasons.”

“I see. Well I have nothing else to do, so I end my turn” Twilight said with a smile.

Venture smiled back “Okay then. I draw.”

Sunset Shimmer and the others were watching the match unfold from a distance. Neither of them had noticed them watching them.

“Aren't you gonna go ever and say hi?” Applejack asked trying to encourage Sunset to go over.

Sunset turned to Applejack to her right “I..uh...well...uh...” Sunset was stumbling over her words rather badly “It's just that...it would be really weird...”

Applejack frowned a little “Oh come Sunset, everyone thought it was weird when we being your friend after...that event...” Applejack rubbed her arm “Sorry for bringing that up...”

Sunset looked at Applejack for a moment and then down at the ground she ha destroyed. She took a deep breath and smiled at Applejack “It's okay AJ, and you're right. See you girls tomorrow” Sunset then ran over to the table Venture and Twilight were playing on.

Applejack smiled.

“You sure know how to touch the heart of everyone Applejack” Rainbow Dash said with a smile.

Applejack looked at Rainbow Dash “Thanks, I try my best”

“Although Sunset does have a point, I mean, it would be odd to know someone and then talk to someone who looks just like them and that are very different” Rarity pointed out.

Fluttershy nodded “I agree. But you just have to talk to them with an open mind, willing to accept they are different”

“Anyway girls, want to come round to my place for a while? I got some crazy stuff happening there” Pinkie Pie said with excitement.

Applejack looked at Pinkie “I'm up for it” Applejack looked at the others “What about you girls?”

The others nodded.

“Then let's go” Pinkie said. They all walked away in a different direction from where the Vanguard match was being played.

“Hey, Venture”

Venture looked to his right “Oh, Sunset. You finally came” Venture looked at Twilight “This Twilight, she also plays Vanguard as you can tell. Well, she is learning.”

“Hello” Twilight said waving with her free hand.

Sunset looked at Twilight “Hi, I'm Sunset” she waved back “You're the girl who was looking for her class early right?”

“I think so. Thanks again by the way.” Twilight said smiling.

“Don't worry it was nothing. And I see you met Venture” Sunset pointed out.

Twilight nodded “He's teaching me how to play Vanguard”

Sunset turned her head to Venture and crossed her arms “You better not lose” she said sarcastically.

“Well you'll have to watch and see what happens” Venture smiled and turned to Twilight.

Sunset thought to her “This should be fun”

Twilight turned to face Venture “Okay, back to the game.”

Venture smirked and closed his eyes and pulled a card from his hand “Where there is light, there is shadow. And from the shadow a knight arises. I ride!” Venture Placed a card on top of Blaster Javelin “Blaster Dark!”

Author's Note

I am going to use images of the cards because it is a lot simpler than a long winded description. Call me lazy.