30 years before the return of Nightmare Moon
A young man walked the streets of Canterlot late at night, he was bundled up and walked into his apartment slamming the door in anger.
"Damn it to hell," he cried out throwing his coat off to reveal his light red fur, he was a unicorn with brown eyes, he face palmed a bit sitting down, his apartment had some paint and some canvases set up. This was Canvas, he was an aspiring painter pony.
He sat down on a chair on his dining table and sighed.
"Fired from my job, just because I tripped and ruined the assembly line," he said groaning, "Damn that bastard...." he snarled, unaware that behind him was a black cloud of darkness with red eyes.
"...I know that wrench ruined the machinery but....come on," he said slamming his fist on his table where he saw many bills starting to pile up,
"I...wish I had a way to get back at that bastard," he said, "A way to show him I'm better then him."
"I can help" the voice wasn't it, it was dark, stern, commanding, but most of all, didn't sound like a pony.
He turned his head and saw the cloud of darkness and began to freak out.
"Don't be afraid, I wish to help you..."the voice said.
"What are you?" Canvas asked.
"I am not from your world, I come from another world. And I can give you what you need..." the voice said.
"What do you mean?" he asked and appearing from him a small rectangle of blacked formed.
"Take the shadow card....use it to get your revenge..." the voice said and when he took it his eyes began to change color they turned red and he began to grin a demented smile.
Hours later an older stallion wearing a fancier jacket, clearly showing he was in charge and rich. was walking out of the factory when he bumped to a jacketed Canvas.
"Oh hello Canvas, I told you before you aren't getting your job back, you are too much trouble for me," the well dressed stallion said.
Canvas didn't speak but looked up to face the man's eyes, they were dark red.
"Your eyes...have they always been red?" the stallion asked confused.
"....die."
The comment, almost a whisper, he held up the black card and dark energy began to pulsate around it, and multiple tendrils made of darkness came out of the card and wrapped around the stallion.
"Unhand me you cu-," his mouth was bound up, and the tendrils began to squeeze, tighter and tighter...
The stallion began to muffle his pleas, but it was too late, a sickening cracking sound could be heard, and then snap. the stallion was dead.
"...thank you darkness...." Canvas said walking way leaving the corpse on the ground.
Years passed and Canvas became well known as the creators of duel monsters, a fun game, by using magical runs on special wrist mounted devices called duel disks, people using the cards create an illusion of the cards and their effects by tapping into the magical reserves of whoever wore it, not much however as Canvas stated during demonstations. The game become wildly popular among young and old and Canvas become a very wealthy and powerful man.
2 years after the return of Nightmare Moon
Over in Ponyville park.
"Come on give it back."
That was the sound of a young filly unicorn with the cutie mark of a treasure chest. Her light brown fur, her black hair tied back, she looked like a standard unicorn pony. She wore a nice simple red skirt and orange tank top, however at the moment she was being tormented by a teenage blue furred unicorn in a leather jacket and shades. He had taken her duel disk and deck and was levitating it out of her reach`as she jumped up trying to grab it.
"Come on girl work for it," he said chuckling enjoying seeing the little girl cry.
"Give it back," she cried out and then they heard a new voice, "Give the lady her duel disk back."
They turned as and saw a red unicorn wearing a black shirt, jeans, an an unzipped green vest,and green pack on his back, but what made him stand out more was his wide brimmed hat, his cutie mark was that of a golden idol (though can't be seen thanks to the jeans.)
"Daddy," the little girl cried out running to him.
"Don't worry Brenda, I'll take care of him," the man kindly said patting her on the head and tussling her hair.
"Come on, give my daughter a break," He said to the teen.
"I don't think so, I beat her fair and square, and as ante I took her deck and duel disk," the teen said and the man frowned. and said, "Well in that case, how about double or nothing, my deck vs my daughters," he said levitating from his pack his duel disk.
"Fine, I can agree to that," The teen said putting on his disk, "I'm Muscles."
"I'm Isaac Hunter," The red pony said putting on his.
"Duel!" both cried out
Isaac:4000 LP
Muscles:4000 LP
"I'll start,"Muscles said drawing his first card and grinning when he looked at it.
"I start off with Axe Raider," He said summoning to the field a brown earth pony donned in armor and of course held an axe (1700/1150 L4 (level.)
"I lay one card face down and end my turn," Muscles said.
Isaac drew his card and then summoned it, "I summon Ancient Shield Knight in defense mode," He said summoning an armored clad unicorn holding a sword and kite shield, his armor looked like an older version of the Equestrian guard armor (1100/ 2000 L4.)
"Then lay one card face down to end my turn," Isaac said, with that Muscles drew his card.
"Perfect, I offer my axe raider to summon my Axe Berserker in attack mode," He said in the place of the axe raider was now a large muscled brown unicorn with a broken horn and in a loin cloth being his only clothing, in his hand was a large battle axe (2400/900 L6.)
"Next I give him the Crushing Bracer," Muscle said and with that a large jeweled bracer appeared on the warrior's axe wielding arm.
"With this equip spell my warrior gains not only 200 more attack, but he also can deal damage to you even if your monster is in defense mode," Muscles said grinning (2400/900 to 2600/900.)
"Attack him now, take him out!" He ordered and the Axe man swung his axe down on the knight the knight trying to block but the axe got through the kite shield and hit his head, shattering the image into pieces.
Isaac: 3400
"Ready to give up?" Muscles asked.
"No," Isaac said calmly dusting himself off and then said, "I activate my trap, Reform the Line, " he called out, the trap looking like a line of Equestrian guards in line, one very young guard trying to force himself in between two confused looking guards.
"With this trap if I lose a warrior monster to battle, I can summon a new level 4 or below warrior from my hand,l like my Ancient Alchemist," He said and with those words a young zebra in a purple robe appeared folding his arms in a defensive pose (900/500 L2.)
"And when he is special summoned we both draw two new cards," He said and with that the zebra drew from his robes folds two green potions and threw them at both duelists and with that they drew two cards.
"Perfect, I lay one card face down and end my turn," Muscle said.
Isaac drew his card, "My deck is based on the past...and in the past there were many heroes...let me show you one of them," Isaac said and then released the alchemist, "I call upon Ancient Hero Usui the Blind!'
Appearing now was a pony in a strange robe adorn with multiple eyes, he was an earth pony and across his eyes was a band of cloth in the middle a single opened eye. On his back was a large turtle shell and in his hands was a small hand held sword like spear. (2000/2000.)
"Centuries ago Usui was known as the legendary blind warrior, he lost his sight to a corrupted samurai but in doing so gained much better hearing and became a stronger warrior for it." Isaac explained.
"If I wanted a lesson I just go back to school, and your warrior doesn't have enough attack to face my berserker, so why summon him?" Muscles asked.
"Me to know and you to find out," He said laying down a card face down, "I end my turn."
Muscles drew his next card and smiled, "Don't know what you have face down, but I got the perfect card to stop you, the bandits cross bow," he said playing the spell, appearing on the berserker's left wrist was a wrist mounted crossbow.
"With this spell when my monster attacks, you can't play any traps, meaning whatever you have hidden there won't activate, " He said laughing, Isaac seemed calm about this.
"Berserker take out Usui!" he ordered and the axeman swung his axe down when Isaac said,"You should have been worried about Usui, I activate his effect!"
Usui held up the turtle shell shield and blocked the axeman, and then used the spear to stab him in the side, destroying the warrior.
Muscles: 3600
"Hey how did my monster die, yours should have lost!" Muscles cried out and then Isaac calmly spoke, "Clearly you don't know what a tinbe is, it is a shield either made from or mimics a turtle shield, it deflects blows, allowing users to counter from behind the shield," he explained, "And with his effect by discarding a card from my hand I can have him gain 500 more attack and take away 500 from the attacking monster."
With that he sent a card from his hand and smirked.
"Damn it, fine I summon my Saber Warrior in defense mode," Muscles said summoning a brown pony in leather armor and holding a saber in a defensive form (1600/1300 L4.)
"I also lay 2 cards face down, " He said and thought, "Go on attack me, I got the perfect trap for you, " he looked down at his hand, had a powerful monster that would destroy him.
Isaac drew his next card and said, "Usui attack him now!"
Usui charged the warrior but then Muscles said, "Sorry got you, " he said flipping his quick play spell that looked like a thin masked wrestler pony pinned to the ground trying to reach out to tap in Bulk Biceps in a mask wresting outfit.
"Tap out!" he said and the warrior disappeared.
"With this spell at the cost of 1000 lifepoints I can swap him for a monster of the same type as him in my hand, and the best part if you are attacking it doesn't change his target," he said laying down the card.
"I summon Minos the Conquering King!" he called out and in front of him was a large Minotaur warrior, clad in a breast plate and a flowing cape, he had a look of almost boredom as he looked at the charging Usui (2600/2000 L8.)
Brenda seeing this whimpered a bit, "Daddy that's the same monster that beat me!"
"Interesting," Isaac thought, "this must be Muscle's ace in the hole."
"Counter him!." he ordered and Minos took from his side a large broad sword and swung it with his right hand, Usui tried to block but was too late he was stuck in the side and destroyed.
Isaac: 2800
"That's not all, when Minos destroys a monster you take damage equal to half its attack," Muscles said and Isaac groaned a bit as he lost even more lifepoints.
Isaac: 1800
Before Isaac could play a new card Muscles flip his other card, a trap that looked like Minos in a meeting with a pony general, behind the general were spear wielding minotaurs holding spears to his back as the general as he signed a paper on a table in between the two.
"I play Forced Terms of Surrender," He said, "By giving you 500 lifepoints and letting you draw a card, I can end your turn right after your battle phase if you have no monsters on your side of the field."
Isaac glared at him as he drew a card.
Isaac: 2300
"And now its time to end this. " He said and then drew his card, "Perfect, just what I needed. I don't know what your facedown card is but I'm putting a stop to it."
He played his spell, "I play arm's regeneration, and with this spell I can take an equip spell from either of our graves and equip it to my monster." He said and with that Minos now had the bandit's crossbow .
"So you don't have anything to protect you, looks like I win 2 decks today." he said and then declared, "Minos finished him!"
Minos charged him but then a pony holding a large shield appeared blocking Minos's path, the pony looked scared to see the large minotaur in his way.
"I activate the effect of my Ancient Defender, if I have no monsters on the field when you make a direct attack I can summon him in defense mode and have him be the target of your attack." he explained (800/1600 L3.)
Minos swung down and destroyed the warrior
Isaac: 1900
"Fine you kept yourself safe for a turn, but too bad its the last time you get to make a move, I play Level Domination!" he said playing a spell that looked like a Jinzo forcing a Kurbioh, Ojama yellow, Moki Moki, Swordsman of Landstar and Gren Maju Da Ezia out of a town.
"With this spell at the cost of 600 life points per level, I can make it so you can't summon or special summon to the field any monster of the level I payed for or below it," He explained, "And I pay 2400 lifepoints!"
Muscles: 1200
"So now while my spell remains on the field, you can't summon any level 4 or below monsters, meaning you ain't stopping Minos from finishing you off," Muscles said.
Isaac was calm when he drew his next card.
"Sad to say but you lost." Isaac said.
"What do you mean, you have no way to summon a monster to defend you and no way to block Minos when he attacks, I beat you." Muscles said but then Isaac played a card.
"I play Monster Reborn," he said and from the ground appeared Usui (2000/2000)
"And with that I set one card face down and end my turn." Isaac said.
"You think I'm stupid enough to attack, I'm not," Muscles said drawing his next card but then Isaac flipped his trap, it looked like a a table with a note that says Orders, however it clearly has been altered thanks to a lot of crossed out spots and new gibberish written in red.
"Fake Orders," He explained
"By paying 500 lifepoints we go into your battle phase and your monster must attack mine," He explained
Isaac: 1400
With that Minos charged Usui.
"I discard a card in order to have Usui use his effect," Isaac said discarding and with that Usui held his shield up and blocked Minos. (Usui 2000/2000 To 2500/200, Minos 2600/2000 to 2100/2000)
"I also reveal my face down quick play spell, " He said, "Potion of Mimicry"
"With this card, my monster's effect can change for one turn to mimic the effect of another on the field, and I choose Minos," Isaac explained
"Wait you can't!" Muscles cried out as Usui stabbed Minos in the side forcing the king to his knees before being destroyed.
Muscles:0
Isaac: 1400
Muscles swore a bit before tossing Isaac his daughter's duel disk.
"Thank you," Isaac said in a friendly tone before handing it to Brenda.
"Come along dear, don't want mother to wait too long, tonight we are having pasta," He said picking up Brenda and carrying her over on his shoulders.
"Yay," Brenda said Isaac walked off.
As the sun set a hidden cloaked figure watched them, "Not a bad duel Isaac," The figure thought holding a black card, "You might be a good pawn in the near future...."
