Nightmare at the Gala(Con)?

Part 1: The Queen of Cards

“... konnte die Identität der dreisten Diebin noch nicht geklärt werden. Das Deutsche Museum München hat derweil den betörten Nachtwächter entlassen. Eine Belohnung von zehntausend Euro wurde für Hinweise in Aussicht gestellt, die zur Überführung der Verdächtigen oder der Auffindung des Mondsteins führen könnten. Damit zurück ins Studio.”

You've been listening intently to a news report on the car stereo. It couldn't be … and yet could those similarities really be a coincidence? “Also echt! Leute gibt's!” The cab driver laughs loudly.

“What was that about?”

Takagi, a brony from Japan sitting next to you, asks for a translation, since his German is rather limited. The two of you met yesterday on the final leg of your train journey. Realizing that you were both in town for GalaCon and staying at the same hotel, you decided to meet up early this Saturday morning and share a cab to the Schlosspark in Ludwigsburg.

“Well,” you say a little flustered. You're not even sure you understood it, even though German is your native language. “Looks like a naked woman broke into a museum in Munich and stole one of the original moon rocks from the Appollo 17 mission.” Ugh, that sounded dumb, even as you said it.

Takagi blinks at you a few times, trying to decide whether or not you were making a joke. “Like … phantom thief? I only see stuff like that in manga.”

“I guess so,” you respond lamely, scratching your cheek. You decide not to mention the similarities to the recurring dream you've been having. No point in making your new acquaintance think of you as a weirdo.

You arrive at the venue without further incident and split the taxi fare between the two of you. Luckily it doesn't take too long until you get your passes, and you both head into the foyer.

“Looks like we got in early,” you point out. “We've got some time until the opening ceremonies.”

Takagi nods. “I wasn't gonna go for that anyway. Wanna go check out the artist alley with me?”

“Nah, I'm gonna head up to the first floor. See you later for the Pixelkitties panel?”

“Sure.” The aspiring manga artist gives you a friendly wave and heads off. As he vanishes between the booths, you're momentarily worried that his head could fall off, as he tries to look left and right at the same time with sparkling eyes.

Having climbed the stairs, you get an eyeball on the theater, the Bürgersaal and the Silchersaal. Good, you wouldn't want to get lost, when the panels you want to attend start. Looking around, though, it becomes clear that right now all the volunteers are still in the process of setting up.

The opening ceremony isn't for another half hour. Maybe Takagi had the right idea, but you want to take your time with the stalls. You don't want to get caught up browsing and end up missing the ceremony. This is your first con, so you have to be there for the opening.

There's gotta be something else to kill half an hour. You get back to the lobby and notice a bunch of people off to the side of the main entrance. Restrooms? Couldn't be, considering the flashes from the crowd. Why would anyone photograph the toilet?

As you draw closer, you realize that it's the classic- and boardgames room. Of course the main draw is the recently released MLP collectible card game. Pushing past the people in the doorway, you notice several tables set up. In the center there's a girl sitting at one of them … no, that can't be a simple girl! It's gotta be a model or something. Her hair is bright red, and she seems to be sporting an Izayoi Aki cosplay, a pretty revealing one at that.

“Look over here, please!” someone shouts.

Smiling, she looks in that direction, and you feel like you're going deaf from the sound of multiple camera clicks going off at the same time.

Doesn't look like she minds the attention, although her smile seems kind of forced as she asks: “Uhm, doesn't anyone want to play the game?”

The chatty group of males suddenly goes quiet. “Against the Queen of Cards? No way. I heard, she sent the last challenger run away crying,” one of them whispers.

“No kidding,” someone else confirms. “I was here, when they opened the room. There was an exhibition match against one of the game's creators and she crushed him, even though they were both using unmodified starter decks.”

Queen of Cards? You notice the sign next to the table: Starter Challenge! Beat our instructor in a Best of 3 match, using a starter deck, and you get to keep the deck. Plus you walk away with a limited holo card printed especially for GalaCon!

Hm, you've been wanting to try this game for a while now, but had nobody to play it with. Since this is a starter challenge, it should be fine, right? “I'll play,” you say.

Meeting your eyes, her smile finally reaches her eyes. “Of course! Please, have a seat!” She points to a chair across from her.

You sit down and immediately get the feeling of a dozen daggers in your back. Only now do you realize that you've blocked everybody's view of their favorite photo model. This is gonna be uncomfortable.

“What's your name?” the girl asks, ignoring the ominous atmosphere the crowd is emitting. “Have you played before?”

“Uhm, it's Phillip and no, this is my first time playing.”

“I see, a virgin, huh? Don't worry. I'll explain the rules during the first game. It's really easy. You can call me Ranko.” You can feel a slight blush creep up on your cheeks at her use of the word 'virgin.' Ranko, huh? Must be her internet handle. If you were a pretty girl, surrounded by this many desperate guys at a con, you probably wouldn't reveal your real name either.

She puts two brand-new looking decks on the table in front of you. One has Pinkie Pie as the top card and the other one Fluttershy. “Pick whichever one you want. They're both about equally strong. I'll be using the remaining one.”

Going with your gut feeling, you take the Pinkie Pie deck. “Alright, what do I do?”

“First you put your Mane Character in your home field in the starting position. Your problem deck and draw deck go here and here. There's also two handy cards for score keeping …”

You try your best to pay attention as she explains the turn order and general rules, but you keep getting distracted. Damn, her top is tight and her breasts are pretty big. It's a miracle they're not popping right out. Everyone who stands in the back, instead of challenging her and getting a closer view at those two beauties, has gotta be a moron. You don't really care, if you win or not at this point.

“Everything clear so far?”

“Uh, yeah.” Kind of.

You don't really get what the fuss was all about as you play the first round. Ranko's been very helpful in explaining the rules and you feel like you're holding your own pretty well. Eventually you find yourself confronting the same problem card, with both players having enough friend cards present to fulfill the requirements.

“That means we now get to have a face-off, right?”

Ranko nods. “Yep, now we both add up the points of our cards involved, flip a card from our deck and add that value.”

Er, let's see. You both have your mane characters at the problem plus several friends, which add up to eight each. No, wait. She's got an animal friend with Fluttershy, so that gives her an extra point. Her flipped card is 'Granny Smith', who has a value of two. That makes her total eleven.

Nervously you flip the top card of your deck aaaaannnndddd it's 'Dance Fever,' a friend card with a value of one. “Guess, I lose.”

“Oh? But it's not over yet.” Suddenly she leans over the table, pointing at one of your cards. “See this? Pinkie Pie has the Random trait. That means if you flip a card with a value of one during a face-off, you can ignore it and flip a new one.”

“Wah-wo-one,” you stutter. Her cleavage is right in your face, and a storm of camera flashes goes off behind you as you flip the next card on auto-pilot.

“Congratulations, you won this round.”

You did? After she sits back down, you look at your card. She's right. You won, with a 'Marvelous Chapeau' that is worth four points as a matter of fact.

Well, like they say. Winning isn't everything. The road towards victory was definitely sweeter than victory itself in this case.

“Dude, that was awesome. Can you get her to do that again?” someone whispers from behind you.

Tsk, now they're on your side? Talk about double-standards!

“Alright,” Ranko says, with an evil twinkle in her amber eyes, as she picks up her cards and begins shuffling them. “From now on, no more help.”

You nod in determination and prepare for the final two rounds with some confidence. With the boner you have right now, you couldn't get up from the table anyway. Needless to say, she crushes you beneath her heel. But she looks damn hot while doing it!