Heart of the Cards

by Jack_Lisain_Spiral

Rating: everyone
Tags: Adventure, Crossover, Twilight Sparkle, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 6123

Twilight Sparkle receives a Duel Monsters deck from her mentor, princess Celestia, and is told to participate in the Summer Sun Celebration tournament. However, there are more to these cards than just color on cardboard and confusing rules...

10 years ago, a Pegasus by the name of Max Million invented the game of Duel Monsters, known in certain circles as simply Yugioh. Soon after its creation, it took off faster than any known product before it, with ponies from all ages picking it up and playing the game. Twilight Sparkle, introverted disciple of princess Celestia, decides that she would not involve herself in the card game in order to advance herself in her studies.

However, on the week of the Summer Sun Celebration, Twilight Sparkle is not only given the tasks of overseeing the Celebration and making friends, but also to participate in the tournament that would take place in the morning of the raising of the sun. As time grows closer to the Celebration, she finds some startling evidence connecting the cards to events that took place over one-thousand years ago, although information is scarce.

What is the connection between these cards and history?

Published 2014-06-30 15:10:03 UTC
Last updated 2014-06-30 15:10:03 UTC

Chapter 1: Spellbooks?

Twilight Sparkle stared at the box in front of her.

She had opened it several times over the past hour, taking the contents out and just examining what her mentor, princess Celestia, had given her.

First she had been given the responsibility of overseeing the summer sun celebration, which she was sure she would be able to make the best possible preparations for. However, then she had been additionally tasked with making friends, which would both hinder her preparations and throw off her meticulous schedule, but also hurt her own goal of stopping the threat of nightmare moon, which she was positive was going to come back when the stars aligned.

But then, on top of all that, she had been given this.

She used her magic to open the top of the briefcase sized marble white box and levitated the contents in the air, making a eight by ten grid out of a majority of a series of cards, while the other two objects, a strange, flat, blue device and a letter, hung to the side.

Said letter had the following to say on it:

To my faithful student, Twilight Sparkle:

The following is a gift from an old pegasus friend of mine by the name of Max Million. Perhaps you have heard of him in your studies? If you need a refresher, he came back from a trip to saddle Arabia ten years ago and started making a lovely series of playing cards that are used to play a card game he calls Duel Monsters, or as it has become known colloquially, Yugioh. I find that it has caught on like wild fire with my little ponies, so I requested he make a deck for you, along with your very own duel disk, which is used to play the game.

After assigning you with the task of both making friends and over watching the summer sun celebration, I realized that you may prioritize one over the other, so I decided to make two cupcakes with one batch of dough as it were and place you as both a contestant and the manager in the first ponyville duel tournament!

Before you add yet another task to the checklist I already know you have brought out, please note that this year the duel tournament will be the main event at this year's celebration, right after the party and the raising of the sun. I will be presiding over the tournament as well once I arrive, so there is no need to request a judge from Manehatten or Canterlot, or Faust forbid, you attempting to learn all the rules to this game in but one week!

And remember Twilight, this is not a task to throw yourself into, but a means to have fun and make friends!

Your mentor,

Princess Celestia

She had read the letter at least one hundred times while she waited for the chariot to take her to ponyville. She wasn't sure whether to be happy or stressed out.

On the bright side, she had a Duel Monsters deck constructed for her by the Max Million, possibly the best rune master, despite being a Pegasus, and adventurer, despite his age, to have existed in the past six centuries.

On the other hoof, it was a Duel Monsters deck.

Everypony played Duel Monsters. Ever since that huge tournament in manehatten where they had used magical constructs to represent the cards' attacks and functions, the game had become a sensation and a national pastime. She had yet to meet a pony who didn't have some form of a deck or at least a card from that particular series. Heck, even spike, her number one assistant, had a deck that he loved to play with in his free time. In fact, earlier, Spike had been gushing over some super special card he had gotten from Moondancer, but she couldn't quite recall why he had said it was so special.

Despite being so close to many different sources of the game, she was the only pony she knew to not have any way to interact with the game whatsoever.

Until now.

She stared at the cards in front of her once she had moved the letter away from her face. She had to admit, although she had never really payed any particular attention to the game, she found herself intrigued by the cards in front of her. At first, she had thought her mentor had been playing a joke on her by giving her these specific cards in question due to her studious nature, but now she felt it was more of an endearing action rather than a funny one once she had read over what every card did.

From what she had read so far, she had a series of cards from two different archetypes, if she recalled what Spike and Moondancer had told her all those years ago about the basics of the game. The monster cards were part of an archetype called prophecy, while the magic cards, if she recalled correctly, were called spellbooks. The spellbook cards were made in a way to support the prophecy monsters by protecting, supporting, and enhancing them.

She had found a book in the Canterlot library detailing how to play the game, but had found that said book was over five thousand pages long. Unfortunately, when she had gone to the princess to request said book, she had been denied due to somepony already having checked out the book, and it was simply being kept here because the pony in question had yet to arrive to pick it up!

So, using the time she had left, she had gone there to read it, but in the time between meeting the princess and going back, somepony had taken it!

She sincerely hoped that there was a book on Duel Monsters in ponyville...

Or, maybe she could ask spike...

No, she probably didn't need the help. From what she had gleaned from the book, most of the pages had simply been trivia and background lore for all the cards, so the bare bones of the game couldn't possibly be that complicated. After all, it was just a filly's trading card game, right?

On the other hoof, perhaps she might ask Spike for help if it turned out to be too much... She did have to be tournament ready in a week's time, and she could use all the help she could get.

She put away all the items nearly in the box and closed it, feeling highly annoyed that Celestia had sent it to her after she had forwarded her belongings, meaning she had to take it with her using a saddle bag. Not that she really minded having to carry it, but if only her mentor had been a bit more punctual about it....

Seeing as Spike was still running late doing whatever he was doing and the chariot had yet to arrive, she opened the box once more and instead of shuffling the cards around as she had been doing for the past hour, she instead examined only the top card.

This card she could tell was different. Even before she opened the box to examine its contents, she had felt a strange magical signature in the box, different than anything she had ever felt before. When she had opened the box and found the source of it, she had immediately tried to understand what the use of the magic was.

The signature came from a single card in the deck. The card in question was titled 'High Priestess of Prophecy', and the image on the card depicted what looked like those mythical humans she had read about as a filly. From what she could see, the female, if she remembered her human physiology correctly from back when she was a filly, was sitting lazily on a bed, dressed in some combination of a sorceress's robes and a priestess's gown, holding an unopened book while staring lackadaisically at her, her wild hot pink mane completing the image. Above and below the card was other information, such as its level, ability, attack and defense, but that was not what she was really interested in.

No, she was actually interested in what was in the background of the image, which was some kind of magical array. It was difficult to make out, due to the different background making the card shine, but the thin gold inlay of the array allowed her to make it out, if only barely and only if held at a certain angle.

That wasn't all, however. The part she could see, the golden circle of runes in the background, was only the very outer rim of some sort of magical array, although for what purpose she couldn't tell.

She theorized the the lower layers that made up the card had the rest of the circle, with each sequential layer starting from the top having the next ring to the circle.

Only somepony like max million could have made something so complex. Yet, she couldn't for the life of her figure out why he would go to such lengths to put such a complex seal on a piece of colored cardboard. Well, she could figure it out, but that would mean ruining the card in question, and she knew just how expensive these cards were from Spike's various requests for bits to buy cards.

"Hey, Twilight! Sorry for the wait!" She jumped slightly from the voice of her assistant. "I had to repay Moondancer somehow for that awesome card she gave me earlier, so I gave her my favorite gem from my gem collection. I had to find her first though, so that's what took me so long. Although, I still don't think that what I gave her was enough... I mean, these cards go for over 9000 bits on the market!"

'9000 bits?!' Twilight had known the cards were expensive, but that high?! She had gone on a trip with spike to the local card vendor and had seen a card that was 300 bits and thought that had been the highest the cards went, but over 9000?!

"Yeah, I know, but the card that Moondancer gave me is part of a special class of cards that just started releasing this year and are super mega rare! I'll show you what makes them so special when we get to ponyville, and then you'll be amazed!" Spike starred at her. "Uh, Twilight? Hello, earth to twilight!"

He attempted to wave a claw in Twilight's face, but he stopped upon seeing a small rectangular object floating behind Twilight's head. His eyes lit up upon recognizing it.

"Twilight! You got a Yugioh card! Which one is it?!" He tried to maneuver himself around twilight to get a better look at it, but found that Twilight had gotten over the revelation of the price of his card and quickly placed the card back in its box, causing the young dragon to let out a whine of disappointment.

"Sorry Spike, but our ride to ponyville should be here any second now, and I don't believe I will have enough time to show you the rest of the things I received from the princess while you were with Moondancer, unless you want to be interrupted part way..." Twilight said.

"You got that card from the princess?!" Spike asked. "Wait, you have more?! What else did you get?!"

Twilight rolled her eyes in amusement. "Like I said Spike, I'll show you when we get to ponyville. Plus, wouldn't it be better to reveal the surprises we both have together?" Twilight looked up at the sun. "Speaking of ponyville, our method of travel should be arriving in three... Two... One..."

Off in the distance, the sound of two male Pegasi flapping their wings could be heard. The unicorn and her assistant turned to face where the sound was coming from, only to nearly be blinded due to the glare of the sun bouncing off the good lead on the chariot said Pegasi were pulling.

After blinking to remove the bright spots from her eyes that resulted from said glare and feeling a strong gush of wind, she found a chariot sitting in front of her, the two guards in front beckoning her to enter.

Twilight nodded to the two gentleponies in front, using her magic to grab the box and stuff it in her saddlebag while stepping into the back of the carriage. Once she and Spike were properly boarded, the golden vehicle took off, the view of Canterlot soon becoming small as they rose higher and higher.

"So Twilight, who are the cards for?" Twilight turned from staring at the sight of clouds from the side of the ride to Spike.

The unicorn raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about, Spike?"

"Oh, well, uh... It's just that, you don't play Yugioh, so I was wondering who the cards were for, and why you were borrowing them..." He scratched the back of his head. "I thought they were for somepony and that the princess let you look through it because she thought you might like the game..."

Twilight made a sound that was somewhere between a sigh and a chuckle. "I'll have you know that the princess has assigned me with the royal duty of presiding over and playing in the duel tournament that is to occur after the raising of the sun during the summer sun celebration. So, to clarify, these cards are mine, and I will be using them in the near future."

The small dragon's eyes widened. "No way! You're going to play Yugioh?! In a tournament?!" He waved his hands in the air to show his surprise. "There is so much I have to teach you! Like quick plays and siding and counter traps and chains and-"

"It's fine, Spike. It's just a card game. It's not that complicated, I'm sure." She looked at the box in her saddle bag. "I have one week to learn to play a game. It's not like it's a test, right?"

Now that twilight had said that out loud, she couldn't help but feel that perhaps the entire tournament was in fact a test to see if she could adapt to a new set of rules. What if she didn't get first place then? What if she didn't study hard enough and got second? Princess Celestia would surely be disappointed in her, and then she wouldn't be her student anymore because the princess couldn't accept only second best, and then she would have to go to remedial school because she failed, but they wouldn't accept a failure like her in an institution like that, no, she would go straight to magical kindergarten to be reeducated! And then-

"Twilight!" She flinched from the sound of Spike's voice right against her ear. "I've been trying to get your attention for the last few minutes, but you were kind of spaces out..."

Twilight quickly turned her head and stared at Spike straight in the eyes, grabbing his shoulders with her hooves for stability. "Spike! I have got to get first place in that tournament or else the princess is going to send me straight back to magic kindergarten!"

While she was speaking, she shook Spike back and forth, causing him to feel dizzy and slightly nauseous. "Twilight! Slow down! Your making me dizzy..." Twilight stopped, feeling embarrassed at her actions. Spike shook his head to clear it up. "Twilight, I don't think the princess would do that if you didn't get first place. Didn't she say to just make friends and have fun? I don't think she would give you a test-"

As soon as he spoke the word test, Twilight went into another rant. "Your right! It's not a test, it's a judgement! A finality! One I! have! To! Pass!"

"Twilight! Your starting to hyperventilate! Remember, deep breath in, deep breath out!"

Twilight followed her assistant's directive and proceeded to inhale and exhale heavily, slowing down her breathing and bringing her thinking back to logical levels. "Sorry, Spike." She sighed. "You will help me study for it, right?"

His eyes sparkled. "For the tournament?! Totally!" He smiled and put his claws behind his head. "Maybe I'll enter, too! I did pretty well in the local tournaments the local card shop sets up every month, so maybe I'll make it into the top four of this tournament!"

Twilight nodded and looked to see how far ponyville was. She was presently surprised to see it was in sight and getting closer every second. "Spike, can you read the letter Princess Celestia gave us again? I want to make sure I'm not forgetting anything or if We missed something from earlier..."

Spike nodded. "No problem, Twilight!"

He pulled out the scroll from Twilight's saddlebag and started to read it, although she was only half paying attention to it. At the moment, she was wondering if there were any books in the library that she would be staying at that contained information on nightmare moon, placing the tournament as a secondary objective in her mind.

~~XxXxXxX~~

Her first impressions of ponyville hadn't been great so far.

She had walked up to a pink pony to great her, but instead of actually being able to have a proper conversation with said pony, the pony in question had gasped in her direction and then had immediately taken off.

She had ignored her first meeting in hopes that the next one would be better. Upon looking over her checklist, however, she found that her next destination would be the mayor's office. Upon finding the location of it, she found that there had been a sign posted on the door stating that her office had been moved to her personal residence until such a time that the preparations for the summer sun celebrations were over, as well as directions to said residence. She had then told Spike to go ahead and explore a bit on his own, and if he managed to find the library to go ahead and explore it. If that didn't happen, she told him to come back to this location, seeing as it was hard to miss.

The house had not been to hard to find, seeing as it was right next to town hall, and as soon as she had found it she had knocked on the door and waited for a response.

"Come in."

Twilight entered the abode, where she found the entrance to the two story house had been cleared out, the parlor near the entrance having stacks upon stacks of papers piled on the table inside, with a tired looking amber colored mare sitting behind the table, signing a form with a pen clenched between her teeth.

She placed her pen next to the document she was currently signing and looked up at her visitor. "Sorry about the mess, but with the ponies from manehatten here attempting to turn our town hall into a proper duel arena for the tournament and with Rarity, our local fashionista, also attempting to make it presentable for the princess, I had to move my work, lest ponies have to walk through their work. Goodness knows I already have enough forms to fill out already because of the celebration..."

Twilight nodded in understanding, having actually tried helping her mentor with her own paperwork. "I assume you are the mayor?"

She smiled and nodded. "Mayor Mare, at your service!" She placed her hooves on the table and beckoned Twilight forward. "Go on, take a seat! Would you like anything to drink, miss Twilight?"

Twilight accepted the invitation and sat down at the other end of the table atop a chair. upon reaching that position, she shook her head in response to the question. "No, thank you for the offer. Also, Twilight is fine."

The mayor nodded her head. "So, I assume you are here for the location of your accommodations?"

"Yes, as well anything related to the tournament." Twilight pulled out the letter that stated that she would also be presiding over the tournament. "I have a letter from princess Celestia here with me to prove it."

She used her magic to place it on her desk and let her read it. "Well, isn't this a pleasant surprise! That's one load of both mine and time turner's backs..." She continued to read. "Oh! You're going to be participating as well? Have you had any previous tournament experience?"

Twilight blushed slightly. "Umm... Well... This is actually my first time playing..."

"First time in a tournament? Don't worry, it's a rather standard and not too hard to follow. Like all matches, wether casual or professional, the guidelines for deck construction and what is allowed and what isn't applies-"

Twilight cut her off before she could continue. "I'm sorry, Miss mare, but by first time playing, I meant that this will actually be my first time playing... Ever..."

The mayor opened her mouth and then closed it. Then she opened it again. "Pardon?"

"This will be my first time playing the game."

"Ah, I see..." She tilted her head. "This may be a bit of a problem then..."

"Problem? What kind of problem?" Twilight questioned.

The mayor sighed. "Well, you see, the game of Duel Monsters is very complicated with plenty of seemingly small rules and nuances here and there, despite it's simple concept. Not that I doubt your ability to learn the game in the short time until the tournament-" she corrected herself quickly as to not offend. "-but there are certain unwritten rules as well when it comes to playing the game..."

"Unwritten rules?"

"Normally, you would pick up on them by simply playing against your friends or going to an actual tournament, but seeing as you have never played before, I suppose I could explain the very basic structure. I do have to say that it would probably be best to find a friend or mentor to teach you more, because I will certainly forget to mention something, seeing as these are supposed to be things that you should subconsciously pick up."

Twilight pulled out a pen and a piece of parchment in order to take notes, and nodded for her to continue. "First general rule: it is generally accepted that a deck in Duel monsters should consist of forty cards. This is the minimum number of cards required in a deck, and is usually the number most ponies play, although it is generally accepted that going at most six over is okay as well. Going any higher is frowned upon, but it is within the rules of the game, with the maximum number being sixty cards."

Twilight raised a hoof and the mayor nodded in response, acknowledging that she had a question. "Why forty? Is there a reason?"

The mayor tapped her chin in an attempt to remember. "I believe it has to do with probability and drawing the cards you need. Forty is the accepted number because it gets you the cards you need faster. Putting more is generally the sign of being a new player to the game, although there have been those that have done that and still won. As I said, it is frowned upon, but you can have any number of cards you desire within the legal limit."

"Probability... Got it." She turned her head back to the mare opposite to her. "Next?"

"Hmmm... Oh!" Her eyebrows rose as she thought of the next part of her list. "Usually, within a community, everypony participating has a different archetype. Not that it always winds up that way, seeing as there are more ponies playing than archetypes, but it is common courtesy to pick a different archetype than those around you. I myself play an archetype called 'Nordics', and I know nopony else plays the archetype in this town because they know that I play it."

Twilight was slightly surprised to find that even the mayor played the game, further giving credit to the theory that she had been the only pony in equestria to not have played the game, but she ignored her surprise and asked a question that had popped into her head. "I'm going to be playing Spellbooks, is that fine?"

Mayor Mare nodded. "As I said, it is more of a guideline. There are ponies in this town that play the same archetype, so do not be discouraged in your choice. Also, luckily enough, I do not believe anypony in this town plays spellbooks, so you are safe in that regard."

Twilight let out a sigh in relief at not having accidentally broken a rule. "Right, so I generally won't be playing any repeat decks if I join the tournament. Thank you for the information."

"You’re welcome!" She tapped a hoof on the table as she tried to recall any other unspoken rules. "Oh! This is an important one! Any cards that you consider to be too powerful should only have one copy of it in your deck. As an example-" She moved from her chair and went to a room beyond the parlor where she had set up her makeshift office and came back with two cards clutched between her teeth before placing them on the table. "These two cards, morphing jar and pot of greed, are rather common cards. However, morphing jar's effect is extremely abusable while pot of greed is considered to give the pony that plays it too much of an advantage when said pony plays three of them, so as an unwritten rule, cards like these are usually placed in a deck with one copy. You may use more, but as I stated with the card amount, it is frowned upon and in some circles considered cheating, despite there being no rules for how many of a specific card should be played. This is also applied to cards that are considered 'boss monsters', such as one of my cards by the name of 'Odin'."

"So it's courtesy to try to keep the game balanced?" Twilight asked.

She nodded. "That is usually the point of it, yes. However, even then, it tends to cause problems, although as they say, any deck an beat any other deck with enough time, patience, and strategy."

Twilight scribbled some more notes on her parchment and the signaled for Mayor Mare to continue.

"Now, this may seem slightly annoying, but in tournament play, it is usually the standard to one, call out every play that you do, two, know every single card in your deck as well as you possibly can, and three, be able to play the game without looking at cards that you have played face down. As an example, let us say I set pot of greed face down..." She picked up the card and turned it face down. "I am expected to know its exact effect so I can announce it out loud, as well as where I placed it on my board, so even if I placed four other card along side with it in the spell and trap card zone, I am expected to know where I put it, even twenty turns later without looking at the cards themselves."

Twilight wasn't too worried about that part. Despite making checklists to keep herself on track, if she concentrated on one task, her memory rarely, if ever, failed her. One part of her example confused her however. "Spell cards? I thought they were called magic cards?"

The mayor chuckled slightly. "They were indeed called magic cards when they first came out, but occasionally some ponies confused them for the actual magic cards that some unicorn researchers use, so they change the name from magic cards to spell cards."

"I see..." She quickly wrote it down and looked back up. "Is there anything else I should know?"

Mayor Mare nodded. "For tournaments, I believe it is traditional to also write down the archetype of the deck you are using in order to allow all in the tournament a chance at a fair playing field. It is even on the sign-up sheet, so there is a way for those wishing to attend to place the deck they are playing." Her eyes lit up as she remembered another unspoken rule. "Oh! And on the topic of decks, the extra deck is generally considered to be more lenient with its construction than the main deck. What I mean by that is that in the construction of the main deck, it is usually accepted that the main deck should only consist of cards of that archetype with a few other cards splashed in, unless you are playing one of those off the wall decks that pop up here and there. The extra deck, however, is more lenient in that while you should definitely put cards from your own archetype in it, taking cards from other archetypes is perfectly fine, mainly due to the fact that most consider having a full extra deck the status quo."

Twilight was a bit confused on the extra deck part, but she was sure she would find a reference to it somewhere in the library that she would soon be staying at, or if she didn't, she had Spike as well to ask questions. "Thank you for that. Do you have any other information I could use?"

The mayor pondered the question for a bit. "I'm sorry, but I cannot think of anything else at this point in time, but you can drop by at a later date and I may have some more information for you, or perhaps somepony I can redirect you two for better information Han I can give. Duel Monsters is a game that I find is much easier learned from a teacher than it is by a book." She looked to her left and sighed as she stared at the tall stacks of paper. "I have to get back to work, Twilight, so I will leave you with a map of ponyville, along with the keys to your new house and the sign-up forms for the competition... Oh, you may want a the rules and rulings book as well..."

"Sign-up forms?" Twilight questioned.

The mayor nodded, slowly looking through one of the stacks of paper for something. "Yes, sign-up forms. As the new administrator for the tournament, it is now your job to ask the citizens of ponyville if they wish to sign up for the event, as well as construct the brackets for the overall tournament based upon those forms and check to see if their decks are legal. Don't go rigging the brackets or your deck in your favor, now!"

The mayor stopped flipping through the papers and pulled out what looked like a wad of 300 pieces of paper. "These are the sign-up forms. And as for the rule and rulings book-" she turned around and went into the beyond, before quickly returning with a very large and very familiar book clenched in between her teeth. "This here is now in your possession. I had originally checked it out from Canterlot library for this event, but seeing as you will now be one of those presiding over the tournament, I suppose I will have to pass it on to you."

Twilight quickly used her magic to grab the objects and carefully place them in her saddle bag, rather pleased that she had still gotten he book that she had initially desired. "Thank you for your help! I'll drop by again later!"

"Please do! I could use just about any excuse to take a break for just a few minutes!"

And with that, twilight left the abode of Mayor Mare and journeyed toward her new house.

~~XxXxXxX~~

Although the map that the mayor had given her placed the library at the other end of the town, it hasn't taken too long of a walk to reach there.

The library surprised her slightly upon reaching it, noticing that it had been built inside of a large tree, but she had seen stranger places to live before, so she shrugged it off. She did, however, place it on her checklist to invest in some magic to keep lighting from lighting it on fire.

She entered the treehouse and found the lights witch, illuminating the room.

She instantly fell in love.

It reminded her a lot of her old loft, with books covering every wall, but it had a more homely feel to it. The lighting was not as great as her previous accommodations, but the chandelier above provided enough light for the room to be illuminated rather well.

She noticed some boxes to the side of the door that she recognized as hers, as well as a certain dragon strolling around the happier floor of the library.

"Spike!" Twilight called.

Spike turned his head in confusion upon being called. "Oh! Twilight! Didn't see you there. I found our new house! It's really cool!"

"Yep! But right now we're behind schedule, so we have to move! I came by to drop off some excess weight from my bags and then we're going to go check on the preparations for the summer sun celebration." She looked up at the clock that hung on the west wall of the house. "And if that clock is right, we have to leave now or my entire routine that I had planned for today will be thrown off!"

"But twilight, what about showing each other our cards?" Spike questioned as he hoped down the wooden steps. "You said as soon as we reached ponyville-"

Twilight cut him off. "Sorry spike, I promise we'll do that later, but I have to do this now. After we see the preparations and check that they are going as planned, then we can go ahead and do that, okay?"

Spike let his shoulders sag. "Fine... I guess this is more important..."

"I knew you'd see it my way!" Twilight quickly used her magic to pull out some of the excess supplies that she had kept in her bag, such as her quills, ink and excess parchment, and placed them on a nearby table. She was going to put away the cards, but thought against it, although she did take the duel disk out and place it on the table as well to lighten the load. "Hurry up, Spike! Time waits for nopony!"

"Alright, alright, hold on just one moment..." Spike hastily Ramon his stubby legs over to twilight and jumped onto the arch of the saddle bags. "I'm good to go!"

Twilight nodded and exited the room, silently hoping that her future encounters wouldn't be any worse than her first encounter in this town.

Maybe she could even fulfill her mentor's request to make some friends while she wasn't busy preparing for the end of the world and the most important test of her life.

Well, perhaps maybe was pushing it just a tad.

~~XxXxXxX~~

Twilight Sparkle: Spellbook prophecy
Spike: ???
Mayor Mare: Nordics

Author's Note

So, I wrote this at 3:A.M in the morning. Really, I wrote this because I had the strangest idea of "If Spike played Yugioh, what deck would he play?" The answer came to me instantly. Followed directly by what twilight, discord, rarity, and the doctor would play.

So, this spawned from that. GG i guess. PROCEED TO SCOOP PHASE.

Please note that I don't actually have much experience playing the decks that I actually chose for these guys (I've only really played what I plan for discord's deck and omake hugh jelly's deck, along with granny smith's, braeburn's, lyra's, and just a bit of fluttershy's.) I'll actually have to re-watch the anime for sombra's T_T.

Anyway, I know I have problems with capitalization. So go ahead and spam me with those. I already have most of the cast's decks figured out, but if you want to PM me deck lists to fine tune, then that's alright. Also, go ahead and guess what the others are, if you want. Spike's should be fairly obvious, along with Rarity's, maybe Rainbow dash's, The doctor's (This one is a given), pinkies (THE ARCHETYPE WAS MADE FOR HER), chrysalis's and braeburn's. The hardest ones should be Candence's, lyra's, bonbon's, maybe trixie's, and fancy pants.s.

Like I said, I could really use some help with this, if you want to help, PM me and we'll discuss.

Also, i'm thinking of changing the title later. Should I leave it or change it?

OH YEAH. OBLIGATORY PLZ DONT HURT ME 1rst FIC POST (ignore this with a burning passion and toss it in a hole with edgar or something.)