“So are you enjoying the game so far?” the purple coated Unicorn asks me as he begins putting away his cards.
“Yeah, but we’re not done playing are we?” I ask as I start shuffling my deck of cards.
The stallion looks to the clock behind the sells counter, “Okay, one more game.” With that he takes his cards back out and begins lazily preparing his deck for another match.
I watch him for a moment, “You don’t really like that deck do you?”
“It’s pretty boring to use,” he stops shuffling and places the cards in front of me, to cut the deck I assume.
“You can use another set if you want,” Cinnamon Swirl, what did you just do?
He smiles for a moment but quickly returns to his lazy gaze, “You’ll learn the game better if I use this one.”
“I’ve played that one three times, I get the basics now. How about something more advanced?” I hope I don’t regret this.
“You’re going to regret say that,” He removes his cards from the field. His horn begins to glow purple and a box levitates out of the saddlebag resting beside him. A deck of cards float out of the box and begin to shuffle themselves.
I watch this display for a few moments, I’ll never be that good with my magic. He’s not even looking at his cards. In fact his golden eyes are looking dead at mine. It’s making the hair along my spine stand up. He blinks a few times, adjusts his posture making himself appear more relaxed. He places his cards before me and we cut each other’s decks. “I’ll go first,” I declare.
“It is losers choice,” almost as soon as he finishes saying the words he bites his lower lip and diverts his eyes elsewhere.
I draw my cards, two monsters and three traps. This might be my best hoof all day. “I’ll summon this monster and set these three cards.” I’m ready for him. The look he gives me says I’m not ready for this, “Do you normally do that to the ponies that you play against?”
One of his eye brows arches, “Do what?” While the look he is giving me is a little menacing he actually sounds like he has no idea what I’m talking about.
“The creepy glare and trash talk?” I reply as bluntly as I can.
Instantly the look vanishes and turns into the face I would make if I was caught with my hoof in the cookie jar. I can’t help but laugh. “Sorry, it’s a really bad habit of mine.” He runs a hoof through his short cobalt colored mane and he sits up straight in his seat. “I’m here to teach, not to draw blood,” My ears fly back and he smiles, “That one was on purpose.”
I set my card down and lean forward,” It’s your turn.” Once again the eye brow shoots up. Trash talk is fine and probably a big part of the game. There’s just something about how he’s doing it that makes me feel odd.
He draws a card with his magic and the six of them to eye level. He spends a second looking them over, “Try not to blink.” He activates a spell card and takes out my attack trap. From there he summons a monster, then another, then a third one making sure to explain why the cards he used allow him to make each of his moves. It all makes sense, I just didn’t know these kind of moves were possible. It is now sinking in that I have stepped into something I have no idea how to deal with. Before he finishes his turn he has bucked my monster to the discard pile, inflicted more the a worrisome amount damage to me and has two monsters, two face down cards in his back row which I am sure are traps and two spell cards that are enhancing his monsters. “I end my turn.”
“Thanks,” I reply as I continue trying to process what just happen and if there is any way out of this. I start to draw my card, but figure I’ll try his magic trick. I summon forth my magic and grab at my deck.
“You might want to practice that with just one card instead of tackling the whole deck at once,” He says sounding a little worried. Which might be good advice and I settle on using my hoof.
I activate my new card and I get to draw two more cards and for a moment he seems ready for something big to happen. Then it’s like he remembers who he is playing as relaxes. “I’ll play this spell card.”
“Pay the cost,” He responds flatly. I discard one card from my hoof and his monsters are wiped from the field, progress! “Now my field card actives and they return to my hoof,” The two monsters float up before him, “Now this card activates and I get to search out a monster.”
“How is that fair?” I yell. The other ponies in the store all turn to us and I shrink a little. My opponent just floats the relevant card before me to read. “Just because it’s legal doesn’t mean that it’s fair.
“Do not seek a fair fight, a fair fight means you have a fair chance of losing,” he quotes.
“You are not a ninja master, you don’t get to say that,” I say back to him.
He grins after realizing that we’ve read the same book. His card then floats back to its spot and his deck spreads out before him. He looks through them, picks a card out being sure to reveal that it’s another copy of the first monster he used. The card then floats over to the other cards in his hoof. Then the cards in his deck fly around us in what looks like a very random manner before resting before me. I’m still mad, but that was cool. I just wave the cards away, he’s been searching through his deck after almost every move and I don’t think cutting the deck is going to do me any good. He tries to hold in a laugh and I realize that my building frustration must be showing on my face. With a deep breath I remind myself that it’s just a game, game that I really want to win, but a game.
“I summon this monster,” I slap my card on the table. For the slightest of moments one of his face down cards glow, but remains where it rest. “Don’t start taking it easy on me now.”
“Just saving that for when I need it, please continue,” I am going to make him regret that this turn, time to even things up. I have my monster attack, he flips the other face down card up ready to send my poor monster to oblivion, but for once I am ready for something like this. I flip one of my cards over with as much authority as I can and shut his card down. All of the games before have built up to this moment where I leave my opponent powerless before me. The attack does through and he barely reacts.
“Anything else?” I review my cards and realize that I don’t have any other plays left and pass my turn.
“So what’s your name kid?” He asks as he draws a card.
“I bet I’m not that much younger than you,” I reply.
“I was mostly going by your blankness of the flank,” he answers back.
I look at my flank like I’m completely shocked to find my cutie mark missing. “Well that’s just rude pointing that out.”
“Trance, Trance Magnus if you want to be formal,” he extends a hoof to me.
We shake, “Cinnamon Swirl.” I announce.
“Red coat and a white mane, cute,” he stretches in his seat. “Are you still having fun?’
“Yeah, that deck isn’t fun to play against. You’re going to make the same play you did on your first turn,” I rest my head on my hoof and lean on the table.
“That’s what the deck does, I can repeat my process until it works. You will run out of ways to stop me be for I run out of ways to try to move again. Also very nice work reading how my deck works.” For a moment I think about that, I did piece it together from what I‘ve seen him do and the cards on the field.
“So how does this end?” I’m sure he has come up with a dozen ways to beat me at this point.
“Depends on how cool you want your defeat to be,” His golden eyes look dead into mine once more, but now they’re not creeping me out. “Your call,” He informs me.
“I want the best you got,” I lean forward not wanting to miss anything. For a few seconds he just stares at the cards on the table. Just as I am about to ask him if something is wrong something starts climbing out of my monster card and I bounce back in my seat. My monster climbs out of my card! He’s tiny, just a little smaller than the picture on the card but it’s him. A little armored Unicorn wielding a sword with his magic stands on the table. Trance then summons a cat in a purple jacket which is followed by the problem monster that started this mess. She appears as a white robed Pegasus, it leaves the field and a vest wearing owl replaces her and he brings out a stallion with a newscolt hat and saddle bags overflowing with letters. The cat and owl combine to form some kind of sea dragon which brings back the Pegasus one more combination and the two ponies have become an Alicorn. She sits on her throne and her scepter points at the two cards I have on my side of the field and they go flying back into my deck. My little knight was screaming on the way. The spell card in Trance’s back row card glows and a letter flies over to the Alicorn who quickly rips it open, seems to read it and swings her scepter at Trance’s deck which flies apart. He gestures at a card and it flies down to the field and another Newscolt appears on the field. “That’s game.” He declares as he sits back in his seat. His deck and hoof of card rest on the table as his magic leaves them but the monsters remain on the field.
I return to reality. I have nothing on my side of the field and he has enough power to take down a legion, or he might as well. “Yep, you win,” I concede.
Trance begins levitating his possessions into his saddle bags, “I hope that doesn’t make you want to quit game after just four games?” He leaves his seat and places his bags on his back.
“Four loses, but no I’m not planning to quit the game yet,” I quickly gathers my things and tosses them into my bag. “Just don’t use that deck anymore,” The two of us make our way to the sells counter.
“I’ll take one of the spell caster decks,” The Stallion places his bits on the counter and the clerk gives him the box of cards, which he slides over to me. “This deck is much better than the one you have, learn it and we’ll play again in two days if you’re up to it.”
I place my gift in my bag, it’s already paid for and I’m sure I am going to need something better if I ever want to beat that monstrosity of a deck. “Why not tomorrow?” I ask.
“I’m going out with my parents,” he turns and starts for the exit. I look back to the clock and realize that the game lasted much longer then I thought.
I make my way out the door that he is holding open for me and we start down the Canterlot street. “Don’t use that deck again!” I exclaim.
“Really, you don’t want a chance to beat it another day?” We stop at the corner.
“I do, just not anytime soon,” No point in lying about it.
“Fine, I’ll just make a new one tonight,” A smile grows on his face, he’s probably already plotting my demise. “Do you need someone to walk you home?”
“I don’t need you to foalsit me, and I’m not sure I want you to know where I live,” I reply.
“Alright, see you in a few days,” He waves and crosses the street heading into the distance.
I continue watching until he turns a corner and vanishes from sight. I stand at the corner alone for a few minutes, having someone to talk to for a few more minutes would have been nice but I don’t really know him so this was the smart idea. Well walking home alone is just something I’m used to doing away.
The Thing in the Living Room
The sun has almost set by the time I reach my front door. A light shines out a window letting me know that someone is already home, most likely my mother. I take a deep breath and prepare for an eventful evening. I shut the door behind me after putting it off for another minute. I look around the living room and find the thing with wheels in the middle of the living room. I know that it’s something that my Father has been working on. In the corner of the room my Mother is working at her desk and given that she is wielding her red pen I’m sure that she is grading papers. She looks up from her desk, lowers her reading glasses, rubs at her eyes and examines me.
“Have you finished your homework yet Cinnamon?” Her normal way of greeting me is to interrogate me the moment I enter her presence. The sigh that follows the question lets me know that she already knows the answer.
“Not yet,” lying to her has never ended well for me, and this is the best way to end this conversation peacefully.
She resets her glasses, brushes her blond mane from her face and turns back to her work. “What have you been doing all day?” With her red pen she writes something on the paper that she is grading. My Mother is the kind of teacher that takes pride in dashing the hopes and dreams of her students. At least that’s how she was when I was in her class last year.
“I’ll go do my homework,” Algebra has to be the creation of the Draconequus that lives in the town at the bottom of the mountain.
“You didn’t answer my question,” She continues working, only now she’s using her magic so that her mouth is free to continue questioning me. “Where have you been all day?”
I should just get it over with, “I was just at the hobby shop.”
Her pen drops, she begins rubbing the side of her head and rotates her chair around to look at me. “I told you to stop going there. Your Father has told you to stop going there. That place is just filled with grown stallions wasting their lives away.”
“Not everyone there is an adult. I met a guy there today that’s only a little older then I am,” I defend my place of leisure.
She sighs, unimpressed with at my defense. “And what was this colt doing there?” She rolls her eyes as she asks the question.
“He was playing cards,” I give her a smile and a displeased look forms on her face. “He even taught me how to play.” I add hoping to make him seem better.
“You spent the day with a colt that taught you how to gamble?” She completely misunderstands what I meant.
Before I can form my reply the front door opens and my Father walks in. He is followed by a few bags being carried in his magic. They clank of metal and fill the room with the smell of oil. He takes a moment to examine my Mother and me. As his magic lays the bags next to the wheeled thing he kisses his mother on the cheek. Her face contorts slightly, I bet from the smell coming off him. He always comes home stinking with his white coat being anything but what I would call white. He makes his way to me next and I bounce back. This only makes him laugh. He doesn’t try a second time and walks into the kitchen.
“Please don’t just leave them in here,” My Mother yells as she rubs at her marked cheek and checks her hoof to see how badly he dirtied her own white coat.
“I’ll find somewhere for them in the morning,” My Father replies as he runs himself a glass of water.
“I’m still waiting for you to find somewhere for this thing,” She points a hoof over at the thing in the living room.
“Well it’s not like we have a backyard where I can store it,” I think he meant that as a joke, but it wasn’t very good.
“Can you leave it at work,” She leaves her chair and walks into the kitchen. “I know they have a warehouse or something with enough room to store it.”
“It’s easier for me to work on it if it’s here and I don’t have to make a trip to the other side of town to get to it,” He downs some of his water and clears his throat. “Besides the guys at work would just tear it down for scrap.”
“That’s because it is scrap,” she jabs at him.
“It’s not scrap,” His reply holding little venom in his voice.
“What is it?” I allow myself to join their conversation. My parents both turn to me and look at me like they forgot I was even here.
My Father furrowers his brow and runs his hoof through his orange mane. “It’s the axel of a carriage.”
“And what are you trying to do to it?” The thing has lived in the living room for more than a month and all I’ve seen him do with it is take it apart, put it together and use a lot of grease on it.
“I’m trying to improve the design,” He answers me and looks to my Mother waiting for her input on the subject.
“Highborn, whatever made you think that carriages even need an improvement?” My Mother has reached the point of calling my Father by name.
“Well Philantra, everything can be improved,” He stabs back at her. “And if I can make a version good enough to sell we’ll be set.”
“Please stop with the get rich quick schemes,” My Mother sits on her hunches and sighs.
“If only it was quick,” My Father tries to joke back. “Besides, building things is what I’m good at.”
“You’re not building anything, you’re just trying to fix something that isn’t broke,” My Mother starts to leave the kitchen, but stops when I catch her eyes. “Have you eaten yet?” I shake my head. “Go do your homework and I’ll bring you something in a few minutes.” She squeezes past my Father and opens the refrigerator.
“You haven’t done your work yet, what are you waiting for?” He asks.
I simply nod and walk to my room. Once inside I fling my bag onto my bed and flop on it myself right after. For a few minutes I lay on my back and listen as my parents continue their argument. Every night they do this, every time I open my mouth I make them have a fight.
Somepony knocks on my door, “Do your homework,” My Father directs from the other side.
I empty my bag and start on school work. It would better to be caught working when my mother brings my dinner. First up, the Draconequus’ gift to Equestria.
