Chapter 1 - First Problem
Cold air hung in the room from the newly-invented air-conditioning. Twilight sat on a hard, blue chair made out of plastic that connected to a wooden table. She was in a science lab, and having finished early was participating in a game of cards with her fellow friend Paper Face. The other students roamed around the lab, collecting ingredients, mixing chemicals, and writing down information as they worked to solve their problem. The teacher sat in his chair as he watched the group work.
Paper face was a gray unicorn colt with a dark gray mane and tail. His eyes shone a bright orange, and his cutie mark displayed a light bulb. He never wore clothes, except for the standard lab equipment, which was of course normal given the situation he was in. The only thing that stood out about him was his mane, which he never combed, but managed not to become a complete disaster every morning.
Twilight was a gifted student. She always finished early, got perfect scores, and had a decent conduct grade. She'd never gotten along with other ponies, who seemed to be more interested in viral videos and memes than they were in their school work. Silly them. Paper Face, however, was slowly trying to help her get out of her hard shell. He may have an unfortunate name, but he showed Twilight there was more to the world than just books. There were scrolls! No, but he really did show Twilight how to live a little. What's even better is he invented a simple game Twilight has never played before that didn't require team work.
Earlier that period, he and Twilight were bored as they sat idly and watched the other students worked. Paper Face looked at his desk, and at the index cards on its surface in particular. Having nothing else to do, he took a card from the pile, drew a square on it, and sketched Twilight's face on it without her noticing. He smiled at the picture. Maybe he could have a little fun with this. He wasn't sure how, though. They were just index cards.
Suddenly, he had an idea. He decided they could play a game with these index cards, like playing cards but different. They weren't loud, so they wouldn't disrupt the team-mates, and they weren't bulky, so he could carry them everywhere he went. He looked at the Twilight he had drawn and grinned, forming an idea in his mind. He wrote down the number 1850, underlined it, and wrote down the number 2300 under it. Paper giggled with glee, and he wrote down above the picture "Twilight Sparkle".
Twilight herself turned her head towards his way and scooted closer to see what he was making.
Paper Face tapped his chin lightly with his pencil, then rounded his eyes and grinned. He wrote down below the numbers, "MONSTER CARD. REAL-LIFE TYPE. IF A CARD ON HER FIELD IS WEAKER THAN HER, SHE LECTURES THEM, BOTH GAINING 250 ATK POINTS. IF A CARD ON THE ENEMY FIELD IS STRONGER THAN HER, SHE STUDIES HERSELF AND GAINS AN EXTRA 250 ATK POINTS". He resumed adding more detail to the card, and pulled it up so Twilight could see it better.
"What do you think, Twilight,"? He asked, hovering the card half a foot away from her face.
"I think I have no idea what you're up to," She giggled, and moved closer to him. "What exactly is it that you are doing? It doesn't look like anything I've seen before,"
Paper Face looked at the card for a few moments. He put the card back on the table. "I figured I could provide some entertainment while we wait for our classmates to finish every day," he replied, and pulled another card from the pile. "We never have anything to do, and card games aren't loud and are compact. However I don't have a pack myself, and you're a statistic genius, so I thought I'd invent a new game," he idly told her as he drew himself on the new card he had drawn. He gave himself 2000 ATK points and 1650 DEF points, and he quickly sketched a drawing of himself on the square he had drawn. "It's a silly idea, but it'll help our creative juices flow,".
A student, Inequality, walked by them as they spoke with a chemical tray in his hooves and looked down at what they were doing with half of his attention. Raising his eyebrows, he leaned down to pay more attention to the simple drawing. "Whoa, what is this? Looks nerdy. Cool. Hey Paper, do me! Do me!," he took the card with Paper's face on it and examined it. As he passed it back to Paper, he took the chair from a nearby desk and sat himself down.
"Not until I'm finished with mine," Paper stated as he added "MONSTER CARD. REAL-LIFE TYPE." to the bottom of the card.
'Your card doesn't have an interesting effect like mine does," Twilight furrowed her eye brows and looked at Paper as he drew yet another card. He ignored her as he quickly sketched and drew a third card, which turned out to be Inequality. It had 100 ATK points and 250 DEF points, which drew Inequality to complain as he took the card away.
As Paper drew yet another card, Twilight looked at him work as he made this card different from the rest. Instead of writing down "Monster Card" he wrote down "Spell Card" and it had no ATK or DEF points. He named it Mask of Paper, and added to the bottom "IF PAIRED WITH ANY REAL-LIFE CARDS, YOUR DEF IS RAISED BY 450 AND THE OPPONENT CANNOT ATTACK THE PAIRED CARD FOR THREE TURNS". Adding it to the pile, he drew two cards from his pile and slid one over to Twilight, and started working on the other one himself. "Inequality, don't you have a lab to do?" He stated as Inequality gasped and power-walked away, calling over to his class-mates. "Twilight, you should make some. It'll help speed things up," He stated as he calmly worked on his own.
"How many?" She asked, and nodded as he told her "as many as you can".
"This is the beginning of something viral, I can just feel it," Paper pondered as he continues etching and sketching on his cards, and then looking up as his ears swiveled to the noise of the school bell sounded, packed his things, and left the science classroom to continue working on the cards in his next class.
Twilight making cards didn't turn out as planned. She kept making her cards either too weak, too strong, or didn't fall under the rules that Paper Face had set. Paper Face should have seen it coming, since Twilight didn't even know the rules on how to play the game, but that was alright with him. He made the cards for them, collaborating with Inequality for inspiration and ideas. Paper wanted to find a way for his friends and himself to have a little more joy in their life, and these cards might do it. Flimsy as the index cards were, they were surprisingly durable, only showing signs of damage on the sag of corners and slight bending marks.
Drawing out details on the final card, Paper set it down on the science table and looked around. School was about to end, and there wasn't any work to do, so many of the students hanged out talking with each other while the teacher graded projects from the previous weeks. He looked over to the left side of the room, and found Inequality talking to some other students. Beside him was Twilight, calmly reading a blue, slightly worn-down book. Squinting, he read the words "Mysterious Magical Manipulation" on the thick bind. The clock showed that there were still thirty minutes until the period ended.
Stacking all the cards in a pile, he shuffled them with his magic a couple of times. He then set them on the wooden surface of the table and stood up from his seat, walking over to where Twilight was sitting. He brought his cards with him using simple telekinesis, and propped them down next to the book she was reading.
"Hey, I'm finished with the cards," Paper spoke as he pulled a chair from one of the nearby tables and sat down on the opposite side of Twilight, so he could properly challenge her. "Want to duel?"
"I don't know how to play,"
"You learn fast. Besides, you need this. Reading books is fine, but relaxing the brain is just as, if not even more essential. Let me help relax you with this game. It's a card game, it'll give your mind a light exercise," he pleaded.
Looking up at him, Twilight closed her book and pushed it off to the side. She pulled up her chair closer to the table and rested her hooves on the edge. "Then teach me," she stated.
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Twilight stared at the cards in front of her. Paper had only made around fifty cards, so they decided to share the deck. However, that was more than enough to have a good game, and she pondered her decision on what to do. She knew how to play now, and was actually a little excited at the prospect of playing an entertaining game that required her to outsmart her opponent. It was fun, and it improved her learning in a more practical way than books did.
She had three monster cards, one trap card, and one spell card. Since Paper invented the game, he decided to let Twilight go first. His hand hovered near his horn, his eye brows furrowed. Turning back to her own cards, she examined them further, trying to formulate on opening move. She held the Twilight Sparkle monster card, the Teacher monster card, and the Inequality monster card. She owned a magic card that switched the life points of a card she chose, which was titled Switch, and a trap card that gave the card paired with it 350 ATK points if the card was attacked, and card that attacked her would have 0 ATK points during the attack. It was called Misfortune. They both started out with 2,500 life points.
For her opening move, Twilight drew a card. It was another monster card, a weak one with only 1,200 ATK and 1,300 DEF points. It was called chair. "I put down, me! In attack position,"-She placed the card on the table- "and I use the Switch card to switch its ATK and DEF points, giving it 2,300 ATK points. I also put a card face down below it. Your move," She smiled. The game was simple. If she attacked a card in attack position, she put her ATK points against that card's ATK points. If her ATK points were higher, then she won and dealed the subracted damage to the opponent's life points. If she attacked and had less points, she lost the subtracted points. If she attacked a card that was in defense position, she attacked its defense points. If a defense card was destroyed, the life points did not take a hit. She could also put a card face down in either position, which hid the from the opponent. The opponent could attack, but it was a gamble, as face-down cards could be traps.
"Very well. I draw first," Paper took a card from the pile. Twilight had made an excellent first move, but he had created these cards. He was familiar with all the traps, and he knew that the face down card could mean something bad for him and his cards. However, Twilight didn't know the cards as well as he did, which made it possible she would attack after his turn ended, which would be perfect for a trap. The card he drew was himself, Paper Face, with an ATK of 2000 and a DEF of 1650. It wasn't strong enough to defeat Twilight's card, but piece of information that could be used against her. As bait. "I put a card face down, and that ends my turn," He stated, and placed a card face down below his monster.
Twilight knew this duel wouldn't be easy. Paper had made these cards, and the analytical part of her brain told her that Paper had some idea of what she had done. Plus, he had put a card face down himself. She couldn't tell what it was, it could be a trap, but it could also be a bluff. Paper looked pretty confident, so she decided not to attack right away. Instead, she drew her card, and a smile lit on her face. It was a spell card, and it let her reveal every face down card, and gain 100 ATK points in the process. It was called Coward's Curse. "For my turn, I put down Coward's Curse" -Paper gaped- "Which lets me gain one hundred ATK points, and your trap card is revealed. She turned it face-up, and revealed it to be a card called Inevitable Prison. It's description read "TRAP-CARD. IF OPPONENT ATTACKS THE CARD PAIRED WITH THIS CARD, THAT CARD IS ADDED TO YOUR HAND, BUT CANNOT BE PLAYED FOR TWO TURNS.
By now a crowed had gathered around the table. Well, a crowd was exaggerating. Five other ponies had gathered around, and watched the exchange with interest. Some of them had pulled up chairs and were sitting next to the duelists.
"And now, I attack Paper Face, dealing 400 ATK points. That brings your points down to 2100," Twilight grinned. She had bested the creator of the card game. Sure, neither of them had played a game with these cards now, but if she beat him on her first game it would assure her of her mental prowess. However, the duel wasn't over yet. It was Paper's turn, and he could have any number of tricks up his sleeve. All she could do was wait and see.
Drawing a card from the pile, Paper looked at the rest of his cards. None of them were powerful enough to defeat Twilight's card, but the game wasn't all about the cards. Spell and trap cards were just as important as the monster cards themselves. He looked at the card he drew. It was a simple spell card, named Objection!. It stopped an incoming enemy attack once. It may not do much, but it could buy him some time. However, he had to be wary. Stalling for time meant Twilight would draw cards as well, and she might draw something that would ensure her victory. He could not let that happen.
He looked upon his cards and looked for a strategy, a loophole, a trick of sorts to play. He had three monster cards and his Objection card. The strongest card he had, Zebra, had only an attack power of 1900, which was weak compared to Twilight's 2400. She also had a card face down, which only further complicated things. Stalling was the best he could do... unless he could scare his opponent.
"I put one card face down, in defense position," He layed down his Zecora card, which had 1700 DEF points. "I also put this card face down on the field. That ends my turn," Paper leaned back in his seat and pondered his next move, as classmates looked on. Some of them had even started betting with bits on who would end up the winner.
Twilight drew from the pile. The card she drew was another monster card, with low ATK and DEF points. She looked at his card. It was face down, so she could not see it's ATK points. If she attacked and its DEF points were higher than hers, she would take damage instead. There were still many cards in the deck, she figured her card was pretty strong as it was but there was no telling for sure. Risking it could make her lose the match. However, she was fairly confident she could beat his card, seeing as how he put it in defense position. He was probably buying time. "I attack you face down card," She stated.
"Objcetion!," He stopped the attack with his objection card as Twilight raised an eye brow. Perfect! Just what Paper had predicted. The next card in the pile was identical to the rest of the ones in the deck, but it could be his savior. Paper drew it, and had trouble keeping his poker face. The card he had drawn was a spell card called Cauldron. If it was paired with a Zebra card, and the Zebra card attacked a card weaker than itself, the subtracted damage would affect the opponent instead of himself. Still, she had a face down card on the field, so attacking the card could cost him the match. There was nothing he could do except attack.
"I put down this spell card, Cauldron, and reveal my face down card to be Zebra-" He flipped over the Zebra card "- And I attack your Twilight Sparkle card, dealing six hundred points of damage, leaving you off at 1900 life points, and your Twilight Sparkle is destroyed." He discarded the Cauldron card and grinned. The tables had turned, and some students behind him started gaining panicked looks as they realize that they may have lost their bets. "Your move, unless you want to activate that trap card,".
The card in question would only deal even more life points to Twilight, so she decided not to reveal it. Instead she put down the Chair card, with an ATK power of 1200, seeing as it was the strongest card she had. She hoped that it would fend off Paper Face's next move, and she drew a card from the pile. It was a spell card that couldn't be used with any of her monster cards. "Your move," She said.
Dropping the cards from his telekinetic hold to rest his horn, he rubbed his chin as he thought of what to do. He drew a card, a trap card. It was named 'Cowards Like Us' and the description stated that if he activated an enemy's trap card, the trap card would do the opposite instead. It was perfect, seeing as Twilight had decided not to use her card earlier in the game. That bit of information itself gave Paper an idea of what the card was, since Twilight obviously thought it would be best not to use it when Paper was at an advantage. "I place down on the field this card face down, and I attack your Chair with Zebra!" he pushed his card on top of Twilight's card.
"You activated my trap card," Twilight put her Misfortune card face up on the field.
"You activated my trap card," Paper Face turned his Cowards Like Us card face up on the field and grinned. Since the Misfortune card increased ATK points and made his attack useless, it instead increased his points and rendered Twilight's ATK 0 for the remainder of the turn. "And since your Chair's attack points is 1200 and my attack points are now 2250, I deal 1050 points of damage, and subtract that from your life points. You have 1050 life points remaining, Twilight."
