Card Games on Ponies

“Mr. Mulligan? Can we please use your duel arena?”

Mulligan bit his lower lip and looked at the monument: the stones glowed like hot coals and the miasma swirled upwards like a dozen of chimneys working simultaneously. He looked back at the two fillies. “No—I mean—right now I’m working on—uh, improving it so the monsters will—um, look even cooler,” he said with a toothy smile. “I’ll tell you what, go back inside the store and, as soon as I’m finished, I’ll call you so you get to play first, okay?”

The fillies looked at each other with uncertainty. “Okay,” one of them said and they both did as told.

Mulligan sighed. This was the fifth time he had to decline a request for using the arena. “Bad for bussiness,” he mumbled to himself. He closed his eyes and focused; his horn glowed with a blue aura and the miasma agitated like an angry animal, but beyond that, nothing. “It’s like trying to put out a big fire by blowing at it,” he thought bitterly.

“Mulligan?”

Mulligan jumped on his hooves. “Y-Yes!” he turned around to face a pretty pink mare followed by a blue stallion and a group of fillies and colts. “J-Just a few more minutes, my friends,” he excused himself preemptively. “I’ll have this one back even better than before!”

The mare raised her left hoof. “That’s okay, we’re not in a hurry,” she said in a placating tone. “It’s just that this little display,” she gestured towards the arena. “Is scaring my coltfriend--”

“The foals! The foals!”

The mare rolled her eyes. “Right. The foals. That and, well,” she grimaced. “It’s kind of giving me the chills too.”

Mulligan blinked. “Oh,” he swallowed hard. “Y-Yes, I suppose it’s a bit frightening with the pulsating glow and ominous looking clouds and whooo,” he stood up on his hind legs, waving his front hooves and laughed.

The mare lifted an eyebrow, unamusedly.

Mulligan got back on his four legs and smiled awkwardly. “B-But you know how these newfangled artifacts are—confusing the hay out of everypony and—and—I assure you there’s absolutely nothing to be afraid--”

“What’s that?” asked a colt while pointing at the sky, causing all the presents to look upward.

Mulligan squinted. “It looks like--”

In a blur, Twilight Sparkle landed in front of them, whipping up a gust of wind that made the presents shield their eyes. A dizzy Spike came tumbling down her back. “This…is the last time I get a hold of your tail…before you take off,” he said while trying not to fall face first on the ground.

“Princess!” exclaimed the pink mare. She quickly bowed along with the stallions and the foals.

Twilight acknowledged them with a nod before setting her eyes on the arena.

“Thank Heavens you came, Princess,” said Mulligan with a breath of relief. He lowered his head and whispered. “I think the duel arena is not working properly.”

Spike raised an eyebrow.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it,” said Twilight dimissively. She walked towards the arena, closely followed by Spike.

“Are you going to enter?” fearfully asked Spike.

“Yes,” firmly replied Twilight.

“B-But how do you know playing will turn it off?”

“Look behind you, Spike.”

Spike looked around and shrugged. “I don’t see anything.”

“Precisely,” said Twilight. “The miasma coming from Fluttershy’s house disappearing a moment ago. So, unless she, Pinkie Pie or Applejack have some kind of magic I’m not aware of, it means they dueled and won.”

“I guess you’re right,” said Spike. He pointed a tiny thumb behind him. “But what about them? Don’t you think they may get scared if they see you dueling whatever comes out from there?”

Twilight stopped. “I’m sure you will come up with something,” she said and, with a mighty flap of her wings, jumped inside the duel arena.

Spike sighed. “Sure, why not?”

With the miasma raising like a column of smoke and the monument glowing red one would think the arena would be like the inside of an oven, but, on the contrary, it was quite cold. “You can come out!” called Twilight as she adjusted a dark blue duel disk around her neck. “I will duel you!” she declared loudly.

A tall and lean figure emerged from the miasma. Her black coat protected by an armor, her mane and tail were like pieces of the night sky and swirled around her like a gente breeze. She chuckled and spread her wings. “Prepare yourself, my little pony.”

“T-That’s Nightmare Moon!” cried a stallion.

Spike quickly stood in front of the crowd waving his tiny arms. “No, no, she’s not!”

“Then’s who’s that!?”

“It’s Nightmare Moon,” replied Spike. The crowd gasped. “I mean—she is, but she’s not!”

“What does that even mean!?”

Spike shifted awkwardly. “It’s okay, it’s okay, I’ve got this,” he thought. “You!” he pointed a finger towards a brown stallion. “Yes, you with the—is that a cake airbrush Cutie Mark? Whatever--how many times have you fantasized about facing the most terrifying villains in the history of Equestria on an epic match of Duel Monsters?”

The stallion glanced around him awkwardly. “Never?”

“That’s right!” yelled Spike. “But now, thanks to Princess Twilight Sparkle, you can too be a hero and save the world with the power of your deck!” he raised his tiny arms upwards. “I’m proud to present you with the—the—uh,” he trailed off. “How was it? Arti-something-projection? Rats, I’m sorry, Twilight,” he cleared his throat. “Dueling Dummy!”

The ponies in the crowd looked at each other.

“So, you’re saying,” began Mulligan. “That Nightmare Moon is not real?”

“Correct!” said Spike with a quick nod. “It’s an illusion created to play the game, complete with her own deck! It cannot leave the arena, hurt you or do anything beyond dueling!” he smiled as he saw the nods of approval among the crowd. “And Princess Twilight is here to give us all a demonstration! Come closer everypony!”

The fillies and colts were the first ones, closely followed by the adults. Laughs, cheers and excited whispers filled the air as they all sat to watch the confrontation.

Spike let himself fall on his rear and exhaled a deep breath of exhaustion.

“That’s pretty cool, actually,” said Mulligan. “I only wish you told me before.”

Spike scratched the back of his head. “Y-Yeah, sorry, we’ve been kind of busy lately,” he looked towards the arena. “I’ve done my part, Twilight,” he thought.“Good luck.”

Inside the duel arena, Twilight flared her horn and her normally straight mane shoot upwards, dividing itself into five large spikes that gave it the appearance of a crown. Her fringe separated into three crooked pointy locks; two pointed towards her left and one towards her right.

Mulligan blinked. “I can’t tell if that’s stupidly awesome or awesomely stupid.”

Spike shook his head. “No comments.”

“It’s time to duel!” declared Twilight.

Nightmare Moon chuckled. “This is more than just a duel, my little pony,” she bared her fangs. “This is a Game of Darkness!”

For the first time Twilight felt her resolve falter. “A Game of Darkness?” she thought. “No, not now,” she mumbled and shook her head. “I’ll take the first turn!” she declared. “I summon Masked Dragon!” a white and red dragon materialized on the field, its head covered by an unsettling white mask (1400/1100). “I end my turn,” said Twilight after placing a face-down card.

Nightmare Moon’s mane waved like a tendril and drew a card from her deck. “I summon Tristan, Knight of the Underworld,” an undead knight, his robes thorn and tattered from countless battles, appeared riding a large brown horse. He let out a pitiful moan and lifted a sword over his head (1800/0). “When Tristan is on my side of the field,” informed Nightmare Moon. “I can special summon Isolde, Belle of the Underworld!” a demonic woman appeared on the field. True to her name she had a beautiful face, with short violet hair and pupiless amethyst colored eyes that shone like two jewels. A pair of red horns adorned her head like a crown. Her lower half was covered by a long, tattered purple skirt; she also wore sleeved gloves of the same color and a black crop top which revealed plenty of her lithe body (1000/0). “Isolde allows me to change her level and that of Tristan to eight,” she said as she spread her wings. “Behold as I build an overlay network! XYZ summon!” the two monsters melted into a black whirlwind from which emerged an skeleton knight wearing a long purple scarf around his neck and holding a rapier. His automaton-like body shone like a piece of platinum. “My champion! Number 23: Lancelot, Dark Knight of the Underworld!” her words were followed by Lancelot twirling his sword in a salute and the crowd of ponies cheering (2000/1500).

“Phantom Dragon!” called Twilight. A winged dragon with a long serpentine body, seemingly made out of smoke, suddenly appeared in front of her (2300/2200). “When my opponent special summons a monster I can do the same with it from my hand!”

Nightmare Moon smirked. “Is that so?” Lancelot pointed his sword forward and the Phantom Dragon let out a pitiful roar before disappearing in a puff of smoke. “My Lancelot can negate the activation of your cards merely by detaching an overlay unit,” calmly informed Nightmare Moon. “And as long as he has an overlay unit, he can also attack you directly,” She reared up. “Punish her, Lancelot! DEATH PIERCE!” the skeleton knight did a bow of acknowledgement before facing Twilight. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared and reappeared right in front of the purple alicorn, sword held high, and performed two slashes in quick succession across her back.

Twilight closed her eyes and clenched her teeth. Her legs wobbled as she struggled to stay firm (4000/2000).

“Whoa!” cried a stallion from the crowd. “The Princess knows how to act! That really looked like it hurt!”

Spike gulped. “Y-Yeah,” he said with a fake laugh. “Those classes surely paid off.”

Nightmare Moon licked her lips. “When Lancelot inflicts battle damage I can choose and destroy one of your face-up monsters,” the skeleton knight pointed with his sword once again and Twilight’s Masked Dragon burst up in a ball of blue flames, leaving not even ashes.

“Oh come on!” protested Spike with both arms raised. “How many effects does that guy have?!”

Nightmare Moon set a card. “Turn end,” she declared with a satisfied smile.

Twilight took a couple of breaths and straightened herself. “Draw!” she pulled a card with a flash of her magic and immediately played it. “Monster Reborn!” a projection of the spell card materialized on the field, but it turned completely black and vanished.

“You foal,” said Nightmare Moon. “Did you forget about Lancelot’s effect?”

Twilight smirked. “No, I didn’t. I just wanted to make sure he was out of xyz materials to detach.”

Nightmare Moon snorted. “You only have two cards in your hand.”

“That’s all I need!” growled Twilight with sudden ferocity. “When my opponent controls an xyz monster I can special summon Radius, the Half-Moon Dragon and make its level eight!” a metallic crescent moon appeared on the field. With a loud rumble it spread open, revealing a purple bipedal dragon; each of the metal pieces attached to its body like an armor (1400/1200). Twilight continued. “Now that I control a level eight monster I can summon Parsec, the Interestellar Dragon without tributing,” a second purple dragon appeared, it’s thin frame and long appendages gave it an insect-like appearance (800/800). “I build an overlay network! XYZ summon!” shouted Twilight to the sky. “Roar throughout the entire universe. Revive, from the source of all galaxies, that flows from far back in time! Manifest yourself, and lead me to victory! Number 107: Galaxy-Eyes Tachyon Dragon!” the two dragons transformed into streams of light, shooting upwards and opening a portal of light from which descended a triangle-shaped, black metal structure.

The crowd of ponies, plus Spike, looked in confusion at the strange monster.

“That doesn’t look like a dragon,” commented a colt wearing a white cap.

“This is it?” asked Nightmare Moon. “Is this your trumph card?”

Twilight smirked and looked upwards. The triangle-shaped structure spread open, revealing a pair of legs, followed by a long tail, a pair of wings and a draconic head. Purple energy pulsed across every inch of the mechanized monster like veins on a beating heart. Its eyes glowed to life and it let out a roar that made the presents cover their ears (3000/2500).

“There’s your dragon,” said a filly while pointing towards the monster the size of a two-story house.

The cap wearing colt gulped and nodded.

“Not bad,” said Nightmare Moon with a slight nod. “Come to me, my little pony.”

“I will,” said Twilight. “But first, I detach an xyz unit from my dragon to negate the effects of all other monsters on the field,” the Tachyon Dragon reverted to its sealed state and irradiated a light that made Lancelot fall on his knees.

“Trap card open!” yelled Nightmare Moon. “Nightmare Wheel!” half a dozen chains erupted from the ground below and tied themselves around Twilight’s dragon. “Now your monster won’t be able to attack or--”

“Trap Stun!” yelled Twilight as she revealed her own trap card.

Nightmare Moon watched in horror as the Tachyon Dragon returned to its true form, breaking the chains that bound it in the process. The purple veins around its body glowed stronger and a second pair of wings made out of pure energy appeared on its back (4000/2500).

“You shouldn’t have done that,” chided Twilight. “During the turn I activate my dragon’s effect, each time my opponent’s card effect resolves, it gains an extra one thousand attack points as well as a second attack on the battle phase of that same turn.”

“No,” muttered Nightmare Moon as she took a step back.

“You hurt Applejack,” hissed Twilight. She pointed her right hoof forward. “TACHYON SPIRAL OF DESTRUCTION!” the dragon reared its head back and fired a stream of energy from its mouth. It vaporized Lancelot on contact and hit Nightmare Moon fully, pushing her body against the stones of the dueling arena. The resulting explosion instantly dissipated the clouds of miasma and every trace of the duel that had taken place.

Twilight exhaled. Her mane went back to its usual straight fashion. She looked around the arena, at the now quiet monument. “No traces of magic at all,” she thought. A sudden chorus of cheers and whistles brought her back.

“Twilight!” cried Spike as he ran next to her. “You did it! It was--” he put both of his hands over his mouth; a second later, he burped out a stream of green flames from which materialized a scroll.

Twilight quickly caught the scroll with her magic and proceeded to read it.

“Spike, we have to go.”

It didn’t take Twilight much to convince Mulligan of keeping the arena off limits for an undetermined amount of time, the excuse of upgrades to incorporate the Dueling Dummy system seemed to work well enough.

Just in case, though, she also cast a barrier spell around the area.

After repeating the process for the arena near Fluttershy’s cottage, with some extra strenght, and assuring a couple of worrywart ponies that there was absolutely nothing to be concerned about, she quickly gathered her friends in the throne room of her castle for a briefing.

Twilight sighed and looked at the ponies, and baby dragon, sitting around her. “I’m sorry,” she said dejectedly.

Applejack chuckled sympathetically. “Twilight, sugarcube, ah’ pretty sure we’ve lost count of all the times you’ve said that.”

“And we’ve already forgiven you for each and every one,” softly chimed in Fluttershy.

“They are both evenly matched at thirty-two,” informed Pinkie with a smile. “Well, it’s more like thirty-six to thirty-two since you said “sorry, sorry” two times but I counted those as one each--”

“Pinkie, darling, I believe we all understand your point,” said Rarity as she gently placed a hoof over her friend’s nose. “Now seriously, I have to agree with them, Twilight; you do not need to apologize further. Nopony was hurt, at least not permanently, and even the fillies seemed to have found the experience exhilarating.”

Twilight smiled. “Thank you, girls.”

“Well,” said Rainbow Dash while scratching her head. “I’m kinda offended you did not call me to test this duel dummy thing of yours.”

“Ah’ pretty sure she would have if she knew about your rankin’, Maylene,” said Applejack with particular emphasis on the last word.

Rainbow Dash snorted. “That’s rich coming from you, Jacqueline.”

Applejack crossed both forelegs over her chest. “Mine’s not on mah’ birth certificate.”

Rainbow Dash’s mouth opened then closed. “Touché,” she mumbled.

A chorus of giggles filled the room for a moment.

Twilight sighed. “I guess the only thing we can do now is to wait for the Princess to arrive.”

“And for that we apologize,” came a regal voice from the hallway.

“Princess Celestia! Princess Luna!” cried Twilight.

The girls, and Spike, bowed respectfully. Both, Celestia and Luna, returned the gesture. Even if the royal protocol called for only Twilight to receive such gesture, they deemed her friends to be as deserving as her.

“Thank you for coming on such short notice,” said Twilight. “I hope it wasn’t--”

“I believe that would be enough pleasantries,” said Luna. “What is this “magical incident of dark nature” you wanted to inform us about, Twilight Sparkle?”

“Y-Yes,” said Twilight, somewhat taken aback by Luna’s serious demeanor. She proceeded to tell them everything regarding her experiments, the strage ocurrences around the dueling arenas and the effects they had on the duels.

Luna looked at Celestia, who had her eyes closed with a thoughtful expression. “It does sound like the work of dark magic, sister.”

“Indeed it does, Luna.”

“There’s one more thing,” said Twilight. “During my duel, my opponent told me,” she gulped. “This is a Game of Darkness.”

Celestia opened her eyes wide. “Did you say a Game of Darkness?”

Twilight nodded.

“Ah’ beg pardon, your Highness, but, uh, what’s this Game of Darkness thingy?” asked Applejack.

“The ponies of Saddle Arabia used to delve in dark magic,” said Celestia grimly. “Apparently, they employed it to settle conflicts by means of games…”

Pinkie’s ears perked up. “Ooohhh.”

“With dire consequences for the losers.”

“Oh.”

“Apparently?” asked Fluttershy.

“The Saddle Arabians are not proud of that dark chapter in the history of their kingdom,” informed Celestia. “And for the sake of our relationship we haven’t attempted to inquire further.”

“That’s understandable,” said Rarity, looking somewhat downcast.

“Do you know anything else, Princess?” asked Twilight.

Celestia shook her head. “I’m afraid I don’t, but,” she looked at Fluttershy. “There may be somebody who does.”

Fluttershy shifted on her seat as all the eyes were draw to her. “Um…okay,” she pulled out a hand mirror and looked at her reflection. “Discord…Discord… Discord… Discord… Discord…”

Rainbow Dash quirked an eyebrow. “Really now?”

Fluttershy shrugged.

“Hello there, everypony,” came the familiar voice of a certain draconequus as he…walked in through the doorway. “I came as soon as I received your message!”

Spike blinked. “That was kind of disappointing.”

Discord smirked. “Spirit of Chaos remember? Now, what can I--” he sniffed and retched. “Heavens!” he pulled an air freshener out of nowhere and sprayed it all around him. “Who has been dabbling in dark magic around here?”

Twilight got Discord’s attention by clearing her throat. He raised his eyebrows higher and higher as she filled him about everything that had happened in the last hours.

“Game of Darkness?!” exclaimed Discord with a gasp before turning his head around. “I can’t believe you would attempt to enact such ancient ritual!”

“Excuse me,” asked Rarity indignantly. “Is there any particular reason you’re glaring at me?”

Discord shrugged with a small smile. “Sorry, it’s always the most fashionable ones,” he snapped his fingers and materialized a black top hat on Rarity’s head, which she quickly swatted away.

“Now seriously,” Discord threw himself at Twilight’s hooves, holding them tightly. “Don’t do it, Twilight! As great as the temptation may be, remember you have our friendship--” he was cut short when Twilight used her magic to close his mouth.

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” protested Twilight.

“We called you in hopes you could tell us more about these Games of Darkness,” said Celestia.

“Oh,” said Discord as he stood up and straightened himself. “Is that so?” he asked dejectedly. “The Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony reduced to a mere infodump device,” he materialized a stack of papers on his left claw. “And here I had a whole speech prepared in case one of you succumbed to evil,” he set the papers on fire, threw the ashes on a bin and made it disappear. “Ahem, the Games of Darkness—why do we put such emphasis on the words anyway—were basically a bunch of old geezers using dark magic to fight each other until not a single one of them remained,” he informed with a bored tone.

“That’s it?” asked Pinkie.

Discord shrugged. “Do you want me to explain it with drawings?

Pinkie thought for a second. “Nah, those don’t fit on a written medium.”

Twilight stroke her chin. “It is possible there could have been some remnants of their magic which our dueling arenas absorbed and manifested into something akin to the Games of Darkness of old.”

“Sounds plausible enough,” said Celestia. “Still doesn’t explain how such influx of dark magic arrived here…”

“Fair enough,” said Luna sharply. “The important question here is: how do we vanquish this dark influence?”

“Play the game,” said Discord in a matter of fact tone.

“Play the game?” asked Applejack incredulously.

“Correct,” said Discord. “A Game of Darkness doesn’t end until one side wins.”

The ponies looked at each other with worried faces.

“Now hold on a minute!” said Rainbow Dash as she flew until she was face-to-face with Discord. “How do we know you aren’t responsible for this stuff?”

“Me?!” asked Discord placing both, claw and paw, over his chest.

“Yeah, you!” said Rainbow Dash. “All this stuff smells of chaos and disharmony!”

“Rainbow Dash please,” said Discord as he sprayed some deodorant under his armpits. “I know you all have reasons to distrust me, but this is beyond my doing. As chaotic as my nature may be, I don’t like dark magic; it’s simply too uptight and negative,” he trailed off. “Besides, I have once experienced a Game of Darkness myself.”

There was a flash of light and Fluttershy suddenly found herself with her mane tied into a bun, wearing black rimmed glasses and sitting on a wooden chair, right in front of a large couch on which lay Discord, with fingers crossed over his chest and a melancholic look on his face.

Fluttershy glanced around awkwardly. “Do you…want to talk about it?”

Discord sighed. “It was a long time ago. I challenged one of those royals to a game and…lost.”

“You lost?” asked Spike incredulously.

“I agree with Spike,” said Rarity. “That sounds difficult to believe.”

“Why thank you,” said Discord with a smile. “But yes, I lost. You see, I love games, but I’m not too keen on rules and those old geezers were all about them,” he waved his paw and claw around. “You try to sneak a card here and there, maybe use a two-sided coin or alter reality in your favor then,” he clapped loudly. “They were right on you, shouting PENALTY GAME and inflicting a punishment with their magic.”

Applejack gulped. “What kind of punishment are we talkin’ ‘bout?”

“Well, I did not always look like this,” said Discord while gesturing towards himself.

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “You’re not going to tell us how you used to be this handsome Alicorn or something, do you?”

Discord crossed both arms over his chest and turned his head around with a “hmph”. “For your information, I have always been a handsome draconequus!”

Fluttershy patted him on the head. “There, there…”

Discord softened. “The punishment cost me,” he paused and swallowed. “My other fang.”

“Your other fang?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“Why yes,” said Discord. “You did not think I had only one, do you?”

Rainbow Dash slapped her forehead with her hoof. “I give up.”

Twilight cleared her throat. “I take from this you cannot dispell the dark magic with your powers.”

“Nope,” said Discord flatly.

“Can you at least help us by playing?” asked Fluttershy tentatively.

Discord shook his head. “As I said, I like games but dislike rules. Duel Monsters is fun, but the players…”

“Now I use my Catapult Turtle to launch my Gaia, the Dragon Champion and destroy your Castle of Dark Illusions! It falls over your monsters and you lose all of your remaining life points!”

“That’s not how this works! That’s not how any of this works!”

“Boring,” he said drily. “Anyway, does anypony here need me for anything else?”

Silence.

“Very well, if you excuse me, I don’t want to lose my other fang. Arrivederci!” said Discord as he materialized a pair of wooden oars. He waved to Fluttershy, rowed energetically and both, he and the couch he was lying on, disappeared in a flash of light.

Silence again.

“Play the game,” muttered Applejack.