Another day in Ponyville, Twilight and her pupil Starlight were on their way to the library to discuss their next study session. Which would have been a little easier, if a certain Number One Assistant was present.

“Strange, Spike’s usually up and ready for the day,” Twilight wondered aloud as she and Starlight walked together through the halls of hers and her husband’s castle.

“Well, maybe he slept in,” suggested Starlight. “He’s still a growing dragon, after all.”

“Maybe… but Spike’s always so diligent with his work,” debated Twilight when their ears picked up on some distant conversation.

“...mmon my Dragon Sword!” said the voice of Spike, coming from ahead of the two mares. “Good move, eh Sunburst?”

“Yup, pret-ty good move, Spike…” responded the voice of Sunburst with a sneaky tone before they heard something, like paper, smack a solid surface, “but not good enough.”

“Oh… that’s gonna hurt,” chuckled the voice of Midnight as Twilight and Starlight followed the voices to the doors of the castle library and peeked inside.

“What th- What’s that?!” exclaimed Spike, gawking at something on the table he sat at, Sunburst sitting across from him and Midnight was evidently spectating.

Spike held a hand of cards while Sunburst held them with his magic. At their respective rights was a deck of cards and several more set on the table right in front of them.

“You see, by summoning Dragon Sword to the field, you activated my Trap Card, Heroic Charge!” Sunburst took his deck, searched it and then brought out a card he was looking for.
“This Trap only activates when a Dragon Monster is summoned to the field, allowing me to Special Summon a Warrior Monster from my deck, and I choose… Pollo the Valiant!”

Spike gave the card a look and gulped nervously, “Oh no!”

“Oh yes! And when my Warrior is successfully summoned via Heroic Charge,” Sunburst brought up, looking uncharacteristically bold with confidence, “he destroys one Dragon on your side of the field automatically, and you lose Life Points equal to your Dragon’s Attack Points!”

“But Dragon Sword has 1500 ATK!!” Spike dropped his hand and grasped his head in alarm, “Which means…!”

“That’s right, Spike!” Midnight nodded with a sympathetic smile, “You only have 1100 LP left, meaning… Sunburst is the winner!”

“ARGH!!!” Spike exasperated as he planted his face onto the table in defeat.

“Aw, don’t feel bad, Spike,” Sunburst said kindly as he put his cards away, “you played a good duel!”

“What’s going on?” The boys looked to the doorway and saw Twilight and Starlight, the both of them looking confused.

“Oh hi, Twily, Starlight,” Midnight waved them over and held up a deck of cards, “Just introducing Spike and Sunburst to this awesome new card game that just came out, Duel Monsters!”

“Duel Monsters?” echoed Starlight.
“Never heard of it,” responded Twilight.

“Well, I’m not surprised,” Midnight shrugged before giving his wife a smirk, “You’re only a nerd, after all.”

“Excuse me?!” Twilight took umbrage.

“Oh don’t take it that way, Twi,” Spike waved it off. “Being a nerd isn’t a bad thing. It just means you're more into scholarly stuff. Midnight, Sunburst and I? We’re geeks.”

“In my case, probably a dork,” Sunburst shrugged with a shy chuckle while pushing his glasses back into place.

“Come to think of it,” Midnight gave his wife a teasing look, “you used to be a dork as well, Twi!”

“Alright, mister smarty, enlighten us!” Twilight demanded as she and Starlight came over. “What’s this game you’re making such a big deal about?”

“It’s called Duel Monsters,” explained Midnight as he set out several cards to explain.

“It’s a game where two players, called Duelists, engage each other in a Duel, starting off with the same amount of Life Points, typically 8000. The object of the duel is to reduce your opponent’s LP to zero by using the cards in your deck.”

“The cards are color-coded and there are different kinds of cards,” Spike brought up as he pointed them out:

“The yellow cards are Monster Cards, the green cards are Spell Cards, and the violet cards are Trap Cards. These are the basic types of cards you use. Otherwise, there’s also the orange Effect Monster cards, the blue Ritual Monster cards, purple Fusion Monster cards, and white Synchro Monster cards.

“Every Monster has a number of Attack and Defense Points, indicating their strengths, as well as a number of Stars that generalize how strong they are. You can Normal Summon any Monster with 4 Stars or less, but for Monsters with 5 Stars or more, you have to sacrifice Monsters to tribute summon them.”

“You summon Monsters to attack your opponent’s Monsters, as well as their LP if they have no Monsters on the field to protect them,” Sunburst brought up, “but there’s also Spells and Traps, which makes playing the game much more interesting and exciting!

“You can use Spell Cards to power up your monsters, weaken your opponent’s monsters, and all sorts of other things while Trap Cards are used to turn your opponent’s move against them, making any move they do a risk that could potentially backfire on them!”

“Hmm, sounds interesting,” Starlight was genuinely interested. “Could you teach me to play?”

“Wha- Starlight! We have a lesson to plan today, remember?” Twilight protested.

“Aw, c’mon, Twilight, life’s not all work and no play,” Starlight egged as she sat down at the table and invited Twilight to sit beside her.

“Please, Twilight! I bet you’d have fun,” Spike pleaded with an adorkable smile.

“Well…” Twilight saw them all giving her urging smiles and she sighed and shrugged, “Oh what they hay, I suppose learning the basics and giving it a try wouldn’t hurt.”

“Okay then, first let’s have another duel so you can watch the whole thing in action,” suggested Midnight.
“Sunburst, you up for it?”

“Bring it on!” Sunburst smirked, again looking unusually confident as they shuffled their decks and Midnight took Spike’s place to face his apprentice.

Once both were ready, they each drew their hands and mutually declared, “Let’s duel!”

“And that’s game!” declared Midnight as his move ended the duel.

“Well played, Midnight,” Sunburst held his hoof to his mentor and they shared a hoofshake of good sportsmanship.

“Wow! What a game, I definitely wanna give dueling a try!” Starlight smiled.

“I think I do too!” agreed Twilight, “It was so much more complex than I expected, so much strategy involved!”

“Well, the game shop in town is selling starter decks and card packs,” Midnight brought up, “You could check it out and get some cards to start building your decks. They even have rare cards for sale on display.”

“I’ll definitely go visit the shop,” nodded Twilight, “but tell me, Midnight. Who invented this game?”

“An up-and-coming business tycoon named Maximus Pegason,” explained Midnight. “He started his own game company he calls Imagine Nation, and he invented the game of Duel Monsters. It’s only been a month since its release and already Duel Monsters has made Pegason a wealthy pony.

“But already he’s working on a new way to play the game, and I invested some money to help fund his project. I even worked out a deal with him to show off this new way to play Duel Monsters, and what better way to do so than with a tournament?”

“Whoa! You’re gonna host a Duel Monsters tournament?!” Spike got starry-eyed.

“That’s right, and I'm gonna call it the Clash of the Cards,” Midnight declared before giving his wife, their assistant and their students a challenging smile.
“So I invite you and anyone else willing to participate in the Clash, which will be held here in Ponyville next month! The announcement has already been made, and before long Ponyville will play host to the very first Duel Monsters tournament ever!”

A month passed, and everypony in Ponyville, along with some out-of-towners, had gathered in front of Ponyville Town Hall, where Mayor Mare began the announcement.

“Fillies and gentlecolts! As Mayor of Ponyville, it is my honor to announce the opening of the Clash of the Cards Duel Monsters tournament!”

Her words were immediately met with a rousing reception as the crowd whooped and cheered before Mayor Mare raised a hoof to beckon silence.
“And here as our special guest, the President of the Imagine Nation game company, Maximus Pegason!”

From above, a pegasus stallion of desert gold with a flowing mane of white, wearing a business suit, and a cutie-mark resembling an archaic eye, alighted onto the platform as he nodded respectfully to Mayor Mare and she stepped aside for him to step up to the microphone.

Clearing his throat, he spoke, “Welcome, one and all, and my thanks to your honorable mayor for that kind introduction. It gives me great pleasure to see my game, Duel Monsters, has so quickly found a place in all of your hearts, and so let’s get a move on, shall we?”

Many among the crowd whooped in agreement and Pegason nodded as he explained, “Very well! Then let’s go over the rules for the Clash of the Cards! The sign-ups have already been filled out and are thus closed.

“Every participant has been given a Duel Badge. The object here is to defeat your fellow participants in a duel and win their Badges from them! If you lose even one duel, you must surrender all of your badges, period. In other words, the first stage of the Clash of the Cards is an elimination round.”

The participants all murmured with trepidation as they realized this tournament was going to be more difficult than they thought.

“You will duel until you’ve acquired at least eight Duel Badges,” Pegason went on, “after which you must return here to Town Hall to turn your badges in. This will go on until the eight spots are filled. Anypony left over who still has badges will be eliminated as well, but be given consolation prizes in recognition of the badges they got.

“The eight duelists who make it to the next round will then engage each other in a preliminary round, then the semi-finals, leading all the way to the final duel! The winner will be declared the King or Queen of Cards and be rewarded with an entire deck of Duel Monsters cards that haven’t even been released yet, along with an additional prize of 1000 Gold Bits!”

The hesitation and trepidation the participants felt earlier was washed away as they were now motivated by the glory and prizes that awaited them should they claim ultimate victory.

“But dueling each other with mere cards on a table would be boring…” Pegason brought up with a sneaky look.
“Which is why this tournament is not only showcasing Duel Monsters, but a new way to play the game itself! Behold…!”

Pegason held his hoof out as a couple of his employees stepped onto the platform, bringing with them a screen of sorts before one of them hooved Pegason a remote and they quickly skedaddled. Pegason pressed the remote with his wing and turned on the screen, revealing what appeared to be a 3D model that resembled a large-sized version of a dueling mat that most players used to play the game.

“The Dueling Arena! To participate in the Clash of the Cards, you must duel each other on these specially-designed arenas that will allow you to experience dueling like never before! How, you ask? Well, you’ll just have to have a duel and find out! Let it be known however that every duel will be watched closely to ensure there’s no… misconduct. I expect each and every one of you to act with appropriate accord and respect. I have a very low opinion of cheaters and sore losers, so keep that in mind…” Pegason said with a firm look and tone.
“Not only that, let it be known that the Duel Badges have been enchanted to make sure they can’t be used unless they are fairly won in a duel. If you’re caught with a badge you didn’t earn, you will be cross-examined to determine whether or not you deserve to be disqualified!”

The participants gazed upon Pegason with varying amounts of intimidation before he put on a smile and said, “Enough of this blather! You’ve heard what you needed to know, so now you know what to do! So, get out there… and duel!!!”

Author's Note

Something I started a while ago and kinda forgot about. I rewatched some Yu-gi-oh, and thot, What the heck?

I used the in-universe name of the game Duel monsters instead of its real-world name and changed the names of cards while retaining familiarity with them.