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...

Celestia blearily opened her eyes, with the first thing she saw being a wooden table.

"Your awake? Good" A gruff voice said, catching celestia's attention, making her look forward.

To see two glowing eyes staring back at her.

Celestia tried to gather her surroundings as quickly as she could, finding that she was in a rather dark and run down cabin.

'The cabin...' Celestia thought to herself as the figure in front of her continued speaking.

"Now we can start, you know, it's been a hot minute since I've had a good challenger..."

"Here's to hoping you'll be different"

Before she could argue with herself with the logistics of what she was about to do, celestia lit her horn and shot a beam of light at the figure.

It did nothing.

"Just like the others..."

"Why can't everyone be like the purple one? She's been the best challenger I've had by far, all while being patient, and polite"

'Purple one?.. no...' Celestia worriedly thought to herself.

"Who are you?" Celestia asked as she squinted her eyes.

"My identity isn't important" The figure said as the middle of the table started glowing with spaces, roughly the size of cards.

Before celestia could ask whoever this figure was about the whereabouts of the ponies she was looking for, a deck of cards appeared nearby, and a few were handed to celestia, who caught them with her magic.

"Play the pony card" The figure said, as celestia began examining the cards she was given.

They were four, a card of a pony, a stout, and two cards depicting a wolf.

"..What is this?" Celestia asked.

The figure didn't answer.

...

To play it safe, celestia decided to play along with whatever this was supposed to be for now.

She placed the card depicting the pony on the table.

"Now play your stout"

Celestia picked said card with her magic, and sent it to the table.

But before she could place it next to the pony..

"Here's a tid bit, the stout costs one blood to play" The figure said, making celestia look at him.

"Sacrifices must be made"

...

Celestia slowly hoverered her stout card over the pony.

Said pony card began to somehow, shake.

Almost like it was... Afraid?

Was, was there a pony trapped in the card?

Surely, there isn't magic that is capable of that, right?

Celestia began to slowly lower her stout card, Wich in turn caused the pony card to disappear.

Rather, violently.

Celestia didn't like that.

"Good, now end your turn"

A bell suddenly appeared on the table to celestia's left.

...

"Ring it" The figure said, with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

Celestia pressed on the bell with her hoof, Wich suddenly caused her stout card that was on the table to lunge forward.

From what Celestia saw, it looked like her card attacked the figure.

A scale appeared as well, seemingly out of nowhere, as celestia's stout card returned to its original spot.

'Is he doing this?' Celestia thought to herself.

If its his magic that is creating these objects, seemingly giving them life, and nullifying the magic of an alicorn? Wouldn't that be.. chaos magic?

"Your stout has dealt me one point of damage" The figure said, interrupting celestia's thoughts.

She watched as a golden tooth fell into the scale facing the figure, tipping it a bit.

"You win if you tip my scale all the way, like this" The figure said as his hand came into view, and pushed the scale facing him all the way down.

Celestia, trying to get as many details of whoever this figure was, paid rapt attention to what she thought, would've been a hoof.

Instead, it wasn't, it was something else, more akin to a something a minotaur would have, but smaller.

It was also wearing a... Black sock? No, that can't be right..

"Are you paying attention?" The figure asks as his hand retreats, once again interrupting celestia's thoughts.

"Yes" Celestia replied confidently.

She didn't want to anger whoever this entity was, after all.

...

"Good, then let's continue"

"Because your still learning, I'll pass this one" The figure said.

...

...

After a time of playing the strangest, yet most violent card game ever, celestia eventually tipped the other scale.

"There, I have won, now, who are you? And what have you done with the other princesses?" Celestia asked sternly as every item in the table flew off.

...

"Why would you think I'd answer any of your questions after the tutorial match? It isn't that easy" The figure said as a map unrolled on the table.

"Now, let me recount your story"

"No, I won't play your games until you've told me what you've done to them!" Celestia exclaimed.

...

"Fine, alright, you want to be like that? Like the blue one? Fine" The figure said as he let out a sigh.

...

"The prospector may have some information useful to you"

"The prospector?" Celestia asked.

"Yeah, he's a.. crazy guy, but.. he has something that can help you"

"Of course, you won't find him, unless we continue playing" The figure said.

Even though celestia couldn't see his face, she somehow knew he was smiling as he said that.

"...Very well" Celestia said as a small wooden figurine of a pony landed on the bottom of the map.

The map in question depicted a forest, with a clear path in the middle.

The path had multiple symbols drawn on, with a dotted line connecting all of them.

"Now, where was I? Oh, yeah" The figure stared to say.

"You were lost deep in the forest..."

"A single path revealed itself"

The figurine moved forward, stopping at the first symbol.

The map was removed, and replaced with a pair of cards.

"Two denizens of the forest approached you tentatively"

Celestia, taking the hint, flipped one of the cards over with her magic, seeing it depicted an adder.

"The acoustic adder, a bite from it is always lethal"

Celestia flipped the other card, Wich showed a cat.

"The undying cat, sacrificing the poor beast does not kill it"

"Only one may grace your paltry deck"

...

Celestia took the cat, with the adder flying of to who knows where.

"Another creature joins your caravan"

"Some of the creatures of the forest seemed willing to follow you" The figure said as the figurine moved forward again, stopping at the next symbol.

The map was removed again, this time being replaced with a sack.

"You came across an abandoned sack"

A bottle with a pony card inside of it was handed to celestia.

"You found a pony card in a bottle, break in case of emergency"

"I'm feeling nice, so have a second" The figure said as both bottles were placed aside, and a pair of pliers were placed on the table.

"Another useful implement, I'll allow you to tip the scales with it"

Celestia could swear she saw dried blood on those pliers.

"Three is as much as you can carry" The figure said as the pliers were also set aside.

The map returned, and once again, the figurine moved forward, stopping at the symbol of a skull.

From what celestia has seen, this seems to be one of those, role playing games that have been made rather recently.

A, really, strange and violent one.

And if she knew anything, it's that the skull was going to be another battle.