It's Your Move! Friendship is Trading Cards!

Chapter 3

“I draw!” Shawn announced, hoping for a winner. “Alright, if I can’t beat 'im with effects, then I’ll just power through 'im instead!”

“Do you have a plan?” Twilight asked.

“Kind of but it’s really risky,” Shawn explained. “I could go for an all-out attack but I’m sure that one of his face-downs would screw me up. I need help with this one.”

“If he tries anything, I’ll do my best to stop it,” Twilight assured him with a determined smile. “Go for it!”

“You’ve got it,” Shawn replied, selecting a card from his hand. “From my hand, I Normal Summon Synchron Explorer, which lets me Special Summon Quickdraw Synchron! Next I’ll Tune them to Synchro Summon your worst nightmare!” Shawn’s monsters flashed and became Level Stars, coming to alignment inside five green rings. There was a flash of light and Shawn’s monster emerged, a great horned bull-like warrior covered in green armor and heat vents.

“Blaze on, Nitro Warrior!” Shawn shouted as the monster took up a fighting stance on his side of the field.

“Oh, isn’t he just adorable?” Discord mocked with a grin. “I activate the effect of Chaos World! Since you Special Summoned a monster, I can Special Summon three “Cotton Candy Cloud Tokens” to my side of the field in Defense Mode. Just for fun, I’ll also activate my face-down Chaos Life, which gives me 1000 Life Points for every monster on my side of the field.” Discord laughed maniacally as his Life Points rose to 9500. It’s over 9000, Shawn thought with a guilty grin.

“Oh no you don’t…” Twilight began but Shawn turned and motioned for her to stop.

“Don’t worry about it; I was hoping he’d do something like that,” Shawn whispered to her. Twilight nodded and held back. “Now I activate another Mystical Space Typhoon from my hand to destroy that one!” A small tornado swept across Discord’s side of the field, destroying the one on the far left. It was hard to miss Discord’s look of annoyance as Dimensional Prison disappeared. “Now I’ll activate the effect of Junk Gardna and force one of your tokens into Attack Mode!” With a mere 500 ATK and DEF, they were easy prey and thanks to Nitro warrior’s effect, Discord was in for a world of hurt…at least that’s what Shawn hoped. “Attack, Nitro Warrior! Take out one of those Tokens!”

“What is this?” Discord demanded as Nitro Warrior’s ATK rose to 3800.

“Doesn’t look so adorable now, does he?” Shawn replied with a triumphant expression. “Since I activated a Spell Card, Nitro Warrior gains 1000 extra Attack Points for his first attack!”

“If you think I’m going to just sit back and let that happen, you don’t know who you’re dealing with! I use Chaos World to stop the attack!”

“Twilight! Now!” Shawn shouted. “I pay 500 Life Points so that Twilight can stop that effect! This is gonna hurt!”

And hurt it did. Discord reeled as Nitro Warrior crashed head-on into one of the Tokens, obliterating it between its mighty fists. As his total fell to 4000, Shawn was eying victory.

“Ready for round two? Since Nitro Warrior destroyed one of your monsters by battle, it can change a monster you have in Defense Mode to Attack Mode and attack it with its original ATK, which is enough to make you feel the pain again!”

“I think not…” Discord’s calm murmur caught Shawn off-guard. “If I pay 2000 Life Points, I can skip your Battle Phase and forcibly end your turn if one of my monsters is destroyed!” Damnit, Shawn thought as the day suddenly turned to night.

“Wait, what the Hell just happened?” Shawn demanded.

“Oh, just give it a minute and it’ll change back but for now, your turn is over.”

“I suppose it is.” Shawn sighed and turned to Twilight Sparkle. “Okay, I’ve got a question. Where in the wide world of Equestria is Princess Celestia and on that note, where are the rest of my friends? Some reinforcements would be really nice right now!” Twilight opened her mouth to answer but a sudden crack of thunder emanated from Discord’s side of the field.

“You want to see some power?” Discord demanded in an uncharacteristically low growl. “Then I will be happy to show

you. I activate the Ritual Spell Spirit of the Eclipse! By sacrificing two cards in my hand of the appropriate levels, I can Ritual Summon…”  As quickly as the day had returned, darkness spread all around them and covered everything in the blanket of night. The moon eclipsed the sun and in a swirling storm of darkness, the creature known as Nightmare Moon appeared with a vengeance alongside Discord. Shawn and Twilight shared in a very loud gasp in shock.

“But that’s impossible!” Shawn protested. “I saw Luna transform back to normal! Twilight, you guys already defeated her! What the fuck is going on here?”

“It looks like Discord managed to somehow find Nightmare Moon’s old spirit,” Twilight attempted to explain. “I don’t know how but that doesn’t matter now. Without the Elements of Harmony, how are we supposed to beat both of them?”

“You won’t, my dears,” Nightmare Moon replied with an evil laugh. “You will fall under the power of everlasting night!” Okay, before I start panicking, maybe she’s not as much of a badass as she looks, Shawn thought, checking her stats. With only 2600 Attack Points, Nitro Warrior’s 2800 was perfectly capable of turning her into purple goo but Shawn had a nasty feeling that it wasn’t going to be that simple.

“Mind if I take over for a bit?” Nightmare Moon asked of Discord. “It will be ever so much fun to exact my revenge!”

“Then you’ll have to take us on, too!” Another familiar voice caused Shawn, Zoe, and Twilight to turn around. Their faces lit up as Adrian, riding on the back of Rainbow Dash and accompanied by Pinkie Pie, caught up to them. “We heard you could use a hoof!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she let Adrian dismount, who fell over in a heap, clutching his stomach.

“You okay, dude?” Shawn asked, extending his hand.

“Man, she flies like a maniac,” Adrian replied groggily as Shawn helped him up. “My head feels like it’s in a vice and my stomach feels like mutinying.”

“Well, if you had been paying attention to any of the episodes we’ve seen, you would’ve been made aware of that little detail,” Shawn replied rather unsympathetically.

“Here’s an idea,” Rainbow Dash interjected. “How about somepony explains exactly what’s going on here!?”

“Adrian, I’ll leave that to you,” Shawn replied. “I’m kind of in the middle of something right now.”

“Ooh, are you guys playing Go Fish?” Pinkie Pie asked excitedly, sneaking a peak from unfathomable locations at Shawn’s V-Disc and cards. “This looks like fun! Can I play, can I play?” Without waiting for an answer, she grabbed a card from Shawn’s hand and studied it with a look of ferocious concentration. “That’s boring!” She announced, tossing the card back to Shawn, who stared at her in shock. “If you want a tuner so bad, just go the music store! They’ve got lots of tuners!” In a rapid move, Rainbow Dash swept her aside and stood beside Shawn.

“Sorry about her. She gets…excited sometimes.”

“It’s okay; she’s just being Pinkie Pie,” Shawn replied with a grateful smile. “Did Adrian tell you everything you need to know?”

“Yeah I got it. But what can I do?” Rainbow Dash asked. “I’m not magical or anything.” She was right; Shawn racked his brain for a solution…and he spotted it hanging around her neck.

“Rainbow Dash, do you think you could use your Element of Harmony to give me a hand…er, I mean, hoof?” The blue Pegasus cocked her head to the side and stared back at him quizzically.

“Yes, I’m sure she can,” Twilight assured them. “Don’t worry, Shawn. You can count on all of us!”

“I might need a 30 second lesson on how to use this thing,” Rainbow Dash replied as she fiddled with the artifact. “It’s been a while since we had to use ‘em.”

“Shawn, we’ll work on that while you do what you can against Discord, okay?” Twilight said. Shawn nodded.

“Gotcha. Just don’t take too long!” With that, he refocused on Discord. “Alright, bring it on!” Having more reinforcements join the fray made Shawn feel better about the idea of facing off against two major villains in their own universes.

“How dare you make us wait!” Nightmare Moon cried. “Such impudence! You shall pay for that!”

“Bring it!”

“Very well! My dear, how about we show him just how wonderful the night is?” Discord suggested with a malevolent grin. “Go ahead and attack that green monstrosity!”

“I activate Junk Gardna’s effect and switch her to Defense Mode!”

“I think not!” Discord exclaimed triumphantly as Junk Gardna suddenly switched to Discord’s side. Damnit, with Twilight trying to explain things to Rainbow Dash, she can’t use her effect to stop him, Shawn thought as Nitro Warrior was wiped out by a swirling black lightning storm.

“Wait a second! Nitro Warrior was stronger!” Shawn protested.

“Didn’t you know?” Discord asked innocently. “Your little monsters can’t hurt the Queen of the Night! She destroys any monster instantly! Now I think I’ll attack you with your own piece of junk!”

“Aaaaaaaaahhh!” Shawn yelled as Junk Gardna took him for 1400 Life Points, reducing his total down to a miniscule 100.

“And just like last time, if I take control of your monster, he goes bye-bye at the end of my turn!” Discord laughed as Junk Gardna, Shawn’s only wall of defense, was obliterated. “Oh and one more thing,” Discord added as Nightmare Moon returned to his side. “When the Princess of the Night puts one of your little creatures to sleep, I can Special Summon three “Shadowbolt Tokens” in Attack Mode!” Shawn took some relief in the fact that the tokens were harmless and lacking any kind of effect but he still wondered what they were for. They had to have a purpose of some kind but at least he wasn’t out of it…yet.

“My…draw,” Shawn panted as he drew. “I Set…one monster and…one more card…that’s all.” No sooner had he ended his turn, Twilight and Rainbow returned to find him in a mess.

“Shawn, what happened?” Twilight gasped, seeing his field empty and his Life Points almost depleted.

“Hey ugly!” Rainbow Dash yelled at the evil duo. “You’re gonna get it for hurting my friend!”

“Don’t worry, you’ll get your chance,” Shawn assured her, managing a smile. Rainbow Dash saw the look of conviction in his eyes and returned the smile. “In fact, I’ve got a hunch that you’ll be able to do some damage real soon. Just sit tight for a bit.”

“Just say the word!” Rainbow replied enthusiastically.

“You little foals!” Nightmare Moon mocked in triumph. “You’ll never defeat me, never again!” Without a word from Discord, she charged at Shawn’s face-down monster. Shawn grinned and pressed the activation button for his other face-down card.

“I activate Scapegoat!”

“What’s this?” Nightmare Moon paused her attack and stared in confusion as four small sheep-like creatures formed a fuzzy protective wall in front of Shawn.

“Ha ha! Guess we pulled the wool over your eyes!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed as she appeared from out of nowhere, nearly making Shawn involuntarily urinate. “Uh oh…”

“What is it, Pinkie Pie?” Twilight asked.

“Twitchy twitch-a-twitch-a-twitch!” Pinkie Pie replied as her tail mysteriously began to…well, twitch. Oh Hell, Shawn thought. Here we go…

“You can’t be serious.” Twilight said in monotone.

“I am! My Pinky Sense is telling me that stuff’s gonna start falling from the sky!” Fortunately, Shawn had looked up from his “the sky is falling” protective crouch just in time to see Pinkie’s Element glowing. He grinned as a wicked idea formed in his head.

“Pinkie Pie! Aim your Element of Harmony at my V-Disc!”

“You mean that big tray-thingy that would be perfect for serving cupcakes and other yummy treats because it frees up your hooves to hold even more cupcakes and yummy treats?” Pinkie Pie replied excitedly whilst bouncing up and down.

“Yes, Pinkie Pie,” Shawn answered in monotone. “The big tray-thingy that holds cupcakes and other yummy treats.”

“Okie dokie lokie!” Without any hesitation, she turned and pointed the glowing necklace at Shawn’s V-Disc. He watched his Deck glow with a pink light and hoped that something extraordinary would happen.

And happen it did. Shawn watched in amazement as a Trap Card was taken from his Deck and added to his hand. He grinned as Pinkie Pie came over to see her handiwork.

“Ooh, that one’s shiny!”

“Good choice!” Shawn commented, much to Pinkie Pie’s delight. “Um, why is your tail still twitching?” As if answering his question, the glowing Element sent another burst of pink balloon-shaped bolts towards the V-Disc.

“Enough horsing around!” Nightmare Moon cried as she resumed her attack on Shawn’s face-down monster. Just as she was about to stomp it out of existence, it suddenly disappeared in a cloud of confetti. And as if that wasn’t enough, a large pink cannon suddenly appeared on Shawn’s field and covered both Discord and Nightmare Moon in a much bigger cloud of confetti. Shawn stared slack-jawed as Discord’s Life Points fell to 4000.

“What!?” He shouted in delight. “You mean that you stopped her attack and did 2000 damage as well?”

“Yup! Looks like it!” Pinkie Pie replied proudly. “How fun was that?”

“That was awesome, Pinkie Pie!” Rainbow Dash congratulated. “Way to stick it to ‘em!”

“Great work, Pinkie Pie,” Twilight added. “Just…make sure you let us know when your tail starts twitching again.” Shawn grinned as Discord and Nightmare Moon finished coughing up confetti. Guess that was a one-time effect, Shawn thought with a shrug. Still, she might’ve just won the battle for us…or at least fucked him up a bit.

“I’ll assume that by your dumbfounded expressions that your turn is done,” Shawn said, addressing his perplexed opponents as he drew. “I’ll Set three cards face-down Flip Summon my face-down Morphing Jar! That forces both of us to discard our hands and draw five new cards.” Shawn hoped the sudden change of cards would upset Discord’s plans but much to his dismay, his opponent didn’t seem fazed in the least. Ah, nothing like the smell of new cards in the morning, Shawn thought as he drew a full hand.

“What did you get?” Twilight asked as she and the others gathered around to look.

“Get anything cool?” Rainbow added. “Or awesome?” She gave them one more look. “Meh, they need to be about 20% cooler.”

“They’re not bad but I could really use some more Life Points,” Shawn replied. “I hate hovering so close to the edge like this.”

“Well then, allow me tuh lend you some assistance there, pard’ner!” Shawn smiled and turned around to find Maria and Applejack standing beside him. Her Element was glowing, sending out red apple-shaped pulses to his V-Disc. He felt a warm glow wash over him as if he’d just eaten a large meal and nodded as his Life Points suddenly grew to 3300.

“What magic is this?” Nightmare Moon demanded.

“That there’s the power of honesty, somethin’ you’d never understand!” Applejack replied in her familiar southern drawl. “Ah knew Shawn was made o’ good stuff so ah’m here t’ help ‘im out!”

“Looks like I get a little boost every Main Phase for every monster I have on the field!” Shawn said. “I’m back in this! I Tribute Morphing Jar to Summon Quickdraw Synchron!” Shawn turned to Rainbow Dash. “I’m gonna need your help with this one. You think you’re up to it?”

“You bet!” Rainbow replied with a salute.

“Good! When I give you the signal, you’re gonna…” Just to be safe, Shawn whispered the rest of his plan to the blue mare.

“That’s sweet! I’m ready when you are.”

“I Tune Quickdraw Synchron with three of my Sheep Tokens to Synchro Summon…” Shawn nodded at Rainbow, who took off like a rocket into the sky right above the field. “…Junk Destroyer!” Complete with a rock-and-roll soundtrack the origin of which could not be explained, Shawn’s four-armed robotic warrior appeared in a burst of light. “Now, Rainbow Dash! Go for it!” With that, Rainbow began a rapid plummet to the ground below, aiming right for Discord’s field. “I Chain Junk Destroyer’s effect to…” He waited until the last second when a great thunderous sound shook the ground and a rainbow exploded from above, spreading across the sky and enveloping Junk Destroyer in a glowing multicolored aura.

“…the Sonic Rainboom! When those effects activate together, every card on your side of the field is destroyed!” Discord could only watch helplessly as everything on his side of the field was obliterated. Nightmare Moon shrieked as she too was swallowed up by the rainbow of destruction. “And now I’ll attack you directly with Junk Destroyer!” With 2600 Attack Points, it was more than enough to take Discord sit up and listen but Shawn wasn’t holding his breath. The sly Draconequis had escaped sure defeat before and there was no doubt in Shawn’s mind that he would do it again. Damnit, he thought as instead of falling to zero, they only dropped to 6400.

“You think you could beat me that easily?” Discord asked in a smarmy tone. “I told you; as long as I have my world of chaos, I am in control! When a Shadowbolt Token is destroyed, I get 1000 Life Points!” So that’s what they were for, Shawn thought. Damnit, now he’s back up to 9000 points!

“Hmmph, you got lucky. I end my turn.”