Small motes of dust float alongside the afternoon rays of sunlight as you look around the messy room. It’s been quite a while since you’ve actually taken the time to clean up this place and it clearly showed. Potato chip bags containing nothing but crumbs and used up tissues accompany the empty bottles of pop that lay scattered across the floor. Holding the garbage bag open, you watch as they all levitate into the air by a magical aura and are dumped into the bag. Twilight continues to groan on about your need for cleanliness and personal hygiene, but to be honest, you haven’t paid much attention.

“And another thing, Anonymous,” she complains, staring you down with a stern look in her eyes. “How can you survive off a diet like this? Soda and chips? I’m surprised you’re able to maintain your figure!”

You merely shrug and tie the bag up, throwing it into the pile of refuse that’s accumulating rather quickly. Grabbing another bag from the small box, you look around the room and notice quite a difference. For one, you never knew you had a carpet underneath all this trash. Twilight makes her way into the closet on the opposite side of the room and opens the door. A horrid smell fills the room, making you gag. Twilight recoils from the aroma, covering her nose with her hoof.

“By Celestia! Anon, how can you live like this?!” The closet is packed with nothing but old cheese wrappers and old socks. Covering your nose with your shirt, you open another bag and ready yourself. Twilight grasps the pile of stink with her magical grip and dumps it into the bag. Tying the bag tightly, you leave it outside the front door in hopes of airing it out. As you return, Twilight begins spraying disinfectant across the walls of the of the closet.

“Anonymous, you should really clean out your house every once in a while. It isn’t healthy to—” Her voice trails as her tilts her head in a confused manner. “What’s this?”

She pulls out an old tupperware contain from the floor of the closet, bringing it out into the light and towards you. You step back, making sure not to touch it; that thing was just in a pile of nastiness. Taking a closer look, you immediately remember it.

“Oh, man! I completely forgot about these!” you exclaim, forgetting all about the fact that this container was just removed from a pile of filth. As you rip the cover off, Twilight walks over and peers into the contain. Inside lays eight decks of cards, each one of them in protectors of different colors. Twilight grabs one of the purple deck’s cards with her magic and looks at it.

“‘Mana Lead’?” she reads aloud, eyeing the card tentatively. “What are these, Anon?”

“Magic the Gathering cards. They’re a trading card game that’s very popular back on Earth.” Twilight looks at the card with confused look across her face.

“I thought you said there was no such thing as magic in your world?” she asks, a hint of tension in her voice. You grab another deck and begin shifting through the cards.

“Yes, magic is a fictional subject in my world. This game was just that, fictional. It’s a strategy game where two players are given a set of points they must keep from hitting zero, called “life”. If a player’s life hits zero, they run out of the cards, or if a card specifies an outcome, the game ends.” Twilight looks back to the card, excitement shining in her eyes.

“That sounds like fun! We should play it...” The deck in your hands flies right out and back into the container. “...after we clean up.” Rolling your eyes, you grab another garbage bag and follow her into the kitchen. If she thought the closet was bad, wait until she saw what was in store for her in the kitchen!

Wiping the sheen of sweat from your forehead, you throw the rag into the dirty laundry hamper and turn to Twilight.

“Alright, the house is clean. Do you want to play now?” Twilight nods and grabs the container with her magic as she heads out of the house. You lock the front door and catch up to Twilight, who is carefully studying the purple deck.

“These are so colorful and detailed! It’s like they were captured and put into the cards themselves!” she exclaims, peering over the vibrant colors and paint stroke. “And the lore that each card holds; it’s like a storybook behind each one!” Rolling your eyes, you open the door to the huge library and enter. Twilight places the container on top of a small table on the opposite side of the room and begins shuffling the deck.

“The deck you have there is called a ‘mill’ deck,” you hint, digging throughout the box. She cocks her head sideways and gives you a confused stare.

“What does that mean?” After looking at the many different colored decks, you decided to go with your trusty red deck.

“Its main purpose is to deplete all the cards in my deck. If I run out of cards, I lose,” you state as you shuffle your deck. “I guess I can teach you as we go.” Twilight takes a seat across from you, placing her deck down on the table.

“We start off by drawing seven cards.” Drawing the seven cards from your deck, you glance at them with a look of determination plastered on your face. You may not be the most hygienic person, but if there was one thing you were always serious about, it was winning. The cards in your hand seem good enough, so there was no need to mulligan, or shuffle your hand for a new one, minus one card. Grabbing one of the cards, you show it to Twilight.

“This is called a land card. With these, you are able to cast spells according to their mana cost in the top right corner.” You grab the card labeled “Tarfire” and show her the small symbol in the corner. “There are five types of basic lands: Forests, Mountains, Islands, Plains, and Swamps.” She looks back to her hand and nods, signalling her understanding.

“You’re only allowed to put one land down on the field each turn.” You place the card down on the table. “Whenever you use a la—”

A slight rumbling sound cuts you short, making you and Twilight look around the library. The sound begins to progressively louder as the room starts to shake. The table in front of you slowly fades away right before your very eyes. Actually, the entire room and its contents begins to slowly disappear as well! Twilight’s eyes widen to the size of saucer plates as the floor disintegrates below her hooves, leaving her and yourself suspended in midair. The two decks and single card remain in their spots, unfazed by the sudden environmental change.

“Anon, what’s going on?!” Twilight blurts, fear clearly audible in her voice. You turn around to witness a small mountain, about your height, materialize out of thin air. Your jaw drops as you reach out for mountain card and attempt to take it back. The card doesn’t budge, no matter how hard you pull. Throwing your weight into the tug, it stay motionless in its spot. Your mouth goes dry. If this was anything like the lore behind the trading card game...

“I think we just became planeswalkers.”