“So I tap this card,” Rarity said, gently touching the card she had placed, “and now I summon this thing.”

“What? No. Rarity, you can’t summon that card,” Spike told her, agitated how things were going. He had decided that today was the day he’d finally teach Rarity about how to play Magic: The Gathering. “Look closely at the top right of the card. You see the problem?”

“Um,” she mummed to herself while looking at the odd signs on the card. “I’m not too sure.”

“Look. You see these symbols on the upper right corner of the card?” Spike pointed to the circles on the upper right corner. “That symbol right there means that you need to summon that card using a Plains Land and two other Lands of any kind. What you did is summon a Forest Land and then try to play a creature that requires more Land than you have right now.”

“Oh. Sorry about that.”

“Yeah. Also, I don’t think you know what ‘tap’ means. It’s not gently touching the card quickly. When you tap something,” he reached out to the card that she had played to demonstrate, “is that you turn it ninety degrees to the right. See?”

“Well that just sounds silly then. Why didn’t they tell you to ‘turn’ and not ‘tap’? Also, I think tapping is much more fun,” she said as she tapped the card over and over, giggling as she did so. Spike was not amused.

“Look, it’s just called tapping, alright? Anyway, do you have any cards in your hand that you could summon with that one Forest Land? Remember that it has to have just one of those Forest symbols on the upper right.” Rarity checked her current cards as Spike waited. “The symbol is the green tree,” he told her after waiting three minutes.

“Oh! Couldn’t tell for a moment. I’ll play this card,” she said as she played Primal Bellow. She smiled, thinking that she was getting it. Spike facepalmed when he saw what card she played however.

“Okay. See, the issue with that card is that it’s used to increase a creature’s stats. You don’t have any creatures out on the field yet. You should take that card back and see if you have any others you can play.”

“What if I don’t? Is that when I draw cards?”

“Yeah. See, you’re starting to get it.”

“Well, here it goes.” Rarity drew a card from the custom deck that Spike had made from her, her eyes closed while doing so. She opened her eyes to see what it was, hoping that it was anything good. Her eyes popped open and she smiled upon seeing that the card was playable.

“Hah! I summon Quirion Ranger,” she declared placing the card down on the field.

“Good. Now what do you do when you summon a creature?” Spike asked, quizzing her.

“Oh, um,” she scratched her head before remembering, “tap the Land!” She then tapped the card, turning it to the right.

“Right! Now you’ve got the hang of it.” Spike was happy to see his pupil starting to get the game.

“Yay!” She started clopping her hooves together in applause. “Now, attack!”

“Uh, Rarity? You can’t do that,” he explained.

“Why not?”

“Summoning sickness. Essentially you cannot attack with that creature for the first turn you summon it. What happens next is that I play my turn and then attempt to play Land cards if I’ve drawn any.”

“What happens if you haven’t drawn any?” Rarity asked.

“Well then I have to keep drawing until I can find something I can play.”

“Sounds terribly annoying to deal with.”

“Rarity, you don’t know the half of it.” Spike thought back to all the times when he’d just built a new deck and had all types of powerful creatures in his hand, but no Land cards. It was painful to see his opponent slowly destroy him with a basic creature.

“So what happens next?” Rarity asked.

“Well, now let’s say that I’ve had my turn and placed a Land card. It’s your turn now. Draw a card and let’s see what you do.” Spike watched as Rarity drew her card and thought over her next move.

“I think I’ll play another Forest AND place my Primal Bellow on top of my Quirion Ranger. That way it gets a bonus to
attack for this turn. Since you didn’t place any creatures down, I can attack you directly to damage your life points!” Rarity was feeling confident about how she was playing now.

“Awesome! Now, how many points of damage does the card do?” Spike asked, hoping that she’d get it right.

“Naturally my creature would only have 1 point of attack damage and 1 point of health; however my Instant card boosted it up to 3 points of each since I have two Forests under my control.”

“And how much life do I have now?”

“Simple. I did 3 damage to your 20 life points, so now you have 17.”

“You’ve got it!” Spike declared, happy to see somepony get the game. Rarity giggled at being correct and felt like she knew what she was doing.

“So, you think we should try out my new card-playing ability?” she asked Spike.

“Sure.” Spike took out his own deck and handed it to Rarity. The two of them shuffled each other’s decks and began. Rarity drew.

“I play my Forest and end my turn,” she said, confident that she’d win. Right now her hand was filled with creatures that could either only be summoned by Plains cards and a bunch of Forests.

“Awesome! I play my Plains and tap it to summon Suntail Hawk.” He placed those cards down and then drew a card from his deck.

“Alright. I play another Forest and end my turn.” Rarity now had two Forests down and was confident that when she finally drew the creatures that she could summon, she’d surely get the upper hand.

“Cool. I play another Plains and summon another Suntail Hawk. I also attack with the one I have out now.” Spike tapped his card and Rarity was attacked. She was now at 19 points. Not the best start, but she’d get there soon enough.

“Well, my luck is about to improve. I play another Forest and I draw…” an Enchantment card. For creatures that were summoned using Plains. “I end my turn.”

For the next five turns this continued. Spike kept on playing Plains cards while Rarity kept on drawing Enchantments and Forests. Soon Spike had three Suntail Hawks on the field, Rarity’s health now down to 14 health.

“Well, now I’m sure that this is a joke,” Rarity said as she kept on playing Forest cards and no creatures on her side.

“I’m sure that your luck will get better,” Spike was smiling as he drew his next card. When he saw it, he burst out into laughter. “Aww sweet!” He tapped six of his Plains and summoned Captain of the Watch. “When this card gets summoned, I also get three 1 point soldier tokens.”

“Oh great,” Rarity said sarcastically. Spike attacked with his hawks, taking her down to 11 health. She once again played one of her Forests and drew, knowing that only Forests awaited her. She was surprised to see that she actually drew a creature.

“YES! MWUAHAHA! Feel the wrath of Voracious Wurm!” She tapped her Lands and played the card. She felt like things were finally looking up for her. That was until she looked at his stats and saw he only had 2 health and 2 attack damage.

“I’ll draw and…AWESOME!” Spike tapped five of his Plains and summoned Geist-Honored Monk. “This card has attack and health points based on how many cards I have on the field. The creature also summons two 1 point Spirit tokens, making the total points… 10 POINTS!” he did a little victory dance while Rarity looked with horror on her face. “I also attack. You wanna block any of my creatures with your Wurm?”

“Um, sure. I block a Suntail Hawk.” Rarity saw Spike place his creature into his graveyard while he dealt 7 damage to her. She was now down to 4 health.

“Your turn,” Spike told her. Rarity was looking nervous as she saw her opposition. She knew that it would take a miracle to save her.

“Heart of the cards, guide me,” she said to herself as she drew a card from her deck. She moved slowly, hoping that time and space would bend her deck in the time it took her to reach her card. She touched the top of her deck and turned it to face her.

“A MOUNTAIN?!” she yelled out. Another Land. “Why do I even have this? I can’t even use this! Whatever, I end my turn.”

“Oh. I actually included some of those for a couple spell cards I put in there that could help,” Spike explained. “Anyway, I play another one of my Plains cards and before I attack I play Akroma’s Memorial.” Spike tapped seven of his Land cards when he played the Artifact card and then attacked. Rarity’s Wurm was unable to block the creatures with the Artifact’s abilities and she received a total of 20 points of damage in that one attack, defeating her horribly.

“Noooo!” she yelled out as she saw the onslaught she received.

“Hey. That was pretty fun,” Spike said, ignorant to Rarity’s dismay. “You wanna try again?”

“I’m sorry dear, but this game doesn’t seem to suit me,” she told him as she cleaned up her deck. “I don’t think I’ll be playing it anymore. I’ll ask Sweetie Belle if she knows about the game and would like to play though. Still, thank you so much for this deck you gave me. I personally like the art on this card and I’ll be sure to frame it as a thank you for your time.” She kissed the small dragon out of gratitude. Spike, who normally would have been ecstatic to receive a kiss from her, was more shocked than anything. The card that he had given Rarity that she’d be framing was his Black Lotus card.

“Black…Lotus…no,” he said with despair in his voice, sad that the card would never see the light of battle ever again.

“Well, I’ve got work to do now. See you later, Spike!” Rarity trotted up the steps to her room with the deck in her pack. Spike, saddened by the loss of a potential play partner, slunk back to the library.

“So how’d your game with Rarity go?” Twilight asked as Spike entered the library.

“Well, I won the battle, but lost the war. She’s not interested in playing anymore. I think it’s because I beat her too badly on her first game.” Spike was sad when he remembered the pure destruction he had delivered that match. Even veteran players would have been dismayed to fight that combination of cards.

“I’m sorry to hear. Did she like that little deck you made for her?”

“Yeah. She said that she’ll let Sweetie Belle check it out and see if she would like to play the game with her friends. Though,” Spike said, biting his fist, “I really, really, REALLY regret giving her my Black Lotus.”

“Why is that?” Twilight asked, not knowing how the game was played.

“Well, that card is actually REALLY valuable. I thought she’d play with it at least and do me proud, but she’s gonna just frame it in her room. That card doesn’t belong in a museum. It belongs in a deck!”

“How expensive are we talking?”

“Um,” Spike was sweating bullets, not really wanting to tell her the true worth of the card, but knowing she’d somehow find out anyway, “about two thousand bits.”

“WHAT?!” Twilight couldn’t believe that a training card could be worth that much.

“Yeah. It’s that good. I remember the day I got it from my pack,” Spike reminisced that unwrapping and the joy he felt when he got the card. It only made the present more painful. “Anyway, I don’t think I can play for a while after that. Here,” Spike said, handing his box of cards over to Twilight, “do with them as you please. I’m just not feeling it anymore.”

“Wow. That’s actually depressing. I can’t believe that a couple of pieces of paper with some drawings on it could be that expensive.” Twilight looked through the cards, seeing the colorful illustrations and shiny foils that littered the decks. She’d never actually played Spike’s favorite game before, and she was now intrigued by it more than ever now that she had all of these cards. “You know, these things are actually pretty cool looking. I wonder if there’s any place to get them nearby. I should also learn how the game is played at least. Maybe play a game as well. I think this might be a little fun to just try out.”

Author's Notes:

Trying out an idea I had this morning. Hope you enjoy my first true one-shot.