The Mane 6 and Spike were in awe at the sight before them. There were cards as far as the eye could see within this room. "You see, if you are to attend Duel Academy, you need to build your own dueling decks and practice dueling until you are good at it. So, for this reason, I am allowing you all to build decks from this collection of cards you see before you. Almost every card that exists is here, with a few exceptions," Pegasus explained.

"So, we can build any deck we choose?" Rainbow Dash questioned. "Maybe this game will be fun after all."

"Yes, well of course there are rules to consider," Pegasus started to explain, only to be interrupted by Rainbow Dash.

"Aw, come on. It's not like we need to read them. Just pick the strongest cards. That is the way to duel," Rainbow Dash boldly claimed.

"Excuse me, Pegasus, but can I see these rules?" Twilight politely asked.

"Why, of course. Here are some small pamphlets containing all of the important rules as to how Duel Monsters works," Pegasus proceeded to hand out a pamphlet to each of the Mane 6.

"Thanks, but that won't be necessary Pegasus," Rainbow Dash reassured. "Now to build my deck. I'll be winning matches in no time flat!"

"But, Rainbow Dash, shouldn't we read the rules first?" Twilight tried to reel in the brash girl only for her to be met with no response. "Please tell me that the rest of you will read the rules before building your decks," Twilight pleaded to the rest of her friends.

"Of course, darling. It would be best for us to know what to do going in rather than jumping in blindly," Rarity responded.

"Oh, right. Before you build your decks, I also have managed to obtain some duel disks for you. They're right here," Pegasus motioned his right hand over to a table that held six Duel Disks.

"Um, what are these things?" Applejack was confused about the technology.

"Duel Disks. They are an invention of Kaiba Corp. They allow for the cards to form realistic holograms. It is a much more interesting means of playing the game, isn't it?" Pegasus explained.

"Sounds terrifying," Fluttershy shivered in fear.

"Are you kidding?! That sounds exciting!" Pinkie Pie screamed out in joy.

"Yes, it really is excit- huh?" Pegasus was interrupted by a glowing light coming from a briefcase in the room with cards. "What's this?" Pegasus opened up the briefcase and saw that the cards inside, six dragons with a white card border. "Could it be? That you six are the ones to bear these six dragons in duels?"

"Um, dr-dr-dragons?" Fluttershy was scared.

"Relax, they are only paper," Rainbow Dash tried to comfort her old friend.

"You see, these cards are rare synchro monsters, of which there is only one of each. I have been holding onto them until the ones who can use them would arrive, and it looks like you six are the ones, ironically enough. Here, take them," Pegasus gave the briefcase over to the others.

"Sure thing!" Rainbow Dash cried out as she grabbed Red Dragon Archfiend.

"This will be great!" Pinkie Pie yelled as she grabbed Power Tool Dragon.

"I'll pick this one. It looks majestic," Rarity said as she grabbed Black Rose Dragon.

"Well, I guess since we are getting the cards I'll choose this one," Applejack decided as she grabbed Black Winged Dragon.

Fluttershy reluctantly looked into the briefcase and was quickly convinced to take one upon seeing Ancient Fairy Dragon. "I'll take this one."

Before Twilight grabbed the sixth dragon she asked, "Are you sure we can take them?"

"Go ahead. They were just rotting away in this briefcase for ages, refusing to be used by me or any of my men," Pegasus reassured.

At this, Twilight reluctantly grabbed the sixth card, Stardust Dragon. "Well, I think I'll get to reading the rules now," Twilight said as she sat at the table and began to read the rules. Rainbow Dash, meanwhile, was building a deck of only powerful monsters.

Several hours later, the Mane 6 had gathered outside in order to test out their new decks. It took some time for them to get used to holding cards and wearing a duel disk on their arms, but they were eventually able to manage it.

"All right, it's about time we test out our decks to see if they are good enough to use," Twilight started to explain.

"And to build up our skills so that Duel Academy will accept us," Applejack added on.

"So, who should duel first?" Rarity asked. "I would just love to test out my new deck."

"Hey, Twilight. How about you and I duel? It would be great to see how I stack up against an egghead like you," Rainbow Dash suggested.

"Rainbow Dash, are you sure your deck is ready for you to duel with?"

"Of course I am," As she held up a deck of over forty cards.

"Um, Rainbow Dash?" Fluttershy meekly questioned her oldest friend.

"Um, yeah. I don't see the problem," Rainbow Dash was confused.

"The problem is that your deck has too many cards in it. A balanced deck should only have forty cards in it, while yours has way more than forty," Twilight explained.

"What?! Seriously? Just when I was getting used to my new deck," Rainbow Dash was annoyed as she started to take out cards until she had only forty. "Can we start now?"

"Sure, Rainbow Dash," Twilight said as she readied her Duel Disk and shuffled her deck.

"All right! Prepare to get defeated Twilight because I am so gonna win this Duel!" Rainbow Dash gloated. As Twilight drew five cards, Rainbow Dash proceeded to grab as many cards as possible.

"Um, Rainbow Dash?" Rarity this time interrupted.

"What?"

"You can only draw five cards on the first turn. Not only that, but unless another card effect is in play, you can only draw one card at the start of each turn," Twilight explained once more.

"Seriously?!" Rainbow Dash was annoyed further. She put back most of the cards except for five to open up the Duel with.

"Seeing as how you didn't read the rules, how about I go first and explain them to you as we go?" Twilight suggested.

"Um, okay."

"Right, my turn. I draw. And I summon Magician's Valkyria in Attack Mode," Twilight opened up her first turn. A beautiful brunette wearing strange magical clothes was summoned onto Twilight's field (1600/1800). "That will do for my turn."

"Okay, now it's my move. I draw a card," upon seeing that the card was Red Dragon Archfiend, she was happy. "And I summon Red Dragon Archfiend in Attack Mode!" However, as Rainbow Dash summoned her monster onto the field, her Duel Disk gave a warning beep noise. "Huh? What did I do now?"

"You see, Rainbow Dash, when summoning a monster, you can only summon levels one through four out normally. Levels are represented by the number of stars on the card. You need to sacrifice monsters if you want to summon higher leveled cards, one monster for levels five and six and two monsters for levels seven and higher. However, even if you did sacrifice, it wouldn't have worked anyway. You see, some monsters need to be summoned in special ways from a side deck, like the purple bordered fusion monsters mainly summoned by Polymerization or Synchro monsters with the white border. They require a tuner and one or more non-tuners to summon them," Twilight gently explained.

"Are you serious?!" Rainbow Dash was really starting to get mad at what was going on. "You mean I cannot summon Red Dragon Archfiend?! Well, I guess I can only summon a lower level monster then. Let's see, what can I summon?" However, as Rainbow Dash looked at her hand, she realized that she didn't have any low level monsters in her hand. In fact, as far as she could remember, she couldn't remember putting any such cards into her deck at all. "Fine. I end my turn."

"Alright, now it's my turn. I draw, and I activate the spell card Dark Magic Curtain. Now, by paying half of my life points I can special summon a Dark Magician from my deck," As Twilight said this, her Life Points went down from 4000 to 2000.

Twilight: 2000

Rainbow Dash: 4000

"Hey, wait a minute! What do you mean spell card?" Rainbow Dash was confused.

"Again? Seriously?" Applejack was getting tired of how much Rainbow Dash didn't know about the game.

"Wow. Rainbow Dash really didn't read the rules at all," Pinkie Pie said in surprise.

"You see, Rainbow Dash. The game isn't just about summoning and attacking with monsters. It also is about playing spells and traps in order to support your monsters as well. With these effects, you can destroy monsters, power them up or down, or in this instance, summon a stronger monster without using your one normal summon." a magician wearing purple appeared onto the field, ready to battle (2500/2100). "Granted, Dark Magic Curtain prevents me from summoning any other monsters this turn, but that won't matter. Since you control no monsters, I am allowed to attack you directly. Magician's Valkyria, attack with Mystic Scepter Blast!" Twilight's female sorcerer proceeded to attack Rainbow Dash directly, cutting down her Life Points to 2400. "Now, Dark Magician, attack Rainbow directly with Dark Magic Attack!" Dark Magician proceeded to launch a green energy blast from his scepter, hitting Rainbow Dash and reducing her Life Points to zero.

At this, Rainbow Dash collapsed onto all fours, unable to believe that she lost so easily. "I can't believe I lost. I should have won. I had so many strong cards, but I still lost."

"I'm sorry Rainbow Dash, but this may be a good learning opportunity for you. You see, in order to do well with Duel Monsters, you need to have a great balance of monsters, spells and trap cards. Without balance, you cannot be a great duelist," Twilight explained to her brash friend.

"Maybe… I should go ahead and read the rules now," Rainbow Dash decided.

"That sounds like a good idea," Twilight said. "Maybe after that we can build you a deck that works well for you and is good for dueling with."

At this, Rainbow Dash went from disappointed to smiling, "Sure. Sounds good."