Checkmate
It was the next evening that Lord Blueblood received a visit from his son which was somewhat unusual as the prince rarely bothered to visit his father. However when his son showed him a vintage bottle of wine from around 507 AN he understood. One needs company when they are enjoying fine wine after all. He sat down with his son and engaged in small talk for awhile. As he finished his last sip from his glass he noticed a sad look on his son’s face.
“Father, why?”
“Why what my son?”
“Why did you have to keep crossing her? You had to have known she would eventually get around to dealing with you.”
Before he could ask his son to elaborate his vision swam and darkness claimed him. Prince Blueblood looked forlornly upon his father before corking the drugged wine and opening a window. He stepped out before he could see slitted eyes or hear the sound of leather wings.
Lord Blueblood awoke to crimson. At first he thought it had been the décor of the room he found himself in but realized it was not the moment he found the body. There on the floor were the torn apart remains of a hippogriff. The same one he remembered seeing a picture of in the paper a noble from the griffon kingdom no less. This was not good at all as he had no memory of how he even got here. He managed to calm his initial panic and started to think of how to cover this up. It shouldn’t be too hard as he had more than a few skeletons in his closet he had put there himself.
Just as his heart rate had steadied the windows of the room blew inward and a team of Noctournes entered the room in full armor with weapons drawn. It would seem there would be no time to cover this up and everyone knew you could not pay off one of Luna’s guards even if you offered a mountain of gold, a side effect of their training. “Uh, I can explain?”
In short order he found himself in chains and carried out to an armored and barred wagon. The door in the back opened and he was tossed bodily inside. It took only a second for Blueblood to realize he wasn’t alone in the prison cart. There, sitting calmly on a bench waiting for him was Twilight Sparkle with humor shining from her eyes.
“You. You did this, didn’t you?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about Lord Blueblood. I’m just here to inform you of what has happened. I unfortunately drew the short straw you see. Take a seat if you would.” Twilight answered the irate noble with her laughing voice.
“Humph.” Blueblood took a seat across from the princess and waited to hear what situation she had put him in.
“Ah, there we go. Much more comfortable than the floor I’d imagine. Now then to business yes? As we speak Solar Guards are looking through your house for anything that might explain what has happened here. A division you have not managed to buy off by the way. They are going to find evidence that you have been funding Diamond Dog terrorists. You know the ones right? The ones who have been causing trouble in the Griffon Kingdoms as I’m sure you’ve already guessed.” Twilight was practically purring as she luxuriated in the hatred of her pouring off of Lord Blueblood. “Naturally this will lead to your son having to disavow you and perhaps a permanent tarnishing of the Blueblood name. Don’t you worry though; your son isn’t going to be left to languish for long. My family will be offering him sanctuary and protection from retaliation should any come about due to your despicable actions.”
“No, he will not. I’ll kill myself first before I let my family name be destroyed and my son has to go running to you ponies of all possibilities.”
“Funny you should mention that.” Twilight dropped a dagger from her wing onto the bench beside herself. “I suppose that would be the honorable way out. Prove you were stallion enough to pay up for your crimes by your own hooves, perhaps? Still, I wouldn’t recommend it.”
Lord Blueblood’s eyes narrow at the implications. “You’re going to kill me and make it look like a suicide.”
“Oh no, I couldn’t do that to you. That would be terribly unjust after all. No, I’m just going to leave that here. Your son sends his regards and apologies for the wine. He said it didn’t agree with you. ” She levitates the dagger to Blueblood’s side and then stands up so her muzzle is near his ear. “Yes, that’s right. Your son has been my bitch for years. When I say jump he holds still until I tell him how high and in what direction. Quite an unexpected boon that murder attempt of yours was back at my birthday party, wouldn’t you say? A hoof delivered prince all for the low low price of a slaughtered wet team and his innocence.” She pulled back laughing as Blueblood snapped and yanked the dagger up with his magic and tried to stab her. Even as he attempted it he realized that she wasn’t really there even before the dagger drove itself deep into the wood of the other side of the cart.
“Oh, temper temper. That’ll get you killed one day.” Twilight’s projection begins to fade away. “By the way, that dagger can only kill one pony and it’s not any of the guards outside. Have fun.”
Lord Blueblood began to realize how much trouble he really was in. The griffons would demand his blood and their executions were not exactly clean or pain free. Perhaps that dagger was a better choice for more than just honor’s sake.
Twilight sat back and observed the stars that night on her library balcony. Spike slept in the background and provided her a soothing tone to relax by. After a moment she felt the telltale ripple of an incoming visitor. She immediately bowed even as their form solidified.
“Well done, Twilight Sparkle. Well done indeed. You have made allies, crushed your enemies, and secured advancements for our ponies.” Luna said as she made a motion for Twilight to rise out of her bow. “None of that now. You need do it least of anyone.”
“I am still a part of the Lunar Court so I must do it at least upon meeting you without prying eyes.” Twilight rose up to smile at Luna. “I thought you would like it. This plan took some time but I knew it would be what the country would need for the most part. It’s a shame about the griffon problem.”
“Worry not about it, Twilight. We’ll placate them with Blueblood’s hide. I’m going to have it fashioned into a cloak for their current ruler and he’ll let the whole thing go as its one more trophy of his defeated enemies. It doesn’t hurt that we’ve provided him a list of all those gorilla strongholds of the Diamond Dogs.”
“Excellent. I was hoping placing that information would help win them over rather than letting this incident cause too great a stir.”
“Yes, it will be regarded as an isolated event caused by a griffon hating unicorn with too much time on his hooves. You did well throughout all of this and my worries about you being able to handle this have been assuaged. Are you sure you do not wish to establish your own court? You’ve more than earned the right.”
“No, Luna, not yet at least. Maybe in time but I’ve still got things I need to do here. Live this life with my friends for awhile at least. Spike and I will be around for a very long time so I see no reason to rush it.”
“Perhaps that is the wisest choice. Well I must return before Celestia notices I’m gone. I look forward to your continued work.”
The alicorn disappears once more into the night as Twilight turns and gets ready for bed.
Twilight answered the summons from Chrysalis readily enough and brought Spike along with her. Once she arrived at the hive she was led inside and brought to a room made over for a party where she and Spike, along with several of Chrysalis’s guards and the queen herself, tore it up into the night for quite some time celebrating their alliance. Sometime after midnight that night though, when Twilight seemed groggy from exhaustion, drink, and conversation was when they made their move. Twilight was held up by the guards while Chrysalis loomed over her with a smirk.
“Oh Twilight, my dear delightful deceptive friend, I’m going to enjoy this. I have been plotting for some time how to get revenge on you but your recent actions for my people have stayed your execution but I must punish you. I finally figured out an alternative though. I’m going to turn you into a changeling. This way your mind and powers are still on my side and I can be assured you won’t turn on me. The fact that I can cause you pain with a thought is just a nice bonus.”
Twilight’s grogginess fades as she stares Chrysalis right in the eyes. “You made two mistakes. One was letting me bring a dragon in here.” Green flames enveloped the changelings holding Twilight in place reducing them to ash. Chrysalis tried to back away but found she could not. “The second was going through with your inevitable betrayal. Don’t worry though Chrsy, I can understand it. In fact I’ve found that I like you so much I’m going to keep you. Indeed, I’m going to keep you locked inside your own head while I work your body like a marionette. Feel that numbness spreading through your body? That shrinking feeling as reality starts to fade out around you? That is my magic. Welcome friend to your new eternity. You and I are going to be working closely. I really do feel bad about this but it assures me of your loyalty.”
Twilight and Spike left not too long after as Chrysalis announced to the hive their move toward the Crystal Empire and that they were to be considered friends of the hive. All the while she was making this announcement to her people deep inside her mind she was screaming for help. Whatever Sparkle had done it had shut her off from the hive mind. That was perhaps the greater hell of what she had done
Twilight met with Celestia shortly before all the princesses were supposed to meet to discuss the state of their country. She shared with her mentor everything she and her friends had been doing lately and listened as Celestia explained the latest bit of trouble they had been having. While things had worked out with the griffons and boars there were problems with the buffalo tribes aside from the one that had resolved its issues with Appleloosa.
Celestia hated to do it but she decided to ask Twilight if she and her friends could not help resolve it since they had been instrumental in the last snafu with the buffalo and are familiar on a more personal level with the culture of the nomadic tribes. Twilight of course agreed as she followed her beloved mentor. After all, Twilight was the faithful student and would get whatever Equestria needed resolved. Even if that meant she had to play a long game and secure her own allies for future events. Two nations backing her and control over the most of the transportation would not hurt given her plans for ten years from now.
Also LikedSimilarAuthor
- Dusk-Spark · 3.4k words · 168 3 · 4.6k views
- FallBlau · 50k words · 169 39 · 6.2k views
- dessieh · 15k words · 58 17 · 3k views
- OrphiusOlyandra · 4.4k words · 313 7 · 5.9k views
- Sasha Nein · 6.7k words · 56 9 · 2.1k views
- LadyFacepalm · 2.3k words · 94 11 · 2.9k views
- Diamonddice · 1.5k words · 32 0 · 1.2k views
- jessietiptoes · 8.9k words · 36 11 · 1.7k views
Stats
Page generated in 0.129 seconds
Total duration
1,065 users online
1,542,328 hits today, 1,996,409 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
wow, this could have been an awesome full fledged story. on par with Lines and Webs, if fleshed out to its full potential.
That was a fun read. It's not often you see chessmaster Twilight. I do have two criticisms, though. First, it seems very rushed. This plot easily could have filled up a 50,000 word story. Things are always happening very quickly and that makes it harder to savor. The second issue is the ending, or rather lack of one. I'm going to assume you're setting things up for a sequel, but things just stop. Really, it has a lot to do with the rushing issue. Chrysalis being defeated makes for an excellent way to wrap up this story, but it was so quick and easy, it made for a poor climax and the little bit at the end seemed tacked on. Still, I had fun reading it.
3600768
Wow, thanks.
3601222
Thank you. I'll keep that in mind for future projects.
Pretty nice. I like chessmaster Twilight, and it's not something you see to often.
I kinda feel like Tia was played more naive than she really should, but it works anyway.
3601334 of course, that would mean this'd be a full fledged project that'd take much time and collaborative effort from various parties involved. but yeah, i could honestly see this being somewhere up there with Lines and Webs. hell, you could even ask the writer of L.a.W to help you if you felt like it.
3601715
Thanks. Aye, I suppose she was at that. I'll see about correcting that in any possible sequels.
3601838
Wouldn't really be too hard. I think it's very plausible that Celestia has a huge blind spot for anyone she's close to. I think it's mostly willfull ignorance on her part, trusting Twilight not to do anything bad. I mean, she has to know Twilight is a member of house Star.
I'd be interested in why the Royal Guard is apperantly so corrupt. I have a hard time believing she isn't aware of that.
Everyone was out-of-character, Spike was OP, and the MC's plans went too perfectly with no need for improv, but the story was still fun to read.
3902303
Out of character in an alternate universe? Interesting argument. Dragons are always op. Plans that don't go perfectly aren't any fun. Thanks, glad you liked it.
awesome story
This story moves a tad bit fast and needs some editing, but I liked it all the same
3920812
Thanks.
3997181
Editing in what way? I was sure I spelled everything right.
3997509
A number of your sentences are rather awkward and/or fragment.
Awwwwww... But I HATE history quizzes!
Seriously though, aside from some few grammar whopsies this story was great. Really fun read.
4033642
Thank you. Any particular grammar issues come to mind so I know what to fix?
4033716 Probably all the missing commas ever. No spelling errors (Except for one time you wrote 'be come' instead of 'become')
so how early did they start the plan since before twilight met celestia or later?
4116870
Do you mean the family or Twilight herself?
4117888 twilight
4119676
If you mean her plot to consolidate a power base, yes it does predate when she became her student but not before she saw her at her first Summer Sun Celebration. If you mean the plot with the foreign prince, no. That didn't happen until after she was already her student.
If you mean her implied plot of a coup, then that is a much more recent thing only having cropped up maybe a year or so before Luna's return.
I hope that answered your question. If it didn't, I do apologize.
i really want there to be a second story to this! it's awesome!
4188770
There will be but it might be awhile. I need to wrap up my current story and I have a vampire Twilight in the works as well before I get back to this.
4190514 can't wait! both for the sequel, and for that vampire twilight one!
"that numbness spreading through your body? That shrinking feeling as reality starts to fade out around you? That is my magic. Welcome friend to your new eternity. You and I are going to be working closely. I really do feel bad about this but it assures me of your loyalty.”
Well. That was bloody horrifying.
4383658
Heh, if you can't follow what is more or less a preset spell, a shadow walk if you prefer, that is something I would have a hard time explaining with any more precision than that. You step into a shadow and out another where you want to go. Pretty direct. Much like the dimensional mirrors only you know... with shadows and not other dimensions.
Hm... nice and thanks for the help. Mind pointing out where precisely? I only ask as I just reread over the first two chapters and I see no run on sentences anywhere in them. I see commas used in dialogue where one draws attention of who they are talking to before they continue, where they are supposed to be when one is detailing different descriptions of an object (pretty, purple, and powerful was that unicorn), and mostly where an aside in the sentence is being used to establish a bit more background info to the reader. I guess that last one might be the ones you are considering run on sentences.
Fun story. More than a little rushed, but hey, I suck at writing, so who am I to tell you that stuff.
A fair amount of grammatical errors throughout the story, but nothing too jarring. The only thing that really bugged me (pun not originally intended, but totally intended now that I noticed it) was the changeling's name at the end of "Endgame Moves": "Legon". I am not completely sure, but I think you were going for Legion. As in Legionnaires and 'we are many'? That was my biggest thing. If you were actually going for "Legon", then I apologize, ignore me.
The mechanics are nice, but the story, the plot, that is what is most important, and the story was a blast to read.
Also, trying to remember where I keep seeing your username: on the Badass Twilight group forums? quite possibly other stories I read that end up on that group? Hmm. Probably that one.
Anyway, good luck on future writings.
5470603
I can honestly say I don't remember why I chose Legon as a name now but I can assure you that was supposed to be the name. I think it meant something in another language most likely as that tends to be what I do when I have to give out random names. Perhaps something to do with vessel or possession but I can't recall now.
Aye, you've seen me in the Badass Twilight forums. It is one of my favorite groups around here and I enjoy weighing in on what is going on in it.
Thank you. I wish you well on any future endeavors of your own as well.
I just readed this and it was nice but could be longer more fillers because it was nearly nonstop plot progression.
And damn that harsh even for what she planned Chrysalis get overtop punishment for this. Maybe not looking how equestria like to punish in 1k year isolation.
Any plans for sequel?
5594731
Aye, I have plans for a sequel but it might be awhile before it pops up.
Yep, I kind of stick purely to plot progression when I write. I'm not too good with filler.
5596251
I will wait, I hope just changelings won't be only marionettes :p
I admit: I want more of this.