Project Horizon

by Slywolf930

Intelligence

Intelligence

*A little bit of chess gameplay here, but I couldn't resist, same for next chapter. If that doesn't intrigue you, then feel free to skim.*

The young colt blinked at the sign before him. It was early in the morning and they had continued along the track. They had reached a crossroads now, with a sign that was half decayed and half broken off. It was too faded to read, and he inched closer to inspect it.

“I think we should go left,” The mare said. Down the right path she could see the path detour into a cave and in the distance she saw a dark and creepy forest. On the left there was a continuation of the path they were on with a hill in the distance.

“This sign’s been tampered with,” The colt said. He kneeled down and inspected the ground that it was resting in. He looked at the paths that were available and squinted his eyes. “Nobody’s walked down the right path since the last rainfall, maybe even longer than that. Left is definitely the way to the town,” He said.

“Then let’s go,” She said. The colt took one last look at the other path and the forest in the distance before turning and following the mare to the town.

They walked to the hill and looked over the edge. They could see houses and the town hall. It wasn’t that big of a town, but the mare was glad about that. They followed the path and were surprised by the calm surroundings in the town. They walked down the street and were greeted friendly. The mare at first didn’t respond, but decided to give at least acknowledgement.

The pair made it to a big tree that had the word ‘library’ on the sign in the front. “You want to make a quick stop?” The mare asked. She already knew the answer and walked towards the door.

“This place uses more magic than the rest of the town combined,” The colt observed to himself. The mare heard him but didn’t respond. Instead, she opened the door and peered in.

Inside, she could see rows of books on shelves and heard voices. When she opened the door all the way, the voices got louder. “Aha, you left him open,” She heard. They stepped inside completely and found a pony and a purple and green thing sitting on the floor over a board game.

“C’mon, I didn’t know you could move him there,” She heard a male voice say, which she presumed was the purple and green thing because it was definitely a female pony on the floor.

“Hello?” The mare asked. She noticed that they hadn’t heard them enter and didn’t want to feel like they were intruding.

“Oh! Hello there, how can I help you?” the female asked. She had a slight blush at not noticing them enter, but was also curious as to what they would want.

“We’re here to browse around the library,” The mare said. She tilted her head at the purple and green dragon looking thing that was looking at the colt next to her.

“Well I’m Twilight Sparkle, so if you need anything in specific, feel free to ask. This is my assistant Spike, he’s a baby dragon, but-,” Twilight started.

“Can you breathe fire?” The colt asked. He squinted his eyes.

“Yeah, I can breathe fire, it’s usually magical fire though,” Spike said. He crossed his arms. “And who are you?” Spike asked.

“Spike, that’s rude, you ask for names nicely,” Twilight said.

“I’m Eclipse, and this…” The mare started. She put her hoof on the colt’s head and made sure she was annoying him. “This is Starlight, but he doesn’t like being called by that name,” Eclipse said.

“Then what should we call him?” Twilight asked.

“Star, it’s short and simple,” Starlight said.

“Well why don’t you like your old name?” Twilight asked.

“I think it’s best if we don’t go into that,” Eclipse said. She pushed Star towards the books and turned back to Twilight. “So I hope we didn’t interrupt anything,” Eclipse said. She looked down at the black and white checkered board.

“Oh no, we were just finishing up a game of chess. But I’m sure we all know how this is going to turn out, right Spike?” Twilight said with a grin.

Spike sighed. “I’m starting to think you let me win the first game,” He said. Spike sat back down on the floor and looked over the board. “How about…” Spike moved one of his last pawns forward one space and Twilight giggled.

Twilight moved a bishop across the board. “Checkmate,” Twilight said. Spike looked over the board before shrugging.
“That makes game five, I’m going back to bed,” Spike said. He left the room without another word and Twilight looked up at Eclipse.

“Weren’t you going to look for a book?” Twilight asked.

“Actually, that would be him,” Eclipse said. Twilight looked over and, sure enough, Star had a pile of spell books laid out in front of him, as well as books on history and other books nobody ever checked out.

“Then how about it, want to play some chess?” Twilight asked Eclipse. She’d been really bored recently with some of her friends being busy and nobody ever checking out books.

“That’s more of Star’s thing, but I guess why not. He could be a few minutes with those books he found…” Eclipse said. Twilight wondered what she meant by minutes when it takes hours to read books at the minimum, but started resetting the board anyways.

Eclipse let Twilight go first and tried to mimic what she thought Star would do. At first they were both playing passively, with neither side giving up much. Then, like she had set up a checker board to jump four pieces in one turn, Twilight made her move.

Eclipse lost pawn after pawn, followed by a rook and a knight, and finally, her queen. All Eclipse was able to gain out of that, was two bishops and a pawn. Eclipse managed to put her in check and stop the onslaught, but she was at a significant disadvantage.

Twilight blocked the check with her rook and Eclipse was at a loss. Many times when she was facing Star her forces had been picked clean. On the worst occasion, she hadn’t taken more than a couple of pawns before being checkmated. Now, it felt like she was losing just as bad. Then she remembered something Star had done before.

Eclipse slowly and methodically retreated her troops. Twilight gave chase to an extent, but unlike Eclipse back then, she didn’t leave her king in the open. Eclipse saw an open rook and took the opportunity. Twilight countered and took another two pawns. Finally, Eclipse was really low on troops. Twilight moved her queen into Eclipse’s king’s face and that was that, a knight guarding the queen gave a checkmate.

“Checkmate,” Twilight said. “Good game,” Twilight was smiling. At least she put up an effort. Spike didn’t move his queen until near the end, and even then she was gone the next turn.

“Wow, you’re good,” Eclipse said. She was looking the board and the pathetic amount of troops she had at the end.

“How about another?” Twilight asked, ready to keep playing.

“There’s no way I can win, what about you Star? You think you’re up for it?” Eclipse asked. Star looked up from the book he was reading.

“Alright, I was about done anyway,” Star said. He closed the book he was reading and put it up on the shelf. All of the other books were already on the shelf, and Star walked over to where they were playing.

“Are you sure, shouldn’t you play him? He’s only a kid after all,” Twilight said.

“I’ve faced him plenty of times, I think he’d be better off against someone different,” Eclipse said. She smiled to herself inside. This could be fun to watch.

“Alright, I’ll go easy on him though. This game can get pretty stressful,” Twilight said.

“He’s a smart colt, I don’t’ think you’ll need to go easy on him,” Eclipse said, so Star wouldn’t get too annoyed. She could see that he was getting irritated about being treated like a kid. Twilight finished setting up the board and waited for Star to sit down. Eclipse watched closely, eager to see what they’d do. Twilight used magic to move her pieces, while Star used his hooves.

They played the same game for a good fifteen minutes. Both sides lost pieces and it looked fairly even. Eclipse had to admit she didn’t know what kind of strategy was involved, and she couldn’t keep up with what the board looked like. At one point, Eclipse remembered one of the board positions from when she would face Eclipse. Then it hit her in Twilight’s next move where Star’s bishop was under attack.

“I would watch out if I were you,” Eclipse said. She knew this board exactly. It happened so many times that she knew what Star was planning. Star often made Eclipse feel like she was winning and then when she was in check position, ended it in two or three turns. It always hurt more to lose when you were ahead than knowing you had no chance from the beginning.

“What?” Twilight asked.

“She called me a kid,” Star said. He moved his bishop from one side of the board to the other and in effect, put Twilight’s king in check. Twilight responded with moving her bishop to block. Star moved his rook to the other side of the board and put the king in check again. Twilight moved the king down one position. Star placed a knight to once again put the king in check.

“Rushing me is just opening up your king for check,” Twilight said under her breath. Eclipse noticed that she was still taking Star for a kid. Twilight was thinking about the board. She didn’t think hard enough. Twilight moved the king once more down. Star moved his last pawn for the first time in the game forward one space.

“Checkmate,” Star said.

Twilight looked down at the board and noticed that by moving her king away from check, she had separated him from the other pieces. Star’s pieces were all protecting each other in a web of protection. There was nowhere to go, and Twilight had lost.

“W-Wow,” Twilight said to herself. She once again looked at the board. “But I was winning by like… six pieces,” Twilight said.

“But not the right ones,” Star said.

“Want to play another?” Twilight asked, feeling a rush of adrenaline. “This time I won’t show any mercy,” Twilight said. She was feeling refreshed from losing a chess game. She hadn’t lost in a long time, and even then it wasn’t by much. This kid was really something else.

“Then I won’t hold back either,” Star said, he had a big smile on his face. Only Eclipse knew what he was planning to do. It always happens the first time he plays someone, and she was surprised he didn’t do it earlier.

“This time, you can go first,” Twilight said.

Star moved the pawn in front of his king two spaces. Twilight moved the pawn in front of her knight. Star moved his bishop out of the back and into the third row. Twilight moved a knight on the same side of the board as the bishop. Star moved his queen diagonal to the third row. Twilight was surprised and brought out her bishop and put the queen in guard.

Instead of moving the queen or attempting to even block the attack, Star moved the bishop in the front into one of Twilight’s pawns. Twilight at first wondered what he was thinking. Then, she heard him say one word.

“Checkmate,” Star was looking at Twilight’s face which was scanning the board.

“But… that was only four turns,” Twilight said, she was in shock seeing the bishop being protected by a queen and pinning the king in the corner of her own troops.

“Want to play another?” Star asked. In his head, he was churning with various position of the chess board and how he predicted she would play after having played him twice. He was calculating everything as it happened in real time. Millions of himself were conversing over different topics and agreeing on the best methods. Where others took minutes to figure out a strategy, he could do it in a split second.

‘What did you turn into… ?’ Eclipse asked mentally as she watched Twilight reset the board. Star was smiling as he started to once again calculate while he played and Eclipse sighed. ‘At least you’re happy,’ She said. She didn’t notice that one of the books he had taken off of the shelves and was reading last was an ancient spell book. Twilight forgot to lock it up like Celestia said.

Author's Note:

Chess is fun... right? Tell me i'm not just a nerd...

Next Time: Canterlock, does it fix the stick keys?

Comments

[Slywolf930]

I posted this initially so my friend could tell me what he thought of it. I'll release a chapter a day. I'm pretty much done with it after all. I just need to finish the last part.