//------------------------------// // So the Game of Chess Plays On // Story: Wake up. See this. What do? - Part 2: Raise the Flag (comment driven story) // by RazortheAwesome //------------------------------// -Meanwhile, In another Universe and East of the Rocky Mountains, but not too East- Roseluck paced back and forth in the small apartment, running around in circles at the foot of a desk with a computer on it. She paced and waited, waited patiently for something anything to happen when suddenly the door leading into the house opened with a clatter. “Oh, it’s good to be home after a long day’s work...” the human stated, listening to the sound of the pacing pony in the other room. “Is everything all right, I mean usually the fourth wall getting broken is his shindig, but here it’s really none of my affair?” He stepped through the doorway into the study where the cream colored and rose-red maned mare stood nervously. “Oh, Roseluck, were you watering my plants again?” “Maybe, but something happened,” she lifted her hoof and pointed at the laptop, “it came on all by itself and the story started updating all on its own.” The human leapt over the mare and immediately began scanning through the newly posted chapter before muttering aloud to himself and reaching into his desk for something. “Son of a bitch!” he said before furiously typing away at the keyboard, “he’s moving faster than I expected with this thing and if I don’t act now, it will fail in the end,” he concluded before pouring a small amount of Bacardi and began to work. -In this story's universe- -A short while later, in the Canterlot Palace- Risen Flag sat in a chair on the balcony leading into his office, his magic delicately lifting a violin into the air just in front of his line of sight. The body, black polished oak, and the strings made of the finest catgut while the tuning knobs, polished silver each with the finely detailed initials of the owner engraved on each one. A long time passed between the last time he actually played the fine instrument, but since it was a cool summer’s eve in Canterlot and he possessed the view of all of downtown from where he sat, he felt the occasion called for it. At his hooves lay a booklet of sheet music, albeit a chaotically stitched together booklet as well as old, but he found the composition to be one most admirable. As his perked ear listened for the proper tension of the string to hit the right note, he looked out over the city of Canterlot, his Canterlot, a jewel nestle in the crest of the mountain peak and if one squinted, one could see the small town of Ponyville. Tick, at last, the final string entered into perfection as his magic lifted the booklet and turned to the first page of hand-written notes, whilst another glow lifted the bow to the strings to begin this night’s symphonic treat. The bow dragged across with a violent hiss and the strings erupted into a nightmarish collection of high-pitched notes and turning melodies that surely would have awoken some of the hardiest sleepers of Canterlot Palace. All at once, behind Risen Flag, a breeze flew past him, causing him to turn and face the panting pony clown of nightmares standing before him, trying desperately, apparently, to catch his breath, though that detail slipped Risen’s eye for he enjoyed the music so. “Come now, Haypennywise,” Flag began, “surely you much enjoy the work of Eric Zahn, I mean after all, the poor human bastard wrote it for us.” He looked up from the booklet to see the clown standing there in his state panting and obvious sweat running down his brow, though that did not smear the white face paint. “What, something spook you while you were in Ponyville?” Risen chuckled, holding aloft the violin as he continued to play even more violent notes until at last the musically pan-dimensional nightmare of symphonic castration and violation was broken with Haypennywise’s next few words. “There’s a second human in Equestria!” the clown cried out, an act that all at once silenced the music and prompted the politician to raise his head to look at the clown. “Repeat that phrase once more for me,” Risen stated, his magic placing the beautiful instrument into its black velvet lined case, the bow sliding into place just before the booklet was closed and placed top the two creations. With a subtle click, the case closed itself and floated past the clown and onto the black oak desk of the Canterlot senator, whose eyes never once left the clown. “There’s a second-” Haypennywise never finished as magic suddenly wrapped around his throat and began to strangle the stallion, all while Risen Flag stood there on the balcony, his eyes never once leaving Haypennywise. “You’re standing here telling me that a second human is running around in Ponyville,” Risen began, his voice dropping to a low bass, “and that you could not kill him. For fuck’s sake, you ate humans and children for centuries and now you cannot even take on two of them for which there better be a damned good reason for you not being able to kill this son of a bitch or so help me, I will kill you.” Haypennywise’s eyes went wide as the stallion floated over to the edge of the balcony and dangled over the edge, his hind hooves struggling to find a surface to cling. “All I have to do is strip your immortality, child’s play, and then drop you two hundred feet to your splattering death at the base of the castle and make up some story about an intruder that fell whilst trying to get into my office.” “I couldn’t fight him, Risen,” the clown gasped, “he understood how to fight us,” there was a pause in his sentence for a second that caused Flag’s eyebrow to raise slightly, “he knew how to speak the words, the ones that you talked about, from the time before this one.” With that, Risen Flag pulled Haypennywise back onto the balcony and dropped him onto the polished stone floor before speaking once more to the demonic pony clown. “Describe what this second human looks like,” Risen Flag stated coldly, “if you value what meager existence you call a life.” “Around six feet tall, you know about average size,” he stuttered, shaking a little as he regained his footing and continued with the description of the second human that kept his master so very intrigued. “Shoulder length straight white hair as well as a thick mustache and a five o’clock shadow that looks as though he shaved recently, as in the past few days.” “Spare me the dribble and get on with the important details, you little pussy,” Flag spat, his eyes flaring up with rage and his horn once again glowing with a deep red magical aura. “Square shoulders, well built, for the most part, blue eyes, and he looked to be in his late seventies, I guess. I really didn’t have a chance to ask him for his identification, Risen, he just started fighting against me and speaking that godforsaken language you mentioned from the time before.” All at once, the magic from his horn faded away into nothingness as the stallion just stood there before walking past the nightmare clown to the balcony to look down towards where he knew the town of the Ponyville was. “So, Francis Morgan survived the crossing over as well,” he stated, looking out into the night, his eyes narrowing to a focus thought to be impossible to some but not to the likes of a stallion like Risen Flag. “It would seem that the Outer Most Gods have decided that this pathetic planet shall serve as our final battlefield.” Flag muttered aloud to himself as he stared off into the distance and Haypennywise just stood there, staring at his leader, waiting for him to do something, well most anything really so long as it wasn’t trying to kill him. -Dammit, I forget to leave it as was not... Fuck it- Risen Flag stepped back inside of the office and the insane clown followed him closely wherein Flag summoned the servant Curwen to come to his office. “Haypennywise,” Flag began, “I want you to abandon your current mission in Ponyville, as I have some new orders that you need to follow, and immediacy is the only option with following these orders, Haypennywise.” The insane nightmare clown nodded in agreement, as he watched the stallion withdraw a new folder from within the top drawer of the desk. The clown opened the folder only to find three photographs hanging on the right side with three data sheets stapled to the left side of the folder. “Who are these three?” Haypennywise asked, looking at each photograph, which although they were in black and white, each was remarkably detailed. “After weeks of research and searching, the changelings in Appleloosa have found and identified the leader and two key agents of the Appleloosan Intelligence Agency, also known as the AIA,” Risen Flag stated as he gathered two small briefcases and after opening them with his magic, he proceeded to gather up several folders and stacks of paperwork. “Before you, you see three ponies Grey Rebl, Braeburn Apple, and the town Doctor, of which Grey Rebl is the leader of said organization. Your duty is to identify the locations of the three ponies, though Grey Rebl is the most important one because if we kill him, the entire organization will collapse in on itself, or at the very least be at our mercy.” The clown did not wait another second before vanishing into the night to perform his duty lest he suffer at the hooves of his master but before he could, Flag held him back. “Do not believe for a single microsecond of your pitiful existence that you are being let off for what occurred between you and Francis Morgan because if you screw up one more time, I will not kill you.” Risen Flag stated, closing the briefcases and stacking them on the edge of the desk before turning to face the clown. “I will find you, skin you alive, roll your body around in a vat of rock salt, soak you in rubbing alcohol and then proceed to rip every single muscle fiber from your bones and then proceed to drink the marrow from your bones.” There was a pause for a second before Flag continued, “after which I will eat all of our organs then proceed to F̕ǪR̵NI͞CATE͡ ̀WIT̸H ͡YOUR҉ ́ŚKU̧LL!̢” At that, Haypennywise vanished into the night to avoid being killed and then skull fucked, quite literally mind you, by his master. Following the departure of his servant, the senator looked around his room before calling for Curwen and for his secretary, of which both came as soon as he uttered their names. -“You think that perhaps the commenters might find that last sentence a little,” Roseluck blushed, “dirty.” “Well you brought it up.”- The two called for ponies walked into office at which point Risen Flag looked to both of them and spoke his voice loud and clear for the two of them to hear. “Curwen, pack my bag,” he said, “Trixie, pack yours. We are going to Ponyville.” at which point the two other ponies set about to pack their respective things. A short while after they had left, Flag looked up to see another pony, a mare, standing in his doorway. The mare was wearing a uniform from his factory in the Neighvada desert and though she wore the company hat, one could still see the curly grey mane underneath it as well as a significant blush upon her cheeks. “Mister Flag,” she stuttered, “I know it’s late but...but...but the company sent me up to let you know that the shipment you requested has just arrived and all we need now is your signature in order to approve of the order.” A smile spread across the face of Risen Flag unlike anything that most any pony or otherwise had ever seen before because there she was, the final piece to his long and intricate puzzle, this macabre cosmic chess game being waged between human and god. She produced a clipboard for him to sign at which point he took it with his magic and slid it back onto his desk as he stepped closer to the mare, the blush on her cheeks intensifying from a delicately rose pink to a dazzling crimson red. “Well hello little mare,” he chuckled as he stepped next to her, “and what might your name be, my little sweetheart,” to which her witnessed her begin to shuffled where she stood. “It is all right if I call you sweetheart, is it not, my lovely little...” he paused, playing that trick to illicit her name from her by applying just the right amount of pressure and the right about of sexual lust. “Screwloose,” she abruptly stated, feeling his hoof draped over her as he shuffled her into the room, to which she was more than happy to comply with. -Back in the other Universe and East of the Rocky Mountains, but not too East- “And there we have it, the chapter is finished,” the human stated, leaning back in the chair, the pony sitting by the drawer looking up at him as he placed the bottle back inside of it and slammed the drawer shut. “Roseluck, be a dear and fetch me my character profiles,” he said, turning to face the young mare, “they’re in the box next to the Key of Solomon and The Prince on the third shelf.” Roseluck walked over to the bookshelf and grabbed the box from the shelf before setting it down in front of the human. “What do you need these for?” she asked as the human pulled forth folders labeled: ‘Jason Morgan – Weaknesses and Other Attributes’, ‘Twilight Sparkle – Insanity Triggers’, ‘Registered Anonymous, Grey Rebl, and Gordon Freepony – The Resistance and Full Transcripts of Their Plans and Conversations’, ‘Appleloosan Intelligence Agency – Names, Ranks, and Locations’, ‘The Plush – Killing Machines and Desperation’, ‘Pinkie Pie or How I Proofed this Room to Prevent Her from Getting Ahold of This Box,’... - Look, I know some of you will try to get Pinkie to break in and get the box so no- And lastly ‘Risen Flag – Building a Better Killing Machine Through Literature and Goddamned Science’. He looked even further before pulling out a file labeled ‘Francis Morgan – Biography and Triggers’ before letting out a slight chuckle as he threw the folder on the laptop. “What do you need that for?” Roseluck asked, prodding a little bit at some of the fallen documents, which included body graphs showing weak spots and nerve locations of Francis Morgan. “I just need to find a way to destroy Francis Morgan and then give Flag that information so that way he can kill him in the story thus ensuring the victory of Azathoth in that universe,” he gleefully stated, pulling out Latin spell sheets and the various drawings for casting circles and incantations. “You are going to do something evil, very evil aren’t you?” Roseluck asked. “Well of course,” the human laughed pulling out more sheets of paper before looking up at the wall before him. There on the wall was a red doorframe embedded into the very wall of the apartment, the space between the frames black as pitch. “From the second I got here I have done nothing but evil and will continue to do so.” “I worry about you sometimes, Daedaltheus XIV,” Roseluck stated. Chapter Written by DaedaltheusXIV Author’s Note: To those of you with some measure of concern as to who I am or what I am relative to this story, I posit two answers to all of you reading this: - To those of you more privy to Star Trek: TOS, I am the Squire of Gothos, Trelene. - To be more general in answering this question, I am John Murdoch.