Checkered in Places

by Heavy Mole

Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself

One gray-looking summer afternoon Fluttershy was interrupted during a moment of contemplation by a hard pounding on the front door.

"Fluttershy!" exclaimed the visitor, "it's me, Twilight. We need to talk, post-haste!"

Twilight entered with a determined grimace and levitating two tightly packed suitcases in tow; she set one on the floor before her, and talked as she began to rummage through it.

"I've received a special summons to Canterlot Castle," she explained. "It's from the princess herself. Have a look."

Twilight levitated the note out of the suitcase for Fluttershy to read--and she did, aloud:

My Dearest Twilight:

I need you to come to the castle immediately to help me with an important project. I can't tell you what it is; let's just say that something is brewing... Something is brewing all right.

So be ready. But also, come as quickly as possible. Oh, and if your friends ask to tag along, just tell them... Um...Um...

"And that's it!" said Fluttershy. "Oh my, what a mysterious letter!"

"I've already made arrangements to travel to Canterlot overnight, but I needed to make a detour here..." Twilight stopped to turn her confidante. "Fluttershy... have you noticed anything 'off' about our circle of friends, recently?"

She thought about it for a moment. "No, I don't think so."

"Well... have you observed that Rarity seems to be trying to avoid Rainbow Dash, as of late?"

"Oh, well now that you mention it..."

"And what about Rainbow Dash herself? She seems so distant, so preoccupied in her thoughts. I wonder if she hasn't undergone some great personal tragedy that she isn't telling us about. Or maybe she committed an unspeakable crime, like Raskolnikov, and Rarity has chosen to wait on the conscience of her former friend to drive out the terrible confession."

"Dear! Do you really think Rainbow would do something like that?"

"We'll have to deal with that later," Twilight replied. "Right now, I need your help with something..."

Twilight produced another document from the suitcase--the object of her search. This one was a list of activities scrawled onto a torn-out piece of notebook paper.

An "oh my!" escaped Fluttershy as she looked it over. "There are certainly many expensive things on here. What is it for?"

"This is a list of bonding activities which I have put together based on my observation of the group over many months. I need you to get everyone together for a group activity while I'm away--something to rekindle the dying flame of our friendship."

"Dying flame?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so..." With a heavy sigh, Twilight went on: "Princess Celestia didn't say anything about what she wants from me in her letter, or how long I will be gone for. What if Princess Luna has finally snapped and gone on a rampage? The state our friendship is in now... I... I don't know if we'd be able to stand up to that maniac." She turned to hide her embarrassment for having failed to foster stronger common interests amongst her diverse friends.

"A-are you sure you want me to be in charge of our little get-together? I'm... not sure I'm up to the challenge, the responsibility, the pressure! What if something goes wrong?"

"Fluttershy--" Twilight recovered herself, and drew in close-- "you're the only one I trust with this task. You're the Element of Kindness. Anything you can do to make this happen--to bring together this fragmented, sorry collective of former friends once again--would be a service to the peace and prosperity of the entire world. I know you won't fail. And all of Equestria will be eternally grateful to you."

Fluttershy gazed back at Twilight--disheveled, smiling wanly, with eyes that seemed to look past her--and decided that it would be far more important to address her dark forebodings, than to finally give that talk on biodiversity at the elementary school. The children could wait.

"...Okay Twilight, I'll make sure we have a fun group activity while you're away!" she said, with such earnest that Twilight was satisfied to exchange parting words, and be on her way.

The two separated, each with a private share of glee: Twilight, for the temporary relief to her fear of the dissolution of the Elements of Harmony which the interview had brought; and Fluttershy, for being given the courage to undertake an important role in a very dark and serious scenario. To this end, the latter wasted little time in acting at her friend's behest, and made rounds to the other Elements on the following day: she announced a cloudgazing picnic on the Ponyville Green--to be held by, and confined to, the Elements alone (this turned out to be the most practicable of Twilight's suggestions).

The others seemed to welcome the proposal in good-humor (for, notwithstanding the feverish ideas which had beget the occasion, it had been a long time since the group had gotten together for fun); but it was Rainbow Dash who was the most cagey, inquisitive, and strangely eager, as though plotting her move in a game of intellectual one-upsmanship that only she was aware of. "Yeah, that sounds cool, I guess," she said affectedly, leaning up against a fence post. "So we'll probably just hang for a while or something after we're done eating...?"

"Why, yes, of course!" Fluttershy replied. "But cloudgazing is so much more than 'hanging out'! It's a group of friends, together, their conversation carried on the patient play of whimsical observation--like tubers along a babbling brook. But, of course, we won't really be tubing on a babbling brook--that would just be dangerous."

"Well that sounds interesting as heck, Fluttershy," after a pause.

"Really? Gee Rainbow, I'm so happy to hear that! I have to admit, that of all our friends, I thought you would be the most difficult to persuade to come and laze about for an afternoon. Truth be told, I've always been a little intimidated by your industriousness..."

"Yeah... Do you think there will be time for anything after the cloudgazing? I mean, unless Twilight has something else planned."

"--Oh, I'm sorry. It will be all of us, except for Twilight. She's on her way to Canterlot as we speak--probably already there, in fact--by special order of Princess Celestia. And she heroically stopped by my cabin to make sure we all spend some time together, for the peace and prosperity of the entire world."

Rainbow Dash started up. "Whoa whoa whoa, wait a second-- Twilight's not going to be there?"

"I'm afraid not. But... I hope that's not a problem! You should still come! The five of us can still enjoy ourselves. The important thing is that we all get to know each other a little better. Doesn't that sound wonderful? Why, I don't even know what you do for a living...!"

The words fell out of focus in Rainbow's mind as her imagination took flight, spurred into a sonic rainboom of reminiscence by Fluttershy's small suggestion, laid out so unwittingly, but which catered so perfectly--almost gratuitously--to a new, secret aspiration of hers.

"Oh Rainbow," Rarity had said without turning away from her work, "why don't you go look in the closet and see if there's a board game you would like to play. I'm sure we have plenty in there to choose from."

She remembered that fateful afternoon clearly...

***

"Ooh ooh, let me pick!" Sweetie Belle chimed in. "I know the perfect one."

"Oh, well," replied the older sister, "we wouldn't want to stand in your way, now would we, little one? That is, if that's okay with you, Rainbow," she added as Sweetie Belle scampered away.

Rainbow Dash had been outside devising a new aerial stunt to impress the Wonderbolts--or maybe she was already in, it was hard for her to tell--when a squall moving in from the Everfree Forest bathed the hillsides in a flash of hard rain driven by a strong, Eastern wind. The weather had forced Rainbow to take refuge at nearby Carousel Boutique, with Rarity and her sister; the latter company whose daily life went on comparatively unperturbed by the storm which now rattled the window panes between swaths of insufferably cozy silence.

"Um... I don't know if you were aware of this, Rara," Rainbow said, "but the Dashter does not play board games. Board games are for people who have to live out their lonely lives with no other form of accomplishment, like Zecora. Totally the opposite of radical."

"Oh now don't be silly, Rainbow Dash. Everyone knows that a good board game is almost as nice as warm knickers on a January afternoon! Why, some of the 'coolest' people I know are avid enthusiasts--not to mention some of the most fetching stallions, if I do say so!" she added with a titter.

"Doubt it," was the flat retort.

"Furthermore," Rarity continued, resuming her composure, "it keeps the children away from drugs and mischief and off the streets when they're not in school. I hear that kids who play board games at a young age are forty percent more likely to pursue higher education in science and mathematics--and that's nothing to scoff at, now is it, Rainbow Dash? Now of course, there are some who are attracted to the stardom of it... But I think most tend to grow out of that phase and become productive, when it comes to the point. People are so quick to throw out the foal with the fridge motor, nowadays. Now where did I put that--?"

"Ugh! Fashion... Eggheads... Family..." For Rainbow this was the most boring possible combination of things. "I would give anything for something to just fall out of the sky and change my life right now. Something to strike me like lightning and send waves of electric-rainbow energy down my spine, catapulting me into a crazy new adventure. Why can't I have that kind of luck?"

Click.

It was Sweetie Belle. She had returned and placed a pair of checkered wooden slats on the coffee table next to Rainbow Dash. The latter, before speaking, examined the wide-grinning filly, then her offering: the veneer of the small object was ornately engraved with a column of letters on one side of the grid that made up most of its surface, and a row of numbers at the top of it; the slats were joined at one end by a set of faded, gold hinges. Rainbow could only guess that Sweetie had found some kind of cryptic fortune telling device, and was preying upon her fear of haunting spirits for sinister amusement.

"...Is this some kind of old-fashioned version of Doppler Mission?" Rainbow asked warily.

"Nope. Chess!" Sweetie Belle flipped the top slat to reveal a small compartment which contained a set of tiny, hand-carved chess pieces. "I heard you shouting about how you'd like to be struck by lightning, but I think this might just be the next best thing. Rarity and I used to play all the time."

"Leave it to Sweetie Belle to choose the greatest and most intellectually demanding of all board games to try and entertain a churlish guest!" Rarity said, laughing as she trotted over to join the exchange. "Why, you may as well offer poor Rainbow Dash a volume of Tolstallion for want of a little reading material."

"Oh Rarity. You're such a great and intell... intellectually demanding player, that I'll take any chance to see you in action!"

"Oh, Sweeite--you want to have your friends for another sleepover, don't you?" Rarity replied with a playful smirk.

Rainbow Dash churned over the sisters' repartee--intellectually demanding? She had never thought of board games as possessing any sort of rigor. To her they were an outlet for an ersatz kind of victory which involved mouse trap building and 'ants in pants'; how could that compare in magnitude to an aerial race ending with a supersonic explosion?

Sweetie Belle resumed. "No, really! Rarity is one of the best chess players in the whole town," she said, now addressing herself to Rainbow Dash. "She even won a competition a few years back."

"Oh, come now. Why do you always insist on bringing up that silly tournament? It was... nothing. She's exaggerating, of course," Rarity said, turning to Rainbow. "I'm really not all that good. Best that I stick to dresses, eh?"

Sweetie Belle frowned. "Ugh, I hate when you're like this. Why are you so afraid of people seeing how talented you are? I boast about you to my friends, but then when they come over you act all coy. It's like my fifth birthday party all over again!"

"I don't know what you're getting so upset about." Rarity turned away to return to her task-at-hand. "We all have our proper work, and mine doesn't happen to be strutting my gray feathers in the parlor for your over-eager school companions. I'm sorry."

"Gray feathers? See, this is what dad was talking about--always putting up barriers when people try to get close to you!"

"Well why don't you go spend your time with dad, then!?"

Tournament? A vague remembrance then came to Rainbow Dash, of seeing chess around the schoolyard as a filly. It had all become part of a phantasmagoria of youthful intrigues in her mind, and it was hard to think back, but--maybe--yes! She had been more than a spectator. In fact, she could recall the surprised expression of an opponent (or two) looking back at her over a chess board--a taunting colt who had been shocked by her pervading ability to gain the upper hoof in a competitive match.

Or something like that.

"Now wait a minute," she burst out, "just because I don't want to play a board game doesn't mean I'm not any good at it. I just have to be in the right mood. And seeing you guys get into the competitive spirit has got me hungry for some action! I think I'll take you up on that game, Rarity. I mean, it's not like I've got anywhere to go, anyway. Whad'ya say?"

The match took its course. Rarity played with casual ease between making improvements on a dress design; Rainbow Dash fidgeted, mussed her hair, sat stonily in concentration, vacillating between cunning smirks and hardened puzzlement. With each move, she marveled as the secrets of the game unfolded before her, and she asked questions--to Sweetie Belle, her audience of one. Sweetie explained the rules where knowledge lacked, and couched her answers with remembrances of her own plans bungled at the hooves of her sister.

"I used to do that too," she remarked, looking over Rainbow's pawn structure--each other pawn was advanced a space forward from its starting position, forming a 'fishbone'--"until Rarity told me what a bad idea it is."

"But...! It's like a barbed-wire fence!" Rainbow protested. "There's no safe way in."

Sweetie shook her head. "Not if she takes one of these pawns in the back. Then, you're completely vulnerable!"

"Aw, my uncle used this strategy all the time, and he was like a master."

Sweetie smiled tenderly, and said: "Rarity and I used to play a lot at night on the balcony, back when the boutique was first starting up. She would have a glass of wine, and I would get to stay up really late because we were working, and it was the summer. I remember one night, she said to me-- she said, that chess is like love... and that... we lose, when we worry so much about our own symmetry. She said when we do that, we forget to look at what is really happening around us. But being ready to let go and keep ourselves open is one of the best things a player, and a friend, can do."

"Yeah, I think I've heard her say things like that before." Rainbow leaned closer, and added: "I always thought she was phoning it in, though, you know?"

"Rarity wanted to go to school in Canterlot before starting a boutique in Ponyville. Did you know that? She was disappointed at first when it didn't work out... She had always talked about going, even when we were little. But she loves this boutique--and if she had gone, maybe she wouldn't have met Twilight and you guys! Who would have thought that making friends with a farmer, a party animal and another... kind of farmer, would have brought her so much happiness?"

It's not that Rainbow Dash hated Rarity. But, she couldn't sit through Sweetie Belle's callow praises of her without a feeling of fervor to destroy the psycho-millinery empire she had built around herself, with one decisive, fate-driven blow. Rainbow listened to Sweetie's speeches with secret relish--she would show her what competitive edge really looked like.

Down to business: first, some circuitous bishop chases to distract and dazzle her opponent; then, after leading Rarity into a false sense of security with some amazing personal bluffs, she would commence a tandem of queen promotions, leading to a final scouring of her forces and--

"Checkmate! I think... Yes, I'm afraid so, darling."

"What!? No way..." Rainbow scrutinized the position. "That was like... out of nowhere!"

"Usually how it works, dear," Rarity said, smiling politely.

Rainbow Dash kept up a dogged inspection before finally sitting back in resignation. "Man... you're good. Real good."

"Oh... well, I'm sure I just got lucky, that's all!"

"No," Sweetie Belle reassured her, "I watched the whole thing, and there was no luck involved. Rainbow's strategy was bad from the start. That's okay, though. Not everyone is cut out to be a great chess player like you, sis!"

Rarity laughed uncomfortably, and stumbled through a discount her sister's praise.

Sweetie Belle smiled at Rainbow Dash. "See? Told you she was good! But you shouldn't feel bad about it, Rainbow. Chess isn't like carrying baby chicks through the mud. It's more sophisticated. Just between you and me, I think that you either have it, or you don't. Not all of us can hope to have Rarity's skills."

"Oh, I mean, it's not like I care, anyway," Rainbow Dash returned with a shrug. "I could be good at it if I wanted to--I just choose not to, because there are are cooler things I could be doing."

"Right! There's that thing you do where you make a rainbow explode when you go really fast--what's it called? A sonic rainpoof?"

Rainbow Dash let out a deep sigh. "Yeah, the, uh... sonic rainboom. It's... a blast."

"Of course!" Rarity interposed. "That's it, dear. I may have won our game, but, uh... you and only you can ignite the skies with the iridescent glory of a bursting rainbow!"

Rainbow...

Rainbow...

***

"Rainbow!

"Oh, sorry. Did I startle you?" asked Fluttershy. "You were just staring into space for about a minute."

Rainbow Dash blinked as she was pulled from her doleful recollection. "Oh, right. Uh... what were we talking about again?"

"I was asking whether you'd like to join the other girls and I for a picnic. Is something wrong? You seem deflated all of the sudden."

"Oh, you know. It's just this weather, heh! All cloudy and stuff, really brings me down."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, Rainbow. Here, have a chocolate turtle. Maybe it will cheer you up."

Turtle...

Turtle...

***

By the time her conversation with the sisters at Carousel Boutique had ended, the sun had already been peering through departing storm clouds a short while; and once again, but under a different exigence, Rainbow Dash was forced to quit an engagement to which she had fastened her whole being. She found herself deprived of the will to fly, and instead wandered out of the shop into the streets in a brooding trance.

What was this? For some reason, Rainbow noticed the wide variety of shops that littered the town as she ambled through Ponyville. Sofa & Quill. Could it be that she was the fastest furniture builder in Equestria? Perhaps not; but that wasn't her work after all, and not everyone was cut out to be a great couch maker. And what the heck was a 'quill' anyway?

Coming over a hill, she saw Sweet Apple Acres in the distance. Something gripped her inside as she thought of Applejack rising with the rooster's call, attending without demur to her daily chores--but not everyone was cut out for hard labor. Hadn't the Iron Pony competition been there? Rainbow Dash stopped and pulled out her daredevil license. Still there. Yet it couldn't distract her from an unwanted alteration of spirit which the chess game with Rarity had caused in her.

Sugracube Corner. The library. The town hall. All these places to which she was beholden, and with which her athletic accomplishments seemed now to have so little purchase, left her with a long-buried feeling of... inadequacy.

Rainbow's slump continued to weigh on her for several days, like a lingering illness, equally burdensome for effect and duration. Being embarrassed by the idea of her friends seeing her in such an anemic state, but helpless to improve it, she had also become less sociable, and therefore more susceptible to fits of uncharacteristic moodiness. It was only for the following Pony-Pet Playdate, a weekly gathering regarded with somber importance by the Elements, that it behooved her to make any effort to be outgoing at all. But even this only turned out to be a partial endeavor: she declined to be part of any proffered group activities, and withdrew herself to a part of the lawn to which was remote from her friends, to continue her ruminations.

On this day, it so happened that the girls had chosen a spot which was not far from a more public section of the park, which featured benches and drinking fountains, and other amenities more commodious to general recreation; and Rainbow Dash found herself near enough a row of community chess boards, which squared off the area, to become infatuated by the procession of ponies that were using them. She watched them fixedly, anxious of another encounter with the Great Game: by turns, fearful of a repetition of her match at the boutique, of being humiliated in the demonstration of a talent before an impressionable observer; and on the other hoof, drawn in by an irresistible visualization of herself, taking on every newcomer, beating one after the other--standing, at last, victorious atop a pile of bodies.

"Hey, kiddo... Y'know, the party's that-a-way," came a voice from behind.

"Wha...? Oh, it's only you, Tank. Sorry, I'm not exactly in the most playful mood right now," Rainbow Dash said.

"Well... far be it from me to question how someone who controls the weather, can be so stubbornly stuck under it," he laughed, hovering himself down next to his owner.

Rainbow Dash was silent.

"What seems to be the problem, sport?"

"I used to think I was good at chess, Tank. Like, maybe it was something I would be amazing at, if I set my mind to it. But then, in that game with Rarity, I..." Rainbow choked a bit, and gave herself a breath to continue. "I made a fool of myself. And I wonder... if I can't be good at that, then what other talents have I been lying to myself about?"

She stopped. They sat in silence for what seemed like an afternoon, letting the clouds and people pass. Finally, Tank turned to her and said: "This 'Rarity'... Is she a good player?"

"Is she ever! It was just like... BAM, checkmate. My head was spinning! Now I see why the others admire her so much..."

A short distance away, they could see Rarity engaged in lively conversation with a few of the others, as the pets roamed the grounds.

"Don't you think it will be all the more triumphant when you overcome such a worthy adversary?" Tank asked.

"I guess so... But, they told me you have to be born with that talent. That I should stick to flying or whatever."

Tank nodded. "Do remember when you first started reading, Rainbow?"

"I think a little..."

"You were laughed at. Your friends came to boast about their literary prowesses while you were in the hospital. Twilight was the most jealous--she told you that she owned all the books in the Daring Do series, and that the only way you could read them was by going into her library. Why would she do that, Rainbow?"

She hesitated. "Becuase..."

"Because she knows you have an unstoppable drive to succeed. She didn't want to be overwhelmed by you. But whose 'crazy idea' about the Daring Do book series actually being autobiographical accounts of the author's secret life turned out to be correct?"

"Pfft. Me! I mean mine!" Rainbow said proudly.

"Exactly. If you ask me, this sounds like more of Twilight's politics. But you can't let that haunt you, Rainbow. You have overcome your oppression in the past--and you can do it again."

Rainbow perked up. "You know something? You're right. I do have what it takes to be a chess master, but somehow, I let myself forget that. With a little training, I can show Rarity who's boss around here. It will be a day my friends will never forget!--"

"Uh... Rainbow? Who are you talking to?"

It was Twilight. Rainbow Dash looked around for a sign of her tortoise, and found that he was wedged into a bee's nest on an oak tree at the other corner of the park. The propeller blades of his flying apparatus hacked uselessly into its gooey combs, as he bayed through the swarm of winged sentry.

She smiled. "Oh... just a little birdie."

***

"Rainbow!"

She started up again. "Whoa, wha...? Where am I? Oh, hey Fluttershy."

"Hey... Sorry, but you were daydreaming again. No hurry, but I do have some chores I want to catch up on."

"Right, the picnic. Sure, I think I'd be down for a get-together with the gang.

"Yeah... They all think I'm nothing but sonic rainbooms and deadly gorge races, huh? My talking turtle friend was right. It's time to show them what I'm truly capable of!"

Fluttershy smiled. "Oh, wonderful! I guess I'll see you there, then."

Comments

[VampDash]

Wow Sweetie was a total bitch in this chapter.

[Crescent-087]

Pfft!!

[BabySkittleMonster]

This. Is. Awesome... Really. Awesome.

Great. Now I'm gonna be wasting my life checking my feed page to see the next update! Thank you.