The Reiter Pony War

by ASDeckard

9: Pieces

After the first week off pushing her students well beyond their limits Luna began to relax their pace, even giving them nights off to rest after the particularly brutal endurance challenges she began issuing them. She had asked them to take up hobbies on the nights off to practice their tactical sense, recommending several games of tactics they might try.

Twilight and Rainbow tried several. Rainbow preferred the card games, and while they had some very fun nights playing the various betting games with Procyon and Rapidfire, Twilight didn't enjoy them very much. The games had far more to do with bluffing the other players than it did with any kind of tactics, and while politely lying to your friends face may be fun, Twilight could not see how this could be considered a useful skill in wartime.

On one of their nights off, while Rapidfire and Procyon were busy doing something on their own, Twilight was finally able to convince Rainbow to play against her in another game of chess. They had tried once before, and after losing terribly Rainbow had been resistant to playing again.

Twilight had only played a little chess when she was young, usually against one of her parents, but since becoming Celestia's apprentice she had not thought to play in years. Despite Twilight being quite rusty, Rainbow, who had never played a game of chess in her life, had lost very quickly without putting up much of a fight. She had called it an 'egg head game' and refused to play again.

Since playing that first game in years Twilight had read up on the history of the game, and memorized most of the grandmasters and their more famous strategies, so it was not at all surprising that Rainbow lost her second game of chess even more quickly that she had her first. After beating her three more times, and with Rainbow showing no signs of improvement, Twilight explained the basics again, and gave Rainbow the collection of books she had read over the last few nights.

"Don't think of it as studying, think of it as a story of tactics and strategy," she had told Rainbow.

"Yea, whatever Twilight. You're just mad I'm so much faster than you," she responded caustically, but she had taken the books and began reading immediately.

Now, with some time to herself for the first time in what felt like years, Twilight moved out onto the balcony to think. She knew more about spells, and their interwoven complexities than any living pony—that she knew of—but there was always more to learn. I've spent my life learning how to craft spells, to take away magics unpredictability, and compress it into a simple weave. My life's work has been moving away from instinctual magic, but... I'm not always going to have enough time to think out a nice, pretty, well constructed spell. Maybe this technique Rainbow Dash invented will have it's uses.

In what time they've had alone together Twilight had tried to teach Rainbow Dash how to better control her magic, but Rainbow was unable to overcome a few major hurtles. Rainbow, so far, had no ability to control magic after it left her form, meaning she was unable to use a true telekinesis spell, which was the base most unicorn magic was built from.

Most magic was done by forming the spell in your mind, then casting it into existence and feeding the spell the energy it needed to function. Twilight's example to Rainbow had been, if you wanted a small light to illuminate an area, you would form the spell in your mind, construct it to have the basic dimensions you want, then cast it into being in the area you want it. After that, all you need to do is feed it power and the rest it controls itself.

Rainbow, instead of forming spells had simply controlled the power directly, and what's more she had done it in a way that should not have worked, and yet she had managed to create a levitating light—and set the corner of their bed on fire—only to lose control of it and scatter the light all around the room before cutting it off. Twilight had seen unicorns lose control of spells before, but that's not what Rainbow had done; she did not cast a spell at all, instead she called the energy forth then spewed it into the ball. With no spell to control it, the energy did what energy does; exploded outward and scattered around the room.

Now, as she stood on the balcony outside of their shared room in Canterlot Castle, Twilight tried to copy Rainbow Dash's instinctual use of raw magic. She started by focusing energy into her horn, exactly as she normally did to power a spell, only she held no spell in mind. Instead she mimicked what Rainbow had told her, and simply tried to draw the energy down into her head.

As the power seeped down from her forehead over her eyes, something amazing happened; the world exploded into color. Struggling down the moments panic Twilight calmed her mind. You're ok, you can still see... Rainbow didn't say anything about this!

The world around her looked much as it normally did, except for the bright, colorful flares that dominated her vision. The castle around her looked dark, it's white marble turning a muted grey, but there were stars of all colors and sizes glowing through it in every direction she looked. Twilight suddenly realized what it was; I'm seeing every living creature in the castle and city! What is happening?

She pushed the energy that blanketed her face down her neck, into her chest. As the energy faded from around her eyes the colors faded away as well. "That was... strange," Twilight mumbled as she pushed what had just happened into the back of her mind. There will be plenty of time to figure out what that was in due time, she thought as she braced herself to continue.

Being careful to avoid her eyes Twilight began siphoning more power from the base of her horn, and shuffling it around her face into her chest. Just as Rainbow said it would, as the power collected in one place Twilight could feel the heat building. She began to shuffle most of it into her wings, as Rainbow had recommended.

As the power built rapidly Twilight's wings began to glow in her familiar magenta aura. Twilight had seen it thousands of times as she cast spells, and often saw it wrapped around an object she was moving; she had even seen it wrapped around herself a few times before as she cast various spells on herself, but this was different. The magic was not flowing around her, it was coming from within her.

She moved to copy Rainbow, and pressed a glob of power to the tip of her wing, an forced it out. To her surprise, the moment the power left her wing her control over it vanished as well. The little magenta blob slowly floated away as it's heat drew it upward, to dissipate into the cold night.

Twilight took her time, slowly experimenting with the power. She tried to find a way to from a spell without using her horn, but she couldn't. If Rainbow can't form a spell, what she can do with just the raw power will be very limited... There must be a way.

Before she knew it Twilight had spent several hours standing on the balcony, but in the end she had nothing practical to show for it. Maybe next time.

⁂

Rainbow Dash had been far more productive with her time. After quickly giving up on trying to memorize various strategies she had switched to the more basic book that covered intermediary topics. Rainbow had originally though Twilight had simply memorized so many strategies to win that she could not stand a chance, but the more she read the more she began to realize some very key mistakes some of the grand masters were making, and she believed that she could beat even the best of them with her new found tactic.

The entire point of the game, was to capture the enemies lead piece; their king. There was no other objective, and no restrictions on tactics, and yet every single strategy revolved around capturing the king. It was obvious why, that's how you won the game so why wouldn't that be the main goal? Rainbow Dash could think of several reasons, and she wanted to test her theory.

But she forced herself to wait, and began to read through the boring strategy books to pass the time. It was painful for her to admit this, but Rainbow Dash was not perfect, and any weakness in the coming struggles could be fatal. I need to learn to be patient. Not every problem can be solved by kicking in their legs. It sucked, but it was true, and if she refused to learn somepony was going to end up getting hurt, all because she couldn't sit and wait for the right moment.

Rainbow was still struggling against herself when Twilight finally returned from the balcony, her wings still faintly glowing. "Hey," she mumbled, still lost in thought.

"Hey," Rainbow returned, hopping to her hooves. "Ok, Twilight, I'm winning this time!"

"Huh? Oh, ok." Twilight rushed over, the board and pieces rapidly flying through the air as she telekinetically assembled the board on the floor near were Rainbow was laying. "Your sure, Rainbow? I know you're a fast learner—when you want to—but you couldn't have gotten through even one of those books already. What makes you so confident?"

"You'll see," Rainbow said, a wicked grin across her muzzle. This is going to be good.

Twilight's opening move was simple, moving her king side knight forward. Rainbow knew, like all of Twilight's moves, it was a calculated move that would gain her an advantage that would not make itself felt for several more turns, and it would all be directed at boxing her king in.

All of the various strategies in the intermediate book Rainbow read were intended to attack multiple targets at once, in an effort to force the opponent to do what you want, and open lines of attack onto their own king, but Rainbow saw a different goal entirely.

As the game progressed and most of the pawns slaughtered each-other, Rainbow began to use some of the simpler strategies, first the concept of skewering an opponents piece, then beginning to use tactics such as the revealed threat, and moving to attack multiple pieces at once.

All of the tactics usually reserved for pinning down and removing the enemies king, Rainbow was instead applying to Twilight's individual pieces, hunting them down one by one. Rainbow had lost several pieces of her own, but in the end the numerical advantage she had built proved decisive, as Twilight began to run out of pieces. In the end, Rainbow had won simply because Twilight no longer had any pieces to defend herself.

"Wow, that was bloody," Twilight said as she finally lost the game.

"I know. Again?"

"Sure," Twilight said, resetting the board. "You move first this time."

Again, after a long bloody battle, Rainbow began to take the lead. All of Twilight's strategies focused on Rainbow's king were thwarted as Rainbow pressed her attack against Twilight's pieces. Rainbow spared nothing, but did everything she could to keep her own pieces safe. To try and save as many of her pawns as she could Rainbow would often use the larger pieces to try and take out as many of Twilight's own pawns as possible, then, marching her pawns forward to support her other pieces assured a favorable trade. This time Rainbow had nearly half of her major pieces left as she took the last of Twilight's.

"Ok, I think I've figured you out!" Twilight shouted, as she lost again. "You're trying to confuse my strategies by staying offensive! That wont work this time."

"That's not it Twilight, but if you're so sure lets go!"

This time Twilight played a defensive game, insuring that all of her pieces were in position to defend each-other and made it much more difficult for Rainbow to go on the offense, but still Twilight's main focus was on blocking in Rainbow's king, which made her predictable. Time and time again, Rainbow was able to see the attack coming, and position her own pieces to counter attack, not to box in Twilight's king, but to simply take as many pieces from her as she could, while minimizing her own losses.

Despite Twilight's best efforts her interconnected defense crumbled under Rainbow's dedicated attack, slowly falling, one by one until she again had nothing left. It had cost Rainbow nearly everything as well, but she still had enough to take Twilight's now undefended king.

"Darn it, Rainbow, what strategy are you using?"

Rainbow just smiled her favorite cocky smile.

"That was very impressive Rainbow Dash," Luna's voice called from the balcony.

Rainbow and Twilight both jumped at the unexpected voice, but they both smiled immediately after landing. Luna may have been driving them at a brutal pace, but she was still their friend. Even if she shot me with a lightning bolt during Nightmare Night, Rainbow thought to herself. It's ok, Luna; I strike my friends with lightning from time to time too. "Thanks Luna!"

"You may come in, Princess," Twilight called over her shoulder, as she reset the board yet again.

"Twilight Sparkle, may I play a few matches against Rainbow Dash, myself?" Luna asked, casually moving into the room.

"Sure, although you should probably tell Rainbow," Twilight said, moving aside.

"What?" Rainbow asked as Luna took her place opisite her.

"Starswirl invented this game shortly after the founding of the Empire," Twilight began, ignoring the fact she had just asked Luna to explain a moment before. "Luna and Celestia have been playing this game for thousands of years now! Most of the best chess masters have modeled their tactics off of Luna and Celestia's play. Neither of them has ever lost a match in ranked play, although they've never played against each other in public."

"We've lost plenty of matches, when playing against each other in private," Luna said, making the first move. "Not every match can end in a draw."

"I've always wondered why you refuse to play against each other in public; is that it?" Twilight asked, her eyes glued to the game unfolding before her. "You don't want anypony to see you as anything but undefeatable?"

"Partly," Luna cooed as she made her fourth move, pressing her queen up to take Rainbow's queen side bishop-pawn. "And that's checkmate."

Rainbow spend a moment staring at the board. Luna's queen was just one space diagonally across from her king, directly in front of her bishop. The only piece that could attack Luna's queen was her king itself, but Luna had positioned her own bishop to cover her queens attack on her second turn, meaning Rainbow could not use her king to take Luna's queen. With no other piece to take Luna's queen, and no space for her king to move, it really was game over. "On just the fourth move!"

"It's a very old opening strategy, Rainbow," Twilight lectured. "It's extremely rare that somepony falls for it, as the aggressive opening moves are so easy to spot, and the counters moves so easy to perform."

"Yea, well... rematch?"

"Of course," Luna whispered as she reset the few pieces that had moved during the short game. She then took the first move. "I and Celestia have played many matches against each other, to the extent that we know each others strategies as well as our own. I will use Celestia's style of play this match. I suspect it is the same strategy she will attempt in the coming war."

Twilight continued to stare at the board in wide eyed wonder, getting to see one of her idols play in person, but Rainbow hesitated. Is Luna trying to test her sisters war strategy with a game? If she wants a true test, I think Twilight would do better than me.

Rainbow focused on the match. Luna began with an interconnected defense, much like Twilight had done earlier, but unlike Twilight's Luna's was every bit as offensive as it was defensive. Luna began to secure a large section of the board, while also protecting each of her pieces with each other. It nearly stumped Rainbow for awhile, but she found the weakness.

Moving forward Rainbow managed to threaten a knight in the middle of Luna's formation, who was defending almost all of Luna's pieces. He was essentially the heart of her plan. Luna quickly moved him back, rather than letting Rainbow trade pieces for him.

Rainbow then moved up to threaten one of Luna's rooks, and again Luna pulled her rook back rather than letting him fall.

Her next move Rainbow managed to threaten two of Luna's pieces at once with her bishop, leaving Luna with a choice; lose an undefended rook, or lose a defended knight. Luna made obvious choice, saving her rook and leaving Rainbow with, at best, a bishop for knight trade.

Instead of taking it, Rainbow moved her rook up to threaten one of Luna's undefended bishops, again giving Luna a choice between and undefended, and a defended piece. This continued for several turns, with Rainbow building threats on Luna's pieces on both sides of the board, but was unable to gain a decisive advantage as every time Luna retreated a piece, she moved it to a position to cover Rainbows threats and even create a few of her own.

Rainbow finally made her move, instigating a massive blood bath. At the end of it the board was mostly cleared, and now, with Luna's pieces too few to cover each other effectively Rainbow was finally able threaten multiple undefended pieces at once, and began to take pieces for no loss of her own. In just a minute Luna was out of pieces, and Rainbow cornered her king with her sole remaining rook and her own king.

"Whoa..." Twilight mumbled from the side of the board. "Rainbow, you did it!"

"She has. Take pride, Rainbow Dash. It cost you almost everything, but you have bested Celestia's best tactics and strategies. If you would give me one more game, I would like to see how my own strategies hold up."

Rainbow made the first move this time, playing every bit as aggressive as she had before. Luna's new strategy was also much more aggressive, rather than the deeply layered defense that had marked Celestia's strategy Luna's pieces offered each other no support, which made it much easier for Rainbow to threaten them. At one point Rainbow moved up a bishop, in place to attack one of Luna's rooks and one of her knights, neither of which were covered.

Luna now had to chose which to save, leaving the other to be lost for no cost to Rainbow. To Rainbow's shock she did neither, rather than wasting a move and still losing a piece she attacked with her other rook, spearing Rainbow's knight and rook.

Rainbow thought they might be beginning another game of setting threats against each other, but after Rainbow moved another piece up to threaten another of Luna's, Luna instead took Rainbow's knight, leaving her rook open to Rainbow's rook.

After taking Luna's rook with hers, Luna, still with two of her pieces under threat, moved her queen up, although she was not yet threatening anything with it.

Rainbow took Luna's remaining rook with her bishop, but Luna ignored it, instead continuing to press forward. The game continued for several more turns, with Rainbow building a larger advantage over Luna, taking one of her bishops and most of her pawns.

Luna suddenly moved her queen all the way up, diagonally across from Rainbow's king. "Checkmate," she called out smoothly.

Rainbow looked the board over twice. How did I not see that? Her knight has been there, in position to cover her queens attack for nearly half the game! I guess I was too busy taking everything from Luna's back row.

"It cost you a lot, but you did it Luna!" Twilight chanted from the side.

"It did cost much, yes. You would do well to remember what the objective is, Rainbow Dash. All of the soldiers in the world will do you no good if you lose your king."

"Hey, be fair!" Rainbow shouted. "I've never played before today, and I beat you once!"

"Yes, you have, but would you have attacked with such reckless abandon if you were commanding your friends and family?" Luna's words were gentle, but she spoke with great weight.

"What? Luna, this is just a game."

"It will not always be so simple. Rainbow Dash, do you realized what you've done?"

"Killed all of my friends and family to beat you in a game of chess?" Rainbow didn't want to be mean, but she couldn't stop the biting sarcasm from seeping into her voice.

"That is what it seems," Luna replied, with a smile. "But more importantly, it looks like you have reached the same conclusion the Reiter Ponies have. Up to this point, wars have always been fought over objectives. Against the tyranny of a king, to expand your territory, sometimes even to annexe an entire empire. Maybe small wars will be started for moeny, or even petty glory, but they are always about the objective. If you have nothing to fight for, why fight?"

"Well, the Reiter Ponies do want territory, right?" Twilight asked. "They just want the Crystal Empire, to appease Sombra?"

"We don't know," Luna stated bluntly. "We don't even know how closely they are allied with Sombra. He may have instigated their attack, but he did not personally take part. He would make a powerful addition, as he has such a high power density, but he stayed out of it, or was not allowed to. We also don't know if they want the Crystal Empire for themselves, or for Sombra, or maybe something else entirely."

"And we're going to war with them, even though we don't know what they want?" Twilight wore a deeply concerned look.

"They have attacked us, in force, without warning or provocation. Your brother and sister in law nearly died, Twilight." Luna pushed herself to her hooves and gave Twilight and Rainbow a quick bow. "I have put off my duties long enough. I bid you both a fair night. As always, if you have need of me the guard will know were to find me."

"Ok, take care Luna," Twilight said with a smile, as she moved to take her position opisite from Rainbow back.

"Yea, have a fun night," Rainbow said, giving Luna the best smile she could manage as her mind was busy chasing thoughts.

As Luna turned to leave Twilight gave Rainbow a meaningful look, but Rainbow was unable to tell what it was meant to mean.

Just a moment after Luna gracefully leapt from the balcony Rainbow blurted out an irritated, "what?"

"Do you think this is right?" Twilight asked, leaning forward, wincing. "You know, to go to war to... you know."

"Kill," Rainbow stated bluntly. She had been thinking the same thing all week. Luna's training was starting to shift from endurance and getting her students into the right mindset, into strength training and close combat tactics. Rainbow had escaped mostly unharmed but Twilight had picked up some good bruises, some of them from Rainbow's strikes. It was only a matter of time before Luna started teaching them the best ways to take a ponies life.

"Yea..." Twilight trailed off, looking at the floor.

"Don't worry, Twilight, we're going to be fine."

"That's not what I'm worried about. Is this right, to invade their nation?"

"We can't ignore what they've done!" Rainbow shouted. "We can't just let them get away with this. They've murdered most of our guard!"

"So we're going to kill most of their soldiers?" Twilight asked, cocking her head sideways.

"No! We don't need to kill anypony; all we're going to do is march into their capital and make their leader answer for what they've done. If they try and fight us, we'll defend ourselves. Besides Twilight, this isn't our choice. I don't actually know what Celestia and Luna are planing, but I trust them, just like I trust you. They wont ask us to kill anypony unless we need to."

Twilight blushed quite a bit at that; just enough Rainbow could easily see it against her dark magenta coat. Rainbow was glad she wasn't easily embarrassed; her much lighter coat would do nothing to hide it if she ever blushed.

"Thank you, Rainbow. I hope I'm worthy of your trust," Twilight managed as the color faded, "but that's still not what I mean. I don't think I can do it. What good is a soldier that can't fight?"

"These are not our friends, Twilight; they've killed hundreds already, and they need to be stopped. We'll do everything we can to prevent needing to kill any of them, but we can't ignore their crimes, and we cant put half a nation in prison. Luna and Celestia will only ask us to do what is absolutely necessary, and nothing more."

"Ok, Rainbow, I trust you too. Common, lets play another game, but please, try and be more careful with your pieces."

"Yea, sure Twilight."

Rainbow Dash was not careful with her pieces; she still considered killing off an many pieces on both sides and simplifying the game her best bet at beating Twilight, and besides, in chess you only captured the enemy pieces and held them for ransom. No one dies in chess.

Author's Note:

I honestly tried to keep this chapter as short as possible, as it's only real reason for existing is to smooth the passing of time a bit, give you an update on their overall progress, and establish Rainbow's developing tactical sense... and how it isn't necessarily perfect yet... and foreshadowing something. No, I don't think you've figured it out yet.

With that said, it looks like I can't write truly short chapters anymore... sorry about that.

The focus of chess shifting from purely capturing the enemy king at all cost, to begin targeting the enemies pieces themselves to gain a materiel advantage may sound strange today, as modern chess revolves around gaining ground and material in equal measure, but it wasn't always like this. This really happened in chess; the entire concept and focus of the game shifted massively around this same time period as the real world tactics began to shift themselves.

This story is set in a society that's sort of based on the early middle age, when warfare started to transition away from the cavalry dominated maneuver warfare that colored the Roman Empire's military dominance, into the bloody high cost sieges of the politically grey middle ages. It would take over 800 years until Napoleon would re-invent the concept of objective warfare, using armies at tools to take goals rather than to bloodily dominate a population. This is how Napoleon was able to conquer most of Europe despite being badly outnumbered, by conquering the towns rather than destroying the armies (it kills fewer of your own soldiers to scare an enemy into retreating, than it does backing them into a corner and fighting to the last).

As a result, the drift of military tactics that this story revolves around is itself a strong reflection of reality (although it will be quite heavily out of order, and on a much shorter time scale than in real history).

Nerrrrrrrrrrd. Yea, I am.

As always, feel free to point out any spelling or punctuation errors in the comments. Please include a copy and paste of where the error is so I can easily find it using the search function. If there is any grammatical device I consistently use that irritates you, feel free to bring it up. Having me explain to you why I do it may help you enjoy the story, and if it's something I don't have a good reason for doing then I should stop doing it and would love the opportunity for you to teach me. Happy readings.