Chessmaster's Apprentice

by Magic Step

Lesson 3: Have Fun at Work

Coastal City was a bitter liar.

The sun was shining and bouncing off every glittery window. Flowers bloomed in every window box and lush greenery overflowed everywhere the city planners let it. The air was fresh and clean after the long spring shower. Ponies walked around with smiles on their faces, commenting on how lovely the weather was.

It was freezing.

With just enough cold sea wind to nip away at Phillip’s already frosty nose.

Every previous day, Phillip has stayed in bed as long as he could and inside for even longer. Celestia’s sun burned away the worst of the chill by the afternoon. But the events of last night had kept him up, and then he’d seen the morning paper…

The Pink Sugared Donut Café was very pink and sparkly; from the flowing silk awning dotted with clear rhinestones to the shiny silver chairs to the pink sparkly pavement, the whole thing screamed ‘little girl’s playset.’

Mild Mannered looked so out of place, it was amusing. The tall stallion in his professional suit was daintily sipping coffee and noshing away at six donuts.

“Hey, mate,” Phillip said.

Mild Mannered turned and scowled. “What do you want?”

Phillip held out a copy of the Daily Equestrian. The headline read: “Two more horrific murders. Has SuperStar failed us again?” Then, further down, the name of the reporter who wrote the article: Mild Mannered.

Mild Mannered’s scowl softened a bit. “I thought you didn’t read the paper…”

“What kind of detective would I be if I didn’t keep an eye on the city?” Phillip started to fold the newspaper up again. “Listen, I know what you’re going through-”

“Liar.”

Phillip looked up.

That was a mistake.

His grey eyes locked with Mild Mannered’s blue ones. The tall unicorn had pushed his thick glasses up to his forehead, leaving nothing blocking the Stare.

Phillip felt like his eyeballs were being shoved to the back of his head. His skull filled with searing flames, and it took him a while to realize he was tipping over, letting his head bounce off the pink concrete. He could hear Mild Mannered shouting, as if muffled with cotton, for somepony to fetch medical help. His vision blurred and everything seemed to be slowing down, but his eyes wouldn’t close; they were frozen open as the fire in his head continued to burn.

It seemed like a small eternity of flame nymphs circling his head before somepony lifted him off the ground. It felt like he’d gotten onto a stretcher, somehow. A lavender pony shape and a yellow pony shape carried him off.

With a great effort, a millimeter at a time, Phillip managed to force his eyes shut. The rest of the journey, what little of it he could feel, was spent wishing his headache would stop.

***

Shadow Skip collapsed on top of the metal cage he was supposed to be moving. Stupid power plant was too dang huge. And slanted. And full of tiny steps that he had to lift things up and down.

The power plant was a former hydroelectric plant that had been refitted to use crystal matrixes for power instead before being abandoned for a new building that wasn’t at risk of falling into the ocean. The room Shadow Skip was in was mostly green-gray slate, naturally cut from the low cliff face, a shelf projecting over where the ocean flowed into the cave, rushing beneath his hooves. It had taken him a while to get used to the constant roar in his ears.

The hugest shelf ran from one door to another, and was the one the cage was on. A short distance from the safe ground, separated by a chasm with running water far below, was a small pillar of rock that had once held some kind of measurement device, resting against a smooth stone wall.

There’d used to be a bridge to that smaller rock shelf, and Shadow could still see the metal poles the bridge used to be attached to. Its absence, however, was no hindrance to pegasi like him and Honey.

Speaking of…

“Skipper, dear?” Honey fluttered over to him. “You really, really don’t want to be on that cage…”

Shadow Skip sat up a bit too fast. A metal clip on his bandages scraped against the bars. It was only a little click, not even audible to him against the background noise of the water.

And then the cage began to rock back and forth, throwing Shadow Skip off the top as the creature within barked at him.

Shadow Skip landed on his still tender wrist, making him cry out again. Honey just sighed with exasperation.

“You have just one job left, and I’ll be done with you. Just move this one teeny little cage.”

The cage stopped rocking and the barking switched to growling. Shadow Skip still didn’t want to touch it.

“What even is that thing!?” he cried out.

“I don’t understand the science behind it, I’m just borrowing it. And it goes into the dark room.” She pointed towards the unlit room at one end of the shelf.

Shadow Skip scooted a little closer. “Can you make it quiet first?”

Honey pulled out the flashlight she kept strapped to her hind leg. She spun the handle around and shone colored light at the cage; the sound stopped immediately.

Shadow Skip got behind the cage and urged his tired muscles to work for just a little longer. Honey hovered around, occasionally nudging his burden to one side or the other.

The room where the box went was completely dark, but Shadow Skip didn’t need to look; he just kept pushing forward and let Honey steer him.

“Ooooooh, I almost forgot about the special surprise. Wouldn’t want to leave this baby out.” Honey turned on a light, illuminating half the room and revealing a metal staircase. At the bottom was a grey-green canister about the size of Shadow Skip’s torso. Honey pointed to the canister. “Please move this up the stairs; I need it for a lovely trap I’m setting up.”

Shadow Skip looked at all the toxic symbols decorating the cannister, and saw that one of the symbols was a raven silhouette. “Hey, where did this come from?”

Honey landed at the top of the stairs and started unwinding some wire. “It was given to me by a psychology professor at a university you’ve probably never heard of. He said I could have it at reduced cost if I promised to take notes on its effect, since right now he doesn’t have the resources to test it without alerting some board of ethics.” Honey giggled at the memory. “Of course, he said that if I ever told anypony where I got this, he’d make me sorry. Oh nooooo, a psychology professor wants to hurt me. I’m soooo terrified.”

Shadow Skip wrapped his forelegs around the cannister; it turned out to be much lighter than it looked, so flying it to the top was easy.

“All right, you can leave now,” Honey said.

Shadow Skip gratefully scampered back to the better-but-not-well lit rock shelf room. “Uh… what did Zugzwang want all this for, anyway?”

“All what?” Honey said from the darkness.

“I mean, you know, there’s that maze back there…” He gestured to the dark room. “And you had me build that life-sized board game, and there’s the room with all the dresses… Why so elaborate?”

Honey flew into the room with Shadow Skip. “It’s just a puzzle house. You know how much he likes puzzles. So one pony starts from the inside, one pony starts from the outside, and they work their way towards each other.”

“But why so many puzzles?”

“It’s just fun. The more puzzles, the more fun.” Honey flicked Shadow Skip’s nose teasingly.

Shadow Skip wrinkled his nose. “But I thought you said the maze and the board game were both designed for two ponies to do in competition…”

“Yes, and?”

“But, I mean, they won’t both be doing both of them together, right? If one reaches the maze first and does it by himself, then the other one will never reach the maze before he meets the first one…. Right? I’m so confused…”

“Well… I mean… they’re just both such awesome ideas, and I didn’t want to pick one over the other, so I just built both and I’m going to let fate decide, okay!?” Honey folded her hooves and adopted a sulky expression.

Shadow Skip blinked. “What do you mean, you… I thought you said Zugzwang asked you to do this.”

Honey blinked. “I mean, um, y-yes, of course he did. He just asked me to design it, and...”

“Zugzwang doesn’t normally do redundant things, though.” Shadow Skip narrowed his eyes at her suspiciously.

Honey huffed. “Fine. This isn’t Zugzwang’s idea. It was mine. I’m building it as a present for him.” She smiled. “But don’t worry, I’ll be sure to give you credit too when he thanks me for the present.”

Shadow Skip winced. “And if he doesn’t thank you…?”

“What do you mean!? Of course he’ll love it! Don’t be silly.” Honey rubbed Shadow Skip’s mane vigorously.

Shadow Skip ducked and backed away from the assault. “S-sorry. Um, one more question… you said this game is for two ponies. If one is Zugzwang, then…?”

Honey flew over the handrail to the small rock pillar. “Two words, a name. No points for guessing whose.”

A shudder ran through Shadow Skip’s body at the memory. If he ever failed Zugzwang—which wasn’t likely to happen—then he’d be killed quickly. Phillip just wanted to torture him and…

Shadow Skip sat down and wrapped his forelegs around his bandaged midsection, trying to will his heartbeat back down. No, don’t think about that right now. It’s okay. You’re safe—

His right wing was jerked away from his side. His eyes snapped open and he saw Honey holding his wing in one hoof, and a knife in the other. “What are you-!?”

That was as far as he got.

Blood made freckles on Honey’s face. She backed off, grinning like a maniac, holding out Shadow Skip’s wing.

No longer attached to his body.

“Y-you j-j-j…” Shadow Skip felt his breath stop.

Then it hit him. The roaring, searing pain, flooding from his shoulder and through his body, making him scream in agony as his vision blurred. Everything dulled—including the pain, mercifully, as he swayed to the side and hit his head on the hard stone floor.

***

Phillip’s quiet time was interrupted by a hoof gingerly forcing open the eyelids he’d worked so hard to close. Blue liquid filled his vision, and blinking became easier almost instantly.

“Ugh…” He blinked the blue away. He was in a hospital room, with a familiar dark yellow unicorn standing near him, and about a hundred nervous nurses hovering around the perimeter.

“See, what did I tell you?” Dr. Peculiar said. “Seizure, my hoof. It was just the Stare… again.”

“But, but, but SuperStar would never do something like that!” a sky blue pegasus bleated.

“He only hurts the bad guys!” another concurred.

More murmurs of disapproval.

“Go do your job, already,” Dr. Peculiar said. “And Cloudy Brain, fetch me some hayspirin, if you’ve a mind to.”

The young mares scattered like moths, leaving the doctor and Phillip alone.

“Sorry that took so long,” Dr. Peculiar said. “They should have known what was going on and administered the cure then and there, but noooo…”

“S’all right, mate,” Phillip grunted, his voice a bit rusty sounding. “Should have been watching… expecting that…”

“Why, what did you do this time?”

“This time? C’mon…” Phillip coughed.

“Water, sorry,” Dr. Peculiar said. A nurse trotted up holding a tray in her mouth with two round purple pills, and Dr. Peculiar handed them to Phillip along with a bottle of water.

While Phillip took the medicine, Dr. Peculiar shooed the nurse out again. His headache subsided enough within the first few seconds that he could feel the soft pillows under him.

“Can’t afford to be lying here longer than I have to,” Phillip muttered.

“Ah… still chasing that crime lord?” Dr. Peculiar said.

“Nopony’s safe while he’s in this city,” Phillip Finder said. “But that’s not what I was doing…” He sat up straighter, then waited for the dizziness whirling around his skull to go away. He briefly wondered if there was any way he could explain the situation to Dr. Peculiar without betraying SuperStar’s secret identity.

“Not sure why he snapped at me, really,” Phillip admitted. “Just on edge from all that’s happened, I guess…”

“You… you don’t think Zugdang is controlling his mind, do you?” Dr. Peculiar stammered.

Phillip started to laugh, then saw the scared expression on Dr. Peculiar’s face and realized it wasn’t a joke. “You’re thinking of Ray Gun, mate. Zugzwang- zw, not d- doesn’t mess around with stupid things like that. He’d never trust a plan that has no guarantee of working.”

Dr. Peculiar rubbed one foreleg against the other. “How do you remember that weird name…?”

“It’s Gerwhin, mate.” Phillip rolled over and hung his foreleg off the bed. “Think I’m good to go?”

“Oh, well, if your head feels alright,” Dr. Peculiar said.

“It’s fine. You need to go back to your special cases and stop worrying about a little altercation between crimefighters.”

Dr. Peculiar sighed. “Even if the explorers found the flower within the first 24 hours, it’ll still be another two days before it gets here. And that’s a really huge if, so… no progress on the cutie pox.”

“Hang in there.” Phillip slid off the hospital bed and fetched his hat from a nearby table. “If you need any help contacting the victim’s family…”

“Best we’ve managed is some cousins who wrote back to say they didn’t know him at all,” Dr. Peculiar said. “But if he has any friends who are looking for him, I know you can find them out… I-I just really worry about him. He’s not in the best psychological condition either, and, well… it would just be nice if he had someone to be there for him. Nopony can survive alone…”

“He has you, mate,” Phil said, giving Dr. Peculiar a meaningful look. “Don’t let yourself believe you aren’t good enough for that job.”

Dr. Peculiar smiled slightly back. “Thanks… but I’d rather he had ponies who knew him.”

“I’ll look around his apartment if it’ll make you feel better,” Phillip suggested. He’d already been over the place the victim had been found—a lab that had been quarantined after a chemical spill and never reopened—but he hadn’t seen any sign of Zugzwang’s work, so he’d left it to the City Guard. As enticing as the mystery was, he couldn’t let himself get distracted from his true target.

Oh, and he should probably see what was up with SuperStar. Couldn’t afford to let a pony like him slid into any kind of psychological distress. Who knew what might happen…

***

“I’m energetic, and athletic, ‘cause my pace is so frenetic…”

Shadow Skip felt a cup pressed under his lips, and a thick liquid tasting like strawberry cough syrup poured down his throat. He coughed and spluttered, his eyes flying open.

“Oh, I was afraid I’d killed you for a second there,” Honey Words said brightly. “That would have been inconvenient… ugh, you have no idea how inconvenient…”

Shadow Skip unfolded his wings and flapped them. Something felt wrong…

He looked to his side and swallowed hard. Where his wing used to be was nothing but a bloody stain on some new bandages wrapped around his middle.

This wasn’t real. Nothing felt real. He could still feel both wings... this was just… it couldn’t be…

“Better finish your medicine.” Honey Words jammed the glass over Shadow’s muzzle and flew up over his head. “You lost a lot of blood, and that’ll help. Probably.”

Shadow Skip licked the syrup from the inside of the glass as best as he could, before he remembered that he had hooves. They were shaking and kept slipping off the cold, condensation-coated cup. Eventually it slipped to the ground and rolled off the edge of the small rock island, plummeting to the rushing river below.

Shadow Skip leaned over and watched the glass vanish into the turbulent water. He wrapped a forehoof across his body and touched where his wing used to be. It hurt, but he could still feel the missing appendage there, as if nothing was wrong, even though nothing would be right again...

Without a wing he couldn’t fly, and if he couldn’t fly, his talent… his job… his hobbies… everything…

He looked up and saw a noose hanging in front of his face. That was... tempting. Somehow the apparition didn’t surprise him; nothing since the night he’d met Phillip hadn’t felt surreal.

Then the rope swooped towards him and slipped around his neck. It tightened and yanked him backwards, lifting his forelegs up. He pawed the air and stumbled backwards, coughing and choking at the sudden pressure on his throat. Then his back slammed against the wall, and the rope pulled him higher until he was barely touching the ground with his hind legs. Breathing became hard, and red spots began to dance in his vision.

The rope spun until he faced the wall. Right about eye level were a few small hoofholds; he managed to reach up and grab them. Flapping his single wing and pressing up with his back legs, he rose, trembling, clinging to the small ledges. The rope on his neck went slack, and he sucked in as much air as he could. But with both his forehooves on the wall, he couldn’t get the rope off his neck; he shifted his head around and even, in a bout of silly desperation, tried using his tongue. But it was no use.

“Oh, goody gumdrops! You figured out how it worked all by yourself! I’m so proud!”

Shadow Skip craned his neck upward and saw Honey Words tying the free end of his noose to a metal lever near the ceiling. “H-Honey?”

Honey Words kicked off of the wall and let herself glide lazily down to the ledge below Shadow Skip. “Nothing personal, Skipper, really. But you’re more useful to me this way than you ever were to anyone, in your whole life, ever.”

Shadow Skip’s forelegs were starting to hurt from clinging to the ledge. “Please don’t kill me, please.” A fruitless plea; the deed was already in progress…

“Oh, it’s not really killing you,” Honey Words said, playing with a curl of her blond mane. “Call it… a kill switch.”

Shadow Skip couldn’t hold on any longer, and tried to lower himself. The rope around his neck grew tighter and hurt a lot, but he could still breathe. His hind legs hurt from holding him up though.

And he would bet that if he tried to press his forehooves to the floor, or move away, he’d be cutting his oxygen off.

“Wh-why?” he asked.

Honey Words was ignoring him. She set two bowls, one of hay and one of water, near the edge of the rock shelf.

“Here, that should hold you until I’m ready to start the game.”

“But…” Shadow Skip leaned slightly in that direction and felt the rope tense. “I don’t think I can reach…”

“Use your imagination.” Honey Words took a flying leap over the river and started to head for the door.

“Wait, no!” Shadow Skip cried. “I don’t understand!”

“Patience is a virtue~” Honey sang.

Then she was gone.

Shadow Skip whimpered. He pulled himself up the wall again to rest his back legs, and his forelegs shook in protest.

What was he waiting for…?

***

The waves rolled languidly by the city’s namesake coast, splashing against the rough gray sand. Rolling hills sliced apart by the ocean made for several cliffs, with sparse pale grass clinging bleakly to the top, battered by the wind that carried small grey clouds formed by wild sea magic.

It was the most depressing beach Phillip had ever seen in his life.

And yet, for reasons he couldn’t understand, there were tourists. Or maybe locals trying to make the best of their poor choice in hometowns. Some were bathing in imaginary sunshine, and some were attempting to withstand the chilly water long enough to swim. At least the volleyball players seemed to be having fun. It was hard to tell from so high up.

Phillip landed with a soft thump on the rocky ground. He was on a pillar of rock in the middle of the ocean, only a few pony-lengths across. Perfect for a heroic fight scene right out of a two-bit action novel.

Also the perfect place to be alone.

SuperStar stood at the edge of the rock pillar, looking out to the open sea. His green cape, woven from strands of Celestia’s mane that she’d donated in gratitude, was flowing majestically behind him, just like it did when it was still on the princess’s head. The rest of his costume was a tight fitting blue costume with a yellow star on the chest. Naturally, his glasses were off.

“Hey, mate.”

SuperStar gasped in shock and anger. “How did you get here?” He whirled around, eyes blazing red.

Phillip just smirked and adjusted his sunglasses. “Little preparation.”

Super Star’s eyes faded to blue. Then he closed them and sighed. “No, really, how did you get out here? I thought I was the only one who could…”

Phillip stuck a hoof through the chain holding the cloud charm around his neck. He pushed it forward. “Got this as a present from an exec whose child I rescued. Never let it be said the rich don’t know how to be grateful.”

SuperStar just stared at the necklace for a second.

“New technology. It lets me walk on clouds.”

SuperStar looked around at the thin fluffy clouds floating through the air. “You can do parkour on clouds now?”

“Seems like it.”

Neither of them said anything for a few seconds. The sound of waves filled the silence.

“You knew I was going to be here, didn’t you?” SuperStar said softly.

“You miss her. That’s only equine.” Phillip started to move next to SuperStar, but SuperStar whirled around angrily.

“You think I don’t know that!? I’m not here to hide because I’m afraid of feelings, y-you idiot!” SuperStar choked on a sob. “Do you know how many… how many times I brought…” His voice got less angry. “Star Scoops and I… this was our special place, and now she’s… now…” Tears glittered in his eyes, and he bit his lip for a moment. “I used to… it’s so hard to believe, only a week ago, Doctor Ray Gun was my worst fear… him and his destruct-O-lasers, or mind control lasers, or… or… I’ve saved my little Star from what I thought was certain death so many times over, and I thought that was the worst life had to throw at me… and us… you know?”

Phillip tactfully decided not to comment.

“And then… and then suddenly you show up working on a case, and the next thing I know, Ray Gun is dead on the floor from a normal bullet, and then Star… Star was… Star was…” He sunk into a sitting position and pressed his forehooves to his eyes. “And now… she really is gone. I can’t save her. I’m worse than useless.”

“Oh, c’mon, mate, you can’t blame yourself for not being able to reverse death—”

“Shut up!” SuperStar reared onto his hind legs, eyes blazing bright white, his horn sparking with energy. “None of this would have happened if you hadn’t chased Zugzwang here! What have you done to my world Phillip!? To their world!?”

“You aren’t thinking clearly,” Phillip said firmly, holding one hoof out. “Calm down—”

“I can’t calm down!” SuperStar whirled around, his cape swooshing violently. At least his horn stopped glowing. “I thought I understood how this world worked, but now all the rules have changed, and I don’t… I don’t even… I’d rather die than be an amoral cold-hearted jerk like you!”

Phillip narrowed his eyes at SuperStar’s back. But he didn’t get a chance to pick what to say next.

“But… but that’s all that’s left for me, right? All those silly rules I made for myself… they don’t work against ponies like Zugzwang…” He took a shaky breath. “Equestria doesn’t need me anymore…”

“No, stop.” Phillip trotted up and put a forehoof around SuperStar’s shoulder. “I do what needs to be done, but that’s the job I’ve chosen for myself. You did a good job on this city before I arrived, and you’ll do a good job once Zugzwang’s gone.”

SuperStar inhaled slowly and wiped one forehoof across his eyes. “Did you… did you have a reason to come here?”

Moving on to business this fast seemed callous, but maybe SuperStar needed something else to think about. So Phillip reached into his vest pocket and took out two small vials, each with a bit of honey-colored mane in them.

“On Dr. Peculiar’s request, I went back to the infected scientist’s apartment to see if I could locate any friends of his.”

“Friendship therapy.” SuperStar gave a bitter smile. “He always was big on that…”

“There were plenty of signs that he had a girlfriend.”Phillip held up one vial and shook it. “I believe this came from her. And this…” he shook the other vial. “This was taken from the lab where our patient was discovered.”

“So she… she was with him?” SuperStar took the vials and looked them over. “But why hasn’t she come forward? Isn’t she worried about her boyfriend?”

Phillip shrugged. “Perhaps she’s worried she’ll be held responsible somehow...” he said, rubbing a hoof to his chin. “Oh, one other thing.” He pulled a sealed evidence bag out of another pocket; this one held a gray feather. “This may or may not be hers. Don’t suppose this rings any bells?”

SuperStar stared at the feather. His lips moved slightly, like he was whispering to himself.

“What’s that?”

“Honey Quill…?” SuperStar pulled back and shook his head. “No, never mind…”

“Who is she?”

SuperStar stared at his forehoof thoughtfully. “Honey Quill… was one of Ray Gun’s henchponies. Not high ranking or anything, but very… oddly enthusiastic about her job, so she kind of caught my attention. I had to arrest her once for driving one of Ray Gun’s experimental tanks through the streets shooting random things; Ray Gun was furious she’d done something so moronic. She vanished when Zugzwang destroyed the Ray Tower, and I assumed she was buried under the rubble somewhere.”

Phillip grunted to himself, already turning away. “I think this is a lead I’d better follow…”

Comments

[themouthofmush]

this is a pretty good chapter. i'd recommend going through slowly to see the few sentence structure errors you go. nothing too major. a missing space after a quotation mark here, a line break there.