Starscribbles

by Starscribe

Opening Move

Twilight's brow twisted in concentration. Sweat slid down her face in a slow, distracting trickle. She needed perfect concentration. Over an hour of time went into this moment, the culmination of focus and discipline required to deliver her here.

Before her she saw an infinity of possible futures, each one more disastrous than the last. Her opponent Rainbow Dash had made such deviously clever plays, gradually stacking the odds against her with every turn.

The future of Equestria might not hinge on this moment, but the audience watching them certainly shared some of Twilight's anxiety. Half of Ponyville gathered around them, gradually filling the empty spots in the park. The delivery mare, several flower sisters, even the bat working the radio station just across the river.

Everypony was here to see what would come of this deadly engagement. Their whispers were another distraction, pulling Twilight away from where her focus needed to be.

"It's not a big deal," said her opponent from across the battlefield. Rainbow Dash was so relaxed she literally lounged on a cloud, head hanging upside-down to survey the deadly arena.

When she even bothered to look. She wasn't watching it now, but seemed to be enjoying the attention. If it wasn't for the audience, her opponent would likely have given up and moved on some time ago. But as their audience grew, so too did her pride.

Twilight allowed herself a single glance away from the arena. The townsponies had put on various flags and pins since last she saw them—purple or blue. The audience, like the battlefield, stilted blue.

Where did they even get those so fast? How long had they been locked in this desperate struggle? How long until Twilight discovered what Rainbow was doing to tilt the odds in her favor?

Finally, Twilight reached forward with one hoof, sliding a pawn across the chessboard towards Rainbow's unprotected king.

"Check."

Then she sat up, breathing a sigh of relief. Twilight should not be so stressed about this gambit, she'd been setting it up for the last six turns. It was one of Magnus Chariot's most daring ploys, the stuff only a real master of the game like Twilight should even attempt.

The bridle was tightening around Rainbow now. One more turn, and this streak of bizarre wins would finally come to an end.

Gasps rippled through the crowd, as surprised ponies leaned in to stare. Apple Bloom appeared closest to the board, then scampered away to whisper what had just happened to the crowd. But Twilight could hear nopony trying to pass instructions to Rainbow. Nopony was even on her side of the board, so they couldn't be sneaking up behind her.

They were sitting in Ponyville's public park, arranged around the single stone chessboard placed here for casual pick-up games. That was how this encounter had started, before it turned into a desperate struggle for Twilight's intellectual survival.

Rainbow turned back to the board, looked it over for less than a second, then nudged a single bishop across, snatching the pawn and trapping Twilight's own queen.

"Not anymore." She closed her eyes then, rolling back onto her cloud in mock-repose. There went one of Twilight's remaining pieces. More importantly, that was the end of her gambit.

How had she not seen that bishop? Twilight began to hyperventilate, rocking back and forth in her seat. She had spent minutes scouring the board for anything that could prevent her plan from working. Rainbow had walked right into it—now it was all ruined!

Without words exchanged, a few ponies switched colors away from her.

"I don't understand," somepony muttered—Twilight couldn't see who. "Isn't that the smartest pony in Equestria? How is she losing?"

The rest of the game was a forgone conclusion after that. In several brutal minutes, she tried to salvage what victory she could, but it was all doomed. Soon enough Rainbow toppled her king, with a dramatic, "Checkmate!"

Applause passed through the eager crowd, along with a smattering of polite stomps and many unhappy mutters.

"I can't believe it," Twilight whispered, oblivious to it all. For her, the audience could be thousands, and it would do nothing for her anxiety. Everything that confused and broke her was sitting across the table.

"Four wins," she said. "That's your fourth game in a row, isn't it?"

Rainbow looked up from her cloud, tilting her head slightly to one side. "Fifth? No, you could be right. I'm losing track."

She was losing track. This mare had beaten her so many times that she couldn't even remember how many!

It made no sense—nothing about these last few hours made sense. One casual game, one that began with explaining the rules to her friend, culminated with a defeat so devastating that the crowd was beginning to disperse. There was clearly no more drama to be had in who would win here.

"Twi?" The cloud popped, fizzing out into little wisps of mist and light. Rainbow landed on the ground across from her, making her way over. She rested one hoof around Twilight's shoulder, meeting her eyes.

Twilight remained in place, letting her do it. She was barely even thinking clearly enough to see what she was doing, much less stop her. "Twilight, what's wrong?"

The question was so outrageous it took Twilight several seconds to figure out how to respond. She couldn't not know. Was that question to humor her, or mock her?

"It doesn't make sense." She finally stood, pacing around the chessboard. She surveyed it from every angle. Each of the fallen pieces on the moon side had a story, a story of mistake after mistake.

"I've played everypony in Ponyville, almost. I've played at regional championships, I've played pickup games from Canterlot to Los Pegasus. I have my own pieces, in a set once owned by the ancient champion Bay Fisher."

Rainbow lifted her hoof when Twilight started moving, then followed behind her. There was no particular judgment on her face as she did it, just confusion. "Okay. Those all sound cool I guess. But what does that have to do with our game?"

"You can't beat me!" she said, both wings flaring. "I mean you shouldn't have. Once—anypony can make mistakes, or have beginner's luck. Maybe I wasn't giving our first game my full attention, since I thought you'd never played before."

"I haven't played before," Rainbow repeated. She said it with as much casual confidence as she had said so many other things before. Yet it must be a lie. There was no other explanation for her performance.

"Rainbow—my ELO is 2150. I'm one of the best ranked players in Equestria. You can't seriously be saying you'd never picked up the game before."

Rainbow's casual expression never faltered. She didn't look away, tuck her tail, or adjust her turning feathers the way she often did when she was being less than truthful. Every sign pointed to her honesty, except the obvious.

She must be lying. Either that, or— "How'd you do it then?" Twilight asked. Her horn flashed, and the pieces all teleported at once. They reappeared standing up, each one in the positions they'd been in. She recreated the Chariot gambit, the board identical to how it had been half an hour ago.

By now, they were alone in the park. The crowd dispersed, with ponies hurrying to get out of their way. Maybe they sensed a developing friendship problem, or they just feared what an angry princess could do.

But Twilight Sparkle wasn't mad. She was baffled, confused beyond all rational expression. She wasn't upset with Rainbow Dash—but she might be. If she learned that the pegasus had compromised her morals to achieve such success. If she learned that she'd cheated—Twilight wasn't even sure what she'd do then. Not feel very friendly, that was for sure.

"Right here. How'd you know to go for that pawn? The rook was threatening your queen."

Rainbow shrugged. She looked down at the board, then back up. "I guess. But you moved your piece towards my biggest one. I thought you told me I was supposed to protect him. If he fell, I lost."

She lowered her voice to an annoyed mutter. "Stupid king not defending himself. Wouldn't get into so much trouble if it was a princess instead."

Twilight's mouth hung open. Rainbow hadn't even seen the ploy against her queen? She aimed her horn at the board again, and the pieces all rearranged themselves. This was the setup from their previous game, when she had anticipated a critical trade of knights that derailed her whole plan when Rainbow sacrificed three pawns instead. "What about here?"

The pegasus squinted down at it again. Then she circled around the board, settling down to the side she would've been on when she was playing. Her face lit up suddenly. "Oh, right! You said the taller pieces were more important. I protected them with the smaller ones. Felt a little sorry for 'em... you won't tell Fluttershy, will you?"

Whatever anger the princess felt, drifted further towards confusion. In both cases, Rainbow hadn't been thinking of any long-term strategy, just repeated more advice that showed little comprehension of how the game actually worked.

Those were things Twilight had explained. And from the other side of the board, Twilight could imagine how they would make sense.

She repeated the exercise with a few more of the moves she remembered being the most infuriating, recreating the board each time from memory and demanding explanations. Each time, Rainbow's reasoning was so basic it would be a stretch to use even at extremely beginner-friendly chess courses.

She would've kept going through every single move in their whole series if Rainbow let her—but the pegasus wasn't known for her patience.

Rainbow groaned with exasperation, brushing the pieces off the board with one wing. "I get it, Twi. This whole chess thing doesn't matter to me anyway. You can go ahead and say you won, if you wanna. I won't be mad."

"Say I won?" Twilight repeated, baffled. "That won't mean anything. I don't care if I lost, but I have to understand why. Are you sure there was nothing else helping you? Nopony whispering advice, no spells cast on you... Trixie doesn't have anything to do with this, does she?"

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, then took off. She floated in a low hover, watching Twilight with growing concern. "Twilight, I was just playing a game. I think maybe—maybe the reason you kept losing, was because you were thinking too much about your moves? It felt like you were taking longer and longer with every move you made. How long does it really take to figure out how to move one piece?"

"As long as it takes," Twilight answered, reflexively. "In tournament play, each player has a total of—"

Rainbow interrupted her, pushing her mouth gently closed with one hoof. "The first game we played, I thought you were gonna beat me. I just did whatever I wanted there at the end, to see what would happen. Then I just did whatever seemed to scare you the most."

Twilight's eyes widened with surprise and recognition. She looked back at the pieces, then at Rainbow. Losing game after game made it hard to think straight—would Rainbow Dash really lie about losing a board game? Was it all some elaborate plot to confuse or embarrass her—or was Twilight herself to blame?

She levitated the pieces back into place, taking her time with each one. She would leave this board arranged for whatever ponies happened to pass this way next.

"You didn't know how to play," Twilight whispered. "But you did whatever upset me the most." And the longer they played, the more Rainbow won—the less clearly Twilight thought.

She had lost before—but in a tournament setting, against the best ponies in the world, she could accept defeat. It was only because Rainbow Dash was her opponent that she had started spinning in circles.

"Sorry about getting crazy," Twilight finally said. "Can you forgive me?"

Rainbow giggled. "It's just a few games. Maybe we should do something easier next time. How do you feel about Dragon Pit?"

Comments

[Gavier]

usually being easy to read isn't a problem in chess, but I guess the exceptional Twilight "Open Book" Sparkle is an exception

[erictheblue]

"You didn't know how to play," Twilight whispered. "But you did whatever upset me the most." And the longer they played, the more Rainbow won—the less clearly Twilight thought.

this reminds me of TWO episodes of the comic strip "Foxtrot":
"andy" (andrea) and Roger are playing chess.
andy says, "i could move here..." roger smirks.
"or i could move here..." roger smirks.
"or i could move here..." roger looks horrified!
"i think i'll do that."
roger facepalms and says, "dang, you're getting good at this."

a later comic:
Roger says, "i could move here..." andy smirks.
"oh i could move here..." andy smirks.
"or i could move my queen here..." andy looks horrified!
"I think i'll do that."
andy says "that's really your move?"
roger grins and says, "andy, let me give you a little tip-"
andy says, "check."
roger yells, "YOU TOOK MY QUEEN?!"
Andrea grins and says, "let me give YOU a little tip..."

[FanOfMostEverything]

Perfect scene between these two. Very glad I caught up on this anthology.