Part 1: The Beginning
It Was Just A Game
Twilight Sparkle, Equestria's brightest mare, never had a challenge like chess. In Magic School, tests about math or magic were not a problem for her and quizzes were a breeze. Unfortunately for her, chess proved to be a much difficult game to play.
After being introduced to the game of chess by her parents, she became obsessed over chess. She played for days, in between her own studies, to try and be the best player Equestria has ever seen. No matter how many times she played against her own father or mother, she always lost. Twilight took the game a little bit too seriously. After all, chess is just a game.
In her quiet library in Ponyville on a nice and cloudless day provided by the Pegasi, she played chess with her friend Spike. Spike is not the best player in Ponyville, for status sake, but he is not a bad player either.
Spike moved his knight piece from C3 to D5. Having confidence in his move, he released his small claws from the piece and relaxed a bit.
Twilight stared at the chess piece and lightly touched her chin with her hoof. She could have tried to approach that knight from multiple directions like with her pawn on E6 or with her bishop on B6. Twilight used her magic to push her bishop to A5.
"Checkmate Spike" Twilight said with a cheerful smile after realizing she made the right choice. "You lose."
Spike frowned and nodded his head. "Darn it. That's my fifth time losing. You are getting too good at this game."
"It's not that hard Spike. All you need to do is run the algorithms in your head and predict where your opponent might land."
"You see! Too good!"
Twilight chuckled at Spike's humor as she put the chess game away. She noticed she is getting better at the game and has thoughts if she should try playing against her parents again. As she slid the chess game box under her bed, a knocking at the front door called out for Twilight's attention
Twilight opened the door with her magic and permitted entry for the pony who was knocking. It was Rarity on the other side of the door. She came for a stylist book for her new fashion line she was developing. Her new fashion line had something about the era before the Equestrian Renaissance.
"Do you have another Fashion of Oi'?" Rarity asked Twilight who was still upstairs putting away the chess game.
"Yeah I have it. It's in the top shelf next to the biographies," Twilight grunts as she pushes the chess game under the bed.
"What in Celestia's name are you doing up there?"
"Putting my chess game away..." Twilight manages to push the chess game under her bed with enough force.
"You play chess?"
Twilight walked down her wooden stairs to meet with Rarity. "Of course I do."
"If you are good, I heard you could try playing at Canterlot. There is going to be a competition held in the castle tonight."
"I am not one for competition, you know."
"Suit yourself. Just talk to me if you are interested and I'll get you connected with some friends of mine to enter."
Rarity kindly asked Spike for the book she came for and Spike got it for her after climbing a tall ladder. Rarity took the book from him, put it in her saddle, and said goodbye to Twilight and Spike. As Twilight closed the door behind Rarity, she thought about the competition in Canterlot for chess. If she thought about it, a competition does not have to be a "competition" per se. It could mean a test of skill and she was the best when it came to tests. She does not like to grab attention to herself so she might drop out if she got to the finals. That is if and only if she made it passed the preliminary rounds.
"Spike," Twilight asks for his attention. "want to come with me to Canterlot for a chess competition?"
"I can't sorry." Spike denied her request with the humblest of apologies. "I have a dragon's reunion tonight." Spike looks at his watch and makes a shocking revelation. "I should be going now. Bye!"
Spike grabbed his white hat with a red feather from a coat hanger next to the door and bolted to the train station. Twilight doesn't even remember Spike even attending any dragon's reunion before. She was sure he was going to be fine. If anything happened, Twilight could just teleport to Spike and bring him home. She still remembered the last time Spike encountered a group of dragons.
Twilight grabbed the phone next to her study desk and called Rarity. Rarity gave the details of the competition to her and made sure not to miss a single lick of information. Twilight wrote everything she heard from Rarity onto a piece of parchment and then folded the instructions into several halves. She puts the paper behind her ear and made her way to the train station for Canterlot.
The train was not full as it usually was, which was great. Twilight did not like having the train crowded because ponies would distract her while she read a book. She found an empty seat next to a window and took out her newest favorite book; Chess Playing of the Past. As she flipped the pages, she glanced at something in the corner of her eye. A stallion with a black coat and white mane approached her casually.
"I do not mean to be rude but, are you a chess player?" The stranger asked Twilight. Twilight nodded and then continued to read her book. "May I sit in the chair across from you?"
She obviously acknowledged that the pony was a foreigner because of his strong accent but she knew better than to not to judge people according accents. Applejack had an uncommon accent but she wasn't foreign.
"I am sorry but who are you?" Twilight questioned.
"My name is Saxon Shihram. Call me Saxon, please." The pony replied. He sat across from Twilight.
"That is nice to know." Twilight put her book beside her so she wouldn't be rude to her new acquaintance. "I am Twilight Sparkle, by the way."
"You want to get better at chess? Reading a book doesn't get you far, Ms. Sparkle."
"And your point is?"
"I train the best of the best chess players all over the world and I could train you. Are you a little interested in what I am talking about?"
"Kind of." Twilight said shyly.
"There is a start. I could teach you how to be a good chess player for the competition tonight. I guarantee you will get one-hundred percent better at chess after one session."
"I'll try it. But wait, what will it cost me? I play chess as a hobby."
"Nothing if you can beat me at a game of chess during the teaching session."
The black stallion reached under his chair and took out a chess game. It was almost like he planned to meet a chess player on the train before getting to Canterlot. The chess board was prearranged and perfectly tailored to a standardized chess game. Twilight got a little surprised at the offer but she played the game with Saxon.
Twilight started the game by moving her knight from B1 to C3. Saxon moved the pawn on B7 to B5. Twilight could already see that his pawn was ready to intercept her knight within another turn if she did not move it. It might cost her a pawn or a bishop in the long run, but she could not afford to lose her knight. Twilight incorporated her knight into her coup de grace in any game. She moved her knight from C3 to E4, moved a pawn on A2 to A4, and advanced her castle from A1 to A3. Saxon retaliated back by moving his pawn on F7 to F5, moves another pawn from A7 to A5, and takes his bishop on a diagonal trip from F8 to A3, and removes one of Twilight's castles from the game.
"You are good at this game." Saxon compliments Twilight.
"I'm a little good." She says back to him.
She moved her own bishop diagonally to attack his bishop and removes it from the game. The game keeps playing like that over and over again. Since Twilight did not know how to play strategically against Saxon, she played it safe and allowed him to remove from play some of her pieces for a majority of his.
To what seems like a near end to a game, Saxon only had four remaining pieces left. He had his king on B8, a pawn on D2, a castle on E4, and another pawn on F4. Twilight on the other hand still had ten pieces left scattered across the board. It was really important that her king was on H1, her knight on B3, and her bishops on E1 and G2. Saxon advances one of his pawns forward to F3. It is now Twilight's turn. She moves her knight to C5. Saxon pushes his pawn forward once more and Twilight moves her knight to the king for check at A6.
"You got me cornered there, I'll give you that but you must have a back up plan next time." Saxon taught his first lesson to Twilight. His king moved to B7.
"Thanks for the help. I already learned that." Twilight said as she reached for her unscathed queen. Her queen moved from B1 to A1, checking his king again.
Saxon moved his king to A8. Twilight's bishop shifted to G3. With safety over the horizon, Saxon moved his pawn forward once more. Saxon aimed for his pawn to be promoted to queen to end the game in his favor. His fantasy victory was cut short when Twilight moved her queen to A1.
"Checkmate, you lose Saxon," Twilight said confidently.
Saxon was astonished and looked at the chess board. She did win. Her knight on A6 would have trapped the king if he moved to B8. If he took out the knight, the queen would have taken his king. Not only that but both bishops of Twilight stare down the king from both diagonal directions. Saxon was literally trapped in a corner. He did lose.
"Good game. You've deemed yourself worthy of my session, " Saxon congratulated to Twilight Sparkle.
"It was a challenging game but it was easy," Twilight said to him back.
It was not an easy game as she calmly said. Throughout the game, Twilight was at risk of losing her pieces to Saxon nearly every turn. She sacrificed all of her pawns just to have her most important pieces ready for the checkmate. She lost both her castles and one of her knights in that game.
Twilight thought in her head what if the game became real? Would she be thinking differently? Could she seriously sacrifice pony pawns for her advantage in actual warfare? Twilight knew though, that chess was just a game. It could not be any more real than the chess game board itself.
The train stopped in Canterlot when Saxon hid chess board game under his chair. Twilight and Saxon left the train as soon as it stopped and they made their way out of the station. Twilight made several observations of the stallion Saxon. She could tell from observation that he was a wealthy guy with experience in playing strategic games like chess. He might have played War with playing cards or poker if he was good at calculating moves ahead.
Twilight followed Saxon with her suspicions behind her. As she passed by fancy ponies with their up-tight lifestyles, Twilight missed her life in Canterlot. The massive library in Canterlot Square called Starswirl’s Library and the Canterlot Castle archives were her favorite places to go to when she was still living in Canterlot.
Even though she missed her old life in Canterlot, she could never regret meeting her new friends. Her new friends; Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie taught her new lessons on friendship every day.
She did not know it but her friendship was going to be tested soon.
Saxon stopped Twilight Sparkle at a marble building nearly thirty hoof steps tall. The building was more like a stone slab in the middle of Canterlot. There was no windows, no doors, and surely nothing that could even remotely give a description of a building. So why did Twilight have a strange feeling that it was indeed a building?
Saxon rotated his head slightly to see if his follower was still behind him and he placed a hoof on the stone slab. A bright circular pattern glowed under his hoof and Twilight jumps back a hoof step. The glowing pattern on the stone slap surprised Twilight since she does not know if inanimate objects could even conduct magic.
A glowing line came out of the circular pattern and an outline of a door was drawn from it. Saxon placed his hoof away from the pattern and moved the slab to the side. Saxon’s hoof print was the key to the hidden door. Saxon walked inside through the doorway and into a dark abyss. Twilight, having second thoughts, followed behind him. The door closed and both were in complete darkness.
The darkness frightened Twilight because it was the same complete darkness she experienced with the Chrysalis Queen’s crystal prison. She could feel chills down her neck and her hooves shivering a bunch. She hoped the lights would turn on and it did, after a couple seconds of waiting. Twilight opened her eyes from the darkness and witnessed an architectural feet.
In front of Twilight and Saxon was a large version of the chess board in a cave like arena. Twilight politely moved in front of Saxon and admired the excellent artwork. The ground was pure and smooth marble and the chess boxes were geometrically aligned perfectly.
“This is amazing! How did you do this?” Twilight says in awe.
“It was quiet easy really,” Saxon explains. Before he continued, Twilight felt something off with Saxon. “I used ancient arcane magic to create this battlefield.”
Twilight stood up from the floor and got stuck. Her hooves could not move and it felt like they were glued to the floor. Twilight tried her best to free herself from the invisible force that binded her to the ground.
“Arcane magic? What are you talking about?” Twilight muttered while trying to pull her hooves out of the ground. “Release me Saxon!”
“How about no?” Saxon laughed maniacally. “You are going to help me with an experiment first.”
Across the chess board was a square opening in the ground. A black shadow of a pony emerges from the ground and is parallel to Twilight. The shadow of the pony was dead as the starless night sky. There was no emotion on the shadow’s face, if there was any, and Twilight could not tell if the pony was even real.
“The game is simple,” Saxon’s voice echoed in the air. “Beat this shadow pony at chess and you advance to the next level in our game. You lose, well, try not to.”
Twilight looked up into the air for anymore instructions but the chess arena is silent. She turned her attention back to the black shadow pony across from her and observed the instructions she was waiting for. The black shadow pony stamped its hoof once on the ground and its side of the chess game is assembled with chess pieces.
The chess pieces were like the black shadow. The pieces were actual shadow ponies too but Twilight could see each of the pieces characteristics. The pawns only had a cloak like cover over their faces, the castles pieces carried a shield, the knights had heavy armor on, and the bishops had staffs with jewels on top.
Twilight took her hoof and stamped it once on the ground just like the shadow pony did. Her side of the chess game was filled with pieces too except they were different than the shadows. The pieces were actual ponies. The pawns carried the same physical features as the shadow pieces; cloaks covering their face.
“This game of chess, is now real?” Twilight said out loud. She thought real hard in her mind as she tried to compute reality.
“Twi? Is that you?” Applejack’s voice is heard in Twilight’s ear.
Twilight snapped out of her concentration state and looked around the chess arena. She found her blonde-mane friend Applejack on the field except something was not right. Applejack was standing on the knight’s square.
“Twilight! What are we doing here?!” Twilight heared Rainbow Dash’s voice this time.
Twilight followed the sound of Rainbow Dash’s voice and found her too on the knight’s square. Her rainbow colored mane was covered in a golden helmet and she had a metal saddle on her back.
“I’m scared,” Fluttershy’s voice called out.
Fluttershy cowered on the bishop square. She used her pink mane to cover her yellow and scared face. She had a staff in her hooves but she does not even realize that for herself.
“When did we get here?” Rarity said to Twilight.
Rarity was on the queen square next to Twilight. There was beautiful jewel crown on top of her head and a red cape on her back.
“Is this a party?” Pinkie Pie yelped.
Pinkie Pie is on the other bishop square next to Rarity and she held a staff in her hoof and a party cannon next to her.
“What in tarnation is going on Twilight? Give us some answers here,” Applejack demanded.
“I may have gotten us in trouble and we are forced into playing a real life version of chess,” Twilight explained really fast. Her friends are given very little time to react and respond. “and if we lose this game of chess, we could possibly die.”
“Let the games begin!” Saxon announced.
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.... I have no strong feelings one way or the other.
It's looking good though.
...
This is strange.
Pardon my criticism, but I am only trying to help.
Why did Twilight follow Saxon? She just met him, and he never invited her or anything. Second, why did she follow him into a mysterious building with no doors or windows that had an arcane lock of some sort on it? She's not stupid. That was quite out of character.
Also, how did the remainder of the Mane 6 get into the building? It seems as though you're simply plopping them down on the chessboard with no explaination of why Saxon wants them to do this, why he chose them, how he knew that they were her friends, or how he got them all there.
Again, I am only trying to help.
.... Okay. You have earned a like and a fave from me.
Ok, I for one am surprised Discord isn't involved in this somehow.
I enjoyed the concept and am looking forward to more. I don't think i've read any other stories with chess as the central theme. :D I loves me some hot chess in the morning.
Present tense... interesting choice. I don't think it works too well here, though.