Chapters Vertrain was on his way to visit Checkmate when a huge crash was heard from inside Checkmate’s hut. He burst into see that Checkmate was enraged, using his magic to throw everything around the hut.
“What in the name of Celestia is going on here!” Vertrain said, worried about his friend.
Checkmate turned to face Vertrain. “I just heard that Twilight had been made a princess. All of my plans have failed. All attempts to break apart Twilight, and her friends have only made their friendship stronger!” Another burst of magic sent a shelf of books flying across the room. “It seems the only way to defeat Twilight is for me to take matters into my own hooves, and destroy each one of them myself,” he said with cruelty.
“Checkmate, you have become obsessed with getting your revenge on Twilight. I think you should give it a rest,” Vertrain pleaded, stepping through the bedraggled remains of Checkmates home.
“Give it a rest” Checkmate said appalled at the other pony’s statement, “Vertrain, you know what gaining entrance to that school would have done for me and my family. It would have covered everything! Housing, medical care, even our taxes would have been covered!” he argued, his rage spiraling out of control. “And if I didn’t know better, it sounds like you are taking her side!”
“That’s not true-” Vertrain was cut off as he was thrown magically across the room by Checkmate. Searing pain shot through Vertrain as his head connected with the wall, making his surroundings spin.
“Yes you are, and I don’t need your treachery!” he exclaimed, “but in light of our past, I will let you go, but if you do not get out of my sight in three seconds...I will kill you,” he said coldly.
As Vertrain tried to reason with him, Checkmate began counting down. Knowing well that there was no persuading him, Vertrain turned to leave, but before he did, he turned to speak once more. “If you want to live your life ruled by hate and selfishness, be that way.” Vertrain paused reluctant to say his last words, “I will not stop you.” And with that he turned his back and left.
When he was gone, Checkmate began plotting his revenge. He already knew each of their strengths and all their weaknesses. The time had come to take matters into his own hooves. The next morning Checkmate sent a warning note to the new princess.
“Dear Princess Sparkle,
I tire of working in the shadows. No longer will I be the puppet master, it is time for you to face your real enemy. Meet me in the Everfree Forest. Bring your friends if you must, but be warned if you do they will share your fate. Fail to comply and I will pick off your friends, one-by-one until none are left. Do not disappoint me Twilight.
C.
In preparation for the upcoming battle, Checkmate grabbed all of his spell books and began studying, trying to learn all the spells he can to achieve his goal. In twelve hours he had read, and mastered, every spell of his twenty four spell books and scrolls. Duplication spells, memory charms, corruption curses, obedience charms, speed spells, disintegration curses, and illusions. Everything he needed to finally get his revenge and bring his life back to normal.
“Now for one last thing,” he said with evil intent infecting his voice. Checkmate then left his hut and started, charging towards Zecora’s hut where The Alicorn Amulet was being kept. His plans was to steal the amulet with nopony noticing, and get out, but if push-came to-shove he would have no problem laying waste to anypony who dared to stand in his way.
Checkmate infiltrated Zecora’s home and started his search. Using his magic, Checkmate began tearing through the hut, ripping open drawers, throwing open chests, and seeking out any secret hiding holes for signs of the amulet. In a matter of minutes, the hut looked like a tornado had ripped through it, potions had been spilled, books had been torn apart, and it all littered the floor.
With a grunt of annoyance and anger Checkmate exclaimed, “Where in the wide, wide world of Equestria did they hide that accursed amulet!?” And just as he uttered those words, the door swung open revealing Zecora standing, completely in shock at her destroyed hut.
“What happened in here, why would you do this my dea-” Zecora was rudely interrupted as Checkmate cast an obedience charm on her, making her stop mid-sentence, and stare blankly at nothing.
“Show me where you hid the Alicorn Amulet!” Checkmate demanded.
Zecora slowly started walking, her eyes aglow with Checkmates influence, to one of the many strange looking masks that she had hanging on her wall. She reached a tired looking face, whose cracks were pronounced as canyons and valleys of green and red staining their features she began stomping on it, attempting to crush the sturdy oak mask. Realizing what she was doing Checkmate shot a powerful blast of magic that completely obliterated the mask reducing it to a pile of ashes and discarded splinters. After pawing through the remains of the mask Checkmate found a little chest, no bigger than Fluttershy’s little pet rabbit, and inside was the powerful Alicorn Amulet.
Checkmate heaved a sigh of relief. “Thank you for your cooperation, Zecora, sadly you are no longer needed,” he cooed as he slipped the amulet back into its case and levitated it just behind him. “Forget my face,” he commanded as he sent a rush of magic straight into Zecora’s brain, erasing any memory of their encounter. Zecora’s eyes dilated as her memory was wiped, then slumped to the floor, unconscious. Having found what he was looking for, Checkmate left the hut, and began his trek home to plan his battle strategy.
For hours, Checkmate locked himself in his house, plotting every possible outcome, bringing all the variables into account, such as strength, durability, battle skills, terrain, health conditions, and, of course, the dreaded Elements of Harmony. Looking for any possible way to gain the upper hoof over Twilight and her friends, which if all went according to plan, would never happen. His only back up plan he had, if things went wrong, was his amulet, and only in dire circumstances would he even dare to take it out. He knew that the amulet would corrupt the wearer, much like it did to Trixie. He couldn't fail, not this time.
Morning came quickly that next day. If he didn’t know better, Checkmate would have gladly taken a stroll through the normally dreadful forest. But today was too important. Today was the day he finally got his revenge, today was the day that Twilight paid for what happened all those years ago, today it would all end. In the clearing that he had pre-selected for this final battle all was calm. The birds were singing their graceful songs, the clouds drifted lazily across the tranquil sky, and a gentle breeze could be felt only just brushing the leaves together. Checkmate sat on the outer edge of the clearing, hidden in the shadow of a nearby tree, waiting for Twilight, and most likely her friends, to appear.
It didn’t take them long to show up. Twilight was leading the group and was flanked by Rainbow Dash and Applejack on either side, followed by Pinkie Pie with Rarity and Fluttershy at the back.
“Wh-where is he?” Fluttershy asked with fear in her soft and gentle voice as she looked around.
“OO! OO! I want to meet this mystery pony! Maybe they want to be friends!” Pinkie said, bouncing up and down like a wind up-toy.
“I don’t think this here ‘M’ character wants to be friends, sugarcube. That there letter seems pretty cross with Twi’,” Applejack said with a worried expression across her face. “But Fluttershy has a point, this mystery pony don’t seem to be here. What do you reckon we should do Twi’?”
“Well, I highly doubt that he would have decided not to show up. I mean, he did call this gathering together,” Twilight reasoned. “Maybe he’s just late”
“Well I think he got scared. I mean, he would have to get through me before he could reach you, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said with a great amount of certainty. Soon after she spoke, the laughter could be heard from the edge of the clearing. A dark colt seemed to melt from the shadows and then became a physical entity.
“Sorry to disappoint you Rainbow Dash, but its quite the contrary,” he uttered with a commanding voice, “you shall be the one running in fear. You may represent loyalty, but I believe I can make you turn your back on friends. Even more so, I will make you fight them for me,” Checkmate said coldly.
“Who are you, and why have you placed a threat against us?” Twilight asked with genuine concern.
This made Checkmate laugh, a sound that sounded like gas escaping from a pressurized can. “Where are my Manners? I am Checkmate, and it’s not a threat. It’s a promise, and like I told you in the letter, they,” he made a sweeping gesture with his hoof that crossed Twilight’s friends, “are just collateral damage.”
“That's some mighty big talk coming from such a little’ pony,” Applejack mused tipping her hat back.
“Yah, plus there are six of us and only one of you,” Rainbow Dash said, taking to the sky.
“Well, why don’t you go and gather some more ponies and make it a fair fight,” he challenged, with a devious look in his eyes, as if daring her to actually go, “by the time you come back, all of your friends will have been defeated.”
“Why you little-” enraged, Rainbow Dash zoomed straight towards Checkmate like a bullet, front hooves outstretched, but was stopped when Applejack threw a lasso around her and pulled her back.
“Please Rainbow, there might be a civilised way to diffuse the tension. Maybe we can reason with him,” Twilight said hopefully, but this only sprang laughter from Checkmate’s throat.
“The time for reason has long past, now is the time for action. I will say this once, and only once. You can surrender now so I can dispatch you quickly and painlessly, or you can feudally resist and bring your innocent friends, down with you,” Checkmate mocked with all seriousness in his voice. “It’s your choice.” After this the group exchanged nervous glances towards one another.
After a moment of silence Rainbow Dash addressed Checkmate, “there is no way that we are going to let you do anything to Twilight, and we will do anything we can to protect her.” the others nodded in agreement.
“So be it,” Checkmate declared, as he crouched down, as if getting ready to charge forward. The other six did the same. Checkmate’s face expressionless as he analyzed each one of them, Twilight was in the center with Rainbow Dash to her right and Applejack on her left. Next to Rainbow was Pinkie pie followed by Fluttershy, Rarity stood beside Applejack. Each of them had taken a similar stance as he had, except Fluttershy of course, who seemed to have all her weight on her hind legs, prepared to run if things got too messy.
An eerie calm descended over the clearing, the birds were singing graceful songs, the clouds drifted lazily across the tranquil sky, and a gentle breeze could be felt only just brushing the leaves together, but then all was still, as if the world itself was prepared for battle, but the stillness only lasted for a moment. The seven ponies suddenly charged at each other with Checkmate and Twilight on a collision course, but just before they collided Checkmate vaulted over her and twisted in the air so he was facing their backs.
Once he landed, Checkmate shot a beam of energy at Twilight’s back leg sending her cascading across the floor. Applejack was the first to turn around to strike back, but was met with two back hooves to her muzzle making her fall backwards in pain. Checkmate spun around to see Rainbow Dash flying towards him, hooves outstretched in an attempt to knock him over, but only made it easier for Checkmate to grab her outstretched hooves and use her momentum to slam her to the ground with a satisfying ‘thud’. As Dash’s body smashed into the ground Checkmate was only just able to dodge a beam of blue magic that was aimed for his head, and counter with a blast of light that would temporarily blind Rarity. The spell would last just long enough for him to screw with her mane. Satisfied with his work Checkmate turned to let her vision come back, but was met with the sight of what looked like a cannon, aimed right at his face.
“FIRE!” pinkie shouted as she yanked on a pull string at the back of the cannon, sending a volley of streamers and party favors rocketing out the barrel. Checkmate was only just able to teleport in time to dodge the party projectiles and see them slam into Rarity, just as she regained her sight. “Oh my gosh, Rarity are you ok?” Pinkie Pie asked, rushing to her aid, only to be intercepted by Checkmate and stuffed into her own cannon.
“Bon-voyage,” Checkmate stated coldly as he angled the cannon upwards and tugged the ignition rope and sent Pinkie flying into the forest. “Now who’s next?” Checkmate asked scanning the battlefield, only to spot Fluttershy cowering on the far side of the field.
Letting out an amused laugh he used his magic and teleported in front of her, causing her to shriek as he appeared. With his eyes full of dark intent he started to charge his horn, as if preparing a spell to attack her. Fluttershy just layed there helpless and terrified in her fear. Checkmate leaned closer to her, his horn, the light continuing to grow as more magic was being stored in it, until his mussel touched hers. Just as he was about to unleash his stored magic he whispered a simple word, “Boo.” Suddenly a flash of light filled the clearing engulfing everything in it.
The other four ponies in the clearing shielded their eyes against the bright light. Once the light died down fluttershy was gone, a burnt patch on the ground was all that remained, with Checkmate standing over it laughing maniacally.
“FLUTTERSHY!!” Twilight screamed in horror at the sight of what was Fluttershy, “YOU MONSTER!” with some effort, due to her injured leg, she stood up, “At first I thought we could persuade you into finding a peaceful solution, but you have just crossed the line!” her eyes ablaze with anger.
Checkmate kicked the burnt patch on the floor. “Now with her gone, even if you had brought your Elements of Harmony they won't do any good,” he said as he turned around to face Twilight, only to be met with Applejack and Rainbow Dash slamming into him and pin him to the ground.
Twilight slowly walking towards him her horn sparkling like a firework with how much magic was stockpiled in it. Checkmate concluded that any spell that she used on him would most likely be fatal. Once she got to him, she angled her horn at Checkmate’s throat “Give me one good reason why i shouldn't kill you right now?” she stated, fury infecting her voice.
“Well first off, I did warn you that, If you were going to fight, that your friends we're just going to end up as collateral. To be honest, you brought this on yourself,” he answered calmly with a smug look on his face. “and secondly,” He kicked Twilight’s front leg, knocking her off balance and broke free from Applejack’s grip, smacking Twilight in the face, pointing her horn at Rainbow Dash.
“NO!” was Twilights only word as another flash of bright light engulfed the clearing, and when IT died down Rainbow Dash was gone, a similar mark to Fluttershy’s was left, and when she saw this she was frozen in shock at what she had just done. “Rainbow,” she muttered, choking back a sob. Even Applejack was shocked, with tears beginning to cascade down her face.
“Oh Twilight, now look at what you’ve done,” Checkmate said smoothly as he used the advantage of Applejack being distracted, kicking the farm pony into Twilight. “I guess me killing your friends wasn’t enough for you was it? No, you had to go and do it too now didn’t you?” he said teleporting over to Rarity, who lay passed out on the ground, her mane a mess, covered in confetti, streamers, and what appeared to be remanence of a cake, “Who’s next?”
Suddenly Pinkie came running into the clearing her eyes wild with anger, and little bits of tree branches and leaves lodged inside her, now deflated, mane. “HOW DARE YOU SHOOT ME OUT OF MY OWN PARTY CANNON!!” she exclaimed in anger.
“Seems like we have found our next contestant,” he muttered under his breath, “ah Pinke, your back, how did you like your flight?” Checkmate said laughing. Suddenly, his eyes flashed and Pinkie was frozen with her eyes glowing white under Checkmate’s influence. “Now Twilight, watch as your friends destroy themselves.” His eyes flashed again, this time lifting Rarity out of her unconsciousness. Picking herself up, Rarity looked directly at Pinkie and began charging her magic. Another flash and Pinkie was gone. Checkmate then proceed to charge his own, and fire it at Rarity, another flash another scar on the once peaceful land.
Twilight and Applejack just sat there, helpless to save their friends, until Applejack stood up. “I can’t take this anymore Twi’, I think it's high time we took him down! Together we can do anythin-guck!” she was interrupted as yet another beam was unleashed and slammed into her.
“Ugg, do none of you know how to shut up, and accept your deaths?” Checkmate sighed. “I was going to kill you next, but i think i am going to leave you here, so that you never forget that you could have, in fact, saved all of your friends, but you were too cowardly stop me,’’ he said.
“Just answer me this one question,” she stated her eyes staring at the floor, “What could I possibly have done to cause you to do this?”
“Well that brings me back.. think back to the day where you had taken your entry exam to Celestia's school of magic. There was a little colt who went just before you. That was me. When I took my exam, the judges said that I was guaranteed the last spot in the academy, but no, you had to show up and win the princess’ attention, and steal that spot away from me! My life started to spiral downward after that, I couldn't keep a job, and nobody wanted me. At first I worked in the shadows, causing most of your hardships, I woke up Discord, I gave Trixie the Alicorn Amulet, I was behind it all! But they only made you and your friends stronger while I was alone! Now you too will be alone, enjoy it,” he started to walk away until he started to hear her laughing.
“You're telling me that the only reason you killed all my friends, is because you were denied from the academy? That one event lead you to do all this?!” she had finally snapped, slowly she started to stand up, “all my friends are DEAD because YOU didn’t pass an ENTRY exam!?” suddenly she started firing mystical charges at Checkmate at rapid fire speed, each one like a rock, and each one scoring a direct hit, “EVERYTHING THAT WAS IMPORTANT TO ME, TORN AWAY BECAUSE OF A STUPID ENTRY EXAM!!!” A final shot sent him flying into a tree where he lay bloody and beaten.
Checkmate was barely able to stand up and say, “where would YOU be If YOU hadn’t passed that test? You’d be right where I’m standing. You yourself said that your life would have been completely different if YOU hadn't passed.” Checkmate began breathing heavily as he spoke, “but enough talk, I think we should end this here and now, both of us have been pushed over the edge. We are two sides of the same coin, you and I. Lets finish it, one last surge of magic, your strongest spell vs my strongest spell. I realized that with you being an alicorn your pool of magic had been increased, so, to even the playing field, I stole this!” the Alicorn Amulet materialized in front of him, and as he slipped it on. “Ready?”
Twilight gave a curt nod as both Ponies started charging their strongest spells. As their horns grew brighter the ground seemed to tremble under the growing force of the two magics. Soon the lights became unbearable to look at, like two suns had been drawn closer to each other, until neither Checkmate nor Twilight could hold them any longer. The beams launched forward with so much might that not even Princess Celestia and Luna combined could have stopped such a blast.
The two beams collided pushing against each other, the meeting point shot sparks of raw energy in all directions; enough energy was released to power all of Equestria for eons. The two spells began flowing back and forth as if playing a game of tug-of-war, but certain death awaited the looser. Both ponies were straining themselves, Checkmate was drenched in his own blood, and Twilight was being exposed to so much force that she was being forced into the ground. Suddenly, one of the beams shot forward and slammed into the other pony, the only sound heard was a cry of complete and utter agony, as the resulting explosion decimated that section of the forest. Then all was still. Through the settling dust only a mere outline of one pony could be seen standing, while the other lay on the ground motionless.
The sound of Checkmate’s maniacal laughter shattered the eerie silence. “I knew you didn’t have it in you to finish the job,” but as the fallout started to die down it became clear that Twilight was the pony standing, her eyes locked on Checkmate, whose body had been turned to stone, all of which except for his head. “Even though you have nothing to lose, You. Are. Weak!” he said after a moments pause, "and you will be alone just as I was."
Twilight's eyes flashed and the stone started to creep up Checkmate's neck "No I won't, they may be gone, but their memory will live on."
"Well I guess that leaves only this," Checkmate closed his eyes and after a moment a spark flew off of Checkmate's horn and zoomed off toward Ponyville.
Twilight watched as it speed off. "What did you do?" She asked, genuinely curious
“What you didn't think I would leave the final battle of revenge, to a magic duel with you? No one always needs an ace in the hole. Mine happens to be a bomb, that will annihilate Ponyville!" Suddenly a deafening 'boom' shook the ground, followed by a large column of smoke rising off in the distance.
With a look of terror on her face, Twilight used her magic to teleport to the outskirts of Ponyville. Once she got there she was shocked to see that Ponyville had been reduced to rubble, a few buildings were missing large portions of walls and barely managed to stand, but it wasn't the buildings that frightened her, it was the carnage. Everywhere she looked she saw ponies who were either dead, mortally wounded, or grieving over the loss of somepony.
Four of these ponies caught her eye, one was a light brown earth pony stallion that had a hourglass for a cutie mark, his lifeless eyes widen in shock. It seems that he was killed by the initial shock, but large shards of glass from a store window were lodged in his flank and neck, causing a bloody mess.
Not too far away was a grey pegasus pony was crawling across the ground, one wing completely missing and one of her hind legs seemed to have been crushed while the other one was gone, she made a long trail of blood as she dragged herself across the floor. She looked at Twilight, her eyes had trouble focusing as she mouthed the word ‘help’, but it was all for naught, for she dropped dead soon afterwards, tears streaming down her face.
Twilight’s eyes drifted to another group of ponies, one, a dark grey mare with a long black mane, was crouched next to a large boulder that seemed to have fallen from a building. Her eyes full of distress and tears as she tried to push the boulder off of what appeared to be a white pony, though it was hard to tell due to the massive pool of blood that was emanating from under the rock, the only clear thing that Twilight could see where a pair of cracked Red glasses.
Everywhere she looked, ponies were either dying or already dead, and the dead ones were lucky, because they were no longer in pain. The few who were still alive were either mutilated beyond the point of salvation, or would have to live with the sight of this destruction and gore for the rest of their lives. All in all The sight was too much for Twilight, and she vomited on the street. “I was so wrong, I thought he couldn’t do any more damage.”
“‘Sooo wrong’ I like the sound of that.” Checkmate said from behind Twilight.
Twilight spun around, her eyes wide in horror, “How did you escape!” she shouted in disbelief, “you were turned into a block of stone!”
“I’m sorry, I can’t do this anymore,” he said his eyes dropping to the floor with sadness. Suddenly the sky began to ripple and the town began to melt away. Within moments the two were back in the clearing.
“B-but how?” Twilight said looking around her
“Everything from you turning me to stone, to the whole bomb segment was an illusion. You just looked so grief stricken, I just can’t do it anymore,” he said with a disgruntled look on his face. “Oh by-the-way, your friends aren't dead. I used a high powered teleportation spell that put them in their homes. Those burn marks on the ground just show how much power I had to put in the spells, I also wiped their memory of the incident. So they are just going about their day to day life. Even Rainbow Dash is still alive, My spell got to her just in time, and if you look closely, you can see that a tree has disintegrated from when your spell missed Rainbow and hit it instead,” he confessed, “I may be evil, but i still have a heart. but seeing you so utterly defeated... I just couldn't bring myself to finish the job.”
Twilight’s expression softened with the sudden realization that all of the things that had happened today were never really been real, and she began to weep with happiness, and also began to laugh. “You have no idea how happy I am right now,” and after a short while she walked over to Checkmate as if to hug him, but instead she punched him in the face.
Rubbing his nose with his front hoof Checkmate said, “Okay, I had that coming”
“You know, because you have shown me great strategic forethought and and since I have ‘Wronged you’ in the past, let me make it up to you now. How would you like to be captain of my royal guard AND my royal advisor?” she said with all seriousness.
“Are you serious, after all that I put you through today?” he said in disbelief.
“Do you not want it? Because I can always give the positions to somepony-”
“Nononononono! I accept, thank you!” he said excitedly.
“Now there are a few criteria that you will have to meet before you can fill the positions.” Twilight said, her horn suddenly flashed revealing a table two chairs and a mountain of papers.
Checkmate blinked his eyes several times to clear them, and when he finally did he noticed that Twilight’s mane had changed. It had changed from its regular straight to a bun, and Twilight was also wearing small glasses on the tip of her muzzle. this new costume change made her look like the stereotypical librarian.
“Now.” she began sitting down and levitating a clipboard in front of her face “Lets begin. First we're going to do some word associations to test your mental stability, so just answer with the first word that comes to your head.”
“Alright.” Checkmate said shrugging and sitting in the chair opposite of Twilight. “Fire away.”
“First word: Joy.” Twilight said not looking up from the clipboard.
“Chess. I like outsmarting ponies in a contest of wit and strategy.” Checkmate replied calmly
“ok, next word: Friends.”
Checkmate's face suddenly became stoic, as if all the emotion had been sucked out of him, and the only word he said was, “Traitors”
Twilight looked up from her clipboard, her face was full of concern. “Is there a reason for why that is?”
“it’s because the one friend that I had betrayed me and abandoned me in a time of need, but thats all in the past... what's the next word?
“Of course..” she said returning her attention back to the clipboard “um next word: Chaos”
“Unnecessary-” Checkmate began.
“Good next word is-” Twilight interrupted
“Hey you didn’t let me finish.. Unnecessary, but fun to watch.” Checkmate finished.
Twilight sat there in silence for a little while staring at Checkmate, her face impassive. “fine” she said after a brief moment. “Next word: Magic.”
“Immeasurably useful.”
“Next one: Cutie Mark.”
“umm... Achievement?”
“Next: Darkness”
“in need of some form of lumanate...”
“ok then Last word: Death”
“Tragic... but necessary if life is to continue..”
After another brief silence Twilight put down her clipboard and look up. “Well you passed the requirement for this portion, but only just.”
“Well I guess thats good... is that it?”
“Nope, one last thing.” Twilight said cheerfully. “Have you been convicted for, or committed, any felonies? These include theft, murder, and conspiracies against Princess Celestia, Luna, Cadence, or my brother Shining Armor.”
There was a silence that seemed to drag on for hours, but once it was over Checkmate took a deep breath and said, “Yes, I have.. Though I may not have been convicted.”
Twilight, surprisingly, didn’t seem to be too shocked. She simply nodded and said “Well maybe they're not severe and can be easily dealt with... what exactly is it that you did?”
“Well...” Checkmate took a deep breath and continued, “First off I Tried to break you and your friends apart with several schemes... first was the obstacles on the night of the summer sun celebration, others include Gilda, Trixie, I started the Parasprite infestation in Ponyville, the Flim Flam Bros. takeover was my idea, I told Trixie about The Alicorn Amulet.”
“Well... I wouldn't consider those necessary ‘Illegal’ but I do take them to some offence...” She said glaring at Checkmate.
“Oh...there’s more” Checkmate continued reluctantly. “I also released Discord, told him about the new holder of the Elements of Harmony and their weaknesses. Then I stumbled upon the Changelings cavern and the pointed them towards Canterlot...” He said.
“WHAT!?” Twilight said her mane and tail bursting into flames. The fire didn't last long for Twilight calmed herself down by inhaling deeply and exhaling slowly, tracing the path of her breath with her front hoof.
“I realize that releasing the Lord of Chaos was a bad idea, but I was just so angry... I didn’t want to hurt anypony.” Checkmate confessed with remorse.
Twilight looked down on this unicorn with a cold stare, but after a brief reflection the princess’s eyes softened seeing that his apology was genuine.
“Of course, you do realize that before you become the head of my royal guard and my royal adviser, I’m going to have to, one, officially announce you as such in front of the rest of the Council of Equestria and, two, you're going to have to go to court, and clear yourself of all the criminal charges,” Twilight continued in warning. “and if you are found guilty you will not be able to serve as my guard, or even my advisor. In fact, due to the severity of your charges you might even be sent to Tartarus for the rest of your days,” she said sadly. “The only way around it, is if you get a majority vote among the the rulers of equestria, these include Celestia, Luna, Shining Armor, Cadence, and myself. The way I figure Celestia will trust my judgement, Luna I'm not too sure, Cadence and my brother will most likely vote against you.”
Chapter 1: Revenge, End
Chapter 2. Court is now in Session
In one week Twilight was able to organize the rulers so she could announce Checkmate as captain of her royal guard and as her royal advisor. She escorted him into the chamber where important battle strategies were held, which coincidentally would be where thy rulers inducted any royal official.
When they walked in, they were greeted with the sight of all the rulers of Equestria sitting around one table and waiting for him. “Members of the Council of Equestria, I have gathered you here today to induct Checkmate, not only to be the captain of my royal guard, but also my royal advisor,” Twilight said with respect. “I have chosen him because recently he has shown me that he is capable of thinking of every possible outcome of just about any confrontation, and prevail, even if all odds are against him.”
“Well, as impressive as that sounds, there is the background check that we must do to all inductees, to make sure that they have no criminal record that could threaten us,” Celestia said with a level of prestige that Checkmate had never heard before. She looked directly at Checkmate and asked the simple question. “Have you?”
“Umm well, you see, uhh-” Twilight began, until she was interrupted by Checkmate.
“Yes your majesty I have, although none that I have been charged for,” Checkmate said, strangely calm under the current circumstances.
“Well then, please enlighten us,” Shining Armor said with his eyes squinted in suspicion.
Checkmate took a deep breath as he told the Council that it was he who had unleashed Discord and gave him the idea to steal the elements and to change their users into their polar opposites. Also that he had discovered the changeling’s cave and informed Queen Chrysalis of the whereabouts of Equestria, telling her that if she played her cards right, she would be able to take over and dethrone Celestia to gain control of the entire kingdom.
This enraged Shining Armor. “You're telling me that it was because you that my wife was imprisoned under Canterlot, tortured and I was almost tricked into marrying another! On top of it all, it was because of your actions Celestia was attacked and Canterlot over-run with those little vermin!” Shining Armor said nearly, jumping out of his chair to strangle Checkmate. “Is there anything else you would like to tell us?”
The tension in the air was so thick that Checkmate began running scenarios in his head of what he would do if one or all of the council members lunged at him with lethal intentions, all of which ended with him being vaporized. To his surprise, the council just sat there in shock and stared at him in disbelief.
Finally Celesia broke the silence and spoke. “So, thats one charge of assisting a federal criminal, and one charge of high treason. Because you have not been charged for these crimes, you will have to go to court and settle the case. Your trial will be held in one week at Three post morning” she paused to look at the other members of the council, still keeping an eye on Checkmate. “Do we all agree?” slowly the others began to nod. “Then it’s settled. See you all in one week.” At once the council stood up and walked out of the room, each keeping an eye on Checkmate, as if expecting him to stab them in the back.
Checkmate and Twilight stayed silent, each taking a quick glance at every council member until the two sat alone, “Well that could have gone better,” Twilight said trying to lighten the mood when Checkmate interrupted.
“Thirteen percent,” Checkmate said, with Twilight looking at him in confusion. “I have a thirteen percent chance of being found innocent, and not being reduced to a pile of smoldering ash,” he said with a sigh.
As the week passed, everypony in Equestria had heard the news of Checkmate being put on trial for releasing Discord, and for bringing the Changelings to Canterlot. Everywhere he went, Checkmate was assaulted with just about anything anypony could get their hooves on. Some unicorn ponies would throw rocks or apples at him as he walked by, pegasi would come down with storm clouds and electrocute him, and on occasion, some earth ponies would come up and try to beat him. These attacks became so frequent that, when he did leave his hut, Checkmate would have to keep a constant force field around himself.
After what felt like years, the trial finally come. It was being held in a huge courtroom that looked like it could hold all of Canterlot, but due to the massive crowd of ponies, it felt small. Once again, Checkmate was met with the thousands of ponies that began throwing stuff at him, but thankfully, Luna was able to quell them with the Royal Canterlot Voice.
When Checkmate finally reached the Council, Celestia began to speak. “Checkmate, you stand here today accused of Treachery, and assisting a federal criminal.” After a brief pause she looked at Checkmate and addressed him directly. “What do you have to say for yourself?”
“What can I say other than I am sorry, and that I never intended anypony to be seriously harmed, only Twilight-” the council gasps “and I’m just digging my own grave aren't I?” Checkmate said laughing nervously after a moment of realization.
“This is no laughing matter, our judgement will decide whether you live or, due to the severity of your crimes, die,” Luna said unamused. “But going back to your original statement, do you have anyone that will back you up on that, or give solid proof of your change?”
“Yes he does,” Twilight said. “Two weeks ago, when Checkmate and I fought, he had a perfect opportunity to finish me off, but he withheld-”
“Wait hold on, he tried to kill you???” Shining Armor said.
“Thats beside the point. The point is that he had the perfect opportunity and he stopped himself, showing that he does infact have some sort of conscious.”
“Why did he even want to kill you in the first place?” Shining Armor continued.
“He did all of this because I took his place in Celestia’s school of magic,” Twilight said with seriousness, and when she did, laughter filled the room. “Go ahead and laugh it up, but let me ask you this. Where would I be if I was denied the opportunity to learn under Celestia? Certainly not here.” With that, the sounds of laughter were replaced with murmurs of agreement. “He didn’t want to attend the school for the magic or the ability to learn under the Princess Celestia. No, you see, Checkmate comes from a very poor family, and he wanted to join the school to improve his family's lifestyle,” she said sadly. “And I unknowingly robbed him of that.”
“Is that all?” Luna said, seemingly unfazed. Her face showing no expression whereas Celestia was nodding in understanding. Cadence looked sympathetically at Checkmate and Shining Armor just sat there looking like he had just been served.
“Yes it is,” Checkmate said in response to Luna’s question. “I have no one else to help prove my case.”
“I see,” she said as if she honestly didn’t care. “Shall we put it up to a vote then?” She asked the other members looking quite borde. “Lets go down the line, Sister what doth thou say?”
Celestia looked at Checkmate for a while then, without looking said, “I believe that he is innocent, mainly because I trust Twilight’s judgement, and that I truly believe that he will not threaten us and will truly be loyal to Twilight.”
“No surprise there,” Luna muttered under her breath. “I say that he is guilty for all charges. True, he spared Twilight, but who’s to say that he won’t go after any of us? I’m sorry but that is one chance I am not willing to take.”
Checkmate slumped sadly, she was my only hope, there is no way that Cadence or Shining Armor are going to trust me after all I put them through. Checkmate then used his magic to float a scroll and a quil over to him and began writing. When Twilight asked him what he was doing, he simply responded with “Writing my will.” It was no surprise to anyone that Shining Armor thought he was guilty. All that remained was Princess Cadence’s verdict.
Cadence paused for a moment, looking at Checkmate and the council in turn. After a good minute, she gave her verdict. “Despite his recent actions, I believe that Checkmate be allowed to live.” Everyone was shocked and the entire courtroom erupted in protest, only to be quelled by Luna once again.
“Cadence you can’t be serious! I mean after all he has done to us, you want to let that lunatic be with my sister?” Shining Armor stated in disbelief. “He almost got you killed, and you trust him!?”
“Yes, I do.” Cadence replied. “I believe that everypony deserves a second chance.” Shining Armor just sat back and shook his head in anger and annoyance. “Now all that leaves is you Twilight, what do you say?” Cadence said with a smile.
Smiling Twilight said, “My vote goes in favor of Checkmate.”
“Then it is settled, Checkmate, I hereby decree that you are reconciled of all charges and are accepted into the Council of Equestria as Princess Twilight Sparkle’s Captain of the royal guard and as her royal advisor,” Celestia said standing up. And with that the crowd stood up and began cheering.
Checkmate bowed to the council in respect, than to Twilight. “Thank you for trusting me with this great responsibility,” he said to Twilight, but loud enough to where he could have been addressing any of the other council members. “I won’t let you down.”
Chapter 2: Court is Now in Session, End
Chapter 3. Checkmate’s Reckoning
That night all was silent and peaceful, everypony was sleeping and all was still. the only thing that stirred was a lone shadowy figure. the figure silently began to make its way to a rundown factory at the edge of Canterlot. once it got to the door it turned to check for any pursuers, and seeing that the coast was clear, quickly disappeared into the empty building. once inside the figure flinched as the sound of a familiar voice spoke behind him.
“Thou art late.” the voice said coolly as the figure closed the door.
“Forgive me, Princess Luna, but my wife took quite some time before she fell asleep.” the shadowy figure said walking into the light to reveal that he is Twilight’s brother, Shining Armor. “I have to say, you’ve picked a very out-of-the-way spot to house our little get-together.” he said, walking around to get a good view of his surroundings.
“Yes it is,” Luna said with little emotion, “This is where we plotted against our sister 1000 years ago. we thought it fitting to plot the demise of another here.” she said as if she was having a flashback.
“Yes, well, shall we get down to business then?” Shining Armor said after a short moment, “I would like to be done before dawn.”
“all in good time, but we must be careful,” Luna said in warning. “This magic is very delicate. if even one thing goes wrong we will lose control, and that can spell disaster for everypony. for this we need think of our opponent’s strengths and most importantly his weaknesses.”
“and when we do, we can physically manifest these correct?” Shining Armor asked.
“correct, so we may begin.” Luna said facing him, “but remember the purpose of thine test, is to determine his intent, no more.
shining nodded his assent.
“good.” the princess stated “then we may begin.”
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The soft light of dawn shown through Checkmate’s window. normally this would have woken Checkmate up immediately, but today he had decided to get an early start on the day. he had been awake for quite some time,working on experimental potions and studying their effects. one, If poured on a plant, made it grow exponentially. and another, if ingested, would completely knock out the user for a full week, another if sprayed onto bare skin could produce random color change.suddenly an alarm clock began blaring in unison with 12 others, Startling Checkmate so much that he accidentally mixed tow highly volatile chemicals that created a small explosion that covered his face in a sticky black ash. Groaning in protest Checkmate looked at the closest clock and then jumped up in alarm “CRABAPPLES, THE FIRST DAY OF MY NEW JOB AND I’M LATE!” he hastily threw his failed experiment away, wiping his face of the black ash as he galloped out the door, headed for the daily court in Canterlot.Tho it wasn’t his first time in the royal palace, it felt like a labyrinth to him. After a good five minutes of ducking in and out of doors Checkmate was finally able to find the Daily Court where he would be stationed to oversee the training of Twilight’s Royal Guard, which at the moment only consisted of her friends Applejack and Rainbow Dash.
the room was fairly small, compared to what Checkmate had imagined, consisting of a couple matts where two ponies could practice their grappling skills, a bucking bag, and high above them were five to six large bronze rings that could be rearranged with the flick of a switch, for aerial maneuvers. When Checkmate looked he was that Rainbow and Applejack were standing in the center of the room talking to each other and hadn’t noticed him walk in.
“Alright you two front and center!” Checkmate exclaimed making the two mares jump in surprise. they quickly recovered and trotted and stood at attention in front of Checkmate. after a moment of silence Checkmate looked over Applejack and Rainbow Dash, his eyes cold and judgemental. “So, this is what I have to work with?” Checkmate said finally, “A silly farm mare that probably couldn’t even protect her crops from a couple of fruit bats, and a Wonderbolts fangirl that doesn't stand a chance in the real world? were in more desperate conditions than I thought.”
“Woah, now hold on there, them’s fightin’ words” Applejack said taking a step forward as if challenging Checkmate. “Are’ you mocking’ us?”
“Who, Me? no no no no.” He said innocently, but after a short pause added, “yeah I am.”
“Hey, Who are you to judge us like that!?” Rainbow said defensively, “I bet we are the best guards you had ever seen.”
“Oh please, you two couldn’t protect an apple from a worm.” he said dismissing the two mares “I bet I could take you both and not have to throw a single punch or use any of my magic.” Checkmate said egging them on. “So i tell you what, If you can stop me before i get to the bucking bag at the other end of the court I’ll admit you are worthy guards, if not you two will shut your yaps and let me do my job, Deal?” the two mares looked at each other and nodded silently. “Good, now go take your positions.” in a matter of seconds Applejack and Rainbow Dash had ran over and taken defensive positions.
Once they were ready Checkmate charged at them and as soon as he started running so did the two mares. as expected Rainbow was the first to get to him, using her wings to gain speed. Checkmate took the challenge head on, and with precise timing, he slipped under her and vaulted over Applejack sending both barreling behind him. Soon he was standing next to the bucking bag.
“Tisk, Tisk, Tisk. And here I thought you could prove me wrong.” Checkmate said mockingly, “Wait, no, i knew you couldn't. You know why? It’s because you are too headstrong.” he said angrily, “Now for your impotence, 500 LAPS AROUND THE COURT FOR BOTH OF YOU, and no wings, If i even suspect that you were flying, the laps restart and double. NOW GET GOING!!!” Checkmate stood there watching the two run in circles, and after about two hours they had finished. Both were gasping for air and Applejack had completely collapsed. “Well you two took up all the time I had scheduled for the day, but I hope that you learned something.” he said looking down on the pair. and with that he turned around and exited the room and began walking to the train station, where he would get on a train to the Crystal Empire. once there he would be assisting Twilight, Cadence, and Shining Armor with the preparations for the Equestria Games.Once he arrived at the Crystal Palace he was greeted to the sight of Cadence and Shining Armor talking to some unicorn colt that seemed to made out of crystals, taking notes on what they were saying.
Soon Twilight trotted up to him “Oh good you're here, I was wondering when you would show up.” she said playfully. “we’re having some difficulty getting the preparations set to accommodate the massive amounts of ponies that should be arriving when the games finally open up.”
“So what seems the problem?” Checkmate said, still mildly annoyed with the events that took place back at Canterlot Palace.
“Well first of all, all of the hotels and extra rooms in the castle have already been booked, and there are still requests flooding in.” Shining Armor said glaring at Checkmate, after dismissing the crystallized pony, “and secondly what is HE doing here?” he said looking at Twilight and gesturing towards Checkmate.
“He is my advisor, he obligated to accompany me in any political escapades i am involved in,” she said calmly, “And on top of that, I asked him to.” with that said she turned to Checkmate, “Do you have any ideas that could help solve this problem?”
Checkmate thought for a while looking around. “Well the only thing i can think of at the moment is to expand into the frozen wasteland that surrounds this place,” he said “not only would it provide more living space, but could also bring more people to your growing kingdom, after the games are over.” and as he was explaining the Cadence started nodding and looking around as if imagining the possibilities.
“That couldn't possibly work,” Shining Armor said defiantly, “ The game are only a month away, we just can’t build that many new hotels in that little of a time frame.”
“who said that they had to be hotels. you can build lots of smaller houses, It would accomplish the same amount of living space, and take less time.” Checkmate reasoned. With little effort, and some help from Twilight and Cadence, Checkmate was able to persuade Shining Armor into accepting his idea, “O.K. now that we have that settled, is there anything else that could use my attention?”
“well,” Cadence began as a crystallized mailpony walked up. using her magic, she levitated a scroll and unrolled it, and when she did Checkmates jaw dropped when the scroll was revealed to be as long as an entire city block. “I hope this isn’t asking too much from you, but we could really use the help.” she said, smiling sweetly.
After looking over the fairly long scroll, Checkmate rolled it back up and placed it in his saddle bag. “It will take some time, but I think I can come up with a plan for a good portion of these by the end of the week.” he said with confidence. Cadence smiled warmly and turned around to continue her royal duties with Twilight right beside her. Shining Armor stayed behind long enough to glare at Checkmate before he turned and fell in line beside his wife.
*********************************************************************************
the sun had set by the time Checkmate returned to his room back in Canterlot. It was only day one, and already, he had had enough of Shining Armor. Everything Shining Armor did pissed Checkmate off, and visa-versa. Checkmate was trying his best to be helpful and clean the slate between them, I guess if you almost get someones wife killed, you tend to hold a grudge. Checkmate thought to himself as he sat down to look over the scroll where he spent most of night trying to solve as many of the problems that Princess Cadance had presented him.
after hours of thought Checkmate slipped off into an exhausted sleep, only to be rudely awakened by his alarm clock moments later. Groaning Checkmate got up and looked at the clock, “PONY FEATHERS, I’M GOING TO BE LATE AGAIN!!” he quickly stuffed everything into his saddle bags and darted out the door, and again got lost in the labyrinth that are the halls of Canterlot Palace.
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In the Daily Court Rainbow Dash and Applejack were just milling around talking about their day and such when suddenly the doors were flung open and two powerful blasts of magic smashed against the floor creating a sickly haze that completely blocked their sight, and making it impossible to see two inches past their muzzle.
“What in tarnation is this stuff?” Applejack managed to say through coughing fits. suddenly an eerie laughter could be heard echoing through the haze. “Who-who’s there?”
“How should I know,” Rainbow Dash responded, “But let me clear up this smoke.” Rainbow jumped into the air to spread her wings and vortex all the smoke away, but crashed to the ground “Hey, what gives?! Why do my wings feel so heavy?”
Checkmate’s laughter echoed through the smoke, “As a member of Twilight’s guard you may not always be able to see your target. This is your next test, find me before the smoke clears, or run 600 laps.” He said with a hint of malevolence that sent a shiver up both mares’ spine. The two fumbled around in the haze, constantly bumping into each other and their surroundings, and occasionally pouncing on each other thinking the other was Checkmate. “Don’t trust your eyes, expand your senses. Hear my hoofsteps, Smell the aroma of the ink from my quills, Feel my presents.” he said circling the mares like a buzzard.
The pair had become still, their eyes closed and ears open, trying to detect the slightest hint of movement. suddenly both Rainbow and Applejack launched themselves forward and landed on something solid, forcing it to the ground and pinning it. “HA, got ya!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed in triumph as the smoke began to fade. soon a slow, rhythmic ploding could be heard several feet behind.
“Congratulations girls, you caught Fluttershy.” Checkmate said lightly stomping on the floor, his face unamused and slightly disappointed.
The two mares got off of of Fluttershy and Applejack helped her up. “Gosh, were mighty sorry sugarcube, we thought you were Checkmate tryn’ to sneak up on us.” she apologised
“Wh-why would you think that?” Fluttershy stammered, obviously shaken up by the sudden ambush. Rainbow Dash began explaining that Checkmate had been trying to teach them to not just rely on their eyes, but use their other senses instead. “Oh, o.k.” Fluttershy said looking at the ground.
“I’m terribly sorry that you got mixed up in all of this,” Checkmate said to Fluttershy as he escorted her out of the room, “And if there is anything I can do to make it up, just let me know.” Fluttershy just nodded and left. As she did Checkmate turned around to look at his two students. “Well, I think its safe to say that you have the basis of the technique,” he began making the two mares stand a bit taller, “but you still failed to capture me, so I’ll cut the punishment in half, 300 laps around the court, GO!” groaning the two mares began their run of shame. when they had finished Checkmate told Rainbow that, to hone in her skills, she needed Scootaloo or some other pegasus to blindfold her. “once blindfolded, I want you to try and sense where the clouds are, and try clearing them if you can.” he told a similar thing to Applejack. “I want you to have Big Mac, or Apple Bloom, to do the same and try maneuvering through your apple orchard, have them put some obstacles in your way to, if you can handle it that is.” and with that they left.
This is how the rest of Checkmate's week went. He would get lost in the halls of Canterlot Palace. Then training began, everyday it was a new lesson, which Checkmate was positive they were not grasping the concept, which would always end in the two mares havering to run laps. Next he would venture to the Crystal Empire to assist Cadence and Shining Armor with the preparations for the Games, but no matter what he proposed, Shining Armor would do everything in his power to shoot it down. It always took Twilight and Cadence to reason with him. When they did Shining Armor would give Checkmate a death glare. By the end of the day Checkmate would be exhausted but, due to his commitment, he would have to stay up and solve the issues concerning the games, and each night he would only get roughly two hours of sleep. Until one fateful day.
*************************************************************************************
Checkmate had just fallen asleep, out of exhaustion, when suddenly the room shook violently, waking him up, and sending bits of the roof falling to the floor. Checkmate threw on his uniform and threw open the door to see a hoard of Celestia's royal guard rushing down the hall towards the front gates with Rainbow Dash and Applejack close behind them.
"What's going on here," Checkmate demanded, stopping Rainbow Dash in her tracks, "why is everyone running around like a headless chicken?"
"The Place is being attacked by some sort of monster, and it's destroying everything!" She said urgently.
Checkmate paused for a moment, thinking, "O.K. You and Applejack go and see if you can assist the other guards, I'm going to check on Twilight" he said rushing towards Twilights royal chambers. He had to push his way through the oncoming horde of guards, but he eventually made his way to Twilight's room, and burst through the door. "Your highness, are you alright?" He said, worried.
Twilight was staring out of a window of her room, "I'm fine," she said turning around to face Checkmate, “What's going on? Why have all the guards been assembled?” she said with worry.
“There’s some sort of monster attacking the palace,” Checkmate said, “you must evacuate. I sent Rainbow Dash and Applejack to help the other guards hold off the beast, but we need to leave now because i have a bad feeling that it’s not going to end well.” he said urging her to flee.
As Twilight began walking towards the captain of her guard, one of the walls exploded, sending them cartwheeling away from each other. Checkmate was slammed into a bookshelf where an avalanche of books and scrolls cascaded down on top of him. Twilight was smacked into a wall, and looked on in horror as the dust settled revealing a giant, and disfigured, hand reach through the freshly destroyed wall.
The hand was about 3 ponies long and looked as if it had been submerged in a pot of boiling water for too long, its rotting flesh hanging on in tatters, revealing patches of bone. the hand had five bony fingers, and each had 2 foot talons at the tip. It reached in and headed for Twilight, grabbing her by one of her hind legs, and no matter how hard she struggled, Twilight couldn’t break free. Soon the beast began slowly dragging the screaming Princess out the gaping hole in the wall as Checkmate pulled himself out of the pile of books.
“Checkmate, help me!” She said, doing her best to fight against the backwards force of the hand. “My magic’s not working!” she added with small sparks began leaping from her horn.
Checkmate also tried to cast a spell of his own, but he found that he too was having trouble using his magic. he then ran up to the hand and slammed into it, in effort to weaken it just enough to have twilight wiggle free. when he had impacted the hand an inpony wail was heard, making the palace shudder. soon another hand burst through the wall, hitting Checkmate with such force that it sent him sailing across the room.
Checkmate was dazed and his vision was blurred, making it look like the room was spinning. he only had enough strength to reach into his saddlebag and throw a vial of clear liquid at one of the hands, causing it to shatter on impact, covering it in the strange potion. Checkmate watched helplessly as Twilight was dragged out of the room, and see a blurred outline of the monster get a proper grip on the princess as it leaped off the tower and took to the air flying towards a mountain range in the distance, and as it did, Checkmate’s vision darkened as he blacked out.
*************************************************************************************
Checkmate awoke in the palace infirmary, with all of Twilight’s friends around him. Immediately he sat up and leaped out of bed, “how long has it been?” he demanded, taking the others by surprise, “How long has it been!?” he repeated, rage and worry in his voice.
“Since what?” Rainbow responded with confusion.
“Since Twilight was abducted.” Checkmate said angrily.
“Well, gosh that was yesterday.” Applejack said plainly “But what’s that got to do with anything?” she added questioningly.
“Good the potion would not have evaporated yet,” Checkmate muttered to himself unbinding the bandages around his head “we need to go and get her.” he added quickly, discarding the bandages.
“What in the name of Celestia is he going on about?” Rarity said, “You don’t meen Twilight do you?” she gasped and added “You just simply can’t, especially not in the condition that you are in.”
“Don’t tell me what to do” he snapped before wincing as pain shot through his body. Realizing that she was right Checkmate limped over to his saddlebag and began rummaging through it. soon he levitated a test tube with a fizzing yellow liquid in it, unpluged the cork, and downed the entire vial. “There, that should do it.” he said discarding the empty tube. “Now come on, we’re losing time.”
“now hold ye’r horses,” Applejack said “Rarity just said that you were in no fit condition to-” she began before Checkmate shouldered past her
“I just drank a potion that instantly heals any, and all, injuries.” he said, “But only temporarily, thats why we have to hurry.”
“If what you say is true, and you can travel, we still have no way of knowing where that beast took her.” Rarity said with concern.
sighing in annoyance, Checkmate stopped and looked directly at the fashionista
“Just before i blacked out, I managed to throw a special potion on one of the beast’s hands.” Checkmate explained, “It produces an invisible smoke trail that i can track using my magic. the trail disappears two days after it’s initial useage, so again, we need to hurry” he said rushing out the door only to stop again. “Oh, and Pinkie, we’re going to need your balloon”
**************************************************************************
Back in Twilight’s chambers, the group gathered around as Checkmate concentrated and shot a beam into the air. this beem instantly hit an invisible cloud and lit it up a bright green, and the more magic he poured into the cloud, the longer the trail became. “so I reckon that thing took her that way?” Applejack asked.
“Yup,” Checkmate responded, “So, Pinkie, did you bring your balloon like I ask- where is she” Checkmate said in confusion. last time he saw her, she had been right behind him. When he turned around he was shocked to see that Pinkie was in the balloon, and was floating it right in front of the hole on the wall, “How did she get it to inflate so fast, and where was she storing it?!” Checkmate asked bewildered.
the group began to walk towards the giant balloon, and as she passed Rainbow whispered into Checkmate’s ear, “don’t think about it too much, it will preserve your sanity” she said taking to the air. five of the ponies were in the balloon while Rainbow Dash flew ahead, pulling it along. after 15 minutes of flying the group had reached a mountain range, and once they got close enough, the trail ended suddenly.
“What happened to the trail,” Fluttershy said shrinking back in fear.
“well, normally I would say ‘thats not a good sign’ but considering that this monster has the ability to filter all magic, it means that we are close.” he explained.
"Oo-ooh, what's that!" Pinkie Pie giggled while rhythmically hopping in place, "It looks sooo, pretty!"
everypony turned their heads to look at what Pinkie was blabbering about when they saw a giant purple fireball hurtling towards them. The group only saw the projectile for a split-second before it slammed into the balloon, puncturing it. the impact shook the basket and threw the passengers around. the mystic looking fire soon engulfed the entire balloon, making it plimit downwards, dragging Rainbow down with it.
"Applejack, Throw another rope around Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy then tie the other end around you, Rarity and Pinkie Pie." Checkmate said, barking out orders. once they had done what she was told Checkmate threw a small bottle with blue liquid on the three mares inside the basket, and threw red liquid on Fluttershy "Now go!"
"But what about-" Rarity began only to be silenced as Checkmate yelled.
"GO!" he exclaimed. with that the two pegasi took off, taking the trio of mares with them, leaving Checkmate alone in the plummeting hot air balloon. seconds before the balloon collided with the ground, Checkmate drank a suspicious looking grey liquid. The balloon smashed into the ground with such force that it created a crater in the ground and sent a plume of smoke high into the air.
the five ponies landed next to the wreckage and began to look for Checkmate, but found nothing.
"Wh-where his he" Fluttershy said in distress.
"I don't know sugarcube." Applejack said doing her best to console her distressed friend.
"Look!" Rainbow said flying over to where Checkmate's saddle bag lay in tatters under a pile of flames. the group crowded around the fire their heads bowed in respect.
"What in the name of Celestia are you five doing?" a disembodied voice spoke. the group of mares looked around in confusion. suddenly the smoke rising from the fire began to morph and take the shape of Checkmate, his ghostly form swaying in the wind.
“Ooooh, it’s Checkmate’s ghost!” Pinkie said sweeping her hoof through the smoky Checkmate, “Are you here to reveal your final wishes?”
“Will you stop that, I’m not dead!” he said shooing away Pinkie Pie as he gradually become solid.
“How did you do that, darling?” Rarity said trotting up to him, “I thought you said that our magic won’t be working because of the beast?”
Checkmate began explaining that the potions he used weren’t infused with magic, but were made with his understanding of biology. “if you make them right you would be able to manipulate, ANYTHING, to your will. it is why Rainbow and Fluttershy were able to hold you three without straining themselves.” he said, “Sadly, due to me becoming smoke, my saddlebag fell and the impact seemed to have obliterated all of my other potions.” he said walking a leaning over the tattered saddlebag. “But now is not the time, nor place, to mourn. Twilight is in danger and needs our help, and were running out of time” he said dismissing the mess, “Now i am sure that the beast has taken her to the top of the mountain, and were on a short time schedule so lets get going.”
the ponies nodded in agreement and began the long, and tedious, trek up the mountain. the mountain was decently sized, and working some quick numbers in his head based on what he could see, Checkmate figured that it was roughly 2,000 feet tall, but the higher they traveled, Checkmate realized that there was a thought nagging at the back of his mind, quiet at first, but becoming very prominent the longer they went.
why are you putting yourself through all of this, it would be much easier to give up and announce her dead. what are you trying to prove? she wronged you, you don't have to go and almost die trying to save an ungrateful princess that has only driven you to exhaustion since you started working under her. and what does she do in return, nothing, not even a single ‘thank you for all of your hard work’.
“Checkmate watch out!” Applejack’s said, her voice piercing Checkmate’s thoughts. soon after her sudden warning, a purple fireball exploded in front of him sending flying backwards, and almost sent him spinning off the face of a 900 foot cliff. as the dust settled the trail had been completely decimated, cutting him off from the others. “Y'all alright Checkmate!” Applejack yelled over the gap.
“Yeah, i’m fine.” he said shaking his head as to try and clear it. he couldn't believe that he had been distracted for such a long period of time. you would think i would have been able to see a giant purple fireball he thought to himself.
“stay right there,” Rainbow said, coiling back to take to the sky, “I’m going to come and get you.”
“No, it will waste time, you guys continue down that way and i’ll double back and see if i can find another way up.” he said “I’ll meet you at the top.” with that he turned and began his long trek up a different path. wondering on this path brought more thoughts to him,
she has had this coming for awhile, just walk away, no pony will know. it will be our little secret. the voice cooed seductively
after, what seemed like an eternity, Checkmate heard an ear piercing scream, and, instantly he knew who it was, Twilight. without a moments hesitation, Checkmate raced up the trail, with only Twilight's agonizingly painful screams as his guide. these screams led him upwards, as he expected, towards the peak of the mountain, and as he got closer to the source of the screams, the darker the voice at the back of his mind became.
yes, she is finally getting her dues, I just wish it was me doing it! Hopefully theres blood, pools of it. the voice would continue.
Finally he had reached the pinnacle of the mountain, his mind warn from the constant bombardment of the voice, and his body, from charging up the mountain.
the screams had been silent for the better part of a minute when Checkmate came to the overhang that the beast had forcibly brought her, and the first thing he saw was a mass of purple that lay motionless on the cold stone ground, blood pooling in the floor due to a nasty cut she had sustained over her right eye. he immediately darted over to her side. her injuries were worse than he had originally thought, for starters, one of the alcorn's wings were bent at an odd and painful looking angle, and she was covered in blood. he bent down to inspect the injured princess, prodding her side, to see if he could get any kind of response from her to confirm that she was still alive
Sure enough her eyes fluttered weakly open, one eye only half open because of the pain she was in. "Checkmate, you came?" she began weakly, "I was sure the injuries you must have sustained would have left you bedridden for months." she said in confusion.
"It takes more than a few cuts and bruises to keep me down," he said in jest, "but right now we are going to get you out of here, and fast so the doctors can begin tending to your wounds." he said seriously, trying to help the princess up.
Wincing with every movement Twilight collapsed. "It's no use, the extent of my wounds are too severe. It's going to take-" she began, but was interrupted as her eyes widened in fear.
the voice in Checkmate's head began laughing , but Checkmate soon realized that the voice was emanating from behind him. Checkmate spun around and became face to face with the beast.
the thing was repulsive its legs resembled those of a dragon, but they were scared with large sections of scales missing exposing the muscles and bone underneath. It looked like it hadn't been fed in years, with all of it's ribs showing. its shoulders were broad and muscular, and had two pairs of arms. the main two being longer and coming out of the shoulders as usual, but the other two were smaller and seemed to protrude from the rib cage. Its face seemed to resemble a bat that had flown through a fire. parts of its flesh completely missing on one side of its face, revealing the bone beneath. Its teeth sharp as razors and his fangs like menacing sickles. it's wings too resembled those of a bat, but were scared with holes. Checkmate considered it a miracle that it had been able to fly here at all. on top of it all, the monster stood a good 30 feet tall, making it easy for Checkmate to imagine the beats climbing the palace and doing the damage that it had.
When Checkmate turned around the beast began charging at the two ponies, swatting Checkmate aside with it's main right hand sending him cartwheeling away, and scooping Twilight up with it's second left, and Twilight screamed in agony as the beast gripped tighter. The beast howled it's approval of the pain with a screech that shook the mountain.
Checkmate sluggishly stood up, and began shaking his head to clear it after being hit with such a massive chunk of bony flesh. once Checkmate’s vision had cleared, a dark shadow fell across the punie colt as the monster raised one of its boulder sized fists and began to arch downwards. Checkmate was only just able to fling himself out of the impact zone of the incoming threat, which landed with a satisfying *thud* and caused a spider web like scar on the ground where it had impacted.
Checkmate scrambled to this hooves and desperately began scanning his surroundings for anything that he could use as a weapon against his opponent, but to his despair he found nothing. The ledge on which they were located was unusually barren and flat, no decently sized rocks, no sticks, not even any discarded bones from previous meals. Just a cliff with a 1,900 foot drop that lead straight down, to certain death. Seconds later another massive fist came crashing to the ground, leaving another spider web fracture on the stone floor as Checkmate, expertly dodged.
As he dodged each blow Checkmate began running multiple outcomes in his head, If I can shoot a powerful enough beem, i might be able to loosen the beast’s grip on Twilight, after a brief moment of thought Checkmate rejected the notion, No, that won’t work, the monster has some sort of magical field that suppresses other magic. Maybe i can-
“Checkmate LOOK OUT!” Twilight’s terrified wail broke his concentration, and was hammered by a powerful strike to his side that sent him skidding to the edge of the cliff.
Checkmate was in terrible pain as he struggled to stand. The beast roared in approval of the fight, it’s, maniacal, toothy grin sent a shiver up Checkmate’s spine. He felt helpless. without any of his potions, magic, or even any time to think, he could do nothing.
Twilight wasn’t any better off. The constant pressure of being trapped in the beast’s clutches was crushing her, making everything sore and her breath labored. The most that she could do was let out a choked scream, or some other piece of advice to try and assisting her rescuer. “Make a left-no no no, MY left. Now a hang a right!”
An abnormally large sized dragon’s foot came crashing down just inches away from the colt that was scrambling around the beast’s legs, as Checkmate skidded to a halt. “Stop trying to help me!” Checkmate screamed angrily at the captured princess. Immediately after shouting at Twilight as sharp pain convulsed through him. His potion that had healed him had worn off. No, not now he thought. shortly after he was punted across the overhang and into the wall on the far end.
upon impact a mind numbing crunch emanated from Checkmate’s ribcage and a spray of blood erupted from his mouth as he fell to the ground. Checkmate’s senses were beginning to dull and darken as the laughter began again, softly at first but growing in intensity at the back of his mind. then a voice came through. Dark and menacing, like the wind just before a thunderstorm.
how does it feel? It began, knowing that everything that you have worked so hard for, is in the mercy of somepony else’s hooves? being helpless to do nothing to stop it. the voice said echoing around in Checkmate’s head.
Slowly, the bloodied Checkmate began to get up, one eye wincing, while the other was fixed on the towering beast.
“Checkmate, just go! it’s hopeless!” Twilight’s plee rang out, “If you don’t you’re going to end up dead!”
“NO! it is my sworn duty to protect you!” Checkmate spat, “If I can’t save you myself, I can hold it off for long enough for others to be able to come and help at the cost of my life, so be it.”
The beast just let out a deep and menacing laugh. Those others you’re so desperately waiting for, aren't going to come. There on a track that leads to a dead end and there is no way that they will be able to come to her rescue. It convulsed with laughter, and consequently, began crushed Twilight in it’s grip.
After a good minute that might as well be torture, those awful screams finally subsided. Probably because she blacked out, but still, they ended.
You seem like a decent pony, so I’ll make you a deal. leave now, and I won’t kill you, only the princess.
Checkmate was caught off guard by this. why is this thing giving me a chance to run. he thought. he looked back at the trail that had brought him up this way longingly. It would be easy for him to just abandon her and save himself, even in his weakened state; a simple dash, and a quick roll is all it would take for him to get out of there and let Twilight fend for herself.
She wronged you Checkmate. She took away your chance of a better life for you and your family. The beasts voice echoed in his head.
“Yes, but she gave me the opportunity to have all that again once she made me part of her royal court.” Checkmate reasoned., “she made up for it.”
Yes, but you know, deep down in your heart that, if she hadn’t taken the test that day, YOU would have been Celestia’s prized student. YOU would have been the Element of Magic. YOU would have become an Alicorn Prince. Not Twilight. Don’t you want your revenge?
The Beast had brought up some valid points that Checkmate had overlooked. He was conflicted, His mind kept telling him to stay and protect Twilight, but his emotions were telling him to leave and forget Twilight. He had never been in this kind of situation before. What to do.
Things would have been so much simpler had she just not showed up.
Checkmate was on the floor now, his head in his hooves, and his eyes shut. He was doing everything in his power to rationalize this situation, but the monster kept pushing, and the more it did the more conflicted he became.
You may think you have changed but deep down, you still can’t forgive her. you are the same pony you were before any of this happened, and you will never change.
Checkmate’s eyes slowly opened, and he looked up, realizing there was no way out of this situation. “You’re right I haven’t changed.” he said menacingly, “I’m the same stubborn, cold, calculating pony I was before.” he continued, “But these ponies have influenced my outlook on the world, I no longer have the need to desire to kill Twilight, AND I WILL NOT HAVE MY LOYALTIES QUESTIONED BY A, WHATEVER IT IS YOU ARE!”
Checkmate channeled all of his anger into his horn. this sudden surge of energy seemed to have created a small hole in the beast’s aura, but Checkmate could feel it regenerating, whatever he was going to do he’d better do it fast. Without thinking he charged the beast, cloaking himself in his magic.
the beast was taken aback by this sudden change, and started to back up, but was stopped because it was at the ledge. It then spread its wings, and with a single flap, took to the air and hovered just over the edge.
“You’re not getting away that easily!” Checkmate exclaimed. Using his magic as a propulsion boost, Checkmate launched himself, essentially becoming a pony rocket, at the fleeing beast, and slammed horn first into it’s chest.
The impact made the beast let out a screech of pain as it throw it’s arms out and released Twilight from it’s clutches, effectively ‘lobbing’ her safely back on the ledge.
For Checkmate, on the other hoof, time seemed to slow. the flailing arms of the beast seemed to sway like tree limbs on a peaceful night, that is, until one of them caught Checkmate and sent him into the cliff wall. upon impact all he could hear was the sound of crunching bones and Twilight’s distant scream of shock only mere moments before everything went black.
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“We’ve been walking on this road forever, and my hooves are killing me” Rarity complained, “and for what, a dead end?”
“Well then lets back track, there has to be a way up to the top, come’ on ya’ll.” Applejack encouraged, “we can’t give up on Twi’” at that moment an ear splitting screech pierced the air and the beast they have been chasing dropped from the sky, right passed the group of traveling ponies, followed shortly after by a dark grey colt, with a mane as black as midnight with a single emerald green streak. “What in tarnation was that?” Applejack said in shock.
“I think that was Checkmate.” Rainbow Dash said, equally stunned at what just unfolded “I’m going after him.” she said and launched herself off the edge and dove after Checkmate.
Using her wings she gained speed and began to, slowly, catch up to the two plummeting lifeforms. she was within reaching distance of Checkmate when a purple fireball erupted from the beast’s mouth and grazed against the left wing of Rainbow Dash, and crashed into the mountain. in effort to stop herself from losing control Rainbow Dash pulled up and landed safely on a ledge, seconds before large sections of the mountain broke off and began trailing after Checkmate and the Beast.
The rainbow colored pony looked over the edge and was just able to see the beast and Checkmate get crushed by the boulders that had fallen off the mountain.
panic surged through the mare, "Ohmygosh,Ohmygosh,Ohmygosh,Ohmygosh she said in panicked succession as she began running down the path down the mountain, putting all her strength into running to Checkmate's aid. It took a while, but the mare found her way down the mountain that didn't risk using her injured wings.
once she did, she saw where the rocks had landed. they were stacked in a huge pile about 30 feet high, with one mutilated hand of the beast sticking out, that twitched occasionally, and a massive pool of blood emanating from the underneath the rocks. she frantically began scouring the bloody rubble for any sign of the colt. she searched for the better part of an hour before her other friends came down the path, with an Injured Twilight draped over Applejack like a curtain.
"Come on girls, Checkmate's trapped, you have to help me find him." Rainbow pleaded pushing some of the pony sized rocks with quite some difficulty. the other 4 ponies joined in attempt to find Checkmate, but it was all for naught. there was simply too many rocks, and even in death the beast radiated it’s magic dispelling aura.
the search into the wee hours of the night and by that time Twilight had awoken, but was in no fit condition to do any heavy lifting. everypony was exhausted after what events had unfolded, it wasn’t until Applejack decided to call it quits did everypony begin to pack up and go home. Rainbow Dash was the last to give up the search, mainly because she felt responsible for his death, but even she had to take into realization that Checkmate was gone.
Chapter 3: Checkmate’s Reckoning, End