A Chessmaster and his Game

He was surrounded, suffocating under a pile of affection, getting his magnificent body felt up.

For him, it was okay if he loved his body, it WAS his body after all, he had every right and reason to love it.

It became awkward and difficult when someone else, or in this case, several ponies, loved his body.

"Please, please no," he couldn't manage much, it was hard to breathe, and they were touching him a lot.

Then a hoof grazed over his crotch.

"HOO NELLY NO, NELLY NO, NELLY STOP," he said, sitting up as the six mares backed off, the spell broken.

He ran up the stairs, deftly avoiding the Cakes as he found his way to someplace that sufficed as a closet.

"Aw, he left," Pinkie sighed, getting an empathetic hoof on the shoulder from Twilight.

"What was going on down here?" Mrs. Cake asked.

The Mane Six suddenly became all sorts of awkward, not wanting to explain how they'd all lost control of themselves.

~With Jackson~

He had made his way into what he knew was Pinkie's bedroom, he could tell because of all the pink, and the various, strewn around party implements.

He walked over to the only other door in the room, and opened it.

'Inventory'

He sighed in relief and magically put his shirt back on, sure it had large tears that expanded the holes for his wings, but it was worth it to avoid the lusty touches of his friends.

Closing the door and walking out of the room and downstairs again, he found said friends all gathered together.

They let out a collective whine of 'aaaaaawwwww' before receiving a harsh glare from the object of their affections.

"Please, all of you, stop, just... stop," he demanded.

Pinkie tried to give him a cute face to change his mind.

"...nigga WIPE DAT LOOK OFF YO FACE!" he commanded, and she obeyed.

"Jackson, calm down, we all just temporarily lost control of ourselves," Twilight said calmly.

The winged man only groaned and sat down at the table.

Everyone present gathered and sat down, Fluttershy sat far away from the massive man, but the other five took the seats adjacent to him.

"Hey, Rainbow Dash, I was gonna get that spot," Scootaloo protested at the cyan mare taking the spot to her big brother's right.

"Just sit next to me, squirt," the athlete said, leaning into Jackson's side, only for the human to push her off.

The winged man sighed, he reached  over Rainbow Dash's head, for a brief moment she rubbed the top of her head against his arm, he grabbed the chair to Rainbow's right, and gave a 'bro gesture' to Scootaloo.

The filly jumped into the chair, and Jackson stood up, switching the places of the orange and cyan pegasi' chairs.

"Hey, no fair!" Dash complained at not being able to sit next to the stud of the group.

"Tough shit, Dash, you're no sister of mine," the burnt-brunette countered.

"Alright, alright, is everypony seated?" Mr. Cake asked, receiving many nods, "Okay, dig in everyone," he said, remembering Jackson, Samuel, and Spike.

It was really good, even if it was basically a glorified sandwich bar.

~Some time later~

With everyone having eaten their fill, it was time for presents.

Jackson had, last minute, made a pair of padded work boots for Applejack, giving one of the two multi-tools to Applebloom.

"Thanks sugarcube, ah gotta say these'll be mighty helpful ta have," the orange farmer thanked, trying them on and finding them quite comfortable.

"Wow, so many little tools, this's great, thanks Jackson," the red-maned earth pony said, checking out all the different tools.

"Oh my, this is absolutely wonderful, how did you make this, darling?" Rarity said, speaking for both herself and Fluttershy.

"Crafting table, that's how I made all of them, except Twilight's gift, I did that one by hand," he revealed.

"Don'cha mean workbench?" Applejack asked.

"................ no," the gamer replied flatly.

"Wow, it's a.... thing," Rainbow Dash half-cheered at her gift from Jackson, not sure what it was.

"It's a steam heater, put water into the top and it'll heat your house, I know you've been complaining about how cold the winter is in a cloud house. The humidity will be absorbed by the walls, so no uncomfortable sweating, just relaxing heat," the tall man revealed.

"Ooh, ice skates, nice, my old ones got worn out," Pinkie hugged the human, a lot longer than she should have, it was up to Jackson to break her off, and he did. The pink party pony gave a dejected 'aaawwww'.

Jackson held her at a distance, denying the mistress of ceremonies any chance for more hugs.

"Hey bro, check it out," Scootaloo said from off to the side, and Jackson scooted over to her, leaving Pinkie with the others.

Scootaloo had moved her and the human's gifts to the side, not to exclude themselves from the companionship of the givers, but because it was crowded over there, and she secretly didn't want any of the Mane Six to try to steal her brother away, but she wouldn't admit that in public.

The little filly had received a new set of scooter wheels from the Apples, and a stylish helmet from Sweetie and Rarity.

The presents from the rest of the Mane Six remained unopened, so the two got to those.

Rainbow Dash had given Jackson a dumbbell and Scootaloo one of two tickets to a Wonderbolts show, which the orange filly hugged the speedster for, gushing 'thank you' over and over.

The older brother got a goofy grin on his face, his sister was just so cute! How'd he get so lucky?

Next was Jackson's gift from Rarity, many articles of clothing, a few pairs of normal jeans, along with a couple of pairs of skinny jeans, a few shirts with various designs on them, and a plain, dark blue hoodie.

"Wow Rarity, I really needed these," he thanked as he looked further into the box, finding a few polo shirts hidden at the bottom.

"Think nothing of it, darling. Merely your presence filled me with the inspiration for such wonderful designs, I didn't make it as stylized as I usually do, I know how you stallions are with your clothes, no bells or whistles, just fitting and comfortable," the white unicorn said in her usual posh accent.

Applejack had given him a cookbook, simple, but effective, he could use a bit of variety.

"Thanks for the cookbook AJ," he called out, giving her a thumbs up.

"No problem, sugarcube, ya might do good with it," the blonde-maned mare replied.

Next was Fluttershy's gifts, Scootaloo got a stuffed animal, a little teddy eagle, which she let herself enjoy, and hugged it.

The older sibling only gave a toothy grin, just how cute could the little pegasus be?

His own gift was a beautiful little wood carving, a six inch tall statuette of himself, made from a type of wood he'd never seen before.

He turned to the group of ponies, and caught the yellow Pegasus's attention, motioning her over.

"Thank you Fluttershy, these are wonderful gifts," he said, knowing that the nature-lover.

"Oh, um, thank you, Rarity helped me out, she helped everypony make their gifts. She's definitely a very qualified Element of Generosity," the pink maned mare said in her usual quiet tone.

The two watched Scootaloo nuzzle into her teddy eagle, eyes closed and a gentle expression upon her face.

They both went "D'aaaaaaaawwwwwwwwwww," at the sight, because it was motherfucking adorable.

Jackson didn't mind as the quiet mare stuck around for the next gift openings.

Pinkie's gifts were just a bunch of extra special cupcakes, simple and nice.

The orange filly had a delicious chocolate-orange flavored icing on blueberry cake, the fair-skinned man had peanut butter icing on red velvet cake.

They looked over and saw everypony making a little toast with their cupcakes, and did the same, eating the treats with care..

When everypony was finished with their special cupcakes, Pinkie went around asking what they thought of them.

"I was considering doing a taste test for a few new cupcakes to put up on the menu since a lot of stuff was recently removed from the menu, so I wanted to fill it back up some," the hyperactive pony explained, bouncing between her friends and getting their personal opinions.

"So Jacky, how'd you like it?" the blue-eyed earth pony asked, merely getting two thumbs up in approval.

"What about Scooty?" the pink-on-pink mare continued, getting a slightly-stained smiles in response.

She bounced back over to the group, who seemed to be opening presents with great care and little speed.

Jackson moved on to the final gifts, from Twilight.

A card with some bits inside, classic.

"A card with some bits inside, classic," Rainbow Dash quipped.

"I reckon we all should read 'em out loud," Applejack proposed, getting nods of approval.

The brother and sister moved back over to the group, Jackson sat only a couple of feet to Twilight's right, and Scootaloo sat right next to Rainbow Dash.

The went counter-clockwise, the cards saying such things as 'hope you had a happy holidays' and 'wish you good times' and such.

Then came McCard's card, "Well you great stallion you, cold times are'a comin', but you make me feel warm inside, thank you for being a great Hearth's Warming gift, and hope you have plenty of love for me," he read, trying to keep his voice steady throughout.

It was.......

What?

Twilight was blushing profusely, "It was the only card they had that didn't say pony, mare, or filly on it," she explained, though the damage was already done, and the other five, minus Fluttershy, had huge shit-eating grins on their faces.

Twilight looked down at the only gift she hadn't opened: Jackson's.

*rip rip rip*

*shuffle*

"A Big Book of Tragedy, Despair, Loss, but above all, Romance, by 'The Great MC. J.', this is..." the lavender unicorn blushed at the thoughtfulness of this gift.

She had heard him when he said that he had made this one by hand, and now it made a lot of sense.

Too much sense, her face was ablaze with how much she was blushing.

Jackson looked to the four smiling mares in fear, only to find that their shit-eating grins had both amplified and they had 'd'aww' faces on.

Pinkie's grin suddenly turned into one of brilliance, and she zoomed off.

'Oohoohoo, this was even better than I thought it would be. I must say though, in my multiverse experience, Twilight is a wonderful marefriend, not only does she possess an above-average amount of the other five Elements of Harmony, but she is genuine in her affections, and she doesn't try to fix what isn't broken, so you have no reason to fear her wanting to change you, all she wants is someone to love and someone to love her, isn't that sweet?' Player said from within Jackson's head.

'You, I... fuck....' he had to admit, that was a hell of a good set of reasons why Twilight was good to go for.

'Of course it's one hell of a good set of reasons. Listen, I may not have much reason for doing anything that I do, but I have found that romance, not just love, but legitimate romance, the mutual, genuine love between two being, is only slightly less beautiful and magnificent as awesome weapons,' the god-avatar explained.

'Of course you'd pick war over love, but fucking hell man, I'm not going after Twilight, I'm not a romance guy, and I just want to live a normal-enough life, leave me alone,' Jackson thought-argued.

'It's not me who's your problem, it's the ponies at the moment, two seconds have passed in universe-time, and you're about to get a major surprise... Twilight likes you, it may not be much now, but if you facilitate its growth, she will love you like a soul-mate, remember when I told you about Shaun and Gray? You two could be like that! Minus, like, all of the fucking, though.... okay maybe just most- no, all of it, because when you have that much authentic care and affection between two people, the term is 'making love'. Where was I? Oh yes right, so, you know that you have a thing for her, it may be buried so deep you may not realize that it's even there, but it is, and you feel it,' the insane deity ranted.

'Well, I mean, I visit her the most, because she's the only one who always treats me like a real person without exception, not just a taste-tester or party guy, like Pinkie, or something to compare herself to, like Rainbow Dash, or someone to just help out or have some idle conversation with on occasion, like Applejack, or a challenge to experience, like Rarity AND Rainbow Dash, or scary animal, like Fluttershy, though Fluttershy is getting better at that. Twilight is always calm and friendly, if a bit curious about human stuff, and I... goddammit, you're right, I like her. Now that I think about it properly, I realize that I like her, at least a little bit.' the winged man gave up.

Time seemed to return to normal, he looked to Twilight, who looked straight up and was blushing even more.

The tall man looked above, and blushed at the sight.

A goddamn mistletoe, and of course Pinkie is holding the fucking thing.

He looked back to Twilight, who he realized was face-level with him. A look to the others found that they each had anxious eyes and eager smiles, they were waiting.

"Fuck it," he muttered, turning back to the mage.

Then they kissed, neither knew who moved in first, they were both pretty sure that they moved in at the same time, but it went quickly, and it was intense.

They were both very inexperienced at kissing, but both were quick learners, and things were rapidly heating up.

A cacophony of whistles and a few cheers from the other five, a couple of 'eww's from the crusaders, and the Cakes didn't respond much.

Twilight's light frame pushed the burnt-brunette onto his back, she sat on his chest deepening the kiss, it was getting really hot in the room.

The other mares stopped whistling and cheering when they realized that this idea was starting to get out of hoof.

The two starting were both blushing from the intensity of the act, and even started some tongue-work.

Carrot Cake frowned deeply, trying to decide if he should stop this or if he should wait for it to stop itself.

Cup Cake had the same reaction as her husband, but further along on the 'decision' part, she took a step closer, ready to break this up.

The lavender mare and light skinned man got lightheaded, and realized that it was from a lack of breathing, so they finally broke the kiss, both blushing furiously and breathing laboriously.

The studious unicorn took a few steps away, looking into Jackson's eyes with a twinkle in her own and a weak smile upon her muzzle.

Jackson gave a few tired guffaws, feeling a bit hysteric from the amazing, breathtaking act, his own eyes shone, going from a dull, tarnished gold to a brilliant golden sheen.

Everything felt hot, they both felt very, very alive at the moment.

As they huffed and puffed away, trying to feed their oxygen-starved lungs, the others went back to cheering.

That night, a flame was sparked, a flame upon a heart made of dormant stars, and a flame upon a heart of molded playing cards, one would burn bright, and one would be changed forever.

~Some time later~

It had been only a couple of days, and already it was New Year's, Jackson resisted drinking, as did Twilight, because they didn't want to do anything too serious too soon, and they were the 'designated drivers', but that didn't affect everyone else, all of whom had some good beverage.

Rainbow Dash and Applejack got smashed on hard cider, Rarity drank a few glasses of wine, Pinkie gulped down sugared-down vodka.

Fluttershy surprised everybody by, not only drinking, but drinking, albeit only a single shot glass, of cold-mixed, bohemian-style absinthe.

Somehow, the crusaders got ahold of some schnapps, mint schnapps, cinnamon schnapps, even peach schnapps, which Jackson laughed at, because peach schnapps reminded him of Captain America.

Even Anjuel and Samuel got in on the alcohol game, drinking malt-liquor and wine, respectively.

"Chehehehe, it's funny because the fancy guy is drinking a ghetto drink, and the ghetto guy is drinking a fancy drink, come on, you three, we need to get home, Twi, I'll be back to help you in a minute, just have to get the family into bed," Jackson took initiative, piling the near-unconscious trio onto the bike and riding off at top speed.

Of course, he had found out that top speed was half of the speed of sound, which would be deadly, but the motorcycle gave the riders some sort of protection against being ripped apart by the wind, and a bit of keeping them attached to it..

A mere minute later, the three were tucked into there respective beds, a depression in the stone floor of the basement for Anjuel, a green sheeted bed for Samuel, and a teal sheeted bed for Scootaloo.

Riding back to the library, reaching the library in about nine seconds flat.

"Alright, hop on Twi, we need to deliver these five home, preferably before they do anything they'd regret." he looked over to see Rainbow Dash and Applejack trying to drink the last shot glass of hard cider at the same time, only to end up accidentally kissing.

"Okay, thank you so much, Jackson, I have to ask though, can you turn off the fire?" Twilight pointed to the trail of flames that were flickering behind the motorcycle, the trail was patchedly going out, leaving lines and plumes of fire before disappearing into wisps of smoke.

Jackson gave a sheepish grin and pressed a button on the side of the infernal machine, there were a few buttons, and the one that he pressed extinguished the wheels, making the ride safe for all involved.

It was hard to do, with a tight squeeze, hard pile, plenty of rope, and Twilight having to press herself into Jackson's back, they rode towards their friends' houses.

"We should talk," Twilight said, hugging herself around the tall man's torso to avoid falling off.

"About a few days ago?" Jackson knew the answer already, he just hoped that he was somehow wrong.

The pair dropped Rarity and Sweetie off at the Boutique, then got back to the road.

"Yes, I... I have to say that I felt it was... really nice," the lavender mare revealed, smiling even though the driver couldn't see it.

"Yeah, I thought it was pretty good too," the light-skinned man replied, debating whether or not to allow anything to flourish.

They dropped Pinkie off at Sugarcube Corner.

"That is so good to hear, you have no idea, listen, I... I've been thinking, and... I've realized that I really like you, I mean, as in a romantic liking, er, do you get it?" there she went trying to explain her simple words with more complex ones, it was funny, it was adorkable, it was great.

"I understand, and I feel the same way, but we should just take it slow for a while, see how things unfold, maybe wait for each other, I don't know, get some experience in romance on the side," he suggested, not at all sure where to take this conversation.

They dropped off Applejack and Applebloom at Sweet Apple Acres.

"Are you suggesting honing our skills with other, less important ponies of love, so that when we finally get each other in our forelegs, it will be all the better, because we'll both be better than the other would have thought, and waiting for it made it all the sweeter?" the unicorn was feeling giddy, the alcohol fumes might have had an effect on her, and the motorcycle felt surprisingly comfortable, contrasted with the somewhat gentle whipping of the grass as the winged man took a shortcut through Ponyville's outer fields, it was a plethora of sensations.

"Um, yes, actually, that is more or less exactly what I was talking about," the winged man confirmed, stopping in the middle of the field.

"Why are we stopping here?" the exciting pony queried, looking around and seeing nothing.

"Rainbow Dash's stop, could you grab me a cloud to put her on?" he informed, pointing to a set of low-lying clouds that were luckily in the area.

Twilight gave a small 'oh' and telekinetically grabbed a cloud, dragging it down to the ground and putting Rainbow Dash on it, sending it a few dozen feet back into the air before heading off.

"So you want to be my coltfriend, just not right now?" Twilight was trying to be as sure as possible on this.

"Correct, Fluttershy's stop," he said, braking in front of the overgrown cottage, delivering the mare inside, and walking out again.

"Now all that's left is..... oh, just me," the amethyst-eyed mare realized, a bit saddened that she had to leave so soon.

"Yeah, come on, the night isn't getting any longer," the gold-eyed man insisted, patting the seat of the cycle.

As he rode at a leisurely pace through town, something seemed off.

He could the wind being forced away from something, and he could hear something right next to his ear.

"Zul Mey Gut, Dov-rii-hun, your ass is mine," a resonating voice warned.

*Feim Zii Gron* and a motherfucking dragon appeared, it perched itself over a couple of houses before giving a low growl and using *Tiid Klo Ul* to stop time around the three.

"What the fuck is your problem?" Jackson demanded as he got off the bike and faced the dragon, not afraid of this overgrown reptilian son of a bitch.

"I shall take the dragon's soul that you wield, and with it, gain more power, I shall build an empire upon the ashes of Equestria, and be the overlord of dragons!" the dragon proclaimed, letting out a *Fus Ro Dah* into the sky.

"Oh no, Jackson, what are we going to do?" Twilight was starting to panic, this was not good in the slightest.

"We're going to fight this giant bastard, COME ON, WHO ARE YOU!" Jackson yelled, knowing that nopony would be able to hear him until time had been restored to its normal movement.

"I am ALDUIN, soon-to-be overlord of the dragons, and I shall consume, consume.... consume ALL!" Alduin let out a vicious roar, one that shook the heavens and caused the clouds to vanish, leaving a clear night sky with which to fight, "Who are you?" the black beast demanded.

"I am Jackson McCard, I have traveled time like the sea, purge the void of corruption, been through Hell and back, on more than one occasion, been to Sovngarde, Valhalla, and all of the heavens, beaten gods and devils alike, I have killed just about anything that's alive, I've saved space, and earth, and heaven, and hell, all on many occasions, I am immortal in mind and body, an indestructible master of war," Alduin began flying away from this speech, but Jackson ran after him, Twilight shortly behind, "I SHALL NOT FALTER, NOR FAIL, NOR FADE! MY WEAPONS SHALL TASTE YOUR BLOOD! WORLDEATER, YOU SHALL SEE JUST HOW POWERFUL THE WORLD IS! STOP RUNNING AWAY AND FACE ME LIKE A GLORIOUS WARRIOR!" Alduin kept flying away.

"THAT'S IT! *JOOR ZAH FRUL*" he shouted the dragonrend, knowing that he had reached the point of no return. Realizing that he could have avoided fighting Alduin altogether, but what if the dragon came back? And with more dragons' souls under his belt? The winged man knew he had to do this now, here, like this.

Alduin fell from the sky, his soul attacked and his mind sucker-punched, he would have to face this thing after all.