A Chessmaster and his Game

GRAGHAFKSLHHGJOASFDHNANFCcommentsplzAOHFUSOFANFUAFUEHONNBAOBBFBEO

Jackson made his way to the farm, maybe he could do some work there?

There was little doubt that things needed to be done at the farm, after all, it seemed that something always needed to be done at the farm.

Passing through the still-snow-covered gateway, walking along the path, and finally trudging up a hill where he found Applejack standing atop, he looked at the field that she was staring at..

Everypony on her team was clearing snow from the fields, but they were doing so in awkward and unpatterned lines, it looked a bit stupid in his eyes.

"Hey AJ," he greeted, sitting down and giving her a soft, friendly punch on the shoulder.

"Hey Jack, nice to see ya, as always," Applejack replied, returning the friendly punch.

"Back at ya, Jack," the two shared a hearty laugh, ending with simultaneous sighs.

It was kinda funny, really, how they could both be called Jack, well, it was the kind of funny that was only funny if a joke was made about it.

The two waited for the day that someone tried to get one of their attentions by calling out 'Jack!', to which they would both reply 'What?' at the same time.

"So, clearing the snow from the ground, eh?" the sitting man asked, glad that he had swiped a patch of snow away before he sat down.

"Eeyup, ah'm leadin' the efforts, but so far, everypony's workin' doesn't seem to be doin' anythin'," she watched as the amount of snow on field seemed to never reduce.

"That's because, *ahem*, your doing it *wrong***!" he rebuked, gesturing to the whole field.

"How'd'ya reckon, sugarcube?" she queried, watching the aimless plowing.

"You should just get everybody in a single line, just one big line, and push forward, the field should be cleared in about one to three rounds of that," he suggested, standing up and flaring his wings out whilst he stretched.

He wasn't stiff or anything, he just loved stretching.

Walking away from the scene, he idly flapped his wings, not being affected by the cold winds he was stirring up.

~Some time later~

He had acquired a branch from one of the apple trees, and was tapping it against the trees he passed by, making a crude, but nice sounding rhythm.

"Oh, unh, where the hood.... 'bout to get that ass stomped.... I ain't ever scared...... I'manassassinonewithapassionforinnovativerappin'droppin'sofastyourprobablyhavin'aproblemtofollowthecaptions," he absentmindedly sang.

"What?" he heard the familiar voice, it was Twilight, trotting up the path, heading towards where he was coming from.

"♪Oh, sorry, I was just doing a bit of singing, so, if you don't mind, where ya headin'?" he queried, still tapping the branch

"Well, I wa-" she was shushed by the branch booping her on the nose.

"♪Answer me while singing, it seems like a fun idea,"

"♪Oh, okay then, well, I was going to talk to Applejack, see what I could do to help her~" the lavender unicorn sang, sounding half-angelic in the beauty of her singing voice.

"♪That's really nice of you, but I was leaving from there, I already solved the field problem~, come with me, we'll fuck the police, gently~ as long as nopony sees us using magic, it's alri~ight," the golden-eyed warrior informed, smashing the branch onto a tree, breaking both it and the beat.

"♪I don't know~ow~ow, that seems bad, but the effi-cien-cy would be, undeniable~~~~" the amethyst-eyed mare was conflicted.

"♪Magic is your element, so why not do~o~o some of it? ♪It's not like you'd be hurt-ee-ing anypony, if you always focus on doing the ri~ight thing, then it'll be hard to do the go~od thing! ♪Really Chaotic Good is the best at being go~od, some-times, you ha~ave to destroy the world a little bit, in, order, to, SA~~~~VE I~~~~~T!" the words rang clear.

Twilight looked at him, thinking about all that the great warrior had done. The studious mare had always lived according to laws, rules, stigmas, and the like, not much room for any sort of guiltiness and/or pleasures.

Then there was Jackson, who, in the span of (recorded, at least) seven months, had fought for his life, killing half or more of the legions of Tartarus in the process, at least that was what he had told her. He, afterwards, saved himself from the brunt of Nightmare Moon's return by falling asleep in the presence of Celestia herself. He saved a lot of ponies from a lot of danger by raising his notoriety around the castle, harming many once-innocent guards and killing a few, then he took a phone call rather than fight more guards, after the situation had changed enough to where harming them would be the right thing to do. Fast forward half a year, he had raised the army of Canterlot to an elite fighting force, just by them observing his savage, ruthless, remorseless methods, both of the slaughtering of many training dummies and the smackdown of many guards and even a few full-fledged knights. He came to Ponyville, and within half an hour, scared two fillies, thrust three more into danger, and delivered a massacre upon many un-wronging creatures of the Everfree, which she had seen the results of... so much blood she nearly threw up almost a dozen times. Embracing the child he was on the inside, rather than the adult he was on the outside, he kept the crusaders from killing themselves in their path of destruction, said destruction being not prevent, but promoted by him. He enslaved an undead hero and brought in a homeless foreigner both in the same day, given his ten-year-old sister dangerous weapons as a Hearth's gift, given her the audacious gift of a book of hoof-written poetry, then the two vowed to take things slow and start as friends.

He was an enigma, taking refuge in audacity, but painting a big picture of goodness.

"Alright, I'll do it," she agreed, smiling in anticipation.

"♪I can't hear you over the sound of you not si~ngi~ng." the winged man laughed a singing laugh, a laugh that sounded quite charming.

"♪Oh yes, I say that I'll do~ the magics for the go~al of clear-ing the winter~." the stripe-maned mare corrected herself, giggling a bit.

"♪Excellent, we'll clear the winter ourselves, and it all starts with a *Lok Vah Koor* to clear the skies," the burnt-brunette shouted the thu'um of Clear Skies.

The clouds immediately 'nope nope nope'd the fuck out of there, leaving the sun to shine down on the whole town. The freezing temperature began slowly rising, very slowly, but it was something.

Twilight looked up at the sun, then to the drove of pegasi looking around curiously, then to many shouting ponies.

"Oh shit, um... ooh! I've memorized the Dragon Language, pretty much my only accomplishment in my gaming career, but whatever," Jackson prepared another thu'um.

*Feim Kopraan Nahlot" Fade Body Silence, the desired effect would be to turn invisible and be unheard by those that are visible.

Luckily, their steps were silenced, they could see one another, though their forms were mostly transparent.

"I don't think it worked, we don't seem invisible," Twilight remarked, looking herself over.

"Maybe it's just because we're both invisible, and invisible people can see other invisible people, hmm, *Wuld Nah Kest*, whirlwind sprint, and here we are," he said upon arriving to the front door of the library.

"What the? What in Celestia's mane just happened?" the studious mare looked around, not sure how they had gotten from in front of the farm to in front of the library in only a couple of seconds.

"Dragon language, my dear Twilight, basically, Spike is a badass, and I'm a badass too, so I can do things like that," the winged warrior explained, not really answering the question.

"No, I mean, how'd we get from the farm, to here, in a second or two?" she asked, still confused.

"Oh, that, well, the shout I used was Whirlwind Sprint, which made us move with more speed than a tempest, so I'm sure that you can see how we got here so fast," the magical man explained, satisfying the question.

"This.... Dragon Language, could you teach me?"

"Yeah, after we clear the snow that is, can't shirk our duty to wrap up winter, now can we?" he smiled, his rhetorical question reinforcing the highly-thought fact.

He was good, yes, but good does not mean nice, nor does it mean soft, or well-spirited, or even well-mannered, no, good meant doing the good thing, and the right thing had no innate correlation to the good thing.

The right thing would be to leave the citizens to their duties in wrapping up winter and go learn some Dragon Language, not interrupting with the against-the-rules usage of magic, but the good thing would be to help the others out, even if that meant breaking the precious rules.

Twilight was convinced, Chaotic Good was the way to go, Chaotic Good meant doing what you have to in order to save the day/world/friends/other.

So they began.

*Faad Drun Vah* Warmth bring Spring, the air warmed up, making the snow melt due to thermodynamics dictating that the snow heated up in order to cool down the air.

Twilight cast a few low, wide conflagrations of fire, clearing out streets' worth of snow and ice in mere seconds.

"Nice, let's see about..." Jackson summoned up the thu'um again, determined to find a dragon to steal the soul from, to give to Twilight, so she could enjoy the thu'um as well.

*Yor Toor Shul* the Fire Breath shout, which he aimed at a large group of carts packed with piles of snow, leaving slightly charred carts and a cloud of steam rising into the sky.

"Impressive, come on, I think Fluttershy might be having a hard time awakening the animals from their hibernation dens." the mage teleported herself and her companion to the snow-covered fields outside of Ponyville.

The dragon-empowered human belted out a *Raan Alok* Animals Rise, followed by *Govey Od* Remove Snow, which instantly solved everything in the field, leaving the half-dozen ponies working on the awakening confused and a little spooked.

"Wait, I just got an idea, teleport us to Town Hall," Jackson prepared his voice for the next shout.

Twilight obliged, and with a *BUZZ-ZHOM* of a teleportation, Jackson was perched on top of the roof of Town Hall.

*Fus Govey Fo Od Iiz Krah, Drun Vah Faad Yol Krein, Ofan Suleyk Dovah Zii Wah Fahdon* Force remove frost, ice, snow, and cold, bring Spring, warmth, fire, and the sun, give power of a dragon's soul to my friend.

The incredibly long shout worked its power, all of Ponyville was, within seconds, covered in the lush green of springtime, Twilight looked at the beautiful ground, and giggled at the sight of all the confused ponies.

Something fell in front of her, Jackson's body. The strain of putting out that much power had caused him to black out.

Jackson mentally slapped himself, such an intense shout had nearly killed him, and now he was falling off of Town Hall.

*THUD* his body landed, bouncing back up a little bit before flopping down again.

His lungs were on fire with pain, his bones weren't broken, but his skin felt torn and bruised from the impact.

'I hope this isn't just a running gag of my life, because it's a really sucky one, blacking out sucks,' he thought, all external senses shut down.

Twilight teleported down to the ground, her body running on autopilot as she levitated Jackson's unconscious form onto her back, her senses were firing off like two-stage fireworks, in very rapid succession.

"Oh no, I have to get him to the hospital, HHNNNNGH, ugh, magic, why must you fail me now," she tried to teleport to the hospital, but her horn merely shot off a few sparks and did nothing.

Twilight had expended her immense magical power for the moment, and while her inner power would recharge over time, it would take too long and Jackson could die while she waited.

"Oh no, what am I going to do? I can't gallop there fast enough to ensure.... wait, this energy, it's the same that Spike has, I... ugh what was that one shout that Jackson did?" she wracked her brain trying to remember.

It came to her, *Wuld Nah Kest*, and suddenly she was in front of the hospital.

Nurse Redheart looked up as the door opened, but for some reason, nopony came through.

*SHWEEOOM* the arcane sound of a teleportation rang out, revealing Twilight Sparkle and Jackson McCard.

"Ah, Miss Sparkle, what brings y-"

"No time, Redheart, Jackson's hurt, bad, a... freak climbing accident, he fell off of Town Hall, you need to check him, he's unconscious," Twilight noticed a hint of suspicion in the nurse's eyes, but passed it off as the need to know what happened.

A few minutes later, the pink-maned mare had Twilight in the waiting room, the unconscious human having been moved to another part of the hospital.

"Alright, Miss Sparkle, while I have little doubt of your innocence, I have to say, your story is not very believable," the earth pony informed, "One does not simply have a 'freak climbing accident on Town Hall', now I have to ask, just throwing this out there, did you push him off of anything?" the question stung the unicorn significantly.

"What? No, no I would never, he's, he's just, I would never want to do that," the stress of the situation was finally hitting the studious mare.

She had not just broken, but absolutely pissed all over the rules, she helped Jackson piss all over the rules, and had led him to falling off of Town Hall by teleporting him on top of the observatory's roof, rather than in the actual observatory. She began lightly crying, thoughts of what this would lead to racing through her mind.

"Well, I'm going to need a little more than that, what actually happened?" the nurse insisted, pressing on further.

"Okay, Jackson and I were going around town, breaking the 'no magic' rule and removing huge swathes of winter, Jackson had an idea to get rid of the whole thing, and he said he needed to be on top of Town Hall, so I teleported him there. Once we were there, he cast out this long and complicated spell, which is what removed winter from all of town, and he passed out, falling off of the building and hitting the ground, that's everything that happened," the amethyst-eyed mare was still crying, ruining her pretty eyes with a sad reddening.

"I see..." the nurse looked over Twilight's dossier, finding a particular line that caught her attention, 'Easily scared straight', it would help stop the hysterics, at the very least

Redheart motioned for Twilight to follow her, leading the lavender unicorn into the lobby, taking her seat behind the front desk as the other mare stood in front of desk.

"Right, well, Jackson can be wait until he's healed up, but I'm sorry Twilight, for breaking these strict rules, I'm going to have to inform the authorities," she moved her hoof towards the telephone.

Suddenly her hoof was caught in a violet aura, which squeezed it painfully hard, she looked at Twilight in sudden fear, the mage's eyes turned cold and mean, her horn flared up with magic, while she didn't have enough to teleport from Town Hall to the hospital, she had enough for her threat.

"I swear, if you touch that phone, I'm going to ruin you, I have connections with Princess Celestia, the whole Canterlot guard, and all of the government's resources, I can make you a wanted mare, I can even put a bounty on your head, nopony will believe you, so... you can call the police, and try running away with three legs, or we can both drop the issue now, your choice," Twilight punctuated her statement with a harshly painful yank on the trapped limb.

This was a harsh mindfuck, Redheart simply nodded yes, got released, and cowered behind the desk in fear.

Twilight felt a bit of a rush, adrenaline, she had gotten out of trouble with violence, it wasn't friendly, but it was effective, she felt like she could do that more.

Yeah, what was the point of power if you couldn't use it?

"Just remember, Twilight, don't go overboard," she reminded herself, sighing and breathing in a deep gulp of the fresh, invigorating spring air.

What would the future hold for her?

She would just have to wait, like everypony else.