The tree library emitted a soft glow in the darkness of the early morning. Birds were still and quiet, for it was not yet time for their stirring. A soft breeze caught in the leaves, rustling them slightly. The pegasi were not to blame, it’s four in the morning! Within the library, another sound can be heard. An arrhythmic tapping, of sorts.
Twilight tapped in the last piece of code. After months of researching, and weeks more of programming, it was finally complete. And how nice of Celestia to lend me her cross dimensional portal! Those… humans certainly had interesting machines powered by electromagnetic pulses. Funny how that worked, I shall pursue that avenue of study after this. Chess is more important after all... Twilight thought.
Her creation will change the chess scene forever! Nothing of this scale had ever been made, Twilight was sure of it, for she had even gone to visit Celestia’s private (but rather public, for everypony seemed to use it anyway) library. The last time this was attempted, a foolish pony named Starswirl the Stubbled tried to use a magical matrix far more complex and definitely more carefully planned!
Twilight took her eyes off the bright metal box that humans called a screen, and looked down at her machine. A spark tried to free itself from the metal contraption, squeezing its way through the heavily ionised air, trying its best to ignite a book on fire. Not if I have anything to say about it, you little spark! Twilight cast a quick spell, quelling that train of highly ionised energy.
The metal box had numerous buttons littered on one of its faces. The opposite face had numerous holes instead, and a warm but uncomfortable air was thrust out from that end. The top and bottom faces were rather bland, but the last two faces had a single icon etched into its surface. The human that Twilight had conversed with was rather determined to get rid of the fascinating box. Something about slow and useless. What nonsense! Metal boxes can’t move at all!
Stretching her forelegs, Twilight stepped down from her study desk, and made her way towards the cross dimensional portal so that she could ‘turn off’ the machine. Her hoof passed through the portal without complaint, and reaching for the small button, she flicked it upwards, and the machine stopped its purring. She then pulled out the long rope from the socket, before dispelling the cross dimensional portal. It was time for sleep.
She soon found herself in bed. Closing her eyes, she drifted into the cool embrace of dreams. It was a mere 1408335 microseconds later before the birds started chirping, meaning that it was time for Twilight to watch the sunrise and brush her mane for the long day ahead. Unfortunately, Twilight’s schedule would have to wait.
Twilight was reshelving books. At last, the final reference book made its way into the final slot of the final shelf.
“A brief history of Equestrian Chess, check!” Twilight chirped happily. She turned around to find herself watching the chessboard expectantly. Surrounded by thousands of onlookers, it was the final round of the annual Equestrian Chess competition.
…
…
… a3
Twilight moved the pawn a step ahead, and looked expectantly at Fluttershy. She held the calm and serene smile worthy of Celestia, and made a move of her own.
“Knight to d4” Fluttershy said calmly. She moved the black knight down, and captured the white d4 pawn. But the machine had other plans.
… a4
“Blasphemous!” Celestia complained. That move… impossible.
Fluttershy started to sweat. The cold, hard calculating nature of the machine’s strategy was taking its toll. Discord finally decided that enough was enough.
“Rainbow, would you be a dear and fetch me that glamourous cinnamon ribbon?” Rarity asked. Twilight held her body as still as possible. It was the least she could do for her dear friend, having run out of mannequins to design costumes on. She had to be careful. One small movement and it was over.
An itch appeared on the back of her right forehoof. Holding the needle as carefully as she could, she stitched together the last of Cloud Kicker’s barrel, mortally wounded in battle. Well, near mortal. Fine, imperceptible scratch. But she had moved out of position regardless. An ear piercing scream filled the dreamscape and Twilight was thrust out of sleep.
Thankfully, her schedule only had to wait a millisecond before Twilight got up. After making her bed, she was forced to skip slapping her pillow three times, only slapping it twice, in order to keep up with her schedule. Picking up her manebrush, she whistled a merry (and slow) tune while brushing her mane.
A few hours later, her preparations were complete. The machine was ‘plugged in’ once again, and Twilight prepared the running of the program. The chessboard and chess pieces were already in place, before Fluttershy creeped in through the door. Ready as ever to play against the machine Twilight had made to play chess against her, Fluttershy greeted, “Good morning, Twilight!”
“Good morning Fluttershy…” Twilight yawned, “the program is ready. Feel free to start at any second, I’ll make the moves for the computer, and you… you can make the moves yourself.” Twilight giggled at her own joke, though Fluttershy paid no attention to it.
“Shall I play White, or Black?” Fluttershy asked the machine. It gave no response other than the constant purring it seemed to make, but Fluttershy somehow understood, smiling at it like it was one of her animal friends. “I’ll be White, then.”
Extending her forehoof, she moved her pawn two steps ahead…
“How are you Mister Blue? That is your name, yes?” Fluttershy said to… Mister Blue. Twilight noticed that… Mister Blue had decided on his move, and moved a black pawn two steps ahead for him.
“I see, it’s a shame you haven’t felt the warmth of Celestia’s sun. I’ll have to introduce you to Angel some day! He absolutely adores the mid day sun. Well thank you for asking! I’ve had a great day so far.” Fluttershy seemed to ramble on whilst Twilight was on the verge of falling back to sleep, but for the sake of Fluttershy and Mister Blue she had to move the pieces with as much attention and precision she could muster. She must’ve missed a little of the conversation for when she regained her conscious attention, Fluttershy seemed to be talking about… well nevermind.
“… Well now, I wouldn’t say that monarchy is bad, I mean, we’ve been under a monarchy all this time and nothing bad has happened. Military coup?! Are you sure those things happen in your land,… err, Earth? Wow… I would never have imagined…”
The conversation slowed down a little, but soon enough it was back on its way.
“I think the pros of honest farming outweigh the pros of using robots, I think. From what you say about robots though, it seems like they simply wouldn’t be able to feel the ground and the air, and the glorious life everywhere. My friend Applejack used to say that without being able to encourage the life in the soil to grow, the seeds might as well be tiny pebbles. Not to say that I know more than you of course… sorry. Anyway, it seems like you win this first match, Mister Blue.”
Fluttershy smiled at Mister Blue. A mere twenty moves had been made before the game ended, but Fluttershy learnt a lot about Mister Blue, and was absolutely delighted that he would want to play another. Fluttershy set up the board, ready for the next game.
“Of course Mister Blue! I’m sorry you noticed that I wasn’t trying my hardest, heh heh, I just wanted you to be happy.”
By alternation, Mister Blue would be white this time. Twilight helped pushed a pawn up a single step half mindedly, too tired to think of anything that was going on.
Fluttershy smiled at Mister Blue, intrigued by such a strange opening. She would try her hardest this game, at Mister Blue’s request. After a pause, Fluttershy pushed a black pawn down two steps.
Two moves later, Fluttershy started to wonder about that odd opening. Why would anypony ever consider starting with a3? Slowly, Fluttershy gained a strong control of the center, whilst Mister Blue had cramped up pieces in odd positions and had no control over any part of the board. Mister Blue was doomed. But Fluttershy was only confused.
“Why?”
Silence befell the library, besides Twilight’s snoring and Mister Blue’s soft purring. But this time, Fluttershy hadn’t heard anything meaningful from Mister Blue, only that he was still deep in thought about what his next move shall be.
“If you’ll explain later, I guess that’s fine…”
Fluttershy thought she heard a snicker.
Mister Blue was on the way to Canterlot, accompanied by Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Spike. Just twenty four hours ago, an astonishing thing had happened: Fluttershy had been beaten.
“Poor darling, she really should have come with us! A royal audience with the Princess! Oh! I would give anything to receive something like this!” Rarity was so excited she seemed to forget how to sit ‘like a lady.’
“Pfft big deal! What’s so special about meeting Princess Celestia, again? We’ve saved Equestria more times than she can count! With her hooves, I mean.” Despite Rainbow’s desperate attempts, her excitement was showing.
Twilight shook her head. “Now, remember that we wouldn’t be here if not for Mister Blue over here, I think that was his name. Anyway, it’s not our place to be excited. Mister Blue may be one of the most important figures in Chess for years to come!”
“Ah say that anypony who can beat Fluttershy in Chess is darned special alright!” Applejack said, “it wouldn’t be possible without you, Twilight!”
“I’m just wondering why Fluttershy didn’t come, though. I mean, she’s the only one who could possibly try beating Mister Blue!” Spike said, confusion clear in his words.
Twilight looked out the window, in time for Canterlot to come into view. The city rose like the mountains, but unlike the plants, it got thicker the closer you were to the castle. She was also pondering the same question. Clearly, her defeat was disconcerting, but did she really believe that she was undefeatable? She must have expected that eventually, somepony, or in this case, something would oust her from her spot as the world champion. There was no reasonable reason her reasoning would reach within Twilight’s reason, that she should be in such a terrible mental state.
Twilight shook her head once more, deciding to let the matter drop. Pinkie was now confabulating ridiculous hypotheses for Fluttershy’s behaviour, though everyone else thought nothing of it.
An hour later, Blue found himself inside a different room. It was bigger. Whiter. Grander. His Creator, the purple god, was also in the room, though his first opponent, the yellow pony, was no longer in sight. He sighed, for he truly enjoyed talking to her. Especially in the second match.
But nay, She had given him a command to make a move. His new opponent was very white. Whiter than the room. Her mane and tail flowed in a soft breeze, and seemed to contain many colours he had not previously seen.
Blue decided to open the game with the standard, at least, to him. Indicating that he would like to move the dominant central pawn increasing two units in the first coordinate, he waited for a response. When the very white pony didn’t say anything, he decided to initiate conversation.
“How are you, white one?” Blue asked. Unlike the previous pony, the white pony did not say anything in response, though she did seem mildly amused. When she returned the first move with one of her own, Blue resumed his deliberations. The white one seemed to understand Blue, but unlike the yellow one, did not reply in earnest. Perhaps there was more to learn in their culture? Now also amused, Blue decided to take a more… modern technique… in response. He indicated on the screen that he would like the first coordinate of the sinister subservient pawn to increase a single unit. Not long after, She gracefully acted out his request. Blue thought that She was acting with much more finesse, and he was correct.
After some idling, he decided that he would try again to reopen communications with the white one. After all, there was no reason why the yellow one would be happy to speak to him whilst the white one would not.
“White one, do you know where the yellow one is? It was a delight working and chatting with her the day before, but is there a reason why you would not?” he tried.
This seemed to get a reaction out of the white one. Smiling, she said, “I would be delighted to talk to you, Mister Blue. My name is Celestia.”
Success! With communications now open, he got straight down to business. “My name is Blue, though you already knew that.”
Blue inwardly smiled. He decided to start small, just like he had with the yellow one. “What are your thoughts on rape?”
This seemed to garner a bigger response… Celestia took half a step back, her eyes locking with his metal casing. A slight, subtle frown appeared, and he thought most ponies would probably have missed this detail. Her wings slightly ruffled, and there was the slightest increase in the constant luminescence around her horn.
She picked up a piece and made her move, though she broke etiquette and looked at Her with a little uncertainty. However, She was not fazed at all, and continued to smile widely. He was definitely proud of his Creator for having such powerful mental immunity.
He resumed his deliberations formally. There were 4 pawns that shaped the battlefield. Celestia had taken a bias towards the dominant side of the board. It was the natural way, of course, just like how humans wrote with their dominant hands, leaving the sinister hand for less demanding tasks. He did not think the same way, for he had taken a strong root in the sinister side of the board. There was a big difference in the two sides, though the yellow one did not think so. Now he was about to find out what Celestia knew, everything.
While he was deliberating, Celestia finally decided to resume contact. “We think very lowly of the act, for it is one of folly and heartlessness.” Her frown seemed to be plastered on her face like wax on a wick, much like the yellow one. However, her mental immunity was far greater than that of the yellow one, but she was easy to crack. Already he saw the signs. She had slipped into a different speech pattern, and with some simple research, he found that it was older. Perhaps this one shows more wisdom that he might have previously anticipated.
It was simple to deduce that he shall respond in kind. At the same time, there was a small bias nagging that he had overstepped his bounds. Finally, he decided. “Why doth thy herd hold monarchy in high regard?”
“Because the monarch hath protected her ponies for more than a thousand years, and she hath the respect of my little ponies.”
He could scarce believe his sensors. Did she just imply that she was the monarch? Celestia was now sporting a mischievous grin behind her serene smile. Gah! She’s getting on my gates. Though this does call for an alternate plan…
“Therefore, if thy regard to the Zebricans is that of peer respect, and if thy cake eating habits are anything to go by, the conclusions drawn 2048 seconds and 8192 seconds ago respectively clearly show that you hold rapists in high regard. I can scarce believe that your majesty hast such ‘heartless’ beliefs.”
It was the second game. Just as she placed her piece down, the move that would be her last, Mister Blue, had declared that she supported rape. If she had any tea left in the palace, she would have spit it out, but fortunately the fifth emergency tea shipment had yet to arrive.
In an instantaneous motion, her lips curled up into a grin. She could not keep in her laughter anymore. Like a maniac, she laughed.
Oh Twilight, you don’t have to hold it in, just make the final move. The checkmate. Heh. Why are you all looking at me like that? Celestia thought. Is there something on my face? Heh. Well maybe you should check your own, Applejack you seem to have cream dots on your cheeks! heh… heh…
With uncertainty in her hooves, Twilight finally made the last move. Apparently, she finally understood what had made Fluttershy reclusive. Just like with “the yellow one,” it was the second game, and the score was 2-0. There was no doubt about it. Celestia was a monster.
It is time for sunset. A small part of Celestia’s receding consciousness nagged. But it didn’t matter anymore. She cast a spell, not the one to lower the sun, no, there was no need for that. The spell weaved in the air, no doubt working the magical system overtime, but there was no need for the system anymore.
Of course, that is to be expected.
In a few moments, the spell will complete, and the world will cease to
