It was another typical day at Ponyville's public library. There was almost no noise, with the slight breeze outside the only thing anyone at the library heard. However, that was about to change when a blue unicorn barged in, the doors slamming wide open. The unicorn looked determined to tell the world of her presence.
"The Great and Powerful Trixie wants to master chess," she shouted in the air. "Send me a book so that Trixie can become the best chess player in all of Equestria."
A hurricane of shushes echoed in the library, and one of the assistants trotted over to Trixie, his face formed a scowl once he was in front of her. Trixie blushed and grinned, her eyes shifting away from the assistant before being fixed on him again.
"Why do you want to master chess?" asked the assistant.
"Because Twilight beat Trixie at it once, and Trixie wants to beat her," replied Trixie.
"Well, we do have a book about chess, but nothing on strategies. Is that okay?"
"Trixie finds this okay."
The assistant led Trixie to one of the isles and using his magic, he pulled out a book titled The History of Chess. The book was thick to the point where it could be used as a lethal weapon. The assistant dusted the book off and Trixie grabbed it as quickly as she possibly could, her eyes glowing like lamps.
"This is perfect, Trixie will check it out," said Trixie. She was brought over to the check out area and once everything was set, Trixie rushed out of the library, much to the relief of the other ponies inside.
Trixie looked back at the library for a brief moment, her grin looking comical to the ponies that trotted by her, and as she gazed at the book's cover, Trixie felt as though for once, she could best the great Twilight Sparkle at something. However, she knew that it would take some studying and practice on lesser chess players if she were to ever stand a chance against Twilight, so she trotted back home and set aside some time to read the lore of the game of chess.
***
Three weeks passed by since then, and having completed the book and returned it, Trixie felt as though she was the best chess player in all of Equestria. She defeated such notable opponents such as Snips, Snails, and that was pretty much it. Ignoring the technicalities, Trixie was more than ready to show her skills off to the world, and she figured what better place to go than the town fair that was being held in Ponyville. Princess Celestia was scheduled to be there, and Trixie thought that if she could beat the Princess of the Sun, then defeating Twilight Sparkle would be a piece of cake.
Trixie arrived at the town fair with plenty of time to spare. There were a number of striped tents set up on Ponyville's town square, and she pulled out her portable table and chess set once she noticed Princess Celestia trotting towards her, the mane and tail of Celestia's flowing and sparkling as beautifully as ever. When Celestia was close by, Trixie frantically waved to her, and luckily for her, the princess happened to notice.
"Hello there," said Celestia in her usual regal tone. "What do you need?"
"I challenge you to a game of chess," shouted Trixie, whose face couldn't possibly be any more smug.
"Why do you want to challenge me?"
"Because if I win, then I'll be the best chess player in the world."
"Is that so?" A clever idea popped into Celestia's head upon seeing how egotistical Trixie was, and she knew of someone from another world that could teach Trixie a lesson. "Well then, let's step things up a bit. I know of dimensions that ponies have never imagined, and in one of these dimensions, there is a creature that is the embodiment of knowledge. I bet she'd love to have a nice, relaxing game of chess."
Trixie's curiosity was piqued. As bright as Celestia was, she was likely nothing compared to something referred to as the embodiment of knowledge. Trixie grinned as widely as she could, her teeth shining in Celestia's eyes. "Trixie accepts, bring me this being, and we shall begin. Though Trixie wonders, how do you know of other worlds?"
"The Magic Mirror that leads to a world of creatures called humans exists, and I've been around long enough to know of other worlds or dimensions. I've also been around long enough to allow others to visit our dimension if I request it." Celestia's horn glowed as she contacted the being, and after a minute or two, her horn glowed even brighter than before. A yellow orb formed next to Celestia, and Trixie's eyebrows shot up as she could feel the energy being emitted by the orb.
Trixie was eager to see what this creature looked like, expecting some giant that was otherwise incomprehensible for mere mortals to imagine, but once the orb vanished and the figure inside of it was revealed, Trixie's jaw dropped. It was not a giant, but rather a tiny, pixie-like creature with a yellow and light blue color. Two tails extended out of the creature, her eyes were closed shut, and on her head and the tips of her tails were bright red gems.
"Is this supposed to be some kind of joke?" asked Trixie in a mocking tone. "This is—"
"This is no joke," replied the creature. Trixie fell over onto her back in pure shock. She got herself back up and rubbed her eyes.
"Did, did you just talk?"
"Yes. My name is Uxie, and I will be your opponent today. I won't hold back, as I do want to live up to my status as the embodiment of knowledge."
Trixie chuckled nervously, sweat dripping down her face. "Yeah, let's, um, get started, shall we?"
Uxie hovered towards the chess board, which was marked with letters and numbers for convenience, and observed the chess pieces in front of her. Trixie looked on in pure shock, unsure of how something could see with its eyes closed shut, but the whole situation felt so unusual to her that she never bothered to question it.
"Trixie will play as white, and you'll play as black," shouted Trixie. "This means Trixie will begin."
Trixie moved one of her white pawns from f2 to f3. Uxie remained still, mulling over the situation in her head, and after about a minute or so, a black pawn moved from e7 to e5 all by itself. Trixie gasped as loudly as she could, as she didn't even see a magic aura around the moving pawn.
"How? Trixie knows pawns cannot move on their own."
"It's called telekinesis," replied Uxie. "Using my psychic abilities, I can manipulate objects that are close by. My psychic abilities also allow me to see the world with my eyes shut."
"Well that explains a lot. Anyways, let's continue."
Trixie didn't hesitate from moving one of her white pawns from g2 to g4, but what she failed to realize was that she made a grave miscalculation. Uxie immediately moved her black queen from d8 to h4, winning her the game. Trixie, not aware that the game was over, moved her white knight from g1 to h3, to which Uxie responded by taking her king.
"You've already lost," said Uxie. "What you've fallen into is what's known as the Fool's Mate, which happens to be the shortest possible game of chess that ends in a victory."
"Trixie does not lose," she retorted. "I've spent weeks reading about the history of chess. I cannot lose to this, thing that you are."
"Don't let it get to your head. We all have things we excel at, while at the same time there are things we are poor at. It's nothing to be worried about." Uxie turned towards Princess Celestia. "My work here is done, but it was nice seeing your world. It's cute."
"Why thank you," replied Celestia. "I work very hard to keep it this way. And thank you for coming." Celestia's horn glowed yellow and Uxie was sent back to her dimension. Once everything returned to normal, Celestia trotted over to Trixie and a smirk appeared on her face. "Trixie, I hope you've learned a valuable lesson. I must continue on my way. Goodbye."
"Goodbye, Celestia," groaned Trixie, crushed by the agony of defeat. As she looked at the princess trotting away from her, Trixie realized that such behavior was typical of Celestia. She did have a knack of creating all sorts of crazy situations to teach a pony a lesson of some sort, and while she refused to discard her persona, she knew that chess wasn't going to be her one advantage over Twilight. "Wait a minute, perhaps Trixie can beat Twilight at basketball. Now Trixie just needs to find her again."
