I Hate Hurting my Friends More...
“So... What is this anyway?” Rainbow asked, circling the board and poking at a few of the pieces that Twilight was sitting in front of.
“Chess Rainbow, I told you that already. It's a game,” Twilight explained, replacing a piece Rainbow had fell.
“Doesn't look very fun to me. You're sure it's a game?” Rainbow sat beside the unicorn and sighed.
“I'm sure. Want to learn how to play?”
“Eh... Maybe some other time.” Rainbow Dash got back up and shook her head.
“Pleeeeease? It'll be so much fun, and it's really not that hard.” Twilight was hoping the pegasi would agree. She'd gotten her into reading what was stopping her from playing chess? Besides, she didn't have too many ponies to play such games with here.
“I don't know Twilight. This doesn't seem... Cool.” Rainbow shrugged, though she was curious. Some of the little figures actually looked pretty cool.
Twilight rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Come on Rainbow, sit down.”
“Fine...” Rainbow trotted back over and sat down again, only to have Twilight staring at her expectantly. “What?”
“On the other side of the board. Sit in front of the darker pieces.”
“Oh, yeah I knew that.” Rainbow replied nonchalantly, repositioning herself across from Twilight.
Twilight smiled. “I'm guessing you don't know anything about chess at all?”
“Well, I've seen other ponies playing, older ponies though, but no,” Rainbow admitted.
“I'll start simple. Chess is a two-player strategy board game played on a chessboard,” Twilight pointed at the board with a hoof. “A checkered game board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is actually pretty popular in Equestria.”
Rainbow scoffed. “Then why haven't I heard of it before?”
“Please let me finish Rainbow,” Twilight sighed.
“My bad...” Rainbow's ears lay flat on her head. “Go on.”
Twilight eyed the cyan Pegasus before continuing, making sure she'd not be interrupted again. When she was satisfied Rainbow would be quiet she continued. “Each player begins the game with 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns.” Twilight levitated the tallest of the pieces, that had a cross atop it. “This is the king.” She lowered it and levitated the next piece, a little shorter than the first but similar. “This is the Queen.” Next was the bishop, then the knights, the rooks and finally the smallest pieces, the pawns.
“Each of the six piece types moves differently. What you want to do is 'checkmate' the opponent's king by placing it under an inescapable threat of capture. In other words, you want to move your pieces so that they take this one.” Twilight levitated the king again. “The king.” She placed it back down.
“But... How do they move?” Rainbow seemed lost already.
“I'll tell you. Don't worry, it's not that hard.” Twilight turned her attention back to the board, as did Rainbow.
“The king moves one square in any direction. The king has also a special move which is called castling and involves also moving a rook, but... I'll explain that later.” Twilight giggled. “The rook can move any number of squares along any rank or file,” Twilight moved her hoof up one of the rows. “This is a file,” then she moved it across the board. “This is a rank.” Twilight picked the rook back up in her magic. “However it's not allowed to jump over any pieces. If one of your pieces are in the way it has to stop, and if it's one of mine, you can either take it or stop before it.” She set the rook down and picked up the bishop.
“The bishop can move any number of squares diagonally, and it can't jump over any pieces either, same thing as the rook.” She traced her hoof diagonally across the board and over one color. “Each of your bishops are on a different color. That's the color they can move across. So Iadark square bishop will never be on a light square and the same for the other bishop.”
“The queen combines the power of the rook and bishop and can move any number of squares along rank, file, or diagonal, but it still can't jump over any pieces, it either has to stop or take the piece in it's way.” She levitated the queen. “Some ponies say that this pieces more important than the king because of how strong it is.” She put it back down.
“The knight,” she picked it up. “Is a bit tricky, it moves to any of the closest squares that are not on the same rank, file, or diagonal, thus the move forms an L-shape: two squares vertically and one square horizontally, or two squares horizontally and one square vertically and the knight is the only piece that can jump over other pieces. However, if there is one of your pieces where it's going, it can't go there and if it's one of mine, you have to take it, or not go there.”
“Finally there are the pawns. They can move forward to the unoccupied square immediately in front of it on the same file. On its first move it may move two squares along the same file provided both squares are unoccupied. The pawn can only capture an opponent's piece on a square diagonally in front of it on an adjacent file however. So... It can move forward, but can't capture directly in front of it and can only move diagonally if it can capture one of my pieces. The pawn has two special moves: the en pessant capture and pawn promotion. Which, we'll also get to later. The en passant is... weird.” Twilight giggled and shifted. She loved teaching, however the look on the rainbow maned mare's face was one of utter confusion.
“Um... Twilight I don't know about this...” This was a lot to take in, and she hadn't understood half of it.
Twilight giggled again. “I'll help you. I didn't expect you to learn how to play just because I told you about the game. Do you have anywhere to be today?”
“Well... I don't have to work but I was supposed to practice today.” Upon saying those words she saw Twilight droop a bit. She really wanted to teach her this game. Rainbow felt bad and yielded. “I guess it wouldn't hurt to miss a day.” Rainbow hoped this wasn't going to take a whole day. She wasn't as smart as egg-head but she was sure she could figure it out.
“Great!” Twilight squeaked. “We'll start with some easy stuff.”
For the next hour Twilight rearranged pieces on the board, setting up different scenarios where pieces would move, capture or trap other pieces. She made sure to make Rainbow move the pieces to ensure she was getting it and paying attention. It took Rainbow a second to understand why pawns couldn't move two space all the time or why the could only capture diagonally. Twilight rolled her eyes or sighed every time Rainbow said something was dumb about the rules but for the most part Rainbow cooperated. It took even longer for Rainbow to figure out castling. She didn't grasp the concept that if the king or rook moved before castling then they couldn't castle. However after a while Twilight was able to get it in her head. They skipped the pawn's en passant all together. Twilight didn't even want to go there.
Finally, after a couple of test it seemed Rainbow had got it. Twilight was proud of herself and eager to see what Rainbow had learned. “So, want to play”
“Well I spent this whole time learning it. I might as well.” Rainbow tried to sound uninterested, but this was actually starting to spark her interest. First books, now chess... Now I'm an egg-head. Rainbow chuckled at her own joke and smiled. “So... Who goes first?”
“The light pieces do, which is on your side so you do,” Twilight replied, levitating all the pieces in their proper order.
“Alright.” Rainbow looked down at the board, and imagined her pieces to be her own personal army. This couldn't be that hard. Instead of moving a pawn she decided to test the knight, looking up at Twilight to make sure she was doing the right thing when she jumped over her pawn. Twilight nodded. Rainbow smiled and sat back, waiting for Twilight to move-
The game was slow at first. Twilight was playing defensively, allowing Rainbow to get a feel for the game but Rainbow had no real pattern in which she was moving her piece. She knew how they worked, but she didn't know how to us them so that they worked together. Twilight figured if she started playing for real it would make Rainbow have to think. When she took Rainbow's knight Rainbow shook her head as if she didn't understand.
Rainbow immediately looked for a way to take the piece back but none of her pieces could get on the square Twilight's bishop was on. Rainbow sighed and decided to move a piece to attack the bishop the next turn, which was futile seeing as Twilight just took Rainbow's rook with the same bishop, and moving out of the way of the attack. “Oh come on!” Rainbow exclaimed.
Twilight giggled and placed the captured piece to the side. “Sorry Rainbow, you have to protect your pieces more.”
Rainbow growled and scoffed, looking back down to the board. She couldn't take the bishop, but sh could take a pawn. Rainbow grinned and moved her queen down, knocking Twilight's pawn over and dropping it off the board. “Ha!”
Twilight frowned... Rainbow hadn't seen the second pawn defending that pawn, and gave up her queen. She wasn't thinking. She sighed as she took Rainbow's queen and looked up at the expression of shock on the blue mare's face.
“But...” Rainbow couldn't think of anything else to say... Then decided to move another move. This time however, Twilight moved her own queen, right across from Rainbow's king.
“Check,” Twilight said.
“What?” Rainbow scanned the board, and figured out what she meant. Rainbow growled and moved a knight, attacking the queen but not blocking her. Twilight moved Rainbow's piece back which made Rainbow look at her. “Hey! You can't move my piece.”
“Rainbow, you have to stop my queen from attacking your king,” She replied patiently.
“I did! I attacked your queen with the knight.”
“That wasn't going to stop me from taking your king next turn. I'd just take your king and you'd lose.”
Rainbow took a second to think and nodded. “Sorry.” She got it now, and instead just moved her king over so the queen wasn't attacking her king anymore.
However Twilight's next move was game over. She moved her queen again, right next to her king. “Checkmate.”
This confused Rainbow. “Can't I just take it with my king?”
“No... See my bishop is here, protecting my queen.” Twilight levitated the bishop that had taken her knights before, then placed it down. “Next turn I'd take your king.”
Rainbow looked over the rest of the board, looking for something to fix this dilemma but she had nothing. No matter what she did Twilight was going to take her king. “I lost?”
“Yeah... You did, but don't worry. That was only your first game. I wasn't good either when I first learned.” Twilight would have been happier if Rainbow didn't look so disgruntled, still looking at the board.
“Lets go again.” Rainbow suddenly said, taking her pieces back from the side of the board and rearranging them.
“Alright, you'll get better with practice.” Twilight replied, levitating her own pieces back in place. She was glad Rainbow was at least taking an interest.
This game went much like the last, Rainbow losing her queen after taking Twilight's bishop because she didn't see the knight, then getting her king caught between Twilight's queen and rook. Rainbow sighed. “Okay... One more time...”
Twilight wasn't as happy to play again, due to Rainbow's growing dissatisfaction. Nonetheless she set the board up once more. This time however, with Rainbow playing too recklessly with her Queen she lost it, and got visibly upset. “What the buck!” Rainbow growled.
Twilight shied away but didn't move much more than that. She was trying to ignore the fact that Rainbow was getting upset. A few lost pieces later and she couldn't ignore it any longer.
Rainbow was making dumb mistakes now, not even focused anymore and playing out of anger. After losing her rook she didn't even bother allowing Twilight trapping her king. “Just, reset the damn board... Stupid game...”
“Rainbow... I don't think we should play an-”
“Just do it!” Rainbow snapped, snatching her pieces and placing them back on the board.
Twilight saw that Rainbow had the queen and king and the wrong squares and used her magic to switch them, keeping an eye on the angry mare who did nothing but look even more frustrated. However Rainbow made her first move and the game progressed. For a minute Twilight thought Rainbow had calmed down a bit and was thinking a little more. Rainbow moved her bishop to attack Twilight's queen.
Twilight saw this, and noticed that she couldn't take the bishop because a pawn would recapture her queen, however nothing was stopping her from simply moving her queen out of the way. Twilight pretended to ignore the threat, thinking that if she let Rainbow win one it might calm her down and cheer her up. So she moved her knight to a miscellaneous square and waited, but didn't wait very long.
Instead of taking the queen Rainbow flipped the board violently, sending the pieces everywhere, some of them hitting Twilight in the face who flinched and recoiled, half due to the sudden outburst and half due to the pieces. “R-Rainbow!” Twilight squeaked, jumping back a bit.
“I know you fucking saw that!” Rainbow growled. “Don't fucking let me win cause I'm stupid!” Rainbow was up on all fours, her wings sprung and breathing heavily.
“S-s-saw what!?” Twilight lied. “Rainbow please calm down... Please.” Twilight was growing more and more upset with each passing second. This was completely irrational and she didn't know what to do about it.
“I can't win at this stupid game! That's all this is, a dumb game! I hate it!” Rainbow growled stomping a forehoof, no longer in control of herself.
Twilight picked up a broken piece of her chess board and started to tear up a bit. “Rainbow I was only trying to have fun, I w-wasn't trying to upset you.” Twilight was hurt her friend would act such a way. After all she was just trying to play a game with her friend.
“Well great job with that, I don't even care!” Rainbow spat, and stomped her way out of the library, leaving a broken Twilight to clean up the mess. She ignored Twilight's last plea for her to stay as she slammed the library door behind her.
Twilight took a deep breath to calm herself and started picking up the pieces. She was confused and hurt, starting to think it had been a bad idea to teach Rainbow chess. A couple of her pieces were broke, but the board was still intact. She wasn't mad over the broken pieces, just upset her friend was upset. She wanted to know why, but didn't dare follow her.
Rainbow flew as fast as she could into the clouds, busting a few of them as she passed by. The clouds were weak and flimsy, she wanted to break something solid, to actually destroy something. However commonsense told her that would do nothing but get her in trouble and draw more attention to herself. She was upset that someponies had seen her slam the door to the library and take off in the matter that she had. Eventually she landed on a cloud and laid down upon it, starting to calm herself. She was glad nopony else was up there with her, she didn't want to see them.
When she looked back down to Ponyville she was relieved she hadn't drawn too much attention. Having nothing better to do she focused on the three fillies she knew well that she noticed playing hopscotch almost directly below her. They didn't seem to notice her, too caught up in their little game. After a few rounds the game had gotten longer and more difficult, however it seemed Scootaloo had a clear advantage. Whenever she were about to fall she'd flap her wings and regain her balance, while the other two would fall.
Sweetie Belle would laugh it off every time, however Apple Bloom wasn't happy after losing over and over again. Finally Apple Bloom got up and snapped. “Ah Quit!” Before she could trot off however Sweetie stopped her.
“Why Apple Bloom?” She seemed legitimately confused.
Rainbow who was still watching was not. She understood completely.
“Because She's cheatin,” Apple Bloom pointed a hoof at Scootaloo who was taken aback, “And I haven't won more than once. Why am I playin a game if I can't even win?”
“Apple Bloom you're being silly,” Scootaloo shot back. “It's a game.”
“Yeah Apple Bloom...” Sweetie looked a bit more upset than Scootaloo. “We we're just playing. I haven't won a lot either, and I'm still having fun. Scootaloo is just really good.”
“Yeah, when we play horseshoes you always win, and you don't see us getting mad about it.” Scootaloo sided with Sweetie. “Please don't leave.”
Rainbow watched the yellow filly come to the same realization she herself was having. Apple Bloom looked back and forth between the two and sighed. “I'm sorry y'all.. I shouldn't of gotten mad like that... If y'all forgive me, can we play another game?”
“Sure!” Sweetie piped back up as Scootaloo started laughing.
“I'll tell you what, I won't use my wings and I'll still win.” Scootaloo replied.
“We'll just have to see then won't we?” Apple Bloom ran back over.
Rainbow came to a sudden realization after watching the little episode with the fillies. She'd hurt her friend over a game... “All she was trying to do was spend some time with me doing something she liked...” Rainbow groaned and let her head fall to the cloud. “Stupid Stupid Rainbow.” The anger was replaced with guilt and sadness quickly. “Why do you have to be so competitive...” She thought back to the race with Applejack and felt even worse. It was just like that, except Twilight hadn't even been challenging her the way Applejack had. Twilight had done nothing wrong.
She felt even dumber that a young filly like Apple Bloom had more sense than she did. She knew being competitive got her the title of the fastest pegasi in Equestria, but... Was it good when just playing a simple game with your friends? She needed a way to fix this, but how? What if Twilight is mad? What if she told the others? Will they be mad at me too? Will they be scared of me? She shook the thoughts away. Worrying wouldn't fix this, and doing nothing wouldn't fix this.
She knew what she was going to do, but first. Rainbow jumped down from the cloud and flew to the ground right in the middle of the three fillies who were in the middle of their game. In one quick motion she scooped up Apple Bloom who squeaked and hugged her tight. “Thank you so so much!” With that she dropped her back to the ground and was off just as fast, leaving the three fillies bewildered.
“What was that about?” Sweetie asked.
“I-I have no idea.” Apple Bloom replied, still a little shocked.
Scootaloo was sitting with her forelegs crossed, pouting that Rainbow had hugged Apple Bloom and not her.
Later on that day Twilight had all but forgotten the earlier events as she read her book by the window, using the last bit of light the setting sun had to offer. A sudden knock at her door caused her to jump. She hadn't been expecting anypony.
She definitely wasn't expecting the pony she opened the door to. “Oh... Rainbow.”
“Hey...” Rainbow replied, looking a little solemn. “Can I come in?” Thankfully Twilight didn't seem angry, but she didn't like the fact she wasn't her usual smiling self.
“Sure...” Twilight stepped back, allowing Rainbow to pass her. She noticed that Rainbow had her saddlebags, which Rainbow placed on the floor before turning back to Twilight.
Twilight closed the door and turned to say something but was cut off by the cyan mare wrapped a foreleg around her and hugged her. “I'm sorry Twilight.”
Twilight smiled to herself and pulled away from her after returning the hug. “It's fine Rainbow... I know how competitive you can get.” In reality she was a little upset, but she wasn't going to turn it into a big deal, especially after Rainbow apologized. Besides, Rainbow looked sad enough.
Rainbow took a wooden checkered container out of her saddlebags and held it out to Twilight.
“What is this?” Twilight asked, taking it in her magic and turning it over.
“An apology...” Rainbow replied.
Twilight turned the case over to discover a latch on the other side. She placed it down on the floor gently and undid the latch, opening it to discover wooden chess pieces, each in their individual felt slots. Twilight put a forehoof to her muzzle and smiled. When she turned it back over she discovered that when opened the case was a chessboard. “Rainbow... I love it.” Twilight stated, closing the case slowly and placing it off to the side. “You didn't have to...”
“Yes I did... I noticed what happened to your other one... I broke them... It's only fair that I replace them.” Rainbow's ears dropped and she looked down to the floor, she went to say something. This time it was her who was stopped. Twilight wrapped her forelegs and hugged her.
“Thank you Rainbow. I'm just glad you feel better.” She pulled away and sat down in front of her, happy to see Rainbow smile and blush.
“I shouldn't have got mad in the first place... It's just a game...” She went quiet for a moment and giggled a bit. “Want to play?”
“Ummm... Actually...” Twilight laughed hesitantly, then had an idea. “How about we go for a race?”
Rainbow really laughed now, and stood up suddenly. “Sure! I'll race you to the starting point!” With that Rainbow took off out the door, leaving a laughing Twilight behind, who soon followed...
And lost about Twenty races with a smile on her face.
