1000 Years of Chess and Nightmare Moon
“I HATE being banished to the moon,” growled Nightmare Moon. “There’s nothing to do on this blasted rock!”
As she sat there, she realized that someone was trying to get her attention, from inside her head. Probably that weak, pesty little Princess Luna. She decided to ignore her, but failed, so she decided to answer the summons. As she entered her mind she saw Luna was about to fire a party cannon but upon noticing Nightmare Moon, she put it away, looking smug all the while.
“Well it took you long enough. Now I know how Celestia feels when I’m not paying attention,” said the dark blue alicorn.
“What do you want, you little fool,” asked Nightmare Moon.
Luna sat there for a moment with an expression that read are-you-serious? When Nightmare Moon didn’t react she sighed and said,
“I want my body back, obviously. What’d you think I wanted, a hayburger? So I’m prepared to make you a deal. If you agree to give me back my body, I won’t try and stop you from overthrowing Celestia, and causing eternal night or whatever. I won’t root for you, but I won’t resist.”
“And if I refuse this deal of yours?” asked Nightmare Moon.
“I leave for 24 hours, and then ask again when said time is up,” stated Luna matter-of-factly.
“NO! I’M IN CONTROL, LUNA! NOT YOU! AND YOU’LL NEVER BE IN CONTROL AGAIN!” screamed Nightmare Moon, expecting Luna to shrink away in fear. But what actually happened made Nightmare Moon do a double take. Luna smiled, calmly stood up, and walked away.
Luna’s calm reaction only fueled Nightmare Moon’s rage. She began blowing anything she could, but with not much around, she only ended up blasting in some new craters.
*For 400 years, Luna came back every day, without fail, until Nightmare Moon reluctantly surrendered and went into hibernation*
“Feels good to be back,” said Luna happily. But then something dawned on her. Or rather, two things dawned on her. First, the sun. Second was the fact that now that she had her body back, she had absolutely no idea what to do. She hadn’t expected Nightmare Moon to give up so easily, and when Luna was in the subconscious, she had been in a sort of limbo between consciousness and unconsciousness. No that she wasn’t there, she was bored. For the next few months, she decided to explore her temporary home. But by the end of the first month she had explored every nook and cranny she could find. At least she didn’t need to eat, and the moon had it’s own magical atmosphere with oxygen so she didn’t suffocate. Then, she had an epiphany.
She gathered up rocks of all sizes and using her magic, formed a statue in the likeness of herself. Then, using the leftovers and bigger rocks, she fashioned a giant chessboard on the surface of the moon. Then, using her magic, brought the statue to life, and gave it a personality and intelligence equal to her’s, except in one regard. The dummy would be much better at chess, for a challenge.
When she was done, Luna walked over to the living statue and said,
“Imma call you… Rocky.”
“Please don’t,” replied Rocky. “My name is Luna, just like you.”
“Too late,” replied Luna. “If you’re called Luna, how will the readers know who is who?”
Rocky gave Luna a confused look. “Readers?” she asked.
“Nothing,” Luna replied quickly. Luna gestured for Rocky to follow her over to the crudely made chess board and pieces. Luna flew up to the top of the white king piece while Rocky flew over to the black one. Luna began by moving her pawn at F2 forward two places. By the time the sun had set, according to Luna’s point of view, Rocky only had her king and the rook to her right left, in the same positions as they were at the beginning of the game. Then right when Luna called check with her remaining bishop, Rocky moved her king two spaces closer to the rook, and then moved said rook over to her left.
“That’s not a legal move!” Luna yelled across the board. “Change it back!”
“It is a perfectly legal move, Luna,” replied the statue, with a smug look that made Luna want to punch her. “It is called castling.”
“You made that up!”
“I did not,” replied Rocky curtly. “You seem to forget that in regards to chess, my intelligence and skill exceeds your’s by about 3, maybe 4 times. Didn’t you want a challenge and to learn how to be good at this game.”
Luna was silent for a moment before yelling back, “Shut up.”
In the end, it was Rocky who was triumphant. That “night” Luna stayed up and planned different strategies, but to no avail, because each time she put a new strategy into play, Rocky would still somehow best her. She became less cocky, and began to plan out as they went along and over time. Sure, she didn’t like losing, but she learned from her mistakes. She began to calm down, but she realized that she didn’t want to overthrow Equestria anymore, but rather, she just wanted to go home. When she wasn’t playing she would sit and stare at Equestria, wondering what everyone was up to. Somedays, Rocky would come sit beside her and they would just talk. It felt nice to have someone to talk to and to confide in. They became friends over time, but all the same, Rocky still wouldn’t go down without a fight, in chess at least.
*They played every single day without fail, and when Luna finally beat Rocky, she would raise Rocky’s intelligence and skill. By the time that 950 years of her 1,000 year sentence was over, she had become a master chess player and a master strategist.*
In the year 1,000 C.R., just a few days before the Summer Sun Celebration, Luna began to feel Nightmare Moon stirring. It was at this time she reverted the chess board and pieces back to normal, and after a sad goodbye with Rocky, she changed her back to rocks as well. But in all her time on the moon, Luna had been humbled. She wasn’t as reckless or as angry. On the day of the Summer Sun Celebration, she upheld her end of the promise and, much to her dismay, gave control to Nightmare Moon. As she slipped back into the subconscious, she had one final thought before going back into limbo:
‘I can’t wait to beat Celestia at chess.”
Author's Note
I hope you enjoy! This was for an English project where we had to write a kid's story, and I'd wanted to do this for a while but I never had the time, until now! Hope you like the cover art too! By the way, if anyone likes Doctor Who(oves), then be sure to check out my Doctor Whooves series! The first one is called Doctor Whooves: Dilemmas with Doppelgangers.
