A Game

Rarity was walking with a pained expression as she walked through the town of Ponyville after she got back from a fashion show near Canterlot. Her heels were bothering her and she didn't like it. She never liked wearing heels contrary to everyone's belief and tried to go barefoot as possible as she could as even if she was a fashion girl she despised shoes.

She tried to walk back to Carousel Boutique to see if she needed do more work but decided that she couldn't take it anymore. She ripped her heels off and walked the rest of the way barefoot. She sighed with relief as it felt much better than walking in hurtful shoes if she had known this would happen she would have done this before.

When Rarity made it home she checked her calendar to see if she needed to do anything that day. She sat down with her calendar as she studied it and found out that she didn't have any dresses planned so she put it down. She heard a knock on her door. She walked over to it and revealed that Twilight was anxiously twiddling her fingers.

"Oh Twilight. I had no idea you were coming over, you can come in if you want..." Rarity said, Twilight smiled and skipped inside, Rarity closed her door and turned to Twilight as she wanted to see what this was all about.

"Twilight it seems to me that you have something on your mind, just come out with it already and say it I will try to understand and help you if you need help with something?" Rarity asked.

"If I tell you you will freak out and possibly refuse to help me." Twilight said. Rarity shook her head.

"Darling I would never do that to you, I'm your best friend, I will help you with anything that you need. I'm very generous and would lend my help to anybody. Now what is it that troubles you?" Rarity asked. Twilight looked away and sighed as she thought for a few seconds. She then blurted out her problem.

"I challenged Fleur De Lis to a game of chess....publicly." Twilight said as she removed her bag in frustration. Rarity wanted to laugh but decided not to as that would be rude.

"Yeah you will loose even before you enter the room with her. What are you thinking Twilight?! Fleur De Lis is not only a famous supermodel she's also known as the greatest chess player in Canterlot! If you face off against her you won't just lose you will be humiliated and mocked for several years." Rarity warned. Twilight paced back and forth in fear.

"I know I know! If I go through with this I'll make myself look like an idiot! What am I supposed to do Rarity!? I can't just use magic to cheat! I can't use the elements of harmony to make me temporarily make me sick to miss the match!" Twilight panicked.

"You don't need to do that." Rarity said.

"No your right. what I need is some alcohol! Maybe I can make myself drunk before the match and have them cancel it!" Twilight suggested. Rarity frowned and thought to herself.

"Didn't you once say that you know the basics? That means that you technically know how to play then right?" Rarity asked. Twilight groaned.

"Yeah I know the basics and everything and I can play as I played when I was a kid before becoming Celestia's student, its just...I won't play good! I'll loose my king in four moves! That's how terrible I am at it!" Twilight said. Rarity touched Twilight's shoulders to calm her down.

"Twilight look it's alright. This can be fixed. Do you want to get better now?" Rarity asked. Twilight wanted to smack herself on the face due to Rarity's suggestion.

"Rarity! I can't get better in one night! Fleur de Lis has been playing since she was eight years old! I've only played for fun from time to time! How in the hell am I going to beat her!?" Twilight yelled. Rarity was at a loss of words. She didn't know what else to say.

"Well...When's the match and where exactly is it?" Rarity asked.

"In one hour! And it's going to be held in front of a large audience! It's supposed to be in Ponyville in an abandoned building near Sugarcube Corner but that might change at the last second since people couldn't make up their minds one where they wanted it held!" Twilight panicked. Rarity wanted to scold Twilight due to how foolish Twilight's decision was but decided not to.

"Well I'm sure...Fleur will be understanding if you can't play well which will make her go easy on you!" Rarity suggested. Twilight almost laughed at that.

"Yeah right Rarity! I'm sure she's a nice person and not a total bitch!" Twilight said sarcastically. Rarity frowned at Twilight's badmouthing of Fleur.

"Twilight she's not a jerk or anything. Ive never seen her be bad when I talked to her. I think your overthinking this Twilight. Just go and get it over with." Rarity suggested. Twilight stared at Rarity in disbelief.

"But Rarity I'm nervous!" Twilight remarked. Rarity shrugged as she had no other suggestions.

"Well maybe you should have thought about it before you challenged her. That's all I can say." Rarity said. Twilight groaned and banged her head against the wall.

"I'm going to disappoint my entire family and Celestia! I'm so fucking screwed! I'd rather have royal duties to attend during that time but I can't!" Twilight complained. Rarity was about to say something but Twilight spoke.

"Aw fuck I have to go! Pray for me Rarity! Twilight yelled. As she left. Rarity was stunned by how quickly Twilight had left. She wondered how Twilight was going to manage this. Meanwhile Twilight made her way to the place where the match was to take place.

Twilight wanted to get out of this predicament. She wanted to lie to say that she got sick at the last minute but knew that no one would believe her. She had to think of something in order to cancel the match. And if she couldn't then she needed to find a way to learn quickly or maybe even cheat.

She felt guilty thinking of cheating. She decided that she was not going to cheat so instead she decided to hide somewhere so she could practice at the game or read about it. She decided to get some reading material that would help her and hide in a cave far away from everybody.

Soon people started to file in for the match in Ponyville including Rarity who still tried to figure out why Twilight didnt tell her that this had been planned before today, when they didn't realize that Twilight was not there but Fleur was. Fleur was frustrated that Twilight was stalling. If she didn't want to do it a the last second she should have told her.

"Where's Twilight?" Spike asked Rarity, Rarity turned to look at him.

"I don't know. Alls I know is that She came to me and freaked out and told me about her challenge to Fleur and then she ran off. Why is it that I was the last to know about this match? You didn't bother to tell me?" Rarity asked. Spike looked at her confused.

"Rarity this match made news all throughout Ponyville and Canterlot and soon Equestria, it's impossible that you just only learned about it." Spike said. Rarity shrugged.

"I never payed attention as I just assumed that she was during princess duty all the time! How am I supposed to know?" Rarity asked.

"If Twilight doesn't show up then Fleur automatically wins and then their will be a rematch, I'm sure of it." Starlight whispered in Apple Bloom's ear.

"But do you really think she would chicken out? Twilight's not like that." Apple Bloom whispered. Starlight gave her a concerned look.

Soon however Twilight walked into view and stood there taking in the sight of Fleur. Everybody went quiet in an instant as Princess Twilight walked up to her seat up to the white pieces as they both had chosen which pieces they would play days before the match

"Ah Princess Twilight Sparkle. It's good that you could make it. I was wondering if you changed your mind at all." Fleur said. Twilight sighed.

"No...I'm ready....I think..." Twilight said. Twilight's words weren't very assuring to her friends or to herself. Fleur almost frowned at Twilight as she saw Twilight's expression.

"Do you not want to do this? It's perfectly fine if you backed out now, no one would blame you and I won't hold it against you." Fleur offered. Twilight took her crown off and gave it Starlight to hold.

"No let's go ahead. I can do this." Twilight said almost to quickly. Fleur stood back a bit and examined Twilight's face for a bit and then spoke.

"Alright then suit yourself." Fleur said as she went to stand by her seat. Fleur sat down and Twilight spoke.

"Really we don't need anyone to officiate this match?" Twilight asked.

"I asked my best friend who's a chess player but she adamantly refused so were just gonna have to follow the rules and start ourselves. There's several ways we are allowed to win to. It's not like theres a one way to win only rule for this match. The only other rules are that we should play correctly and that you can't use any magic to win since we all know you love that type of stuff." Fleur said. Twilight stood their speechless.

Fleur set up her pieces in the right way setting her castles at the two opposite corners on her side and then the knights and so on and so fourth. Twilight stood still in fright. She was going to embarrass herself and make herself look stupid if she went through with this.

Twilight decided to stop standing as the audience was staring at her with confused expressions. Twilight took her her seat and set up her pieces as well as she looked up at Fleur. She knew that there was no possible way for her to win without magic and that's what made her afraid. She had wanted to study chess books before the match but she didn't have enough time.

Twilight asked if she brought her element in order use it to cheat but she said that's he didn't and in reality she really didn't as she didn't want to cheat. She knew that it wouldn't be right.

Soon when they were all set up the mayor announced that the match would start and left the roo,. Twilight had no idea that they mayor had been there. As Twilight looked to the side Twilight moved her far right pawn up and pressed her part of the chess clock down and wrote down her move and time.

Twilight took several deep breaths as she felt like a total failure even if she didn't start. She was going to fail miserably and she knew it. It didn't matter how much knowledge she had as she still kind of sucked at the game. Fleur looked at her pieces and thought of her next move and then moved another pawn upwards and wrote down her move. Twilight moved up hers to another square and it was Fleur's move again.

Twilight and Fleur proceeded to go back and forth like this until half of Fleur's pawns were gone while Twilight's were all gone. Twilight started to panic. She sat back and decided to think through her next move. Twilight proceeded to do the most stupidest thing that anyone could do in a chess match. She proceeded to use her queen early against Fleur's pawns.

People in the room started to murmur with confusion. What Twilight was doing was risky as her queen could be eliminated in the slightest mistake but so far she was doing good. However things were taking a turn for the worst. Fleur started to eliminate Twilight's rook's bishop's knight's and the castles.

People in the room started to snicker and shake their heads in confusion as they couldn't understand how awful Twilight was playing. Twilight was feeling humiliated. Twilight needed to find a way to win. Twilight decided to think really hard on how to win and finally thought up a strategy.

As Fleur got closer and closer to eliminating Twilight's pieces and her king Twilight continued to move her queen forward. Finally Twilight was down to just her king and her queen but that wasn't going to matter in just two seconds as Twilight was finally able to beat Fleur in the most unbelievable way possible. Twilight became very confident about the move she was about to do and I'm just a. Few seconds her attitude became very cocky.

At first Twilight had Played terribly but that all changed at the end, people were still trying to wrap their heads around it. It felt as if Equestria got still. It felt as if the elements themselves freezes their entire land. Soon Twilight ended the match.

"Checkmate!" Twilight said as her Queen made its way to Fleur's King. Fleur was shocked at how Twilight had beaten her. Twilight was just as equally shocked to hear those words come out her mouth but she decided to accept this new reality. The rest of the audience couldn't believe it as well. They had no idea Twilight was gonna win that way.

"What the actual fuck!" Rarity cursed in disbelief. The others were very speechless. No chess player in Equestria has won like this. Not even a chess player in Canterlot has won like this. Twilight had won easily with no magic even if she hadn't been good at Chess.

The audience cheered for Twilight as Twilight bowed to them and then left with her friends. Fleur spoke to her.

"How did you manage to do that in just under a few moves? Your terrible at chess. Did you use magic to cheat?" Fleur asked. Twilight turned to look at her and grin.

"No it's just that you sucked tonight. Oh and by the way I am not terrible." Twilight said as politely as possible. As harsh as it was it was Twilight's opinion. It was soon announced that Twilight had won so Fleur and Twilight shook hands and they both left along with everybody else. Twilight's friends walked with her as they congratulated Twilight.

Twilight played in a few more chess matches as princess for a few more times and got really good at it. She ended up playing regularly.