Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity all sat in the waiting room of Ponyville General Clinic, sitting restlessly, waiting for news about Rainbow Dash's condition. Three days had gone by and she was still in there, leaving them to wonder about what could be so wrong. All they knew about what had happened to her was that three days ago, Rainbow Dash came down with a severe stomachache during her weather management, and was admitted to the clinic shortly afterwards. After about fifteen grueling, heart-pounding minutes, a mint-coated pony in a nurse outfit came out of a set of double doors and approached the five nervous mares.
"Sh-she's going to get better, right?" Rarity asked the nurse.
"I-" the nurse stopped herself. "You might want to come with me for this." the five mares walked with the nurse through the double doors and down a hallway to Rainbow Dash's room.
They all entered Rainbow Dash's hospital room, where she lay unconscious on a pure white cot, with only an equally pure white sheet covering her. To Rainbow's left, there was a massive rectangular window, letting in some sunlight, and to her right was a sky blue curtain separating her from some other poor, sick pony in the same room, albeit one with not nearly as serious a condition.
"Rainbow Dash has a case of...obitus abdominalis. Nopony has contracted a case of this disease in centuries. There's nothing we can do about it," the nurse said regretfully . "Rainbow Dash is going to die."
Fluttershy grabbed the nurse by the shoulders and began to shake her. "What do you mean there's nothing you can do?! You're doctors, aren't you?! Isn't that your job?!"
"Miss, please calm down," the nurse said. "We did everything we could, but there's nopony alive that knows how to cure this disease," she hung her head in sorrow. "I'm sorry."
The rage faded from Fluttershy's eyes, and she sat down in the middle of the room, tears welling in her eyes. "N-no, I-I'm s-sorry. I-i-it's just that..." she began to sob violently.
"No. This, this can't be possible," Rarity said. "Rainbow..." she planted her head next to Rainbow Dash's thigh and sobbed almost as hard as Fluttershy.
Applejack walked up to where Rainbow Dash lay, took off her hat and clutched it close to her heart. "Rainbow...Ah-Ah don't know what to say here," she said. "Ah...Ah'll miss you, sugarcube," she closed her eyes, shedding only a single tear for her doomed friend.
Rarity wiped her remaining tears from her eyes. "I think we'll all miss you, darling," Rarity said. Rainbow Dash's eyes slowly opened to a squint, and she cracked a strained smile, glad to at least die with her friends by her side.
Pinkie Pie noticed Twilight sitting on the tiled floor, staring at the floor with her back turned to everyone else, and asked, "Twilight, are you okay?"
"I'm fine, it's just-" as she was speaking, Twilight suddenly broke out of her trance and got back on her hooves. "I need to leave right now."
"Why?" Pinkie said as she was shoved aside by Twilight, now bursting out of the door at full gallop.
"I'll be back later!" Twilight called back to the four incredulous mares.
The clocks of Ponyville began to strike twelve, and the moon lay high in the starlit sky. Every patient in Ponyville General Clinic lay asleep, soundly resting and letting their wounds heal, except for Rainbow Dash. She tossed and turned in a fitful doze as shadows flew over her moonlit body. At the conclusion of the clocks' final stroke, a hooded figure appeared next to Rainbow Dash's hospital bed. His legs, from what little of them were visible beneath his jet black cloak, were thin as bones and bleach white. His face was not filled in with flesh, but rather exposed bone, with empty, soulless eye sockets that seemed to stare not at Rainbow Dash's body, but into her soul, and a wicked grin stretching to each side of his face. These features were not indicative of any love for the job, but rather a natural consequence of having an exposed pony skull for a head. The room seemed to cool by ten degrees from his presence alone, in addition to the cold autumn night, making Rainbow Dash shiver violently.
Death sighed. "Rainbow Dash. Element Of Loyalty. Wonderbolt. Always stayed true to her friends, even in their darkest hours. Always followed her dreams, no matter the challenge. What a shame, what a shame..."
The door to the hospital room creaked open. Death turned his head to see another cloaked figure walking in. Her cloak was more of a midnight blue, adorned with stars and other heavenly objects that sparkled in the bright light of the moon. "Death."
"Little girl, I don't see how this concerns you in any way," Death said. "Besides, I really don't want you to have to see this."
"In accordance with the ancient laws, I shall challenge you to a game of chess to save Rainbow Dash's life," she said. "If I win, Rainbow Dash shall be spared. If I lose, you..." the hooded pony seemed to choke up a bit. "You may take my soul as well!"
If Death had eyebrows, he would've raised one. "I've never heard of anyone challenging me for someone else to get a mulligan. If you are sure that this is what you want to do..."
"Yes! I am sure!" the challenger exclaimed.
"Then I accept," Death said, a table holding a fully prepared chessboard appearing in a puff of smoke right at the foot of Rainbow Dash's cot, with Death commanding the white army, and the other cloaked stranger commanding the black army. "I haven't played this game in, oh, three, four hundred years. Would you remind me how the little pegasus shaped piece moves?"
"It moves in an 'L' shape, two spaces along a horizontal or vertical axis, then one space along the other axis," the challenger stated matter-of-factly.
"Ah, that's right," Death said as the pawn advanced in front of his king up two spaces. What was weird about it was that it just moved by itself, no magic aura or anything. In response, one of the challenger's pawns moved forward two spaces as well. Another white pawn advanced forward, joined by a friendly knight flying on their right flank.
"Ah, look at the soldiers on the board as they march to their deaths," Death said. "It's sad, really, them carelessly throwing their lives away like that,"
"Well , if they know they're dying for a good cause, then it's all worth it in their minds, right?" the challenger asked.
"How does one justify their own deaths?" Death questioned. "They all seem so scared when I come to collect."
"It's a matter of loyalty," the challenger replied, then pointed at Rainbow Dash's unconscious form, still lying immobile on her cot. "Rainbow Dash would die for her friends, as would I!"
Death stared into his opponent's eyes, seemingly staring into her soul. "Interesting..." he said.
The battle was initiated by a foolhardy black pawn charging, slaying the adversary in front of him before being slain himself by an opportunistic knight as both armies prepared to clash again. One black mage had a clear shot against an enemy knight, and shot a beam of pure magic at her adversary. She moved in to loot his worldly possessions off his lifeless body when suddenly she saw an alicorn queen, shining as bright as the sun, staring down at her imposingly. No amount of magic training could've prepared the mage for this, and she went down with hardly a fight. The battle continued to rage on fiercely, prompting the white king to hide behind a fortress as his army defended him.
"Hiding behind your walls, are you?" the challenger remarked. "That's the mark of a coward, is it not?"
"Well yes, but aren't royals cowards by default?" Death replied. "Hiding behind their fortifications as other ponies march and die on their behalf. Pitiful really."
"Not the royals I know," the challenger said. "The royals I know stand up for their subjects and fight for them on a regular basis."
"Ah, you're talking about the Royal Sisters, aren't you?" Death said. "The ones who, when they try to duel with threats to their demesne, always get defeated in some way, shape, or form?"
"You know what, let's move on," the challenger said.
As ponies lay dead on the battlefield, Death's white queen saw her opening, and flew to the black king's left.
"Check," Death said.
"Rrr, I'll show you check..." the challenger muttered as one of her mages moved in front of her king, preventing the enemy queen from getting a clear shot. Unfortunately, another mage moved in, teleporting one of the black king's loyal knights to Celestia-knows-where and posing another threat to the king himself.
"Check," Death said again.
The black king prepared for battle and, raising his sword high with his magic, cut the enemy mage down. The mage's horn glowed briefly, then simmered down as she tried to fire off a spell with what time and magic energy she had left but, alas, was unable to.
"Hmm...I see you still have some fight left in you," Death said.
Death's white queen flew around the mage, trampling a pawn beneath her mighty hooves as she stared the black king down yet again.
"Check," Death reiterated.
The challenger grit her teeth as the black king turned his head and ran for the hills, correctly thinking he was in over his head. As her king fled to his fortress on the world's edge, two alicorn queens, one white and one black, danced in the skies, firing mighty blasts of light at each other. One stray beam hit the black alicorn queen in her side, and she fell to earth in a blaze of glory.
"And that's your queen captured," Death stated matter-of-factly. "Now all you have in your army are your four pawns, your fortresses and one mage," Death chuckled slightly. "You know, surrender is always an option. All you need to do is say the words."
"No!" the challenger shouted. "I-I'm not giving up just yet."
"Alright, just checking," Death said.
What Death's queen didn't know was that just behind her, an enemy mage lay in wait, ready to fire off the perfect spell and avenge her queen. A beam of power sprang forth from the mage's horn, and the white alicorn queen was no more.
"Ah, but alas, all good things must come to an end," Death said, lamenting the death of his queen. "All living things shall come back to the earth that birthed them, and all good and loyal friends shall die in the end. Understand that you are not keeping me at bay indefinitely, but are simply delaying the inevitable for what time you can hold between your hooves."
"There may come a day when Rainbow Dash feels your cold and final touch, when the Elements Of Harmony fade back into legend as the Age Of Friendship comes to a close. But it is not this day! This day, I shall fight!" the way she said them, it felt like the challenger's words could move mountains, or at least a fortress as she moved it to have Death's white king within its sights.
Death laughed heartily as his king moved out of the fortress's line of fire. "Truly, I have not seen valor like yours in a pony since the days of yore," he heaped praise upon his opponent. "Consider your friends blessed to have you by their side. Now then, let the battle continue!"
And so the two armies danced their dance of death until the final moments of the battle. Close to the end, Death's white knight flew forth, capturing the mighty fortress laying stout at the ends of the earth, only to hear soon after his triumph that the fortress he had left behind had been captured by an enemy mage.
"And that's your final fortress taken," the challenger said.
Death realized that he had truly been beaten, having only an ever loyal knight and a measly pawn to his name. He sighed, saying to his challenger, "I concede."
"Wait, what?" the challenger asked incredulously.
"You've defeated me," Death conceded. "Congratulations. Rainbow Dash may keep her life. So until we meet again, farewell," he then vanished in a gust of wind. Suddenly, Rainbow Dash began to stir, and the challenger hurried over to assess her condition. Rainbow opened her eyes in a squint, faintly recognizing the face behind the hood.
"T-Twilight...?" Rainbow croaked, to which Twilight quietly shushed her as she pulled back her hood.
"It's okay, Rainbow," Twilight placed her hoof of Rainbow's forehead. "Get some sleep, you'll feel better. I'll still be here when you wake up..."
Author's Note
Summary of the chess game in algebraic notation, for those that care:
- e4 c5
- Nf3 d6
- d4 cxd4
- Nxd4 Nf6
- Bd3 Bg4
- Ne2 Bxe2
- Qxe2 Nbd7
- O-O e5
- Bg5 h5
- Bxf6 gxf6
- a4 a5
- Nc3 Be7
- Nd5 h4
- f4 Qb8
- f5 h3
- gxh3 Rxh3
- Qg2 Rh8
- Rf2 Rh4
- Bb5 Qd8
- Qg8+ Bf8
- Bxd7+ Kxd7
- Qxf7+ Kc8
- Nxf6 Qe7
- Qe6+ Kb8
- Nd7+ Kc7
- Nf6 Kb8
- Qxe7 Bxe7
- Nd5 Rg4+
- Kh1 Bh4
- Re2 Ra7
- f6 b6
- Rf1 Rf7
- c4 Kb7
- b3 Bg5
- Rf5 Kb7
- Rf3 Ka7
- Rf5 Bh4
- h3 Rg3
- c5 bxc5
- Rh5 Bxf6
- Rb2 Rg8
- Rg2 Rxg2
- Kxg2 Kc6
- h4 Bd8
- Rh8 Bf6
- Rb8 Bg7
- Rb6+ Kd7
- h5 Ke6
- Ra6 Rb7
- Rxa5 Rxb3
- Ra7 Rb2+
- Kf3 Bf6
- h6 Rb3+
- Kg4 Rb2
- h7 Rh2
- Nc7+ Kf7
- Nd5+ Ke6
- Kg3 Rh6
- Nc7+ Kf7
- Nd5+ Ke6
- a5 c4
- Nc7+ Kf7
- Nd5+ Ke6
- a6 c3
- Nc7+ Kf7
- Nd5+ Ke6
- Kg2 Rg6+
- Kf3 Rh6
- Nc7+ Kf7
- Nd5+ Ke6
- h8=Q Rxh8
- Rc7 Rh3+
- Kg2 Rd3
- a7 Rd2+
- Kf3 Ra2
- Nb6 Bd8
- a8=Q Rxa8
- Nxa8 Bxc7
