Cozy was just about half way through resetting the board when a pony walked up to her table.
She pretended not to notice. Nopony in the whole facility was good enough to play against her. That's why she always convinced her assigned orderly to take her when the rec-room was empty.
"I just don't like all the noise." She mimed to herself, using what little muscle power she had left in her neck to bounce her curls. Let them think she was going crazy, it made them easier to manipulate.
When it was clear the pony wasn't going to go away, Cozy let a practiced smile come to her face as she pretended to have to slowly turn to the side. "Well, who are you? Tall, dark, and..." Cozy trailed off as she got a better look.
Her initial peripheral view of the pony didn't do them justice. They were wearing a massive cloak, something that hung and bunched over their features in strange places that it shouldn't have. It barely touched the ground, and Cozy could see pure bone white hooves just under the rim. That was it, even though she leaned forwards to peak under their hood, she still couldn't make out a face, or even a muzzle.
Her gaze narrowed. "Who are you?" She snarked.
The figure didn't speak. They didn't have to for a sudden menace to protrude from them. It was a feeling that struck her like a reminder, rather than a threat. Like remembering where you left the knife by the moonlit glint of metal flashing from the kitchen counter in the dark.
"Oh."
It was all that could be said. At first, at least. Cozy had stood up to gods before, horn and wings notwithstanding.
Her false smile returned. "Well... How about a game? First?" She gestured out at the pieces.
The figure didn't move.
There was a pinch of doubt that fell into her mind, doubt that this would work. Of course, the doubt was instantly swept away by wisdom in the moment, she wasn't a little filly anymore, and she'd been practicing for years against ponies that knew exactly who she was.
"Surely we have time for just one game?" She said, stressing the 'elderly' in her voice, "I'll even move the pieces for you. Nopony has to know you're here."
There was some movement, something under the cloak shifted, pressing outwards against the fabric. Whatever it was rolled close to the front before disappearing again underneath the folds. It looked sickeningly wrong, and Cozy couldn't help but see the impressions of ribs on the cloak as it settled again.
They didn't have white furred hooves.
Suddenly the figure was in the seat across from her. She was looking at them again, she didn't know when she turned her head but she snarled internally. Nopony plays mind games with Cozy Glow.
"Here. You go first." She expertly spun the board around, a trick she learned after years of knocking over chess pieces with the same action. "Friend." Came the old word, the old trick, the first of many she hoped she could play here. She smiled wide, leaning forwards onto the table with her wrinkled forehooves.
A beat passed. The pony simply stared at her from the opposite end of the table.
"And how about a little wager?" The smile rose into a questioning one, and Cozy clasped her hooves together... They were far colder than they should have been. "One more day, if I win. Call it... Warning time for me to cause some havoc. What do you say?" She reached over the board, the extension of her limb made her angry. It was far harder nowadays to do something as simple as hold her own hoof out.
A hoof raised from the cloak. One covered in bone. The hood part of their limb was stretched against the fabric by invisible muscle tissue that ran up invisible skin. The hoof touched her, and she nearly gasped at how warm it was. The figure delicately shook her hoof, and then the limb retreated back to whence it came.
Cozy took a second to steady her breathing on the inside. She hadn't broken her façade; she's never broken a façade.
When she looked down again, the first white pawn had been moved. E2 to E4. The king's pawn. Cozy knew a slew of strategies that came with such a bold first move. It wouldn't matter unless she saw the next one. When she lifted her hoof to move her piece, she subtly set her jaw, making sure to not have the strain be visible. There was more on the line here than just a day left to live.
This was about her pride. She'd fought and... mostly beaten some of the greatest powers this world had to offer, this was a chance to add another trophy to her wall, one last shot at glory. One more chance to be something other than the dumb kid who's been in jail her whole life, gilded cage or not.
D7 to D5. The queen's pawn moved straight into the center of the board to threaten her enemy. It was a commanding position, and her favorite move in the game. Giving the opportunity for an early developed queen, and potentially terrifying command of the center of the board.
Suddenly the next piece had moved. G1 to F3. A single developed knight, the opposing one in the wrong direction. It left the king's pawn in a terrible position, not only could she take, but she could threaten the knight immediately after with zero repercussions. It was bait, of course, but there was no reason not to take at least the pawn. She could interrupt this strategy on turn six.
D5 to E4. Queen's pawn takes king's pawn. Queen's pawn threatens knight.
The pony at the other end of the table did exactly what she expected, which was unexpected. The opener they'd played was practically embarrassing. She wasn't a grandmaster, not anywhere close to being as good as some of the ponies who could play twelve turns ahead of the game. She wasn't so skilled, but even she saw it coming from miles away.
F3 to G5. Knight moves up the board.
Cozy countered exactly as she had planned to. F7 to F6. Bishop's pawn threatens knight.
The next piece warped across the board as she blinked. Her fake smile twitched. F2 to F4. Bishop's pawn defends knight. Except that didn't make any sense, she could still take with practically zero consequences. It wasn't like before, she'd lose her pawn in exchange for a knight. The reason she didn't immediately take that deal was her king, she didn't want to leave it open to attack from the opposing queen, which could move into place to attack after the knight was gone. It would be fine though, she could just interrupt the play with another pawn.
What worried her was that she couldn't see the angle. Was this being just bad at chess?
The next series of moves resolved quickly. F6 to G5, pawn takes knight. F4 to G5, pawn takes pawn.
Then Cozy reached for her queen, except she intentionally knocked it over, along with the pawn next to it. "Whoops. My bad." She set up the pieces again, making sure to make a show of setting them upright, then centering them in the middle of their respective squares. Then she pushed her queen forwards to D4. It wasn't an immediate progression of the game, but it was a commanding position.
Then the white king moved forwards one space. E1 to E2.
Cozy had to manually stop her brow from furrowing. She reached forwards for her queen again, and moved it one to the side. D4 to C4, queen threatens king. Was the apparent ponification of death bad at chess? What was that move? What did it accomplish? So furiously was she trying to understand the strategy that she only saw the chance to fork the queen and the king after the next piece moved.
E2 to E3. The king moved forward one more space.
Cozy's eye twitched. She understood now. It was mocking her.
Cozy reached her hoof out again, the frustration cutting through the difficulty of lifting the limb. She was about to move her queen again, when she noticed the discovered attack of the bishop. That's when she noticed the position her queen was really in. It was defending her pawn in the center of the board, but if she wanted to hold onto that pawn, it meant that the only viable space to move her queen was over into the corner, where it could get boxed in by more pawns.
With two moves of the king, a piece she'd never seen be used offensively, the pony had completely invalidated her queen's central position on the board.
C4 to E6. It meant that her position was a little more tenuous, but it left her queen in position to respond to new threats quickly.
A2 to A4. The rook's pawn, Cozy saw the prepared attack with the bishop on her king, and moved her own to intercept it. C8 to D7. Either she was wrong, or it adapted, because the pawn instead simply moved one more space forward. A4 to A5.
She needed to stop reacting and start planning, she was reaching the point in the game where she could lose and not know it if she stopped paying attention. B7 to B6. It was okay to react there, the pony must have just moved their pawn forwards to develop their rook. They clearly wanted that central pawn, and were willing to do the work to get it.
H2 to H3. The rooks pawn. Cozy couldn't wrap her head around her opponents strategy, it was like they weren't even paying attention to the game. Moving the king? Who does that? And seemingly random moves led her to believe that she was either being played for the fool, or completely out of her depth. B8 to C6, moving the knight in position to hopefully stop whatever they were doing on that side of the board.
They moved C2 to C3. The bishop's pawn.
She saw the attack pattern now. Two bishops, the queen, and the rook had angles and pawn defense. If she moved to reposition her queen, the other side would suddenly be open, and she'd have to reposition again. After nearly a minute of deliberation, she moved H7 to H6. She really had to deal with something, quickly.
The opposing bishop disappeared and reappeared onto her side of the board. F1 to A6, far worse than what she thought was just going to be a bigger stack on D7. With one move, that bishop could fork her rook and her knight, at the cost of a bishop, maybe, but her early movement of her queen was looking more and more like a mistake.
She stared at the board until she realized there were no good moves anymore. Nothing she could do to develop her pieces, everything took more than a turn to get into position. So she used her secret move. She reached over for her queen, and shifted, pretending to slip forwards, like she was falling off of her chair.
In a blur, suddenly the other pony's hoof was extended, wrapping around hers. There was an invisible kind of grip, a force that sat her back into her seat.
It reached out to catch her, thinking she was about to fall. She blinked once, genuinely surprised, "Golly." She said, "Sorry. I've been getting clumsier and clumsier with age." She moved her queen, E6 to F5. She returned her hoof to her side normally, careful not to give away what she'd done. Her king was one space over to the side, she had slipped it over to D8 just before the pony grabbed her.
A1 to A4. The rook was in position to take control of the center of the board.
This was looking more and more like she was about to lose. Except... it didn't notice, that, or it didn't say anything about it.
"So... Tell me about yourself." She said, conversationally, both as a distraction, and genuinely curious to see if she could get the figure to speak. She'd gotten it to play her in a game of chess after all, anything was apparently possible. H6 to G5. Pawn takes pawn, freeing her to develop her rook next turn. "I don't exactly get a lot of interesting ponies here."
The figure didn't respond, only moved their next piece. H1 to F1. Rook threatens queen.
This was where she had to make a mild gamble. She had to hope it wouldn't immediately take her queen, and sacrifice their rook. A queen for a rook was a decent trade, but their strategy seemed to hinge on something aside from just taking pieces. Cozy gambled, she reached forwards for her rook. H8 to H4. Placed to counter their rook, on the opposite side of the board. "The strong and silent type." She nodded and smiled to herself, before snorting. "Not really my cup of marmalade."
D1 to B3. The queen. Not only did they not take her queen, they left their rook open, and their bishop, if she chose to take.
Was it bait? Like it was before? They could move a few pieces, and endanger everything on her side of the board. If she moved her queen, she'd lose control of the center.
She had no idea what they were doing. It didn't really matter, in the end, if she didn't move her queen, she'd lose it next turn. She reached and pretended to struggle again. Heat tried to rise to her cheeks as she moved her king over one more space, right in front of the bishop, placing herself in technical check. Then she moved the queen, letting her limb obscure the board. F5 to F1. Queen takes rook.
She held her breath and desperately tried to see the piece move this time. She didn't, even without blinking, either it was just too fast, or it was just impossible. A4 to E4. Rook takes pawn. The fake smile on her face turned real as she showed her teeth.
It didn't notice.
She was quick to move her next piece. F1 to C1. Queen takes bishop.
B1 to A3. It moved its knight out of danger.
She moved her next piece faster than she should've. She felt her shoulder pop, and hopped that it didn't notice. She tried to fight a giggle as the pieces started moving around the board faster, with less of an interval between moves. C1 to E1. Queen threatens king. E3 to D3. Moving their king out of danger. H4 to E4. Rook takes rook.
Maybe she missed the opportunity for a checkmate, but it didn't matter.
The figure looked up, in what Cozy could best describe as realization and annoyance. That was as much as she could guess at with no face and only shoulders. Cozy laughed. She laughed a laugh from her younger days, from the time where messing with ponies was fun, and wasn't a bid for power or an enigmatic play for some sort of social position.
It was the same laugh she laughed when she got her cutie mark. It was a laugh far too young for an old mare like her.
"You-" She shifted, laughing one more time, "You didn't see a checked king for four turns." She hit a hoof against the table and let herself smile for real again. She huffed, and she laughed and chuckled and giggled at the entire premise.
As her breathing began to calm, she took a breath that didn't feel quite right. The figure across from her was gone, and her next breath felt shallow, so she breathed in again, and it felt like a backwards pressure formed in her chest, like she somehow still wasn't getting enough air.
She tried and failed to chuckle again. "Sor-" She huffed one more time, resting a hoof on the table for support. "What a-" She tried again, finding that her lungs couldn't manage it. "What a sore loser." Came out, barely, as she took a hazy glance at the board and calmly let herself slide forward.
Tough Call was having a pretty ordinary day at EPCI. An ordinary day for an orderly. Her job was to shadow Cozy Glow, the apparent scourge that was taken down a few years before the dawn of Equestria's golden age.
At the moment, the elderly mare was playing a game of chess with herself in the empty lounge. She was talking into the air, like she usually did. She'd gone senile with age, and was sweet, and generally harmless. Call didn't know what all the hubbub was about for her charge. She seemed like any old kind mare to her, but looks could be deceiving, and Tough Call wasn't known for shirking orders.
Cozy Glow chuckled to herself aloud. She shook her head, and the greyed out cyan curls that made up her mess of a mane shifted and bounced as she belly laughed so hard some of the pieces on the board fell over.
Then she slumped against the table, resting her head on the game board.
Tough Call's eyes widened, and she stepped forwards. "Cozy Glow?"
No response. Call reached up to her shoulder and clicked on her radio as she approached, "I've got a possible ten-five, I need a nurse down here stat." Call rushed up and rested a hoof on the shoulder of the elderly mare. She was still warm, the only thing out of the ordinary, besides passing out, was the wide smile and contented look on her face.
