A Game of Chess

"Make your choice, Checkmate Vigarde," Deun said, his voice cold. "Will you surrender here, or shall Wendigo tear you apart? I'll be fair to you all, and you can each make your choice. But, either way, this is the end, so take which way to die you desire. Make your choice."

The group of thirteen - surrounded on all sides by half-a-dozen windigoes - stood in a circle, their backs to each other.

"Dammit," hissed Valice. "This looks about as good as when Dusk held me at sword-point last night..."

"Agreed," Dusk muttered. "Nowhere near as satisfying, though..." He drew Constellation, pointing it towards the general. "You would truly contend with me, Deun? Here I thought that you were supposed to be brilliant."

The general regarded him with eyes of steel. "I don't believe I've ever claimed such a thing," he mused, and his eyes flashed. "However, I'm no fool, Dusk; I know fully well just how powerful you are, but I'm almost certain that you'll not unleash it here."

Dusk stepped towards him. "Brave words, General," he said, smirking, "though perhaps you'd like to know just how wrong you are?"

"Is that a threat?" Deun asked. "You've no right to make them in your position."

"Perhaps," admitted Dusk, "but are you going to test me? I could incinerate the lot of you in seconds, and I will if you try to capture or kill my allies."

The general began to look somewhat uneasy at this, but retained the level of his voice. "You do not frighten me, Dusk," he said. "We both know that I could rip you apart before you even get the chance. Surrender, and that won't need to happen."

"You're right," mused Dusk. "You could rip me apart in seconds, before I can even act. However would you still risk the lives of your soldiers? Make your choice."

"Indeed," replied Deun, "but would you truly try and stop me, Dusk? I'm doing what is necessary."

"Necessary?!" hissed Twilight. "There is no 'necessity' in this!"

"So you would say," mused Deun, "although you lived your entire life in a utopia, alicorn, a place free from the damnation known as war. You understand nothing about this, about anything. So make your choice, now, and I shall open your eyes to the agony that you know nothing of."

"There is no war in Darkfrost," replied Dusk. "There may not have been, I should say, but now there shall be."

"Is that a threat?" asked Deun, once more. "Are you declaring war upon our land?"

"I've always been at war against Wendigo," said Dusk, gravely, "although I think that it's time that this facade that you call 'peace' comes to an end. Farewell, Deun."

The ground beneath them began to shake, as Deun let out a gasp. "You... you were stalling," he hissed, his calm demeanor beginning to slip.

"That's right," Dusk said, smirking. "I think it's time that we get the hell out of this place. What about the rest of you?"

Checkmate looked over at him. "Wait, Dusk, what exactly do you -?"

He didn't have time to answer that question, however, as the sand beneath them began to fall into a deep crevasse, and, with it, the group fell as well, leaving the general and his soldiers staring down in awe, having leapt away from the pit.

Deun stared at the area where the group had once been, and turned towards his soldiers. All had escaped the fall, and stood on different sides of the now-opened crevasse.

"Saved at the last minute..." he murmured. "How... typical of you, Checkmate." He shook his head, and looked over at the six windigoes. "Are you all alright?"

They all nodded, and several saluted at this. "Yes, sir!" said one of them, a young sergeant. "We are all fine."

Deun lowered his head and sighed. "Good," he said. "Good, that's excellent."

Another of his soldiers stepped up to him. "Should we pursue them, General?" she asked.

"No, Lieutenant Fryn," he replied. "Wendigo told us to attempt to capture them here, at this exact area, so we will return to Darkfrost and report our failure in this mission. Following them now would only prove our disobedience towards him and his goals."

"Yes, sir!" she said, and saluted before stepping away, although he could see the fear in her eyes.

Regardless of their reasons, it was impossible to deny Wendigo's cruelty, especially towards those who failed him. Deun shuddered, but quickly regained his composure. He had a reason to do this, after all, and he would not show weakness in front of his soldiers.

That would do nothing to help them survive. Instead, however, Deun stepped over to the edge of the crevasse, and looked in.

"Checkmate Vigarde..." he murmured, quietly. "It would appear that fate is on your side... or perhaps you're just immensely lucky. I cannot say, but -" he shook his head again "- it matters not. I shall do what I must, for the windigoes, and for Darkfrost."

Deun turned away, and cast back one last glance at the crevasse, before he joined with the air, once more.

Checkmate stood up, uneasily, his legs aching from the drop. His entire body was at least somewhat sore, even as the sand had cushioned their fall, somewhat, although his legs and hooves had suffered the worst. The young earth pony could feel the grit inside his hollowed-out hooves, and wanted to wash it away before it ended up cutting them even worse than they already were.

"Are you all alright?" Dusk asked, on his feet, and looking no worse-for-wear.

"Yeah," muttered Twilight. "Next time, please tell us that you're going to do something like that, okay?"

The mercenary shrugged. "If I had, then I'm fairly certain that Deun would have taken us before the sand fell."

"I'm amazed that he isn't coming after us now..." said Rarity, looking up. "One would expect a predator of such caliber, as I've heard him to be, to not just leave us down here."

Twilight looked over at her. "That's a good point, but I don't think we're out of the woods just yet..." she turned away, and looked out in front of her. "This cavern's immense, and I'm not sure if it's a good idea to go forward..."

Valice paled, staring at the massive, gaping entrance to the caves below the desert. "No way," she said. "No way in Hell am I going in there!" The pegasus took a step back, and spread her wings, before taking off in an attempt to escape.

Rainbow Dash quickly caught up to her, and pinned her down to the sand-covered ground. "You're not getting out of here!" she growled. "Not after you followed us all the way through the desert, knocked us out of the sky, and wounded one of Princess Celestia's soldiers! You are not. Getting. Out of here!"

The red pegasus's eyes widened. "Do you really think you'll be able to stop me?" she asked, thrashing about. "Who the hell do you think you are, some kind of damned hero?!"

Rainbow's eyes, in turn, flashed. "Yeah, I do!" she shouted. "I'm the fastest pegasus in Ponyville, in all of Equestria, and I'm not gonna be out-sped by some spy!"

"That doesn't mean anything when you're dead!" Valice hissed in reply, still struggling to get free.

"Y'all better calm down right now!" Applejack shouted, pulling Rainbow off of Valice. "The two of ya are actin' like a couple of fillies!" She cast eyes of flame at the two pegasi, who glanced away from each other. "Now, apologize ta each other!"

The tone of voice that she used was so angry that Apple Bloom visibly shuddered. It was evident that she'd heard it before, likely many times in her life.

Rainbow and Valice - who just now stepped back to her hooves - glanced over at each other, letting out a half-hearted "Sorry" before looking in opposite directions once more, not even bothering to meet each other's eyes.

"There, ya feel better?" coaxed the apple farmer, her voice softer, but her eyes still showing annoyance.

"Yeah, sure," muttered Valice. "Nothing is better than getting attacked by some crazy, multi-colored pegasus with anger issues and an ego the size of Equestria..."

"And absolutely nothing is better," Rainbow muttered in reply, "than a deserting, obnoxious pegasus who feels the need to spy on ponies just casually walking around the desert..."

"Good," replied Applejack, before looking back between the two. "Now, Ah don't wanna see any fightin' between ya'll, 'cause the last thing we need is ta turn on each other, got it? If Ah catch the two of ya tryin' somethin' like that again, there won't be anymore 'Nice Applejack' around here, and that's a Pinkie Promise." The farmer went through the motions of the ritual, not taking her eyes off of the two as she did so.

Checkmate turned towards the others. "Like I said," he muttered, deadpan. "This is going to be absolutely beautiful."

Dusk cocked his head. "Is Applejack always like this?" he asked Twilight.

"Only when we fight like this. Why?"

"That's good," Dusk mused, turning towards the farmer in question. "We could use a good moderator around here, especially with ponies such as these."

"Hey," Applejack's head seemed to do a complete one-eighty, "are ya insultin' mah friends, Mr. Big-Sword?! Ah'll have ya know that Ah'm not one ta jus' let mah friends get mocked behind their backs!"

Dusk looked away, not meeting her eyes. "You know what, Checkmate?" he asked.

The tan stallion turned towards him, looking away from the two pegasi who now had their backs to each other. "What?"

"I think I agree with you on what you just said," muttered the unicorn, ruefully. "This journey is going to be absolutely beautiful."

The farmer stared at him for just a few moments, before she seemed to calm down. "Mah apologies, Dusk," she said, sheepishly. "Ah'm jus' a bit protective of 'em, is all."

"No need to apologize," said Dusk. "That's a great trait to have. It means that you truly care about them."

Valice muttered to herself, just loud enough for them to hear. "Yeah, such a wonderful trait. Nothing's better than berating everypony who so much as looks at them the wrong way. Outstanding."

Applejack whirled around, quickly, and pushed her face into that of the red pegasus. "Ya heard me, didn't you? Ah said that if ya continue doin' this, then there ain't gonna be a 'Nice Applejack' 'round here anymore."

"What, is this 'Nice Applejack'?" asked Valice, sarcastically.

"That's right."

The pegasus paled, for what must have been the fifth time that day. "Well, in that case..."

She immediately straightened her back, made her face look more friendly, and closed her wings. "There," she said, "how's that?"

"Better," admitted Rainbow, looking back at her newfound rival, "but it could use some work."

"That means you too, Rainbow!" Applejack said, not even looking at the smug pegasus.

"Actually, I'm kind of interested," mused Valice. "How can I make this look better?"

A grin fell over the cyan pegasus's face. "Well," she started, as she landed next to Valice, "if you really wanna fool AJ, then you've gotta put all of your effort into it..."

Checkmate tuned himself out of that conversation (mostly because he had a good idea of how it would end), and instead faced the area where the light began to fade.

"So," he said, "I guess we're going in there, right?"

Twilight stepped over and looked in. "It seems to be a better alternative than going above ground, at this point," she admitted. "With Deun and his cronies running around, it'd probably be safer for us just to go underground. It might be faster, too."

"Only one problem with that theory," said Dusk.

"Really?" asked Rarity, "What could possibly be worse than going back into that wretched desert?"

"Simple," muttered Dusk. "It's because this cave belongs to an antlion."

All talking stopped, and everypony looked over towards Dusk, the cave entrance, and then back towards the top of the chasm.

"That... doesn't exactly sound safe," Checkmate said, slowly. "Although I'd take an antlion over Deun."

"Same," replied the mercenary. "At least antlions can be killed with conventional weapons and can't send ponies to become parts of the Zephyr."

Checkmate shuddered at this. The Zephyr. He'd almost forgotten about it. And that brought, with it, a new line of thinking.

"There are no graves in Darkfrost..."

"And by the look of things, we're not getting out of here anytime soon," said Rainbow, annoyed. "Even if I flew up there, I wouldn't be able to carry any of you that far up..."

"Same," said Valice, seeming equally annoyed by this turn of events, "and I'd rather not go into some hellhole deep underground, if you understand. But" - she shuddered, visibly - "you know what? If we don't have a choice, then I guess I'll have to."

"That's a good point," agreed Twilight. "We really don't have a choice in this... Of course we don't. Right when we think we've hit a patch of luck..."

Rarity flipped her mane, which was now covered in sand. "Hm," she said. "I dislike the idea of taking Sweetie Belle and her friends into such a dangerous, disgusting place, but I shall if I must!" She added a strange, dramatic power to the last three words of that statement.

Spike stepped from foot-to-foot, obviously more than a little bit nervous. "W-well... if Rarity's going in there, I'll go too!"

"And if Rainbow Dash isn't afraid!" declared Scootaloo, dramatically, "then I'm not gonna chicken out now!"

"Well, since there's not exactly a choice..." muttered Sweetie Belle, "I guess that I'll come... too...?"

Apple Bloom simply let out a sigh. "Well, there ain't a choice, Sweetie Belle," she said, dejectedly, "but hey, at least we're safe from that Deun guy, right? Ain't that a good thing?"

"It is, sugarcube," said Applejack, softly, "but we ain't got time to waste lolly-gaggin' 'round here. We'd better get goin', before somepony - or somethin' - catches up ta us."

Fluttershy simply nodded in reply, but the meek pegasus seemed somewhat unnerved by the obvious danger that awaited them. Checkmate didn't blame her for that.

Instead, however, the male earth pony simply looked into the almost abyssal cavern that awaited them, and gulped. Even he could not deny his fear, although he could hide it. And yet, even as he made his way forward with the rest of them, with Dusk and Twilight in the front and Rainbow and Valice (who seemed to have gotten over their fight) in the back, he still felt as though his heart was to burst from the unknown darkness that spread before him.

And without even thinking, he'd plunged in.