Fluttershy and Celestia Play Chess

Twilight Sparkle and her five friends were all moving around a large suite in the Canterlot Castle, unpacking from a long journey that they had started earlier this morning. They had to be at the train station at 7:00 in the morning to catch the train that would get them to Canterlot to see The Wonderbolts perform. At the moment, the #1 fan of The Wonderbolts was pleading with her yellow Pegasus friend.

"Come on Fluttershy, it's the freaking Wonderbolts! Don't you want to go see The Wonderbolts perform in Canterlot!?" said an incredulous Rainbow Dash. Fluttershy shook her head.

"Of course I would it's just..."

"Just what darling?" asked Rarity, who had stopped unpacking long enough to listen in on the conversation. Fluttershy turned away from her friends for a brief moment and hid herself in her mane before mumbling something. Twilight sighed and walked up to her.

"Fluttershy, we're your friends! Just tell us why you don't want to go!" said Twilight.

"I'm afraid of large crowds!" she suddenly blurted out. Rainbow groaned.

"Oh, so its large crowds you're afraid of now?" she said irritatedly. Fluttershy nodded.

"I just hate how...trapped I feel in large crowds like that! I don't like it when the flow of the crowd is controlling where you go, I don't like the noise, I hate large crowds!" said Fluttershy. Rainbow facehooved.

"Isn't it worth a few hours of a large crowd to see The Wonderbolts perform!?" asked Rainbow.

"No Rainbow Dash, no it isn't!" said Fluttershy. "I don't want to go and that's final!" She blushed and shrank back again. "I mean...um...if that's okay with you...I guess."

"But Fluttershy," said Twilight pleadingly. "What are going to do while we're gone? Do you want to just sit around and wait for us or walk around Canterlot aimlessly for a few hours?"

"Maybe I can help with that," said a serene voice from behind them. The six friends turned around and gasped when they saw Princess Celestia standing behind them. Instantly all six of them dropped to their knees which prompted Princess Celestia to roll her eyes.

"Oh don't grovel," she said. "If there is one thing that I can't stand its ponies groveling." The six stood up and looked embarrassed.

"Sorry," said Twilight with a nervous smile before she regained her composure. "So, what were you saying Princess?"

"I was coming in to check on you six and I heard about Fluttershy's predicament. It seems that she really is set on not going," said Celestia.

"Well she still should," mumbled Rainbow Dash angrily. Celestia ignored the comment.

"So, I think I can help out with that. You see, I have a few hours off from running the country and I think that it would be a perfect opportunity to hang out with Fluttershy to get to know her better if she truly does not want to attend," said Princess Celestia. Fluttershy brightened up slightly.

"You...you want to spend some time with me?" she asked incredulously. Celestia nodded.

"I can only spare a few hours, but I can certainly keep you company while your friends are off at the Wonderbolts show. Is that something that you would enjoy?" She asked kindly. Fluttershy nodded shyly and Celestia gave her a warm smile. 'It's settled then, the two of us will spend some time together while your friends are off at the Wonderbolts show."

"Speaking of which," chimed in Rarity. "We must leave for that now if we are to make it to our seats before the show begins."

"Yeah," said Rainbow Dash. "We should really get going then."

The five friends filed out the door with Rainbow at the tail end of the line. Before she exited the room, she looked back at Fluttershy and sighed.

"I'll uh, I'll bring you back a hat or something," she said. Fluttershy waved her out the door and Rainbow shook her head before exiting the room.

Celestia turned back to Fluttershy.

"Well, now that they're gone, what would you like to do?" she asked. Fluttershy shrugged. What did a pony do with a few casual hours with the most powerful pony in existence?

"I don't really know," she said quietly. Celestia gave a small chuckle.

"I'll tell you what, my sister and I have a private entertainment room in the castle, just a bunch of games and books and the like. Do you want to check that out? Maybe there is a board game we could play or something."

Fluttershy smiled. If Celestia was going to board games this early then clearly she didn't know what to do with their time either. All the same, she nodded at Celestia.

"I'd like that," she said. "It could be fun." Celestia smiled back and nodded.

"Then let's go!" she said.

*  *  *  *

Princess Celestia walked up to what appeared to be a blank wall in the palace.

"Well, here we are," she said happily. Fluttershy looked at it confusedly.

"Um...but this is just a wall," she said.

"When I say it's a private entertainment room, I mean 'private'," she said. Before Fluttershy could comment on it further, Princess Celestia fired up her horn and fired a spell at the wall. Immediately, the bricks themselves began to dissolve in front of Fluttershy's eyes and a doorway was revealed in mere moments. Fluttershy looked at the door in awe. It really was a simple wooden door, but such a door could not have asked for a better entrance.

"Well," said Celestia as she opened the door. "Welcome to the Game Room."

Fluttershy followed Celestia into the room and her jaw immediately dropped at what she saw.

The room was absolutely gigantic and each wall was absolutely covered in shelves of all shapes and sizes. Fluttershy examined them to see hundreds of books on every subject that she could possibly imagine resting proudly on the shelves. On another wall, there as every single board game that Fluttershy could think of as well as hundreds that she had never heard of before.

However, the main attraction of the room was a gigantic invention that Fluttershy had never seen before. She cocked her head and walked over to it.

"What is this?" she asked. Celestia smiled.

"This is called a television," she said. "Luna and I use it to watch movies because television channels have not been invented yet." Fluttershy looked confusedly at Celestia.

"Okay," she said. "None of that made a word of sense to me."

"Well, let Us put it this way," said a voice to their left. "Sometimes we abuse the time spells just a tad."

Fluttershy and Celestia looked to the source of the noise to see Princess Luna reclining on a couch, her nose buried in a paperback novel.

"Oh, hey Luna," said Celestia casually. "What are you reading?"

"And Then There Were None," said Luna.

"Ah yes, one of my favorites," said Celestia fondly. Fluttershy made a mental note to repeat this information to Twilight. There was no way that she would not want to know that.

"Uh, hello Princess Luna," said Fluttershy bravely. Luna looked up from her book and gave Fluttershy a casual wave before returning back to her book.

"So," said Celestia, turning her attention back to Fluttershy. "What would you like to do?"

Fluttershy looked at the shelf of board games and scanned them. Good gracious was the choice intimidating. Once more she questioned what board game would one play with the sun-goddess of Equestria? Suddenly, her eyes fell on one and she smiled.

"How about we play that one?" she said, pointing to the game in question. Celestia walked over and looked where she was pointing.

"Oh, you want to play chess? Well of course we can!" she said. Luna looked up from her book and frowned at Celestia.

"Oh Tia, must you do that to her? You know--"

"Yes, yes," said Celestia, waving away Luna's protests with a hoof. "I know, but she wants to play so we'll play chess." Luna rolled her eyes and returned to her book.

Celestia used her magic to bring the game down from the shelf before she directed Fluttershy towards a large table and a pair of extremely comfortable looking chairs. She sat down on one of the chairs; it was even more comfortable than it looked, before Celestia sat in the chair across from her. With one short spell, the entire board was set up in an instant.

"So Fluttershy, would you like to be white or black?" asked Celestia.

"Oh...um well, I guess it's up to you," she said as she examined the board. It was just a plain chessboard with ordinary plastic pieces. Celestia used her magic to pick two pawns off of the board before she flared out her wings and put the two pawns behind them. She moved them around for a moment before focusing on Fluttershy again.

"Okay, which wing?" she asked.

"Um...right wing."

Celestia lowered the wing to reveal the white pawn and she placed it back on the board before spinning the chess set so that the white pieces were in front of Fluttershy.

"White goes first," said Celestia. Fluttershy nodded and moved the pawn in front of the queen ahead one space.

"So Princess," said Fluttershy as Celestia made her move. "I've always, well, been kind of curious."

"About what Fluttershy?" asked Celestia.

"Well...um, so we've saved the world twice now and...I'I'm just kind of curious why nopony seems to recognize who me and my friend are outside of Ponyville. I mean, not that I'm a glory hound or anything...I was just curious about that."

Celestia smiled fondly at her. "Before I answer that, 'checkmate'," said Celestia. Fluttershy looked down at the board. Ah yes, the 'four move checkmate'.

"Oh come on Tia," scolded Luna.

"No it's...it's fine really," said Fluttershy. "You can't win them all...I guess."

"Would you like to play again Fluttershy?" asked Celestia. Fluttershy nodded and Celestia used her magic to reset the board. Fluttershy once again moved the pawn in front of the queen out one space, prompting Celestia to copy her move. "To answer your question, Fluttershy, my sister and I did in fact do some cover-up work for those incidents."

"But why?" asked Fluttershy as she moved her king-side bishop two spaces.

"Well for the exact reason that you just mentioned, you are not a glory hound. You just want to live a peaceful life in Ponyville with your animals, correct?"

"Well...yeah."

"Exactly. If everypony in Equestria knew who you six were and what you had done, then I wonder if you would ever have a moment of peace to yourselves. Your deeds would become the things of legends in your own time and you would be worshiped as gods for doing what you did."

"I guess that makes sense," said Fluttershy as she moved her king-side rook three spaces to the left. "Does that mean that nopony will remember what we did?" Celestia shook her head and took Fluttershy's queen-side rook with her king-side bishop.

"Make no mistake Fluttershy, you six will be remembered for what you did for the rest of time. You will be hailed as heroes for as long as ponydom remembers who Nightmare Moon and Discord are," said Celestia. Fluttershy mulled this over as she captured Celestia's bishop with her queen.

"But you don't want that for us right now?" she asked. Celestia shook her head as she moved her queen-side knight to fork Fluttershy's queen and remaining rook.

"Do you?" she asked. Fluttershy moved her queen out of danger, allowing Celestia to take her final rook before answering.

"No...No I don't think that I do. But what about ponies like Rainbow Dash? I think she would love it!" Celestia took Fluttershy's king-side bishop with her queen before answering.

"I think that she would...for a time," she said.

"You think she would get tired of it?" asked Fluttershy. Celestia grimaced as Fluttershy took her king-side rook with her queen, checking her king.

"Yes, I do," she said before moving her king out of danger. "She craves attention and excitement right now, but I feel that someday her desire for the spotlight will fade and she will want to settle down. As a retired wonderbolt she could do that. As the savior of Equestria..."

"She would have the spotlight on her forever," said Fluttershy, moving a pawn forward.

"Exactly," she said as she took Fluttershy's queen with a knight. At the loss of her queen, Fluttershy examined the chessboard. She only had a single bishop and a pair of pawns left in way of protection and Celestia still had four pawns, both knights, her queen, king, and one rook. She sighed and took one of Celestia's pawns, allowing Celestia to checkmate her with her queen.

The victorious princess smiled and once again reset the chessboard.

"Well, would you like to play again or would you like to play something else?" she asked.

"Well..."

"How about checkers?" interrupted Luna with a hint of laughter in her voice. "Our dear sister could not defeat a blind chicken at checkers.

"Be quiet Luna, that was one time!" said Celestia before she looked back to Fluttershy. "You were saying?" she asked.

"Well...one more game couldn't hurt," said Fluttershy. "I mean...if you want."

"I'm up for it if you are," said Celestia. Fluttershy nodded and moved the pawn in front of her king-side knight one space forward.

"So to continue our previous conversation," said Fluttershy. "What about Pinkie Pie? Wouldn't she see it as one big party?" Celestia laughed and moved the pawn in front of her queen forward one space.

"I think that as much as Pinkie Pie loves to laugh and make friends, she could not do it on a large scale. There are moments where I wonder if it takes more energy for Pinkie Pie to be Pinkie Pie then it does for me to run the country. It would not be long before she burned out completely from that kind of attention."

"And Applejack and Rarity would both be overworked because everypony would want to buy their apples and dresses just from them," said Fluttershy.

"Now you're getting it," said Celestia with a nod.

"Although I'm curious," said Fluttershy as she took one of Celestia's pawns with her king-side knight. "How did you do it? Cover it up, I mean."

"Swamp gas and weather balloons," said Luna. Fluttershy looked at Celestia confusedly who just rolled her eyes at Luna.

"Well, it's a bit more complicated than that Fluttershy," said Celestia before she returned her attention back to the game. "But suffice to say, it took quite a bit of work." Fluttershy heard Luna giggle a bit but decided not to question it. She castled left before Celestia spoke up once more. "You know, this brings up a subject that I've wanted to discuss with one of you," she said as she copied Fluttershy's castle.

"Oh?" said Fluttershy.

"Yes," said Celestia. "I want to ask you about Discord, or more specifically, what it was like to be under his control." Fluttershy tensed up and whimpered slightly. Celestia's eyes widened and she tried to change the topic. "Of course, we certainly don't have to talk about that if--"

"It was very cold," said Fluttershy sadly.

"Cold?" said Celestia interestedly.

"Yes, very cold. I felt like I would never feel the feeling of the warm sun shining across the land ever again and it...it made me so angry!" said Fluttershy as she moved her queen one square to the right.

"Why did it make you angry?"

"I...I think it was because Discord made me feel that way. He wanted to twist our Elements around and I think he knew that if I was really angry then I would do...unkind things."

"And you did," said Celestia sadly, capturing one of Fluttershy's rooks with a knight.

"Yes," said Fluttershy as she captured Celestia's final knight with her other rook. "But there was still a part of my mind that tried to get past all of that. I think that's the part of my mind that Twilight used the memory spell on. My mind was constantly resisting Discord's influence."

"It was?" said Celestia interestedly as she captured Fluttershy's queen with her king-side bishop. "I didn't know that was possible."

"I guess it is," said Fluttershy. "I think that it was, checkmate by the way, the fact that we were friends that helped my mind through that tough time." Celestia smiled at Fluttershy.

"Yes, I think so t..." Celestia froze in mid-sentence. "Hold on a minute. Did you say...checkmate?" Fluttershy shrank back a bit but she nodded.

"Oh...um, well yes. I checkmated you with my rook here," said Fluttershy. In that instant, the two heard Princess Luna quickly stand up and bolt towards the duo. She arrived with a wild look on her face.

"Did you just checkmate Tia?" she asked in an awed voice.

"I...I don't know if she--"

"She did!" said Luna. Her eyes widened with surprise as she turned to Fluttershy. "Our sister has not lost a game of chess in over 400 years!"

"Oh...sorry," whispered Fluttershy nervously.

"Be not sorry child, for you have truly achieved an amazing feat here!" said Luna happily. "How did you do it?"

"I admit that I'm curious too," said Celestia.

Fluttershy shrank back more and whimpered. She was a bit intimidated by the fact that she was sitting alone in a room with the goddesses of the sun and moon themselves, one of whom she had just beaten at chess for the first time in 400 years. Now both of them were looking at her expectantly.

"Um...well you see," she began.

"Speak up child, we cannot hear you!" said Luna excitedly. Fluttershy took a deep breath and just decided to bite the bullet and explain her victory. They weren't letting her out until she did.

"Well, I used the first two games to learn about who you were as a player. The first one taught me that you weren't afraid to be aggressive against an opponent that you viewed to be as weaker or less skilled while the second one taught me more about your strategies. I noticed that you favored your knights over your bishops in terms of offensive strategies while you always tried to keep one rook and at least one bishop back for defensive measures. You view the other bishop as largely expendable which is why you use it as a kamikaze piece."

Both princesses looked like they were about to have heart attacks, one from shock and the other from joy, but Fluttershy continued onwards.

"You castle early to get your other rook on the offensive to back up your knights and any pawns that you may feel may be able to get you another queen later. The queen herself you switch from being an offensive piece to a defensive one when you feel the situation calls for it."

"Hold on, hold on, let Us catch up!" said Luna who was eagerly writing down every word that Fluttershy was saying.

Before either Celestia or Fluttershy could respond, there came a knock on the door. The three turned towards it and Luna sighed.

"We'll answer it," she said. Fluttershy looked at Celestia with a raised eyebrow.

"I thought nopony knew about this place," she said.

"Oh the entire staff knows about it just in case they need to reach us for an emergency. Nopony but Luna and I can get in through," said Celestia who was still examining the game board. Just as Fluttershy was about to answer, both of them heard Rainbow Dash's voice.

"Rained out, can you believe it!? A Wonderbolt's performance was rained out! How lazy are the Canterlot Pegasi?"

"Now Rainbow darling," said Rarity soothingly. "They're doing all they can to get the weather under control."

"You know that even with a team of Pegasi, the weather can still be unpredictable," said Twilight. Rainbow harrumphed but the group stopped talking about it when they noticed Fluttershy and Celestia sitting at the table. Twilight smiled and went over to talk to her mentor. Before she could get a word out, she saw the chess set between the two of them and her jaw dropped. "Uh, Princess Celestia, how many games did you play against Fluttershy?" she asked nervously.

"Just three," responded Celestia. Twilight grimaced a bit.

"She got your whole strategy down cold in those three didn't she?"

"Did she ever!" said Luna as she rejoined the conversation. "I've never seen anything like it!"

"Neither have I," said Celestia. Applejack raised her eyebrow at Twilight.

"Uh, Twi, didn't you tell the princess here to never play more than one game of chess against Fluttershy?" she asked.

"Yes, because that definitely came up at some point," said Twilight sarcastically.

"Wait," said Celestia. "This is normal?"

"Oh yeah," said Rainbow nonchalantly. "Fluttershy routinely destroys everypony she meets at chess after game 2 or 3. She beat me in 19 moves once."

"Fluttershy, how did you ever become so good at chess!?" asked Celestia incredulously.

"Well," said Fluttershy nervously. "It all started when--"

She was immediately silenced when Pinkie Pie cleared her throat. The group turned to look at her as she glared at Fluttershy and mouthed 'forever'.

"Um..." said Fluttershy. "It's too long of a story."

The room was silent as they all examined the chessboard and pondered the development that Fluttershy could defeat the goddess of the sun at chess on a whim.

Suddenly, the pieces all flew back to their original spots and a determined look spread over Celestia's face.

"I want to play again," she said.

*  *  *  *

Twilight could hardly bear to watch what was going on in front of her. It was just too painful to see and she could hardly believe that it was actually happening. Applejack had tilted her hat low over her eyes and was trying to both watch the game and avoid seeing it at all costs at the same time. Rarity had become very interested in her hair as she too could not bear to watch what was happening. Rainbow and Pinkie both merely stared at the board, their mouths open in total shock. Even Princess Luna looked a little uncomfortable.

Together the six of them watched as Fluttershy's queen and her reamining rook chased Celestia's king across the board while Celestia was trying to block her with her remaining bishop and two pawns. Celestia was frantically trying to find a way to stalemate the game.

"Tia, just give up," said Luna as Fluttershy took one of Celestia's pawns. "She managed this after five minutes, you can't win."

"I know that Luna," said Celestia. "I think that I can--"

"Checkmate," said Fluttershy.

Luna, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity all cheered Fluttershy's victory and they gathered around to give congratulate her. Twilight walked over to Celestia sympathetically.

"You aren't mad are you?" she asked nervously. Celestia smiled and shook her head.

"When you've been alive as long as I have, you learn very fast to not care about something as insignificant as this. Still, losing a chess game for the first time in 400 years still hurts a little."

Before Twilight could respond, she saw Fluttershy get pushed off the chair she was in, only to be replaced by Princess Luna who eagerly brought her notes over to her.

"We think you may be slipping Tia," she said eagerly as she reset the chessboard. "What say you to a game?"

Celestia smiled and nodded and the game began.

Luna got demolished.