Disclaimer: I don not own any of the My Little Pony characters or world. OC is mine (Checkmate and Pickin Stone)

Chapter 1

Placing the Board

A young unicorn, no more than 22, stood in the throne room of Princess Celestia as the petitioners filed out at the end of the day. His raven black coat nearly glowed in the brilliant light of the throne room, barely visible on the bits not covered by the uniform of Celestia's first general which also kept his black mane nicely tucked out of view. His cutie mark could barely be made out as a white chess piece, a knight. As the last petitioner left the stallion approached Princess Celestia on her throne and bowed.

"Rise General, what news of our borders?" Celestia asked letting her usually sweet smile slip a little, she never liked the military part of her duties but knew it as a necessity.

"The borders are well, your highness," replied the young general returning the Princess' smile back to it's usual state "however, we are receiving disturbing reports from the Everfree forest. It appears a band of militant ponies have started gathering there. We do not yet know their origins but we do know they are not friendly forces." With that the general fell silent awaiting Celestia's orders, even if he knew them already.

"Very well, I will trust you with this. You know what's best." Celestia had grown pale from the distressing news. The general bowed and began to leave when Celestia stopped him, "General, where at in the Everfree?"

"Near Ponyville, your highness."

"Don't you come from Ponyville?"

"Yes, your highness, I was raised there. With your permission I would like to oversee this operation personally." At this the Princess smiled and nodded. With that the general continued out of the throne room and started making his way towards the barracks when a shout caught his attention.

"General Checkmate!" The call came from above and behind him and he turned around just as the dark form of an alicorn landed. On instinct Checkmate bowed to the princess of the night as she continued, "your late general. I still need to get you back for last week." The general feigned a smile before responding.

"Forgive me Princess Luna, but an urgent matter has called me away from the palace. May I please post pone our weekly chess match?"

"Very well general, I think your just afraid of finally getting beat." Luna put on a confident facade even though in over sixth months of these weekly matches she has never won once.

"Perhaps that is true, however I must begin my preparation, your highness, if you would excuse me." Luna smiles and nods her permission.

Meanwhile in a small mine outside of Ponyville Pickin Stone was hard at work. The small yet strong earth pony was hard at work with a pick clenched in his teeth, his gray coat and mane were dampened by the sweat of long hours working in his tunnels and his cutie mark, a hammer standing on end behind a lantern, was caked over with dust. He had just received an order for a large quantity of rubies and was trying to fill it before the end of the day. As he picked away he saw a slight red glimmer in the lantern light. Not wanting to damage the precious gem he took calculated gentle swings. With the final parts of his order safely placed inside his cart he made his way out of the mine and made his way into Ponyville.

Once he had reached Ponyville he went directly to the customer's home and shop, a blue and pink building with a sign of a carousel horse. He gently knocked on the door and a very refined voice replied "Who is it?"

"Miss Rarity, it's Pickin, I have your order." With that the door magically swung open to reveal a white unicorn with a purple mane trying to fit a dress on a rather rambunctious pink pony.

"Oh thanks dearie," said the unicorn "I usually gather my own gems but I just have been so busy lately." Before Pickin could speak the pink pony was already revving up her mouth.

"Oh, that's a lot of gems. I bet Spike would explode if he saw all those, fwoosh. Don't let him see those, I don't want him to-" the pony suddenly stopped mid sentence.

"Pinkie dear, is something the matter?"

"My pinkie sense is going off..." Pickin and Rarity slowly close in on her trying to read the sense, her legs started shaking, then her tail twitched, and finally her ears started flopping.

"I haven't seen that one before," Pickin noted.

"What does it mean?" Rarity questioned.

"It means..." Pinkie replied in a slightly hushed tone, "it means..." the ponies drew in closer, "it. Means..." the three were huddled in almost touching when Pinkie joyfully shouted "an old friend is going to visit!"

The two ponies jumped out of their horseshoes at that outburst and when their hearts settled Pickin decided to inquire further.

"Who? Who is visiting?"

"How should I know?" Pinkie replied, "but it should be a lot of fun."

"Well at any rate, thank you both for your assistance but I truly must get back to work. Hoity Toity wants these dresses by tomorrow." With that the white unicorn made her way upstairs towards her work room and the two earth ponies left the shop.

As the pegasus drawn carriage made it's way toward Ponyville Checkmate allowed his thoughts to wander back to his days as a young filly in Ponyville. He remembered his fear about getting his cutie mark, he tried many new things but nothing earned him his mark. He was by far the very last to get his cutie mark.

He remembered his lazy days sitting around playing chess with anypony that dared to challenge him and whenever he did have a challenge all the ponies who passed by would stop and watch his perfectly calculated movements. He was completely undefeated until he was 10 years old when a new pony offered to 'play with him.' That phrase was new to him, everyone else stated a challenge but this young filly, brand new to Ponyville, wanted to play.

Every move he made was completely countered or destroyed by an unexpected move, no matter how hard he tried to control his opponents movement she would just make a different move that no one would expect and by the end of the game, she was victorious and he lost. When the game was over he had to know the name of the pony that beat him, and she simply replied "I'm Pinkie Pie and your my new friend." He smiled in his musings as he remembered that pink mare and her odd ways.

His mind continued to wander over to the two hardest workers he knew in Ponyville, Applejack and Pickin. Even from a young age those two knew how to work hard and never stopped until the job was done. By the time he was 11 both of them, though a year younger than he, had already gotten their cutie marks yet his flank was still bare, this agitated him greatly.

Through the years he spent his time either helping any pony he could in an attempt to find his special talent, or playing chess with Pinkie, sometimes resulting in his victories, other times not. This continued for 4 years before he figured he would have to leave Ponyville, for he had yet to find his cutie mark. 15 years without a cutie mark was unheard of and he had exhausted everything he could in Ponyville. He made his way to Canterlot and joined the army, they had plenty of jobs and maybe he might find his cutie mark in there. He made sure his flank was covered at all times to avoid the ridicule of the other recruits and within a year he was promoted up through the ranks of the military and yet, to his dismay he still had no cutie mark.

After being granted a squad of his own he was deployed to the Gildedale border to help secure it against the attempted invasion. A week after their deployment the line was broken and it looked like Equestria would lose all the way up to Manehattan. Not wanting to allow that Checkmate tricked the invading forces into a small pass in the Drackenridge Mountains where he promptly split the force in half thus securing the battle and pushing Gildedale back. He smiled remembering the feeling and what came next with exact detail.

His body was filled with a rush, knowing that his superb tactics saved Equestria, but it was more than that, he loved the planning, outsmarting the enemy, controlling the enemy, and making them do exactly what he wanted them to. He knew how powerful a well placed piece was and he wanted nothing more than to be able to move the pieces around. He had been so caught up in that rush he almost didn't notice that his men were gathered around staring at his flank. He hadn't noticed his military cloak had been torn and heard many whispers between the men.

"I've never seen it before."

"Who knew?"

"So this is the stallion we have been following?"

His embarrassment took over and he just wanted to die as he placed his head on the ground and covered it with his hooves. After a while he noticed something odd, they weren't laughing at him, he expected laughter, or jokes, something! But they just stood around him and whispered, he slowly turned to look at his flank and noticed a white knight had appeared on it, he finally earned his cutie mark. His mind was yanked back into the present as the carriage landed on the outskirts of Ponyville.

"Well, the rest of the forces aren't due here for 2 days, I suppose I should go pay a visit to the mayor to inform her of what is going on." Checkmate noted the weird looks he was getting from the two pegasi and barked, "What, haven't you ever heard a pony talk to themselves? Off with you." With that the carriage flew off and Checkmate made his way into town to find the mayor.

Pickin was just about to head back to his mine when he spotted a pegasus carriage flying away and wondered if it had anything to do with the friend Pinkie Pie said would visit. He galloped as fast as he could towards where the carriage took off from until he had spotted a pony, he knew was not a resident, walking toward the center of town. After a few moments of thinking the name finally came to him and he shouted out,.

"Checkmate."

Checkmate's ears perked up thinking their was a rousing game of chess being played nearby, the biggest problem about his name, however seeing no chess board he shrugged it off thinking he was hearing something when a call came out again.

"Checkmate!" By this time the gray stallion was already galloping towards him and before he knew what was going on he was tackled to the ground and ensnared by a suffocating hug.

"Oh boy Checkmate, it's so good to see you." Checkmate was rapidly running out of air and violently tapped the foreleg around his neck, when Pickin caught the hint he quickly released and Checkmate stood dusting himself off.

"You do know I could charge you for assaulting an officer of the military, correct?" Checkmate's voice was cold and hard as he glared at this strange gray pony.

"Checks? Don't you remember me? It's Pickin, Pickin Stone..." Pickin held his breath waiting for Checkmate to respond.

"Yes I remember you, that 'hug' reminded me well enough, and it's GENERAL Checkmate, not 'Checks.'" Checkmate's temperment did not change as he glared at the poor miner. "Now if you don't mind I am here on official business. Would you be so kind as to point me in the direction of the town's mayor?"

"oh... yea... sure, city hall is in the middle of town." Pickins ears were drooped down and his voice filled with sorrow, Checkmate was always kind of an introvert but in the time he'd been gone he had grown cold, almost like ice.

"Thank you Mr. Stone." With that Checkmate made his way to city hall leaving Pickin to sadly sit there, his old friend not even giving him a second look.