A Game of Minds

The battlefield was set.

Knights stared down knights. Warriors marched headlong into the battlefield. Two opposing kings watched harrowingly as their armies went behind enemy lines in order to claim their territory. With their bishops and fair queens at their sides, the kings watched as the senseless, yet strategic, madness ensued on the battlefield.

From the heavens, a purple, scaly hand came down like a divine intervention, moving a tower across the field. Suddenly, the black king was staring defeat right in the face. The mistress?

A rook and a pawn.

"Checkmate," Ridley mused. "You might have stood a better chance if I was blindfolded. Maybe."

Twilight Sparkle gaped as she stared at the board wordlessly. She blinked once, then twice, and looked up at Ridley flabbergasted. How had she overlooked that move? How was she so blind to what he was obviously planning? Had she underestimated Ridley as simply another brute?

"Horseapples..." Twilight whispered harshly, cursing her own incompetence. Swallowing her pride, she extended a hoof towards her worthy opponent. "Well, that was a fun game anyway. Well played, Ridley."

Ridley scoffed, pushing Twilight's hoof away. "I don't shake unless your worthy of a shake."

Disrespected and slightly offended, Twilight huffed and turned to leave. Fine, then, if Ridley was going to be an asshole, she would leave him to it.

The Cunning God of Death leaned back in his chair. As large as he was, the chair below him was comically tiny. His spiked tail wrapped around it comfortably.

"How many is that today?" Ridley mused as he wrote another name down on a paper he carried with him. He continued to flaunt himself further. "This noggin does more than just intimidation. Like I always say, strategy is an important part of genocide."

As of recent, Ridley had become quite the Chess fiend. Finding himself bored and with nothing better to do one day, the vile purple people killer had memorized all the rules, strategies, and endgames he could late one night. Since then, he'd propped himself up on the library's chess table and challenged anyone and everyone under the sun to a game if they saw fit. His aptly named "Kill List" included Peach, Zelda, Dart Monkey, Sucy, Donkey Kong, Shulk, Ness, Sonic, a handful of Koopalings, and, most recently, Twilight Sparkle. Ridley took glee in the other's pity on their inability to beat him, no matter how hard they tried.

"Who else wants to challenge me?" Ridley snarled. "Who even thinks they stand a chance against my intellect? After all, I'm just a big dumb killer! No possible way I could ruin you in a matter of turns!"

Ridley's hubris would be his downfall.

"I'll play."

Adjusting his eyes, Ridley scoured the room for the source of that feminine voice. Soon, he spotted the loser who thought they had a chance against him.

Brooke.

"You really think you got what it takes, kid?" Ridley asked. Oh, this would be a cinch!

"I know all the rules," Brooke answered as she took a seat across from him. Slowly, the two began setting the battlefield for a new game. "I'm something of a champion back home."

"Cocky, are we?" Ridley grinned. In a matter of seconds, the board as set.

"Game on," the purple dragon snarled.

Brooke quickly moved her queen in position. Ridley went for his king, but hesitated. He stared blankly at the massacre in front of himself, and then across the board at the nine-year-old girl who had the biggest shit-eating grin he ever seen.

"Checkmate," Ridley lamented. "Again."

"Yup," Brooke said, leaning back in his chair. "Told you I was a champion back home."

The two had been playing Chess for a few hours by now, and Ridley lost every game. The first checkmate he chalked up to dumb luck. The second checkmate he blamed his cockiness costing him some precious pieces. By the time Brooke got her fifth checkmate in a row, Ridley grew more and more disbelieving in what he was seeing.

A scaly hand went up to scratch Ridley's elongated skull. His brain felt nearly ready to fry with the amount of computing power he was using to find a way through Brooke's seemingly impenetrable defense. But it seemed that every time he made a move, the child always had an answer. He was being read like a book, and he absolutely hated it.

Brooke's SmashPad buzzed, and she pulled it out. Reading the message that was sent to her, she texted her reply and put it away.

"That was Pearl," Brooke said, getting out of her chair. "She said she's going to the cafeteria for lunch, so I'm gonna go eat. It was fun playing with you, Ridley!"

Brooke extended one of her hands towards the Cunning God of Death. He hesitated for a bit, his eyes staring down the little bee that stood in front of him. Taking a deep breath, the self-centered space pirate reached out to meet her grasp.

"Yeah," Ridley said. "I'll get you next time, kid. Don't think you're safe."

Pleased with herself and happy with the fun games she played, she went out of the library to the cafetria. Ridley was, once again, left to his lonesome to reconsider his life choices.

Rearranging the pieces, Ridley began plotting his revenge against the stinger in his side.

Vaguely, he wondered how good she was at Team Uno...