One Chance for the Damned

Doorbells were frustrating, at least to Chance they were. The doorbell to Summer Runner's home was smaller than most, if Chance wished to use it he would have to use his tongue since he was unable to use magic or the tips of wings. Well, unless he pulled a random unicorn or pegasus off the street to do it for him. He considered this for a moment, after all, he had always wanted a sidekick, he decided against it though.

Chance thrust his hoof forward, striking the button which would, in turn, ring the bell. A quiet sounding ringing emanated from somewhere inside and Chance put his hoof down and waited. There were no hoofsteps coming from the other side of the door, there was not even the slightest sign that anyone had heard the bell. Equestrian technology was bucked, barely any of it worked in Chance's experience. Then again, Chance often thought, maybe most of it's fine and it was just not working for him.

Chance rung it again. Like the first time, the sound of the bell was audible but there was no sign that anypony but him had heard it. No, Chance thought, there is either nopony in or they just didn't hear it, it's not the door, I am not going back to that time where I didn't trust doors or their accessories, enough damage was done last time.

He lifted his hoof to ring a third time but decided against it. “You are not winning,” he mumbled under his breath, disregarding his earlier self assurance in favour for his former paranoia. Chance took a deep breath, threw back his head and threw it as hard as he could towards the door.

At that moment the door opened and Chance's head flew through it eliciting a scream from the mare opening it who stepped back just in time for Chanced to miss her and slam his face into the floor.

Several seconds of silence passed while both ponies attempted to figure out what had just happened. “Hello?” The mare said.

“Hey.” Chance responded, still with his face on the floor.

“Um, sorry, I was in the shower when you rang. May I help you?” The mare's expression became concerned, after all who wouldn't be? Chance sighed and stood back up.

“Bucking doors, always treacherous. Anyway, yes, I believe you can. My name is Last Chance, am I to assume that you are Summer Runner?” Chance put on his best fake smile and began scanning the mare. She was definitely Summer Runner, she looked like she did in the picture he was given. She had a light red coat with a straw blonde mane that curled in on itself at the ends which rested halfway down her front legs. He thought she looked beautiful but there was something off about her.

"Yes, That's me. Nice to meet you, Last Chance."

"Call me Chance." Chance reached out his hoof, Summer Runner did the same and gave his a shake.

"Okay, Chance. So, can I help you?"

"I think I'm the pony who will be able to help you." Summer Runner raised an eyebrow. "You see, Mrs Summer?"

"Ms, I'm not married." Chance's smile widened slightly at this, without his permission of course which was frustrating.

"Well, Ms Summer, you see, I may be able to help find your daughter." Summer Runner's eyes lit up slightly and she began to stutter out an incoherent response. "I think you should probably sit down while I tell you what I mean. Mind if I come in?" Summer Runner just nodded and stepped aside, letting Chance pass into the house.

As Summer Runner closed the door behind Chance he inspected the front hall of the house. It wasn't much, there were stairs leading to the next floor of the house, several doors leading into other rooms and various pictures adorned the walls. The pictures all featured one of two ponies, Summer Runner and Summer Dancer, who didn't look much like her mother with her blue coat and short lavender mane, not as beautiful as her in Chance's eyes. Dammit, Chance thought, why do I keep focusing on how pretty she is? I don't even know her, why am I so interested? He shook his head to get the thoughts out of his mind.

With this new found clarity Chance noticed something he had failed to see the full implications of before. He was standing in a house, not an apartment, but a house. This was he city of Manehattan, here one would have to be rich in order to have a full fledged house. Chance looked back at Summer Runner who was fiddling with the door handle and thought about how she could have come across enough money to live comfortably when, according to everything he had read about her, she had no job.

Summer Runner finished with the lock and turned to Chance. She coughed and pointed to a door,"that's the living room, we'll talk there. Would you like a drink or something?"

"Whiskey would be great." He responded while making his way to the living room.

"It's early in the afternoon though."

"And I'm supposed to care? Ah screw it, I'll just have some milk if you don't mind."

Summer Runner nodded and galloped to the door on the far side of the hallway. Chance opened the door to the living room and stepped in. It was a rather quaint little room, there was a small fireplace, a few fabric sofas emblazoned with frilly patterns of flowers and birds, a few coffee tables in front of those sofas and there was a bookcase in the corner. Chance trotted to the closest sofa and climbed onto it. While waiting for Summer Runner Chance studied the spines of the books resting on the bookcase. Most were rather common affair when it came to pop culture literature; there were several romance novels, classic adventure novels, modern thrillers and a few non-fiction books about various subjects. What interested Chance was one book in particular, this book had several cracks adorning the spine, signalling that it had been read more times than the other books. "The Anatomy of a Changeling" the cracks and creases made it too hard for Chance to read the name of the author but the title was pretty clear. Changelings were never of much interest to Chance, his work and talent focused on ponies and so, with a begrudging smile, he endeavoured to focus on them too.

Summer Runner came in with a tray on her back that had a glass of milk and a cup of tea on it. She trotted over to Chance who took the glass of milk with a quick thank you. Summer Runner carefully slid the tray off her back onto the coffee table in front of the sofa. She then climbed onto the sofa and picked the cup up with her hooves, taking a sip. "Are you telling the truth?" Summer Runner asked Chance who was halfway through gulping down his glass of milk. He looked at her to find her eyes staring back into his pleadingly, Chance realised what he found off about this mare at this point, she seemed tired. There were slight bags under her eyes which were sunken and in them there wasn't much of a spark. Chance put his glass back down on the coffee table and gulped. his mare had obviously been through a lot because of her daughter's disappearance and even though he couldn't quite put his hoof on it he seemed to want to help her more than before for some reason. Maybe it was her eyes? He wanted to see some light in them.

"Yes, I can help you find your daughter but I need your help, that's why I'm here." Chance placed a hoof on her shoulder and nodded assuringly. Summer Runner placed her hoof on his, which made his heart jump a little.

"Are you with the police then?" Summer Runner asked. Chance had to hold back his laughter.

"Technically. It's best you don't mention me to the detectives or officers you talk to though." Chance smiled nervously as she gave him a worried look. "All you need to know is that I'm here to help."

Summer Runner looked down for a moment, seemingly pondering the situation, she sighed and looked back into Chance's eyes. "At this point I'm willing to accept any help I can get. Why should I trust you more than the police though?"

"Because I'm a finder." Chance leaned at a slight angle to show off his cutie mark. "And, as my cutie mark shows, I'm a finder of ponies."

Summer Runner looked at him open jawed. "Okay, for starters you're not a unicorn, secondly if you really have a talent like that why aren't you with the police? And finally, cutie mark? Really? You're a stallion, shouldn't you not want it to be called that?"

"Heh, I assure you that your first two concerns are of no real concern and as for the cutie mark thing, it's not that I like it being called that, it's more that I don't care about what it is called." Chance was lying of course, not about his apathy towards the term "cutie mark" though.

Chance is a somewhat special breed of pony, a finder. Every pony had a talent, it was debated whether these were inherent to the pony or if the natural magic within a pony merely enhanced a certain thing they happened to be good at which caused an image to be placed upon them which corresponded with this talent. Nopony could deny that these "cutie marks" existed though. Some ponies had a certain type of talent, the talent to find specific things, there's a mare in Ponyville Chance had heard of for example whose talent allowed her to find diamonds. These ponies were referred to as "finders" and even among them Chance was special for his extremely useful talent of being able to find ponies. At least, it would be useful, if he hadn't been born an Earth Pony.

A Unicorn finder can use their horn to lead them to whatever they are meant to find and a Pegasus can just begin flapping their wings which will take them straight to where whatever it is happens to be. This was because their natural magic manifested in those ways, an Earth Pony's magic manifests with the ability to grow produce and natural strength. Chance thought he could probably buck down a tree, which would then point in the direction he needed to go, or he could grow a carrot which may point him in the general direction of the pony he was trying to find. In other words, Chance's talent just wasn't suited to him, making him useless which is why the police haven't hired him for his ability. Well, he wasn't completely useless, if he was given the name of the area where the pony was he'd be able to tell by instinct that they were there, he just couldn't say the exact spot where the pony happened to be standing. Once he got to the general area, he had to rely on his wits. It was frustrating, but Chance supposed that if a Unicorn or Pegasus were to have his talent they would be able to find anypony instantly, which could be dangerous in the wrong hooves.

Summer Runner put her tea down onto the coffee table. "I'm honestly desperate, so I suppose any help is better than none. What do you need?"

Chance smiled at her warmly, there was something about her which just put him at ease, it also produced a sickly feeling though, what had her daughter gotten caught up in? Why would shady ponies with orange coated enforcers be getting involved in this? "I just need you to tell me if there's anywhere she might be."

Summer Runner rested her head on her hoof, "hmm... well, she always wanted to go to Canterlot, she often seemed interested in Ponyville, one of the Princesses lives there after all, the Crystal Empire seems unlikely but she has mentioned it..." She kept naming several places, Chance listened and his eyes wandered to the bookcase again. Among the non-fiction books there was a thin book which seemed more like a pamphlet. On the spine was the name "Pegasus Falls" his ears pricked up at this and he interrupted Summer Runner.

"Sorry, but did Dancer ever mention a place called Pegasus Falls?" Chance asked.

"Yes, she did, I was just about to mention it. She just asked me what I knew about it which is really nothing. She bought a book about the place, it's on the bookshelf."

"I noticed." Chance's smile widened "I also think I may have an idea on where your daughter is." Summer Runner gasped, Chance responded with a nod to confirm that he was being serious. "There's a problem though, I've heard stories about that place, it's an isolated town with some real spooky shit going on, ponies disappearing, ponies acting really strange. They also have a pretty hostile attitude towards outsiders." Summer Runner seemed worried but Chance put his hoof back on her shoulder. "I promise you I'll find her, no need to worry."

"Thank you." She said shakily due to held back tears. "You'd better go. I don't want to keep you any longer." Chance gave another nod and climbed off the sofa.

"Before I go I need to ask you something, what can you tell me about Dancer's coltfriend?" the question seemed to alarm Summer Runner a little.

"She doesn't have a coltfriend. What are you talking about?"

"So you don't know Dark Brooder?" Summer Runner shook her head

"I see, perhaps I was mistaken, anyway I'll see myself out." He gave her one last smile and trotted back into the hallway and to the front door to leave. Once back on the streets he began the slow trot back to his place, it was getting late and he's going to have to travel a bit to get to Pegasus Falls so he thought it best to leave it until tomorrow.

His thoughts were interrupted though as he saw a familiar looking orange unicorn in a small alleyway. Chance scowled and walked up to him, "here to check up on me, I presume?" The orange unicorn sneered at him.

"Just tell me what you know." He ordered Chance in a somewhat elegant tone, as if he truly saw himself above Chance.

"Fine, arrogant prick, Summer Dancer, and her coltfriend Dark Brooder, are currently in Ponyville." Chance smirked at the unicorn, "I suppose you'll want me to go there, really find them and bring them back. Or do you need to tell me this with your knife out again?" The unicorn snorted.

"Ponyville? You're lying. We do want you to find Summer Dancer but by looking in the right place. Otherwise we will be disappointed."

Chance sighed, "So, you know where she is already?"

The unicorn took a step back. "What makes you say that?"

"You're so sure that I was lying, why would you be unless you already knew she was in..." Chance mockingly pulled his hoof up to his ear, indicating that he was waiting for the unicorn to finish the sentence.

"Pegasus Falls." The unicorn said, annoyed.

"Thank you. So, do you mind cutting the cryptic bullshit and telling me who you are and why you're sending me to find a pony you know the location of? Maybe even telling me what's going on?"

The Unicorn smirked,"what do you think?"

"Well, I noticed that there were no pictures of Dancer's father in the house, it was a house which would require money and Summer Runner seemed extremely tired and you're employers are very shady. If I were to guess the scenario, Summer Runner was married to some mobster, she left him and took their daughter and money. She sent Dancer to Pegasus Falls because it's out of the way, Dancer also took her secret coltfriend for some reason. I'm guessing that Summer Runner stayed behind to perhaps try and lead you guys off Dancer's trail or maybe she's just resigned herself to her fate and is waiting for you to get to her. She's tired from looking over her shoulder all the time. Of course, the Mafia can't just go to some out of the way town and shoot up the place so you send a naive and handsome gentlecolt to bring Dancer back for you." Chance smiled triumphantly as the unicorn sniggered. "I'm wrong?"

The unicorn composed himeslf, "what makes you think that?"

"You laughing tells me that you think my theory to be ridiculous, plus, if Summer Runner was really hiding her daughter why would she have told me where she really was? I just wanted to confirm whether or not I had found myself working within organised crime, which I am not. So who am I working for?"

"A pony who will pay you very well for the return of Summer Dancer to Manehattan. That's all you need to know." The unicorn turned to leave.

"Can you promise me that neither her or her mother will be harmed?"

The unicorn stopped, "What do you care? You're a scum bag who only helps ponies to suit his own needs."

Chance rolled his eyes, "coming from the unicorn who greets people with knives."

"Whatever, I can promise you with all certain that neither of them will be in danger, can't say the same for you though if you fail." The unicorn began trotting down the alley, he stumbled a little which caused him to produce a muffled grunt of frustration before he continued on his way.

Chance looked down the alley. There was something off about that Unicorn, when they first met Chance was convinced that he was a professional but now he wasn't so sure. Chance had been able to show him up which caused him to drop his guard a little. He thought that the Unicorn probably knew what he wanted out of their meetings, and as long as that's what he got he was cool and calm, he was used to getting what he wanted. "A spoiled hitpony? Now I've seen everything." Chance struck his hoof against his face and sighed, "something seems really off about this whole thing. Well, guess I'll think about it more tomorrow."

Chance began trotting down the street again, yawning and muttering curses to Love for getting him involved in this. He knew she had nothing to do with it but he didn't care, to him it was all her fault. He knew what he needed to do at least, tomorrow he would ask around about any travelling performers or merchants going that way and would ask to accompany them. Not perfect travel plans but it was all he could come up with. Maybe, with a bit of luck, Dancer would be waiting right in the town's centre. Chance knew that his namesake was not on his side however, it was going to be a long few weeks ahead.