One Chance for the Damned

The cart shook violently as it rolled through the rocky path which caused Chance a lot of discomfort. “Hey!” Chance called out to the large, bulky stallion pulling the cart, “Can't you go any slower? When I thought about ways I would like to die being beaten to death by a cart was not at the top of the list!”

“Stop whining,” the stallion looked back at Chance, his eyes filled with pure unmitigated malice, trying to pull a cart through treacherous terrain while being criticised for doing so isn't much fun. “Besides, if I go any slower it will take us days until we get anywhere.”

Chance sighed and looked to his travelling companions who were all giving him disapproving stares. “What?” Chance asked, the four ponies sharing the cart with him responded by turning their heads away, Chance just gave a dismissive shrug and sighed again. He really couldn't complain, it's not every day you get a free ride to the middle of nowhere, a place where nopony bothered to build railways because nopony cares about this glorified wasteland or the settlements strewn about within it.

The wheel of the cart caught on another rock and it shook again violently, causing Chance to be thrown slightly upwards. This made the pony next to him snigger, Chance sneered at him and shifted to regain his composure. He couldn't understand how he was the only pony having trouble with this ride, he supposed that the others were just more used to travelling. None of the ponies were talking, what started out as a nice ride quickly turned sour after Chance made a joke about what Celestia does in her spare time and told the story about how he found out his ex marefriend was a serial killer. While most of the ponies now refused to talk to him one was still fine with some discussion, the pony sitting across from Chance, an Earth pony who had neglected to share his name.

He was strange, he was constantly shaking and seemed to look at the other ponies, even Chance, as if they disgusted him. He looked fairly normal for an Earth pony besides that; grey coat, short black mane, average build and with green eyes. The one feature Chance couldn't help but immediately notice about him though was his face, it reminded him of a rock as it was strangely shaped and seemed to jut out unnaturally. “I'm sure it will be over soon enough,” he assured Chance.

“Yeah, it will all be over when this road kills me, I suppose I should be thankful that I'll die in this uninhabited waste,” Chance was interrupted by the aftermath of the cart's impact with another rock, “dammit, anyway I suppose I should be thankful because if anyone I knew found out I was beaten by a cart I would never live it down. They'd never find my body so hopefully they'd assume I died in some cool way, like being incinerated by something that can do that.”

“What brings you out here anyway?” The rock faced pony enquired.

“I'm going to Pegasus Falls.” This answer caused the pony to flinch slightly, Chance became intrigued, “do you know anything about the place?”

“Um, a little. I guess.” Chance raised an eyebrow at him, encouraging him to continue. “There's a lot of stories; ponies going missing, ponies acting strange or turning up dead with no explanation. Since it's so out of the way not a lot of word gets around about the place.”

“Yeah, I know that stuff. The only reason anyone knows about it is because of some insane pony showing up at Canterlot and ranting about the place being evil.” Chance grinned, he had found the story laughable the first time he heard it from some drunk guy in a bar. “Of course nopony cared enough to investigate anything, but it certainly got the attention of conspiracy nuts and those with an interest in the occult.”

“Is that why you're heading there? To solve the mystery? Maybe find some ghosts?”

“Nah, I'm not interested in that stuff. I am hoping to solve a mystery though, and hopefully the pony I'm trying to find isn't quite a ghost yet.” Chance smirked, “what about you? Where are you hoping to end up?”

“Same place as you.” The rock faced pony admitted.

“What's your excuse then?”

The rock faced pony looked away slightly as if in shame. “It's personal.”

Chance sighed, “well, good luck with that.” The cart hit another rock, this time the impact wasn't as bad but it was still enough to make Chance curse under his breath.

“What's your opinion on changelings?” The rock faced pony asked.

“Huh?” Chance was a little taken slightly aback, he never expected such a topic to even come up.

“Changelings, what do you think of them?”

“Well...” Chance pondered for a moment, “I don't really know anything about them besides the fact that they feed off love and can make themselves look like any pony at will. If you mean what do I think about them personally then I can't condone what some of them have done but I can't condemn all changelings. There has to be a few good ones at least. Also, to be honest, I'm a little envious of them.”

“What do you mean?” The rock faced pony had a slight twinge in his voice, to Chance it seemed like he understood the feeling.

“They can become whoever they want to become, they're not bound to one identity. If we screw up, it's game over, if they screw up they can start again somewhere else.” A sad smile formed on Chance's face, “it must be nice, not having to be a pony you don't want to be.” The rock faced pony nodded in agreement. “Not that it matters though since most of them are slaves to Queen Chrysalis, or at least that's the popular opinion. Like I said, I don't know much about them. Why do you ask?”

“I was just curious.” Chance shook his head and smirked, causing the rock faced pony to smirk too. “Yeah, I know that explanation won't cut it. I'll tell you later, if my suspicions turn out to be true.” He turned his head to the front of the cart. “Looks like we're nearly there.”

Chance looked into the distance and saw several small buildings, Pegasus Falls. He couldn't quite make out much of it since they were still a while away but that was definitely where he needed to be. He smiled and looked back at the rock faced pony, it was obvious he was hiding something but Chance believed in letting ponies keep their private business private.

After a little more time had passed, and a few more bumps, the cart arrived in the small town. Chance and the rock faced pony got off, thanked the stallion pulling the cart, bid their farewells to the other ponies who seemed disinterested and wandered to the town's centre. It was a quaint place, most of the buildings were houses but there were a few shops scattered around and what looked like a small clinic. Overall the place had a rather rustic feeling, from the way everything looked this place had been around for quite a while. “Nice place,” Chance remarked. He smiled at a young mare passing him who let out a slight gasp and hurried away, “the locals seem, interesting.”

Since they had arrived they had been receiving strange looks from the ponies around them. Chance felt rather uncomfortable under the oppressive gazes, if someone told him he wasn't a pony he would probably agree because the locals made him feel like a visitor from another world. The rock faced pony didn't seem to mind, he looked like he had other things on his mind.

For the first time Chance was able to see his cutie mark, it depicted a magnifying glass, much like the one on Chance's flank but instead of a pony in the centre his had a question mark. “Hey, what's your cutie mark mean?” Chance couldn't work it out.

The rock faced pony looked at him, bemused.  “Do you really call it that?”

“Call it what?” Chance smirked, he had been in this conversation before.

“Your a stallion, and you call it a cutie mark. I know that's what it's actually called but come on, don't you feel weird calling it that?” The rock faced pony laughed, “I know I would.”

“Well, I don't.”

“Why not?”

“There's not any particular reason. It's more the sense of apathy I feel towards the matter which allows me to call it that.” Chance smiled, “plus I'm just too cute not to call it that.”

The rock faced pony laughed again and turned around. “You're all right, Last Chance, come on, we should find a place to stay, it's getting late.”

“Yeah,” Chance responded,” by the way, I never got your name.”

“That's not important, not any more at least.” The rock faced pony's expression went sour.

“Okay then, well do you mind at least telling me what you're running from?” Chance asked, causing the rock faced pony to look back in shook. “What? You've been shaking throughout the entire trip here despite it not being cold, you refuse to give your name and you're in the middle of nowhere. Normal ponies don't do those things, unless they're trying to escape something.”

The rock faced pony sighed, “I suppose you could say that.” He began trotting away at a slow pace. Chance thought better than pursuing the issue further and decided to drop it for now. Chance followed him down the street.

It didn't take too long for them to find a bar with a few rooms available for rent. The rock faced pony paid for both their rooms, despite the owner charging more than some high class hotels. Chance was surprised about how many bits the rock faced pony had with him, what pony brings so much money to such a backwater place like this?

After a few drinks and a meal the two wished each other a good night and retired to their rooms. Chance couldn't sleep, maybe it was the country air that he hadn't felt since he was a foal or maybe it was just because of the crappy mattress he got. Either way he lay awake as Luna's moon rose into the sky. He had always liked the moon, it was bright and beautiful and unlike the sun he could look at it without being blinded. As he stared at it he thought about how strange his life had become recently, and how he knew it would become much stranger very soon. For some reason Summer Runner came into his mind, that had been happening often since he met her. “Dammit Chance, what are you doing? You don't even know her and your acting like a school colt experiencing his first crush.” Chance paused at that, now that he thought about it there was something oddly familiar about her. This puzzled him since he had never met her before in his entire life but something didn't seem quite right. He sighed, “since when has anything been right. No matter what it is or where I am, there's always something screwed.” He buried his head into the pillow, trying his best not to think about anything in the hope that sleep would come quicker this way.

If he was going to find Summer Dancer he would need rest. The town wasn't very big but he still had no idea where to start looking, she was here, of that he had no doubt, but the tricky part was finding out her exact location within the town. “The rock faced pony definitely knows something about this town that he's hiding. Maybe it's connected in some way. I'll talk to him about it tomorrow.” After letting out a yawn he sunk back into his pillow and fell asleep.

The moon was still shining into the window, outside it made the dark little town surprisingly bright. The silver light illuminated the cloaked figure watching Chance's window. The few ponies still out at this time avoided this figure, doing their best to avoid looking at him and making strange hoof gestures after passing him. He trotted away into one of the back alleys, the ponies out there saw him leave and breathed sighs of relief before going on their way.