An Amulets Fate

"For Celestia's sake why won't this stupid box open!?" The dark figure kept attacking Curseds' box as he began to feel defeated. The Amulet inside it almost seemed unreachable to him before a disembodied voice began to speak to him.

"How are you going to take over this perfect land with that sort of motivation?" The voice seemed filmier to the figure but he couldn't put his hoof on it,

"How do you know what I'm trying to do here, and where are you exactly?"

"None of that matters, what I can offer you is a way to gain access to the Amulet inside but you must do something for me if I allow you access to the box."

"As long as I gain the Amulet I don't care what you ask of me." The voice began to give a low chuckle as the Shadowy figure began to feel like he had made a mistake,

"I want you to kill Cursed Fate and his two friends. I think you might want this too." Suddenly an item seemed to appear from nowhere as it landed in front of the figure. It was shaped like it can hold the Alicorn Amulet within a locket like necklace but it seemed to have some form of exhaust on it. The figure moved towards the item and picked it up with his magic,

"And what exactly is the reason for this?"

"It will remove all the... corrupted magic that's within it when you wear it, now do as I ask or you will be dealt with in a manner that would make Hades wish to kill himself." the voice faded away as the boxes seals that had confined it had either wiped away or unlocked themselves as the box opened, showing the documents and images of the Fate family history and past. The figure put the necklace down as he used his magic to look though the papers and documents until he came across the amulet,

"This is perfect, now all I’ve got to do to find where those three ponies are and then all will be said and done."The figure pushed the box to the side as he formed a magic orb which had allowed him to spy on what Cursed, Shadow and Bean were doing, "What's this, it seems that I won't need to go after them, oh this is too good to be true!" The figure began to go around the orb excited as he then proceeded towards the Amulet, "I better prepare for their arrival."

Bean bursts though Shadows hut door as Cursed follows him not far behind. when then enter they see Shadow standing next to her cauldron which seems to have some form of map of Equestria above it,

"Be careful, that door is old and easily breakable," Shadow looks towards Bean providing him with a stern look as he replies

"What you talking about, it's perfectly stable." Bean taps onto the door as it suddenly flies off its hinges and crashes onto the ground next to him, "Errrr, it was like that!"

"I don't care about what the doors like I want to know what you found out!" Curseds voice booms within the hut as it almost causes the shelves of jars and potions to fall off the walls as well the centre cauldron to almost tip over, "Sorry about that, still mad about what has happened but Bean said you have found a way for us to find where our culprit is?"

As Bean flies around the room repositioning everything Shadow turns towards Cursed, who was still standing in the doorway, "If you would come towards me I can show you what I have been able to do." Cursed moves towards the cauldron as Shadow turns towards it, the map above it showing Equestria but it had a little sparkle in the middle of a desert, "As you can see, this is the best I can do. This map shows the approximate location of our culprit. I had tried other methods but there were... complications."

"Well it's a start, I think we should...."

Cursed, bad news but the box has been opened and...

WAIT WHAT! But I'm the only one that can open it.

"Cursed, are you alright? You seem frightened." Cursed looks up towards Shadow and Bean, who had stopped flying around the room and instead had landed to the right of Shadow, with the Cauldron on the left and magic map on the top.

"No, nothing is alright; we need to find our culprit pronto before we are all in a world of hurt!" Cursed begins to rush towards the hut door frame as he turns back towards his two friends, "You two pack what we need and meet me at the station, the culprit has found Emerald."

Cursed then proceeds to dash out of the door as Bean turns towards Shadow with a puzzled look, "What does he mean by Emerald?"

"I think he's talking about the Amulet but neither the less this seems very bad, let’s gets everything together. Could you get some of those potions over there and also my book on the different types of capture and banishing rituals?”

"Yeah yeah I'm on it, after that I'm going to go get some of my snacks and take them with me." Shadow rolls her eyes as she looks towards the door frame,

"Let's just hope nothing bad is going to happen."

Cursed was standing at the train station with his bag which was filled with books about different desert structures and tips about surviving in the desert as well as have different equipment needed for the trip (like a flask and parka). He was tapping his hoof on the ground, confused on where his two friends were when he sees them flying towards him with bags on their backs as they landed at the station steps and make their way towards Cursed.

"Good we're all here, the trains almost here so I need you both to check that you've got what you need?" Cursed quickly looks towards the two ponies, sweat forming on his forehead as he gave them both a panicked look,

"Don't worry we've got what we need, everything will be ok, also I think you need to wipe your forehead." Shadow points towards Cursed as he proceeds to grab a cloth form his bag and, using his hoof, wipes away the sweet from his forehead before putting the cloth back. He then turns and looks towards Bean and Cursed,

"Thank you, now Emerald has informed me that he was just able to identify who are culprit is." The two ponies looked at each other puzzled before turning back towards Cursed with Bean being the first to speak,

"Who exactly is Emerald?" Just as he asked this question the train had pulled into the station,

"I'll tell you when we're on board, now follow me." The three entered the train and made their way to one of the carts as they sat down on a four chaired seat, watching the train leave the station form outside their window, "Ok, so you remember that story I told you two about that ancestor of mine, Emerald Fate, and how he was trapped within the Amulet."

"I barely remember it, and I don't think Bean remembers any of it."

"Hey, I remember what happened!" Bean gives off an angry expression as Shadow responds with a sarcastic look,

"Oh really, tell me what exactly can you remember."

"I remember that I had cake.... ok maybe I don't remember what happened." Cursed signs with frustration which grabs the attention of both Shadow and Bean,

“In short, when he was trapped he started to slowly become the magic itself, he told me this when I was pulled into the Amulet. Due to the user of the Amulet uses some of the magic inside it then it means that Emerald can have a connection to the user, if he so chooses,”

Shadow and Bean exchange looks of confusion between each other but instead they shrug at what they have just been told, "ok, so you can communicate with Emerald, though some telepathy I guess?"

"Actually that's quite correct Bean, didn't think you would understand so quickly." As soon as Cursed finished his sentence he noticed Shadow had seemed to realise something as she stops looking out the window and towards Cursed,

"Wait a sec, you said earlier that Emerald has been able to spot the culprit, who is it?"

"Oh yeah, well apparently our culprit was an old friend of Emeralds from back in the crystal empire war. He's a light orange unicorn with a dark blue mane and tail with the cutie mark of dark blue lapis lazuli. Funny enough that's his name too." Bean doesn't seem to show any care to what Cursed had been saying but Shadow had learned in closer to listen to what he had to say, "Also he is apparently adept to spying magic so he could.... err Shadow, your eyes are bleeding!" Shadow quickly backs away as she wipes her hoof under her eye. As she looks at her now blood soaked hoof she spent no time to hop out of her seat,

"Let me go sort this out, I don't want either of you following me, I mean it!" She rushes towards the nearest carriage containing a bathroom and locks the door behind her.

"I wonder what that was about."

"Maybe its how she has her..."

"No, just no Bean."

Hey Cursed, I have an idea on what we can do to immobilize Lapis. The idea is if your friend Shadow can use one of her 'spells' to contain him I could try to reason with him, maybe get him to be our friend and possible help use if we ever go on more adventures.

It sounds plausible, but if it doesn't work we may have to be a bit more forceful, after all he will have your magic unless you deny him it, which will only corrupt him.

I know, it's a difficult decision to make.

"Hey, Equestria to Cursed, are you ok?" Cursed looks up see Shadow, who was just cleaning the last of the blood from under her eyes. She shoved Bean towards the window as she sat herself back down, "So, while I was away, did anything happen?"

"Yeah I'm ok and yes actually, right before you got here Emerald had asked if it's possible that when we encounter Lapis if you could use your abilities and knowledge to detain him." Shadow leans towards her bag and pulls out a leathery book with stitch marks across it as she opens it,

"I've got a couple in here so it shouldn't be too difficult, looks like we don't have enough time, looks like our stop is next."

"Wait, why are we stopping off at Klugetown?" Bean turns away from the window and towards Cursed as he was preparing to move off the seat and grab his bag.

"It's the closest place to our stop, I thought we could see if we could get some help to transverse the desert, my book can only help so much." they all felt a sudden shift as the train halted to a stop. The three step off the train to see a rundown looking town, full of all sort of interesting creatures and the odd pony or two. The three looked between themselves, each exchanging a look of concern and questioning if this was a good idea.

Before any of them could say a word a familiar voice spoke from behind them, “Huh, well I didn’t expect to see you three here,” the three of them turn to see a white Alicorn with purple hair that had red tips on the ends of them. His eyes were a deep red and his cutie mark was of a Red Crescent moon, “You do remember me right?”

Bean and Shadow exchange some looks of confusion between each other as they try to remember who this pony was. Cursed on the other hand had no problem recognising who it was but was looking between his friends to see if they can remember him, “seriously guys, ok here’s a clue, Bean remember when you had stolen that cake?”

“Oh yeah, it was delicious.”

“Wait, your Bloodmoon right?” Bloodmoon rolls his eyes towards Shadows response as he trots towards the three.

“Well that took you long enough, why are you three here anyway?” He darts his eyes from pony to pony as he sees each of them have bags full of different types of equipment and snacks (the snacks mainly being Beans bag), “you three planning on doing some exploring?”

Cursed and Shadow each exchange a look of concern while Bean goes into his bag and grabs an apple, which he then begins to chew though as he responds, “You can something like that.” He continues to eat though the apple as his two friends look at him, mentally telling him to be quite, “What, he wasn't wrong.”

Shadow continues to mentally inform Bean to be quiet as he slowly backs from her gaze, Cursed rolls his eyes at their situation before turning towards Bloodmoon, “So you know why we’re here but why are you here exactly?”

“I was looking for some stuff that can only be brought outside of ponyville,” He turns his gaze towards Bean who had stopped moving backwards and continued to eat his apple, “And that’s all I'm going tell you, so don’t bother asking what I’m getting.”

“Hold on one sec,” Cursed and Bloodmoon turn to see that Shadow has interrupted there ,small, conversation, “you don’t happen to know your way round here do you?”

“Around the market mostly but that’s the most I know, the rest of this town is kind of deprived. I’m going to guess that you want my help around?”

“If you don’t mind, were here to mainly look around for any extra supplies and a map of different desert routes to help us.”

“Sure Barney, I can help you with that.”

“It’s Cursed,”

“I know, I’m just messing with you, follow me you three.” They begin to make their journey into the market looking around for anything of use, each of them wondering what exactly would be in store for them when they do find Lapis.