Twisted Fate

Chapter Eleven – Shadows of Tramplevania

“Some secrets are better left buried.”

“Destiny.” That voice, it haunted me even in my dreams.

“Destiny!” It wouldn’t leave me alone; no matter what I did the voice of Faith haunted me.

“Destiny, wake up!” Midnight jolted me awake from my uncomfortable sleep. The room was brightly lit, and I could only guess the time was somewhere in the late afternoon. I glanced at the mirror in the room, noticing my blood shot eyes that showed I had been crying recently.

“You were yelling in your sleep,” Midnight said. “You need to calm down, you know. There’s nothing we can do.” It took both Midnight and Envy to drag me away from the cliff, my body frozen in a position where my hoof was reaching down hopelessly in an attempt to try and catch the falling Mare. I knew I couldn’t do anything, but my mind kept coming up with the most convoluted attempts at saving Faith that I kept shooting down.

“How can I calm down?” I complained. “Faith’s dead, and it’s my fault.”

“Don’t say that!” Midnight protested, softening his expression when he realized his outburst. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell. You know I miss her too, even though I’ve only known her for a little while. But we can’t just quit now because she’s gone. Do you think Faith would have wanted us to abandon saving the entire world because of her?”

“No…” I trailed off.

“Exactly,” Midnight said back, “You need to give her more credit, she was a good pony at heart, and she would have wanted us to keep saving the common folk, it’s what we do.”

“But, it just won’t be the same without her,” I objected, “I think I just need some time, is all.”

“What was it you told Celerity back in Manehattan? That we don’t have time,” Midnight pointed out, walking over to the bed I was moping in and placing a hoof on my shoulder, “Please, Destiny; for Faith.”

“I don’t know,” I whispered. The hinge to the door creaked open, causing me to turn around towards the source. A large portion of me wanted to see Faith, but a familiar beak poked inside the door, with no signs of the mare.

“I just got off work,” Envy said. “How are you two holding up?”

“She’s had better days,” Midnight answered for me, making me glare at him slightly.

“I can answer on my own, thanks,” I growled.

“Oh good,” Envy said, “She’s moved on from depression to anger, only two more stages of grief until acceptance.”

“Shut it, bird brain,” I shot back.

“Pff, whatever,” Envy shook it off before turning to Midnight. “You seem to be taking this rather well, though.”

“Training,” Midnight responded solemnly, “I only knew her for a little bit, but she meant a lot to me, I’ll move on though.”

“That’s the spirit,” Envy paused before continuing, “So you guys want the good news or the great news?”

“If it’s not Faith’s okay, you can shove it,” I said before rolling back over on the bed and faced away from the two.

“She’ll come around,” Midnight reasoned, “What do you have for us?”

“Just got a message via magical scroll from G, she wants us to meet her in Northern Equestria for some debrief about your current predicament, thought she didn’t say exactly what your predicament was.”

“And the great news?” Midnight continued.

“Gilda asked us to run an op,” Envy smirked.

“Us?” Midnight asked, “As in you too? It’s okay for you to leave the Gryphon Kingdom’s to help an ousted asset?”

“What the Jarl doesn’t know won’t hurt ‘em,” was the only thing Envy responded with. “I’m securing transport for us to head out tomorrow morning, make sure Destiny is okay to go, alright? I know she’s grieving, but if we want to have a chance at snatching the bastard who led to this and is leading all of those cultists, then we have to move soon.”

I glanced over my shoulder to see Midnight steal a look at me before responding, “I’ll make sure she’s up to the task.”

“I’m not moving,” I protested as Midnight prodded me with his horn.

“Fine then,” Midnight said before lifting me up with his magic and dragging me off the bed and onto the floor with an audible thud.

“No fair,” I pouted. I had been sleeping for over twelve hours, waking up somewhere around six in the morning, yet refusing to move from my current position.

“We need to get going soon, I’ll meet you downstairs in the main bar room once you’re ready. Don’t take long.” Midnight left without another word, leaving me alone in the room with what remained of our supplies. Faith’s saddlebags were left behind by her when we went up to the old ruins, forever reminding me of the only mare that I perhaps truly fancied.

I let out an audible sigh before heaving myself off the floor and onto my hooves, quickly snatching up both Faith and my own saddlebags and tossing them onto my back, checking to make sure I had all of my weapons before trudging down the stairs and into the main room of the bar.

I pushed open the front door with my hoof and took a step out, breathing in the refreshing, cold mountain air. It did nothing to alleviate my sorrow as I trotted down the street to meet Envy at the Jarl’s terrace. The city seemed so lively for what was such a sorrowful afternoon for me. I moved up to the staircase before being bumped into from above my a diving gryphon.

“Ow,” he mumbled as he landed. “I’m sorry miss, my sincerest apologies about running into you.

“It’s fine,” I mumbled, “Why are you in such a hurry anyway?”

“Oh, yes,” the gryphon started, “Well I was sent from Gryphus with news for one Miss Destiny Fate. Now, I know that there is only a slim chance that you know her in this large city, but any help would be much appreciated and-“

“Wait,” I cut him off, “What do you want with me?”

“Ah, so you are her!” The gryphon smiled at his luck, “Well then, here you are,” The gryphon messenger quickly reached a talon into a bag he had strapped across his chest and pulled out a letter, “from the Gryphus Saint Hospital, Miss Fate.”

“Hold up there,” I stopped him as I took the letter in my mouth, setting it on the ground and cutting open the envelope with my hoof blade before taking out the message and reading this. “What’s this?”

“A bill,” the messenger said. “A pony who ended up there told us to bill you, and that we could find you here in Asgard. If you have an issue, you’ll have to take it up with the hospital itself in Gryphus, have a nice day.” Without another word the gryphon messenger flew off into the sky, leaving me with a hospital bill that I did not rack up. I scrutinized it intently, records for treatments of severe exhaustion and magical burnout did not bring to mind anypony I would let reference me to be billed by a hospital on the other side of the Kingdoms. I flipped over the bill to see if there were any more to add to the 3000 bit expenses that were digging a metaphorical hole in my bag of bits.

I was shocked though to find that there was a small hoof written note on the back of the bill that read:

I thought this would be the best way to tell you the good news, but I’m kind of stuck in a hospital bed (again), this time in Gryphus. Give Midnight the good news, because when you two get here I’ve got a surprise for you. –Faith

I completely forgot my original intention and ran to the top of the terrace to meet up with Midnight and Envy, unsure of what to make of the note. Obviously I wanted to believe it, but even if it was true, how did Faith manage to end up halfway across the country? I decided it best to take it to the trained assassin for further information on the mysterious note.

Cresting the top of the flight of stairs that led between the multiple terraces, I spotted Envy hitching herself up to a chariot while Midnight went over the supplies he had brought with him.

“Destiny!” Midnight called me over with a wave of his hoof when he noticed me arrive. “Glad to see you are recovering a bit.”

“You could say that,” I managed a smirk, “I need to show you something first though.” I pulled out the bill I had stashed in my saddle bag and slid it across the ground towards Midnight.

“What is this?” Midnight was perplexed, “It looks to be some kind of hospital bill from Gryphus, where did you get this and why are you showing it to me?”

“Flip it over,” I said excitedly, barley able to contain my happiness at the prospect that Faith had somehow made it out alive.

I could see Midnight’s eyes scanning over the note as he read each word carefully. “This is interesting,” he mused.

“What do you make of it?” I asked, desperately wanting an answer.

“It looks to be her hoof writing, but I have no idea how she could have made it out of that pit alive.”

“The hospital was treating her for exhaustion and magical burnout,” I pointed out, “Maybe she mustered the strength to teleport herself mid fall and didn’t really have time to aim it?”

“Maybe,” Midnight said silently, “Envy!” Midnight called out to the gryphon ready to head out and meet up with Gilda once again in Equestria. “We’re making a detour.”

“To where?” Envy argued, “We don’t have time for detours, if it’s not an artifact we’re going to Tramplevania to meet up with Gilda.”

“Faith is in Gryphus,” I stated. Envy froze up momentarily before speaking.

“Well that changes everything,” she finally mustered. “Strap on, Destiny, we’ve got a unicorn to find.”

“So, how do we know this isn’t some kind of trap?” Envy had raised a valid point. The three of us had been flying for the better part of two hours, the capital of the Gryphon Kingdoms just a mere hour away if we maintained our current course. “I mean Faith drops down a seemingly bottomless pit and a note comes in from the other side of the country that she’s just a little banged up? Sounds fishy to me.”

“We have to try,” Midnight spoke up from the chariot. “The only gryphon who knew we were checking up the old ruins was the Jarl, and he didn’t seem to be in league with the Hammer, especially openly proclaiming friendship with a burned spy.”

“True,” I said, “Also, unless it was someone from Heliopolis, no one knows Faith’s hoof writing, so that would be quite a trip to forge a note and send it on a gryphon messenger.”

“So we’re treating this as it really being Faith?” Envy asked, her wings continuing to beat with determination in reaching our destination.

“If not her, then who else?” I asked, “Besides, I doubt those cultists would set up a trap in a hospital, the body count would just be a bit too high.”

“You sure about that?” Midnight spoke up, leaning over the edge of the chariot to get his voice heard above the roaring wind, “We don’t know what lengths they’ll go to shut down what remains of the group that took away their chance at two artifacts.”

“Stop putting doubts in my head,” I called back, “No one else I know had that hoof writing, or even came remotely close to being that fluid in copying somepony’s signature.”

“Just making sure we’re covering all the bases is all,” Midnight sighed in defeat, going back down in the chariot and tending to some maps we still needed to be chartered.

“And I thought Manehattan was impressive,” I breathed in the new sights that greeted my eyes, the capital of the Gryphon Kingdoms. A stunning city carved into not just one, but two mountain tops, the area in between spanned with a number of bridges, small dots that I could only guess as gryphons flying from one side of the city to the other was a common sight in the sky. A couple of chariot taxis joined the inflight gryphons, giving the wingless an easier way to cross the districts of the city.

“Welcome to the bustling mountaintop metropolis of Gryphus,” Envy said, “Home to over 50,000 inhabitants, hopefully including our unicorn friend.”

Envy and I made the descent down towards the city with Midnight safely in tow. It had a look similar to Asgard in its mix of wooden and pure stone houses, still lit with electricity despite this mountain being much taller than the one that Asgard resided on. We touched down on the roof of a tall building sporting a cross carved into its stone frame, clearly labeling the area as a hospital.

I unhitched myself from the chariot and ran towards the door on the roof that led to the staircase, not waiting for Envy and Midnight to catch up. I slammed the door open and began sprinting down the staircase, racing to hit the bottom floor and the front desk to check for records of the injured. It was about ten floors before I hit the bottom of the stairs, pushing open the door and running down the main hallway towards the lobby.

“Hi,” I managed to talk between shallow breaths as my lungs begged for air. “I’m, looking for, a unicorn, named Faith.”

The gryphon at the front desk raised an eyebrow at my predicament, “Do you have a name?”

“Destiny,” I answered, still breathing heavily. “Please, tell me she’s alright.”

“She’s fine,” The gryphon at the desk replied, “And since she’s fine, I’d like you to pay your dues on her bills before you go see her, see the mare over there,” The receptionist pointed a talon to a pegasus writing down some figures on paper.

“Fine,” I replied, my breath finally catching up with me. Envy and Midnight had made it to the bottom of the stairs as I was giving the pegasus at the desk a large sack of bits. The mare then gave me the information on where Faith was.

“So?” Midnight asked as he approached me, “What’s the final verdict?”

“She’s recovering here,” I announced, “I just paid the bill, she’s on the second floor, room 212.” I went to move past Midnight and go back to the stairs to head up.

“Not so fast,” Midnight said, “Envy, go check out the room’s window.”

“What are you doing?” My tone was hot and angry as Midnight stopped me from going up.

“You’re not thinking clearly,” Midnight replied, “This is just a precaution that the room isn’t wired to a bomb on a trip wire at the door.

“What are you talking about? The receptionist just told me she was up there.”

“And how do you know she isn’t in on the Hammer?” Midnight shot back, “You know they get the most unlikely people.”

A shattering of glass could be heard from the second floor, causing me to forget the restrictions Midnight put on my movement and push past him and towards the front door, eager to fly up to see what happened. Midnight didn’t object as he ran for the stairs, also curious as to the source of the disturbance.

When I dashed outside, I had noticed that one of the windows had been shattered in, no glass being present on the street. I flew up to the window to see Envy in hoof-to-talon combat with a knife wielding pegasus, the gryphon adeptly weaving between strikes from the pegasus and delivering shallow scratches from her own sharpened claws. A unicorn mare with a familiar beige coat lay fainted underneath the covers of the hospital bed.

I quickly landed inside the room and extended my hoof blade, looking to only parry blows and disable the knife wielding pony, knowing that I was in no position to get away with murder.

As the pegasus went in for a stab at my neck, I parried the blow, knocking the knife out of his mouth and landing two swift yet shallow strikes to the pegasus’ fore hooves, causing him to fall to his knees on his forelegs. Hospital staff poured in immediately after it was over, guards following suit.

They were asking questions immediately, but I didn’t answer any of them until I had checked on the fainted mare. I moved the covers out of the way, spotting the familiar flame cutie mark and auburn mane and tail that identified the mare I considered my best friend. Despite her being passed out, I wasted no time lifting her up in my hooves and squeezing her tightly, wishing to never let go.

“Miss,” a deep voice broke my from my one sided reunion, “I need to ask you some questions, if you would please.”

I broke off from my hug, setting down the still asleep mare back on the bed and turning around to face the gryphon guards. I noticed some staff from the hospital tending to the cuts on the pegasus as multiple gryphon guards detained him with chains and cuffs. Envy and Midnight were explaining themselves to another armored gryphon before my attention was snapped right back to the one in front of me.

“Excuse miss, please pay attention.” The gryphon was armored to the teeth, for some reason covering up much more than the others. The voice, I noticed, also seemed extremely hoarse, almost forced. It was almost as if this guard wasn’t who they pretended to be. I pushed the thought aside as the heavily armored guard spoke again. “Can you explain what you were doing here?”

“Saving my friend from a knife wielding assassin.” I stated, “I kept him alive, didn’t I?”

“That you did,” The hoarse voice responded, “Much to the chagrin of a certain group of individuals, do you know what he was after?”

“Surely not the gryphon assassin that shouldn’t even be in this country, trying to make herself sound like a male, not at all.”

“Touché, Destiny,” The gryphon guard dropped the act, suddenly turning to the unmistakable female voice of Gilda. “Meet me downstairs when E and Midnight are free, we should talk, and let Faith rest.”

Author's Note: This chapter is NOT FINISHED. I will be releasing the full chapter after Noble Cause has released the final results of National Pony Writing Month. Thanks for all of your support! Make sure to check back soon for the full chapter eleven and future chapters through 25. Also check out soon for my upcoming story 'Out in the Cold' a side story following Gilda and her adventures with the Assassins.