Twisted Fate

Chapter One – A Journey

“Sounds like someone has got destination fever!”

I groggily woke up sometime in the late afternoon from what I could tell. I quickly took a hazy observation of my surroundings, deciding it best to not force my body to get up at the moment after the rough ride. The sun was setting as I awoke, forcing me to squint my eyes in an attempt to garner a vague concept of my current location. I was lying in a pile of light yellow sand, the heat being just low enough to avoid any serious injury to the side of me that was face down in the burning sand. I really didn’t need to look around more to know I was in the middle of the Helio desert, it’s the only semblance of anything sandy and dry this side of the known world. The sun would be going down soon I hope, as the desert would finally cool down. Despite packing ‘light,’ as the occasion might be that I had to fit the rest of my life on the run in two bags, I managed to be able to fit a small tarp in one of them, knowing that my first few nights would be rough.

When you were banished from Vaporia, they usually tried to tie up loose ends by dropping you somewhere they didn’t expect you to return from. Deserts were always a nice option for this sort of task. I don’t know why they just don’t kill ponies outright, must be public relations or something like that; government always had ulterior motives.

“At least they untied my wings,” I grumbled to myself, forcing my body up from its uncomfortable nap in the sand. I stretched my wings as a sudden urge hit me. I was thirsty. It had occurred to me that seeing the sun set probably meant I was knocked out all night and most of the next day. I was stuck in the desert and my last thought when packing was to pack a bottle of water. “Shit,” was all I muttered, before a sound over one of the nearby dunes snapped me out of me about to slap myself for forgetting to bring water when I knew that the tribunal loved to drop off exiles in the middle of the desert. Whatever, what was important now was surviving whatever was over that dune, be it bandit or predator.

A quick survey of any immediate cover yielded a rather large shrub. Moderate at best, but the darkening sky should make it easier to blend in with my black coat.  I did a quick roll and dash to hide inside before the sound crested over the hill.

“We should set up camp here, on top of this dune,” the unmistakable voice of a stallion revealed to me that he was not alone, as a young mare with a pale red coat and bright yellow mane with a signature sunburst cutie mark came over the hill with a light brown coated and white mane colored stallion sporting a pickaxe and brush styled in an X cutie mark.

“How long until we reach Alexmanedria?” The young mare asked her companion.

“We should be there in a few days, we’ll make a quick stop in Gazelle and move on from there,” The stallion replied. Well at least I know where I am now, relatively speaking. The unicorn mare’s horn glowed with a bright orange hue as she lifted a tarp out of one of her saddle bags and began to set up a tent.

My hooves slid in the sand, causing me to stumble and let out an audible ‘Eep!’ from my hiding spot. The two travelers quickly whipped there head around to the bush where I was, my dark coat continuing to shield me from their gaze, but I was found out and I knew it.

“Who’s there?” The stallion quickly took a defensive stance as he turned to face the brush, ready to face whatever lay in there, be it friend or foe. Of course, I wanted to be friend; the last thing I needed was more enemies as soon as I was booted out of my home country. After a few rather tense seconds where I was debating my next course of action, the stallion spoke again. “I said, who’s there? Come out!”

I sighed, and decided now was a good of time as ever to come out and show these ponies I meant them no ill will; I just hoped they felt the same. I stepped out of the brush, coming face to face with the two mysterious desert wanderers. We stared blankly at one another for a few seconds. Finally, I managed to utter a few words.

“Um, hi?” Hi, yep, good going me. Those two ponies are completely convinced you’re the friendliest pony they’ve ever met. I quickly told my brain to shut up and looked back to the two travelers, hoping that they would respond with words and not swords. I knew better than any pony to assume that because you couldn’t see a weapon on a creature at first glance, they were unarmed. Not only was one of them a unicorn, but concealed weapons were more than common in the outlying nations of the Outer Kingdoms. My body unconsciously tensed up, ready to burst into flight at the first sign of hostility.

“Hi?” The confused stallion asked back. Okay, I told myself, they don’t seem to want any trouble as much as I wanted to avoid conflict. “What are you doing out here in the middle of the desert?”

“It’s a long story,” I replied, not wanting to explain how I ended up in my current predicament, “But I’m a bit lost,” I admitted.

“Well,” the stallion paused, as if pondering whether to help me or not. The young mare interrupted.

“Dusty! We can’t just leave her out here by herself in the desert!” The young mare proceeded to give a scolding to the older stallion as he was seriously considering leaving me to die to hypothermia in the desert.

“Sun Spark, listen. We barley have enough supplies as is to reach Alexmanedria in two days. If we take her we’d end up either dead halfway there or having to make a stop in Gazelle; and you know what the headmaster will say if we’re late returning to the library.”

“She would understand if we’re a day late to help somepony! Contrary to your belief she’s not as much of a hardflank as you make her out to be,” The mare I now knew as Sun Spark was fighting for me in an attempt to make sure I wouldn’t die tonight in the desert, and I couldn’t be happier about it. I managed a smile at the mares’ attempt to convince her friend. Dusty thought for a few seconds on the subject, wary of my attempt to give him my best pleading puppy dog eyes. It must’ve worked, for Dusty let out a heavy sigh and looked back to me.

“Fine, you can stay in Sun Spark’s tent,” Dusty said, “I’ll look at our map and reroute our course to get us to Gazelle sometime around midday tomorrow. Now please, get some sleep both of you. If I have to drag one complaining mare through the desert, Gods know what I’ll do with two.”

Sun Spark’s horn glowed again as we quickly went to work setting up camp. I silently sent a prayer up to the Gods, thanking them for not killing me on the first day of exile. It wasn’t long before the tent was set up, and everypony signed off. My new acquaintance Sun Spark seemed too tired to do any talking, and both of us quickly fell asleep, back to back. My last conscious thoughts were of the things I wish I could be doing alone with this mare. Damn my aching muscles.

I awoke suddenly, my dark surroundings telling me it was still night time; but something didn’t feel right. I quickly moved a hoof to my side, finding the space where Sun Spark should be empty. Okay, weird. Maybe I’m dreaming? I’ve heard of lucid dreaming before, but have never experienced one myself. Even so, if I know I’m dreaming, that means I can control this right, because a pitch black room totally doesn’t fly with me in my dreams. How do you control dreams anyway? I attempted to focus my mind into changing my surroundings into something more pleasant. My old room at the Archangels tower, Cloud Nine, anything other than a pitch black room.

To no avail the room remained static. Was this even a room? I wondered as to whether or not this was not a room in my dream but an endless void of pure emptiness and blackness. My mind shuddered at the thought of spending an indefinite amount of dream-time, which according to my wacky logic is different from real time, locked up in this void.

Those thoughts were pushed away when suddenly the void was opened up and engulfed in a blindingly white light. I looked in awe at the light as it continued to grow, eventually manifesting itself into something one might consider a portal. It showed within it a beautiful city perched high in the mountains, the majority of it being built out of white brick and boasting cascading waterfalls that fell into the lakes below. It was sunset, and from the dusk a dark pony figure sporting both wings and a generously long horn rose above the city, raising with it the moon. As the mysterious pony flew rose above even the tallest towers of the cities huge castle, a shot rang out. I recognized it immediately as a gryphon firearm, the work of bandits. Snapped out of my thoughts, I looked back into the gaping portal to see the winged unicorn fall to the ground, a general sense of panic beginning to spread amongst the city wherever the shot was heard.

I woke up in a cold sweat. Panting hard, my first instinct was once again to survey my surroundings. Thankfully, I could make out in the darkness and low light provided by the moon and stars that I was once again, still stuck in the desert. Oh well, still got to sleep next to a rather cute mare.

Deciding that going back to sleep would be an impossibility, I ended up trotting outside to get a better perspective of my current surroundings. The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon, when it dawned on me. Again. I was still thirsty. Was I that concerned with sleep that I could have forgotten that I haven’t had anything to drink in two days. I didn’t have to wait for long, as almost immediately after I noticed my need for liquid, Sun Spark walked out of tent behind me.

“Morning!” She said in an overly cheery voice. It must be 6 AM, how can anypony be that cheery this early for God’s sake.

“Sleep well?” She asked.

Of course I hadn’t. I had some weird vision of a winged unicorn getting shot by bandits over a city, which caused me to wake up in a cold sweat. But I couldn’t bother her with malefic dreams, so I did the next best thing. Lie.

“Of course, it was very restful. Thanks for letting me accompany you guys, again. I don’t know what I would’ve done if you guys hadn’t found me when you did,” I said, humbling myself before the ponies nice enough to not let me cook in the desert.

“Oh, it was really no issue at all, despite protests from Dusty. We don’t really have to go back to Alexmanedria anytime soon. We were just finishing up some research here in the northern Helio Desert. Technically speaking we had a whole week to do the research, but Dusty is so concerned to make it back before a week is up to please the headmaster of the institute. I hope you were at least slightly comfortable sharing a tent with me,” She finished.

“Oh, it was quite comfortable. Especially next to such a cute mare like you,” I replied, trying to curry favor with my traveling partners.

“O-O-Oh,” She stumbled, blushing. “I, umm, thanks, I guess?”

Score.

“But, umm, I’m not really into mares,” she said, lowering her head dejectedly, refusing to make eye contact with me. She was still blushing intently through her pale red coat. “But,” she looked back to me, “thanks.”

Shut Down.

An awkward silence existed between the two of us for a little while. You could cut it with a butter knife.

“So…” I attempted to break the awkwardness, “What was that about an institute?”

“Oh,” she looked noticeably brighter at the opportunity to discuss her studies. “Well, Dusty is my mentor at the Alexmanedria Archeological Institute over at the Grand Library in the city. I’ve been studying there for about two years now and I’m really liking it! There’s a grand seer in the city that told me it’s my destiny to unearth the rumored temple of the sun king. He says it has to do with my cutie mark,” she finished matter-of-factly. I looked at her flatly. I would know what destiny is all about, and it usually doesn’t involve weird prophecies foretold by seer’s probably looking to con you out of your hard earned bits.

Still, I thought, if this seer is the real deal he might be able to tell me something about that weird dream.

“I just realized!” Sun Spark suddenly spoke in an outburst, “We never asked you for your name! Granted, we were all extremely tired, but that still doesn’t excuse our rudeness.”

Huh, go figure, spend a night with a mare, and she asks for your name the next morning. Reminded me of my Saturday nights; might as well formally introduce myself to her at least.

“My names Destiny, actually; Destiny Fate to be exact. Ironic, isn’t it?” I smirked at the unbridled coincidence of the situation of talking about a seer predicting ponies’ destiny when it was basically my name.

Now, I didn’t get my cutie mark predicting the fortune of others. To tell the truth, I got my cutie mark by making a huge gamble in a poker game one night after I got off duty. One of the fellow players just told me to ‘Trust in the fate of the deck,’ when in truth she was just trying to get her friend all of my bits. Well, it kind of sucked for both of them when I drew a royal flush. Guess that trusting in fate works, for me at least. Most of the time. When it feels like it.

Sun Spark’s only response was a small chuckle at my name, “You don’t say, do you? Well then it’s very nice to meet you, Destiny.” Sun Spark extended a hoof at me, which I pounded right back in a bro-hoof manner.

The tent next to ours rustled abruptly, causing me to turn my head to the source that disturbed our conversation. Dusty trotted out of his tent, a groggy look on his face as if he had a massive hang over.

“Morning,” was all he muttered as he attempted to shake his face to wake him up. To be honest it looked more like he was slowly saying no than vigorously waking himself up.

“Sleep well?” Sun Spark asked in her overly cheery tone.

“What I wouldn’t give for my bed back at the institute,” was Dusty’s only response. “So comfy…” he murmured.

“He’s always a little out of it in the morning,” Sun Spark turned and commented to me. “Hey Dusty!” She called over to the earth pony “What’s our next course of action anyway?”

Dusty seemed to lighten up at the prospect of finally being able to move on again.

We had been trotting for a few hours now, the hot desert giving way to rolling savanna planes and promises of the Nile River in the distance as shown by large palm trees on the horizon.

“Not long now and we’ll be in the town of Gazelle, we can pick up more supplies and spend the night there. Then, we travel upriver to get back home,” Dusty said.

Home. That concept was foreign to me now. The more I thought about it the more I missed my cloud bed, spending days training with friends. I was a little bit of an outcast, but I still had plenty to miss of my once home.

I decided to distract myself by surveying my surroundings. The rather lush yet still dry savanna stretched in all directions, tall green and brown grass covered many areas, and occasionally the miniature grass canopy was broken by a lone tree. I sighed heavily; the observing of my new setting doing nothing to alleviate myself of my homesickness.

“Something on your mind?” Sun Spark turned and asked me, a genuinely concerned look on her face. I briefly wondered why somepony I just met should give the smallest iota of how I feel. I was just a tag along anyway. “Hello?” She asked again, snapping me out of my curiosity with her concern.

“Oh, umm, nothing’s on my mind. I mean, there’s stuff on my mind. I mean, I’m fine; yeah.” Oh yeah, I’m so convincing.

“Alright,” was her reply in a disbelieving tone, “If you’re sure.”

“I’m sorry,” I sighed again, “Just a lot on my mind is all.”

A sudden rustling in the tall grass nearby drew our attention as the three of us turned abruptly towards it. Before we knew it, we were surrounded by a group of ponies and gryphons. Bandits by the look of it.

“That’s her! That’s the pegasus from the bar! She’s the reason we lost the time piece!” A voice rang out from the group that surrounded us. I recognized it immediately as one of the two mares that attacked Notch at Cloud Nine. Also, what the hell was ‘the time piece’?

“This isn’t good,” I muttered as I took a defensive stance. A quick look around told us that there were five of them. Five of them, and three of us; and as far as I knew I was the only one of use with any combat experience. Oh, did I forget to mention we were all unarmed?

One of the gryphon bandits unmistakably reach down in a holster for what I knew must be a gun; looks like he was priority number one. A quick tumble forward helped close the gap between the armed assailant and myself. Archangels underwent extensive combat training, so I was well versed in even non ideal situations. Still, I’d never have taken a life before, but I’m fairly certain that they wouldn’t hesitate to take ours. It was now or never.

When unarmed and outnumbered, it’s important to take the initiative in the fight. Tumbling in to the gryphon, a swift hoof strike rendered his trigger talon unusable and a quick follow up strike to the head rendered him unconscious. One down, four to go.

The unicorn from the bar lunged at me with a magically controlled knife. Despite my attempts to roll to the side and avoid getting hit, she managed to land a shallow but long cut along my shoulder. Damn, I thought, that hurt a lot. When she went in again to go for another cut I jumped back onto my hind legs to avoid getting hit, then jumped from my current position to land a hoof to her horn and neck, dragging her to the ground.

While I was occupied with the knife wielding unicorn, the other three bandits moved in on Sun Spark and Dusty. They were completely surrounded by the three bandits, forcing themselves to be back to back to one another to make sure that they couldn’t be flanked. For ponies with no combat training, they at least knew how to not get stabbed in the back. One of the earth ponies broke the circle surrounding them and lunged forward. Dusty sidestepped and assisted in tossing the attacker to the ground.

“There’s our opening, Sun. Let’s go!” Dusty grabbed ahold of Sun Spark and ran towards the opening left by the impatient assaulter.

Meanwhile, I was continuing to dodge blows from the unicorn that seemed to have at least the basics of fighting under her belt. I was still bleeding profusely from the open wound on my shoulder, and it was starting to take its toll. If this fight went on for a few more minutes the pain might be too difficult for me to bear.

The unicorn picked up the knife again in her magical aura, going once again straight in and attempting to slash my throat open. Deciding now was a good of a time as any to take control of the fight, I seized the knife in my mouth, snapping it out of the magical grasp of the unicorn.

“Oh buff ‘bis,” I said through a mouthful of steel as I went in close to get in a lethal blow. The unicorn attempted to launch some magical bolt at me, but it sailed over my head as I went in close and landed a swift slash to the neck of my foe. She fell down, bleeding out from the gash in her neck. I knew she was down for the count. A quick glance also showed that the gryphon from earlier remained unconscious, and the one of the other three ‘bandits’ was knocked down on the ground from a blow landed by Dusty.

The two other attackers moved on me after they saw I had killed their comrade. One was an unarmed pegasus, but had light armor that covered most of his body’s vulnerable points. The other was another gryphon, sporting light barding, a gryphon talon claw, and a single left wing blade.

I frowned at my current predicament, the odds of me outmaneuvering and beating two fliers armed to the teeth was looking more and more impossible. I had to try at least, they were after me, and it was my fault I got the others into this.

Taking a defensive stance once again, I readied myself for them to make a move, hoping to make a counter at the same time. The gryphon tensed his hind talons, a sure sign of a creature wanting to hop into the air. I realized my opening would be the split second he was ascending. I’d have to take out the pegasus who at the moment had no intention of flying, all of his weight put forth on his forehooves as if he was readying himself for me to launch forward and strike.

The gryphon took to the skies, and with it I took my opportunity. Dashing forward with speed I didn’t know I had, I attempted to close the gap, my vision beginning to blur from the open knife wound. The pegasus rotated his body as he readied to land a solid buck to my skull. I tumbled to the side, narrowing avoiding a skull fracture and went down in with the knife to deliver a devastating blow to the pegasus’ side, puncturing a lung. The dark blue coated enemy fell to the side, his coat now stained with his own blood.

“I’ll end you!” The gryphon from the skies yelled and dived at me, his left wing extended, the bone bearing a set of interlocking metal blades meant to move with the wing but extend into a sharp and deadly razor.

“Try me!” I had no idea why I was being cocky at the moment. Maybe it was the adrenaline, or my subconscious realizing I had just incapacitated or killed four other enemies single handedly.

I took to the skies; it was my only way to avoid getting cut down by the wing blade. Thankfully, this gryphon lacked a firearm as well, or I’d really be in trouble. Doing a barrel roll to my right, the gryphon swooped past me and continued on his run before slowing to a hover and readying another go at me. I noticed that he was only concerned with what was in front of him, completely tunnel visioning him from his surroundings, or he would have grabbed the pistol from his fallen gryphon friend.

Using that to my advantage would be simple; I waited until he went in again for another run to cut me down. I flew overhead and did a flip, causing me to land behind him. I picked up speed, eager and tireless to catch up to the flying enemy. I came up behind and landed my hooves on his wing, twisting them until an audible Snap was heard.

The gryphon fell and crashed into the ground, his body receiving long but shallow gashes as he fell on his left wing, his right snapped from my hooves. I slowed down to a hover and landed on the ground in a clearing free of tall grass nearby, finally able to take a break and catch my breath.

Once the dust settled and I could breathe steady, I looked to my shoulder. The majority of the wound had already crusted up with a scab, but it was still painful and tender to move it. I just sat there for a few minutes, taking my surroundings in and attempting to recover my energy. When I noticed something; Dusty and Sun Spark were gone.

I was alone.

New Perk: Blood on your Hooves: You’ve taken your first life. You gain a base 5% increased damage plus 0.1% increased damage per kill permanatley.