Alice sat stunned at what she had just heard from her elder Gift Giver. Aurora had led her to a secret place in the Gift Giver’s shared home, a cavernous area connected directly to the old reindeer’s room, and had just revealed a secret to Alice that would have terrified the younger deer, had something not been inhibiting her emotional responses.

For the past few weeks, Alice, had used her incredible power of peering into the future of all Equestria, and seen horrible depictions of a future to come. She then experienced it first hand, as she sent her consciousness into the future through the use of special potion granted to her by Bori, so she could witness what appeared to be a poor fate for all Equestria, one where minotaur had become the tyrants and were enslaving the other species to their wills.

She had spoken with her future self, who had come to accept her place as a slave to her bovine master, who added their ascension as an evil overlord by using future vision to guide them toward a path of complete domination. In each encounter, the future version of herself had the upper hand, knowing when her present self would look at her own future, and setting up scenarios where Alice would always end up against her favor.

The only advantage Alice had been given by putting herself through each of these terrible visits to the future had been a single clue of the cause to all this. A name, the one of the group that her future self said had allowed this fate to happen, ‘The Moirai’. They were the ones future Alice had said could change the Path of Fate, and used that power to bring about this minotaur dominated future.

Now Aurora, a doe she had respected like a grandmother, had just revealed that the Moirai were the Gift Givers themselves, and called Alice ‘The Promised Gift’. She had no idea what that meant, except that the elder deer implied it was a means to repay a debt deerkind owed the minotaur. It was hard for the yellow doe to understand how Aurora could be part of this. She always had the demeanor of a kindly old doe, and Alice would have never pegged her of being the willing servant to a bunch of tyrants.

“I’m sure you have a lot of questions.” Aurora said, as she walked around the chamber, looking upon the drawings and artifacts of a time long past. Only the old doe knew how long they had rested in the dark isolation of this secreted location. “Questions brought on by looking into your own fate. You’ve been trying to hide it, but the fact that you know the ancient name of our coven, a name that has been lost to all of our kind but myself, has given you away. You couldn’t have asked me about that name without knowing it, and you couldn’t know it without asking me.”

Alice couldn’t decipher what Aurora meant, as the old doe’s words were akin to riddles, but understood that Aurora had figured out she had been confirming with her future self, despite having been warned not to do that by the elderly deer. “I… know that I shouldn’t have…”

“No need to apologize,” Aurora said, though her eyes bore the weight of heavy contemplation over the young doe, “If you are the Promised Gift, then the series of events you have gone through has been foretold long before it happened. All looking into your own future did was make the path of your fate into a living paradox of predetermination. Things your future self does is based on what you know now, since she has already gone through this already.”

Alice had heard that she was a living embodiment of a paradox before, from her future self. It appeared that this was the moment that version of her heard that description of herself, and thus that Alice had experienced a strange moment of deja vu where a loop in time was completed without her being aware it was even a thing till it happened. It made her feel like the grip of that terrible future had a stronger hold on her than she assumed, and perhaps that was the intention from the corrupted version of herself.

The sensation of her present meeting up with the future she was trying to avoid made Alice go woozy, and without thinking she said the first thing that came to mind as a response to Aurora’s words. “Is that according to the Path of Fate, or the Maze of Destiny?” She was now speaking of the beliefs the future minotaur king’s shared with her about how history worked, not even sure if Aurora knew what it was, but assuming that she might have had some knowledge on it, seeing how much she had revealed to know already.

“Maze of Destiny?” Aurora questioned, displaying her ignorance on the topic. The old deer then dismissed it as confusion brought on by the drugs that she used on the young doe earlier, muddling her thoughts. “You should know by now that as the seer of the future among our coven, your powers let you see the immutable fates of all creatures. There is no way to avoid a fate once seen, as that fate is what will be, and what will always be. Try as you might, history will guide you to the place that you saw yourself in.”

Alice did know this, as it was what had been taught to her since gaining her powers and joining the Gift Givers, but she was not happy with this remedial lesson. “But I was told the Moirai had the power to change fate.”

“By your future self?” Aurora asked, certain that this was the only source who could have told her this.

“Yes,” Alice replied, hoping that being truthful would have Aurora divulge how this was possible.

Aurora thought to herself for a moment, and then said, “She isn’t completely wrong. The course of history can be changed, but it’s a tricky method.”

“How?” Alice asked, her goal to avoid a future of enslavement, for not just herself but all the other creatures the minotaur had conquered, was still her soul focus in her drug influenced state, “I have to stop those minotaur.”

Aurora sighed, stuck between a promise she made a long time ago, and the fears of the young doe she had grown to love as her own family. “Alice, if your future self knows that fate can be changed, you’re right to assume she learned it from me.” As Aurora spoke, she started to gather up some dried herbs that had been stored in the cave chamber, putting them into a large bowl seated atop a podium. “It’s a secret I’ve safely guarded for a long time, and I wouldn’t tell you under any circumstances, save for one. That would be while teaching you about your true purpose as the Promised Gift.”

“But Aurora, I can’t see how I become a willing minotaur slave.” Alice once more blurted out the thoughts passing through her mind, and revealed a detail that caught Aurora off guard, if only for a moment.

“I suppose from your current perspective, it would look like slavery.” the elderly deer said, “From the way you’ve described the minotaur and the city they have in your visions, it certainly sounds like it. But if you’re a willing participant in the future though, then something must have happened to change the way you look at things from now to then. The Path of Fate doesn’t force those who travel along it to do something they wouldn’t. It is the results of one’s own actions, cause and effect.”

Alice didn’t like how calm Aurora was being about this, given how grave the situation was. In her current state though, she could do little to show how upset she was, with her emotions pacified. She was forced to sit and listen as her mental image of her mentor changed before her eyes.

“I understand none of this makes sense right now,” Aurora said, grabbing a pestle that sat nearby her bowl of herbs, using it to grind the dried plants into a fine powder, “But from what I know about minotaur and the prophecy of the Promised Gift, this all adds up to me.”

“Aurora, please…” Alice said, begging through her subdued state, “I don’t know what any of this even means. I… We both can’t exist just to help some barbaric bulls force others to serve them.”

“Deerie,” Aurora replied in a gentle tone, “This isn’t about servitude. This is about correcting an injustice that happened long ago, before you were born. Something that upset history itself, binding together the fates of the four deer tribes and the minotaur in ways that neither could ever comprehend.”

“Do you mean Krampus?” Alice asked, remembering the myth of an evil minotaur who reigned terror on the reindeer village in the past.

“In a way, yes,” Aurora replied with a nod, “But not in the way that you think. The tale of Krampus is one that has been rewritten and obscured to the point that few facts about it stood the test of time, by design of those who spread it in the first place. Not a single creature alive knows what actually happened back then, save for one.”

It wasn’t hard for Alice to know who Aurora was talking about. As the elderly deer could perfectly see all events of the past, so long as she knew who’s past to look in on, it was clear she was speaking about herself. The yellow doe wonder’s what Aurora knew about this time in deer history, and how it applied to Alice’s current situation, and her future.

Placing her grinding tool aside, Aurora dipped her hand into the bowl, scoping up much of the herb dust she had been preparing. The ground up plants were now like grains of sand, made up of a rainbow of particles. Having taken what she needed, Aurora placed the bowl down as well, and approached Alice.

“Fear not, deerie. With this, all will be revealed.”

Before Alice could reply, Aurora blew the dust right into the younger doe’s face, forming a cloud of dust around her head. The yellow deer, both caught unaware and unable to see this as a threat, inhaled the substance with her next breath, and by doing so partook of yet another drug from the elderly doe. As the dust filled her lungs, she found that it didn’t make her cough or sputter, but instead caused her vision to become more and more obscured by the remainder of the dust cloud floating around her. In a short time, the mere handful of dust turned into a deep fog, and Alice found herself becoming lost within the haze.

The cloud’s density and effects on Alice had her mind spinning, losing track of where she was or what she was doing. She had to piece together the last things she remembered, which was that she was talking to Aurora, who had seemed to vanish completely. The underground cavern also appeared to be gone, like she was no longer in it, despite not having moved or been moved. She hadn’t passed out, despite her disorientation, so she had to assume that she hadn’t moved from her stone seat.

Yet, everything felt different, like she was in a new location altogether, though she couldn’t tell with all the fog surrounding her. Wanting to know what had happened, and where the other doe in the chamber went, she got up from the seat, only to immediately notice she had regained control of her body and that her thoughts and emotions were no longer dimmed.

“Aurora?” she called out, getting a muffled echo of her voice back. She saw this as a sign that she was still in the cave, and thus started searching for Aurora, stepping forward to try and escape the cloud around her.

She took a few steps, but no matter where she went the miasma of dust was ever present. Alice was starting to believe that it had somehow filled the chamber completely, but she wasn’t encountering the borders of the room. The cavern wasn’t that big, and she expected to at least find a wall after moving around a little, but she didn’t encounter a single one. As she kept moving through, something did appear from within the cloud. Not Aurora, or any part of the cave structure, but an entire building.

Not just one, but several, formed in the layout of a small city. This confused Alice, as she had no idea how she had made it outside, or where she was. The closest city to the Gift Giver’s cabin was miles away, and she didn’t want to believe she had been relocated that far of a distance. The architecture of the buildings, while not recognized by the doe, looked vaguely familiar. It bore the stylistic features of reindeer craftsmanship, of her tribe of deer. As she made her way in deeper, this assumption was proven true, as she started to see the creatures who inhabited this village, who were deer like herself. It felt so surreal, especially with the cloud still surrounding her, but in seeing this Alice had to accept that she had somehow left the cave.

With no idea where she was, Alice had only one recourse, and that was asking for help and directions. “Excuse me,” she said, approaching the closest deer to her, a stag chopping firewood next to what she assumed was his home. “Sorry to bother you, but I think I got lost and wandered into this town. Could you tell me where I am, and point me to a place where I could get directions?”

The stag didn’t answer, and instead just kept to his task. Alice didn’t think that he could not hear her, or was unaware that she was speaking to him, so that led her to believe she was being ignored. Maybe the stag was working, and didn’t have time to be bothered, or just didn’t want to talk to someone who was not a native of the town. Whatever the reason, Alice decided to leave him, and go to another deer.

Oddly enough, the next one was not a typical reindeer like her, but a doe with a fleece of fluff that encircled their necks. Alice was aware of this tribe, who typically lived in a city of their own called ‘Reine’. It was odd seeing two types of deer in the same city, though for reindeer and ‘Reinedeer’, it was not completely unheard of for one to visit the other tribe’s cities on business. Even if the doe was not a local, that she was here must have meant she would have known how to get to other cities.

“Excuse me! Ms.!” Alice yelled to the doe, trying to get her attention, but yet again being ignored. This time she could attribute being ignored to some sort of tribal prejudice, as the separate deer tribes tended to be distant from one another, only interacting if absolutely needed, but Alice couldn’t allow herself to be dismissed so easily by each deer she encountered. She decided to take matters into her own hands, and grab for the doe to make her pay attention.

This wasn’t going to net her any points with the Reine doe, but she would try to do her best to smooth things over once she got the doe talking to her. She shot her hand to the doe’s upper arm, and squeezed, only to find that her hand slipped right through what she thought was a solid body. The only thing her actions accomplished was break apart the doe’s arm momentarily, as that part of her body became like sand particles flowing in the air, only to rejoin the rest of the doe a few seconds later.

As the doe continued to walk away, none the wiser to what had happened, while Alice was left standing in stunned silence. “W-What was that?!” She yelled, now hoping that no one would take notice of her, since she had no clue if that would be a good thing anymore.

“Calm yourself, child,” came the soft and soothing voice of Aurora, echoing from no discernible direction, “What you are seeing is a mere projection of a time when there was only one deer city, known as North Pole, where the four tribes lived in harmony.”

“Aurora?!” Alice said, not as happy to hear her mentor now that she had a full grasp on her feelings again, with the fact that she still wasn’t sure what was going on not helping, “What is this?”

“A vision,” Aurora answered, “Of times long past. I’m using my powers to see into the past, and displaying what I see by manipulating the herb particles in the air. The herbs themselves help in the demonstration, by giving you hallucinations that will make everything seem more real. It’s something we Moirai borrowed from the Thicket deer.”

From what little she knew about Thicket and the deer that lived there, Alice was aware that they were more attuned to plantlike and plant based alchemy than other deer. What Aurora had used on must have been a drug they had devised, that she had picked up on by peering into their past. It felt inexcusable that Aurora had stooped to drugging her, but if what she was seeing was an accurate depiction of the past, then Alice couldn’t deny that this unique experience was interesting to her.

While she had access to every moment of the future experienced by a creature, up until said creature’s own demise, the past and present were completely blocked off to her at the moment the ‘future’ became her ‘present’. Even things that she had viewed before would no longer be accessible the moment Alice had caught up to that point, meaning that the amount of things she could view were always becoming smaller. Opposed to that, the things Aurora could see were constantly growing, as events once foretold became events that came to pass. While Aurora often described things in the past to her and Bori, it never crossed the young doe’s mind that Aurora could just show her things that had happened in a manner like this, and it did excite her a little to see things from the elder deer’s perspective for once. She only hoped that anything Aurora said was truthful, as while Alice was wary of her now that she revealed herself to be aligned with the minotaur, the yellow deer didn’t think she had the will to truly distrust her.

“Allow me to start from the beginning.” Aurora said, her voice resonating through the world of dust she had created for Alice, “As the yaks, kirin, dragons, ponies, and all other manner of creatures you can think of were all establishing their own cultures, we were likewise trying to figure out what path our kind would take. Starting off as a single tribe, our people slowly, but steadily, discovered what talents we possessed.”

As the old deer spoke, the scene played out before Alice’s eyes, the village of the ancient deer civilization coming into full view, with many deer living together in a single environment. As Aurora had said, representatives of the four tribes lived in this single village, with Alice taking note of reindeer, “Reine” deer, the whitetails of Thicket, and even the ancestors of the Antlertean tribe, who still bore the odd tattoos upon their bodies that none of the other tribes shared.

The deer comprised of dust particles went about a typical day of doing tasks and enjoying their lives, with some working, some running errands, some tending to shops, and even a few young fawns running about and playing games. Alice was amazed at what she was seeing, and wondered how much of it was her mind filling in the blanks of what Aurora was creating, as it all looks so vivid and complex a scene for a creature to recreate.

“While our kind lived in isolation from most other settlements, we ended up developing quite similarly to the other tribes that would one day share Equestria and its borders with up. Those who would one day inhabit the city of Reine discovered how to control ice and snow with their magic, allowing them mastery over the weather. Likewise, the whitetails discovered how to grow crops in our perpetually cold lands, which allowed the pair to provide food for the village together.”

As Alice walked around the village, she found herself coming upon a bit of farm land, which allowed her to see the synergy of these two deer types, as a group of Reine deer manipulated the snow and frost that covered the ground, while rows of Thicket deer traveled down the cleared dirt to pour their potions upon it, which would cause fresh vegetation to grow on the spot. It was very similar to the relationship between earth ponies and pegasi in Equestria.

“The Antlerteans likewise developed their own gifts, discovering a way to inscribe themselves with glyphs, which allowed them to channel their magic into items. While this had little practical use at the time, they used their skills to create small baubles that could be powered in this manner.”

Alice looked around once more, hoping to find an example of this ability. While she had encountered the Antlertean’s magic before, when the reindeer was at the mercy of the gray Antlertean doe, Xenia, she was too far out of it to notice Xenia’s use of it. A small search led her to a toy shop ran by one of the Antlertean deer, where a small array of figurines moved about in the storefront window. This kind of automation was unheard of in Equestria and the Frozen North, but Alice swore that she had seen such items in a stationary state in her own village, kept around as antiques.

“Lastly was our tribe, who had discovered the means to walk on the currents of the air, as if they were flying. At the time, this ability was merely used as a form of entertainment, as those who participated in ‘Reindeer games’ use this power to display their athletic prowess.”

Alice didn’t need a demonstration of this, as she was acquainted with the ability of flight, and with reindeer games, both persisting within her tribe of deer to this day. Still, she couldn’t help but notice a few deer flying overhead as they went from one location to another. In a time where the deer did not interact with other creatures, this power must have been niche. In the time Alice lived in though, the power had a more useful function, as reindeer could fly to cover large distances quickly, much like any avian race could. The Gift Givers themselves frequently used this when making deliveries, so in comparison to the abilities of the other deer, it seemed fairly mundane to Alice. However, it was really interesting to see each of these different types of deer working hand in hand with one another, working to the betterment of their consolidated community.

“While this was the one trait those of our ancestors would commonly acquire, we were not only blessed with our power of flight. As time went on, a small few of us gained more unique and powerful abilities. Ones that happened on a whim, as if the Path of Fate itself wanted us to have them. Those who gained these similar, yet vastly different powers were known as-”

“The Moirai.” Alice said, knowing already what Aurora would say.

Not by use of her future sight, which appeared to be inhibited by the drug at that moment, but by taking note of the direction of this story being told to her. In that matter, the herb cloud didn’t seem to impair her ability to think or figure things out. For all she knew, it was devised to help those it was applied to think better, to take in every bit of information the storyteller was saying, which might have been why the drugs Aurora previously gave her wore off the moment she took her first breath of it.

“Yes deerie, the Moirai,” Aurora said, shifting the scene to a cavernous chamber similar to the one they were already in, where three does in robes resided. “Three does who had tapped into the infinite knowledge of history, and for a time served as seers to the deer.”

“For a time?” Alice questioned, looking at the three robed figures before her, who must have been the first deer to have the powers the Gift Givers inherited generations later.

“Well originally many deer were very excited at this power they had acquired. The ability to know the past, present, and future of all creatures, at the fingertips of their kind. But… as time went on deer started to worry about this power being used against them. They started to fear the Moirai knowing too much, perhaps not helped when one would casually let slip some secret or thing that would happen a week later in public.”

Alice could see that happening, as the trio of Gift Givers would often talk about things they’d see in their visions with one another, and with guests. The desire to share the kind of information to others was far too tempting.

“To ease the minds of our kind, the Moirai relocated themselves outside of the village, much like we do now, and offered their services to any who sought them out, in exchange for a steady supply of food. This arrangement was acceptable by the villagers of North Pole, and once more their minds were put to ease. It did have one amusing side effect though, as deer were still worried that the trio of seers knew everything they did and would do, and could share that with the other villagers if they saw fit. Because of this, anything even close to a crime was practically eliminated, with the worst offenses being pranks played by a child who were yet to learn about the Moirai, until the legend was shared to them to scare them straight.”

Aurora shifted the scene again, but this time it was not the location that changed, but those within it, as the figures in the Moirai changed again and again, denoting the passage of time and the changing of its members. The elderly deer saw no need to explain this part to Alice, as anything she could say were things the yellow deer already knew. Gift Givers were not immortal, though like other creatures of Equestria some could be long lived, and each time one died, another doe would gain their power by a random chance of fate. As such, there were only ever three Gift Givers, or in this case ‘Moirai’, at any given time.

“This is how things were for some time, with every deer contributing to the whole of deer civilization in one way or another, no matter how big or small. Our kind flourished, without the need of any allies, in our secluded section of the Frozen North, with the occasional bit of advice from the Moirai when it was asked of them by the village leaders.”

Alice found herself returned to North Pole, where once more she could enjoy the sight of the ancient village, which had grown over the passage of time, with the population of the deer becoming more dense as well. As she walked the streets of this illusion once more, she wondered what could have happened to make the four deer tribes part ways when things looked so peaceful and happy. Odds were that it had no bearing on what Aurora was trying to show her, since she was trying to explain the details of the ‘Promised Gift’, but having now seen the old ways of the united deer tribes, it was a question that lodged itself in her mind.

The yellow doe tried to ask, but before she could utter a syllable, Aurora continued her story, her tone tuning ominous. “However, when a culture gets too big, others begin to take notice. Others who covet what they do not possess, and wish to take it for their own. For centuries we had lived in peace, but that unfortunately left us unprepared for a fateful night.”

Alice didn’t notice at first, but a dark cloud was forming over the town. Not a storm cloud, but one of ash and smoke. She wasn’t made aware of this until she saw deer running past her in droves from one direction, and turned her head to see a portion of the town on fire. The young doe didn’t anticipate such devastation, to see the fast spreading flames destroying this peaceful settlement of deer. Watching the citizens of North Pole flee in terror, instead of trying to put a stop to the destruction, Alice figured out what point of history she had arrived at.

“It was the night we met the first enemy of deer kind. A being guided by greed and cruelty, who’s name would become feared by all deer throughout history. A creature known as ‘Krampus’.”

Author's Note

Merry Christmas and a happy Hearth's Warming everyone. I'll be continuing this story again this year, and further writing up Alice's attempts to change fate and save herself and others from the threat of Minotaur who wish to turn other creatures into breeding slaves. I'll be working on this as much as I can for December and January, but I can't promise any specific update schedule. Just stay tuned, and they will come.

The first chapter, and the next, might be a bit heavy on the exposition, but I'm hoping you all enjoy it, even if the amount of lewd bits are at a minimum.