Corruption of Fate

The next day Alice woke up finding she was late to her Gift Giver duties by over an hour. Normally Aurora would have been tapping on her door the moment the clock’s needle touched work hours, but after the events of the prior night, the old doe must have seen fit to give her some extra time to rest.

When the youngest of the Gift Givers finally got out of bed, she rushed to get her clothes on and join the others who would have surely been working on wrapping presents, their year round task to prepare for the many winter holidays celebrated by the creatures of Equestria and the Far North. Impending doom and revelations of a mysterious past or no, this task of spreading cheer and good will was considered the Gift Givers most important function, due to the amount of bad things that happened when discourse was spread throughout the lands.

So she left her room in her red dress and cloak, descending the steps leading down to their workshop. As expected, Aurora and Bori were already gift wrapping presents, most of which being toys for the good fawns, foals, calves, and whatever variety of youngling one could think of, within the Frozen North and Equestria.

“Morning girls,” Alice said, going right to her station, which Bori had been managing in Alice’s absence, just as she and Alice had Aurora’s when the elder deer was sick, “Sorry I’m late. I overslept.”

“Oh, it’s fine deerie,” Aurora said, since she knew the reason Alice had to rest for longer than usual.

“Yeah,” Bori agreed, “Aurora told me that you two couldn’t sleep last night, and you spent time discussing this whole minotaur matter.”

That wasn’t completely untrue, but since Aurora asked Alice to keep the details of the ‘Promised Gift’ a secret from Bori, it was unlikely that the middle aged doe was explained in detail about what exactly her fellow Gift Givers had talked about.

“I know this whole thing has gotten you worked up,” Bori followed up, “But you need to try to get some proper sleep. You won’t be able to do anything if you’re sick.”

“You’re right,” Alice replied, acknowledging Bori’s concern for her wellbeing, acting as the mother figure of their close knit trio, “But that shouldn’t be a problem from this point forward.”

“Oh?” Bori responded in curiosity, “Did you figure something out?”

“Just that I can fix all this,” Alice answered, “And that I’ve got the time to do so.”

“Oh?” Bori said, noticing the confidence in Alice’s voice, “Well I’m glad that you got a more positive outlook on the situation. Has the Path of Fate shown you something?”

Bori, still believing that the Path of Fate was, for the most part, immutable, could only assume that the minotaur menace Alice had foreseen was not as much of a threat as first believed. In her mind, Alice must have spent some time last night seeking answers with her future vision, and stumbled upon the point of the minotaur’s defeat. It was the most likely answer she could come up with that would have put the younger doe’s mind at ease in such a short amount of time.

“Sorta,” Alice said, as she got to work tying ribbon bows to the small hill of presents the other two deer had packaged and wrapped, “I did a little check up on our minotaur king last night, and it seems like he hasn’t gained any kind of power yet. I was thinking I could figure out when he starts, and try to reason with him before we get to that point.”

Bori paused for a moment, as she was not already aware that Alice intended to directly defy the Path of Fate. Aurora gave a light grimace as well, since she still would prefer the pact with the minotaur be fulfilled, but she subdued her feelings on the matter due to Bori’s presence, and her acceptance that the matter was ultimately up to Alice.

“Well, I guess if changing destiny is the only way you see to work around it, then it will have to be done. That is what the potion I made you was for afterall.” Bori said, going along with Alice’s plan. “Just be careful. I would have to guess that if you’re changing the future, then you’re not going to be able to see the results of your actions until the change is made.”

“That’s correct,” Aurora said, since she know Atropos had given her the same warnings of not straying from the Path of Fate, so she could hand that warning to Alice when she because the Gift Giver of the future, though without the context that Alice now had, “Any deviation from the history’s current course will be impossible to foresee until an alteration has been made, and by that time it will be too late to take it back.”

“I understand,” Alice said, as she had already come to the conclusion that this was how it worked.

If her mere want to change things gave her the ability to see the outcome of that change, then her visions of the minotaur led society would have stopped the moment she wanted to make moves against it. However, had that happened she would have never learned about the Moirai, and the secret of how to change fate, and thus a predestined future must exist until something happens that makes it impossible. That was how Alice figured it worked, and if that was incorrect, she didn’t really need to understand every exact detail about a force beyond her comprehension to utilize it to her advantage.

“I’ll accept all the responsibility and risks of what happens when I change things,” Alice said, continuing her task, “But from what I’ve seen, I can’t see how anything could be any worse than what would happen if these minotaur aren’t stopped.”

All she was going to do was guide the minotaur to a better way of life, and if that was the only change, then it was hard to see how it could cause some greater disaster or tyrant to take their place. What was the worst that could come from this? The removal of magic from Equestria? Some form of centuries long racial divide? The rise of a dark creature whose evil intentions dwarfed that of the minotaur’s desire to enslave others for the sole purpose of prolonging their species existence.

“Well so long as you understand the gravity of the responsibility you are taking on,” Aurora said, while packing the presents without pause, “But for now, could you check if we’re going to have any visitors today?”

“Oh, right. Of course,” Alice said, closing her eyes for a moment to skim through the day’s events.

It was one of her duties to see if any unexpected guests would arrive on any given day, an exception to her previously given instructions not to look into her own future. Doing this allowed the trio to make preparations for the personalized order that would come. It helped to make the day to day functions of the Gift Givers run more smoothly, since it would give Alice time to look further into that person’s future, to see what gift would be perfect for their needs.

The yellow doe did a quick pass, checking at thirty minute intervals of her day for only a few seconds. As she expected, she was still at the work table doing her job for most of the day, though unexpectedly Bori wasn’t there working next to her. That could be explained by a number of things, so the yellow doe ignored it and continued with her check, proceeding past the trio’s lunch break, where Bori returned, and further until the late evening when she was strangely in her room at a time when work would be finished. What she saw here was a bit odd, as normally the three deer spend time together some time with each other once work was finished, but also because Alice saw herself wearing a look of panic on her face.

Alice kept her cool while witnessing this, telling the others, “It looks like no one’s gonna come today,” while sending her future sight thirty minutes backwards to try and figure out what happened.

Back at the work table, this version of herself was busily tying bows on the final presents of the day, while giving a smile that didn’t look that genuine, and having her head mostly turned away from the others. On a closer examination of her the way her eyes would be hours from now, Alice could tell that the doe she would be was hiding something. They were wide, darting around at a rapid pace that must have matched the thoughts she was thinking. Alice went back thirty more minutes, and saw a similar situation, and did so a few more times to find herself still stricken with an undefined fear that could only be seen in her eyes.

Alice had to find the moment this started, the moment she started making this expression, and after scrolling back a few more times, she found herself sitting in the dining area with Aurora, while Bori brought out that day’s lunch.

Oh dang it, she thought to herself, seeing that it was going to be cooked spinach, beets, and broccoli, a ‘healthy’ meal that she was preparing due to Aurora having been sick and Alice oversleeping.

Alice could only appreciate that it was coming with a slice of freshly baked gingerbread, but more importantly she spotted that her eyes didn’t look as frantic sitting at the table as any time after. She went back just a little further to make sure this was still the case prior, and all she saw was a slightly troubled look that she wore more openly as she put the finishing touches on the presents. That proved her theory, that in the time between dinner and going back to work, something would happen that would frighten her, as the other expression had to be her dwelling on this glimpse into the future.

“Is everything okay?” Bori asked, as Alice had kept her eyes closed for much longer than she usually did during her checks for guests.

“Oh, yeah,” Alice said, opening her eyes and returning to work, but knowing Bori would want an explanation, “I just saw dinner, and wasn’t too excited about it.”

Bori laughed, knowing exactly what it was that displeased the young doe. “I see, but you and Aurora both need something to build up your energy and fill up on vitamins and nutrients. But how about this, if you want to do some wrapping to make up for all the bow tying I did for you earlier, I’ll go and bake up a gingerbread loaf to give you something sweet to eat on top of it.”

Having seen the loaf in question, as well as feeling bad for making Bori do some extra work earlier, Alice agreed, and took up Bori’s station so she could work on what would be the only tasty part of lunch to the yellow deer.

For the remainder of the time up until lunch break, Alice found that her thoughts were distracted by the visions she had seen. As she wrapped and tied, she kept feeling like taking another peek to see what set her off, but doing that would slow down her pace, and leave more work for Bori to do once she returned after lunch. Alice had to rationalize that she would figure out what happened while the trio ate, and until then she’d just have to wait, but that didn’t exactly make her feel better about it. Only when the clock on their wall struck noon did she feel a bit of relief, quickly finishing off a few more presents before running to take her seat at the table.

“Well aren’t you hungry today?” Bori said, in the process of placing the plates and silverware in front of each doe’s chair.

“You know how much I love your gingerbread,” Alice replied, still doing her best to not reveal the stress she was feeling from the anticipation of whatever was to come. Her visions showed that neither of the other two does shared the distress she would be experiencing within the next thirty minutes, so whatever it was, it was probably best if they didn’t know.

Both Alice and Aurora took their seats, and while Bori brought out everyone’s food, the young doe still couldn’t understand what it was that was supposed to freak her out for the rest of the day. As the moment came closer and closer to the point she had seen, and nothing was actually happening around her, Alice could only come to one conclusion. If nothing was going on at the cabin itself, her future self must have used her powers and seen something that worried her.

It has to be something to do with the minotaur, Alice thought to herself, with every other issue in the world seeming secondary to that particular looming threat.

Alice went to shut her eyes again to use her power, and learn the details that her future self had, but before the last seem of light was blocked, the deer stopped. For a short moment, she wondered if this was an opportunity to test if she could change fate with a simple act of defiance. Aurora did say that all it took was the knowledge of what you were trying to defy, and the will to do so. If she didn’t look into the future, would that change the way things would proceed?

A small test wouldn’t harm anything, would it?, Alice asked herself opening her eyes a little as she thought on the matter.

It was such a small deviation, that she couldn’t believe would change the course of fate in any drastic way. That was, unless what Alice’s future self had seen was important to preventing Minopolis from coming to be. That was also a part of changing fate, she thought, the idea that a move she did could be incorrect.

Thinking about it, if she was to look in on the minotaur lord, she would want to peek in on him as close to the present as she could, and with each passing second she was losing more information she could gain on him, as the future became the present. So long as it was yet to come, Alice had access to any knowledge that she would want about the minotaur lord and those who followed him, but what if something was about to happen that was vital information she would need to accomplish her goal. With this in mind, she was starting to think that the notion of ignoring such a detail was what had gotten her worried to begin with, and that by not looking she wasn’t defying fate at all, when truly she didn’t know what it was she was supposed to not do here.

All this went through her mind in the course of a few dozen seconds, the world around her feeling like it was lingering on each passing second, as if time itself was giving her ample opportunity to make up her mind as the destined moment approached. The weight of the decision, even one so seemingly irrelevant, was enough to have Alice second guessing her every action, and mere seconds away from the appointed time, Alice conceded to curiosity, and shut her eyes tightly, focusing on whatever the minotaur lord was doing.

As his image entered into view, Alice was able to see that she had in fact fell right into fate’s design, as a disconcerting sight appeared. While looking just a few seconds into her target’s future, she found the bovine sitting in a large stone seat, the same one he used as a throne years from now. While the yellow deer couldn’t see much more of the room beyond her bubble of vision, the floor was likewise the same kind she recalled from her time spent in her future self’s body, and thus this had to mean that Minopolis, at least castle the minotaur lord resided in, already existed.

Needing no more information than that, the doe opened her eyes with the same look of concern she saw herself wearing. Alice had been told by her future self that the minotaur city had been built over the Antlertean’s lands when they were conquered, and so this told her that the bull men had already started upon their tyrannical ways. The Antlerteans themselves were already enslaved, and it was too late for her to prevent any of that from happening.

Though this was not great news, Alice had to accept that her objectives now had to include freeing the Antlerteans, when she thought she might have a chance to keep them from being enslaved in the first place. It was not the ideal circumstances that she had wished for, but perhaps this was some kind of karmic backlash from what the ancient Antlertean representative did to mess up time, and while the suffering of the Antlerteans was certainly undeserved, this might have been how fate corrected his dubious acts against the bovines.

It’s fine. I’ll just have to alter my plans a bit, Alice thought as she picked up a fork and got to eating, Bori having filled everyone’s plates as while the younger doe was contemplating what she had learned, Once I have an actual plan, that is.

Alice found it difficult to eat as she thought on the matter at hand. She might have had an end goal, and theoretically have a means to achieve it, but she didn’t have the slightest clue of how to go about making that happen. Initially she just wanted to find where the minotaur were now, and do… ‘something’ to keep them from becoming slavers, something along the lines of a heartfelt speech that would show them the error of their ways, as those often fixed the many issues that sprung up throughout history. Now she had to find out where in the entire world Minopolis was, and then figure out some way to end the slavery that had already started before it got worse.

Picking at her food, she looked over to Aurora. No doubt she would know or be able to find out where the minotaur kingdom was, her mild allegiance with the bovine’s crafted destiny made Alice question if she’d give up that information if asked. Aurora might not have been a hurdle Alice had to get over, and was willing to let the younger doe decide the path of her own fate, but that didn’t imply she’d assist any further in doing so than she already had.

Bori, on the other hand, couldn’t help if she wanted to. In order for any Gift Giver to use their powers, they at least needed to know the face of the creature they were seeking to scry on. In matters involving Equestria and the Frozen North, this was rarely a problem, as Bori made it a point to memories as many of the names and faces of those who inhabited those regions as she could, but Antlertis, Minopolis, or whatever it was being called at this current time, was not filled with creatures the pink doe knew.

“Bori, do you know any minotaur that live in Equestria?” Alice asked, before taking a bite of her food, as the dinner table had become far too quiet, and she feared that all the drama she had been making, warranted or not, was the cause.

“Well there is one.” Bori replied, “Iron Will. He’s been living in the area for a short time, and has been trying to start a business there. Something about a self help course, I think, teaching ponies how to take charge and stand up for themselves. Do you think he’s connected to your visions?”

“I wouldn’t say so,” Aurora chimed in between a bite of her carrots. After slowly chewing and swallowing, she added, “That kind of behavior sounds completely different from what Alice has told us about the minotaur she’s seen.”

“Could it be a trick?” Bori questioned, “Trying to lure the ponies into a false sense of security?”

“We can’t assume that every minotaur is part of the ones Alice has seen.” Aurora said, “Minotaur have long since split their tribes, and this ‘Iron Will’ could be from an unrelated group of them.”

Alice took what Aurora was saying as a hint, a bit of neutral information that Iron Will was not the direction she should be looking in if she wanted to change her fate. That was a shame though, because Alice really didn’t have too many leads to go off of.

I guess Bori’s really can’t help me in this, Alice thought to herself as she reluctantly gulped down some more of the green vegetation on her plate. Then a thought hit her, one that might actually do something to aid her, Unless… She was at Minopolis in the future.

To try and reason with the minotaur, Alice needed to know the way to get to where they were. As far as she knew, there wasn’t a single creature on the continent that knew how to get to the island they resided on, but Bori, according to fate’s current plan, would one day be there, and so she had to be taken there somehow.

Sorry, Bori… Alice thought, as she looked away from the other two deer, and once more utilized her powers.

Seeing into the past, present, or future of another Gift Giver without permission was akin to an invasion upon their privacy, but Alice needed to figure out how Bori ended up there. She could have just asked, of course, but to do so would require the younger doe to explain what she was seeking, and reveal to Bori that one day she might become a minotaur slave. If Alice could prevent that future from happening, she would rather Bori never know, and thus this one time, Alice would breach the agreement the three deer had with one another.

Alice could have also looked into her own future, as she too would some day end up in Minopolis if things didn’t change, but by now she felt that every attempt to do so had been a trap set up by that corrupted version of her. She couldn’t risk being lured in again by something that had been set up with knowledge of what Alice was going to do in the present.

All she was doing was seeking a point that revealed the location of the minotaur city. She’d have to do some more skimming, but she wasn’t trying to pry into anything that would be personal to Bori in her future. In a sense, Alice wouldn’t even be looking at the future of the Bori she knew, if she could indeed prevent Bori from ever being enslaved in the first place. So the yellow doe focused on the future of her friend, deciding on half a year prior to when she had last seen the future Bori.

As the vision appeared, Alice braced herself for any number of things she assumed she might see. What ended up coming into her view was the image of Bori laying asleep upon a pile of straw in a location that looked like an enclosed and locked cage. Bori, like the previous time Alice saw this version of her, wore a heavy blindfold over her eyes, with the only other bits of attire on her person being the collar gripping her throat and a cloak each deer slave got, her body naked otherwise. In such a state of exposure, it was impossible for Alice to not notice her fellow Gift Giver’s future self’s stomach as she held it within her own arms, round and swollen, clearly indicating her impregnated state.

Alice’s face scowled at this image, as she didn’t want to have seen this. Bori, in what had to be a later stage of pregnancy, undoubtedly carrying the child of the minotaur who would be her master. She must have delivered the child within her by the time Alice had met her face to face, as she looked much more like she did in the present then, only with her breasts being noticeably bigger than usual. As revolting as it was to imagine how Bori would end up like this, there was one good thing about seeing the older deer this way. Alice could use the state of Bori’s pregnancy to estimate what time the doe had been impregnated, and that might lead to the moment of her enslavement.

I just wish I didn’t have to see what I’m probably about to, Alice thought as she sent her vision to an earlier point in the future. The next image of Bori was not any more pleasant to see, as it appeared that she had already been captured many months prior.

Already enslaved, and currently being used for the purposes of sex in the point Alice had randomly selected to spy at, the pink doe was strapped down on a padded table, held in place as two bulls were busy doing as they pleased with her body. One held her legs apart as he crammed his thick cock into her pussy, stretching it in ways Alice wouldn’t have thought possible around his bovine sized shaft, while the other was doing the same to her mouth, assisted by a gag device that prevented her from closing it. Bori looked to be struggling against her bonds as she was taken advantage of, but if the impact of the minotaurs thrusts, which shook the structure she was bond to, would not cause the thick leather straps to snap, then Bori’s much weaker attempts would not do anything to help release her from their grip.

Alice was appalled at the sight of her friend being so thoroughly violated, watching her throat and stomach bulge out an imprint of the two minotaur’s dicks as they traveled in and out of her, but she had to keep watching to figure out if this moment held some information of her current location. Alice couldn’t tell at the moment due to the limitations of her visual bubble, but depending on where Bori was being raped, there could be a map or chart somewhere nearby that the pink deer could pop into view, if only momentarily.

As she kept watching in silence though, she had to bare witness to the minotaur releasing their cum inside the currently unimpregnated doe, their individual loads working together to make Bori’s lower torso swell up from her womb and stomach filled up to capacity, with small spurts of thick sperm seeping out the exits of her stretched orifices due to the pressure. The two minotaur, once finished with their orgasm, removed themselves, allowing for a disgusting scene to take place as their cocks no long blocked the paths they filled, and cum burst out of Bori’s mouth and pussy, spilling buckets of white fluid over her face and onto the floor.

A few Antlertean appeared to help clean up Bori in the aftermath of this violation, sponging up as much sex fluids as they could in a short amount of time, but once an arbitrary time limit was up, another set of bovine men came in to take the place of the ones prior, inserting their erect cocks inside the pink doe’s previously ravaged holes, to pick up where the previous two left off. Bori wasn’t just being forcefully impregnated at this point; she was being gang banged by who knew how many minotaur waiting just outside Alice’s view.

Seeing the second pair insert themselves, with a panting and exhausted Bori screaming in exasperation as one entered her pussy, and the other silenced her by stuffing her throat, Alice had to move on to another moment in time before the bulls got into full swing of their violation of her. Hoping for a much more pleasant moment in Bori’s timeline, even one before she had been enslaved by the minotaur, Alice went back another week from that moment.

As the image came in, Alice was grateful to see Bori not yet in bonds, and without that blindfold she had seen in every vision to this point. She was fully clothed, with no collar, and no pregnancy. However, Alice didn’t know where she was exactly, as all she could see was the pink deer running through a forest.

Maybe this is the moment she got captured, Alice said, thinking she was being pursued. The panic in her eyes certainly gave that impression, but after skipping forward a few times, Alice saw her exit the forest, and enter into an open.

Once more, the limitations of her vision prevented her from seeing much, but Bori’s actions gave her clues on what was happening. Bori, once leaving the woods, ducked behind a sizable crate, and just a moment later a large bovine leg entered into the bubble of Alice’s vision, before walking right back out of it. Seconds later, Bori picked herself up off the ground, and moved not away from what had to be the minotaur, but towards them, going deeper into a space that looked to be a minotaur base.

As Bori proceeded to infiltrate this minotaur occupied space, for reasons Alice couldn’t begin to understand, ducking around object and avoiding every bull that came close to her by staying out of sight, Alice could see this wasn’t so much a base, but a shipyard or dock, as several times the pink doe went to the edge of the wooden platform she was sneaking around upon, getting close enough for the doe spying on her to see water.

Bori made her way around this pier, managing to avoid being detected by the minotaur around her, no doubt using her own powers to keep track of their movements as she constantly closed her eyes while she darted from one piece of cover to the next. Bori’s ability to multitask her powers with her movements was amazing, especially compared to Alice, who had to hold still while using her powers to keep from causing accidents, and she easily made it to her destination, climbing a gang plank into one of the minotaur’s boats.

What are you doing there? Alice questioned, unable to grasp why Bori would ever put herself in such danger. Bori should be staying miles away from the minotaur, since Alice told her of their intent with the deer.

Yet her fate dictated that she would willingly enter into a ship ran by them, making her way through the halls of what seemed to be a cargo ship, where the cargo was people. She passed by door after door, looking inside to find does and stags, ones that were reindeer like them, meaning that the minotaur must have successfully raided the deer village the Gift Givers were from. This led Alice to think that Bori had come to free those captured, but if that was the case it was a fools errand. Should she succeed to save even a single deer, her fate said she would be captured in their place.

It was dawning on Alice that she probably should tell Bori what might happen in the future if she didn’t stay as far away from these minotaur as possible, as she knew that the last thing that she wanted was for any of her loved ones to befall the cruelty of these bovines. Maybe that was one way she could change fate for the better. If that’s what she was going to do though, she still needed to know where Minopolis was, so for now she kept watching, hoping that Bori was on the way to the captain’s quarters, or someplace else that could have the information she needed. Instead, the doe stayed in the holding area for the minotaur’s captives, checking every cell she could find until finally she located who she was looking for.

The pink doe opened the door, the cell having a simple lock on the outside, and entered with no delay. “There you are,” she said as she approached the one being held inside, “I’m here to get you out of here. I won’t let these minotaur turn you into their breeding slave.”

Bori looked next to the doorframe and found a set of keys hanging there, as though she had known they were there all along, and then approached the captive. Alice had to stifle a gasp as she saw who it was that Bori had come to save, as it when Bori stepped deeper into the room, a yellow furred doe with green hair came into view. It was her future self again, sitting naked on the floor, shackled into place by a set of chains that were bolted to the wall.

Alice’s mind immediately went into panic as this scene unfolded, as Bori stepped closer to Alice’s future self. There was little doubt that the yellow deer she was seeing was the corrupted version of herself, as she wore a smile far too pleasant for their current situation.

“I knew you’d come to save me,” the Future Alice said, lifting her shackles to accept the key Bori held.

“I know you did,” Bori said back, undoing the locks, “I bet you were so scared that you might become a minotaur slave, and had to make sure someone would rescue you.”

“Not at all,” Future Alice replied, “I haven’t been afraid of being a slave for a long time.”

As Bori undid one shackle and went to the next, Future Alice grabbed the removed bond, and waited for Bori to finish her task. There was no need for Future Alice to hide what she was doing, as Bori was too distracted to notice, and she knew this would be the case because she had seen this play out before in Alice’s present. The moment the next shackle was removed, Alice made her move and clasped the first one around Bori’s own wrist, and as the pink doe took notice and succumbed to confusion, Alice attached the other one as well.

“Alice, why did you…” Bori said, just as Future Alice snagged the keys to the shackles right out of the pink doe’s hands, and swiftly moved away from her, to the door.

“She’s been captured!” Future Alice yelled at the top of her lungs, calling down the halls.

The look of betrayal on Bori’s face was mortifying, and Alice couldn’t believe that fate said that one day she would be the reason Bori would be enslaved, raped, and forced to give birth to a minotaur’s offspring. What twists in her life could ever convince her to do such a thing? To become the evil doe she kept seeing in her visions.

It did not take long for many minotaur to make their way to the cell, and enter in to find the new doe that had been delivered to them.

“Just as I told you, master,” Future Alice said as she approached the familiar minotaur lord, who happened to be on the ship, and was the first to enter, “She came right to me, and allowed me to trap her. I hope this offering shows that my submission to you and your kind was legitimate.”

“It… certain grants you some credibility.” said the minotaur king, looking about as bewildered that Future Alice had served him another Gift Giver as Bori herself, just without the growing fear on his face that the pink deer had, “Well then, how about we welcome our latest slave into her new life.”

The minotaur men approached Bori, removing what little clothing they had on to expose their massive shafts. There was no mistaking what was about to happen, and as one reached down to grab Bori, Alice cut off her vision by opening her eyes. She had seen enough, and wasn’t about to watch Bori get defiled for a second time, especially not when said defilement was caused because of her direct actions in the future. Alice’s mind was racing, and she now understood why there was a look of terror on her face when she looked over the day’s activities.

It was one thing to know that her future self had given into the minotaur as some sort of willing sex slave. It was another to have been told she helped the minotaur to enslave other species she had never personally met. To discover that she was supposed to hand over to these tyrants a person so close to her that she saw them as family, that was terrifying. The minotaur must have done something to control her mind or otherwise command her actions, because she could never see herself doing this under any other circumstances. Not in such a short span of time, cause if she had tracked everything correctly, this was supposed to happen in a little over two years from now.

“Alice, are you sure you’re ok? You’ve hardly touched your food, or said much for that matter.” Alice heard the voice of the doe she was going to betray speaking to her, showing concern that the yellow deer now felt she was entirely undeserving of.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine,” she lied, digging into the plate and eating everything as hastily as she could, “Was just dwelling on something really hard. Don’t worry though, it’s nothing I can’t handle.”

Bori could tell there was something more to this than Alice was letting on, but intent on allowing the younger doe her privacy, she only replied with, “If something is troubling you, you know you can talk to me and Aurora. Especially if it’s about those minotaur again.”

How could Alice talk to either of the other does about this. Aurora would probably see it as a good thing, that this was satisfying some notion of balance to pay back the debt to the minotaur, which Alice didn’t even want to taint her image of the older doe by hearing that. Then there was Bori, and how could the yellow doe tell her that unless something drastic was done to the timeline, she was would be the direct reason a bunch of bull men would end up raping her in the future.

“Seriously, I’m good. I just want to finish this delicious meal and get back to work,” Alice quickly devoured everything on her plate, snagged a slice of gingerbread, and then returned to her station, praying that tying bows would distract her from the images floating around in her head.

The rest of the work day was not easy for Alice. She couldn’t get the thought of her destined betrayal out of her head, and as a consequence couldn’t so much as look at Bori as she returned to wrap presents. While she had not done anything to the older doe, and had no intentions of doing what she had seen, knowing that some version of her out in the course of history was capable of such a thing made Alice feel as if she had no right being in the same room with the other Gift Givers.

She went about her tasks while doing her best to act casual, speaking when spoken to, and tying her bows at a normal pace. The second part was easy to do, since it was the last thing needed to be done with a present, and required the other two does to complete their parts first, but talking casually took some effort. As the long line of gifts for that day came to an end, Alice was quick to head back to her room, excusing herself for the evening, with the excuse that she wasn’t feeling well and needed more rest.

The other does allowed her to leave, both with varying levels of skepticism for her excuse, as both were certain that this was more about her issues with the future she had seen. Alice rushed back up to her room, just wanting to be away from the other Gift Givers, so she could collect her thoughts. Once there, she locked her door and dropped the facade of confidence she put on in order to talk to her mentors, outwardly expressing the fear she felt at the knowledge she had gained, fulfilling the vision she had seen of herself earlier in the day in the process.

How did she manage to trap me when I wasn’t even looking into my own future?! Alice thought, not wanting to connect herself with her future self at this point.

It was hard to accept, but the power of foresight was being used against her. Anything Alice knew, her future, corrupted self could take advantage of. In a sense, her powers were useless, and even detrimental, when the deer she was supposed to be could appear in the futures of others Alice wanted to look into as well. Surely, Future Alice had used the knowledge of Bori going to rescue her to trap her, revealed that had all been planned out when she summoned the minotaur to claim their new prize, which Alice could only blame herself for breaking the Gift Giver’s rule of not looking into each other’s histories without permission.

On top of that, Alice had learned that her decision to use her powers while eating, which she had thought was one she made of her own accord, meant nothing. She didn’t change fate in even a minor way, only fell into what it wanted. Of course, as she already knew, her decision was the one she chose of her own free will, but it was the choice she was always going to make. The combination of her curiosity, doubts, desire to stop the minotaur, and the options she had in that moment, is what crafted her fate after all, and she could do little to prevent herself from doing something she wanted to do in the first place. Defying fate was much harder than Alice assumed, and she wondered what part she had lacked in this moment, the knowledge of what she should have been going against, or the will power to go against it.

Ok, calm down Alice, thought the doe, Freaking out over this isn’t going to get us anywhere. What we need to do is figure out if we learned anything from what we saw.

Thinking back at everything, she now had a general time of when everything was going to go into a point of no return, as she had seen reindeer held in captivity, to be relocated to minopolis, where they would never be able to escape. She had also seen herself, with Bori trying to save her from enslavement, which might have meant that the minotaur had caught her around the same time. That also implied that if the minotaur did something to her in order to corrupt her mind, it had to have happened around that time.

There was one other thing she had discovered, which could lead to the information she was seeking in the first place. The minotaur lord was, or will be, on that ship taking the deer to the minotaur kingdom. If he was in the Frozen North, then following his timeline should allow her to figure out where Minopolis was, and no matter what she ended up doing, that was the first step to correcting the injustices the future would bring.

Alice sat down on her bed, and then laid down across her mattress, closing her eyes to start her search, scanning the minotaur king’s future, staring months prior to the moment on the boat. This way she’d hopefully avoid encountering future self again, and even more hopefully prevent her from knowing things that would aid her evil deeds.

“I will figure out a way to beat you,” she swore aloud, her comment directed towards the version of herself she hoped to erase, fully aware that her pledge meant little if she failed and ended up becoming the thing she now loathed more than anything else.