About an hour passed, and the older deer entered into Alice’s room, spying the yellow doe sleeping soundly. She would be that way for hours more if not interrupted, but Aurora needed her to be awake for what was to come.

The old doe went aside Alice’s bed, then said loudly to her, “Wake up, Alice.”

It didn’t happen instantly, but once the words pierced the barrier of sleep, Alice’s eyes wearily opened up.

“Aurora?” she said groggily, confused as to why the old deer had entered her room unannounced.

“Get up,” Aurora said, “I need to show you something.”

Alice didn’t question for a second, the ability to do anything but obey the order given to her locked away at the moment. Rising out of her bed, she followed Aurora out of the room, and into the old doe’s own.

Once inside, Aurora headed straight to a bookshelf in the room, one that Alice had seen many times before, and held nothing unusual about it, from how it looked, to the material that sat within its shelves.

“Help me push this over a little,” Aurora said, to which Alice once more complied, joining the older doe, and scooting it along the wall.

It was a heavy piece of furniture that scraped across the wooden floor as it was moved, but with a bit of effort the pair were able to move it. Once moved, a trapdoor that had been hidden underneath it was revealed, having a metal ring handle that sunk into the floor that Aurora used to lift it up, opening a secret path with a ladder going into the earth.

“Follow me, and don’t dally,” said the old deer, quickly making her way down the ladder once the door was opened.

Alice, still unable to do anything but comply, went down the ladder as soon as the old deer vanished from sight. She probably should have been afraid, despite her inability to refuse the elder deer, but she trusted Aurora more than most. To her, this just felt like she was going along with the wishes of her peer, and while it was a bit strange, she couldn’t see the harm in it if Aurora was able to traverse the secret tunnel without fear.

Reaching the bottom of the ladder, Alice found herself in some sort of cave passage, one that looked like it hadn’t been ventured through for some time. Aurora was already busy lighting a lantern, proceeding deeper into the tunnel as the oil in the lantern took flame. Having no other commands given, Alice kept following after the other doe, pondering about how long this had been under their home, and how it got there in the first place, but keeping such thoughts to herself.

The way through this cave went on for a while, the time it took perhaps doubling as Aurora took the time to light a few torches along the way, the illumination of which revealed strange symbols drawn along the rock surface, along with characters that looked to be deer, due to the antler like protrusions atop their heads. They looked old, perhaps primitive in nature, as if made by an ancient civilization of cervid, that predated the deer species that Alice had come to know.

“Alice,” Aurora said, as the tunnel opened up into a large chamber, “You are entering into the ancient chamber used by our coven before they became the Gift Givers you know today.”

Alice was left to stand at the entrance of this space, as Aurora went around lighting more torches, and letting light consume the shadows that had resided here for ages, exposing more drawings, along with a plethora of artifacts from a time forgotten that served as only decoration for the chamber now.

“And now that we’re here, I’ll answer the question you asked earlier.” Aurora continued, blowing out her lantern and placing it on the floor, “We, the Gift Givers, are The Moirai.”

Of all the things that didn’t invoke the slightest reaction upon reaching this chamber, that revelation managed to break the hold on Alice enough that she let out a gasp of shock, as she would have never anticipated that those she sought, those who had changed the future to one that allowed the minotaur to become a threat to all of Equestria and beyond, were the Gift Givers themselves.

She didn’t want to believe it, and was hastily formulating that this was a trick of her future self, to lead her away from the true culprits. Before that thought could settle in though, Aurora followed up with another bold statement that destroyed any notion that Future Alice was anything but truthful.

“And if you are asking about that name, it means that you are the ‘Promised Gift’, and that the debt all deerkind owes the minotaur will soon be repaid.”

Author's Note

Thank you to anyone who made it all the way through this story. As I said previously, this will be where I stop with it for the time being. I do have much more to get to when it comes to Alice, and how she will attempt to alter her fate with the minotaur, but for now I need to return to other projects. Expect the next book of the story around next December, and this is supposed to be a holiday based story, due to the character it focuses on.

Aside form that, I hope that you all enjoyed the story, and that you'll show up for what's to come.