//------------------------------//
// Chapter 1 
// Story: Flame of the Fateless 
// by Cryptic Keyboard 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 1 
Stained Crimson.

Nothing is working! My limbs aren't responding to my brain! What the hell is this, am I dying? Muffled words pressed into my eardrums in a vain attempt to break the inky darkness that encircled my brain. A car. That's what I can remember. A box of metal demolishing my body as its intoxicated driver swerved through the small town streets. They say that an object will continue until something applies a suitable amount of force to stop it. My body was that force in this case. This was what people called fate right?

Well fate can bend over and fuck its own face!

What the hell did I do to deserve this? Why did the game of life choose to strike me down in such a cruel way? I know what you're thinking, this kid sounds like a right whiner; all he does is bitch about how bad he has it when others are suffering too. Well guess what? I don't care about other people! I am me; numero uno, the one, best of the best.....

Insert name here.

The memory slot where my name should be was gone. Replaced by a blank slate to be filled with my title. This was my life now wasn't it? Excuse me for the lack of information but as you can see; I'm in a bit of a jam right now. I got messed up by a car; that much is clear. But where I am now and what lies ahead is a totally different story. Allow me to bring you up to speed regarding my situation. 

I have been badly injured by some genius fuck who thought that being four times over the legal limit was a safe state to drive in. Last I checked I was being wheeled around on a trolley; with sobbing everywhere. Now I'm motionless in hospital and totally senseless. Save for the constant rubbing on my hand.

Along with the beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep...... Beep................ Beep............................... 

Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee~

That's funny, I remember that sound, its the sound a heart monitor makes when a heartbeat stops. 
When a heartbeat stops.
When my heart stopped. 
Oh my god.... Am I dead? No, not possible! I'm still here right? How can I be dead if I'm still talking?! This is a joke right? Just some sick and twisted joke that my parents are playing on me. Turn the beeping back on and we can laugh all about it! Every single possible thought that a boy of my age could have had got launched out of a cannon in my brain as I desperately tried to fathom what was going on. 
The rubbing on my hand became painfully fast.
The sound of a door being opened accompanied by several hushed whispers. My chest began to rise and fall at irregular intervals. I wasn't breathing; I was being resuscitated.

The rubbing became incredibly painful as sharp finger nails dug into the skin of my hand. Whoever it was performing the act, it was NOT helping. Whatever they were doing to get me back around; it wasn't working. The thumping on my chest stopped, the sobbing stopped, everything stopped. A single long wail. My mother was crying. My father might have been crying; but making it less vocal. The doctors were doing their jobs; I was a lost cause and they saw that. But I wasn't lost!

Am I a ghost or something? What the heck is going on? This is far beyond a joke now; I WANT OUT OF HERE!!!

"That can be arranged my boy." 
Where is it coming from? A voice? After the age of soundproofed darkness it was nice to have something talking to me, even if it was an ominous voice that seemed to be everywhere in my head at once.
"I will be frank with you boyo, you are dead," No shit Sherlock. "But I am keeping you alive; in a manner of speaking. I have the power to perform one godly act my little Irish friend and no it isn't to magic you up a lifetime supply of whiskey!" The voice obviously enjoyed this little play on stereotypes enough to laugh. It wasn't the most pleasant laugh I have ever heard; but I've heard worse.
"Now, now Shamrock! No need for the unkind thoughts, I was merely jesting with you! But to place the pain to one side for a second I would like to refer to my offer." I wasn't able to answer. "You don't need to talk Shamrock, just think your answers and I will know!"
"Are you God?" I thought.
"You could call me that." I got a mental image of a woman bowing. "My name is Yiang, Goddess of Order and Chaos, Light and Dark, Good and Evil. You humans know me as the Yin-Yang."

I must be delusional. The Yin-Yang was nothing more than old Chinese folk-tale to explain something they couldn't understand. 
"But who do you think implanted that idea into their head boyo?" Yiang whispered seductively. "Every idea is spawned from imagination my child; yet where do those ideas spawn from beforehand? The answer - in some cases - is me. Yiang is my name and the bending of reality is my game!" Yiang giggled childishly.
"Get to the point spectre." I hissed mentally.
"The what? Ah yes! My offer." I felt a strange warm iciness flow over my shattered body. "I have the power do one of three things my boy. I can send you back; five minutes before the car hit you. You can avoid the area and continue life without a care, I will be erased from your memory however."

That was a good deal.

"My second option is to allow you to continue life now, a broken body that can't walk or talk on his own. Judging by how many shades of beaten you are, I doubt you'll live past twenty."

Less enticing.

"My third option; is to kill you."

The fuck kind of choice was that?

"I will offer a twist on that however! Once you die in this world; I will take you to a new one. Fantastical and magical, where you can start new life as a new being. A land of wondrous sights and spectacular wildlife. With fate being nothing but a musing thought for you."

Now THAT sounds pretty fun. But to abandon my life here for a new one? Heck, this new land could just be England! Not likely considering she said it was fantastical and magical, not shitty and constantly raining.
So I probed Yiang. "Where in the world is this land?"
"That's just the thing boyo," if an invisible creature that claimed to be a Goddess could lean close to your face; then this one just pressed its ghostly nose against mine. "This place ain't in this universe."

Okay, I'm high! I must've been high! This entire thing is just a bad drug trip surely! Or maybe I hit my head, or I'm dreaming this all up. All of them are better explanations than 'you are being contacted by a Goddess while in limbo.'
"This is the last time I'm gonna offer it to you boyo! Get sceptical one more time and you'll be spending the rest of your teen years as a fuckin' vegetable!"

Well when she put it that way.......... 

"Okay then Yiang, take me away to this world of yours. To a brand new place filled with these wonders of nature that you talk so fondly of." I felt like I should have said goodbye to my family and friends first, but it wasn't like I could. Yiang squealed gleefully and I felt the same icy warmth that had encased me not to long ago.
"Hang on boyo; this is gonna be a bit disorientating!" Yiang whooped like a child; my life on Earth ended. 

A dead boy, with a useless name, lay broken in a hospital bed somewhere in Ireland. His life-light had not been snuffed out however; it had simply been re-purposed. Fashioned into a brand new piece and moved into place; ready for a Godly hand to move it on the chessboard that was now the Irish boy's twisted fate.



*
 


My body felt oddly fluffy. I don't know what Yiang had done to me, but it felt bloody good! I was lying on my side with my eyes closed that much was certain. That strange block on my senses had been completely removed. I could smell roses and ripening fruits and blood. Blood? Can humans even smell that much at one time?

"Wake up boyo!" Yiang said noisily. "Welcome to your new home!" 
I slowly opened my eyes; to be met by a grey snout. I was bolt upright in a second trying to find balance on my feet. All four of them. I immediately felt nauseous, the effort of movement was overly laborious on my body and every muscle screamed in protest at even the most simplistic of movements. It took awhile for me to acknowledge that I had acquired two new limbs. Even then I treated it like it wasn't anything new to me. I began to make progress leg by leg; trying my hardest to limp towards the one thing I recognised in a totally noir world. 
A pool of water.
The colour of the world was missing, like it had been sapped away by a vampire, one that feeds on pigmentation instead of blood. 
Yiang chimed in unhelpfully. "If you wonder where all the world's beauty has gone the answer is simple. Dog's don't see in colour."
"D-Dog!?" I yelped mentally. 
"Take a look in the water mongrel." 

I peered into the ripples for a slight second, and immediately jumped away again. Reflected in the water was not an Irish boy, but a wolf with two growths on its forehead that twirled around one another like serpentine horns. When I ventured back to the water's edge the wolf was still there. 
I was still there.
I was the wolf. 

The lack of colour made it difficult to distinguish any real facial marks beyond that of the horns. The fur was a strange pale white, the eyes two orbs of black in the contrasting white puddle of fur that was now my face.
"Like the new body boyo?" Yiang teased. "I picked it out myself. However I think the lack of colour vision will confuse you a tad."
I turned away from the pool. "Where in the hell am I Yiang."
I felt a spectral hand move my head around. "Welcome to Equestria sonny, this is your new home."

Laid out before me was one of the most amazing yet confusing sights I have ever beheld. An entire town - still nothing more than grey and black splodges - was nestled in the valley below. Why did I find this amazing? Well it just so happened that the town was populated, and by the looks of it run, by horses. Seriously. Not a single human being was in sight. Instead I say horses operating machinery, horses baking, horses painting and farming and acting just like human beings. BUT THEY WERE HORSES! Everywhere I looked an equine of some kind was performing a task that made no sense in relation to them being horses. It was a bedazzling sight that made my head spin in all the wrong ways. How the hell was this even possible?

"Its possible because it is boyo." Yiang said. "Just because this isn't the norm in your universe doesn't mean it isn't the norm here. I told you boyo; this is a whole new world for you to explore."
"But.... Those are HORSES!" I stammered, still unable to process my thoughts.
"They prefer to be called ponies, but you are correct in stating the obvious. They are indeed horses."
"How could this get any weirder?"
Yiang coughed gently. "Well the forest behind you has a witch doctor zebra inside and is filled with mythical creatures that could kill you without a moments notice." My heart sank. "Well you asked how it could get weirder!"
"That didn't mean you had to tell me!" I moaned. This was unreal. Witch doctor zebras? Ponies in a fully functioning society? Mythical killer beasts? Just what kind of crazy universe did Yiang bring me to?

"This has to be the result of magic or something." I said jokingly.
"Well magic helped." Yiang said matter of factly. "But the Unicorns are only one third of the equation, the Pegasi control the weather patterns over most of Equestria and the Earth-Ponies are in charge of food production. If a single one st....."
"WHAT!?" I screeched. "Pegasi? Unicorns? WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT WOMAN?!" My Irish charm was really bursting through now. "NOT ONLY DO YOU DRAG ME INTO ANOTHER UNIVERSE, YOU MAKE ME A WOLF, GREET ME WITH SOME SORT OF EQUINE SOCIETY AND SAY I COULD GET KILLED? GAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" I had lost all reason to even try and make sense of the situation now. This world could just go burn. 

"Now now boyo." Yiang whispered soothingly. "No need to get all worked up over it; I'm here to help." I felt a ghostly arm drape around me. "Listen up boyo, I'll give you five minutes to get used to this body of yours. Then I will come back with an offer; you can decide when you've calmed down. Kay?" 
I nodded. "Sure thing lass; just give me some time to wrap my head around all of this."
"Sure thing boyo. How about this? You keep all those questions tucked up in your little leprechaun head until I say, and I will give you a name."
How did she....? "Know that you forgot your name?" Yiang giggled. "I'm a Goddess honeybunch, I know a lot more than you would think."
Even though I was alarmed by how friendly Yiang was acting now' I didn't argue. "Fine, I can do that."
I felt a hand fall onto my shoulder. "I hereby dub thee Lycan, Two Horned Wolf of Ireland and the newest addition to Equestria. May you find what you seek in this land and experience the magic of friendship."

I frowned. "The hell do you mean by that?" 
But it was too late. Yiang's energy had dissipated, I was alone in the clearing. So I took my time and looked around. I was standing in what looked like a natural garden built next to the edge of a forest. The amount of varied foliage made me want to run. I flexed one of my hind-legs experientially, and broke into a sprint.