//------------------------------// // The King of Kings and The Future Foretold // Story: A Blaze as Cold as Ice // by Refractionary Blaze //------------------------------// “Come closer little one... let me look at you...” the older and younger sister were now facing what seemed to be an older pony wearing a king’s outfit. The younger one stayed closely behind the older one as the older one got closer to the old king. “Yes... I can see you now.” “What are you nearsighted or something” the older pony joked. “NOT YOU!!” The old king shouted startling both the older and younger ponies and causing them to step back a bit. “You...” the king said as he pointed at the younger pony. The younger pony, still obviously frightened by all of this, hid completely behind the younger pony. “I can see within you. I can see your fear, anger, and hatred. Yes... but more than that is your love, compassion, passion, and trust. I can see it all within you... it is shown through your eyes...” “M-my eyes?” The younger pony said while hesitantly peaking out from behind her older sister. Her rainbow eyes shown towards the old king. “Yes... those eyes... the very same that have kept me here. The ones that I hold responsible for my current state. I want revenge. Yes... I WANT THEM BACK!!” The old king exclaimed as skeletal ponies rose up around them. And the older pony grabbed her younger sister’s hoof and ran away from the king. Back down the hall of the blue flames. “I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have brought us here! He even claims that you hurt him in some way. I know you wouldn’t do that would you?” The older sister said while running and leading them through the halls. “No, it’s okay! I don’t blame you for this. Just please get us back to mommy and daddy.” The little sister replied they made it most of the way before the younger sister tripped and fell on a pressure plate. The older sister turned back to see the ceiling rumbling a little bit as the hallway behind and in front of them had the ceiling caving in. “Look out!!” The older sister exclaimed as she ran back for her little sister in a desperate attempt to save them both and shoved both of them against the wall. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Cold woke up again the same day. This time she confirmed that it was her room that she was sleeping in. She wasn’t as tired as before and her headache from her hangover had gone down. She got out of her bed and checked the time. The fortune teller was supposed to be at the casino in an hour. So she took the extra time to take a quick shower, and get dressed in her favorite hoodie, something given to her by Blaze. She walked down to the elevator and rode it down to the floor level before getting out passing the room service on her way down. She walked quickly through the main lobby so she wouldn’t have to talk to anybody and made her way down the road to the casino. The streets were crowded and everyone was making noise everywhere. There were carriages, talking ponies, screaming ponies, and one or two quiet ones. The walk to the casino felt long and obnoxious despite the fact that it wasn’t that far away. Once she walked in she could smell the scent of cigarette smoke and could hear the sounds of dice rolling and lots spinning. Cold groaned and attempted not to pay attention to them. “This is why I live in Ponyville.” Cold walked over to the counter in the middle of the main room. “Excuse me. I would like to know where the new fortune teller is.” The pony over the counter looked over at Cold with a confused face. “Fortune te-“ another pony came over and shoved the first one out of the way. “Go and work the register if ya don’t know what they’re talking about.” The second counter pony, a mare, looked at Cold and whispered. “You looking for Madame Shining Orb? Worker of miracles and determiner of fate? Black market dealer in fortune telling because of her methods.” Cold scoffed and looked back at her. “You tell everyone that talks about fortune tellers that?” The mare smirked at Cold’s response. “Only the pretty ones that look lost. Looks like you know where you are though. The name’s Golden River. Right this way.” The mare came out from behind the counter and lead Cold into the back and through a series of hallways. The first few were empty but the last one caught her eye. It was a series of photos. They were all pictures of various ponies with various titles next to their names. There were a few stallions with the title of gambling champion a few with the title of manager, but one stuck out. It was an empty photo with an out of place title. “Refractionary Blaze: Greatest Halo” Cold looked over at Golden River confused. “Hey. What’s this?” Golden River turned back and looked at what Cold was pointing to. “What? Are you interested in other mares now? Cheating already? Oh. Yeah that’s been here since I started working here. They said that it was an amazing mare with so much talent. Raw gambling ability and alcohol tolerance aside she was an amazing brawler. Nobody knows her face though. Or even remembers her coming here. Must have been a long time ago.” “Huh...” she made sure to remember the picture just in case, and the pair of them kept walking. Blaze didn’t show up in any more pictures despite the fact that most of the other ponies were in many pictures. Eventually they came to a trapdoor that lead down some stairs. Golden River looked over to Cold. “Now listen closely, there are three tarps that lead into separate rooms you want the one on your left. See ya soon beautiful.” Cold nodded and jumped down into the trapdoor and through the tunnel before her. The smells were a mix of smoke, most likely from the cigarettes above, and air freshener that wasn’t exactly doing its job well at all. The hallway was dark but that didn’t pose much of a problem because of the bit of light that shown through some small cracks above. After a good five minutes of walking, she finally came to two tarps; one on the left and one on the right. She assumed the last one was at the end of the hall. She peeked into the tarp on her right first and... pretended not to see what she did before walking into the room on her left. “Hello?” She whispered into the dark room before walking in and sitting on the cushion on the floor. The sconces around the room lit up revealing a hooded pony sitting across from her behind an orb looking shape. “Are you Madame Shining Orb?” The mare in question just stared into her orb. “...” No response. Cold just looked back at her. “I’m kind of in a hurry and was wondering if you could help me...” “I see a wandering soul...” Cold was set off by her sudden remarks. “Uhh...” “You’re Searching for a spirit that doesn’t even know where they are. You want to take them and bring them back to where you consider “Home”. Your journey started in a land far away. Even now this journey of yours is all you can focus on. But what you haven’t realized is that the answers you need to turn your page is sitting right on your desk. You just need to clean it off. It’s funny though, I can see the past, present, and future of everypony but never have I seen a story quite as interesting as yours. Now. You may ask your final question.” Cold was impressed. Most of the details were kept vague but she was correct with everything she knew. “I want to know about your enchanted ice.” She said wearily. “No. You want to know how to tame it. How to escape it. The one you have. Inside of you. I can help you with what you want, but everything you have comes from your lost kitty. It made her who she was. So do you want to erase a part of her?” Cold hesitated. She understood basically what she was saying but that just means that she has to keep this pain in her chest? There were footsteps above them. Hard. And they could hear shouting. “We......Cold.......Looking......here...... princess..... return” was all that they could hear through the floor. Shining Orb looked at Cold with a smile. “It seems that you were tracked and followed here Miss Cold Hart.” Cold looked back at her slightly panicked but you wouldn’t be able to tell just by looking at her. Of course, the fortune teller could tell. “Do not worry. I will call my assistant and she shall help you to escape unseen.” Cold looked skeptical at this. “What’s the catch?” The fortune teller smiled knowingly at this accusation as she saw it coming a mile away. “I told you that your story was the most interesting one I have seen so far. So in exchange for this extra favor, I want to see your lost kitten when you find her. Who knows? Maybe I’ll help you then.” Cold, still skeptical at this, stared at the Fortune Teller for a second before she could hear the hoofsteps above them. “Fine. But please hurry up.” Shining Orb nodded and pressed a button on the desk before speaking into the microphone. “Golden River, please make your way over here immediately.” A familiar mare then suddenly appeared before them. Cold, not caring before, now noticed the horn on the flirty mare’s head. Golden River ignored Cold and faces Shining Orb waiting for something. Shining Orb then gave her orders. “Golden River, take our guest here out through the back door. And give her “it”.” Golden River nodded at this and handed Cold a wrapped up package and took her hoof dragging her along. “Hey! Wait!” Golden River turned back to Cold. “Shhh. Or they’ll hear you.” Gold ran off with Cold in tow. Shining Orb sat back down and smiled to herself. Being blind meant that she could hear exceptionally well. The ponies chasing after Cold had already found the trapdoor from what she heard. “I wish you luck in the days to come Cold. May we one day meet again.” Gold and Cold ran down the hall toward the third and final tarp. As they rushed in, Cold realized that it was a storage room. “So where’s this secret tunnel huh?” Cold whispered with her need to hurry rising. Gold moved a stack of boxes revealing a stone wall and pushed one of the stones in. “These tunnels were created by a group of robbers. They failed with their plan but the casino decided to keep the tunnels as a safety precaution.” “Huh... well then. I guess I’ll see ya later?” Gold laughed at this response. “Oh don’t worry. I’ll come and see you soon. Wanna give me your address?” Cold smirked back “How about this: Lets leave it up to fate. It must be fate if you end up on my doorstep” Cold was confident in this response until Gold smirked back. “Is that a challenge? I’ll see you in two days then.” Gold then proceeded to shove Cold through the stone wall and then closed it up. Gold turned and put the boxes back to conceal the path before walking out with a random box off of he shelves. Two ponies ran at her in some sort of odd secret agents. They ran past her as she brought the box back to Shining. Shining smiled as she walked back in. “Were you interrogated?” Gold asked. Shining just smiled and nodded her head. Gold hesitated for half a second and said “Hey... can I take a few days off?” Shining just smiled and nodded again.