//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Fortune Teller // Story: Desires // by Skylight77 //------------------------------// 4 days ago: These forests were just like any other to her. The winds blew against the leaves. Animals sounded and wandered about. Some even crossed her path. Being a pegasus, she could always fly over the forest and skip the journey, but there would be much less to see. Not much of a journey if you don’t take in the sights. But Carousel, didn’t know what her destination was. She just traveled and let nature take its course on where she would end up. Carousel walked this forest with nothing in mind, taking in the sights. Every once in a while she would notice an animal cross her path. Some had fallen to the ground after trying to gather food. There was a squirrel that fell from one of the trees above her, holding onto an acorn. Carousel nearly stepped on this squirrel, but stopped her hoof before she did. The squirrel managed to get back up and scurry away from her afterwards. There was no joy, nor misery to her travels, but the sounds of life surrounding her kept her sane. So she kept walking the path of this forest, which she never learned the name from. But it seemed to be quite a tame forest. “HOWDY CUSTOMER!” Carousel’s whole body jumped in the air in surprise, without her hooves leaving the ground. The sound of three voices came right next to her, seemingly out of nowhere. To her left stood what appeared to be three fillies of each race. One was yellow with red hair and a red bow in her mane. One was white with hair that mixed with purple and pink in color. And the last one was light brown with purple hair. This was her immediate notice of the three on how they looked. “Welcome to the CMC Forest Brigade!” the yellow earth pony started. “The CMC stands for Cutie Mark Crusaders!” the white unicorn continued. “Where our job is to find wandering adventurers…” the light brown pegasus nearly finished. “…And Sell Them The Best Tools For Exploring Equestria Will Ever Know!” All three of them shouted, ending their introduction. Carousel managed to regain her senses after that startling surprise, holding a hoof to her chest and panting slightly. But she didn’t get much of a chance to catch her breath as the fillies came so close to her with those huge smiles. She tried to back away in response. “Seriously! Y’all never find better tasting food than this!” the earth pony filly said as she motioned her hoof to her side of the stall. The stall was quite extended in length, yet Carousel missed it while she was passing by because it was so well camouflaged behind some leaves from the branches that hung low from the nearby trees. “If’n y’all ever get tired from walking, our apple pies’ll surely pick ya right back up!” “And if you want to take some to go, or you need something to carry all this stuff, then try one of these!” the unicorn filly continued while motioning to one of the saddle bags on the stall. “We ensure not only safety for your items, but also comfort to your backs as well. And if you have too many things to carry, try one of these carts instead!” She motioned her hoof to one of the carts outside the stall. “But if you just need something to defend yourself with,” the pegasus filly cut in, holding what appeared to be a sling shot in her hoof, “then we’ve got you covered as well!” She shot a pebble from her sling shot directly forwards and up. Carousel immediately moved her head away in order to avoid the shot, whether if that was aimed at her or not. She turned her head to follow where the pebble went, already baffled by the situation. The pebble barely managed to hit an acorn from one of the tree’s branches that was behind her. This caused the acorn to swing slightly back and forth, but still hung firmly onto the branch when it stopped. Carousel nervously looked back to the fillies. “Our satisfaction is your satisfaction, and we guarantee that if you’re not one hundred perc-“ the filly pegasus suddenly stopped silent. Off in the distance, it sounded like there was another voice, but it was too muffled to make out the words. The three fillies looked panicked. “Uh oh… that sounded like Miss Cheerilee,” one of them said in an audible whisper. “Uuhhh… we’ve got to close up shop!” another one said while all three of them frantically cleaned the place up, taking the items away from the stall and placing them into one of their carts. “Yeah… s-sorry for the inconvenience, bu-ut please visit again!” The little fillies quickly fled the scene as instantly as they appeared, leaving behind a giant dusty trail which surrounded Carousel. Carousel hacked and coughed away with her eyes closed as the dust storm impacted her face. She flapped her wings while keeping her hooves on the ground, using the wind to blow the sand smoke away from her breathing room. Carousel managed to cease her coughing after successfully clearing the dust away from her. She was quite taken aback by the sudden crazy encounter of what she otherwise thought was a peaceful forest. When she opened her eyes, she caught sight of another grown pony taking the position of where the three fillies used to be. “Oh, hello there, I’m terribly sorry to trouble you, but-“ the grown pony started. Carousel’s immediate depiction of the pony was a dark purple mare earth pony with two different shades of pink hair, one being brighter than the other. “-you wouldn’t happen to have run into a trio of fillies around here have you?” Carousel had a stunned, yet slightly terrified look on her face. More ruffling sounds could be heard behind the earth pony. Without a moment’s glance, Carousel quickly turned tail and galloped away from the scene. “Wait!” she heard the earth pony call out. Carousel made no attempt to stop. She wanted to get away from the crazy scene as soon as she could. She didn’t look back. When it came to meeting with other ponies, her encounters with them had never entirely been a peaceful one. Almost all of her encounters that she could remember could be described as simply as, crazy encounters. Maybe she was just so bad at interacting with other ponies that she was always alone. Carousel stopped her running after she was sure she brought enough distance between her and the shop that was being run by fillies. Carousel took a look back through the distant to make sure she wasn’t followed. Still being inside the forest, it would be hard to find her, but there were many paths and land marks inside the forest that it wouldn’t be too easy to get lost in. Carousel took a deep breath to calm herself down, using her hoof to slide the collar around her neck. The scratchy feeling caused from the movement of this collar helped her relax. Now that things were peaceful again, she decided to continue her travel. Well, she almost did, but something caught her eye. Taking a look to her right, Carousel caught sight of a strange opening in the forest. She chose to investigate, pushing away the foliage that crossed her path. Upon entering the open field, there was one thing of interest that caught Carousel’s eyes. On the other side’s center field from where she entered, there was a strange pile forged from the forest’s nature. But the pile consisted entirely out of pinecones. More strange than that was, there was something, or someone, lying on top of the pile. Carousel proceeded closer to the pile to investigate. On closer inspections, Carousel identified it as a light blue pony, a unicorn, having a mane color of two different shades of a lighter blue than the coat. This unicorn appeared to be lying on its stomach, sleeping on the pile of pinecones. To think that would even be remotely comfortable… The unicorn’s ears perked up suddenly. Carousel was still approaching this pony before she realized the unicorn possibly heard her approach. The unicorn’s eyes opened slowly, causing Carousel to stop her approach. The unicorn looked directly at Carousel. “Yes?” the unicorn spoke in a serious tone. Now Carousel could recognize that it was another mare. She also realized that she didn’t really have anything to discuss. Clearing her throat, she responded. “Excuse me, I was just-“ The unicorn’s horn shined brightly all of a sudden, interrupting Carousel. The flash was so bright that she had to cover her eyes. The flash was quick and was only bright enough to startle. When Carousel uncovered her eyes, the first thing she noticed was that the pile of pinecones had disappeared, and in its wake stood a blue table stand. The unicorn was sitting at this table stand with a sheet of papers in her hoof, smiling. Lights seemed to be shining on her from out of nowhere. “Greetings fellow citizens of Equestria!” the unicorn started her speech. “The Great and Powerful Trixie is here to bring to you the news today! What do we have today but a magnificent and otherwise tragic discovery! We bring to you today, a wandering pegasus who is oh so helplessly lost! Does The Great and Powerful Trixie see a dark future for this pony? Yes she does. Is there any hope for this poor lost soul?” The lights around this unicorn switched off. A new set of lights then switched on shortly after, but they shined on Carousel instead. She couldn’t tell where they were coming from, but they were surprisingly bright while the rest of the area appeared dark. But what was more confusing was how this unicorn was describing her. Using a hoof to block the light out of her eyes, Carousel responded. “W-wait… I’m not-“ *Poof* A large cloud of pink smoke suddenly burst in front of Carousel. The puff of smoke disappeared quickly. In its place was the unicorn with her horn still magically glowing, hoof to her chest, and eyes closed. “Fear not my fellow companion, for fortune has shined upon you today. The Great and Powerful Trixie knows this-” the unicorn opened her eyes and pointed her hoof at Carousel, “-and it is The Great and Powerful Trixie who shall guide you to your journey.” Carousel put her hoof down and tried to say something, but the unicorn halted her. “No…” The unicorn’s tone lowered as she closed her eyes again. “There’s no need for words.” She put her hoof down and lowered her head. “Let your mind be at ease. The Great and Powerful Trixie will look into your fortune.” The unicorn’s horn glowed slightly brighter. “She will see where you have come, and she will see where you are headed.” The unicorn slowly stepped closer towards Carousel who was really confused by the situation. She could feel a magical presence surrounding her body. The magical touch was very gentle and not being threatening in the slightest. ______________________________________________________________________________ Carousel’s mind wavered. Images were coming to her head again. But they came slowly and gently this time. She closed her eyes and focused on her body. It was almost as if she could see her own body through her mind. Everything else was nonexistent. The only thing she saw was her own body. “It is as I expected,” the unicorn started once again. “I sense it. Something sinister lurks in the mind of this pony, but where is it coming from…” The unicorn used her magic to search more thoroughly around Carousel’s body. Her search was narrowed down to her right wing. “It is somewhere here, I know it is.” The magical aura that surrounded Carousel’s body went into focus around her right wing, leaving everything else and focusing on that wing. “Mmmh…” The unicorn moved her horn closer to that wing. Carousel’s mind waved in response to the unicorn’s words. It was as if she could see what the unicorn was seeing. There on her right wing, a spot was focused in on. There was a burn mark. The image focused completely on that mark. This burn mark was bringing more images to Carousel. Her feelings started wavering. “Ah, I see it. A temple from ancient times, dangerous traps lurking at every step.” The images rushed through Carousel’s head much faster than earlier. The walls were engulfed in flames. She could practically feel their intense heat. “Flames, hot enough to burn even the mightiest of ponies into a crisp. But… where? Where is it coming from?” A large sculpture of a dragon appeared in front of her vision. It was alive, and the flames surrounded it. “Do my eyes deceive me? They do not. You were in the presence of a large dragon, which nearly set its jaws upon you.” The dragon’s jaws shot straight towards her and chomped down, darkening her visions. “No, it did set its jaws upon you, but… oh my… fortune has set upon you, for it was the treasure that had saved you from your moment of peril.” A yellow amulet came into Carousel’s vision. Her mind started to reel. She was chasing after it. “A real dragon’s teeth could chomp through solid diamond, you were fortunate this wasn’t a real one, yet, I am sensing misfortune here… Where is it?” A large claw made itself present around the amulet that Carousel was running after in her visions. The claw closed down and snatched the amulet. She could see the silhouette of the griffon that had taken it. She could hear the laughter coming from it. Carousel’s mind filled with rage. “What is this? It is but a griffon, a griffon that has taken your fortune. I see it. It is flying away even as we speak. But where is the destination… I can sense the presence of a mighty clash between pegasus and griffon. But where is it going to hold? Where?” The vision focused on the griffon’s direction with the land. Arrows pointed towards its direction of flight. The image moved towards that direction. It pointed towards a town with no further details. The map layout made sense to Carousel because it was her mind. It wouldn’t have made sense to any other pony, except for the unicorn in front of her. “That town… a small town called Hoofington. That is where your fortune leads…” ______________________________________________________________________________ The visions started to fall apart. “I-I can’t see anything else…” The unicorn’s horn dimmed. She removed her horn from Carousel’s wing and started stepping back. Reality started coming back to Carousel. She regained her vision, but her mind still seethed with rage. All the lights turned off and the area brightened back up, once again looking like they were in a forest opening rather than a stage. “This is The Great and Powerful Trixie with the news, reporting a clash between pony and griffon to be occurring later today in Hoofington,” the unicorn stated while jotting down some notes in her stack of papers from the table. “Who will be the victor and claim their prize? Trixie isn’t sure, but…” The unicorn flashed her horn, creating a large pink cloud of smoke to form around the table. When the smoke died, the table was gone, and in its place was the pile of pinecones from earlier. She looked back towards Carousel. “The Great and Powerful Trixie does have a request.” She walked towards Carousel who stilled a fury of anger drawn upon her face. Her teeth were grinding, her wings were shivering with wrath, and she was breathing menacingly. “A clash between ponies and griffons, maintaining a battle with a griffon is no easy feat, for if one shall clash with a griffon, one shall clash with their life.” The images of a griffon that had haunted Carousel a long time ago came back to her mind. Surely this was the same one. Thinking about it made her give a deep but silent growl. Her rage fueled rapidly. “If this pegasus manages to succeed in her trial, The Great and Powerful Trixie requests that she will meet back here, tomorrow at noon.” The unicorn placed both hooves on Carousel’s riling shoulders. She looked straight into her eyes, smiling. Carousel glared back, but while her eyes were looking directly at the unicorn’s eyes, they weren’t focused on the unicorn. Her mind focused on that memory of being attacked by that griffon. “There, she will lead you to a journey of magnificence beyond anypony’s imaginations.” The memory was much clearer than ever. And now that griffon had taken her amulet. She had to get it back. “Do you accept?” the unicorn finished. “RAAAAAAAAAAAHH!!!” Carousel let out an enormous screeching cry, flapping her wings rapidly while she remained in place. Her wings caused powerful winds to blow across the meadow, pushing against the unicorn. The winds were so strong that the unicorn had to turn her head and cover her eyes, all the while sliding across the meadow, heading towards the pile of pinecones. Huge waves of dirt filled the air as Carousel continued to vibrate her wings, yelling at a volume so loud, the whole forest could probably hear it. The unicorn’s sliding came to a halt after slamming with a rough thud against the pile of pinecones. Carousel halted her screeching and darted herself in a random direction. She took small altitude into the air, heading towards one of the forest trees, crashing into them and bouncing off of them with such a force. She bounced off of multiple trees, kicking and thrashing about them randomly, causing a crack with each tree she hit, letting leaves and branches get knocked away senselessly, no distinct pattern in mind. Carousel halted her fury by landing behind the pile of pinecones from the unicorn with an audible slam. Carousel was only on the ground for a split second before darting towards the pile at full speed. The unicorn that had been blown into the pinecones couldn’t recover fast enough before Carousel blasted her way through the pile. *Crash!* The pinecones exploded and scattered upon impact while the unicorn was lunged into the air. The unicorn kept her eyes shut. She wasn’t in the air for long as she soon crashed back to the ground on her stomach with her limbs spread. The unicorn grunted as she opened her eyes and lifted her head up from the ground, just in time to see the Carousel take high into the skies. The pinecones that were blasted in the air started tumbling back to the ground. They were all falling in rapidly and randomly. Some seemed to focus on a single spot in front of the unicorn. The unicorn shielded her eyes as they came down. The rain of pinecones ended shortly. The unicorn removed the cover from her eyes to glance down at the small pile that seemed to have formed from that rain. The pile had spelled one word. 'Yes' The unicorn stared off into the direction Carousel had flown, startled by that sudden fury. ______________________________________________________________________________ Current day: “Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo…” Rainbow Dash pondered about their appearance in that forest. She had heard that they had gone on a camping trip and were still there that day. She had a hard time believing everything else had happened, but there was no denying that Carousel could possibly describe them if what she was telling was true. Yet what Carousel was telling was still bothering her. Before Rainbow Dash continued with her part, she looked over to Fluttershy for acceptance. Fluttershy nodded her head in response. This next part would be difficult to retell, but if Fluttershy was comfortable with it, then she was willing to do so.