//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Paths Less Travelled // by Botched Lobotomy //------------------------------// {That is so cheating!} {Look at it from my perspective: how embarrassing would it be if it turned out I chose wrong?} {Shouldn’t you just have, like...I don’t know, taken a risk? Like everypony else does?} {There’s enough you risk in love already! I just wanted to make sure I had the best chance. I’m pleased to say it worked!} {Cheater.} {And what do you think this spell is, hmm?} {That’s...different.} {Both of them are ways to force fate’s hoof. Get the love-train back on track.} {I still think it’s not fair.} {All’s fair in love and war. Besides, it isn’t cheating. I should know, I make the rules!} {Who am I kissing right now, anyway?} {Don’t you remember? Vinyl.} {Whaaat? I was drunk. You don’t go kissing strangers in the cupboard sober.} {Ah, so that’s where we are.} {If I had to guess? At one of my friend Lyra’s parties. She always knew how to throw em weird.} {I think I went to one of those, actually.} {No way! You think we ever ended up at the same one?} {Would you remember if we had?} {Probably not. I guess we didn’t, then, if you don’t remember either.} {I wouldn’t say that rules it out, exactly...} {Princess!} {What? You don’t go kissing strangers in the cupboard sober, after all.} Light click. Draw back. As the stars fade from your eyesight, you trace your partner’s cheek with the very edge of your forehoof. Lover-gentle. Not a stranger, then. Soft glow upon soft fur, almost white in this bright light... White fur. Red eyes. Blue mane. {No way. You can’t...Princess Cadance?} You don’t remember this at all.