You Can Fight Fate

by Eakin


An Uncertain Future

AN UNCERTAIN FUTURE

I can’t believe it’s been three months.

A whole season of spectacularly unspectacular routine. Wonderfully boring days that blur together with barely anything to distinguish them from one another. Days where the biggest thing I worry about is ‘do I feel like white or rye toast with my eggs’ instead of ‘which ancient evil is going to try to kill me next?’

At the thought of food, my eyes snap open and I sit up in bed. It’s an hour before sunrise, and despite only going to bed three hours ago I feel completely alert, not to mention ravenously hungry. I don’t seem to be getting much sleep these days, but Azalea’s told me that when I am out I sleep like the dead. I lean down and place a gentle little kiss on her head. She won’t be up for a while, but I’m going to get an early start.

Creeping downstairs towards the library’s kitchen in total darkness, I find I have no trouble at all navigating the cupboards and pantries to pull out exactly what I want. A couple pieces of fruit, half a loaf of bread and the jam to go with it, a bowl of cereal, a danish. Yeah, that’ll get me started. It’s actually a bit of a shock when I open the refrigerator door and the tiny little light bulb is the first light to strike my face since I woke up. Pulling out some juice, I briefly consider whether to make a cup of coffee just for old time’s sake. I don’t think I’ve had a sip of it in nearly six weeks. Not through any conscious effort to quit, I just haven’t felt like I needed it. I’m glad that I’m up before Azalea is, because frankly my table manners are atrocious. I cannot get the food down fast enough and I’m just too hungry to care. Twelve minutes later, the very first rays of the pre-dawn sun come shining in, landing on four empty plates, a dirty glass, and one stuffed little unicorn.

I groan as the meal settles, with guilty satisfaction. This must be why my clothes don’t fit right anymore. Now that there’s a little bit of light entering the library, I head to the dim bathroom and examine myself in the mirror. Heh, and to think Princess Celestia used to tell me that reading by candlelight would wreck my eyes. My low-light vision’s better than ever.

I take a good hard look at myself. Despite the meal I just finished, which was far from atypical for me these days, I’m svelter than I was a few months ago. More muscle, but leaner and stronger than I used to be. Must be my new exercise program.

After five minutes of brushing my teeth and washing my face, my stomach is settled enough to head out for a run. I started distance running about a month and a half ago on a whim, and I never realized what I’d been missing. Now if I go more than a day or two without putting in at least a couple miles at a hard gallop, my hooves start to itch and tingle to feel the ground pounding underneath them. Slipping on some running shoes, I sneak past Spike’s room and out the front door, slowly closing it with the quietest little click of the latch.

Few ponies are even up at this hour, much less out and about. That’s just fine with me. Even just trotting down an empty street is a pleasure. A baby bird chirps a couple of blocks to the south, and even from here I catch a whiff of freshly baking bread from Sugarcube Corner across town. I once tried to go for a run before breakfast, and a quarter hour later ended up gorging myself on their pastries. Wiped out a week's food budget on a single feeding frenzy. The sights, sounds, smells, everything about the world around me just feels more real than it used to, like I’m feeling them with entirely new senses my brain hasn’t quite figured out how to interpret just yet. I canter down the street to warm up my legs, grinning to myself as I approach the edge of town. Three more buildings... two more... I lower my head and my muscles quiver with anticipation.

I cross the arbitrary, invisible line at the edge of town and cut loose into a full gallop. I’m absolutely flying across the fields and roads towards the path in the Whitetail Woods I usually run along, a longer version of the Running of the Leaves course. There are a couple of times where I feel like my hooves aren’t even touching the ground at all. It’s a shame I’m going by too fast to really appreciate the scenery, but I have to get my heart rate up or this run will barely count. A few miles into the run, just when I’m finally starting to work up a light sweat, I hear a voice calling for me to slow down.

Mildly annoyed, I slow to a walk and despair as the pounding in my chest vanishes almost immediately. I’m having to push myself harder and harder every day just to recapture that sensation. Rainbow Dash glides over me and turns around, flapping to keep up. “Wow, Twilight, I know you told us you’d been running, but you didn’t tell us you were getting that fast! Color me impressed.”

“Thanks, Rainbow Dash. I have been reading a lot of books about building physical endurance. I think they're working.” A year ago, Rainbow Dash rarely surfaced before noon. But the habits ingrained in her through the memory of a decade’s worth of farm labor did something I would have thought impossible even for the Elements of Harmony: Turned her into a morning pony. “What are you doing out in the woods? Training?”

“Nah, I thought I’d get my weather work out of the way first thing, then head over to Zap... to Sweet Apple Acres.”

“How are you and Applejack doing these days?” I ask, feigning casual disinterest. It’s a subject the other girls and I have been tiptoeing around for weeks now. For the first month after we got back, the two couldn’t even be in the same room as one another for five minutes before one of them would make some flimsy excuse to escape, but at some point they must have broached the initial awkwardness, because now they spend more time than ever together. Neither of them have been forthcoming about the exact nature of their relationship, if they even know themselves, and none of us wants to push them into talking about it before they’re ready.

“We’re cool, I guess,” says Rainbow Dash, a phrase that could mean anything and therefore means nothing. “I just wanted to pick up some moisture from the pond out here in case the humidity in town was getting too low.”

“Well, when I was there a half an hour ago it felt like around twenty-eight percent,” I say.

Rainbow Dash stops in midair. “You stopped and took humidity measurements while you were going out running? That’s pretty nerdy even for you, Twi.”

“I didn’t stop, I mean, I was there and it felt like...” I trail off. I’m sure that I’m right, even precisely right. I didn’t even think anything of it at the time. I was only looking around. The roof of this house is blue, this street is dusty, the humidity is twenty-eight percent, I just knew.

“Well, thanks for trying to help but you should probably leave stuff like that to us pegasi. Weather is kinda our thing,” said Rainbow Dash, her attention already drifting away from me. “Well, I’ll catch you around later. Keep up that awesome speed!” She flies off. I try to recapture that same escapist sensation of movement I had a moment ago, but now I’m distracted by how self-conscious I’ve gotten about the atmosphere around me. I can taste something tingling on the edge of my tongue, something... hailstormy? Just an odd feeling in the air. The nagging sense that I’m missing something spoils the rest of my run.

As I canter back into town a bit later, I almost manage to walk past Sugarcube Corner without stopping in for a treat. Almost. But the newfound appreciation for life that’s enhancing all my other senses makes sweets positively irresistible. For some reason, the effect seems most pronounced on cake.

When I open the door to the bakery, I briefly wondered if I haven’t stepped into a menagerie by accident. Animals race around the room, and surround a table where three patrons are seated. One of them is trembling as he lifts a cookie with shaky hooves, eyes never leaving the giant black bear that’s looming just a small ways away. Another takes a sip from a water glass, half draining it, and there’s a sharp cry as a huge condor swoops down from above and hovers over the table. It refills the glass with a pitcher of water hanging from a talon and flies back up again, the sloshing ice water splashing another patron on the way up.

“Uh, Pinkie?” I call out as I step inside. I slowly make my way over to the counter, careful not to step on any of the small critters running around underhoof. I ring the service bell at the counter and immediately regret it. I have to clasp my hooves over my ears to block out the cacophony of squawks and hoots that break out.

Drawn out by the noise, Pinkie Pie sticks her head out from the kitchen in back. “Oh, hey Twilight. Did you want to place an order? Just ask the goat.”

I look over at the goat standing next to me, and he stares back, nonplussed. We hold eye contact for a second, then he leans over the counter and pulls a napkin from the dispenser, slowly chewing on it. “...Maybe later. What’s going on in here?”

Pinkie’s grin grows wider. “Oh, the Cakes are out of town for the next few days and a whole bakery is lots to manage for just me, so I thought since I was so good at training animals to do tricks in my other life, and I’m so good at baking in this one, why not combine the two?” There’s a loud crash from the kitchen. “I may not have quite worked out all the kinks. One second.” She turns back to something I can’t quite see. “No no no, no amphibians or reptiles in the walk-in freezer, or you’ll really be cold blooded! If you need something in there, ask the penguins.”

“Okay, so they’re, uh, helping you in the kitchen too?" I look around the room. Maybe Pinkie’s on to a half a good idea here. I can’t even guess how she got the jaguar into that tuxedo to serve as maitre'd. “What’s the bear doing?”

“The customer specially requested to eat with him!” Pinkie cheerfully declares. “Well, technically he only asked for one of the bear’s claws, but here at Sugarcube Corner we believe that going the extra mile is key to good customer service!”

“Maybe I’ll just grab something from your bread box and be on my way. Just put it on my tab,” I suggest.

“Okie dokie lokie! If you need help finding anything just ask the king cobra who’s napping in there for help.”

I freeze. She has to be joking. Not even she would... “Pinkie, is there really a king cobra in your bread box?”

“No, not really,” she says. I let out a sigh of relief. “I asked him where he was king of, and he didn’t really answer me, so I think he might be a government-in-exile cobra instead. I’ve never heard of those being venomous!”

I begin to slowly back towards the door. “Well, I just stopped in to say hi. Hi! There, I said it so now I’ll just-”

“Actually, as long as you’re here, could you help explain something from a letter a pony in a suit left for me?”

“Sure.”

“What’s a health code violation?”

----------------------------

I return to the library an hour later, exhausted for all the wrong reasons. I didn’t even get a decent workout and it’s already mid-morning. Still, I did just run seven miles, even if it wasn’t especially taxing. I go through a few quick stretching exercises as soon as I’m through the door, and yelp as one especially troublesome muscle group cramps up. I grumble. Why does this one patch on my back keep hurting me? I’ve read everything I can about chiropractic treatments and proper posture, but nothing seems to work right. At least Azalea’s getting good at back rubs. “Anypony home?” I call out. Usually I get back in time to catch Azalea before she heads over to the market to start selling flowers, but the detour to Sugarcube Corner was an unexpected delay.

A minute later, Spike emerges, yawning, from his room. “Morning, Twilight. You want breakfast?”

“Spike, I ate hours ago. I think there’s still a couple of tourmaline-crusted waffles in the fridge from yesterday if you just want something quick. I’m going to hop in the shower.”

A hot shower goes a long way towards relieving the pain in my back, and I step out clean and refreshed, ready to face the rest of the day. When I return to the main room with a towel wrapped around my head, the first thing I notice is an annoyed-looking Spike waiting for me. “Twilight, I went shopping two days ago. How is the pantry nearly empty again?”

“Uh... I was hungry?”

“I bought enough food for a week! Are we...” his lips tremble a bit. “Can we afford how much you’ve been eating lately? I could go look for gems to sell, if you need me to.”

I’m shocked to hear that coming from him. I’ve taught the Spike the basics of personal finance, how to manage an allowance, and the equivalent of several semesters of university-level economics the one time he asked me how money works and I got slightly carried away. Not entirely sure how much of that actually took. Still, I never wanted him to feel like it was something he needed to concern himself with. “You don’t have to worry about that, Spike. Last month, Luna sent me a big extra bag of bits in addition to my usual stipend.”

“She did? She just gave you all that money? Why?” he asks.

A good question. “Well, when I asked her about it she said it was an ‘advance against an upcoming readjustment in salary to bring it into line with the actual scope of my achievements and future duties.’” Spike looks at me blankly. “No, I don’t really know what she meant by that either and she wouldn’t explain when I asked, beyond that she didn’t want me worrying about financial pressures. Still, we have plenty of bits. In fact...” I open a drawer and lift a half-dozen or so coins from inside it, “...once your room and the kitchen are straightened up, why don’t you skip the rest of your chores for today and take the afternoon off? Just be back in time to help me with dinner before Shining Armor and Cadence get here, let’s say four o’clock.”

Spike’s jaw drops at the twin gifts of a surprise advance on his allowance and an unexpected day off. “You mean it?”

“I sure do! You’ve earned it.”

“Thanks, Twilight,” he jumps up and gives me a hug around my neck. “By the way, a letter from Princess Celestia arrived while you were in the shower. I was chewing at the time, so sorry if it’s a little sticky.”

I turn my attention to the letter sitting on the table nearby. I open it and as I scan it I break into a wide grin. I run up into my room and gather up a pile of clothing that I meant to take to Rarity for alterations some time tomorrow, but my plans just changed. I dash down the stairs with my clothes in tow. “Spike! Lock up the the library if you leave, I have to run over to Carousel Boutique right this second.”

“All of a sudden? Why the rush?”

“Because,” I say, grinning even wider that before, “the 10:07 train from Canterlot got in two minutes ago.”

-----------------------

All this running I’ve been doing has at least one major advantage: I can get where I’m going a lot faster than before when I hurry. I stop in front of Rarity’s shop and take a deep breath so I seem calm when I head inside. I think I got here first.

“Hello?” I call out as I step inside. The now-familiar sound of two sewing machines working together rings out through the display space. “Rarity? Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy’s head pops up from her work when she hears her name. “Hello, Twilight. Were you looking for me? Rarity has a big order coming up, and I could use a few extra bits, so I’m helping her out.”

“I guessed when I saw that Pinkie was watching all your animals. You know that she’s having them help her run Sugarcube Corner?”

Fluttershy shudders. “Oh, my, I hope they’re doing a good job. Is everything alright over there?”

“Kind of. Besides the king cobra in her bread box.” I sigh. It’s Pinkie. It’ll work out somehow, or so I keep telling myself.

“She put Mr. King Cobra where?” she shouts, suddenly intense. I take a small step back.

“In her bread box. She said he was napping there.”

“Mr. King Cobra is gluten intolerant!” she shouts. “Rarity, I have to-”

“Go ahead, dear,” Rarity calls out from the next room.

“I’m sorry, if you don’t want to pay me for this hour-”

Rarity steps into the showroom, measuring tape and fabric draped over her and her work glasses ever so slightly askew on her face. “Absolutely not, Fluttershy. Of course I’ll pay you. Honestly, you’d be a bargain at twice the price. If you won’t accept more than what we’ve agreed on, you simply must let me give you a few outfits. Now go on,” she looks askance at me as Fluttershy rushes past me and out the door. “Really, Twilight? More alterations?”

“There’s no rush, just whenever you get around to it. Usual rate?”

She sighs. “Yes, I suppose. I might as well do it soon. You’ll probably be some entirely different shape next week, if the last two months are anything to judge by. What’s the problem now?”

“The collars are too snug.”

Rarity wraps her measuring tape around my neck, and squeezes it just the tiniest bit tighter than I think she really needs to. She examines her readings. “Honestly Twilight, I’ve never seen a growth spurt like this in a mare your age.”

“Well, I have been working out. I must be building extra muscles or something,” I suggest. Despite my nonchalance, it has been bugging me. I’d be more worried, except all these changes have felt so good, and so natural. Like my skin was a size too small and I never noticed until it wasn’t. Besides, the clothes aren’t the real reason I came over here. Any second now...

The door opens and Morning Glow steps inside. “Lady Rarity!” he says, a bit flustered. “You’re looking lovely as usual, how are you today?”

Rarity’s earlier annoyance disappears in an instant. “Oh, Prince Morning Glow! Quite well, and yourself?”

“Rarity, I’ve told you a hundred times, just because Princess Celestia is my mother doesn’t mean I’m an actual prince.”

Rarity smiles and steps maybe just a bit closer to Morning Glow than she has to. That mare doesn’t do anything by half measures. “Prince Morning Glow, there are things that matter a great deal more than titles. I will stop calling you a prince the minute you stop living up to the ideal of one.” Now he’s definitely flustered. “But you didn’t need to come all the way from Canterlot just to pick up the suit you ordered. That’s what shipping is for.”

Morning Glow runs a nervous hoof through his mane. “I guess not, but I just came to pick it up myself in case you wanted me.” He blinks a few times. “For measurements and a final fitting, I mean. Have to make sure everything’s comfortable, right?”

“Mmm, well of course,” says Rarity. “It’s not enough for fashion to look good. I’ll do everything in my power to make sure you feel good, as well.” This from a mare who I know for a fact owns a variety of corsets. I roll my eyes, quite certain neither of them are looking.

Morning Glow does a double take, noticing my presence in the room for the first time as Rarity walks into the back to collect the outfit. “Twilight! Uh, hello, sorry, didn’t see you there.” I bet he didn’t, seeing as how thoroughly concealed I am standing in the middle of an open room five lengths away from him. But I guess he was focused on something else. “My mother sends her regards, as always. Wow, we always do seem to run into one another when I come to see Rarity, huh? I mean when I come to the boutique for an outfit.”

“Yep, what a crazy coincidence,” I say. Surely the fact that a particular Princess has a very personal interest in his romantic life but doesn’t want to be seen as overbearing, and the fact that I’m her student are just crazy coincidences too. I was wrong before; I actually do make a half-decent spy. “What’s the occasion for this outfit?”

“It’s for next weekend,” he says. “Aunt Luna is holding an all-night festival of street music. Mom can’t make it, so she asked me to go in her stead. It’ll be fun.”

“Oh?” I ask, feigning surprise. Shooting Star wrote to me about the festival a week ago. She’s a great deal more tolerable as a pen pal than pony to pony. “That sounds like a long night. Are you going alone?”

“I... I...” Morning Glow stammers as Rarity returns with his suit.

“Rarity, what do you think of street music festivals?” I ask her. Yes, I’m shameless. No, I don’t care.

“It sounds like a delightful evening! I only wish I could attend, but I’m sure I’ll have a fine night here as well. Alone. Not doing anything. Wishing somepony would ask me attend some sort of event with them,” she says.

Morning Glow clears his throat. Thank the Princesses, I was starting to worry we’d have to clobber him over the head before he caught on. “Lady Rarity, I would be honored if... I mean if you’d like to accompany me...”

I slip out of the boutique while they’re both distracted. From the way Rarity’s eyes glitter, I already know I’ll be writing back to the Princess with good news. My stomach rumbles yet again. Good thing I’m meeting Azalea for an early lunch. I wander towards the market and find her in the usual place next to Applejack. When she sees me, she looks moderately put out. “Well, well, the prodigal pony returns. I waited up for you last night until almost midnight, do you even sleep any more?” She kisses me anyway. She’s seemed a little worried about me for a couple weeks now.

“Sorry, got caught up in a book and didn’t come up until about two. How are you doing today, Applejack? I saw Dash earlier, she said you guys were going to meet up later?”

“She said that? Well, that makes one of us she’s told. Honestly, that mare has got to learn how to communicate,” says Applejack. “Still, she’s been awful helpful around the farm, what with the harvest coming up.”

I resist the urge to grab her and shake her while demanding she tell me if the two of them are an item. Inquiring minds want to know! “Did you two ever try to see if the Sonic Rainboom could change your apples?”

“Nah, when ah asked Granny ‘bout it, she said that even if it did the old ways of doin’ it were still better. Ah think she’s right too, our jam tastes a whole heck of a lot better than ah remember the other stuff tastin’, even if we can’t make as much of it. Then when the Mayor caught wind of the fact that there’d be Sonic Rainbooms goin’ off every week over the farm and she put her hoof down. Hasn’t kept her from comin’ over, though.”

“Applejack, would you watch my cart while Twilight and I go to lunch?” asks Azalea. “Help yourself to a couple of flowers if you feel like it.”

“Sure thing, sugar. Y’all have a good time.”

Azalea flips a sign from ‘Open’ to ‘Closed’ and waves to Applejack. By unspoken mutual agreement we head for Reuben’s, a couple sandwiches and maybe some soup to go with it sound perfect to me right about now. On the way, though, we run into Ditzy Doo. Well, more accurately she runs into me at a not-inconsiderable velocity. “Oops, sorry Twilight!” she says as I pick myself up and dust myself off. “Letter for you.”

I take the letter from her in my magic, and after a quick thanks Ditzy takes off again along her mail route. I examine the letter as we take our seat at a table outside the deli and place our orders with the waiter. We’ve been here often enough that menus are superfluous. The envelope carries a Stalliongrad return address, which gives away the sender before I even open it.

“Who’s the letter from?” asks Azalea, helping herself to a petal from the vase in the middle of the table.

“It’s from Star Gazer. She’s coming back from the Stalliongrad Observatory and said she’d like to stop in Ponyville and see me again.”

Azalea’s smile falls away. “Oh, right. The homophobe who you used to be married to. That’ll go well.”

I shoot her a look. I was open about everything from the other timeline with her, and even though she’s said she’s okay with what happened it’s still a point of friction between us. “Azalea, that was a long time ago. She’s told me she’s sorry about what she did, and I want to give her a chance to reconnect with me. I’m sure that she and her husband aren’t going to try to steal me away from you.”

She sighs. “I know that, Twilight, I really do. I’m just worried that seeing her again is going to dredge up a lot of bad stuff for you. It sounds like what she did really hurt you for a long time. Although if I do think she’s making eyes at you I reserve the right to make out with you in front of her.”

I almost choke on the water I’m drinking, but manage to get by with just a couple of coughs. “Just as long as you don’t do that when you meet Cadence and my brother tonight.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t. Especially not after you were so great about getting dragged along to my family reunion the other weekend. Don’t change the subject, though. Are you sure you want to meet Star Gazer? What if she doesn’t react well when you tell her what happened?”

I do pause and think about that. It’s something I’ve been thinking a lot about over the last couple weeks, to be honest, and I don’t think I’ll really know if I’m ready until it actually happens. “I think... it’s something I need to do. I have to let that go. I don’t... I don’t want to carry something that toxic anymore. I’ve seen what kind of pony I’d be if I did, and it isn’t who I want to become.”

Our meals arrive, two of them mine and one Azalea’s, and as the waiter places them on the tabletop Azalea reaches over and brushes a strand of my mane away from my face. “Twilight, you are such an impossibly wonderful pony it’s actually annoying sometimes. If it does get to be too much, I’ll be there for you, okay?”

“I know.” I say gently and stare back at her, my hunger forgotten for just a second. Nothing could possibly ruin this moment.

Why do I even think that kind of thing?

A gust of air suddenly rushes at us, and a deep penetrating sound makes the table start to shake. Azalea and I both turn to look at it’s source as the air crackles with white hot energy at a point in the middle of the street. My jaw drops as space twists and warps, distorting my view of the buildings beyond. With a blinding rush of power, we’re forced to look away for a moment, when we turn back, there’s a pony standing there.

It’s me. A few more wrinkles around her eyes and a few years older, but unmistakably me. “But... what...”

“Twilight! Azalea!” shouts the other pony as she runs over to our table. She stops and catches her breath. “Thank the Princesses I found you! You have to come with me!”

“Huh? But, what, why...” I can’t form any coherent thoughts. Not again. Please not again. “Why do you need both of us? Does something happen to us in the future?”

“No, no, you two turn out fine. It’s our foals, girls! Something’s got to be done about our foals!”

What? Foals? No, that’s impossible. This cannot be happening. I look over to Azalea to see how she’s taking this...

...Only to see her rolling on the ground clutching her sides with laughter.

“Hee hee hee, oh, I needed that,” she says as she calms down. “Hello again, Discord.”

“Discord?” I ask and turn back. He’s dropped the disguise, and returned to his normal shape.

“Ooh, I thought for sure I had you two,” he says. “What was wrong with my Twilight? Was I not high strung enough? Should I have worn glasses? I knew I should have worn glasses.”

I relax a bit, and I actually do laugh a little. “Alright, you got me. Totally had me going there.”

“Well, at least you’ve learned how to take a joke. You though,” he points a talon at Azalea, “I’m going to have to get you double later on for wrecking my little prank before it could even get started.”

Azalea giggles. “I’ll look forward to it.”

With a snap, Discord vanishes again, leaving the restaurant exactly as he found it. I’m pretty sure I’ve figured out which Discord won that fight they had. I turn back to Azalea. “How could you tell that wasn’t really me from the future? I couldn’t even tell.”

She gets surprisingly nervous all of the sudden, and fidgets around refusing to look at me before she answers. “There’s something I didn’t tell you about the day you took out the Regalia. When I was coming back in through the window, and you were channeling the Elements, I think I saw something. Something that hasn’t happened yet, involving you. For just an instant, you looked different. The reason I could tell that Discord wasn’t really you from the future... well, he missed a pretty big detail. Two details, technically.”

“You saw my destiny?” I ask, gobsmacked. “Why would you keep that from me?”

“Because I wasn’t even sure it really meant anything, or even if I saw what I thought I did. Besides, I didn’t want you to get all worried over it only for it to turn out to be nothing.”

I gulp. “Is it... something I should be worried over?”

“No. Even if it comes true, it absolutely isn’t. Look, Twilight...” she bites her lip and thinks for a moment. I don’t interrupt. “Let me put it like this. Change is scary, especially a big change. Sometimes it feels even bigger than it actually is, and you can’t see how things can ever go back to being like the way they were. I know how that felt when it happened to me. But the thing you helped me realize is that I could still decide for myself how things would turn out. Some things were different, some weren’t, and a lot of things actually got better. I thought I was just getting swept along, and I forgot that I had a say in what was happening. Part of the reason I didn’t want to tell you is because you’d jump to a lot of conclusions based on questionable assumptions. If something does happen, just know that it doesn’t have to change the pony who you are on the inside, and that I’ll be there to help you any way I can.”

I sit back, my sandwiches forgotten. If I have some grand destiny ahead of me, I want to know. “Would you tell me?”

Azalea considers this, then she grins. “Such knowledge carries a terrible price, Twilight. To learn such secrets you must make a sacrifice, to appease the powers that be. Oooooooooh,” she waves her hooves in circles. I sigh, lift my pickle from my plate, and pass it to her. She grabs it from midair and chomps down with a happy crunch, smiling as she chews and swallows it. “Your sacrifice is accepted. Very well. Your destiny is...”

She drags the pause out as long as she can, and I can’t help but lean in a little.

“...to take me to get ice cream after we’re done with lunch.”

“Azalea! I’m serious!” I say.

“So am I, and I don’t mean about the ice cream. Well, about the ice cream too, but mostly about not telling you what I saw.” She bites into her sandwich, and I follow suit as we sit eating in silence. I’ve polished off the first sandwich I ordered, and I’m sure Azalea can tell I’m annoyed at her. She gulps down a mouthful. “Do you want to know why I’m not telling you what I think your destiny is?”

“Yeah, that’d be nice,” I snap.

“Because I don’t believe in destiny.”

That stops me in my tracks. “You don’t believe in it?”

“Nope. I think obsessing about some greater plan or purpose means you miss out on what actually matters in life. I’m making my life up a day at a time, and you know what? I like it that way. All the best things that have ever happened to me have been things I never planned or expected. Becoming a pony? Falling in love with you? Never supposed to happen. I think that just makes the fact that it did anyway that much more special. I’m not going to tell you what your destiny is, because it’s for you to decide for yourself. Except for the ice cream. That’s definitely happening.”

Azalea munches away while I think about that. “But... but the Elements, and the Regalia. Destiny has to be a real thing. It’s why we fought against them in the first place.”

“Know what I think is more important than the fact that you fought them?” she asks.

“What?”

“The fact that you won.”

I put down the last half of my sandwich, and push the hay fries away. I’ve lost my appetite. “For me to decide, huh?” Azalea nods at me and finishes her meal. We watch each other for a few minutes, then I feel an irresistible grin slowly spread over my face. “I think I could get used to that.”

I’m on the cusp of something big. Something life changing, and I know it. There’s going to be good days and bad days, and I’m going to make mistakes, and things beyond my control are going to completely upend plans I was counting on following, and I might not get a happily ever after.

Life’s a lot more complicated than happily ever after. So forget that.

I leave some money on the table and we leave to get some ice cream. After that? Nopony knows.

But no matter what, we’re all going to live eventfully ever after.