//------------------------------//
// Prologue 
// Story: A Twist of Fates 
// by BTPoke 
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	The procedures continued, day after day.

Ponies cried out in agony, their essences tearing away from themselves. It can't have been pleasant to see a piece of yourself taken away from you like a sticker off of a wall.

"Oh, Celestia, no! Please, stop!"

Others cried out in fear as lives were changed, destinies rewritten, and fates overtaken.

"Why are you doing this?!"

She couldn't bother to silence them. Even if she were able, why do so? She deserved to hear their screams. Longed to suffer for the torment she delivered.
After all, she was stealing their livelihood. Their proof of living. Their entire destinies.

This was Her life. Forcibly changing fates had become her duty. Her task in the name of Equestria. Her constant sin for a higher purpose. ssSome would say Her efforts were for the good of secrecy, peace, and safety. However, She couldn't help feeling a sense of detachment towards what were originally her passions. The organization paid her well, kept her safe, and even gave her a home.At the same time, however, She wasn't allowed to leave. Her abilities let out into the world would be a danger in and of itself, so why risk it?Why give a mare that originally desired a life none to call her own?

Why unleash her abilities into an otherwise satisfied populace?

Her life had seemed completely laid out for her, and it all looked so good on paper. That was before the Organization truly understood what she was capable of. Suddenly, she wasn't a pony to be used to help keep spies a secret. To them, she was nothing more than a tool. A thing to use for their own purposes. As a result, more ponies were supplied to her, more testing funded. She was now one of their more valuable assets, and they intended to use her, and keep her. What free will she once had evaporated within a day, and now She was a prisoner of War.

So she stayed, forcibly, in the hands of the most secretive organization in Equestrian history. A network of spies, keeping the peace behind the scenes. And She was their puppet, providing them with a more substantial means of hiding identities.  After all, makeup can only do so much to change a mirror into your soul.

She was found to be the only being capable of performing this feat of magical ability. She alone could keep the network of spies that much more secret. With a price.
The marks had to come from somewhere, after all, and the cries of outrage, pain, and fear were a testament to that. They had gotten to the point of appearing in her dreams, begging for their destinies to be returned to them. 
She declined every time, saying it was for the good of Equestria. 
Every time, she received the same response:
"How?"

She loathed her lot in life. Why Her? Why must She be destined to continue this task that the world had delivered unto her? It became so that She began to hate the very idea of "destiny." She desired a Land without Luck. A Plain Without Providence. Most of all, she wanted a chance for freedom.

One day, She saw her chance.

Battle cries echoed throughout the facility, on that fateful day. A shadow befitting that of giants loomed over dozens. A Bee-Bear, they called it. Lives were thrown away, and Equestria’s dark secret had finally been uncovered and destroyed, with the unexpected escape of a single creature. Not a single pony could have seen it coming.
Celestia denied any accountability, and hundreds were left without homes and jobs. More still left without lives to live. The network of spies that had tried so hard to keep their secrecy was now wide in the open, and they shriveled underneath the scrutiny of the populace.
She used that opportunity to flee. Far to the east she fled, to the farthest desert. It was there she stopped, and began to think. For a pony with mental damage, thinking is never a worthwhile idea.

All of that time, changing marks, rerouting the course of life as all ponies knew it. She had changed the lives of many, mostly for the worse. Now, countless ponies live with a changed destiny. A changed destiny She could no longer change. 
She used to be in such control, and now she has to fail when the "wonderful land of Equestria" needed her most.
The thought sickened Her, caused her hatred of Destiny to grow, unbridled, until she let out a guttural scream of agony. All the lives she ruined, the lives she destroyed, the lives she lost.

And so many others that could be saved.

With wide eyes and a crazed smile on Her face, her sanity finally shattered. As the crazed realization hit, she realized there was more she could still do. Her life of rewriting the assorted fates of Equestria had come to an end, was her first thought.
Then, as Her mind further contorted, She realized that Her task was far from over. There were most likely many that still suffered from the curse that is Destiny. She herself had once thought that the retched place that HAD been her home was once her destiny, and She had managed to escape. There had to be others that were subjected to the same torment.She was truly the only one that could save them. She alone that could change destiny. She alone that could rewrite the fates of many. She alone that could alter the fate of Equestria itself.

For Starlight Glimmer, this had been the beginning. A new life, a new destiny, and a new chance. Her life in hiding had, for a very brief time, been over, but why stop there?  Starlight had been kept in secret for so long that she had become accustomed to it. Throwing herself out in the open seemed like a risky plan, anyway. There was so much revenge to be served, and so many more lives to change. Why ruin that with the first few radicals to throw themselves against her? This way, at least, she could cultivate her new plan in secret.
She had a knack for twisting fate, so maybe it was time for a more fundamental alteration?

After all, that was, apparently, her "destiny."