Lost Fate

by Fluxxdog

Chapter 6: Sympathy for the Unicorn

Chapter 6: Sympathy for the Unicorn

A sky blue unicorn with a dark blue mane stepped off the train and took a deep breath. Just a couple more days until his birthday. And Ponyville’s first day of spring happened to fall on it this year! He learned his little sister had her cute-ceañera last week. A cutie mark in the shape of a major chord. They knew she would go into music.

He just wished he could have been there.

He had the life he chose, but he didn’t regret it. He told his parents he had to leave and he likely wouldn’t be able to come back for some time. They were about to ask why and he’d told them flat out, “Don’t ask. Tell Choir her I love her. I have to go.” His little sister, Moonlit Choir, so alive.

Out of nowhere, she was near death, ill from a malady they couldn’t identify. One night, he was walking to Donut Joe’s, when a voice beckoned him. The voice was hidden in shadow, save for what looked the tip of a misshapen blue horn. It offered the money to heal her, but there was a price. He readily agreed. The voice tossed out a pair of saddle bags. “Everything you need is in there. Maps, bits, ponies you’ll need to pull it off. You’re to find a scroll with two…” No, that wasn’t right. Why did he keep thinking two? “…three triangles in a circle pointing at each other. Bring that to me and your little sister is as good as cured. You have 2 weeks.”

The job was to steal a scroll from the Starswirl the Bearded wing. The details were laid out. He was to find five ponies. A purple unicorn with a black muzzle who worked at a library would find the scroll. A blue pegasus who hated her family would ensure the way was clear. A gray earth pony with a scar would help two of them over a wall. A yellow pegasus with a gambling debt would provide eyes on the inside. A green earth pony with a very long mane would bypass the spells by using plants rather than metal to get in through the window.

Each pony he was told to find was hired, only offering exactly what he was told to offer. Each one agreed, somewhat reluctantly. After all, they were stealing from Princess Celestia herself. But the price was right. As they went to complete their job, he hid the money in the dead drop locations that were marked. Then he burned everything except the saddlebags. They returned. He gave them their papers for payment and they went their separate ways. He would have liked to gotten to know the unicorn better, but instructions said to separate and get out of Canterlot quickly.

Curiosity got the better of him and he looked at the scroll. Sure enough, there was the symbol, the circle with tw… three triangles pointing at each other. He dropped the scroll where he was supposed to, headed home, made his peace, and left.

Now, he was going to celebrate his birthday. He had heard of Sugarcube Corner, home of 2 of the best bakers in Equestria and de facto headquarters for the party pony herself, Pinkie Pie, Element of Laughter.

As much fun as she sounded, he didn’t quite need the excitement.

---

“Hello! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner!” Her voice even sounded pink. … For some reason he kept thinking of non-visual things as colorful.

“Hi there, I wanted to order a cake.”

“Ooh, what’s the occasion?! Is it a birthday? I bet it’s for a birthday! Who’s birthday is it? Your mom? Your dad? Your little sister who you haven’t seen in a really really really long time?”

He just blinked. “Uh, no. It’s for me.”

Pinkie just stopped in her tracks. “Wait, why are you getting a birthday cake for yourself?”

“Because it’s my birthday in a couple days and I wanted to get a cake for it.” Duh.

“Oh, and your friends are gonna get cake but you don’t think it’ll be enough so you want to get more cake for your party, right?”

Again, he just blinked. “No. No party for me. It’s the one day out of the year I take for myself. And as luck would have, it’s gonna be on the first day of spring in Ponyville. So I’m going to take the one day for myself, eat some cake, and enjoy the first day of spring.”

Pinkie seemed visibly upset. “But what about your friends and family?”

“I don’t have any friends or family in Ponyville. Which is why I came here. I can always go home to Canterlot to have a party with my family.” This wasn’t a lie. In fact, if he just showed up, they would likely celebrate it. He was tempted to, but the instructions were clear.

Pinkie still seemed upset. “But it’s just so sad to be alone on your birthday.”

Now he was getting upset in a different way. “Miss…”

“You can call me Pinkie! All my friends do!”

“…Okay, Pinkie…” Little did he know he had sealed his fate. “I tend to be around a lot of different people all year. A day of quiet is a gift to myself.”

“Okay! What kind of cake do you want?”

Finally. “I’d like a carrot cake with a lemon cream cheese frosting.”

Pinkie just went wide-eyed. “Are you serious?! I wanted to have fun making your cake but Mr. Cake insists on making all the carrot cakes and made me Pinkie Promise™ not to ever make a carrot cake if they’re ordered but he’s not going to be back until late tomorrow since he’s on a delivery to Appleloosa ‘cause they ordered a special batch of chocolate chip cookies for the sheriff because he got hurt when somepony got into a fight at the Salt Block and they want to make sure he gets better soon and what better way to cheer up a pony than with cookies? The answer is of course cupcakes, which I said I’d be happy-”

“Pinkie, the cake?”

“… … … What cake?”

“When can I pick up the carrot cake I ordered?”

“Oh, right. You should be able to pick it up at noon the day after Winter Wrap-Up.”

He fished out some bits and put them on the counter. “I shall be back then.”

“Okie dokie lokie! I’ve got to get back to assigning the skaters!”

He heard of her reputation for randomness, but his curiosity was still piqued. “Skaters?”

“Yup. I’m in charge of making sure the ice is cut so when the weather team clears the clouds, the ice can melt quickly.” She was going through some topographical maps. “I’ve got lots of skaters to cut the ice, except for this small pond.” She looked around to see if anyone was listening, which, of course, there wasn’t because the store was empty. “I’m gonna keep this little pond to myself.”

He looked at the maps and the criss-cross shapes. Out of nowhere, inspiration struck. “Pinkie, can I take a closer look at this?”

“Sure!” She pushed the map to him. As he looked it over, thoughts started going through his head, arcane formulas and the possibility of an experiment. As he was thinking about it, Pinkie Pie noticed his cutie mark. It looked like stars marking a constellation with the lines drawn in.

“Pinkie, want try an experiment?”

“Is it like peppermint or spearmint?”

“No no, it’s trying something new.”

“Ooh, what did you have in mind?”

“Well, I see how you’re skating on the pond, and I think I could make the ice break apart into smaller pieces.”

“Really? You’re that good of a skater?”

“No, you’ll be skating. I’ll be using some magic. And if it works, maybe it can be used again to making the skating easier in the future.”

“You sound like Twilight!”

That caught him off guard. “Wait, you mean the Princess?”

“Yeah, she always trying new spearmints.”

“You mean experiments.”

“Yeah those too! Like this one time she turned a bird into an orange. Then she turned a frog into an orange! And then she blew me up a whole bunch of times!” He raised an eyebrow. “Oh not me me, but a bunch of duplicate me’s that I made using the Mirror Pool and she had to test us to see which was the real me by watching paint dry which is super boring but it was totally worth it!”

Again, the appropriate response seemed to be blinking. “O...kay. So, should where should I meet you, here or at the pond.”

Pinkie thought for a moment. “Hmm… I think here would work better. What kind of muffins do you like?”

“Uh, blueberry. Why?”

“I’ll bring some. Well it was nice to…WAIT! I almost forgot to ask! What’s your name? I’ll need it for the order ticket.”

He chuckled. “Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Cantrip.”

Comments

[Sunlight Blaze]

So we start this off with...a sixth main OC introduction. This time it's the Unicorn who hired the other five, and we see he had his reasons as well; his little sister, Moonlit Choir, came down with an unidentified illness shortly after having her Cute-ceañera. One day, this unicorn was approached by another pony who offered him the means to cure his sister in exchange for a certain book from the Canterlot Royal Library....and gave him specific instructions on who to hire, what their roles in it will be, and which scroll to get...... Yeeeeaaaah, that other guy's totally not plotting anything.

So he goes to Ponyville to celebrate his upcoming birthday. Alright, Pinkie Pie: your turn.

“Hello! Welcome to Sugarcube Corner!” Her voice even sounded pink.

I know, right?

So he's there to get a cake for his birthday and spend said birthday alone. Why? because pretty much the rest of the year he's around others and would like to have a day to himself.

After a long moment of Pinkie Pie giving a speech that I can only assume was said extremely quickly, she gets the order ready and shows him her job in the Winter Wrap-Up, and he offers to help...with magic....
Uh, question here: in the episode Winter Wrap-Up was explained, they made it clear that they didn't like magic being used to directly influence their tasks; it's been tradition since Ponyville was first established. Did that just...slip Pinkie's mind?

Anyway, Pinkie goes on another useless detail rant (that's Pinkie for you), and then we finally learn this pony's name: Cantrip..........interesting choice.....

(P.S.: It took me longer than usual to read this chapter due to a certain friend of mine coming over to visit and distracting me for most of the day. I'll have to stop here for now and get back to you once he leaves. So, I'll get back to you in an hour or two. Sorry.)