Fate's Chosen

by RidiculousPony

Chapter 2: Cascade

Golden letters on the large wooden door spelled out “Cascade Falls”. Or they would, if they were all present. Only “Cascad F s” remained, along with outlines where the other letters used to be. The door was slightly ajar, opening inward from the hallway. Dusty Reed nudged the door the rest of the way open and walked in, gesturing for Harmony to follow.

“No need to knock,” he explained to Harmony. “She’d never hear it anyway.” He pushed the door closed behind them, where it failed to latch and returned to its prior spot with a low creak.

The inside of the room was in greater disarray than the state of the door suggested. Stacks of books and papers were piled on every flat surface and diagrams covered every wall and some of the windows. Despite the room being over twenty feet wide, there was barely enough open space for Harmony and Dusty to walk side by side as they approached an open area in the back corner.

Harmony looked around in awe at the mountains of clutter. I don’t even own this much stuff! Not that I could, with my constant moving around, Harmony thought.

“Hey! Cascade! Somepony’s here to meet you,” Dusty yelled.

Suddenly, a vibrant teal mane appeared from around a cabinet. The long, wavy mane nearly fully obscured the small tan Earth Pony beneath. “Oh, hello! Sorry about the mess. I refuse to let the cleaners down here, since they’d ruin my mental map of where everything is, and I just can’t seem to find the time to clean everything myself.” With barely a pause for breath, Cascade darted closer to Harmony and resumed speaking at a lightning pace, “New recruit? Been a while since Dusty brought one by. I bet he found you in that explosion. Glad we got to you before the terrorists found you. Awful business, all of that, but you can’t deny the effectiveness. We can go years between recruitments sometimes, but disasters pull Chosen like you right out of the woodwork.”

Cascade eyed the bewildered Harmony up and down. “You look familiar. Have I seen you before? In any case, it’s great to have you on board. Welcome to the Department of Fate, and to my office. Pardon the mess. Did I say that already?”

Dusty brusquely put a hoof in front of Cascade’s mouth, to stop her constant stream of words. When it was clear she had fully stopped, he gestured with that hoof towards Harmony. “Cascade, this is Harmony Fields, and she hasn’t signed up just yet. She wanted some more information about being a Fate’s Chosen, and about her destiny. Can you do some scrying on that?”

“Ah, Harmony Fields! No wonder you looked familiar. Just the other day, I was looking at an old case file on that concert disaster. Your manecut was different on the concert poster, but you look nearly the same otherwise. How frustrating. We were so close to a breakthrough on that case, but we never could locate the guy that did it, so we shelved it. A pity we didn’t realize you were Chosen back then.”

Cascade paused and stared absently for a second before continuing in a wistful tone, “Well, as they say, ‘Ka works and the world moves on’. Fate has many names, but Ka is the oldest, and perhaps most accurate. Anyways, I’ll get that scrying started, ASAP.” Cascade zipped away to a desk covered in instruments. She flipped a telescope around and pointed it directly at a crystal ball. Next to that was a large box covered in lights, buttons, and dials, which Cascade started to carefully adjust.

As she worked, Harmony noticed the cutie mark on Cascade’s flank: a blue waterfall made from two smaller steps. Her cutie mark matches her name, but I’m not sure how a waterfall could apply to her job or her... personality, Harmony thought.

Dusty turned to Harmony and said, “Well, that will keep her quiet for a few minutes. Are you keeping up alright?”

Harmony smiled awkwardly. “I guess so. I didn’t catch everything she said, though. Does she always talk that fast?”

“All the time, unless she’s ‘in the zone’ like she is right now. She’s an odd pony, but she’s great at what she does.”

“And what exactly does she do? How can an Earth Pony foretell my destiny without magic?” asked Harmony.

“Fate and Magic are actually pretty different, like oil and water. While Unicorn magic can do some fortune telling, it turns out that some Earth Ponies like Cascade have the strongest intuitive connection to Fate,” Dusty explained. “Add in a couple enchanted or scientific instruments and she can get some good info about a Chosen’s destiny. Not everything, mind you, but enough for us to know where we can send them safely.”

“Earlier, you mentioned I could work in the office. Are all the ponies in the office Chosen?”

“Most of them. We want the Department of Fate to be a place for all Chosen to belong, and not everypony is suited for field work. Also, just because Fate is protecting us, doesn’t mean we automatically succeed in our missions. We still need training and talent.”

“Ah, that makes sense. I guess I’d be working in the office, since I don’t know the first thing about being a secret agent,” Harmony said dejectedly.

Dusty shook his head. “I wouldn’t be so sure of that. You’ve traveled the world and learned a lot, and you’ve managed to keep out of sight lately despite your luck. You might make a great agent.”

Suddenly, Cascade cried out, “Aha! Distant would explain everything!”

Dusty whispered to Harmony, “Let’s put that topic on hold for a moment. Look’s like Cascade’s found something.”

Cascade galloped over from the desk, holding a piece of paper in her mouth. She set it flat on top of a pile of books next to Harmony and pointed at it with a hoof. It was covered in complex figures and formulas, with a sketch of Harmony’s music-note-spiral cutie mark at the center. “So as you can see here, Harmony is a ‘Destined’-type Chosen, but one with a particularly distant destiny. Of course, that could be distant in either time or space, but either way it is far enough to really muddle my scrying processes.”

Harmony’s look of confusion was so apparent that even Cascade noticed, so she stopped and elaborated, “There are several kinds of Fate’s Chosen, based on what their destiny is. The most common type are ‘Destined’ like you, who stay a Chosen until they complete one specific task. I’m a ‘Custodian’, where my destiny is to keep on working here and helping the cause. There’s also the rare ‘Champion’, who Fate steers into specific places to protect ponies.” Cascade looked expectantly at Harmony. “Does that make sense?”

Harmony nodded. “Uh, yeah. But, what was that about my destiny being distant?”

“Sometimes I can scry exactly what somepony’s destiny is, but sometimes I can only tell a little bit at first. Over time, the Department can observe Fate’s effects around a pony and be able to figure out more. I do know that your destined task is at least a few years off, so we’ll have the time to figure out what it is,” said Cascade.

Harmony was unsatisfied. “Does knowing all that somehow stop all the misfortune in my life?”

“Not on its own. We’ll have to figure out which direction Fate wants you to go. Once we get you on that path, everything will fall into, uh, harmony. Pun not intended. Well, not intended by me, at least. The fact that your name is Harmony probably isn’t coincidence. Fate has a lot of influence on names and cutie marks, and she likes to make connections between them and Destiny. Take mine for example: “Cascade” can refer to waterfalls, or to the “cascade effect” when events chain together. I’m here to help the Department understand those events. Maybe your destiny is to put something back into balance, or bring harmony to somewhere chaotic.”

Dusty chimed in, “We’ll work with you to take things at a speed you’re comfortable with. No need to rush into your destiny recklessly.” He smiled kindly at Harmony, and continued, “And once we’ve got you squared away on Fate’s path, we could take some little ‘detours’ and take advantage of Fate’s protection to do some good for Equestria. I like to think of it as a little snub at Fate, as if to say ‘We’ve still got free will!’” He shrugged. “My philosophy is ‘You’ve gotta use what you’ve got to do what you can.’”

Cascade’s eyes lit up. “That’s brilliant, Dusty! You just inspired a new theory: maybe Fate doesn’t actually choose us! Maybe she only has access to some ponies, so she’s using what she’s got to do what she can. Hmm, I’ll have to put some serious research time into testing that theory…” She trailed off, lost in thought.

Dusty turned and sat down on his haunches, lifted Harmony’s hoof, and held it between his hooves. The sudden intimacy made Harmony blush, and his handsomeness might have contributed. “So how about it? Do you want to work for the Department of Fate, adopting a life of adventure and excitement?”

Harmony looked from Dusty to Cascade, ponies she had just met who already felt like close friends, and thought back over the eventful day. Despite the horrors of the explosion, Harmony felt strangely happy and at peace for the first time in a long time. Is this what it feels like to be on Fate’s path? she thought. I could get used to this.

Harmony smiled brightly and nodded. ”I already feel at home here, so I might as well stay. I’m in.”