Meddling with Fate: Birthright

by Spell Writer

Chapter 5 - Focus

Twilight was still very apprehensive about flying with her rider. Very clearly remembering the last time Hinoka sat on her back, she lightly shifts in place, looking at Jeorge with a nervous face. Considering that it had only been eight weeks since the previous time the pair attempted to fly, Twilight was less than confident in her rider’s capabilities. She would have preferred if her rider had practiced for two years, not just eight weeks. “Well Jeorge, if I die from this, please tell the others that I died because Hinoka overate yesterday.” Twilight says to her friend as Hinoka is excitedly rushing over, wanting to get flying as soon as possible. Subaki and Jeorge watching, believing that the princess is ready to fly. A sentiment not shared by her mount in the slightest.

Jeorge then responds to Twilight as a sad military tune plays in the background. “Private Twilight, I will be sure to spread the story of your toils to the others and the earth. May the Dragon of Dawn light your way.” Jeorge stands proudly as a form of salute as Hinoka does a very impressive front flip jump to land on Twilight’s back. Unfortunately, she overestimated her jump. Twilight, noticing this the moment Hinoka jumped, quickly steps back allowing Hinoka to stick the landing without embarrassing herself.

Twilight, having shut her eyes, bracing for pain that never appears. Slowly opens them as she feels Hinoka on her back without the pain she felt previously. Twilight whispers lightly to herself “I’m not dead? Phew… I was worried there for a second!” Twilight smiles and prances in place excitedly.

Hinoka blinks in surprise at the sudden and unfamiliar voice that seemed to be coming right from her… Mount? Her face shifting between surprise, confusion and intense horror. Although, to other onlookers, it just sounded like the usual horse noises, Hinoka understood every word Twilight just said.

“WHA? YOU CAN TAL-” Of course the spike of emotions, the terror and confusion, instantly causes Twilight a familiar and deep pain. Twilight immediately and reflexively throws Hinoka off, bucking her legs back in a wild fashion. Hinoka in her surprise falls off Twilight’s back, the pair luckily not being airborne yet. “GWAH!” Is all that’s heard from the Princess before she hits her head on the ground completely losing consciousness with a loud thud.

Twilight, though in an immense amount of pain, tries to get over to her partner, feeling responsible for what happened. The instability of the emotions hurting more this time than the last. Subaki gets there first though, picking up the unconscious princess. “Princess?! Are you alright?!” After seeing that she’s still breathing he sighs “What made you freak out that much?” He mumbles a bit, clearly confused by the sudden freakout that his trainee had.

Subaki sighs, picking up the unconscious princess as Jeorge assists the semi injured Twilight back to her stall, a large amount of her stamina drained thanks to the feedback from her rider’s emotions. Subaki, having Twilight lean on Jeorge as she walks for extra stability, walks away with Azura. Twilight and Jeorge quickly return to the stalls with only each other, one of the farmhands helping them back into their rooms. Twilight immediately falls to the floor of her stall, laying there. “Did she understand me? If she did then that’s great!” She smiles brightly and giggles internally. She’d likely be dancing a bit if she could. Instead though she just falls asleep for now, letting her body recover from the damage it took from the mishap earlier

At the Castle

At that time, having heard of the event, much of the royal castle was in some form of disarray. “I knew we shouldn’t have trusted Hinoka to be careful! Subaki I thought you were supposed to watch her! (She isn’t a child anymore, it must have been some sort of mistake, it happens!) Don’t blame my retainer… please?” The Hoshidan royals were arguing in a group, their voices in an indistinguishable mess, their retainers watching from the doorway. Subaki being the only retainer that would speak mainly to defend himself, although at a volume that only he could hear.

“What’s going on?” The voice of a sweet, yet hurt, angel rings out towards the retainers. Subaki, due to Yukimara’s absence, says to the voice.

“Princess Hinoka got hurt during her training session today, or what lasted of it at least, and the royals are arguing about it. They barely got her to agree to have retainers this year ya know. So it’s one of those situations where they’re worried that she may come off as incompetent if this gets out. Especially due to the reason she gave. Hearing your mount talk, some riders in history were said to be able to do it, but that’s just a myth.” Subaki mumbles to himself, deep in thought as he turns. “I’d advise you to not go in there right now on that account though, Princess Azura. It’s probably going to get fairly heated in there.” Of course being perfect, Subaki knew all the royals by the sound of their voice. Azura’s being especially easy due to her nature and its softness.

Azura nods and leaves, avoiding the conflict. From the context clues, though, she knows exactly what’s going on. An animal that can talk? This likely has something to do with HIM. Sighing, Azura leaves the castle, going to the pegasi stables to find out what’s going on from the horse’s mouth. Literally. While not particularly excited to have to move through the military sector, Azura makes a very quick yet soft run towards the stable. In her mind she has to make sure that something horrible doesn’t happen to her family member’s mount. Likely, a very sapient, and very much scared, mount.

Twilight awakens after nearly a half-hour of sleeping. After attempting to get up a few times, Twilight gives up, unable to stand at the moment. At that point, Twilight shifts around on the floor, trying to recuperate from the pain in comfort. Mulling over what happened she says to herself. “Did… Did she understand me? No, how is that possible? Whatever magic is on me still works but, ugh. I don’t understand this stuff! This magic is far beyond me. For now at least.” Twilight sighs as she starts to feel the magic inside of her. The distorted magic shifting and spiraling around… but she catches a glimpse of something else in there. Something dark and unnerving.

The stars above glimmer as Azura walks towards the stables, Azura hiding her face behind her hands as she walks through the military sector. Soldiers of all types and rank watching her and whispering as they see her, likely talking about her. After a few minutes of being subjected to the whispers and looks, she pulls her headpiece to cover her face. Although her head piece would not prevent most from recognizing her, it made her feel more safe. Humming as she walks, she finally makes it to the stables. A squire stops Azura at the entrance. “Uh, hello princess, would you like to enter? The stables are usually closed by now to let the pegasi sleep, but the royals are an exception, I guess. Let me open the stables for you.” The squire silently opens the stables after a long self mumbling session. Azura entering the stables after giving the squire a nod.

“I appreciate it, thank you.” Azura heads to Twilight’s stall. The pony laying on the floor as Azura enters and softly pets her neck.

“I see. I think I might know what is going on. I can’t be sure yet though.” Azura silently says as she sits next to Twilight.

“I know that you’re afraid. But you seem to understand that there is something wrong with this world. I cannot go into it as much as I’d wish. But if you look inside of you I am sure you’d know what I speak of.” Twilight’s eyes widen as she hears this, nodding in recognition of what she was told.

“So that magic is something dangerous. I’ll have to be extra careful to not set it off then.” Twilight thinks to herself as she bites her lip. She doesn’t know what might set that curse off, but she can find out. It’d just take time.

Azura continues “As for the curse on you. I can try to remove it if you want. Might take some time though.” She gives a half smile. Twilight perking up as she hears this. Azura then stands and motions for Twilight to follow, going to the shore of a lake near the castle.

Twilight follows the woman to the shore of the lake thinking aloud to herself. Sitting near the bank. “This world is so beautiful. I really wish I could enjoy it in earnest. Whatever she meant about not sharing, well… I feel inclined to believe her. I could see purple energy and powerful magic coming off of her, trying to destroy her as she spoke. Something like that has to be a curse of mighty magnitude, and only he could ever make something like tha-” Suddenly, Twilight hears a lovely tune. Feeling magic lifting from her as she coughs, the feeling of something in her throat, making her feel like she is choking. Twilight of course, panics a slight amount from the feeling. But a light pet from Azura calms her down. While she doesn’t know this person, for some reason, she feels like she can trust her now. If not for a while.

Azura sings the legendary song of ---- large amounts of magic seeping off of Twilight. Even after completing the song, the magic still continues to leave, coming off of Twilight as large trails of dark and corrupted magic. “Hm… we made good progress today, but we’ll need another session soon to complete the process.” The princess sits next to Twilight and lightly pets her neck. Comforting the mare throughout the process. Twilight fights through the pain, it not being any worse than whenever Hinoka loses her emotions on her back. Even then, the mare slumps afterward, entirely exhausted by the energy lost. She could feel something different, but currently, both herself and the woman were too tired to move.

They spent the night out near the lake. Sleeping until the guards retrieve Azura. Twilight is left to sleep outside. The guards saying “We can’t move her. She’s too heavy and large. We’ll tell the Princess and Subaki where to find her in the morning” To this the sleeping Twilight kicks the guard. Smiling in her sleep as she just kicked a very mean looking slice of cake, which just called her fat.

Hinoka skips her practice (Not by choice mind you, she can’t practice without her mount) with Jeorge and Subaki. At the moment, Hinoka is eating lunch with Subaki while brushing the unconscious Twilight. “What happened to her? She looks like she’s sleeping, but she hasn’t woken up yet. She’s usually waiting for me by now.”

Subaki drinks his tea perfectly, and after giving his perfect smile, he says, “It’s likely she’s just tired. Azura did say she was trying to draw out more of the Falcon’s magic. It likely tried to protect some of it when it was being drained by the Nohrians that found her.” He smiles and pats the ground next to him. Having Hinoka sit next to Twilight. He then turns to Twilight and Hinoka, sighing “Restoring some of its magic would certainly earn its trust. Although, apparently the process was quite uncomfortable for the pair of them. Azura said she would continue tonight after resting for the entire day.”

Subaki frowns and looks towards the soldiers training. He then turns towards the castle and says “I swear she tries far too hard to be accepted. Only Lord Takumi has any form of resentment for her, and even he cannot explain his reasoning.” Subaki leans on Jeorge, who is sleeping behind him. While Jeorge is worried about his fellow pegasi, these moments where he can relax come few and far in between, maybe that’s the next lesson he’ll teach Twilight in their nightly warfare chats.

Hinoka frowns at Subaki’s attitude. “I wish she woulda asked at least. Not that I don’t trust Azura, it’s just hard enough to ride uh… her without any additional problems.” Hinoka facepalms knowing that she just made a mistake.

Subaki deadpans for a moment, staring at Hinoka, “You still don’t have a name for her, do you, Princess?” He says as he sighs. Putting his tea down and giving the Princess a look of disappointment

Hinoka replies in an emotionally charged shout, “I do! I just don’t want to share it. Yet. I want it to be a surprise! Yea, and it will be a good name! Just watch!” Pouting, Hinoka recomposes herself, sighing. “I really need to get those emotions in check.” Hinoka sighs as she slumps next to Twilight. “I just... really want to get powerful. I need more strength! Over anything and everything.”

She then slumps into Twilight more “At least then I’d get Corrin back. I’ve been looking for so long, and now I have the chance to find him but everything in the world seems to want to get in the way!”

“Training and speed don’t usually go hand in hand Hinoka. Give it time, we’ll get Corrin back.” Ryoma says as he approaches the duo, his retainers no doubt nearby but out of sight. Hinoka looks around the area, seeing if she can spot either of them. After failing to do so, however, she shrugs, mentally giving them a point in a little mental game she plays with the ninja.

“I know it’s not supposed to be fast, but it sucks that I have to wait. It sucks that we have to sit here and just think about what could possibly be happening to Corrin-” At this point, Twilight, who had just woken up, tiredly nudges Hinoka’s arm, jarring the princess out of her rant while also providing a source of comfort.

“I just miss him… okay?” Hinoka mumbles as she starts lightly petting Twilight. She may be awake, but it doesn’t take much effort to see that she is still exhausted from her ordeal, something that will repeat itself soon if Azura has her way.

“Well, we have good news in that regard then. We just assigned some soldiers to capture the old fort at the bottomless canyon. We’ll use it as a forward outpost to keep an eye out for Corrin. Hopefully, he and his new “Family” travel over the border as they used to. I’d assume they were gathering intelligence, but apparently, all they used to do was just relax in the sunlight and converse.” Ryoma sighs a bit. Leaning on a nearby tree. He opens his mouth to continue, but Hinoka speaks first.

“And every time they left before we could catch them. That area is out of the barrier, so the Nohrians could fight back, and we’d risk losing or hurting Corrin if he fought back. I know.” Hinoka says. Having gone over this very conversation several times, her brother nodding as she repeats his previous words that haven’t changed over all the years prior.

“If we have that base though, it should be straightforward and easy to catch them off guard and end the war. Finally. Those creatures they send into our lands to circumvent the barrier make life nearly impossible for the people of Hoshido.” Ryoma says with a grim look. “And that’s actually what I came by to talk about. Whenever you consider her ready Subaki, I have my sister’s first mission prepared. Of course, she knows that means something particular.” Ryoma says with a smile.

“... What?” Hinoka says before getting a look of realization. “Great, I have to choose my retainers. Well, I’ve put that off long enough, I guess. Luckily, I already have them in mind. Always have, just never wanted to make it official until I was ready.” Hinoka stands proudly, smiling with her eyes closed. Twilight and Ryoma rolling their eyes simultaneously.

“Off the record, sure you did sister.” Ryoma chuckles “You were just dreading the ceremony, weren’t you? Having to wear a dress for one day and actually look like a princess.”

Twilight snickers a bit thinking ‘Shame Rarity isn’t here she’d really go crazy trying to make a dress that Hinoka likes and works for the ceremony. Pinkie would be trying to make sure everyone gets the best snacks, Rainbow would make the sky super clear and sunny, Applejack would have the best food ready and Fluttershy would totally have her birds playing some music!’ Twilight sighs ‘I miss them…’ Twilight droops a bit, not knowing how long has passed since she left. If any time at all even. Just the thought of an event like this missing her best friends is enough to tear her heart apart.

Those thoughts only last a moment as Hinoka just grins “Oh don’t worry about that! I have a plan!” Hinoka smiles proudly announcing this to the small group, causing everyone to perk up and nervously smile

“Oh no.” Is all that runs through the minds of Subaki, Twilight and Ryoma. The trio worried about what she’s planning. Twilight swearing that she could just hear the laugh of a certain Draconequis in the background.

‘Discord would love this coronation, I’m so sure of it.’ She thinks to herself. Not wanting to possibly freak out her rider again.

Comments

[Mkchief34]

Update! Yay!

[Starlight Nova]

7096613
Wait, "If?" What's "If?" If the main OCs in this story were voiced, what would they sound like?

[Anzome]

In snake's voice"Keep you waiting"

[Spell Writer]

9780523
IF is what Fire Emblem Fates is known as in Japan (AKA Fire Emblem: IF) It has a lot more uncensored stuff that we didn't get in the Americas and was superior story-wise too.

[RainbowRaptorDash1]

Keep going. I LOVE IT!!!