The Fall of Canterlot Kingdom

by JzanderN

Chapter 6 – Fortune

Being friends with Sunset Shimmer was neither an easy nor a pleasant task. Some might even say you’re not her friend, but her subordinate, or her minion. Some might ask why you would stay, and indeed Hana often wondered herself why she was still in such a one-sided relationship, why she stayed in a position where everyone else would cast glares at her, throwing what they couldn’t at Sunset in her direction instead.

Perhaps it was fear that trapped her. Fear of what Sunset would do to her if she abandoned her. Fear that no-one would forgive her after staying by her side for so long. Or maybe the reason was less forgivable. One that made her deserve all the resentment she received. It was usually at this point that Hana would stop thinking about it, at least until the next time she would wonder.

It was quite thankful that she did; Sunset wasn’t one for repeating herself if you were too wrapped in your thoughts to hear her. “Any news today?” she asked with her usual harsh voice.

“None that I could see or hear,” Hana replied truthfully. She never went out of her way to help Sunset, but kept an ear out for rumours and an eye for suspicion, lest she be dropped for being useless.

“Again?” Sunset said in the tone she usually reserved for when the whole week was quiet, and once upon a time a whole fortnight, not three days.

Hana almost started to sweat. “The ‘Sunset Curse’ guy’s made a full recovery, and that’s all anyone will talk about.” Sunset wasn’t satisfied, but it seemed to be enough. She mumbled under her breath; Hana heard her mention the Curse of Sunset and rumours of the crowds. “Sunset, why are you being so impatient?” she continued. “It’s hardly been half a week since your last… demonstration. You should enjoy the quiet. I don’t think anyone’s coming after you for another short while.”

“This is an important week for me,” Sunset said. “I can’t have any interruptions, so we need to weed them all out and stop them now. But if you can’t find anything...” Hana prepared for the worst, only to be surprised when she got no punishment, though she didn’t like what she said any more. “We’ll have to make an impact to scare them all off.”

Hana sighed. It wasn’t often Sunset decided to lash out against the innocent, but each left a pit in her stomach she still couldn’t shake off. She tried not to think about what made them more innocent than all the others lives Sunset ruined. Nonetheless, when Sunset walked away, Hana followed as if she were on a leash.

The two headed towards the city centre of Canterlot, where the shops, cafés and other hangout spots were; where most of the other students could be found at this time of day. Sunset searched the centre for candidates, picking out any she thought might be good targets. Hana remembered all of them. She had to; Sunset made her keep a note of potential victims, as well as making her choose a few herself. Those were the ones she hoped wouldn’t get chosen the most.

Eventually, the search took them to the outskirts of the city centre, indicating they were soon to be done with their journey, if the darkening sky didn’t do so already. “Give me the list. I’ll decide who to go after by tomorrow. Until then, keep–” Sunset cut herself off and stopped in her tracks, her attention drawn to a large blue tent with a sign for free tarot readings. Hana didn’t recall the tent being there before.

“A fortune teller?” she asked, not really seeing Sunset as one to believe in magic.

“I’m curious,” she said, not looking away from the tent.

“You know they aren’t real, right?" Hana didn’t know why she had to warn her. “They just give vague predictions that could apply to anyone and anything.”

Sunset still looked at the tent, almost like she was in a trance. “I’ve just never seen one before, and I’m thinking I have plans I’d like to know about…”

“Then take my advice and give it a skip. You’d be better off finding out from a fortune cookie. At least you get a meal with those. Trust me, it would be a waste of your time.”

Sunset nodded and looked away from the tent. “You’re right. It’s best not to waste my time.”

Hana started walking away, but was interrupted by Sunset. “Where are you going? I said it’s best not to waste my time.” She glared at Hana. “Do I need to repeat myself?”

---

Sunset only stopped shouting when Hana entered the tent. She was greeted by an older lady, looking about the age of her principals, despite her grey hair, and wore an all blue dress, almost blending into the rest of the room with only different shades of blue to distinguish everything from each other. Or at least that’s what she wore as far as Hana could see; her bottom half was obscured by a large, circle table.

“Welcome,” she said. “Please take a seat.” Hana complied. “What is your name?” Hana answered, wanting to waste no more time than she needed to. Before she could speak further, however, the lady presented a small deck of cards, about half the size of a regular deck. “Please shuffle these cards. For them to reveal your fortune, you have to be the one to handle them.”

Hana blinked. “Oh, I’m actually here to take the fortune for–”

“Your friend, I know,” the lady interrupted, “but the cards can only tell the story of the one who handles them, so you cannot take her fortune anymore than you can take mine. If she wants the cards to tell her fortune, she will have to come in and handle them herself. But for now, why don’t you see what they have to say about you?”

Hana hesitated, not wanting to voice her opinion on psychics to the lady’s face, but unable to think of an excuse. “I see you’re skeptical,” the fortune teller continued, “but you’re already here, and it won’t cost you anything, so why not give it a try?”

Hana sighed, picked up the deck, and started to mix up the cards. “Is this right?”

“Please feel free to handle the cards however you wish,” the lady said. “When you are done, place any one card face down here,” she pointed to a marked spot in the middle of the table.

Hana tried a variety of methods, never sure which one to stick to. She tried riffling them, putting them in smaller piles and putting them back together, and simply taking chunks of the middle and putting them on top. It took a couple of minutes before she was satisfied, and when she was done, she laid the top card in the designated spot and placed the deck back down.

Hana was then handed a more normal sized deck and asked to do the same, except placing 4 cards around the first. She shuffled it for what felt like 5 minutes before placing the fourth and final card down, yet the lady never looked like she was getting impatient.

“Are you satisfied with these cards?” she asked. Hana nodded. “Then let us see what fate has in store for you.”

She turned over the first card. It depicted a man and woman standing on either side of the card, with an angel standing behind them. “The Lovers.”

“Does this mean I’m going to find a boyfriend?” Hana said, finding it hard to hide the sarcasm in her voice.

“It could, but that’s not all the Lovers represents. It can represent a choice one must make, finding harmony within oneself and yes, finding love. If we want a more clear vision of what it means, we must turn another card over.” She turned over the second card Hana had put down. It had three women, each holding a cup upwards. “The three of cups. This represents friendship, community and happiness. I think it unlikely that the Lovers card means you will find a significant other.”

Hana refrained from rolling her eyes and the fortune teller turned the third card over. It showed the inside of an old stone, with three stars decorating the wall, each star in a circle. “The three of Pentacles. It represents teamwork, collaboration and building together.”

“So, some sort of group project I’m going to take part in?” Hana asked, thinking over what everything supposedly represented.

“Maybe.” The fortune teller turned the fourth card over. It held a single hand gripping a blade, with a crown over its other end. “The ace of swords. Representative of a breakthrough, clarity and a sharp mind.”

The fortune teller closed her eyes. “Yes. It’s all coming together. I see your future now.” She opened her eyes. “A great decision awaits you, one that you will not make lightly. Two sides will be offered, and which you choose will decide the type of person you are.”

“Which should I choose?” Hana asked, leaning forwards despite herself.

The fortune teller shook her head. “That is not for me to say. Fate is not as solid as people think. Our actions have not been made yet, and they can only be made by ourselves. You will have to make this decision yourself.

“I can, however, give you this advice: the easy path is not always the right path. You must consider your options carefully, because your decision will determine who you really are. Make it in haste and you may end up down a dark path with no light. But if you listen to your inner voice, you can decide for yourself.”

“So one choice will take me down a dark path, while the other will take me up a path of light?”

The lady shook her head. “Not quite. Darkness awaits you no matter what; it is a natural part of life. Even when the sun shines brightest, shadows are cast into the world, just like the moon and stars bring light in the night. We all have our dark parts to us, but it is balanced out by our light. But sometimes we walk down the wrong path, and end up where we can’t see the light.

“But whatever you choose, there is one constant –” she turned over the fifth and final card: a knight on a horse knight carrying a branch. The knight of wands “– adventure awaits you.”

“Adventure? What do you mean? Like, I’ll have to go sword fighting to save a prince? Or I’ll have to go to another dimension to save the world from unknown terrors?”

The medium smiled. “Your imagination sure is wild, isn’t it? Not every adventure need be an epic fantasy. A simple trip across a city can be an adventure for some people.”

She leaned back into her chair. “Regardless, that is all I can tell you. Anything else is too specific for me to see.”

Hana shuffled in her seat. She almost stood up to leave, but sat down again with something on her mind. “Just one question: if someone ends up beyond the reach of the light, can they be brought back?”

The lady smiled. “Of course they can, with outside help, but it’s not an easy task.”

Hana thanked her, and as she got up to leave, the lady handed her the Lovers card. “Please keep it. The card represents you, so hold on to it as a reminder of who you are.” Hana looked at the card as if looking for some meaning in it. She then pocketed it and made to leave, when the fortune teller said one last thing. “Farewell, Hana Hannah Ona,” she said. Hana paused for a few seconds and left, unable to figure out what was bugging her.

---

Sunset wasn’t happy to find that Hana couldn’t get her fortune and instead got her own, wasting her time. Thankfully, her rant was cut short as she stormed into the tent, though Hana kept herself braced for her return.

The wait took a lot longer than she remembered her own fortune taking. Though to be fair, she wasn’t standing around, looking for something to stare at during her session. Eventually, Sunset emerged from the tent, clearly in a worse mood than before she went in.

“So, what did you get?” Hana asked gingerly.

“Does it matter?” Sunset said, anger in her voice, but undirected and hidden. “It’s like you said. it’s just vague, phony garbage and a waste of our time.”

Hana was surprised by her response, or lack thereof. Sunset then seemed distracted, her eyes focused on something across the street. Two boys were walking lethargically, one holding up the other. One of them looked particularly familiar to her.

“Those two,” Sunset said, “who are they?”

“Devon Air and Alec Trigg,” she said automatically. “Devon’s the one everyone’s talking about from Friday.”

Sunset all but snarled. “He’s up to something. They’re up to something. I know it.”

Hana resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “And what is it that they are up to?”

“I don’t know, but I can feel it. They’re planning something.”

Everyone’s planning something in your mind, Hana thought as she braced herself for the inevitable.

“Watch over them.” Sunset ordered. “Find out what they’re up to, report back to me and, if you can, stop them before they can start.” With her target chosen and orders given, she walked away.

Hana sighed, knowing it would be pointless to argue back. She pulled out her tarot card and thought about the fortune teller’s words. Maybe it wasn’t the right path, but she didn’t have a choice; she had seen far too many face those consequences to take them herself.

She looked up from her card and searched for the boys, who were still in sight. The sun was setting, and the boys were crawling back to their homes. Tomorrow would be a better time to start watching them.

---

Sunset took one more look back at the two boys. She had been feeling wary of everyone recently, but something about those two made her more wary than usual. That Devon in particular and the “Sunset Curse” ran through her head, though she couldn’t explain why. They were up to something. She didn’t know how, but she knew. She could feel it.

She turned around again and started her journey home, her thoughts wandering to many things. She thought of her plans in the next few days, and how long she had been waiting for it. She thought of the Fall Formal at the end of the week. She thought of everyone who had abandoned her on her long journey to the present, and finally, when she reached her house, she thought of her talk with the fortune teller.

Sunset pulled out her gift. It was a card depicting a woman wrapped in a purple cloth in the middle of a laurel wreath. In the four corners were one animal each; a lion, a bull, an eagle and a cherub. And she held it upside down.

“Everything is reversed. All of their meanings have been flipped on their heads.

“The World arcana. Reversed, it represents seeking personal closure. You have stagnated, haven’t finished what you set out to do, and are considering shortcuts to achieve it.

“The Knight of Pentacles. It represents obsessiveness and work without reward.

“The Nine of Cups. It represents a lack of true joy, smugness and dissatisfaction.

“The Knight of Swords. It shows no direction, a disregard for consequence and unpredictability.

“And finally, the Queen of Wands; selfishness, insecurity and jealousy.

“Looking at these cards, it becomes apparent that your life right now is unhealthy. Your entire world is upside-down. You are dissatisfied with your life, and jealous of others who are happy, despite having less than you. Every action you take attempts to achieve this satisfaction, regardless of consequences or direction. The Knight of Pentacles in particular seems to revolve around you. It shows you’re obsessed with fulfillment, yet despite all of your work, you never find your reward.

“But The World speaks loudest of all. You are empty and incomplete. You’ve spent your whole life trying to fill this void, but nothing has worked and, most importantly, if you continue down this path, you will find nothing but the same.

“If you want to change your fate, if you want to fill the emptiness within yourself, you must turn the cards the right way up again. There are no shortcuts to fulfillment, Sunset Shimmer.”

Everything the fortune teller said had rung a bell deep within her. She hated it. She hated how she described her life, she hated how accurate that description was, and she hated the advice she gave for the future.

The small, unreasonable side of her had listened intently to the fortune teller, and used this opportunity to speak. There has to be another way to fill this emptiness. She stared at the card, looking for an answer. She looked at it, into it, through it and right in front of it. She wanted to turn it the right way round, but couldn’t bring herself to.

No, she thought. This is the only way. She shut the voice out, ripped the card in two and walked into her house. Besides, this world doesn’t have magic. I was silly for thinking that that lady could possibly see the future.