Let's See If The Fates Favor You
The Ponyville marketplace was abuzz with activity, All around ponies and the strange new comers to their world the ones called "The Humans." darted from stall to stand, It had been at least six months since the world of earth and Equestria had made contact, and now that the terms had been settled and the two societies were settled, there was a mutual and peaceful link between their worlds. At the marketplace set up on the knoll outside the little village of Ponyville, ponies sold their traditional wares like fruits, clothes and hoof made goods, and a few humans had set up their own stands as well, finding the set up akin to a yard sale or flea market from many of their homes. They offered some of the more exotic goods from earth. Televisions, computers, video game consoles, movies, books by human authors and other such items. Though there wasn't much electricity to power their machines, magic would have worked...if it didn't make a lot of them short circuit by being over powered by magic. You step out of one of the tents that had been set up to sell spiced peaches, you never really liked spiced fruits but there was something about the pony's way they made them that drew you too them. Maybe it was the love they added to everything they made, unlike back home where everything was manufactured in cold, unfeeling factories and plants. The stuff they made from their food to clothes, had a special hooves on touch that your world hadn't seen in God..or Celesta knows how long.
Here it was so much...different. The air was cleaner, the food tasted better, and the ponies themselves were so nice. Everywhere you looked stallions and mares smiled and waved their hooves to you as walked around the open marketplace. You stood out in your blue sweater, brown khakis and those red and and white sneakers. Not something that was common to a population that walked around mostly naked all the time. their tails lowered to cover up their privates. You and your species however, preferred to cover up with reliable clothes. You adjust a tightness in your khakis before a soft voice calls out to you, it says.
"Care to know the future darling?" In an accent you can't quite place, It's almost akin to that fashionista Rarity, or that Cellist on the Canterlot Symphony Orchestra, but it seems, more exotic. Like she's not from Ponyville, but far away. Her coat was pure ivory white, her mane was crimson red as was her eyes, her tail and mane had jet black highlights in it, and she wore various shawls and a cloths around her of the same colors. Looking under the table, you saw she had black shoes on her fore hooves, and red ones on her back hooves. She had makeup paint a "goth curve" on her shadowed and mascara covered eyes, the black complimenting her natural red eyes perfectly. She seems to make them shine like rubies as you notice that on the table in front of her are a series of cards, they are the Arcana Tarot cards used to tell fortunes.
"Sorry I never believed in that sorta thing Ms."" You tell her as you start to move on your way, before you remind yourself that in this world magic and by extension fortune telling, do indeed exist.
"Isn't that far fetched?" She says as if almost reading your mind. "You're now in a world of flying dragons, magical talking equines, and a winged unicorn princess...two actually who control the sun and moon, and two more that protect friendship and love, and you think fortune telling is still implausible?" She says with a soft giggle as she shuffles the deck. She then runs a hoof through her mane and flutters her eyelashes with more giggles. Her tent is easily one of the biggest ones there, you wonder if she even bothers packing it up before remind yourself that ponies, especially the earth ones like her, are very strong. Her tent is white with red and black trims and linings along it, with a smoke hole in the roof for light and air.
"well, maybe to a unicorn, but I see you're an earth pony Ms....?" You say realizing you don't know her name.
"Fortuna handsome, and I can see great things in store for you." She says as she chuckles and shuffles her cards again. As she does, you set your shopping bags down on the table and look her in the crimson eyes, your own locking with hers as she smiles warmly at you.
"Is that a madame Fortuna?" You ask with a chuckle of your own as she flutters her eyes again.
"Do I look like an old mare with a white mane and fallen skin? Do I look like a "madame" to you good sir?" It's then you take in that she has cute freckles on her cheeks and a black bow in her hair, which make her look a whole lot cuter and all the more innocent. You laugh softly and reply.
"No Ms. Fortuna I guess not." You say as you lean over the table and ready yourself for her reading. She cuts the deck then lays a few on the table.
"Are you ready to see the unseen?" She asks, accent more noticeable now. Definitely akin to a European accent, and very enticing. You nod and she flips the first card, it depicts a skeletal figure in a black cloak with black wings and a sickle. "I see the fear in your eyes, do not fret my dear. For though I draw the death card, it does not mean there is an actual death in your future...many times it can mean an end, but to a relationship or a trail you've face. Tell me, is there someone you thought you loved to the ends of the earth who has left you?" She asks as she prepares to flip the next one.
Her words make you think back to the reason you came here on vacation in the first place. It's currently your junior year in high school, and after summer it will be your senior one. Your girlfriend who just graduated being a senior,had broken up with you as you watched the other eighteen year old seniors graduate while you'd be stuck with the juniors next year. (you had gotten held back a year on top of everything else) She broke up with you because she wanted someone who could keep up with her and actually make something of themselves, like Lewis who was going to be the state quarter back, or Kevin who made varsity. You often felt like there was an uncertainty in the future, which was a big contributing factor to why you didn't want this reading in the first place. You don't tell her, she understands and flips the next card.
"Hmmm do not despair, this one is good." She says revealing a card depicting a human woman beside a rotating wooden wheel with the zodiac symbols long it. "Fortune and her wheel, she can be a cruel mistress yes, but her wheel can also provide good changes. Like a new sense of hope or salvation. Do you feel any better knowing this?" She says as she readies her hoof for the final card. Think about it, you recall how most of the seniors were jerks to you anyway, and your girlfriend was always a bit of a needy and clingy type too...borderline obsessed. Constantly calling and texting you, always sending you pics of the food she ate or the new shoes she bought. Not too mention she was something of a spoiled snob. The juniors who would be next year's seniors were a lot nicer too you. They understood you better and even invited you to a pizza parlor while the seniors had a fancy dinner with their parents at a restaurant at the back of the parlor. What a great grad's night, even if you weren't a grad.
"And last but not least...The lovers" Interesting. A new love may soon come your way...but you must choose wisely, as a love foreseen by this card...is often lasting and the effects are often...drastic." She says looking up at you. It's then, with everything: the loss of your girlfriend, the getting left back, the jerks who made junior year a living hell, and the good that saw you through it all. That you suddenly notice how beautiful Fortuna is. Her coat seems somehow even glossier and shinier, her mane seems almost like the princesses manes, ethereal and flowing entirely on its own volition, her eyes shimmer then glint like the fire rubies the rare jeweler had for sale. She smiles at you and for a brief second, you see her lift one of her wrappings she's covered herself in to flash you her cutie mark. It's a black heart like the one's printed on playing cards, it stands out against her ivory coat and then it's covered by red fabric yet again.
"Well, thank you Fortuna...how much do I own you?" You ask as you reach for the strange golden coins the ponies call bits. She chuckles softly and packs up her deck.
"You seem like a nice fellow, so for you? No charge...On One condition?" She says with a devious giggle and a flip of her mane.
"OH? What's that?" You ask as you start to sweat a bit, and get a bit hot, from more than just the summer heat no less.
"Join me for lunch...come out of the heat...keep a lonely traveling seer girl company for a while...okay?" She asks as she seems to almost slide back inside her tent with a soft and playful , girlish chuckle. You tug at your collar and gulp as you can only stutter, it's a relic from your quickly fading away adolescence, the way you reacted around girls you liked...never in a million moons did you ever think you'd feel this way about a red, white and black mane and tail colored, talking fortune teller pony. You followed the mischievous little mare inside her tent, wondering what lay in the future within.