Chapter 2

Fate

Golden Swirl lead me into my own shop, as I looked around Neighpalm I started to notice the... Not-so-intact nature of everything around me. Roofs were collapsed, walls destroyed, windows blown out, and nopony other than Swirl was alive here.

"Forever," she addressed me by name, "The high elders have dubbed you one of the Fates, you are Eternity, the first of three ponies to bring about the end of all life. Your task is one most unfortunate, for the ponies of Equestria, and for you. As I've read from the carving, your cutie mark was found after death. You have been marked with the 'brand of the endless serpent' the Ouroboros. You cannot die, you must watch as Equestria suffers and live alone in the world long after life has been removed. I offer you only a chance, I want to guide you to your salvation, lead you away from torment, but this is a path you must choose for yourself. There will be... Sacrifices." She digressed.

"I..." I stammered, grasping for the right words. I had no intention of bringing ruin to Equestria. "How do I get out of this?"

She beamed, "I knew it! I'm gunna save the world!" she bounced around.

I was sort of shocked... This didn't seem like such a good thing for me. My mind was still racked.

"Oh yes, oh yes we're going to have so much fun!" She sang cheerily. "All ya gotta do is take my guidance and you'll be all set!" Her demeanor had shifted from intensely somber to super bubbly in seconds.

"So... What am I going to have to do?"

"I gotta tell my mom! She never believed in me! Wait until you see her face... Wait until she sees your face!" Swirl laughed hartily.

"Excuse me?" I was so confused...

"Sorry sorry sorry, I'm just so excited, we're gunna be best friends!" She galloped off. "Follow me, I need to show you that you're dead!" Still cheery as moments before.

"She's... unique."

"Caw..."

We followed blindly into the forest after the mare's golden tale spun in circles. Right behind her I couldn't help but notice she had a pendulum for a cutie mark. I wondered what her special talent could be. Waiting perhaps? I chuckled to myself, her? No way.

"Here we go!" She lead me to a part of the forest beyond Neighpalm's borders, where the elder had instructed us never to travel alone. I hesitated, then realized unenthusiastically that I was not alone.

118 landed on a headstone and preened his feathers nonchalantly.

Right above my name I spied again the serpent consuming itself, that was where other ponies would have had their cutie marks engraved.

Wait, was this my cutie mark? The carving on the door to The Loom did say they found mine. I halfway wanted to join the "Going crazy party" Golden Swirl had joined a half an hour ago.

"Is that my cutie mark?" I asked impatiently instead.

"Oh yeah! You died before you saw it didn't you?" She made a motion with her hoof suggesting she should have remembered that. "Yes... sir? Are you still a stallion?"

I'd always thought of myself as still a colt, never earning my cutie mark weighed on my self esteem greatly. "I guess so," I wasn't really sure if an animated bone horror such as myself really needed to be classified with gender, but I identified myself as male regardless.

"Sir! You have been marked with the Ouroboros!" She stood at attention, hoof to brow saluting me. "You're cutie mark shows that your special talent is not only that but a supernatural power! A blessing that lies in wait until the death of the bearer, how else are you going to find out your special talent is not dying until you're supposed to die?" I pondered for a moment before realizing fully why I never got my cutie mark. "That's what some say anyway. Me? I know the truth! I know that you are cursed! Bound to this world!" She had come uncomfortably close to my face, our muzzles were touching. I turned a bit. I hadn't minded her face so close, I enjoyed it in fact, but the word curse took it to art different level.

"Caw!" 118 landed on her flanks, looked at me and cocked his head.

"You are so cute!" She spun and tried to catch him, he lifted off and flew to me.

I stared at my headstone a while longer, then looked towards the earth to find a disrupted grave. I backed a few steps in shock. I had apparently torn through my burial grounds. "I can't believe this, how do I not remember?"

"Well... You should be glad to remember your name without a brain!" Truer words had never been spoken. "It's a wonder you didn't ask me how to walk!"

"Haha..." I forced nervously. That was my next question...

"Corruption has different effects on everypony, everything for that matter... Corrupted cake is hard as rock, corrupted trees walk, lots of stuff! Corrupted carrots, corrupted grass, corrupted water, corrupted-"

"Got it," I interrupted. "What are these things corrupted by anyway?"

"They call it Strand, beyond that we don't know much," Golden's eyes wandered. "But that doesn't stop me from trying to find out!"

"Okay, now do you feel any different?" The mare tilted her head slightly at me.

"Different how?" Lost me again.

"Damn, that means you don't know you're dead yet."

"But I do know that..." Not even a mental compass could help me.

"Maybe..." she dug through her saddlebags. "Turn around." She smiled at me. Creepily...

"Alright..."

"I'd say close your eyes, but I'm not so sure you can do that," She was silent for about 30 seconds.

"What am I waiting for?"

"CAW!" 118 flew away.

BLAM!

My skull bobbed down, I felt a pang as I felt bone splinter outwards from the bottom of my jaw. The pain was incredible. I roared in pain, dropping to the grass. I could see pieces of my face dusting the ground where I rolled in agony.

"Bone pain is the worst kind of pain... Forgot about that..."

Inside the immense pain I felt lighter, and not just because part of me was now one with the earth.

"WHAT WAS THAT?" I stumbled to my hooves and what was left of my mouth gaped.

"New invention. Well about ten years old now but new to you." She explained looking at her ironclad hoof. "It's a hoof barrel, this one's basic as the air we breath, but some do other things. See here?" She pulled a metal chunk from the ground. "This comes out here," pointing to the barrel, "And you mount the whole thing neatly on your little hoofsie right here like a boot!"

"What do you use them for... Besides TRYING TO KILL ME?" But I was already dead wasn't I?

"Ponies use them to kill demons," Golden giggled a bit. "Oh what ELSE do they do, right. Instead of Ponies fighting hoof to hoof we can get rid of corrupted animals from forty yards away. Neat huh?"

"Yeah... Real neat. Now what was that you just did to me...?" I asked reasserting my original query.

"Told you you weren't dead!" She boasted and bounced around me. "Feel different now?"

"I... I did feel something," I admitted grudgingly.

She smiled back real big "Now you should stop feeling like you still have flesh," and continued bouncing.

"What are you trying to do to me with this?" I was growing concerned for my safety. I had pledged to follow her after all.

She didn't even look back at me. "Trying to kill you of course silly!"