CHAPTER 9

This will be the last chapter of volume one, but don't worry. Volume two is already in the works, and will be a great deal more exciting than this one. I could say that it follows Drake as he develops as a character, and introduces new conflicts into his life that threaten to undermine everything he knows and changes him forever. I could tell you that volume two is a much higher literary work because it plays into the concept of fate vs. free will that you've seen sprout in this story. Or, I can just give you a spoiler and say that it involves buffalo and is set in an atmosphere similar to the episode 'Over a Barrel', and has action and adventure. Now we close One Pony's Tale volume one with a send off that leaves Drake where he was at the very beginning. No guesses as to what that means? Well read on and find out. Reviews please. I don't own MLP.

After I had graduated and received my commission, I had a one week time out to think about what I had done. My applications were in, and it was a waiting game just to see where I would end up getting sent to. Hopefully, my skill with sabres and my ability at tracking and wilderness survival would place me at a higher demand than the other second lieutenants who may have been trying for the same positions I was. The military, however has a funny way of sticking you where it wants you to be sometimes. So needless to say, I was a bit nervous.

All the while, my dad was as blasé as ever about the entire thing. In his view, I was doing the only thing that I could do. If somepony is good at something, genuinely enjoys doing it, and can make a living from it, then why question such things? I began to question if I was just over-thinking everything, if my mind was running away from me and trying to create connections and patterns that weren't really there. Maybe I was just a nervous wreck and too smart for my own good, and that was all it was.

I had to visit the military post in the city to receive my standard issue equipment before. The cavalry quartermaster on duty promptly took my paperwork and issued me everything a new lieutenant needs. I received a sword belt, black with a brass buckle and a shoulder strap, a standard canteen, round metal with a blue wool cover and a white canvas sling, and a brand new cavalry sabre. Just like the ones I had trained with my entire life. It goes without saying that I immediately buckled on my belt and affixed the sabre. Next, I was given the symbol of the Equestrian Cavalry, a two inch wide pin made of brass, in the shape of two cavalry sabres crossed in an X. With this was given instructions to affix the pin to a regulation hat in a spot and manner following protocols for such things. So, I had to go buy a hat at some point in the next couple days. Pleased with my new sword, and finally getting my standard equipment, I had nothing to do but wait for a letter from my higher officers, eat, sleep, and practice with my new weapon.

Finally, the day arrived that I received a package in the mail. I sat it on the small dining table, and stared at it for several minutes before tearing it open. Out came a small stack of papers, the topmost of which was a form letter addressed to me;

From: Maj. Gen. Winter Storm, Commander, Equestria Cavalry

To: 2nd Lt. Dragoon Sabre, Equestria Cavalry

Dear Lieutenant Dragoon Sabre,

We apologize for the delay in processing your information, but as you may know, because of Military Academy graduations and new commissions, we receive a great many requests this time of year. We also apologize if we are unable to grant or guarantee desired positions to all officers submitting requests for new assignments. At the time, there are more requests for positions than there are positions open.

The opening paragraph made my heart sink. I could already picture myself in some small, dim room, sitting behind a desk, signing and sorting papers for the commissary department. Counting arrows in the armory. Figuring how much soap needs to be sent to this company or that squad. I sighed and read further.

Upon reviewing your test scores and transcripts from Canterlot Military Academy, we do not feel that your skills are best served on the borders between Equestria and the Griffon Kingdom or the Land of Dragons as you requested. Unfortunately, there are no positions open for new officers in any regiment or garrison serving in the northern territories, which you also have requested.

"For Celestia's sake, just assign me to a hoof-polishing job and get it over with!" I groaned as the form letter continued to drag on.

Given your abilities as a tracker and wilderness survival expert, you have been assigned to serve as acting second lieutenant, G Troop, 12th Cavalry Regt. 2nd Frontier Bttn., currently stationed at Fort Mesquite in the frontier territories. You are required to be at Fort Mesquite within one week of receiving this letter, and any unauthorized infractions will result in your being listed as absent without leave...

"I'll be damned!" I exclaimed in the silence of the house. I had just gotten assigned to a frontier garrison. I would actually get to see the world, and escape from Canterlot! It was now official, my life was set. I had everything I wanted ahead of me, and all there was left to do was sign a few papers, and hop a train out west. I quickly signed all of the paperwork, and hurried out to mail off the packet before the post office closed.

Walking down the street I had walked down hundreds, maybe thousands of times, I began to take stock of all the things I'd be leaving. Not that I was terribly miss every house, every cobblestone on the road, every tree and brick and every pane of glass in my neighborhood, but when you live for that long in one place, you get used to seeing it every day. It becomes your world, and the only one you know. No matter how tired I was of this boring, stuffy, cosmopolitan city full of rich snooty ponies, it was the only world I knew. Maybe that's why I had this odd feeling that everything was about to change.

I dropped off my forms at the post office, and walked to a small restaurant to get some lunch. Already in a mood for something more exotic than typical Canterlot fare, I did something unusual for somepony with a diet as predictable as his social life..I ordered oriental food. It wasn't bad, and two spring rolls and a pile of sweet and sour vegetables and chow mein noodles later, the waiter brought me my bill and a small fortune cookie. I chuckled at the small dessert. Who really believes they can seriously get good advice or life-changing answers from a little piece of paper inside of a cookie? I bit the end of the cookie and snapped it in half. When I withdrew my hoof, the white ribbon was sticking out of the remaining half of the treat. I pulled it out, and tossed the other half of the cookie into my mouth as I cynically turned over the fortune to see what kind of gibberish was written on it. My chewing grew slower as I thought about the words I was looking at. Shut up Drake. It means nothing. Anypony could find meaning in that stupid little cliché.

'Wherever you are going, that's where you are'

I tossed the paper onto my plate, stood, and grabbed my bill. I stopped, turned back to the table, and stared for a moment at the fortune. For whatever reason, I grabbed the philosophical little scrap of paper, and folded it up before dropping it into my bag of bits.. I paid my bill and went home.

That night, I had a restless sleep. I can't remember the plot of my dream, but all I can remember is that there was blood, darkness, and I alone stood in the middle of it all. I was alone amid carnage, and didn't know which way to go. At this point in the dream, a light appeared in the distance, and as I gazed at the luminescence, a female voice spoke

"Wherever you're going, that's where you are."

"What does that even MEAN?!" I yelled.

"Wherever you're going, that's where you need to be." The voice replied.

"What?!"

"Be where you need to be. You are who you are, and you are where you need to be. You will be where you are needed."

"Where the HELL do I need to be?!" I argued, looking around at the death surrounding me.

"Wake up, Drake." The voice said. "Wake up."

I was awoken by a knock at the front door. I forced myself awake, and it took me a moment to figure out if I were really awake in my bedroom, of if this was just part of that morbid twisted dream caused by eating too much oriental food. Deciding this was reality, I climbed out of bed. Making my way through the dark house, I wondered what time it was, and who could be visiting at such and ungodly hour. The visitor knocked again, and I reached the door, and threw it open. Standing in the rain was a pony wearing the golden armor of a Royal Guard.

"Lieutenant Dragoon Sabre?" He asked before I could speak.

"Yeah, is there a problem?" I queried. He was silent a moment, and looked away. The guard then cleared his throat. I already didn't like where this was going.

"Um...yessir...it's...it's about...Silver Cutlass." He stated. Something had happened to my dad. Okay, he now had my complete attention.

"What's happened?" I asked, my concern seeping into my voice.

"There was an accident, sir." The Guard answered. "I'm sorry...he died." I didn't know what to say. I just stood there like an idiot, and finally nodded.

"Right...thank you..." I muttered blankly, my mind still not able to process everything.

"Sir?"

"Morning." I stated grimly. "Give me...tell whoever to...give me till morning."

"Sir." The guard replied. I closed the door and turned back into the house I had grown up in. I wandered through the house, back to my bedroom like a ghost, and crawled back into bed. I thought for two hours about my adopted dad, about my situation, and about what I was going to do now. Finally, I let it all in, and broke down. I cried more that night than I ever have in my entire life. He had taken me in, and raised me as his son. He had stood behind me and supported me, and now he was gone forever. I knew what he would have wanted, what he'd always told me to do. I knew what I had to do. I was leaving tomorrow. I wouldn't go see him. There would be no funeral, no grieving outside of what I'd already been doing. There was no time for such things. It was something else I'd have to move on from and forget about. Not that I really wanted to...

I walked to the ticket booth at the train station, all of my belongings tucked into my saddlebags. I had a few books, a bag of coffee, a satchel of bits, a few grooming supplies, and a copy of my orders. My cavalry sabre was affixed to my sword belt, and I wore a new hat, a black slouch hat with the brass crossed sabres pin affixed to the front.

"Can I help you sir?" The mare in the ticket booth asked.

"One one-way ticket to dodge junction." I replied.

"Okay. The train to Dodge Junction will be arriving in two hours. That'll be ten bits please."

"Yep." I muttered. I pulled my bag of bits from my right saddle bag, and pulled out a hooffull of coins. I counted out ten bits, and raked the rest back into the bag.

"Thank you sir." The mare said, handing me a ticket. "Have a nice trip."

"No promises, ma'am." I scoffed, then grabbed my bag of bits and my my way to the benches by the tracks. I sat down, and reached back to drop my money back into my saddlebag, missed, and dropped the entire satchel onto the floor of the platform, spilling some of the bits. I cursed under my breath, and reached down to pick up my bag of coins. I noticed a small, folded up piece of paper that had fallen out with the coins, and picked it up. I remembered now that it was the fortune from the restaurant. I had folded it up and dropped it in with my bits. I unfolded the strip of paper and looked at the message typed onto it.

'Wherever you are going, that's where you are'

A wind suddenly picked up, and I let the fortune slip from my hoof, and waft into the air. I watched as it twisted and floated away like a leaf, wandering off to an unknown destination. Maybe somepony would find it, and it would become their problem to worry about and fret over. I sighed. It had come true for me. I was about to end up being wherever I was going.

I was an orphan again. Now, I really had nothing tying me to Canterlot, no family, no friends, nothing to ever come back to. I had been placed on a doorstep after I was born, abandoned by all the world except for whoever lived on the other side of the random door. Now, I was being placed at the gates of a far-away fort, a solitary pony assigned by fate, and my entire future depended on what would happen once I arrived at my destination.

So ends volume one of One Pony's Tale. Things have come full circle for Drake in a way, and now he is starting life over in a new place. How will things work out for him? What changes will take place in Drake's life now? Volume 2 will begin soon, and as promised, much will be revealed. Look for chapter one of Volume 2 to be up in the next day or two. Until then, thank you for reading, everypony.