Immunityby Tyr RemoraChaptersThe IdeaIntrusionInfiltrationThe IdeaIt was just an ordinary day in Equestria. Ponies go about their day like any other across the land while one of the Pony Princesses, Princess Celestia, sits on her throne in the throne room with a few royal pegasus guards for both protection and keeping the royal appearance during the day court. “Sister!” the Solar princess blinks in confusion at her sister's gleeful call, watching her trot towards her, practically skipping with joy. The solar princess couldn't help but smile curious as to what has gotten into Luna to put her in such a happy mood. She takes note of the large scroll Luna is carrying with her magic wondering what her sister had been scheming in the royal library. Luna walks up the steps to the throne and sits down beside her older sister, placing the rolled parchment down in front of them. “In the past one thousand years, the pony populace has evolved to be active for longer periods of time, to the point that there are even ponies working through the night and sleeping through the day.” Luna begins, with a hint of regret no doubt related to the reason why she missed out on all of that advancement. “I have even seen and heard of ponies dancing and celebrating various little things through the hours of my nights with loud music and flashing lights. This has helped me feel appreciated for my work more than ever…” Celestia arches an eyebrow, saying the next word she sees coming from a mile away. “Buuuuut…?” Luna hesitates, hoping she won’t be misunderstood or misinterpreted. Pitching her new idea was suddenly harder than she realized than before she walked in full of confidence about it. “…Well… I-I was reading what ponies have written from their own studies about my nights when I found myself wishing if we could make some sort of annual festival and bring the night sky to shine during the day… Just for one day… for those who do not have the luxury to stay awake long enough, maybe even appreciate a change in routine during their work.” The sun princess mulls this over. She didn’t mind dedicating one day to her sister since she had the Summer Sun celebration and Nightmare Night wasn’t really about the normal Luna and her artistic work of the night sky. However, there was one problem. “Luna, I actually think it’s a wonderful idea, but… How would ponies see your work during the day without the darkness to see the stars or even being blinded by my sun?” Luna was happy that Celestia trusted she wasn’t going to try and convince her for an eternal night again and pressed on with her idea. With her magic, she unrolls the scroll and holds it up in front, displaying scientific drawings of a theoretical event that had never been mentioned before. “A solar eclipse? Luna… That’s… I don’t think it can be possibly done.” Celestia was furrowing her brow in deep thought, trying to wrap her head around the concept of moving the moon in front of the sun. “You know very well that they can’t be in the sky together.” “Celestia… Just where does this all mighty rule come from? When I had refused to bring the moon down a millennium ago, have you even tried to see if you could bring the sun up at that moment?” The Sun Princess blinks a few times at that question, opening and closing her mouth trying to find a rebuttal. Luna on the other hoof uses her magic to bring the pictures on the scroll to life, making them float out forward from the paper and form a realistic rendition of what this eclipse could appear as. Celestia watches as the moon moves in front of the noonday sun and the sky suddenly turns to night in the middle of the day. However, the sun’s corona flares around the moon, almost making it look like a black sun itself. Luna finishes the picture with stars flowing out from behind the sun and tops it with an aurora borealis covering the sky. Celestia smiles at her sister’s work and devotion to its beauty. “Alright Luna, I can find no reason to see why this shouldn’t be done. But before making it official, let’s make a trial run of it. I rather be safe than sorry if this is really something that can’t or even shouldn’t be done.” Luna smiles and nuzzles her sister happily. “Thank you big sister! I shall begin making preparations!” And with that, she rolls up the parchment and trots off with the same bounce in her step as when she came in. *** All Across Equestria, an announcement is made to all ponies about the Solar Eclipse. Every mayor and news media outlets spread the word out, explaining the coming event and its future plans. “Ponies of Equestria, It is our pleasure to announce our plans to try out a new special holiday in honor of Princess Luna’s hard work. For one mid-day, there will be a Solar Eclipse where the moon shall move in front of the sun to darken the noon sky. This will make it dark enough to make the stars visible to let Princess Luna grace ponies unable to see her artistic work with the night sky normally. Much like a fireworks celebration, this will last for a limited time and then you may go back to your normal routines.” After her speech announcing the new celebration, the Mayor rolls the scroll back up and passes it to one of her assistants then addresses the crowd once more. “Now, the princesses plan to make a trial run next Wednesday, so you may plan accordingly, although they are certain that the Eclipse will not harm or hinder crops-” The entire Apple family present let out a collective sigh of relief. “-So I’ll bid you all a good day and let’s hope that the Solar Eclipse turns out to be wonderful.” Everypony disperse from the town hall podium and return to their daily lives. Twilight Sparkle trots back to the library with Spike riding on her back. The little dragon was excited with a new upcoming holiday. “It sounds like an awesome thing to watch! I can’t wait to see it!” “It certainly does sound fascinating Spike. I mean having the moon in front of the sun? Never even heard of the concept of both of them in the sky at the same time, let alone in the same position. I just hope Princess Luna doesn’t plan to change any of the constellations around too much or I might have to remake every star map we have.” “Don’t worry Twilight, I’m sure the princess isn’t gonna change any of those. Besides, I have a feeling you’d actually like doing that if she did. Lots of nights gazing through a telescope, studying stars for hours and writing down all the changes? Oh yeah, sounds like horrible work for you.” Twilight giggles as she opens the library door and gets inside. While Spike goes about his daily chores, the lavender pony browses her books for information on Eclipses. Much to her dismay, there isn’t a lot of books about the theoretical subject, just some hypotheses. These babble on about the possibilities and possible outcomes if such a thing were to happen. They range from “Simply turn day into night” to a more ominous “Mixing of the polar opposites magic could be catastrophic.” Now she was regretting looking it up as her mind races with nothing but horrible results on the day of the trial run. Twilight looks out the window at the setting sun. “I sure hope nothing bad happens…” IntrusionWednesday rolls in without anything worthwhile happening before then. Every pony in Equestria had been talking about the upcoming event with all sorts of emotions. Most were looking forward to it while a few shared Celestia’s initial concern and belief as they find themselves a place to get a good view of the sky for when the solar Eclipse begins. They set up on balconies, on roofs and even rolling out picnic blankets to setup on open fields and hills as the sun nears high noon. The moon is already in the sky, moving from the other side to meet with its counterpart in the middle. Luna and Celestia are ready to perform the eclipse simply from one of the balconies of Canterlot Palace, forgoing trivial celebrations and aesthetics until this trial run proves to be a success. Both princesses face each other on each side of the balcony, facing the same direction in which their celestial bodies are moving. Both stood regal and tall, eyes closed in concentration as the pressure included with using their powerful magic to perform an unheard of and possible unstable event increases the closer it gets. Little by little, the sun and moon begins crossing each other and the sky begins to darken. Celestia was already a bit worried and Luna couldn’t help but feel slightly the same. “So far, so good Luna… It seems you were right; the sky is growing darker with an eclipse. But I have to admit this is making me slightly uncomfortable.” The solar Princess points out. She couldn’t help but open an eye to visibly check on the sun and moon before closing them up again over and over. Luna giggles a little bit, still trying to stay focused on moving the moon and keeping her senses on alert for anything. “Don’t worry too much Celestia, or it alone could disrupt everything. The moon is already passing on front of the sun which demonstrates that both celestial bodies will not conflict with each other by simply being close, let alone both in the sky at the same time.” “It’s wise not to assume things like that until it’s over Luna” “Oh please big sister, have some faith.” “Luna, I know you’re excited to have a day to show your hard work, but as much as you hope for the best, you should also be expecting the worse at the same time.” “Yes, yes… Maybe I am too exci-” A powerful but incredibly subtle ripple of magic emanates from the new Solar Eclipse as the Sun and moon finally get into position, freezing both princesses in place with their eyes wide open. The ripple felt as if a pony had found a double bass the size of Equestria itself and struck the lowest note possible. It left both regal alicorns in a state of confusion as their minds work to make sense of what just happened Luna was the first to gather her thoughts into words. “W-what… was… that!? That must have been the slowest but strongest magic feedback I have ever experienced!” Celestia shakes her head around, clearing it from the residual haze from the ripple. Then she starts to move her head around as if trying to get a better signal with her horn. “A magic feedback is certainly what I would name it too at first glance. But usually feedbacks disconnects from the pony using magic, most of the time rather violently. But it seems I’m still directly connected to the sun… In fact I can’t seem to let it go.” Luna blinks and soon realizes the same holds true on her end as well. Moving her horn around instinctively as well. Finally she gives up and looks to the sky, seeing her work visible during the middle of the day for the first time, shining brightly enough to see the constellations. It wasn’t exactly how she wanted it, but this is more or less her goal for the trial. “I suppose we should abort this trial run and figure out what happened.” “Luna…” “It’s not the spectacular event I wanted to demonstrate, but at least ponies now could see the stars in the middle of their workday.” “Luna, I can’t-” “It’s ok Celestia, I was hoping nothing would happen but I supposed not all is lost, at least we know it is possible to create a Solar Eclipse. Maybe I could-” “I can’t move the sun.” Luna does a triple take then alternatively looks at her big sister and the eclipse alternatively over and over. “What!? You mean you lost control of the sun?!” “No, It’s still under my control, but it seems… Locked in place. I can’t make it budge! Try to move the moon away.” Luna doesn’t need to be told twice, for once rather eager to get the moon out of the sky before people think she is trying to create an eternal night again. Much to her dismay, nothing she could do was moving the moon. It stays firmly locked in front of the sun. “I cannot move the moon either!” “Another problem is that the eclipse is slowly taking more magic from both of us.” “I thought I felt my magic being pulled away from me.” “I’m worried about what would need so much magic for power.” Princess Celestia didn’t have to wait long for an answer as she looked back up to the eclipse and witness something extraordinary. The sunlight that created a corona around the moon reaches out from behind it and begins to spiral into the middle of the moon’s surface, creating a circle of gold which is the color of her magic that the eclipse had taken. “Sister… What is that? What is happening!?” Luna exclaimed. The circle of gold suddenly becomes a ring as another circle of dark blue, Luna’s magic appears inside it, both now spinning in opposite directions. The two princesses can’t look away as this miniature magical eclipse in front of the real one now creates a cyan circle in the middle. However this circle continues to grow bigger, surpassing the magical eclipse and soon matching the solar one. Celestia squints trying to make sense of this new magic color that belongs to neither as a soft and low screeching sound gradualy increases in volume and intensity at an exponential rate. The Sun princess couldn’t make heads or tail of that growing cyan circle. That screeching noise was getting too loud to even hear her own thoughts. It was almost as if- “LUNA RUN! IT’S COMING STRAIGHT AT US!” Luna shoots off the balcony as fast as her alicorn wings can take her. Celestia doesn’t have such luxury. She has a whole castle filled with her guard and staff to protect. Her eyes light up with whatever magic she had left, not willing to underestimate the danger as she projects a giant golden shield wall between the oncoming magic projectile and the castle. It hit with such force the shock wave shatters every window in Canterlot and flattens all of the trees in the immediate area. Celestia however can’t relax just yet. In front of her, still pushing against her shield is the large sphere of cyan magic which was spinning fiercely against it. All she can do is stand her ground and hold the wall till the sphere loses all of its momentum and spin. Luckily this was easier than the initial impact which would have easily have destroyed all of Canterlot. All of a sudden, both the sphere and her protective wall disintegrates instantly and something much smaller shoots past to her right. It completely destroys the wall of the hallway running perpendicular to the balcony. Whatever the answer was, it was there under all that rubble. Celestia, closes her wings and lowers her head, being as cautious as she can be while she approaches the pile of bricks. She could hear flutter of many wings and the clopping of many hooves. The pegasus and unicorn Royal guard are coming to her aid because of their sworn duty and it couldn’t be more appreciated, because within merely five minutes, she hadn’t been so overwhelmed with this many problems in a long while. “Your Highness!” “Stay clear of the rubble! Unicorns help me carefully clear the debris to see what has just attacked us. Pegasus, tight formation above it and be ready to catch or defend.” They all painstakingly worked hard to carefully remove the broken castle bricks. Then Celestia motioned them to stop and move back. A creature’s clawed hand protruded from the rubble, resting motionless on a brick. She removes all of the debris around it to reveal a scaly being of foreign origin. It was about as big as a normal pony, reptile in appearance with different shades of brown for its scales and stripes, feathers on its head down the back of its neck like a mane. It also had dragon wings, sharp axe-like tail spade and it had amazingly survived the force of the impact. Further examination told Celestia it was bipedal and was not a dragon despite having the wings and tail spade of one. I didn’t bear the appearance of something proud and powerful with little to no competition. No this thing had the shape of a creature that hunts and fights for nothing but survival every day of its life, she has no doubt that its eyes are very tired but alert eyes. “This must be handled with care, Tend to its injuries and place it in a secured room. I will need to find a way to communicate with it to find some answers I desperately need.” “Your Majesty, is this related to why you and Princess Luna can’t undo the Eclipse?” “Yes, that will be the first topic of interrogation when it awakes. Just be careful when you transport it.” “Your highness! We can’t pick it up! We can’t seem to grab it with our magic” “Really? How odd.” “No matter how many of us or how much power we put into picking it up, the magic simply can’t grab onto it.” Celestia walks over the unconscious creature and attemps to grab the body with her magic. She is met with the oddest feeling. Her horn lights up but nothing happens around the creature. It was like reaching her hoof into a bucket of water only anything touching the water goes numb and giving the impression she has no more hoof. She gets a horrible revelation about what is happening with their magic but couldn’t confirm it just like that. She will have to physically touch it to do so. “Princess! What are you doing? It could be dangerous!” “I have to.” She chews on her lip, raising a hoof over the creature. “I wouldn’t ask for any of you to do something I wouldn’t be willing to do myself.” She slowly lowers the hoof and gives the creature’s tail the most gentle of pokes. Every unicorn and Pegasus held their breath, but nothing happens. Celestia still stands, the creature is still unconscious and the eclipse is still there. For good measure, she attempts to pick it up again with magic, but to no avail. She then uses her hoof to roll the creature over onto its back, revealing its navy blue belly scales which were an odd contrast to the shades of brown it had for its body, stripes and the feathers on its head. All of a sudden, the creature sat up, making everyone jump back, including the Princess. It grips its head in pain, most likely caused by the sudden impact, then pulls its arms away to examine them as if it has never seen them before, proceeding by examining the rest of its body before shakily standing up on its legs. Celestia finally snaps out of it and takes a step towards the reptile, rebuilding up her magic in case it decides to attack. Its eyes glow with the same cyan color as the magic that had hit her shield but actually cast no light. Her movement catches the attention of the creature but it could only glance at her before turning its head away, squinting its eyes hard. Instead it looks down the hall and crouches, getting ready to pounce for an escape away from the Princess, but the unicorn guards surrounding the reptile move to block it. This doesn’t seem to bother the creature as it tackles two of them, one of them out right fainting while the other simply grunted from the impact before rolling around with the reptile, trying his best to subdue it without magic. The pegasus could only hover close as the two fight, ready to tackle the creature if it wins, which is starting to look like a reality as it gains the upper hand slowly. Celestia and the rest of the guard rush in to help, the princess stopping short to check up on the unconscious pony. He didn’t look injured and she highly doubts that a veteran like him would faint at a mere tackle. She uses her magic to re-awaken him quickly, starting to see she might need as much help as she can get as the creature seems to gradually get better at dodging the guards, slowly making its way down the hall. The guard stutters and looks around confused, before seeing the princess and remembering what happened. “Y-your highness! Forgive me for doing something as shameful as fainting!” He sputters our, quickly bowing his head. “It’s quite alright, It’s not like we’ve faced something like this creature before. Now come help out your comrades, It seems the creature is started to grow accustomed to its body in this world.” She states as she gallops down the hall towards the combating group. Her statement however is only a theory but so far it makes sense. The way the creature examined itself was as if it never had a body like that before which supports a random thought she had when she watched her magic and her sister’s magic form a circle in front of the eclipse. When she saw the cyan magic shoot out of the circle, her mind suggested it could have been a portal to another world. “Actualy your highness, It wasn’t fear or surprise that caused me to faint.” Stated the guard running beside her. “When it tackled me, it touched my horn and then I felt my magic, I guess you can say, turn off.” “That’s a very disturbing description... ” The guard uses magic to catch one of his comrades who gets thrown away “…But it seems you’re fine with magic now.” Celestia makes a quick assessment in her head then gives out new orders. “Unicorns pull back while the pegasus engage! The creature seems to be able to cancel out magic and even temporarily nullify the magic within you on contact with your horn!” Immediately the unicorn guards jump back, but before the pegasus could replace them, the reptile dashes out of the incoming pile at a much faster speed. Celestia and her guards rush after it before they can lose sight of it but just before the creature can turn the corner, Luna suddenly appears with her own guards which she gathered on the way up from the barracks. She now finds herself face to face with this new and unknown creature, but before she can do or say anything, it jumps and reaches for her horn. “LUNA!” Celestia yells out of instinct. “DANCE!” The odd order had stunned all of the guard and even the creature it seems as they now watch the Night Princess spin around and slam her back hoof against the side of the reptile’s head, sending it into the wall which cracks from the force of impact. But strangely enough, the creature recovers fast and now finds itself dodging all of Luna’s graceful hoof strikes. The guards can only stand and watch in awe as one of their princesses single hoofedly pushes back the being they all had trouble to simply stop together. “This is amazing!” “I never knew a pony could fight like that in real life!” “It really does look like they’re dancing!” Celestia didn’t really wanted to let her sister fight like again that but it was the only thing she could think of for her own safety. “Luna! Don't let it touch your horn! It can cancel magic on contact!” This advice wasn’t needed because another rear hoof lands on the side of the reptile's head again, only this time it spun its body around to deflect it and slams its own clawed foot on the side of Luna’s head, now sending her to the same wall. “LUNA!” Celestia bellowed as she flares her wings and prepares to fight the creature herself. The reptile recoiled in pain as if it had just stared directly into the sun when it looks at Celestia and prepares to run away but all of the guards now completely block his escape. It closes his eyes and suddenly bolts towards the Sun princess, eyes closed tightly. Celestia moves out of the scaly projectile’s way as it smashes into the opposing wall next to the balcony. “Oh no! After it! It’s going to escape!” Unfortunately she was right as the reptile recovers from the collision, it runs to the balcony and launches off with all of its might into the darkened sky. All of the pegasus fly after it but the force with which it launched itself off had given it a massive head start and was simply gliding away towards the clouds. “We must catch up before it gets into the clouds!” “It’s too far we’ll never make it!” They watch as the creature turns its head around to look at them and gives them a large mocking grin, only to be hit in the face with a brick from the demolished wall all the way back at Canterlot castle. The Night Princess, apparently unhindered from being sent into a wall, had used her magic to shoot a piece of debris at the creature, now watching it fall into the Everfree forest. “HUZZAH! Direct hit!” InfiltrationUnder the dark shadow of the ever persisting Solar Eclipse, Luna exits the Everfree Forest with an exhausted sigh of defeat. She and a contingent of pegasus and unicorn guards searched the forest as thoroughly as they could while avoiding conflicts with the local fauna to find the mysterious reptile creature. However this proved futile as the creature was nowhere to be found despite discovering the point of impact from its fall. Not even Zecora, the zebra who lives in the forest, knew or saw anything other than weird, unfamiliar noises echoing through the trees. “What’s our next course of action Princess Luna?” Asks a guard close to her. She glances up towards the Eclipse, thinking of her next plan of action. The Eclipses stares back, the magical portal still there and firmly locking the two celestial bodies in place. “I must inform my sister’s student, Twilight Sparkle of the current situation.” She points to the two closest pegasus guards. “You two shall accompany me, the rest of you are dismissed for now. Celestia will need help cleaning and repairing the destruction caused by the earlier events.” They all bowed to her in agreement to their orders and left. Now on route to the library, Luna notices pony faces pressed in windows, fear in their eyes once again. Luna sighs once more; this is what she was afraid of. After finally establishing that she had no intention to create eternal night again, here she was in near total darkness during the afternoon from the moon blocking the sun, coming out of the Everfree Forest with a pair of guards sporting night shift armor. “Princess Luna!” a young voice calls out as something runs towards the Princess of the Night. The guards immediately move to block Luna but she motions them to stand down as Pip Squeak stops short, startled by the abrupt movement of the guards. He looks at both of them and then timidly and slowly approaches Luna. “I was- I mean we were wondering why the sky hasn’t gone back to normal yet.” The young pony now trots side by side with Luna and her guards when she resumes her walk. “We have not figured out what has happened yet little one. But rest assured I am not trying to bring back eternal night once again. Both the moon and sun are locked on the position they are now and we are trying to find out why.” “What was that light that came out of the moon? And-And that explosion at the castle?” Luna takes a pause in her walk to think of a good explanation before resuming. She had no clue if she should reveal the light was the invasion of a creature that is immune to magic just yet. “That was the magical feedback from the locking of the celestial bodies. Do not worry; both my sister and I are fine. We are just trying to get things back the way they were right now.” That cover story will have to do for now. “In any case, I need you to go back inside and inform every pony that everything is fine and we are working to correct it as fast as we can.” “Yes Ma’am!” Pip squeak gives a salute then runs back home while Luna and her guards walk up to the library’s door. *** Fluttershy slowly grows bored of watching the unchanging Solar Eclipse on top of her little hillside cottage after that flash of light shooting down towards the castle. She lets out a long but soft yawn before heading out in her yard to check on her animal friends. The dark sky in the middle of the day must be confusing to them and seeing as nothing else is happening, she might as well spend some time to care for them until daylight comes back. But as she goes get the many assorted kibble, a bat flies through her window flying around the room frantically. “Goodness! You must be confused with all of this and probably think it’s already night time so you came out looking for food.” Fluttershy holds out a bowl of food but the bat only flies out of the window it came in. “O-oh! Wait! I have berries too!” The caretaker pegasus goes after it barging out through the front door in hot pursuit of the little bat with the bowl of kibble in her fore hooves. The bat zooms around to the back of the house and stops abruptly just as the yellow pegasus rounds the corner and nearly bumps into him. “Oh! I’m so glad you decided to-oh no! Angel!” Fluttershy drops the bowl of kibble in shock. Both the bat and she were looking towards the sight of her longtime companion dangling by his ears from the maw of an intimidating and foreign reptile perched on her fence, its eyes lit and focused in the darkness of the Eclipse. In the light cast from the windows of her cottage she could see bruises, cuts, scrapes and what looked like porcupine needles all over the reptile, evidence pointing to his implication in a rather hard struggle, probably moments after coming out of the forest and snatching up Angel as a quick meal. Angel gives a very pleading “help me” look and without a second thought, Fluttershy hovers a little closer. “I-I have no idea who or what you are, but I would appreciate it very much if you didn’t eat my friend. I could find something else for you to eat… A-and maybe help you with your wounds? …pretty please?” The reptile blinks at Fluttershy but still keeping a much focused stare at the hovering pegasus. Without any resistance, he opens his maw to drop Angel who gasps in relief before dashing behind his caretaker’s hind hooves. The reptile proceeds to hop down from the fence but immediately collapses onto the ground at the yellow pegasus’ hooves after landing. “Oh my… I better get you inside.” *** “Just to be certain I understand Princess, this creature who came from the portal created by the Eclipse can cancel out magic on contact?” “That is correct, Twilight Sparkle.” “And more importantly, if it touches a unicorn’s horn it can completely shut down his or her magic temporarily?” “Much to our dismay, yes. However it did not have the chance to make contact with my horn, thus I have no idea as to how it might affect me or my sister.” “And on top of it all when it almost escaped, you “subdued” it in midflight making it fall into the Everfree forest where it’s now roaming free and dangerously close to Ponyville.” Twilight paced around the center table of the library as she recaps Princess Luna’s account of the events that unfolded when the Sun and moon moved into the same position. She spent much of the afternoon listening to the story intently about this potential new threat to equestrian society considering how prevalent magic is to everyday life. Luna simply nods and confirms every word, sitting comfortably with Spike while they both watch the lavender unicorn make laps around the table. “I am truly sorry for that. I was caught in the excitement and I knocked it out of the sky over the forest before I realized what I had done. It had gotten a good hit in before it escaped and I felt like I needed to… Settle the score as they say.” Luna gets up on her hooves before nodding her head courteously. “Now then, I must get back to the castle to tell my sister that we couldn’t locate the creat-” The door to the Library swings open and one of the guards stepped in, bowing to the princess and librarian. “I’m sorry for interrupting your highness, but there is…. Uh… Someone here demanding attention.” A white bunny runs out from between the guard’s fore hooves and flails his arms in a panic. Twilight stops pacing when she recognized the little guy right away. “Angel? What are you doing here? Did…. Did something happen to Fluttershy?” The bunny quickly nods then strikes a pose. His ears where flat on his back and his head low with his rump high followed with some pretty cute growling since it was coming from a rodent after all. Luna gasps as she realizes who he was imitating. “It’s the creature! Quickly! We must ensure Fluttershy is safe!” *** Meanwhile, Fluttershy placed the creature on her sofa while she prepares her first aid kit to tend to the unusual creature’s wounds. Usually her bunny companion angel would be helping but she can’t find him anywhere after she brought the creature inside. Poor thing must’ve been traumatized and hiding somewhere till he’s gone she thought. With a tray in her mouth holding assorted first aid supplies, she walks back to the sofa where she sets down the try before examining the reptile thoroughly. Much to her surprise, all of the cuts, scrapes and bruises are all gone, but the porcupine quills still are planted firmly in its scaly hide and they just have to come out. It was still asleep so this should be the best time to pull them out, the draconic features leads her to believe that it had thick scales like Spike. Turns out this wasn’t one of her best calls. A piercing shriek resonates across Ponyville as the creature violently wakes up sending Fluttershy tumbling across the floor where she stops propped upside down against the opposing wall with a timid “eep!” The reptile stands up on the sofa, head still low down and growling as it hops down and begins taking steps towards the upside down pegasus. The mare cringed as she looked into those bioluminescent eyes with their aqua blue glow, emitting an intense pressure at her, making her instincts scream to panic, flee and fear the being in front of her. Fluttershy makes herself smaller, whimpering under the pressure and getting ready to bolt out of her cottage. But, that would mean leaving all her little friends to this dangerous and most likely hungry animal and those quills stuck around his backside really need to come out. With those two facts, she steels her resolve, stands upright and gives her own stare back. Unlike the creature’s immense crushing pressure which forces those caught in it to turn tail and run, Fluttershy’s commanding gaze pierces straight through and into the soul. The creature immediately succumbs, keeping its head low to the ground but its eyes showing surprise while the caretaker gives her opinion whether it wanted it or not. “Listen here! You’re hurt and need medical attention. Now I need to get those quills out before they get any deeper so you’re going to sit down and stay calm while I do so.” The yellow pegasus was right in its face, looking straight into his previously intimidating eyes. After a pause of silence, the reptile lowers his entire body onto the cottage floor, its head barely moving. “That’s better, now I can finish taking these quills out. They’re in deep so this will hurt, I’d prefer if you didn’t yell out so loudly. Hmm…” Fluttershy looks around for something to bite down on but can only find a chew toy. “Um… if you want… y-you can bite down on this… it might help… Maybe…” The creature raises a brow at the dog bone shaped chew toy, then hesitantly but slowly places it between its sharp teeth just as the caretaking mare bites down on one of the quills and yanks it out. There was a loud grunt and a high pitched squeak followed by silence. Then a very quiet giggle from the pegasus that she couldn’t help but let out. The reptile replies with a growl after which Fluttershy stifles her laugh and clears her throat. “I-I’m sorry, I’ll get the others out quickly.” But it wasn’t easy as each yanking of a quill was a guaranteed reaction of a grunt, squeak and timid giggle every time. Finally at the last quill, Fluttershy bites down and gets ready to yank it out when suddenly the door to her cottage swings open. “Fluttershy! Are you here?” Twilight asks while coming in with Spike riding on top followed by Princess Luna. “There was loud noise that came from here after Angel warned us about a possibly dangerous creature in your ho-AAAHHH!” Twilight eyes lock onto the creature who stares back. “Luna! Is that the creature?!” Luna walks around Twilight immediately recognizing her opponent and the source of all this trouble since this started. She assumes a fighting stance, turning her body a quarter sideways and aiming her horn down towards the creature. Spike hops down from Twilight, immediately protecting her from the front and gives his best menacing appearance. “Indeed it is Twilight, It would be best if you could go back to your library. Fluttershy, I’m afraid I must take the creature into custody.” The timid mare was still hunched over the reptile’s back, about to bite down on the last quill. She gives quick glances back and forth between the quill and the princess, occasionally giving a pleading look towards Twilight. The reptile, oddly enough, has not jumped up in reply against Luna’s hostile stance. Instead he has suddenly taken an interest in Twilight as he stares in her direction when the princess told her to go back to her library. “But… um… I still need to finish tending to-” “Hey! What are you looking at buddy!?” Spike suddenly calls out as he hops down from Twilight and takes a protective stance in front of her, baring his tiny little teeth at the creature. “Twilight is MY pony and I don’t like the way you’re looking at her.” The reptile answers Spike’s hostility rather than Luna’s by popping its rump in the air and keeping its head low to the ground while growling back at Spike. Twilight however takes the well-meant statement the wrong way. “Excuse me?! What do you mean “your” pony? Last time I checked spike, you are MY assistant.” “Um… E-excuse me, but I need … Oh my…” Spike, pre-occupied with staring down the reptile posing as a rival didn’t hear anyone, only growling back rather courageously at the bigger winged lizard. “Twilight, Spike! Now is not the time for arguing! We must bring the creature in to help find a solution for the locked Ecipse!” “P-please can it wait until I fini-” “Do you have any ideas on how to capture it without spells, Luna?” “We must incapacitate it…” She raises an ornate hoof. “…Physically…” But before the Princess of the Night could get ready, Fluttershy decides that words weren’t going let her finish her job and quickly reaches for the last quill on the creature’s backside. The sudden yank causes the reptile to release an ear piercing shriek which forces everyone to recoil away with their hands/hooves over their ears in both shock and pain. While everyone was cringing from the surprise noise, Luna had kept her eyes on the creature, making sure it wasn’t going to make a grab for her or Twilight’s horn. But instead of doing that, the creature makes a break for a window in the sudden confusion and Luna goes into pursuit. However the reptile seemed to have foreseen this as it jumps over Fluttershy’s living room table to land on the far edge of it, flipping the table up as an obstacle which Luna promptly hits in her haste to apprehend the invader. “Princess Luna!” “Your Highness!” Twilight and the Royal guards waiting outside rushes to help her but with a take-off kick, the reptile sends both the princess and the table flying into the group, then into spike which ends up with everyone tumbling out the front door while the Creature exits through a window and into the darkness of the Eclipse. Fluttershy crawls out from under her sofa when the ordeal appears to be over then timidly trots over to the pile-up at her front door. She slowly lifts the table a bit to peek under to see if anyone was injured. All of a sudden Luna roars, grabbing the table with her magic, hopping to her feet and attempts to smash the table against the ground to vent out her frustrations. She quickly realizes she is in public and simply sets the table gently down back in the living room. She notices everyone keeping a distance from her, making her sigh in defeat and plop her face down on the very same table. “Forgive me for that outburst… This is twice that annoying creature successfully embarrasses me in front of other ponies only to escape before I even get a chance to get even. We need answers! Why did it come here? Is it responsible for locking the Eclipse in place? What does it want?” Fluttershy, Twilight and spike sit down around the table with Luna while the guards patrol around the cottage in case the creature comes back. Spike offers a conciliatory pat on the dark mare’s back. “Don’t worry your highness, I’m positively sure you’ll catch that guy. Hopefully before he does something to Twilight… Seeing him stare at her like that makes me worried.” His personification of the creature makes the ponies around him raise an eyebrow. “that guy?” Twilight repeats. “Him?” Luna adds. Spike crosses his arms and sticks his nose up in the air with confidence. “Of course! Only another guy would have the guts to stare ME down!” His statement is met with a double eyeroll and a shy giggle. However, Luna decides that the little dragon was onto something. “Well at any rate, treating the creature like some mindless monster has humiliated me twice in one day. It is certain that… “He” should not be underestimated. He has proven very skillfull in unarmed combat and adept at evasion.” “And from what you told me back at my house, if he really is the cause for the locked eclipse, he could actually be able to give answers we can understand. I want to help you get those and … Maybe get to know that creature better.” Twilight adds. The possibility of examining and understanding this foreign creature is also very appealing to her scientific mind. Luna smiles and stands up in a formal manner. “Then it is decided then! You, Twilight Sparkle shall aid me by using your skills in research. Find out anything based on his appearance and a way to counter his ability to cancel magic.” Twilight bows her head down. “I look forward to it Princess Luna. What about you? What are you going to do next?” Luna taps a hoof against her chin, her eyes scanning the roof for nothing in particular as she thinks. “I will have to report back to my sister and continue to help her find a way to undo this Eclipse. For now Equestria will have to rely solely on clocks to tell that it is nearly nightfall right now and with some luck, we shall find a way to set things right again.” Luna walks out the door, followed by her guards. “I will send a few Royal Guards to patrol around the forest in case he comes back, we can’t leave Ponyville defenseless against that creature since we still have no idea as to what his intentions are.” And with that, Princess Luna and her personal bodyguards take off into the dark sky en route to Canterlot. Twilight and Spike turn back to Fluttershy. The timid pegasus shrinks back from the table from the sudden increase in attention. “I know you’re the kindest pony in Equestria but you didn’t worry a little bit even going near some creature we know nothing about?” “Well, we don’t know just what exactly lives in the Everfree Forest…” “Good point. Well then, in any case, could you possible tell us anything you learned why taking care of him? His reason to be here? Why he locked the Sun and Moon together? How to fix it?” Fluttershy continues to shrink under Twilight’s impromptu interrogation. “I’m sorry, I didn’t ask anything. I-I just treated him like any animal friend who comes to me injured.” Twilight can’t help but be both proud and impressed with just how far the yellow pegasus is willing to share her kindness despite any dangers that could be present. “I feel kind of sorry for him though,” Fluttershy says in a much quieter voice. “He looked very lost…” *** “I know she represents the element of generosity but did she even see how that lizard kicked her living room table right into Princess Luna’s face?! He didn’t even hesitate to hurt one of the princesses!” Spike states while riding on Twilight’s back on their way home. “He better not come anywhere near us or else!” he adds while doing a bit of shadowboxing and finishing it with bearing his fangs while hissing. Twilight giggles at her assistant’s attempt to be intimidating. “Oh Spike, that creature had successfully escaped both princesses and was able to keep up with Luna in combat. What makes you think that a baby dragon could do anything to him? I think you’re taking this territorial instinct a little farther than you can reach.” Spike crosses his arms and sulks. “I bet he wouldn’t be so tough if I was gigantic again…” “That’s something I rather not resort to, and I think the rest of Ponyville would agree.” Twilight opens the door to her library home built into the trunk of the massive oak tree in the town and immediately gets a greeting hoot from Owlowiscious. Spike slides off the mare’s back and yawns loudly, both realizing that it must have gotten pretty late even with the Eclipse still locked in place. Spike begins to walk up the stairs towards their bedroom. “Well Twilight, it’s been a tense afternoon I’m gonna call it a night. How about you? Are you going to stay up and study some more as usual?” Twilight taps her hoof against her chin in thought. She really wants to help out the princesses by researching more about Eclipses and portals, for all they knew that creature could have come from a whole different dimension or timeline. His ability to cancel magic is also something to worry about, for magic is not only part of daily life for every pony, but is the greatest power to wield through friendship. This could very well mean that should the situation call for it, the Elements of Harmony may not be of any help at all. However, all the excitement from earlier coupled with all of this troublesome information is only reminding her body of how late it is. “As much as I would love to, it can wait until tomorrow. Then we can gather the girls and get every pony to watch out for sightings of the creature. I’ll work on researching about it then.” Both of them walk upstairs into the bedroom and proceed to catch some sleep. After two hours of tossing around, Twilight realizes she can’t sleep BECAUSE of everything that is happening with the Eclipse. She looks over to Spike’s little basket where he is sleeping like a log with his pet Peewee snuggled against him, completely unperturbed by the events. She decides to get started on some reading since she can’t sleep anyways and goes down to go make herself something to snack on before she starts. Using her horn to light the way to her kitchen, Twilight quietly makes her way down the stairs. As she reaches the ground floor, she spots a pile of books on the ground near a bookcase where they’ve been all pulled out of. She was sure Spike cleaned everything up before Princess Luna had arrived and she hadn’t started anything before. “Hmm… A Complete History: Equestria, The Tale of the Royal Sisters, a catalog of Equestrian Cartography. I don’t remember reading any of these recently, why would they be lying on the ground off the shelf?”
The IdeaIt was just an ordinary day in Equestria. Ponies go about their day like any other across the land while one of the Pony Princesses, Princess Celestia, sits on her throne in the throne room with a few royal pegasus guards for both protection and keeping the royal appearance during the day court. “Sister!” the Solar princess blinks in confusion at her sister's gleeful call, watching her trot towards her, practically skipping with joy. The solar princess couldn't help but smile curious as to what has gotten into Luna to put her in such a happy mood. She takes note of the large scroll Luna is carrying with her magic wondering what her sister had been scheming in the royal library. Luna walks up the steps to the throne and sits down beside her older sister, placing the rolled parchment down in front of them. “In the past one thousand years, the pony populace has evolved to be active for longer periods of time, to the point that there are even ponies working through the night and sleeping through the day.” Luna begins, with a hint of regret no doubt related to the reason why she missed out on all of that advancement. “I have even seen and heard of ponies dancing and celebrating various little things through the hours of my nights with loud music and flashing lights. This has helped me feel appreciated for my work more than ever…” Celestia arches an eyebrow, saying the next word she sees coming from a mile away. “Buuuuut…?” Luna hesitates, hoping she won’t be misunderstood or misinterpreted. Pitching her new idea was suddenly harder than she realized than before she walked in full of confidence about it. “…Well… I-I was reading what ponies have written from their own studies about my nights when I found myself wishing if we could make some sort of annual festival and bring the night sky to shine during the day… Just for one day… for those who do not have the luxury to stay awake long enough, maybe even appreciate a change in routine during their work.” The sun princess mulls this over. She didn’t mind dedicating one day to her sister since she had the Summer Sun celebration and Nightmare Night wasn’t really about the normal Luna and her artistic work of the night sky. However, there was one problem. “Luna, I actually think it’s a wonderful idea, but… How would ponies see your work during the day without the darkness to see the stars or even being blinded by my sun?” Luna was happy that Celestia trusted she wasn’t going to try and convince her for an eternal night again and pressed on with her idea. With her magic, she unrolls the scroll and holds it up in front, displaying scientific drawings of a theoretical event that had never been mentioned before. “A solar eclipse? Luna… That’s… I don’t think it can be possibly done.” Celestia was furrowing her brow in deep thought, trying to wrap her head around the concept of moving the moon in front of the sun. “You know very well that they can’t be in the sky together.” “Celestia… Just where does this all mighty rule come from? When I had refused to bring the moon down a millennium ago, have you even tried to see if you could bring the sun up at that moment?” The Sun Princess blinks a few times at that question, opening and closing her mouth trying to find a rebuttal. Luna on the other hoof uses her magic to bring the pictures on the scroll to life, making them float out forward from the paper and form a realistic rendition of what this eclipse could appear as. Celestia watches as the moon moves in front of the noonday sun and the sky suddenly turns to night in the middle of the day. However, the sun’s corona flares around the moon, almost making it look like a black sun itself. Luna finishes the picture with stars flowing out from behind the sun and tops it with an aurora borealis covering the sky. Celestia smiles at her sister’s work and devotion to its beauty. “Alright Luna, I can find no reason to see why this shouldn’t be done. But before making it official, let’s make a trial run of it. I rather be safe than sorry if this is really something that can’t or even shouldn’t be done.” Luna smiles and nuzzles her sister happily. “Thank you big sister! I shall begin making preparations!” And with that, she rolls up the parchment and trots off with the same bounce in her step as when she came in. *** All Across Equestria, an announcement is made to all ponies about the Solar Eclipse. Every mayor and news media outlets spread the word out, explaining the coming event and its future plans. “Ponies of Equestria, It is our pleasure to announce our plans to try out a new special holiday in honor of Princess Luna’s hard work. For one mid-day, there will be a Solar Eclipse where the moon shall move in front of the sun to darken the noon sky. This will make it dark enough to make the stars visible to let Princess Luna grace ponies unable to see her artistic work with the night sky normally. Much like a fireworks celebration, this will last for a limited time and then you may go back to your normal routines.” After her speech announcing the new celebration, the Mayor rolls the scroll back up and passes it to one of her assistants then addresses the crowd once more. “Now, the princesses plan to make a trial run next Wednesday, so you may plan accordingly, although they are certain that the Eclipse will not harm or hinder crops-” The entire Apple family present let out a collective sigh of relief. “-So I’ll bid you all a good day and let’s hope that the Solar Eclipse turns out to be wonderful.” Everypony disperse from the town hall podium and return to their daily lives. Twilight Sparkle trots back to the library with Spike riding on her back. The little dragon was excited with a new upcoming holiday. “It sounds like an awesome thing to watch! I can’t wait to see it!” “It certainly does sound fascinating Spike. I mean having the moon in front of the sun? Never even heard of the concept of both of them in the sky at the same time, let alone in the same position. I just hope Princess Luna doesn’t plan to change any of the constellations around too much or I might have to remake every star map we have.” “Don’t worry Twilight, I’m sure the princess isn’t gonna change any of those. Besides, I have a feeling you’d actually like doing that if she did. Lots of nights gazing through a telescope, studying stars for hours and writing down all the changes? Oh yeah, sounds like horrible work for you.” Twilight giggles as she opens the library door and gets inside. While Spike goes about his daily chores, the lavender pony browses her books for information on Eclipses. Much to her dismay, there isn’t a lot of books about the theoretical subject, just some hypotheses. These babble on about the possibilities and possible outcomes if such a thing were to happen. They range from “Simply turn day into night” to a more ominous “Mixing of the polar opposites magic could be catastrophic.” Now she was regretting looking it up as her mind races with nothing but horrible results on the day of the trial run. Twilight looks out the window at the setting sun. “I sure hope nothing bad happens…”
IntrusionWednesday rolls in without anything worthwhile happening before then. Every pony in Equestria had been talking about the upcoming event with all sorts of emotions. Most were looking forward to it while a few shared Celestia’s initial concern and belief as they find themselves a place to get a good view of the sky for when the solar Eclipse begins. They set up on balconies, on roofs and even rolling out picnic blankets to setup on open fields and hills as the sun nears high noon. The moon is already in the sky, moving from the other side to meet with its counterpart in the middle. Luna and Celestia are ready to perform the eclipse simply from one of the balconies of Canterlot Palace, forgoing trivial celebrations and aesthetics until this trial run proves to be a success. Both princesses face each other on each side of the balcony, facing the same direction in which their celestial bodies are moving. Both stood regal and tall, eyes closed in concentration as the pressure included with using their powerful magic to perform an unheard of and possible unstable event increases the closer it gets. Little by little, the sun and moon begins crossing each other and the sky begins to darken. Celestia was already a bit worried and Luna couldn’t help but feel slightly the same. “So far, so good Luna… It seems you were right; the sky is growing darker with an eclipse. But I have to admit this is making me slightly uncomfortable.” The solar Princess points out. She couldn’t help but open an eye to visibly check on the sun and moon before closing them up again over and over. Luna giggles a little bit, still trying to stay focused on moving the moon and keeping her senses on alert for anything. “Don’t worry too much Celestia, or it alone could disrupt everything. The moon is already passing on front of the sun which demonstrates that both celestial bodies will not conflict with each other by simply being close, let alone both in the sky at the same time.” “It’s wise not to assume things like that until it’s over Luna” “Oh please big sister, have some faith.” “Luna, I know you’re excited to have a day to show your hard work, but as much as you hope for the best, you should also be expecting the worse at the same time.” “Yes, yes… Maybe I am too exci-” A powerful but incredibly subtle ripple of magic emanates from the new Solar Eclipse as the Sun and moon finally get into position, freezing both princesses in place with their eyes wide open. The ripple felt as if a pony had found a double bass the size of Equestria itself and struck the lowest note possible. It left both regal alicorns in a state of confusion as their minds work to make sense of what just happened Luna was the first to gather her thoughts into words. “W-what… was… that!? That must have been the slowest but strongest magic feedback I have ever experienced!” Celestia shakes her head around, clearing it from the residual haze from the ripple. Then she starts to move her head around as if trying to get a better signal with her horn. “A magic feedback is certainly what I would name it too at first glance. But usually feedbacks disconnects from the pony using magic, most of the time rather violently. But it seems I’m still directly connected to the sun… In fact I can’t seem to let it go.” Luna blinks and soon realizes the same holds true on her end as well. Moving her horn around instinctively as well. Finally she gives up and looks to the sky, seeing her work visible during the middle of the day for the first time, shining brightly enough to see the constellations. It wasn’t exactly how she wanted it, but this is more or less her goal for the trial. “I suppose we should abort this trial run and figure out what happened.” “Luna…” “It’s not the spectacular event I wanted to demonstrate, but at least ponies now could see the stars in the middle of their workday.” “Luna, I can’t-” “It’s ok Celestia, I was hoping nothing would happen but I supposed not all is lost, at least we know it is possible to create a Solar Eclipse. Maybe I could-” “I can’t move the sun.” Luna does a triple take then alternatively looks at her big sister and the eclipse alternatively over and over. “What!? You mean you lost control of the sun?!” “No, It’s still under my control, but it seems… Locked in place. I can’t make it budge! Try to move the moon away.” Luna doesn’t need to be told twice, for once rather eager to get the moon out of the sky before people think she is trying to create an eternal night again. Much to her dismay, nothing she could do was moving the moon. It stays firmly locked in front of the sun. “I cannot move the moon either!” “Another problem is that the eclipse is slowly taking more magic from both of us.” “I thought I felt my magic being pulled away from me.” “I’m worried about what would need so much magic for power.” Princess Celestia didn’t have to wait long for an answer as she looked back up to the eclipse and witness something extraordinary. The sunlight that created a corona around the moon reaches out from behind it and begins to spiral into the middle of the moon’s surface, creating a circle of gold which is the color of her magic that the eclipse had taken. “Sister… What is that? What is happening!?” Luna exclaimed. The circle of gold suddenly becomes a ring as another circle of dark blue, Luna’s magic appears inside it, both now spinning in opposite directions. The two princesses can’t look away as this miniature magical eclipse in front of the real one now creates a cyan circle in the middle. However this circle continues to grow bigger, surpassing the magical eclipse and soon matching the solar one. Celestia squints trying to make sense of this new magic color that belongs to neither as a soft and low screeching sound gradualy increases in volume and intensity at an exponential rate. The Sun princess couldn’t make heads or tail of that growing cyan circle. That screeching noise was getting too loud to even hear her own thoughts. It was almost as if- “LUNA RUN! IT’S COMING STRAIGHT AT US!” Luna shoots off the balcony as fast as her alicorn wings can take her. Celestia doesn’t have such luxury. She has a whole castle filled with her guard and staff to protect. Her eyes light up with whatever magic she had left, not willing to underestimate the danger as she projects a giant golden shield wall between the oncoming magic projectile and the castle. It hit with such force the shock wave shatters every window in Canterlot and flattens all of the trees in the immediate area. Celestia however can’t relax just yet. In front of her, still pushing against her shield is the large sphere of cyan magic which was spinning fiercely against it. All she can do is stand her ground and hold the wall till the sphere loses all of its momentum and spin. Luckily this was easier than the initial impact which would have easily have destroyed all of Canterlot. All of a sudden, both the sphere and her protective wall disintegrates instantly and something much smaller shoots past to her right. It completely destroys the wall of the hallway running perpendicular to the balcony. Whatever the answer was, it was there under all that rubble. Celestia, closes her wings and lowers her head, being as cautious as she can be while she approaches the pile of bricks. She could hear flutter of many wings and the clopping of many hooves. The pegasus and unicorn Royal guard are coming to her aid because of their sworn duty and it couldn’t be more appreciated, because within merely five minutes, she hadn’t been so overwhelmed with this many problems in a long while. “Your Highness!” “Stay clear of the rubble! Unicorns help me carefully clear the debris to see what has just attacked us. Pegasus, tight formation above it and be ready to catch or defend.” They all painstakingly worked hard to carefully remove the broken castle bricks. Then Celestia motioned them to stop and move back. A creature’s clawed hand protruded from the rubble, resting motionless on a brick. She removes all of the debris around it to reveal a scaly being of foreign origin. It was about as big as a normal pony, reptile in appearance with different shades of brown for its scales and stripes, feathers on its head down the back of its neck like a mane. It also had dragon wings, sharp axe-like tail spade and it had amazingly survived the force of the impact. Further examination told Celestia it was bipedal and was not a dragon despite having the wings and tail spade of one. I didn’t bear the appearance of something proud and powerful with little to no competition. No this thing had the shape of a creature that hunts and fights for nothing but survival every day of its life, she has no doubt that its eyes are very tired but alert eyes. “This must be handled with care, Tend to its injuries and place it in a secured room. I will need to find a way to communicate with it to find some answers I desperately need.” “Your Majesty, is this related to why you and Princess Luna can’t undo the Eclipse?” “Yes, that will be the first topic of interrogation when it awakes. Just be careful when you transport it.” “Your highness! We can’t pick it up! We can’t seem to grab it with our magic” “Really? How odd.” “No matter how many of us or how much power we put into picking it up, the magic simply can’t grab onto it.” Celestia walks over the unconscious creature and attemps to grab the body with her magic. She is met with the oddest feeling. Her horn lights up but nothing happens around the creature. It was like reaching her hoof into a bucket of water only anything touching the water goes numb and giving the impression she has no more hoof. She gets a horrible revelation about what is happening with their magic but couldn’t confirm it just like that. She will have to physically touch it to do so. “Princess! What are you doing? It could be dangerous!” “I have to.” She chews on her lip, raising a hoof over the creature. “I wouldn’t ask for any of you to do something I wouldn’t be willing to do myself.” She slowly lowers the hoof and gives the creature’s tail the most gentle of pokes. Every unicorn and Pegasus held their breath, but nothing happens. Celestia still stands, the creature is still unconscious and the eclipse is still there. For good measure, she attempts to pick it up again with magic, but to no avail. She then uses her hoof to roll the creature over onto its back, revealing its navy blue belly scales which were an odd contrast to the shades of brown it had for its body, stripes and the feathers on its head. All of a sudden, the creature sat up, making everyone jump back, including the Princess. It grips its head in pain, most likely caused by the sudden impact, then pulls its arms away to examine them as if it has never seen them before, proceeding by examining the rest of its body before shakily standing up on its legs. Celestia finally snaps out of it and takes a step towards the reptile, rebuilding up her magic in case it decides to attack. Its eyes glow with the same cyan color as the magic that had hit her shield but actually cast no light. Her movement catches the attention of the creature but it could only glance at her before turning its head away, squinting its eyes hard. Instead it looks down the hall and crouches, getting ready to pounce for an escape away from the Princess, but the unicorn guards surrounding the reptile move to block it. This doesn’t seem to bother the creature as it tackles two of them, one of them out right fainting while the other simply grunted from the impact before rolling around with the reptile, trying his best to subdue it without magic. The pegasus could only hover close as the two fight, ready to tackle the creature if it wins, which is starting to look like a reality as it gains the upper hand slowly. Celestia and the rest of the guard rush in to help, the princess stopping short to check up on the unconscious pony. He didn’t look injured and she highly doubts that a veteran like him would faint at a mere tackle. She uses her magic to re-awaken him quickly, starting to see she might need as much help as she can get as the creature seems to gradually get better at dodging the guards, slowly making its way down the hall. The guard stutters and looks around confused, before seeing the princess and remembering what happened. “Y-your highness! Forgive me for doing something as shameful as fainting!” He sputters our, quickly bowing his head. “It’s quite alright, It’s not like we’ve faced something like this creature before. Now come help out your comrades, It seems the creature is started to grow accustomed to its body in this world.” She states as she gallops down the hall towards the combating group. Her statement however is only a theory but so far it makes sense. The way the creature examined itself was as if it never had a body like that before which supports a random thought she had when she watched her magic and her sister’s magic form a circle in front of the eclipse. When she saw the cyan magic shoot out of the circle, her mind suggested it could have been a portal to another world. “Actualy your highness, It wasn’t fear or surprise that caused me to faint.” Stated the guard running beside her. “When it tackled me, it touched my horn and then I felt my magic, I guess you can say, turn off.” “That’s a very disturbing description... ” The guard uses magic to catch one of his comrades who gets thrown away “…But it seems you’re fine with magic now.” Celestia makes a quick assessment in her head then gives out new orders. “Unicorns pull back while the pegasus engage! The creature seems to be able to cancel out magic and even temporarily nullify the magic within you on contact with your horn!” Immediately the unicorn guards jump back, but before the pegasus could replace them, the reptile dashes out of the incoming pile at a much faster speed. Celestia and her guards rush after it before they can lose sight of it but just before the creature can turn the corner, Luna suddenly appears with her own guards which she gathered on the way up from the barracks. She now finds herself face to face with this new and unknown creature, but before she can do or say anything, it jumps and reaches for her horn. “LUNA!” Celestia yells out of instinct. “DANCE!” The odd order had stunned all of the guard and even the creature it seems as they now watch the Night Princess spin around and slam her back hoof against the side of the reptile’s head, sending it into the wall which cracks from the force of impact. But strangely enough, the creature recovers fast and now finds itself dodging all of Luna’s graceful hoof strikes. The guards can only stand and watch in awe as one of their princesses single hoofedly pushes back the being they all had trouble to simply stop together. “This is amazing!” “I never knew a pony could fight like that in real life!” “It really does look like they’re dancing!” Celestia didn’t really wanted to let her sister fight like again that but it was the only thing she could think of for her own safety. “Luna! Don't let it touch your horn! It can cancel magic on contact!” This advice wasn’t needed because another rear hoof lands on the side of the reptile's head again, only this time it spun its body around to deflect it and slams its own clawed foot on the side of Luna’s head, now sending her to the same wall. “LUNA!” Celestia bellowed as she flares her wings and prepares to fight the creature herself. The reptile recoiled in pain as if it had just stared directly into the sun when it looks at Celestia and prepares to run away but all of the guards now completely block his escape. It closes his eyes and suddenly bolts towards the Sun princess, eyes closed tightly. Celestia moves out of the scaly projectile’s way as it smashes into the opposing wall next to the balcony. “Oh no! After it! It’s going to escape!” Unfortunately she was right as the reptile recovers from the collision, it runs to the balcony and launches off with all of its might into the darkened sky. All of the pegasus fly after it but the force with which it launched itself off had given it a massive head start and was simply gliding away towards the clouds. “We must catch up before it gets into the clouds!” “It’s too far we’ll never make it!” They watch as the creature turns its head around to look at them and gives them a large mocking grin, only to be hit in the face with a brick from the demolished wall all the way back at Canterlot castle. The Night Princess, apparently unhindered from being sent into a wall, had used her magic to shoot a piece of debris at the creature, now watching it fall into the Everfree forest. “HUZZAH! Direct hit!”
InfiltrationUnder the dark shadow of the ever persisting Solar Eclipse, Luna exits the Everfree Forest with an exhausted sigh of defeat. She and a contingent of pegasus and unicorn guards searched the forest as thoroughly as they could while avoiding conflicts with the local fauna to find the mysterious reptile creature. However this proved futile as the creature was nowhere to be found despite discovering the point of impact from its fall. Not even Zecora, the zebra who lives in the forest, knew or saw anything other than weird, unfamiliar noises echoing through the trees. “What’s our next course of action Princess Luna?” Asks a guard close to her. She glances up towards the Eclipse, thinking of her next plan of action. The Eclipses stares back, the magical portal still there and firmly locking the two celestial bodies in place. “I must inform my sister’s student, Twilight Sparkle of the current situation.” She points to the two closest pegasus guards. “You two shall accompany me, the rest of you are dismissed for now. Celestia will need help cleaning and repairing the destruction caused by the earlier events.” They all bowed to her in agreement to their orders and left. Now on route to the library, Luna notices pony faces pressed in windows, fear in their eyes once again. Luna sighs once more; this is what she was afraid of. After finally establishing that she had no intention to create eternal night again, here she was in near total darkness during the afternoon from the moon blocking the sun, coming out of the Everfree Forest with a pair of guards sporting night shift armor. “Princess Luna!” a young voice calls out as something runs towards the Princess of the Night. The guards immediately move to block Luna but she motions them to stand down as Pip Squeak stops short, startled by the abrupt movement of the guards. He looks at both of them and then timidly and slowly approaches Luna. “I was- I mean we were wondering why the sky hasn’t gone back to normal yet.” The young pony now trots side by side with Luna and her guards when she resumes her walk. “We have not figured out what has happened yet little one. But rest assured I am not trying to bring back eternal night once again. Both the moon and sun are locked on the position they are now and we are trying to find out why.” “What was that light that came out of the moon? And-And that explosion at the castle?” Luna takes a pause in her walk to think of a good explanation before resuming. She had no clue if she should reveal the light was the invasion of a creature that is immune to magic just yet. “That was the magical feedback from the locking of the celestial bodies. Do not worry; both my sister and I are fine. We are just trying to get things back the way they were right now.” That cover story will have to do for now. “In any case, I need you to go back inside and inform every pony that everything is fine and we are working to correct it as fast as we can.” “Yes Ma’am!” Pip squeak gives a salute then runs back home while Luna and her guards walk up to the library’s door. *** Fluttershy slowly grows bored of watching the unchanging Solar Eclipse on top of her little hillside cottage after that flash of light shooting down towards the castle. She lets out a long but soft yawn before heading out in her yard to check on her animal friends. The dark sky in the middle of the day must be confusing to them and seeing as nothing else is happening, she might as well spend some time to care for them until daylight comes back. But as she goes get the many assorted kibble, a bat flies through her window flying around the room frantically. “Goodness! You must be confused with all of this and probably think it’s already night time so you came out looking for food.” Fluttershy holds out a bowl of food but the bat only flies out of the window it came in. “O-oh! Wait! I have berries too!” The caretaker pegasus goes after it barging out through the front door in hot pursuit of the little bat with the bowl of kibble in her fore hooves. The bat zooms around to the back of the house and stops abruptly just as the yellow pegasus rounds the corner and nearly bumps into him. “Oh! I’m so glad you decided to-oh no! Angel!” Fluttershy drops the bowl of kibble in shock. Both the bat and she were looking towards the sight of her longtime companion dangling by his ears from the maw of an intimidating and foreign reptile perched on her fence, its eyes lit and focused in the darkness of the Eclipse. In the light cast from the windows of her cottage she could see bruises, cuts, scrapes and what looked like porcupine needles all over the reptile, evidence pointing to his implication in a rather hard struggle, probably moments after coming out of the forest and snatching up Angel as a quick meal. Angel gives a very pleading “help me” look and without a second thought, Fluttershy hovers a little closer. “I-I have no idea who or what you are, but I would appreciate it very much if you didn’t eat my friend. I could find something else for you to eat… A-and maybe help you with your wounds? …pretty please?” The reptile blinks at Fluttershy but still keeping a much focused stare at the hovering pegasus. Without any resistance, he opens his maw to drop Angel who gasps in relief before dashing behind his caretaker’s hind hooves. The reptile proceeds to hop down from the fence but immediately collapses onto the ground at the yellow pegasus’ hooves after landing. “Oh my… I better get you inside.” *** “Just to be certain I understand Princess, this creature who came from the portal created by the Eclipse can cancel out magic on contact?” “That is correct, Twilight Sparkle.” “And more importantly, if it touches a unicorn’s horn it can completely shut down his or her magic temporarily?” “Much to our dismay, yes. However it did not have the chance to make contact with my horn, thus I have no idea as to how it might affect me or my sister.” “And on top of it all when it almost escaped, you “subdued” it in midflight making it fall into the Everfree forest where it’s now roaming free and dangerously close to Ponyville.” Twilight paced around the center table of the library as she recaps Princess Luna’s account of the events that unfolded when the Sun and moon moved into the same position. She spent much of the afternoon listening to the story intently about this potential new threat to equestrian society considering how prevalent magic is to everyday life. Luna simply nods and confirms every word, sitting comfortably with Spike while they both watch the lavender unicorn make laps around the table. “I am truly sorry for that. I was caught in the excitement and I knocked it out of the sky over the forest before I realized what I had done. It had gotten a good hit in before it escaped and I felt like I needed to… Settle the score as they say.” Luna gets up on her hooves before nodding her head courteously. “Now then, I must get back to the castle to tell my sister that we couldn’t locate the creat-” The door to the Library swings open and one of the guards stepped in, bowing to the princess and librarian. “I’m sorry for interrupting your highness, but there is…. Uh… Someone here demanding attention.” A white bunny runs out from between the guard’s fore hooves and flails his arms in a panic. Twilight stops pacing when she recognized the little guy right away. “Angel? What are you doing here? Did…. Did something happen to Fluttershy?” The bunny quickly nods then strikes a pose. His ears where flat on his back and his head low with his rump high followed with some pretty cute growling since it was coming from a rodent after all. Luna gasps as she realizes who he was imitating. “It’s the creature! Quickly! We must ensure Fluttershy is safe!” *** Meanwhile, Fluttershy placed the creature on her sofa while she prepares her first aid kit to tend to the unusual creature’s wounds. Usually her bunny companion angel would be helping but she can’t find him anywhere after she brought the creature inside. Poor thing must’ve been traumatized and hiding somewhere till he’s gone she thought. With a tray in her mouth holding assorted first aid supplies, she walks back to the sofa where she sets down the try before examining the reptile thoroughly. Much to her surprise, all of the cuts, scrapes and bruises are all gone, but the porcupine quills still are planted firmly in its scaly hide and they just have to come out. It was still asleep so this should be the best time to pull them out, the draconic features leads her to believe that it had thick scales like Spike. Turns out this wasn’t one of her best calls. A piercing shriek resonates across Ponyville as the creature violently wakes up sending Fluttershy tumbling across the floor where she stops propped upside down against the opposing wall with a timid “eep!” The reptile stands up on the sofa, head still low down and growling as it hops down and begins taking steps towards the upside down pegasus. The mare cringed as she looked into those bioluminescent eyes with their aqua blue glow, emitting an intense pressure at her, making her instincts scream to panic, flee and fear the being in front of her. Fluttershy makes herself smaller, whimpering under the pressure and getting ready to bolt out of her cottage. But, that would mean leaving all her little friends to this dangerous and most likely hungry animal and those quills stuck around his backside really need to come out. With those two facts, she steels her resolve, stands upright and gives her own stare back. Unlike the creature’s immense crushing pressure which forces those caught in it to turn tail and run, Fluttershy’s commanding gaze pierces straight through and into the soul. The creature immediately succumbs, keeping its head low to the ground but its eyes showing surprise while the caretaker gives her opinion whether it wanted it or not. “Listen here! You’re hurt and need medical attention. Now I need to get those quills out before they get any deeper so you’re going to sit down and stay calm while I do so.” The yellow pegasus was right in its face, looking straight into his previously intimidating eyes. After a pause of silence, the reptile lowers his entire body onto the cottage floor, its head barely moving. “That’s better, now I can finish taking these quills out. They’re in deep so this will hurt, I’d prefer if you didn’t yell out so loudly. Hmm…” Fluttershy looks around for something to bite down on but can only find a chew toy. “Um… if you want… y-you can bite down on this… it might help… Maybe…” The creature raises a brow at the dog bone shaped chew toy, then hesitantly but slowly places it between its sharp teeth just as the caretaking mare bites down on one of the quills and yanks it out. There was a loud grunt and a high pitched squeak followed by silence. Then a very quiet giggle from the pegasus that she couldn’t help but let out. The reptile replies with a growl after which Fluttershy stifles her laugh and clears her throat. “I-I’m sorry, I’ll get the others out quickly.” But it wasn’t easy as each yanking of a quill was a guaranteed reaction of a grunt, squeak and timid giggle every time. Finally at the last quill, Fluttershy bites down and gets ready to yank it out when suddenly the door to her cottage swings open. “Fluttershy! Are you here?” Twilight asks while coming in with Spike riding on top followed by Princess Luna. “There was loud noise that came from here after Angel warned us about a possibly dangerous creature in your ho-AAAHHH!” Twilight eyes lock onto the creature who stares back. “Luna! Is that the creature?!” Luna walks around Twilight immediately recognizing her opponent and the source of all this trouble since this started. She assumes a fighting stance, turning her body a quarter sideways and aiming her horn down towards the creature. Spike hops down from Twilight, immediately protecting her from the front and gives his best menacing appearance. “Indeed it is Twilight, It would be best if you could go back to your library. Fluttershy, I’m afraid I must take the creature into custody.” The timid mare was still hunched over the reptile’s back, about to bite down on the last quill. She gives quick glances back and forth between the quill and the princess, occasionally giving a pleading look towards Twilight. The reptile, oddly enough, has not jumped up in reply against Luna’s hostile stance. Instead he has suddenly taken an interest in Twilight as he stares in her direction when the princess told her to go back to her library. “But… um… I still need to finish tending to-” “Hey! What are you looking at buddy!?” Spike suddenly calls out as he hops down from Twilight and takes a protective stance in front of her, baring his tiny little teeth at the creature. “Twilight is MY pony and I don’t like the way you’re looking at her.” The reptile answers Spike’s hostility rather than Luna’s by popping its rump in the air and keeping its head low to the ground while growling back at Spike. Twilight however takes the well-meant statement the wrong way. “Excuse me?! What do you mean “your” pony? Last time I checked spike, you are MY assistant.” “Um… E-excuse me, but I need … Oh my…” Spike, pre-occupied with staring down the reptile posing as a rival didn’t hear anyone, only growling back rather courageously at the bigger winged lizard. “Twilight, Spike! Now is not the time for arguing! We must bring the creature in to help find a solution for the locked Ecipse!” “P-please can it wait until I fini-” “Do you have any ideas on how to capture it without spells, Luna?” “We must incapacitate it…” She raises an ornate hoof. “…Physically…” But before the Princess of the Night could get ready, Fluttershy decides that words weren’t going let her finish her job and quickly reaches for the last quill on the creature’s backside. The sudden yank causes the reptile to release an ear piercing shriek which forces everyone to recoil away with their hands/hooves over their ears in both shock and pain. While everyone was cringing from the surprise noise, Luna had kept her eyes on the creature, making sure it wasn’t going to make a grab for her or Twilight’s horn. But instead of doing that, the creature makes a break for a window in the sudden confusion and Luna goes into pursuit. However the reptile seemed to have foreseen this as it jumps over Fluttershy’s living room table to land on the far edge of it, flipping the table up as an obstacle which Luna promptly hits in her haste to apprehend the invader. “Princess Luna!” “Your Highness!” Twilight and the Royal guards waiting outside rushes to help her but with a take-off kick, the reptile sends both the princess and the table flying into the group, then into spike which ends up with everyone tumbling out the front door while the Creature exits through a window and into the darkness of the Eclipse. Fluttershy crawls out from under her sofa when the ordeal appears to be over then timidly trots over to the pile-up at her front door. She slowly lifts the table a bit to peek under to see if anyone was injured. All of a sudden Luna roars, grabbing the table with her magic, hopping to her feet and attempts to smash the table against the ground to vent out her frustrations. She quickly realizes she is in public and simply sets the table gently down back in the living room. She notices everyone keeping a distance from her, making her sigh in defeat and plop her face down on the very same table. “Forgive me for that outburst… This is twice that annoying creature successfully embarrasses me in front of other ponies only to escape before I even get a chance to get even. We need answers! Why did it come here? Is it responsible for locking the Eclipse in place? What does it want?” Fluttershy, Twilight and spike sit down around the table with Luna while the guards patrol around the cottage in case the creature comes back. Spike offers a conciliatory pat on the dark mare’s back. “Don’t worry your highness, I’m positively sure you’ll catch that guy. Hopefully before he does something to Twilight… Seeing him stare at her like that makes me worried.” His personification of the creature makes the ponies around him raise an eyebrow. “that guy?” Twilight repeats. “Him?” Luna adds. Spike crosses his arms and sticks his nose up in the air with confidence. “Of course! Only another guy would have the guts to stare ME down!” His statement is met with a double eyeroll and a shy giggle. However, Luna decides that the little dragon was onto something. “Well at any rate, treating the creature like some mindless monster has humiliated me twice in one day. It is certain that… “He” should not be underestimated. He has proven very skillfull in unarmed combat and adept at evasion.” “And from what you told me back at my house, if he really is the cause for the locked eclipse, he could actually be able to give answers we can understand. I want to help you get those and … Maybe get to know that creature better.” Twilight adds. The possibility of examining and understanding this foreign creature is also very appealing to her scientific mind. Luna smiles and stands up in a formal manner. “Then it is decided then! You, Twilight Sparkle shall aid me by using your skills in research. Find out anything based on his appearance and a way to counter his ability to cancel magic.” Twilight bows her head down. “I look forward to it Princess Luna. What about you? What are you going to do next?” Luna taps a hoof against her chin, her eyes scanning the roof for nothing in particular as she thinks. “I will have to report back to my sister and continue to help her find a way to undo this Eclipse. For now Equestria will have to rely solely on clocks to tell that it is nearly nightfall right now and with some luck, we shall find a way to set things right again.” Luna walks out the door, followed by her guards. “I will send a few Royal Guards to patrol around the forest in case he comes back, we can’t leave Ponyville defenseless against that creature since we still have no idea as to what his intentions are.” And with that, Princess Luna and her personal bodyguards take off into the dark sky en route to Canterlot. Twilight and Spike turn back to Fluttershy. The timid pegasus shrinks back from the table from the sudden increase in attention. “I know you’re the kindest pony in Equestria but you didn’t worry a little bit even going near some creature we know nothing about?” “Well, we don’t know just what exactly lives in the Everfree Forest…” “Good point. Well then, in any case, could you possible tell us anything you learned why taking care of him? His reason to be here? Why he locked the Sun and Moon together? How to fix it?” Fluttershy continues to shrink under Twilight’s impromptu interrogation. “I’m sorry, I didn’t ask anything. I-I just treated him like any animal friend who comes to me injured.” Twilight can’t help but be both proud and impressed with just how far the yellow pegasus is willing to share her kindness despite any dangers that could be present. “I feel kind of sorry for him though,” Fluttershy says in a much quieter voice. “He looked very lost…” *** “I know she represents the element of generosity but did she even see how that lizard kicked her living room table right into Princess Luna’s face?! He didn’t even hesitate to hurt one of the princesses!” Spike states while riding on Twilight’s back on their way home. “He better not come anywhere near us or else!” he adds while doing a bit of shadowboxing and finishing it with bearing his fangs while hissing. Twilight giggles at her assistant’s attempt to be intimidating. “Oh Spike, that creature had successfully escaped both princesses and was able to keep up with Luna in combat. What makes you think that a baby dragon could do anything to him? I think you’re taking this territorial instinct a little farther than you can reach.” Spike crosses his arms and sulks. “I bet he wouldn’t be so tough if I was gigantic again…” “That’s something I rather not resort to, and I think the rest of Ponyville would agree.” Twilight opens the door to her library home built into the trunk of the massive oak tree in the town and immediately gets a greeting hoot from Owlowiscious. Spike slides off the mare’s back and yawns loudly, both realizing that it must have gotten pretty late even with the Eclipse still locked in place. Spike begins to walk up the stairs towards their bedroom. “Well Twilight, it’s been a tense afternoon I’m gonna call it a night. How about you? Are you going to stay up and study some more as usual?” Twilight taps her hoof against her chin in thought. She really wants to help out the princesses by researching more about Eclipses and portals, for all they knew that creature could have come from a whole different dimension or timeline. His ability to cancel magic is also something to worry about, for magic is not only part of daily life for every pony, but is the greatest power to wield through friendship. This could very well mean that should the situation call for it, the Elements of Harmony may not be of any help at all. However, all the excitement from earlier coupled with all of this troublesome information is only reminding her body of how late it is. “As much as I would love to, it can wait until tomorrow. Then we can gather the girls and get every pony to watch out for sightings of the creature. I’ll work on researching about it then.” Both of them walk upstairs into the bedroom and proceed to catch some sleep. After two hours of tossing around, Twilight realizes she can’t sleep BECAUSE of everything that is happening with the Eclipse. She looks over to Spike’s little basket where he is sleeping like a log with his pet Peewee snuggled against him, completely unperturbed by the events. She decides to get started on some reading since she can’t sleep anyways and goes down to go make herself something to snack on before she starts. Using her horn to light the way to her kitchen, Twilight quietly makes her way down the stairs. As she reaches the ground floor, she spots a pile of books on the ground near a bookcase where they’ve been all pulled out of. She was sure Spike cleaned everything up before Princess Luna had arrived and she hadn’t started anything before. “Hmm… A Complete History: Equestria, The Tale of the Royal Sisters, a catalog of Equestrian Cartography. I don’t remember reading any of these recently, why would they be lying on the ground off the shelf?”
