Under the Moon and Sun

    Have I done bad things? Yeah, you could say that. I've done good things too, but bad actions over-shadow all good deeds I will ever do. Don't believe me? Let me show you... My name is Solar Eclipse. I was as ordinary as anyone else until I met Princess Luna and became her son. She taught me everything I know, but now she's gone, and I'm stuck in this jail cell for all eternity. How? Well, it's an especially long tale, but I've got nothing but time, so I might as well start at the beginning;

Growing up was not easy, easy wasn't Discords style. He’s the definition of Chaos, after all. Under his reign, the ground itself looked like checkered tile, in a sequence of random colors. Tree’s morphed into cardboard, all water and liquids were turned into chocolate milk, making glass was the only drinkable thing available. Our houses managed wood, which we found on rare occasions. When the sky turned grey, instead of a refreshing downpour, we were met with an ill fate. Being the sadistic creature he was, the rain was explosive and composed of chocolate milk. We were forced to run into a caves so we didn’t blow up. Unfortunately, some ponies weren’t so lucky, and among those were my family.

We were inside of our house when the storm brewed.  My father told me to run for the cave, everyone else needed to pack important family necessities. I wanted to help, but my family forced me to leave, and there was little I could do to resist their will. I was nearing the cave when a something caught my attention; I turned to see the house I called home imploding and it released a bellow of shock that rippled across the land. I waited at the opening to the cave, with an empty hope that my family would appear over the horizon. Rain was standing by my side during this. She could just see in my eyes what had happened, I couldn’t hold it back, no one could. I sat there and my vision became obscured by the collection of tears forming. Every explosion I heard made it hurt even more. I didn’t let up until the rain stopped. We left the cave with nothing but the few remains of land we once called a town to greet us. No house was spared the devastation. My former home was gone, demolished by the rain. The ground was littered with charred pieces of wood and cardboard. Upon further inspection, there was no mistaking the mixed remains of my family. I became separate from reality for what felt like an eternity, my mind attempting to comprehend the situation. Why did he have to do this? Why? What did we ponies ever do to him to deserve this. In that moment, I swore vengeance on Discord, whether it was before or after my death, I would avenge my murdered family. Discord was a creature known for rubbing salt into the wound. He made our little town of Manehatten suffer by turning our food into rubber, and having our tools morph into chocolate as we attempted to rebuild.

One day, just as random as life had been, the torment stopped. No one knew why, he simply disappeared. Trees became wood once more, and our food supplies reverted to their edible state too. The harmony was short lived. The tree’s became useless cardboard once more, the ground regained Discord’s signature checkerboard pattern, and though the explosive rain was non-existent, it still rained chocolate. We rebuilt our town little by little, and were able to get a good supply of food to distribute to the populace. Everyone had to work together to help out, since a lot of the families who lived here didn’t make it. I was the sole survivor of my family. Rain was spared my fate, but others were but a smidge more fortunate. After months of hard work, we had rebuilt the majority of our town. We were able to construct a new school house, which was helpful since most of us were still young. I refused the offer to rebuild my house, for it would have reminded me of my family. I chose to sleep outside, letting my ceiling become the night sky.

I had formed an insatiable passion for the stars, and I always looked on with awe. The night was beautiful, every star twinkled like the rain water used to when it bounced off the rooftops. Among the stars, stands the moon, earning a respect in the sky. I became obsessed with astronomy, searching for every book on the subject and memorizing every constellation I could find. At this moment, a wonderful event occurred. My cutie mark appeared. It was a dark crescent moon arced around an red hour glass. I searched every book and was astonished to find nothing that could explain this perplexing symbol to me. Though, among the readings a mare called Princess Luna caught my eye, for she was responsible for raising the moon every night. I had her to thank for my new found comfort in the night. I even began disowning the day, sleeping until night fall. I would dream without end of the night sky, just as I saw it while I was awake. I dreamed of a sleigh that I would one day build. Though hazy in memory, since it was a dream, I always remembered that it would match the night sky in color. I would have stayed dreaming all my life if Rainstorm had not intervened and coaxed me into attending school regularly.

Rainstorm and I had clicked since day one. We were both born around the same time, I being only a bit older. Our families had always worked together, got along, and helped each other when chaos occurred.  Now with what had happened to my family, they were taking care of me. Even with Discord pouring chaos down upon us every once in a while, we tried to have a decent childhood. Whether it was playing Hide’n’Seek around town, or watching the stars at night, we had fun together. Unfortunately, she had one problem which subjected her to ridicule. She did not have a cutie mark, and at school, almost everyone picked on her for it, especially Emerald Crown, who was apart of the richest family in Manehatten. Shadow Night, and Birch Tree acted as our royal guard, should anyone try to make fun of us. There were two prominent groups at the school: our group, then Emerald’s makeshift “Goons”. One day, though, Emerald said something that changed us forever. At recess, Rain, and I, along with the others would hang out under a cardboard tree somewhat secluded from everyone else. As we talked about what we had learned earlier that day, Emerald walked right up to us and blurted out.

”You guys would have more friends if you didn’t hang out with this BLANK flank.” That statement immediately made Rain cry, and I was about to tell Emerald off, when all of a sudden a spiteful cloud appeared over Emerald and zapped him right on his flank. He ran away in pain and scared as the cloud followed him around the yard drenching him in regular rain and thundering, threatening to zap him again. Everyone pointed and laughed at him as he cowered. I looked at Rain, and she stood smiling, reared up like a wolf ready to attack, but then I noticed something on her side. She glanced at me, then made a confused face, wondering what I was looking at. She then looked down at her side and her mouth went agape. A grim cloud with dark rain drops materialized there. It was as if someone gave her a big present. She became giddy and jumped around with the widest smile I’d ever seen. Everyone in the yard, except of course for Emerald, crowded around her, admiring her new  mark.

“Alright, don’t suffocate her!” I yelled, pushing people back because Rain was starting to get overwhelmed with attention. Days after the incident, Rain and our group of friends became a bit bigger. A few ponies from Emerald’s group became friends with us, and apologized for making fun of her. News of what happened spread all across Equestria, which caught the attention of our leaders, Luna and Celestia. They decided to pay our town a visit one day.

    The day started out fairly normal. The night previous I stayed up all night star-gazing, all the way up until sunrise. As I headed toward school, having got no sleep, I was tired and exhausted, so when I got to the school, I sat down and immediately fell asleep. That’s when my dreams began once more. The dark, eternally star filled skies watched over me. Every time I had this dream, the sleigh would become built more and more. I was tightening one side of the skis when I sensed a presence. It was as if someone were watching me. In my silence, I looked around and searched my surroundings, there was no one. I returned to tightening the skis when that something that had caught my attention appeared in the corner of my eye. I turned to see what was stalking me.

“Who’s there?” I said, in a gruff tone. I won’t lie, I was startled, but not necessarily scared. I moved towards the direction I thought the presence bolted, only to find nothing. As I returned to the sleigh, I went to tighten the bolt when I found it had been already tightened. In disbelief, I dropped the wrench, then someone giggled behind me. At this point, saying I was scared is a understatement, I jumped and bolted to the nearest bush that looked safe enough to hide in.

“Oops, I didn’t mean to frighten you,” said a mysterious voice, “Come out, do not be afraid.” I stayed where I was. Then the bush gained a shade of blue, then levitated a few feet in the air. Standing in front of me, was Princess Luna. At first I couldn’t believe it was her, I had heard stories about her and Celestia, but I never would have thought I would ever meet her, let alone meet her in my dream.

       “This is too real.” I said.

       “Indeed, but you are still dreaming. I have taken notice of your sleeping habits. Why do you sleep during the day, but lay awake at night?” As I was about to answer, she took a look around, and I think she figured out why I was sleeping.

       “Do you find solace in my night?” she asked. Still digesting the situation, I answered,

       “Yes” I said.

       “It must be stressful, for during the day, you have chores to do around your town. Doesn’t that make you tired and drowsy during the night, like everyone else?” she said.

       “No” I answered, “I just, enjoy the night as it is. Ever since my family was killed by Discord, I stay up all night because it helps calm my sorrow, and it makes me feel comfortable.”

       “I am sorry, Solar.” Luna said. She then took interest into the sleigh I was building. “This looks nice,” she said, “How long have you been working on this?”

       “Since I’ve taken interest in the night.” I said.

       “Impressive, perhaps one day, you could build this in real life.” Luna said, sending a wink my way. “You should wake up now, things will change sooner than you think.”

I awoke to see Luna standing to my left and Celestia to my right.

“Hello Solar Eclipse, I’m Princess Celestia. I see you have attracted the attention of my sister, Princess Luna.” Luna smiled, and then said,

       “Yes, we share similar interests when it comes to the night.”

       “Really?” Celestia said, “That’s an odd statement.” Celestia must not have met someone with a night interest as me, with the exception of her sister of course. Luna then whispered something to Celestia, I think I knew what she said, because Celestia’s eyes became apologetic.They turned away for a moment, then began murmuring between themselves.

       “It was nice meeting you, Solar.” Celestia lifted her head and turned toward our teacher. “We are here to speak with a filly that lives in this town, Rainstorm is her name.” Celestia said.

       “Me?” Rain responded. She looked surprised, I guess she didn’t expect that they were here to speak to her. They must have heard about what had happened with the that storm cloud Rain conjured up. Our teacher walked them outside, and pointed them toward the raincloud.

       “Ah, yes, you,” Luna said. “We have heard about your arcane abilities, and we found it best that we meet you in person.”

       “Oh, about what I did to uh, you know, Emerald” Rain looked toward Emerald, and he stuttered back from where he was standing.

       “Exactly, you have a special gift, which we believe can be mastered. We would have great use for your talents, and we are the ponies to help you control them. We would like you to join us in our efforts against tyranny.” Celestia told her. At first, Rain looked at her with confusion. She glanced between the two sisters, then glanced to me, who had a smile gleaming through on his face. She sent a smile back and turned to the sisters. She hopped up into a proud stance, her nuzzle raised high, and said.

        ”I would love to assist you, Princess!”

       “Good, now, we must go, there are better protected areas we may go to, to properly discuss this matter.” Celestia said. Celestia urged her through the opening of the door. Rain attempted to look back toward me, but she was cut off by Celestia’s body.

       Luna waved off her sister. “Solar, I too would like to speak with you, but I feel as if we should discuss this matter in a more private setting.” She raised her horn into the air, and a veil of magic surrounded us, and began to glow bright. A burst of magic light emitted from the both of us, and seemed to re-appear in a completely different setting. It was too dark to make out the environment. “ I want to ask you something.”

       “Sure.” I said.

       “How did your family die?” Luna asked. My heart hurt, I didn’t like talking about what happened, even to Rain, but I couldn’t ignore her.

       “One of Discord’s storms hit, and  we were in the house. I was told to run to our fallout cave as they needed to pack family things. I just got outside when a droplet hit the house and exploded. They were either in pieces when the raindrop exploded, or crushed when the house collapsed. I was helpless, the rain just kept coming...” I started to tear up.

        “It’s alright, little one,” Luna replied. “Would you mind taking me to where they are buried?”

       I hesitated a little,

       “Sure, follow me.” I started walking to the cemetery.

       The cemetery was quiet, that kind of quiet that sorrow thrives on. All the graves held ponies who didn’t deserve what had happened to them. Whether it was from old age or Discord’s tyranny, death isn’t fair, but then again, death is the only way out sometimes. We walked by grave after grave, as we passed them, you could almost make out the cries of the ponies, screaming for help and justice from premature death, although it was my imagination . The Manehatten Cemetery wasn’t a fun place to be, never. We finally arrived at the tombstone which had the following inscribed on it, “HERE LIES THE ECLIPSE FAMILY” My heart sunk, and I couldn’t hold the tears back any longer. I just stood there and cried. I was unsure of what Luna was doing. She stood strong, without emotion, or so it seemed.

        “I understand what you are feeling Solar,” Luna said, breaking the heavy silence around us. “You have lost your entire family, and I'm sure they miss you, but you need to let them go, they would have wanted it that way.”

“How can I? They’re gone, how will I remember them?” I said.

“Remember them in your heart.” She paused, then looked toward me. “I will take care of you now” Luna said. I turned and looked at her, my shoulders relieved of their pressure. I ran and hugged her, tightly. I had stopped crying, I felt calm and happy, not because now I have a princess for a mother, but to have her as a family. She put me down and he started walking back towards town. I stopped and took one long look back at my family’s tombstone, I felt as if all four of them were looking at me, I know they would have wanted it this way.

“Quickly, little one, we don’t have much time.” Luna called out to me. I sped up to meet her.

        We arrived back at town to find Celestia and Rain waiting for us. Rain’s family was there, saying goodbye to Rain. They also said goodbye to me, since they had cared for me for since that terrible day.

“Hello there Solar, I thought Luna’s idea of her taking care of you was a great idea, Im glad to have you apart of our family.” Celestia said.

       “Thank you, Princess Celestia.” I  replied

       “Ah ha, that’s Aunt Celestia to you.” she said back, winking at me. I smiled back. After saying goodbye to everyone, we left Manehatten with our destination being their camp where Celestia and Luna are preparing their plans for Discord.