Chapter 8- The Years Past

Twilight was unsure of the location that Solar Eclipse had given her, as to the location of their meeting. She was told to go to a cave in a mountain two miles outside of Ponyville, opposite the direction of Canterlot.

It wasn't that she had to go through the Everfree forest, but she was still traveling through some rather densely packed woods. She could see the mountain in front of her, and it had a small black speck near the top which she assumed was the cavern.

Twilight finally reached the base of the mountain, and raised her head to see the solar eclipse resting in the sky directly above the peak of the mountain.

"Well...this is definitely the right place. I just hope he wasn't lying to me."

Twilight could not see any kind of path that would lead up to the cave, and decided that it would probably be more time efficient to just fly.

She quickly unfolded her wings, and flapped them, pushing herself into the sky.

It was only a matter of minutes before Twilight was at the opening of the cave. Thankfully, the cave had an outcropping that acted as a miniature landing pad.

Twilight let herself flutter gently down to the landing, and folded her wings back against her body. The inside of the cave was dark, and the floor of the cave was wet with moisture from the ceiling of the cave.

She slowly stepped towards the entrance of the cave. As Twilight got closer to the gaping mouth, she could feel a cold growing wind flowing around her. The sudden temperature change sent shivers up and down her spine.

She hesitated mid-step, taking one more investigatory glance around the still dark insides of the cave.

Seeing as nothing had changed, she sighed. She felt extremely nervous, but wasn't sure why. She knew that Solar had invited her here, and she could intimidate him rather powerfully. However, she just could not shake the feeling that she was not going to come out of the cave okay.

All of that changed when she heard rather loud wing flaps coming from the sky behind her. Twilight quickly about faced, twirling on her front right hoof. She nearly gawked when she saw Princess Luna landing on the outcropping beside her.

"Hello, Twilight." Luna greeted with a smile.

Twilight held a questioning facade. "Hello to you too, Princess Luna. Um...if you don't mind me asking, why exactly are you all the way out here in the mountains of Ponyville?"

"Most likely for the same reason as you." Luna said approaching the entrance to the cave, and looking into it with an inquisitive eye.

Twilight noticed Luna suddenly shudder slightly, feeling the same cold wind encompassing her body. "What do you mean? Did...did Solar invite you here too?" Twilight moved beside Luna to see exactly what she was looking at so intently.

"Yes he did, but I am rather curious as to why he's not here."

Twilight hadn't noticed, that the one pony she was supposed to meet, wasn't even present. "Maybe he isn't-"

"AH HA!" Luna blurted out, so enveloped in thought that she wasn't aware that she had interrupted Twilight. Luna lowered her horn at the entrance of the supposed lair, and quickly filled it with magic.

To Twilight's surprise, a tiny ball of dark blue magic daintily flew out of Luna's horn an flew towards the cave entrance. The ball was quickly squashed and absorbed into a gigantic red magical wall, that covered the entire mouth of the cave.

"He placed a ward over the entrance of his home. Quite brilliant if I do say so myself Solar." Luna exclaimed looking at the slowly fading wall of red magic.

"I thought you might like it, but I truly was wondering when either of you was going to realize what I had done." Twilight heard the cave respond. It was a voice that sounded all too familiar. It was the same calming voice that she had heard from Solar Eclipse for two nights now.

Luna simply laughed, and trotted into the cave, turning completely invisible after passing the point in space, where the magic wall had once occupied.

Twilight stepped slowly forward. She had never seen anything like this spell wall before.

She could feel a tickling sensation flow over her body as she slowly moved past the area where the wall had been. Once the sensation had completely traveled over her body, she was able to clearly see that the inside of the cave was well lit by a crackling fire, behind which Solar Eclipse, and Princess Luna, both laid.

"Neat, huh?" Solar asked.

"Yea, but I'm kind of surprised that I have never heard of that spell before. Princess Celestia had never mentioned anything to me before about anything like it." Twilight said approaching the fire, and claiming a spot on the cave floor for her own, opposite the two other alicorns.

"Wait...you know Princess Celestia personally?" Solar asked, looking to Twilight with suspicion flowing out of his deep blue eyes.

"Well...yea. I've been her personal student for most of my life."

"But, you still proceed to chase after me, because she has convinced you that I, am the bad guy."

"Yes. That means nothing though...right?" Twilight asked sheepishly smiling at Solar.

"It means a lot more than you think Twilight."

"What could be so bad about her being the Princess's student?" Luna interjected.

"It means that Celestia may not be the heartless bitch she used to be."

Twilight jumped up to her hooves. "CELESTIA IS NOT HEARTLESS! TAKE THAT BACK!"

Both Solar and Luna's eyes flew wide open at the sudden outburst from the rather reserved princess.

Solar caught up to what Twilight had screamed, and meerly chuckled to himself. "Oh Twilight, calm down. I can assure you for certain, that I will NOT be taking 'that back'. However, let me explain to you why, and perhaps then you will understand my reasoning."

Twilight laid back down, resuming the same comfortable position she had once held, before having her fury stoked like the logs on the fire.

"Now...this is going to be long, and probably boring at some parts, BUT, no interruptions okay?" Solar asked, eying both mares inquisitively.

Both Twilight and Luna nodded begrudgingly in agreement. "Good." Solar continued, "Now...this all started when I was given my reign over Equestria after my eighteenth birthday. I was so excited, and I was the youngest ruler to ever befall Equestria, at the time. I was fair, and from what I could see, everypony that met me, instantly liked me. The had celebrations for me every year, and I showed the same kindness back to them. Nopony ever had trouble, or gave me trouble. There were no wars, no beasts, and no evils. My magical tutor Discord, was possibly my closest friend. He taught me everything her knew about pony magic. He was the most talented being with magic in Equestria...at that time, that is.

Everything started to change when he showed me the magic behind the solar eclipse. For whatever reason he could never effect the sun and moon himself, but he explained the magic to me, and I learned it as quickly ass possible. One day, I was able to finally create my very first solar eclipse. It was beautiful. Ponies loved it, it was the first time that a solar eclipse had ever happened in Equestrian history.

I repeated the solar eclipse every once in a while, and the ponies would always show support for my abilities, and love for me. Therefore, I saw no reason to stop the eclipses. I would make them once a month, then once a few weeks, then once a week, and once a day. I was oblivious at the time, but by the time I was making solar eclipses once every day, ponies were becoming rather annoyed with the whole ordeal. Some nobles went as far as to replace me. However, there were no other alicorns of the royal family, so, I was left to rule freely.

Within the year, my sister Celestia was born, and then my situation became much more dire. The nobles finally had another family member to replace me with. I honestly did want to make the ponies happy, but I had been making solar eclipses for so long that it was the only thing I knew.

Unfortunately, when Celestia came of age, I was voted out of my kingdom unanimously. I was heartbroken. All of the ponies that had once loved and cared for me, now loved and cared for my sister, as I fell into her shadow. Luna came along shortly afterwards, and by then I was mostly forgotten about. The only ponies who remembered me were those of the royal family, the noble's descendants, and Discord. All of the beloved ponies of my kingdom had all passed away. Leaving me with no outside friends.

I spent years locking myself in my own tower of the castle. Eventually I came out to talk to Discord and my family, but Celestia always looked down upon me, and Luna was probably my only other friend. I was alone, and had nothing to do but think.

After about fifty years had gone by, I devised a plan to take back the throne, and it worked for a while, but eventually Celestia became furious, because I would not step down. She eventually started a coup against me with out Luna or Discord learning about it. I was kicked out of rule again, but this time it was much worse.

Celestia wanted to take away all of my magical abilities so that I could not interfere with the kingdom ever again. I refused, and she locked me into the dungeon. She locked me there for one hundred years. From what I could tell from my guards, Discord had left, and I was forgotten about again.

I cried. I cried for days, weeks, years? I have no idea. Nopony remembered me, or knew who I was. I was just the crazy alicorn guy who cries in the dungeon.

After the one hundred years was up, Celestia came back into the dungeon, and gave me one last chance to relinquish my powers to her. I refused.

She thew me into a small room that had no windows, and was soundproofed. I remember the room distinctly. There was dried blood everywhere, and some priced of bone lying about. The walls were made of rough stone, and the floor was wet in certain places.

I was shackled to the wall opposite the door. I hung from my forelegs, and my hind legs couldn't touch the floor.

The first day she beat me, punched and kicked me. Before he left she cast a healing spell on my body. Alicorns may be immortal, but we can still die if our bodies receive enough damage. She wanted to keep me healthy, so that she could do more.

The second day she used blunt objects, she broke my leg, and I actually passed out from the continued blood forced trauma. The third day she broke both legs. The fourth, both legs and forelegs. The fifth, all my legs, and bent my muzzle sideways.

On the sixth day she came in with a hook, and slowly pulled pieces of my skin off. The seventh she knocks my shoulders out of place, and cut my jugular veins with the hook. On the eighth day, she dug out my kneecaps, and pulled my hooves of my hind legs. On the ninth, she broke my elbow and knee joints, and left me to hang in pain for hours. On the tenth, she pulled out all of my teeth, and ripped out my tounge. On the eleventh, she ripped off my ears, and broke all the ribs in my chest. On the twelfth, she used the hook to cut off my wings, and she used a tool that looked like scissors, to break my horn off twenty times in a row. Of the thirteenth, she severed my legs, cut my left foreleg off, and left me to hang my my right foreleg, while she lit me on fire. On the last day, she removed all the limbs from my body, and dumped me into an cauldron of acid. I was within an inch of dying, sweet freedom, when she pulled me out and healed me.

The entire time I held onto my powers, and never gave up. However, I was completely lost to depression, and fear. All i wanted to do was die, so as a final punishment, Celestia stole my memory, threw me into a desert on exile, so that I wouldn't remember what had happened, and hopefully never return. That way, I also would not kill myself, and would be forced to wander the Earth, in an amnesiac stupor."

Author's Note

This chapter...oh my god isn't 12:40 a.m. Anyways, its done. Sorry it took so long, but it needed tone done. Not the story, the story is far from done, but this chapter, is a big one thats off the to do list.

I hope you all enjoy it, as much as I do. Have been trying desperately to give Solar some way to be capable of emotional attachment, and I think that this chapter pulled it all together.

Once again let me know what you think about character developments, and how the story is progressing. I do apologize for the long upload gaps, but I have been reading some good stories on the cite recently.

Any who...I'm tired, I'd love to get some feedback...any feedback.
Thanks for reading :)