Eclipse Of The Sun

"Push forward! Show them no mercy!"

"They are falling back! Hack them down before they can regroup!"

The sounds of rebellion echoed around Blackest Night as his fellow Lunars fought against the Celestial Guards they called allies no more than a week ago. Corpses of friends, foes, and anypony too stupid to flee littered the ground, their blood soaking the dirt. Night swung a blade at a Celestial that had fallen behind the others, cutting into the bones of his hind legs. The pony let out a scream that was cut short when Night drove the point of his sword into his back, ending his life.

So far, everything was going smoothly; any Celestial with half a brain was retreating, the Lunars had captured at least two dozen structures and their goal of breaking into Canterlot Castle and seizing the Elements of Harmony before Celestia could use them against Nightmare Moon was within reach. Timed with Princess Luna's transformation and the following confusion, the Lunar Guard had caught Celestia's forces at a time of weakness, allowing them a strong grip on several other key areas.

"Look! The tyrant is defeated!" shouted a nearby Lunar. Heads angled upwards to see Princess Celestia spasm from a beam of Nightmare Moon's magic. The white Alicorn lost control and fell, landing somewhere within the castle.

"Charge! Breach the walls, and we will have Celestia's head!" Night yelled, and everypony began to let out their own war cries as they broke into a gallop, only a hundred yards or so from the front doors. A few remaining Celestials, in a combination of bravery and stupidity, challenged the oncoming horde. A few were Unicorns whose magic ended the lives of several ponies, but ultimately it did nothing to stop them. They knew their last stand was hopeless and that anything they did only served to delay the advance for a few seconds, but they chose to keep fighting.

Night rushed at one of them, screaming Luna's name at the top of his lungs as he brought his sword down. His weapon was deflected by the Celestial who then tried to counterattack, and Night swore he saw sparks when the blades collided. The Celestial pushed forward in an attempt to unbalance Night, but he shifted to the side and caused the pony to fall flat on his face. Night then kicked him over and used all of his force to push the weapon into the Celestial's chest, albeit very slowly on account of the pony's struggling. He pulled the blade out only when he was sure his opponent was dead before taking on another Celestial who put up an even tougher fight. The guards fell one at a time, each one bringing a Lunar or two as company, but they now had their backs against the wall. A few seconds later, every Celestial was dead or dying, and the Lunars were beating down the doors.

The door collapsed, revealing the moderately damaged inside of the castle, but instead of finding Celestia's body on the ground, Night saw that the stand for the Elements had been revealed and Celestia was attempting to take off with them. Night shouted to his allies to shoot her down, but they had already drawn their bows and cast their spells to stop her. However, at the last second, Celestia created a ward using the Elements magic, stopping any incoming attack. She flew through the gaping hole in the roof, followed by arrows and magical bolts.

The Lunars watched as Celestia continued flying until she was in a position to attack Nightmare Moon. They both fired their spells at the same time, the beams colliding in a flash of light. At first they were evenly matched, but Celestia tapped into the power of the Elements and focused it at Nightmare, forcing her magic back until the beam completely overtook her. The magic almost seemed to absorb Nightmare Moon's body as it traveled, not just across the sky but all the way to the moon itself, striking the surface. As soon as it did, Nightmare's silhouette appeared on it, taking up its entirety.

The combatants surrounding Blackest Night suddenly lost the courage that had brought them all into the situation. Seeing the reason they fought suddenly banished to the moon had stolen their morale and given it to the Celestials, who had begun to regroup and form an effective counter-assault. They emerged from ruins outside and began to surround the castle, ready for revenge. Night ignored any emotions he had and called out to the failing group. "We must hold the castle. Anypony with a bow or a horn needs to get the high ground, and the rest of us need to guard the entrances!"

His allies, although unnerved, listened and executed his orders perfectly, either going to the roof or a tower, or stacking up near the main doors or one of the many holes in the stone walls. The Celestials began to advance, paying no mind to the archers and mages firing away at them; a few even entered with fresh burns or arrows imbedded in their armor.

Night parried a blow from an angry-looking Pegasus, lunging forward in an attempt to run him through. His opponent shoved the counterattack away before spinning around and lashing out with a powerful hind kick, knocking the sword from Night’s grip. He tried to recover it with magic, but another Celestial grabbed his horn and forced him down, punching him in the gut until he stopped struggling. Through the haze he heard the Lunars beginning to retreat, overwhelmed at this point. A third pony kicked Night in the head, and he blacked out.

Night felt like he was floating underwater, slowly drifting aimlessly in an infinite black void. He couldn’t recall what he was doing before or why he was here, but he liked the feeling of peace he had as a result. Suddenly, it felt like something was tugging on his body, pulling every which way. It was somewhat amusing until the tugs became stronger, almost feeling like a rope had been tied to each limb and he was being pulled apart. It began to hurt, and when the pain began to be too much-

Cold water crashed down on Night’s face, immediately delivering him from unconsciousness. He jumped up, wide-eyed and gasping for air, trying to figure out what was going on. He was surrounded by iron bars and stone, his legs were shackled, and a golden-clad guard was standing nearby with a set of keys and a bucket. “Get up,” he said. “Princess Celestia wants to see you.”

Night slowly rose to his hooves, shaking off as much water as he could before approaching the gate. His head was pounding and it felt like he had cracked a rib or two, but he ignored it as best he could. It would have to wait. The guard unlocked the gate and allowed Night out, and then slowly removed the shackles and shoved him forward. The Unicorn allowed his escort to lead him out of the dungeon and into the main hall.

It was a vast scene of destruction. Several bodies still littered the floor and the Celestials treated their wounded wherever they lay. Blood pooled on the floor, weapons were strewn about and there were even some other captured Lunars sitting against a wall, numerous guards watching them, weapons drawn. Blackest Night ignored their confused stares as they watched their impromptu leader being taken away. Two more guards opened the doors to a hallway that led to what he recognized as Celestia’s own quarters. The two other guards joined Night and his first escort, proceeding in silence until they arrived at the final threshold, allowing him to enter on his own.

Celestia sat at a small table, an empty spot directly across from it. She appeared rather tired, her mane unkempt and a few feathers sticking out of her wings but aside from that didn’t seem to be waging any moral wars with herself over the banishment of her sister. “Ah, Night, you are here. Please, have a seat,” she said. Night cautiously trotted over and sat down, unsure of what to expect.

She looked him over, checking out every injury, minor or major. “My apologies for how my guards treated you, they can be a little rough at times. Here, use this.” she continued, levitating a small towel to him. Night reluctantly took it and dried off where he needed to. Only reason she’s being nice is because she’s going to drop something huge on me before I go, and I’m a little afraid of what it’ll be, he thought.

“We haven’t talked in some time, with you always having to look out after my sister and such when she decided she didn’t want anything to do with me… Tell me, what was she like before all this happened?” the Alicorn asked, tilting her head slightly. And there it is…

“She was scared, Celestia. She was having nightmares – ironic, I know – about what she might do some day, and she was depressed. She felt worthless, because nopony, not even you, would pay attention to anything she did unless it was bad. I was the one exception.”

The Princess almost looked dumbfounded. “She could have just told me-“

“No, she couldn’t have. You wouldn’t have listened.”

Celestia waited for nearly a minute before saying anything else. “I’m assuming you two got pretty close then, correct?”

“Of course we did. I was the only pony she would allow around her. If you remember, when she started locking herself in the closet to cry, I was the only one who could get inside to coax her out.” And when the nightmares became too much, she asked me to be the one to comfort her when she slept, but this isn’t the time for that story.

“Yes, I remember those times. I know there are better situations to ask this sort of question, but, there were – and still are – rumors circulating around that you may have had relations of a certain type with Luna, and I’d like to put them to rest now that she is no longer here.”

Night had to think for a moment before he responded. “I will only tell you what I’ve told everypony else who had the guts to ask me that question – that we were too close to just be friends. Do with that information what you will. Now, are we done with this little interrogation?”

“I’m sorry, but that wasn’t why I brought you here. You see, you committed high treason – which, as you may know is a death sentence - by gathering up the Lunar Guard and rallying them against me, and at the same time caused numerous deaths and destroyed several homes, but I would like to offer you a second chance; now that I know you were close to Luna, it is easy to say that your actions were born out of simple anger and grief, not a true intent to topple my rule. I would like to offer you a position as personal guard within the Celestial ranks. Should you accept you will be given a full pardon and we shall resume attacks against the Lunar fortifications, but if you refuse, you will be forced to talk them into surrendering so that we may imprison them for a trial.”

The Unicorn practically had to raise a hoof to stop his jaw from dropping. “So, you’re… asking me to betray not only the Princess I am sworn to, but the guards who I have served most of my life with by working for you? Is this some kind of joke?” he responded.

“I do not joke about a thing like this, Night. I am offering you a second chance, despite how much I think you don’t deserve it. In my opinion, I think the choice between serving me and redeeming yourself or dying among the savages you led into a rebellion should be a fairly easy one.”

“Those ‘savages’ can at least tell the difference between a ruler and a tyrant.”

Celestia jumped to her hooves, wings beginning to unfurl at the aspect of being called such a word. “I did what I had to, Night. Nightmare Moon gave me no choice but to banish her.”

Blackest Night stood up as well, and while he didn’t at all feel like he was as intimidating as the Alicorn in front of him, he still tried to act big. “You had plenty of choices before she turned, such as actually caring about her. All she wanted was your attention, and you ended up provoking her by attempting to make it natural for her to be seen even less. Even in the fight, you could have easily trapped her, or stripped her of any magical powers, or even pacify her until a solution could be made – and don’t try to tell me such spells don’t exist, I’ve seen them being used before – but instead you took no action, so that you could justify anything you did if you were struck. In the end, Nightmare Moon didn’t give you no choice; rather, you gave yourself no choice.

“In fact, since you’ve ditched peaceful solutions and punishments in favor of banishing all who dare to oppose you, why don’t you just banish me and the rest of the Lunars the same way you did your sister?”

In the next fraction of a second, Night contemplated the idea that he may have crossed the line more than he needed to as Celestia lunged at him, grabbing him by the throat with her hooves and slamming him into a wall. He was now several feet off the ground, with the Alicorn’s face less than an inch from his own. They stared into each other’s eyes, the lack of distance allowing them to tell practically every emotion flickering within. Out of the corner of his eye, Night saw the guards that had escorted him here enter the room, watching the scene play out.

Suddenly, almost without her realizing it, Celestia began to choke Night, her emotions taking over. At first he struggled a little, but an idea popped into his head, and he stopped resisting. Go ahead, kill me; martyr me. Show me and the rest of the world who you are behind closed doors, and it will not matter if I am alive.

However, either catching on or coming to her sentences, the princess released Night, who upon landing, rubbed his throat and coughed a bit. Celestia turned around, seemingly ashamed of what she had almost done. She looked down. “Guards, escort this pony to the Lunar fortifications.”

“Yes, your majesty.” They said, helping Night to his hooves in a manner than almost resembled care. They reached the makeshift gates after a few minutes of walking, both parties unsure of what to think of what they had witnessed. Night shook free of the Celestials and entered alone.

“You’re late.”

“I know, I know. I at least tried to arrive on time, and that ought to count for something.”

Night turned around. “Whatever. As you could tell from the letter, things aren’t going very well.”

“Yeah, I got the idea when I saw that all the barracks had been turned into a miniature fortress, half of Canterlot was destroyed and heard your marefriend got banished.”

The Unicorn rolled his eyes. “Now’s not the time. We ‘betrayed’ Equestria, and now the Lunar Guard faces destruction.”

Silver sat down nearby, listening intently. Anything even remotely involving politics could catch his attention better than coins. “So, what is your grand scheme to prevent this?”

“The Griffons are known to have various transport routes that have to go around the eastern mountains, and as a result take much longer than a single path directly through them. However, they haven’t yet been able to go through successfully, as the air is too thin for sustained flight above the mountains and the cold at night is fatal without shelter or heat. My idea was that we ask them to provide building materials so we can put together a settlement halfway through the pass; that way, we can give their fliers a place to stop for the night and have the energy to continue flying the rest of the way.”

“They’d appreciate faster supply runs, but it wouldn’t be long before they started asking you to build other things for them. Griffons can get rather demanding at times, you know.”

“It’s that, or death at the hooves of a tyrant. I need you to go to Gryphus, and do everything necessary to convince their king to help. In the meantime, I will tell everypony to gather what they can carry and prepare to flee the city.” Night said, looking out a nearby window. The sun was setting.

He heard Silver say something in response, but the Unicorn wasn’t paying attention. He focused on the glowing orb as it fell beneath the horizon, the light dimming at a rate that was just fast enough to be noticeable. Celestia had been mistaken; Night truly did want to see her fall. She called him a traitor to her country, but she betrayed her own blood to increase her power. She had inadvertently given Night a reason to oppose her, and given him a way to rally ponies against her. This setting sun only marked the beginning of her end.