Eclipse Of The Sun

Night looked around him, realizing that he was staring at a midnight sky and surrounded by trees rather than the walls of his quarters in Europa. This place gains more additions each time I return, the Unicorn thought. He started looking around, expecting Luna to appear at any second.

He heard the gentle plodding of her hooves on the grass as she approached a moment later. Night turned around and the mare was upon him, ensnaring the Unicorn in her embrace. He smiled and returned the hug. The two broke contact and nuzzled briefly before looking into each other's eyes. Luna spoke first, her voice soft.

"How have you been?"

"I've been fine. A little stress here and there, but fine overall. What about you?"

"Mm, alone and busy, mostly. But that's nothing new."

"It won't have to be like that for much longer..."

The Alicorn pecked him on the cheek. "All because of you," she said, grinning. They both looked up at that stars for a moment.

Night commented, "I see you've added on to this place... It looks nice."

"Oh, you haven't even seen half of it," Luna replied excitedly, standing up. "Come on, follow me and I'll show you more." Night got up and turned, seeing that the mare was already trotting off. He followed, keeping pace beside her. She looked at him, a sly grin on her face. "Try to keep up," she said, suddenly breaking into a gallop.

Night shook his head and chased after the Alicorn, dodging around trees and ducking under any especially low hanging branches. Considering he was facing off against a tireless goddess, he held his own, managing to never stray more than a few feet behind Luna at all times - her much longer stride didn't make it easy, however. The forest soon thinned into a wide open plain, allowing both ponies to concentrate on running rather than avoiding trees. Together they raced alongside snaking river, jumping over the smaller tributaries. After that they both began up the steady incline of a rather large hill, at which point Luna slowed down a little, but whether it was out of mercy or legitimate tiredness was unknown to the Unicorn, though he leaned towards the former.

The two ponies galloped alongside each other for the last leg of the race, eventually reaching the top of the hill. They both sat down as Night stared in awe at what Luna had created. Beyond the hill was another massive forest, which itself enveloped a mountain range comparable to the Lunar ones. The river they had encountered earlier wound around the hill and went off to a lake that was visible from the hilltop, along with a few smaller streams that fed into it. To Night's left was a continuation of the gently rolling plains, while to his right the hills formed into uplands that partially surrounded the forest below.

"What do you think?" Luna asked, looking at Night and smiling.

"It's amazing, even more so than the view from one of our mountains at night," he replied. "How far have you made it?"

"Roughly the size of Equestria, if it were a big circle. There is more behind us," the mare said, nodding behind her, "but this part is my favorite because of the view."

"Do you plan on making it any bigger?"

"Probably not, just more detail if anything - some places are still pretty bland, but I intend to change that before the next time you are here." Luna looked down at the landscape below them. "Care to get a closer look?"

"I wouldn't mind seeing those mountains up close, maybe we could even scale them and see what the view is from the top," Night suggested.

"Hmm..." Luna murmured, looking at the Unicorn. Night was about to ask her if something was wrong when the mare turned and broke into another gallop, happily shouting "Race you to the bottom!" as her hooves beat down the grass. Night sighed and gave chase, not fairing any better since the first time. The downward slope of the hill allowed him to move a little faster provided he could keep his balance, but it still wasn't enough for him to actually overtake the princess.

The terrain eventually leveled out, giving Night a chance to refocus on speed over not tumbling down a hill, managing to gain a few feet on Luna in the process. As they approached the edge of the forest, the Unicorn was able to at least tie with Luna, leaning against a tree and breathing much more heavily than earlier. Luna sat down next to him - both ponies were now a little short of breath. After a few moments of returning to normal, they both rose and continued deeper into the forest.

"You mentioned being stressed earlier," Luna said. "What caused that?"

"Just dealing with some lowlife traitor and finding myself questioning the alignment of other ponies as a result, which is frankly something I wish I'd never have to contend to," Night said. The princess nodded.

"What did you do to the pony?"

"Public execution. As far as I know, he was the first one to offer knowledge to the Celestials, and an example needed to be made before somepony else thought about it."

"I'm sorry you had to deal with such things," Luna replied, her head low. The had begun to scale one of the more gentle mountains, but it was still higher than the hill they were on earlier.

"He was involved with the black market, another week and he probably would have ended up dead regardless, and likely in a much more painful way."

Luna was silent for a moment. She never was too much into killing and death outside of literature. "What did he tell them?"

"Weaknesses in the holdout that the Lunars had made after the initial assault, along with letting them know that I was still in the city. We had a chance at defending until that happened," Night said, looking around a bit. They were almost a quarter of the way to the top, still going at the same meandering pace. "...But enough about that," he continued. "The war belongs in the real world, not in the one place we are able to talk to each other."

The mare bumped into him playfully before speaking. "How has Silver been? I don't think I've remembered to ask about him once," she said.

"He's been alright. Just got back from Cervidas so he might be completely sick of the ocean, but he'll get over it sooner or later."

"My, what did you send him all the way to Cervidas for?"

"Well, it started out as an emissary trip to Zebrica to get the Zebras on our side, and after that was done I was informed that there was something at Yggdrasill that would help if Celestia ever dared to use the Elements against us. Silver was already somewhat close to the place, so I sent him a letter with the details. Eventually, after going through hell - almost literally, according to him - he sails back into port and slaps it on my desk."

"I hope you don't make a habit out of sending him to far off and unknown lands. Who was your source? Times may have changed, but from what I remember before I was banished, we knew barely a thing about Cervidas."

Night took a few seconds to respond. "They chose to keep their identity a secret. Everything was sent as a letter, which I basically copied when I sent it to Silver." Surely she doesn't need to know that I was forced to write a letter under the guise that she told me? he thought. I'll tell her another time, when she won't end up occupied with solely my mental health. More worrying about me is the last thing she needs.

Luna had begun to appear tired, possibly from the duration at which the spell binding Night to the dimension was being kept active - that, and they had just performed two races and climbed halfway up a mountain. "I think this should be good, we can start here next time," Night offered.

"I suppose you're right, I'm no longer feeling full of energy like I was earlier. We're still higher than the first hill, which is nice. Let's enjoy the view for a while before I end the spell," the princess said, sitting down on the nearest patch of level ground. Night joined her, feeling her foreleg wrap around him and pull his body into hers. He leaned his head against her chest and held on to one of her hooves, looking out into the crafted landscape from their alternate perspective. From Night's eyes, it slowly began to fade and darken, shifting in and out of existence until everything finally vanished altogether, leaving him drifting alone in a blank void.

"Orders, sir?"

"Take a few soldiers with you and search the city for survivors. Have any Celestial you find brought in for relocation, and report to me when you are done," General Dark said, watching as some Lunars pulled their wounded out of Detrot.

"Yes, sir," Aphelion replied, saluting and turning towards the city. The Unicorn trotted up to the nearest squad and spoke with the leader. "General Breeze wants us to find some survivors, so let's go before they die or escape," he said, pointing back towards the city. The Lunars formed up, gathering up a couple more groups as they went, leaving Aphelion with a sizable force. They entered the city gates, which had been smashed open earlier.

A scene of widespread destruction greeted the ponies. This was where the attack had begun, with the gates blasted apart and a fusillade of magic killing anything in the way. Initially, the Celestials were driven back - their corpses lines the streets - until some townsponies started picking up whatever they could find to fight back in lieu of their military, encouraging their guards to start a counterattack. The sheer number of ponies suddenly charging forced the Lunars to fall back or be overrun, and the retreating elements led their assailants into another barrage of magic, with Pegasi sent to mop up the scattered resistance.

Originally, it wasn't supposed to be a fast-paced assault. A siege was considered, but for the sake of keeping momentum the plan was scrapped and a surrender was offered under the threat of destruction, but as the Celestials fired upon the soldiers attempting to deliver the message, the threat was acted upon. Celestia's soldiers were finally getting the will to fight again, it seemed.

There were already a few other ponies searching around for any more wounded, Lunar or otherwise. Aphelion's group gathered a few more followers as they combed the rubble, bringing back anypony they found that was still alive. It was somewhat sobering work, with so many dead in the same area. Gradually, however, they reached areas that hadn't been hit as hard, and where some ponies had remained, unwilling to abandon their chosen city. The Equestrians there fled upon seeing the Lunar forces moving towards them, slamming the doors on what remained of their homes, and failing that retreated into alleyways to hide.

Aphelion's group soon came upon what appeared to be a noble's house, much larger than the rest, and just as damaged, with several large holes marking the roof and eastern walls. Celestial banners hung from the sides. The Unicorn looked at it for a moment, wondering if anything or pony of importance lay inside.

"Well, sir, do you want us to enter or should we keep going?" asked one of his soldiers.

"We will enter, Pegasi through the top and the rest of us through the front doors. Let's make this fast, we still have some more places to search after this," Aphelion replied. He called out to the other Lunars continuing their mission that he would be taking a few inside, and then turned back to the mansion.

Three Pegasi took off in unison and glided into the damaged roof, and Aphelion ordered his ponies forwards. The five of them stacked up on the door, Aphelion and another Unicorn in the rear. The door was locked; an Earth Pony wheeled around and let out a powerful kick with his hind legs, splintering the wood. The other two Earth Ponies filed past him as he turned around, followed shortly by the Unicorns.

The entry hall had two guards. Startled by the smashing of the door, one was already galloping up the stairs, and the other had drawn his bow. The arrow missed by roughly an inch, and the Celestial was put down with a bolt of lightning for his inaccuracy. He screamed and writhed on the ground, his metal armor doing nothing to protect him. A second shot put the pony out of his misery, leaving small wisps of smoke trailing off his body, the smell of burnt fur fouling up the air. Unfortunately, the second soldier was already withdrawn to the other floors, leaving the Lunars without much time to prepare for Celestial reinforcements.

"Buck it, up the stairs, now!" Aphelion ordered, charging ahead. His soldiers followed, weapons drawn, the other Unicorn preparing a spell. They could hear the Celestial calling for help. The building's floors, it seemed, were unoccupied - the soldiers just encountered must have been ordered to remain for some unearthly reason. Aphelion's group reached the fourth floor just in time to see the pony gallop into a room, slamming and locking the door.

"Break that thing down," Aphelion ordered. An Earth Pony quickly set upon the door, but just as he was about to kick it, shouting could be heard inside, quickly cut short. The Lunar bashed the wood, breaking the door wide open.

On the ground were two ponies, wounded or dead, with arrows sticking out of their neck and back - one had blood pooled around him already, the other - the one Aphelion had just chased up the stairs - was still convulsing a little before somepony else finished him off. The three Lunar Pegasi sent in through the roof stood proudly over their bodies, and a third Celestial looked badly beaten, tied up in a corner and gagged. A desk nearby had dozens of papers strewn about, and a saddlebag partially filled with more documents sat beside it.

"What happened here?" Aphelion asked.

A Pegasus stepped forward. "We found the pony in the corner and his friend tossing some of these papers around, and tried to get them to surrender by drawing our bows on them. The officer tried to escape, so we killed his friend and beat him up for information, but we couldn't get anything out of him. Next thing we know, another Celestial runs up shouting about Lunars, and so we kill him right as he notices us," he explained, nudging the most recently deceased's body with a hoof, just to make sure.

"And the papers?"

"Orders, I think. Lots of information about deployments and unit sizes and whatnot, all above our pay grade."

Aphelion looked down, thinking. "You said they were taking the papers out of the bag and tossing them around, right?"

"It sure looked like it, why?"

Why would the Celestials leave likely vital information about their army for us to find? he thought. The Unicorn turned and approached the tied up Pegasus officer in the corner, and removed the gag in his mouth. "You've heard this all, what were you doing here?" Aphelion asked the Celestial, pointing back at the papers.

"Go to hell," came the immediate reply. Aphelion sighed.

"Your type sure do seem to say that a lot, what is it with Celestials and fire?" the other Unicorn in the room commented.

Aphelion shrugged, and signaled for one of the archers to give the prisoner a good strike in the face, the result of which knocked the pony out, his head landing on the floor with a dull thud. "No time to deal with defiance, get him back to the camp," Aphelion ordered, prompting a couple Earth Ponies to pick the Celestial up and take him out of the room.

"What about these papers? Do you think they are important?" somepony asked.

Aphelion thought some more. "We will bring them back to the camp, but something about it all seems off. They need to be examined, closely, before we act upon whatever they tell us," he said, beginning to pile up the documents. The paper joined what was let inside the saddlebag, which was then given to the remaining Earth Pony. A quarter of an hour later, they arrived at the camp, and Aphelion began looking for General Dark.

Night slowly began to rouse from his state. The Unicorn groaned and sat up a little bit more, looking around from the floor of the room, rubbing his face with his hoof. Passing out propped up against a wall for untold hours had left most of his body feeling rather sore.

He started to get up off the ground and stretching his legs. The sword was still on the ground in front of him. Night reached for it and gripped the handle, feeling his head throb the moment he made contact. The Lunar quickly sheathed and removed his hoof from the weapon, the pain persisting for a few more seconds before fading away. Great, Night thought. Am I going to have to deal with this every time I kill somepony?

The Unicorn walked uneasily to his desk. Two unopened scrolls sat on it. Night cast a quick spell and held the first one open in front of his face, reading the scrawling - it was all details about the capture of Detrot. The assault had begun after the commanding Celestials refused when offered surrender, and attempted to open fire on the Lunars from their walls. The resulting attack on the city had resulted in heavy Celestial losses, with roughly a third of the city completely destroyed after the townsponies rose up to support their failing military. Only a couple hundred Celestials were garrisoned to defend, and nearly eight hundred ponies lived there - the military had suffered complete annihilation, and half the citizens had been killed, either for attacking or by collateral damage, with most of the rest taking some sort of injury.

The deaths of that number of normal townsponies wasn't something Night had been hoping for, though. He quickly sent a follow-up letter to General Dark recommending the use of such force for places without civilians, as the unneeded massacre of innocents was only going to give Equestria a reason to rally up again or give other nations a reason to fight the Lunars instead of standing idle by. Besides, what will Luna rule if we kill off all of Equestria?

He opened the second scroll - a request from General Breeze to rejoin the front lines so that the Lunars may be more swiftly commanded, and that should he decide to rejoin, the army would wait just outside Detrot for his arrival. Night quickly wrote a reply stating that he would be on his way at once, and then used a third scroll to tell Silver that he would be linking up with the army, and then sent the three letters

The Unicorn then rose from his seat and gathered his armor, distributing it evenly among a couple of saddlebags, which he then placed over his back. Both his current sword and the one it replaced were nestled inside the straps of the bags, allowing him to have the option of not experiencing the confusion and pain that occurred after Wavebreaker's execution a second time, and the odd device the deceased Pegasus had attempted to use was strapped on as well. Next came a bedroll tied down over the top, and finally, he pulled his ring from a drawer and slid it down his horn. A quick brushing of his mane a little to the right concealed the object. Just before stepping out, he wrote a quick message to the officer in charge of daytime guard duties, requesting a squad be prepared to move out to Amalthea.

The Lunar left his quarters and looked around the empty streets; Europa would have appeared abandoned if it weren't for the guards stationed here and there - some places were still destroyed, their inhabitants relocated or possibly dead, and until somepony needed to take residence there, they would remain that way. Several minutes passed before Night entered the guardhouse. Inside stood seven ponies - two Pegasi, three Earth Ponies, and two Unicorns. The third Earth Pony was bearing slightly larger bags than the rest, presumably filled with provisions needed for the journey. They all stood and awaited their orders.

A uniformed Pegasus stepped up - he bore the rank of captain on his shoulders. "Will this suffice, sir?" he asked, looking back to the other Lunars.

Night nodded. "What do you plan to do with them?" the captain continued.

"General Breeze has requested my assistance in commanding on the front for the sake of the army, and I have begun to grow bored of sitting around in Europa at any rate," the Unicorn replied.

"I see. Kill some more Celestials for us, then." The Pegasus said, grinning. Night motioned for his soldiers to form up outside.

The soldiers stood in a two-by-three line, with the supply bearer at the back and Night at the front. "Move out!" he barked, trotting forward. The rest followed suit, their hoofs beating on the ground ans they left Europa behind. It was somewhat warm - a sensation that Night was unfamiliar with in regards to the outside. Evidence of spring's arrival was clear, with the lack of snow exposing grass and dirt. The Lunars eventually crested the hill that Night had first seen the span of destruction within Europa, and he had held his group there so that he could look at it again before continuing. It looked the same, for the most part.

The next three days of marching were just that - the scenery of mountains and patches of snow here and there repeated itself constantly. After the uneventful trip, Night and his squad arrived in Amalthea, for a short rest before moving out again. He spent a day in his own home for the first time in a couple months, contemplating on how it was possible for so much dust to built up in an unoccupied home. He later stepped outside again to witness the celebrations for the Lunars who had completed their training with field guns - they were rookies, but the power of the weapon would be an immense help in the war.

The following night the soldiers moved through Ablution Pass, now with a small outpost in place. The passage itself was much stranger than any of the other few entrances to the mountains, and for that was the only one really known to the rest of the continent. Rather than being a simple, natural path through the range, it appeared as if some insane beast had torn and clawed its way through the stone. Some sections were barely wide enough for a pony, others large enough for a small ship, and it was full of sudden turns and angles, and Night wondered how long it had taken the Celestials to move a force of one-thousand through such a place. After awkwardly traipsing through it for some time, Night and his group emerged into the hoofhills of the mountain range, the rolling plains of Equestria stretching for miles.

Not too much more to go, Night thought. He had no intentions of diverting to Mira or Deimos, leaving Detrot essentially straight ahead, albeit at a long distance. The sky ahead was barely tinted with the colors of twilight, and by the time the Lunars stopped for the day, the sun was halfway to it's highest point in the air. This ended up as the last stop made by Night and his soldiers - the next night brought them through General Dark's camp and the remains of Detrot, where he received information on Swift Breeze's current location, and a couple hours later they had arrived at the Pegasi's advance group.

"It's good you are finally here again," Swift Breeze said, both of them slowly trotting west of the camp, a spyglass hanging from a strap around the Pegasi's neck. "We've encountered some sort of Celestial effort to halt the main army's movement just ahead of here."

"What do you mean?" Night asked.

"They have begun construction on what appears to be a long network of redoubts connected by walls, all in varying levels of completion. According to the scouts, it extends most of the way north and south, and is incomplete in those areas.," Breeze explained. "But here... It may as well have been completed a week ago - it looks like the walls of Amalthea. We will be able to see it well from the top of this hill."

They crested it a moment later, revealing what the Celestials had made. Exactly as Breeze had said, a high-standing bricked wall marked with towers and circular fortifications stretched into the distance. Behind it lay what appeared to be a mass of tents and campsites, and even further back sat a large Equestrian city, just barely visible in the night. The Pegasus gave his spyglass to Night, which he used to more closely examine the structure, while the pony continued to speak.

"We've been harassing them as much as we can; shooting at engineers, throwing spells at the towers, setting fire to the wood - whatever we could think of. The soldiers themselves are spread thin along the wall, but after our first few skirmishes a quick reaction force from behind the line started to fight back directly, and we haven't tried much since," Breeze said. Night moved the spyglass around a little, noting where damage had been inflicted upon the wall, as well as were it was merely incomplete.

"Any idea how long they've been at this?" the Unicorn asked as his gaze passed over the camps, noticing several campfires and small forms moving about in the light.

"I do not know, but if it took no more than a week to make this much progress over such a wide area, then I shudder to think of what they could do to a single city, or over the course of a month," Breeze said.

"There must be hundreds of workers on the full span of this project," Night commented. "It's a flat-out blessing from Luna herself that they haven't completed the wall entirely and moved back to fortify the other cities, and finished those as well. I only hope the Princess never directs them to fight once they have their morale back, or every city will have to be flattened rather than conquered," Night continued.

"The only reason she hasn't already is because it would be impossible to train and equip that many ponies in an effective manner, though the more we advance the less I can imagine sending ponies by the thousands to be slaughtered to be seen as an issue - as long as they are victorious at least once with such a strategy," Breeze responded.

There didn't appear to be any weak points in the wall, to Night's dismay. Going around would still take too long, however, and there would likely be even more ponies to deal with at either end of the wall, and the endeavor would give the civilians time to fall back and build up other cities at an even faster rate. If he broke through, he would keep his army's momentum and have a good shot at capturing Equestrians and Celestials alike, but if there was a large enough force in the city to take the Lunars on without preparation, he might also suffer massive casualties or even a defeat, which could immediately turn the war around. He handed the spyglass back to Swift Breeze.

"I'll not risk taking the city and the wall on without reinforcements or sure knowledge on that Celestial city, as much as I hate stopping our advance," Night said. "I want everypony with combat training pulled from their posts in other cities and brought out to fight - the mountains are not threatened as long as we are in the field, and there is no longer any need for the ponies in the north to stand idle when they could be fighting."

"I shall send the order at once. Anything else?"

"Yes, we must also wait for our land-based cannons to arrive, however long it will take. Those things crushed the Celestials in the water, and surely they can do the same on the ground - with the advances in fortification that Equestria will make in the meantime, they will be necessary. I also want the Griffons to start pushing harder against the Celestials; not just raiding the cities for their armory, but burning crops and food supplies, and even taking over cities for themselves should they please. Our Navy must also keep moving and attacking, and take down Manehattan and any other port we've missed along the way."

"Of course. Anything more?"

"Keep our forces harassing the Celestials on this wall whenever they can, and just this once I'll revoke my previous order to abstain from killing townsponies, but only for the time being. If we can stop other cities from having their defenses built up, then I intend to make it happen. That is all."

Breeze nodded. "I'll return to camp and have all of this sent immediately," he said, leaving Night on the hill.

The Unicorn brought a hoof to his head. The war absolutely needed to end as soon as it started, with the Celestial's will to fight quickly crushed and suppressed until it was too late, but his enemy was too easily motivated by their goddess, or whoever stuck to rallying them. Night spoke a silent apology to Luna, knowing that now - unless he had some other major breakthrough - the only way to defeat Equestria and Celestia's forces was with a slow, painful, bleeding death, that would leave his love on the moon for even longer and possibly result in nothing to rule when she did return.