Eclipse Of The Sun

Night opened his eyes, a familiar black void - now dotted with stars - appearing before him. He got to his hooves, knowing Luna would likely be joining him soon. He didn't know exactly how long it had been since their first meeting, but it felt like forever, and the stallion wished to see her again after all that had happened.

Sure enough, a few seconds later he saw the mare striding toward him out of the corner of his eye. Night turned to face her, taking a few slow steps in her direction. When they met, her forelegs and wings pulled him into her embrace, which he returned. "I've missed you, Night," Luna whispered, her grip tightening as she spoke. She gently nuzzled his face, and then they crossed horns, staring into each other's eyes.

"I've missed you too," Night responded, giving the Alicorn a quick kiss on the cheek. She blushed slightly before laying down, pulling Night with her onto the invisible ground underneath them. Luna placed her hooves over his and returned his kiss, and then resumed staring at him. "You know, I've got a surprise planned for you when you return, after all this is over. I think you'll like it," the Unicorn said, smiling slightly. Luna's eyes widened a little.

"Really? What?"

"I can't tell you, that would ruin the part about it being a surprise," Night replied. Luna frowned a little, attempting to make him feel guilty. It almost worked.

"I can act surprised if you want me to, nopony would ever know... it could be our little secret," she said.

"Oh, we've already got enough 'little secrets'," Night replied. The mare used one of her wings to hide her blushing face.

"Alright, fine, point taken," she giggled. "I can wait. I still wish you hadn't mentioned it, however."

"Think of it as something to look forward to when you return," he said, holding one of her hooves. They both rolled over, staring at the stars above them. I wonder what else she will add to this place, Night wondered.

"I tried to make them look just like they do at home. Thankfully, it wasn't too hard despite having not seen them proper for the ten years I've been on the moon, nor does it require a lot of extra magic to sustain," Luna explained, pointing at a few of the brighter stars. She was right; they looked exactly the way they did throughout the mountains. For a second, Night imagined that he wasn't in her pocket dimension but rather somewhere inside the range, and if he looked down he might see the city stretching out beneath him, untouched by strife.

Night rested his head against Luna's chest. "You won't have to do this for much longer. I promised you before that I would bring you back, and I'll promise you again. We beat Celestia's forces from Amalthea's walls, and as soon as Silver returns with the Zebrican Navy, we will tear them from Europa and every city in Equestria that bears your sister's flag."

Luna sighed, kissing Night on the cheek. "Of all your qualities, your dedication is by far the best... Thank you," she whispered. The princess pulled her guard against her, and they laid there a while, silently thinking, be it about the future or each other. After a few more minutes, Night felt himself beginning to slip away, the result of his visit to this dimension coming to a close. Darkness and cold fell over him.

Night awoke to the shouts of guards outside. He quickly got out of bed and donned his armor, still battered from his escape from Europa - even with a month holed up in Io, he had not had time to arrange repairs, with the amount of patrols and scouting operations he personally undertook. It was necessary, however, for having an officer on the field provided a morale boost that was desperately needed after the loss of a major city. Silver really needs to get back here soon, before the Celestials decide they want to march on Amalthea again, or try to find us. If we can't take back Europa, then we've lost, he thought. He stepped out of his quarters and into the cold.

A row of guards saluted him. Night raised a hoof to return their greeting, and continued on. It was after midnight; he briefly wondered if that pocket dimension was starting to warp time. A few other guards - all Pegasi - had just gotten back from their aerial patrol. "Anything to report?" he asked them

"Nothing we haven't already seen or predicted, sir. The Celestials are still building up their defenses in Europa, and I guess they finally got their flag in; we found ours smoldering outside the city. Other than that, the blockade is still there," the guard responded.

Bastards, Night thought. "Keep up the good work. If they decide to start looking for us, we'll have to know," he said, dismissing the guard. Next patrol is in two hours, I'll go with them. He quickly found the commanding officer of the next patrol and told the pony that he would be leading the next mission; the guard nodded and informed the rest.

He passed the time by watching the moonlit skies above him and the reflection of the stars on the relatively calm ocean. There were some ships at the docks - all modified merchant vessels outfitted for combat - and a couple were floating around in the bay, likely for battle training. They would need it when the time came to retake Europa and then take over Equestria's own ports. He had just witnessed what appeared to be a shooting star when a guard from his patrol called out to him. "Sir, we are all set to leave," he said.

Night nodded and descended from his spot, following the pony to a group of four more guards - a second Unicorn and Earth Pony, and two Pegasi. "Alright, let's not be out there to long. The sun will come up pretty soon, and then the Celestials will start working again. The last thing we need to do is be spotted by a larger force," Night said. The guards nodded and followed him out of Io, the sound of snow crunching underhoof being the only noise they made.

They encountered virtually nothing on their path, save for snow and wind. The patrol observed the new walls the Celestials had made, along with what looked like a miniature fortress at the site of the old Lunar stronghold, constructed with materials scavenged from the houses around it. It didn't look like it would hold up to the same assault its predecessor had, but could still take a beating. A few Celestial warships were docked in the port for resupply, while the rest sill guarded the bay, seeming to still be proud of their achievement after their defeat at Amalthea. There were no guards on the walls. I guess they think Europa will be theirs forever, Night thought.

"Let's get out of here before the sun comes up. We don't have more than an hour," Night ordered. They all turned around and broke into a gallop, and the two Pegasi flew a few feet off the ground, occasionally turning around to see if some lone guard had appeared and spotted them. Thankfully, the walls remained empty. When the patrol had retreated to about two or three miles away, they stopped to catch their breath, and then started trotting the rest of the way. The sun started to peek over the horizon, reflecting off the ocean and the snow, and partially blinding the nocturnal ponies until their eyes could adjust.

Eventually, Io drifted into view, the same way they had left it. After several more minutes of trotting in the snow, they were back inside its boundaries. Night dismissed the guards and returned to his quarters, ditching his armor and sitting down for a moment. He found his ring and held it in the air in front of him, and after a bit of reflection on his time with Luna and his other plans, placed the object back into its shelf and sat there, unsure of what to do; while he had galloped a couple miles, he barely felt tired enough to go back to bed - and with it being daytime, there wouldn't be much for him to do outside.

Ultimately, Night figured he could send a letter to Amalthea and ask for a report. He moved towards another shelf and pulled out a quill, an inkpot and some parchment and placed them on his desk. He was just about to put the feather to the paper when a terribly painful feeling washed over him. He collapsed to the ground, writhing in pain so intense that he struggled to breathe. Then, something he thought he would never experience again happened. A disembodied voice screamed into his brain, the same one that he heard after he killed Cygnus and escaped into a blizzard. Its words were in some ancient language, but he could just barely make out Equestrian words, following the main lines like a shadow.

"Rise!" it cried. "Now!"

Night begrudgingly did as he was told, standing up on shaking legs. The things voice was distorted, as if speaking Equestrian was killing it in a painful manner. "Write," it groaned, and the Unicorn found himself practically falling onto his desk, grabbing the quill with his magic. Next, the voice started telling him what to write, and any time the Unicorn resisted, his horn felt like it was being pulled out of his head. A few excruciatingly painful minutes later, he had scratched out a crude letter to Silver:

Silver, you and Dusk need to go to Cervidas and find the Elkine capital. Underneath it - there is an entrance somewhere in the city - you will find an ancient set of massive ruins. Enter them, and somewhere inside you will find an artifact known only as Fróðleikr-slíta. This weapon is extremely powerful, and Luna believes that it can be used as a counter to the Elements of Harmony, Princess Celestia and magic as a whole. I'm sure you can already see the uses for such an artifact. Claim it, and bring it back.

-Night

Saying Luna told him about the weapon was a lie, but parts of what he wrote interested him. A simple sword with the power to defeat the Elements along with any kind of magic was something he would end up needing later on. Regardless, he hated having the voice in his head. It felt wrong. It felt... evil. He didn't like it. "What... are you?" Night struggled to ask, almost whimpering the words. He was still in quite a bit of pain.

The distorted voice choked out a response, but the Unicorn couldn't understand the words. The pain faded from his limbs and head. He let out a sigh of relief, but scowled at the lack of a response. He hoped that the thing's intrusion wasn't going to become a regular occurrence. With a simple spell, he sealed the letter and sent it, then went to bed, no longer wishing to be awake.

"Well, welcome to Cervidas, I guess..." Silver mumbled, stepping off the rowboat and onto the shores of the heavily forested continent. Dusk was close behind, lugging a large rucksack with a weeks worth of rations for the two ponies. They would still have to scavenge, however, seeing as they would be walking through the woods for an estimated four weeks. Their best hope would be encountering an Elkine patrol, but he tried not to get his hopes up, seeing as they typically isolated themselves and were weary of outsiders.

"You know anything about this place?" Dusk asked, trudging forward.

"Not a lot. Four weeks to Yggdrasill - the capital - and it's all forest, all the way," he responded. "That, and the inhabitants are pretty much withdrawn from society, hence why not much is know about them save for their name; the Elkine."

"And Night sent us here why?"

Silver sighed. "He wants us to retrieve an ancient weapon that can help to win this war. If I remember correctly, it can counter every known form of magic; a necessity considering who and what we're up against," he said.

"He should have made Wavebreaker do it, Luna knows he deserves it."

"Are you kidding? He'd just sell the damn thing to the highest bidder!"

They both laughed a little before staring back into the forest. "Well, I guess we had better get going in there, or the war'll be over before we get back." Silver said. He turned to look at Wavebreaker's ship, sitting half a mile or so off the coast. You'd best be here when we return.