Eclipse Of The Sun

"So... this is it," Night said, looking at the bag holding the sword that Silver had recovered.

"And all its ancient glory," the Pegasus replied. Night opened the bag and gripped the hilt, and then drew the weapon from the bag. He held the sword close, inspecting the blade. Like his previous sword, it had quite a few engravings and inscriptions - however, unlike his own sword this one had several serrations, was made of some sort of black metal and was also somewhat larger. The Unicorn swung it a few times, just to test the balance.

"And so begins the unraveling of Equestria," Night muttered, placing the sword back on the table.

"Provided that thing's as powerful as Luna said. Otherwise, it'll make for a fancy decoration."

Night smirked. "How's Dusk? You mentioned him earlier, something about how he might be bedridden for a couple more days?" he asked.

"Oh, yeah. Well, after what was left of Cervidas went up in flames, I couldn't find him anywhere, so I started flying back to the ship. When I got there I convinced Wavebreaker to wait a few more days, and send a search party out if he could supply it. We were just about to leave when out of the blue, we see him standing just on the edge of the forest, right before he passes out."

The two ponies exited the room, heading towards where Dusk was being kept, while Silver continued to talk. "When we pulled him on board, he was really messed up. Burned, starved, cut up, twisted joints - you name it, he had it. On top of it all, he wouldn't wake up, just like when you walked into Amalthea, all unresponsive and whatnot.

"Now, we got you out of bed in three days, but that was because we had three of the best healers in the mountains on you every night; Dusk, on the other hand, had a single Earth Pony doctor who couldn't do much more than hoof-feed medicine until we got here. He's been drifting in and out of consciousness for the last couple days, but he hasn't spoken. I figure now that we've got real doctors with him, he might be able to tell us a little about what happened."

Night opened the door to the infirmary with a spell, allowing the two ponies inside. Silver then led them through a short hallway to a small room with a single bed, occupied by a very weak looking Dusk, a couple of his personal belongings either next to him or against the wall. The Earth Pony raised his head upon hearing hoofsteps nearby. "Hey," he said, his voice barely a whisper.

"Glad to see you're finally talking again," Silver replied, pulling up a chair. "I'd imagine you've got a lot to say after having your mouth shut for three weeks."

"Yeah... I've been doing-" the pony grunted as he shifted around in his bed, attempting to sit up a little more. "-some thinking as well."

"About what?"

"About how I made it from some random place in Cervidas to the coast in the condition you found me in. It doesn't seem possible, you know?"

Night spoke up. "I had third degree burns and a punctured lung, which should have kept me from walking and lasting more than a few minutes, and yet I ended up in the center of Amalthea."

"That doesn't make much more sense," Dusk responded.

"There has to be some explanation then," Silver said. "If you don't mind, can you tell me what happened after Cervidas?"

"Of course not, I figured that if we both survived that hellhole you'd want to know how I did it," Dusk said. He leaned back in his bed. "I, uh, don't remember a lot of the details, but here goes: Some time after I got back on the surface, Yggdrasill starts to fall apart - fire shooting up out of cracks, ground splitting apart, like some sort of apocalypse. Not knowing how far the destruction would go, I ran as far away from the city as I could," Dusk said, pausing to catch his breath. He continued a few seconds later.

"When I thought I was safe, I stopped and calmed down a bit, and then realized how lost I was. I tried walking back to Yggdrasill to use it as a landmark, but by the time I managed to get there it was just a giant, smoldering hole in the ground. Even when I did finally get to what looked like the hill we had used to scope out the city, I was too tired to continue. I rested for a day and scavenged for food, but a lot of the stuff around the city was dead or dying." Dusk took another break.

"Don't push yourself," Night said.

"It's fine," Dusk replied. "Anyways, After that I started back in the direction I thought we had come from, but I got sidetracked looking for decent food and ended up lost. I started wandering the forest, looking for some reliable way to tell my direction, when I start to hear water. The idea that I might be able to follow it downstream to the ocean pops into my mind, and I take off towards it - hadn't had such great luck with everything else, figured that it had finally changed for once." Dusk snorted. "It didn't, because as soon as I found the source of the water I tripped on something and fell twenty feet down a hill, which got me messed up pretty bad.

"I couldn't really walk straight after that, wasn't sure if it was from how many times I hit my head or if I broke something, but all I could do was continue forward. Eventually, my body gave out, and I could do nothing but pray to Luna and wait for death to come. I finally close my eyes, and when I open them again I'm in Wavebreaker's ship."

"Like I said, similar to what happened to you," Silver said, looking at Night. The Unicorn nodded.

"Silver, may I speak to Dusk in private for a moment, if you don't mind?" Night asked. Silver nodded and exited the room.

The Unicorn turned back towards Dusk and spoke. "When you knew you were nearing the end, did you ever hear..." Night looked around, to make sure Silver wasn't eavesdropping, and then leaned closer. "Did you ever hear a voice?"

"No, sir - should I have?"

"No. Maybe, I'm not sure. I did, at least. At first I thought it was just my instincts telling me to keep going, but then I woke up again and it was still talking to me, so I listened," he said. Night looked around once more; nopony was supposed to know that he was hearing things - the last thing the Lunars needed to know was that their leader had voices in his head. "The voice is what told me to send you to Cervidas, in order to find the sword."

"Has it said anything else?"

"No." Night said, sighing. "Anyways, is there anything else you can tell me about Cervidas? Anything odd?"

"Well, other than the fact that the whole city was dead, there was this one night, when we were about halfway to Yggdrasill. Something really big snuck up on us while we were sleeping, and did something to Silver - I didn't dare intervene, the thing's hooves were so big it would have flattened my skull the second I moved, and it was standing on my sword either way. Silver seemed a little different for a time afterwards, like he had been traumatized or something, but I never asked about it. At some point I guess he got over it, because by the time we got to Yggdrasill he seemed perfectly fine," Dusk explained.

"Is that all?"

"Yes, sir."

Night nodded. "Okay. Well, you'd best get some rest. Come to me if you remember anything else, or if you start to hear voices. In the meantime, I will look into getting you a promotion for your work, as well as attend to a recently captured Celestial Fleet Admiral. I'll leave you with Silver for now," he said, exiting the room.

"Sir, I bring grave news," said the messenger, bowing his head. Rune looked up from the map, having just finished marking Fort Hoof and Vanhoover as 'Lunar'.

"What has happened?" the general asked.

"We have just received formal declarations of war from the Griffons and the Zebras, along with unconfirmed reports of Detrot being captured and hostile fleet sightings near Baltimare. Princess Celestia has also called for a meeting with you."

Rune sighed, finding and striking Detrot as no longer Equestrian. When Fort Hoof and Vanhoover were attacked, they too were unconfirmed for some time on account of the distinct lack of survivors, leaving Canterlot in the dark for much longer than they would have liked. The fact that the same thing was happening to yet another city was disconcerting, to say the least. "Alright. Where will this meeting be taking place?" Rune asked.

"In her personal quarters," the pony replied. Rune paused before nodding and continued out the door. Celestia only called ponies to her room if things had really gone haywire

The throne room was silent, save for the tapping of hooves against the stone floor, echoing off the walls. Rune passed a series of guards on his way to Celestia's quarters. Upon arrival, two more guards opened the doors for him, allowing the general entrance. They closed and locked behind him.

Princess Celestia sat at a small table, appearing deep in thought. Rune approached slowly, bowing when he was close. "You... wished to speak with me?" he said softly.

The Alicorn snapped out of her trance. "Ah, yes. Please, have a seat," she said quietly, tapping a spot in front of her with a hoof. Rune sat down, waiting. The mare looked at him slowly. "I'm assuming you were informed about the Griffons and Zebras?" she asked.

"Yes, princess. The guard who fetched me gave me the basics."

"Good. Did he also tell you about Detrot and Baltimare?"

"He mentioned Detrot, but not Baltimare. Have the Lunars attacked it too?"

Celestia shook her head. "At least, not yet. Their fleet was sighted, however, just on the edge of the horizon, waiting. The commander in charge sent me a letter immediately."

Rune looked down. "Are there any defenses in the city?"

"Nothing that can defend from a naval attack. We weren't prepared to lose all but a fifth of our navy at Europa."

"Right..."

Silence. Celestia broke it after a moment. "What do you wish for our army to do?" she asked.

"Do you have a map?"

The princess created one from magic alone, spanning the table. It showed the front lines, blue for Lunar and yellow for Celestial, along with squares of varying sizes representing each part of the army and it's strength. Rune drew in a breath.

"Seeing as most of our forces are in Derbyshire, that should be where we form a defense. All along this line," the general said, tracing a line in the map, "we should fortify with whatever we can. Things like trenches, walls, redoubts, whatever - if it hinders the Lunars, then we make it.

"With the addition of the Griffons comes the addition of attrition warfare. We have very small stockpiles of arms and armor, as we have never had need for such things. If we lose those stockpiles and become unable to arm and armor our troops, then we lose, no questions asked. Derbyshire has three thousand and the rest of our cities have less than eight hundred total. I think we should pull a thousand out of Derbyshire and everypony out of any city that doesn't have an armory, and redistribute them among those who do."

Celestia spoke up. "We'd be leaving countless cities defenseless, and thousands of innocent ponies at the mercy of the Lunars. If those cities fall, morale will dip even lower."

"They aren't defenseless - they'd be behind the Derbyshire Line. Besides, we should only be seeing raids among strategically important cities, cities that we can't afford to lose."

"Very well. And what of the naval portion of the war?"

"Wouldn't Stargazer normally handle this?"

"His flagship was sunk at Europa, and we aren't sure what became of him."

"Ah... Well, all I can say is to take any sort of defense in the city and aim it at the Lunars. Ten ships aren't going to do a whole lot on their own, especially with the weaponry the Zebras just brought to the table."

Celestia nodded. "Have a Unicorn disperse your orders, when you are ready. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go reaffirm relations with Saddle Arabia before they turn on us as well."

Stargazer looked around him, tied up in his chair. It was incredibly dark, lit by a single lantern next to a door. There didn't appear to be any windows, and thanks to the virtually nonexistent lighting, he had no idea how big or small the place was.

Memories began to slowly return to him, all unpleasant. The destruction of his ship and subsequent capture at Europa, the two weeks of mild torture and conditioning, the feeling of being drenched in water and then having every hair on his body frozen during prior attempts to interrogate the Celestial - he shivered, cold at the thought.

Damn Lunars and their love of the cold, he thought. I guess I'm lucky they didn't try electricity. He still remembered the screams of other ponies not so fortunate, or simply those who didn't know enough.

He had been lucky, at least so far. The Lunars knew how important some of the information he had was, and the admiral used it to his advantage every second he got, such as threatening to get himself killed in exchange for news on the war. He regretted it once he heard about the loss of Vanhoover and Fort Hoof, and eventually they got sick of hearing it, which was probably why he was here, tied to a chair in some dark room.

The door opened, completely silent. A Unicorn as black as the surrounding walls entered, shutting the door. Something like a sword was strapped to the pony's side. "Ah, you're awake," he said. Stargazer recognized the voice as Blackest Night.

"What do you want?" Stargazer hissed, attempting to make sure he knew where Night was at all times, which became impossible once the Lunar extinguished the one light in the room. All he could rely on now was the tapping of hooves on the floor, which wasn't much easier.

"I want to know about any plans Celestia has made to attack or defend."

"I know nothing about the army's plans, and even if I did I'd never tell the likes of you-"

Stargazer was interrupted as a hoof bashed into the back of his head, disorientating him briefly. He leaned back into his seat when the pain and shock subsided. "I am going to make one thing perfectly clear: After what you inflicted upon our city, I have decided that you should never see Equestria again, and if you continue to refuse my questions then I shall ensure that you will never see the outside of this room," Night growled, malice in his voice. "Now, what do you know about Celestia's plans?"

"I've been locked up in these mountains for nearly two weeks. We never anticipated that marching on Amalthea would be as devastating as it was. Any new plans are only known by the current generals."

"I know Celestia is overconfident, but surely her generals made some sort of contingency. Speaking of which, who's at the head of her army these days? Comet?" Night asked. It sounded like he was less than a foot from Stargazer's face.

"No, General Rune. After we never got a report from Cygnus, Comet guessed that you were still alive and abandoned his position."

"Good to know I carry that sort of reputation in Equestria." The Unicorn was to his right, now. "There is another thing I must know. When your forces attacked Europa, you seemed to know exactly what do do, where to go, even to the point that you knew precisely where I was in the holdout. How?"

"We just attacked where we knew the Lunars were."

"I could hear them shouting my name; 'Night's in there! Come on, we have to find him!'"

Stargazer closed his eyes. Wavebreaker was a crook anyways. "It was Wavebreaker. After my guards searched his ship and found a couple Lunars in one of the rooms, he tried to play it off like they were deserters seeking a new life. I told him that I was to take any Lunars into custody if I was given the opportunity, but the Pegasus was very adamant that they would be going with him. He offered to give me information on your presence in Europa if I left them alone; I agreed, figuring you were more valuable than two deserters."

Night was silent. "They weren't trying to abandon, though, were they?" Stargazer continued.

"No. Emissaries, to convince the Zebras to help us with the war effort. A close friend of mine, and a soldier assigned to protect him," Night said. "We did the same thing with the Griffons, only that didn't result in a city being captured and nearly razed."

Looks like I really can't ever go back to Equestria, the Celestial thought, hanging his head. He prayed to Celestia that none of his crew - provided any had even survived - would try to sell him out in return for an early retirement. "What are you going to do now?" he asked sheepishly. He hadn't provided much information in the first place, and Night had brought a sword with him.

"Well, you didn't have much to offer, but since I only had to crack you across the head once to find that out rather than multiple times like your contemporaries, I believe I can find a decent use for you. I will think about it while I deal with Wavebreaker," Night replied. Stargazer heard the Unicorn's hooves on the ground in front of him, quickly blocked out by what he presumed was the door when it closed behind the pony. Stargazer, without any other choice, remained in his chair, contemplating what his new life under Lunar rule would be like.

Night didn't take long locating Wavebreaker's docked ship. He and two other guards he had ordered along climbed up the entryway onto the top deck, sighting a few sailors likely placed on a watch in case any looters found the ship to be a worthy target, considering the state of the city. The sailors all turned and looked at him, surprised to see the Unicorn and his entourage on board their ship.

"Is there, uh, anything we can help you with, sir?" one of them asked.

"I have received outside information that labels Captain Wavebreaker as a traitor to the Lunars, and I would like to know where I can find him," Night responded coolly. The sailors all looked at each other, confused.

"I promise you my only conflict is with Wavebreaker, none of his crew, whether they knew about this or not," Night continued.

"He's in his quarters, but if we may ask, what did he do?" questioned a second sailor.

"He is responsible for giving away vital information regarding my location in Europa as well as details about the weaknesses of our stronghold there. As a result, we were unable to defend as effectively as we could have, and in the end we were forced from Europa, allowing it to be taken and nearly resulting in my capture. While Wavebreaker did succeed in the mission I gave, it was a pyrrhic one to the point that it can - to a degree - be called an outright failure. Such a thing needs to have an example made out of it, as to ensure it does not happen again.

"Now, where are his quarters?" Night finished. The sailors pointed at Wavebreaker's door, backing away. Night nodded to his guards, who slowly walked over and opened it, allowing them in one at a time.

Wavebreaker sat at his desk, busy writing something - probably answers to trade requests. The Pegasus looked up and seemed to already know what Night and two heavily armed and armored soldiers were doing in his quarters, but opened his mouth just to be sure, his hoof moving to a drawer nearby.

"What can I help you with?" he asked, playing innocent.

Night slowly advanced to the desk, his guards not far behind. "Stargazer told me everything," he said, calm.

Wavebreaker squinted his eyes. "Why that little..." he growled. His hoof stopped moving, finding whatever it was looking for. "I helped you, motherbucker. I did everything you asked, exactly as you asked it - Europa would still be held by the Celestials if I hadn't!"

"You have a point, but it destroyed the city and nearly got me captured. Not only did you tell the Celestials that I was in here, but you gave them every last detail about our stronghold; we had a chance at defending, right up until that point. You helped me, but at a cost so great it was hardly help. Guards, get him."

The two ponies on Night's side drew their weapons and advanced. Wavebreaker pulled out the object he had been fumbling around with - some hollow metal rod attached to a wooden handle - and pointed it at Night, knowing he had nothing more to lose. He struggled with a small switch on the underside of the device, but before he could activate it the two guards dived at him, knocking the presumed weapon away. The Pegasus was able to wriggle free and attempted to fly past Night, only for the Unicorn to draw his sword and make a quick slash, hacking off one of Wavebreaker's wings.

The momentum continued to carry the airborne pony, and he crashed into the door, cursing and crying out in pain, flapping his remaining wing feebly. Night kicked him over and cast a fire spell to perform a crude cauterization of the wound, in order to keep Wavebreaker from bleeding out before his trial. The two soldiers picked the incapacitated pony up by his forelegs and began to drag him out, while Night retrieved and pocketed the weapon Wavebreaker had pulled on him.

Only two of the five sailors originally on deck were remaining, and both of them stared at their former captain as he was dragged away. Night approached them. "Do either of you know where the first mate is?" he asked. One of them nodded. "Tell him he's now captain of this ship, and may do with it what he wishes." The same sailor nodded and followed Night and his soldiers off the ship, turning into a different section of what was left of the city.

Wavebreaker didn't struggle much, likely going into shock. Night again opened a door, this time to a small prison cell. The guards tossed the crippled Pegasus inside, and Night told one of them to go get a doctor. When said doctor arrived, Night told him, "Just give him enough attention to survive until tomorrow night. Get one of my guards if you need anything."

Wavebreaker looked around, his head throbbing. He was on a wooden platform, surrounded by the remains of Europa and dozens of Lunar soldiers, all watching him intently.

His stump of a wing sat pitifully on his back, the blackened and bloody flesh and fur covered in a thin layer of bandages. The doctor said something about how he was only supposed to last to the next night, and he meant it; the only thing he did was look for other life threatening injuries, comment on the burn and then apply the wraps, leaving the Pegasus still in extreme pain for the majority of the day.

Something pushed him from behind. Wavebreaker turned around to see who was shoving him, finding himself staring into the eyes of none other than Blackest Night. The Unicorn began to speak to the crowd, but Wavebreaker didn't care what he was saying enough to listen, and the pain kept him from focusing in the first place.

The guards shouted in response, probably a cheer of some sort. Night forced Wavebreaker to his knees - his head striking the inside of some container - and drew his sword. The Pegasus watched out of the corner of his eye as the Unicorn drew his sword and gripped it with both hooves, making a slow swing down towards the pony's neck. He repeated the swing a second time, but on the third, he felt the sword bite into the back of his neck for an instant, before all sensation ceased.

The guards surrounding the makeshift platform cheered at the death of Wavebreaker. The decapitated corpse slumped over to the side, the head in a box. Night looked at his sword, covered in a mix of dried blood from the previous night and fresh blood from the current one, and swore to himself that the serrations were larger. He wiped the flat of the blade across Wavebreaker's fur and sheathed it, motioning for a couple guards on the platform to bring the remains to a pyre.

It wasn't just the sword that was different, either. Night began to think on knowledge he hadn't previously held, things he couldn't possibly have known under normal circumstances. Memories that weren't his own crawled through his head. The Unicorn held a hoof to his skull for a moment, attempting to block everything that wasn't his out of his mind, but as soon as he tried, the voice protested.

"The mind of the dead is your own," it growled, except unlike every other time it spoke, it was in a slightly comprehensible manner. "Do not deny this gift."

"What do you mean?" Night replied, struggling against the torrent of another pony's knowledge. There was no response, so Night kept walking towards his quarters. Visions of a young stallion's life plagued his mind, blocking out his own thoughts. By the time he arrived, he was reliving what must have been Wavebreaker's meeting with Stargazer. He could see Stargazer's surprise, and he felt dull shock at seeing Silver and Dusk hiding in a room. Night heard himself repeating what Wavebreaker must've said to the Celestial admiral; "Look, if you leave them alone I can give you some pretty good information," he had said.

"Information? About what?" the Celestial responded.

"About Europa. About Night. He's in there, I saw him."

Stargazer's expression remained, but his curiosity was piqued. "Go on."

Night struggled to open his door as the memory clouded his vision along with his head - one second he was bumping into a wall, the next he was looking at Stargazer and back to Silver and Dusk. He finally pushed his door open and fell inside, quickly picking himself back up and attempting to close it, nearly tripping back outside in the process. He saw every mile of the journey to Europa, including two confrontations between Silver and the captain.

The Unicorn threw his sword to the ground and collapsed against a wall, blankly staring at the weapon as his mind fell apart. Guards, get him." He listened to himself give the command, the words echoing in his head.

A hoof that had to be Wavebreaker's gripped an object in a drawer, only to be knocked to the ground by two guards. Night watched as he struggled against his captors and suddenly flew directly at himself from the night before, only for a searing pain to rip through his body and send him crashing into a wall. He soon felt himself being picked up by the same two guards and dragged off to some dungeon. The Lunar blinked absentmindedly, pain still clinging to his side.

Finally, he saw the plethora of guards watching as he was placed onto an improvised platform. A voice - his own - spoke, but he felt too much pain to concentrate. The guards cheered, and after a moment, it all ended - the pain, Wavebreaker's thoughts, the flood of memories, everything. Night was left to stare at the sword and its glowing pommelstone, burning brightly against the darkness of his room. He felt like his very being had been torn asunder and then rebuilt with parts from that of another pony. It left him feeling weak, even weaker than when he had escaped Cygnus and collapsed in the snow.

Eventually, the feeling of weakness and exhaustion pulled Night into an uneasy rest, offering a temporary freedom from having the knowledge of two minds in one.