0 (Condemned)

“...And after Blueblood’s funeral, Princess Celestia locked herself in her chambers without so much as a peep. Princess Luna-”

Click.

“...The changelings must’ve had something to-”

Click.

“...And I say to you, forgiveness is for everypony! No matter your sins, the Goddess of the Sun will always have room in her heart to forgive you! But you must first forgive yourself! Forgive yourself and others can forgive you!”

Click.

An azure unicorn stallion with a messy, silvery mane slides his hoof off of the dial radio, and stares at it in silence. He wipes his glazed, bloodshot eyes with his hoof, then sniffles and pushes loose strands of his sweaty mane from his eyes.

“Is this how it ends?” he asks, gulping back his tears.

“I’m afraid so,” says a stallion with a deep, fatherly tone. The tormented unicorn glances behind him at the visitor, but his features are hidden in the darkness of the loft. The visitor steps forward, his hoofsteps echoing in the loft even though there is a screaming rainstorm outside. “You made your own choices, Eclipse, and for that, a price must be paid.”

Eclipse turns around, levitating a bottle of hard cider to his lips and takes a large swig, but when he pulls the bottle away he finds himself mumbling incomprehensibly over his crying.

“I prayed and done all the other rites for what I’ve done, but all I’ve endured was more pain!” sobs Eclipse while swinging the bottle around in exaggerated movements, splashing the floor and expensive furniture with liquor. He takes another gulp of his drink and sits down with an audible thump on his snowy white, fluffy couch. “What point is there for begging for such things if all my mistakes still take me to this place?”

The mysterious pony’s horn glows and gently takes the bottle away from Eclipse and sets it down on a placemat on a glass table. Eclipse reaches out with his hoof, but the other stallion gently pushes him back on the couch.

“Eclipse, you must understand that creatures such as yourself, who possess free will,  do not need to obey the laws set in place. With free will one does not need to forget. One does not need to forgive.” Eclipse whimpers and slumps to the floor, covering his face, crying and begging in his hooves as the visitor towers over him. “I’m sorry, Eclipse, but cannot save you.”

Suddenly the door is kicked off of its hinges right as a bolt of lightning lights up the room and a deafening explosion of thunder rattles the loft. Eclipse looks up, trembling, but doesn’t see the visitor anywhere. But standing in the doorway is an imposing stallion, his facial features hidden by his drenched poncho. Eclipse trembles violently and whimpers at the sight of the intruder, who is breathing heavily, snorting out hot air and scuffing his hoof on the wooden floor.

The intruder charges and-

[[[[O]]]]

Eclipse wakes up, screaming and jolting upright in his bed, body soaked in sweat and face wet with tears. He wipes his eyes and muzzle and blinks to get the tears out of his eyes. As his eyes adjust to the darkness he can see his lavish, imported dresser, the expensive oil painting of himself looking proud of his life’s achievements, and his many exotic sculptures. All mean nothing to him, though.

Eclipse slides out of his bed and walks to his grand living room without bothering to turn on the lights, the lightning is providing all the light he needs. He takes a moment to stare out his glass patio doors to look at the raging storm. He can’t see anything and he can hear his grandfather clock ticking louder than it should be over the storm, like a sick reminder that his time is running out. When the grandfather clock chimes at midnight, he walks towards it, opens up the glass case protecting the pendulum and forces it to stop. He doesn’t want to hear the clock. He already knows he’ll be dead soon.

Eclipse takes a deep breath and walks towards his kitchen to grab a drink. As big as his loft is, his kitchen is pretty small. It barely has enough space for a pony to work in it comfortably. Not that comfort matters to Eclipse anymore. The azure unicorn goes to his wine cooler and pulls out an almost empty bottle of wine. He takes a swig of it and his face contorts to that of disgust and he scowls and throws it against the wall, upset that one of his final drinks tastes disgusting. But when he realizes what he did, his glazed, bloodshot eyes widen and he slowly turns to where he threw the bottle and stares at the red colored splotch on his wall. He watches the red liquid trickle down to the floor and bleed onto the floor, around the shards of broken glass.

Eclipse slumps to the floor and stares at the mess.

“This is my life!”

He closes his eyes and sulks as his body shakes from him trying not to cry anymore.

“I’m sorry,” whispers Eclipse, his voice trembling and cracking.

He opens his eyes a moment later and looks through the fridge for anything he can drink. He finds nothing, so he pours himself a glass of water instead and after drinking it in one sitting he goes back to his living room in a trance-like walk. He goes towards his sleek dial radio, which is resting proudly on top of a fancy stand, and stares at it, contemplating if he should listen to some music.

There is a deafening thunderclap after a flash of lightning lights up his whole loft, and he decides now will be a great time to listen to some music. He presses his hoof on the power button and it crackles to life. At first there is static, but after making some odd hissing and popping sounds it finally gets to playing.

“...And after Blueblood’s funeral, Princess Celestia locked herself in her chambers without so much as a peep. Princess Luna-”

Eclipse pales and slams his hoof against the radio. It clicks to the next station.

“...The changelings must’ve had something to-”

“No. No no no no, please Celestia, no,” whimpers Eclipse while pressing his hoof against the radio again. Another click, and the channel changes. “Please, Celestia...”

“...And I say to you, forgiveness is for everypony! No matter your sins, the Goddess of the Sun will always have room in her heart to forgive you! But you must first forgive yourself! Forgive yourself and others can forgive you!”

“No!”

Eclipse rams his hoof against the radio and it breaks upon impact. It makes a sickening crunching sound and sparks shoot out and the noise drones to a stop. Eclipse repeats “No” in sorrowful whimpers as he slides to the ground, sobbing and shaking.

“No, please Celestia, don’t-please don’t let it end like this.”

He looks up at the ceiling as if waiting for a divine voice to tell him that everything will be okay, that he will be safe from any harm. But all he hears is the rain battering against his windows and the howling wind to accompany them. He moans and lies on the floor, covering his head with his hooves. He knows he’s been forsaken. As he squeezes his eyes shut in a useless attempt to escape his fate, he thinks about his past... and how he deserves what is coming. But in spite of what his humble side is saying, he really wants to run and live out his days in hiding, but someone like him can’t stay hidden for long. Especially from him. Just like he found his associates, the guards in his pocket, his informant. He found them all, and now he’s coming for him.

Eclipse looks up at the ceiling again. “Please... save me...”

Nothing.

Eclipse sniffles and nods his head in reluctant understanding. He warily stands up and walks towards a small bookcase filled with records and as he searches through them, he notices a picture of him with his wife and child. He smiles sadly and wipes tears from his eyes as he grabs it with his magic, then he finds the record he wanted. He gently pulls it out with his magic and carries it to the phonogram. After setting it up, he puts the disc on and let’s the music play. There is a small crackling at first, but it soon turns into the sweetest melody he has ever heard.

He carries the picture to his couch and sits down on it, gently stroking the framed photo with his hoof as the soft string instruments and wordless hymns fill his loft with one last sense of serenity before the inevitable. He takes a deep breath and hugs the picture to his chest and closes his eyes as the violins from the track became louder and more peaceful.

While enjoying his final moment of peace, his ears twitch when he hears a floorboard creak from outside his loft door over the chaos of the storm. He slowly opens his eyes and sees a shadow taking up the light shining under his door from the hallway.

“Forgive me,” begs Eclipse quietly.

The door is kicked off of its hinges right as a bolt of lightning lights up the room and a deafening explosion of thunder rattles the loft. Just like the dream. Eclipse trembles, but doesn’t make any attempt to run. He knows its pointless. An imposing stallion stomps in snorting hot air and scuffing his hoof on the floorboard. His facial features may be hidden by his drenched poncho, but Eclipse knows who it is.

Eclipse closes his eyes, bows his head, and tears roll down his cheeks as he rubs the framed photograph for the last time, whispering: “Forgive me.”

~~~~~~~~~~

A middle aged grayish-purple unicorn Night Guard with a small, rough beard and wearing a drying poncho over his lavender armor stares over the battered railing of Eclipse’s loft; the railing’s wood is splintered where the body hit it. He looks up for the briefest of seconds as the pegasi clear the storm clouds away from the apartment before looking over the edge again. Now that the clouds are cleared away he has the moon and stars to give him some light so he can see the other unicorns down below using their horns to shine light on a splattered corpse. The body is unrecognizable since its a gory pancake in a pool of blood, but everyone is certain that it’s Eclipse.

The unicorn huffs and walks inside, not even having to open the balcony doors since they were busted open by Eclipse flying through them. He carefully steps past the broken glass and broken wood, and then inspects the trail of blood leading up to the balcony while other Night Guards collect evidence by taking pictures and placing little markers at the points of interests. These points were areas where the furniture was shattered, where the walls were indented and sometimes having holes in them, where the door was kicked open, and, of course, the bloody trail.

A Night Guard approaches the old unicorn, who is now inspecting the smashed glass table. “Detective Jerkins, we talked to the neighbors and no one saw anything. They only heard the fighting.”

“Figures,” mutters Detective Jerkins while wiping snot from his nose, cold courtesy of the horrible weather, “there never are any good witnesses.”

“We talked to the doorpony, she didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, either.”

Detective Jerkins groans irritably, then he sneezes and sniffles. When he’s done sniffling he levitates a handkerchief from his poncho pocket and wipes the snot from his nose. He grimaces at the mucus on his handkerchief and carefully folds up the piece of cloth and sticks it back in his pocket. He almost wants to whine about how much the cold sucks, but that won’t get him anywhere. Besides, he wants to keep the stoic attitude he’s known for. It makes it easier for him to ignore stupid things, like frivolous conversations and horrible jokes.

While the sick unicorn inspects an indent in the wall that has a little bit of blood on the edges, an earth pony stallion noticeably younger than Detective Jerkins trots in with a proud smile. The newcomer has a grayish coat and a slicked back green mane and tail, and his wet helmet is hanging next to him, no doubt ignoring any uncomfortable feelings he's getting.

“Hey L. Roy, I found something,” says the stallion, his voice young and energetic.

“Put your helmet back on, Colt,” orders Detective Jerkins. “And how many times do I have to tell you not to call me L. Roy when on duty?”

“More than I can count.” Detective Jerkins rolls his eyes. “Anyway, I found that the emergency exit has been forced open from the outside.”

All eyes turn on Colt and he smiles proudly while adjusting his helmet. When Detective Jerkins looks at the other guards, though, they resume their business and he goes back to looking at his partner.

“Are you sure it was from the outside?” asks Detective Jerkins skeptically.

Colt nods his head quickly. “Yep, I did all the stuff. I looked at the scene, studied the scene, looked at the door, asked about the door, looked at the door again, labeled the door and then told the nice lady up front how she reminds me of a lunar rose.”

Detective Jerkins groans and facehoofs. “Colt, I swear to Celestia and Luna and all the Stars, you are hopeless.”

“Thanks. I try my best.”

“Definitely hopeless.”

Colt goes outside to peek over the balcony, completely oblivious to the detective’s statement, and makes a low, drawn out whistle as he looks at the mess dozens of stories down.

“Wow, somepony really had it out for this guy,” says Colt carelessly.

Detective Jerkins walks next to him. “What did you expect? He was a crime lord. Crime lords have rivals. And this rival wiped out his entire criminal empire before giving him the window treatment.”

Colt’s ears droop slightly as he looks at the older unicorn. “You think a rival did this?”

“Possibly. I know Grizelda’s moving into town and she’s making room to make her little self nice and cozy in our town. We all know griffins are violent. Especially the bad eggs like her.”

“Where’s the ‘but’? There’s always a ‘but’.”

“But we’ll have to see what the evidence says before pointing hooves.”

Detective Jerkins walks back inside, followed by Colt a few seconds later.

“Hey, L. Roy,” calls Colt. Detective Jerkins stops and sighs heavily; that buck will never learn. “Do you think this whole thing,” Colt waves his hoof around at the mess, “was supposed to be symbolic or something? I mean a crime lord was tossed out his window and splattered in front of a crowd.”

Detective Jerkins looks at Colt. “Message or not, this whole thing should blow over quickly. Nopony is eager to figure out who murdered one of Equestria’s crime lords.” Then he walks towards the exit. “Besides, we should thank whoever did this. This was the last of the Eclipse Mob.”

“One less crime ring to deal with, then.”

“Precisely.” Detective Jerkins sneezes explosively, causing some heads to turn, but once he looks at them they look away and go back to work again. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have a cold to take care of.”

Colt waves farewell and when Detective Jerkins is out of sight and his hoofsteps are gone, Colt lowers his hoof and looks out the destroyed patio door at the ever growing, skeletal Canterlot skyline, shrouded by night and rain. Then he glances at s broken oil painting of Eclipse that has fallen to the ground. After unenthusiastically studying the picture for a few seconds he walks over to a display case that was surprisingly untouched during the whole deadly brawl. He takes note of all the little figurines locked safely inside, all of which are some kind of dragon with a moon varying in poses and sizes.

“Nightmare Moon. Discord. Changelings. Crime rings. Assassinations. Murders... Yeah, Equestria’s going to crap.” Colt looks around and scuffs his hoof on the floor to put his boredom at ease. It doesn’t work. He groans quietly and scans the area before he nudges the guard closest to him. “Hey, I’m going to grab some coffee, you want some?”

The guard looks confused by the sudden offer. “Um... no thank you, sir, but if you could grab me a donut that’d be nice.”

Colt smiles. “Sure thing, buddy.”

When Colt turns to leave the guard steps forward. “Excuse me, Detective Kicker, but do you think that this whole thing is symbolic... or something?” he asks meekly.

Colt stops, his whole body visibly droops as he scans the crime scene before looking at the guard. “I do. And call me paranoid, but I think whoever did this is far from being done. Let’s hope I’m wrong.”