The Forgotten King

Chapters

Bullies
Convicted
Fluttershy
Back to Everfree
Darkness
The voice
Bandaged
Losing control
A matter of grave importance
A bad dream
An early morning
Everything exlpained
Rematch
Luna's fears
False hope
One final choice
Awake
A first flight
A trip to Canterlot

Bullies

Eclipse was now taking his first real look at Cloudsdale, the city appeared to be made entirely of clouds and all of the ponies in it were pegasi. Eclipse looked down to see Rainbow Dash land in a small open space of clouds and immediately take a seat. Eclipse didn't think twice, he was already gliding down below to meet her. Even gliding seemed incredibly heavy on his wings.

Eclipse noticed that three pegasi walked up to Rainbow and he wondered what they were doing. As he flew in closer he heard bits of what they were saying and made out a few words like "Rainbow crash" and "flunky". As he glided down he landed about twenty feet behind the three pegasi who obviously didn't notice him. He could now clearly make out what the three pegasi were saying, and he didn’t like it.

"Aww looks like lil Crashy has worn herself out flying to Cloudsdale hahahaha." laughed the biggest of the three pegasi.

Instantly Eclipse became angry at the three bullies for berating Rainbow dash but
decided not to do anything, yet. The three pegasi laughed at Rainbow and one with a dumbbell mark on his flank, the biggest one, pushed her over as she tried to respond to defend herself.
The three of them laughed at Rainbow, who due to the race was too tired to make any comeback. The sight of what the bullies were doing made Eclipse furious. Rainbow was obviously superior to them; they merely had numbers on their side. Eclipse remembered how when he was walking throughout Ponyville some of the ponies seemed to fear him, so he decided to use his scariness to try and drive off the bullies. Eclipse walked up behind the three pegasi and stomped his foot on the ground as hard as he could. The three pegasi jolted their heads back to have their gazes met by the not so friendly scowl of an alicorn with cold blue eyes. Two of the pegasi instantly shrank back in fear but the third one, the one with a dumbbell mark, stood his ground. "And who are you supposed to be, surely you're not friends with someone as lame as Crashy over there" said the pegasus with a sting to his words.

"Actually I am, and you would be wise to back off." Eclipse said as he held his stance in front of the pegasus.

"Seems to me like you’re looking for a fight “said the pegasus “And you're choosing the wrong pony to pick a fight with. Ya see, hanging around with someone like Crashy makes you a loser, and I beat losers down."

"You've got quite some nerve" said Eclipse as leapt into the air.

"As does a loser like you" said the pegasus as he did likewise. The two ponies hovered in the air about twenty feet apart. After a moment of exchanging hateful glances the two ponies charged at each other at top speed. At the last moment Eclipse turned slightly and gave the pegasus a painful shoulder to the chest. The impact jarred Eclipse's arm painfully, but he judged that it did more damage to the other pony. The two circled and turned towards each other again and right before they collided the pegasus keeled up and got a cheap hoof slam right to Eclipses head. Eclipse wavered for a second, the impact to his head had made him dizzy but he managed to keep his balance. He turned around again and was charging at the pegasus once more. Eclipse picked up the pace and stuck his arm out right before he collided with the pegasus. He clothes-lined the pegasus and managed to get him in a headlock.

The two fell out of the air in what seemed to be a confused struggle, but the truth was Eclipse was in control with the pegasus headlocked. As the two neared the ground Eclipse positioned himself behind the pegasus and tucked his wings in to gain speed right before he threw the pegasus into the ground. The two slammed into the ground with bone shattering force. The pegasus, being on the bottom and in a headlock, took almost all the blow of the landing. Even with the soft cloud ground the force of impact was incredible and the pegasus’ wing snapped like a twig under the impact.

As Eclipse heard the pegasus' wing break his rage subsided, he realized what a horrible thing he had done. Eclipse had never meant to crush the pegasus so badly, he had only wanted to beat the pegasus in a fight and stand up for his new friend. Still standing over the figure of the beaten pegasus Eclipse was in total shock at what he had done.

Without thinking he took a giant leap into the air. He realized he had made a bad mistake and wanted to get away as fast as he could. He wanted to fly away and forget that he had hurt the pegasus so badly. He had already had a somewhat hard time fitting in, being so different from everypony else, but now everyone would see him as a monster for what he had done and no one would ever accept him. There was no way Rainbow would still like him after seeing what he did. He doubted even Pinkie would like him anymore after she heard about what he had done.

Eclipse decided that the only place left he could go was Twilight’s house, it was the only other pony he knew, or at least heard of, that could maybe help. He changed his wing angles and took a sharp turn to adjust his position. He was now heading for Twilight’s house. He flew fast; not as fast as he had flown when he raced Rainbow, but still quite fast.

Flying through the open air brought with it an amazing sense of freedom. Eclipses worries, although all too real, seemed to fade from his thoughts as he enjoyed the air rushing over his wings. After a few minutes of flying through the cool air Twilight’s house came into view and Eclipse started his descent. As he drifted down to the house all his worries came back to him and he was once again anxious and hoped that Twilight could help him learn magic so that he might be able to heal the pegasus and redeem himself.

As Eclipse came down onto the tree he landed on the balcony a bit harder than he had intentioned. There was no light coming from inside, but then again the sun was only about half way to the horizon so there was quite a bit of light left in the day.

“Hey! Twilight, are you here?” Eclipse called out, “I need your help learning to use magic.” He waited for a response but none came and after a minute or so of silence he tried again. “Hello? Is anypony in there? I need to talk to Twilight about magic.” Again there was no answer so Eclipse tested the balcony door and found it to be open.

The inside of Twilights house was surprisingly neat and orderly, bookshelves lined most of the wall. It was quiet, it smelled of book paper, and the air was warm; it was the kind of place Eclipse liked to be in. He wanted to go and check the bookshelves to see if there were any book on magic, and he was sure there were. But to go and read somepony else’s books without permission seemed a bit rude. There didn’t seem to be anyone home so Eclipse decided to wait until Twilight came home.

Eclipse waited around for almost an hour and eventually decided to pass the time by taking a look at a few books on the shelf that caught his interest. As long as he put the books back where they belonged it didn’t seem too rude. He managed to read up on the history of Equestria and learned that there were two other alicorns in Equestria, two princesses named Luna and Celestia. Celestia is the one who brings forth day and Luna brings forth night. The two of them rule over Equestria, but everypony knew that and now Eclipse knew too.

Another hour passed and no one came home, Eclipse was sick of waiting and was thinking about going home to get some sleep when there was a knock at the door.

Convicted

The knock on the door came once more. Maybe the knock would be Twilight, although it would seem a bit odd to knock at your own door. But Eclipse didn’t think about that and was just happy for someone, hopefully Twilight, to come home. Eclipse walked to the door and opened it to meet face to face, or rather leg to face with a short male colt with a scissors cutie mark on his flank. Eclipse had read about cutie marks so he now knew what they were. The chubby little pony looked up to Eclipse with fear in his eyes. Before Eclipse could react the pony ran off, yelling “There’s a monster pony at Twilights house!! And he ate Twilight! Everypony run for your lives!”

As Eclipse saw the colt running off he thought GREAT! Just what I needed, a colt running off telling everypony I’m a monster who ate Twilight! This will be STELLAR for my reputation!

He took off running after the colt, Eclipse had to stop him before he had everypony convinced Eclipse was a monster and had eaten Twilight. “What is with that pony?! He sees a new face at Twilight’s house and assumes I’m a monster who ate Twilight??” Eclipse mumbled as he ran. He was starting to gain on the little pony and knew he had to catch the colt or this could go very badly for him. He was a few feet behind the other pony when five ponies barred his way as the colt hid behind them. Eclipse skid to a stop in front of them, narrowly avoiding plowing into them.

“Who are you and what have you done with Twilight?” said one of the five ponies.

“I’m Eclipse and I haven’t done anything to Twilight. I was waiting for her to get home when that colt knocked on the door and I answered to find him running away calling me a monster!” replied Eclipse.

“Likely story” said one of the ponies as more ponies started to crowd around to see what was happening. “Twilight goes missing and you show up a day later pretending to be looking for her, but are in her house presumably rummaging around?”

There was muttering in the crowd and it was obvious no one was taking Eclipse’s side.

“If you really are innocent like you say you are then go and find Twilight” said one of the ponies in the crowd.

There was a general mumble of agreement from the crowd and the same pony spoke again. He said “Go and find Twilight or never come back here again! Prove you’re not a monster and you can come back!”

Eclipse had no way to defend his claim and the ponies around him didn’t look to happy with him. He had no choice but to run away and try to find Twilight. But he didn’t even know where to begin his search for her. He spread his wings and flew off. He stayed low to the ground, and flew until he came to the border of a dark and foreboding forest.

The forest looked scary and unfriendly, but there was nowhere else to go. Eclipse landed at the edge of the forest and proceeded to journey into it. He looked completely calm, but in truth Eclipse didn’t want to go in to the forest. The forest had a haunting aspect and the darkness inside seemed to be more pressing than normal.

As Eclipse came to the point where he could no longer see the light from where he had entered the forest he could feel his instinct screaming for him to turn around. The forest was creepy and had an oppressive aura to it. The sun had not even set yet and already the darkness seemed more advanced than any darkness Eclipse had ever experienced. However he pressed on and over the course of an hour he managed to get used to moving through the thick mud and tangle of trees and decaying roots. The sun was now setting and the darkness seemed to be closing in on Eclipse more and more until he could hardly see his hooves in front of his eyes. The enclosed feeling gave him a sense of claustrophobia and he desperately wished for there to be some kind of light. Then as if his plea had been answered his horn started to give off a faint light. The light was hardly a spec compared to the darkness around him but with focus he managed to get it to shine bright enough for him to see a good ten feet ahead of him. The light was comforting but it caused the trees to cast ghostly shadows all over the place, and when Eclipse tried to peer past the end of the lighted zone he started to see things that he hoped were just his eyes playing tricks on him.

After another few minutes of blindly finding his way through the forest Eclipse started to see pieces of broken stone that looked as if it had once been parts of bricks. He followed the rubble and found that it led to a decrepit old ruin of a castle. The castle was slightly shrouded in a layer of thick mist, but mist was better than the ghastly trees any day. Eclipse made his way into the ruins of the ancient castle and managed to find a spot with a ray of moonlight that pierced the mist and kept the area modestly lit. It wasn’t at all a secure feeling spot, but it was a haven compared to the trees and darkness. Eclipse lay down and tried to sleep but found himself peering into the mist automatically. The mist slowly swirled around in spots sometimes and seemed to take shapes, scary shapes. Sometimes he thought he saw ghostly figures standing in the mist, watching him. He tried to convince himself that his eyes were playing tricks on him and eventually he decided it was best to force his eyes closed, no matter how fiercely his instinct demanded that he keep on his guard. He lay still for what seemed like forever, and eventually Eclipse managed to doze off.

Fluttershy

Eclipse dreamt that he was floating in a place devoid of any light or sense of direction. There was no up or down and there was nothing to see, hear, feel, smell, or taste. Eclipse didn’t know where he was but for some reason it seemed familiar, as if he had been there before. Then, without warning, there was a powerful, steely voice that broke the silence.

The voice boomed with fierce anger that seemed to emanate from everywhere “Freedom, I was so close but it was taken from me. All that remains is you, feeble, weak, and incomplete! But mark my words I will be free!”

The voice faded back and again Eclipse found himself alone in the nothingness of the cold, void like place. The voice was one of horror, something of pure evil that made Eclipse want to escape it any way possible.

He jolted awake; he was shaking and covered with sweat from the nightmare. He could feel his heart thumping in his chest and he was glad that he had not woken up before sunrise. The place in his nightmare was a horrible place where nothing existed and there was nothing but the voice. He was glad that it was only a dream and not real, even though it sure seemed real. Eclipse might not have had the best reputation in Ponyville or Equestria, but it was better than being in that other world from his nightmare.

Eclipse decided that he would try and find Twilight today and set his reputation right with the ponies of Cloudsdale and Ponyville. How would he know what Twilight even looked like though? He would need to ask somepony if he wanted to figure out, but that would be tough seeing as all the other ponies feared him. He decided to try and find a pony that lived a bit farther away from Ponyville, but close enough that they would know who Twilight was. He spread his wings and bolted out of the ruins and into the sky, he was glad to be out of the forest.

Eclipse flew around the outskirts of Ponyville until he saw a small house with a fenced off area that had a large variety of animals in it. He landed behind some bushes thinking it might be a better idea to take a look from a distance before barging in on some unexpected pony that might think he’s dangerous.

He was in luck; it looked like somepony was home. A yellow mare with pink hair came out of the house and was greeting all of the animals that presumably belonged to her. She fed the animals and went over to the birds to start singing with them. Eclipse watched the whole thing from behind the bushes and decided to wait until she went back into her house to talk to her. If he was standing in front of the door she wouldn’t be able to run away screaming and making everyone think that Eclipse was a monster…..again. Some time passed as she sung with the birds, but Eclipse didn’t mind; she had a nice voice and the music was pretty good too. Eventually she decided to go back inside and after the door had shut he decided to make his move.

What Eclipse was doing made him feel totally criminal for blocking the exit if he scared her, but he only wanted to ask some questions and he wasn’t dangerous or evil. He walked up to the door and knocked a few times.

“One minute I’ll be right there” came a voice from behind the door. The door opened a few seconds later and Eclipse was met by the yellow mare. Unfortunately, she had the same reaction as almost every other pony he had met and she cowered back with fear. “P-p-please go away” she said in a voice that was hardly audible.

“Why is everypony so scared of me?” Eclipse asked in return to her statement.

“Be-Because you come down and gobble up ponies during nightmare night unless they offer you candy” said the pony

Eclipse, having read up on the history of Equestria immediately made the connection to Nightmare Moon. “WHAT?? That’s ridiculous? You think I’m Nightmare Moon? How could you possible mistake me for nightmare moon??” said Eclipse, now slightly angry that everypony thought he was somepony he wasn’t. “How could anypony make that kind of mistake? My eye color is different, my hair doesn’t sparkle, I don’t wear jewelry, and I’m a STALLION! Not a MARE!”

The other pony was now cowering in fear even more than she was when she thought he was Nightmare Moon. Her voice almost a squeak and hardly loud enough to hear, she said “I-I-I’m so sorry, but p-please leave me alone”.

Eclipse, now no longer angry had realized that his anger had scared the pony half to death. He sighed heavily and said “Look I’m sorry I scared you, but somepony else also mistook me for Nightmare Moon and it got me into a whole mess of trouble.”

“So that means that you’re not going to eat me?” the yellow pony said, fear still evident in her voice.

“No, I’m perfectly harmless. I won’t hurt you, I promise” said eclipse. “Now do you mind if I ask for your name?

“Fluttershy” said the pony.

“Well I’m Eclipse, nice to meet you Fluttershy” he said.

Now that Fluttershy felt more certain that she wasn’t in any danger she was able to speak easier. “Oh, well nice to meet you too, but why are you here if you aren’t going to eat me?” said Fluttershy.

“Well you’ve heard that Twilight went missing right?” said Eclispe.

“Ya, its awful and I hope she comes back soon” replied Fluttershy.

“Hmm, it’s going to take a minute to explain this, is that ok?” asked Eclipse

“Sure, but maybe we should take a seat. It’s kind of odd having you standing in the doorway like that.” said Fluttershy as she walked over to a brightly painted table with some equally bright stools.

Eclipse walked over to the table and took a seat with Fluttershy.

“First of all I’m new to Equestria I woke up without any memory of my past or who I was. I don’t know where I’m from, how old I am, or anything really. I wanted to learn how to use magic, but when I went to Twilight’s house she was gone. I tried waiting for her but a colt knocked on the door and saw me. He thought I was a monster, probably Nightmare Moon, and ran off screaming that I ate Twilight and now everypony thinks im responsible for Twilight’s going missing. So last night I went to Everfree and looked for her, but I didn’t find her and had to sleep in some ruins. Today I flew over here so I could ask what Twilight looked like.” said Eclipse, out of breath from the long description.

“Oh well that sounds horrible, Twilight’s been missing for a few days though. She went into the Everfree Forest to look for some plants she needed for a spell and hasn’t come back yet. Everypony is worried but we’re all too scared to go into the Everfree Forest to search for her. We all just hope she’ll come back soon” said Fluttershy.

“Well I’ve been exiled from Ponyville so I’ve decided that I have to find her. I don’t like the Everfree Forest, but I guess I don’t have a choice” said Eclipse.

“You went into the Everfree Forest alone?” gasped Fluttershy, “Weren’t you scared?”

“What? Me, scared? Of course not!” Eclipse lied.

“Wow you must be really brave” Said Fluttershy.

“I guess I’m going back in there today if I want to find Twilight. I need to find her or I’ll have to sleep in the forest again.” said Eclipse.

“You’re welcome to spend the night here. Twilight is my friend and if you’re looking for her you’re my friend too.” said Fluttershy with a smile on her face.

“Really? Thanks! I’m glad there’s somepony who sees me as a friend. But I need to know, what does Twilight look like? I’ve never actually seen her and it’s hard to find somepony if you don’t even know what they look like.” said Eclipse.

“She’s a purple pony. She has dark purple hair with a pink and blue stripe in it. Also her cutie mark is a star with more stars around it; it’s very…magic like.” said Fluttershy.

“Alright, I’m going to fly off and look for Twilight. Hopefully I’ll find her and be back soon, wish me luck” said Eclipse as he walked to the door and flew off towards the Everfree Forest.

Back to Everfree

It only took a few minutes to fly to the Everfree Forest, Eclipse was determined to find Twilight and clear his name. He flew fast and was gliding down by the time Everfree Forest came into view. He landed at Everfree Forest’s border to be met by the looming, evil aura it gave off. Eclipse wasn’t scared by the Forest this time though; his determination to find Twilight conquered his fear.

He strode off into the Everfree Forest and headed directly towards the ruins of the castle; it seemed a logical place to start his search. He walked through the dense forest for what seemed like forever, he had obviously become lost. He continued through the forest and eventually came to a field of bright blue flowers, the flowers all grew together in one large patch and he had not seen any others growing in the forest. Eclipse was tempted to stop and smell the flowers, but pushed the thought aside and strode through the field back into the tangle of trees. He plowed through the thick brush and mud for a few more minutes until he saw a light off in the distance between the vines and trees. Maybe that’s a campfire, maybe Twilight decided to come out here to do some research and has been gone longer than she expected to be! thought Eclipse as he started running towards the light. He broke through the underbrush to emerge into a small clearing. He looked around quickly, hopeful that he would see Twilight.

However, he was disappointed to see that the light was coming from a small house build into a tree, not a campfire. So unless Twilight randomly decided to move into the Everfree Forest it couldn’t have been her. Eclipse did some stealthy ninja moves and made it to the window of the tree house without making a sound. He looked inside and saw that there was a zebra mixing something in a cauldron and singing an enchantment in rhyming couplets. Suddenly there was a blinding flash of light as she added an ingredient to the potion and it caught Eclipse totally off guard. He was shocked by the sudden flash and stumbled backwards only to hit his head on a low tree branch, and then there was darkness.

Eclipse woke up to the face of the striped pony looking directly at him. “Ow, my head hurts. Where am I?” he asked.

“You, my blue friend, are in the home of Zecora” said the zebra.

Eclipse sat up and managed to stand up “Oh, well hi. Who are you though? Why do you live out here?” he asked

“I am different than everypony else, they do not accept me. That is why I live out here where I am free” answered Zecora.

“Different? The only difference is the stripes I don’t see why Everypony wouldn’t accept you” said Eclipse.

“I don’t just have stripes you see, for I am a zebra and they just won’t accept me” said Zecora.

“So just because you’re different they fear you? That seems a bit rude of them, but yea I know how you feel. A lot of ponies somehow manage to mistake me for Nightmare Moon, even though I’m nothing like her, and they get scared of me.” said Eclipse with a slight frown on his face.

“Well looks like we are two of a kind, someone like you, I don’t mind” said Zecora.

“Oh wait, I almost forgot” said Eclipse, “Have you seen a purple pony with a star cutie mark pass by here by any chance?”

“Hmm, there was a pony that came by, but she left for the ruins, I don’t know why” said Zecora.

“Really? She was heading for the ruins? How long ago was she here? Do you know why she went there?” Eclipse blurted out in quick succession.

“You have too many questions for me to bear, she was headed towards the ruins, but other than that I don’t know where” said Zecora.

“Which way to the ruins? I need to find Twilight” said Eclipse.

“The ruins are just to the east, but be careful for the beast” warned Zecora.

“The beast? What is it?” asked Eclipse.

“The beast is but a cockatrice, don’t go near, it won’t play nice” said Zecora

“Alright, thanks for the warning. I’ll be sure to avoid the cockatrice” said Eclipse

With a final goodbye and thanks to Zecora for her help Eclipse took off back into the forest in search for Twilight. After his visit with Zecora Eclipse knew where he was going and was sure he would eventually run into twilight if he kept heading for the ruins.

Eclipse walked for thirty minutes or so and the ruins had still not come into view. He trekked through the mass of trees, shrubs, mud, and entangling vines for what seemed like forever. He was beginning to wonder if he was even headed in the right direction when he saw a clearing ahead of him. He picked up speed, happy that there was finally something else to see than then endless expanse of green, leafy, trees and shrubs. Normally he liked being in woods but the trees in Everfree Forest didn’t look like the cheery green trees that grew everywhere else. The trunks of the trees in this forest seemed warped and twisted; they often seemed to form gruesome shapes and figures in the dark. Eclipse finally made it to the clearing and noticed that there was an opening to the sky up in the trees.

Upon noticing the opening he also noticed that it had become dark, and there was no use blundering through the maze of a forest at night. Traveling in the Everfree Forest at night can only result in getting lost, which is probably what happened to Twilight. Eclipse spread his wings, took a giant leap into the air, and he was off into the night.

A short flight through the cool night air landed him back at Fluttershy’s house. He was glad to be out of the Everfree Forest for the night but the thought of not having found Twilight managed to smother any happy feelings of leaving the forest. He walked up the small dirt path that snaked up to the front of Fluttershy’s house and gave the door two firm knocks.

“Come in” came a voice from inside.

Eclipse pushed the door open to find Fluttershy making something in the kitchen. Whatever it was it smelled amazing. The thought of food made Eclipse realize that he hadn’t eaten anything for nearly two days and he was just about starving.

Upon walking into the kitchen Fluttershy turned around with a smile and said “I’m not used to having company over so I decided to go ahead and make some food. Also, did you manage to find Twilight?”

The smile now gone from his face Eclipse said “I looked through as much of the forest as I could cover but I couldn’t find Twilight. I did find a zebra named Zecora and she told me that Twilight had come by and was headed for the ruins. I think it’s the ruins of the castle of the royal pony sisters, or something along those lines; I came across it in a book I read when I was waiting for Twilight at her house.”

“Oh, well there’s always tomorrow to go looking again. Besides its time for food now” said Fluttershy in an attempt to cheer Eclipse up despite not finding Twilight.

“Yea, I’ll find Twilight as soon as I can. I promise I won’t quit until I’ve found her. But now that you mentioned food I really am hungry and food sounds amazing. So what kind of food is it?” he asked.

“Oh it’s nothing special; it’s just a carrot stew recipe I picked up from my mom. I also went ahead and made some apple pie with apples from Applejack’s farm.”

Eclipse hadn’t heard of Applejack, but at the moment he didn’t care. All that was on his mind was the delicious food Fluttershy had made.

Fluttershy had already set the table and motioned for Eclipse to take a seat. He walked to the table and promptly took a seat. Fluttershy came up to the table with a ladle of carrot stew held in her mouth and poured Eclipse a bowl of carrot stew.

“Wow, this smells delicious!” said Eclipse as he took an experimental sip of the stew. “Dang! And it tastes even better!”

Fluttershy, now completely red in the face, said “No really, it’s nothing, just an old recipe. It’s nothing special.”

“Mhm” was all Eclipse could manage to say between mouthfuls of the stew. After two days without food the stew was like a godsend.

Fluttershy joined Eclipse at the table and marveled at the speed at which he was eating. After Fluttershy had finished half of her stew she noticed that Eclipse had finished his completely.

“Do you want more stew?” she asked.

“Ehh, I don’t really want to impose or anything” he replied, despite the fact that he was still pretty hungry. The truth was that he had been running on empty after the night in the ruins and was still awfully hungry; but like he said, he didn’t want to be a rude guest.

“Oh that’s no problem, I made plenty of stew and it would go to waste if we didn’t eat it all”

“Alright, if you say so.” he replied as he took his bowl up to the counter and ladled himself another helping of the delicious carrot stew.

As Eclipse took his bowl back to the table he noticed that Fluttershy had only finished half of her stew. “Something wrong?” he asked, “I noticed that you weren’t eating your stew, is something on your mind?”

“It’s nothing, I’m just not really hungry, that’s all.” she lied, in truth she was worried about Twilight and was wondering if she was ok.

By the time Fluttershy had gone through her thoughts Eclipse had already finished three bowls of the stew and looked like he was about to fall asleep and slump out of his chair.

“You look tired. I think it’s about time for bed” said Fluttershy.

“Hu, what? Bed? O yea. Bed….I suppose I am sort of tired” replied Eclipse, hardly able to keep his eyes open now that he had thought about how tired he really was. Since first waking up to find himself in Ponyville Eclipse had barely slept at all. There was the race which took a lot out of him and then directly after that came a night in the Everfree Forest that had offered him a few meager hours of restless sleep. So he was really tired.

“I’ll show you to your bed” Fluttershy said “It’s not too big of a room. I hope that’s ok with you” said Fluttershy.

“Its fine, I would be happy if you told me to sleep on the floor. I’m dead tired at the moment. I think I could sleep just about anywhere that isn’t Everfree Forest” Eclipse responded. “Oh and Fluttershy.”

“Yes?”

“Thanks for the food and bed and all. I really appreciate it.”

Fluttershy blushed and said “Oh, it’s no problem, really.” Then she showed Eclipse down the hallway to a wooden door leading to a small bedroom. The bedroom might have been small but it was incredibly cozy. The bed was made of wood and looked incredibly comfortable; it had cloud designs on the covers and there were two white pillows accompanying the sky blue bed sheet. The rest of the room also had a very homely touch. There were lively white curtains over the window and a small table with a vase of fresh flowers on it. Next to the bed, up against the wall, was a bookshelf that was no doubt filled with books on animals.

Eclipse, however, was too tired to admire the room as much as he would normally have. After Fluttershy had left he gratefully fell into the soft embrace of the bed. He would have slept under the covers, but he was already asleep by the time he hit the bed.

Darkness

By early sunrise Eclipse was awoken by a cawing rooster. He had slept great in the comfy bed and was ready to go looking for Twilight, after breakfast of course. He rolled clumsily out of bed and moved towards the door at a sluggish pace, he had yet to fully wake up and was still half dreaming.

As he walked into the kitchen Fluttershy gave out a yell and scared Eclipse half to death.

“What is it? Is something wrong?” he frantically questioned.

“Y-Your wings! They’re gray!” She blurted out.

Eclipse looked at his wings with extreme surprise to find that they were in fact gray. Upon trying to move them he also found that they were ,not surprisingly, immovable. The wings didn’t feel heavy or anything, but upon touching them he was startled to find that they felt like rock. He felt like panicking but somehow managed to keep himself calm.

“Well that’s not good” he said, with a frown on his face.

“Not good? It’s horrible and now you can’t fly!” replied Flutterhy.

“I can’t think of how this happened. The only explanation can be magic” he said, “And if there’s one pony I’ve heard is good with magic it’s Twilight, so now I have even more the reason to find her.”

“I suppose so, I really hope Twilight can fix your wings when you find her” said Fluttershy. She was actually more concerned about Eclipses wings than he was. Eclipse enjoyed flying, but he decided that it was something that, if completely necessary, he could live without. Besides he always had magic to learn. There was also plenty of time for him to go looking for a cure; he didn’t exactly have plans after finding Twilight.

“Lets set my wings aside and eat some breakfast” Eclipse said cheerfully, trying to keep Fluttershy from worrying about him too much.

“If you’re this calm about your wings I suppose I should try and be little calm about it. After all I’m sure you’re right and you’ll find a cure somehow” she replied.

“Now that that’s solved how about some breakfast?” asked Eclipse.

“Seeing as we didn’t eat the apple pie yesterday I figured we would eat that, I mean if that’s ok with you. I can always make something else if you don’t want apple pie.” said Fluttershy.

“Apple pie sounds perfect!” Eclipse responded quickly.

Fluttershy went to the counter and retrieved the apple pie for the two of them to eat. After they finished breakfast Eclipse decided that it was about time for him to go off and hunt for Twilight again.

He said his thanks and goodbyes and was on his way to the Everfree Forest once again. Although he had to walk this time he wasn’t depressed by his inability to fly. Equestria was a beautiful place and he didn’t mind getting a close up view of everything. The landscape seemed so bright and alive. All the grass was a rich green and grew in abundance everywhere, there were no barren spots. He walked along a dirt path that Fluttershy had said led to the Everfree Forest for roughly two hours when the ominous trees of the forest finally loomed on the horizon.

He slightly disliked the idea that he could cover the distance that took two hours to walk in fifteen minutes when flying. That dislike was pushed away though by the richness of the landscapes scenery that more than made up for the monotony of a long trip. Eclipse loved flying; it had a thrill to it. Being suspended in air hundreds of feet above the ground had a certain adrenaline filled pleasure. But even though he loved flying, walking through the countryside had him feeling more at home. It could get cold whilst flying, but down on the road there was always the warmth of the sun to keep him warm and a light breeze to keep it from getting hot.

Both walking and flying in Equestria were breathtaking experiences and had their pros and cons. Eclipse preferred walking now that he had tried it.

He was now standing at the edge of the Everfree Forest, ready to go in.

Back again he thought today is the day I find Twilight! Two experiences in the Everfree Forest had taught Eclipse quite a bit about it. He knew that most of the scary things in the forest were merely his thoughts making him nervous and causing him to see things in the dark that weren't actually there.

Now that he knew where to start looking Eclipse was positive that today would be the day he finally found Twilight and brought her back to Ponyville! With a determined look on his face he trotted into the forest and headed due east towards the ruins. This time eclipse used the occasional gap in the foliage above to see the position in the sun and determine if he was headed east or not. He did not run into Zecora this time and made it to a bridge that crossed a canyon to the side of the forest with the ruins.

Strange he thought There was no canyon last time I went to the ruins. There was a moderately large dip in the ground at one point though; I guess I went nearly around the canyon last time.

The bridge looked old, but it also looked strong and eclipse had no doubt that it would support him. He walked across the mist shrouded bridge and found that the forest in this area was slightly less dense. He had only taken about ten steps into the forest when something ahead caught his eye. It was something odd that didn't quite fit in. A ways ahead he could see a gray shape. It could have been a piece of the ruins but that was impossible. The ruins were a mile or two up ahead, there was no way it could have been a piece of them.

There was a blur of white and green in front of the rock looking thing and Eclipse quickly hid behind a bush. He sat in the bush for a few minutes and waited to see if there would be more movement in the area up ahead. He was patient while waiting to see if the coast was clear. After all, he didn't like the idea of some kind of monster lurking this deep in the Everfree Forest. Up until now he had thought nothing but the occasional bird or bunny lived in the woods, but he must have been wrong because he definitely saw something bigger than a bunny or a bird up there. He waited for a few more minutes, his eyes scanning ahead to check for movement, until he finally decided to start moving up a bit more. To avoid being seen he moved wraithlike from bush to bush until he could easily manage to make out the form of the object he had seen earlier. It looked to be a statue of a pony, and by the curves and proportions he judged that whoever made it had to be a skilled craftspony.

What could something like that be doing in the middle of Everfree Forest though? he thought.

Slowly, he crept closer to the statue until he was no more than twenty feet away. Concealed behind the bush he was sure that nothing could see him. Biding his time he waited for another five minutes. The entire time his keen sense of hearing and sharp eyes scanned the area for any kind of noise or movement. Other than the occasional chirping bird or squirrel running through the trees there was nothing.

Reasoning that whatever he had seen was now gone he slowly rose from behind the bush and made his way to the statue to get a close look at it. It was definitely a pony and it looked like it had been crafted in enormous detail. Upon looking around it he found that there was a small imprint of a star cutie mark with more star imprints on it. Wait a second. Star imprint cutie mark? He looked at the hair and noticed that there was a slightly off color line running down the pony's mane.

Now he realized it! This pony statue wasn't a statue! It was Twilight! It looked as if something had turned her to stone.

Eclipse wondered if whatever it was that had turned her to stone was the same thing that had turned his wings to what seemed to be stone. But when he thought about it his wings were the only thing that had been turned to stone and twilight was entirely turned to stone. Also, his wings were light gray and mottled with dark gray spots whereas Twilight was mostly one solid color.

Eclipse wasn’t sure what to do about the situation, Twilight was the pony he was going to get to help him with the turned to stone problem, but now she herself was stone. Eclipse thought for a minute and decided the only thing he could do was go back into town and ask if anyone there knew how to break whatever spell had been cast on Twilight.

As he turned around to start heading back Eclipse found himself looking at a small creature. The creature had been very silent in its movements, as Eclipse didn't hear him coming at all. The creature looked like a chicken with a lizard tail and red eyes. It stood about the same height as a chicken, overall was not an impressive sight.

What Eclipse didn’t know was that this seemingly harmless creature was actually a cockatrice. The small beast that was in front of him had the power to turn him into stone and he didn’t even know it.

“Shoo, get going little creature.” Eclipse said, waving his hoof at it.

The cockatrice stood unmoving in front of Eclipse, anger apparent in its red eyes.

“…Go on, get moving, get.” said Eclipse becoming slightly bothered by the cockatrice.

Then without warning Eclipse caught the cockatrices eyes and they flared bright red. Eclipse felt as if he had been paralyzed. He struggled to move but couldn’t. Then realization dawned on him. This was the cockatrice Zecora had warned him of. He struggled to try and move his body but nothing worked, it was as if his muscles had been frozen solid.

Then there was a tingling sensation in his legs and he managed, with much effort, to turn his head and see that his back legs were slowly turning to stone. It was as if there was stone crawling up his leg and solidifying it and Eclipse could feel a lump of fear rise in his throat as fear gripped him. He realized that if he were turned to stone here there would be nopony to come looking for him. Even if another pony happened to come looking for Twilight and managed to stumble upon the two statues chances are they would recognize Eclipse and choose to leave him there. The more Eclipse thought about it the more he began to panic. The fear of an eternity of being trapped in stone was too much for him to handle.

The stone was engulfing his body at a quicker pace than it had originally begun. Almost half of Eclipse’s body was now stone and his front legs were starting to turn to stone too. He knew he would soon be turned to stone and that he might never wake up from it ever again.

Eclipse thought back on his time in Ponyville. He remembered Pinkie Pie and how kind she had been to him, she was the first pony he met and he knew he would never get to see her again. She had been so nice as to go out of her way to make a cake for him. She had also taught him how hard a first impression could impact somepony. If it weren’t for Pinkie he might never have met any of the other ponies he did. He was grateful for what she had done for him and again a lump came to his throat knowing that he would never again get to see Pinkie. Never again would he get to taste her food or ever talk to her. He would be gone from her life and she would wonder what happened to Eclipse from time to time, but she would never find out that he had been turned to stone and was to remain so forever.

Then there was Fluttershy, the other pony that had truly shown him kindness. He hoped that she wouldn’t be too sad about his disappearance. Maybe she would forget about him with time, along with the rest of Equestria. Despite being scared of Eclipse she gave him a place to stay and food to eat. She didn’t have to do those things but she was kind and felt obligated to do so. Eclipse wished he could visit Fluttershy again and tell her goodbye. Maybe even to taste the stew she had made again and visit her house once more.

The rock was now past most of Eclipses torso and he knew that there wasn’t much time left before he would be gone forever. Tears came to his eyes as he thought about his short time in Equestria and how much he had enjoyed it.

There had also been Rainbow Dash. Eclipse liked Rainbow, she shared his fondness of flying and adventure. The race they had was exciting and Eclipse would have liked to race her more and maybe beat her, but there would be no chance for that. He was sure Rainbow hated him for hurting the other pony anyways and he was certain that she would not miss him. That was good, the less pain he caused to others, the better.

Half of his neck was now turned to stone and there was no time left. He thought his goodbyes to everypony and the stone covered his head. After that, darkness.

The voice

Eclipse could sense that there was darkness everywhere around him. It seemed to be everything: sight, sound, feeling. What he felt seemed to be void of anything. Was this what it would be like? Was this what he would exist as forever? His thoughts seemed clouded. He couldn’t think right, it was as if his thoughts were moving slowly and he could barely think.

He felt tired, as if he wanted to go to sleep and never wake up.

However in the back of his mind there was still something keeping him there. There was a little flame in the darkness that was a will to survive. He knew deep inside that he couldn’t let himself slip away. He fought the darkness and used his thoughts of Equestria and the ponies in it to keep from being consumed by the darkness. The little flame of resistance had started to grow, he was certain now what he wanted. He didn’t want to die, he wanted to live. He wanted to see his friends again, to see Equestria again, and to experience everything he hadn’t gotten to experience yet.

Then came the voice.

“Pathetic.” It spat in disgust. “You let yourself be overcome by this……animal? Disgraceful. But you cannot be lost. I give you power, rise again.”

There was a terrific sensation of power that racked his mind. It was as if he had been hit by lightning and all the energy was being channeled through his body. It felt as if he had the power of a god. The stone encasing him was vaporized instantaneously. Suddenly he realized that he could feel again, he could think clearly and he no longer felt that he was going to slip away.

Whatever energy he was using to free himself was titanic and he knew it could only be magic. The sheer power of the magic was unbelievable. It felt as if his entire body could disintegrate if he lost control of the power. Instinctively he channeled the enormous energy of the magic to his body’s focal point for magic, his horn. There was a massive magical aura around his horn and the horn itself glowed white hot. He felt as if he could move mountains by a whim, as if he could crush castles like they were toys. He also felt anger, anger like he never felt before. It was as if he wanted vengeance on everything. He managed to slightly gain control of himself and focused ahead of him.

Out of the corner of his eye he could see that the other pony that had been turned to stone was free too and had put a good amount of distance between herself and Eclipse. He wasn’t sure if he could control the magical outpour he was creating. He couldn’t stop the spell but he was now realizing that it took a massive amount of energy to keep it going. The spell took its power from Eclipse and he knew that if he couldn’t stop it, it would drain all of his energy.

He struggled to control the magic but to no avail. The magic was worlds beyond anything he was capable of controlling or normally performing. The spell had come from an otherworldly power and he was miles out of his league. Then came a strange sound. The sound was barely audible at first but it was distinctive. It was a sizzling sound and it seemed to grow louder by the second. Then the sound changed into more of a cracking sound.

Suddenly, without warning, there was an explosion in front of Eclipse that sent him flying backwards. He was thrown twenty feet by the force of it; it all happened so fast there wasn't even time to think about what was going on. For the brief moment Eclipse was flying through the air his mind was racing. Then *SMACK* he flew right into a tree and everything went black before he even knew he hit anything.

Twilight was now free from stone and had been saved by a strange alicorn she had never seen before. At first she thought it was Luna, but excused the thought when she noticed that this alicorn was male. When the alicorn had cast the spell to free her he had apparently lost control of the magic, then there was a blinding flash of light followed by a loud crack that sounded like somepony throwing a brick to a window. The next thing Twilight knew the alicorn was twenty feet from where he had been, slumped on the ground by a tree.

Twilight didn't know what to do at first. She didn't know much about medical ways, she only studied magic. She didn't want to leave the alicorn alone and injured but decided that there was no choice. She ran off into the woods to go get help.

Bandaged

Several hours passed before Twilight came back. But when she came back she brought a group of ponies with her. The first pony she had decided to take back to the spot was Nurse Redheart, a pony doctor. She had also brought back Pinkie, who decided to come with her when she had heard what happened to Eclipse. Rainbow dash also came, along with Fluttershy and two others.
Eclipse slowly opened his eyes to see seven faces looking down on him.

"Look he's waking up!"

"Thank goodness, when we first got here and I saw that he was hadn't moved at all and I feared the worst"

"Well shucks, I ain't never seen a pony like him before. I didn't even know male alicorns existed, that is reckoning you can still call him an alicorn"

"Girls! Stop talking, he needs to rest. When he hit that tree he got a concussion and now isn't the best time to go making a commotion right in front of him."

Eclipse could barely see the ponies talking over him. His head hurt and he wanted to go back to sleep. He thought he recognized a few of the ponies but trying to figure out who they were made his head hurt and he decided it wasn't worth the effort. He dozed off again and slept for a few more hours.

The next time he woke up his head didn't hurt nearly as bad. He could see straight now and think clearly. He slowly sat up from the ground. Every muscle in his body protested the movement but he sat up anyways. He noticed that it was night time and all of the ponies that had come back with twilight were sleeping by a fire that was now nothing more than some smoldering embers casting a dull light around the area.

He also noticed that he had a patch over his left eye. He desperately hoped that he could still see out of it after the bandage came off and wished that it would not be anything disfiguring.

Now that he was fully conscious he could take a look at all the ponies that were there. The first pony he noticed was Fluttershy, it was nice of her to come all the way out in Everfree Forest to see if Eclipse was ok. He knew that she was scared to death of the forest but had come regardless.

Then there was Pinkie, she was sleeping on her back in a funny looking position that involved her having four legs sticking up into the air. Eclipse had to make sure he didn't laugh and wake everypony up when he saw Pinkie, but he doubted he could laugh with the pain in his ribs.

Rainbow Dash was there too, which came as a slight surprise to Eclipse. He thought that she would hate him after he had hurt the bully, but maybe not. After all a broken wing was nothing serious, it would heal in two or three weeks and he would be fine. Of course he would know not to mess with Rainbow Dash ever again.

The other ponies there were Twilight, a white pony with a nurse hat, another white pony with a purple mane, and an orange pony with a pale blond mane.

Eclipse decided that there would be no use in staying up and went back to sleep after he managed to drag himself to the area the others were sleeping in.

He slept comfortably until morning, or at least as comfortable as one can sleep on a grassy floor with multiple injuries. He awoke feeling much better than he had the night before. His muscles still ached but other than that he seemed to be doing pretty well.

The other ponies too were beginning to wake up now. Pinkie was the first to wake up and sprang up from her spot as soon as she saw the Eclipse was up too.

"Oh my gosh! Eclipse, you’re awake! How are you feeling?" Pinkie asked

"I've been better, but for the most part I'm fine." he replied.

"That's great news!" exclaimed Pinkie "When Twilight ran into town we were all so happy to see her. She was yelling that she needed help so I went up to her wondering what was wrong. Then she told me the story of how she had been turned to stone by a cockatrice and that she was saved by a mysterious alicorn, but that he had gotten hurt and needed help!" Pinkie said, now out of breath from the lengthy explanation. Then she went on by saying "As soon as she said alicorn I knew it must have been you! So I gathered up a few friends and Nurse Redheart and we came here looking for you and now here we are!” Pinkie had been wildly gesticulating throughout the explanation and finished with her front hooves in the air. It seemed odd but it was just the kind of thing Pinkie would do.

"Wow" Eclipse said in a mild tone, "You went through all that trouble for me?"

"Well duh! You're our friend and you needed help so we came out here!"

"Gee I don't know what to say, thanks for caring so much." Eclipse said.

Now the rest of the ponies were awake too. They had probably been woken by Pinkies quick, and rather loud, explanation to Eclipse. Nurse Redheart walked up to Eclipse and did a quick inspection of his condition.

"Well you seem to have gotten off without any broken bones, that's good. A bit of bruising from your impact with that tree but that's nothing serious. You also have a mild concussion so you'll have to keep from shaking your head around or hitting it against anything for a day or two." Nurse Redheart said, then her expression saddened. And she continued, "I'm sorry about your horn, but there's nothing I can do to help you there. I'm sorry but I doubt you'll be able to ever use magic again. Then there's the matter of your left eye, when your horn shattered there must have been two shards that flew across your eye. But don't worry you'll still be able to see out of the eye when the patch comes off."

Eclipse had now for the first time noticed that there was a bandage around his head and Nurse Redheart saw him looking at it.

"The bandage was for a few scratches you got, it doesn't do anything for your horn though so you’re free to take it off if you feel like it"

Eclipse sat down on the grass and reached up to take the bandages off of his head. As the white cloth dabbed with a bit of red fell to the ground Eclipse felt the spot that used to be his horn. He had known that it was his horn that burst and caused the explosion but he dared not take a look at it until now.

There was a stub left of what used to be his horn. The remnants of the horn protruded out about half an inch and had a few splintery points on it. It looked as if somepony had broken his horn off like a stick and the protruding pieces and the short stub were what was left of that stick.

Overall it was not a pretty sight and Eclipse was hoping that he might look somewhat normal after the ordeal was over with. Hopefully he wouldn't be feared by everypony who saw him.

"Alright maybe it would do some good to look at the brighter side of things" he said to nopony in particular, "Without my horn and with a scar or two ponies won't mistake me for nightmare moon anymore, right?"

As Eclipse thought his situation through, the other ponies were packing up the makeshift camp they had made. Nurse Redheart was packing up a few tools she had used to treat Eclipse. Some of the tools looked pretty scary and Eclipse was wondering which ones she had used on him while he was unconscious. She couldn't have done too much to him, afterall his wounds were only minor.

Pinkie was busying herself by throwing some dirt on the smoldering embers of last night’s fire. She noticed a small branch sticking out from the mound of dirt she had just thrown onto the fire. She walked up the the stick, pulled it out, and examined it. It had been in the heart of what was left of the fire and its tip was still glowing red hot. She pointed it at Eclipse, a broad smile on her face.

"Hey Eclipse! Got any cauterizing you need done?" she cheerily said, waving the glowing tip of the stick around in the air.

"No, you know I'm actually feeling pretty good!" he said as he made the effort to smile and prance around a bit. The prancing wasn't too delightful, what with his soreness and bruises and all. It was all in good humor however, and the pain wasn't unbearable.

Time came when everypony was ready to head back to Ponyville. The walk back would take a while but Eclipse didn't mind some time to chat, after all he didn’t even know two of the ponies there and it was always nice to make new friends.

Eclipse was walking behind Twilight and slowed his pace a bit when he realized that the white pony was behind him. After he slowed down she was eventually next to him and he decided to strike up a conversation.

"Soooo.............this weather...." Eclipse said, with an awkward feeling pervading the sentence. He thought Wow... Weather. Could I have used a more boring opening if I had tried? He silently chastised himself for the stupid introduction, but the other pony started talking.

"Kind of hard to know what the weather is like don't you think? You can't even see the sky with the thick trees overhead" she said.

"Haha yeah, stupid of me.. Anyways I'm Eclipse. What's your name"

"I'm Rarity, nice to meet you Eclipse."

"Rarity. That's a cool name. Sounds fancy, you look fancy too. What is it you do exactly?"

"I make dresses for all of the ponies in Ponyville. Not to brag but I've had Hoity Toity feature my dresses in one of his fashion shows before."

"Uhh, Hoity Toity? I've never heard of him. Is he famous?"

"How could you not know who Hoity Toity is?! He's only one of the biggest fashion stars in all of Equestria!"

"I guess I wouldn't have known. There's a lot I don't know about Equestria."

They stopped talking for a moment as they sidestepped a large root sticking out of the ground.

"A lot you don't know about Equestria? Where are you from?"

"That's the thing, I don't know where I'm from. I just woke up here one day."

"Well what are you planning on doing when we get back to Ponyville?" asked Rarity.

"I honestly have no idea, I'll probably go to Twilight's house and see if there's anything I can do magically at all anymore" he replied.

"It really is a shame that you lost your horn. I don't know what I would do if mine broke. Without magic my career would be ruined, I wouldn't be able to make dresses anymore"

"Sounds like it's a good thing it happened to me and not you" Eclipse commented.

"It's awful that you had it happen to you. Believe me when I say I truly feel for you."

"It's not that bad. Really. The scars I'll have on my eye will make me look cool. And the horn..." Eclipse stopped for a second to contemplate how the horn could possibly do any good; then he got it, "The horn adds character!"

"Well it certainly makes you noticeable" Rarity added. "Maybe after we get out of this mucky forest you can come over to my house and get cleaned up. You've spent days without a good cleaning from what I've heard."

Now that Eclipse thought about it a bath did sound nice and he really hadn't had a chance to get clean. "Ya, maybe getting clean wouldn't be a bad idea"

A little while later they cleared Everfree forest and the group of ponies turned and went their ways towards their homes. Rarity and Twilight remained with Eclipse though. Rarity, because Eclipse would be going to her house later; and Twilight because her house was across Ponyville and Eclipse might need somepony to help explain that he was harmless .

Losing control

As soon as the trio entered Ponyville three ponies stepped in their way. The middle of the three took a step forward and spoke.

"Twilight, Rarity, I'm glad to see your safe and were happy to have you back but we can't let that blue alicorn in. He's dangerous." the pony said.

"Dangerous?" gasped Twilight, "What are you talking about?"

"He kidnapped you and now you’re protecting him?" asked the pony.

"No no no. You've got it all wrong, I was never kidnapped by anypony."

"But you left without any signs and you were gone for several days"

"I went into the Everfree Forest to collect some herbs I needed and got turned to stone by a cockatrice"

More ponies had now come to see what all the commotion was about. Many of them had distasteful looks on their faces when they recognized Eclipse.

"You got turned to stone by a cockatrice and that alicorn somehow knew how to free you from the spell? How do we know he didn't make the cockatrice turn you to stone?"

Now Rarity stepped in, anger apparent in her voice, "Oh will you look at Eclipse! Does he look like he just walked into Everfree Forest and easily found and rescued Twilight? NO! Look at him! He lost his horn and nearly an eye to save Twilight and clear his name for you all and now you want to say that he's plotting this all?" she said, glancing balefully at the ponies gathered round.

None of the ponies she looked at could hold her gaze for more than a second. Their eyes slid to the ground one by one as they realized how awfully rude they had been towards Eclipse based on the assumption snips had given them.

"You should be ashamed of yourselves for trying to put the blame on Eclipse. After all did any of you try to go looking for Twilight?" said Rarity.

"Nicely done" added Twilight.

The leader now had his eyes down and was pawing at the ground, "Well" he said, "I guess we didn't, but we thought you would return soon and we were all scared of Everfree Forest"

"I think you owe Eclipse an apology" said Rarity.

"Sorry we blamed you Eclipse" the ponies muttered, still not willing to look up.

“Hmph” snorted Rarity as she walked by the ponies with her head held high.

Eclipse and Twilight followed closely behind her.

Eventually they came to a fork in the road and Twilight and Rarity both went in different directions. Eclipse just stood there, not knowing which one to follow. Twilight and Rarity both stopped and looked back simultaneously and realized what Eclipse was thinking.

“Its fine, just head over with Rarities and get cleaned up. You can spend the night there and meet me at my house tomorrow morning.” said Twilight.

“Alright” Eclipse replied as he turned and started heading down the path towards Rarity.

She led the way down the path, through a few turns, and in no time Eclipse found himself at Rarity’s house.

“This is it” commented Rarity.

“It’s a really nice place” Eclipse replied.

“Oh it’s not that amazing, come inside though”

“Alright, coming” he said.

As he walked through the door Eclipse found that it wasn’t just Rarity’s house it was also the shop where she made dresses.

“Don’t mind the mess, I keep everything everywhere. It’s where my ideas and such come from.” said Rarity when she noticed Eclipse taking a look around. “Now that we’re here it’s about time we got you cleaned up” Smiled Rarity.

“A bath sounds perfect just about now, it’ll definitely help ease the soreness that tree gave me.” replied Eclipse.

Rarity escorted Eclipse through the jumble to a small bathroom with a tub. She turned on the water and grabbed a towel from the floor, “Let me get you a clean towel. Like I said I keep my stuff lying around, motivation and all.” She smiled as she went off to fetch a clean towel. Within a few moments Rarity was back and threw the fresh, white towel over the rack.

“I’ll leave you to it then” said Rarity as she turned around and left the room.

Eclipse turned towards the tub and joyfully splashed into it. The water was hot, but not painfully hot. He relaxed as the warmness of the water seemed to soak through his aching muscles. After getting injured and spending the night crumpled up on a dirt floor some relief was magnificent.

Eclipse enjoyed his bath and dried off with the towel Rarity had given him. While drying his face he nearly ripped a hole in the towel with his splintered horn. It brought back the memory that he could no longer use magic, it wasn’t a nice thing but what’s done is done, nothing to do about it now.

Rarity was waiting in the kitchen when Eclipse went to look for her.

"I made us some dandelion sandwiches; I figured you must be hungry."

"Wow, Thanks! I'm starved actually." Eclipse replied. He hurried to the table and took the seat in the chair opposite Rarity.

"Bon appetite." said Rarity as she used magic to pick up her sandwich and slide Eclipse's plate to him at the same time.

Eclipse leaned down and took a bite of the sandwich, which was great. It only took a few minutes for the two of them to finish their food.

Rarity got up from her seat and let out a long yawn, "I don't know about you but I'm tired and I think it's about time I retired to my bed. Spending all night in the filth and muck of Everfree Forest and trekking through the forest all day has left me exhausted." said Rarity, "But where are my manners? I really should show you to your room shouldn’t I? If you’ll just follow me” said Rarity.

Eclipse followed Rarity to two doors positioned next to each other.

“The one of the left is yours, and the one on the right is mine. I would show you your room but I’m dreadfully tired and I’m sure you’ll sleep soundly soooo, night!” said Rarity as she moved herself into her room and shut the door with magic.

Eclipse opened the door and walked into his room. It was nice and had a very elegant touch to it, but it wasn’t quite as homely as Fluttershy’s guest room had been. Eclipse, like Rarity, was tired and headed straight for bed. He rolled himself into the covers and was sound asleep within the minute.

BUMP! Eclipse awoke with a start when he heard the noise. What could it have been? He gingerly stepped out of bed and walked over to the door to creak it open a hair. He looked through the slit and saw Rarity. She looked to be in pain but kept silent. She was also holding one hoof in the air. Apparently she had hit her hoof on the door to her room when she went through, which in turn caused the bump that woke Eclipse.

“That’s odd, where could Rarity be going in the middle of the night?” Eclipse whispered to himself. He waited a minute until Rarity moved farther down the hallway. He eased the door open and tiphooved down the hallway after he heard Rarity leave through the front door. He went to the front door and looked through some of the windows to see if Rarity hadn’t stopped in front of the door or anything. She hadn’t.

Eclipse went out the front door, careful to let it close quietly on his way out. He saw Rarity a bit down the road and used his nightly colors to ghost from shadow to shadow unseen.

Spying on Rarity after she offered to house me seems a bit rude he thought but no harm in doing a bit of discovering if she doesn’t see me.

Rarity followed the same path for a minute or two and took a turn into a field. She went to the middle of the field and sat down on her haunches.

Oh, she’s just stargazing…..FASCINATING! I think I’ll join her. Never really had a chance to take a good long look at the stars thought Eclipse.

He strode over to Rarity and cleared his throat when he noticed that she hadn’t seen him walk up to her.

“OH! Good heavens you scared the life out of me!” said Rarity, surprise evident in her voice.

“Ahh sorry, heard you get up and followed you out here” replied Eclipse.

“It’s really hard to see you in the night you know, you blend in with the shadows almost seamlessly.”

“Good to know” said Eclipse “Mind if I join you stargazing?”

“Sure, I don’t mind”

Eclipse took a seat next to Rarity and lay back with his hooves behind his head.

“I come out her because the stars are beautiful out here. They remind me of thousands of gleaming gems and I often get ideas for new dresses when I’m out here” said Rarity.

“That’s pretty cool” said Eclipse as he looked up at the stars.

He looked into all the stars long and hard, he was talking it all in. The stars were mesmerizing; it felt like Eclipse couldn’t look away. His heart was starting to beat faster and he felt as if the weight of the stars were pushing down on him.

“Are you ok?” gasped Rarity when she noticed that he had was drawing in short ragged breaths.

“I…..don’t…..know……what’s happening……to..me” Eclipse struggled to say “Get……help”

Rarity wasn’t sure what to do. She didn’t know who could help with something like this.

“Get…Twilight” Eclipse managed through gritted teeth.

Rarity dashed off towards Twilight to seek help.

Eclipse felt like he was being crushed, he could hardly breathe and he struggled to keep his composure. It was like there was an invisible hand grabbing him and crushing the life out of him. Then suddenly a star in the sky winked twice and went black. Then two more did the same thing and each time Eclipse felt the icy grip of whatever had him bound fade. After three stars had gone out he felt the binding release. He stood up, his heart still pounding like a drum and his breathing still heavy.

He felt angry, not a normal kind of an angry. It was primal. He felt rage at everything around him and felt he needed to get revenge on something. His anger was boiling like lava and he felt as if he was about to explode. He wanted to scream. He stomped his hoof on the ground as hard as he could on the ground, shaking the dew off the nearby trees. He walked up to the tree and turned around. Then he kicked the tree as hard as he could, leaving hoof prints indented an inch deep in the trunk of the tree. This caused the tree to shake violently and an apple fell out, landing squarely on his head.

He screamed in blind fury and kicked several times at the tree. The tree was starting to lean sideways as the force of the blows pulled its root system out of the ground one kick at a time. Finally the trunk gave way and the tree made a loud cracking noise as it fell over.

Eclipse was now seeking something new to destroy. He turned his sights toward the fence leading around the field. He spread his wings and used one long gliding leap to land by the fence. He systematically kicked each of the fence posts out of the ground; his powerful kicks easily ripping the posts from the ground and sending the splintered wood flying across the road.

The rage he was feeling seemed to be building up more and more. He felt like destroying things, but doing so didn’t help quell his rage. He spread his wings and was up in the air with a great push off the ground. He got high in the air and took a look around. He wanted to head towards Ponyville and wreck havoc but his inner self forced him to turn and fly the other way. He was enraged by something and felt the need to destroy, but deep inside he stopped himself from going to Ponyville.

A matter of grave importance

He woke up the next day to find himself on a stone floor. He was sleeping by a cave he wasn’t familiar with. He had been lying by the mouth of the cave and went to stand up. Instantly his legs buckled beneath him and he crumpled to the ground.

“AHH! Damn, I can’t walk. Whatever I did yesterday must have been extreme. My legs feel like they’ve been smashed by hammers” cursed Eclipse.

In his mind he tried to remember what happened last night. He remembered looking at the stars and being overwhelmed by something. Then there was the uncontrollable, primal rage he had felt. It seemed like he had been in a trance and his body was a puppet on strings when it happened.

He shook his head, which hurt. His memory seemed fogged; no matter how hard he tried he couldn’t remember anything that had happened beyond the field. He took a look around him. The sun was up and bright sunlight was streaming through the trees, warming Eclipse where it landed on him. The air smelled fresh, like morning. The smell was cool and damp from the dew on the trees. Birds chirped and squirrels chattered above. The scene was, overall, pretty pleasant.

Eclipse decided that he would rest before trying to return to Ponyville. There was no use trying to walk if his legs would merely buckle and make him fall. He leisurely chewed on some grass and after a while laid back to look up into the trees. With the warm sunlight and peacefulness around him it didn’t take long until he dozed off.

By the time he woke up the sun was at its zenith and he had to squint to keep his eye open in his laid back position. He sat up and stretched his legs, which didn’t hurt quite as bad as they had before. He stood up and tested his weight on both of his rear legs; they held.

He tried once more to remember how he had gotten there but the memory still eluded him. He gave up on trying to remember and decided to start walking back towards Ponyville, wherever it was. His first thought was to fly up and take a look and see if he could find Ponyville from a high spot. But his plans were foiled by the tree cover. The tangle of trees above were too thick and he couldn’t fly through anywhere so he had chosen to start walking until he found a spot to fly up.

The only forest Eclipse could think of that had tree cover like this was Everfree Forest, but this definitely wasn’t the same forest. Everfree forest had a spooky aura to it and the woods here were nice. They seemed peaceful; warm sun rays coming through the trees, animals scurrying around, and birds singing up in the trees.

His legs were still quite sore, but he could walk. It was a wonder how much a small nap could do. He continued walking for maybe ten minutes and gradually the trees started to thin out and gaps were forming between the tangle of trees overhead.

Now it was time to fly. He spread his wings and leaped up, beating the air with his strokes and narrowly missing a branch as he ascended. He broke through the net of trees and picked up some altitude. He flew up a few hundred feet and landed on a cloud that was floating by.

From his vantage point he could see woods, woods, woods, and more woods. He stood on the cloud for a second looking off into the distance with a grim look on his face. If things were as they looked he was very lost. He could fly off in random direction but there was the chance that that direction would lead him away from Ponyville instead of towards it. He pondered what to do. He strained his eyes looking into the distance in each direction, slowly turning on the cloud. Hmmm….tough situation he thought.

Again he looked hard into the distance in each direction, as far as his eyes would let him see. Then he saw it, off in the distance. There was a small white pinpoint dot he could see. It was too big to be an ordinary cloud, not that he would be able to see an ordinary cloud at this distance anyways. The only thing the spec could be was Cloudsdale, which meant he could find his way back to Ponyville!

He hopped off the cloud and opened his wings to start gliding towards Cloudsdale. He flew at a leisurely pace back towards the city. After a while Eclipse flew over Cloudsdale. He could see all of the pegasus ponies below going about their day. Eclipse had never stopped to really take a good look at Cloudsdale. All of the buildings were made of clouds along with just about everything else in the city. Eclipse wondered how they managed to build the city, it didn’t look like they built by using the clouds as bricks. The whole city seemed to be made of one large, fluffy cloud. Eclipse had tried once to shape a cloud, but he had given up on doing so. The cloud he had tried to shape merely puffed back into its normal shape when he tried to mould it, and if he kicked it, it would merely vaporize. How Cloudsdale was made would have to remain a mystery, because Eclipse wanted to get back to Ponyville and figure out what had happened last night.

He flew over Cloudsdale and kept on a straight course for Ponyville. By the time he reached Ponyville the sun had started to set and it was going to be dark within the hour. That brought forth the question. Where would he sleep tonight? After a minute of thinking he got it. He would sleep in his house! Or at least he thought it was his house. It was the place he had woken up in Ponyville in anyways. He had to rack his brain to remember where it was, and when he remembered it still took him a few minutes to find it exactly.

When he got there he looked at the door and frowned. It didn’t at all look familiar to him. If it was the first place he remembered and it didn’t at all feel like his home, in fact he didn’t even feel like he belonged there. He pushed the door open and walked inside. The house looked different from any of the other houses from Ponyville. The house was somewhat poorly furnished. There were no pictures or paintings hanging from the walls, no cabinets with decorations on them or anything at all that added a homely touch. Although the house was not bare, there was nothing there that could have given Eclipse a clue as to where he was from.

He went to the bedroom and hopped onto the bed. He tucked himself under the covers and thought about how he was going to ask about what had happened the night before. I feel like I’m going to be held responsible, I know I did some damage but I was hardly in control of myself. By the time he had finished the thought he was already asleep.

He woke up at sunrise. The sun was just peaking over the horizon. Eclipse rolled out of bed and stretched his body. He went to the kitchen to find nothing there. He decided that he could go without breakfast for today, he wasn’t hungry anyways. He had to remember to get some sort of job soon.

He left his house for Rarity’s home. He thought it would be best to talk to Rarity first, seeing as how she was there when it happened. After a brisk walk he arrived at Rarity’s house and gave the door a few knocks. Rarity opened the door a few seconds later with a surprised look on her face.

“Oh my gosh where have you been?!” she exclaimed.

“I don’t really know, can we go inside so I can tell you about everything that happened?” Eclipse asked.

“But of course!” Rarity replied.

She let him inside and led him to the table. He took a seat and as soon as he did Rarity blurted out “What happened to you? I came back with Twilight and you were gone! There was a tree that looked almost like it was kicked out of the ground, but that’s impossible. Where have you been? And what happened to your hair?”

“One question at a time please, I can’t answer fifty questions at once.” Eclipse quickly responded.

“Alright, well first of all what’s with your hair?”

“My hair? Is it different? I didn’t do anything to it, why?”

“The edges of it are red”

“Red? How? I don’t understand how that’s possible. But then again I don’t remember a lot from last night”

“You don’t remember anything?”

“I remember feeling like I was being crushed. Then you ran off to get help. Then the crushing feeling went away and I remember being really angry and attacking a tree before I flew off. And after that it’s all blank”

“So you really did kick that tree down? How? Nopony can kick down a tree. In fact rarely any can even put a dent in a tree!”

“Well I’m not sure how, but I did it. I have no idea how though.”

“That sounds really strange, I think we had better head over to Twilight’s place and ask her about this.”

“Ya, that would probably be best, maybe she can explain what’s going on with me.”

The two of them took a walk to Twilight’s house and knocked on the door. She opened the door and had the same surprised look Rarity had when Eclipse showed up.

“Eclipse? Where have you been? What..” but before she could say any more Eclipse cut her off midsentence.

“Questions in a minute, let’s take a seat so I can explain what happened.”

They all took a seat and Eclipse told Twilight everything he had told Rarity.

“So you just woke up and didn’t know where you were?” asked Twilight.

“Yep. Oh! And also when it felt like I was let free, three stars went out. And for each star that went out I felt like I got angrier and angrier.”

“Three stars went out??” Twilight replied with a look of awe on her face.”That definitely sounds bad; I think that’s something we need to visit Celestia about. Spike! I need you to send a letter to Celestia!” she called out.

“Spike? Who’s Spike?” asked Eclipse.

“He’s my dragon, I got him as an egg” Twilight responded.

Spike had walked out of another room and was holding a quill and some paper. He was a small, purple dragon with green spikes.

“What? Where was he when you were frozen in stone, or anytime in the past few days?” Eclipse questioned.

“I sent him to my parent’s house to help them move, he came back a few hours ago.”

“Ahh, I see. Well when do you think I should see Celestia?”

“As soon as possible, she should reply to my letter almost as soon as she gets it. I have no doubt that this is of grave importance.”

“So what do you want me to write down?” Spike asked.

“Tell Celestia that we have a friend, Eclipse, who recently came to Ponyville. And that he had something happen to him when he looked at the stars and that three stars went out. I think that should be enough, we can explain it more when we get there.”

“…….and that three stars went out. Alright got it” said Spike as he wrote down the last of the words. Then he drew in a big breath and blew fire onto the note and it disappeared.

“Why did you set it on fire? Now you’ll have to rewrite it!” exclaimed Eclipse.

“Nope. It’s a dragon thing. We can send messages by blowing fire onto them. When we breathe fire onto a message it goes wherever we want it to.” Spike replied.

“Wow, cool! Can only dragons do it?” asked Eclipse.

“Ya, but you could send letters with magic if you wanted to”

“I can’t use magic anymore, my horn is broken.” said Eclipse as he pointed towards his horn and leaned down so Spike could see.

“Gone?! Broken? How? Doesn’t it hurt?” sputtered Spike.

“It was a bit scary at first, but no it doesn’t hurt. When I saved Twilight from the spell of the Cockatrice I unknowingly cast a spell that was too powerful for me to handle and my horn exploded. That’s also why I have these two scars running down my left eye, two shards of my horn scratched me there.”

“Twilight told me that you saved her, but I never knew you lost your horn doing it!” said Spike.

Suddenly spike burped up a smoke cloud. The cloud condensed into a letter and fell to the ground. He picked up the letter and cleared his throat; the letter read “Dear Twilight, its good of you to inform me of Eclipse. I think it would be wise for the two of you to come over to Canterlot and see me as soon as possible.” Spike finished reading and said “Canterlot? That was a sudden decision, whatever it is that’s wrong with Eclipse must be bad!”

“Jee, thanks for making me feel better about all this” Eclipse replied with a sour look on his face.

Twilight budded in “So then, should we stay here tonight and head out to Canterlot tomorrow?”

“Sounds good to me” replied Eclipse “Soo what should I do till then?”

"You could always head down to Apple Acres, its apple bucking season and I'm sure Applejack could use some help bucking apples" said Twilight.

"Sounds like a great idea. I think Applejack is the only one of the six of you I haven't really talked to yet" Eclipse said. "How do I get to Apple Acres though?"

"It's just east of Ponyville, follow the dirt path until you run into a farm" said Twilight.

"Alright, thanks" said Eclipse "I think I might head there now."

"Just be back here by tomorrow morning and well head off for Canterlot." said Twilight.

"Can do" replied Eclipse as he left Twilight's house and shut the door behind him.

He walked throughout Ponyville which, as normal, had ponies everywhere going about their daily business. Some were shopping for groceries, some were managing shops, everypony looked like they had something to do. Eclipse was glad that he didn't get a bunch of awkward or scared stares anymore, he wasn't too fond of being the center of attention and he certainly didn't like being feared.

A short while later he had passed the little shops and houses of Ponyville and a narrow dirt road snaked its way up the countryside. He set off down the road at a walking pace; after all there was no hurry.

A bad dream

Soon Eclipse could see a fenced off area of land up ahead. There was a short, white, wooden fence set up around a mass of apple trees. Guess this is the place he thought. He walked along the fence until he came up to a wooden arch with a sign hanging from it. The sign, like the fence, looked like it had recently been painted. There was no fade to the colors and the sign was still bright. It read "Sweet Apple Acres". Yep, definitely the place though Eclipse as he walked inside.

The farm was as orderly on the inside as it looked on the outside. There were hundreds of apple trees planted down the fields in rows. They provided a nice amount of shade without completely blotting out the sun's rays. It seemed like the perfect place to hang around or take a nap. Eclipse could imagine it now. Sitting around on a hot summer day, eating apples and staying cool in the shade while talking to his friends. He would definitely come back here after he got the whole whatever it is that's happening to him thing sorted out.

He kept walking until he came to a bright red barn. There was a noise coming from inside the barn, every now and then there was a thump. Eclipse walked to the door of the barn and peeked inside. There was a large male pony setting down some baskets full of apples.

"Hi there!" called Eclipse.

The pony looked up and turned his head to see Eclipse.

"I'm here to visit Applejack, and to help you out around the farm." Eclipse explained to the other pony "Is she around here somewhere?"

"Eeyup, she’s just out back buckin apples." he replied.

Eclipse went around the back of the barn and saw that there was another field of apple trees. "How am I supposed to find Applejack in a field like that?" Eclipse said to himself. Then one of the trees in the field shook and Eclipse could see the apples fall from it.

He made his way through the field to the spot where he had seen the tree get bucked. That was when he noticed Applejack bucking the apples out of another tree.

"Hey! Applejack!" Eclipse shouted.

Her head sprang up and she immediately recognized Eclipse. "Well howdy there! What brings you round to Sweet Apple Acres?”

“Nothing in particular, thought I would just visit. Maybe help you with apple buckin.”

“Well that’s mighty kind of you” Applejack said and smiled at him.

“So then, how do you apple buck? I’ve never done it before and I’m not sure how.”

“It’s easy, ya just put some buckets below the trees to catch the apples and buck the tree” she said as she put the last of four buckets she had in place under the tree. Then she kicked the tree and all of the apples fell nicely into the buckets. “Just like that” she said

Eclipse threw four nearby buckets on his back and walked to the nearest apple tree. He placed them around the trunk of the tree and gave the tree a good, solid kick. The apples fell out of the tree into the buckets and Eclipse looked over at Applejack.

“Looks like yer a natural.” she replied.

Eclipse spent the next few hours helping Applejack buck apples. He passed the hours talking to Applejack. By the time they finished the west field the sun was beginning to set.

Eclipse looked to the horizon. The sun was now orange and about half way down the horizon. “Well, it’s been fun, but I think it’s about time I go home.” he said to Applejack.

“It was nice having some help bucking the apples, but before you go there’s something I wanna give you.” said Applejack as she turned around and headed for her house.

When she disappeared into the house Eclipse waited patiently. He hoped that she wouldn’t take long. He didn’t like being out after dark because of what had happened the night before. He didn’t want to go through the experience of what felt like getting possessed again.

He heard a door close and looked over to see Applejack walking towards him with a small pouch in her mouth. She walked up to him and dropped the pouch at his feet. He looked down at the pouch and asked “What is it?”

“Its money, for helping out at the farm” she replied.

“Nah, its fine. You don’t have to pay me, it was fun just being here.” he said.

“I insist, you helped me get two days of work done. Besides the money we’ll make from selling the apples is more than enough to cover that bit.”

“Uhh how much exactly is in that bag?”

“Its 300 bits” She replied.

“300 bits? Isn’t that a bit much?” asked Eclipse

“Nope, it’s a fair amount for the work you did. Now take it, and if you ever feel like helping out here on the farm we always appreciate an extra hoof!”

Eclipse saw that the sun had almost set and he didn’t have time to argue with Applejack so he thanked her for the money and took it. Then he headed home.

He had to keep up a running pace to try and make it home before the sun set completely. But making it back to Ponyville in that short of a time wasn’t doable and by the time he reached Ponyville the sun had set and the stars were out.

When he got to his house he felt reassured that nothing would happen and chanced a look at the stars for a second. That was a mistake. Instantly he felt a sensation as if he had become heavy and it was hard to stay up. Then very rapidly four stars went out in quick succession.

He forced himself to move and pushed the door to his house open and threw himself inside. When he got inside it felt as if the weight were lifted and he quickly got up and closed the door. He chastised himself for having looked up at the stars; he should have known that whatever it was that happened only happened when he looked at the stars. That was the way it had worked last time; nothing happened until he looked up at the stars, and when he did he got the pressure and strange sense.

“That was a bad idea.” he thought aloud.

Then there was the stars going out. Last time when the stars went out he lost control of himself, but this time he was fine. There was no overwhelming anger, no loss of control, no need to destroy. He was glad for that but it also made him feel nervous. What would happen if all the stars went out? What would happen to him? Would it be the same thing as the first time, where he would lose control, but permanently? The thought scared him and he decided he would try never to look at the stars again.

Then he remembered. Last time he had woken up and gone to Twilight she said that his hair had red points on the end. He ran to his room and took a look in the mirror. It was just as he had feared. Last time the red points on his hair had been barely noticeable, but now there was a more obvious tinge of red in his hair. And upon a closer inspection he looked into his eyes and saw that there was the slightest sliver of red around the iris of his left eye. Normally he would never have been able to see such a thin line of red but the red was bright, blood red and it seemed almost to glow, making it much more obvious than it should have been.

He stepped back from the mirror slightly shocked and tried to think about what was happening. It seemed that every time he looked at the stars he changed slightly. Now he had only a tinge of red in his hair and the slightest bit of red in his eye, but only seven stars had gone out so far. Who knew what would happen if all of the stars went out. He might change into whatever it was that he was starting to turn into completely and lose himself to whatever it was he was changing into.

He decided to try and get some sleep before tomorrow. After all he was going to visit Celestia and she was the princess, she would know how to cope with whatever was happening. That night he had the dream with the voice again. He was in a place without senses and there was an overwhelming presence of something bad, something evil. The voice was the only thing that existed in the horrible place and it seemed all encompassing when it talked.

"Go" the voice boomed "Go outside, look into the stars and set me free."

The voice had a sense of command to it. Like somepony who knows that whatever they say will be done without question. Eclipse felt as if he should obey the voice, but at the same time he knew it was bad and that he shouldn't listen to it.

"If you look into the stars you will gain unimaginable power. Power you never dreamed of. You will be one with me. You will become a GOD!" the voice boomed.

The words of the voice were not heard like normal words. They seemed to be felt more than heard. It was as if they were sheathed in magic, making them more than merely words. It made the voice sound supreme and as if whatever it said was rule and could not be denied.

Eclipse felt like he was moving. But that didn't make sense, there was nothing around him. Then there was a sense of free fall and he became dizzy. The darkness seemed to shimmer and spin. And then BANG! There was a jolt of pain and colors swirled into his vision. All senses came rushing back to him and he found himself looking up at the door to his house.

How had he gotten there? The last thing he remembered was everything going wild in his dream and then there he was, in front of his door. He stood up and thought about how he got there. The moving sensation in his dream must have been him sleepwalking. That meant that he had listened to the voice and was headed outside to look at the stars.

A bolt of fear swept through him as he realized that he had been a few seconds from going outside and looking at the stars. He must have listened to the voice. He knew he should not have listened but the words seemed to entrance him and force him to obey. What was it that snapped him out of his dream though? He looked back and saw the pouch of bits Applejack had given him on the floor. He must have forgotten he was holding it and dropped it when he went to the mirror to see if he had changed.

The string holding the pouch closed had come undone when Eclipse had tripped on it and the pouch was open. There were bits strewn all over the floor, only about half of them actually remained in the pouch.

Eclipse was glad that Applejack had insisted he take the money. If it weren't for the pouch he would have looked into the stars and who knows what would have happened then.

He gathered up all the bits and replaced them in the pouch. Then he set the pouch in the table. He didn't want to go back to sleep. He had slept for a few hours and wasn't tired anymore. He looked out of the window and was relieved to see that there was the faintest smudge of orange on the dark horizon, which meant he had gotten plenty of sleep to make it through the day.

He thought it might be a good idea to get some food. He strapped the pouch of bits around his waist and headed out.

An early morning

The sky was now a blur of the orange light of the sun and the regressing blue of night. The stars were no longer visible so Eclipse presumed it would be safe to look up.

He took a walk to Sugarcube Corner and decided that he could eat there. He could also visit Pinkie, he hadn't seen her in a while.

He came to Sugarcube Corner and walked inside. There was a small bell on the door that rang as soon as he opened the door and Pinkie popped up from behind the counter, almost as if she had been hiding until somepony came in.

"Hey! Oh my gosh! Eclipse is that you?" she asked, clearly astonished by Eclipse's appearance.

"Ya, it's me. Why? Do I look that different?"

"Uhh ya! Have you looked in the mirror lately?"

"Well I did last night but I don't remember looking that different."

Pinkie fumbled with something behind the counter and produced a small mirror. She held it in her mouth and walked in front of Eclipse, holding the mirror so that he could see his face.

He knew that he would look the same as he did the night before but he looked in the mirror anyways. He was shocked when he noticed that the tiny sliver of red in his left eye was now a small crescent of blood red that gave off an eerie glow. He wasn't sure if it really glowed or if it merely looked like it but he definitely didn't like it.

Pinkie put the mirror down on a table and asked "How did you change the color of your eye like that, and what’s with the red tips on your hair, and I think you look darker than you did before."

"I don't know. Something strange is happening and I'm going to Canterlot to see Celestia about it today."

"Today?" asked Pinkie, clearly astonished. "How could you get to Canterlot in a day? It takes a little longer than that to get there if you take a train."

"Oh, well in that case. I'm leaving today and I'll get there as soon as I can to see if she can help me with this problem"

"Ok. Well while your here do you want some breakfast?"

"Ya, that's kinda the reason I came here in the first place."

"Alrighty then. What do you want? We have Pancakes and donuts and all kinds ah stuff."

"Pancakes is fine. And guess what. Today I have money!" said Eclipse.

Within a few minutes Pinkie had a plate of pancakes on the table and put them in front of Eclipse. She came back again with another plate of pancakes and sat across the table from him.

"Might as well have breakfast at the same time as you. After all it is pretty early and nopony will be coming in for a while." said Pinkie as she proceeded to eat her food.

Eclipse finished his food and looked out the window off into the distance. He was worried about what would happen when he met Celestia. Would she be able to just stop whatever was happening to him? There could be no way to stop it and he could lose himself, that's what he feared would happen. Especially at the rate at which he changed when he looked at the stars. Then there was the fact that the red in his eye had spread more even though he had not looked at the stars. This worried him because it could mean that even without looking at the stars he was still slowly changing.

Pinkie seemed to notice that he was worried and frowned. "Something wrong with the food?" she asked, no longer as cheerful as she had been when Eclipse came in.

"No. The food is great. It's just... It's just I'm scared about what's happening to me. What if I change and hurt somepony or what if I change and this me's gone forever. Whatever it is that's changing me it's bad. I've had dreams where I could hear it. And it's evil."

Pinkie had a genuine look of concern on her face but tried to cheer Eclipse up. "Don't worry, Celestia will know what to do. She's ruler of Equestria for a reason, she knows how to handle stuff."

"I sure hope so." Eclipse replied still looking out the window.

"Besides, you'll always have us, your friends. We'll be there with you no matter what happens."

"Thanks. I think I should be heading for Twilight's house soon though. I don't want to end up missing my ride to Canterlot." said Eclipse. He pulled out twenty bits and put them on the table. "Alright bye." he said as he headed for the door.

Pinkie was about to object to him paying her so much but he was out of the door before she could say anything.

Eclipse walked down the road and took the path that led to Twilight's house. Soon he found himself in front of the door and gave it a few knocks. In a few minutes Twilight answered the door, her hair was uncombed and she was still drowsy from sleep.

"Eclipse? What are you doing here so early? We still have a few hours before we need to head to the train station." said Twilight, letting out a long yawn.

"It's not that early is it?" asked Eclipse.

"Eclipse... I think everypony but you and I are still asleep." Said Twilight.

"But Pinkie was already awake." he responded.

"That's Pinkie though. I'm not even sure if she sleeps at all." Said Twilight.

"Oh, well I guess I woke up kinda early. I was sleepwalking and nearly went outside and looked at the stars. So I didn't want to go back to sleep." said Eclipse.

"Oh, well you're welcome to take a nap here. I'm going back to sleep for a few hours." said Twilight.

"Alright then." said Eclipse as he walked into the house and Twilight closed the door.

"Sooo, do I sleep in the same bed as you?" Eclipse asked jokingly.

"Sure. My bed is just over here." said Twilight as she turned towards her room.

"No!...I mean, I-I uh I wouldn't want to bother you while you sleep. I roll over and stuff. Oh! And I snore sometimes!" Eclipse said. His face was totally red now and he hoped Twilight didn't see.

"Huh? Ok then you can nap in the guest room. It's the room right next to mine." said Twilight.

"Haha ok great!" said Eclipse with a fake smile on his face. He was still blushing hardcore from the sharing the bed comment.

Twilight led him to the guest room and pointed him inside as she went to her room to get some more sleep.

Eclipse walked into the room and got on the bed. Without the stars out he didn't have to worry about looking at them and hopefully he would be free of the voice in his dreams. Now that he knew he could relax Eclipse put his arms behind his head, under his pillow and relaxed. Soon he had fallen into an undisturbed sleep.

Everything exlpained

They could see the castle perched on the side of a mountain in the distance. They would have to walk through Canterlot to get to the castle. It took a while to get to the castle but eventually they made it. The entire way there ponies were constantly giving Eclipse strange looks. Some were disgusted, some were scared, some were mad. A few times a snobby pony would be giving Eclipse a disgusted look and he would turn towards them n go “BOO!”, then laugh as they were shocked and ran away. Lately Eclipse had enjoyed being a bit meaner than usual, but he didn’t notice.

When they arrived at the castle Eclipse suddenly had an extreme feeling of nostalgia. It felt like he had been there many times before, like it stirred an old long lost memory in the back of his head. But he had never been there before so he pushed the thought aside.

They walked up to the door of the castle and Twilight pushed it open.

“You’re just going to walk into Celestia’s castle without knocking?” asked Eclipse.

“Yep. I come here a lot and this is what I normally do.” She replied.

The door opened and the group went inside. The castle was lavishly decorated with fine floors, walls, paintings, curtains, and everything imaginable. There were large red velvet curtains hanging down from ornate stained glass windows depicting some history of Equestria. There was one showing Nightmare Moon on the moon. And one showing Discord being turned to stone by the elements of harmony, that one must have been put up recently.

They walked to a large door at the end of the main room and Twilight pushed it open and walked in. It was Celestia’s bedroom and she was standing on the balcony watching over Canterlot.

She turned around and said “I see you’re finally here. But hey, Twilight, next time you bring guests I think it would be polite for you to knock on my bedroom door before you barge in here. But now that you’re here where is Eclipse?”

Eclipse stepped out from the group and faced Celestia. “Here.” He said. He made eye contact with Celestia and suddenly he felt a deep burning hatred wash over him. He wasn’t sure where the hatred for her came from but it made him want to lash out and attack her.

“That doesn’t look good.” said Celestia as she walked around Eclipse scrutinizing him.

"Do you know what's happening to you?" asked Celestia

"No." replied Eclipse.

"How far back can you remember?" she asked.

"The first thing I remember was waking up in Ponyville, I had no idea who I was or where I came from. But that memory seems to become more and more blurred." he said.

"I see." said Celestia.

"Do you know where I came from? Do you know what's happening to me? If you do I'm begging you to tell me." pleaded Eclipse.

"I invited you here to tell you everything. It's not a pleasant explanation, but unfortunately there isn't much choice." sighed Celestia. She cleared her throat and began. "First of all what's happening to you is that you're being taken over."

"Taken over?!" gasped Eclipse.

"Yes, that's why you're changing. First you'll change physically then he'll take over your mind and become you, or rather you'll become him." said Celestia.

"Who is him?" asked Eclipse.

"He is Atrox. Atrox was my brother, but he was an evil ruler and I ended up having to banishing him to the stars." said Celestia.

"So that's why I only change when I look at the stars?" asked Eclipse.

"Yes." said Celestia. "When he was banished he was banished differently than Nightmare Moon. Nightmare moon was merely sent to the moon, but Atrox was too powerful for that. When he was banished he had to be split among the stars by the use of magic. When it becomes nighttime he is able to gain strength and prepares to break free from the stars. That is why there is day and night. I have to bring the sun up to weaken him and keep him trapped. He found out what I was doing to keep him trapped and he knew he couldn't break free the way things were going. So he decided to help Nightmare Moon escape. That is why the prophecy for Nightmare Moon said that the stars would aid her escape. It was Atrox helping her break free."

"So how come I've never heard of Atrox?" asked Twilight.

"When Atrox ruled he had the entire world under his control. He didn't let the ponies learn to read or write. He made them all slaves and had them work to death for his own amusement. After I banished him I helped the ponies of Equestria learn to read and write and let them wrote their history books directly from my personal record. However, I kept the parts about Atrox hidden. I didn't want anypony to remember him, I also wanted to forget him, to push him out of my mind and move ahead. The ponies I taught to read and write agreed with me and the legend of Atrox was never recorded." said Celestia.

"That still doesn't explain how I came to be." said Eclipse.

"I was about to explain that when somepony interupted me." said Celestia, giving an unprincesslike look to Twilight. "When Nightmare Moon escaped she kept it nighttime for over a day. That left enough time for Atrox to build his strength and Escape the stars. But the six of you used the Elements of Harmony to turn Nightmare Moon back into Luna. Atrox saw what had happened and manifested himself in this world while he could. The idea was that he would lay low and draw the rest of his power from the stars before confronting me. When he came back to this world he was incomplete, he only had a portion of his power and his soul. I found him and confronted him. We fought and he was a match for me even in his weakened state, but in the end I was able to defeat him and sent him back to the stars. But after I beat him and banished him, you showed up." said Celestia, pointing to Eclipse. "I had banished Atrox and where there should have been nothing I saw an unconscious pony. I thought it could have been Atrox, but that would have been impossible. You also looked different from him. I'm not sure how it happened but I think you're like the good side of Atrox. I think you split from him when I cast the spell to banish him, I can’t be sure thought, it’s only a guess. I didn't know what to do with you. I considered killing you to be safe. But I could never kill anypony, that's only the kind of thing Atrox would do. So I took you to Ponyville and put you in a vacant house. Then I cast a spell to wipe your memory.”

"Why didn't you just keep me here? I would have found out what was happening to me sooner." growled Eclipse. He was angry at Celestia, but he didn't quite know why.

"Right now you’re angry at me because of Atrox. He is part of you and you feel what he doe. You're right though. I should have brought you here to the castle and monitored you. I had no idea that Atrox would funnel his power into you and take control. If I had known I would have kept you here and made sure you didn't see the stars at night."

"Is there a way to reverse the effects?" asked Eclipse.

"I'm going to try casting the banishing spell on you." said Celestia.

"What?!" exclaimed Eclipse, Won't that banish me? That doesn't help me! I'll be worse off than ever!"

"Nope. It should just banish Atrox from you. After that you should return to your normal self and be free from Atrox as long as you don’t look at the night sky.”

“I’ll be completely free?”

“As long as you don’t go looking at the stars you will be.”

“So then what about the nightmares? I had nightmares in which he would talk to me and I would end up sleepwalking outside and looking at the stars.”

“When I banish him again they will go away and you’ll be free to sleep whenever you feel like it with no fear of nightmares.”

Eclipse was now smiling. Finally he had some good luck. He was almost beginning to lose hope that he would even make it past the week. “Princess if you turn me back to normal I will love you, FOREVER.”

Celestia's face turned slightly red and she said "Ya, let's wait until after I fix you to congratulate me."

"I'm just so happy that I'll actually ever get to be normal again." said Eclipse.

"It's going to take a day before I can cast the spell. I'll need to make some preparations. In the mean time the seven of you can stay here in the castle and do whatever you feel like." said Celestia.
"I'll have the bagpony escort you to your rooms"

When she finished her sentence a scrawny looking pony came through the door. He looked at the group and made a not too well hidden look of disappointment when he saw Rarity. He said "If you follow me I'll escort you to your rooms."

They all picked up their things and Rarity had the bagpony carry hers. The luggage seemed almost too much for the bagpony to carry, but he held on the way to their rooms.

They came to a row of six doors and the pony said "Alright these will be your rooms while you stay in the castle. Hopefully you find everything to your liking."

"Excuse me, but there are only six rooms and seven of us." said Twilight.

"Sorry these are the only rooms that are all bedrooms this close to eachother. Two of you will have to share a room." he said. Then he turned down the hallway and was gone after he went around a bend.

"Well who wants to share with who?" asked Twilight.

"I guess I'll be with somepony." said Eclipse. "After all I'll probably be sleeping during the day anyways. So who wants to share a room with me?"

"I need to have a room to myself." said Rarity.

"I wouldn't mind sharing." said Rainbow Dash. In truth she had hardly talked to Eclipse at all. After he saved her from the bullies in Cloudsdale he had taken off. She never got to thank her for helping him. She also never got to get to know him. See had seen him once when Twilight dragged them out to Everfree Forest to help him, but he was injured then and was unconscious most of the time.

"That settles that then." said Twilight, "Eclipse will share a room with Rainbow."

The seven of them nodded in agreement and picked rooms. Then they went to their rooms to drop off their things.

Rematch

When Eclipse got in the room he noticed that there was only one bed. "Hey Rainbow!" he said as Rainbow came in the room, "there's only one bed, do you want me to sleep on the couch or something?"

"Uhh, it's your choice, sleep where you want." she said.

"Hmmm, I think I'll share the bed with you." he said with a light hearted grin on his face.

"Oh, ok, that's cool." stammered Rainbow, quickly turning to look out the window so that Eclipse couldn't see that she was blushing.

Eclipse laughed on the inside at Rainbows embarrassment. Then he walked to the large window to look outside. The window had a large glass door that could be pushed open to go to the balcony. Eclipse pushed the door open and walked to the balcony. There was a slight breeze and the air was warm. He looked over the balcony and saw a dizzying drop down the side of the mountain the castle was perched on.

He stepped back from the balcony and went back into the room.

"So what are you planning on doing today?" Eclipse asked Rainbow.

"I don't know, I don't think anypony here would be interested in racing me. I'll probably just do what the others do." she said.

"A race you say? I wouldn't mind a race." said Eclipse

"Now?"

"Now."

"Where to?"

"Hmm, let's say to the train station and back to the castle? That's a moderately long race."

"You're on!" said Rainbow.

"Alright, where should we start? The balcony?" asked Eclipse.

"Fine by me." replied Rainbow.

The two stepped out onto the balcony and folded out their wings.

"Ready?" asked Eclipse.

"Ready!" said Rainbow.

Eclipse counted down, "Three, two, one, go!" and they bolted off towards the outskirts of Canterlot. They started at a speed that was too much to keep up for the distance and slowed a bit. They couldn’t possibly manage to keep up top speed for the entire race.

They flew over the city at a great speed. Rainbow was in the lead but Eclipse was trailing directly behind her. He looked down and saw that many of the ponies were looking up as they flew by. Most of the ponies that looked up had a shocked or awed look on their face. They probably weren’t accustomed to ponies racing over their city. And the “fancy” pegasi probably didn’t even fly fast, much less race.

Now seemed like it would be a good time to use his endurance to his advantage. He put a bit more effort into his wing strokes and started to gain on Rainbow. She was incredibly fast and her small size was a huge advantage. But Eclipse was bigger and stronger and didn't tire quite as fast. He planned to pick up the pace to a speed that she could still keep up behind him, but would tire herself out trying it.

He passed Rainbow and she gave it a little more effort and managed to stay right behind him. He put a bit more effort into his strokes now, he wanted to try and gain some distance on Rainbow slowly so that even if she was faster in the last leg of the race she wouldn’t be able to catch up. Rainbow was determined to win though, she stayed right behind him and even passed him up slowly after a minute or so. He gave up on getting some extra distance on Rainbow and pulled back, staying just a bit back and making sure not to overexert himself. He wouldn’t be able to beat Rainbow on the last stretch if he tired himself out. He saw that Rainbow was starting to slow down just the faintest bit. She must have been getting tired from keeping up the speed. She didn’t quite have the endurance Eclipse did.

They were now half way to the train station. Eclipse could see the smoke from the train off in the distance. He eased off a bit and stayed behind Rainbow. If he wanted to win he would have to save his energy for the last bit.

He stayed behind her until they passed the train station. Rainbow looked back and said "Something wrong? Or can you just not keep up?” She had a huge smile on her face right up until the moment Eclipse burst out in speed and flew past her. She was so shocked that for a moment she just glided with an awestruck look on her face. Then she snapped out of it and gave it all she had and was up behind Eclipse again soon.

He had gained a hundred meters or so on her and was keeping up good speed. His breathing was heavy and he was sweating with the exertion of keeping up such a speed.

The castle came back into view and Eclipse was struggling to keep his pace up. It felt like his wings would give out, but Rainbow Dash was only about fifty meters behind him and he didn't wanna give her any chances.

Eclipse kept the lead until he could almost see their balcony. Then he heard wings beating behind him and noticed that Rainbow had been slowly catching up to him. He felt like he couldn't do it but he started to accelerate and reach top speed again. Now he was sure he would win, there was no way Rainbow would be able to keep up with him now.

However, he was wrong. Rainbow also accelerated to top speed and was quickly gaining on him. But she wasn't sure if she could catch him before he made it to the balcony. This was where her size came in handy. She could fly VERY, VERY fast because of it. But she didn't have the kind of endurance Eclipse did so she waited until the last bit to really go. It was similar to what Eclipse did but he started flying fast a lot earlier.

She put everything she had into it and her eyes watered. She was going so fast that an air cone had formed in front of her and it seemed to be at a critical point. She pushed past her limit and overcame the air cone. There was a massive burst of color and a loud bang.

The bang had caught Eclipse by surprise and he faltered just long enough for Rainbow to shoot past him and come to a skidding stop on the balcony in front of them.

Eclipse glided down to the balcony. He was stunned by what had happened. "What was that?!" he exclaimed.

"That was a sonic rainboom." she replied with a proud look on her face.

"A what?" he asked.

"A sonic rainboom." she repeated. "It happens when you just that fast."

Eclipse waved a hoof in the air. "You can't expect me to compete with that kind of thing! You win, I can't beat that."

"Aww yea! I won! AGAIN! Cause I'm the fastest flyer EVER!" she yelled as she jumped up and down.

"Ahem, if that rainboom hadn't caught me unaware I would have won." said Eclipse nonchalantly.

"I don't think so." said Rainbow.

"Oh I do." said Eclipse. "But maybe we should go take a bath or something after that. I'm tired and covered in sweat. All I want to do now is get clean and get some sleep."

"Sleep?" questioned Rainbow, "It's not even half way through the day yet!"

"I sleep during the day, remember? I'll sleep normally again when Celestia gets rid of Atrox."

"O yea, well let's go ask Celestia where we can get cleaned up." said Rainbow.

"I agree." said Eclipse.

They opened the bedroom door and stepped into the hallway. A nearby servant shook her head and went along down the hallway.

"Jeez, what's her problem?" asked Eclipse. He looked over and saw that Rainbow's face was red.

"Umm Eclipse...We are covered in sweat, breathing heavily, and we just stepped out of a bedroom." she said.

Understanding dawned on Eclipse and he turned and shouted down the hallway, "Hey! No! You have the wrong idea! We were racing!" but the servant had gone down the hallway and Eclipse wasn't sure is she had heard what he said. "Wow. That is one awkward misunderstanding."

Rainbow merely nodded and trotted down the hallway to find Celestia. Eclipse followed close behind.

After a minute or two of wandering they recognized where they were and headed for Celestia's bedroom. They passed Twilight on the way there and greeted her. She gave them a suspicious look and walked off. The two of them continued on to Celestia’s room.

Eventually they arrived at Celestia's bedroom and Eclipse knocked on the door.

"Hey, Celestia. Where do you get washed up here? Rainbow and I worked up a sweat racing and we want to get cleaned off." he said.

For a moment there was no answer, then Celestia opened the door and said "You didn't have to come all the way here to ask that, the servants would have happily answered your question."

"We tried but the one servant we saw thought we did....ehh....something and left before we could ask her where we could wash up." said Eclipse.

"And what exactly were you two doing?" asked Celestia.

"We were racing." said Rainbow.

"Well there should be a door just down the hallway from where your rooms are. There is a bath, towels, and everything you'll need there." said Celestia.

"Alright, thanks." said Eclipse.

"Let's go." said Rainbow.

They turned around and headed back the way they came and eventually reached the hallway that contained their rooms. The two of them walked past the doors of their rooms and continued down the hall.

At the end was a wooden door that they assumed was the washroom. They opened it up and walked inside. When they did they were greeted by a wave of warm, humid air that spilled into the hall.

Inside was a room made of tile with a large tub in the center. There was a rack of fresh white towels along one wall and a few buckets of water.

Eclipse stepped inside, his hooves clacked on the floor when he walked up to the tub. It wasn't raised up from the floor, instead it was dug into the floor. Small curls of steam rose from the surface of the water which obviously meant it was heated. The water must have been heated by magic for it to always be the temperature it was.

Rainbow walked into the room and up to the bath shortly after Eclipse and looked into the water.

"Looks nice." she said.

"Yep." said Eclipse as he stuck a hoof in the water, "feels nice too. I don't know about you but I'm getting in."

He stepped into the bath and the warm water seemed to relax his entire body, he felt as if he could stay in the water forever. He waded and then swam to the middle of the huge tub and turned around. "The water’s fine." he said. "And it's surprisingly deep in the middle here."

Rainbow didn't have to be told twice. She hopped into the tub and let the water relax her.

Eclipse had his head half way underwater and was lazily blowing bubbles. He turned around and drifted in the water on his back.

"You can have the bed, I'll sleep here." he joked.

"I could stay here forever." said Rainbow. "The water feels amazing."

Eclipse passed the next hour floating around in the bath with Rainbow.

Eventually he started getting sleepy and stepped out of the tub.

“I think I’m going to bed.” He told Rainbow.

Rainbow was floating on her back and she looked up at him. “Going to bed?” she asked. “The day isn’t even half over yet.”

“I sleep during the day remember.” He replied.

“Because you don’t want to sleepwalk outside and get controlled?”

“Yep.”

“Celestia is gunna fix you then you won’t have to worry about that. Why not just stay up today and sleep tonight, I doubt anything bad will happen.”

“I would rather not risk it. What if I were to get completely controlled? Then I wouldn’t be able to stop myself and who knows what would happen.”

“Suit yourself, good luck having fun when everypony else is asleep thought.” said Rainbow as she went back to floating around in the water.

Eclipse went over to the towel rack and took a towel to dry himself off with. After he dried himself he turned back to Rainbow and said “Alright, I’m going to bed now see ya later.”

Without looking back Rainbow put her hoof up to wave him off.

He left the washroom and went back to his room. He entered the room and sighed. He didn’t really want to sleep now, he wasn’t extremely tired or anything but he knew he had to sleep if he wanted to stay up the entire night. He hopped into the bed and closed his eyes. He let his mind wonder until he drifted into sleep.

Luna's fears

Eclipse woke up to a hoof shaking his side.

He ignored it and tried to get some more sleep, but the pony pushed him again to try and wake him up. He moaned and finally sat up. A look to the side showed him that it was Rainbow Dash who was waking him up.

“What? I wanna sleep more. What is it?” asked Eclipse, still half asleep.

“It’s nighttime the stars are out, and I want to go to bed.” yawned Rainbow.

The mention of stars was enough to get Eclipse awake. He got out of bed and as soon as he did Rainbow hopped into the bed.

“Ooooo, the bed is so warm. Wow and it’s so comfortable, I bet you wish you could sleep more right now. You could have if you stayed awake with us today. Well I’m tired, have fun.” said Rainbow with a smirk on her face. She was getting Eclipse back for not staying up with the rest of them, which wasn’t exactly fair, seeing as he didn’t have much of a choice.

Eclipse didn’t really know what to do for the night. After giving it some thought he decided he would just roam the castle and see how everything was at night.

As soon as he stepped outside of his room he realized how incredibly dark the castle was after dark. There was usually enough sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows around the castle to keep the place well lit, but without the light the castle seemed forlorn and just a bit spooky.

There were usually other ponies walking about, talking to each other or going somewhere but at night there was nopony. Each step Eclipse took on the marble floors seemed to bounce off the walls and reverberate through the rooms. He walked by Celestia’s bedroom and there was no light coming from under the door, which meant that she was asleep. He came through a few more corridors and came to a large wooden door. The door was at least twice as tall as he was and seemed to be quite heavy.

He wondered what was behind the door and decided there would be no harm in figuring it out. He looked around to make sure nopony was looking, just in case he wasn’t allowed to go into the room. He bit the handle on the door and pulled back. It took a considerable amount of effort to pull the door open. Surprisingly it didn’t make any sound, which must have meant that it was well oiled.

He poked his head inside, it was darker than the rest of the castle. The only windows were high up and the moonlight didn’t light the room as well as it did around the rest of the castle. A few seconds after he poked his head in his eyes adjusted to the dim moonlight. The room was a massive round room with a stained glass dome in the ceiling to let the sun in during the day. Tall, elegant book cases adorned with books lined the walls and even more stood in a circle around the room. They looked like dominoes, if one fell over it would probably take the rest with it.

It must have been Celestia’s library, it probably had almost all the books in Equestria. In the center of the room there were loads of tables lined up for ponies to come and read. There was a flicker of light and a candle went on. Eclipse didn’t move for fear that he would be seen, but he noticed that somepony was down there. He hadn’t seen them moving or heard them, but he could make out the outline of whoever it was that lit the candle.

He slid into the library and left to door open to make sure he didn’t make any noise. Since he was a dark color he managed to slip between the bookcases like a ghost. If the pony looked in his direction chances are they wouldn’t even see him. He went along the outside of the circle of bookcases so that he was behind the pony.

He slowly crept closer to see who it was. The pony was a dark color and Eclipse had a hard time distinguishing his outline. He moved closer so that he could hide behind the tables and chairs. About twenty feet away he saw that the pony was a midnight blue color, similar to his color without the influence of Atrox. He also had a streaming mane similar to Celestia, but there were what looked like little stars sparkling around the mane. Eclipse got a bit closer and accidentally bumped into one of the chairs he was trying to hide behind. The chair skid only about an inch or two, but in the dead of night and on a marble floor it made enough noise to be heard across the room.

The pony stood up and turned around, when they didn’t see anypony they called out “Who goes there?”

Eclipse stayed low and closed his eyes, hoping that the pony didn’t see him. Upon hearing the voice he noticed that the pony wasn’t a male pony, but a female.

“I know someponys there!” she called out.

Eclipse decided that she knew he was there and there was no use hiding so he stood up and said “Ok you caught me” as he started walking towards her.

The pony looked into the dark and could make out a slight red glow. She thought she had seen a faint red light flicker between the bookcases but was too engrossed in her book to think anything of it. The candle she lit to read had caused her eyes to adjust to the light and she couldn’t see the pony that had knocked the chair over yet.

She strained to see who the pony was and the faint red glowing lines of his irises appeared about twenty feet away. A pang of fear ripped through her and she staggered, but caught herself. She thought she had seen her evil brother Atrox but that was impossible. It couldn’t be Atrox, he was gone, never to return. There was no way he could just magically come back.

Elipse continued walking up closer to her and his face came into the candle light. The light reflected off of his face and she clearly saw the two red glowing eyes accompanied by the face of her worst nightmares, Atrox. She recoiled in horror at seeing his face again. Atrox showing up in the middle of the night with nopony around was sheer horror for her. As soon as she saw his face she was frozen in fear and didn’t know what to do.

Eclipse was close enough that he could tell the pony was Princess Luna. He hadn’t seen her personally but he had heard enough to know who she was and how she looked. He didn’t know why she looked so scared when she saw him so he tried to put a reassuring smile on his face and asked “Something wrong?”

The smile and “calming” words did nothing to quell Luna’s fear. She got past her initial shock and being frozen in place and tried to back up as quickly as she could to get away. She backed right into the table she had her books on and sent the books flying to the ground along with the candle.

The candle stayed lit while it fell, casting its glow on Eclipse's face. But as soon as it made contact with the ground the flame went out. All Luna could see now was a pair of glowing red eyes searching the night for her. She managed the fumble over the table and ran for the door. She couldn't see, but she knew the library well and knew the way to the door.

She didn't even think about whether the door would be open or not, she was merely running from the pony she thought to be Atrox. SLAM! She plowed into the door headfirst and was knocked unconscious.

Eclipse had lost sight of Luna when the candle went out and his eyes were just starting to readjust from the change of candlelight to moonlight. He heard a loud noise by the door he had come in from and turned towards it.

Luna's freaking out at seeing him had been so unexpected he hadn't had time to think or react before she plowed through a table and ran into the door.

Eclipse followed the direction the noise had come from. He didn't know that Luna had knocked herself out on the door and hadn't seen her yet. His eyes finally adjusted enough so that he could make out details of the room.

He looked by the door and saw something on the ground. He noticed that the figure on the ground was Princess Luna and he immediately freaked out.

Oh no! Luna got knocked out! This is bad, this is really bad! he thought to himself poor Luna. And what if somepony heard her hitting the door and decides to come in!? Me standing next to an unconscious Luna wouldn't look to good.

He looked again at Luna. She was on her side on the floor, almost as if she was sleeping; which she sort of was.

He tried nudging her to wake her up but there was no response. He tried telling her to wake up and blowing a short whistle note in her ear, but that didn't work either. There would be no choice but to wait for her to wake up and hope so wouldn't freak out.

He waited for a few minutes and Luna stirred a few times, but stayed unconscious. He grew impatient and nudged her in the side, she moaned and rolled over. Now he was making some progress! He nudged her again and she slowly came to.

She kept her eyes closed and said "Ow, my head hurts. What happened?"

"You ran into a door and knocked yourself out." said Eclipse, trying to keep his voice as reassuring as possible.

"I ran into a door? Why?" she questioned.

"Uhhh, you were running from me, but I'm harmless."

Luna looked up and saw Eclipse again. Unfortunately his supposedly reassuring words did nothing because as soon as she saw him she passed out...again.

Eclipse sighed loudly and sat back. How would he convince Luna that be meant her no harm? He thought it through and took a few steps back behind Luna. That way when she woke up she wouldn't instantly freak out, and Eclipse could talk to her for a bit and hopefully get her to see that he meant her no harm.

A few minutes passed and eventually Luna came to. She sat up and looked left and right, then she stood up and shook her head.

"Hey." said Eclipse. Careful to keep his eyes closed so she wouldn't see the red glow when she turned around.

Luna turned around and looked at Eclipse. It was too dark to tell that Eclipse had his eyes closed so she had no idea who he was. "Who are you." she more stated than asked.

"I came in here not sure what room I was entering. When I did you freaked out and managed to run into the door and knock yourself unconscious." he replied.

"I....knocked myself out?" asked Luna.

"Ya you thought I was an enemy, even though I wasn't, and didn't even give me time to explain anything."

"Why would I run?"

"Alright. Will you listen to what I have to say this time? No running away or freaking out?"

"I will listen."

"I look like somepony I'm not. I'm a nice pony and nothing like this pony."

"And who is it that you look like?"

"Atrox."

"Atrox?! But that’s impossible!” she exclaimed.

“It’s a long story; if you’re willing to listen I’ll explain it.”

“I have time.”

“Well as I’m sure you know, when you were Nightmare Moon and brought forth a few days of nighttime Atrox manifested himself in this world.”

“Yes, I know. My sister fought him and won.”

“Well when he was re-banished I showed up somehow. I have no idea how it happened, but I’m here.”

“If that’s true you could have been created by Atrox.”

“Created? He can create beings?!” asked Eclipse.

“Yes, that’s how he changed me into Nightmare Moon. It’s also how Discord was created. He got bored once and assembled a variety of animals, then cast a dreadful spell on them all and created discord.”

“That sounds pretty bad, was Celestia the one who turned Discord to stone then?”

“No, Atrox was the one who originally did that.”

“Why turn his own creation to stone?” asked Eclipse.

“He didn’t like that Discord was changing his land, and he also did it just for fun.” Luna said, her face turning into a scowl from remembering Atrox.”

“Celestia said that I might be Atrox’s good side.”

“Atrox has no good side.” stated Luna.

“So then I’m just a creation of Atrox? I’m not even a real pony?” asked Eclipse, hoping the depressing thought wouldn’t be true.

“Unfortunately it seems that way.” Said Luna.

“Also, the reason I look like Atrox is because he’s slowly taking me over.”

“WHAT?? He’s taking you over? That’s horrible!” exclaimed Luna.

“Ya eventually I’ll totally become Atrox and the me you know will be gone.”

“Are you ok? That’s absolutely tragic news and you seem to be reasonably calm.” said Luna with a slightly confused look on her face.

“That’s because Celestia is going to cast a banishing spell on me and Atrox will be gone.”

“And if that doesn’t work?”

“Well, then I’m done for. But I have total faith in Celestia.”

“I wish you luck. The situation you are in is like something out of my nightmares.”

“I wish it could be different but I didn’t really have a choice, at least because of this mess I get to be alive. Even if knowing that I’m not really a real pony is going to be a bit hard, it beats not existing.” said Eclipse, trying to sound optimistic.

“You are facing all of this with more bravery than I have ever seen. I don’t think most ponies could handle being in your situation.”

“I try and stay positive. Now you should probably stand up, you’ve been on the floor this entire time. It’s kind of awkward looking down on you princess.” He said, extending a hoof to help her up.

She took his hoof and hoisted herself up. “Oh, my bad. I was distracted by your tale.”

“So, what were you reading before I showed up?” asked Eclipse.

“Nothing interesting, just an old history book. When I was locked away for a thousand years I missed out on quite a bit.”

“That’s understandable. So do you usually stay up all night?”

“Not really, I just didn’t feel like sleeping today so I came here.”

“Well that’s lucky for me. Without you I probably would have ended up waking around the castle alone all night. So what else is there to do other than read?”

“We could go outside, the gardens are really nice at night.”

“I can’t go outside at night.”

“Why not?”

“I forgot to tell you, Atrox gains more control ovre me when I look at the stars, so I try and stay inside at night. At first I just tried to not ever look at the stars, but even so I’m still changing.”

“I can’t really think of anything else we can do besides read. I might just go to bed, I’m actually pretty tired.”

“I suppose I could risk going to bed now. It’s pretty far into the night so I won’t have to sleep for very long. I’ll see you at Celestia’s room tomorrow when she casts her spell on me, ok?”

“I’ll see you then.” Said Luna. Then she turned around and went off to her room to go to bed.

Eclipse went back to his room and laid down on the couch, seeing as Rainbow was occupying the bed. He was eager to be free of his curse and the more he thought about what it would be like to be free the more he felt he couldn’t sleep, but eventually he managed to doze off to a dreamless sleep.

False hope

Eclipse woke up eager, he wasn’t feeling tired even though he had hardly slept because today was the day! The day he would become free! He was excited. He headed over to Celestia’s room and knocked on the door. She opened it up and escorted him in. “So do we start now?” he asked.

“Let’s wait for the others to get here.” She said.

They sat around for about fifteen minutes and finally everypony arrived. Luna was the first to show up.

She stuck her head through the open door and looked at Celestia. “I trust I can watch?” she asked.

“Of course.” replied Celestia.

Luna walked into the room and took a seat next to Celestia.

Briefly after that Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie walked in and took their places next to Eclipse.

“Where’s Rainbow?” asked Eclipse.

“She’s probably just sleeping in. You know how much she likes to sleep.” said Pinkie.

“Shall we start without her?” asked Celestia.

“No, I want everypony to be here for this.” said Eclipse.

“WAIT!” came a shout from the hallway. “I’m here! I just overslept a bit.” said Rainbow as she ran into the room. She was out of breath from running to Celestia’s room and quickly moved to sit down with her friends. “I didn’t miss anything did I?” she asked.

“Nope, we were just about to begin.” said Celestia. “Eclipse, can you step forward?”

Eclipse stepped away from his friends and stood in the middle of the room.

“Alright, I’m going to cast the same spell I used to banish Atrox on you and it should re-banish him and leave you free.” said Celestia.

Eclipse drew in a long breath and looked back at his friends for a moment. “I’m ready.” He said.

“Then we’ll begin.” said Celestia. She tilted her head down and a small glow started to emanate from her horn.

The glow grew stronger and Eclipse felt the hair on his neck stand up. He wasn’t sure if it was the spell or his eagerness that caused it. He thought about what it would be like to be free. He would no longer be influenced in his sleep or have to fear going outside at night. Thinking about it he realized that there had been some lack in activity from Atrox since they got to the castle. He hadn’t talked to Eclipse in his dreams or made him feel anger at Celestia like he did when they first arrived. Even now it seemed quiet.

Celestia tilted her head back up and the glow from her horn multiplied in intensity. The glow around Eclipse did the same and he started to feel slightly light headed.

Suddenly he felt as if something were clawing at him mentally. It was like something was trying to hold on to him and refused to let go. He knew that this was Atrox trying to resist the spell and for a second he had a flash of doubt. But then he was reassured by the thought that Celestia was the one casting the spell. After all she had banished him twice before and she could undoubtedly do it again.

The clawing sensation became stronger and Eclipse was starting to feel sick. His head was swimming and he was starting to sweat. It felt like he was being pulled at from everywhere possible. His emotions were a mix between every kind of feeling and he wasn’t quite sure what was happening anymore. It was like his mind was being pulled at by some strange force. He was forced to the ground because standing started becoming too hard. His vision blurred and he felt like throwing up.

Celestia increased the power of the spell even more.

At that point Eclipse lost consciousness and slumped down. His color seemed to lighten slightly back to his original blue and the red areas in his mane started to fade.

The other ponies held their breath as they watched Eclipse regain his normal color and hair. They wanted to cheer but Celestia wasn’t done casting the spell and they didn’t want to disrupt her.

Eclipse was now completely back to his normal color and his hair no longer had any red tint in it. Celestia cut the power to the spell and sat back on her haunches. She was covered in sweat and was taking heavy breaths. The spell had taken a lot out of her.

Everypony cheered and hugged each other; they were all delighted to see their friend back to normal.

Eclipse moved a bit on the floor. It seemed that he was regaining consciousness. He stood up and took a long deep breath. He was facing away from the other ponies and shook his mane.

Twilight ran up to Eclipse and patted him on the back. “It looks like you’re back to normal.”

He laughed and turned to look at Twilight.

Twilight cringed and jumped back a pace or two when he did. She started shaking and the other ponies ran to her side.

“What’s wrong?!” asked Rainbow.

“L-look at his eyes.” said Twilight.

The ponies all turned and looked at Eclipse. Everything looked normal but when they looked into his eyes they saw cruel, dull blood red eyes devoid of life in place of Eclipse’s normal lively blue eyes.

They all recoiled when they saw it and Celestia was instantly up and alert again.

“Something wrong?” asked Eclipse in a deep, menacing voice heavy with sarcasm.

“Atrox!” said Celestia, as she stood up to face him.

“It looks like your spell failed. Now he’s is mine and there’s nothing you can do about it.” said Atrox with a wicked smile on his face.

WHACK! There was the sound of a solid hit and Atrox’s eyes rolled back and he crumpled to the ground. The other ponies looked up to see Luna levitating a book in the air next to Atrox’s still form.

“I saw the eyes and I knew it was Atrox. I had to knock him out, I didn’t know what else to do.” said Luna.

“The spell didn’t work.” said Celestia. “There’s nothing else we can do, we have to lock him up until we can find out what to do with him.”

Twilight fell to the floor crying and so did Pinkie. It crushed them to see that there was nothing they could do for their friend. The only plan they had failed and there was no backup.

Upon Celestia’s command eight guards filed into the room and dragged Atrox’s limp form to the dungeon to lock him up.

Everypony in the room was silent for a few minutes and the only noise was the occasional sniffle of Twilight or the others.

The guards took Atrox down to the dungeons and threw him in one of the cells. It consisted of four stone walls, one with a thick iron door with a small set of bars in it to talk through, and a small port to let light and air in.

One final choice

Eclipse woke up to a bad headache and a lump on his head where Luna had hit him. He looked around and was shocked to see where he was. He walked to the door and looked through the hole to see a guard standing there.

“Hey where am I?” he asked.

"You're in the royal dungeon." replied the guard.

"What? The dungeon? Why?" asked Eclipse.

"All I know is that a spell went wrong and you're dangerous, I'm here to keep an eye on you under royal orders." said the guard.

Then it all came back to Eclipse, the spell and why they were doing it. And the guard had said the spell went wrong.

Eclipse pieced it all together and guessed that the spell failed and they put him in the dungeon because they couldn't get rid of Atrox.

His heart sunk. He thought about how the spell was his only hope and that it had failed. Now there was no way he could ever be free of Atrox. His life was over, there was no hope left. Utterly crushed, he walked to the opposite wall and sat down.

He looked at the ground and took some time to go through his thoughts. He was miserable because the spell had failed and there was no more hope of being a normal pony. At the same time there was an anger he felt. It wasn't fair that he had Atrox possessing him, it wasn't fair that he wasn't even a real pony, nothing seemed fair to him.

He looked up and saw the small shaft of light on the floor. He looked at the ceiling and saw that it was a small window outside. He saw the stars and he gave up. He looked straight into the stars and let all the feeling, the emotion, and the power fill him.

There was an electric feel to the air around him and he could hear a small popping noise like the noise a wood fire makes. Then the air around him shimmered like rising heat and he felt energy surge through him. He felt like he was burning and when he looked down he saw that there were black patches on him that were expanding as if they were burning him.

He felt a tingling in his forehead and the stub of his horn was sizzling, it looked red hot at the end. Then it started growing his horn back. It looked like embers burning paper, but in reverse, as if his horn was materializing from the red embers. It grew into a razor sharp, sleek black horn without any ribs or grooves on it.

Then his eyes slowly lost all their shine and turned dull and dark. It was like he entered a dream, like he went in autopilot and something else took over. That something else was Atrox.

Atrox was now in control. The air still popped and sizzled around him but that faded away after a few seconds. He popped his neck and flexed his legs. There was a large, wicked smile on his face.

The guard had heard the noise from the cell and called in "What was that noise? What are you doing in there?" Then he went to the window and looked inside to see Atrox. "Hey! Who are you? What happened to the pony we locked up?"

"Open the door." stated Atrox in a tone that let the guard know he wasn't joking.

"No. Orders say to keep you locked up and under watch so you'll stay where you are."

"You try my patience. Open the door or die, your choice."

"Ha! My choice is to keep you locked up. That's a three inch thick, iron, magic proof door. There's no way you could get through it."

"You seal your own fate." said Atrox as he stepped back from the door."

"Haha what are you going to knock the door down by running into it? Don't make me laugh it would take a hundred royal guards to get that door down. In fact I'll stand right here in front of the door and watch you hurt yourself." Laughed the guard as he stepped directly in front of the heavy metal door. He had no doubt the door was unbreakable.

Atrox said nothing but instead went to the other side of the room and prepared to charge. He got a small running start in the small room and used his side to body-slam the door.

Ridiculously, the door bent and gave about two feet. The royal guard was thrown back into the wall and was too stunned to react, much less get up and run.

Atrox went for another body slam and the door gave some more. Some of the metal hinges groaned from the pressure and some were torn from the rock they were anchored in, bolts and all.

Atrox turned for one final slam. The guard was up by now and limping away to try and get help. Atrox plowed into the door and it broke off the hinges, crashing to the floor.

The guard's mind was blown when he heard the door go down. The strength it took to take that door down was beyond anything he could comprehend.

Atrox calmly walked out of the cell as the dust cleared and looked down the hall to see the guard attempting to limp away as fast as he could with his injured leg. Atrox's horn glowed and the guard was lifted into the air. He levitated back towards Atrox, struggling to break the grip of the magic the entire time.

He floated in front of Atrox and Atrox was looking him directly in the eyes. "Any last words?"

"You won't get away. Celestia will stop you." said the guard.

"Stop me? Thats funny!" said Atrox, his voice eerily calm the entire time.

The guard spit in Atrox's face and Atrox showed a hint of anger in his expression. He slammed the guard into the wall and forced him to look him in the eye. "Ready to die?" he asked.

"If I die I die with the pride of a Royal Canterlot Guard." he said.

"You waste my time." said Atrox.

Just as the guard thought Atrox was going to put him down Atrox threw him to the side with incredible force. He flew ten feet straight into the stone wall. His helmet slammed hard off the stone and the guard fell to the ground in a crumpled heap. The helmet had taken much of the impact and saved the guard’s life. Luckily, Atrox didn't see that he wasn't dead, only unconscious.

Atrox moved on and came to a window overlooking Canterlot. He cast a quick spell and the glass shattered out of the window. He spread his wings and jumped out into the air.

He circled around the castle and flew straight for the other side of the castle to a stained glass window in Celestia's throne room. The window was a lavish image of six ponies using the elements of harmony to turn discord to stone.

Atrox flew through the window, shattering the glass and tearing through the metal as if it were paper. He landed hard, leaving cracks in the marble floor.

He looked up to see the surprised faces of Celestia and six other ponies with the Elements of Harmony.

“I see you brought out the toys.” said Atrox.

Twilight stepped forward and asked “How did you get free, and what happened to Eclipse?”

“He’s gone for good, I’m in control now. He gave up on himself the same way you gave up on him.” stated Atrox.

“That’s a lie!” screamed Twilight, “We would never give up on him! We have the Elements of Harmony now and we’ll stop you and save Eclipse!”

“HAHAHAHAHA! You plan to use those silly toys to stop ME?! That’s funny. Sorry to tell you but there’s nothing you can do to save your little friend. Now get out of my way! I have some revenge to take.” said Atrox.

“I refuse to move! You won’t harm Celestia or my friends!” said Twilight, holding her ground in front of the imposing Atrox.

“This has gone on far enough,” said Atrox as he cast a spell.

Twilight was lifted into the air and her Element of Harmony floated towards Atrox.

He threw Twilight to the side and looked at the Element for a second. He set it down on the ground and rested his front hoof on it. He slowly leaned forward, putting more and more weight onto it. There came a groaning sound and all at once the crown gave and bent down. The gem in it cracked and splinters were sent all over the floor. Atrox lifted the mangled gold frame and tossed it to Twilight. “That’s how strong your ‘Elements of Harmony’ are.” he said.

Applejack, Rainbow, Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy blocked Atrox’s path now.

“You won’t hurt our friends!” said Pinkie.

“Ya! Leave Celestia alone!” said Rainbow.

Atrox completely ignored them and used magic to throw them to the side like ragdolls. Then he walked up to Celestia’s throne. “Nice to see you again, sister. It’s been…….so long since you locked me away.”

“You won’t get away with this Atrox.” said Celestia.

“You locked me away for over a thousand years. A THOUSAND YEARS! I was nearly driven mad while I was locked away. And now I’m going to get even for all the suffering you caused me.”

Atrox’s horn lit up and a ring of magic appeared around Celestia’s neck. She struggled when she realized what Atrox was doing, but it was too late. She was lifted into the air and the ring started to tighten. Her breath was cut off and she started getting choked. She tried to gasp for air but the ring was too tight. Her horn lit up as she cast a spell to try and counter the magic but Atrox was far too powerful and she couldn’t break his grip.

“Aww, having some trouble breathing? Let’s see how this feels.” said Atrox with a smile on his face. His horn glowed brighter and the ring around Celestia’s neck tightened further to where her face started turning red.

Celestia was desperate for air now and started flailing and clawing at the ring of magic. Her lungs were straining for air and she was starting to get dizzy.

The other ponies could do nothing but watch in horror as Atrox choked the life out of Celestia.

Celestia’s vision started to blur and she started to lose her grip on consciousness. Her vision went black and she passed out. She went limp and hung by the ring.

Even when Celestia passed out, Atrox showed no sign of letting up or releasing her. He merely stood there and continued to hold her suspended in the air.

“LET GO OF MY SISTER!” screamed Luna as she cast a powerful spell towards Atrox.

The spell caught Atrox by surprise and he was hit with a crushing wall of magic that sent him barreling back through a table, some chairs and nearly through the wall he flew into.

Atrox fell to the ground, leaving the wall cracked and blotted with blood. He got to his feet and casually looked back at the wall as if nothing had happened, then he looked down at his right wing. It hung limply to his side and there was blood dripping off of the tip, pooling on the floor. “Luna, you broke my wing. That wasn’t very nice of you. I thought you were faithful to me. Maybe you would be more loyal as Nightmare Moon, or maybe you would be better off like your sister.”

It had taken all of Luna’s strength to throw Atrox as hard as she did and she didn’t have the power to stand up to him. She was breathing heavily and had a heavy set scowl on her face.

Atrox used magic to pick Luna up and slam her into the floor. She was hurt too badly to get up and Atrox started walking towards her slowly, leaving red marks on the floor where his limp wing dragged across it.

Twilight was up again and stepped in front of Atrox.

“You again?” he laughed.

She had tears in her eyes and looked directly at Atrox. “Eclipse I know you’re still in there! Please stop this! I know you can fight him!” she cried out.

Atrox stopped dead in his tracks and stared at Twilight. For a second he stood silently, then he let out a blood curdling scream. He brought his hooves up to his head and screamed again. “You have no power over me! You are a pawn of my creation, you can’t fight me!” he yelled. He shook his head back and forth with his hooves over his face, grunting as he fought to stay in control. Then he was silent. He struggled to regain control and stood motionlessly again. When he looked up one eye was red and one blue. His voice was the voice of a monster, desperate to regain control. He started to crawl towards Twilight, leaving a faint red trail as he went. Each move towards her caused him great pain and there was hatred in his eyes. “Y-you… I’ll….. I’ll KILL YOU!” screamed Atrox.

He stopped again and shivered. Atrox looked up with tears in his eyes, they were Eclipse’s eyes. When he talked he had to choke out the words. “Twilight, I’m so sorry. I feel lost. I’ve become a monster and I can’t stop Atrox.”

“You can fight him! You can win!” said Twilight.

“No, I feel like a leaf in a hurricane. Atrox is” he stopped for a moment and gritted his teeth attempting to stay in control. “Atrox is pure evil; the things he plans to do are horrible. I can’t let them happen.”

“Don’t give up we can help you somehow! We’re your friends!” yelled Twilight.

“Twilight, I’m beyond help. There’s only one thing I can do.” he said. His entire body was shaking and he painstakingly took steps past Twilight and towards the window he flew in from.

“No! Please! Eclipse there has to be another way! You can’t do this, we can help you!” Twilight screamed at him when she realized what he was doing.

“There’s no” Eclipse stopped for a second to take a shaky breath, “There’s no other way to get rid of Atrox. I would rather die than let him be free.” He made it to the edge of the broken window and looked down. He could barely see the rocks below in the darkness. With his broken wing there was no way he could survive the fall.

“Stop! I’m begging you! You can’t do this!” sobbed Twilight.

“It’s the only way, I wish there was another way but there’s not.” choked Eclipse, tears streaming in his eyes. His horn glowed and the charm Twilight had given him fell to the floor. “You were one of the best and only friends I had, Twilight. I hope you’ll remember me for who I was.”

Twilight tried to speak but she was overwhelmed and the lump in her throat didn’t allow to her say anything.

Eclipse was dizzy from the loss of blood. Atrox had gotten a broken wing and did nothing to stop the bleeding. He turned back towards the window with only one last goal in mind, to rid Equestria of Atrox. His vision was failing and everything was going black. The edge of the window seemed to move back and he put all his strength into a leap forward. He lost his sense of feeling as he faded.

He wasn’t sure what happened then. He didn’t know if he made it out of the window, or fainted from blood loss. He was somewhere cold, It was as if he were in the void from his dream again; only this time there was no other voice. There was a bright light that appeared and he followed it. As he came closer to it he could smell plants and hear voices off in the distance. He continued to follow the sounds and smells. Suddenly he was in Ponyville, surrounded by all of his friends. Twilight was there, along with Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. Even Luna and Celestia were there. Everypony was there and Atrox was gone. He no longer felt the turmoil inside him and he was happy. He was free.

Awake

There was a dark room with a pony sleeping in the bed. Slits of sunlight filtered between the curtains. The pony in the bed began to stir, and after a few minutes he woke up. That was when he noticed something odd about his surroundings, he didn’t know where he was. He panicked when he realized that he had no idea how he had gotten there. In fact he didn’t know who he was.

He racked his brain to remember anything he could. He thought long and hard to try and remember any memories or events, even a name. But he remembered nothing.
After a while of pondering with no results he went through the house. He found that the house was furnished, but there wasn’t a single picture or photo to help jog his memory. He assumed that since he had woken up there, chances were the house belonged to him.

Then a thought occurred to him. He didn’t even know what he looked like. So he searched the house until he found a mirror and took a good look at himself. The first thing that he noticed was that he had a horn, which meant that he was a unicorn. Then he got a surprise as he noticed that he also had a pair of wings. A horn and wings, that meant that he was an alicorn. He moved to a nearby window and lifted the curtain to take a look outside.

There were numerous ponies walking by outside. He noticed that there were plenty of earth ponies and unicorns walking by, there were also pegasi flying by periodically; but there were no other alicorns. He decided to go outside and ask around to see if somepony perhaps knew him or had seen him before.

He opened the door and took his first step outside. The first thing he noticed was a pegasus flying by. Her body was a light bluish color similar to the sky and her mane was rainbow colored. She was gliding through the air with the kind of grace that only the best of the best at flying have. She stopped by a cloud and landed on it. The rainbow mane pony then proceeded to hover next to the cloud and kick it, and when she did *POOF* the cloud vaporized into thin air. Then she flew off and darted from cloud to cloud kicking and vaporizing every single one of them at a break-neck pace. She had to have done the entire thing in what had to be ten seconds, FLAT! Before he knew it the rainbow maned pony had flown out of sight.

The pony decided, after a few minutes of standing in the street, that it was time to move on. It looked like there were new, interesting things to see everywhere he went. He walked down the street to a nice looking shop called Sugarcube Corner and thought about going inside to check it out. But, the pony didn't know what kind of money the ponies used, and he definitely didn't have any. After standing there with a slight frown on his face the pony decided to keep exploring. Just as he was turning to walk away a brightly colored mare skipped over to him. She frowned as she looked at him for a second, but then the frown burst into a wide smile and she said, or rather burst out "Hey! I haven't seen you before are you new here? It's funny seeing a new face because it means I get to make a new friend. By the way my names Pinkie Pie, what's yours? Oh I'm so super excited to be meeting somepony new!".

The pony could hardly keep up with Pinkie Pie because of the speed at which she was talking. He tried to reply but only managed to get out "Well I don’t really know my name but....." but before he finished Pinkie Pie cut in.

She said "Hey! Nice to meet you! It's strange to see a new pony here that's an alicorn, I thought there were only two alicorns in all of Equestria!” Pinkie Pie quickly turned around and bounced over to the door into Sugarcube Corner. She turned back around and said "Well come on in silly!”

The pony, slightly embarrassed and a little red in the face said "Well I would but you see I don’t exactly have any money."

Pinkie pie merely giggled and said "Oh that's fine, you see I work at Sugarcube Corner so your first treat in Ponyville is on me!”

Knowing there was no arguing with the pink pony the pony followed her into the cheerful looking shop. Upon entering the shop he was instantly overwhelmed by all the bright colors and decorations and the sweet smell of freshly baked goods.

Pinkie Pie poked her head up from behind the counter and said "Well don't just stand there with that kinda look on your face! Head over here and take a seat!”

The pony made his way to the table Pinkie had motioned at and took a seat as Pinkie made her way
to the oven and pulled out a freshly baked cake.

"Now you just wait here a minute while I go decorate this for you!" said Pinkie.

After about a minute she emerged from the back room holding an amazingly decorated midnight blue cake with the words “Welcome to Ponyville!” written on it in a cursive fashion.

The only thing the pony could do to react to the stunning cake was stand there gawking. Pinkie cocked her head slightly to the side with an eyebrow raised and said "Oh, you have to stop being so amazed by everything here!"

The pony recovered from his momentary stupor and said "Sorry, everything you
have here is just so...amazing!"

Pinkie giggled and said "Wellll you could just sit there and be amazed all day or you could try eating this cake. Then you'll be even more amazed silly!"Pinkie motioned at the cake and the pony stopped.

Pinkie put on a confused look and asked "Problem?"

The pony replied "Uhhh well... How do I eat it?"

Pinkie giggled again and said "Well you could just dig in, or you could use your magic to take a piece and put it in your mouth!"

The pony looked confused and said "Magic? How do I use that?"

Pinkie shrugged "How would I know, I'm an earth pony. You'll have to ask somepony who's a unicorn, like Twilight, but let's think about the important thing first, cake!"

The pony agreed with Pinkie, cake first, magic later. He leaned down and carefully took a bite of the cake. As soon as he did he was greeted by the taste of the most amazing cake he had ever eaten, not that he could remember ever eating cake, or anything at all for that matter. The cake was chocolate and tasted incredibly sweet, but not sickeningly sweet. The balance of the sweetness and sponginess was perfect and created the perfect cake. Without hesitating he took another massive bite from the cake and within a minute had half the cake down.

"Oh wow that was the most amazing cake I've ever eaten!" said the pony, “But I don't think I could eat another bite."

Pinkie laughed and cheerfully said "Well if you aren't gunna eat it I guess I will.". Pinkie lunged at the cake and within thirty seconds the rest of the cake was gone. "Wowee that might have been the best cake I've ever made!" said Pinkie. “So earlier you said you don’t have a name?”

“Not that I can remember, I’m not even quite sure where I came from. I don't remember anything.” He said.

“Lets name you!” shouted Pinkie.

“Name me? Do you have something particular in mind?” asked the pony.

“Ooo I know! How about night!” she said.

“Night? That’s a bit simple isn’t it?” said the pony.

“Hmmm how about something like….Eclipse?” she said. “You are the color of night and I think it fits you pretty well.”

“Eclipse…….I like it. From now on I’ll be Eclipse!” said Eclipse.

For a moment Pinkie locked eyes with Eclipse and he noticed how bright blue her eyes were. Seeing them made him wonder what color his eyes were.

It seemed like an odd question to ask, but whatever,"Hey Pinkie what color are my eyes?" asked Eclipse.

"Why they're blue silly! How could you forget your own eye color?" said Pinkie.

"Haha yea silly of me to forget that." said Eclipse trying to play off his feeling of awkwardness for asking such a stupid question.

Pinkie smiled kindly and said "It's not every day you run into an alicorn. and the fact that you don't remember anything is strange, but I like you! You should stay around."

Eclipse sighed, "Well, it's not like there's anywhere else for me to go. Anyways, about the magic. You said you have a friend who can teach me?"

Pinkie jumped up from her seat, knocking it to the ground "Oh yea! I nearly forgot, how silly of me! You wanna go see Twilight; she lives down the road from here. You just head right down the street, take a right at Quills and Sofas, and follow the road till you get to a big tree house. You can't miss it."

"Thanks, I guess I'll head over there now. Are you coming too?" asked Eclipse.

Pinkies expression saddened a bit and she replied "Well, trust me when I say I would love to go with you, but I have to stay here and watch Sugarcube Corner, somepony has to do it after all."

Eclipse was a bit sad that Pinkie couldn't accompany him to meet Twilight, but she had to do what she had to do. He thanked pinkie for the cake and the nice talk and took off to head for Twilight's house.

A first flight

As he made his way down the street Eclipse noticed that some ponies gave him surprised looks as he passed, and every now and then somepony would show a look that bordered somewhat on fear. They’re afraid of me…lovely he thought.

Eclipse rounded the street around Quills and Sofas and noticed that the amount of buildings started to dwindle and off in the distance he saw what looked to be a large green tree with what might have been a purple door in the trunk. From the distance it wasn't necessarily easy to tell if it was really a house or just a tree. Eclipse thought that it was a great time to try out his wings. He leaned down and took a powerful leap into the air. He opened his wings and they instantly caught the air, he started flapping them to get some real momentum and speed as he flew towards what he presumed to be Twilight's house.

What he didn't see was that the rainbow maned pony from earlier had been sleeping on a nearby cloud and had woken up when he took off. She stretched on the cloud after her nap and took a look to see what had woken her. She looked to see a large dark blue alicorn take off from the ground and soar into the sky. He was fast but she doubted he was as fast as Rainbow dash, the fastest pony in all of Ponyville. And she, of course, was Rainbow Dash herself. Now awake she launched herself from the cloud to catch up to the alicorn, who had already covered a good distance in the short time since he took off.

Rainbow dash had to put on a burst of speed to catch up to Eclipse. Eventually she caught up to him and flew directly in front of him. Then she opened up her wings, using them as air brakes to slow her down. Likewise, Eclipse slowed down too. He was wondering why the rainbow maned pony had stopped him and was about to speak when she said "Hey I'm Rainbow Dash, I haven't seen you flying around here before, but hey your fast. I challenge you to a race! I'm the fastest pony in Ponyville and possibly all of Equestria; nopony can beat me in a race."

Eclipse looked at her and said "Well, it's nice to meet you but I'm a little bit busy, I'm headed to Twilight’s house to see if I can learn to use magic, so I can't really race now but I'll race you in a few hours."

Rainbow Dash now noticed the horn on Eclipses head and realized he was an alicorn. She had never heard of there being any alicorns besides Luna and Celestia. She had never raced an alicorn before and thought about how much bragging rights being a faster flyer than an alicorn would bring.

"You want to go and find out how to use magic? Save it for later, you need to race me right now. I can't stand to wait for hours, the anxiety will kill me!" said Rainbow.

"I don't know, I wanna stop by Twilight's to learn how I use magic." said Eclipse.

"Twilight isn’t home; she went off to find some ingredients. So in the mean time you’ll race me to Cloudsdale! First one there wins…..Ready, go!" said Rainbow, her voice trailing off as she rocketed off towards Cloudsdale.

Eclipse bolted from where he had been hovering to catch up to Rainbow. "How am I supposed to beat her in a race to a place I've never even heard of?” he mumbled. His wings pounding the air as he gave some considerable effort to catch up to Rainbow. He started gaining on Rainbow and had pulled up next to her a few moments later. "Hey Rainbow!" he shouted, trying to make his voice heard over the rushing wind. "I'm kind of new here and I don't exactly know where Cloudsdale is, any chance you can tell me where to go?"

Rainbow, somewhat shocked Eclipse could even keep up with her, said "Cloudsdale is straight ahead just past the peak of that mountain off in the distance, it’s a big cloud city you can't miss it. But there's no need to ask for directions, you can just follow behind me!" she said as she stuck her tongue out and bolted ahead.

"Things just got serious!” he shouted ahead, he now put all his effort into the beating of his wings and rocketed forward with tremendous speed.

Eclipse was gaining on Rainbow again and decided this time not to stop and chat. As he passed rainbow he gave her a mock salute and proceeded to pull ahead. But Rainbow had never lost a race and didn't plan to lose today. She put on an extra burst of speed and started catching back up to Eclipse. Eclipse was pretty confident of himself now that he was ahead and knew where to go. He never expected to see Rainbow pull up next to him and give him a salute with her tongue out in mock of his earlier mocking salute. Now things were heating up. Eclipse was fast but Rainbow was a rocket. Not today thought Eclipse as he put on yet another burst of speed to regain his position ahead of Rainbow.

This time Rainbow didn't let him pass and gave it her all to stay just the tiniest bit faster than Eclipse. The two ponies were going so fast the scenery around them seemed to blur by. Eclipse could see the mountain ahead and knew that Cloudsdale couldn't be far away. He had almost given up on beating Rainbow there when he realized that the time between her wing strokes seemed to be decreasing bit by bit. The increments were so small at first that they were hardly noticeable, but the time between the beats of here wings was definitely expanding! She was getting tired! Eclipse had the advantage from his bigger wings and while he wasn't quite as fast he could keep up top speed longer than Rainbow could. Eclipse wanted to put on another burst of speed to make more of a show when he passed her but he knew that would drain his energy more, and he needed all the strength he could get if he wanted to beat Rainbow. After a brief few moments the two ponies shot over the mountain and Cloudsdale came into sight. The sweat on Eclipses face was starting to make it to his eyes and it stung badly, blurring his vision a bit. Rainbow Dash must have been having the same problem because she blinked her eyes a few times and rubbed her hoof over her face. Cloudsdale was now a short sprint ahead and Eclipse was putting every ounce of strength he had into his wings. The way things were going it looked like he was going to win.

Rainbow was now becoming desperate; she had never lost a race and knew that if she did she would lose all the pride she had as a pegasus. Drawing on reserves brought upon by the sheer fact that she just couldn't lose she gave everything she had and started to catch up to Eclipse again. The strain it put on her was almost unbearable. Her eyes also stung from the sweat and she was starting to feel dizzy from the ridiculous stamina the race required. Eclipse saw Rainbow slowly passing him up and attempted to pick up the pace and stay ahead of her. The attempt failed and he was starting to lose feeling in his wings. The incredible determination Rainbow Dash had was also an advantage over Eclipse. Slowly but surely Rainbow pulled ahead and Eclipse decided that with that kind of determination there was no way he would beat her. He conceded defeat as he slowed down to watch as Rainbow soared to the city below.

A trip to Canterlot

He woke up to a hoof shaking his side gently.
"Uuugghh. I don't wanna wake up." he moaned.

"You’re going to have to unless you wanna miss our ride to Canterlot." said Twilight.

The mention of Canterlot got Eclipse awake and he managed to drag himself out of bed. For some reason he felt more tired than he had before he took his nap. Even though the bed Twilight had let him sleep in was softer than his, and he slept worry free.

He rubbed his eyes with his arm and asked "So we're going now?"

"We're going in ten minutes." Twilight replied.

"Then you could have waited ten more minutes before you woke me!" Eclipse exclaimed.

"We'll be going soon so be ready." Twilight said.

Eclipse spent the next ten minutes waiting for Twilight. When she finally appeared she was carrying some saddlebags.

"Saddlebags? What are those for?" he asked.

"I use them to carry my stuff." she replied.

"Of course, but what are you bringing to Canterlot?" he asked.

"Well it's mostly books to read on the ride there but I also brought some money with me, in case we need something while we're there." she said.

Eclipse took out his money pouch and asked "If you have bags can you carry my money too? It's kind of inconvenient to carry around alone." he told her.

"No problem." replied Twilight.

"So now we head out?" asked Eclipse as he put his coin pouch in one of Twilight’s saddlebags.

"Yep. Hey Spike! Make sure you keep everything in order! We'll be back in a few days!" she called out.

"Got it!" came Spike's voice from another room.

Within an hour the two made it to the train station. They walked up the wooden steps to the station and were greeted by a loud, and not to mention unexpected "Surprise!" from Pinkie.

Eclipse flinched from the noise. They had spent the time getting to the train station on a quiet dirt path. And their conversations weren't loud either.

"Pinkie?" he asked, "What are you doing here?"

"Well when you told me you were headed to Canterlot because of that crazy stuff I figured I would get everypony and come along! After all we're your friends and we want to see how it goes, maybe we can even help!" said Pinkie.

"Everypony? Who else is here?" asked Eclipse

"Oh, you know. Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy. Just the few of us." she responded.

"I don't see them." said Eclipse.

"They still have to get tickets. They're inside right now." she said.

Then, as if on cue, the four of them came out of the station office.

"Hey Twilight, do we already have tickets?" asked Eclipse.

"Yep, got them yesterday." said Twilight as she used her magic to lift the two tickets from her saddlebags to show Eclipse.

"Awesome." he responded.

There came a piercing note of a train whistle followed by the hiss of steam as a train pulled into the station.

"Looks like our train is here." said Twilight.

She walked onto the train, followed by Eclipse. Then came Pinkie, talking about how much she loved train rides. Then came the rest of them.

They had all happened to get tickets in the same train cart. The cart was big enough for eight, but nopony else had gotten a ticket to the cart. They set their stuff down and proceeded to check out their cart. There were eight bunk beds positioned on the sides of the cart and each bed had a window that looked out to the horizon.

Eclipse picked his bunk and hopped onto it. He put his arms behind his head on his pillow and crossed his legs to relax. He was planning to relax and maybe fall asleep. He wanted to sleep so that he could stay up for the night to make sure he didn’t look out of the window at the stars while he was asleep.

There was a long steam whistle that went off and the train started to lug forwards. The train started off slow but eventually managed to get up to a good speed.
Eclipse sat silently and listened to the sounds around him. There was the sound of the other ponies chatting accompanied by the sound of the train’s metal wheels moving along the track. Then there was warm sunlight flowing in through the window by Eclipse’s bed. The train swayed back and forth whenever it turned adding to the relaxation Eclipse was feeling. Before long Eclipse had fallen asleep relaxing to the sounds and motion of the train.

Eclipse slept through nearly the entire day, despite being well rested before he went to sleep. By the time he woke up the view on the horizon was beginning to fade from orange to the darker blue of night. The stars would be coming out soon, so Eclipse was glad he had woken up. It was going to be a long, lonely night.

He wanted to look out of the window, but he knew that he would risk glancing at the stars. It was now completely dark and the only light in the train came from the moon and the occasional town they passed.

Eclipse heard something stir behind him and he turned to see Twilight getting up in her bed.

“Eclipse, are you just going to stay up all night?” asked Twilight.

“Ya, I don’t think I have much choice. Besides I slept throughout the entire day so I’m more than well rested.” He whispered back.

“Oh yea, there was something I was going to give you. I forgot to give it to you at the house. Can you get my saddlebags? They’re just by the door.” she said.

“Alright.” whispered Eclipse.

He moved towards the door and retrieved Twilight’s saddlebags. He set them down by her bed and took a step back.

“Let’s see. I know I put it in here somewhere.” mumbled Twilight as she used magic to rummage through her bags. The magic was casting a soft glow around the room and giving everything a tint of purple. “Here it is!” said Twilight. A small pendant with a blue stone in it levitated out of the bag.

“What is it?” asked Eclipse.

“It’s a good luck charm. I was going to give it to you earlier but I forgot, so I’m giving it to you now.” smiled Twilight.

“I suppose if there’s anypony who needs luck it’s me.” said Eclipse.

Twilight put the pendant around Eclipse’s neck and took a good look at it. The pendant had a thin silver chain and there was a spiral of metal holding the stone in place.

“Thanks,” said Eclipse, “Where did you get this?”

“It was a gift from my parents before I went to magic school. Now I’m giving it to you.” said Twilight.

“I’ll make sure to always wear it.” said Eclipse. “Now you should probably go back to bed, you didn’t sleep all day like me.”

“Alright, goodnight.” said Twilight.

“Night.” said Eclipse.

He went back and sat on his bed, with the curtains closed of course. He sat back and relaxed, but not enough to let him get tired and fall asleep.

Across from Eclipse’s bed Twilight had turned so that she could watch Eclipse.
He was sitting is his bed looking up at the ceiling. Twilight could see that the red crescent in Eclipse’s left eye was almost going completely around the eye. It gave off an eerie red glow. Previously she hadn’t been sure if the red was glowing or if it just looked like it glowed, but now that it was almost completely dark she could see that there was in fact a red light coming from his left eye. The train had just gone through a town and was now in the darkness of the countryside again, so Twilight’s eyes had not adjusted to the dark yet. When she looked at Eclipse all she could see was the thin, red, moon shaped crescent giving off its glow. She watched Eclipse for a few more minutes and then drifted off to sleep.

The night was long and there wasn’t much to keep Eclipse entertained. He couldn’t talk to any of the others because they were all asleep, and he couldn’t open his curtains to watch the scenery because he would undoubtedly end up looking at the stars.

After what seemed like an eternity the room started to lighten up, which meant that the sun was finally coming up. Eclipse assumed it was safe to open the curtain and look outside now. He opened the curtain and luckily he was right. The stars were no longer visible.

The other ponies were waking up now too. Soon the train pulled into the Canterlot station and everypony got their stuff and exited. Now they were finally there, Canterlot. All the ponies walking around wore tuxedos and fancy stuff, which made Eclipse feel out of place with his broken horn, discolored eye, and scars over his eye. He would undoubtedly get some strange looks on the way to Celestia’s castle.