*This story has optional music listed in it, whenever you see a link to some were open it in a separate tab and let it run if another link comes up close whichever one is open now and then open the next one. This music is optional and you can enjoy the story on its own without it, but you can listen to it… if you want... if that’s ok with you.
Eclipsed
Prologues
Deep within the Everfree forest there is a ruined castle. This is the castle of the pony sisters Luna and Celestia. What most don’t know was that this castle was not originally built as a place of residence and a capital of the before the events of Nightmare Night, but was originally built as a prison. And not just any prison, but a prison for a very significant pony in the history of Equestria.
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The black and red pony unfurled his wings as he stood up, having to get up one hoof at a time feeling weak as he does so. “Uggg, how long have I been out?” he said to himself “Can we finish this now… what?” he realizes that he is alone now. Looking around to gather his bearings. The room, if you could call it a room anymore it appears to be a shadow of its former glory, the walls were crumbling and the ceiling had collapsed in places. Iron bars now bent and rusted through used to section off one part of the room that he is now in.
“Well looks like I’ve been out for some time.” He looked around and found a set of what used to be stairs and with feeling starting to return to his extremities flew up them showing a thin ring of light on his flank. He continues up the stairs and soon figured that he started out underground at least three stories, making his way up as high as he could, with the gaping holes in the walls he soon finds out that he is in some sort of extremely dense forest and the sun is beginning to rise as he finds his way up to the tallest tower in what he assumes used to be a castle.
Sitting atop the tower he begins to think about what may have happened and what to do. The hours drone on as the sun continues to rise in its shining radiance, the unknown stallion sits there almost as a statue as he goes over everything he can see from his position, the castle/ city in the nearby mountains draws his attention first feeling some powerful magic emanating from there, then the huge city in the clouds for no reason other than from its fastness and placement in his view. Surveying the skyline he sees a multitude of large buildings he focuses his vision and determines that there are approximately three other large settlements with in his vision as well as a surprisingly large area that seems almost entirely barren.
Next his attention is drawn to the small town on the outskirts of the forest he is in, again he feels some powerful energies coming from it but this feels less like magic, it was something he could feel but had never felt anything like it before. “interesting”, he says to nobody, “I’ll have to look into that, but first I need a place to work from” looking around at what he assumes used to be a castle of some sort at one point, possibly a few hundred years ago, “I guess this place will have to do, not like I know anything else about this place or time for that matter.” With that he takes off with his wings as his horn begins to glow “I Have a lot of work ahead of me” with that the sun begins to set as the moon rises.
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The sun began to rise as the Black Alicorn finished his work on the castle. Standing in front of it now with an almost new outer wall he opened the grandeur gate in to his garden filled with a wide array of fully grown and trimmed plants and trees from the forest around his new home, making a mental note to replace some of them as he finds new flora. Walking up to the doors of his new home and opening them with his magic. he strolls into the massive entry way with a huge marble staircase taking up the majority of the far side with two rows of columns leading to it from the doors, walking across the equally posh carpet to the staircase and under the full glass chandelier up and the veering off to the left wing of the castle before the doors to the throne room heading down a hallway lined with statues of ponies dressed in full armor from a time long ago, passing by his new room which he takes a quick look inside to make sure he made the bed exactly how he wanted. Four poster? Check. Colors to match that of my coat and mane? Check. Very comfy? Check. Alright, he thought to himself. Looking around at the rest of the room, the custom carpet, the antique dresser and nightstand the ornate door and the floor to ceiling mirror. Heading back into the hallway he extinguishes all the candles lighting it with a single flick of his horn as the sun begins to shine through the windows that he could have easily stood inside of. He walked proudly to the end of the hall and entered into the tower he first flew up when he awoke and began to walk up the newly fixed spiral staircase looking out of the windows he installed in order to make the climb less dreary like it probably used to be under its original owner whomever that may have been. On reaching the top of the tower he gave a quick look at the exquisite throne he installed here so that he could at least be comfortable during the next phase of his plan. Sitting down on the throne and observing once again all that is around him. With the sun only just above the horizon he grinned as he closed his eyes and summoned his energies his horn began to glow first then his wings outstretched above him his whole body glowed with magic as he began to raise the moon.
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Twilight was going through her usual routine for the morning, wake up to spike making some breakfast then after she finishes that finding herself a good book she hasn’t read in a while and sitting down to read through it before lunch as spike runs the little errands in the morning. This morning she had decided to read through 1000 herbs and fungi, a particularly interesting book to her when spike bursts into the door panting, “Twil, light, you’ve, got’ to come see this” he pants. “What is it” she replies setting down her book with her magic she stands up to follow him outside.
Walking out in front of her house she listens to spike explain what’s going on. “it was just a normal day like any other, I made you breakfast and then went to do those errands you asked me to I went outside and accidently ran into pinkie pie who was looking at the sky, I asked her why she was looking at the sky and she pointed at the moon, at first I was like ’uhhh… pinkie it’s just the moon’ but the n I was like ‘Pinkie why is the moon out!?’ and then…” he continued on but twilight had stopped listing her eyes falling on the source of spike’s long winded account of his morning. The moon was out with the sun, she thought to herself, that doesn’t seem right, that can’t be right. In the legend of Nightmare Moon, Celestia couldn’t raise the sun because the moon was in the way yet now there both in the sky at the same time. Did they find a way to coexist? She ran into somepony in her absent mindedness. Picking herself off the ground she helps rarity to her hoofs and does a quick spell to clean her off before she starts getting ancy about being dirty.
“Thanks twilight, but do you have any idea what’s going on here?” she asks the purple unicorn.
“I have no idea what’s going on I’ve never seen this happen before nor have I read anything about something like this happening before in any of my books.”
“So this is the first time this has ever happened?!” comes the voice of an excited pony followed by pinkie pie pouncing up to the other two ponies. “This calls for a party!!! I’ll call it the sun and moon in the sky at the same time party! Or the party of the sun and the moon! Or maybe the…”
“Maybe we should hold off on the celebrations for the time being until we know what’s going on, this all just doesn’t feel right and I can feel heavy magic in the air, for all we know Celestia and Luna may have lost control of the Sun and moon.”
“Oh like that would ever happen” came a fourth voice from above as a blue pegasus poked her head out over a cloud, “you know better than any of us that those two are the most powerful ponies in all of Equestria. They would never lose control of their royal duties.” Rainbow Dash glided down gracefully to the gathered ponies as an orange Earth Pony trotted up to the group
“What in tarnation is going on here? Ain’t never seen this happen in my life before now, nether has granny smith, this sure ain't something natural going on here” Applejack calls out to the rest of her friends as she approaches.
“your right AJ” Twilight replies “but there is nothing in any of my books on this, oh, wait maybe. Spike! Can you go fetch me that scroll case with the old letters I found in the Canterlot library?”
“Right away!” answers the little dragon as he scampers off in the direction of the tree house.
“what you thinking there sugar cube?”
“that I may have read something in one of those letters that may give us a clue as to what’s going on” Twilight replied, “but first lets go see if Fluttershy has any insight as to what is going on here, besides I haven’t seen here in town sense yesterday morning” with that she and her friends head off to Flutershy’s cottage on the edge of the Everfree forest.
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Wrapping up from yet another well done show this time in another small town on her way to Manehattan, Trixie was starting to get tired of her regular nightly shows followed by a day of sleeping as her roadies she picked up after the Ponyville incident took her to the next town. It was one thing after another, show up just before the sun sets got the word out of her arrival, start the show with minor tricks and illusions with some fancy pyrotechnics to draw their attention, then begin to challenge some of the residents, beat them out then make up some crazy story and then her finally which is just her making an enlarged version of herself along with an illusion of an Ursa Minor, but she calls it an Ursa Major, and then defeating it. It’s boring for Trixie.
The sun was starting to come up as if taunting Trixie with another morning. But something didn’t feel right to Trixie, there was a heavy amount of magic in the air, she could feel it. It was coming from somewhere near Ponyville. “probably that Twilight pony showing off again, humph” she thought to herself which only made this next part even more astounding when she saw what all this magic was doing. Her jaw dropped as she saw the moon begin to rise again after just setting. She turned around to make sure that the sun was still there and sure enough it was. “impossible, I know she was powerful but she couldn’t be as powerful as an Alicorn. Trixie must find out what is causing this.” Speaking to herself more than anyone around her as some of the residents of the village she was in began to also take notice of the Moon and sun being out at the same time.
“Trixie! Is that you doing that?” asked one nearby orange pegasus with a cricket cutie mark whom Trixie had just beaten in a competition to collect insects
“What? I mean of course, The Great and Powerful Trixie has magic to rival that of even the Pony sisters sitting high and mighty on their thrones in Canterlot.”
“Wow, Trixie your Amazing I bet you’re the most magical pony in all of Equestria” said another pony in the small crowd that had now gathered again to see the Moon and Sun rising at the same time.
“Why yes, Oh course I am. I’m the Great and Powerful Trixie, nopony can match my amazing talent!” Walking back to her new wagon that she once again got after the Ponyville incident, seeing that Snips and Snails had just finished packing it up informed them of their new destination with a grin on her face “we are heading back to Ponyville The Great and Powerful Trixie has to speak with somepony in particular.” With that the Blue unicorn climbed into her wagon and they were off back to Ponyville.
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“Ugggg… this is soooooo boring being stuck as stone….. again.”
“Why must they turn me to stone every single time, don’t they know what this does to your back?” Discord ranted in his own mind being unable to speak since he was turned to stone and moved back to the royal gardens after his last... incident.
“maybe if I just made that cloud over there turn in to a flock of birds I could use them to… oh yeah no powers when you’re made of stone. Oh well I’ve only got let’s see Oh would you look at the time I’ve got 999 more years before I can free myself again, that’s not long at all. Those last users of the elements weren’t as bad as the two before them. What were their names again?”
“ummmm… flutter… flutter… the yellow one, appledaniel? No that’s not it… oh well not important I have 999 years of chaos to make! Oh wait this is my off season. I guess I’ll just sit on this bench here… damn can’t sit. They just thought of everything didn’t they?” his train of thought was interrupted by the sight of the moon rising with the sun.
“hey I recognize that one! That was one of my tricks last time I was out so now the sun should be going down.” He tried to look over his shoulder to no avail. “You know they could at least give a person some basic commodities like being able to move!!!! Oh wait a moment this isn’t my trick this is that guy who was before me I believe, ummm… yeah I remember that guy, so drab at least he was better than some of the other ponies around here like that yellow one from earlier. Although that purple one was kind of fun to toy with took a little longer then I thought but eh, I digress. So anyways where was I? Oh right Moon and Sun at the same time… if it’s the guy it was last time then, and let’s be honest the only other person it could be is well me and let me just make sure it’s not me.” Discord pauses in his train of thought before continuing, “nope, it is not I, so it looks like my off season may be a little short this eon”
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The clubhouse of the cutie mark crusaders was, once again, covered in mud. “Why does this seem to happen every single time we try and get our cutie marks?” inquired one orange Pegasus.
“I don’t know” responded the one that used to have a white coat which was now soiled and almost completely covered in mud save her flank where she wiped the mud off to see if it was still blank, like the others it still was.
“Maybe we should just avoid doing stuff near the river from now on, besides I don’t think any of us are going to get our cutie marks in canoeing any time soon” said the yellow one beginning to wash herself up and get towels for her friends
Sweetie Bell looked up from drying herself off also “Oh is that what we were doing? I thought we were giving diving another try. That makes so much more sense now.”
“Next time let's use a real canoe instead of that one you made out of an old barrel Apple Bloom” Scootaloo said also beginning to dry herself off as well
“It’s not like you had any better ideas!” she retorted “besides no point in us arguing about it now, let’s see what else we can do today”
Sweetie Bell began to look at their map and said “I think I heard that Fluttershy is having some problems with some of the animals recently, maybe we can be cutie mark Crusader animal tamers!”
“Hey look at this you two” Scootaloo called them over to the window where they could see the moon rising over Everfree forest where it just set not just a few hours ago
“I saw that earlier but I thought my mind was just playing tricks on me from all the water”
“We should go find out what’s going on!” Sweetie Bell squeaked “maybe Fluttershy knows something about it!” and with that they were off to Flutershy’s cottage.
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Outside the borders of the Country of Equestria the Changeling Queen plots her revenge not only against Shining Armor and Princess Cadence but against Ponydom as a whole, she despises them, they are way to happy and care free, they make perfect food for her and her hive. She murmurs to herself as she paces back and forth in her throne room “a sign of weakness is all we need, our army is strong enough to defeat them but only if we attack when they are weak”.
“Did you say something my Queen?”Hisses her commander and advisor also in the room with her.
“For too long I have sat here outside the borders of that country watching them prance around free and open hearted as if taunting me, us!”Chrysalis nearly screamed back at him
“But my Queen you know better than any of us a direct attack on their capital won’t work and that ever our guises can be defeated as you proved last time” the commander retorts then soon regrets as Chrysalis quickly closes the gap between them with her wings
“You think I don’t think about that constantly? You think I do not go over all my mistakes in my head over and over to figure out what I did wrong?” she paused for a moment distracted by something out the window. Backing away from the commander and moving towards the window as she says “but what is this?” The commander looks out the window and only sees the moon.
“It is only the moon, your highness” he replies respectfully though thankful she backed off of him.
“But during the day time. Yes, this is just what we’ve been looking for a sign of weakness the princesses must be weakening if they are losing control of the celestial bodies above. “She is contemplating something deeper. “of perhaps an old friend of theirs is back, no matter either way they will be weak for the time being. Commander!”
“Yes, my Queen?”
“Assemble the troops we are done waiting and watching, we are done with stealth and infiltration gather everyone, I mean every able body changeling in the hive”
“But shouldn’t we play to our strengths?”
“We are done with playing to our strengths, today we play to our opponents’ weakness, by the end of today we invade Equestria.”
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Looking up the side of the Canterlot castle early in the morning your eye would catch a glimpse of a beautiful pink Alicorn often looking out over the rest of the city, this morning was like any other, princess cadence was looking out over the rest of the city, it was a peaceful view which is why she enjoyed doing this every morning, being able to watch the sun rise and then the little ponies in Canterlot begin to wake up and go about their business. She heard hoof beats coming up behind her, “Honey, why are the mornings so beautiful?” she said sleepily as Shining Armor walked up beside her
“I don’t know but I’m just glad I can share them with you” he smiled, since the attack by the changelings and the wedding, things had settled in to a slow peaceful state for some time now. But something seemed off he could feel it in the air, there is usually a lot of magic in the air around Canterlot during sunrise and sunset but this was way more than it should be. “Can you feel that? The air is heavy with magic, something isn’t right.”
Cadence replies half asleep “I’m sure it woul… look at that!” she points a hoof behind Shinning to point out the moon rising when it just set. ”and now that you have pointed it out I can feel the magic too. It feels almost familiar but I can’t quite place where.
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“this is bad if he sisters lose control of the Sun and Moon that will never end well” he begins to scan the horizon like he does every morning just with more vigor then should be possible this early in the morning, he looks until he finds what he was most worried about. Using his magic to summon a telescope to look through he looks towards the Changeling wasteland and sees what the beginning of an army forming is. “Cadence, go warn the other Princess of the changeling threat. I must go raise the guard and the guard of the surrounding cities or none of them will stand a chance.
“Yes I will, but please be safe I almost lost you once I won’t stand for losing you now” with that and a kiss she takes off for the tower at the top of castle.
retrieving the horn he has in his room he blows it signaling the danger ahead an before he can don his armor three pegasus are already at his room, “sir, what is the danger sir?” it appears as if the changeling army is forming up you three must head immediately to the other messenger pegasus and have them take this warning to arm and prepare themselves for an all out war, any villages that can’t defend themselves until our own army is assembled should evacuate to Canterlot or some other nearby city, now go! There is no time to waste I’ll take care of the defenses here and begin arousing the army”. With that the three other guard members took to the Pegasus barracks as Shining armor practically jumped down the stairs to the main barracks to begin issuing orders as he began to prepare his protection spell
“If its war they want, then that is exactly what we will give them”
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“Sister is that you raising the moon right now?” Celestia asked Luna as soon as they found each other after both seeing the impossible act of the moon re-rising,
“No sister you know that I cannot raise my moon when your sun is in the sky, what could be doing this?” none of our magic and do this, discord maybe?”
“He was imprisoned a little over a year ago there is no way he could have gotten out” by this time the sun and moon are both over head as the day draws into late morning. The moon is out pacing the sun and is seemingly racing across the sky picking up speed as it does so, the movement is slow but it is noticeable from the ground at this point
“Big sister what is going on? I can’t control the moon” Luna is desperately trying to take back control of the moon to no avail with all her might she can’t even slow it down.
“Let me help you” Celestia aids some of her magic to her younger sister but it only barley slows down the moon
“Celestia! Luna!” the pink shape of princess cadence glided gently down to the other Alicorns, “I have urgent news, it appears as if the Changelings are preparing for another attack as we speak”
“We must warn the people!” Celestia was almost ready to take off to do so, before Cadence stopped her
“Shining Armor is already on it and he is raising an army of our own to combat them” she said with a worried look in her eye as she looked up to see the moon dangerously close to the sun now
Luna spoke up next “what should we do sister? We can’t just leave this deal with the moon behind we can’t lose control of the sun and moon.” Looking up worried just like cadence
Celestia opened her mouth to speak but before she could do so the moon passed in front of the sun, slowly blotting out its light and warmth. The three Alicorns and seemingly the whole country held its breath as this happened until the moon completely covered the sun and stopped.
“Eclipse” was all that Celestia could say when it was over.
“Eclipse? You can’t mean…” chimed in Luna
“Why do I know that’s a name for someone" spoke up Cadence
Celestia was hesitant to reply “Because it is, Eclipse, what are you doing? Stop this brother
