Sins of the Mother

“So, you were actually born on the moon?” Twilight asked of me with a hayburger held between her hooves. Dash was currently face deep in her hay fries, though why they didn’t have potato fries was beyond me.

“Yes, Twilight, I was actually born on the moon.” I replied once i’d cleared my mouth of my own sandwich. “Gravity was significantly less there than here so when I appeared here I could barely walk under the new gravity. I was forced to use my wings up until the point of them having been clipped. I spent a week in recovery and strengthening my body to be able to move further than a couple feet under my own hoof power.” I explained before taking another large bite of my sandwich I’d more or less custom built with produce found in the town.

“Okay, ignoring the fact that your wings seemed to have healed a crippling injury so quickly, what about life on the moon? What was it like? What kind of accommodations did you have? Was there air to breath? Do you even breath?” Twilight rolled me over with her questions, drawing a groan of mild frustration at her incessant inquiries.

“You wanna know what it was like living up there? Think of living under Nightmare Moon’s care for your entire life, all alone save for her. She had been up there long enough before I was born that she erected an entire dark castle to reside in. Yes, we would breath air but there were many rooms that were unpressurized and so we’d very quickly acclimated using magic.” I set my sandwich down and took a slurp of a fruit smoothie to clear everything out of my mouth and from between my teeth.

“How did you fly up there in no air? Wouldn’t that make it more difficult?” Dash looked interested to know this so I figured i’d help her out.

“From what I gathered from watching you two flying, you seem to rely on air pressure more than anything, right? You create a sort of cushion of air under your wings to glide but use your inherent pegasi magic to actually achieve lift required to lift your bodies.”

“That’s more or less how it works, yeah.” Twilight replied for Dash who only looked confused at my explanation.

“Okay, on the moon where there is often no air at all, I’d just use the wing power to move myself. Since there was no air resistance I had nothing to slow myself down with if I was to use my wings, so it was all just by sheer force of magic.” I explained and took another bite to finish my sandwich as Twilight wrote everything down and Rainbow Dash simply stared at my wings.

“So how do you fly now? The techniques between moon and planet would be significantly different, right?” Dash finally asked as I took another pull from my drink.

“Depends on how much power you use. I can achieve the same kind of flight here as I did on the moon, it just takes more power from me under the increased gravity and presence of air resistance.” I shrugged back with a partial mouthful.

“Please don’t speak with a mouthful.” Twilight scolded me, reminding me of my mother greatly.

“Yes, mom.” I mumbled and all but ignored her glare at me.

“Have you learned how to fly like the rest of us? Using air resistance and all that to fly instead of sheer power?” Rainbow almost concerned for me with this question.

“Ehh…” I mentally examined my recent flights and figured i’d still had much to learn in that regards. “Not… really… I know and understand the idea how to do it, it’s just putting it into practice.”

“Then it’s official!” Dash declared, slamming a hoof down on the table which startled not only myself and twilight, but a number of other patrons in the building.

“What is?” I was almost too afraid to ask, really.

“I’ll be your official flight instructor! You’d have no better teacher than the fastest flier in all Equestria!” Dash declared, at least this time quieter than before.

“That’s quite a title, sounds made up.” I smirked. Dash glared at me and Twilight chuckled.

“Actually, that is her legitimate title. A couple years back she earned that title at a Junior flier’s competition hosted by Princess Celestia. Rainbow Dash is officially the fastest flier in all of Equestria.” Twilight explained, only bolstering Rainbow’s ego in the process.

I remained silent, as though impressed with this accomplishment of hers though I was mostly thinking about what would happen if I were to combine the flight techniques of myself and Dash. How fast could I fly then? And what about with magical assistance?

“So, what did you mostly do on the moon? I can’t imagine it was very exciting up there, looking down on our planet.” Twilight broke the silence save for Dash slurping at a near empty drink cup.

“I read books.” I replied simply. There really wasn’t much need for much more explanation. “Studied all kinds of magic too…”

“Right, I forgot about that. I still wanna see what spells you know that I don’t; see if I can learn them.” Twilight nodded in reply, tucking her notepad and pencil away into her bags. “Well, two thirds of the spells you know anyways.”

“Two thirds?” Rainbow looked as confused as I was, though I quickly caught on; affinity.

“Right, yeah. Can’t have random ponies running around with the other third…” I mumbled, still not letting the pegasus in the room in on the conversation in it’s entirety.

“Would somepony please tell me what the hay you’re talking about?” Dash demanded almost childishly. The pout she’d put on would’ve given Octavia a run for her money in adorableness.

“Not in public, no.” Twilight replied under hushed tones. “We’re talking affinities and it’s illegal to practice one of those affinities.” Twilight explained in a whisper, making sure only the three of us could hear what she’d said.

“Oh, you’re talking light, dark and black magic…” Rainbow nodded in reply, ensuring to keep her voice low as well. Then turning to me, “Why do you know black magic?”

“I am a Nightmare, after all.” I shrugged back, my voice back to a regular volume now. “Maybe not right now, but if I felt so inclined I could go full Nightmare and unleash magic unlike anything anypony has seen before.” I added, not exactly realising the rest of the building had gone silent upon this announcement. “Not… that I would, I mean… Why bother?” I added as everypony around me watched me with unease.

“Great job keeping a low profile, Eclissi.” Twilight scolded me as she cleaned up her tray and deposited her garbage into the appropriate receptacles, as did Dash and myself before we hastened our retreat from the building.

“Yeah, not my best move. I’ll admit that.” I replied, watching everypony watch us leave before the doors swung closed again. “And with that said and done, I thank you both for accompanying me tonight.” I announced, turning back to the mares before me. “With it getting as late as it is and the day i’ve had, i’m gonna head back to my mom’s old castle for the night.”

“You don’t have anywhere else to stay? I could put you up for a while.” Twilight offered helpfully, though I shook my head in reply.

“I appreciate the offer, but I wanna use this as a chance to go through the older books my mom used to have there. I’ve got some stuff to try and find and I wanna see what I can learn in the Everfree.”

“Well, alright then. Don’t stray too far from the paths if you can help it.” Rainbow replied for Twilight before offering a hoof bump to me, which I returned and took to wing to head “home.”

~~~

“So, did you find anything?” discord asked of me with a mischievous grin. I was sprawled out on my side on my mother’s bed looking over a set of books that i’d pulled from the library about an hour ago.

“Nah, Rainbow Dash didn’t know anything about the Elements of Chaos. Did a search through her mind and the only thing I could find was something about an Element of Loyalty; couldn’t pull more information than that.” I sighed and magically flipped a page.

“That spell you used to do that, what was it again?” the Draconequus inquired as he tapped his claw and paw together.

“A black magic spell that allows me to forcibly rip information from a pony’s mind whether or not they’re aware of it. I didn’t use it on Twilight because I know she’d detect the invasion to her mind.” I explained, looking up from the book to the creature trying to look as innocent as possible, and failing miserably.

“Yes, Twilight always was a good little student. She studied under Celestia’s tutelage you know, groomed to be an Alicorn from the get-go.” Discord sighed and allowed himself to flop back on a magically appearing lounger.

“I could tell she’d had some impressive training just from the magic radiating off her. Had no idea she was my Aunt’s student.” I remarked and rolled onto my back with a groan to scratch at my belly with my hooves. “Did my mom have a student after she was… recovered?”

“Not that i’m aware of, no.” Discord put a claw to his chin in thought. “But Since her return she’d been more of the beta princess anyways. She really wasn’t much of a teacher to begin with.”

“No shit. Even as Nightmare Moon she tried to do anything but actually teach me magic even though she never let me not study magic.” I shut my eyes to the world and let myself drift off into the darkness of my mind.

“I’m curious,” Discord’s voice seemed to get closer. Soon enough I could feel a claw being dragged along my belly from my stomach to my neck. “You’re the son of Nightmare Moon, why do you look like a normal alicorn? Shouldn’t you have slitted pupils and razorlike teeth?”

“Only when I want to.” I replied, swiping at his claw to keep him from uncomfortably tracing my body again. “It’s not so much of a use of spell as it is forcing the switch in magical affinity within myself.”

“But didn’t you use a spell earlier to become Nightmare Eclipse when you were in the forest outside?”

“Not… exactly. That was more along the lines of burning out all my light magic in one go to leave myself mostly dark.” I replied, opening my eyes again. “If another alicorn was nearby, they’d have been able to overcharge themselves on my magic that i’d expelled from myself.”

“So, you just give up all the light in you and you go Nightmare? Could anypony do that?” Discord wondered aloud, looking like he had a bad idea.

“Nope, they’d need to have affinity for all three forms of magic first. If they tried to go Nightmare without having black magic affinity within themselves, they’d just suffer a burn out.” I explained, magically drawing a graph with an icon for an alicorn without a tiny icon for black magic that followed my explanation.

“Couldn’t they just tap into the inherent dark magic within them?” Discord looked almost disappointed at my replies.

“No. Dark magic acts as the buffer between two extremes in magic. It’s a mixture of both forms and as such would get pulled out with the light upon expulsion. Similarly, if I was to expel all my black magic at once, i’d also expel all the dark magic in myself which would leave me with only light magic.”

“Okay, so what if you were to use up all your light magic power? You’d automatically switch to dark and then black magic?” Discord sat himself down in his lunger again, this time with a cup of tea.

“Not exactly. If I was to use a spell that required constant use of light magic, I’d burn through the light magic first before i’d burn through the dark and then finally black. In order to turn Nightmare, I have to sever the link that the dark magic has to the light magic in order to prevent burning myself out completely.” I sat myself up and turned back to my books.

“Huh. Okay, then what about negative magic? Where does that come into play?” My head turned to look at Discord in confusion.

“What’s negative magic?” I asked, forgetting about my books entirely.

“You don’t know? Negative magic isn’t exactly magic. It’s more of the purification of magic no matter what kind.” Discord explained. “It was originally used to cleanse chaos magic -my magic- but after my imprisonment it quickly became forgotten since it has absolutely no other use than to clean up rampant magic.”

“Then I suppose somepony would have to have an affinity for negative magic in order to use it. Since i’ve never heard about it up till now, I have no idea how it would fit into the scales.” I shrugged and turned back to my books again. “So, do you think that your Elements of Chaos would help me defeat the Elements of Harmony to deal with my mother?”

“Absolutely. Even though I made only three of them, those three are still more than enough to counter all six Elements of Harmony in their entirety.” Discord nodded affirmatively. “Once you collect all three, you will have more than enough power to face your mother and do whatever you want to her. What are you going to do to your mother, anyways?”

“You know, i’ve been thinking about that for quite some time…” I replied with a sigh. “My name is Eclissi which is a word from some old, dead language for Eclipse. I figure that the best plan i’ve got is to banish not only my mother, but my aunt and the bearers of the Elements of Harmony to the stars.” I found myself starting to grin and my rump began to itch a bit.

“You’re not going to banish them to the moon?”

“With the amount of luxuries they’d have up there, it wouldn’t be much of a banishment, now would it?” I glared boredly at the creature, as though his question was pointless.

“Fair enough. So then what do you plan to do to banish them to the stars?”

“That is going to take a bit of effort.” I began. “Because of who I am and the magic i’ve trained with, I need a very specific celestial event to occur in order to supercharge myself to turn them all into stars where they will be forced to watch as their beloved planet is made to not require their magical intervention. I’ve watched the planet from on high enough to know a bit more about science than they do now and I have a plan that will make their magic pointless.” I continued before I paused to take a breath and scratch at my even itchier flanks.

“That sounds like it’ll require an obscene amount of magic.” Discord noted while staring at the decaying ceiling. “What event are you waiting for?”

“An eclipse. Conveniently enough there’s one that’ll be due to come in about a month, a Lunar Eclipse.” I grinned and scratched even more at my flanks. “Dammit Discord, did you do something to make my hide itch so badly?” I demanded, my itching getting more and more furious.

“Me? I would never!” Discord looked honestly hurt that i’d insinuated such an idea. I looked back and my eyes went wide as a section of my flank had begun to shine and shimmer with a white magic. “It seems you’ve found your destiny.”

“My what?” I asked as what I figured was a lunar eclipsed moon appeared on my flanks, burning itself into my fur and skin.

“I mean, you have just received your cutie mark. I’m sure Twilight would have explained it over dinner, yes?” Discord noted, sitting up to get a better look at my flanks; specifically his eyes appeared from my body to look at it before blinking back into his head.

“Yeah, something about special talents and destinies or some bull. So what, it’s my destiny to eclipse the moon?” I asked incredulously.

“It would appear so.” Discord mumbled before vortexing himself into oblivion.

“Good, then that mean’s i’m on the right path.” I grinned and turned back to my books, my vigor refueled once more. “I think I’ll need a castle for myself for after my plan is put into action.”

~~~

“Hey, Eclissi... Wake up…” A female voice echoed throughout my slumbering mind. “Hey, wake up silly!”

“...tavi…?” I mumbled, fidgeting in my sleep. “What’re…”

“Who?” the very chipper voice asked of me. “No silly, my name’s Pinkie Pie!”

“Oh… ‘Kay…” I murmured in weary response. Then my eyes shot open. “Who are you and what’re you doing here?” I demanded, ensuring I was still under my blankets.

“I just told you, I’m Pinkie Pie! It’s time to get up and start your day!” The very pink with an even more pink mane and tail replied, her face right up close to my own with her hooves on either side of my body.

“I say again, what’re you doing in my room?” I demanded again as I mentally checked myself and began to work at calming my body down.

“I’m here to wake you up! Come on, you’ve got a busy day ahead of you!” Pinkie exclaimed, pulling the covers off me with her teeth just as I managed to save my dignity.

“No kidding, i’ve got plenty more books to read for my project.” I replied, turning onto my side to stand up and crawl down from the bedside.

“Really? You sound just as boring as Twilight!” Pinkie noted with concern. “Come on, i’ve got plenty of things for you to do, so many ponies for you to meet!”

“No thanks Pinkie, i’ve got too much to do today. I’ve gotta go looking through the forest for a very specific stone.” I replied as I set to organizing my bags for the day.

“Oh! I can help with that too! I’m really good at identifying different stones! What’cha lookin’ for? Garnet? Amethyst? Blood stone? Ingneous? Metamorphic?” Pinkie hammered at me with questions. “Jade, fluorine, emerald, diamond, quartz, ventrite?”

“How the hay do you know all those?” I asked incredulously, mostly just to shut her up.

“I grew up on my family’s rock farm! Shame it’s always so dangerous though, heard my sister was recently in a cave in. But she’s okay, somepony working temporarily for them saved her!” Pinkie announced cheerfully. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if Marble was so severely injured…”

“Hold on, Marble Pie? You’re Pinkamena Pie?” I asked in disbelief, dropping my pen into my bag.

“Yeah, how’d you know my family name?” Pinkie noted with a grin on her face.

“I… I was the one who was working for your family and saved your sister, actually.” I admitted, rubbing the back of my neck with my hoof.

“Really?” Pinkie’s eyes began to water as she sat back on her backside just long enough before she rushed me and wrapped my neck in her hooves, tears flying. “Th-thank you s-so m-much!” she cried, soaking my fur with her tears.

“Uhm, not a problem?” I replied, tentatively patting her back with my own hooves as her weight forced me to sit. “Okay, i’m not really comfortable with all the hugging, please stop now.”

“Right, i’m- i’m sorry.” Pinkie replied, wiping her tears off on the back of her foreleg to collect herself. “I just… Thank you for getting my sister to the hospital! I won’t even ask about the blood markings on her fur!”

“Yeah, that’d be for the better.” I remarked and continued packing. “I know i’m going to regret asking this, but what did you have planned for today?” I asked with a sigh.

Pinkie brightened right up again, bounding back onto her hooves. “Oh, so much! I wanna introduce you to the rest of my friends, there’s a couple ponies who wanna meet you and I think I know a place where you would really enjoy working!”

“Who’d want to meet me? Who even knows i’m here besides Twilight and Rainbow Dash?” I narrowed an eye suspiciously.

“I ‘unno, she said she and her friend were friends of yours. They recently moved here to Ponyville too and they wanted to know where you ended up!” Pinkie shrugged with a grin.

“Friends of…” I tracked through my mind to who she could mean, but only two faces came to mind; for lack of options anyways. “Oh! Was one grey with darker grey mane and the other white with bright blue hair?” I asked excitedly.

“Yeah! How’d you know?” Pinkie looked at me with confusion.

“There aren’t very many options for who they could be.” I replied with a grin.

Hey Vinyl, you got your ears on? I thought hopefully.

Yo bro, wassup buddy? Vinyl’s voice replied casually and full of energy.

I heard you and Octavia were looking for me in Ponyville, is that right?

Yeah, we were going to try and surprise you but we couldn’t find you and no pony had even heard of you except Twilight, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. Vinyl explained with an audible sigh.

Yeah, i’ve taken up residence in Everfree Castle. I’ve got a lot to do here so I figure i’d stick close, ya know? I replied, staring at a very confused Pinkie Pie.

“What’re you staring at me for?” she asked, tilting her head at me.

“I’m telepathically talking to Vinyl.” I explained with a chuckle.

“Oh, say hi for me and tell them we’ll be at their place in a bit!” Pinkie requested, prancing from the room to the stairs.

Hey, Pinkie says hi and that we’ll be to your place soon enough. I parrotted to my friend as I joined Pinkie in the descent of the spiralling staircase.

I’ll let Octavia know, she’s getting anxious. Vinyl remarked and I could almost feel the smirk behind her voice. It’s rude to make a mare wait, you know?

Yeah yeah, we’re coming. I sighed both mentally and audibly.

Phrasing, boom! Vinyl laughed in my mind before going silent.

“So, how’s the telepathy thing work? Is that an alicorn ability or what?” Pinkie inquired as she pranced down the stairs with me steadily gliding behind her.

“It’s a spell. A dark magic one, to be specific.” I explained, keeping pace with Pinkie via pulses of retrograde magic thrusters. “It requires both parties in the telepathic conversation to have access to the spell. I can inscribe a page of paper to allow non-unicorns and non-alicorns to use the spell and join in.”

“Which is how you managed to get Octavia to join in, right?”

“Correct. Because of… circumstances I had to have her destroy her seal to prevent being traced from me and get her in trouble.” I added as we finally reached the bottom of the stairs where five more ponies were waiting for us.

“Oh good, you were up there so long we were thinking something unspeakable was happening.” A mare noted from below a brilliant purple mane. The rest of her was as white as Vinyl though her attitude was that of Octavia, if not to a much higher degree. Next to her stood an orange mare with an amber mane and tail under a cowpony hat and freckles on the face.

Behind those two stood a yellow mare with a bright pink flowing mane and tail currently hiding behind said mane as she watched me exit the tower with Pinkie. Comforting the yellow mare was Twilight and Rainbow Dash, Dash’s head quite noticeable amongst the other heads of hair.

“Nah, you were the only one sugarcube.” the orange mare noted, quite unimpressed with the comment.

“Hmph, you could at least let me entertain the idea.” The white one replied with an upturned nose.

“What, and risk spreading malicious rumors ‘bout somepony we haven’t even been officially introduced too? Doesn’t really give you a good first impression, does it?” the cowpony added as she approached me where I stood. “Howdy, ah’m Applejack, a pleasure to make yer acquaintance.” she announced, resting on two legs while the other two rested against the first.

“Likewise, I’m Eclissi. I don’t suppose Twilight, Dash or Pinkie told you about my heritage?” I asked cautiously.

“All they told me was that you were an uncrowned prince. Meanin’ you ought t’have been born to a princess, right?” Applejack remarked firmly. “Ah figured you’d tell me who your mother was if you wanted to tell me. Not in my place to bother ya ‘bout it.”

“That works, thanks.” I replied as Applejack was replaced by the white one.

“Rarity, darling. A pleasure to meet the first alicorn stallion in over a millennia.” She announced with a warm smile. “I do apologize if my note about your activities upstairs with Pinkie sounded a tad rude, I understand how first impressions are and all that.”

“Mm-hmm.” I mumbled, keeping my distance from the unicorn. Turning to the third and final, I noted she stayed directly in place and cowered.

“No introduction?” I asked, sitting back on the cold stone floor.

“S-sorry... “ The mare replied in the tiniest of voices. “M-my name is…” her voice drifted off into oblivion.

“I’m sorry?” I turned an ear towards her to try and hear her better.

“Oh for... this is gonna take forever.” Dash interrupted as she took the yellow mare in her forelegs. “This is Fluttershy, she’s very nervous around new ponies until she finds something relatable between you two.”

“Nice to meet you, Fluttershy.” I replied with a courteous nod. “You have very nice hair.”

“Oh, uhm… thank you.” Fluttershy replied in a slightly louder tone of voice, her face going red.

“I presume these were a number of ponies who you wanted me to meet?” I asked, tilting my head to Pinkie.

“Of course! There’s still a number of ponies to go, but these are my friends!” Pinkie replied as she rejoined her friends with a grin. The group pose they all struck had me thinking this was not the first time they’d introduced themselves like this.

“Hey,” Twilight noted from the center of the pile. “You’ve got your cutie mark now!” she exclaimed, breaking away from the mares to inspect my flanks. “Congratulations!”

“Hmm? Oh, yeah. Whatever.” I shrugged back and sighed as Dash joined twilight to take a look.

“What is it? It’s just a red dot.” Dash tilted her head for a different perspective.

“It’s a lunar eclipse.” I replied, already bored of the conversation. I was too busy thinking about Octavia to be interested in what was on my ass. “Shall we get a move on? I’ve got somepony waiting for me.”

“You do?” Rarity appeared directly in front of me with gleaming eyes. “Who is it? Are you formally together? Have you kissed her? Was it romantic?”

“I do, Octavia, yes, yes and yes.” I replied as best I could, trying to match up answers to questions.

“Do you have a special thing already? Something you two like doing together?” Rarity asked again, looking like she was about to need a moment to herself in dream land.

“Well, we found out we work really well together playing music…” I replied after a second.

“She’s a cellist, right?” Twilight stepped forward to help the conversation along and to maybe help deny Rarity her fantasies.

“Yeah, she was playing a song and I thought i’d surprise her with my own flavour.” I smirked with reply.

“What do you play? What was the song? Maybe we should get the two of you to play us all something when we go and see her.” Rarity demanded cheerfully.

“Maybe, if we ever get outta here we’ll see.” I replied and took to wing, as did Rainbow and Twilight. I noticed that Fluttershy seemed content to remain on the ground, despite her winged nature. “Shall we be off?”

“Let’s go!” Applejack announced with a motion of the hoof to move us forwards.

~~~

“Wow, that’s… quite a house…” Rainbow noted as everypony stared at the two level, split colour scheme house. One side was a more rustic, classical design while the other had a much more modern look to it, probably Vinyl’s side of the house.

“Yeah no kidding. Back in Las Pegasus it just looked like the classical side. Granted it was mostly just Octavia living there…” I replied and stepped up to the door and knocked.

“Hello?” Tavi’s sweet voice beckoned from within. “Who is it?”

“Hey Tavi, it’s me.” I replied with an edging smile as I stood at the door with the mares behind me.

“Eclissi!” Tavi’s voice shrieked before the sound of somepony falling over themselves in excitement. A second later and the door flew open with my favourite mare standing before me, breathing heavily. “It’s you!”

“It’s me.” I grinned back and the two of us collided in a hug and kiss. “How ya doin’ love?”

“So much better now. I got your message and really didn’t want to destroy that seal you gave me.” Octavia replied once we’d parted. “I did though, so don’t worry.”

“Awesome. Sorry I had to get you to do that but if they traced you from me with that and got imprisoned for it, I dunno what i’d have done.” I sighed in reply and nuzzled my mare.

“I know what I was planning to do…” Tavi replied with a chuckle. “I’d already developed a way to break you out of prison.”

“You were in prison?” Twilight asked in disbelief.

“Yes, for a very short time; not important now.” I replied, turning back momentarily to direct the question to the alicorn before turning back to Tavi. “You know that wouldn’t have ended very well for you, right?”

“I know,” Octavia sighed as she nuzzled me back. “I know. But I couldn’t see myself just letting you rot away in prison. You know the wing rot would’ve been fatal had they not dressed your wounds; which are looking great, by the way.”

“Thanks!” I grinned and spread said wings wide to the surprise of the mare before me. “I got lucky and came across somepony who was able to fix the tendons free of charge.”

“Wow, those are quite the wings.” Octavia noted before grinning and took to my side, getting herself under my left wing. “So comfortable, so warm!” she grinned and leaned into me to be kissed. “Now then.” Octavia recovered and addressed the ponies behind me, two of which were more interested in our love affair. “All of you, come in, come in! I just put on a kettle!”

“Ooh, thank you dear. I’d love for you to tell me all about this relationship of yours over a cup.” Rarity replied eagerly as she and the rest followed Tavia and I into the house with Twilight in behind to close the door.

“I’ll see if i can find a page of paper so I can inscribe you a new seal, alright?” I whispered to my beloved.

“Of course, the study is just down the hall and to the right.” Octavia replied before giving me a peck on the nose. “Be quick.”

“Absolutely.” I replied and happily trotted off with directions in mind.

Entering into the study I took a look around the desk for a page of paper and eventually found a blank one just next to a photo of Octavia and another stallion. Brother? Father? Not really paying much attention to it I floated the page to the floor and fired up my horn with the black magic to inscribe the dark magic seal.

As the black magic swirled around my horn with the dark magic riding shotgun, I lowered my horn to the page and began the inscription. The dark magic began to shimmer as the seal etched itself into the heavy paper until finally it was finished and the glow on my horn dissipated to nothing.

“Eclissi, what was that?” Fluttershy’s meek voice timidly asked, turning my head to meet her frightened face.

“What was what? The inscription?” I offered a warm smile, but she took a hazardous step backwards.

“Th-the eyes and the teeth…” she replied firmly afraid of me.

“Oh.” I dropped my head. “That.”

“Who- Who are you? Really, I mean.” Fluttershy demanded, now at least standing her ground though she was scowling at me.

“My name is Eclissi, my mother is Nightmare Moon. Because of how I was raised and the affinities of magic I have, I have a form I call Nightmare Eclipse. Whenever I use black magic, like the inscription spell, I apparently undergo a temporary physical change.” I explained calmly, this seemed to lighten Fluttershy just a bit, but she still remained cautious around me.

“Isn’t black magic corruptive?” she asked, entering into the room to examine the page i’d just made.

“Black magic is, yes. Dark magic is as well, but not to the same degree. You can limit how much dark magic you use to prevent being corrupted, but black magic isn’t like that.” I nodded in response. “Black magic, for any other pony, would likely corrupt them within three uses of the magic.”

“So why aren’t you corrupted?” the pegasus mare’s questions were turning into an interrogation.

“Who says i’m not already?” I smirked in reply at the mare’s fearful look. “Relax, i’ve been training with black magic for years. Having a strong affinity for it also helps.” my smirk was unsubsiding with my words.

“I see. So there’s no danger of you losing control or anything?” Fluttershy returned to the hallway to leave.

“Nope, i’m good.” I shook my head and with the page in my magical grasp the two of us returned to the living room where Vinyl had apparently shown up and gotten onto her tables to entertain the guests.

Oh! Eclissi, can you do me a huge favour? Vinyl requested as soon as she spotted me.

What’s up? I thought back as I took a seat on the couch next to Octavia, the mare cuddling up close into me upon my doing so.

I know you just got comfortable, but everypony is requesting to see your musical talents. Tavi tells me you play a wicked guitar? Vinyl smirked at me as she started playing a couple songs at random to see if I knew how to play it. I can fill in the other instruments if you want me to.

Hmm… Can you play this one? I requested before thinking of a particular song in my mind.

Mmm, I think so. That’s some pretty solid guitar there if you can manage it. Vinyl replied with a full on grin, a grin of which Pinkie noticed.

“What’s with the sudden grins? I’m all for a good smile every now and then but I usually have a reason to do so.” Pinkie wondered as she bounced around the room.

“Hey Tavi.” I whispered into Tavi’s ear, making it twitch. “Do you know I Burn? Can you sing it?”

“I know the song but I don’t know the words, sorry. Why? You and Vinyl planning something?” Tavi grinned at the idea as she and I both hopped down from the couch, making the guest mares look at each other with confusion.

“Yeah, she’ll fill in the rest while I cover the fun parts.” I grinned back and before Octavia left to retrieve her cello, I took hold of her and spun her around and startled her before I not only kissed her but gave her the new sheet.

“What’s going on?” Twilight asked from a laid position on the floor. “Why do I detect traces of black magic?”

“No reason.” I replied quickly as I began to summon up my guitar, the cord vanishing off into the abyss that was my magic.

“Oh, you’re finally going to play for us?” Rainbow’s head perked up as I warmed myself up with a few random chords and Vinyl loaded up the rest of the song. A short time later Octavia appeared with her cello on her back and set herself up on the couch.

“Well, you all asked for us to do so. Let’s let Octavia and I warm up first though.” I requested and the two of us began the slow introduction to the song that had helped kickstart our relationship, the song i’d first introduced my ability to play the guitar.

~~~

A full concert of music played by a combination of myself, Octavia and Vinyl finally ended with the song that quickly became “our song” for Tavi and I; the acoustic version of With or Without You.

“Wow, I can’t believe you’ve got all those skills! The ability to play the guitar like that, sing, and perform ridiculous magic! You’re like a mare’s perfect stallion!” Rarity announced as the performers put our equipment away.

“Thanks Rarity, I appreciate the compliment. I think.” I replied as I lounged back on the couch trying to cool myself down from the performance.

“Mmm, I have to agree with her, Eclissi.” Octavia spoke up from behind the couch before she appeared next to me, curled up within my embrace. “You are a perfect coltfriend.”

“I do my best, and you are the perfect marefriend.” I grinned back with a kiss on the nose. With the release of a large breath from the both of us, I rested my head on her neck while she rested hers on my forelegs and we both addressed everypony else in the room.

“So what’s happening for the rest of the day?” Octavia inquired casually, looking to Twilight and Pinkie for an answer.

“Well, I had someplace that I figured Eclissi would be great at being an employee at, but I think i’ve got a better idea after that concert. I’m going to have to talk to somepony’s about it first.” Pinkie explained, mentally assessing who she could talk to.

“I appreciate that, Pinkie, but I don’t see myself doing much work beyond studying in Everfree Castle.” I said.

“But, don’t you also need money for daily living? Food, supplies and the like?” Twilight looked at me with concern.

“Such things don’t cost very much so i’ll be able to get by doing miscellaneous jobs as the need arises.” I explained. “I don’t really want to be forced to waste my days on long work days just to make a living. I’ve already got someplace to sleep that’s free of rent and all the materials I’ll need already in the Everfree Library.”

“And you’re always welcome here to eat, whenever you like.” Octavia added, looking back at me with a warm smile.

“Thank you. Well there you have it, I don’t even need much money for food.” I smirked and adjusted myself to a more comfortable position. “Speaking of which, what’re we all doing for dinner?”