Sins of the Mother

I’d already tried to fly in but the higher I rose, the more likely I found myself of being struck down by some invisible force; as though it didn’t want me to rise above the top of the treeline. So now I strolled, on alert, wary of anything that may have wanted to rip me limb from limb and consume me.

As I delved deeper into the forest, I could begin to get the feeling of being stalked. That feeling of eyes watching you move, no matter where you went. Swivelling my head in all directions, I could only hazard guesses at what it was watching me and only hoped it wasn’t hungry.

All around me I could see eyes; all scowling, all hungry. Which gave me an idea.

Closing my eyes, I looked back into my memory to mentally find the spell book I’d remembered reading some years back; after Mom had already left and I was searching for a method to get to Equus.

There it is. I thought, seeing the unassuming blue book with silver embossed lettering. I couldn’t quite remember the name of the book but as I flipped through the pages, my memory settled on a very specific page and I fired up my horn. I could feel my mane as it began to turn to a plasma state, the ends slowly whipping backwards behind me and the black in my mane only becoming darker until it looked like a hole in space; the red tinges acting as a sort of event horizon of a black hole.

My tail followed suit in the same way while my wings flared outwards, standing straight up and at attention. I could also feel the changes happening to my eyes, the pupil sharpening at two ends to a fine point as my teeth began to sharpen to a daggered tip.

All as this was happening I could feel my internal affinity swing from light/dark to more dark/black magic and I liked it. I liked it so much I felt a deep, guttural laugh develop within me, begging to be let out. So I did.

It started off as a giggling, then a chuckle until it rose into a full on deep, maniacal laugh as my mane and tail shot upwards with the power as my changes were complete.

I’d become Nightmare Eclipse; I was my mother’s son afterall.

“Oh, yes.” I checked myself out, examining my new body and was surprised that my voice had also changed; it’d dropped and become much more sinister. “I like this. I can see why mother was always so… comfortable in her body. The amount of power I can feel in my possession! It’s… Invigorating!” I exclaimed, turning my now glowing horn to the treeline and the nearest set of eyes.

With a burst of magic, the trees and surrounding forestry exploded outwards to reveal a pair of manticores now completely terrified of me; and rightly so. Almost immediately a small number of eyes disappeared as their owners scurried off. To my right, a single, rather large cockatrice emerged grinning.

Keeping my eyes away from looking at it’s eyes, I lowered my horn to the creature and picked it up with my magic to bring it closer to me as it struggled to look me in the eyes. The telekinetic glow crawled up it’s body until only it’s head was held and I began to squeeze.

After a minute, the cockatrice’s head let out a rather bone chilling crunch as it nearly imploded from within. Tossing the dead creature aside, I turned to another emerging creature; one of the manticores from before as it glared and growled at me, pawing at the ground.

With a grin I lowered my horn and took a running start as the mighty beast charged me, tail raised and ready to strike. As we neared, my horn shimmered long enough to summon a large scythe in my colours; mostly black but with the red tinge along the edges of the blades.

With a flourish, I swung hard and the tail of the beast fell to the ground as we passed each other and slid to a halt. Turning to face each other once more, I held my weapon at the ready and smirked as the manticore tried to ready its tail before I placed my hoof on the stinger and crushed it.

With a roar the beast charged me again, probably already feeling the blood loss, as I held my own and swung hard. The battle was won and I was the victor as the manticore’s head rolled towards it’s mortified partner.

“Anything else?” I challenged with a shout, flourishing the scythe around my body effortlessly. Everything backed away and the eyes blinked out, drawing a groan of disappointment from me as my bladed weapon vanished from this plane of reality. “Ugh, and I was hoping for a bit of exercise.” I grumbled as I resumed my walk into the forest.

~~~

“Huh…” I mumbled, looking up at the doorway to a rather large castle laying in ruin. I’d come across it when I saw a rope bridge that looked relatively recently disturbed. “Wonder if this was the Castle mom used to live in…” I ascended the steps up into what looked to be some kind of lobby or something and looked around interestedly.

It was all mostly collapsing, but I could still get an idea of what it would’ve looked like over one thousand years ago.

Hey, Octavia? Are you there? I think I've found where my mom used to live. It’s pretty cool. I thought, figuring my message was drifting off into the abyss if she’d done like I'd asked and burned the seal page. Kinda sucks that it’s been neglected over the last millennium. I added, this time to no one in particular.

Entering into what I assumed was the grand hallway, the grand staircase at the end was a dead giveaway, I was rather surprised when the sconces all lit up in a bright blue flame upon my entry.

“Huh, magically enchanted light sources.” I noted in my sinister voice, ascending the stairs and took to the right. “Cool.”

Turning the corner onto the second story, I came to a sudden halt and stared in surprise at a purple alicorn mare with a darker purple mane and tail, a magenta streak running through it and a book held in her purplish magical grasp. She too stared at me in open mouthed shock, though I suppose looking like I did would have this kind of effect.

“Uhm…” I tried to fight for words, but the book dropped and I quickly found a horn pointed in my direction.

“Who in Tartarus are you and what’re you doing here!” the pony demanded, her horn glowing something fierce.

“Uhm… I’m Ecl-” I had to stop and consider my appearance. “My name is Nightmare Eclipse and I am the son of Nightmare Moon!” I declared forcefully, standing up with proper stature as my mother had drilled into my head.

“Nightmare what?” The mare raised her head slightly in confusion. “Never heard of you!” she lowered her horn at me again as my own horn lit up and summoned my scythe, holding it ready to strike just behind her.

“I was born on the moon and when my mother returned to this planet, I was left behind!” I exclaimed, feeling the point of a blade at the back of my neck. She had to be feeling the edge of my own weapon at the back of hers, as well. “I spent five years trying to figure out how Nightmare Moon was banished to the moon in the first place, and when I learned of the spell, I banished myself to this stupid planet.”

“Then explain why Princess Luna never said anything about you when she was defeated!”

“I’d love to, if I knew! She told me she’d come and get me!” I angrily stamped my hoof in reply. “She left me behind! She forgot about me, her own son!”

“Dang, that sucks.” The mare lightened up a bit, her horn still glowing and the point of her blade retreating from my neck. I removed mine as well as a show of good faith but kept it handy. “What’re you doing here then?” she demanded as she pulled her weapon to her, a relatively simple looking short sword and held it close to her defensively.

“What do you mean, here? Do you mean here in this castle or here in this place? In this country? On this planet?” I replied as I pulled my own, significantly large weapon from behind the mare.

“Uhh…” the alicorn replied, staring at my weapon. “Here, in this country. Then in this castle.”

“I came here to…” I stopped to think. I wasn’t going to risk telling her what I planned and have her alert the princesses since she was an alicorn herself. “I came here to learn. I came to this place by accident and was going to explore the castle my mother lived in. I wasn’t expecting anypony to be here but I suppose the signs of disturbance at the bridge should’ve tipped me off.”

“Oh, what’re you hoping to learn about? And I’m sorry I held a blade to your neck, it’s just that appearance really startled me.” the mare explained, setting the sword aside against the wall as my scythe vanished once again.

“My appearance?” I tilted my head as I ran a tongue over my razor sharp teeth. “Oh, right! Sorry, lemme just change back!” I finally clued in and fired up my horn again. All the changes I subjected myself too before instantly reversed, including my affinity, and I soon stood before the mare in my simplistic glory.

“Wow, I have to say, i’m quite surprised that there’s an actual alicorn stallion in Equestria… There hasn’t been one in…” the mare noted with a sigh.

“One thousand, four hundred sixty seven years by my count. He was my grandfather.” I replied for the pony, earning a raised eyebrow from her.

“Okay, so how old are you?”

“Well, I thought I was eighteen but… I think I remember something about being older than I actually am so I dunno.” I shrugged, sitting back on my rump with the alicorn. “How old are you?”

“Didn’t your mother tell you it’s rude to ask a mare her age?” the mare smirked at me. “But I’m seventeen, eighteen in a couple months.”

“Cool, cool…” I rubbed the back of my neck. “So…”

“What?”

“Kind of a shame that this castle was let fall to such ruin, huh?” I noted, looking around at all the fallen or cracked stone bricks.

“Yeah, imagine what it would’ve looked like in it’s prime, the things that Celestia and Luna did here?”

“It was quite awesome from what I remember.” I replied with a sigh, lowering myself onto my side as the princess tilted her head at me.

“What you remember? You said you were only eighteen right? How could you remember what the castle looked like a thousand years ago?”

“Oh, mom had a lot of time and painted.” I explained casually and with a yawn. “What time is it? I’m exhausted.” I inquired, trying to get an estimation from looking out a relatively nearby window.

“Probably near dinner time?”

“Mmk. Oh, by the way, my name’s Eclissi.” I stood up and offered a hoof in introduction.

“I thought it was Nightmare Eclipse? Twilight Sparkle, by the way.” Twilight replied, shaking my hoof with her own.

“Nah, only when I look like that. The rest of the time it’s Eclissi.” I shrugged back. “Well, Miss Sparkle, it was nice meeting you, but I'm going to try and find my mother’s old room and hole up there for the night.”

“Want me to show you the way? I’ve been here enough that I could probably guide you.” she offered with a friendly smile.

“Nah, it’ll give me a chance to explore. Thanks.” I shook my head and walked off. “See you later!” I called back as I turned down a random hallway.

~~~

“Note to self, get Twilight to guide you around the place!” I huffed from being out of breath as I crawled across the floor on my belly before collapsing onto my mother’s very, very old bed; a cloud of dust exploding from the impact in all directions. “This place is fucking huge!” I complained, panting heavily.

The sound of a rumbling stomach had me groaning at the thought of having to descend those hundreds of stairs to get back down the tower to find sustenance. Rolling onto my side, I managed to pin my wings under me rather uncomfortably and without thinking about it, stretched them out behind me.

“Or I could just fly down like an idiot who didn’t think to fly up in the first place!” I grumbled, pushing myself up onto my hooves again before hopping down to find the nearest window large enough for me to exit the room from. Apparently my mother had the same idea as I found myself standing out on a rather large balcony overlooking the tops of the castle and I could occasionally see a purple mare walking around through the holes in the roofs.

Spreading my wings, I leapt off the edge of the balcony and flapped hard, I was thoroughly enjoying the freedom that flight allowed for as I circled around a couple times before coming back down again. As my misfortune would have it, I also smacked my wing on a protruding beam in the ceiling and came crashing down near to Twilight Sparkle, startling her for the second time today.

“Ow…” I moaned, laying on the cold stone floor in agony as I heard the clopping of hooves coming near to me.

“Eclissi, are you alright? What were you trying to do?” Twilight slid to a halt and immediately began checking my body for injuries. Her horn fired up and I could begin to feel the restorative effects of a fairly high tiered spell and before long, I pulled myself to my hooves and shook my head clear of the concussion.

“Land. Was going to ask you if you knew where I could get some food.” I explained, twisting my head to crack my neck quite pleasantly.

“Oh, uhm… I don’t think there’s anything worth eating here in the castle but if you wanted to come with me, I could take you to Ponyville and get you something to eat there.” Twilight offered, dropping a random book into her saddlebag. “I was actually just heading out myself so it’s no trouble to me.”

“Mmm… sure.” I shrugged and took up a walking position near to Twilight as we removed ourselves of the castle.

“So, can I ask you something?” Twilight tentatively inquired as soon as we crossed the rope bridge.

“Go for it.”

“You said your eighteen right? Thereabouts anyways?” Twilight seemed like she was trying to avoid something embarrassing.

“Yeah, and?”

“How are you a fully grown stallion and don’t have your cutie mark?” Twilight blurted out suddenly. The both of us stopped and looked first to Twilight’s flank, then to mine. True enough, mine were bare.

“Remind me what a Cutie Mark is?” I requested, having not gone over this with my mother or read about it in the library.

“A Cutie Mark is a visual representation of a pony’s special talent. It may often allude to some sort of destiny if one were to believe in such things, or it may just be nothing more than a cute picture that will remain with you for the rest of your natural life. How have you never found out what your special talent is?” Twilight explained before looking me over curiously. “Was that never brought up when you were raised by…”

“Nightmare Moon, my mother?” I raised an eyebrow bemusedly. Twilight nodded in silence as we continued our walk. “No, it was never brought up. I always thought my mother’s was some kind of birthmark or something.”

“A very strange birthmark? That looked like a crescent moon?” Twilight asked incredulously.

“Well, it could’ve been a mixture of fur colouration and birthmark…” I replied now becoming uneasy about my misgiven understandings.

“Fair enough, I suppose.” Twilight muttered, lost in her own mind. “So, what do you suppose would be your special talent? What’re you good at and what do you like doing?”

“Pretty good at magic I suppose…” I replied, trying to evaluate my skill-sets.

“Magic? Like what?” Twilight stopped directly ahead of me, staring into my eyes with determination to mine my brain for information.

“Uh, it’s mostly a combination of moderately powerful light, dark and black magic spells.” I explained, rubbing the back of my neck.

“Wait, hold on. You know black magic spells?” Twilight glared at me. “You may wanna keep a lid on that particular piece of information, Eclissi. Black magic is illegal in Equestria.”

“Yeah, so I found out the hard way. Was arrested for using blood magic to teleport myself and someone else to the hospital after she was in a cave in.” I sighed and shivered at the memory of those tentacles roaming my body.

“That was you? Was the mare Marble Pie, perchance?” Twilight’s glare turned to surprise as she stood back upright and we continued our walk. “Wow, when Pinkie found out that her sister was in the hospital… She wanted so much to thank you for your help in getting her there, despite the methods.”

“Pinkie, would you happen to mean Pinkamena?” I inquired as I could feel the wary eyes of creatures on all sides of us.

“Her friends call her Pinkie. She only becomes Pinkamena when… Well let’s just say she loses her colour.” Twilight informed me. “Why do I feel like I'm being watched?”

“Because we are.” I replied, staring at the eyes of some manticores who apparently remembered me from before.

“Why aren’t they attacking us? With so many of them they could easily kill and eat us.” Twilight asked and found that she was walking significantly closer to me than either of us had realized.

“I… May have established dominance over them on my way to the castle…” I chuckled at the memory of utterly defeating that manticore, even though the memory of beheading a living creature should sicken or disturb.

“I…” Twilight stared at me as I reminisced. “I’m not going to ask for details.”

“Probably best…” I sighed and continued on in silence.

What would be my Cutie Mark, if I had one?

~~~

“Hey, Twilight, how was your trip to the castle?” a blue pegasus mare asked as soon as we broke the Everfree Forest line. “Who’s this?” She asked, turning her rainbow maned head to me as she hovered near to us.

“Hey Rainbow Dash. It was fine, turned out to be more exciting than I had originally planned.” Twilight replied and broke away from me to approach the mare named Rainbow Dash. “This is Eclissi, we ran into each other in the castle while he was exploring.”

“Hi.” I held a hoof up for a quick greeting as I watched the conversation unfold.

“Hey. Are you new here? I don’t recall seeing anypony of your… vaguely familiar colour scheme before.” Rainbow Dash nodded towards me in greeting before landing and approached me.

“Eh, you could say that. I wasn’t exactly… Local.” I replied with a smirk.

“Eclissi was actually born on the moon and banished himself here under… less than ideal circumstances.” Twilight explained. “It should also explain why he looks so familiar.”

“Hold on, hold on. How did a unicorn end up being born on the moon?” Dash shook her head to pause the conversation in her confusion.

“Well, a couple things. One, I’m not a unicorn.” I replied, flaring my wings out to drop the jaw of the mare before me. “I’m the first male alicorn in over one thousand years. Two, Twilight tells me you know my mother.”

“You’re mother?” Dash looked even more confused before it suddenly struck her. “Holy white flanks, you’re Princess Luna’s son?” She wheeled backwards in shock of her realization as I nodded confirmation. “But wait, if you were born to Princess Luna on the moon, then shouldn’t you look like Nightmare Moon?”

“I can change my appearance to match my heritage, yes.” I shrugged, scratching at my mane. “I prefer not to as it alters my magical affinity and kind of… inhibits certain behaviours while reinforcing others.”

“Yeah, don’t need a demonstration, thanks.” Rainbow replied, turning back to Twilight. “Continue.”

“Well, that’s about it. Eclissi is going to be holing up in the his mother's old room in the castle and got hungry so I offered to take him here for some food.” Twilight replied as the three of us continued our walk into town.

“Oh, food! Great idea, i’m starving!” Rainbow announced as she took to the air to hover nearby and clutch at her stomach. “Mind if I tag along?”

“I don’t mind, do you?” Twilight turned to me and I shrugged in silence.

“Hey Eclissi, I’m sorry if this is really forward of me, why are you blank flanked?” Dash inquired. She was checking?

“Apparently never found out my special talent while on the moon.” I replied. “Why are you looking back there anyways? Actually, why were you both looking back there in the first place?” I inquired, circling round to pause the progression of our band of misfits.

“Scientific inquiry.” Twilight held a hoof up while Dash actively avoided eye contact.

“Moving on.” Rainbow demanded, flying ahead of us both with her face red as her mane.

“Uh huh. I appreciate the interest or at least curiosity, but i’ve already got somepony special.” I remarked, making Twilight chuckle to herself as Dash’s face went impossibly more red.

“I wasn’t- I didn’t- I don’t-” Dash flustered as I grinned. “You ass, you’re making fun of me!”

“Not intentionally, but yeah. I suppose I am.” I grinned again as Twilight and I continued past the mare in blue. “Come on, what about food?”

“Yeah yeah, i’m coming.” Rainbow replied in defeat.

Phrasing! Boom! I chuckled to myself before all three of us took to the skies on wing.