A new world with new People- er, Ponies
Eclipse felt like she needed to kneel before Equestria's grand ruler, despite said ruler's knowledge that Eclipse was going to arrive in the castle suddenly. Celestia took notice of Eclipse's facial expression of confusion and acted upon a response.
"I see that you are contemplating if you should kneel before me or not" Celestia said, with a hint of amusement.
Eclipse was startled by the ruler's words. She was right though. Eclipse couldn't tell if she should or not. All she could do was splutter a response "I-I w-well y-y-you see..." Eclipse was cut off by Celestia continuing her statement.
"You do not have to. This time. Any other time you must do so, especially when other ponies are present" she finished.
Eclipse nodded at the statement "So, I'm going to assume that you will show me where I'm to go from here?" she asked.
Celestia nodded back "Yes. Thankfully, I do not have day court at the moment so I can show you to your quarters. But while I do, is there anything you wish to ask about Equestria or something about it's residents?" Celestia asked as she rose from the throne and began to gracefully walk towards Eclipse; gesturing her to follow.
Eclipse takes the opportunity to ask a question that many people would ask in her situation "How do I do magic?"
As the two depart the throne room Celestia responded "We will get to basic magic use later on. Your Night shatterer power will need to be touched on slightly too, since you will be using it to protect Equestria from all kinds of threats"
Eclipse droops her face into a frown "But what if I don't want to really...fight these...threats? What if I... can't?" she asked losing any enthusiasm she had before. Celestia smiled at the question. To Eclipse, Celestia seemed like a mother, not a mother to her own children (if she had any) but to every resident in Equestria.
Celestia replied to the question "Jared, do you think all the ponies that become next in line to obtain this power, really want the responsibility to protect their Friends? Families? All of Equestria's residents?"
Eclipse thought for a moment "No, of course not" she replied.
Celestia continued "Yes that's right, I've had power wielders who thought they were going to fail constantly to learn to use their powers and use them to defend. And they did. Many a Time. However slowly but surely, they adjusted to their powers and eventually they became very dependable warriors. So basically what I'm saying is, very few that are chosen for this responsibility willingly accept it at first. You just need to adapt"
"Okay, thank you, your majesty." Eclipse said.
Celestia's face took on one of seriousness "All the Day breakers and Night Shatterers have their own wing that is split into two, one side for the light wielders and one for the Dark wielders. You have the dark power so obviously you shall be in the dark section of the wing..."
Celestia paused briefly to give Eclipse some extra info. "Jared, the wielders will be upset about Winter's demise. Since they have this responsibility for -normally- a long time they get close to their fellow wielders. When one dies the others will become upset, so try not to bring it up to them when we get there. Just try to be nice, don't bring up her name and they should be fine with you" Eclipse nodded.
As she thought over the pony that she was replacing, Eclipse noticed the sun symbols on the princess's flanks "Um Princess, I have another question?" she queried.
Celestia made a gesture for her to continue and Eclipse did so "What is that symbol on your flank for?"
Celestia perked up at the question. "This means you haven't seen it on you yet, have you?" she responded, amused again.
Eclipse had a look of confusion spread across her face. She was going to have that a lot, she could tell. "What do you mean?" Eclipse asked as she found the nearest place with a mirror like surface and peered through to look at what was on her flank...and sure enough she had a symbol too.
Her symbol was an eclipsed moon surrounded by sparkling stars that shone with luminescent power. That's probably how Princess Luna came up with her name. Eclipse had many questions now, but she couldn't figure out which to ask first.
Celestia decided to relieve her of her questions before she could ask them, "The symbol that all ponies eventually get is called a 'cutie mark'. This mark details that pony's special talent and calling in life. As you can imagine, it helps them greatly with getting a job. The wielders of the day and night powers, all have a mark that relates to them becoming what they are. Normally a pony gets there cutie mark when they are a colt or filly" Celestia explained.
"But I was a human being not very long ago so how do I have one of these marks if I have never been to this world before?" Eclipse replied pointing to her mark.
Celestia turned towards the former human "The power you have acquired is most likely responsible for that, since this power becomes apart of that pony's life, it is essentially their destiny to be a wielder without knowing it yet. When you transformed, the power gave you a mark detailing your destiny as a Night shatterer."
Eclipse understood Celestia's statement...kind of. She had dodged a bullet, knowing what those marks meant. It would of been embarrassing if she didn't when she met these other ponies.
The two ponies walked on, the princess slightly in front, due to her longer stride. They remained in silence for the rest of the trip to the wing. Eclipse made slightly uncomfortable glances at maids and other servants going about their different work and looked away when they returned the glance at her.
After what felt like an eternity to arrive at the front door of the wing, Celestia gasped "Oh my, Jared we haven't got an Equestrian name for you yet" she said, panicked.
Eclipse would of panicked too if she hadn't already gotten a name. Eclipse calmed Celestia down with her response "Actually I do, thanks to Luna. I'm called Eclipse Nightfall now"
Celestia cleared her throat "Ah Luna, of course she would be the one to name one of her own wielders."
Celestia pointed to the door of the wing and explained "Okay, this is the wing were the wielders reside, they will show you to your room and get you settled in from here. I must go now and attend to some duties, but once Luna returns we can help you go over some other things you need to know and do."
"Thank you, your highness. I'll be...in there if you need me" Eclipse said, bowing and chuckling nervously.
"Very well, be calm and don't act silly. But most of all be nice. Goodbye for now, Eclipse" Celestia responded as she turned around and trotted off slowly.
Eclipse turned to the door and sighed "Well, here goes basically everything" she muttered as she pushed the door open.
The inside of the wing was pretty much like what Eclipse expected. It had two sections that split off, one on the left with a large sun symbol on the entrance and one on the right with a large moon symbol. Eclipse believed that they were the entrances to the rooms of the wielders.
Looking forward to the end of the wing, there was an area that seemed to be an entertainment/dining room. One side was a kitchen with a long dining table with room for 12 people -ponies- and then all kinds of sports and other means of entertainment on the other side. The whole place looked inviting and Eclipse managed a smile.
Eclipse was about to evaluate that no one was in the main hall, when she suddenly saw a pony sitting down on a couch by the front doors, reading. Eclipse looked at the pony's appearance, she was a mare with golden fur and a yellow and blue mane and tail. She had wings instead of a horn - a Pegasus- and a sun with a flowing wind passing through it as a cutie mark. Eclipse wrestled up the courage to move over to the mare and speak to her, although very shakily.
"Hey there." Eclipse said casually to the mare. The mare in turn looks up from her book and smiles at the newcomer. She placed the book down and got up to greet the pony.
"Hello, you must be the new dark wielder that's replacing...Winter" the pony said, deflating slightly at the memory of her fallen friend.
Eclipse caught on to her mood change and decided to act quickly "Yes I am, nice to meet you. My name is Eclipse Nightfall" she held out a hoof as she introduced herself. "Who are you?" she added.
The mare looked back up at Eclipse and returned her original smile "Welcome, Eclipse. I'm Solar Wind but you can just call me Solar" the pony named Solar replied, taking the offered hoof-shake.
"How about I let the others know you are here and we can get you settled in? You might want to cover your ears." Solar drew in her breath and shouted "Hey guys, the new dark wielder is here! Come out and meet her!"
There was some slight mutter from both sides of the wing and not a moment later 6 ponies entered the main hall. They were all kinds of colours, but they maintained a certain palette that related to what their power was. Eclipse wondered if these colour's the ponies had were like that from birth or if they changed when they got their powers.
Solar introduced Eclipse to the group and they returned their own introductions. "Guys, this is Eclipse nightfall. She is our new 5th dark wielder." Solar explained.
5 of the other ponies introduced themselves, "Hi, my name is Dusk rider" a black-coated Pegasus stallion said.
"Hey there. I'm Moon Storm" a grey-coated Unicorn mare greeted.
"How do you do Eclipse? I am called Nebula skies. Nice to meet you" a purple-coated Pegasus mare responded.
"I'm Heat flare. What's up?" a red coated Pegasus stallion said.
"Heh hey there Eclipse, The names Burst fire" the orange coated Unicorn stallion piped up.
The last of the six, however, didn't give an introduction. He was a yellow-coated Pegasus stallion, that refused to speak up. Instead he looked away with an agitated look on his face.
Burst fire spoke up for him "That's Flame Striker. He's been a little anxious to see the new wielder-"
Flame Striker cut Burst off, "Anxious? You mean furious!" he shouted.
Solar wind came up next to Eclipse and whispered in her ear. "Flame kinda had a massive crush on Winter and when she died, well...he took it the hardest."
Eclipse could only pull her mouth into an O shape. Burst and Flame were arguing back and forth as the others watched.
"I know I shouldn't be getting angry at this new wielder, she didn't cause her death, but I can't except her! I want Winter!" he yelled in his blind anger. "I...I've got to go clear my head" he said lightly before running back into his room, leaving the others to look at each other awkwardly.
Eclipse spoke up first "I'll go after him" the others just nodded blank faced.
Eclipse ran into the Sun dorms and found Flame's door open. He was on his bed, sobbing, as he looked at a framed picture, most likely of him and Winter. Eclipse felt like this was a bad idea, but she also felt like it was the right thing to do. So she entered the room knocking as she did.
Flame looked up at the mare and gave a look of anger "Go away...and get out of my room!" he shouted.
Eclipse didn't flinch, she just progressed forward giving a warm smile. Flame repeated "Get out of my room!" Again she didn't turn away, now she was right next to him and she did something she'd never really done as a guy. She hugged him. And it was actually calming Flame down too.
"I know I'm not Winter, but I can try to be like her, if you tell me how. I may not have her same voice or look but I'm not a bad pers-er, pony. Just give me a chance to prove it that I am." She let the stallion go, patting his back gently, before leaving the room.
As Eclipse left, she let out a deep sigh "I hope he'll be a little bit pleasant next time"
A simple night with a bright moon
"It's so bright" Jared said to himself as he marvelled at the light being reflected from the sun onto Earth's moon. It shone down, radiating with untold power and beauty that only those that really enjoyed the night could see. Jared breathed in, he smelt the jasmine plant's scent beside him and he felt nothing but tranquil at that moment in time. As he looked at the stars, Jared turned his attention back to the moon, something felt...different about it.
It's light pulsed brighter and brighter and Jared could feel that light surge into him and he felt it's power. Oh what a power it was. He could feel the moon's light enter his body and made it pulse with it very own light. All of a sudden Jared felt a bizarre pain spread through out his body,it was hard to explain and Jared had no time to do so, his hands and feet felt numb, the digits stiffened and started to recede into his hands and feet...much to his horror, his head felt weird too, it seemed to reshape and something began to push out from his forehead, his hair grew out on his head into long black and blue locks with a slight curl to them, flowing down to his body like dark water. A short sting in his eyes made him blink for a second and his eyes turned from amber to purple, next Jared could feel a tug at the back of his pants, he lowered the waistband of his shorts and watched as an equally long tail hang down from just above his butt. Jared couldn't understand any of this, at first he was looking at the moon and now he was convulsing in pain and turning into something like a werewolf he thought. As navy blue fur started to sprout all over his body, he felt incredibly tired for some reason. Like as if the transformation was draining him of energy to even stand up, yawning a couple of times, he drops to the ground completely unconscious as his body begins to shrink.
Waking up groggily what felt like an hour later, Jared rubbed his head of the throbbing pain that had become apparent and tried to rise to his 'feet', but yet he could not, he tried to feel his toes but all he could feel were a blocky legs with no appendages on them, looking at his hands he instead finds navy blue hooves. "What's going on?" Jared said just noticing his now feminine voice, "And why do I sound like a girl?"
Jared was beyond confused, first he was having a pleasant time looking at the sky then he turns into a small horse? How? Why would this happen? Jared had many questions but felt like he wasn't going to get any answers to them, his parents were inside asleep and he knew that if he came up to him as he was and explained that a female blue horse was their son, they would most likely think they were delirious or take him to be studied at a lab.
"What do I do? Things like this don't happen on a regular basis, how am I going to fix it?" Jared pondered as he paced....which changed his current topic to how he was able to stand and walk on four legs as if he had done it for years!
Jared looked at the nearby window and shrugged "Well I might as well assess the damage" he decided. Walking over to the window he took a look at his reflection and gasped.
For a four legged animal he looked pretty good looking: Firstly (as he already found out) he had navy blue fur that covered his/her now naked body, he had long blue and black hair that tumbled down his head in slightly bouncy curls all the way down just to his fetlocks, he noticed an equally long blue and black tail swishing gently on his rear and the most peculiar thing on him was the spiraled blue horn jutting from his forehead.
"A unicorn?! Well this took a turn for the best" Jared cheered as he tapped his horn lightly, he had one...unfortunate thing left to check though and it made him red in the face thinking about it. He turned his head around to where his tail was and looked... yep he was a girl alright. 'Looks like I have to go by her or she or whatever now' Jared thought.
The former human now unicorn continued to pace , going over her situation.She was looking at the sky, then the moon's light shone down on her and now turned into a pony...yeah doesn't seem random at all. But as much as Jared wanted to joke about it to make herself fell better, she knew that this was serious and it was going to be strange morning when she explained it to her parents.
Jared turned for the door to go back inside when suddenly, another light blinded her for a second. Jared blinked a few times waiting for her vision to return and see what just happened. What she found instead was that she no longer stood on the front porch of her home, instead she was standing in a meadow of flowers, still at night.
"OK what the hell is going on?!" Jared demanded to the nothingness around her, as she expected, she got no response....for 5 seconds before a regal sounding voice breaks the silence.
"Hello Jared" the voice says.
Jared spins around to find the voice and she comes face to face with a slightly taller pony with a spectral looking mane and tail, dark blue fur, both a horn and wings and she wore a black crown with silver boots or shoes.
She had a calm and collected look on her face, " I am Princess Luna and I know you have a lot of questions about what happened, but I need you to calm down firstly so I can tell you some information that is important for you to understand." she stated.
Jared sat down on her bottom "OK go ahead then" she responded.
Luna smiled "Thank you, now this may seem bizarre to you but your world...Earth and this world called Equestria are connected somehow, I'm not sure how, as it's been like this before even I was born" Luna explained.
'How old is she then?' Jared thought.
Luna continued "Anyway that connection is part of how you changed but we will get to that part soon enough. Long ago my sister, Princess Celestia, and I were in constant trouble of being invaded by monsters and villains; it happened nearly every week and grew tiresome very quickly. We were frustrated with the attacks and Celestia was starting to show the strain of trying to keep our foes at bay. One day we decided upon an idea that would help us drop our attacks to a minimal, we called it Project: Day and Night."
Luna paused to clear her throat.
"We got together 10 royal guards ponies we believed to be worthy of what they were obtaining and asked them if they wished to be more than 'just' a guard, all of them as we thought said yes, we didn't need any more reason to go ahead with the plan after that. Combining our power we gave those ten ponies a powerful magic that even the pegasi and earth ponies could use, 5 had power over the light, like my sister, they were called 'Day breakers', the other 5 had the power over the dark, like myself, they were called 'Night shatterers' together these super powered ponies protected Equestria's citizens and pushed back any evil force. But of course the power, while it was great, was unable to extend those soldiers lives and they eventually passed away. So we had a certain spell in place for when they died, if they had a foal then the power would go to their foal...or their first born if they had more than one. This has continued on for many generations, all the way up to now"
Jared asked a question "What happens if they don't have a child?"
Luna replied "This is were you come in, you see if they die and they haven't created their own kin, the process becomes... different. The pony...or in your case person, in that pony's final thoughts becomes the next one to obtain the power, it activates when the candidate looks out at the moon during the night if they are gaining the dark power, if they are gaining the light power they will feel hotter outside in the sun than they normally do for a brief moment."
"OK...so what about me being a girl then?" Jared slightly understood the process and the history behind these warriors, but she needed more, hence the question of gender.
Luna pondered the question for a moment, then she replied "When I was reported of that pony's demise, I recalled the name, Winter Star... a mare, so since you are not related to her you needed to be the same gender as the previous power holder to acquire it properly and so to make that happen the power changed your gender, quite fascinating since its never happened before."
Jared lost it at those words 'This isn't fascinating, this is crazy! I turn into a girl and then into a pony unicorn!? I feel like I'm dreaming" she spluttered out.
Luna responded "I would know if you were dreaming. Trust me."
Jared would of lost it again if she had thought that was logical to do, but instead she slowly calmed down and took in the info she had been bombarded with. "Ok so I'm going to take your word for it and say that I have become this unicorn mare with these elemental powers that are used to protect...Equestria is it?" Jared asked.
Luna confirmed "Yes, there are only 10 of these ponies present at a time, 5 of day and 5 of night. You are a Night Shatterer one of my dark wielders Jared...."Luna trailed off, making Jared ask why.
"What, what's wrong Princess Luna?" Jared asked.
Luna smiled at Jared and replied "Well it's just your name doesn't fit with your body now. Does it?"
Jared thought 'Darn she's right. But picking a name is no easy feat, picking a name in an rpg game is difficult. Plus these ponies might have some sort of crazy way of naming newborns'
Luna tapped her chin in thought, thinking of a name for Jared. Suddenly her eyes lit up with a brilliant idea "I've got it, how do you like... Eclipse Nightfall?
Jared actually liked that name, it worked well with his appearance and his powers that he couldn't feel yet, "Okay sounds good, but what about my parents?" Jared said in a panic once more.
"Do not worry Eclipse, I shall tend to your parent's worries, for now I will teleport you to Canterlot and my sister will greet you soon enough." Luna responded to Eclipse's worrying.
"But wait, how do I use magic and my lunar powers? How do...How do female ponies....go?" Eclipse battered Luna with questions.
Luna blushed at the last question "We...we will discuss those queries later. For now just don't move and I'll send you to Canterlot. Eclipse complied, she stood in place and waited for Luna to teleport her.
Once again a bright flash appeared and Eclipse was transported once more.
Eclipse looked around at her new destination, she was in a large room with many windows lining the length of the walls, tapestries hung from the walls, with symbols of the sun and moon on them. Ponies in Armour similar to that of Spartans stood stoic by the walls not moving an inch like British soldiers, they didn't even glance at Eclipse's sudden appearance. Eclipse drew her attention to the red carpet running up to a great throne...with a very large pony sitting on said throne. To Eclipse she looked like a horse more than a pony, but she wasn't going to assume straight away.
This pony which Eclipse believed to be Princess Celestia was a pure white pony who wore golden regalia, a gold crown and golden shoes, she had large wings and a long horn. Her rainbow hair and tail flowed in a non existent breeze and Eclipse believed that she was very powerful and wise.
Eclipse looked towards the grand ruler and spoke "Y-You m-must b-be Princess Celestia?" she asked.
The Alabaster ruler stood up and said in a loud but not intimidating voice "I am, it's wonderful to finally meet you Jared"
Author's Note
So that's the first chapter. As you can see it's bigger than what I normally write. I hope you enjoyed it.
