Chapters Earlier that afternoon...
"Are you feeling any better?" Rainbow asked.
Eclipse grunted. "I can move around and do basic activities; I guess that’s an improvement."
For the past week, Eclipse had been suffering from a strange illness that caused him excruciating pain every time he exerted himself. And up until recently, that meant so much as getting out of bed. No one could figure out what his illness was; they had never dealt with anything like it before. Twilight Sparkle had sent a letter to his sister, Queen Black Rose, asking if she or any of the Safer doctors had ever encountered anything like Eclipse’s illness.
She wrote back: "I've never seen or heard of anything like what you’ve described, not as an illness anyway. I would suggest that he just stays in bed and waits for it to blow over. Knowing my little brother, that shouldn’t take long."
And so there he was, bedridden, hardly able to do anything. Thankfully, his friends stopped by frequently to take care of him. They brought him food, kept him company, and performed any task he could not do himself.
"Do you need anything?" Rainbow inquired, going over the usual check-list of questions.
"Well, I can finally cook for myself again, so food won't be an issue anymore, and I can move and take care of most things. I guess the only thing you guys really need to do is take care of any errands that would need running."
"Okay." A hint of worry crossed Rainbow's face.
Eclipse smiled reassuringly. "Hey, I've been through worse than this. Just make sure you guys keep on coming to visit me. It really helps."
"Sure."
An awkward silence followed. In the aftermath of the Discord incident, there had been a sort of tension between them. The general state of chaos that Discord generated had caused Eclipse's personality to fuse with that of Deathwish's, his evil Darkside. The resulting inner turmoil caused him to lose control over himself and give in to his deepest and darkest instinct: to destroy. While Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy were searching for the Elements of Harmony, Eclipse was going on a rampage, destroying anything and everything in sight. In his words, he had become a monster, a mindless beast whose lust for chaos and destruction could never be satisfied. Because the source of this was himself and not any spell placed on him by Discord, the spell that Twilight had used on the others to undo the spells that Discord had placed on them had no effect. What followed was a battle to defeat one of the most powerful forces in the world, and that battle was already in Eclipse's favor. Just when it seemed that the six friends would lose, Rainbow realized that Eclipse's personality had reverted to when they had first met him, before he knew love and friendship. With this in mind, Rainbow took the biggest gamble of her life. Once the opportunity presented itself, she got close to Eclipse and used the simplest and most powerful expression of love: she kissed him. Though it was only meant as a way of snapping Eclipse out of his chaotic state and save the lives of her and the others, the act had left both friends with mixed and confused feelings toward one another and what some would call unresolved romantic tension.
Rainbow finally broke the silence. "Just get better, okay?"
"Hey, this is me were talking about. We both know I'm a fast healer."
Before any of them could say anything else, the door to Eclipse’s bedroom flung open. Through it bounced Pinkie Pie. "Hey, guys! What’s up?"
Eclipse closed his eyes and drew in a deep breath, trying to maintain his composure. It wasn't that he disliked Pinkie Pie; it was just that her constantly sunny disposition and cheerful attitude had a way of seriously getting on his nerves.
"Oh, sorry," she said after noticing the irritated looks on their faces, "Did I ruin a moment?"
"You? Ruin a moment?" Rainbow said sarcastically, “Never."
"Oh. Okay." She looked at Eclipse. "Uh, is something wrong?"
Eclipse was staring at her intently. His eyes narrowed and his eyebrows drew close together in a scowl as he examined the pony in front of him. Something seemed... off about Pinkie Pie. Something about her presence felt different yet familiar, but he couldn't quite place his hoof on it. 'Could it be...?'
"Eclipse?" Pinkie said again, interrupting his thoughts.
"Huh? Oh, sorry. No, nothing's wrong."
"Oh. Well that's good." She then changed the subject by saying, "Hey! I know what'll make you feel better!"
'Why do I have a bad feeling about this?' Eclipse thought. Out loud he said, "And what might that be?"
"CUPCAKES!!" Pinkie announced, throwing her front two legs into the air.
"Hm," Eclipse mused, "Cupcakes does sound pretty good right about now."
"Alrighty! I'll bake up a batch tonight and have them for you tomorrow!" She turned to Rainbow Dash. "Hey, Rainbow, would you like to help me?"
"Sure, it sounds like fun."
"Okie dokie lokie, then. We'll meet at my place later. Does seven-ish sound okay to you?"
"Sure, seven's fine."
"Okay, see you then!" She turned to leave.
As she crossed the doorway, Eclipse called out to her. "I have high expectations for those cupcakes. I expect them to be damn tasty."
Pinkie Pie turned and smiled at him. "Oh, don't worry about that. I'm gonna put some extra special care in making these. This batch will be to die for." And with that, she bounced away.
"I should probably get going too," Rainbow said. "Same time tomorrow?"
"Probably a little earlier. I don't think I can eat all those cupcakes by myself."
"Alright." She hesitated for a second, then leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. "Get better soon."
"As soon as can," Eclipse said, a little stunned.
Rainbow quickly left before the situation could get any more awkward.
"Tonight," he said to himself after she was gone, "We settle this tonight."
For about 15 seconds, nopony moved, nopony spoke, nopony did anything. To Rainbow Dash, those 15 seconds felt like an eternity. Eclipse's gaze never left Pinkie Pie, his almost evil grin never faltered. Finally, he slowly began to walk toward them.
"So," he said, his voice deep and resonate, "she finally lost control over you." A cold chuckle escaped his throat. "Can't say as though I'm surprised; I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later." He stopped and cocked his head slightly to the right. "Of course, this isn't the first time you've surfaced, isn't it. How many times have you sacrificed ponies in order to get your 'secret ingredient'? Never when I was around, of course; then you would have been discovered in an instant. No, it was always when I was off visiting my sister and the rest of Seraphim."
His grin grew slightly wider. "But you made your mistake this afternoon when you came to visit me. You assumed that my pain would dull my other senses, yes?" He didn't wait for an answer. “Well, you were wrong. Because my body was weak, all my other senses grew sharper to compensate." He waited half a second to let it sink in. "I didn’t understand it at the time, but I sensed you the instant you entered my room."
"What the hell are you even talking about?!" Rainbow shouted, but instantly regretted raising her voice; she grew dizzy and she nearly fainted from the effort.
Eclipse turned her attention to her, seeming to only now notice her. "Ah, Rainbow Dash. You look lovely." A strange edge entered his voice. "Blood is defiantly your color."
"Cut the creepy and just explain what’s going on already." The Pegasus countered. She felt uneasy about the way that Eclipse was staring at her. It reminded her too much of the last time the dark pony lost control, only this time she wasn’t so sure he could be stopped.
"Why, didn't you notice?" Eclipse feigned astonishment.
"Notice what?" The pain in Rainbow’s flank and the amount of blood that she had lost was making her frustrated.
"Look at her. Her mane is strait; that should have been the first thing to tip you off. Also, notice that her color is darker and duller than usual."
"What's your point?" she asked, struggling to stay conscious. This round-a-bout conversation was beginning to take its toll.
Eclipse's grin grew another few degrees wider and a new chill entered his voice. "Those with Darksides can always sense other Darksides."
"What does that have to do with any-"Rainbow stopped mid-sentence, realization dawning on her. Her magenta eyes grew wide in trepidation. Her voice came out in a barely audible whisper of fear. “You don't mean?"
"Yes. That is not the Pinkie Pie we know." He once again turned his gaze to Pinkie Pie. "This one's a Darkside."
Rainbow was still trying to take it all in. "But- but you said only Safers of the royal bloodline had Darksides."
"Yes, that's what I had always been told as well," his eyes began to glow with a new intensity, "but apparently, that is not the case. And that is what makes you so interesting, Pinkamena." He addressed the Darkside directly this time. "Your host is not even a Safer, much less a royal Safer. Your very existence is an impossibility."
The edge from before reentered his voice, harsher this time. "Not that it matters! Darkside Pinkamena Diane Pie, I’m going to kill you and consume every last drop of your blood!"
'Okay,' Rainbow thought to herself, 'this has gone beyond creepy. Eclipse may be kinda... passionate when it comes to fighting, but this is different. This is actually...' Then it hit her. ‘Bloodthirsty.'
She thought back to one of her only times actually meeting Queen Black Rose. They had talked about this and that, and eventually the subject had gotten onto Eclipse. "He wasn't easy to handle once he officially joined the Praetorian Guard," the queen had said, “He doesn't show it much now, but he used to have this insatiable bloodlust, even when he wasn't engaging his Darkside. I got complaints about it all the time from both Cutting Edge and other members of the Guard."
It only now occurred to Rainbow Dash that Rose had meant it literally. A cold sensation settled in the pit of her stomach. Eclipse had a hidden thirst for blood; and she was about to witness it firsthand.
Eclipse and Pinkamena starred each other down, neither of them receding and inch. Then, the tension cracked and they were lunging at each other, Eclipse with his Moonlight Shadow attack and Pinkamena with one of her knives. For a split second the two clashed. They then stood with their backs to each other. Blood dripped from Pinkamena's knife. She grinned at her handiwork. This fool had seriously underestimated her. She would make sure he died slowly.
But then she noticed something: a drip of blood rolling down her cheek. It took her a second to realize that it was her blood. There was a deep cut on her cheek, right under her left eye. She spun around to face her opponent, an enraged snarl plastered across her face. Eclipse was raising his hoof to his mouth. His tongue slid along its side, the side with Pinkamena's blood.
"Sweet," he commented, “Figures."
Pinkamena's eyes grew wide in fear and panic. ‘He’s really going to do it,' she thought, 'He's really going to kill me and drink my blood.' The party pony stood frozen in place, trembling from mane to flank. Her heart fluttered wildly in her rib cage. Then she regained he composure and snarled. 'Well, he won't be able to if I kill him first.'
"You know, Eclipse," she said, “I’ve been needing a partner to help me in another little hobby of mine."
"Oh?" Eclipse responded in a teasing manner, "And just what would that be?"
In what seemed like an instant, Pinkamena had pounced on Eclipse and tied him up in a similar way to Rainbow Dash. Just for good measure, she stuck two knives into his arms to hold him in place. She walked over to a table that had several large butcher knives on it. She picked up seven.
"I need you to help me practice my knife throwing!" she announced.
She threw the first knife. It stabbed Eclipse straight through his gut. Pinkamena laughed hysterically as she threw the other knives. One went through his diaphragm; another pierced a lung, another hit the middle of his chest, all of them getting vital areas. Oh yes, she was not going to let his death be an easy one; she would see to it that Eclipse painfully bled out and died slowly. Pinkamena relished the horrified look that would soon come to his features as the knowledge he would die by her hooves sunk in. Finally, she ran out of knives.
Eclipse hung where he was bound a pool of blood forming around his hooves. He looked very much dead.
Rainbow turned her head, tears streaming down her face. She couldn’t stomach to watch her friend hanging there. The bitter taste of bile hung in the back of her throat as she gave in to the desolate truth. Eclipse was dead, and there was no chance of her being rescued.
Pinkamena laughed, relieved. "Looks like someone was all talk," she said. Then she turned to Rainbow. “Now," she said, advancing on her victim, "where were we?"
Neither of them was given the chance to find out. The same cold, evil chuckle from before filled the room again. Pinkamena stopped moving, stopped breathing, stopped everything. "No..." she whispered, head shaking in disbelief. "No. That's not possible."
The chuckle was followed by a shriek of hysterical laughter that resounded throughout the room. Rainbow wished she could plug her ears; it was the most terrifying sound she had ever heard.
Both ponies looked over at Eclipse. He was very much alive. And he looked like something from a nightmare. Tied to the wall, the seven butcher knives sticking out of him, blood flowing freely from the wounds and from his mouth, Eclipse hung grinning like a demon from hell.
"What's wrong?" he said his voice a strange mix between a hiss and a snarl, "Is that all?" His eyes were wide &bloodshot, filled with a wild, hungry gleam. And they stared straight at Pinkamena. "Come on, hurt me some more. Hurry up; I hate to be kept waiting!"
Pinkamena could only stand there, pinned in place by sheer terror. She had killed this mad-pony; she was sure she had hit every vital area she knew. It was a complete impossibility that Eclipse was still alive. So how…?
"Well then, if you’re not going to hurt me, then I guess I'll just have to hurt you!"
With that, Eclipse ripped free of his bindings& flung himself at Pinkamena.
It was amidst the raging turmoil of panicked thoughts that realization finally dawned on Pinkamena. She wasn’t dealing with a pony.
She was dealing with a monster.
"IT'S SUPER HAPPY FUN TIME!!!!!"
The first thing Pinkamena noticed was the pain. A sharp stabbing sensation was emitting from her left shoulder. She looked at it in confusion and saw that it had been cut open. She then looked at Eclipse. The pony hung there where he was, grinning that aggravating grin. He hadn’t appeared to have moved an inch. He had not used Moonlight Shadow either, nor had not grabbed one of her knives. Eclipse kept grinning, shifting his right hoof ever so slightly before flinging down in her direction. Realization hit her as he attacked; he had used one of the knives protruding from his forelegs.
Anger flashed through Pinkamena as the knife sliced past her ear. Her grip tightened around the last butcher knife she had.
'There is no way in hell I'm going to be killed by this madpony!' she thought as she swung her knife in a wide, horizontal arc. It sliced through the thin hide of Eclipse’s chest, creating a deep gash that would have sent any normal pony hemorrhaging. Muscle tissue and the cartilage from his sternum became visible as blood exploded from the wound, splashing across Pinkamena’s face in a beautiful arc. The enraged pony snarled with satisfaction, adding a touch of dementia to her already ferocious appearance. Yet to her chagrin, the injury simply caused Eclipse to laugh as he sent back a vicious counterattack.
The sharp bite of a knife blade dug into her forearm and the pony reeled back, frustration evident on her bloodstained face.
"Why the hell won't you just bucking die!?" Pinkamena screeched as she stabbed blindly forward. She felt the knife embedding into flesh and she glared savagely into the half demented face of her prey.
"And let you live?" Eclipse responded with a slight hiss. "You've already hurt two of my best friends, not to mention countless others." His sanguine eyes widened and his voice grew harsher. "No, I cannot allow myself to die until you're thoroughly punished!"
Before Pinkamena could say anything else, a ribbon of pain made its way up her right cheek. Another ran from her left shoulder to her left flank. More stabs of pain made their way along other various sections of her body. Again, it took her a moment to register what was happening. Eclipse was using the knives in his forelegs to cut her to pieces. She didn't even have any time to react, he was moving so fast. Her mind whirled as she tried to find a rational explanation for the blatant impossibility.
Her next sensation was having the wind knocked out of her and landing hard on the floor. Stars burst before her eyes, blocking out the world for just a moment as her mind tried to catch up with her body. It took a few more seconds for her vision to clear up. When it did, she saw Eclipse’s eerie silhouette standing over her, starring at her, still grinning his demonic grin. The sight was so terrifying that Pinkamena couldn’t even cry out in fear. A choked, gurgled sound was the only thing she could emit from the back of her throat. Her body trembled in a mixture of pain and terror.
She watched as Eclipse slowly pulled one of the knives out of his body and threw it. Pain flared up in Pinkamena's gut as it hit its mark, releasing a garbled gasp of pain from the pony. Eclipse repeated the process six times, taking great care to make sure that they hit places that would cause her the most pain without killing her straight away. Pinkamena's vision began fading in and out as her blood poured down from her wounds. She saw Eclipse's grin grow wider and her body went cold. She felt something caught in her throat and she coughed. Blood spattered the floor in front of her. Eclipse walked closer to her causing the party pony to try and squirm away.
“S-stop…” Pinkamena choked out weakly, wanting to be as far away as possible from the madpony before her.
"Oh, I'm not done just yet," he snarled, and he threw his right hoof into the air.
'No more,' Pinkamena silently pleaded, 'Please, no more. Please just end it.'
"Starlight Daggers!" Eclipse called out. At his command, nine white, shimmering spikes of energy appeared.
All of them were aimed at her.
Pinkamena's eyes widened. Through the eyes of her host, she had seen these daggers at work. She knew how Eclipse used them. She knew what was in store for her. She struggled to get up, to run, to be anywhere where this devil wasn't. But her wounds and the amount of blood she had lost made it impossible.
"Don't struggle," she heard Eclipse say, "It really is quite pointless."
Then he brought his hoof down.
"Iron Maiden."
The daggers entered Pinkamena's flesh and slowly began to drive themselves deeper. A sadistic grin twisted Eclipse’s face as he watched Pinkamena’s face begin to contort in silent agony. Her eyes widened to an unimaginable width and blood began to trickle from her open mouth. The pain was unbearable. Finally, much to Eclipse’s delight, she began to scream, her loud sobs mixing with Eclipse’s insane laughter.
Rainbow Dash watched the spectacle in horror and disgust. It was one thing to beat someone to save a friend, but this… this was torture; torture beyond what Pinkie Pie, or whoever she was, had planned to do to her. To see her friend doing this…What the hell had come over Eclipse? What had triggered the change from the Eclipse she knew to the demon standing before her? What had triggered his bloodlust?
Rainbow’s mind flashed to that morning when she had visited with Eclipse. Her friend had seemed so normal, so calm and incapable of the horrors she was witnessing. Not even when he was going berserk did he act this way.
'I only asked to be saved,' she thought, a sense of despair settling on her chest. 'I didn't ask for this.' She looked at Eclipse and tears entered her eyes. 'Why are you doing this? Why are you torturing her?' she asked pleadingly in her mind. Looking in to the deranged eyes of her friend, Rainbow refused to believe that this was indeed her friend. She had never known him to be so cruel and malicious. This wasn’t him; this couldn’t be Eclipse.
She didn't have much time to think about it anymore though. Eclipse slid his hoof along the floor and the daggers pulled themselves out of Pinkamena's body, blood shooting out of the gashes they left behind. Pinkamena's agonized scream filled the room, causing Rainbow to shudder. The Pegasus pony finally found her voice.
"You," her voice came out hoarse, weak from blood loss and screaming. "You're not Eclipse."
Not-Eclipse paused for a second before turning his insanity laced gaze towards her. A grin flashed across his blood-splattered face.
"No," he said, "I guess I’m not."
The blue pony felt dread fall into her stomach like lead weight. She was right. The pony before her was no longer her dear friend. So then, who was he now, and was he really there to save her? Rainbow took in a deep, shuddering breath, pulling together the last bit of her courage.
"Who are you?" Rainbow demanded, fear still streaking through her straining voice. Not-Eclipse’s grin spread into the most demonic and sadistic smile that Rainbow had seen him make. Her heart began to race at the sight, knowing that there were still more horrors this pony promised. The room seemed to darken even further from the evil atmosphere exuding from the mad pony. Rainbow closed her eyes in despair as the other answered, his deep voice resonating through the room.
"I guess you can call me Bloodshadow."
His gaze slid back to Pinkamena. “Now,” he said, holding her head between his hooves and staring into her eyes, “let’s take a look into that soul of yours.”
The knife entered Rainbow Dash's flank and slowly began to cut. The pain was unbearable and she began to scream, her loud sobs mixing with Pinkie Pie's laughter.
"Somepony," she cried, though she knew no pony could hear her, "Anypony, save me!"
At that moment, what little light there was in the room flickered and went out momentarily. A deep, throaty chuckle filled the room. The sound was full of malice and froze both ponys' blood. The temperature in the room dropped a few degrees.
Pinkie Pie yanked the knife out of Rainbow's flank, slinging blood onto the nearby wall and evoking a gasp of pain from her victim. She held it out in front of her, as if to fend off her unseen assailant.
"Who's there?!" she demanded of the darkness, "Show yourself!"
Silence was her only answer.
"Don't screw with me!" she screeched, now beginning to panic.
A loud crash answered her this time. An eerie red light flooded in through the doorway, the door itself having been kicked off of its hinges, its remains lying a good three feet from the frame.
Standing in the doorway was the large, black silhouette of a pony, its tail flicking back and forth in anticipation. The only other visible aspects were two, glowing, blood red orbs where the eyes were located and a wide, sickening grin.
Though simple, the sight was terrifying. The form generated an air of pure malice and killing intent. It almost felt evil. Rainbow Dash felt like she was looking into the face of the devil. By the look of it, Pinkie Pie was feeling the exact same way, only more so.
Then, the figure finally spoke, revealing its identity.
"You," Eclipse's voice was low, his grin never faltered, "I do believe I've had enough of you, GODDAMN BITCH!