Eclipse

Chapter 1

Dark secrets

Everypony has their closely guarded dark secret. Some are darker than others, the point is that most would rather make sure there secret is never uncovered. Some try to forget that it ever existed, but that never works, the mind is to complicated to simply “forget”. There can never be “forgive and forget” our minds will either guilt us until we right whatever wrong we've committed, or burn us with with  a passion for revenge until we go out, do something we'll regret the next day, and go through the guilt cycle when we try to hide it. In the end, we can never keep our secrets forever, but what about the secrets that shouldn't be uncovered?

The sun goddess, better known as princess Celestia, shes lived for thousands of years and is one of the 3 remaining alicorns. The very pony we trust to raise the sun every morning and guide equestria to a perfect future, but what happened to the rest? Where are the other alicorns? Are they just a rare breed of all 3 types of ponies, or did they come from somewhere all those millennium ago. If that's true, what happened to the rest? Why are there only 3 left? This, is the princess's dark secret, the one locked in the furthest depths of her mind, a memory that she thought she had forgotten, but the rage and hunger for vengeance burns to strongly in her heart to forget, but she tried. She tried, she came to equestria, foolishly thinking she had left her past behind, when she found equestria it was ruled by a creature called discord, the spirit of disharmony. She and her sister defeated him and were given the throne for saving the ponies, a duty she took in full stride, but then, just as the going got good, just as she settled into the throne, her secret proved that it could not and would not be contained. She remembered all that she had thought she forgot, her past, and her childhood, all the memories came flooding back.

“MOMEY!” Celestia screamed through sobs, tears running down her face and onto the carpet as she dashed through the house. “ECLIPSE WAS MEAN TO ME AGAIN!”

“I WAS NOT!” Called Eclipse, chasing after his sister, racing for their mother.

“HE PULLED MY TAIL AND CALLED ME UGLY!” Celestia screamed, just managing to keep ahead of her younger brother. Solar Eclipse (though everypony called him Eclipse) was younger than Celestia, by about 100 years (the equivalent of 2 years give or take of normal pony years) but he was the smallest in his class. With a deep red coat and a bright red mane with black highlights, his tail was split into to scythe-like sections, both sticking straight up and back like a bolt of lightning. He was small and thin, practically no muscles in his legs, he had quite a bit of speed, but he didn't have the endurance of his sister.

“THATS WHAT SHE DID TO ME!” The much less athletic colt called after his sister as she rounded the corner to the living room where their mother, a pearly white alicorn with a flowing light blue mane and pink eyes, currently stood scowling at eclipse as he rounded the corner.

“Then please enlighten me as to why Celestia is crying?” his mother asked in a very stern tone.

“She's faking it!” He said, just barely managing to defend himself under the hard glare of his mother.

“And what possible reason would Celestia have to do that? I'll save you some time, none, now apologize to your sister and go to your room until I come get you!”

“but!...fine... sorry Celestia” It was no use arguing, everypony liked Celestia and Luna better than him, and nopony believed him when they had a choice to believe one of his sisters. As he glanced back one more time he could see the evil smirk on his sisters face from behind his mother, and he knew. He knew she hated him, but so did his mother. But what made it worse was that his mother was the queen, the queen of Alacropolis, the kingdom of the alicorns. She once had a name, but now everyone just calls her “mother” and since she's the queen, and she hated him, EVERYPONY hated him. He was bullied at school (actually more like abused, he came home with more cuts and bruises each day, and his mother didn't care) he was never trusted by anypony, everypony hated him.

He knew why they hated him too, which just made it that much worse. He knew why they hated him, and it was his fault, at least, that's what everypony thought, and of coarse no pony believed him when he tried to defend himself. It was a terrible cycle, he gets blamed for something, he tries to defend himself, he gets called a liar and punished for it and next time it happens they know hes a liar and believe him even less. He just can't win. That is, at least, after the incident. He knew it wasn't his fault, and so did his mother, but that didn't help, she blamed him and, wouldn't you know it, so did everypony else. If he hadn't been, no, best not to think of it now. He tried not to, but some memories just couldn't be oppressed.

It was the summer solstice, or as it's called now, the summer sun celebration, and mother was just about to raise the sun. Just as she started Celestia charged on stage and started talking with mother. He couldn't here what they were saying, but he didn't like it. The next thing he could remember was Celestia raising the sun and getting her cutie mark, and he was mad. No, not mad, Jealous. He wanted to be able to raise the sun, he wanted to take his mothers place ever since Luna took his fathers place of raising the moon. So yes, he was jealous, but he knew he could do better. So what did he do? Right on stage, in front of everypony, he challenged Celestia. He said he could do better than raise the sun, and he did. He called forth all the magical energy he could, until all that was left of the red and black alicorn was a red ball of arcane energy, sparking a sizzling. He didn't know what he was doing, he just knew whatever it was he was doing, it was working. He drew every ounce of energy he had left in him until his head was pounding and his limbs were numb. Then he knew, he couldn't hold it.

He tried as hard as he could to contain the blast to within himself, but something went wrong, he lost total control over himself. Arcane bolts flew in every direction the crowd was darting left and right and ducking under anything they could find. By the time he could finally control himself everypony was hiding under something, except one, his father, who had been standing next to the stage congratulating Celestia, was now standing on the staircase to the stage. The midnight purple alicorn with a deep blue stuck up main that looked like a wig from a bad mad doctor nightmare night costume.  He was on his knees, clutching his chest with his hoofs and gasping for breath. All the crowd took notice and rushed over, but only one alicorn took notice to the sky, it was well into the morning now, but the sky was dark, minus one tiny ring of light. It was an eclipse. It normally took the sun and moon god and goddess working together at the top of their ability to cause an eclipse, and even then it was a fifty fifty shot. Eclipse had done it, though, he had caused an eclipse, while most alicorns took after the power of one of their parents, he took the best of both, he could cause an eclipse! All by himself! But his happiness didn't last long, in the distance he heard something that shook him out of his dreamlike state. He thought he heard- no, it couldn't be, but it came again, and this time he heard it “he's gonna die!”

Eclipse couldn't believe what he just heard, his father still had a good 120 years left in him, he couldn't be dieing. So he continued to look and the eclipse, his eclipse, convincing himself that he misheard whatever that pony had said. But yet again, something cut through his dream like state, not a sound, but a feeling, the feeling of pain spreading rapidly through his body, he had been bucked, hard. Then came the sound, “YOU KILLED THE FATHER! YOU MONSTER!” It wasn't a pony he recognized, a smaller alicorn with a pink coat and a pink and blue mane, he only got a quick glimpse as she ran back into the crowd, but as he recovered from the blow he realized that everypony was staring at him. He didn't know what was going on, that's when he realized his father lying on the ground, a burn practically all the way through his chest One of the arcane bolts he released when he lost control had hit his father dead in the heart, killing him, he had just killed his father.

If it wasn't bad enough that he had just learned he killed his father, it was now that everypony looked to the sky, almost in unison. He didn't notice at first, but as he sat there, on the middle of the stage, he started to cry. Yes, it was true, he had just fulfilled his dream, and doubled it, he had the power of more then 2 of the strongest alicorns in the world. Yes, it was true that he never really liked his father, in fact, he downright hated, no, despised his father, and he didn't care that he had killed him, but he knew EVERYPONY would take to hating him now. It was already starting, he realized, as he started looking at the pony’s all around him. That's when he noticed something, the ponies, they didn't look at him with hatred, they looked at him with fear, the fear that what he did to father he would do to them. At first he didn't understand why, a lot of alicorns loose control of their magic when over exerting themselves, and every now and then it resulted in death, that's when he noticed something else, the ones that weren't looking at him, were looking at the sky. They knew he had power, a lot of it, and they knew he could easily kill them. So, this is how it would end, he would most likely be put to death, and just as he discovered his true power, he knew he deserved it, and he knew it would be better to just accept it.

That's when one alicorn broke away from the group crowded around his father, and came to him. This was it, he shut his eyes and prepared to be taken to prison to await trial, then death. No, he would not wimp out, he would face his enemy with bravery, go down with a fight, he opened his eyes, and that's when he realized that it wasn't one of the guards. It was the pink alicorn from earlier, the one that called him a monster.Great, he thought, now I'm gonna get attacked by her again too. That's when it happened, the moment he would remember for the rest of his life, she hugged him. It was out of the blue, this from the pony that had just called him a monster, it was the last thing he expected, but it got even stranger. As he sat there, embraced by this strange pony he had never met before, she started apologizing for what she had done. She apologized for bucking him, for yelling at him, and for calling him a monster. This is when he realized that the pony was even younger than him, probably not even in school yet. It didn't make any sense, this very young pony, probably only 200 years old (4 regular pony years) who had hated him just moments before, had just hugged him. Was he... enjoying it? No, he was loving it, he was rarely hugged by his parents, and even then it was a short “good job, you did something right for once” hug, not like this, this was a true hug.

When he finally managed to break away, all he could say was “Why?...” but that's all he had to say, the other pony just looked him in the eye and said.

“It wasn't your fault” Now, to understand her voice, take the sweetest, most harmless thing you can imagine and take its voice, now, multiply it by ten and you get her voice. It was like a quire of angels, singing in perfect tone and pitch, joining the sweet melody of the harp, he couldn't help but feel relaxed as he listened to her. “I was to fast to blame you, you weren't in control, so you deserve a second chance.”

“But, I just killed father!” He whimpered between sobs, the magnitude of what he just did coming into full view to him for the first time.

“He wasn't just the father, he was your father, I can't imagine accidental killing my father, it must be awful for you” her words swam through his mind with an ease unlike anypony's  voice ever had. They brought a deep relaxation with them, for some reason he couldn't explain, he trusted this pink pony. Though he wouldn't tell her the truth, the truth he was ashamed of, the truth that he enjoyed killing his father.

“uh, ya, it's terrible, I just don't know what I can do now, I'm probably going to be put to death.” He said in the saddest voice he could muster, he didn't want to be happy about killing, he was ashamed of himself for it too, but he just did. He didn't like lying to this pony. Despite how nice she seemed, and how much he trusted her, he couldn't tell her. He knew she would turn on him, and he didn't want that, he wanted a friend, he had never had one before. Being the smallest in his class he was picked on by everypony, and those that tried to be friends with him got chased away by the bullies.

“Don't worry, we'll find a way, there's always a way!” Once again he felt compelled to believe her, somepony with a voice as sweet as hers just couldn't lie, could she?

“But, what can we do, this is the father, not just that, but everypony already hates me” He admitted it, he wouldn't keep that to himself, he needed somepony to talk to, and she was the only pony that would listen to him.

“I can't believe that, you seem so nice, and besides, you must have some friends, nopony has no friends.”

“It's true, nopony even likes me, they all just pretend I don't exist or torment me”

“well, that's still not true”

“How is it not true? I just told you, nopony likes me”

“I like you, I think that your a perfectly likable type of colt”

“wait... you actually like me?” the shock was to much. Nopony had ever liked him before, he had given up on making friends long ago.

“Of course I like you! By the way, what's your na- hey, whats wrong with the sky?” Eclipse couldn't believe it, was this really the first time she noticed the eclipse?

“What about it? it's an eclipse.” He asked as casually as he could, was there something wrong with eclipses?

“Is that what you were trying to do? Did you cause the eclipse?” She started to sound more energetic now, but he couldn't tell if it was nervous energy of happy energy, this alicorn was so hard to read!

“I think I did, I didn't mean for it to happen, It just kind of...did.” He was scared to here the response, would she to be scared of his power? His only friend was about to run away because he was powerful, at a time when he needed a friend the most.

“That's amazing! No wonder you lost control! An eclipse caused by one pony as young as you! Wow! That's so cool! What was it like? Was it hard? Easy? Painful?” She was ecstatic, she was practically bouncing with questions, he couldn't answer them as fast as she was asking them.

“Say, I never did catch your name, mines Eclipse” He said in an awkward diversion to stop her overloading him with questions, thankfully for him, it worked.

“Oh, I'm so sorry, where are my manners? I'm Ca-” she couldn't answer the question before another pony cut her off, a rather tall alicorn, looking very similar to the alicorn in front of him, she had a pink coat and a deep blue mane.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING!” The newcomer sounded scared, worried, and royally pissed off.

“Oh, hi mom.” The young pony said in a happy voice, despite the rage present in what was apparently her mothers eyes.

“Don't hi mom me young lady! What are you doing talking with this criminal! He could have killed you, just like he did his father!” She was obviously not as forgiving as her daughter had been.

“But he didn't mean to! It was an accident!” She had actually stood up and walked between eclipse and her mother. This is great! Eclipse thought to himself nopony has ever stood up for me before. It felt great to have somepony believe him. He just couldn't get over the fact that this pony he had just met was standing up for him against her own mother, and he didn't even know her name yet!

“I don't care that it was and accident, he killed the father, that's a crime punishable by......by...... I don't know what it's punishable by, but I know that it's not going to be fun, and if you're accused as an accomplice, you will be getting the punishment too.” She was not going to budge on the issue, eclipse new this all to well dealing with his own mother, and from the looks of it, so did the young pony.

“But!..........fine.” she excepted defeat with a heavy sigh, and walked back into the crowd with her mother. Great, I'm all alone again, her mother will never let her come near me again, and I have no hope of seeing the light of day ever again, could this day get any worse? He spoke all to soon, just as he did, he saw his mother burst through the crowd, done grieving and out for vengeance.

He prepared himself best he could, but how can you prepare for the reaction of a alicorn who lost their husband at the hooves of her hated son? She walked right up to him, she was so close that their muzzles were practically touching, and whispered in a surprisingly emotionless tone “If we were alone, you'd be dead, but to keep up my image, you will be tried, convicted, and punished by the legal system for killing the father, you had better pray they go easy on you, and don't get any ideas just because you can cause eclipses, you're still no match for the platoon of guards on their way.” She was right, she wanted to kill him, but everypony else would not want a queen who takes matters like this into her own hoofs, or one that killed her own child. He said nothing, what could he say? That he was sorry? That would not change anything, so he took it in silence, and just sat there as his mother walked away to address the crowd.

He didn't know what to do, should he run? Should he try to fight? Or should he just take the punishment that he deserved? He didn't have long to think, however, he saw the platoon of guards coming down from the guard tower to take him away, he had to decide what to do, and he had to do it now. He probably had time to run a fair distance, but he was not athletic, so that was out of the question. He could try to fight off the guards, but somehow he knew that wouldn't end well. So the only option was to take his punishment, and yet, he didn't like the sounds of that either, what to do? His mind was spinning at 100 miles an hour, running scenario after scenario in his head, all of them ending badly for him. His time had just run out, the guards were here. Looks like he would go quietly.

Before he knew it he was being levitated by about 4 guards, while the others either made a path or watched him suspiciously, as if he were going to try something. As he was taken through the crowd he saw so many angry faces, some were upset, and some were scared, but one wasn't, one he recognized, the pink filly from before, she was crying. As she watched him go by he watched her, and he once again started to cry, he tried to fight it, to not show weakness in front of all these pony's, but watching her cry was to much for him to bare. He watched her until the crowd swallowed her up again. He had no hope of ever seeing her again, except maybe at his hanging, but that would take a while for all the paper work and his trial, so he had some time, but that time quickly ran out.

Apparently, because of the severity of his crime, his trial was put on the fast track to death (although he could tell his mother had something to do with that) and he had little time to except it. He spent a total of 5 days in a small cell. He was uncomfortable on the hay bed they

gave him and the wood bench was just that much worse, so he slept on the cold stone floor, it wasn't all bad, at least he had a window facing the ocean. He himself had a magic brace around his neck to prevent him doing magic and hoof-cuffs on all of his hoofs. The food was awful, he would be better living on bread and water then the slop they gave him. He was under 24/7 guard, 3 took shifts guarding him, he managed to at least talk with one of them. He was the new guy, not much experience so he was a little more open around him then the other 2 guards. The talking helped make the time go a little faster, but he only saw him a few hours a day as he got stuck with the night shift, but it was a nice break from the solitude he was used to.

He had just started to get comfortable when his day in court came, and just as fast as it started, it ended, with a verdict of guilty, and a punishment of death. This was it, his last 2 weeks on this planet, awaiting death, nothing to do but sit in a jail cell and wait. When he got back to his cell it was well into Comets shift, but as he was taken back to his cell, the pony guarding it was decidedly NOT comet. The new guard had rough facial hair and was not very friendly looking. “What happened to comet?” Eclipse asked as he entered his cell.

“He was transferred to a new jail by the order of the mother” The pony's voice was like sand paper, and he did not seam very sociable. Great eclipse thought the last 2 weeks of my life and she has to take away the only think I can use to pass the time. These 2 weeks would be hell for him. Nopony to talk to, sleeping on the floor, eating that slop they call food, and all the while he would be waiting for death. The worst part was that he still didn't feel sorry for his father, he felt sorry for himself, his hanging day couldn't come fast enough. He had taken to sitting in the hay and using strands of it to count down the days to his hanging. It had been 5 days, and it had felt like 5 years. He was just about to start talking to himself when there was a knocking on the bars. “Prisoner 56395, right in this cell.”  It was the new guard, but he was talking to somepony else, somepony just out of his view. “If he tries anything, let me know, I'll have him incapacitated in 10 seconds flat.” The door opened and a small pink filly walked in.

“WHAT!? How? Who?......WHAT!?” Is all Eclipse could muster, the filly from the summer solstice was here, in his cell. “How did you get in here? Your not even my age yet! Why did they let you in?”

“Oh, that was easy, I just forged my mothers signature on some papers to let me get in, then I just requested to see you, there's no law against visiting prisoners.” She said in a rather come voice, despite the fact that she new her mother was going to kill her if she ever found out what her daughter had done.

“You would do that......for me?” Eclipse could hardly believe it, somepony he didn't even know the name of had risked everything just  for him, he didn't know how to react.

“Well of coarse I would! Why wouldn't I? You seemed like you needed a friend, and you certainly wouldn't have any in here. By the way, I never did introduce myself, my name's Cadence.” She sounded so...cheery, despite all that was going on, he just didn't know where her happiness came from, but he still liked it.

“Nice to meet you Cadence, so, why come all the way to my jail cell when you could have just waited until my hanging?” He hated to admit it, but he had given up all hope, he was going to be hung, he could do nothing about it.

“WHAT! Y-y-y-your going to be h-hung?” at this point she had started to cry and stutter. How could she have not heard the news? Everypony new about the hanging!

“Ya, didn't you here? I was sentenced to death.”

“H-how could they d-do that? J-just kill you off like that, i-it was an a-a-accident! You didn't m-mean to!” At this point it was full fledged sobbing “I c-can't believe this! W-we have to d-do something! You c-can't die!” He didn't know how to respond, he wanted to comfort her, to tell her it would be alright, but what could he do? He couldn't tell her he wasn't going to die, that would just make her pain even worse when he actually was hung, he just didn't know what to do.

“It's, um, OK, don't cry, please don't cry, I, um, I” H said in a very week attempt to calm her down, but he couldn't find it in him to lie to her, to tell her he was going to be fine, and he still didn't know why somepony he barely knew was so emotional about it.

“NO! It's not OK! Y-your going to die! We n-need to do something!” At this point she ran over to him and wrapped her hooves around him, burying her head in his neck as she continued to cry uncontrollably, what should he do?

“Shh, it's OK, we can work this out, we can do something to stop it.” He tried his best to comfort her, but she just kept crying and shaking her head.

“I don't think so, there is no way to escape from jail, and you aren't powerful enough to fight off the guards at the hanging” Said the guard, obviously finding pleasure in her pain,  how cruel can you get? Eclipse thought to himself, but that's when he got an idea, and he quickly turned it into a plan, he was not going to die!

“It's OK cadence, we still have 9 days to work out a plan, we can do it!” his voice suddenly full of confidence, he knew he could do it, now all he had to do was actually do it.

It was common knowledge that the anti-magic brace around Eclipse’s neck absorbed the magic flowing from his body into his horn then dispersed it into the atmosphere as harmless heat, but in doing so the collar itself would also heat up, this is where Eclipses plan came into play. If he could focus enough energy the collar would absorb it and disperse it as heat, the collar would continue to heat up until it melted, but that in itself was a problem. If he could even heat up the collar enough to melt it, how to get it off without burning Eclipse's neck to a crisp, but that was part 2 of his plan. He really didn't have to heat it until it melted, he just had to heat it until it was malleable, so he could just bend it around his head, no burning involved, except maybe his hooves, but he decided he could live with that. Now, that took care of the collar, but what about the jail, all the walls were lined with a special combination of elements designed to block magic, so he couldn't just teleport out. His cell was locked, he might be able to pick it with his magic but that would take time, and the guard would notice him. That left steeling the key, or the window, both were considered impossible, but so was getting the collar off, and Eclipse was positive he could do it, and it wouldn't be the first time he did something impossible. That's when he remembered one thing he hadn't considered yet, the pink filly crying over his shoulder, it was time to ask Cadence for a favour.