Eclipse

Eclipse

Chapter 6

The Prison at Home

“You've done well.”

“Thank you, but what do we do with him? Shall we give him back to the police to be hung?”

“No... he's escaped them once, he can do it again. No... I have something more... Personal, planned.”

“Oh, I like where this is going, what shall we start with?”

“First, we wake him up, then he shall know a fate worse then death.”

“C...Celestia?” Eclipse said, slowly regaining his vision, he could just make out the blurry blob of pink and white.

“Well, look who's awake, about time, we were wondering if you had slipped into a coma.”

“We?” Eclipse asked, unaware of a third party in the room.

“Well, look who woke up, Celestia, go get some water, he's no doubt dehydrated.” said a third voice, a voice Eclipse thought he would never hear again. Celestia immediately ran out of the room, shortly followed by the sound of hooves on a hard tile floor.

“Mother, what do you want with me?” Eclipse said, the only thing keeping him from attacking her was the fact that he was stiff, and when he tried to move he realized how sore he was. The kick Celestia gave him couldn't have made him that sore, they had done something else while he was out.

“Just some justice for my husband, since the police can't, I will. Ah, good, Celestia's back with your water, drink up, I want you alive.”

“You're lucky I want to live more then I want you to suffer, because otherwise I would kill myself to prevent you from getting your so called justice.” Eclipse said, his lips taking hold of the straw Celestia was pushing towards him.

“And just why do you want to live, you have nothing left.”

“I can answer that, mother, he's got a marefriend of his own, a cute little thing named Cadence.” Celestia said, smirking as she looked over to see Eclipse blush a brilliant red.

“SHE IS NOT MY MAREFRIEND!...she's just a friend...”

“Look who's getting all defensive.” Celestia taunted.

“That's enough, both of you, it's time to begin, you will have 3 months to recover from your wounds, prepare, but you will not leave this house, do not even think of escaping, and try not to injure yourself more.

Eclipse was sucked out of his memories as he heard somepony walking up the stairs, a quick scan with his magic and he determined it was his mother. Realizing it was her he went back to his thoughts, she never talked to him, except when she was yelling at him for something he hadn't done. Basically normal life before the incident. Returning back to his thoughts, Eclipse tried to remember how long he had been there, 70? 80 days? He didn't know, but he did no he had no longer then 2 weeks to either escape or die.

At this point the “die” option was particularly attractive. About a month earlier he would have never considered it, but things had changed. He never saw Cadence, she had never even tried to see him since he was taken. He was convinced she hated him, for what? He didn't know, but to his mind it was the only logical explanation. He had all but given up hope, content to plunge a steak knife into his heart, or – better yet – force himself into a magical overload and kill both himself, destroy the house, and possibly catching at least Celestia in the blast, permanently wounding her if not killing her. Whatever he was going to do, he knew he had to decide quickly. It had been 2 and a half months.

A week later, around midnight, Eclipse heard a knocking on his bedroom door. He was shocked, not that somepony was at his door – that happened whenever Celestia wanted to torment him – but that somepony had actually managed to get there without him detecting them, a quick scan showed nopony at his door. This realization only served to heighten his confusion, he was positive he had heard knocking, but his magic had never failed him before. He went over to the door and looked outside, sure enough, the hallway stood empty. Now he knew he was going crazy. Just as he was getting comfortable on his bed, he heard another knocking. Again, nopony in the hall. This time when he did a sweep he did a little down the hall – checking if Celestia was trying to convince him he was crazy, knocking on the door then running – but instead he sensed somepony behind him. He recognized the aura immediately. He double checked, convinced he was imagining it, but it was there.

Quickly spinning on his back hooves before racing to the window to see the pony had had so desperately wanted to see: Cadence. His hooves couldn't open his window fast enough, he would have used his magic but he was to emotionally unstable to use it without loosing control. Eventually he got the window open and was face to face with Cadence, standing at the top of a ladder leaning against the house.

“ECLIPSE!” Cadence yelled, leaning him and hugging his neck. The motion, unexpected by Eclipse, knocked him off balance, but he managed to stay upright, and was quickly hugging her back.

“C-Cadence? What are you doing here? I-I thought you had forgotten about me.” Eclipse said, returning the hug.

“I tried to come sooner, but Celestia or your mother always threw me out as soon as i got within 100 feet of the house,”

“Then how did you get here this time? And with a ladder at that?”

“She had help!” Another pony shouted from the base of the ladder, probably holding it steady.

“That voice!” Eclipse said in shock, knowing exactly who it was but not believing it, “Luna? Is that you?”

“Who else would it be? Celestia? Come one 'Clispe use your brain!”

“'Clipse?” Cadence asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“A nickname from when I was younger.” Eclipse said, not too fond of it.

“I like it, it suits you well.”Cadence said, causing Eclipse's cheeks to grow even more scarlet.

“Okay okay, we get it, cute nick name, long time no see, blah blah blah, I can't hold this ladder forever you know.” Luna called from below, her legs slowly getting weaker and weaker.

“Guess you guys better get going, I know for a fact both of you are not suppose to be here.” Eclipse said, slowly pulling away from the hug he had forgotten he was in.

“We're not going anywhere without you,” Cadence said, slowly climbing back down the ladder to let Eclipse get on.

“Nice try, hasn't Luna told you? I can't leave, there's a magical barrier around this house, tuned to my aura, I can't get through.” Eclipse said, he had given up hope of escape when he learned about the force field.

“No problem, who do you think holds the barrier up while mother is out on business?” Luna said, still yelling up from the bottom of the ladder.

“Wait, mother intrusted that to you? Why not Celestia?”

“You know exactly why, she knows Celestia wont be able to stop herself from occasionally bending the field and hitting you. She puts me in charge because she wants you as healthy as possible for tomorrow.”

“What's this about tomorrow?” Cadence asked, unaware of what was going to happen.

“Wait, that's tomorrow? I thought I had a few days left!” Eclipse said, realizing how off his math had been.

“Yep, that's why I went and grabbed your marefriend here tonight, mother is out picking up somethings for tomorrow, we need to leave.”

“What happens tomorrow?” Cadence asked, a little louder then last time, but they still proceeded to ignore her.

“She's not my marefriend.” Eclipse muttered, his face once again a bright red.

“We can discuss that later, just get down before mother comes back.”

“WHAT HAPPENS TOMMOROW!?” Cadence yelled, tired of being ignored. Both Eclipse and Luna stared at her for a while, shocked at the random outburst from the usually quite alicorn.

“You don't want to know, trust me.” Eclipse said, before slowly climbing out his window and onto the ladder. Slowly climbing down from his second story bedroom to the lawn outside.

“Hey... why are you helping me anyway? I know we never really got at each other like me and Celestia, but you never payed much attention to me.” Eclipse asked, turning a suspicious eye on Luna.

“Because I don't blame you for Constellation, and I know you didn't mean to kill father. Unlike others in this house I see who you are, and not what I want to blame you for.” Luna answered, her voice was strong and very confident, but not over confident. She believed in what she said, not making up some lie just to turn around and back stab him later. Eclipse realized that's why she never talked to him: as much as she didn't hate him, if she let Celestia and their mother know it she would be punished like Eclipse.

“Heh, that's good enough for me, now take the shield down so we can get out of here.” Eclipse was more then happy to accept that answer and get as far away from the house as possible.

“Ya, one small problem,” Luna said, nervously chuckling as she spoke. “I can't lower the shield.”

“WHAT?!” Eclipse and Cadence yelled at the same time, not expecting and complications beyond this point.

“Well, I'm not actually holding up the shield, mother is still doing that, I'm just keeping it tuned to you.”

“So?” Eclipse asked, not seeing a problem, “Just stop tuning it to me so we can leave!” In Eclipse's mind it was the perfect plan, what could mother do?

“She still powers the shield, she'll sense if the shield no longer has a target, that, and if the shield doesn't have a target it won't let anyone through.”

“Well isn't that just great? What do we do now?” Eclipse asked, having no idea how to get out without alerting his mother.

“What if we just change who the shield is targeting?” Cadence, drawing the stares of the two other alicorns.

“That... Might actually work!” Luna said, her will returning once again.

“Well, then tune it to me, you two get out, then just switch it back to Eclipse so I can get out.” Cadence offered, excited that they could finally leave Eclipse's prison.

“We can't do that, as soon as I'm out of range the shield will loose a target and our mother will know, I have to stay.”

“But what happens when mother gets back? She'll kill you! No, we're not leaving anyone here to deal with her.” Eclipse said, not about to push his mothers wrath on anypony else, especially not the very pony who was about to save him.

“It's the only way! You can't stay, I have to! I can take it, she'll go easy on me, I'll tell her you sneaked up and knocked me out or something, just get away.”

“I can't leave you, I can't leave anypony.” Eclipse said, starting to feel tears building up behind his eyes. At first he couldn't understand why he felt like crying, then it hit him; As much as they rarely talked, and she had never stood up for him in his life, she was his sister. She was his sister and he was going to leave her to his mothers rage at once again being denied the revenge she wanted. He could only imagine what she would do, and he didn't want to imagine it.

“We can't leave you here! Surly there's another way!” Cadence said, not even trying to hold back the tears. She owed Luna more then she thought at first. Talking with Luna on the way over Luna had told her some secrets. For one, Luna was the one that tipped her off about the abandoned apartment. Luna was the one that distracted her mother while she went and visited Eclipse in jail. And Luna had been the one to help her save Eclipse.

“I'll be fine, I promise, now go. The shield is targeting me now, hurry and get out before mother senses it!” Luna's horn fading back to normal after directing it to herself.

“I'll never be able to repay you for this Luna, Goodbye.” Eclipse said, giving his sister one last hug before he turned to Cadence, making sure she too was ready to go.

“Good bye Luna, I won't forget what you've done for me.” Cadence said, before turning and walking away, next to Eclipse. Both turning back only once, just outside of the property, and waving their final goodbyes to Luna, Before continuing, no direction other then away. No plan other then hide. They would work it out as it came; they couldn't let Luna's sacrifice go to waste.