Eclipse

Eclipse

Chapter 7

The Return

After leaving Luna they wandered the streets. Being the middle of the night they could move relatively freely, only ducking into the odd ally or 24/7 store to avoid patrolling police. For a while they had no real direction; they couldn't go to Cadence's house – her mother was helping Celestia – and they really had nowhere else to go. Eventually they decided to head to the old apartment complex, deeming it the safest place right now. Slowly they walked through the dimly lit streets. Eclipse was watching for anypony on a late night walk with his magic, and Cadence just walking silently beside him.

“So... Luna...” Cadence said weakly, staring at the ground. Her voice was almost a whisper, but when she spoke ponies listened, she just had a way about her of silencing anypony, no matter how quite she could be.

“What about her?” Eclipse asked flatly. Not wanting to have this conversation now – or ever – and especially not with Cadence. He didn't want her to see him cry. He was barely holding back as it was now, but he knew he wouldn't be able to control himself if they started talking about Luna.

In truth, Eclipse's brain was still chewing over what Luna had said to him. She didn't hate him. His entire life had been filled with nothing but hate towards him, his mother, his sister, his classmates, everypony. He had always assumed Luna was the worst – she never even spoke to him more then she absolutely needed to – she would look away when he looked at her. She would sit there and do nothing while Celestia or his mother tormenting him. She always looked like she enjoyed his pain, but now, his memories felt different. He noticed that Luna had looked away when he looked to her for help, but also looked away with tears in her eyes, not from holding back a laugh, but because she wanted to do something to stop it.

“Eclipse?” Cadence asked, concern thick in her voice.

“What?” Eclipse asked, oblivious to the tears streaming down his voice, memories of his hellish - and abusive – childhood forcing through his final mental shield.

“Nothing, it's just that you're.... you're kind of crying.” Cadence said, the concern almost tangible in her voice.

“I-It's nothing,” Eclipse lied, wiping off the tears and walking slightly faster then before.

“You wanna talk?”

“No, if anything I just want to get to the apartment, as fast as possible.” Eclipse was still battling tears, but it was a battle he was slowly winning, as his eyes dried through will power alone.

“Okay.” Cadence had no choice but to accept the answer she got. She knew she couldn't make Eclipse tell her anything. She knew he would tell her when and if he was ready.

“Why don't you tell her?”

“Huh? Who's there?” Eclipse asked, turning to where the voice sounded like it had come from. There was an old, flickering street lamp and a few closed shops, but other then that they were alone.

“What?” Cadence said, surprised by the sudden outburst from Eclipse

“Did you... no, never mind.” Eclipse tried to tell himself he was hearing things, the voice he heard was not Cadence, and they were totally alone otherwise.

“Why don't you talk to her? You know you'll feel better.” The voice said again, this time Eclipse recognized it, but still couldn't place it.

“What do you want? Who are you? WHERE ARE YOU!?” Eclipse yelled down a dark ally, the only answer coming from the echo of his voice.

“Who are you talking to?” Cadence asked, starting to think that he really was insane.

“The...The vo- you didn't here anything, did you?” Eclipse asked, looking at his hooves as he did.

“Eclipse? Are you feeling alright? We could take a break.” Cadence offered, caring about others first and her own safety second, just like always. The sun would be up soon, both of them knew they had to keep going if they were going to make it in time. They would fly, but it would draw too much attention, they couldn't hide in the sky when there wasn't a cloud to hide behind.

“No, we need to keep going, it was just the wind.” Eclipse said, trying to convince himself more then Cadence that he wasn't going crazy.

“Um... Eclipse? There's no wind here.”

“Come on 'Clipse, tell her who I am, unless you don't remember me? You do remember me? Don't you?” The voice came again, and Eclipse knew exactly who it was now. He hoped he was wrong.

“I thought you left,” Eclipse said, not meaning for it to be out loud, but sometimes you just don't think about things like that.

“I never left you, Eclipse, what are you talking about?” Eclipse decided to ignore Cadence until he got his answer from the voice, an explanation would waist the time that would be better spent figuring out why Constellation had come back.

“You know, your marefriend over there is going to think your crazy.” Constellation teased, not harsh, but not funny to Eclipse ether.

“She's not my marefriend, and I'll tell her as soon as you answer me.” Eclipse thought, this time managing to keep it to himself.

“Well, you  looked rather lonely, and I could tell you needed some advice, so I came back, don't you like me anymore?” Constellation said in his not-mean-but-not-friendly voice.

“Advice on what?” Eclipse was almost offended that Constellation thought he needed advice, he thought he was doing just fine on his own.

“Well, for one, what happened back there with Luna is really bugging you, and you wont talk about it, so it helps for someone to be able to read your thoughts.” Constellation had stopped teasing and sounded concerned and serious.

“I'm gonna tell you what I told Cadence: I'm fine! Why is everypony so obsessed with Luna? Luna this and Luna that, they seam to care more then I do!” Eclipse barely managed to keep it in his head as the conversation (thoughtversation?) grew heated.

“That might be what you say, but that is not what you think. Haven't you learned you can't lie to me by now? Remember the pie disaster a few years back?”

“That was a lot more then a few years ago.”

“You know my time runs differently then yours, especially when I'm not talking to you.”

“Eclipse? The apartment is this way.” Eclipse was drawn away from Constellation by Cadence's voice, one of the very few things that could break through his thoughts. She looked concerned, but that might be because she was about half a block away, down the opposite street from Eclipse. He quickly galloped back down the street and caught up to her relatively quickly.

“Sorry, just been thinking, lost track of where we were going. The sun's almost up, we should hurry.” Eclipse tried to change the subject before the subject could even begin, hoping Cadence wouldn't ask too many questions. It didn't stop her.

“Thinking about what?” How could Eclipse lie to her? He asked himself this over and over, forgetting Constellation still being in his head.

“Don't lie, you already told her about me, why are you hesitating now?”

“Because I also told her I don't anymore, what if she thinks I'm crazy? What if she doesn't believe me?”

“Why wouldn't she believe you?”

“Because I'm not sure I believe me!” Eclipse said this out loud, half laughing and half crying at how crazy he sounded. Drawing a very concerned look from Cadence and a laugh from Constellation.

“You better tell her, otherwise she's really gonna think you're crazy.”

“You're not gonna leave me alone till I tell her, are you?” Eclipse asked. He already knew the answer, but there was still a part of him that hoped he was wrong.

“Nope,” Constellation would have been grinning, if he had a body of his own.

“Cadence? We need to talk.”

“What about?”

“Well, me,”

“Getting a bit egotistical, are we? 'me'? I mean, come on, we're talking about ME here, not you!”

“Shut up Constellation” Eclipse was having a hard enough time telling Cadence, he didn't need Constellation teasing him. Luckily he managed to keep it to himself, and continue talking with Cadence, though she did grow suspicious with the random broken up speech.

“Anyway,” Eclipse continued, his mouth was suddenly dry. He couldn't figure out why this was so hard. It should have been easy, right? He already told her he used to talk to Constellation, so why would this be any different? Then he realized what was holding him back; he was embarrassed by it. She might think he really was crazy. Or he was foalish enough to need an imaginary friend.

“Get on with it. You know she won't judge you for it, so just tell her.” Constellation was growing impatient. Why he wanted Cadence to know about him Eclipse wasn't totally sure, but he knew he was right. He had to tell Cadence before another outburst convinced her he was crazy.

“Well, remember back in the apartment the first time - don't we turn left here?” It was a was a week attempt to change the subject that Cadence didn't even know they were on. Even if she didn't know what they were talking about, she knew when he was trying to avoid it.

“That is not what you wanted to talk about, you said something about yourself, and no, we don't turn here, that's the building up there.”

“Right, anyway, well, when we were back there, and you asked why everypony seemed to hate me, you do remember, right?”

“For ponies sake SPIT IT OUT!” It took talent to make Cadence impatient, Eclipse felt both proud of himself and scared for his life at the exact same time.

“You had better tell her before she forces it out of you.”

“You're not helping, I thought you said you came to help me?”

“Never said I wouldn't have a little fun in the process,” If only Eclipse could see that stupid grinning face, he'd punch it faster than he could say 'hi'.

“Eclipse? Hello?” Cadence was started to get concerned about how often he was zoning out, it wasn't normal for him, in the short time she had known him he had never done it before tonight.

“Wuh? Huh? What? Oh, right, Cadence, what's up?” Eclipse silently cursed himself, realizing he had zoned out again to think with Constellation.

“You. You haven't been normal since we left your place, what's going on?”

“Well, you see, it's kinda hard to explain.” Eclipse absentmindedly rubbed a hoof against the back of his neck.

“Try me.”

“Well... Conltiosbck” Eclipse mumbled under his breath, unintelligible to anypony but himself, and, judging from the laughing filling his head, Constellation.

“Speak up!”

“Constellations back.” This time eclipse barely managed to make his voice audible. He closed his eyes, expecting the worst. Would Cadence think he was nuts? Would she shun him? Would she walk away and never look back? Eclipse was prepared for anything other then what happened. Had she hated him or thought he was crazy, that would have been normal, Eclipse could have handled that. But he was not prepared for her to start uncontrollably laughing.