Chapters 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.
Eclipse
Chapter 2
Jail break
“NO! I won't do it!” Cadence yelled, glaring at Eclipse
“But Cadence!” Eclipse begged, “You're the one that said I didn't deserve to be hung! So why not help me!”
“Because it's illegal! You want to stop yourself from getting hung, you find a way, but a LEGAL way!”
“There is no legal way! MY mother has seen to that! Even if I do find a legal way, she'll block it before I can even start to take it! This is the only way!”
“But what if we get caught? We'll both be charged, you'll still be hung, and I'll be put in prison as soon as I'm old enough! It's too risky!”
“But what if my plan does work? I'll be free! We'll never be caught! Think of the benefits!”
“I... I'm sorry Eclipse, but I can't help you... if you get out, come find me, I can give you a place to stay, but that's all I can do, and that's if my mother doesn't find out.” Cadence said, her voice full of regret that she couldn't help Eclipse, but she knew she couldn't risk being involved, Eclipse was the only one that could do this.
“But my plan won't work without you! I NEED HELP!” Eclipsed knew he shouldn't ask Cadence, but he had no other options, she was his last hope.
“I'm sorry, but I just can't.”
“Fine, where can I find you when I get out?” Eclipse said with a heavy sigh, defeated, doubting he would make it at all, but he still wouldn't give up.
“Go to the old apartment complex on 25th and mane street, the abandoned one, from there I can show you where you can stay, and Eclipse?”
“Yes?”
“Be careful” She said, before giving him one last hug and calling for the guard at the end of the hall to let her out.
“I will” He said, a new found determination in his voice, he had to make it out.
“Good bye, Eclipse, hopefully I'll see you again.” she said as the guard led her down the hall and out of the prison.
He had 5 days left before he was executed, and that meant he had only 4 days to prepare, but he would have to work very carefully. He couldn't risk tipping off the guards as to what he was doing. It was going to be a long and tedious process, but he was confident that he could do it, he had to do it. Come on, Eclipse thought to himself, you can cause eclipses, whats one tiny jail break?
He trained at night when the guard was asleep, which wasn't often. The guard was well trained, so the most time he had was in the early hours of the morning, when the guard finally fell asleep and before the morning guard got in for his shift. So he did the best he could with the time he had. He started by slowly building up magic in his body, then he tried to form a simple spell, it didn't work, but the more magic he gathered, and the longer he tried to cast it, the hotter the collar got. At fist it just got warm, but as a focused he felt it get hotter and hotter until it started to burn him, then he tried to maintain that heat, building up his pain and heat tolerance. After the first session he noticed that he already had to use more magic to make it hurt, so he knew it was working.
After just 2 days he could just barely bend the metal. It took all his strength, and it went back into shape immediately after he stopped pressing on it, but he could do it, so he kept practising. On the third day, just 2 days before his execution, the guard came to his cell again, “your one popular prisoner.” The guard said as he unlocked the doors.
“What is that suppose to mean?” Eclipse asked accusingly.
“It means you have another visitor.” the guard answered. Another visitor? Did Cadence come back? Of course she did! Who else would? Eclipse thought, but as he watched the filly come around the corner, his hopes that it was Cadence shattered, instead of Cadence there was a whit alicorn with a pink mane.
“Celestia.” Eclipse growled through clenched teeth, “What are you doing here? Did mother send you to torment me?”
“Why what would make you say that?” Celestia said in an overly innocent voice “Can't I see my brother one last time before he's hung?” Celestia said with a devilish smirk on her face.
“No.” Eclipse answered flatly.
“Aw, why not? Don't you love your sister?” Celestia mocked with a fake pout.
“Celestia, just tell me what you want, I'm trying to live out the rest of my days in piece, can't you at least give me that?”
“I don't want anything.”
“Then leave.”
“You're no fun! Actually, on second thought, I do want one thing” Celestia said, a devilish grin spreading across her face.
“what?” Eclipse asked, he had a bad feeling about the answer.
“Well, when I signed in to see you, I noticed you had another visitor a couple days ago, a Cadence, was it?”
“What about it?”
“I was just wondering why anypony would want to see you of all ponies.”
“She actually cares that I'm going to get hung, she actually nice to me!” Eclipse snapped, getting even more angry at his sister.
“How could anypony care about you? You killed father, everypony hates you.”
“Well she doesn't.”
“How can you be so sure? Maybe she's just lying to you for her own entertainment, after all, nopony can like you.” Celestia chuckled under her breath, knowing that she was starting to get to him.
“She wouldn't do that!” Eclipse said, but in his mind he was starting to wonder if his sister was right.
“Of course she would!” Celestia said, “You just met her, and she's visiting you in jail? Seems like a lot of effort to go through for somepony you just met.”
“NO! She's just a really nice pony! She would never do that!” Eclipse tried to defend Cadence, but he knew Celestia was right. I can't believe this! How could Cadence do this to me! I really am alone! Eclipse thought to himself, losing the will to fight. Now even if i do make it out, I'll have no where to go, I'll be captured again, and i will never escape. Eclipse thought, giving up his last strand of hope, he was doomed, the one pony he had thought liked him was just playing a joke on him. There probably wasn't even an apartment complex on 25th and mane, it was probably a guard station to take him back to prison, he was alone again, and he hated it.
“Did you actually think she liked you?” Asked Celestia, unable to hide how thrilled she was that he was miserable again. Eclipse couldn't answer, he was to ashamed of himself for falling for such an obvious trap. He really was going to be hung, and nopony cared. Just as he accepted his fate, Celestia decided to make it even worse.
“Aw, what a sad sight, a lone colt just realized that he would die and nopony would remember him, nopony would even miss him, poor, poor Eclipse.” Celestia's words stung like salt in an open wound, and he couldn't take it anymore. His hanging couldn't come fast enough.
“SHUT UP!” Eclipse screamed, unable to hide his frustration any more “JUST SHUT UP! I'M GOING TO DIE! ISN'T THAT ENOUGH FOR YOU!?”
“hmm, no,” Celestia teased “I'm having to much fun to stop now.”
“OK, that's enough, visiting hours are over.” called the guard, letting Celestia out and closing the door behind her.
“Goodbye, dear brother, the next time we meet, you'll be hung, I'll look forward to it.” Celestia called back as she walked through the hall to the exit.
Eclipse couldn't contain his rage any longer, he started kicking and throwing anything he could get his hooves on, mainly hay bits of food from his dinner, he was just so mad, both at himself for falling for Cadences tricks and at Cadence for feeding him lies. He was truly alone in the world, but not for long. Soon he would be dead, and never have to worry about anything ever again, and he too looked forward to it.
“Hey, prisoner 56395, you got another visitor.” the guard called through the bars, Eclipse was currently laying on his hay bed facing the wall, but he didn't need to look to know who it was, the day before his hanging? Who would it be but Celestia?
“Go away.” Eclipse said flatly, “You'll see me tomorrow at the hanging, give me my last day of piece.”
“W-what do you mean? I-I thought you were going to escape.” That voice! No, it couldn't be.
“GO AWAY!” Eclipse yelled, not pleased with Celestia's intrusion in his final day on this earth.
“B-but, y-you said that-that you were g-going to get o-out! T-that you were g-going to live! W-whats wrong?” The voice that called back was NOT Celestia's, but somepony else, somepony he had tried to forget.
“Cadence.” Eclipse growled, “Come back to make fun of me some more? Go and tell all your little friends how gullible I am? Just go away.” Eclipse said, even less pleased then he would have been had it been Celestia.
“Whats wrong Eclipse? I've never seen you act like this before.” Cadence said, her confusion evident in her voice.
“Don't bother Cadence, i know what you're up to, just make it easier on the both of us and leave!”
“Eclipse...”
“I SAID LEAVE!” Eclipse screamed as he rolled over and through a bunch of hay at Cadence, he would much rather through something much heavier, but hay was all he had, but it got the point across.
“I don't know whats wrong, but remember, 25th and mane, snap out of it and be there, I won't wait any longer then midnight, so you'd better hurry.” Cadence said as she called for the guard to let her out, who was just out of earshot while they were talking, at least he got SOME privacy. Stupid Cadence, thinking I'll still fall for it, I know what she's planning, and she won't get the better of me! Eclipse thought to himself, as he did he heard the little food door in the cell open, lunch time. As he rolled over though, he noticed it wasn't lunch at all, it was a light brown teddy bear, with a cream coloured face and paws, with a note attached: Dear Eclipse, since you were so grumpy today you wouldn't even let me give you this, so I had the guard give it to you with this note, I don't know whats wrong, but I hope it wasn't something I did, if it, was I'm sorry, but I still hope to see you again, and not at the hanging. From: Cadence.
What kind of cruel joke is this? Eclipse thought, fist she tried to come back and torment me some more, and now she left me this so I can remember how cruel she was to me! Eclipse couldn't stand it. He through the bear as hard as he could against the wall, but as he did so, the note fell off and fell in front of him. As he read it again and again, he started to realize something, as the note got towards the end, the hoof writing got less and less neat, as if the pony writing it was shaking. Then he noticed another thing, the note had little round wet marks on it, as if... was she crying?
No, it couldn't be, somepony as heartless as her wouldn't be crying, it was just another trick. That's what it was, she was just tormenting him more by making him think she was crying. She really was heartless, but the more he thought about it, the less sense it made. Why would she go through all this trouble when he had already seen through her disguise? Once her cover was blown there was no way to make him believe her again, but then why the tears? If she truly was just making fun of him, then why try to keep up the charade after she got a good laugh out of it? Unless she was even more cruel then he thought. Another problem,her mother was definitely not kidding when she told Cadence to stay away from Eclipse, so why risk all the trouble with her mother? It wouldn't be worth the hassle after if her mother found out, unless... “Celestia.” Eclipse muttered.
It's the only answer that made sense. Celestia had fooled him into thinking Cadence was a traitor, and he believed her! He couldn't believe he had been so gullible, why would he ever believe Celestia? She never told him the truth about anything, so why would she start now? What could he do now? Cadence would never forgive him about how he treated her, all he had lest to remember his one true friend was this teddy bear and the- THE NOTE! She said she would still wait for him! He could explain everything! And he could earn her forgiveness! He knew what he had to do, he had to break out of jail, tonight!
He knew he had to wait for the perfect time, but it was hard, he had to be there before midnight, so he would have to do it when before the night guard came but after the afternoon guard fell asleep. He had a 15 minute window based off previous nights, but he wasn't sure he could do it. After the the guard was asleep for 1 minute 30 seconds, he started to gather his magic. Letting it build up inside of his body, after about 5 minutes of this he felt he had gathered enough. Holding the magic in his body he put as much hay between his neck and the collar as he could, hopefully preventing him from getting burned to badly. He had just 8 minutes left to get the collar off and find a way out of his cell. He started trying to form the most complex spell he knew, the one he used to cause the eclipse. He could feel the heat building up through the hay, but he kept trying to form the spell. He noticed the collar start to turn a faint red, then start to glow. That's when he covered his hooves in hay and forced the collar in 2 different directions. At first nothing happened, but the the collar slowly started to bend, the hay around his hooves was starting to smoke, indicating he had to pick up the pace before the collar burned right through the hay. He put all his strength into forcing the collar open, the back of his neck started, to burn, but he ignored it and kept pushing. Just a little more and he could squeeze it around his head.
NOW! He held the collar in place and pulled his head back and right through the collar, his neck was pretty badly burned, but it would heal. He had hit his left ear with a piece of the collar, but he didn't have time to think of that, the collar was off. Now all he had to do was get out of his cell, past about 3 guard stations, through the streets of Alacropolis, and to the building on 25th and mane, easy, right?
Without thinking he started a teleportation spell, he couldn't teleport through the walls, but he could teleport out of his cell into the hallway, he just had to hope the guard didn't wake up. He gathered his magic, focused on the hall just on the other side of his cell door, and with a flash of light he was out in the hall. Luckily for him the guard was a heavy sleeper, so he just kept snoring away while Eclipse planned out his next action. He couldn't just walk past the guard stations our out the front door, there were guards everywhere, it was a prison after all, so that left him with one option, the roof.
The stairs were just passed the guard station, and they were guaranteed to notice him teleporting, so that was out of the question. He couldn't sneak past with all the cameras in the area. The way he saw it was he either had to distract the guards or knock them out somehow so that they couldn't call for reinforcements. Eclipse wasn't strong or fast enough to use brute force to knock them all out, so he was left with nothing but his magic, a tool he was used to using. He tried to remember the sleeping spell he had once learned when e used to have nightmares and couldn't sleep. Hopefully it would work just as well on the guards as it did on him. Once again calling on his magic he let it flow through the guard station, slowly wrapping around all the guards he could sense.
He had found at a young age he could very easily sense where and who somepony was, using very little magic so that when he did it his “aura” as it was called, didn't grow strong enough for other alicorns to sense, giving him an edge over the bullies at his school. He used this power now to find the guards without them seeing him or them sensing him. He slowly worked his way through the room, finding every guard and slowly wrapping his magic around them. Once he was confident he started to form the sleeping spell and slowly feed it through the magic tendrils the he had attached previously. At this point the guards started to sense his magic, but it was already to late. As soon as he felt the guards start to use their magic to track him down he activated the sleeping spell. Almost instantly they all fell to the floor. No alarms were sounded, no back up was called. The only thing that came out of the guard station was a quiet collective snore of the guards. Eclipse waited a few seconds to be sure he had got all of them, but after 30 seconds and no alarms, he figured he was safe to proceed.
Shortly after passing the guard station he came to the stairwell. Using his aura sensor spell (as he had come to call it) he searched the stairwell for and guards that might be patrolling the upper floors. When he was satisfied it was safe to proceed he climbed up the stairwell. Everything was going fine until he reached the roof door, locked with a magic-proof padlock that looked like it belonged on a giants door. There was no way he could pick that, or blow the door open with his magic. As he stood dumbfounded looking up at the door fate decided to give him a hand. He heard whistling coming from the floor just below the roof, probably the guard that was going to relieve the one at his cell. He silently and slowly crept down the stairs until he could sense the guard just around the next corner. Without thinking he jumped around the corner, grabbed a bucket from a nearby janitors closet, and whacked him over the head with it. The bucked made a rather large bang, but the stairwell was nowhere near any active guard stations, so Eclipse figured he would be OK, at least until somepony discovered the K.O.’d guard. Running his magic down to the guards key ring he quickly unclipped it from his belt and ran back up the stairs.
Luckily for him the guard only had about 20 keys, and even better was the fact the he 7th key he tried fit the lock. Doing a quick sweep with his magic he determined that nopony was on the roof or the stairwell. He went out onto the roof, closing and locking the door behind from the outside, giving him some extra time should somepony find the guard and come looking for him. He walked to the edge of the jail, it was the just a little after 11:00 PM, so the moon was high in the sky, illuminating everything rather well. About 4 stories down was the street, but how to get down there? He couldn't teleport down, even at this time of night the street was still fairly busy, so somepony would have noticed him. Luckily, however, nopony was on the roofs of the other buildings, so he could just teleport from roof to roof.
Slowly making his way to 25th and mane through the rooftops. The city lights looked beautiful from up in the buildings, but now was not the time for sight seeing, he saw his destination on the horizon. The old building was nearly falling apart and was condemned may years ago, the perfect place for a criminal to hide out.
Making the last teleport Eclipse found himself on the roof of the old apartment complex. Finding his way to the stairwell door along the roof. When he tried to open it the door came right off it's rusty hinges, if there had been a lock on it, it was a pile of dust now. The stairwell itself was pitch black, all Eclipse could do was light up his horn and descend into the unknown building.
Eclipse
Chapter 4
A Past Not Forgotten
Eclipse woke to the sound of Cadence's voice, he couldn't make out what she was saying over the ringing in his ears, but she sounded worried. His body felt like it had been covered in gas and set on fire, then beaten with a wooden bat. His vision was too blurry to fully make out his surroundings, but he could tell he was still in the old apartment complex. That's when a sound, not Cadence, not the ringing in his ears, but another sound, like a...... a....... siren? Eclipse jumped to his hooves, quickly realizing how bad an idea that was, as his vision began to swim and he started to get light headed. Falling back down to the ground to see a pink filly laying next to him. While he couldn't fully under stand her over the ringing, he thought Cadence had said something like “Don't stand .......... need......... rest......... lay down..................police are here......” He didn't like it, the police were here, so it was only a matter of time before they found them, they weren't going to get out, before he lost consciousness he managed to utter out two words to cadence; “I'm sorry.”
Then next time he woke he was in a dark, small space, lights moving around on the other side of...something. Everything was still blurred, but he could here muffled voices, he couldn't make out what they were saying, and straining to here them just made his head hurt more. So he just allowed him self to pass out again.
“Eclipse? Can you here me? Eclipse?” A voice called out to him, he recognized it as Cadence, but it sounded so far away, like she was standing at the end of a long tunnel. All he could see was black, not a light to be seen, just a void of nothingness. Slowly, a light began to form, it was far away, but so bright it hurt to look at. As the light slowly grew he tried to shield his eyes. It was then he realized he could not move, he tried to call out to Cadence, but when he opened his mouth to speak, no sound came out. He could do nothing but lay there in the light as it grew stronger and stronger, until all that was once black was white.
Slowly Eclipse's world took shape, blurry and bright at first, but slowly dimming and coming into focus. Once Eclipse could see again he saw he was laying on a rather uncomfortable bed, looking up at a broken and cracked ceiling. “Oh, you're awake.”
“C-Cadence?” Eclipse said, Slowly starting to feel better. “What happened?”
“Well, after you tried to break out of the collar you undertook a rage-shift.” Cadence said calmly, as if rage-shifts happened on a regular bases. In truth rage-shift's are extremely rare. They only happen to alicorns with a remarkably high ability for magic. They happened when the alicorns emotions feed into their magic, amplifying it. This causes not only a large boost in magical energy, but quite often a physical change to the alicorn. The emotion that causes the rage shift depends largely on the alicorn, their personality and what they find most emotionally compelling. For Eclipse, it had been the thought of letting Cadence down.
“Wait, what?” Eclipse asked, making sure he had heard Cadence right.
“You went into a rage-shift, your body was engulfed in flame, it was kinda cool.” Cadence replied, still sounding surprisingly unaffected by what had happened.
“Me? A rage shift?” Eclipse asked, his mind needing more time to comprehend the information it was being given.
“Well ya, I figured you wouldn't be very surprised, being able to cause eclipses and all.” Cadence said, taking it much easier then Eclipse.
“I suppose, but what happened when the police came? Why are we still in here? Shouldn't they have arrested us? Why aren't you tied up any more? Where did the police go? Why didn't they take us?” Eclipse's mind spun with question after question, trying to comprehend the situation, but lacking much of his memory.
“Calm down, we're fine, the police left, they don't even know we're here.” Cadence assured Eclipse, but this only caused Eclipse to ask more questions.
“But why? Why didn't they arrest us? Why didn't they take us to jail?”
“They tried to take us to jail, and they would have, too, if they had found us, that is.” Cadence said, a smirk on her face, evidently proud of what she had done.
“What happened? Why didn't they find us?”
“Well, when you entered your rage state the magical knock back blew me to the other side of the room.”
“WHAT?” Eclipse yelled, more angry at himself then Cadence, “I blew you across the room? Did it hurt? GAA! I'm so stupid!” Eclipse said, punishing himself for something that he knew was beyond his control. That didn't matter to him, though, he still felt guilty about doing that, even though it appeared Cadence wasn't hurt at all.
“Eclipse, I'm fine, it didn't hurt, and besides, it-” Before Cadence could get out a full sentence to reassure him he cut her off.
“NO! It's not fine! I could have seriously hurt you! Or worse! If I hadn't lost control it never would have happened! GGGAAA!!” Eclipse yelled again, frantic over the thought that he could have caused pain to Cadence. Just the thought of hurting her made him physically ill.
“Eclipse, I already told you I'm fine, it didn't hurt.” Cadence said in a caring, almost motherly voice.
“But what if I did hurt you?” Eclipse asked, still feeling like he needed to be punished.
“Then you would have apologized and I would have forgiven you, it was an accident, just like at the summer solstice. I forgave you then, didn't I?”
“I suppose.” Eclipse said, his voice showing the fact that he didn't entirely like that answer.
“Now, after that I noticed some broken glass lying next to me, so I just used that to cut my ropes.” Cadence explained, this time managing to finish her sentence before Eclipse interrupted again. Making sure that he wasn't going to interrupt again Cadence continued her explanation. “After i got all the ropes off i went over to check on you, you were still lying in the middle of the floor. All around you the walls roof and floor were completely black from the fire around you.” Hearing this information he slowly turned his head, looking to where he had been on the floor a few minutes ago. It was then he noticed the deep charcoal-black they had been turned. He had been lucky this place was old enough to be made of stone instead of wood, he could have caused a fire, killing both himself and Cadence. Thinking about that started to make him nauseated again, so he turned his attention back to Cadence.
“Luckily the blast disintegrated both the collar and the ropes tying you,” Cadence continued now that Eclipse was paying attention to her again, “That's when the police sirens started outside, which is what woke you up the first time.” Cadence explained, slowly filling in the gaps in Eclipses memory, being passed out for so long he had missed a lot.”
“But how did we escape them? Why did they leave us here?”
“After you passe out again,” Cadence continued, ignoring Eclipses question in favour of finishing her story, “I new I had to hide us, that's when I noticed a closet door that had been dislodged by the blast. So I managed to drag you in there while the police were searching the apartment.”
“But wouldn't the have checked the closet? The police aren't stupid enough to ignore it are they?” Eclipse asked, this time managing to attract Cadence's attention.
“No, when i pulled the door shut it got stuck again, so when they came to check it they took a while to get the door unstuck. While they were doing that i dragged you into the very back corner and covered us with some old blankets and towels, it didn't smell very nice, but it did hide us until they left.”
“Then I take it you dragged me out and lifted me onto the bed? How long has it been since then?” Eclipse asked, fearing the answer.
“About 3 hours, it's just around 10 in the morning now.” Cadence said. Eclipse was thankful it was only 3 hours, that means Celestia probably didn't know they hadn't found them, so she wouldn't come looking for them yet.
“Good, we have some time before Celestia comes looking for us.” Eclipse said, letting Cadence know they were safe, for a while.
“Speaking of Celestia,” Cadence said, gaining more authority in her voice, “I have a few questions.”
“uh-oh” Eclipse thought to himself, not liking where the conversation was going.
“Why is she so determined to get you sent to jail? Isn't she your sister? And what's with your mother working so hard to get you hung?” Cadence asked, trying to make sense of the rift in the royal family.
“It's...... a long story....” Eclipse said, trying to tip-toe his way around the conversation, not wanting to talk very much about his past.
“We have a long time.” Cadence said, not letting Eclipse get off so easy.
“Are you sure? I mean, the police could come back, or Celestia might come looking for us sooner then we think, it would be better if we left now.” Eclipse tried to change the subject.
“We still have a while until you will be able to stand again, and it will be a while before more news gets out about your escape, and even longer before Celestia notices they're still looking for us, so we have long enough.”
“Fine,” Eclipse said, finally giving in to Cadence, “but you should know that I'm not 100% sure on it, I know very little about this, actually, only what I've managed to gather over about 100 years of research, in a very theoretical sense.”
“You don't know your own past?” Cadence said, not sure what he was talking about.
“Well, from what I can remember, it wasn't even my past until about 600 years ago. Until then, it was Constellation's past.”
“Constellation?”
“You know how the night time sky has all those star patterns? All those shapes and pictures?”
“Ya, the ones The Father made.”
“Well, not exactly, you see, around 600 years ago, when I came into this world, there was another son in the royal family, Constellation. He made the stars into what they are today, all my father did was maintain them, and kept them in sync with the moon.”
“But then where is he? What happened to him? And what does any of this have to do with you?”
“Around 900 years ago, 300 before me, Constellation fell gravely ill, he could barley get out of bed, not even the best doctors could help him, he only had a view hundred years left. From what I understand, this disease had never been seen or heard of before, and it has never been seen since, it came, then just as fast, it left.”
“But what happened to Constellation?”
“The royal family has heart broken, he very deer to them, being their first born sun, Celestia especially fond of him, so they reached to the darkest depths of magic to cure him. Magic so dark, it is illegal to even speak of it, but they felt it was the only thing that could bring back Constellation, so they tried.”
“What did they do?”
“I'm not sure, there is so little information past this point, all I could find was something about a ritual and binding his soul to his body, with the aid of another soul, mine.”
“So where did they get your soul from? Did they kill you?”
“Not exactly, more like... Harvested.”
Eclipse
Chapter 5
The Brother She Loved
“What do you mean by harvested?” Cadence asked quizzically.
“I mean I was harvested, like an apple from a tree, only in my case a soul from the in-between.”
“In-between?” Cadence echoed, it had a disturbing ring to it.
“Yes, a place where souls like mine go when we are not dead, but not alive, some where in-between, that's where it gets it's name. It is usually referred to in necromancy, that is where they get the souls to reanimate the corpses.”
“But where do all the souls come from?”
“Nopony knows, I have very little memory, I can remember only bits and pieces of the in-between, but from what I can remember it was hell, eternal suffering, but I don't know why I our anypony else was there to begin with.”
“That's terrible!” Cadence said, appalled by the thought of such a place existing.
“It was, but the souls there are always taken out eventually, either through some form of necromancy, or by finally being excepted either back to the living, or to heaven. If you are drawn out by necromancy, when you die you go back into the in-between, you are eternally linked to it, so you will always be drawn back after a certain amount of time, that's why necromancers have to constantly summon more souls, they keep getting drawn back. This is also the reason why it is illegal, every time the necromancer has to summon a new soul they need a fresh corpse.”
“Wait... does that mean...” Cadence thought, her mind slowly connecting the dots, “Does that mean you will be drawn back as well?”
“Not quite, you see, the souls are used to keep the corpse running, in most cases this lasts only a few hours, stronger magic equals more time, but I was different, I was placed in a still living body, a body much older then my soul, which caused....problems.”
“Problems?”
“Well, my soul was younger then Constellations body and soul, you already have problems from the fact that he still had his soul, I remember fighting with him over his body, I didn't want to steal his body, but I was being forced to by Mothers magic, forcing me to take over his body, I didn't want to, you have to believe I didn't want to...” Eclipse said as tears started to form in his eyes as he remembered the pain both he and Constellation were forced to suffer, obviously not a fond memory.
“You were forced, it's not your fault.” Cadence comforted, noticing Eclipse starting to cry.
“I know, it's just... I wish I could have stopped it,” Eclipse said before trying his eyes and continuing the story, “Since he was older he had the advantage, but with magic both restraining him and helping me, I eventually took over, for a time every now and then he came back, he never truly left the body, I just learned how to stop him.”
“So... What does all this have to do with why they hate you?”
“Well, when they were casting the spell they didn't know that I would replace him, they didn't know they would loose him, they found that out only after it was too late and I had taken over. N taking over the body not only did I gain control, but the body also changed to hold my much younger soul, I was essentially reborn. A foal once more, they couldn't figure out why, but eventually figured out that I wasn't Constellation, and they thought that I had deliberately killed him, even though they forced me too. Ever since then they hated me, but they couldn't abandon me, they had to raise me like one of their own, nopony could ever know what they had done, but they still hated me.”
“That's it? They hate you because of something they did to you?”
“That's all I know on the subject, as far as they're concerned I killed the son they loved.”
“Have you told them it's not your fault?”
“I tried, but they never listen, they pretend like I don't exist, that's why they tried to get me killed, they wanted to get rid of me, like a mistake they can just erase.”
“That's terrible!”
“I know, but I can do nothing about it.”
“Wait, but what happened to Constellation?”
“He's still in the body, though he no longer has the strength to take over, and I am bound to this body, so I cannot leave and give him his body back, he can do nothing but wait until his soul is forced out of the body, probably when it dies, when we are both released, I will go back to the in-between, an he will go to heaven, I can do nothing to stop this.”
“How do you know he's still in there?”
“Before I met you he was my only friend.”
“What?”
“He can communicate with me, he understands that I didn't want to take over, he understands what I was forced to go through, so he kept me company through the lonely years of being ignored and hated. He knows what I do, he helps me make decisions, he has a say in everything I do, though sometimes he goes silent, his soul is still week from his illness. He knows neither of use can do anything, so he has excepted that and decided to help me, he helped me live.”
“So, is he with you now?”
“I... I don't know, ever since I met you he hasn't said anything, I can feel him, but just barely, it's odd, he normally tells me when he rests for a while.”
Before Cadence could ask another question they heard somepony open the door to the apartment.
“What was that?” Cadence said, quickly looking down the hall to make sure they weren't coming down it.
“Hold on.” Eclipse said as he started to reach out his magic, trying to use magic made his head hurt and his vision swim but he had to find out who it was, he had just barely made it to the living room when he knew who it was.
“C..e...a” Eclipse mumbled, not able to form full words after exhausting himself to see who it was.
“Who?” Cadence asked, not able to hear him.
“Celestia.” Eclipse said again, this time managing to make his word audible.
“Quick, in the closet!” Cadence said, hoping to hid like she had from the police.
“There's no time, she's already walking down the hall, we have to get out. NOW!”
“But how? There are no doors, no windows, and I can't teleport us out, I'm not strong enough, and you are to injured to even attempt multi-pony teleportation.”
“No, not multi-pony.”
“What? Eclipse, you-” Before she could offer another word in protest she felt magic slowly wrapping round her, Eclipse's magic, before a sudden flash of light when she found herself on the roof of a building. From her location she could see the abandoned apartment building and the jail. “Eclipse, what are you thinking?” Cadence asked herself before beginning to make her way through the building, it wold be a long walk back to the apartment, not skilled enough in magic to have learned teleportation. So she walked, but it would be to late.
“Where did he go!?” Celestia thought to herself as she walked through the old apartment looking for the two she thought had been there. After making sure the living room was empty she began to make her way down the hall to the bedroom. At fist she didn't see anything, but then she noticed a few sparks showering down to the floor, evidence a spell was cast, recently.
“They got away!?” Celestia bellowed, unable to control her rage any longer. She started stomping around the room, crushing anything she could find, though she would much rather be taking out her anger on Eclipse.
“Not they, Celestia, she.”
“You.” Celestia's words were dripping with hatred. She quickly spun around to see Eclipse stumble out of the kitchen adjoining the master bedroom.
“Yes, me, she had nothing to do with it, leave her out of this.”
“Oh, don't worry,” Celestia said, her tone suddenly becoming very sadistic, “You're the only one I want...”
“What do you want with me Celestia?” Eclipse said as he took a strong stance, though still very weak.
“I think you know, I think you know exactly what I want.”
“Why do this? Why not just take me to the police station yourself?”
“Oh, I wouldn't dare, it was only because of Crystal that I let you live the first time, but now that you an I are alone, well, lets just say I'm not holding back.”
“Don't do it, If you kill me Ponies willstart to challenge our mothers rule, and you don't want that.”
“She is not our mother! She is mine and Luna's mother! You will nave have a mother!” Celestia yelled, growing angry at Eclipse for constantly calling her mother his, though she never really thought about it until today. A day she was going to make sure blood was spilled.
“You know that's not true,” Eclipse said, backing down into the kitchen as Celestia slowly stepped forward, “You did have a brother once.”
“Yes, I did, but not anymore, do you know why?” Celestia said, becoming very quiet. The change was enough to unnerve Eclipse, but not enough to stop him.
“Yes, I do, but it is not the reason you think.”
“Oh really? Well, let me tell you what I know, I know YOU KILLED HIM!” Celestia shouted at the top of her lungs, jumping at Eclipse. He just barely managed to step out of her way and continue to try and calm her down”
“No, I did not kill him, your mother did!” Eclipse said, trying to make Celestia listen to him.
“LIES!”
“I'm telling you the truth, you helped with the spell, his blood is on your hoofs as well.”
“Now I know you're lying.”
“I'm not.”
“You really think I'll believe you? I... I loved Constellation, I w-would never h-have killed h-him.” Celestia stuttered out as she started to cry, remembering how much she had loved Constellation, and how he had been ripped from her life without so much as a goodbye, and she was staring at the only pony who could have done it. Taking a few steps back to prepare herself, Celestia charged forward at Eclipse, this time she managed to hit him square in the chest.
Eclipse looked up as the ceiling spun, slowly looking over to the white and pink blob that was Celestia, crying in the middle of the room, wishing for her brother to somehow come back.
“I loved him.........” Is all Eclipse heard before his world went black for the second time that day.
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.
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.
Eclipse
Chapter 8
Safety
Eclipse was puzzled, worried, and a little frightened. Of all the situations he had prepared himself for, laughing was not one of them. Laughing was one of the situations he hadn't even thought about when running through her possible reactions. There was running, screaming, confused, scared, hate, not one of them included laughter of any kind. Laughter made no sense, it was the kind of thing the alicorns in the mental wing of the hospital did. Maybe that was it? Maybe her mind couldn't handle the stress and just snapped? It was the only logical explanation Eclipse could formulate, and he was worried he really had made Cadence snap.
“R-Really?” Cadence gasped out between gales of laughter.
“What?” Where was she going with this? Eclipse didn't know, and he didn't want to find out. For the first time since he had met Cadence he felt like he should just flap his wings and fly off in the opposite direction as fast as he could. The only thing keeping him grounded was the fact the the guards would easily spot him, and he knew he couldn't out fly them. That and the fact that he may have seriously damaged Cadence's mental state, that too.
“That's it... You've been... acting like this... because Constellation... Came back?” Cadence could barely spit out a few words between laughing and gasping for breath, never mind a full coherent sentence. Spitting out a few words between laughs and gasps, she finally completed her sentence, and what she said only confused Eclipse more.
“B-But I... I thought... I thought you would hate me for it.” Eclipse's words started as a small whisper, barely audible to Cadence, but slowly grew until he was almost shouting. Tears obviously forming in his eyes, though he did his best to hide them; he didn't need Cadence to see him cry again. In truth he was ashamed of how much he had been crying recently, but with the emotional stress of the past few months, he couldn't hold it any longer. After that long of bottling his emotions up it felt good to cry, though he would never admit it.
“Why would you ever think that?” The answer came not from the alicorn in front of him, but instead a voice in his head, one he hoped hadn't overheard him, though he knew better then that, he always hoped.
“Not the time Constellation. Eclipse thought back, before turning his attention back to Cadence, not even listening to the response that was something along the lines of 'I told you she wouldn't mind' or something to that affect.
“Why would you ever think that?” This time the correct voice answered him, though the words were the same as Constellation's, they had so much more meaning coming from her.
“I TOLD YOU!”
“SHUT UP, CONSTELLATION!” Eclipse made no effort to keep in his head this time. Cadence knew about Constellation, and even if she didn't know he wasn't sure he could keep it in his head any longer.
“What's he doing?” Cadence sounded as calm as a pony after leaving the spa, not at all sounding like a pony asking a fugitive what the voice inside his head was saying.
“It's nothing, he's just being Constellation.”
“Can he here me?” This surprised Eclipse. He hadn't expected Cadence to talk to him for more then a few seconds after learning there was a voice in his head, never mind wanting to talk to it herself.
“Well...” Eclipse wasn't totally sure what to say. Should he tell her he could here her? Would that help at all? Or, if he didn't tell her, would she make Eclipse repeat everything she said to Constellation? More importantly, could he lie to the only pony willing to accept him? No, he couldn't. “Yes, he can here you.”
“Okay then. HEY!” Cadence's sudden raise in volume caught Eclipse of guard. He jumped back, startled, and fell over onto his back. Cadence, however, took little notice of Eclipse's surprise, and went to help him up without even taking a break in her speech. “CONSTELLATION! YOU STOP BEING MEAN TO MY FRIEND!”
“Umm... Cadence? He can here you just as fine as I can, since he hears exactly what I hear, sharing a body and all that.
“Oh, right, Cadence said with a sheepish grin, her cheeks turning a darker shade of pink then they already were. Constellation just laughed.
“Tell her I promise to behave.” Constellation stuttered out between laughs.
“He say's he's sorry.” Eclipse grumbled out, not thrilled with the answer Constellation gave.
“He better be. You here me, Constellation? You better behave in there.”
“Your marefriend gets quite defensive, doesn't she?”
“Constellation, if you don't shut up I swear I'm going to find a way to force you back into the in-between.” Eclipse forced himself to smile for Cadence, but in his mind he had a very stern look.
“Hey, take it easy. It's been a while since I've talked to somepony, I'm just having fun.”
“Now, shall we get going? The sun will be up in about half an hour, and pony's are already starting to get up.” Eclipse offered, more then happy at the opportunity to change the subject.
“Lets.”
About 15 minutes later, they arrived at the apartment. After searching through the rooms for a while they found a suitable one on the third floor. Though the building was condemned, it still had running water. The city would have to shut off water for the whole area to disable it for the one building, so they just left it alone. The apartment they decided on was one of the more intact ones. It had two rooms, each with a bed and – although very dusty and dirty – sheets and a blanket. It had almost all the fixtures a normal house would have, and all of the ones it had were still working.
As they walked around to get used to their new environment, they started to notice a running theme; every room was painted a light pink. For most that wouldn't have been a problem. Cadence even loved that it matched her coat. Eclipse, however, felt very differently. It matched Celestia's mane to a T. He new she would be looking for him. He knew she would stop at nothing to see him dead, and now, every morning, he would wake up to see a bright pink wall in his face. He didn't like the idea of waking up to see the thing he feared most every single morning for the rest of his predictable life. He knew he would leave the apartment eventually, but for the time being he would live here in hiding.
As Eclipse walked to what used to be the living room, before a wall had collapsed, turning it into a very large kitchen, he saw Cadence standing at the fridge.
“Don't tell me that thing still works?” He said as he approached from behind. Cadence, apparently, didn't here him coming, as she jumped a foot in the air, at the same time hitting her head against the top of the fridge.
“Ow....” She groaned out, slipping out of the fridge and turning to look at the pony who had startled her.
“Heh, sorry. You alright?” Eclipse asked, wearing a silly smile and rubbing the back of his neck with a hoof.
“Ya, I'm fine, just try not to sneak up on me. It's creepy in here.” Cadence said, giving a slight shiver as she looked around at the dim building. The only light they could see came from the few outward facing windows, and the sun was just rising, so it was on the other side of the building.
“Kinda, I mean, I'm not scared, or anything...” Eclipse said. It wasn't entirely lying. He found dark and dreary places like this somewhat relaxing. Though the pink still reminded him of Celestia, and very moment spent thinking about Celestia and his mother was a moment spent in fear.
“Sure you aren't,” Constellation said sarcastically, ”I can here you shaking.”
“Constellation, now is not the time.” Eclipse growled back. He didn't need to keep it to himself anymore, Cadence didn't mind, and it let so much more frustration out when he could actually say it, rather then just think it.
“Hey! You promised to be nice!” Cadence walked up to Eclipse, defending him from what was very possibly his own imagination. Eclipse still wasn't entirely sure Constellation had come back – actually, he wasn't sure he existed at all – and having Cadence talking to him but not talking to him at the same time was kinda weird.
“I did not!” Constellation could try to protest all he wanted, but in the end Eclipse decided what Cadence heard or didn't hear, and in this situation Cadence got to here exactly what she wanted.
“He says it was a slip of the tongue, he didn't mean to say what I though he said.”
“That's good, I thought he was giving you a hard time again.” Cadence, smiled, content that she had fixed the problem and went back to rummaging through the fridge. Eclipse still couldn't figure out why, but he had a feeling he would soon. So while he waited he went back to the couch, blew some dust off, and sat down.
Eventually Cadence accomplished whatever it was she was trying to do, and came and sat next to Eclipse, magically wiping the dust off before she sat down.
“What were you up to over there?” Eclipse had watched her the entire time. Though he couldn't get a good look – since she had almost her entire head in the fridge – but he could see a faint glow.
“Oh, nothing, just... looking,” Cadence said as normally as she could. She was terrible at keeping secrets. She was even worse at lying, and in this situation, she was doing both.
“That wasn't looking, looking doesn't require that long or for you to shove your head inside a fridge.” Eclipse stated flatly, trying to get the truth out of her without seaming mean. Unfortunately for Cadence, it was working.
“Well, I was just... thinking.” Cadence shifted her wait slightly trying to keep her secret for as long as possible, but slowly failing.
“Thinking what?” Eclipse started to push now. He wanted to know, nopony would shove their head in a fridge to think, never mind use magic.
“Well, we're going to be staying here a while, so we'll need food.”
“Don't tell me you know how to fix a fridge?”
“No, not really, which is why you can't see the fridge right now, I made a few.... mistakes, shall we say.” Cadence admitted, turning her head away and slightly down, her cheeks once again becoming a brighter pink.
“Oh, come on, it can't be that bad.” Eclipse started to get up before a magical force pushed him back down. Cadence wasn't especially talented with her magic, so he could easily fight it, but it had caught him of guard. He tumbled back into the couch, sending up a little dust cloud as he hit it.
“No, you can't see it till I fix it!” Cadence stated firmly, stomping a hoof against the couch to reinforce her point. Though all she managed to do was send up another cloud of dust and throw her and Eclipse into a coughing fit.
“Remind me to get a vacuum for in here.” Eclipse said between coughs and gasps, trying to blow away the dust with his magic, though finding it hard to concentrate.
“That might not be a bad idea.” Cadence agreed through her own coughs.
“Now,” Eclipse said, starting to get up, Cadence was too distracted with coughing to notice until it was too late, “Let's see the fridge.”
“NO ECLIPSE DO-” Cadence tried to protest, only for her to be cut off as Eclipse opened the fridge.
“AH! IT'S GOT ME! CADENCE! HE-” Eclipses cries were muffled as he was yanked into the fridge by his unseen attacker. All Cadence could see was one hoof flailing about, before it went limp and was pulled in.
“ECLIPSE!” Cadence dashed over to the fridge, readying her magic. While she wasn't very good at magic, she was sure going to try and protect her friend to the best of her abilities, from whatever monster she may have created.
“HOLD ON! I'M COMING!” Cadence got into the kitchen and galloped to the front of the fridge, pointing her horn menacingly at whatever was in the fridge. As she prepared to let loose with all she had, Cadence noticed that Eclipse was not being attacked by some monster, but was instead sitting scrunched up on the lower shelf. Laughing.
“You should see the look on your face! Priceless!”
“ECLIPSE! That was NOT funny.” Cadence said sternly, reaching out with the magical energy she had stored. Instead of attacking a monster, she used it to grab Eclipse by one hoof and an ear.
“Ow! Hey, what are you doing?” Before Eclipse could offer another word of protest Cadence pulled, hard. She sent Eclipse tumbling to the other side of the kitchen, stopping only when he hit the counter on the opposite wall.
“That's for implying that I turned the fridge into a monster.” Cadence stated flatly as she started to walk over to Eclipse, helping him up once she got to him.
“Really? That's it?” Eclipse was honestly expecting her to be more mad about causing her to panic, not insulting her repair skills.
“No,” Cadence said, before taking a step back, “This is going to get much worse.” As she spoke she kept walking backward, eventually she was once again next to the fridge. Before Eclipse had time to process what she was doing or what he should do, she charged.
Head down, horn facing forward, pointy end aimed right at Eclipse. Before he could make a roll to get out of the way she was right in front of him. Just before her horn made contact with his neck, she raised her head and jumped, hitting Eclipse square in the chest. They both went tumbling further back from the impact, though there was little space between them and the counter, so it didn't last long. Eclipse's back slammed into the counter, Cadence landing right in front of him, standing with her hoof on his chest pinning him to the cupboard.
“Ow...” Eclipse said, dazed from the impact. He rubbed his back with a hoof until he realized Cadence standing over him.
“Got anything to help you outta this one?” Constellation said, in his head.
“Um... Sorry?” Eclipse said, still trying to catch his breath from the impact.
“You better be, next time I wont lift my head.” Cadence warned in a dead pan tone. Eclipse's “joke” had obviously upset her. He made a mental note to apologize after she calmed down a bit. Besides, he thought it was funny.
Cadence lifted her hoof off his chest and went back to the living room, presumably to sit on the couch. Eclipse, however, had other plans. He had caught a glimpse of it, though being stuck inside it never really gave him a chance to actually look at what Cadence had done that she was so embarrassed by. Walking back over to the fridge he heard a faint noise come from the living room as Cadence sat down, but that was it. She had forgotten all about the fridge. As Eclipse got close to it he looked around the corner to see Cadence fiddling with something else in the living room, probably a loose spring in the couch. He walked up to the fridge, grabbed it with his magic, and pulled it open.
Just as he opened it Cadence burst from the couch, galloped to the kitchen, pushed him out of the way with a fore hoof, and bucked the door closed. After that she quickly took the couch spring she had just enchanted, wrapped it around the handle and a cupboard handle near by, then breathed.
“There now you can't get in.” Cadence stated firmly, before walking calming back to the couch.
“Really? A spring, you know I could just-” Eclipse got his magic ready, he broke an anti-magic collar, a spring should be no problem. As he reached out with his magic towards the spring he started to gather just enough of it to bend the spring off. However, when he touched it it sent a quick jolt of energy directly into his magic, and, as a result, his horn. “Ow, what did you do to it?” Eclipse asked, rubbing the base of his ow sore horn. Nothing major, just enough to break up the spell he was casting and shock him a bit. Enough to hurt, but no damage had been done.
“I told you, you can't see it till I'm done, I'm still not done. As for the spell, well, let's just say that the cookie jar at my place is mine and mine alone.” Cadence said, a smirk on her face, ether from successfully trapping Eclipse out or remembering something about the cookie jar.
“Wait, what's this about a cookie jar?” Eclipse asked, the pain in his horn had already passed, and his disappointment in to seeing the inside of the fridge replaced with curiosity about the cookie jar.
“Well, I like cookies, we had a cookie jar on a high shelf. Once I learned some basic levitation I would steal cookies from the cookie jar, so my mother enchanted it to protect them from me. Eventually I learned how to examine spells and enchantments that had already been cast. So, I examined the one on the cookie jar enough that eventually I figured out how to disable it. Unfortunately, if I disabled it my mother would know I stole cookies, so I had to learn to re-cast it so she couldn't tell.” Cadence answered, her voice emotionless until she added at the end, with a rather hungry look while licking her lips, “Those cookies were good.”
“Interesting, I've never seen a spell like this before in my entire life, how do you do it?”
“If I told you that you could get in, and that would be cheating, you want in figure it out yourself, that's what I did.” Cadence said teasingly.
“Fine, maybe I will figure it out on my own.” as Eclipse spoke he began to walk back to the kitchen. Where he proceeded to sit in front of the fridge with his horn lit up and his eyes closed.
“I wonder how long it will take him to figure out that you can't figure out how to cast a spell simply by examining it after it's been cast” Cadence though to herself, a slight chuckle accompanying her thought. At least it kept him busy for a while so she could do some cleaning. Cadence got up and went to search the other apartments for cleaning supplies, the real story behind the cookie jar locked safely in her head.
Eclipse
Chapter 9
Then it Snapped
Eclipse once again found himself sitting on the old – though less dusty – couch in the living area. Once again he found himself with nothing to do. Once again he found himself waiting for Cadence to return. Once again he found himself panicking. It happened every day; Cadence would leave him alone to go get supplies, she would be gone for the greater part of the day, and Eclipse always felt helpless while she was away. This had been going on for about 2 weeks now, and at this point Eclipse was not the only alicorn with a price on his head. Somepony (Eclipse assumed it was her mother) had ratted her out as a co-conspirator to his prison escape. He would always insist that she stay here, but the fact that they both needed to eat sided with Cadence on the issue.
CLICK
Eclipse's head snapped up and to the door, watching open with agonizing slowness. Time seemed to stop. Eclipse hoped it was Cadence, but still gathered the magic in his horn in case it was not. Finally the door opened enough for Eclipse to see Cadence's trade mark pink mane and cheerful smile.
“I'm back!” Cadence called, not seeing the last sparks die off of Eclipse's horn as his magic dissipated.
“Where were you?” Eclipse asked, glancing over at a clock on the wall they had bought a few days before with what was left of Cadence's allowance after food.
“No where...” Cadence was a bad liar, and they both new it. Eclipse just looked at Cadence, an expression saying “You know I'll find out” across his face.
“uh-huh.” Is all he said.
“Well, I managed to find a few extra bits on the road.” Cadence said, still obviously lying, but doing her best to change the subject. She put down the bags she was carrying in her magic on ether side of her.
“We both know that's not true, who gave them to you?” Eclipse deadpanned. He didn't want to come across as mean, but he was not the most trusting alicorn in the world.
“Fine, my mohr” Cadence mumbled.
“What was that?”
“My mother” Cadence spoke a little clearer, though still too quiet for Eclipse.
“One more time?”
“Fine, they're from my mother.” Cadence almost yelled, while at the same time staying quiet enough to hear Eclipse's gasp from the other side of the room.
“You wouldn't,” Eclipse said, dashing the the door. He looked out into the hall, looking both ways before slamming and locking the door. “Why did she pay you? Did you lead her here? How could you do this to me? I trusted you, Cadence” Eclipse said, slowly spiralling into a panic as his mind jumped to every worst case scenario he could think of. Tears slowly leaking from his eye at the thought of Cadence doing something like this to him.
“Eclipse, calm down, it's not like that!” Cadence tried to comfort him, but instead he just turned away from her, the anger clear in his voice.
“It's always like that... It's always been like that... I don't know why I thought you would be different. Tell me, Cadence, how much of it was true?”
“Eclipse....” Cadence couldn't bring herself to say anymore. She knew how betrayed he must have felt, but she also knew he wouldn't listen to her, at least not until he calmed down.
“So, none of it, huh? Tell me, why would Luna risk her safety for you? Or was she in on it too? How much of this was orchestrated by my mother?” Eclipse could feel his shoulders heaving as he sat on the floor, facing the wall, sobbing. His brain picking apart every detail of his time with Cadence, poisoning it with his new knowledge. The venom of betrayal filling every last memory he had of the pink alicorn behind him.
“You know that's not true.” Constellation said, managing to tear through the walls he had built around his last safe memory. “Just think about this for a second. Why would she do all that she's done? You know our mother wouldn't go this far, she had you right where she wanted.” It was too late, Eclipse was too far gone in his own depression that he completely ignored what Constellation had said. Instead opting to look at his memories as a reminder to how foalish he had been. He knew now that somepony like Cadence would never like an alicorn like him.
“Worthless”
That one word echoed through Eclipse's head. It shook him to his very core. Years of being told he was nothing, years of being laughed at, they all came rushing back, like a river rushing through a broken and crumbling dam. He felt numb to the world. Nothing mattered anymore. Nothing.
He started to smile.
Nothing mattered, he could do what he wanted. He could finally escape. It would all finally end. End. That one word, it brought a sense of calmness back to the chaos in his head. He could finally end it all. Nothing help him back now. Not his foalish hopes of Cadence coming back, not the promise that things would get better, nothing.
For the first time in his entire life, Eclipse honestly laughed. Not the fake laugh he used to gain his mothers approval or to prevent Celestia from abusing him. This one was honest, and it felt good. With his laugh went his fears of betrayal, the jealousy and envy of other ponies with actually loving families. All replaced with the calming thought of an end.
“Don't do it Eclipse.” Constellation's voice was nothing but a small whisper in that back of his mind. A nagging doubt as to what he was going to do. His mind saw it as the one thought that had not yet accepted that he was free, and instantly latched on to verbally tearing it apart.
“Why not?” Eclipse thought back, still laughing while staring at a blank pink wall. The pink wall that had tormented him in his many sleepless nights. “You always told me you wanted me to be happy, so why are you trying to take away the one chance I have to be truly happy? Why are you still holding me back after all these years? You're the one that stopped me from doing this so many times in the past. That's what it was, wasn't it? You didn't want me to do it because it would also happen to you! Your nothing but a selfish figment of my imagination. I created you years ago when I was alone. Well, I don't need you anymore, GO AWAY!”
“You think that, yet you still know it's not true. I'm not a part of you, Eclipse, you're a part of me, you came from me, you would be nothing if I didn't exist, think about it!” Constellation was growing desperate, he knew he was running out of time before Eclipse did something he would regret, he just didn't know how to stop him.
“I've thought about it. For years I've thought about it, and you know what I've finally decided after all this time? I've deci-”
“Eclipse? What are you doing?” Eclipse was cut off as the timid voice broke through his thoughts. That one voice. That one voice that had started this all. That one voice that had poisoned his entire life with lies of compassion and friendship. That one voice that he wanted nothing more then to end.
Permanently.
Turning back to Cadence, Eclipse slowly stood up, whipping the tears from his face with the back of his hoof. His smile slowly turned into a full grin as he slowly walked over to Cadence. “Cadence,” he thought, “I wonder if that's even her real name, or if that's a lie too.”
“So, Cadence, if that is your name, how's it going?” Eclipse asked. His calm voice unnerving to the pink alicorn.
“E-Eclipse? What a-are you talking about?” Cadence stuttered, suddenly scared for her life.
“Oh, you know, you always were a bad liar... or was that an act too? Make me feel safe, making it seem like I could tell when you're lying. Tell me, what do you get out of this? Money? Or does it fill some sadistic need of yours?”
“N-NO! Eclipse! I-I I would never!”
“It's to late now. I know, and there is nothing you can tell me that will change my mind.” Eclipse slowly got closer to Cadence. Cadence backing up in return. Eventually she felt the wall behind her. Nowhere to run.
“P-PLEASE! E-Eclipse, no. D-don't do it...”
“You know what? You're right.” Eclipse said, his grin returning was again to a slightly crazed smile. He turned away from Cadence once again and proceeded towards the kitchen. “That would be rather... messy.”
“Don't do it.” Constellation was frantic now. He saw what was going on and Eclipse's head and he didn't like it.
“That's enough from you. You've held me back from too many opportunities for me to listen to you.” Eclipse thought back. Constellation had said something in response but Eclipse didn't listen. There was only one thought going through his head. A thought that would no longer be ignored.
Eclipse reached the kitchen, Cadence was still backed to the wall, eyes locked on Eclipse, mind racing in circles, looking for any explanation to Eclipse's behaviour. Her body numb from shock, her legs could no longer hold her wait as she slowly sat back.
“You know. I've plotted things like this before. Though I had many more resources. I would never be caught, you know. I would slip into that shadows, reappearing every now and the to do it again. But this will have to do, I'm already wanted anyway.” Eclipse said, digging around in a drawer for something cadence could not yet see.
“Eclipse?” The fear in Cadence's voice was obvious, and a part of Eclipse still felt sorry for her. “She had no idea what she was getting into” He thought. “No matter, she did it anyway. She knows now what she got into.”
Eclipse found what he wanted; a large steak knife. Slowly, Eclipse picked it up with his magic, floating it slightly behind him so Cadence could not see what he had. He once again wore an insane grin as he walked calmly back towards Cadence.
“NO!” Only a single word in protest made it through Eclipse's head from Constellation, still, he ignored it.
“Eclipse? What do you have? What are you going to do?” Cadence asked, her voice cracking from panic. Still not grasping what Eclipse's had been talking about.
“You'll find out soon enough. Don't worry though. It won't hurt.” Eclipse said, “for long.” He added quietly under his breath so Cadence couldn't here him.
He made his way to the living room. He stood in the centre of the average size room, nothing but a few feet separating him from Cadence.
“I would say I'm sorry, but there's only one pony in this room who owes an apology, and it's not me” Eclipse said, almost sadistically.
“Sorry for what?” Cadence started making her way to the open door. Her legs still felt week from the shock, but she felt she needed to get out. Now.
“Please don't” Is all Eclipse said, before a wave of magic flew out from his horn and into the door, encasing it in a deep red aura. Slowly it dissipated, but Cadence could still sense the magic on the door, no doubt sealing it. She truly was trapped now.
Without a warning Eclipse brought the knife out from behind him, wielding it in front of him, pointy end towards Cadence.
“ECIPSE! NO! IM SORRY! WHATEVER I DID I'M SORRY! Cadence cried out, begging for her life. Finally realizing what Eclipse had been talking about. Somewhere along the way his mind had finally snapped. He was gone. The alicorn in front of her was not Eclipse. Those hate-filled eyes did not belong to the colt she had saved from his mother. His smile was not that of a confident colt after escaping prison, but that of a crazed killer. No emotion was left except anger.
“It's to late for that.” Eclipse said, almost sadly, yet still grinning. Before anypony knew what was going on, he pounced. Easily closing the distance between him and Cadence, knife aimed directly at her throat.
“ECLIPSE NO! AAAAAHHHHH!!!!!”
Then there was silence in the apartment.
Eclipse
Chapter 3
treachery
Walking down the staircase relying only on the light emitted from his horn for light, Eclipse made his way down to the main floor of the building. Walking down the stairs he could tell how old the building was, what was left of the wallpaper was peeling off and every step he took creaked like the whole building was about to collapse. Most of the doors leading off of the stairwell were boarded up from when the building was originally condemned in an effort to keep nosey teenagers out. Unfortunately, however, that didn't work, there was graffiti covering most of the walls, obviously their favourite place to hang out.
Once Eclipse felt he had gone far enough down he used his aura sensing to sweep the building for any signs of Cadence. Starting from the top an working his way down, he scanned floor after floor. Starting to feel a little worried that she didn't show up Eclipse started to panic, quickening his pace. Eventually he found he in one of the rooms on the main floor, just 5 levels below him.
Now filled with hope that his crazy Escape plan worked, he ran down the rest of the stairs, nearly tripping over old, stuck up nails, but he managed to catch himself before he fell. Finally he came to the main floor lobby, what was once an elegant chandelier now sat in the middle of the floor, rusted an broken. Doing one last scan for Cadence before he set off down on of the hallways. Galloping down the hallway until the very last room Eclipse called out, scared of what would answer.
“Cadence? Hello? It's me, Eclipse.”...No answer
“Cadence?” Eclipse called out, a little louder this time.
“Eclipse? Is that you? Please come here, I'm in apartment 1D.” Cadence called back. Eclipse couldn't shake the feeling that She sounded off, but he decided it was just his imagination and hurried in to where he had heard cadence call from.
“Cadence?” Eclipse called once he was in what used to be the living room, but was now run down, dark, and filthy.
“Mmmph!” A very slight sound called back, like a muffled cry.
“C-Cadence? Whats wrong? You're scaring.”
“Mm-Mmph!” the sound was louder this time, Eclipse swivelled his ears around looking for where the sound had come from. It had sounded like it came from the bedroom, just down the hall of the living room. Walking down the hall toward the sound. Eclipse was worried about this, first the sudden absence of Cadence, then this muffled crying, something was wrong.
CREAKE!!
Eclipse ran out of the hall and back to the living room at the sound he heard. Looking back to see if whatever had made that sound was chasing him, however, instead of the monster he expected to see, all he saw was a loose floor board.
“It's ok...it was just a loose floor board...it's ok...” Eclipse said to himself, trying to calm himself down after nearly running out of the entire building.
“Mmph?” the sound called back, sounding like it was trying to tell him something. Deciding to carry on down the hall way, this time stepping over the creaky floor board. The hall got darker and darker as he walked further down, the light from the window in the living room slowly fading out of sight. He could barely see his own hoof in front of his face by time he reached the door at the end of the hall. Slowly opening the door just enough for him to peer inside. Looking around the room he saw one ripped up bed and another door that looked like it led to a bathroom. There was a small window above the bed, bathing the room in a dim blue light from the moon. That's when he saw something out of the corner of his eye, in the corner of the room was a little pink....thing, and it was moving.
“CADENCE?!” Eclipse yelled, worried that something had happened to his only friend. Bursting through the door and to where he thought he had seen Cadence on the other side of the bed. Sure enough, there was Cadence, hogtied and gagged in the corner of the room, eyes filled to the brim with fear.
“Mm-mmph!” Cadence was trying to say something to him, but he couldn't under stand. Walking toward he he reached out with his magic and started to untie her and remove the gag. After if finally managed to get the knot on the gag undone he ran up and hugged her, hoping that she hadn't been hurt.
“Cadence are you alright? Who did this to you? Where are they?” Eclipse was worried, scared, and shocked that somepony would do this to a filly.
“Well, Cadence is alright, I did this to her, and I'm right behind you” Called a voice Eclipse was all to familiar with.
“Celestia, why did you do this? And more importantly, how did you know we would be here?” Eclipse asked through gritted teeth, furious that Celestia could have possibly hurt Cadence.
“She had help.” Somepony else said from behind Celestia, a voice he recognized but couldn't place. The unknown pony walked out from the shadows, a tall alicorn with a pink coat and a deep blue mane.
“MOM?!?” Cadence cried out, shocked that her mother had done this to her.
“I'm sorry Cadence, I really am, but this was the only way. I hope you can forgive me.” Cadences mother said, not sounding very happy about what happened to her daughter.
“I don't believe this!” Cadence said, looking like she was about to cry. “How could you do this to me! Your own daughter!”
“Yes, yes, all very sad, mother betraying daughter, blah blah blah.” Celestia said, stopping the argument before it got any farther. “Now, the police should be noticing that you've escaped any second now, and we don't want to be here when they do. They will be receiving an anonymous tip about this place, and find both of you, then you will go back to jail and be hung like a good little brother.”
“And how to you propose you keep use here? We both have magic.” Eclipse challenged, not going down without a fight.
“The answer to that is in a question of it's own.” Celestia said in a mocking voice, “Why do you think she didn't use her own magic to escape?”
“well...I...I don't know.” Eclipse admitted. He had never really thought about, his mind was on other topics a the time other then why didn't she escape.
“I'll give you a hint, you had one not to long ago.”
“You mean....The collar?” Eclipse said, looking down back at Cadence, just now noticing the anti-magic brace around her neck.
“You catch on quick, now I have a little gift for you too.” Before Eclipse really knew what was going on Celestia had tackled him to the ground and was securing the anti-magic brace around his neck.
“You won't win this time Celestia, I'm tired of being pushed around by you!” Eclipse yelled, all to tired of Celestia treating him like an ugly patch of dirt.
“And how do you propose you get out of this?” Celestia asked as she was tying him up much like Cadence, minus the gag.
“Haven't you noticed that I've already gotten out of one of these collars? What's to stop me from doing it again?”
“That's easy, these are stronger, and you can't use our hooves to help you, I'm not entirely sure how you did it the first time, but I'm pretty sure you can't do it all tied up.” Eclipse knew she was right, he just couldn't except it. Before he had much time to think about it he heard sirens from the prison, they had found his empty cell.
“Ah, they noticed your absence, now then, crystal, come along, we must be far away from here when the police show up, we don't want to be suspects now do we?” Celestia said, turning to Cadence's mother who's name was apparently Crystal. As the two turned to leave Celestia shot one final evil grin in Eclipses direction before disappearing down the dark hallway.
“Eclipse! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean for this to happen, they must have followed me from my house, non of this would have happened if it weren't for me, now you're definitely going to be hung, and it's all my fault!” Cadence said, tears slowly forming in the corners of her eyes.
“No, I will not be hung, we will get out of this, we can't lose hope, we come to far to give up now.” Eclipse said, his voice full of conviction, for the first time ever he was confident in himself.
“But I just do- Oh my gosh, Eclipse! What happened to your ear!?” Cadence asked, making it sound like his ear had been completely torn off and replaced by a weasel or something.
“What's wrong with it? It feels fine.” Eclipse replied, not understanding why Cadence was so worried about it.
“An entire chunk is missing of the tip! Just look in the mirror!” Cadence said, motioning towards a piece of a mirror that was once on a bedside table, but was now shattered all over the floor.
Eclipse managing to slowly worm his way over to the mirror he inspected his ear in. It was a little blurred from how dirty the mirror was, but he could make out a rather large chunk missing out of his left ear.
“oh, that, when I pulled the collar off it got caught on my ear, and it just kind of burned through it.” Eclipse said as if it were no big deal.
“Did it hurt? Are you all right? Does it still hurt?” Cadence asked, worried that he might be in pain.
“No, I didn't really feel it at all actually, it was sore for a little while after, but not to bad.” Eclipse assured her, trying to calm her down.
“We aren't going to get out of this, are we?” Cadence asked with a heavy sigh, disappointment thick in her voice. “And we were so close too.”
“Don't think like that, we will make it out.” Eclipse said, though just as he was trying to convince Cadence of it he was also trying to convince himself.
“No, there is no way out.” Cadence said, her voice hollow and defeated.
“I promise you Cadence, we will make it out, I promise.” Eclipse meant every word that he said, building up his magic, he had to escape, but first, he had to break the collars off.
“Eclipse, what are yo-” She was cut off before she could finish by the most blood curdling scream she had ever heard, and it was coming from Eclipse. Eclipse had focused all the magic he could gather, and all at once forced i tnot out into a spell, but directly into the collar. Before he new what was going on he felt a sharp pain in his neck, slowly growing until it was covering his body, like 1000 needles poking at him all at the same time. Then, all of the sudden, it all went black.