In Pursuit of...

Chapter 4: Research

Spitfire found herself looking down at the original Wonderbolt 1: Soarin’, completely wrapped up in a sheet with his mouth gagged.

“Soarin’!” she cried, taking off his gag. Soarin’ gasped.

“He’s not a Wonderbolt! Eclipse! Beware Eclipse!” he panted. Then slowly, his breathing slowed down as a dreadful realization hit him.

“It’s already happened, hasn’t it? Eclipse… Did he take Princess Luna?”

“I’m afraid so,” said Rainbow Dash, stepping forward. “Do you know anything about Eclipse?”

Soarin’ shuddered. “I wish I did. He never revealed much to me, other than his plans for today. If I were to harbor a guess, I would say he’s an Alicorn, corrupted like Nightmare Moon.”

“But no legend ever told of him,” Nimbus said, “so what is he?”

Standing shakily, Soarin’ shrugged. “I have no idea. Pure evil is all I can say.”

“We’re going to the Royal Library,” said Twilight, “to try to see what we can dig up on Eclipse.”

“You’re taking this on yourselves?” asked Soarin’, aghast.

“We most certainly are,” said Rainbow Dash, determined.

“Uh, actually,” said Nimbus, “you guys just reminded me- I need to report to Princess Celestia about the day’s events. Normally, my commander, Sunshine, would do it, but he’s kind of…” he took a quick look at the two frogs who had stowed away in his helmet “occupied at the moment.”

“Perfect,” said Soarin’, “we need to do the same.”

“Then let’s move!” said Applejack, “we ain’t got time to waste!”

…

As always, the Royal Palace was an impressive sight. Its tall spires jutted into the sky, its trim shining in the sun- one could almost forget about the tragedy that had befallen Equestria earlier that day. Almost. The group stopped at the foot of the bridge.

“We part ways here for now,” said Nimbus, “let me know what you find out later.”

“Hang on just a sec,” Rainbow Dash interjected, “I was in the middle of that attack at the stadium, too. I’m coming with the Wonderbolts.”

Nimbus looked to Rainbow Dash, then back to Twilight.

“You okay with this?”

Twilight shrugged. “Sure. I just need some time with the books.”

“Then Rainbow and I will come meet you in the library when we’re done.”

“That’s Rainbow Dash to you, Smarty,” Rainbow snapped at Nimbus. “I have a full name, and we are not on a nickname basis, so I expect you to use it!”

Nimbus backed off, deciding to let this battle lie. “Fine, fair enough, whatever you say. Let’s just get in and get out.”

“See you later,” Twilight said, leading her friends towards the library.

“Bye!” Rainbow called. Soarin’ stepped up to the massive, gold-trimmed gates and knocked once. Slowly they opened, and the group walked through, stepping between rows of Royal Guards on either side. The ponies all walked at stiff attention, rendering the proper courtesies. As they stepped in front of the throne, all of them knelt. Nimbus took a quick look at Princess Celestia. She seemed tired, and more weary than she had ever looked before. Nimbus understood. To lose a family member after they’d just become so close must be difficult.

After Princess Celestia nodded her head in acknowledgement, the group stood back at attention.

“Detail,” said Soarin’ using his military command voice, “present arms!”

The five ponies saluted, and the Princess returned the gesture.

“Order arms!” said Soarin’, and the ponies dropped their hooves. Princess Celestia smiled faintly.

“Relax,” she said, then recalling her military courtesies said, “stand at ease.”

The ponies unlocked themselves from their rigid attention. “Now,” said Celestia, “what brings you here?”

“Ma’am, we wish to make a report,” said Spitfire.

“Very well,” said Celestia, “you may proceed.”

“None of us were able to apprehend the villain now known as Eclipse,” said Fleetfoot, “and as you know, he has taken Princess Luna.”

“Yes,” Celestia said solemnly, dipping her head.

“However,” Soarin’ interjected, “well, I’d better let Nimbus handle this.”

Nimbus stepped forward, snapping again to attention and saluting. “1st Lieutenant Nimbus, 20th Air Defense Squadron, Equestrian Defense Force Reports!”

“Please,” said Celestia, shaking her hoof, “no formalities. You are at rest here.”

Hesitantly, Nimbus relaxed. “Ma’am, I have joined a…” he searched for the proper phrase, “-task force which has assembled in the hope of finding Princess Luna and stopping Eclipse.”

“You have?” asked Celestia, “please tell me who is involved.”

“Six ponies who were with me at the stadium today: Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash. The last one saved my life, in fact.” He looked back at Rainbow Dash with a smile. The blue Pegasus just glared back.

“I know them,” said Celestia, “and I know they are capable of helping us in these difficult times. Where are they now?”

“Doing research, ma’am,” Nimbus replied, “trying to find out what they can about Eclipse.”

Celestia frowned. “Sadly, I attempted to do the same, but I could find no book explaining his existence. But perhaps Twilight Sparkle…” she let her sentence trail off. “Nimbus, I would like you to bring your group to me later, and I will tell you all what I know of this threat. If you wish to undertake this task, then I approve. I may have someone who can back you up as well…”

“Who?” Nimbus asked.

“I’d rather not say until you all are assembled. Good luck in the Library.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Nimbus stepped back to the Wonderbolts, saluted with them, then turned smartly on his hooves and walked out. At the gate, he spoke to the Wonderbolts.

“Best of luck to all of you. I hope your journey back to Cloudsdale is safe.”

“Thank you, Nimbus,” said Spitfire. “Sounds like we might be on alert for a while now. I hope you are successful in your journey.

“Thank you,” Nimbus replied, “I’ll do my best.”

With Nimbus’s final words, the Wonderbolts launched themselves into the air in a graceful formation. Nimbus watched them fly away, then stretched his wings and took off, heading for the Library. Perhaps his new teammates had found something.

…

The magical shroud of darkness which had been placed over Luna’s vision for most of the flight was finally lifted. The young princess found herself in a cave. The air was musty, and water dripped from the ceiling. She turned her head from side to side, finally adjusting to the darkness. No one was near.

“Ah, I see you have come to your senses, sister,” a snakelike voice crept through the cave.

“Where art thee, villain?” Luna said, furious, “show thyself!”

“In time, perhaps, I will,” said the voice. “But perhaps you’d rather know your purpose here.”

“My purpose is to watch over Equestria with my sister,” Luna countered. The voice simply chuckled darkly.

“Of course,” it said, “Equestria. The place you came so close to ruling. Does it dishearten you, knowing that you never had the chance to rule such a place by yourself?”

“Nay,” Luna spat, “and I will never betray my sister again!”

“So you say,” the voice whispered, “yet I wonder…”

In front of Luna, the dark, Alicorn stallion from earlier today materialized, grinning evilly.

“Eclipse,” said Luna, “though art not my sibling.”

Eclipse laughed. “Perhaps not a sibling by your definition,” he said, “but my dear princess, we are very much related. Closer, in fact, then most sibings.”

He began to pace. “Perhaps you know me better like this.” He suddenly shifted, changing his features until he resembled a tall, female Alicorn with a dark coat and a glowing, blue mane. Luna’s eyes widened.

“Nightmare Moon,” she whispered, “I believed thee to be gone forever.”

“Not gone,” the Alicorn snarled, changing back into Eclipse, “just dormant, trapped for many years. When those base ponies used the Elements of Harmony to free you, they only separated me from you. I represent the… better side of you: ambition, power, a hunger to rule. These are the qualities I represent. Nightmare Moon was a combination of me and you, and until the day she was defeated, I was always a part of you, hiding in the back of your mind. Since you were freed of me, I… developed. I know the secrets Equestria holds, I know how to defeat you, and I know very well how to overthrow the current rule of Celestia.”

“Thou cannot,” Luna countered.

“Oh, I beg to differ,” said Eclipse, slowly sidling up next to her, “you see, I am the darkness now, I am the bringer of Eternal Night. Nightmare Moon tried and failed. I am different. Without your little traces of good clouding my judgement, I can act unrestrained. Equestria will fall to me.”

“Never,” said Luna, “not as long as ponies exist with the will to resist.”

As he faded back into the darkness, Eclipse couldn’t resist one last parting blow. “The will of a community is like a tree. Strong, yes, but given enough force, it will break. And when a tree falls, it falls harder than almost anything in the world.”

Eclipse began to laugh maniacally, and Luna glared at where he had been.

“We will see who falls the hardest, knave.”

…

“Nothing, not here, nope, not that one either, wait… nah, that won’t do-“

Twilight was frantically speed-reading through several of the Royal Library’s books when Nimbus showed up with Rainbow Dash.

“Find anything yet?” Rainbow asked.

“No,” said Twilight, frustrated, “seems like no one knows where Eclipse came from.”

“Hey, this is cool!” Pinkie Pie’s voice sounded from above, as she bounced down from the top of a nearby bookshelf, landing right in front of Fluttershy.

“Aah!” Fluttershy squealed in surprise. Pinkie took no notice and began to bounce around the room- vertically, horizontally, diagonally- pretty much defying the laws of the universe as everypony knows it.

“What’s cool?” Nimbus asked, halting Pinkie.

“Check this out!” Pinkie said in response, cracking open a new, shiny, black book. Nimbus looked at what was on the page. It was a triangular symbol, and in each of the corners was a hoof, a horn, and a feather. Nimbus’s eyes widened, and he opened his mouth to speak, but before he could get a word out, Pinkie had already bounced the book over to Twilight, and had shoved over an entire stack of priceless volumes to show her the discovery.

Twilight looked at the book. “Huh,” she mused, “Precursor to the Elements, by Retired Royal Scout Corporal Mecha. I never knew Mecha wrote books!”

“Mecha?” Nimbus asked, “who’s that?”

“An old friend of ours,” said Twilight, “now shush.” Twilight began reading slowly, poring over the book’s contents. “Interesting,” she mumbled, “he’s proposed a theory that an extremely powerful magical artifact exists that predated the elements of harmony.” She looked up at Pinkie. “Why did you choose this book?”

Pinkie shrugged. “I dunno, but it just seemed important!” She turned and winked at no one in particular.

“Why did you just do that?” Nimbus asked, noticing the gesture.

“Just acknowledging the audience,” Pinkie replied.

“The who? Wha-? Never mind,” said Nimbus.

“She does that from time to time,” said Applejack, “never really understood why.”

“Hey,” said Twilight, “this is interesting.” The ponies gathered around. Twilight was pointing to the picture Pinkie Pie had shown Nimbus earlier. “Mecha’s been doing a bit of research, and he’s come to the conclusion that this supposed artifact looks something like this.” She pointed to the different parts of the image. Now Nimbus could see that the symbols were displayed upon what appeared to be a large, hexagonally-cut gemstone. “There’s a hoof, a horn, and a feather, which Mecha believes to symbolize the three races of ponies in Equestria, not including Alicorns. Apparently, this image has been depicted in places all over Equestria, and they predate the Elements of Harmony by centuries. Some propose that this thing is a source of power, and others claim it serves as a ‘unifier’ for the Elements, something to bring them together, and others say that this thing actually created the Elements.”

“Wow,” said Rarity, “it’s beautiful.”

“And spooky,” Fluttershy added, “maybe we should leave this book alone.”

“Well, Pinkie seems to think it’s important,” said Applejack. She turned to Nimbus, who was standing next to her. “Nimbus, what do-“ she stopped. Nimbus was frozen to the spot, staring at the image with his mouth agape. “You okay?” Applejack asked.

Nimbus shook himself out of his daze. “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just that I’ve seen this symbol before.”

“You have?” said Twilight, putting the book down, “where?”

“My family has a very old stone, polished smooth and passed down each generation. It’s got that symbol on it.”

“Hmm,” said Twilight, “perhaps there’s a link. Wait!” she said, “here’s something else in another section. It says: ‘the Elements of Harmony, assuming that this Unifier exists, are not perfect. Without the Unifier, the source they draw their power from is gone, and there is a distinct possibility that if used, the Elements may not display their true potential, rendering certain spells incomplete.’ I wonder… What if Nightmare Moon…” she trailed off. “Not important right now. The point is, I think this book has something to do with Eclipse’s appearance. We need to take our findings to Celestia.”

“Great,” said Rainbow Dash, “it’s about time some action got underway!”

…

The seven ponies approached Celestia, two of them for the second time that day. Celestia recognized them.

“Welcome, ponies,” she said, then, turning to Nimbus and Rainbow Dash added: “I see you have brought your friends. Excellent.”

“Princess Celestia,” said Twilight, “I think I have a lead on why Eclipse is here.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. I believe it has something to do with an artifact- one that existed long before the Elements of Harmony. Do you know of any such thing?”

Celestia was thoughtful for a moment. “I have heard rumors. Nothing more.” She paused. “But there is somepony who might. His name is Mecha.”

“We know him,” said Twilight, then noticed Nimbus looking confused. “Well, most of us know him, anyway.”

“Good. Seek out his help on your journey. He was always very loyal to my sister. Perhaps he can help you.” Celestia settled back. “I wish you all the best of luck. It’s not often somepony comes in here and volunteers for such a dangerous task. I trust you will all make Equestria proud.”

“We will,” said Twilight, “we most definitely will.”

As the ponies left the palace, Nimbus began to wonder: just what sort of pony was Mecha? What would such a pony be like? He was clearly affiliated with the military, or at least was. All sorts of questions swarmed around inside Nimbus like a bunch of angry bees. Through it all, he only hoped for one thing: that this “Mecha” pony would be willing to help.

Credit for "Mecha" goes to Itchy, an author on this site. Thanks for letting me use him!