Author's Note

Three.

The Hunt Begins

Two days in the hospital had left Pete stir crazy. Even with Rainbow Dash visiting for hours a day he was sick of laying in bed doing nothing. When the doctor finally released him, it was on the orders of Luna who requested his presence in the audience chamber. Unsure of what to expect, he headed there immediately. Inside stood the Elements of Harmony, as well as the five newly made ponies. Once again the guards were missing from the room, signifying the importance of the conversation.

All eyes were on him as the doors opened and he walked forward. Celestia and Luna were, as ever, imposing on their throned dais, but they weren't sitting this time. They were standing, and it looked like he had interrupted something important. The collective watched as he approached, some apprehensive, other concerned. Finally as he reached the group Celestia turned to Luna.

“No, absolutely not.”

“He is our only option, sister.”

“I'm sorry,” Pete held up a hand. “Only option for what?”

Luna shot Celestia a look as the elder alicorn opened her mouth, making her close it slowly.

The Princess of the Night then began, “My sister has found evidence that an ancient foe of ours is once again active. He has been behind events as recent as Sombra's return, and as old as my own corruption to Nightmare Moon.”

“Who in the world can be that ancient? I mean, you two are thousands of years old. It's not Discord, clearly, so who is that powerful to live so long and be able to make Nightmare Moon?”

“He goes by the name of Eclipse,” Celestia said. “Our ancestors took the job of turning the sun and moon around the planet and stole from him a position of power.”

“Eclipse used his powers of darkness to coat the sky in black, rather than move the sun or moon. It was a good alternative, but when our ancestors arrived and began to move them expecting nothing...”

“He got greedy,” Pete surmised. “Tried to fight the alicorns of old, lost, and has been in hiding?”

“Correct.” Celestia nodded approvingly. “I recently obtained his journal and he makes note of an artifact of his own design. A powerful piece of magic technology that he claimed could rival our power. After he writes about completing it however the entries stop.”

“Sounds like a simple task. Twilight and her friends go out, find the thing, bring it back. Why am I the only option?”

“Because, Pete, sending the Elements away now would leave us vulnerable, and the journal is not so clear on the artifact's location. Whoever we send is going to have to do a lot of work trying to find it.”

Pete crossed his arms. “So me. The disposable former guard who just set up his life in Ponyville?”

“You aren't disposable,” Luna insisted, “The new ponies are not yet capable, despite their insistence, and as Celestia has mentioned we cannot spare the Elements in case of an attack.”

“Scouts then,” Pete suggested.

Celestia shook her head, “If we sent anypony related to the military out they may have to cross borders, and then we may end up with international incidents on our hooves.”

“So it's not because I'm disposable, it's because I have the training, but I'm not official.” Pete sighed, “Because you know if it's this important I won't say no.”

Luna blinked in surprise. “You won't?”

“I hate it, but no. How could I? It took me a long time to quit the guard because of this, and even if I don't want to do this I can't ignore it. Rock and a hard place.”

“I'm going too,” Rainbow Dash flew up and put a hoof on Pete's shoulder. “I'm not letting you walk out of here alone after what you pulled.”

“Rainbow, the whole point of me going is so the Elements of Harmony stay here, together.”

“Pssh, please! If something goes wrong there's no where we can go I can't get back here in a day, tops. Fastest flier in Equestria, remember?”

“Rainbow Dash, that is not the point,” Luna interjected.

“I dunno,” AJ shrugged, “She's pretty fast if you ask me. And Pete definitely needs somepony to keep him in case he does anything stupid again.”

“Princess,” Twilight looked at Celestia pointedly, “Rainbow is right. We can't just send Pete out alone. Not just because of what he might do to himself but because of how everyone else might react to him. More than ponies, every other race out there too.”

Celestia sat for a moment in silence before shaking her head. “I can't stop her. If she wishes to go then there is hardly anything I can do but object. Just be sure to return as soon as you can, both of you.”

Pete nodded, “Of course, Princess.”

Luna's horn began to glow and she materialized Pete's sword from wherever she had kept it. It floated down to the human, who couldn't help but feel ominous about it. He stood with it in hand for a moment after Luna's magic faded. Nothing happened. Silently he slid the weapon around his back where it had sat before during his time in the guard. Like it had never left. A second of revulsion flashed in his mind, thinking of the Aspect's offer of power the day before, but he pushed it away. Once more he needed the Nightmare weapon, for better or worse. The devil you knew.

Celestia then floated the journal to him, explaining that she had already found a possible location for information. A small settlement on the Northern border of Equestria. This Eclipse had made his home in a crater left by some meteor thousands of years ago but the location of the hole had been lost to time as national boundaries were redrew, areas were renamed, tribes rose and fell leading to civilizations. History that was lost even to the sisters. She also suggested that he read the journal himself as a fresh pair of eyes could gleam information she might miss in her assurance of past events.

Supplies were fetched from the kitchens, as well as some bits in case any expenses came up. All in all Pete and Rainbow were ready to be gone for several weeks. Before leaving he turned to Twilight.

“Tell Stella that Rainbow and I will be back as soon as we can, okay?”

Twilight smiled and nodded. “It's always hard leaving our families when we have to go out on missions, but we do it to protect them. She'll understand.”

Pete smiled back, and he and RD left. They boarded a train heading to the North and settled in for a long ride. Rainbow stretched out and napped, her head on Pete's lap. The human decided to take Celestia's advice sooner rather than later and began to read the journal. It was strange, written in a clearly unrefined style of Equestrian. Much like early English before spellings for words were officialized. It struck him as funny though. Due to his past as a writer, spending years in college reading old books, he was uniquely suited to parse through the journal's old dialect.

It was simple enough in the beginning. Eclipse, as he called himself from the beginning of the journal, documented his early life and discovery of his talent. He lived in an ancient time with a unicorn tribe and like all stallions was placed as a lookout. One event in particular they came under attack by what sounded like timber wolves of yore. His talent manifested as he blinded the wolves with his dark magic, literally covering their eyes with darkness.

He then documented several months or perhaps years, even he was unsure of the time, of training. The sun in those days never moved. What lived managed a slim existence in caves and living as nomads between the halves of the world that were in light and dark. Eclipse then proposed an alternative to both, to shade his people with his magic in exchange for essential worship. He wanted to be free of responsibility, his whims tended to, mares to please him. And they were happy to oblige his price for a way to escape the sun.

Pete nudged Rainbow awake as the train pulled in at their stop. Ultimately they still had a long trip ahead of them on foot as the town Celestia had mentioned was small and thus had no train going to it. He pulled his new jacket, thankful that Rarity had rushed his clothing as promised, tightly around his body. At that moment with a stretch of cold dirt road ahead he wished they could have left in Spring. Dash was mostly unaffected but she was also bundled up in her own way.

Two hours later they came to the small village, smaller even than Ponyville, and the residents couldn't help but stare at the odd couple. Naturally Pete stood out and most of the ponies kept their distance.

“Maybe I'll go ask around,” Rainbow offered with a reassuring smile, “Probably faster that way.”

“Yeah, you're right. Now that I think about it I'm really glad you came along. You'll make this process a lot easier.”

She grinned and puffed out her chest. “Leave it to me! I'll find out what we need to know and we'll be back home in no time.”

Winter gave way to Spring, something Pete was grateful for, but the leads continued to go to dead ends. Rainbow Dash and the human had tracked into griffon lands searching for anything about ancient craters. They had given up on specifically meteor or asteroid impact zones. If something like that had happened it was lost to history. They were simply looking for any old holes in the ground. Almost three months had passed since they left. While sending letters home was possible receiving them was difficult because they were constantly on the move. It was a warm feeling whenever they did manage to get one, either because their search led them back through a town or because of a devoted post official.

With the passage of time also came the depletion of their reserves. Pete had taken to doing odd jobs in the towns they stopped in. Particularly smaller communities seemed to always need some form of wildlife removed from the area that the locals were afraid of, and medium sized towns got a kick out of some of Rainbow's aerial stunts, with special effects support courtesy of Pete's magic. It wasn't a large income but it got the two by in their search. Gathering crowds and winning trust also loosened lips making information gathering easier.

After one event a griffon approached them. He knew of their search and directed them to a lake on the other side of a mountain nearby.

“We're looking for craters, you know, holes in the ground? Not lakes.” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes.

“Dash, lakes happen when holes in the ground fill with water. And this hole we're looking for is supposed to be ancient.” Pete shook his head, cursing his own stupidity. “We should have been checking lakes too. This damn artifact could literally be under tons of water.”

“What do we do if it is? I can swim, but I don't think I could hold my breath that long.”

“Me either, but we do have an advantage here.” Pete tapped his sword and Rainbow gained a look of comprehension.

“Oh yeah, you could probably raise the artifact up with magic or something.”

He laughed, “Or something, yeah.”

They thanked the griffon for his information and set out for the mountain he had pointed to. It was a balmy day, not hot and not cold, which made it perfect for travel. A complete reversal from when they had started. Led by Rainbow Dash, Pete felt secure enough to pull out a map of the modern world and count the noted lakes that could be large enough for their search. They had passed several, which meant more backtracking. While he wasn't fond of the idea, he did enjoy the fact it meant they might get more letters from home. Part of him also couldn't wait to tell the others about his screw up of forgetting lakes. Once the artifact was found it would make an amusing story.

The path twisted around through a small forest and Pete could almost forget they were on a vital mission for the fate of the world. It felt like a hike through the woods. Even Rainbow Dash was smiling as she floated along in the lead. Sure, the search had taken much longer than they had expected, but progress was being made. Every step brought them closer to their goal. Although Pete was starting to think it might have been better for Celestia to have started an international incident. At least it wouldn't have taken three months for someone to start dredging lakes for magical relics that way.

Near the base of the mountain the path split and the couple stopped to argue which way was better. Pete preferred going around. Less dangerous, easier walk. Rainbow, of course, said they should go over because it would be faster. The human wasn't sure of that though, as there were many dangers that could impede their progress across the mountain. He'd also never been up a mountain before and had no idea if there were precautions he should take before hand.

Their argument was cut short as a wave of energy shook the world. Confused, they looked around and then gasped. In the direction of Equestria a dome of pitch black had appeared. From afar there was no way to tell how large it was, but the fact they could see it from there was a testament to its size. They froze despite the warmth around them. Silence filled the area. Rainbow looked at Pete, and he knew. She had to go. Something was wrong and it was time for the Elements of Harmony to do their thing.

“We should go,” she said, emphasizing the we.

“No, you should. I have to find this thing.”

“What if he has it? What if this search has just been a huge waste of time?”

“Then you can come get me after you girls blast him into submission.” Pete reached out and ruffled Rainbow's mane, to her annoyance. “You really think some doofus calling himself Eclipse is going to best the Elements of Harmony? Celestia might even take care of him herself if you don't get there fast enough.”

Slowly she nodded, “Yeah, yeah, you're right. No one's going to defeat me and my friends. I'll go take care of this guy and then come find you. Then we can go home together.”

Pete smiled, “I'm certainly ready for that.”

He watched her fly off into the sky, waving as she went. Part of him believed his words. The Elements of Harmony were something primal in this world, a power that defied conventional reasoning. A simple unicorn, no matter how strong, couldn't defeat them easily. Another part however was worried. Nausea filled his body as he thought about this being the last time he would see Rainbow. With a deep breath he convinced himself it wouldn't be, he was just sad to be alone again. She would be back in a couple of days, tops.