//------------------------------// // (90) Our life: Seriously... // Story: The nature of the beast. // by Kintra //------------------------------// -----Eclipse. ----- I sat on the ground facing the window. I focused my magic onto my spark. ------------------------------------- I awoke in nothing. I had been here before. The first time I met light. I loved that boy. No doubt about that. I loved him more than myself. And everything I’m doing here is to protect him. Misty, the girls. All of them. If I let discord win… Who knows what will happen. I can’t let that happen. I stood and looked around. It was the same black abyss. Same giant tree. It surprised me to see it there really. After everything I had done, a tree in my soul surprises me. I have some seriously mixed feelings about that. “Right… Onwards.” I began the trek to the tree; it wasn’t very far away so I was able to make it in decent time. Well, I suppose that’s not really important… Time, does it even exist in a soul? Jesus, now I’m getting philosophical. I placed my hand on one of the roots and observed the tree, it was still stupid huge. Reminded me of Yggdrasil the life tree, seeds of all life and shit. Not like it was. It’s just a tree! I began moving through the roots, intent on finding the center. “Oh eclipse! You really shouldn’t have come in here! This is MY territory.” Discords voice rang out through the thousands of roots surrounding me. They were all spread enough for me to move through. If discord found me in the middle of some roots, his high mobility would have me doomed. I knew that much for certain. “Eclipse, why did you do it? You could have just left me alone! I wouldn’t have changed too much… At least not at first!” He began laughing, and I started getting irritated. Pompous prick, taunting me in my own soul. “Under normal circumstances the spark would have chosen me as its ruler, since…Well, I AM experienced with it, and you’re just a stupid kid! What are you going to do?” Pompous bastard. “Eclipse… Are you still walking? Really… Sometimes you worry me! Why are you walking when your power can take care of me?” Oh right… Wait… Nope… This is a trap. “Are you dead yet? Someone need to find your body? It’s not going to be me. I’ll be too busy murdering all your friends! Oh, murder. That’s a nice word. I never used it while I was alive. I very much intend to rectify THAT situation.” I really want to kick this guy’s ass. But how will that even work? I’m in my spirit, shouldn’t I be able to like… Change shit? Maybe spawn some spikey trap to kill him, and then move on with my life? “OH eclipseeee. Are you talking to yourself? Come now, that’s pathetic, at least talk out loud so some of us may respond!” He began laughing again and I stubbed my toe on a root. “Ow!” Fucking root. I moved around it and kept trying to head to the center. If there’s anywhere I need to be, something’s telling me it’s there. “Did you hurt yourself? Come now, you can talk to me; voices carry very well in here. Come on Kyle! Entertain me!” … “Seriously discord, shut you’re fucking mouth, you are seriously pissing me off!” I started moving faster, not because I felt I needed to, but just because I wanted to. The irritation from discords talking fueling me to move faster. “Oh, potty mouth eclipse! You’re so sweet when you’re angry! Truly the fact that ANYONE loved you is amazing.” I HATE this lizard. “Dude, please. Shut up. Your irritating me, I’m going to find you. And I’m going to end you.” He began to laugh. The laughing stopped as I pushed myself through the brush and into the center of the tree. It was an arena. This trees middle was formed into a very large coliseum. Just without seats. Shame. “Oh and there you are. Well hello eclipse. How are things?” Discord appeared from nowhere. His smug grim plastered across his face. “Hello discord. So… How do I purge you? Hmm?” He laughed as his body spiraled in place, his head continued to stare at me, unmoving. Fucking creepy. “Right, you want for me to leave, but you forgot. I can take your body if you aren’t very careful.” Right, so? “Yup, that’s why there are safety measures in place. If you take my body, expect to be stoned.” He laughed again. “Oh my dear boy! You still don’t get it! The spark has changed! When I was in control, it was fueled by chaos to activate it. But now that your body has it, it’s controlled by protection, fear. And the first thing those girls will do after stoning your body? They will cry. They ill weep and fear their loss. The spark will activate, and I will be free in but a few minutes. Sometimes I wonder if you plan this out? Or if you really are just that stupid.” He sunk into the roof. He was right though, I never even thought about it; in his episode the CMC fighting was what triggered the spark to release him. The spark shifted, it no longer feeds off chaos, but…Whatever emotion protection is. Seriously, is it fear? I don’t know. Stupid emotions. I began the trek into the very center of the arena. “Still going to come at me bro? Very well… I offer you one last chance eclipse, simply leave, right now, just go. We can suffer together in the same body for eternity. Come now, it’s not so hard to accept is it?” I laughed. And he got strangely quiet. “No, no it’s not hard. I could suffer with you for eternity. I could easily hold you inside me and never give you what you want. But you know what? The only way I would do that is if my family were gone. I don’t want to give you the slightest opportunity to treat anypony I love with anything even resembling disrespect. So I am going to remove you discord. I’m unplugging your ass.” As I walked I began to take notice of my footsteps. Discord was still very quiet, so all I heard was the gentle thuds my boots made on the black floor. “You truly wish to compete with me? Over them? Over those who you thought were so ready to abandon you?” I smiled at that, because you know what? Yea. I did. “Yea discord. I am going to fight you over those who were going to abandon me. Because get this, they didn’t abandon me. They helped me; I became a pony, and realized I will NEVER do it again. And they have done nothing but encourage and love me the entire time. Even though I’ve made them uncomfortable, or made jokes about things they have done. They still love me, and I still love them. So no matter how hard you try, I am going to purge your happy ass. I have too much waiting for me.” I reached the middle of the arena and found something I hadn’t expected. A sword embedded into the ground. A single bladed weapon. Wasn’t even fancy just made of iron from the looks of it. No fancy decorations, not embellishments. Nothing. I guess those few weeks of sword training while in the palace served a use. I drew the blade from the ground. It was light. Very light. I took a few practice swings. It was well balanced. “Why do you continue to try and fight me eclipse… Why can’t you just accept that I live as well?” Discord rose from the ground in front of me. He looked at me like he was going to cry. “Why do you wish for me to die? Why can’t I have my fun? Why can’t you let me live?” I just laughed at him. And I continued to do so. “You expect me to let you live? Discord, you threatened my friends and family. If I knew you just wanted to live and let live? Shit, I would have welcomed you. But no, you intend to hurt those I love. Can’t let that happen now can I?” I switched the sword to my right hand and adopted a defensive posture. “No, discord. If you just wanted to live, I would have let you. But you threatened those I love, sorry dude. You gotta die.” He looked at me. We locked gazes for a solid minute…I think, before his gaze twisted into rage. “FINE! You wish to fight me!? Then I will end you boy! I will squeeze the life out of you with these claws!” The claws on both of his arms extended. No fair. We began to circle each other, trying to taunt the other into attacking first. He took advantage of that fact and charged at me, I knew I couldn’t block is, so instead I did the one thing I could do, I ran toward him. He chickened out at the last moment and tried spinning around me; I slashed and just grazed his back leg. We stopped again and stared at each other. One thing he’s got is mobility. If I can cut that down, I can cut him down. “I’ve been here a very long time eclipse… I’ve learned to use this environment. You may be stronger, but can you hit what you can’t see?” I saw him cock his eyebrow at me before the black at his feet swarmed up his body. He became a silhouette against the roots, and then he dropped to the floor. I couldn’t see him. He knew it too. He would swoop in every now and then and cut at my arms or legs. I scowled at the air. There’s no way to fight him if I can’t see him! I began swinging at random times, trying to hit anything. “Oh dear boy, are you angry? GOOD!” Hmm. He wants to play mind games. Fine. I can do that. “You know discord, sure is a shame you killed your own girlfriend.” I began chuckling lightly. No reason to lay it on too thick. “You don’t know what you’re talking about! Don’t you EVER assume you do!” Uh ohh someone getting angry? “No no, I know exactly what I’m talking about! And I know for a fact, you have to be the biggest idiot EVER to kill your own lover when you spent so much trying to get her back!” I started cracking up, not because it was funny, but because it was pissing him off. “I DID NOT KILL HER!” He stood and the black slid off his body. His eyes were filled with hatred, good. “You didn’t huh? So what would she say if she was here right now? ‘Oh discord your fine, you didn’t mean to murder me while you were going insane its okay, I still love you’? Seriously, you killed your own mare friend!” I never took my eyes off of him. I just laughed. Right in his face. He was pissed, he charged at me again, but you could tell he was getting reckless. I dodged to the side and watched as he turned. “I WILL END YOU!” OHhhh angry! I started laughing again. “But dissy, I thought you LIKED laughter!” He growled at me and charged again. This time I was very ready. I dodged out and then back in bringing my blade down on his leg, it hit with a gruesome thud, I withdrew the blade and smiled before backing up. At this point he was limping at me; his face was contorted in a rage I’m sure I would never be able to contain. “I will kill… Everybody… In… The world!” I started laughing again as he lunged at me, he yowled in pain and fell, clutching his deer leg while his alligator side tried to make up for the loss in balance. “Discord… Come on now… You’re losing your touch old man!” I swung the sword in my hands. I knew it was a bluff. If he got close enough with those claws I would be done for. “You… Will pay, eclipse. I am going to kill you.” Yea. I’m sure. “Si Capitan. Anytime you’re ready.” That last taunt may have been too much, he lunged at me, and I barely dodged his claws from beheading me, his eagle claw tearing into my left shoulder. I yowled in pain and danced from the downed discord. I looked at my shoulder and found it was relatively intact, I just couldn’t move my arm. “Good hit.” I coughed, as he tried standing, supporting his body with his tail and reptile leg. “Yes… And it’s certainly not going to be the last.” He was regaining his composure. He coiled his tail like a spring, and leapt at me using it. But he went too high, I quickly bent and slashed upward, he was quick, he passed over me, and all I managed to hit was his tail, thankfully it was now out of commission as a weapon or leaper. But so was my arm… “Eclipse… I find myself, strangely drawn to the idea of murdering your Moon mist. I’m thinking, perhaps slowly. Or, use her myself? I find that she may not be so willing if she discovers it’s me.” He was trying to make me lose my cool and charge him. It worked. I found myself charging at him with my sword pointed forward, he easily batted it aside as I drew into range. Thankfully he didn’t strike, instead he jumped around to my back, using his front claws as temporary legs, I forget he stands just because he can. I still brought the sword down, he may have prevented a fatal wound, but I took most of his tail. He screamed and tried bouncing away; I had brought the sword down much harder than I thought. His tail wasn’t severed, but cut in half, and the sword was embedded in the ground. He tried pulling his tail, but I pushed it down more, I heard something snap and he screamed again before turning to face me. I pulled the blade from the ground, and watched as his head fell. His tail still pulsed behind me, beating the ground with some sort of undead fury. His arms still slashing at the air. Not two inches from my face. I stood there for what felt like hours before his body realized it was dead and collapsed in a heap. I sat down on his back and lifted his head with one hand. I placed the sword against his side and turned the head so it could face me. His eyes were lifeless. Just sockets where a once happy turned brutal god had lived. I chucked the head. I listened to it as it hit the ground, each time it impacted it left a small amount of blood. I picked up the sword and stood. It was over. And I lost my lunch. The smell of death was everywhere, blood, both his and mine stained the air. It was suffocating. I asked the spark to allow me to leave. And thankfully it agreed. ---------- I slowly sat up; I knew I was still inside the palace by the surprised gasps of the girls around me. Fluttershy actually tackled me pinning me to the ground, when she did I felt some extreme pain in my left shoulder, I looked over and found It was still bleeding, as well as dozens of cuts and scrapes along my legs…Why didn’t discord just end it then? “You hold still eclipse! You’re not moving till I’ve made you better!” I just smiled at her. Her hair may have been blocking one half of my face, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t welcome. “Thanks… All of you. But how did you know I wasn’t discord?” Twilight trotted up next to me, before pushing fluttershy out of the way to get a good look at me. “Well… You haven’t attacked us yet. So, I’m gonna go with your not discord.” I smiled at her. I loved these damned ponies. “Is it done? No more mysteries or talking to ghosts?” I laughed as rainbow interrupted my thoughts. “No more girls, no more…Ever. I think, I’m gonna start keeping a journal. Tell the world about my escapades one day…” Pinkie pie handed fluttershy some first aid junk. I didn’t pay it much attention. They knew what they were doing. “Eclipse… If you leave us like that again…” Rainbow landed on my chest hard, resulting in fluttershy giving her a nasty look after I coughed. “I will hunt you down and drag your butt home.” I smiled at her. “Yea, you’re gonna have to compete with rarity and AJ.” They both nodded in agreement as pinkie kissed me on the head. “Glad to have you back party pooper.” I looked at her and nodded before flinching. Eliciting a small “Sorry” from fluttershy, who had begun wrapping my shoulder… While I was on the floor. I don’t understand how she was doing that. “Hey girls… I want you all to know. I’m not leaving again, and I love all of you. No matter what happens, I’m here for you. Okay?” It took them all a few moments. But when I sat up and got pressed into a group hug… I knew it would all be okay. ---2 hours later. “So what are you doing in here eclipse?” Moon mist came up from behind me, I had always intended to visit the study, I just never bothered…Still haven’t been in the pool either. “I’m planning on starting a journal. I figure interesting days I have, I can write them down here. Come back later and relive some happy memories.” She smiled and nuzzled against my leg. I bent down and kissed her. She smiled and left after that. “Interesting memories… I have quite a few.” I laughed as I closed the book, setting it on the wooden desk. Little Luna looked from the book then back to me before crawling back into my pocket. Time to go do something productive. ((Woo. Okay, I’m much more happy with this ending. And it doesn’t make me feel like a total dick for ending it. Love you all; expect to not be seeing the last of eclipse. I intend to give him another story, one based off of various journal entries, maybe even have him travel the world! What do you think? Cuz this is certainly the end of this plot arch.))