The Eternal Knight

by Nerom_Fencer

A forest Eclipse.

The train ride had been more than interesting to say in the least. The ''crime'' was easily solved by Twilight. Then again he had already figured out the culprits before it was proven, he had been awake during the trip and so seen two of them and one had left for a ''toilet break'' while she, applejack and him was watching a concert while playing cards.
"Then again even I wanted to eat some." The dragon continued. "All we got was leftovers from them making that amazing cake."
"True but they were tasty and all but I want to get to Twilight's penthouse now, those ponies are starting to look at me funny." Some ponies was looking at him and whispering. He had put the wings on the inside of the new coat that Rarity had made him and the same coat that she had been working on most of the trip. It now had more vivid details and was now only similar to the old one. She had fuzzed over the length of it but Nero had insisted on that it was fine. She had also explained in detail about the enchantment of the cloth it was made of, the color changed with the day and so was lighter in the day than night. Something that he hand noticed that his wings undertone did to and decided that it was fitting. Twilight had been astonished by the revelation and had nicked some of his feathers noticed by a surprising pain in his right wing. She had explained something about a natural clock and Nero had confirmed that he had an almost perfect sense of time after he came to this world, even before the dragon.
"To bad we could not go to the competition to." Spike sighed while he was carrying Twilight's and Fluttershy's bags. Nero himself was carrying the rest of them except Rarity's, they had horded them on a cart and hired a pony to get them to the tower. The rest of the bags did not fit on the cart.
"Rarity really needs to learn what light packing is, just look at it! Filling a whole cart herself, I know that she is a lady and all but there must be a limit to how much you can pack for a weekend." He looked back at the brown pegasus stallion behind them and got an agreeing nod from him. "Last time I was taking a trip I hardly had a third of that and I did not need to wash my clothes once! And human's where clothes all the time."
"And you no longer need to think about washing your clothes thanks to that stone Rarity gave you, those are rare you know." He was talking about the amethyst/sapphire mix of crystal that was used to make cleansing amulets they are supposedly expensive to get because that the stone was an anomaly and then the right mix of the stone was even rarer.
"Never said that I'm not grateful towards her you know I only mentioned the bags she has. I know you like her and all but that's not a reason to throw a fit."
"Who told you that?!" The little dragon stopped dead in his tracks and stared at him.
"It was not to hard to find out you know. I might not been the best of charmers back where I come from but I'm not blind." He made a gesture with his head to make the dragon move and woke the small silver bird on his head, It chirped angrily at him. "Sorry." He said and the grumpy bird settled to sleep on his head again. "But why you are sleeping on my head I still don't understand." The dragon laughed at him and started walking again.

"It's not that long now." the dragon said after a ten minute walk. I hope so I have already heard rumors about what I presume is me. on his way trough town he had heard numerous rumors about a gigantic Diamond dog clad in all black carrying bags made of pony hides and one where he presumably was a pony that lost his coat and walked on two legs and this was only two of them, some was really ridiculous. The only one that was somewhat correct was the one with a singing monkey that followed the dragon pet of Twilight Stars an Alicorn and student of the royal sisters. He thought this was partly true because well first of all his species was a type of ape, Twilight was the student of Celestia and he was humming but the rest was bulls***. They got closer to the richer ponies houses and it was not longer crowded in the streets like in the main city. In the outskirt of this part was a tower that they was closing in to. I lay only a few hundred meters from what Spike had called The school for gifted unicorns and where Twilight had studied most of her magic.
"There it is the tower of the sun and moon, home sweet home." Spike pointed at the tower.
"Is that whole tower Twilight's?" Was the only answer to that.
"Yes it have belonged to Celestia's personal student for the last thousand years that was when Canterlot became to house the resident palace of Equestria. So far only three others ponies have lived there and that includes the servant of the first one."
"That's nice and all but if Twilight lives for say three hundred years and Celestia gets another student will Twilight be forced to move or will the new student get another place to live?"
"Now that I can answer for sure, Twilight will still own the tower and live in it. There is a penthouse in the dorm for the unicorns staying further away from the academy and that will become the next students home in till the owner of the tower passes away or resigns their claim on it." So Twilight will own this tower forever then. He raised an eyebrow.
"Alright then why are we standing here all day instead of going in?" While Spike had talked they had reached the door. For some reason the door was on the second or the third floor. Spike opened the door and walked an to leave his bags on the hall table. Nero desided to put the rest on the floor by it instead.
"Next on the list get the bird of my head." He said this while picking up the small bird from his head while looking for a place for it to sit on. and settled for an unlit lamp. "You stay here while I go and help with the rest of the bags."

When the others returned three hours later Nero was sitting in the couch with a pen in his hand and sketched something on the paper he had on a clip board listening to music playing in the room from his PB.i. The others became silent when they heard it, the music was sung in a language they could not understand but it was not the tongue that the dragon spoke and suddenly a line in Equestrian came. Are they going to stand there all day?
"Did you six have fun?" He asked not looking to the ponies that had entered the room earlier while eating a emerald green grape and gave one to the small birds sitting on a ornamental twig that was on the table. Twilight was the first to break the silence.
"Yes we won and meet the princess then we looked around the town a little after that Joe treated us to donuts."
"That's good oh and before I forget Spike is planing dinner for tonight so don't go and plan to go and eat out.. That is so long that the princess didn't invite you all to dinner." He added while sketching on the paper, glancing to the ponies and then back to his work. The drawing was a collaboration of a tree and various creatures in black, hues of gray and of course white all of them detailed with extreme precision. Some was human and some was not, only three was ponies.
"This place is amazing! Twilight why have you not showed us this before?" Rarity's voice was littered with amazement. Maybe to not be seen as a showoff? This broke the trance of the others.
"Yea Twi thi's here is really fancy." Applejack said. Twilight got a hue of pink in her face.
"Well you know that I don't like to showoff." Twilight said ashamed. she only got giggles as a response.
"What's you listening to? it's really beautiful even if I don't understand some of the words." Fluttershy said this quietly while scratching Pee Wee on the head. The others did not seem to have heard and so was surprised when Nero answered.
"Celtic Women, it's an old concert that they sung when my dad was in his teens. It helps me concentrate and makes me calm it's good even if it's old." On the phones screen was a woman singing together with a orchestra behind her.
"Oh my is that humans? All of them? There is so many." The video had zoomed out over the audience. and this startled her apparently. He laughed quietly and let down his work in the table.
"Yes and that is a small crowd to be fair. The play we had in the school play had more people in attendance. Roughly I think there was ten thousand there at the time, that on the screen however was only around five thousands."
"Five thousands that's more than it lives in most of the bigger towns in around here. How many humans are there in your world?" Twilight had not asked this question before and agreed with Rainbows question.
"I also want to know." She added. all of the ponies was staring at him except Pinkie that had mysteriously disappeared.
"Around seven billion I think." Twilight fainted when she heard the number, the others just looked confused. while she fell Applejack caught her.
"It's high enough for Twilight to faint and you don't even know it? I better not say the word Gogol before her."
"How much is ah billion really?" Applejack asked.
"hmm a one with nine zeros after." This time it was Rarity's time to faint. "Oh god I think I'm going to regret this." The others just stared at him. all of them was somewhat good with numbers. Nero covered half of his face with his palm, three of his fingers bent over his nose. This is going to be a long day!

Two minutes later and the two ponies was on their legs. Twilight was stuttering something incomprehensible and Rarity sat quiet on the couch. Nero just sat there and scratched his pet on the head.
"Around seven billion. That many? how is that even possible?" Twilight broke her mumbling. "The resources to maintain it all must be tremendous." Nero nodded.
"We human's have done much things both good and bad to be able to maintain our people. our farming is extremely advanced and manipulated and don't get me going on the hmm... Meat production. It's not really a pleasant topic in the least. We have driven most of our planet to the max but we are getting better at maintaining the planets welfare." Nero looked in the ground while he said all that.
"Meat production?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yes. My people eat meat, as I have said before we are omnivorous." He said this knowing that Fluttershy is an animal friend. He also knew that she already had knowledge of this fact.
"Well let's drop that dreadful topic it's sullying the mood. We are in Canterlot after all." Rarity had finally spoken. "And where did Pinkie go off to?" No one knew where she had gone but seeing that the only place in the tower that was secluded was the bedrooms, the observatory and the kitchen chances were high that she was in the kitchen with Spike. Right after the question was asked the small dragon came out with a trolley with tea and coffee on and the pink pony followed suit skipping.
"That answers that don't ya think." Applejack said. They all sat down by the table and had some while a new topic in form of the drawing Nero had been working on and a suitable name for the phoenix was discussed.

Applejack was sitting on the balcony it had a great view of the land mostly forest and plains. Applejack had always had a knack for knowing how the earth around her was but lately this feeling had changed from a knack to a genuine feeling. The small feeling she had felt some days ago had been at the time of a smaller landslide in the outskirts on Everfree forest right where a lumber mill was located. five ponies had been in the area luckily no one was hurt. Now she felt that the land around Canterlot was calm and happy, why she felt happy for it was also a mystery to her.
"A.J its time for dinner Spike have made a feast, he seems happy about getting to work in the tower again." Twilight was walking out on the balcony beside her and looked at the view to their right Canterlot castle was visible and Applejack noticed that she had fixed at one point on the castle. No doubt that it's the princess chambers. Well she is awe'fully happy to meet her tomorrow morning. Twilight turned to the door again.
"Common now dinnertime." She smiled happily and walked inside. Maybe a little to happy. Applejack smiled back and walked in to dinner. During dinner she noticed that Nero did not eat much of the dishes presented and when she asked he had simply said that he can't digest most flowers and other plants that are not seeds, roots and what his people considered vegetables or fruit. he was fine with spices when pinkie asked about it. When Applejack had mentioned the pie Nero had turned down the offer and Twilight said to not force him to eat it if he did not want to. The biggest discussion around the table was the ethics about eating eggs and drinking deary products. When she had given him a solid argument about the milk he accepted it but he pressed them harder on the topic of eggs. This was in time dropped to and other topics came to mind and idle chatter was spread among the eight of them. While dessert was being served this time Ice cream and Cinnamon, something that Nero wanted to eat and surprisingly it tasted like apple pie something she appreciated greatly for the lack of apples at the dinner table. After dinner Nero had gone out on the balcony still wearing that coat that Rarity had made him, he had talked to her about the heat changing qualities it had being pleasant enough to have on even indoors as well at night. And this pleased Rarity very much apparently she had worked hard to get the two spells to work in the cloth together.
"Well it's soon time to hit the hay or what do you guys think." Applejack yawned. The others agreed on this but not before Rarity made a speech about them all needed a bath, an argument she won when Pinkie began to furiously scratch her ear.
"Then it's settled then Spike fill up the big tub. I think all of us can fit in there at the same time, It is after all as big as the spa tub in Ponyville." The others gaped while Spike only chuckled at the sight of them.
"Alright then we all take a bath and then we can some other sleep over thing like a pillow fight." Applejack's idea was highly appreciated but not necessarily the pillow fight was on the mind of the others. After five minutes spike was back and the tub was filled and the others walked to the bath included Spike. All except Nero who was still on the balcony. When he noticed Applejack and Rarity behind him he only said. "Have fun in there." and gave them a quick wave.
"I don't think so you are coming in to Mr the tub can fit us all and so it will." Rarity used her magic to pull his ear much to Applejack's amusement. After that Rarity had shoved him into the bathroom or what they had been thinking was the bathroom anyway. "A dressing room how fabulous." Rarity said happily.
"Why would ponies need a dressing room anyway it's not like you all wear clothes all the time." Nero added amused.
"It is a fancy pony thing don't worry about it." Applejack walked trough the room and put her hat and ribbons on a low shelf. Nero shook his head and got behind a dressing screen after that he picked up a sizable towel. It looked like he wanted it to be higher as from shoulders and up he was completely visible. Rarity walked past her on the way into the bath and Nero stepped out from behind the screen, wrapped by the towel from the hip down to his knees holding a bundle of clothes. With this Applejack also went into the bath.

When Nero had folded his clothes he headed into the bath. surprised to only find Rainbow Dash in the room. "I thought that the others where in here and I know for certain that Applejack and Rarity just went in." Nero went over to the bath and helt on the temperature with a finger.
"They are in there." Rainbow pointed at a blurry glass door. "Twilight suggested hooficures, I don't do that stuff." She added. Nero lowered himself into the bathtub. The Temperature was good but not as hot as he wanted it to.
"Could be warmer." He sighed. "And one thing, I got dragged here by Rarity, but if you guys start to talk what i consider girl talk I'm out of here." he jabbed a thumb at the door.
"No girl talk from me I promise." she crossed her heart.
"You better. There is nothing worse than sitting in a hot tub or a sauna and having females talk about female problems. I don't know how it works here but I really don't want to sit here and listen to awkward conversations... No offence."
"None taken I usually never go to places like spa's and stuff like that anyway. That is more Rarity's thing, she even go with Fluttershy once a week." Nero laughed a little inside and shook his head.
"That's fine I know of people that can't take a shower at home because it might damage their hair or something like that. Silly if you ask me." This time Rainbow laughed.
After a while the others came back all of them with manicured hoofs and one dragon with shiny claws. "Twilight i don't know why you wanted me to get my claws done to." The dragon whined while walking to the bath, dipping a claw in the water. "It's a little cold... For water." Nero answered this with a "Eeyup." That once again made Applejack giggle. the rest of the group felt on the water and thought it was a little chilly so Twilight used some magic to heat it.
"Ohh" both of the occupants of the tub said in unison by the shock from the temperature change.
"To hot?" she asked and the two of them once again said in unison "It's fine." And then they burst out in laughter. Pinkie laughed to and then said "I don't get it."
"Pinkie it's really simple..." He was still laughing "But funny!" Dash added also laughing. The rest of the group one after another lowered them self into the big tub and to his surprise it was still room for more. Once again time passed in flash, Nero was standing on the balcony again looking out over the lands. He looked back inside and he knew that six ponies, a dragon and two birds where sleeping inside. He got his coat on again this time wings out and jumped. The night was young No one will miss me for a couple of hours.

He was running, running as fast as his little hooves could carry him. It was faster, it still chased him just like it had chased him and his mother before,just like it had chased him and his mother and father before that. The small cloaked colt was running for his life and had been for the past ten minutes. He could see Canterlot between the leafs of the trees. The moon in the sky had a red tint on it. A shadow played in the moon light. A pegasus? Maybe it can help me! He screamed not a word but just a scream, he knew that the scream was going to make the monster comeback, he still screamed. The shadow shifted, the monster was soon behind him. He screamed again and everything faded to darkness.
"Cocky bastard ain't ya" The young colt woke up by a tree root. standing tall over him was a pegasus with silver mane but he stood on his hind legs. "Not that big are ya, you cocky lizard." He mocked to the monster.
"Bigger than you ga'hrock." The monster said his voice young and cocky.
"No need for such words you G'reckfelas!" The pegasus once again mocked the monster. It took a deep breath, the young colt closed his eyes and concentrated and the fire did not reach the pegasus. A thump was herd and the monster staggered backwards. Somehow the monster was bruised where the punch had connected. The front hoofs on the pegasi was lighting in magical energy but it was strange somehow. Pegasi can't use magic! mommy told me so. His mother had been a pegasus but had been crippled for the last ten years and so could not fly very good, that's was why the monster had gotten to her. "Mister how do you do that? Whit your hooves?" The colt stared at the pegasus it was hard to see in the dark the moons rays did not reach here.
"Magic... I think." He answered the monster had a furious look on his face now.
"Stupid ga'hrock!" It roared "Spoiling my fun! It took time to get it back here just to see it suffer!" It charged at the pegasus to swipe it. The pegasus side stepped the monster and got a grip on its wing and got a grip on it's wing and the monster charged gown into the ground. It gave him a kick and the pegasi was pushed hard into a tree, a small cracking noise was heard. Ouch! Is he hurting? The pegasus had not yet face to the colt but now it did and he saw that it was not a pegasus at all. "Ga'hrock!" The monster roared again while it got on its feet.
"I'm just wondering if you can stop calling me monkey in Dragon its starting to annoy me. how many times is it now seven sense I landed." The other monster now said. The dragon lunged at him again and flew into the tree. "How old are you anyway kid? Not really mature going around hurting kids now is it." The nice monster said mockingly to the dragon.
"Sixty and i'm still young for that matter no more than a teenager in pony terms not that it says much to you ga'hrock!" The dragon snarled
"Ohh sixty means you have gone trough one of four hibernation's that one on forty years so in reality you are not much younger than me. In your head that is!" The nice monster said bluntly.
"How do you know that!" The dragon snarled while lunging at him again.
"Easy Spike and Luna told me when I asked about dragons." He answered. The dragon snorted at the first name.
"You mean that pansy purple pony lover for a dragon." The Dragon was staring at the other one now. The colt just sat there staring at them both.
"Yes him. Small purple, green and has a phoenix as a pet." He answered.
"I have unfinished affairs with that one. Now where is he!" The dragon roared once again.
"I'm not telling you." The nice monster had more magic around his hands now and did a upward movement with one of its arms. A gust of air swept the dragon back making it fall over. The dragon eyes glowed and a rock lifted and shot against the other monster. The energy around the other one had changed to a aura of faint energy and he punched the rock shattering it on impact turning it to pebbles and dust that harmlessly fell to the ground.
"Pfft please I have been experimenting with the elements for two nights now I don't think a pebble will hurt me." A small cyclone was forming around the startled dragon clearly a novice in the arts of magic. While the dragon was distracted with the magic the nice one closed in on it and gave it a punch straight in the jaw and once again the dragon fell to the ground.
"Ohh screw this I'm out off here!" The dragon took to the air and after it had cleared the treetops it shouted "I will get you for this!" The other monster called back. "Come back when you are an adult and can take your beating like one!" After this the monster turned around and walked slowly over to the colt. He could only stare at it. "Are you alright little one?" He squatted down by the colt frozen by fear. "I will not hurt you. Why did that dragon chase you anyway?"
The colt started to shiver and sniffed in the air. I will not cry. I Will Not Cry! Then he cried. The taller being looked over at a clearing next to them. Head hung low when he said "Sorry bad question. Do you have anywhere to go?" The colt still cried while he shook his head. "It's alright to cry. I know for I to have done so for the same reason." The colt looked up at the creature it could not be a monster he was to nice for that. He lost his parents? The colt stopped crying and sniveled and sobbed, looking down in the ground he felt something picking him up. He did not care he only cried and darkness once again fell upon him.

When he woke up again he was in a clearing. The clearing! Mother! The colt sat up in his makeshift bed made of the creatures coat. The creature was raising a small boulder like stone over by a patch of clear earth. The sun was starting to raise. The creature had a white piece of clothing on him and a bandage on his right arm. The colt made his way to him.
"Ut mortuis requiem in pacem. Ego pro tua anima ad beatitudinem." The creature said before standing up before the grave.
"What does that mean?" The colt asked, the creature looked down on him his face was sad.
"Was it you parents in this clearing? The blue unicorn and the black pegasus with the white mane?" The colt nodded.
"They were dead, nothing I can do to help them, I'm sorry." The creature looked at the colt with sad eyes.
"I know that dragon and his friends did it. When I ran away he chased me down he toyed with me I think. I thought that i was long away in till I saw the tree you bumped into." He said.
"More then a bump if you ask me, dislocated my left wing that did. can't fly back to Canterlot now darn dragon should have more than that whopping for what he have done!" The creature was ice cold in his voice, he turned to the stone again.
"What was your parents names?" He asked.
"Mom's name is Lightning Charger and dad's name is Night Charger. My name is Eclipse. Whats yours?" The creature place an hand on the stone. "My name is Nero Lancer." He said while magic channeled trough the stone, it cracked and pebbles fell around it forming a square with inscriptions on it. the pebbles rolled around the base of the stone and formed a new base for it. It was simple but a nice grave. Nero stood up. "That's all i can do for your parents" He walked over to the makeshift bed, picked it up and put on his coat again. wings under and started to walk away.
"Where are you going?!" Eclipse trotted over to Nero. "You can't just leave me here!" Eclipse did not want to be alone for as he had said he had nowhere to go.
"Canterlot. I have friends staying there and I think I have worried them somewhat. You can come with me if you want to." Nero said and muttered something about a blood stain.
"but you are walking so fast!" Nero stopped when he heard this. looking at the small cloaked pony. He walked over to the pony and lifted him up and put him in his hood. " Sitting nicely?" He asked. Eclipse shifted around a little and then answered. "Yes" and he nodded. Nero nodded himself and set of towards Canterlot in a jog.
"Tell me if I'm going the wrong way." He said to Eclipse. "Ok." Was all he got for an answer. "And before I forget what did you say by the grave?"
"In order that the dead rest in peace. I pray your soul to happiness."

"How long have you run already this is getting boring." Eclipse whined they had been silent for a while now and it bored him.
"Around two hours now I think we will get there in another if we keep to this road. During the run they had talked about various things, mostly he asked and Nero answered and the other way around. apparently the blood stain had been from a wound in his flank that Eclipse did not notice he had and Nero had fixed it somehow but when he asked about healing magic he said that he did not use it for he did not know any. Eclipse tried to ask more about it but Nero said no more about it. They had agreed on not telling the others about the magic thing yet for Nero wished it to be a secret.
"You are awfully chipper for some one that lost both his parents." Nero said out of the blue halfway up the mountain.
"When granny died she said. Live in the now and not in the past to cling to the dead to hard is to lose yourself like you lost them remember but cherish don't mourn them for long. And so I don't need to worry about them mom and dad is gone and there is nothing I can do about it." He said still in the same happy tone.
"Wise grandmother. And you are smart to how old are you anyway? I forgot to ask." Nero said
"Three this summer." Nero came to an halt. "Whoa that young?" The human was clearly startled he looked over his shoulder and on the small pony. "Granny died when I was two." He said.
"How old was your grandmother anyway?" Nero asked he was now walking. "Around three hundred if I remember. dad was old when he meet mom, and moms family died when she was little." He said now not that happy anymore.
"Let's drop that topic it makes me gloomy." Nero added, he had gotten into a jog again. A big gilded chariot was speeding overhead.
Around forty minutes later the gates to Canterlot loomed and Nero slowed down to a walk. When they approached the gate a guard flanked by two more trotted over to him.
"Halt!" Nero came to a stop "shit" He mumbled. "Are you a Nero Lancer?" The guard asked.
"Yes I am is there any problem?" Nero asked the guard.
"A order for your immediate presence at the royal castle have been issued this night. We have orders to escort you there." The guard eyed Eclipse. "The young one who is he?" The guard asked after a moment.
"His name is Eclipse and he is coming with me. or do you want to tell the princesses yourself that I refused to come?" Nero added sharply. The guards got big eyes. They had been instructed to bring him peacefully to the princesses and not to use force. Luna had told them about him being able to take on a dragon that no magic could not touch.
"Yes of course he is welcome to, we have no orders not to bring anyone else. But we just got the notice that it's urgent so we must make haste." The guard behind the first one said.
"This is fine mess I gotten into." Nero mumbled while they guards walked over to the city. Sorry that's my fault.
"Its not that bad now is it?" Eclipse asked. "Not at all I'm just late to a meeting with the royal sisters. Very late." He added.