//------------------------------//
// Shadow Reborn 
// Story: House Of The Crystal Sun 
// by Bluecatcinema 
//------------------------------//

Ten years ago...

It was early in the morning at the Napoleon Estate. The door open slowly, as Grimoire's head peeked in left and right.

"Okay, the coast is clear. Bring him in." He said quietly.

Grimoire entered the front hall, followed by his brothers, who were dragging a big bag.

"Geez, this guy is heavy." Vinny groaned.

"Less complaining, more pulling." Salt struggled.

"Yeah, it's important that we get this taken care of before somepony-" Murray added.

"Murray?"

The brothers looked up and saw their now marefriends glancing at them with confusion from upstairs.

"Oh, ladies..." Murray gulped.

"What are you doing up so early?" Grimoire asked.

"We could ask the same about you." Vinyl glared. "That Changeling dude said you guys had some family emergency to deal with."

"Is everything alright, on this dawn's early light?" Zecora asked.

"Oh yes." Grimoire nodded. "Turned out to be a false alarm. Nothing to worry about."

"What's with the bag?" Lyra asked.

"Oh, this bag?" Lars feigned innocence.

"Uh, yeah, that bag." Bon-Bon deadpanned.

"It's nothing." Sonny lied. "Just some junk that we need to take down to the incinerator in the basement."

"We have an incinerator?" Slot asked.

"Yes, we do." Salt growled. "And we need to get it taken care of."

The bag began to stir, much to the mares' shock, as they gasped.

"What's wrong?" Grimoire asked.

"The bag!" Redheart pointed.

"It's moving!" Mayor Mare gasped.

The brothers glanced behind them as the contents of the bag started to stand up.

"Oh, geez, must be a raccoon..." Salt said, trying to play it cool.

"I got this." Slot pulled out a crowbar from out of nowhere and began beating down on the bag. "Stay! Down! You! Mangy! Buck!"

The bag slumped. The brothers then glanced up at the mares, who were still confused.

"How about you ladies go to the dining room?" Grimoire suggested. "We'll be with you shortly."

The mares only shrugged and such as they passed by.

"Man, for a bunch of hot guys, they sure are odd." Berry declared.

"Yeah... but am I the only one who found it really hot when Slot went crazy on that raccoon?" Vinyl asked. The other mares glanced at her. "...No? Huh."

The brothers took the bag and dragged it downstairs. Grimoire walked up to a wall and tapped a brick, causing a secret door to open up. Minutes later, the villainous Earth Pony Red Eclipse woke up, his hooves and neck chained to walls all around him.

"Oh, my buckin' head..." He groaned, before looking around. "Where am I?!"

"A hidden cell under our estate!" Grimoire snarled. "Where you belong."

Red Eclipse glared at Grimoire, flanked by his brothers.

"You!" He made to lunge at him, but quickly realized he was bound. "What-what is this?!"

"Titanium chains, built to hold the strongest of prisoners." Murray smirked, as Red tried pulling on them. "You won't be breaking them anytime soon."

"Why did you bring me here?!" Red snarled, his one good eye staring daggers at them.

"Well, Wizel didn't want you threatening his kind again, and we don't want a genocidal megalomaniac running around, so this was the best solution." Salt said matter-of-factly.

"Yeah?" Red sneered. "Why not kill me now and be done with it? Have you grown too soft for that?"

"On the contrary." Lars glared at him. "That would be the easy way out. You don't deserve it."

"What you do deserve is to be locked up down here for the rest of your days." Vinny added.

"Or until some other dirtbag worse than you comes along… then we'll just kill you to clear up the living space." Slot sneered.

"We do hope you enjoy the accommodations." Grimoire smirked. "You may not be Twitch… but a guy with a background such as yours should make up for it."

"Mark my words, old stallion, when I get out of here, you and your brothers will be the first of many to go..." Red threatened, struggling futilely against his chains.

"That'll be the day, Eclipse..." Grimoire snorted. "Now if you''ll excuse us, we have mares to attend to."

The brothers turned around and left, as Red screamed after them.

"You can't keep me down here forever!" Red roared, "I will break out of here, even if it takes me years!"

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, culo-face." Vinny scoffed without glancing back.

Red Eclipse just let out a roar of fury.

The present...

A male griffon servant was carrying a tray of food, as he made his way to the entrance of the basement, where there were two guards, an Earth Pony and oddly, a buffalo, waiting.

"I'm here to bring chain pain his meal." The griffon declared.

"Go ahead." The Earth Pony stood aside.

The Griffon nodded as he made his way in.

"I don't get why we don't just kill this guy already." The Buffalo frowned. "I hear he's some kinda pony supremacist with genocidal tendencies."

"You got me." The Earth Pony shrugged. "I guess they see killing as being too good for him."

"Oh, and us feeding this monster is any worse?" The Buffalo asked.

"Let it go, man." The Earth Pony sighed.

The griffon entered the cell. Red Eclipse was still chained up, in the same position he had always been in. His usually short mane was now long and ragged, and he had a filthy beard to go with it. He also looked a little bit thinner, having been imprisoned for so long.

"Lunch time, psycho." The griffin declared.

The griffon noticed that Red's head was slumped. Perhaps he was asleep...

"Didn't you hear me?" The griffon frowned. "Wake up!"

The griffon tapped Red's cheek lightly. It was then that Red suddenly lifted his head up and snapped at the griffon.

"Aah!" The griffon yelled, his wings opening in fright.

In his shock, the griffon tossed the food tray into the air. As he dived to catch it, he failed to notice one of his feathers (lost when his wings flapped open) caught in Red's mouth. Catching the tray, he turned back to Red, who quickly pulled the feather under his tongue.

"I suppose you think that was funny, huh?" The griffon growled, as Red smiled widely. "I hope you choke on this food."

"Haha, what? Are you bloody hybrids part chicken or something?" Red snarked.

"Eagle, and you're lucky that I am even bothering to feed you. If it were up to me, you would be skin and bone right now!" The griffon sneered.

"Ooh, like I asked to be fed by a product of drunk mating between a lion and an eagle. You griffons are freaks." Red growled.

"Just shut up and eat your food." The griffon force-fed Red his meal (Red's chains preventing from feeding himself). Red made sure to keep the feather under his tongue the whole time.

"No chokin', huh?" The griffon sulked. "Pity. Ah well, maybe next time..."

"Speakin' of next time, tell the chef to go easy on the salt." Red chuckled darkly.

The griffon carried the empty tray out of the cell, muttering curses. Once the door shut, Red released the feather from under his tongue, and stuck it out, quill first. With some careful manipulation, he managed to bend the feather so the quill entered the lock of his chains. Turning his head back and forth, he succeeded in picking the lock. The chains clattered the ground, freeing them.

"Finally..." He stretched out his limbs. "Now to get out of here." He then cracks his hooves, "Muscles, don't fail me now."

On the other side of the door, the Earth Pony and Buffalo heard something banging against it.

"What the..." The Earth Pony gaped.

"No, can't be..." The Buffalo added.

They quickly rushed down into the basement, and opened the hidden door. Just as they turned to face the cell door, it suddenly tore loose from it's hinges, slamming them against the opposite wall. As they collapsed to the floor, Red Eclipse stepped out of the cell.

"I'm done with the room now." He told their prone forms smugly. "Thank you for your hospitality."

He made to leave… before coming back to kick the buffalo's unconscious body.

"By the way, you buffaloes reek!" Red grimaced.

Red dashed down the corridor, and up the stairs. Quietly, he snuck through the mansion, looking for the closest exit. As he turned into one room, he narrowly avoided being spotted by a Changeling servant, by ducking behind a chair. Once the coast was clear, he continued his sneaking.

As Red entered the living room, he lit up at the sight of the door leading to his freedom… but then he heard a loud sound.

"Be careful, you ricchione!" Murray snarled.

"Aw, crud!" Red cursed.

Quickly, he ducked behind a couch, as he saw the Napoleons (minus Caboose) bringing in a crate.

"Steady, steady…" Lars grunted.

"Saying 'steady' does not makes this crate any lighter." Slot groaned.

"Don't think about dropping this box!" Salt glared. "Because of this thing, our archaeologist friend's wife has to do all the 'work' for him the next couple of weeks."

"Just set it down here." Grimoire gestured to the middle of the room.

The brothers set the crate down.

"Slot, if you please…" Sonny gestured.

Slot smiled as he pulled out the same crowbar from ten years back, and cracked open the crate.

"Oh-ho-ho, looks like we hit the jackpot this time!" Vinny smirked, as he and the other brothers peeked inside. The crate contained a few recently-discovered relics, which the brothers hoped to donate to the museums… with a bit of remuneration on the side of course.

"Check this out." Lars held up an old vase. "This must be from the Whinnyin' dynasty!"

"And here's an authentic Roaman cooking pot!" Sonny smiled.

"And a genuine Coltic warrior's shield!" Salt declared.

"What's this?" Grimoire held up a curved red object that ended in a point.

"Beats me." Murray shrugged.

"Looks like a unicorn's horn." Lars inspected it.

"Well I don't think the Bitalian history museum will want some dead guy's horn." Murray snorted, as he took the horn and dropped it back in.

Knowing that they were too engrossed in their trinkets to notice him, Red started tiptoeing towards the open front door.

"What kinda junk is this?" Slot held up a rusty old cog. "Later!"

Slot tossed the cog over his shoulder. The cog struck Red Eclipse square in the face.

"Ow!" He yelped, unable to stop himself.

The Napoleons turned, and saw him.

"You!" Grimoire snarled. "How did you escape?"

"That's for me to know, and you to find out." Red Eclipse smirked, edging towards the door. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have places to go, and vermin to stamp out. Buh-bye now!"

"You're not going anywhere, Eclipse!" Murray snarled.

"Oh?" Red smirked. "Just watch me."

He turned to the door, only for a chair fly by and barricade it.

"We made a promise to Mr. Yggdrasil that we would keep you locked up." Lars growled, "And we Napoleons never break our promise."

"Is that so?" Red turned to face them, his smile turning to a scowl. "That old bug and his 'prophecy' really messed things up for me. I'll have to give him and his mud-wallowing race a crash course in agony."

"Sorry, but the only thing that's going to get a crash course in agony is you, ya Tartarus-bound scumsucker!" Slot roared.

"Well, then…" Red Eclipse did a "come hither" gesture with one of his front hooves. "Bring it."

"Consider it brought!" Salt led the charge.

The brothers attacked as one, but Red Eclipse wasn't going to go down so easily. He caught Salt's first strike and flipped them. He wasn't so lucky against Sonny, who tackled him to the ground. With a swift strike, he tripped Sonny up. As Red stood up, he was put in a headlock by Slot.

"Give it up, scuzz-face!" Slot growled.

"Never." Red Eclipse kicked Slot in the stomach. As Slot went down, Murray pulled out his crossbow, and fired. Red dodged the bolt, then rushed over and kicked Murray in the face before he could reload.

"That's it!" Lars yelled, as he and Vinny charged.

Red Eclipse ducked their initial attack, headbutted Lars, and kicked Vinny in the groin.

"Oh, knackers..." Vinny groaned.

"My turn." Grimoire stepped forward.

"You wanna piece of me, too?" Red smirked, as he cricked his neck. "Come on!"

The two stallions started swinging their hooves at each other. Red managed to kick Grimoire's leg, and in return, Grimoire slugged him in the chin. Red retaliated with an even harder punch, throwing Grimoire into a wall, eliciting a groan from the old stallion.

As the brothers struggled to get to their hooves, Red let out a few pants.

"Okay, this brawl has been fun and all, but I really have to go. I'll see my own way out, thank you." The red stallion huffed.

"Oh no, you don't! Stop him!" Vinny yelled.

The brothers, determined to stop their prisoner from leaving, charged at Red. Red shoved a nearby chair their way, slowing some of them down. Grimoire, Salt and Sonny dodged, and tackled him.

As they struggled, Red lashed out with everything he had, knocking them all aside.

"This is really starting to get old." He declared. "How many times do I have to beat you down before you stay down?"

"Hey, big guy!"

Red turned, only to be blindsided by Slot, hitting him hard with a body check.

The blood red stallion was blasted headfirst into the crate. The crate shattered, sending the items everywhere.

"Didn't learn your lesson the last time, huh?" Slot smirked.

"Nice check." Salt rubbed a bit of blood from his snout.

"What can I say?" Slot smirked. "I've been practising."

"I can't believe he nearly escaped." Murray frowned. "We seriously need to beef up security around here."

"No kidding." Sonny agreed.

"Come on." Lars smiled. "Let's get this scumbag back where he belongs."

"You don't have to tell me twice." Vinny winced a bit, his groin still aching.

The brothers approached Red Eclipse's prone body… only for him to stir, as he slowly got to his hooves.

"Oy, this guy just doesn't give up, does he?" Murray growled.

"Well, there's still seven of us and only one of him, so let's kick his flank!" Slot snarled.

"Wait." Grimoire stopped Slot, as he noticed something different about him. "There's something on his head!"

The red curved object had somehow attached itself to Red Eclipse's forehead, making him look like he had a horn. The stallion seemed to be groaning a bit, clutching his hurt head.

"Then let's get it off him." Salt declared. "As painfully as possible."

Suddenly, Red's eyes opened. They were a sickly green and lined with sheer insanity. The horn started glowing.

"As I was saying..." Red smirked, as the horn glowed brighter. "Buh-bye now."

"Oh, sweet motherbuckin'-" Grimoire gasped.

*KABOOM!*