//------------------------------// // The Coming Eclipse // Story: House Of The Crystal Sun // by Bluecatcinema //------------------------------// At the Crystal Empire, a royal summit was being held. The entire Canterlot royal family (with Caboose, Daring, Hurricane and Michael as their guests) were in attendance. Mist and Blue Blazes were unable to attend, Mist's pregnancy being too far along for her to travel. "So good to see you, aunt Celestia." Cadance smiled. "Aunt Luna." "The same to you, dear niece." Luna smiled. "Hey, Twily." Shining greeted his younger sister. "Hello, Flash." "Hi, BBBFF." Twilight smiled. "Good to see you, brother-in-law." Flash nodded. "Nice place you got here." Shine declared. "Must cost a fortune to polish..." "That's what I said when I first saw this place." Gothic chuckled. "First?" Constell snorted. "Try every time..." "Hi, Ant." Dusk told his cousin. "Great to see ya!" Starlight smiled. "You too, cousins." Anthem beamed. "How long is this going to take, dad?" Vito asked, bored already. "As long as it needs to, son." Blueblood answered. "Try and enjoy this, boys." Dusty declared. "You might even learn something." "If you say so, mom." Pureblood shrugged. "I've never been to the Crystal Empire before!" Hurricane smiled. "Shiny!" Michael chuckled. "Remember kids, best behavior." Daring told them. "Yes, mom..." Hurricane rolled her eyes. Sleight and Chrysalis were also among the guests. "I must admit, this is a little strange." Chrysalis confessed. "The last time I was in the Crystal Empire, I was trying to conquer it." "Ah, we've all committed little faux pas' at one time or another." Sleight shrugged. "You should've see that time I flubbed my show at Manehattan. Boy, what a mess..." As the summit got underway, Miracle, growing bored, decided to go and explore the Crystal castle. As she entered one of the lower room, she came across a portrait of a fierce-looking Unicorn; One with a curiously curved horn. "Whoa..." She gasped. Twilight soon entered the room. "There you are, Miracle." She noted. "Your parents are wondering where you wandered off to." "Who's that, Twilight?" Miracle pointed to the portrait. "That was King Sombra." Twilight declared. "King Sombra?" Miracle repeated. "Yes… you see, way before you and I were born, Sombra was a lowly duke who had an undying lust for power, which drove him to do something that nopony would dare do… practice dark magic…" Twilight said solemnly. Miracle frowned upon hearing the words "dark magic". While she only heard tidbits here and there, she had saw first-hoof what it did to ponies, especially Echo Alchemy, a thestral who was corrupted by said magic while trying to study it. "After months of mastering the dark arts, Sombra overthrew the king, and took over the Crystal Empire, enslaving all the Crystal Ponies. Your mother and aunt fortunately were able to defeat him…but before he was imprisoned in the ice, he cursed the Empire and made it disappear." "Disappear?" Miracle gasped. "Yes. The Empire was no more for a thousand year… it wasn't until nearly thirty years ago that it returned, and along with it, King Sombra." Twilight explained, "Me and other Elements of Harmony were sent there to defend the kingdom from him." "Whatever happened then?" Miracle asked. "He was destroyed by the power of the Crystal Heart." Twilight recalled. "His body shattered to pieces." "And what of the pieces?" Miracle inquired. "They were scattered for miles." Twilight noted. "No doubt buried under the snows of the Frozen North, never to be seen again..." "He sounds like a really rotten pony." Miracle mused. "oh, he was." Twilight led her out of the room. "Count your lucky stars that you don't have to deal with anypony like him..." Up above, Caboose was taking in the summit, and trying to keep an eye on his youngest. "No, Michael!" He yelled. "That's a potted plant, not a bathroom!" Just then, a Crystal Pony messenger walked over to him. "Caboose Napoleon?" He asked. "That's me." Caboose nodded. "And you are?" "Um, Mr. Napoleon, I'm one of your operatives." The crystal pony explained, "Facet." Caboose glanced at him. "Facet." Caboose still stared at him. "For Faust's sake, sir, I have been serving the family as the messenger for twenty years. Heck, you make a big celebration each time I brought you a new crossbow catalogue." Facet groaned. "Oh, the Crossbow Catalogue guy!" Caboose smiled, "I remember now, what's up? Got a new catalog for me?" "I'm afraid not." Facet shook his head, "I have an urgent message for you." He handed him a letter. "Okay..." Caboose said unsurely, as he opened the letter. Dear Mr. Napoleon, This is Doctor Fractyl of the Crystal Empire hospital. I'm afraid to inform you that your brothers were badly hurt in an explosion at their estate, and were moved here for treatment. We have reasons to believe that dark magic was involved in the incident. Mr. Grimiore Napoleon was insistent that we send you this letter. We ask that you come as soon as you can. "Ah, geez!" Caboose gasped, rushing over to Daring. "Can you take care of the kids, hon? Something big came up." "Okay." Daring nodded. "Come back soon." "I'll try." Caboose nodded. Caboose rushed out of the room. "'Scuse me... pardon me..." He squeezed past the other guests. Fortunately, the hospital wasn't too far from the castle. Caboose rushed into the reception office, where a receptionist was waiting. "Hey, miss!" Caboose panted, trying to catch his breath, "My name is Caboose Napoleon. I am here to see-" "Oh yes, your brothers are expecting you." The receptionist said soothingly. "Are they okay?" Caboose asked franticly. "Don't worry, sir." The receptionist smiled. "They have some third degree burns and minor lacerations, but are all stable and well for the most part." "Oh thank goodness." Caboose sighed with relief. "Where are they?" "Upstairs, third door on the left." The receptionist instructed. Caboose entered the brothers' room quickly. They were pretty banged up, but still in one piece and no broken bones as far as he could tell. "Bros!" Caboose gasped. "Caboose, you got here fast." Sonny mused. "I was just in the neighborhood for the summit." Caboose explained, "…What the buck happened to you guys?" "Eh, it's a long story." Salt frowned. "But to make it short… if anypony asks why there's nothing but rubble where our mansion used to be… it was a gas explosion." Vinny deadpanned. "What are you talking about?" Caboose asked, "What happened to our mansion?" "I'll tell you what happened. This sonofvagun we were hiding in our basement for ten years broke out and we tried to stop him, when Slot checked him into the crate and got that stupid 'thing' stuck on his head and he blew up our home!" Vinny snarled, as he glared at Slot, "Way to go, by the way." "How the buck was I supposed to know that horn would give him powers?!" Slot roared. "I lob horns off unicorns once a week, and they don't give me powers when I try them on!" "That's messed up, man!" Lars growled. "Hey, how often do you get to say you have two horns on your head?" Slot defended. "Whoa, whoa, guys, I have no idea what you guys are talking about!" Caboose held up his hooves. "What sonovagun in our basement? What 'horn'? And more importantly, what do you mean our mansion is blown up?!" "Well…" Grimoire trailed off. The brothers explained the events of what happened a couple of days ago. "...And then we got moved here." Grimoire finished, "…I'm so sorry, Caboose… our home is gone." "No…" Caboose muttered, as he sat down, "What about the servants and the guards?" "Don't worry. We've got stallions working overtime to extricate them from the remains. There were no casualties as far as we know…" Murray reassured, before scowling. "But it's safe to say that Red Eclipse has officially bucked with the wrong family." "I swear, the next time I see that punk, I'm going to cut his heart out with a spoon!" Slot threatened. "I'll rip his hooves off one by one!" Vinny added. "I'll cut off his own tail and feed it to him!" Salt growled. "Caboose, are you alright?" Grimoire asked. "Actually, there's something I don't get…" Caboose muttered, as he rose to his hooves and paced, "Why exactly were you holding a power-hungry, military-trained megalomaniac in our basement? In our hidden cell?" He glared at his brothers. "Better yet, why am I now hearing about this guy?! You always told me when you guys are holding somepony down there, especially ever since I accidentally let out that Goldhoof clown." "Um, well, you see…" Murray started to explain. "Wait, was he the one that's been making thuds in the floorboards over the past ten years?" Caboose asked. "You told me and Hurricane it was that confounded gopher!" "We did… though we didn't expect your kid to try and blow it up!" Salt protested. "Red was really grouchy that day…" "Ten years…" Caboose said to himself, before realizing something. "Wait, that was about when me and Daring got married! What were you even holding him down there that long for? The longest we ever kept somepony in there for was about a month, given that Slot doesn't torture him or her." "Yeah, good times..." Slot smirked. "Well, Caboose, Red Eclipse was… a special prisoner…" Grimm explained. "Special how?" Caboose challenged. "All I got so far that he's just a lunatic. We used to deal with all kinds of those on weekdays!" "Well this 'lunatic' was a real piece of work. Ten years ago, he tried to lead a genocidal rampage upon the Changelings in the new Changeling Territory, before he was stopped by that Sleight guy." Vinny shuddered. "By the time we got there, he was about to attack our old friend Wizel, before we intervened." Lars continued. "Wizel… isn't he that old bug who was friends with our great-grandpa?" Caboose asked. "Yup, that'll be him." Sonny nodded. "Hold on, what were you guys even doing in the Changeling territory? Nopony knew about the incident till weeks after. There's no way you guys would have known before everypony else… and that doesn't explain why you didn't tell me about him." Caboose frowned. Grimoire gave a grim look… "Because… Red wasn't who we were originally after." Grimm admitted. The other brothers glanced in shock. "Grim?!" Murray gasped. "What are you doing, bro?!" Salt yelled. "No, Caboose needs to know the truth. It's been forty years… he has the right to know." Grimoire said grimly. "Yes I do!" Caboose urged… before frowning, "Right to know what?" "Caboose, it's time that you know... about Anarchy." Grimoire sighed. "Anarchy?" Caboose asked. "Anarchy 'Archie' Napoleon." Murray declared. "Our oldest brother." "Wait, what?" Caboose gasped. "But... I thought Grim was the oldest!" "He is now." Vinny agreed. "But he wasn't always." "Hold on… you mean… all this time… I had a brother older than Grim?" Caboose tried to make sense of things. "Holy crud… did Sandy or Dusty know?" "No… the only ones who knew Anarchy were us, mom, pops, and all the veteran members of the mafia." Grimoire explained. "But why only you guys?" Caboose inquired. "Who was Anarchy?" "Anarchy…" Grimm whispered, "He was honestly… the best big brother any of us could had ever asked for." "He taught me how to fire a crossbow." Murray smiled. "He got me into cooking." Sonny added. "He introduced me to the wonders of fine wine." Vinny added. "Anarchy was the best of us, that's for sure." Salt recollected. "He had the brains, the brawn, the looks, the charm... everything." "He was an every-pony, to say the least." Sonny explained. "Everypony loved him. He was practically pops' shoe-in for becoming the new don of the family… even more so, it looked like he could be the one to lead this family to new heights." Lars sighed. "In fact, he was the one that inspired us to do the business the way we did it now… robbing the rich to help the poor." Murray mused. "…What happened to him?" Caboose asked, before coming to a grim realization. "No…is he…" The brothers nodded. "A long while back, we had this friend… Twitch Cardinal was his name…" Grimoire sighed. "He was… shady…but he was good with weeding out all the snitches and getting intel on ponies. I knew something was off about him… we all did… but Anarchy trusted him, so we thought we could as well…" "But we were wrong." Murray said in a low snarl. "One stormy night, mere months before you were born, Caboose… Anarchy was meeting Twitch at a lone lamppost not far from the mansion… when Twitch…" Murray had trouble finishing, his eyes growing watery. "Twitch stabbed him in the back." "W-what?" Caboose gasped. "No…" "Yes." Salt stifled a growl, as he was growing misty-eyed as well. "That little weasel just left him there out in the rain to die like garbage on the street." "But Archie didn't give him that satisfaction… with the last of his strength, he got back to the mansion… held on long enough to tell us that Twitch had betrayed us… before he… he…" Sonny didn't finish, but nothing more needed to be said. The seven brothers were all visibly upset. "I… I don't know what to say…" Caboose shook his head, "…What did happen to Twitch?" "When Archie died, we were all out for blood." Slot muttered coldly, "We made a promise to him that we would find that little coglione and make him pay." "But that little rat was quick on the fly." Vinny growled. "Twitch practically fell off the face of the world the moment we were on to him, and ever since then, we've been playing this game of cat and mouse." "When Grim came to power as don, we devised a secret code among our veteran members, so that if anypony ever saw him, we would be the first to know and we could go and try to apprehend him." Lars explained. "Or kill him." Slot snarled. "Whichever came first." "That's what brought us to the territory." Salt explained. "We got a tip about him just after you left for your honeymoon. We set off to find him, but found Red Eclipse instead." "Red Eclipse was just as bad, if not worse, than Twitch, so we decided to take him in." Grimoire declared. "And that's how he wound up in our basement." Silence greeted the room. Caboose shook his head. "Unbelievable... I had an older brother all this time... and none of you guys bothered to tell me?" Caboose frowned. "We were only looking out for you." Murray told him. "You weren't even born when he died." "Well, you still should've told me!" Caboose yelled. "Yeah, that makes sense, tell a baby colt that his big brother Anarchy is not around because a Culo-head came and stabbed him in the back... literally." Vinny snorted. "You had enough on your plate as it is, what with O'Malley, Peaches Cream, and the south beach incident." Lars explained. "What?" Caboose asked. "Nothing." Lars lied swiftly. Caboose wanted to press the matter…but he hadn't the energy. Instead… "So... where do we go from here?" Caboose asked. "Well, once we're given clean bills of health, we'll have to establish a new base of operations, get settled in, and then set our priorities to finding Red Eclipse." Grimoire declared. "Over Twitch?" Vinny asked. "As much as it pains me to say it, yes." Grimoire nodded. "Twitch may have murdered our brother, but as far as we know, he's a coward. Red Eclipse on the other hoof sounds like a stallion on a mission. And with that 'thing' on his head, who knows what he might do." "But how we will find him?" Caboose asked. "Do we even know anything about the guy?" "'Fraid not." Lars shrugged. "I tried lookin' in the Canterlot Archives for a 'Red Eclipse' shortly after I became professor at the School For Gifted Unicorns, and I got nothing. He's like a ghost." "So we turned to Wizel." Salt declared. "All he could tell from him was that he was well-trained in combat and weaponry and he's a 'supremacist'... we just figured that he was some disgraced military officer or something." "Just how worried should we be about him?" Caboose asked skeptically. "Not too much at first." Lars shrugged. "Red's been imprisoned for ten years, and given what we know about him, I doubt he'll do something to draw attention to himself." "Yeah, besides, it's not like he's going to waltz in someplace and stage a hostile takeover." Vinny smirked. Back at the summit, things were going smoothly. "Looks like everything's good, huh, cherryblossom?" Shine smiled. "I suppose so." Celestia mused. "What's the matter, dear?" Shine asked. "Call it paranoia, but whenever things are this peaceful, I find myself waiting for the other horseshoe to drop..." Celestia fretted. "Ah, quit worrying." Shine waved his hoof. "What could possibly go wro-?" Suddenly, a loud bang echoed throughout the halls. Everypony glanced at the door. "What the?" Shine frowned. "What's going-" The doors banged again, more violently. Then suddenly, the doors burst open. A hooded figure walked in... "Who is that?" Blueblood asked. "Whoever he is, he's not on the guest list." Shining frowned. "Interesting fashion choice." Constell declared. The figure stopped in the middle of the room. "Forgive my rudeness, but who exactly are you?" Celestia asked. "Why, Princess, I'm hurt you don't recognize me..." The hooded figure hissed. "Pardon?" Celestia frowned. "Of course, I don't blame you... it has been little over thirty years since we last spoke... but I remember you quite fondly..." The hooded figure declared. "What are you talking about?" Shine asked. The hooded figure pulled back his hood, revealing himself as Red Eclipse. His mane was back to being shaved and his beard was gone. Celestia's eyes widened in horror, as well as Sleight and Chrysalis... "No... it can't be..." Celestia gasped. "No... you?" Sleight gulped. "That monster..." Chrysalis growled. Red Eclipse gave her a devil-like grin. "Sorry I'm late to the party…" Red Eclipse shrugged. "But I was horribly indecent, and I wanted to look my best for all eyes to see." "YOU!" Chrysalis snarled, as she stepped forth. "What are you doing here?!" "Chrysalis, you know this stallion?" Twilight asked. "Yes! It's him, the monster who tried to murder my children ten years ago!" Chrysalis accused. "Monster?" Red scoffed, "That's rich, coming from an emotion-sucking insect like you." "That's enough out of you!" Sleight yelled. "And the trickster..." Red smirked. "Nice to see you again…and no longer in your 'true' form, I see. Looking back on it over ten years, I cannot believe how I fell for such a meagre prank." "Like you can talk." He smirked. "Nice fake horn by the way." Red glared at Sleight... then blasted him aside with his horn. "It is nice, isn't it?" Red chuckled, blowing off the steaming horn. "I now get why Unicorns think they're better than everypony." "What an utterly backward way of thinking." Blueblood snorted. "If anypony would know..." Red sneered. "Sleight!" Chrysalis ran to her husband's side. "M'okay." Sleight groaned. "He just winged me..." "King Sombra's horn..." Miracle gasped. "Good eye." Red smirked, "Didn't realize what it was till I boned up on the local history. Apparently, it still has some juice from it's previous owner." "How did you possibly..." Twilight gaped. "Sheer dumb luck." Red shrugged. "Now, I believe somepony asked for introductions: I am Red Eclipse, and I am here for something rather valuable… the Crystal Sun." Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Twilight and Chrysalis gasped. "Crystal what?" Sleight asked. "Crystal Sun." Cadence elaborated, before glaring at Red, "How on Earth do you know about it?" "That's for me to know and you to not find out, pinkie." Red smirked. "Don't even think about insulting my wife." Shining snarled. "And why do you want this... 'Crystal Sun'?" Shine asked. Red Eclipse paused for a moment, looking intently at Shine. However, he turned to face Celestia. "Oh, I have big plans for it." He smirked. "Big, big plans. But I've said too much already. For now, as once sung by a band named after my favorite color, it is time to…'release the panic'." Digging his hooves into the ground, Red Eclipse pointed Sombra's horn upwards, as it glowed with dark magic. A cloud of darkness enveloped the room, and dark crystals sprang up. From out of the shadows came forth a legion of shadow-like pony soldiers. "What in Faust's name?" Shine gasped. "No…" Celestia whispered. "This is royally messed up." Flash declared. "What are those things?" Dusty asked. "Creatures of darkness…" Red smirked at his new "followers", as he then roared at the populace. "Attack!" Chaos ensued, as the shadow ponies attacked everypony. Resistance was fleeting; The shadows were immune to physical attacks, and while magic assaults could destroy them, their numbers were far too great. They could unleash powerful blasts of dark magic from their horns, bringing down their targets instantly. One shadow pony advanced on Miracle. "Get away!" She charged up her horn and fired. The shadow slid under the floor, dodging the beam, then came back up and returned fire with a burst of dark magic. "Aaah!" Miracle screamed, as the burst grazed her legs, knocking her down. "No!" Shine yelled. He blasted the shadow pony away, and picked up his prone daughter. "Are you alright, sunbeam?!" Shine asked. "My legs…" Miracle whimpered. "It hurts…" "Don't worry baby, I'll help you." Shine lifted Miracle onto her back. "Hang on!" Shine ran through the impromptu battlefield, as he glimpsed at Red Eclipse, just standing there in the middle of the field, watching him with that ghastly golden eye and devilish grin. "Shine, over there!" Celestia called. Shine rushed to join his wife. Meanwhile, at the hospital, Caboose heard the commotion, as screams were made. "Something's wrong." He realized. "But I can't leave you guys..." "Go." Grimoire urged. "Don't worry about us! We'll be fine!" "Yeah." Murray nodded. "We've bounced back from worse than this." "Okay." Caboose nodded, as he raced out the door. "Get well soon!" The brothers just laid there… "'Get well soon..." Slot snorted. "Whoever came up with that phrase oughta be shot." "Too bad there ain't a medicine that can fix your bad attitude, Slot." Vinny smirked. Back at the crystal castle, the royals were falling fast. Despite combining their efforts, Twilight and her family were brought down. Blueblood and Vito and tried to protect the magic-challenged Dusty and Pureblood, but were overwhelmed. Chrysalis was swarmed by the shadow ponies. Sleight desperately tried to fight his way through, but made little headway. Shining, Cadance and Anthem fought bravely, but were taken out one by one. Luna, Gothic and Constell were among those who held out the longest, but even they couldn't escape the unstoppable horde. The only ones left uncaptured were Shine, Celestia, and Miracle. "We have to go!" Celestia yelled. "To the stairs!" Sidestepping the shadows, they rushed down the crystal staircase. As they reached the front doors, they ran into Caboose. "What's going on here?!" Caboose asked. "I leave you guys for only an hour and it's like Buckapest down here!" "Some nutjob pony with a dark magic horn attacked us!" Shine declared. "Everypony but us has been captured." Celestia added. "Everypony?" Caboose gasped. "Daring, Hurricane, Michael... I have to go save them!" "There's nothing you can do." Shine told him. "They're just too powerful." The shadow ponies raced towards them. "Run!" Shine yelled. They ran as fast as they could, but the shadow ponies glided across the ground like ice skaters, quickly catching up. Celestia stopped running. "What are you doing?" Shine turned. "Buying you some time." Celestia said matter-of-factly. "Take care of Miracle." "No, don't!" Shine reached for her. "Mom!" Miracle cried. "Come on!" Caboose pulled him away. "We gotta go!" "But mom..." Miracle quivered. "We can't just-" Shine added. "Didn't you just tell me they're too powerful?" Caboose groaned. "Take your own advice, pal!" Celestia stood her ground as the shadow ponies surrounded her, and began swarming her. Just before they could grab her, she fired a concentrated beam of magic. As soon as she released it, the shadow ponies dogpiled her and dragged her away. The beam Celestia fired soared towards the trio, and hit... Caboose. "What the BU-UCK!" Caboose screamed as the blast hit him and rocketed him far away into the cold wilderness. "What the-?" Shine frowned, not seeing Caboose. "Caboose?! Where are you?!" He considered looking for him, but the shadow ponies were on his tail, so he had to continue on. Soon they were nearing the train station… "Hang in there, baby, we're almost out of there." Shine reassured to Miracle as they hopped onto the platform… Only to be stopped by a shadow pony, pointing it's horn at him and Miracle. Shine stepped back, using his wings to shield Miracle, though fear was in Shine's eyes. "Please… please, don't hurt us…" Shine pleaded, knowing he had no way to hurt the pony. The plea fell on deaf ears, as the shadow pony's horn began to glow viciously. "Oh, crud…" Shine turned to run, as the shadow pony fired, grazing the spot of Shine's back Miracle was holding on, as Miracle fell from his back and Shine fell to the ground. Shine struggle to get up, before he was kicked over. The shadow pony glares venomously as he points his horn again. "Please… don't…" Shine whispered. The shadow pony was about to fire once more, before it's head was sliced by a flat, rectangular object. As it dissipated into nothingness, the object landed at Shine's hooves; it was a playing card. "You guys okay?" Sleight called as he ran over. His suit was in tatters. "Thanks to you." Shine smiled. "I can't believe you managed to escape." "Yeah, well, it's pretty easier when you can make portals with playing cards." Sleight shrugged. "Too bad those things tore it up after I went through. I could've helped the others." "Let's not think about that right now." Shine declared. "Let's just be glad we're all okay. Right, Mir?" There was no answer… "Mir?" Shine turned, to find Miracle whimpering, clutching her abdomen, "Miracle!" Shine rushed over to her, only to be horrified that she was bleeding, possibly from the blast the shadow pony fired. "Oh no…" Sleight whispered. "Okay, move your hooves, baby." Shine ordered, as he tried to suppress Miracle's wound, only for her to cry out in pain. "Listen to me, I know it hurts, baby." Miracle continued to whimper. "You're gonna be okay, baby. Stay with me." Shine made to pick her up. "Alright. I'm gonna pick you up." Shine tried to keep a calm voice, as he lifted her, but Miracle gasped even more. "I know, baby. I know it hurts. Come on, baby, please. I know, baby I know." Shine reassured her… though at the moment, it sounded more like he was reassuring himself. "Shine, we gotta get outta here." Sleight whispered. "We will, Miracle just…" Shine turned to Miracle, only to gasp as he saw her falling unconscious, "Miracle? Baby?" She wasn't answering. "…Don't do this to me, baby…" Shine begged, tears starting to flow, as he held her close, "Don't do this to me, baby girl. Come on…no…no…" He began to sob as he cradled her, "Oh no, no, no…please…oh, Faust. Please, please, don't do this… Please, Faust…"