//------------------------------//
// Shadows 
// Story: Solar Eclipse: The Watcher 
// by The Lunar Samurai 
//------------------------------//

	Blackbird’s body trembled as he stirred from his sleep. A small fire before him popped and cracked as it flames bounced from the hot coals. The orange glow of the tongues illuminated the small cave around him. The ground was well worn from several years of hoof traffic. As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, Blackbird noticed the large cauldron that was suspended from the warmth of the fire. Its bottom was glowing with a faint red hue.
What is this? Blackbird thought as he surveyed the dark room. It was obvious it was inhabited. Several wooden bowls rested in the makeshift shelves that had been carved into the rocks and a few hoofmade tables sat at the edges of the cave. Their surfaces were littered with all sorts of things. Piles of herbs rested on one and a set of tools rested on another.
“I see you have finally awoken from your slumber,” said a deep voice from the shadows.
Blackbird, unable to lift his head, tried to look in the direction of the sound. He painfully rolled his head toward the voice, but nothing was there, only darkness. He drew in a sharp breath before faintly whispering, “Who are you?”
“Who I am is not important at the moment, but you are safe.”
Blackbird rolled his head to the side and let out a breath. “Thank you,” he said in an ever-weakening voice.
“You must regain your strength,” the voice commanded from the darkness, “Look to your left.”
Blackbird obeyed and, to his groggy surprise, he discovered a bowl of steaming stew lying in front of his face.
“Eat.”
Using all the energy he could muster, Blackbird reached over and tried to drag the bowl toward him. His hoof struck the bowl, causing it to spill its contents onto the ground. “You are weaker than I suspected,” the voice said from the darkness. The warm stew snaked underneath Blackbird’s head, and he managed to drink a few precious drops using his tongue.
Several minutes later, Blackbird had eaten all that was in reach. “Why do you stay in the darkness?” he said, his voice still a whisper.
“Looks can be deceiving, but personalities are not. It would be better for you to know me, rather than my form.”
“I don’t see what difference it would make,” Blackbird said as he rolled his head back, the side of his face covered in cold stew.
“Why am I here?”
“I couldn’t simply leave you in the snow to die.”
Blackbird tried to shift his body, but winced when his wing rubbed against the ground.
“Your impromptu tourniquet was impressive, but I took the liberty of fashioning a new one for you,” the voice said.
“Why have you done this for me?” Blackbird whispered. “I’m just a stranger to you.”
“If you had seen what I have, you would be eager to help everypony you could. Life is too short to do anything else,” said the voice.
“Well I thank--” Blackbird cut himself off as he realized there were faint hoofsteps from behind him.
“Is anypony here?” asked a voice that echoed through the cave.
“Sounds like I have a lot of company today.”
Blackbird was silent. Is that the guard? His mind began to pick up steam once more as fear slowly began refueling his body. Using his hind legs, he painfully pushed himself toward the edge of the cave.
“What are you doing?” asked the voice as he watched Blackbird scoot across the floor.
“Trying to hide.”
“From what?”
“From him,” Blackbird whispered as he pushed himself underneath one of the tables. Just as he pulled himself into the concealing shadows of the table, the newcomer stumbled into the cave. Blackbird watched as the black form of the stallion slowly approached the fire. As he reached the warm glow of the light Blackbird’s face drained of color. It was the stallion who had shot him.
“What’s this?” the guard asked as he looked at the shattered remains of the camera on one of the tables in the makeshift room. His gaze drifted to the pot of stew above the dwindling fire. “Hello?” As he stepped toward the fire, Blackbird got a good look at the stallion’s face, it was the same pegasus that had shot him.
“Good evening.” the voice said. The deep words reverberated off of the walls and startled the stallion.
“Who’s there!” the guard shouted as he withdrew his revolver with incredible speed.
“I greet you, yet you threaten violence. There is no hospitality here for ponies like you.”
“Do you know who I am?” the guard shouted as he began to turn in circles, trying to locate the voice. “I am the leader of the Tau Pegasus squadron! I have the authority to kill who I want, when I want, for whatever reason I want.”
“Your authority stopped at the doorway,” the voice said. “I answer to no pony but myself. Leave, or suffer the consequences.”
“What are you going to do? Yell at me some more?” the guard asked as he nonchalantly walked to the cauldron of stew and withdrew the ladle. He blew across the portion to cool it.
“Put it down,” The voice said with a surprising amount of irritation.
“Why don’t you come out here and make me,” The guard said as he brought the spoon to his mouth to a drink of the stew. No sooner had the spoon touched his lips than the fire immediately went out with a hiss. Blackbird tried to see, but everything was pitch black. A loud crash echoed off through the cave immediately followed by the blinding light of the muzzle flash. For that brief instant of light, Blackbird could see two figures. One was sprawled on the floor, and the other was in mid air above the other. He could not distinguish which one was which. A moment later a dull crunch of breaking bones made Blackbird flinch. A bloodcurdling scream echoed off of the walls of the cave. Then there was silence.
A light flickered to life. It was a small candle. Blackbird slowly realized the pony on the ground was the guard. His two forelegs were twisted behind his head in the most unnatural positions Blackbird could imagine. An aged stallion held the candle in one hoof and a revolver in the other as he stood over the guard. He pointed the toward the ceiling and emptied the rounds onto the floor.
“Who sent you?” the old stallion asked in a collected tone as he tossed the revolver to the ground.
“Don’t kill me,” the guard begged. “I was only following orders.”
“Whose orders?” the stallion barked, making the guard flinch.
“The Empire.”
“Your empire’s jurisdiction does not reach here,” the stallion said as he leaned down toward the guard.
“Please,” the guard said as he began to push himself away from the stallion. The stallion reached down and dragged the guard back with his hind legs.
“You aren’t going anywhere,” he said as he pulled the guard into the darkness. A muffled cry resounded through the cave, then silence. Several seconds passed, the only light in the cave coming from the flickering candle that lay where the guard once had.
Blackbird waited in the cover of the shadows. Will he kill me too? he thought as the stallion walked back into the light. He held his breath and pressed himself against the cave wall.
“It is safe,” the stallion said as he looked to the table that blackbird was hiding under. “You may come out.”
Blackbird didn’t move. For several minutes the two stayed there, staring at one another through the veil of darkness between them. The only light was coming from the candle that flickered in the stallion’s hoof.
The stallion spoke up, breaking the silence with his baritone that echoed off of the rock walls. “It appears that my actions have placed me in a negative light. I do not intend to cause you any harm.” For some reason, the words sounded empty to Blackbird.
“Why?” Blackbird asked, his trembling voice barely above a whisper. “Why would you do that?”
“He was not welcome here.”
“But… you killed him. Why didn’t you just send him away?”
“Because I knew his heart. It was subservient to an evil so great that he could not be swayed,” the stallion said as he trotted over to the table and knelt down. He set the candle on the floor, the light revealing blackbird curled up in a tight ball against the wall. “But you are different. You are not driven by evil, but by something good.”
Blackbird’s wide eyes stared at the now approachable old stallion before him. His gaze locked on his outstretched hoof. Blackbird took in a deep breath. Do I trust him? He saved my life, but he could easily take it from me in an instant. He clamped his eyes shut and clenched his muscles. There’s only one thing I can do. He placed his hoof on the floor before him and pulled his body forward. Slowly he inched his way out from under the table, toward the stallion before him.
When the stallion grabbed hold of Blackbird’s shoulder he flinched. A cold spike of fear raced down his back, but the touch was not harsh, but instead it was comforting.
“Well I am glad you came to your senses,” the stallion said as he helped blackbird to his hooves. “The name is Archimedes, but you can call me Arx.”
“Thank you Arx. I’m Blackbird,” the blue pegasus said as he brushed the dirt from his coat.
“What brings you to my cave?” Arx asked as he grabbed the candle and walked over to the massive kettle of stew. He set the candle on the ground and trotted into the darkness.
“I was taking pictures of the wildlife here,” Blackbird said with the steadiest voice he could muster.
“Interesting,” Arx remarked as he trotted back into the light carrying several sticks in his mouth. “What fauna were you trying to document?” he asked as he knelt down and gingerly placed the kindling underneath the pot.
Blackbird bit his lip. He knew exactly what Arx was trying to do. “Nothing in particular, just wanted to get a feel for the land, that’s all.”
“What did you expect to find during a raging blizzard? The abominable snow pony?” Arx asked as he held a small stick to the candle and let it catch fire.
“Well, it came rather unexpectedly,” Blackbird said as he trotted closer to where Arx was rebuilding the fire.
“And I suppose it is also safe to assume that somepony really didn’t want you taking pictures of nature,” Arx said as he gestured to Blackbird’s wing. Small beads of sweat began to form on Blackbird’s forehead. He knew he had been found out. “Or  were you doing just more than taking photos of nature?” Arx set the burning ember on the end of the stick into the pile of kindling and nursed a flame to life. “There must be a reason that you chose to use a high altitude camera in an environment like this.”
“I was… umm… trying to…” Blackbird said as he began to stumble over his words. He had been caught red hoofed, and he knew it.
“I know what you were doing, it’s painfully obvious.” Arx said as he turned his attention to Blackbird. “And I know why you were doing it.”
 “Then we need not discuss this matter further,” Blackbird said as he occupied himself with warming his hooves.
“I agree,” Arx said as he trotted back into the darkness. “Instead we need to focus on the issue at hoof. What are we going to do with this body?” Arx asked as he trotted back into the light, dragging the guard’s corpse behind him by the leg. “I can’t have him rotting in my home.”
“Shouldn’t we bury him?” Blackbird asked.
“That would take too much energy, and in case you were not aware, the ground is shoulder deep in snow. No, we need something that will keep the others from finding the cave.”
“Others?” Blackbird asked with a hint of worry in his voice. “What others?”
“If he doesn’t return, they will send a search party. I have seen it time and time again. We need to disguise him in the area, make it look like it was an accident.”
Blackbird looked at the mangled body. “That doesn’t look like it was by accident.”
“No, but if we position him in the right place, it will.”
“What do you mean?”
“If we put him on the beach in a lounge chair, somepony would know it wasn’t a mistake. They would know that he had been attacked, but if we put him somewhere where the most plausible answer is an accident, then they will stop their search there,” Arx said as he began to scratch his chin. “Now the only question is: where can we make it look like a mistake?”
“Could we put him in a river?”
“Too obvious, nopony falls into a river and breaks their arms and neck. We need something that follows a logical cause and effect,” Arx said as he began to pace. “We can use the storm to our advantage”
“What about at the bottom of a ravine?” Blackbird asked as he watched the fire begin to warm the pot once more.
“That could work, but there are too many options for his death for them to consider.”
“What do you mean?” Blackbird asked.
“Questions like, Did he collide with the cliff, or did he fall off of it? Those thoughts inherently entertain the idea of more than one death. No, we can’t let that happen, we need something definitive,” Arx said as he began to ponder several situations in his mind.
“What if we made it blatantly obvious he collided with something?” Blackbird asked, trying to contribute in any way he could. “But what could he run into that would be that evident though?”
“A tree.” Arx said in a slightly excited tone as he spun around and faced Blackbird. “We can put him in a tree.”
“Yeah, I can fly him to the to--“ Blackbird paused as Arx pointed to his incapacitated wing. “Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.” He said sheepishly.
“Well it looks like the tree is the best option we have, now lets get moving.”
“But how do you plan to get him up in it?”
“Bah!” Arx exclaimed, “We will burn that bridge when we come to it.” Without another word, Arx grabbed the leg of the corpse and began to drag it toward the entrance.
Blackbird shook his head and smiled. He is either really smart, or insane. And right now it looks like he’s both.