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

	Arx and Blackbird stopped at the entrance to the cave. The blizzard had lost some of its power, but still howled like an unchained beast. The snowdrifts were piled well above their heads, creating artificial mountains of white across the landscape.
“You take him from here!” Arx yelled over the powerful wind that whipped the two ponies. “I’ll go scout out a good tree!”
“How will I find you?” Blackbird yelled over the wind. “I don’t want to get lost out here!”
“Don’t worry about that! These mountains aren’t that confusing!” Arx yelled as he wrapped his scarf over his face, leaving only a slit for his eyes. He galloped out into the vast expanse of white before them, and quickly disappeared into the blizzard. Blackbird tried to follow him as best he could, but there was no way he could keep his pace while dragging a body behind him.
“Now what am I going to do?” Blackbird asked as he felt the temperature slowly dropping around him. He squinted, as if it would help him see through the blinding white curtain of snow. How is he going to be able to find me in this weather? he thought as he realized his situation. He looked behind him, but his tracks were already covered in snow. His body began to tremble with fright. Where is he? “Arx!” He shouted, but his voice was quickly lost to the wind. I'm going to die out here, he thought as he looked back at the body. Just like him. “Arx! Where are you?”
“What are you shouting for?” asked the familiar, deep voice. Blackbird quickly turned his head in Arx’s direction, but all that stood there was the dense falling snow.
Oh great, now I’m hallucinating. Blackbird thought. “Arx!” he shouted, louder this time.
“Stop shouting,” the voice said again.
“This is crazy, and now I'm going crazy,” Blackbird said.
“If I'm just imaginary then you won’t feel this,” the voice said. A large snowball flew from behind one of the snowdrifts and struck Blackbird square in the jaw. He toppled to the ground, landing on his wing. He let out a loud cry as the pain stabbed into his side. Quickly he rolled himself over to get off of his wing and painfully rose to his hooves in the knee-high snow.
“What was that for?” Blackbird asked as he trotted to the other side of the snowdrift. Arx was lying in the snow, smiling like a child.
“You worry too much,” Arx said as he lifted another snowball from the pile beside him.
“I really think we need to get this body hidden soon,” Blackbird said with an exasperated sigh. He trotted over to the corpse that had already collected a dusting of snow. “The search party should be here soon.”
Arx stood, his smile turning to a thoughtful frown. “I suppose you are right. The tree is just up ahead.” Arx began to gallop off,  but Blackbird shouted after him.
“Can we stick together?”
“Sure thing,” Arx said as he trotted to blackbird’s side. “All you had to do was ask.”



A few moments later and the tree peeked through the snow. “So how are we going to get this body into the tree?” Blackbird asked as he saw the tree come into view through the blizzard.
“That’s easy,” Arx said as he dragged the body to the base of the towering plant. He took several steps back and closed his eyes. A green aura surrounded the body as Arx lifted it into the tree, maneuvering it around the branches and dense leaves.
What? I didn’t know he was a unicorn, Blackbird thought as he watched the body rise into the tree. He looked to Arx to try and find the source of the magic. There, on top of his head, clear as day, was a horn. As Blackbird looked longer he noticed something strange, it was curved, ever so slightly. At first glance the bend was unrecognizable but after further inspection, it was unmistakable.
“What’s wrong? Haven’t you ever seen a unicorn lift something before?” Arx asked as he turned to Blackbird and met his stare. Blackbird blinked and craned his head, as if he was trying to look past Arx. Arx looked behind himself. “That storm is really fascinating isn’t it?” He asked sarcastically.
“Oh, sorry, I thought I saw something,” Blackbird said as he looked back at Arx. “I think I'm starting to get paranoid about that search party.”
“Right,” Arx said with an air of disbelief. “We should get back to the cave, I'm starting to get cold.”
Blackbird nodded. “Lead the way.”
Arx trotted past blackbird, and motioned for him to follow. He was relieved to be behind Arx, partially because he could satisfy his curiosity about his horn. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a curved horn before. Is it a genetic defect or did he make it that way? I don’t even remember him having a horn before now, why didn’t I notice it sooner? How did he get up in the mountains anyway, and where did he come from? The questions slowly built upon themselves until Blackbird’s mind was racing with curiosity.
“You’ve been pretty quiet,” Arx said, breaking the silence of the hike. “Is something on your mind?”
Is this stallion some sort of mind reader? Blackbird thought as he realized how many times he had been found out. “Several things are.”
“Well, what would you like to know?” Arx asked as he trotted alongside Blackbird.
“Well, for starters, why are you living in a cave, in the middle of nowhere, on a mountain?” Blackbird asked.
“I can’t tell you too much, but what I can say is that I was like you, running from an Empire.” Arx said.
“What empire?” Blackbird asked as he shook his head, slightly irritated by the ambiguous answer.
“That, I cannot say.”
“Then what can you tell me?” Blackbird asked.
“Nothing you don’t know already.”
“But I don’t know anything!” Blackbird growled through his clenched teeth.
“You know my name, that’s about all you can understand at this point,” Arx said as they rounded the bend toward the cave entrance. “And here we are.”
“That’s convenient,” Blackbird muttered under his breath. As they trotted into the cave Blackbird noticed the Hearth Warming’s eve tale on the wall. “Here’s something that I bet you can answer.”
“Go for it,” Arx said.
“Is this the cave of Hearth’s Warming eve?”
“No, the drawings are my own,” Arx said. He noticed Blackbird’s disappointment as he placed his hoof on the wall. “It serves as a reminder to me of how the world used to work.”
“How so?”
“A century ago, the world worked differently. Ponies trusted each other, they were kind, compassionate.” Arx let out a sigh. “That’s why I came here, but then it changed.”
“Wait, you came to equestria when it was under the twin sister rule?”
“That is another story, for another day. I still remember the day that everything changed. It all started when the Hive rebelled. Within a week I found myself with an identification tag and fences being built around the cities.”
“The Hive?”
“Sorry, The Changeling Empire, I did several years of study into their culture,” Arx rattled off as he turned to Blackbird and looked at his broken wing. “That wing will take a while to heal, and it’s getting late. I have a bed for you.”
“So you have a guest bedroom... in a cave?” Blackbird asked.
“No, but I should. You will sleep in my room, and I will sleep on the floor,” Arx said as the two of them walked into the bedchamber.
Blackbird bit his lip in embarrassment. “I can take the floor, it’s not a problem.”
“On the contrary, what if you roll over onto your wing during the night? That won’t help it one bit. I don’t have a lot of guests up here anyway, and my conscience wouldn’t dare let a guest sleep on the floor. I insist.”
Blackbird nodded and looked at the small room around him. It was barely decorated at all. The walls were bare, not holding any pictures or drawings. The bed was an old worn burlap sack filled with hay. Several patches had been sewn onto is surface from the several years of use it had received. The rest of the furniture appeared to be all hoof made by Arx himself.
“Did you make all of this?” Blackbird asked as he trotted over to the dresser and picked up a small pony figurine.
“Most of it, but not that, it was my mother’s.” Arx said as he watched the stallion lift the figure from the table.
Blackbird gazed in a curious fascination with the elegantly carved piece of wood. The features were rough, but there was something familiar about it. “What is it?”
“It’s what is known as a doll,” Arx said sarcastically.
“I guessed that. What is it for?”
“That is also something I can’t tell you at this time.”
“Figures,” Blackbird said as he placed the doll back on the table. “If it even remotely involves your past, then I can’t know about it.”
“Pretty much. Now let’s get some sleep, we have a busy day tomorrow.” Arx said as he curled up on the floor.
“Really? What are we doing?”
“I don’t know yet, but we will do something.”
Blackbird rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say Arx.” He sat down onto the bed and gingerly laid himself down onto the rough surface. The spines in the hay scratched his coat. I wonder what the floor is like? Blackbird thought as he looked to Arx who was sleeping comfortably on the floor. I don’t want to offend him; I’ll just sleep here for the night. Blackbird slowly closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep. At least I can expect another day tomorrow.