By early sunrise Eclipse was awoken by a cawing rooster. He had slept great in the comfy bed and was ready to go looking for Twilight, after breakfast of course. He rolled clumsily out of bed and moved towards the door at a sluggish pace, he had yet to fully wake up and was still half dreaming.
As he walked into the kitchen Fluttershy gave out a yell and scared Eclipse half to death.
“What is it? Is something wrong?” he frantically questioned.
“Y-Your wings! They’re gray!” She blurted out.
Eclipse looked at his wings with extreme surprise to find that they were in fact gray. Upon trying to move them he also found that they were ,not surprisingly, immovable. The wings didn’t feel heavy or anything, but upon touching them he was startled to find that they felt like rock. He felt like panicking but somehow managed to keep himself calm.
“Well that’s not good” he said, with a frown on his face.
“Not good? It’s horrible and now you can’t fly!” replied Flutterhy.
“I can’t think of how this happened. The only explanation can be magic” he said, “And if there’s one pony I’ve heard is good with magic it’s Twilight, so now I have even more the reason to find her.”
“I suppose so, I really hope Twilight can fix your wings when you find her” said Fluttershy. She was actually more concerned about Eclipses wings than he was. Eclipse enjoyed flying, but he decided that it was something that, if completely necessary, he could live without. Besides he always had magic to learn. There was also plenty of time for him to go looking for a cure; he didn’t exactly have plans after finding Twilight.
“Lets set my wings aside and eat some breakfast” Eclipse said cheerfully, trying to keep Fluttershy from worrying about him too much.
“If you’re this calm about your wings I suppose I should try and be little calm about it. After all I’m sure you’re right and you’ll find a cure somehow” she replied.
“Now that that’s solved how about some breakfast?” asked Eclipse.
“Seeing as we didn’t eat the apple pie yesterday I figured we would eat that, I mean if that’s ok with you. I can always make something else if you don’t want apple pie.” said Fluttershy.
“Apple pie sounds perfect!” Eclipse responded quickly.
Fluttershy went to the counter and retrieved the apple pie for the two of them to eat. After they finished breakfast Eclipse decided that it was about time for him to go off and hunt for Twilight again.
He said his thanks and goodbyes and was on his way to the Everfree Forest once again. Although he had to walk this time he wasn’t depressed by his inability to fly. Equestria was a beautiful place and he didn’t mind getting a close up view of everything. The landscape seemed so bright and alive. All the grass was a rich green and grew in abundance everywhere, there were no barren spots. He walked along a dirt path that Fluttershy had said led to the Everfree Forest for roughly two hours when the ominous trees of the forest finally loomed on the horizon.
He slightly disliked the idea that he could cover the distance that took two hours to walk in fifteen minutes when flying. That dislike was pushed away though by the richness of the landscapes scenery that more than made up for the monotony of a long trip. Eclipse loved flying; it had a thrill to it. Being suspended in air hundreds of feet above the ground had a certain adrenaline filled pleasure. But even though he loved flying, walking through the countryside had him feeling more at home. It could get cold whilst flying, but down on the road there was always the warmth of the sun to keep him warm and a light breeze to keep it from getting hot.
Both walking and flying in Equestria were breathtaking experiences and had their pros and cons. Eclipse preferred walking now that he had tried it.
He was now standing at the edge of the Everfree Forest, ready to go in.
Back again he thought today is the day I find Twilight! Two experiences in the Everfree Forest had taught Eclipse quite a bit about it. He knew that most of the scary things in the forest were merely his thoughts making him nervous and causing him to see things in the dark that weren't actually there.
Now that he knew where to start looking Eclipse was positive that today would be the day he finally found Twilight and brought her back to Ponyville! With a determined look on his face he trotted into the forest and headed due east towards the ruins. This time eclipse used the occasional gap in the foliage above to see the position in the sun and determine if he was headed east or not. He did not run into Zecora this time and made it to a bridge that crossed a canyon to the side of the forest with the ruins.
Strange he thought There was no canyon last time I went to the ruins. There was a moderately large dip in the ground at one point though; I guess I went nearly around the canyon last time.
The bridge looked old, but it also looked strong and eclipse had no doubt that it would support him. He walked across the mist shrouded bridge and found that the forest in this area was slightly less dense. He had only taken about ten steps into the forest when something ahead caught his eye. It was something odd that didn't quite fit in. A ways ahead he could see a gray shape. It could have been a piece of the ruins but that was impossible. The ruins were a mile or two up ahead, there was no way it could have been a piece of them.
There was a blur of white and green in front of the rock looking thing and Eclipse quickly hid behind a bush. He sat in the bush for a few minutes and waited to see if there would be more movement in the area up ahead. He was patient while waiting to see if the coast was clear. After all, he didn't like the idea of some kind of monster lurking this deep in the Everfree Forest. Up until now he had thought nothing but the occasional bird or bunny lived in the woods, but he must have been wrong because he definitely saw something bigger than a bunny or a bird up there. He waited for a few more minutes, his eyes scanning ahead to check for movement, until he finally decided to start moving up a bit more. To avoid being seen he moved wraithlike from bush to bush until he could easily manage to make out the form of the object he had seen earlier. It looked to be a statue of a pony, and by the curves and proportions he judged that whoever made it had to be a skilled craftspony.
What could something like that be doing in the middle of Everfree Forest though? he thought.
Slowly, he crept closer to the statue until he was no more than twenty feet away. Concealed behind the bush he was sure that nothing could see him. Biding his time he waited for another five minutes. The entire time his keen sense of hearing and sharp eyes scanned the area for any kind of noise or movement. Other than the occasional chirping bird or squirrel running through the trees there was nothing.
Reasoning that whatever he had seen was now gone he slowly rose from behind the bush and made his way to the statue to get a close look at it. It was definitely a pony and it looked like it had been crafted in enormous detail. Upon looking around it he found that there was a small imprint of a star cutie mark with more star imprints on it. Wait a second. Star imprint cutie mark? He looked at the hair and noticed that there was a slightly off color line running down the pony's mane.
Now he realized it! This pony statue wasn't a statue! It was Twilight! It looked as if something had turned her to stone.
Eclipse wondered if whatever it was that had turned her to stone was the same thing that had turned his wings to what seemed to be stone. But when he thought about it his wings were the only thing that had been turned to stone and twilight was entirely turned to stone. Also, his wings were light gray and mottled with dark gray spots whereas Twilight was mostly one solid color.
Eclipse wasn’t sure what to do about the situation, Twilight was the pony he was going to get to help him with the turned to stone problem, but now she herself was stone. Eclipse thought for a minute and decided the only thing he could do was go back into town and ask if anyone there knew how to break whatever spell had been cast on Twilight.
As he turned around to start heading back Eclipse found himself looking at a small creature. The creature had been very silent in its movements, as Eclipse didn't hear him coming at all. The creature looked like a chicken with a lizard tail and red eyes. It stood about the same height as a chicken, overall was not an impressive sight.
What Eclipse didn’t know was that this seemingly harmless creature was actually a cockatrice. The small beast that was in front of him had the power to turn him into stone and he didn’t even know it.
“Shoo, get going little creature.” Eclipse said, waving his hoof at it.
The cockatrice stood unmoving in front of Eclipse, anger apparent in its red eyes.
“…Go on, get moving, get.” said Eclipse becoming slightly bothered by the cockatrice.
Then without warning Eclipse caught the cockatrices eyes and they flared bright red. Eclipse felt as if he had been paralyzed. He struggled to move but couldn’t. Then realization dawned on him. This was the cockatrice Zecora had warned him of. He struggled to try and move his body but nothing worked, it was as if his muscles had been frozen solid.
Then there was a tingling sensation in his legs and he managed, with much effort, to turn his head and see that his back legs were slowly turning to stone. It was as if there was stone crawling up his leg and solidifying it and Eclipse could feel a lump of fear rise in his throat as fear gripped him. He realized that if he were turned to stone here there would be nopony to come looking for him. Even if another pony happened to come looking for Twilight and managed to stumble upon the two statues chances are they would recognize Eclipse and choose to leave him there. The more Eclipse thought about it the more he began to panic. The fear of an eternity of being trapped in stone was too much for him to handle.
The stone was engulfing his body at a quicker pace than it had originally begun. Almost half of Eclipse’s body was now stone and his front legs were starting to turn to stone too. He knew he would soon be turned to stone and that he might never wake up from it ever again.
Eclipse thought back on his time in Ponyville. He remembered Pinkie Pie and how kind she had been to him, she was the first pony he met and he knew he would never get to see her again. She had been so nice as to go out of her way to make a cake for him. She had also taught him how hard a first impression could impact somepony. If it weren’t for Pinkie he might never have met any of the other ponies he did. He was grateful for what she had done for him and again a lump came to his throat knowing that he would never again get to see Pinkie. Never again would he get to taste her food or ever talk to her. He would be gone from her life and she would wonder what happened to Eclipse from time to time, but she would never find out that he had been turned to stone and was to remain so forever.
Then there was Fluttershy, the other pony that had truly shown him kindness. He hoped that she wouldn’t be too sad about his disappearance. Maybe she would forget about him with time, along with the rest of Equestria. Despite being scared of Eclipse she gave him a place to stay and food to eat. She didn’t have to do those things but she was kind and felt obligated to do so. Eclipse wished he could visit Fluttershy again and tell her goodbye. Maybe even to taste the stew she had made again and visit her house once more.
The rock was now past most of Eclipses torso and he knew that there wasn’t much time left before he would be gone forever. Tears came to his eyes as he thought about his short time in Equestria and how much he had enjoyed it.
There had also been Rainbow Dash. Eclipse liked Rainbow, she shared his fondness of flying and adventure. The race they had was exciting and Eclipse would have liked to race her more and maybe beat her, but there would be no chance for that. He was sure Rainbow hated him for hurting the other pony anyways and he was certain that she would not miss him. That was good, the less pain he caused to others, the better.
Half of his neck was now turned to stone and there was no time left. He thought his goodbyes to everypony and the stone covered his head. After that, darkness.