Solar Eclipse: The Watcher

by The Lunar Samurai

The Flames

Blackbird and Arx sat close to the fire. The flames that had once crept up the sides of the black kettle had turned into mere embers among the ashes. As they had diminished, the pair had slowly edged closer to the source.

“Wow, where did the fire run off to?” Blackbird quipped as he tried to revive the miniscule embers with the poker.

“It has been so long since it’s gotten this low. I was so enraptured in our conversation that I forgot to toss a log on. Be a good guest and go grab some wood from the pile in the corner.”

“What pile in the corner?” Blackbird asked as he rose to his hooves and walked over to where the pile should rest.. “Nothing here but air.”

“Rats,” Arx said as he stood. “There is another pile, but it’s outside the cave.”

“And by that you mean you want me to go grab some, right?”

“Precisely. Off you go,” Arx said in a chipper tone. It was obvious he was enjoying his company a little too much.

“You do realize I’m not your slave,” Blackbird said as he walked toward the entrance.

“But you are indebted to me. After all, I saved your life,” Arx said as he looked to Blackbird. “And I feel like I have saved something much larger than a single soul as well.”

Blackbird silently nodded before stepping toward the world outside. As he made his way through the small caves toward the entrance he paused as he passed the drawing of hearths warming eve. The crude drawings still echoed their message of hope through his mind.

“Now lets see what’s in this cave," said a voice that echoed off of the cave walls.

Blackbird froze. Is that the search party? He thought as his eyes darted across the dark walls of the room. The shadows of two pegasi flickered against the rock, creating looming figures of impending doom before him. Blackbird quickly spun around and raced back toward Arx.

“What was that?” asked the voice, growing fainter as Blackbird rushed toward the depths of the cave.

I have to warn Arx. Blackbird thought, his mind racing as fast as his legs. I can’t let them find me.

---

“Lightning, you’re just hearing things,” Chief said as he set the small torch he had fashioned next to the wall of the cave. “We’ll take shifts keeping watch for our comrades.”

“Alright, they shouldn’t be too long.” Lightning said as he walked to the entrance and leaned against the wall. “Can you get a fire going?”

“Way ahead of you,” The Chief said as he bathed the pile of kindling before him with sparks from his flint. The dry wood quickly caught fire and began to radiate its heat and light through the cave. As the room lit up Lightning nonchalantly looked around at the cave.

“Chief, the wall,” Lightning said as he pointed toward the flat rock behind the other pegasus.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” The chief muttered in awe as he looked at the chalk drawing on the wall. “Do you know what this means?” he asked as he turned to Lightning. “This is the cave.”

Lightning stood awestruck before the drawings of the story of hearth’s warming eve. “What do we do?” he asked after several minutes of silence.

“We report to the princess, no doubt she will want to make it an attraction,” the chief said as he turned to look at the blizzard outside. “And look who decided to show up to the party!” he shouted to the two figures struggling against the blizzard. His voice was loud enough to carry through the storm, and as soon as he said the words the two figures’ ears perked up.

“Chief!” One of them shouted, his voice just a whisper against the noise of the wind. “We found Charlie Squadron’s captain.”

“Bring him in!” Lightning yelled as Jet Stream and Snowstorm trotted into the cave.

“That’s the problem,” Jet Stream said as he turned to the Chief. “The captain is dead.”

“We found him entangled in the branches of a tree," Snowstorm said as he reached into the tactical belt on his forearm and withdrew a worn lanyard. At its clip hung the captain’s tag, torn and mangled from the collision. “Here’s his tag.”

The Chief stood in silence for a moment before taking the tag from Snowstorm. “I was his wing pony at the Wonderbolt Academy.” He let out a deep sigh. “I never would have thought he would die like this.” He draped the tag over his neck and let it rest against his own. “Now that we are all here, lets try and get some rest. Tomorrow we head back to Canterlot to report our findings. Needless to say, she will not be in the best of spirits when she hears that the Observer is still on the loose.”

“Do we have any good news to report?” Jet Stream asked. “It seems like when she gets only bad news, the rations get tighter.”

“As a matter of fact, we do. Its right behind you.” Lightning said as he pointed to the chalk mural. “Welcome to the very cave where the three races unified to form our great nation.”

“How is this good news?” Snowstorm asked as he walked over to the mural and rubbed the chalk lines. “The princess…” He bit his lip.

“The princess what?” The chief asked as he turned to Snowstorm.

“I feel like the death of Charlie Squadron’s Captain will be too great a loss to validate it with a mural in a cave.” Snowstorm said as he trotted to the fire and curled up beside it.

“Yeah, the observer is the real threat to the empire, and he’s still out there, somewhere.” The chief said as he placed a log on the fire and lay down beside the flames. The others sat next to the fire and warmed themselves before falling asleep for the night.

---

“Arx!” Blackbird whispered harshly into the darkness. “They’re here.”

“Who? The search party?” Arx asked as he looked up from the fire.

“Yeah, I don’t think they heard me, but they are in the entrance of the cave.”

Arx took a taste of the soup and looked to blackbird. “How many were there?”

“I only heard two.” Blackbird said.

Arx raced to his room and withdrew a long black cloak. “We may be able to sneak out. I’ve dealt with the empire enough to know they will search everything within an inch of its life, especially a cave like this one.” Arx tightened the string on his cloak and pulled the hood over his head. “Grab everything you need. We may not be coming back.”

Without skipping a beat, Blackbird raced to the table and grabbed the invaluable rolls of film, stashing them in his vest pocket. “Where will we go?”

“Into the wilderness. Grab my flint, it will prove to be invaluable.”

Blackbird grabbed the small stone from the shelf. “What else?”

“Take one of the shards of glass and cut your leg with it, dump all of the camera’s remains onto the floor, and smear your blood on the ground,” Arx said as he gestured to the crippled camera on the table.

“You want me to do what?” Blackbird asked with a cocked eyebrow.

Arx trotted over to the table and snatched a long shard of glass from the pile of debris. He quickly skirted to Blackbird’s side and swiped at his leg, causing a long spindly trickle of blood to form.

“What was that for?” Blackbird yelled as he clutched his wound.

Arx trotted to the table and shoved the camera to the ground. “An excuse.” He said as he waved Blackbirds hoof away and began to smear the blood on the ground. “The simplest answer is usually the right one, but the more complicated reality becomes, the less chance it has of being discovered.”

“And what are you trying to get them to believe?”

“That I killed you,” Arx said nonchalantly as he looked to Blackbird and smirked. “That would be the simplest explanation, would it not?”

“I guess it would,” Blackbird muttered as he kept his eyes off of the shattered camera.

“Now lets get out of here,” Arx said as he pulled the hood of his cloak and skulked into the darkness. “Stick to the shadows and follow my lead.” Blackbird nodded and quickly followed behind Arx into the walls. Arx trotted to the bend and peeked around the corner to attempt to spot the intruders. Once he was sure the coast was clear, he hugged the wall and motioned for blackbird to follow him around the corner. It took several minutes for the two of them to reach the entrance to the cave.

‘There they are’ Arx seemed to motion as he pulled himself back into the shadows. He held up his hoof and drew the number four into the air. He shook his head in dismay. Their path was blocked.

‘Can we sneak past them?’ Blackbird mouthed to Arx as he snuck a peek at the four sleeping guards. Arx shook his head and scratched his chin with his hoof. Slowly a glimmer shone in his eye as an idea began to form in his mind. He reached into his cloak’s pocket and withdrew a small lump of shimmering sand. He closed his eyes and calmed his nerves before taking aim at the pile of embers the squadron surrounded.

Blackbird bit his lip. This had better work, he thought as he watched Arx gracefully toss the powder into the air. As it traveled it cast small flecks of sliver in an arching tail behind the main clump of grey powder that careened toward the fire pit. A violent report and blinding flash lit up the cave and awoke the guards. Arx quickly pulled himself against the wall and pressed Blackbird to the rocks, shielding Blackbird’s eyes and his own.

A violent agonizing scream erupted from one of the guards as the powder that had rested on him ignited and began to burn his coat. His comrades were on him in seconds, trying to extinguish the flecks of heated metal on their friend.

Arx grabbed Blackbird’s neck and whispered sharply in his ear. “Let’s get out of here.” Without a second thought, the two of them bolted from the shadows and raced toward the entrance. Arx tossed another cloud of sand behind his head as the guards realized somepony had skirted behind them. The powder erupted in a cloud of light and smoke as the mass contacted the flames. Arx and Blackbird galloped into the dwindling blizzard under the cover of the violent explosion.

Guided only by instinct, Arx darted through the snow. Blackbird barely managed to keep up by using his good wing to give himself a boost through the depression that Arx was plowing before him. They darted through a thicket of briars and slowed to a stop when they could no longer hear the fearful and angry shouts of the guards.

“Keep your head down.” Arx whispered as he shoved Blackbird’s head into the snow.

“How long do we have to wait here?” Blackbird asked, his words muffled by the snow.

“Until they’re gone.”

“That could be ages.”

“Then it looks like we’re going to be here a while.” Arx said as he pulled Blackbird’s head from the snow. “Build a fire, we are going to need some warmth out here.”

“But won’t that bring the guards right to us?”

“Irrelevant, bring me some small kindling.”

Blackbird carefully walked up to the dead briars before him and snapped several small branches off of its spindly stalk. “How about these?” He asked as he placed the small pile of kindling before Arx.
“Excellent.” He said as he pulled the flint from his cloak pocket and struggled to bring a flame to the pile. Finally, the small flames illuminated the two ponies as the snow began to pick up once more.