The Forgotten King

by Ghost Writer

Losing control

As soon as the trio entered Ponyville three ponies stepped in their way. The middle of the three took a step forward and spoke.

"Twilight, Rarity, I'm glad to see your safe and were happy to have you back but we can't let that blue alicorn in. He's dangerous." the pony said.

"Dangerous?" gasped Twilight, "What are you talking about?"

"He kidnapped you and now you’re protecting him?" asked the pony.

"No no no. You've got it all wrong, I was never kidnapped by anypony."

"But you left without any signs and you were gone for several days"

"I went into the Everfree Forest to collect some herbs I needed and got turned to stone by a cockatrice"

More ponies had now come to see what all the commotion was about. Many of them had distasteful looks on their faces when they recognized Eclipse.

"You got turned to stone by a cockatrice and that alicorn somehow knew how to free you from the spell? How do we know he didn't make the cockatrice turn you to stone?"

Now Rarity stepped in, anger apparent in her voice, "Oh will you look at Eclipse! Does he look like he just walked into Everfree Forest and easily found and rescued Twilight? NO! Look at him! He lost his horn and nearly an eye to save Twilight and clear his name for you all and now you want to say that he's plotting this all?" she said, glancing balefully at the ponies gathered round.

None of the ponies she looked at could hold her gaze for more than a second. Their eyes slid to the ground one by one as they realized how awfully rude they had been towards Eclipse based on the assumption snips had given them.

"You should be ashamed of yourselves for trying to put the blame on Eclipse. After all did any of you try to go looking for Twilight?" said Rarity.

"Nicely done" added Twilight.

The leader now had his eyes down and was pawing at the ground, "Well" he said, "I guess we didn't, but we thought you would return soon and we were all scared of Everfree Forest"

"I think you owe Eclipse an apology" said Rarity.

"Sorry we blamed you Eclipse" the ponies muttered, still not willing to look up.

“Hmph” snorted Rarity as she walked by the ponies with her head held high.

Eclipse and Twilight followed closely behind her.

Eventually they came to a fork in the road and Twilight and Rarity both went in different directions. Eclipse just stood there, not knowing which one to follow. Twilight and Rarity both stopped and looked back simultaneously and realized what Eclipse was thinking.

“Its fine, just head over with Rarities and get cleaned up. You can spend the night there and meet me at my house tomorrow morning.” said Twilight.

“Alright” Eclipse replied as he turned and started heading down the path towards Rarity.

She led the way down the path, through a few turns, and in no time Eclipse found himself at Rarity’s house.

“This is it” commented Rarity.

“It’s a really nice place” Eclipse replied.

“Oh it’s not that amazing, come inside though”

“Alright, coming” he said.

As he walked through the door Eclipse found that it wasn’t just Rarity’s house it was also the shop where she made dresses.

“Don’t mind the mess, I keep everything everywhere. It’s where my ideas and such come from.” said Rarity when she noticed Eclipse taking a look around. “Now that we’re here it’s about time we got you cleaned up” Smiled Rarity.

“A bath sounds perfect just about now, it’ll definitely help ease the soreness that tree gave me.” replied Eclipse.

Rarity escorted Eclipse through the jumble to a small bathroom with a tub. She turned on the water and grabbed a towel from the floor, “Let me get you a clean towel. Like I said I keep my stuff lying around, motivation and all.” She smiled as she went off to fetch a clean towel. Within a few moments Rarity was back and threw the fresh, white towel over the rack.

“I’ll leave you to it then” said Rarity as she turned around and left the room.

Eclipse turned towards the tub and joyfully splashed into it. The water was hot, but not painfully hot. He relaxed as the warmness of the water seemed to soak through his aching muscles. After getting injured and spending the night crumpled up on a dirt floor some relief was magnificent.

Eclipse enjoyed his bath and dried off with the towel Rarity had given him. While drying his face he nearly ripped a hole in the towel with his splintered horn. It brought back the memory that he could no longer use magic, it wasn’t a nice thing but what’s done is done, nothing to do about it now.

Rarity was waiting in the kitchen when Eclipse went to look for her.

"I made us some dandelion sandwiches; I figured you must be hungry."

"Wow, Thanks! I'm starved actually." Eclipse replied. He hurried to the table and took the seat in the chair opposite Rarity.

"Bon appetite." said Rarity as she used magic to pick up her sandwich and slide Eclipse's plate to him at the same time.

Eclipse leaned down and took a bite of the sandwich, which was great. It only took a few minutes for the two of them to finish their food.

Rarity got up from her seat and let out a long yawn, "I don't know about you but I'm tired and I think it's about time I retired to my bed. Spending all night in the filth and muck of Everfree Forest and trekking through the forest all day has left me exhausted." said Rarity, "But where are my manners? I really should show you to your room shouldn’t I? If you’ll just follow me” said Rarity.

Eclipse followed Rarity to two doors positioned next to each other.

“The one of the left is yours, and the one on the right is mine. I would show you your room but I’m dreadfully tired and I’m sure you’ll sleep soundly soooo, night!” said Rarity as she moved herself into her room and shut the door with magic.

Eclipse opened the door and walked into his room. It was nice and had a very elegant touch to it, but it wasn’t quite as homely as Fluttershy’s guest room had been. Eclipse, like Rarity, was tired and headed straight for bed. He rolled himself into the covers and was sound asleep within the minute.

BUMP! Eclipse awoke with a start when he heard the noise. What could it have been? He gingerly stepped out of bed and walked over to the door to creak it open a hair. He looked through the slit and saw Rarity. She looked to be in pain but kept silent. She was also holding one hoof in the air. Apparently she had hit her hoof on the door to her room when she went through, which in turn caused the bump that woke Eclipse.

“That’s odd, where could Rarity be going in the middle of the night?” Eclipse whispered to himself. He waited a minute until Rarity moved farther down the hallway. He eased the door open and tiphooved down the hallway after he heard Rarity leave through the front door. He went to the front door and looked through some of the windows to see if Rarity hadn’t stopped in front of the door or anything. She hadn’t.

Eclipse went out the front door, careful to let it close quietly on his way out. He saw Rarity a bit down the road and used his nightly colors to ghost from shadow to shadow unseen.

Spying on Rarity after she offered to house me seems a bit rude he thought but no harm in doing a bit of discovering if she doesn’t see me.

Rarity followed the same path for a minute or two and took a turn into a field. She went to the middle of the field and sat down on her haunches.

Oh, she’s just stargazing…..FASCINATING! I think I’ll join her. Never really had a chance to take a good long look at the stars thought Eclipse.

He strode over to Rarity and cleared his throat when he noticed that she hadn’t seen him walk up to her.

“OH! Good heavens you scared the life out of me!” said Rarity, surprise evident in her voice.

“Ahh sorry, heard you get up and followed you out here” replied Eclipse.

“It’s really hard to see you in the night you know, you blend in with the shadows almost seamlessly.”

“Good to know” said Eclipse “Mind if I join you stargazing?”

“Sure, I don’t mind”

Eclipse took a seat next to Rarity and lay back with his hooves behind his head.

“I come out her because the stars are beautiful out here. They remind me of thousands of gleaming gems and I often get ideas for new dresses when I’m out here” said Rarity.

“That’s pretty cool” said Eclipse as he looked up at the stars.

He looked into all the stars long and hard, he was talking it all in. The stars were mesmerizing; it felt like Eclipse couldn’t look away. His heart was starting to beat faster and he felt as if the weight of the stars were pushing down on him.

“Are you ok?” gasped Rarity when she noticed that he had was drawing in short ragged breaths.

“I…..don’t…..know……what’s happening……to..me” Eclipse struggled to say “Get……help”

Rarity wasn’t sure what to do. She didn’t know who could help with something like this.

“Get…Twilight” Eclipse managed through gritted teeth.

Rarity dashed off towards Twilight to seek help.

Eclipse felt like he was being crushed, he could hardly breathe and he struggled to keep his composure. It was like there was an invisible hand grabbing him and crushing the life out of him. Then suddenly a star in the sky winked twice and went black. Then two more did the same thing and each time Eclipse felt the icy grip of whatever had him bound fade. After three stars had gone out he felt the binding release. He stood up, his heart still pounding like a drum and his breathing still heavy.

He felt angry, not a normal kind of an angry. It was primal. He felt rage at everything around him and felt he needed to get revenge on something. His anger was boiling like lava and he felt as if he was about to explode. He wanted to scream. He stomped his hoof on the ground as hard as he could on the ground, shaking the dew off the nearby trees. He walked up to the tree and turned around. Then he kicked the tree as hard as he could, leaving hoof prints indented an inch deep in the trunk of the tree. This caused the tree to shake violently and an apple fell out, landing squarely on his head.

He screamed in blind fury and kicked several times at the tree. The tree was starting to lean sideways as the force of the blows pulled its root system out of the ground one kick at a time. Finally the trunk gave way and the tree made a loud cracking noise as it fell over.

Eclipse was now seeking something new to destroy. He turned his sights toward the fence leading around the field. He spread his wings and used one long gliding leap to land by the fence. He systematically kicked each of the fence posts out of the ground; his powerful kicks easily ripping the posts from the ground and sending the splintered wood flying across the road.

The rage he was feeling seemed to be building up more and more. He felt like destroying things, but doing so didn’t help quell his rage. He spread his wings and was up in the air with a great push off the ground. He got high in the air and took a look around. He wanted to head towards Ponyville and wreck havoc but his inner self forced him to turn and fly the other way. He was enraged by something and felt the need to destroy, but deep inside he stopped himself from going to Ponyville.