Eclipse's Journey

by Eclipse_filer

Part 3

Part 3

I woke up the next morning to see the yard was vacant. Getting up was bit of a chore, as I still felt a bit weary from being tried.I saw the door was now open and troughed through it thinking “Someone's flank is going to get kicked today.” I entered the front of the motel and marched to the front of desk saying “what the heck is with this place!?” A different clerk was there to greet me this time. She responded in a irritatingly calm voice and said “I sorry you didn't enjoy your stay. But royal policy states you have to stay there.” I yelled back “This is ridiculous, where is is your manager.” In annoyed tone she sighed and stated “Sorry, the managers of our fine establishment don't come in until 8 am. But I own the place so I hope do sir.So believe me when I say, my hooves are tied.” In defeat I nodded as Rain walked up.

She then said “Believe me me when I say ‘I take no pleasure in keeping two lovebirds from each’. It’s a shame, I would have loved to get know you better.” She batted her eyes as if suggesting something to me. Rain then jumped using a little magic to pull me closer to her saying “Too bad, he’s with me.” I was completely lost at what was going on here. The idea of what was going on was eluding me and it was annoying. It almost seemed like two mares was fighting over me. I quickly dismissed the thought as being ridiculous, that doesn’t happen to me ever.Feeling kind of embarrassed I said “Can you give us directions to the castle, I have somethings to talk to Queen Lotus about”. Her eyes open wide in terror like someone had mention the devil himself. With fear spread across her face she yelled “NOOO! YOU MUST NEVER SEE HER!” shaking her head.”Especially day, of all days to see her”. Rain gave me a serious glance and nodded as I said “Did princess lotus do something to you?”. She shook her head again saying “No but she is the reason why our town is suffering.” Rain step in with an inquisitive look asking what she has she done. She sighed and says “A better question is what hasn’t she done.In the years of her rule, that mare has completely near shut down the town’s tourism. The only way for establishments like mine stay open are for people that already live in the town,come in and sleep. Luckily, she increased the working hours so it balanced out a bit. But who wants to work 18 bucking hours a day for the same amount!” I said “So why has nobody tried to stop her.” She responded say ”if any female raised so much as hoof against her, she would either destroy their place of work, with her own hooves in front of them. Or kick them out of the town permanently. For guys...” she shivered for a second. ”For guys, she would be throwing them into a large arena to fight her pet dragon.” I was bewildered at that statement and said “But dragons are not pets. Dragons are citizens too! This is inhumane and terrible.” She sighed then continued “To her all males and other species are either garbage or slaves.” Enraged to the thought of what she was saying, I smacked my hooves together and announced “That does it, her ‘Majesty’ needs a royal beatdown!”

The owner of the motel told them to just head to the oversized castel in the middle of town.It’s really hard to miss.Going outside it was hard to believe we missed, even at night. The outline of the castle was visible from the motel’s door.

The first thing I said was “Well someone has an inferiority complex.The thing is the size of quarter of the town!” Rain nodded and remarked “Remember what we came here for.Grab my employees and head back to Aster, simple.” We started walking towards the ridiculously large building. I responded “Of course, getting back your friends is important.But come on, this isn't right. Stallions are not getting the respect they deserve”. She look over saying “That's all well and good but that's not your fight. The citizens of this town are not weak.If they want to revolt, then let them. You shouldn't make others burdens your own.It's only going to slow you down.” I want say something in return but that was very hard arguments she raised. So I sighed in defeat as we walked to the castle.

20 minutes went by but the towering building didn't seem to get closer.I said “ Is it me or is the castle not moving closer. ”Rain responded saying “Yeah that's weird, But another thing that's odd.The female to male ratio is way lower then it should be. I can't even sense one nearby.” I raised an eyebrow in disbelief stating “Changelings can sense creatures?” In a firm tone, she said “Yes, Changelings learn to sense out other species but them.However, I can't use it to find other Changelings.They don't even register a blip on my radar. ” I said “You know the more and more we talk about lings, the cooler they sound.” She pumped out her chest in pride in saying “Yeah, we are kind of cool like that.”She started to shine her hoof against her chest, like she was shining some invisible medal.

After making it to the castle, for a brief moment we’re in awe at the castle. Rain stammered to say” no...noo creature on terra needs this much space!” Then the shock worn off in a few seconds.Looking at the entrance, there as a couple of mares walking in with one female guard standing there.We follow them but the guard stopped me on the way in.She told me, men to the left side and women go to the right. I thought that was weird and shrugged it off. So and me Rain decide meet up with each other later.

I walked into rather large long hallway to see a giant gladiator arena. There were a few mares in the stands. I could barely see them where I was standing. Suddenly I remembered that clerk lady saying something about staying away from here. Because, the queen would try to feed me to her dragon or something.So I started to walk back the way I came, but then I heard someone yell “This isn’t right!”. I looked back into the arena’s floor and saw the guy I was chatting with last night, laying on the ground.I ran into the arena to see if he was okay while thinking “don’t do something stupid.” He got up and looked at me saying “Well, I guess you had a few choice words for the queen too huh.” I nodded and looked back to the door to see if we still had an escape route.That thought was crushed when I saw a giant gate close behind us. I ran back to see if I could break it down.A voice came from the stands “Don’t waste your time, that gate is magic proof and would take a natural disaster to bust it down.” I looked back at looked at Toka, he shook his head and pointed to the stands. I saw a mare with black hair, red fur, a horn, wings and it seemed like she was disinterested with our situation. She voice boomed saying “If you want talk me, beat my dragon and we will talk. Speaking of Nitro it’s feeding time.” On command an even larger door in front of us opened to reveal a pair of serpent eyes glaring down on us. The first thought that came to mind was “Sweet mabel pancakes! Why did I do something stupid!”

The ground shook with each step as the beast got closer. I was looking around looking for anymore exits in the bottom of the area.That’s a nope, there wasn’t any other ways out. In seconds the dragon was upon us.The dragon’s body colors matched the colors of the queen. Red scales with a jet black under belly, covered his body. His eyes were scarlet red looked at me and Toka. They were so fierce, it felt like he was burning his gaze into my soul.Then he gave a monstrous roared that made all the hair on my body stand up. Without my notice, I started to sweat. Before I started to panic, I remembered “Panic never helps anyone.Stay calm and focus on what's here and what I got. I'm a terra pony and I got a donkey.Were facing a dragon with no tools or weapons and no back up.I don't like these odds.” I yelled “Hey Toka! Can you use magic?” He said “Yes, my family specializes in electric.” I announced “Great, use thunderbolt on the dragon.” He said “My magic does work like that.Beside, magic does next to nothing to dragons at this size! Just tag team with me and will win.”

I nodded while mental thinking “This is BUCKING perfect.Can this day get any worse.” I ran towards the dragon, he tried to swipe at me. I jumped high enough to vault over the claw and make it to the under belly.I gave a few hits it his stomach and it did no effect to him.Nitro reeled back his forepaw and tried to crush me. Toka made to me and grabbing the fist and kept it from hitting me.Then delivered an electric shock from his body. The dragon backed off for a second and breathe a wide spread flame. Seconds before hitting, I thought “if only we have something to protect us.” My arm suddenly tensed and a golden shield appear. I blocked the flames with this magical shield.Me and Toka looked at each other as if reading each other's minds.Toka ran left towards the tail and I throw the shield at his muzzel.It bounce off landing a few feet behind me.I started taunting him saying ”Hey burn out, I think you need to work on your aim. I was right in front of you and you still missed. What your not dragon enough to turn up the heat.” He gave deafening roar before, spewing a more condensed flame as I sprinted to grab the shield and take cover.The flame this time around was more intense; I was sweating bullets from the heat.Toka made it to the tail and grabbed onto the tail and gave an even larger volt of electric. The dragon gave a scream painfully. I thought “alright this is a good start but where is going to hurt the most?” Enraged, he started spin his whole body to try and throw off an unwanted visitors and get me.As he began spin like a top, I noticed the length from he's head to toe was most almost the diameter of the area.So there was no where to dodge.So I did the next best thing and jumped on the tail.Then climb up to the spot on behind his wings.I'm so happy I did eat breakfast or I would be puking now. Nitro stop spinning and took off into the air. He looked back at us and and breathed fire at us. I used the shield to stop it again. Nitro stopped then flew up high and started to circling the arena on his side. I yelled ”you are not throwing us off!” I stuck the shield into his left wing, trying to steer him. But he went into a tailspin.Before he crash into the ground me and Toka jumped off and landed in the stands.Nitro hit the ground head first. His body fell destroying part of the wall into the stands. He flipped his body back into the area on all fours. He looked dizzy and confused both me and Toka jump straight to his. Toka charged his right hoof hitting him in the muzzle and my shield slammed into the same spot as his crash landing. Nitro is was wobbling after the impact, then Nitro fell to the ground unconscious. We landed on the ground and nearly dropped to the ground to from exhaustion. We were trying to catch our breaths and did a hoof bump.

Lotus started clapping her hooves together from our little show. She smile and said ”That was the best fight I seen here in months. Just who are you two?” I relaxed for a second and my weapon disappeared. I yelled in pride “Eclipse Filer, onstage! Helping people and saving lives is what I do.”
Toka said “4th Prince of the Aladunks, Toka Dalelion.I told you that when I got here.” In a non caring voice “You did but I didn’t care. Now since I am a mare of my word, let’s talk.” With her magic she started walking down what look like invisible steps until she was a few feet away from us.

Toka said “Well, first I came here with with hopes of starting a partnership between our lands.But I must ask, what's with the way you govern your citizens?” She gave a confused look said “The men in general in my eyes.They worth less than the ground you're standing on.About how much are females are in your kingdom?” He looked confused and said “50-50, I guess. I have never paid much attention to which gender had more members. I'm more concerned with my nation's state of affairs. As a whole, my nation is on a decline from lack of supplies.” Lotus replied with “I suppose that would do.If you work under me as my slave, your nation will have my protection and support.From what I hear donkeys stronger than ponies.They're suppose to be stronger than terra ponies. I suppose,I can use them for manual labor.So what do you think, Failure Prince of Aladonk.” Before his response a guards in the stands were running after two wolves and a pony with a large flank.The guards yelled “By the order of our queen Crimson Lotus.I command you to halt!”. My eyes darted back to the queen.Her eyes were gray and soulless. She saw what was going on in the stands.Then looked back at us with disdain and anger “YOU WREATHED FILTH! How dare you try and steal my slaves.” All I could say was “*sigh* pancakes.” She then shot out a large energy blast coming at both of us.Hoping for another miracle from my unknown bag of tricks; I put up my hooves and thought “Please tell me I have a big flanked shield to protect us from this.” Then a shield 10 times the size of the first one appeared.It managed to block the attack.The shield disappear with most of my remaining strength. I grabbed Toka's hood telling him we got to run. We were started running for our lives while dodging energy blasts.

After somehow evading, Lotus and the female guardsmen. We took a minute to relax. Toka said “What the buck was that.”I sounded like a child caught in a lie saying “Well, I may have lied about why me and my girlfriend are here. For starters she is not my girlfriend, she's a client.Next,we were here to find her friends and get them back; excuse me, employees.” He said “So you two thought it was a good idea to take them in the middle of our fight with the dragon.” I replied saying “Don't pin this on me.I didn't know they were in the arena.Let alone know about them being slaves.Look after we find my client, we can hightail it out the town.” From within the nearby shadows appeared two dark creatures clad in a long hoods matching they crept in.In seconds knocked us out cold before we could even move.Then dragged our unconscious bodies into shadows.