Luna, Celestia and Eclipse all sat together in an otherwise empty conference room. Luna and Eclipse sat at one end of the table while Celestia sat at the other. Both sides seemed to have resigned to frustrated glaring for the moment, both refusing to budge from their respective positions. Finally, Luna too a deep breath and leaned forward, a shadow falling over her face and intensifying her angry expression.
"Well, sister? It would appear that your 'necessary' plan has failed. Your supposed 'next Scribe of Legends' has turned his back on Equestria and on the two of us. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"
Celestia leaned forward, her face terse and unflinching.
"Pennington said that he has been declared the NEW Scribe, whatever that distinction means. Either way, the Scribe is here and alive. I remain confident that in Equestria's greatest need, he'll rise to the occasion!" Celestia leaned forward to match her sister. "I stand by my decision. The Guardian Spirits exist, Luna, and they've been reborn! That means calamity is unequivocally about to strike-"
"WAKE UP, Celestia!" Luna slammed her hoof on the table, sliding her letter across the table. "You- WE- took it upon ourselves to sacrifice a pony for the 'greater good' and were found out for it! It was wrong, morally, philosophically, on every level I can think of!"
"Not to mention that Pennington Inkwell is Scorching Quill." Eclipse leaned in beside Luna. "At the absolute least, you asked me to be your adviser because of my perspective. All it would take is one letter, one manifesto arriving at his publisher's door, and Pennington Inkwell could drag BOTH of you through the mud! He could destroy the trust every pony in Equestria places in you!" When Celestia's only acknowledgement was a short flickering of her eyes to the side, Eclipse snapped his fingers, disappearing from Luna's side and reappearing behind Celestia, dressed in a judge's robe and oversized curly wig. With a surly frown, he slammed a comically oversized gavel down on the table. Taken by surprise, Celestia jumped slightly in place and turned in her chair with reproach on her lips, but was instantly shut down by Eclipse leaning close enough for their noses to touch and staring straight into her eyes.
"Celestia, if the electorate learns about this, it will be proper grounds for them to demand that you and Luna abdicate."
Celestia's eyes widened and turned back to Luna, who gave only a grim nod. "Sister, do you not even feel bad for what you've done? What you tried to do?"
Celestia's expression instantly transformed, horrified at Luna's inquiry. "Of COURSE I do! Luna, you think that this didn't weigh on my conscience? Do you think I slept EASY knowing that four of my subjects would have to go through that? Every one of our little ponies is PRECIOUS to me!" Celestia laid one forehoof on the table and settled her chin on top of it before letting out a dejected sigh. "But it IS their destinies, whether I lead them to it or not. Is it better to take the active role in the revival of the Guardians and assure that they return safely before whatever was hunting Quill and Threadmane gets to them, or to do nothing and risk the lives of many, many more ponies by once again taking the passive role in Equestria's safety? Wouldn't that be on my conscience knowing I could have brought the guardians back sooner and prevented it?"
"If not sacrificing four of our subjects results in more being put in danger, then that is the fault of whatever caused that danger, not your own! But what we did to Pennington, what you seem to still be planning to do to three more ponies, is on OUR consciences! We are the direct cause!" Luna pounded her hoof against the table to punctuate her point.
There was a brief moment of silence between the two of them, and Eclipse took this moment to pause and tap his chin with a soft hum. "Hm. Reminds me of an old kirin expression: 'Calling the boulder.'"
Both princesses turned to the draconequus. Eclipse stared back, still tapping his chin.
"What?"
"Would you care to explain that expression to us, Eclipse?"
"Oh! Well, in a nutshell..." Eclipse reached into the pocket of his judge's robes, producing a large walnut. With a grin, he brought the gavel down on top of it, shattering the nut and sending pieces flying across the room. The pieces all evaporated into a glowing white smoke that floated into the air and formed glowing shapes.
"A kirin is climbing to the top of a cursed mountain, one said to exact a toll from every traveler that dares try to prove themselves greater than nature." The shapes changed accordingly, forming an unfamiliar puppet of a creature (which both princesses could only assume was a kirin) and a grand-looking mountain peak. The figure began traveling up the side of the mountain, slowly making its way towards the peak. "They climb higher and higher, until they almost reach the top, when they notice a large boulder get knocked lose by a roosting bird." The smoke began to spread wider and form into small bunches of identical shapes to the travelling kirin. Five of them bunched together in a small group while a sixth stayed a short distance away, solitary.
"Looking down the mountain, the kirin realizes that if left unchecked, the boulder would kill five of their fellows, squashing them to a pulp! From their place at the top of the mountain, they could certainly catch up to the boulder, but not stop it..." The remainder of the "mountain" bunched itself into a ball and began to advance on the five figures while the weary traveler sprinted alongside it. Everything began to slow and finally came to a stop, the stage set. "The traveler could push the boulder off-course, but it would certainly kill one other unsuspecting kirin! So, the question was whether to let the five die of nature's wrath or interfere and kill the one for the sake of the many?"
Both princesses stared at the scenario, then back at the draconequus. His silly costume and gavel were gone as he settled into a chair at the midpoint between them. With a wave of his hand, the illustration dissolved away.
"Well, it's just an old story... A folk tale, really."
"Hey, wait! How does it end?" Luna cried.
"What did they choose? What's the moral of the story?" Celestia added, equally frantic.
Eclipse chuckled and shrugged his shoulders.
"Kirins weren't exactly fans of beginnings, middles and endings like you ponies are. More often than not, the ending is left to the imagination, or made up on the spot. The moral, though..." his face turned dower as he trailed off. He stopped to look each princess in the eye with his piercing blue gaze.
"It was never tied to the CHOICE! The moral is that the mountain always gets its due. Both options are of unbearable weight and deadly cost. Acting beyond the bounds of one's understanding, fighting the natural order... It would have been better if the kirin had never climbed the mountain and brought that wrath down."
Luna and Celestia looked at one another, both puzzled by the answer. Eclipse sighed and shook his head in defeat.
"Look, if you don't get it: you shouldn't have started climbing this mountain, especially without understanding the full repercussions. But now you're here and the boulder is rolling too fast for you to stop. You made one choice with Pennington and you felt the cost it exacted from both of you..." he pointed to the tabletop, where both letters lay.
"Three more guardians. Three more vessels. Three more choices..." Eclipse sighed, shaking his head. "Three more dues to pay the mountain... You went around calling down boulders."
Luna fell silent, but Celestia mustered up yet another question to stop silence from falling.
"Eclipse, draconequii were guardian spirits of the kirin race, correct? You had a deep connection to the land in your home?"
Eclipse sighed, and Luna could tell that the question had pained him, but he nodded.
"Do you... feel anything coming? Here, I mean? Any idea what kind of calamity we could be facing that would bring Equestria's guardians back?"
Eclipse shook his head, not even needing time to ponder the question. Luna supposed that it was a good question. They had been so focused on the individual questions of the Guardians and how to deal with them, they hadn't been asking many other questions about the "big picture."
Celestia's determination made quite the effective blinders...
"I'll pull some strings at the New Lunar Republic, have any information from our field agents regarding doom prophecies or the like forwarded directly to ourselves."
Celestia shook her head. "No, if your ponies are good at anything, it's finding things that are trying to hide... or ponies that are trying to hide..."
Luna blinked, not understanding Celestia's implication at first. After a matter of seconds, however, it became obvious.
"You... want them to find Pennington, don't you?"
Celestia nodded. "I've financed plenty of expeditions looking into the guardians, I have a few crack teams in my pocket that can track down any foretellings of an apocalypse for Equestria. But even if we know what we're facing, we won't stand a chance without the Guardians. You NEED to find a way to bring him back!"
"Oh, well, NOW you need me to make an appeal to our friendship! Now that we've burned every bridge we've ever had with him!" Luna slammed her hoof against her forehead, feeling a more-than-small amount of exasperation with her sister. "From the sound of it, you're expecting me to have the New Lunar Republic hunt him down, yes? HOW exactly do you think they'll react when they find out that one of their most famous and decorated members is now 'Equestria's Most Wanted?'"
"I'm not saying that you need to start a manhunt, Luna! But for his safety AND ours, Pennington MUST remain in Equestria!" Celestia replied. "Whether he's the next Scribe or the 'new' Scribe or whatever the situation is, whatever Quill and Threadmane claimed was hunting them is STILL out there!"
"Quill was killed by the dragon we JUST sent Pennington to go fight, and Threadmane died peacefully in her bed, surrounded by her family!" Luna retaliated. "Celestia, you've become paranoid! Even if you were right about the Guardians having returned, the idea that there is some malicious force 'hunting' such powerful beings is completely absurd!" She turned to Eclipse, who had yet to move from his pensive pose at the centerpoint between them. "Eclipse, tell her how ridiculous she's being!"
Silence fell as both alicorns waited for Eclipse to answer. After a few seconds, Luna opened her mouth to get his attention, only for Celestia to wave her hoof and shake her head frantically. Luna gave her sister an annoyed glare, but Celestia pointed between her eyes and the motionless draconequus, urging Luna to look more closely. Luna considered brushing it off and speaking up anyway, but she decided to entertain Celestia one more time.
Then she noticed the tremor in Eclipse's hand. It was nearly imperceptible, but his chest was moving up and down rapidly in a telltale sign of hyperventilation. His eyes seemed to have locked on some invisible object a thousand miles away, wide with terror as a bead of sweat rolled down the side of his face. Luna felt a wet drop on her shoulder. Glancing up, she realized that while she and Celestia had been arguing, the entire roof of the conference room had been covered with a thick layer of electric-blue cotton candy clouds, a drastic change from Eclipse's normal pink. Another raindrop landed on the back of her hoof and she gave it a curious lick.
Pomegranate juice? That's certainly new...
She quickly raised a magical barrier over her own head, and Celestia followed suit while giving Luna a concerned look. Slowly, Celestia eased her way out of her chair and meticulously made her way towards the panicked draconequus. Luna mimicked her, both of them closing the distance at equal speed. Even when they were standing right beside him, it seemed as though Eclipse were completely oblivious to their presence. Celestia and Luna looked at one another, each one silently indicating a lack of answers. Celestia nodded towards his shoulder, silently urging Luna to try again at getting his attention. Luna replied with a nod of her own, daring her older sibling to take her own advice. Celestia sighed, then pointed her hoof back and forth between the two of them. Luna sighed, then nodded. Celestia nodded once, twice, then a third time.
"Eclipse?" Both of them asked in sync on Celestia's third nod.
All chaos broke loose, literally. Technicolor lightning rained down across the meeting room as a complete downpour of pomegranite juice opened up above them. With every flash of lightning, Eclipse seemed to change colors. In only two seconds, Luna watched him turn pink, green, blue, plaid, zebra-striped, and a color both of them would later only be able to describe as "wi-fi." Their ears were assaulted with that sounded like a dubstep remix of "What's New, Pussycat?" being carried along on the howling wind and Luna felt as if every strand of hair on her body were all standing on end at once.
And then, as quickly as it had begun, it stopped. The damage of the lightning strikes and the pomegranate juice sloshing around at their hooves still remained, but the rest of it all disappeared, leaving Celestia and Luna staring at an empty chair. Celestia looked shaken, standing perfectly still and blinking as she tried to process what had just happened. Luna looked around the room, trying to spot Eclipse. It was only after several seconds of searching that Luna finally spotted him right under their noses: curled into a shivering ball and hiding under Celestia's flared wing. Luna leaned down, trying to put herself at eye level with him.
"Eclipse? Are you... alright?"
Eclipse slowly turned his head to look at Luna, his eyes wide and wild with panic. Slowly and with ragged, jittery movements, he moved his head up and down. Luna moved to the next logical question.
"Did you... see something?"
Eclipse shook his head.
"What, exactly, was that about, then?"
Eclipse shook his head again.
"You don't want to tell us?" Celestia asked, trying to crane her neck to look at him without removing her wing.
Slowly, Eclipse uncurled his body and slunk out from under Celestia's wing.
"S-sorry... Just a panic attack. I- I should be fine..." he muttered, staggering towards the door. Celestia and Luna both looked at one another. It was easy to tell from Celestia's face that they were both thinking the same thing: Eclipse was lying to them.
"I- I just thought about having the whole New Lunar Republic after me and I guess I panicked! Heh heh!" Eclipse forced the joke out. "I don't envy Pennington one bit, not one!"
Luna and Celestia glanced at each other, both unsure.
"So... you're saying that we shouldn't send anyone after him?"
Eclipse stopped and turned back around to face them, face pale and gaunt. He shook his head slowly from side to side, looking more like a standing skeleton than a living creature.
"N-no... Bring him back. Celestia is right. Something is out there..."
With that, he raised his hand, snapped his fingers, and disappeared.
Celestia and Luna both looked at one another, their previous quarrel forgotten almost completely.
"He saw something." Celestia stated.
"Or at least he thought of something very, very unpleasant..." Luna replied.
"We should do something."
Luna looked over at her sister, one eyebrow raised.
"Well, I don't envy you the responsibility of trying to wring answers out of him..." Luna muttered, fluttering her wings anxiously. "For now, I'm afraid I have to write some rather urgent letters..."
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Eclipse took a deep breath and held his hand out in front of his chest. He tried his absolute best to keep it still and level, but it remained twitching violently from side to side. He was completely out of control of his anxiety, and he had lost it in front of Celestia and Luna, the WORST possible moment. If he had been alone he could have covered it up, or perhaps played it off as a prank in poor taste on the guards to try and lighten the mood with Canterlot still under assault by the rain.
"I can't believe I forgot about..." he trailed off, not even wanting to speak the name out loud. He sighed and dropped his hand to his side, defeated in his attempt to calm down. Even just REMEMBERING her had sent him spiraling into a catatonic state...
Right! I was just remembering her! I've been repressing it for so long, it was a bit of a shock! It's not like... not like she's HERE, right?
Out of reflex, he craned his neck backwards to look behind him. There was only blissful empty space. He sighed as relief washed over him and turned back in the direction of his room. He picked up his hand and gave his fingers a firm snap, imagining himself standing inside his room. A second later, he had teleported to his proper place. He collapsed on his bed, arms spread wide as he stared up at the rain running down the skylight. This was his safe place, the place Celestia and Luna had promised him he would be protected.
As the familiar feel of his bed and the scent of his room, Eclipse began to finally feel his heart stop pounding quite so hard. He slowly rose up out of his bed again and looked around. When Celestia and Luna had discovered him, he had been living in the Everfree forest, where he had been hiding since Discord's defeat. To make him feel more at home, they had commissioned a forest mural from wall-to-wall. The mottled greens and dark shadows made him feel right at home. He took a deep breath as he looked around the room, examining all the shadows and crannies in the mural that he would have used as hiding spaces if the forest was real. It made him feel safe, took him back to the days when life had been simpler, before Equestrian princesses and Guardian Spirits or unwarranted feelings of existential dread during important meetings.
And it was then that something caught his attention.
Everything was different.
Not one object had been changed or moved, but the WALLS had. It was a different view of the forest, different trees and different skies. It was a totally different place.
Eclipse felt his heart skip a beat. Somehow, someone had taken the place he was safe and taken it away from him. His place had been invaded and tampered with, and he had a terrifying feeling at the base of his spine that he knew who it was.
A loud knocking at the door sent Eclipse leaping into the air out of fear, where he painfully slammed into the ceiling. He waited for the ground to come rushing back up to him, only to realize that he had been locked into the ceiling by his horns. Below him, he watched the door to his room swing open, revealing...
"Eclipse? Are you in here?" Celestia asked, glancing curiously around the room below. Eclipse sighed with relief. Apparently, he was still safe for the moment.
"H-hey, Tia..." he stuttered, waving awkwardly from his perch above. Celestia's eyes turned wide with shock as she looked upwards.
"Eclipse! What are you DOING up there?"
"Y-you know... just hanging out- HRRK!" Eclipse was cut off as his pun took a lethal turn, a thick rope wrapping around his neck and attaching itself to the ceiling.
"ECLIPSE!" Celestia's horn instantly lit up with magic, levitating him out of the rope and bringing him slowly back down to the floor. "Are you alright?"
Eclipse nodded, rubbing at his neck. "That- that's new... Never gotten THAT result from wordplay..."
Celestia sighed and shook her head. "You need to be careful, Eclipse... Your powers are unpredictable by nature, and it seems like you've been under enough stress to start losing control."
Eclipse nodded. "Sorry about... back in the conference room..."
Celestia nodded. "What WAS that? You looked as if you'd seen a ghost! And I've never seen your magic act so... bizarrely!"
Eclipse thought for a moment. Celestia had already given him the solution.
"S-sorry... I guess the stress of this whole week has finally gotten to me. So much magic literally in the air, the pressure of this fight you and Luna have been having, the guilt of being in any way involved with what happened to Pennington... When the way the two of you fighting reminded me of how Discord and I used to argue just before we... split. I had a flashback. I panicked."
Celestia gave him one of her signature warm smiles, pressing her head to his chest in a way that made his face flush hard.
"Thank you for worrying so much for us, Eclipse. Having you here stopped a hard wedge from being driven between Luna and I again..."
Eclipse felt guilt washing over him for lying to Celestia, but... what he had been thinking was impossible. There was no way she could be back. Better not to worry Celestia and Luna about the past.
There was no need to go calling down boulders.