//------------------------------// // Chapter 9: Rescue Mission // Story: Saving a Hopeless Soul // by Mister E-Nonymous //------------------------------// Chapter 9: Rescue Mission (Rainbow Dash's Point of View) I was really upset that Danny was taken away. I cried all the way from the Castle of the Two Sisters, being carried by Applejack. We all arrived at the Golden Oaks Library, and I was put into Twilight's bed so I could recover. But, I was still crying due to Danny being taken away. I heard the princesses come up to the room, talking about what was going on. "Are you serious?" asked Princess Luna. "The ghost of Nightmare Moon has brought them here?" "And she's planning on taking over Danny's old world," said Twilight. "I don't know what they're planning, but it seems bad. And it's even worse because of Rainbow Dash. She hasn't been happy ever since Danny was taken." "Ah feel bad for Dash," said Applejack. "She cared a lot for Danny." Princess Celestia thought long and hard about what to do to get my son Danny out of their foul clutches. Just then, she had a moment of thought. “Solar Eclipse,” we heard her say, “of course.” “Solar Eclipse?” we were all quite confused about what Princess Celestia was going on about. I then came down to them, and stood next to Twilight. “I suppose,” she said, “it be better if you lot know about him.” She then looked towards Twilight, and... “Twilight... you probably didn’t know, but you were not my only protege.” With that, Twilight’s interest was piqued. “I wasn’t?” “No, Twilight. You see…” and so Princess Celestia started to tell us the story of, possibly, her very first protege. True, I was never one for such stories, but seeing as Danny’s life was possibly on the line, I was willing to listen. “It happened 1000 years ago, not long before I had to banish my sister to the moon when she became Nightmare Moon. I had a student who sounded quite promising. His name was Solar Eclipse, or Solaris as he liked to call himself. Interestingly, his parents gave him that name due to him being born within a solar eclipse. Solar Eclipse had true talent within him when it came to magic. I saw nothing but greatness within him, and after giving that decision some thought, I decided to take him in as my very first student ever. Down the years, Solar Eclipse has shown true effort, just like you, Twilight. What many Unicorns needed years, Solar Eclipse was able to master even the most complicated spells in a matter of days. Every task, every subject, every lesson… Solar Eclipse was truly a natural in it all, much like you, Twilight. Unfortunately, something quite tragic happened. When Solar Eclipse was just about your age… I accidentally laced him with a very dangerous and forbidden spell that would stop him from aging. That spell also changed his body structure into that of an Alicorn. At first, he was rather upset about what I’ve done, but then, not long after I banished my sister, he and I had a long conversation about what I have done to him. As it turned out, he was willing to forgive me. Also, he asked me to banish him to another world, as he always wished to explore another place. I just could not turn him down such a request, even if it meant that I would never see him again. So, after Solar Eclipse got his most important things together, and after we said our goodbyes, I cast the banishing spell on him, sending him away to another world, never to be seen again.” "Another world?" asked Twilight. "Wait a minute," I said. "Is it the same world as Danny's original world?" "Yes," said Princess Celestia. "And I'm going to have to send you all to his exact location. And you are going to need these." Princess Celestia then levitated the Elements of Harmony to us. "You six are going to need this to face off against Nightmare Moon," said Princess Celestia. "I will be sending you to Solar Eclipse's exact location, along with a note. He will know what to do when you arrive there." "On it," said Twilight. She then took the Elements of Harmony in her magic, and put five of the Elements on our necks, and the last Element on her head. "I hope that he'll help us," I said. "Danny needs me. I can just feel it." "Good luck," said Princess Celestia. "All of you." Then both the Princesses lit up their horns, and everything went white, and then it went dark. I'm pretty sure that the girls and I just blacked out. (Danny's Point of View) I groaned. I woke up, and... I felt that I was human again. I looked around, and saw that I was in the basement of my aunt and uncle's house. But there was something different. The stairs were gone. "About time you woke up," came aunt Natasha's voice. I looked up, and I saw a balcony where the stairs used to be. Aunt Natasha, uncle Reginald and that ghost pony were looking over it. "Get used to this, because you are not coming out of here until you're sixteen." "No! I was free!" I said. "Why are you doing this to me?!" "You should know that no one in this family deserves happiness," said aunt Natasha. "Guess my sister taught you the wrong way to go. After all, my parents disowned her as a member of our family." "W-what?" I asked. "What do you mean?" "It was when your mother and I were kids," said aunt Natasha. "We were a rich family, but your mom was wanting to have some fun times, but she wasn't supposed to. I followed her, and recorded all of the things she did, and we had disowned her. We moved from Portland, Oregon to Memphis, Tennessee, leaving your mom there to fend for herself." "You just left my mom there to fend for herself?" I asked. "And your mom was staying at her best friend's house until she got into college," said aunt Natasha. "And... she became successful. She found a happy life in Bend, Oregon, got married, had a kid, you, and lived happily ever after." "What does this have to do with me?!" I asked. "Ever since we left her behind, we went broke!" said aunt Natasha. "I had to marry for money so our family doesn't go under in back taxes. We were lucky just to keep our family alive, but we lost our company. And our chance to get back into the rich life was for us to have a child to marry off and have our families merge together and get back our finances back. But there was one problem." "Both Natasha and I didn't have the right equipment to properly have a child," said uncle Reginald. "But, when we heard that you were born... we decided to take some... drastic measures." "What?" I asked. "What did you do?" I thought about it hard. And then one thought came to mind. I then looked up at them and said, "What?! Why?! It was you?!" "Your mother was pathetic," said aunt Natasha. "You shouldn't have belonged to her, and I will continue the family plan, even if it means taking away you from your parents, permanently. You will not be leaving here until you're old enough to be married." "NOOO!!" I said. I then ran up to where the stairs used to be, and tried climbing up the beam under the balcony, but, even though it was made of wood, I kept losing my grip. "Good thing I used a spell to make it impossible for him to climb out of here," said the ghost pony. "He'll be stuck here for a long, long time." "Get comfortable, Daniel," said aunt Natasha. "You're going to be stuck in here for a long, long time." They then left the room, and I heard the doors locking. I ran back to the middle of the basement, and I sat down, hugging my knees, and cried. "Mommy..." I said, crying. I didn't want to be here. I want to go back to Equestria, back with my pony mother. Somewhere in Tennessee... (Rainbow Dash's Point of View) I was coming to. I felt that I was laying down on metal, but it was shaking. The first thing I thought was it was a metal wagon. I opened my eyes, and I saw that we were in some weird metal room. I looked around and saw my friends all over the room. And I saw windows with bars and no glass. I then tried flying, but one of the walls collided with me. "Gah!" I shouted. Luckily, I was pressed up against the bars and saw some weird black stuff on the path outside the strange room. And there were two yellow lines in the middle of the path. And one white line on the opposite side. "What? Where are we?" I then looked back towards my friends and shouted, "WAKE UP, GIRLS!!" They all woke up and looked around. "What the heck?" asked Twilight. "Where are we?" "I don't know," I said. "I think we're in some kind of train car. I checked outside, but there are no train tracks." "What?" Twilight asked. "A train without train tracks?" asked Rarity. "That doesn't make any sense." "But how is it possible?" asked Fluttershy. "We gotta get out of here!" said Applejack. "Ah'm bustin' us out!" She then headed for the door, and was about to buck it open. Then Pinkie's tail started twitching, and she shouted, "Twitchy Tail!" Then the room just stopped moving, and we all headed for the other side of the room. "I thought Twitchy Tail meant that something was going to fall," I said. "Something did fall," said Pinkie. "Us." We then got up, and headed back to the door. But then, we heard the door opening. We saw some shadowy figure coming from outside. It had to be either Danny's aunt or uncle, so I charged at him. But then I was surrounded in an orange aura of magic. "I wouldn't do that," said a male voice. I looked at the guy who said that. It clearly wasn't either Danny's aunt Natasha, or his uncle Reginald. Plus, he had magic. "Are you...?" Twilight asked. "Here, I am known as Geoffrey Merlin," said the figure. "It's a cover name for my real name. My name... is really Solar Eclipse."