//------------------------------// // The Way He Was Taught // Story: In the Shadow of an Eclipse // by reyin poetic //------------------------------// “What did you do to her?” Spike yelled. Eclipse stood over the shaking form of Twilight, his eyes betraying nothing. “As I said, she is learning. I just taught her what happens when one casts a shoddy illusion,” he huffed. “You hurt her!” Spike moved between Twilight and the larger pony, shielding her from him, “Why did you hurt her?” Twilight stopped shuddering and came shakily to her feet. “It’s okay Spike. It was just magic recoil. A lot of it.” She flinched at the memory of the magic she had poured into the illusion returning all at once to her horn. Eclipse nodded, “Exactly. Magic recoil in illusion magic acts differently than in other forms of magic. Or rather, it acts under the same laws, but because of how illusion spells behave, more of the raw magic returns to you.” Twilight’s head tilted inquisitively, but before she could voice her question Eclipse answered her, his eyes closed. “Because illusions aren’t real, they don’t consume as much magic as other magic constructs, but they need a maintained stream of magic in almost all cases. You are pouring water into a dam to keep the water level high, but if the dam bursts, all the water comes back at once.” “Oh,” Twilight said, a little cowed from his preempting her question. Sending a grumbling Spike away, she moved to her next question, “So, why did my illusion break so easily? I thought it was good!” “It was good in the sense that it was indeed a cube and supposedly wood,” he answered, eyes still closed, “but you missed many basic concepts that the concept of ‘a block of wood’ require.” His eyes opened, glinting in the light, and a perfect replica of Twilight’s floating wood block appeared beside them. Eclipse’s hoof waved in between them, and Twilight heard a light clatter on the floor in front of her. She looked down to see a small piece of wood, like a blank homemade die. It was rough-cut, but otherwise seemed perfectly normal. “What differences do you see between your wood block and mine?” “Well, yours is smaller, and,” she gulped, “not... floating.” “Both of which are important. Giant, perfectly cut wooden blocks do not appear out of nowhere, and they do not float. Mine, however, is small, imperfect, and acting under gravity, and thus, believable. And the movement with my hoof when the block appeared? Who is to say that it isn’t a real block of wood that I had with me, just for the purpose of tricking you into thinking it is an illusion?” Twilight’s eyes grew wide at this possibility, and Eclipse chuckled slightly, “And now you cannot remove the possibility that it is real from your mind, meaning that it is impossible to Disbelieve it.” “Disbelieve?” Twilight wasn’t sure she wanted any more vocabulary lessons from this pony. “Disbelieving is the most basic counter to any illusion. It is finding a fault in an illusion that allows you to realize that, without a doubt, you are experiencing an illusion, so that you can break it. It is what I did to your wood illusion.” He turned to his replica of said wood block, “Now, Disbelieve this one. Focus on how it ignores gravity, which is it’s most unbelievable aspect.” Twilight looked at the floating image of wood to her side, taking in all the details that now seemed so obvious. Especially the floating, how could anypony make such an obvious mistake? How she wished she could just tear down that stupid, stupid failure like- A crack of glass was heard from somewhere over Eclipse’s head, and the giant cube was gone. “What? I did it?” Twilight gasped. “But I didn’t even use magic!” “You don’t have to. Any thinking thing can Disbelieve an illusion if it applies the will to do it. The key is to know the fallacies of the illusion, and choosing to exploit that weakness to break the illusion completely.” “Oh...” “So now, you will practice seeking out faults in illusions, so you will know how to craft a believable illusion,” Eclipse continued. “The wood piece I made has a flaw in it. Find it, and take note of everything else that you cannot Disbelieve about it.” Twilight looked down to examine Eclipse’s wood block. At first glance, everything seemed perfect about it. The edges were rough and rounded on the corners. The grain of the wood was consistent on all the faces. Picking it up with her magic, she could feel the contours of the block, and the weight felt correct. Turning it around, the sides facing the candles were brighter than those that weren’t. She even jabbed a hoof at it, and the block scuffed where she hit it. Turing her thoughts to its creation, she remembered that motion he made with his hoof, like he was tossing it from... where? His saddle bags were in the corner, and he wasn’t wearing anything else the block could have gone in... “Even though you tossed it out, where did it come from? You don’t have anywhere to keep it!” Twilight watched in triumph as the block of wood shattered and dissipated to the sound of a glass sphere shattering. Eclipse’s head jerked slightly. “Oh, did I hurt you?” Twilight stepped forward, examining his horn even though magic recoil never caused visible damage. Leaning back, Eclipse said, “It stung slightly, but nothing I haven’t felt thousands of times already,” his mouth drew tight. “More importantly, you found a flaw in my illusion that most ponies would never puzzle out. Very good.” Twilight’s face sprouted a small smile. -------------------- Their lessons continued into the evening, though to call them lessons would be an insult to classrooms everywhere, as most of the time was Twilight finding the faults Eclipse had placed in illusions and breaking them. A repeating page in a familiar book, a cube with seven sides, at one point there was a glass that didn’t break when Twilight threw it across the room in frustration. On occasion, Twilight would try applying what she had learned to her own illusions for Eclipse to break. The result was invariably a disappointed Twilight with a sharp headache. Over the hours, however, Twilight discovered an interesting, but pleasant side effect of illusion magic that made the ache more bearable. Illusion magic that hasn’t been molded into a spell yet carries a slight scent of dewy grass at night, just like her train ride home from Canterlot two days ago. -------------------- “I should be leaving now. I’ve taken up your whole day. We will meet again the day after tomorrow. Take tomorrow to recuperate from today. You were too eager to impress me, when you still need to learn how to cast a proper illusion.” Twilight rubbed her forehead sheepishly. “Um, yeah, I guess so...” she chuckled, before falling silent. After a moment, she spoke up again, “Can I ask you a question?” Quirking an eyebrow, Eclipse said, “So long as it isn’t another illusion for me to critique. I’d hate to break the princess’ student on her first lesson.” Twilight chuckled, “No, it’s not that. It’s just... You said before that you were going to teach me illusion magic the same way you were taught. Is this part of how you learned this?” Eclipse stared in her eyes a moment, and then turned and walked toward the door. “I said I would teach you similarly to how I was taught. My teacher was... much harsher with me. I had to learn how to make illusions without help, and he would Disbelieve every one I made. So yes, you are learning like I learned. Through the Disbelief of my illusions.” He opened the door and took flight, the light breeze behind him shutting the door, leaving Twilight in shocked silence. -------------------- Dear Princess Celestia, Today I learned that you really can have knowledge forced into your head, but it hurts worse than that time Applejack got her reflexes checked at the doctor. Eclipse’s teaching methods might be different and difficult, but he taught me more about illusion magic than any book I’ve read on the subject. Although, he really didn’t teach me much, he just made it so I would figure it out myself. And come to think of it, why do none of my books have anything about this kind of magic? It seems like an important thing to be missing! Anyway, Eclipse let me have tomorrow off, so I think I’ll hang out with my friends. They’re probably still worried about Eclipse. You might be getting a friendship report from me, tomorrow, Princess! Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle P.S. Do you know who Eclipse’s teacher was? -------------------- Twilight emerged from the library, feeling fresh and happy despite the previous day, Spike seated on her back. She made her way toward the Ponyville market, where the agriculturally-inclined ponies would set up stalls to sell their produce. One stand in particular stood out among them, the Sweet Apple Acres apple cart, situated in its traditional location (In front of Sugarcube Corner, next to Carrot Top’s vegetable stand.). Business was thriving in the noontime rush of ponies who wanted one of the famously delicious apples as a light lunch. Or breakfast, in Twilight’s case. “Heya Twi! Hi Spike!” Applejack called as the swarm of hungry ponies thinned out. “How was yer lesson yesterday?” she asked as she selected three apples from her stand, offering one each to Twilight and Spike. “Oh, it was fine,” Twilight skirted the question, not wanting to worry her friends over Eclipse’s teaching methods. “Yeah, if spending a day magicking each other in the head is fine,” Spike grumbled. “Spike!” Twilight tried to cover his mouth before Applejack would notice, but had no such luck. “What in tarnation? He hurt you?” Applejack began digging at the ground, about to gallop off at the first opportunity. “No! I mean, yes, but, it’s not like that!” Twilight stammered, waving her front hooves over her head. Spike, sliding off of Twilight’s back, said, “Twilight, you were crying when I came in there, and you ignored me when I tried to help,” his face became downcast, “even when I brought you dinner...” “Huh? When did you do that?” Twilight turned her head to look at her assistant confusedly. “In the evening. And at sundown. And after dark. And at my bedtime...” Spike’s words trailed off as he began nibbling on his apple. “Spike... I’m sorry, I didn’t even notice. I guess I was caught up with my lesson. I’m sorry,” Twilight leaned her had back and nuzzled Spike. “So am I gonna have ta’ go find this varmint or not?” Applejack said, still poised as if ready to tear down all of Ponyville to avenge her friend. Though in all fairness, she probably would. “No, Applejack, it’s fine. His lesson just... stings a bit at first,” Twilight grinned as she rubbed her forehead. “Well alright then,” Applejack visibly relaxed, “but you just tell me if he does ya wrong, an’ I’ll have him hog-tied faster ’n you can say... Rainbow Dash?” “Hey Twilight. Hey AJ,” the cerulean pegasus hovered between the other two ponies, grinning like mad at her barely stopping from crashing into the apple stall. “So did I hear you right? Are we gonna kick that freaky guy’s flank outta town?” “No, Rainbow Dash!” Twilight yelled. “Nopony is kicking anypony out of town! My first lesson with Eclipse just dealt with some magic recoil!” “Magic recoil? Oh, dear, are you alright? Magic recoil is terribly painful!” Rarity trotted up to the fast-growing gathering of ponies before Twilight found herself laid down on a soft pillow, a wet washcloth on her forehead. “Oh my, you’re hurt? Don’t you worry, I’ll have you feeling better in no time,” Fluttershy began fussing over Twilight, taking her temperature and fluffing the pillow. “Guys, I’m fine! Really!” Twilight gently moved Fluttershy off of her and stood up. “Wait, why are you all here, anyway? I didn’t tell anyone I was-” She was cut off by the large, pink necklace that found itself hanging off her shoulders. “Hi Twilight! I saw you leaving the library and I thought ‘Ooh! This is the perfect time to get all of our friends to we can talk about how your lesson with mister grumpy-pants went’ so I got Dashie and Fluttershy and Rarity and me and told us all to go to the market where I saw you going except me of course because I already knew!” “Well, that explains that. I think...” Twilight sighed. -------------------- With Spike having been dragged away by the Cutie Mark Crusaders Gem Miners, the rest of the day was spent in an impromptu girl’s-day-out, as none of them had any concerns more pressing than interrogating Twilight about Eclipse, save Twilight herself, who just wanted to relax. Everywhere they went, it seemed one of her friends had a question for her. “Why haven’t we heard of this ‘super-awesome’ guy before?” “Master Illusionist to Equestria, you say? Oh, he must know all the most posh ponies!” “His teacher hurt him like that on purpose?” “Does he like ice cream?” The questions were all more or less what Twilight expected from her friends concerning her mysterious mentor, and the answers, for the most part, were a mixed bag of ‘I don’t knows’. Even if the answers were unsatisfactory, she could still answer them. At least until- “So yer tellin’ me he ain’t told ya nothin’ about himself?” Twilight opened her mouth to answer on reflex like she had all the other questions, only to choke on the bite of the pressed hay sandwich she had ordered from the café they sat in now. As she methodically swallowed her bite, she realized how challenging Applejack’s simple question really was. How much did she really know about Eclipse, anyway? With most ponies, if you spent a day talking with them, you could know enough about them to become fast friends, but most of what she knew about Eclipse had to do with illusion magic, not the pony himself. Twilight’s ears folded back as she frowned at the question Applejack had thrown at her. Surely she could think of something substantial to say? How he knew the princesses? Who his family is? How he got his cutie mark? There seemed to be so much missing that should have come up in simple conversation, but looking back at the idle talk she had made during their lesson, Eclipse had directed the flow of conversation, always keeping the focus subtly on herself, while answering her questions evasively. And she hadn’t even noticed. “Um, I guess it never came up,” Twilight grinned. A bleating was heard from a passing flock of sheep being guided by three fillies. “Never came up?” Applejack repeated. “Twilight, ya can’t spend a whole day with a pony and not know a thing about him!” The others nodded in agreement. “And I, for one, am rather curious about him,” Rarity added. “At the party, he seemed so cold and hateful, but from hearing you, he seems much less... icy.” “Well, if you wanted, I could introduce you...” Twilight faded off. “But I don’t know where he is. Our next lesson is tomorrow, but I don’t want to interrupt that, and I don’t know where he’s living,” Twilight frowned. Where was he staying, after all? “Well, that’s easy!” Pinkie Pie burst out. “All we have to do is go to the town hall and check the housing records!” “Pinkie, that’s... genius!” Twilight gasped. “How did you?” “Oh, when I moved to Ponyville I had to tell them I was moving in with Mr. and Mrs. Cake! It was easy breezy frosting squeezy! Mmmm... frosting...” Pinkie drooled. “Well c’mon! Let’s go!” Rainbow Dash called as she started flying toward the town hall. -------------------- Twilight stood alone in a room seemingly made out of file cabinets, a drawer labeled ‘Housing – May 1002 – Present’ opened in front of her. These were the public access records, normally used by businesses for advertising pamphlets, so she had no trouble getting them, save for the claustrophobic room they were in. “Anything in the last two to four days ought to have it,” Twilight said as she flipped through the folders. She shuffled through the files, most of which detailed various land perimeter adjustments for agricultural ponies, who were granted the land for free as long as it was utilized for farming, and a certain amount of the produce sold in Ponyville. As she flicked through the papers, however, she found no new housing documents, even as far back as three months before the changeling attack. “I can’t find anything!” Twilight said, closing the drawers she had pored through. “It’s not here!” Leaving the file room, she communicated her lack of findings to her friends, each of whom looked at her in disbelief, but looking harder would be futile. After all, Mayor Mare was very careful with her paperwork. Beaten, they left the town hall. Rainbow Dash took off in a last attempt to find him manually, but agreed that if she couldn’t find them, they would simply wait until Twilight could ask him in person. Rainbow Dash flew over them a few times before touching down again, a perplexed frown now adorning her face as she folded her wings. “Well, I didn’t see him, but I think the Mayor’s gone crazy with decorating the town hall again. She’s put a gargoyle on the roof!” she pointed up. Following her hoof, the other five looked at the edge of the round roof of the hall, and sure enough, there was a dark, unmoving head and shoulders looking out over the Eastern side of Ponyville. As they looked, though, it became apparent that the thing wasn’t a thing. “That’s not a gargoyle, sugarcube. That there’s a pony, and I’d bet my hat that’s the pony we been lookin’ for,” Applejack said. Applejack’s hat was proven safe, as the pony stirred, its eyes opening, revealing Eclipse’s dark irises. He stood, and propelled himself gently off the roof, gliding down to the ground by them, before muttering, “Looking for me? Today is for recovering from yesterday, Twilight. You shouldn’t need to see me until tomorrow.” Applejack raised an eyebrow at him, “You ain’t never heard of a social visit?” Eclipse raised an eyebrow right back, “My life has never been disposed towards socializing, sorry. I don’t expect people to come to me to talk often.” “Uh-huh. Can’t imagine why, what with yer sunny personality.” “Applejack!” Twilight interjected, before Rarity cut above everyone. “Why don’t we all go somewhere nice and private so we can talk, alright?” she said in an undisguised diplomatic tone. “Does that sound agreeable, Mister Eclipse?” Eclipse’s face showed no reaction as he responded, “I didn’t have anything significant planned.” -------------------- Rarity kept a table at the Carousel Boutique for special occasions. It had served a variety of purposes over the years, from an extra worktable to a showcase for her latest design. On one occasion, Sweetie Belle and her friends had used it as the deck of the ill-fated S.S. Cutie, and it came out flawless. Currently, it served to seat her and her friends, as well as the tea she had made. The only pony in the room who wasn’t at the table was the subject of the gathering, who insisted that he wouldn’t fit at the table, and opted to lay down nearby. Twilight looked at her friends, all of whom seemed to be waiting for her to take the initiative. It made sense, as she technically knew the most about Eclipse, but how do you ask a pony you’ve known for two days some of the most basic details about themselves? After a few moment’s thought, a question that had been niggling at Twilight’s mind gave her an idea of where to start. Turning to him, she began, “So, how did you meet Celestia?” Eclipse’s frown deepened, and it seemed he wouldn’t answer, but after a moment he began, “Celestia and Luna found me when I was a child, after my teacher abandoned me. They took me in and taught me how to use my magic to help ponies. After that I served under them as the most skilled illusionist in Equestria. At the time, it was a fairly important position.” “Your teacher abandoned you?” Fluttershy whispered. “That’s just horrible! And did he really hurt you as badly as you hurt Twilight?” Fluttershy’s eyes widened as she realized what she said, “Oh, no, I mean-” “It’s all right,” Eclipse’s face betrayed nothing as he answered, “How my teacher taught me magic is the same way I’m teaching Twilight. But my teacher would force me to spend days on end casting illusions for him to break. It took a long time for me to figure out that I was supposed to make my illusions more believable.” He turned to look in Fluttershy’s wide eyes, “Does that ease your concerns over Twilight’s safety?” Fluttershy could only nod. “Seems awful convenient that your ‘teacher’ was so harsh. Makes it seem all right that yer hurtin’ Twi like that,” Applejack mumbled. Eclipse turned his head away from the table, his eyes closed, “You think I’m lying.” It wasn’t a question. “A’course I do! All yer magic is to do with lyin’!” Applejack said as though it were obvious. “I don’t know why I should believe a word you’ve said since you came here! Tell me how I’m supposed to trust a pony whose talent is makin’ lies!” Eclipse rose, unfurling his body into the unnaturally large size he sported when he had first arrived in Ponyville. He flapped his gigantic wings just once, alighting on the table, and loomed over Applejack, his eyes shimmering softly. He got almost nose to nose with her before he growled, “Look in my eyes. Do you see the light in them? That is my honesty. It is a spell I cast on myself any time I cast an illusion. The more intense the illusion,” the room and everything in it except for the table and the ponies at it fell away to show a barren, scorched field, and Eclipse’s irises shone like a spotlight, “the faster the light moves.” The lights in his eyes flashed for an instant, and they were back in Rarity’s Boutique, everypony in their original positions, though Applejack was slightly shaken. “So Ah’m supposed to believe ya, just because ya make yer eyes light up when yer castin’ magic?” she forced the words out, her accent thickening with her fear and disorientation. “No, I suppose not, but I could try. The Element of Honesty and the High Illusionist. It is no surprise that you dislike who I am.” “Oh, now don’t you turn this around on me, I still don’t think you can be trusted!” “Applejack, darling, calm down! Really, he hasn’t done us any wrong!” Rarity managed to drive herself into the conversation. Applejack huffed, but was quiet. Pinkie Pie took the opportunity to ask her own question, in addition to waving her fore-hoves in the air, and jumping on her chair. “Ooh! Ooh! I have a question! Why is your face all frowny-wowny?” Eclipse’s mouth tugged itself into the flat line that seemed to be the furthest extent of his facial expression, “My face doesn’t show smiles well. Believe it or not, I am smiling right now.” “Really? Wow! That makes so much sense!” She gave a huge gasp, inhaling loudly for several seconds, “So at your party, you weren’t frowning at me, you were smiling!” Pinkie Pie bounced around the room while Rarity spoke again. “Now, Mister Eclipse, if I may ask you, being an alicorn, how long have you been alive? You must have seen so much of Canterlot through the years!” Eclipse sipped his cup of tea for a few moments before replying, “Actually, most of Canterlot history that you would know of, I was absent for. Around one thousand years ago, after Nightmare Moon was banished, Equestria no longer had need of me or my magic. I had failed to help Luna to reject her jealousy and greed. I had failed her, so I rested for all those years in a cave, hoping to awaken upon Luna’s return and succeed at what I had failed all those years ago. But over those thousand years, a crystal formation had covered me. I would still be petrified in there had somepony not destroyed the mining track that had been assembled there and shattered my prison.” He glanced pointedly at Twilight, whose eyes widened. “The caves under the castle! You were there? For a thousand years?” Twilight yelled incredulously. Eclipse nodded, “Thank you, by the way.” He turned back to Rarity, “But to answer your question, the Canterlot nobility from the time before Luna’s banishment were less than tasteful, though their fashion was certainly... dualistic in appearance and practicality.” His eyes flicked for a moment toward Pinkie Pie, for some reason. Rarity didn’t notice this, however, and magicked over a sketchpad and pencil, “Oh, please, do tell me what it was like! Fashions from millennia past!” she squealed. Eclipse’s mouth tightened in one of his smiles, “Why don’t I show you?” His eyes lit up. A small number of ponies, all around half the size of a real pony, appeared on the tabletop, all dressed in finery that predated anything Rarity was familiar with. Some elements were there, such as the basic structure of the dresses and tunics, but there were design elements she had never even seen or considered before, such as one outfit that seemed to be assembled from one continuous bolt of cloth, folded into a dress. There was only one thing that seemed off to Rarity. Something that she knew would doom these outfits if she sold them as-were. In fact, it was glaring enough that Rainbow Dash caught on to it, too. “Um, those are cool and all, but isn’t there anything for, you know, pegasi?” “Indeed,” Rarity voiced, “none of these could be worn by a pegasus, the backs are all covered. On all of them! In fact,” she looked closer at the little ponies, “unicorns couldn’t wear them, either! Look at this one, the tiara covers the spot where a horn would be! And the dress attaches to the tiara, so the dress cannot be worn without it! Why are they so... exclusive?” Eclipse frowned, his face tinged with more than a little disgust. “Canterlot nobility, as I said, were distasteful. At the time, it was believed that earth ponies were superior to other kinds of ponies, so non-earth pony nobility was rare. The problem with this, though, is that anypony can be born as any kind of pony, so earth pony nobles having a pegasus or unicorn child was common. Unfortunately, so was Earthing.” Upon hearing this, Pinkie Pie and Twilight’s faces drained of color. “I thought Earthing was a myth?” Twilight’s voice shook as she fought with her curiosity, unsure if she wanted to hear more. “Wait, what’s Earthing?” Rainbow Dash asked, her face etched with confusion. Eclipse chuckled humorlessly, “Earthing is the process of making an earth pony from a non-earth pony. Through means available to earth ponies in the years before modern medicine.” Around the table, faces were draining of color. Fluttershy looked faint. “You mean they...” Rainbow Dash tried to ask. Eclipse just nodded. “The clothes were to hide the scars, but some Earthed ponies keep their magic, but don’t have a horn to control it, so the magic happens on its own.” “Wait, how do-” Twilight began to ask. “If a unicorn’s horn is removed early enough,” Eclipse preempted her, “the magic learns to work around it, the pony channeling constant, unconscious magic. Based on her explanation just now, I would say Pinkie Pie has some experience with Earthing.” Pinkie Pie nodded, tears in her eyes.