//------------------------------//
// XI: The Finale 
// Story: The Alternate After Party 
// by Blackdrag-rose 
//------------------------------//

	Eclipse, the nightmare that the Royal Sisters had been trying to stop since the beginning of their dealings with Rocket, just stood in front of Discord. The strange creature just stood there, after making the remark that they were all screwed, and yet he was doing absolutely nothing. It was almost as if he was studying the ponies around him, watching their movements before making his own deadly move against them.

"So tell me something," Discord said, staring into the eyes of the stallion he hated with a passion, "How did you shatter the medallion, without using any form of magic whatsoever?"

"Its called dark magic for a reason," Eclipse stated, his head tilting to the side as he stared at Discord, "A simple spell designed to reflect any damage I take to whatever target I desire, within a reasonable distance of course. I could have easily taken the damage from the cut you gave me and transferred it over to you, but seeing how you were planning on killing me you would have also killed yourself. So I decided to direct the damage to the medallion, knowing that when it shattered I would regain my missing power and teach you a lesson."

"A lesson?" Discord challenged, magic at the ready, "Surely you know that you can never teach an immortal any new tricks? Its because we know every single trick in the freaking manual!"

"Then you should recognize this," Eclipse said, holding his left limb forward as the familiar orb gathered in front of one of his claws.

Discord flinched and jumped backwards, intending to escape the impending attack before it was fired, but even as he did Eclipse closed the distance on him. The beam tore through his right shoulder, cutting off his use of the limb completely, and knocked him even further back. Discord was thankful that the attack was fired upwards, away from the buildings, otherwise part of Canterlot would have been ruined.

"Your mine slave." Sombra shouted, drawing himself up before attempting to latch himself onto the stallion.

Before anypony could move Eclipse turned around and struck the fallen king in the direct center of his body, the only thing for concern was that there was magic blazing around the limb. The shadows that helped Sombra keep himself together shattered like they were pieces of glass, his armor ruptured, and several of his ribs broke upon impact. He hit the ground hard, coughing blood up as he fought the pain that now coursed through his broken body.

"I am not your 'slave' Sombra," Eclipse said in annoyance, magic held against the same limb that had struck the king before, "and I will never be one. I used you to get the secrets of darkness, yet your so stupid to realize that now that my power has returned I have no further use for you. You should count your blessings that I'm not turning you to dust, that I'm sparing your life. You never wronged me much in either time line, but Discord and Chrysalis are the two who are going to pay dearly for their meddling."

"Look Rocket, I know Discord..." Cadence started, immediately drawing the attention of Eclipse.

"How many times must I tell you ponies?" Eclipse angrily snapped, "I am not the weak Rocket Sky anymore. I am Eclipse, I am all of your worst nightmares."

"Okay then, Eclipse," Cadence tried again, hoping he didn't attack her while Shining inched around to get a shot at the stallion from behind, "I know Discord and Chrysalis wronged you more than Sombra did, but why use your power to exact revenge on each of them? Harming them will not reverse the damage they had caused you in the past."

Eclipse began to laugh, as if the idea of reversing the damage was as stupid as it sounded.

"Foolish Cadence," Eclipse shouted, "This isn't about 'reversing the damage', as you put it. This is about me getting back at them for targeting me and my friends in the beginning and nearly killing me the second time around. Then Discord here thinks that changing history would be enough to do me in over time, but it came back to bite his flank hard. Now I have the power to out fight you, Discord, Chrysalis, and the alicorn sisters altogether."

"Oh yeah?" Rainbow Dash challenged, she and her friends spreading out around the stallion so that they stood between him and everypony else, "Well how about the Elements of Harmony then?"

Before Eclipse could even make a move he was engulfed by the magic of the six Elements, the magic spreading around him before exploding in a fury of rainbow colors. Rainbow flames decorated the area in front of everypony, each of them watching for any sign of either Eclipse or Rocket. When they saw a figure appear in the smoke at first they began to rejoice, hoping that the Elements had kicked Eclipse in his flank before he could do any real damage. But when they smoke cleared they were shocked to find that Eclipse was still there...without so much as a single scratch on him.

"But how is it possible?" Twilight exclaimed, completely confused as to why the Elements failed, "The Elements of Harmony have the power to best the greatest of evils in all of Equestria's history. I don't see how its possible for them to have failed against you, one whose heart has been consumed by utter darkness."

"The Elements of Harmony have no power over me and they will never do," Eclipse laughed, amused by the fact they had actually used the Elements against him, "Let's face the facts; the Elements of Harmony are so overused that they likely don't have enough power to deal with somepony of my level. The idea that they could have turned me back into my weaker self might have been an entertaining one for all of you, but I'm not sorry to see that it has failed."

Celestia was now beginning to feel the sense of dread that everypony else had felt when Eclipse had first arrived, thought the only reason she felt it now was because their last line of defense had failed. If they couldn't best the stallion by the arcane arts and their own tactics than the Elements would have been the way to go, but seeing them fail was not a good sign. She had never known the artifacts to ever fail like this, seeing how she and Luna had turned Discord to stone and she had likewise banished her own sister with them. Twilight and her friends had used them to purify Luna, imprison Discord and rehabilitate him, and had saved another dimension with just one present.

"So, you all can feel it can't you?" Eclipse asked, returning his gaze to Discord, "The sense of impending dread for any who dare to get in my way. I will say this; Discord and Chrysalis have had this coming for a long time."

Shining waited until the stallion walked right passed his hiding place before jumping out, bringing his sword down right between the shoulder blades where the wings were. But before his weapon could connect with the skin Eclipse spun around and punched him right in the chest, the magic reacting upon contact. Shining flew right into a building and coughed up blood as it collapsed on top of him, breaking quite a few bones in the process.

"No," Cadence and Twilight shouted, seeing what happened and yet still not believing it either.

Discord got up and produced another spear, this time he held it in his left hand while he approached the stallion. Eclipse saw this and welcomed his prey with open claws, fully prepared to finally end the fight between him and Discord. What he didn't realize was that Chrysalis had caught up with him and held a sword in her magical grasp, fully prepared to run it through his heart and end everything. Discord saw his partner appear and swung the spear, waiting for it to connect with the stallion so it would blow up right in his face.

Eclipse caught the spear just a few inches before the spear tip, preventing the explosion from happening and causing his enemy to curse slightly. Chrysalis neared them and thrust the sword forward, watching in horror as it stopped just a few inches from the back of where the stallion's heart was. Eclipse turned around and smiled as he brought his right claw backwards, firing a small shot through Chrysalis' body that disabled her nervous system. As she crumpled Eclipse turned back to Discord and kicked him in the face, causing him to drop the spear and allowing Eclipse to make it explode in his side.

Luna was horrified; if Eclipse could topple both the ex-Changeling Queen and the Spirit of Disharmony then they were in serious trouble. She wondered what hope the Lunar Princess, the Solar Princess, the Princess of Love, and the Princess of Friendship had against him. The Elements of Harmony were also a bust, but she was thankful that Eclipse hadn't turned on the bearers after they used them on him.

"Eat this," Tick said, unstrapping his cannon and pointing it directing in Eclipse's face, "Bass Cannon!"

The blast wave tore the ground around Eclipse to shreds, literally causing chunks of stone and dirt to rain down on the ponies around him. Eclipse had his claws up in a form of defense, but seeing how he still sustained no damage he faced his friend will a look of anger in his eyes. Tick gulped and prepared the cannon for a second, even larger charge than the first one as the claws came near him, only to have them be stopped by a rope made of a black mass. Peachy grunted and held her ground, keeping the rope tight as she made sure it failed to reach her bald friend. Wisdom appeared and disappeared, swinging his staff at Eclipse between intervals in an attempt to distract, if not harm, his friend.

"You fools," Eclipse shouted, "I was planning on leaving you all alone, but now you leave me no choice."

Eclipse grabbed the rope with his other claw and pulled, dragging Peachy out of her hiding spot as Tick's cannon continued to charge. Before she could stop him Eclipse pulled her close to him and bit into her neck, drawing blood before allowing her to fall to the ground in pain. Tick, on the other hoof, suffered a direct attack to his face by the right claw, forming three deep marks diagonally across his left eye. Wisdom appeared at a critical moment, that was when Eclipse shattered his staff and crushed him into the ground hard enough to crack the area around him.

While this was happening Celestia charged up her horn with the fury of the sun itself, intending to blow a hole in the stallion where his right lung would be. If she did it perfectly the magic would not only harm the stallion, but it would give them the opening they needed to take him down. She only hoped that if they were able to successfully wound the stallion that they might be able to change him back into Rocket Sky.

"One cursed to be a werepony," Eclipse said, beckoning to Tick before moving to Peachy, "while the other is cursed to be a vampony, aging once every fifteen years. I will finish dealing with Discord and then I will raze Canterlot to the ground with none of you to stop me."

That was before Celestia appeared before him and unleashed the magic, allowing the power of the sun to tear through where his right lung was. The stallion faltered, taking a step forward as the mysterious stallion from before appeared with Sunset Shimmer next to him. He began to protest, but he was silenced by the silver shard biting into his left limb and the magic battling his own. And then, just as he though he had bested the stallion, his magic was overthrown by Sunset Shimmer, who preceded to course it through his veins and blow holes in his other limb.

"How is this possible?" Eclipse asked, the sudden amount of damage overwhelming.

"Because we all fight for good," the stallion answered, "Sunset is not Windigo. You, strange pony, are the Windigo. I sent to restore nature by the High Mother. We all shall restore what is broken."

"I don't give a single buck about you Eclipse," Sunset Shimmer said, staring the stallion in the eyes, "but I care about the stallion you used to be. I don't care that you're already married Rocket, but I'll be damned if I let somepony else be taken over by the darkness."

Eclipse readied his left claw, ignoring the pain that coursed through his body anyway, and began to swing when he realized that his limb was suddenly bound by glowing blue chains. He aimed his right claw at the mare standing not too far from where he was sitting, allowing the magic to build into his feared attack. Before it could fire another chain wrapped around the limb and yanked it into the air, discharging the attack into the sky.

"I will not allow you to fire that attack again," Luna proclaimed, watching the stallion struggle against the chains, "nor will I allow you to harm your friends. There must be something that can reach the inner you, the peaceful stallion who stopped Chrysalis the first time around."

"And I'll find it," said a voice as a second Changeling Queen appeared, "Stand aside friends, I'll drive out the beast like I did during Chrysalis' invasion."

"Rose Petal," Wisdom wheezed, coughing once before looking up at the mare, "Queen of the Changelings."

"There's one thing that will help us now," Rose continued, bringing her face closer to Eclipse's, "and that's the kiss from ones true love."

When she kissed Eclipse she expected to find the same feeling she had when kissing Rocket, but the sensation was no longer there. There was something else, an acceptance of what Rocket had become and the fact that she could feel the evil spilling out of him. The darkness that had taken root in his body was slowly dying of its own accord, which was something she hadn't been expecting to find.

"Your still in there aren't you?" Rose asked, breaking the hold and staring into her husband's eyes, "Deep inside your still Rocket Sky, the stallion who protected his friends first and married me soon after becoming an alicorn. I can feel the darkness leaving your body."

"I'm...I'm too powerful Rose," Eclipse barely said, but she caught the words easily, "I need to go into hiding, before I cause some serious harm that isn't reversible. Faust knows that I can never truly forgive myself for what has happened here today, but maybe one day she'll forgive me."

The darkness surged out of his body, darkening the sky as the parts of Canterlot that were broken slowly repaired themselves until they were brand new. The wounds that were afflicted on everypony began to heal right before their eyes, even the wounds they thought that wouldn't heal did so. It was almost as if time was reversing itself, erasing all the damage that Eclipse had caused for the hour he had been around. The only problem in Celestia's eyes was that the wounds they had inflicted on Eclipse were also healing, like when he had his horn broken and it repaired itself.

The darkness took one last look at the stallion it had been in and let out a shriek as it turned into a black gemstone, one that glowed with an intense inner flame. Eclipse still looked the same, but considering that his alicorn form hadn't changed much either it was nothing new. He still had the claws and large bat wings, but the darkness was gone from his eyes and he seemed much kinder now.

"Peachy and Tick will still be cursed," Eclipse said, looking towards the sky as he began to turn to mist, "but if they want to be rid of the curses then they'll have to come end me. As the legends go, if your cursed by somepony then the best way to end the curse is to finish off the one who cursed you. I will leave the Hive in your capable hooves Rose."

"Where will you go?" Rose asked, watching as her husband faded before her eyes.

"I don't know," he admitted, looking up to the assembled ponies, "I will be leaving Canterlot for a while. I don't know how long I will be gone, but I promise that I will return one day and when I do I will remove the curses that I placed on Peachy and Tick. I ask that everypony forgive me, but understand that I will not be in the eyes of the public much. If you don't hear from me it is because I have no wish to be found. Take care my friends, maybe we'll cross paths again one day."

That was when Rocket Sky, the stallion now known as Eclipse by those closest to him, turned into a bright blue mist and promptly vanished from the whole of Equestria. His power was well documented by the royal sisters, who spent the greater part of the next day making sure everything was indeed fixed in Canterlot. Those who had been wounded during the fight were checked out anyway, just in case the stallion had been lying about healing everypony.

After everything was said and done the Elements of Harmony returned to Ponyville, hoping that their lives would be normal for once. Cadence and Shining, along with a grumpy Sombra, returned to the Crystal Empire, where the royal couple returned to ruling and Sombra was sentenced to an eternity in jail with no magic at all. Chrysalis and Rose returned to the Hive, where the former queen was demoted to working for the betterment of the hive and the new queen continued on without her husband. Celestia and Luna watched over Canterlot as the days passed, while Discord decided to take a vacation and went to the beach for a weekend.

Yeah, life went on for Rocket's friends and soon almost everypony forgot that he even existed. Only Peachy, Wisdom, Tick, and Rose bothered to remember him. Life was going to get interesting for the three friends and the Changeling Queen one day, but that wouldn't be for a long time.