Eclipse turned down the next corridor, on one side there was windows looking out at the mountain range, on the other artifacts and other things that you'd expect to find in a castle hung from the walls. He turned down the next corridor only to bump into another alicorn.
"OOF" eclipse said as he pulled himself up straggling under the weight of his pack he pushed himself up to look at the other pony, it was another alicorn. She was purple with a pink strip in her mane.
"So sorry miss." Eclipse said as he helped pull her up
"Oh no it was entirely my fault should've not been reading and walking... Pretty dangerous..." As she gestured to a book on the floor, "I-I don't believe we've met before? Wait... Are you a guard? You look like a guard..."
Eclipse thought for a minute, he wasn't supposed to reveal himself or his name to civilians, he began thinking up lies...
"--uh yes, yes I am, A uh royal guard, I uh just got off my shift, yeah just heading to tell celestia the report..." He said, going she would buy his lies, she shot him a look, he knew this look, he saw it almost every day, it was the look if disbelief, her face soon relaxed as a smile washed over it "okay then..." She said as she tooled her book under her wing and dashed off.
"Only gone for 900 years and the worlds changed so drastically, I need to remind myself to take longer breaks from tours..." He rolled his eyes and trotted off to the guest chambers nearby.
As he opened the door he noticed the rooms had changed quite a lot, a mini fridge was in one corner, a door to its own bathroom was right by the door a large king sized bed lay in the middle of the room, a closet was by the night stand, a dresser lay on the other side of the bed. He began tossing his clothes into it and picked out his dress uniform he laid it down on the bed and tossed his dress cap onto of it, he picked out a tie and set it down as well.
Changing out of his fatigues was a nice feeling, he tossed them into the hamper and took a bath, something he hadn't done for a long time. Within minutes he came out clean of all the filth he had gotten from his journey, his grey coat was brighter. He slipped on his shirt and tied his tie, as he put on his uniforms tunic, he heard mumblings from the room beside him, they stopped almost as soon as they started, using his magic he set his cap on his head and left the room.
As he entered the hallway though... There was 12 eyes watching him head towards the throne room...
"Girls we need to get the guards and take down this changeling..." Twilight demanded as she stomped her hoof, her friends were in mutual agreement of yes, they charged down to the barracks to assemble they're small army of guards...
--------------------------/\------------------------
Eclipse bursted into the throne room, as he was Soon greeted by an embrace from his sisters.
"Oh Luna, its been so long..." He said as he hugged her
"Far too long brother... Far too long..."she replied a small tear rolling down her cheek
FLASH BACK LUNA'S MEMORY 1003 years ago
Luna sat facing her sister from across the table as they ate their dinner, a smile across Luna's face, something she rarely did as they continued to eat.
"Lulu, have you heard from mother lately?" Celestia asked, her pink mane flowing without any wind
"No, not recently, she said they were going to visit eclipse overseas, she said he's getting a promotion..."
"To what?"
"I'm not sure, captain I think... She was really excited about it... They leave tomorrow... "
"One day we need to go see him... He is after all handling the military by himself..."
"Don't be silly, dads with hi--"
"Luna, dad stays over here and commands from afar, but one day he will..."
"Agr--" Luna was cut off by a magic bubble appearing in front of her, it showed eclipse in a green uniform wearing a brodie helmet, the pouches on his vest open and empty, a lone cross low in his hoof, a cartridge of arrows in it.
"Family, this may be my last message to you, we're pinned down, the HMS mane was sunk with her crew, she took out half of the platoon in the explosion, there's only a quarter of us left we have very limited ammo and are loosing ground fast...
There's no hope out of this for any of us...
I love you a---" the message was cut out by an explosion on eclipses end...
Luna and celestia stared, their brother had died, Luna began to cry as it sunk in... Eclipse had always commented about her nights, he and Luna shared a very good bond, celestia being the oldest didn't have quite the same bond with him...
"Why Tia... Why did he have to die..." Luna asked tears flowing from her eyes
"Luna... He would've wanted to go out that way... Fighting for what he believed for..." She replied, comforting her sister
END OF FLASH BACK, RETURN TO CURRENT TIME
Eclipse let go of her embrace, it had been about a minute long...
"Why don't we talk over dinner?" Celestia asked