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// What happens... 
// Story: We Fight as One 
// by chaos2012 
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Pushing up on her strained legs, Eclipse lifted off the dirt and stared in disbelief at the entire scene that had taken part in front of her. The spirit of chaos Discord was dead, killed after his unstable magic erupted inside of him. While his death may not have been directly her cause, the alicorn felt part of it was because she ordered his freedom in order to try and change his perspective on life.

She knew Discord was to break out again soon, and instead of waiting for that chance, she entrusted Twilight and the others to try and change him to be good. While in fact it was successful in the beginning, she should have figured that he would eventually grow tired of this lifestyle and want to return to his ways. A backup plan should have been put in place to lock him away again if he tried to act upon his old habits of chaos. But no matter how much she planned, no matter what she contemplated doing, she never expected the events of today to ever unfold in her lifetime.

Discord had actually planned on killing her to rid the land of its rulers. Never before had he ever gone to the extent of taking the lives of ponies, yet that all changed when he wanted complete freedom from them. While he did come close to success though, his own power led to his very demise, its immense power too far unstable to control and taking his own life. While coming out victorious in the battle, success wasn't the idea that was inside of Eclipse’s mind as she looked around herself. Her heart not only cringed at the pain coursing through her veins, but from the sight of destruction that surrounded her form.

Several areas of field more than a half mile in diameter each were stripped bare of any form of life, the large craters still smoldering from the magical blasts. Multiple mountains through the landscape lay in rubble from the mix of physical impacts and explosions that rocked the very air. Eclipse then took note of the mountain that she completely sliced in half earlier, sending a cold, uneasy crawl up her spine at the sight of her own wrath upon the world. The amount of power she was wielding wasn't meant for a being to use for personal purposes, and that all showed in the massive battle the once split alicorn had to participate in.

Not wanting to spend any more time in this now desolate spec of land, Eclipse shut her one good eye and focused. Picturing the location to where Twilight and the others were, she enveloped herself in aura and teleported. In a quick flash, she disappeared and reappeared back on the field in which her two halves first fused. As soon as her hooves touched the ground, she quickly laid down onto her belly in exhaustion. Breathing heavily, she grimaced at the feeling of having a simple teleportation spell so draining, yet she knew she didn't have a choice; whatever happened to her body she would have to deal with for now. 

Opening her eyes, she looked up to the group of stone figurines that were Twilight and the rest of her friends. Before she walked over to free them however, she froze in the spot. 'Wait... How are they going to react to everything that has happened?' She asked herself in fear.

With Discord betraying their trust and attempting to turn all order upside down, what would they do when she tried to tell them that she killed him? But more important than that was what would they do when they saw her? How would they even believe that she was once both princesses from before in one body now? No pony would simply accept a creature like her; a four winged alicorn with powers far beyond anything else in the world... A thought which she knew would be hard for most to accept. Or would it be fine? She couldn't tell honestly, but knew she had to find out at this moment. "Whatever happens... It's meant to be." She solemnly whispered to herself.

Casting out a cloud of magic, Eclipse drifted it over towards the group of figurines and spread it out. The green aura slowly crept over the stone surfaces of each statue, growing out until all surfaces were covered fully by it. The magic suddenly tightened its grip on the stone, squeezing it stronger every second. Large cracks began to form across the surface of the figures, until they all burst in a bright flash of light. Almost instantaneously the light faded, revealing the forms of Twilight and the others all lying in the grass. As soon as she heard a groan, Eclipse sighed in relief.  "They are alright. Good..."

---

Crawling to her hooves, Twilight moaned in pain. "Uhh, my head..." She winced as she rubbed her temple, "wha... What happened?"

Spike quickly lifted his head off the ground, his face in a daze.  "Twilight... I- I already re shelved the books." He grumbled before passing out again.

"Spike!" Twilight's wings sprang out in shock at her friend. Jumping off the ground she quickly ran over to him. "Spike, are you alright?" Seeing him open his eyes again gave her a wave of relief. She looked to her side and saw her other friends beginning to stir. "Girls, you all okay?"

Applejack grunted as she sat up. "Twi... What in tarnation happened?" She mumbled while shaking her head. "Ah had the craziest dream."

Standing up next was Rarity, her eyes spinning while trying to focus. "Oh, my aching..." She screamed as she looked down at herself. "What in the world!? I fell asleep on the grass! My coat is going to..."

"Just shut up Rarity." Rainbow Dash growled. The Pegasus popped her neck as she stood up. "That wasn't a dream. Don't you remember what happened?"

Twilight sat quiet for a moment before everything started coming back to her. "Wait... Back in Ponyville at the library when-

"Discord."

They all turned back to Fluttershy sitting up from the ground, her head hung down low. "He tricked us into thinking he was our friend and attacked us." She said between whimpers. 

"Now I remember!" Pinkie Pie growled out, her forelegs crossed in front of her chest. "That big meanie made us all think he was nice and then he turned around like a batch of icky cupcakes!"

Rainbow bared her teeth in anger. "When I find that creep, I'm gonna pound him so hard that he will wish he were a statue again!" 

While she wanted to agree with her friend, Twilight suddenly realized something. "Wait... I do remember that Discord was charging a spell when he tricked all of us at the library. That was there and then everything went black... So how did we end up here?"

"There's no need to worry about anything anymore." 

All of them froze to the strange voice that echoed in the air. They all turned and gasped at the sight of the mysterious figure slowly trotting towards them. The tall alicorn was unlike anything they had ever seen. Its tall bleached body and multiple wings weren't that of any pony that Twilight recognized. But what caught her attention the most were the massive amount of cuts that were spread across the pony’s body, multiple trails of blood leaking down her fur. "Who... Who is that?" Twilight stuttered.

"What kind of pony is that? I've never seen an alicorn like that before." Rarity stared in awe at the tall pony, her eyes drawn to the shimmering mane flowing out from her head. "Ooh, what a dazzling mane she has. It’s gorgeous!"

"How can y'all look at that when she's some strange pony?" Applejack rolled her eyes at her friends’ stylish sight. She focused back onto the alicorn as it came to a stop in front of them. "Is she a friend?"

"I... I think so." Twilight whispered, "She doesn't look like somepony we can't trust." Deciding to find out, she slowly made her way forward to the mysterious pony, but the sudden yank on her tail forced her back onto her rump. Yelping out, she turned around to see Rainbow spitting her tail out. "Rainbow, what are you-

"Don't trust her Twilight!" Rainbow yelled out as she pointed a hoof at the strange pony. "She's probably another one of Discords tricks he's playing on us. Just look at her. She is just like something that he would make."

Twilight turned to look at the mysterious figure, but was shocked to see it give a look of pain. It wasn't a pain from the injuries on her body, but from the words that were said of mistrust. "Rainbow, I don't think this is something he did. Maybe she was the one that helped us."

"Look Twi, we just got... Whatever happened to us from Discord, and we are lucky to be fine. But I'm not going to let that happen to my friends again. If that means not trusting some odd pony, than that's fine with me."

"Your loyalty to your friends is truly strong, Rainbow, and We do admire that from you." The alicorn said, "We assure you though that we are in fact, an old friend."

"Oh yeah? Well how come I've never seen you before?" Rainbow snarked at the pony. To her surprise it only brought a chuckle from the alicorn.

"Yes you have... In fact, you have seen both of us before." 

"What?" Spike said from behind, "both? There's only you."

"There is one now, but we were two before this morning. Our name is Eclipse, and we were before your princesses."

"WHAT!?" All the ponies and dragon gasped out at the sentence the alicorn just stated.

"But how!? You can't be the princess! You just... What!?" Twilight stuttered out. 

"This is... It can't be real. Y'all can't fuse with another pony." Applejack said. "And y'all ain't the princesses. Ya just..."

"You may not think so, but we are telling the truth. We are the princesses that you have known this whole time." Eclipse quietly whispered. 

While the others sat in shock, Twilight began recognizing the two voices that were blending with each other. Not only was it that, but the deep midnight blue feathers at the end of the long white wings also familiar in look to the ones that Luna had. To top everything off, the multicolored mane had all of the colors that the princesses had all blended into a single mass of hair that danced together in the air. "Wait... You... You are them." She whispered.

Eclipse smiled at seeing her former student recognizing her. "Thank you Twilight. We know it is confusing for you to understand at the moment, but we hope you will all understand why we had to do this to stop Discord."

"Stop him?" Fluttershy questioned. "You were able to stop him without the elements?"

Eclipse nodded.

"That. Is. Awesome!" Rainbow Dash yelled out. "You were able to whip his butt with just your magic. That is so cool. Hey, where's Discord now? I wanna see the look on his face, haha!"

While the young Pegasus was thrilled about the victory, she noticed the uneasy look on the alicorn’s face. Rainbow looked back to her friends in confusion before turning forward again. "Princess, you okay?"

"Girls, you must understand that we had to do what was necessary. Discord refused to surrender no matter how much we pleaded, so we had to stop him."

Utter silence fell over the mares and dragon that listened to what Eclipse just stated. They didn't need her to tell what she had done to stop the chaotic deity.  Twilight swallowed and gave a slight nod. "It's... It's okay princess Celes... I mean, Eclipse."  She was going to have trouble getting used to this. "You had to do what you had to. Are you okay though? Those cuts should be looked at."

"They are alright at the moment, Twilight. What we need from you-

Eclipse suddenly lurched forward before stumbling back a few steps before a stream of blood erupted out of her mouth. All of the ponies screamed out in fright at the sight. "Princess!" Twilight screamed.

Music

Spitting out the copper flavored liquid, Eclipse tried to breathe in, but her chest felt like it was going to burst from within. Before she could even think on what was going on, her body went limp, forcing her to fall hard onto her stomach. Unable to use the strength to keep up, she rolled over onto her side and collapsed onto the grass. "Princess!" Twilight screamed as she ran to her side.

Dropping to the ground, Twilight lifted Eclipse’s head up into her lap. "Princess, tell me what’s wrong!?"

Creeping her eye open, Eclipse looked up into the panic filled eyes of the young alicorn. "Twi... Twilight..." She said between breaths, "we... We aren't going to make it."

"No, don't say that! I'll get you help!" Closing her eyes, Twilight focused to teleport both of them back to Canterlot. To her shock however, her magic wasn't activating. "Wha- what's wrong? I can't teleport!"

"A side effect to Discord. *huff* You are still recovering from his magic." Eclipse whispered. Coughing several times, she couldn't stop the lines of blood dripping out of her mouth.

Panic began to set into Twilight seeing that she couldn't help. "Okay, okay. Uh... Fluttershy get over!" As her friend quickly sprinted over, she took a breath to calm her nerves. "Listen, I need you to do what you can to help her. You are the best here at healing injuries right now. Rainbow, I need you to fly and-" 

A wing brushing up her side froze the words coming out of Twilight’s mouth. Looking down, she saw Eclipse slowly moving one of her wings forward to stroke her. "Princess..."

"You are doing well, Twilight, but it won't help. Our body *huff* is shutting down from the inside. We used too much magic in the fight for our body to handle."

Twilight's jaw fell open in horror at hearing that. Her princess was going to die in front of her if she didn't get help. "Then we can go get the guards! They can get you back to the hospital so you can get fixed and-

"It's too late for that..." Eclipse quietly muttered, "By the time they arrived... We... will be gone."

Not knowing what to do, Twilight just stared down at the dying alicorn beneath herself. Tears began to slowly drip down her cheeks and onto Eclipse’s face. She looked back to her friends standing back, all of them with blank expressions on their faces at the situation. Twilight turned back to the alicorn beneath her. "Princess, please... There has to be something we can do."

As she scooted her body forward, Eclipse winced out in pain but pushed through it until she rested her head against Twilights stomach. Her breathing was coming in raspier gasps as the pain in her chest grew. "Just... Just stay with us." She nuzzled the purple mare’s chest in comfort. "Just stay with us."

Unable to contain herself, Twilight's sobs began to escape her throat in quick gasps. Seeing not only her mentor, but her teacher’s sister like this only made the pain inside of Twilight's heart grow stronger every moment that passed by. Feeling Eclipse shiver beneath her, Twilight shifted her body so she laid on the ground facing the crippled alicorn. Unfurling her wing, she laid it over Eclipse’s neck to give her some comfort. "Don't worry, I won't leave you now."

While the feeling of pain was coursing through her body, the warmth of Twilight's body on herself brought Eclipse a sense of peace knowing that she was safe. "We are glad you are *huff* alright. You don't know how worried we were when we found you in stone with Discord."

Sniffling back several tears, Twilight laid her head into the crook of Eclipse’s neck. "You risked your life to save us. Why? You didn't have to do that, princess."

"It is our duty to protect the citizens of our land. And *huff*, it’s more important to save the ones *huff* we care about.”

Eclipse suddenly coughed erratically, her body curling into a ball as she cried out from the pain inside her. Crying in fear, Twilight instinctively gripped around the dying pony tighter. After a few moments, Eclipse slowed her movements before becoming almost still, the only movement the slight rise and fall of her chest. "Twilight..." She whispered, "We need you to promise us something."

"Yes, what is it?" Twilight quietly asked. 

"We need you to, *huff* watch over *huff* Equestria now."

Twilight's eyes shot open in shock from the request. As she sat for a moment however, she realized what she was destined to do. She looked back to her friends, who were all crying from the situation in front of them. Wiping a few stray tears away, she leaned back down and embraced Eclipse. "Yes. I will do my best to look after everypony."

A small smile appeared on Eclipse’s muzzle. "We know you will. You *huff* are a princess, and a true friend. You have the pure heart meant for *huff* taking care of others." 

Inside her chest, Eclipses lungs began to falter, making it hard to breath. After several seconds her heart began to weaken as well, her pulse slowing down to only few beats here and there. Knowing it was her end, Eclipse forced her body closer to Twilight and rested her chin onto the mare’s forehead. A single tear fell down her cheek as she shut her eye. "Goodbye... Twilight.

In her grip, Twilight felt the breathing stop inside of the alicorns chest in front of her. Clenching her eyes shut, she clenched her embrace as she felt the life slip away from her friend. Tears poured down her face as screamed out into the cold sky.

"ECLIPSE!"

In an instant, Eclipse could her mind begin to grow blank, her thoughts impossible to recognize anymore as she lost sight of everything. The last single thing she could recognize was the cry of her name. After a few moments, everything to her went black.