//------------------------------// // 9: Return of the King // Story: To Hunt a Beast // by Blackdrag-rose //------------------------------// Getting Eclipse out of the club and into the fourth car of the train took some doing, mostly because Northern screamed her head off as soon as the deed was done. Several of the ponies that they had passed had questioned what they were doing and all Wisdom had told them was that they had 'bagged the big one'. They seemed to know exactly what he was talking about, seeing how there wasn't anypony to take Eclipse from them when they reached the trains. Copper had smiled when they reached the train, allowing them to lock Northern's father in the back of the fourth car and just left him there. She had tried to warn her father, but now he was chained up in the seemingly larger car with the spear head trapped in his body. He was out like a light, but his limbs had been chained by some sort of light metal bracer that had, of course, been designed by Copper. Even his horn had a small band around it, but according to Copper the bracers and the band were supposed to restrict Eclipse's powers. Basically Wisdom and Copper had been spending the last three years constructing devices that could be used to 'mortalize' her father. At least, that was how Copper explained things to Northern. Even now the changeling princess sat on a bench by the outside of the last car, ignoring her father's 'friends' and choosing to isolate herself. She really didn't know if she could trust Wisdom anymore, not after he basically used her to get close to her father and then quite possibly killed him. Peachy wasn't so bad; she was actually quite friendly for a vampire, despite the fact that she had the power to torment a pony's mind and dreams. Tick, on the other hoof, spoke strangely, had some sort of attitude that fit a DJ, and carried a giant cannon that controlled sound on his back. She sighed; she just wanted her father to be okay. "Come on Wisdom, you know you went too far," Peachy nearly shouted, facing her friend, who was sitting at a table and staring out the window. "I went too far?" Wisdom asked, growling just a bit, "I did what I thought was necessary to subdue Eclipse; nothing more, nothing less. I spent the last three years with Copper, designing weapons, crafting items that could contain his powers, and even resorted to asking Discord to make sure we were left alone. That spear was meant to shock his body into a state of being asleep, the bracers and band to restrict his monstrous powers. We captured him and that's the end of the story." "You attacked him in front of his daughter," Peachy countered, "You used an innocent young mare, a delicate princess who hasn't seen her father in three years, to lower Eclipse's guard. If she doesn't already hate your guts, which she has every right to at this point, then she'll really hate you when she hears what you plan on doing to him." "I'm doing all of this to cure you guys," Wisdom fired back at her, turning his head to his friend. "Forget about us Wisdom," Peachy said, tears rolling down her face, "Think about Northern, think about what you'll do to her if you end up killing Eclipse. She just found her father and the first thing you do to him is stab him in the chest with that...that vile weapon you created. She'll kill you herself if you kill her father, which is impossible. Despite what you think Wisdom, you cannot kill Eclipse." "Just watch me," Wisdom retorted, the darkness pinning him to the wall. "I'm tired of playing this game with you," Peachy shouted, "You wanted my help in finding Eclipse and you found him with very little effort. You never told us that you were planning on stabbing, no, killing our friend just to cure us. If Tick wants to support you and your 'plan', if it can be called that, then more power to him, but I will not stand here and let you kill Eclipse." The darkness released Wisdom and Peachy just vanished, leaving him and the others to search the train for signs of the vampires. All fifteen of them had simply vanished from the train, which made sense considering that their leader wanted nothing to do with Wisdom. Wherever they had disappeared to still wouldn't stop him from delivering Eclipse to Canterlot. Northern looked up at the sound of Peachy shouting and something hitting the side of the second train car, but she didn't move an inch. She was fine with Wisdom being handled by his friends, he deserved whatever they did to him for the act of hurting his friend. Still, she was regretting her sudden departure from the Hive to find her father and then hoofing him over as soon as she had met him. She was tired of her father's friends deceptions, all the lies, and all the truths they were hiding from her. A changeling that was tired of deception. She would never hear the end of it from her mother. ~Outside the train~ Dozens upon dozens of eyes watched the dragon train as it moved on the tracks, almost as if it was supposed to pass as a normal train now. They had seen a cover of darkness phase out of the train and travel in the direction of Canterlot, but they had no need to chase down the vampires. They weren't worried about the werewolves that lingered in the second compartment, nor the fact that Copper occupied the first car while Wisdom paced around the train. They were interested in what was in the third and fourth cars, two ponies that were vital to their Hive. "My Queen," one of the changelings spoke up, making the tallest pony of them all look away from the train, "They have captured the King. They plan on transporting him to Canterlot. What shall we do?" "Ensure that he gets there," Queen Viscarias said, a scroll held in her magical grasp, "After all, it wouldn't look good if we stole our own King after being invited to a summit in Canterlot. The King will return, but it won't be right now." ~Canterlot, a few hours later~ The dragon train rolled to a stop in Canterlot's train station, which was already swarming with members of the Solar Guard, the Lunar Guard, and the Crystal Guard. Standing behind them were Princess Celestia, her sister Luna, her niece Cadence and her husband Shining Armor, and her former student Twilight. The four princesses were all accounted for, their eyes trained on the doors as they slowly opened up. They had long awaited the arrival and, more importantly, the return of the Changeling King Eclipse. Wisdom and his friend Copper stepped out first, holding chains that were connected to something in the car they had just exited from. The two tugged and Eclipse walked right out of the car, his eyes firmly closed shut as the chains guided him. Surrounding him was the force of nineteen werewolves, Tick having opted to exiting the train with the rest of their group. The only pony they were missing, excluding the very angry Peachy, was Northern, who was still sitting outside the door to the fourth car. "I still can't believe that Wisdom succeeded," Luna commented, watching eclipse get closer to them, "You won the bet Tia. I never thought that he would be able to subdue Eclipse." "It took three years, but we have finally captured the king," Celestia remarked, turning to head to the courthouse, "I have waited three years to talk with him and now he is finally within my grasp." Northern grunted and got off her rear end, leaving the train and silently following the group that was taking her father away. Celestia and Luna might have noticed her, but they and the other princesses were occupied with walking away with their backs turned. She hoped that her mother would arrive and rescue her father, but she had no way of knowing if she was even aware that he had been caught. For the moment Northern was all alone, not knowing who was actually being nice to her and who was just using her. While everypony was occupied by something Eclipse opened his eyes and smiled, allowing his eyes to shut before somepony noticed. ~The Courthouse~ Normally the courthouse would be filled with Princess Celestia and whoever needed an issue resolved, but today was not like a normal day. The center of the room was nearly bare, except that it had two spots were chains could be tied down and locked in place. Surrounding the center sat the four Princesses and an empty spot reserved for the Changeling Queen, who had yet to arrive. Behind each princess was their banner, telling whoever gazed upon them which ruler they were turning to speak with. Chained in front of them all was Eclipse, kneeling before all of them with his head bowed. "Before we begin I wish to inform you all that Queen Viscarias will not be joining us," Celestia began, almost wondering why she hadn't come to see her husband, "and as such..." Before she got any further the doors burst open and four ponies, three of them dressed as members of the Changeling Royal Guard, strolled into the room. Two of those guards were none other then Ironside and Shimmer, the two who had allowed the princess to somehow escape from her chambers. The third guard was none other then Sucker Punch, one of the veteran guards under Viscarias' rule during her husband's absence. The last pony, standing at the same height as Celestia herself, was Queen Viscarias herself, wearing her royal jewelry as she approached the princesses. "I have arrived," Queen Viscarias declared, turning to look each Princess in the eye, "You have called me to this summit and I have answered. I ask that you forgive my tardiness, as I was still dealing with my daughter's disappearance and had not noticed the letter appear until a few hours ago." "All is well Queen Viscarias," Celestia replied, indicating to the empty spot, "I trust you and your guards will make due with what has been left for you." The Queen said nothing, only moving herself and her guards to the empty spot and placing their banner where it should be. Then she turned around and took a seat on the chair that had been left behind, waiting as a fourth changeling appeared behind her. She didn't need to be able to read others minds to know that it was her daughter, she just had a feeling that it was Northern. They would have time to talk later, but for now she had to deal with somehow rescuing her husband from the chains he wore. "Rocket Sky, Prince of Balance, and King of the Changelings," Celestia spoke up, hoping that the stallion would be listening and would respond, "You have been brought before..." "No." came the same calm voice, "How many times must I tell you, I am NOT him anymore. Must I keep repeating myself or can we really begin?" "Fine then," Celestia huffed, "Eclipse, you have been brought to this court to suffer the consequences for cursing your friends Peachy Keen and Tick Tock three years ago. What say you?" Eclipse laughed, causing both Celestia and Luna to jolt in surprise. Cadence tried to keep a neutral face while Twilight raised an eyebrow. None of the princesses knew why he was laughing. "Curse them? You can't pin that one on me," the stallion replied, keeping his head low, "That was during the time that I was focused on Discord alone. They got in the way and suffered the wounds they did, but there is an easier question that you can ask me." "And what would that be?" Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow in turn. "You could have just asked me to take the curses away," Eclipse stated, raising his head to look up at the Solar Princess, "You could have just come before me in Manehatten and simply ask me to remove the curse I put on the two of them. Instead you hunt down my daughter, taking advantage of her desire to find her father, and use her to get close enough to me to stab me in the lung. You should have had the courtesy to at least come to me and allow me to work some magic on them, not attacking me when I'm reunited with my daughter." "Wisdom knew exactly what he was getting into when he chose to hunt you down." Celestia told the stallion, her eyes looking for any signs of magic escaping while he shook the chains, "Besides, courtesy isn't something we can usually afford when dealing with somepony like you Eclipse. For all we know you could have attacked whoever we sent to talk to you and they would have ended up in worse condition then your friends. Peachy..." "Peachy is the Student of the Night," Eclipse barked, stopping her before she could say anything about his friend, "She is a strong, independent mare that has endured so much because of me, because of what I have become, and because of who has tried to destroy me. All of my friends have suffered because I brought down the wrath of almost every villain that Equestria has to offer upon them. Do not talk to me about me hurting my friends or family, I would never do something like that ever again." "You've been defeated Eclipse," Celestia proclaimed, her sister nodding her head, "Like it or not you have been brought low by the combined might of the brightest mechanical mind in all of Equestria and the wisest pony we have seen since Starswirl the Bearded. For all your great power you have been felled by the power of love, just like Queen Chrysalis had been when she invaded Canterlot. Now Wisdom will finish what he has started and the curse shall be lifted from their poor souls." Wisdom appeared from the shadows that hung below where Celestia sat, the same spear from earlier resting on his back. As he approached Eclipse the spear came out of it's holder and spun around, nocked in the ready position and primed for use when he got really close. According to Copper Eclipse hadn't even tried to build up his power, which meant the bindings were working like a charm. As he drew ever closer he began to spin the spear around and around, preparing for the moment he would strike at Eclipse's heart. Northern's pulse began to quicken. The first time she had seen her father he had been stabbed in the lung and knocked out, but now they were planning on killing him. They couldn't just lash out and save him, not without inducing the wrath of four princesses, their armies, and Discord himself. In her heart she knew that to save her father by attacking in the middle of court would sentence their entire race to extinction. Wisdom swung the spear for Eclipse's heart and it seemed like time was stopping on it's own as the spear slowed to a stop just inches away from his skin. Wisdom frowned and tried to pull the spear back, but the entire weapon was stuck where it was and there was nothing he could do to move it. Celestia was standing now, looking around for whoever had stopped the spear from killing Eclipse and was finding nothing. "Did you think I would just sit back and allow myself to die?" Eclipse asked, the chains holding his front hooves back snapping like twigs and the horn band breaking in half, "Now that is what I'm talking about. It feels good to have full control over all my powers again." "How is this possible?" Copper asked, not believing that the special bindings had just broken, "Even if you broke the bindings the spearhead in your lung should still be wreaking havoc on your ability to move around." "Oh, this little thing?" Eclipse said, the spearhead hitting the ground, "While you were all busy paying attention to what I was saying I worked some magic and dragged this right out of my lung. Good timing on my part; I healed my wounded lung and regained my powers to stop the spear from going into my heart. But I have the answer to the question I never spoke and that was that you won't simply ask me to undo the curse. If you want them cured you'll have to come after me and fight me on equal ground." He lifted his left hoof up and pointed it right at Celestia, energy building right in front of him. The four princesses shuddered and Celestia tried to move, but the fact of what he was doing had rooted them all to their spots. Before it was loosed Eclipse smiled and pointed it straight above him, allowing the energy to blow open a hole in the ceiling for him. "Come find me when all of you are ready for a real fight," Eclipse said, spreading his wings, "This time I expect you to leave my family out of this." Before anypony could respond Eclipse burst into the air, out through his opening, and was flying away at speeds that might have put Rainbow Dash to shame. He had waited three years to have a fair fight with all of them, but Wisdom used his daughter against him. Next time they were all together it was going to be all out war and Eclipse was itching to see what his friends could really do. After all, he had made it quite hard for them to simply ignore him for another three years and he knew they would come. Question was; would they be the only ones coming or was Northern going to see the fight for herself? He would find out when they arrived to fight him one last time.