The knock on the door came once more. Maybe the knock would be Twilight, although it would seem a bit odd to knock at your own door. But Eclipse didn’t think about that and was just happy for someone, hopefully Twilight, to come home. Eclipse walked to the door and opened it to meet face to face, or rather leg to face with a short male colt with a scissors cutie mark on his flank. Eclipse had read about cutie marks so he now knew what they were. The chubby little pony looked up to Eclipse with fear in his eyes. Before Eclipse could react the pony ran off, yelling “There’s a monster pony at Twilights house!! And he ate Twilight! Everypony run for your lives!”
As Eclipse saw the colt running off he thought GREAT! Just what I needed, a colt running off telling everypony I’m a monster who ate Twilight! This will be STELLAR for my reputation!
He took off running after the colt, Eclipse had to stop him before he had everypony convinced Eclipse was a monster and had eaten Twilight. “What is with that pony?! He sees a new face at Twilight’s house and assumes I’m a monster who ate Twilight??” Eclipse mumbled as he ran. He was starting to gain on the little pony and knew he had to catch the colt or this could go very badly for him. He was a few feet behind the other pony when five ponies barred his way as the colt hid behind them. Eclipse skid to a stop in front of them, narrowly avoiding plowing into them.
“Who are you and what have you done with Twilight?” said one of the five ponies.
“I’m Eclipse and I haven’t done anything to Twilight. I was waiting for her to get home when that colt knocked on the door and I answered to find him running away calling me a monster!” replied Eclipse.
“Likely story” said one of the ponies as more ponies started to crowd around to see what was happening. “Twilight goes missing and you show up a day later pretending to be looking for her, but are in her house presumably rummaging around?”
There was muttering in the crowd and it was obvious no one was taking Eclipse’s side.
“If you really are innocent like you say you are then go and find Twilight” said one of the ponies in the crowd.
There was a general mumble of agreement from the crowd and the same pony spoke again. He said “Go and find Twilight or never come back here again! Prove you’re not a monster and you can come back!”
Eclipse had no way to defend his claim and the ponies around him didn’t look to happy with him. He had no choice but to run away and try to find Twilight. But he didn’t even know where to begin his search for her. He spread his wings and flew off. He stayed low to the ground, and flew until he came to the border of a dark and foreboding forest.
The forest looked scary and unfriendly, but there was nowhere else to go. Eclipse landed at the edge of the forest and proceeded to journey into it. He looked completely calm, but in truth Eclipse didn’t want to go in to the forest. The forest had a haunting aspect and the darkness inside seemed to be more pressing than normal.
As Eclipse came to the point where he could no longer see the light from where he had entered the forest he could feel his instinct screaming for him to turn around. The forest was creepy and had an oppressive aura to it. The sun had not even set yet and already the darkness seemed more advanced than any darkness Eclipse had ever experienced. However he pressed on and over the course of an hour he managed to get used to moving through the thick mud and tangle of trees and decaying roots. The sun was now setting and the darkness seemed to be closing in on Eclipse more and more until he could hardly see his hooves in front of his eyes. The enclosed feeling gave him a sense of claustrophobia and he desperately wished for there to be some kind of light. Then as if his plea had been answered his horn started to give off a faint light. The light was hardly a spec compared to the darkness around him but with focus he managed to get it to shine bright enough for him to see a good ten feet ahead of him. The light was comforting but it caused the trees to cast ghostly shadows all over the place, and when Eclipse tried to peer past the end of the lighted zone he started to see things that he hoped were just his eyes playing tricks on him.
After another few minutes of blindly finding his way through the forest Eclipse started to see pieces of broken stone that looked as if it had once been parts of bricks. He followed the rubble and found that it led to a decrepit old ruin of a castle. The castle was slightly shrouded in a layer of thick mist, but mist was better than the ghastly trees any day. Eclipse made his way into the ruins of the ancient castle and managed to find a spot with a ray of moonlight that pierced the mist and kept the area modestly lit. It wasn’t at all a secure feeling spot, but it was a haven compared to the trees and darkness. Eclipse lay down and tried to sleep but found himself peering into the mist automatically. The mist slowly swirled around in spots sometimes and seemed to take shapes, scary shapes. Sometimes he thought he saw ghostly figures standing in the mist, watching him. He tried to convince himself that his eyes were playing tricks on him and eventually he decided it was best to force his eyes closed, no matter how fiercely his instinct demanded that he keep on his guard. He lay still for what seemed like forever, and eventually Eclipse managed to doze off.