//------------------------------//
// Luna's fears 
// Story: The Forgotten King 
// by Ghost Writer 
//------------------------------//

	Eclipse woke up to a hoof shaking his side. 
He ignored it and tried to get some more sleep, but the pony pushed him again to try and wake him up. He moaned and finally sat up. A look to the side showed him that it was Rainbow Dash who was waking him up.
“What? I wanna sleep more. What is it?” asked Eclipse, still half asleep.
“It’s nighttime the stars are out, and I want to go to bed.” yawned Rainbow.
The mention of stars was enough to get Eclipse awake. He got out of bed and as soon as he did Rainbow hopped into the bed.
“Ooooo, the bed is so warm. Wow and it’s so comfortable, I bet you wish you could sleep more right now. You could have if you stayed awake with us today. Well I’m tired, have fun.” said Rainbow with a smirk on her face. She was getting Eclipse back for not staying up with the rest of them, which wasn’t exactly fair, seeing as he didn’t have much of a choice.
Eclipse didn’t really know what to do for the night. After giving it some thought he decided he would just roam the castle and see how everything was at night.
As soon as he stepped outside of his room he realized how incredibly dark the castle was after dark. There was usually enough sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows around the castle to keep the place well lit, but without the light the castle seemed forlorn and just a bit spooky. 
There were usually other ponies walking about, talking to each other or going somewhere but at night there was nopony. Each step Eclipse took on the marble floors seemed to bounce off the walls and reverberate through the rooms. He walked by Celestia’s bedroom and there was no light coming from under the door, which meant that she was asleep. He came through a few more corridors and came to a large wooden door. The door was at least twice as tall as he was and seemed to be quite heavy.
He wondered what was behind the door and decided there would be no harm in figuring it out. He looked around to make sure nopony was looking, just in case he wasn’t allowed to go into the room. He bit the handle on the door and pulled back. It took a considerable amount of effort to pull the door open. Surprisingly it didn’t make any sound, which must have meant that it was well oiled.
He poked his head inside, it was darker than the rest of the castle. The only windows were high up and the moonlight didn’t light the room as well as it did around the rest of the castle. A few seconds after he poked his head in his eyes adjusted to the dim moonlight. The room was a massive round room with a stained glass dome in the ceiling to let the sun in during the day. Tall, elegant book cases adorned with books lined the walls and even more stood in a circle around the room. They looked like dominoes, if one fell over it would probably take the rest with it.
It must have been Celestia’s library, it probably had almost all the books in Equestria. In the center of the room there were loads of tables lined up for ponies to come and read. There was a flicker of light and a candle went on. Eclipse didn’t move for fear that he would be seen, but he noticed that somepony was down there. He hadn’t seen them moving or heard them, but he could make out the outline of whoever it was that lit the candle. 
He slid into the library and left to door open to make sure he didn’t make any noise. Since he was a dark color he managed to slip between the bookcases like a ghost. If the pony looked in his direction chances are they wouldn’t even see him. He went along the outside of the circle of bookcases so that he was behind the pony.
He slowly crept closer to see who it was. The pony was a dark color and Eclipse had a hard time distinguishing his outline. He moved closer so that he could hide behind the tables and chairs. About twenty feet away he saw that the pony was a midnight blue color, similar to his color without the influence of Atrox. He also had a streaming mane similar to Celestia, but there were what looked like little stars sparkling around the mane. Eclipse got a bit closer and accidentally bumped into one of the chairs he was trying to hide behind. The chair skid only about an inch or two, but in the dead of night and on a marble floor it made enough noise to be heard across the room.
The pony stood up and turned around, when they didn’t see anypony they called out “Who goes there?”
Eclipse stayed low and closed his eyes, hoping that the pony didn’t see him. Upon hearing the voice he noticed that the pony wasn’t a male pony, but a female.
“I know someponys there!” she called out.
Eclipse decided that she knew he was there and there was no use hiding so he stood up and said “Ok you caught me” as he started walking towards her.
The pony looked into the dark and could make out a slight red glow. She thought she had seen a faint red light flicker between the bookcases but was too engrossed in her book to think anything of it. The candle she lit to read had caused her eyes to adjust to the light and she couldn’t see the pony that had knocked the chair over yet.
She strained to see who the pony was and the faint red glowing lines of his irises appeared about twenty feet away. A pang of fear ripped through her and she staggered, but caught herself. She thought she had seen her evil brother Atrox but that was impossible. It couldn’t be Atrox, he was gone, never to return. There was no way he could just magically come back.
Elipse continued walking up closer to her and his face came into the candle light. The light reflected off of his face and she clearly saw the two red glowing eyes accompanied by the face of her worst nightmares, Atrox. She recoiled in horror at seeing his face again. Atrox showing up in the middle of the night with nopony around was sheer horror for her. As soon as she saw his face she was frozen in fear and didn’t know what to do.
Eclipse was close enough that he could tell the pony was Princess Luna. He hadn’t seen her personally but he had heard enough to know who she was and how she looked. He didn’t know why she looked so scared when she saw him so he tried to put a reassuring smile on his face and asked “Something wrong?”
The smile and “calming” words did nothing to quell Luna’s fear. She got past her initial shock and being frozen in place and tried to back up as quickly as she could to get away. She backed right into the table she had her books on and sent the books flying to the ground along with the candle.
The candle stayed lit while it fell, casting its glow on Eclipse's face. But as soon as it made contact with the ground the flame went out. All Luna could see now was a pair of glowing red eyes searching the night for her. She managed the fumble over the table and ran for the door. She couldn't see, but she knew the library well and knew the way to the door.
She didn't even think about whether the door would be open or not, she was merely running from the pony she thought to be Atrox. SLAM! She plowed into the door headfirst and was knocked unconscious.	
Eclipse had lost sight of Luna when the candle went out and his eyes were just starting to readjust from the change of candlelight to moonlight. He heard a loud noise by the door he had come in from and turned towards it.
Luna's freaking out at seeing him had been so unexpected he hadn't had time to think or react before she plowed through a table and ran into the door.
Eclipse followed the direction the noise had come from. He didn't know that Luna had knocked herself out on the door and hadn't seen her yet. His eyes finally adjusted enough so that he could make out details of the room.
He looked by the door and saw something on the ground. He noticed that the figure on the ground was Princess Luna and he immediately freaked out.
Oh no!   Luna got knocked out! This is bad, this is really bad! he thought to himself poor Luna. And what if somepony heard her hitting the door and decides to come in!? Me standing next to an unconscious Luna wouldn't look to good.
He looked again at Luna. She was on her side on the floor, almost as if she was sleeping; which she sort of was.
He tried nudging her to wake her up but there was no response. He tried telling her to wake up and blowing a short whistle note in her ear, but that didn't work either. There would be no choice but to wait for her to wake up and hope so wouldn't freak out.
He waited for a few minutes and Luna stirred a few times, but stayed unconscious. He grew impatient and nudged her in the side, she moaned and rolled over. Now he was making some progress! He nudged her again and she slowly came to.
She kept her eyes closed and said "Ow, my head hurts. What happened?"
"You ran into a door and knocked yourself out." said Eclipse, trying to keep his voice as reassuring as possible.
"I ran into a door? Why?" she questioned.
"Uhhh, you were running from me, but I'm harmless."
Luna looked up and saw Eclipse again. Unfortunately his supposedly reassuring words did nothing because as soon as she saw him she passed out...again.
Eclipse sighed loudly and sat back. How would he convince Luna that be meant her no harm? He thought it through and took a few steps back behind Luna. That way when she woke up she wouldn't instantly freak out, and Eclipse could talk to her for a bit and hopefully get her to see that he meant her no harm.
A few minutes passed and eventually Luna came to. She sat up and looked left and right, then she stood up and shook her head.
"Hey." said Eclipse. Careful to keep his eyes closed so she wouldn't see the red glow when she turned around.
Luna turned around and looked at Eclipse. It was too dark to tell that Eclipse had his eyes closed so she had no idea who he was. "Who are you." she more stated than asked.
"I came in here not sure what room I was entering. When I did you freaked out and managed to run into the door and knock yourself unconscious." he replied.
"I....knocked myself out?" asked Luna.
"Ya you thought I was an enemy, even though I wasn't, and didn't even give me time to explain anything."
"Why would I run?"
"Alright. Will you listen to what I have to say this time? No running away or freaking out?"
"I will listen."
"I look like somepony I'm not. I'm a nice pony and nothing like this pony."
"And who is it that you look like?"
"Atrox."
"Atrox?! But that’s impossible!” she exclaimed.
“It’s a long story; if you’re willing to listen I’ll explain it.”
“I have time.”
“Well as I’m sure you know, when you were Nightmare Moon and brought forth a few days of nighttime Atrox manifested himself in this world.”
“Yes, I know. My sister fought him and won.”
“Well when he was re-banished I showed up somehow. I have no idea how it happened, but I’m here.”
“If that’s true you could have been created by Atrox.”
“Created? He can create beings?!” asked Eclipse.
“Yes, that’s how he changed me into Nightmare Moon. It’s also how Discord was created. He got bored once and assembled a variety of animals, then cast a dreadful spell on them all and created discord.”
“That sounds pretty bad, was Celestia the one who turned Discord to stone then?”
“No, Atrox was the one who originally did that.”
“Why turn his own creation to stone?” asked Eclipse.
“He didn’t like that Discord was changing his land, and he also did it just for fun.” Luna said, her face turning into a scowl from remembering Atrox.”
“Celestia said that I might be Atrox’s good side.”
“Atrox has no good side.” stated Luna.
“So then I’m just a creation of Atrox? I’m not even a real pony?” asked Eclipse, hoping the depressing thought wouldn’t be true.
“Unfortunately it seems that way.” Said Luna.
“Also, the reason I look like Atrox is because he’s slowly taking me over.”
“WHAT?? He’s taking you over? That’s horrible!” exclaimed Luna.
“Ya eventually I’ll totally become Atrox and the me you know will be gone.”
“Are you ok? That’s absolutely tragic news and you seem to be reasonably calm.” said Luna with a slightly confused look on her face.
“That’s because Celestia is going to cast a banishing spell on me and Atrox will be gone.”
“And if that doesn’t work?”
“Well, then I’m done for. But I have total faith in Celestia.”
“I wish you luck. The situation you are in is like something out of my nightmares.”
“I wish it could be different but I didn’t really have a choice, at least because of this mess I get to be alive. Even if knowing that I’m not really a real pony is going to be a bit hard, it beats not existing.” said Eclipse, trying to sound optimistic.
“You are facing all of this with more bravery than I have ever seen. I don’t think most ponies could handle being in your situation.”
“I try and stay positive. Now you should probably stand up, you’ve been on the floor this entire time. It’s kind of awkward looking down on you princess.” He said, extending a hoof to help her up.
She took his hoof and hoisted herself up. “Oh, my bad. I was distracted by your tale.”
“So, what were you reading before I showed up?” asked Eclipse.
“Nothing interesting, just an old history book. When I was locked away for a thousand years I missed out on quite a bit.”
“That’s understandable. So do you usually stay up all night?”
“Not really, I just didn’t feel like sleeping today so I came here.”
“Well that’s lucky for me. Without you I probably would have ended up waking around the castle alone all night. So what else is there to do other than read?”
“We could go outside, the gardens are really nice at night.”
“I can’t go outside at night.”
“Why not?”
“I forgot to tell you, Atrox gains more control ovre me when I look at the stars, so I try and stay inside at night. At first I just tried to not ever look at the stars, but even so I’m still changing.”
“I can’t really think of anything else we can do besides read. I might just go to bed, I’m actually pretty tired.”
“I suppose I could risk going to bed now. It’s pretty far into the night so I won’t have to sleep for very long. I’ll see you at Celestia’s room tomorrow when she casts her spell on me, ok?”
“I’ll see you then.” Said Luna. Then she turned around and went off to her room to go to bed.
Eclipse went back to his room and laid down on the couch, seeing as Rainbow was occupying the bed. He was eager to be free of his curse and the more he thought about what it would be like to be free the more he felt he couldn’t sleep, but eventually he managed to doze off to a dreamless sleep.