//------------------------------//
// How Far Must I Fall? 
// Story: Cursed Eclipse - Shorts 
// by AImostpure 
//------------------------------//

	After Hours was an old earth pony. His coat teal and his mane and tail once cream color was now a off shade of gray and white. He had earned his cutie mark, a giant eye set against an old pocket watch, after he stayed up all night for seven nights in a row without a hint of fatigue. For fifty years, now in his early seventies, he was the night watch pony for the Canterlot Museum. After Hours retired with full recognition for his work and was thanked by Princess Celestia during his retirement party. He and his wife decided that city life in their old age was no longer for them. So, After Hours and his wife, Grape Sherbert, moved to the newly established settlement of Ponygold purchasing a plot of land they could spend their last remaining years on. Sadly, the years he spent staying up all night would not just stop. 
With most of Equestria in bed while he was wide awake, After Hours grew bored. He decided to take up a small job, two nights a week, guarding the largest gold mine outside of Ponygold. It was simple work consisting of walking around the outside of the mine, the first few rooms of the mine, and returning to a small checkpoint for ten minutes every hour for eight hours. He had offered to do this without pay, wanting only the thrill of working over any monetary gain. The owners of the mine would not have it, instead of pay he accepted their offer of theater tickets and tickets to the Manehatten Orchestra. Hours and his wife would take a night a week going to Manehatten by train to see a show. It was a good, relaxing retirement in his eyes. 
Tonight, was supposed to be no different than any other night. After Hours arrived at work five minutes before his schedule to the previous watch pony could leave to go home to his family. A new moon hung hidden in the sky. No light shined down tonight, but that was what ponies invested flashlights for. After Hours at times wondered why they needed a guard at night to begin with. There had never been an incident that required security at the mine. It had been open for two years and there wasn't even graffiti in the bathrooms. Still, he placed the flashlight in his mouth and went about to go on his first survey of the mine. 
Each of the office portables were clear of any trespassers. Like wise, when he came to the equipment depot and worker break building, there was not a pony in sight. It was not until he came to the mine entrance that the sound of shuffling hooves took him for a fright. Old, olive eyes squinted to try and see into the darkness of the rock hole. The flashlight moved with his tongue to shine the yellow light in the first room. He had believed it to be nothing but his odd hearing until the sound came again.
“Now whatever be in there! Just come out and leave and there wont be no pony in trouble!” Clopping hooves traveled further into the gold mine pulling After Hours to follow with the haste of a senior citizen. 
Nothing taken to chance, the flashlight was angled to shine right in front of the old pony. Around each turn, and down to the second level, he followed the sounds until he hit a room filled with machinery. Hours took a moment to figure out where he was. His normal route did not take him this deep into the mines, and he had only seen it once or twice when he brought his grandfoals on tours here. There were three machines, each was on vibrating and puffing steam. Pipes lead from the machine to the ceiling and to the walls. Powerful fans attached to the right side of each machine spun around sucking in fresh air to send down into the pipes. After a moment, he realized he was in the air room. Each machine pumped air in and out of the lower chambers to ensure that the workers would be able to breath. It was delicate equipment he didn't dare touch, but if somepony was in here it was his job to stop them from touching. “I'll call the guard if I have to but I really don't want anypony to wind up in the tank. Just leave now and we'll call it even. No damage is done. Just leave.” 
Further into the room, After Hours began to shake. There was no excitement like this at the museum. At most he had caught a researcher or scientist coming in after the closing time without checking in with him first. Now it was an unknown pony in a room pitch black except for the shine of his flashlight. It hit him then. A hard object struck the back of his head sending the elderly pony to the mine floor and his flashlight rolling to the side sending its glare just above his head. His body froze up, every muscle and nerve giving out. A warm sensation surrounded his face. From what he could see with the dim light his flashlight gave him, it was red in color. 
Images began to flash through his thoughts. Tomorrow was supposed to be such a perfect day after he returned home. After Hours would do the same as he always did. When he reached his house, Grape Sherbert would be sitting on a rocking chair on the porch waiting for him. She would fix him breakfast then help him to his favorite chair for a nap. His son, daughter in law, and their three foals were to come visit him and his wife tomorrow too. They would ask him questions about the museum, beg him to take them into town to see the trains, or to go to the cliffs above the Everfree Forest. 
He was certain the middle foal, the eight year old filly, would bring him fresh cookies she baked. The first time she brought him cookies she had confused the salt and the sugar. Being a good grandpa he ate them down to the final crumb and requested she make him more. The sight of her smiling face every time he ate the salty treats made it all worthwhile. 
Movements robbed him of his final thoughts. He glanced upwards to see the shadow of a pony standing over him. Dim glow illuminated enough that he could see a hammer within the pony's mouth, red on the tip of the claw. It occurred to him then. He would never be able to walk home to his wife nor eat her meals. He wouldn't be able to give pony back rides to his grandfoals nor hear about the things they did since the last time they saw him. Never again would he eat the salty cookies made by his grandfilly's loving hooves. After Hours had planned that the last things he heard before he died would either be his wife or those he loved telling him that they loved him before the afterlife took him. 

Instead, the unknown pony in front of him would give him his last rites. “I'm sorry.” A mare's voice spoke. The pony's head lowered swiftly bringing the head of the hammer down thrice against After Hour's skull. Black overtook his eyes and life had left his body. 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Blueberry Pie stood in the calming darkness staring down at her victim. Her body was thinner than she was last she saw Eclipse, ten years ago. Saddlebags at her waist tightly strapped to her. The instrument of the pony's murder fell from her slacking jaw onto the ground below. A shiver ran across her body raising the hairs of her dark blue coat. It was not the first time she had taken a life. In truth she had killed kobolds, wild animals, and bandit ponies in self defense, but this was different. Nausea swept through her gut threatening to spill her dinner out over the dusty mine ground. Green eyes closed once her head finally turned away from the pony's body. The mare quivered as the image of the dead stallion already haunted her mind. He was not supposed to hear me. If he had just ignored the sounds... Regret washed over her for what she had done and what she was about to do. 
Through the black she crossed towards the center machine. From her saddlebags came the clinking of glass upon glass. Wiggling her flank, the blank pair of khaki cloth fell to the ground behind her. The contents rattled a few of the items within rolling out. They were glass orbs the size of golf balls. Green mist swirled within beckoning to withdraw. Blueberry Pie knew what she had to do with these dark objects. First, she had to deal with the body of the night watch. 
She had been told that using the contents of this vile would summon a magic fire to rid any evidence that may come. The one who granted it to her had said it could even turn a pony to ash if it ever came down to such a need. Such a need had sadly come. The bag opposite of the green smoke orbs was opened with her teeth clenching the flap. A blue orb, dancing with a magic fire inside, was clutched lightly between her lips instead of teeth. She rolled her tongue across the surface lightly. It was cold as stone, not the heat she expected to feel. Movements carried her back to After Hours' body dropping the orb down. It rolled across the floor, through the haunting red that leaked from the pony's skull ending its trail besides his body. Now Blueberry would have to touch it. She cringed outwardly raising a careful hoof only to bring it down on the jewel encased flame. Blue fire shot outwards covering around the old pony's body. Within seconds it spread across his cooling flesh engulfing the corpse and the spewed life fluids. The room became a lit in turquoise light.
It was amazing how the fire cleansed away the evidence. Blueberry wished it could have also cleansed her soul of her sins. She turned back to the machines, to the green swirling gems. The supplier of the blue fire had told her that the smoke was a special poison gas. It spread out slowly at first giving the pony who releases it a chance to flee. After an hour it spreads out. Lowering her head, she used her muzzle to knock five gems out of the bag, then roll each one to the center machine's giant fan. One by one, her bloodied hoof came down cracking open releasing the smoke. The thick green raised upwards dancing like a serpent to the tune of a charmer. It lingered a moment spinning through the air before being sucked into the fan's blades. Blueberry could not wait around to watch and ensure the plan was successful. She only short, precious minutes to leave the mine before the poison spread out suffocating the oxygen in the mine. Anything caught down below would be dead within seconds, anypony who breathed it in would be fine if they escaped to fresh air within an hour. Blueberry turned, giving one last look at the ash of After Hours, before galloping towards the exit of the mine.
Without hesitation, Blueberry fled the mine site once she had reached the top. She did not stop to see if any other pony was around. Everything inside of her screamed for her to run from the place of her crime, from the place a piece of her was left to die. She continued her running entering into the small forest that laid close to Ponygold. Ignoring any obvious trails, Blueberry chose instead to cross through animal paths to until the warm glow of a crackling fire laid just ahead. The place she had setup for her camp while she was in this area. She had left the fire to help find her way back. 
A moment's pause was taken to catch her breath. She stopped running when she came to the small clearing among the trees and brush. Her tent laid close to the trunk of a thick, weeping willow partially concealed by the tree's hanging branches. A circle of rocks kept the fire she burned from spreading out to the plants. It was foolish to leave it while she ventured to the mine but the act of starting it without magic was a difficult task as it was. At the fire Blueberry finally dropped back sitting on her haunches. Her head hung forward, flinching her eyes closed, gritting her teeth as tears poured down her cheeks. Head flung back, a scream of despair tore form her throat echoing through the trees only to be heard by herself and the few animals that were around. 
The fire gave light to Blueberry's body. Her mane and tail no longer were the bright colors they once were. Stress and age turned the streaks of purple to white. The light blue that made the bulk of color was washed out and faded. A single scar was dug just on her right shoulder blade. Its origins something else that Blueberry Pie wished to leave in the past. 
When the scream subsided, the mare began slamming her fore hooves against the ground. The rocks were struck one by one randomly when her attention was lost to the sorrow enveloping her. A hoof misplaced its strike on the hard surface of a stone. She stumbled forward pushing her limb directly into the embrace of the fire's wicked touch. She did not react to the pain at first. It wasn't until the smell of burning fur and flesh hit her nostrils that she finally withdrew. Painfully whimpering, she limped towards her tent.
“That was foolish.” A voice spoke from the darkness. Blueberry knew that voice all too well. It was a mare's voice. One touched with the wisdom of ages, deep and parental. Like a stern headmaster that stood over their charges with an iron hoof. “But you accomplished your goal perfectly, as to be expected of my acolyte. As it did always, the owner of the voice did not reveal herself.
“When can we stop this. You promised me that Eclipse would be freed. It's been years now since I accept your proposal, but all I do is...” Blueberry sighed heavily retreating past the flap of her tent to retrieve her first aid kit. She limped with each step, keeping her burned hoof off the ground. “I killed a pony today. An innocent pony. That was never supposed to have happened.”
“I promised you power, and I warned that it would take time before this could be achieved, before you would have the power to free Eclipse.”
“Yes you warned me. Yes you told me. But for three years I have poisoned the air in mines, released parasprites on unsuspecting farms or factories, and even set fire to a pony's home to stop them from delivering some message to the Princess. But tonight... Tonight I killed somepony. Not in self defense, not to protect somepony else, but in cold blood!” She stomped down all four hooves only to feel the pain of her burned limb rush back through her. She cried out falling against her side, but the ground would not meet her. 
Rather, magic had gathered around her lifting her back to her hooves. The magic was gentle as a mother's touch. It wrapped around her body relieving the tension and weariness that choked at her muscles. The skin and fur of her burned limb began to be restored. “Calm now, my dear Blueberry Pie. You could have freed Eclipse three years ago with your wish from the Princess. But you knew that even if you had tried, it would have failed. Your family would have further suffered from the unlawful acts Gold Mine would have committed in the name of vengeance”	
“I know.” Her voice sounded weak. She could not argue the logic that the voice presented to her. “How much longer must I do these things?”
“I do not know. Even if we were to free her now, Eclipse would only go from one prison into another. Celestia would never allow her to be free. The sins the Princess committed in times of old would be known to all, and her rule would be overturned. We must be careful how we act. I told you of the Princess' sins, you know this to be true.”
The tales the voice had told Blueberry of the past, of an event over two thousand years old, was a gut wrenching event. She could have scarcely believed it to be true if not for the other things that Celestia had done for the kingdom. If Celestia was willing to imprison her sister, Luna, on the moon then she was willing to commit other sins as well. She relinquished any argument against the path that she was taking. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but the voice assured her it was the proper path to take. “Forgive me. But I wish to sleep and leave the events of tonight behind.” 
“Goodnight, Blueberry Pie. Sweet dreams.” The final two words lingered in the blue mare's ears. Sweet dreams? There wouldn't be any. She ventured back into the confines of her worn tent. Her tail swished striking the flap to close it behind her. A thin blanket and a flat pillow welcomed her at the small tents center. Exhausted form dropped down against the hard ground. Blueberry wanted nothing more then to have a dreamless slumber until the sun woke her. She would find this impossible. The images of After Hours dying at her hooves, the final strike she placed rendering him lifeless, would repeat over and over in her nightmares. 
“Yes, do sleep, Blueberry Pie. Blessed caretaker of my dear Eclipse. My dearest Eclipse. I will build a kingdom for you. A kingdom where you will truly be free.” The presence of the voice vanished into the moonless night. Once again, Blueberry Pie was alone with only her sin to keep her.