What have I done?

by St Jimmy

Eclipse

“Alright, all set,” Twilight admired the large runic circle she had crafted.

“Damn,” commented Rainbow Dash, circling around it, as if she could learn what each symbol meant via careful observation. “So cool,”

“Thanks, I had to make use of a few memory-based shortcuts, which will be coming from you, but all in all, pretty much flawless,”

Dash blinked. “Cool…,”

“Anyway, ready to go?”

“As I’ll ever be…,”

“Oh, come on, it’ll be fun,”

“Your definition of ‘fun’ isn’t the same as mine,”

“Ah, well. To each their own,”

The two ponies stood, or else floated, within the boundaries of the small circle, whilst Twilight prepared energy from herself and Rainbow Dash.

Magic in Equestria takes on a very different system than magic anywhere else. Conventional magic is powered by Mana or Magicka, and is fed by objects and structures. Equestrian magic, on the other hand is powered by something called Vieticka, quite literally the “Mana of Life”. Which means that you power your magic based on the bonds you share with other ponies. That’s why Friendship, quite literally, is Magic, and why a pony with a lot of friends is dangerous, but a pony with a lover is damn near unstoppable. Anyway, the main issue with this system is that each pony can only carry so much energy at once, and a really high-level spell can cause that to vanish instantly. But, If you have no body, like Rainbow Dash, then you have no physical form to limit you, you are literally made out emotion.

And in Equestria, Emotion is power.

Therefore, Rainbow Dash is a being of pure magical energy, meaning that Twilight has access to a virtually unlimited source of magic.

So why not use Rainbow Dash’s mana to craft her a new body? Because creating a body isn’t about energy. It’s about The Guardian.

It’s about The Tribute.

Life isn’t some toy. If you want to create it, you need to show that you deserve it, and The Guardian tests you by taking something from you.

Like your organs, or your leg, or your body, or just you.

Additionally, The Guardian is kind of an asshole. So if he can, he’ll take something to make the whole thing ironic.

Basically, It’d get inconvenient real fast.

Twilight looked to Rainbow Dash, who nodded, and closed her eyes, feeding energy to Twilight. Twilight then closed her own eyes, and began channeling energy into her horn. As it began charging, she noticed that it was heating up really fast. She drew in energy from herself, and focused it into a cooling barrier around her horn, which seemed to do the trick. Of course, this would just make it more difficult to finish the teleportation, so she’d just dump it at the last second.

Twilight carefully watched as the blue swirling energies began to shift to green, then to yellow, and lastly to gold. Once they became gold, Twilight focused them around herself, and Dash condensed herself into the locket.

“Hold on tight,”

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A lone pony sat in the back seat, of the back car, of the last train of the night. He was virtually the only passenger, the only others being gossipy mares and a few of their husbands, who desperately wanted to get some rest. The pony looked over to the hostess, and muttered under his breath.

“Mare or Stallion?”

“The hostess?” The stallion behind him replied.

“No, the Cousin who’s in town tomorrow,”

“Excuse me?”

“Her cousin on her mom’s side is going to be in town tomorrow, so, Mare or Stallion,”

“How did you know that?”

“I didn’t, but she didn’t do a very good job hiding it,”

“She…didn’t?”

“By the way, your son hasn’t yet, but your daughter already has been for the last week,”

“What?”

“Just answering your question,”

“I didn’t ask one…,”

“But you would ask somepony else eventually, I thought I’d save you the time,”

The husband leaned forward a bit. “Who are you?”

The pony dropped his hood, revealing a black mane with a red streak, and gray fur. He smiled. “You can call me Eclipse, or Ray, or Ray Eclipse,”

“I’ll stick with Ray,”

“Can’t say I’m surprised,”

“How did you gather all that from few glances?”

“It’s a gift,”

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“Welcome to Trottingham!” Said Twilight, behind the disguise of a black pegasus mare. “I told you we’d get here!”

“But you meant by the teleport, not by walking a hundered miles,” Replied Rainbow Dash.

“Firstly, you can’t complain, you didn’t have to walk, and secondly, not my fault!” Said Twilight defensively.

“Totally your fault,”

Twilight paused as they walked towards the residential district “Okay, completely my fault,”

The two ponies walked into the “Oak” section of homes, as Rainbow had suggested, and searched for the “Dash” house. Of course, Twilight couldn’t find it.

“Why isn’t there a single house in here under Dash?!” Said Twilight, obviously immensely frustrated.

Rainbow suddenly looked embarrassed. “Oh…Probably because Rainbow Dash is not my original name,”

Twilights eyes shimmered red. “What?!”

“Well, I mean-,” Replied Dash Hurriedly. “My moms last name was Eclipse, and my Dad was Spectrum, we kept my dad’s, and they named me Bright,” Rainbow backed up a hoofstep. “Bright Spectrum,”

“But I wanted to be called something more awesome, so I asked people to call me Rainbow Dash. And then it just stuck,”

“You couldn’t have told me this earlier in our relationship? You had to DIE first?”

“Well, when you say it like that…,”Rainbow blushed, turned her gaze away from Twilight, and rubbed the back of her head with her hoof.

“HOW ELSE CAN YOU SAY IT?!?” Twilight covered her mouth and blushed, then looked around to make sure no one heard her.

“Whoops,” Said Twilight, in a very Fluttershy tone of voice. She cleared her throat. “Sorry Dash. Anyway, let’s ask for directions to their home, that should save us some time,”

“Well, while you do that, I’m gonna look as much around as I can, okay?”

Twilight smiled. “Sure,”

In order to maintain her physical form, Rainbow Dash could only get around 30 feet from the locket, which was sufficient for “Sightseeing”. She admired the new homes, the new parks, but most of all, the young ponies.

Their eyes filled with joy, and their bodies filled with energy as they bounded around in their games of tag, or racing, or whatever.

Suddenly, Dash saw the horizon jerk back. She would have said she felt getting pulled back, but she couldn’t feel anything physical. She turned around and floated forward in order to give a little while longer to look around, but she didn’t have long before she heard Twilight’s voice in her head.

“Rainbow…,”

“Yeah, Twi?”

“You might want to get over here,”

“No problem,” Rainbow condensed herself to a fast-moving ball of energy, and homed in on the locket. When she popped up she was next to Twilight, and the two were standing in the cemetery.

“Hey why are we in the graveyard? I thought you were going to find my parents,”

“I think I did,”

Rainbow looked shocked. “W-What do you mean?”

“Rainbow…,” Twilight’s eyes began to water. “I’m sorry,” She stepped aside to reveal the headstone behind her.

R.I.P Luminous Eclipse & Brave Spectrum.

Comments

[Bakmah Genesis]

Well shit.

[St Jimmy]

4184648 Yeah...

[Novi]

Reminds me of the other story I read before. Forever a changeling... I love these sad parts

[Fox-Boy72]

PLOT TWIST!!!!!!!!