Stone to Sand
Ponyville, Ponyville Train Station; 3:30am
After the party at Canterlot, Eclipse went back to the hotel to pack his belongings, Pristine later joined him after she went back home and packed her own things. The two first went to the traders guild to speak to Goldenshine, the earlier trade agreement that Eclipse had made would have to be postponed for later as he would be out for another business trip. Understanding the situation, Goldenshine said she will await Eclipse’s response once he comes back from his trip.
After that was dealt with, Eclipse left for Ponyville by the evening train, it takes usually six hours between Ponyville and Canterlot by train, so both Eclipse and Pristine arrived in Ponyville early in the morning. Pristine was half-awake when they arrived, not wanting to wake her, Eclipse carried her and both their belongings back to his home.
Once the two arrived there, Eclipse laid Pristine on his bed, but after he did that, Pristine woke up. “Hmmm… where am I?” asked Pristine.
“My home, I don’t have a guest bed so you can sleep here for now,” said Eclipse.
“...So we’ve finally arrived in Ponyville already, I never expected your house to be this… small.”
“I like to keeps things compact and simple, that and I only planned on living by myself when I arrived here. Don’t worry about where I’ll be sleeping tonight, for now rest, in the morning we’ll be preparing to leave for Las Pegasus.”
Pristine wanted to ask more questions but soon sleep came upon her, resting quietly, Eclipse soon left his home and approached the hammock set up by the lake. Climbing into it, Eclipse rested calmly as he gazed at the moon, its lunar light beaming down from above. It’ll be a long journey once the sun comes, for now I have many things that need to be done before my departure.
Ponyville, Golden Oaks Library; 7:30am
Twilight woke up that morning, looking around her room, she could still see Spike still sleeping in his basket. After Eclipse left for Canterlot, she’s been coming to his place every morning, doing some cleaning, organizing, sometimes she would find something interesting and examine it.
After a quick shower, brushing her teeth, and eating a bowl of cereal, Twilight headed off to Eclipse’s; the trot there wasn’t long and she could see some ponies were beginning to awake at this hour. The morning was peaceful as birds chirped musically, a gentle wind blowing through the town, the early signs of Fall were visible with the changing coloration of the leaves and many animals gathering what food they can for hibernation.
The weather pegasi should be bringing rain clouds in the coming weeks.
Twilight neared the path that led to Eclipse’s property, trotting through the trees she spotted the small building that was Eclipse’s home. Approaching the front door, Twilight used her magic and lifting a rock placed conveniently near the front door, lifted it to reveal a key. Using the key to unlock the door, Twilight put the key back and entered inside… only to be face-to-face with a familiar face.
Standing before her was one of the paladins of the Church, who was standing inside Eclipse’s home; Pristine looked back at the sudden entrance of the student of Princess Celestia, the figure that many of the Church’s members praised as a holy entity, though Pristine has been humbled and sober from that kind of view, she still shares some form of respect to the princess still.
Both mares gazed at one another, until Twilight reacted immediately by using her magic to grab a chair behind Pristine and throwing it at her. Pristine felt the sudden shift in the wind and ducked down to dodge it, the chair was luckily stopped by Twilight’s levitation before it hit her, but after putting it aside, Pristine charged at her. The two ended up tumbling on the ground, both sides saying some sort of retort and accusation.
“WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN ECLIPSE’S HOUSE! I KNEW YOU CHURCH FOLLOWERS COULDN’T PROMISE TO THE PRINCESS ABOUT LEAVING HIM ALONE!” shouted Twilight, pushing her hoof against Pristine’s face.
“NOW HOLD ON ONE MOMENT, I DON’T KNOW WHY YOU’RE HERE IN THE FIRST PLACE, BUT I’VE RECONCILED WITH SIR ECLIPSE! NOW YOU BETTER CALM DOWN BEFORE I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING!”
“YEAH RIGHT, HOW ABOUT I CALL THE PRINCESS AND HAVE YOU SENT TO THE DUNGEONS!”
“YOU LITTLE BRAT, LISTEN HERE BEFORE I-”
The two continued to struggle in the ground before both heard a cough, slowly looking to where the sound came from, they saw Luella – Eclipse’s cub bear companion – who was gazing at them with an annoyed look. Behind her were a pair of familiar hooves, looking up was the equally neutral but somewhat annoyed Eclipse.
“I’d like to ask what you two are doing, but considering both of you have met previously – albeit at not so good terms – before, that’s still no excuse to be fighting in my property… Though at this point it devolved from a fight to… whatever manner of awkward position you two are at.”
Luella growled, a sniff with her nose getting Eclipse attention as he glanced down at the cub. “I agree, they are indeed in a risque position, but that’s no way to casually mention it.” The cub snorted with another growl, making Eclipse raise his brow. “Hilarious indeed but I’m not going to allow two close acquaintances of mine to fight like a pair of grade school boys… or would it be girls instead? A cat-fight maybe or would it be a kitten-fight?”
The odd rambling of Eclipse managed to get the two off each other, that and when he mentioned some key words in his sentence, the two were now blushing furiously; Twilight quickly reeled her embarrassment in and glared – or tried to – at Eclipse.
“ECLIPSE! I-”
“Twilight, indoor voice, it’s almost eight in the morning.”
Breathing in and out calmly, Twilight looked back at Eclipse with a serious gaze. “Eclipse… Why is she here, isn’t she a member of the Church, a paladin last I remembered?” asked Twilight.
Long story sort, Twilight was told the recent news in Canterlot of how Shining Might personally stated he was at fault for the recent incident in Ponyville, how Pristine was fired before said statement, of her being the daughter of the noble that asked for Eclipse’s help, and that he is planning an exploration trip to the San Palomino Desert with her and a few others.
It was a lot for her to take in, but the idea Eclipse’s return has now changed to him immediately leaving again… there were many conflicting thoughts in her head. “I know you have questions Twilight, but I need to speak to the lieutenant and sergeant of the Royal and Lunar Guards. I’m going to see if they can spare some of their troops to come join me in this journey for this artifact. I’ll be back later, so if you or the girls have questions come back here in an hour or two, but for now… please don’t argue any further with miss Pristine, she isn’t as bad as you believe… though her temper is to be questioned.”
“HEY I… okay you got me there, but I’m trying yeesh,” said Pristine, grumbling.
Eclipse did a small smirk before headed off to town toward the local barracks; the two mares were now alone, both standing there with their own thoughts to deal with.
Well this is awkward, better do something to lighten the mood.
“Um, miss Twilight, since Eclipse and I arrived earlier here, we haven’t properly unpacked any the things we brought from Canterlot… and I suppose with your organizational skills, you might help with choosing which items to bring to a trip to the desert,” said Pristine.
Twilight was quiet for awhile but sighed. “Sure, I can help with that and Twilight is just fine… ummmm.”
“Pristine, just Pristine.” The two headed back inside, Twilight bringing the chair she tried to throw at Pristine to where it was before. Still outside, Luella gave an annoyed grumble and waddled off somewhere, growling a cute roar that oddly sounded like an unheard swear… though it could be just animal noises.
Ponyville, Ponyville Barracks; 8:15am
Orion was in his personal office, he was looking through different documents, one of said documents was a list of possible recruits to join the Ponyville Guard in the coming months. When Orion was first sent to be stationed in the new guard barracks in Ponyville, he was given at least a section of troops both from the Royal Guard and the recently made Lunar Guard. Later in the following months – next year – another section of troops will arrive to reinforce the current troops, making at least a squad of troops.
But because I’m a first lieutenant and not a sergeant, technically I’m supposed to command roughly between sixteen to fifty, a platoon. The only reason why the princess allowed a lieutenant to command a military force in such a town this size was due to the Everfree Forest, that and her reasons were doubled with the Church’s recent actions against this town.
Orion viewed the current list of future guards for both groups to come, most were privates of various ranks, with a few other higher ranked guards like corporal, sergeant, and specialist… but there was one surprising rank among them.
“Second Lieutenant Meltdown...”
The second lieutenant rose in the ranks for his excellent leadership skills, combative abilities, magical prowess, and much more; he was originally just a private first class when the city he was stationed at became under siege from a group of wild adolescent dragons. After his leading officer was demoralized from the sudden attack, he led what remaining guards and fought back to save the city – a militaristic celebrity to put it simply.
“To imagine he would want to be stationed here of all places… but why?”
Orion knew perfectly that some of these troops were given this position, especially the lower-ranked guards, but those with higher ranks, mostly officer rank, can choose where to station themselves… so the fact a fellow officer willingly stationed here was a tad suspicious. I’ll ask the princess if she knows why he’s coming here, if not I’ll ask some friends who were also stationed at the same city he was stationed, why he made the decision to be stationed here.
Moving on down the list, Orion made out that six new Royal Guard members and six new Lunar Guard members were to make preparations to be stationed here by somewhere around January. Most were fliers like pegasi and thestrals, a pair of earth ponies, and some unicorns; it was made clear that the Lunar Guard did not only consist of thestrals, most of their ranks were mostly thestrals and pegasi, with some unicorns, though it was rare to find an earth pony or two.
A knock on the door was heard as Orion was looking through the names of these newcomers, putting away the document, the one to enter inside was Ves. She wore a hoodie, it was midnight blue with the edge of the hoodie being purple, with tiny stars stitched on the hoodie. Even though it was early morning, fall was starting some time and while thestrals do have a natural affinity against cold weather… Ves oddly wore a sweater at this hour.
“Strange, why are you wearing that?” asked Orion.
“Oh, you got a problem with my choice in clothing… you wanna see me without it,” said Ves, teasingly.
“Can you not do this now, I’m busy with these documents… some being yours.”
“Oh boo hoo, having trouble with paperwork are we and if you must know why I have a sweater on, I may be fine with the cold but it’s no excuse I have to deal with it… Besides, I enjoy something soft, warm, and comfortable, that and it helps to block out the sunlight aimed at my eyes.”
Sighing Orion knew Ves was just trying to have some fun on this slow day, especially after Eclipse received that letter of invitation to Canterlot, not a lot happening while he was gone. He planned to have further discussions with the mysterious stallion, but it felt way too convenient for him to leave.
Before the discussion with whatever Ves wanted to come here for could continue, the two were interrupted when suddenly Eclipse walked into the room. “Lieutenant Orion, may I have a word with you,” said Eclipse.
“WHA! Where did you come from!?”
Even Orion was shocked, Eclipse just nonchalantly walked into his office, nopony even noticed he came to the second floor which was restricted from civilians. Hearing more hoofsteps, Iris came upstairs from the front desk in the lobby. “So sorry sir, he just suddenly went upstairs and it took me a few seconds to realize he went up without my say so, should I bring him back downstairs?”
Eclipse and Orion looked at one another, Orion glanced at Ves and after she calmed down from her shock, she agreed that while Eclipse appearance was sudden… the timing was perfect. “No, go back to your post Iris, I need to speak to sir Eclipse.”
Iris looked at the two and shrugged, going back to the front desk; seeing no signs of him needing to leave, Eclipse sat down on the guest chair in Orion’s office. Ves stood beside Orion, leaving Eclipse to sit down on the only chair in the room – other than Orion’s – until he waited by looking at the two until Orion spoke.
“Eclipse, what exactly do you need to see me for?” asked Orion.
“Well, after my visit from Canterlot, the pony who wished to meet me wanted to make a trade agreement with him. While he gives me access into using his personal trade routes, I allow him to use the elemental orbs I sell. During our agreement he asked me to find an artifact he has an interest in, I came here to ask for the assistance of the local guard for this endeavor.”
Orion looked at Ves and the two looked back at Eclipse. “So you want to use some of our guards huh, well I suppose this will complete that debt we owe you for allowing us to use your property to train. How many of our guards do you need and who specifically?”
Eclipse explained he was heading to San Palomino Desert, so he needed somebody with good navigation and scouting skills, he also needed somebody with good night-vision as not only would they be traveling under the hot scorching sun, but frigid desert nights too.
Orion suggested Staff Sergeant Clear Sight go with Eclipse, the two having been acquainted already the choice was alright; for Ves’s suggestion, Specialist Fang would be a good pick. Fang had a knack for CQC and was previously stationed near a desert in the past. With two of three guards picked, there was only one guard they needed to choose.
“Hmmmm, I believe Heart Beat would be a good third choice, while she is only a private unlike Sight and Fang, her knowledge with herbs and medical practices is better than anypony else in our guard. With the local hospital not needing any assistance right now, it’ll be fine if she goes with you, its best you have somepony to patch any wounds you may get during the trip.”
“Oh, another warning, if you are indeed going to the desert, be wary of tatzlwurms, giant tunneler worms, Fang can further explain to you the best way to avoid those critters,” said Ves.
With that, Orion and Eclipse further talked until both agreed to the current arrangement; Eclipse gave further payment to Orion and told him he’ll be ready to leave around noon with his own supplies and companion.
After Eclipse left, Orion called in the three guards that would join Eclipse. “So… who do you think sent Eclipse to get this artifact… you think it has anything to do with the Church?”
“If it does, the guards we send will tell us immediately,” said Orion. Soon Sight, Fang, and Beat entered the office, saluting in a row before their two superiors. “I have a job for you three, so pay close attention.”
Elsewhere – Ponyville, Eclipse’s Property; 8:30am
Twilight helped Pristine unpack the rest of the belongings that both she and Eclipse brought back from Canterlot. Twilight soon found that some of the items were possibly souvenirs Eclipse bought, while he was at Canterlot for her and the girls; not wanting to ruin the surprise, she floated them all to his bed, putting her focus on other things.
Pristine was busy checking what kind of supplies they need for their journey to the San Palomino Desert, this including three pouches of water, some sand-resistant clothing, a shawl to cover her face from both the sun and any sand, and something Eclipse recommend she hold onto – an ice orb and wind orb. She wasn’t certain what reason to use for either orb, the ice orb was kinda obvious but the wind orb, she had no clue what kind of emergency to use that for.
While organizing through some more stuff, Twilight paused in her organizing, but kept her gaze on some still closed bags. “So, Pristine, what exactly are you and Eclipse doing together?” asked Twilight.
“Um, well as Eclipse said-”
“I mean, personally… why did you agreed to come with Eclipse, I assumed you could of said no to not coming, whether you were told to or not.”
Pristine was put into quite the pickle, even if she said it was because her father told her to, it wasn’t an answer Twilight would happily accept. Thinking deep, Pristine sighed as she put more rations into her saddlebags.
“Well… at first I didn’t want to come, firstly for our history together,” said Pristine.
You can say that again, you nearly sliced a chunk out of him with that whip of yours.
“And secondly, he didn’t express a friendly visage about him… always either serious, neutral, or both at the same time… Though, he somehow got under my skin and I ended up owing him – twice – so yeah...”
“But… there’s more,” said Twilight, curious.
Pristine looked out the only window in the shack-sized house, the sun was still rising, but she could hear the distant chatter of ponies wandering the streets beyond the trees. She can see Canterlot from here, the view was perfect, imagine seeing the city under either the light of the sun… or the moon. Believe it or not, Pristine did had a fascination for the stars and the night sky, loving to watch the beauty of it all… though that was a long long time ago.
“Well… he had this, mystique to him, like trying to open a locked book, you got the key but no matter what, that book would always stay close. I had every chance to go up to him and ask, but it always slip away… He has that feeling you know, like… like...”
“You gotta know more, no matter what,” said Twilight, finishing Pristine’s thought. The two stared at one another, but soon gazed back at the window.
“Yeah… you just gotta know...” At that moment, the door opened to find Eclipse entering, after explaining that Orion would be sending three of his guards with them, he and Pristine continued packing with the help of Twilight, but soon she left to tell the girls.
With Twilight gone, Eclipse swiftly took some items – five of the known orbs he has, his own water pouch, rations, a simple dagger, a map, and a compass – wearing the basic desert outfit, he also brought his scabbard and sword, sheathed with his saddlebags.
“We’re meeting the requested guards at the train station, you ready?”
Pristine nodded and the two soon left, making their way to the train station, they soon found Orion and Ves there with the three requested guards, the girls, Spike, and Trixie were there too… but something was off. Where’s Twilight?
“Wait! I’m coming too!” Turning around, was Twilight who had saddlebags packed to the brim with… well who knows what – possibly everything you may or may not need for a journey through the desert.
What is this filly doing?! “Miss Sparkle, what are you doing, I was told only Eclipse, his guest, and my guards were going on this trip,” said Orion.
“That’s why I’m volunteering!” Everypony was shocked, even Twilight’s friends, except for Spike who sighed. Eclipse looked at the drake and the moment Spike saw Eclipse looking at him, he spoke.
“After Twilight was told you were leaving again from Ponyville so soon you came back, she decided to come with you, no matter what. I tried to convince her, but she told me to get the girls while she got ready,” said Spike, crossing both arms together.
The girls and Orion were quickly trying to persuade her from joining Eclipse, but after a quick whistle from Eclipse, all attention came to him. Approaching Twilight, who had a determined look, Eclipse faced her with his stone-faced expression.
“You can’t tell me I can’t come Eclipse, you’ve been away more often than usual, but this sudden trip is too… suspicious; I really don’t care who you bring, but please, at least let me come, I’ve read about desert travel and what to do to survive in the desert, you don’t need to do this alone without friends!”
Eclipse still stayed quiet, everybody thought Eclipse would say yes, he seemed to always had a soft spot for the girls ever since he met them… but today seemed to be different.
“No, you’re not coming.” Twilight was shocked, but before she could speak, Eclipse continued. “This is a business trip Twilight – a serious one – I know you are sent to… ‘similar’ assignments by Celestia, but there will be real danger… and real consequences where there will be no second chances and no time to make a precise, clear decision.”
Twilight’s ears lowered to the sides of her head, but when a hoof was laid on her withers, she looked up to Eclipse. “I won’t say this is for your safety or I can’t risk bringing you, you’re a smart girl, but I need to know you trust me… I’ll even let you watch over my place longer… you can check out what I’ve been working on, how about that?”
This brightened her mood… albeit a little, so with a nod Eclipse made his way to the train that headed to Las Pegasus. With everypony else on board, Orion quickly spoke to Sight before the train departed.
“Report anything out of the ordinary, both for Eclipse and Ms Pristine… I know she’s ex-Church, but I don’t know anything other than that, the moment you see any signs of Church influence, crush this crystal.” Orion passed Sight a glowing blue crystal that was shaped like a diamond, nodding in understanding, Orion stepped back as the train’s doors closed and with three loud whistles it went off from the station. The group watched it leave and as it slowly left everybody else soon left too, leaving Twilight with Applejack who stayed with her just in case.
“Come on sugarcube, let’s head to Sugarcube Corner,” said Applejack.
Twilight followed Applejack, soon seeing the train leave her sight as it got further away. I just hope he knows what he’s doing.
Elsewhere watching the group leave, Luella watched before gazing at the disappearing figure of the train. The cub turned to a dark alleyway, until a flash of violet light consumed the darkened alleyway, until both the light and cub, vanished.
Two Days Later – Equestria, Las Pegasus; 12:00pm
It took two days by train to get to the famous entertainment city of Equestria – Las Pegasus, gambling, games, shows, and much more could be found here. Surprisingly the crime and law in the city wasn’t as bad as you expect… though that just means the criminals just had to think smarter than they usually did.
The group finally arrived, but when they made it there they came upon a slight problem, Pristine got sick during the train ride, apparently somepony had the flu and it spread, only Pristine being the one member being sick. So while Pristine was staying at a hotel Eclipse rented, the three guards were allowed to explore the city, while Eclipse handled other business in the city.
This small tourism ended with all kinds of hijinks, shenanigans, and somepony ending up with somepony else in bed… though, that’s a story for another time. After the enjoyable – but secretive – time the guards had in Las Pegasus, they stayed quiet about what they did while at the city, especially not questioning what Eclipse did while he was busy in the city too.
With Pristine better, they finally started heading off through the San Palomino Desert for the coming days; it was the first day and they were already having problems, Pristine and Eclipse didn’t had any problems with their water, but sadly Heart Beat didn’t bring enough water, so she had to share with Fang and they are now rationing for water… so in general, it was pretty normal from waking up from a hangover earlier in the morning.
Day 4 – After given the order to escort Sir Eclipse and his companion – and the mission given by Orion – myself, Private E-1 Heart Beat, and Specialist Fang arrived yesterday with Eclipse at the city of Las Pegasus… I will however not record the events of what occurred that day… for classified reasons.
Sight shook her head, the hangover from the morning still felt throbbing through her skull.
Prepping ourselves that morning – though trying to keep your bearings with a hangover was not a good feeling – we started our journey for our first day in the San Palomino Desert. It was hot obviously, but with the liquor drunk yesterday, it felt sweltering. We rationed our water for a day, sadly, Heart Beat hadn’t properly brought enough water. So now here we are, trying to not die of thirst… or worse.
Finished with that, Sight closed her journal and brought her focus back to facing forward; in the lead was Eclipse, he was wearing a sunhat he bought back in Las Pegasus and had his headphones on, listening to music. Behind him was Pristine, with Clear Sight in the middle, with the last two behind her was Fang and Heart Beat. Fang was making sure Heart didn’t faint, so he had his wing wrapped around the tired mare.
“Come on private, just a couple more minutes and we can do a quick swig of water,” said Fang.
“How… how close are we to that ridge?” asked Heart, panting. Some moments ago, Clear said she spotted a ridge with some shade for the group some distance… sadly, they’ve been walking for so long, it was hard to tell how close they were.
Deciding to ask the one in the lead, Pristine approached Eclipse who has done nothing – other than lead them – but hum to himself the song he was listening to. Approaching the humming stallion, who didn’t hear the earlier conversation, well appeared to not heard it, Pristine tapped his withers but he continued to trot forward.
Not taking the polite route anymore, Pristine removed Eclipse’s hat and headphones, but when she did she pressed the volume setting from singular-hearing to surrounding-hearing. The moment she did so, music flooded every ponies’ ears, ten seconds of silence with only music being played was heard until Eclipse tapped the side of his headphones, pausing the song.
Turning around, Eclipse’s neutral gaze held an edge of annoyance, though his normal gaze would be confused as annoyance too. Flustered, Pristine chuckled, coughing to ignore the feeling of Eclipse’s glare. “As I was asking before, are we close to the ridge?”
Instead of answering Eclipse simply faced forward and pointed, ahead was indeed the ridge which was just over a sand dune. Climbing over the dune, they made camp under the ridge up till later in the evening.
“Finally!” Quickly, Heart took out her pouch of water and drank, the water splashing a little on her face and down her throat. With a satisfied sigh, she put away the pouch and helped with setting up their mats and prepping a campfire.
Eclipse was looking over the map and compass, leaving his headphones into his saddlebag. Pristine approached, first taking a quick breath and facing the stallion from the front than behind. “Um, sorry for doing that, you weren’t hearing me and-”
“I did hear you...”
Right, he hates assumptions. “Then how come you didn’t respond?”
“...Liked the song...”
Sighing some more, Pristine looked down at the map, the ridge was only a sixth of the way from Las Pegasus and their current objective wasn’t even close compared to the kilometers of sand they need to traverse.
“Go help the others, we’ll continue traveling at six in the evening,” said Eclipse, pulling out a notebook. Not defying his orders, Pristine gave a casual salute and made her way to the guards.
Sight watched the two interact and opened her journal, pulling out a feather dipped with fresh ink.
The mare called Pristine, her relationship with Eclipse Light is… interesting, I’ll keep further details on future logs on her during our trip. I am still unclear of her motives and what role she plays with this trip.
The following day – Equestria, San Palomino Desert; 9:00pm
We’ve left at exactly six o’clock in the evening, that was three hours ago and just as the day is scorching hot, the night is frigid cold. No snow, but that doesn’t stop the chilling desert wind to blow by; echoes of desert fauna can be heard, but they’re far enough that we don’t need to worry… but oddly enough Eclipse has been keeping an eye toward a certain sand dune for the last thirty minutes… What exactly is he looking for?
The next day – Equestria, San Palomino Desert; 7:00am
Day 5 – That dune earlier was a tatzlwurm and it has been following us for the last several hours since Eclipse spotted it. For whatever reason he didn’t mention to tell us – or the fact I didn’t notice even though with my training and talents – he seemed ready… and was he ready.
“CRAP CRAP CRAP CRAP! WHERE DID THAT THING COME FROM!?” shouted Fang, running full-pelt.
The group were being chased by a tatzlwurm, giant worm-like creatures common in desert-terrain, this one was smaller but was still dangerous for it’s size. Just ahead was a formation of stones, the group planning to climb up for safety, the bad part about this was due to the sand, it was hard to run on, the worse part was because of their clothing those with wings couldn’t fly… so Fang and Pristine were trying their best to catch up, especially when Sight was quicker, even though she was a pegasus too.
“ECLIPSE! NEXT TIME YOU SPOT SOMETHING OUT OF THE ORDINARY, DO NOT WITHHOLD THAT INFORMATION TO YOURSELF!” screamed Pristine. “OR I SWEAR I’LL-” The roar of the tatzlwurm was enough motivation for the group to run, but as they made it to the stone formations, Eclipse did a one-hundred-eighty turn and faced the beast. Tossing his saddlebags away he pulled out his sword, going to his fighting pose that all in the group both saw and knew for him to use.
“ECLIPSE! Get up here, NOW!”
Ignoring Pristine, Eclipse waited for the beast to get close and just as it was about to swallow him whole, he jumped up, over the creature and dragged his sword through the creature. Reaching the end of it, the creature shuddered and fell flat on the ground with a large slash through it, the stench of blood and flesh strongly exuding from it.
Everypony came down and approached the now dead tatzlwurm, they made sure not to breath in the foul scent, soon seeing Eclipse wiping his blade on the corpse, the blood quickly staining the body. Pristine soon trotted up to Eclipse furiously, ready to yell at him for his actions. “WHAT IN THE HECK WERE YOU THINKING! First you didn’t tell us there was a tatzlwurm nearby and you do that! For once, think before you act!”
“I did, that tatzlwurm wasn’t alone, the dune I was watching was a swarm of the things, but they didn’t bother to chase us; however, one of them decided to begin following us… we should move quickly, I killed that one as quick as I could but the others will soon follow. We’ll skip making camp today and head straight to the oasis, we should make it there by tomorrow, maybe sooner if we get moving now.”
After that explanation, before anypony could say anything, a distant cloud of dust could be seen, the exact same direction they came from earlier. Not arguing, the group quickly followed, leaving Sight to stare back and following too.
My earlier theories to what kind of capabilities Eclipse can do have both been proven… and debunked, Eclipse isn’t some veteran soldier or wandering traveler… he’s much more. This trip has proven to me two things, Eclipse can handle himself… and he never needed us to help in the first place. So why did he bring us along then?
The next day – Equestria, San Palomino Desert; 5:00am
Day 6 – We spent the rest of yesterday running to the oasis, though before we got there we were attacked by the rest of that group of tatzlwurms, but we handled them quickly. Tired, exhausted and dehydrated, we only managed to reach the oasis… until we reached another problem.
“Well… this is bad,” said Fang, looking through his binoculars.
Everypony scouted ahead while hidden on a sand dune, that a caravan parked by the oasis they were heading to… the problem was it wasn’t a good caravan. The caravan consisted of griffons, armed to the teeth with somewhat decent armor on, there was one particular griffon who was wielding a pretty hefty poleaxe and duel throwing axes.
“Bandits?” asked Pristine.
Sight looked at the gathered griffons, without the need of the binoculars she could easily see that there were at least twenty of them, though there could be more within the three carriages. There was a distinct thing about this group, a symbol of an axe and sword crossed together with the face of a lion on top of both weapons.
“A mercenary group… from the symbol on the carriages… the Iron Lions,” said Sight.
“The who?” asked Heart.
Fang turned to face Heart who just finished their last remaining drop of water… well, it might be their last drop, but the current situation made it even more complicating on how they’ll refill their water pouches.
“They’re a tough bunch from the Griffon Kingdom… but why are they all the way here for?”
“Well if they’re just mercenaries, they shouldn’t have any problems with us just wanting to refill our water containers.”
“True… but they’re not ordinary mercenaries, there’s a reason why all the guilds, especially those dealing with weapons have to have a permit for the last thousand years by Princess Celestia. The purpose was to regulate arming non-governmental groups with weapons, the only reason the Church can keep so many weapons and armed forces – even though it’s unclear how many they have – is due to the fact that technically the Church has been around before Celestia and has changed names across the ages, meaning they’re outside from that law.”
“But this group… they’re also quite anti-Equestrian in nature, with the only times they ever deal with Equestria is for money alone… to be honest they might be considered more like bandits than mercenaries. My only question is how did such an armed group get into the country...”
“Unless, they didn’t come through the country,” said Eclipse, catching every ponies’ attention. “Don’t forget that south of here is untamed land, they may have gone by the long route, but it isn’t illegal for them to come through south. I’ve read that the border of the south of Equestria has difficulty due to the natural obstacles, so the border guard don’t handle with the security here… still…”
The group were faced with an armed group of mercenaries and the hot relentless desert in the day, or the frigid cold winds at night, even Sight herself couldn’t think of much ideas of what to do here. However she didn’t need to say anything as somepony made the decision for them… or rather an action.
Eclipse walked past the group and headed down to the oasis, it took a while but the group immediately tried to stop him, but went back to hiding, watching the neutral stallion approach the griffon with the poleaxe.
For awhile the griffon stood paying no mind to anything when he spotted the approaching stallion with a sheathed sword. Whistling, all twenty and more griffons approached, pointing weapons both ranged and melee toward the sudden appearance of the pony. “Look what we got here boys!”
Eclipse watched each of the griffons with a close eye, each armed with swords, axes, shields, crossbows, and spears. The assumed twenty changed to thirty now, though Eclipse could sense more somewhere but that wasn’t his focus though, it was what was in the carriages that got his attention.
Seeing this, the griffon who ordered all the others smiled, tapping his weapon against the carriage. “You wondering what’s inside, well too bad buddy, we didn’t come all the way to fail our mission so I suggest you wander wherever you came from or-”
“Surrender.”
“...Excuse me?”
“I said… surrender.”
The silence was palpable at that moment that it was hard to breath or even speak, so the reaction wasn’t that much of a shock… the outcome though was. “Screw this, open fire on this prick!”
As the bolts of crossbow fire fell upon Eclipse, he unsheathed his weapon and slashed away the bolts, next Eclipse rushed the griffons to the right and shredded their weapon. The group saw this and immediately rushed down to assist Eclipse, with Fang and Pristine handling those armed with crossbows, while Heart and Sight went for those on the left.
The fight seemed to be a loss with the pony but the griffons weren’t faring well with the sudden attack of more ponies. The lead griffon charged Eclipse, first throwing his two axes, which Eclipse swatted the first and grabbed the second, tossing it to the side.
“Hrm, you’re not like anybody I’ve faced before… You’ll be fun to fight against, now let’s see how you’ll fair against-” The griffon didn’t had a chance to finish, as he was cut down to pieces in mere seconds, the rest of the griffons laid beaten down or ran away.
Done with that nuisance, sheathing back his sword, Eclipse approached the carriage and destroying the lock on it with his hoof, he then opened it to look inside. As I suspected…
Inside were ponies and a few zebras, some of them were normal citizens but a few were probably part of Equestria’s border guard. Once the others approached, they looked inside and gasped in shock, Heart quickly went in and broke the chains holding them together.
“Are all of you alright, what happened!?”
After getting a lengthy explanation from them, they were told that these mercenaries were hired to capture Equestrians and zebras down south of the continent, as for why was unknown. Making certain their wounds were taken cared of and fed properly, the freed border guards took the citizens to safety to a nearby guard outpost that wasn’t that far from the oasis. Saying their thanks, the captured ponies and zebras were led to the safety of the guard outpost.
Pristine approached Eclipse with some worry to those captured by the mercenaries. “How did you know… it could have been anything in those carriages, but you knew immediately those griffons captured ponies… so how?”
“...Instinct, though the real answer would be experience mostly… There was a time that capturing locals of another nation was a more effective bargaining tool, especially for leaders who were too caring for their own citizens. We should head off soon, we should be approaching our destination in just in the early afternoon.”
Pristine watched Eclipse leave, then gazed at the corpses of the griffon mercenaries, especially the wounds of the leader. He did it quickly but brutally… its hard to tell if he took it personally or not… Deciding to think of thoughts like that later, she followed the group to the distant red mountains.
Later in the day – Equestria, San Palomino Desert; 11:00am
The group finally reached their destination, the red mountains at the edge of the desert towering high with the desert to the north and to the south was a dense forest beyond these mountains. At first nothing of interest could be spotted, but as they got closer, what they witnessed was jaw-dropping.
The skeletal remains of a giant beast could be seen, its jaws open and teeth poking out of the sand and rock. Further down the skeleton’s throat was a giant tunnel, though the question whether the cave was natural or was the continued remains of the skeleton was up for debate.
“Well damn, this was the last thing I expected to find, the rest of you set up camp, I’ll check ahead to see how deep this cave goes,” said Fang, putting down his belongings.
Fang flew toward the cave, his distant flaps echoing until nothing, everypony else began setting up their equipment and tents. While this was happening, Eclipse was busy examining the gigantic teeth of the skeletal beast. Pristine was finished setting up her things and approached Eclipse, both curious about the remains and something else.
“Eclipse, do these remains have any relation with the artifact we’re trying to find?” asked Pristine.
“Hmmmmm, no, these remains are… pre-pre-Equestrian, way before any civilized race has ever found these lands… My guest is the place the artifact is located at is some sort of long ancient civilization that resided here… buried by sand and rock.”
“I guess that makes some sense… hey, you got any time?”
Eclipse turned to face Pristine, putting away his stuff to face her, the two were alone while everypony else is busy setting up camp or checking the surrounding area. Inhaling deeply, Pristine kept eye-to-eye with him, as a particular question has been deeply troubling her since the night at Canterlot.
“Eclipse, you remember my question at my father’s party at Canterlot, I never received my answer… Where are you from Eclipse, just… who are you?”
Instead of reacting as he did before, Eclipse had an inkling something like this would happen, taking a breath he faced Pristine, ready for this… but paused as his vision took him below at his own hooves.
Before Pristine could ask what was wrong, a tremendous rumbling happened, getting intense with each passing second. Flapping quickly from the cave, Fang came back with a worried and panicked look.
“EARTHQUAKE!” Soon the rest of the group came back from their unfinished camp site, rubble from the mountainside befell upon the group. Deciding to make a quick decision, Sight shouted and pointed toward the large cave Fang came from earlier.
“Quickly, to the cave!” shouted Sight.
“Wait, not the-” Before he could complete shouting his warning, another shockwave happened which caused both the cave and the ground beneath them to collapse, taking everypony by surprise. Pristine let out an unheard scream as she watched both herself and the three guards become separated from Eclipse, who she last saw falling into a crack on the ground, then darkness consumed her vision.
Somewhere else – Ponyville, Eclipse’s Property; 11:15am
It has been roughly five to six days since Eclipse’s second departure from Ponyville, Twilight spent her time either at the library, helping out friends with various things, organizing books at the library – only to reread said books she organized – or in this case, spend her time at Eclipse’s.
Twilight was taking a break organizing the things in Eclipse’s storage building, deciding to organize them by herself and putting them under purpose than alphabetized. She was done with farm tools and farm supplies and was halfway through weapons. Anything she was unable to categorize she put under ‘Other’ or ‘Miscellaneous’.
Inside Eclipse’s small home, she sat upon one of the two only chairs, the table having a plate that once had a sandwich on the round table. Other than the dresser, kitchen cabinets, and shelves, there wasn’t a lot to find in Eclipse’s home… that was until Twilight out of curiosity decided to look around the small home.
After finishing her sandwich, cleaning the plate and making sure there were no crumbs on the table and ground, Twilight decided to see if there was any reading material to find. Picking one random book on Eclipse’s shelves, something slipped out between the pages of the untitled-book.
Huh, a photo? Picking up the picture, she found an interesting sight – the photo showed a young bipedal creature and from her clothes and face, it was a she. The girl sat on a rock that was on top a cliff, the girl was overlooking the horizon with a beautiful clear sea in the background, far below the cliff.
Guessing by her size and shape… she’s either ten or twelve… I think.
Before she could further examine this mysterious photo, a knock on the door interrupts her inner theorist. Putting away the photo back into a random page of the book, Twilight slips the book back onto the shelf she found it. Approaching the door when another knock is heard, she quickly opens the door. “I’m sorry, but the owner isn’t home, if you have any questions I can tell him for yo-”
Looking up to see who it was, she was shocked when standing before her was Princess Luna herself, back to her normal look than the one she saw when she and her friends found her at the Castle of Two Sisters.
“P-P-Princess Luna, wha-what are you...” said Twilight, shocked.
“Hello Miss Sparkle… we need to talk.”
Meanwhile – Equestria, San Palomino Desert; 12:00pm
It was just darkness, pure utter darkness, nopony could see anything… well, there was one other exception. Specialist Fang could clearly see in the darkness without any problems, being a thestral had its perks; he could see the still forms of three other equine figures, approaching the closest, he found Pristine. From what little he could understand, she was ex-Church and is the daughter of the noble that Eclipse was trying to make a deal with.
“Hey, wake up, wake up!”
Nudging the mare, she mumbled something until her eyelids slowly lifted, she only saw darkness but she knew somepony was near her. “Whu- what happened, I remember… the ground shaking… then… then...” Realization immediately struck her, but before she could get up Fang placed a hoof on her.
“Whoa, don’t move, we need to make certain you got no injuries, I may have night-vision but even I can’t tell if you are all right or not,” said Fang.
Calming for a bit, Pristine laid down, some time went by before the others soon woke up and each of them checked themselves and any of the stuff that came with them when the ground broke apart underneath them.
Okay, we have enough supplies to survive here for a few days… but I feel as though something is missing.
Clear Sight took careful glance at her surroundings and everypony else, that was when something was indeed missing… or rather someone. “Eclipse Light, he’s not here,” said Sight.
“Shit, not only did we lose the only person who can navigate us out of this place but also out of the desert, he had the map because he knew where we need to go to find this artifact… Well, can’t sit here and complain, we need to get to the surface and quickly call for a rescue team,” said Fang.
“I checked our supplies, we have some rations, water containers, bandages, a few healing salves, and a few flare sticks,” said Heart. “But what about Eclipse, he’s out here… he might even be-”
“DON’T THINK LIKE THAT!” shouted Pristine, bristling with anger. “He wouldn’t be easily put down like that.”
Everypony nodded a little, they all saw and knew Eclipse was no ordinary pony and he could handle himself… now they need to get a way out without making the situation worse. There was no unicorns in their group, so the only item they can use for light was the flares, they lasted between thirty minutes to an hour and with how few they have, they had to spare them as much as possible, using the first flare to check themselves and their surroundings.
The group headed off, with their weapons drawn, their formation was diamond shaped with Fang in the lead, Pristine and Clear Sight to the left and right and Heart Beat in the back, holding the flare. This placement was so that they had light, while at the same time, Fang could see in the dark ahead in case something was coming for them.
For the last fifteen – or what felt like that – minutes, the group soon came upon a slight incline down in the tunnel, occasionally having to climb down or be careful of where they step on and not trip and tumble down.
They found an underwater ravine and making sure the water was safe to drink, they refilled their containers; further down, was several tunnels and using one of Sight’s feathers, they used it to see if there was any drafts of wind.
“Hmmmm,” said Sight, watching her feather. The feather swayed to the left-most tunnel, seeing this, Sight tucked her feather away and pointed that direction. “This way, there’s a draft of air this way.”
The group headed that way but as they left, the glowing eyes and skittering noises of an unknown number of creatures appeared in the other tunnels they didn’t take.
Going further in, they came upon an interesting sight, they found the remnants of an underground city – a necropolis. The city itself was close to the same size as Canterlot; however, due to what little light there is it was hard to tell the actual size. There were small sunbeams raining down on the dead city from the cavern’s ceiling, suggesting they were dug by some tunneler creatures.
“Okay, we have two goals right now, first we need to find Eclipse and secondly we find the artifact and get out of this place,” said Fang.
The group nodded, but as Heart was advancing forward to look at the ruins, she stepped on a loose part of the ground. After a click was heard, Fang quickly dragged her back, just in time as a swarm of arrows struck where Heart was moments ago.
“Whoa, t-thanks...” said Heart, shaken.
“Just watch your surroundings, the traps in this place are still functional after all these centuries. I’ll lead the way, but watch where you step, alright,” said Fang.
Receiving their nods, the group made their way down the ancient steps, passing under an old archway with unreadable symbols chipped into the stone. While not understanding it, Sight brought out her journal and copied the symbols for future study.
The group passed various structures ranging from small domed-shaped stone homes, to two to three-story tall buildings. The purpose of these buildings were unknown with some guesses and observations being the only clues to what they were. The biggest structure they saw was a ziggurat, but the center was left empty, meaning something was there.
Some traps were unavoidable and had to either trigger them or go around them, one trap consisted of a room filling up with water, but instead sand came out that only reached up the group’s legs halfway, which made it more of an annoyance.
There was one trap that was near fatal for the group, especially for those that can fly as a strange gas descended on the group from above. There was a switch hidden in the ceiling for the exit to open, but because of the thick poison was descending from above, Pristine, Sight, and Fang tried to figure a way to fly through; with no ideas, Heart used what remaining alcohol they had – this consisted of the rubbing alcohol and some wine they got from Las Pegasus – dousing three cloths in the stuff. Using the alcohol-covered cloths to absorb the gas, they used the cloths to cover their snouts, the three went to fly up to find the switch.
They managed to find the switch and leave before the room would fill with gas, panting after that experience, the group were finally reaching one of their objectives. Climbing the way up a slope of stairs, Pristine heard a weird clicking noise.
“Wait… did anypony hear that?”
The group paused, at first they hear nothing but the clicking comes back and louder, each of them pulling out a weapon they specialize with. Before Pristine left Canterlot with Eclipse, she had ordered a specialized weapon to be built for her, a barbed whip called Thorn holding the whip with her mouth than her previous weapon that was strapped to her tail.
The other guards had their own weapons hoof-picked and unlike other guard branches, the Ponyville Guard were allowed to pick which weapon they are most comfortable with than the common sword or spear. Fang was equipped with a pair of iron claws on his forehooves, the claws sharp and ready to tear through leather and iron armor; Heart Beat held an iron war axe with her mouth, surprisingly she could swing that weapon without any problems.
Clear Sight brought her steel spear and unlike the training spear she used against Eclipse during their duel, this spear was enchanted with a frost affect, meaning anyone stabbed by the spear will have the area stabbed slowly freeze over by a chilling ice. This was useful against creatures vulnerable to the cold, which was helpful for this mission especially due to many of the creatures that live further south in the San Palomino Desert were weak to ice-based attacks.
Their formation was with Sight at the front, Fang to the left and Heart to the right, while Pristine took the back with her whip having the longest reach than Sight’s spear. They awaited for whatever creatures would slink their way from the darkness and what came made Heart’s fur bristle in fear.
Like a squirming mass of worms came a swarm of desert critters that consisted of giant scorpions and centipedes, their pincers and tails ready to rip their newest meal to shreds. “Aim for the joints, that carapace of theirs is tough like steel, for the centipedes aim for their heads, cutting them won’t do nothing but get them angrier!” shouted Fang.
“I’ll handle the bigger ones, Fang, you and Heart handle the scorpions and their tails! Pristine, make sure none of them attack us from our flanks, we can’t be surrounded by them no matter what!”
While Pristine was neutral with the rest of the group – other than Eclipse – it has been awhile she’s been ordered by anypony before, as usually she was the one giving orders with the only ones ordering her were the high paladin or senior paladins. Still, this situation didn’t need her pride or ego bursting forth, so she nodded in response to Sight’s words and kept an eye on any of these bugs from sneaking around them.
One centipede or scorpion would manage to get through but Pristine’s whip made short work of them; with a flick of her whip the barbs lining her whip did a score of wounds that penetrated deep into the weaker parts of their carapace. It kept them at bay from attacking the others and distracted them for the others to attack from the insects’ blind spots.
Slowly they were backing off from the swarm of insects as they seem to be coming from everywhere, at first they came from the path the group just came from but soon, they swarmed from all directions of the necropolis. “Crap! We need to head to the top of that ziggurat, quick!”
Climbing up the steps, Sight would stab one of the insects, sending its frost-covered body down the steps into the swarm of bugs. What was most disturbing was that the insects would start to devour the dead and severely wounded among them.
Cannibalistic insects, for there to be this many would likely mean an infestation… but where could they have gained any nearby food within this area?
Sight dodged the stab of one of the scorpions and thrust her weapon deep into the eye socket of the creature with a loud squelch. The creature wailed in pain as it backed off into the rest of its kind, soon the group were nearing the top of the ziggurat when suddenly, a loud rumbling was heard.
“What the heck is th-” An explosion of dust and rock came from above and with it was sunlight as a gigantic tatzlwurm burst from the ceiling of the cavern. With a mighty roar, it sent spittle everywhere as it shook both the ponies and insects.
At first they were worried they would have to face against the insects and a tatzlwurm now, when they noticed something strapped on the worm, with a gleam in both his eyes and sword in hoof was Eclipse. “ECLIPSE! WHAT THE BUCK IS HE DOING!?” shouted Pristine.
Eclipse rode the worm with his sword stabbed into its tough flesh, removing his sword from the worm he jumped off the creature into the swarm of insects. At first he vanished into the mass before an explosion of insectoid parts flew every direction as Eclipse unleashed a dark purple energy slash.
Dashing through them with a slash and strike of his weapon, Eclipse reached the others before stomping onto the head of a centipede. “So, what did I miss?” asked Eclipse.
“First, where in the heck were you?! Secondly… glad you’re safe,” said Pristine, giving a cheeky grin.
Eclipse joined in the fighting before facing the tatzlwurm as it unleashed another furious roar; reaching into his saddlebags, Eclipse pulled out a fire crystal and replacing it with a dark purple crystal embedded into the pommel of his sword with the fire crystal. Soon the sword was engulfed in blazing flames, with that quick exchange he began rushing toward the giant worm, Eclipse dodging the falling debris of the cavern ceiling, until he hopped up several buildings and into the maw of the beast.
With a focused gaze and firm grip he unleashed a giant blazing energy slash that tore through the beast, leaving a flaming slash through the middle. With an unholy screech it’s final death throes were heard as it’s slowly burning corpse fell down onto the swarm of insects. Seeing the giant beast slain the rest of the insects fled back into the cavernous tunnels they came from.
Sheathing his sword and removing the fire crystal back into his saddlebags, Eclipse returned back to the others. Taking a quick breather and making certain all the bugs were taken care of, the group faced Eclipse with mixed feelings – relief, annoyance, indifference, and amazement.
“Well you took your sweet time, just exactly what in Tartarus happened to you?” asked Fang.
“Woke up somewhere deeper in these caves, but later I found the necropolis and climbed the top of this ziggurat. Reaching the top I searched around and found this,” said Eclipse. Reaching into his saddlebags, he pulled out the statue of an alicorn, though of one nopony was familiar of. “After I got it, I tripped some sort of trap, fell into a hidden trapdoor, faced the tatzlwurm by myself until it dug through the earth whilst I had my sword stabbed into… then I came here and reunited with the rest of you.”
“And that occurred while we were unconscious and exploring the tunnels by ourselves? Yeesh, I’m starting to think trouble finds you, might need to keep my space away from you from now on,” said Fang.
“Enough jokes, that tatzlwurm has made a way for us out,” said Sight. Pointing upward, the now gaping hole made by the creature had beams of sunlight slipping through. With three fliers, Pristine carried Eclipse while Fang carried Heart, leaving Sight to lead everypony else out.
Reaching the cavern’s ceiling, they found a tunnel leading up and after climbing the steep incline, they come out of the cave that leads into the summit of the mountain range the group saw. Breathing in the fresh air, the group take this moment of peace to rest… but the peace is short lived.
“By Celestia was that a crazy experience, I am never joining any more missions outside of Equestria again,” said Heart.
“Oh don’t worry, this one will be your last.” Hearing a sudden unfamiliar voice, Heart and the others are ambushed by several members of the Church wearing lighter versions of their armor. Heart is taken down immediately with a blow to the head, Fang tries to counter but is struck with several taser darts, electricity streaming through his body, his unconscious body flopping onto the ground.
Sight manages to fight back long enough until a powerful stun spell strikes her from behind, with a scream she falls. Pristine takes a beating but manages to keep standing alongside Eclipse who rolled away to safety, unsheathing his sword out.
Standing before the defeated forms of the guards were ten members of the Church’s Solar Inquisitors – elite hunters that are trained to deal with internal problems. The one leading this Inquisitors’ squad is Solar Inquisitor Power Strike, an earth pony who wielded a mace over his armored withers, alongside him were several inquisitors and senior inquisitors, each wielding various weapons.
“Who, who in the heck are you guys!? Are you… ARE YOU PART OF THE CHURCH!” shouted Pristine, fury in her eyes.
“Well ain’t it obvious by our armor,” said Power, tauntingly.
“But… you don’t look like knights or a paladin, who… who are you?”
“Well, since we have time and we’ll deal with all of you later – we are the hidden light of the Church, to handle problems that need… a subtle touch within Equestria. For we are, the Solar Inquisitors of the Church of the Holy Sun, its hidden blade and final line of defense!”
Pristine was gobsmacked, she didn’t knew the church had a hidden faction within their organization, she didn’t even hear rumors of there being such a thing. She’s been part of the church for roughly four years and not once has she heard a word of them from younger knights or the squires.
“You, you have to be lying! I was a paladin of the Church’s Knights, I would of known this, High Paladin Shining Might would of known of this!” screamed Pristine, her whip flailing at the closest inquisitor.
The inquisitor dodged and struck her whip with a sword, snapping the whip in half, leaving the other half to fall from Pristine’s mouth. Power smirked and gave a snarky laugh while the others watched with intense stares, ready to attack any moment with a single signal their high ranking officer.
“You think that buffoon knows of our existence, he may have some excellent military training and skill in magic… but because of that arrogant – and ignorant personality – he couldn’t find his way out of a tin can, even with the best spells in his arsenal! No, we serve a higher cause and pony, with only a rare few in the high echelon of the Church knowing of our existence… others… well… they didn’t last very long.”
Pristine was brimming with rage, not only was she and the others tricked to come here by the Church, but she was certain that those who know they were sent here, would become written off as gone missing or taken by the natural wildlife… it was the perfect scenario for somepony to just… vanish. They were fooled from the very start… and she was played along with the others too.
Are they here due to my failure, no, I would have been dealt with sooner then… they’re here because of Eclipse maybe? That doesn’t make sense either, if the High Paladin doesn’t know of them then who-
Then it hit her, right before she was exiled from the Church there was somepony else with High Paladin Might… somepony who was of higher rank than even him. High Priest Grail… he’s the one who planned all this, who ordered of our ambush, but what are they here for exactly?
“As I mentioned earlier, since you’ll all be dealt with soon, no need to withheld our objective – hoof over the artifact.”
Pristine looked to Eclipse who slowly pulled out the artifact he found and gazed at it, to others it was a stone statue of an alicorn… but there was something interesting about the statue. Embedded where the alicorn’s eyes would be was a gem, a gem that radiated magical energy that even Pristine could feel it, even though she wasn’t a unicorn.
“So, you came for this,” said Eclipse, holding the artifact in his hoof.
“That and your immediate execution, you are an unknown element toward the Church and must be handled quickly and efficiently. Having you find the artifact and ambushing you far from civilization was a smart choice… it was lucky we managed to snag some intel about your meeting with Purity Snow and that trade you made with him… sad to say you won’t be able to make that agreement with him now.”
Pristine was furious now, before she was enraged but now she was absolutely livid, not only has she been tricked but these black-ops ponies sneaked into her home and manipulated the trade agreement between Eclipse and her father.
Not wanting to go down without a fight, Pristine dashed by Eclipse toward Power Strike with murder in her eyes. Power grinned maliciously as he easily side-stepped Pristine’s hoof punch and raising his mace, slammed the weapon between her wings, shattering her spine and kicking her to the wall of the mountain. Winded and possibly paralyzed, Pristine coughed out blood as her vision was beginning to swim; the last thing she saw was the Church members slowly surrounding Eclipse, then darkness.
Power Strike’s Perspective – Equestria, San Palomino Mountains; 1:15pm
Things were going well for me, while we could do anything to the guards and this Eclipse pony, but we were told to capture Pristine… though nopony said unharmed. She may be ex-Church, but the higher ups want her alive… not my business to question them, I just do what I need to do.
“Alright, you either give that artifact to us real quick and we’ll make your death quick and painless,” I said, smiling devilishly.
He was looking at all my inquisitors who surrounded him, then gazed at the unconscious forms of his traveling companions, finally he stared at the beaten Pristine. I didn’t care at the slightest what was going through that head of his, but I was getting annoyed from his lack of response… that is until he finally spoke.
“You’re not planning to kill her,” said Eclipse.
“If it were up to me I would, but I was given my orders to capture her, you however aren’t so lucky.”
“Hmmm… good, don’t need to hold back… not at full strength yet but this should do...” said Eclipse, mumbling to himself.
I lifted a brow when he started to talk to himself, but I got even more confused on what he did next; staring at me, he dropped his weapon with a loud clatter, some of the inquisitors looked at one another until I gave the signal to slowly surround him. This might be easier than I thought, I assumed he would make a fuss but it looks like he won’t be any trou-
“It was a smart choice to isolate us from outside interference, so far away from civilization we’re practically outside of Equestria. Sure there will be some suspicion to our disappearance, however I haven’t made that big of an influence for Celestia to send a rescue team, Pristine being ex-Church won’t much help either to have somebody look for us, at best they’ll send teams to look for their missing guards but seeing how you deal with certain… individuals, I doubt they’ll find much.”
“DON’T SPEAK OF OUR GODDESS AS IF YOU KNOW HER!” I screamed, my veins bulging from my neck.
“True true… but you forgot one detail about this mission of yours.” Strangely, the surrounding air began to chill, sound started to vanish as if we were inside the vacuum of space… it was getting harder to breath too, even though we weren’t that high up in the atmosphere. “You don’t know much about me either.”
“THAT’S IT! FINISH HIM!” Aiming my mace at him, my inquisitors rush head first with their weapons poised and ready to kill. Eclipse breathed his final breath… and his eyes opened with a brilliant glowing white.
“Void Aura – release.”
Meanwhile – Ponyville, Ponyville Park; 1:30pm
After Luna’s surprise visit, she and Twilight came to Ponyville Park and for the past two hours and a half, they sat on a bench. Neither have spoken, only listening to the chirping of the birds and the other ponies wandering the park on this fine afternoon. Twilight at first was nervous but relaxed after the first hour, she then collected her thoughts, wondering what Luna wanted to talk to her about… when she finally spoke.
“Miss Sparkle-”
“Twilight… just call me Twilight,” said Twilight, with a sheepish smile.
Luna raised a brow but sighed, staring at the blue sky, watching some birds and pegasi fly by. “...Twilight… it was originally my intention that I wish to confide in you with something that bothers me deeply...”
“What is it you want to talk about, princess?”
“Please, call me Luna, I wish to not speak as princess and citizen… but as friends,” said Luna, smiling. Twilight nodded with a smile, before letting Luna continue speaking. “Well… ever since I awakened from my injuries on the day of my return… I have been getting… ‘feelings’ of sorts, this strange itch, a sensation that’s been felt through my body and mind since that day. These ‘feelings’ occur whenever during my daily schedule, but especially when I try to recollect that day.”
So far I tried to use multiple solutions to solve this conundrum – modern medicine, ancient practices, magical means, and occasionally… binge snacking – but not of them work or would weaken this ‘feeling’. I thought they would just move on with time… that was until I came to Ponyville for the first time. It was during when I was invited with my sister to check up the status of Ponyville after the Church’s recent activities here… it was specifically when I met face-to-face with Eclipse Light whilst he was unconscious.
Twilight was shocked but didn’t dare speak and continued to listen closely.
It was a small prick but, it awoken something inside me, like an old wound reopening, but just like that it vanished… another odd conundrum was the wounds I gained during the fight whilst I was under the influence of my Nightmare Moon form… that all the wounds I gained simply vanished. While alicorns do have a vast regenerative healing, usually we are left with scars, depending on the wounds… but… they all simply don’t exist on me, even the sensation of that pain I felt ebbed away… like they never existed… like the fight itself never happened.
Slowly, each passing day the memories of that day are beginning to ebb away – I remember speaking to those ponies in the town hall, I remember sending and placing a myriad of obstacles against you and your friends. The one thing I can’t recall… is what happened in the castle, even though I was under dark influences, I could vaguely remember what I did as Nightmare Moon… but it is as if whatever being I fought with as Nightmare Moon, just never happened.
“This is where things enter the impossible… but if I’m right, it is possible that the being I fought against is a being capable of warping reality,” said Luna, a serious look in her eyes. “I have fought such beings before – Discord, the Spirit of Chaos being a good example – but this form of reality warping… is like nothing I’ve faced… to have the capabilities to change a moment of time without it having any serious changes in the time-line… would have to involve astronomical powers beyond myself or my sister.”
“It is like somepony did one action, but slowly made that action to never happen in the first place,” said Luna.
Twilight gave a worried look, thinking deeply about this situation, she looked back at Luna with a confused look. “But, why are you telling me this Luna, what do you want me to do?”
“I want you to investigate this… mystery of mine; I wish that you solve this yourself and you keep our meeting and conversation to you and myself… please, don’t tell anypony and promise me, not as a princess… but as a friend,” said Luna.
Twilight thinks about this, but nods in confirmation with a determined gaze. “I will Luna and I’m happy we could be friends,” said Twilight.
Soon Twilight says farewell to Luna as she teleports back to Canterlot, now alone in the park, Twilight sits, contemplating the theory Luna had and who could be behind the strange occurrence behind defeating Nightmare Moon. Who or what could be powerful enough to face against an alicorn… and why?
Equestria, San Palomino Mountains; 1:40pm
It was the remnants of a massacre, all the Church inquisitors were left beaten and broken heaps of what remained of both their armor and will. Most were unconscious, but thefew who are still awake were either weeping in fear, while others rocked themselves back and forth, whispering sweet nothings to themselves, their minds broken from what they witnessed.
Solar Inquisitor Power Strike, the cocky and fearless leader of this squad, the one who easily took down guards from the Royal Guard and an ex-Church Paladin… was slowly backing away – his armor was shred apart, his fur singed from strange black flames that instead of burning him, left a cold, lifeless sensation to crawl up his leg – in complete and utter terror.
It was supposed to be a simple target and collection mission, even the freaking Church Knights could of done this by themselves… So how, how could this have gone to shit this quick!
Then, the silence came back, looking up with tears streaming from his one eye, the other having a deep slash cut deep into him, most likely destroying the eye itself. Blood poured from small wounds all over his body, his fur matted with sweat, blood, and dirt. With his one eye, he gazed at the one responsible… with his one eye, he gazed at damnation itself.
He would run… but it was impossible after he summoned his ‘pet’, it was made of shadows itself, the weight of its gigantic paw on his body felt like every bone in him would be crushed into dust. It came out of nowhere, took out one of the inquisitors, sent two of the others flying into the mountain… it even devoured another inquisitor when she attempted to fly off… watching her wings being snapped off with a swipe of its paw before devouring her whole – and alive, armor and all.
The beast didn’t press too hard as he had enough space between his lungs to breath and speak.
“Just what in the holy goddess are you.”
Eclipse stood before Power with an unflinching gaze, his eyes flashed different colors like a mad myriad of a twisted rainbow, until his eyes stayed into a bright glowing white. His gaze felt cold to Power, every inch of his fur and skin crawled, as his psyche screamed for him to run, but the bear kept him grounded in place.
“I am beyond imagination, I am the voice within the darkness, I am both the hand that guides and impedes you. I am both creator and destroyer of dozens of worlds, the lives of many have fallen with my judgment and more will continue to follow. Fate cannot chain me, life and death bow before me, I am the jailer of reality and choice is under my whim… I am your salvation… and your end.”
Like that, Eclipse raises his hoof, signaling the giant shadow bear to let go of its prey; as the creature returned to it’s master’s side, Eclipse used an unseen power as swirls of black fire consumed the rest of Power’s team… while he gazed back at Eclipse… his glowing white eyes shown no sympathy, no rage… just absolute nothingness.
With not a single word, he raised his hoof, pointing it at Power… and unleashed a flash of black light, Power didn’t feel anything as the dark light consumed him… leaving nothing behind. An eerie silence befell the surrounding area, leaving behind only a frigid sensation – and the remaining survivors of this encounter.
Some time later – Equestria; 2:30pm
Pristine’s mind was groggy, soon her faculties came together and her eyes opened as she felt the gentle swaying of a hammock and the familiarity of weightlessness to her when it came to flying for every naturally flying creature.
Wait a minute… flying? Pristine opened her eyes, when she realized she was in an unfamiliar room, sleeping on an unfamiliar hammock… Where in the heck was she?
Finding her belongings on a nearby desk, she checked everything was there – all her supplies were there from when the earthquake took the stuff that didn’t survive and her perfectly ‘unharmed’ custom-made whip. Deciding to leave it there, she left her room, to find herself in a hallway with no windows, the only lighting being a lamp enchanted to use magical fire, the flames won’t burn the wooden frame of the airship she was inside.
Trotting further down the hall, she found some steps, climbing up them she found herself on the deck of the mysterious airship, seeing several crew-ponies working on the clock to make sure they would arrive at their destination on time.
Looking around to find a familiar face, she spotted one, Eclipse was leaning on the railing of the starboard part of the airship, gazing at the afternoon sky. Approaching him, he soon turned to spot her but continued to gaze upward, standing beside him she too stared upward but soon started asking the whirlwind of questions in her mind.
“...Just… what happened?”
“You mean you don’t remember?”
“...And that would be...”
Eclipse faced her with his neutral gaze before leaning his head to a pair of seats for the two to sit on, accepting his invitation, the two sat as Pristine got comfortable to hear what she missed.
Well, we reached the top of the tunnel to the surface, but once we gotten up all of you started to feel ill, it was then confirmed you must of gotten poisoned from one of the scorpions and not noticing it until after the adrenaline stopped pumping in each of your veins, so I called for help with this. Eclipse showed a telecommunication crystal he pulled from his saddlebags, giving it to Pristine for her to see.
I contacted authorities from Las Pegasus to pick us up, I told them to reach the mountain range near San Palomino Desert. Using what methods of signaling them I could, we got all of you on board and gave you the medicine to cure you of the poison. I was fine – though they gave me some just in case – and some time later, you’re the first to wake up and we’re having this conversation.
“I believe you are now caught up,” said Eclipse.
Pristine gave back the crystal, but there were some conflicting thoughts, as if she was forgetting something important but couldn’t quite remember. Soon they heard a loud whistle, looking down she spotted Las Pegasus in the distance; the airship crew readied to land the airship just outside the city limits as Las Pegasus doesn’t have a natural airship port as the nearest airship port was at the border guard’s base near Las Pegasus.
Soon the rest of the group woke up, gathered their belongings and departed the airship, once everypony was getting off, the sensation Pristine felt earlier comes back. Turning to face Eclipse, Pristine was going to ask if what he said really did happen, to confirm her suspicions.
“Eclipse, are you certain-” But as soon she was about to finish her question… it immediately vanished – the feeling, the sensation of her memory being wrong – soon afterwards.
“Yes, Pristine, what’s wrong?” asked Eclipse, busy speaking to the captain of the airship.
Pristine gave a puzzled look but quickly shook her head, turning away to head to the train station. “Nothing… meet you at the station!” Waving goodbye to the crew, Pristine followed the others to the station back to Ponyville.
(Outro Music)
Watching them leave, once they gotten far enough from sight… everything stopped; the crew of the airship froze, all activity on the airship seemed to stop, even the wind around the area just… stopped.
Soon a strange veil seem to descend, the crew vanished in puffs of black smoke, the airship changed from being a simple border patrol ship… to a Church of the Holy Sun airship, as the sails changed from a basic white to the symbols and colors of the Church. The captain vanished with the rest of his crew, leaving nothing but an empty shell behind – not a single soul manned that vessel.
Turning to face the airship, he raised a hoof to his snout as a black flame poofed to existance on his hoof and with an exhale of his breath, the flame floated gently toward the airship. As it made contact with the vessel, it became consumed in black flames, the flames spread so fast, it took mere seconds before nothing remained, not even ash; the ground where the airship landed was unharmed as if the strange fire was ordered to only burn the ship itself, leaving only lingering smoke trails until even the smoke was wiped away.
Turning away from where the airship was, a glimmer of white light slipped from his eyes, until vanishing, replaced with Eclipse’s emerald eyes. Walking away, Eclipse’s empty gaze remained… the only change brought upon him was the sadistic grin plastered on his face.
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Wait... did Eclipse just leave the other guards who came along with him in the desert?
10061312
What, no, and first off did you finish the story or did you type this mid-read, and two, it mentions in the chapter that the others are recovering on the airship
10061317
Okay, I did miss 'the rest of the group woke up and departed the airship' part because the guards made less noise than expected.
Damn, you are amazing...
This is pure mystery with power beyond everypony think...
And the song theme in every scene is fitting..
Well, i hope some song is from anime tho...
Exalt the elder one.
Very well done. Your very good at grabbing the readers attention and making them ask for more.
The Monk
Winona let out a bark and immediately ran up to Armor and started licking his muzzle, tail wagging like she was promised cake if she did it enough. -Snakeskin Ducttape
A kindred spirit
This is amazing
Question for the QA: Is the void from a particular media/inspired from it, or is it your own?
like, a video game, or a tv show, or a movie..
Personally I'm disappointed that twilight decided that she and the girls should go with eclipse without even asking him first. I don't what the princess taught her manners but it is very rude to invite yourself without asking.
10938019
While I rarely comment on things related to the story, I think I need to clarify something, Twilight never invited the girls to go with her to Eclipse's expedition, and she mostly wanted to go out of worry and suspicious of Pristine going with Eclipse.