My Lord's Requiem
Ten Days Later – Ponyville, Sugarcube Corner; 12:00pm
After the experiment that Twilight and Eclipse worked on, things have been slow in Ponyville with the only notable event occurring was the Running of the Leaves. The only ones among the friends to join the race was Twilight, Rainbow, and Applejack as everyone else either spectated or was busy with something else.
As the girls were busy doing their own things, they were suddenly invited by Pinkie to come to Sugarcube Corner at noon; the only one who wasn’t invited was Eclipse, luckily he was in the middle of something as his place, so it was only the girls who went to see Pinkie.
All of them sat around the round-table near the windows looking outside at the plaza, seeing various townsfolk trot around. Pinkie soon approached with various refreshments and bake goods for her friends to eat.
“Thanks for all of you coming over, there’s some super-duper big news I gotta tell ya!”
Rainbow sipped from her milkshake, until she spoke while everypony else listened in. “What’s so important that you gotta tell us like this? Found some awesome new recipe you want us to try or something?”
“BETTER!” shouted Pinkie. “A while back, Ipsy never told me when his birthday is or how old he really is, but he would tell unless I got both his and Mayor Mare’s permissions.”
This quickly got everypony’s attention, while Rarity was intrigued due to the gossip, Applejack and Fluttershy did seem that particularly interested, Twilight and Rainbow however just like Pinkie found these news shocking as they been trying to find out any little bit of information about Eclipse for themselves.
“He told you! WHEN?!” asked Twilight, putting down the muffin she was about to eat.
“About a week ago, he gave his permission for the go ahead and I just recently got Mayor Mare’s permission too! She gave me a copy of his citizen certificate, the certificate only has name, birth date, age, and the earliest photo of him arriving in town, so nothing too personal or stuff! I wanted to look myself, but I was worried you all be upset I didn’t show you so I planned to bring you all here but I was worried Eclipse would figure out so I had to secretly call you here without alerting him but theeen-”
“Pinkie dear, I think we got the picture,” said Rarity, levitating a cupcake into her bouncy friend’s mouth.
As Pinkie chewed on the cupcake wholly, she absently showed the unopened envelope with the certificate inside. Twilight levitated the certificate and opened it carefully, to reveal the contents inside; none of the girls know much about Eclipse with the only information they know is based off what they seen from him, told by him, or knew from each other’s experiences.
After opening the envelope, she levitated out some papers and small hoof-sized photo of Eclipse – a week after he arrived in Ponyville – looking through the certificate, the shocking news that came to the girls was his actual age and birth date.
“He’s sixteen! This has to be fake, no way he can be that old, he looks way older than that,” said Rainbow.
“Well he does look younger when we first met him, the only reason we never thought he was this age, would have to do with how he normally acts and talks around us… Though to be honest, I always had an inkling he was younger than any of us,” said Rarity.
“He’s three years… younger than me… and he’s studying advanced alchemy…” said Twilight, muttering to herself.
“I think we broke Twi girls,” said Applejack, looking through the certificate again. “Hey look, it says here his birthday is on November 18.”
“Isn’t that… tomorrow?”
Soon the realization to this came to them all, all the girls look to Pinkie who was now smiling brightly, until she slowly pulled out a tiny party cannon the length of her foreleg. Pulling the rope, she fried a tiny spread of confetti that covered all her friends.
“WE’RE GOING TO PLAN A SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY FOR ECLIPSE TOMORROW! WOOHOO!”
The gaping mouths of the girls was left unnoticed by Pinkie, as she hopped around, yammering on about different party ideas for Eclipse and the flavor of cake she should make for him. While this happened, Twilight thought about this party and Eclipse carefully until a thought came to her.
“Hold on Pinkie, if Eclipse gave you permission to see his certificate to show his age and birth… wouldn’t that mean he expects you to prep a surprise party. How exactly are we going set up a surprise party with him catching wind of it immediately, we would need somepony to keep him occupied?”
At that moment, the girls slowly turned to their shy friend, Fluttershy who was busy picking bits of confetti out of her mane. Noticing the sudden attention, she blushed and prodded her front hooves together. “I could distract him, I’m not that great at prepping a party so I could do this tomorrow.”
“Well that settles that, while Fluttershy distracts Eclipse, we’ll prep the party here in Sugarcube Corner tomorrow, we’ll need to do it sometime around nine to ten in the morning as Eclipse up earlier and comes here at that time. Rarity and I can handle decorations, Applejack and Rainbow will set up the banner, tables, and chairs, while Pinkie will handle all the food, drinks, and the cake. Is everypony alright with this?”
At the nod and agreement of everypony, the girls headed out to get the supplies they need for tomorrow. Fluttershy went back to her cottage, stopping in the middle of the road at the realization that she would need an excuse to distract Eclipse with. “Oh no.”
The Next Day – Ponyville, Eclipse Light’s Property; 8:30am
After waking up early as usual, Eclipse went through his routine until returning home from getting breakfast at Sugarcube Corner. Arriving at the bakery… was odd to put it simply, Pinkie was her usual self, though things felt different, Eclipse however was preoccupied with other things so he didn’t paid much attention when he was there.
Looking through his notes from the different experiments he worked on the past few months, he was currently looking at his notes on the Darkness Orb that he experimented on with Twilight. After some further thought on the results of that experiment, he decided to postpone its production for now until he could find the real reason to why it reacted with Twilight – if it resulted to her unicorn physiology and her magic, or if it had to do with her being an Element of Harmony.
Looking through his work some more, a knock interrupted his reading, putting away his things, he approached the door, peeking out until fully opening it to find Fluttershy standing on the other side. The shy pegasus had become a close… friend for Eclipse, though there are still thoughts about what her real position she has within his varying connections with those he knows.
“Hello Fluttershy, what brings you here today?” asked Eclipse.
Taking a deep breath, Fluttershy smiled back at Eclipse. “Hi Eclipse, I thought I could visit you and see how you were doing… Is it alright I come in.”
Taking in Fluttershy sudden visit, Eclipse didn’t mind her coming as he stepped aside to let her in. Entering his home, Fluttershy took a look inside, even though having been here dozens of times before, not much has changed either visually or physically since her previous visits.
Deciding to take her mind off her doubts and fears about her plan to keep Eclipse occupied from coming to town for the rest of the day, Fluttershy explored his collection of books, searching through the various titles – both in Equestrian and in foreign languages. Opening one random book, she finds it holds a collection of different drawings, most likely made by Eclipse himself in the past.
The drawings are mostly landscapes drawings of various locations, many ones Fluttershy doesn’t know of or could imagine herself. There are even drawings of creatures and items of interest, but out of this vast collection… there one drawing that caught her interest; held within a leather-bound book much older than any of the others, was a drawing the caught her eye.
Slipping the drawing from a protective covering within the book, she got a better view of it under the shaded light from the windows inside Eclipse’s home. “Eclipse, what’s this drawing about?” asked Fluttershy.
Looking over her withers, Eclipse could see what drawing Fluttershy was examining; the drawing she was looking at showed a field of weapons, various sizes, shapes, each one fitting for their wielder’s personality and style. All the weapons had flowers overgrown and burying said weapons under roots, dirt, and petals, but one weapon in particular that was drawn atop a small hill with the light of the sun on top it, was a sword very similar to Eclipse’s sword.
“This drawing, it was drawn during the aftermath of a war called, ‘The War of Bai’Gaduon’, and the drawing’s name is ‘Requiem’, depicting the location and theme based off the name, perfectly,” said Eclipse.
“Then… are all these drawings based off real events?”
Eclipse pauses after her question, a small moment of silence descending on the two until he finally answers. “No… not all of them are based off anything real...”
His art of places forgotten, people met, and items discovered, represent the tormented history of himself. Lies he speaks and lies are both his weapon, his shield, and his curse.
Hearing the voice once more, before Fluttershy could respond back to Eclipse or question the voice in her head, she’s interrupted by Eclipse speaking again. “Fluttershy… Why are you really here?”
Swallowing down her anxiety, Fluttershy tries to come up with a response, muttering a little until Eclipse lifts hoof for her silence, proceeding to continue speaking.
“You don’t need to answer, its a rhetorical question, it is somewhat fortuitous for your arrival actually… I need some help with something that was planning to do today,” said Eclipse.
Completely forgetting about her earlier question, she asks what she needs to help Eclipse with. “Wha-What do you need help with Eclipse?”
“Well, I’m planning of traveling to the Everfree Forest to get some particular items at the abandoned castle within the forest. I’ll be there for most of the day, up to noon maybe, longer if I was doing by myself, but with you we should be done before sundown.”
Now realizing that Eclipse needs her help to go to the Everfree, Fluttershy’s thoughts became a jumble of fear, worry, and indecisiveness about whether she should go or not, but with no other ideas to occupy or distract Eclipse from going to Ponyville, Fluttershy sighed internally to herself.
“I’ll be happy to come Eclipse… what do we need to get there?” asked Fluttershy.
“Some specific books, I’ll give you a list once we get there, but let’s get some supplies as we’ll be there for awhile,” said Eclipse, gathering his things. “We’ll meet by your cottage as it’s the safest and closest place to enter the Everfree from.”
Nodding in agreement, Fluttershy got ready to head to the Everfree, heading back home to get some things ready for her trip.
Elsewhere – Ponyville, Sugarcube Corner; 9:15am
After Eclipse got his morning meal from Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie quickly got the girls to come over to prep for his surprise birthday party. Some time later, some of the townsfolk came to help prep too, this included Bon Bon, Lyra, the Cakes, Big Mac, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo, Octavia, Vinyl Scratch, and others.
During the preparation, Twilight became curious since Pinkie told her and the others about Eclipse’s birthday, since last night, till now about why did he want his birthday to be kept a secret. “Pinkie, how come Eclipse wanted his birthday kept secret this badly… I mean sure there’s a lot he won’t tell us – like all the stuff he has, the places he saw he’s been that not even I heard of before, or about himself too – it’s just… by now… he would at least mention his birthday or something?”
Pinkie gives thoughtful look and places her chin on her hoof, looking at Twilight after thinking. “I had the same thought, why didn’t Ipsy tell me when his birthday is, his favorite cake, or a little crumb about his birthday or what kind of birthday song he likes… When I kept asking him about it, he told me that it gave him some bad memories… which I found weird, how can your own birthday bring bad memories, shouldn’t it be the other way around.”
“Really, I wouldn’t be upset about cake and being given gifts once a year, heck I’d love it if I had it every month or so!” said Rainbow, pumping her forehooves up.
“Well… he said something very bad happened… like, if a party was ruined but thousands times worse… or something,” said Pinkie. “He wasn’t very descriptive, which was odd for somepony like Ipsy… but he looked really upset when I tried to ask again… So I promised I would wait until the right time… which was just a few weeks ago!”
After hearing this, all the girls go quiet, until Applejack gets all their attention. “Well, we shouldn’t worry about what reason Eclipse has for not liking his birth-date. If he told Pinkie just weeks before, then he may be okay with us setting up one for him. So let’s make this birthday party the best he’ll have!”
Everyone agreed and continued the preparations, albeit Twilight still had conflicted thoughts about the whole thing, becoming more curious to why he wanted his birthday avoided so badly.
Everfree Forest, Castle of the Two Sisters; 12:00pm
Meanwhile with Fluttershy and Eclipse, after gathering their things, it took them roughly two hours to reach the castle, since it would take longer with a larger group, it being the middle of the day, and with Eclipse finding a safer and quicker route to the castle which possible with just the two of them, they arrived at the gates of the castle.
Entering from the main gates of the castle, they came upon six hallways, three from the left and right, standing within what was the main lobby. Ahead of them was what remained of some stairs, moss and mushrooms coating the stone stairs, albeit they were manageable to climb up the fungi coated steps.
The stairs led up to a pair of thrones, each throne representing the duality of the sun and moon, also representing both the alicorn sisters. Having been here before with photographic memory of the castle’s layout from his last – known – visit, the two headed to the abandoned royal library. Full with mildew-rotted shelves, books that were mostly made of dust and rotted pages, the windows that aligned the walls were left somewhat intact with only a thick layer of grime and filth covering the designs on the windows.
Once reaching the center of the library, Eclipse hoofs Fluttershy a list that showed five specific books they would need to search. The list itself was clear on both the books title and description to have better chance of finding them.
“So find these books within the library, I would help you, but there’s something else I need to do here, I’ll be gone for awhile, but hopefully you can handle this alone. I know the castle can be somewhat frightening alone, but don’t worry, there’s some local spiders and critters that live within the castle, I’m sure you can find some guidance here for help,” said Eclipse. At that same time, Fluttershy noticed a small family of mice that skittered near her, squeaking happily at her.
Seeing this, Fluttershy said hello at toward the mice and looked back at Eclipse. “Don’t worry Eclipse, I’ll find these books, you worry about what you need to do.”
Nodding in thanks, Eclipse says to meet him back at the lobby once done and they’ll leave sometime before sunset, arriving back to town near sunset. Heading off, while Fluttershy busied herself with searching for the list of books, Eclipse leaves the castle from a different exit; exploring the outside of the castle, he finds long stairway that leads down along the edge of the ravine that surrounds the castle.
Going deeper down the stairs, Eclipse reaches the bottom, there he finds a cave that’s fifty meters tall, entering inside he finds the object of his search – a crystalline tree.
“Hmmm, hello again, we meet once more,” said Eclipse, muttering.
Approaching the mystical tree, he pulls out two objects from his saddlebags before the tree, the first object is a strange ebony crystal that seemed to glow a black light, giving off an eldritch sensation. The second object was a jagged dagger, the blade was either shattered from constant use or was already designed to look to inflict suffering than to relieve on of their life.
Exploring the expansive cave’s interior, he finds a stick, picking up the stick back to where he place the two objects from before, he begins etching various symbols on the ground.
Meanwhile with Fluttershy, after some time has passed, the sun is reaching the end of the horizon, but was still high up enough that it won’t be nighttime any time soon. So far, her search has ended with her finding four out of five of the books – the books she found so far are, “History of Pre-Equestria”, “Legends, Myths, & Tales”, “Magical Artifacts”, and “Fae & Creatures”.
Still searching for the final book, she befriended the family of mice, a bat, and some spiders, during this time, she has conversed with the critters and about how it was like living in the abandoned castle. During her search, thoughts about the drawing she saw earlier back at Eclipse’s, that compared to all the other drawings she saw Eclipse made and had… that single one has not brought out this much of a lingering feeling for her before.
From just seeing that single drawing she had several feelings overwhelm her from looking at it, out of these feelings, she could best describe only sadness, loneliness, and… pain.
Continuing her search, she soon finds the last book on her list, which looked older than the others, which was located at corner of the library which had a sign on an overhang which had decayed and fallen off, the sign itself unreadable due to the constant unpredictable weather within the Everfree Forest.
The book’s cover was made of leather than the other covers which was made of a pseudo-leather or some other material, the last book’s title is, “Theory on Alternate Universes” which was written by Starswirl the Bearded. For some unknown reason Fluttershy feel like she heard that name before from somepony… unable to remember, she shrugs and puts the book with the rest, soon heading back to the meet up place for Eclipse back in the castle lobby.
Maybe I can explore a little as I wait. Deciding to explore a bit, she chooses a random hallway and heads down that path. Trotting by various abandoned paintings, some destroyed while other partially fine, Fluttershy comes upon a painting of Celestia and Luna of their younger years, both sisters smiling together and close.
During her sight-seeing, something catches the corner of her eye, a shadow or silhouette, curious oddly enough rather than afraid, Fluttershy checks where she saw the shadow further down the hallway.
Back with Eclipse, after done with etching symbols on the ground in front of the crystalline tree, tossing the stick away, he checks the symbols he made into a symbol of what appears to be a ten-pointed star made of two five-pointed stars, one upside down with a different symbol made into each of the star points.
Trotting back to the two items, he picks up the jagged dagger, approaching the crystal tree, he has the point of the dagger touching the tree. After some time, a colorful array of energy slowly seeps out of the tree into the dagger, once done, Eclipse pulls the dagger away and moves back to the etchings where the ebony crystal was placed in the center of the star, surrounded by written symbols of an unknown language.
With the dagger he stabs it into the ground near the ebony crystal, then stepping outside the star, at a safe distance, he begins to sit down in a meditative stance, closing his eyes, he begins to speak a mysterious dialect.
“Drgs gsrh kldvi yvblmw zmlgsvi dliow, xlmevig rg gl gsv hvz lu vnkgrmvhh. Drgs gsrh hsziw lu gsv Elrw, zxxvkg gsrh kldvi zmw rg hszoo yvxlnv z kzig lu nb ldm.”
A strange glow surrounds the dagger and then into the surrounding symbols, the colors that appeared was orange, pink, blue, purple, red, and magenta that swirl in the air like a tornado. The colors dim slowly as both the dagger and symbols turn into a black glow, that gets stronger until the ebony crystal absorbs it all. The aftermath is a strange glow from the crystal, a myriad of vivid colors enshrouded by a dark blue glow, black energy swirling around the crystal.
Finished with the ritual, Eclipse gathers his things and swipes away all the etchings until no evidence remains behind. Heading back up the stairs, he reaches the surface until he spots Fluttershy standing by the gardens, with vegetation overgrown most of the garden, with the designated pathways barely recognizable.
Approaching her, Eclipse notices she seems to have this fare-off gaze about her, until she notices him and quickly gets out of her sudden trance. “Fluttershy, did you get everything in the library?” asked Eclipse.
“Hmm, um, yes… I just wanted to explore a little when I thought I saw something… Its almost sunset, we should head back before it gets too dark,” said Fluttershy, a little distracted.
Ponyville, Outside Sugarcube Corner; 6:30pm
After leaving the Everfree, Fluttershy asks Eclipse to come with her to Sugarcube Corner, so after dropping off both their things at their respective homes, Eclipse meets up Fluttershy at the bridge near the park.
The trot through town to the bakery, Eclipse notices the town is awfully quiet, even though it wasn’t that late yet, he expected to be some activity still outdoors. Fluttershy keeps quiet throughout the whole walk, until they near the bakery which she opens the door for Eclipse.
Entering the dark bakery, he suddenly comes face-to-face with a bright light and a blast of confetti met his face. Standing there hearing everyone saying, “Surprise!”, at his direct vicinity, there was a long awkward pause that lasted longer than imagined.
Fluttershy quickly came in and gave a wince at Eclipse’s blank, confetti-covered, face, and everyone’s worried looks, except for Pinkie who was still unaware to the atmosphere. “SO SO, WERE YOU SURPRISED!” shouted Pinkie, grinning madly.
After awhile, Eclipse sighed, removing some of the confetti on him until he faced Pinkie. “Not really, I expected you do this when I told you that you could check when my birthday was… that and you weren’t exactly subtle when you rushed me out of the bakery in the morning after giving me my order… Next time, stick to acting how you normally would any other day and make sure you catch me when I’m preoccupied with something else, not when I’m free – the best way to surprise somebody is during the thick of the action.”
Pinkie was silent for awhile, until she pulled out notepad and pencil, writing that down, mumbling to herself. “Thick of the action- Got it! Now then, let’s, partaaaaay!”
Soon music began playing and everyone began to party, both inside the bakery and outside, a banner showing Eclipse’s birthday, which was a surprise what his age was, as a cake was brought out – a cookie ice cream cake, with blueberry sauce – and other treats too.
Eclipse sat in a corner of the bakery watching friends and townsfolk mingle with one another, sitting beside him and oddly enough was absent for both yesterday and today until now is Luella, the cub bear busy eating a cupcake given to her.
Placing his plate of ice cream cake to a nearby table, he moved his gaze to the window, looking outside at the starry night sky and the occasional firework fired by the CMC with Big Mac supervising the three. Going deep into his psyche, lingering memories of the last time his birthday was celebrated with those close to his heart, a wishful and sad look could be visible in his eyes.
It was during my twelfth birthday, I had finished my training and was celebrating my graduation with people I knew from my old home. The skies were blue, flowers bloomed as a gentle breeze, brought forth the refreshing smell of the distant sea; I sat on a table, surrounded by the faceless silhouettes of my past comrades.
That moment was the last moment I would ever be with them, happy… and alive. It was only weeks later that I would end up burying those that died during the war and after it… I would continue to bury even more, my hands drenched in blood.
Eclipse had a distant empty look in his eyes, images of creatures that took the shapes of nightmares of a madman. The last face he saw so vividly was the dying look of the last person to die… he would witness his very world burn to nothing as all that remained… would become the birthplace of a vengeful deity… it would be known for all time as, the Requiem of the Forgotten.
Slipping out of false reality, he would find himself suddenly looking at Fluttershy who sat in front of him with a worried look. He realized he must had dozed off with his eyes open, as while the party wasn’t over yet, only close friends appear to be inside still with most outside now, looking at more fireworks and stargazing.
“Eclipse… are you alright, I know we probably shouldn’t had made a surprise party this big, but Pinkie wanted everypony to know and its Pinkie,” said Fluttershy. “I hope you’re not mad.”
Shaking his head, he quickly stood up in his seat, giving a gentle smile as he faced Fluttershy fully. “No… while a small celebration would had suffice, I thank you all for this… I’m happy that you could all celebrate my birthday with me.”
Smiling back, the two watch their friends party – Rainbow blindfolded and trying to his a pinata while Applejack holds it up, Pinkie is talking with some of the guards who came to join, while Rarity appears to try to convince a flustered Ves to try visit her boutique so she could make her a dress, while Twilight asks an attentive Sight about the ruins they found at the San Palomino Desert – both enjoying the other’s company, idly talking to each about their recent endeavors in the past, exchanging stories about each other.
Eclipse was happy, whether his past would deeply scar him for as he long he stands… new memories would always be welcomed to ebb away the distant pain.
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16? wtf...?
10292954
I thank its like a fake id
I believe Rainbow meant to say 'no way he can be that young'.
10293020
Oh its like the fakes they give kids so they can watch movies
10293022
Hmmm, how come I didn't notice that, well this is why we check for mistakes or necessary changes
10293992
Yeah, I know. It was a JOJO joke.
10294038
I know I got that, the comment was random is all for that kind of reference to be used
10294098
Sorry couldn’t help it! It’s rare for setups to pop up like that and even rarer to get them before someone else does
10294104
Well I can honestly say you are the first to make that reference for any of my stories, congrats.
This is what he said in backward alphabet code.
With this power beyond another world, convert it to the sea of emptiness. With this shard of the Void, accept this power and it shall become a part of my own.