Solar Eclipse

by keithsterling

chapter 6

"No, wait, your highness," Twilight said, removing her pump and set her barefoot in front of Somnus as he blinks with surprise.

"What is this for, Twilight?" Somnus inquiry as Twilight smile at him.

"You have one more question for me, your highness. This to ensure that I speak the truth to you." Twilight comment as Somnus took hold of her foot and positioned his fingers in range of her very sensitive sole.

"You most likely search this palace from top to bottom. Trying to figure out what happens to the Royal Maids. Was there any place in the palace that felt off to you or strange?" Somnus inquiry as Twilight thought for a little while.

"Yes, there was your highness. To the far end of the dungeon, it felt like it should be much larger then it is. I couldn't put my finger on it, why it felt that way." Twilight explains as Somnus floated her shoe to himself and put it on her foot.

"Well, it looks like I have to do what Rarity asks me to." Somnus comment as Twilight had a puzzled look on her face.

"That is, your highness?" Twilight inquiry

"She has been trying to get me to spend some time with you. To find out about you, Miss Twilight. But my royal schedule has been booked solid. But maybe I can move around some of my lesser appointments. So I can visits you your highness. Besides, I want to know how ticklish you really are." Somnus comment as Twilight chuckled a bit.

"Tee-hee, all right, your highness. But if you want to know how ticklish I am, you must become my friend. Only a friend is allowed to find out." Twilight comments as Somnus grabs hold of Twilight's hands and pulls her to her feet. Before disappearing from Twilight's sight.

~ Back in the Real Celestia Silverlight cell in the dungeon~

In the cell Celestia kneel on the ground with her forehead pressed against the wall; her pale magenta-colored eyes are bloodshot from crying. Her right palm is pressed against three names she scratched into the wall with her sharp and strong horn.

Aurora

Somnus

Blueberry

She figures she been in this cell for 12 ½ months, but she cant's be so sure about that as this pocket dimension exists in past, the present, and the future all at the same time. Being uninformed with what going on outside the cell. Celestia is worried that Daybreaker has defeated her foals and is now torturing them as punishment for defying her. That why she has not come to taunt her for some time.

"Daybreaker! (Pounding on the wall with her fist as tears streak her snout) Stop torturing my babies! (Sliding down the wall to all fours as tears continue falling down her snout) Please stop hurting them. Be merciful end their life, don't hurt them anymore. Each scream of pain from them break my heart just a little bit. Stop hurting them! I beg you, end their life." Celestia's voice becomes high and hysteric with grief as she rolls up into a tight ball.

Meanwhile, after way too many close calls for infiltration operative Somnus as the palace is just crazy with Royal Army troops coming and going from the frontlines as the rebel army has put a severe hurt on the royal army with each battle. Somnus finally makes it to the palace dungeon using the information that Twilight told him, he heads to the far end of the dungeon. The moment he arrives at that position, he gets the same sense that Twilight got it should be much larger than this dead end. He charges up a powerful dispel spell in the palm of his hand; the moment he touches the dead-end, the magic shatters, revealing a second corridor with more cells.

This part of the dungeon is much more deteriorated then the newer section with the mortared joints falling to dust as Somnus touch them, several metal cell doors are badly rusted in place. A simple kick from his earth pony strength inherited from his mother would most like cause the doors to go puff. A few more feet down this deteriorated corridor, Somnus heard a mare crying from one of the cells. Looking through the barred window rolled up into a ball on the ground wearing torn and tattered coronation gown was white Alicorn mare with a hint of pink on her pelt with a dirty blonde mane and tail.

"Mother!" Somnus calls as the Alicorn mare turns toward the voice and begins to bawl upon seen her son face in the window.

"Baby! Look out!" Celestia yelled but not in time as Somnus is struck on Back of his head and falls unconscious from the blow.

"Baby, please wake up. Please awake up for your mother. Show me that you are ok." A mare voice said worried and begging as Somnus felt someone running their fingers through his mane very loving.

Slowly Somnus open his cobalt blue eyes and quickly winks away from the mare. He reappears a few feet in front of her. As he stares at the white Alicorn mare with a hint of pink on her pelt with a dirty blonde mane and tail wearing a torn and tattered coronation gown. He quickly hides his gleeful smile with a guarded one. As Celestia tries to move toward him, she is met by a weak magic blast meant to make her keep her distance from him. She tries a second time and is meant by a little more powerful magic blast that impacts in front of her feet.

"Stay put, mare. Don't approach me." Somnus says warning as Celestia watches her son generate a more powerful magic blast in the palm of his hand pointed in front of her feet again.

"All right, baby," Celestia said, conceding as a single tear run down her cheeks, and she sat down on her legs as the ears on top her head droops.

"What must this broken-hearted mare do to proof that I am your mother?" Celestia's inquiry hopeful as her goddess features fell.

"Your feet mare!" Somnus orders as Celestia faces glazes with shock with her son's request to her.

"What? No baby, I know that will instantly tell you I am your mother, and I know what you want to do. But that will be impossible. I no longer feel it." Celestia said her voice edged with tension.

"Your feet now mare!" Somnus said more forceful as a chill runs up Celestia's spine.

"Please listen to me, baby. To keep me weak and allow her to exist in this world. She used my ticklishness against me. The more times she used it on me, the more I built up a tolerance to it. Till I was finally able to resist it. That the reason she put this disruptor ring on my horn, and these hinder manacles on my wrists and ankles. And placed me in this cell here." Celestia explains as her heart becomes heavy in her chest.

"Final warning mare! Present those feet of your now!"Somnus said demanding as Celestia watch her son generate a larger magic beam in the palm of his hand. Her eyes widen in alarm that large of the magic beam will undoubtedly take her down.

"Very well, baby. Just know this; I am that mare that gave you and your sisters' life. No matter what happens, I will always love you. For you have extended my life beyond my immortality." Celestia said her voice a lifeless monotone as she walks over to the wooden platform in the wall and sits down on it.

She swings her legs onto the platform allow her perfectly round heels to rest right on the edge of the opposite end of the platform with that Somnus kneel in front of her filthy reasonably large feet. He kisses two of his fingers and touches his real mother big toes with them, a small heart form on the underside of her big toes.

The two hearts burst and begin swirling around the underside of her feet, till it absorbed into them. Their quick flash signaling that the spell did its job. He gently pushes back his mother's toes opening the intersection between the base of her toes and balls of her feet. He picked that particular section because of she most ticklish there.

"Huh?" Celestia exclaims as electrical impulses shoot up both her legs and explode in her mind. Tears first form in her surprised pale magenta eyes, followed by a smile on her snout that quickly breaks. That follows up by great gusts of laughter that fill the whole cell.

"Pleeeheeaseee bbbaby I-I cahahahan't take Anymorhoore I-I Bwahahahahanonhooo!!!" Celestia screamed with laughter as Somnus stop tickling the intersection between the base of her toes and balls of her feet.

"Mother!" Somnus exclaimed as he wrapped his arms around his mother's neck, and she lovingly rubs her chin on his Back, overjoyed that she is reunited with at least one of her beloved foals.

"Somnus? How did you do that? I built up a tolerance to it and could resist it. But went you touch my foot that tolerance and resistance vanished. I am grateful for it. But how?" Celestia inquiry as she took her legs off the platform and allowed Somnus to sits down next to her.

"After I rescued cousin and auntie from the dungeon. Cadance told me if you tickle some pony with love in your heart, they will always feel it, no matter what. So I used my love for my mother, and she felt me tickling her." Somnus explains as Celestia blink with a surprise, not for the reason he did it, but learning that her adoptive niece and sister were in the dungeon.

"Somnus? You say you rescued your cousin and your auntie from the dungeon." Celestia commented as Somnus shook his head.

"Please, my dear foal, fill your mother in about everything that has happened. Up till you were tossed into this cell with me." Celestia asks as Somnus begins to relay the events up till he was tossed into the cell with his real mother.

"That arrogant mare! Picking on my foals was one thing! But arresting my adoptive niece and sister! Then order the more despicable member of the palace security unit to tickle them helpless feet till they broke them! Unacceptable!" Celestia said fiercely with her eyes seething as she stared at the manacles on her wrists and ankles.

"Baby? Can you do something about these manacles?" Celestia inquiry as Somnus kneels in front of his mother and tears off the sun symbol patch from his upper arm of his sneak suit.

Hidden behind the patch were two lock pick tools with these tools he begins to pick the lock on his mother's manacles on her wrists. A moment later, their very soft click followed by a second one. The manacles fall off her wrists and clang as it hits the stone floor of the cell. She rubs her wrists a few times as it feels so much better with them off.

Somnus gestures his mother to put her fairly large feet on his thighs, which she does instantly, and he goes about picking the locks on her ankles. Why he is doing that, she reaches up and pinches the ring on her horn between her fingers breaking it, allow her to use her magic again. Before long, Celestia once again heard the clang on the stone floor of the cell as the manacles fall off her ankles. With her son's assistance, they can free her white Pegasus wings from tight-fitting leather bags that held them. She flexes them a few time to loosen them before folding them on her Back again.

"Somnus step aside. Let your mother open the cell door." Celestia said confidently as she lifted off and spun in the air to pick-up speed.

At the right time, there an unreal loud smack as the sole of Celestia's barefoot impacted on the cell door, blowing it off the hinges. Without even a flinch, Somnus' mother just walks out the now open door. She gestures with her fingers telling her son are your coming time is' wasting. Through the opening Somnus gape in stunned silence, the cell door his mother kicked is now embedded in the wall across from the cell. Were his mother's foot made contact with the door has a dent in the shape of his mother's foot. He knew that his mother was strong because of she a pure Alicorn mare, but not that strong.

"Somnus! Stop wasting time, come on! Our home is in danger!" Celestia yelled

"Yes! Mother! Yes, coming!" Somnus answer his voice edged with tension as he caught up to his mother; she ran her snout through his mane in loving gestures and kisses his horn. This loving gestures help reassure him that his mother will only use her full strength against those that will hurt her foals and ponies.

The soft pip-plop of his mother's fairly large and plush bare feet echoes in the corridors of the dungeon as she treads fairly quickly over smooth and round river stone that makes up the floor of this area. She stops short of the opening into the large cavernous room filled with dust-covered torture equipment of bygone age.

Celestia always hated this room in the dungeon filled with instruments to inducing pain on victims and force them to confess to anything to end the suffering. Went Luna and her rose to the thrones of Equestria, it was a common practice to uses these instruments to make some pony confess their crimes, even if it was not true. After being crowned, the two sisters outright banned this practice and instead instilled a court system. She will admit the system is not perfect, but it better than forcing a pony to admit guilt through the pain.

"Stop Somnus," Celestia said quietly as she sticks her arm out to stop her son.

She peeked around the corner and saw four royal dungeon guards guarding the staircase to the main floors of Grand Royal Palace. She figures after the escape of her sister and her adoptive niece by her son. Daybreaker doubled the guards down here to ensure if her son returns and rescue his mother, their no way to get her to the main floors of the palace.

"Their no problem, mother. I can sneak you pass like I did with cousin and auntie." Somnus said confidently as Celestia shook her head no.

"That will not work, Somnus. For two very good reasons." Celestia said as she dunked the foot, she kicked the door open with into a bucket of water and cleaned all the grime off her foot. Return it to a fairly pristine condition.

"Have a look at my foot, Somnus," Celestia said as Somnus held his mother's foot and gasp, across her foot, was a bad bruise.

"That door was harder than I thought. Trying to walk quietly on a bruise like this. It will aggravate it more, and the second reason I am much taller than your Auntie and your Cousin is in terms of being an Alicorn. I ensure no small amount of attention with my height." Celestia explains as Somnus' ears drooped on top of his head.

"But mother. I can't leave you here. Not after rescuing you from that cell." Somnus said, fearful as his mother caressed his cheek with the Back of her hand.

"You won't baby," Celestia said, reassuring and motherly as she continued to stroke back of her hand against his cheek.

"Are you wearing that gold sun pin, which I gave to you and your sisters to keep?" Celestia inquiry hopeful and motherly as Somnus pointed to a stylized gold sun pin on his collar.

A knowing smile form on her snout pleased that he wore it, she quickly sneaks as a loving kiss on his cheek. She slowly brought her hand close to the gold pin and snapped her fingers once. Suddenly the pin started to glow and blink several time as if it was setting off a beacon. Celestia quickly ushered her son to her side and pointed at the four royal dungeon guards, who were wearing a simple gold sun pin on their collar. Two minutes later, the sun pin on their collars begins flashing in rapid succession.

"Queen Chrysalis Changelings are in Canterlot again! To arms! To arms!" The staff sergeant calls as he jumps to his feet, and the group rushes up the stairs to the main floors of the palace.

Most likely heading to the throne room were Daybreaker would be and hold her at gunpoint, till the code word is said by one of the remaining Equestria royalty. After the guards left, Celestia strolls out of the opening over to the staircase at a pace that willn't aggravate her severely bruise foot. A moment later, a dumbstruck Somnus follow behind his mother and joins her at the stairs.