Solstice in an Eclipse

by -Brutus

Fateful Meeting and Hope

“Ugh.”

A few hours had passed since the battle on the outskirts of Manehattan, and Risk was sitting silently in the main room of Koffee Kat. A bottle of cheap vodka lay sideways, coffee that was about two days old sat on the counter. In the ashtray sat a black clove cigarette, half-done, with smoke still rising from the ash. A white hoof hovered over the ash tray, picking up the cigarette, and then swiftly placed it into his mouth, taking a long drag. Light grey smoke rose into the air while some heavier smoke hovered around the lone figure.

“Am I crazy?” Risk looked up and walked over to the window to see his own reflection in it before continuing, “No, no… if I wasn't crazy, my nickname wouldn't be Risk, would it? How AM I supposed to meet her in the first place?!” Exhaling the last drag of his cigarette, he squinted his eyes at the window, watching his own eyes reflected back at him.

No regrets.
Sorry, Affogato. Seems like I couldn’t take care of the place as promised. But I will leave it in pristine condition.

Smiling internally, he backed away from the window. He spent about four hours cleaning his own mess, organizing stocks – whatever was left of it – and letting in fresh air to get rid of cigarette smell. He cleaned dishes and cups until they were spotless. Before he was done, one last touch was put in place, security-wise. He managed to find some metal sheets; apparently Affogato had stocked up on them in case he went off on a long vacation or something. Hauling it out of the other stockroom, he started to nail it up before noticing it was inscribed with magic symbols, followed by a few names; he saw his own and wondered why his was on it, but he had a hunch.

Walking up to the counter, he picked up a knife and threw it toward one of the metal sheets. A strange shield just appeared and deflected the knife like it was non-existent. Putting one and one together, he figured it would manifest a magic spell that would rid the place of would-be robbers, or anyone who didn’t have business at this place, while accepting anyone who had their name white-listed.

How convenient...

Finishing up putting up those sheets to cover every window and door, he carried the last metal sheet outside before making a round trip to pick up his black gatsby cap, his crumbling pack of coffin nails and his last cup of java. Grunting, he put up the last sheet, setting it up at the main entrance of Koffee Kat. Backing up slowly, he looked up at the sign, muttering to himself, “Thank you Affogato.”

He spread his wings, giving them a few flaps as he secured his cargo. He ran lightly until he arrived at the corner of the street. Flapping more, he lifted himself off the ground, leaving behind that place that he came to know in the past year, silently lifting himself up higher and higher. Eventually he ended up flying above the clouds. As he flew above them, an outline of his shadow pinged off of the clouds, with the moon illuminating them, as well as most of Equestria – that he could see with his eyes, at least. The lights of the city flickered in the distance; he’d never been there before, but knew what it was.

As it got closer and closer, what was initially nothing more than black blob with a few bright spots prodding out of it became the mighty black outline of a city dotted sparsely with lights. White buildings and towers appeared as he flew toward it; it clinged to the side of the mountain next to a coercive waterfall, which fed the stream and wells of the magnificent city. Landing at the entrance of Canterlot, he snorted, placing his hoof in front of him while folding his wings.
I'm not here to admire the sights, he thought, mentally checking himself. Breathing became slightly harder for Risk, as he knew that the mare was in this capital of Equestria. Taking a deep breath, he took out his nicotine sticks, lighting one up like usual and taking a long drag off it.

He trotted for a little bit before finding a bench a few yards away from the gated access of Canterlot, and he began to formulate a plan when he saw a noble pony passing by. He clearing his throat and said, “Excuse me, my good sir. Could you take a moment of your time to gesture me towards the castle of our Queen Nightmare Moon?” Risk had to act the part of the city; however, the noble pony took a step back as if he couldn't believe this pegasus.

All of us are trying to go and move out away from that dreaded alicorn - yet he wants to go toward where she resides?! He must be mad – crazy, even!

Little did the noble pony know, it was in fact the truth. The gentlepony composed himself; he didn't want to give away the fear that would be in his voice, so he simply picked up his hoof and pointed it in the general direction of the castle; then, when he was sure Risk was following, he raised his hoof even higher. It pointed at the highest point of Canterlot, a huge outline of the castle. His ears perked up as he heard a “thank you” from Risk, who had started to trot toward the castle.

In the distance, the gentlepony held his hat to his chest. “Good luck” was all he could say as he turned and went off in direction he originally was heading in. As he was only one block away, Risk looked around and noticed that there were only a few guards standing at the primary and secondary entrances of the castle; apparently Nightmare Moon was expanding her available military might all across Equestria so that she could stay in the power. The land was dark, due to eternal night. He quickly assessed the problem and facehoofed – he was white-coated, and that was very easily noticeable in the dark. At least he caught the problem beforehoof. After few minutes, there was knocked out earth pony in a dark alley of Canterlot. The only thing stolen was what Risk now wore – a grey cloak. It suited the situation just fine, though he felt a little sorry for the victim.

After that was done with, he sat in the reasonable distance from the castle while avoiding the peering eyes of guards and of would-be passersby by hiding himself in dark corner, under a broken street light. He carefully took mental notes, ignoring everything but that purple mare. Risk decided to take a break for a moment by looking up at the moon, half of which was obstructed by the tallest tower of the castle, when something caught his eye: a dark pony outline in the biggest window, looking at same thing as Risk.

He glued his eyes to the window, debating whether or not it could be what he thought it was. He repeated what he said to himself a few hours ago at the coffee shop pertaining to his nickname. He walked all the way around behind the castle, slowly flapping his wings so that they wouldn't make much noise, steadily climbing foot by foot until he got to the top of the concrete wall. He then manipulated his wings so that he simply glided through the air, creating no sound. He arrived at the base of the tall tower, concealed in the darkness. Silence and being unseen were his main goals, for if he were to be caught, death would be inevitable. He decided against simply flying straight up, as he figured that brought more chances of being detected.

Slowly he rose, grabbing some bricks that were sticking out and pulling himself up. He forced his hind legs to do all the work as his forehoofs guided the way – the way Risk figured is that if he fell, he had his flying ability to save him. One brick and another, he ascended the tower. When he was three-fourths the way there, he nearly slipped, but with his reflexes he flapped his wings, righting himself and gripping the bricks harder. Hastily folding his wing, he froze there. He exhaled slowly, calming down his high heart rate while listening carefully for any sign that he attracted some attention; however, the only sound that radiated was the chirping of a cricket, along with something else: a sobbing that came from above. It was heart-wrenching to listen to but it only served to reinforce his resolve.

He started to climb again, this time moving sideways to the right, inching over slowly. Panting – out of breath due to his smoking habit – he murmured to himself, “Here I go,” and heaved himself up, gripping the bottom frame of the window while balancing himself in the air by flapping his wings – and finally, he made it. The first sight that met him was a tear-streaked purple mare, holding her left forehoof in such a position that it seemed like she was heading towards the window.

The purple mare came out of her stupor, watching the white pegasus climbing through her window. Before Risk could do anything or say a word, her horn flared to life, wrapping the pegasus in a purple aura that slammed him against the wall next to the window before throwing a barrage of questions at him.

“Who are you? What are you doing here?! Who do you work for? Are you here to kill me?!” She continued to step closer and closer to the pegasus flailing a little on the wall. Risk choked as he could feel the magic around his neck tightening slowly, throwing up his head up as he held his forehoof to his neck.

Taking a deep breath, he picked up his hindlegs and somehow managing to connect a kick to the purple mare's face, causing her to lose concentration. Without the magic levitating him in the air, he instantly dropped down on his flank. He stared at the purple unicorn fumbling around, while panting like crazy, his heart beating, his thinking process out of whack. So he dropped a line without thinking, with weary coughs before shouting as he slumped on the ground.

The room echoed with the words, “I HATE YOUR EYES!”

Resorting to his cigarette to keep his nerve from skyrocketing anymore, he accepted whatever would come after this.
Rubbing her cheek where the kick was aimed at, her head rang before the words that the white pegasus had said finally registered in her head. Staying as far away from him as possible as she wasn't sure of his true intention, moments passed, and there was a heavy atmosphere looming between two ponies who were strangers to each other.

What broke the silence between them was the purple mare asking the obvious question:

“…what do you mean?”

Bending over, massaging his neck as the pain gradually went away, the white pegasus replied,

“You deserve half of the full story. After all, I did break in and scare the buck out of you.” He weakly laughed as he repeated the conversation between them.

“I meant what I said: I hate your eyes. Not you, your eyes. Because of when I first saw them, back in Manehattan. At the outskirts.”

As the purple mare's face became wrenched, she remembered that scene, as it only happened about day ago now, and slowly looked down at the floor. Somewhere in heart, she knew what would be said in the end.

“I hate them so much because when I saw those eyes of yours, they seemed... dead. I hate them so much because I was exactly like that.”

Looking up, she wondered what he really meant by that.

Risk seemed to get the hint from her reaction alone.

“I don't… want to talk about it in much detail now. Long story short: I'm an orphan, it seems. My parents died when I was young and I don't recall much about them."

“My family hated me. They just cast me out because I was different; apparently, being a blank flank didn't help much, either.”

The white pegasus looked up and made eye contact with the purple unicorn as he kept speaking. Twilight realized what he meant with his crimson eyes: they seemed so deep…

She wandered around inside her mind before coming back around, and kept listening.

“I wandered around all of Equestria, from town to town. In a grueling process, I had to learn right from wrong, but even still... I was stuck in limbo. So, I had to resort to... ‘activities’ that landed me in hot water many times… I even had to extinguish someponies' life to defend myself.” He still didn’t get into details, but instead he just simply gestured to all of his body scars on display. Risk felt like he was on the verge of another round of crying. He exhaled slowly as he took another drag of his cigarette.

“Eventually, I gradually withered into a state that I like to call ‘living dead’. That's what I saw…”

The purple unicorn had misty eyes; she held it back as long she could. But finally, she broke down crying on the ground, with tears that came straight from her heart.

“...in your eyes.”

As the crying filled up the room, Risk wasn't sure what he should do. After all, this sort of situation had never happened to him before; it seemed so crazy that he would even risk his life to come here in the first place, just for this purple mare. He shook his head to halt his mental discussion as he gaited toward the purple mare, once again sitting on his flank against the bed that was in the middle the room. Slowly, he reached over with his right forehoof, holding his cigarette with his left, then paused, scared of what would happen if he touched this mare. Nevertheless, he started to pat her back. However, what was unexpected was that after a few seconds of this gesture, the unicorn picked herself up slowly to move over to the stranger and wrapped her forehoofs around Risk and just kept crying, making his hindlegs and coat wet.

Sitting there silently, he patted her head.

Slowly, the tears died out.

The only thing left was the occasional sob, along with a sneeze, when the purple mare asked,
while pointing at the thing hanging out of white pegasus’ mouth,

“What is that?!”

“Cigarette... want one?”

Shuffling through his pocket, he produced a pack of coffin nails.

Twilight held a hoof to her muzzle, covering her nose up. “I don't think...” Her voice deadpanned. “Aw, buck, why not.” She took one cigarette out of the pack, taking the offered lighter as Risk took out yet another for himself.

*cough cough*

“This is awful! Why are you even smoking this?!”

“Keeps my nerves calm. Wait until it kicks into your system,” Risk chuckled.

After a few moments of silence, as they were about to finish up their smokes, Twilight began to raise her head and was about to speak before Risk stopped her by holding his forehoof to her mouth.

“Don't say anything unless you are absolutely sure.” He knew the feeling himself; after all, he just went through it earlier, when he told some of his sob story to the mare. Twilight nodded, as she laid her head on her hindlegs and began recounting her story. She left out some details as well; she figured she would tell more someday if, this pegasus ever came back.

Starting at beginning, she told Risk of the battle of the elements, and how she was the personal student to Celestia before the Princess was banished to the sun by Nightmare Moon. When she got to the point where all of the abuse haf happened to her, she just simplified it. She detailed some of her experiences of the fighting on the battlefield and killing somepony for the first time. The crying started again as the memory began to resurface within her mind while she told her sob story to the white pegasus.

“…and I even think I killed my parents. I mean…” She groaned in frustration.
“I DON'T KNOW what’s real and what isn't. I mean, argh, it is my memory…”

Twilight finally got quiet. Apparently, this was the “now” that she had arrived at.

Risk just stroked her mane, rather than patting her head like before. Magic was something foreign to him, but he’d have to learn sometime soon. A idea popped into his head, but he decided against saying it aloud. He finally looked up from the side of the bed, and the moon was in a different position – a sign that an hour or two had passed, though it was still “night” time.

He silently took out a few cigarettes from the pack, laying it down on her bed above him. Grabbing the grey cloak that was next to him, he looked up at the purple mare.

“I have to go, otherwise...”

The unicorn mare just nodded, knowing what he meant. Nightmare Moon. He geared up again and trotted to the window, then turned around after climbing out, hanging onto the window frame. He smiled softly at the purple mare who seemed bewildered by this turn of behavior.

“Risk.”

Twilight cocked her head, when realization hit her.

“Twilight Sparkle. And...”

Both strangers finally had names to call each other, and were now friends. Her purple forehoof wiped both of her cheeks, and a very faint smile appeared on her face.

“…thank you.”

With that, he gently waved a “see you later” gesture, rather than a “good-bye”, before climbing down the same way he came in when he first broke in. Twilight took a gander out the window; she couldn't see Risk anymore, but still could hear the noise that Risk was making from the base of the tower. Ostensibly, the gray cloak that had covered him was doing its job well.

Two days later, as Twilight slept, a white hoof reached over and pinned something into the wooden window frame, then vanished. When she eventually woke up, she observed the white object in the distance from her bed, and her curiosity got the best of her. Slowly walking up to the object, she used her magic to unpin it and stared at it. Twilight cried again, but this time it was with joy, before she flared her horn to life after looking at it for a very long time.

Purple flame burst to life on that object, and then finally, it turned to ashes.

The memory was implanted in her mind forever, somewhere Nightmare Moon couldn’t ever get to. It was the picture of a white mare with a purple- and white-streaked mane with blue stallion walking next to her, right at the door of their home as they exited. Twilight noticed that it wasn't on ground level; it was from an overhead angle.

There was small writing on bottom-right corner that read, They're alive.

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Special thanks to Doom_Pie once again for proof-reading and being my editor!