The Untold Past of the Royal Family

by PrinceoftheEclipse

First published

Why don't we know more about our princesses' past? Why do they always seem to be a secret? Twilight Sparkle believes she has just found another secret of theirs. And this one seems to be more about their family.

As Twilight explores the the Canterlot archives, she stumbles upon a hidden library within the archives. What she is more suprised to find is a book written by her teacher; Princess Celestia herself. And it seems to be biography of her family's life back when she was still growing up. What she soon discovers is more shocking than what she could ever imagine.


(Crossover doesn't appear until chapter 4)

Untold Past About An Untold Family

View Online

Twilight had spent most of her sleeping hours in the Canterlot archives since she became a princess. Yes, her library back in Ponyville had more books than almost anywhere, but the archives had at least ten times that many. When she first set foot into it, she didn’t know where to start, so she thought how little she really knew about Equestrian history (thanks to both Discord and Sombra rising again). While she was looking for the next book along the history section, she tripped over the last thing she would expect; a tile. For some reason this tile was a little higher than the ones surrounding it. Twilight let her curiosity get the better of her and began to levitate the tile off the ground. Where the tile once was, was a set of stairs that led only into darkness. Twilight was very interested in this sudden discovery, she may find more about history than she meant to today.

As she walked down the creepy stairs, it began to get darker as she went further in. It then came to her mind that she hadn’t lit up her horn yet. When she did, she was even more surprised than when she found the secret stairs. She had stumbled upon a secret library, with books and scrolls that looked as old (if not older) than both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Out of all the books she encountered, she found one that caught her interest more than any book she had ever read before.

It was on the highest shelf and hard to see with the other books surrounding it. The book wasn’t too big, and it wasn’t too fancy looking either. The book was black, and really dusty from what she could tell. With her wings she flew to book and picked it up carefully with her magic, who knows how old this book was, it could fall to dust any second. As she opened to the first page, all that was written was “Dedicated to my dear brother and sister: Luna and Eclipse.”Twilight instantly knew this book was written by her dear mentor; Princess Celestia, but one question instantly came to her mind “I know Luna, but who is this Eclipse?”

She then realized she never read the cover of the book, she turned the page back to see the cover. The cover was too filthy to even read, so she blew the dust off of the book. No, not dust, she could smell the scent of smoke coming off the book. The book had been covered in ashes, this only peeked Twilight’s interest even more than it had already been. The title cover brought chills down Twilight’s spine; the picture was of three alicorns with the sun and the moon above them: one white with an aurora like mane, one dark blue with a mane that was like that of the night sky, and the final was dark gray (almost black) with a mane that was so fiery red that it almost hurt to look at it. The book was titled, “The Story of Our Family.”

Normally, Twilight would usually read the book to see just who Prince Eclipse is, but since her interest was so high, she wanted to get straight from the authors own mouth. Another thing she usually would have done is that she usually would have teleported to the throne room, but she had so many questions going through her head, she couldn’t concentrate on even the simplest of spells. After only a few minutes, but what seem like an hour to Twilight, she finally reached the throne room. There sat the Sun princess herself along with her sister the Moon Princess; Celestia and Luna. Celestia was a little shocked to see Twilight rushing to her totally out of breath, she slowly asked, “Are you alright, Twilight?”

“Yes I’m fine, I just have a few questions for you,” Twilight replied, still breathing hard.

“No Twilight, I’m not going to show you how to use sun magic.”

“What, where did you get that from?”

Celestia blushed, now embarrassed of her sudden accusation of her student wanting to learn how to use sun magic. Sunset Shimmer had once asked her to make her a princess, but since Twilight was already a princess; she feared the worst. Luna chuckled at her sister’s actions, but decided to say nothing about it. Celestia decided to change the subject and answer her student’s question.

“Uh, never mind, what would you like to ask me Twilight?”

“Actually it’s a question for both of you.”

“Oh, alright, we are all ears.”

“I was down in the archives again and I came across this really dark looking book.”

Celestia started to have worries about what dark book she had found, but she decided to have the benefit of the doubt and listen to her student. “What exactly art thou trying to ask, Twilight Sparkle?” Princess Luna asked.

“Who is Eclipse?”

Both princesses turned to stone at her question; they had not heard that question for so many centuries that they were in deep shock. If Twilight didn’t know any better she would have thought that they really had turned into statues, but she just waited patiently for them to get out of their trance. After coming out of her daze, Celestia sighed. “Show me the book you found, we will explain everything.”

Twilight handed over the book with her magical grip on it, only to have both Celestia and Luna grabbing at the book with their own. They didn’t fight over the book, together as if one pony, they brought it down so they could both get a look at it. Twilight’s concentration and focus was back into full gear, she was focusing so hard on the princesses; that she noticed a tear had started forming in the corner of both of their eyes. She was a little hesitant to ask, “Is everything alright, Princess?”

“Twilight, I never told you about this because it was too emotional for me to talk about, just like I never wanted to talk to you (or anypony) about Luna. It would just bring more pain, I couldn’t tell you before,” Celestia said holding back a few tears.
“Sister, please, all is forgiven. Thou did only what was right for our subjects, you saved not only them, but Us as well. Twilight, We believe it is time we told thee everything about our family, including our mother,” Luna added.

Twilight listened very carefully, for she knew that this was a very touchy subject for both of the princesses. She was ready for them to start telling their side of this story, but was surprised when Celestia spoke up. “I believe it would be best if we told you straight from the book. It will be a lot better than if we just tell you in our own words. Some things in this book I have forgotten throughout the years.” Luna was a little worried; she did not want her sister to start balling like a little filly while in the middle of reading. But she had faith in her sister; Celestia was in many ways more mature in these kinds of things than even Luna was. Celestia then began to read out of the book she had written herself; carefully she turned to the first page of the first chapter titled; “When Our Family Was Complete.”


Many years ago, back when Equestria was still young, it was ruled by the alicorn; Queen Lauren. Her snow white coat and crimson red mane, she kind of stood out among the other ponies. She always loved to make her subjects happy, and even when she didn’t mean to; she brought joy where ever she went. Then there were the two princesses; Celestia with her shiny white coat and pink mane (being only 10 years old), and Luna with her dark blue coat and baby blue mane (only 5 years). Celestia always having a more mature personality and love for making ponies happy (like her mother), while Luna on the other hand; she had a thing for sneaking off and having fun during the night.

Every now and then, Queen Lauren would go out on a nightly stroll through the forests that surrounded Canterlot. She loved going on her little walks, her only time to get away from her royal duties with some peace and quiet. She had no idea what she was going to find on this particular trip. Every night, she would always pass the apples trees that weren’t too far away; she would always want to have an apple freshly picked while she walked. As she entered the area where the apples started to appear, she heard the apple trees shaking out of control, she at first felt a little frightened. And when she got a little closer, she could also hear what sounded like tiny cries for help. Then when she flew up to see what was making all the noise, she felt like crying. There on one the branches, holding for dear life was a dark gray, red maned alicorn, scared out of his mind. Her Majesty immediately picked him up and carried him on her back, returning to the castle as quickly as possible. As soon as she got into the castle she quickly called out to one of the maids, “We’re going to need a miniature bed moved into Our room immediately!”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the maid (her name is Feather Duster) replied.

As Feather Duster made her way to the queen’s bedroom, Celestia and Luna made their way down the stairs and into the main hall where their mother was. Celestia saw the expression on her mother’s face and she began to feel the worry coming from her mother. “What is Mother so scared for?” she thought. Luna was too busy trying to see what was hiding behind her mother’s wings. When Queen Lauren saw her daughters, she grew a joyous smile. She then folded her wings revealing the little gray alicorn trying his best to hide himself behind her back legs. She then addressed her daughters, “Girls, I would like you to meet your brand new brother. I just rescued him from the forests and the monsters that live in there.” Both of the princesses grew smiles that could rival that of a famous disappearing cat. Luna immediately tried to introduce herself to the little colt, “Hi, I’m Luna, I’m your new sister, what’s your name?!”

Little did she know that he was way too young to even say a word, and even if he could, he was way too scared to talk to anypony. Although, being able to see a friendly face did bring the young alicorn colt to smile. Celestia was super excited as well, though she was trying hard not to start jumping up and down in excitement. Instead she decided to talk to her mother, “What is his name, Mother?” she asked. This made Her Majesty think, he was way too young to remember any name that could’ve been given to him. So she decided, “I think I shall name him….” She couldn’t come up with a name; she already had Luna and Celestia, the sun and the moon. What could go with those too names? “What do you girls think I should name him?” she asked them.

“Oh, I know we can call him Nocturnal,” Luna said excitedly.

“How about Solar that seems like a great name” Celestia replied.

Then it hit Lauren, Sun and the Moon, what happens when you put them together? “I think I know what to call him. Let’s name him; Eclipse,” Lauren said happily. You would think the two sisters would be angry not having their name choices being used. Instead they loved the new name even better than the names they originally came up with. Once he heard his new name, Eclipse’s smile began to get wider, but his eyes were getting heavier. He slowly climbed onto his new mother’s back and began to fall asleep. Queen Lauren just smiled at him, “Alright girls, I think it’s time for all of us to go to sleep.”

They nodded, happy and unhappy at the same time. They were happy to have a new family member in the family, but unhappy that they couldn’t play with him longer tonight. But they listened to their mother and started toward their bedroom. As Queen Lauren entered into her bedroom, she noticed the new small bed prepared right next to hers. She carefully levitated him into his bed, pulling the covers over him as she gently placed him down. She just barely rescued him, but she already loved him. Eclipse was her son.


A year had gone by since the rescue of little Eclipse, and so had a year of magical training for both Celestia and Luna. They weren’t learning how to raise the sun and moon right off the bat; they need to know the basics before they learned the powerful spells. Both were naturals; Celestia was perfect at protective spells, while Luna was better at offensive spells. Eclipse was always present when his mother taught his sisters magic. Luna was his role model, the way she put all her effort into everything she did, and he wanted to be just like her.

One night, while the queen had gone on one of her strolls, Luna (being the night owl that she is), wanted to see the royal garden with moon light shining upon it. Luna just seemed to have a love of the night for some reason. The garden may have been beautiful, but it was also probably the most dangerous place in Canterlot. The garden was connected straight into the forests that was home to many dangerous creatures, giving them a place to come and go as they please (don’t worry the garden is fenced off from the rest of the town). Still, Luna wanted to go, Celestia decided to come along for sisterly support and protection. As Luna trotted through the garden loving every flower and plant she saw, she immediately stopped at her favorite flower: The Nocturnal Nightshade. She always loved see it in the night, because it glows a bright sapphire blue to complement its natural purple color during the night. Celestia just stood there with a smile on her face, happily watching her little sister dance around the garden.

All of a sudden, both of the princesses could hear a sound that was similar to a growl mixed with a snarl. Luna quickly rushed to her sister, while Celestia kept her eyes watching the forest entrance. They began to back up toward the giant oak tree that was the center piece of the garden. Then out of the forest opening a pack of timber wolves started piling by the dozens. They surrounded them from all sides, preventing any hopes of escape. Celestia, with no idea of what to do began to light up her horn. The light startled the beasts from the sudden glow from the young alicorn, but then they came to the conclusion that it was harmless and it meant no threat to them. Truth be told, Celestia could protect both her and her sister on her own, but she was so afraid that she couldn’t even conjure up the simplest of spells other than her light. Luna was too inexperienced to cast any spells that could do any effect to the wolves. And they couldn’t fly either; their wings were too young and small. They were doomed. As if right on cue, an alicorn with a crimson red mane came into the garden to protect the princesses, but it probably is not the alicorn you would expect to see.

Eclipse came into the garden, not knowing what was in the garden other than his two sisters. When he entered, he saw his sisters huddled by a tree, surrounded by animals, and with terrified expressions on their faces. He did not know exactly what was going on, but he knew one thing; his sisters need help, and he was mad at those things that were scaring his sisters. When his sisters had spotted him in the corner of their eyes, they quickly yelled, “No Eclipse, run for thine life, it’s not safe here!” The timber wolves then turned around to see what else had stumbled in on their eating time. And they charged at him, preparing to devour him quickly and effortlessly.

“NOOOOOOO!” Celestia and Luna yelled in unison, but it was too late. Too late for the timber wolves that is. Before they could even touch Eclipse, his body had burst into flames, not the bad way that you are probably thinking, more like a phoenix. But unlike the bird, he did not turn to ash; instead his body began to change. He body grew larger; his hooves grew claws, his skin grew scales, his tail more solid, spikes began to grow from his back, and his wings were no longer feathered; instead they were more like those of a bat. Finally, his ears grew longer, and two horns sprouted from the back of his head, while his teeth came to a point that was sharper than any sword. Eclipse had become something that could protect his sisters; he had become an all powerful dragon. Both Celestia and Luna were dumbfounded at what had just happened to their brother. He was easily 3 times the size of the timber wolves, and a lot more ferocious looking. His scales were as dark as night; with what looked like a star in each scale, his spikes were as red as the sun, three horns coming out of his head (including his alicorn one), and his teeth glowed with moonlight shining upon them. But that wasn’t the scariest part about him, his eyes; where pupils should have been, there was a flame burning with all the anger and hatred against those who hurt his siblings. He then let out a roar that sounded like a battle cry, one that could be heard across all of Equestria.

And then the battle began, Eclipse started with a blast of hot red flames that incinerated any of the wolves that were foolish enough to stand in its direction. He then swung his powerful claws against any that were remotely close to his sisters. The alpha of the pack decided to try his luck and attack the beast. He swung his claws across the dragon’s left eye, he then sealed his fate. The attack did make contact, left a claw mark across his face, but it seemed to have no effect on this dragon. Instead it seemed to make him more aggressive than he already was. After that, the alpha timber wolf was crushed within Eclipse’s giant claws, and then burned to a crisp from Eclipse’s fire breath. Realizing they stood no chance against this “unique” dragon, the wolves retreated back into the woods as fast as their survival instincts would let them.

When they had finally fled from the scene, Eclipse turned to his sisters, giving a small smile that even in his dragon form seemed loving. The princesses realized that Eclipse was still Eclipse, no matter what form he was in. As they began walking towards him for a hug to say thank you, they saw him beginning to be choked by a familiar red aura around his neck. The source of the power they knew very well: Mother. As she came into view, you could see that her eyes were glowing from anger and power. Lauren did not know that her son had transformed into this monstrous dragon, she believed that a dragon had come and burned her garden and was about to devour two of her babies. Both Celestia and Luna were in so much shock, they could move or even speak to defend their brother. Eclipse struggled against the spell as hard as he could, as his body was being pinned to a tree. “HOW DARE THEE ATTACK OUR DAUGHTERS!” the queen yelled in her highest Canterlot voice.

Thanks to all his struggling, Eclipse was able to get enough breath in his lungs to yell one word at his mother, “MAMA!” All the anger in Queen Lauren had dissolved, her eyes ceased to glow, and she was in a loss for words. What she heard was not a battle cry, nor was it an intimidating roar, what she heard the cry of her baby crying for her to save him. She slowly loosened her grip, just enough for him to breathe more easily. Then she noticed something, even though there was fire in his eyes; there were tears pouring from them down his face. “Mother,” Celestia yelled, “That’s Eclipse, please don’t kill him!”

After a quick second of shock, she immediately released him from her magical grip. As soon as Eclipse landed on the ground, his body began to change back into his tiny, dark gray, crimson red maned alicorn body. From the amount of magic, and the toe that the dragon form had on his body, he was utterly exhausted, and after a few more tears he fell down; fast asleep. Queen Lauren quickly, but carefully picked him up and cradled him with her wings; she wanted him to have the softest bed available.

“What happened in my absence?” she asked very curiously. Celestia and Luna explained everything to the best of their young filly abilities. From when they first came into the garden, to when Eclipse transformed, all the way until now. The queen was at a loss of words, she had no idea of what to say. How on this wild world had Eclipse turned into a dragon? She couldn’t even do that, and she knew everything about magic, it was never even thought to be possible. She looked at him; he looked so young, peaceful and innocent.

“My little sweat heart,” she said, “You were only protecting your sister, huh?” You could never imagine him being one of the most deadly creatures that could walk the earth. She decided to let it not bother, he only did it to protect his sisters, and he was still the cute baby alicorn on the inside. One day she would figure it out, but for now she was to love and protect him. She had no idea he would become one of the most powerful beings in Equestria, along with his all powerful sisters as well.


Twilight was in awe, she had never even thought about the mother of the princesses; let alone their brother. She looked closely at her mentor, and noticed that she had a small grin on her face. So did Luna, both seemed happy talking about their past; when both had their family all together. Then she decided to break the ice, “So what happened after that? Why could he become that dragon?” she asked.

“You only have one of the books Twilight,” Celestia exclaimed. “I believe the answer you seek lies within the other books.”

“What do you mean, there’s more?!”

“A lot more, hidden deep in the secret archives where only me and Luna can find them. Come we shall go and retrieve them, I actually want to read them, it will be like reliving it all over again,” Celestia said already walking toward the direction of the Canterlot archives. Luna quickly started following her sister, Twilight on the other hand hesitated. She was a little surprised to see her teacher so eager to go and read about her past, she then started following her fellow princesses. She was so excited to finally learn about her dearest teacher’s past and more importantly; about her teacher’s younger brother: Prince Eclipse himself.

The Inheritance of the Sun

View Online

As Celestia slowly walked into the Canterlot archives with Luna and Twilight following her, she took a deep breath and then slowly breathed it out. At first she was a little worried to talk about her past, but strangely as she read the first book; she felt a little relief. Thanks to Twilight, her past seems to be able to unravel. First Luna, then Discord, and now Eclipse, this made all the more happy that she made Twilight her student. As she came to the “special” tile in the floor, Celestia’s horn started to glow as she slowly lifted the tile out of the ground.

As she descended down the stairs, torches began to light themselves with a red golden flame as she walked past them. Then when Luna walked past; the flames’ color slowly changed into a magical blue flame, similar to the shade of her mane. Twilight was in more awe than she was when she first discovered this place. As they entered into the library, the torches instantly burst into flames. The torches were lit in a certain pattern; they went golden then dark blue and repeated across the entire room. The library seemed to know the very presence of the two princesses.

Twilight’s mouth was wide open, dumbstruck more than she had ever been. She was able to see everything in the library; from the sun and moon designs in the tiles of the floor, to the four alicorn theme on the walls (Celestia, Luna, Eclipse, and Queen Lauren). She then looked back at the princesses; both were standing in from of what seemed to be a sealed door. The door was gigantic, about five times the height of Celestia. On the front of the door seemed to be familiar, it was the dragon Celestia said Eclipse transformed into. It was exactly as Twilight imagined; black scales, red spikes, three horns, and flames within its eyes. The only difference was that the dragon’s face seemed more loving than what she thought. All the dragons she had encountered, except for Spike, were either rude or ferocious. This one seemed to be more on the “Spike” side.

As she examined the door, she noticed the dragon’s tail circled around a certain seal that kept the door locked. The seal was the shape of a sun, but with a crescent moon covering half of the sun’s rays. That wasn’t the only thing about the seal, a crimson red dragon circled around the solar eclipse. Right next to the seal were two special keyholes, both seemed to glow brighter the closer the princesses got to them. Both Celestia and Luna inserted their horns into the two key holes, as soon as they stepped back from the door the outline of the dragon’s outline started to glow slowly climbing toward the dragon’s eyes.

When the magical glow finally lit at the dragon’s eyes, the door split in two and both ends swung open. Inside was what seemed to be an author’s office. That is if an office was as a big as a throne room and golden bookshelves behind the desk. The desk alone was incredible; it was made of the finest oak wood with a phoenix carved into the front. The ink on the top of the desk seamed enough to make any treasure hunter drool; the ink container was pure silver, with liquid gold ink, and a bright red phoenix feather resting in it. Strangely looking like it had been used recently.

Celestia started walking toward the book shelf, looking for a specific book. Twilight was so busy admiring the beautiful office; she didn’t even notice both Luna and Celestia trying to get her attention. Luna immediately knew what to do in this situation; she promised to only do for emergencies, but this was exceptional.
“TWILIGHT SPARKLE!” Princess Luna called in her Canterlot voice.

Twilight jumped at the sudden shout from the princess. “Oh sorry princess, I got a little distracted, did you find the next book?” she asked.

“I did, this one actually happens to be one of my favorites,” Celestia replied.

“Which one is it sister?” Luna asked curiously.

“You’ll find out when I read it,” Celestia said grinning.

As Luna saw her sister’s grin on her face, she started to think of ideas of why this would be one of her favorites. Celestia walked to the desk to set the book down for her to read. Twilight and Luna sat in front of the desk ready to listen. This book was titled: “The Inheritance of the Sun.”

As Celestia started her way towards the court room for her daily magic lesson from her mother, she couldn’t help but feel excitement. Tomorrow was a very special day for her, and she couldn’t wait very much longer. She had planned it out almost perfectly; she was just so excited, for tomorrow was her birthday. The more she thought about it, the wider the smile on her face grew. When she came into the court room, she spotted her mother and; nopony. Where was Luna, where was Eclipse who usually sat and watched their lessons? “Mother, where art the others, am I too early?” Celestia asked.

“No, in fact thou are right on time. I told Luna to go play with Eclipse today, I have a special personal lesson for you,” Queen Faust replied.

If Celestia’s smile could get any wider, she would have broken Pinkie’s future record. Personal lessons only meant for her and right before her birthday no less. Could this get any better? “I want thee to levitate these heavy orbs of light as high as you can. And I want you to keep doing this until it gets too easy for you.”
All Celestia’s hopes for this lesson were just crushed at the end of her mother’s sentence. Levitating orbs of light; that was all she was going to get out of this lesson? She had learned levitation a long time ago, but she didn’t question her mother. The Queen always had a reason behind her teachings. So as her mother left the room, she began by trying to levitate the largest orb.

It would not budge. No matter how hard she tried, the orb would not move. It was just way too heavy for her, so she tried the second biggest; same result. She soon came to the conclusion that she should start with the smallest first then work her way up. As Celestia began on the smallest orb of light (which was about the size of her hoof) she finally felt the orb begin to lift off the ground. She sprouted a huge smile on her face, she was so happy with herself she jumped up with victory. The second she began to jump, the orb immediately dropped back to the floor. Celestia’s face was beginning to show some frustration, but she raised a hoof, took a deep breath, and then slowly let it out while extending her hoof. She decided to try again, this time with complete concentration and control. Surprisingly, the she was able to lift the orb with very little effort.

She then remembered what her mother said, “Levitate these heavy orbs of light as high as you can.” She realized she had only raised it to her own height; she needed to go higher, all the way to the ceiling. She practiced and practiced, when she was able to get one to the ceiling, she moved on to the one that was bigger than the last. Eventually she came upon her old enemy; the biggest one of the set. This morning she was cocky, but this time she was ready. Her horn began to glow, and so did the orb. She slowly began to lift the orb off the ground; it was extremely heavy, but not as heavy as before. She had exercised her magic and her strength, she could do this. Before she knew it, the largest orb of light was bouncing off the ceiling trying to go higher. Celestia had finally finished the task her mother had given her.

“Well done, Celestia,” a familiar voice said behind her.

In surprise, she quickly turned around to find her mother, her sister, and her brother.

“Very nice job, you did better than I thought you would. I am now more than excited for tomorrow,” the queen said.

Celestia grew a huge smile on her face; her birthday was going to be super special day, she was excited, her siblings looked excited, even her mother was excited. She took a quick look at the window to see how much longer till tomorrow. The sun had already set, in fact it was 11:30 pm; time for bed. Celestia rushed to her bed so quick it would give Rainbow Dash a run for her money. She was soon followed by her brother, Eclipse, and Luna just stood there with a pouty face pointed toward her mother. Queen Lauren looked down and smiled at her, “You need to go to bed too, Luna.”

As Celestia slowly got out, eyes still shut she walked herself to the royal dining room. Expecting breakfast she sat down at the closest chair to her. As she sat down, she drowsily opened her eyes and saw; barely anything. The sun had not come up, but neither the moon nor the stars were in the sky. The sky was skill dark as night, but above that Celestia’s first question was, “Where is my family?”

She raced back to her sister’s bedroom, quickly opening the door to find her sister sitting in front of one of the windows staring at the sky. Luna turned around with a worried expression on her face. Both had no idea of what was going on, and where was their mother. She was supposed to lift up the sun this morning. Did she accidently sleep in, or did she not come back from one of her nightly walks? But all of sudden Luna remembered something, “Hey where is Eclipse? Is he still sleeping?” Both quickly galloped to their mother’s room to find one of the beds empty. Eclipse was just barely getting out of his tiny bed, tiny flames escaping his mouth as he yawned.

“Eclipse, do you know where Mama is?” Luna asked.

Eclipse looked up at his mother’s bed to find it empty. He looked back at his sisters and shook his head. Where had she gone? Not only that, it seemed that no butler or maid were in the castle either. Thoughts were going through Celestia’s head like crazy. Was this all for her birth day, a sun rise surprise party? “I think everypony is waiting to do a surprise party somewhere,” Celestia told them.

They quickly split up to cover more ground; Luna and Eclipse took the West side while Celestia took the East. They checked every room, every closet, and every drawer (you never know). Celestia thought for a second she thought she heard breathing, but with no one else around her she thought she was hearing herself. They all came back to their mother’s bedroom, disappointed in their efforts. “If the sun isn’t raised soon, all our subjects will start to panic,” Celestia said.

“What do thy suggest we do then?” Luna argued.

“I...I...Uhh,” Celestia didn’t quite have an answer.

“Well?!” Luna yelled.

(Sigh) “I’m going to have to raise the sun instead.”

Luna’s mouth flew wide open, only their mother could do that. And she never taught either of them how to do it. Or did she? Wait, Celestia’s private lesson. That’s what it was, it was meant for her to learn how to raise the sun. Well it’s time to see if it did any good. They all quickly galloped outside to the East side of the castle’s courtyard. Celestia stood still, with both her eyes closed. Focusing, trying to find a hold on the sun. At first all she could feel was the heat coming off the sun, not the source. There! She found what seemed like a really, really big orb of light. She quickly tried to lift it, no affect, not even an inch. She had almost forgotten to stay focused and calm while lifting giant orbs of light. She slowly breathed in then breathed out, now she was determined to lift this.

It was heavy, heavier than anything she had ever lifted before. She began to lift herself up with her wings, slowly flying above the castle. Her eyes still closed, she had no idea if the sun had even moved an inch. She was probably moving an inch every few minutes. Her siblings quietly watched her as she slowly rose higher into the sky. As soon as she was a couple feet above the castle, she slowly let go of the sun while she descended down to the ground. As she slowly looked up with her eyes open, she saw the sun in all its glory high in the sky. And for some reason, it seemed to be shining brighter than ever. With a sigh of relief, she let herself collapse on the ground (boy, that thing was heavy).

“Tia, that was amazing!” Luna yelled while rushing to her sister

“Yay, Tia,” Eclipse yelled, hugging Celestia’s leg.

Celestia grew a small smile on her face, proud of her accomplishment. She had just lifted the sun, and on her birthday no less. Wait a sec, was this what made her mother so excited yesterday? And just at that moment, “SURPRISE!!” tons of ponies yelled behind her. Even in her exhaustion, she quickly turned around to find her mother and all the castle staff with balloons, a giant cake, and giant smiles on their faces.

The queen rushed to her first born and quickly embraced her in a death hug. As soon as she hugged her, she lifted her up as high as she could. “Celestia I am so proud of you, I knew you could do it!”

“Mother, where were you guys? We looked everywhere in the castle and you were nowhere to be found.”

“Oh, sorry about that sweetie, I wanted to make it a surprise party for you. I also purposely didn’t raise the sun; I wanted to see you do it. That’s what the lesson yesterday was all about; I wanted your birthday to be special and for you to learn a little about leadership.”

Celestia looked up happily at the queen. She couldn’t believe her mother would do all of this for her. When she looked at her mom, she saw her looking a little bit behind her. The queen soon smiled with even more pride. “It seems I have even more to be proud of today,” Queen Lauren said pointing at Celestia’s flank. Celestia quickly looked where she was pointing. There on her flank, a yellow and orange sun glowed. Celestia’s smile grew even wider; she couldn’t hold it anymore, “My cutie mark, yesyesyesyesyesyesyes!”

As Celestia started celebrating, in a cave not so far away from their castle a young draconiqus began to wake. He could sense a new source of power coming from the direction of the castle. And this one felt like nothing he felt before, this one was a lot more powerful and it scared him.

“I then started jumping up and down all around the castle. During the party, I was so happy I ate almost the entire cake by myself. At the end of the day, I went to my bed happier than I had ever been before,” Celestia said as she finished the book. Twilight had a huge smile on her face. That was always a story she wanted to hear, the story of her mentor’s cutie mark. That’s one thing to check off her super long mental list, now the next thing to do was to learn how snowflakes got their shape (hint). As she was checking off her mental list, Princess Luna spoke up.

“So that’s why you love this volume so much, it’s when you go your cutie mark,” Luna said.

“Well, that’s not the only reason,” Celestia replied.

“What! There’s another reason,” Twilight blurted out.

“I also love this, because I found out I couldn’t have raised the sun without some help,” the sun princess replied.

“Someone helped you raise it, who?” Luna asked.

“Eclipse did, his magic may have not been very strong at the time, but it was enough to help me put the sun into the sky.”

It took Twilight a while to take that one in. She had help raising the sun? Just how powerful was Prince Eclipse?

“I always thought of that as his birthday present to me that year,” Celestia said with a soft smile.

“Where’s the next book? What happened next? Come on, the suspense is killing me,” Twilight said with eyes full of excitement.

Both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna smiled, they too were happy to start reading these after so many years. And they thought it was kind of funny that Twilight asked a question so quick, she didn’t stop and think. The books were all just on the bookshelf behind the desk. “It’s the next one the left Twilight,” Celestia said. Twilight quickly rushed to find the next book, scanning the shelf until she found her topic. As she lifted the book off the shelf, a growl came from her stomach. Twilight blushed with embarrassment, “He he, I guess I am a bit hungry.”

Celestia giggled, she too felt hunger gnawing at her. “How about we go upstairs and get something to eat, we can continue up there,” Celestia said. As they made their way up the stairs out of the secret library, Twilight examined the book’s cover. The first one had the 3 alicorns, the second had Celestia’s sun, but this one had something that just made Twilight squeal with joy. The cover had the hat of Starswirl The Bearded.

Talents That Shine in the Sky

View Online

Twilight had so much excitement running through her, she didn’t even notice when the food had been served. Right in front of her was her favorite breakfast; stuffed French toast with daffodils on top, and she was too distracted with the new book to notice. Was this book about Starswirl the Bearded? What role did he play in all this? These thoughts continued to go through her head as the other two princesses ate their breakfast.

Princess Luna looked at her sister as if she was asking something. Celestia looked to Luna and simply nodded. Both grinned and Luna took in a deep breath while Celestia covered her ears. “TWILIGHT!” Luna yelled in her famous Canterlot voice. Twilight then fell out of her chair from the sudden force directed at her. Both the princesses tried not to laugh as Twilight quickly climbed back into her seat. “I’m ok, I’m ok,” Twilight called out.

Finally out of her daze, she finally noticed her French toast sitting right in front of her. Normally, Twilight would eat with proper table manners, but with a greater hunger than when her “ticket master” day happened. She decided to toss table manners to the wind and started to wolf down her food. As Twilight was eating, Celestia began to think more about this whole thing with the books. Why had she never thought of her brother before this? Sure, it had been centuries since she had last seen him, but she would have at least thought about him. Luna was gone for a thousand years and she constantly thought about her. Why not Eclipse? Did she really forget about her own brother, the one who had saved both her and Luna’s lives?

“Sister….sister…. Tia?” Luna called while waving her hoof in front of her sister’s face. Celestia instantly shook her head and came back to reality.

“I’m ok, I’m ok, just deep in thought,” Celestia exclaimed. Luna’s only thoughts were, “Students do take after their teachers.”

“Well while you two are eating, I think I shall read this volume,” Luna said with some excitement in her voice. “Celestia read the last two, tis only fair that I read one.”

“Alright Luna, if you insist,” Celestia said taking a bite out of her banana pancakes. Twilight with magic passed the book to the Moon Princess, Luna took with much gratitude. The book was titled “The Hearth’s Warming Visitor.” Luna opened the book, a smile on her face as she began read.

“It was snowing gently as we began to walk out into the castle’s courtyard….”

As the royal siblings watched the snow fall when they made their way outside, all of them got the same mischievous thought; snowball fight. Unfortunately for Celestia, some ponies think faster than others. She was then hit in the back of her with average sized snowball. She instantly looked behind her to find Eclipse pointing his hoof at Luna. Luna was looking off into the distance, whistling like nothing had even happened. But neither Luna nor Celestia were prepared for what came next. A snowball nailed Luna in the face. Both Celestia and Luna looked at the one responsible for this. They saw Eclipse with a slightly mischievous look on his face. At this point Celestia wasn’t going to be left behind while they threw all the snowballs. She quickly retreated a few feet and began making her fort. To no surprise, she was done with her fort in 10 seconds flat. “I love magic,” Celestia thought as she finished making her fort. Being the eldest did have its advantages, especially when it came to magic. Celestia’s magic was greater than both Luna’s and Eclipse’s. Thanks to that she was able to make all her snowballs ready before her siblings had enough time to start on their forts.

As Celestia began to bury her siblings in snowballs, both Luna and Eclipse looked at each other. They both got the same message; they had to team up if they were to stand a chance. As Luna put up a little force field for both of them, Eclipse began to work on their fort. He tried his best to make it look similar to Celestia’s, but he was only able to make one half the size of one. As he finished, both began to hide behind it and started making their own snowballs. The battle was so intense; both sides refused to let their guard down, and refused to surrender to the other. After what seemed like hours, both sides were so exhausted that they couldn’t throw one more snowball. All three of them collapsed to the ground and started to laugh from the pure enjoyment they just had.

“Hey, do you want to build a snowman?” Eclipse asked his sisters with a smile on his face. Before they could answer, their mother came out. “Children, someone is here to see you,” the Queen said. The three young alicorns looked at each other with confused look on their faces. Someone was here to see them? Who could it possibly be? As their mother lead them down the halls, thoughts of who it could be possibly be ran through Luna’s mind. When they reached the throne room, they saw a tall and grey unicorn with a long, curly beard. He wore both a robe and a hat with stars and moons on them. And to top them off, they had bells on the borders of them.

“Children I would like you to meet, Starswirl the Bearded,” Queen Lauren said gesturing her hoof to him. He bowed in response to her gesture, and then brought his attention to the three young alicorns.

“Hello there young ones, what are your names?” the unicorn asked with a warm smile. Celestia stepped forward.

“Um… I’m Princess Celestia, this is my sister; Princess Luna, and my brother; Prince Eclipse.”

“A pleasure to meet all of you, now I would like to tell you what I’m doing here today. Every Hearth’s Warming Eve, your mother, the Queen invites me to visit the pegasi in Cloudsdale. The holidays are just special up there.”

“Wonderful,’ Celestia exclaimed, ‘but how are you going to get up there when you don’t have wings?”

“Oh I’m glad you asked, I almost forgot. Have you three ever heard of the spell that could give non-pegasus ponies wings?” Starswirl asked.

“Oh yeah, I’ve heard of that one,” Luna said.

“Good, do you know how to do the spell?” he asked curiously.

“We do, but we’ve never had the chance to try it on another pony,” Eclipse explained.

“That’s fine, what better time than now,” he said.

He lead the ponies outside, none of the alicorns knew what he had planned exactly. He then had them all circle around him. As they circled around he examined each young alicorn for a good 5 min each. He was searching for the feeling of their magical signature. When he examined Celestia, he could feel the powerful and warm sun. When he saw Luna, he felt chills of both beauty and darkness. But when he came to Eclipse, he felt something strange. It felt very powerful and protective, also very big. He didn’t quite know what it meant; he just knew it was different than anything he had felt before.

“Alright, Princess Celestia would you like to go first?” the old unicorn asked deciding to ignore Eclipse’s strange signature. Celestia took a deep breath, closed her eyes and started to concentrate. Her horn began to glow with a golden yellow aura. She shot a beam of light toward Starswirl, as she opened her eyes she was amazed. Starswirl had two large golden pegasus wings (kind of like angel wings) attached to his back. Celestia was so proud of her accomplished.

“Well done, that’s very impressive,” exclaimed Starswirl. His horn started to glow with a light blue aura, burning down his wings so the others could try.

“Alright Princess Luna, your turn,” he said looking at the moon princess. Luna was now excited after seeing her sister’s good job. She closed her, concentrated entirely on her horn, and then turned her concentration to Starswirl. As her horn began to glow, siblings watched in awe. Her horn began to produce small sparks of light, what would probably consider as stars. The dedication she was putting into this spell was marvelous. Eclipse watched his big sister and thought to himself, “Luna is such a natural.” A beam of blue light shot toward the old unicorn, when she was done she opened her eyes. Starswirl had two, midnight blue, pegasus wings that looked similar to those of a raven. They were slightly smaller than Celestia’s were, but what made up for it were what seemed to be stars within the wings.

“Very nice, great job Princess,” Starswirl said with a proud smile on his face. Luna grinned with her accomplishment. And again, Starswirl burned his new wings so Eclipse could have the final go.

“Ok, Prince Eclipse, after you go we’ll go up to Cloudsdale,” the unicorn said with a little hesitation. After feeling Eclipse’s magic signature, he felt a little nervous. Eclipse nodded to Starswirl, ready to give it all he had. Now Eclipse didn’t have a lot of magic experience, but after watching his sisters he felt confident. He started to concentrate on his horn, just as his sisters did. He tried his best to visualize the wings appearing on Starswirl. His horn began to glow with an orange glow, and then shot his beam of light. When he opened his eyes, he saw a bearded unicorn with orange average pegasus wings. Disappointment quickly fell upon his face; he knew he could do better than that.

“Hey! That’s very good for a pony your age!” Starswirl said trying to cheer him up. And he was right; no average unicorn his age could create wings even that big.

“No I can do better!” Eclipse yelled back, as he started to big the spell again. Starswirl decided to go with it, after all what harm could it do? Eclipse concentrated harder this time than he had ever before. He gritted his teeth, and his horn began to glow. But this time, the aura was larger and even though his eyes were closed; you could see his eyes were glowing. Everypony watched in awe as they watched the young prince’s magic starting to swirl around him. Starswirl noticed something about the alicorn’s teeth. Though they were clenched together, they began to sharpen themselves. Before he could say or think anything about it, a blast erupted from Eclipse’s horn aimed straight at him. Starswirl braised for impact, but felt nothing when it hit him. When he opened his eyes, he saw the young prince with a huge smile on his face. Then he turned to the princesses to see them with mouths wide open. As he looked behind him he saw two large, orange, bat-like wings attached to his back. These were just as large as Celestia’s were, debatably bigger. Starswirl couldn’t believe it.

“Well, I must say this is very impressive,” said the bearded unicorn. As Queen Lauren looked at the wings, she knew she would have to explain to Starswirl about Eclipse’s “condition”.

“Alright then, who’s ready to go to Cloudsdale,” Lauren asked deciding to change the subject a little.

“We do!” her three children said in excitement. Starswirl decided that would be good, especially to take his mind off this little event.

“Alright then, let’s go,” the Queen said with equal excitement. As they flew toward Cloudsdale, the Queen began to raise the moon as they got higher into the sky. All of a sudden a thought came to her mind before she decided to put the stars in the sky. She started flying closer to Luna.

“Luna, sweetheart would you like to help me put the stars in the sky?” the Queen whispered.

“Of course Mommy,” Luna answered with delight. The two stopped in midflight as the others flew on ahead. Luna began by lighting up her horn, trying to remember how the sky was supposed to look like. Stars started forming from Luna’s horn and placing themselves in the sky. After she was done she looked at the sky. The stars were perfect, but Luna expected her mother was responsible for it. But when she looked at her mother, the Queen had a soft smile of pride on her face.

“Luna, I’m so proud of you right now,” Lauren said to her daughter.

“Well, you helped me,” Luna stated.

“No, I didn’t this was all your doing,” the Queen said proudly.

“What!” Luna said as she turned her head to examine her work.

As Queen Lauren watched her daughter in amazement, she thought to herself, “I think she did a better job than I did.”

“Alright Luna, I believe we have kept the others waiting long enough,” Lauren said motioning towards Cloudsdale. Luna nodded and started flying with her mother. Lauren already knew her children were special, but they were also unique. And she knew that they would be great rulers of Equestria. Not to mention great protectors of this great country.

“And that started not only our study sessions with Starswirl the Bearded, but also the beginning of Us bringing the night to Equestria,” Luna said as she finished the book.

“I loved that day, that night was one of the most beautiful I’ve seen,” Celestia said complimenting her sister. She remembered that night almost perfectly, the stars were perfect that night and they shined brighter than they had in a while. Twilight was also in love with these stories. She loved hearing about their past, but even though it answered a lot of her questions; it created new ones to replace them.

“Well, since we’re done with our breakfast, how bout we head back down to the archives,” Celestia said.

“I think that would be great,” Twilight responded. She was more than eager to get back to that wonderful hidden library. As they started their way toward the archives, Celestia walked closer to her sister.

“Luna in the past thousand years, did Eclipse ever cross your mind before today?” Celestia whispered.

“Now that you mention it; no, I thought of you and mother every now and then. Eclipse never seemed to cross my thoughts,” Luna answered. Both looked at each other confused, neither one of them had thought of him until this point? What exactly did this mean? As they saw Twilight get farther from them both, they decided they would answer that question later. Hopefully one of these books would answer their question.

Where Friendships Begin

View Online

As the three princesses made their way to the Canterlot archives, they were interrupted by an all too familiar voice. “Princess, your presence is required at the Wonderbolt derby. Its starts in 10 min,” Kibitz said.

Kibitz was a “different” kind of unicorn who was always obsessed with being on schedule (that and writing his own name over and over). The thing that made him stand out quite a bit was his big puffy moustache. Both Celestia and Twilight let out a mental groan. Luna on the other hand let out a physical groan; she could hardly stand Kibitz’s constant nagging. Still he was just fulfilling his duty, so she couldn’t completely hate him. “Thank you for notifying me, Kibitz, you’ll have to tell them I am unable to make it,” Celestia replied.

“I’m afraid that they insist Princess, but it shouldn’t take more than a few hours,” Kibitz answered back. Celestia looked back at both her student and her sister; both had a little worried look on their faces. It then hit her, she thought of a brilliant idea that could make everypony happy. “Alright then I will attend, but only if Princess Luna and Princess Twilight Sparkle accompany me,” Celestia said with utmost authority.

Kibitz nodded and began to lead them to the derby. As they started walking, Celestia pulled Twilight aside.

“Twilight, I want you to quickly go get the next book on the shelf. It’s the one with three kingdoms on the cover,” Celestia whispered. Twilight grew a huge grin on her face and teleported immediately to the secret library. She tried her hardest not to start drooling from the pure amazement she was under. She had to slap herself a few times to get under control. As she searched the golden shelves, she quickly found the one that she was looking for. On the front were three different kingdoms. One had the symbol of Equestria on it, another had beautiful snowflake, and the other had an eagle. She was sure she would learn what they meant when she returned to the Princesses. She quickly teleported back with the book, then reappeared right back in the courtroom. The Princesses and Kibitz had just barely made it to the door to leave; she hadn’t been gone for long.

As they arrived at the Wonderbolts’ winter derby the entire stadium bowed to them. They sat in the royal box where they could watch, but wouldn’t be disturbed (not even Kibitz goes in). Unlike the derby that Fancy Pants invited Rarity to, the winter derby was a race around all of Equestria. So this was defiantly going to take a few hours for the race to finish. Another cool thing about this race is there was a giant cloud in the center of the stadium that projected the racers on the screen.

“Mares and Gentle colts, we would like to announce the beginning of the Wonderbolts’ winter derby. And also the arrival of our newest Wonderbolt, Whiplash!” announced the pony on the intercom. Then out came the Wonderbolts, Spitfire at the front with Fleetfoot and Soarin right behind her. At the end of all of them, out came the newest Wonderbolt, Whiplash. She had a golden coat, a mane of red, yellow, and blue, and strangely she kind of looked like Rainbow Dash.

“OH COME ON!!,” somepony shouted in the crowd. Twilight looked through a pair of binoculars to see who was freaking out. In the crowd, she saw Rainbow Dash having a tantrum. Twilight decided to ignore it for now, Rainbow did this kind of stuff when it came to the Wonderbolts. The pegasi got into position, the horn blew, and they were off with Fleetfoot in the lead.

“Alright, while we wait for that to finish why don’t we start reading another book?” Celestia asked.

“I think that’s thine greatest idea today,” Luna stated. Celestia’s horn began to glow and an invisible sound proof barrier surrounded the royal box. Making everypony think the princesses were listening during the race.

“Alright Twilight, how would like to read this one?” Celestia asked floating book toward her student.

“Are you sure Princess?” Twilight responded.

“Of course, but only if you would like to.”

Twilight took the book with utmost excitement. She had been dying to read at least one of these books. The title of this book was “Friendship Is Where It All Starts.”

“Wait Twilight, before you start I want you to know something about this one. This is was a turning point in Eclipse’s life,” Celestia told her. If Twilight heard her, she didn’t show it. She opened to the first page and began to read.



Queen Lauren woke up to the rays of sunlight hitting her face from the crack in her window. Celestia had gotten up right on time to raise the sun, just as Luna had gotten up to lower the moon. As proud as she was of them, she sometimes wished they would be normal and sleep in. Though she couldn’t be mad at them, they all knew what an important day it was today. Today, neighboring kingdoms would be coming to participate in the Equestrian Tournament. As she started to get out of bed, she noticed that Eclipse wasn’t in his bed.

“He must’ve gotten up with his sisters,” the Queen stated. When she looked toward the door of her room, she saw her three children with smiles on their faces. They were levitating a tray of waffles and orange juice.

“Surprise!” the three of them yelled in unison

“What’s this for?” Queen Lauren said with a confused smile on her face.

“We just wanted our Mommy to know we love her,” Celestia responded. Their mother looked at them suspiciously, “They definitely want something,” she thought.

“Alright what do you want?” She asked.

“Nothing, tis was Eclipse’s idea in the first place,” Luna replied. Lauren looked at her son, who had a pretty proud look on his face.

“Well ok, thank you. This looks really good,” the Queen said taking the tray from them. When she took the first bite, her eyes grew huge. These were amazing, better than even the royal chefs could do. The three young alicorns watched happily as their mother ate the waffles.

“Well, there was one thing I wanted to ask you Mommy,” Eclipse admitted. “I knew it,” Lauren thought.

“What would that be, sweetheart?” She asked in between bites.

“Well, could I possibly compete in tournament with Luna and Celestia?” he asked softly. That was a question she was slightly expecting. Eclipse always wanted to prove himself, prove he was just as powerful as his two sisters. And truth be told, he was. He had more power in him than he even knew. She wanted to let him participate, but what if he lost control? What if somepony got hurt? Then again, the kingdom would have to know about him eventually. Why not today? As these questions ran through her head, Eclipse was patiently waiting for her to answer.

“Mom, did you hear me?” he asked.

“Huh, what,” She said snapping out of her daze.

“May I compete in the tournament?” he repeated.

“Oh yes, of course you can sweetheart,” she responded. Eclipse then grinned so wide his smile was going off his face. He then gave his mother a death hug, causing her to almost drop her waffles. He then flew out of the room screaming with excitement. Luna soon followed him, while Celestia stayed in the room.

“Mother, are you sure that is such a good idea?” She asked

“I know what you’re thinking, but trust me it will be ok,” Lauren responded finishing her waffles.
Celestia wanted to object a little, but she knew her mother knew what she was doing. As she started to leave, Queen Lauren spoke out to her daughter.

“Ponies are going to have to know eventually, Celestia. I just think it’s about time they learn what he can do,” Lauren said. Celestia looked back to her mother. A smile on her face, she nodded in agreement. Celestia knew that Mother would do what was best for Prince Eclipse.

The whole royal family waited in the throne room, waiting to for the kingdoms to arrive. There were two kingdoms coming to compete against Equestria. First was the Griffin Kingdom, coming from the North to prove that griffins could compete with ponies. The other kingdom came from the East; it was the Kingdom of Arendelle which was also populated with ponies. The three siblings couldn’t wait to meet the other royal families, well except griffins. They had heard that the griffin princes were kind of aggressive and rude. They were for sure anxious to meet the royal sisters from Arendelle; they were rumored to be the most fun and kind ponies. Just then, they heard the trumpets announcing their arrival. They all came on airships, but the one from the Griffin Kingdom were colored dark brown with an Eagle painted in the center. While the Arendelle airships were both green and blue with an icy blue gem in the center.

As the ships docked themselves to the ground, the three’s excitement only grew. The entire castle staff was ready to welcome their many guests. Soon after, the doors open to reveal the Griffin King and Queen; Thunder Beak and Galinda. Thunder was a black griffin with a claw mark across his beak. While Galinda was a white griffin with a slight purple tint in her feathers. They were followed by their twin sons, Talon and Bronze Wing. All were followed by their whole kingdom. When the King and Queen reached Queen Lauren, they bowed their heads in respect and said, “Your Majesty.” Their sons came and did the same. Then Lauren bowed her head in response, and then her children repeated. After they were done Celestia, Luna, and Eclipse waved at the princes, but they turned their heads and scoffed. The three already did not like them. The griffins went back to wait in the space of the throne room.
Then the King and Queen of Arendelle came in with their daughters by their sides. The King was tan brown Earth pony with a small mustache and light brown mane, while the Queen was a dark brown Earth pony with a slightly lighter mane. The Princesses were much brighter colors. The one on the right was a sunshine yellow Earth pony with a strawberry blonde mane in a double French braids. While the other one on the left caught Eclipse’s eye. She was icy blue unicorn, with a bleach blonde mane in a normal braid. Eclipse couldn’t help but stare at her. When they got in front of Queen Lauren, the two Arendelle princesses looked at the three Equestrian siblings. The yellow Earth pony waved to them, and both Luna and Celestia waved back. But the icy blue unicorn did not; she was too busy staring at Eclipse as much as he was staring at her. Celestia slightly nudged her brother, and he came back to senses and bowed his head to them. At the same time, the King of Arendelle slightly nudged his daughter, and she bowed her head as well. When they returned to stand with their kingdom, the blue unicorn looked back and waved to Eclipse. Eclipse waved back to her, soon followed by another quick nudge from his sisters. He saw them trying not to giggle at him, he responded by whispering, “Silence.” The unicorn only giggled as she watched him deal with his sisters.

“Welcome everyone, both ponies and griffins. It is a pleasure to welcome you all into our home. We would like to announce the beginning of the annual Equestrian Tournament,” the Queen announced. With that the entire room exploded in applause. The children all grew smiles, some out of excitement and some out of over confidence. Both Talon and Bronze Wings looked at each other with a smug look. They had all the confidence that they would win this thing.

“Now, the games don’t start until tomorrow. So I would like you all to make yourselves comfortable in one of the many rooms throughout the castle. Royal families of the Griffin Kingdom and Arendelle, if you would follow me we have your rooms already prepared,” Queen Lauren said. After that all three kingdoms went into the hallways to find their rooms. The King and Queen and their children of both kingdoms stayed waiting to be lead to their rooms. Lauren and her three foals then got up and began to walk toward the door. The two other families then started following them. As they started walking down the hallway, the children drifted toward the back.

“Hello fellow royals, I am Prince Talon and this is my brother Prince Bronze Wings,” Talon said. Talon was a dark grey griffin with a gold ruby necklace around his neck.

“We just want you ponies to know that we are fastest and strongest in the whole world,” Bronze bragged. Bronze wing was copper looking griffin with a bronze emerald necklace.

“So just hope you get eliminated before you have to face us, I would hate to hurt such a pretty face,” Talon said stroking Celestia’s face with his claw. Her being slightly annoyed, she knocked his claw away.

“I am Princess Celestia, and I have no intention of losing to the likes of you,” Celestia responded with a little attitude. She always hated the snobby type; her whole family did as a matter of fact. Especially when it came to royalty, they could not stand those who took it to their head. Both of the princes glanced at the others and then left to be with their parents.

“My name in Princess Anna of Arendelle, but you can just call me Anna,” the sunshine Earth pony said.

I’m Princess Luna, just call me Luna. And as you already know, this is my sister Princess Celestia.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet both of you, I can tell we are going to be great friends,” Anna said with excitement.

“I believe so too. Wait, didn’t you have a sister with you?” Celestia asked.

“Uh, yes and didn’t you have a brother with you?” Anna asked back. All three looked behind them and saw them both in their own little conversation. Their eyes never left each other’s, both smiling as they talked to each other. All Celestia, Luna, and Anna could do was smile. That and think of how much teasing their siblings will be getting from them.

Eclipse’s Conversation

“Umm, h...hey my name’s Eclipse,” Eclipse said trying not to blush more than he already was.

“I’m Elsa, nice to meet you,” the unicorn said also blushing.

“I really like your mane,” Eclipse said with his face as red as his own mane.

“Oh, thank you,” she said also blushing even more. The two talked for what seemed like hours, getting to know each other’s likes/dislikes. From their favorite seasons to their favorite desserts, both seemed to love chocolate (anything) and the snowy winter. As they were talking, they eventually bumped into their siblings when they arrived at their rooms.
“Here are your rooms, if you need anything me and my children are right across the hall. If none of us are here at the time, then one of our lovely staff will be more than happy to assist you,” said the alicorn Queen. They all nodded to her and went to their rooms, all except the five new friends. Anna finally got to meet Eclipse, while Luna and Celestia got to meet Elsa. When they finally got done getting to know each other, it was almost time for Luna to raise the moon. As they all went their separate ways, Eclipse whispered to Elsa, “Meet me in the garden later tonight.”

“Ok, I’ll see you in a bit.” As they went into their rooms, Eclipse saw his mother and decided to ask.

“Mother, is it ok that I move into my own room?” Eclipse asked. His mother was a little surprised, but not too much. She had expected this day to come eventually.

“What you don’t love your mother anymore?” she asked jokingly.

“No, Mother that not what I meant,” Eclipse responded trying to show that he still loved her.

“I’m only teasing you, of course you can. I understand that you eventually grow old enough to want your own room. There’s a room on the right, it’s all yours,” the Queen said happily to her son. Next thing she knew, he was hugging her around her neck.

“Thank you Mother,” he said quickly as he rushed out the door. She would miss having him by her side, but she knew he was still there just a wall was now between them. Tell you the truth; she was now a little excited to see her children in action. She especially wanted them to crush the rotten griffin twins. She couldn’t really care about the griffin kingdom, the only reason they were allies were because they both had resources they needed. So she may not be able to do anything about it, but her children could. She loved it when she got to show off her kids.



“That’s when a great friendship was forged,” Celestia said as Twilight closed the book.

“So what did Prince Eclipse and Princess Elsa do that night in the gardens?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Well I wasn’t there, so I couldn’t tell you,” Celestia responded

“I was,” Princess Luna stated.

“You were? Why didn’t you tell me?” Celestia asked her sister.

“It was between me and him, besides I kind of forgot until today,” Luna said slightly blushing from embarrassment. Another memory just suddenly remembered today. “And I wasn’t all into writing at the time, so there isn’t any book for us to read about what happened. Also my memory of that day is foggy, I can’t remember what happened.”

As if right on time, a light began to glow underneath the book that Twilight set down. She lifted it off the ground, and to all three surprised they found another book. On the cover, was a sticky note that read, “You may find a few more of these as you read further on.” Ok, somepony was playing a game with this. They all predicted a certain Lord of Chaos was behind this and they decided to let it slide. After all, he gave them a new book that he may have been there to witness. They all looked up to check and see the progress of the derby. The wonder bolts had only made it across half of Equestria; they had plenty of time to read another one. The cover of this book had a moon and snowflake on the front. Twilight was very curious, “Princess, do you mind if I read this one too?”

“Not at all Twilight,” Celestia answered with a smile. Twilight carefully opened to the first page that was titled, “Let It Snow.”

Can You Make It Snow For Me?

View Online

Eclipse sat in his room, half way asleep. As he waited, he thought to himself, “How much longer till she raises the moon? Elsa is probably bored out of her mind.” As these questions went through his head, he heard hoof steps outside in the hallway. He carefully peaked outside his door to find both of his sisters heading outside to lower the sun and raise the moon. As he watched through the crack in his door, Luna glanced behind her.

“Eclipse, did you move out of Mother’s room? You’ve finally grown up, first a marefriend and now you’ve moved out,” Luna said teasingly. Eclipse’s face, now with the door more open, was just as red as his mane again.

“S…Sister, don’t say that so loud. Remember there are others in the castle now. They’re probably trying to sleep,” Eclipse said trying to keep her quiet. Luna’s face went from a gleeful smile to a dark frown. Her face slowly looked to the ground, with a look of depression on her face.

“L...Luna, I didn’t mean it like…” Eclipse tried to explain.

“Good night, brother,” Luna said coldly, cutting him off. As she walked down the hall after her sister, Eclipse could only feel sorrow. He knew how his sister felt about her night, having everypony sleep as she puts her heart and soul into her night. He would apologize later, but for now he needed to go to the garden. What kind of friend would he be if he left a mare waiting?

As Eclipse entered into the enormous garden, he didn’t see Elsa there so he decided to sit on one of the benches. As he sat down waiting, he closed his eyes and a few “memories” came back to him. He could see two fillies cowering together, surrounded by timber wolves. For some reason he felt anger and fear at the same time. Then all of a sudden, the wolves turned their attention to him. And his body began to grow, his muscles tearing then rebuilding themselves. He could feel fire burning inside him, the smoke escaping his mouth. He was scared; scared of what he had become and what everypony thought of him. As he dwelt on the images popping inside his head, he didn’t even notice that Elsa had finally come into the garden.

“Eclipse,” she called out to him. At the sound of his name, his head launched up. When he looked at her, he was in awe. Elsa wore a black head band in her mane, as well as her navy blue dress from before. Both made her look beautiful, but what was the most stunning was her mane. With the moon up in the sky, her mane glowed as if it were made of pure moon light.

“Did you invite me out here to play, or so you could just stare at me?” Elsa asked while blushing.

“Oh…sorry, you just look s…so p...pretty. Alright you ready to go?” Eclipse asked in return. Both were blushing, but Elsa responded with a nod and a soft smile. They walked around the garden seeing all the many different kinds of plants and flowers. Elsa soon got a little excited and began to run in front of Eclipse. It was like she started playing tag without even announcing that they were playing it. As she ran a little farther, she instantly stopped when she noticed there was another pony in the garden

“Eclipse, there’s another pony here,” Elsa whispered kind of loudly. As Eclipse finally caught up trying to catch his breath, he saw the pony Elsa was talking about. There was a leaf green Earth pony with a dark red mane watering the plants. She had a little filly, the same age as Eclipse and Elsa, by her side that had an orange coat with a sky blue mane. Eclipse just smiled when he saw them.

“Hey Rose Petal, hey Honey Suckle,” Eclipse called out. Elsa looked at him with disbelief. The two mares looked up at the sound of their names and saw Prince Eclipse waving at them.

“Hello Prince Eclipse, what are you doing here? And who is this mare you have with you?” Rose Petal asked in a super sweet voice.

“This is Princess Elsa of Arendelle; we just wanted to explore the garden a little,” Prince Eclipse answered happily. “Elsa this is our royal gardener; Rose Petal and her daughter; Honey Suckle,” Eclipse introduced. Elsa bowed her head towards the two Earth ponies.

“It’s a pleasure to meet both of you,” Elsa said with a nervous smile on her face.

“The pleasure is ours princess,” Rose said with Honey Suckle quietly waving back at them. They soon said their goodbyes; Eclipse and Elsa left the two Earth ponies to do their business.

“Eclipse, why didn’t Honey Suckle say anything, was it something I said?” Elsa said a little worried.

“Oh, Honey is a little quiet. She doesn’t talk much until she feels completely comfortable around you,” Eclipse explained. The two soon stumbled upon a little duck pond, untouched for quite a while.

“Eclipse, watch this,” Elsa said with excitement. Eclipse watched curiously as his friend walked toward the pond. She set one hoof on the water, and it quickly began to freeze up. Soon the entire pond was a decent size ice skating rink. Eclipse’s face lit up with pure joy, but Elsa wasn’t done. She pointed her horn toward Eclipse’s hooves creating ice skates around them. She took the lead and began to skate with only her hooves.

“Come on,” Elsa said cheerfully. Eclipse had never skated in his life, so he carefully moved onto the ice trying his hardest not to fall. Elsa skated to his side trying to help him from falling. Even with Elsa’s help he still fell once or twice, maybe ten times. Eventually, he was soon skating across the entire pond. Elsa stayed close by, because she didn’t want to see her friend fall anymore than he had to. After they had been skating for a while, Elsa got an idea. She skated to center of the pond and began to focus her magic. Eclipse looked both excited and panicky, since he still wasn’t able to keep his balance. With little to no effort, Elsa had created snowball that glowed with her icy blue aura. She then threw it into the air, and it exploded causing the area around the pond to start snowing.

“This is incredible,” Eclipse said softly as he watched in amazement. Both slowly skated off the frozen pond, and Eclipse’s skates almost instantly melted, (well they kind of evaporated, but Eclipse didn’t know how to describe it).

“Hey Eclipse, do you want to build a snowman?” Elsa asked joyfully. Eclipse could only smile, he loved building snowmen. He nodded with a little too much excitement, but Elsa could only giggle.

“Ok, but no magic it’s more fun that way,” Elsa stated. She loved doing it the Earth pony way, especially since her sister was an Earth pony.

“Alright, let’s get started,” Eclipse said agreeing with her. Both ponies began making their large snowballs, using their heads as well as their front hooves. They were having so much fun; they didn’t realize they were making their snowballs a lot bigger than they wanted. When they finally came together with their snowballs, they both burst into laughter. Both snowballs were near the same and both were twice the size of the two foals. After they both stopped laughing, they came to a solution. Why not make it a snow giant? Both ponies quickly went to work as they made a few more giant snowballs (nine in total).

“Ok, we can use magic for this part,” Elsa said. Eclipse nodded in agreement, there was no way two young foals could lift even one of those giant snowballs. They placed the first two side by side for his legs. Then they both concentrated on one snowball placing it on top of their first two. They then brought one they purposely made bigger than the rest above the last one. As soon they place two big sticks in the top right and left corner of the largest snowball. They then connected two snowballs using the sticks (those are his shoulders). They next two were large enough to connect to the shoulders and still be touching the ground. So they both rolled one to connect to one of his shoulders. After that they looked at how many they had left, only one. They both levitated it to the top, connecting it with a stick. He now kind of looked like either a snow gorilla or snow ogre. The two didn’t care much on how he looked like, now they were deciding on a name for their new friend.

“Hmmmm, what would be a good name for him?” Eclipse asked.

“I don’t know, how about Tarzan since he looks like a gorilla,” Elsa suggested.

“We can’t give him a name that’s already taken.”

“Hmmmm, now that I look at him, he kind of looks like a bunch of giant marshmallows all together.”

“You know what, you’re right.”

“Let’s call him Marshmallow,” Elsa said with joy.

“Marshmallow looks like a giant bodyguard,” Eclipse added.

“Marshmallow the royal bodyguard, let’s make him our bodyguard,” Elsa said. Eclipse went up to the giant and hugged one of his legs.

“I love you Marshmallow, you’re now my newest friend. And friends protect each other, you and I can protect Elsa,” Eclipse said to his giant snowy friend. Marshmallow couldn’t talk for himself; luckily Elsa came over and began to talk for him.

“And me and Elsa can protect you,” Elsa said in a slightly deeper voice. Both laughed and began walk back to the castle. As they walked, Elsa couldn’t help but think about what Eclipse said back there.

“Hey Eclipse, did you mean what you said back there?” asked the unicorn princess.

“What do mean?” Eclipse asked back not sure what she was talking about.

“When you said you would protect me, did you mean it?”

“Oh, of course I did. I would always protect you, that’s what friends do.”

“Do you promise?”

“Only if you promise to protect me too,” Eclipse responded with a smile, “and why do you ask?”

“It’s just that…other than my sister, I’ve never had a friend before,” Elsa said with a shy face looking down.

“Well guess what, neither have I; I only have my sisters too. I’ve never quite been the most social of ponies.”

“Well then, how about we make a hoovie promise. To protect each other; physically, mentally, and emotionally,” Elsa suggested. Eclipse grew a huge smile on his face and nodded. Both used their right front hoof, and shook one another’s. Then they used their magic to create a dark orange and icy blue bow to wrap around their hooves; sealing their promise. And both were determined to keep their promise. As the two separated into their own rooms, somepony was waiting for Princess Elsa. Or should I say some griffin. Talon was waiting next to Elsa’s door, with a smug look on his face.

“Hello Princess Elsa, I do not believe I got to meet you earlier. I am Prince Talon, prince of the Griffin Kingdom,” Talon said introducing himself.

“Why, hello, it is a pleasure to meet you,” Elsa said not really meaning it. Anna had told her all about the two bratty griffin princes.

“I’m sure it is, and I bet it would also be a pleasure to be my mare friend as well. You are so much prettier than that Celestia,” Talon said both trying to flirt with Elsa and insult Celestia at the same time.

“Uh, I’m sorry, but I’m not interested, we just met,” Elsa responded plainly. She slowly walked into her room, leaving the griffin prince dumbstruck. As Talon heard the click of her door, he stormed off toward his room. “If she won’t willfully become my mare friend, then I’ll just have Mother and Father arrange for her to be my betrothed. I always get what I want, and I want her,” he thought to himself. (I know he is one snobbishly weird bird).



When Eclipse entered into his room, he was a little caught off guard. There in his room, was the princess of the night, his sister, Princess Luna. She was sitting in the middle of the room with a gleeful smile on her face.

“Hello brother, have a fun time with Princess Elsa?” she asked teasingly.

“H…how did you know about that?” Eclipse responded back with a nervous expression.

“Come on brother, I have to raise the moon and put the stars in the sky. Did you really think I wouldn’t see you, especially when you were in my favorite spot?” Eclipse instantly looked down, now blushing more than ever. He decided to try and change the subject, and do what he intended to do before.

“L…Luna, I’m sorry for what I said earlier. I didn’t mean it like that, I…I just didn’t want everypony to tease me about my new friend,” Eclipse explained apologizing to his sister. Luna was taken aback; she did not expect that for his response. She had forgotten all about that, and yet it bugged her brother with just the thought that he had made her sad or mad.

“Eclipse, there is nothing for you to apologize for. I forgot all about that, I just overreacted. Besides, I know that you will always love my night,” Luna said with a smile. She knew he loved her, and that he never meant any harm to her. He was more of a protector than a fighter, she would know better than anyone. Eclipse responded to her with a smile of his own, and then decided to ask her something.

“Luna, could you teach me your magic?” Eclipse blurted out, “I’ve never had any strong magic of my own. I only really know the basics; I just want a chance in the tournament tomorrow.” Luna didn’t quite know how to respond. She then looked at the seriousness on her brother’s face. He really wanted to show what he could do. She smiled and said, “Alright, but only on one condition.”

“What is it, I’ll do anything?” Eclipse asked full of determination.

“You have to give me all the details of your date with Princess Elsa,” Luna said with a smirk. Eclipse cocked his head back with both a look of confusion and embarrassment. To tell you the truth, Eclipse barely knew what a date was. He was only seven years old, and he only knew what they were because Celestia was old enough to date (Celestia is seventeen).

“L…Luna it wasn’t anything like that. I’m only seven years old, it was just me playing with a new friend,” Eclipse explained with his bright red cheeks. But Luna could see right through him, he really did like Elsa. She gave him a ‘You’re-Not-Fooling-Anyone’ look, and she kept at it until he cracked under the pressure.

“Ok, thou have gotten me. I have a crush on Princess Elsa, happy? She’s just so pretty,” Eclipse admitted with a loud whisper.

“Awww, my little brother has a childhood crush,” Luna said half teasingly and half adoringly. “I think you two look so cute together.”

“Sister we just met, it’s not like we’re getting married or anything,” Eclipse said with a little annoyance in his voice. Luna sat there as if she were waiting for something. Eclipse sighed and decided there was no way around it. He explained everything from when he saw Elsa come into the garden, to when they finished Marshmallow, to when they made their promise to protect each other. He kept out the part when he saw his “memories”; he still didn’t know what that was. Luna found the whole thing adorable, especially his promise with Elsa.

“Alright, you kept your end of the deal now I shall teach you Night magic,” Luna said. The two practiced for two hours, going deep into the night. Luna was basically nocturnal, so she could stay up as long as she got some sleep. Eclipse on the other hand, was what you could call a “Day walker”. He could stay up all night and still be wide awake when the sun came up. He would need some sleep by the next night, but for now he was awake and determined. When Luna thought he learned enough spells and had them mastered, she felt like it was time they both got some sleep.

“Alright brother, well done I think that’s enough for tonight. We both need rest for tomorrow,” the night princess said. Eclipse nodded and Luna left the room. As he was about to finally catch some sleep, he heard a conversation going on in the other room. Mother’s room; he carefully put his ear to the wall and listened.

“Do you understand, Your Majesty?” an unknown female voice said. “Our sons; Talon and Eclipse will be facing one another tomorrow. My son must win; he is the strongest and fastest in this entire castle.”

“If he is, there should be no problem with him winning,” Eclipse heard his mother say with annoyance in her voice.

“Ah, but you see I don’t want even the slightest chance of him losing. So I want your son to “throw” the match.”

“WHAT!?”

“And if he doesn’t, our alliance will be severed. So I’ll repeat myself, ‘do you understand?” Eclipse now knew this was the Griffin Queen trying to force his mother into an agreement. Eclipse was sure that his mother would never agree to such an empty threat.

“I understand,” Queen Lauren responded. Eclipse could not believe his ears; did he hear his mother right?

“Thank you, oh and one more thing,” what now, “If Talon wins, Princess Elsa of Arendelle will become his betrothed.” Eclipse’s jaw dropped, and his heart cracked.

“That is not for me to say, that is something for her parents to agree to,” Lauren shot back.

“Oh they saw nothing wrong with it, as long as he wins. And I am determined to make my son happy and get whatever he desires. All we need is your agreement.”

“Fine, but only if he wins the full tournament,” the alicorn queen said with a little force. The Griffin Queen nodded and started her way to leave.

“Good night, Your Majesty,” Lauren ignored her and dismissed Galinda from her room. After she had left and closed the door, she heard a hoof knocking on it. A little annoyed, she opened the door. What she saw instantly changed her attitude to pure worry. She saw her seven year old son with eyes that looked like they would burst into tears any second.

“M…Mama, do I really have to give up the fight tomorrow?” the tiny alicorn said trying to hold back his tears. Queen Lauren opened up her wings, signaling for him to come in for a hug. He rushed into his mothers wings and began to let a few tears fall down his face. He soon pulled himself together, ready to obey his mother. No matter how much it breaks his heart and dreams.

“Mother, if I have forfeit the match I will. I know it’s important to keep our alliance with Griffin Kingdom,” Eclipse said trying to sound grown up. Queen Lauren smiled at her son.

“Now Eclipse, who ever said you had to forfeit the match?” the Queen said with a smirk on her face.

“But…But you said…You agreed to…,” the prince tried to say.

“I said I understood her conditions, I never said I agreed to them. I could care less about the Griffin Kingdom. Now let me ask you a question, sweetie. Are you really worried about the match itself, or are you worried about Princess Elsa getting betrothed?” Eclipse did not want to answer that, he just stood there as his face grew red for like the hundredth time that day. His mother saw and only giggled.

“I’m only teasing you sweetie, I know that you two had your little fun tonight, I just want to know what makes my son tick,” the teasing mother explained. Eclipse with a shy smile, nodded to his mother’s claim. Then a question popped into his head, and his face turned more serious.

“Mother what am I?” The Queen was not ready for that question at all. Did he know about that day? “It’s just I’ve been having images popping in my head. I see two cowering fillies surrounded by timber wolves. Then the wolves turn towards me, and I start to get ‘bigger’. My stomach then feels really hot, like fire. And then smoke comes out of my mouth. Then it turns black, does it mean anything?” the alicorn prince asked. Queen Lauren looked at her son; she closed her eyes and sighed.

“I knew this day would come, just I was hoping for tomorrow,” the Queen said with a little nervousness. “Eclipse, when you were but a few days old your sisters were attacked by a pack of timber wolves. I was not home at the moment, so I had no idea this was happening. Then you came to their rescue, and you did something I never thought possible.”

“What, what did I do?” Eclipse asked curiously.

“Son, it is one thing to change into a breezie (or any smaller sized creature), but it is not even thought to be possible to become a dragon. That night, when you saw your sisters in danger you transformed into a dragon unlike any other I have ever seen.” Eclipse could not believe what he just heard. He had become a d…dr…dragon, one of the most dangerous creatures to walk the Earth. He soon started backing away from his mother, he was afraid of what he would do to her. Lauren saw this, and using her magic closed the door. She had explained this much, she needed to get the rest of it out.

“Sweetie, you don’t understand all of it. Yes, you became a dragon, but you were still you. You were in control of your power; all you wanted was to protect your sisters. And to tell you the truth, I am very proud of you,” Queen Lauren said with a smile on her face. Eclipse grew a smile of his own.

“Now that you mention it Mother, I do sometimes feel like there is something inside me trying to break out. I just refuse to let it, afraid of what it is,” Eclipse said now feeling like he just solved the biggest mystery of pony kind.

“Well, don’t hide away who you are. I don’t want you to conceal it away anymore,” the Queen glanced at her clock, “Oh my, it way past both of our bed times. You have a big match tomorrow,” the proud mother said leading her son back into his room. When he was in bed, Lauren turned to leave and then remembered one thing.

“Eclipse, no matter what happens tomorrow, know that I will always love you. No matter what you are, or what you do,” Queen Lauren said with a loving smile.

“I love you too, Mama,” Eclipse responded with a smile of his own. When she left, it didn’t take much longer for Eclipse to fall asleep. He needed to restore his energy, he was going to have beat an over grown chicken tomorrow. He was determined to keep the promise he made.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As Twilight finally closed the book, she could see both the princesses with warm smiles on their faces. She was filled with butterflies as she thought about Prince Eclipse and Princess Elsa’s promise to each other. Little did she know that was the first of many promises made between the two. All three princesses glanced to the Cloud Screen in the center of the arena. They saw Fleetfoot still in the lead, but closely followed by Whiplash. For somepony to be that close to Fleetfoot was amazing. Twilight glanced toward Rainbow Dash, and what she saw confused her. She seemed to be fighting herself, deciding on whether to cheer for Whiplash or Fleetfoot. Twilight shrugged, she just let her friend be.

“I still can’t believe you two kept this from me,” Celestia said, trying to sound as formal as she could.

“It was a secret between a brother and a sister, if thou wanted to know thou should’ve just asked him,” Luna responded with a smirk on her face. Twilight simply smiled as the sun and moon bickered like sisters.

“So how are we going to get the next book?” Twilight asked. Both Celestia and Luna stopped their discussion and looked at Twilight. They had no idea, they thought the race would be done by now. Neither one of them could teleport there; the barrier was only sound proof. If they teleported, their subjects would think they had abandoned them.

“Perhaps I could help with that,” said a voice behind them. In front of the door, at about half Twilight’s height, her number one assistant stood. “Oh yeah, I forgot I let Spike sleep in while I went down into the archives this morning,” Twilight thought.

“Spike, thank goodness. Could you possibly bring me back a book with a gray alicorn and a griffin on the cover? Its titled A Promise Kept’,” Celestia asked the baby dragon.

“Sure thing Princess, where is it exactly?” Spike asked.

“In the Canterlot archives; don’t worry I’ll teleport you there. All you need to do is bring it back here.” With that, Spike nodded and Celestia teleported him to his destination. Now all they needed to do was to wait for him to return with the book.

Let It Go So You Can Keep Your Promise

View Online

Spike had returned shortly after he was sent to the library; which was a surprise, being the tiny dragon that he was. He returned within 5-10 min from when he was transported, it was like he knew exactly where he was and needed to go. As he entered into the royal box, he admired the book’s cover with one final glance before giving it to Twilight. The book was quite larger than the previous ones. As Spike turned to leave, Twilight quickly called him back.

“Don’t you want to stay and read with us Spike,” she asked the young dragon.

“Oh no thanks Twilight, I actually have… something I need to do,” Spike responded.

“Alright, have fun.” Spike nodded to three and left them to their reading. Celestia and Luna looked at each other, both having the same look on their faces. “He seemed to be in a hurry,” both of them thought. Twilight not really caring, walked toward the two, placing the book on the ground between them.

“So who wants to read this one?” Twilight asked, hoping they would let her read another.

“Tis in all fairness, I believe I should read this one,” Princess Luna stated. Twilight hopes being crushed; she slowly levitated the book toward Luna. As soon as Luna looked at the cover, the memories of that day almost came immediately. She saw her brother battling Prince Talon on the cover. Luna mentally readied herself and opened the front page. If there was ever a day where Eclipse was protective, this was the day.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Eclipse woke up to the rays of both the sun and the moon shining on his face. As the sun got higher and the moon got lower, he knew that the tournament would begin in an hour or two. He slowly got out of his new bed, letting out a yawn. He then focused his mind on his goal for today. Defeat the griffin prince, Talon. He never was a fan of the snobby royalty, especially when they flirt with his sisters. And he was really not a fan of those who would have their mother get everything for them. Thanks to the training with Luna last night, he now was more powerful. And after the talk with his mother, he was ready to unleash if he absolutely needs to. Right before he opens the door, he hears somepony knocking on it. With a confused look on his face, he slowly opens the door to find four of his favorite ponies. Celestia, Luna, Anna, and Elsa were waiting outside his door.

“Good morning Eclipse,” Princess Anna said excitedly. She had a small little green dress on, and her strawberry blonde mane was tied in two little pig tails.

“Morning girls,” Eclipse said in response rubbing his eyes with his hoof. Celestia smiled at her brother, but was soon replaced by a more serious look.

“You ready for this?” she asked with all seriousness. Eclipse looked at her with a look of equal seriousness, but with a confident smile on.

“More than I’ve ever been,” he responded. The four mares smiled at his response.

You guys are so lucky to play; I’m still too young to enter,” the little Princess Anna said jealously. It was true; the minimum age to participate was 7 years of age. Celestia was 17, so she was more than qualified. Luna was 12, so she was no newbie. Elsa and Eclipse were barely old enough to participate. Anna on the other hand was only 4 years old, she was nowhere near ready. Celestia placed a wing over Anna’s shoulders. Anna looked up to the white alicorn.

“It’s alright, I have a special job for you anyway,” Celestia told the young Earth filly. Anna’s face beamed with joy, “What is it?”

“We are going to need a support team to cheer us on. It’s hard giving it your all if you don’t have somepony to back you up. Think you’re up for being our support team leader?” Celestia asked her.

“I would love to!” The young princess said excitedly. Anna wanted so desperately to be a part of the fun. Thanks to Celestia, she now had something to do to help her sister and her friends. With that she quickly hugged the white alicorn around her neck, and then quickly ran down to her room to prepare for her new job. The remaining four laughed, the young princess could sure be hyper.

“Elsa, do you want to come down to breakfast with us,” Eclipse asked hoping she says yes.

“I would love to, but I should probably wait for my sister. I don’t quite trust her on her own,” Princess Elsa responded. Eclipse nodded and began to walk down the halls with his sisters. Elsa began walking in the opposite direction toward her and Anna’s room. As she was walking, her mother was walking toward her from Elsa’s room.

“Elsa, there you are. I need to talk to you,” the Queen of Arendelle exclaimed. Elsa’s mother escorted her into the King and Queen’s room. As her mother closed the door, Elsa began to be a little worried. “What is going on?” She wondered.

"Elsa, sweetie,” Her father began, “we have something to tell you.”

“What is it Papa,” Elsa asked with a little worry.

“Your father and I have…arranged you for a betrothal with the griffin prince, Talon,” the queen said. Elsa’s jaw dropped, even though she was only 7 she knew what ‘betrothal’ meant.

“H…how could you,” Elsa managed to say.

“Now Elsa, I know what we did wasn’t exactly fair, but…”

“I won’t marry that snobby overgrown chicken!” Elsa yelled cutting her father off.

“Elsa, you don’t necessarily have to,” the Queen said quickly before her daughter could interrupt her.

“What?”

“You are only betrothed to him if he wins the entire tournament. We only did it to keep our ties with the Griffin Kingdom.”

“Still, last I heard he is extremely physically gifted.”

“Yes, but his first opponent is Prince Eclipse,” the Queen said with a little scheme like smile on. Elsa gasped; she didn’t know if she felt relieved or more worried. Being an alicorn, Eclipse easily had power and flight skills. But on the other hand, she didn’t want Eclipse to get hurt all because of her. She promised to protect him, but this was out or her control.

Don’t worry; he’s one of the three alicorn siblings. He won’t lose easily, not to mention Queen Lauren tells us Eclipse has more power in him than even she knows,” the Queen said trying to assure her daughter. Elsa looked at both her parents, she then grew a smile. She of all ponies should have faith in Eclipse. And here both her parents were having more faith in the young prince than she was.

“Besides, even if he doesn’t win, Prince Talon has both Princess Luna and Princess Celestia to deal with. Not to mention you as well,” her father said. Never mind looks like only she has faith in him. She nodded in agreement, and her parents dismissed her. As she exited the room, she found Anna outside waiting for her.

“Well, what do you think?” Anna asked her sister. Elsa looked at her sister and was a little amazed. Her sister now wore black paint underneath her eyes, an extra big green jersey over her usual light green dress. And she had four different flags in her mouth; one said “Go Elsa”, another “Go Luna”, then “Go Eclipse”, and finally “Go Celest”. Elsa giggled, Anna obviously couldn’t fit Celestia’s full name on the tiny flag.

“I think you look like a great support team leader,” Elsa said with a soft smile.

“Great! Now let’s go down to breakfast and show the others,” Anna exclaimed jumping up and down. As they walked down the stairs, Anna was rambling on how excited she was to support them in the tournament. Elsa wasn’t exactly listening, her thoughts were elsewhere. She couldn’t get her mind off Eclipse’s battle he’ll soon be having. She was happy that her fate was resting on his shoulders, but she also didn’t want him getting hurt because of her. As she dwelt on these thoughts, they were interrupted when she heard his voice.

“Elsa, Anna, come sit with us, we saved you two a spot,” Eclipse called over to them. They all sat at one end of one of the very large royal tables. Queen Lauren sat at the other end with the griffin king and queen. Their sons sat next to their mother, but they kept their eyes on the other royal children. Queen Lauren glanced at the other tables to observe the subjects of all three kingdoms. She noticed the King and Queen of Arendelle coming down the stairs.

“Gaspar, Maria, come sit with us,” Lauren called out to them. As the two Earth ponies sat down, Lauren stood up and rang her glass with her magic.

"Attention everypony, I would like to officially announce the beginning of the annual Equestrian Tournament,” the Queen announced. The entire room erupted in cheers, both shouts and banging of cups against one another. “Each kingdom has a team made of five contestants to represent them. Each day, there will be a one on one match at random until there is only one left. There are only two rules, rule 1: No Killing, rule 2: no rules except rule 1. Other than that I would like to announce the first match that will start the tournament,” Queen Lauren announce to everyone.

“The first match shall be between Prince Talon of the Griffon Kingdom, and…” Lauren looked at Eclipse, “my son, Prince Eclipse of Equestria. The match shall begin in half an hour, so I advise the two princes to prepare now,” the Queen said still looking at her son. Eclipse took her hint and started toward the stadium. The four princesses watched him leave with concerned looks on their faces.

The closer Eclipse walked to the middle of the stadium, the more nervous he got. He had never want to hurt anypony (or griffin), but on the other hand he always wanted to show how powerful he was. Fortunately, he had bitter feelings toward this griffin prince, so it all fell into place for him. As he was thinking on how his match was going to go, he heard hoof steps walking behind him. He turned around to find his mother walking toward him.

“Are you ready?” she asked. She knew he didn’t like violence, but he responded with a mischievous smile.

“Yes actually. I actually want to teach this griffin some manners, because he’s obviously not learning them from his mother.” The Queen couldn’t have been more proud of her son’s response.

“I do have just a few words of advice,” Lauren said with a smile on her face. Eclipse looked at his mother with real intent on listening. He wanted every tip he could get on how he could possibly win.

“Let it go,” was what his mother’s words were. “I don’t want you holding it back anymore. Show him what you can do, and why he needs to show more respect.” Eclipse only smiled and began to stretch out his body, preparing himself for battle.


As the ponies came into the stadium, the royal were given a special spot in the front where they could observe every detail of the battle. Elsa, Anna, Celestia and Luna all sat in front of their parents so they could get the best view they could. Thunder and Galinda sat next to Queen Lauren with their son; Bronze Wing.

“You all remember our agreement?” Queen Galinda whispered Lauren, Gaspar, and Maria. They all nodded and Galinda looked back toward the arena. Queen Lauren then leaned her head toward King Gaspar and Queen Maria.

“But I never officially agreed to it,” The alicorn queen whispered with a wink. The King and Queen of Arendelle both giggled and grew grins on their faces. Just then the trumpets were blown, announcing the entrance of both contestants. Prince Talon came in with his head held up high with a huge grin of confidence on it. He wore armor that was like that of a roman centurion. A golden chest plate with his kingdom’s signature eagle, two gauntlets on his claws, and a cape decorated his back. And the finishing touch was the helmet upon his head. With the crimson red feather on top, he looked like a warrior.

Prince Eclipse was an entirely different story. As he came in, his head was held high, but with a much more serious look on his face. He wore crimson red armor that was like that of a knight. A helmet that covered the top of his head, they came down and clasped onto his jaw for a tight fit. A hole was onto for his horn to pass through. He wore armored boots over his hooves. His shoulder plates had either a sun or a moon crafted into them. While his chest plate had them both crafted in, representing a solar eclipse. They both walked toward the center of the arena, both looked toward Queen Lauren for further instructions.


“Alright, you both know the rules. Fight well,” Lauren paused. ‘Good luck, Eclipse,’ “And Begin!” she announced. Talon began getting into his position, but never finished. Eclipse was on him like white on rice. Eclipse rammed his head into Talon’s gut, causing him to fall back. The crowd erupted in cheers, especially the four princesses. Talon was quick to bounce back and took to the sky, preparing for a sky attack. He dove straight for Eclipse, Eclipse was preparing to counter. But Talon was faster than he looked, even with armor. Just when he was about to hit Eclipse he quickly curved and rammed Eclipse in his right side with his shoulder. Eclipse was taken by surprise, that much momentum coming his way caused a lot of damage to his side. Talon continued this tactic, thinking that his victory was sealed when he was in the air. His mother smiled deviously as her son continued to pound on Prince Eclipse.

As Talon was coming down for tenth strike, he saw the sky get darker. Even though the sun was still in the sky, its light began to dim down creating giant shadows in the arena. As he was about to make contact with Eclipse, Eclipse evaporated into the shadows. Everyone was astonished at what he did, everyone except Luna. She taught him how to move in the darkness of the environment. He wasn’t able to raise the moon yet, but she taught him how to get a darker sky. And now both were working to Eclipse’s advantage, but during the day his shadow walking was limited. The shadows surrounded everywhere except for a large area of light in the center. Talon continued scanning the area counter clockwise for wherever Eclipse was hiding. Now griffins can see in the dark, but they can’t tell one shadow from another.

The next thing Talon knew was a metal hoof connecting with the left side of his beak. The punch launched him across the arena, landing in a shaded area. When Talon got back on his feet, his gut was then reintroduced to Eclipses head coming from underneath him. When Eclipse shadow walks, he is able to travel anywhere in the darkness in lightning speed. He is also able to come out wherever and however he likes. Talon was launched into the sky, but was able to bounce back and flap his wings. Knowing that he couldn’t reach Talon from down in the shadows, he came out and took to the skies as well.

“Is that all you’ve got, birdie?” Eclipses taunted with a smug look on his face. The crowd erupted in louder cheers than they had the entire day. Celestia, Elsa’s Luna, and Anna cheers were probably the loudest. Elsa couldn’t help but smile with confidence of Eclipse’s victory. But Talon was not done, if fact he was angry. Now his goal wasn’t victory, nor was it Elsa, it was to tear Eclipse to shreds. At lightning speed, Talon moved in on the alicorn and began punching and clawing at Eclipse’s face. Eclipse tried to counter, but Talon always had a move to counter his counter. Eclipse’s face was now beginning to look really beat, and Talon would not let up.

Eventually, Talon hit Eclipse so hard it knocked him out of the sky. Lauren, Gaspar, Maria, and the four princesses all gasped. Elsa covered her mouth with right hoof. Her confidence had quickly gone to worry. And unknown to everypony, frost began to form beneath her other hooves. Talon came down, full speed at Eclipse with his claw ready. Next thing that happened scarred Eclipse for life, literally. Talon’s claw had come down on Eclipse left eye, leaving a bloody claw mark across it. It seemed quite easy for Talon; it was like reopening a wound. Eclipse screamed in pain, putting his hoof to his eye. Talon stood in front of him ready to deliver a final blow. When his claw was about to make contact, was blocked by Eclipse’s horn.

Talon looked at the Eclipse’s face, and what he saw made him step back. Eclipse had both of his eyes open, though one was a bloody mess. Both eyes were glowing with pure light, and with pure anger. As Eclipse gritted his teeth, they began to sharpen themselves. Talon didn’t know what to make of it, but he had to ignore it for now. Eclipse then shot a fiery blast toward Talon, who barely dodged it. Both took to the skies, with Eclipse chasing the griffin prince. Eclipse constantly shot blast after blast, and Talon continued to dodge. But neither one of them was sure how long they could keep this up. After so much flying already, their wings were really tired. They soon retired to the ground, giving both their wings a rest. Both were breathing heavy and stood in place staring at each other. Then the strangest thing happened. Talon began to laugh, and Eclipse looked at him in confusion.

“It’s over Eclipse. I still have plenty of fight left in me, while you look like you’re about to faint any minute. I must admit though, you were the strongest opponent I’ve faced. But Elsa is going to be mine. Then a few years down the road, she will become my wife. That’s the real prize for me,” Talon told Eclipse. Each word made Eclipse angrier, but his body was so tired he couldn’t punish him for it. He glanced at Elsa to see if she was still cheering him on, but what he saw scarred him even more than his eye. He saw something he never wanted to see; he saw Elsa crying. Her face was soaked in tears; she believed it was hopeless for Eclipse. He was in so much pain and she thought it was her fault. The frost beneath her hooves began to spread a little bit more, but nopony seemed to notice. But there was something everypony noticed, and it was the Eclipse’s magic beginning to surround him.

A bright red flame began to circle around Eclipse; the entire stadium is in silent awe. Talon doesn’t know what to make of it, and neither does his family. Queen Lauren, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna can only smile. The Arendelle family is in shock, especially Elsa. She had stopped crying, but her tears still had stained her icy blue face.

“I thought you said he would throw the match,” Queen Galinda complained softly.

“I said I understood your terms, I never said I agreed to them,” Queen Lauren said with a devious smile. Galinda huffed in anger.

As they watched, they saw the flames get larger. All that was going through Eclipse’s mind was Elsa. He promised he would protect her and he was determined to keep that promise. But he also promised to protect her emotionally, and her crying was not something he would stand for.

“It’s your…It’s your fault,” Eclipse managed to say in his anger.

“What?” Prince Talon had no idea what he was talking about.

“IT’S YOUR FAULT THAT ELSA SHEDS TEARS!!!” Eclipse screamed. As soon as he said that his magic began to change. The flames began to die down, but in their place were icy winds. Every second the wind got stronger and colder. Soon, Eclipse was swallowed by mini blizzard. It was so thick; you couldn’t see the young alicorn anymore, except for his glowing eyes that pierced through the storm. The very thoughts of Elsa had changed his magic from fire to ice. As Talon watched the blizzard take place, he felt a feeling he hadn’t felt in a long time; fear. Not long after, two gigantic bat like wings erupted from the blizzard. Next, a scaly tail came out of the back. Then the blizzard began to die down, revealing the owner of the wings and the tail. Talon was so afraid of what he saw; he fell back and continued to crawl backwards until he hit the wall. Eclipse sure had grown since the last time he was in dragon form. He was now easily six times the size of timber wolf, and twice the size of a manticore. But he was different looking this time. His scales were like black ice, with a small blue tint in them. If you touched but one of his scales, it feel as cold as the dark side of the moon. He still had his alicorn horn, but his other two were now curved like those of a ram. His claws and spikes now glowed with an icy blue color. The wings were not only larger, but also more muscular. They glowed like fresh snow. His teeth were like icicles, even sharper (if that’s possible) than his last transformation. But his eyes were a big change. Last time, only the pupils of his eyes were flames, but this time his eyes were both entirely mini blizzards. Elsa was amazed at what she was seeing. Anna’s mouth was so wide open it hit the ground. They both could not believe what had happened to him. Eclipse then let out a roar directed straight at Prince Talon, shoving him against the stadium wall. Eclipse’s battle cry was so loud; everypony had to cover their ears.

“Your majesty, what is that?” The other kings and queens asked.

“That…is my son,” Queen Lauren responded with a smile.

Eclipse then began running towards the griffin prince. Talon immediately tried to fly and escape, but Eclipse swatted him out of the sky and across the entire arena. Using his wings, Eclipse was quickly upon the now small griffin, smashing him with his long icy tail. He then grabbed Talon and shoved him into the ground. Eclipse then dragged him across the floor, only to bring him into the air to be swatted by Eclipse’s tail again. Eclipse was not going to let up, he wanted Talon to pay: first for flirting with his sister, then insulting his sister, for trying to force Elsa into a marriage, and finally and mostly for Elsa’s tears.

“YOU MADE ELSA CRY,” Eclipse yelled, “AND I’M NOT GOING TO LET YOU GET AWAY WITH THAT!!!!!” When Elsa heard those words, her heart began to flutter a little. He’s doing his best to protect her, and she began to grow a smile. “I PROMISED I WOULD PROTECT HER…. I PROMISED!!!!” Elsa now had started crying again, but this time they were tears of joy. She was so touched by what he was doing for her. And she wasn’t the only one; both of their families began to tear up because of his determination to keep his promise to Elsa.

Talon was soon lying on the ground, unable to move at all. He saw the huge dragon in front of him, but was to beat to try and escape him. An icy mist escaped from Eclipse’s mouth, and Queen Lauren knew exactly what that meant. Before she could yell stop, Eclipse let out an icy breath so cold it could probably freeze flames. The blast was aimed straight for the young griffin. The blast swallowed him, and everyone believed they just saw the first and only rule of these fights be broken. But Elsa saw something, Eclipse’s alicorn horn was glowing its dark orange glow. She looked back to the griffin as the blast died down; she saw a magical force field surrounding Talon and he was unharmed from the blast. Eclipse slowly began to walk toward him. His body then began to get smaller, until he was his young, dark gray alicorn self. Talon looked up at him, although Eclipse was in pony form; all Talon could see was the dragon. Eclipse’s scarred eye was now closed, while his right eye was staring right into Talon.

“You owe Elsa a BIG apology, not to mention you owe Anna and both my sisters one too. Go beg for their forgiveness, you don’t want to know what I’ll do if they don’t give it,” Eclipse said warning Talon. Eclipse understood he couldn’t do it now, so he allowed him let his body rest up a bit. He then turned toward the audience in the stadium. Complete silence filled the entire building, and Eclipse had not yet realized why. When he did realize, it hit him like a ton of bricks. His eyes went wide, realizing what they just saw. What SHE just saw, he couldn’t bear to think of what she thought of him. He quickly turned around, purposely avoiding her gaze and ran straight out of the arena. The four princesses looked at each other with worried looks and quickly began to run out of the stadium. Queen Lauren as well as the Arendelle King and Queen soon followed. Talon’s family went down to get their son medical attention as quickly as possible.

As the seven royal ponies searched the stadium halls, only one thought was on all of their minds. Eclipse, where are you? Everything will be alright.”

You're Not a Monster

View Online

Why would he run? Was he scared? Is he alright? Where is he? These questions continued to run through the mind of Princess Elsa as well as the other royal ponies. You would think that after a battle he would be exhausted, but Prince Eclipse was determined to get away and hide. He ran through the stadium’s halls trying to find a perfect hiding place, while the others were trying to find him. He was scared of not so much as to what they would think of him, but more as to what she thought of him. He was a monster and he knew it.

“This is all my fault,” Queen Lauren stated as they began to slow down. The other six ponies turned to her in disbelief. “I was the one who told him to let it out. Now he is so worried of what others think of him, he’s hiding from us,” she said sadly with a few tears in her eyes. Elsa shook her head in disagreement as they continued to search.

“Your majesty, I’m afraid I disagree with you. If it’s anypony’s fault; its mine, he was trying to protect me and… if only I kept in my tears. He could’ve defeated him even without transforming, I know it. Now it’s my fault that he’s afraid of himself,” Elsa admitted looking down.

“NO, it’s no one’s fault, he made his own choice,” Princess Anna shouted. “Yes he was scared, but he just jumped to conclusions. No one made him turn into a dragon, and no one acted afraid of him. I think it’s amazing that he can do that, he just needs to think that too,” the Earth pony princess said. The others smiled as Anna tried to justify the situation, but she was wrong about one thing. Everyone in the stadium, especially the griffins acted quite afraid of him at the end of the battle. All were in an awkward silence and gave Eclipse a disturbed and terrified look. The only ones who weren’t afraid of him were the ones who were looking for him.


Eclipse had finally run into a perfect hiding place, well not really perfect. He decided to hide in the last place his body extremely tired body would take him; a shadowy dead end. At first glance you wouldn’t be able to see him, but if you focused for just a few seconds you would be able see his crimson armor and mane. As he began to rest in the shadows, his thoughts slowly drifted to Princess Elsa and her family. His family had seen him before and they were fine with it, but the Arendelle royal family had not seen him like that. No pony had as a matter of fact, last time he was more of a fire dragon, but this time he was more of a frost dragon. His thoughts were then interrupted when he heard hoof steps coming his direction.

The prince quickly tried to blend into the shadows, but his body was so beaten he couldn’t. He covered his face and shut his eyes, doing his best to avoid whoever was coming. “Your majesty?” the anonyms pony asked.

“Go away! Please just leave me alone!” Eclipse yelled back.

“I’m not here to hurt you.”

“But I could hurt you. You saw what I am; I’m a fire breathing monster.” Eclipse was now on the verge of tears, just waiting for this pony to just go away before something bad happen. The next thing that happened surprised him; he felt the pony’s hoof on his shoulder. He slowly unraveled his wings and opened his eyes so he could see this mysterious pony. The pony was a colt, barely older than Eclipse, and a little bit bigger. He had a blue coat with a mane of both light and darker blue. He had gold eyes, and a comforting smile. His knew this pony, his name was Rain Runner; one of the Equestria members of the tournament. “Eclipse, are you ok? I saw what happened and I wanted to see if you were alright,” Rain Runner asked.

“You saw what happened? Shouldn’t you be running from me? Why aren’t you scared?” Eclipse asked back.

“Because I think it’s awesome, we should be able to win this thing for sure. And really I’m not one who should judge,” Rain responded. He then flexed out his own wings, showing that they were about as large as the Queen’s (maybe a little bit smaller). Rain Runner was born with much larger wings than that of the average pegasus, which can be a problem when on the ground.

“You really like that I can become a dragon?” Eclipse asked. Before Rain could answer they heard hoof steps coming their way. Soon they found seven more ponies running in their direction. Celestia almost immediately spotted them, “There he is, he’s standing next to…Rain Runner?!” All seven came to a stop, a good couple feet from them. Lauren had a look of joy on her face with a few stray tears streaming down her face. King Gaspar and Queen Maria both had a smile on their faces as both of them let a sigh of relief. The four fillies (especially Elsa), was on the verge of tears. All four princesses begin walking toward Eclipse, his voice caught in his throat. As he watches them slowly walk toward him, he sees his sisters Luna and Celestia. Tiny Anna next to Celestia, but when his gaze finds Elsa his eyes went wide and his voice returned to him.

“Elsa, don’t come near me. I’m sorry if I scared you, but don’t come near me. I’m a monster.” Eclipse warned. His words shocked all of them, but not as much as Eclipse was about to be. The four fillies put on a look that could put Fluttershy’s to shame. They began walking again and did something Eclipse did not expect. They slapped him, one by one. It was right cheek, left cheek and it felt cold then hot, warm then cold again. Elsa slapped him first, then Celestia, then Anna, and lastly Luna. They didn’t care if it hurt his scarred eye, it had to be done. After they were done slapping him, Elsa was right in his face, tears running down hers.

“Don’t you EVER call yourself a monster again, do you understand?” Elsa yelled at him. The alicorn prince could only nod. Elsa then wrapped her hooves around Eclipse’s neck. Anna was soon to follow her sister’s example and hugged the prince’s left front leg. Then Celestia and Luna came and wrapped their wings around the other three. Rain Runner being a slightly shy pony sat in the corner, with a smile of happiness for his prince. Eclipse couldn’t hold it anymore and let his tears role down his face.

“Shhhh, no need to cry Eclipse, if anything you should be very proud of yourself,” Celestia said softly to him. They ended their hug, well all except Elsa that is. She held onto his neck and whispered, “Thank you. Thank you for protecting me.” She finally let go, and her parents and began to walk toward Eclipse.

“Eclipse, we would personally like to thank you for protecting our daughter. We had no intentions for her to marry that griffin snob. We just needed to keep our ties with the Griffin Kingdom, and we had faith that you would be able to defeat him. For that we thank you,” King Gaspar said. Eclipse nodded in response, but was soon to be face to face to a super hyper princess.

“Eclipse that was so amazing, when you were BOOM, then you were like ROOAAR, I had no idea you could do that. Why didn’t you tell me you little stinker,” Princess Anna asked. Eclipse didn’t exactly know how to respond, he was still trying to make out what the heck she just said. He then caught glimpse of Rain Runner in the corner.

“Rain, I believe we have your match up next don’t we?” Eclipse asked him. Rain Runner nodded, Queen Lauren had almost forgotten he was there. As they began to walk back, she put her wing over the young pegasus’ shoulders, “Thank you for being there for my son. And best of luck in your match today,” Lauren said with a warm smile. Rain Runner could only smile back; it wasn’t very often when the Queen gives you a personal thank you.


It was surely different being in the stands than in the arena. Eclipse still felt a little nervous, you could feel the fearful gazes all looking toward him. The Griffin royal family was in the hospital wing treating to Talon’s injuries. Eclipse had his own injuries, but they weren’t too serious (His eye was really the only serious wound he got). All he was truly focused on was the match that was about to take place. The trumpets and both participants entered the arena. Rain Runner was in dark blue armor, where a storm cloud was crafted on his chest place. His helmet was like that of a Viking. The armor was also crafted to cover the wings as much as possible and still allow him to fly. It looked like Rain was determined to prove himself today.
His opponent was in a similar to Eclipse’s, except it was gold and instead of a sun or a moon; his armor wore a star. He was a unicorn from the Kingdom of Arendelle named Golden Star. He had a yellow coat and a mane that was military cut but was a tanish brown. He was 9 years old and was known for his special gifts in sword play. But Rain Runner was known for his ability to fly faster than most pegasi. Even though Golden Star was older than Rain Runner, Runner had size on his side and was a good inch taller than Golden Star.

“You both know the rules, good luck to both of you,” Queen Lauren stated, “and begin!” Rain immediately took to the air; his large wings would be too much trouble on the ground. Golden Star’s horn began to glow; he unsheathed the sword on his back with his magic. He then created 3 magical swords to appear and aimed them at the sky, preparing to strike the pegasus. Rain Runner began descending, circling around the unicorn. As he circled, Golden began launching his swords at Rain. The crowd’s cheers getting louder and louder every second. Some came close to hitting him, but none of the swords were able to make their mark. Rain Runner was just too fast and unknown to almost everypony, he wasn’t just circling around his opponent, he was creating a tornado that would surely finish him. But what Rain didn’t about Golden Star’s swords was they were like boomerangs. If they miss their target they are bound to return to where they came from, and that meant another chance to hit him. Having large wings did have its advantages, especially when making tornados. He was done with that tornado in 15 seconds. But as he finished, he stopped in place to watch his handy work. And right behind him a magical golden sword was coming right at him on its return.

The blade skewered him, causing him to fall to the ground. He wasn’t dead or mortally wounded, a magical blade only deals the pain of a real sword, but it doesn’t truly pierce its target. Golden’s real sword was a different story, but as the tornado began to fade away, everypony could see him on the ground unconscious. Satisfied with his result he let his body rest. Both ponies were out for the count and couldn’t continue.

“We have a draw, sadly that means both ponies are disqualified. But that also put it at a three way tie with every kingdom at four competitors left,” Queen Lauren announced. The medical ponies quickly took both the pegasus and the unicorn away to have their wounds treated.

“That concludes the first day of the Equestria tournament. I highly advise for all the competitors to get some rest. My children and I have an important meeting tomorrow. So we will have to post pone until the day after. You are all dismissed,” Lauren announced as she began to make her way out of the stadium. Princess Luna and Celestia were making their way to tower where they raise the sun and the moon. It was getting pretty late and the sky was beginning to get a little dark. Anna walked with her parents back to their rooms. Elsa on the other hand wanted to walk with Eclipse. Partly because she wanted to make sure he wouldn’t just collapse from exhaustion, and partly because she wanted to just walk with him. When they got to the door of the castle Elsa turned to him.

“Goodnight, Eclipse I’ll see you tomorrow alright,” the Princess said to him.

“Actually, could you come with me? I want to show you something,” Eclipse said with a hopeful smile on his face. How could Elsa refuse?

“Alright, where are we going?” Elsa asked.

“To the roof, it’s a surprise.” The princess followed Eclipse until they got to the very top of the castle. Eclipse scanned the area making sure nopony would be able to see them.

“Ok, now just wait a minute,” Eclipse instructed and she obeyed. Eclipse took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. He began to think of how he felt earlier when he transformed. He began to think of his Elsa, Anna and his sisters. How much he wanted to protect them and he would do whatever it took to do it. Suddenly his body began to change again; he could feel himself getting bigger. He began to grow claws, bat-like wings, a thick and long tail, and two horns on the back of his head. When he opened his eyes, he saw Elsa with eyes of amazement. He then took a look at himself and saw his black ice scales and midnight blue underbelly. He had turned into his frost dragon form again, that was another thing he needed to learn how to control. Which dragon would he change into?
“Elsa, you’re not afraid of me are you?” Eclipse asked sheepishly. Elsa just shook her head.

“On the contrary, I think it’s amazing,” she said with a reassuring smile. “Now was this what you wanted to show me?”
“Partially,” Eclipse said lowering his body closer to the ground. He flattened his left wing in front of Elsa, as if asking her to get on.

“Are you serious?” Elsa asked with e over whelming excitement.

“Well I noticed you don’t have wings like I do, so…I was thinking…maybe you would like to…maybe go on nightly flight,” Eclipse said stuttering on almost all of his words. Even as a dragon, Elsa found Eclipse’s shyness to be quite adorable. She nodded with a comforting smile (trying to contain her excitement) and gracefully walked across his wing and onto his back. To Eclipse, he could barely feel her on his back. Now as I said, Eclipse’s scales are supposed to be extremely cold. But the cold has never really bother Elsa, she can barely feel cold.

“Alright, here we go,” the dragon said. He let his wings gently pick them off the ground. Once they were in the sky, Elsa was a little worried of falling off and quickly grabbed one of the dragon’s spikes. Eclipse was only doing a gentle glide, not fast enough for her to fall off. Elsa’s gaze soon went to the site of the sun setting. The beautiful blends of red and orange instantly put a smile on her face. Then the moon began to rise as soon as the sun had completely vanished, painting the sky in hundreds of pretty stars, and the moon light shining both in Elsa’s mane and on Eclipse’s scales. Flying on the back of gentle dragon was unlike anything she had ever experience, and she loved it. She decided to put a little more fun into it; she began to make a magical snow ball and launched it into the air. It began to snow all around them, making it an even more beautiful winter’s night.

Elsa then got an idea, and gripped onto Eclipse’s spike even harder. “Come on Eclipse, pick up the speed. Let’s see what you got,” she yelled.

“You want speed? Here we go,” the frost dragon responded with a wicked smile. He began flapping his wings and started flying straight into the air. Elsa held on as tight as she could, but also leaned into it. Eclipse let began fold his wings and aim himself straight down. Now Elsa thought Rain runner was fast earlier today, but the sheer force from Eclipse’s speed was almost blowing her off his back.

“Hang on, Elsa!” he yelled back with a smile. As they got closer to the castle, at this speed Elsa thought for sure they would crash into the top. As she closed her eyes ready to embrace the impact, Eclipse flattened his wings slowing them down and hovering just over the top tower of the castle. Elsa opened her eyes and let a sigh of relief.

“You asked for it,” Eclipse called back to her. Elsa let out a little chuckle, laughing from joy and fear of that little experience. Eclipse decided it was probably time for her be done after a stunt like that. He went back to the roof where they started and slowly landed, lowering his body and flattening his wings so she could get down.

“Thank you so much for such a wonderful time Eclipse, I hope we can do it again soon,” the Princess said with a warm smile.
“Oh that reminds me, I was going to ask if you and your family wanted to join us tomorrow at the meeting at Cloudsdale tomorrow.” Eclipse asked.

“That would be wonderful, you could fly all of us there,” Elsa responded with glee.

“Well I better let you get some sleep; we’ve kind of had a long day today.”

“Your right, especially you after your fight today, you defiantly need some sleep.”

“Alright see you tomorrow morning then.” As the two departed, they both left with a huge smile on their faces. Neither one of them slept any better than they did that night.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As Princess Luna closed the book, they heard the trumpets announce the winner of the derby. They had completely forgotten all about that. Turns out the winner was Fleetfoot, second was Spit Fire, and third was Whiplash. Now anypony could see Rainbow Dash fighting herself whether to cheer or to groan in disappointment. Still nopony knew what her problem was. The three princesses quickly got up and began to clap for a noticeable amount of time for everyone to see. Then they went back to the book.

“That was incredibly sweet,” Twilight stated with a tear in her eye.

“Little did they know, one: that snow fall Elsa created helped a special little filly find her destiny in Cloudsdale. And two: that Princess Elsa in the future would be flying on her own,” Celestia said with a little teasing note in her voice.

“What does that mean, Princess?” Twilight asked with her curiosity going through the roof.

“We’ll have to read the books,” Celestia responded teasing her student, “Luckily this is derby is over, now we can return to the archives.” The princesses all left their royal box, and started toward the Canterlot archives. The first and most pressing question in Twilight’s mind was; who was this special little filly?”

Preview of Chpt 8

View Online

As the princesses were walking toward the Canterlot Archives, Twilight was trying to think about this special little filly Celestia mentioned. What filly in history had gotten her special talent thanks to snow falling? And Princess Elsa flying on her own, Twilight couldn’t wrap her head around that one. She was the only unicorn recorded in history to transform into an alicorn. But after many years of having Celestia as a mentor, she has learned that books only have some of the facts. She knew that her teacher would eventually tell her; if not, the books will. When they arrived at the secret office underneath the archives, Twilight let her eyes gaze in amazement for only a minute. Then she quickly went straight the bookshelf while the royal sisters went over to sit down.

“Twilight, it’s the one with all the snowflakes on it,” Princess Celestia told her as she rested on one of the soft cushions in the room. The lavender alicorn nodded, and then began looking for the next book. When she pulled it from the shelf she saw it titled “Making Stars While Making Friends.” It was a dark blue book; the cover was an icy blue vase pouring out multiple snowflakes. Twilight then levitated the book toward Princess Celestia.

“I believe it’s your turn to read Celestia,” Twilight said. Celestia shook her head, and then moved the book toward her sister. “I believe my sister is the one to read this specific book,” Celestia said with a comforting smile toward her sister. Princess Luna looked at her sister, then at the book. A stray tear had escaped her right eye and had begun to fall down her face. Luna then shook her head and passed it back to Celestia.

“Nay, I believe you should read it sister. I do not believe that I can read this one without getting emotional,” the Night princess responded. Celestia was a little hesitant, but she understood how her sister felt and took the book. Twilight sat down next to Luna, ready to listen as Celestia began to open the book.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Luna woke up early yet again so she could lower the moon on time. Yet another reason why she wanted the night to last a bit longer, so she could at least get some more sleep. “Maybe I should learn to sleep in the day,” she thought.

But unlike other days, she was actually a little happier. Today was the day where they went to Cloudsdale for the 100th spring sunrise. As she made it to the tower where she raises the moon, she saw her brother there waiting. “Eclipse, what are you doing here?” Luna asked.

“I came to see you lower the moon. I want to see how you do it,” Eclipse exclaimed. For as long as he could remember, Luna had always been his role model. Luna smiled at her brother and proceeded toward her spot. Having her brother there to see her do her stuff; she had a feeling today was going to be a good day. Eclipse watched with eyes of amazement (or eye of amazement, his scarred eye is closed), watching every detail. When the moon was gone, Luna turned to go back to bed for a good 10 more minutes of sleep, but she was then interrupted by her brother. “Luna that was so incredible! How do you do it every day?” Prince Eclipse asked. Luna smiled and began to walk past him, but called back to him. “How bout I show you how someday soon,” Luna said to him. She had no idea how happy she just made her brother. Luna had always been Eclipse’s role model; he loved her determination and the beauty of night she creates. When Luna was gone, Eclipse knew Celestia would be there shortly so he decided to practice his gifts for a few minutes.

He closed his eyes and began to think about his family and his friends and how much he wants to protect them. But his mind slowly shifted to his sister that he knew would be there soon. Eclipse’s body began to grow, his hooves became claws, his wings were more bat-like, and two horns grew from the back of his head. When he opened his eyes, he looked down and saw a fire red underbelly along with scales as black as night. He brought his claws to his eyes and he could feel the warmth of his eyes that were now pure flames. Spreading out his wings to see how big they really were. Looking from left to right, he was sure that it was easily a 25ft wing span. He then decided to experiment a little; he closed his eyes again and began to think frost, ice and snow. When he opened his eyes, nothing changed at all. Why not, what was different from last night and this morning? As he asked himself questions, he didn’t even notice Celestia standing 5 ft away from him.

“Eclipse,” the sun princess said trying to get his attention. It worked; Eclipse turned his head toward his sister and gasped a little in surprise.

“Celestia, I’m sorry am I in your way?” the big black and red dragon asked.

“Oh no, I was just wondering what you were doing here?” Celestia asked in return.

“Um…I’m just trying to practice a little. I’ve never understood what I could do. And now that I do, I want to be able to control it. Like you and Luna do with sun and moon.” Celestia smiled and nodded, and then she began to walk toward him. She then hugged his front right claw, “I love you brother, and I’m very proud of you,” she said to him. Eclipse smiled back, using left claw to hug Celestia back as best he could without crushing her.

“Celestia,” Eclipse said.

“Hm,” the white alicorn responded.

“Do you mind if I watch you raise the sun?”

“Are you going to stay in that form the whole time I do it?”

“Yes actually, I told Elsa that she and her family that they could come with us to Cloudsdale today. They need to get there somehow, right?” Celestia giggled at his comment.

“True, but how are they going to walk on the clouds? There are 3 Earth ponies and one unicorn, neither can walk on clouds.”

“Ah, but don’t you remember the spell Starswirl taught us our first lesson? We can cast that spell that can help them walk on the clouds.”

“Eclipse, then they’ll all have wings. You won’t need to fly them there.”

“Wrong, we could use THAT spell, but I’m talking about the Cloud Walker spell. You know the one that doesn’t involve wings and only lasts about a day. That way they do not have to learn how to fly. Now can I watch you raise the sun or not?” Eclipse whined. Celestia mentally smacked herself in the face. Of course, she remembered that spell from their very first real lesson with the old unicorn. She blamed her ignorance on the earliness of the day.

“Oh, of course you can. And I see you’ve already planned this whole thing out,” Celestia responded with a teasing like gaze. Eclipse blushed; making his night black scales a now more sunset-like color. Celestia then began to raise the sun, with her pink mane flowing in the cool winter breeze. The sun slowly began to rise and Eclipse watched with wonder in his flaming eyes. When the sun was in its proper place in the sky, Celestia then began to leave as Eclipse sat there just waiting for everypony to come back so they could make their way to Cloudsdale. Eclipse waited for a good 10 min when his mother came into view, then he could see the King and Queen of Arendelle behind her. Following them were the four princesses enjoying a little small talk about what Cloudsdale is like.

“Now your Majesty, we are very honored by the invitation to come with you, but there is no way we can walk on the clouds,” King Jasper said to the alicorn Queen.

“That is where I come in. There is a spell that will allow you to walk on the clouds. My son will be able to fly you there. Oh, there he is,” Queen Lauren said pointing to the black and red dragon that was her son.

“Whoa, wait a second, I thought your son was an ice-like dragon,” Queen Maria said.

“Surprisingly, he has two different forms. I hardly understand it myself, so I suggest just leave it be,” Lauren responded. The King and Queen of Arendelle looked at their daughters, they both nodded with overwhelming excitement. They looked back to the alicorn and nodded, “We’d be honored to accompany you,” they said with happiness in their voices. Queen Lauren smiled and her horn began to glow. She pointed her horn toward the four non alicorns’ hooves, causing them to glow with a little red aura.

“Very well, looks like we are all prepared to go. Now if you would just get Eclipse’s back and we will be on our way,” Lauren instructed. Eclipse crouched down and flattened his wings so they could get on. Surprisingly the dragon’s scales were quite cool, especially for a fire dragon. Princess Anna took the front with Elsa behind her, then having their parents behind them. Each held onto the nearest spike for security. Eclipse chuckled, “Don’t worry; if anyone of you falls I will catch you,” the dragon said reassuring them. He then began to gently flap his wings, lifting them all off the ground. Queen Lauren soon followed him with her two daughters behind her. As they flew toward Cloudsdale, Elsa couldn’t help but feel at peace. She could see her sister just wanting to bounce up and down from how exciting it was to be flying on a dragon’s back. She looked behind her and saw her parents look in so much amazement, they almost let go of the spikes they were holding onto. Elsa loved every second of the ride. Being able to fly with Eclipse again was just magical. It was just a gentle flight with no bumps or crazy turns, with family all at the same time just made it incredible to her. Queen Lauren also couldn’t help but smile as she could see the joy radiating off the ponies on her son’s back.

When they arrived in Cloudsdale, they were in awe. The entire city was made of clouds. Anna quickly tried to jump off and walk on the clouds. But Queen Maria quickly stopped her, they weren’t all that sure if the spell worked. Maria gently let one of her hooves step on the clouds. It was soft, but just as solid as a bed mattress. She then let the rest of her hooves touch and surely, she didn’t fall through them. She turned toward her family still on Eclipse’s back and nodded. “It’s safe, you can get off now,” she said reassuring them. Anna took no time at all to jump off and hop on the clouds. She literally looked like she was hopping on top of a bed. Elsa and Jasper could only giggle, then they decided join them on the clouds. They were all then guided, by the pegasi guards, toward the school where the young foals had prepared their projects for the spring sunrise.

Eclipse quickly changed back into his alicorn body, that way he doesn’t scare anypony. When they arrived at the school they noticed all the foals, their parents and their teacher already there with their projects. Celestia and Luna began to walk toward them, but soon looked back to their mother. “Go on, it’s your day. We’ll be here watching” Lauren said with a comforting smile. They nodded with smiles of their own and proceeded toward the pegasi. They stood in front of the crowd, both were nervous, but Luna’s face actually showed how uncomfortable she was. Celestia decided to begin this thing, “Thank you all very much for your hard work. After a long winter, it is wonderful to see so many young fillies and colts come up with such beautiful ideas to make the season shine. Now we can only choose one as the sentential symbol, but…”

“WAIT!!” All heads turned to the back of the crowd to see a young filly and her mother pushing themselves to the front. The pegasus filly had a light blue coat, with a white and neon blue mane. Elsa looked in close and saw the fillies eyes were a light blue, but they were kind of foggy. Was the filly blind? “Forgive us the interruption, your highnesses,” the filly’s mother said apologizing. “It’s just that…”

“I’ve been working so hard, please. I have a gift for the seasons too. And…”

“Doubt that,” a pink pegasus filly commented. The three other young royal foals began to feel a little anger toward the rude pegasus. Celestia wasn’t too fond of this filly either, and felt somewhat protective of the light blue filly. So she put on a warm smile and asked, “May we see it?” The young pegasus walked up to them, she then lifted up her hoof to show a shape of some kind made completely out of snow. Her fellow students didn’t seem impressed.

“You brought snow?

“And just one little dot of it.”

“Maybe she brought the wrong thing on the way here.”

“Why would you bring snow the spring sunrise?”

“It’s not snow, I made a star,” the blind pegasus objected.

“A star? You can’t make stars; it doesn’t even look like one,” a young gray pegasus told her.

“Maybe it doesn’t look like one, but it’s still a star! It’s a star for winter,” she shouted back at no pony in particular. Then her expression became sadder.

“I can’t see what the stars look like up there. Just like I can’t see what spring looks like. But I can hear it all, and I heard the snow twinkling just like the stars do every night. So…they should be able to grant wishes too, shouldn’t they? Winter has been giving us a gift all this time. A…and we’ve just been ignoring it. Celebrating spring is good, but winter can’t be all bad if it gives us these. It may be cold and dark, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any good to it.” Luna was taken aback from the young filly’s words. This filly was describing Luna and her night, and she didn’t even know it.

“Maybe…maybe winter is sad that everypony doesn’t like it. So maybe we need to make wishes on the winter snow, just as we wish on the night stars. Maybe then we can have a happy winter instead. We already have a happy spring, and summer, and fall, can’t winter be happy too?” the young filly asked. The parents and the teacher were on the verge of tears, they were touched by this young filly’s feeling toward winter. But she wasn’t finished.

“Because winter, its important. Even if it seems useless, it can give us wonderful things,” she finished. Luna was complied to see this filly’s snowy star. “May we see your wishing snow?” Luna asked calmly. The little pegasus raised her arm as high as she could, and Luna grabbed it with her magic and carefully levitated so she and her sister could see. It was really when made, especially for a pony who can’t really see. Celestia smiled and turned back toward the filly.

“Could you make us some more?” Celestia asked warmly.

Destined to be Friends

View Online

As the princesses were walking toward the Canterlot Archives, Twilight was trying to think about this special little filly Celestia mentioned. What filly in history had gotten her special talent thanks to snow falling? And Princess Elsa flying on her own, Twilight couldn’t wrap her head around that one. She was the only unicorn recorded in history to transform into an alicorn. But after many years of having Celestia as a mentor, she has learned that books only have some of the facts. She knew that her teacher would eventually tell her; if not, the books will. When they arrived at the secret office underneath the archives, Twilight let her eyes gaze in amazement for only a minute. Then she quickly went straight the bookshelf while the royal sisters went over to sit down.

“Twilight, it’s the one with all the snowflakes on it,” Princess Celestia told her as she rested on one of the soft cushions in the room. The lavender alicorn nodded, and then began looking for the next book. When she pulled it from the shelf she saw it titled “Making Stars While Making Friends.” It was a dark blue book; the cover was an icy blue vase pouring out multiple snowflakes. Twilight then levitated the book toward Princess Celestia.

“I believe it’s your turn to read Celestia,” Twilight said. Celestia shook her head, and then moved the book toward her sister. “I believe my sister is the one to read this specific book,” Celestia said with a comforting smile toward her sister. Princess Luna looked at her sister, then at the book. A stray tear had escaped her right eye and had begun to fall down her face. Luna then shook her head and passed it back to Celestia.

“Nay, I believe you should read it sister. I do not believe that I can read this one without getting emotional,” the Night princess responded. Celestia was a little hesitant, but she understood how her sister felt and took the book. Twilight sat down next to Luna, ready to listen as Celestia began to open the book.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Luna woke up early yet again so she could lower the moon on time. Yet another reason why she wanted the night to last a bit longer, so she could at least get some more sleep. “Maybe I should learn to sleep in the day,” she thought.

But unlike other days, she was actually a little happier. Today was the day where they went to Cloudsdale for the 100th spring sunrise. As she made it to the tower where she raises the moon, she saw her brother there waiting. “Eclipse, what are you doing here?” Luna asked.

“I came to see you lower the moon. I want to see how you do it,” Eclipse exclaimed. For as long as he could remember, Luna had always been his role model. Luna smiled at her brother and proceeded toward her spot. Having her brother there to see her do her stuff; she had a feeling today was going to be a good day. Eclipse watched with eyes of amazement (or eye of amazement, his scarred eye is closed), watching every detail. When the moon was gone, Luna turned to go back to bed for a good 10 more minutes of sleep, but she was then interrupted by her brother. “Luna that was so incredible! How do you do it every day?” Prince Eclipse asked. Luna smiled and began to walk past him, but called back to him. “How bout I show you how someday soon,” Luna said to him. She had no idea how happy she just made her brother. Luna had always been Eclipse’s role model; he loved her determination and the beauty of night she creates. When Luna was gone, Eclipse knew Celestia would be there shortly so he decided to practice his gifts for a few minutes.

He closed his eyes and began to think about his family and his friends and how much he wants to protect them. But his mind slowly shifted to his sister that he knew would be there soon. Eclipse’s body began to grow, his hooves became claws, his wings were more bat-like, and two horns grew from the back of his head. When he opened his eyes, he looked down and saw a fire red underbelly along with scales as black as night. He brought his claws to his eyes and he could feel the warmth of his eyes that were now pure flames. Spreading out his wings to see how big they really were. Looking from left to right, he was sure that it was easily a 25ft wing span. He then decided to experiment a little; he closed his eyes again and began to think frost, ice and snow. When he opened his eyes, nothing changed at all. Why not, what was different from last night and this morning? As he asked himself questions, he didn’t even notice Celestia standing 5 ft away from him.

“Eclipse,” the sun princess said trying to get his attention. It worked; Eclipse turned his head toward his sister and gasped a little in surprise. “Celestia, I’m sorry am I in your way?” the big black and red dragon asked.

“Oh no, I was just wondering what you were doing here?” Celestia asked in return.

“Um…I’m just trying to practice a little. I’ve never understood what I could do. And now that I do, I want to be able to control it. Like you and Luna do with sun and moon.” Celestia smiled and nodded, and then she began to walk toward him. She then hugged his front right claw, “I love you brother, and I’m very proud of you,” she said to him. Eclipse smiled back, using left claw to hug Celestia back as best he could without crushing her.

“Celestia,” Eclipse said.

“Hmm,” the white alicorn responded.

“Do you mind if I watch you raise the sun?”

“Are you going to stay in that form the whole time I do it?”

“Yes actually, I told Elsa that she and her family could come with us to Cloudsdale today. They need to get there somehow, right?” Celestia giggled at his comment.

“True, but how are they going to walk on the clouds? There are 3 Earth ponies and one unicorn, neither can walk on clouds.”

“Ah, but don’t you remember the spell Starswirl taught us our first lesson? We can cast that spell that can help them walk on the clouds.”

“Eclipse, then they’ll all have wings. You won’t need to fly them there.”

“Wrong, we could use THAT spell, but I’m talking about the Cloud Walker spell. You know the one that doesn’t involve wings and only lasts about a day. That way they do not have to learn how to fly. Now can I watch you raise the sun or not?” Eclipse whined. Celestia mentally smacked herself in the face. Of course, she remembered that spell from their very first real lesson with the old unicorn. She blamed her ignorance on the earliness of the day.

“Oh, of course you can. And I see you’ve already planned this whole thing out,” Celestia responded with a teasing like gaze. Eclipse blushed; making his night black scales a now more sunset-like color. Celestia then began to raise the sun, with her pink mane flowing in the cool winter breeze. The sun slowly began to rise and Eclipse watched with wonder in his flaming eyes. When the sun was in its proper place in the sky, Celestia then began to leave as Eclipse sat there just waiting for everypony to come back so they could make their way to Cloudsdale. Eclipse waited for a good 10 min when his mother came into view, then he could see the King and Queen of Arendelle behind her. Following them were the four princesses enjoying a little small talk about what Cloudsdale is like.

“Now your Majesty, we are very honored by the invitation to come with you, but there is no way we can walk on the clouds,” King Jasper said to the alicorn Queen.

“That is where I come in. There is a spell that will allow you to walk on the clouds. My son will be able to fly you there. Oh, there he is,” Queen Lauren said pointing to the black and red dragon that was her son.

“Whoa, wait a second, I thought your son was an ice-like dragon,” Queen Maria said.

“Surprisingly, he has two different forms. I hardly understand it myself, so I suggest just leave it be,” Lauren responded. The King and Queen of Arendelle looked at their daughters, they both nodded with overwhelming excitement. They looked back to the alicorn and nodded, “We’d be honored to accompany you,” they said with happiness in their voices. Queen Lauren smiled and her horn began to glow. She pointed her horn toward the four non alicorns’ hooves, causing them to glow with a little red aura.

“Very well, looks like we are all prepared to go. Now if you would just get on Eclipse’s back and we will be on our way,” Lauren instructed. Eclipse crouched down and flattened his wings so they could get on. Surprisingly the dragon’s scales were quite cool, especially for a fire dragon. Princess Anna took the front with Elsa behind her, then having their parents behind them. Each held onto the nearest spike for security. Eclipse chuckled, “Don’t worry; if anyone of you falls I will catch you,” the dragon said reassuring them. He then began to gently flap his wings, lifting them all off the ground. Queen Lauren soon followed him with her two daughters behind her. As they flew toward Cloudsdale, Elsa couldn’t help but feel at peace. She could see her sister just wanting to bounce up and down from how exciting it was to be flying on a dragon’s back. She looked behind her and saw her parents look in so much amazement, they almost let go of the spikes they were holding onto. Elsa loved every second of the ride. Being able to fly with Eclipse again was just magical. It was just a gentle flight with no bumps or crazy turns, with family all at the same time just made it incredible to her. Queen Lauren also couldn’t help but smile as she could see the joy radiating off the ponies on her son’s back.

When they arrived in Cloudsdale, they were in awe. The entire city was made of clouds. Anna quickly tried to jump off and walk on the clouds. But Queen Maria quickly stopped her, they weren’t all that sure if the spell worked. Maria gently let one of her hooves step on the clouds. It was soft, but just as solid as a bed mattress. She then let the rest of her hooves touch and surely, she didn’t fall through them. She turned toward her family still on Eclipse’s back and nodded. “It’s safe, you can get off now,” she said reassuring them. Anna took no time at all to jump off and hop on the clouds. She literally looked like she was hopping on top of a bed. Elsa and Jasper could only giggle, then they decided join them on the clouds. They were all then guided, by the pegasi guards, toward the school where the young foals had prepared their projects for the spring sunrise.

Eclipse quickly changed back into his alicorn body, that way he doesn’t scare anypony. When they arrived at the school they noticed all the foals, their parents and their teacher already there with their projects. Celestia and Luna began to walk toward them, but soon looked back to their mother. “Go on, it’s your day. We’ll be here watching” Lauren said with a comforting smile. They nodded with smiles of their own and proceeded toward the pegasi. They stood in front of the crowd, both were nervous, but Luna’s face actually showed how uncomfortable she was. Celestia decided to begin this thing, “Thank you all very much for your hard work. After a long winter, it is wonderful to see so many young fillies and colts come up with such beautiful ideas to make the season shine. Now we can only choose one as the sentential symbol, but…”

“WAIT!!” All heads turned to the back of the crowd to see a young filly and her mother pushing themselves to the front. The pegasus filly had a light blue coat, with a white and neon blue mane. Elsa looked in close and saw the fillies eyes were a light blue, but they were kind of foggy. Was the filly blind? “Forgive us the interruption, your highnesses,” the filly’s mother said apologizing. “It’s just that…”

“I’ve been working so hard, please. I have a gift for the seasons too. And…”

“Doubt that,” a pink pegasus filly commented. The three other young royal foals began to feel a little anger toward the rude pegasus. Celestia wasn’t too fond of this filly either, and felt somewhat protective of the light blue filly. So she put on a warm smile and asked, “May we see it?” The young pegasus walked up to them, she then lifted up her hoof to show a shape of some kind made completely out of snow. Her fellow students didn’t seem impressed.

“You brought snow?

“And just one little dot of it.”

“Maybe she brought the wrong thing on the way here.”

“Why would you bring snow the spring sunrise?”

“It’s not snow, I made a star,” the blind pegasus objected.

“A star? You can’t make stars; it doesn’t even look like one,” a young gray pegasus told her.

“Maybe it doesn’t look like one, but it’s still a star! It’s a star for winter,” she shouted back at no pony in particular. Then her expression became sadder.

“I can’t see what the stars look like up there. Just like I can’t see what spring looks like. But I can hear it all, and I heard the snow twinkling just like the stars do every night. So…they should be able to grant wishes too, shouldn’t they? Winter has been giving us a gift all this time. A…and we’ve just been ignoring it. Celebrating spring is good, but winter can’t be all bad if it gives us these. It may be cold and dark, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any good to it.” Luna was taken aback from the young filly’s words. This filly was describing Luna and her night, and she didn’t even know it.

“Maybe…maybe winter is sad that everypony doesn’t like it. So maybe we need to make wishes on the winter snow, just as we wish on the night stars. Maybe then we can have a happy winter instead. We already have a happy spring, and summer, and fall, can’t winter be happy too?” the young filly asked. The parents and the teacher were on the verge of tears, they were touched by this young filly’s feeling toward winter. But she wasn’t finished.

“Because winter, its important. Even if it seems useless, it can give us wonderful things,” she finished. Luna was complied to see this filly’s snowy star. “May we see your wishing snow?” Luna asked calmly. The little pegasus raised her arm as high as she could, and Luna grabbed it with her magic and carefully levitated so she and her sister could see. It was really well made, especially for a pony who can’t really see. Celestia smiled and turned back toward the filly.

“Could you make us some more?” Celestia asked warmly. The filly gasped with excitement. She didn’t need to see Celestia’s smile, she heard the joy in her voice. She nodded in response to the Princess. Rain Runner came out of the crowd and walked up to the light blue filly. “Congratulations Snowdrop!” he said with both joy and shyness. Snowdrop instantly shot her head in the general direction of Rain Runner. “Oh thank you Rain Runner,” Snowdrop said recognizing his voice. The male Pegasus wrapped his hooves around Snowdrop which caused her to jump a bit, but the happiness she was feeling over what had just happened overruled her shock. Once Rain Runner let go, she began walking to her home to begin on her wishing snow. After taking just a few steps she heard a new voice behind her ask, “So your name is Snowdrop?”

“Yes, I’m sorry I can’t see very well and I don’t recognize your voice. Who are you?” she said with a timid response. As she stared aimlessly, Rain Runner’s mouth hung open only slightly.

“Oh of course, my name is Elsa, this is my sister Anna and this is Ecl…, Elsa began when she realized that Eclipse was not with them. She turned herself around to see that the alicorn was still with his mother waiting for his sisters to come down.

“I’m sorry; I must not have heard you completely. You were Elsa, Anna and who?” Snowdrop asked.

“Oh, it’s just Elsa and Anna,” Elsa responded seeing that Eclipse wasn’t coming anytime soon. “We just wanted to meet you; you made quite the impression the royal sisters.” Snowdrop blushed with a slight smile on her face. Rain Runner still staring with mouth slightly open, but it did gradually shift to a smile.

“T…thank you, I really didn’t expect them to like it as much as they did. Now I have to ask; did you see my project?”

“Yes, I find it very interesting and…

“It’s incredible; I’ve never seen anyone make snow look like that. So small and thin, it must have been really hard to do something like that,” Anna said interrupting her sister. As Elsa looked down at her sister who had a huge smile on her face, she couldn’t help but smile too. Snowdrop may not have been able to see their smiles, but the very atmosphere that these fillies were bringing helped her feel more confident

“I know I said it was a star, and it still is, but…did it at least look like a star?” Snowdrop asked sounding a little more confident than before.

“To be honest, it looked like what stars would look like up close,” Elsa responded warmly.

“Oh good!”

“Now I do have to ask, I know you can’t see…could we help you make some of your wishing snow?” Snowdrop was taken back, because of all the things that have passed her ears she had never heard of somepony wanting to help her (other than her mother and teacher). While she was trying to find the words to use in her response, Rain Runner mouth still was wide open and his giant wings were drooping onto the ground. He hadn’t moved ever since the princesses had introduced themselves. Before anypony could say anything they heard hoofprints coming their way and were surprised to see who coming their way.

All of Snowdrop’s class was walking toward them with looks of excitement, embarrassment, sorrow and curiosity. Snowdrop turned her head toward to direction of the hooves she heard, but she was unaware of who was coming. A pale pegasus with a dark brown mane stepped forward with a little nervous look on his face,

“Hey Snowdrop…need, I mean, would you like some help?” Snowdrop recognized that voice, but she did not know how to respond. Not long ago, these ponies were making fun of her and her star, now they wanted to help? Before she could respond Rain Runner stepped in front of her and looked at all of them with a face of boldness (which seemed rare from him).

“What makes you think she needs any of your help?” Rain Runner said with a hint of anger in his voice and flaring his wings. The crowd of foals took a step back seeing the size of his wings and realizing that this was an unusual sight; Rain Runner raising his voice. He may be a fighter, but he was like a gentle giant among them. Ponies usually would pick and tease him about the size of his wings, but that all changed after he became a member of the Equestrian team. Snowdrop as well as Anna and Elsa were taken back by Rain’s boldness, but the light blue pegasus put a hoof on his shoulder.

“Rain Runner, it’s alright. Do you all really want to help?” Snowdrop asked. All of the class responded at first with a nod, but soon realizing that she couldn’t see that lead them all to respond with a collage of ‘yeses’, ‘uh huh’s’ and ‘yeps’. The young filly’s smile grew as she could see that she wouldn’t have to do this all on her own.

“Alright, follow me everypony,” she said all cheerful. As she moved forward the crowd followed with smiles on their faces, but Rain Runner kept a suspicious look on his face. Then it hit him; the princesses were there wanting to help along with the alicorn princesses had asked for more of her stars. They didn’t so much want to help; they were just trying to get on the princesses’ good side. Then his anger melted when he saw two things; the pure happiness and joy he saw on Snowdrop’s face and when a shy looking pegasus made his way up to front so he could be in earshot of Snowdrop. The two Arendelle princesses were in the back of the group, so there was no way he was trying to talk to them. This pegasus was the same pale one that spoke up earlier and he looked a little nervous, but determined. Snowdrop could feel his presence and slightly turned her head toward him, but not enough that could disrupt her sense of direction in guiding these ponies.

“I’m sorry, can I help you?” she asked with sincerity.

“No…I mean, you don’t need to be sorry, I do,” the pale pony responded in a whisper. Whisper or not, Snowdrop heard it and so did Rain Runner (both were equally shocked). The young blind pegasus stopped in her tracks and looked more toward the apologetic pony. Even Elsa heard him and was shocked, but the situation made her smile (Anna was too busy being excited about helping make stars).

“Hey Rain Runner, could you guide everypony to my house? I can make it back,” Snowdrop said quietly, but boldly. Despite his shock, the larger pegasus assured her that he could and lead the rest down toward their destination. He took one last look behind them to see if she would be alright. As he thought how bold she had been today, he began to think that she truly was strong enough to handle herself. He then decided to focus on his destination, because there was no need for him to worry much anymore.

“Snowdrop … I am so sorry for I treated you. It wasn’t fair of me to doubt you each and every time,” the pale pegasus said quickly. Snowdrop simply responded with a tilt of the head and a curious look on her face. She seemed to be focusing as if deep in thought and the one apologizing seemed nervous waiting for her response.

“What is your name?” Snowdrop asked innocently.

“Uh…Atlas. Atlas Peak.” They continued to talk until they seemed be friends since forever. Little did they know that Elsa stayed behind at a distance so she could keep an eye on the little pegasus. She couldn’t help but smile at the positive feedback that Snowdrop was receiving, because she knew that this apology was sincere. Soon she noticed that 2 more ponies were coming their way. Princess Luna and Prince Eclipse were making their way towards them and with joyful smiles on their faces. Atlas Peak caught a glance of who was coming their way and almost immediately started dripping drops of sweat.

“W..well Snowdrop, I think I better get back with the g..group. I’ll see you later,” he managed to say before dashing in the direction of Snowdrop’s home. Elsa had a look of…not exactly sure what her expression looked like. Disappointment? Confusion? Disbelief? Maybe a combination of all three. She then began to walk toward the two alicorns, who actually didn’t seem as confused as her. In fact they both seemed to have shrugged it off, which only made Elsa even more confused. Snowdrop didn’t seem fazed at all, but she heard the other hoof steps nearby, so she turned toward them.

“Hello?”

“Greetings my young pegasus, I am Princess Luna and this is my brother Prince Eclipse, we wanted to come and join you in making your wishing snow. I find it really fascinating,” Luna said with a regal smile on her face. Eclipse had a nervous, but happy look on his face as they introduced themselves to the young filly.

“Oh what a wonderful surprise and of course you are welcome to come and join us making stars. Wait, shouldn’t Princess Celestia be with you?” Snowdrop asked with wonder. Luna tried to seem less annoyed by that question.

“Princess Celestia sadly is busy with our mother at the moment. Hope we will do for now.” Elsa looked back to her parents and Queen Lauren; sure enough, Celestia was talking with them.

“O…oh no, I just was just wondering. I am so happy to have you join me and I really must thank you princess.”

“For what?” Luna asked with curiosity.

“The stars that you put in the sky every single night helped me shape mine out of snow. My mother told me of how rare stars were until you and your sister came and even though I can’t see them, I am so glad that you put the effort to put them out every night,” the young pegasus said with enthusiasm. Luna was taken back; she knew that the wishing snow reminded her of the night that she always put up, but this young blind filly seemed to love her night more than those who can see it.

“Y..you are very welcome. Now if you like them so much I would like to ask of one thing in return for me putting them up,” she said with a slightly mischievous smile (which obviously couldn’t be seen).

“Of course!”

“Allow my friends and I to help you make some of your wishing snow.” Snowdrop was taken back; the princess wanted to help her. She not only admired what a little thing she made, but she wanted to help make more with her. She had to be dreaming, but Snowdrop knew better. Words couldn’t form in her mouth even though her mind was full of numerous words that she wanted to say. Before she could come up with the words to say she found herself blurting out, “Yes you can; thank you!” with so much happiness and enthusiasm that it could’ve shook all of Cloudsdale.

Luna smiled, nodded and then began to follow the young pegasus to her home where they could all learn the art of the wishing snow craft. Elsa and Eclipse followed, but as they were on their way, Elsa caught a quick glance at Eclipse a look of sadness and worry. She saw no such look on Luna’s face, even though that one colt acted to same toward them. What Elsa didn’t know was that Luna had started getting used to it; this was Eclipse’s first time experiencing somepony being afraid of him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Twilight stared at her fellow princesses as Celestia finished reading the last few pages. She had heard of what snow used to be like, but she never imagined the beauty and care that went into every single snowflake. Especially coming from what seemed like such a frail pony.

“Making snow stars was so much fun, but at the time I feel like my creativity was solely in the night’s stars. Every time I feel like I made progress in a good one, I would easily see a much more creative one made by Snowdrop. Princess Elsa did have some amazing designs, but strangely they all looked very similar,” Luna said with a happy smile. She seemed to be taking a path down memory lane and enjoying every second of it. Although her words were full of happiness, a stray tear began to fall down the night princess’s cheek.

“Well what happened next?” Twilight asked with concern in her voice.

“For some reason it is not in this book, but I think I remember a few things of what happened after that,’ Celestia said with her hoof to her chin. ‘Let’s see… oh, to our surprise the griffin royal family met us on the edge of Cloudsdale when we were ready to depart. What wasn’t surprising was that they didn’t look too pleased to be there.” Twilight did her best to imagine the look on all the members of the griffin family. Just when she got a good picture, Luna began to narrate what she remembered.

“Talon was the first to speak, but to an even greater surprise, he bowed his head.”

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“I…I am so sorry for my behavior ever since I came here. Please forgive me,” Prince Talon said with a little fear in his voice. All the ponies looked in awe, mostly because he was apologizing, but partly because he was almost completely covered in badges. Celestia and Luna looked to their brother, but saw yet another surprise. They expected to see a smirk or at least a smile, but what they saw was a look of discomfort. Eclipse began walking toward the griffin. Sweat began to fall down Talon’s face as he saw the ‘monster’ walk toward him, but most of his fear vanished when he saw the alicorn prince bow his head toward him.

“Thank you. Thank you for being an honorable opponent. I will forgive you, if you can possibly forgive me for my…….behavior yesterday. I hope our kingdoms can still do business with each other,” Eclipse said. All the griffins were taken back. Lauren could only smile at him, how did she get so lucky to have such a mature son. The king and queen griffins walked toward the young alicorn and placed their front claws on his shoulders. The king began, “Of course my young one. What kingdom wouldn’t want to be allies with you? Especially when you have such…special talents.” As Eclipse, the king and the princes talked, Galinda pulled Lauren and the king and queen of Arendelle to the side.

“Lauren, Gasper and Maria I regret to say this, but we will be withdrawing from the tournament,” Queen Galinda said with grief.

“What! Why? Your still have 4 other warriors and even one of them is your son. You still have a chance,” Queen Maria questioned.

“My son is exactly why we are withdrawing. Yes, he and my soldiers are extremely skilled, but after yesterday I realized we do not stand a chance against that…….colt,’ the griffin protested. However, I would also like to say that no ties with any of our kingdoms will be severed.” Queen Lauren did not like the way that Galinda referred to her son, but decided to say nothing about it. With a sigh, she decided to respond to her decision.

“You bring a very valid point and I would hate to see anyone else become severely wounded, especially your son. Thank you for letting us know,” Lauren said with a smile on her face. With that they all departed.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The two sisters looked at each other as if checking to make sure their stories were right. They had not though back on those memories for a LONG time, but why did they seem to come all once and why now? These thoughts raced through both Celestia’s and Luna’s minds as a puzzled princess of friendship watched them. Twilight really did not want to interrupt their thoughts, so she went to go look at the book shelf. Apparently, there weren’t many books left and the next appeared to be dated MANY years later when they were all completely grown up. What happened in between that?

“Princess, what happened? There seems to be a huge gap the story. The closest book I can find is after you and Luna had become the head of the castle. What happened?” Twilight asked Celestia. As if almost instantly, Celestia’s eyes burst open wide as if she remembered something very important, but they shortly narrowed as if in sadness.

“Sadly Twilight, during one of our previous wars, many were burning to ash. That is why the first book you brought us was so charred up. I wish I could relay the whole story to you Twilight, but I’m afraid that even my memory isn’t that grand,” Celestia explained.

“Nor mine,” Luna added. Just then, the entire library began to glow white until no one could see. It lasted for a few seconds and then faded. As the princesses finished rubbing their eyes from the sudden brightness, they noticed something. The entire bookshelf was full of books and each looked almost brand new, as if freshly made. On the desk with the golden ink was a note that also appeared. Luna levitated it toward them and it read,

“My dear Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, the time has come for you to remember your brother. He has been gone from history for far too long and he needs to be brought back. I will explain everything as you continue to read and we may even meet sometime along the process. I will warn you though; your memories will continue to come all at once and may seem as a shock. Prepare yourselves and I hope to explain more in person. Sincerely, a loved one. PS to make it easier for you, the books have now been numbered.”

Can You Find Truth Too Early?

View Online

The three alicorns were at a loss for words. A ‘loved one’ had not only restored all the lost books, but has claimed to have a connection to Eclipse. They looked over the letter again and again; it was in the same hand writing that the first note was written that they originally thought was from Discord. However, they noticed this was written in gold ink and was far too formal of writing to have come from Discord (unless nice handwriting was chaotic). The room was filled with silence until Twilight decided to speak (this may take a while). “Uh, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, do you have ANY idea who this letter is from? After all it says that is letter is from a loved one of yours. Is there anyone in the royal family that I haven’t met yet? And what did they mean ‘your memories will continue to return?’” ,Twilight rambled.

“Twilight, Twilight, calm down. Breathe… good. Now to answer your questions…sigh…I don’t know how. I have too many questions myself that I cannot even think straight. Someone so close to us that we consider family… who cares so deeply about Eclipse…and has enough magic power to slip notes past us without us even noticing. I haven’t the slightest clue who this could be,” Celestia answered.

“Could it possibly be Discord?’ Luna asked, ‘He does seem to be the type to slip clues like this. Not to mention he has been ‘considerably’ helpful as of late, even if his methods seem questionable.”

“That is what I initially thought so we won’t rule him out of possibilities, but I don’t think this is Discord’s doing,” Celestia answered. The three sat in silent thought for what seemed like eternity. Everypony was thinking of everyone that could be possible of such a description.

“How about you two sleep on it, it is close to the time that I raise the moon,” Luna suggested, ‘perhaps after a good night’s sleep our minds can focus. After all, we’ve had a lot of information thrown at us today.” Celestia was about to protest that her sister required sleep as well, after all she had been up all day and the previous night. “Don’t worry about me, sister; I am wide awake right now and I have a few things that I need to sort out right during my duties tonight. I will catch some rest tomorrow morning while you two are still waking up.” Celestia sighed in defeated and submitted to her sister’s request.

“Very well. Twilight, will you be able to join with us again tomorrow? I would be glad to have you continue this journey with us,” Celestia asked.

“Of course,’ Twilight responded, ‘would it be alright if I invited my friends to join us? Or is this a far too personal event?” The two sisters looked at each other to see any sign of disapproval. When they saw none, Celestia simply responded, “I see no reason why not. We consider you all a part of our family anyway; you deserve to understand everything about that family.”

With that said, Twilight nodded and headed to her room in the castle that she stays in during her time in Canterlot. After she had gone, the two sisters sealed up the room and made their way to the tower where they raise the sun and moon. As they walked, a question began to enter into Celestia’s mind. “Luna can I ask you something?”

“Of course, what is it?”

“…when Starlight Glimmer had us trade places that one day and you helped me with her dream…how did you know Daybreaker’s name?” Luna stopped in place, her eyes slightly bigger than usual. Seeing as she wasn’t getting a quick response, Celestia stopped and decided to explain why she was asking this.

“I knew her name because she introduced herself when I first entered the dream, but she never said it again, not even when you came into the dream as well. And yet, you seemed somewhat familiar with who she was. Had you seen her in other dreams?” Luna sighed and seeing no way around this, she decided to give in.

“There are only two other dreamscapes that I have seen her before; one of which was mine,” Luna said with grief in her voice. Celestia felt a little sadness rise as she heard her sister saw her that was even for just a min, but it was understandable based off their history.

“And…the other?”

“You know, it’s actually very strange, because I have no idea.”

“Strange how? I thought you could always tell just by looking at the dreams, even without going in them.”

“That’s the strange part. Normally dreams depict themselves to me as a third person image, but this one is a first person image. And then when I try to enter and help or see whose dream it is, the dream rejects me. I pass through it as if it’s not even there. It’s been one of great mysteries since my return. And the one other strange thing, it never changes.” Celestia began walking again with Luna right behind her so they could be on time, but began to think upon her sister’s words. After the sun had set and the moon had been raised, Celestia turned to her sister one more time for the night.

“Luna, I want to give you my magic for tonight. See if you can use it to enter that dream you’re having trouble with,” she said with determination.

“W...why?” Luna responded surprised?

“I have a feeling that it is connected to our memories somehow. Maybe it could also explain why Eclipse needs to be remembered now. I am still curious about that note as well. It spoke as if it suggested that Eclipse is still alive, but…that’s not possible.” Luna looked at her sister with deep concern; she hasn’t been this determined for answers for over a millennia. I guess forgetting about your baby brother can seem like betrayal, and she doesn’t want to have those feelings ever again. If there is some source of information about her brother that she needs to know, Celestia was determined to find it.

“Very well Tia, I will. However, I will surely need some rest with the night is done,” Luna responded. Celestia nodded and began to poor all her magic power into Luna. As she did so, golden yellow aura surrounded them and flowed into Luna through her horn and Celestia’s cutie mark began to fade. After it was finished, Celestia walked down to her chambers while Luna prepared to enter the dream realm. Before Celestia fell asleep, she thought of two other people who could be their mystery pony. “Could it possibly be Elsa? But, she hasn’t spoken to us since she received news of his death. Anna?....No way.”

Luna sat in silence for a moment, trying to balance this new borrowed power within her. After about 30 min Luna closed her eyes and with her blue magical aura, she entered into the dream realm. When she opened her eyes, the stars in the sky were replaced by the dreams of every sleeping creature. Even with the added quest from her sister, she still had her duty to fulfill tonight, so she began to search for any nightmares among her subjects. However, as she did this she kept an eye open for that mysterious dream. As she searched she found herself confused at the lack of any screams or cowering ponies.

“Huh, I have yet to see a single nightmare tonight. This is most unusual; at least one pony should be in need of my help,” Luna commented (she still talks to herself). And then she heard it; that familiar laugh followed by magic energy blasts. She flew toward the sound dodging dreams as she flew. After no time at all she found the dream she was looking for. Both Daybreaker and Nightmare Moon engaged in battle, all of Equestria in ruins as they fight, yet no cowering pony of whose dream it is. She watched for a little longer and saw how the perspective of the dream shifted around and seemed to get closer to the fighting alicorns. Before she knew, the alicorns stopped fighting and looked toward Luna (or whoever was looking at them). The corrupted princesses seemed to be talking to the mysterious character, but no words were heard. Then out of nowhere two enormous black dragon claws snatched them out of the sky. Both struggled in the powerful hands then a thunderous roar was heard from all around, causing the entire world around them to shake. Then to Luna’s shock and horror, the unseen dragon ate both of the sisters. Luna gasped; what had she just seen? She had never seen that happen before. And as if nothing could surprise her more, she heard a heavy voiced crying coming from the dream. Needing no other reason to interfere, she charged up her horn with all the power she now had and tried to unlock the dream.

Unlike her previous attempts in the past, it opened and she entered in.

She found herself in a vast field that once had been beautiful, brought to desolation. The sky was blood red with the moon in front of the sun; a Solar Eclipse. Luna surveyed her surroundings, looking for the dragon and the one crying. She turned around and found that the one crying… was the dragon. His claws over his eyes, while ‘tears’ fell down his long snout (his tears are liquid lava). Luna’s eyes grew enormous as she recognized this dragon, and with this recognition came a huge headache filled with a lot memories flowing into her mind. She landed on the ground, walked toward the dragon and examined him further. His scales were like hot coals with hot lava flowing between them. He had 5 horns; two that came from the back of his head, two under the first two but curved forward like a ram’s, and the final one was like that of a unicorn. The pupils of his eyes were literally miniature suns, forever burning. His underbelly scales seemed to be made from the finest and strongest metals, but with a hot forge burning inside it. And finally his wings were seemed to be miles long, but you couldn’t see the wings exactly. You could see the muscles and bone structure of the wings, but instead of leathery ones, the flaps were made of the night sky.

“Eclipse? Is that…you?” Luna asked with hesitation and disbelief in her voice. The dragon stopped crying and raised his head. He smiled and the dragon then burst into flames. When the flames died, a grown male alicorn with a dark grey coat and mane made of flames stood before her. His hoofs seemed to be also made of those same white flames.

“Hello my dear sister. You have no idea how good it is to see you,” he said with a cool formality. Luna was too much in shock and head pain to say anything in response.

“I wish we could talk more, but I must go. I feel bad that you will not remember this conversation. But you remember these words, ‘I love you and Celestia so much’. Farewell.” His eyes and horn began to glow white and he prepared his spell.

“Wait what?!!! No, Eclipse wait…!” Luna tried to shout, but before she could finish she found herself waking up with a gasp in the exact place she was when the night started.