The Days of The Eclipse

Chapter Eight: Making Progress

By Star Origin

“Come on! What’s taking the Princess so long? She’s never taken this long to reply before!” Dusk let out nervously.

For the past hour, Dusk had been rambling on like that in front of Raine and Spike in their chambers. The two found him very annoying and Spike even called him a drama queen for obvious reasons. That had triggered a series of laugh and Raine even fell on her back and began rolling on the floor while laughing.

“In… all… seriousness… though,” Spike began, catching his breath and stopping himself from laughing any more. “She may be occupied with something else and that’s stopping her from replying to you. Don’t you think you should give her more time?”

“More time?” he cringed.  “It’s been two weeks! She should have replied by now. I’m telling you right now; something’s amiss!”

“Calm down, Dusk. Nothing good’s going to come out of stressing yourself out over something like that,” Raine told him. “Just rest a bit. You’ve been up for three days straight because of this matter. You need your rest for when Blitz will have recovered completely.”

“I hadn’t thought you two had been over your mutual disagreement,” Dusk replied.

“We didn’t. We just came to a temporary agreement concerning your current state. You’re hectic, nervous and completely stressed. You need your sleep, Dusk,” Spike told the unicorn.

“Argh! I can’t rest now! Not at a time like this when Princess Celestia’s letter could arrive any minute!”

“Shut up! Just shut up!” Raine shouted. She seemed extremely angry. “Look, you’ve been up like this for the past three days. The only reason we’re waiting here is because Blitz is recovering from his wounds so why don’t you just lie down, sleep for a few hours and then we’ll wake you up when everypony’s going to be ready?”

Dusk looked at her in awe. When had she developed such a behavior? If anything, she may have gotten that from us during the time we were traveling together. She used to be so timid and reserved before and now she’s getting nastier and nastier…” Dusk thought, wondering about the Pegasus’ new attitude. Nevertheless, Dusk couldn’t afford to catch some sleep. He didn’t have the time.

“In any case,” the unicorn began, ignoring Raine’s last comments. “I’m going to see how Blitz’s recovery is going along and then I’ll deci—”

“Blitz is back in the house, y’all!” Blitz shouted as he slammed the door open. “Huh? Where’s Dusk? I thought he would be with you.”

“Well, he still is…” Spike commented, snickering madly, “here. Bahaha!”

“Uhh, what did I miss? What’s so funny all of a sudden?” Blitz asked Spike and Raine, a look of utter confusion all over his face.

“Well, we were trying to convince Dusk to get some rest over the past few hours, and it didn’t help that he stayed up for three days straight, because he was wondering why Princess Celestia hadn’t replied to his letter yet and by entering so suddenly and abruptly, you may have knocked him out with the door…” Raine explained, containing her own laughter at the irony of the situation.

“Oh… So that’s what’s so funny…” Blitz said flatly. “Well, this is probably a good thing because he would have eventually keeled over some time later. I can’t believe he’s still acting like that after all those years.”

“So… he’s done that before too?” Spike queried.

“Yeah and more than once too. He’s so stressed that he might disappoint the princess that he becomes restless. Anyway, put him on the bed. It’s gonna take a while before he wakes up so in the meantime, I’d like to speak to you about something we could do. You see…”

Blitz began to tell Raine and Spike about his desire to go take a look at the situation in Cloudsdale. He just wanted to go there and see if anything happened to the city as it was where he was born and where his family, well those that were still alive, lived. It was a bit of a selfish desire but he just wanted to see if his folks were alright.

Raine wasn’t against the idea. Instead, she seemed to go along with it. Sure, Blitz put his personal needs before those of Equestria but it was for his family. After losing Rainbow Dash, Blitz admitted that he wouldn’t know what to do if he were to lose other family members. It wasn’t exactly selfish in itself since all he wanted to do was see if his family was well.

“I think we should do it, actually. It’s your family after all. They’re everything you have. You do well to cherish what you have, Blitz, because life is fleeting and happiness scarce in these times…” Raine spoke grimly. Her eyes reflected her own misery over her own family. Well, she only ever knew her mother and that didn’t turn out very well. “I don’t have a family anymore but you do and you should cherish it.”

If only you knew, Raine. If only you knew… Blitz thought, thinking about the revelations Princess Luna had told him along with Dusk before they embarked on this quest.

They talked a bit more of this and that, waiting for Dusk to wake up so they could talk about their intentions of heading to Cloudsdale to check on Blitz’s family. Amongst the subjects Blitz approached was one concerning Queen Chrysalis’ character. Blitz wanted to know what Raine thought about the queen and she was honest: she said that she seemed somehow ruthless but infinitely caring.

Then, they talked about Origin. They talked about the fact that nearly all the things he had told them were lies to begin with. His past, why he was searching for Raine twenty years ago. Even the story he had told them about him being spared from the death sentence because he was a weak hatchling was probably a lie. His entire life was filled with lies.

“No wonder he was able to infiltrate so much. He just has to invent a story or steal knowledge from a pony via changeling magic. I swear he’s an odd one, and a scary foe,” Blitz remarked.

“Ugh, are you guys going to keep talking so loudly. I feel like someone dropped an anvil on my head,” Dusk complained, rubbing a hoof on his forehead.

“Well, you’re not far off, Dusk. Blitz knocked you out when he came back so we put you on the bed. In a way, Blitz helped us get you to rest a bit,” Spike told him, laughing a bit at the recollection of the events.

Dusk instantly shot a glare at Blitz and the Pegasus let out a nervous laugh. His gaze shifted over to Raine but the blue Pegasus just smiled at him and shook her head. Blast! She was leaving him to deal with that all alone. Well, there went teamwork! His gaze turned over to Dusk again and he put on a poker face.

It began mainly with Dusk yelling at Blitz because he knocked him out when he could have received a reply from Princess Celestia at any time.  Of course, there was an obvious conflict because Blitz often possessed more common sense than the unicorn when he was in one of his nervous breakdowns.

“You are a stubborn mule, Blitz!” Dusk yelled at his friend.

“Heh, I’m stubborn? So what, at least that’s a known fact. If anything, you’re a thousand times more stubborn than I am.”

“Blitz, don’t start this game!”

“Hey, you started it! Besides, if you just stopped being so dependant of the princess, maybe you’d stress a bit less. It’s like you’re afraid that Princess Celestia will smite you if you disappoint her,” Blitz said.

“She’s literally a goddess, Blitz, and she’s gone through a war three thousand years ago. Who knows what she can do and maybe even that kind act of hers is a front. Ooh, what am I saying? She’s a benevolent ruler and she’s always been so. That’s just Origin trying to mess with my head!” Dusk exclaimed, fighting a war against himself.

“You’re right, Dusk. She is a benevolent ruler. Both she and Princess Luna are. And you used to be Celestia’s student before you moved in with me in Ponyville. She would never wish to smite you but she still has to live up to her title of Princess. In short, just relax a bit. She’s the princess so of course, she may have a lot to take care of, especially with the Nightmare Moon crisis going on right now.”

“Blitz… why do you have so much common sense at times like this but during others, you’re just the reckless Blitz we’re all used to?” Dusk asked the Pegasus.

“Well, I dunno. Maybe it’s because I’m older than you and that I’m also a big brother. You know, I used to be the one to comfort Dashie when she had nightmares when she was still a filly,” Blitz answered, grinning slightly at his own remark.

“Are you telling me that the Rainbow Dash, Ponyville’s most prideful pony, used to have nightmares when she was little?” Dusk queried, in awe at that revelation.

“She sure did, Dusk. Besides, what kind of filly doesn’t have nightmares at a young age? I didn’t help either, though. I used to tell her ghost stories sometimes and those scared her majorly, even if she did try to hide it.”

“Well, that’s a big surprise!” Dusk let out, laughing a bit. “In any case, what do we do now?”

“Blitz talked to us about something he wanted to do for a while. He basically wanted to go to Cloudsdale to check on his family. I don’t really see any problems with that but we wanted to talk to you about it; to see if it wasn’t too much to ask. Besides, Celestia still hasn’t replied and we have Spike to receive any letters she sends us,” Raine explained.

“I guess we could afford to go to Cloudsdale but there is one simple problem…” Dusk replied.

“Yeah, you can’t fly and only Pegasi can walk on clouds,” Blitz said.

“Can’t you work on a spell to allow you and me to walk on clouds if we’re to head to Cloudsdale?” Spike asked the unicorn.

“I don’t think I could. I’d need information on that spell to know the amount of magical energy I’d need to cast it on both you and me, Spike, and I don’t have access on that kind of information,” Dusk answered, hanging his head down in defeat.

“Well,” Raine began to say,, glancing at Dusk all the while, “you could always try asking Origin if he knows a spell like that.”

“I’d rather not resort to that but if I have no other choices, I might ask him. Though that will only happen if there are really no other alternatives.”

“Well, you better get to work now if you want to get it ready. If possible, I’d like to leave before the week ends,” Blitz told Dusk.

“Yeah, yeah. I got it. Now give me some slack if I’m to concentrate on this task,” Dusk replied abruptly, as to meet with Blitz’s own tone.

————

A few days passed since Dusk began working on a spell that would allow him and Spike to walk on clouds and he was still nowhere close to making it happen. He never left the room; he rarely ate, unless Raine and Blitz forced him to, and mainly stood by the large desk in the left top corner of the room.

“Okay, so if I take my weight, then compare it to the usual weight of a cloud and then subtract the weight of the clouds to my weight, I should have the amount of pressure I should apply to my body to make me float slightly off the ground. All right, let’s test this one!” Dusk mumbled to himself, writing down his equations on pieces of paper for what seemed to be the hundredth time.

He quickly charged his horn with magic and cast his spell. A white aura began to surround him and before he knew it, he was floating in the air. His concentration was quickly broken when his magic sent him hurling against the ceiling. The shock disturbed his concentration and he fell on his back.

“Damn it!” He let out suddenly, a jolt of pain passing through his body. “Why is it never working correctly?! I have done my equations in the right order! I should have been able to come up with a spell like that in a few hours normally. Why is it so hard?!”

Dusk heard somepony arrive from behind him. The sound of hooves on the floor easily gave it away but he did not know who it was. “That’s because you’ve only applied the pressure on yourself. Your main issue, Dusk, is that you based your equations on your own weight whereas a Pegasus is usually lighter than any other kind of ponies.”

“Origin, what are you doing here?” Dusk asked, not even turning around to look at the changeling. “I thought I had told Blitz, Raine and Spike to leave me undisturbed while I’m working…”

“Well, a little bird came to visit me today and told me that you were having problems coming up with a spell to help you walk on clouds. Now, I am not an expert in that sort of magic,” Origin began, slowly making his way to the unicorn’s desk, “but I can see from your equations here that you are always forgetting about the difference in weight between a unicorn and a Pegasus.

“Call Blitz and ask him to compare his weight to yours and when that’s going to be done, it’ll help you a lot.”

“And why should I listen to you? Last time I talked to you, I wasn’t exactly in the mood to exchange and quite frankly, I’m not in that mood right now so why don’t you get lost and stay out of my business!” Dusk snapped, his magical aura extending outwards and towards Origin at blinking speeds.

It never reached its target though. When he felt he hit nothing, Dusk turned around and saw nothing. Nopony was there and the door was still locked, just like it had been for the last few days. He looked around to see if Origin hadn’t snuck in while he had turned his head around but once again, nopony was there. He was the only pony in that room.

Was that my imagination? Did I really imagine Origin? Dusk thought, more confused than ever. For a moment, his eyes even crossed and he had what would otherwise be called a “derp” moment. But why would I imagine Origin and even imagine him telling me those things? Oh, I must be getting tired. Maybe I should rest a bit… NO! I don’t have time to rest. Coming up with that spell is of the utmost priority at this moment!

He resumed his work, coming up with new equations but every time he tried to apply these new equations into a spell, nothing worked. It seemed to work at first but like before, he lost his focus due to a problem with the spell and it broke the spell entirely. He lost his temper that time, smashing is fore hooves on his desk. He let out a yell and smashed his hooves on the desk for a second time.

Eventually, he gave up when he realized he wouldn’t be able to come up with his spell without any other research data and, no matter how stuck up he was, Dusk decided that Origin’s advice, even if he was just a figment of his imagination, was a good one and that it might be good to listen to it.

“Yeah… maybe a bit of sleep might not hurt me too mu—”

He never finished that bit. He had fallen asleep on his bed before that happened.

————

Du—

“Mmm, let me sleep some more!”

Dusk!

“Just a few more hours.”

Wake up, Dusk!

“Ain’t morning yet so let me sleep some more.”

Princess Celestia replied to your letter but I guess you don’t want to read it now then.

In a matter of seconds, he jumped out of his bed and boy was he a wreck! In front of him was Blitz and he was laughing his flank off in front of the unicorn. His smile was quickly replaced by an unamused expression.

“Haha, I’m laughing out here. Are you sure you didn’t miss your vocation, Blitz? Because you’d make an incredible stand-up comedian,” Dusk said, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

“Come on, now. Someone needed to wake you up. Besides, I heard that you’d need me for your spell. Something about weight comparison for air compression or something like that. I don’t get all your scientific terms, you and Origin,” Blitz replied, his voice filled with uncertainty and confusion.

So, he wasn’t just a dream…

That realization opened up the path to countless questions. How did he open the door despite it being locked? How did he disappear just like that when I tried to grab him with my magic? More importantly, why did he come in the room in the first place? Along with those questions roaming in his head, others soon joined in and puzzled his mind just as much.

Origin was an enigmatic character, that was for sure, and everything he did often served to strengthen that fact. The only thing about him that wasn’t enigmatic was his straightforwardness and even that had its limit. That was why they didn’t trust him that much; it was because he was too enigmatic. They weren’t sure if he would stab them in the back one moment or be kind to them another and with what happened in Las Pegasus three weeks before, that didn’t help him either. They weren’t sure if they could bring themselves to trust him once more.

Origin couldn’t be read when he was wearing a casual expression and even his voice rarely showed signs of emotions. The only time he seemed to show emotions was when he was either with Raine or discussing about his hive.

Well, nonetheless, Dusk asked Blitz to stay still for a while while he compared his weight to the Pegasus’. He wasn’t sure if it would help him but he had tried nearly all the equations he knew for those kind of spells. The Pegasus complied and just stood there as Dusk took mesures and data. The unicorn recorded everything from his height to his weight. There was nothing Dusk hadn’t recorded in his data. After he was done, he thanked Blitz for his time and then started to work on an entirely different equation.

————

“So, did it work?” Raine asked Blitz.

“Well, it could have been better. I felt like I was getting checked by a doctor. “Blitz pointed at all the spots where Dusk had been a bit less gentle; those areas were red like blood. “Remind me never to agree with one of your plans in the future, Origin.”

“Hey, it worked at least. You can’t say I did a bad job,” Origin replied, acting as if he was offended by Blitz’s comment.

“But… how did you know exactly what he should have done while he ignored it? Dusk’s one of the most intelligent unicorns I know. Apart from Twilight Sparkle and the scientists working for Celestia in those isolated laboratories, I don’t know of anypony that’s more brilliant than he is,” Blitz remarked.

“I’m kind of a genius myself. You know, sharing your soul with one of Celestia’s court wizards has its perks but it’s often more trouble than it’s worth.”

“Can you be more clear there? I think I missed a point,” Raine said, confusion in her eyes.

“To begin with, my reintegration to the hive was harder than it should have been simply because I had a different appearance and I got all this knowledge bottled up in my head but with no use for it. Some of the things I got when our souls merged are useless for lack of better words. More than half of what I know has any use in normal situations,” Origin explained.

“That still doesn’t explain why you knew those things just like that. This air compression spell, or whatever it’s called, was something Dusk seemed to have never heard of before.”

“I’m sure he knew about it. Then again, teachers at the academy normally teach you about one usage of a spell. From what I read from his equations, he only applied the part that cancelled his own weight. In other words, he made himself as light as the air around him so it makes it impossible for him to stay balanced while using the spell.

“It’s not a complicated spell when you know all of its uses, like the one I told you about,” Origin explained to the two ponies. “But you do have a point; Dusk is a very intelligent unicorn but he is more of a strategist than he is a warrior. If anything, he’s a preacher of science.”

“So what’s going to happen to you now? What has the queen ordered you to do.?” Raine enquired, a little disappointed that their paths have to be cut short again.

“Well, for the moment, we’re going to go back to our original hive to avoid more conflicts with those griffons. Our losses were great but thanks to you, we were able to survive the attack. The queen is thankful to you but don’t be mistaken, you’ll have no favors from her.

“In any case, I have to get going. I hope our paths will meet again someday, my friends.”

Before he could make another move, Raine had nearly jumped on him, closing in for a hug and told him that she would miss him. Origin told her that he would miss her as well but he also said that he had faith they would meet again. He finally left, saying that the hive had already started moving back to the old hive and that he would soon need to follow the queen there.

Raine only watched as the changeling she loved got out of her life once more.

“Origin…” she spoke softly, a lone tear rolling on her cheek.

~~ End of Chapter Eight ~~