Lily Glamerspear

---

‘This is completely nuts!’

After losing her footing and drifting into the bucking air with her first step into the next room, Sparkshower desperately flailed with her other legs in an attempt to recover. It didn't work, though -- she just tripped even harder, and her armored muzzle was half a hoof away from striking the ground when she picked herself up with a quick beat of her wings. That single push, however, was enough to send her straight into the low ceiling with a brain-rattling, metallic KLANG. Shocked and nerveless, she fell back down to the ground, hitting hard enough to splay her limbs. Panting, her eyes wide, Artemis looked up at Specialist Lily Glamerspear in confusion now that the unexpected torment of her movement was over.

"You okay, Sparks?"

When a slow, semi-stunned nod from the pegasus weakly confirmed she was alright, Lily turned towards their blind guide.

"Whaddya mean, 'Welcome to the Moon'? THE Moon?"

The armored pegasus struggled, slowly, to get back to her hooves. It didn't look easy, but Lily was worried that any help she might give would just make things go sideways for her comrade all over again.

Ignacio Blazon, the batpony sorcerer, answered her question with a shrug. "Jes, the Moon. Is there some other?"

‘Wise-ass.’

Grumbling, Lily tried to restrain her frustration. "How did we even get here?"

He nodded at the doorway. "Through the passage. How else do jou think?"

‘That didn’t answer anything either! Yeah, okay, it's obviously a magic passage, but still -- how come I didn’t notice the change in gravity sooner?’’

Lily’s pegasus battle-buddy, now standing up properly, looked back towards the entrance tunnel. "You know, Lily, I was starting to feel a bit funny a while back. Something felt strange, but I put it down to nerves."

‘Huh.’

Had she really been paying so little attention to her surroundings that Lily hadn’t noticed everything getting lighter?

She supposed she had been pretty excited to learn what Ignacio had to teach. And she was also walking slowly enough that the change in gravity might not have made itself obvious -- plus it had been a flat passageway. Here, with the shallow drop of the bowl-shaped floor, walking was trickier.

The Balladeer of Ghosts stepped over towards the entrance and removed the crutch from underneath his shoulder, then leaned it against the wall. Standing up solidly on all fours, he began to shuffle slowly towards the central, magical cooking-flame, beckoning Lily with one of his deformed wing-stumps.

"Come, come, enter. Sit by the fire, and have some soup. Jou will adjust to the change easily; it is not so great as it first appears. Even I have learned how to switch, and I am not a young athlete. Be thankful jou are here in this place underground with the rock solid and firm, and not outside on the Moon itself..."

Lily and Sparkshower both watched in disbelief as the cripple moved unsupported, and having little trouble reaching one of several worn-looking small rugs before sitting down on his haunches with a tired sigh.

"...For the surface above is covered with a kind of coarse sand, rough and irritating, and when jou come back indoors it gets absolutely everywhere. ¡Fu!"

It was all too much for Lily. "You don't need your crutch?!"

He whinnied. "Not on the Moon, no. I told jou, things are not so heavy here. Now, come, and sit on one of the rugs, since jou can see them, and eat. There is a ladle in the soup-pot, and there are bowls beside it. It is lunchtime, after all."

‘Unbelievable!’

Here she was, having casually walked through a tunnel under Canterlot mountain, only to be teleported to the Moon in order to sit around a magical flame and eat soup with a blind batpony sorcerer.

Sparkshower took a hesitant step towards the central fire-pit, and managed not to trip and launch herself into the air again. Lily gave walking a try, too, and was relieved when she was also able to keep her balance, provided she moved slowly enough -- especially since she didn’t have wings to try to fix things if her hooves failed her!

Not that those had proved super helpful in getting Sparkshower back on her hooves.

Walking in this low-gravity environment was pretty weird, though. It was a little like being underwater, sort of, except without anything holding back her movements.

And with the feeling that even just an ordinary trot would send her careening up into the air.

Maybe that friction-boosting spell she’d used in the water-slick Cave of Pillars could be of use to counter it? Something to keep in mind if she felt the need to get out of here in a hurry.

---

Suggested background music: Mark Morgan - 'Smoldering Corpse Bar', from 'Planescape: Torment' [1999]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgjqtIY_zww

---

After a delicate, slow sauntering, Lily joined Ignacio, the other two batponies, and her pegasus comrade in a close semi-circle around the room's source of light and heat. Above a solid pillar of what looked like slowly-roiling molten lava, the soup was bubbling away before her. It smelled pretty good, and there was a hint of spice in the air, too. On Lily’s right, Sparkshower licked her lips and looked over expectantly towards the unicorn.

‘Should I use telekinesis to serve the soup, or--’

Ignacio interrupted her thought. "Use jour horn, unicornio. Aldonza has never witnessed the magic of jour kind. And I will have a bowl also, if jou please."

The elderly batpony mare to the right of Ignacio was sitting up straight, wearing the same black mask with red fringes as he was.

‘Guh, it's creepy seeing the two decrepit old masked figures staring at me side-by-side.’

‘It'd be worse if those blindfolds had eyes drawn on them, though.’

Now that was a terrifying thought.

With some trepidation, Lily seized up one of the plain red clay bowls from a little stack of six, enveloping it in her teal glow. Neither Ignacio nor Aldonza reacted. And the sleeping batpony sorcerer who’d cried out earlier didn’t wake up again, either. She grabbed the ladle in her telekinetic aura as well, and filled the bowl with two hearty scoops of the pot's dense ragout, then floated it over to Ignacio, who tapped a forehoof on the ground to indicate that she should place it before him. That she did; yet she still elicited no reaction from the batponies. Nonetheless, Lily had the distinct impression that she was, once again, being stared at.

The unicorn took another bowl and likewise filled it, passing it over to Sparkshower, who took it in her forehooves and sniffed before starting to blow repeatedly to cool it down. Finally, she served herself and, still holding the ladle to one side, took a quick sip from her bowl.

It was a thick and heavy broth, full of beans, and with a sweet taste accompanied by a hint of hay. She wasn’t really sure what it was. ‘Some kind of batpony Moon-spice,’ she supposed. The soup tasted good, but it was still a bit too hot, so after panting a bit to take the heat off her tongue, Lily released the ladle back into the pot and lowered her bowl down to the floor to let it cool off for a moment.

Ignacio turned his head slightly towards his comrade. "Well, Aldonza, what do jou think?"

The old mare just sat there, her mouth hanging open. "Eencredible. All that magic just to serbe tree bowls of the fabada."

‘Again with the remarks about how much magic I spend to do stuff!’

‘Yeah, maybe I’m not the most efficient TK-wielder in the Royal Guard, but come on!’

These Eclipse Phase really didn’t have a lot of power at all, did they? Which made it all the more perplexing how they managed to accomplish magical feats -- like animating the sand-creatures, or healing deep wounds, or even creating those balls of permanent illumination in the Rookery, as Ignacio said Aldonza had done.

Lifting the bowl up with her hooves, Lily blew and took another crack at the thick stew, leaving the batponies to chatter over their own bowls.

"Oh, Gonçal was over heerrre earlier, Ignacio. He came to bisit with Rocinante for a while."

Ignacio nodded and gently wrapped two hooves around his own meal, holding it close to his chest. "That was good of him. I will go and return the visit later today. How is Ermessenda?"

Aldonza shook her head. "She ees almost gone, he said. She does not want to eat. And he cannot force her."

The Balladeer of Ghosts just grumbled knowingly. "She and Rocinante will both leave us soon."

Lowering her bowl, Lily’s comrade Sparkshower spoke up. "Gonçal and Ermessenda are other Children of the Eclipse?"

‘How in the buck does she pronounce foreign names so well after she's only heard them just once? Mare oughta be in the diplomatic corps.’

The elderly Aldonza nodded her head. "Jes, pegaso. They were born een the same jear as us, but under a different eclipse, seberal months later. Only two of that brood remain. Coming from the Rookery, jou will habe passed the entrance to their home only just before arribing here."

‘So those other passageways actually went places?’

Lily piped up. "Are these tunnels where the Eclipse live? Like, all of them?"

Aldonza nodded. "Jes. We do not libe with our Houses, as the other Phases do. Eenstead, we habe our homes together, and the tunnels connect us to where we may serbe."

‘So it's a whole web of portals?’

One wrong turn might've led Lily to land straight in the middle of some batpony city! A couple of Equestrian Royal Guards instantly appearing probably would've caused quite a ruckus.

Sparkshower frowned. "You don't live with your houses, but does this place have a name? I know the Houses have names; you said you were from the House 'Rima de Serenidad,' didn't you, Mister Blazon?"

The Balladeer of Ghosts nodded. "That is my House, jes. It means the 'Rille of Serenity'; it is the name of a trench from which the city, or house, takes its name. As for this place..." He turned his head as if glancing around. "...We Eclipse call it simply 'home,' but the other Phases, they have another name for it."

Tilting up his head, he paused for emphasis. "They call these the Halls of the Blind."

‘Creepy.’

Ignacio just chuckled, though. "A title most appropriate, no?" He tilted his head as if looking around the place. "This room particular has been home to Eclipse since the matter of the Phases was first settled. For seven hundred jears, Children have lived here. It is where the eldest of us dwell, and we are those eldest."

‘Damn, that's a long time for one hole in the ground to have ponies living in it.’

Sparkshower spoke up in a whisper. "Seven hundred years..."

Lily could see the wheels turning in the pegasus' head, just behind her eyes.

"You said there were originally ten born under your Eclipse? And now there's just you three? And with on average one-and-a-half lunar eclipses per year -- does it have to be a total eclipse?"

Aldonza leaned in slightly towards Ignacio. "The one who asks this, it is ees the pegaso large weeth all the armor?"

The Balladeer of Ghosts chuckled. "Heh, jes. And do jou hear...?"

After a moment, the mare nodded. "Her spear... jes. The magic is faint, and deeficult to noteece, beside the unicornio. But there is power hidden within."

‘She's talking about the Bradamante Lance!’

‘Huh, so these batponies aren’t just able to perceive my spells, they can even hear magic items, as well.’

Ignacio nodded, pointing at the weapon still strapped to Sparkshower's back. "Jou should have witnessed her in action. She used the spear to flatten one of the Quintos de los Meteoros into a tortita earlier, hehe."

Then he raised his voice to address Glamerspear and Sparkshower. "To answer jour question, pegaso: jes, only an eclipse total will do this. The eclipse partial may sometimes bring sick Children, but never with any abilities magical."

‘Interesting distinction.’

The wheels in Sparkshower's head started to turn again. "So if your sample was typical, does that mean there are something like fifteen Eclipse born each year? Is that right?"

Aldonza nodded. "That ees not far from the truth, I theenk."

Sparkshower continued. "But of that year, there are only five of you left? And you're the oldest Eclipse, you said?"

Her batpony counterpart nodded. "Jes..."

Showing a crooked-tooth smile, Aldonza grinned. "... How old do jou think we arre, pegaso?"

As Sparkshower examined the pair, Lily thought about the question herself. She couldn't see their eyes to get a sense of the wrinkles on their faces, but they were so feeble and crippled it made her want to guess an ancient number like eighty or even ninety. Yet something told her that wasn’t going to be right. The unicorn caught the playful hint in Aldonza's voice, almost as if the question itself was a trap...

Sparkshower made her guess. "Are you seventy?"

Aldonza and Ignacio turned to each other and chuckled. "Sebenty! ¡Jajaja!"

"¡Oho! Seventy! ¡Oye! Would that we could see that number..."

With a sigh, the Balladeer collected himself and lifted up his bowl of soup. "Sterility, blindness, and crippled limbs are not the only price we pay for these abilities, pegaso. The aging premature is another. Tonight, we three are not even fifty-eight."

‘Not even fifty-eight!’

Even Sparkshower's healthy underestimate was off by more than a decade! Buck, there were still fighting sergeant-majors in the Royal Guard older than that!

After taking a sip from his bowl, Igacnio continued. "And for a thousand years, no Eclipse has survived past sixty."

‘What?!’

‘That means they have less than four years left! Celestia, this conversation's sure taken a morbid turn. Way to pick a good topic, Sparks.’

"Oh. I'm sorry."

Ignacio shrugged off her apology. "There is no need for regrets; it was Aldonza who chose to play this little game with jou. So do not be sorry, pegaso. Be happy, as we are; happy that there will be no more."

‘Huh?’

"Whaddya mean 'no more'? No more Eclipse Phase?"

The Balladeer of Ghosts fixed Lily in his eyeless, masked gaze. "Jes, no more fase de Eclipse."

He took a deep breath. "Jou understand, when the red ring shows around the black homeworld, there is an energy powerful which strikes the Moon, and penetrates deep enough even to reach these 'Halls of the Blind.' And every one of us can hear it; it is loud enough to wake us no matter how deep our sleep. Even Rocinante, in his state, would awaken for it."

Turning his head up towards the ceiling, he continued. "In the thrall of this energy, all Eclipse are consumed with a sensation of the dread -- a terror horrible for what follows inevitably..." His voice cracked at the end, and he sat, silently, still staring up.

Aldonza looked down towards the cooking pot, and completed his thoughts. "Screams, which only we Eclipse can heerre. The howling of the Children who enter the world during this ebent sinister. ¡Ay!... Too many times habe we hearrd that sound infernal."

Ignacio straightened his head again. "And accompanied always, by the wailing of the mothers unfortunate whose accursed children are fated to join us in these Halls."

‘Yikes.’

Lily exchanged glances with Sparkshower, who looked absolutely horrified. But when the unicorn turned back towards the batponies, she saw that Ignacio and Aldonza were both smiling, and the Balladeer chuckled happily.

"Haha, but no more, jou see? Three eclipses have passed without these terrors. And what a relief it is."

Lily furrowed her brow. "Why? What's different now?"

His crooked-toothed grin grew even wider. "Because now we Children are welcome on the home-world, in Equestria, at least to visit. Any pregnant mare who is at risk of giving birth during an eclipse is sent away to the Rookery under Canterlot, safe from the threat lunar." The Balladeer threw his head back in laughter, and even Aldonza tittered happily beside him. "In less than sixty jears, there will be no more of our kind! And we are glad to see the end of it."

His insane statement was no less crazy than everything else that's happened since Lily got here.

‘Buck, even getting here was nuts!’

But something didn’t add up.

Shaking her head, Lily cleared her throat. "Wait, Mister Blazon. Weren't you the one trying to tell me last time about how everything in life is a trade-off? How your blindness and crippled limbs was just the price you paid for being able to do magic?"

He nodded, still smiling. "Jes, I said this. And I think still that the price is fair, jou know. But what I did not say is this..."

Ignacio leaned in conspiratorially. "...This price for the magic? Even if this is fair, I wish that I had not paid, and I wish for that nopony should pay for this ever again." Rearing back, he held his head high. "And jou will find an attitude similar among all those Eclipse who survive their birth, and their training, to reach adulthood."

‘'Survive'?’

Lily didn't like the sound of that word.

"The odds are really that bad?"

The elder batpony curled his lips up into what felt like a sneer, inhaling sharply through his nostrils. "The art of sorcery does not agree with us, unicornio, not as the magic does with jour kind. This is why a heavy price is paid with our bodies. Ten are born under the eclipse: five die before they have been weaned from the milk of their mothers, and then two more are lost to the Shadows while trying to learn to harness the magic. Aldonza, Rocinante, Ignacio -- these three names have stood together, with no others, since we reached the age of twelve."

With a knowing nod, he picked up his soup-bowl. "This is why I am curious to know what jou can learn, unicornio. For, as much as I wish the end of the Eclipse, there would be good in preserving at least something of what we were, and what we could do."

Sniffing at his meal, he took a small sip, exhaling loudly. "...Ahhh... But enough talk. This is the time to rest and to eat. Take jour time and enjoy the fabada; today, it is very good. The House Cráter Tarucio has been generous in their supply of the saffron which gives it the taste sweet and fresh. Eat, and enjoy."

‘Saffron?’

That was a pricey ingredient to splurge on a soup for three blind, old batponies. And just why exactly was this other random House supplying the Eclipse with fancy spices? To say nothing of 'how,' if non-Eclipse weren't allowed into the Halls of the Blind. Something to ask later, since Ignacio had all but told Lily to shut up and just eat the stew.

Well, if he wanted a break, the fifty-seven-year-old-colt-who-looked-eighty-years-old deserved it.

At least Sparkshower didn't have to be told twice; the pegasus quickly slurped down the bean-soup in her bowl and then reached forward to grab the ladle to serve herself more.

Ignacio started humming aimlessly to himself, but said nothing when, while he was still on his first bowl, Sparks went for her third. Aldonza, sitting still beside him, seemed to be lost in quiet contemplation as well.

In the quiet and relative darkness of the cave, Lily found herself feeling a bit over-relaxed. It was late, and even though she’d pre-napped earlier in the afternoon to avoid being too tired tonight, she was still starting to get groggy. She did just fight off a squad of 'Swarming Meteors,' after all.

In the regular Guard, and outside of an actual war, a skirmish like that would've earned her at least a day or two off to recover. But in the VIP service? Nada, unless her VIP dismissed her. And that bucker probably wasn't tired at all. Even if he was, he was probably off having his 'steam-piston' operated by a big-tufted young batpony Lunar.

Well, who knows? Maybe then there would finally be something that could wear him out! Lily smiled to herself, imagining the Royal Engineer turning out to be just a two-pump chump in the hooves of a pretty mare.

Oh, and Ebonshield's mom was supposed to be there too! Buck, what if he got personal treatment from the Reverend Mother Superior herself? He could literally be bucking Ebonshield's mom right now! Talk about making things awkward for his bodyguards...

As Lily’s mind wandered, she noticed Sparkshower was glancing around the room, her ears sticking straight up. There was another sound of scraping metal on metal, as she twisted her head around the other way, scanning the walls for something.

Lily nodded at the pegasus. "What's up, Sparks? You're enjoying the soup, ain't ya?"

The cream-colored mare furrowed her brow. "Nothing... I just..."

She turned sharply again, eyes darting between the entrance hole and Ignacio's shadow on the wall behind him.

"...I thought I saw something."

The unicorn looked around. Besides five shadows cast by the steady light of the magical 'lava' lamp, plus one admittedly kinda creepy dark entranceway, she didn’t see anything interesting.

Lily grinned. "I think the gravity's getting to you again, Sparks. You shouldn't have chugged down the stew so fast."

"But..."

Grumbling, she faced the fire, flattened her ears, and tried to sit still for a moment. But moments later Lily saw her eyes and head swivel to track something on the unicorn’s left.

"...There!"

Lily turned and looked as well, half-believing she’d see something. But all she saw was her own shadow staring back at her. With a skeptical glance back at Sparkshower, she raised a forehoof and waved it around, watching as the dark spot on the wall waved along with her.

"It's just our shadows, Sparks. They only move when we do. I was probably just lifting my bowl to drink, or something."

That didn’t seem to placate her pegasus comrade.

Shrugging, Lily took another sip from her bowl. Neither Aldonza nor Ignacio appeared to have paid any attention to their conversation, nor to the constant twitching of the paranoid pegasus. The Balladeer of Ghosts was still just sipping from his soup-bowl, quietly humming the notes of some half-forgotten tune.

Tilting her head back, Lily drained the last dregs from her bowl. She lifted a forehoof to wipe her muzzle, and considered whether she should have a second.

‘Hmm…’

It was pretty good, and she was hungry for more, but she did have a dress to fit into next weekend. There were a lot of beans in the stew. Probably not worth the risk -- to her plotline or to her ponut.

"Lily, I hear something."

She nodded. "Yeah, probably my own stomach growling. But I'm thinking about the Gala, ya know? That Louis Valise dress doesn't have a lot of stretch to it."

There was an exasperated sigh accompanied by angry metal protestations as Sparkshower got to her hooves. "Come on, Lily, I'm being serious. Something is in here with us, I'm sure of it."

‘Okay, fine.’

Dropping her bowl to the ground, Lily lit her horn up and stood up. She saw shadows cast by the central light, now half-faded thanks to her own illumination. And, what a surprise, rock walls. Rock walls to the left, rock walls to the right, rocky ceiling above her, and rocky floor beneath her.

"See, Artemis? Nothing here, just rock, rock, rock."

Turning off her light, Lily sat back down. "Now come on, get a gr-"

sssss

The unicorn twisted her hips and slowly pivoted her head to look behind her at the source of that hissing noise. But she didn't see anything out of the ordinary.

"Okay, I heard that."

Beside her, Sparkshower was panting heavily. "You mean you can't see it!?"

Scrunching up her snout, Lily narrowed her eyes. "See wha..."

Twenty hooves away from her, there was an extra shadow on the wall that didn't belong to anypony in the room. A dark blob, mostly formless.

Lily’s eyes went wide and she lit up her horn, but the darkness didn't disappear. To her horror, in the presence of her magical illumination, the flat, black shape seemed to take on volume, slowly emerging from the wall like a drop collecting at the tip of a stalactite. Sparkshower stood mute as, in seconds, the black wall-shadow poured itself out of the wall, into the shape of a pony.

Not just any pony -- the bucking thing looked like a unicorn! It twisted its 'head' back and forth, and Lily saw it had her mane-cut!

"... What in-"

SSSSS

The shadow-creature opened its mouth, and with an incredible speed it rushed straight at her!

"-BUCK!"

Acting on pure instinct, Lily instantly materialized a DPICM spear above her head and immediately sent it flying at the creature, all while flinging herself sideways to avoid the charge.

"¡Ayaaaaa!"

"¡Ohhhhhh!

She paid no attention to the pained, wailing batponies as she scrambled back to her hooves, loading a fresh round and scanning the room for threats while Sparkshower's equipped her lance as well.

"Where is it? Where'd it go? Did I hit it?!"

Artemis shook her head. "It disappeared as soon as you shot at it, Lily."

The unicorn heard an angry grumble from behind her. "¡Ay! That is because jour damnable spear has almost deafened me! Gran Madre, that was loud!"

Turning, Lily saw Ignacio panting forcefully, his forehooves clasped to his head in pain. Aldonza, meanwhile, was rolling back and forth on the ground, moaning in pain, holding her ears in her forehooves as well.

Ignacio shook his head. "Why did I not think that it would be louder in this small and quiet place? What an idiot I am to have thought of such a plan estúpido." Lowering one forehoof, he moved the other to rub his forehead.

The other batpony struggled to sit up, her mask half fallen off of her face.

"Are jou alright, Aldonza?"

She nodded, raising a forehoof to adjust her blindfold, and similarly panting while rubbing her temples. "I think so, Ignacio, but Gran Madre, my third ear is deafened! Please, stop the noise this instant."

Ignacio turned to Lily, waving a forehoof dismissively. "Turn off jour horn, unicornio, and put away that weapon, pegaso. There is no danger. Let us have the quiet for a moment."

‘Nuh-huh, I don't think so.’

"Not until you tell us what that was."

---

Suggested background music: Christopher Young - 'Something to Think About', from 'Hellbound: Hellraiser 2' [1988]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zICDwMdHMQ

---

Sighing heavily, Ignacio tried to settle himself back onto the small rug. "That was one of the Ombras Malditas, the Accursed Shadows."

‘Oh yeah, that's real reassuring.’

Lily exchanged a glance with Sparkshower, who'd furrowed her brow. She looked confused and upset, but determined.

‘Right back at ya, mare.’

Her pegasus comrade cleared her throat, still wielding her lance. "I thought the Shadows were just one of the batpony castes?"

Ignacio grunted angrily. "Jes. They are the undertakers, the dust-sweepers and garbage-collectors, the diggers of latrines and the pits septic. But I did not say Shadows, I said Accursed Shadows. That is a difference important."

Lily still hadn’t turned off her horn; there was still a spear loaded and ready to fire right above her head. "Okay. And what the buck is an Accursed Shadow?"

Curling his lip up into an annoyed sneer, the Balladeer of Ghosts struggled to his hooves. "Jou wanted to know how I make puppets of the sand? How I heal wounds? How Aldonza makes the chandeliers of light?"

Weakly, he stepped towards her. "This is how, unicornio. This is the power of the Eclipse. We cannot draw on magic so easily as jou do, but we can sense it intuitively, and with that ability there is one thing which we can do very well."

Getting right up in her muzzle, he continued on. "This existence -- this reality that we live in -- she has a shadow dark and sinister. Another world; a location far away elsewhere, and jet also close by."

He sniffed deeply, face still pressed up against hers. "And the creatures which dwell there are powerful, unicornio. Power the likes of which not even jou have at jour disposal. Nor even jour Princess Celestia, at least not directly."

Ignacio sat down on his haunches in front of her, turning his head as if looking around the room. "Always, these shadows seek ways into our world. Always, they hunger to inhabit the bodies of the living, and sometimes even the dead. They are powerful, but evil, and irredeemably so."

Licking his lips, he took a deep breath. “We cannot make the magic as jou can, but we can draw back the veil, and allow those shadows to enter, while binding them to our will. For at the moment of entering, they are at their weakest, and easily overcome. It is by doing this that we can accomplish our feats.”

‘Summoners!’

‘They're summoners!’

‘The whole lot of them, every single Eclipse!’

All they know how to do is pluck bucking demons out of another bucking dimension! Ignacio wasn't puppeteering the sand, he'd somehow bound demon-shadows into it! Nor did he heal injuries -- he summoned up shadows to do that for him! No wonder the Grand Hall of Stars had gone so dark when he healed that injured batpony at a distance from his pulpit. And he did it all... with music?

A glimmering spear still floated above Lily’s head, and she recoiled in horror. "You brought that 'Accursed Shadow' here just by humming?"

The Balladeer of Ghosts nodded. "Jes, that is my technique, though there are others also. And I brought not just any Accursed Shadow, either..."

He raised a forehoof and pointed it at her. "...That was jour Accursed Shadow, unicornio. Jour own dark reflection personal."

‘What the buck?!’

"Mine?! Whaddya mean, mine?"

Before he could answer, another voice spoke out from behind him.

"Your shadow follows you wherever you go, unicorn. Even here, on the Moon."

Rocinante, the sick batpony Eclipse who had gotten so agitated when Lily was first introduced but had been sleeping all this time, was sitting up beside Aldonza. He wasn’t wearing his mask, though, and all Lily could see when she looked at his dark face were a pair of milky-white eyes and wrinkled lips concealing jagged teeth. Speaking with a hoarse and raspy voice, he continued in a surprisingly mild accent.

"Ignacio found her, and he pulled her through, but he held her true power at bay."

The unmasked Eclipse turned towards Ignacio. "This is the initiation that all Eclipse receive. That is why he brought you here. Even the surface of the Moon is too noisy. Only here, deep underground, are things quiet enough to spy into the other realm, and hear the hissing of an individual particular. Only here, could he draw forth and show you your own Accursed Shadow."

Lily glanced over at Ignacio. "Is that true?"

He nodded. "Jes..."

Turning back towards his sick-family member, Ignacio ‘watched’ as Aldonza helped Rocinante lie back down, before he whispered under his breath. "When he is lucid, Rocinante is still the greatest of us all. He was a Balladeer of Ghosts as well, a puppeteer of the sand for the Stars, and a better one than I will ever be."

Shaking his head regretfully as the sick batpony returned to sleep, Ignacio returned to face Lily.

"This is the initiation rite of the Eclipse, unicornio. The journey into the deepest part of the Halls of the Blind, the meal with the elders, and then the revelation. I have performed it many times already before."

The Balladeer of Ghosts extended a hoof towards her, and she considered drawing back away from him, but then decided to allow the contact. He pressed his forehoof on her left shoulder, and then the right, then planted it against her pectoral armor, holding it there for a while, as if sensing something.

After a few moments, he spoke. "Jou have faced jour Accursed Shadow and survived intact. Jou have not succumbed to the possession and become an abominación."

‘POSSESSION was a bucking possibility here?!’

‘Why the buck didn't he say so in the first place!’

Lowering his forehoof, he inhaled deeply, his nostrils flaring. "This was the lesson for today. The next time, we will see if jou also can open the veil, and do so safely."

He grinned that sly little grin of his. "I think that you can, for we know that this power is not restricted to the Children, although safety is another matter..."

With a hard chuckle, he began to slowly shuffle up the bowl-shaped cave floor towards the dark entranceway, and his crutch leaning beside it. "After all, it was the Princess Luna who first breached the other realm a thousand jears ago and drew out her own dark reflection, binding it within herself to become our Gran Madre, the Nightmare Moon."

‘WHAT?!’

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