Post by Derpy on Sept 20, 2012 12:51:44 GMT -5
At long last, a scene in Solar Eclipse's bedroom--from shortly after the return of the Tartarus expedition.
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/#\-/#\-/#\ *** ROYAL PALACE *** /#\-/#\-/#\
The Royal Palace is the crown jewel of Canterlot, spiking like a system of stalagmites from the Ponyville side of Canterlot Mountain. The palace is surrounded by a lush botanical and zoological garden and also adjoins a world famous sculture garden and hedge maze. Its exterior is rich and impressive, made of white stone and ivory, mixed with a dazzling array of other colors and patterns. The various turrets and towers are built in peaks, onion domes, gables, and more, and many of them bear balconies, parapets, awnings, flags, or flower ornamentation.
On the inside, the palace is no less astonishing. Its tremendous foyer is crisscrossed with red carpet and hung with tremendous tapestries. Throughout the palace, unbelievably tall stained glass windows provide an air of solemnity and gaeity at once. In the Hall of the Elements, these windows are especially haunting, telling the stories of battles with Discord and Nightmare Moon. The palace has countless rooms, from the guard halls to the guest rooms to the throne room. Finally, Princess Celestia's private suite, done up in swirly purples, is furnished with a hearth, rug and bolster, ornamental window, and miniature trees.
---
It's later in the evening. Eclipse has had dinner and is now just wandering back toward his room. The light flickers in the halls, but he casts no shadow. It's something that's not really easilly noticable, but one could possibly pick up something odd on the subconcious level. He's been distracted since returning from the Underworld, and now things just build up and, quite honestly, he's having to put extra study into his new task.
Dinky is waiting. Or rather, wandering. She was unleashed into the hallways hours ago, now that the guards are finally in the habit of recognizing her and have her on the safe list. To be honest, she might've been happier being thrown out of yelled at. These halls are gloomy and hard to find one's way through, and Dinky's mood has suffered. She looks up sharply at the sound, or maybe the smell, of her friend--her expression suggests that she'd temporarily forgotten he existed.
The sound of his hooves tapping against the ground stop as he approaches. "Oh, Dinky," he says with a smile, looking around. "Hey there, how're you?" He seems pleased, if nothing else, and makes a soft sound, "You looking for me or just wandering the castle?"
Dinky comes up to conversational distance, but doesn't seem even ready to speak before that. "Uh..." She glances to the side as if looking for a distraction or inspiration of the nocturnal kind. Back to the prince. "I...I came here because I--well, I mean." She frowns. "Good to see you. What are...what are you up to?"
His face holds some confusion for a moment as she avoids the question. He starts to wonder if he's said something wrong, as he really can't read Dinky all that well. Eclipse smiles nonetheless, and nods. "I'm going to my room to study a bit. Big project," he notes with a sage nod. "It's a secret project," he says, but his tone indicates he's just being silly.
Dinky looks apologetic. She steps beside him. "Uh..." Hesitating, she studies the shadows cast by the fixtures. And everything else. "Could I...could I come with?" she asks.
He smiles a little, "You're always welcome, Dinky," he says. "I mean if you want to." His head tilts and he says, "I could tell you about Tartarus if you want," he offers. "It's..uh.. well it was an adventure."
Dinky looks embarrassed now. It's been a little while since the news made it to the classroom, and she doesn't know just how comfortable he is talking about it. She follows along and seems distracted by something. "Well. I have to confess, I'm a little curious. Everyone's heard Luna got back, and...well, I knew you were with her. Is it, like, full of secrets?"
"It's full of...monsters," explains Eclipse. "Yup, bitey things, weird, dusty old ponies, and horrible little chaos ponies that...ate my shadow." He frowns at the last part but then sighs, "But yes, it was...exciting, I suppose, and we got Grandma Luna back! And that's really good."
Dinky continues to pace along the quiet-seeming corridor, disquieted personally. "So was she in danger? Did you end up actually saving her, or...or was she just away on business? Cheerilee said not to talk about it, and no one around town seems to know anything about it...."
He stops at his door and he ponders, "Uh, no...well sort of, more she probably would've stayed down there for too long if we didn't go find her. So... sort of saving." His ears perk and he hmms, "Oh, well maybe they were afraid the news would scare ponies?" Eclipse shrugs and opens up his door. "Or something like that."
Dinky pauses again, staying in the dark hallway for a few moments before going in after Eclipse. She looks around the room, wondering whether it'll be the same as before. "You mean you saved the princess from her own poor time management?"
"Uh," Eclipse says, "Well when you say it like that, it doesn't sound as epic." His tail swishes, "She was a bit hurt? If that makes it sound more awesome."
Dinky smirks, coming inside. "A bit, I guess." Dark in here. "Say, you got any royal lighting devices or anything? I kind of expected your room'd be warm and bright, like last time. So, the world's not in any trouble?"
Solar_Eclipse's horn glows and the candles light, room cheering up a little. He plops down on the bed and chuckles. "Ah, sorry, I put the lights out before dinner." He shrugs and hms, "Ah so, what've you been doing? Anything fun?" he asks, smiling.
Dinky looks from candle to candle, mouth a simple line. Little emotion evident. "Mom's been out of town more than she's been around," she says. "Eating a lot of grass. Went to a couple shows at the club." She goes and sits on the floor, having found one of the remaining shadows in the room. "Went to the library. Checked out the weird new building, the Magical Research Center." Silence. "Can't say any of it's been much fun, except this raver guy I met."
"Club shows? Dyna use to go to those. I went to one, but I don't know that I fit in too well. Ponies...look at me funny." He shrugs a little. "Oh, well, I haven't been to that place," he says. "Researching Magic? Sounds like a school really."
Dinky looks up at Solar Eclipse, studying him. She seems sad. "It's easy to lose yourself when there's music. Loud music, a beat that goes on and on...not much light. So many people it's like none at all. Half of them drunk silly or high on some sort of vapors or something. Sometimes there's light shows...they take your senses and toy with them...until you...you kind of aren't yourself anymore."
He listens, distracted by flipping through a book, then floating it back to the shelf. He studies her now, head angling before the Prince says, "I guess," looking off. He then adds, "So, is something the matter? You seem upset is all."
Dinky stands, trembling, and straightens out. "Does it show? Does it really show? I sometimes think the way I always am, how I always feel, like it can't. Like if my...if my happy times are dour enough, no one can see when I am...when I really am crushed." She's looking at the wall...at the shadows cast by the candles there.
"Well," Eclipse says, standing behind where, normally, his shadow would fall over, but now it doesn't, "A little. Plus your shadow doesn't lie. It thinks your sad." He could be making stuff up, he's a weird little guy. "So," he asks, "Want to talk about it?"
Dinky turns swiftly and looks at the wall beside her...then behind her. Which shadow does he mean? There are several candles... She looks back and squints. "My shadow? Are you serious, or..." Her ear flicks. "So has Luna talked about me at all? Has she mentioned how I haven't got any magic, and she wanted to look into that?"
"Huh? Well, I've only seen her one time since she's gotten back," he admits. "I haven't talked with her about anything really." He blinks slowly, "Do you want me to ask her about it?" Eclipse wonders. "I mean I can, if you want me too. Think she can figure out what's wrong?"
Dinky shakes her head, stepping up to the bed. "She brought me a test. Showed up in Ponyville at night, as I was on my way to a rave. Showed me her box of curios right there in plain sight--I could hear the thumping underground. Ten or so random bottles and jars of supermagical stuff. Had me touch my horn to them, one by one. See what was in me. My destiny." She buries the top of her head in the bed, looking down.
"Oh, I hadn't heard," admits Eclipse. He scoots closer, "Uh so... what'd she find out? Did it tell her anything?" He's honestly not too sure how that test works.
Dinky lifts her head and finds Eclipse close. Really close. "Oh, nothing. Just that after the life I've led so far, with misery and confusion and malnourishment and neglect and retardedness, I get to have a lucky future. Talking to the dead...raising the dead...digging up corpses, probably stitching them together...being hated by everypony I meet. Probably driven from town to town, and if I'm lucky, I'll probably end up leading an army of the undead against some foreign menace -before- I go insane from it all."
The Prince again looks confused. "Uh? You mean you can...talk to ghosts and stuff?" He makes a curious sound, "Interesting, you know I... somehow think Nettleglum would have some insight into that for... some reason." He looks back to her, "Have you had any indication that you can do that kind of thing?"
Dinky slowly closes her eyes, and opens them. Hardly a blink, or maybe a big one. She sighs. "No. Nothing. I'm still as dry as ever, except when I touched a jar of rat bones, I felt it. Felt the same as the life jar. Death and life, like they were the same. Luna said if a unicorn feels magic in that jar, it usually means they're cut out to be a necromancer." She spits the word. "Necromancer. Can. You. Believe it."
"You're talking to a pony who's only friend for like, most of his life, was his shadow. The necromancer thing not quite so hard to believe," Eclipse muses and shrugs. "There are worse things. At least you know a potential direction you're heading. Knowledge is power, right?"
Dinky listens unbelieving. He's taking it very well...surprisingly well. But then, he does look the way he does, and he does com from the line he does, and...and...She jerks up. Staring at Eclipse. No, at the wall behind him. She scurries around him to the other side of the bed and looks at the candle. And back at the wall. And back at him. She moves one of her legs between the prince and the wall. Her eyes are wide.
Solar_Eclipse's head tilts. He turns his head to look at where she stares, then back as she skurries around. "Uh, what're we looking at?" he asks, trying to latch onto what's going on. He says "Something weird on the wall? Oh, is it a ghost? Is a ghost in here?"
Dinky turns back to him, her face filled with suspicion and fear. "The light goes right through you," she says. "I -knew- there was something weird going on. What's happening, Eclipse? Why can I see the shadow of my leg on the wall even when I'm hidden behind you??"
Solar_Eclipse looks to the wall a moment, "Oh, you mean why don't I have a shadow? I told you earlier, it got eaten. I'm working on it though," he says. "I think there's a trick to ..uh, well nevermind, its probably not too interesting, but I think my Grandmother has me on a task of some sort. Probably to teach me a lesson in the end.'
Dinky bites her lip. "Your shadow got -eaten??- Is that even possible? It's a...it's something that's not a thing, Eclipse. You can't eat something that doesn't exist. &#*@#." She sinks to the floor and looks once more at the wall. Sure enough--it's like he's not there. "Your gramma has you doing something? What? What are you doing for her?" The sadness is gone--now Dinky is feisty with nervous energy.
The poor prince blinks a few times, looking confused. "Yeah, some little...blank monster ate it," He explains. "Apparently it is a thing." He shrugs, "I want it back but there's a whole thing with Grandmother Luna offering me her's but I gotta bind it and...it's a whole thing. One of those lessons I suspect. I'm not quite sure what I'm suppose to learn from it, but it will probably be profound in some way. Its how she is, right?" He grins brightly. "Is the no-shadow thing really that weird?"
Dinky stands and stares. Disbelieving. Not the details of the story, just the horror that is the world out there. She takes a few moments of gawking to reorient herself. "Okay. Okay, let me get this straight. You lost your shadow in the world of the insane dead because a...a little blank monster ate it. And you want a new one, and Princess Luna is -giving- you hers?? Only you have to -bind- her shadow in order to teach you a lesson?" Dinky paces halfway around the bed. "Man, Eclipse. You're the only guy I know who could shrug off my destiny as a corpse-magician and say 'But hey, I got my own even weirder problems!'"
His ears lay back a bit. Apparently he's not keen on being weird. He laughs, nervously. "Heh-heh, I... I guess so." His shoulders shrug a bit, "I mean, it's just a thing. My shadow's been with me forever. I'm going ot miss it. It had the best jokes." The Prince lets out a breath, "But I'm trying to figure out how to do all this...stuff, you know? I've looked in books and hadn't come up with anything. I don't think sewing the shadow onto my feet would work, also sounds painful." He puffs out a breath, "I'll have to come up with something." He nods, though his head tilts to watch her pace about.
Dinky is getting ready to reorient herself to the problem at hoof. But then? ...Another curveball. "Uh...whoa. WHOOOA." Dinky leaps onto the room's sole chair and props her forehooves on its arm. "Back up. Your shadow had...the best...jokes?" Wide eyes again.
"Mm? Yeah," He says, sprawling out on his bed. "I think he would sneak out when I was um... in my room back home. With my mom you know?" From the sound of it, he was in that room /a lot/. "And got to listen to lots of jokes and stories I didn't, and would come whisper them to me." He tilts his head, "Doesn't your shadow know jokes?"
Dinky gapes dumbly. She turns to look at the wall. Yep, her own shadow is still there. Just blocking out light. Nothing more. Back to the prince. "Uh...shadows don't...they don't...they don't do stuff. They just...you know, they're there and that's all. For normal ponies, I mean." She looks embarrassed.
"They don't?" He gives a skeptical look. "Sure they do." His tail flicks about, "Lots of the little shadow and night spirits talk. Maybe you're just not listening right?" he suggests, not that he knows how one might listen wrong.
Dinky frowns and flicks her own tail. She rocks the chair a little. "Do tell. Uh...you wanna listen to my shadow? See if it says anything? 'Cause I sure never heard of anything like that. Except maybe in storybooks, I guess?" Yeah, that'll be a fun playtime activity. Listen to each others' shadows. Way to be non-creepy, Dinkster.
Solar_Eclipse stares a moment at the shadow, eyes squinting, ears perked. His eyes almost seem to glow a moment and then his nose wrinkle, "Did... you really eat things from a doctor's office?" he asks. "Like... medicine things, that you took when nopony was looking?" he asks after a moment.
Dinky gasps. Her face is alight with amazement. She stumbles from the chair and backs up...and finds herself against the wall, which she spins to face. Her shadow...is there as always. But now it seems like she's being watched. "Did...did you just find that out from..." She points at the scrawny dark silhouette on the wall.
"Y-yes?" he says. "That's... I mean she told me. I think she wants you to listen to her a little more," He says. He seems like he's putting his friend ill at ease, and since he does, the lingering darkness spirits feel they should help out with a hug. The room dims just a little, barely noticable as it happens slowly.
Dinky doesn't really notice that. Things are always darkening subjectively for her. She looks with trepidation between her shadow and the strange, dark prince. "You...well, yeah, it's true. And you couldn't have known that without magic. Are you...are you saying that -this thing-" --she kicks against it. "--has been -watching- me and -listening- to me ALL MY LIFE?!" Panic coming on--alert!
"She watches over you," he says. "I mean it's not a bad thing. She likes you, is you sort of. It's... I don't know how to explain it. Don't be mad, or scared or anything though." He blinks a bit, "I won't ask her anything else if you promise not to hit at her. It's not going to do anything, but it's kind of rude."
Dinky can't really contain those emotions. They come so naturally. She doesn't hit the wall again...instead, she moves away from it. Toward the candle casting the shadow. And bumps into the bed. Her eyes...well, Dinky's upset. "She likes me. Great. Did she tell you that? Just how exactly am I supposed to -listen- to her, Eclipse??"
"I don't know," he says. "I just hear them, maybe you can to?" He scoots over a bit toward her, unsure what to do. "Or maybe it's the little thing in you telling you to do the right thing? I don't know. Like I said, I don't know how it works for everypony else. Just me."
Dinky shakes her head. She looks again at the shadow...and then at the other walls, with fainter shadows cast by the other candles. Frowning and sighing, Dinky says, "I don't know, Eclipse. I can't take another surprise like this right now. I'm sorry. I'm beat. Forgive me for doing this, but..." She moves around the room and blows out the candles...one by one. As the lights vanish, the shadows, of course, disappear.
Are the shadows every truely gone. They are darkness spirits, night spirits. Eclipse is, however, smart enough not to...mention that. He just softly clears his throat, "It's ok. I'm sorry, I should...shut up more I guess. I hate weirding everypony out."
Dinky climbs onto the bed...er, strike that. -Into- the bed. She's gotten pretty familiar here, hasn't she? The cover is half over her. "I totally just spoiled whatever you were working on, huh? Sorry about that. Oh, wait. The project you mentioned--that was sewing Luna's shadow to yourself, wasn't it?"
Solar_Eclipse moves a bit, letting her onto the bed. He's just mostly sitting on the edge. He looks over as she ducks under the covers. "Mmm? No, I mean I wasn't working on anything just yet," he says. "But yes, that's been what I've put a lot of thought in since coming back from Tartarus," he notes.
Dinky lies there, half covered. Hiding. In the dark. "Huh. Well, I haven't got a clue. I had no idea shadows were, like, living entities at all. I have to say, I'm seriously spooked out. Wait, so how does it work if you have more than one? Like, from more than one glowjar?"
"Living...might not be the right word for it. More spirits, at least Grandmother Luna talks about Night Spirits. I assume they're similar or something. But again, I don't know." He soon just sprawls out on the bottom half of the bed with a soft sigh, "I promise I'm trying not to freak you out." To the other question, he says, "It's generally the same spirt, just...thinned out and divided. They don't hold to shapes like we do."
Dinky shivers, or it feels like she is. Her motion soon stops. "I know. I know you're not trying. That's the scary part." She lies silent for a long time.
Solar_Eclipse mms and looks off again. "Are you going to like...not want to see me ever again. I mean I freak you out like every time."
Dinky is silent. Then she stirs like a bed monster, and then falls silent again. "I mean," she murmurs. Silence. "Oh, gosh. Oh, gosh, I'm the biggest hothead, aren't I? You lost your shadow who was like a friend to you, right? Like, he told you jokes, and went out and saw stuff for you, right? And now he's gone? Like, dead? Oh, crud, I'm such a jerk."
Truth be told, he had be /really/ upset when it first happend. "Y-yeah, he was a friend. My oldest and I thought the only one that couldn't leave me." he sighs and shrugs, "I don't know, now its different. Dyna's gone, Pie's not around, now my Shadow's gone. I'm sort of getting more and more alone again."He rolls about a bit before curling up into a ball.
"Oh, -crud.- @^#$&. I'm sorry, Eclipse. What a *$# thing to happen to someone. Your oldest friend. Eaten by a monster." She shakes, and her head pops out from the covers. Is Eclipse there? "Pie's gone? What happened to him? I know Dynamite joined the guard training program..." She goes to the Solarball and lays a hoof gently on it.
"It's not fun. I'm getting by. You know I think you're the only one who really realized what happened," notes Eclipse. "Everypony else thinks it's just a weird thing." To the rest, he shrugs, "I'm not sure, but it's just me that's left." He lays still, but does look over, not that it can be seen that well as its still dark.
Dinky lies down, too, beside him. Staring at him in the pale starlight through the window. She breathes heavily. "And me," she says at last.
"Who I'm rapidly scaring off apparently," he says, voice low, trying to be funny. "And I guess I'm just being sad. I mean there are other ponies in our class that I could probably make friends with if...they could get past all the weird stuff."
Dinky looks down for an instant. Hard to see what she's feeling, but she smells conflicted. "Um...no. No, I'm not leaving. Not gonna be scared away. You think I have friends to spare, Eclipse?" A hesitation. "Truth told, I was kinda hoping I might make more friends...through you." Her voice has an ironic curl to it. "Sort of funny how that worked out, huh?"
He shifts just a bit. "Through me?" He chuckles, "Nah, I mean I'm...like super bad at making friends. I didn't even really /know/ anypony before getting sent out here," he says, "Not my own age or anything." He shrugs a bit, "I honestly don't think I'd even know anyone if Dyna and Pie hadn't spoken to me that day."
Dinky shrugs and smiles wryly. Their voices resonate in the little shadowless room, in the dark. Is that rainfall outside? "I wouldn't've known it. I mean, you were part of this BRO thing. That seemed pretty cool. I was never in a club, or a gang or whatever. Figures it'd break up as soon as I show up, but hey..." She sighs. "Scootaloo's still around, anyway, but she's always going straight home after school. Actually an improvement for me--she and her friends aren't really picking on me anymore."
Solar_Eclipse blinks a bit, "Do they pick on you?" he asks, sounding surprised. "Doesn't really sound like something they'd do. I mean...they're nice to me. Though I guess if they weren't maybe they're afraid my Grandmother would eat them?"
Dinky sighs lightly. "Not anymore! I mean, sometimes they laugh at me, but most of the class does that, and that's not so often anymore ever since I...mm. Well, I mean, I'm not so much Cheerilee's pet anymore, am I? You probably noticed. Glad to hear they're nice to you, anyway."
"I'd offer to magic up the ponies making fun of you, but I doubt that'd help much." His nose crinkles a bit and he ducks his head, "Probably would make things worse." He lets out a light yawn, finally uncurling so he's not in such a tight ball on the bed.
Dinky seems glad to see it. "Nah. Don't zap 'em." She stretches out, listening to what definitely is rain outside. At length, she speaks again in her low voice. "Is this bugging you? I should ask. Us lying on your bed together in the dark?"
"No," he says, "Why should it?" He is confused, still a little naive about... well, everything sometimes. He seems comfy, and he too listens to the rain, though it always just makes him a little tired. Everpony wants to nap while it rains out, right?
Dinky throws a corner of the quilt, and it lands over Eclipse. Just slightly. It's a gesture. She lies there, contemplating. "Shadows can think, huh? And talk? If you know how to listen? Cripes. What else have I never been told."
Solar_Eclipse is quiet a long moment then he moves, a little closer to her and he curls up a bit in the quilt. "I'm sure lots of things," he says. "But if we knew everything, it wouldn't be so fun to find things out."
Dinky shivers. She rolls over a little, away from him...but resettles closer. "Mmm. I'm just such a retard," she observes. "Probably still be finding out this sort of &#@&$ when I'm fifty."
"We won't know it all. I don't think Aunt Celestia and Grandma Luna even knows /everything/. Just a loooot of things." He puffs out a breath or two and hmms, "I think...we shouldn't let it scare us though."
Dinky's eyes are suddenly visible, golden dark in the rainbent moonlight. She's peering at Solar Eclipse. "Kind of hard not to be scared by big surprises," she remarks.
"Is it?" He looks at her now. "I...guess I'm just weird. The unknown is just..unknown. Nothing to be scared of really." Apparently it's a good way to be for hime.
Dinky blinks. Her eyes refocus elsewhere. "It's like...if I told you that some monster's either gonna punch you, or -not- gonna punch you. Wouldn't you be scared? I mean, you don't know...but you have to watch out, just in case."
"I don't know if its good to worry over things you can't change," he says. "Its hard for some ponies though," he admits, "But... I just don't try to sweat it. If I do get worried I start looking for ways to fix it."
Dinky moves her tail underneath the blanket. "So...are we talking about things we can't change, or we can?"
Solar_Eclipse shrugs. "I don't know. Both I guess. Don't worry about the stuff you can't change, and change the stuff you can. Well that you want to. I guess you wouldn't want to change good stuff, unless you could.. make it better." He grins a bit, even if he does get a little bit rambly.
Dinky smiles too, despite her logical side and her scared side. The rain doesn't really bug her--it's nice and cozy in here. "Right. So that's why I worry--'cause I don't always know the difference." She stirs and settles in a way that lets her stay cool under a fold of quilt. "Heck, I may not -ever- know."
"Well, sometimes you don't know. Sometimes you just... go with it. Worst that can happen, you're wrong." He shrugs, "I just try not to do anything too bad. I figure anything after that is just... extra."
Dinky sighs with something like resigned contentment. "Fair enough. You know? Me too." She lies there, listening and watching from beneath. Eventually, a gray-lilac leg extends from the other side of the bed. It ends up resting on the prince's body. That's about all she has to say for now.
Solar_Eclipse smiles, but, truth be told, has dozed off. The hoof rests around him and he naturally leans into it and mumbles something sleepily and incoherent. Still, he's comfortable and will be for a while yet, lost in dreamland with his friend nearby.
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/#\-/#\-/#\ *** ROYAL PALACE *** /#\-/#\-/#\
The Royal Palace is the crown jewel of Canterlot, spiking like a system of stalagmites from the Ponyville side of Canterlot Mountain. The palace is surrounded by a lush botanical and zoological garden and also adjoins a world famous sculture garden and hedge maze. Its exterior is rich and impressive, made of white stone and ivory, mixed with a dazzling array of other colors and patterns. The various turrets and towers are built in peaks, onion domes, gables, and more, and many of them bear balconies, parapets, awnings, flags, or flower ornamentation.
On the inside, the palace is no less astonishing. Its tremendous foyer is crisscrossed with red carpet and hung with tremendous tapestries. Throughout the palace, unbelievably tall stained glass windows provide an air of solemnity and gaeity at once. In the Hall of the Elements, these windows are especially haunting, telling the stories of battles with Discord and Nightmare Moon. The palace has countless rooms, from the guard halls to the guest rooms to the throne room. Finally, Princess Celestia's private suite, done up in swirly purples, is furnished with a hearth, rug and bolster, ornamental window, and miniature trees.
---
It's later in the evening. Eclipse has had dinner and is now just wandering back toward his room. The light flickers in the halls, but he casts no shadow. It's something that's not really easilly noticable, but one could possibly pick up something odd on the subconcious level. He's been distracted since returning from the Underworld, and now things just build up and, quite honestly, he's having to put extra study into his new task.
Dinky is waiting. Or rather, wandering. She was unleashed into the hallways hours ago, now that the guards are finally in the habit of recognizing her and have her on the safe list. To be honest, she might've been happier being thrown out of yelled at. These halls are gloomy and hard to find one's way through, and Dinky's mood has suffered. She looks up sharply at the sound, or maybe the smell, of her friend--her expression suggests that she'd temporarily forgotten he existed.
The sound of his hooves tapping against the ground stop as he approaches. "Oh, Dinky," he says with a smile, looking around. "Hey there, how're you?" He seems pleased, if nothing else, and makes a soft sound, "You looking for me or just wandering the castle?"
Dinky comes up to conversational distance, but doesn't seem even ready to speak before that. "Uh..." She glances to the side as if looking for a distraction or inspiration of the nocturnal kind. Back to the prince. "I...I came here because I--well, I mean." She frowns. "Good to see you. What are...what are you up to?"
His face holds some confusion for a moment as she avoids the question. He starts to wonder if he's said something wrong, as he really can't read Dinky all that well. Eclipse smiles nonetheless, and nods. "I'm going to my room to study a bit. Big project," he notes with a sage nod. "It's a secret project," he says, but his tone indicates he's just being silly.
Dinky looks apologetic. She steps beside him. "Uh..." Hesitating, she studies the shadows cast by the fixtures. And everything else. "Could I...could I come with?" she asks.
He smiles a little, "You're always welcome, Dinky," he says. "I mean if you want to." His head tilts and he says, "I could tell you about Tartarus if you want," he offers. "It's..uh.. well it was an adventure."
Dinky looks embarrassed now. It's been a little while since the news made it to the classroom, and she doesn't know just how comfortable he is talking about it. She follows along and seems distracted by something. "Well. I have to confess, I'm a little curious. Everyone's heard Luna got back, and...well, I knew you were with her. Is it, like, full of secrets?"
"It's full of...monsters," explains Eclipse. "Yup, bitey things, weird, dusty old ponies, and horrible little chaos ponies that...ate my shadow." He frowns at the last part but then sighs, "But yes, it was...exciting, I suppose, and we got Grandma Luna back! And that's really good."
Dinky continues to pace along the quiet-seeming corridor, disquieted personally. "So was she in danger? Did you end up actually saving her, or...or was she just away on business? Cheerilee said not to talk about it, and no one around town seems to know anything about it...."
He stops at his door and he ponders, "Uh, no...well sort of, more she probably would've stayed down there for too long if we didn't go find her. So... sort of saving." His ears perk and he hmms, "Oh, well maybe they were afraid the news would scare ponies?" Eclipse shrugs and opens up his door. "Or something like that."
Dinky pauses again, staying in the dark hallway for a few moments before going in after Eclipse. She looks around the room, wondering whether it'll be the same as before. "You mean you saved the princess from her own poor time management?"
"Uh," Eclipse says, "Well when you say it like that, it doesn't sound as epic." His tail swishes, "She was a bit hurt? If that makes it sound more awesome."
Dinky smirks, coming inside. "A bit, I guess." Dark in here. "Say, you got any royal lighting devices or anything? I kind of expected your room'd be warm and bright, like last time. So, the world's not in any trouble?"
Solar_Eclipse's horn glows and the candles light, room cheering up a little. He plops down on the bed and chuckles. "Ah, sorry, I put the lights out before dinner." He shrugs and hms, "Ah so, what've you been doing? Anything fun?" he asks, smiling.
Dinky looks from candle to candle, mouth a simple line. Little emotion evident. "Mom's been out of town more than she's been around," she says. "Eating a lot of grass. Went to a couple shows at the club." She goes and sits on the floor, having found one of the remaining shadows in the room. "Went to the library. Checked out the weird new building, the Magical Research Center." Silence. "Can't say any of it's been much fun, except this raver guy I met."
"Club shows? Dyna use to go to those. I went to one, but I don't know that I fit in too well. Ponies...look at me funny." He shrugs a little. "Oh, well, I haven't been to that place," he says. "Researching Magic? Sounds like a school really."
Dinky looks up at Solar Eclipse, studying him. She seems sad. "It's easy to lose yourself when there's music. Loud music, a beat that goes on and on...not much light. So many people it's like none at all. Half of them drunk silly or high on some sort of vapors or something. Sometimes there's light shows...they take your senses and toy with them...until you...you kind of aren't yourself anymore."
He listens, distracted by flipping through a book, then floating it back to the shelf. He studies her now, head angling before the Prince says, "I guess," looking off. He then adds, "So, is something the matter? You seem upset is all."
Dinky stands, trembling, and straightens out. "Does it show? Does it really show? I sometimes think the way I always am, how I always feel, like it can't. Like if my...if my happy times are dour enough, no one can see when I am...when I really am crushed." She's looking at the wall...at the shadows cast by the candles there.
"Well," Eclipse says, standing behind where, normally, his shadow would fall over, but now it doesn't, "A little. Plus your shadow doesn't lie. It thinks your sad." He could be making stuff up, he's a weird little guy. "So," he asks, "Want to talk about it?"
Dinky turns swiftly and looks at the wall beside her...then behind her. Which shadow does he mean? There are several candles... She looks back and squints. "My shadow? Are you serious, or..." Her ear flicks. "So has Luna talked about me at all? Has she mentioned how I haven't got any magic, and she wanted to look into that?"
"Huh? Well, I've only seen her one time since she's gotten back," he admits. "I haven't talked with her about anything really." He blinks slowly, "Do you want me to ask her about it?" Eclipse wonders. "I mean I can, if you want me too. Think she can figure out what's wrong?"
Dinky shakes her head, stepping up to the bed. "She brought me a test. Showed up in Ponyville at night, as I was on my way to a rave. Showed me her box of curios right there in plain sight--I could hear the thumping underground. Ten or so random bottles and jars of supermagical stuff. Had me touch my horn to them, one by one. See what was in me. My destiny." She buries the top of her head in the bed, looking down.
"Oh, I hadn't heard," admits Eclipse. He scoots closer, "Uh so... what'd she find out? Did it tell her anything?" He's honestly not too sure how that test works.
Dinky lifts her head and finds Eclipse close. Really close. "Oh, nothing. Just that after the life I've led so far, with misery and confusion and malnourishment and neglect and retardedness, I get to have a lucky future. Talking to the dead...raising the dead...digging up corpses, probably stitching them together...being hated by everypony I meet. Probably driven from town to town, and if I'm lucky, I'll probably end up leading an army of the undead against some foreign menace -before- I go insane from it all."
The Prince again looks confused. "Uh? You mean you can...talk to ghosts and stuff?" He makes a curious sound, "Interesting, you know I... somehow think Nettleglum would have some insight into that for... some reason." He looks back to her, "Have you had any indication that you can do that kind of thing?"
Dinky slowly closes her eyes, and opens them. Hardly a blink, or maybe a big one. She sighs. "No. Nothing. I'm still as dry as ever, except when I touched a jar of rat bones, I felt it. Felt the same as the life jar. Death and life, like they were the same. Luna said if a unicorn feels magic in that jar, it usually means they're cut out to be a necromancer." She spits the word. "Necromancer. Can. You. Believe it."
"You're talking to a pony who's only friend for like, most of his life, was his shadow. The necromancer thing not quite so hard to believe," Eclipse muses and shrugs. "There are worse things. At least you know a potential direction you're heading. Knowledge is power, right?"
Dinky listens unbelieving. He's taking it very well...surprisingly well. But then, he does look the way he does, and he does com from the line he does, and...and...She jerks up. Staring at Eclipse. No, at the wall behind him. She scurries around him to the other side of the bed and looks at the candle. And back at the wall. And back at him. She moves one of her legs between the prince and the wall. Her eyes are wide.
Solar_Eclipse's head tilts. He turns his head to look at where she stares, then back as she skurries around. "Uh, what're we looking at?" he asks, trying to latch onto what's going on. He says "Something weird on the wall? Oh, is it a ghost? Is a ghost in here?"
Dinky turns back to him, her face filled with suspicion and fear. "The light goes right through you," she says. "I -knew- there was something weird going on. What's happening, Eclipse? Why can I see the shadow of my leg on the wall even when I'm hidden behind you??"
Solar_Eclipse looks to the wall a moment, "Oh, you mean why don't I have a shadow? I told you earlier, it got eaten. I'm working on it though," he says. "I think there's a trick to ..uh, well nevermind, its probably not too interesting, but I think my Grandmother has me on a task of some sort. Probably to teach me a lesson in the end.'
Dinky bites her lip. "Your shadow got -eaten??- Is that even possible? It's a...it's something that's not a thing, Eclipse. You can't eat something that doesn't exist. &#*@#." She sinks to the floor and looks once more at the wall. Sure enough--it's like he's not there. "Your gramma has you doing something? What? What are you doing for her?" The sadness is gone--now Dinky is feisty with nervous energy.
The poor prince blinks a few times, looking confused. "Yeah, some little...blank monster ate it," He explains. "Apparently it is a thing." He shrugs, "I want it back but there's a whole thing with Grandmother Luna offering me her's but I gotta bind it and...it's a whole thing. One of those lessons I suspect. I'm not quite sure what I'm suppose to learn from it, but it will probably be profound in some way. Its how she is, right?" He grins brightly. "Is the no-shadow thing really that weird?"
Dinky stands and stares. Disbelieving. Not the details of the story, just the horror that is the world out there. She takes a few moments of gawking to reorient herself. "Okay. Okay, let me get this straight. You lost your shadow in the world of the insane dead because a...a little blank monster ate it. And you want a new one, and Princess Luna is -giving- you hers?? Only you have to -bind- her shadow in order to teach you a lesson?" Dinky paces halfway around the bed. "Man, Eclipse. You're the only guy I know who could shrug off my destiny as a corpse-magician and say 'But hey, I got my own even weirder problems!'"
His ears lay back a bit. Apparently he's not keen on being weird. He laughs, nervously. "Heh-heh, I... I guess so." His shoulders shrug a bit, "I mean, it's just a thing. My shadow's been with me forever. I'm going ot miss it. It had the best jokes." The Prince lets out a breath, "But I'm trying to figure out how to do all this...stuff, you know? I've looked in books and hadn't come up with anything. I don't think sewing the shadow onto my feet would work, also sounds painful." He puffs out a breath, "I'll have to come up with something." He nods, though his head tilts to watch her pace about.
Dinky is getting ready to reorient herself to the problem at hoof. But then? ...Another curveball. "Uh...whoa. WHOOOA." Dinky leaps onto the room's sole chair and props her forehooves on its arm. "Back up. Your shadow had...the best...jokes?" Wide eyes again.
"Mm? Yeah," He says, sprawling out on his bed. "I think he would sneak out when I was um... in my room back home. With my mom you know?" From the sound of it, he was in that room /a lot/. "And got to listen to lots of jokes and stories I didn't, and would come whisper them to me." He tilts his head, "Doesn't your shadow know jokes?"
Dinky gapes dumbly. She turns to look at the wall. Yep, her own shadow is still there. Just blocking out light. Nothing more. Back to the prince. "Uh...shadows don't...they don't...they don't do stuff. They just...you know, they're there and that's all. For normal ponies, I mean." She looks embarrassed.
"They don't?" He gives a skeptical look. "Sure they do." His tail flicks about, "Lots of the little shadow and night spirits talk. Maybe you're just not listening right?" he suggests, not that he knows how one might listen wrong.
Dinky frowns and flicks her own tail. She rocks the chair a little. "Do tell. Uh...you wanna listen to my shadow? See if it says anything? 'Cause I sure never heard of anything like that. Except maybe in storybooks, I guess?" Yeah, that'll be a fun playtime activity. Listen to each others' shadows. Way to be non-creepy, Dinkster.
Solar_Eclipse stares a moment at the shadow, eyes squinting, ears perked. His eyes almost seem to glow a moment and then his nose wrinkle, "Did... you really eat things from a doctor's office?" he asks. "Like... medicine things, that you took when nopony was looking?" he asks after a moment.
Dinky gasps. Her face is alight with amazement. She stumbles from the chair and backs up...and finds herself against the wall, which she spins to face. Her shadow...is there as always. But now it seems like she's being watched. "Did...did you just find that out from..." She points at the scrawny dark silhouette on the wall.
"Y-yes?" he says. "That's... I mean she told me. I think she wants you to listen to her a little more," He says. He seems like he's putting his friend ill at ease, and since he does, the lingering darkness spirits feel they should help out with a hug. The room dims just a little, barely noticable as it happens slowly.
Dinky doesn't really notice that. Things are always darkening subjectively for her. She looks with trepidation between her shadow and the strange, dark prince. "You...well, yeah, it's true. And you couldn't have known that without magic. Are you...are you saying that -this thing-" --she kicks against it. "--has been -watching- me and -listening- to me ALL MY LIFE?!" Panic coming on--alert!
"She watches over you," he says. "I mean it's not a bad thing. She likes you, is you sort of. It's... I don't know how to explain it. Don't be mad, or scared or anything though." He blinks a bit, "I won't ask her anything else if you promise not to hit at her. It's not going to do anything, but it's kind of rude."
Dinky can't really contain those emotions. They come so naturally. She doesn't hit the wall again...instead, she moves away from it. Toward the candle casting the shadow. And bumps into the bed. Her eyes...well, Dinky's upset. "She likes me. Great. Did she tell you that? Just how exactly am I supposed to -listen- to her, Eclipse??"
"I don't know," he says. "I just hear them, maybe you can to?" He scoots over a bit toward her, unsure what to do. "Or maybe it's the little thing in you telling you to do the right thing? I don't know. Like I said, I don't know how it works for everypony else. Just me."
Dinky shakes her head. She looks again at the shadow...and then at the other walls, with fainter shadows cast by the other candles. Frowning and sighing, Dinky says, "I don't know, Eclipse. I can't take another surprise like this right now. I'm sorry. I'm beat. Forgive me for doing this, but..." She moves around the room and blows out the candles...one by one. As the lights vanish, the shadows, of course, disappear.
Are the shadows every truely gone. They are darkness spirits, night spirits. Eclipse is, however, smart enough not to...mention that. He just softly clears his throat, "It's ok. I'm sorry, I should...shut up more I guess. I hate weirding everypony out."
Dinky climbs onto the bed...er, strike that. -Into- the bed. She's gotten pretty familiar here, hasn't she? The cover is half over her. "I totally just spoiled whatever you were working on, huh? Sorry about that. Oh, wait. The project you mentioned--that was sewing Luna's shadow to yourself, wasn't it?"
Solar_Eclipse moves a bit, letting her onto the bed. He's just mostly sitting on the edge. He looks over as she ducks under the covers. "Mmm? No, I mean I wasn't working on anything just yet," he says. "But yes, that's been what I've put a lot of thought in since coming back from Tartarus," he notes.
Dinky lies there, half covered. Hiding. In the dark. "Huh. Well, I haven't got a clue. I had no idea shadows were, like, living entities at all. I have to say, I'm seriously spooked out. Wait, so how does it work if you have more than one? Like, from more than one glowjar?"
"Living...might not be the right word for it. More spirits, at least Grandmother Luna talks about Night Spirits. I assume they're similar or something. But again, I don't know." He soon just sprawls out on the bottom half of the bed with a soft sigh, "I promise I'm trying not to freak you out." To the other question, he says, "It's generally the same spirt, just...thinned out and divided. They don't hold to shapes like we do."
Dinky shivers, or it feels like she is. Her motion soon stops. "I know. I know you're not trying. That's the scary part." She lies silent for a long time.
Solar_Eclipse mms and looks off again. "Are you going to like...not want to see me ever again. I mean I freak you out like every time."
Dinky is silent. Then she stirs like a bed monster, and then falls silent again. "I mean," she murmurs. Silence. "Oh, gosh. Oh, gosh, I'm the biggest hothead, aren't I? You lost your shadow who was like a friend to you, right? Like, he told you jokes, and went out and saw stuff for you, right? And now he's gone? Like, dead? Oh, crud, I'm such a jerk."
Truth be told, he had be /really/ upset when it first happend. "Y-yeah, he was a friend. My oldest and I thought the only one that couldn't leave me." he sighs and shrugs, "I don't know, now its different. Dyna's gone, Pie's not around, now my Shadow's gone. I'm sort of getting more and more alone again."He rolls about a bit before curling up into a ball.
"Oh, -crud.- @^#$&. I'm sorry, Eclipse. What a *$# thing to happen to someone. Your oldest friend. Eaten by a monster." She shakes, and her head pops out from the covers. Is Eclipse there? "Pie's gone? What happened to him? I know Dynamite joined the guard training program..." She goes to the Solarball and lays a hoof gently on it.
"It's not fun. I'm getting by. You know I think you're the only one who really realized what happened," notes Eclipse. "Everypony else thinks it's just a weird thing." To the rest, he shrugs, "I'm not sure, but it's just me that's left." He lays still, but does look over, not that it can be seen that well as its still dark.
Dinky lies down, too, beside him. Staring at him in the pale starlight through the window. She breathes heavily. "And me," she says at last.
"Who I'm rapidly scaring off apparently," he says, voice low, trying to be funny. "And I guess I'm just being sad. I mean there are other ponies in our class that I could probably make friends with if...they could get past all the weird stuff."
Dinky looks down for an instant. Hard to see what she's feeling, but she smells conflicted. "Um...no. No, I'm not leaving. Not gonna be scared away. You think I have friends to spare, Eclipse?" A hesitation. "Truth told, I was kinda hoping I might make more friends...through you." Her voice has an ironic curl to it. "Sort of funny how that worked out, huh?"
He shifts just a bit. "Through me?" He chuckles, "Nah, I mean I'm...like super bad at making friends. I didn't even really /know/ anypony before getting sent out here," he says, "Not my own age or anything." He shrugs a bit, "I honestly don't think I'd even know anyone if Dyna and Pie hadn't spoken to me that day."
Dinky shrugs and smiles wryly. Their voices resonate in the little shadowless room, in the dark. Is that rainfall outside? "I wouldn't've known it. I mean, you were part of this BRO thing. That seemed pretty cool. I was never in a club, or a gang or whatever. Figures it'd break up as soon as I show up, but hey..." She sighs. "Scootaloo's still around, anyway, but she's always going straight home after school. Actually an improvement for me--she and her friends aren't really picking on me anymore."
Solar_Eclipse blinks a bit, "Do they pick on you?" he asks, sounding surprised. "Doesn't really sound like something they'd do. I mean...they're nice to me. Though I guess if they weren't maybe they're afraid my Grandmother would eat them?"
Dinky sighs lightly. "Not anymore! I mean, sometimes they laugh at me, but most of the class does that, and that's not so often anymore ever since I...mm. Well, I mean, I'm not so much Cheerilee's pet anymore, am I? You probably noticed. Glad to hear they're nice to you, anyway."
"I'd offer to magic up the ponies making fun of you, but I doubt that'd help much." His nose crinkles a bit and he ducks his head, "Probably would make things worse." He lets out a light yawn, finally uncurling so he's not in such a tight ball on the bed.
Dinky seems glad to see it. "Nah. Don't zap 'em." She stretches out, listening to what definitely is rain outside. At length, she speaks again in her low voice. "Is this bugging you? I should ask. Us lying on your bed together in the dark?"
"No," he says, "Why should it?" He is confused, still a little naive about... well, everything sometimes. He seems comfy, and he too listens to the rain, though it always just makes him a little tired. Everpony wants to nap while it rains out, right?
Dinky throws a corner of the quilt, and it lands over Eclipse. Just slightly. It's a gesture. She lies there, contemplating. "Shadows can think, huh? And talk? If you know how to listen? Cripes. What else have I never been told."
Solar_Eclipse is quiet a long moment then he moves, a little closer to her and he curls up a bit in the quilt. "I'm sure lots of things," he says. "But if we knew everything, it wouldn't be so fun to find things out."
Dinky shivers. She rolls over a little, away from him...but resettles closer. "Mmm. I'm just such a retard," she observes. "Probably still be finding out this sort of &#@&$ when I'm fifty."
"We won't know it all. I don't think Aunt Celestia and Grandma Luna even knows /everything/. Just a loooot of things." He puffs out a breath or two and hmms, "I think...we shouldn't let it scare us though."
Dinky's eyes are suddenly visible, golden dark in the rainbent moonlight. She's peering at Solar Eclipse. "Kind of hard not to be scared by big surprises," she remarks.
"Is it?" He looks at her now. "I...guess I'm just weird. The unknown is just..unknown. Nothing to be scared of really." Apparently it's a good way to be for hime.
Dinky blinks. Her eyes refocus elsewhere. "It's like...if I told you that some monster's either gonna punch you, or -not- gonna punch you. Wouldn't you be scared? I mean, you don't know...but you have to watch out, just in case."
"I don't know if its good to worry over things you can't change," he says. "Its hard for some ponies though," he admits, "But... I just don't try to sweat it. If I do get worried I start looking for ways to fix it."
Dinky moves her tail underneath the blanket. "So...are we talking about things we can't change, or we can?"
Solar_Eclipse shrugs. "I don't know. Both I guess. Don't worry about the stuff you can't change, and change the stuff you can. Well that you want to. I guess you wouldn't want to change good stuff, unless you could.. make it better." He grins a bit, even if he does get a little bit rambly.
Dinky smiles too, despite her logical side and her scared side. The rain doesn't really bug her--it's nice and cozy in here. "Right. So that's why I worry--'cause I don't always know the difference." She stirs and settles in a way that lets her stay cool under a fold of quilt. "Heck, I may not -ever- know."
"Well, sometimes you don't know. Sometimes you just... go with it. Worst that can happen, you're wrong." He shrugs, "I just try not to do anything too bad. I figure anything after that is just... extra."
Dinky sighs with something like resigned contentment. "Fair enough. You know? Me too." She lies there, listening and watching from beneath. Eventually, a gray-lilac leg extends from the other side of the bed. It ends up resting on the prince's body. That's about all she has to say for now.
Solar_Eclipse smiles, but, truth be told, has dozed off. The hoof rests around him and he naturally leans into it and mumbles something sleepily and incoherent. Still, he's comfortable and will be for a while yet, lost in dreamland with his friend nearby.