#TwilightEclipseStory

[ask-gadzooks]

The @asktwilighteclipse Story, Chapter 3

Prince Draco Eclipse led the way down into the dark, cavernous tunnels under the castle of the two sisters. Behind him were his five sergeants, who led a small troop of onyx-and-gold clad soldiers, and behind them were two hippogriffins, looking warily at the cave walls.

A soft bloop sound issued forth from somewhere in Zooks’ robes, causing Zooks to hop and Gad to jump seven feet into the air, sword at the ready. 

“Oh, sorry, it’s just the Tumblr messages.” Zooks said as he pulled out a large gem that fit comfortably into the palm of his hand. “Oh… just a second… this one is for Draco? I’ll have to ask him.”

Gad almost stopped Zooks, but the blue hippogriffin was already running forward past the Eclipse knights, saying little “pardons” and “excuse me”s as he went. A few knights looked at him with ill-disguised contempt as he passed, including one red-coated pegasus near the front. Nature noticed his scowl. “What’s eating you?” She asked pointedly.

Phoenix kept his eyes on the blue Hippogriffin as he responded. “Just keeping an eye on potential threats, sergeant.”

Nature gave Phoenix a look.

“Then maybe you oughta keep your eyes trained somewhere useful, sergeant. I don’t see any immediate threats here.” Phoenix’s gaze didn’t waver.

“The way I understand it, He’s responsible for everything that’s happened here; seems like a threat to me.”

“A threat doesn’t actively try to fix itself, Phoenix.” Nature said.

“An asset typically doesn’t cause these sort of problems, either.” Phoenix replied.

Nature scowled.

“Well I suppose I ought to be keeping an eye on you lot, as well.” Nature commented.

“What?” Phoenix said, finally tearing his gaze from the blue hippogriffin.

“Well, I seem to recall that you were quite a lot of trouble for the canterlot guard back in the day; I’m sure that quite a few ponies with broken hooves would agree.”

Phoenix scowled back before resuming his observation of Zooks.

“That’s different,” He said, “It was a long time ago.” Nature scoffed. “Yeah, sure, but how would you have fared if Prince Draco felt about you the same way you’re treating Zooks?”

“What makes you think he didn’t?” Phoenix said. Nature swiped a hoof and hit the back of Phoenix’s head. “Uh-duh! He recruited you into his guard! He promoted you to sergeant! He gave you that fancy-shmancy magic bow! I’d say there’s not any amount of trust he hasn’t put in you over the past few years!”

Phoenix rubbed the sore spot on the back of his head. “Oh, that’s all well and good, but it’s not like Draco pulled me straight from prison to give me all that.”

“No, first he gave you a chance to prove yourself,” Nature countered, “So how about we start by trusting this well-meaning hippogriffin not to murder our prince right in front of our eyes? Like I said, keep your eyes trained somewhere useful, sergeant.”

Phoenix did peel his eyes from Zooks, but after a few seconds he responded with “You know you don’t actually outrank me, right Nat?” 

The corners of his mouth were turned up in a smile.

“Oh, I know,” Nat said jovially, “but I also know that you know I could totally take you in a fight if I had to. Do keep that in mind.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Phoenix said with a smile and a short salute.

While that conversation was happening, Zooks finally caught up with Draco and fell into step beside him.

“Excuse me, your majesty, I was just wondering… well, I’ve got an ask from the Tumblrs That’s kinda relevant and I was wondering if you’d be willing to answer it.”

Draco thought a moment. “One or two, maybe. It might be best if I’m not distracted once we get into combat.”

“Understandable. We’ll make this brief, then.” Zooks replied.

“…and I’ll do anything to keep them safe.” Draco muttered as the ask went away. He was already refocusing his efforts to detect any incoming ambush the cultists might have laid for their group.

It wasn’t long afterward that Draco’s vigilance was rewarded with a green flash somewhere just around the cave bend, followed by a bolt of magical energy that bounced off of the cave walls toward the group, leaving scorch-marks as it went.

“Incoming!” Draco shouted to his Knights, simultaneously projecting a forcefeild  in front of him. An instant later the shield was reinforced with the magic of every unicorn in the squad, turning it into a blazing white color. When the bolt impacted the forcefeild, Draco and his sergeants were all blinded with a scintillating white flash. When Draco was able to open his eyes again, he saw nothing but gray smoke choking the tunnel behind the forcefeild. Undeterred, Draco didn’t even turn before saying a word to his sergeants.

“Phoenix.” Phoenix, in turn, shouted “Archers!” A small group of unicorns and pegasi emerged from the Knight’s troop with practiced ease, bows drawn. Phoenix joined them, an arrow of fire forming in his bow as he pulled it back, and they all fired an instant before Draco lowered the forcefeild to let them pass.

Draco was about to charge in after the arrows when a pale green flash of magic within the fog cloud heralded another attack. A cluster of arrows, including one made of fire, all came flying back toward Draco, who conjured a sword to deflect most of them and let his armor take care of the rest.

“Night, what are we dealing with?” Draco demanded. Night’s ears twitched erratically, taking in every sound of the battle around them. “One combatant, roughly twenty-meters in, levitating in the center of the cave.” Night replied.

One combatant? Unicorns who could single-hoofedly redirect volleys of arrows at once were few and far between, but apparently the cult had acquired one. Fortunately, the Eclipse Knights were trained for this sort of thing. “Nature, Ice, root them,” Draco commanded, “Phoenix, get rid of this smoke.”

Nature and Ice immediately drew their swords. Ice plunged his, point-first, into the ground, where frost formed and shot forward into the smoke along the ground. Nature swung her sword, which immediately disintegrated into a hundred flower-petals and shot forward into the smoke as well. Meanwhile, Phoenix  and a small cluster of pegasi swooped over their heads and started a stiff breeze flowing into the tunnel, sweeping the smoke away. As the smoke was clearing away, the Draco and the Knights could begin to make out the silhouettes of grasping vines reaching out for a winged figure in the middle of the cave. Below them waited a growing circle of ice magic, just waiting for them to fly close enough to get trapped.

Was that… an alicorn? Or was it two? Since when did the cultists have an alicorn on their side?

Draco’s ponderings were cut short when another pale green flash illuminated the mystery alicorn’s head… no… heads. The horns of two distinct unicorn heads were unmistakably simultaneously lit an instant before a wave of fire rushed out from them, engulfing Nat’s tangling roots and vaporizing the ice forming below. Draco was forced to put up another forcefield to take the brunt of the attack before he could get a good look at his attackers. As he was finally able to look, a pair of familiar, yet eerie voices greeted him cordially. “Hello, Grandpa.”

Dun Dun DUUUUUUN! ask by @ask-equestria-cross

[ask-gadzooks]

The @asktwilighteclipse story Chapter 1

Gad and Zooks arrived in the middle of camp with a flash of light and a loud FLUMP! Half of the sound was the transposition circle Zooks had made collapsing in on itself. The other half was the brothers landing awkwardly on the stony ground.

“Owww…” Gad said, rubbing his head.

“Ouch; also.” Zooks replied, nursing his beak. He made yet another mental note to improve on his teleportation landings, and filed it away with all the very similar notes cluttering his memory.

A second or two later, A shadow fell on Zooks’s face, and he looked up to see a white-coated, armor-clad mare looking down on him.

“Gad and… Zooks, I presume?” She said. The look she was giving Zooks was… vaguely unsettling.

“Yep!” Gad said, Entirely unaware of the stare the mare was giving. “You must be an Eclipse Knight! I must say I’m really excited to be meeting The elite of the elite!”

The mare tore her gaze from Zooks and smiled at Gad warmly.

“Well I’ve heard many good things about you, too.” The mare said while placing her hoof in Gad’s claws and shaking. Zooks had the distinct impression that the mare didn’t include him in that statement, but maybe it was just his imagination. Either way, there wasn’t much he could do about her perceived low opinion of him at the moment.

“Uh… We were supposed to meet with Princess Twilight and Solar as soon as we landed here. Do you know where we could find them?” Zooks asked.

The mare’s expression fell at the mention of the Prince and Princess.

“Oh… well… Maybe you two ought to come to the meeting tent. The situation has… worsened, since you were last contacted.”

Zooks gave Gad a worried expression, who received it and tried to play it forward to the armored mare, but she was already walking away, beckoning the hippogriffin brothers to follow. Gad and Zooks hesitantly followed. As they did, the mare began speaking in a professional tone.

“Just so you know, My name is Light Piece; I’m one of the five Sergeants of the Eclipse Knights. Only the royals are higher in rank, so if you need anything from the camp, just ask one of us.”

“Well thank you!” Gad said, “We’ll keep that in mind!”

Nearby, Zooks noticed a Knight temporarily stop sifting through a pile of ashes to salute Light Piece. She gave a simple nod in return, and apparently it was as good as an “as you were” because the knight immediately got back to work.

“Did something happen last night?” Zooks asked, peeling his eyes from the black pile of flakes. “That’s a lot of ashes.”

“Our supply tent was set ablaze by an unknown hostile faction in the night,” Light said curtly. “The prevailing theory is that it was meant as a distraction.” She continued as she lifted the flap of a large tent and gestured for the brothers to go in.

“A distraction for what?” Gad asked as he pushed his way inside. He was met by the sight of four more ponies gathered around a low table. They were probably all focused on the figures on the table a second ago, but now every eye in the tent was focused on the entrance.

A second later, Zooks entered into the tent behind Gad, and froze at the sudden gazes of eight new eyes, none of which were Solar’s or Twilight’s.

“Gad and Zooks, I presume?” Said a dark-coated thestral on the right.

“Uh… yeah.” Zooks replied. “Can any of you point us toward… the prince and…” Zooks’ speech slowed to a stop when he caught a glimpse of Solar and Twilight, or rather, a figurine on the table depicting Solar and Twilight. It was, surprisingly, nowhere near the rest of the knight-like figures on the board. In fact, it seemed like it was on the complete opposite side of the table, surrounded by vague approximations of hostile monsters.

Gad noticed Zooks’ gaze and followed it to the two-headed figurine. His expression became confused, then filled with dread.

“Uh… I don’t suppose Twilight and Solar are currently on a super-stealthy recon mission right now?” Gad ventured hopefully.

“No, they’re not.” Light Piece supplied as she slipped past the brothers. “As of last night, Princess Twilight and Captain Solar are missing in action; presumed captured.”

[ask-gadzooks]

The Twilight-Eclipse Story, Chapter 2

“Captured?” Zooks asked. “Captured by… what are those figurines around them?” Zooks gestured toward the table, where several dark, monstrous-looking figurines surrounded Twilight and Solar’s figurine.

“Some sort of Cultists, we think.” The red, armored pegasus stallion supplied. “Or, that’s what the real hostiles are. The figurines are… what we had on hoof.”

Zooks took a moment to decipher that the most elite knights in Equestria might suffer from a minifig shortage, while Gad simply nodded in understanding.

“However, before we discuss any of that, it looks like a round of introductions is in order.” The Golden-coated Earth Pony mare on the opposite side of the table said. “I’m Nature, call me Nat. The blue bonehead is Ice, The red featherbrain is Pheonix, and the batty one who looks like he’s going to bring you out back to suck your blood is Night. I assume Light Introduced herself on the way in.”

Nat was smiling warmly with each introduction, and each pony smiled and nodded in acknowledgement as they were introduced, seemingly not noticing or just not caring about the insults Nat casually threw their way.

Gad gave a grin in return “Well, it’s nice to meet you. I’m Gad, and this handsome fellow is my twin brother, Zooks.”

Zooks gave a sheepish grin and waved a claw in greeting. The knights, seemingly noticing him for the first time, each gave a vague nod of acknowledgement. Nat was the only one who smiled.

Zooks sensed awkwardness, and Gad sensed Zooks sensing awkwardness, so he jumped into the conversation once more.

“Well, it’s wonderful finally meeting the most elite fighters in all of Equestria!”

Phoenix flashed a smile fit for a movie star. “Well, thank you! The way I hear it, you’re not so bad yourself!”

Gad gave his best crooked smile to go with his blush. “Awww… I’m probably nowhere near as good as you guys, but it’s nice to hear our reputation precedes us!”

Gad frowned, then. “But… maybe we should get back to more pressing matters…”

“Yes, maybe we should.” Said a voice from the door of the tent. The sergeants immediately stiffened and saluted, leaving Gad and Zooks to turn back and see who was there.

A large pony-shaped creature filled the entryway, clad in dark-colored armor. Despite the Armor’s apparent bulk, it’s wearer moved astonishingly quietly and easily. Gad might have thought it was a creature entirely made of iron if not for the fact that the suit appeared to have no helmet. Instead, the alicorn’s head was adorned with a fierce golden mask that augmented his already grave expression. One look at his white coat and flame-like mane told Gad who this pony was.

“Prince Draco.” Gad said as he bowed his head and placed his claw over his heart in Griffonian fashion. Zooks made a quick and sloppy attempt at imitation a second later.

“Gad, Zooks. Good to see you’re here. We’ll need everyone we can get,” The prince acknowledged. Then, he spoke to his sergeants.

“What do we have on Twilight and Solar’s location?” he commanded.

“Precious little.” Night answered in a professional, vaguely gravelly voice.  “The caves are littered with cultist ambushers and possibly booby traps. It’s not safe to send in a scout without backup, so we’ll be going in relatively blind.”

“Then I expect you’re all ready to go in?” Draco asked pointedly.

“Sir, yes, sir!” Phoenix said, unable to keep a smirk off his face. “Traps or not, those pesky ponies won’t know what hit them.”

“Good. Gather your troops; We’ll delve in within five minutes.”

A chorus of “Sir, yes Sir!” sounded through the tent, and the five sergeants quickly shuffled out. Gad and Zooks, meanwhile, stood by awkwardly.

“Uh… what do you need us to do?” Gad asked.

Draco hesitated in the doorway.

“You two… should stay in the back.” Draco said. “Neither of you are trained to fight with my knights. You can pick off any stragglers that get past us.”

With that, Draco pushed out of the tent.

Gad looked to his brother.

“Well… rearguard isn’t the worst of duties… I think. We’ll keep them safe from attacks from behind!” He began to push through the tent entrance. Zooks was unconvinced; or rather, his mind was grappling with a separate problem.

“You… saw how they were looking at me, right?” Zooks asked.

Gad stopped midway through the tent door.

“Uh… maybe a little,” he said, ”I wouldn’t worry about it. They’ll warm up to you eventually.”

Zooks frowned. “I’m not so sure.” He said.

“Well I am,” Gad replied. “They’d better, or I’m gonna give them some buttwoop like they’ve never seen before.”

Zooks gave a short huff of good humor at the thought of Gad challenging an entire platoon of equestria’s most elite warriors to a duel of honor, then his thoughts turned sad again.

“Maybe you shouldn’t defend me so much,” Zooks said hesitantly. “ I mean… I’m possibly the reason Twilight and Solar got kidnapped in the first place.”

“Nonsense. Absolute balderdash.” Gad said. “You’re my brother, and I’ll defend you whenever I darn well want to. Besides, you’re at least a full step removed from whatever is going on here. It’s not your fault some random cultists found your rock and got obsessed with it or something.”

Zooks wasn’t entirely sure about that, but he decided that it was best to put that argument off until later; right now they had work to do.

@asktwilighteclipse's story is coming! Slowly! (just a reminder that I'm taking asks in-story if you guys want to interact.)

[ask-gadzooks]

Twilight-Eclipse Story: Prolouge

Twilight and Solar struggled against the ropes that bound them. Twilight might have been able to teleport the two out of the hooves of their captors, except that they’d managed to slip a pair of rings over their horns before they’d even been conscious. Even then, teleporting would be risky given the burlap sacks that had been tied over their heads. Flying was out of the question too, since particularly tight rope was lashed around both of their wings. It was an altogether undesirable situation.

Twilight and Solar had been carried around for what felt like hours before they were tossed onto a hard stone floor like a sack of rocks. Soon afterward, the sacks were pulled off of their faces. Not that it was much of an improvement; the caves were dimly lit at best, and Both Twilight and Solar struggled for a moment before they could make out even the most basic shapes of robe-clad ponies.

Solar looked around the blackness of the room and the off-blackness of the ponies within it, his gaze daring any of them to get close enough for him to bite. It was just about the only thing he could do in this bound state, but the fire in his eyes communicated in no uncertain terms that he wouldn’t hesitate to rip out the jugular from the first pony in range.

Twilight, by contrast, was looking around warily, hoping she might be able to find some sort of mildly friendly face.

The predatory smile on the unicorn before her was not the sort she was looking for, but it’d have to do.

“Excuse me, sir, but I think you’ve made a terrible mistake in taking us here. Allow me to introduce myself; Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship!”

Twilight’s smile was strained, but she had to give these ponies the benefit of the doubt, small as that doubt was at the moment. The unicorn’s predatory smile grew significantly. There might have been fangs in there somewhere, but it was too dark to see them properly.

“Charmed.” the unicorn said. Then he turned to Solar and asked… “And… you are?”

Solar rolled his eyes. The unicorn obviously already knew.

“Solar Eclipse. Prince of wiping that smug look off of your face. Grandson of Draco Eclipse, the pony who is probably coming right now to turn you into paste.”

Impossibly and Improbably, The unicorn’s grin grew again.

“Of course he is. How… wonderful.”

Twilight immediately began recalculating what these ponies’ plan could possibly be. They wanted a draconic alicorn coming down on them? Did they actually think they had the pony power to repel him? The same Alicorn who had single-handedly nearly caused the extinction of the timberwolves after Solar’s parents…

“You won’t think he’s so wonderful once he’s tearing through every last one of you to find us.” Solar replied evenly. “When you get him angry… he becomes more dragon than pony. He might not even bother with the caves to find you; he’ll just crash straight through the ground onto your heads.”

“Not, I think, if you are here.” The unicorn said snidely.

Solar’s expression flickered to worry momentarily, too quickly for some ponies to notice. Twilight noticed, and the unicorn across from them may have too, but Solar quickly schooled his features into a perfect poker face.

“Maybe.” Solar said, giving away nothing. “Either way, you’re still no match for him.”

The unicorn’s smile remained.

“Of course, of course we’re not… but I think he’ll be far too busy with you to bother with us.”

Solar was unsure what to say to that.

The unicorn turned away, still speaking in a conversational tone. “Tell me, Prince, Princess… do you even know who we are?”

“Cult of the Umbrum.” Twilight said, almost automatically.She did like answering questions.

“Oh, yes. Very good, princess. And do you know who we worship?” Twilight hesitated for a moment. She knew the answer, certainly, but wondered if saying it aloud was wise.

“Nightmare Moon.” She finally said, turning to Solar to make sure he was listening.

The unicorn laughed. “You are very close, miss Sparkle, but I’m afraid you haven’t quite got it right.”

A light emerged from the unicorn’s horn, silhouetting him against a wall of the cave. This particular wall was adorned with carvings of ponies; unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies, and just a few alicorns. On his left were soft, round ponies in friendly shapes. To his right, the pony depictions became vaguely more angular… hostile.

“Here in the cult of the Umbrum, we worship ponies, and their true potential.” the unicorn said.

“That… sounds nice.” Twilight said hesitantly.

The unicorn chuckled. “Nice, is it? That’s exactly the sort of thinking that keeps you from realizing your true potential.”

The unicorn began walking clockwise around the circumference of the room, lighting up more carvings as he went. The ponies on the walls became progressively more unfriendly as he continued; their hooves became sharp like chunks of volcanic glass, their teeth lengthened into fangs, their wings began sporting claws designed for hooking and clawing meat from bones. The horns curved backward like scimitars. The whole time, the unicorn was ranting, like this was a practiced speech.

“Ponies these days… they have no ambition, you see. They have great power, yes, but they refuse to use it. However, when they accept a little… influence, they can begin to see things in a new way.”

The carvings began to feature more and more dark splotches in tha background as the unicorn continued around the room. Twilight strained to keep her eyes on him, flipping her neck around as he passed behind them. As he continued, the dark splotches began taking more definite forms; hollow eyes, fanged mouths that gaped open, ready to swallow a pony whole.

“Umbrums, well, they have ambition, but no power of their own. They’re pitiful, mewling spirits that are always searching in vain for what they cannot create for themselves; power. Which makes a partnership… well, a quite natural solution.”

The unicorn finally stopped, having made an almost complete circuit around the room. Behind him was a depiction of the most fearsome pony yet; it’s wings sprouted from it’s back like bones from an open wound; it’s head was adorned with a vaguely familiar-looking helmet, and the once visible eye stared back at it’s viewers through a predatory slit pupil.

“In short, you worship Nightmare Moon.” Solar said, rolling his eyes.

“You miss the point I am trying to make, my dear prince.” the unicorn said. “Luna was merely the most prominent pony to experience partnership with an Umbrum. My point is that any pony, given the right circumstances, could become as powerful as she. Earth ponies, Unicorns, Pegasi, Me… You.”

Twilight gave a gulp of apprehension. She didn’t like where this was going.

Solar, sensing Twilight’s anxiety, looked back and forth between her and the dark unicorn.

“You’re saying that like we’d ever agree to such a thing.” Solar finally said.

The unicorn lit his horn and brought a crystalline shard from his cloak. It was glowing a sickly-looking lime green, and for the first time Solar could see the unicorn’s fanged grin clearly in the nauseating light.

“My dear prince… whoever said anything about you agreeing to it?”

(Trying out a new format for my latest story. Let me know what you guys think! thanks to @asktwilighteclipse for use of their characters!)