Its been far too long, Captain! I need my sniveling coward of son now! He's the only one I can corrupt and pass the element of curses on to! I didn't spend six long years collecting the other five element offsprings and their elements that they had taken with them just to come up empty handed! I need them all!" A deathly black alicorn roared at her captain of the guard.
The captain, a well built, pale gray stallion with teal eyes dressed in pearl black armor with purple trim, flinched at every word from the enraged alicorn. "Y-y-y-yes, my Queen." he replied in a shaky tone.
"I can't complete the element transfer without all six of the new wielders! I only have five! Either find Shining Eclipse or find a spot for the next captain of the guard to bury you after I'm done gouging your heart out! Am I perfectly clear!?" She growled, sitting forward in her throne to stare daggers- no, rapiers at guard.
The stallion nearly wet himself then and there. He quickly saluted. "Y-y-yes, your majesty!"
She gave a slow smile. That made the guard even more afraid. He knew if he made that smile go away his heart was literally going to be served on a silver platter. "Excellent. Now leave me and send in my… Mmm… Handsome muscle relaxer."
With his tail between his legs, the stallion nearly skipped out of the throne room, sending in her 'muscle relaxer', a black stallion with a dark purple mane, twice as buff as him, but somehow extremely gentle and tended to give the Queen… 'Relaxing massages'. The guard not only thought nothing of it, but seriously just didn't want to know how or why Queen Shade seemed a smidge easier to get along with after one of his treatments, just that the huge stud of a stallion had saved the lives of his troops on several occasions.
The captain made his way to the barracks to ready his troops to, once again, comb the Badlands for the queen's lost son.
A small feeling in his gut told him he was going to be replaced very soon….
Not! Here's why!:
Badlands: Eclipse cloaked estate. 32.45 miles from nearest Equestrian town.
"But I'm hungry!" I complained as a loud rumbling escaped my stomach. My head dropped face first into the table from my physical weakness.
"As am I, but we can not risk it. There are too many Equestrian guards about. They will surely catch us if we were to try and leave." Kindle stated.
I groaned as another grumble left my abdomen. "But I can just fight them off with my magic." I argued.
"No. We do not want Shimmering Shade to know you are here at all. If her guards turn up missing, they will search here until they find what killed them. The cloak spell on our home only works to a certain extent. It does not make us not here at all. They can still find us."
"But…"
"No, Eclipse."
"Dammit! I'm so hungry I can't see straight!" I cried as I slid off the table and collapsed onto the floor.
"Oh stop exaggerating, you big foal." she groaned and nudged my ass cheek with her hoof.
"I'm not a foal." I whined. My stomach felt like it was eating itself.
"Then stop acting like one." Kindle replied in a flat tone.
"Keep acting like that and you won't be walking straight for a week." I shot back.
"I will if you can not even walk yourself." she giggled a retort.
I was about to reply when a loud bang echoed through the furthest wall from us, making us both jump. "Gah! My snout! What the hell!?" a deep voice growled from the other side.
"What happened!?" another voice asked.
"I just slammed my fucking snout on an invisible wall!" The first voice roared at the second.
"What?" There came a few knocks on the wall.
I didn't dare to even breath. They had found us. How the hell had they found us!? In a sudden streak of courage, I leaped to my hooves and ran into the master bedroom to find my scythe, snatching it up and magically forming my armor onto my body. I then ran back out into the living area. "Kindle." I whispered. "Arm yourself. They found us. We have to fight. It's our only option."
The zebra nodded and ran off to find her armor and weapon. She returned a moment later dressed in a red, lightweight two piece female scale mail that covered only her vitals. An elegant red helmet sat snugly on her head. Her mane was tied back in a ponytail to keep it out of her face. She held a well used, jagged cutlass at the ready in her right hand. She looked like a sexy warrior goddess.
As soon as I peeled my eyes away from the welcome sight of my lover dressed in battle armor, something I hope she never has to wear because she's pissed at me, and turned to gaze back at the wall, the surface erupted into an explosion of debris, scattering pieces of wood in every direction. I covered my face to keep any from hitting me, before moving it to glare at whoever had just vandalized my home.
Two fully armored Equestrian troops stood outside the hole. The larger stallion was a pure white unicorn with a green mane sticking through the top of his helmet. Blood had stained the white fur under his bleeding nostril, making a red trail from it to his chin. The smaller one was a pegasus, pale blue with a silver mane sticking through the top of his helm. Both guards shown looks of absolute surprise.
"Y-you think that's him?" the white stallion asked.
"I don't know, but look at his crest and his armor. That's royal attire! It has to be him!" the blue one replied. "Its Prince Eclipse! Don't just stand there! Apprehend him!"
"What about the mare?"
"Kill the bitch!" he cried and lunged at me, swinging his bastard sword above his head.
The very words that had come out of his maw made me want to gut him. One could only imagine what I wanted to do to him when he lunged. I quickly spun my scythe around and caught his blade before it could touch me.
The second guard bound past and took on my lover. I was too caught up in trying not to give this guard an upper hand that I couldn't even look back to see the fight. I only heard the clashing of blades from behind me.
The guard disengaged from our death lock and jumped back a few paces. I didn't take my eyes off of his, even as I spun my blade to its next offensive position.
He lunged again, this time took a swipe at my hooves.
I quickly spun my weapon around and caught his sword in the crook of the blade, before wrenching it from his grip and flinging it away from him, sending it to stab into the wall. I then brought my blade back around and raked the jagged edge across his chest, splicing through his armor, ribs, lungs, and heart. Blood splattered everywhere from the deep wound and poured out into a deep pool from under his spliced armor.
He slowly looked down at his chest as the color faded from his face. "I-I was… J-just f-following orders…" he whimpered, before collapsing into a bloody mess.
I was so numb to death that not even his dying words had phased me. "You should have thought of that before following them." I then turned to help Kindle, only to find the other guard be run through by the zebras cutlass.
Kindle yanked her blade out of the stallions chest and shoved him into the floor, showing exactly how brutal she can be. I'm not going to lie. That turned me on a little.
"You ok, Kindle?"
She turned to look at me, showing spots of blood on her face from the dead guard. She nodded.
"We can't stay here. Not anymore. Get whatever you need. Just make sure its not so much that it would drag us down. Hurry up though. There's more where they came from." I ordered.
"Right. We need cloths, gold, herbs, and food. We need to raid another changeling shipment or steal provisionals from a guard camp." Kindle listed off, before quickly making for the bedroom to ready our supplies.
I walked up to the hole in the wall and poked my head out through it. There wasn't anypony around, yet. Thank Luna for that good luck. Those two must have been a two pony scouting team, which meant they would be looking for them. We had an hour, tops.
And so...
We ran. From our home, our life, our years of work. We ran like we were always forced to do. We had packed everything we had thought would be needed, save for the food we didn't have. That was to be acquired on the run.
We had left the two dead soldiers inside the the discovered home. There was no need to bury them, nor was there time.
We were fugitives. What we do to the military that hunts us, is an occupational hazard. You don't like it, don't fuck with us. That's just how we feel about it. We do what we need to survive.
Now where was I?... Oh yeah!
As we ran through the quickly densening forest, I began to hear the angered shouts of the other soldiers. Though we were so far ahead, I couldn't tell what they were shouting, most likely something along the lines of: 'He's around here somewhere! Spread out and find him! I'll give you all to the queen if you come back with empty hands!' But that's just my guess.
Look at me getting off topic again!
The forest seemed like it was growing a foot every second we were in it. It was such a vast, wild, and untamed terrain that even the most skilled of explorers had lost themselves is the everchanging wood of the curse induced forest. Very seldom have I or Kindle traveled inside farther than a few yards. It scared us both. Now we ran for our lives through it.
"We must find shelter!" Kindle stated as I began to tire out, my muscles were strong, but they did eventually wear out. Kindle though, seemed exhausted.
"Agreed." I skidded to a stop, making Kindle run right into me.
"Ow! Why did you stop!?" She cried as she had to peel herself off of my back
"I could make us a shelter."
Kindle groaned loudly from behind me. "You know, I did not think of that."
"Of course not. Otherwise you would have voiced it." I stated in a matter of factly tone as I looked around for a decent base for the shelter, soon finding a thick trunked, smooth bark tree. I quickly made my way to it, before pulling back my fist and slamming it as hard as I could into the trunk.
Pain shot up my arm from the jarring contact and I yanked my arm back. I glared at the tree, looking it over to find not a single dent, crack, or scratch. "Yep, perfect." I growled past clenched teeth as I tried to massage my throbbing arm.
"You are such a brute." Kindle commented from behind me as I began clearing some fallen leaves out of the way and summoning a shape shifting spell. I felt my horn give its familiar tingly feeling from the magic being drawn to the tip. I then let the built up magic flow into the trunk as a glowing stream of purple and gold.
The bark of the tree shimmered as the magic began to take its effect, hollowing out the inside and working its way to the surface. Soon there was a door sized hole formed in the side of the tree, exposing the hollow inside. It looked large enough to fit four comfortably.
"Looks homey." Kindle commented.
That made me chuckle. "Hurry up and get inside so I can close it up. I'll be back after I find something edible."
"Do not be late. I do not wish to have to go save you. You are too much trouble as it is." She replied and made her way inside.
I closed the entrance in the trunk, before lifting my scythe and trudging back through the forest, making sure to leave an invisible magic trail as I went. I didn't want to get lost, not in the Everfree.
Saying the Everfree had overgrown after Shimmering Shade came to power was an understatement. The whole enchanted forest had grown so far that it consumed even parts of the Badlands. It was kinda scary what these trees did.
I walked for what seemed like hours, though it was probably like an hour and a half, searching through the disfigured trees and plants for anything Kindle and I could use to sate our hunger. Everything looked edible, delicious even. But I knew the Everfree was a huge death trap. Everything wanted to kill you.
Yep. And I was stuck in it with an army of soldiers that wanted to capture me and kill my lover after us. What a wonderous life I have. "One day, Shade… I will tear you from my mother's body and lock you in a prison of never ending darkness. You will beg for something as merciful as death." I growled as I continued my search.
I started to use my magic to search through the fruits for toxins, finding that almost all of them would kill me if I simply licked it. I walked over to the few trees that bore edible fruit and picked enough to last us for a couple of days, placing them into my satchel.
My ears perked up when I heard a branch snap from behind me. I spun around, spinning my scythe, before bringing to the throat of whoever was behind me.
The mare cried out in fear as her neck was surrounded by the curved blade of my weapon. She was a light brown earth pony with a dirty orange mane and tail. She was dressed in torn clothes that did next to nothing to cover her body. She held a crude dagger in her right hand.
"Who are you!?" I growled, trying to keep my eyes off of her mostly exposed body.
"I-I should ask the same of you." She spat back.
"No you shouldn't. Now answer my damn question, before it won't matter who you are anymore." I growled.
"What is that supposed to mean?"
"It means I'm going to kill you if you don't cooperate." I replied, pressing the blade closer against her neck. "Now who are you and what were you about to do with that needle you call a blade?"
"My name is Vine Root. I'm a rogue. You were trespassing on my territory, so I was gonna take you out."
I yanked the blade away from her throat, making it look like I had just slit it.
The mare gasped loudly in fear. Her hands went to inspect her still solid neck. "You crazy bastard! You could have killed me!"
"Would have." I said and turned back to the tree to gather some more of the fruit. "I don't really spare lives that try to end mine. I'm a fugitive after all. Consider yourself lucky."
"And you're still taking all of my food!"
"Not taking all of it… Unless you want them all to be mine and for your blood to nurture the next batch." I replied in a blunt tone. That had kinda sounded a bit darker than I had intended, but I really didn't care at the moment. I knew I could be a really big ass when I'm hungry.
After getting all that I needed, I picked one for myself and bit into it. My senses were instantly struck by a by a tidal wave of sweet, overpowering all my other senses. "Woah! Everything in this place is overpowered!"
"Everything's magical here. There are very few things here that will aid you, but the ones that do, do it better than anything in the world." Vine replied to my exclamation.
"That would explain why the soldiers couldn't catch us."
"Us? I don't even know who you are."
"Not you!" I snapped at the mare. "My lover and I."
"Ah. That makes more sense. You still haven't told me who you are." Vine pried. "Not like I'm going to expose you to the guard. They'd kill me as soon as they saw me. I poisoned the Queen's food with fruit from the Everfree and killed her taster. I'm a fugitive too."
"That was bold… And stupid." I replied, giving her a curious look.
Vine crossed her arms. "I did what I had to do. Now… Are you going to tell me who you are? I might be able to help you out of this alive, but only if we all cooperate."
I groaned loudly. "Ex prince Shining Eclipse."
The mare burst out laughing. "C-common, be serious!"
"I was going to kill you. How much more serious could I be?"
That made her stop. She stared at me for a long moment, before violently shaking her head. "Celestia, you're fucking with me every chance you get!"
"Here! I found him! And he's with the enchantress!" A guards voice called to his comrades.
"Fuck! They found us!" I growled. "Common!" I then grabbed Vine by the arm and took off into a sprint, dragging the mare with me.
"Where are you taking me!?" She cried as I ran.
"Somewhere safe!" I called back. The magic trail I had left behind glew lightly in my vision, leading me back to where I had started. The trail simply vanished as I ran along it, leaving no trace it was ever there. I could hear the voices of the guards. They sounded louder the further we ran.
As we finally broke out into the clearing where mine and Kindle's shelter was located. I made a break for the tree, using my magic to open the entrance, showing a worried looking Kindle.
"What happened!? Who is that!?" Kindle cried as we approached the tree.
I didn't answer. I only grabbed Vine and shoved her into the opening. I then turned towards the edge of the clearing where the soldiers were beginning to emurge. "You will never take me!" I roared at the guards. My horn glowed a dark purple as I summoned my magic, dark purple swirled around me as it built up in magnitude.
"Apprehend him! And get the enchantress! I want to personally give them both to the queen!" What appeared to be the head guard ordered.
I drew my scythe as the group of ten guards charged. I was full ready to slaughter every last one of them.
That was until the unexpected happened.
"Stop!" A familiar mares voice commanded and every last guard halted.
"Shade? Is that you?" I asked, glancing around at the soldiers.
"Ah, Eclipse. I can see my sniveling captain of the guard finally found you. Maybe he's not as useless as I had thought." Shade replied. "I had hoped to find you sooner, but six years gave me at least the time to find the other elements. Come home, my son. Return so I may give you your inheritance, your royal title, your life."
"What makes you think I'm going anywhere with you, Shade!? I'm not your son! Merely the offspring of the body you took!" I shot back.
Shade chuckled. "How nieve. You are more my son than you know. You are the offspring of the body that I control, yes. But you are also the next in line to receive the element of magic. Now since I have corrupted it, the next wielder will become my offspring."
"You wouldn't dare…"
"I've done more than that for six years. I need you. I don't care what I have to do, I'll have you, even if I have to do it myself!" Even as she said this, black and purple smoke began to pool around the hooves of her guard, slowly converging to the center of the group, before raising into a tall pillar. The smoke began spiral, spilling rays purple light through small gaps. Then it stopped moving altogether.
I gripped my scythe tighter, my magic still spiraling around me. 'What fresh hell is this?'
The shadows dispelled, showing a pure black alicorn mare, dressed in smoking grey armor. A twin bladed sword sat strapped to her back. Shade still looked exactly the same as when I had last seen her. She smiled at me, exposing her fangs. "Finally, after six years. I have found you. And my have you grown."
"And so you show yourself, Shade. What have you done with the other elements?" I growled at her.
"The others? Oh they're all safe, cozy, and warm back at the castle." She replied, still smiling.
"Why don't I believe you?"
Shade shook her head. "Because you don't want to. I may have killed Celestia, but I'm not that sick. I need the elements. I need their cooperation. Without the new element of magic, the other elements are useless."
I heard a low growl from behind me. I knew it was Kindle and I was happy for the support, though it wasn't much. "So you want me to give just give up my freedom?"
She chuckled. "Give up your freedom, huh?... Eclipse, I don't want to take your freedom at all, quite the contrary. I want you to take my place. I want you to be able to have whatever you want, whenever you want it, just by taking it from those too weak to stand up to you. All I want is to be able to watch you do it."
My eyes narrowed. "And if I refuse?"
"I'll take you… And kill your little zebra you call a lover." Shade replied with a vicious smile. "What's it gonna be, lover boy? You know I have the full capability of doing whatever I want to you right now and there's nothing you could do to stop it."
'I can do more than you know.' I thought angrily as a plan came to mind.
Shade held out her hand, gesturing for me to take it. "Come, my son. Your destiny awaits."
"You know nothing of my destiny!" I growled at her as I released my magic. A large, purple runic spell circle formed beneath me and the tree my lover and the enchantress were inside of.
Shade's eyes widened. "No!" She sprinted towards me, baring her fangs in a warning.
Black lightning sprouted from the ground and enveloped us just as the nightmare drew her blade to strike me, only for her to vanish from our vision.
Shimmering Shade: thirdperson
Shimmering leaped at Eclipse, intent on maiming him, just when he and the two others, along with the free vanished. It left a huge crater in the ground from where the trees roots had been, that in which Shade immediately fell into, tumbling down the slope and crashing at the bottom. Her groan of pain could be heard from the bottom of the crater.
Every single guard there gasped loudly. "Don't just stand there, you idiots! Somepony get down there and help her!" The captain ordered.
Two pegasus guards flew down to help, grabbing her by the arms, and flying her out of there. They landed in front of the captain. The alicorn was bruised slightly around her right eye and had a scratch here and there on her body, but otherwise, she seemed ok. "My queen, are you hurt?"
"I'm fine, maggot. No need to worry yourself over little scratches." She spat.
"My apologies."
Shade leaned closer to the stallion. "You found him… You keep your life and your position, captain."
The guard inclined his head. "Thank you, my queen."
"I want you to find him again… I want you to kill his bitch in front of him… Then I want you to stick as many things through him that won't kill him as you possibly can!" Shade roared at him, making the stallion flinch. "Am I clear?"
"Y-yes, my queen."
"Good… Now take me back home. I wish to mend myself."