"Eclipsa" - Dialogue
Eclipsa - Thought
[~*~] - Time change
{Line Break} - Location change
"You seem like a natural at this, Marco." Eclipsa looks impressed at the boy next to her.
He's holding up a hand with few droplets of seeds, and a single bird on his fingers eating the food. This is impressive for the dozens of pigeons in front of them, feeding on the seeds Marco tossed earlier.
She can't hold back her smile at the sound of birds chirping and wings flapping.
"Thanks," he's in the same as he turns to her. "I know this isn't really a cool thing so I was worried about, you know." A faint blush adorns his cheeks at the word cool.
But she eases his worries with a shake of her head. "I've only known you for a few hours, but so far you left a good impression on me. Not many people get to do that." Pony Head will be jealous. The thought made her giddy with the thought of her two friends meeting.
He shakes his hand lightly, causing the bird to fly next it for him to toss the seeds with the others. The bird follows while he scratches his cheek to hide the growing blush. "You're making me sound very important. I bet you met a lot of important people back home." With a dress like that, I bet she met other rich people.
And she has, but thinking on those boring nobles, and Shastacan, her mood dampened, but is brought up knowing she won't be seeing those people for a long time. "Trust me, Marco, you're a lot better than you give yourself credit for." She scoots closer in hopes he can see sincerity in her smile. "You went out of your comfort zone for me. Not many have done that." Except for Mom."So thanks."
It would've been natural for him to blush at how close she is, but her gratefulness reaches him. So he relaxes. "Just being a good friend."
A good friend, she repeats in her head. I have my reasons for lying, but that doesn't mean I like it. Eclipsa observes Marco checks the seed bag, but he frowns as he finds it empty. If I really want to be his friend, I have to cross that last barrier.
A cacophony of wings flapping overtake the natural peace.
Both teens watch with mild interest as some scatter immediately or stay in the air, chirping. In seconds, all are gone.
"Fly...up...fly," or so they thought. Their eyes shift to the ground to see one bird jumping and flapping its wings.
Eclipsa looks on curiously. Is that, Avian language? But it's almost like a toddler is speaking. The Princess gets up and hurries towards it.
"Eclipsa?" She ignores it for now.
The chirping stops as it hears her, and starts hopping away.
She puffs her cheeks and chirps,"it's okay, I want to help." It stops and turns with its focus entirely on her. It even hops onto her arm which she offered, and then returns to Marco's side.
He stares in awe at what she accomplished. "How did you do that?"
She giggles, and is more mentally prepared to answer. "I have my ways." There's a sense of satisfaction at seeing his baffled, but accepting look, but after that brief moment, the mirth in her voice lessened. "We should figure out what to do with this little fellow."
The bird chirped curiously at her. She smiles, then places her parasol on the blanket and scratches its neck. It croones cutely.
"Maybe we can keep it," that's Marco's suggestion, and while good, it doesn't sit right with her, and it shows. "Or maybe we can give to an animal shelter. They will take good care of him there," he added with haste, thinking he messed up.
"It's not that. I just don't like the thought of him being left behind."
Back in Mewni, she used to talk to them to the point she grew fond of the Pigeons, and to see this one in such a state is tragic for her. There has to be something I can do. There's a pang of relief and guilt at seeing her wand. She stops petting, causing the bird to chirp in what she could translate as disappointment.
"I'm...sorry Eclipsa, but there's not much we can do."
His concern creates a pang of guilt in her. I could, but what would you think?
Eclipsa fancied the thought of showing him magic, so there's no secrets between them, and make true to her promise of showing him a new world, so to speak.
If only dark magic wouldn't have many dark connotations. Her eyes widen. Maybe…
"Eclipsa?" A gentle grasp on her shoulder knocks her out of her thoughts, so she gazes into his chocolate eyes. "You weren't moving. Is everything alright?"
"Y-Yes, sorry, I-hehe," the Princess remembers her etiquette classes as she relaxes into her smile. "I was thinking for far too long."
He smiles in return and leans back with his hand gone. She finds herself missing the closeness. "Well, you can tell me. Maybe I can help."
You can. "Can I tell you something about myself?"
There's a moment of surprise on him, and settles for a calm. "If you want. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to."
"I want to. " She turns her body to face him properly, parasol back in her hand. "I want to trust you."
Whether by her tone or her words, Marco looks at her more attentively, but Eclipsa breaks eye contact as she takes a short breath before looking at the small pigeon.
It chirps, and with its low capability speech, all she can understand is its confusion. "Dark magic has always been a fascination to me. Forget the occult or the mystique, what I like most of it is how it defies nature."
Very carefully, she curls a finger to pet the bird's malformed wing. "White magic can cure injuries and heal ailments, very effectively too, but like everything, there's a limit to what it can achieve."
She stops with the cuddling and lightly tosses the hand up. The small pigeon takes the hint and flaps its wings. It hovers for a second before plummeting onto her palm. It shakes its body cutely before jumping to its feet and looking at her for the next command.
"If the body grew in a natural manner, then no white magic can change it to be something else. As for ailments, unless you know the specific type of affliction, then the caster will spend a large amount of magic curing it."
This is…a lot. Marco wasn't sure what to expect, but definitely not a magical lesson. This is nothing like what Janna described it. Her other friend told him the basic gyst a long time ago: white magic heals and dark magic can hurt and do curses.
"But dark magic is far more flexible, if only people were more open minded." She moves the bird higher so its at eye-level, then shifts the wand so the orb is closer to it. It glows purple.
Marco looks surprised. As in his perspective, that's a well made electronic parasol, until Eclipsa speaks.
"Replica." Wisps of purple ember are projected from the sphere and wrap around its healthy wing. The pigeon tilts its head at it and pecks it curiously. The earthling, on his part, is jaw-dropped.
The flames wash off it and curve around towards the other limb. They wrap around it before expanding outwards.
Those beady eyes of the bird look at the wisps.
She puffs her cheeks and chirps, "Fly."
It tries by flapping its wings, and as it does, the wisps disperse to reveal a more developed limb, glittering purple under the sunlight.
Perfect, Eclipsa is simply glad her first spell worked. It's so much easy to work on small limbs.
What? Marco is having a near opposite reaction. His mind trying to come to terms on what happened. It doesn't help that the bird is starting to drift up, moving around uncertainty and visible unaccustomed.
Until it seems to right itself and hover steadily. The following chirping are unmistakingly happy. It flies higher before going off to the side.
Eclipsa watched on, satisfied, but gazing back at the Earth boy, her head dipped slightly. "Marco?"
His jaw is no longer open at the least, but his wide eyes are staring at her. One hand moves towards the other, slipping underneath the sleeve of his hoodie he twists the skin. "Ow!" He rubs the burn away before refocusing back on her. "Are...Are you a witch?"
She couldn't hold back a snicker. "They wish they could be me." Reality sinks back in as she steadies her breathing like she was thought. "No, I'm not a witch. I'm actually a Princess from my home dimension called Mewni."
Tense silence follows. Eclipsa carries a mask of calmness while Marco is looking at the blanket with that wide-eyed stare.
"I know this is hard to believe-"
"Hard to believe!" She nearly flinched at his outburst. "I saw you cast magic and cure that bird." He motioned in the direction where the pigeon went. "I believe you. I...I just need time."
For the sake of his sanity, he bends both legs to hide his face on them, and hugs them closer. I'm housing a magical Princess. What if something happens? What if my house explodes. His mind goes into a spiral of anything that could go wrong.
Eclipsa is now evaluating her options. I hope I don't have to use Mind Eraser. Maybe I should wait, but what if he decides I'm dangerous. She acknowledges it would be a reasonable assumption. How can I convince him to give me a chance? Going through today's events, she remembers a specific conversation they had during their travel here. I have to try.
She got herself in this situation, and she will make sure the it's the best outcome possible.
With mock-confident movement, she gets up and moves in front of the Earth boy. "Marco." He tenses up, and slowly lifts his head. Eclipsa felt bad at how scared he looks. "I recall you telling me you wished to experience new things. I can introduce you to a magical world, but you need to trust me."
She extends her hand for him to take, and his eyes shift nervously. There's a moment that he looks at her hand, with his expression gaining more confidence, but he seems to pull back in himself and looks at her in distrust. "But why me? I'm…" Marco looks away dejectedly. "I'm me."
Her first thought was to say something encouragely, which she will do, but there's something she has to get off her chest. "You could say I'm being selfish." That wide-eyed look says everything. "I really want to have a friend. Someone who I can have fun with and not hide my real identity. Marco, that person is you, and don't tell me you aren't worthy or anything similar, because you are. Give this a chance, and I promise you won't regret it."
There's a spike of fear as he doesn't move and continues to stare. She seems him swallow, and lift a shaky hand towards hers. Hope and fear clash inside her, but ultimately it's up to Marco now.
Seconds dragged until Eclipsa feels a warmness surrounding her hand. Yes! She wants to jump, cheer and maybe a little that her tutors would disprove of, but she reigns herself in so she doesn't come off as weird to Marco.
In containing her smile, however, she doesn't notice the giddy smile she has, or the purple glow her spade marks create.
And despite the worry still lingering in Marco, he's mesmerized by that light. He's pulled to his feet, and that light fades off.
His sanity may have been questioned, but he admits to himself to be excited, albeit scared, with this new friendship. "What happens now?"
"Now, Marco." She raises their still intertwined hands, to which Marco blushes. "I introduce you to my version of fun. Velvet Winds!" With her wand raised, the orb bursts with a magical glow before purple-white powdered winds manifests out of it.
They swirl around their feet and begin hovering off the ground.
After the initial shock, an excited laugh escapes Marco. "Where do we go?"
"Anywhere!"
Side by side, Eclipsa starts traveling to a random parts of the green forest.
Now this is interesting.
Far higher than both children can see, Glossaryck watches both with a raised eyebrow. Legs folded, one hand holding a pudding cup and the other a spoon.
He takes a large chunk out and eats it. Chocolate is mixed well, the pudding has nice texture, and most importantly, familiar. Looking back at the teens, it doesn't take a genius to see they will continue for hours.
It's not the usual Sun and Star pair, but a change of cast can do good.
The pinkish gem on his forehead glows, and in a flash he's gone.
[~*~]
I think I'm going to love this place. After an hour of mindlessly flying in the air and firing harmless spells to show off, they're nearing Marco's home. A quick Velvet Winds made an hour walk through the forest into five minutes.
"How long are you going to stay?"
"Huh?" She's pulled out of her thoughts, not carrying low large her smile is as she turns to him. The mood must be contagious as even he can't hold it back. "Sorry. What did you say?"
"It's fine. I asked for how long are you going to stay here?"
Her eyes widen briefly. "Oh," but she doesn't pause. "Probably for a year. I'm not really sure, but I hope long, Princess studies are more tiresome than what they should be."
"That's great! That means we will have a lot of time to have fun." That's when his smile switches to a frown with his gaze shifting to the side. "I just hope things don't get too boring for you, because you know, no magic."
Before he could sink any further in his worries, a hand is pressed on his arm. "Marco," the endearment in her tone caught him off guard that he stops. "I had a lot of fun with you." When he looks back at her, he blushes at the caring expression of the Princess. "You had no idea the terrible day I had, and you managed to turn it around into something fun. Thanks."
If his blush wasn't noticeable before, it's now. "Well, I just, I try my best. Heh."
Eclipsa chuckles a bit. Teasing him will never get old. She removes her hand and resumes walking, but stops at noticing something. "Marco, is that your parent's?"
He hurries in step next to her while his blush fades. "That is their van." The red vehicle is neatly parked in the front, but Marco takes a mental account of the time of day. "It's too early for them."
They started walking on the granite path. Marco scared to how he's going to explain the new magical exchange student, and Eclipsa excited to see the people who raised him.
So when they open the door-
"Surprise!" Confetti and party poppers set-off with both teens freezing on the spot.
Underneath a banner stringed to the ceiling that says 'WELCOME' are a pair. The man has broad shoulders and is rather buff, not to the same extent as Mewni knights Eclipsa noted. Almost the same short brown hair as Marco and wearing a yellow buttoned shirt with orange stripes.
The woman is much shorter, slightly taller than Eclipsa. She also has a striking red, waist length hair and wears a peach colored sweater and green skirt.
Both adults have wide smiles and place the party poppers down on the couch.
Marco steps closer with agitation in his tone. "Mom, Dad, why are you guys here?"
"What kind of question is that?" The Mother chides playfully as she approaches the Princess. "Hello, my name is Angie, and we're so happy to have you."
The Princess extends a hand for a greeting. "A pleasure, my name is Eclipsa Butterfly-y!"
Instead of a handshake its a strong hug she receives. "We're all so excited to have you. Now Marco has another friend."
"Mom!" A hot blush rises on Marco's cheek. It doesn't help as his father stepped next to him and wraps an arm around his shoulder.
"Oh, Mijo, you know your Mother is playing around." He leans down and adds with some playfulness in his voice. "You been showing her around and having fun? Hopefully not too much."
"Dad!" Marco pulls his hood up and tries to cover his face with it.
Angie steps away from Eclipsa, who now sports a similar smile. "Your son has been quite a gentleman. Showing me beautiful sights and promising me to take me to the mall."
His mother cheers at his son and steps next to him. She wraps her arms around him in a motherly embrace. "I'm so proud of you! Me and your father can help you pick some stores. It will be great!"
The chatter is practically music to Eclipsa's ears. Everyone here is so kind. She sight of her new friend, whose aware of her identity, being flustered by his parents like this is endearing on its own way. I should save him.
"It's been fun, but..." she snatches Marco's hand and starts pulling him towards the stairs. "He told me he would help me with something. In my room." She felt giddy when Marco's face turned more scarlet, and glad that his parents giggled and didn't take it too seriously.
It ended up being a short trip with their hurried steps, and once inside, the bigger and medieval aesthetics of the room makes him pause to look around.
"Like it?" Of course, she already knew the answer, but it was satisfying to see him nod. She walks to the center of the room, taking in the sight however, makes her frown.
Marco perfectly sums up her thoughts with, "isn't it a bit empty?"
"It is." She turns and flashes him a smile. "That's why tomorrow is going to be an important day. I want to give this place a personal touch."
"I'm sure we'll find something! ...Hopefully." Worry seeps in as a normal mall may not be enough for a magical princess.
"I'm sure we will, so I wouldn't worry too much." She steps closer, and has a smile that makes Marco nervous. "You should go back down. Wouldn't want your parents to think something is going on." She leans closer, her rosey scent hitting him again with her voice close to his ear. "Between a boy and a girl alone in a room."
His cheeks gain a mad blush. "Uuuuuuhhh." He steps back. "I-I think my parents are preparing something for us." His hand fumbles with the door handle until he can manage to open it. "We should g-go down!"
"I will follow you shortly." Before she ended, Marco has crossed and closed the door.
She takes a moment to herself, enjoying the good fortune after yesterday's tragic news, but before heading down, there's a thing she has to do.
The reflection on her full-body mirror shows her dress still in good condition despite the short adventure. "Mirror, mirror, check inbox." Green letters appear on the mirror that reads [There are currently two unread messages].
A bubble of excitement rose in her. "Show message." Did Mom leave them?
[1 message from Lilacia (PH). 1 message from Tom]
That warm bubbling feeling died down with the last name. She grits her teeth. Why does he keep bothering me!? "Delete Tom."
[Are you sure? Yes/No]
"Yes."
[...]
[1 message from Lilacia (PH)]
She sighs heavily. If only I could block him. Stupid Lucitors and their money. Eclipsa shoves her frustrations away mentally. "Open Lilacia."
The reflection on the mirror switches to a video recording. The image of a cyan pony head comes into view. A star tattoo mark near the base of the neck, a horn and a wild pink mane that seems to catch an invisible wind. "Hey, guuurl." The princess giggled at her friend's 'uncouth' behavior. "How's it going?" Pony Head is wearing a cocky smirk with her neck angled in some type of pose, but that fades to reveal for a frown. "Augh! It sucks that I couldn't make you a party. So, like, why did your Mother even cancel the ceremony. We were supposed to get wild with those sick spells of yours." Her neck curves with her head shifting up in her own way to shrug. "Anyways, I will be at the Bounce Lounge. Call me when you decide to have fun. End message."
Eclipsa didn't think long what she did next. "Reply."
[...]
[00:00:00]
[00:00:01]
"Hi, Pony Head." Don't reveal too much. "I'm sorry, but I won't be available for some...a long time." She fiddles with the handle of her wand. "And hey, look," Eclipsa shows her wand-parasol. "It's not a sword, but looks elegant." Her smile strains and replaces the parasol on her shoulder, "This...isn't a goodbye, just a see you later. I know we got messages and such, but I know you enough that you will get bored of that. So...see you later. End message."
The countup stops as she stares at her own reflection.
She takes a breath and exhales. "Call, Mother." She used to say Mom, but that at times got misinterpreted for Tom for an odd reason.
It beeps once, then again, and a third until it spells [Redirecting to message. Yes/No]
"Yes." She felt a pang of disappointment, but understands and smiles. "Hey, Mom. Earth, well, Marco's home is pretty amazing so far. You remember Marco, the boy you terrorized. Heh, good times." She gazes away briefly as if talking to another person. "Mom, Marco is a good friend, so please be gentle with him next time." Her smile is filled with reassurance, "He turned this into a fun day. So can you do it for me?" There's a longer pause as she bites her lower lip, "Mom, I know that I'm here because I could've been a distraction during the war, but I will prove myself worthy of the wand and maybe someday stand beside you in battle. ...End message."
She takes a shaky breath and exhales the same manner. Tomorrow, no excuses. First training, then the mall.
But today, she will go downstairs and enjoy an enjoyable breakfast with her new hosts and friend.
Beta: Tapp
A/N: It's been a long fight, but finally I done it. I completed the chapter. I had it completed earlier, but my beta gave me some suggestions, and I took them to heart. The chapter is much better than before, because the original version didn't have Eclipsa do a short talk of white and dark spells, or helping the little pigeon.
Next chapter we will go back to Mewni, and I will have fun introducing two special OCs of mine.
Please leave a review and let me know what you think. Any suggestions, favorite parts?
