A trio of buffalo met them outside the camp. The trio eyed the group warily until Little Strongheart came forth, stepping up to them. She whispered something into the ear of the lead buffalo, glancing back at Eclipse several times.

The gray and brown earth pony snorted. “If I end up in a cage thanks to her, we’ll have buffalo stew.”

Sagebrush nudged him. “Relax. They’re smart and fairly peaceful. If ya’ll don’t provoke em, we should be just fine.”

Braeburn tilted his body to the side in an attempt to look past the quartet of buffalo in front of them. “Uh, we have some big shot company…”

“Who?” Eclipse asked, using a hoof to paw at the dirt, a deep frown on his face.

“The chief.”

A buffalo wearing a large headdress walked around the group. Little Strongheart gave him a large hug when he walked into her field of vision, but she continued speaking in hushed tones.

The chief glanced at Eclipse, before turning towards the other three. “Find the shaman.” He requested. “We have a test.”

He turned back to the group of ponies. “You may follow Little Strongheart. All except for you.” He pointed at Eclipse. “You need to follow me and meet with our shaman.”

Eclipse bristled slightly. “Why?” he demanded.

The chief smiled. “Did you not hear? We have a test.”

Chief Thunderhooves deposited Eclipse outside a tent, telling him to wait.

Eclipse sat down on the hard packed dirt, more than a little miffed at the trouble he was being given. After a few moments, he heard a voice come from the tent.

“Well, this is the testee, I take it?”

Eclipse turned to find a medium age buffalo step out of the tent. He grinned at the pony.

“So let’s see it.”

Eclipse blinked. “What?” he asked, taken off guard by the vague request.

“Your magic, boy!” The buffalo sighed. “We need to see what kind of wielder you are!”

Eclipse remained still. “I repeat; What?”

The buffalo stared at him for a long moment. Eclipse was about to ask why he had become so still when the buffalo’s eyes began to glow a soft orange.

The shaman charged. Eclipse jumped up and to the side, but the buffalo had somehow known exactly where he would try to go. Eclipse quickly found himself sprawled about on the ground, a trio of canaries flying circles above his head.

Eclipse, unthinking, lashed out with his magic, a spire of rock jutting up and almost impaling the buffalo in the side. The only reason the shaman was still alive was because Eclipse was still too dazed to aim.

The buffalo grunted in approval. “Disharmony? That’s a rare treat. But wait…” he trailed off, taking a moment to pick up his sentence again. “There’s something else.”

Eclipse accidentally spurred the orange energy he had been given into action. An orange phantom of the shaman charged away from him, towards Eclipse, followed only moments later by the actual shaman.

Using the phantom to time his strike, Eclipse managed to trip the shaman and punch him in the side of the head, sending the large buffalo stumbling away.

The shaman slowly turned back towards Eclipse. The orange glow in his eyes returned, and Eclipse found that the one phantom image had turned into many. Dozens of orange phantoms burst from the buffalo, each using a different method to attack Eclipse with blows that would never land, or to dodge attacks that never came.

Eclipse watched for several moments until his head began to hurt from the massive amount of movement. The buffalo chuckled.

Turning off whatever magic had caused the display, the buffalo marched towards Eclipse, an orange phantom leading just several paces ahead of him. When the phantom punched at Eclipse, it gave him enough warning to duck under the shaman’s hoof and strike him in the gut, twisting away to avoid a counterattack.

Despite the pain, the buffalo managed to smile. “And so we see the power of honesty.”

Eclipse frowned. “For the third time: What?”

The shaman cracked his neck. “Call me Fateweaver, but that name is a bit misleading.”

Eclipse nodded as Fateweaver recovered from their brief fight. “Time to get you up to speed on what you were just using, I believe.” He turned to Eclipse, placing a hoof on the pony’s shoulder. “Honesty, the orange magic we were just using? Simply put, it’s ‘seeing the truth’.”

“The truth?” Eclipse asked.

“Lower power makes you a living lie detector.” The buffalo continued. “At higher levels of output, you can see a short distance into the future, as we just demonstrated.”

“The phantoms?” Eclipse asked.

“Exactly.” The shaman nodded. “Did you see how when we both had honesty, I had innumerable futures? I saw the same for you.”

“Because when I saw you in the future, I worked to counter that.” Eclipse mumbled, beginning to grasp the power of honesty.

“And I, to counter that.” Fateweaver picked up. “The end result is an incomprehensible mess of possibilities. But, that’s not all we need to discuss.”

Eclipse swallowed. “There’s more of these powers out there? Each with a different effect?”

“Changeling, unicorn, the six of harmony, chaos and possibly others that I do not know of.” Fateweaver nodded. “To posses one is an incredible gift, but two? Unheard of.” He stopped, tapping a hoof to his chin. “Well, not unheard of, but that typically only occurs with either changelings or unicorns, whose races are built to channel their respective magic. Some of those two have been able to use other types, but it typically came with sacrificing a bit of their talent with their natural magic.”

“And I, as an earth pony--”

“Broke my understanding of these concepts.” Fateweaver finished, grinning broadly. “Changeling magic focuses on deception. Unicorn, manipulating the natural world. Chaos, or disharmony, with altering the laws of reality completely, as opposed to simply bending it like unicorn magic.”

“And the six of harmony?” Eclipse asked, curiosity reaching a boiling point.

“Honesty, you have seen. Loyalty uses such traits as hypnosis and mind tricks to manipulate opponents. In a nutshell: your victims become loyal to you.” Fateweaver chuckled. “Kindness has healing powers, as well as manipulating plants and animals. The element of magic is just that: It enhances your latent magical abilities. Because of this, it may never be noticed by the wielder or any other.”

“But what if you have no other magic?” Eclipse rebutted. “What then?”

“Pegasi control weather, unicorns and changelings are spoken for, earth ponies are natural emitters of a life giving aura, hence their abilities with farming, and each of the other races have some sort of similar trait.”

Eclipse rubbed his head. “This is a lot to take in.”

“Be glad this is the quick version.” Fateweaver replied. “Let’s see… Oh, yes! Laughter. Eh, think scaled down chaos magic. Powerful in its own right, but not as strong as pure disharmony.”

“So, the six powers of harmony are individually weaker than the other known types of magic?”

“Ding! You win the grand prize!” Fateweaver gave Eclipse a wide grin.

Eclipse rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”

“Lastly, generosity involves memory magic. Not mind control, but rather the construction and destruction of memories. It requires patience and care to use properly, or you might end up completely wiping the mind of your target. Think of it as designing a dress. All the pieces must fit properly or the final product is a mess.” Fateweaver rubbed his chin with a hoof. “I believe that just about covers it…” He let out a loud ‘hmph’.

Eclipse frowned. “Why did you tell me any of that?”

Fateweaver sucked in a breath. “That’s a good question, isn’t it? Another one would be, why would you believe me?”

Eclipse opened his mouth, but no words came out. He sat down in the dirt, Fateweaver watching him closely. The seconds ticked by until Fateweaver glanced at the sky. “Come on.” he urged. “You have a meeting to attend.”

Eclipse wordlessly followed Fateweaver as the buffalo turned and left, heading deeper into the buffalo camp. Several of the buffalo had injuries, few of which were serious. More worrying than that, however, was how few of them their were. The camp was two-thirds the size it should have been, the tents having nowhere near the numbers needed to house the entirety of the buffalo tribe. Despite this, there wasn’t any overcrowding, meaning that the tribe itself was also far smaller than it should be.

Eclipse and Fateweaver approached a circle of logs, at which sat the buffalo chief, several buffalo warriors and teh ragtag group that had accompanied Eclipse this far, minus Sagebrush and Cactus Star.

Fateweaver cleared his throat, turning the heads of all those present. The chief motioned him forward, as well as Eclipse. Fateweaver and the chieftain shared a glance before the chief turned back to the congregation.

“As I was saying, we can’t spare you any fighters. We are too few.”

Braeburn ground his teeth slightly. “If ya’ll don’t help, Appleloosa will never be free! Jango needs to be brought down!”

“I understand, Braeburn.” Thunderhooves replied sadly. “If it was my home, I would want to fight as well. But be that as it may, my tribe cannot fight, no matter our personal feelings. Again, we are too few.”

Eclipse stood up. “But it is your home.” he said, a slight trace of anger in his voice. “With Appleloosa as a staging ground, that gang has the better part of this desert in its pockets. Your tribe included.”

The chief frowned. Silence reigned for a few moments until he answered. “There is a train. Not the one that runs through the town. Several of my scouts have seen buffalo being loaded onto it, as well as a group of ponies who have been fighting an uphill battle against this gang in the nearby desert.” He closed his eyes. “I’m afraid that this is all I can offer.”

Dust Demon sprang up. “Ponies? Was Silverstar with them?”

The chief sighed sadly. “I don’t know if the old sheriff was there or not. The scouts wouldn’t dare get closer.”

Eclipse pointed at Dust Demon. “Get yourself strapped in. It’s still midday and we’re not going to waste any time.” He turned to Braeburn. “Where’s Sagebrush and his daughter?”

The yellow pony jumped to his hooves. “They stayed next to the balloon.”

Eclipse sighed. “Good. That’s good.” He glanced at Little Strongheart. “Staying here, then?”

Little Strongheart blinked.

Eclipse took that as a yes and sprinted after Dust Demon, Braeburn on his heels.

Fateweaver snorted. “Didn’t you once have that same fire?” He said, directing his question toward his chief.

Thunderhooves raised an eyebrow. “Oh, I’ve got plans, Fateweaver. Unfortunately, the ponies can’t know them, or they would feel used and manipulated.” He addressed the other buffalo at the meeting. “Get twenty warriors and find me a grindstone! We’ll not sit this battle out!” He stomped his hoof, sending his men running to fulfill their orders.

Fateweaver stared at his chief in shock. “But, you said--”

Thunderhooves cut him off. “I’m not going to explain myself just yet, old friend. Get some of that sleeping gas of yours ready. The tribe will play our part, but first our brethren need to be free.”