Eclipse paced beside the train. His mood was--to put it bluntly--fuck off or get fucked up. After Royal’s escape, he had quickly driven himself into an angry wreck, taking all of his willpower just to avoid lashing out at everything around him. It didn’t help that Chief Bloodhoof had little respect, nagging Eclipse over his unnatural abilities every chance he got. He and other buffalo wanted answers, but Eclipse wanted to not give those answers.

Dust Demon had developed a tendency to hover near the mine entrance, occasionally literally, for who knows what reason. That stallion seemed to get more obscure as time passed.

Braeburn and Silverstar were trying to organize the buffalo, only half of whom were actually from Bloodhoof’s tribe. The rest of Bloodhoof’s tribe was still at the train station that Eclipse and company had spotted, while the rest of the buffalo in the mine had been the missing persons from Little Strongheart’s tribe.

Speaking of Little Strongheart’s tribe, the pair of buffalo that Dust Demon had spotted arrived at the mine not long after the rebel takeover. They were supposedly messengers, sent by the chief at Fateweaver’s behest. The tribe was planning something, but the messengers didn’t have any specifics. They merely said that it involved the train station and that Eclipse’s new ‘army’ would be needed.

Eclipse grumbled unhappily, but otherwise thanked the messengers for the information. He turned, seeing Sagebrush inspecting the group of prisoners that they had captured. Some, but not all, of the guards surrendered or were just knocked out in the fight, forcing the rebels to turn the ruins of the guard barracks into an impromptu prison.

Cactus Star popped up in his field of vision, her lime green form surprising him with its sudden appearance.

“Something you want, Star?” he asked, trying to keep the frustration out of his voice.

“You’ve changed.” she said sadly, her expression melancholy.

Eclipse tensed. “What do you mean?” he asked. “I don’t--”

“You’re always so angry, now.” She cut him off. “Ever since you got here. I thought you’d be happy.”

He sighed. “I am. It’s just… some other things came up.” He glanced at her, not expecting the filly to understand.

“Eclipse?” she asked.

“Yeah?”

“Will we get to go home, soon?”

Eclipse paused mid-stride, as he had continued to pace even while conversing with Cactus Star. “Home…” he muttered. “Maybe… maybe we can get help from the princesses!” He looked to the sky before frowning. “No, no… it wouldn’t be that easy.”

Cactus Star laid her ears against her head, disappointed. An idea popped into her head, causing the filly to straighten her back a bit. “What’s your name mean?” she asked, a bit blatantly.

Eclipse paused again. “What?”

“What’s your name mean?” she repeated, louder this time.

Eclipse swallowed, looking around to make sure that no one was listening. “Star… I’m not from around here.”

“I knew that!” she said indignantly. “I asked what your name meant!”

Eclipse sighed. “That’s part of it. See, I’m not from Equestria. Or even this world at all.”

Cactus Star cocked her head to the side. “You’re an alien?” she asked, eyes wide with curiosity.

“Of a sort.” he smiled. “In my world, there is no one who controls the sun and moon. They are wild things, moving of their own accord.”

Cactus Star leaned forward.

Eclipse frowned. “Remember, you can’t tell anyone what I’m telling you.”

She nodded her head in answer.

He smiled again. “On occasion, neither will be in the sky. Sometimes, they would share. Sometimes, they lined up with my world, in a perfect line.”

Cactus Star swallowed. “What happened then?”

He took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “A cosmic event called an eclipse. Their were two kinds, depending on the line up. See, sometimes, my world would sit in the middle, with the sun and moon on either side. This is a lunar eclipse. The moon would have the shadow of my entire world pass over it.”

“What was the other kind?”

“A solar eclipse.” he said, grinning. “Much rarer. The moon was in the middle, casting it’s shadow on my world. If you were in the shadow, which was quite large, you could look up and see the sun and moon, looking like they were one thing. The moon sat in front of the sun, but the sun was larger.” He sat and drew a circle in the dirt, drawing flames around the edge. “In the end, it looked like a great black circle in the sky, with a ring of fire around it. It was so bright that looking directly at it could blind you.”

“What if the sun was in the middle?” Cactus Star asked, taking a seat by the drawing. “What then?”

“It couldn’t happen. The sun could never be in the middle. The way my world works--which is very different from here--wouldn’t allow it. It had to stay on the edge.”

Cactus bloom frowned from where she sat, barely able to keep up. “Oh. So, you named yourself after something that never happens in Equestria?”

“On accident.” He chuckled, laying down next to her. “If Luna and Celestia ever decided to get creative, I might toss a few ideas their way. I wouldn’t count on it, though. Things haven’t changed in so long, I would be a fool to think I could change it now.”

Eclipse and Cactus Star sat in silence for a moment, when Eclipse wiped away the drawing with a hoof and rose to a standing position. “Thank you, Star. I needed to get my mind off things for a moment.”

Cactus Star watched as he left. He trotted over to a group of buffalo, asking for Chief Bloodhoof.

The filly climbed into the train, shuffling about until she found a piece of paper and a box of crayons her father had brought for her. Working from memory, she drew a solid black circle on the sheet, drawing orange and yellow flames stretching out from the edges. She labeled the creation S.E. and folded it into a more manageable size.

The train rumbled along, the herd of buffalo thundering along beside it.

Eclipse sat in the car of the train, drawing a graph of his solar system, complete with the planets orbits and the orbits of a few moons, most prominently the moon of Earth.

Ever since his conversation with Cactus Star, he had been restless. In a good way. Somehow, he felt more energized than ever, skipping sleep last night due to how energetic he was. Trying to release the energy in a creative way, he had begun drawing diagrams and charts associated with a theory he had developed.

He paused and checked over a drawing he had made of Equestria, featuring a sun and moon orbiting on opposite sides of the world, which sat in the middle.

Equestria--the world, not the country--was drawn to be much larger than it’s two satellites, with a dwarf star and a rocky moon of equal size orbiting on opposite sides, always in the exact position opposite the other.

Eclipse cast a glance outside. He shook his head. “Still can’t see curvature. I was hoping it was a fluke, but there is no curve to the horizon. You can lay a ruler across it.” To test this, he lifted his pencil and checked the horizon against it. Perfect line. He felt a hoof on his shoulder. Turning, he came face to face with Braeburn.

“Hm?” Eclipse asked, still partially absorbed with his thoughts and theories.

Braeburn looked at him sadly. “Ya’ll need to stop this. I don’t know if your off your rocker or what, but you didn’t sleep at all last night. You’re bouncing around with that paper, writing down who-knows-what. I tried to make sense of some of this by reading over your shoulder, but its throwing me for a loop. Eclipse, you need to calm down.”

Eclipse clenched his teeth. “I know. But if I don’t do something, then I feel like I’ll explode.” He paused, ear twitching. He quickly brought his pencil up to the paper. “There’s no way a rock planet this large could develop on its own. Perhaps it’s hollow? But then the mass wouldn’t be enough to have a star as a satellite. How could a hollow planet develop? Gravity wouldn’t agree with that too well.” He continued to mumble to himself, turning away only to cast a glance out of a window, only to shake his head after a brief thought.

Returning to his small work area, he was startled by the sight of Cactus Star copying his diagram of Earth’s solar system. The filly rolled up her copy, zooming to her small section of the car once she was done.

Eclipse scanned his diagram once she was done. He ‘hmph’ed to himself as he looked over the shoddily drawn picture. Glancing back to Cactus Star, he picked up his pencil, a grin flashing across his face. “Asteroid belt and Haley’s comet it is…”

His pencil scratching across the paper almost immediately attracted Cactus Star’s attention. Eclipse’s grin widened a bit, as he was doing his best to keep the filly in his field of vision.

Sagebrush unknowingly stepped in front of her, blocking Eclipse’s view. He snorted, turning his full attention to his drawing. Once he was finished, he made several notes on the edge of the paper, regarding other objects in space that he had not included. Finally, he pulled out a second piece of paper. “Time for constellations…”

Cairne Bloodhoof blanched as he realized how serious Eclipse had been when he described his plan. He glanced over at Eclipse and the other ponies, all of whom seemed to be smiling. Looking over the buffalo, Cairne noted that they were more mixed with their opinions on this plan. Some of them were excited, even more optimistic than the ponies. Others reflected Cairne’s attitude.

Three quarters of the buffalo broke off, circling around the train yard. The rest stayed with the train, slowing slightly so it could charge into the train yard unhindered.

Dust Demon pulled the chariot balloon up above, loaded with Sagebrush, Cactus Star, and a trio of rebels. Eclipse jumped off the train, using his magic to burrow underground and still manage to keep pace with the machine.

Cairne took a deep breath as he continued his charge, watching as the train tore through the gate to the train yard. Already, the guards were in complete disarray.

The rest happened quickly, so out of sync as to have happened in sections that had been glued together by time.

Eclipse burst from the ground, toppling one of the guard towers.

The smaller group of buffalo poured through the hole made by the train, making quick work of the guards.

Dust Demon and the ponies riding in the chariot felled another guard tower, luck causing the tower to fall onto a building.

Several guards managed to order themselves, holding the easternmost section of the compound, the same section the prisoners were in.

The larger group of buffalo attacked the resistance from behind, coming in through a hole torn in the camp wall by Eclipse.

Time righted itself once more, returning everything to its proper place.

What few guards remained were fleeing, running along the path to Appleloosa. They were blocked by fifteen buffalo, led by a face Cairne recognized easily enough.

Fateweaver stood, tossing several vials onto the path between the guards and his group of buffalo. They shattered on the ground, loosing a pink mist upon the guards. At first it had no effect, then the fleeing group fell to the ground, each one fast asleep.

The prisoners were released, the sounds of cheers echoing through the area. Now all they were missing was the rest of the one tribe, and two full tribes of angry buffalo warriors would be able to barrel down the path to Appleloosa, as well as the pony responsible for all of this.

Jango. Cairne frowned as he thought of the pony who had caused so much trouble. But he couldn’t be the only driving force behind this. The ‘gang’ was a full on invasion, meaning someone was supplying the bits required to pay for such a large operation to be built so quickly.

Eclipse walked over to stand at Cairne’s side. “I know what you’re thinking.” he said.

Cairne glanced at him, having little doubt that he did.

“You’re right.” Eclipse continued. “But that’s a war for another time. I’m sure I’ll encounter them eventually.”

He trotted away, leaving Cairne to his thoughts. The chief grunted. “It’s a war I plan on partaking in.”