Eclipse groaned as he regained his consciousness. His vision was slightly fuzzy and he had a major headache.

“Well, look who’s awake.” Eclipse looked up to see a bright yellow earth pony with green eyes staring down at him. “Howdy, partner!”

Eclipse was pulled to his hooves by the earth pony, who seemed to buzz with barely restrained energy. “Normally I don’t associate with folk who got thrown in a jail cell, but since ya’ll got tossed in here by Jango himself, you can’t be that bad!”

Eclipse shook his head to clear his vision, but it only seemed to amplify his headache. “Braeburn, I presume?”

The pony nodded.

“Good, because I need your help.”

Braeburn’s face fell. “Uh, that’ll be a problem. See, we’re kinda stuck in here…” He spread his hooves out to indicate the cell they were currently sharing. “Besides, what would you need my help with? I’m only an apple farmer, but I suppose if you’re lookin’ for farming advice I would be one of the best ponies to call. Speaking of farming ponies, you met my cousin, Applejack? She lives--”

“SHUT UP!” Eclipse screamed, already driven to his last nerve. This is exactly why he didn’t want to meet Pinkie Pie.

“Appleloosa’s taken over by a gang, apparently part of a much larger criminal element, the buffalo might as well be in Tartarus for all we know and the ponies who live here are scared absolutely shitless of a corrupt sheriff! That’s what I need help with!”

Braeburn had backed into a corner while Eclipse had been yelling at him. “Er, right…” Braeburn said, rubbing his head. “I can only help you with one of those, and even then, I’m more of a middleman than actual help.”

Eclipse sighed thankfully. “Yes, Little Strongheart. I heard she had been locked up too.”

“Uh huh.” Braeburn nodded, beginning to smile again. “In the basement…” he trailed off, his warm smile leaving his face quite suddenly.

Eclipse nodded. “Go on…” he said, waving a hoof as a signal to keep talking.

“The basement is bad.” Braeburn said, speaking very quietly.

“Why?” Eclipse asked, hoping for a clear answer.

“It’s…” Braeburn’s words caught in his throat. “It’s an interrogation room…”

Eclipse stared at Braeburn, the gears of his mind locked up for a moment. He shook his head to clear it. “Is there a way to the basement?”

“There might be a staircase or something of the like…” Braeburn answered. “You’d need to get out of this cell and down to the first floor. From there, just find a staircase leading underground room and that’s the basement. Used to be a place to store confiscated items or criminal evidence.”

For a moment, Eclipse trotted around the cell, stomping to check the solidity of the floor. He flared his chaos magic, causing Braeburn to jump almost out of his skin. Eclipse knew that the glowing eyes were probably what shocked him the most. “What in the name of--” Braeburn began when he was cut off by Eclipse slamming his hoof into the cell’s floor, opening a hole to the floor below them.

Eclipse jumped through, landing in a room filled with three gang members, each staring at him in surprise. Eclipse raised his head, his mouth a thin line on his face as he stared at them, surprised by their presence until he recalled that jails usually have guards. "Right." He thought to himself. "Stupid thing to forget."

Two of the gang members threw spears at him, but Eclipse flipped a nearby table up, turning into a makeshift barrier. The spear tips burst through the wood, but the spears themselves were buried into the table.

One of the gang members--a unicorn--levitated the table away, allowing the two pegasi to charge at Eclipse. Eclipse grasped the table in his own telekinetic grip, overpowering the unicorn and slamming the table down on the two pegasi. One barrel rolled out of the way, but the other was caught between the table and the ground.

Eclipse grinned down at him. “I’m sorry, were you flying there?”

The pegasus groaned from underneath the table. “Go to Tartarus, you bastard.”

Eclipse jumped forward, grappling with the unicorn. When the second pegasus tried to attack him from behind, Eclipse bucked him away, his chaos magic greatly enhancing his strength. The pegasus landed on the table that was laying on top of his fellow, earning a grunt of pain from the both of them.

Eclipse was thrown off by a spell cast by the unicorn, but he managed to grab a hold of the unicorn’s horn in an attempt to stay on top of the pony. The attempt failed, but the unicorn ended up coming along with Eclipse for the ride across the room.

Quickly finding his footing again, Eclipse took a moment to shove the unicorn’s horn into the wall. The unicorn struggled against the wall, but couldn’t pull himself free. Eclipse turned to find the two pegasi working together to lift the table. He dashed forward, but was already too late.

Eclipse grabbed a spear that had been leaning against the wall, setting it into a defensive position. The two pegasi spread themselves apart in an attempt to flank him. One of them stepped directly underneath the hole in the ceiling that Eclipse had opened up, allowing himself to be ambushed by a yellow pony who was less than happy with the accommodations of his cell.

Braeburn landed square on the pegasus’ back, swinging his hooves wildly. The pegasus fell to the floor from the sudden weight, rolling over to try and escape Braeburn.

Eclipse picked up his spear and threw it, missing the other pegasus by several feet. The gang member laughed. “Where’d you learn to throw? The academy for action movie villains?”

Eclipse didn’t answer, too busy using his magic to levitate the spear over to where it was just behind the pegasus.

The unicorn who had been stuck in the wall fired a blast of magic through his horn, blowing a hole the size of a pony’s head into the wall. Newly freed, he turned, firing a spell at Braeburn, who ducked underneath the projectile.

Seeing this, Eclipse brought both his fore hooves over his head, bringing them down in an arc to strike the ground. Several bars of stone rose up around the pegasus Braeburn had been attacking, sticking into the ceiling to create a makeshift cage.

“Oh, come on!” The pegasus whined, trying to push at the bars.

The pegasus Eclipse had been confronting dashed forward, prompting Eclipse to telekinetically pull at the spear, which had gone unnoticed by the pegasus. The spear stabbed into the back of its target, causing the pegasus’ wings and legs to spasm from the unexpected pain. The wing spasm was enough to lift the pony into the air and send him flying into Braeburn.

The unicorn aimed another spell at Eclipse, who responded by causing the ground underneath the mage to rise up, throwing the unicorn off balance and sending the spell into the floor.

Braeburn took this as his chance to shake off the bleeding pegasus and charge for the unicorn. As he reached his target, Braeburn spun and delivered a hard buck to the pony’s face.

Eclipse ran for a nearby stairwell, the same stairwell that Braeburn had told him about. Leaving Braeburn to fight the last gang member--seeing as one of the others was bleeding out and the last was in a cage--he made his way to the basement of the building, bursting through a second door at the bottom of the stairs.

There, he found a young buffalo in a cage, nursing several bruises. As he came into the room, she raised her head and almost immediately pressed herself against the bars of her cage.

“Come back for more?” Little Strongheart yelled at him. “I’ll take everything you have to throw at me, scum!”

Eclipse pried off several of the bars to the cage, grimacing as he opened a hole large enough for the buffalo to step through. “That how you greet everyone who’s trying to help you?”

Little Strongheart stared at him in disbelief.

“Would you like me to put them back?” Eclipse asked, gesturing at the bars he had taken down. “If not then get moving! Braeburn’s at the top of the steps. He’ll be coming with us.”

“To where?” The buffalo asked, slowly stepping out of the cage, obviously still wary.

"At least she's smart." Eclipse though to himself as he answered. “The rest of your tribe, if you can lead us there.”

Little Strongheart sprinted up the stairwell, Eclipse following soon after. Together, they found Braeburn holding a table leg and breathing heavily, the unicorn out cold at his hooves and several spots on his coat red with blood.

Little Strongheart skidded to a stop next to him. “Braeburn!”

He turned to face her. “Oh, thank Celestia.” He smiled, looking over at Eclipse. “At least something’s going our way.”

Little Strongheart had been about to respond further when Eclipse waved a hoof between them. “Talk later, escape now!” He said hastily, looking out a window for any gang member reinforcements. “What’s the safest way out of town?”

“That’d be the alleys.” Braeburn answered. “We’ll need to stick together. If we can’t do that, we might as well lock ourselves up for em.”

Eclipse sighed. “Okay. Keep your heads down and try not to be seen by anyone looking into an alley from the street. Even if you are seen, stay calm. Most of these gang members don’t know our faces.”

“Right, getting overworked will just make this harder.” Braeburn added, smiling nervously.

Eclipse looked at Little Strongheart. “How far away are the buffalo?”

“Not sure.” She said, shaking her head. “I just know a general area. We could spend days searching for my tribe.”

“Days is better than not having a chance to find them at all.” Eclipse responded. “Out the back door. Go!”

The trio quickly made their way into an alley, hurriedly moving to the town’s edge. Together, the three of them stared at the expanse of sand and rocks before them.

“How long can we last out there without any supplies?” Braeburn asked. “We ain’t even got canteens!”

Little Strongheart stepped up. “I can handle most of that, provided you’re not too weak in the stomach.”

Eclipse glanced at the sun, the glowing orb slowly beginning its trek down the sky. “Where’s the nearest river?”

“Just a few miles that a way.” Braeburn answered.

Little Strongheart smiled. "It's also in the same direction as my tribe."

"Then what are we waiting for?" Eclipse asked, their good fortune being greatly appreciated at the moment. “Let’s get moving!”