Carbondale, Illinois
“Arggh,” Rainbow Dash groaned as she stepped out of the Rainboom bus, stretching her back and taking in the fresh summer air. “Feels good to get out of that cramped thing.”
“Oh, I’ll say,” Fluttershy agreed, rolling her neck and shaking her head in an attempt to loosen up.
“I’m just glad we made it before totality,” Applejack added.
“Yeah! Too bad we missed the start of it though,” Pinkie Pie said with her own bubbly voice, enthusiastic as ever.
The seven girls piled out of the bus onto the pavement of a strip mall parking lot. Around them were several dozen other cars, all set up and tailgating one another. The humid air of the lot was beginning to make them sweat, evident by their shared discomfort.
“So why did we need to drive 6 hours in the bus again?” Sunset Shimmer asked her friends, her being the last to step out after them.
“Because of the eclipse, duh.” Rainbow Dash scoffed.
“And because I have some interesting experiments to run while it’s still going,” Twilight added.
“Okay, well what’s an eclipse?” Sunset asked.
The six other girls stared at her. Their silence hung in the air for a long moment, each of the girls showing mixed stages of bewilderment and confusion at Sunset’s comment. They didn’t know how or why she never heard of an eclipse.
“You don’t know what an eclipse is?” Fluttershy asked, incredulous. Her soft voice had risen in volume ever briefly.
“No, I don’t. Would someone care to explain it?” Sunset replied, a bit indignant. She’d looked between the faces of her friends, given that each of them was surprised by her lack of knowledge, she looked over to Rarity, who’d sighed.
“We’ve been talking about this for week,” Rarity said, sounding very much exasperated. “Why didn’t you ask about this earlier?”
“I’ve been trying to,” Sunset began. “But every time I do, there’s either something else we need to talk about or a convenient distraction, as if for comedic timing, popped up,” Sunset tossed a glare at Pinkie Pie.
“I said I was sorry about the random confetti bombs,” Pinkie replied, flashing a smile of innocent guilt. “I mean, how was I supposed to know most people don’t like getting a party favor during the day?”
Sunset rolled her eyes. “And on top of that, most of you were either asleep or driving throughout most of the trip. So, would someone please explain to me what an eclipse is?”
“Sorry sugarcube,” Applejack started, rubbing the back of her head with a sheepish smile. “We all kind of figured you knew, what with you being the second most scientific-like out of us.” Applejack nodded over towards Twilight, who was crouched on the ground, plotting out something on a map.
“I don’t know everything,” Sunset replied flatly. “Earth is a lot different than Equestria. I had no idea what an Internet was before I got here and I bet none of you know what an Anti-Magic stall is either.”
“Fair point I reckon,” Applejack said. “An eclipse is-“ But Applejack was cut off as Rainbow Dash put a hand in front of her face.
“So you really don’t know what an eclipse is?” Rainbow Dash interjected. Her hand was held over the mouth of Applejack, silencing her and cutting her off all the same. A smirk was visible, a hint that she had something a little more in mind than an explanation.
“If I did, would I have to keep asking?” Sunset said, gritting her teeth in irritation at this point.
“I think it’ll be much easier to show you,” Rainbow Dash said reaching into her backpack and pulling out pairs of solar eclipse glasses. She handed one to Sunset, who was visibly hesitant in taking them, Rainbow Dash’s grin making the whole situation all the more distrusting.
“What the hay do you have goin’ on?” Applejack asked, batting RD’s hand away.
“Just watch,” Rainbow couldn’t help but snicker a bit.
Pursing her lips into an uncertain frown, Sunset unfolded her glasses, giving a ‘test’ glance through them as she peered through the lenses. “Okay, what even are these? You can’t even see out of them.”
“They’re solar glasses. You wear them so you can look up at the sun without worrying about damaging your eyes,” Twilight stated. Putting on her own pair of glasses, she’d joined the rest of the girls who’d put on theirs and looked up into the sky.
With an unsure grumble, Sunset put on her own pair. The world was colored in a blackish tint as she scanned around the parking lot. She saw nothing as the glasses seemed to block out all light. Looking up into the sky, Sunset spied the celestial body overhead… she did however, note something was wrong immediately.
The Sun was dimmed orange by the glasses, but its shape was wrong. While the color was still very much the same, its nice, round shape had changed. In place of it, a large crescent was forming along the side, giving a large shadow over the celestial body. It was as though something was blocking it.
“What is that!?!” Sunset exclaimed. Her voice had risen in a panic as she’d pointed towards the dark object moving in front of the sun..
“It’s the Moon, silly!” Pinkie pie said, giggling all the while.
“Oh Celestia, oh Celesta... Oh sweet Celestia!” Sunset Shimmer cried, shaking in sheer terror. Curling up into a ball, the poor girl tucked her head against her legs, bracing her arms over her head upon the pavement.
“Hahahaha!” Rainbow Dash broke into a guffaw, taking off her glasses and pointing at her friend. She couldn’t help but to laugh at her friend’s overreaction and panic.
“This is not the time to be laughing, Rainbow!” Sunset screamed, drawing a few, nearby pairs of eyes their way. Rising from her spot on the concrete, she grabbed her friend by the fabric of her vest and started to shake her. “This might be the end of times as we know it! Nightmare Moon might come back! The Long Night will be upon us!”
“Um... Sunset? Could you possibly stop shaking Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy asked meekly, unnerved by Sunset’s outburst. She’d taken off her own glasses and pointed towards Rainbow who’d struggled to even raise her head upright while groaning. “I think she’s about to pass out.”
Rainbow Dash fell to her knees against the pavement, holding her head, and herself upright - barely - as she groaned from the violent shaking she’d only just experienced. Sunset, dropping Rainbow, went over to Fluttershy, grabbing her by the blouse and pulling her in.
“We have to call the Princess of the Sun- or the President! Whoever you have in charge of it here!” She once again cried. The volume of her voice had lowered, causing much of the curious eyes to go back to looking at the eclipse above. She still was very much worked up, however.
“I don’t know why you keep changing them every couple of years. How do you end up doing anything if you keep getting kicked out every five years or so?” Sunset said, looking off to the side and talking mostly to herself. She’d let go of Fluttershy then, who’d whimpered and took several steps back.
“Glad we have that rule, especially now…” Applejack muttered, comforting their shy friend.
“Let’s not bring politics into this. Heaven knows we don’t get enough involved in them already.” Rarity replied, joining the shared exchange of glances directed at Sunset. “But I think Sunset might need our help.”
“‘Reckon you’re right,” Applejack said rolling up her sleeves. She gripped Sunset’s shoulder gently but firmly as she turned Sunset to face her. “Sunset-“
“Applejack!” Sunset immediately interrupted. “What is the phone number for the President?! We have to call them now!”
“Sunset… I mean this in the nicest way possible,” Applejack started, her voice raising, “but you need to calm down and stop actin’ all crazy-like”
“Calm down? Calm down?!” Sunset yelled, losing her cool once again. “The Moon is blocking the Sun!”
“And then it will move past it!” Applejack yelled back, practically screaming in Sunset’s face. With a sigh, the farmgirl let go of Sunset.
“What?” Sunset asked, not expecting this reply. Her outburst had died down immediately, now replaced with utter bewilderment as she stared at Applejack.
“The Moon’s just going to move over the Sun, cover it for a few minutes and then move past it,” Applejack stated, reassuring her friend. “That’s what an eclipse is.”
“So everything’s going to be fine?” Sunset said, taking in deep breaths as her panic faded and her heart stopped racing.
“Eeyup,” Applejack nodded.
“No Eternal Night? No Nightmare Moon coming among us?”
“No, silly,” Pinkie Pie said, giggling innocently as she wrapped her arm around Sunset, hugging her.
“So this is just something that happens here? The Moon covers up the Sun?” Sunset further questioned, having more or less gotten ahold of herself.
“About every two or three years, give or take,” Twilight added. “In fact Carbondale will have another one in about seven years from now.”
“Oh,” Sunset said softly as her face started to turn a very bright shade of red. “I.. Kind of acted a bit- er rashly there, didn’t I?”
“‘Reckon you did there,” Applejack replied, giving a swift and singular pat on the back of the once startled girl. “I’m guessing you don’t have things like this occur in Equestria?”
“No,” Sunset responded, shaking her head. “The Sun and Moon there are controlled by Princess Celestia. Well- her and Princess Luna now I suppose. The idea of the planets going off on their own is just so strange...”
“Actually, they’re not planets,” Twilight corrected. “They’re-“
“Not now dear,” Rarity whispered to Twilight, having leaned in.
“Just try not to worry too much about it,” Applejack said, shrugging as she went to looking back at the eclipse high above. “Lots of people tend to panic around an eclipse, especially before we knew what was going on, thinking it was the end times and all that... You’re not the first.”
“And not the last either!” Pinkie Pie said as she looked through her phone over eclipse conspiracy theories.
“Still all the same, you mind if we just forget this incident ever happened?” Sunset asked sheepishly.
“Done.”
“I’ve already forgotten it, dear.”
“Okie-dokey!”
“Um, I can do that I guess.”
“I’m fine with that.”
“Purple banana phone, please!”
The girls turned to look at Rainbow Dash. The cyan-dressed girl had spaced out, looking a bit lost as she was still struggling to regain the simplest of bearings.
“Are you okay there, Rainbow?” Sunset asked. Kneeling down, she’d taking Rainbow’s arm across her shoulder, helping her back onto her feet.
Rainbow shook her head clear, stepping away from Sunset as she groaned. “Okay note to self: don’t get you in a panic.”
“Serves you right,” Applejack smirked.
“Oh can it, It was funny and you know it.” Rainbow Dash said.
“So?” Applejack replied. “Still don’t mean you didn’t have it comin’.”
“I thought we moved past this girls,” Rarity said annoyed.
“So what happens now?” Sunset asked, changing the topic before the two started butting heads again.
“We wait for the full eclipse now,” Rainbow Dash said as she looked up with her solar glasses. “Should be about... Ten more minutes until it shows.”
“What happens then?” Sunset asked, putting back on her solar glasses and looking up to the Sun. The Sun at this point, had since become further shadowed, its shape being a mere slim crescent.
“Now that I won’t ruin for you,” Rainbow Dash said, leaning back against their bus and looking up. “It’s something you’ll remember for sure.”
“Yeah, ‘going to agree with Rainbow here,” Applejack said. “Just you wait for it, but don’t worry. It ain’t nothing to fret over.”
“So ten minutes until the Moon is completely in front of the Sun then?” Sunset asked.
“It’s called totality,” Twilight answered. “...And yes.”
“Not if those mean clouds block it,” Pinkie Pie said, pointing up to a rather large cloud lazily drifting in front of the sun.
“OH COME ON!” Rainbow Dash yelled up to the sky.
“That cloud’s far too big,” Twilight said. “It’s not going to move out of the way in time.”
“If we only could control the weather...” Pinkie Pie mused, grumbling all the same.
“Well if our magic is anything like it is in Equestria,” Sunset began, “then Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy could-“
“Fluttershy, that’s it!” Rainbow Dash interrupted, snapping her fingers as a light bulb went off in her heard.
“What?” Fluttershy responded meekly, confused at Rainbow Dash’s mentioning of her name.
Following up, Rainbow Dash took of her solar glasses, putting the rims atop her head as she walked over to the aforementioned friend. “Fluttershy, you know what happens to animal when an eclipse happen, right?
“Well, they do get a little frightened because them not knowing what’s going on…” Fluttershy responded in turn, trailing off a bit.
“I heard there was a bunny farm not even ten miles straight south of here, and they have a whole bunch of newborn rabbits. I bet they’ll be scared beyond belief if we don’t get there soon.”
“What are you planning Rainbow?” Sunset and Applejack asked in unison.
“Everyone into the bus NOW!” Fluttershy said, pushing and cramming everyone back onto the bus.
Taking the driver seat, not even giving her friends a chance to regain their bearings or get their seatbelts on, Fluttershy put her foot down on the gas. To this day, authorities can’t explain the plaid pattern that seemed to have etched itself onto the streets.
“I don’t think we can take much more of this!” Applejack yelled, her body sinking back into the seat as she was certain they were well above - and then some - the speed limit.
“Don’t worry,” Rainbow Dash said chuckling at the insane speeds they were traveling at, in a similar position to Applejack. “I built this baby to last, she can handle a little speed!”
“I meant our spines!” Applejack yelled back, holding onto the seat for dear life.
Fluttershy, still keeping the pedal to the metal, sped down street after street towards their destination. There were instances where they came close to rolling over, adding to the amount of yellow lights they’d passed with seconds to spare, drifting in and around corners as they made their way south. With a few minutes of the desperate and hasty driving, they had just barely made it out of the shadow of the cloud.
“Okay Fluttershy, take a right up here,” Rainbow Dash pointed to a gravel road off to the side. “...And then stop.”
Fluttershy did just that, grinding the van to a halt. Everyone in the back seats lurched forward as the change in momentum made their insides shift, feeling their seatbelts dig in with it. “Okay where are those bunnies!? They’re going to be so scared.”
“Fluttershy,” Rainbow Dash said, unsticking herself from the seat. There was the hints of a smile forming on her lips. She’d planned this through entirely. “There were no bunnies. I lied.”
“What!? Rainbow Dash!” Fluttershy said aghast. “How could you?”
“Because we can now see the eclipse.” Rainbow Dash said, pointing out to the field they were in, still bathed in the dimming sunlight. “For what it’s worth though, I’ll put in 5 hours at the animal shelter.”
“Deal,” Fluttershy said smiling as she and the rest of her friends got out of the bus.
The Sun was but a sliver in the sky, still too bright to look at directly without the provided glasses, however.
“We’ve got about a minute left,” Twilight said looking up from a chart.
Slowly but surely, the small sliver of light faded until there was nothing.
“We have totality!” Twilight proclaimed. “You can take off your glasses.”
“But won’t it be dangerous?” Sunset asked, unsure.
“Not during totality, just look!” Twilight replied, pointing up.
Taking off her glasses, following with the rest of the girls, she’d looked up, gawking at the sight she was bearing witness to. High above, beyond the reaches of the sky and clouds, the Moon had shadowed the sun entirely; a black orb in the sky with the Sun’s white hot corona burned, flicking its wisps of embers about around the sides. The sky, all around them amidst the deep purple of the sunset and deep orange, added to the effect of the eclipse. There were even a few stars visible too.
“Wow,” Sunset could only manage, a sentiment shared by her friends.
“Here,” Rainbow Dash passed Sunset a pair of binocular, not taking her own eyes off of the Sun.
Raising the binoculars to her eyes, Sunset could see all the different strains of the corona, each looking like a fine filament. To the left of the sun though, was another star. It wasn’t visible with the corona blocking it out however.
“Hey, there’s another star next to the Sun!” Sunset cried out, lowering the binoculars briefly.
“That’s gravitation lensing,” Twilight quickly responded, sounding as a matter of fact. “It proves the theory of relativity.”
“Cool,” Sunset said, reminding herself to look up more about that when they got home.
The group then just stood there, looking at the Sun in awe and wonder. They could have stayed there forever. However time and orbital mechanics prevented that as slowly the sun started to creep out from behind the Moon.
“And totality is over,” Twilight said as the sun burned bright into their eyes once more. All seven of the girls sighed, looking away before they’d caused damaged to their eyes.
“Dang, that was really fun,” Pinkie Pie said a little depressed it was over.
“It really was,” Rarity quickly agreed.
“So Sunset, what did you think of your first eclipse?” Applejack turned asking the pony now turned human.
“That. Was. AMAZING!” Sunset said, her face turning into the biggest grin any of them besides Rarity had ever scene. “What with the Sun and the Moon and the white fire things, the sky, the colors… Wow!”
“Yeah, it was pretty awesome!” Rainbow Dash replied back.
“Well we probably should be getting back. Classes start tomorrow after all.” Applejack said as the group grumbled back into the bus, annoyed at the reminder about the end of summer.
Back up the gravel road from whence they came, they’d soon set themselves back on the main road into Carbondale. The drive back was much slower compared to their hasty exit, and that alone was enough to give a sense of relief to Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity. Pulling up to an intersection, the first of many on their way back, the bus slowed to a halt as it waited for traffic to pass.
“So Twilight, were you able to get the data you wanted?” Fluttershy asked as the bus pulled up to the intersection.
“Oh, I didn’t get any data on the eclipse,” Twilight replied, an unusual smile etched onto her face.
“What? Why not?” Sunset questioned, cocking a brow.
“Because NASA and a whole bunch of other scientific groups will have plenty of data on that - more than what I’d be able to gather on my own. I’m here to study something else,” Twilight said as the bus was about to go through another intersection. A squeal of the tires suddenly had them stop a little ways in front of the stop sign.
“A little warning next time Applejack please!” Rarity said, .
“Sorry, it’s just there a whole bunch of cars up ahead of me an’ one of them just zipped by and cut me off. Not that it did him much good, he’s only three cars ahead of us,” Applejack said. “I swear there are more cars here than ants in an anthill.”
“Oh perfect, just the data I was looking for!” Twilight squeeed.
“Twilight,” Sunset asked wearily. “What is it that you’re planning on researching?”
“The travel patterns and congestion surrounding seminal events with inadequate traffic flow,” Twilight smiled as the bus grinded to a halt in a sea of cars.