She sat looking out of the lit deck. All was shone upon and it shone a mustard shade of yellow. She would have closed her eyes minutes ago, but she felt intoxicated by the vapors that danced for her. The window showed a panorama of wild, dusty, gaseous forms. Every once in awhile a hellish burst of lightning fell out of the vaporic clouds, and almost without fail she flinched. It whipped and passed in and out of it’s self. The ship moved, and the spectacle ran away from the static frame. She lost the lively sensation, and sulked a moment. She attempted to even out her body on the uneven pleather sofa. Her eyes closed. Anywhere, but here.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
She lowered herself by a pond looking into the countless ripples that morphed the form of a passing fish. She gasped in surprise and quietly fell back onto her haunches. The filly sighed. She took a moment check the treeline to see if her sister had seen her. She always had to be tough around her. Her sister was the strongest person she knew. She smiled to herself.
She heard the crunch of a branch in front of her. It stood in the brush far across the pond. Silent, it watched. A faint buzz radiated off somewhere on the summer afternoon. The filly’s eye twitched, still fixated on the thing. She gulped in the tense silence. It spoke words carried by the water “For a time we have been here,” it moved parting the water “We’ve fell once already,” it froze all. The buzz ceased the water no longer moved “I’m not sure we’ll survive the next.” The water dropped and it had left. The filly resumed breathing with a bit of apprehension and got back to her hooves. She looked around once more. The water flowed. The buzz buzzed. All was normal, but nothing really is. She looked to an old trodden path. It looked lonely. She walked over to it and on it. Enjoying the soil beneath her hooves,and she left the picturesque place alone. She could barely keep herself together thinking of being back with her sister later that night.
That filly continued her life, but our mare still has her’s to live. No longer small, a grown mare. A quiet one.
She woke up with her drool trailing off the side of the couch. She laid in the darkness. Even the stars had left her. A feeling of emptiness sunk in. Was this a choice or not? She wondered if late night thinking would only make her feel worse.
She then focused in on the the empty expanse in front of her. The more she knew about space the more she wanted to know, but the night was late. She spoke upwards “ VI, play album ‘telephonia’.” A gentle, spacious blend of jazz and funk began to play out of the overhead speakers. This music inspired her to travel. Well, this and her sister’s insistence. Sleep crept in the corners of her eyes. Sleep comforted her and kept her down. Another feeling she could not hang on to. And darkness. Whispers in every corner. Mocking. They don’t seem malicious. Are they?
She awoke to a horrific cry. She spiked up hurriedly looking in every direction, her breath ragged. The window was reinhabited by the stars. The walls were normal as ever, but behind the couch a grate had been lifted and it’s top laid flat down. “Hello?” she called to the empty room checking the lowest part of the back of the couch. A hiss met her ears, and they stood in fear. Her gaze raced to the cold, metallic portal. Absence. No horrible creature lurked in the grate, or atleast she could not see it. Still the hiss was strange.
She asked the ever-present onboard computer “Can you lock the door?”
“Yes, Cub, would you like me to?” the synthesised voice asked politely.
She sighed “Yes, very much.” a mild, sliding sound emitted from the metal center of the portal. She laid her head down on the couch, embracing the sleepy feelings that the lucky ones get at night.
-------------------------------------------------------------
She trotted through the monotony of white floors, white ceilings, and white walls. An endless maze. She made note of the few green lights that occasionally adorned a wall. Luckily, one of these things did not have to do very often. She finished the last column on her sheet and made her way to one of the maintenance hatches.
She manipulated the whitish metal hatch open. To contrast this darkness laid above. Her paced slowed when stuck her got her head up to get a confused look around. Only a single light did a lousy job of lighting the room. She withdrew a comm device from a pocket of her jumpsuit.
“Hey, Star?” she said softly into the glowing, floating device.
The comm squawked in star’s firm voice “Cub?”
“Ah went through the maze again,” She examined a little further into the darkness. A pair of painted letters read Y-P “and ah ended up over in Y-P and it’s real dark.”
“That whole Y section went off a few days ago, I swear I told you about it.” the voice said curious.
“Funny, I don’t remember.” She said searching her memory coming up blank.
“It’ll be easier going through there rather than finding our exit.” Star said informing
“Ok.” she said willing her way upwards and out of the room in darkness.
“Wait, you know your way through there?” questioned the comm.
“I used to paint around here.” she said glancing to a forgotten space, which she formerly called home. Without the hum of the engine her mind focused easily, and she liked that.
“How about you paint me something soon?”
“You know why.” she declared flatly. Silence reigned.
“Well, can’t we work past that?”
“No.”
“Look, I’m sorry. I made a mistake and I feel horrible.”
“That should have been said to my face, I made a promise to someone and I’m going to keep it!” she declared with bitter anger seething. She continued her trot clanging quietly every few steps. No response. Like she thought. Her feelings about him bitter as they may be, would never allow her to hate him.
But she was still hurt.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A vale of dark blue dusk set upon all. Crick’s of the crickets resounded. Farther off the sound of fillies playing by their respective houses could be heard sporadically. The dust had settled just minutes ago. Frogs sat by a great stream croaking almost in unison. The smell of the river and it’s partners was pleasant, earthy. A few meters off of the amphibians, Cub crawled through a thicket, the soft mushy ground pressing down beneath her. She kept silent absorbing this peace of nature, but an ulterior motive was on the filly's face. A devious smile. It was a cute enough smile to make a bitter man warm. She inched even slower towards the bull frog. She made it to the edge of the thicket and in one awkward motion snatched up the large frog. She having picked up her worty friend with her half of her hooves and with her momentum pushing her farther, the filly dunked into the stream.
The water swallowed her up. She responded with a frantic thrash of hooves and muddy water disturbing quieted the surrounding wildlife. Elevating the panic. She attempted to cry out in the moments she had on the surface of the water, before losing that momentum and falling below again. The water flowed into her throat she choked on the vile bitterness and her soul began to distress. Her mind raced with the thoughts of death. Why now? I had so much more time in this place. Would she be missed? Why? Her consciousness began to dwindle. Her hooves moved less and less. She then in a desperate last attempt paddled piercing the surface of the stream.
She took a gasp of air, then uttered the only cry she could “HELP!” and in no time she was swallowed back into the water. The air she had was gone. Further she sank than ever before. Her sister was not there to save her. An orange light moved above the water. That last hope was ruined by her sinking further. This is her impact upon the world. To drown. Barely knowing the greens from the blues. She no longer could tell up from down. Every which way; the same watery shadow. Her eyes closed, and last traces of oxygen floated upwards.
Forevermore