A golden sunset dimmed beyond the long, winding road ahead. Flash Sentry stood in place with his bagged belongings, sweating after the half-kilometer hike from the heart of town, and for whatever reason—he was smiling.
McCracken Trail.
He exhaled... neither depressed nor dreamlike. Simply... alive. For the first time in his existence, he was moving. Not through a depressed cloud or through an equestrian dream... but forward. He had only stopped for a breath.
And then some. This was the beginning of something, after all. At least—if nothing else—something had certainly ended.
There was a wooden log up ahead—a thick and fallen tree branch that lay perpendicular to the road. Flash knew this because it was once the point-of-no-return, the place he would often park his car at and just... gaze into the mountains and forests beyond. Somewhere past the crest of the nearby hills there lay a glint of grayness, hinting at other townships stretching past the immediate wilderness. Moan all he wanted to about human civilization, it certainly had a colorful knack for branching outward with a seemly poetic ambition.
Certainly enviable, that ambition. After the next moment and onward, it would serve to be his one and only home.
Flash stepped forward until he loomed over the log. He placed one bag down, then the second, then the third. At long last—with a prolonged exhale—he sat himself down on the wooden branch. There, he gazed down the winding lengths of McCracken Trail. At that time of the waning day, he couldn't spot any "brighter pastures." But that was alright. He had just recently seen enough green to last a lifetime.
The air was warm and the cicadas were in full buzz. Songbirds quieted before the onset of early evening, and the clouds above turned from crimson to magenta.
It was a beautiful enough of a living painting to tickle the hairs of the pony ears he no longer had. On a somewhat related whim, Flash reached into his largest bag and pulled out the headphones Vinyl Scratch had given him. As it turned out, they fit perfectly over his human cranium. Curiosity got the best of him, and he flipped a switch designed for a hoof. Sure enough, whatever residual magic remained inside the device played a trance track made by the one and only DJ-P0N3. It was a musical score Flash hadn't ever heard before, and that made it all the better. He took the moment to cherish something unknown that wouldn't be frought with peril. In so doing, he closed his eyes...
...and instead of a burning sunset over unkempt asphalt, Flash saw rolling emerald hills kissed with morning dew. In the distance, snow-capped mountains dotted with royal spires glistened in the sunlight. Winged bodies flew to and fro, laughing and spiraling daredevilish tricks in the air. Soarin was among them—him and his goofy grin. He and Derpy Hooves flew wing-and-wing together from horizon to horizon, and they painted the hills with their smiles. Over a crest of earth, the Castle of the Crystal Empire arose. The Midnight Oil cruised hive above, captain'd by the stalwart Typhoon and escorted by Spitfire with her neverending smolder. Somewhere deep inside the aircraft's cabin, Prince Blueblood boasted about canine diplomacy while Canterloy nibbled away at some exquisite plate of gourmet hay. Through the portholes, the aurora over the Empire could be seen, and off on a crystalline balcony somewhere Flash could spot Lyra and Bon Bon cooing at the glittering sight... while somewhere below the Cakes trotted hoof and hoof with their foals on their backs as they exchanged loving gazes. Filthy Rich and Fancy Pants held a business meeting outside over martini glasses while Octavia performed for the other patrons seated beside them. The song was a cello instrumental of the title song off of Radiohead's Kid A, and when Miss Melody was done she threw Flash a thankful wink across time and space, which Vinyl Scratch wove together in a final instrumental of tapering notes.
And when Flash Sentry returned, it was with a smile on his face, a smile christened by tears. They were something he was starting to get used to. Who knows what else he could learn to live with beyond the next horizon?
Then—just as Vinyl's track ended—a new sound filled its place. That of an engine revving hard, then idling to a stop. Immediately after, there was the sound of fleeting footsteps, accompanied by a yelping voice.
With mild, mellow curiosity, Flash removed the headsets from his ears and turned around...
...just in time to see a redheaded young teenager stumbling towards him from an open car, out of breath.
"Flash! Flash Sentry!" Wheezing, sweating—her hair disheveled from an unimaginably panicked ride to that location—Sunset Shimmer scuffled to a stop. "There you are!" She bent over, planting her hands against her knees as she wheezed and heaved. "Holy c-crap! Thank Celestia...!"
Flash calmly stared at her. "Heya, Sunny..."