//------------------------------//
// Thanks 
// Story: Austraeoh 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	“And you know what the funny part is?”  Rainbow Dash sighed as she slumped down in a chair besides the balcony of the darkened apartment.  “I'm pretty sure that's my bed Steelteeth put you in.”

Flower Gears had no response.  She slept soundly beneath the covers, her petite body slowly rising and falling in peaceful slumber.

Rainbow Dash stretched her limbs.  “Ehhh... It's not like I had any chance of catching some z's anyway.”  She reached over, grabbed a saddlebag, and slid it over to her side.  “Y'know, there was a time when I'd climb the walls as soon as I got bored.  Not sure why I'm not doing it now.  Maybe I'll blame it on the autoturrets.”

The lengths of New Ring hissed and sputtered beyond the edge of the balcony.  Distant groups of laboring unicorns struggled to reroute the meager allotment of Darkstinian power.  For a brief moment, starlight pierced the smog and illuminated the gigantic pit and the steep wall edged against it.

Rainbow Dash opened her bag and fiddled with its contents.  She grumbled, “Stuff's a friggin' mess in here.  I miss having my own room.  Not that I used it much... heh.  Most of my days were spent sleeping wherever I felt like.  A pegasus' life is pretty easy, once you realize that every cloud belongs to you.  Heck, even that smog looks comforting, assuming it'd stay together long enough to act like a bed for me.”

She paused briefly, biting her lip.

“Yeesh.  Listen to me.  I sound like old mares rambling on about their lives...”

Flower Gears stirred slightly.  The tiniest of murmurs escaped her lips as she turned over and retreated even deeper into the blanket.

Rainbow Dash looked at the filly again.  “I guess life doesn't so much get longer as it gets stretched out.  I used to... to have a friend who told me a thing or two about how time is relative and that the faster you could go—like at really crazy speeds—then time would appear to go slower, or something.  You ever heard of Einstallion?”

Silence.

“Hrmmm... Yeah.  Boring egghead stuff, am I right?”  Rainbow Dash chuckled.  She looked out the balcony once again, her eyes twitching upon the sight of the lavender stream wafting towards the distant pit.  “Unicorns aren't all that bad, once you get to know them.  So what if they have their heads in the stars?  They can be pretty cool... when they want to be...”

She took a deep breath.  She reached once more into the saddlebag, rummaging through it.  Her hoof grazed against a book binding.  Rainbow Dash flinched, not bothering to pull the item out for examination.  Instead, she tilted her gaze until it fell on Flower Gears once again.

“I dunno what's happened to you, and I dunno where your brother's gone.  But someway, somehow, I'm gonna make sure you get together with him again.  I'm gonna make sure you get back to your family, kiddo.”  Her ruby eyes matched the dull shade of her pendant as she murmured, “You're way to dang young to lose everything.  Nopony should ever have to go through that...”

Her wings twitched.  Slowly, like melting candlewax, a frown spread down over her features.  When the expression caught up with her mouth, it morphed into a devilish smirk.

“Auto-turrets, auto-smurrets.  At least being shot at would be a heck of a lot less boring than sitting here like a rock.”

She clasped her saddlebag shut, threw it on her spine, tightened it, and approached the balcony.  Pausing, she then turned around and slid up to the bed.  With gentle hooves, she slid the blanket up tighter around Flower Gears' slumbering form.

“Dream all you like.  Your life's about to get a lot brighter.  That's a promise, kid.”

Then, with a flick of her prismatic tail, she scaled the balcony railing, looked every which way, and stealthily shimmied down.  Once she was sure the coast was clear, Rainbow Dash sneaked across the Governor's courtyard and shuffled into the shadows of the dark streets of New Ring.  She headed directly towards where the lavender glow was personally leading her.

Alone in the room, the teenage filly stirred under the covers, yawned, and turned over with her eyes shut.  “Mmmm... th-thank.. you...”