//------------------------------//
// A Rainbow In Orbit 
// Story: Odrsjot 
// by Imploding Colon 
//------------------------------//

	Rainbow Dash trotted forward on soft blue hooves.  She squatted down along the edge of the forest.  The morning light illuminated an arid patch of earth where several pebbles had collected along a dry riverbed.  Within the crook of two large rocks, a single throng of lavender flowers bloomed.  Delicately, Rainbow Dash plucked a pair of them loose, turned the petals about in the cool air, and stuck them into her saddlebag.

With a liberal flapping of her wings, Rainbow Dash galloped forward, took off, and flew towards the eastern line of trees.  As the wind whistled in her fuzzy ears, it brought back the sound of Luna's words just a few hours before sunrise.

"Thy life is a short one, Rainbow Dash.  We can only relate to thee as an observer, for our days art many.  Regardless, we feel that it is supremely important to impart some wisdom to thee.  Thou art resilient, courageous, and responsible.  Even still, thou art still too young, too fragile, and too precious to obsess so much over loss."

Rainbow Dash glided over a shallow lake.  She flew just a few inches from the placid surface, turning her blue face from side to side as she inspected her teeth.  She looked back at her tail, frowning at a clump of sap still stuck to the prismatic fibers.  With a few heavy flicks, she doused the hairs in the water, breaking the reflection and sending ripples all across the mirrored sky.  With flexing muscles, she ascended just in time to scale a line of wind-swept pines.

"We understandeth that loss has been a great deal of thy life, but we insist that thou not alloweth the bleakness of death become thy obsession.  That which liveth soweth death, but it is still conducive to life.  And, far more importantly, it is conducive to harmony.  Harmony is a two-edged sword, allowing some elements and refusing others."

Rainbow Dash broke through a cloud, throwing a breathless glance to her west.  From her high altitude glide, she could see the lavender shape floating at an even pace.  She tried not to focus too long on the pulsating sight, or else she might suffer a cold spell and lose her tail wind.  As she looked ahead, she almost got a wing full of brown feathers shoved into her muzzle.

Grunting, she shifted to the left, trying to recover from the shock.  Her ears echoed with a symphony of quacks.  A flock of geese had gathered to her right and were cruising their way at a leisurely pace.  To Rainbow's amusement, they didn't seem the least bit frightened by her.  So, with a smile, she flapped her wings at a slower pace and glided easily along with them, practically filling the missing gap of their majestic "V" formation.

"In the end, that which we do to promote the tranquility of this world measures the most.  We have great faith in thee, Rainbow Dash.  We have great faith that though thou might be experienced in death—yay, also in pain..."

Rainbow Dash sat lonesomely on a thick branch stretching from a tree planted along the edge of a massive canyon.  As she took another lazy bite from a daffodil sandwich, her lithe body formed a dark sihouette against a red and pink sky.  The sun cascaded into the west horizon, casting amber bands across the grand valley of lush green forests stretching wide beneath the pony's dangling hooves.

"...thou art still a sower of life.  Thou maketh this universe, as imperfect as it already is, something far more worth living in.  Remember that, and remember the lives that thou hath blessed as thou continueth your journey."

As the sky turned into a dull, dark gray, Rainbow Dash touched down on a pile of lonely rocks lying horizontally in the center of a forest clearing.  She squinted curiously down at the enormous slabs, jumping up and down as if to test how loose they may have been.  She was surprised to feel how solid they were.

Shrugging the discovery away, she flapped her wings, preparing to perform another flight.  A cold shock ran through her body.  She gasped, flinching, expecting a horrible spell to floor her.  Instead, the sensation ended just as swiftly as it began.  She stood in a precarious lean, squinting confusedly into the shadowed treeline of the clearing around her.

Then, with a knowing breath, she spun and faced north.  She caught the horizon just in time to see the lavender light dying out, going cold, then pulsating with a pattern that she hadn't seen yet.  It strobed slowly, like a giant's pink eye lazily winking at her, beckoning her.

To her relief, it no longer made her dizzy to stare at the sight.

Rainbow's limbs jerked.  She almost took off right then and there, but something made her stop.  She bit her lip, looked down at the slabs of rock, and then reached back for her satchel.

"We art proud of you, Rainbow Dash.  It is our promise to you, until the very end of time—whether it cometh in a few centuries or a few eons—we shall forever preserve the mightiness of thy name, so that generations upon generations shall be inspired by thy legacy.  Although, we do not believe that we will have to do this, Rainbow Dash.  Thou art one in a million.  Thou art they own legacy, for thou liveth it.  Sooner than later, this whole world, this whole universe, will no longer be the same."

Rainbow Dash took off, staring down at the clearing and the stones in the center.  She smiled to herself, a smile that turned gradually into a devilish smirk.  Then, in a sapphiric blur, she spun around and tore her way north, cutting across the last sunlit lengths of the sky.

In her departing shadow, several bright shapes marred the topmost slab of rock, weighed down by heavy pebbles.  They were stalks of lavender, twelve of them total, arranged in a neat little ring.  Even upon the death of daylight, they positively shimmered.

"If thou still hath death in thy precious heart, then speak of it with thy new friends.  We trust thou wilt see the truth in their eyes."