Urohringr

by Imploding Colon


Eyes on the Big Picture

The cosmos glittered endlessly, segmented into brilliant portraits with spectral nebulae as their majestic frames.

Galaxies swirled with liquid grace across the ebony expanse, their epic, glowing arms like golden bands that streaked through inky darkness.

Between the comet streaks, the solar flares, and the electromagnetic pulses, a solid ring hovered at a fixed point in space. In the very center of its rotation was a shimmering beacon of light, warming every square kilometer of its curved inner surfaces. The light flickered for a space of time, dimmed, then flickered once more, repeating its cycle evenly for decades, centuries, millennia, eons.

In the far distance, occupying the far ends of the same galaxy, more rings twirled. Dozens of them. Hundreds. Thousands.

They swam a fantastic dance through the universe, like glowing eyes forever exploring the infinite expanse.

"Ah, I see now. We are forever learning, aren't we?"

One ring in particular sailed through a patch of chaotic space, its outer surfaces suddenly covered in malevolent shadow.

"Life, after all, is about progress. Surely, one can expect a few bumps along the way, epic or not."

With multiple pulses of light, the ring broke up into twelve separate parts. They turned dark, dim, and swam away from each other across the miasmic emptiness.

"There is chaos, and there is evil—for sure. But then there are also those who do the wrong things for all the right reasons. History will forever demonize them, but history doesn't have to be just a straight line, don't you think?"

As the planes dwindled into darkness, their reflections vanished in the tears clinging to Rainbow Dash's eyelashes. She drifted through the dismal clouds of chaos, her scarred limbs hanging limply by her side, her muzzle frozen in a perpetual grimace.

"What...?!" She gulped dryly. "Where...?"

"I'm beginning to understand, as maybe you're starting to, that history needs someone awesome like you... someone bold enough, crazy enough, and daring enough to complete the circle with just that—a straight line. Are you up for the challenge?"

"I..." Rainbow gnashed her teeth. She opened her lids just as she drifted past an artificial sun. "I-I don't get it..." Her eyes danced between bright and dark ends of a lone plane in chaos. "...why am I not dead?"

"Because you are up for the challenge. It's silly of me to even ask. And it's silly of you to feel so alone."

Rainbow wheezed, watching as the curved plane tilted about to face her, its vast mountains, valleys, deserts, and oceans glittering beneath a brilliant sunrise.

"I..." Rainbow Dash seethed, her wings spreading apart as her muscles tightened. "Fly." She stretched a hoof forward, into the blinding light. "I n-need to fly."

"... ... ...let me help you."

A soft hoof gripped Rainbow's and tugged—


—her up into a sitting position.

Rainbow gasped, sputtering. With wide eyes, she looked around from where she sat, panting heavily.

She was on the bridge deep inside the machine world. Monsters loomed all around her, thrashing and gnashing at a rippling sphere of harmonic energy emanating outward in all direction. Despite all of their ravenous efforts, they could no longer pierce through the field and touch her.

Rainbow shuddered. She blinked, then glanced down at her pendant with a gasp.

The Element of Loyalty was pulsating brighter than the pegasus had ever before witnessed. She was surprised that the ruby glow wasn't melting her already torn flesh.

With a jolt, Rainbow faced the pedestal ahead of her.

The flame was gone, but the Yaerfaerda symbol remained.

Rainbow clenched her breath, took a deep breath, and lunged forward.

Yelling, trailing blood, Rainbow soared towards the pedestal. She slapped both forelimbs onto the very top. There was no flame because she was the flame. As soon as she made contact, the ruby light left the pendant and filled the brazer instead. Her body erupted with harmonic energy, glowing all over with an immaculate crimson shine. Every wound, gash, and bruise lit up. Rainbow Dash ignited the pedestal, incinerating the cavernous interior of the machine in every possible direction.

The abominations had nowhere to go. They were doomed from the very moment that they followed Austraeoh inside. In hellish shrieks, they dissolved one after another, consumed by the ruby torch as it billowed outward, filling every golden nook and cranny of the world's basement, spinning every gear and swinging every pendulum to life. Soon, there was nothing left to see, for the burning dust of serpentine flesh had cast a fine blanket over every conceivable surface. In mere seconds, the flame erupted outward, surging into the mountain's hollow core and melting the chaos strips outside to a coarse powder. The frothing energy illuminated every cursed patch of stone with a cleansing, warming light.