//------------------------------//
// 1 – Exit 
// Story: Analemma 
// by Miller Minus 
//------------------------------//

I swear to any God that’ll listen: that mare on the beach looked ready to collapse in her own crater. She rubbed her eyes, breathed through her mouth, and barely managed a single creaky step forward. The tiniest draft would have been enough to tip her over, but it would be awhile before the wind ever made it back to her after an explosion like that.

The horn between her ears crackled and sputtered like a dying yellow flare. A flock of seagulls cried overhead, and the mare opened her eyes. Her hind legs bent down slightly, but she shifted her hooves and stood up before her rump hit the sand. Her unsteady breathing gradually found rhythm as she synced herself up with the waves crashing in front of her. It became an exercise of sorts: five seconds in and five seconds out.

I shouldn’t really have been watching her, but I couldn’t help myself. Besides, she was the one who went and shook my whole tree house when she appeared from wherever-the-heck she blew in from and nearly blinded me, so I figured she had no right to privacy. It was my beach, anyways—even though I wasn’t much of a swimmer.

So I watched her from my windowsill (after I got over the scare she caused me). Who was gonna say no to little old me? Nobody, that was who.

Speaking of girls that could get away with whatever they wanted, she looked it. She was huge! I didn’t know ponies could grow that big. Her horn alone was the length of a regular pony’s neck. Matter of fact, my mum once told me of a pony that looked just like this one: a white princess that was loved to bits on one side of the world, while our side wondered if she even existed. Same pink and awfully sparkly hair and everything. Not to mention the sun on her flank.

Couldn’t have been her, though. This one had no crown, no golden shoes, no aides, and she sure as gull crap wasn’t anywhere near a castle. Plus, I could tell she had done something no princess ever did. Something so unspeakable and horrifying that nobody in royalty ever even considered it. I recognized it from her look. Rough breathing. Rickety moving. Hoof over the eyes.

That right there was the result of a long day’s work! Getting things done. Banging out results! She’d be alright. Maybe she was just taking a vacation from a long stretch of work on a farm or something.

Yeah, that was it.

Already looking better, she took a deep drink of the salty air that found its way to her. She craned her head towards the sky and I assumed she closed her eyes, because her nose was pointed directly at the early morning sun. “There you are,” she said, and I scoffed.

Now she was talking to a freaking star! This girl had had it. Her voice was a real beaut, though. It was smooth, silky, and even better than some songbirds I’d heard. The type of voice reserved for gentle, loving mothers and complete psychopaths that loved to trick their victims with kindness.

Look at me, already narrowing her down to two! It kind of shocked me, but I wanted to figure out all about her. I wanted to know why she was there, why she was so tired, all of it. You know, without actually going down there and introducing myself. That would have been a bad idea. She was huge, remember? She could have crushed me under her hooves if she wanted. Nuh-uh. I was staying up in my safe, cozy, temporary home, and that was that. Besides, I was high up, but I was at the edge of the forest, so I could see most of the beach. Whoever the yobbo was that decided to build an entire tree house and then ditch it deserved at least some credit, because they’d given me a great view.

Not that there was much to see! After all the fanfare from her entrance, the next thing she did was lie down, right there in the sand. I had to peer over the edge of the window to be sure of what I was seeing. She stretched her wings high and brought them in, before nestling into the sand and laying her neck across her forelegs like some kind of pure-as-snow wolfhound.

And then she didn’t move for an entire 10 hours. At least I figured as much; I didn’t just sit there and watch her for that long. I had a busy day to get to (promise). But from what I could tell, the sun completely passed her over on her first day at the beach, because when I got back, she was painted black by the trees’ shadows, not an inch from where I left her.

The sun stopped where it was for a half hour (it did that sometimes). I watched her for a bit but got bored and hit the hay. Just before I nodded off though, I heard her let out a reserved gasp and barely scold herself. Not long after, there was a flash outside the window and she was gone.

Some vacation.