Rainbow Dash flew somewhere... anywhere.
She followed the streak of stars. Valleys, mountains, and plateaus drifted coldly beneath her. Before she knew it, a full ten minutes had passed since she last heard Listing's yelling voice.
The freedom was real. Rainbow drifted lazily up and down, allowing the nightly winds to wield a bit of control.
She said nothing. Thought nothing.
And, in return, the desert gave nothing—nothing but emptiness. A delightful avoid. Rainbow filled it with her breaths, gliding, more or less falling. Somewhere in the distance, Las Pegasus loomed—a tickle of silver light in Rainbow Dash's peripheral vision. She never faced it, and yet she never lost track of it.
The mare was quite used to night flying. In fact, Rainbow was used to just about everything. Every square inch of the sky—every cloud, sunlit or not—was in reach. It was always in reach. All she had to do was kick off the ground.
For the moment, she couldn't imagine how she ever once felt anchored to anything.
Rainbow Dash closed her eyes. With the numbness in her legs, it was difficult to tell from the winds whether she was ascending or descending. And yet, she knew that the ground was far enough away that she didn't have to worry about it.
She pondered over why she ever felt anxious about anything in the first place. Such a tiny world with such tiny ponies. The sky was even bigger. Surrounding. All encompassing. It was such a cool, bright, blissful frontier that very few could access and even fewer had the urge to conquest.
Rainbow had that urge. It was just thin from months... and years of neglect. She almost felt guilty, but decided not to... because she realized she could even make that decision.
Her lungs hurt. She realized she was holding her breath in. She exhaled in a gasp, and her body tingled inside out. She felt tiny. Fragile. Precious... and yet unbreakable. For once, being petite didn't shame or embarrass her.
Rainbow's eyes opened. She saw something blacker than night below the horizon. He neck tilted and she squinted into the earth. A deep, gaping canyon lay under dim starlight.
On a whim, Rainbow bent her right wings, arched to the side, and sharply descended.