• Published 13th May 2012
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Austraeoh - Imploding Colon

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Twinkling

Rainbow Dash's muscles ached. She mentally cursed herself for allowing exhaustion to take over. All her life, she had become acquainted with flapping her wings and propelling herself everywhere through the air. With meager shame, she realized that she desperately needed to put her earthen limbs through more of a workout. With the trek ahead of her, now was as good a time as ever to become familiar with her gift for galloping.

Still, her pace was a slow, even gait. She was attempting to master endurance moreso than speed. In a steady trot, she ascended a steep hilltop. She passed through the brown bodies of fur trees. Twigs snapped underneath as she scaled loose rocks and ducked under passing branches.

Her dizziness had almost entirely dissipated, and yet she wasn't about to take wing. Experience had taught her that after such “episodes” it was wise to wait a space of two hours before attempting to fly again.

By the time she reached the top of the forested hill, a deep red glow penetrated the trees. She skidded to a stop, her heart beating, for she briefly feared that her pendant was shimmering again. However, as she came upon a break in the trees, she realized it was something else entirely.

The sun was setting behind her, and the shadow of the mountain swimming over the eastern landscape cast miles upon miles of low lying forests with a purple haze. It was as if a blanket of pure magic had been tossed across the world. Towards the edge of the horizon, where the sun was most distant from the waking world, a thin line of cool blue tones prophesied the arrival of night. If Rainbow Dash was to face west and then twirl one hundred and eighty degrees back towards her boundless destination, she'd be greeted with half a spectrum's worth of melting colors.

The dark shadow against the eastern horizon was still there, but it appeared no closer to her perspective. She wondered over just how immensely huge the structure must have been. From the distant angle, Rainbow Dash assumed that perhaps it could have been a massive butte. There was no telling just how tall the structure was, but the fact that it was noticeable from several miles away made her ponder...

Certainly it had to have been on the map. Rainbow Dash squatted down and reached into her saddlebag. She was halfway through unscrolling the parchment when something dimmed in her peripheral vision.

She tilted her gaze up, blinking. She saw the bands of purple shadows washing over the valley below. To her better judgment, Rainbow knew that it was merely the shadows of the mountain range to the west as the sun dipped beyond the crest of the world. Still, she couldn't help but feel mesmerized, enjoying the poetic notion that she was watching the very edge of night stretching over the world in real time.

Rainbow Dash knew she had only so little light left before she could look at the map without the aid of her pendant. Still, she simply sat in place on the side of the mountain—like a young filly would attend a puppet show—and gazed as the world was slowly swallowed into blissful twilight. The stars broke out overhead. The world was awash in a pale glow. If she shouted into the blossoming void, Rainbow wondered if her voice would echo all the way to the four corners of the earth.

The moon rose, and it was still not full. Rainbow Dash judged it would be just a day or two. She wondered if her voice still had any use other than yelling. Her mouth became briefly dry, so she chose to gaze away from the bright orb in the sky, and once again she was at peace.

Rainbow Dash never saw herself as a mare who appreciated beauty. But, perhaps, it was never too late to start. She sat there, staring into the edge of night, not bothering to count the passing hours. Sleep came upon her like a phantom, and she couldn't remember when the twinkling stars ended and her rolling eyes began.

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