it was not your fault but mine

[Nashua]

stars when you shine, you know how i feel
oh freedom is mine

The young stallion cocks a grin at Aedan and then looks ahead, glad that they both shared the sentiment that the musings of higher powers should be left there. Nashua certainly likes the views from the Mountain and the pegasus has learned that he enjoys the thrills of high flying but something about the Magic from the Mountain made him uneasy. He'd been warned against it. Magic always has a price; it's needed to maintain balance or else the things that keep their world in flux would fall into chaos.

Nashua had heard the stories about the plague and the Reckoning. They were fascinating to hear but the young pegasus was grateful for the years that separated the current generation from the travails of the past. Nash glances up at the bright, blue sky and muses with Aedan about what a star might share with a mortal. "How many lifetimes do you think they've seen?" the chestnut asks, perhaps rhetorically. He knows they are not Immortal (though is there such a thing? All things, he thinks, have their time).

"Poor Polaris," the wanderer playfully laments with that same good-natured grin.

They continue to walk and wander and share thoughts that come easily between them. The conversation flows as naturally as the coming tide does. Nashua finds himself hoping that @[Aedan] stays here. He likes the idea of the star-marked stallion keeping company with Gale. The winged adolescent looks up again and tries to imagine a sky beyond their own. It's an enthralling thought for the explorer, to think that there is more out there than what they can see.

That bright vibrant blue falls away as Aedan gift engulfs them in nightfall. The sun still hovers in the distance but she keeps company with her sister stars. His slender head comes down and Nashua reaches tentatively for one of the flickering stars nearest him, so similar to the one that shines on Yanhua's gleaming chest. "It is," he says. "Monsters seem to take advantage of the daylight, anyway." What was there to fear in this? Nash, belying his youth, finds nothing to be afraid of in the dim glow of starlight.

A thought dawns at the back of the striped stallion's mind, concerned for his new friend. "I hope this hasn't made others afraid of you. This...," he motions to the Magic surrounding them,"this is... well, this is as close to the stars as a mortal could hope to get." He shrugs and then smiles again, letting his stripes glow so they might illuminate him. "This is wonderful."

NASHUA

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