supre awesome existential trip up a mountain!

The mare, tall and lanky, batted her eyes but said nothing. From my point of view, she looked like she too had fallen to pieces, as her short violet locks sat disheveled on her autumn-colored shoulders.

We shared a minute or two of tense staring, moving nothing more than our minds. It's almost unnaturally serene...Our interaction seems like that of two lost friends. Her eyes, calming cyan, inquire me into finally speaking. "Hello."

"Hello."

I stare quietly again. We both do.

Another minute passes, and I'm starting to feel more comfortable with the mare's presence. Reaching into my backpack, I once again retrieve my unfinished painting and hold it up. The skies have changed from the time I'd drawn them; No longer did they surround the earth with malign ferocity. Instead, they'd become tranquil and soft, gliding through the heavens like hot air balloons. The winds no longer roared. The mighty thunder no longer boomed. The lightning, as magnificent and steadfast as ever, no longer cracked the sky. Now, instead, small flakes of snow began to fall from the ruptured wisps, each one intending on adorning both my and the stranger's beings.

Everything had changed, yet at the same time, everything felt the same.

Laughing slightly to myself, I pondered on how my artwork could no longer contain the malevolent storm that, only hours ago, had rocked the world. Although it seemed as pointless, the strange feeling was still vibrating in my mind. In a weird combination of wonder and curiosity, I turned from the mare and held my painting to the sky...only to realize that my art which I’d painted well over ten minutes ago was identical to the skies in present. The entirety of the portrait was as serene as the world around me. "But how could I..." I questioned aloud, sitting myself in the snow out of bewilderment.

The mare laughed, causing me to turn my head from the cloud canopy to her in an instant. Inhaling very minimally, she closed her eyes and started taking steps towards me. "You doubt yourself too much, honey. Maybe if you took your mind off the negative…" She stated coolly, now standing a little closer.

Nevertheless, no matter who was talking, I didn't want to hear another lecture. "Do you think that if I didn't doubt myself, I'd be up here cursing the very world who'd raised me from the start? You're either the most unobservant person I've ever met or...or..."

"Or what, pray tell?"

I bit my tongue. As unbelievable as it might've seemed, I was at a loss for words. The mare before me was, in all due honesty, the apotheosis of wisdom. I didn't know how nor why I thought it, but something told me this stranger knew exactly what was going on.

My mane drooped to my side, slick with melted snow. How long had I been lying down? It couldn't have been more than five minutes, yet my body would say otherwise. Only now am I realizing how terribly cold I am.

"What's wrong, my child?" The stranger asked, now taking steps in my direction. "You seem awfully confused. Would you mind if I ask why?"

I nodded my head yes.

"So you do mind?" She stated, cocking an eyebrow. With little haste, the mare turned around and began walking back towards the cliff's edge. "Well, in that case, I'll just be on my way and--"

"Please..." Is the only thing I'm able to speak. My mind is racing with questions, yet nothing is able to escape the starting gate. I feel like a child chasing her mother in the market. I feel alone. "Please, wait, I, I, need to say something,"

The mare, thankfully, stops in her tracks. Turning around, she looks me dead in the eyes and stares. "Very well." And with a quick flourish of her wings, proceeded to glide back over to my side.

Her flight was short and graceful, and it was almost hypnotizing to watch her come to rest at my side. When her graceful auburn wings draped over my sitting form, it relaxed me when she pulled me close to her also-cold body. I'm not saying it's uncomfortable, but the sensation was...foreign. "Why are you here?" I ask, looking airily into her soft cerulean gaze.

"Because I needed to be." Was all the stranger said back, breathing gently at my side in the snow. Together we sat coldly at each other’s sides, silently staring out into the vastness of space and time. Two strangers on top of the world, doing nothing more than look out at the vast expanse beneath their hooves. While this wasn't what I'd originally planned on doing here at the pinnacle of existence, I won't argue against it.

It felt like days were passing like minutes where we sat. Time had slowed, yet sped up. The very air we were breathing felt almost inconsistent. It was curious. "Are you here to stop me?" I ask, never breaking my gaze from the heavens.

The stranger didn't reply. Instead, she merely rested her vision on me.

Now, normally I'd be discomforted at a stranger analyzing me like a particularly agitating math problem, but tonight...I was okay with it. No matter how little she talked, I was glad. Glad at the fact someone was next to me, bleeding the same blood as myself. Glad that I wasn't the only one who thought they were suffering in this world.

Glad that I wasn't alone.

One painstaking breath after another, I felt my rattled spirit begin to slowly calm itself. Everything in existence was perfect just the way it sat, and with this stranger by my side I couldn't ask for anything more in life. Even through all the pain and heartache, I managed to end up here. Alone, yet not alone. My inner demons were quelled. I felt free.

I exhaled lightly and watched the small puff of steam emerge from my nostrils. It was...calming. "Do you ever dwell on the little things?" I ask quietly, looking up smoothly to meet the mare’s face.

With little more than a breath, she nodded and smiled. "That I do." And with a shuffle of her wings, adjusted her position at my side. "But, my child, the real question should be 'do you ever choose to think about their answers?'"