Cracks

Applejack drew a deep breath. Around her, the broken fields of Equestria drifted in their newfound dance, great mountains of earth lifted into the sky like clouds. Beneath her, the burning red of the raw earth. Above her, the cold blue of the empty sky. Before her, the crackling figure of the castle she'd once called a second home.

Settling her stetson, she began to run, the uneven earth threatening to crumble at every step. In the distance, other fragments of ground beckoned, seperated only by the expanse of open air and the drop that would result. All the same, she never slowed, letting her hooves beat out a steady rhythm as she found her stride. All too soon, the edge was upon her, and she did the only thing she could, the only thing she had to.

She jumped.

Air rushed past her ears and through her hair, snatching away her hat on the turbulent winds. She barely registered the loss as her hooves hit rock, the boulder beneath her beginning to spiral as it bore her weight. Clutching tight, she rode whatever arcane current held the stone in its grip as it whipped about. Around her, the world spun like a top, and her next destination along with it.

She jumped.

The spinning never stopped, the wind whipping its direction around in a whirlwind, her landing point flashing past between worlds of red and blue. She reached out, only for her back to find terra firma instead, the blow lancing through her every bone. Panting, she grit her teeth and rolled upright, eyes scanning the horizon for the gleaming castle in the sky. Settling upon it, she began again.

She jumped.

The time she was ready for the buckling earth. Before her drifting perch could give way, she was already moving to the next.

She jumped.

The wind howled past, but not out of control like before. Now it mirrored her motion, solid, directed. For an instant as the world passed beneath her hooves, she wondered if this was what Rainbow Dash felt like. Then she fell to earth, and felt the solid force of the ground through her hooves as she pressed forward once more.

She jumped.

No, she realized, this was not what rainbow felt. Rainbow was a born flier. With her wings, the air was always in her grasp. For her, there was not truly a sky, not like there was to an earth pony. Everything was her domain. She would never know the feeling of the leap, of the freefall and landing. Of throwing oneself to chance.

She jumped.

It filled her with exhileraton. It filled her with sadness. Rainbow would never know this. To a life always in control, she would never know the risk, the joy, of jumping and falling.

She jumped.

The castle was closer now, but it didn't seem to matter as much. Family, Equestria, they were concerns, but smaller now. There was more to the journey itself. The push of her hooves and the moment of freedom between every step. That instant where all things came down to fate and chance, and there was nothing but experience of that fleeting instant.

She jumped.

Crystal chimed beneath her hooves as branches crackled with violet lightning above. For an instant, she hesitated, looking back at the world she'd so briefly come to know. A world of uncertain footing and constant risk. Suddenly, she had the strangest impression that this was where she'd always been meant to be. And within the crystal castle lay the means to end it.

She lingered a moment longer, then let out a sigh she didn't realize she was holding. She knew what she had to do. Running a hoof through her unbound mane, she looked out once more across this strange new world. She turned to put the crystal castle at her back.

She jumped.