“Do you want to see it or not?”

The question was all confidence and moonlight. Rainbow Dash knew she would get the answer she wanted. Still, she let the question hang in the air like silk suspended by soaring winds. Waiting for her lonely companion to grab it and fashion a reply.

“Of course,” Rarity replied laughingly, and motioned for Rainbow Dash to pick her up. “Up you go now.”

They left the ground and climbed the sky together, clinging to what assurances cloudwalking spells and a lifetime of flight experience could give. Rarity was never worried. She knew how to cast a spell, and Rainbow Dash knew how to carry her. In their own ways, they knew what was going on.

“You never told me why this star is so special,” Rarity said.

“It’s kinda hard to explain,” Rainbow Dash said as she eyed some nearby clouds. “Twilight could say it better. All the light normally gets blocked by the moon, but there's a partial eclipse tonight, so it’s gonna bend around.”

“So, there's a partial eclipse.”

“Yes.” Rainbow Dash zeroed in on a cloud.

“And the light is bending around.”

“Yep.” 

“And it’s gonna be--”

They landed. Rainbow Dash held onto Rarity for a split second after her hooves touched the clouds. “So amazing it’ll blow your mind." She pointed towards the east. "Look over there. You can see it!” 

Rarity followed her friend’s gaze and found no mind-blowingly amazing sights other than the same one that was there every night. The stars and planets and uncountable satellites hung utterly still, glowing like sunkissed leaves on airless trees. “I don’t see anything,” Rarity said.

Dash groaned. “Right there. Look. Um. No, that’s not it, actually.” She squeezed one eye shut and adjusted her arm somewhat. “There it is. Off the dark side of the moon. Middle of the way down.”

Rarity leaned over Dash’s shoulder and followed her arm. “Ah, there it is!”

They turned towards each other in the same moment and their eyes met, a joyful chaotic collision. “Do you see it, really?” Dash said, turning back to the moon. “Is that not blowing your mind?”

“It’s quite small,” Rarity noted.

At this, Dash’s bravado shrunk. Rarity worried she was shutting down her enthusiasm, but Dash perked up after a moment of thought. “Still, if you think about it. It’s all the way out there. And it’s bending around, and--Twilight could say it better.” She shrugged. 

Rarity squeezed her shoulder. "I suppose. But Twilight wouldn't have carried me all the way up here."

Dash perked up. “Heh, yeah. Stars come out every night, but that one never came out before. It changes everything. Now the whole sky’s once in a lifetime.”

“I never thought I’d hear poetry from you.”

“Yuck!" Dash pushed her playfully. "That’s not poetry. It didn’t even rhyme.”

They fell silent for some time after that, neither squandering the once in a lifetime sight, nor really forgetting the real reason they came up here either. They came out there in an unspoken agreement written in moments and spanning their entire lives up to that point. There was a real once in a lifetime moment to be had, and it wasn’t half a universe out of reach. It was pulling closer, excused by the chill of the thin air, the thrill found in darkness and sharing it with another. Closer now. Immovable like a star in the sky, yet setting upon them fast and warm and bright. The thought of eternity captured in perfect harmony. In love. In light.