Starshine

From BarbaraFett's clan - Mated to Hyperion - renting Shadow nest from Ancient Cove

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The entrance to Clan Adeptica's lair on the side of the Focal Point faced east-northeast, so that the light of the morning sun and the clan's early risers greeted each other every morning. This morning, its rays woke three dragons who had fallen asleep in a pile just inside the cave's mouth. Rarity and Adi were both nestled within the circle formed by the much larger Starshine's slender, coiled body and tail. They had all experienced the same overpowering vision in their dreams the previous night - the vision had felt as if the powers of all the deities were converging for some unfathomable purpose. It had woken them all up in the middle of the night, and drawn them all outdoors to ponder the stars and wonder about what might happen when the morning came.

Rarity and Adi blinked, sleepily exchanged 'Good morning's, and extricated themselves from Starshine, who was slowly shaking herself awake. As soon as Rarity's feet hit the ground on the other side of Starshine's body, she knew that the time had come. From the way the others were moving out of the cave mouth into the dawn, she could tell that they sensed it, too.

The three of them walked out of the cave mouth and down the slope of the mountain, stopping when they could see the sky for many kilometers around. They looked all around them - and then they saw it.

A brilliant sphere of white light - almost like a second sun - appeared at the largest, outermost lens of the Eye of Many Lenses, far above their heads. A moment later, another, identical sphere appeared at the broken-off tip of the Pillar of the World far in the distance. Then another, just above the highest leaves of the Behemoth, even further away on the horizon. This had to be happening to the central landmark in every realm in the world, Rarity thought.

The spheres roiled and pulsated, growing larger. Then, all at once, their outer layers exploded, and the lands beneath them were showered in magical energy. In one breathtaking moment, every single dragon on the entire planet, no matter what element or faction they belonged to, knew that their world had changed. It held more variety and more possibilities for future generations of offspring than it ever had before. Even the eggs that lay unhatched at that moment now had the potential to bring forth new hatchlings in colors that had previously been impossible among dragonkind.

From each sphere of light, a bright rainbow emerged and stretched out, reaching across the sky until they connected with each other in a world-spanning web. It was the most incredible and beautiful thing Rarity had ever seen in her life. She found tears coming to her eyes as she saw it. Her whole adult life, she had known that someday, something would happen that would irrevocably change the entire world, but she had never been sure of what, exactly, that event would involve. Now, here it was, and it was... a good thing. It wasn't the world-ending cataclysm she and her fellow Water dragons had feared. It wasn't anything that would detract from the lives they were enjoying now - it would make them even better.

Rarity became aware that both of her friends were crying, too, overwhelmed with relief and happiness. She and Adi hugged each other, then broke apart and affectionately stroked the parts of Starshine's mane just behind her ears. Starshine leaned into the motion, flicking her ears to tickle each of her friends in turn.

Footsteps. Someone was coming out of the cave to meet them. Rarity turned around and saw that it was Luke. "Adi," he said. "Are you all right?"

"I'm better than all right, Master," Adi said. "Look at this." She waved at the sky. "Can you believe it?"

"It's wonderful," Luke said, with a smile as bright as the lights above them.