Author's statement:
"In My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, the unicorn protagonist, Twilight Sparkle, becomes an alicorn after acquiring wings. Another character, a pegasus named Cadance, becomes an alicorn after acquiring a horn. "Trinity" approaches the problem very differently."
Like a unicorn, it possesses a horn.
Like a pegasus, wings.
(In my head.)
In my zoological compound, I retain a horse, a narwhal, and a bat.
(And one pen.)
They breed--all three--when I persuade them to:
earth, water, air.
The result is a monster.
(Beautiful.)
Together, monstrously, we penetrate the sky.
(Beautifully.)
Together, beautifully, we soar.
(Monstrously.)
((But not really.))
Neighs, echolocatory clicks.
Tonal-pulsed signals, flutters.
Whistles, whinnies, chirps.
Over the rainbow, between the stars.
I am with you, I say.
From the tip of its horn extends a pillar of light
a sword
a wand
a nimbus
a spear
I am you, I say.
(Even as I only listen.)
But its flanks are bare.
(Like a horse, like a narwhal.)
And its forehead is smooth.
(Like a horse, like a bat.)
And its front limbs are flat, its back limbs absent.
(Like a narwhal.)
Through rainbow-tinted water, it conveys me jerkily.
Flop, flop, we go.
(It goes.)
Still magical, a little.
Less magical.
((Except that it is dead.))
With my shovel, I penetrate the earth:
new layers.
Chunk, chunk, goes my blade.
(I bury it.)
And, from that earth, an arch of vivid light ascends:
a bridge to a kingdom in the sky;
a portal to an empire in the stars.
(Except that it never was.)
Except…
