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Description
It was bound to happen someday...

Several years back, when the Silver Pines Breeding Facility had just become SPaVES, there was a pair of twins born. One light, one dark, both beautiful. Though the darker colt was sold, the white one stayed, and it was from this colt that the line of starry overos first gained ground.

Now a stallion, Maleficent has been a near constant figure at SPaVES – his peculiar smirking face and addictive attitude, his strutty gaits and various acts of mischief – most of the staff can't even recall a time when he wasn't there.

Now, the day he hit the age of 20, we all started to hear a ticking of a clock in our heads, a little countdown to the inevitable day he would leave us permanently. One year passed, then two, then three. Through generations of grown sons, daughters and grandfoals, nothing happened, no sign of aging ever showed. It was as if the stallion was immersed in a little bubble of reality – one undisturbed by pesky little things like time.

And all the while, the strange Arabian seemed to smirk at us, seemingly amused by our bafflement and incredulousness. After his first great-grandfoal was born, the ticking in our heads slowly died down to silence, and we became sure he would be with us forever – that our strange smiling demon was simply part of the stable and that he'd be there till the end of days.

It so figured, that the day after we had made peace with that idea, he went and changed the game again.

Dawn the next day found us awake, woken by some unknown source. A quick glance out the window showed us a strange, rather haunting sight – Maleficent stood at the edge of his paddock, staring out towards the rising sun. As the sun painted the sky shades of pink and gold, the white stallion turned to look back over his shoulder at grin at us, and somehow we knew in that moment what he wanted to say.

'One more day.'

Running on gut feeling, we tried to get hold of as many of Mal's children and grandchildren as we could, saying it was an urgent matter. Thankfully, most of the stables near enough responded quickly, and by noon, a good gathering of people and horses had congregated in the paddocks, including several of the SPaVES horses that had escaped from their stalls, drawn by the commotion.

Mal seemed positively chuffed by the large group, and he quite happily flitted about, nuzzling long lost children and meeting some grandkids for the first time. Linus and Jason organised an impromptu picnic, and that day a late lunch was enjoyed out in the fields.

At around 6 o clock, Raenelle suddenly realised some of the horses were noteably gone – including Mal and a handful of his friends and family. We crept over to another field over a hill a short distance off and immediately spotted the horses.

The white arabian lay on the ground, a strangely subdued Mr Happy on one side and his daughter Fate, on the other. The rest of the group seemed to have gathered in a loose half circle around the three, watching the events quietly.

6.37pm that day, at the ripe age of 53, Maleficent took his last breath and calmly, without a fuss, died.

+++++
Now excuse me while I go mibble in a corner somewhere
Background from ~ceara

Maleficent
September 15th 2009 - November 1st 2010

Description
It was bound to happen someday...

Several years back, when the Silver Pines Breeding Facility had just become SPaVES, there was a pair of twins born. One light, one dark, both beautiful. Though the darker colt was sold, the white one stayed, and it was from this colt that the line of starry overos first gained ground.

Now a stallion, Maleficent has been a near constant figure at SPaVES – his peculiar smirking face and addictive attitude, his strutty gaits and various acts of mischief – most of the staff can't even recall a time when he wasn't there.

Now, the day he hit the age of 20, we all started to hear a ticking of a clock in our heads, a little countdown to the inevitable day he would leave us permanently. One year passed, then two, then three. Through generations of grown sons, daughters and grandfoals, nothing happened, no sign of aging ever showed. It was as if the stallion was immersed in a little bubble of reality – one undisturbed by pesky little things like time.

And all the while, the strange Arabian seemed to smirk at us, seemingly amused by our bafflement and incredulousness. After his first great-grandfoal was born, the ticking in our heads slowly died down to silence, and we became sure he would be with us forever – that our strange smiling demon was simply part of the stable and that he'd be there till the end of days.

It so figured, that the day after we had made peace with that idea, he went and changed the game again.

Dawn the next day found us awake, woken by some unknown source. A quick glance out the window showed us a strange, rather haunting sight – Maleficent stood at the edge of his paddock, staring out towards the rising sun. As the sun painted the sky shades of pink and gold, the white stallion turned to look back over his shoulder at grin at us, and somehow we knew in that moment what he wanted to say.

'One more day.'

Running on gut feeling, we tried to get hold of as many of Mal's children and grandchildren as we could, saying it was an urgent matter. Thankfully, most of the stables near enough responded quickly, and by noon, a good gathering of people and horses had congregated in the paddocks, including several of the SPaVES horses that had escaped from their stalls, drawn by the commotion.

Mal seemed positively chuffed by the large group, and he quite happily flitted about, nuzzling long lost children and meeting some grandkids for the first time. Linus and Jason organised an impromptu picnic, and that day a late lunch was enjoyed out in the fields.

At around 6 o clock, Raenelle suddenly realised some of the horses were noteably gone – including Mal and a handful of his friends and family. We crept over to another field over a hill a short distance off and immediately spotted the horses.

The white arabian lay on the ground, a strangely subdued Mr Happy on one side and his daughter Fate, on the other. The rest of the group seemed to have gathered in a loose half circle around the three, watching the events quietly.

6.37pm that day, at the ripe age of 53, Maleficent took his last breath and calmly, without a fuss, died.

+++++
Now excuse me while I go mibble in a corner somewhere
Background from ~ceara

Maleficent
September 15th 2009 - November 1st 2010