        There were twelve small, but very serious looking creatures, wearing golden Romanesque armor, complete with brush helmets and spears somehow grasped in their forelimbs.  They were all a brilliant white, with blue eyes, practically identical, except it appeared that six of them had an ivory horn mounted on the front of their helmet, while the other six had some kind of white feathers over their armor.  Lying on its side in the center of the group was a brilliant, almost pearlescent unicorn.  It was wearing a golden tiara with a purple gem set in the center, golden horseshoes which covered the entire hoof, ending on the front of the leg in golden fleur-de-lis, and an enormous breastplate which also sported a purple gem.  Like some of the spear-holding creatures, it also appeared to have feathers along its sides.  The entire get-up seemed a little bit ridiculous, much like the costumes his neighbor put on his yappy mopwater dog.  What caught Dale’s eye, though, was that this creature’s mane seemed to be ethereal.  Colored almost exactly like the aurora, it shifted and flowed in the nonexistent breeze.  Unwittingly, he looked into the sky, watching it mirror the unicorn’s mane, before returning his gaze to the spectacle before him. 