What are this?

R I X E N Otem looked startled at the sound of my voice. Oops. It had not been my intention to startle her or to disrupt whatever she had been doing. At least she seemed to recover quickly upon realizing that it was me. The burgundy mare turned to face me with a smile, and I picked up a trot toward her. My slow gait was almost soundless as my hooves kissed the sand. They carrying me across the dune with minimal effort, quickly closing the gap between us.     When I caught up to Otem, she wasted no time in delving straight into the mystery at hoof. In a brief but complicated question, she asked me if I knew anything about this. What exactly was the this that she was referring to? The girl seemed to be looking at something before me, something I knew that I should be seeing. Strange. Before us the sand seemed to stretch on...then it flickered black, tall, and vast. It reached as far and wide as I could see. Certainly no horse, or any winged creature, for that matter, could fly over a structure so huge. Was it even a structure? Perhaps it was the product of the Rift's mysterious magic. Or maybe a combination of both. "It’s some kind of barrier." I breathed in awe. I had never noticed it before. From far away, it just looked like the desert was endless, but up close it became apparent that there was an impenetrable wall here and that the Rift did in fact come to an end. Otem kicked a small pebble at the barrier and I watched as it disappeared into the blackness. But organic matter could not pass through, according to the girl, who had apparently been examining this- this curious  thing for a while. "I’ve never seen something like this before." Was all I could think of to say. The barrier puzzled me as much as Otem. I was eager to know what would happen if one of us touched it, but at the same time I hadn't yet mustered up the courage to find out.  "Talk." they heard me singing and they told me to stop quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock

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