First Nights Alone

Two hours of flying that night felt like a whole day. The freezing temperatures from about 100 feet off the ground could be tolerated the first hour but after that, as ice began to form and started hitting in between my feathers and my body in general, flying was getting harder and harder. Not to mention I didn't sleep before I made the biggest decision of my life.

"Great work, Lighting," I said to myself, "Your off on your own and you are already struggling. What are you going to do now?"

Even in this weather, I knew I shouldn't be flying. But eveypony knowing me as the stubborn stallion who kept pushing forward without looking at the consequences, I kept at it. What could I say, my reputation influenced me. The ice connecting with my wings were really starting to bug me though. That's when it finally hit. I was stumbling through the sky with my right wing cramping like no other. Even as I flapped my wing as hard as I could, the fatigue I was feeling shot throughout my body and my muscles began locking up. The cold weather was not helping my case. My slow yet noticeable decent drifted into a nose dive into the middle of a forest below me.

Buck me, I said to myself. Bracing for impact, I lifted my forelegs to shield my face from the branches of the trees. Going head first into a forest at an extremely fast pace, I knew I was in for a world of hurt. The first couple of branches only scraped my right foreleg and a couple of twigs got into my mane. But after that first 2 seconds of wooden shrapnel flying at your face and not knowing where you are turning caused me to do something stupid: I lifted my head to see where I would land. Of course that was unfortunate for me. My forehead hit a tree branch and I loss balance. Right there and then, my body did a bunch of twist and flips hitting more branches and the trunks of trees. I loss consciousness after the first flip.

The next thing I knew, I was on the surface of the forest. The first thing came to my mind was how I got here on the ground. My cramping right wing answered that question quickly. That's right... I was flying till the muscles of my wing couldn't take it anymore... I thought to myself. Second thing: I felt some liquid flowing down my forehead. I was expecting if to be sweat from my forehead. As I touched it with my right hoof though, it was sticky and it smelled like iron. Blood...? Then it hit... Immense pain from my whole body.

Clenching my eyes shut, I screamed out of sheer pain and agony. I couldn't move any of my muscles knowing they probably locked up when I collided with many trees on my decent to the ground and to my face impacting the dirt and grass. My limbs for all I knew felt broken. Opening my eyes slightly, I saw that I skidded across the ground by a good 10 feet. My saddlebags still upon my back, I tried getting up on my forelegs. Half way up, my legs gave out on me, resulting in my face hitting the ground. At least it doesn't feel like I broke anything. Why did this have to happen... thinking to myself, Out of all the things that could have happened... I was slipping in and out of consciousness at this point and time. Here I was, out in the middle of Celestia knows where, tired, in pain and suffering. To make matters worst, no sign of the town I was supposed to end up in. Slowly closing my eyes and drifting into a long sleep, my mind was just thinking one thing: Didn't expect this to go like this...

"Hey! Oh my gosh! Are you alright?!"

Seems like I got someone's attention. The voice sounded feminine to boot. Great... Frightened a mare at the beginning of my journey. Fan-bucking-tastic. All that came to me was the sound of hooves running towards me before sleep took over my state of mind.

Darkness is everywhere, young stallion... You can never escape it... No matter how far you run and how far you fly...

Slowly opening my eyes, my vision was just black. Endless shadows extending to unending lands. It was just me, floating in this darkness with a voice. One evil and sinister. One of many minds.

...One I despise out of anything in all of Equestria and beyond. It made my teeth grit together and my muscles aching to hit anything out of sheer fury and rage. It was the voice of my dad's enemy. Of Serenity's enemy. Of Equestria's enemy.

"Leave me alone!" I shouted, "You have no business being in my head or my dreams you fiend!"

Oh my... I'm so sorry, your Highness. What?! Do you want me to just LIE to you!?!?

"Shut up! You know nothing about me! And don't you use my title as a way to address me!"

But isn't that what you are... The next PRINCE of Serenity?! The kingdom you ABANDONED for your own SELFISH reasons!?!?!?!?

...Why, Lightning...? Why would you leave your own mother alone...? Don't you love her? Care about her...?

That voice... "Don't you EVER use his voice!" I snarled in anger, "Let him rest you demon!" I started flying towards where ever I was hearing the voice, flailing my arms trying to hit whoever was there. The voice din't go away unfortunately.

Oh dear. I do think we struck a nerve. Why did he have to use that voice of all things? Why not? It seems he just wants him to loose any rational thought and drive him deeper into the unforgiving shadows. SILENCE! He doesn't need to know that you idiots!

I couldn't take much more of this. My eyes were glazed over the thought of not being able to see him again. I ended my useless flailing and just let my forelegs limp to my sides. "No..." I whispered on the verge of tears, "I just... Wanted to go down my own path... A path which I choose where to go. A path where I can understand everypony not just in our kingdom... A path wanting to follow you..." At that moment, a bright light emitted from the dark and showed a pegasus. The voice growled with rage.

AAAHRRRG! Why did you come? Heh heh heh... You haven't changed a bit since you DIED! Hows the afterlife treating you, BLAZE!?!?

At that moment, the pegasus sprinted and flew through the darkness, dissipating all shadows around me. Darkness still lingered as he landed, but none of it near me. Looking in my direction, the stallion smiled and disappeared himself. A tear rolled down my right cheek as I closed my eyes once more floating in the abyss.

How does he do that...? No matter... We will get to him and we will corrupt his mind.

The sound of a evil laugh was all I could here from my mindless drifting.

Gasping for air and eyes jutting open, I jolted myself up from my sleep, causing sharp and agonizing pain towards my head. I put a hoof towards my forehead, shutting my eyes closed and hissed out my pain. That nightmare... It's one that has kept on appearing more and more often ever since that day. All these years and I can't even shake it off.

Leaning back a little, I realized I wasn't in the forest. I was in a room and on a cloud bed. My forehead was in wrappings along with most of my body covering up more cuts and wounds I had. Looking to my right, I was in a room all made of clouds along with the exception of some materialistic pieces of furniture like a dresser, a lamp and a mirror on the wall. The room was slowly filling up with the light of dawn from the left to the rest of the room. Turning my head to what I would expect just more furniture and a window, I saw what was probably the best view of my time alone.

Shining in the morning light was a mare with a gold-orange color matching perfectly with her blue and silver hair style that hung across the left side of her face, covering her eye, sitting on a cushioned cloud couch. She was resting her head on the post of the bed nearest to me soundly asleep. Her ears twitched every once and a while and her tail swished back and forth. I could feel her breath hitting my left shoulder.

Must have been the mare who saw me crash, I thought, She watched me the whole night...?

The heat of Celestia's sun hit the face of the sleeping mare, she tightened up her eyes and slowly opened them. Her shimmering, skyblue-colored eyes opened up to see me staring right back at her. Eye's widening, I turned my head away, a slight tinge of pink on my cheeks. Great. Just great Lightning. Checking out the mare that practically saved your life already...? Smooth... Looking back at her, I can see her smiling a little.

"Good," she said, sleep in her tone, "You're up. More importantly, you are alive." She yawns shortly after.

"Eheh heh..." I rubbed the back of my neck, sheepishly smiling at her, "Yeah. I guess I should probably thank you for that."

"No problem. Not everyday you see a pegasus land on the edge of CrimsonWings collapsed and broken. What was I supposed to do? Leave you there?"

"It was still an option," I mentioned. She let out a little giggle and yawned once again afterwards. "So, umm... Mind if I get the name of the mare who took me in?"

She looked at me with a concerning look, raised eyebrow and all before her eyes soften up. "Flare," she said, "My name is Sun Flare."

She lifted her hoof in front of me. It seemed as if she wanted me to perform the royal greeting. Ah, heck with it. I extended my own, taking hers tenderly and kissed it as a gentlecolt would do... Or that was what I was taught from my Mom. Flare took her hoof back shaking slowly, her cheeks slightly red.

"Thank you for taking care of me Sun Flare," I say. Putting my right foreleg and placing it over my chest, I say, "My name is Lightning. Lightning Flash to be more specific."

With that said, I lowered my head, making look like I'm bowing to her. Looking back up at her was one of the more... interesting moments that happened so far. Her eyes widen, with with slight red on her cheeks still, giving me an "are you serious" gesture.

"L-L-Lightning Fl-lash...? As in THE heir to the throne in Serenity?!?!"

... ... ... ...

I should've known this was bound to happen... I mentally facehoofed. This is going to be a long day...