Happy Halloween!
-Love, Ribe
Bleak.
That's what everything is. It's what my life is.
The darkness is everywhere at this time of night. It's almost as if the shadows around the trees mock me, as if ghosts stand in the shrouding dark and stare at me through my cabin's window.
There's nothing left. No name, no emotion, no nothing. My soul feels like an empty glass, the only thing left to do to set me free is to break the glass, let the cracks form and crawl bigger until it comes undone. Just like my dreams.
I used to be a Wonderbolt. A Cadet.
It was my dream and my life goal to become an official member of the team, soaring through the skies of Equestria with the best of the best. After sweat, tears and determination, I was more than ready to be enlisted into the team. That is, until that day took place.
My whole world came crashing down in an instant as my own co-flyer put an end to my thunder. Because of her, I'm no longer in the Academy, and it's also because of her that I'm an outcast to the public. An endangerment to ponies everywhere, they call me. Worst of all, I have completely let down my parents. Even though they are gone from this world, my mind always betrays my resistance to tell me that they are not frowning down on me. Of course they are frowning down on me. I'm a disgrace to my family's name, a failure.
Perhaps I deserve that title.
I can feel the dim light of the moon on my cheek, peeking through the window like a hoof of a spirit, a mysterious presence to witness. The land outside of my cabin deep within the Whitetail Woods is so far from being inhabited with any life-form other than myself that the likelihood of anypony knowing my presence here is little to nil.
I'm currently stood in front of my bed, behind a wooden chair with my head staring up at a tight, sturdy noose. It shifted aimlessly back and forth in the cold air in the room, dangling only an inch or so from my muzzle.
In the darkness that encased my bedroom, it could almost give the impression of paranormal activity at work. Every time I inhaled a shaky, frosty breath from the coldness of the room, it would come towards me, and move away when I exhaled softly.
There was nothing left for me in this world, and that only prompted me to find the encouragement to do this one last deed, to say goodbye without another sound. I sniffled, wiping a mint-green hoof across my nose, feeling my cold sweat and clammy skin.
My breath was only getting slower as I contemplated the idea. I wanted to leave, to have a sense of freedom and release from my built-up tensions, but no matter how much it aches my already burned-out heart, something in my mind kept niggling at me, like the acknowledgement of another being whispering in my ear, one I couldn't see but only hear and feel their presence and existence.
Dusty. Duu-sssstttt-yyy...
My ears pricked and twitched at the voice. It didn't hold a specific, constant tone to it. It sounded like wind at a fast pace, resembling the echo of a spirit. It sounded disembodied and ghoulish.
Dusty. Over here.
It called from behind me. With a slow and unsure glance, I found myself only staring into a pit of shadows, nothing but pure black. That is until I squinted my eyes for a more deeper look into the abyss.
Then, out of the very deepest depths of the shadows around the area in which I was staring into, it all seemed to be getting thicker, pooling together from the sides to the centre, forming what my golden eyes made out to be a silhouette.
It grew thicker and thicker as it developed, the figure taking on the bodily structure of a pony. Or at least, what I thought was a pony.
It had its head hung down, all of its body encased in pure, slick black as it traced ghostly hoofsteps out of the dark and closer towards me, all the way, the hooves of the entity never seemed to touch the floor, but were raised a few inches from it, radiating some kind of mysterious, black cloud.
In the moonlight, I could see the tip of a muzzle poking out of the blackness, that upon closer inspection, I realized was a hooded cloak. He-she, no - it was smiling at me as it came forward.
I couldn't move as I watched this mysterious figure. My nerves and body felt like lead, nailing me to the floor, so much so that my legs began to ache and become numb.
My eyes shrank in fear and the cold sweat running down my forehead picked up in pace, enough to matt down my fur.
Even my voice refused to work, as I found out when I opened my mouth to say something. All that I could muster was the strength for was a small, raspy breath of air, sounding like an air-intake pipe being strangled in a corkscrew and the air was struggling to push itself through. My lungs felt as if something or someone was grasping onto my lungs, giving them a tight, hard squeeze every now and then, forcing the oxygen from my lungs and causing me to struggle with respiration.
The mysterious mass came to a halt directly in front of me, not far from meeting my muzzle. This strange entity didn't seem to breathe. It's body never arose or fell and I could smell something rotten in the air, an aroma that could only be described and associated with death and decay.
Ever so slowly, the mass lifted up its head, the cloak it was wearing drooping down slightly behind its head, revealing a creepy, upwards smile. Well, it was more like a grin. One that I wish I didn't have the displeasure of seeing.
Other than the eerie grin, the movement of the cloak also revealed the most haunting eyes that I could ever imagine. As a matter of fact, I don't think the term ''eyes'' could exist for this being. There was no eyes there. No irises, no pupils, nothing. They were like bowls of glowing milk.
My heart was beating faster, now. It was so loud that I could hear it in my ears.
Thump-thump
A shadowed hoof lifted upwards and reached for my cheek. It arose slowly, but it seemed to be making contact with me within the length of a second.
THUMP-THUMP
The contact didn't have much of a feeling. It could only be described as feeling like air - cold and drafty. That's all there was to it. Black, cold and drafty, like the air on a Hearth's Warming night.
I wanted to pull my body away, but it felt like cement. I couldn't move, and ideas of what this creature could do to me in my vulnerable state were rolling around in my brain, causing my head to ache and race with panic.
I clenched my eyes shut, preparing for the inevitable. I was sure I would be dead soon enough. The cold sweat building on my brow like a miniature dam leaked down my face and over my eyelids, their weight being detected on my eyelashes before dripping off and hitting the floor.
Tears began to well in my eyes, the redefined term ''fear'' being emphasized as my life flashed before my eyes.
Just as soon as the tears began to leak and my eyes reopened, I didn't find myself standing on my hooves, but rather laying down on my side.
I blinked my eyes a few times, trying to purge the grogginess from them along with the dampness. I was confused, to say the least. Did I fall asleep? Did I pass out sometime during the night?
Warm sun radiated through the window to my bedroom and collided with my face, the sensation warming my body from the coldness running down my spine with a shiver every now and then.
I picked myself from the floor and stood shakily back to my hooves. In a short-lived stumble that sent me into the side of the bed with a dull thud, my hooves flopped over the bed sheets from the foot of the bed, my upper body resting partially on the bed as my backside hung loosely from the end of the frame, my hind legs dangling.
I cursed under my breath and grumbled as I caught my breath again. Rolling my eyes, I sighed through my nostrils and looked down at the sheets, blinking in surprise and confusion at what was in front of me.
Resting slap-bang in the middle of my light orange bed sheets was a small, off-cream envelope. I raised my brow in confusion at the item. I reached out for it, grasping it in my hooves and pulling it towards me, inspecting it further.
It wasn't mine, and I know I didn't put anything there. Heck, I don't even bother to write letters, so how in Equestria did this one get into my house? I'm more than certain that I didn't leave something there earlier.
I turned it over from its sealed side to the front, finding only two letters written on it in a simple italic font.
L.D.
Those were my initials. It creeped me out, to say the least. I turned it back over to the sealed side, where it was stuck down with black wax, a small scythe stamped into it.
My heart gave a small pang at the sight of it, and a flashback triggered in my mind, one of what seemed to me like it happened moments ago. A flash of a cloaked, dark figure filled my mind's eye, a figure of pure black and shadows, a mysterious entity.
Something in the back of my mind was telling me that it wasn't a living pony. It didn't breathe, it didn't sleep and it didn't eat. It didn't even have a beating heart. It made no sound when it moved, almost as if it was made entirely out of the darkness, nothing but a mere silhouette or a pigment of my imagination. I really hoped it was the second one...
My heart picked up in pace again when I picked off the wax stamp and raised the flap of the envelope, revealing to me what appeared to be a simple, torn white note.
Cautiously, I pulled it out of the envelope's sleeve and slowly turned it around, only to find a few words written onto it, appearing to be hoof-written.
Lightning Dust,
Life is what you make it. Your time isn't up, yet. We believe in you, so make us proud, our Little Star.
- Mum and Dad
X
I stared at it for a moment, tracing over the signed names. A tear or two dripped free from my ducts and stroked my cheek. In my heart, a warm but painful pang of a heartache I knew all too well was felt.
My parents were long gone from this world, and to see their names after all of this time, written down on paper in what I knew was their own writing, hurt. It hurt with such a burn it made me cringe.
That name; Little Star. It was given to me by them when I was a young teenager of fourteen, earned because of my high ambitions and desirable heart.
I clenched the piece of paper to my chest and stared up to the ceiling of my room, whispering ''Thank you'' and ''I love you'' to nothing in particular, but I hoped they both heard it.
This was a sign to me. It told me that I didn't have any permission to pass on until I have accomplished my dreams and desires. Life has a way of tearing ponies of all species, no matter what their status or reputation is, and it happens to all of us. I may have been given the cold, iron boot of dismissed service from the Wonderbolt Academy, but that didn't mean I had to quit my hopes all together, and there was no way around escaping problems, but there is a way to see them through.
I'm a tough pegasus, and if I was ever going to go down, I was going to go down flying towards my goals, head on.
An idea came into my mind, one that I was more than reluctant to give in to, but as my limited options were unfurling in my mind, I eventually caved and gave a sigh.
I picked myself from the bedspread and pulled open a drawer in my bedside desk, pulling out a vial of ink and quill along with a piece of parchment and an envelope to seal it in.
I set the paper down on the desk and held the quill in my mouth, dipping it into the small ink vial and bringing it to the paper, beginning to write the letter.
''Dear Rainbow Dash...''
Author's Note
Yep, I've lost my edge, I know. I suck, but hey, not the one for not trying.
Please tell me that I didn't botch this one up...
This is also my second time writing Lightning Dust. She's so out of the spotlight that it couldn't hurt to give her a bit of the show, too. (This was also a random, spontaneous and floating idea that was in my mind, and I like to get mine out there before it's too late, so here ya go!)
Happy (Early) Halloween!
(To the ponies out there) Happy Nightmare Night, and good scaring! (Or pranking - especially you, Rainbow Dash! 
)
