The Lost Girls

After being invited by them when they finished their work at the carnival, I continued to learn fascinating things about my new group of friends here, such as them not only being fantastic fliers as well, but equally daring.

This latest observation caused me to replay the things I had learned thus far. Not only had I run into carnies at Pony Island who worked in various venues there, including a rock/opera/magic show concert, but they also were very good and daring fliers? Where were these ponies when I actually sought out such potential to join The Washouts earlier?

I personally marveled at what eccentric and eclectic ponies these were.

Seriously, I had no idea that I would run into more ponies with very similar interests as me on that night. It seemed an even crueler irony that I found them only after I was forced to leave The Washouts myself. What a vicious taunt!

At least I had fun with them on that night. It also made sense why they had sought me out if, indeed, our interests were so compatible on many fronts.

Even then, those mares were practicing in ways that I had done with the rest of The Washouts such as daringly diving into and out of storm clouds. One difference, however, was the fact that they were doing it exceptionally well. Even scary well.

Like them, I dove into the storm clouds too. I was buffeted by strong winds and stinging rain which made a tapping sound as it splashed on my leather jacket, yet I continued to fly through it so naturally. Lightning and thunder flashed and rolled all around me, yet I was strangely calm within it. I was one with the elements and the storm, especially on that night since the turbulent weather seemed to poetically match my inner mindset at the time. I felt myself sink into a curiously peaceful trance as I continued to fly through the storm.

But these mares dove and spun all around me. I sometimes saw them carry the storm with them in their wake. Sometimes those clouds spun into miniature tornadoes because they dove past me in a spin. The spinning clouds chased after them which sometimes accelerated by combining with windstorms that the others also created.

There was something so eerie about their mad cackle in the storm. I didn't know what it was. These mares . . . there was just something off about them. Their laughter sounded more like the edge of madness.

The irony to that was The Washouts and I had been accused of that before. Many had said we were insane too. Usually we either accepted that claim with an innocent shrug or passionately embraced it. Considering all that, what would it take for insane ponies to consider yet another group even more insane?

Another thing about them that took me quite some time to identify was they were utterly fearless as they did these daring stunts. The Washouts and I faced our fears and leaned into them, but these mad mares didn't sound like they had fear to begin with. They were rather delighted in the storm on perhaps another level. Whatever it was, it felt primal and dangerous somehow. Observing this fascinated me as much as it secretly scared me.

There was also an instinct in me that begged me to realize I was treading on more dangerous ground with them than usual, and I was not a mare who typically ignored her instincts because it was usually why I survived my daring stunts so well aside from my highly honed athletic skills.

As time went on, I couldn't put my hoof on as to why, but they seemed honestly very surprised I could keep up with them. Likewise, I was surprised I have found others able to keep up with me.

The next thing they did was they dove and curved between the dangerous twists and turns of Ghastly Gorge. I had done that before as well, except the night time part was new for me. With the darker conditions, this was ten times more dangerous, yet these mares spun and curved around there as if this was nothing to them. I gradually began to realize that all I had to do was simply follow the sound of their wake and I could move through this gorge with similar ease. Was that a case of the blind following the not-so-blind for some reason?

Like me, they had no trouble dodging the sudden bites of the giant eels that shot out some of the holes in the gorge in an attempt to consume us. These mares even playfully and madly laughed as they twirled around them and kicked off their scaly hides. As for me, I simply dodged them. My instincts kicked in as sharply as ever, especially when I perceived danger.

Later they upped the ante again by diving within one of the holes of the gorge. In there, they should quickly be utterly blind, even if this was done in the daylight instead. I could hear their laughter start to fade within that tunnel while I skidded to a stop in midair.

Wow! Were they really mad? I was daring, but what they were doing then was downright suicidal.

“Come on, Lightning!” one of them cried out from within with an echo.

“Yeah!” agreed another. “Leap before you look . . . remember?”

Leap before I look? Yeah right! There was no way I would be able to see in there anyway. I would be as blind as a bat in there.

I heard their laughter continue to recede from me. That, at least, meant they were still alive enough to make a sound at all. How were they doing this?

I had never had anypony else show me up like this at my own game. I never before felt my courage and daringness being taunted as if I were the coward. Usually other ponies looked up to me and asked how I was doing what I did. This whole experience felt utterly surreal. Was I dreaming?

I took in a deep breath then slowly let it out, thus calming myself down.

Leap before I look, I reminded myself.

I repeated that in my head like a mantra even as I finally dove into the tunnel that they dove in earlier.

This was so crazy. I might as well be diving into the solid earth at full speed. If I truly wanted to kill myself, surely there might be more glorious ways to go out.

Panic tried to assail me as that black hole got closer and closer. But, before I met it, I closed my eyes entirely and forced myself to calm down. I knew I could not see in there anyway, so I might as well close my eyes. Instead of that, I sank into a trance and focused more on my other senses, including my unusually acute instincts.

I felt the temperature change when I was in the tunnel. I heard the sound of my wing flaps echo in the tunnel all around me. When I noticed that, it suddenly occurred to me how I could track where I was in there. Blind as a bat I may have been in there, but bats could track their progress in other ways.

I dove, I climbed, I zigged and I zagged. I heard as I dodged stalactites and stalagmites. They wooshed past me, each reminding me I just dodged yet another chance at death.

“Come on, Lightning. Join us. Be one of us,” echoed a mare's voice from somewhere ahead.

I mostly tried to ignore them since I was fighting for my life there. There was a thread of shame in the pit of my stomach that they were doing this so effortlessly, but I shall not be left behind. I am Lightning Dust! One of the most daring ponies in Equestria.

I focused with all of my might, but fear climbed within me as I felt the fact that the cave was getting narrower. I could hear the echo of my own wing flaps getting closer. I could hear myself dodging other objects that were closer. This was really dangerous. How were these mares doing this so easily?

Then, finally, my left wing clipped with the edge of the cave wall. This knocked that wing back and injured it. I ended up diving down in a spin, screaming, until I got impaled by one of many unseeable stalagmites.

I couldn't believe this! I just utterly couldn't believe this! Me, of all mares, one of the most daring I've ever known, was going to die in these caverns!

How did it come to this? Did I want to die? Did I want to abandon my sister after all?

I was shocked to realize I felt no pain at first, but it gradually did come up. When it did, it seemed to have no end to the amount it scaled up.

A humming sound by several of the mares I had been chasing rose around me. When it did, an eerie dark purple glow ignited within several dark crystals embedded in the walls. At first I wondered if that was the secret to their success earlier, but no. If they were using that before, I should have easily noticed this light stand out in darkness that was this pitch black, even with my eyes closed.

I heard their humming, but I didn't see them. All except one of them; Demise. She alone approached close enough for me to see her in this dim light.

“We are very impressed with you, Miss Dust,” Demise said as she crouched down and gently moved a hoof through my mane tenderly. “To keep up with us as you are, a mere mortal. How much greater will you be if you become one of us?”

“Who . . . who are you all?” I asked as I struggled hard to avoid screaming in pain. “What are you?” I desperately amended.

“We are the apex predators,” Demise answered me smoothly and soothingly like a mother trying to calm down her distraught foal. “We are the greatest champions of the Night Goddess.”

I furrowed my eyebrows as I continued to struggle to repress a pained grimace as I asked, “Princess Luna? You speak for-”

I was interrupted by a bunch of disgusted and loathing hisses all around me that also briefly interrupted their humming. When that happened, the dark purple glow of various crystals around us started to fade. In response, Demise quickly passed a glare out at unseen ponies around us for this. When she did, the humming picked up again. When that happened, the glow of the crystals returned to their previous strength.

Then Demise looked back at me with a shake of her head and said, “No. We don't speak for that foul abomination. That corrupted puppet of Celestia.”

I tried to gasp, but I ended up coughing out blood instead. Still, I was determined to speak my mind, so I rounded up my remaining strength again and told her, “Luna isn't Celestia's puppet. She is her sister!”

“She was Nightmare Moon!” Demise cried out at me in outrage, thus losing her cool for the first time I had ever observed in her. “The true Goddess of the Night.” She tilted her head at me as she asked me, “Don't you think it's a little suspicious for her to be this all-powerful alicorn who let nothing step in her way, then poof! One zap of the rainbow beam of the Elements of 'Harmony' and now she's suddenly this sniveling and groveling slave who pretends to be Celestia's sister?” She shook her head. “No pony suddenly switches moral views like that so drastically without a very unusual reason. The rainbow beams of the Elements of 'Harmony' did this to her. It is concealing and containing our beloved goddess. It is forcing her to act like this pathetic pony ever since that day, and secretly doing so to an utterly unwilling target, I might add.”

I was confused. This was hard to accept. I felt like arguing with her, but my senses were dimming. I felt dizzy. My vision was blackening. My hearing was fading. I was losing strength. As I started to die, I did so with a realization that I genuinely was following a bunch of utterly mad ponies!

Demise leaned down and whispered into my ear, “I can save your life, little pony. If I do, you can say goodbye to the life you knew before. A better one awaits thee.”

Weakly, I looked at her. I didn't know what to make of that statement.

“Why did you struggle so hard to live before?” Demise continued to ask me as she whispered into my ear. “Whatever it was before, does it, in any way, continue to linger? Why did you cling to life?”

Because I wanted to live.

“Why fight?” she asked.

Because I enjoyed a challenge. I like the struggle.

Demise pulled a knife up from seemingly out of nowhere. She grasped it with a wing and pulled it to a hoof. Along the way, I had to remind myself that she was a trained magician.

“If you have any reason to continue to live, drink this,” she offered before startling me by slicing below her own left hoof. After she did, she hovered that hoof over my own mouth and seemed to drip her blood on my face on purpose for some reason.

“Drink!” Demise commanded me. “Drink the nectar of life. Drink . . . the nectar of death. Eternal life, and eternal death!”

What was I supposed to make of all this?

“Drink now,” she commanded me again. “What do you have to lose at this point besides your life?”

Well . . . I guess she had me there. I had no idea how a pony's blood was supposed to act like some kind of healing potion, but she seemed weirdly confident that it could help. If I didn't do this, I was going to die. Was that what I wanted?

I briefly considered the contents of my life. The struggles I went through and the struggles I wanted to continue doing, most of which was interrupted by my sister.

I gave up a lot for her. Practically my whole life for her. I couldn't really say I did it without some hesitation or a sense of resentment, but the fact remained that I did it anyway. She needed me, and that hasn't changed. If I died that night, she may die too. Of a broken heart if nothing else.

Bitter resentment clung to my heart, but so does a righteous cry of outrage! I can't let her down! Not after I've gotten this far! Not after all I gave up to get here.

Leap before I look.

Greedily, I scooped up her leg and dragged it to my mouth where I proceeded to feed. A distinct metallic taste assaulted my mouth, but it curiously left a surprisingly intense and addictive aftertaste. Before I could stop myself, I found myself gorging on her blood.

Weirdly, Demise seemed aroused by this, yet it didn't seem to strengthen her in the least. As one would expect, draining her blood did seem to weaken her significantly. She was clearly woozy at that point.

I only paused my drinking for a brief moment when a pulse of pain shot through me. My body tried to reject the foreign substance as if suddenly realizing that this blood was actually poison, not a healing potion.

And yet, instead of gagging, I ended up drinking even more. I couldn't stop myself!

“One of us! One of us!” the others chanted like this was some kind of dark ritual to them.

I felt my heart pumping fast as if racing desperately to resist this poisonous substance that flooded my veins. I even felt every vein of my body pulse too. I started to notice detailed sensations I never noticed before, like the sweat of the others. Demise most of all.

My body screamed at me to stop, yet I could not. I couldn't seem to control my actions anymore. It was as if some ravenous animal had possessed and taken over my body. I felt like I was floating off to the side, casually observing this as if my body was somepony else's.

“One of us! One of us!” the chant continued. As it did, it seemed to synchronize with my ever more desperate heartbeat. My heart struggled with all of its might to resist the substance that was killing my body.

I couldn't stop!

I . . .

Did I want to?

What was happening to me?

Then, suddenly, my heart stopped. That last pulse rippled through my body like a last gasp of life. In that same instance, the chant of the others also suddenly ceased as if they realized what had happened.

As my consciousness faded away, the greatly weakened Demise leaned down and whispered into my ear, “Say your goodbyes to the light, my new friend, for when you next awaken . . . you will be reborn with new vampony eyes.” She paused again, then said, “Welcome . . . to the ShadowBolts.”

. . .

. . .

I died.