By the time Flying Free had stopped crying, the thunderstorm outside still hadn’t gone away, and only seemed to have picked up more force as the hours went on. Its howling winds haunted the indifferent mask that Free now wore over her face, distorted by grief. She watched the black grey sky above from her seat by the window, and the droplets of rain running down the sheet of glass made the town on the other side look like some sort of misunderstood piece of art.
Twisted beyond comprehension. Just like most things in her life.
She still hadn’t left the room, and refused to leave before the storm had passed, for several reasons, all of them ones she kept to herself. One was that, despite the fact that Lightning was still in deep coma, she wanted to remain by his side during the storm. She knew from first hoof experience that Lightning was, ironically enough, terrified of the lightning itself.
The other reason was more personal. She was afraid herself, though not of the lightning, but of the effects it might cause. She was afraid to head home only to find herself trapped in a power outage, surrounded by the shadows of her nightmares. Those shadows were the last thing she needed right now. And so she opted to stay in the hospital, where she could comfort Lightning should anything happen, and she would have both him and Red if the power went out.
And then, after hours of unrelenting winds and rain, claps of thunder echoed deeply through the building, and a few seconds later a massive crooked white line parted the skies in front of her, casting its pale light over the town and her face. She felt her heart skip a bit instinctively at the bright illumination.
The Pegasus took a peak over her shoulder, her eyes falling upon the lifeless stallion on the bed on the opposite side of the room. She wished he could have been as lively as the lightning outside, instead of… what he’d now become. She pursed her mouth and turned back to the window in time to see another flash of light in the clouds, this one much brighter than the earlier one.
It illuminated the room behind her, causing her own face to reflect in the window before her. During this short moment that didn’t even last a second, she once again saw her daughters face next to hers.
She turned her head away from the glass.
To try and clear her mind, she walked back over to Lightning’s bed and sat down next to it. Just as she always did, she reached up and placed one of her hooves on his, the one that wasn’t covered by the blanket since it always had a needle in it.
“I… I know this is too much to ask, but…” Her voice started out in normal speaking tone, but once she came to the end, it had become a low whisper. She leaned closer to the unicorns sleeping face. “Could you… Could you wake up? Please?”
Her last word was barely possible to hear, a whisper muffled as she let her face burry itself in the blanket next to him. She just wanted him back, that was all. If she could, she’d bring him and Opal back, and they would become a happy family together, they would… Be happy. Just happy.
“I just want you back…”
She twisted her neck slightly to free her face and mouth from the cloth of the blanket, trying to blink away a bit of hair out of her eyes.
“Lightning?” She began quietly. “Have I ever told you… Why I’m afraid of the dark?”
She waited in silence for the response she already knew wasn’t coming. Partially because hope still hadn’t abandoned her and partially because she still didn’t really want to talk about… the shadows. But she still needed to get it out of her, get this secret of her chest. Not even Opal knew about her mother’s phobia when she was still alive.
“When I was just a little filly, growing up in Baltimare, I didn’t have that many friends… And the few I had rarely wanted to do the same things I wanted to. So I felt left out, pushed aside. Not important, you know…? They never wanted to come over and play at my place, and I always had to come to them instead. I guess maybe they weren’t the best friends, but I just… wanted to belong.”
She looked up at the stallion in front of her. His face still showed no signs of consciousness, no feelings. But she was sure he could still hear her.
“One day, rainy like this one, I followed some of my friends to the house of one of the kids in my class, who had a much wealthier family than most of us. I don’t remember her name, but they had money… lots of it. And their house was big, close to what you might call a mansion. And then somepony got the idea that we should play hide-and-seek, throughout the entire building… I was only about 8 years old, and too unsure of myself to admit that the house actually scared me because it was so big. Anyway, we all hurried off to hide, and I somehow found my way up to the second floor, and found this room at the end of a long corridor. And in that room was a cupboard that I decided to hide inside.”
Her voice became more and more strained the closer she came to the part that always appeared in her dreams, and she almost felt her own sounds drowning in the sounds of the pump-like device next to them that was keeping Lightning from chocking. Every time the device sank, it made a wheezing sound like a pipe releasing steam. It made her shiver each time, since it wasn’t a natural sound.
“And then of course, the cupboard somehow locked itself with me still inside. Naturally, I panicked, and thought I felt… things. Things in the darkness.”
She had never been afraid of the dark before this happened, in fact she actually enjoyed the protection it offered her. But once she realized the doors had locked, her heart started racing in her chest. She threw herself against the door as hard as she could, but her young body was too small and weak to budge it even an inch.
And as she pressed herself against the thick wooden doors… it came. The shadows.
Dozens of hooves stroke against her skin, tongues licking her fur. Whatever it was, it wanted her, craved her, and made no attempts to hide it. The filly couldn’t do anything but scream as she felt it inside her, filling up her entire body, sinking into her heart and soul. But nopony heard her, and they didn’t find her until about 30 minutes later.
By that time, she had been reduced to nothing more than a crying husk, unable to talk or answer questions, unable to interact with the world. Her eyes where blank, staring off into nothingness without noticing what was around her.
“…. It took me years before I could move on and live again. I’m still terrified of the dark, but at least I can function like every other pony.”
And like on a given cue, just waiting to be called upon the stage by the director, another lightning bolt parted the clouds. The thunder roared above their heads at the exact same time, and Free thought she could feel the floor vibrate beneath her, trembling at the force of Mother Nature.
The pump by the bed suddenly stopped. Free looked at it perplexed before realizing that Lightning wasn’t getting anymore air. She threw herself upon the device, trying to get it to work once again.
The lights in the ceiling went out.
Panic building inside, Free turned her attention away from the pump and focused on Lightning himself. Searching through the darkness, her hoof found his chin, and she tilted his head slightly upwards to open up his throat.
She called the name of her best friend into the shadows, hoping Redheart would hear her. Then she drew in a breath and dove down unto her former neighbors face, pressing her lips against his and letting out all her air into his lungs. She could feel his chest raise itself.
Once she was out of air, she called out to Redheart yet again before giving more air to Lightning’s empty lungs.
For what felt like an eternity she repeated this cycle, alternating between breathing and shouting. But slowly, it dawned on her that this was a battle she was going to lose. And as doubt started to grow in her heart, the shadows came back, first as nothing more than a gentle knock at the door of her mind, only to eventually become a full-blown battering ram crashing against her, threatening to tear her down.
Distraught and seeing no other way, she removed herself from the stallion and rushed towards the door. Too stressed and frightened to use the handle, she instead threw her shoulder hard into it. And stopped instantly.
The door didn’t budge. She pressed down the handle and pushed, but nothing happened. She tried pulling but with the same results. The mare shook the door as hard as she could, shouting at the top of her lungs, only to be smothered by the shadows creeping into her throat.
And just like when she was a filly, trapped in the closet, she broke down. Free fell to the floor, sobbing and shaking uncontrollably. She didn’t scream for help anymore, believing Lightning to be lost already, and she was now trapped inside the room with the dead body of the one living creature she loved almost as much as her own daughter.
Inside her head, she gave up. She fell down into the embrace of darkness.
“… Fly…”
A voice reached her ears. A wheezing, strained voice.
“… Flyyy….”
The entire word was long and outdrawn, clearly pronounced through an inhale. She knew who the voice belonged to, yet it was deeper than she remembered it to be. For a short moment, she managed to push the shadows aside.
“ Quilly…?”
She answered the voice meekly; afraid of what it would answer her back. Without realizing, she had just called him the name that only his mother used. She knew Lightning didn’t want anypony else to call him that, but she couldn’t hold it in.
“… Help… Me…”
Without answering or even thinking further, she forced herself up from the floor and darted across the room towards his voice. Lightning needed her, and she didn’t offer even a single second to think about the fact that he wasn’t getting any air and probably would never wake up from his coma. He needed her.
She couldn’t see much through the darkness around her, but she knew by instinct exactly where the bed was and when to stop to prevent herself from crashing into it.
“Lightning? Lightning, what’s wrong?” Still she ignored the voice in the back of her head telling her something wasn’t right. “Listen, I can’t see you in the dark, I…”
The sound of movement and ruffling bed sheets filled the room with such immense force that Free for a second thought her eardrums would burst. As the sounds slowly faded, her heartbeat replaced them, banging hard and fast inside her chest. She could see him.
Lightning was sitting up in bed, looking back at her. His eyes were open, fixated on the Pegasus mare in front of him.
“You’re awake!” Free exclaimed through her breath. “Oh, thank Luna, you’re back!” She readied herself to jump up and embrace him, but was stopped instantly by his voice answering her.
“We’re coming for you, Fly.”
His voice was deep and raspy, nothing like the one she knew. Every word sounded like it came out in one long inhale, yet she couldn’t hear him exhale.as if his lungs were just a bottomless pit that never emptied itself completely.
“What are you talking about?” Free asked, trying to sound calm and soothing, despite her skin crawling like a thousand ants had crept in under it. She had to be strong, for Lightning’s sake if any.
“Opal and I.” We’re coming for you.”
Free’s heart stopped pounding as the building fear inside her finally won. She froze in place, unable to move, talk or even think. Lightning didn’t say anything else, and he didn’t move. After a few seconds, Free’s mind fought back against the fear, trying to push it aside and give way for reason.
“Maybe… Maybe you should lie down again…” She began cautiously, tripping over her own words as one last string of the fear refused to break. “You’ve been out for a long time, and you’re being delus-“
“I’m not delusional.”
Right after his interruption, something changed in the room, something in the atmosphere. It grew colder, like somepony had opened the window and let the storm inside. Free began to shake, both from the creeping cold and that one last bit of fear still lingering in the back of her head. Now it grew larger once again.
Suddenly, a bright light filled the room. It took Free by surprise, and she instantly turned her head away from Lightning, since it seemed to come from him. It was blindingly bright, pulsating in bleak shades of green.
The mare looked back at the awakened unicorn, and finally she gave in. A screech of fear forced itself out of her mouth as she saw her neighbors face.
It had turned grey. Not just his face, but his entire body, grey and rugged, like he’d been lying in filth and mud for a long time, letting it sink into his coat and destroy it beyond repair. His usually puffy green mane laid flat against his head and neck, bleached into a sickly color. Rotting. His horn had been broken, yet somehow the light still shot out from the jagged edge like it was still intact.
But the thing that made her scream, that made her heart threaten to burst out of her chest and her lungs to collapse, was what she saw in his face. The stallion she’d known for so long, loved and even cared for, the stallion that she’d refused to give up, didn’t have any eyes.
Instead, all she saw in the bright green light was black holes. Infinitely deep and dark, like mouths waiting to swallow her up and send her into permanent darkness. His mouth was wide open, that too no more than a black abyss.
Even though she couldn’t scream any louder than she already did, it felt like she did once she saw several black lines take form round the holes. Like black veins of blood they shot out from his eyes and mouth, moving randomly across his face.
Flying Free’s scream was silenced by the body of Lightning throwing itself upon her.
For a brief second, she could sense his smell fill her nostrils. It was a horrid aroma of something rotten, like meat left to spoil in the sun, mixed with something moist.
What little air she had left in her lungs escaped through her mouth as she landed on her back on the cold floor with Lightning on top of her, pressing her down. She tried to squirm and get away from him, but he’d placed his hooves on her forelegs, holding them down and making it impossible for the mare to move.
The only thing Free could do was to hold her eyes shut and twist her head away from him in her attempts to avoid his unnatural face. Once she realized he wasn’t doing anything other than hold her down, she slowly stopped resisting, understanding that there wasn’t any use to it anyway.
And then without warning, she felt something press against her. Deep down, a foreign object intruded, trying to push into her. She understood instantly what it was, but refused to believe it, refused to believe something like this would happen. Lightning would never do this to her.
“… You’re not my Lightning.”
She didn’t open her eyes as she spoke, didn’t want to look up and see those black holes staring back at her. Or even worse, Lightning’s normal face. Either way, both sights would rip her apart.
“This is what you want, isn’t it?” Lightning spoke in the same voice as earlier, and Free clearly felt something cold and wet drop down on her chest as he spoke. “You wanted me back. Opal and I will be back, and we’ll love you forever.”
At the word “love”, Free felt her body giving in, allowing the intruder to sink into her. She didn’t move or flinch, refusing to acknowledge what was happening, what was being done to her.
“You’re not my Lightning.”
“We’ll love you and never leave you. We’ll become one with you. We’ll sink inside; fill your entire soul with our harvest of darkness. And you’ll love us back. You’ll feel it build up inside you, and you’ll love it. You’ll embrace the shadows and let it spread within you.”
Finally, Free opened her eyes. She could see the broken body on top of her, the horrible face looking down upon her, drops of black saliva dripping from its mouth, and she could see… It was inside her.
“Your wish was to have us back. Here we are. Love us.”
The more opened her mouth and gather up enough air. With a look of anger, she opened her mouth in screamed once again. But not out of fear this time, but out of disgust, anger and resentment.
“You’re not Lightning Quill!”
The moment she closed her mouth, a new sound echoed across the room. Several loud, hard knocks on the door behind her head.
“Free? Free, what’s going on in there?!”
It was the voice of Redheart, followed by more knocks and the twisting of the handle. The door still refused to budge.
“I can’t open it!” She shouted from the outside.
Free was about to answer, but was silenced by the face of Lightning nearing her. The black holes leveled with her eyes, but all she could see was darkness.
“We’ll come for you.”
And suddenly, the light shining from the unicorn’s horn disappeared without a trace. She felt his body disappear, and her insides went back to normal as the shadows within her recoiled away from her. Everything was silent for a few seconds as Free held her breath. Then she screamed again.
“Just open the fucking door, Red! Kick it down!”
Merely seconds later, the door swung open on its hinges, moving in a half circle before it slammed into the wall and stopped. Still on her back, Free saw Redheart and a stallion in white coat standing outside the door, up-side-down thanks to the angle she saw them in.
The nurse rushed in the room, hurrying to aid her friend on the floor while the stallion made his way towards Lightning’s bed. As Redheart helped Free up on her hooves, she saw the stallion leaning down over the bed and the sleeping form of Lightning.
“Don’t get close to him, he’s not…” Free didn’t manage to finish her sentence.
The pump next to the bed came back to life with a wheezing sound, and a few seconds later the lights above their heads returned. The doctor gave Free an angry look as she went over all the cords and needles connected to Lightning.
“Just what were you thinking?” He asked with a bitter tone. “And what was all that screaming about? Have you gone completely out of your mind? We could have lost him, and all you did was scream? We have enough patients with mental disorders here as it is, and unless you want me to put you with them, I suggest you leave.”
“Fine then, I will.” Free answered the stallion bluntly as anger built up inside her. She didn’t look at him; she just turned around and headed for the door. Didn’t want to stay here anyway. Before she could exit however, she felt a hoof on her back.
“F, he didn’t mean it like that, he-“
“Don’t touch me!”
The Pegasus shied away from her friend, feeling tears welling up in her eyes. Not awaiting a response, she took off through the door and galloped down the hallway. She could hear the voice of Redheart calling her name behind her, but she didn’t stop.
She hurried to the stairs leading down into the entrance, rounding another corner at full speed, not realizing a pony appeared in front of her. They slammed into each other and Free was sent to the floor. She rolled around and moaned, more out of anger than pain.
“You okay there, ma’am?”
She looked up towards where the voice was coming from, and through her tear soaked vision she saw a tall, white stallion looking down at her, one of his hooves stretched out to help her up. She mumbled an apology as she accepted his help.
Once she got up on her hooves and wiped the tears from her eyes, she once again froze in her place. The stallion before her had white coat and a matching white mane. There was something about his eyes, how they looked straight through her and seemed to change color. And on the floor next to him, resting against one of his legs was a black briefcase.
“Haven’t we met before?” The stallion asked in a wondering tone, his speech almost perfectly articulated and coated by a strange accent.
They had, but she let her fear once again drown her. Before the stallion had time to repeat his question, she spun around and ran down the hall again. After all that had happened, seeing the same stallion she saw when Opal passed away became too much for her, and she need to get away. Anywhere, as long as it was far from this place.
Emerging in the staircase in the entrance, the constant drumming of her hooves against the steps disoriented her, and she felt herself loose balance. She fell, but managed to get herself upright before she slammed into the stairs. Running towards the exit, she could hear somepony calling out to her, wondering if everything was alright.
She paid the voice no heed and a few seconds later she found herself outside in the rain falling through the orange light of the sun rising on the horizon. Ponies around her looked at her, some with worry and others with fear. She didn’t answer when they asked if she needed any help.
Still with tears streaming down her cheeks, she strained her body to get ready. Her back tensed up as she moved muscles she hadn’t used for almost a year. She could feel her wings stretching out on either side of her, spreading out like flowers in the spring, eager to once again feel the sun.
A flap of her wings later, and Free took off into the skies.