"Come on! We've got to get back home! Hurry!" I blindly followed his voice. That familiar sound I knew so well, it was one I trusted completely. The flashes of lightning were our only source of light, and even they were too few to rely on. But in my mind's eye, I saw him, his black and white mane and his striped body to match.
In the instant of light, I saw his pale blue eyes looking back at me through the storm. He had always said they were dull, but in that moment, they were the brightest thing I saw. My world had been brighter recently, but I that moment, I realized that the light had been coming from him. When darkness descended again, thunder ripped across the sky and I tripped. The rain slicked ground provided no sturdy foothold and I fell. I called out to him, crying out in fear.
"No!" He screamed. "Dess!" I crashed onto the soaked ground far below him, my head striking a fallen branch. The darkness that filled the world around me could not begin to compare to the darkness that flooded my consciousness… and my memory, drowning out his light.
Light seeped in through my eyelids and I peeked them open to see brilliant, colorful lights far away in the sky above. They seemed to stoop down and rest their shining colors upon me before swiftly returning to the sky.
"Who goes there?" I slowly turned my head to see a figure slowly stepping towards me. I wanted to stand, to prove I had the strength to defend myself if it came to that, but I couldn't. I took a chance and called out to them.
"Help."
"A filly whose stripes I share, but how, and so late at night?" I shrank back as the figure came to stand above me. She was a zebra, like me. "Cease your fright. This forest is dark and chilly, what are you doing here little filly?" I searched my memory, but everything before the last few minutes was gone.
"I- I don't know. I don't know where I am."
"What is your name? Do you know from whence you came?" I shook my head as tears began spill from my eyes. "I can't remember anything."
"Hush young one, you can stay with me 'till you find the sun." I wasn't sure what she meant, or why she kept rhyming, but I thought it would be better to go with her than to stay out here. She helped me to stand, and for a moment we gazed up at the glowing lights shifting in the sky.
"What are those lights?"
"The northern lights, but I have never seen them so bright." She looked down at me and smiled. "What would you like to be called? You cannot live with no name at all." I met her deep green gaze. I had no idea what I wanted her to call me.
"Will you choose?" She looked back up at the northern lights and smiled.
"Aurora Borealis, another name for the northern lights. Does that sound alright?" I nodded and she kept my slow, tired pace as she led me to her home.
"No! Dess!" I cried out desperately, but it was too late to help her. She fell off the cliff, calling out to me. I stood there in shock for what seemed like forever, the rain pounding down and her final word ringing in my ears. The light in my life was snuffed out like a small flame and my world was suddenly so dark and empty.
I snapped myself out of the trance-like state and began to panic. What would her mother say? What would my father say? We weren't even supposed to be out here in the first place. It was my idea, and now, it was my fault that Iridess was dead.
Tears pricking at my eyes, I ran, the northern lights shining above me. Our village had always seen the Aurora Borealis as a good omen, but tonight, their colors were as black as the night in my eyes.
I burst into the village to see my father standing in the center square, face tilted up to the lights.
"Father!"
"Ebon, where have you been?"
"It's Iridess, she–she's dead." I choked out and his expression turned horrified.
"Where's my daughter? Wasn't she with you Ebon?" I turned as Iridess' mother, Onyx Shine, stepped up behind me.
"I'm sorry, she–" I stopped short, I needed to start from the beginning. "It was my idea," I began, still trying to catch my breath. "I wanted to go see the pony's town and I convinced Iridess to come with me. We were on our way back, running through the storm, when she fell off a cliff." Whispers of shock spread throughout the gathered crowd, and Dess' mother shook her head in denial. "It was all my fault. I'm sorry."
"Don't blame yourself son. It could have happened to you just as it happened to her. It's not your fault." I looked up at my father, but his gaze was held firmly on Dess' mother. "Onyx, I cannot begin to imagine the loss you must feel. We must preform her Passing Ceremony while the Aurora still shines above us." Onyx took a few deep breaths, then stood a little taller and raised her head to the sky, tears already streaming down her cheeks. I, along with everyone else that was present, faced the sky as my father spoke the words of the the Passing ceremony.
"Iridess Shade, though you have left our side, you will live within our hearts, and within the light of the Aurora." He paused, and I met his gaze, I knew what he would ask. "Ebon Light, you were with her at her time of Passing, what were her final words?"
"My name, Ebon." He nodded solemnly and turned his eyes to Onyx.
"Onyx Shine, you were with her at her time of Arrival, what were her starting words?" I knew the answer to this question, Iridess had told me her starting word a couple years ago.
"Her nickname, Dess."
"From Dess, to Ebon, her words and her life were as bright as the Aurora. She shall remain." Everyone repeated the final words, and as the Aurora faded away, I whispered them as well.
"She shall remain." It was a vow, I would never let myself forget her, my Aurora.