Ghost

Chapters

Ghost's Sorrow
Lewis' Lament
Luna's Surprise

Ghost's Sorrow

All in all, Ghost was a fairly quiet spirit, only becoming noticeable if he thought Luna was being threatened or in rare moments of playfulness. One such notable occasion was when a maid, seeing the shadowy text that was the usual result of a conversation with Ghost, had nearly spilled liquid all over the Princess of the Night: The liquid had stopped in midair, returned to its container, and floated back onto the cart the maid had been pushing – but not before gently bumping the mare on the head, presumably in some odd form of admonishment.

Luna had quickly found that Ghost followed her just about everywhere: her bedchambers, her nighttime strolls – even her bathing room was not safe, as Luna had learned when she had searched for shampoo during a shower and had it levitated to her. Thankfully, she had refrained from shouting at Ghost for the intrusion on her privacy, though she had requested that he not follow her into that room specifically. So far, it seemed Ghost had complied, and for that Luna was grateful.

One night, Luna asked Ghost a very serious question. “Ghost, why do you follow me?” she queried, idly trailing a hoof along the throne as she surveyed the complete lack of activity going on in the castle.

“w h a t d o y o u m e a n ?” Ghost had replied.

“I suppose what I am asking is, why me? Why do you not seek other companionship?” Luna had clarified.

Ghost had taken a long time to answer. “y o u a r e m y o n l y f r i e n d” was all Luna got, and no other queries had changed his response.

It was touching, true, but concerning: Now Luna was starting to think that Ghost, cutesy though he could be, had some sort of ulterior motive for tagging along with her so incessantly. It would fit well with what Celestia had reminded her about ghosts and earthly grudges, but… Ghost wasn’t exactly like the nobles that Luna dealt with every night. It was much harder to tell when he was lying, or if he was even lying at all – the facial cues, body language, even the quirks of the voice that Luna had relied on for a thousand years were all simply not there. In fact, since the original incident in which they had met, Ghost had not shown his ‘body’ at all, instead preferring to express himself through his surroundings.

Princess Twilight Sparkle cautiously walked in, her entourage of guards taking their assigned roles at the doors along their Night counterparts as she trotted up to Princess Luna.

“You said you wanted to see me, Princess?” Twilight asked.

Luna smiled – Twilight’s nervous adoration of her and her sister always brought a smile to her face, however misplaced it might have been.

“Just Luna, thank you,” she reminded Twilight, who promptly blushed at this breach of protocol.

“Right… um… so, what did you need me for?” the lavender alicorn asked curiously.

Luna gestured for Twilight to sit next to her, and she complied, the usual hint of confusion and uncertainty crossing the younger Princess’ face.

“We are about to show you something, and we wish you to promise you will not… how does it go? ‘Freak out’?” Luna asked, and Twilight nodded.

“Of course, Princess,” Twilight promised.

Luna nodded smartly, and stared intently at a spot on the far wall – she had learned that Ghost tended to follow her vision. “Ghost, are you with us?” she asked, and not a second passed before a blob of shadow separated itself from the natural shadows of the candle-lit castle and positioned itself on the wall.

“o f c o u r s e”, Ghost replied, and Twilight's eyes could have been used as dinner plates.

“Princess, is that a spirit?” she asked in a higher pitched-voice than normal, and Luna had carefully nodded.

“Now, Twilight-“ the elder Princess had begun to rebuke, but Twilight, in a rare lack of décor, interrupted her.

“That’s so amazing! I have to write this down – this will be one report the Senior Committee of Magic can’t possibly want to miss!”

Luna chuckled at her fellow princess’ unexpected enthusiasm. “Perhaps we can save the documentation for later – right now, I have to ask you a few questions,” Luna reminded her, and Twilight’s quill stopped halfway to the paper.

“Oh! Um, right, of course,” Twilight sheepishly replied, putting her writing materials back into the saddlebag they had come from.

“Now, Twilight, we have read your report on the ‘humans’ that inhabit the other side of the mirror. Ghost here claims to be one of them, a male to be precise – we are wondering if perhaps you could jog his memory as to who he was.”

Luna had been about to continue further, but noticed that Ghost had written something new: a “n o” had been inscribed on the opposite wall.

“…Pardon, Ghost? Was something I said incorrect?” Luna asked.

“i a m n o t f r o m t h e m i r r o r”, Ghost replied, the words dripping more than usual.

“But if you’re human, and not from the mirror, then where are you from?” Twilight asked.

The shadowy words coalesced into a blob… and didn’t move. Seconds passed by, then a full minute.

“Ghost? Are you… still there?” Luna asked hesitantly.

The blob immediately began moving, and Ghost’s usual “y e s” was now inscribed on the wall.

Luna was taken aback: Ghost had never, ever refused to answer a question before.

“Princess…” Twilight whispered uncertainly.

“Hush, Twilight. We are sure there is some reasonable explanation,” Luna whispered back. “Ghost, please do not keep secrets from us. We only act in your best interest,” Luna called out.

The blob of shadow quivered, but otherwise remained still. Perhaps another question was in order, Luna thought. “Ghost, do you recognize Twilight?” Luna asked.

The words took a long time to form, rapidly shifting between “n o” and “y e s”… before finally settling on “n o”.

Luna stared at the words suspiciously. “…Are you sure?” she asked, and the words hurriedly shifted to “y e s” – too quickly, in Luna’s opinion.

“Princess, maybe we should ask a less weighted question,” Twilight whispered.

Luna nodded – this was sound advice. She casted about for a less heavy topic to discuss, finally settling on one that would do. “Ghost… do you dream?” she asked.

Ghost hesitated for only a moment before forming the word “y e s”, surprising Luna.

“What do you dream of?” she continued, then inwardly flinched – she was trying to avoid personal questions. Ghost’s answer, while presumably honest, was still dismaying – those three words were like a dagger to Luna’s heart.

“b e i n g a l i v e a g a i n”

With that, Luna had decided to terminate the discussion – the reason Twilight had been brought in the first place was now moot, as Ghost refused to admit that he knew Twilight, despite clear evidence to the contrary. Once Twilight was gone, Ghost had slowly returned to his old, playful self, but with one noticeable difference – any mention of his past life, the mirror world, or Twilight would cause Ghost to stop responding whatsoever until a different question was asked. Now, Luna was quite certain – Ghost was definitely hiding something. But, she had gathered a valuable tidbit of information in her conversation with Princess Twilight, despite Ghost’s insistence to the contrary: Ghost could dream. And if he could dream, then she could enter his dreams, and examine his memories for herself. She just had to do it subtly… but if there was anypony who could enter a dream without the dreamer even noticing, it was Princess Luna the Dreamwalker. It was just a matter of finding his dreams…

One of the best things about the dream world, Princess Luna had learned, was that there was no time at all: She could stretch and compress the moment as she wished, and thus was never too late to stop a nightmare or view a pleasurable dream. However, even she was starting to get impatient with how elusive Ghost’s dream self was. The astral plane was full of ponies’ dreams, but not a single one marked itself out as different enough to be human. Expanding her view, Luna cast an ethereal eye on every single dream in her realm. Nothing. But how was that possible? Either Ghost had been lying, or his dreams were so different she simply couldn’t see them. She decided to continue looking, after taking an infinitesimal moment to determine whether any nightmares were occurring. Satisfied that there were none, she was about to start entering each dream manually in hopes of stumbling onto the right one when something caught her eye. Deep down in the realms of the subconscious, a single light was flickering – a dream. But what was a dream doing down there? Luna wondered. Dreams were a very conscious thing for ponies, a way of sifting through memories and dealing with the emotions the waking self couldn’t handle. This dream was so far down, it would be nothing short of a miracle to Luna if the occupant ever woke up again. Perhaps this could be Ghost’s dream? Luna decided to check it out, entering the dream bubble with but a flap of her imaginary wings.

She invisibly entered what appeared to be a run-down, old house, far larger than she was used to and yet giving off a cramped air.

“Lewis, izzat you?” a deep male voice slurred as the doorbell rang.

Luna’s suspicions were confirmed as an elderly, obese male human made its way to the door, opening it after a second’s hesitation. A younger male stepped in – Luna supposed this was ‘Lewis’. He was dark-haired and dark-skinned, with kind brown eyes that belied an inner sadness.

“Yeah, Dad, just got back from work,” Lewis replied, and immediately started to hurry upstairs, before the father placed a firm hand on Lewis’ shoulder.

“Now just a minute,” Dad sternly replied. “I checked your grades, just now – what’s this about a ‘B’ on your English paper?”

Luna raised an eyebrow – a ‘B’? As far as she remembered, that was one of the higher grades in schooling, second only to the perfect ‘A’ grade. The father, however, was having none of it, and was by now shaking Lewis and shouting at him.

“Do you know how hard I’ve worked to get us here?! You’re squandering your future, Lewis, *squandering it***!” the father yelled, as Lewis froze up, a terrified expression on his face.

Judging from the way Lewis was looking away, and the father was only slowly raising his voice, Luna surmised these conversations usually went on for a while. She decided to intervene, not wanting to watch another second of this neglectful behavior, and lit her horn.

The memory changed, to show Lewis sitting in his room, the door locked and the odd device Luna had come to know as “headphones” attached around his round, immobile ears. They were plugged into a small black machine with two components – one like a movie screen, but smaller, and one with an apparently functional typewriter, as well as a few other things Luna didn’t recognize. So, this was what Twilight had referred to as a ‘computer’… She curiously examined it, recalling the terms she had vaguely absorbed from Twilight’s extensive report. The computer was currently set to a white-themed ‘website’, the top right corner of the screen revealing it to be something called ‘YouTube’ – Luna remembered this as a popular web site for the short movies called ‘videos’, according to the report. Did that mean Ghost was indeed from the mirror world, and simply wasn't aware of the mirror itself? But then, why would he so flatly deny it?

Lewis angrily wiped a tear from his face, muttering under his breath the things that every teenager did, from Luna’s perspective. “Dad” and “stupid” were rather prominent. He typed something into a bar on the top of the ‘website’, jabbing one of his ‘fingers’ down on a key labeled ‘Enter’. A moment later, the site changed to show what appeared to be results, which Lewis scrolled through before he selected one in particular. Luna blinked, and then stared – her face was featured in the tiny picture Lewis had clicked on. Had she seen right? No, perhaps it was just an oddity of this dream – after all, sometimes memories just collided in the dreaming mind with no real rhyme or reason. Stranger still, the title of the video appeared to be ‘MLP:FIM S2E4 “Luna Eclipsed”’, and while Luna had no idea what the string of letters before it meant, she connected the use of her name with the picture of her on the cover.

Her opinion immediately changed when the ‘video’ started – it featured Twilight singing some unknown song while descending from the sky in her hot air balloon, before cutting to a quickly presented montage of Ponyville. Curious, Luna watched further. The intro quickly ended after scrolling through lighthearted presentations of the Elements of Harmony, and the scene cut to what appeared to be Spike in a costume strolling around the old, now-destroyed library. Luna recognized this – this must have been shortly before her own arrival, just last year. But how did Lewis know of it? She wondered. Could he, too, enter dreams? Reserving judgement, she continued watching, as did Lewis, a content smile on his face.

By the time the ‘video’ ended, she was embarrassed by how much Lewis seemed to know. Lewis, too, wasn’t smiling – in fact, he had gone back to crying. Luna looked over at him in concern, biting her lip to stop herself from saying something. So, this whole time, he’d known of her, and Twilight, and Equestria – but as some sort of fictional medium. Luna vaguely remembered Twilight explaining something about a “television show”, which this video fit the description of. And, judging from his expressions upon seeing her in the video, Luna surmised she had been some object of comfort to him, some idealized perception of who he should be, perhaps. It certainly explained why he had been so attached to her, so dedicated to protecting her… She made to speak to him, to introduce herself visually in the dream and discuss these things as was her wont as Princess of the Night, but Lewis had other plans.

Lewis stared at the laptop for a while, tears streaming down his face, before something in him seemed to snap. He suddenly stood up, his chair slamming back onto the floor loudly. Then, he proceeded to go over to his bed, rummaging under it for a moment before pulling out a length of rope. Luna paled for a moment – surely he wasn’t serious. She had to take a moment to remind herself that all this had already happened, that this was surely in fact how Lewis had died and become Ghost. Lewis, meanwhile, tied the rope around the sole light fixture attached to the ceiling, tugging on it to test its strength, and tied a noose around the other end once he was satisfied. All the while, there was a furious determination in his eyes, as if he had finally won a fight he’d been having for a long time. Checking the length and grunting with displeasure, he untied and retied it to be shorter. This done, he pushed over the chair so it was just under the noose, and slowly got up onto it, before gently placing the noose around his neck. Luna looked away, only hearing the noise of the chair being kicked away and a panicked gasp, before the eerie silence.

“…Lewis?” Luna timidly queried, having never experienced anything quite like this before.

“Lewis?! LEWIS!”

She woke up screaming his name.

Lewis' Lament

Celestia was there, anxiously comforting her with a cool rag and a worried expression. “Lulu, what in Equestria’s the matter? I’ve never seen you this distraught before,” she inquired concernedly.

“Oh, ‘Tia,” Luna sobbed. “T’was awful. He just… without even talking about it…” she incoherently trailed off as Celestia took her into a close hug.

“Tell me everything,” her sister gently ordered, and Luna sniffled for a moment more before beginning her explanation.

“And then he just kicked the c-chair away, and I couldn’t even watch and he – h-he – “ Luna burst into a fresh round of sobs. Celestia, showing a remarkable presence of mind, had brought over the tissues before Luna had even finished her sentence, and Luna gratefully accepted one.

“There, there. He’s okay, we know that much,” Celestia soothed. Inside, however, she was worried, though not quite for the same reasons as Luna’s distress. Ghost was normally drawn like a magnet to anything that would cause Luna harm – aside from Luna’s earlier instructions regarding her bathing room, it was a safe bet that he followed her at all hours. Where, then, was he now? If he can hear her breakdown, surely he would have said something, Celestia mused. But all was silent: The walls were clean, the shadows of the room untouched. Either Ghost had finally found something else to do at just the right time, or he was simply staying as silent as only he could.

At any rate, it was time for Celestia to start the Day Court, and she reluctantly left Luna’s side. “If you ever need me, you know where to find me,” Celestia called out, and Luna nodded. Though she had technically just slept, she was exhausted from going so far into the dream world, and needed some rest of her own. Luna closed the curtains, shrouding the room in darkness, and drifted off to actual sleep, waiting until the evening to resume her duties as Princess of the Night.

If there was one thing Princess Celestia was happy about, it was that Ghost preferred to haunt the night. He was rarely, if ever seen in the daytime, and his most noticeable appearance thus far had been upending a wine glass on an intoxicated Prince Blueblood, who in his inebriation had apparently insulted Princess Luna’s figure while right outside her door. A still-wet Blueblood had reported directly to Celestia from his quarters within the castle, demanding an explanation, but Celestia had merely smiled and shrugged, claiming that she had no idea what could have possibly caused the event. Tipsy enough to believe this, Blueblood had sauntered back to his room, where Celestia presumed he would continue to drink and complain about things. Really, if it weren’t for his political expertise, my nephew would find his stay in our castle to be much shorter, Celestia thought tiredly as she signed yet another form. Seeing a petitioner at the front door, she put on her best motherly smile. “Greetings, my little pony,” she politely opened, staring down at the unicorn with as much comfort as she could muster. This quickly ceased as a form was all but shoved in her face, and she levitated it over to read it. “Petition for Expulsion of Spirit,” she read out loud. Oh, what fresh Tartarus is this.

“We have received multiple independent confirmations that there is a vengeful spirit haunting the castle at night – a spirit that, so far, has been welcomed. Do you not remember Discord, Princess? The damage he caused with his ‘pranks’? This cannot be tolerated,” the unicorn stated clearly, sounding as though he had rehearsed this speech.

Celestia inwardly smirked, regaining her outward smile. Weak logic, at best – this will be easy to deal with. “Of course I remember Discord – who doesn’t? And lest you forget, Discord has reformed and allied himself with harmony. This spirit is of much the same temperament – while he may perform childish pranks at his own whimsy, he has never harmed another, and is in fact quite friendly according to my sister.”

The unicorn was stumped at this, and Princess Celestia levitated the scroll containing the signatures back over to him. “I apologize, but I must politely reject this petition, on the grounds that the premise is inaccurate. This ghost means no harm to Equestria, and rest assured that the moment he does marks the end of his tenure at the castle.” With that, Celestia returned to her throne, indicating the unicorn’s dismissal. She vaguely wished more petitions went that way – unfortunately, few matters of economics were quite as simple as the discussion of whether a neutral spirit should be allowed to stay in her castle.

The rest of the day went much the same as ever: Petition-signing, appearing at a private event, and finally lowering the sun. Celestia yawned as she trotted inside, the moon slowly rising from its position on the horizon as Luna followed her inside.

“So, how’s our resident spirit?” Celestia queried. Luna gave her a concerned frown. “He has been… quiet. This bodes ill, sister.” She looked around, searching for any errant blobs of shadow that would cue Ghost’s presence. Nothing was there: the room was as empty and shadowed as ever. “Ghost?” Luna cautiously called out.

To her surprise, he almost immediately responded. “y e s ?”

Luna stared for a moment – she had fully expected him to have left, with such a long period of silence. “Where have you been?” she asked.

“r i g h t h e r e”, Ghost answered.

“But why did you not reveal yourself? We were discussing you just now,” Luna wondered aloud.

“y o u d i d n ‘ t a s k m e a q u e s t i o n”, Ghost wrote. Luna frowned, and Celestia quietly closed the door behind her as she made for her bedroom, satisfied that Ghost was as ‘normal’ as ever.

“Ghost, you do know that you have your own free will, right?” Luna asked cautiously. “You can ask us things, if you want. Nopony has to give you an order… do they?” Ghost seemed unsure of how to respond. “Lewis, you know you can always talk to me, I’m your friend,” Luna pressed on. And then paled.

“h o w d o y o u k n o w m y n a m e” was written on the wall – and the words were shaking. Oh, this was very, very bad – she’d just revealed she’d eavesdropped on his dream, and Ghost was clearly not happy about it.

“H O W D O Y O U K N O W M Y N A M E A N S W E R M E” quickly replaced the prior text, the shadow writing turning blood-red and quaking more violently. The very room seemed to darken, and to her horror Luna saw Ghost’s body, the same one she had seen in their very first meeting, appear in front of her, limbs raised to its head as though he were in terrible pain.

Luna took a step back. “I… I’m sorry!” she cried. “I just… I looked into your dreams, after we last spoke, I had to know… I’m so sorry,” she pleaded. Her room slowly stopped shaking, and Ghost looked at her once with his blank, white eyes before vanishing again.

“w h y” was written on the wall, and Luna gave herself a moment to calm her beating heart before attempting to discern his meaning.

“Why… why what?”

To her surprise, the shadows that comprised the words fully turned to liquid, bleeding down the wall to form a puddle of darkness on the floor. Slowly, they formed into new words. “w h y d o y o u s t i l l k e e p m e a r o u n d i f y o u k n o w h o w m u c h o f a f a i l u r e i a m?” coalesced around her hooves.

Luna looked at this for a moment, her expression slowly turning to righteous indignation. “T’was not your fault that thy father was an elderberry-scented puppetmaster!” she replied, slipping back into her old mannerisms of speech for a moment. “You are not a failure, Lewis,” Luna hastily amended. “You’re perfect just the way you are, and you have proven that with your conduct as of late. You haven’t once harmed another, despite ample opportunity to do so. And… you saved my life,” Luna whispered. “Please, Lewis, let me help you…” she trailed off, unsure what she wanted to help him with. What did Lewis want, now that he was dead? To protect her, that much was clear.

While she thought, Lewis too was composing a response. “o k a y” was all that was written, and Luna gave him a smile – perhaps he had figured out what he wanted.

“So… what may I help you with?” she asked, bowing slightly to accentuate her proposal.

Ghost slowly and uncertainly moved his words around, until finally settling on an answer:

“i w a n t t o b e a l i v e a g a i n”

Luna grimaced: She knew she had just claimed she would help him with anything, but… what he was speaking of was necromancy of the highest caliber, and was under normal circumstances illegal in Equestria. However, dark magic was supposed to be her jurisdiction, and as such Luna felt she was qualified to make an exception in this case.

“…Very well, Lewis. Just so you know, this will be quite a difficult task – for both of us. There are items that we need to gather, incantations I shall practice, spells of such deep complexity that one mistake could result in the end of your existence as you know it. Do you still wish to undertake this endeavor?”

There was an immediate response of “y e s” on the wall, resolute and unwavering.

Princess Luna nodded in finality. “Then let us begin. Your first task shall be to gather the Amulet of Life – it is hidden deep within the catacombs under the palace, where no living being dares to tread. The dead, on the other hoof, may pass unharmed – therefore, it is a task we shall bequeath to you for the time being.” Ghost made no response, but Luna assumed he would have nodded if he could. “In the meantime, I shall begin my studies on the required magics needed to resurrect a being from the dead. The best of luck to thee, Lewis.” With that, she departed to the royal library, leaving Lewis alone with his thoughts once more.

Ghost watched her leave from every corner of the room simultaneously. He would have heaved a sigh, but he no longer had a body or the vocal cords to do so. He could always conjure a body from the shadows like before, but it was rather hard to maintain his concentration for long periods of time, and such effort would be better wasted on trying to find this “Amulet of Life”. Constraining himself to a single point of view, Ghost began drifting down the corridor.

He had no idea precisely where the entrance to the catacombs was – or even if he could find such a thing. Had he been alive, he would have been just as stuck, as Lewis had been far too shy even to ask such important things as directions. Useless, he was utterly useless – he’d already failed before he could even start the task! Stupid ghostly body, with its nonsensical rules and its incorporeal form that he had to maintain every second – wait… Ghost had an idea. His point of vision swooped down to the floor, until he was only inches above it – due to the vague, almost muscle-memory esque compulsion of his prior life, he’d never tried something like this before. Mustering some courage, and feeling vaguely as though he were holding his breath, Ghost plunged downward through the floor itself.

He ended up in what appeared to be a kitchen, busy with activity as maids and chefs rushed around to deliver meals and snacks to the various nobility occupying the castle. Ghost watched with detached interest for a few seconds, then continued on.

He passed through a few meeting rooms, then he was met with the sight of tightly packed dirt. Ghost watched in fascination as he simply phased through hundreds of feet of soil and rock, able to see earthworms and other life burrow through the underground. He wasn’t quite able to describe how he could see these things, given that there was no light down here – it wasn’t something he could put into words.

Ghost continued descending, and finally came to a single room, stone-walled and lined with strange symbols. Strangely enough, he recognized one of them – an Egyptian ankh was inscribed on the wall farthest from him. Curious, he floated forward – and immediately jumped back as two walls slammed together to block the entrance. If Ghost had been alive, he’d have been crushed instantly. The walls remained closed, and after taking a moment to steel himself Ghost continued on.

He phased through the stone door, and after a moment of darkness was met with a torch-lit atrium, the torches somehow still alight with fire despite evidently not being touched for years, perhaps centuries. In the exact middle of the atrium was a raised platform, inscribed with the same ankh symbol. Curious, Ghost floated forward. On top of the platform, almost innocuous compared to its surroundings, was a golden ankh set with what appeared to be an amethyst in the loop. If Ghost had still been alive, he’d have been thrilled – it appeared to be real gold, and was probably worth a fortune even in Equestria. Extending his concentration outward, he attempted to pick it up.

As soon as he did so, the entire atrium around him crumbled, until Ghost was left marooned on the platform – that is, if he weren’t already dead and could fly. Looking all around him and giving the ghostly equivalent of a shrug, Ghost grabbed the amulet more securely and made his way back to the entry chamber. He was feeling quite confident – he had succeeded in his first task! Easily so, from the looks of things – apparently being dead had its perks. Ghost examined the so-called Amulet of Life – it was quite small, but seemed to vibrate with some sort of power whenever he touched it.

There were no more traps, now that Ghost had successfully retrieved the amulet – he ascertained that the creators of this odd, Indiana-Jones-esque area had meant for him to already be dead. Upon returning to the entry room, he realized that he still had a problem – there was no apparent exit to this place, it having been sealed off years ago from the looks of things. It wasn’t like he could just phase through the walls, either – he was carrying a physical object, right? Attempting to test this theory, Ghost attempted to levitate the amulet through a wall. Unsurprisingly, this failed completely, and the amulet bounced off and hit the floor, somehow unharmed. Ghost thought a while, allowing his presence to disperse and fill up the room as he examined it from every possible angle. After a while, this became mentally painful, and Ghost retreated into himself, the shadows of the torchlight coalescing to form his body – being omniscient was not something he was designed to comprehend. Picking up the Amulet once more with a shadowy hand, he studied it. The torchlight reflected off the amethyst set into the artifact, and Ghost fell backwards – more out of habit than anything, it wasn’t like he could be blinded. As he did, he made sure to keep his hold on the Amulet – and was therefore quite surprised when his arm phased through the wall, Amulet vanishing along with it. Ghost raised an eyebrow. Oh, that makes so much sense! Lewis thought to himself. Of course it goes through if I’m using my shadow body, why wouldn’t it? Stupid ghost rules… Still, he couldn’t be too mad: After all, he’d just solved his own problem. Ghost gave a pearly white grin before ascending upward, back into Equestria.

A new problem became apparent as he entered the kitchen from earlier: The chefs took one look at him and started screaming in terror. Now thoroughly frightened himself, Lewis took off through the ceiling again, heading directly for Luna’s door – hopefully if he went fast enough, ponies would think he was a trick of the light.

As he came to Luna’s door, he was reminded that she was asleep, and he didn’t feel like she would approve of him watching her sleep, even if he had the Amulet. On the one hand, he would probably terrify passersby if they saw him, but on the other, he didn’t dare displease Luna. Ghost resolved to hide behind a nearby statue of Princess Celestia, and wait for dusk to fall.

Luna's Surprise

How did it come to this? Princess Luna desperately wondered, slowly backing away from her assailants through the dark, derelict corridor of her castle. Her horn had been chastised, her magic cut off by the strange charm they clasped around it. Her wings had been bound, and were even now tightly pinned to her sides. All she had left was her strength – a poor substitute for the cunning and tactical forethought she had once been famous for.

“You’ll never get away with this!” she shouted, trying to stall for time.

“Poor, poor Luna. Who will you tell? Your sister? The Elements?” one of her attackers spat. “All busy, far too busy. We made sure of that.”

Luna’s eyes slowly widened in panic as she considered her options, forcing herself not to run just yet. There was a window to her left, she could maybe hurl herself through that… to what end? They were on top of Canterlot Mountain – even she would not survive that fall. The door behind her was locked, judging from how it would not even shift as she nudged it.

Noticing this, the lead attacker in the cloak laughed. “Nowhere to run, Princess…”

Luna swallowed nervously, resigning herself to the inevitable. “Very well…” she sighed. “I-“

Luna had been about to say ‘submit’, but she had been interrupted by the presence of a dark shadow in the moonlit hallway. None of the others had noticed it yet. It was quite tall for a shadow, certainly nothing that could have been cast by any of them. Furthermore, at first glance it appeared to be bipedal – perhaps a minotaur had come to save her? No, the form was not quite solid – she could see through it to the castle floor. A terrifying thought occurred to Luna, and her eyes widened: Had they summoned a demon to face her? The creature took a step backward, and vanished into the shadows.

“You what?” one of the masked ponies prompted.

“Don’t be an idiot, she was obviously about to say-“ another started, but was once again interrupted.

Looking up, Luna discerned why: A dark limb was reaching out from the shadows themselves, the impossibly long and backwards foreleg ending in five smaller, tentacle-like appendages. It grabbed the thing atop Luna’s horn, and Luna flinched.

“Wha – what is that?!” one of the other ponies screamed.

“What trickery is this, Princess?” the leader demanded, impressively keeping his wits about him.

Luna was still far too preoccupied by the appendage currently probing its way around her capped horn, almost as if searching for something. Moments later, it apparently found it, and twisted its grip around her horn once, the limb moving in a configuration that would be impossible had it possessed internal bone structure. There was a small click, and the device on her horn fell off, to the shock of the onlooking assailants and Luna alike. Its mission apparently accomplished, the limb slinked back into the shadows, once again vanishing from sight. For a moment, all was silence. Then, Luna’s horn lit up blue, and the bindings surrounding her wings vanished as though they had never existed.

“Now then,” Luna’s voice boomed as she applied just a tinge of the Royal Canterlot Speech she had once used so excessively. “You will learn how to treat your PRINCESS.”

One barrage of lunar magic later, and the ponies were sleeping in a heap on the floor, looking none the worse physically – only their sleeping expressions gave away that they were currently amidst the darkest of nightmares.

Just then, Luna heard a commotion outside, and seconds later Celestia burst into the room, horn already lit and a vicious snarl on her face.

“Luna – you’re okay? I heard of a setup, an attempt to capture you while we were distracted – but how did you…?” Celestia exclaimed confusedly.

Luna smirked and nodded, gesturing to the sleeping assailants in satisfaction. “We… had some help,” she admitted quietly, still unsure if the odd creature that had assisted her was still around.

Celestia looked at her askance for a moment, then gave a small shrug. “Why don’t we adjourn to our chambers, and you can tell me all about it,” Celestia decided.

Luna nodded, and levitated her new prisoners with her magic as she exited the room with Celestia. Just as she was about to close the door, she looked back. Upon the wall she had had her back to, written there in what appeared to be a shadowy, dark liquid, were the words “y o u ‘ r e w e l c o m e”, in a concise, slightly dripping script. Luna wasn’t sure whether to be reassured or newly terrified, so she simply closed the door.

“You say a ghost helped you?” Celestia queried once more.

The moon was still up, but it wouldn’t be for long – Celestia had stayed up all night to discuss things with her sister. Luna often disapproved of these chats, citing the importance of the sleep cycle, but thousands of years of being a Princess had tempered Celestia’s mental physique to easily withstand such tireless work.

“Yes, sister. Nothing but the dead can vanish into the shadows so easily, save myself,” Luna responded for the third time.

“But… I still think that’s impossible. The only reason ghosts exist is because they hold worldly grudges that bind them to the earth – how could one so freely assist you?” Celestia wondered.

“What I am more concerned about is not the ghost’s actions, but its appearance,” Luna mused.

“Oh?” Celestia asked. “Was there something off about it?”

Luna stiffened – she had completely forgotten to discuss this. “Yes,” she began, unsure of quite how to describe what she had seen. “The apparition was… tall. It stood on two legs, and all its limbs were bent in the wrong direction – this was most certainly not the ghost of a pony.”

She watched as Celestia’s expression grew more and more worried. “But the most striking difference, to me at least, were the ends of its forelimbs – they ended in five blunt, tentacle-like digits, which it used to remove the device we… discussed.”

At this Luna gave a disgusted frown – the device had been confiscated and taken to the Royal Archives to be studied, but she wouldn’t be going down there to examine it any time soon. Far more alarming, however, was Celestia’s reaction – she had put a hoof to her mouth in shock.

“Is something wrong, sister? Do you… know this creature?” Luna asked curiously.

“I… well, not this one personally, but I know of them. Sister, you of course remember Twilight’s report on her experiences on the other end of Star Swirl’s mirror?” Celestia asked, and Luna chuckled.

“I don’t think I will soon forget – the verbosity of your student is not to be underestimated.”

Celestia smiled slightly, and Luna smiled back, feeling better now that she had managed to cheer her sister up a bit. Celestia’s face quickly fell back into its frown, however, and Luna resumed listening attentively.

“This spectre sounds quite a lot like the “humans” she described, and given her detail on the subject… I would say we’re dealing with an escaped ghost from their world,” Celestia concluded.

Luna considered this. “If that is true… then there is a chance it may recognize Princess Twilight, even in her alicorn form. Perhaps she would be able to return it to its proper world?”

Celestia hummed for a moment, seemingly unsure. “I am… hesitant to expose my student to such a potential threat. She’s gotten off very lucky in her past heroics, with nary an injury to her name, and I often find myself wondering when that streak of luck will end,” Celestia nervously admitted.

Luna shifted a bit, seeing the logic in her sister’s words but preparing a suitable counterargument nonetheless. “’Tia, she’s a grown mare now. And besides, this thing appears to be friendly. Think of it as one more test,” Luna soothed.

This apparently convinced her sister, who after a pause gave her a small smile. “You’re quite right – Princess Twilight is of equal skill to us, and not far behind on maturity. But where may we find this ghost? It doesn’t appear to have followed you…” Celestia looked around, as though expecting something to happen. When nothing forthcoming occurred, she turned back to Luna. “If you can track it down once more, then perhaps we can convene with it. Until then… Sleep well, sister.”

Luna nodded, lowering the moon before embracing her sister in the secret hug they had not practiced for a thousand years. “You too, sister.”

The next night, Luna cautiously stalked through the castle corridors, having dismissed all the guards in this area. Her plan was to head back to where she had met the apparition, as ghosts were usually tied to some sort of earthly location or object. Once there, she had brought along some of Star Swirl’s more eccentric equipment – he had claimed this apparatus could detect the presence of spirits.

Luna sighed in relief as she found the corridor she had been looking for – the only difference between this and every other one was the still-lingering presence of her magic… Oh, and the scorch marks. Luna sauntered down, and examined the wall which had been written on the night before.

“Spirit?” Luna quietly asked, wondering if it could hear her.

When no reply came, she set up the equipment, taking a moment to adjust the electromagnetic fields before turning on the sensor. To her dismay, it showed nothing – the only soul in the room was her own. But perhaps this creature’s soul did not respond the same as a pony’s would, and Luna was not giving up just yet.

“Ghost?” she called again, louder this time.

Once again, all was silent, and Luna briefly wondered if she had imagined the creature after all. Luna snorted in frustration.

“Talking to a wall,” she muttered angrily under her breath. “Oh, if they could only see their Princess now…” Sighing, she packed up her equipment, stopping only when one of the glass parts clicked out of its holding and fell to the floor, breaking into pieces.

“Oh, Tartarus!” Luna swore, then covered her mouth.

She was rarely irritated enough to swear, much less in public, but that had been a priceless artifact that she was now responsible for breaking. Sighing, she swept off to find a servant to clean the broken glass up before somepony stepped on it, failing to notice as the object reassembled itself and began gently floating after her.

“Ah, Lemon Fresh. A good night to you,” Luna greeted as she approached the maid, who quickly saluted.

“A good night to you too, Princess,” the maid responded, forelegs stock still in a formal stance – if the guards had half as much poise as the maids, perhaps they would accomplish something for once, Luna mused – but Princess Luna gave her a warm smile, and a moment later the maid relaxed.

“We may have broken some glass over in the second-most northeast corridor – would you be so kind as to clean it for us?” Luna politely asked.

Lemon Fresh nodded eagerly, but then stopped as a confused frown made its way onto her face. “This glass, Princess… was it bulb-shaped, with a metal part sticking out of the end?” Lemon Fresh queried, and Luna looked at her suspiciously.

“Yes… how do you know?” Luna asked.

Lemon Fresh pointed, and Luna looked behind her – there, as quietly as air itself, was the repaired object, floating behind her with no magical aura to support it.

“G-g-GHOST!” Lemon Fresh cried, and took off running, leaving her cleaning supplies behind her in an effort to get away.

The glass part, meanwhile, floated over to Luna’s saddlebag of supplies and gently lowered itself in, a small clink resounding as it came to rest inside the bag. Luna, unsure of what to make of this turn of events, turned to face where she presumed the spirit to be.

“…Thank you,” she declared, feeling odd that she was talking to the empty air. “For the assistance last night, I mean,” she pressed on, feeling more awkward by the second. “And just now. That… was quite kind of you.”

Small specks of what appeared to be darkness coalesced in front of her hooves, to form words: “i t w a s m y p l e a s u r e”.

Luna, reading this, gave a soft chuckle. “Would you be so kind as to accompany us back to our room? We would most certainly like to hear the tale of a spirit such as yourself.”

Inside, she was ruminating on what she could do if the spirit betrayed her. If worst came to worst and she was possessed, she was sure the Elements of Harmony could free her, but they would have to be warned first…

With that in mind, she stopped in front of Celestia’s door.

“Good morrow, sister,” Luna called out, and Celestia turned over grumpily in her sleep.

“Lulu, it’s 3 in the morning…” Celestia groaned.

“Indeed. We have just found the spirit, and they are presumably accompanying us to our chambers for a discussion,” Luna announced.

The guards by Celestia’s doors remained remarkably stoic, given the nature of her discourse – then again, the night guards had always been more accustomed to the strange ever since Luna’s return.

“Sounds good – I’ll message Twilight in the morning,” Celestia yawned, and went back to breathing gently. Luna smiled as she gently closed the door, and entered her own bedroom.

Luna’s private chambers were a surprisingly sparse space, not quite as well-kept as Celestia’s but still devoid of anything resembling a comfortable atmosphere. After taking a moment to check that the moon was in its proper place, she took a seat on her bed, levitating the saddlebag of Star Swirl’s equipment off to the side.

“Spirit, are you still with us?” she asked.

A few seconds later, the shadows cast on the wall bled into the moonlight to form the mercuric script she had come to recognize. “s t i l l h e r e” was written on her floor, and Luna smiled.

“Very well,” she replied. “Do you have a name?”

There was a short moment of silence, as the words on the floor coalesced into a simple blob but didn’t spread out to form any new words – Luna presumed the spirit was thinking. Finally, a simple “n o” surfaced.

Luna frowned in thought. “Would you like me to… give you one?” she suggested.

Far quicker this time, the dark blot of shadow was replaced by a “y e s”, and Luna gave a soft smile as she casted about for a name to give it.

“How about… ‘Ghost’?” she asked. Not terribly original, but it would certainly get the point across.

“. . .” the spirit responded, the ellipsis quickly lost as new words formed. “i l i k e i t”, Ghost announced, and Luna beamed with pleasure.

“Then ‘Ghost’ it shall be. Well met.”

A simple smiley face replaced the former text, and Luna noted the two eyes and a mouth – two more vague but recognizable anatomical features.

“So, Ghost, how did you come here?” Luna asked, hoping to sound friendly and instead coming out as more of a psychologist’s drawl.

“i d o n o t k n o w”, Ghost answered, back to being as devoid of emotion as ever.

Luna frowned. “Do you remember anything at all?” she pressed.

“i r e m e m b e r d y i n g”, the words said, but Luna was sure she had caught something else.

In the split second before the words had shifted, ‘dying’ had been forming a very different word – in fact, she thought Ghost might have been about to say “I remember you”. What could that mean? In her long years of life, Luna had certainly never come across any ‘humans’, or anything vaguely resembling them. Deciding to ignore it for the moment, Luna continued conversing.

“Would you like to tell me the story of how you died?” she carefully asked.

The dark blot of ink separated and recombined several times, as though Ghost were choosing which words to use. Finally, legible text formed. “i w a s o n c e a h u m a n m a l e. i c o m m i t t e d s u i c i d e. i w o k e u p h e r e a n d f o u n d y o u.”

Luna frowned sympathetically, but still got the feeling Ghost wasn’t telling her something – something potentially important. In addition, this simple statement gave her valuable information – Ghost had only just started existing when they first met, so at least it - no, he - hadn’t been haunting the castle unbeknownst to all. Finding no viable way to convince him to divulge his secrets, Luna sat back on her haunches.

“Why did you commit suicide, Ghost?”

The words formed themselves slowly, almost as if Ghost didn’t want to write them. “i w a s u n h a p p y”, he simply replied, and Luna contemplated this. It wasn’t much of an answer, but it was the best one she would likely get for now.

“Well, Ghost, until such time as you can remember who you are, you are more than welcome to stay in our castle – on one condition…”

The dark blot froze in place, rather reminding Luna of a foal with their hoof in the cookie jar. “w h a t c o n d i t i o n ?” Ghost asked, the words staying stock-still rather than dripping slightly like they normally did.

“Don’t scare the staff,” Luna admonished with a giggle. “Their poor hearts might not be able to take it.” With that, she laughed to show him she wasn’t displeased, and he responded with another simple, smiling face.