Ghost

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.