Two figures touched down on the ice-grazed streets of Canterlot, landing in the islands of pale light offered by the burning gas lamps that stood like silent sentinels along the edge of the road. The soft flutter of wings could be heard as they landed, but the sound was muffled by the faint pattering of falling snow.
The first was an alicorn, blue, a regal figure, and she had a commanding pose about her. The second was a pegasus, somewhat smaller than the alicorn, and his body faded from black to grey. He shivered in the freezing cold and brushed snow off of the alicorn’s back with his wing.
The pair of them moved towards a tall, narrow townhouse at the end of the street, a building surrounded by a number of guards. Not just any guards, but Princess Luna’s guards. The big, burly, bat-winged draconic pegasi patrolled around the house, and they saluted when Princess Luna and her companion drew near.
The townhouse was shrouded in darkness, it writhed in shadow, and not a single light shone from the windows. Moans and shrieks could be heard coming from the house, and it wasn’t the wind. Princess Luna paused mid-step, tilted her head upwards, and looked at the house, her eyes narrow and grim looking as she studied the situation.
Beside her, her companion did much the same.
Resuming her slow, calm, regal stride, Princess Luna approached two ponies wrapped in winter clothing. So bundled up were they that it was difficult to make out what sort of ponies they were. They stood together, looking fearful, nervous, and ice glazed their nostrils as they huffed and puffed in the bitter, bone-chilling cold.
“Princess Luna,” the first pony said, the taller of the two, and a stallion by the grittiness of his voice. He bowed his head a little, almost too bundled up to move.
“Thank you for coming,” the second said, also a stallion, but he sounded just a little effeminate. His voice was soft, almost velvety, and his fear made his words quaver just a little. “Our daughter…” His words trailed off as he turned his head to look at the house behind him.
Head high, Princess Luna looked down upon them, and clouds of her breath were visible as she breathed. Her posture seemed cold, perhaps even unfeeling, but there was a warmth in her eyes, an affectionate warmth with a hint of sadness. She looked up from the pair of parents before her and stared at the house once more.
“Prince Gosling,” the taller stallion asked, “I mean no disrespect, but why are you here?”
“Intelligence,” Luna replied, as if that explained everything. “Asset recovery.”
“Asset recovery?” The smaller stallion sounded worried.
“Be ye not afraid, mine subjects.” Luna extended one wing, and with a soft touch, she caressed the cheek of the smaller stallion. “Thou hast a mother’s worry.”
The smaller stallion blushed so hard that steam could be seen rising from his face into the freezing air. “We went through so much trouble for adoption… we had to find just the right foal, she had to be perfect, she had to fit our lifestyle and be comfortable—”
“Be still.” Luna’s voice was calming, almost hypnotic. She turned to look at the pegasus beside her. “Ready yourself, Gosling, We must move, while there is still time.”
“Oh, I’m ready all right,” Gosling muttered. “Go with Luna, Celestia said, get out of the castle for a while, go and visit a spooky house, it’ll be good fun—”
“Gosling, darling,” Luna’s voice was patient, but her stare was flinty.
“Look…” Gosling blinked a few times, unsure of what to say, and he looked into the eyes of the smaller stallion.
“Ma’am?” the petite stallion said, offering up a little help.
“Yeah.” Gosling nodded. “Look, Ma’am, everything is gonna be fine. You should see if you can find shelter with a neighbor. It’s below zero out here. You shouldn’t worry, it causes wrinkles, and your face is entirely too pretty for wrinkles to set in at your age.”
The smaller stallion leaned against the taller beside him and let out a faint nervous giggle. “Thank you, you are very kind.”
Lifting his head, Gosling looked up at the house. “I know. Luna, let’s do this. It’s cold enough to freeze the balls right off of the Hearth’s Warming tree.” Hearing laughter, Gosling seemed pleased with himself and he nudged Luna with his wing. “This is why you brought me, ain’t it? To make them feel better? I don’t actually need to go in there, right?”
Rolling her eyes, Princess Luna did not reply.
Standing on the steps, Gosling could feel himself sweating as he looked up. He had never dealt with horror very well. He wasn’t good with the whole stress thing. Luna was also looking up, her eyes were wide and curious. Freezing, sweating, he leaned against Luna, glad to feel her warmth.
“What are we dealing with exactly?” he asked.
“This little filly can pull nightmares into reality,” Luna replied.
“And we’re just dealing with this now?”
“Oh, I have watched this for a while now.”
“And nothing was done?”
“Before this point, nothing needed to be done.” Luna’s ears perked as a shrill scream could be heard. “I did not expect for her magic to develop as quickly as it has. This is unexpected. Up to this point, I could send out my guards to deal with the occasional nightmare creature that slipped out into the waking world.”
“So what is going on here?” Gosling asked.
“The barrier between the waking world and the realm of dreams has grown thin. A rift has formed. And the contents of the realm of dreams have come spilling out.”
“This looks like a nightmare.”
“Fear is caused by things we don’t understand or things we can’t control. This poor filly is suffering from both. This is her terror.” Luna took a step closer to the ornate front door trimmed in fine brass. “To me, Gosling.”
Ears drooping, the dutiful pegasus followed along after his princess as she entered the house.
Nothing in the house seemed quite right. Every angle was off or wrong. The stairs seemed too lopsided, the rail appeared to be distorted, and no light could be seen in the space above the stairs. The house was dark, none of the electricity seemed to be working, and Gosling was already having to struggle to keep his teeth from chattering. It wasn’t just from the cold, either.
It was cold though. He could see his breath. The end of his snoot was slick with half frozen snot and glazed over with condensed moisture from his heavy breathing. This was awful, ponies could die from fear, and Gosling could feel his heart already pounding in his chest like some great un-oiled steam engine. Without meaning to do so, he began whimpering like a kicked dog.
“Pull yourself together,” Luna commanded. Her words were harsh but the touch of her wing upon Gosling’s neck was gentle. “Somewhere, upstairs, there is a scared little filly. We must make our way to her.”
“Alright.” Looking up at the darkness above him, Gosling put one hoof on the stairs. “If I scream like a little filly, I’m sorry.”
“You are one of the bravest ponies I know,” Luna said, her voice a mere whisper.
“Now you’re just trying to make me feel better.”
“Thou art mine friend, even when I make it most difficult for you.”
Her words gave him the courage he needed. He began to make his way up the stairs, heading towards the cold darkness that swirled above him. When his nose touched it, he realised that the dark had a physical presence to it, it had substance, it was thick, and it was freezing. He felt Luna’s soft touch upon his backside, right on his cutie mark, and he somehow kept going.
“Elemental darkness has leaked out. This isn’t from the dream realm,” Luna said as she followed after Gosling. “This is unexpected. We’ll be fine though, just keep going. There is a little scared filly in need of rescue. Think of her. You will be a father soon.”
Stomach muscles clenching in a most painful way, Gosling wasn’t sure if he could keep going. Something about the darkness around him sapped his strength, his willpower, it drained him and left him fatigued. Ice dusted his wings and little droplets of liquid fear formed tiny diamonds upon his long, curved eyelashes. All he had to do was keep going up the stairs, but these stairs seemed far too long. With the dream realm leaking into the physical world, a bunch of stuff was probably happening that Gosling couldn’t possibly understand.
At long last, Gosling made it to the top of the stairs. He needed a breather. His ears were hurting him and he was feeling quite nauseous. He knew the signs, he knew the symptoms, and this made him even more afraid. It was dark, so very dark, and there was no light. He was completely blind at the moment.
“Luna?”
There was no reply.
“Luna, don’t mess around.”
Still no reply.
Cowering, Gosling leaned up against the wall and gibbered when he realised that he was alone in the darkness with who knows what around him. He fought to control his breathing and he made a few cautious steps as he tried to find the stairs in the dark. Much to his alarm and panic, there didn’t seem to be any stairs behind him. There was no way out.
The darkness had swallowed Luna and left him all alone. Unable to see, unable to find the stairs, unable to cope, Gosling began to cry. Great choking sobs wracked his body and he wished that his mother was here to comfort him. He pressed against the wall, his legs stiff, and he bawled his eyes out as he fought the urge to throw up.
Luna would never leave him alone like this as a prank. She was his friend. He trusted her. She trusted him. They had reached an understanding of sorts. Which meant that something dreadful had happened to Luna. He knew about the darkness in Luna’s heart, perhaps it was a weakness here, a liability that she did not take into account. Now, she was gone, devoured by the darkness. He was all alone in this nightmare house with no means of retreating, no way to get help.
And somewhere, above him, there was a filly still in need of rescue.
His knees buckled and Gosling hit the floor with a thud. He covered his face with his forelegs, screamed once for help, and then realised the futility of it all. Nopony could hear him. He was just another scream now, one of many that could be heard outside. Shivering, he recalled that he had heard them as he entered.
Extending his wings, he felt around him, and found that he was in the hall that had been above the stairs. He wasn’t sure where the hallway was right now. The darkness had distorted things, twisted things, and nothing was the way it should be. But he could feel the walls on either side of him. Crawling on his belly, he made his way forwards, sliding over the floor. He felt weak and his body felt heavy in a most unnatural way.
Tears rolled down his cheeks but did not hit the floor, as they froze before reaching his jaw. The cold was a ravenous thing, it was devouring his strength and making it difficult to do anything. It had to be a magical cold, because as a pegasus, Gosling had a little natural cold resistance, but not as much as some.
In the darkness ahead, he heard things. Something scuttled over the floor. In the omnipresent darkness, something chittered. Gosling screamed again, this time with so much force that something in his throat strained. Pain, raw, hot, and throbbing, lodged itself in his throat like a bite of food that refused to be swallowed.
The fear made his eyes squeeze shut, which was fine, he didn’t need them at the moment. It was too dark. Somehow, he kept going, pulling himself over the floor, dragging himself along, feeling his way forward with his wings as he sobbed. In the back of his mind, he kept thinking about how ponies could die from fear. How close was he to death? It felt as though his heart was in real danger of exploding.
Overwhelmed, he couldn’t keep going, and he curled up into the fetal position. He lay in the dark, listening as things scurried around him, and his wet, raspy cries were muffled in the soupy darkness that had swallowed him. He didn’t know how he could keep going. He pressed his cheek into the wooden floor, it was cold, like sheet-ice, and damp from his tears.
Hot bile bubbled up in this throat and the ache in his ears became almost unbearable. He screamed again, which trailed off into something that was almost a yelp of pain. A little voice in the back of his mind suggested that if he was going to die of fear, then he would be dead already. Gosling found it even more terrifying that he might live—this was the sort of fear that could drive a pony mad.
If he wasn’t going to die, he had to keep going. Hooves clattering on the wooden floor, he struggled to get up. Almost upright, one of his front hooves slipped on the puddle of near frozen drool and tears. He pitched forwards and went straight back down. With a heavy thud, he smashed face first into the floor, and the impact was enough to split his lip wide open.
At least he had light now. Motes of multicoloured lights swam in his blurry vision and he could taste the coppery, salty flavour of blood in his mouth. As they sometimes did during his moments of distress and trouble, his alicorns returned.
A glowing little blue Luna circled around his head, looking worried, but saying nothing. beside her, a teeny, tiny Celestia flew, glowing like a tiny sun. Like Luna, Celestia said nothing, but she was smiling. Twilight flew a few laps around his head, but then broke off and flew ahead, as if urging him to continue down the hallway.
“On your hooves, Soldier!” Cadance’s commanding voice was irresistible.
The need to obey was something that had been drummed into Gosling’s head. He fought to regain his hooves, grunting, still sobbing, he had been given an order by an alicorn and he was compelled to obey at any cost. Like a newborn foal, Gosling made it to his hooves and stood there, wobbling. One by one, the lights went out, the spots in his vision vanished, and the alicorns circling his head poofed out of existence one at a time. Before she vanished, Cadance saluted him.
Gibbering with fear, Gosling made his way forwards, his split lip dribbling blood down his chin. The taste of blood nauseated him, made him feel sick, and this, along with everything else, made him fearful that he would throw up at any second. Wings extended, primaries spread, he was able to feel his way forwards.
Something slithered over Gosling’s foreleg and he stopped. He tried to remember what Luna had told him about dreams and drew a blank. Closing his eyes once more, he crept forwards, crying, and now gagging from the taste of his own blood.
After a walk that felt like miles, Gosling found more stairs.
There was light ahead, at the top of the stairs, a faint light, but it was not a good light. Something about it terrified Gosling. It was not a natural light at all. Dragging his hooves, he made his way up the stairs, his body heavy, sluggish, and succumbing to the cold.
With caution, he poked his head up above the floor level and had a look around. He was in a filly’s room, he could tell. The entire top floor had been turned into one big bedroom for her. She was loved, she was treasured, she was a dear and precious thing to her parents. Squinting, Gosling peered around, and then wished that he hadn’t.
In the darkness, he saw her, glowing with a dreadful blackish-purple light. He felt his heart stop beating for a moment as he looked upon the sum of all of his fears as both a friend and a husband. All of Celestia’s fears as well. She was going to be crushed by this. Gulping, Gosling peered into the luminescent slitted eyes that stared back at him in the darkness.
Nightmare Moon.
Unable to talk, unable to move, unable to react, an overwhelming feeling of despair overtook Gosling as he felt a sense of loss like no other. His mouth and his throat went dry. It became difficult, almost impossible, to breathe. He loved Luna, even if she was confusing and their relationship was still something he was trying to puzzle out.
“I couldn’t stop it.”
Ears perking, Gosling stared, hardly breathing as blood dribbled down his chin. That was not something he expected Nightmare Moon to say. She sounded sad, scared even, and Gosling began to wonder if perhaps Luna was in there, battling for her very existence. He had to help her. Grunting, he pulled his body up the rest of the stairs and then stood there, ready to be blasted into oblivion. She was… his friend, more than anything else. If he couldn’t save her, then he would die with her.
Pegasi were loyal, if perhaps a little air headed and stupid.
“I couldn’t make it stop,” Nightmare Moon said, repeating herself.
“You can still make this stop.” Gosling’s voice sounded like dry, crinkled newspapers being rubbed together. “You can still make this stop. You’re loved. Don’t forget that.”
“No, I’ve been bad… I did bad, I keep doing bad things.” Nightmare Moon’s voice was almost a whine. It was shrill, a little squeaky, and had a nasal quality to it. “I keep doing bad things, it’s like wetting the bed, but worse.”
A little confused, Gosling took a step closer. “Those that love you don’t care. You are loved. Bad things can be forgiven. I love you.”
“You’re a stranger,” Nightmare Moon said. “How could you love me when you don’t know me?”
That stung a bit, but Gosling didn’t let it get him down. “Even if I don’t know you, or understand you, I still love you. I braved the darkness for you. I just want to help you. Let me make you feel better.”
Nightmare Moon blinked. She stood there, her wings fluttering at her sides, and her wide eyes shone with a terrible dark light. “I feel so guilty. I keep hurting others. Over and over, I keep hurting them. I can’t seem to stop. I keep scaring them.”
“Just come here. Let me make it better.” Gosling’s voice was pleading. “Let me give you a hug. Just a little hug. Let me remind you that you are loved.”
“I don’t know you.”
Ouch. Gosling ignored the pain in his heart. She was sick and she didn’t know any better. She needed compassion right now. She needed love and understanding. Luna had to be in there somewhere, fighting, because Nightmare Moon wasn’t busy bringing about eternal night. The darkness was confined to the house, at least for now, and being the good soldier that he was, Gosling knew that he had an obligation to protect both Luna and Canterlot. Somehow, he either had to keep the darkness contained or he had to drive it away.
“Why wouldn’t somepony love you?” Gosling asked.
“Because I keep doing bad things,” Nightmare Moon replied.
Clearing his throat, Gosling wished that he had some water. “That’s no reason to stop loving somepony. Sometimes accidents happen. We all make mistakes. Have you been punished for the mistakes you’ve made?”
“Yes!” Nightmare Moon’s reply was a shrill cry of anguish.
“I’m sorry.”
“My parents stopped loving me. They sent me away!”
Tears welled up in Gosling’s eyes. There was something he hadn’t known about Luna. His knees knocked together as his legs wobbled. He was still terrified, he was still scared out of his mind. He didn’t know what to do here. He felt powerless. But he had to try. He had to keep going.
“You have a family that loves you. Think about it. Who comforts you when you are sad? Who makes you feel better when you are scared? Who always sticks around, even if you are a little scary sometimes?” His teeth began to chatter with cold and fear as he made himself look into Nightmare Moon’s eyes.
“You’re right,” Nightmare Moon said. “They’re not going to abandon me like my parents. They love me…” Her halting, somewhat hitching voice trailed off into nothingness.
Confusion clouded Gosling’s mind as his torn lip throbbed with enough force to make his whole face ache. He couldn’t feel his wings anymore, or his dock. A life threatening numbness was creeping through his body. “To be a family, all you need to do is love them back. Stop hiding. Stop being afraid of being hurt. You have to let yourself be loved. Don’t shy away.”
“Okay.” Nightmare Moon’s voice was a fearful squeak.
“Let me hug you,” Gosling said as he extended his wings. Several of his feathers fell out and floated down to the floor. The magical cold was sapping him, stealing his life away, it was eating him. He stumbled forwards towards Nightmare Moon, dead set on making her feel better. Making her feel loved.
One of his frogs had frozen to the floor and when he started forwards, a layer of skin peeled away. He choked back a cry when he felt the tugging on his leg, stumbled, and flapped his wings. He recovered somehow, his near frozen joints creaking. As he moved forwards, he left behind frozen, bloodied hoofprints.
“I’d like that… I’m so cold…” Nightmare Moon’s voice was soft and a little raspy.
Wings out, Gosling drew her in. Her body was like ice against him, and he had no doubt that he was almost frozen solid as well. More of his feathers fell out, and they drifted down to the floor in slow, lazy circles. He held her and gave her a squeeze. As he did so, he felt a hint of warmth, it was like standing near a candle. Just a tiny hint of warmth.
“Never doubt for a minute that you are loved,” he whispered.
After the words left his mouth, a whole lot of things happened all at once...
Nightmare Moon vanished and became a much smaller filly. Gosling no longer had anypony to lean against, so he pitched over. He let out a cry of panic, fearing he might crush the filly that had suddenly appeared in his embrace. There was a loud, pained cry and Princess Luna manifested, then crashed down to the floor. As Luna appeared, the darkness and much of the cold vanished.
Violent shivering wracked Gosling’s body as he hugged the filly to him. She was shivering too and about half frozen. The little unicorn filly had her eyes closed and she pressed her face into Gosling’s neck. She sobbed, her whole body shook, and her stubby legs locked tight around Gosling. He wrapped his wings around her, trying to warm her, and with what little strength he had left, he looked at Luna.
She looked shaken.
“What happened?” Gosling managed to ask in a voice creaky with pain and fatigue.
“A darkness elemental,” Luna replied, “like nothing I’ve ever seen before. I was powerless against it, it swallowed me up and started feeding off of me, just like it was feeding off of her.”
“Well, you stopped it somehow.” Gosling couldn’t feel any of his extremities at the moment, but that didn’t matter. Luna was okay. He was real happy to see her again too. Squeezing the filly in his embrace, he though about kissing her, but his lip was a shredded mess.
“I didn’t stop it,” Luna said.
“Then who did?” Gosling asked.
“You did.” Luna’s voice was low and soft. “You thought that she was me.”
That was true. Gosling had thought that Luna had once more become Nightmare Moon. His brain ached as he struggled to think and make sense of this. He had been trying to reach Luna, trying to beat back the nightmare with love. His ears drooped, but he couldn’t feel them as they fell.
“You killed the darkness elemental,” Luna whispered in awe.
“How?” Gosling asked, unbelieving.
Wings flapping, Luna crawled across the floor to be with Gosling, and when she reached him, she pulled both him and the filly close. “It had us both… it was feeding on us. Drinking our despair. Feeding on our fear. It kept telling me that you would run from me, that you were afraid of me, that you would never love me.”
“I heard the same thing when I was dreaming,” the filly said, her words muffled against Gosling’s neck. “It told me that my new parents would stop loving me.”
“Both of you are in such a bad state… Gosling… you’re covered in frostbite… it’s bad… Your wings… they froze...”
Closing his eyes, Gosling leaned into Luna’s embrace. It was over. The nightmare was over. He felt Luna squeezing him and that made everything better somehow. The little filly was weeping against his neck and he couldn’t even feel the warmth of her tears. His neck felt dead.
“I’ve summoned help. Try not to move. Now that the spell is broken, the house can be entered. Just hang on, both of you. I have you both. We have each other.” Tears rolled down Luna’s cheeks as she pressed her muzzle against the base of Gosling’s ear. “Thank you, Gosling.”
Below them, the sounds of heavy hooves could be heard upon the wooden floorboards, and the jingle-jangle of heavy armor was somehow reassuring. Luna, weeping, held the two ponies in her embrace, trying to warm them, and she kept her muzzle pressed against Gosling.
Epilogue.
Wrapped in a cocoon of blankets, Gosling struggled to stay in the waking world. He couldn’t feel most of his body, he felt real drowsy and sluggish. He was still holding the filly he had rescued, and she was cocooned in the blankets with him. She was a little more alert than he was.
“I never did get your name,” Gosling said in a weak voice.
“My name is Moon Rose.”
“Moonrise?” Gosling forced his eyes open and looked at the little filly, needing to see her, needing to make sure that she was still okay. He felt his body being lifted and moved.
“No, Moon Rose.” The little filly let out a whimper. “I want my daddies.”
“We have to get patched up. We’re a mess.”
“One of them is my mommy.”
“Oh?”
“I get confused sometimes and I forget. I always worry that he’ll be angry with me.”
“You have a pretty mommy,” Gosling mumbled, “I met her. Him. Very nice mommy.”
All around him, Gosling could hear the muffled sound of voices. He also heard crying. A very muddled part of his brain knew that two very concerned parents wanted to see their foal. Their filly. He was going to be a parent. The thought was soothing. His mind drifted, edging closer to a comforting darkness. He was going to be a daddy. Celestia was going to be a mommy. And Luna… Luna was going to be an auntie.
Luna, who just needed to be loved.
Drifting away, Gosling was glad to have Moon Rose snuggled up against him. He needed daddy practice. After this night, scary things in the closet or unspeakable horrors beneath the bed wouldn’t be such a big deal. He could handle it, he had proven that to himself. In doing so, he had also proven his intentions to Luna. He felt good about it. Now, he was just glad that it was over. He yawned, and was thankful to get a well deserved rest.
Author's Note
Sorry, that's all there is. I do hope you enjoyed it. Feel free to discuss in the comment section below.
This is all part of a much larger collection of stories. Thank you, so very much for offering some of your time to read this. I hope I entertained you.
