"Nurse Noctilucent. May I see you in my office for a few minutes?" Dr. Cake had tracked her down to the emergency room, where Dr. Horse was demonstrating how to use a defibrillator to the three interns. Dr. Horse nodded giving her permission to leave and Noctilucent trotted off, following Dr. Cake. As they walked through the reception he waved her up to walk beside him.

"It's about the group session this evening. Something's come up and I can't make it."

"O-oh dear," Noctilucent said, "I hope it's n-nothing too terrible."

The doctor's heavy belly shook as he chuckled and said, "Oh, no. Just a little colt reminded me that I'd promised to be there for his school play." He puffed a bit as they headed up the stairs. "If you weren't here I would have had to disappoint the little guy, but if you're willing I'm confident you can handle the session on your own. Are you up for it?"

Was she? Yes, she was looking forward to it and was curious as to how Dirt Nap might respond to Clickspring discussing his first Festival. If he came through on his promise. "Y-yes, Doctor. H-have you reviewed my case studies of Dirt Nap and Clickspring?"

Dr. Cake held open the door to his office for her and said, "I have. That's what I want to talk with you about, I have a few ideas you might use in guiding the session."

A 'few minutes' turned into a half hour long discussion about each of the group's members, with Noctilucent taking notes on how Dr. Cake thought she should handle the session. While she didn't agree with all of his directions she would keep them in mind. At least she wasn't feeling irritated about having to be submissive to a stallion anymore. Dr. Cake was such an easy going and jolly fellow.

Dr. Cake's ear's perked up as the distant ringing of the Ponyville clock tower intruded, he jumped up and said, "Celestia's mercy! I had better get trotting or I'll be late!"

Noctilucent stayed at the desk, finishing off her notes and feeling annoyed that nopony ever seemed to curse using her name.

"Remember what I said: Keep a firm control on Miss Pie or she'll take over the session and you'll just have a party on your hooves."

"Aye, aye!" She turned to look over her shoulder as he left the office and said, "Uh… I-I mean, y-yes, sir! Enjoy the play."

He waved and was gone in a clopping of heavy hooves and creaks from the hospital's old wooden floor. A few minutes later Noctilucent headed to the staff's lounge to prepare for the group session, not that there was much setting up to do. She cleaned a few mugs left in the sink and wiped down the coffee table to clear up some dried cup rings and crumbs, then curled up atop one of the comfy chairs to wait for the others.

It wasn't long before she heard Pinkie Pie's voice coming from the hallway. "...and then I ran, and ran, and ran! But the rope wouldn't budge and I was running and running and running in once place! It was super silly!" Pinkie's story wrapped up as she entered the lounge, Fluttershy by her side.

"You have to come next time, Fluttershy."

The small yellow pegasus smiled at her friend, nodded and muttered, "Mmm, hmm… I-I mean, m-maybe…"

"H-hello Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy." Noctilucent sat up a little and smiled and said, "Please take a seat. You're the first to arrive."

"Hiiiiiiiiiiii, not nurse Noctilucent!"

Pinkie Pie pronked over to her usual spot on the couch near the counter while Fluttershy quietly walked to the table and began pulling packages out of the saddlebags she wore. There was a box from Sugarcube Corner, a small covered bowl of salsa, a bag of corn chips and a half dozen soda bottles. She delicately arranged them on the table using her wing tips.

"I h-hope that you have both had a good week," Noctilucent said and readied her pen and notepad in case something interesting had occurred.

Pinkie rubbed her chin and said, "Welll… there was this mean, meany old griffon being mean to everypony. But nopony would believe me about how mean she was! Not Dashie. Not Twilight. Nopony!"

"I believed you." Fluttershy's voice was barely above a whisper.

Noctilucent was surprised and said, "A g-griffon, here in Ponyville?" Things certainly had changed a great deal in the last thousand years, as at the time of her incarceration the vicious creatures had been all but exterminated by Equestria. "H-how did that make you feel?"

"It made me mad. And sad. Mad and sad."

Fluttershy finished setting up her snacks, leant her saddlebags up against the side of the couch and climbed up next to Pinkie.

"That meanie griffon was even mean to poor Fluttershy!" Pinkie sighed, "How could anypony be mean to the nicest pony in all Equestria like that?"

Fluttershy blushed cutely and whispered, "She, she was pretty awful. Even for a griffon."

Noctilucent nodded and said, "I have read that they can be quite s-savage." They had proven to be worthy foes but while griffon forces had the advantage in sheer savagery and were naturally endowed with weapons, they were disorganised and fractious.

"Were you able to, ah, r-resolve the situation peacefully?"

Pinkie nodded gleefully and said, "Yyyyyep! I threw her a 'Welcome to Ponyville' party!"

Noctilucent blinked in surprise; this was not a tactic she had ever considered using against griffons. "Umm, how did that work?"

"Well... Everypony had a wonderful, fun time except meanie old Gilda griffon. She was such a sourpuss she got angry at everypony and everypony saw what a terrible, terrible meanie she really is." Pinkie sighed and said, "She ended up leaving in one big huffy huff. It would've been a better party if she hadn't been so mean and we could have all had fun together. It's extra hard to make somebirdy smile when they have a beak."

Noctilucent wrote a few notes about Pinkie Pie's successfully channelling her energy into a positive response to the threat that the griffon represented. Stepping forward to defend her friends rather than becoming violent or catatonic with depression. That Fluttershy had attended a large social gathering with a loud and obnoxious griffon (for all griffons were loud and obnoxious were they not) demonstrated a growing level of confidence and trust in her fellow ponies.

"I-is anyone else coming today, Counselor Noctilucent?" Fluttershy gestured with a wing tip at the table and said, "I-I brought snacks for everypony. Everypony who was here last time."

"I'm afraid Dr. Cake won't b-be joining us today as he had an i-important event to attend." Noctilucent smiled and said, "But I am expecting Dirt Nap and Clicky."

"Speak of the devil, and he will appear," said Clickspring as he walked into the room. "No doctor today, eh? Is it ok if I take his chair?"

"Hiiiiii, Clicky!" Pinkie waved excitedly as the unicorn made a beeline for the other chair.

"Hi."

Noctilucent nodded, "C-certainly. Well mmm… Welcome, Clicky." As Clickspring made himself comfortable on the chair she said, "Did you have a good week? Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy were j-just telling me about an encounter with a…"

"Most mean meanest meany pants, ever!"

"Yes, that." Noctilucent sighed and hoped she wouldn't need to try and rein in the excitable earth pony. She wasn't certain exactly how she could if it came down to it. Her old, reliable 'knock em down and dominate' tactic was not a workable strategy for Noctilucent.

Clickspring said, "Well, I managed to get a clockwork machine I've been tinkering with for months to work. Finally." He grinned like a colt at Hearth's Warming and rubbed his hooves together, "Now I can start turning it into something much more interesting." He held up a hoof. "No, Pinkie! No party to celebrate, thank you. Not yet anyway. Maybe when it's finished. Maybe."

"Awww, it's ok, Clicky. I know you're not a party pony, but if you doooo ever want to throw a party I'm your girl!" She bounced on her rump on the springy couch, grinning happily and winking at him.

Noctilucent took note of Clickspring's flinch. If necessary she would speak up to stop Pinkie Pie from continuing to tease him, the memory of her own ill-advised flirting still fresh in her mind.

There was a nervous tapping at the open door and Dirt Nap poked his big head into the room.

Noctilucent waved him in and said, "W-welcome, Dirt Nap. Please close the door a-and have a seat."

Dirt Nap shut the door and trotted over to the remaining couch. Noctilucent noted that he seemed more nervous than the last session as the earth pony awkwardly settled himself onto the creaking couch, with his head pointing towards Clickspring and his rump towards her.

"C-Clicky was just telling us that he has had a successful week." Noctilucent waved for him to continue.

"Umm, yeah. I guess that's about it really. My machine works but there's a lot more to do. That's about it for my week. Nothing else really, uh, interesting has happened. Just me in my workshop, making things." Clickspring chuckled nervously.

Noctilucent turned her attention to Dirt Nap or at least to his handsome, broad and muscular earth pony backside. "S-so, how was your week, Dirt Nap? Anything of note?"

He squirmed a bit and said, "Nope, nothin' really. Jus' more trainin' at work."

"What are you training at?" asked Clickspring.

"Runnin' one o' those big steam shovels. Ah ain't drivin' it yet. They got me stokin' the boiler, checkin' the gauges, doin' maintenance and follerin' the driver 'round. Ah reckon in another week an ah'll get to drive it."

Clickspring gave voice to Noctilucent's thoughts when he said, "That sounds like fun to me! I love a good steam engine."

Dirt Nap's ears perked up and he smiled shyly. "Yuh think so? It is pretty amazin'. Roarin' an smokin' an Holy Foaledo does it shift dirt! We're levellin' hills south a' town to build homes, an it's just tearin' on through. Ah hope we don' finish afore ah get mah go."

Noctilucent scribbled notes and thought that it was good to see Dirt Nap talking animatedly for a change, displaying typical earth pony pleasure in working with his hooves. She cleared her throat to interrupt and stem the tide of masculine camaraderie. "S-sorry gentlecolts, but we need to get started. Mmm… p-perhaps you can continue your discussion after the session?"

The two stallions settled down, both looking a bit sheepish.

Noctilucent said, "Now, P-pinkie Pie and Fluttershy, I think how you dealt with that griffon shows you are b-both making great strides in dealing with your past i-issues. Clicky, we haven't even started to discuss how we can help you with your p-problems. Nor have we made any progress with your situation, Nap."

"Ah wus thinkin', maybe ah could just skip goin' to the Festival?" Dirt Nap gestured at Clickspring, "Ah heard folks talkin' 'bout how Clicky didn' go to the last one on account of he was sick." He turned his head to look at Noctilucent and gave her a hopeful look. "So, maybe ah could jus' go next year, y'know, if'n ah'm ready for it by then?"

Noctilucent nodded and said, "Y-yes, it is possible to ab-abstain. But the side effects of not attending are unpleasant, potentially d-dangerous and linger per annum. Uh, that is until the next Festival." She had struck the books after her unfortunate visit to Clicky's mill and had read about the effects of not attending. Medical literature referred to it as Post-Festival Abstinence Syndrome and indeed there was a note in Nurse Redheart's report that Clickspring was suffering 'acute PFAS'. Noctilucent just hadn't known what the initials meant and had stupidly not taken the time to find out.

Clickspring grouchily said, "It's called the 'Festival Curse' for a reason."

Swallowing heavily Dirt Nap turned to Clickspring and asked, "I-is it bad?"

Clickspring sighed and nodded. "It's pretty awful, yeah. You know what 'blue balls' are, Nap?"

The earth pony nodded. "Yeah, well, ah've heard about 'em."

"It's like that, like your balls are in a vice and, uh…" Clickspring's ears flushed in embarrassment.

Pinkie chirped, "No worries, Clicky! I think I broke everypony's embarrassment ears last time."

Everypony chuckled, except for Fluttershy who just looked uncomfortable.

Clickspring nodded and continued, "I'm not sure how it works for earth ponies but unicorns feel a magical 'call' pulling at them to go where the Festival takes place. Resisting it is hard and you end up feeling like you have a fever. You can't keep your hooves still, like you've drunk way too much coffee. Your balls ache. You get as hard as a rock and as the night goes on everything starts to hurt."

"Can't you, y'know, jus' take care of it yerself?" Dirt Nap's ears flattened to his head.

"You can, but it doesn't matter how many times you do. You'll stay hard and desperate the whole night. The only thing that switches it off is if you get off while having sex with somepony. So if you skip the Festival you'll be a painful wreck by the end of the night. I certainly was."

Clickspring drew a shuddering breath and said, "Afterwards you'll still hurt, for the rest of the year I mean. You'll still be horny as hell, constantly dropping and getting hard over just about anything and you can pretty much forget about touching anypony."

Dirt Nap looked ill. "Ah mostly work with other stallions, so, maybe if ah skip the Festival an just stick to goin' to work and home ah'd be ok."

"No. If anypony touches you the Curse will hoof you in apples and make you hard as a rock. It doesn't care if you're attracted to them or not." Clickspring shook his head and said, "Isolation is the only way to deal with it."

"Ain't there no way t'make it go away? Magic or somethin'?"

Clickspring snorted and said, "Just gelding."

Dirt Nap moaned, a long low sound from deep down in his throat and clenched his tail down tightly over his rump.

Noctilucent cleared her throat, annoyed with Clickspring for being so blunt and scaring the poor colt. "Ahem. Other than surgery there a-are spells and medications that can make you feel less, umm, am'rous. But they have side-effects and you'd still have to deal with easily incited arousal."

Pinkie Pie chirped, "Gelding ain't so bad!"

"Pinkie…"

"What? The owner of Quills and Sofas is a gelding and he's… kinda strange, but nice. Maybe you should talk to him too?"

Fluttershy asked, "Pinkie, h-how do you know he's… like that?"

"I looked."

"Oh, Pinkie. You can't just look like that, it's not polite."

"Can, did and will again." Pinkie giggled and snorted.

Noctilucent tried clearing her throat again, a little more loudly this time. "Ahem! Umm… I think w-we've ranged a little off topic. Clicky, since you've told us what it's been like for you when you abstain, m-maybe you could tell us about what it's like when you have gone?"

"Ok, but can I have one of those sodas? I could use a drink first."

For a few minutes, everypony relaxed and helped themselves to the drinks and snacks that Fluttershy had brought. Once everyone was settled again, sipping and munching, Clickspring began.

"I came out to my family about liking other stallions before my first Festival..."

Later that night as she was brushing her teeth Noctilucent thought about visiting Dirt Nap's dreamscape again. It had been interesting watching Dirt Nap's reactions to Clicky's story; embarrassment and confusion, but also curiosity. Evidence was mounting about what his preferences might be.

While she was charged up enough for a walk she didn't have any dreams she felt safe sharing with Dirt Nap yet and there was little point in watching the stallion fellate himself again. Perhaps visiting his place of work would be enough to give her material for a worthwhile dream to try out on him? She still wasn't thrilled with the idea of Nap turning out to be bent that way, but if Clicky was anything to base an opinion on perhaps that wouldn't be so bad. Clicky was considerate, intelligent, well spoken and devoted to his craft. Then again, he was bisexual so perhaps a pure sodomite would be a different animal altogether, but she doubted it.

They seemed to simply be ponies like any other pony and nothing like the sneaky, self-loathing malcontents of the past. Well, Clickspring certainly had the self-loathing problem but was otherwise better adjusted than the deviant ponies she had attempted to straighten out in the past. Hammering them into shape so that they could be reproductive members of society had been the only way to keep them alive and accepted by their fellow ponies.

There was a rapid knocked and Tongue Pressor yelled at her through the door, "Come on, Luci! Quit hogging the bathroom!"

She spat foam into the sink and said, "J-just a moment!"

Tongue Pressor was not the most patient of ponies, but Noctilucent thought that she had only been in here for a few minutes. She wasn't certain. Time seemed to fly when her mind wandered. She rinsed her mouth, sluiced out the sink and opened the door to let the frantic pegasus in.

Walking into the dorm she saw that Nurse Pearl Singer was still awake, sitting at her small desk with a lamp on and nose deep in a textbook. She bid her goodnight, receiving a distracted "G'nite" in reply as she crawled into her bed.

Pulling the blanket up and laying her head down, she decided to drop in on Clicky instead, to see if his dreams revealed anything interesting about what made him tick. There was no need to bathe in moonlight as the spell came easily now.

The oval tunnel was taller than it was wide, made of dark red bricks which had become coated with a layer of black grime. Gasping as he ran, Clickspring's nose was filled with the sweet stink of garbage decaying and hot, burnt metal. He stumbled and nearly fell over one of the wooden railroad ties, but somehow kept on his feet and kept running. Echoes of the clattering of his hooves bounced back from the walls, but he hardly heard them over the thudding of his heartbeat.

Something was chasing him. Two somethings. The chase had begun when he saw the two black, pony-shaped outlines against the dark of the tunnel walls and he had run, knowing that he could never outrun them.

The tunnel he was running down met another one in a 'Y' shaped intersection. He stumbled out onto the new subway track and stopped, gasping for air, each exhalation a long plume of fog in the chilly tunnel. Looking ahead he saw a dimly lit station and though the jump up from the track to the platform looked impossible he had to try.

Looking back into the tunnel he saw the two shadows were sauntering towards him, radiating darkness and confidence that the chase would soon be over.

Clickspring squealed in panic and tried to get moving toward the station but his legs felt like they were sticking to the damp floor and his body was leaden from exhaustion. He stumbled a few shaky steps and thought about giving up, letting go and collapsing onto the tracks. His left ear flicked as though something had brushed up against it and he had a sudden thought, 'I'm… dreaming?'

He looked around at the tunnel and with a dizzying wrench of déjà vu he realised he'd been here before. Had run from these shadows before.

"I am dreaming."

The tunnel jolted in and out of focus and suddenly his fear was gone. Clickspring wasn't gasping for air anymore, he felt relaxed and strong. His head came up, his horn flaring with intense golden light and he turned to face the shadows. He didn't wonder at why his horn was now a healthy double helix or where the flowing cloak over his back had come from, he glared at the shadows and made a dismissive gesture with one hoof.

The dark shape shattered into tiny black cubes, blowing away from his gesture and fading quickly to nothing. His eyes shifted to the remaining shadow, which turned tail and fled the way it had come.

He thought about chasing it down but he couldn't be arsed. The shadows were nothing to fear any longer. Warm, soothing darkness consumed the tunnel around him and he faded from consciousness.

Luna kicked a hoof against the grey fog of dreamstuff that she stood on, feeling good about having helped Clicky confront and best his nightmare. It had been more than a little disturbing, stepping into his dream and finding herself inside a symbolic representation of Clicky's anus, but it had turned out well enough in the end.

Seeing his transformation into a handsome and uncrippled state and his confident attack upon the shadows of his past relationships had left her feeling a bit randy. Perhaps she should visit Pinkie Pie's dreams and scratch her itch? She felt certain that Pinkie must have some unusual erotic fantasies inside that giddy little head of hers.

After considering it for a few minutes she decided to stay and see if Clicky would dream again this night. Hopefully it would be something that could grant her insight into how a modern pervert's libido functioned. Inspiration for crafting Dirt Nap's next dream.

She waited in vain.

Author's Note

Short chapter this time. Pinkie is a silly pone with no sense of shame.

Please let me know if you spot any issues.

17-03-24: Minor update for punctuation issues.