Life In Boxes

Chapters

Nº 1: INTRODUCTION
Nº 2: TWINE GIVETH ROPE
Nº 3: CIRRUS
Nº 5: HARM
Nº 6: SHARDS
Nº 7: RECORD
Nº 8: SINKING INSIDE YOURSELF
Nº 9: MERCY
Nº 10: COLD FRONT
Nº 11: PHANTOM
Nº 4: PURE WHITE

Nº 1: INTRODUCTION

Dismounting her chariot, Princess Luna took a quick glance around the dark street of Fillydelphia which she had landed upon. A gentle night's breeze ran between the quiet businesses that lined the cobble road, giving lift to the ink-black cloak and hood she wore atop her regalia. The morning was young, only two hours past midnight, putting her moon where it could hardly be seen unless one was in the clouds. Giving her tired legs a stretch, she turned to her Night Guard at the helm of the chariot, who too stretched their legs and large, membranous wings.

“Congratulations on another wonderfully executed landing.” Luna informed her Night Guard in their native Nocturn tongue.

Gazing to her, their eyes of amber shined in the darkness.

“Many thanks, Luna,” returned the leftmost with a grateful smile.

Silently, she returned his smile and nodded, taking a second glance about the dark, deserted street as she finished up her stretching. It had been a long night of watching over the quiet towns of Equestria. She found it comical how sitting could be so taxing.

“Do stay put, We shall signal if you are needed."

The two Nocturn offered a little nod of confirmation. Spreading her wings from beneath her cloak, she beat at the air to adjust her slightly ruffled phthalo-blue feathers, and as silently as an owl, touched off from the cobble-paved path and climbed into the vertical. Now free of structures, she was at the will of the October breezes, the occasional gust sending a pleasant shiver down her spine anytime it struck. Using the gusts in her favor, she gained altitude effortlessly, losing some airspeed, but quickly regaining it by working at the atmosphere with her magic, pushing air over her wings to hover in place.

Her eyes, slit-pupils open wide, scanned nearby paths, the brick and wood housing and business blocks thin in their dispersion thanks to this part of the city's distance from the center. Rather quickly, she found what had brought her down in the first place; a single pony pacing their way along one of the many little roads. Focusing upon them, she could see that, even from how great of a distance separated them, this pony was a Pegasus mare, her deep brown mane and tail were nearly black when juxtaposed to her sandy coat. Luna smiled as she began her descent. It had been a short three months since her release from Nightmare, and many of her once so finely-honed skills were a bit lacking, be that her practiced, eagle-like eyesight, workings of the air around her, or even dreamwalking. Things were certainly coming back to her, however.

Beating her wings at the last moment, she touched down atop the gently sloped wooden roof of one of a couple businesses that shared a two-story building, the mare below having no idea she was there. Watching her a while, Luna began following along, staying on the rooftops as she studied the mare. Her mark was of a black notebook with its cover flipped open and a quill inking scribbles upon the pages. She couldn't quite piece together what meaning the mark could hold. Certainly, something to mention. Now, she watched her in her entirety, taking note of her tired slouch, semi-unkept mane, and the frown her face wore. What she found odd was her periodical, methodical scan of her surroundings, constantly looking past the wings on her back to ensure nothing followed. Too, did she notice the conversation she held with herself. She most certainly had a lot on her mind.

Spreading her wings once more, she quietly crossed the gap between her roof and the next, this new one being steep tile rather than softwood, her turquoise hoofguards clinking as she continued to follow. The mare below froze, Luna doing the same as she watched her take an anxious look around the dark street. Her gaze stopped with the structure Luna stood atop, and a split second later, her eyes met with Luna's. Her face contorted in fear, her hooves carrying her back a few steps and her wings half-spread in preparation to bolt away from the Princess. Calmly, Luna lifted a hoof to throw back the hood of her cloak, offering a genial smile that went mostly unnoticed thanks to the darkness.

“Splendid night.”

She froze once more, glaring into Luna's luminescent azure eyes as if they were the tips of spears ready to strike her.

“Wander beneath moon's light in seek of solitude? To recollect?”

The mare gave a tiny nod, eyes still wide with fear. Spreading her wings, Luna stepped from the edge of the roof, gliding down and gently landing before the mare. Luna scanned her for a moment, noting how her hind legs were held together tightly and shivering, not from cold, but from fright.

“Princess… Luna?”

Luna's eyes widened a bit, “Aye?”

She took a weary step towards the Princess, outstretching a hoof and carefully placing it around Luna's foreleg. Much taller than the nervous mare, Luna looked down at her with curious eyes, ear flicking as the meek mare peered up with what she only saw as desperation.

“P-Princess, I-“ she cut herself off, her gaze no longer seeming to focus on Luna's eyes, rather, pass through to something beyond.

Luna raised a brow, bringing her other hoof over and placing it atop the mare's, “Aye, young one?”

Blinking, the mare refocused her gaze, staring into Luna's eyes for a moment before looking down at the hoof the Princess held over hers.

“I-I need help.”

Gently chuckling at the odd mare before her, Luna nodded. “Worry not, young citizen, for thy hoof holds a mare who hath n'ver let lie the worries of her ponies.”

Within her emerald eyes, a glint of hope shined.

Patiently, Luna and her flanking Night Guard sat upon the sofa within the mare's apartment as they awaited her to bring their promised cups of tea. The living room, and for that matter, the entire place, was left quite dark, only a single candle on the coffee table before the trio providing light. This was a place with modern plumbing, electricity, and a ‘central air' system; why opt to use a candle? Something to investigate, surely.

Glancing about, Luna investigated the small apartment space further, taking note of the somewhat disorganized state of things. There was a bookshelf to the left of the couch, yet about the room laid various texts which would be quite easy to put away. There was a hanger by the front door in the short entry hall, yet snippets of clothing and a few saddlebags went unmounted. Most curious was how some things were placed. To the right of the sofa, beside a door she suspected being the bedroom was a wall-mounted shelf with three picture frames upon it, yet they were all turned to where no pony could view them. By the open entryway to the kitchen on the left side of the space was a bag of shopping, but curiously, the bag's goods had been removed, stacked nicely, then sat upon their neatly folded paper bag. Why not take the cans, boxes, and bags and put them in their respective cupboards?

Just as the mare herself was, this little place was off. She still knew not what problem she held, other than lack of rest, as she refrained from saying anything along the way to her home. Along their journey, she hadn't ever ceased her nervous searching and constantly peered back to observe both the Princess and her Night Guard. Nearly every minute of their encounter thus far had been totally out of the norm. Nopony had ever shown such anxiety and paranoia in her presence, and if she were to be honest, she had begun worrying it was her fault. Sister had said she might try looking a bit less imposing, but what would that entail?

Her eyes were drawn into the kitchen as a loud thud sounded out, a jar of honey rolling out into the living room. The mare soon followed, cursing under her breath as she collected the undamaged jar and went back out of sight into the kitchen.

“Sturdy jar, that one,” stated the rightmost Night Guard, eliciting a little chuckle from his comrade and Princess.

“Quite. Sister once dropped a jar of jam and it nicked the marble without suffering a dent,” returned Luna with a smile.

The mare returned, peeking her head out of the kitchen entryway as she looked over the trio.

“What?” she inquired, looking a bit nervous.

“Oh, we were sharing conversation.”

She looked at Luna for a moment, “W-was it about me?”

“Nay, nay, not thee, but rather thy jar. Tis sturdy.”

The mare didn't quite seem pleased with the reply. “O-Oh, alright… I just couldn’t hear what you said.”

With that, she returned to her tea brewing.

“She views us as suspect, yet she welcomes us into her home. If she believed we were to do harm, or have other malicious intent, why allow us entry and offer tea?” explained Luna, getting nothing but a shrug from either Night Guard.

Again returned the mare, this time with a scowl on her face, “What are you saying about me?” she barked, instantly shrinking her posture as her scowl faded into a look of fright, “I-I… I mean, I hope you aren't talking about me! I'm sorry, Princess, I didn't mean to shout, I-I really am.”

Luna curiously observed her for a moment.

“Thou art fine, young mare. Mine Night Guard speaketh not a lick of Equestrian, rather, their native Nocturn tongue.”

Her eyes widened a bit. “O-Oh, they don’t?”

Luna shook her head.

“Oh. W-Well… could you please-“ she cut herself short, just as she had earlier, her gaze falling into nothingness for a time as if she contemplated something, “could they possibly leave? They make me nervous…”

Luna sat unmoving for a time, her expression showing nothing as she studied the mare.

“Post by the door,” Luna informed to her Night Guard, who looked to her in apprehension, “We shall signal if you are needed.”

Reluctantly, the two stood and bowed to her before making their way out, the mare watching the entire time.

She breathed a sigh of relief, her posture relaxing a bit. “Thank you, Princess.”

“They understand none of thy words, why wish their departure?”

Feeling the weight of the Princess' gaze, she took a short step back, hiding more of herself within the kitchen, “I-I know, but they make me nervous…”

Shy fit not with how she acted. Twilight's friend, Fluttershy, if she remembered properly, was shy; bashful. This mare was paranoid, but for what reason?

“Tis fine, some find their appearance to be unnerving.”

Chuckling disingenuously, the mare nodded as she backed into the kitchen.

“So, young mare,” called Luna, “what be thy name? We hath not asked, nor hast thou told.”

There was silence, the mare staying in the kitchen.

“I-I don’t usually like giving my name,” finally came her quiet reply.

That, too, was a first. Luna held her tongue a moment, peering around for any possible clues as to her name. Finding just that, she discovered there was a red jacket hung near the door in the entry hall, and from where she sat, the nametag pinned below the collar was just hardly visible. Encompassing it with her magic, she turned it to herself, focusing closely to find it read 'Wispy'. Smiling proudly, she ceased the spell. Such tiny lettering in such darkness would be impossible for the normal pony to read at such distance. Her stellar vision was returning to its former glory.

“Shall we refer to you as ‘Emerald', then?”

Again, there was a pause from Wispy.

“Why Emerald?”

“For cause of the most illustrious hue of thy eyes. Shine even in this darkness, they do.”

Another pause. “Oh, okay.”

Luna had been hoping her compliment would shed some light on their thus far dim conversation. Normally, ponies quite liked it when she complimented their appearance. Moments later, Wispy appeared from the kitchen, now carrying a cup of fresh, steaming tea atop her half-unfurled wing, the feathery surface doing a fine job of serving as a tray. Skillfully, she knelt before the table and slid the drink from her wing, not a drop spilling. She smiled, dropping to her haunches at the other end of the coffee table before Luna.

“Many thanks for the tea,” a blue aura of magic surrounded the cup, floating it to Luna's lips.

“You're welcome, your highness.”

Wispy suddenly appeared far more chipper than before. This was the first time she had seen her smile. The puzzle fell together; her mark, her coat and name tag, and her skillful delivery.

“Thou art a waitress.”

She nodded. “The best waitress to ever work at... well, where I work!”

“And where is this?”

Her smile faded into that same anxious frown as before. “Oh, well… I'd really like to not say…”

Luna stayed silent, their eye-contact only breaking when Wispy darted her gaze to the side.

“What ails thee, Emerald?”

She looked back, seemingly surprised.

“What… ails me?”

Luna nodded. “Brought us here for a reason. Called upon us for a cause. In thy life, something is awry, and thou hast felt that we shall be the one to aid. What ails thee?”

“W-Well… at my work, I was the best waitress. I’ve… I-I don’t know, I think it’s my lack of sleep, but I just haven’t… been myself. My roommate left, she said she was moving to another part of town for a new job, but I know why she left… she left because of me. And, now, I have to pay all of the rent, which my pay hardly covers, and I haven’t been getting tips because I can’t… I can’t be myself!”

Her posture slumped as she let out a long sigh.

“I-I’m just stressed. My… my Father hasn’t… really helped, always insisting I go back to th-“

There came that pause. Luna leaned forward, gazing into Wispy’s eyes as she stared right through the Princess. Something more was going on within her mind, something she wouldn’t openly admit to, and something she was terrified of. Luna often forbid herself from gazing into the waking mind of a pony before her, as it was the highest invasion of one’s person that could be imagined, but in this moment, it seemed the only way she could figure out what truly plagued her.

“Sleep… that’s all I need. I-I just need rest.”

“Restless nights are all which ails thee?”

Wispy nodded. Silently, Luna began weaving spells which allowed passage into the realm of dreams. From there, she could peek into the thoughts, speech, and visions of any pony sitting before her. As the spell finalized, a familiar scent of ozone hit the air, an inky, void-like aura formed around her horn, and her ears were filled with the low, unfamiliar rumble of Wispy's thoughts, her mind's sight melding with Luna's own, giving the sensation that her vision extended in a full three sixty. If she were honest, she didn't really enjoy the feeling.

“What truly ails thee?”

Wispy frowned.

‘She doubts me. Why does she doubt me? Was it my pause? I can't control the pausing.’

“What… what do you mean?”

“Sleep for thee may be lacking, we doubt that none, but more to thy problem exists than what thou hast told.”

‘Lie.’

“T-There's nothing wrong with me! Like I said, I just need more sleep!”

From her thoughts came an overwhelming sense of fear. Fear of having something discovered.

“N'ver implied something was wrong with thee. Thou hast done that. Truth is often revealed through lie.”

‘She tricked you. She is not friend.’

Luna's heart skipped a beat. That voice hadn't been Wispy's. Throaty, rumbling, and brooding, was that voice.

“I-I didn't lie! Nothing is wrong with me! I'm not… I'm not crazy!”

‘Crazy. The insane asylum. Don't let her know. I can't let her know. She'll tell them.’

“Through thy words slip the sands of truth. Called upon me, thou hast, to give aid. Why lie to the being who may help?”

‘She is not help. She will tell them.’

An image of a hall, white, sterile walls lined with doors, each door holding a number. A hospital.

‘She'll tell them. You're right. She's like my Father, or my boss, or my roommate. She thinks I'm crazy.’

“Princess, I'm not lying. I just wanted to know if you can help me sleep,” Wispy explained, her tone one of impatience.

“Aye, we certainly can, but sleep shalt not help thee. Thy stress, doubt, anxiety, and paranoia stretch far deeper than insomnia.”

A unicorn mare, magenta fur and orange mane, adorned with in ghostly white doctor's coat. Before an older, brown-furred and jet-maned stallion, she stands, a document held out for her to read within her blue aura. Paranoia, she says, among other things.

‘I'm not paranoid. She thinks I'm paranoid, just like that oaf Doctor Autumn.’

“P-Paranoid?! I'm not paranoid of anything!”

“Then why watch over thy shoulder as if being followed? Why give mine inquiries such flak? Why look upon myself and mine Night Guard as if we are to carry thee off to some wretched place?”

Wispy's eyes widened.

‘Carry me off to a wretched place. She’s just playing with me, now.’

Her slight shock turned to an angry scowl, her eyes boring into Luna’s. “Look, your Highness, I asked for your help, not for you to mock me!”

“We hath offered help, and thou hast driven thyself away. We mock thee not, Emerald. We listen to what is said, and what is not, and thusly, We tell. What words n’ver leave the lips often bear greater weight than those which do.”

That gave her pause. Her scowl faded only in the slightest, though her gaze remained with Luna’s.

‘She sees into your head. She has been listening.’

Suddenly appeared Luna, standing before the entrance to the apartment, aiming her hoof into the open door and barking for two stallions dressed in doctor’s jackets to enter. Luna’s ears rang, her own stomach churning as the pain, anger, and terror Wispy felt at this image radiated into her own body. She’s thrown into a room. A simple box with a window, bed, and simple furnishings. A prison cell, disguised as a hospital. A vision of what was to come.

‘She will end you.’

‘That’s impossible. She can’t see into my mind. She can’t. She can’t. That’s impossible.’

Luna leaned forward, stabbing into Wispy with her gaze. “Tis possible.”

Wispy screamed, clutching her head with her hooves as she scrambled backward, shutting her eyes as hard as possible.

“No! No-no-no! Y-You can’t see into my brain! That's impossible!!”

The door to the apartment flew open, crashing into the wall as the Night Guard stormed in, stopping just short of the terrified mare.

“No! You won’t take me to that damned hospital!” she screamed as she quickly got to her hooves, backing away from the two as they began to box her into the kitchen. “Get away from me!!”

“Meek! Illa! Stand down this instant!” Luna barked as she jumped to her hooves, wings spread, and hoof aimed at the door.

Wispy’s fear-ridden eyes darted from Luna to her Night Guards as they complied to her orders, taking a few steps back, but never leaving the room. Coming from around the table, Luna stopped before the entrance to the kitchen, letting her wings come back down beneath her unhooded cloak.

“Emerald, we seeketh not to take thee off to whatever place you speak of!”

Now with her back against the door of the kitchen’s pantry, wings spread at the ready, Wispy laughed. “Sure! Sure, Princess! That’s why you read my mind, right?! That’s why you came here with two armed guards?! That’s why you tracked me down?! I bet my Father paid you to come find me, because you all think I’m insane!!”

‘She must leave. She will take you.’

“Emerald, give no heed to that voice. Tis not thy own, and tis not one wishing thy well-being!”

Clenching her teeth and dropping her head, Wispy growled in what sounded to be pain. “Get out of my head, and get out of my house!! I-I don’t want you here anymore!”

“Come to us for help, and we shalt give it to thee! Help from thyself! Help from what ails thee!”

“Help from myself?! You sound like my therapist! Did she send you here, as well!?”

‘She must leave. She must be removed.’

A split-second vision of her clenching a dagger between her hooves, lunging towards the Princess, played out in her mind’s eye. It came not from her own mind.

Wispy’s eyes went to a knife block that stood atop the counter hoof-lengths away, only staying for a moment before darting back to Luna’s.

“Wispy, heed that voice not.”

Wispy flinched.

‘She knows my name. She knows it because they told it to her. She’s going to take me. I’m not letting that happen.’

In a quick move, Wispy flung a short kitchen knife from the block with the tip of her wing, clamping it firmly between her forehooves as she reared up, prepared to leap for her Princess. Before she could move another inch, Luna wholly grasped her with her aurora, freezing her in place.

“You won’t take me there!! I-I won’t let you!!”

Without another word, Luna performed a spell to drop the mare into deep sleep, and within seconds, she had gone entirely limp within her magic as sleep carried her away. Carefully, Luna laid her upon the tile and placed the knife back where it belonged, staying right where she stood for a moment as she took a deep breath.

“Are you fine, your Highness?” Meek asked as he stepped to his Princess, his deeply sienna eyes almost comforting in their luminescence.

“Fine, indeed,” Luna huffed, giving her wings an uncomfortable flutter.

The apartment then fell silent as no more words came from either of the three. For a time, they stood totally unmoving as if still processing the whole event. Sighing and bringing herself out of the small trance, Luna looked back to the limp body of Wispy, her one wing flopped half-unfurled at her side and a tiny bit of drool beginning to fall from the corner of her mouth.

“Post by the door. We shall be here for only minutes longer.”

Once more reluctant, Meek and Illa bowed to their commander and exited the quiet, dark apartment. Taking Wispy in a spell, Luna brought her into the living room and opened the door near the couch she had initially suspected to be the bedroom, and with the door now open, candle-light leaking in, she could see she had been right. She took a glance about as she entered with Wispy, noting the basic furnishings and void space at the furthest end of the small room. Most likely where her roommate once was.

Luna pulled back the pale blue comforter of Wispy’s bed, gently laying her down and tucking her in, doing her best to make things as comfortable as possible. Reaching forward, she put a hoof on her side through the comforter, feeling her relaxed breathing for a moment.

“Whatever t’is that harms thy mind, we shalt smite it, we do promise thee.”

Before departing, she noticed a stuffed animal at the other end of the bed. She cocked her head, her ear flicking as she brought it forth to find it was a fuzzy, black bat with blue beads for eyes and a little bit of white thread used to embroider a friendly smile upon its face. Smiling back, Luna pulled back the comforter a bit and lifted Wispy’s hoof as she tucked the cloth creature in with the passed-out mare. Finally, she exited the bedroom, sealing the door behind her and letting out a relieved sigh.

She came to the coffee table, her magic knocking out the flame atop that single candle and taking her nearly empty cup of tea into the kitchen, washing it and placing it by the sink to dry. Taking a glance around to ensure nothing else could be done, she made her way to the door, pausing just before exiting and examining Wispy's jacket. Embroidered above the left breast pocket, which held a pen and pad, read the text ‘11th Hour Cafe'. Being sure to remember that, Luna exited to find her Guard just as she had instructed them, flanking the door. Taking a moment, she made sure to make note of the apartment's number; 556.

“Come, for the night still reigns, and thus, still needs my presence,” explained Luna as she and her Guard began down the hall away from the now quiet apartment.

“That is all? No consequence? She attempted to murder you, your Highness,” returned Meek with deep concern.

“She did not. An entity within her thoughts did. Something more lies within her, and we know not what it is. We could not feel it, only hear it. It knew what we are. Knew what we could do.”

Illa, who held her right flank, now piped up, “Your Highness, if she is afflicted by some entity, why are we departing? Surely, you should turn back and rid her of this thing.”

“Cannot fight an unknown enemy. We know nothing of it. We know not how it operates. This will require time, study, observation. Much like a soldier, you think, seeing the best path is the path directly forward. This is something brute force will not stop. We have encountered beings similar in the past, and they are more cunning than the most skilled thief, more silent than the windless night, and more persuasive to their host than the most convincing actor. We must outsmart it, we believe. We must turn its host against it.”

More than satisfied with her reply, Illa remained silent as they continued. Finally exiting from the building’s lobby onto the breezy street of the town, the three paused to take a breath of the less-stuffy air. Luna pulled her hood back over her head, giving her wings an adjusting flutter as she watched her Night Guard lift off to retrieve her carriage.

She would go back into the night, indeed, seeking others who may need help, or who may simply need some pony to chat with, but at sun’s rise she would not rest. She now had a goal; discover whatever hellish place Wispy spoke of, and bring it crumbling down. What hospital would sew such fear into the mind of its occupants? What hospital would seek patients rather than seek to rid itself of them? In her mind, Wispy had named it an ‘insane asylum’, words which held no meaning to Luna. A place meant to shelter the mentally ill? Was there such a plague of illness in her nation that entire institutions were required to care for these ponies?

In her studies, she had never once seen mention of such a place, nor had her sister ever cared to tell of them. In her time, the mentally ill were non-existent. She could find the things which dug at the dreams and thoughts of her ponies, destroying them and giving new life to a pony whose life had been drained upon by these parasites of the ether. There was no need for such institutions. There was no illness. In her role as Guardian over the night, she had ensured so.

A knot grew in her stomach. Had her millennium absence brought upon an epoch in Equestria where these creatures were free to attack who they wished? Her attention came back to reality as her chariot landed just before her on the road, its well-maintained wheels hardly giving any noise as her Night Guard brought it to a perfect stop.

”Again, superb skill, my friends,” complimented Luna as she hopped aboard, taking her seat in the middle of the craft.

Their only reply was a respectful bow, and with that, they took back to the dark skies over Equestria.

Nº 2: TWINE GIVETH ROPE

Author's Note

If this chapter were to have a theme, it would be this. (Open in a new tab, if you so choose.)

Nº 2: TWINE GIVETH ROPE

Dismounting her chariot, Luna took a moment to look about the somewhat empty street upon which she had been landed. The clock had struck 8 in the morning a fair fifteen minutes ago, making her curious of the fact such a street so deep within Canterlot held so few ponies. The street in question was one not far from the impressive Canterlot Regional Medical Center, a large, multistory hospital built a fair 200 years in the past, and since then had been remodeled and redone so many times nothing of its beginning façade remained. In its current state, it stood out quite profusely against the two and three story, ‘middle Equestrian' style buildings with their cobble, brick, and wood façades and highly sloped shingle roofs. It was built with modern techniques and styles, incorporating concrete, steel, and glass to form a rather citadel-like structure, as all its surroundings stood many stories shorter.

That said, she rather enjoyed the structure. It offered an atmosphere of authority and superiority, not over those who must enter, but those who stand against her nation. From what she had read of the place, no other hospital in the world offered such good care or accommodated so many ill ponies. She was proud to stand before the structure knowing any rival nation held envy over the place.

Unfortunately, the hospital itself was not of her concern, rather, a connected sub-structure hidden in its shadow was, and too, was the place her chariot had delivered her to. Unlike its mothering structure, this smaller, shorter facility held no fine architectural features, nor did it shine proudly with color and volume as the main hospital did with its large, declaring signage, welcoming red crosses, and highlights of gold and red which gave life to an otherwise lifeless structure. This smaller facility was totally unmarked, colorless save for the white, square columns which divided each vertical row of tiny windows, spaced as evenly and perfectly as the bars of a cell.

Looking to her Night Guard, Luna clicked her tongue to gather their attention.

“Find a proper location for the chariot, and come to us in the main entrance. We shall wait until your arrival.”

They nodded to her command, spreading their wings in unison to bring the craft back into the sky. Turning back to the task before her, Luna began making her way for the bland, utilitarian, almost militaristic entrance of the place. It had only a single door with no welcoming porch unlike the glass double doors of its mother hospital. She too noticed the lack of beautiful fauna, shrubs, and such that decorated the front of the hospital, that lack adding another layer of unwelcome feelings. On top of that was the near total lack of signage; unlike the many grand, illuminated signs both on and around the main hospital, this sub-wing only wore a single little sign above the door in black text reading ‘Psychiatric Welfare’ . She had done much digging in documentation of the hospital to so much as learn the location of this place, and that research hadn't even touched upon what practices may go on within.

It was a level of vague which Luna understood well; secrecy. Many grand things had been written of the trauma center, surgery wing, foal-care center, and the most recently constructed blood donation center. This particular sub-structure seemed to avert interest rather than draw it. There had been nothing of it in the papers for the last two years, and even then, that tiny smattering of a story had only been a note of how the mental health ward was receiving a slight budget decrease.

With a spell, she cast the front door out of the way, taking only a single step into the unexpectedly small security lock, the harsh florescent lights in the ceiling causing her eyes to narrow and pupils to dilate into nothing more than slits. Instantly, her eyes locked with the mare security officer stationed behind her impact resistant glass, the mare returning her gaze with utmost shock.

“Greetings. How shall we gain entry to further facilities?” Luna inquired rather sharply, putting herself mere inches from the armored glass and wall of this odd little security booth.

Despite the barrier between the two, the light blue mare in her gray jacket cowered back a bit from her post.

“I-I… Princess Luna?”

“Aye, t’is mine name.”

She blinked rapidly a moment before bowing down. “Y-Your Highness! I wasn’t at all told you’d be making a visit here!”

The door which Luna had come in through opened, her Night Guard stepping in and going to her flanks, their eyes now too locked with the mare behind the armored glass.

“Unplanned is our visit. Pray tell, how shalt we gain further entry?”

“Y-You’d like to go inside, your Highness?”

“Aye.”

“A-Alright, I’ll buzz you right in, your Highness!” Blurted the mare as she hit a little red button on the wall within her station, the automated locks in the door leading further inside letting off a mechanical clunk.

Allowing Illa, her leftmost guard, to enter first, she followed him into the entirely artificially lit reception and waiting area. Once through the security door, Illa returned to her left flank, and following suit, Meek came to her right. The trio stood motionless for a moment as they studied the area before them; white tile floors, cream walls, sound-reducing tiles and florescent light fixtures making up the ceiling, unassuming and utilitarian chairs laid about in rows, a wood veneer receptionist desk in the center of the furthest wall to their front, and a pair of windowless, almost armored in appearance doors just to the right of said desk. Behind that desk sat a white-furred, blonde-maned stallion in a light blue jacket, his shocked eyes darting across the trio.

“Y-Your Highness!?” his pale blue aura of magic came to life as he summoned a black notebook, frantically flipping through and scanning the pages with vigor, “t-there isn’t anything in the daily notes saying you’d be making a visit!”

“Thy gatekeeper was quick to inform us. This visit is one of spontaneity.”

Looking rather relieved, the stallion took a breath and set the book down behind his desk, adding it to the many other papers about his space. “Well, your Highness… what… uh, is the purpose of your visit?”

Her wings ruffled a bit. “Investigation.”

This too seemed to trouble the stallion. “Investigation, your Highness? I… also wasn’t aware there was an investigation of any kind underway…”

“T’is an investigation of mine own. We seeketh further strings of knowledge. What hath we art but short threats, nothing worthy of being wound into rope.”

“Y-You’d… like to know more about the hospital, your Highness?”

Luna’s eyes narrowed a tiny bit as she began her approach towards the desk, her Night Guard following each slow step. “Thy hospital is of nay interest. Our school of thought studies the place at which our hooves step; a psychiatric welfare center. Such place existed not in our time.”

Shrinking in his chair a bit, as the trio now stood right at the brink of his desk, he stumbled on his words a bit. “W-Well, I… don’t quite have any information packets or pamphlets around here, your Highness,” he explained, searching his desk for just the things he had spoken of.

“If our castle’s own libraries yield when posed question of this place, so shalt thy papers. Pray tell, thou art beneath another in rank; who shalt be the one above thee?”

“My boss? I… I suppose that would be Doctor Autumn… she’s the head doctor, your Highness.”

Luna’s ear twitched. “Doctor Autumn,” she enunciated slowly, “fetch her, sir.”

He did a quick look from the doors to the left to a cream colored phone upon his desk. “S-Should I go find her, or should I call for her on the intercom, your Highness?”

“Which path shall find us expedience?”

“Most likely the intercom, your Highness.”

“So be it.”

Looking at her a moment, he swallowed and gave life to his horn, his blue magic lifting the transceiver to his ear and mouth as he dialed in a set of numbers upon the black keypad, a single second later the intercom system within both the lobby and the entirety of the center beyond sounded off with a loud, notifying tone.

“Doctor Autumn, you’ve been requested to come to the front desk,” said the stallion, the projection of his voice through the intercom nearly overpowering his voice in person.

With a click, the phone was hung up.

“Many thanks, sir,” Luna declared as she turned away from the desk, her Night Guard following as she went and found a seat which put her right before the two armored doors.

And there, in her plain seat, flanked by her Night Guard, she awaited the arrival of Doctor Autumn. As the minutes went by, she further studied her surroundings, at least, what there was to study. Nothing in the place was of real interest; the walls were bare of any art or decoration, and there seemed to be a purposeful reduction of clutter and loose objects. It seemed to favor an inverse style of both its mother hospital, a place which Luna had never entered, and the Ponyville Municipal Healthcare Center, a place which she had entered.

It had been a small visit, spontaneous in its execution, much like this visit, but her appearance at the little clinic had brought warm feelings. The receptionist and few staff she came into contact with had been far more jovial than those within these walls had been thus far, and their facility was far more welcoming. Their walls had various paintings donated by local artists, and the architecture offered a far more rural atmosphere than the near prison-like aura given off by the psychiatric center.

Luna blinked, eyes returning to the two doors as a mechanical clank of the locks operating echoed in the quiet lobby, their opening revealing a magenta-furred, orange-maned unicorn mare, her finely pressed white doctor's coat just as pristine as her figure. Not a single hair of her curly mane lay out of place, and her fur coat was kept in impeccable condition. It took but a half second for her ocean blue eyes to meet Luna's, and when they did, she froze in the doorway.

“Princess Luna?”

Luna stood, approaching in a similar fashion in which she had approached the desk, “Doctor Autumn.”

Still stunned, the doctor blinked rapidly as if to adjust her eyes, “I-I wasn't… I wasn’t aware you'd be making a visit today, your Highness.”

“Thy receptionist was quick to remind us. Our visit is spontaneous; quite unplanned, for mere hours ago existence of thy institution escaped our knowledge.”

Still not quite knowing how to reply, the doctor stepped forward through the security doors, Luna taking a split second to look at the security officer on the other side of the doors before focusing back on the doctor.

Remembering her manners, the doctor bowed before her princess, “I'm pleased to have you here, your Highness, and I'd be happy to tell you more about our facility.”

“Much like a photograph, we wish thou shalt show, and not tell.”

Rising, the doctor gave a look of confusion. “Are… you asking for a tour, your Highness?”

“If t'is the name thou shalt give it, aye.”

The doctor glanced between the princess and her flanking guards, feeling the weight of their gaze.

“We don't typically do tours, your Highness…”

Luna craned her head to meet Doctor Autumn eye-to-eye. “Thy princess does not typically come into thy presence, either.”

A bit shaken by the gesture, and simply by how close Luna’s face had come to hers, the doctor reluctantly bowed once more, “if that’s what you wish, your Highness.”

Returning upright, the doctor gave the trio one last little look-over before turning around and going to the two sealed security doors. Luna watched intently as the doctor went to a keypad on the wall to the right of these doors, using her magic to punch in the numbers 1, 1, 0, 0, 5, 3, 4, 5, 9. Luna took careful note.

The doors offered a similar sound as the first security lock had, the doctor quickly opening the rightmost door and holding it open to allow Luna and her Night Guard through. As they had with the first lock, Illa went first, placing Luna between himself and Meek. Upon entering fully, the three stood off to the side to allow the door to shut and allow the doctor to return to the front of the formation.

“Shall I lead the way, your Highness?”

“If thou art head of the doctorial administration within this institution, then thou shalt be head of this.”

A bit jarred by the longest ‘yes’ she had ever received, the doctor bowed her head and began leading the trio down the hall.

Her eyes met with those of another security guard as she and her Night Guard were led towards another set of thick, steel, mechanically sealed doors, above these metal gates sat a sign printed, ‘patient ward’. She stopped as Doctor Autumn paused to address this security guard, instructing the clay-brown mare clad in her sky-blue jacket to open the doors and allow the group through, and with an affirmative nod, the security pony punched that same code into the same number pad every door came equipped with, and with the same mechanical clanking as the rest, the locks within were undone by their electronic actuators, allowing them to be freely swung open by the doctor.

“Through these doors, as the sign suggests, is where our patients are housed. Our somewhat low budget doesn’t leave much breathing room for aesthetics, but such is the nature of things, I suppose,” the doctor went on as they four went down this new hall of the institution’s fourth floor, “we do often receive donations, however, which are typically put into this aspect of the facility. In fact, our most recent donation was two crates of hoof-knitted quilts for the patients’ beds! Certainly an upgrade over the white sheets we had before.”

Luna let her eyes wander the hall, the wall to her left lined with equidistantly spaced solid metal cell doors, each with its own number plate, while the right wall remained completely barren of anything besides white paint. The harsh florescent lights lining the corridor seemed to sting her eyes a fair bit more than the lower three floors had, and the linoleum tiles of the floor and plain sound-reducing panels of the ceiling made themselves out to be a fair bit blander than everything else.

The first three floors of the institution were halls paved in gold compared to these. There were occasional works of art or potted plants upon tables flanked by a few chairs, the doors of the rooms were the typical wood one would expect, and the tile floors had some designs and thought of aesthetics put into them rather than being left entirely white. Those lower floors were primarily administration; every door leading into some form or another of an office space, save for the large dining area on the second floor and the guest lobby on the third. She had noticed each room held a name plaque as opposed to a number, suggesting living beings occupied the spaces rather than creatures of nay importance. She now saw where the priorities of the ‘hospital’ lay.

“And, just around this corner up here…”

Luna looked away from the steel doors to see the aforementioned bend approaching in the hall.

“…we’ll come up on the commons area for this floor. A place for patients to have some space, read a book, or do whatever they may please.”

The 90 degree bend was reached, placing them in a hall which looked identical to the last, save for the single, opened doorway a bit down the way in the right wall. Reaching this door, the doctor paused after it, allowing Luna to look into the bland, carpeted space. The lighting was somewhat less harsh, and spread about were some chairs, a single sofa, a few tables against the walls, and a tall case holding many novels. Almost seeming to be furniture themselves stood three security ponies spaced about the room, unmoving at watching over the six ‘patients’ who currently occupied the place.

One sat motionless in a chair, gazing up at the ceiling. The next lay on her side, holding a book with her hoof. Two others were sitting upon the rather rough looking carpet, sitting side by side and quietly talking amongst themselves. Another was stood before one of the tables, his eyes occupied with some piece of paper. The last, a fairly young unicorn mare, sat in the near center of the space with her eyes locked with Luna’s, though, Luna’s eyes weren’t with her, rather, with the aluminum ring affixed around the base of her horn, cutting her magic away. Luna’s eyes now came down to meet the mare’s gaze. The unicorn’s mouth hung open, ears flat with her head and eyes seeming to cry for help. Luna could nearly hear the words trapped in her throat.

A needle of pain gouged at Luna’s heart as she turned away from the doorway, shutting her eyes hard as she passed the doctor, who hadn’t been expecting her to move.

“Hospital…” Luna said under her breath.

“I-I’m sorry, your Highness?”

Luna stopped abruptly, spinning around and craning her head to be right at eye-level with the doctor, who was mere inches away.

“A hospital. This place, t’is a hospital?”

The doctor recoiled a bit at her venomous words. “Y-Yes, Princess, this place is a hospital.”

"Cowers in the shadow of, but t'is not."

Completely confused by both what she had just heard and the fact these were the first words the Princess had spoken in an entire hour, Doctor Autumn took another step back to distance herself from the Alicorn.

“I-I… I don’t really understand what you mean, your Highness!”

Luna brought her head up, looking down at the doctor for a moment before turning her back to her and beginning off back down the hall, her Night Guard passing around the doctor, leaving her behind for a moment before she finally gave chase and linked back up with the group. Luna stopped before one of the cell doors in the hall, not looking to the silent doctor, but rather, focusing on the handle of the lock which sealed the door closed.

“Look about thyself.”

Doctor Autumn blinked a few times.

“I-I’m sorry, your Highness?”

Luna finally re-met her gaze. “Look about thyself. Thy surroundings, look through eyes not of thy own to see them. Peer through eyes belonging to a pony who must occupy these rooms. What dost thou see?”

The doctor complied, looking around the hall more because she had been ordered to rather than to truly attempt doing as her Princess had stated.

“I understand what you mean, Princess, but what you must understand is that we haven’t been given the funding to… make things look nicer!”

Luna pierced a look at the doctor, her face a deep scowl and eyes like daggers.

“There are things we do not understand, Doctor Autumn, but we assure thee, thou shalt not be the one to teach us of them.”

With that, she turned back to the door, her magic encompassing the handle of the deadbolt lock, and with a twist and mechanical clank, unsealing the door.

“Your Highness, I would really advise against that!”

Again, Luna darted her gaze to the doctor.

“Why?”

“Some of the patients here can be violent!”

“Some?”

“Wha- yes, your Highness, some!”

Luna looked up to the number plate of the door.

“What of the patient within room 22?”

“I-I don’t know, your Highness.”

Luna looked back.

“Thou art head doctor, aye? Shouldn’t thou knoweth at least a thread of knowledge of every pony within the halls of thy so-called hospital?”

Doctor Autumn gulped. “We… we have many patients here, your Highness.”

Luna pushed the door open with her hoof.

“We take thy reply as a ‘nay’.”

Stepping inside, Luna didn’t give the doctor any time to make a rebuttal before shutting the door behind herself, her magic remembering the position of the re-enforced lock and re-sealing the door, shrouding the cell in darkness. The only light provided was from a slit of a window upon the wall across from the door. Standing in the center of the place, she began noting the details; the bed was the only piece of furniture, not even a sink or toilet accommodated the room, though, built into the right wall was a series of three cubbies for storage, the only items within being a stack of bed linens. Besides the window, bed, linens, and the unignited bulb in the ceiling, the cell contained nothing more.

Now, she looked back to the sleeping pony. She stepped forth, coming to the bedside to find the pony tucked in beneath their somewhat colorful, patterned quilt was a turquoise-furred, cream-maned mare, only the corner of her face visibly past the blankets. Luna raised a hoof, placing it upon the mare’s side through the blanket and closing her eyes, trying her hardest to clear her mind and focus upon the each single second as it passed by. Her horn came to life, surrounded not by her typical waving, blue aura of magic, but by the same black void which had been when she had peeked into Wispy’s thoughts. The sterile sting of the air became a far more pleasant scent of ozone, the air seeming to fall in temperature as she began to cut down the barrier between the waking and dream realm.

She gasped. Her body froze as her vision was entirely taken over by a writhing, clawing field of crimson and black, her ears filling with a noise which held no rhythm, rhyme, or reason, but held volume greater than any crack of thunder or blast of cannon she had ever witnessed. As quickly as possibly, she broke the bond she had formed, her mind crashing back to reality as she stumbled backwards, her vision churning and tumbling, still filled with the hues of mixing blood and ink, and her ears still rang with that grand cacophonous noise. Her back hit the wall, her breathing heavy and quick as she tried to regain her senses, blinking rapidly to try and clear her eyes of the wretched shadows of colors that seemed to be burned into her vision. The roar of noise had quieted to a substantial hum, leaving behind a piercing ring as if a cannon had fired mere hoof lengths from her head.

Her vision began to return, a detail-less cell of concrete and darkness slowly seeping through the blood and pitch that had been burned into her sight. She suddenly felt helpless; afraid, nay, terrified of the mare slumbering beneath the colorful quilt. Her eyes darted about the room, head swimming from the minute movement as she locked her sight with the door. In an almost panicked scramble, she came to the steel thing, her horn sparking to life as she began fumbling with the lock from the inside out. With haste, the lock was undone, and she threw the door open, instantly blinded by the white light of the hall as it stabbed into her pupils. She shut her eyes, drawing in a deep breath as she still attempted to regain control over her own senses. Upon looking back up and adjusting her eyes to the harsh light, she found Doctor Autumn to be standing behind Illa off to the left side of the door. She looked rather cross.

“Your Highness, with all due respect, you're not allowed to simply… waltz into the rooms around here!”

Luna met the doctor’s gaze, and contrary to the doctor’s expectations, the look she got from the Princess was not one of anger, rather, one of pain and fear. The hall fell silent aside from Luna’s quick breaths, her eyes remaining locked with the doctors for an uncomfortable amount of time.

“We hath s-seen all we need to see, Doctor Autumn…” Luna finally replied after a time, her voice low and quivering.

Autumn’s look of annoyance slowly melted into a concerned frown.

“Is… everything alright, your Highness?”

That horror-filled look remained on Luna’s expression, her glare still not departing the doctor.

“We… hath seen all we need to see, doctor.”

Finally, Luna's piercing gaze was drawn away. She nodded to her Night Guard, motioning them forth as she began off down the hall towards the stairs.

“That's it? You're… leaving?”

Luna stopped dead in her tracks. She spun on her hooves, marching her way back to the doctor and stopping mere hoof lengths away, craning her head to be eye-level with her.

“Worry not, Doctor Autumn, for this shalt not be our final visit. Far from a final visit, this hour has been."

Luna huffed a breath at Doctor Autumn, her ears still flat with her head as she glared at the doctor for another long period before turning back to regroup with her Night Guard.

"T'is only the beginning, Doctor Autumn, of a long, winding trail."

Doctor Autumn could only stand in utter shock and silently watch the Princess and her Night Guard make their way for the staircase doors.

A while's time of silence from the Princess had passed, but as she and her Night Guard finally made it to the bottom of the echo-y, concrete staircase and into the halls of the first floor, she finally turned her head over her shoulder to address her trailing guards.

"Twine ties to give rope, does it not?" Luna inquired to them in their native tongue.

“It does, yes.” Illa returned.

“What can one do with rope?”

They both remained ignorantly silent.

“Tie a noose, and from that noose, this place shall hang.”

The black, unsweetened coffee in her mug was oddly comforting, as was the 9 o'clock sun that poured in through the tall, arched windows standing to her far left. She sat in the silence of the nearly unoccupied private dining hall in Canterlot Castle's administrative wing, the place where her sister could always, without failure, be found in the early mornings eating her breakfast and having her ceremonious first cup of herbal tea.

This, however, was not the early hours of the morning. By her sister’s standards, it was quite late. By Luna’s standards, it was horribly late. Her eye-lids were heavy, and her body seemed to call out for the embrace of her blankets and pillows, but she didn't comply with her desires. It wasn’t a disobedience out of stubbornness or some silly wish to stay up researching her various discoveries, it was because she simply couldn’t. Her mind still ran wild with thought, trying to find reason behind the past hours. She failed, entirely, to comprehend what she had experienced when peering into the mind of that sleeping mare. Had that been a dream, or was that truly the state in which her mind existed? Was this the fate Wispy was destined for if she could not find a way to rid her mind of whatever parasite clutched itself to her?

She shivered a bit, taking another sip of coffee. The sound of the doors to the hall opening hardly made her flinch, her eyes remaining down as heavy, familiar hoofsteps made their way towards her.

“Good morning, Luna! Heading to bed soon?” chimed her sister’s always cheery voice.

“Nay.”

“No? Why not? It’s quite late…”

“Meditation… we doth need it.”

“I do need it,” corrected her sister.

Luna held her silence, sighing internally. For three months now she had been trying to correct her way of speaking.

“Aye… yes, I need meditation.”

“Busy night?”

“Indeed.”

Her sister chuckled to herself. “It’s been a very busy morning for me! It’s only 9 and I’ve sat through two meetings already! Plenty more along the way of the day, as well.”

Luna's reply was to take a drink of her coffee. Her sister quietly tapped her hoof at the polished marble for a moment, the sound echoing in the silence of the hall.

“Well, glad you had a good night! Sleep tight!”

With that, her sister began her departure. Only now did Luna look up from the table before her, watching as her sister left without looking back or waving goodbye. Luna took one last drink of her bitter coffee, holding the empty mug out and staring at it for a good while. The pressure of her magic began to increase, her brow furrowing and the corner of her lips turning up in anger as creaks and cracks emanated from the mug. A great shattering cut the silence in the room as the mug finally collapsed inward, the porcelain shards quickly snapping and crumbling into nothing more than fine glass powder within her aura.

Ceasing her spell, she watched the fine, glittering dust fall to the tablecloth. Her angered expression faded as she drew in a breath, her eyes wandering the room a moment before she met the gaze of Illa, who stood far to her right beneath one of the many grand windows lining the walls of the hall. For as long as she met his gaze, he met hers. Finally looking away, Luna slid from her seat and began off for the door.

“We shall retire. Do the same,” Luna informed flatly in their tongue.

There was an echoing clap of hoofguard on tile as both Illa and Meek, who had been under a parallel window to her left, saluted to her as she departed.

“Rest well, our Highness,” came their simultaneous reply.

“We wish the same, friends.”

“Breakfast, Princess.”

Luna bothered not with looking up from the imprint she worked upon, as she knew the voice well. Frolicsome Meadowlark, her secretary, made his way down the length of Luna's office, a tray of fine vittles in his pale white aura. Knowing she was at work, he set the tray off where it would be near, but wouldn’t be a bother to her.

“Many thanks, dear Frolicsome Meadowlark.”

He bowed his head to her, “of course, Princess.”

Still not observing him, she raised a hoof to stop him from leaving, her eyes remaining trained with her work and her magic still manipulating her finely crafted, gold-plated mechanical pencil.

“Have a seat, Frolicsome Meadowlark.”

He looked about the dark office, finding a seat a few places down from her head of the long table she used as a desk. Her study had, months prior, been one of several large meeting rooms within the castle’s Administrative wing, but upon her return, she had insisted on commandeering the place rather than putting up with the wait of having her own study built. Only cosmetic changes had been made to the long room; the tile had been replaced with a fine, shining dark wood, the walls had been darkened with brilliant hues of navy and robin’s egg blue, and the ceiling held a mural of the night’s sky, much like her personal quarters. The huge, mahogany table with its thirty seats had remained, as had every chair. She only made use of the seat furthest from the room’s entry.

“What drives a pony to madness?”

In thought, he looked out to the late evening landscape that lay beyond the only non-curtained window within the long study.

“Imbalance in the mind, I believe.”

Luna hummed. “Imbalance brought on by what?”

“Hormones… I believe. If I were honest, Princess, I’m not the most knowledgeable in this field.”

“Neither are those who claim to be. Hormones, aye. Tis what we have read. Chemicals which dictate our every mood, feeling, and thought. What we thinketh hath not been asked is who brings upon imbalance?”

Frolicsome held his reply, awaiting further elaboration, as he knew it was certainly approaching. Finally setting down her pencil, Luna kept her gaze with her finished imprint for a moment before looking up to her Secretary.

“We thinketh we dost hold the answer.”

He returned her gaze, his orange eyes hardly luminescent in the darkness as compared to hers.

“I’m not sure I follow.”

“Asylums for the insane,” her horn came to life as she levitated a book from beneath her desk, the book floating before him and flipping to a certain page, “when did these institutions come to exist?”

He read a moment, “the first one was created 809 years after the defeat of Discord, Princess.”

Her eyes narrowed. “When were we cast away?”

“733DD, Princess.”

“Find this to be a coincidence, doth thee?”

He smiled. “I would say yes, but I see you’re leading up to something.”

She nodded. “These institutions were of null utility during our early years, for we hold keys to the locks of the mind. As Night’s Sovereign, and Night’s Guardian, we shielded our ponies from evils in waking and in slumber. What ponies began the descent into clutches of insanity, we pulled them free. Only several ponies, do we recall, held true insanity; imbalance in the mind we held nay leverage over, as something truly amiss writhed within their thoughts. Enough ponies for whole institutions to be built around? Nay.”

“You’re… saying you can help the ponies within the mental asylums?”

“More than help, dear Frolicsome. Free. The boxes they live within art veiled prison cells, and we shalt tear down those walls. We know not yet what spawn of Tartarus hath stolen the minds of these ponies, but within due time, we shalt know.”

“This is quite the undertaking, Princess.”

“Aye, quite. Thou shalt be needed more than ever in these coming times, dear Frolicsome. We wish for thee to take up what paperwork hath been pushed our way. We hope thou art willing to accept such a task from us.”

Frolicsome smiled brightly. “I’d be delighted to take up the task.”

She gave an affirmative nod. “Tis good to hear. In companion with this, we hath a second task for thee.”

He raised a brow in anticipation.

“The psychiatric welfare facility of Canterlot Regional Medical Center, research this place. Financial reports, staff reports, patient records. What thou deemst pertinent, we wish to see it.”

That brow stayed raised. “You’re asking me to launch an investigation into them?”

“In a fashion, we suppose so.”

Frolicsome rubbed the back of his neck, “I’d be more than happy to, Princess, but I’m not really qualified for such work, nor do I believe I have the credentials to go so deep into archives and records in the Royal Library. I… think this task would be better given to the Royal Equestrian Investigative Bureau.”

Luna gave pause for thought, her gaze falling to no particular place on the desk before her. Her ear gave a little flick before she looked back up.

“So be it. We should still wish for thee to keep thy ears in this investigation, however. Be the one to report findings to us.”

He nodded. “Understood, Princess. Though, I do have one last question; why are you launching such an investigation in the first place? Do you suspect the hospitals of being corrupt?”

She hummed, gently shaking her head. “Corrupt? Nay. Questionable practices? Neglect? Possibly. We hath toured this facility in the early hours of the day. T'was hardly a hospital. Hospitals, to our knowledge, let patients rest within rooms not constructed to contain timberwolves and ursa minors. Too, hath we, the testimony of a mare who hath made claims of this place which align with our own findings.”

“I see. I simply ask for cause of this all seeming quite… sudden.”

“Aye, sudden, indeed, Frolicsome Meadowlark. We hath not suspected the prior night would lead us to discover this institution, nor did we expect to find said institution to be built around housing and caring for, or at least t’is what they claim to do, those afflicted by sickness of the mind… sickness brought on by something we hath never laid eyes upon before.”

He paused a moment. “You didn’t know insane asylums existed, Princess?”

She shook her head. “Nay. None word hath been spoken of them until prior night, nor hath any word been read of them until prior night. We had all but no clue of their existence.”

“I see why you hold such skepticism of them.”

Luna cracked a tiny smile. “Thou do know us well.”

Nodding and making some mental notes, Frolicsome returned her smile. “So, undersee the investigation into possible corrupt practices within the psychiatric welfare wing of the Canterlot regional hospital and handle a bit more of our wonderful bureaucracy along the way. I believe I can manage that.”

“Very good. One last note before thy departure, Dear Frolicsome; we shalt be elsewhere in the coming hours.”

“Oh! Alright. As far as I know, there wasn’t anything critically important planned for today. Though, might I ask where you’ll be?”

Levitating a little info pamphlet from near her writing mat, Luna read the gold-on-brown text a moment; ‘11th Hour Café, closes at 11PM’.

“Checking upon somepony.”

Nº 3: CIRRUS

From atop her perch at the tip of one of many rooftops lining the thoroughfare, Luna watched as a certain Pegasus made her exit from a restaurant. The hour was midnight, an hour later than the hour at which this particular restaurant is set to close, which Luna found a bit odd. This particular Pegasus was part of the wait staff at this establishment; why should she stay behind so long? Nevertheless, she stood from her perch and followed the Pegasus, keeping to the dark rooftops to maintain her clandestine nature. As she had the night prior, this Pegasus couldn’t help but occasionally check her surroundings as she made her way down the dark street, and any pony to pass her by was tracked by her eyes with a curious level of diligence; whoever she passed stayed in her view until they were quite some distance behind.

What had changed from the prior night, however; was Luna’s understanding of why this Pegasus made such frequent checks. In her mind, all to come into view were possible threats, either wishing harm or wishing to lock her within the white walled cells of that Institution. Paranoia drove her to mistrust any who came into view, which left Luna wondering how such a condition would affect her work as a waitress. She had claimed to be the top of the wait staff at her place of work, but could such a claim hold truth if those she served came into her sight not as a patron or friendly face, but a possible foe?

Nothing but another question in the long queue. Making inquiries to this poor mare would be a task all in of itself. Prior, she had been suspect of Luna with the mindset she was in collusion with the hospital, but after the previous night’s happenings, how would she see her? Luna's hopes were set with the idea that if she were able to truly show her she meant no harm, she would loosen her defensive stance a bit. That was nothing more than a hope, of course.

Pausing her movement, Luna watched as the Pegasus opened the wood door that led into the lobby of the multi-story building in which her little home resigned. Silently swooping to the dim path below, Luna stood before the door a moment before continuing inside, the fairly basic lobby being silent and devoid of any life. Taking a breath, she went to the stairs and began on her way to the fifth floor.

A rap on the door pulled Wispy's eyes from the papers laid out across her coffee table. Her heart rate instantly increased. It was past midnight. No pony should be knocking on her door at such an hour. Standing from her couch, she cautiously crossed the dark living room and came into the entry hall, standing before the door a moment before holding her ear against it. A long pause went by before another rap thumped through the door, causing her to recoil back.

“Yes?” she finally asked, her voice cautious and inquisitive.

“Aye, hello.”

Her heart skipped a beat. For a single moment, she stood totally frozen before backing away from the door, her eyes locked with the handle as she anticipated it to begin turning at any moment.

“We hath come alone.”

Again, she froze. Crouching down, she peeked below the door seal to see the shadows of a single set of hooves just before the door.

“Why?”

There was a pause from the Princess. “Our Guard caused fright.”

“No, why are you here?”

“Our help was requested from thee.”

Wispy got back to her hooves, again staring at the door. She had wondered if last night had been a dream, but this certainly suggested it hadn't been.

“You… came back, even after what happened?”

“Aye.”

“Well, how do I know you're alone?”

The handle clicked as it turned, causing her to gasp and step back, wings spread ready to flee as the door swung open, but all she found was, indeed, the lone Princess, bare of her cloak and looking back with a neutral, emotionless expression. There was a long silence as the two stared into one another’s eyes, Wispy's wings staying spread at the ready in case she was lying.

“We hath been acquainted with this 'psychiatric welfare' facilty. Thou art right; tis a hell.”

Wispy let out a little breath.

“You… you're here alone?”

Luna stepped back. “Thou shalt see for thyself, if t'is what thou wish.”

Cautiously, Wispy complied and came into the doorway, quickly glancing from side to side to find the hall empty. After a moment, she turned her gaze up to Luna, who returned her somewhat frightened frown with a small, yet still genuine smile.

“You're not mad with me?”

Luna shook her head. “We do not hold anger, we seek vengeance.”

Wispy's eyes went wide, her hooves carrying her back. “W-What? B-But… Princess, I'm sorry!”

Chuckling lightly, Luna stepped forwards into the entry hall of the apartment. “Not upon thee, young mare, upon the thing which lives within thy mind.”

Wispy lowered and shook her head, shutting her eyes and clenching her teeth. “What… what does that mean?! You talked about some voice in my head last night, and now you say that there's something living in my brain?! There isn’t something alive in my mind! That isn't possible!”

“We thinketh thy notion of the possible hath already been stood upon its head, nay?”

Wispy stood still a second, last night flashing in her memory.

“How do I know you're not reading my mind again?” she asked flatly, keeping her head down.

“Look upon our horn.”

She complied, finding nothing out of the ordinary.

“There's… nothing happening.”

“Aye. Think upon prior night's happenings. What dost thou see?”

It clicked almost instantly. “That… that black mist! So, if that weird, black mist isn’t there, you're not reading my mind?”

Luna offered a silent nod.

“But… I just don't understand. Why read my mind in the first place?!”

“Because we saw difference within thee. Thy speech, motions, and way of conduction are foreign, and the longer we remained in thy presence, the more we wished to learn.”

A long moment of pause passed as Wispy's gaze focused in on oblivion, that pause most certainly caused by that voice speaking and showing its images.

“You want to learn more... why?”

“T'was thy doing to ask for our help, so we shalt give it in our best capacity. Hard to do so when blind to all knowledge.”

She paused again, this time for a much shorter period.

“Ah, well, how'd you know my name? And how'd you know I was a waitress?”

Luna again gave a gentle chuckle. “Still suspecting we shalt cast thee off to the institution. If t'was our intent, thinketh not we would hath done so when a blade was thrust our way?”

Wispy's gaze fell off to the side, her ears going flat with her head. “I-I suppose you're right… but that still doesn’t answer the question!”

Luna looked to her right, finding her apron to be hung where it had been one night ago. Lifting it with a spell, she held it out straight and found the name tag, aiming it in Wispy's direction.

“From our place at the sofa, we did see this.”

Wispy perched a brow. “You could read that from there?”

Smiling, Luna nodded. “Aye, practiced eyes, hath we.”

“And you knew I was a waitress because of the apron…”

“Nay. The delivery of our tea. Skilled and practiced, only something one within the culinary profession would have enough time to perfect.”

“You're very observant.”

“Everything speaks, one must listen.”

Wispy quietly nodded, again letting her gaze fall to the wayside.

“Well…” she began after a pause, “I suppose I should let you in.”

“Tis at thy discretion.”

Pausing once more, she looked over the Princess for a moment before reluctantly stepping off to the side and letting her enter fully.

“Would you like another cup of tea?” she asked meekly, watching as Luna took a seat on the sofa.

“T'would be lovely,” smiled Luna in return.

The whistle of a tea pot cut the nippy air of the apartment, a light breeze accompanying that nip thanks to the open window behind the sofa upon which Luna sat. As it had been last night, the apartment was only lit by candles, the single tea light upon the coffee table offering an orange glow that contrasted the pale blue light of the half moon above. Luna looked left towards the kitchen as Wispy appeared around the corner with two cups on each of the tips of her wings, and with similar grace to what she had displayed the night before, each cup was delivered to the table without sloshing or spilling a drop.

“Tis thy talent in life, waiting upon others.”

Wispy looked to her own flank. “That's what my cutie mark told me! Been doing it for a good 5 years now… at various places, of course.”

“Tis a long time for somepony of thy age,” returned Luna as she watched Wispy drop to her haunches at the adjacent end of the coffee table, right where she had been last night.

“Yeah, I started out doing dishes and stuff at this little diner when I was about 14 growing up in Cloudsdale, and it sorta snowballed from there.”

Lifting her tea, Luna hummed. “And what prompted a move from thy home?”

She paused, though not in contemplation.

“I… haven’t ever really enjoyed flying, if I were honest. I know, that sounds odd, after all, I have wings on my back, but I've always… felt more at home here at ground-level.”

Luna gave a small, reassuring smile. “Contrary to what thy peers may tell, tis a rather ordinary thing to happen. One of Equestria’s bravest protectors is as thyself; grounded by choice. We doth know well cowardice play no part in thy choice. Experience hath shown tis those ‘round a pony who weigh down that pony with persistent speeches claiming the sky as their true place of being. Words meant to pull one from a ledge often give the final push.”

Wispy hung onto that last sentence of Luna's speech. For a time, she held a tranquil state of silence as she mentally replayed the sentence over and over.

“Y-Yeah… that… falls in line with what I've seen, too.”

Sipping at her tea, Luna too went quiet, looking down at the little candle upon the table between them. Wispy was able to watch her pupils shrink the longer she gazed at the tiny flame.

“Why a candle?”

Wispy held her tongue for a moment.

“What?”

Luna looked her in the eye. “Why a candle? This place, gifted with the advancement of electrical lights, yet thou hast given flame to candles. Is thy system in disrepair?”

“Oh! No, the lights work fine, but… well, money’s tight for me right now, since I’ve-“

Wispy fell silent, cutting herself off as another one of those pauses struck her. Luna’s ears perked, her wing fluttering a bit as she awaited the pauses end.

“Money’s tight. I haven’t been working enough.”

“Lack of sleep hath led to less work?”

Wispy nodded. Luna stayed silent for a while, her eyes staying locked with the mare before her as she pondered her. Those pauses were linked with whatever thing spoke to her, but what she knew not was why they struck when they did. Then, another oddity came to her school of thought.

“Pray tell; how should a lack of money bring lack of light?”

Wispy pitched a brow. “W-What?”

“Thou hast stated thy lack of money keeps thee from bringing forth electric contrast. Explain this.”

Still bewildered, Wispy stumbled over her tongue for a time, trying to figure what the Princess wished, as well as how to word it.

“It… it costs money to use electricity. When the lights are on, it raises the electric bill.”

Luna’s eyes narrowed, her gaze remaining locked with Wispy’s for a long period of silence.

“Electric bill,” she stated flatly.

“Yeah, an electric bill… do… you not know what that is?”

“Do excuse our ignorance of this new Equestria. We hath nay knowledge of these mentioned concepts. Allowing thy lightbulbs to glow costs thee money?”

“Yeah…”

“These lights seemeth essential to how life is conducted within this new Equestria. To us, seemeth wrong for the country to hold a hoof out in asking for bits.”

Wispy shrugged. “I dunno, that's just how things are.”

Luna kept her voice silent, her eyes still locked with Wispy's for the long period of silence she held.

“Noted. Thank thee for thy knowledge.”

“Uh, yeah, you're welcome.”

For another short moment, Luna stared into Wispy's deeply green eyes before finally looking away to sip at her tea.

“Lack of sleep is thy plague. What is the cause?”

Wispy blinked. “The cause?”

“Aye.”

“S-Stress, I suppose?”

“Stress over what?”

Wispy took a pause, Luna paying close attention to see if its cause was the voice, or simple thought, and by how her gaze seemed to unfocus, she felt the words being fed to her by whatever being writhed within was the pauses doing.

“Well, the lack of money is one thing…”

Luna's eyes narrowed. “One thing. Others, be there, aye?”

Again, she paused, but for far less time.

“L-Look, I don't understand why I have to tell you all these things! Are you just using all this information to build a case against me?”

“A case? The courts want thee not, young mare.”

“Y-Yeah, but that damned asylum does!”

Luna paused, holding her tongue as she looked over Wispy for a moment.

“Thou art still under belief that we associate with the institution.”

“There isn’t any other reason that you’d be gathering all of this information!”

“There isn’t?”

A bit perplexed by the reply, Wispy stuttered a moment, “n-no, I don't think there is!”

“The reason we hath cited; wishing to help. Holds nay validity?”

Wispy paused, Luna noting the short lapse to be caused by the voices within.

“It doesn’t make sense! You say you want to help me, but the question is why? You're a Princess, you have a whole nation to rule over and worry about!”

Luna's eyes narrowed, her neutral expression becoming a scowl.

“We rule the night. As the moon peeketh ov'r the horizon, so peeketh our rule. Our hoof holds the leverage within this nation that thy hoof holds in thy own mind. We hath been given bureaucratic meanderings clacked upon parchment by the typist's writer to rule over, for t'is what sister thinketh the best allocation of our life be. We art Princess by title, nothing more. In this moment, thou art our nation. Thou art what we rule over and worry over.”

Silence took the room. Wispy’s mouth had opened a bit, but any words she had planned were stuck behind her tongue. She let her gaze wander a bit, breaking eye-contact with the Princess.

“Think a moment, for thyself. Block words given by thy false sub-conscious, and listen to mine. We know thy name. We know thy place of living. We know thy place of work. We know details about thee that most do not. We know that thou hast thrust a blade forth at us with intent to kill. Yet, with this vast plethora of knowledge, thou art still sitting in thy home. No associates of the institution hath cometh to collect thee, and neither have we. Odd, nay? What excuses hath been crafted by the voices within hold nay substance within reality. We know, without looking further than the physical, that the beasts thou hath been harboring protest us with ferocity, and in their tenacity, hath been left grasping at threads, threads too short to wield the rope to hang us with. But, what words lie within cannot lie, aye? They seemeth to rise from the depths of thy being, and when words sprout from deep within the soil of thy soul, t’is custom for them to be followed, nay? That is the anecdote, aye? Follow thy gut? listen to thy instincts? If thy instincts told thee to leap from a cliffside, would thee blindly follow that direction?”

Wispy still retained her silence, both overwhelmed by Luna’s words and the denials within her mind.

“Answer! Would thee?!”

She clutched the sides of her head with her hooves. “N-No! I wouldn’t!”

Luna bolted from her seat, clashing her hooves against the coffee table before her, wings spread as she glared down at the cowering mare before her.

“Then why listen now!? Why blindly follow false direction?!”

“B-Because I don’t know what’s true or false anymore! I don’t understand! You keep telling me that my subconscious isn’t real! That my mind isn’t my own! That what I’ve known as reality since I could remember anything i-isn’t true! T-This isn’t possible!”

An aura of turquois magic surrounding Wispy, taking her hooves from her head and forcing her terrified eyes to meet the glare Luna stabbed at her with.

“Is it not? Seeing into the mind, according to thee, is impossible. Would thee wish for us to show that the remainder of our words hold no falsehoods?”

Again, silence reigned supreme as Wispy’s words failed to come forth, her wide eyes still staring back at Luna in fright. After a moment, she drew in a shaky breath, gulping nervously and blinking rapidly.

“I… yes. If… if the reality I’ve always known is… wrong, then I want to see what the right reality is.”

The aura ceased, letting Wispy sink into a slouched posture, Luna more or less doing the same as she allowed herself to relax, her rigid wings half-furling and her hooves sliding from the coffee table, putting her on all-fours.

“Thou art positive?”

Wispy raised her brow at Luna. “Am I positive?”

“Aye. Thou art sure this is the path thou shalt take?”

“I…” she paused, Luna watching as her gaze fell into nothing. Her breath caught a little, anticipating her to blurt out some half-baked rebuttal, but instead, she watched as Wispy clenched her teeth, shook her head, and after a hard moment of deliberation, blurted out, “Yes! Yes! This is the path I wanna take!”

Luna smiled as she came around the table, sitting before the mare. “And without knowing, the first step hast been taken by thee. Fighting what speaks within.”

Wispy looked back in apprehension. “Then… what are the next steps?”

“The next steps? We know not, truthfully. The path we shall embark is one we hath not traveled ourself.”

Thinking a moment, Wispy narrowed her eyes. “When you said the path we shall take... you were talking about us, and not yourself.”

Again, Luna smiled and nodded. “Aye. We two shall travel this path together. We shall be at thy side ‘til the very last stone hath been stepped upon.”

Her gaze wandered a bit, but after a moment’s passing, Wispy looked into Luna’s eyes not with fear, apprehension, or anger, but with relief.

“T-Thank you.”

“Very welcome, dear Wispy.”

A moment of silence passed as Wispy again let her gaze wander off as she pondered things.

“If I had said no, would you have left?”

Luna chuckled. “If we were to be totally truthful, nay. We would have persisted for some time. That said, we do present thee an ultimatum; should thee wish to revert thy choice, we shalt honor that. If thou shalt wish it, we shalt disappear.”

“So… if I don’t want to go down this path, I can… just tell you to leave?”

Luna nodded. Wispy gave a pause, her gaze never leaving Luna’s.

“I’m being told to tell you to leave.”

“And shall thee?”

“Nah.”

The two shared a little laugh as Luna got to her hooves, “should seem to us that voice does hold some leverage, for we shall indeed be departing now. T’is late, and if we assume properly, thou shalt attend thy job after moon’s set and sun’s rise, aye?”

“Yeah, I do have work tomorrow, and it’s… really late.”

“Past midnight, aye. Do have a sound slumber, dear Wispy.”

She nodded. “I will, b-but before you go… I want to tell you something.”

Luna paused half-way between the mare and the door.

“Wispy’s not really my name… it’s actually Cirrus Wisp. M-Most ponies call me Wispy, though. Sort of a nick name.”

Luna smiled. “Cirrus Wisp, aye? Pleasure to be acquainted formally.”

Cirrus nodded. “Yeah… it is.”

“Once more, do sleep well.”

“I will, thank you.”

With that, an aura swung open the door, and Luna stepped out into the hall, silently shutting the door after herself.

Nº 5: HARM

Arriving at the fifth floor of a particular apartment building in Phillydelphia, Princess Luna, adorned in her typical black cloak, took a moment to catch her breath before continuing on down the well-lit hall towards room 556. There was something oddly comforting about this place. Initially, it had struck her as abstract and foreign; the hardwood floors, electric lighting, and floral-pattern wallpaper being a far cry from the planks, bricks, and grass thatching she was accustomed to seeing in the homes of her ponies.

Quickly, however, they had grown upon her. The place was always pleasantly warm, while the halls of her castle home tended to be a bit chilly in the late months of the fall and winter. On top of that, the gentle yellow lights affixed in the ceiling offered a level of light far less harsh than the terrible florescence that lined the sterile halls of the psychiatric ward. That homely feel of the place was extenuated by the fact somepony nearby was making themselves a late-night meal; the further she went down the hall, the greater the scent of frying potatoes became.

If this were her place of residence, she guessed she’d find herself quite enjoying the act of returning to this place after a long day or night of work. In fact, she did quite enjoy the act of returning to this place after a long night of work; a mere hour ago she had concluded her bi-weekly Night Court, which for a Thursday had been irregularly busy. It was a strange thing, Luna had found. She had known this mare for a mere three days, yet she had been looking forward to returning to her small apartment since she had awoken. Despite this mare’s peculiar disposition, Luna wished to spend her nights sitting on that sofa before a single candle rather than spend them in her study, or for that matter, anywhere else within the castle.

Finally arriving at room 556, Luna stopped before the door to pull the black hood of her cloak, knowing well such an appearance might give the poor mare a heart attack. Ruffling her wings beneath the fabric, she huffed out a little breath as she raised her hoof, bringing it to bear upon the white wood-panel door. A long moment came and went without a reply, prompting her to give a more solid knock the second time around.

As the seconds ticked by, she began worrying Cirrus might have already gone off to sleep. It was only fifteen minutes until the stroke of midnight, so by that metric, it was possible she was still at her place of work, since her previous visit showed the mare would sometimes leave quite a while after the closing of the café’s door.

Giving herself an ultimatum, she elected to knock once more, and if a half minute passed, she would enter on her own terms. If she were asleep, then so be it, but if she was absent, then Luna would wait beside the door until she arrived. Slowly, that half minute passed since her last solid knock, and with a shrug, she encompassed the door handle with a spell and gave a twist, though, rather peculiarly, the door had opened without her having to fiddle with the lock tumbler.

Letting the thing move out of her way, she took a few steps into the short, totally dark entry hall of the little apartment, the pillar of light piercing into the pitch-black space making it impossible for her to see anything beyond that pillar, but such an eventuality wasn’t an issue, for whom she searched for lay right in that light. There, on her side with her wing draped across her body as if it were a blanket, lie Cirrus.

Luna felt a small rush of adrenaline as she went further inside. As she shut the door the living room became shrouded in a pure darkness, her eyes quickly adjusting to present her with a basic, monochromatic view of the world as she made her way to the uneasily slumbering Cirrus. Her hind leg held an occasional twitch and quiet, grumbled words left her half-parted lips as she dreamt away. Kneeling before her, Luna removed the steel guard from her hoof and gingerly placed it upon her wing, eliciting a feathery twitch.

“Pray tell, our dearest Cirrus, what horrors ail thy slumber?” whispered Luna as her horn came alive with the jet-black mist of the spell of passage.

Weaving her magic, she began to leave the world around her, sensation leaving her senses for a mere moment before beginning to feel the wretched echoes of the pain and terror that consumed Cirrus' thoughts. The world of Cirrus' mind faded into existence, and Luna found herself peering over the living room of a morning-lit Cloudsdale home. If she had eyebrows in her current state of being, one of them would have cocked upward at this sight. The cloud-borne couch upon which Cirrus sat looked rather comfortable, and the furniture around the room exuded an aura of homeliness and comfort, not horror and dread. Nightmares took whatever form they wished, indeed, but such a kind setting was quite obscure.

Luna turned her attention to an older Pegasus stallion who stood in the center of the room, his glaring gaze affixed with Cirrus and his wings spread in aggravation. Strengthening her intrusion into this frame of Cirrus’ mind, Luna could now hear the somewhat echoing bickering this Pegasus of khaki coat and robin’s egg blue mane offered towards Cirrus, who was shrunken into the couch as if being forced down by the weight of his words.

“You’re not attending the flight academy?! Since you were a mere foal we talked about you following in the hoofsteps of your family! Your ancestry!” spat the stallion, his teeth gritted and brow furrowed.

Cirrus looked away from this stallion, her eyes hidden behind her brown locks. “Y-Yeah, I know, Dad… b-but, I… I just don’t w-“

“This is going to be the same excuse you made when you dropped the violin! It’s too difficult, isn’t it? You’ve never committed yourself to anything worthwhile!”

She kept her eyes down, drawing in a steep breath through her nostrils.

“You’re going to that academy. There’ll be no buts about it. I don’t care what your cutie mark says.”

“B-But, a cutie mark tells you what you’re good at!”

“I don’t care what your cutie mark says, and I hardly care what you say!”

At this, Luna felt a sting, nay, a stab in her heart, but such a feeling was not her own; what she felt was Cirrus' pain.

“You don't get to tell me what I can and can't do in my life!”

“You're my daughter and you live under my roof! Until you finally move out of here, you don't get to make these choices!”

Quite a few questions Luna once held were quickly answered. Such a nightmare came not from spontaneous imagination, it came from memory, especially since this dream was brought forth by the beast in her thoughts. At least, she assumed that was the case. Further investigation would reveal if she assumed properly. Luna weaved further spells, pushing herself through the limbo of an existence she had been in and into the earthlier aspect of this dream, giving herself a body and voice. In the doorway which led into the living room, she stood, going unnoticed for a single second before both Cirrus and her father looked in her direction.

“Thrust a hoof towards the ledge of decision, and thou shalt push away who thou wish to pull,” stated Luna, paying no heed to Cirrus and only keeping her gaze with the projection impersonating her father.

“You're not welcome here,” he growled in reply.

At this, Luna grinned a grin that a lion would when challenged by a mouse.

“Oh?” she advanced on him, keeping her posture straight and true, “we apologize with the highest order possible, sir Wisp. How dare we, intruding into thy home. T'is thy home, nay? The mind of another?”

“P-Princess Luna?” came Cirrus' mumble of confusion, “how… how are you here?”

“My home is where ever I choose to make my home.”

Luna continued in her ignorance of Cirrus as she paused a mere hooflength from the smaller stallion, glaring down at him.

“Much like a parasite, thou thinketh.”

Her horn ignited, it's blue glow gaining brightness for a moment before a bolt of pure energy blasted from its tip, piercing right through the stallion's forehead. Cirrus let out an ear-shattering, blood-curdling scream as she watched her father's limp corpse collapse to the floor with a thud. Luna shut her eyes, the pain of loss striking her chest like the bolt she had fired. It had been long since she had done something so drastic in a dream. She had forgotten what the pain of another felt like as it burned in her chest.

Cirrus scrambled from her seat, rushing to her father, ignoring the Alicorn who stood over her as she crouched at his side, tears blurring her vision as she looked over his face, finding there to be not a single drop of blood, and the hole through his temple holding no shade of crimson, rather, a pure black. Her horror somewhat deteriorated as she stared at the sight before her, confused even further by the seemingly neutral, almost alive expression his face held.

"T'is a projection, Cirrus."

Cirrus finally looked up at the towering Princess, her eyes still wild and wide with fear.

"W-Why did you do that?!"

Luna's magic sparked to life once more, encompassing his hoof and beginning to drag him away from Cirrus, who bolted to her hooves and recoiled back in fright. Luna raised a hoof, crashing it down into the cloud-made floor, shattering it as if it were a pane of glass. Another hit broke the surface, sending paper-thin chunks of the material down into the black abyss below. Cirrus watched in utter shock as she destroyed more and more of the room's floor, the breach into this void growing wider and wider with each hit, her hoof breaking apart chunks of the reality as if they were mere slabs of shale. With a sizeable hole made, Luna pushed the body of Cirrus' father into the void, causing her to gasp as she watched the body disappear into the nothingness.

"Everything thy eyes can see; t'is nothing more than an illusion. An illusion skillfully crafted by thy tormentor to bringeth pain."

Stunned, Cirrus stammered for a moment as she scrambled to formulate a reply.

"B-But... why would you do that!? What was the point?! What... what is the point of any of this?!"

Luna crouched before Cirrus, the look in her eyes being one of compassion and care, "because thou must come to realize that these images are nothing more than that; images. They hold no leverage over thee. Only thou shalt giveth leverage. See these illusions for what they truly are, and disregard them."

“B-But… how can I do that?! Everything seems so… real! It… it's like I never left home!”

“We understand. This shall come in time, Cirrus.”

Still entirely shocked, Cirrus shook her head as she stepped away from Luna, her gaze wandering the room as if she searched for reason within the walls.

“Why… why do any of this? You're the one who can see onto ponies minds and go into their dreams, why can't you… just kill this thing?!”

“We would, dear Cirrus, but it hides within unreachable corners of thy mind. T'is a coward, waging this shadow war.”

The living room around them disappeared. In a space-like void, they two remained, both now looking around themselves curiously.

“Coward.”

Cirrus jerked her head to the side, “what?”

Luna looked to her. “We spoke no words.”

“Coward,” again said the voice, a voice Cirrus was the only audience of, and a voice that was unmistakably her father's.

“I'm… I'm not!”

Luna felt the claws of pain grip her being; a phantom pain not her own. She watched Cirrus stepping back across the void as if being forced backwards by a slowly encroaching beast.

“Coward. Weak. Worthless. Aimless. Disappointment.”

Each new word brought greater volume, the monotone, directionless voice seeming to scream at her as it repeated all the words that had been spat her direction in her life.

“I'm not a disappointment! I-I… I don't understand what you want from me!”

Luna slowly followed the retreating mare, looking onward with utmost curiosity as she screamed to herself.

“Cirrus, who speaks to thee?”

Her eyes went wide as she met Luna's gaze, looking into her azure eyes as if they were the maws of a demon.

“Thou art nothing more than a failure,” spat the Princess as she encroached upon her.

“N-No I'm not! I-I got my cutie mark! I have a passion in life! I'm not a failure!”

“Cirrus! Speak to us! Listen not to what it shall say!”

Fresh tears came to her eyes as she flipped around, breaking into a sprint to escape.

“Useless. Disgrace. Coward. Disappointment.”

She could no longer bear to scream back. She could do nothing but run, and with each further hoof fall she made, the voices only became louder and louder.

“Shut up!” she finally bellowed, chest heaving as she ran through the endless void.

Princess Luna appeared before her, causing her hooves to scramble to bring her to a stop before she collided with the Alicorn.

“Cirrus! Halt! Explain what is the matter!” exclaimed Luna, her entire being stinging with the horrid, aching agony Cirrus felt.

“I hate you.” Snarled the Princess with her father's voice, eyes burning into her like the slit-pupil daggers they are.

“I-I hate you! I hate you more than anything in the world!” she screamed, voice straining, “I just want you out of my life! Why won't you leave!? Why!?”

Luna's horn came to life, holding Cirrus in place as she craned her head to be eye-level with her, her face mere inches away.

“Get thy wits about thee! T'is false! Every word!

“Thou shalt wake, and in waking, thou shalt be unable to escape us.”

She screamed. It was the only thing she could do. She felt the floor leave her hooves, her body tingling and stomach going into her throat as she felt the wretched feeling of falling, the feeling of air rushing along her fur totally absent.

As if all air had been stolen from her lungs, she gasped as her eyes shot open, the darkness of the living room being the only thing her panicked eyes could find as she frantically looked around. Her sporadic, uncoordinated movements faded as she began to gain her bearings, but such a tranquility was horribly short-lived as her eyes locked with two gently glowing azure orbs that hovered mere hooflengths away. She screamed, scrambling to her haunches as she pushed herself back as quickly as her front hooves would shove against the hardwood. Her back collided with the living room coffee table, stopping her retreat and leaving her nearly breathless.

“Cirrus! Calm, young mare,” from above those glowing eyes appeared an aura of blue magic, moments later the candle upon the table she had backed into came alive with a gentle light, showing the dark, phthalo Princess. “t'is us. The nightmare hath ended.”

“Why? W-Why were you saying those things to me?” exclaimed Cirrus, her voice shaky and eyes wild with fear.

“What did we speaketh, Cirrus? Pray tell.”

“What do you mean!? You… you were the ones saying the words!”

“Again, the words were nothing but illusions cast by thy tormentor. What words did it place in our throat?”

Cirrus took a breath, trying to calm herself down. “I… I just kept hearing this voice scream at me, calling me a disappointment, or a failure, or… or things that my… things my father says. And, you. You were following me, saying you hated me, and saying ‘even when you wake, you can't escape'.

Silently, Luna nodded. She could see, quite clearly, the game this thing played.

“Understand we did not say these things to thee, aye?”

Cirrus sighed, her gaze falling away. “Yeah… yeah, I do.”

Silence fell over the two. Cirrus continued to keep her eyes hidden behind her mane, her breaths still quite shaky and harsh as if constantly on the verge of tears.

“Could you… light more candles?” Cirrus mumbled, taking but a single second to meet Luna’s gaze.

Silently, Luna complied, her magic seeking out the few other candles about the room, namely, the one in the kitchen and the one upon the shelf to the left of the couch that held those three turned about photo frames. Encompassing one with a spell, she turned it around to find it was a photo if her father, his smile much unlike the scowl he put on within the nightmare.

“Thou hast n'ver made mention of thy father bringing harm.”

“I… I know.”

“Why?” she inquired, placing the photo back where it had been.

Cirrus shook her head, her heart aching and eyes wishing to shed tears from the simple act of thinking about the subject. “I-I've never had any reason to… and I've never wanted to talk about it.”

“Nay, why should he harm thee?”

The replying question brought Cirrus' gaze up, finding Luna's eyes to still be on her and the look of worry to still be upon her face.

“Why… why would he hurt me?” Cirrus sniffled, the corner of her mouth turning up in disdain as her mind took her back in time, “he never gave me a true answer, but… but I know why.”

Luna held her tongue as she awaited continuation. Cirrus drew in a long breath, doing her best to not let her tears flow once more.

“My… my mom. She…”

Cirrus paused, her gaze unfocusing and seeming to pass straight through whatever she had been looking at upon the hardwood at her hooves. Luna's ears perked. Another pause brought by the beast within. She had pinned the pattern; should Cirrus make an attempt to speak of something crucial, it would try to stop her.

Blinking, Cirrus brought herself back to reality. “My mom! My mom died giving birth to me! I-I know… I know that's why he hates me!” she blurted, eyes shut hard and words spit out with haste as if their speed would outrun whatever things her mind's plague would say to stop her.

Luna's expression took a sterner look. “These things shall be hard to speak of, Cirrus, but know that thou must. Thy infection, it feeds upon these things. It twists thy memories and emotions to bring further anguish and stress. What it knows, we too must know.”

She shook her head. “You… you'd have to know everything! You'd have to hear every word he said, a-and every word he ignored!”

Luna went quiet, watching as Cirrus tried, and failed, to stop herself from shedding more tears. With a quiet whimper, a fresh tear rolled down her still damp cheeks, her breaths broken and quick. Luna moved forward, bringing up a hoof and placing it upon her shoulder in consolation, bringing a little flinch from her. Slowly, Cirrus' blood-shot eyes met Luna's. The only emotion she could find within the mare's gaze was pain; a pure pain that stabbed into her heart from the deepest recessed of her memories and thoughts.

Much to Cirrus' surprise, that comforting hoof quickly became a tight hug, her head now resting upon the warm fur of the Princess' chest. The embrace seemed to draw away every ounce of energy she held, her weight hardly supported by her own hooves any longer as a harsh sob struck her like the blow of a hammer. Months and months of anger, sorrow, and pain that had been bottled up released in a surge of harsh, body-rocking cries that heaved her chest.

She wanted to tell of everything that had happened in her life. She wished she could scream every word that passed through her frantic mind, but something inside her simply wouldn’t allow it. It was almost as if she were momentarily trapped within her own body, unable to speak out past the painful cries that seemed to rip the air from her lungs.

Nº 6: SHARDS

A spoonful of honey slowly pushed its way through the pillar of rising steam above a mug of fresh tea. Upon releasing its amber, sugary cargo, the spoon floated back to a little jar of honey, gathered another generous dollop, and brought itself over a second mug, but rather than allowing the honey to drip down into the mug, it plunged to the depths of the vessel and twirled about, spinning the once stagnant tea into a small vortex. Once the honey and tea had melded into one, the spoon raised and returned to the first mug, repeating the same stirring motion. The spoon was set aside, the lid to the honey jar was screwed back in place, and both mugs were brought into a translucent blue aura of magic.

Stepping into the candle-lit living room, Princess Luna placed one mug upon the coffee table before Cirrus, who was sunk into her couch wrapped in her own wings as if they were blankets rather than instruments of flight. Luna lowered to her haunches, her posture relaxing as she brought the brim of the mug to her lips, the warmed porcelain being almost as pleasant of a sensation as the smooth tea that followed. Her front hoof dug at the boards she sat upon, the tip of her blue metal shoe finding the head of a nail which had slightly risen out of flush-ness. She promptly pressed it back into place. Again, the mug met her lips.

“Why slumber upon these uncomfortable planks?” she inquired, post-sip.

“W-What?”

“Our entry led us to thy figure, blanketed by a draped wing and suffering an uneasy slumber. A bed, hath thee; why slumber here upon these hard boards?”

“Oh. I had been trying to read over some mail, and… sorta dozed off,” replied Cirrus with a flat, tired drone to her voice.

The half-dozen candles about the little place gave more than enough light for Luna to make note of the finer details Cirrus’ face held. Heavy circles beneath her bloodshot eyes were quite visible. For a moment, she stared at the mare, waiting for her to either meet her gaze or take a sip of her tea, but nothing of the sort came. Silently, she gave life to her horn, weaving the arcane spells that opened the doors of the mind.

‘She is the intruder. She is the intruder. She will bring harm. She does bring harm. You hurt because of her.’

On and on this quiet, constant voice ranted in the shadows of her mind. It seemed to only stop when Cirrus decided to reply, and if she did reply, it was only to tell the thing to be quiet.

‘She believes you are weak. She thinks her will can be forced. She thinks she understands.’

'Shut up, mind.’

'She is the intruder. You know this to be fact. She brings you harm.”

Luna ceased the spell, blinking a few times as her mind returned to reality.

“Thou art quiet,” observed Luna, taking a drink of her hot tea. Cirrus remained still and silent, second after second of inaction ticking by. “Cirrus, thou art quiet.”

Still, not a single indication she was listening. Curious, Luna relit her horn, the voidous aura returning as the bridge between their minds connected. Her breath caught in her chest as visions and voices filled her senses, the things seen by her mind's eye overlapping with her Luna's own sight. She could see herself standing over Cirrus, her azure eyes glaring down at the mare as she cowered in the same living room they two currently occupied.

'Thy father was right; a disappointment. Thou could not even control thy own mind! How shalt thee control thy life?'

Cirrus looked away, her ears flat with her head. ‘That's not true! I-I can!'

Luna watched herself scoff as she turned for the door. ‘Thou hast proven otherwise. Thou shalt not be seeing us again.’

Cirrus held out a pleading hoof. 'No! Please, wait!'

As the door slammed behind the image of herself, the vision disappeared, and Luna found herself staring into the reality of the dimly lit living room. She cut her spell, looking to Cirrus, who was in the same state she had been for the last while. Standing, Luna moved around the table and took a seat beside the mare upon the couch, the rocking caused by her much larger figure knocking Cirrus back into reality.

“W-Wha?” she mumbled, looking to Luna.

“Thou art quiet.”

“Oh, yeah… I-I’m just… thinking," she replied as she scooted herself away the tiniest bit.

“Art thou truly thinking, or does the tormentor think for thee?”

Cirrus flinched a bit, her face doing its best to hide her anger. “I-I… it’s thinking for me.”

“It tells thee to view us with distrust, aye?”

She nodded, a scowl slowly burning through the façade of neutrality she attempted to maintain.

“And shalt thee heed its words?”

She huffed out a little breath, shaking her head. “No. No, I’m not going to. I’m going to tell it the same thing I’ve been telling it; shut up!”

Luna flinched as Cirrus slammed the side of her hoof down upon her mug of tea, shattering the porcelain vessel with a piercing crack, spraying tea over the table and sending chunks of broken mug in every direction. A moment of silence fell over the little apartment as Cirrus glared at the wide cut just above her shaking hoof as blood thinned by tea dripped down her foreleg, anger burning in her gaze.

“It won’t listen! No matter what I say, or do, it doesn’t listen! I can’t deal with it any longer!”

“Cirrus…” Luna cautioned, watching as she stood, her body seemingly ignorant of the rather jagged slice in her leg that leaked blood onto the old hardwood.

“I can’t deal with living alone… but I can’t stand being around other ponies!” she began to pace before the table, “I can’t stand coming home after work and being alone! I can’t stand waking up to this empty apartment! There’s no sound! No light! I can hardly pay my damned electric bills after that-“ she drove her injured hoof into a piece of porcelain that had landed a ways away from the table, crushing it into finer bits, “absolute broodmare Rose Wing decided she’d leave me behind for ‘her own’ place!”

“Cirrus!”

She finally met Luna's gaze, rage still burning in her eyes as she glared at the Princess.

“Others around thee are a-slumber.”

She let out an angered huff, letting her eyes wander to her shaky, bloodied hooves. For a moment, she stared at the deep red that dripped from both the cut as well as the gashes on her underhoof created by crushing the smaller chunk of glass. Somehow, the pain of rage in her body blurred the feeling that she knew should be radiating from such injuries. She felt something; it was pain, indeed, but somehow, it didn’t hurt.

“And you,” she growled, keeping her eyes down, “you… you are the cause of this. I know; that’s not really true, but in many ways, it is!”

She brought up her bloody hoof, knocking at the side of her head with it.

“All of this wasn’t happening before you came into my life! The constant, never-ending voices that won’t ever stop screaming at me to get you to leave! The voices that aren’t a part of me any longer! You are the one that caused them to separate. But… now, I’m stuck with it. I can’t go back. You’ve forced me to go forward! I know you’ve told me that I can make you leave at any moment… but I know that’s not going to do anything. I’m not an idiot; I see what this thing does. You’ve shown me what it does. It feeds off my pain, doesn’t it?”

Luna remained in surprised silence for a mere second before nodding. “That, it does.”

“Then how do I get rid of my pain?”

Luna blinked, her ear flicking. “Rid of pain, thou shant. It shall always be present. Thou seeketh mitigation. Control.”

“Then… how do I control it? How do I mitigate it?”

“Seek the root. How does one rid of a weed?”

Cirrus nodded. “By pulling it up from the root.”

“Precisely.”

Silence fell over the apartment as Cirrus took a deep breath, trying her best to calm her nerves. Luna watched as she dropped to her haunches, letting out a sigh as she held up her shaky, bloody hoof, staring at it as more of a curiosity rather than an injury.

“Shall we mend that?”

Cirrus nodded. “Yeah… that’d be nice.”

Luna scooted back, giving Cirrus a bit of room to lift her now bandaged hoof up for inspection.

“We advise against doing that again,” commented the Princess with a smile.

Cirrus offered a half-chuckle. “T-Thanks… I’ll… certainly follow your advice.”

Luna’s azure spells placed the rolls of bandages and antiseptic ointments back into their homes within a white, metal first-aid box, the lid following them inward and the latches clicking to re-seal the kit.

“I didn’t know you owned a first-aid kit.”

Levitating it before her own eyes, Luna nodded with a little smile. “Indeed! Quite a useful collection, t’is. Such wonders of medicine within…” she paused a moment, looking away from the box to Cirrus, “have thyself such a kit?”

She shook her head.

“Shan't do,” Luna declared as she placed the closed box before Cirrus, “take ours.”

Cirrus looked at the thing for a second. “I-I don’t need it. You should keep it.”

Luna inched it closer to her uninjured hoof. “We insist. T’is a necessity.”

Placing her bandaged hoof upon the red cross painted upon the shiny, white lid, Cirrus stared at it a moment before looking up to Luna.

“I… thank you. I suppose all I’ve got right now is stick-on band-aids.”

Offering her a smile, Luna stood, “then such a kit should serve thee greatly. On the note of necessity, we do note another thing lacking.”

Before Cirrus could inquire, Luna's magic clicked on the light in the apartment, the single bulb in the center of the living room ceiling casting a far brighter glow than its candle comrades could ever hope. Cirrus looked from the switch to Luna with panic.

“W-What are you doing?!”

“Light, Cirrus,” replied Luna, her pupils quickly narrowing into small slits, “something thou art lacking. Made mention of this, thou hast. A being such as thyself should have such a thing in thy life.”

“But-“

The crackle of a teleportation spell cut off Cirrus’ rebuttal, her eyes now fixing with a little gunny sack floating within Luna’s aura. She watched as the bag was moved before her, dropping to the hardwood besides her new first-aid kit with a distinctive clink.

“A lack of bits. We do know well.”

Cirrus poked the bag with her hoof, listening to the coins within jingle. Curiously, she leaned down and took a corner of it with her teeth, turning it over and giving it a few shakes to let the many 20-bit notations fall to the floor. In shock at the amount, her mouth fell open, the little bag falling with it.

“P-Princess… this is…”

“One thousand bits, indeed. Pay thy dues with it. What remains, thou shalt expend on food stuffs. Should surplus exist, spend it upon what thou wish.”

Cirrus laughed, exasperated, “w-well, I was going to say that this is… incredible, but… a thousand bits!? I-I can pay my rent for this month and next and still have some left over... a-are you sure about this!?”

“Quite sure. T’is from our personal allowance.”

Laughing again and shaking her head, Cirrus continued gazing down at the pile of coins in awe. “I-I genuinely don’t know what to say! T-This… this is more than enough to cover my bills!” she paused, looking at the shards of destroyed porcelain Luna tasked herself with collecting, “I can buy a new mug…”

Luna nodded as she held up the pieces, her magic arranging them into the mug they had once been. Small pillars of pure white light broke from between the cracks of the pieces, and after a matter of seconds they had been fused back into a mostly complete white mug; a small chip from the rim remained missing. In awe, Cirrus watched as the mug was placed before her on the hardwood floor. Silently, Luna sat a short distance from Cirrus and gently placed her shoed hoof atop the vessel.

“The broken are never unable of repair. Shards shall always remain. The mind, we do believe, operates in a similar vein,” she raised that hoof and tapped its tip at Cirrus’ temple, “nothing more than an enigma, puzzle, and conundrum, is that within. No puzzle is without solution.”

Cirrus looked down at the mug, noting the bit that remained missing.

“Every break leaves a scar, though.”

Smiling, Luna raised it with a spell, “so it does.”

“So… after this is all over, after you’ve finally gotten rid of this thing in my head, I’ll be left with scars.”

Luna looked into Cirrus’ eyes for a long moment, her ear flicking as she finally looked away, her gaze now falling upon the window, or rather, what lay beyond.

“Scars. Memories. What thou shalt call them is what they shall be. Thy mind; t’is not broken. Harmed, injured, perhaps, but broken, it is not.”

Cirrus chuckled. “That’s the best news I’ve heard in a while.”

Luna only offered a small smile in reply, silence permeating for a while as Cirrus returned her eyes to the repaired mug and the gratuitous pile of bits before her.

“I… I’m sorry for earlier. Everything came out at once, a-and… I-I dunno, I was just very upset.”

“Worry not; anger shall well within thee, and too shall it flow. Anger, hatred, fear, and pain shall be entwined with thy emotions; t’is unavoidable. Thou shalt not steer thyself from these feelings; accept that thou shalt feel them and allow them to sift through the mesh of thy mind. Do not stew in thy anger, for it shall consume thee. Release is a practice which thy mind shall benefit from greatly; find manners in which emotion can be exercised. However, do refrain from damaging more of thy dinnerware."

Cirrus blinked a few times. “I should find ways to release my anger?”

“Aye.”

“W-What… what should I do? Like you said, I can’t go breaking a mug every day.”

Luna let out a thoughtful sigh as she got to her hooves. “Such is for thee to discover.”

“What do you do?”

Luna paused. “Meditation.”

Cirrus was silent for a second as she thought on the answer. “I’ve never meditated before…”

Humming, Luna’s azure aura fetched her black silk cloak from the hanger by the door, “shouldst thou make an attempt, do tell what is found,” she replied as her magic secured the cloak around her neck, the hood remaining undrawn.

“Are you leaving?”

“Aye. The night has much left for us. Visitation of a certain place must be made.”

“Oh. I-I guess I’ll talk to you later, Princess.”

Luna looked down at Cirrus, “thy voice holds a sorrowful cadence.”

“I was just hoping you’d stay longer.”

Chuckling, Luna stepped forward to the mare and placed her hoof upon her shoulder, “worry not, young Cirrus, for we shall return in a cycle’s time.”

Cirrus did her best to smile. “Okay. Thank you again, Princess.”

“Please, do speak our name; friends refer not to the other with title.”

That smile became genuine. “Okay, Luna.”

Nº 7: RECORD

Pillars of dark brown and orange jutted from the jagged, hilly landscape as if they wished to be trees. The place seemed to mimic a forest in the loosest sense possible. The floor of this place bore no grass, and these pillars, sharp at their tall tips, held no leaves. The sky above was an unsettling, deep black and purple, pure white dots meant to be stars flickering in and out like static. Deafening silence and Luna's own thoughts were the only things to grace her ears.

She turned around, seeing her breach into this dreamscape still held strong, the unfettered and peaceful neutral plane of the dream realm still resigning beyond the circular hole. Turning back around, she continued forward into this place, the terrain smooth yet hard against her steel hoofguards. She couldn't help but turn her gaze up at the mimic night's sky, her stars present but moon absent. What she found most peculiar about this manufactured place was its attempt at reality. Previously, what had been projected was a place which only seemed to obey the laws of gravity.

She pondered if the mind or the beast within had given life to this place. Nevertheless, she ventured forward through the sharp, soaring pillars, their height uniform, yet placement and color random. She approached an orange one and raised her hoof to touch its smooth side, but found that her hoof collided a short distance before it should have. Curiously, she slid her hoof along this invisible surface, finding that not only the distance at which her hoof hit the pillar was wrong, but too was the shape it held. Moving further along the sharp angles of the trunk, she eventually came to a place where the visible conflicted with the physical, and quite curiously, the tip of her hoof passed cleanly through the orange shape, continuing on for a little bit until the touchable surface jutted outward and away from the visible surface as if it was correcting its error.

She took a moment to look back at her breach, only a corner of it visible through the many dark orange and brown shapes that now stood between her and the entrance. Looking back to the nonsensical spire, she gave it a solid tap with her hoof to hear it let off a solid thud before she ventured onward. She paused her advance, turning her eyes skyward as the flicker of the stars above gained speed, their slow pulse morphing into a sporadic strobe. She looked onward curiously, not quite knowing what to make of the lights.

Her attention was turned back to the ground as a distant, pulsing thump began to echo through the landscape like an approaching wave, each thump gaining volume, and with it each strobe of the stars gained brightness. She took several steps back, looking at her surroundings in worry as she began her retreat for the breach. With each step the anomalies of the place worsened, the lights above blinding and the pulsing, omnidirectional roar cutting the air.

What was beginning to frighten Luna was the fact this didn't appear to be brought on by the parasite latched to Sky Stock's mind. Even more worrying was the thought she had been the cause of this. That terrible noise was unlike the thunderous growl let off by the red and black fields of color. She paused just short of the breach as the sky went pure white and the once solid lines of the landscape blurred as if being occluded by mist. Her ears folded flat, teeth gritting in pain as the pulsing noise suddenly and instantly became an ear-shattering ring. Through that blaring ring came a screaming voice that, over and over, repeated the panicked words; “Again, again, again, again.”

Swiftly, she climbed through the breach, ceasing her spells and allowing it to seal. The piercing ring was replaced by the horrific screeches put out by the spastic field of blood and ink that the beast put in her way, her spells quickly re-igniting to cover the frame of Sky Stock's mind and seal away its noise. She shook her head, huffing a breath through her nostrils as she tried to regain her bearings and figure out exactly what was going on. Epiphany struck; something beyond the dream realm could have caused this collapse. Her magic burst to life as she re-bridged the gap between her own mind and the physical plane.

Luna blinked rapidly, dizzily stepping back as she reassumed control over her body, her hearing and sight quickly returning in full clarity as she found she was still in Sky Stock's dark cell. Her heart skipped a beat as her gaze fell upon the convulsing mare, Sky's front legs curled tightly to her chest and her hind legs sporadically kicking at the air. For a split second, she stood frozen, gaze fixed upon Sky's tightly shut eyes and the slightly foaming saliva dripping from the corner of her mouth through clenched teeth. True panic and confusion gripping her thoughts as her magic encompassed Sky Stock's body and tried to still her pained movements, but it was to no avail. She shut her eyes, silencing her panicked thoughts and trying to force Sky Stock into a state of unconsciousness, but nothing came of her attempts. Whatever, or possibly whoever, was causing this fit had entirely locked her body and mind.

She came close, putting a comforting hoof upon Sky's disheveled chest and continuing to work hopeless spells, the harsh convulsions only seeming to strike harder as broken groans of pain slipped through her clenched teeth. In a split second decision, she flipped around and threw open the heavy cell door, the thing hitting the wall with a slam as she hurried into the hallway. She threw her gaze side to side, and ever so fortunately two nurses happened to be in this very hall, their frightened eyes now locked with Luna's.

“You!” she barked, making the silver-coated mare to the left flinch, “give us aid, immediately!”

She quickly went back into the cell, the hurried hoof falls of the two nurses filling the still fairly quiet cell and hall for just a moment before they stormed in behind her. Luna had returned to Sky Stock's side, her spell still holding her convulsing body in place as the two nurses, one whom she recognized as Hearthwarmth, looked on in both confusion and horror.

“Help her!”

The unknown, silver-coated mare marched forward and shoved Luna aside, the horn spiraling up through her blonde mane coming to life with a bright orange aura as a flash of magic brought forth a syringe with a nozzle in place of a needle.

“Hold her head still!” commanded the nurse as she stuck the syringe into the corner of Sky Stock's mouth.

Luna complied, keeping the mare rigid as the nurse quickly squirted the tube of medicine into her mouth. The nurse's own magic worked to hold her lips shut and massage her throat, forcing Sky Stock to swallow the mix of foamy saliva and medicine in her mouth. Luna stepped forward again, placing her hoof upon Sky's chest and watching as the violent tremors and convulsions wracking her body continued for a moment until this strange medicine began to take effect. Sporadic and violent movements became more controlled and calm, her hind legs now hardly trying to kick against the spells holding them in place and her seized forelegs began to relax.

With each passing second her body relaxed further and further into a normal resting state, her eyes beginning to flutter open and her hooves trying to gain their bearings. Luna ceased her spells and removed her hoof, allowing Sky to painfully writhe atop her quilt and come back to reality. Soon enough, her limb's movements calmed down and left her lying sideways facing away from the trio, her chest heaving as quick, harsh breaths escaped her parted lips, an occasional groan of pain accompanying them.

Luna turned to the nurses. “Leave us.”

“Wha- leave?!” exclaimed the mare, glaring up at the Princess, “we need to stay and make sure another seizure-“

Luna craned her head down, coming eye to eye with her, her piercing slit pupils stabbing back.

“Wait beyond the door. Leave.”

The nurse scrambled back, complying and making her way for the door with Nurse Hearthwarmth following her out. Luna stood up straight as she turned back to Sky Stock, who was looking back with what Luna saw as fear.

“Sky Stock, can you speak?”

“I-It ha-happened again…” she mumbled.

“Exactly what has happened?” Luna drew closer, causing Sky to recoil back in fright with her disheveled wings spread as if ready to launch her into flight, “do tell, young Sky Stock; what ails thee?”

“The… the dreams… f-from the dreams, t-the dream Princess…”

“Aye, the dream Princess,” Luna nodded as she raised her hoof, placing it upon Sky's shaking hind leg as she cowered against the concrete wall behind her little bed, “so we are.”

“Y-You, f-from the dreams… f-from the dreams, t-the dreams hurt, b-b-because of you…”

“We did not cause this, Sky Stock, we are quite sure of that.”

Silence came from the mare, her foreleg twitching as she glared into Luna's eyes. Slowly, her expression shifted to an angry scowl as the shiver of her limb worsened.

“Sky Stock, what ails thee? What-“

Luna flinched as that shivering hoof was thrown her direction, a last second spell catching it before it could collide with her temple. A deathly silence took the cell as Luna glared down at Sky Stock, the aura that had caught the hoof now moving to encompass her entire body, locking her in place.

“A voice speaks to thee, aye?” pressured Luna as she leaned in, her gently radiant eyes stabbing into the horrified gaze strewn across Sky's face.

“Y-You… hurt… you hurt, you h-hurt!”

“We hath brought no harm to thee,” Luna returned firmly.

Sky began thrashing at the aura holding her, hardly any movement coming from her struggles as she became more and more panicked.

“L-Let go! T-The dream… dr-dreams hurt!” she screamed, “y-y-you, d-dream Princess, h-hurt! L-Let go! Let go! Let go!"

A quick spell knocked Sky unconscious. Silence again took the cell as Luna's aura laid her limp body down atop her quilted sheets. Luna drew in a breath as she looked at the mare, memories of nights prior returning as, for a split second, she saw Cirrus in her place. She blinked, remaining still for a time before lighting her horn and pulling Sky's colorful quilt out from underneath her to tuck her into bed. She disliked forcing ponies into sleep, but in both this moment and several nights ago in Cirrus' little apartment she had deemed it necessary.

“These thing within thee, Sky Stock…” whispered Luna as she came close, looking down at the soundly asleep mare beneath her quilt, “we do promise we shall free thee from its clutches. Thou shalt undoubtedly see us as an evil, but that shall not stop us.”

Luna took another deep breath as she turned for the cell door, her magic coming alive as the heavy locks within were undone and the heavy thing was opened. She came into the hall, paying no heed to the two nurses looking up at her as she resealed the cell door behind herself.

“What was she screaming about, your Highness?” inquired Nurse Hearthwarmth.

“In her eyes, we art the cause of her episode. Is this true?” returned Luna, her gently waving mane and luminescent blue eyes radiant against her silhouette in the dark hall.

“No, your Highness,” began the silver-coated mare nurse, “she had another seizure, which is why it was imperative that we stayed there, because she sometimes has a second! Why is she silent all of a sudden, as well? How are we supposed to know she's not having another seizure right now?”

Luna narrowed her eyes at the mare, craning her head to be eye level with her as she read both her embroidered name and her expression.

“Nurse Honeydew, if thou art so concerned, then thou shall enter, if thou so wish.”

To Honeydew's surprise, Luna stepped aside to grant her entrance. Still a bit shook by everything happening, she came to the door and brought forth a set of keys from her right breast pocket, the orange aura of magic surrounding them hurriedly sorting through the jingling bits of steel to procure the right one. With the key found she undid the lock, took the door with a spell and swung it open to find Sky Stock soundly asleep. She darted a look between the sleeping pegasus and Luna before entering and going to the bedside.

Nurse Hearthwarmth peeked in from behind Luna. “She's… asleep?” he whispered.

“How… she… how is she sleeping? After seizures, she's up for hours…” replied Honeydew in a similarly hushed voice.

They both looked to Luna, who only offered her gaze to the sleeping Sky Stock. “Her slumber is our doing.”

“Wha- what did you do to her?” Honeydew shot back with an accusatory tone.

“A simple spell, nothing more.”

Nurse Honeydew did a double take between Luna and Sky before electing to exit the cell, her orange magic lighting up to gently shut the steel door after herself.

“I-I still don't understand, your Highness… why are you here?”

Luna again lowered her head to be eye level with the nurse.

“So here we stand before thee. Heard no greetings, only interrogations. Questioning of our motives and reasons, for to thee, we art unknown, and to thee, thy patients are of greater concern than thy Princess.”

Honeydew stammered, feeling Luna's gaze as if it were an Ursa minor sitting upon her chest. Unexpectedly, however, the scowl on her face turned to a small smile.

“We appreciate this.”

“I-I'm sorry, your Highness?”

“Giveth no heed to formalities and customs, for thou art engrossed with the tasks at thy hoof. Worry not if thy words shall be heard as disrespectful, for the care of those beneath thee is paramount. Thou art a fine nurse, Honeydew.”

Bewildered but grateful, Honeydew quickly bowed to her Princess. “Thank you, your Highness.”

Luna nodded to her as she rose. “We thank thee, Nurse Honeydew,” she began walking away from the two nurses prompting them to give chase, “thou shalt make a finer nurse if thou canst answer an inquiry.”

“Of course, your Highness.”

“This place maintains records of those within, aye?”

Honeydew blinked. “Patient records?”

Luna silently nodded.

“We do maintain such records, yes.”

“Where shalt we find them?”

There was silent hesitation from Honeydew as the trio made their way down the hall towards a pair of locked doors.

“Patient records are… confidential, your Highness. Only doctors are allowed to view them unless express permission is given,” she finally piped up as they reached the set of doors.

Luna hummed as she looked to the keypad on the wall, her horn igniting as she quickly punched in the 9-digit code to grant them entrance. A tone played from the box, and the mechanical locks within the doors let out a solid clunk as they were undone and the doors were swung open.

“Somewhere on below floors, be they? Lower levels contain administration, aye?” Luna probed as she stepped through the wide doorway into the center's main staircase and began her descent with the two nurses tailing behind.

“I-I… I don't think I'm in a position to tell you, your Highness.”

Luna paused on a landing in the dim stairwell, looking down at the nurse. “Thou art within perfect position; so stands thee within earshot, and the inquiry has been clearly stated.”

“I mean… I could lose my job, your Highness!”

Luna's ear flicked. “Pray tell.”

“Because I'd be showing confidential items without a doctor's permission!”

“Never once did we mention being shown, we simply inquired their location.”

“B-But… you'd be viewing them… right?”

“What thy Princess shall do is of null concern to thee.”

Nurse Honeydew took a nervous glance between Hearthwarmth and Luna.

“Hey,” he shrugged, “ I didn't hear anything.”

Honeydew sighed. “First floor, room 54R.”

Luna smiled down at her as she continued her descent. “Thou art a good nurse.”

Sister’s sun had just begun to peek over the horizon as Luna stepped into her study, the landscape beyond the long row of windows lining the far wall of the room still a silhouette against the vermillion and violet sky. She tiredly walked the length of the long table that spanned the study, her Night Guard escorting at her flanks with the same alertness they always possessed, the long hours of duty seeming to have no effect upon them. Two folders of documents which had been tucked beneath her left wing were brought forth by a spell as the head of the table was reached and placed upon the dark brown writing mat before her seat.

Pulling the wheeled chair away from her place at the table, she took her seat, letting out a little tired groan as she settled into the comfortable chair. Her blue wings unfurled a bit, giving her feathers some respite as she stretched her back and legs. After a lengthy round of adjustments, Luna looked over her shoulder to see her Night Guard had taken their places at the flanks of her chair. A little smile of gratitude took her expression as she looked them over.

“The night has been long, friends,” she spoke in their ancient tongue, “do retire.”

The two clapped their polished steel hoofguards against the floor in salute, “Many thanks, your Majesty,” they returned, making their way for the study’s door.

She watched after them for a moment as they made their departure, her eyes now turned down to the manila envelopes upon her desk. A blue aura flipped open the topmost folder and lifted the first paper from the stack, holding it up for her eyes. The record began with typical basic information; Sky Stock's name, the patient number she had been assigned, her previous place of residence, her relatives; Sing Song and White Dust, and a few final bureaucratic segments worried with various unknown and meaningless numbers. Below this information was where the document became far more intriguing.

It listed her as a ‘Class A' patient. Luna looked at this with curiosity; such a phrase held no meaning. Certainly, something to inquire about during her next visit. The paper went on to list her diagnosed disorders; epilepsy, psychosis, possible panic disorder, schizophrenia, possible schizoaffective disorder, possible bipolar disorder, and depression. For a time, her eyes remained only with this segment as she repeatedly scanned over each of these words. The many medical books she had delved into had never made mention of anything she read here on this record. The only recognizable word upon the parchment was ‘depression', but when juxtaposed with such terms as ‘schizophrenia’, it seemed to be the lesser of the evils. She moved on reading, making a note to research these unknowns.

The paper went on to talk about the details behind caring for Sky; what medicines at what times, which medicines should be snuck into the food she ate or the water she drank, when she could be allowed to leave her cramped, isolated cell, and that - upon departure - minimal contact with other ponies should be made due to her violent tendencies. Luna’s mind ran back to when she had attempted to strike her. She knew not if it had been out of her own malice or a command from the thing in her mind. To her, it seemed to have been out of fear; an attempt to scare off what she saw as a creature seeking to harm her. Cirrus’ attack on the night of their meeting had been forced by the parasite within her thoughts; had Sky’s been done in a similar vein? Thus far, she had no way of knowing.

Flipping through the pages, she backpedaled in time to the early days of Sky Stock’s admission to the institution. These old accounts described a being which still held a shred of sanity. She hadn’t been locked away in isolation, she wasn’t violent, she didn’t require a paragraph of medication, and she had only been diagnosed with one condition rather than many; psychosis. She flipped forward, reading of the downfall of a mind, the degradation of a pony, and the failure of an institution. Years passed in seconds, a long period of a life being summed up with as few words as possible, only speaking of their subject as if she was a mere creature to be observed and looked over rather than truly cared for.

Luna lowered the papers to her desk, staring blankly at the words for a moment before taking her gaze to the windows lining the long, western wall of the study. She drew in a long breath through her nostrils, closing her eyes and straightening her posture. Despite the sun’s rising, she didn’t feel as tired as she had upon first returning to her home.

Her ears perked, the sound of distant, distinct clop of a metal shoe on polished marble finding its way through the sealed door of her study. She listened in, the hoof-falls becoming totally silent as their creator reached the long, ornate carpet which spanned the length of the hall beyond. In her mind, she counted down from six, and right at the count of one, her sister knocked on the door.

“Do enter.”

The latch clicked, and the tall, midnight blue slab gave way to Celestia. Her ever-radiant smile wasn’t present, and her eyes were heavy; her venture out of bed couldn’t have been more than mere minutes ago. She shared a quick glance with Luna as she stepped towards her end of the long table, her mouth opening ever-so-slightly as she drew in a breath, preparing to speak, but never doing so. She pulled out the chair at that end, took a seat, and put her crossed hooves upon the polished lacquer of the mahogany.

“You’ve never mentioned anything about an investigation into Canterlot Regional Medical.”

Luna blinked. “Who informed thee?”

“Who informed me? No pony specifically. These things have to come by me, you know? Even if a third party had directly told me, why should that matter? Why hide this? I’m genuinely lost here.”

Her ear flicked. “A failure in communication. Secrecy was not our… my priority," she explained vaguely, now making sure to be mindful of how she conducted her language.

“But, why was this investigation opened?”

“To learn more of the psychiatric welfare center.”

There was a short pause from Celestia. “Books wouldn’t suffice?”

“When page upon page of literature only produces an address, nay.”

Celestia chuckled heartily. “Luna, if you wanted to learn more about this place, you should have said something! Launching an officially sanctioned investigation is hardly the way to go about doing so.”

Luna’s gaze turned down to the pair of folders atop her writing mat, her left hoof rising to flip open the one which she had not viewed yet. “You misunderstand, sister,” she returned, her voice low.

There was silence from Celestia as Luna read through the papers before her.

“What threads I seek shall not be found in the knowledge of this castle. I care not for history, I care for details, for t’is the details which strike down the beast.”

Celestia held her tongue, awaiting elaboration. She watched as Luna closed the file and crossing her hooves on the tabletop.

“Worry not; my dear adjutant Frolicsome Meadowlark shall hear of what is found and shall report these findings to me. Involvement of mine is minimal, and thus, Royal duties shall not be affected.”

“Luna, why is this investigation happening?” Celestia returned flatly.

“Perchance, have you been within the walls of this facility?”

“I cut the ribbon during the opening ceremony.” Luna remained totally silent and unmoving. For the first time in a long time, Celestia felt a bit pressured by another’s gaze. “No, I haven’t.”

Luna stood from her seat. “Do so, and you shall well understand why.”

She made her way towards the door, both she and Celestia staying silent. Stopping in the doorway, Luna turned to face her sister. “The night has been long, and sleep beckons us. Good day to you, sister.”

Celestia put on a small smile. “Sleep well, Luna. Love you.”

Luna stepped to her sister, gently nuzzling her head into the crook of Celestia’s neck, causing her to raise a hoof and return the embrace.

“I, too, love you, sister.”

The two separated, Luna standing and staring into Celestia’s fuschia eyes for a quick moment before turning and making her departure. A long period of silent stillness passed before Celestia finally got to her hooves and began her departure, but there in the doorway she halted and curiously scanned both directions of the long, dawn-lit hall to find them to be totally empty save for the periodic guard at their posts

She stood for a time, staring down the empty right hall she knew led toward both Luna’s and her own bedchambers. Curiosity shifted from the hall’s vacancy to the two folders before Luna’s place at the head of the long table. She re-entered the study, making her way down the long table to the far end of the table, her magic encompassing the first of the two folders and opening it to allow examination. A patient record from the Psychiatric Welfare Center of Canterlot Regional Medical concerning a mare by the name Cirrus Wisp.

She only read into the document’s contents for a short while before closing the file’s manila cover and placing it back with its comrade. Again, she took a glance over the study and it’s repurposed meeting room table and deep blue décor before making her way for the door, ensuring it closed as she exited.

Nº 8: SINKING INSIDE YOURSELF

Author's Note

Sinking Inside Yourself

Nº 8: SINKING INSIDE YOURSELF

A rap at the door brought Luna’s tired gaze from her meal. Without a word, she lit her magic and opened the double doors of her study to allow Celestia entrance. The elder paused a few paces to study her younger, visibly groggy sister for a moment.

“You’re up quite early,” she noted, glancing around at the purposefully dark study as she made her way down the length of the room.

Luna hummed. Without a clock, it would be hard for a pony to tell the time of day within the study, or for that matter, even tell it was the day. Each of the windows lining the outer wall of the room had their midnight blue curtains drawn, blocking most of the sun’s light. What was able to slip through the cracks found it hard to create any illumination thanks to the dark wood floors, deep blue walls highlighted by pastel, sky blue trim, and the long, repurposed meeting table that – while coated in a gloss lacquer – was constructed ebony wood that appeared nearly black.

“Getting an early start on the night?” quipped Celestia as she pulled out a chair near Luna’s place at the head of the long table.

A drink of coffee served as a prelude to her words. “The sun finds her horizon, and so, ponies find their beds.”

Knowingly, Celestia nodded. “Difficult to meet with ponies if they’re asleep?”

Setting the mug down to retrieve a buttered croissant, Luna nodded and took a bite.

“Who have you got a meeting planned with?”

“Hardly a meeting when the second party knows not of the first’s arrival.”

“Who do you plan on surprising, then?”

Luna took a moment to swallow the bite, “Doctor Autumn.”

Celestia eyed two folders which sat separate from the other stacks of documents across her Luna’s place at the table, “I assume this has something to do with those patient files?”

Luna stared at her sister for a moment. “Patient files.”

The files in question were raised within Celestia’s magic. “These?”

“Aye, patient files.”

“And how exactly did you come into possession of them? Something like this wouldn't be obtainable by the investigation.”

Years and years of knowledge piled upon a singular moment as Celestia studied the total lack of change within Luna's expression. When caught in a lie or preparing to lie, the tells of a normal pony were so apparent to her that she might as well have read their mind. Luna was the polar opposite of a normal pony. Nothing could be read.

“Mine investigation overturned them,” she replied, taking another sip of coffee.

“Things like this aren't kept in the hall of records, and to that end, are confidential.”

“Emphasis on ‘mine', sister. Twas our hoof which shed light upon them.”

Celestia raised a brow. “This ‘Doctor Autumn’ allowed you to have them?”

“A subordinate.”

“And they simply let you take them out of the hospital?”

Luna's eyes narrowed. “What is sought in thy interrogation?”

“If you abused your power to get something you shouldn't ordinarily be able to get,” exclaimed Celestia as she dropped the files back before Luna.

“No harm is done, what qualm couldst thou carry?”

“Could I carry,” corrected Celestia, “and I just stated my qualm; abuse of your power.”

Luna collected the files, eyeing them as they hovered in her spell, “such great light hath shined upon corners once dark thanks to these meager parchments, the methods behind their acquisition worries me not.”

At this, Celestia paused. “Shined light upon what, exactly?”

“The failings of an institution. A place cowering in the shadows of success; promising healing yet sewing harm. This institution, sister, is a blight. A single visit told me such. Returning night after night further steels my resolve. This meager pair of folders does so even further. In the limbo of undiscovery lies many more, and I have nary doubt in their ability to further let spill the rich crimsons of truth.”

“I think you’re being a little hyperbolic, Luna,” chuckled Celestia.

The angular lines of Luna’s regal face showed mere fragments of her annoyance. “Words bespoke by the pony who hath not set hoof within this institution fail to bear much levity."

Something about that statement dug at Celestia. “I’m sure this place is unpleasant, but you yourself said that these two files are the only documents you’ve studied about this place.”

“The three visits we hath made count for nothing, then? Nor dost the fervently negative descriptions given by one such subject of these files? The eyes of desperation which hath glared our direction hold no bearing? The paths lined with shattered dreams dreamt by afflicted, broken minds we hath trod offer no value?”

“I can’t read minds, Luna; I didn’t know any of this, and you aren’t speaking with modern Equestrian.”

“Indeed, you cannot. For that reason and many others, I ponder; why put such flak up against what I seek to accomplish?” shot back Luna, adjusting her speech simply to avoid further mention of her way with words.

“Sister, I don’t know what you seek. Yesterday was the first I’ve heard of the investigation you’ve launched and today is the first I hear that you have repeatedly visited this place and spoken with patients. At this point, I assume your plan is reform; to make this place better, in your eyes.”

“Reform, indeed.”

Celestia was silent for a moment. “You understand that the world of medicine is possibly the most complicated thing one could delve into? And you understand that reformation is always met with great opposition?”

“This matters how?”

“It matters because I want you to be sure about this. Your return was mere months ago; this is quite the task to undertake.”

“My knowledge of this world’s politics and society may lack, but my understanding of the mind does not. Those within the seats of power whom shall oppose the change I seek to sew lack what shall give their words credibility; true insight,” Celestia felt somewhat uneasy at the stoic gaze Luna offered as her slit pupils expanded to allow more light as if to study her with greater intensity, “they lack the bridge between the waking and slumbering world. They, for a thousand years, have lacked me.”

Silence thickened the air as Celestia remained quiet and unmoving beneath Luna’s gaze.

“Your heart is set on this,” Celestia finally stated.

“Quite.”

“Then,” she stood from her place at the table, adjusting her wings for a moment, “I won’t stand in your way. Remain ethical and maintain your royal duties. History remembers how we do things, as well as the things we do.”

Luna’s eyes narrowed. “This is my royal duty.”

There was a pause of hesitation from Celestia, her lips parting in the slightest as if she were preparing a rebuttal, but as quickly as the pause had come it left, and she merely nodded and continued to exit the study.

Doctor Autumn took a breath, gathering her composure. She nodded to the security officer posted beside the two sealed doors before her, and with a confirming nod in reply, he lit his horn, input the door's code, and allowed her into the institution's entry lobby.

“Doctor Autumn,” immediately came the words from Princess Luna as she and her two flanking guards turned from the front desk to address her.

“Hello, Your Majesty,” returned Autumn as she bowed before the Princess, “what can I help you with?”

Luna nodded for her to follow along, silently walking past with her Night Guard close behind as she made her way for the still open lobby door. She complied, lagging behind the guards as they and their Princess walked down the first of many halls.

"There is something I can help you with, right, Princess?" inquired Doctor Autumn after a moment of silence.

"Schizophrenia..." Luna looked over her shoulder, "I am pronouncing this correctly?"

Doctor Autumn nodded. "You are, Your Majesty."

Luna hummed. "Schizophrenia. What is this thing? Little time has been allowed for study this word."

"In very simple terms, it's a disorder that causes one to lose touch with reality. It can cause a pony to lose interest in their passions, be less emotional... a litany of symptoms, really."

"Precision of words made difficult by lack of knowledgeable books, aye?"

Initially thrown off, Doctor Autumn eventually nodded in agreeance. "Yes, it is, Princess."

The group came to a T in the hall, and with little thought, Luna went left - much to Doctor Autumn's confusion since the right hall would eventually lead to the patient ward on the 4th floor.

"What of Psychosis?"

"It's somewhat similar to Schizophrenia in the regard of causing one to lose focus on the world around them. The symptoms are quite a bit more dramatic, however."

Luna remained silent as she lifted a wing, cast a spell to retrieve previously unseen document folders from beneath her plumage and hovered them before her gaze as she flipped one open to scan its contents.

"These things, be they common?"

"The disorders, Your Majesty?"

Luna nodded.

"In the regular world? No. Here? Yes."

Luna once more looked over her shoulder. "Exists a cure?"

"In a perfect world, Your Majesty. All we can do is offer mitigation. Most issues are this way; there are very few diseases and disorders we can outright stop."

Knowingly, Luna nodded as she paused before a seemingly random door. "The mind; tis difficult to piece back together once broken."

"Some would wager it impossible, Princess."

"Impossible, tis not, I assure you."

Doctor Autumn raised a brow as Luna's magic began working at the lock of the door she stood before; room 54R.

"Y-Your Majesty?" she exclaimed as the simple deadbolt was defeated and the door was swung open.

"Aye?"

"If you don't mind me asking, what are you doing?"

Luna's pale blue aura floated the two folders to Doctor Autumn, who accepted them in her own spell. "Brought forth by mine investigation, these papers were. Within this room, they belong, aye?"

"Patient files... Princess, how did you get these?"

"Twas mistake they came into my possession, I believe," Luna explained as she and her Night Guard stepped aside to allow the doctor into the room.

Still confused beyond her wits Doctor Autumn did a double take between the trio and the opened door, finally electing to enter and file the documents away within one of the many steel cabinets stood in the space how shelves in a library would stand.

"I... would still like to know, Your Majesty," began Doctor Autumn as she made her exit from the file room, "how you were able to get those files."

"A mistake, their appearance is, I am sure."

Doctor Autumn bit her tongue as she glared into Luna's gently aglow eyes. She wasn't an idiot, and she could certainly tell when she was being toyed with. She was beginning to see that she had done nothing but be toyed with.

“As you say, Princess,” she finally declared, doing her best to keep enmity out of her words.

Nodding, Luna began off down the hall with her Night Guard at her flanks, Doctor Autumn eventually electing to give chase once more.

“My methods, Doctor Autumn, I have no doubt they shall seem foreign to you and those who serve under you,” Luna looked over her shoulder, “but know a common goal stands tall before us both.”

Confused at the sudden sincerity, Doctor Autumn raised a brow. “What goal is that, Your Majesty?”

“Heal those ailed by these diseases, as you so aptly name them.”

“That's why you've been visiting, Princess?”

“What other reason could I have?”

“I-I don't know, Your Majesty… I mean no offense, but a clear motive for you being here hasn't ever been communicated.”

“Then you shall know now why I walk these halls; destroy the parasites which latch to and claw at the minds of the ponies held within these walls. You shall also know this goal will be met no matter what obstacles arise.”

“I'm right beside you, then, Your Majesty. Hardships are always present, and it's my duty as a doctor and the duty of the staff in this institution to overcome them and provide the best care possible.”

The group finally reached the sealed doors leading to the stairs of the institute. “We do so share common ground, then,” concluded Luna as she turned to face the doctor, “I wish to continue on without your company, Doctor Autumn. A deal of help, you have been in answering mine inquiries, but help, you shall not, when inquiries will be posed to those held here.”

Reluctantly, Doctor Autumn bowed to the Princess, “of course, Your Majesty.”

Without further words, Luna lit her horn and input the door code into the keypad upon the wall, and upon hearing the clunk of heavy locks being undone she and her Night Guard made their way into the concrete stairwell, leaving the doctor behind unsure if she was more confused now or when Luna had first arrived.

Lively was the kindest word Luna could attach to the room. She stood in the doorway of a place which had always been silent and empty during her visits late into the night; the patient recreation area. The term recreation seemed generous. While there was a fair collection of literature lined up on shelves along half of the rightmost wall, the remainder of the bland, well-lit room was quite boring. An assortment of chairs and tables dotted the place, and a single couch sat before three of the narrow windows along the leftmost wall; a single pony occupying it. Beyond that, there was little else other than a few doors leading to unknown rooms and an empty push cart parked off in the corner. A fair number of ponies occupied the space; fifteen or so patients, a single doctor, and a nurse, who thus far had been the only pony to spot Luna since she had stepped into the open doorway.

The two stared at one another in silence, Luna maintaining her ever-present neutral expression while the nurse - her curly lilac mane covering half her face – glared back with a look of confusion. Paying her little heed, Luna continued scanning the space, her eyes eventually returning to the lone soul upon the couch. A pale violet unicorn; young, yet certainly lacking the energy a pony of her age should carry, seemed entranced by the meager goings-on she could view through the slit windows before her.

A particular detail suddenly stuck out; the aluminum ring affixed to the base of the mare's horn. It dawned on her that she had seen this pony during her first visit to the facility. With little more thought, Luna began off out of the doorway and towards the couch, the once chatty room falling quieter the further she walked as more and more of the patients lay eyes upon the Princess. Coming to the couch, unknowing of the crowd slowly congregating behind her, Luna took a seat beside the mare, her size causing the couch to bend in Luna's direction and putting her temple several hoof lengths taller than the unicorn's.

A moment of silent inactivity came as a prelude to the mare eventually peering up at the Princess, who held her gaze beyond the windows.

“What, to you, lies beyond?”

There was silence from her. Luna turned her gaze down, seeing she held nearly the same expression when they had seen one another the first time; a shocked, unknowing, almost fearful look that she could only see as a cry for help.

“The world beyond seems to beckon, no?”

Still, a mute stare. For a mere moment, Luna found herself trapped in the quivering, bloodshot eyes peering up at her. As if bearing claws, they seemed to latch upon her, tearing into her chest and dropping her heart.

“What ails you so, young one?”

She blinked, darting her eyes away and hiding her face behind the tattered clay-brown mane that hung to her shoulders, curly not by choice or by genetics, but by lack of self-care. Her lips parted, words seeming to form in her throat, yet they never found their voice. Tightly, her mouth closed, and she turned her eyes down.

“You recognize us. In the halls, days prior, I did meet your gaze.”

Her eyes came back up, and their gazes met once more.

“Have you a name, friend?”

She cleared her throat, turning her gaze down once more, “It’s… Edenbrook. And... you’re Princess Luna.”

Luna put on a gentle smile, bowing her head to Edenbrook. “So I am. I do still ponder what has placed you here.”

Edenbrook nervously knocked her front hooves together, her ears flat with her head. “I… I'm depressed.”

“A sorrow so weighty and deeply cut one feels as if they sink inside themselves,” Luna nodded, “I know it well. I do so ponder why I must sit beside you, however. The sorrow within is great enough to place you here?”

Edenbrook drew in a shuddering breath. “I-I tried to kill myself. That's why.”

“I am thankful you did not.”

"Thanks..."

Luna held her tongue for a moment. "Come here on your own volition?"

"N-No, my parents put me in here."

Luna responded with a quiet nod, her lips parting ever so slightly as she deliberated her next word.

“Why?”

“W-Why'd they admit me here?”

“Why make an attempt at your own life?”

Edenbrook's face went a little pale as she swallowed a lump in her throat. “I… I don't even know anymore. I just didn't want to… feel any longer. I-I'm tired of everything.”

Luna looked down, meeting her misty-eyed gaze. “Tired of everything, yet you gaze longingly at the everything you shun?”

“I-I,” she sniffled, looking away, “I'm not tired of the outside, I'm tired of my stupid family, and my… empty life. I'm sitting here watching the world go by because I don't want to be in here any longer! I-I hate this place. I… as much as I hate my family, I miss them! I miss the house and my bed! I-I don't want to kill myself anymore, I-I'm too scared to try it again!” a shuddering, tearful breath broke her speech for a moment, “I want to go home, b-but nothing's going to change! It'll never change, a-and I can't take that anymore! I-It's always the same thing, a-and I hate it!”

Edenbrook wiped her eyes with a hoof as she tried her best to regain composure and cease her cries, her attempts hardly softening her tears. In a comforting gesture, Luna unfurled a wing and embraced Edenbrook with her phthalo plumage, the act almost instantly stopping her stifled cries. Luna craned her head down a bit, yet kept her eyes forward, never meeting the teary and awe-struck gaze Edenbrook looked to her with.

“This longing for oblivion; to fade into the abyss of death, I too have felt it.”

Edenbrook sniffled, wiping her eyes once more. “You have?”

Luna nodded. “In bygone times, I did see it as the solution. It is the… easiest path, nay? The path of least resistance. My mind, body, and soul shall be gone once the deed is done; I shall hear no cries, see no tears, and feel not the woes of the wounds I have cut with my act. Seems optimal, aye?”

Eden looked down at her hooves. “I mean… I-I don't think so anymore. I did a few weeks ago.”

Luna tugged her closer with her large wing as she finally looked down, offering a gentle smile. “Already, you walk the right path. Horrified, your family was at this attempt of yours?”

“H-Horrified, yeah.”

“And how, think you, would they feel to see their daughter slaughtered by her own hoof?”

Edenbrook shut her eyes. “I… don't even want to think about it,” a single tear went down her cheek as she drew in a shaky breath, “but… that's what I wanted. I-I wanted to make them feel all the pain I felt… get revenge for all the things they, and my siblings, and everypony else in my life put me through.”

Luna reached across and placed her hoof upon Edenbrook’s chest, looking into her bloodshot eyes with what Eden could only perceive as determination. “Then sew your vengeance with survival. Fight evil not with evil, but with love, for tis the one thing evil cannot withstand. Show your family love when they shall not, and smile in the faces of those who might wish ill. You say this life of yours is empty, aye?”

Eden nodded, looking a little shocked.

“No life is empty. Only in death does a pony become empty. They may be fractured and lost, but in your life exists things which bring joy. The cutie mark upon your flank tells me so. I do know this mark of talent and passion may, at times, feel as if it bears no power; I have believed so of my own, but that feeling is false. This mark shall never lead you astray.”

Edenbrook looked to her cutie mark; a spiraling chord of musical notes with an eight-point star at its center.

“You feel betrayed by your talent, aye?”

Again, she nodded. “I don’t sing nearly as much as I used to, I don’t write music anymore… I feel like I’ve nearly forgotten how to play the piano. I… I don’t love music any longer.”

“This love; forgotten, maybe. Lost? Nay. Remember that love, rekindle the flame, and its light will guide you out of the abyss you sink in.”

“B-But… I… how do I find it again? I’ve tried, believe me, but it just feels so pointless. Everything has felt so… pointless.”

Luna took a breath and turned her eyes to the city beyond the window, a contemplative silence keeping her words at bay for the moment.

"Ultimately, dear Edenbrook, that lies in your hooves."

Looking back, Luna found Edenbrook still stared at the floor with an anxious, apprehensive frown.

"However," she gave the tiniest of pauses as Eden looked up to her, "I may suggest something. Craft me a song."

That look of apprehension worsened. "You... you want me to write you a song?"

"I do, indeed! Lengthy, concise, sang, or instrumental; I shall care not. The quilt of notes you sew will be sewn by needles of the heart, and that is what shall matter."

Edenbrook nervously knocked her front hooves together. "B-But, what if I can't come up with anything?"

"I have faith in you, my friend. The peak of this mountain before you may seem insurmountable, but know the tallest peak hides the most beautiful valley."

The apprehension and worry in her expression slowly faded into a contemplative scowl, and before long that scowl became a look of steely determination. Luna could see, quite plainly, the gears of imagination beginning to wind back up to speed. She had given a spark to a powder keg.

"I… don't know how long it'll take, but I will write you a song, Princess.”

Luna smiled brightly. “And it shall be beautiful, I am sure.”

Nº 9: MERCY

Cirrus looked up at the freshly brewed cup of tea held before her by a familiar blue aura of magic. Tiredly, she accepted the mug with her hooves, holding it inches away from her lips and gently blowing to cool it down.

“You speak little tonight,” commented Luna as she sat down at her usual place before the coffee table and couch, her own cup of tea floating before her within a blue aura.

All Cirrus offered in reply after a sip of her brew was a silent nod. Humming, Luna too sipped at her hot tea and took a sweeping glance over the little, dimly lit apartment around her. A single bulb above the range in the kitchen served as the only point of light, which was certainly an improvement over the candles Cirrus lit previously. The space was still in the same state of semi-disarray since her last visit; things haphazardly left in corners, books stacked below shelved rather than being set upon them, papers scattered across the writing desk near the bedroom door, a little pile of laundry sitting beside the bathroom door awaiting a wash, and so on.

The bedroom door stood ajar, allowing Luna to peek in at the disheveled sheets sprawled halfway between the bed and the floor. Too, was the bathroom open, but the limited view she had from where she sat only allowed her to see a towel sitting on the tile beside the bathtub. It was a lack of cleanliness brought on by a total lack of motivation and energy, not disregard for self-hygiene or laziness as one might expect. When the simple task of sliding one's self from the confines of their sheets and blankets seems to be an insurmountable peak, the remainder of the world is simply unreachable.

“How have you fared, Cirrus?” inquired Luna as she, unbeknownst to Cirrus, took up the sheets and comforter of her bed with a spell and began sorting them out.

A long pause of silence was the initial response as she continued staring off into the mug. “I haven’t…” she sighed, shutting her eyes, “haven’t slept more than a few hours since you left last night.”

Luna held her tongue for a moment. "Nigh impossible to find slumber, aye?"

Cirrus nodded, her eyes still closed and head hung low.

"Venture to your job, did you?"

A quick, almost lifeless shake of the head was her reply. Luna hummed, sipping from her honey-sweetened tea as she took another glance around the room, this time her eyes falling upon the books and papers near the writing desk.

“I-I’m not taking advantage of you,” Cirrus suddenly exclaimed, drawing Luna’s attention to the worried look upon her tired face.

“Never did I say you were.”

“N-No, I mean… t-the fact I didn’t work today. I went and said I was sick, a-and that I couldn’t.”

Luna sat in silent deliberation, her silence seeming to worry Cirrus further.

“You gave me those bits…” began Cirrus, “to help pay my rent, and… I… I’m not using that as an excuse to not work.”

Luna chuckled gently. “Your fears are quite misplaced, dear Cirrus. Lifting burden from your shoulders was the purpose behind my gift, and so you have done that with it.”

Cirrus' ears went flat, her head falling shamefully. “O-Okay… I just feel guilty having to get help from you.”

“Pray tell," stated Luna as her gaze returned to the books, her magic beginning to file them away upon the shelf above the writing desk.

“I'm an adult, I-I shouldn't have to take handouts just to keep my head above water...”

“Age matters not, Cirrus,” Luna paused as she read the far-off cover of one of the books within her magic, her brow raising at it, “situation is the defining factor.”

Cirrus sighed, holding her silence as Luna hovered the book to herself, noticing the unremoved price tag of 12 bits still stuck to the bottom of the front cover.

“Understanding Troubled Minds,” Luna read aloud, her words perking Cirrus' ears and drawing her gaze, “when did such a text come into your possession?”

With a mortified expression plastered over her face, Cirrus did a double take between Luna and the book within her blue magic. “I-I, uh, earlier today. I needed to get out of here, so I went for a walk, and there's a bookstore near here...”

Luna flipped through the pages, a smile pulling at the corners of her lips. “Down the right path, you do walk, dear Cirrus.”

“I do?”

“Purposeful was my decision to allot more bits than necessary for the debt to the landlord, for I knew this surplus would be put to good utility. Spend this on some frivolous trinket? Nay; purchase a book which shall aid your ailment. Know, Cirrus, I am quite proud of this decision.”

Cirrus turned her eyes away, a little blush coming through on her sandy blonde cheeks. “T-Thanks, Princess Luna.”

“Nay, the thanks must go to you!” Luna chimed, closing the cover of the book and setting it atop the coffee table before her. “Has this helped in any way?”

Cirrus shrugged. “Sort of... it-“ her words cut off, Luna able to see the pause hadn't been her doing.

The almost invisible, inky aura pulsed around her horn for a mere second, cutting through the barriers of the physical plane and dream world to bridge the gap and allow her to hear the emotionless voice of the beast within opposing ‘the name'. As the spell ceased, so too did Cirrus' pause, her gaze refocusing as she looked back to Luna.

“It's helped a little.”

“In what way?”

“Well…” she fell silent, looking off to the side and never finishing the thought; an act of her own volition this time.

“Something once without a name now does bear one, hm?"

Cirrus' gaze shot back, her eyes wide. She sighed and let her head droop once she remembered why the assertion had been so accurate. “The… the book didn't name something, I-I did. The book-“ again, the pause struck, this one far shorter, “the book gave me an idea."

“And what idea did it plant?”

“I na-“ she flinched, squeezing her eyes shut, “I named it!”

"Named 'it'."

Cirrus tapped the side of her head with her hoof. "It! That... stupid voice that, as I'm sure you probably know, hadn't shut up!"

Luna's posture straightened, her ears perking attentively. “Separation.”

“W-What?”

“Recognize, you have, that this creature is not of your being. As ponies, we give name to what exists beyond the confines of our mind. This thing knows that well.”

Cirrus offered a silent nod in return.

Luna studied her a moment. “And what name did you see fit?”

“It's… really silly.”

“You shall face no judgment from me, dear Cirrus.”

Still avoiding eye-contact she took a breath as if steeling herself for an impact. “B… Batty. I named it Batty.”

Cirrus peaked up at Luna, expecting to see her snickering or jeering her way, but only found the usual stoic yet attentive look she always seemed to wear.

“Brought this name forth from the stuffed bat sitting with the pillows, aye?”

Cirrus stammered a moment. “I-I… I did. How'd you know about her?”

The smallest smile cracked Luna's lips as her horn ignited and floated the aforementioned stuffed bat in from the bedroom and placed it – or rather, her – atop the book before Luna upon the coffee table. “The night I made your acquaintance, too, did I make hers."

For a moment, Cirrus thought. “Oh… right. You put me in bed that night… I think..."

She shook her head. “Everything since then has just… felt like a dream. It's so hard to tell what's real from what isn't anymore.”

“Stricken with hallucinations?”

“I… I don't know. I remember falling asleep once today, but I remember waking up like three times. Things will just… change. At least I know for sure I went to the bookstore today,” she laid down across the couch, resting her head upon the armrest, “my… my dad visited earlier, b-but now I don't think he did. I'll… be glad if he didn't. I remember leaving in the morning to tell my boss I couldn't come in today, but I don't remember coming back here. I just… don't know anymore.”

Luna held her peace, looking on as Cirrus cozied into the couch as if she were getting ready to fall asleep. Looking away, Luna's attention went back to the remaining books and papers by the writing desk, and a few quick flicks of magic put the remaining texts upon their shelf and tapped the papers into a uniform stack before placing them atop the desk.

“Are you familiar with this area of the city?”

Cirrus stayed quiet, seemingly deaf to the inquiry.

“Cirrus?”

Her eyes blinked open. “W-What?”

“Do you know this area of the city well?”

She nodded.

“Know of establishments doing business at this hour?”

Cirrus' expression showed her slight confusion. “I… don't even know what time it is.”

“Nearly midnight.”

Cirrus raised a brow. “You don't have a clock.”

“My moon and I are one; I feel where she rests in the sky. Worry not; tis nearly midnight.”

Cirrus nodded along in concurrence. “Uh, I guess that would make sense,” she rubbed her face, sitting upright, “I think there's a café a few blocks from here that stays open all night. I… I think it's only on weekends, though. What day even is it?”

“Sunday.”

Cirrus shrugged. “They're open, then.”

“Shall we make our way there?”

“W-What?”

“Your mind needs escape from itself. While sleep is much needed, in this case, it should seem it does more harm than good. To top that, I wish for a hot coffee.”

Looking quite worried, Cirrus again began avoiding eye contact. “I-I have coffee here; can't you brew some?”

“I discovered the tin when gathering the tea. Tis empty.”

Cirrus' ears went flat. “I'm out of coffee, then.”

“In the day you ventured into the world beyond to clear your mind. Pray tell; why oppose the idea now?”

She rubbed her leg nervously. “I felt like I was suffocating in here at the time! G-Going outside today was the hardest thing I've done in a while… i-it's bad enough going to work most days and being around all those ponies. It already felt like everypony was watching me, b-but if I'm with you, then everypony will be watching me…”

Luna put on a gentle smile. “At the highest point of the night how many ponies do you truly believe shall occupy the café?”

Thinking a moment, Cirrus conceded. “Probably not many, but still…”

“I understand the anxiety chaining you to the indoors, but too do I understand the chains shall only break if they are fought against.”

Cirrus paused for thought and looked away as she mulled over the situation at her hooves.

“I'm kind of hungry… I haven't eaten anything all day,” she let out a defeated sigh, returning her gaze to Luna, “fine, I'll go.”

With a smile, Luna got to her hooves. “Delightful! Let us make haste, then!”

“And for you, miss?”

Cirrus blinked a few times, her heart skipping a beat as her mind returned to reality.

“I'm sorry?” she inquired nervously, looking down from the menu to the genial mare behind the counter of the café.

“Have you made your decision?”

“O-Oh… I, uh,” she looked up again, eyes rapidly scanning the menu, “the cranberry toast, please,” she squeaked, feeling like a thousand eyes pushed down on her despite the fact only the cashier looked onward.

A few clacks came from the keyboard of the register before the pink coated mare. “Anything else?”

“Um… coffee.”

“What sort?”

“J-Just coffee.”

Again, a few more clacks.

“Cream and sugar?”

“Sure.”

A single clack.

“4 bits, please!” she chimed with a smile.

Cirrus' face went pale, her breath catching as she patted around on her black jacket with a panicked hoof. Not a single bit had been brought along. Mere seconds later 4 bits stacked perfectly atop one another in a fine gold tower were set upon the counter by a familiar blue aura.

“Worry not,” spoke Luna with a gentle smile, the hood of her dark gray cloak down, “I shall take the bill.”

Nodding, the cashier scooped up the funds with a hoof and dropped them into the register drawer.

“Well, thank you both, and we'll have your orders ready soon!”

Cirrus watched as Luna nodded to the mare and turned away, beginning off into the well-occupied dining area of the so aptly named Weekend Warrior café. Luna's assumption that the place wouldn't have many patrons hadn't been the most accurate statement; it was certainly less occupied than when Cirrus had passed the place during the day, but a lot more occupied than one would expect on a Sunday night.

Luckily, every pony in the cozy, dimly lit café focused their attention on the mysterious, cloak-adorned Princess rather than Cirrus in her plain black jacket. Realizing she was still standing at the register, Cirrus flipped her head around and gave the cashier a nervous smile before trotting off after the Princess, who had found a seat against the windows facing out into the midnight streets of Fillydelphia. She kept her eyes down as she carved a winding path through the somewhat small area, doing her best to put the most distance between herself and other ponies.

As she approached the table, the chair opposite of Luna was pulled out by a blue spell, beckoning Cirrus forth. Quickly, she accepted the seat and looked out at the dark street rather than either the other patrons or the Princess.

“You only wish for jellied toast?”

Cirrus looked over, trying to ignore the on-looking faces which she could see in her peripheral. “I thought I was paying for my food,” she replied quietly.

“Then I insist you return to the counter and place a second order, for I shall bear the cost.”

“I-I'm fine, really…”

Luna remained silent, her gaze making Cirrus a little nervous.

“You do not want to face the staff once more, aye?”

Cirrus blinked. “Were… were you reading my mind again?”

Chuckling, Luna shook her head. “Reading your expression, nothing more.”

Offering no reply, Cirrus looked back out the window, this time her gaze falling upon the ornate, sleek chariot they two had arrived in and the two strange bat-like guards waiting patiently and attentively by it. Their orange eyes seemed to glimmer in the light of a nearby street lamp, their slit pupils wide thanks to the dark. Her heart skipped a beat as the rightmost guard looked right at her; instantly, she turned away. Her surprise had only just begun as she discovered Luna no longer sat before her, and in a slight panic, she perked her posture and darted her eyes around to find the cloaked Princess was back at the counter having a word with the pink-furred mare. She let out a relieved sigh and sunk back into her chair, again keeping her eyes low so as to not catch the gaze of anypony.

There was at least one thing she could enjoy about the cafe; its relaxed and casual atmosphere. She felt almost blasphemous sitting in such a temple of placidity with anxieties and worries gnawing at her thoughts. She flinched as a shadow hit the corner of her eye, and she spun her head to find Luna returning.

“Do you enjoy cherry turnovers?” she inquired as she took her seat before Cirrus.

Letting out a sigh from her spike of fright, Cirrus nodded. “Yeah, they're pretty good.”

“Then I hope the offerings of this place are up to par.”

“R-Really, you shouldn't have, Princess.”

“Luna,” she corrected with a smile, “and I should have. T'would be rude of me to let you sit in hunger.”

Cirrus gave a conceded chuckle as she looked down to the table, tracing shapes with her hoof. “Right; Luna. Well, thank you. I appreciate it. I… appreciate everything.”

“You are most welcome, dear Cirrus.”

Cirrus set her half-empty cup of coffee down to the table after a drink, the act seemingly prompting Luna to lift her own cup to her lips.

“A very smooth brew, do they make,” she noted after a sip.

Cirrus nodded. “Yeah, they make real good coffee here. It's not bitter.”

“Indeed. Quite the quality roast.”

The conversation fell flat, and Cirrus turned her gaze to the window as she had finished her toast and turnover quite some time ago; the two items hadn't lasted very long once the order was called.

“Does Batty speak to you now?”

There passed a long moment of still silence from Cirrus, her eyes remaining fixed with the world beyond. “Yeah… it hadn't been a moment ago, but it does now.”

“What does it say?”

She closed her eyes. “Just… complaining about the name.”

“And what complaints does Batty make?”

Cirrus' eyes opened as she looked to Luna. “You can hear it talk; why don't you just listen?”

“Because doing so is of no help to you. When you speak against Batty, telling of its harming words, you further the divide. Every word spoken against it is a victory in of itself.”

Happy enough with the reply, Cirrus nodded and let her gaze wander to the wayside once more. Eventually she re-met the eyes of Luna's two guards posted by the chariot; still they stood, unmoving and attentive as ever.

She blinked, and the next second both guards suddenly stood right outside the window, their gazes bearing down upon her. She let out a horrified yelp, almost falling from her seat as she got to her hooves, but after one more blink the two had disappeared and returned to their place at the chariot.

“Cirrus?” Luna called with worry, not yet standing but poised to do so.

Cirrus' gaze shot to her, her breaths heavy and panicked. “T-The guards! They… t-they,” she let out a shuddering breath as she glared out the window, “they were r-right there…”

Luna held her tongue, looking on as Cirrus' wings slowly furled back to their places and her head turned side to side as she took several worried glances about the café.

“You see phantoms, Cirrus. Illusions to frighten and dishearten.”

“That's…” she quickly slid back into her seat, keeping her eyes down to hide from the glances and looks she had drawn, “that's all I've seen all day.”

“This is not the first time?”

She buried her face in her hooves. “N-No. No, it's not. I didn't want to come here b-because I knew something would happen. J-Just like in the bookstore.”

“If thi-“

“I want to leave,” Cirrus injected, looking up and clearly on the brink of tears, “I-I just want to go home now.”

Luna's brow furrowed. “Then you will admit defeat. It does these things to force pain upon you, Cirrus. To force you into dark solitude.”

Cirrus grit her teeth. “I'm tired of everypony looking at me!” she hissed.

“Their gazes carry no leverage!”

Her lips parted as she prepared a rebuttal, but before the words could be spoken she let out a shocked gasp and spun her head back as if somepony had tapped her shoulder. There was a long pause as Cirrus frantically searched behind herself for something which was not there.

“What now did you see?” Inquired Luna, leaning forward and keeping her voice low.

“I… thought somepony was behind me…” sighing, she turned forward and kept her eyes low, “it's just like the bookstore. E-Everypony's watching me… t-they all know I'm crazy.”

“Indeed, you are crazy.”

Cirrus' heart skipped a beat as her eyes darted up to Luna, who frowned down at her.

“W-What?”

“Only a crazy pony would name the voice in their head, and only you could be crazy enough to tell others about it.”

A gripping sense of panic tied a knot in her stomach and put an unmovable lump in her throat as she looked away from the Princess' glare and out into the dining area. Every pair of eyes was locked onto her.

“L-Luna, I want to leave!” she squeaked, tears beginning to well in her eyes.

Silence was all the stoic Princess offered as she bore down upon Cirrus with her slit pupils that seemed to widen the longer she looked into them.

“Typical for you to seek escape rather than deal with your life head-on.”

Staring into those azure eyes, Cirrus had an epiphany. Those words weren't natural; Luna would never speak so venomously.

“It's happening again,” she mumbled in a panic, swiftly slewing her gaze around at the faces of the ponies glaring her direction.

In a terror she shut her eyes as tightly as she could, the straining of her muscles putting a deep rumble in her ears, “none of this is real, none of this is real…” she rambled quietly, a few fresh tears rolling down her cheeks.

“You may wish this to be a dream, but it is far from it.”

Cirrus clenched her teeth and glared back at Luna, fiery defiance burning in her eyes. “I know what you're doing. You did it earlier. It's not working this time, and you know it isn't.”

To her surprise, Luna was silent, however; her disapproving look remained. Between the two there hung a long silence before Cirrus slowly turned to face the ponies of the cafe, their eyes still bearing down upon her. Like a cold knife, that feeling of inadequacy and anguish jabbed at her chest, and for a split second she wanted to turn away and close her eyes, but she held fast and locked her eyes onto a gray-furred stallion sitting across the room, ignoring the others and staring right back at him.

“They can't hurt me. Like Luna said; you're just an illusion. Nothing more, nothing less.”

Silence reigned supreme for the time being as the two stared one another down.

“Cirrus.”

She grit her teeth again. “If you've got nothing nice to say, why don't you try being quiet.”

After blinking, Cirrus found herself glaring at the side of that same stallion's head as he chatted with the mare before him. A little bewildered, Cirrus blinked repeatedly as she studied the now careless patrons spread across the chairs and tables of the cafe. Fearful she would find the same angered Princess as before, Cirrus slowly turned back to face Luna. Her confusion grew when she found the polar opposite of anger and disapproval; plastered across Luna's face was a wide smile.

“Cirrus…” began Luna as she leaned forward and outstretched a hoof, placing it upon her shoulder, “you hear mine words for what they are, aye?”

Cirrus remained silent, unsure if the hallucinations had finally ended.

“I… I guess so,” she cautioned.

The tiniest of laughs left Luna as she fell back into her seat, wings spread excitedly. “So, a once mighty grip weakens!” to Cirrus' bewilderment, Luna now hopped onto her hooves, “quick, make haste and give chase; we must speak outside!”

The blue blur of a Princess passed Cirrus, leaving her where she sat for a fair few seconds before she finally gained her bearings and trotted out of the café to find Luna a short ways away from the door.

“Mark this night, for greater progress than ever has been made!” chimed Luna as she knelt before Cirrus.

“What in the world are you talking about?!”

Bolting upright, Luna put both front hooves on Cirrus's shoulders. “You have broken the illusion! Stood in the face of falsehood and seen the truth beneath! You, Cirrus, defied the being within!”

Her brow raised again. “I-I did? I… did, didn't I…?”

Luna nodded along. “Quite so!”

“Does that… mean that Batty is… gone?”

“If only it were that simple. You have begun the end, however. Maintain your persistence, fear not the things which shall not harm you, and the grip Batty holds shall only weaken.”

Finally fully realizing the potential of everything Cirrus slowly began smiling along. “So… all of this is finally starting to go somewhere?”

“Since our first meeting, progress has been made, Cirrus. The simple act of acknowledging this directing, controlling voice within is not of your natural body and mind has been a great stride. Batty is defensive; clawing at ground it once held, trying to reaffirm its grasp. When the enemy is faltering, what shall you never do?”

A little nervous from Luna's intensity, Cirrus leaned her head back. “I… I don't know.”

“Show mercy.”

Nº 10: COLD FRONT

Author's Note

Recommended listening; Cold Front.

Nº 10: COLD FRONT

After unlocking the door, Cirrus dropped the key from her teeth into her hoof and slipped the old, tarnished thing back into one of the pockets of her black jacket. She stared at the still shut apartment door for a short moment before turning to face Luna, who still had the hood of her cloak up over her head from being outdoors.

Clearing her throat, Cirrus looked down at the hardwood of the hallway. “I… think I said it once earlier tonight, but, uh, thank you.”

Beneath the shadow of the hood Cirrus watched a small smile tug at the corners of Luna's lips. “You are welcome, young Cirrus. I found this midnight venture to be enjoyable.”

Rubbing her neck, Cirrus nodded. “I-I did, too, but more than tonight… thank you for every night… however many it’s been by this point. I’m sure you’ve got a full plate – being a Princess, and all – so the fact you come all the way from Canterlot every night just to help me is… i-it really means a lot to me.”

For once, Luna found herself speechless. She knew a ‘you’re welcome’ was well in order, but such a simple phrase didn’t at all express the levity of what her heartfelt. Her lips parted ever-so-slightly, but it now felt that every word she had ever spoken and ever would speak had piled up behind her tongue. Quickly, she swallowed them all back down.

“I owe a deal of thanks to you, as well,” she finally began, “t’has been much of your own doing; the progress that has been made.”

“Yeah, maybe, but… it wouldn’t have happened without you. You were the one who decided to meet me that night… and,” she cleared her throat, again looking away in embarrassment, “decided to come back after I… tried to stab you.”

Luna’s smile widened. “Should I be honest, your attempt only intrigued me further.”

Still looking quite embarrassed, Cirrus chuckled as she picked at the floor with a hoof. “I'm sure it did.”

There then hung a slightly awkward silence as both parties drew a blank on what next to say.

“So,” started Cirrus, “I guess you're leaving now?”

Luna nodded. “Much to be done this night.”

Sighing, Cirrus looked up. “I guess it is late.”

Humming quietly, Luna nodded again. “Mere minutes until the clock shall strike 1.”

“Do you… have to go?”

Luna felt her chest tighten a bit. “I must, aye. Worry not; I shall return.”

Cracking the smallest of smiles, Cirrus chuckled. “Worth a try.” Luna did her best to smile along, not quite knowing how to reply. After a moment, Cirrus let out another breath, her lips parting in the slightest as words were prepped. “I suppose, good night. I won’t keep you any longer.”

Luna gently bowed her head. “And a good night to you, my dear friend.”

With that, Cirrus turned and opened the door to her home, Luna staying in place as she could almost sense Cirrus would pause half-way in to say something more. Sure enough, she paused half-way in and turned her head over her shoulder.

“I’ve… sorta been meaning to ask this all night, and I don’t know if it’s rude or not…”

Luna smiled gently both at the proposal and at the fact her assumption had been right. “Pray tell?”

“You’re… the way you talk now is… different?” she finally managed, struggling to find words for her thoughts.

Luna’s posture perked. “You have taken notice?”

“How could I not? You’re suddenly using modern Equestrian words…”

“Twas sister who suggested I speak with a less dated cadence. Have I done well in that vein?”

Again, Cirrus began picking at the floor with a nervous hoof. “Of course! I’m amazed you could just… change how you talk in one day.”

“Truth be told, I have been under guidance since mine return on the mechanisms of this modern language. When away from the castle home, and from sister, I have given modern words little heed, for I felt what thoughts resigned within found truer meaning with the words of my time,” beneath her hood, her ears went flat, “I see now how I have been wrong.”

“I always understood you,” Cirrus replied coyly.

“So, you have,” Luna smiled in return.

“I… sorta liked how you used to talk. It was relaxing to listen to, sometimes.”

Luna blushed a bit. “You do not jest?”

“No, not at all.”

There was a pause from Luna as she studied her. “Would you prefer that I speak how I once did?”

“Oh, no, no; if you’re trying to learn Equestrian, t-then I shouldn’t be getting in the way of that.”

Luna smiled. “So, I shall continue on. I appreciate the sentiment, however.”

Chuckling nervously, Cirrus turned her eyes away once more as she ran out of things to say. There was a still moment where the only sound in the hall was the almost inaudible scratching of the tip of Cirrus' hoof upon the wood floor of her home's entryway.

“W-Well, goodnight, Luna."

“Sleep well, my dear Cirrus.”

With that, Cirrus gave one last smile and a nod before going inside fully and shutting the door; seconds later, Luna could hear the subdued click of the deadbolt turn.

Alone, Luna walked the length of the dark hall. It was 3 hours past the strike of midnight, and thus, she had allowed her Night Guard to retire; they had been awake as long as she had, which was nearing the 12-hour mark. Wandering the waking world for so long wasn't a frequent occurrence. The tired ache in her body and the heaviness of her eyelids was hardly an impedance on her mood. What her lack of energy failed to sap from her was the gentle smile pursing her lips.

For the first time in what seemed like years, she felt an almost unfamiliar bravado in her chest; pride. Pride in her accomplishment. However true it may be that tonight was only progress; a mere footnote in the pages of the book she inked down with every visit to a soul who carried the burden of this unworldly ailment, it was accomplishment nonetheless. It was a feeling that made her want to speak of what she had done to all who she saw. It was a feeling she had dearly missed.

Rounding a corner of the moonlit castle hall she briefly looked at the two shut doors of her study in the distance, but something far more noteworthy caught her eyes; beneath one of the several large, midnight blue banners bearing her mark which lined the hall stood an attentive guard, and beside him lay one of his soundly asleep comrades. At this, her smile widened as she approached the duo.

“Greetings, guard,” she announced, causing him to bow before her, the gentle jingle of his golden armor filling the hall for a moment.

“Your Highness,” he greeted back, returning to his rigid, proper stance.

“At ease, and speak freely, loyal guardspony.” She looked down to the still sleeping guard; his front legs crossed and chin resting comfortably upon them. “Has he slept long?”

“It's only been an hour or so, Your Highness.”

She hummed. “Deep in sleep, he is, then.” She looked up. “Your attentiveness is greatly appreciated. As you ensure the safety of this castle, so too do you ensure the safety of your fellow guardspony.”

“Just as you ordered, Your Highness.”

She nodded. “Aye, so I did. If he has not awoken by the passing of two hours, then your hoof shall raise him. Regardless of what shall come first, do tell I wished his sleep to be restful.”

He clapped his hoof to the floor in salute, the sound somehow not disturbing the resting guard. “Of course, Your Highness!”

Giving him an assuring nod, she continued down the hall toward her private study. She knew well those of the castle's honor guard who must hold vigil were not nocturnal by nature, and thus, she had given a special set of instructions; should one feel themselves falling into the embrace of slumber, they were to seek an alert comrade and give in to that embrace. She understood well that the scent of the lavender bushels plucked at moon's rise dotting the halls didn't aid in their ability to remain awake. Of course, she expected her guard to uphold their duty as they should, but a drowsy guard was no good.

Eventually, she came to the doors of her study, her horn flicking to life for a mere moment to turn the handles and gently swing them inward, revealing what would be a totally pitch-black room to the normal pony. To her, a monochromatic world lay beyond, and as she shut the doors behind her, that world hardly dimmed; in such voids, her eyes relied not on passive light. The black and gray silken curtains hanging in front of the expansive stretch of arch-topped windows along the far wall were all drawn, preventing the moon's light from reaching the inside of the long room.

With ease, she walked along the length of the room's grand table, only the very far end showing any signs of use. Finally coming to her place at the head of the table she took her seat, the creak of its wood construction quite noisy in the silence. She ruffled her feathers, settling in and coming to stillness; eventually, all she could hear was the synchronous ticks of the four brass and wood clocks out before her upon the table. Like a metronome, the timekeepers ticked on, and as she shut her eyes and worked spells, the ticking slowly faded into the beyond.

~§~

A path so familiar, yet different every time. Some nights, snow-covered cobblestone, others, the shimmering marble and luxurious carpets of a well-known castle. In younger years, the path had been integral to the ritual; a thing which was toyed with, melded and shaped to fit the emotions and desires of the hooves which both tread it and guided it. Now, it was merely an afterthought. Set in long ago, the truth did, that the shape of this path was of little consequence, for what lay beyond was the true thing of intrigue.

The frames of the mind, as they had come to be called. Nothing more than an embellishment; plain and simple, they were dreams. Now, surrounding the path; tumultuous dreams, turbulent and shaken by the harsh winds of unease, illness, and distress. The surrounding ether seemed to darken when one such dream was drawn near as if the pain-filled world contained within seeped from its ethereal confines. Above and below there shimmered the starry, permanent twilight skies of the realm beyond the dream-laden path, and when gazed into, it too clearly felt the pain which these dreams brought. In places beyond; the country-side villages or newly raised cities, the skies of this place were clear, vibrant and beautiful. Happy. No such happiness was found here.

That truth only became more evident when a frame was drawn close. Only terrors lay beyond the hazy fringes of the frames. Minds tormented by the lives they had led and the memories they had gathered. Tormented by the faces of those who loved them and those who do not. By the places they had done their work and the houses they once called home. A torment brought not by the mind itself, but by the creatures which looked upon anguish and ruin as if they are fruits.

The warm embrace of slumber was, to many, a comforting thing. The waning sun brought heads to their pillows, and rest served not only to heal the body of the waking world's damage but to escape – if only temporary – that world and its coils. What then do the minds locked away behind lock and bar know? Those minds surrounding this current path; their waking and slumber were no different. For these minds, escape was impossible.

The following of the path was halted, and a distant frame was drawn near. Merely a fraction of the world and mind within showed through the hazy-edged frame, though the frame's creator was no mystery. The hazy windows always seemed to speak; much could be told about the dreams within without making entrance.

From the path raised a blue, unadorned hoof, and with no resistance, it slipped past the thin barrier of the frame into the dream beyond. With wings spread, entrance into the secluded world was made.

~§~

Luna trotted to a halt as she landed atop the snowy roof of a small train station, her wings remaining half-spread to help her balance as she walked along the peak of the structure's shingled roof. Below, upon the wood-board station platform, stood Edenbrook, and with her back turned to the station proper, she hadn't noticed Luna in the slightest. Taking a moment, Luna scanned the dark, winter town around her; thick, black clouds above shed snow generously and shrouded the land from the sun's light.

Chilling wind blew along the roofs of buildings, carrying with it the snow that layered any upright surface. The occasional streetlamp and the few lights still lit in the windows of buildings had a hazy halo about the caused by the icy mists the wind carried along. Luna tucked her wings in, the cold of her feathers unpleasant against her sides. Out further across the town, nothing more than a dark gray void was visible; Luna knew well it was not the obscuration of the snow which caused it. A dream was finite, and be it a clear, beautiful valley or a snowy town, the edge was always near, though rarely noticed by the mind crafting it.

Luna looked down to find Edenbrook had departed, leaving no tracks in the thin veil of snow upon the platform. The word detail was quite unknown to dreams. Luna took a quick glance over her shoulder, seeing that her hooves had indeed left imprints behind. Her great leverage over the mind always seemed to find odd ways of manifesting.

Her wings unfurled, and she stepped from the edge of the roof, gliding to the platform without a sound. Quickly, she found Edenbrook; she had only walked a short way down the part of the platform covered by a slightly sloped roof. Luna stayed put, watching the lilac-furred mare turn and push open one of two doors leading into the station. Once the door shut Luna stepped to the windows flanking the doors, peering inside the station to find the place totally empty save for Edenbrook, who made her way towards the main doors.

Before she could cross the length of the empty station, Luna pulled the nearby doors open with a spell and walked inside. Edenbrook's ears perked as she flipped around, stopping dead in her tracks and glaring at the Princess with wide eyes. Once the doors had closed, the only sound in the station was the soft whistle of the cold wind through the cracks of the windows and doors.

“P-Princess Luna, Your Highness!” she exclaimed as she quickly bowed down, “I-I apologize, I didn’t see you on the train!”

Luna hummed, stepping closer. She had been expecting this; it took days, even weeks for experiences to translate into dreams. Her face had been remembered, but their relationship had not. However; there existed ways of bringing those memories in.

“Do rise. On the train, I was not.”

Complying, Eden still looked on nervously. “Oh… t-then, if you don’t mind me asking, Your Highness; what brings you out here?”

Luna stayed quiet as she glanced up at the schedule board to find – again - what she expected to find; chalk blobs that, in the peripheral, did well enough to look like text. Words often know they will never be looked at.

“Where is here?”

Edenbrook blinked a few times. “N-New Queensmouth, Your Highness.”

She looked back up to the schedule. “Your train arrived when?”

Edenbrook peered over her shoulder to check the board; the moment she laid eyes upon it those white shapes snapped into words and times.

“Fifteen minutes past ten, Your Highness.”

“What now, do you know, is the time?”

Knowingly, Edenbrook looked above the doors which she and Luna had entered through at the large clock fixed above. “It's… wha- midnight…”

Luna slowly began to walk around her. “Tis so. When now did your train arrive?”

Entirely confused, Eden shot her gaze back to the board, seeing it now listed her train as coming from an entirely different place, under a different identification number, and from a different time.

“H-Half past one… Your Highness…” she managed, her speech falling off as she glared at the chalked words.

Luna stopped her pacing, now standing behind her. Eden flipped around, fully facing her Princess, the schedule board, and the main doors of the station. With great confusion and fear, she stared back at Luna, who only offered her gaze as she awaited the inevitable.

Something clicked. “I'm dreaming.”

Luna smiled. “Indeed.”

She blinked several times and lifted her hoof to inspect it. “I'm dreaming… I've never been awake in a dream before!”

Luna nodded her head in a coaxing motion as she turned for the doors. “Aye, but you have been here before?”

Trotting alongside, Eden nodded. “Yes, I grew up here.”

The doors were opened by a quick spell, the sharp chill of the blowing ice initially shocking compared to the station's warmth. “I refer to the situation, not the place. You are not here on good terms.”

“H-How'd you know that?”

Luna stopped at the beginning of the gradual staircase leading down from the station and to the street. “Remember, dear Edenbrook, reality. We two have met before.”

There was a mere second of silence before Edenbrook gasped. “Right! T-The mental hospital! You sat and talked with me today!” she paused, and Luna looked down to her, watching as even greater realization began to set in, “wait… why are you telling me this? Why would my dreams be telling me to remember things that I know?”

“I am no figment.”

Her confused expression changed to something more akin to shock. “Wait, what?”

“This place is a creation of your memories. I am far from that.”

Eden shook her head. “You're… you're not actually here.”

“I do stand before you, do I not?”

Eden went silent, her gaze turning away and the shock in her expression slowly evolving into a contemplative scowl.

“Prove it.”

A split second later, the entire world went black, though Luna remained. Eden gasped and snapped her gaze left, right, up, and down in a futile attempt to find something more than the void.

“Satisfied?” Luna inquired as she turned and began to walk away.

Speechless, Edenbrook remained in place and watched as Luna disappeared through the void.

“W-Wha- come back! Don't just leave me here!” she exclaimed as she trotted towards the last place she had seen Luna.

Suddenly, she too passed through the void to find Luna waiting upon the same snowy staircase landing before the station. She came to a quick halt, looking around frantically to see that little had changed; the only thing different was the purely black square behind her.

Luna chuckled. “Such a simple trick, yet it never fails,” the shape disappeared, revealing that they had never left the station to begin with.

“W-Wha… I-I,” stammered Eden, “it was just a box?” Luna nodded. A short pause of thought came as a prelude to a sudden realization, one that Eden gasped loudly at. “Sweet Celestia, that means you're actually here! A-And… you have control over my dream?!”

“Aye.”

Edenbrook sat to her haunches, holding her temples in her hooves and shaking her head in disbelief. “All… all of those stories about a princess who watched over ponies in their sleep; they're true?!”

“A rhetorical question, I think.”

Eden looked up, holding her tongue a moment. “I guess so… but, what does this mean? Why are you here?”

Luna drew in a breath as she turned her gaze skyward to watch the snowflakes glimmer in the light of the station’s lamps. “There is much you must know, Edenbrook,” looking down to her, Luna nodded her head to signal for her to follow along as she began walking down the station steps towards the town's street. Concerned, yet curious, Edenbrook complied and trotted along to stay at Luna's side.

Groggily, her eyes began to flutter open. Like a machine, piece by piece began to switch on until, after a few seconds of fidgeting beneath the unfamiliar, thin sheets of a bed she was merely borrowing, everything finally came online. She lifted her head from the pillow, the ruffling of its fabric loud in the total silence, as no other ponies had risen yet. Her eyes were drawn to the room's thin window and what lay beyond; it was easy to see the morning landscape beyond was shrouded by dark storm clouds.

She quickly sat upright as the memories of her dream flooded in. Again, she took a look about the dimly lit room she and two other patients shared, this time to see if where she lay was truly reality.

“Luna?” she asked quietly, moving aside her sheets and continuing to survey the dim room for signs.

Everything seemed normal enough, aside from the memories that seemed to be burned into the backs of her eyes. She could still see her snowy home town of Queensmouth, the quiet train station, and the streets she and Luna had walked for what seemed to be hours. She could still hear Luna speaking on and on, every word altering and twisting reality away from what she had thought to be truth.

“Words… I need words!” she exclaimed, still keeping her voice low as she climbed out from the bottom bunk of the bed and began searching for anything with written text.

The room was fairly sparse; along with the two bunk beds pushed against opposing walls, the only other furniture was two folding chairs and a common table up against the same wall as the window. Aside from a worn white hoodie draped over the back of one chair, the room was entirely void of anything that would have words.

“Am I… still dreaming? You said you were off to visit others; why leave me in here?” she inquired as she paced the room.

Furthering her frustration was the fact the windowed door of her room was locked until 8 o'clock; she couldn't simply step outside into the rec area or the nurse station to find a book or clipboard. She came to the door, peering out through the little square of thick glass into the dark hall and empty hall. Hoping a nurse was nearby, she gave a few solid knocks in hopes of drawing somepony's attention.

“Ugh, what?! Is dinner served now?” exclaimed Dawn Swirl, the mare Edenbrook shared a bunk with, prompting Eden to look back over her shoulder to see the older, yellow-furred pegasus shoot upright in bed.

“What? No! I'm trying to figure out if this is a dream or not,” Eden returned, resuming her search for somepony who could open the door.

The mare grumbled to herself, shuffling around in her sheets. “No dinner. I had dinner. I wish I had dinner,” for a moment, she paused, and after several seconds ticked by, she gasped, “there was some dinner in the dream! Edenbook, I'm going to sleep for dinner!”

Edenbrook groaned. “Edenbrook, not book…” Eden's words trailed off as she realized something about what Dawn had said, “wait… what did you say about a dream?”

“I was eating dinner. Well, I did a lot more than eat dinner; I met…” she held her tongue a moment, “a Princess! Princess Luna! She's Princess Celestia's sister, did you know that? I saw her last night. I saw her yesterday, too. Or… was that the dream…” she finished thoughtfully, tapping her chin.

Eden's eyes went wide. “You… you saw Princess Luna in your dream?”

“I did, too.”

Both Eden and Dawn looked to the bottom bunk of the opposite bed to see that their less-than-quiet chatting had awoken Hazel Cup. The earth stallion took a glance between the two, his aptly colored hazel eyes still baggy from sleep.

Edenbrook shot a flabbergasted gaze between them. “Both of you? Y-You both saw her in your dreams?!”

Hazel nodded, his short, curly dark brown mane bobbing along. “I…I did. She talked to me. A lot…”

“She talked to me,” added Dawn, her head shaking in disbelief, “she said I'm sick. I don't want to be sick with the dream nightmares and the dream monsters, but she said I am. She's Princess Celestia's sister. She can't lie...”

Still entirely flabbergasted, Eden blinked a few times as she tried to make sense of things. “She actually was there… she can see into our dreams; just like those old tales! Hazel, what did she tell you?!”

He too shook his head. “I-I-I never… I never have good dreams. She was nice to me. I-I wish I could dream forever.”

“I'm glad your dream was nice, but what did she tell you?”

He looked up, his voice soft. “I'm not insane. I'm… infected. A parasite that slips in through nightmares and latches on... feeding off pain.”

Eden dropped to her haunches, clutching her temples in her hooves. “This is real. She told me the same thing.”

Dawn whimpered, her unfurled wings drooping at her sides. “I don't want to have the dream monsters in my head. I-I don't like things in my head.”

Edenbrook turned back to the door, knocking quicker and louder in hopes of drawing up a nurse. “Come on, we're awake! What's the point of putting me in the low-security area if you don't even let me walk around every once and a while?!”

Loudly and frantically Dawn Swirl began shushing as she hastily climbed down the steep stairs of the bunk, rushing over to pull Edenbrook away from the door. “No! No, stop! The loud knocking will bring them!”

Eden rolled her eyes. “Dawn, that's what I want to happen! The nurses and guards have keys to open the door.”

“No; the dream monsters!” she tapped her hoof on the tip of Eden's ear, “they can hear you from far away, and if they hear you, they'll come! I ran from them and Luna helped me run. Don't knock; they'll come here.”

Grumbling, Eden moved her aside and went back to the door, surveying the hall beyond. “I shouldn't even be in here; I'm not crazy.”

“Luna said we're not crazy, we're infected,” interjected Hazel, his tone a little more solemn than the usual saddened cadence Eden knew him to speak with; that is, when he did speak.

Sighing, Eden dropped to her haunches before the door. “I know. Doesn't change the fact I shouldn't be in here. I don't even want to kill myself anymore.”

“I told Luna that sometimes I want to die,” began Hazel, “she didn't like that. She was nice to me. She wants me to want to live.”

With her mouth slightly agape, Eden studied him for a moment. “I want you to want to live, too, Hazel.”

“Thanks, Edenbrook.”

With that, he snuggled back into bed, lying on his stomach and using his crossed hooves as pillows. For only a moment longer did Eden look on before turning back to the daunting door before her. It suddenly seemed a lot more intimidating than it ever had before. The whole world did. She no longer knew what to believe. She didn't know if she should feel hope or dread at the things she had been told.

The line between hope and despair had become unnaturally blurry.

Nº 11: PHANTOM

Author's Note

Recommended Listening

Nº 11: PHANTOM

Luna couldn’t help but yawn as she followed the paved walkway towards the doors of the institute. Above Canterlot there stretched a dark bank of storm clouds that gave the illusion that night was still abound when a fair thirty minutes had passed since the sun's rise. This late fall storm had been her biggest motivator for traveling to the Institute herself rather than enlisting her Night Guard and the chariot. Not only was it a ceremonial and traditional vessel, but it offered her a moment of tranquility; a time of meditation where not a soul in the world could come to her with inquiries or requests. While luxuries as such were quite appreciated, nothing could compare to the sensation of wind beneath her feathers.

More than that was the simple acknowledgment of flight itself. Knowing that every tiny movement of her wings controlled how and where she went in the sky was freeing; it was the one time she held true, boundless control. She did not need to worry about bearing, tradition, propriety, or politics. In the distant ether of dreams, she wielded less power than she did in the heights above Equestria. Despite an hour passing since she had departed the distant realm of dreams, it remained fresh in her mind. When she blinked, thinned, faded snapshots of the places she had visited over the long night appeared in the split second eigengrau of her eyelids.

By now, it had been a good 20 hours since she had slept. To the outside observer such a statement seemed quite untrue; she had spent many hours in the night leaned back in the cushions of her study's chair with the blue plumage of her wings wrapped around her figure like a feathery blanket, but despite the fact her eyes remained shut and her body remained still, her mind was still quite awake. Far more awake than any other time, in fact. A quick spell pulled open the institute's windowless, flat panel door to reveal the well lit security lock, and as she stepped inside, she met the gaze of the lapis-furred, white-maned pegasus in her dark gray security jacket behind the thick glass of the security lock's booth. The mare's eyes were wide with surprised embarrassment as she quickly set down the book she had been reading.

“Princess Luna…?”

“A good morning to you, Spearwind.”

“Morning, Princess!” Spearwind chimed back, doing her best to look awake and alert.

Luna blinked a few times as her eyes fully adjusted to the horribly bright little space, her pupils paper thin slits by now. “What novel entertains you on this storm cloud shrouded morn?”

She did a double take between the Princess and the closed book before her. “Oh, uh, it's just one of the books from the library upstairs.”

“Wards away boredom, does it?”

She relaxed a bit beneath those casual words. “Yes, it does, Your Highness.”

Luna offered a little smile. “Grant me entry, shall you?”

Spearwind nodded. “Of course, Your Highness!”

The red button upon the wall of her secure booth was pressed, and a buzzing tone played from a little loudspeaker somewhere as the door’s internal locks gave off their mechanical clunk. Luna swung the hefty thing to the side with a spell, gave Spearwind a smile, and stepped into the silent lobby.

The door sealed itself behind her, the clank of the latch echoing into the dark lobby; the only light to be lit was a lamp at the desk where the receptionist was normally found. She paid the place little heed and made her way towards the sealed double doors leading further into the institute; from now on, one singular room within the institute was of interest to her.

Luna shut the heavy door as gently as possible. Though closed, she left it unlocked as she turned to face the turquoise-furred pegasus cowering atop her quilt: Sky Stock. Her wings were wrapped around her sitting figure, her head was held low, and through her brow, she glared at Luna with eyes that seemed to ask ‘why would you return?’. Luna smiled gently as she entered the dim cell further; the thin window behind Sky's bed offered little light thanks to the clouds hiding the morning sun beyond. Stopping a few hoof lengths from the metal frame bed, Luna dropped to her haunches upon the concrete floor, her proximity causing Sky to scoot as far back on her bed as she could. Silence reigned supreme as the two simply stared at one another, nearly motionless.

“Have you slept well?” Luna finally inquired, ensuring to simply her speech. It was as if she hadn't spoken at all. She hadn't even blinked. “Did you sleep well?” She blinked, but Luna was quite sure the action had been involuntary. Luna held her tongue, studying Sky for a moment. “What do you feel, Sky?" Sky's brow furrowed a bit. “Do you feel angry with me?”

“Angry…”

Luna's ears perked as Sky turned away slightly. “Why do you feel angry?”

“You. The dreams are angry… because you…” she blinked hard, almost appearing to wince. She fell quiet.

“Because of me?” Luna inquired. Sky's jaw quivered gently, and her lips parted as if words had gotten trapped behind her tongue. “Sky, does the voice tell you to be angry?”

“Voice?”

Luna tapped her own temple with a hoof. “A voice within?” Sky looked rather worried. She remained silent, her gaze wandering from Luna's as she stared off into the folds of her quilt. “Sky, I want to help you.”

Sky flinched, her wing twitching as she slowly peered down to Luna; the look on her face had gone from apprehension to terror. Luna's eyes narrowed a bit as she studied Sky. Such words wouldn't ordinarily gain such a reaction.

“Hurt?” Sky trembled in a tone just slightly higher than a whisper.

“Nay, Sky, help rid you of this ailment.”

Her expression worsened. Suddenly, it clicked. Luna quickly held her tongue. Her words were being altered, just as had happened with Cirrus. Sky's somewhat frantic breaths overcame the silence of the room as she pushed her back against the wall her bed was butted against. The lack of power she held in this moment began to dig at Luna. That beast had stripped away her ability to hear and see what things Sky's waking mind perceived. The first step was separation; show her that this thing clawing into her thoughts was not a part of her as it so claimed to be. This thing knew well how to stop such a thing from happening.

Though her eyes remained locked with Sky's, that was hardly where her focus lay. She mulled over options, pondering not what path to take, but what paths existed. None truly seemed to. She began doubting the usefulness of listening to the thoughts within Sky’s mind; if the words she offered in return were to be altered by this thing, then there was little point in speaking. Each passing second grew her doubts. The physical plane would do her little good, she could see that obviously.

Luna stood up, her movements causing Sky to flinch. Blue magic began shimmering around Luna's horn, the spell drawing Sky's attention for a moment until her eyelids began fluttering, and in a matter of seconds, she dropped sideways in bed, fast asleep. The spell ceased, leaving Luna in the deathly silence of the cell. She stood unmoving for some time, staring at Sky's sleeping figure as, even now, she contemplated options. Of all the things she thought, it always circled back to the simplest of them; seek the subconscious. There, in that deep sanctum of the mind, she knew she held more leverage than she could ever hope to wield here in the physical space.

Separation, she thought, was still the foothill that resigned at the base of the seemingly insurmountable peak that was this ailment. There within, she thought that even if for but a moment, Sky’s thoughts could be hidden away from the commanding voice of the thing clawing through her mind. In that moment of clarity, she would be able to see for herself, rather than simply being told so, that the words she believed to be her own inner voices were quite the opposite. She came forward, stopping at the edge of Sky’s bed and slipping her left hoof out from its blue steel hoofguard. That hoof rose, pausing for a moment as she stared down at the soundly sleeping Sky for but a moment before gently placing her hoof upon her side, feeling the rise and fall of her breathing.

She closed her eyes, focusing on the rhythm and matching her own breathing to the steady pace. The scent of ozone hit the air as the misty black aura of magic which would cut through the barriers separating the waking world from the dream realm surrounded her horn. Every sense began to fade as her mind slipped away from her body until there was pure nothingness and utter, thoughtless silence. It lasted for a mere second until she opened her eyes to see the familiar star-dotted purples and blues of the dream realm ether.

As she expected, there stood a single frame alone in the ether off in the distance before her. Within the confines of the frame was that familiar mixing and writhing black and red, and although faint, she could hear the screech it spat out to ward her away. It was routine by now; the dream was encompassed in magic, sealing it away and allowing her to draw near, and like the tip of a hoof pressing upon a sheet of wet parchment, that same spell pushed and broke through the barrier of stinging ink and blood which the beast thought to be adequate defense. Luna looked on intently as her spell widened the tear, the writhing field waning to show the dreamscape beyond.

Once the tear was wide enough, she stepped through the fringes of the frame and into this new world - one of many streets within a detail-less Equestrian city. She focused upon the tear behind her for a moment, ensuring her spells held strong before turning forward and beginning off down the building-lined path, noting the color palette and architectural designs of the structures; this place was meant to mimic Canterlot. If she were a mile in the sky, she thought things might look somewhat acceptable, but at street level, the structures were more akin to looking as if they were made from folded paper rather than brick, plaster, and wood.

Again, she found herself curious at this lack of detail, and as she looked back on previous times of entrance into this dreamscape, she only had more questions than before. At the very core, she was still unsure if this place was created by Sky's mind, or the thing within. The slumbering mind did poorly with details, but it was quite keen on remembering that buildings should have doors. The closest parallel she could find was to a painting; colors were flat and textureless, making it seem as if there was no difference between the walls of nearby structures and the roads which they followed. There was also an unnatural coldness to the air, too. With the sun so high and bright, one would certainly expect warmth when walking these streets. It was a biting cold, one that almost made her teeth clatter, but one that cut deeper than the natural winds of winter would. It brought back memories from her last millennium.

Two eventualities were possible, and which was the lesser of two evils was something that escaped her. She failed to fathom what state of shattered disarray a mind must be in to produce such unhinged realities. If it were the case that this place was a projection from the beast and not her mind's work, then this thing held greater leverage than she had ever witnessed. The nightmares which plagued the slumber of those afflicted by these things were drawn from memory, and while true that the beasts brought terror upon the pony they latched onto, they did not create the dream or the things within it.

The disconnect from the mind was what pushed her towards the latter theory. There was no sense or feeling in this place, nor had there been in the misshapen forest or nonsensical white plane that she had visited in times past. The dreamer was absent in both spirit and presence. Only once had she met Sky within her own mind, and what she had met was but a shell of a pony. Even when she had called for help in her emotionless, monotone voice, Luna hadn’t felt the slightest tinge of emotion within the dream. She was quite sure those few words had truly come from Sky, and not the beast within. Such would explain why the ink and crimson field broke through and began encroaching shortly after.

She paused at an intersection and glanced either direction to find the adjacent streets were no different than the one she walked. Looking back, she could see her distant breach still holding strong. Silent and still, she stared into the rift and the ether beyond, wondering if the screeching blood and ink would attempt to seep its way in as it had when Sky had spoken her few words. That, too, swayed her towards believing this dream to be wholly crafted by the inner beast; it had only intervened when Sky spoke. Initially, she had believed the seizure which had torn her from the forest of pillars nights ago was the work of the beast, but it seemed more likely it had simply been chance; according to the file, such seizures were becoming increasingly frequent.

Her brow furrowed as she continued to glare into her breach. These ‘dreams’ were distractions and chaff meant to occupy her time and bar her from the thing she sought. Magic began shimmering around her horn, and the edges of her distant breach began to seal. Like two curtains being drawn the edges met with one another, leaving no trace they had ever existed. Return was still very possible without the breach; a painless return was not. To pull herself from a dream with force was to throw herself and the mind she occupied from a cliff. Waking was abrupt and unpleasant, but to go as deep as she needed to go, no gentle return was possible.

She turned, approaching one of the nearby buildings and stopping just before its smooth wall, studying it for the shortest of moments before drawing magic to her horn and dipping her head, aiming and casting forth the outline of a white rectangle upon it with magical light. She sent a pulse of energy into her horn, and a crack broke the air as the light outline became, for but a moment, hotter than a bolt of lightning.

Once a white outline, now a charred, smoldering rectangular cut into the very fabric of the dream. She raised a hoof and tapped at the center of the charred rectangle, that nudge being enough for it to fall inwards. Her heart skipped as she stared into a twilight park lit by the sad, orange glow of a dying, weeping sun, rather than the dreamless void she expected. Only her eyes moved as she studied the weepy oak trees, well-kept grass, the vibrant sunset-lit sky, and a bench off in the distance with two ponies sitting together upon it. She could see, quite plainly, that the pony seated on the left was Sky Stock.

She regained her composure a bit and unfroze her body, her wings ruffling a bit as she looked around at the surrounding falsehood to see that, surprisingly, nothing had changed. She drew in a breath and put her hoof through the hole she had cut, and the moment the slightly humid evening air of this new dream hit her hoof, a gripping, clawing sense of loss, anger, and utter heartbreak enveloped her body. It froze her again, making her shiver, yet a wide smile pursed her lips as she let out a huff of relief. Such an unwelcoming and deep-cutting pain had never been so wondrous to feel. This was no falsehood.

Her legs felt weaker as she fully stepped into the dream, the sounds of the park filling her ears; birds singing and chirping, leaves rustling in the breeze, and the faint murmur of two voices – one male and the other female - exchanging pained, tear-riddled words with one another. Her ears perked and aimed forward as she slowly made her way across the grass towards the bench, her eyes locked not with Sky, but the honey-yellow unicorn stallion who sat beside her. Still, their words were unintelligible, but what failed to escape was how their tears and shuddering breaths weakened and broke their voices.

She halted as this blue-gray coated stallion got to his hooves, his shortly cut silver mane hiding his eyes from her as he took several somber steps forward and, without another word or glance from either of the two, disappeared into nothing. Sky remained unmoving aside from how her cries shook her body. She hadn’t ever looked back when that stallion had departed, and in an instant, Luna understood why; be it here within the dream, or in the past, Sky had never looked back. Luna drew in a shaky breath, doing her best to keep her composure despite the foreign feelings that coursed through the entirety of her mind and soul. Long, had it been, since she had set hoof within a realm that writhed with such great pain.

Her ear flicked as a distant noise hit her senses. It was the screeching of the field. She spun around, gazing into the spinning and churning black and red that encroached upon her cut. She felt a tinge of terror; instantly, she knew it to not be her own. She turned back to meet Sky's gaze; she had bolted upright from the bench with her turquoise wings spread wide in preparation to flee. Several long seconds ticked by before Luna looked back into the encroaching ink and blood, her horn lighting as she quickly sealed her cut with a spell. The screeching ceased, and the rustle of leaves and chirping of birds resumed.

Her breath was still held in anticipation, waiting for the beast to begin cutting into the dream in an attempt to remove her. Regardless, she turned back to Sky, finding her terrified expression to be unchanging. A long moment of silence passed between the two as they glared at one another. Luna's chest tightened as she parted her lips in preparation to speak, fearing the reply.

“Sky Stock… does speech fail you?”

Her chest shuttered as fresh tears welled in her eyes, though her expression remained unchanging. “N-No…”

A wave of relief hit Luna, her posture softening as she huffed out a sigh. “You are here, then? In your entirety?”

“No… no-no-no, no Dream Princess, y-you make the dreams hurt!”

“Sky…”

The ground at her hooves rumbled as the sky began to bleed. The trees wilted and the grass browned as if under a flame as the black and red removed the sky. Birds sang no more as the temperature plummeted and the ear-shattering screeching roared into the realm. Luna winced, frantically looking in every direction as the once tranquil dream crumbled into chaos. Tears and cuts had begun opening within the trunks of trees and the meadow around her, revealing more and more of the bloody ink. The pattern, no matter near nor far, appeared the same in size and movement; it concealed its distance. She snapped her eyes up to the sky, now seeing that, despite looking just as it had moments ago, it had begun encompassing the remains of the tree canopies.

Without more hesitation, Luna ran for Sky, who still totally ignored the goings on around her and continued to glare at Luna. She came close to her side, pulled her close with a wing, and gave life to an azure bubble of shimmering magic that encompassed them both. Inside the bubble was a space of total peace and silence, while all around, the very fabric of the world beyond was slashed away by the black, blood-soaked claws of the beast. Mere seconds passed before the entirety of the spell-cast chamber the two resigned within was enveloped by the field, and Luna could now feel it tearing at her magic, putting all it’s might into piercing a hole through the barrier.

Her spell held well, giving her a moment to gain her bearings and look at this thing so vehemently trying to rid of her. A morbid curiosity took hold as she pondered what might happen should this thing grab hold of her. In the past, she had fought one such beast – albeit one of far lesser strength – hoof to hoof, and knew well they could do harm. True physical damage? Quite impossible. Damage to the mind which left phantom pain in her limbs and chest? Quite so. What damage, then, could this thing to? Dig in and implant itself within her mind? Tear away her limbs to leave her crippled in the lower plane of reality? Was this thing so grand in stature that it could kill her outright? She was in no hurry to find out.

She let out a breath, studying the surrounding terror for a moment more before looking to Sky Stock to find the blood-soaked ink staring back through her eyes. Her heart skipped a beat and she scrambled backwards, her rear quickly hitting the wall of her spell-cast chamber. In a flash, a spike of that red and black terror leapt from what had been Sky's eyes and pierced through the meat where her front right leg met her body. She screamed, casting a wall between them that acted as a shield and sword, sequestering her away from the possessed husk she thought had been Sky and cutting cleanly through the spike still impaled within her joint.

She yanked the dead thing out of her flesh with a spell, her leg nearly giving out as she dropped the sharp chunk to the floor of the chamber. All the red had seeped from the thing, leaving it looking like a charred piece of wood. She fell to her haunches, tears blurring her vision as she began to feel the warm wetness of blood run down her leg. She frantically looked into the surrounding field as she struggled to think past the burning of the deep wound and find a way forward. Somewhere beyond, Sky’s mind existed, but how far beyond was totally unknown.

Luna attempted to get to her hooves, but the moment significant pressure was placed on her leg, it gave out. She stumbled forward, catching herself with her good hoof and dropping back onto her haunches, and her right leg, blood now having ran far enough to drip from her hoof and onto the chamber floor, was cocked up and held against her chest. Panic gripped her thoughts as her mind ran rampant wondering what this would mean when she did finally tear herself from this place and return to reality. She craned her head down, staring into the gaping, blood-soaked hole left by the spike for but a moment before she let out a loud whimper and turned her gaze elsewhere.

She clenched her teeth, doing her best to hold back tears of agony as reality sunk in. This beast had won. Won the battle, but not the war. As much as she wanted to throw beams of searing magic in every direction to cut through and kill off the wretched blood and ink, she knew no good would come from it. She knew, within her little chamber of magic, she was almost entirely trapped. Every fiber of her being wanted to press onward as a show of defiance against this thing, to give it no leeway or rest in the fight, but as with all things, rationale overruled her brash and vengeful wishes.

She shut her eyes, let out a shaky, pained breath, and began working the spells which would rip her from this realm and drop her back into reality. Her surroundings abruptly disappeared, her guts feeling as if they were at the back of her throat as she fell through the surface she had been sitting upon into a world of rushing black and gray blurs. The pain felt in her wound was now felt all throughout every inch of her body as she fell. Her only wish, for that short moment, was to scream out in pain, but this limbo had taken that from her.

Her mind crashed back into her body, her legs nearly giving out as she stumbled backwards, eyes darting about frantically as her senses all returning within an instant. As if happening for the first time, the searing pain of her wound shot into the forefront of her thoughts, dropping her to her haunches just as it had before. She was paralyzed, only her eyes able to move with any sort of coordination as her mind still reeled from the drop. The thump of her heart pulsed in her ears, echoing as if at the far end of a tunnel. Control finally began returning, her head able to turn and wings able to flutter in a stifled manner. She rolled her head to the left, mouth slightly agape as she focused in on Sky, who was still sprawled out fast asleep atop her covers. Luna blinked rapidly, her hind legs shivering as she attempted to stand; something wasn't right.

There had been occasions in the past where such a swift exodus was in order, and on every occasion, once her mind had fully reached her body, she found herself faced with an utterly distraught pony. She was finally able to get her legs to respond, and just as it had been within the dream, her front leg nearly collapsed from the near unbearable bolt of pain that shot through her nerves the moment any pressure was placed upon her hoof. Still lacking coordination, she managed to half-stumble her way to Sky's bedside, her eyes frantically studying her face to see she looked rather peaceful.

“Sky?!” blurted Luna as she rocked her side to side with a spell, jostling the sleeping mare out of her induced slumber.

Her legs kicked about, sounds meant to be words coming out as nothing more than frightened babbles, and after a second, her once tiredly and frantically searching eyes met the worried, fearful gaze plastered across Luna’s face. They stared at one another for a long moment, Luna’s expression beginning to shift into one of misunderstanding as she looked at the now mostly undistraught pony before her.

“Sky…?” Luna swayed a bit, her pained limb causing her to wince as she used it to keep from falling, “What did you see?”

As per usual, silence was her reply. Slowly, Sky’s fright melted away under the flames of anger, and her usual scowl returned.

“G-Go away…”

Seeing her unharmed would, ordinarily, bring relief to her, but quite the opposite was true, for in this moment, she was supposed to be harmed. She should be in tears, clasping her temples between her hooves and reeling from the events that had transpired… but she wasn't. Luna silently glared at her in a mix of fear and confusion. She only had theories to cling to, nothing concrete or rigid. Was the beast so far ingrained in her mind that it could cast projections of her? The pony standing beside her in the bubble; had that been Sky or a projection? If it had been Sky, how ingrained was this thing that it could use her to simply slip past magic and attack her?

She drew in a breath, doing her best to calm her nerves as she backed away from Sky's bed, the burning in her leg having subsided enough for her to limp on it without sharp pains nearly collapsing her. She made her way to the door, stopping at the metal slab and looking at Sky for a moment longer, her gaze holding a weight of regret. She felt like a coward. A pit had opened in her stomach, and a voice nagged in the back of her head that she was weak for fleeing, but she knew better than to give credence to voices like it. She huffed out a breath and turned for the door, a spell undoing its latch with a mechanical clunk as it swung open to let her hobble into the hall, her few steps winding her a lot more than they should have. She leaned herself against the opposite wall, holding her pained leg up as she relit her horn, shutting and this time locking the door to the Sky's cell, that mechanical sound to her being the sound of a fate sealing.

“Princess Luna?”

She flinched, spinning around to find the familiar face of Nurse Hearthwarmth glaring at her with a concerned look. He stepped back, startled by her reaction to his words.

“Are you okay, Princess?”

Deathly silence gripped the hall as the two stared at one another, Luna’s expression quickly shifting from worry and pain to a somewhat neutral scowl as she regained her composure. “Nurse Hearthwarmth,” she took herself off the wall, doing her best to hide the pain caused by standing upright on her leg, “what have you seen here?”

He blinked a few times. “I’m sorry, Princess?”

“What have you seen here?” she inquired, stepping closer to him.

“I-I… I mean, nothing really, just you leaving…” He looks over to the door. “Leaving room 22.”

She craned her head down a bit to be eye level with him. “Precisely. Nothing.”

Before he could stammer out a reply, she marched past him, the clopping of her hooves echoing through the quiet hall as she made a turn down the hall to the institute's main stairwell. Her hoof falls grow distant, and the distinct sounds of the security door for the stairs opening and closing were the last sounds from her he heard.

The clop of her hooves against the polished marble was uneven. She had done a fair enough job hiding it from Nurse Hearthwarmth as well as the few other nurses she had passed on her way out, but a combination of the pain getting worse rather than fading and being far too tired to it energy towards covering up the limp meant even an untrained ear could tell quite plainly that her canter had a break in it. She took a moment to bring her gaze up from the passing patterns of the floor to see that the door of her personal quarters was finally nearing, and she breathed a sigh of relief at the thought of collapsing into her bed and fading into slumber.

By now, she had been awake for nearly a full 24 hours. Her many visits to the dreams of the institute’s inhabitants had all blurred into one, and at times she found herself questioning if certain things had happened in reality or beyond. Those 24 hours felt like 48, and in all actuality, they had been. Time slowed to a crawl when she stepped hoof into the dream realm, and despite never moving an inch, her body would still tire from the actions her mind experienced. It was a phenomenon she still found quite strange; a state of existence that is neither sleep nor awake with the negatives of both.

“Good morning, sister!”

She froze, her eyes again coming up from the floor and meeting with the face of her sister, who had just rounded the corner up ahead. Despite the cloud cover shrouding the mid-morning sun from shining brightly into the halls, her figure didn’t seem to lose radiance.

“Aye, morning to you, sister,” she mumbled groggily and continued limping her way towards the door of her chambers.

“Uhm,” Celestia’s smile faded quickly as she too resumed her advance, “are you alright, sister?”

“Aye.”

Celestia holds her tongue a moment, watching Luna’s approach. “Is your leg okay?”

Again, Luna halts, wobbling a bit from her total lack of energy and the annoying ache in her leg. “’Tis but a phantom pain. Holds no levity.”

Celestia blinks. “Phantom pain?”

“Caused by the happenings within a dream. Nothing you should take concern with.”

“Your dream, or the dream of somepony else?”

“Somepony else.”

The concern in her expression grew. “Did they… attack you?”

“Nothing you should take concern with, sister.”

Her tone was hollow. A long pause struck Celestia as she stared back at Luna, trying her best to peer through that blank face and catch a glimpse of what she knew existed behind it, but not a single speck was let out. She huffs a breath through her nostrils, “I… assume you’re off to bed?” Luna gave a little nod. “I won’t hold you up any longer, then.” Celestia stepped forward, nuzzling her muzzle into the crook of Luna’s neck, “Have a good night… or, morning, rather!” she chuckled, stepping back and giving a little smile.

There was a moment of silence from Luna, her eyes still locked with Celestia’s before she finally blinked a few times and nodded once more. “I shall, thank you, sister.” She nuzzled the other alicorn briefly.

With that, she continued past Celestia towards her chamber door. Staying in place, Celestia watched in silence as her sister limped her way down the hall, eventually making it to her door and entering without another word or a peek back.

Nº 4: PURE WHITE

Clouds had begun gathering over the nightly scape of Canterlot, blotting out what pale light her waning moon offered. Through a small, steel-barred window, Luna watched the dark world beyond, said window placed so high upon the wall that the normal pony would have to stand upon their hind legs to get a view of the outdoors. The cell she occupied was silent, but not empty. Her eyes shut, a deep breath of air flowing through her barely parted lips as she calmed herself, the silence of the room ringing in her ears. She looked over her shoulder, eyes adjusting to the darkness as she watched the soundly slumbering mare of turquois fur and cream mane beneath her colorful quilt, the pattern of which was etched into Luna’s mind as if it were an image carved upon a slab of wood.

She came to the bedside, her metal shoes silent even upon the hard, cold concrete floor of the cell. She outstretched a hoof, pausing a moment as she looked at her own limb, what little light leaked into the near pitch-black cell gleaming upon the blued steel of her hoof guard. A teal aura encompassed the armor, removing it and setting it to the floor, letting her bare hoof to be laid upon the mare’s side through her blanket. The world was shut out, a cold aura of misty, dark magic forming around her horn as she bridged the gap between her reality and the dream realm. Sense left her body, a new kind of silence taking her senses as she opened her eyes to an infinite sky of stars. She hadn’t made the same mistake of attempting to directly influence this mare as she had in the prior morning.

Within this place, every conscious presented itself, no matter near or far. Frames of the mind would begin to fill the endless void of stars she occupied until nothing but visions of dreams filled her sight as if she peered through an infinite number of windows. If this were any other night, she would stroll along an imagined path as if taking a trot through the castle gardens, perusing the memories and dreams of her ponies as if they were fine works of art within an endless gallery. Tonight was no such night. Now, only a single frame faded into the ether, that single frame being nothing more than a blotched, stinging mess of crimson and jet. It writhed as if in pain, an aura of coldness surrounding it as she approached, faint echoes of roaring noise beginning to replace the silence.

She stopped short, the rumbling sound of the frame being just on the brink of unbearable. As one would look upon a corpse, she gazed into the frame, hardly knowing what her next step should be. Her contemplation led to an idea, or rather, a theory. What she looked upon might not be the state of this mare's mind. What she looked upon was interference. A shield. A barricade. The creature latched upon her mind knew who and what Luna was, and thus, this was its defense. If the fairly minor beast within Cirrus sensed Luna, then whatever spawn of Tartarus occupied this mare's mind undoubtedly could.

A sphere of blue magical aura encompassed the frame, totally ceasing the echoing roars as it contained the thing. Slowly, she stepped closer and closer as her sphere of magic shrunk and shrunk, eventually conforming with the rectangular shape of the frame, allowing her to stand before the edgeless, writhing image. She circled the two-dimensional thing, the nonsensical smatterings of colors continuing their charade. Scowling, Luna pushed her magic into the center of the frame, watching from the side as a stretched bulge of the image pushed outward, still surrounded by her aura. She pushed on further, straining against it as if she were pushing inward upon a rubber band. Then, she paused. She held steady, looking at the long stretch she had caused. Her scowl lessened. With little difficulty, she connected both sides of her aura in the center of the stretch, a purely white dot forming as she pierced the barrier.

She stepped closer, the white dot growing, never changing color as she widened the breach, peering further and further within. Finally, her breach was wide enough to step through, and thus, she entered. Standing within the white space, she found the floor to be sharp and angular, having many small ridges and edges as if it were a mess of cubes melded together. Keeping her breach in place, she ventured further forward, her magic sparking to life as she brought existence to a little black drawstring sack, contained within being a fine black pigment one would mix with bits of water to create ink. Gathering a pinch in a spell, she sprinkled it about the floor before her, finding the surface to be made of a geometric mess of harsh angles. It was as if hundreds of small mountains had been filed to a point and spread across the floor. She blinked several times. Were the walls and ceiling in a similar state? On such a note, where were the walls and ceiling within this damaged place? Taking a new pinch of dust, she cast it forth skyward, watching as the cloud connected with nothing, only slowly settling to the floor some distance away.

She hummed. They were quite some distance away. A new pinch was gathered, and she sent it forward with great speed, watching as it traveled until it was no longer visible. Her brow raised as she stepped forward, only continuing for a few steps until her nose ran into something totally flat and cold. She stepped back, pinching some dust and spreading it out before herself to find a smooth wall, yet somehow, right before her face, there was a square hole, as if it were a window on the side of a building. The dust had passed through, yet she had not? She put a hoof forward, holding it through the window her nose had just bumped into. Curiously, a new pinch of black dust was held just above her hoof, and upon its release, she found this wall to be entirely two dimensional. She moved her hoof down, and as if nothing at all were there, it passed right through what chunk of the wall had been coated with her dye. She pulled it free of the surface as if nothing were present, however, upon driving her hoof forward once more, she found it to be solid.

Again, she blinked multiple times before turning around, disregarding the nonsensical surface as she made her way across the uneven, jagged floor around her breach. She circled the thing, watching as the circle of starry space she had come in through rotated away, its two-dimensional nature meaning that, for a split second, nothing was visible before it turned back into the circle of starry infinity. The clack of hoof upon stone brought her vision around to find the mare whose mind she occupied standing a few hooflengths away.

Luna turned to face her, looking over the neutral faced mare a moment before gathering a pinch of dye from her bag, sprinkling it across the mare to see it settle upon her as if it were settling atop a stone statue, not a single pigment sinking into her coat or mane, rather, simply sitting atop it. Luna stepped forward, circling the mare and watching as not a single movement came from the stoic figure.

“Help,” came a quiet, female voice.

“Thou speaketh?” Luna replied, keeping her eyes upon the still unmoved figure of which the voice had not come from.

“Who are you. Help.”

Luna peered in every direction imaginable, never seeing a source to the voice.

“Princess Luna, and we shall help.”

“Can you.”

Luna held her tongue, looking to her breach to ensure its stability.

“Aye.”

“I can you. I can you,” repeated the mare's monotone voice.

Luna contemplated that reply a moment. This mare might not have an understanding of her way with words.

“Yes. We can help.”

“We can help who.”

Again, Luna stopped.

“I can help you, mare.”

“I can you. We can you. Who can you.”

Luna felt a sting in her magic, drawing her gaze to the breach once more to find that crimson and jet field to be seeping into this white reality. She flinched as a sharp stab of noise broke the quiet place, that split moment of sound being exactly what she had heard the prior morning when peeking directly into the mare's mind. With haste, she darted through her closing breach, the cacophony pulsing in and out in erratic periods. Walking backwards through her starry sky, she let the breach seal, that pulsing sound steading into the unending, unnatural scream of pure noise she had known from the first visit.

Luna pulled herself from the dream realm, the sensation of existence returning to her senses. The mare before her continued her unmoving slumber. Gingerly, Luna took her hoof from her side, letting it down to the concrete and reacquainting it with the chilly blue steel of its guard. Drawing in a breath, Luna took a moment to take in the cell around her as her mind attempted to unscramble itself. In her years, in the hours upon hours she had spent within the far realm of dreams, she had never witnessed something of that caliber. Hooves a little shaky, she stepped away from the bedside, standing in the middle of the room as she drew in a long breath.

That white, nonsensical world was the state of this mare’s mind. This mare's mind failed to fathom its own existence. It held no solid depiction of reality. What hurt the worst, what brought the most painful knot to her stomach and the most wretched ache to her heart, was the creeping feeling she had no way of repairing what damage has clearly been done. In the past, what problems she encountered always held some level of familiarity; she knew, at a base level, where to begin to mitigate a problem. With this mare, she had no beginning point. There were no ledges to grasp at the foot of this cliff.

Again, she drew in a breath, calming her nerves. She had surmounted higher peaks than this. As with anything, time was needed. One last time, she looked over her shoulder at the sleeping mare before turning for the cell’s featureless door, her horn working a silent spell to grand her passage through the shut fixture, ensuring its noisy mechanism never had to work so she may maintain her clandestine nature. Her eyes adjusted, the abysmal level of light meaning her finely tuned senses could only show her a monochromatic, detail-less image of the corridor. After a little look around, she made a turn to the left; further into the institute, rather than towards the lobby and exit. Eventually, her corridor made a right turn, only leading her further down a hall which was visibly indistinguishable from the previous. Nothing but doors and number plates.

Her ear flicked, the distant clunk of a door’s latch opening echoing through the hall. Seconds later, another, far louder clunk rang through, freezing her in place as she looked over her shoulder, the sounds having come from where she had come from. Such a grand noise could only be made by the two armored doors which led into the original hall from the stairs. Then, a small smattering of light came down the corridor, clearly produced by a personal torch rather than the terrible fluorescence within the ceiling. Turning around, Luna began making her way towards the turn in the hall, stopping just before the corner, listening as hoofsteps drew closer and closer and this pony’s light grew brighter and brighter. She adjusted her eyes accordingly, knowing well when this pony came within view their light would be quite harsh.

The brown-furred stallion finally came to the corner, his eyes instantly locking with hers. He jumped, eyes wide with fright as he scrambled back, his light falling from his green aura as he let out a startled yelp.

“What business hath thee within these halls?” Luna inquired, following him backwards and lowering her head to be eye-level with him.

He stammered, back against the wall as his terrified gaze darted over what little silhouette of her he could see, the only defining features being her waving mane and gently glowing azure eyes.

“I-I work here!” he blurted, shrinking further against the wall.

She huffed through her nostrils, ears flat with her head. “And what should that entail?”

“W-What?!”

“Dost thou work here within?”

He blinked a few times. “Y-Yeah?”

She came a little closer. “What should that entail?”

He visibly swallowed. “I-I-I’m a nurse.”

She looked him over, noting his robin’s egg blue coat adorned with both the name of the wearer and the name of the institution.

“Nurse Hearthwarmth.”

He nodded.

She craned her head back a bit. “Pleasant name.”

“T-Thank you, your Highness.”

Her ear flicked. “Recognize us, aye?”

“You’re… Princess Luna, right?”

“Aye.”

“It’d be hard to not recognize royalty, your Highness.”

“Quite.”

There was a pause.

“Uh… so, may I ask why you’re here?”

“Visitation.”

He looked a little concerned. “Do you know somepony here?”

“Formally, nay. Room number 22.”

His posture relaxed a little. “Sky Stock. She’s… one of the more far-gone patients here. If you don’t mind me asking, your Highness, how do you know her?”

“Pure coincidence. Until current we knew nothing of her name.”

“Oh. Uh… well, is there anything else I can help you with, your Highness?”

She gave him a bit of space to breathe. “Possibly. The higher halls of this institution, be they as these?”

“I-I'm sorry, your Highness, I don’t quite get what you mean.”

“Halls above, hold they any difference to these?”

A little pause went by before he perked up a bit. "Oh! No, not really. Bland, white, and sterile. There’s a commons area on the floor just above this one, but other than that, it’s very uniform and, well, boring.”

She hummed knowingly. “Halls so clean and lifeless as these speak with volume held by halls of our own home, young stallion. We come not for spectacle. We come to listen. To hear what hath been cast into darkness beneath door latches and window bars.”

Still quite bewildered by both her presence and her words, the nurse opted to hold his tongue as she stepped to the side, giving him some room to get back underway. Clearing his throat, he collected his still alight torch from the hard tile, making sure to not shine it towards the Princess.

“Travel on, Nurse Hearthwarmth. Shalt not be the last of our standing face to face, this moment.”

Watching on a moment as she went down the hall from which he had come, Hearthwarmth raised a brow. “You’ll be coming back?”

He watched as her ear flicked, her back staying turned to him. “Shall not leave until the final soul depart from these cells, and in their departure, nev’r peeketh behind at trails already trodden.”

Blinking a few times, Hearthwarmth shook his head and looked back to the hall before him, his walking about to resume, but being paused as a sudden cease to Luna’s hoofsteps came. He took a step back, looking down the hall to find the princess to be nowhere within the corridor. Again, he blinked, shining his light down said hall in total bewilderment.

“Your Highness?” He called, the silence of the hall being the only reply.

The gentle tap of a pencil being set upon a writing mat hardly disturbed the silence of Luna’s study. Following that miniscule rap of sound came the calm rustle of paper as Luna held before herself the finished imprint she had worked throughout the morning to create. These things, to the ordinary, untrained eye, would seem to be broken, nonsensical pencil sketches done in haste, but in reality, to Luna, they were physical windows into the dreams and visions of her ponies. What she currently held was an image which had translated nicely to paper from graphite; an infinite void of white, only broken by a black blotch of geometric mess on the ground and a dusted wall with a window cut in its center.

In her studies of the dream realm, and of dreams themselves, she had begun the act of recording the most notable of her experiences, keeping them for further study or to present, at a later date, to the very pony who had dreamt the image. Once a dream was dreamt, and once she had witnessed it, that creation faded into a memory, existing nowhere but the mind of the beholders, and as with any memory it would exist with error and misinterpretation. Her recordings, the very imprint she held within her magic, gave longer life to a single frame of those volatile weavings of the mind. They gave them rigidity, allowing them to remain steadfast against the withering of time.

Luna blinked as a muffled, yet still rumbling and thunderous crack of lightening cut the silence. She took a moment to look beyond her study to the rainy landscape of Equestria that laid beyond, the early morning sun hardly giving light to the land or her study. Returning to her work, a wooden dowel was brought forth from one of many drawers about her grand desk, and the paper was carefully wrapped around the dowel to form a tube. From elsewhere on the table came a stamp as well as a stick of light blue wax, which had its tip held a distance above the rolled paper as Luna's magic forced the wax to melt with a spell. A healthy dollop of wax was applied, the stamp was brought forth, rolled along the wax to seal the rolled paper, and then the dowel was removed to leave a perfectly rolled document.

In a fluid motion, everything but the scroll was returned to their rightful places. Leaning back in her chair, she looked below her desk to one of three standalone wooden cabinets, the centermost of them being opened to reveal a finely stacked group of scrolls identical in size and shape of the one she held. The newest was brought down, set upon the top of the honeycomb-like stack, and the cabinet was shut. Upon sitting back up straight and gazing out across her study, her ear flicked as it detected the finest of sounds; distantly approaching hoofsteps. Patiently, she watched the far off entrance to the study, listening intently as they drew closer and closer before, finally, Frolicsome Meadowlark entered.

“The package you requested, your Majesty,” he spoke upon entry, bowing at the door.

“Wonderful, dear Frolicsome,” returned Luna, watching as he stood and approached with the aforementioned ‘package’ within his pale white aura.

Stopping a few chairs down from her head position at the grand desk, he floated a burlap draw bag before her, allowing for her to take it within her own spell. Bringing it closer, she opened it and peeked inside to find a gathering of many gold coins; all 50 bit notations.

“Many thanks.” Luna drew the little sack shut, setting it before her upon the desk, the coins within jingling gently against one another.

He bowed once more. “Of course, your Majesty.”

“Not observed withdrawing these funds, aye?”

“Of course not, your Majesty. Only the teller is ever in the Treasury.”

“Wonderful.”

“May I ask why the withdrawal of such a small amount from your personal allowance must be so… clandestine?”

“Sister shalt inquire, and we wish not explain ourselves.”

Again, he bowed. “Understood, your Highness.”

"Heard anything of the investigation?"

"Not a peep thus far, your Highness."

"Very well. Dismissed, Frolicsome."

With that, he began his departure, Luna’s ear flicking once more as she heard the overlapping of hoofsteps with his. Far different in tone; deeper and harder. Certainly recognizable. Just as Frolicsome passed out of view through the doorway, her ears caught the cheerful voice of her sister giving a good morning and wishing him a good day.

“And good morning to you, as well, Luna!” she chimed, peeking her head through the door.

“As to th- you,” replied Luna, correcting herself before sister could.

“Enjoying the rain?”

“Aye… yes.”

“Oh, I am, too! Makes for good meditation, right?”

Luna’s eyes narrowed only a bit, the tip of her hoof digging into her seat between her haunches. “It does, indeed.”

Now fully entering, her sister stood at that very far end of the room in silence a moment as she traded a glance with Luna’s Night Guard, who were as usual stationed behind her on both flanks.

“Going to do some rainy-day shopping?”

Luna’s hoof held still.

“An odd inquiry.”

“Well, I noticed in the Treasury log book that a thousand bits had been withdrawn from your allowance, so I simply assumed…” she paused, taking note of the ever-so-slight scowl present upon Luna’s expression, “not being nosy! It was simple coincidence that I too was making a withdrawal this morning.”

“Shopping. Indeed, shopping.”

Her sister smiled a bit. “I, too, planned on doing some spending! Maybe some new scarves and coats, since its beginning to get cold out.” There was the slightest pause. “What did you plan on doing?”

Such a question came not from friendly curiosity, Luna knew this well. Her sister seemed like a vulture, probing not with talons, but with constant inquiry, always wishing to know what she may be up to so that, in nearly all cases, she may dispute Luna’s actions.

“A finer cloak,” she replied, “one of thicker fabric. We too hath noted the growing chill.”

“I too, have noted the cold?” replied her sister, veiling her correction as a question.

Luna’s hoof dug into the chair once more. “Yes.”

“These things take time, Luna. Adjusting your speech is going to be the biggest way you’ll adapt to modern Equestria, and it will prove to be the hardest.”

Her hoof paused once more. She thought a moment. Sister was right in that regard; those around her occasionally had difficulty in understanding her words.

“You’ve been practicing, right?” her sister asked after a moment.

“Yes,” she lied in reply.

“Well, practice makes perfect!”

The study fell silent. Celestia took a glance around the dark office for a moment before letting out a tiny sigh.

“Well, have a good morning!” she called before departing, not giving Luna time to reply or so much as wave.

Luna stared blankly at the ajar door to her study. She huffed out a short breath, tucking her satchel of coins into a little empty drawer in the organizing cabinet atop her desk. Taking her hoof away from her seat and placing it upon the edge of the desk, she gazed out into the dark, stormy morning with an absent-minded gaze. She hadn’t felt that tired earlier, despite her normal bed-time having passed a good hour ago, but now, her body hungered to be laid down in the sheets of her bed.