A soft wind grazed the meadow, its touch moving the blades of grass in a graceful dance. The sparse clouds moving with the support of local pegasi helped travelers, merchants, and all sorts of ponies move comfortably throughout the many masterfully created and maintained roads that led to the castle.

The Everfree Castle sat on a small hill in the middle of sun-blessed plains. Sisters of the Sun and Moon built it from the ground up. When Discord reigned chaos upon Equestria, the sisters stood against and defeated the Lord of Mischief. Ponies, overjoyed that their chaotic shackles had been broken threw themselves to the Sister of the Sun yelling out.

‘’We’ll be free forever!’’

They pleaded with Celestia to help them rebuild and lead them. Celestia humbly accepted the task and with her sister, they started unifying the broken nation bit by bit. The Everfree Castle signified the nation’s prosperity over time, the castle became grander and more opulent the richer the country became.

And now it was at the peak of its magnificence, with hundreds of rooms of all varying sizes dotted the halls lit by steel braziers. The rooms were mostly for the castle's personnel, but a sizeable number were dedicated to guests; one of the guest rooms, in particular, was avoided by staff and guests alike.

One would feel the hairs on their back rise and a feeling of dread and terror as they passed in front of the door of that accursed room. But it was not the room itself that was cursed.

It was the… thing inside the room that made the room so incomprehensibly fear-inducing. The Herald of Windigoes, Child of the Void, and The Harbinger of Chaos were a few of the titles given to it. But one in particular stuck out.

The Nightmare.

Selene woke up with a yawn. She was doing much, much better! It was all thanks to Mo-Princess Celestia. With considerable effort, she stretched her front hooves into the air and let them fall on each side of her head after she was sure that they were stretched properly. She couldn’t stretch her legs though, not that she didn’t want to; she lost all feeling below her belly. Alright, it was time to start her day, she didn’t want to be late for breakfast after all!

She took a large breath and closed her eyes.

…

And let it all out, and opened her eyes.

Time to move.

She took hold of one of her back legs with shaky hooves and threw it to the edge of the bed. Okay, this was going fine, time for the other one.

‘’Ah-’’

*thunk*

Ow.

She threw her leg with too much force, and now she had a surprise meeting with the wooden floor. Hello, Mr. Plank. They were meeting awfully often these days, haven’t they?

Normally, a maid would help her, but she hasn’t been showing up lately. Was it something she said? Selene didn’t know, but the maids never stuck around her; a new one would replace the previous one every week or so.

No use thinking about it now, she’s got her sights set on something else.

‘’Hello Wheelie, did you miss me?’’ She giggled and slowly dragged herself towards ‘Wheelie’.

Wheelie stood on the other side of the room, it was a wooden plank that stood upon four wheels. There was a small yet comfortable red pillow on top of it, when she still had some sense in her bottom it helped massively but it was of no use to her now. She still kept it on though, it made Wheelie look more regal.

It was a gift from Celestia to Selene, and she could never thank her enough for…anything. This was just another one on the list for which she would be forever thankful.

Selene pulled herself on top of Wheelie and took a minute to rest, her working hooves were already tired.

‘’Onwards we go! Hehehe.’’

Selene positioned her hooves on each side of the cart.

‘’And, one,’’ she pulled a little forward.

‘’And, two,’’ she pushed a little backward.

‘’Three!’’ she pushed with all her might towards the door and let go of her hooves, moving at record speed to the door.

‘’No wait! Slow down!’’ Unfortunately, she might have used a bit too much power to push her already light-as-a-feather body.

Fortunately, she was able to slow herself down just enough to hit the door but not hit it too hard, resulting in a light tap on her head.

‘’Owie.’’ she rubbed the light swelling on her forehead before reaching for the door, opening it, and pushing herself to the hallway.

It seemed like the hallway was empty, strange she thought; why was it always empty when she came out? Even when a maid was helping her it was empty. Well, Selene preferred it this way, she could get around an empty place with much more ease. So, with the occasional wheel squeak, she made her way through the empty halls quite fast.

Ah, a corner. Unfortunately, Wheelie wasn’t ideal for corners; a long straight path and she would fly but a corner? She’d have to slow down regrettably.

An idea popped into her head, a brilliant idea she had the last time she was faced with a corner but couldn’t apply it because the hall was filled with ponies, but this time she would be free to apply it.

Instead of slowing down, she picked up speed. Selene’s eyes narrowed, her head leaned forward and she focused on the incoming corner. At this rate, if she didn’t do something she would crash into the wall.

Just as she crossed the point of no return, she exerted much of her physical strength and planted her left hoof on the ground, and using the remaining amount of her energy she pushed as hard as she could while trying to keep her left hoof steady. Her efforts proved fruitful and she was able to make a sharp left turn clumsily yet successfully avoiding the intimidating stone wall in front of her.

‘’Y-yes! I did it!’’ she kept pushing, using both her hooves to keep the momentum up as she flew at speeds she had never reached before. ‘’Omfhp!’’ Until she crashed into an unsuspecting maid.

Selene was thrown off Wheelie and again she had a surprise meeting with the floor, this time hurt a lot more though. Before she could do or say anything she heard a gasp.

‘’I-it’s you!’’ the maid half yelled half whispered, as she backed away little by little.

It was Dew Drop! Her first helper when she arrived here, she hadn’t seen her in a while. Hey, maybe she could help Selene get back on Wheelie? Where was he anyway? She hoped he wasn’t broken.

‘’He-’’

‘’Don’t speak to me! I don’t want to be cursed!’’ she spat out the words, and the harsh words were accompanied by a glare that could bore a hole into Selene’s head.

‘’I won’t curse you…’’ Selene said meekly, her downcast head concealing her eyes. They always looked scared when they saw her eyes. So she tried to hide them.

‘’Shut up! Shut up! Please shut up!’’ The terrified maid yelled out and started running away.

Selene was left alone on the carpeted floor. She silently watched as Dew Drop fled as if she saw a monster. Selene didn’t say anything as she crawled over to the knocked-down Wheelie and flipped it with a huff. She crawled over to the wall and leaned towards it to rest for a minute before returning to Wheelie. She rubbed away the wetness in her eyes and slowly pushed herself towards the dining room.

Selene didn’t dare say anything lest she curse something for the rest of the journey.

She slowly grew to enjoy the silence of empty halls.

Selene was back in her room. The Princess couldn’t make time as she was busy with…something she didn’t really know or was informed about but it must have been pretty important.

Now there was yet another challenge for her to prevail against.

‘’It’s you and me again,’’ Selene said to her foe, who didn’t bother replying. ‘’I won’t lose to you today.’’

Selene glared at the chair from down below on Wheelie. She didn’t like getting up on the chair it was easier with a helping hoof but, well…

She didn’t think she would get much of that soon.

‘’Okay, I have to do this. I won’t fall this time.’’ Selene reassured herself and with newfound confidence threw her hooves over the seat of the chair. Alright, the first step was a success.

‘’Come on!’’ Selene whispered through gritted teeth as she tried to pull herself up to no avail. With shaky hooves, she pulled herself. She pulled like there would be no tomorrow because maybe there wouldn’t be one.

Finally, she thought, flopping her legs down and letting them swing from the chair as she sat up. Although her face was one of exhaustion she had a huge smile on her face. She had won.

‘’Take that, stupid chair.’’ She lightly slapped the seat of the humbled chair.

Selene looked at the table covered in all sorts of papers. Some papers were filled to the brim from back to front. Some were crumbled up and tossed around haphazardly. And some empty ones were silently whispering to her, with honeyed words so sweet. She let the words slip into her ears and she picked up the quill.

After hours of vigorous work, she had made considerable progress. Selene set the quill back down and picked up the last page she worked on.

‘’Yes! I like where this is-afhk, ack, koff!’’ A violent coughing fit took over her body.

Selene's head hovered over the table, leaving her a panting mess. After taking a few breaths to calm down and rest, she opened her eyes to have her vision painted red. The paper she had just finished working on had been ruined. She looked at her hoof, and it was similarly covered in this redness.

These coughs had been becoming more of a nuisance lately. Selene wiped her hoof on the now useless piece of paper; the crumbled ball of red and yellow was tossed away from the table.

She grumbled and took a moment to reorient herself before continuing. She had been working on this ever since Celestia gave her a stack of papers and a quill. It was something she had wanted to do for a long time but couldn’t do because her parents never gave her the opportunity. It was no masterpiece by any means but it was hers.

Her hoof started to ache so she put the quill down, she didn’t want to waste pages with her already sub-par calligraphy skills and the coughs becoming increasingly common. She already wasted enough paper.

Once she tried to use her mouth to hold the quill, it might not have been her most brilliant plan. She might or might not have choked on the feather.

‘’Selene, are you here dear?’’

Before she could reminisce about not-so-fun memories a knock on her door broke her out of her deep concentration. The knock was followed by a voice sweet as honey, the moment it reached Selene’s ears she was already trying to get out of the chair to rush towards the door. Her rushed attempt at getting off the chair failed and she crumpled to the ground once again taking the small wooden chair along with her.

‘’Selene?!’’ screamed Celestia, in panic. ‘’I’m coming in!’’ Before promptly slamming the door and charging into the room. As soon as she saw Selene on the floor she hurried to her.

‘’I’m okay, I’m ok-’’ Selene couldn’t even finish her sentence before she was engulfed in a golden aura and lifted up into the air.

‘’What happened?’’ Celestia asked, her voice was laced with obvious concern.

‘’...I fell off the chair.’’

Celestia hummed in deliberation while she moved closer to the table. Selene allowed her eyes to be closed, she felt as if she was swimming in a sea of love. Much to her dislike though, she slowly lost the feeling, and opening her eyes she saw that Celestia had placed Selene in her bed.

‘’Do be more careful dear,’’ Celestia whispered from the side of the bed with a smile.

‘’I don’t wanna sleep.’’ Selene hummed out. ‘’I wanna talk to you, Princess…’’

‘’As you wish my courageous filly.’’ Celestia sat on the foot of the bed.

They talked for hours, but to Selene, it felt like mere seconds, about their days, about their thoughts, about yummy cakes. Celestia talked and Selene listened she loved every second of it. She didn’t care if she was cursed if it meant she could be with Celestia. Their moment was however cut short as Selene’s eyes slowly started to droop and she allowed a small yawn to escape from her equally small mouth.

‘’You should sleep now,’’ said Celestia as she placed a small kiss on Selene’s forehead.

Selene smiled. ‘’Good night, Mom. I love you,’’ said Selene without even realizing what she said.

Celestia paused for a second. ‘’I love you too dear.’’ The words sounded hurt. Selene didn’t notice.

Selene felt the blanket being drawn over her body and she slowly drifted into a peaceful slumber under the serene Moon.

…

She saw the crumbled-up paper. She knew it might have been too late. She knew she had to do something. She might lose her dignity, she might go behind everything she stood for. But she can’t lose them. She will save both of them.

She went to talk to the statue.

Luna watched intently in the endless space. Ignoring the nightmares of other ponies, they weren’t important now.

She looked for any signs, any possibility of his dreams. They existed, she saw them before but she didn’t interfere with them even when she was they were in turbulence. She thought he would wish that way.

How she was wrong. And now he was suffering because of her. She lost her only friend because of herself. Luna would save him from her.

She wandered the cold space for hours, navigating expertly in the realm. Where was he? Was Nightmare Moon hiding his presence? Was Luna not strong enough to even see through that?

A flicker of light. A flame dying slowly. She felt it, it was him. She could feel it, somehow Nightmare Moon was severed from her friend. Luna rushed towards the flame and grasped it as if her life depended on it, and her vision became black.

Luna woke up in a railroad car. The sounds of the wheels moving along the tracks were almost deafening. She looked around cautiously, half of the wagon was filled with seats along the windows, and the other half had a small bar with many high stools on one side.

‘’L-Laika?’’ Luna slowly took a step forward, calling his name.

The cart door opposite of her opened and a figure clad in red foreign cloth walked in. Luna immediately took a step backward in an alert. Upon closer look, Luna realized that the figure's two-legged ‘body’ was made of an ethereal black mist. If it did not have its dull crimson clothing and tiny cap of similar color, one would assume it was just smoke. Its mask was the most attention-catching part of the creature: A beaten and battered mask of wrought iron showing the face of anger, sadness, and disgust in one face with a frown that almost covered the eyes of the mask.

The masked figure walked with heavy strides towards her. Luna could sense its feelings of hostility growing with each step, she unconsciously took a step backward each time the figure took one.

‘’What are you?’’

It stopped. ‘’I’m the Ticketmaster. Now, tickets.’’ it declared with a masculine voice similar to that of Laika’s but distorted, corrupt, wrong. As the ‘arm’ of the creature extended forward with an open hand.

Luna composed herself, ‘’Where is Laika?’’

The figure didn’t reply, he just stared at Luna expectedly with the arm not moving.

‘’Where is he?!’’ Luna asked again with more force.

‘’You don’t have a ticket?’’

‘’No! Where. is. Laika?’’

No reply came, the figure lowered his arm. ‘’He’s busy.’’ was the last thing that came out of his non-moving mouth before raising his misty arms and moving his equally as misty legs. His posture didn’t seem friendly to Luna at all.

Luna took a low stance in response, lowering her head closer to the cart floor. Her horn glowed a dark blue shine, and multiple meteors of smaller size were forced into being forming a half circle above her head. She released the breath she was holding in. And in rapid motions started flinging the space rocks with great speeds toward him, each one leaving fiery trails behind them and tearing parts of the seats they went through.

The ticket master didn’t even bother dodging the shooting stars. A barstool was lifted and thrown at the first projectile so quickly that it struck the streaking meteor first, resulting in both projectiles being destroyed on impact. He took a stool, threw it, and took a step. This process was repeated until Luna was only left with one itsy bitsy meteor.

‘’Rocks? You’re going to defeat me-’’ He paused, amused. ‘’-with rocks?’’

‘’Silence, beast of Nightmare.’’ she spat out with a glare that bore the force of a thousand moons.

The figure didn’t bother to reply, but Luna sensed its anger. The black mists that formed his body moved faster, whirling with rage, contorting with fury; his clothes ripped and tore around various places, struggling to keep up with the change. Along with the changes to his body came the changes to his mask, it now showed only one emotion: anger.

‘’I’ll show you a beast,’’ he said, voice akin to a low growl.

He started walking, each step cracking the wooden floorboards.

Luna had only one meteor left so she would make it count. She reeled her head backward and charged considerable magic on the tip of her horn. The meteor slowly got into position and was launched forward with magic right behind it, pushing it with even greater velocity.

Undeterred, The Ticketmaster picked up the last remaining stool and ripped out the metal legs of the from the seat. He forced all four of the legs together and merged them, forming a crude bat. He fixed his cap and grasped the bat with both hands. Moments passed and he waited for the space rock to come closer, the second it was in his range the bat was swung.

*tink*

A strange sound came at the moment of contact and the shooting star was launched back to Luna even faster than it was before. Following the tink, a couple of figures similar to her opponent appeared, eliciting thunderous applause and cheers in the remaining seats. When Luna blinked, the figures were gone with their cheers disappearing into nothingness as if it didn’t happen at all.

What a tortuous realm this is.

Luna shook her head and focused with her horn on the incoming meteor. She was able to heat the meteor enough for it to turn to ash just before reaching her. Unfortunately, this had the side effect of the ash hitting her in the face, obscuring her view. She heard a cackle.

Wiping her face she saw him in the air traveling towards her with an outstretched fist. Not having enough time or place to dodge Luna decided to brace. She would be hit there was no avoiding it. Wings covered her face, forming a shield. This would have to do.

But did she just see the frown turn into a sneer?

The Ticketmaster had a change of plans mid-air, lowering his fist and raising his leg he slammed down onto the floor with enough force that the railcar risked falling over and toppling. The wooden boards under his feet were raised from the ground, forming a wave made out of wood that traveled toward Luna.

The wave was rising in size as it picked up momentum and the unfortunate planks underneath it. The wooden wave had transformed into a wooden tsunami as it picked up most of the floor and it was on its way to swallow Luna whole.

Faced with the incoming woody doom she prepared her wings and legs. She knew what to do as she remembered a conversation with a dear friend.

Wasting no time she threw caution to the empty void outside and jumped forward. Her wings flapped with hurry and uncertainty, yet she pressed on. While in the air, using her magic she created a semi-transparent board underneath her hooves. She braced for impact and landed on the wave with the board underneath her.

She had to balance herself, her back hoof almost slipping out. This monster would be tamed. Back hooves raised, Luna slammed as hard as she could. The power was great enough for the wave to change paths. And now she was riding the wave against the Ticketmaster. Whose face of anger had changed into one of shock.

It slowly turned into a neutral face with the three faces taking place on the mask, although the corners of his mouth had a small tilt upward to them.

Just before he was hit by the now Luna-ridden tsunami and faced with an oaky demise, he took off his cap. ‘’I should have known that wouldn’t work.’’ He exhaled but instead of air nothing came out. ‘’You’d just swim back out.’’

The tide came crashing down, destroying half of the cart. The figure was swallowed by the wave, and his hat and coat were consumed alongside. He disappeared into it.

Luna prepared herself for the impact. The wave had become uncontrollable so the best she could do was to lower her head, close her eyes, and hope for minimal damage. As violent as it came the wave crashed just as violently into the door of the cart. Caring not for any of the obstacles in its path it continued on.

Even though the destruction had quelled it a bit it still kept on going and reached about a quarter of the way through the other cart before stopping.

She had done it, the beast proved no match for her skill. She would still be able to save her friend. Yet there was something off about the creature. She couldn’t put her hoof on it, but his last words…

‘’Well, well, well. You really did mess him up.’’ a voice the exact same as the Ticketmaster came from in front of her. ‘’Eh, he probably deserved it.’’

When she opened her eyes in the blink of an eye and raised her head expecting to see him back she was mildly surprised. It wasn’t him, not exactly. This figure had the exact same clothing but this one was clad in a vibrant blue. Its body was not made up of a black smoky mist instead it was made up of condensed opaque white smoke, resembling clouds. The mask was changed too, instead of the boorish frowning mask this one had a shining brass mask. Joy and happiness occupied this mask, its mouth in an eternal smile that almost took up the entire mask.

‘’Could I interest you in a snack?’’ he said and procured a bag of peanuts from…somewhere. ‘’I’m the Steward, if not a snack maybe a drink?’’ With his free hand, he reached into his coat and retrieved a glass of chocolate milkshake.

‘’...No. Tell us where Laika is or we’ll ground you into dust.’’ she wasn’t willing to deal with these nightmares any longer than she had to. However, the milkshake did look tasty.

‘’Ah, I see. No snacks then.’’ the bag and the glass were hurled out from a window. ‘’What can I get you then?’’

‘’Get me Laika.’’

‘’No can do.’’

‘’Then get out of my way.’’

‘’No can do again.’’

Luna narrowed her eyes and looked at the figure with clear hostility. How long had Laika been riddled with these beings? How long was he being tortured by Nightmare Moon, days, weeks? It hurt Luna, it bit at her heart. She was supposed to protect her friend, help him, not be the source of his pain.

She was going to rid him of his curseno matter the cost. Her magic surged within, her vigor renewed, her duty clear. Her horn started glowing.

The Steward sighed. ‘’Guess we gotta do this.’’ he tilted his head from right to left and somehow a series of cracks were heard.

Luna, for the second time, got ready for battle.

‘’Hey, Luna?’’ came Laika's voice from beside her. The cold winds almost carried his voice away but she heard.

‘’Yes?’’ she didn’t open her eyes yet answered.

His voice filled with hesitation he asked. ‘’Have you ever…surfed?’’

‘’Surfed?’’ now curious, her eyes opened and she looked at him.

‘’Yeah, you know.’’ he got up from the pillow and waggled his head and hooves. ‘’Go with the flow, ride the waves, and all that jazz.’’

‘’We have not ‘riden the waves’ as you say. But, I have heard of it.’’

‘’Hmmnn-’’ He sat back on the pillow. ‘’I wanted to surf for a time. My dad used to take me to the beach and he’d always bring his board.’’ he looked towards nowhere in particular his eyes clouded. ‘’And every time we went he would always ask me if I wanted to try it.’’

He blinked and the cloudiness was gone. ‘’And I always said no.’’ he said, sighing.

‘’How so? You didn’t want to?’’

‘’Well, I did want to but I was scared…scared of falling off, scared of not doing it correctly, scared of-’’ He stopped for a second. ‘’-something. I guess I was too used to sitting on the sand.’’

‘’You didn’t know how to swim?’’ Luna concluded, that if some pony was scared of water it must be because they couldn’t swim, right?

‘’No, I did.’’

‘’Then why be scared? Thou could simply swim back up, no?’’

He chuckled. ‘’Yeah, I can already see it, flapping around with your wings in the water. Cursing the board.’’ he motioned with his hooves imitating her. ‘’ ‘Foul water, how darest thou defy me!’ Heheh-ow.’’ for which he received a wing slap.

‘’Don’t make fun of your Princess, Knight.’’ Luna huffed with a small smile. ''We'll show you that mere waves are no match for us in the future.''

''I can't wait.''

Author's Note

It's been a hot minute, hasn't it? Sorry to keep you all waiting, (If anyone was waiting for it at all).