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.