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.”