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.