While keeping your distance from the throne, you decide to try communicating with the ghost in turn. Your first question stems from curiosity: you feel the presence of Empyrius, but what is it exactly?

Rather than a response evocative of a creature, you are imparted with wave after wave of emotions. You suddenly feel trapped, like a bird in a cage, yet you feel safe behind its bars. You feel a conflicting balance of pride and shame, of determination and regret. You feel surrounded, yet... alone. Chasing a fading glimmer of hope.

But most of all, beneath a surface of calm and apathy, you feel anger. Far more anger than you've ever felt in your life — more than you've ever imagined possible. Pure, unbridled rage burns you from within, suffocating you — a bubbling fury, threatening to burst and consume you. You grind your teeth. Your vision blurs. Your hooves are shaking. You want to scream, to cry, to destroy everything.

Then it is gone. The feeling passes, as though the weight of the world is lifted off your shoulders. A single moment in its whirlpool of wrath left you exhausted... but you realize that this relief is your own, and yours alone.

If this suffering is how it feels all the time, then you cannot help but feel some compassion for the ghost, even though you cannot claim to understand it. At least, its ire does not seem to be directed toward you. With that in mind, you decide to ask another question: why did it call you here?

A pause. Then, unexpectedly, it responds with amusement, mixed with... accusation? You try to understand. Was your question amusing? Why? What are you being accused of? You must have done something... that amused it. Yes, it is amused because... of something you did. Something ironic? You... accused it? That's it! It is amused because you accused it of calling you here...

... yet you were the one who called it here.

A feeling of affirmation sends your mind reeling. Did you really? But when? And how? A hundred more questions form at the tip of your tongue, but before you can ask any of them, the silence is broken by the singing of birds nearby. Wait, birds? Here...?

A new day dawns upon the homely town of Hoofington. Sunbeams flicker past swaying golden leaves and through the curtains of your bedroom. Just outside the window, birds chirp cheerfully in the cool morning air, discussing their travel plans for the upcoming winter holidays.

You wake up after a strange dream but a good night's sleep, nose buried in Moonflower's heavenly soft mane. Your companion stirs shortly after, and hugs you tightly like she always does. You both hold each other, enjoying a conscious moment in the comfort of your cozy bed.

Moonflower: "Mmh... mornin', Blazer!"

You greet the young bat pony with her favourite nuzzles. Then, after some stretching and yawning, you both sit in bed, reluctant to leave the warmth of the covers just yet.

Moonflower: "What happened in the dream? I jus' saw you walk up to an empty chair, and then we woke up."

You take a moment to recount your version of the dream to Moonflower as best you can, though you feel that some of the details around the conversation with the ghost may be lost in translation.

Moonflower: "Ya think it's got somethin' to do with Empyrius? I dunno why or how he's in the dream world, but I don't super trust him."

After your last encounter with the false king in Midgard — which left you bedridden for days —, you can't say you blame her. But something tells you that the dream must have some sort of significance, even if you don't quite understand it yet.

Moonflower: "We can try again tonight, if ya want! See if it's the same thing again."

While there's a number of things you'd rather be dreaming about, you are curious to see what more there is to it. Perhaps next time, you'll find a way to uncover more of this mystery. But for now, you have a whole day ahead of you in the waking world, and mysteries of its own to solve.

The clock on the wall indicates seven o'clock. Time to get rolling!

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