The light shone bold and brilliant, but its radiance spanned only a few meters. The scene it lit was the same as the scene it had lit an hour ago, and an hour before that. There was not a single kindness granted to a disoriented traveler here, just endless rubble and rough edges. The air was damp and the ground was slick, but the cavern was still harsh, with only the first traces of trickling flowstone. The floor shifted beneath Maggie's slippers, making her stumble but not fall. She was walking on equal parts loose sheets, man-sized boulders, and plush guano.<br/><br/>(Maggie loudly speculated about Zubat's relation with less wholesome parts of Giratina's anatomy.)<br/><br/>Every now and then, she crossed into a nest or den, and the air suddenly turned into a mass of screeching hellbeasts, and the cave rang with the chaos, matching every shriek with an echo and every echo with another echo. In the darkness, Dream would would flash with the electric fuchsia of her psi blasts, and Maggie would precisely bludgeon any sky-rat that got too close to her face. (Was she allowed to do that? Whatever.) Then a few minutes later they would have cleared out and Maggie would be left in oppressive solitude again. Then she'd get jumped by a fucking rock.<br/><br/>After following the spirit's presence had lead her down two dead ends and a pit, she'd stowed her Silph Scope and<span style="font-style: italic">gohei</span>and fallen back on her maze training. At another samey intersection of more samey tunnels full of samey fucking Zubat, Maggie followed the right wall, as always. Then she walked through batshit for another few minutes, uphill this time, taking only four attempts. And finally, her persistence was rewarded. The slimy sheen of wet rock gave way to the sparkling facets of<span style="font-style: italic">moonstone</span>. The floor here was solid beneath her feet, and the walls and ceiling receded back further than Maggie's light could reach; only a distant glitter hinted that there was anything there at all. Here a great amphitheater stretched out in all directions, and above, so very far above, a precious few stars glimmered down. The true starlight mingled with the shine of the moonstone, as though Maggie were alone within the night sky, held in the embrace of the heavens, as her patron deity smiled upon her from the Moon somewhere unseen. This place was alive with energy, Maggie could feel it swimming through her and around her, lightening her steps and clearing her mind.<br/><br/>"O Cresselia," Maggie whispered at that small patch of sky, killing her light for the sacrilege, "Your beauty is great... But I really shouldn't be here."<br/><br/>"Eep?" asked a star spirit from on high, haloed in stardust.<br/><br/>"...Um, I<span style="font-style: italic">really</span>shouldn't be here. I- I'm terribly sorry for the intrusion!" she said with a deep bow to the Cleffa. She held it for a few seconds, then dropped her pack down from one shoulder so she could reach for one of her fig rolls. It was the best meal she had, so nothing less would do for an offering of penance and thanks. She had almost reached it when her spine turned to ice. Her eyes shot forward, all her attention on a new Pokemon floating before her. The icy chill moved from her back to her heart at a hair less than Dream's full run-up speed, an eighth of a second instead of a tenth. A whole conversation was built into that invisible hesitation, born of mutual trust and years of practice.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Unknown ghost ahead. / I see it. / Pinsir attack? / Do it.</span><br/><br/>Almost invisible in the darkness, a being of pure shadow lunged from deeper within the cavern, quicker than thought, quiet as void, to strike at the new Misdreavus as it looked the wrong way. Were there two Pokemon? Three? With a staggering howl, Dream herself burst from under her trainer's cloak on the opposite side, never slowing, only getting faster, pouring all her spectral energy into a paralyzing tackle. Her hair whipped forth to grapple and pin her foe before it got its bearings, so that Maggie could figure out what to do with it at her leisure. With speed and shock and violence, Astonish and Shadow Sneak both, the shining figure would not escape Dream's grasp. For when ghosts fight ghosts, offense wins!