This chapter happens a week after the last one. it is based on the episode "Do Princesses Dream of magic sheep," though I have made several changes for it to fit the lore I have built.
Enjoy
She is standing between the two thrones at her and Celestia's old castle, sensing its presence, Luna greets this creature as if it's an old yet unwanted friend. "Greetings, Tantabus. I am ready. Do your worst." She challenges it, and the Tantabus transforms into a solar eclipse, forcing her into her Nightmare Moon form.
Right that moment, Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow and Fluttershy run into the room. They gasp seeing Princess Luna turn into Nightmare Moon. But Twilight knows how to solve this sudden problem, the Elements of Harmony appears around her friends necks, the crown on her head and with glowing eyes, unleashes this ancient power at the Princess. For some reason, it didn't work.
Nightmare Moon laughs at how helpless the heroines are, but stops when she notices that the Tantabus that has been haunting her, is acting strange, but before she can figure out what it is doing:
"Twilight!" Spike calls, running over to the group with the two other beares of the Elements, getting close to the group, their Elements appear.
That's just what they needed, "Again!" Twilight calls to her friends and fellow bearers, she activates the Element of Magic, and with the three added, can remove the tainted darkness that held the Princess of the night.
The entire group cheers at this victory with Luna back to her old self and surrounds her, neither noticing the shocked look on the Princess's face.
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Princess Luna wakes from her dream. "What? My dream ended... happily?" She asks herself and is scared of what that means. For if her nightmares have ended then; "Oh no, the Tantabus escaped! That. Cannot. Happen!" Luna cries and goes back into the dream realm in a desperate attempt to contain it before the Tantabus will escape, but it's already too late.
**Next Day. Midday in Ponyville**
Leaving the Everfree forest, Spy puts on his pegasus disguise and heads to the Carousel Boutique to fetch the special attire Rarity was making for Zecora. Stepping inside, the changeling's words about the attire never leaves his mouth; instead a question. "Has everyone been sleeping bad lately?" He asks, for everyone inside, supposedly should groom their pets but are seconds from falling asleep.
Applejack turns away from her dog, over to the disguised changeling friend of theirs, giving him a goofy smile from how tired she is. "Oh hey Spy," she yawns and almost uses her dog as a pillow. "What makes you say that?"
Spy walks inside and explains to the more asleep group. "Zecora didn't get much sleep either last night, dealt with a nasty nightmare." He explains, and that makes him wonder, "Did you have nightmares as well?"
They all nod, even though Rainbow Dash tries to act tough, Spy ignores that and now curiously about this small mystery. "Can any of you remember what the nightmare was about?"
"Well, everything was fine, that until this blue smoke monster appeared and..." Twilight Sparkle summons up and noticing the startled look her friends have. "What?"
"I dreamt about a blue smoke thingy too." Fluttershy speaks and the others voice that they too saw a creature that fits that description in their dreams.
Sitting up from the pillow he napped onto; Spike asks the narrow-eyed Spy. "What do you suppose that means?"
Pondering about their explanation, Spy taps his chin. He still hasn't learned everything about this world, so a blue smoke creature appearing in dreams is not something he has heard about. What he does know however. "You said it appeared in your dream, correct?" The group nods. In that case, "One of your Princesses is the one of the night, perhaps she knows about this creature."
"Good idea Spy," Twilight replies and turns to Spike, "could you send a scroll to Princess Luna?" the young drake snaps out of his standing nap, grabs a scroll and pen and begins to write her words. ""Dear Princess Luna, last night my friends and I all dreamt of a creature made of blue smoke. I'm sure you're very busy, but—" she yawns "when you have the chance, please let me know if you have any idea what it could mean. Yours—" she yawns again "Princess Twilight Sparkle." And adds knowingly, "You can leave out the yawns."
Spy smirks that the young dragon had actually written down the yawns and sheepishly crosses them over, folds the scroll and falls asleep right as he's about to send this letter. A nudge from Fluttershy wakes him and he sends it off.
Barely a minute and Luna burst through the door: "Which of you saw the creature of blue smoke in your nightmare?!" She asks, clearly worried about this creature.
"Wow. That was fast." Fluttershy remarks,
Twilight steps over to the Princess, replying her. "We all did."
"Except me." Spy speaks up.
Twilight turns back to the Princess of the Night, "So you've encountered the smoke monster too?"
Luna nods, she feels terrible to say this but; "The Tantabus is a being of nightmares. It escaped from my containment field yesterday."
"Tantabus?" Rarity confused repeats.
"A parasite that feeds on a dreamer's fear." Luna replies "The stronger the fear, the stronger it will become and when strong enough… a Shadow Pony is created." everyone in the room gasps at what she has just revealed. It gets worse though, "This Tantabus is different compared to the others you have faced. If it ever takes the shape of a Shadow Pony, a great disaster will follow."
"That's not good." Twilight speaks for everyone.
"How did it escape?" Spy asks.
"It must have found a weakness in my containment field," Luna explains this friendly changeling. She walks into the shop and feels so bad that she caused this disaster. "I regret to say this, but it must have learned about you from seeing you in my dream."
"So let me get this straight," Applejack speaks up and is pretty confused about this nightmare threat. "this Tantabus is currently affecting our dreams because you dreamt about us?" Luna nods and that leads to the question, "Okay, so how do we stop it?"
Luna opens her mouth, but is interrupted by Rainbow Dash; who does not consider it much of a threat: "So this baby Shadow Pony gave us bad dreams, no biggie. We have defeated Shadow Ponies before." Perhaps but this is entirely different. "True, but only thanks to the Elements of Harmony, which you unfortunately had to sacrifice in exchange for your friends from this other world lives." The ponies all drop their head slightly, yet no sign of regret in their eyes. Back to the question of how to handle this Tantabus. "Unfortunately, it is impossible to destroy a Tantabus, but contain it I can." Luna turns to the ponies and single dragon, "The Tantabus is able to move around in your dreams, tonight, I will enter each of your dreams and pursue the creature."
**Golden Oak Library. Nightfall**
Twilight put up beds for those there were part of Luna's dream. Pinkie Pie is quite excited about this quite serious Tantabus hunt, but no one is really surprised. She levitates a bed to a suitable spot and turns to Luna with an out loud wonder; "Can't princess Celestia help us out?"
"There is nothing my sister can do. She has no power in the realm of sleep." Luna explains. According to their father, only alicorns of the night can traverse the Dream Realm and at the moment: "Only I can move from dream to dream. I am afraid nopony can help me tonight."
"Even us?" Applejack asks, adding, "What about our partners? They are all veteran fighters."
Dragging these other world creatures into the hunt is a terrible idea, "No, your partners have dreams that only will strengthen the Tantabus." Luna says, Twilight eyes dart, as if aware what she's talking about. To these ponies, which six saved her from the darkness of Nightmare Moon. "You have all suffered so much because of me." Luna tells them softly, before putting her game face on. "I will hunt the Tantabus in your dreams and ensure it no longer will harm anypony else." They all nod and goes to sleep, Luna flies up to where she activates her alicorn powers over the Realm of Dreams.
**Dream Realm**
The Tantabus floats around in the apple orchard, passing a large yellow stallion galloping past the many trees. This stallion smiles down to Applejack as she gets up beside him. They give each other a cocky smile, to then go and buck trees, and catch the apples in the basket they have on their back.
Applejack turns to the stallion and laughs, "whew-wee! You sure know how to make apple-bucking fun, don't you pops?" The stallion– her father laughs and begins to walk to the farm. Applejack follows, but do stop when spotting something. "Hey, did you see that?" She asks and turns to where her father should be, but he's gone. All that's left are a small pile of apples.
The Tantabus touches a tree and it transforms into a Timber wolf. It lets out a terrifying howl, making Applejack freeze up from the terrible flashback that very sound gave her. Applejack sees this huge Timber wolf attack someone, but cannot watch that scene again. She forces herself to look away, eyes firmly shut. "No, no, it can't be happening..." She whispers, but even with her eyes closed, that image of what that unusual large wolf did has burned into her very mind– been the reason why she left farm-life not long after… the incident. She didn't see the Tantabus approach her, nor it swiftly moving away as Luna appeared and chased it into a tree. All Applejack can do is stand still, holding her eyes closed, so scared to open them and has to realize the harsh reality of what happened that faithful day.
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Sitting on a throne, Derpy is surrounded by all kinds of muffins. Beaming with her muffin scepter in hoof and humming along to the melody surrounding this little bubble of her. Her humming does stop when noticing a smoked blue creature but it takes her a moment to understand what it is. When she does, she points her scepter at it and all of her muffins flies at the thing.
The Tantabus returns the favor by throwing the now burning muffins back at the grey mare's face. Derpy yelps and jumps out of the way. She gets up, more cross-eyed than before, looking up and can do nothing to stop the meteor muffins crash down towards her. She screams and takes the run for it.
Right there, Luna appears and uses her magic to removes these meteor muffins, with them taken care of, she lands beside the very shaken up mare."Where is it?!"
"I-I think it was over t-there." Derpy points at where she saw it last and the Princess takes off, leaving her in a battle zone of destroyed muffins. She drops her head in sadness at this waste of good food.
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Luna appears in a very, very loud place; at first confused at what the Tantabus has done, then realizes this isn't a nightmare but a dream, a dream of a rock concert.
Down on this stage, surrounded by gems that shoot raylight all over the place, stands Rarity, rocking it out like there's no tomorrow. Luna is used to seeing such unexpected things and easily brushes this off, going back to her search for the Tantabus.
Rarity finishes her solo and smiles gently to her unseen fans, not seeing the Tantabus touch the levitating gems, transforming them into gem monsters. Those Rarity sees and gasps at these beautiful gems looking for blood and coming straight at her. She hits it with her guitar but the instrument only breaks on impact, so she instead shoots beams of magic at it, only to duck when that beam reflects on the devil gems.
Luna uses her own magic to stop this and a beam from her horn breaks the gems. Rarity walks over to the destroyed gems, a sad look on her face. "They were so glamour… what kind of monster would ruin such brilliant gems?!" She demands exaggerated up to the heavens.
"The Tantabus," Luna replies the unicoern, but has to stop Rarity trying to aid her in this fight. "I don't want you to suffer anymore because of me. I will catch it." She continues the hunt for the Tantabus. Leaving Rarity to cry over the destruction of those beautiful gems.
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Luna arrives in Pinkie Pie dream and just to her luck that pink pony is a loose dreamer, meaning the area is constantly changing. "I followed the Tantabus here. Now I need only find—"
The whole scene changes to something else entirely, "Sorry, can't help it!" Pinkie replied cheerfully. "An idea pops into my head, it—" the scene changes into Sugarcube Corner, with the bakery filled with all kinds of cakes. Pinkie Pie stops moving this time, crying out excitingly. "Ohh cake!" She trots over to the yummiest looking one, not noticing the Tantabus leaving said cake. Right as she's about to lick a huge piece off, the cake splashes her face, taking Pinkie Pie off guard. She looks up, and the cake is looking back and next second, roaring at her with huge teeth!
Looking around, all of the cakes turn alive and looking like they are going to eat her!
Right as these cakes surround Pinkie, Luna appears and by a shockwave of her night magic, destroys every single cake. She spots the Tantabus flying into a box, but right she's about to grab it, the scene changes into the Crystal Empire. "No…!" she gasps at the Tantabus has escaped once again.
"Sorry!" Pinkie calls, the Princess of the Night leaves and Pinkie Pie is back at jumping from place to place, ending up in Ponyville where a huge ice cream is standing. "Who wants ice cream?!" She calls out and pretty much the whole town appears to join in the ice cream eating.
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Inside a dark spooky cave, Rainbow Dash is fighting against changelings, kicking them left and right. One of them gets her from behind, but before she can punch that one in the face; a beam of magic knocks it out. Prinsess Luna appears and looks pretty out of it. "I can see the Tantabus has already turned your slumbers into a nightmare!" There Rainbow Dash has to laugh. "What are you talking about? This is my favorite dream!" She points out, punching a changeling that tried to get her from behind.
Luna is so busy wrapping her head around that this is a good dream, that she didn't see the Tantabus turn this dream into a real nightmare for this pegasus.
Rainbow Dash goes back to kick more changeling hide, blinking when someone with a cutesy voice sing-songs: "We are such happy flowers." She turns around and sees the awesome cave has been turned into a place of nightmares, with sickly cute flowers, being those that are singing.
"We will now sing for hours
Aren't we unbearably cute?
Watch me solo on jazz flute." The flowe starts playing the most terrible earworm of a melody. Rainbow Dash cries, well aware that melody will be stuck in her head even when she wakes.
There's not much Luna can do for this pony, for she has just spotted the Tantabus and follows it to whatever dream it now will infect.
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A dark forest, yet incredibly beautiful with the many colors of blue and fireflies flying around. Walking through this blissful place, Zecora is admiring. She walks over to a lake, so clear that it gives a wonderful view of the fish swimming down there. The zebra does notices movements but didn't spot the blue smoke creature flying between the trees. Shrugging Zecora turns back to admire the scenery, only to gasp when noticing other zebras. She snaps her head up, not at all happy to see her own kind again.
One of them steps forward, revealing a stallion, the last one she ever wanted to see. "Oh don't fret my pet, not when I am here." He tells her, but that is excakly why she fears seeing him again.
"I know you will make an attack" Zecora steps away from the stallion and his warriors. "for there is no way I am going back."
As expected the stallion sneers in anger and like any other times he got denied, strikes out. Zecora manages to dodge his hooves, quickly turns around and runs off.
While running, Zecora sees the Princess and asks for just a glimmer of assurance. "If you the princess are right here, does this mean this is a nightmare?"
Luna nods and right there, she notices the Tantabus, hiding as one of those zebras. She shoots a beam at it, forcing it to reveal itself and quickly flies after it.
It does spare Zecora from having to deal with the stallion, after all these years is still scared of, but even with him gone, the other zebras, faceless and more shadows. Well, it is still nightmare fuel for Zecora.
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Fluttershy is sitting before her cottage, enjoying the moment of her mane getting brushed by a giant Angel bunny. "It's so nice to be the pet for once." She muses at the dream been taking care of like she cares for all of her animals.
The Tantabus appears, flying pas the scene of the huge bunny brushing the yellow pegasus. It gets behind the giant bunny, touches it and Angel transforms into a monster rabbit.
Fluttershy only realizes this when parts of the salvia hit her mane and looking up; the monster bunny roars at her in the most terrifying manner. Fluttershy freezes up in terror, stuttering weakly: "N-n-n-n-nice... giant... evil Angel...!" She screams and sincerely wants to be saved. As this is a dream, the help she wants arrive. Coming from no where, Heavy tackles into the monster looking Angel, making it crash into a nearby tree.
"Little pony okay?" Heavy asks.
Fluttershy nods slowly, still recovering from that scare. "Yes, now I am." She blinks when spotting Luna fly after that smoke creature and turning back to her partner, "Oh my, I sure hope she's going to catch it soon."
Heavy merely hums, while looking midly confused.
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When Luna arrives, the Tantabus has already done its work. The little dragon runs away from a giant spider monster. "Somepony heeelp!" He cries and she is quick to swoop down after Spike. This spider does try and catch them, but she is faster and brings the dragon onto a cliff where he should be safe from the monster the Tantabus created from Spike's fears. "I am sorry I couldn't spare you from this nightmare, the Tantabus keeps slipping away from me." She tries to find the thing, but this time around it does not show.
"I can help you find it, you know; be an extra set of eyes." Spike suggests, but the Princess of the Night levitates him off her back with: "No, you have suffered enough because of me. I will handle this on my own." She flies off, unknowingly causing another nightmare for Spike. One he fears more than those creepy spiders.
And that's been utterly alone and unable to do anything about it.
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Inside a library that holds all of her mind's knowledge, Twilight Sparkle reads through these written memories and lessons. She is so busy going through them that she does not see the Tantabus, only when the books that hold vast knowledge start rotting. "No!" She cries and desperately tries to save the books but it only seems to make them rot away faster. The remnants of these rotted books gather, transforming into a Shadow Pony, then into Sea-Circle. Twilight backs away from that pegasus enchantress, and like she always did when Sea-Circle appears in her dreams, "I did the right choice!"
"And yet, you have rendered Equestria entirely helpless. Unable to defend itself against the shadows, all so to keep your little friends." Sea-Circle points out. Before she can continue the speech that pokes Twilights fears that she might have made the wrong choice Luna appears and shoots at the long-dead pony. The Tantabus just has to have the last say, it turns that whole scene into how the real Sea-Circle died– causing Twilight to freeze up at the horrible way that pegasus perished.
Even Luna was taken off guard by how that pegasus got utterly eradicated by that simple attack, something the Tantabus used to its advantages and stuck out.
**Ponyville**
Everyone but one wakes with a horrified gasp, greatly affected by the nightmares they just woke from.
"What such a horrible dream!" Rarity cries dramatically "I never want to dream about that again!"
"Me either!" Rainbow Dash agrees, rocking back and forward from this horrible melody stuck inside her head.
And it's all because she couldn't catch the Tantabus, "I am so sorry, my friends." Luna flies back down to them. "I failed." Admitting regretfully, "It will be back to infect your dreams the next time you sleep."
"Will it always be the same horror we see in our dream, or will this Tantabus make the nightmares more extreme?" Zecora asks, shivering at the sheer thought of her dreams getting worse.
"Unfortunately, the Tantabus will use your deepest fears, feed on it and grows by each night." Luna replies and feels terrible she has let this happen to those who saved her from being Nightmare Moon. "I am truly sorry, even now, after all my attempts for making up my mistake… the fact that I am once again responsibly harming others is more than I can bear."
"You shouldn't keep blaming yourself, Princess, everypony make mistakes." Spike tells her, he sure has made his share and most likely is going to make many more in the future.
"But a princess of my stature shouldn't make mistakes." Luna argues, instead she should be humble like her sister and do her duty as the protector of the night! Not acting like an entitled foal and demand for others praises. "I am supposed to keep our subjects dream safe, but instead, I have unleashed never-ending nightmares on all of you." Luna sighs; hopefully, she can get the Tantabus soon and spare Equestria's heroes from further suffering. She owes them that much and turns back to them, once again back to the task at hoof. "As long as none of you dreamt about ponies close to you, the Tantabus remains confined to your dreams." Adding determent to make this failure of hers right, "I still have a chance to catch it before it's too late."
"Phew, that's good to hear!" Pinkie says but to gives the Princess the worst news in her cheerful voice. "Although after you left, I did happen to dream that I was eating a giant ice-cream cone with all of Ponyville."
Ad it's not over, for right there, Fluttershy realizes why her dream didn't turn too terrible, "Oh no…" she hides under her blanket. "I dreams Heavy saved me from… oh I am so sorry Princess." She apologuises to Princess Luna as she honestly didn't mean it.
This is terrible news! Not only is the Tantabus going to infect this entire town, but those creatures of another world will be fueling that nightmare creature. "This is terrible!" Luna gasps "With so many ponies to infect and your partners' dreams filled with dark memories. The Tantabus will become a Shadow Po— no a Shadow Alicorn at dawn!" everyone in the room gasps at this possible fact.
In that case, none of them should sit idly by and let the Princess deal with it on her own, "Then you must let us help you stop it before that happens!" Rarity exclaims.
"But how?" Fluttershy asks, pointing out that the Tantabus was able to escape Princess Luna when it only had their dreams to infect. "With so many ponies, wouldn't it be really hard to catch it now?"
Luna nods that this yellow pegasus is indeed correct "It is true. With so many dreams to hide in, I do not know how I can catch it."
Twilight ponders for a moment before voicing her question/idea. "What if everypony in Ponyville have one dream?"
That is a pretty good idea, but Luna will admit, "I have created shared dreams, yes, but never with so many ponies at once." And it makes her hesitant as she is unsure how far her dream magic can reach. "The amount of power it would take... I am not sure if I have what it takes."
"Isn't it worth the try?" Derpy asks.
"Of course. I will do anything to end this, including testing my powers to the limit." Luna gives in, for this is not about her, but the threat the creature she couldn't contain. "I cannot allow the Tantabus to escape and join the other Shadow Ponies." She asks them to go back to sleep and when they all have fallen asleep again, Luna tries again, this time using all her known and then more power over the dream realm.
**Dreamscape Ponyville**
Everyone is a bit confused at how wacky their town has become, but they pretty much all accept it and do whatever one dreaming now feels like. Twilight and her friends wander in wonder through this dreamscape town, stopping when Applejack asks confused: "What in tarnation are those?"
The others turn to what she has spotted, everyone but one gets confused as well. Twilight smiles and explains her friends, "It's how our partners look like in their world" she walks over to them, stops before her partner and smiles up to him.
One by one, the others join and chat with one another how weird this is. Pinkie Pie jumps onto her partner's shoulder giggling, "I almost didn't recognize you! It looks weird without your wings." Scout laughs in response.
"What's going on? Ponyville is weirder than usual." Engineer points out and that's saying a lot when it comes to this world. His partner is the one who answers his question, "Princess Luna has put us all in a shared dream to catch a nightmare creature."
"Explans why we are human and you still pony." Heavy muses.
"Ponies!"
Everyone turns to princess Luna, the one who called. Trapped inside a sort of orb and her horn brimming with magic from have created this shared dream. Everyone trots over and start bowing in respect; this would've pleased Luna a lot if they weren't in such a dire situation. "There is no time for bowing, my friends! Something terrible is among you!"
and right on cue, the Tantabus appears, looming over the town like an evil black cloud. "I am so sorry! I brought this upon you!" She calls, winching from the huge strain this shared dream does to her. Luna shakes it off though, "But I will end it now!" and shoots a beam at the Tantabus. It flinches but quick to recover and utterly ignores her in exchange to haunt the townponies.
The bearers of Harmony run over, confused finding Luna like this. "Did this creature do this?" Sniper asks, but the Princess shakes her head and explains everyone: "It... is taking all my strength just to hold this massive dream together!" The princess eyes every single one of the bearers "I truly wish I did not have to ask this of you, but—"
"Don't worry, princess Luna, we're glad to help." Twilight replies the Princess and no word needed for her friends to run after the Tantabus.
The nightmare creature didn't make it easy though, it went through several houses, turning them into monsters and those trapped inside are in danger to get eaten or at least mangled. The bearers are quick to help the town's ponies out, using what they got from the waking world. It wasn't really enough, then suddenly Pyro has a giant lollipop and starts wacking the nightmare houses with rainbows flying all over the place.
A moment dumbfounded staring, "Oh, right, we're in a dream." Demo remarks pulls up a bottle of whiskey from seemly nowhere and after a good swig, he hurls the bottle at one of the bushes the Tantabus has transformed into a monster, which explodes on impact. He laughs and runs off to blow more nightmare creatures up. The others look at one another, and like so many other times when weirdness hit the fan, they just go with it.
A giant red devil-dog catches one of the townponies, threatening to swallow him whole, Twilight Sparkle quickly flies over and shoots a beam of magic at it. The dog yelp in pain and does let go, allowing Applejack to get that pony out from there. The dog is angry about that and goes at Twilight, takes her off guard and forget to defend herself. Right there, Soldier with a bazooka in hand, fires a whole fan of rockets at the thing, blowing it up to smiterin. "You are not welcome in my world!" Soldier shouts before he rocket jumps onto another house in which he fires a fan of rockets at it as well.
Didn't seem to work that well on the house, only making it angry, but then it suddenly begins to scream in pain. Rainbows and balloons leave the window eyes and door mouth, a muffled laugh coming from inside and out from the hole Soldier made, Pyro, now riding on a pink balloon unicorn, holding that lollipop ax in hand.
Applejack uses her lasso to restrain a very big and very angry plant, not seeing another coming from behind. She didn't have to worry though, for that plant got overrun by flying sandwiches, and next she hears some manic laughing, turning around she spots Heavy use some strange tool that fires a rain of projectiles at a creepy looking Timberwolf.
When done with each of their enemies, both notice that the earth pony's older brother is having trouble with some hostile flying cupcakes, Heavy is about to turn his minigun at the spot but is stopped by Applejack that reminds her brother: "Big Mac! You can do anything in a dream, remember?" and Big Mac took that to heart, by transforming himself into an alicorn, with cosmetics to boot. The stallion flies off, giggling at something he most likely has been wanting for a long time. Heavy stares dumbfounded for a moment, but does shrug it off and shoots at the cupcakes Big Mac hasn't yet gotten rid off.
Using a giant and clucking like a chicken Derpy, Scout reloads his critical hit infused scatter gun and hits a dinosaur looking creature right in the head "You got owned!" and like the awesome guy he is, lands like a pro and runs off to kill some more nightmares. Rainbow Dash does stop him and tells the current human: "Come on! If that Tantabus thing turns any more of this dream against us, we'll be too busy saving ponies to catch it!" Scout swings his gun over his shoulders, assuring the rainbow-haired pony. "Relax, we got it." Right as Demo and Pinkie teamed up, making a hoard of skeleton ponies explode in a party nuke—followed with some pretty fireworks.
Rainbow Dash looks around and can see that they are keeping the nightmare monsters at bay, "Okay, I give you right we're kicking some serious flank." she grins. However, they are not stopping the main issue. "But I doubt Princess Luna can hold this up for much longer. We have to stop the Tantabus now!" Scout drops the grin and nods in agreement; they both run over to where the Tantabus is, passing a very gleeful Medic, chasing a tall white, faceless pony in a black suit and tentacles on the back.
The two speedsters reach the nightmare creature and tries to catch it, but that proves harder than expected. That thing is way more slippery than it appears and easily dodged their attacks.
noticing this, Scout turns to where the others are, "Yo, a little help here!" he calls, catching several attention and they run over to help. Here Engineer gets the idea of making himself a giant mech and lets Heavy ride it to wrestle the nightmare creature. For a moment, it looks like they got it, but then, the Tantabus turned the mech into Engineer's worst nightmare: Sentry busters, and before any can stop them, the sentry busters blow up, knocking most of the element bearers out. Scout struggles back onto his feet and along with Rarity, can only watch the Tantabus take a more pony shape, starting its transformation into a Shadow Pony. "Uh, okay, this is not good." Scout says and turning to the others, "What the hell are we suppose to do?!"
Fluttershy runs over the scared townsponies, asking them for help. Octavia steps over to her, asking for everyone, "But what can we possibly do?" she points at the bearers of the Elements, currently struggling to keep the forming Shadow Pony at bay. "None of us can fight like that!" beside her, Vinyl Scratch nods in agreement.
"She's right. How can we help?" Mr. Cake asks one of the heroines of Ponyville and pointing out. "Nopony in Ponyville has magic, strength nor speed you have."
Rainbow Dash leans backward cockily while still flying, "That's true… in Ponyville!" she exclaims out and explains to them all "This is a dream; you can do whatever you want!" and Spikes proves her point by transforming himself into a buff hero with armor and cape, remarking: "Well, if you're gonna dream, might as well dream big, right?" Before the drake takes off on Derpy's back.
That did it for the townsponies and they go nuts in this realm of dreams.
Spike slices the forming Shadow Pony, and along with Soldier, forces it back into the Tantabus form. Next, Mr. Rich arrives, surfing and even shooting money out at the Tantabus. On the ground, Rainbow Dash and Scout give each other a cocky look and they both start speeding in circles underneath the Tantabus, creating a tornado that sucks it in.
Demo creates a bomb and a golf club and as if playing golf, hits the bomb right down the tornado, exploding gloriously. The Scotsman is about to do a taunt, but forgets all about it when Sniper flies by, looking like an anthropic owl.
"I'm a owl!" the sharpshooter cries cheerfully and shovers the Tantabus with a serious overpowered submachine gun.
Demo stares for a few seconds before taking a drink of his scrumpy. "I don't think I saw that one coming." Before joining Engineer and Heavy keeping that thing from escaping this area.
Struggling against this huge strain this dreamscape is putting on her, "Hurry! I can't hold this for much longer!" Luna cries out to the many ponies doing so much to stop this threat.
Flying books, cupcakes and sandwiches surrounds the Tantabus, keeping the thing in place and for just a moment, it looked as if they got it. But then, a powerful aura of dark magic and Nightmare Moon is there, laughing loudly at the look of terror in most ponies eyes.
Luna too go a look of horror, "No…! it cannot be!"
Nightmare Moon stops her laugher and turns to her, grinning widely. "Did you really think the Elements of Harmony would destroy me?!" She notices two of the bearers are coming for her, but her magical mane puts a stop to that, "As long you keep thinking about me, Luna; I will never disappear!"
"Is that Nightmare Moon?" Medic asks, his partner nods and through this dark wind the literal alicorn of nightmares, Twilight cries: "It is! This not good. If Nightmare Moon escapes, Equastria will be trapped in eternal night!"
"Then let's put a stop to it!" Engineer calls and returns the favor by siccing his own Sentry Busters at the nightmare alicorn.
It didn't work though, "Fool!" Nightmare Moon shouts and her magic, throws everyone to the ground. "How dare you attack your ruler, or am I no longer good enough for you now you have my perfect sister?!"
Feeling utterly helpless, Luna starts crying at what is transpiring right before her eyes. "Once again… I am causing harm to my subjects…!" To gasp when her evil counterpart suddenly hovers before the dome she's trapped inside.
"Oh I wouldn't harm them; they are my subjects after all." Nightmare Moon says in a silky voice, then turns to the covering ponies. "But I expect respect of my authority! That's the least they can do in return for my protection!"
"Leave them out of this!" Luna cries.
Nightmare Moon turns back to her with a matter of factly, "But that's what you want. Deep inside, you want ponies to look at you like they do Celestia." She steps closer, making Luna flinch, the nightmare alicorn smirks darkly, "Thet never will, nopony adores the night."
"Is it just me or is Nightmare Moon putting princess Luna through some serious guilt-tripping?" Applejack asks.
That remark makes Twilight realize something, "I think this creature is feeding off Luna's guilt." and calls over to the Princess of the Night about this observation, asking her; "Have you been keeping it trapped by letting it feed on your nightmares?"
"Yes… Yes, I have." Luna replies, her tearing up eyes staring directly into the monster she turned into all those years ago. "I deserved every moment of it…! Because of my selfish action, so many suffered and will continue in doing so." Closing her eyes made the tears fall. "I am doomed to repeat my past, destined fall into nightmares!"
"Only if you let it!" Everyone turns to the one who yelled that, however only the humans are startled to realize it came from Medic. He utterly ignores them, taking the advice Twilight gave him what now feels such a long time go. "I know how easy it is to drown oneself in guilt, thinking what you're doing is the right thing but in the end will only make things worse. I have been where you are, Princess."
Nightmare Moon spins around, "You know nothing of what I have been through!" she sneers and blasts the man with her magic. Would've hit if not for Twilight's shield spell.
She remembers that voice, it's that grey unicorn she met at her first Nightmare Night celebration. Luna opens her eyes, looking over to where the voice came from. She can't see the unicorn, so she calls out; "But I had hurt so many. How can I forgive myself?"
Medic gives his partner a thankful look, before turning to the Princess, answering her. "If you truly feel sorry, then make it up for those people you have hurt." He thinks it's what someone feeling regret for their action should do. Medic would never do such a thing, partly due to the fact that he does not feel particularly sorry for those people he'd hurt. His regret was more personal but that Medic will keep to himself. One thing he has taken to heart, though. "You can start that by stop beating yourself down;" Nightmare Moon fires again at them, but this time, he blocks it with his own dream magic, lowering his hand, Medic tells this dark blue alicorn, "learn the lesson and move on!"
"He's right!" Twilight calls and takes a step closer to the suffering Princess Luna. "You say hurt is all you have caused, but look around Luna." The Princess follows her hoof, to all the ponies standing, looking at their Princess of the Night with respect in their eyes; not a single one are afraid of her. "Nightmare Moon would've wanted the Tantabus to turn into a Shadow Pony!" Said alicorn of nightmares sneers at her words, but Twilight is not worried about the personification of Luna's regret. "You're doing everything you can to stop it! Don't you see? That proves you're not the same pony you were then! Everypony who knows you know that Nightmare Moon is in the past! We all trust you, Luna!" Her friends gather around and Twilight asks Luna; "Do you trust us enough to believe we're right?"
Luna looks at each of the bearers and realizes that the Tantabus's nightmares that everyone still fears her were wrong! without knowing, she has gotten what she dreamed about: admiration from her subjects. It's not the one Celestia rechive from them, but this is what she can call her own. Smiling weakly, "I do." and with renewed hope that things aren't as bad as the Tantabus made her think, Luna strikes at Nightmare Moon. "Be gone, you're not welcome in this domain!"
The nightmare alicorn disappears, reverting back into a Tantabus, it flies over to her but this time, Luna does not flinch away from what it shows her. This time, she knows better. The Tantabus backs off and flies away, once again small and more or less harmless.
"Shouldn't you catch it?" Rainbow Dash asks.
Luna shakes her head, "It won't bother us anymore." and with a smile, she dismisses her spell. "Thank you. Thank you all."
**Next day**
"So let me get this straight, you all were having the same dream." Spy summons up to what his son and some of the others have told him. Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Scout and Engineer nod. "You all fought against a creature that made nightmares, at some point turning into Nightmare Moon which power was fueled by Princess Luna's regret?" they nod again "And you defeated it by the power of your imagination, with Medic and Twilight giving Luna a heartfelt speech?"
"Yeah, that summons it up pretty nicely." Engineer nods with a smile. Spy raises a brow so high that it's about to take off to the moon, and much to Engineer's great amusement, the changeling leaves without a word. He lets out a short laugh. "Now I'll be, we succeed in making Spy speechless!" He and the others burst out laughing.
Meanwhile, inside her room, Luna is for the first time after months of suffering through nightmares, sleeping peacefully and not haunted by bad dreams about her past.
Whew, that was a long one! I enjoyed making it and had a lot of fun with that last battle even though it was hard to figure out what dream power each would use. Demo, Engie and Pyro were the easy ones. the others I got from memes or other stories I have read. Sniper's choice of dream power comes from a few drawings I'd made in the past, though it would be fun to include it.
What do you think about the lore change I made to the Tantabus? Do you like, or do you prefer the canon story?
