When You Just Musn't Fail Them Again
When asked about Canterlot, most ponies would praise its merits to no end. “Remember to take the camera, dear, for you are bound to meet celebrities wandering down the Promenade!” one would say, showing you their picture with a Wonderbolt reserve for the fifth time. “You really have to visit the spa at Hotel Daylight! Their massages are simply divine!” the other would add, pushing you towards your dreams about living big. “Head to Acquarellion if you’re hungry! You’ll become a more sophisticated pony by just immersing yourself in the atmosphere of elegance and glamour they serve there!” they would both agree. Hearing that, you were bound to regret living anywhere else, because it would seem that living in Canterlot was a dream come true.
Unless you start counting all those dramas happening behind closed doors on foggy mornings.
Fleur followed her husband down the staircase.
“What are you doing?”
Fancy Pants grabbed his tailcoat from the hanger. It was different from his usual choice, as instead of black elegance so fitting his demeanor it beamed with white and rose shades of extravagance. Fleur couldn’t recall when or where did he get it. He was mostly terrible at shopping even for a stallion, so the duty of assembling his garments had always been her department. She had seen many different ensembles in her line of work, but nothing as extravagant as Fancy’s new robes which gave him a look of a cheap pop star.
“I’m leaving you, Fleur,” Fancy Pants replied, looking in the mirror. “Don’t take it personally, though. I’m afraid you just weren’t good enough for Canterlot and our high society. You weren’t good enough for me.”
Ouch. Fleur tried to endure the blow with dignity, but tears came to her eyes anyway. As she stepped towards the stallion she barely realized that for some reason her reflection was distorted, although the surface of the mirror was squeaky clean and Fancy’s twin looked sharp. It didn’t matter. She had to save her marriage, and she did not have time to think about faulty mirrors!
“W-was it something I said, something I did? Tell me, let me make it up to you! I can change!”
“Don’t,” Fancy said, cupping her chin in his hoof. “You’d only humiliate yourself further.”
The door opened, revealing only a coral stone path obscured by the thickness of the fog. Fancy grabbed his suitcase and trotted outside, but Fleur didn’t dare to cross the threshold. With her body trembling and head spinning, she rested against the door frame.
“Fancy, please! If you go, where shall I go? What shall I do?”
Fancy looked Fleur in the eyes.
“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.”
He turned his back at her and disappeared somewhere in the fog.
Fleur slumped to the doorstep, half-consciously noticing that the door frame was painted in an oddly vivid shade of amaranth. That was it, her marriage with the most amazing gentlecolt of Equestria had come to an end after but one quarrel they had the other day. Between sobs and snivels she groaned at the thought of her family playing the wise guys now. Oh, poor and abandoned Fleur, I told you this Fancy was going to play you, why didn’t you listen to your mother? Oh, naive and gullible Fleur, you should have stayed back in the great Prance where you belong like your father told you! Oh, unworthy and disappointing Fleur, what would your sister say about you now? Truly, there will be no living with them after this.
Fleur heard Fancy’s surprised scream coming from the fog. Before she could realize what happened, a thunderous blast resounded in the garden, and she saw the stallion flinging over her head back into the house. She looked outside where an imposing silhouette was walking towards them from the fog. With its pointy horn and extended wings it looked like Princess Celestia, but Fleur couldn’t think of a reason for which such an extraordinary guest would be taking a stroll in her garden just now.
The mare who emerged from the fog was definitely not Celestia.
Fleur had never seen her before. She was about a head shorter than the ruling alicorn Fleur had met as her husband’s—well, ex-husband’s—plus one at the last Grand Galloping Gala, and unlike Princess Celestia she had bluish coat and light azure mane. If Fleur hadn’t been born into gentle shades herself she would say the newcomer looked pale, which of course didn’t take any from her unsettling elegance.
She entered the house uninvited, throwing a vengeful glare at Fancy Pants.
“W-what an unexpected—”
“SILENCE!” Luna boomed, to which both unicorns curled up. “You have brought enough suffering upon this mare, hiding behind a clever facade of what she took for her reality. Why don’t you show us your real face for once?”
Fancy crawled to the living room, fleeing the final judgment in pony form which followed him. He leaned on the sofa and tried to get back to all fours, but his desperate attempts were rendered futile as Luna put her hoof on his chest. Like a harbinger of life’s inevitable finality, she pressed him to the cerise rug.
“Your majesty, please! I-I honestly don’t know why you’re—”
“We command you to reveal thyself!”
Fancy Pants discarded his frightened look like a mask. Whatever he had been showing so far was only a ruse, and only the twisted expression which now crept to his face was real. With his eyes filled with hate and disdain he looked at his captor.
“As you wish.”
Fleur screamed as blackened cracks appeared all over Fancy’s white coat. They grew larger and surged across his body like veins, gradually taking away from his form of a stallion and changing him into something hideous and terrifying. Sets of razor-sharp claws took place of his hooves, and what was once a handsome muzzle morphed into a scornful grin which seen regardless of where the creature turned, for it wore no face you’d expect even a nightmare to have.
The creature’s supposed jaw spread. “Can’t you see, Fleur? Can’t you see how miserable your husband has become because of you? You’ve met him and married, and now you’re ruining his perfect life in Canterlot. All of his acquaintances think you’re an embarrassment!”
Fleur’s thoughts had a consistency of a muddy puddle.
“Non! S’il vous plaît! I can be better! Just give me a chance!”
“Face it, Fleur. You are turning him into but a shadow of his former self, a shadow of whose attention you are not worthy! You’ll never be worthy of him, Fleur! You’re just not good enough for him! Can’t you see that?”
Visions of pain and sadness filled Fleur’s mind as she imagined living a life with Fancy by her side. Regardless of what she tried to do, of however she tried to act, it kept turning out she was not the mare Fancy Pants should have married. She saw her future like a set of pictures yet to be taken, but every time she thought there was a way for the two of them to be together, she ended up with a broken heart and worse, broken dreams. Without a family she dreamed of and with no reason to continue her miserable existence, it was all too much for her to bear.
The nightmare was right. She was not—
“ENOUGH!” Luna boomed, breaking Fleur’s torpor. “You shall have no power over her, servant of the Nightmare! You have no name, no face, and no form. Go back to the void from whence you came!”
The creature shrieked when a shimmering lance fell upon it and pierced its body. Waves of bright light overloaded it with magical energy and tore into shreds from the inside. Just before the last of its dark, ethereal fragments dissolved into nothingness, the nightmare once again brought a scornful grin to its shattering would-be face.
Then it disappeared.
Luna imposed her will on the Dreamworld. A soothing wave cleansed the room from any and all strings of nightmare magic which may have been left after the skirmish, safe from one which Luna captured into a crystal orb and hid away.
“You are safe now,” Luna said, reaching out towards the mare. “That nightmare is no more.”
Fleur clambered away from her apparent rescuer like a fish wriggling in a bowl of cranberry punch. The day was getting weirder by the minute, she was shaking like a leaf, and was beginning to feel like a character from a breezie tale her mother used to read her. To be honest, she did not enjoy those stories very much, because much like this disaster of a morning they were filled with strange phenomena the existence of which she could never fully justify.
“Wh-what have you done with Fancy Pants?”
Luna saddened seeing the frightened mare not taking her hoof as she hoped she would. “It is imperative for you to remember that it was not the stallion you know,” she said. “It was a nightmare, and one of the stronger ones, a devious creature who impersonated your beloved and sought to exploit your fears through your dreams.”
What was that strange mare blathering about? What dreams?
Fleur looked around. She spotted things which she had felt were out of place, but until now she couldn’t quite put her hoof on them. Everything in the house was painted either white or in one of several shades of pink, the colors only natural to her, though she could not think of an interior decorator crazy enough to put amaranth next to cerise in such a clashing way.
“Oh, c’est dégueulasse!” Fleur exclaimed. “What happened to my house? It looks familiar, but yet so different! This mirror, it does not show my reflection right,” she said, waving to her distorted twin. “Believe me, I’d know, I do modeling for a living. And the rugs! They have their texture, put not the original color. Same goes with the cabinet. Oh!”
She trotted outside. It seemed even the fog outside gave up and perished, allowing a pleasant day to begin anew. She compared a strand of her hair against the sky which had a delicate rose tint to it. Figures! At least clouds were still white as her coat as they should be, which was nice.
“You claim this all to be a dream? None of this is real?”
“It is only real within your mind.”
Fleur stepped back into the house.
“You speak of dreams and nightmares, and you have power over both. Who are you?”
“We are the Princess of the Night, Sovereign of the Moon, and the Guardian of the Dreamworld,” the alicorn said. “The name under which you may recognize us is Luna.”
Fleur raised an eyebrow. She definitely was in a breezie tale. “Luna? As in Princess Luna?” she asked, then fell to the ground realizing that her guest’s royal insignia weren’t just fancy accessories. “So what they told about the Summer Sun Celebration in Ponyville was true after all. You really are back among us, Princess.”
Luna nodded. “You may rise, subject. We are, and we assure you that we will do our best to guard your dreams from nightmares,” she said. “Now, when you wake up, we wish you to remember your dreams as good. Is there a desire of your heart you’d like to see before we part?”
A delicate blush came to Fleur’s cheeks, making her fit the dream even more. “Erm, well, now that I know my Fancy will be there for me when I wake up, I’m thinking about a place to relax,” she said. “There are those wonderful lakes back in Prance. They are so peaceful. I have spent a lot of my youth there, swimming and playing with my sister. I was wondering if you could maybe take me there?”
“Say no more.”
Luna’s horn shined as a single droplet of fresh magic fell to the floor. A single blade of grass spurted from it, then separated itself in two. When they regained their original wideness they separated again, and soon the entirety of the floor and walls was covered in lush, green grass. A gust of wind took away the roof, transforming each tile into a white dove which took flight to the now blue sky. The walls fell to the four winds, expanding and stretching up to the horizon, and the rectangular mirror lost its shape and grew into a crystal clear lake glistening as the sunrays dived into it to illuminated the depths. In the distance, Fleur saw her family. Her parents were taking a sunbath, and her sister seemed to be feeding Bastille, their father’s pet pigeon.
“Sweet dreams, Fleur,” Luna said. “May troubles be far from your mind.”
Enchanted by the serene beauty which arose around her, Fleur ran to the beach.
Luna took a deep breath and looked at the crystal orb. Her work in this part of the Dreamworld was done, but her personal battle against the Nightmare had only just begun.
* * *
“Confound it! Our intuition fails us yet again!”
Luna winced as she trotted down the empty corridor. Ever since she returned to Equestria she had a great deal of trouble memorizing the outline of the Royal Castle in Canterlot, mainly because how different it was from where she and Celestia used to reside in the days of old. Luna liked their Everfree seclusion better. She remembered it as a peaceful shelter for just the two of them, where there were no lights nor sounds of the city distracting her from watching the night sky. Recently she asked her sister why did she move out after they had parted, and she replied that it was too quiet for her tastes. A strange claim, considering how Celestia was the one who needed the quiet to ponder over the future of their realm while Luna kept disturbing her with an unending stream of inquiries.
“A monarch not acquainted with her own domain,” Luna said. “What a disgrace!”
She stopped and allowed herself to a smile. Huzzah! The staircase she was looking for! Though her new home had been planned out by the ponies, they were not the ones who built it, at least not this version of it. She was the only one to blame, in a way, because she herself shaped this part of the Dreamworld to be the exact copy of the Royal Castle—some personal touches taken into account—with its great number of chambers, corridors, and stairways, not to mention a couple of hidden passages and even entire rooms not accessible by traditional means. Being its only inhabitant, Luna was learning how to navigate the castle even in her dreams where she wasn’t a bother to the guards or her sister every time she got lost. Which she did every so often.
She then concealed the entire place from the dreaming ponies, the nightmares, even from her sister, and made it her sanctuary.
The staircase lead her to a corridor decorated with stained glass. The soft rays of moonlight weren’t strong enough to cast images on the opposite wall, but even if they were, it would not change the blue tint applied to every aspect of the castle. Unlike those in Canterlot, the windows here were made of azure, cobalt, and iris shades of blue glass to go along Luna’s own looks and calm nature. Although she was able to alter the look of any place in the Dreamworld, she preferred to keep the castle in its natural state. It suited her.
The corridor ended with massive doors guarding the local equivalent of the Royal Vault. In Equestria, they would open to a world of powerful and sometimes dangerous artifacts, the six currently known Elements of Harmony included, but in here they revealed a rather disappointing content for what one would expect from a place so difficult to find.
In the middle of the room stood an elegant, three-legged table made of dark bluish wood, the round top of which was framed with silver ornaments embedded all around it. They glimmered with magic, as if they were something more than just a way to decorate a piece of furniture. On the table lay a round pillow stuffed with the essence of the blackest night, the edges of which had been sewn together with the light of the stars themselves. The pillow held a small, crystal orb, and a closer look revealed a tiny strand of darkness swirling inside.
Luna approached the orb.
“Can you hear us?”
The strand stopped its frantic dance for a moment, then moved closer to the edge of its crystal shell. What could be taken for genuine excitation, Luna read as a confirmation conveyed by the strand’s makeshift consciousness. She wasn’t entirely sure if the spell had worked, but so far the results were promising. Well, at least as far as a self-invented, experimental magic based on a moldy tome from the old Crystal Empire could go.
“Good,” she said. “Do you know why we have created you?”
The strand went back to the center of the orb, wriggling like a tadpole.
“We have created you to remind ourselves about the suffering we brought upon our subjects. About the crimes we committed against them,” Luna explained. She let her azure book dissolve and she laid a gentle touch on the orb’s surface. “You cannot yet comprehend our intentions, but in time we will show you our memories, and you’ll understand your purpose.”
At first the strand backed to the opposite side of the orb, away from Luna’s caressing. As she was speaking, it moved towards her like a timid animal encountering a pony for the first time in its life. The strand shivered like a newborn foal trying to find its mother, instinctively knowing that she was to be trusted, listened to, and obeyed in all things.
Luna took her hoof away and conjured her boot back. “With you, we will become more virtuous, and should our enemy ever come to our thoughts again, we will be ready,” she said, then turned around. “We must go, and tend to matters outside of this place now.”
She stepped out of the Vault and threw a last glance at the orb.
“Sleep well, Tantabus. Your time will come soon.”
The strand bended thrice, as if in attempt to repeat that strange new world to the best of its skill.
* * *
There was something wonderfully stimulating about the scent of blooming flowers.
“So Celestia spoke the truth after all. This is indeed a fine day we’re having!”
Despite holding the position of the Princess of the Night, Luna actually quite enjoyed the mornings, afternoons, and even the very midday itself when her sister’s blazing star was reaching its highest point on the sky. While the night brought her the serenity and silence she relished, she could only fully appreciated the beauty of the Canterlot Gardens during the day. After sundown, and without the explicit aid of magic she couldn’t see better than other ponies, but now she gladly immersed herself in the plethora of vibrant flowers and plants. A small army of gardening ponies had already finished their trimming and watering duties for today, which meant Luna had the entire place all for herself.
She stepped off a cobblestone path and followed a row of violet bellflowers deeper into the garden, hearing chirping and squeaking all around her. The pleasant ambience came not only from the flora, but also from the great variety of critters dwelling across the castle grounds, within a reasonable proximity from the castle walls, that is. Unlike bats and owls, most of daytime animals shunned Luna as she wandered anywhere near them, but even among those one could find a brave enough exception to the rule.
Luna looked at a sheep nibbling the grass at her hooves.
“We bid you welcome, wooly subject! We did not see you there.”
The sheep bleated in response, offended by a mealtime disturbance.
“We cannot speak your noble tongue, sadly,” Luna said, crouching by the sheep. “How did you even get here? Say, shouldn’t you be banqueting on your pastures closer to the mountain?”
Hearing the question and apparently understanding the intention hidden within, the sheep panicked and scurried towards a pot with blooming marigolds as fast as it short legs allowed. A quick, sharp turn—to confuse the chase, no doubt—and it was on its way to a flowerbed of crocuses. From there, the unruly sheep dived under a white hydrangea climbing up a cast iron archway.
“Stop at once, you four-legged pillow! You’re not supposed to be here!”
Leaving the kingdom of scents and petals behind, Luna followed the sheep across a sculpture garden. It seemed the fugitive was heading towards the hedge maze. Did it want to play hide and seek with her? Luna smirked. As a regal alicorn and one of the two ruling bodies of Equestria, she was not going to let such a blatant insolence go uncorrected, even if it meant chasing a mere sheep down the tangled corridors of green. After all, she did come here to strengthen her resolve, and a chase like that was a promising inception. She was looking forward to whatever had been prepared for her at the end of the path, regardless of how terrifying it would end being.
Twists and turns lead the alicorn into a hedged clearing. There was a fountain the size of a carriage in the middle, several benches for the weary travelers seeking their way out of the maze without a thread to follow, and unsurprisingly, an awful lot of noisy sheep.
Luna stepped into the herd of her wooly subjects. Unlike the white one she had chased here, those were dyed in all colors she could imagine, and they wore cute, little bells shaped like full moons which jingled whenever they moved. Befuddled by this display but wary of any and all danger which could come at her, Luna pressed on. The quality of the wool felt superb, also pleasantly warm, but a rain of magical sparks released after she passed her hoof along a sheep’s back was too much.
It was a dream, of that she was aware, but it was not about what she needed to dream.
“That’s it? A herd of magic sheep? No, this is wrong. This is all wrong!”
Luna released a gleaming wave of magic which removed the herd from the clearing, safe for a white sheep half-immersed in the fountain. It wasn’t even swimming or bathing in there, only stood there and watched the alicorn with a less dumbfounded stare than that of the average sheep.
“Tantabus,” Luna said. “A word, please.”
The sheep flipped over the edge of the fountain and fell on its flat face. It sprinted towards Luna like a puppy greeting its owner, but it tripped and tumbled like a helpless ball of wool. When it landed on its back it could only wiggle its legs, with no way of getting back to all fours. Its bleating sounded like a desperate cry for help.
“Enough with this mockery already!”
The bleating ceased, and the sheep’s outward looks dissolved. Tantabus straightened up and darted towards the alicorn. In just a couple of weeks, and free from its crystal confinement, the strand had grown to the size of a napkin which shimmered like a sky full of stars on a cloudless night. Its ability to communicate did not improve one bit, but it was able to recognize its Mistress, and it could see that she was not content.
Luna frowned, to which the mist shrunk into itself. “You have disappointed us, Tantabus,” she said. “We have expected you to understand by now. Your role in our dreams is not to participate in them, make us laugh, or woo us with their originality. Instead, you take what you see and let us experience the worst possible outcome. Do you understand your purpose?”
Tantabus hovered closer to the ground in his clumsy manifestation of embarrassment. He flowed up and down several times like he was nodding. Then he twirled, and took shape of a black alicorn.
“We see you remember her,” Luna said. “This is good. But you won’t be able to scare us basing solely on your limited capabilities. Instead, you need to tap into our memories and learn about our past. Do not hesitate to turn it against us. Make our dreams unpleasant, just like the Nightmare does with the dreams of our subjects every night. We need to share in their helplessness, in their despair, and in their pain.”
Miniature Nightmare Moon took flight and hissed at Luna.
“Making progress, aren’t we?” Luna said. “Now, the time for slumber is coming to an end. Our sister invited us to partake in a meal. Go back to the castle and wait for our return,” she commanded, turning away. “Oh, and one more thing.”
Tantabus switched back to his mist form and slowed his movements, listening.
“Do not dare to show us sheep ever again.”
* * *
At the other end of the sumptuous table, Celestia soaked a silverware knife deeper into the peach. Sliding the blade swiftly around the resistance she encountered she cut it in two even halves joined only by their shared core. She twisted them in opposite directions, violently breaking the connection, then ripped out the pit. With a crimson napkin ready to dry the excess of juice about to trickle down her muzzle, she bit into the fleshy part of the fruit.
“So, how are your endeavors progressing?”
Was that a question? Luna shook her head, but her drowsiness just didn’t want to wear off. Between patrolling the Dreamworld, fixing the damage caused by the Nightmare, and of course overseeing the recruitment of thestrals to a new, special division of the Royal Guard, she was in desperate need of a nap. How about right now? The chair was so comfy. So very, very comfy.
Focus! Back to reality now, and to that deliciously looking slice of kiwi in front of her. The Equestrians didn’t know such a strange, fuzzy fruit in her times, and Luna couldn’t be more glad that one of her royal duties involved acquainting herself with a thousand years’ worth of culinary advancement of the pony race.
Still, about that question. Celestia asked her something, didn’t she?
“Whatever do you mean, sister?”
“I’m asking about Tantabus,” Celestia replied. “Is he helping you in ways you hoped he would?”
Luna chewed through the kiwi. Yuck. Such a poison to her palate wasn’t worth even a day of waiting, let alone a thousand years.
“His efficiency is far from what we would find acceptable, but we’re getting there,” she said, flushing down the distaste with a gulp of tea. “We are certain that in time he will provide us with an excellent training exercise. To serve his purpose, he needed to be taught the difference between a dream and a nightmare.”
“It is truly astonishing you have managed to teach him that despite his origin,” Celestia said, biting into the other half of the peach. “I am glad to hear you are so keen on bettering yourself, Luna. You have come a long way, and I cannot imagine how difficult it must be for you to fit in. Especially considering your disadvantage.”
Instead of taking another sip, Luna placed the porcelain cup down.
“Forgive us asking, sister, but to what disadvantage are you referring?”
Celestia leaned on the table and looked at Luna with a mixture of amusement and sympathy. “Well, you are the younger of the two of us. The less important one.”
“It is not very kind of you to say that.”
“But it is the truth, isn’t it?” Celestia said. “You have been, you are, and you always shall be living in my shadow. I mean, don’t take me wrong, my subjects are overjoyed to see such a jester by my side, but in the end it is me and me alone who matters to them.”
Luna could not blame the traitorous kiwi for her loss of appetite any longer. She stood up hastily, knocking her chair over. “You must excuse us, sister. We need to attend to our less than important duties which in no way contribute to the safety of our subjects!” she said and took a deep breath. “We wish you a good day.”
She stormed towards the doors to see them shutting before her.
“What is the meaning of this?”
Without much hurry, Celestia put the silverware evenly on the plate: first the teaspoon, then the knife, and then the salad fork. She then grabbed a napkin in the mist of her magic and cleaned the edges of her mouth. When she was done, she stood up.
“Did you really think it would be that easy?” she said. “That I will simply send my best and brightest to give a broken mare a fix with the Elements of Harmony? That I will forgive, accept as my sister, and absolve her of her past mistakes?”
Luna yanked the handle, but the doors were closed shut with magic.
“Let us go in peace, sister!”
Celestia’s horn burned brighter with her every step towards Luna, and when she spoke, her voice was that of a venomous predator belittling its prey. “Oh, so now you plea for peace? No, dear sister, there will be no peace between the two of us. You are but a sad relic of the times bygone, and neither me nor Equestria need you in our lives today,” she said. “Just look at yourself! What use would anyone have for a pony who can fall so easily? I better put an end to your miserable existence here and now, so that your foolishness would never harm my subjects ever again!”
Pinned to the doors, Luna cried as the heat became unbearable. Drips of sweat appeared on her face, and it seemed that everything was about to go in flames, including the already singed strands of her hair.
“Please, sister! This isn’t you speaking!” she shouted. “Celestia we know would have never said those things, not after a thousand years of keeping us company throughout every full moon!”
Celestia laughed, not in a graceful way you’d expect from somepony of her status, but in genuine mockery lashed at the other mare. “Oh, my poor, naive sister. You actually believed that I missed you? Well, I hate to disappoint, but the truth is I did not, and I will feel no remorse ending the nightmare you’ve brought upon my kingdom!”
Bolstering her endurance one last time, Luna hurled Celestia with a sudden discharge of dark magic. The alicorn screamed and crashed into the table, sending a hail of fruits all around. Luna stood up, her burned face no longer frightened, but revealing the unspeakable levels of disdain carried by her hateful stare. She clenched her teeth as her coat blackened and her mane shimmered, now altered by the empowering Nightmare surging through her body.
“Ending it?” Nightmare Moon said. “No, sister. Your nightmare has only just begun!”
Concealed in the darkest corner of the room and imperceivable by the two alicorns, Princess Luna let out a sigh and froze the scene in time.
She walked around the dream, undisturbed by ephemeral visions of fruits and utensils scattered at her hooves. The two silent statues of her sister and her past self ended up suspended in the middle of summoning armors for the upcoming battle. Luna did not need to see what was to come next. She came here to ponder on her mistakes, not to admire the outbursts of the clashing alicorns. Interested more in the state of Celestia rather than the form she knew all too well, Luna approached the broken table and looked into her sister’s eyes.
Even with the constructs of her subconscious stopped in time, Luna could still feel the emotions driving them. The sadness when she learned that the ponies weren’t appreciating the beauty of the night she gifted them. The disgust when Celestia wanted to talk to her about it, to help her, but she rejected her. The anger which lead her to inviting the Nightmare to her heart.
Above all else, she remembered the fear of not being loved.
Such were the horrors her subjects had to suffer because of her wrongdoings. Submitting herself to them as well was the only fitting punishment: one nightmare for every bad dream the ponykind had over the last thousand years.
Though tears came to her eyes, Luna ignored them and kept her head high. She remembered this meeting with Celestia had ended on a positive note. They didn’t even talk about Tantabus, of which her sister had no knowledge, but about the upcoming Nightmare Night in Ponyville, an annual festival in Luna’s honor which was still a week away.
Luna dispelled the vision. The jousting alicorns, the fruits, the dining room, it all vanished. She was back in her sanctuary, with only a mist of darkness hidden by the ceiling and watching her.
She nodded.
“Thank you.”
* * *
Though I possess limited understanding of the worlds beyond this one, what follows is what I know for certain.
A long time ago the Soothing Shade, my Mistress, forged an alliance with an ethereal force called the Nightmare. In exchange for granting her power to best her other side, the Blazing Light in battle, the Nightmare asked for one thing in return. It wanted to be shown how to influence the Dreamworld, and my Mistress happened to be unmatched in the art of treading among the dreams. However, the Blazing Light saw through their ruse and banished them before they could bring peril to the world as Nightmare Moon, but the Nightmare locked within my Mistress learned what it desired to know. Filled with rage and grief, together they had been poisoning the lives of dreaming ponies with nightmarish visions on every night for a thousand years of their imprisonment.
When they returned to the world, the Sixfold Source carried by the Blazing Light’s champions purged my Mistress from the Nightmare, but it did not vanquish it. The Nightmare is still out there, weakened but lurking, now capable of sending its agents to the Dreamworld like my Mistress taught it. It didn’t take long before she realized that even if she keeps fighting them for the rest of her life, she will never be able to undo the pain she brought upon her subjects. Something had to be done to ensure she would never fail them again.
I had to be done.
You could say it has become our routine. When my Mistress comes to me, I strive to show her the helplessness, the despair, and the pain her subjects have experienced, and are yet to experience. Since it takes more than just reminding about her past mistakes to move her, I am also showing her why she just mustn’t fail them again. Night after night, my Mistress lives through the worst possible outcome of her actions, and she faces nightmares similar to what she then tirelessly fights to spare others from suffering.
She is not easily broken, and I find a certain beauty in her resilience. No matter how many times she experiences her moments of weakness, she always rises above them and emerges a better mare than before. Once she conquers her own fears, she leaves the castle and plunges into the vastness of the Dreamworld. In that, she is finding her purpose.
As for my own, it took me a while to understand. I’ve been created to remind her about her mistakes over and over again, to strike uneasiness into her heart whenever she feels comfortable, and to help her punish herself for as long as it will take for her to learn the lesson. Yet, she has grown so in control of herself, my Mistress, which means I have to adapt as well. For obvious reasons I can’t be showing her the same thing every night, we would both grow indifferent to it. Like that one memory of the Blazing Light. I once tried to fool her into believing she was not loved, but the beautiful bond they shared together helped my Mistress triumph over my attempts.
Eventually, I will learn all about her weaknesses, and she will learn all about herself. Then she will defeat the guilt she carries, she will defeat me once and for all, and we will both be content knowing she will never again slip into the embrace of the Nightmare. Who knows, maybe then she’ll be ready to take on the Nightmare itself? I wish my Mistress the best, and although I have no sympathy to its agents, I know we all need our share of suffering in our lives. Only then we can grow more noble, more virtuous. That is the truth about life my Mistress taught me.
Now, I need to prepare a vision for the next time she requires my aid. She left me with some fond memories of her last visit to Ponyville. She even met a group of dressed up children. Oh yes, these memories will do! I intend to show her the damage she could have caused to them if she had let her occasional outburst go out of control. Is it too much? It’s not my call to make. My Mistress will suffer because she has created me for that very reason, and I intend to serve her to the best of my skills.
I am Tantabus, and my purpose is to torment my creator.
I might as well start enjoying it.
Author's Note
Hello there! Thank you for reading my story. I am no longer writing pony fiction, but if you want to support my current creative endeavor, check out my content on Twitch! 
