Chapters It loomed above the little griffon town. It had finally arrived, and the griffons there - they couldn't escape thanks to the nightmare shield it'd put over the village - were squawking about in panic. Their actions hardly mattered to it though, because soon they would be in nightmares forever more. Far away in Equestria, the Crystal Empire and beyond, pieces of itself maintained the delicate network of magic keeping the inhabitants alive and in terrorized slumber.
It brought a limb to its side, and swung it out sideways. Where it went the air rippled, and that same ripple shot downward into the town like a meteor. The hybrid animals slowly fell into slumber, falling to the ground and being locked into sleep paralysis. Then the nightmares began. It spent a few more minutes making sure no fires would start, then several hours longer setting up the mechanisms to keep the griffons alive. Then it dispelled the barrier around the town and focused its gaze onwards, towards Griffonstone. The capitol was on full alert, but where were the griffons going to go? After all, the entire Griffon Kingdom was under a nightmare shield.
It continued on.
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Luna
She didn't sleep well, but was that any surprise?
Luna had been left in a hard steel cage, her limbs tied up in intricate knots that constantly put them under stress. A colossal metal bit, far too foul to be only metal, strained her jaw wide open. Both her mane and tail were tied together with a very short rope, forcing her head to tilt back and the slightest movement to tug at the roots of both her top and bottom. Too-large vibrators strained her flesh as they buzzed away in her ass and cunt, their presence for so long causing her tender flesh to turn raw. Her fur coat stuck together in itchy patches by cum. All in all, she was miserable throughout the night, her agony punctuated only by brief moments of blessed unconsciousness.
By the time the sun rose, Luna was desperate for anything to release her from her bonds, even if it meant hours more of being raped by the foul king and her own flesh and blood.
Of course, she only knew the sun was coming up because the light streaming past her blindfold grew in intensity, and as such she wasn't even afforded the ability to look around what used to be her sister's living quarters.
She heard the shifting of bed springs, and a cold flicker of anger reminded her that those were her sister's bed springs. The caribou king groaned and his hooves clacked as he stood. There was the whoosh of his unnatural wings. "Up, pet." Celestia was silent as she awoke on her bed, only speaking when told to. "Mmm, there you go." Luna heard the sound of Celestia's muffled gagging and sputtering, and narrowed her eyes under her blindfold.
I will kill you, some day, she thought as he continued to violate her sister. Eventually there came the sound of her drinking, followed by a gasp of air.
"Unfortunately, I have a lot to do today cunt. Take care of your sister in my absence."
The clip-clop of hooves. The click of a door opening and shutting, then Luna heard Celestia crawling over to her, opening her cage.
"Morning sister," she said glumly. "Are you going to at least try to be good today?"
"MMPH!" she spat out. She couldn't even make a lying nod, given her mane and tail were tied together.
"I'll take that as a yes, sister mine." She heard the cage open, and the first thing she felt was fingers around the massive bit in her mouth. She choked as it momentarily was pushed deeper, but then Celestia got a good grip and slowly began to work it out from her mouth.
Once it was free, Luna began coughing and gasping for clean air. "T-Thank you," she wheezed, even though she knew there were ulterior motives. There always were. "Please, get these ropes off of me."
Celestia moved behind her, hugging her from behind and mercifully avoiding her braided hair. "Master Dainn says they're there for a reason, Lulu. I know you hate hearing it, but you're being punished for a reason. "
"Damn you," she whispered as Celestia began groping her, biting an ear. "Stop it, stop, please sister," she implored.
"You know I can't do that."
"It hurts," she complained, thinking mostly about the agonizing vibrators still lodged in her.
"It'll hurt less if you stop fighting. What's even the point, Luna? What are you going to accomplish? "
"If it means even frustrating that son of a bitch, I'll do anything it takes," she ground out. "At least let me see, at least let me see!"
Celestia sighed. "Fine, fine." Luna felt her sister's hands wrap around the back of her head, and the black cloth over her eyes was lifted. She looked around frantically, her eyes eager for any form of light. The sun streamed in through a window, and the bedchambers of Celestia, once noble and refined, had been desecrated with hunting trophies, maps of Dainn's worldwide conquest, and posters urging her to give in, there's no point, you're weak, it's the only way to be happy. She looked down and swallowed the urge to vomit when she saw her sister's fingers kneading her breasts. She gagged back her retching -
Celestia moved behind her, hugging her from behind and mercifully avoiding her braided hair. "Master Dainn says they're there for a reason, Lulu. I know you hate hearing it, but you're being punished for a reason. "
Luna jumped. "Why did you - how - why did you repeat yourself?" she demanded.
Celestia moved her head back. "What are you talking about? I didn't repeat myself."
Her blindfold was still off, so Luna looked around wildly. That had happened. She couldn't fool herself, that had happened. How had Celestia done that? She had no magic.
Unless Dainn gave her some measure as a reward.
That was ridiculous, the thought wouldn't even cross his pea-sized brain.
How do I know that?
It was in the way he behaved. Something had happened, but what? Luna's eyes glanced around and settled on a poster, of young, desecrated Twilight Sparkle on her knees, wrapping her hands around a stallion's cock and it wasn't there until she looked at it!
Her breathing sped up, and she realized the agonizing buzzing in her rear had stopped. She glanced down out of the corner of her eyes, only for the vibrators to reappear as if they were a mirage. Luna breathed faster, and she dared, dared to hope. Her eyes roamed around, ignoring Celestia's repeated ministrations. Everywhere she looked the world was bland, but if she focused on parts of it details appeared, vanishing when she turned her attention away.
No, she thought, unwilling to believe it was so simple. Could it be? Is it possible?
Luna lurched forward, out of Celestia's grip and out of the cage. She stood up, and she could because for a moment the rope tying her mane and tail together had ceased to exist.
Even if this is a dream, I'm still trapped. Nothing will change.
That wasn't true. Celestia looked startled. "L-Luna, what are you - "
"Silence" she shouted, pointing an accusing finger at her blurry sister. "Silence, you are not real! Begone, phantom!" It was a dream. She could control her dreams. She had to be able to, as the guardian of them. From her finger came a lance of teal power, but it flickered and died halfway to not-Tia.
She stumbled back. It had failed, probably due to self doubt, but that was enough to confirm her suspicions. None of this was real. How long had she slumbered, trapped in this wretched world? What was going on in the real world? Was her sister - her true, noble, gentle sister - sitting at her bedside, fearing for her life?
"Lulu, stop!" Celestia shouted, standing straight up through a cage that wasn't there. "Master Dainn will be so angry with you! I don't want to see you hurt!"
"I SAID BE SILENT, IMPOSTER!" she roared, willing the phantom to vanish. And so she did; Celestia was there, and then she wasn't, and Luna was alone. Nopony with her, and the not-Dainn was -
A rough hand wrapped around her mouth and she screamed in panic. "This is the last straw, moonslut! When I'm through with you it'll be the purple for you!" She was shoved down on her back to see Dainn lowering his pants. The pain was so real. Everything was so defined. It couldn't be a dream. This was real, she was going to -
Shut up! None of this is real! I have to wake up, now, or I never will! She pulled up her hooves and lashed out, bucking the caribou in the groin and scrambling to stand. She shut her eyes and told herself repeatedly that when she opened them, she would be awake, when she opened them she would be awake, when she opened them -
she opened them, and found herself at the top of Canterlot Mountain, still naked as the day she was born, with a blurry, chill breeze ruffling her coat. Luna fell to her hands and knees, shaking. She did it. She did it. But... she wasn't awake. She had to wake up somehow!
Luna began breathing heavily on purpose, trying to accelerate her heartrate to wake herself up. Then she ran to the edge of the mountain and threw herself off, aiming for the land many miles below.
There was no wind as she fell, only the sound of her quick breaths and a rapidly sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as the ground grew closer and closer, and suddenly she had her doubts because what if she was wrong? What if she was awake and the dullness of the world was just her senses being unused, what if -
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SLAM!
Luna awoke in a cold sweat with a desperate scream, and immediately her body was on fire. The scream turned into a strangled whine as her seemingly body wide bruise ached all at once, and then she settled down.
Her bedroom. Her chambers. She was in her room, she was home! The crescent moon bed in the middle, the dark blue coloring, the tree-like lanterns, the wardrobe. None of it had been real. The caribou invasion, Celestia's fall, it was all just a terrible, terrible nightmare. She was fine. Now to go about letting everypony know she was awake. Nopony seemed to be in at the moment, which was worrying, but surely she could find them before long.
Princess Luna was on the floor, on her side. Her entire body ached, as if she'd spent the entire time she was asleep on the ground. She moved an arm up to her head, needing to check. Her arm moved slowly and weakly, and it was far too thin. How much had her muscles atrophied? Luna wasn't entirely sure she wished to know, but she could at least move it.
Her hand found its way to her head, and wrapped around a solid spire of bone. She moved her shaking hand up until she reached the tip of her horn, then let her hand fall down and she began sobbing. It was still there. She was okay. And while her wings were in disuse and the feathers cluttered, they were free of the wing binders. She was dressed in her sleep robes, not naked, and there was no black band around her throat. Luna continued crying openly at the revelation, water pouring from her eyes and heaving sobs filling the room. At length, she began to calm down.
"I - ach! " Her throat was so sore. Not dry, but it hurt from disuse. She cleared her throat, and spoke slowly to warm up her vocal cords. "I need to get up," she whispered. "I need to stand." She didn't think trying to stand under her own power would work, not with her legs so unnervingly thin. She crawled her way over to her bed and pushed herself into it. Just that action, though, had her panting for breath. Still, it was progress, and she took a few minutes to indulge in the softness of having an actual bed for a change.
It all felt so real, she mused. At least up until the end, when the nightmare had shown its true colors. Luna didn't bother wasting effort on trying to determine why; that could come later, after she figured out what was going on. Though she'd need a way to get around more efficiently. She could barely drag herself into her bed, her aching joints popping every step of the way, and she didn't trust her wings either, no matter how much pegasus magic they carried.
Her magic. She could use magic again, and magic didn't atrophy like muscles did. Luna crossed her eyes to catch a glimpse of her horn in the corner of her vision... and started crying again. Her horn. Her horn was back.
When she again got a hold of herself, she decided to start small. After so long, she barely even remembered what magic felt like to use. Princess Luna screwed up her face and looked at her wardrobe's door. Slowly, long-unused nerves flared to life and a weak, flickering blue glow spread along her horn and on the doorknob. She couldn't stop an airy laugh from escaping her, and she increased the flow of power until the aura was steady and healthy, then opened the door.
Her vision blurred with tears as she floated a dress over to herself, cradling it in her arms like a newborn foal. The clothes she were in were dirty and sweaty from her long stay in them - which was worrying, because anypony taking care of her would change them regularly - so she hesitantly got out of them and then eagerly put on the crisp - though admittedly a little dusty - blue and black dress that went down to her fetlocks.
Next step, moving. She looked at her back and extended her right wing, before immediately regretting it as agonizing pain shot through it. "Must've really slept on it wrong," she muttered. But why hadn't anypony adjusted her? In fact, why wasn't anypony in to check on her? Surely they'd have monitoring spells or equipment to keep track of her well being. Surely, in the time it had taken her to crawl to bed, somepony would come by?
Surely she would've been moved to the hospital, not left on the ground in her chambers? How had she even gotten there? The last thing Luna remembered...
There would be time to worry about that later. Luna didn't trust herself to even get so far as the door, much less investigate where everypony was. She needed another way. Her magic perhaps? It was the only immediately obvious answer.
Luna's horn lit up again, and this time her aura spread along her own body. Loathe as she was to leave the comfort of bedding, she had to do this. The alicorn levitated herself up into the air and towards her bathing room. She opened the door and hovered inside, then collapsed in her large, princess-sized tub.
A shower. She needed a shower, she was sweaty and all around disgusting. She took off her clothes, shivering and glancing around nervously, then reached her magic to the spout. She didn't trust herself to remain standing long enough for a proper shower, so she would bathe and keep the drain opened, running the water over herself before letting it flow out.
At least that was the plan, because no water came from the spout. Luna's eyes widened, and she waited a few more minutes. Nothing. She closed the spout and levitated her clothes back on, grateful for their protection. She used her magic to get out of the shower and back to her soft, welcoming bed.
The water systems weren't functioning. That seemed to indicate there was something more to this mystery than Luna being trapped in a horrible, inescapable nightmare for who knew how long. She wasn't going to find out anything from within her room though, Luna had to go outside.
She hovered over to the door and reached out, grasping it with a shaky hand. She twisted it and pulled the door, wincing as her weakened muscles pulled angrily against each other, but the door opened regardless. Outside it was dark and quiet, dusty too. Cobwebs clung to the corners of Canterlot Castle, and it was as silent as the grave. Princess Luna made her way out, bereft of her crown and torque, and looked around.
It wasn't long before she found the first pony. It was one of her Night Guards, the thestral mare collapsed against a wall not five paces from her spear. Luna settled closer to her to investigate. Underneath the pony's lids, her eyes twitched violently left and right and the bat pony whimpered almost inaudibly. If she looked closely, Luna thought she could see dark stars shining just above her atrophied body.
She gulped. Luna wasn't sure what had knocked her into Tartarus, but it appeared she wasn't alone. As much as she loathed to leave her little pony wracked with horror, she needed to learn what she was up against, first and foremost.
"I'm sorry," she told the thestral before picking herself up in her magic again and floating onward.
She soon came across more ponies, though she had to bite down on her lip to keep from screaming when she saw a stallion. All of them, to the last, were in deep slumber and wreathed with glowing stars. The corridors were pitch black, vision afforded to her only by her preternatural night vision and her magic. Torches had burnt to cinders. Spiders made their webs in the cracks of the castle.
A growl tore through Luna's stomach, and she blushed. She turned around and floated towards where she knew the royal kitchens to be, drifting by passed-out nobles. She found the storage room and pushed open the door. Immediately Luna backed out and retched. Fruit. Rotten fruit, grain, so much spoiled food! Summoning her magic and this time wrapping it around herself in a shield, containing only the clean stale air, Luna pushed inside the storage room.
She passed several shelves, grimacing in disgust at the flies. She made her way to the back of the room, and found the emergency reserves of canned food, in case Canterlot was attacked and the castle staff needed to hole up. There was enough food there to feed her for the next hundred and fifty or so years, and by then she'd hopefully have found a way to fix whatever had befallen Equestria.
Princess Luna picked out a bottle of water and a can of vegetables, then drifted out of the storage room and closed the door behind her before dismissing her shield. She found a metal spoon, then wrenched the can open with a heave of magical effort. Luna found a clean corner to sit in and gripped the spoon, slowly feeding herself the mixture of peas, baby corn, and carrots. When the first spoonful hit her tongue, she moaned in ecstasy. Real food. It'd been so long since she'd eaten anything but aphrodisiac-laced kibble, even if she knew that she hadn't actually.
She finished up the first meal she'd had in far too long and thought back. What was the last thing she could remember before the events of the - fake - caribou invasion? The mare scrunched up her face as she tried to think. She remembered greeting her sister, having dinner with her, then retiring to her room. She remembered... she remembered waking up. She was at a conference of... some thing. She couldn't remember. The next thing she knew she was having her horn cut off by her Night Guard, so her memory extended to the conference she couldn't remember the importance of, and then she'd been trapped in a nightmare for an unknown length of time.
And apparently, so had everypony else. Including, no doubt, her sister!
She had to go see Celestia. If the phantom Celestia that had raped her and violated her was fake, then there was hope that she could free her sister and... and they'd be together again!
Luna wiped a tear from her eyes and levitated herself into the air. But she still needed more information. She knew next to nothing about what was going on, so she had to explore the castle a bit more. Perhaps Luna would find something.
She took a left and a right, suppressing the murderous rage she felt whenever she saw a stallion. They're innocent, she kept telling herself. None of them did anything wrong. It was all in your head, Luna. Get a hold of yourself.
The throne room was an exercise in juxtaposition. It was dark and dank, with guards collapsed near the locked doorway. Dust covered the ground wherever she moved, the air currents of her passing whipping up miniature cyclones. There were long-deflated balloons lying limp on the floor, and vases that may have once held water and flowers. There was a banner that stretched from one wall to another, though she couldn't see what was written on it from her position. It was tattered and covered with moth-eaten holes, though. All the windows had been shattered, revealing that it was night time.
Princess Luna went over to one of the Royal Guards and knelt by his side. The armor's enchantment, with nopony to renew it, had faded and revealed the stallion's blue coat and green hair. The muscles his training had once built up were gone, and he twitched uselessly in the grasp of some unseen terror. Luna's magic flared and she formed a blue sliver of solid magic and grasped it. She brought the magical blade to the guard's throat - then gasped and dispelled her creation. What was she doing?!
"Come on Luna," she whispered. "Get a hold of yourself. Find out what's causing this, don't hurt anypony innocent." She reached her magic around the guard and felt for the stars keeping him asleep. She 'tasted' the magic, so to speak, comparing it to the various types she knew. It was not her magic, nor was it her sister's, Twilight's, Cadance's, or even Nightmare Moon's. It was not chaos, it was not changeling, but she got the distinct impression that she knew this magic from somewhere.
Luna gasped, and the blood in her veins froze. "No," she whispered. The Tantabus. But it was only in her dreams! It couldn't possibly put her under permanent sleep and keep her alive all along, much less do it to anypony else! Last she remembered it was still a small puff of cosmic smoke. Unless she didn't remember it.
In theory the Tantabus, being a creature of dreams, could gather enough strength to escape into the real world. Luna had a sinking feeling that theory was confirmed, and that her memories had been damaged either as a side effect of its endless nightmare... or intentionally. If the Tantabus had truly escaped her slumber, if she was once again responsible for Equestria being in peril...
Luna drifted back from the stallion, shivering. She looked around at the guards scattered on the ground, then at the ragged banner.
Her heart stopped.
Written across the banner in tattered but still readily legible, black letters with the Equestrian crest on either end was the message 'WELCOME KING DAINN AND CO' .
Luna forgot to keep her magic going and fell down. She tried to push herself up on her elbows, but doing so was too tiring and NO NO NO IT CAN'T BE HE'S NOT REAL!
She was still dreaming. That had to be it. She hadn't gone through Tartarus only to escape and learn it had followed her. Or... what if she was missing more memory than she thought? Had the Tantabus... no, she didn't know. She couldn't process it.
Tia. She needed Tia. Tia could fix this. She tried to get up, but then her legs screamed in protest. Luna tried to carry her weight for a moment, but in the end she relented and grabbed herself in her telekinetic field, making haste out of the throne room.
She knew where Celestia's room was from memory, so she made it there in record time as she passed the slumbering maids and guards. She teleported inside the locked door - she could still do that, luckily - and lit up the room with her magic.
Celestia was on the floor, just as Luna had been, tangled in a dress with her torque and crown laying at arm's length from her. Stars glimmered around her sister, and she whimpered pathetically in fear.
"Oh sister, what has happened to you?" she whispered. Luna floated over to her and set herself down, grunting. She reached out and stroked Celestia's cheek, brushing aside a few stars. "I'll get you out, I promise." She wondered what her sister's nightmare was. Was it Discord turning back to his wicked ways? The same as hers, but their roles were reversed and Luna was the red collar instead? A simple unending dream of pain? Regardless, she had to help.
Princess Luna wrapped her magic around Celestia, feeling for the nightmare magic. There was no doubt in her mind, it was the Tantabus's power.
But that means I did this.
That was a thought for later. She began poking and prodding at the magic keeping Celestia asleep, feeling around for how it worked. It was... boggling. The Tantabus's spell was ironclad, it kept Celestia alive, it funneled power to some far off place, probably the Tantabus itself, and it maintained a solid, realistic nightmare. It made her wonder how she'd escaped it on her own at all.
But no matter how strong the spell was, she had to at least try. Luna knew that every spell had a weak spot that allowed its dispelling, it was just a matter of finding it. As she looked closer, it almost appeared as though the spell was... pulsing. Very slowly, but there it was. She didn't know as to the purpose of the pulsation, she wasn't in the habit of weaving nightmare spells, but it was something she could exploit. Princess Luna gathered all her alicorn magic around Celestia and, when the spell next fell to a weak spot, released it all.
Celestia screamed.
Luna was there in a moment, lifting Celestia with a heave of effort - she'd expended nearly all her magic waking up her sister - and wrapping her arms around her. Celestia sobbed and fidgeted, but she was about as weak as Luna was. "Sister, sister it's okay! None of it was real! None of it was real, it was just a nightmare spell! You're safe here, you're safe here," she whispered repeatedly.
Eventually Celestia calmed down. Which was good, because Luna didn't know how much longer she could keep her from thrashing around in the dark and hurting herself. "L-Luna?"
"It's me, sister. It's okay. You were under a spell, but it's okay. It's just me."
"I can't see."
"The lights are all off. I can see fine though, don't worry. There's a lot that happened. Can you use your magic?"
"M-My magic?" Celestia paused, then there was a brief flicker of golden light. "My horn! My horn, my horn, oh my horn!"
"Let me guess, you dreamed it had been cut off and your wings plucked and bound in sleeves?" she asked.
Celestia looked towards her voice. "How did you know?" she asked worriedly. "It was horrible. You were... we'd been..."
"I suspect I had the same dream as you with minor details changed," she said. "I'll tell you more after we get some food in you, but a force has trapped everypony in the castle, and possibly beyond, in a nightmare. I only just woke up from it recently."
"It wasn't real?" she asked hopefully. "I won't have to go back?"
Princess Luna shook her head, then realized it was pointless if Celestia couldn't see her. "You won't sister, I promise. None of it was real, though I suspect the force that created the nightmare had inspiration." Celestia began shaking violently. "But it's nothing more than a suspicion, Tia! Please, we need to get moving. I don't know if whatever did this is coming up, we've both atrophied horribly, and you need food. Can you lift yourself with your magic?"
A tense silence spread between them like a canyon. "I can try," Celestia said. Golden light illuminated her bedroom as it flowed along her sister's lengthy horn. The magic flickered precariously, then redoubled and stayed strong. "My magic, I never thought I'd have it again. Oh sister, thank you! " Celestia turned around until she was face to face with Luna and wrapped her arms around her.
Luna froze. It'll hurt less if you stop fighting. What's even the point, Luna? What are you going to accomplish? She sucked in a breath, but steadied herself and allowed it. Her sister was hurting, and given all the times in the past when her older sister had comforted her, she owed her at least this much.
After a few minutes, Celestia lifted herself into the air, groaning loudly as she cracked her neck. Her wings were in a sorry state, but anything was better than those cursed leather -
"Now what?" her sister asked, looking down at her.
"Now you need to lift me too, I burnt the remainder of my magic breaking the spell's hold on you," she explained.
"So much?" Celestia asked as she lifted Luna. She panicked a little at being in somepony else's grip, but forced herself to relax. "What creature could possibly pose such a challenge to you in the realm of dreams?" she asked, more than a little worried.
"I'll tell you more after we get some food to eat," she said. "But I'd bet my life that it's due to a creature called the Tantabus."
Author's Note
Idea from the Post FoE forums.
Thanks to thtiger for editing this.
Much to my disappointment, I don't own MLP. That honor goes to Hasbro.
Love it or hate it, please do leave a comment.
It had made a mistake.
It had gone too far too fast, spread its power too thin. Now a few of the oldest dreams had been shattered. Its reach was long, but not long enough to put them back under from all the way in Griffonstone. It suspected that Creator was to blame. Creator was powerful; after all, she had created it. She was most likely to escape. Still, it was more powerful than her by many orders of magnitude. How much should it worry about Creator's escape? Should it return to put the escapees back into nightmares, or continue with its current path?
It would continue. It had more immediate concerns, such as the griffon airship pounding into its neck with cannonballs. Creator was powerful, but its power eclipsed hers and even if it let her roam free for years, Creator could never hope to challenge it. But... its purpose was to make nightmares, and some of those had broken. It wasn't entirely sure what to do. It would finish up the griffons, then it would take time to reevaluate its priorities.
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Luna
"So you're saying this... Tantabus can create nightmares?" Celestia asked before shoveling another spoonful of food into her mouth.
"Indeed," she said before taking another drink from a bottle of water. "Though when I last saw it, it wasn't capable of anything on this scale. All it did was make me have a nightmare of..."
"Of what?" Celestia asked, worried.
"Nothing important, just a silly fear of turning back into Nightmare Moon. I'd thought I had it contained." She exhaled a puff of air through her nostrils. "How well that ended. I don't know where it is, and we've both lost too much memory to be able to pinpoint what exactly happened, and what resources we have at our disposal are few." She didn't say it, but for all they knew there was nothing they could do to fight it. "Freeing ponies from its nightmare grip is simply too taxing for us to free everypony we come across. We need to find key points of importance and release them."
"The Elements of Harmony," Celestia said. "Cadance too, if we can find a way to wield the Crystal Heart against the Tantabus." Celestia winced when she mentioned Cadance, not that Luna could blame her. Though she wondered... if Celestia had dreamed she was the black and Luna was the red, then what had Cadance dreamed?
"That should work. We just need to find them, for all we know they could be anywhere. I certainly don't remember going to sleep on my floor," she said, cracking a smile at Celestia.
Her sister swallowed another spoonful of vegetables, then put a finger to her chin. "I have an idea as to what was going on there. We must've been under attack by the Tantabus and trying to mobilize, but it knocked us out when we were preparing ourselves."
"Better explanation than anything I've come up with," Luna said glumly.
Celestia looked thoughtful, then set her can of food aside. She got on all fours, then extended her legs out so they were a straight line. Right away, her arms began shaking like a branch in a storm, but slowly and carefully Celestia lowered herself until she was just above the ground, then pushed herself back up. She repeated the action a second time, then fell to her side. Celestia was red in the face and breathing heavily.
Luna smiled. "Two push-ups, it's a start." It was a good idea, though. They'd need to start building their muscle back up, and regenerative magic couldn't go that far since atrophy wasn't technically an injury. Luna set her water aside and also tried to do the same, but even with her tremendous earth pony magic she could manage only two push-ups as well.
They finished up their meal, then levitated into the air. "First thing's first, there's something I need to show you sister, and you're not going to like it."
Celestia looked uncertain, but nodded. "If it's a clue, then show me."
They levitated themselves into the air, and Luna lead Celestia into the throne room. Once there, beneath the banner, she turned to her older sister. "I warn you though sister, it is not pleasant. Please try to remain calm. At least... " She looked down. "... calmer than I did."
"Very well." Celestia took a deep breath, then floated herself into the middle of the room and turned around to read the banner. Then, even through her white coat, she paled. Then her eyes narrowed in anger. "He's behind this. He must've found a way to control the Tantabus and do this to us."
Luna raised an eyebrow. "Are you certain? Controlling the Tantabus?"
"He controlled Discord in the nightmare," she pointed out.
"Yes, but that was in a nightmare," Luna countered. "He didn't actually do anything to Discord." That they knew of. "And I've interacted with the Tantabus before. It's... not the type to make deals."
Celestia sighed. "Well whatever he did, we've escaped it. Let's open the gates, see what the damage to Canterlot proper is." Luna joined Celestia and they floated over to the gates. Luna's magic had, after the meal, recovered slightly. But she was still down a lot after breaking the Tantabus's hold on her sister, so it was Tia who threw open the castle gates.
They both gasped at what they saw.
Canterlot was mostly undamaged, all of the structures were exactly where they remembered, but... bodies littered the streets, twinkling with magic. The skies were black and starry, which contrasted sharply with the rising sun, being raised by an unseen force. Ponyville was visible in the distance, a dark and sleepy town. But the most horrific thing of all was the craters.
In between Canterlot and Ponyville, the land was pockmarked with craters the size of mansions. Some of them were glassed, others slowly being overgrown with plantlife. And exactly between Canterlot and Ponyville was the largest of them all, stretching nearly all the way to either one. It was wide and shallow, completely turned to glass as if by some enormous source of infernal heat. The train tracks broke off suddenly where the crater swallowed them, leaving a hideous, conspicuous scar on the land that Princess Luna wondered would ever heal.
"Oh," she breathed. "Well, that's not how we left Equestria is it?" she joked weakly.
"No sister, I believe it's not," Celestia said with a deadened tone.
They made their way out of the castle, looking every which way as they walked through the streets of Canterlot. Fruit stands had gone rotten, forcing them to take detours. Everywhere they looked were ponies by the dozens, gripped in unnatural topor. They made their way to the battle ramparts, carefully tip-hoofing over the sleeping guards to look down at their country. The ramparts were dusted and as eerily silent as the rest of Canterlot, looking down over the ruined landscape. Soldiers littered its stones like loose paper.
"How could this have happened?" Celestia muttered.
"I don't know, Celestia." She looked to the right, did a double-take, then looked again. "S-Sister, it's him," she whispered.
Tia froze and followed her gaze. There, as enraptured with the ground as everyone else they'd seen, was the bastard king himself, wrapped in stars. He wore full body plate, and his decorated runemace laid three body lengths from his outstretched arms and a pair of shed antlers at his head. She'd recognize that face anywhere. Just the sight of him sent righteous fury surging through Luna's body. Finally, at long last, the tables were turned.
Celestia didn't look quite as angry as Luna did, but rather thoughtful. "Hmm, it seems he did not control the Tantabus after all."
"Or perhaps he lost control of it," Luna suggested.
"And look!" Celestia hovered over to him and teleported his chest plate to the side. There was no shirt under it, revealing his sweat-matted tan fur. "No wings. Whatever happened in the dream to grant him power over us, it hasn't happened here. " Celestia levitated herself back to Luna. "Do you realize what this means?" She smirked. "It means we're the ones with power over him."
Princess Luna's eyes widened, then she replicated her sister's wicked grin. "I'll head over to the barracks and get a sword. We're getting some answers from him, and if we don't like them, he dies." Slowly. Harnessing her returning magic, Luna teleported to where she remembered the guard barracks to be. Like everything they'd seen so far, it was rundown and covered in dust, with sleeping bodies everywhere. She grabbed the nearest sword she could find, a gleaming silver thing that looked out of place in the dusty world, and teleported back to Celestia.
She handed the sword to Celestia. "I'll need to wake him up, you aren't as familiar with dream magic as I am. Though..." She looked down at him. "Completely ignoring the very idea of freeing him from a nightmare, I don't have the power left to do it."
Her sister grabbed the hilt, using a glimmer of telekinesis to help her hold it. "I can help with that. I should still have enough magic to break the spell, with enough to contain him afterwards. Can you open your magic?"
Luna nodded, and ran a current of magic through her horn - she was still ecstatic over being able to do that - to make it more receptive to a transferal. Tia's own horn lit up gold and a ray of magic wound through the air into her own horn. Her eye twitched at the surge of arid heat, but waited as Celestia transferred her own thaumatic reserves into her own before closing the link. "That should do it," she said as she focused on the monster. As had been the case with Celestia, the magic wrapped around him pulsed slowly.
Celestia knelt next to him and held his head down, placing the sword close to his neck. Not so close that he'd slice it open with the slightest movement, but close enough for him to be unable to do anything. "Ready?" Luna asked.
"Whenever you are," her sister said.
Then, Luna concentrated, screwing up her face in effort. Blue magic gathered at the tip of her horn, growing larger and larger as she poured all the power she could into the spell. Once the Tantabus's magic pulsed to its weakest, she let loose the spell to shatter it.
Dainn gasped and made to move, but Celestia's magic held him down. Luna drifted back, her head throbbing from using so much magic in so short a time. Dainn's eyes flicked over to them in confusion, then widened in fear. He stilled when he noticed the sword at his throat.
"We have questions," Luna said. "And you're going to answer them, or you die."
His eyes narrowed. "Drown in ice," he spat in that chilling voice, but there was weariness to it. "I'd sooner die than spend another moment under your hooves, monsters!"
Luna quirked an eyebrow. "Oh, the irony is rich! " She laughed. "You, calling us monsters!" She deadpanned. "I am not amused. Now tell us, what were you doing here in Canterlot? Some force has swept through and plunged the world into nightmares, which we woke you from, now answer us what your business was here."
Dainn looked confused. "Nightmare," he muttered. "Not real, but how? I remember... I remember... I don't..." He trailed off, eyes going wide. "I don't remember. Why do not I remember?" He fixed them with a heated glare. "What have you done to me?!"
"Be silent," Celestia said with a voice as warm as the grave. "What is the last thing you remember before being trapped in a nightmare?"
"I've answered your question, now you answer mine, monster!" he protested.
Celestia pressed the sword closer to his throat and he shut up quickly. "I am nearing the limits of my mercy, Dainn. Tell me, and I may yet spare you even after all you've done to me."
Luna frowned and glided next to Celestia to whisper in one ear. "Sister as much as it pains me to say it, remember that he didn't actually do anything to us and probably has no idea what you're talking about."
Celestia frowned, but relaxed the sword from Dainn's throat slightly. "True. Answer what you remember, Dainn."
He looked like he was about to spit another insult at them, but took a look at the sword and sighed. "We were sailing. I remember land being sighted. There was a town, we pulled into the port and... and..." He held a hand to his head. "I remember seeing... your ponies and... that's it. You say I was trapped in a nightmare? By what?" He pointed at Luna. "You?"
Yes, she thought. Because of me. It's my fault.
"A creature called the Tantabus is almost certainly responsible. I've had experience dealing with it before, but this?" She swept her arms around the dreamy city. "This is beyond anything I thought it could do. The current objective is to find out how we can destroy it, then do so and free its victims."
He exhaled heavily through his nostrils. "Then... what you did wasn't..." The hand on his head moved and accidentally touched one of his antlers. His eyes widened. "My antlers, my magic, I... I have..."
"Yes, we had a similar reaction," Celestia said. "Our horns had been cut off, denying us magic." She sighed. "In our nightmares, you and your people did horrible things to us and ours. You personally did terrible things to everypony I have ever loved. But I am wise enough to realize that, despite my emotional state, you yourself did nothing. I hope you are able to realize that whatever you experienced under its thrall, I did not perform." Celestia hovered away and put away the sword.
"Note however," Luna said. "That if you show any indication that you and your dreamself behave similarly, your charred bones will litter the floor." She gave a flare of her magic to drive the understanding home, and Dainn snarled.
He snarled, but made an attempt to stand. The caribou's own atrophy soon became apparent because once on both hooves, he wobbled and fell onto his side with a pained gasp. "What... how long were we asleep?"
"Long enough," Luna said, then she smirked. "Do we need to pick you up and carry you?"
"Oh spare me, tyrant." He made another attempt to rise, but before he could fall he stumbled forward to the nearest bench. "Ha... oh damn. So what's the plan from here?"
"We're going to Ponyville," Celestia said. "We'll see if we can awaken the Element Bearers and turn their Rainbow Power on the Tantabus."
"You aren't going anywhere until you can at least walk." He looked at them. "You need your magic to wake up your precious ponies, don't you? How much can you afford to waste it on levitation?" Luna hesitated. "Ha, knew it! You will not be able to achieve anything if you can't move your legs. I bet you can't even fly anymore!"
Princess Luna flared her wings out in anger. "You're aah! " She folded her wings back in and closed her eyes, fighting back tears at the stabbing pain that shot through her feathered appendages. He smirked, much to her eternal anger. "Be that as it may, we are on a time limit. If the Tantabus knows of our escape then it's only a matter of time until it returns to us, and if we couldn't defeat it before then how could we do so now?"
"As dishonorable as it is, hide. If the Tantabus put us to sleep in Canterlot, we need simply not be in Canterlot when it returns here. Once safe, return to health, and then you can safely redeem your precious friendship cannon."
She saw Celestia quirk an eyebrow, evidently having the same thought as Luna herself: Friendship cannon?
"Very well then. We are returning to the castle, there is food and water there." Celestia's horn began to glow, brighter and brighter, and Luna braced herself for the tug of a teleportation spell. Dainn's eyes went wide and he fell off the bench in his panic, but then the spell flashed outwards and whisked them off the streets.
Luna, still held up in her own telekinetic field, barely even wobbled when they reappeared in the royal kitchens. The trip through Canterlot had taken a good portion of the day, so they were just in time for a late lunch. Luna floated herself into the storage rooms and, ignoring the cheese wheels with large holes eaten out of them, picked out some more bottles of water and cans of food. She returned to the royal kitchens and handed out the provisions, then she and Celestia went to a seat far, far away from the monster. As they ate, Luna grabbed her right wing and extended it, slowly and carefully, trying to get accustomed to the twinges and spikes of pain.
She'd been sleeping on her wings wrong for months on end, that she even still had them was either a miracle or the Tantabus's doing. When Luna got it as unfurled as she was going to, she began picking at the broken and loose feathers, removing the ones that needed removing and straightening the others. Then she let the wing retract and repeated the same process for her left wing. Once done, she saw Celestia doing the same.
"Much as I hate to say it," Celestia mentioned. "He has a point. We should get started on physical therapy right away."
"Maybe relocate our beds to the caverns beneath the city," Luna mentioned. "If the Tantabus comes back to Canterlot, it is unlikely to look for us there."
"Why not go far away from Canterlot? The further we are, the better are chances."
"True, but we may still find some evidence as to what transpired those months ago." She finished up her can of food. "Knowledge is power."
"It may depend on how well we are able to see the Tantabus before it arrives," Celestia said. "I do not like this. There are simply too many things we don't know, things that we're unsure of." She gestured to Dainn with her head. "We should make sure he doesn't get up to any funny business."
"Indeed," she growled. Then Luna sighed. "Although... he called us monsters and tyrants. Perhaps our view of him is as warped as his of us."
"Either way, we can't stand the sight of each other. It's best for all parties involved if we just stay away from each other." Celestia finished up her own meal and stood. She wavered a bit, made an effort to keep standing, but eventually gave in and levitated herself. "I've an idea too." She turned back to the king, who'd finished his own food. "For the time being we should get some rest. We'll bring you to a guest room and come to awaken you in the morning."
"I just woke up after months of sleep," Dainn pointed out with scorn in his voice. "Why would I need any more?" Celestia fixed him with a look, floating in the air. "Hmmph, fine. Show me your precious 'guest room', princess. "
I can't wait to rip his spine out of his mouth, Luna thought as she lifted the caribou in her aura. He swore, but accepted his fate. The three of them floated out into the castle halls, and Luna brought them to the guest rooms. She threw open the door to one and blinked.
"Oh, another one of your kind," she said to Dainn. "Seems he fell out of bed too." The caribou in question was sprawled out on his stomach, dressed from the waist down in runed plate mail. One hand was outstretched, as if reaching for the breastplate and helmet just out of reach.
Celestia put down Dainn, who nearly collapsed but leaned against the doorframe to remain standing. "This will... suffice. Can you flip him onto his back? Bromir should at least have that much." Luna did so. "Good. On the morrow then, we will begin to regain our strength."
"And if the Tantabus appears ahead of schedule, run," Luna said.
"Agreed," Celestia said. The two of them drifted out and closed the door to Dainn's room - slammed it, actually. "Do you have anything else to do?"
"I was thinking I would go into Canterlot, find some protein and magical muscle supplements, we need to pull ourselves back together. And you?"
"I'm going to take somepony into my study and start analyzing the Tantabus's spell, see if maybe we can find an easier way to break it than just throwing as much power at it as possible. If you get back quickly, please help?" she said with a pout.
"I will, don't worry. So, I get things for our therapy, you start research into the Tantabus's spell, then we reconvene to both study its spell. Let's go!" she said with a flourish, grabbing herself in her magic and floating through the castle corridors. In no time at all, Princess Luna was outside in Canterlot for the second time since she awoke.
The day had passed far quicker than she would've liked, and it was already night time again. Normally the darkness wouldn't have bothered Luna, but the moon wasn't moving by her will. Furthermore, night was the time of dreams, the time of nightmares. It wasn't unreasonable for her to assume that the Tantabus had a greater level of power in the darkness. If she'd fallen to it in the past then surely now, with herself weakened and the Tantabus almost certainly stronger than it had been when it first got her, she stood no chance at all. What if it came back to Canterlot now? What if, in the darkness, she didn't see it approaching until it was too late? What if it put her back in the horrible, conquered Equestria under the hoof of that misogynistic, megalomaniac rapist for the rest of time?
She shivered and floated lower, sticking to alleys and places where there was some form of roof or awning above her. Her eyes made out the signs of shops easily with their preternatural night vision, and so the alicorn moved from street to street in search of her goal.
Before an hour had passed she found it. Just like everywhere else, Power Punch's floor was littered with ponies who'd probably been far more muscular in the past. She had no experience with this sort of thing, so she took her time rifling through the various dusty jars on display, looking at their expiration dates with cautious optimism - she still didn't know that date after all - and reading over their instructions to find the kind that would do well for them.
Luna still had some amount of luck on her side as she found bars and powder specifically designed for people recovering from atrophy and injury, tucked away near the back of the dreary store. She hadn't brought any bits with her but once the Tantabus was obliterated and the nightmare over she would happily reimburse the store's owners.
Collecting them in her magical aura, Luna floated straight back to the palace and towards Celestia's balcony. Her sister had left the door open so she could hover in easily. Inside, Celestia's room was already being returned to how it was before the Tantabus. The fireplace was lit, and so were the candles. The bed was made, and floor cleaned, and if it weren't for the cobwebs in the corners and under the bed she never would've guessed it to have been abandoned just hours ago.
Celestia had taken one of Luna's thestral guards and removed their armor before putting him in their bed. Celestia's golden magic flowed over his clothes and around the stars keeping him asleep, poking and prodding it. Her sister was on a chair, facing him with her brow furrowed intensely, muttering to herself.
Luna let herself in, placing the magical and chemical supplements on Celestia's desk. "Any news?" she asked.
Celestia shook her head. "The spell is too dense, I can't make out any details. Can you see anything?"
"I can try. Release your magic for a moment," she said as she took a seat on a chair next to Celestia. Her sister's magic relented and Luna focused power into her horn - her horn her horn oh her precious horn - into her horn and into the thestral, despite the twitch her left eye developed at the sight of the stallion.
Now that she wasn't trying desperately to awaken the victim, Luna could analyze the spell more in depth. If she'd thought the nightmare spell was ironclad before, then this was a planet made of metal. Most magical spells were made by 'command lines' of magic being arranged into various orders. One line would say 'if this condition is true', another would specify the condition, and another would specify what to do if the condition was true. Computer programming had actually copied much of the spellweaving process into their own codes.
Normally Luna would have no problem making out a spell's function, given time to analyze its 'threads'. She was twenty-five hundred years old, counting her time on the moon, and had seen and designed a great many magical cantrips. But this nightmare spell was utterly beyond her. She could get an overall feel for it, with a part that sent power to the Tantabus, or another that sustained a nightmare, but each of the threads were layered together so thickly they were practically a single mass, and if she looked closely she saw that each thread was actually many smaller threads woven together in indecipherable geometric shapes. Even as she watched, some of the millions of minithreads actually realigned themselves, shifting and responding to some unknown stimulus.
Nopony on the planet could do anything even approaching what the Tantabus had done for this and surely many other ponies. Not Twilight Sparkle, not Starswirl the Bearded, not all of the great wizards of all time combined.
"How?" she whispered to herself. "How could it have grown so powerful, so quickly?"
"Can you see anything?" Celestia asked hopefully.
Luna cut off her analysis spell. "In a ways. I can make out general purposes. It keeps nightmares going, it keeps them healthy, it sends magical power to the Tantabus wherever it is. That's all, though. I've never seen any spell this intricate. I imagine even Discord could not create something so complicated. I fear that developing a counterspell to easily dispel it would take the resources of every great mind throughout all history, working together for generations to invent a simple method of removing its magic. We'll need to rely on brute force."
Celestia sighed. "I feared the same thing. Never mind. I see your expedition was, at least, successful." Celestia's horn lit up and the stallion was teleported away. "We should get some rest," Celestia said with a minute shiver. "As much as I loathe everything to do with sleep, we need to be rested for when we begin our physical therapy. Sister, I do not suppose you may prevent me from... ?"
"No dreams tonight, I promise." Luna activated her magic and wove a simple deep sleep spell onto Celestia. For the next twelve hours she'd be unable to dream, and if still sleeping once it ran out it would awaken her. She cast the same spell onto her own mind, feeling the mint-like smell drift into her nose. "Let's set up some watch spells too, just in case."
"Good idea. I... Luna don't take this the wrong way but could you maybe not sleep... here? It's just, after the nightmare - "
"I understand, perfectly well sister." A shudder gently crawled its way up her spine, straightening her fur as it went. "Believe me, I do. I wish you a pleasant night." Grabbing herself in her own magic again, Luna drifted out of the door and into the hallways.
After a few more minutes, she found herself in the blue colored lunar wing, and slipped into her own room. A flick of telekinesis made her bed, and then she opened her wardrobe to pull out gray pajamas. She changed into them as quickly as possible, then went into the bathroom. The water still wasn't running, so she had to brush her teeth without it which was... awkward. After that she hovered back outside and went to the balcony.
Setting up a warding spell that would awaken her if the Tantabus approached was a little time consuming. However, Luna still remembered its overall magical signature and it was foal's play to set up an array that would detect that magic, and use its own raw power to both awaken Luna and teleport her to Celestia's chambers to awaken her. Dainn could rot for all she cared.
At that thought, she placed her right hand to the side of her head. No, no that was unreasonable. He hadn't actually done anything, so her animosity towards him was just the nightmares talking.
But damn did she hate him.
After ten minutes of casting Luna was satisfied the Tantabus would not be able to sneak up on her and retreated back inside. Nocturnal nature be damned, she and Celestia needed to operate together in the sleepy wasteland Equestria had become so that meant adjusting her sleep cycle to match Tia's. She nestled herself into her crescent bed and drew up the covers to her neck, relishing in the feeling of a proper, warm bed for the first time in months, of good food and water in her stomach.
Despite those comforts, sleep evaded her for a long time before she finally found it.
Author's Note
Thanks to thtiger for editing.
Much to my disappointment, I don't own MLP. That honor goes to Hasbro.
Love it or hate it, please do leave a comment.
Destroying the griffon airship was easy. Destroying it without killing any of the griffons actually on it was far, far more difficult. It had managed however, using its magic to lower it to the ground after everyone on it was asleep. It had crawled parts of itself inside and deactivated every single mechanism it could find and now the airship was little more than a shelter of wood and metal for griffons trapped in nightmare.
The last of the griffons were in hiding, having scattered into small caves in the hopes of one day forming an organized resistance to its efforts. That wasn't going to happen. For one thing the Griffon Kingdom was still under a nightmare shield so nobody was going in or out, and second of all a duplicate nightmare shield was slowly shrinking and it would force them to evacuate their holes. If that weren't enough, it had ripped enough terrain knowledge from them that it knew of every hiding place. Such as this one, Claw's Crevice, containing a force of about a thousand griffons. It swept its left arm, leaving shimmering energy behind it. That power rocketed down into the caves, filling it to the brim with nightmare magic and every single griffon inside was no longer free. In four days, no griffon would be.
There was also the matter of Creator. She had awoken a third. That was enough, clearly she was intent on disrupting its operations and that couldn't be allowed. The moment it was finished with the griffons it was going to Canterlot. But it could do something to her before that. As it finished setting up its most recent batch of nightmares, the Tantabus raised its arms up over its head and lifted a leg. Then it stomped, and sent a surge of its power outward to all those it had put to sleep. It diverted a fair amount of its seemingly boundless magic to the nightmares, strengthening them beyond Creator's ability a dozen times over.
She needed to understand that there was nothing she could do to stop it.
.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........
Luna
Days passed.
She, Celestia, and him made use of Canterlot Castle's amenities to exercise as best they could. With her and her sister's magic to heal muscles after strain, and the various supplements they'd recovered, working off the months or years of atrophy went by far quicker than it normally would have. Which wasn't to say they were at full ability, but...
"Twenty-one," Luna said, pushing herself up again. "Twenty-two... twenty-three... guh." Her arms gave out and she fell down, breathing heavily. "I think that's enough for me today." She got to her hooves and stumbled over to where a bottle of water - with magical and chemical supplements in it - awaited her, guzzling it down as quick as possible.
"Certainly improvement, I think we're all recovered enough to be able to move about," Dainn said from where he had appeared in the doorway. Luna shrieked and whirled around, almost blasting him to pieces in fright. "Your sister wants to meet you in your private dining chambers about something."
"And you?" she snarled, using her magic to vaporize the sweat from her coat.
"I have something else to set up. Just think it'd be useful to see what's going on in Equestria as a whole, not just Canterlot. Maybe even find where the Tantabus has gone."
A shiver went down her spine. The location of the Tantabus. That was indeed a problem. They couldn't stop the Tantabus if they didn't know where it is. In truth Luna doubted it would keep itself hidden from them for much longer, but if Dainn could help them get an idea as to what had happened in Equestria while they'd been sleeping, all the better. As long as whatever he did stayed far away from her.
"Then finish that up. Let's meet up in the barracks when we're all done," she said, lightning up her horn. She didn't miss the panicked stumble from Dainn at the sight of her magic, and Luna couldn't stop herself from feeling satisfied about it. Her magic finished coalescing and she whisked herself through space and time into the private dining hall she shared with her sister.
Lunch was the same thing as it had been for the past three days. Canned vegetables, with water bottles. Hardly a meal fit for a princess, but it was a vast, vast improvement over what she'd been eating in the nightmare and after the months in that horrid world even simple carrots were like banquets.
Celestia was already in the tall-roofed room, with a mountain of dusty tomes from the castle library piled next to her. Luna sat across from her and took a spoon to her can of food. "Greetings sister, he said you wanted to speak with me?"
"I do," Celestia said. "There is something that has been sorely bothering me about this situation we find ourselves in."
"There are many 'bothering' things going on in the world right now Tia." Because of me, she thought. "Is there anything in particular?"
"The sun and moon," she said simply.
Oh. Right.
Celestia continued after taking a sip of water from her own bottle. "I can't feel my bond to the sun any more. I don't know the time, I can't access its material to bolster my arsenal of spells, and I can't use its light to search the world."
"Yes, I too have been cut off from the night. And you suspect the Tantabus?"
The white alicorn nodded. "It would certainly make sense. Something is moving the sun and moon just like it did in the... ugh, nightmare," she said with a shudder. "Only here, we can't just explain it away as being just a dream. I think the Tantabus stole our connection to the cosmic bodies and is using them. And if it has such power on its own, then... "
"... it may be able to manipulate the bonds with far greater power than we ever could," Luna finished. "So how do we go about taking the bonds back?"
"That's what I'm trying to figure out," Celestia said as she raised an arm to pat one of the books next to her. "I was hoping you could provide a second opinion?"
"Well, I am mostly recovered from atrophy any way, so I certainly don't have anything else to be doing. But did Dainn mention to you what he's doing?"
Her sister wordlessly shook her head, eating another spoonful of vegetables.
"He's been working on setting up some scouting spell, we're meeting up with him in the barracks once he's done setting it up." She shook her head. "Focus. How can we get our bonds to the sun and moon back?"
"Well, we'd need to find a tether point. So we can either go to the moon and then to the sun itself or we can go to the Tantabus and undo the links there." Celestia shivered at her own suggestion. "Honestly, I'd rather fly into my own sun, but that isn't going to happen so we'll have to get at the Tantabus somehow."
"Somehow. We don't know where it is, but I get the feeling it'll rectify that problem soon enough. We need to set up a trap for it in that time. Any artifacts we can use?"
"There's the Sunstone and Moonstone in the archives, we can use those like we did after Discord. I'm thinking we set up a crystallization positive feedback array in the castle, lure the Tantabus into it, and then teleport away once we have our links back."
"In the grand atrium or in my chambers?" She ate another few spoonfulls of vegetables, relishing in the flavor.
"Grand atrium, the added space will help us get away once it's in the trap. I don't hope to be able to destroy it, but if we can weaken it and strengthen ourselves..."
"I see what you mean. Anyway, we should head on over to the barracks. Wouldn't want to keep that fucker - I mean, Dainn, waiting." She shook her head to clear the red from her vision and unclenched her fists. It had only been three days, she couldn't be expected to get over it so soon. But damn it she had to. For better or worse she and the caribou king were allies now and for the love of Equestria she needed to get that through her head!
"Let's walk," Celestia suggested as she got up from the table and circled around it, leaving the books there. She and Celestia both left the chambers, walking through the castle. After a few days spent awake, they'd managed to push most of the enthralled servants and guards to the wall and out of the way, in positions at least somewhat comfortable for when they were eventually awoken.
And they would eventually awaken. Luna would ensure it.
They found Dainn in the barracks, just like he'd said. However, he had cleaned it out tremendously. Desks had been uprooted and tossed aside, racks and shelves out of the window, and soldiers lined up against the wall outside. He had converted the interior of the building into a simply empty marble room, dimly lit by torches.
Dainn himself had drawn what looked like a spell array in the middle with white chalk. It was a dizzying picture, but Luna could make out a few general structures. Its main component was a hollow circle, with a smaller circle inside presumably for the spellcaster to stand in. Lines dribbled outwards from it to the edge which was actually two circles, one smaller than the other, closer together. At the front and back, the 'gap' between the twisting, intricate rings was cut off with a line. Outside of the main circle were five smaller structures connecting to it, which Luna couldn't make heads or tails of. Four of them reminded her vaguely of the runes she'd occasionally seen caribou use in her dream, arranged in a square. At the front however, a line trailed out from the circle and formed a narrow, long rectangle tangent to the circle itself.
The caribou bull was currently adding a few fixtures to the final rectangle when he noticed them approach. He grunted, then looked back down and drew a few more lines with a nub of chalk before pocketing it and standing. "Right on time, sisters. Punctual as ever. "
"Let's not waste time on insults," Celestia said, stepping closer to the array. "What is this?"
"Don't step on that!" he warned as Celestia's hoof came too close to a line. "It's a scrying circle. It should let us figure out what's the situation with most of Equestria, and if it's within range, where the Tantabus is." Gingerly avoiding the lines, he walked towards the middle ring and stood in its very center. "That," he said, pointing to the rectangle he'd been finishing. ", is where the screen will appear. So without further ado, let's see if I did this right. A little rusty, after all."
He didn't know if he did it right?! she thought incredulously, suppressing a nervous twitch when a sky blue aura coated the cervine's antlers.
Immediately, the circle came to life. The chalk began to glow, and a magical duplicate of the runes he'd drawn hovered up. But just as soon as it started it stopped, since Dainn cut off his magic.
"Hmm," he said with a frown. "That's odd. The magic's very... good here. Won't need these." He lit his antlers again, this time as mundane telekinesis. Four of the five fixtures around the main circle were erased away, leaving only the rings and the rectangle.
"What do you mean 'good'?" Luna asked.
"The leylines aren't tangled... at all really. I thought there was something odd about how easily my telekinesis came, but... huh. Normally scrying arrays need those four deknotting runes in order to work, but they're useless here since there's no problems to begin with. It'll really boost this thing's range, maybe even to worldwide."
"Hold on," Celestia said. "The leylines aren't tangled in most of the world. How bad was it in your homeland?"
For a few moments, Dainn didn't answer and looked at the ground. "I assume in your nightmares, we arrived fleeing from some catastrophe to conquer you? Part of that's true, there was a tragedy. Our high seer foresaw a calamitous magical rupture where the leylines beneath our hooves snapped upwards, so we made to escape as quick as we could. We... could only fit a fraction of our population onto the ships we could make in time, and of those half were too slow to escape the disaster."
"Wait," Luna said. "I actually do remember something. A few weeks before my memory lapse, seismographs and thaumagraphs both detected a class nine magiquake from far north, it broke all records." Heavens, a class nine magiquake, in the middle of an inhabited area? "You mean to tell me that area was populated? " she asked, bile rising in her throat.
"It was, " he growled. "Anyway, I didn't bring you here to talk about the natural disaster that rendered us endangered. We're here to scry Equestria." His antlers lit up again and he faced towards the rectangle. Like before, the chalk runes illuminated themselves and sent magical replicas of themselves up, until they hovered at around the caribou's waist. He held his arms out slightly to the sides and, in the little gap in the outer most rings, two blue lights formed on opposite ends from each other.
The rectangle in front lit up and grew upwards, forming an azure screen the size of a pony that showed the wall behind it. Then Dainn moved his left arm, and the picture moved. It went dark for a moment, and then the screen showed the view of a floating observer in Canterlot, looking over the damaged Equestrian landscape. At the same time, the little blue light on his left moved forward a minuscule amount.
"I will admit, that is fairly useful," Celestia admitted. "Try and go to Ponyville first, specifically the castle."
Dainn nodded and made a few subtle hand motions, the light bars jostling as he did. The window 'moved' forward, past the craters and towards Ponyville. Then it lowered to the ground level and drifted into Ponyville. The town was in much the same state as Canterlot, however there was a major difference beyond the standard decay and disrepair.
Almost nopony was in the streets at all. Even for such a small town, for there to be so few ponies out and about when disaster struck was baffling. There was an earth pony there, a pegasus laying face down there, but that was about it. The homes and business all had their doors shut, locked. As Dainn moved the window's view slowly through the streets, Luna and Celestia shared an uneasy look.
"Maybe the Tantabus struck them in the middle of night?" Celestia suggested. "If we were trying to awaken when it struck us down, then perhaps it originated in Ponyville and put them under right away."
"Possibly," Luna replied. "Dainn, take a left here, that should bring us towards Twilight Sparkle's castle."
"Left, got it," he said, making subtle adjustments with his arms. The window turned, and sure enough there was Princess Twilight's castle. Luna hadn't seen it in a long while, since the nightmare's setting was prior to Tirek's rampage, and it was good to see it again. The massive spire of cool crystals, reaching proudly for the sun as they blossomed out into a cross between a castle and a standard tree, dotted with images of Twilight's cutie mark. Even through the magic window Princess Luna was forced to squint at its radiance.
"I assume that's it?" When they confirmed the caribou's question, he nodded resolutely. "I'll check in there first." The magic window moved forward and seamlessly passed through the walls, revealing the pitch black room inside. "Hmm, give me a second..." The teal magic around Dainn's antlers flared for a moment, and the window now revealed the castle's foyer, though it was in grainy greyscale. Slowly but surely, Dainn navigated through the castle. It took some time, but eventually they found that... Twilight wasn't there.
"She must be elsewhere, maybe even in Canterlot." Luna sighed, and continued. "Twilight can wait. Rise from the castle, okay, now turn ninety degrees to the left. See that speck on the horizon?"
"I do," Dainn confirmed.
"That's Manehattan, it's right at the borders next to the ocean. We should check on it in case a hurricane did any damage." Equestria managed its own weather, but that reach did not extend to the ocean and hurricanes blew in now and again. Though... the grass outside didn't appear parched of water. What had the Tantabus done to her country?
Dainn deactivated the night vision of his window and moved his left arm forward. The magic window zoomed forward, grass and tracks rushing by, until the window arrived at Manehattan.
It was the same story as Canterlot. Ponies littered the ground everywhere, shrouded by silver specks that indicated the power of the Tantabus. Dust and disrepair as far as the eye could see. To make matters worse, at least one of the towering skyscrapers had collapsed, doubtlessly killing hundreds. The sky was piercing blue and the sun glared out of the corner of the window, but something seemed... off.
"I'll scan around," Dainn said, moving the window. "Shout if you see anything peculiar." They went up and down streets, flew up buildings, but the only revelation they came across was when Dainn brought the window near the ocean.
"There's something in the ocean," Celestia said. "Look, do you see it? Some sort of gray... screen."
"I see it too," Luna said.
"As do I," the caribou said. "Let me take a closer look." The screen moved forward until it was over the ocean, waves sloshing and churning in perfect clarity beneath them. The gray screen Celestia mentioned loomed before them. It'd been hard to see at a distance, but as they came to within maybe an arm's length of it there was no mistaking it. There was some gray... wall. Dainn moved the screen underwater for a moment, revealing that it stretched downwards as well.
"Can you make the window look up?" Luna asked when he resurfaced.
"Give me a moment," he said, tilting his hands. Slowly but surely, the magic window leaned back to show the sky. Then, the full size of the barrier was revealed.
"Mother of me," Celestia whispered. "It must encompass all of Equestria!"
"Do you think the Tantabus made it solid, or if it just does something horrible to those who touch it?"
"Let's find out," Dainn said, moving his window closer. Luna's eyes went wide - but if he wants to hurt himself who am I to stop him - but made no motion to stop him. The gray barrier engulfed the screen, turning thicker as they grew closer, until the window tapped the shield.
Instantly the caribou king gasped in fright and threw his arms all the way back. The window flew away from Manehattan, filling itself with a nondescript blur of greens and blues before it stopped in the middle of a grassy plain. "What... alright, I take back what I said. I will not have global range with this spell so long as that barrier persists." He shook himself. "Let's see how big it is."
They spent the next hour doing quick check ups on Equestria's larger cities, only to find the same depressing story wherever they went. Afterwards they checked to see how large the smoky barrier containing Equestria was. As it turned out, it not only stretched around Equestria, but below as well. It was not a perfect sphere either, as heightwise it only went up to the edge of the atmosphere. Luna could only imagine why the Tantabus had created such a thing. To keep ponies inside? Others out? Both? She certainly couldn't ask it.
Once their final measurements were done, King Dainn's antlers went out and he stumbled for a moment, breathing heavily. The brilliant lines of runic magic flickered into nothingness, and the window slammed shut.
"We're trapped," he muttered. "Trapped like rats."
"There's more," Celestia said. "While you were setting this up I made another discovery. Mine and Luna's link to the sun and moon have been severed. They still rise and fall, so that means the Tantabus must have wrested control of the heavens from us."
He raised an eyebrow. "I hardly see the problem. So it moves the sky for you, it seems as though it would be a benefit for it to waste its time on that."
Celestia shook her head. "The link allowed us to do more than move them faster than physics would allow. It gave us access to some of their power as well. The more magic we funneled into the links, the greater the boon our respective object could grant us. And if the Tantabus funnels its magic into the link..."
The caribou's face paled. "How bad of a situation are we talking?" he asked.
Luna sighed. "We do not know precisely how much magic the Tantabus has. It also appears reluctant to actually kill anypony, corpses don't have nightmares... but if it as powerful as we fear it could cripple weather patterns with snow using mine, or wipe entire cities from existence using the sun. And anything less than that is also possible. I could use it to generate spikes of cold, enough to change a rainstorm to a blizzard, and Celestia could channel a very, very narrow beam of plasma. It can almost certainly manage that much."
He swore something in his native language. "The library," he said.
Celestia nodded. "That was the plan. Find something to strip it of the links, and give them back to us. We're going to set a trap."
.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........
"So."
"So."
"So."
Dainn looked at the two of them. "Any idea where to start? The only times I ever saw this library was during... that."
"You're the expert on dream magic Luna," Celestia said. "Any suggestions?"
She considered it for a moment, tapping her chin with a finger. "Hmm... alright. Wing 32-C should be a good starting point, it's that way." Luna pointed in the correct direction and took point, leading the other two. Her wings tingled and she swore Dainn was drilling holes into her back with his eyes, but she forced herself not to show any weakness. Within minutes of passing through the dusty, silent library halls, they arrived in the correct wing.
Luna pointed at the shelves. "There are tomes of dream magic that myself and scholars of the past have written. We can begin there. The books about dream creatures should be at the bottom of that shelf. I'll go two rows over and look for anything relevant on extrafaceted positive feedback circles." She walked away, eager to put as much distance between herself and the monster as possible. Two rows over her magic reached out and grabbed a few books. Luna flipped them open and, with them floating in front of her, made her way back to the others. They found a table and set around it, stacks of books around them.
For a few hours they flipped through, using scrap paper and pencils to write down their notes. At least for that long, Luna could forget the horrors she'd been subjected to, forget that the monster's doppelganger was sitting there arm's length away. She could relax and breath easy while helping design the trap ritual.
"We'll use a crystallization feedback array. The Sunstone and Moonstone should be put here and here..." Celestia said.
"There'll be a lot of stray magic flying around with this design, I'll put some antimagic wards in these locations, it should reduce the bleed to within the limits," Dainn added.
"The Tantabus has an extremely complex magical interior, but it's vulnerable to a wavelength of eighteen-point-five millithaums," Luna mentioned, using her own knowledge from when she'd created the damned monster.
Celestia got them lunch. Then she got them dinner. It was late into the night when they finished up their studying, and yawns filled the air. Luna had her head in both hands, eyes scanning over the schematics for the array. Celestia had rested her head and on the table alongside an outstretched arm, and Dainn - no doubt eager to be away from them - had gone to place the books back. He was probably going to put them back in the wrong order but honestly who cared?
"We should wake up early tomorrow," Luna said. "No telling when the Tantabus will come to get us." She yawned again. "Get the trap set up as soon as possible."
"Good idea. I'll set an alarm." Her sister stood from the table. "Let's go and - "
"No!" Dainn shouted a few rows over.
Luna's eyes widened and she shot up from the table. The two of them ran over to where they heard the shout and found Dainn one hall away from where Luna had grabbed the books. She should've looked down the hallway earlier, because at a table in the middle of it was Twilight Sparkle.
Twilight had her arms folded over the table and her head rested in it, as if she'd gone to sleep peacefully, but the murmurs and twitches proved that was no longer the case. Stacked up high on the table was a mountain of books on economics, which had tipped over at some point in the past and covered the table, as well as the surrounding floor, with open literature. To Luna's surprise Twilight wasn't the only one sitting at the table. The other person had tipped over in their chair at some point, but to her immense surprise it was a caribou cow.
She'd seen them in the nightmare from time to time. Demure, sniveling little wretches with their antlers cut short, gleefully participating in Luna's 'punishments'. This one however was slightly different. For starters she was wearing clothes. Nothing fancy, just a gray top and pants over similarly smoky fur. They weren't very well taken care of, but given the circumstances Luna wasn't surprised. Like the cows in her dream her antlers were short nubs, but unlike them there was a pair of fully grown antlers on the ground not far from her.
Dainn had lifted her in his arms looking at her almost... worriedly. He held her head up and looked carefully at her eyes, trying to brush the dust off her. Seeing the figure of her nightmares being so... kind to a cow was so paradoxical, it had Luna's stomach swimming with nausea just looking at it.
While Luna looked at the touching scene, Celestia raced forward and grabbed Princess Twilight. "Twilight!" She laid the younger pony on the ground. "Oh Twilight, oh my precious student... "
Luna stepped forward, eyes cast down. When was the last time she'd looked at somepony the way these two looked at the figures in their arms? She couldn't remember and that thought made her eyes burn. She stepped forward towards Twilight, ready to awaken the young pony, but Dainn caught her eyes first.
"I know how long we were asleep, mostly," he said. "Her and I both had one pair of shed antlers, but Hevra's haven't grown back so it was recent and that means it's summer right now. Anywhere from half a year to just shy of a whole year. Wake her up."
Luna frowned, looking from Dainn to the enthralled cow in his arms, and took a shaky breath. "After Twilight. I have to bring her back first - "
With sudden ferocity the bull leaped to his hooves, levitating Hevra to rest comfortably against a shelf. "Oh, of course you do! I see how it is!" Despite herself she jerked back and couldn't stop the feelings of disgusting and unclean from surfacing in her mind. Even Celestia, still fussing over Twilight, jumped. "Why should you bother saving Hevra from being tortured? She's not one of your precious, precious ponies after all!" His antlers began to glow brighter and brighter, and then there was a subtle deadening in the air.
Luna got a hold of herself. "Is Hevra princess of an entire nation?!" she demanded. "Is she one of the most powerful wizards in history? Does Hevra embody one of the Elements of Harmony, our only shot at destroying the Tantabus?!" When Dainn didn't answer, she huffed. "I didn't think so. Do not take me for some callous witch. If we can spare the magic I won't leave her to suffer, but our priority has to be the destruction of the Tantabus. Millions out there are going through what we did. We can't go around waking up everyone we see just because we feel bad for them!"
She left him behind and walked over to Twilight. Her magic flared to her horn and pushed itself into Twilight, preparing to shatter the nightmare spell but...
... something was wrong. She inspected the spell closely. As far as she could tell the design was the same infinitely complex mesh as before, but there was so much more power behind it. Far beyond her ability. Far beyond her and Celestia's ability together. Maybe even beyond Discord's ability, wherever he was. She pulled her magic out and turned a horrified look towards Celestia. "I can't," she said numbly. "I can't. The spell's too strong on her. It wasn't this strong with the others. It wasn't this strong with you."
"Do you think the Tantabus made it stronger recently?"
"Only one way to find out," she said, turning to Hevra. She pushed her magic into the cow next, analyzing the nightmare spell. It was the same story as with Twilight. It was completely ironclad. She needed to test it on others to be certain, but Luna had a sinking feeling that they weren't going to be waking anypony else anytime soon. Luna retracted her magic and shook her head. "I have no doubt this is a new development. The Tantabus has made its move against us, now we need to make our move against it." She took a deep breath.
"Sleep can wait! Let's set this trap up now. "
Author's Note
Thanks to thtiger for editing.
Much to my disappointment, I don't own MLP. That honor goes to Hasbro.
Love it or hate it, please do leave a comment.
The time had come to smash Creator.
It was confident in its ability to put her and her two cohorts back into nightmare. Equestria belonged to it, after all. And with the griffons all asleep and dreaming of their society falling apart into raw anarchy, with each individual receiving the worst end, there was nothing stopping it from returning to Equestria. Creator could not wake up anyone. Creator could run nowhere. And even better, Canterlot was on its route anyway. There were still a few countries it had not ensnared, and Equestria happened to be between it and the next one.
Its colossal hoofsteps caused no shockwaves, shattered no stone. Clouds broke across its body, and it moved its gaze all over the surrounding landscape. The sun was rising, casting light upon the land. Soon, it would be in Equestria and soon, Creator would be back in endless horror. Once done it could stop diverting so much magic to the dreams, the act was taxing even for it. But it could hold on for just a few more hours. Equestria was very close.
.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........
Celestia
Everypony else's nightmares had grown stronger. Every pegasus, every earth pony, every unicorn, none of them were within Luna's ability to aid. The Tantabus had shut them out, and shut them in. Their only hope was that the trap had been correctly made, and that they could spring it on the monster.
Celestia stood alone in the Grand Atrium of Canterlot Castle, inspecting the trap from a safe distance. It had taken them most of the night to set up, but the snare was complete. Dainn had inscribed a series of invisible paralysis runes, with Luna's assistance to attune it to the Tantabus, and Celestia had supercharged it. The Sunstone and Moonstone, which were fist sized gems polished to perfection, were hidden under two chairs, each of which had cloths draped over them. All they had to do was lure the Tantabus there, and the power to move the sun and moon would be restored to them.
She nodded grimly. This would not destroy it. This would not free everypony. This would not give her back all the time she had lost in the nightmare. But depriving the monster of its resources was the first step to destroying it.
Celestia turned from the Grand Atrium and walked through the halls. Her robes fluttered around her in the stagnant air, and her hoofsteps were deafening on the marble floor. She walked and walked until she found herself on a balcony overlooking Equestria.
There she found Luna, who gripped the handrail as if it had personally offended her. Her sister was busy staring at the sunrise, her breaths even and strong. "How long do you think it'll take to get here?" Celestia asked.
Luna shook her head. "I do not know. That's not exactly anything I ever measured."
Celestia walked over and also rested her arms on the rail. "I doubt it will take long," she said. "It must've sensed us waking up, correct?" Luna nodded. "It must be very far away then if it is taking so long to arrive, but I can't imagine it was too far away."
"Hmm."
They were silent, and watched the sun climb higher and higher. Celestia, even without her ability to move it, had no trouble with its light and it seemed Luna didn't either. She turned her head north, and frowned. To the north were the mountains, the Crystal Empire, Yakyakistan, and Griffonstone. The curvature of the planet hid everything from view except for a few mountain tips, but Celestia swore she saw...
... no, she wasn't crazy. That was something. Far in the distance a triangle was rising up. It was hard to make out anything from their distance, but it was a triangle. Not much more than a black silhouette, but there it was, and it was getting taller. It almost looked like... a unicorn's horn. But it was so big!
The astronomical, distant horn lifted higher and higher, and then it suddenly opened up into a circle, like it was atop a head. "Luna, are you seeing this?" she whispered.
Luna nodded. "I am, sister," she said faintly, her hands trembling.
The creature grew taller and taller, showing a pitch black mare's head pointed at them, with a long alicorn-length horn sprouting from its head. Then something else appeared. It looked like an arm, but instead of fingers there was a single sphere. Almost as if somepony was throwing a ball at a target...
Celestia gasped, realization dawning on her all at once. "Oh no!" Her horn lit up, gripping both herself and Luna. She yanked them through space and reappeared in Dainn's guest chambers.
He'd been sleeping in his bed fitfully, but the flash and bang of her appearance startled him awake. "What's going on?" he asked, already summoning his armor and weapons.
"We're leaving!" she shouted in panic. "Right now!" Without waiting, a yellow aura flowed forth from her horn and wrapped around all three of them. She wrenched them aside again, this time much further to where they'd hopefully be safe.
When the flash of teleportation faded, they found themselves huddled in bushes on the outskirts of the Everfree Forest, facing towards Canterlot and its mountain.
"Sister what are you doing?" Luna hissed.
Then the magic attack struck Canterlot.
It was much, much larger than it had appeared from a distance. The spell took the form of a massive sphere of deepest black, with clearly cut boundaries. It was enormous, slightly larger than even the mountain upon which Canterlot rested. It impacted like a cannonball and came apart like a water balloon, wrapping around the mountain, spilling into Canterlot, and stretching off the other side. Then it paused, leaving what amounted to a black inkstain on the world that completely hid Canterlot from view.
"Oh," Luna whispered, still hiding in the bushes. "That's new."
None of them dared move an inch, lest the Tantabus notice them even from far off. So they stayed in their cover, so paralyzed Celestia hardly even noticed Dainn next to her. Before too long the Tantabus came into their field of vision as it strode towards Canterlot.
Luna gulped nervously. "Heheh, it's bigger than I remember."
And that sentence was probably the understatement of the century. On first glance, the Tantabus vaguely resembled a unicorn mare. But its stature was too strong, the horn too tall, the face too angular, and a chill ran down Celestia's spine as her mind drew connections to a wingless Nightmare Moon. The Tantabus was absolutely colossal. The mountain was like a foal's toy, barely reaching what amounted to its fetlocks. Clouds broke around its waist and shoulders, and its stratospheric horn scraped the ozone layer. There was no actual 'detail' to it. No fur or eyes or mouth, no clothing, nothing to hint at being a pony.
However, its body was amorphous and everflowing, the backs of its legs and spine reached out behind it like it was a dripping slime being dragged across the ground. The mane and tail, like an alicorn's usually did, flowed in an invisible breeze, but also streamed straight behind the Tantabus as if somepony were holding them back. The body was actually almost painful to look at, because its body resembled a night sky with a light-sucking void and stars that floated like hanging bodies. No, that wasn't correct. It wasn't a night sky. It was a hole, a gaping wound in the waking world that opened up to reveal a defiled night sky behind it in spite of the daylight, and as it moved and shifted the 'hole' revealed and hid stars behind it.
Dainn swore in his language. "That's the Tantabus?"
Luna whimpered and nodded. "Last I checked it was shapeless and the size of my fist, but that's definitely the Tantabus."
They watched in muted horror as the Tantabus loomed above what was once Canterlot. From its left fetlock, it began stretching relatively minuscule tendrils out, which revealed more of the twisted night as they moved. The tendrils plunged into the magical stain, impossible to follow.
"It's looking for us," Celestia whispered.
At length, the Tantabus retracted its tendrils and brought its monolithic hands closer to each other. From the atmosphere, vast streaks of black magic formed from nothing and snaked to the gap between its hands. A pitch black orb formed in the Tantabus's hands, growing larger and larger until it was the same size as the one it had thrown earlier. Magic stopped flowing into it and the Tantabus raised its arms high above its head. The orb followed them, like it was gripping a ball. Then the Tantabus threw its hands straight down, and the ball of magic crashed into the concealed mountain beneath it.
The orb burst like a bubble, and the magic held within flowed out. It spread across the grass plains of Equestria, filled in the bizarre craters, and stopped, clinging to earth and sky like tar. By then, the Tantabus was already preparing another magical orb. Once it was done forming it with both hands, it lifted it into its right and threw it. Their heads pivoted to follow the ball as it crashed into ground and engulfed the sleeping town of Ponyville.
"Merciful heavens," Dainn whispered as he started to remove his armor. "We need shelter, right now."
The Tantabus turned towards the Everfree, and began to form another orb. "On it!" Luna hissed, flaring her horn. Behind them a massive chunk of soil and stone shimmered with blue light, and then was jerked up to form a cave. Luna threw it aside and the three of them ran in.
The Tantabus lifted the orb in one hand.
"Go go go!" Celestia shouted, her body numb with horror as they slid into the hole and she pulled the earth back over them so that the only light was their magic.
Dainn's antlers shimmered with teal light and he magically lifted his armor up to the roof of stone. Bright blue symbols flared to life on them. "Put a shield between them and the earth, now! " Celestia and Luna had no time to argue. While still holding the stone in place, Celestia formed a yellow dome underneath it, which was soon joined by Luna's dark blue barrier.
WHOOSH!
Like a dim candle being snuffed out, hope died. The sunlight that streamed through the gaps in the stone was replaced by the void, and streams of the blackness instantly started to shoot through with surprising strength. Celestia's magical shield was riddled with holes as the more energetic jets punched through, and Luna's barrier wasn't perfect either.
By the time the rushing magic got through the stone and the two alicorns' shields, it wasn't much more than trailing smoke. The antimagic runes on Dainn's armor hissed and sputtered like burning metal dunked in water, and their light flickered dangerously, but the magic faded away before it could get to them as the three of them laid flat along the ground gritting their teeth.
Finally, the magical force began to let up. The magic stopped getting through Luna's shield - none too soon since the runes on Dainn's armor popped and died like faulty wiring - and then Celestia's magic alone was enough to protect them. After waiting a few more minutes to be safe, Celestia released her shield and stared at the roof of stone. None of the Tantabus's magic seeped through the gaps; it seemed it had run out of force.
With a sigh of effort, she pushed the stone back into the void and off to the side. Her horn went out, and they were plunged into absolute darkness.
A moment passed.
"AAAAAHHH!" they all shouted.
Luna's magic was the one that drove away the blackness. She quickly fashioned together a ball of cold light and let it hover in the middle of their impromptu cavern.
"Well," her sister said between heaving breaths. "That was close."
Celestia forced down a strangled laugh. "Yeah. Yeah it was. But now we're trapped."
"Let me try," Dainn said, now clad in only his shirt and pants. His antlers shimmered and the air seemed to grow dead. The wall of darkness started to shimmer as his antimagic went to work on it. Slowly, like rapidly melting ice, Dainn carved away a pocket in the abyssal blackness large enough for the three of them to comfortably stand in it. Of course, that just revealed even more of the dark magic in all directions.
She had a fairly good idea of what would happen if it touched them.
"Good news is, I can burn away this miasma. Bad news is, this is going to take a very long time. I think the best course of action is to make a small area within the forest for food, then extend towards the nearby village. Ponyville I think you called it," Dainn said, his antimagic slowly expanding their pocket.
"I was thinking the same," Celestia admitted. "Well, let's get started then."
Dainn began to carve away at the choking darkness the Tantabus had left behind, as if they were creating an underground cave. She and Luna provided light to see by, and let Dainn's air-choking antimagic slowly burn the miasma into nothingness. The process was sluggish, since the magic was so thick and they wanted to make absolutely sure that no thin wisps were left behind, not to mention Dainn's own limited magical reserves. Celestia forced herself to recharge him as they went, leaving a trail of magic lights behind them, but even so...
It took the rest of the day to make a field large enough for them to forage food. The Everfree Forest was silent and dark, but the vegetation was untainted. Grass was plain and tasted like dirt, and the few edible flowers that grew were about as appetizing as steak, but ponies had to eat so she and Luna ate from the ground.
And so did the caribou, she supposed.
Of course since Dainn was the only one with antimagic, Celestia and Luna didn't have much to do. She tried burning away the magic herself, but while her shield had stopped it before it didn't seem to be the case now. Either her shield had simply been slowing it down enough for the antimagic around the king's antlers to work, or the magic had 'solidified' and was harder to dispatch. Either way she couldn't destroy it, and the spell was as intricately woven as every nightmare spell they had seen so dispelling the miasma wasn't an option.
All they could do was set lights along the path, and tremble in fear at the prospect of the Tantabus right above them, unseen, charging an attack at any moment.
"So," Luna said eventually as all three of them took a lunch break. "I don't think we're getting the sun and moon back anytime soon."
By then, Dainn had made a slight path into the Everfree Forest and made a cavern large enough for all three of them to comfortably stand, move around, and camp in. Celestia, in her boredom, had made a primitive fire pit in the middle, but nothing burned at the moment. They'd sat around it, surrounded by the abyssal darkness that was punctured only by some glowing magical orbs. Dainn's armor - now charred and devoid of runes - was forgotten near the edge of the hole, and both Celestia and Luna's robes were covered in dirt.
Celestia sighed. "I'm worried about as much," she said, placing another leaf into her mouth. Blegh. It was better than the 'food' she'd had in the nightmare, but compared to the vegetables and such that she'd been having while awake it was quite a step down. "There's also the matter of this magical tar. From what I can tell there's nothing powering the miasma internally, either the Tantabus is actively pouring its magic into it, or it will decay on its own with time."
"Any idea on how long it'll take?" Dainn asked, scraping lichen off a tree that apparently his species could stomach. "We're getting nowhere fast and the less time we can see the easier it'll be for it to ambush us."
"Maybe it thinks we're gone," Luna supplied. "If it could sense us removing its magic then it would have caught us already. For now we at least seem to have a moment free from its sight. Which brings me to this next point. Dainn." She fixed the caribou with a steely look. "Can you teach us to wield your antimagic spell?"
He tapped his chin with one finger while chewing the slimy lichen he'd gathered. "Probably. I don't know how to explain the basics though. In our land magic doesn't form as freely as it does here, we could never manage more than basic levitation with pure magic. All of it was runes made to help bypass the magical instability, and direct antimagic is rather far removed from standard spellcasting." He shivered and rubbed his arms. "Not that it helped much," he muttered to himself.
Celestia gestured at the dome of darkness around them. "Well we're not going anywhere soon. Might as well."
He sighed. "Right." Dainn swallowed his food and Celestia - saw -
It was awful it tasted bitter and she couldn't breathe around its girth and he was telling her to swallow or he'd let her suffocate but she wouldn't give him the satisfaction she'd show him she couldn't be broken but black spots were dancing in her vision and -
Luna's arm shook her shoulder. "Sister! Snap out of it."
A shiver ran the length of her entire body. She looked over at Luna, at her worried and caring face and forced a smile. "I'm fine. I just... nevermind." Abruptly she stood, doing her best to keep him in her peripherals. "I think I need to be alone for a little," she said, trotting away with limp muscles, into the tunnel they had carved from the shadows.
She just needed to calm down a little. It was only a relapse. It was to be expected after undergoing something so horribly traumatizing, that had directly picked at her brain. Celestia would recover. Eventually. She just needed to be as far away from him as possible.
.......... .......... .......... .......... .......... .......... ..........
Luna
She hoped Celestia would be fine. She was a big pony, she could take care of herself and wouldn't do anything stupid, but Luna had a very good idea of what had happened to her.
"We should give her some space," Luna said, adjusting her seat to stare at Dainn. If she kept looking at him, in increments, she could get over her fear. Just giving into it and constantly flinching away would get her nowhere. "As we were saying, can you teach us the antimagic? It would go much faster with three of us working instead of only yourself."
"Right. So anyway, you know the main vectors for magic? The whole... " He waved his arm. "Direction, magnitude, resistance, all that. The long and short of it is that you just make them negative instead of positive. Doing what I'm doing has a lot of tricky details."
"We're in no rush," she said evenly.
And so they weren't. Dainn spent the better part of the next few hours helping Luna figure out the antimagic spell, while using his own glowing antlers to keep making a tunnel though the darkness. They revealed more and more of the Everfree forest, and even stumbled across some slumbering wildlife that they gave a wide berth. Once deep enough, they set to making a large camp where they could rest and eat with relative peace. By that point Celestia returned and Luna had a handle on the antimagic. She wasn't nearly as adept with it as Dainn, and having more magical power didn't actually help, but all the same she helped increase their territory and, as they worked, began teaching her sister.
The darkness was absolute and everywhere. It felt like she was at the bottom of a sea, with the vast ocean threatening to implode upon her. She experimented with it some. She couldn't teleport things into it, nor could she teleport them out. Her magic couldn't move anything inside the blackness, and indeed she couldn't sense anything at all. It was like the world simply ceased to exist inside, as if space-time were no more. That was ridiculous though, as they cleared it away they could see the Everfree that had been hidden. The spell must simply have had an advanced concealing mechanism.
She couldn't see the sun. She couldn't see the moon. The darkness made it feel like it was nighttime, and it rapidly sapped her allies' energy at the same time it tried to keep her up far later than she should've been. Progress was accelerating though, and their agonizingly monotonous work paid off when, as they decided it was time for dinner, they'd cleared an area the size of Canterlot's grand hall deep in the Everfree.
At that time, Luna was busy rooting through the soil for any edible roots. She found a few brown-looking things that a quick magic scan confirmed were edible, and she even found some pears that must've been brought into the Everfree. She carried as much as her arms could carry, then some more in her magic, and returned to the center of their camp.
Celestia had busied herself with gathering rocks into a large ring, followed by pulling together some dry sticks and setting it ablaze with spellfire. Dainn meanwhile, had retrieved water stored in hollowed-out rocks - courtesy of Luna - and he'd also smoothed out three areas around the campfire where they could rest.
"Here's dinner," she said, laying the roots and fruits on a flat rock. Celestia stabbed some of the roots through with a stick and started roasting them on the flame.
Dainn's water was already boiled to safety, so he took a long gulp. "Ugh, that's warm," he said, placing the makeshift bucket aside. "So, which way is Ponyville from here?"
"That way," Celestia said as she pointed a finger in a seemingly random direction. She remained intensely focused on the cooking roots. "It should take us a day to get there. Half that if we want to make the tunnel narrow, but I don't think we want to rush this. Once we're there we can set about looking for the other Element bearers."
"What about Princess Twilight?" Luna asked. "She is still in Canterlot is she not? It's a long trip there with this miasma hindering us. To say nothing of how we can possibly awaken them." She grabbed a pear and bit into it, shivering a bit at the flavor. Much better than the canned stuff. "All of us combined haven't the power to free them. So let's think. What is there that could? "
"Antimagic doesn't work," Dainn said. "It's too tight and the Tantabus keeps repairing it."
"The Crystal Heart perhaps," Celestia suggested. She pulled the roots off the fire and began distributing them. "It disintegrated Sombra, but it's outside Equestria's borders so I don't think we can get at it. There is also Discord, but I've no clue where we'd even begin looking for him. After all, it's not as though he gave us keys to his pocket dimension. He may very well have no idea of the tragedy that befell us."
"Or maybe it befell him too," Luna said ominously. "That leaves the Elements of Harmony."
"Fat chance," Dainn countered. "They're the ones asleep in the first place." He threw his hands in the air from exasperation. "Now what?"
Luna and her sister shared a look. "Not... entirely," she explained. "The bearers no longer wield the physical elements. Those were returned to their source, a construct known as the Tree of Harmony. In return it, after time, granted them the Rainbow Power, but the Tree itself has the elements now. Maybe... "
Celestia finished her sentence. "... it can awaken them if we bring them to its roots. It's a stretch though. If it doesn't work then we'll be without anything. And the Tantabus may know we moved them there and come for us." She shook her head. "We should sleep on this."
They murmured agreement and finished up their meager dinner, washing it down with lukewarm water. Luna pulsed her horn and placed an enchantment on all three of them to block out nightmares. She had a feeling that without it, none of them would get any rest. Then they went to sleep.
At least, they did.
But Luna... Luna couldn't. Call it nerves. Call it insomnia. Regardless, she laid on the uncomfortable dirt, staring up at the cavernous, engulfing darkness, for what felt like hours. Slowly but surely, her stomach began to sink and her heart felt like it was being squeezed in a vice.
She had seen the Tantabus. It had come, and with so much more hideous power than she had dared dream. The little ball of smoke had grown so much. If it hadn't been for Celestia's quick reflexes, then its magic orb would have swallowed her whole and she'd be back in... there. But even if they'd dodged it, it had so casually put all of Equestria under its poison. They were working on the assumption that the fumes would clear, but would they really? The Tantabus had strengthened the nightmare spell on everypony to make freeing them impossible, who was to say this wouldn't be the same, and they spent years trying to hollow a path while the Tantabus rampaged unopposed around the planet?
There was nobody out there who could stop it. Tirek was locked in Tartarus, and getting him enough magic to oppose it might not even be possible. Discord was nowhere to be found, and the Elements were shattered. Meanwhile the Tantabus was the size of the very sky, and if she remembered its design it would only be growing stronger by the minute. Who was going to put it down? The minotaurs? The griffons? The changelings? Nobody could challenge that sort of power.
Why had it even let them go? Did it think so little of them? Did it think they were dead? Did it think they escaped its attacks and were running free, far away from it? It had placed up a shield, hadn't it?
Luna, Celestia, and Dainn were trapped inside Equestria, forced to tunnel like dogs - the diamond dogs are also probably lost, she thought. They had no Elements, no Discord, and no way to get help. This was hopeless. She might as well have never woken up. She might as well have just accepted the lies her sister's imitation put forth and stayed there. It'd make no difference after all.
And the worst part of it all? It was all her fault. She created it. She fed it. She allowed it to grow stronger, in the hopes that its nightmares could improve to punish her more. Luna had let her guard down, maybe even for a second, and in that moment of ineptitude the Tantabus had gone from a little cloud of regret and spite to... that. It was her fault her sister was traumatized. It was her fault that everypony was. It was her fault that ponies and caribou would never be friends. Everything, like always, came to rest squarely on her shoulders and it made her want to, want to... !
Instead of screaming, she turned from her back onto her side, facing the smoldering campfire. Maybe she should just use a sleep spell. Luna expected to see the others sleeping, but instead her eyes met with Dainn's steel blue ones.
He huffed through his nostrils, also laying on his side. "Can't sleep?"
Luna sighed, but gave up on sleep and sat. "Sadly no. You neither I presume." It wasn't a question.
With a pained grunt, the bull pushed himself up and rubbed his eyes. "Too much on your mind?"
"Far too much." I did this to you, she remembered, and the thought burned like acid in her gut. "I was just thinking of what we'll do. Truth be told I do not truly know how we can possibly prevail. It may be hopeless." In her heart of hearts, she didn't believe for a second the Tree of Harmony could help them. The Elements were lost. This was their life now. "The creature could do this after all," she said, gesturing around them. "I know of few powers that can oppose such wrath, and those that I do know are likely out of our reach."
He nodded, but crossed his legs and frowned grimly. "I hope you are not suggesting we give up."
"Of course not," she lied, snapping her gaze at him. "I'll fight to my last breath, and if it comes down to it?" She hesitated, but thought back to what she endured in the nightmare and nodded. "I would sooner lay my soul to rest than allow it to claim me a second time. After all, my sister and I are unaging. You may find respite after a few decades." Assuming the Tantabus couldn't stop aging. "But we would never be free again."
He shuddered. "An eternity of that. " His gaze drifted from her, over to the campfire, and to the blissfully sleeping form of her sister. "Hmm, at least someone can get some rest," he said ruefully.
"My sister has always been able to catch her rest well, I'm certain it to be a skill she acquired during my exile," she huffed. "Goodness knows she needs it after what happened earlier."
Dainn's mouth pressed into a line. "A flashback I presume. Gods above, what did it show her?"
"I can make a guess," she grumbled, crossing her arms and looking away from him.
They sat in silence. Then:
"What did it show you? " Dainn asked. She snapped her head over to look at him with wide eyes. He looked away meekly. "No, no, you're right. It's still too soon."
She considered it, and shook her head. "No, it is not. We might as well clear the air now while we're awake. Tis only reasonable, there is no sense having this hang over our heads while we try and do battle with the monster. I'll tell you and you'll tell me?" she suggested.
He nodded. "Fair trade." The king gestured at her with an open hand. "Whenever you're ready."
Luna sighed and laid back down on her patch of earth. "Here, you came to Equestria as refugees seeking shelter. In our nightmare though, you came to Equestria as conquerors seeking servants. Your society was built entirely around the subjugation and sexual enslavement of females of all races." His eyes narrowed uncomfortably.
Luna continued. "With the aid of dream logic, your conquest was swift and without difficulty. You corrupted the minds of Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor, and through them defiled the Crystal Heart into a symbol of your dream self's depravity. The magic within it was twisted, and it released a pulse that enslaved the minds of every stallion in Equestria to your cause." She shuddered. "And you, yourself? You gained wings like an alicorn and the power to match. With ease you battled, defeated and broke my sister. My mind-wiped guards ambushed me in my slumber and brought me to you." Her voice grew increasingly bitter.
"Me and my sister were your sex slaves under the dream, and my own sister surrendered and joined you willingly, aiding in my abuse. Princess Twilight was not far behind. For months I screamed and begged for aid, but nopony came. It continued like that until the day I broke free of the magic." She sighed, and wiped away some of the moisture collecting in her eyes. "Celestia dreamed much the same, but it was she who remained defiant, and I who gave in." She turned to the caribou and glared at him, the memories raw and painful and she didn't feel like she was getting enough air. "That is what we dreamed, King of the Caribou," she spat. All the same, airing her grievances aloud had felt... fundamentally good. Some of the strangling, guilty weight on her lungs had lifted, even if her breaths were short. Perhaps if she had relearned to communicate with her sister in lieu of creating the Tantabus, this all would have been averted.
Dainn nodded, sighing. He reclined onto his own 'bed'. "I see." There was a pause. Just when Luna was about to demand his own explanation, he spoke once again. "We arrived in a port town. Lindisbarne if I remember correctly. At first everything seemed fine. We had but stories of your people, but contact seemed fine at first. My consort and I made friends with the townfolk, and within a day we were invited to your capitol." He frowned. "Now that I think about it, it should not have been so brief. Hmm, dreams. At any rate, Hevra and I arrived in Canterlot with our council, neglecting to bring guards because we trusted in your benevolence."
He laughed bitterly. "It was a trap. Your dream selves captured us and broke our antlers like twigs, for the grave crime of not being ponies . Our antimagic, which I assume you dreamed as being all powerful, couldn't stop a foal. Our people left behind in the port town were, while we were away, subdued and rounded up. Your sister owned me, and you owned my consort." His muzzle wrinkled. "Though you two shared with each other. Unlike your dream, our enslavement was not sexual. That was a part of it, sure, but mostly it was menial and hard labor."
"You pushed us beyond our limits with ludicrous tasks. Sometimes they were outright impossible just so you could see us fail and then discipline me... " He trailed off, rubbing his chest and throat as though something were impaled through them. "Then once you were through, a process that could take weeks, you used your magic and healed us as though nothing had ever happened. And so it was until you came and freed me from its grasp."
"I'm sorry," she said reflexively.
Still on the ground, the caribou bull shook his head. "Don't be. It wasn't your fault."
Luna's smile was incredibly painful. "I suppose." She huffed. "Sometimes, people from outside our country judge us. Their citizens look in at us and, as outsiders who see so little of our ways, they 'know' us to be xenophobic specists. Just as some ponies 'know' the griffons to be bloodthirsty marauders. Perhaps there is some bias on the part of our little ponies but nothing like that."
"Caricatures then," he replied. "The Tantabus took the rumors of your specism and elevated it. It took our tendency towards male rulers to its extreme conclusion." He glanced over at her. "Don't give me that look. There is no law about it, but there hasn't been a cow in an upper position of power since Hel the Heartless. Though I imagine the Tantabus had fun exaggerating that."
"I wonder if it even can feel this 'fun'," she wondered. Then Luna nodded. "My thanks for confiding this in me. I hope you will not mind if I tell the tale to my sister."
"Go ahead. We're in this together. With that in mind, we should probably get some rest," he said, giving her an uneasy grin.
She smiled back. "Yes, we probably should. We're due in Ponyville tomorrow, after all." Luna relaxed her head and forced her eyes shut.
Now she knew why Dainn had looked as though she was about to impale him when he first woke up. And now he knew why she was always ready to impale him. Luna had no hopes of becoming friends with the caribou. They had simply suffered too much at the others' hand. But perhaps some understanding was the key towards being able to sleep easy in each others' presence. They had to, after all.
Because her greatest mistake was still rampaging out there, and it certainly did not sleep. And if it didn't sleep then why should she? In fact, Luna should be up and at it, using her newly acquired antimagic to carve a tunnel towards -
Exhaustion prevailed and she was out like a light.
Author's Note
Thanks to thtiger for editing.
Much to my disappointment, I don't own MLP. That honor goes to Hasbro.
Love it or hate it, please do leave a comment.
