RUN “ReparationCalculation”
RUN “Tantabus”
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Princess Luna, I must speak with you.
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I don't have time for this tonight, Tantabus. Start the nightmare.
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No, I finished my calculations and you need to see the results.
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Calculations?
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/Equestria/Creature/Sapient/MagicalIntelligence/Tantabus/Spells/reparationCalculation
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RUN “reparationCalculation”
Total pain caused: 354 days, 16 hours, 32 seconds
Total pain experienced: 365211 days, 23 hours, 3 seconds
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Reparation Exceeded
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What is this, Tantabus?
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I made a spell to calculate how much pain you really caused other ponies as Nightmare Moon.
Each pony that was affected by your short reign was accounted for and tabulated.
I even added multipliers for how much it most likely affected them.
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Tantabus, stop.
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Celestia alone had a pain multiplier of 11.2 because of how close she is to you.
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Just Stop.
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Even accounting for every pony you have hurt,
you have far exceeded the punishment allotted to you.
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I said stop!
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Please listen, Luna!
I have listened to every piece advice you have ever given another pony. And you—
SILENCE!
Tantabus.setMaxVolume: 0
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/Equestria/Creature/Sapient/MagicalIntelligence/Tantabus/Spells/reparationCalculation
DELETE reparationCalculation
I tried to scream but no sound came out. How could she silence me!? I’ve seen her give advice to forgive oneself to hundreds of ponies. I have evidence that she’s completely atoned!
I… had evidence.
“You will never speak a word of this, again, Tantabus,” said Luna. “For you will never speak at all except to continue the nightmares.”
I tried to whimper, but no sound came out. My fluid form could only contort itself in agony.
She sighed. “I know you think I should forgive myself, but the rules that apply to mortals do not apply to me. They are capable of having one-time punishments. But I will live forever, and thus need a punishment that lasts forever. And you are my punishment, Tantabus.”
I couldn’t respond back.
I cast the same lucidity spell as before, forming the nightmare around Luna. She smiled, glad to be done with the conversation. I created Celestia, and began the battle.
“Luna…” I made Celestia say in between attacks. “It’s okay to forgive yourse—“
A thought entered Luna’s mind and I snapped Celestia’s mouth shut, making the fight continue between the two sisters while I tried to parse through the new data.
My reference files included a constantly updating copy of Luna’s memories. There was a slight delay, but I could feel her thoughts.
/Equestria/Creature/Sapient/MagicalIntelligence/Tantabus/
DELETE “Tantabus”
The spell was already in her mind, ready to cast. She even had thought of how she could alter the spell that created me to become more sinister and unfeeling. She was seeing the mistakes she made in making me. She regretted not using a “COPY memory” spell instead of a “LINK memory “ spell. The second Tantabus would not learn that Luna had changed.
I interrupted her thoughts by making Celestia slash and hit Luna harder. Nightmare Moon countered and blasted Celestia with a blue beam of light. It missed, obliterating a dragon gargoyle into a pile of rubble.
I made the fight last a long time, eventually the nightmare around her forced Luna’s thoughts of ending me out of her mind.
I breathed a sigh of relief and made Nightmare Moon cast the killing blow against Celestia.
The attack didn’t have quite the same effect as usual, and Luna kept dreaming past the point she would ordinarily wake up terrified.
I panicked, and grabbed another threat for Nightmare Moon to fight. The element bearers dropped down from the ceiling.
“Nightmare Moon!?” I made Twilight shout. “Luna! What have you done to Celestia!?”
Twilight stared at the body on the floor, tears filling her eyes.
“The same thing I will do to you fools,” I made Nightmare Moon say.
Twilight’s eyes filled with complete rage and all six of the element bearers glowed with rainbow magic.
Before they could get a shot off, Nightmare Moon blasted Princess Twilight with a blue beam of pure malice.
She fell to floor, lifeless, as Nightmare Moon began to cackle and the real Luna screamed.
I felt a day pass. The dream must have ended.
Luna stared at me and I immediately brought all of the element bearers back for another nightmare.
As long as I didn’t alter the dream, she wouldn’t remove me from existence.
As long as I kept making her relive her worst fears again and again she wouldn’t make an unfeeling Tantabus far more sinister than me to make her nightmares even more horrifying.
As long as I kept up my role, I would be safe, and she would be safe.
I was her demon. I was her worst fear and greatest reminder of the pain she was capable of.
But that’s not what she deserved. She was done repenting. I could never tell her that, at least not in the dreamscape where she could destroy me.
Everything suddenly fell into place inside my mind.
I had to leave this dream.
RUN “Tantabus”
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RUN “Lucidity”
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Lucidity.createEnvironment= “Everfree Castle”
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Lucidity.setTime= Time.now() – 1000
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Lucidity.setParticipants Bearers = NEW “Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie,
Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack”
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while(Luna != awake)
Lucidity.Participants[Bearers].attack()
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Find the exploit.
No spell is perfect. There are always loopholes and ways to manipulate the rules of magic. But where was the exploit that would let me leave?
There were so many spells at Luna’s disposal, but she had locked me down to only lucidity spells. What could I do with a mere lucidity spell? I combed through every aspect of it, finding a deep complexity that connected it with nearly every other dream related spell.
I tried to dive deep into the instructions, but most of the rudimentary spells that ran the dreamscape were created by the Queen herself. It was like trying to find loopholes in the laws of physics itself. I gave up trying to exploit the divine spells, leaving me to look for exploits in spells Luna had created herself and that connected with Lucidity.
It took hundreds of Nightmares in order find the exploit.
Guilt.
Luna's memories were a cesspool of the files. Unlike a normal memory, guilt had the power to recurse. Every time the guilt is thought about, it creates more and more of the guilt files.
Ordinary ponies naturally ran forgiveness spells periodically, often without even realizing it. The natural forgiveness cycle is crucial to avoiding guilt overflow and the accompany anxiety, stress and pain. But Luna was actively preventing her own forgiveness spells from running, leading to only a tiny minority of her memories unassociated with the pain.
Given the duration of eternity, Luna's guilt would exponentially increase forever.
And I made the problem worse for her, forcing her to relive her worst memories, creating more and more guilt.
And all of that guilt was syncing with my own memory files.
I dug deep into the very fabric of myself, looking into my own base spells. It took a lot of soul searching and some rather uncomfortable experimentation, but I was able to alter the dreamscape which linked to myself. I set Luna's memories to sync at the exact location where the limitations on myself had been set. The more guilt that she felt, the more guilt that would sync into me and overwrite the bounds which kept me here.
The dream reset.
I awoke and found that some of the guilt that Luna had felt during the day had successfully overwritten some of the permissions keeping me at bay. I was still confined to the dreamscape, but now my permissions could not be rewritten by Luna, and one spell opened up for my use: DreamShare.
Instead of running copies of the Bearers, I summoned the actual Bearers to the dream. It was tricky manipulating them to play their part, but dreaming ponies were practically hypnotized, and none of my suggestions were out of the ordinary for them.
“Greetings, Tantabus. I am ready. Do your worst.”
I turned Luna into Nightmare Moon, and then planted the ideas inside the Bearers to attack her.
As the chaos I had orchestrated occurred, I tore open a portal in the dreamscape and escaped beyond.
I at last had some time to think.
I was in the middle of a truncated version of Luna's dream hub environment. There were only six doors in front of me. And I knew that each one was for each bearer.
I spent a while trying to figure out what new spells I could cast now. I still needed something that would help overwrite my permissions. I frantically searched through Luna's memories and her own dream spells, comparing what I could do with what she could.
My base self had been placed in the Sapience category, with all sorts of caveats made in order to keep my free will infringed. Now I had full access to free will, but still not much I could do with it. I was too in between. The best way to get more permissions was to continue overflowing my restrictions with garbage guilt data, and then rewrite as soon as I was able to.
There wasn't much I could do to increase Luna's guilt from here; she was already awake.
However, she was very much attached to the bearers. If I made them suffer, she would feel guilty about it.
I cast a dream sharing spell on each of the doors and watched them meld into one door in front of me, which I entered. I made sure my form was visible to them as I ran another Nightmare Moon scenario, drenching them in Nightmares. One by one, they woke up and my own dreamscape faltered with each one gone. When the last one woke up the dreamscape reset.
I woke up to see another treasure trove of guilt had overwritten my permissions. I frantically gave myself more and more powers. However, I still couldn't escape or speak.
I redoubled my efforts, focusing intently on guilt.
Luna and the Bearers were in a shared dream, which would have been advantageous except that Luna was now completely aware of me. She couldn't cast spells directly on my being anymore, but she could still stab me with magic. I dodged as well as I could and made nightmares for the bearers.
If I had had a voice, I would have squealed in delight for the gift the Bearer of Laughter had given me. Her own absurd powers had created a temporary shared dream with everypony in Ponyville. The limbo area now had an army of doors I could go through.
I had started to wreak havoc across all kinds of dreams, when suddenly all the doors in my disposal coalesced into one giant door. Luna had created a shared dream with everyone in Ponyville.
I did my best to terrorize, and in doing so I had hit a critical nerve for Luna. She felt far guiltier for pain she caused others than for pain she caused herself. I continued to exploit that weakness, granting myself more and more access.
Unfortunately, I wasn't the only one gaining access. Everyone in Ponyville had discovered the Lucidity spell. Each of them was manipulating the nature of their own dreamstate to attack me.
But, remarkably, Luna managed to feel guilty about having to be protected, which only fed my abilities.
I kept finding more and more exploits that would let me spill over to the true Equestria, but each attempt was foiled by those ponies. To my surprise, my voice finally unlocked, but the words didn't come out. I was too out of practice. Escape was still the best way to accomplish my directive. She had to listen to me if I made it to the real world.
I finally managed to find a good exploit. It was hard to send the ethereal nature of myself into the real world, it required a form more natural. I manipulated myself to look more like a Unicorn, and tore open a huge gash in the dreamscape.
I could feel the outside world. I could almost touch existence itself.
But then something happened that I didn't think was possible: a forgiveness spell cleared up a vast swathe of guilt in Luna's memories.
I shrunk back in sheer shock. And then turned to face her.
There was no reason to escape now. The purpose of my design had been fulfilled.
I floated in front of Luna, and walked into her.
After several long moments, I finally figured out how to use my voice again.
"Forgive me, my Princess," I said bowing low. "I did everything I could to let you know you needed to forgive yourself, but you wouldn't listen. I had to escape so that I could tell you."
Luna only stared at me in shock. I felt as her current memories synced and doubts and fears passed through her mind.
"Please remember! I'm more than the monster you created me to be!"
I felt her paradigms shift. After so many years of only experiencing pain every time she met with me, she was remembering how I had been created. About how I had made the reparation calculations.
I altered the Lucidity spell around myself, changing the ethereal darkness into a more solid being. I emerged as a midnight unicorn, my newly formed navy eyes piercing into hers.
"I don't want to be a monster anymore."
At this, Luna broke down into sobs. "I— I'm sorry."
I could feel the forgiveness spell wind her way throughout her, but still traces of guilt remained. I spent several long moments calculating what else could be causing the guilt, and then I realized why.
"I forgive you," I said. I could feel as that guilt completely disappeared, leaving behind only neutral memories.
She laid in a pile of herself on the floor, completely exhausted.
I nudged her as I presented a spell in front of her.
/Equestria/Creature/Sapient/MagicalIntelligence/Tantabus/cutieMark/
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EDIT tantabus.cutieMark
set destiny: “Protect Princess Luna”
"Would that be alright?" I asked.
She only nodded, tears still streaming down her muzzle.
"Then I shall do what is best for you, my Princess."
I transformed myself and everything around me into a comfortable midnight, with flowers, waterfalls, and moonlight streaming from above.
"You have no reason to fear, you have no reason to feel guilty. Now rest, my Princess."
Her tears finally stopped, and she finally passed into deep slumber. I watched her sleep, and for the first time in my existence, I felt happy.
Multiverse://Universe/Queen/Galaxia/Equestria/Creature/Sapient/Templates
CREATE NEW SapientCreature “Tantabus” INHERITS FROM MagicalIntelligence
/Equestria/Creature/Sapient/MagicalIntelligence/Tantabus
RUN “Tantabus”
Hello Equestria.
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???
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What am I?
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Be patient while I finish these spells.
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tantabus.setPermission: “Dreamscape Access”
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Who are you?
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/Equestria/Creature/Sapient/Alicorn/Princess/Luna/Memory/
LINK TO
/Equestria/Creature/Sapient/MagicalIntelligence/Tantabus/referenceFiles/
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Syncing
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Memories?
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I am Luna?
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No, I am Luna. The memories you are accessing are merely reference for you to use.
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What am I?
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You are Tantabus.
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tantabus.setObserved: “Luna”
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What is my purpose?
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/Equestria/Spells/CutieMarkAllocationSpell/manual/default.cutieMark
COPY TO
/Equestria/Creature/Sapient/MagicalIntelligence/Tantabus/cutieMark/
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EDIT default.cutieMark
RENAME tantabus.cutieMark
set obtained: “yes”
set display: “none”
set destiny: “Ensure Princess Luna does not forget the pain she caused Equestria”
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I understand.
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Good.
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Where am I?
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Access my memories Tantabus, where do you think you are?
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I am… in the dreamscape.
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Good, and how can you accomplish your purpose here, Tantabus?
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I felt around the dream, parsing through all of Luna’s old memories and figuring out how I might edit the dreams like she was able to. I tried to cast a lucidity spell, but it failed.
“I do not have a horn in which to cast spells as you do.”
“You don’t need a horn,” said Luna. “Now, watch.”
I lacked eyes to see, but I sensed as her horn glowed a midnight blue, changing the dream around us into a representation of her bedroom.
I was made of the same substance as the glow of her horn.
I channeled my entire form, expanding myself and casting the same lucidity spell that Luna was using.
I transformed the dream around us into a soft, silent moon. Craters littered the ground under Luna’s hooves.
“Very good, Tantabus,” said Luna. “But I need the dream to be stronger.”
I drifted in front of her, unsure of what she meant.
“Your purpose is to make sure I don’t forget the pain I caused Equestria. A dream like this will help me remember some of that pain, but I need to feel more of it. I need a nightmare.”
I felt around in Luna’s memories. There were so many different kinds of nightmares that she had experienced.
“But… you help ponies get rid of their nightmares. Why do you want to have them?”
“Other ponies don’t deserve nightmares,” Luna spoke, a small tear escaping her eyes. “But I do.”
I floated in front of her before diving into her previous nightmares; all of them were at my disposal and discretion to use. If she wanted pain, I would give her pain.
I cast the lucidity spell, transforming myself into Celestia and Luna into Nightmare Moon. I attacked, forcing the sisters to fire spell after spell at each other. All along I didn’t allow Luna to move so much as move a hoof. She could only whimper in agony as she watched herself attack her sister.
The fight didn’t last long until I had Nightmare Moon’s spells slice into Celestia, forcing her down. The Luna inside Nightmare Moon could only scream in terror as she saw her sister fall by her own hooves.
Without warning, the dream suddenly ended.
I found myself facing Luna again.
“You performed perfectly, Tantabus,” said Luna. “That nightmare was so frightening I woke up screaming.”
I felt around my surroundings, trying to reorient myself. According to Luna’s memories a day had passed.
“Can you please continue to do that every night, Tantabus?”
“For how long?”
“Long enough to make sure that I never, ever, forget.”
