Marigold Burdens

by TundraStanza

Rating: teen
Tags: Alternate Universe, Main 6, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Spike, Random, Princess Celestia
Length: 5649

In this interpretation, the Tantabus is Luna's civic duty to fight every few nights or so. But it escapes one particular night. Can Luna find the means to contain it again? Her friends (and family) will see to it.

A dark spirit lurks in the realm of dreams, attracted to fear, and capable of exaggerating that fear. As the Princess of the Night, Luna must look after the dreamers, offering ways to ease turmoil as she is quite familiar with the emotions. She occasionally does battle with the dark spirit, which she has aptly dubbed Tantabus, an ancient word for "Nightmare".

But the battles utilizing her fears just aren't enough to satiate the Tantabus forever. It grows a fancy to the ponies that saved Luna from her nightmarish shell the first time. Despite her natural tendency to attack the problem by herself, she accepts the aid of her heroes. If only it were that simple...

The following takes place between 7 PM and 10 AM.
---
An alternate take on "Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep?"
Special thanks to The Fiery Joker for showing how someone can be serious in addition to being comedic.
Warning: There are trace amounts of OCs sprinkled in toward the end of this fic, but not enough to mark them as the main characters.

Published 2015-10-03 20:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2015-10-03 20:00:01 UTC

Fourth Stage Performance

"We've prepared everything exactly as you've requested."

Twilight Sparkle opened her bedroom door for everyone else to clamber inside. In a neatly organized circle, individual beds were all arranged to rest the heads of each of the main party, save for the one who would be performing the ritual of dream-casting.

"Good." Princess Luna nodded curtly. "As you six slumber here, I will pursue the creature into whichever of your dreams it infests."

Most of the others simply trotted into their respective beds. The exceptions were Rainbow Dash flying, Spike stepping lively, and Pinkie Pie practically hopping over all of them before settling into her own.

"Oooo!" Pinkie cheered. "It'll be like a princess sleepover!"

Something about that sentence caught the little dragon's attention. The rest of his friends were too tired to catch anything beyond Pinkie exuding her usually chipper tone, and simply crawled under their covers. Luna took one look out the window before trotting back to the center of the bed's circle. Spike, however, turned around with a raised claw.

"Um, shouldn't we get Princess Celestia to help us out with this?" he asked. "I mean, it's just all of Equestria that's in jeopardy if the Tantabu-thingy gets too strong."

"My sister cannot help us in the realm of slumber," Luna stated with closed eyes. "It doesn't fall within her domain. Only I can move from dream to dream."

The query was interrupted by a yawn from Applejack. "One good thing about not sleeping well: It should be easier to fall asleep tonight."

Just as she was about to nod off, a sudden pony-sized weight popped out of the quilt on top of her. She looked up in exasperated panic... only to roll her eyes at her friend's antics.

"Are you kidding? This is so exciting!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie. "I don't know how I'm ever going to-"

Not even one second passed before she was resting on top of AJ's pillow and snoring like a saw against a tree. The original bed's occupant simply grunted before turning over and drifting off herself. One by one, the other ponies followed suit. Their collective snores were the orchestra for Luna to take on the role of maestro.

She flapped her wings and glided in one place. Her horn channeled a spiraling white spell. Its various strings spooled out and latched onto the heads of the weary. One of the strings moved as if it were plucked by a bow. Its music guided Luna into the same REM space as the pony with a sleeping mask.

While all of them were preoccupied, no one noticed a certain claw hastily scribbling with a quill against parchment.

"Oh... my... stars."

Rarity lifted a pair of opera binoculars to her eyes. She stepped up onto a large crate of soap as a bunch of pegasi raced by. Even from this angle, she could tell that Blue Blaze had a huge lead. She started biting her hoof, wracking from the tension. But then, the racers miraculously switched positions in the exact opposite order in which they were flying. Fleetfoot had won the Wonderbolts' Derby!

"Yes, yes, yes!" Rarity hopped up in delight several times.

Upon the fifth hop, the box beneath her suddenly transformed into a huge stage. She was no longer up in Canterlot, but in a completely different setup on the ground. A crowd had gathered all around in front of her. She looked at her right hoof and saw that her binoculars had become a guitar that she was holding upside-down. To her left, she saw her little sister in a hoodie and absolutely terrible makeup. Yet, she smiled at Sweetie Belle anyway as the filly sang out wordless notes. It was right then that Rarity could hear what the crowd was chanting.

"Break it! Break it! Break it!"

"What?" She looked over at her guitar. "But the craftsmanship is so... pristine." She shrugged. "Oh, well. The customer is always right. Kyaah!"

The guitar went over her head and its body snapped into sparkling halves upon impact with the stage. The crowd went absolutely nuts for the display. Sweetie Belle improvised her lyrics to "Yeah" several times over.

Somewhere in the back row of seats, a bluish cloud seemed to flow over and tap every single one of the ponies on the shoulder. Within a matter of seconds, the entire row was filled with disgusting, drooling Diamond Dogs. These canines rapidly crawled over the chanting crowd, causing most of the to run in panic while the rest got trampled into piles of dust. Rarity held her hooves against her mouth and stared in horror. She only tore her gaze away when her sister started grunting weirdly.

At first, Sweetie Belle looked like she was tearing off her clothes. But as she suddenly grew purple wings and grew in stature, Rarity's worry took a backseat to confusion. Then, it was replaced again by shocked realization at the princess standing in the dream version of her sister's place.

Luna channeled a few rays of white into the chest of an advancing dog. It whined as it was flung into the far back of the stadium. Luna then proceeded to fire at the remaining Diamond Dogs in the same way. More and more of the canines just kept coming. However, Luna's eye caught a different problem. The Tantabus whisked past them and through a trapdoor and conjured a lock behind it.

"No! It's escaped into another dream!" Luna stomped the stage before blasting a hole in the trapdoor and flying right through the empty space.

"You go after it!" Rarity called after her. "I'll handle things here."

The dogs growled and lifted their claws menacingly. Their pace had slowed slightly, but they all seemed intent on getting the little pony on stage. Rarity braced herself for the most unladylike action she had ever taken. She leaned her head back and opened her mouth at a crooked angle.

"I'm thirsty!"

Her voice unleashed a tone that was screeching and irritating to every single Diamond Dog in the dream. Most of them yanked on their sensitive ears. Others whimpered, turned around and scampered away like the scared pups that they were. Princess Platinum dawned her crown, feeling good to be daughter of the unicorn king.

Once upon a time, Pinkie Pie was trotting through Whitetail Woods. Then, she hopped by a dragon's cave. Next, she skipped through Cloudsdale's weather factory. It was here that she passed Luna.

"I need to find the Tantabus," said the princess. "It must be close."

But Pinkie was already trotting through Manehattan. Now, she was cantering by Ahuizotl's hidden fortress. Then, she leaped out of Daring Do's cottage. After that, she passed by the Mirror Pool, but didn't have time for a dip.

"Sorry," said Pinkie, "but when I have an idea, it just... pops into my head. Oooo, cake!"

Pinkie took an extended break in the baked goods section of her dream. She was practically surrounded by all kinds of confectionery. But just as she decided that an M.M.M.M. looked good enough to dig in, a blue smoke monster touched it and squirted filling all over her face. She blinked in surprise before the three layered madness was suddenly covered in googly eyes and growling with candy corn teeth.

"Eww, cake."

Pinkie backed up quickly, but smacked right into a wall of angry pudding pops. She spun around and tried backing up again. But everywhere she looked, one of the sweets were trying to either eat her or do other unspeakable acts with their impossible limbs.

Luckily, a nearby present box unwrapped itself and Luna managed to hop out. The princess unleashed some power above her horn to explode in light. The sweet monsters dissolved into seltzer bubbles that quickly popped out of existence. Her eye caught sight of the blue smoke escaping via the opening of a party hat. Luna dove after it... only to smack headfirst into a giant crystal statue of Spike.

"No!" Luna held up her hooves in frustration.

"Oops, sorry." Pinkie smiled innocently.

Deciding to save a stern talk for later, Luna simply opened up a dream window and slipped through its opening before vanishing. That left Pinkie Pie to hop over to Ponyville. She cheerfully offered to share her giant ice cream cone with all of her town friends.

"So, as the great Wall Carb once said when he finally cracked the case for relatively constant speed, Eureka."

As Professor Applejack explained her findings, she trotted back and forth. She floated her ruler around and pointed at various parts of her long, yet simplified equations. It wasn't anything too fancy, at least not for her and what she assumed were her students. A little trinket on her desk started shaking and glowing. Letting out a questioning grunt, she picked up the devise via telekinesis and pointed it around.

According to the tracking device, the Tantabus was sucking the life-force right out of the dream students. It was turning them all into piles of rotten apples. Luna was in hot pursuit. She couldn't say anything because she was already chasing the blue smoke that was whisking out the classroom door. Applejack's floating thingamabobs dropped instantly as her scientist coat fell to the ground in tatters.

When Luna entered a dry forest area, she was disturbed to see chaos already taking place. Rainbow Dash was in a heated battle against several changelings all at once. The queen was noticeably absent from the dream. That didn't seem to bother Dash as she kept smacking hoof and head against every single changeling that whizzed by. A couple of them grabbed her from behind, but a few zaps from Luna made quick work of them.

"I see the Tantabus has already been through your dream," commented Luna in worry, "turning it into a nightmare."

"What are you talking about?" Rainbow asked just before raising her hoof behind her and smacking a dream changeling unawares. "This is my favorite dream."

Though, Luna caught sight of the blue smoke as it touched random trees, hills, and even parts of the dream sky. She tried chasing after it as Dash kept punching some changelings in the mouth. Though, her 'favorite dream' quickly disappeared when she heard some of the most terrifying music in the world. Happy flowers started playing the flute off-key. Rainbow tried to cover her ears as she screamed.

At that point, Luna chased the Tantabus down a rabbit hole.

Fluttershy sighed happily. "It's so nice to be the pet for once."

She was enjoying a nice brushing from Angel, her giant owner. Luna flew far overhead, seeking for signs of the Tantabus. However, the smoke monster had decided to float low, lightly tapping the bunny on the tail. It was enough to spark an instantly threatening transformation. Wondering why she was suddenly feeling rain, Fluttershy turned around and looked up... at the roaring face of a very demonic rabbit.

"Nice... giant... evil... Angel..."

Fluttershy went all teary-eyed, trying to shrink away from the danger. Just as Angel was about to slash with a giant clawed paw, Luna swooped in and grabbed the little pony, lifting her to the relative safety of the tallest tree nearby.

"Oh, thank you, Princess Luna," said Fluttershy gratefully.

The Tantabus had conjured a door and was floating away. Luna gave chase again, leaving Fluttershy to wonder how she was going to deal with the dream bunny who was currently gnawing at the tree's trunk and making it sway too and fro.

~Let's get down to business

To defeat... Tirek

It will not be easy

Without our... magic~

Guard-Captain Twilight Sparkle marched around in full battle armor, with the salutes of several members of the Royal Guard. Their faded out eyes indicated that they had already been drained, but their salutes remained strong and loyal. A montage led to them all contributing to the construction of a bunch of defensive cannons and catapults.

~Strength alone will not bring down this foe

But we will not say, "C'est la vie"

We'll show him

Magic in

Harmony~

~Stay en guarde~

One catapult released a huge canister of water that rushed out and flipped the centaur off of his hooves.

~Stay en guarde~

Two cannons released conflicting air fronts, swirling the red centaur in a tornado.

~Stay en guarde~

The next rush of catapult launching held burning rocks that peppered against Tirek. Once Twilight figured he had enough, she reached out some really powerful magic, turned the moon around, and crushed the villain under the sphere's weight. Though, while Twilight's dream squad cheered in victory, the blue smoke monster was already at work.

It was infecting the very weapons she had spent such a large musical number to build. There were some weird mechanical noises as they transformed into golems of bronze and wood. They smacked a few of the guards away and roared like some cross between a bear and a bull. Twilight tried to blast them away with some bolts of magic, but that left her open for a direct assault by the growing Tantabus itself.

Luna landed down in front of her and used her imaginative power to trap the blue smoke under layers of ice. Twilight took off her helmet and smiled as she patted Luna on the back for a job well done. Luna only wished she could accept her praise. After all, there ought to have been a better way to make her friends than by turning into Nightma-

The Tantabus broke through the ice and spread in all directions.

All six of the mares woke up with a scream. Caught off guard, Spike yelped too. His outburst inadvertently shot out a flame that caught the edge of the parchment he had been scribbling on, sending it floating as a light lavender mist out the window. Though, that was quickly forgotten as he quickly ran over to Twilight's side.

"What happened?" He grabbed onto the bedside in anticipation. "Are you guys okay?"

Fluttershy shivered. "That was awful. I never want to have another dream like that again."

"But, Luna..." The dragon looked over with insistence in his eyes. "She stopped it, right?"

"I am so sorry."

Princess Luna floated down from her elevated position. Her dream strings long-since cut, all she could currently offer was a face of regret.

"I failed." She looked to the side, averting direct eye contact with anyone. "It will be back to infect your dreams the next time you sleep."

"Oh no..." whispered Fluttershy, squeezing her pillow.

"Yeah." Applejack fidgeted with her hat. "I reckon I could go the rest of my life without ever seeing that thing again."

"But you will," Luna reminded her, "again and again." She put a hoof against her chest. "I already caused you enough trouble as Nightmare Moon. To think another being with dark powers like her would ever reach a position where it could do even greater harm..."

Somehow, Pinkie had appeared back in her own bed. "Aw, it'll be okay. Everypony makes mistakes."

Luna took a breath and exhaled. "As long as you didn't dream about anypony else, the Tantabus remains confined to your dreams. I should still be able to find it before it's too late."

"Wait, anypony else?" Rarity asked carefully. "Like... that entire concert hall of ponies that I was dreaming about before the Diamond Dogs rushed the stage?"

"Or my students that turned into garbage?" added Applejack.

"Or those sirs on the Royal Guard?" piped in Twilight nervously.

"Wait... do hoards of changelings count?" Rainbow scratched the back of her neck in thought.

"Come to think of it, I dreamed that I was sharing a huge sundae with all of my Ponyville friends before we had to take this big math test that none of us studied for." Pinkie swung her pillow around to her front and smiled brightly. "See? Everypony makes mistakes."

Luna's eyes widened to the size of her biggest tea saucers. "Oh, Father of me..."

"But... that would mean it could be hiding in just about anypony's dream in the entire world." Twilight spread her hooves and wings to the side for emphasis.

Luna closed her eyes and shook her head. "It is far worse than that. With so many potentially infected dreams, it'll be collecting power at an exponential rate, bringing its real-world entrance even sooner!"

Rarity lifted her hoof and pointed. "Then you must let us help you stop it before that happens."

"But how?" wondered Fluttershy. "It was hard enough for Luna to keep up with it when there were only six dreams to navigate."

"Indeed," agreed Luna as she started pacing around. "With so many dreams to hide in, I don't know if I can catch it."

Twilight tapped her hoof just under her mouth. "What if... it was all just one big dream?"

Luna immediately stopped pacing. "I... can create shared dreams, yes. But for so many ponies at once? Do I even have enough power to do something on that scale?"

"It's worth a try, isn't it?" pleaded Fluttershy.

"At this point, I'll do anything to stop it," admitted Luna. "Alright, you may help me this time. You must go to sleep... and hope that I can create such a dream."

This time, Spike's snoring joined the cacophony of the room's sleeping occupants. Luna took a couple audible breaths before unleashing a swirl of dream threads, though in a large net form instead of loosely connected strands. This orb of white lights spread across the nighttime across the land. Eventually, it was impossible to separate the realm of reality from whatever was caught in the net.

Mayor Mare backed up away from a flock of flying muffins until she ran smack into a giant pony with a cat condition. A couple other ponies were rowing their canoe through the sky as another pony let go of her airhead. A squad of changelings looked suspiciously at a bunch of guard ponies before both groups stared in bewilderment at the lamp post tipping its metal top to all of them. A certain draconequus attempted to snap back into reality, only for his usual chaos-based magic to fizzle out.

"I don't like being in dreams," he grumbled while crossing his arms.

Some Diamond Dogs were weirded out by the fact that they were back-flipping through the air without any initial blast. A couple buffalo jumped out of the ballet once they realized what they were doing, and promptly pulled off their tutus. Two ponies looked at their hip and happily hugged each other upon noticing that they were joined.

"Princess Luna did it!" exclaimed Twilight excitedly.

Applejack looked around frantically for any shred of sanity in this place. "Big Mac! Am I glad to see at least somepony who's... normal?"

Big Mac magicked an apple from the edge of his horn over the hill. "Eeyup."

"Ponies!" a familiar Canterlot Tone echoed.

"Princess Luna!" several ponies trotted over to her magic sphere and bowed. The changelings, however, were a bit more hesitant to go anywhere near her.

"There is no time for bowing my friends," she informed them, "or for fearing me, members of the non-violence pact. Something dreadfully terrible is coming this- oh no... It is already here!"

Luna pointed a hoof in the direction over the rooftops. An extremely large cloud of blue smoke looked like it was flooding the sky. The ponies started screaming and running in circles, as per their daily quota. The changelings stood around, hissing at the sky.

"I'm sorry... that I couldn't... prevent this thing from latching onto all of you." Luna grunted while trying to keep her net skyward. "But... I will stop it now!"

Although Luna had performed a few magical feats before, her attempt to 'stop' the Tantabus right then and there only resulted in a few scattered shards of lightning. These only drew some aggravated growls from the blue smoke monster. Luna winced, as if she were the one who had just taken pain.

"Those ley lines..." murmured Twilight. "Luna, you have to hold the dream together! Don't strain yourself to take out the Tantabus, too!"

"Then... ugh... you'll have to... ngh... stop it! Please."

"Like you had to ask?" Rainbow smirked. "We're already on it."

The blue smoke reached down and touched a few spots on the ground. Some giant black dominoes with eyes for the dots limbered around. A couple of the nearby houses attempted to eat a few ponies. Rainbow Dash flew in to pull at least two out of trouble. Filthy Rich was trying to barter with his current captor, but to no effect. With just a thought, Flutterbat bit into the domino before safely pulling Rich out of harm's way.

A bit more of the Tantabus's influence made several dragons shrink to sizes smaller than a cat, and threatened to be squished by one. Dishes and spoons were chasing buffalo. Six triangles with eyeballs merged together into a super hexagon and shot lasers at fleeing yaks. Applejack quickly lassoed and hog-tied the hexagon into a neat stack of squares. Meanwhile, Fluttershy scooped up the cat and gently gave the mini-dragons some much needed pets.

"If that Tantabus turns any more of this dream against us," hollered Rainbow Dash, "we'll be too busy saving everypony to catch it!"

As if prompted by mention of name, the Tantabus growled in a weird mix of noises before turning part of itself into scissors and cutting a whole in the dream sky. It started flowing partly through the opening.

"Oh shoot..." muttered Applejack.

Twilight blasted a large part of the smoke monster. It squelched a little and retreated from its own opening. Seeing this, Luna spared a little magic to seal up the hole. Though, doing so made the entire sky blink like a light bulb that was on the verge of burning out.

"Hurry!" pleaded Luna.

Rainbow attempted to bash whatever qualified for the Tantabus's face in. But it simply flowed out of the way.

"What the...?"

"Please, we need your help too!" exclaimed Fluttershy.

"But, what help would we be?" wondered Mr. Cake. He pointed at Twilight and Dash. "None of us have your talent for magic, or your speed."

"That's true," admitted Dash, "... in Equestria."

"But this here ain't Equestria," pointed out Applejack with a grin. "It's a dream!"

"And more importantly, it's your dream." Twilight slowly waved her hoof to point at every pony, changeling, buffalo, donkey, dragon, and yak in the closest vicinity. "That means whatever you want to do, you can do it now!"

Thinking quickly, Spike imagined himself growing up in a burst of white light. He looked kind of like what he imagined Rarity's savior to be. "Hey, if you're gonna dream, you gotta dream big. Hyah!"

The dragon knight hopped atop the giant pony with a cat voice and she happily galloped. The morale of the dreamers heightened. They ran forth with new vigor in their hearts and their minds. One of the yaks dreamed that he was an expert axe-tosser and cut down the giant dominoes to size. A certain changeling imagined that he was an opera singer, hitting the resonant note necessary to make the monstrous house fall into neat stacks of lumber. Cranky Doodle Donkey dreamed his hair into a luscious whip and smacked the rogue dishes away.

Meanwhile, the Tantabus was trying to hacksaw another section of the dream barrier. But Filthy Rich came to the rescue, riding and shooting his wealth at the smoke monster. While it was distracted, Mistress Mare-velous psychically lassoed it back away from the hole. One of the dragons managed to dream himself frost breath and used that ice to seal up the hole in the dream sky.

Rarity imagined herself to be an extreme roller derby skater. She slammed the vicious spoons away and then wrapped them up in beautiful silk, transforming silverware into loyal Diamond Dog minions. They joined up with Fluttershy's army of beavers in shimmering armor in an onslaught against the smoke monster.

The entire dream scape flickered again. Luna strained and grunted, tears dripping from her eyes. No one pony was meant to exert this much power in a single night. She was going to lose control. If she couldn't hold the dream up, Equestria would be doomed. It'd be like with Nightmare Moon, only worse. A sudden pulse from the Tantabus shoved all the beavers and Diamond Dogs into dog piles.

"It's not working!" exclaimed Zzap, exhausting a bit more lightning from stray dream clouds.

"Then do more!" cried out Pinkamena, as she tossed Rocky, Madame Le Flour, and Mr. Turnip at the enemy. "This is a dream, remember?"

"To victory!" yelled Sir Lints-a-Lot as he gave his life valiantly.

Twilight took to the skies and shouted as subtitles hung below her words.

"Tachakure, watashi no bunshin!"

Stand up, my avatar!

A circle of light draped her in purplish light as a card underneath her switched from its defense position to its attack mode. She gained both coattails of doom and an epic cape as well as light and darkness scepters.

"Irujanari Majishan!"

Illusionary Magician!

A twist of her poles created a field of cold fusion to hinder the Tantabus's advances and yank it away from its escape path. Pipsqueak dreamed that he was his favorite princess. The Luna doppelganger went to work, magically sealing up a bunch of holes that the Tantabus had opened up.

"Asterisk Blade!" called out Scootaloo, shooting a bluish projectile from her hoof.

"No, it's called the Master Saber," corrected Diamond Tiara, releasing a green blast of similar build.

"I thought it was the Bop-Pitter Bip-Pitter," Sweetie Belle scratched the back of her neck while her horn shot a purple beam.

"It's the Megas Atomica." Silver Spoon added green to the multiple beam colors.

"Oh to hay with it." Apple Bloom shook her head. "Nail Gun!" Her hooves shot a bright spiral of yellow at the Tantabus.

Princess Cadance and Shining Armor held each other's hoof as they floated up and spun around. A few flashes of light adorned them with some rather garish outfits. Shining Armor summoned and bashed against the blue smoke with twin greatswords. Cadance followed up with a flurry of arrows that covered the beast with patches of crystals.

"How about this?" called out the pest pony.

He made his suction device ginormous, yet extremely light-weight. The resulting vortex sucked the entire blue smoke monster inside the tiny jar. However, Luna was a little distracted by her growing dread to notice. With another flicker of the dreamland, the Tantabus suddenly burst out of the makeshift spirit vacuum cleaner.

"It'll be Nightmare Moon's fantasy on a much larger scale!" wailed Luna. "It's all my fault!"

"Am I going crazy?" asked Spike. "Or... did that thing just get bigger when Princess Luna said that?"

The pony-cat nodded.

Twilight gasped. "Luna, I think it's feeding off your guilt!"

"Then," Luna sniffed, "if that's true... then what chance do we have? I can't just rid myself of this burden."

She grunted against the dream net, straining her conscious mind to maintain the connection. But the entire dream sky was flickering with more regularity. The Tantabus had become a giant monster in the shape of an alicorn and was tearing a huge hole just by pointing its "horn" up.

"But, why would you wait so long to talk about that?" wondered Fluttershy.

"Well, just look!" Luna held up her hoof. "It's practically escaped the dream realm already. Even with the entire world helping me, I still can't get rid of this monster that feeds on negativity. It was always my fault. It will always be my fault."

The Tantabus's advance was wavering, as if it were struggling to move against something. Briefly, it looked like some dark-hide, armored pony from the other side was going to fall in, but a couple of the real-world Night Guards managed to pull her back out. Then, a few moments later, a huge burst of golden light stopped the smoke beast in its tracks, toppling it onto its "back".

"The dream world may not be my dominion, but I still have all of my power in Equestria!"

The princesses currently in the dream world gasped simultaneously. "Celestia?"

Indeed, Equestria's older ruler stood right at the edge of the gaping hole, peering inside the constructed dream plane. She reeled her tone back just enough to sound gentle in spite of calling out over a distance.

"When I received Spike's message, I came to Ponyville as fast as I could. Luna, I heard enough when the opening showed up."

"Then, you know..." Luna lowered her head. "I'm sorry, sister."

"No, sister, I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Luna looked up again, despite her tears.

"I'm sorry that I didn't recognize your feelings all of those years ago. If I had taken more time to speak with you, if I had just found some way to send proper recognition for your share of the work to your name... maybe... the Nightmare wouldn't have needed to begin in the first place."

"Celestia, I was impulsive! It would've wrecked lives just to force them to wake up during the night, and eventually frozen them all to death."

"Well then, can I just tell you how sorry I am for misusing the Elements against you? If trying to ignite harmony without a true friend standing beside me isn't impulsive, then I don't know what is."

"But you were right to be mad at me!" retorted Luna. "I had just tried to end you and you mercifully used imprisonment instead of sentencing me to execution for my treason."

"That's just it Luna. I wasn't mad at you. I was... mad at myself... for failing you. I'm supposed to be the big sister, the one who looks after you. But what did I do? I shut my eyes and ears and ignored the problem at its very core... for far too long."

"Uh, guys?" Zzap pointed with her lightning hoof. "That thing's getting up again! Could we maybe pick up the pace?"

The Tantabus was shuffling, as if getting onto its "hooves".

"I've already forgiven you, Luna. Can you bring yourself to forgive me?"

Luna looked up and chuckled in spite of her crying. "I've already forgiven you too, Celestia... a long time ago."

Twilight flew in between them. "Forgiving someone else is hard. But forgiving yourself can be even harder." She looked back and forth. "Can you both do that?"

The sun and the moon took a deep breath as one. "I'll work on it."

The blue smoke monster let out a screaming growl as it lost its pony form and its volume. It didn't dissipate completely, but it seemed less... feral than before. It floated in Luna's face, growling.

"Get behind me, you devil," muttered Luna.

The Tantabus made a weird spitting sound before complying and floating behind her. The opening between dreamland and Equestria began to close of its own accord. Celestia could be seen closing her eyes and smiling just before vanishing from dreamers' sights entirely. Luna looked around just as she stopped pouring her magical reserves to maintain the dream.

"Thank you... all of you..." she muttered happily just as the dream completely flickered off.

The rooster crowed at the morning sun. All six ponies and one dragon in the room woke up in various states of drowsiness and awake.

"They did it!" Twilight exclaimed.

"They sure did," agreed Applejack, "only... I'm not exactly sure what they did."

"The Tantabus was feeding on the guilt that was building inside of Luna for the emotional pain she caused herself and Celestia as Nightmare Moon. But Celestia was also feeling guilt about that whole mess. So, when they admitted that they forgave each other, that was the first step to forgiving themselves."

"But... the Tantabus was still there in the end," noted Spike.

"Exactly," affirmed Twilight. "This isn't just something they're going to get over in one night. It's going to take time, but now they know for sure that they have each other's support. Forgiving themselves should be within the realm of what can be accomplished later!"

"Shh."

Everyone in the room looked at the center as one sister gently cradled the younger, sleeping one.

Epilogue

A clock on the wall ticked at every half-second. Luna tried to cover a yawn with her wing, but it was still pretty obvious that she was exhausted.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" asked Celestia. "It might be more effective if we go in one at a time. You could wait and rest a little before-"

Luna held up a hoof and shook her head. "I've been putting this off for too many years. Going together this first time... is something we need."

Celestia smiled gently and nodded. At that moment, the door cracked open, squealing and in need of oil. Celestia kept her pace slowed down, allowing Luna to lean on her in her tired state. They were directed to a large red sofa with golden highlights. The rest of the room was filled with paraphernalia that looked like an amalgamation of everything but the kitchen sink. The professional sat close and adjusted his glasses with a fur-covered limb.

"So, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna... tell me what's on your mind."

Author's Note

I like Luna just fine, but I was always hesitant to write specifically about her because it seems like everyone and their mother has already done that. However, I think I've finally found the angle I can take to write about "the princess whom I respect".

Bonus points to anyone who gets the concept reference in the chapter title.