🌙The Plan That Backfired🌙
The Tantabus...
"It's working!" Rainbow Dash stated.
It's so close to coming to the real world...
"But it's not enough!" Twilight replied.
And when it comes to the real world... it'll be all because of m-
Before Luna could finish her thoughts, she almost gave out for a second. Which she knew, she couldn't do that. One mess up, and it'll be crucial to the outcome of this situation. She felt bad that she pulled everypony in Ponyville to clean up the mess that she made. Of her whole time living in Equestria, she's never hoped more for one thing to turn out the way she wants it to turn out. All she had to do at this point was to make sure she can hold the dream realm up and that the Tantabus would get defeated. But Luna's strength was depleting. Doubts, unsureness, and pressure were starting to take a toll on her.
"I cannot hold this dream together much longer! Equestria will fall because of me!" Luna said with eyes flooded with tears, ready to fall out any moment.
To make things worst, the Tantabus grew larger.
"Am I crazy, or did it just get even bigger after Luna said that?" Spike asked to no one in particular.
"I think it's feeding off your guilt, Princess Luna!" Twilight spoke.
"If that is so, then perhaps that is how it grew strong enough to escape in the first place!" Luna realized.
It all started to click for the Alicorn. The nightmare she gave herself every night, the reason why the Tantabus got stronger and bigger gradually. The reason why her dreams were just not enough anymore. It was all starting to make sense and it only made Luna feel worst.
"Say what now?" Spike questioned from afar.
Luna also started to realize that after all this time, nopony knew about the Tantabus beside the fact that it gave nightmares to other ponies. She knew that the Mane 6 would need to have an explanation of it at some point.
"I created the Tantabus to give myself the same nightmare every night," Luna strained, "to punish myself for the evil I caused as Nightmare Moon!"
"But why would you do that?" Fluttershy shouted from the distance.
"To make sure I never forgave myself for how much Equestria suffered because of me! But it seems I have not learned my lesson, for now, I have only made you suffer more!" She tearfully confessed.
Everypony soon witnessed the Tantabus growing to its full size, getting ready to walk out of the dream realm to cause havoc to the real world. Twilight looked at the Tantabus for a minute and soon looked back at Luna.
"But that means you might just b- wah!" Twilight screamed. She jumped high up from the ground while it shook.
As soon as Twilight crashed back to her hooves, Luna couldn't help but notice how quiet the setting just became. There was no more wind, no more sounds of ponies fighting together, not even the roars from the Tantabus. Her eyes then drew away from the other Alicorn and focused on the portal where the creature was once standing.
Luna's eyes then started to widen from sheer terror as the other ponies just stared at the portal, silently with shock and surprise.
"It... left." Fluttershy muttered quietly.
No. Luna thought.
"Just like that... it's gone!" Rainbow Dash whispered.
No, no, no, no, no! Luna screamed in her mind. She wanted to scream- cry! But her body just wouldn't let her do that. Even then, she knew she couldn't do any of those in front of her subjects anyway. As it would only make the situation worst. Her vision started to blur from the stress within her.
What would happen if Celie found out? She panicked. What if the Tantabus finds her?
Luna felt scared. In fact, she can't recall being this scared in her whole life! The thoughts of her sister finding this event out made her feel sick to her stomach. As if it was a daughter catching her own mother reading their diary. What made her more worried though was the reaction Celestia would have once she finds out about this whole debacle. The unknown knowledge of how intelligent this creature was is scary. She doesn't know whether her own creature was smarter than she thought already!
"It's gone!" Twilight shrieked, causing everyone to snap out of their own realizations at the same time. Including Luna, that startlement caught her off- guard enough to make her lose focus on her spell and disconnect the shared dream.
💙
Luna's eyes snapped open. She was back into the real world. Inside Twilight's room in her castle, specifically. She flew down a little, learning that the Mane 6 was still sleeping.
"Celestia!" Luna yelped. "I have to warn her before it's too late!"
She landed on the floor and used the remaining amount of strength she had to hopefully teleport at least in front of the Canterlot castle.
I'll see you again as soon as possible, Twilight Sparkle. Luna thought shamefully. She felt rude that she was just leaving the ponies who have been helping her out of the blue. But she knew this was the right thing to keep her sister out of danger.
💙
"Ugh," Twilight mumbled to herself, rubbing her eyes, "wait." She jumped out of bed, causing the others to wake up.
"The Tantabus!" Spike jolted up in his bed.
"Luna, where is she?" Twilight looked around.
💙
To Be Continued...
Author's Note
Well... looks like Chapter 1 is done to this fanfic :3! It's crazy to know that this fanfic has been existing in my head for years and now, I'm finally writing it officially on the internet :o. I hope you guys enjoyed and see you in the next chapter of this pretty much action-packed adventure! :)
"Luna, where is she?" Twilight looked around.
"She's not up in the ceiling!" Rainbow Dash confirmed. This made Twilight hop out of her bed.
"Maybe she's stuck in the dream realm," Fluttershy said. Twilight shook her head though.
"No," she rubbed her eye, "there's no way since she was struggling to keep that realm up."
"How could she just not be in this room? Did she teleport out or something?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Hold on, Rainbow! You might be right." Twilight thought.
"Huh?" Apple Jack said.
"Luna probably teleported out to chase the Tantabus..." Twilight's eyes widened. "Oh my gosh, she's going to our help!"
"How are we going to help? We don't even know where she is." Rarity said.
"HMMMMmmmm." Pinkie Pie rubbed her chin.
"Well, maybe she's outside within Ponyville since that's where most of this problem is right now." Apple Jack replied.
"ORRrrrr she could've teleported back to Canterlot to inform the guards and her sister."
"Do you think... Celestia knows about this?" Fluttershy asked.
"I... I don't know." Spike said.
"Guys," Twilight interceded, "we need to get back on task and be ready to fight the Tantabus! We have to find Luna. Spike, you stay here and look around the castle in case Luna comes back here or something."
"Roger that!" Spike ran out of the room.
"Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, you'll come fly with me to Canterlot. The rest of you, stay in Ponyville and try to look for Luna in case she's still here."
Everyone nodded and began to do their tasks.
💙
Poof!
Luna teleported in the sky and quickly flew to the nearest entrance inside the castle so she can run to her sister and guide her to safety.
"Celestia!" Luna slammed the door open. Celestia dropped her fork on her pancake.
"Good morning, Luna. You're awfully late this morning."
"Celestia, we have no time to talk. Just follow me and I'll bring you somewhere safely!"
Celestia blinked. "What?"
"Just go!" Luna pleaded.
"Luna," Celestia got up suspiciously, "what's going on?"
"I," she looked down trying to figure out the correct words to say, "listen, I can't really tell you right now but it's um... not so bad...?"
"Well if it's not so bad, why are you reacting like thi-"
Pow.
Out of the blue, some dark purple object devours through the wall and was about to throw fists with Celestia until last minute, a light purple power beam saved her.
"Twilight?" Celestia muttered softly.
Both of the sisters turned their heads to the direction where the power beam came from.
"Luna, there you are! Celestia too!"
"I- where are the others?" Luna asked.
"Rarity, Pinkie, Spike and Apple Jack are back in Ponyville. Fluttershy, Rainbow and I flew down here trying to look for you!"
"I don't know how, but the Tantabus is here!" Rainbow shouted to Twilight from outside.
The Tantabus? Celestia wondered. What's that?
"Thanks, Twilight. Um, what are we going to do? How do we stop this thing?" Celestia asked.
"Not sure," Twilight replied, "but Luna, you know this thing the best, so I'm sure-"
"Um, guys, we have a problem." Fluttershy flew into the conversation.
"What's wrong?" Luna asked.
What could be worst happening right now? Luna feared.
"Well," Fluttershy looked worriedly at the crack leading to outside then back to the alicorns, "I don't know how but the Tantabus literally... literally ate Rainbow Dash and some other ponies."
"What?" Celestia shrieked.
"We have to save them," Luna spoke as she started to fly off outside. Everypony began to follow her.
"I don't know how to stop this thing, but we'll just need to give it our all." She exhaled. Everypony nodded though.
Next thing everypony knows, lasers and manmade winds from pegasi were coming from everywhere basically wrapping around the Tantabus.
As Luna was doing a little bit of both, Celestia flew next to her.
"Luna, I know now is not the best time but we need to discuss something."
She gulped. "What's there... to discuss?"
"Luna, there's a monster outside possibly murdering innocent ponies and I feel like I'm the only one who doesn't know what's up!"
"Hold on," Twilight said from above, "Celestia doesn't know what's going on? Like at all?"
"No, I actually do not and it's beginning to frustrate me. Maybe I do know this thing but need a refresher and I might be able to know how to demolish this thing within a few minutes."
"Oh trust me, you don't." Luna chuckled.
"Ok, there's no need to snap."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to I've just been so stressed lately." She quickly apologized.
"Luna, what is this thing?" Celestia asked once again but more sternly.
"It's- well. Um..." Luna was having trouble finding the correct words to tell her sister. Heck, she didn't even want her sister to find out in the first place.
Twilight scoffed and rolled her eyes.
"This thing we're fighting is called the Tantabus. It gives ponies nightmares and was specifically something Luna created to give herself nightmares."
Yep, never heard of that then. Celestia confirmed in her mind.
"Ahh!" Fluttershy yelped as the Tantabus grabbed her.
"Fluttershy!" Twilight hollered.
"Help!" She strained, trying to get lose from the Tantabus' grip. The three princesses began to fly towards Fluttershy's direction but another faint yelp from another direction caught Luna's attention. She quickly flew down to the ground to check out what happened.
Low and behold, what she found lying on the ground, was a pegasi. Her eyes widened and she quickly flew down next to him.
Please be alive. She pleaded.
Luna studied him. The stallion was bleeding a lot but he was still heavily bleeding and assumingly unconscious.
He needs help.
"A princess." He whispered. Luna looked at his face and saw his eyes cracking open.
"Yeah, a princess," Luna soothed.
"I-I've always wanted to meet a princess."
"Well, you're wish came true." She replied softly, putting her hoof on his cheek. He chuckled.
"Today sucked. I was just flying and boom: My worst nightmare is about to come true- death. Funny, huh? I remember when I was a kid I made a bucket list but..." he paused to cough and squinted his eyes. This made Luna flinch.
Please to Celestia, don't die.
"But I never really checked everything off entirely. I was so, so close."
"I..." Luna struggled to speak since she felt pressure in her throat.
"I guess this is where it ends now, princess. At least one of my dreams came true. Words will never describe how content I am to meet an Alicorn... I'll- I'll never... forget it..."
"No, no, no! Please live. Please continue to breathe as you were doing a few seconds ago-"
"Luna, we need you!" Celestia called.
"I'm coming!" She looked at him one more time for a second until he stopped breathing and flew up teary-eyed.
I need to be strong. No tears. I got to save my subjects. Luna thought and then gasped as she realized Celestia was in the grips with the Tantabus.
"Hey! Let her go!" Luna fired some shots at the Tantabus but it was no use since each beam just went through its skin as if it was a ghost. It didn't take long before Luna got caught by the Tantabus too.
Luna looked down.
Am I crazy, or did this thing grow taller than it already was within a short amount of time it's in the real world?
The two sisters then got swallowed by the beast.
Author's Note
It's been literally almost a year but here's the second chapter!
I apologize this is so late. This year, there was just a lot going on. But I'll try to post Chapter 3 hopefully before 2020!
