Sixteen books later, Twilight had found the beginnings of an answer.

She paced in the central library of her castle, a massive room stuffed with books stacked on books. But what made this particular library special was it included every book that had once been housed in the Castle of the Two Sisters. These had proven to be invaluable. On the large central table sat her research. In the corner hearth sat a roaring fire. There wasn’t a lot else but books and a few bits of furniture. She’d moved various cushions and couches out of the way so she could properly pace around the table without tripping—again.

Finally, she triggered her newest invention—something that she’d reverse-engineered from a gift from Sunset Shimmer—the Audio Transcription Device. A silvery rectangular box with a couple switches, it translated her words through a spell that wrote them out in a special book. That way, she could review her notes later at her leisure!

“Okay,” Twilight said to the room as a whole—but mostly to the ATD clutched in her hand. “Luna used the Tantabus exclusively for self-recrimination. However, the Tantabus was actually first designed for something else!”

Twilight stabbed her finger down on the central nexus of her research. It was none other than a book penned by Princess Luna herself before she had fallen to Nightmare Moon. A book Twilight wished she’d found years ago!

A fascinating read. And, best of all, it included the base spell used to create the Tantabus!

“The original spell used to conjure the Tantabus was based on the buffalo’s concepts of a spirit guide,” Twilight continued as she flipped through pages. “In the early days of Equestria, Princess Luna found out that the buffalo had access to a different kind of dreamscape that could be used to easily access inner parts of the psyche! She and a team of unicorns went to one of the buffalo tribes—though which one is on a damaged page, damn—and traded for this knowledge!”

Twilight drummed her fingers on the table. “There is some debate here if the buffalo’s spirit guide was a manifestation of their psyche or an actual entity—or series of entities—living within their own dreamscape, but the pony version was a manifestation of their psyche. After all, nothing lives in our dreamscape…”

Not for the first time, she thought she should probably be asking Luna about this, but it had already been so mortifying to come clean to both Spike and Berry Punch. She couldn’t do that with Luna. She admired her too much. Luna was sure to think her some sort of sick and twisted deviant. No, she could never speak to Luna about this. Twilight knew enough about the dreamscape to create a localized pocket around herself—Luna’s texts had been very helpful in that regard—so she could have some privacy.

“If my hypothesis is correct,” Twilight said to the ADT, “Luna’s Tantabus was tied directly to her guilt regarding her actions as Nightmare Moon. As such, it manifested itself as an embodiment of what Nightmare Moon represented, first creating nightmares for Luna, then all it encountered. It was—for lack of a better term—programmed for that function due to its link with Luna’s psyche. I believe if I can link a new version, untainted by the old version, to my… repressed desires, it could very well give me the relief I need to finally put these dreams and fantasies to rest.”

Twilight thumbed the switch to the ADT, then stepped over to her notebook. She flipped through the pages of her words, forcing herself to read them again and be sure about this. But in the end, the magical theory was sound. It was dealing with the psyche, which was always unpredictable, but considering she had a very strong sense of what she wanted, she should avoid any problems. The only other variable were comments regarding the original spell, which had often manifested spirit guides in non-pony forms, often wild and untamed forms from distant lands or from mythology. Some of the examples had been right out of the classic research tome, the Mythica. But she doubted that would come into play. She would simply see her Tantabus.

Looking at this… it made her tingle all over. She’d attempted to play with herself several times after the incident, but none of those sessions had been satisfying. She ran a hand over her small chest and narrow curves and idly wondered if she could tweak the dreamscape version of herself to actually have an appealing shape. Even something… maybe… um… sexy.

She shivered as the voices of her finishing school came back to her, informing her that she was not permitted such base thoughts. She tried to shove those voices away.

Twilight stared at the book and then eyed the spirit guide spell, the origin of the Tantabus. Was she really about to conjure something that had nearly turned all of Equestria into a living nightmare just to sate her own repressed desires? Granted, she wasn’t doing this out of guilt or remorse. And it wouldn’t be like she would be using it for long. If she did it right, the spell would serve as a conduit for dreams she sorely needed, dreams that she could never live out in real life.

Her little secret path to finally getting free from all that nobility training. Her path to finally breaking free from that repression—if only in her dreams.

The very idea made her ache all over—especially between her legs.

Twilight levitated all the books back save for her notes and Luna’s book on spirit guides. Then, with a flash, she teleported her own bed down into the central library. She wanted to do this in a comfortable space, and she had always felt most comfortable around books. And she might need to reference something—especially if she ended up with a Tantabus with an unexpected spirit guide form.

She swallowed hard, then locked the three entrances to the library. If Spike came home early, the last thing she wanted was to have an awkward moment in here. Then, she lowered the lights, leaving only the barest of flickers to see by. After all, she did have her horn, still.

She brought a nightstand down and placed both books on it, then reviewed the spell again. It was surprisingly simple. A magic circle with some odd triangular patterns cast above the bed of the sleeper, then several words spoken aloud. She would instantly fall asleep and in short order, she would enter her little dreamscape with her new nighttime companion.

This was going to be so much better than alcohol.

Twilight blushed, then started to strip. Since that stupid dream, she’d taken to sleeping in the nude, as she found it utterly impossible to sleep with even a stitch of clothing on. She hadn’t figured out why that was yet. Perhaps this would offer some insight. Still, undressing in what was normally a semi-public space seemed… extremely improper.

She just barely managed to do it anyway, placing all of her clothes on a cushion at the foot of the bed. Then she quickly slipped into bed. Twilight let out a long sigh and ran over her mental checklist.

First, summoned the boundaries to create a localized dreamscape that would prevent anything from getting out. A relatively simple spell. She wished Luna could have cast it before the Tantabus incident, but since she was inexorably connected to the entirety of all sleeping ponies, it probably wouldn’t have worked for her anyway.

Second, fluff pillow for optimal comfort and adjust blankets as needed.

Third, turn off all the lights but one.

Fourth, conjure the mystical circle that would bring forth her own personal friendly Tantabus. The circle hovered over her head and she lay there just watching it for a time.

Fifth, mentally create a link between the spell and its desired effect. In this case, it was to allow her to express her repressed desires.

Sixth, say the words. The words were in no language she really understood, likely a hybrid of proto-Equestrian and the buffalo tongues from over a thousand years ago. But that point soon became irrelevant, as the moment she finished saying them, Twilight’s eyes slid closed.

Author's Note

Seems perfectly innocent, right~? Nothing could possibly go wrong~!

<3