Shooting Star's Dream

Shooting Star found herself in the middle of a peaceful, starlit meadow. The night sky above was filled with countless twinkling stars, and the air was cool and refreshing. She smiled, feeling a sense of calm and serenity. The stars seemed to dance and form constellations right before her eyes.

But soon, the peaceful atmosphere was shattered. A shadow passed over the meadow, and the stars began to dim. Shooting Star's heart pounded as she looked around, searching for the source of the disturbance. She saw the blue smoke of the Tantabus materializing, spreading darkness and fear throughout the meadow.

The stars in the sky began to fall, crashing to the ground and causing the meadow to erupt in flames. The once serene landscape was now a scene of chaos and destruction. Shooting Star tried to run, but the ground beneath her hooves cracked and crumbled, trapping her in place.

Then Luna came into the dream through a crashing star and declared, "The Tantabus is here."

The Tantabus then wove through the flames, creating monsters of fire that looked a lot like the ones she saw in Appleoosa. They were all coming towards them with wicked snarls on their faces.

"Who would even create these awful monsters?" Shooting Star asked.

"The Tantabus." Luna replied.

"Then, we must destroy it at all costs." But before Shooting Star could attack, Luna held out a wing to stop her.

"No, please." she said while flying in front of her. "I don't want you to suffer anymore because of me. So I will catch it."

Meanwhile, the Tantabus began creating monsters that were even more terrifying. Luna summoned her magic, fighting off the creatures and pushing them back with powerful blasts of energy. Shooting Star watched in awe as Luna's strength and determination shone through, but she could see the strain in Luna's eyes.

"Please princess." Shooting Star said. "Let me help."

Before anypony could do anything, the Tantabus flew out of sight and into a hole in the ground, blocking it off with dirt.

"It has jumped into another dream. I'm sorry but if I am to stop it then I must follow it where you cannot." Luna told her.

"I wish I could've helped more, but you have to go and stop it." With that, Luna blasted a hole in the ground and went into it to pursue the Tantabus.

Shooting Star turned around and saw the monsters stalking towards her. "I just hope it's fast." she said in a scared tone. But then she heard a laugh from behind her and saw the black smoke monster behind her and it laughed evilly, scaring her even more.

After leaving Shooting Star's dream, she went into Rarity's dream, where the Tantabus was turning the flying dresses into pony eating monsters. When Luna showed up, she saw the Tantabus turning dresses into monsters and destroying the flying dresses. When Rarity said she could help, Luna stopped her saying she could do it herself. She fought the dress monsters, but saw the Tantabus escape through a window after bricking it off. After destroying the bricks, Luna pursued it.

She next went into Pinkie Pie's dream where she was jumping from one destination to another. Luna found herself in Cloudsdale. She said all she had to do is find it, but pinkie kept on jumping from destination to destination. Until she found herself in Sugarcube corner. That was where the Tantabus was, and it turned the cake into a cake monster that spit frosting all over Pinkie. Then another cake jumped forward and revealed it to be Luna. She created a shield that then turned into a shockwave to destroy the cake monsters, but the Tantabus escaped again into a cake box. Luna tried to pursue it, but Pinkie place jumped again, landing them in the Crystal Empire. Luna created a portal and continued pursuing.

After Pinkie pie's dream, Luna went over to Fluttershy's dream where she was being taken care of by a giant version of her bunny, Angel. The Tantabus came into the dream and corrupted the giant Angel and turned it into the giant Demon. Fluttershy was scared out of her mind. The Giant Demon was going to claw at Fluttershy, but Luna swooped in to save the day. After Fluttershy thanked her, Luna saw the Tantabus escape again into a birdhouse, so Luna created a door and flew into it at fast speeds, continuing the pursuit.

Solaris' dream

Solaris found himself in a barren, frozen wasteland, the sky a dark, swirling mass of storm clouds. The ground beneath his feet was cracked and dry, devoid of any life. He looked around, feeling a chill run down his spine as he recognized the desolation around him. This place mirrored his past, a reminder of the chaos he had once caused.

Suddenly, the ground began to shake, and the air grew colder. Solaris turned to see the Tantabus materializing before him, its blue smoke swirling menacingly. It touched the clouds above him and everything turned dark. The snow began to fall relatively quickly and Solaris could see lightning and hear thunder all around him.

Although it was hard to see, Solaris could still use his eyes as a flashlight. So he lit them up so that there was a big glowing fire in his pupils and then he could see just fine. However, what he saw made his scales go pale. What he saw was black smoke turning into icky gooey mounds and giving an evil laugh that sent chills down his spine. He tried to teleport away but the mound caught up to him and started sucking his life force away.

Just when he was about to go unconsious however, he could feel the mound he was trapped into being blasted away. He looked up and saw Luna fighting off some mounds. He decided to help her and summoned some swords that were shot into the mounds and made them dissipate.

He ran over to Luna, checking to see if she was ok. "Are you ok Luna? And thanks for freeing me from that mound."

"It was no problem. But I must pursue the Tantabus now." Luna said as she saw the Tantabus enter a cloud to escape.

"I know you said no help, but you are clearly struggling." Solaris said to her. "Please, let me help."

"I can't let you help. Only I can defeat the Tantabus." Luna said sadly.

"Please." Solaris pleaded, but it went onto deaf ears as Luna followed the Tantabus through the cloud. Solaris sighed and continued summoning more swords to shoot at the icky gooey mounds.

Luna followed the Tantabus into AppleJack's dream where she was polishing a giant apple. The Tantabus touched apple trees and shriveled them to the point of being diseased. Luna appeared in an apple blossom and saw the Tantabus heading into the giant apple Applejack was polishing. It created a hole into the apple to escape, while also making it diseased.

Luna followed suit and then saw Rainbow dash fighting off changelings. Luna helped and thought that the Tantabus already turned her dream into a nightmare. Rainbow reassured her that this was her usual dream and she was loving it. Then the Tantabus touched a branch and turned it into a field of singing flowers. They continued singing and when one of the singing flowers began blowing into the flute, Rainbow screamed at the top of her lungs.

Luna followed the Tantabus into a cloud and landed in a giant library, where books were flying so Twilight could read them. In one of the books however, flew out the Tantabus. It touched books and turned them into baks. They started attacking her and she flew away. When she was flying, she flew into the Tantabus, but when they were about to collide, Luna flew in and started shooting lasers at it. She tried to turn it into crystals, but it flew into a bookshelf. Luna tried to pursue it, but she just crashed into the bookshelf. Luna tried to open a dream door, but the black smoke monster stopped her.

"Well, we meet again Luna. Enjoy your flight." The black smoke said, before it created an explosion that engulfed both Luna and Twilight."

All 9 creatures woke up simultaneously, all with a scared 'ugh'.

"That was terrible. I never want to have that nightmare again." Fluttershy said.

"Me neither." Rainbow Dash added, while rocking back and forth.

Spike just buried his face into his pillow and asked, "Luna, why didn't you stop it?" so silently that no one could hear him.

"I'm sorry, but the Tantabus is somehow growing stronger and it made me fail, and the presence of the black smoke monster made it even more difficult. The Tantabus will be back to infect your dreams the next time we sleep."

"Oh no." Fluttershy said.

Applejack added on with, "I reckon I could do without having to see that thing ever again."

"But you will." Luna said. "Again and again, until it's strong enough to corrupt the waking world." She then walked towards the window. "After what I did as Nightmare Moon, the fact that I am once again responsible for harming others is more than I can bear."

Pinkie, being as enthusiastic as ever said, "It'll be ok. Everypony makes mistakes."

Luna nodded before saying, "As long as you didn't dream of anyone else, the tantabus will only confide to your dreams. I still have a chance to stop it."

"That's good to hear." Pinkie said. "Although after you left, I dreamed of me eating a giant ice cream cone with all of Ponyville taking a test we haven't studied for. See, what did I tell you? Everypony makes mistakes."

That made every creature horrified and showed looks of horror on their faces.

"Then that must mean the Tantabus is turning every dream in Ponyville into a nightmare." Twilight said.

"It's far worse than that. More dreams gives it more strength and soon it will be able to escape into the real world." Luna said in alarm.

"PINKIE, WHAT THE FUCK?!?!" Everyone turned to look at Solaris who was fuming.

"Solaris, where did you learn that language?" Twilight asked Solaris accusingly.

"That's not the point, Twilight. The point is that because of Pinkie, the Tantabus is turning every dream into a nightmare. Luna, I said this once, and I will say it again. Let, us, help." Solaris said

"I agree with Solaris princess, please let us help." Rarity said.

"But how?" Shooting Star asked. "The Tantabus could escape Princess Luna with just the 9 of our dreams."

Twilight thought for a second and asked, "What is everypony in Ponyville had one dream?"

"I can share dreams, yes. But for everypony in Ponyville? I don't know if I can do such a feat." Luna said sadly.

"Well it is worth a try, isn't it." Fluttershy asked.

"It is worth a try, and I will accept your help, but now you must go back to sleep and hope that I can create a dream big enough for this." Luna ordered.

So everyone went back to sleep, and Luna's horn glowed once again, connecting every dream in Ponyville into one.

The dream realm

All of Ponyville found themselves in a much different Ponyville. Muffins were flying around and everypony looked at each other with confusion. Mayor Mare walked backwards into a giant Derpy that made cat noises. Lyra and Bon bon were in the same body and berry punch held a balloon that held her own head.

"PONIES!!" Everypony heard someone say. They turned and saw princess Luna

"Princess Luna?" everypony asked before bowing.

"There is no time for bowing, my friends." Luna shouted. "There is something coming, something terrible. Wait, no. IT'S ALREADY HERE!"

Everypony looked to where she was pointing her hoof at and what that saw was horrifying. The Tantabus had grown larger than most of the building and almost covered the entire sky. Everyone ran away, scared.

"I'm sorry ponies, I brought this upon you, but I will end it now." Luna shot a laser at it, but it didn't work. Everypony ran away, while Twilight, Rainbow, Pinkie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, Spike, Shooting Star and Solaris ran to Luna.

"Luna, are you ok?" Spike asked.

Luna panted. "It- Its taking all of my strength just to hold this dream together. You will have to stop it on your own. I truly wish I didn't have to ask of this of you."

Twilight then gave a look of determination. "Well you're in luck."

"Yeah, we're already on it." Rainbow said proudly as everyone ran to attack it. However, a wall of black smoke stopped Spike, Shooting Star and Solaris in their tracks.

"Welcome back to Equestria Solaris, how was the past 835 years?" The smoke asked

Solaris grew pale again. "No... No... You're King Naeus."

"You are quite observant Solaris. Although I'm just black smoke created by the mighty king." The smoke said, before engulfing the trio in the smoky confides.

Meanwhile, the Tantabus turned a house into a giant monster. It got up and started walking away. The Tantabus then turned another house into a monster which pulled a pony known as Filthy Rich out of the interior and held him in it's claws.

He was pleading with the monster to not kill him, he even pulled out a bit and showed it to the monster. Unfortunately, the monster just roared and was about to eat him, when Rainbow Dash swooped in and delivered a swift kick to the monster's face, making him drop Filthy Rich. Rainbow Dash saw this and swooped in and caught him just in time.

The other house was walking around was was about to eat another pony before Twilight shot a beam at it and made the pony fall out of it's mouth. He would have hit the ground if it weren't for Applejack coming in clutch and catching him just before he hit the ground.

"Help, Somepony help." Fluttershy heard the pony's plea and went to the sound. In between the monster's toes, the Doctor was stuck. Fluttershy then turned into her flutterbat form and bit the toes to free him. The Doctor then ran to Fluttershy who turned back to her original form.

"Fluttershy, where's Shooting Star?" he asked.

"I-I don't know. I just heard you calling for help and I just acted on instinct."

"Oh no." The Doctor said as he ran off. "DERPY, DERPY WHERE ARE YOU?"

After the smoke engulfed the trio, it started creating wild beasts around them that looked like sheep but with scary faces.

"What are these things?" Spike asked.

"I'll give you a hint Spike." The smoke said. "Kings can create nightmarish sheep."

"They're the beasts you fought before Hearths Warming. King Naeus can create them too. We need to fight them with all we got." Solaris informed.

The three friends stood back to back, facing the oncoming horde of nightmarish sheep. Spike took a deep breath and released a torrent of green fire, incinerating several of the creatures. Shooting Star flew up into the air and started attacking them by swooping down and knocking them out. Solaris wielded his fiery energy with precision, slashing through the creatures with blazing swords of light.

"We can't let them overwhelm us!" he shouted, his voice full of determination. "Stay focused and keep fighting!"

So Spike and Shooting Star did just that. When the sheep were in range, Spike blew torrential fire at them, while Shooting Star punched them over and over with her hooves while they were still dazed.

Solaris decided to try and break the wall of smoke. He summoned swords and started slashing at the wall, but it just filled in with more smoke. Solaris kept on slashing though, until the smoke had enough and caught him in it's grasp.

"This smoke can also pick up other creatures Solaris. And I can also see that my beasts are useless. Come back to me, my little beasts." The beasts then turned back into black smoke while going back into the confides of the wall.

To the trio's surprise, the wall lifted up from them. when they could see the dream again, they saw all the ponies of Ponyville fighting off the Tantabus with their dream powers, Filthy rich with his bit carpet, scootaloo with her giant wings, Rainbow dash with her superhero persona and Fluttershy leading a giant Demon to attack.

Before they could help them though, the black smoke grabbed Shooting Star. Spike and Solaris looked on in horror as it grabbed her.

"Another thing I can do, is a little thing called "Possession." and with that, the smoke forced its way into Shooting Star's body. Once all of it was in her body, she slowly, but surely began to gain some kind of smoke armor that made her grow in size.

Solaris and Spike watched in horror as Shooting Star was overtaken by the black smoke, transforming into a towering, menacing figure clad in dark, smoke-like armor. Her eyes glowed with an eerie light, and her movements were no longer her own.

"Shooting Star!" Solaris shouted, his voice cracking with desperation. "Fight it! You have to fight it!"

But it was no use. And she flew at Solaris with full speed. Solaris dodged it just in time, and summoned some phoenix's to shoot some of their fire at it to get rid of the smoke. But that just made her grow even more.

"Oh, right. Smoke comes from fire." Solaris continued fighting it, while Spike tried to join in. As soon as he tried to fight it though, Shooting Star swatted him far away from the fight, leaving Solaris to fend for himself.

Spike flew until he crashed into something, or rather somepony. He turned around and saw the Doctor on the ground, and then he got an idea.

"Doctor, are you ok?" Spike asked.

"Yeah, quite well actually, but where's Derpy and where's Shooting Star?"

"Shooting Star is in danger. We need your help."

"What?" the Doctor asked with a horrified look. "I won't let her die to this blue smoke."

"It's not the blue smoke, it's black smoke, created by a outside force."

Doesn't matter. I won't let her die, I took her in and I won't waste that."

"Me neither." Spike and the Doctor heard someone say. They turned around and saw a giant Derpy looking down at them.

Spike smiled and then turned into a tall dragon with a red cape and silver armor. Derpy and the Doctor looked at him with confused looks.

"What, if you want to dream, dream big." so with that, Derpy hoisted him up onto her back and and charged to where Spike was pointing. What they saw was a battle, Spike and a bunch of phoenixes were battling a giant being in black smoke armor.

"Shooting Star is possessed by that clad armor. We need help." Spike said as he got off of her back. Derpy then charged at Shooting Star and hit her with a force of 3 kilotons because derpy picked that force. Shooting Star was tossed back while some of the smoke dissipated. Spike saw this and smiled.

"We need to keep hitting her." Spike said

Then something from the armor was whimpering. "Help... me." with Shooting Star trying to pull out.

That was when Solaris got an idea. "Derpy, Doctor, try and pull Shooting Star out. Spike, use the elements of harmony and I will support you with my magic."

Derpy, with a determined look on her face, nodded and rushed towards Shooting Star. She grabbed her firmly, trying to pull her out of the smoky armor. The Doctor joined in, using his own strength to assist.

"Hold on, Shooting Star! We're going to get you out of there!" the Doctor shouted, his voice filled with resolve.

Meanwhile, Spike and Solaris stood back to back. Spike concentrated, tapping into the power of the Elements of Harmony. His body glowed with a brilliant light, and the Elements' magic began to form around him. Solaris, focusing his energy, channeled his own magic to support Spike's efforts.

"We can do this, Spike. We have to!" Solaris encouraged, his eyes fixed on the struggling Shooting Star.

Spike's eyes glowed with the combined power of the Elements. He released a powerful beam of harmonic energy towards the smoky armor encasing Shooting Star. The light from the Elements collided with the dark smoke, causing it to crack and weaken.

Derpy and the Doctor pulled with all their might, feeling the resistance of the smoke beginning to lessen. Shooting Star's face emerged from the smoke, her eyes filled with a mixture of fear and determination.

"You're almost there, Shooting Star! Keep fighting!" Derpy urged, her voice unwavering.

With a final surge of energy, the harmonic beam shattered the smoky armor completely. Shooting Star was freed, and she fell into Derpy and the Doctor's arms, exhausted but relieved.

The black smoke, now without a host, swirled angrily, trying to regroup. Solaris and Spike didn't give it a chance. They combined their powers, creating a vortex of fire and light that enveloped the smoke, incinerating it until nothing remained.

Shooting Star, breathing heavily, looked up at her friends with gratitude. "Thank you... all of you. I couldn't have done it without you."

Solaris smiled warmly. "We're a team, Shooting Star. We'll always be here for you."

Spike reverted back to his normal form, looking equally relieved. "We did it. But we need to make sure the Tantabus is gone for good." But before they could do anything, the Tantabus grew larger and caused the ponies around them to lose their dream powers.

Spike, Shooting Star and Solaris ran to Luna while Twilight and her friends did the same. They saw that Luna was crying with tears coming from her eyes.

"I think it's feeding off your guilt Princess Luna" they heard Twilight say.

"If that's so, then that must've been how it was able to escape in the first place." Luna cried

Solaris flew up to Luna and asked, "Is that why the Tantabus was created Luna, to help with your guilt?"

Luna looked at Solaris and started explaining. "I created the Tantabus, to give me the same nightmare every night." She started sobbing. "To punish myself for the evil I caused as Nightmare Moon."

"Why would you do that?" Shooting Star asked.

"I did it to make sure I never, forgave myself for how much Equestria suffered because of me... but it seems I haven't learned my lesson, because I only made you suffer more."

Solaris' heart broke to see how much Luna was making herself suffer like this. He put a claw under Luna's chin.

"Luna, look at me." Solaris lifted her chin so she could face him. "Even I know you weren't in complete control of yourself, but that isn't a reason to punish yourself to this extent." He looked at the Tantabus and saw it walk into a rift to the real world.

"But Equestria suffered so much..." Luna said but was stopped.

Solaris continued in a gentle and caring voice. "I remember when you did something wrong when you were young. You told the truth and you tried to make up for it. You are still doing that now. Nightmare moon would have wanted the Tantabus to ruin everything in Equestria. You're trying to stop it and that shows that you changed. You will always be Luna to me. Please Luna," He put his claw by her cheek. "Forgive yourself, not only for us, but for you."

"I-I..." But before Luna could say anything else, her eyes started to glow brightly. Solaris back up and joined the others.

"Solaris, what did you do?" Rarity asked.

"I-I don't know." Solaris answered truthfully, so they just watched Luna to see if anything would happen. Her eyes continued glowing before a light gold aura came out of her. After the aura got out of Luna, it disappeared into nothing. Her eyes stopped glowing and looked at Solaris with more tears in her eyes.

"S-Solaris?" she asked

"Yes Luna. I'm here, I'm back." Solaris said.

Using her magic, Luna levitated Solaris over to her and hugged him tightly, crying into his shoulder, him returning the hug.

"Solaris, I missed you so much." Luna cried.

Solaris also got tears in his eyes as he hugged her. "And I missed you too, Luna.

Although this confused everyone watching, they smiled at the heartwarming scene. After Luna and Solaris broke from the hug, Luna smiled and said, "I forgive myself."

That caused the Tantabus to back away from the rift abruptly, giving a shocked look at Luna and shrunk down back to her size, and walked into the bubble that held Luna, disappearing forever into her regalia.

Luna then smiled at the 9 creatures below her. "Thank you, thank you all before everything turned white.

Every creature woke up, but Twilight awoke before the others and shouted "Luna did it."

Everyone awoke as she said this and smiled. "She sure did." Applejack said. "Although I'm not sure what she did."

Solaris decided to explain. "Luna created the Tantabus to punish herself for being nightmare moon. She had to be shown how much of a good pony she was and she forgave herself after I showed her that."

Then Fluttershy saw something below Solaris' eyes and decided to ask. "Solaris, were you crying in your dream?"

"Yes I was and I am not ashamed to admit." he answered

"Shhh." Shooting Star shushed everyone and pointed to a sleeping Luna.

Spike asked, "What do you think she's dreaming of now?"

"How about we just leave the room and let her get some sleep." Solaris suggested. Every creature nodded and left the room one by one. Solaris was about to leave the room, but looked over at Luna sleeping peacefully.

He walked back over to her and started rubbing her mane. "Sleep well, Luna. You deserve it." And with that, he left the room along with the others.

"I just hope she doesn't tell Celestia about me." he thought to himself.

Author's Note

This was a hassle. Sweet dreams.