Mirror of the Moon

Charcoal Flame pushed himself forward, sloshing through the muddy fields as he crossed the land outside of Tall Tale. The well irrigated fields serving as the source of the town's massive food supply. He had decided to avoid the roads for a time as to avoid news of his sudden abrupt departure being noticed too soon. It was quite possible he was in the clear, but it was also quite possible rumours of his actions would begin spreading around the small town, questions that would attract the unwanted attention of Celestia's enforcers.

As he gained distance from town, he could see clearly the tall mountain range in the distance. He trotted onward reassuring himself that once he was far enough ahead he would once again stick to the roads. As the town faded further and further into the distance behind him, lowering from his perception and fading into the horizon. Charcoal came to a halt as he spotted something ahead, amongst some trees was what appeared to be some large stone ruins, their appearance he noticed as he got closer was that of a rather large castle.

The stone wall around the structure was clearly old and many of the trees inside were massive and ancient. Rising above them all were tall turrets and spires aiming up at the sky. Tempted by its magnificence, he trotted down the gravel path cutting through the trees. He slowed as he spotted a large statue of the moon, unmistakable as a symbol of Princess Luna, the one who had founded his home.

The castle's doors were extremely large and were marked with various magical symbols that only a unicorn would be educated enough to notice. Wards mostly, meant to keep those with bad intentions away. He pressed his hoof's weight against the door and found that it shifted, revealing that it was in fact unlocked.

Charcoal hesitated for a moment, and then he pushed his way inside determinedly. Charcoal's horn glowed brightly as he used it to light up the entrance room. Tattered tapestries, rugs and wallpaper appeared to melt from the walls. The candle's wax long since mostly expended. The paintings mostly torn and covered in dust, hiding the ponies of the past that once made the place a home.

The one thing largely undamaged was a large silver statue of Princess Luna herself on a pedestal standing next to the far wall. Charcoal moved toward it mesmerized by its reverence. On his island precious metals were far rarer, most of it went to tools and fishing equipment, much of their metals were preserved from what Princess Luna had brought them a thousand years ago, the rest was for holding the timber that made up the hull of their ships.

Charcoal bowed his head out of respect to his fallen Princess, the one who never returned after announcing that the time had come to end Celestia's rule forever. Their ancestors had been only fillies and colts at the time, ill suited for warfare, ill suited to the war that followed. It was this reason more than any other that he felt so blessed to be the first of his kind to return to the mainland. To proudly step foot on equestrian soil as an ever faithful servant of the one true princess.

Charcoal's attention was then drawn away by the sound of a mechanical clang, then a repetitive whirring soon followed by yet another clang. He moved across the large once ornate room towards a far back wooden door. He nudged it with his hoof but found it to be stuck. He pushed harder and harder but the door just would not budge. Aiming his horn, he ignited it with a powerful glow and then sent forth a pulse of powerful magical energy. The door fracturing wide and allowing him entry. As he stomped over the broken pieces he could tell the door had been sealed up securely with nails and wooden boards.

Charcoal with his horn glowing once again traversed down steep steps, down into what he observed to be an extremely deep basement. The door at the end of the long staircase opened, this time with ease. The basement itself was alight with candle light all around, candlesticks upon the walls illuminating what appeared to be some sort of giant machine that was even now in motion.

Under the machine was a pony, a stallion earth pony. Charcoal moved forward but was hesitant to move under the machine as it appeared to spin above the stallion. The pony had white fur and a dark brown mane and appeared to be laying on his back in a comfortable pose. Charcoal looked closer to see if the stallion was in fact breathing.

"What is this?" Charcoal asked as he prepared to reach for his sword.

"This?" The stallion whispered calmly as he lay on a makeshift metallic bed.

The stallion shot up from his support and jumped up onto his legs and quickly moved toward Charcoal, hopping up on his hind hooves he reached out his fore hooves and grasped Charcoal's snout.

"This is the work of Professor Lighting Spark!" He said struggling to gasp for air.

Charcoal pulled himself back but resisted giving the professor a hoof to the face, especially when he saw that the pony appeared incredibly weak and fail and his eyes looked extremely bloodshot, in short he seemed too weak to be of any threat.

"Lighting Spark, so you're a scientist?" Charcoal asked with half his attention drawn to the machine.

"Yes,yes." Lighting Spark turned around and stared up at the machine. "This is my beauty of an invention, the Sleep Inducement Oscillator, similar to the Multiple Wave Oscillator as created by Ponyovsky, but designed to increase the effects of lucid dreaming."

Charcoal stared coldly at Lighting. "Impressive, but it is of no interest to me, I will be on my way now."

Lighting Spark shot forward in an act of desperation. "Wait please, I desperately need a subject!"

"Find somepony else." Charcoal shot back as he continued walking back towards the staircase.

"But your Cutie Mark even has a moon on it!" Lighting stated.

Charcoal Flame froze glanced down at his mark. It was a simple symbol of a full moon, a symbol that meant much to his kind, a lesser version that was held in the sky above them, forever guiding his kind's journey forward.

"Yours is a golden flaming gear, clearly you are more up to the task of experimentation." He said reminding himself to find a new cover so that no pony could track him by the mark that he had been been gifted.

"Please, it is the only way for my work to be finished!" Lighting had evidently turned to begging.

"Please, Lighting. Find somepony else." Charcoal said expecting it to be the last time he had to incite his decision to decline.

Lighting shook in clear and obvious fear even as Charcoal once again resumed his departure. As Lighting began to open his mouth in protest again, Charcoal considered perhaps needing to use his sword to make his demands more clear. Instead the words that followed were far worse than he had ever been expecting.

"Please, you do not understand..." Lighting said with fear in his tone. "It was already too late when you walked into this castle."

Charcoal had been patient enough with the pony. With a swift stroke, his blade was extended and pointed towards Lighting. The Professor's reactions were slow and cumbersome as it took him quite some time to notice that Charcoal had just drawn a weapon on him.

"No, you do not understand, harming me will not help you." Lighting seemed to be trying to explain.

"Explain." Charcoal said certainly considering leaving the questions for somepony who actually cared.

"It's in here." Lighting said pointing a hoof to his head. "If any harm befalls me, it will merely pass onto you."

"What will?" Charcoal asked making sure his tone of voice let the Professor know how angry he was.

"I do not want to speak of its name." Lighting said continuing to plead.

"Name or I am locking you down here." Charcoal threatened.

"It's the Tantabus." Lighting said as he collapsed to the ground in misery and exhaustion.

Charcoal's mind suddenly flashed back to when he was a young colt and had naturally been selected for lessons on magical history. Out of all the creatures that could be summoned into existence, the Tantabus was perhaps one of the most dangerous.

"A true Tantabus?" Charcoal asked in shock.

Lighting nodded in sheer regret. "Every legend about them is true."

"You fool." Charcoal kept his blade up. "No Earth pony has the power to control such a creature!"

Lighting stared down at his hooves that were on the cold stone floor. "I didn't summon it if that's what you think. It was already here when I arrived."

Charcoal hesitated for a slight moment but then decided it best to sheathe his sword. He then approached Lighting and knelt down to look into his red blood stricken eyes. He saw only honesty in the Professor's gaze, no hint of attempted malice.

"Tell me how you found it." Charcoal stated calmly.

Lighting sighed. "I had heard rumours of this castle from colleagues in the archeological field, pony farmers had reported animals refusing to sleep anywhere near these ruins, and so I came here hoping to find something that would assist me in my research of what happens when we sleep. I had thought my luck had reached new heights when I found this basement, and discovered a sealed urn that was at least a thousand years old, oh what a fool I was."

"Where is this urn?" Charcoal asked.

Lighting pointed towards a small wooden table full of various archeological finds, most of it little more than junk. One of the largest objects was a cracked urn. Charcoal studied the chunks in his hooves, his eyes opening wide as he recognized the black urn had symbols carved into it, symbols that represented Princess Luna.

"This urn may have been crafted by Princess Luna herself." Charcoal said with amazement.

"Quite likely, she created the Tantabuses after all." Lighting agreed.

Charcoal quickly redrew his sword. "What blasphemy did I just hear you speak?"

"Blasphemy?" Lighting asked with extreme surprise. "During the war between Princess Luna and Celestia, the use of Tantabuses was well recorded. Nightmare Moon employed them many times against various military leaders, sometimes even against entire armies."

"Propaganda." Charcoal replied. "For what reason would she have to do such a thing?"

"Terror, exhaustion, general weakening of settlement's defenders." Lighting seemed to tick the uses off one at a time. "The only pony resistant to them was Celestia herself, nothing had been more frightening to her than the loss of her sister."

Charcoal considered Lighting's claim. Was it truly possible that Princess Luna had created such creatures as a part of some kind of military strategy? Certainly it would have prevented deaths and avoided unnecessary violence.

"Alright." He sheathed his sword and marched back over to Lighting. "So you discovered this Tantabus stored away?"

Lighting nodded once again out of regret. "I released it intentionally, I had thought that I could master it, use it to advance my research forward years!"

"What went wrong?" Charcoal asked.

"I had failed to take into consideration its history, I had assumed it would only use my own memories." Lighting replied.

"You mean it carried other memories with it?" Charcoal tried to comprehend the ramifications.

"I do not yet know how it ended up in that urn, but it was used during the war. Lighting stared over at the shattered urn on the desk. "It remembers..."

The day must have been coming to an end as the candles around the room burned through ever more wax. Charcoal used his magic to help rearrange furniture around the room. He had been left with no choice, he knew as much as Lighting did that the Tantabus was already aware of his presence, and that it would use the dream plane to follow him anywhere and potentially it could even find its way across the sea, something that under no condition could be allowed.

"I cannot believe I am allowing this." Charcoal said having now lay down on the same bed that he had found the Professor in.

"Don't worry, I've never hurt a fly, not after what happened to the last pony that did so." Lighting said with a shiver.

"What happened to him?" Charcoal could not resist asking.

"Teleportation experiment, went horribly wrong. Celestia dealt with the matter, personally." Lighting said reassuringly.

"You really believe I will have better luck defeating it?" Charcoal said lowering his head back onto the pillow.

"I have the sense it will be drawn to you." Lighting replied. "And you seem like a strong fighter."

"Yes, but what does any of that have to do with dreams." Charcoal stared up at the ceiling as the oscillator began to spin.

"Trust me, your physical prowess will be tested, even in your nightmares." Lighting said as the oscillator sped up more and more.

Charcoal could feel himself slipping away, fading into the land of dreams. He could not imagine feeling safe enough to fall asleep in a place like this, especially being aware of what was about to happen. But the oscillator did its assigned task, as would he.

Charcoal's eyes flickered open as he found himself in the basement of the castle. Glancing around he could see no light anywhere, it was entirely dark. The only sounds he could hear as he listened was the sound of his own heart beat and his slow and steady breathing.

He stood upright and firm and checked to see if his sword was available, only it had disappeared along with all of his other items. Charcoal lit his horn and illuminated as much of the space around him as he could. The machine was gone and in fact the room appeared completely empty. He made his way toward the door that he knew lead to the staircase, only to find that it had been replaced with a solid stone wall.

"What is the meaning of this?" Charcoal asked angrily as his short span of patience that he possessed was already wearing thin.

Charcoal fired a blast of energy from his horn at the wall, then he fired again and again but somehow it caused no damage and only served to wear him out.

"Is this truly the most frightening of nightmares you can conjure, Tantabus?!" Charcoal roared out.

The room possessed no sound but his hooves clattering on the stone floor beneath him. The lack of any kind of ambience driving him mad. He did not want to stop walking as it was his only source of noise, so he strode around the basement in some search of an exit, but there was none to be found.

"This is some cruel joke you are playing, Tantabus." Charcoal whispered under his breath.

He then heard what sounded like a knocking sound and turned back and shined his light at the wall where he had started. There where he had first checked, the door had now appeared. He quickly trotted over and set his hooves on the knob of the door and pulled. For whatever reason it did not budge. So he pulled harder and harder until finally he flew back onto the floor, the knob had come off the door and was now in his hooves.

"Face me you coward!" Charcoal yelled out.

"Face you?" Asked a deep masculine voice that seemed to reverberate through the floor.

"I was merely allowing you to face yourself, as all must do if they are going to defeat me." The voice seemed to suggest it already knew his intentions.

Charcoal nodded to himself. "You're in my head, you know why I am here, Tantabus."

"Do I?" The Tantabus asked questioningly. "How could I possibly know more about you, than you know about yourself."

Charcoal stood up from the ground, he did his best to keep his horn alight but could have sworn the darkness of the room was causing it to shrink. He did his best to ignore it and focus on the situation at hoof.

"I have no desire for games Tantabus, I demand that you cease whatever you are doing to Professor Lighting." Charcoal had no idea about Tantabus' personalities, only a basic understanding of their abilities.

"I was only doing what it is in my nature to do, it is he that was kind enough to release me." The Tantabus explained. "Perhaps I do owe him some slack."

"I have no wish of you to remain in my head either." Charcoal answered realizing where the reasoning was going. "You will return to your vessel."

The Tantabus growled in annoyance. "Do you really think that fair?"

"Who said anything about fair?" Charcoal asked. "It is my demands, and any attempt not to follow my demands will result in your destruction."

"A thousand years, Charcoal Flame. That is how long I have endured imprisonment against my will." The Tantabus responded with rage.

"You expect me to care?" Charcoal asked with a cold glare at the shadows. "I have a purpose to serve."

"As did I." The Tantabus replied as the room began to morph into an open midnight field.

Charcoal could feel the grass under his hooves as if it was real, he turned and could see the castle in the distance as it stood, as fully constructed as it had been in the time. He heard the sound of swords clashing in the distance, cries of pain and suffering. The sound of a determined battle. It did not take him long to guess what it was.

"The war between ponies, the war between the Moon and the Sun." Charcoal said glancing up at the fully arisen moon that seemed to stare down at them. There was no mare in the moon when this battle took place.

"This is what it is like, to be so close to your purpose yet unable to take part." The Tantabus pointed out. Eventually the screaming faded and after some mourning the event was merely forgotten by time, the whole purpose of my creation and all of my hard work, undone and merely forgotten by the frailty of pony minds."

"Why are you trying to point this out to me?" Charcoal asked.

"Because you and I are the same, different beings certainly, but no less victims of the passing of time." The Tantabus began to take a more physical looking form as that of a large drop of water rising out of the ground to reach eye Charcoal's eye level.

"Between your memories and those of the Professor, there is no correlation, this land has forgotten your existence, you are a fragment of a fragment of a memory that has been swept under the rug." The black translucent form of the Tantabus hovered in the air with seemingly no ulterior motive but to talk about how forgetful ponykind is.

"Lighting told me that you were created by Princess Luna." Charcoal had intended it to be a question, but he could not bring himself to ask if it was true.

"From a certain point of view." The Tantabus said in agreement. "My brethren were created to fight your war."

"But you failed." Charcoal shot back with the accusation of blame.

"The defeat was not of our doing, victory was within our grasp, all of Equestria feared the very image of Nightmare Moon, even a thousand years later their colts and fillies shiver at the mere mention of her name. The Tantabus explained passionately. "The fault was with Nightmare Moon herself, she decided to challenge Celestia personally, and even then Celestia was only victorious in the final moments of the battle."

"Then our Princess is truly dead." Charcoal said staring up at the moon that now no longer held the face of their Princess as it had done for a thousand years after her disappearance.

"Dead?" The Tantabus asked as if surprised by the question. "Yes... that is your fear."

"Don't try anything, Tantabus." Charcoal had been through too much to be susceptible to the Tantabus' petty visions of nightmares.

"I can share with you more memories that I possess, from ponies now long dead. I could show you what happened to your Princess." The Tantabus offered.

"In return?" Charcoal asked, intrigued by the offer.

"Set me free, allow me to possess the mind of any pony of your choosing. Freedom for information." The Tantabus laid out his offer simply.

"Princess Luna created you, to be used against her enemies. But she chose to rename herself Nightmare Moon, to strike fear into her enemies?" Charcoal asked.

"Certainly that is partially true. We were not permitted to feed upon our creator's mind." The Tantabus said with disappointment.

"Shame, I might have been willing to accept your offer." Charcoal said as he lit up his horn and fired a stream of blue and white energy right at the Tantabus' form.

The energy seemed to burn a hole through the Tantabus but it soon sealed back up. It then began to grow and shift more into the form of an alicorn, the species that only represented the powerful beings that were the two sisters of the moon and the sun.

"You dare to take on the form of Princess Luna?" Charcoal said filled with rage at this new level of sacrilege.

"Why not, if only to make you more aware of what you had in your hooves before you threw it all away in return for being made a corpse." The Tantabus threatened as it seemed to fade out of existence.

Charcoal looked around unable to see the creature, until he heard marching. He quickly turned to see an army of shadow pony warriors heading in his direction, each one armed with a sword or spear and the silhouette of armour that marked them as warriors of Celestia.

"I have no time for this." Charcoal did his best to summon his own willpower, with it, his sword appeared on the ground beneath his hooves.

He quickly picked the sword up and charged headlong into the force of shadow ponies. They were weak enough as he sliced through their bodies, shadowy hooves were removed from their bodies, even the necks proved to be almost entirely without form, it was as if he was fighting the clouds themselves.

Despite his strength and his speed there appeared to be no shortage of the pony shaped beings. When they did manage to hit him it was as if a pony had slammed its hoof into his body, the pain was not that of a weapon but hurt badly enough to take its toll as they surrounded him and broke down his defences.

"I had hoped you would last longer. Many that Celestia hoofpicked to lead her armies lasted longer, perhaps the saying Lighting taught me does hold true, they don't make em like they used to." The Tantabus followed his taunt with a cackle.

"Enough!" Charcoal simply made the shadow ponies vanish with his mind. "I am no regular pony!"

"No, you are as powerful as the bloodlines I fought with a thousand years ago, unstained by Celestia's benevolence and compassion. Not tainted by the pathetic worship of the sun that this land has fallen to. The Tantabus said as it reappeared in front of Charcoal still choosing its alicorn form.

Charcoal nodded. "I would say the same to you, and you can trust me that Celestia's rule will come to an end, you know there is nothing that will stop me from achieving that goal."

"I cannot say how you will react to the truth or how you will learn of it. But when the truth reaches you, I hope that the rage will only speed your progress as you accomplish the reason you were created." The Tantabus said proudly.

"One last fight then, as your reward for serving your Princess, as we all must." Charcoal said pointing his sword toward the Tantabus.

"One last fight." The Tantabus agreed as its form expanded, its wings growing to twice their size.

The Tantabus charged forward with all its might, the majestic leap of a great beast, it moved toward Charcoal with clear intent to fulfill its purpose, to end Celestia's reign by any means necessary. Charcoal's sword found its mark behind its neck as it sliced through decapitating the shadowy head from its body. And even as its body fell to the ground, the Tantabus began to glow a bright white light.

Charcoal sheathed his sword and took two steps forward the glowing white light and stretched out a hoof. The white light coalesced into a stream of pure magical energy, likely that which had been summoned and warped by Princess Luna herself, in a way the very small essence of her power and will that had created this life was now becoming one with his.

Charcoal opened his eyes as Lighting looked him over and shined a candle near his eyes. "You seem okay?"

"I'm fine." Charcoal pushed the pony's hoof and the candle away from his snout.

"The Tantabus?" Lighting inquired.

Charcoal considered for a moment how to answer that question. "It's gone, it realized that its purpose had been served."

"Well that is a relief, now I will be able to sleep again." Lighting said with a quick weary smile with what energy he still had.

"I must now leave this place." Charcoal said getting up from the bed.

"So soon?, You're welcome to sleep in the castle, I certainly intend to before I head back to Tall Tale." Lighting said not ashamed to admit that he was so tired nothing else was going to happen until he got some shut eye.

"Thanks, but." Charcoal looked around. "I sense that the ghosts of this building already wish me to stay, and I have no intention of sticking around to argue with them."

Lighting stared for a few moments at Charcoal's comments but then nodded with at least a basic level of understanding. "If you don't mind me asking, where are you headed?"

Charcoal pondered that question for a few moments, partly to consider if it was necessary to lie and partially to take the time to ask himself for that answer.

"Ultimately, wherever Celestia is located." Charcoal answered honestly.

"Well, you want to get to Canterlot." Lighting said standing proudly. "I spent time there, learning about the various sciences."

"That is quite a fair way to travel." Charcoal said impressed by the pony's adventuring skill.

"Not at all, I just took the train to Vanhoover." Lighting replied.

"The Vanhoover settlement still exists?" Charcoal asked in excitement.

"Why wouldn't it, yes and its quite a large city." Lighting added.

"Great." Charcoal said grateful for the information. "One more question, what is a train?"

"Uh." Lighting considered how to answer that question. "Engine, locomotive, goes choo choo."

Charcoal nodded. "interesting. I will depart for Vanhoover, immediately."

"Hey, what was your name?" Lighting asked as he turned to watch Charcoal attempt to exit the basement.

"You can call me, Charcoal." Charcoal nodded being grateful for the Professor's help.

Charcoal left the castle and made his way back north, a necessary diversion if he was to see if the rumours were true and that Vanhoover was as populated as he had been led to believe. However he could only move slowly as the stars had returned to the sky once again. Tonight there was no moon, so he empowered his horn to glow. A scroll and quill magically flew from his luggage, and hovered in the air. Quickly he used magic to write on the scroll all that he had witnessed so far, with some particular events excluded for now.

With a pop and a dazzle the scroll was teleported to its intended destination. A few seconds later a scroll appeared above him and fell into his hooves. He uncurled it and quickly read through the text. Satisfied he wrapped it back up and stored it in his bag. However before he could continue on, another scroll fell from the air. He hesitantly opened it and skimmed over its words. He then slammed it shut in frustration.