Princess Luna always knew that some part of the Tantabus was not just a figment of her undying guilt. It was something that has existed for as long as the color black taints the world, and sadly, that’s one of two most common naturally occurring color phenomena.

The Tantabus has had billions of years to develop. It learned to eat emotions, to eat ponies, and to harvest souls. The only reason it took such an interest in Luna was because it was bored, as well as the fact that she was a constant source of food for the being, and the Tantabus was always hungry to create mischief and consume negativity.

When it was “defeated,” it managed to escape the guilt-free Luna by very slowly ripping the fabric of the dream world apart when Luna was asleep. It took many moons, but it eventually escaped—thanks to the last minute aid of Grogar.

When Grogar offered a position of great power alongside him and his team (at the time smaller than it became), the Tantabus was almost disgusted at the thought of working with other bad guys. It was always a lone villain, but it decided to take the chance; it could benefit itself, the Tantabus had decided.

It did very much so. The Tantabus fed off the manipulated-into-being guilt of Starlight Glimmer for a while, before finally offering up Starlight’s body to make way for a new ally: the Pony of Shadows. The Tantabus didn’t look at this as a kind gesture: the Pony of Shadows was just a refrigerator for their meal.

When Cozy Glow came along, it was a period of hunger for the Tantabus. But that was until it noticed the change in Cozy Glow. The reformation of her thoughts and views on what it meant to be evil, what friends were really about, and how bad she felt about everything she’d done.

After acknowledging this, the Tantabus conjured up their few friends from the dream realm in hopes of having a meal, which would happen when Cozy Glow was well-ripe. They obliged, and would come when called.

The Tantabus ate up Cozy’s emotions, and over the course of billions of years existing, became a master of foreseeing and manipulating—something Cozy Glow would’ve aspired to be.

Except the Tantabus was manipulating Cozy Glow to feel horrible about herself, to feel guilty about all she had done.

It worked… but ultimately, it was undone. Cozy Glow escaped the nightmare… but the nightmare wasn’t over. The Tantabus was still hungry, but it needed a bold approach to get to Cozy Glow.

Days went by. Cozy Glow began to feel a lot better. Medicine helped ease all the pain she felt from her wounds, but she was still not very well, but in a state of comfort with all the ponies around her being very positive around her.

Of course, Cozy Glow wasn’t entirely fond of her old self. Guilt and self-hatred would linger for who knows how long. Her past actions would remain noticed by herself, and she’d loathe thinking back to the time she was a villain. However, with her physical appearance healing and her guilt still remaining to some capacity, the Tantabus couldn’t feed on her—or so she hoped.

If it appeared in Cozy Glow’s room, the Tantabus would be sieged and killed immediately. If it tried to infiltrate her dreams, it would be kicked out by Luna, who watched over Cozy’s dreams at night.

It couldn’t get to Cozy Glow… but it could still talk to her. Obviously, Cozy Glow shared every word the vile creature uttered to her telepathically, but it wasn’t often nor were they important messages. It was all empty threads that the Tantabus couldn’t fulfill.

Or Cozy Glow hoped it couldn’t fulfill, that is.

About a week after the madness in the dream world that almost ended with Cozy Glow in multiple dream demons’ stomachs, Cozy Glow had her first dream encounter with the Tantabus.

It began in a dark, cosmic void of distant stars and galaxy clusters. It was a pretty sight, though something was clearly off when Cozy Glow noticed that she was in a lucid dream.

She soared around for a second, unsure of what was going on, but then came to hear the sound of distant cackling. It sounded like the laugh of a crazed old man getting a kick out of someone’s misfortune, someone absolutely losing it and having no idea how mentally unstable they have gotten. It was the laugh of a familiar lunatic’s true form: the tall, scrawny monster with rows of sharp, dark teeth, ghastly claws and little stubs for legs that was the raw look of the Tantabus, with it’s true gravelly masculine voice.

It appeared out of nowhere, right in front of Cozy Glow. The filly stopped short and gazed at the creature, shocked to see the Tantabus here. It knew better than to try and start a chat here, but its bold attendance in the dream showed how little it was afraid of the consequences. Luna would show up any second and slay the beast.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” Cozy Glow asked, bewildered at the sight of the Tantabus.

“You know well that I’m here to finish you off,” the Tantabus told her. “Now that Luna is out of the way, you’re trapped in this dream until you awake—if I let you live to see another day.”

“Where’s Luna? What did you do?!” Cozy Glow yelled.

“Luna isn’t dead,” the Tantabus explained. “They’re sleeping. I spiked their water with sleeping medication. It was easier than I thought it would be.”

“No!” Cozy screeched. She made a dash away from the monster, but was stopped short as it grabbed her by the wings.

“No need to fret, little one,” the Tantabus soothed. “You won’t feel a thing. You’re in a dream, remember?”

Cozy Glow scrambled out of their grip as best she could, but the Tantabus tightened their hold to ensure Cozy Glow wouldn’t slip out.

“You’re trapped in here until you awake,” the Tantabus informed her. “Plenty of time for me to consume your life force and leave your carcass behind as a warning.”

The filly squirmed to get their wings out (repaired in the dream), but to no avail at all. Out of desperation, they bit the Tantabus in one of its nasty fingers, which only gave Cozy Glow a disgusting and unrecognizable taste in her mouth.

The Tantabus chuckled. “Shall I eat you whole or bit-by-bit?” They tighter their grip even more, making it impossible for Cozy Glow to get out.

The child had a final desperate idea.

As Cozy Glow was slowly lifted to the Tantabus’s rows upon rows of mighty sharp teeth, she began to think of a different scene. A scene in a flower garden, a place from Cozy’s childhood.

Suddenly, Cozy Glow felt herself falling, then gliding as she caught the simple breeze in her wingspan.

Cozy Glow remembered that in one of Twilight’s classes, when they were on the discussion of dreams, she was talking about how she had a great battle with the Tantabus and was able to defeat it by having everyone in the ludic dream turn into their dream selves and shifting reality.

This was Cozy’s dream. The Tantabus can’t change that. So, Cozy Glow had control over everything in the dream.

The Tantabus didn’t take too long to make their presence know. Forming from the shadow of a tree nearby, the Tantabus loomed over Cozy Glow.

“I can control this realm!” Cozy Glow yelled to it. She got up and patted her chest. “ME! I’m in control of this realm, not you!”

The Tantabus remained silent for a moment, staring at Cozy Glow, slowly processing what she had said.

“That doesn’t mean I can’t infiltrate it,” it said meekly.

The Tantabus slowly reached their right arm across the field and grabbed ahold of the earth. Then, they slowly ripped it apart, ripping away the soil. Underneath was a layer of dark matter, the matter that made up the Tantabus.

Then, the whole scene started to shake, and they RIPPED the land apart. To Cozy Glow’s shock, everything started to shift into the same astral matter that made up the Tantabus. They were revealing the dream goo that made up the dream. They were manipulating the very existence of the dream.

Again, Cozy Glow thought of another scene. She imagined the Castle of the Two Sisters. She’d been there on a field trip once, and she found the architecture really neat—all that was left of it, of course.

Immediately, the scene shifted the torn-up ruins of that very castle. It was destroyed and quite frankly a wreck, but it was better than where she just was.

But again, it didn’t last when the Tantabus showed up to ruin it. They emerged from a dark corridor, now taking the form of their pony-like alter-ego.

“I’m not one to disappoint anyone, young one,” the Tantabus said flatly, “but your efforts are pointless. You won’t escape me anywhere on this planet. You can’t conceive a place where darkness can’t reach you, a place where I can’t pass. If there is darkness in the universe, I will remain existent.”

“Fuck,” Cozy Glow groaned. Quickly, she dodged as the Tantabus swung a tentacle at her from their side. They changed form again, now having multiple tendrils on their alicorn-like apparition.

“Defy me here, fine,” the Tantabus spoke. “But my reign of terror strikes more than just this little pocket of existence.”

“What?” Cozy Glow asked. She quickly prepared to dodge another strike, of which came right before the Tantabus went on.

“The real world is getting FUCKED as we speak,” the Tantabus informed her. “Canterlot is under attack by my ‘friends’ you met at dinner.”

“You’re kidding,” Cozy Glow asked.

The Tantabus sent another strike. “No, I’m not. So you either let me eat your soul now—or later. Which do you choose?”

“Never!” Cozy Glow screamed.

The Tantabus sent another blow—and it hit Cozy Glow in the stomach. The filly fell about four feet, then sprawled out on the stone floor. She wasn’t physically hurt nor did she feel a thing, but it did stun her momentarily.

The Tantabus wasted no time getting on top of Cozy Glow. They pinned her to the floor, ready to suck the life force right out of her, to consume her soul till her physical body was drier than a raisin.

However, Cozy Glow—once again—changed scenes. She didn’t care how long it, but she would change scenes over and over again, hitting a reset button again and again, until this nightmare concluded and she woke up again. And so she did.

Cozy Glow awoke with a gut-wrenching gasp for air. She was in a stone cold sweat and scared out of her wits. She’d been asleep for a while, and it was into the wee hours of the morning.

Immediately, Cozy Glow knew the Tantabus wasn’t lying. She thought that maybe—during their long, long standoff—that the Tantabus had lied about the siege, but she was gravely mistaken.

Screams rang out through the castle, and a ton of scrummaging could be heard just outside of the room she was in.

And the room she was in? Well, it wasn’t the same room she fell asleep in.

Cozy Glow recognized the throne of Grogar, or so it was previously, not belonging to Twilight for as long as she stayed here.

Cozy Glow wasn’t alone for long, either. Twilight entered the room in a panic, trying to escape whatever madness roamed the halls of the castle.

“Twilight? What’s happening?” Cozy Glow asked, getting up but barely able to walk thanks to her slit-open (and currently healing) leg.

Twilight gazed at Cozy Glow in a panicked frenzy. “We’re under attack,” she started. “The Tantabus sent monsters to try and capture you and slaughter the rest of us.”

Cozy Glow took in the chaos that she heard. Guards screamed as monsters roared. Chaos loomed over the place like it was the most pure form of it. The whole castle was in a state of unsaturated madness, that alike to the mind of the Tantabus.

“I was attacked by the Tantabus in my dream,” Cozy Glow shared. “I think they’re coming here, too.”

“Fuck,” Twilight murmured. She flew to the window and looked down below. Cozy Glow followed, and she saw that the entire front area of the castle with filled with… a blob. A gelatinous entity made of pure dream goop, the astral slop the Tantabus and all the other creatures of the dream world were forged of.

“What is that thing?” Cozy Glow asked.

“A bunch of little Tantabus-like blobs formed in that thing,” Twilight explained. “We’ve been trying to kill it, but it doesn’t even react to pain. It’s indestructible.”

“What’s in the castle?” Cozy Glow asked.

“Some fat, scrawny creature,” Twilight said. “Is it that thing you saw when you were almost… you know.”

“The Tantabus said its ‘friends’ were here,” Cozy Glow remarked. “I’ll bet the Tantabus is somewhere out there right now making their way here.”

“I’m already here,” the Tantabus whispered, making the two girls flinch. It was right behind them, and they didn’t even notice.

The Tantabus laughed. “Nowhere to run, children.”

“You call everyone a child?” Cozy Glow said, trying to stand her ground.

“Why not? You’re all minuscule compared to me.”

Twilight sent a blast directly into the Tantabus’s face, but it shifted its head to the side. A bad look for Twilight.

Again, Twilight blasted the Tantabus with her mighty powers, but the Tantabus would morph or shift out of the way, making holes or empty space where an attack went. It was almost no use, but it gave Cozy Glow time to run and hide.

She left the throne room, allowing the Tantabus to practically make fun of Twilight. Cozy Glow—as best she would could with her injures—made her way to the nearest closet. It would allow some quiet, but for how long until the Tantabus found her?

If Twilight couldn’t kill it, how could she? Some god would have to come save the day, and Cozy Glow was merely an injured child. She couldn’t beat the Tantabus—not alone, anyways.

Then, the door opened, and a familiar figure appeared. It was Starlight, only clearly in a crazed state. Without hesitation, she dove into the closet and lit her horn up. A soft glow filled the small space, allowing the two to see each other.

Starlight hugged Cozy Glow gently. It was a relief they found each other. The whole castle was awry with mayhem.

“They’re looking for you, Cozy Glow,” she said.

“I know, Starlight,” Cozy Glow started. “I don’t know what to do… I’m scared.”

“I am too, but we can’t hide here for long,” Starlight warned. “Where’s Twilight?”

“In her throne room, fighting the Tantabus,” Cozy Glow informed her.

“The Tantabus can’t be killed by magic,” Starlight cried.

“She knows that,” Cozy Glow whispered. “It was so I could escape.”

“But what will we do when it finds you?” Starlight cried. “It’ll eat you, then take over the planet or do whatever it wants to do!”

“I know, I know,” Cozy Glow cried. “But we’ve got to do something.”

“Okay, think,” Starlight said. “We both survived its wrath before.”

“Yes,” Cozy Glow commented. “We did.”

“So we know more about it than anyone else in this castle,” Starlight continued. “What have we learned about it?”

Cozy Glow and Starlight thought for a long moment. In their moment of desperation, it seemed that they might actually be onto something, but Starlight was drawing blanks on any potential fatigues or weaknesses for the Tantabus.

“Wait,” Cozy Glow started. “The Tantabus told me something about how it can’t be killed.”

“But it has to be killable,” Starlight groaned. “It’s a living thing. All living things can die.”

“I think it might be, or at the very least it can be banished,” Cozy Glow went on.

“What do you mean?” Starlight asked.

“Well, the Tantabus said that it can only come out when there’s darkness. If there’s no darkness, it can’t exist,” Cozy Glow continued.

“But there’s always darkness in the universe,” Starlight told Cozy Glow.

“Yes,” Cozy Glow said. “But what if it were somehow put into a place where everything was blindingly bright? A place it wouldn’t be able to escape from because it’s so bright and so large?”

“There’s no place in this universe like that,” Starlight said.

“Perhaps there is,” a voice spoke. It was that of a man, and it belonged to a very peculiar being harnessing the power of ultimate chaos.

“DISCORD?” Starlight shrieked.

“Ta-da!” He joked.

“Discord, where have you been all this time?” Starlight asked.

“Sleeping. Now, as I was saying, there does exist such a place,” Discord started. He stepped into the light, revealing his bizarre shape.

“It’s called the ‘center of the sun’, ever heard of it?” He asked.

“Oh, that might work!” Cozy Glow exclaimed.

“But how can we send all of this madness there to cancel itself out of existing?” Starlight thought out loud.

“Leave that to the filly,” Discord said, pointing to Cozy Glow. “And my magic, of course.”

“But I can hardly run,” Cozy Glow argued.

“Not a problem,” Discord confided.

Cozy Glow suddenly found herself outside the castle. She stood in the cold darkness, staring up at the tall and discomforting structure. She didn’t like remembering her recent past with it, even though it was now inhabited by her true allies, and the evil-doers were down in the cellar where they would rot.

A male guard approached Cozy Glow quickly. “What’re you doing’ out here?” He asked. “You know what, nevermind. Stay behind me.”

Cozy Glow obliged. She saw the massive accumulation of mini-tantapi in the near distance, disabling the escape of guards and assuring Cozy’s doom.

But not for long.

From inside the castle, a figure emerge from the doorway: a lanky, fat, goblin-like monster. The Gulosus.

Behind the Gulosus, the Tantabus—taking their normal form as another tall and scrawny figure, with razor-sharp teeth and disturbing claws, accompanied by the gruff man voice—made their way out to take on Cozy Glow.

Their astral compositions firmly fit the dreary atmosphere of the whole scene. The guards practically surrendered realizing they were all done for it they intervened. The deceased guards lying around the front yard of the castle served as a swift reminder to fuck off.

To say Cozy Glow shook with fear would be an understatement; the filly was rattling within every sinew of her frame and posture, her bones rattling in their respective natural placements. She was morbidly terrified.

“The scent of fear truly makes this scene… delicious,” the Tantabus croaked.

“Shut up!” Cozy Glow yelled.

“Be nice,” the Tantabus said glumly. They then revealed their grip on Twilight, to the dismay and shock of many guards. The princess was unconscious, having been shamefully defeated.

“If you want to bad mouth me,” the Tantabus warned, “I’ll squeeze her until she pops like a blister.”

Guards attempted to approach in hopes of getting Twilight out of their grasp, but the Gulosus stood at guard of the Tantabus. They swung their right arm out to attempt to grab a guard, but they recoiled.

“Let me take the child,” the Tantabus started, “and everyone here can live in peace… for now.”

Cozy Glow’s nostrils flared. “Fine,” she started. “Come and get me. I don’t care anymore.”

“You’re not gonna put up a fight?” The Tantabus asked.

“If it makes your astral cock hard, sure,” Cozy Glow cracked.

“I have no gender,” the Tantabus reminded her.

“You get the idea,” Cozy Glow said through gritted teeth. Her voice trembled as the Tantabus started to rapidly approach her.

Cozy Glow ran for it. She couldn’t run well, but she knew she wouldn’t have to run long. But she held up a steady sprint, even with the slit in her hoof, for about thirty seconds before Discord came to aid her.

All of the sudden, Cozy Glow felt a weird tug on her side, like she was being ripped apart but, of course, she wasn’t bound to anything besides the breeze of the cold night air. In a weird whimsy of sounds and feelings, Cozy Glow returned to normal—and so did the other sixty Cozy Glows.

Discord had (temporally) cloned Cozy Glow. Her clones didn’t have guts or a consciousness, but they served the purpose of confusing the Tantabus and its allies.

It worked like a charm. The Tantabus instantly grew furious at the sight of a multitude of Cozy Glows, stomping on them all to squash them and flinging them around.

The real Cozy Glow eased her way to the edge of the site and kept jogging around until everyone got to where they needed to be.

The blob at the edge of the field wiggled over the hoard of Cozy Glows clones, swallowing them up one by one.

The Gulosus aided the Tantabus in taking charge over the hoard. This thankfully gave the guards a chance to run around the hoard and make it safely back to the castle.

Amidst the chaos, Starlight had gotten to work forming a circle of magic around the hoard, now almost completely undone. Starlight walked around in an invisible state, undetected by their enemies, and she finished the circle with thankful ease.

Cozy Glow and Starlight met at the front of the castle the instant that every Cozy Glow remaining vanished. The spell wore off quickly, and so did the confused state of their enemies.

Then, Starlight shot a blast of magic at the circle she had formed—and a giant bubble formed around the Tantabus, Gulosus, and Tantapi-Blob. They were trapped under Starlight’s magic, but not for long; the shield could break in merely a minute if something wasn’t done soon.

Finally, Discord revealed himself, slowly forming in front of the giant magic bubble. He did a little bow, and got to work explaining to the Tantabus and its goons what they had done.

“Gullible fools,” he laughed. “Forget that I, the God of Chaos, exist on this planet as well? Well, you should’ve dealt with me before striking your old fort.”

“Let us out, you freak!” The Tantabus screamed. “You can’t keep us here! I have Twilight in my claw!”

As if on comedic cue, Twilight shot a blast through the Tantabus’s hand, making the being recoil in a burst of displeasure. The princess then sprang into action, fleeing their grasp and making their way to the edge of the portal, where Starlight—quickly—makes a tiny hole for Twilight to burst out of. A smooth escape.

“Now we have every reason to keep you there… or get rid of you,” Discord said.

Twilight and Starlight whispered to each other. Starlight was likely explaining the context of the strange scene.

Cozy Glow was about to tell Discord to blast them to the sun—but she remembered one more thing they needed to do.

“Wait!” Cozy Glow yelled. “Tell us where Spike is!”

Everyone went quiet. Twilight then chimed in.“Where is Spike? You’re the only who knows, Tantabus!”

The Tantabus started to laugh. A maniacal, distorted laugh the couldn’t imply anything positive.

“Oh my,” the Tantabus began. “You’ve all been on a wild goose chase to find the little dragon. But did you stop and think if it would even be worth it?”

“Cut to the fucking crap, dipshit,” Twilight screeched, using an unnecessary amount of vulgar language.

“He’s dead!” The Tantabus revealed. “He’s been eaten by the Gulosus, and you all thought he’s been held captive! I let him get eaten two weeks ago. He’s long dead.”

Twilight couldn’t even utter a response. She was in an intense state of shock, and with that state of shock, Twilight had one final question.

“Did he die painfully?” Twilight whispered.

“Brutally,” the Tantabus replied.

The last straw in Discord’s book of absolutely-fucking-nots. In an instant, everything inside the bubble was consumed by a portal of unbearable light: the center of sun, where there is NOTHING dark to grasp onto.

The monsters from the dream world were gone.
The monsters conceived of nightmares no longer spread their unimaginable reign of terror upon the land. They were… gone.

Four years ago, the Tantabus and its henchmen were evaporated and smiled out of existence. Four years later, a lot has changed.

Starlight is back on her hooves again, running the School of Friendship with her close friends.

Twilight is running Equestria still, but not alone; her close friends and the watchful eyes of the previous Princesses keep a keen eye on her, helping her along her journey as the returned ruler of the land.

But something is still missing. Spike, dead and long gone, still leaves an empty place in Twilight’s heart, one that couldn’t be fully replaced… however, the Princess found comfort in an old friend, foe, and frenemy: Cozy Glow.

The filly herself lives in peace, and though she may never be able to fly again, she‘a grateful to be alive—and to share that experience with her friends.

It’s all okay. Or, that’s what everyone hopes; there’s no evidence to say the sun killed the Tantabus and it’s allies, but there’s also nothing saying it didn’t.

It’s like trying to prove or disprove the existence of a god: you can’t. Unless they descended down upon the land, said their peace and retreated, then you can’t prove they’re real. But you can’t deny that they could be out there, watching, waiting, and maybe on their way right now.

As for the Tantabus, Cozy Glow hopes it’s dead. But you can never be too sure.

Author's Note

Thanks for checking out this story. I know I’m no artist or an amazing writer, but I’m happy with what I was able to cook up, and what I am currently cooking as well. Stay tuned for more Cozy content!