Tantabus, Chapter 15 (Sunset)

Tantabus

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15 - Sunset

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September 25th, 11:30 pm CST

As predicted, my attempts to sway my fellow students to the truth of their predicament utterly and completely failed.

My first act on arriving at CHS was to forfeit my candidacy for Fall Princess. This news was accepted with shock, even by those who had broken away from my authority yesterday. (I had already left an anonymous tip with Vice-Principal Luna to get Rainbow Dash released.)

As it turns out, Applejack didn’t show up, either. I had not anticipated that, although under the circumstances I shouldn’t have been surprised.

Nobody I told my warnings to about the Tantabus during my various classes believed me. Over time, I found that describing the creature as a sort of Freddie Krueger character got them listening the longest before they would start tuning me out.

Lunch was my last real chance. I got up on my table, and started asking people about Trixie, and the various other students I had noticed had not shown up today: Photo Finish, Sandalwood, Vinyl Scratch, Sweetie Drops, and of course Snips and Snails. I said it was some kind of weird brain fever, and if you started dreaming about a golden figure offering you your heart’s desire that that meant you had it, and you had to fight it off in your dream, or else you’d never wake up.

Yeah, that was the best lie I was able to come up with to get them to do the right thing. They listened, but it was pretty clear they thought I was crazy.

And then Pinkie Pie and Flash Sentry put on a musical number, and I was pretty much done for.

It was a good number, mind you, about how the students at CHS had to band together. Pinkie probably wrote it for Applejack to perform, but when Applejack didn’t show, she decided to sing it herself. The piece ended with an incredible guitar solo by Flash.

Way too incredible, if you get my drift.

So I was not surprised to see him engulfed by fireworks at the end like you’d expect in the climax of a rock concert, only these fireworks came out of nowhere, and left no smoke behind.

Or a Flash Sentry, for that matter.

“There!” I insisted. “That’s exactly what I’m talking about!”

Of course, I hadn’t said anything about mysterious disappearances in my earlier diatribe, so that caused the few students in my half of the cafeteria to flee.

All except for Rarity.

“You’ve changed,” she told me as she sat down at the table and looked up at me. “Fluttershy saw it, and I agree.”

I blinked. “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I muttered as I climbed down to take a seat opposite her.

“There!” she said triumphantly, pointing at me. “You care! You actually care about another person’s opinion!”

“A person’s allowed to care,” I protested.

“You never have—not for the last couple of years, anyway.”

The bell rang. I started getting up. She pushed me back down.

“Aren’t you going to be late to class?” I asked.

“This is more important,” she said.

“And what about me?”

“No,” she said confidently. “You care about people now, but not about your classes.”

“And you’re so sure,” I countered.

“Tell me about your dream,” she said. “The one with the golden figure.”

I could see in her eyes that this was dead serious to her. Of course, I realized. Sweetie Belle. She saw Trixie’s act, and yet she’s still walking the halls.

So I summarized my dream for Rarity. I left out Equestria, and all the dead bodies, and the smell...I just told her that a suit of armor had offered to give me my heart’s desire, but I found what it offered was so horrible that I refused.

She asked me what I thought it was. I said a tantabus, but she could think of it as a dream genie. I told her a little about Trixie, and Snips and Snails, and the video.

“You’ve seen that video, haven’t you?” I asked.

She nodded, her face even paler than usual.

“Then you’ve already fought him and won,” I said.

“I remember a dream about a golden goddess Athena offering me fame and fortune,” she told me, “but I had no trouble fighting that off. I have no desire for anything I do not earn with my own talent, and I haven’t developed my talent enough to feel I was worthy yet. Maybe if she had offered me a talent boost instead I might have been tempted, but she seemed to be in a hurry.”

“If there are any friends of yours that haven’t seen that video yet, then warn them. Maybe they’ll listen to you instead of me.”

“Of course,” she said as she got up. And then she gave me her cell number. “In case you think of anything. I just wish I could enter other people’s dreams, so I could help them fight off this monster.”

* * *

I didn’t think of anything.

I skipped out on the Fall Formal Dance that night. Assuming there was one. As for who won the title of Princess: well, if Principal Celestia allowed write-in votes, I’m pretty sure Pinkie Pie won.

* * *

I was lying when I said I didn’t think of anything.

I in fact thought of something almost immediately—one of the many, many differences between pony and human magic.

You see, ponies can visit other people’s dreams, but humans cannot. At least, I haven’t found a way to do it that worked, unlike the rest of the psychic phenomena I investigated.

My Element of Magic gem has completely regrown. With it, I can use advanced astral projection to permanently sever my spirit from my body, becoming a living ghost. Only in this state can I become a pony again and use pony magic. And only in this way can I hunt down the Tantabus. Thanks to breaking that mirror, nobody else in the world can do this but me.

But that is only as it should be. I awoke this monster from its millennial sleep under the Canterhorn with my foalish power scheme, so I must be the one to put it back, at the cost of my mortal existence.

Even so, I might fail. I have the power of a single gem, while the Tantabus is powered by every other part of the Element of Magic, making it far stronger than me. And with every tormented soul it feeds on, it grows even stronger.

So, I might not succeed, Applejack. Yes, I know that you’re reading this—I left a message on Rarity’s cell phone after she went to sleep telling her that I had a way to stop the Tantabus, and hinting that I knew all about [ what your sister turned into ].

You might have thought that what happened to your family didn’t make any sense, but I think it makes perfect sense. By your actions in opposing me, you taught your sister how to recognize and fight back against the forces of evil. And when the Tantabus tried to seduce her, tried perhaps to seduce not only her but also her two closest friends, she turned the powers of the dream beast against itself. She wished for the power to stop the Tantabus once and for all, and that is exactly what she got.

I’m not saying this is fair. No world is fair that would send a child into battle against a demon.

It’s simply a cold, cruel fact that if I fail, your sister is this world’s last desperate hope.

* * *

My name is Sunset Shimmer. I am a miniature unicorn from a parallel Earth disguised as an ordinary human schoolgirl.

I have dedicated the last four years of my life to gathering as much power as possible, for the stupidest reason imaginable. If you’d like all the humiliating details, start with the spot I have conveniently bookmarked for you in this diary which I have conveniently placed for you in my unlocked apartment. I am not here right now, and I will be unable to answer your messages.

For you see, I have become this world’s dream guardian.

Think of me, human children, when your nightmares have become too much to bear, and I will come to rescue you.

And tell the Princess that I love her.

Author’s Note: And so ends “Tantabus”. The actual climax of the story is, unsurprisingly, a spoiler for the fanfic this belongs with.

You may have noticed that I pretty much gave up on spoilers right at the end there, so if you’ve ever read the fanfic I’m “improving”, you almost certainly recognize it by now. If not, perhaps I should add that Sunset’s story apartment number was 244343.

And if that author is reading this, what can I say? I couldn’t help myself. And I think most of your story is really awesome.

Update: By this point in Bloom Filter, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo have also turned into ponies, and are experimenting with their new abilities. Among them is a new ability for us readers: they can go into each other's dreams, and the dreams of others.

And then a year's worth of regular chapter updates go by, and all that happens is that more and more humans turn into ponies. Only now is the plot truly advancing, with talk of what this pocket world used to be before the time loops and how all of it was a way to protect the realm from...well, we haven't gotten to that part yet. I'm still holding out hope that when everything is revealed, it will all be worth it, but what I'm afraid of is that the only really good part of the story was the first dozen chapters, when the A plot was supreme and the B plot was easy to ignore.

But what do I know?

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Huh. Well, I can honestly say that I'd never heard of that story. I'm going to have to check it out now, for context at the very least.

Thank you for this, McPoodle. It was a fascinating journey.