It was late in the evening as all of Equestria was asleep. Luna was asleep as well in her room, in the middle of a dream. She needed a break from helping her subjects from her nightmares, even stopping the Nightmare Dream Eaters that had appeared as well. Those kinds of Nightmares never showed up as often, thankfully, but fighting them was just as tiresome as fighting the Heartless in the waking world.
Luna stood in front of the dais in the old castle she and Celestia used to live in over a thousand years ago. It was a place of nostalgia for her back when they were younger with all the traps they set up for each other, but with the the windows and parts of the room destroyed, it was only a reminder of her past mistakes. Her ears perked up as she heard several hoofsteps approach the throne room from across the castle halls, knowing exactly who would be coming toward her in her own dream.
From the broken window behind the alicorn, a blue, starry mist hovered into view, Luna's ear flicking back as she heard it. "Greetings, Tantabus," she said. "I am ready. Do your worst."
The Tantabus began glowing an ominous red aura around itself, affecting Luna as she suddenly grunted in pain. From the opened throne room doors, the Mane Six ran inside, gasping in horror as they saw Luna float in the air, a dark sphere beginning to form around her body, though they don't see the mist monster causing the alicorn's torment.
"Oh no!" Twilight exclaimed. "Luna's turning into Nightmare Moon! Again!"
Inside the sphere, Luna began laughing maniacally as her body began changing, her persona as Nightmare Moon returning to her. She grew taller, her teeth turned into fangs, her coat turned darker as her mane became more ethereal like the night sky, wings changing and horn growing sharper. Nightmare Moon spread out her wings, shattering the dark sphere as she looked down at the Elements of Harmony, no longer wielding the mystical gems after returning them to the Tree of Harmony.
"Oh, yeah?" Rainbow said. "Well, we've got a cure for that!"
The six mares grinned as they tapped into their rainbow forms, their bodies shining as spheres of light surrounded them matching their coat's color before shattering. Now in their new, harmonious forms, Twilight summoned her Keyblade in its powered up form, concentrating all her magic from the Elements and the power of light within them. They fired six beams of light at the transformed alicorn, only for a dark barrier surrounding her stopping it right in its tracks. Nightmare Moon laughed, their light far too weak for the darkness she had inside of her.
She soon stopped as she saw the barrier begin to disappear, turning around to see what the Tantabus was doing. "What? What are you-?" Nightmare Moon gasped as she saw the mist of blue and starry night tear open a hole in her dream and slipped out into the dreamscape. "No! It's gone!"
Before she could chase after it, Twilight gathered the light from herself and her friends into her Keyblade, flapping forward as her eyes glowed a bright white. Spotting the light, Nightmare Moon turned and got struck in the chest, the light fired from the end of the lavender alicorn's blade eradicating the darkness around her as it disappeared into a dark mist. Luna returned to normal, utterly shocked and confused as the six mares cheered and surrounded her, saving her from the darkness of her heart yet again.
Luna gasped as she woke with a start, panting heavily as the dream she had was still fresh on her mind. "...My dream...ended happily?" Panic began sinking in, not only because she didn't plan on having any good dreams, but the fact the Tantabus is somewhere out in the dreamscape and could cause more harm to someone else. "This can't be happening...How did it manage to find its way out?"
Nearly nearly jumped out of her bed as she heard a knock on her door. "Luna? Are you alright?" Celestia opened the door, looking concerned when she heard her sister. "Did something happen?"
"...I-I'm fine, Tia," Luna said, keeping a straight face despite now worrying about where the Tantabus ran off to. "Somepony had...a waking nightmare, and sent me out of the dream realm."
"Oh..." Celestia could tell there was something else going on. "...Are you sure you're alright? You didn't join all of us at the Gala a week ago. It was a lot more exciting than a boring royal ball like before."
"Yes, I'm fine," Luna lied. "I'm not ready for these social gatherings just yet."
"I can understand the first year you came back since you were still recovering from your return, but last year's, I thought you would have wanted everypony to see you there when you finally left the castle for Nightmare Night. You even went last year when we dressed as each other to try to surprise everypony in Ponyville." The lunar princess looked down at her hooves, her unresponsiveness making Celestia's concerns turn to fear, dreading the outcome if this continued any further. "Luna, please don't shut me out...I don't want to lose you again."
"Sister, I swear I am fine," Luna assured as she stood up from her bed. She approached her worried older sibling and nuzzled her. "I don't mean to be silent, but I'm not going to turn into Nightmare Moon again."
"I just don't want to make the same mistakes I did back then," Celestia said, slightly relieved, though her fears still stuck with her. "I blatantly ignored your feelings when everypony practically worshiped me and left you under my shadow, and the only one who cared was..." Luna's ears drooped, knowing who her sister was talking about. She still felt ashamed that what happened to Sombra was both their fault and the blame was on an evil Keyblade wielder of the past who tricked him. She once had someone to rely on, but before she even knew what made him that way, she had lost all hope that there would be someone out there who cared about what she did. Celestia embraced her little sister in apology for bringing up Luna's beloved. "...I was so blinded by fame at such a young age...I don't want that to happen again..."
"...If only we could alter our actions in the past to make things right for the future," Luna muttered. "...But, Star Swirl warned us that time is fragile, and even if his spell was able to take him as far as a week from the present, even the small window of time before returning is delicate to keep time flowing with no changes."
"I agree, but we all make mistakes. The only thing we can do is try to fix those mistakes and learn from them." As helpful as Celestia's advice was, Luna still didn't think that her mistakes could ever be mended. A sudden flash appeared in front of Celestia, surprising the two alicorns as a rolled up scroll floated in front of the tall, white alicorn. "Oh. A letter from Sora. Been quite a while since we last sent messages to each other." Before she opened the scroll, instead of it being addressed to her, it was for Luna. "I think it's for you, Luna."
"For me? What does he want that requires conversation when we could communicate in the dream realm?" Luna noticed Celestia cocked her head in confusion by what her sister meant. "Oh. Keyblade wielders can also traverse the dreamscape as well. And there's...also other creatures that exist in dreams both helpful and dangerous called Dream Eaters."
"...I see...What exactly are 'Dream Eaters'?" Celestia asked curiously.
"Cute and fuzzy dream animals, evil ones with darker colors called 'Nightmares' and good ones with brighter colors are known as 'Spirits'," Luna simply explained, her sister getting the gist of it despite not being savvy with dream traveling as her. Taking the scroll, she opened it and read it to herself. Her eyes grew wide in shock at what Sora wrote to her, desperate to get to Ponyville immediately. "I have to go! I'll be back!"
"Wait, what-?" Luna teleported away before Celestia could even ask what the trouble was that involved their assistance. "...What's going on this time?"
Down in Ponyville, everyone had planned to gather at Rarity's boutique for the Mane Six's pets. They were in need of some grooming, and with everything happening lately, they barely had any time for a pet play date. Even though the Keyblade wielders were left out since they had no pets of their own, they joined in to help them, though they did most of the work with how tired the ponies were.
"Ahh! Winona!" Sora exclaimed, getting soaked from the shaking collie after he gave her a bath, failing to dry her off in time. "Ugh...Dogs. They can't wait to dry off before getting toweled off."
Grabbing the towel, he dropped it on the now clean Apple family companion, drying off whatever moisture remained on Winona's fur. The other wielders were busy grooming the other pets: Aqua brushing Opal's fur with a brush, the feline surprisingly calm around her more than Rarity, Kairi keeping the fussy bunny, Angel, still while she gave him his bath, Ventus gave Tank's shell a little waxing to shine it up, Riku preened Owlowiscious's feathers, and Terra gave Gummi a massage, though why Pinkie said he loved them baffled the stallion.
"Uhh, Pinkie? You sure I'm doing this right?" Terra asked in confusion. "I don't think alligators need massages."
"Gummi likes them!" Pinkie said, randomly cartwheeling around the room.
Despite seeming exhausted like the other five mares, she still seemed to have some energy in her. Terra looked down at the dopey gator, blinking its eyes randomly as it let out a small grumble.
"...I think his massage is done," Terra muttered.
"Thanks for helping us, guys," Twilight said with a yawn.
"What did the six of you even do last night?" Riku asked, straightening the feather's on his girlfriend's pet's wing. "Nothing dangerous came up."
"I don't know," Fluttershy mumbled, her head drooping as she started nodding off. "I even went to bed early last night. I had this really scary nightmare, and I couldn't go back to sleep after that."
"Me too!" the other tired mares said simultaneously.
"B-But, mine wasn't all that scary!" Rainbow said, playing off her fear poorly if she stayed up all night like the others had.
"Mine sure was, and even though I've experienced dream traveling in some way, I felt completely helpless," Twilight said. "I saw this strange blue smoke monster and..." The alicorn paused when she saw the shocked looks on her friends' faces. "...What?"
"I dreamt about that smoke monster too!" Rarity said, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Rainbow, and Applejack nodding their heads, apparently a huge coincidence if the Mane Six had the same exact nightmare.
"So, if you girls had the exact same nightmare, how come the rest of us didn't?" Aqua pondered, the thought concerning the other Keyblade wielders and Spike.
"I don't know, but I think we should get some help from Princess Luna," Twilight suggested. Spike was way ahead of her, pulling out a quill and parchment to prepare writing. "'Dear Princess Luna-'"
Twilight yawned and nodded off, snoring lightly as her head drooped down. "Uhh, Twilight?"
"I think she's too exhausted to say what she wants written down." Sora finished drying off Winona, the collie poking her head up from the soaked towel as he approached Spike and took the quill and parchment from him. "I'll write the letter."
Dear Princess Luna,
Something strange has happened with the girls down here in Ponyville. Apparently, they've experienced a nightmare where they saw a blue smoke monster in their dreams. The others, including myself, weren't affected by this same nightmare for some reason, so we don't know if it's some sort of Dream Eater or a strange kind of dream you might be able to tell us. When you have the time, let us know what's going on.
Your friend,
Sora
After signing his name, Sora rolled the scroll up and wrote Luna's name on the outside. Calling his Keyblade, he fired a small beam of light at it, transporting it to Celestia to give to her sister.
"There. Let's hope she responds soon," he said, only to not wait long as the door to Rarity's home was flung open.
"Who saw the smoke monster!?" Luna questioned in a panic.
"Wow. That was fast," Riku muttered.
"We did," Twilight said, gesturing her hoof to the other ex-bearers of the Elements of Harmony. "You've encountered this monster too?"
"Yes, unfortunately," Luna admitted. "The Tantabus is a creature of my nightmares, and it escaped from my dream last night."
"The 'Tantabus'?" Aqua asked. "Never heard of anything like that. And how did it get into their dreams?"
"It is like a parasite," the blue alicorn explained. "My dreams must not be enough for it. Now it is seeking other dreams to infect and corrupt, targeting the Elements of Harmony when I saw them in my dream when I...well, subconsciously dreamt I was Nightmare Moon again and was stopped."
"Wait, you dreamt about them and not me!?" Sora questioned in offense. "I was the one who did all the hard work trying to save you before!"
"Did you want your worst nightmares to feel all too real that you would fear falling back to sleep and relive it?" Luna responded.
Sora opened his mouth to retort, but she did have a point. "...Oh...Guess they were that bad if the girls couldn't go back to sleep...But still, target me and not them."
"I can't control my own dreams. Even if I could, my subconscious acts on its own, just like everypony else's," Luna said.
"So, that smoke monster just gave us bad dreams. Big deal," Rainbow said.
"It is a big deal," Luna said seriously. "I witnessed the Tantabus growing stronger, but I didn't think it was powerful enough to escape my dreams at all. If its power continues to grow, then it could find a way to escape out into the real world, turning all of Equestria into a living nightmare!"
The others gasped in surprise at the horrible outcome. "Ok, that might be worse than having the world threatened to be swallowed by darkness!" Aqua exclaimed. "And if it can escape the dream world, then it might also find its way to other worlds!"
"Then we must not delay," Luna said. "Before night falls, I'll need everything to be set up so we can stop the Tantabus before it causes more havoc in others dreams and grow more powerful."
Later that evening, the Keyblade wielders got to work on setting up Twilight's bedroom for Luna's plan. The Princess of Friendship's room was big enough to place five extra beds inside for Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity. When it was time for Luna's plan to be executed, the Mane Six climbed into their beds while Luna, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Aqua, Terra, and Ventus stood in the middle of the circle of beds.
"Ok, everything seems ready," Riku said.
"This is kind of exciting!" Pinkie said. "It's like a really big princess sleepover!"
"Speaking of, why don't you ask Celestia for help?" Twilight asked curiously. "Surely, she could help stop the Tantabus, too."
"Unfortunately, my sister does not have any power in the realm of sleep," Luna explained. "Only I am able to move from dream to dream. And since you say you were able to enter dreams as well, Twilight, it is better for you to dream so we may have a better chance of finding the Tantabus if it decided to hide in your subconscious." She lowered her head in misery, her ears drooping sadly. "The six of you have suffered because of me."
"Hey, don't worry, Luna," Sora assured, patting the alicorn's shoulder. "You've got six extra hunters with you. Each of us will pick a pony and get a head start, try to find it and catch it...But first, who's going in Pinkie's? Not it!"
"Not it!" Ventus, Aqua, Kairi, and Riku said simultaneously, leaving Terra as the unfortunate volunteer to enter the dreams of Pinkie Pie.
"Oh, joy," Terra groaned. "Thanks for the heads up..."
"And I'll keep watch over the girls while you guys hunt that Tantabus," Spike said. "Just in case something happens and I need to ask Celestia for some help anyway."
"Thanks, Spike," Twilight said, happy to have someone as supportive as the baby dragon.
"Well, there's one good thing about not gettin' any sleep last night at least," Applejack said with a yawn, getting comfortable in her bed. "Shouldn't be hard to fall asleep now."
"Are you kidding!?" Pinkie shrieked, freaking Applejack out as she suddenly popped out from under her covers and laid beside her. "This is so exciting, I don't know how I'm ever going to-!"
Pinkie plopped her head down on Applejack's pillow and began snoring, falling asleep within one second. The others shook their head, Kairi carefully levitating Pinkie back to her bed. Soon, the other tired mares followed Pinkie's example and fell asleep.
"You know, I wondered how you always traveled around the dream realm if you don't have a Keyblade," Sora said.
"Magic," Riku answered, earning a jab in the shoulder from his friend.
"We must be quick and find the Tantabus," Luna said, charging her magic to begin her spell. "It will appear the moment they begin dreaming, and it can slip away to anypony else's to escape."
Luna flapped her wings and hovered in the air, the spirals of her horn beginning to glow white as the end of her appendage released a bright glow. Strings of white aura shot out from the alicorn's horn, the six magical lines flowing out around them until they attached themselves to the slumbering mares. The Keyblade wielders stared in awe, watching the magical connection to how Luna entered the dreams of ponies, at least within close range of them.
"Ok, that's pretty cool," Ventus said.
"Let's not admire it for long," Aqua reminded. "We need to help Luna catch the Tantabus."
The others nodded, each of them standing before the foot of each mare's bed, Terra feeling reluctant to jump into Pinkie's dream. With Keyblades held, the six ponies shot a beam of light before them, opening the portals to access the Mane Six's dreams. As they jumped through, Luna began entering Rarity's dream first once her spell was tethered so she could jump through into another dream if the Tantabus fled from her.
Aqua dove into Rarity's dream, flipping over onto her feet once she reached the ground. Though the room seemed dark, resembling the inside of the Carousel Boutique, it didn't seem much like a nightmare right at the moment. She heard Rarity squeal in delight around the corner, walking toward where the unicorn was. Dancing around the room around Rarity, Aqua wasn't all that surprised to see dozens of similar looking dresses floating about.
"Of course she'd have a dream about dresses," Aqua said to herself. "What's next? Being a princess and married to the perfect prince?"
"Aqua! There you are, darling!" Rarity greeted. "Glad you dropped into my dream. Aren't these dresses just avante garde?" While the unicorn and woman watched the dancing dresses, they didn't notice the Tantabus sneak around, floating over to one of the dresses behind them. The nightmare monster phased through the dress, making it fall to the ground. It got back up, its appearance changing slightly to turn into a monster: ribbons floating up above the collar to appear like eyes, the frills of the collar turning into sharp teeth, and a red lace from inside the dress turning into a serpentine tongue. It let out a screech and ran right toward them, alerting the duo before Aqua sliced the dress to pieces. More of them soon began to change, the Keyblade Master spotting the starry smoke monster flying out of one of the dresses. "Forget avante garde! I should have said en garde!"
"Just stay close to me, Rar-" One of the dresses suddenly shot its lacy tongue out, grabbing Aqua's right arm. "Hey!" She was suddenly pulled away from the unicorn, surprised by the strength coming from the light, frilly dresses. As she flew into it, other dresses beginning to surround the two of them, Aqua shot a Firaga spell at the nightmare dress that snatched her, burning it to shreds in a ball of fire. "Attack of the killer dresses. I expected clashing colors and out of date styles in a fashionista's nightmare."
While Aqua slashed through and burned the dresses that pounced her, Rarity was in a panic blasting the evil dresses away from her with her magic, though doing very little destroying them. One of the dresses imploded and tore into pieces, Luna teleporting from inside it as she looked around at the nightmarish carnage.
"It's here," she uttered to herself. The alicorn spotted the Tantabus creating more nightmare dresses, sicing them on her to keep her away from it. "You won't elude me so easily, Tantabus."
Luna fired a beam of magic straight through the monstrous outfits, tearing them to shreds. "Luna, heads up!" Aqua warned as more dresses came after the alicorn from behind her. Aqua aimed her Keyblade and unleashed more Firaga spells, blasting them to cinders and burnt ashes. The woman stood beside Luna, seeing the Tantabus up close for the first time. "So, this thing is the Tantabus. Doesn't look strong right now."
"But it will if Rarity is still suffering from this nightmare," Luna said.
She winced as she blamed herself for giving the unicorn such a terrible dream, the Tantabus somehow growing a little bit. Aqua noticed the mist monster's sudden growth spurt, but hearing Rarity shriek diverted both of their attention, completely buried under the attacking dresses. Looking back, they saw the Tantabus rip a hole in the dreamscape and escape into someone else's dream.
"Luna, you go after the Tantabus," Aqua said. "I'm going to help Rarity."
"Ok." Luna flapped her wings and flew off after the Tantabus, Aqua running back and saving Rarity, slicing through the nightmare dresses.
"What kind of monster would do such a thing to such beautiful chiffon!?" Rarity cried in misery.
"You're worried about clothes that tried to eat you?" Aqua asked, only to have the dresses lash their tongues out at her, this time grabbing both her arms. She grunted and pulled back, slowly losing the tug-of-war as she skid toward more and more dresses. "Ok, this is seriously getting ridiculous! How many of these matching dresses did you dream up!?"
"I don't know, but I think there's a lot more than just these ones!" Rarity yelped as she felt the dresses' laced tongues grabbed her hind legs. They tripped her off her hooves and pulled her toward them, helplessly trying to crawl away. "Aqua! Help! These dresses are going to eat me!"
"Don't imagine them having actual teeth and stomachs!" Aqua exclaimed, only to yelp herself as she was entangled in more tongues and harshly pulled into a massive pile of monster dresses.
Terra nosedived down into Pinkie Pie's dream, dreading what insane things the mare will dream up with how she acts. Before he could ready himself to land, the calm scenery suddenly shifted to the city of Canterlot, the man yelping as he was heading straight toward the roof of one of the buildings. Unable to land properly, he fell stomach first onto the building with a painful thud. He didn't have one second to groan in pain before the building disappeared, falling once again onto the ground in the Everfree Forest.
"Urgh...What is happening?" Terra groaned.
He got up on his knees, rubbing his abdomen. Looking up, he saw the world change again, this time in Ponyville with Pinkie bouncing past him.
"Hi, Terra!" Pinkie greeted.
"Pinkie, what's with all the-?" The dream suddenly changed yet again, only this time, Terra's words died in his throat. Leering at him, crouched low, was a red dragon that was at least ten times his size, licking its lips as it found a tasty morsel to snack on. "...Uhhh, Pinkie!? Dream something else, please!" The dragon opened its mouth, lunging its neck forward, but Terra's prayers were answered as the scenery changed again, this time in a part of Cloudsdale. "Whew. Thank goodness."
He fell back to land his head on the cloudy surface, only to smack his head on concrete, Pinkie's dream changing once again, this time in the middle of Manehattan. Luna appeared, looking around frantically as she seemed to be just as lost as Terra was.
"Terra, have you seen the Tantabus?" she asked. "I followed it here after escaping from Rarity's dream."
"I don't even know if I can find the exit in Pinkie's dream!" Terra exclaimed. "She keeps bouncing dreams around, and I don't have a clue where she's going to end up! And where is she, anyway!?"
He got his answer as the two of them were warped to another change in scenery, finally with Pinkie as they wound up inside Sugarcube Corner with dozens of different cakes strewn about on the tables and counter. "Ooooh! Cake!" Pinkie squealed. Terra and Luna facepalmed/facehooved, her random dream swapping finally stopping when sweets appear in her dreams. The Tantabus showed itself, phasing through a cake Pinkie approached and turned it into a monster. It spat frosting at her, now wearing a creepy face on each layer with arms made of icing poking out from its sides. The others soon came to life, Pinkie backing away in disgust. "Ewww! Cake!"
Terra acted first, protecting Pinkie from the pony-eating cakes with a swing of his Keyblade. Unfortunately, slashing through them all around Pinkie made them into slices, creating monster cake slices. They snarled and leapt onto Terra, trying to bite at him as they grabbed his arms and legs, even latching onto his chest and back.
"Ah! Get off of me!" Terra shook the living cake slices off of him, splattering them to the ground, then grabbed the ones on his front and back and throwing them against the wall. One of the multi-layered cakes spat frosting at his face, grumbling in annoyance as he wiped it off. "Ok, these cakes are a bit undercooked. I'll fix that."
Aiming his Keyblade up, he unleashed a Fission Firaga spell, wheels of fire swirling around him and spread out to burn the cakes more. The monsters screeched as they were cooked to a crisp, charred black and crumbled to ashes. Seeing no more pastries to possess into a nightmare, Terra spotted the Tantabus trying to hide. He lunged forward with a yell to slam his Keyblade down on it, only for the scenery to change to the Crystal Empire near the palace, his attack missing as the Tantabus warped as well after fleeing into a box.
"Sorry!" Pinkie apologized as Luna and Terra leered at her. "I can't control where my dreams will end up at!"
"Of course not," Terra grumbled.
"I'll find it," Luna said. "It probably entered another dream as the dream hopped around. As rare as this kind of dreaming can be, it's so bothersome trying to find the dreamer."
The alicorn flew through a rift to continue hunting the Tantabus, leaving Terra alone with Pinkie. "Wait! Take me with you!" he begged, but Pinkie hopped to another random dream scenario, making the dream rift disappear. "NOOOO!"
"Hey, don't feel bad, Terra!" Pinkie said. He turned around, spotting a giant ice cream cone with a large scoop of chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry ice cream, topped with hot fudge, sprinkles, and a cherry. "Who wants ice cream!?"
Poking their heads out of the windows and doors in the houses were all of the residents of Ponyville. They left their homes and gathered around the ice cream, talking excitedly while they all tried to get a taste of the frozen dairy treat. Terra, however, didn't want any ice cream, dream or not, now on a search to find where the exit of Pinkie's head was supposed to be.
"Sora, why didn't you just jump in here?" he asked himself. He wandered around Ponyville for a while, only to end up back by the ice cream in the middle of town. Pinkie was seen on top gnawing at the cherry while everyone else beneath the scoops complained about wanting the cherry first. Terra let out a frustrated sigh and fell on his back. "...I'm going to be stuck in here forever, aren't I?"
After Kairi landed in a vast meadow that wasn't too far away from Fluttershy's cottage, she wondered where the pegasus was. She half expected a lot of different animals around, though there weren't many to be seen. As she made her way around to the front yard of her home, she balked when she saw Fluttershy sitting in front of a giant Angel, the grumpy bunny not so grumpy as he brushed the mare's mane.
Fluttershy let out a sigh as her giant pet rabbit groomed her. "It's nice to be the pet for once."
Kairi couldn't help but snicker at the pet/owner swap. "Oh my gosh, Fluttershy. You have dreams of being a pet? If only you weren't able to talk, then I'd immediately adopt her in a heartbeat."
They were both unaware of the Tantabus sneaking into Fluttershy's dream, floating its way over to Angel and transformed him. Kairi gasped in shock as she saw the new Nightmare Angel: blue and white striped curved horns on his head, red and yellow eyes, purple claws, sharp teeth, a purple underbelly, his tail grown longer with orange and yellow flame-like hairs at the end, and a blue tuft of fur around his neck. The nightmare rabbit leered down at Fluttershy, stroking her hair with his sharp claws instead of the brush, his drooling maw dripping into her mane. Confused, the pegasus looked up, gasping in terror as Angel roared, scaring her even more.
"N-n-n-nice...giant...evil...Angel...!" Nightmare Angel lifted its paw to slam the defenseless, paralyzed mare into the ground.
"Stopga!" Kairi shouted, releasing her magic on the monstrous rabbit. Angel froze in time as a magical clock appeared over its head. Kairi quickly grabbed Fluttershy, too stunned to move, carrying her to safety away from the frozen rabbit. "Fluttershy, are you alright?"
"W-What just happened!?" Fluttershy asked.
"I think the Tantabus is here." Looking around, Kairi spotted the misty nightmare creature floating around to find something else to corrupt with Nightmare Angel frozen in time. Luna entered Fluttershy's dream and searched around for it, finding Kairi and Fluttershy as she hovered in the air. "Luna, the Tantabus is here!"
Before the alicorn could chase after it, the spell on Angel ended, continuing slamming its arm down on where Fluttershy previously was. Looking around in confusion, it spotted the two mares and young woman, roaring angrily and charged straight toward them.
"Ahh! Angel's coming!" Fluttershy shrieked. "I want to wake up!"
"No! You must stay asleep!" Luna warned. "I must not lose the Tantabus now!"
"I'll distract it, you find that nightmare!" Kairi said, standing before Fluttershy to defend her from her dream-conjured pet turned into a demon. Luna nodded and flew after the Tantabus, disappearing in a birdhouse and into another dream. She created a doorway and chased it before losing its trail, leaving the Keyblade wielder behind with the shivering pegasus behind her. "Fluttershy, fly up to a cloud or something while I take care of Angel!"
"I-I can't!" Fluttershy said, cowering behind Kairi.
As Angel got closer, Kairi cast a Thundaga spell on the rabbit, stunning it before unleashing Aeroga on him. The powerful winds sent the behemoth of a critter sailing back hard, sending him crashing through Fluttershy's cottage, thankfully being a dream house and not the real thing.
"Ok, just stay here then," Kairi said. "If you see any other Nightmares, get far away from them, but don't wake up."
"I don't know if I can even wake up on my own," Fluttershy mumbled nervously, Kairi already too far away to hear her as she ran toward Nightmare Angel.
Sora wandered around the apple orchard with his arms behind his head, not surprised to see what Applejack dreams about. "Apples everywhere, and not a bite to eat. Speaking of apples, where is that mare at in this dream orchard of hers?" He spotted Applejack a few rows of trees down, shining a large red apple bending the tree it grew on. It was almost like the same giant apple she grew for the harvest festival a while back, only to use it on Fluttershy when she turned into a pony vampire bat. "Hey, Applejack! You have a really bad addiction to apples, no matter how well they keep a dentist away!"
Looking away from her best dream, Applejack leered at Sora with his goofy smirk. "Ha ha, Sora. Real funny."
"Next thing you know, you're going to start creating a fictional language if apples could talk. 'Apples, apples, apples, apples!" Sora had an apple flung at his head, hitting him directly in the forehead.
"Ah haven't gone insane, Sora," Applejack chided, the teen grinning with a nervous giggle as he rubbed his forehead.
Both of them were unaware of the Tantabus floating its way toward them, phasing through the apple like a worm. The massive fruit suddenly began to shrivel up into a rotten core, escaping into the next dream. Luna was seen for a moment, ignoring Applejack's horrified shock to chase after the nightmarish mist.
"Wow, that's all the Tantabus is going to do to you?" Sora asked. His question was answered at the sound of dozens of squeaking sounds coming from the orchard. Flying in was a massive horde of vampire fruit bats, all of them diving down onto the branches and began eating all of Applejack's apples. The earth pony glowered at the Keyblade wielder, ignoring the angry glare on her face as he scratched his cheek. "Uhh, I should shut up and help save your dream now?"
"Sounds like a good idea," Applejack said, sounding more like an order than a suggestion.
The dream bats began attacking the farm pony, Applejack yelping and running away as they tried to go after her cutie marks, thinking the apples on her flank were real. "Hang on, Applejack!" Sora called out, summoning his Keyblade and chased after the bats chasing her, firing Thunder spells and swinging his Keyblade wildly to shoo them away. "Go on! Git! Out you flying mice of fruit-related death!"
Ventus landed in a cave upon diving into dreams for the first time by himself. While looking around, he looked down at himself, noticing a slight change to his clothing. Though he lacked his armor pieces he usually wore and his clothes still designed the same, there were added tornadoes patterned around his shirt, jacket, and shorts.
"Sora really didn't have much of a change in clothing while dream dropping unlike the first time," Ventus noted. "Maybe because it was a trap Xehanort set for him, those other clothes were created to leave some kind of marker on him. I thought I was able to save him when he ended up falling asleep while in the dream world, but I almost got him and Riku killed..."
Ventus snapped out of his thoughts as he heard fighting in the distance. He could hear Rainbow Dash grunting, intimidating hissing sounds, and magic spells being cast as he spotted sparks, embers, and shards of ice shooting out in the distance. Summoning his Keyblade, he ran toward the fighting to help the pegasus in whatever nightmare she was already in, the Tantabus either already transforming the dream or wasn't here just yet and Rainbow's subconscious was giving her a bad dream. Leaping out from behind a group of large stalagmites, he gawked in shock and disbelief at what he saw.
Caught in the middle of a group of changelings was Rainbow Dash, but she was wielding a Keyblade: the blade longer than it should be for someone as fast as her, shimmering a myriad of colors that flashed with each strike making contact to the changelings, the keychain hanging off the oddly shaped lightning bolt guard was an image of her face giving a wink. Her swordplay mimicked Sora's, though she was mostly showing off after knocking back each changeling, getting herself caught in a headlock from behind. Ventus didn't need to save her as she cast magic, unleashing a barrage of Thundaga spells that would have quickly drained away more than three times an average Keyblade wielder's mana supply. She shocked the one behind her and the others, celebrating before even bothering finishing them off.
"Yeah! Don't mess with Keyblade Master Rainbow Dash, you giant bugs!" Rainbow taunted. As she looked around at the stunned changelings, she noticed Ventus giving her a blank stare, unamused by her dream. "Hey, Ven! Don't really need your help in the best dream ever, but I could use an audience."
"...You dream of being a Keyblade Master?" Ventus asked quizically, pointing at the absurd looking Keyblade the pegasus was holding. "And you think that's what you'll end up getting IF you got one?"
"Yup! Pretty cool, huh?" she asked.
Ventus facepalmed and groaned in irritation. "How many times will it take until the word 'no' finally gets into your head?"
Luna appeared beside Ventus in a flash of light, surprised to see attacking changelings stunned around Rainbow Dash. "...Did any of you see the Tantabus? Has it already turned Rainbow's dream into a nightmare?"
"Apparently, this is Rainbow's good dream," Ventus said. "It's a nightmare to look at that obnoxious looking Keyblade she created with her imagination."
"It's a lot better than yours," Rainbow argued. "And it's longer, so I don't have to risk getting hit all the time."
"Not the point!" Ventus argued back.
The trio didn't pay attention to the Tantabus as it showed itself, ripping through Rainbow's dream and transforming the entire world her subconscious created. The cavern disappeared and turned into a bright and colorful meadow, the changelings no longer around as they looked around in utter confusion. Even Rainbow Dash's dream Keyblade disappeared from her hoof.
"Hey, what just happened!?" Rainbow asked.
[Sunflowers]
We are such happy flowers
Looking behind them, they saw a row of happy, big eyed sunflowers, slowly swaying to the tune they were singing.
We will now sing for hours
Aren't we unbearably cute?
Watch me solo on jazz flute
Though they tried to sound menacing on the last couple lines of their song, one of the flowers held a flute in its leaves and began playing a whimsical tune on the wind instrument. Ventus and Luna blinked in confusion, only a little bit creeped out by sunflowers that tried to act menacing. Rainbow Dash, however, screamed in utter terror as she covered her ears.
"No! My dream's turned into a nightmare!" Rainbow screamed, backing away from more sunflowers popping up around her. "Ahh! Get away from me! It's horrible!"
"...Uhhhhh...what?" Ventus questioned, completely dumbfounded. "This...is Rainbow's nightmare???"
"Some ponies have...strange nightmares," Luna explained. "Though, how a colorful, cutesy dream like this is considered nightmarish...I think the flowers alone are the only scary things here...And they failed to act menacing." Ventus and Luna continued to watch Rainbow Dash fearing the harmless talking sunflowers, the one with the flute still playing its tune. They had no idea whether to help her or just keep watching in stunned amusement. Luna spotted the Tantabus disappear, apparently staying around to watch Rainbow Dash suffer for a while before moving on to Twilight's dream, the last of the six mares it decided to attack. "...I am going to try to stop the Tantabus."
"Ok...I'll just stay here...and do...something," Ventus said.
Luna continued hunting down the Tantabus, leaving the teen to deal with the "nightmare" of happy flowers harassing Rainbow Dash in the colorful meadow. One of the flowers appeared beside him, looking at him with its big eyes and happy grin.
"Hi!" the flower greeted. "Would you like a hug? Of doom!?"
Ventus gave the flower a blank stare before lifting up his leg, stepping down on the sunflower as it let out a startled yelp before being crushed. "How about a squish instead?" Sighing in annoyance, he twirled his Keyblade around in his hand before walking over to the terrified mare surrounded by flowers. "Time to do some weeding..."
Once Riku dove completely into Twilight's dream, he walked around the massive library of bookshelves with knowledge only the alicorn knew held in its pages, some of those books animated and flying around like birds by some magical force. "How typical for her dreams. Books everywhere and pursuing knowledge, even if she's supposed to rest her brain after studying all day." It didn't take long to find her as he followed the flying tomes. Twilight was busy minding her business looking through a pile of books, though whatever was on there was either new knowledge she made up or something she already knows. Riku snuck up behind her and placed his hands over her eyes, startling her as he covered them. "Dreaming about books and not me, Twi? How dare you?"
Twilight swatted Riku's hands away and turned to face him with a pout. "Well, you were going to show up in my dream to save me from the Tantabus, weren't you? Maybe I shouldn't give you a reward if you do save me."
"Is it a book?" Riku asked. Twilight puffed her cheeks angrily as she glared at him, growling in annoyance as he gave her muzzle a light boop. "Because if it is, I'm looking for something in the romance section. But it has to be a very specific story where the hero who rescues the princess gets a kiss after saving her from a dangerous monster that held her prisoner."
"The 'hero' won't get a kiss if he keeps teasing the princess and complains about the dreams she has," Twilight said.
She went back to her books, only to yelp when she felt Riku's arms wrap around her barrel and lift her out of her seat. "I'm going to change this dream myself to something other than books. You don't need to be around them every single hour of the day. Including in your sleep. You even use some as a pillow."
"I do not!" Twilight argued, her cheeks turning pink as Riku held her while she flailed her legs helplessly. "And stop teasing me! The Tantabus could be here at any minute, and I don't want to have another nightmare again!"
"Hey, relax. I'm here, and it hasn't shown up yet," Riku said, lowering his girlfriend down and gently rubbed her ears to help calm her.
Twilight whined, her legs feeling like putty as her sensitive ears were rubbed. Trying to flick them away from Riku's fingers didn't help much as he kept a gentle, but firm grip on them.
"Rikuuuuu, stooooop!" she moaned, her head leaning closer to her body's disobedience to her mind's protests. She squinted her eyes open through the pleasurable massage her ears were getting, letting out a startled gasp as she saw the tailed wisp of the Tantabus fly behind one of the bookshelves. "R-Riku, seriously, stop! I saw the Tantabus!"
Looking up, Riku caught sight of the Tantabus flying behind the bookshelves, keeping his head low as he kept his eye on it while continuing to tease Twilight's ears. "I see it. I'll handle it."
"Then stop rubbing my-!" Twilight's words melted into a stifled groan, getting scratched behind her ears in a certain spot that made her want to fall asleep while asleep.
Riku silently shushed her, moving his left hand down to rub the alicorn's belly, any protests she had melting at the attention he gave her, one of her hind legs twitching as she leaned her head back into his chest. Keeping his right hand free, he paid close attention to the starry mist monster as he turned the flying books into bats. Hearing them screech, they snapped Twilight out of her pleased stupor, screaming in fright as the books dove down on them. Summoning his Keyblade, Riku leapt up and performed a Tornado Strike, smacking away the nightmare books with a powerful twister around him and Twilight.
"Too afraid to take us on and decided to just mess with everyone's dreams!?" Riku called out, quickly turning to where the Tantabus was as he cast Firaga.
The massive fireball spell headed straight for it, only to avoid it and burn up an entire shelf full of books that were behind the living mist. "Riku!"
"Oh, relax. They're not real books. Just stay here and defend yourself against the book bats." The Keyblade wielder ran after the Tantabus, kicking off the shelves and dashed off using Flowmotion, a lavender aura surrounding his body as he bounded off each shelf. More transformed books flew toward him as the Tantabus fled from him, only to be smacked away as he spun around like a drill and stabbed his Keyblade in the ground to blow them away with a small shockwave. He lost sight of the Tantabus and continued lunging from shelf to shelf searching for it, cursing how Twilight made her dream this massive maze of a library. He finally spotted the the glittering stars and blue mist, jumping up high and diving down on it. "There you are, you-Luna!?"
Riku couldn't stop himself, but luckily Luna heard him and flapped away from the large shockwave he released upon landing. "Riku! I am your ally!"
"Sorry!" Riku apologized. "I thought your tail was the Tantabus, I guess. I can't believe I lost it."
"Where is Twilight?" Luna asked.
"She can handle a few books turned into living bats," Riku said, only to realize that she left her all alone, which meant the Tantabus could have snuck around after losing him and go after Twilight instead. "...Oh crap."
"We must hurry! She mustn't wake, nor should the others!" Luna and Riku quickly hurried back to where Twilight was, following the transformed hovering books that were flying off to harass the alicorn more.
Just as they found her, the Tantabus slithered through a bookshelf and snuck up on the lunar princess and young Keyblade Master. Twilight had her Keyblade out, smacking away the nightmare books away from her. There were hundreds of them, no thanks to her love of books creating more of the book bats with the thousands of shelves filled with literature.
"Twilight, hang on!" Riku called out, but the Tantabus struck, suddenly engulfing him and Luna. "H-Hey! What the-!?"
Back in the bedroom, all six of the Elements of Harmony gasped awake in fear, unable to handle their nightmares any longer. The magical links Luna set up had been severed, her aura disappearing along with the light around the spirals of her horn. The six portals of light appeared in front of each mare, all six Keyblade wielders yelping as they were flung into the middle of the circle, forcefully kicked out of the nightmare as they ended up piled on top of each other once they crash landed.
"Urgh...Does that happen when someone wakes up on us?" Riku asked.
"Sort of," Sora answered, the six wielders untangling from themselves and stood up, rubbing any sore spots from their crash landing. "I usually ended up outside the dreamscape if I entered through the dream realm, not directly into their dreams."
Spike got up from his seat and checked on Twilight, the girls recovering from their horrible nightmares. "What happened? Did you stop it?"
"I don't ever want to have that nightmare ever again," Fluttershy muttered shakily.
"Me either," Rainbow shuddered, curling herself in a fetal position and rocked back and forth in her bed.
"Rainbow, you have serious issues," Ventus said, earning a glare from the pegasus in warning to keep his mouth shut.
Luna hovered back down to the ground, sighing sadly as she failed to catch the Tantabus. "I am sorry, my friends. The Tantabus has eluded me in each dream, and it will unfortunately return the next time you sleep." The Mane Six groaned in worry. "And it will keep returning again and again, growing even stronger until it can finally escape from the dream realm. After what I did as Nightmare Moon, the fact that I am responsible for harming others again is more than I can bear."
"Luna, don't blame yourself," Sora said. "You didn't realize that thing could get strong enough to find a way to break out of the dream world."
"Mistakes are made, and we have to learn from them," Terra said. "We'll try again, and hopefully not get too sidetracked." He leered at Pinkie Pie, her dream constantly tracking off every few seconds with her hyperactive mind. "Good luck searching through Pinkie's erratic dreaming."
"As long as none of you had dreamt of anypony else, the Tantabus will remain confined in yours," Luna explained. Terra and Pinkie winced, the earth pony unfortunately not knowing until now as she had dreamed of every pony that lived in Ponyville in her giant ice cream dream. "I may still have a chance to catch it before the inevitable."
"Uhhh, heh heh. Funny story," Pinkie said nervously, fidgeting her blanket with her hooves.
Not receiving an answer, everyone looked to Terra to explain what she meant. "She dreamed everyone in Ponyville eating a giant ice cream cone...and I mean every single pony that lives in Ponyville, young and old."
"WHAT!?" Pinkie hid under her covers in embarrassment at her mistake, all eyes on the hiding mare.
"Sorry," Pinkie apologized. "I didn't know that would happen."
"I think it was obvious when Luna told us the Tantabus escaped from her dream and made its way in the six of yours from her dreaming about you girls," Aqua said, letting out a sigh as she shook her head. "Great. So, now what are we going to do? With all those ponies dreams, it'll take forever to find it, and if they dream about relatives in other towns or cities, it'll spread like a virus and quickly grow strong enough to escape."
"Which means it's going to take everyone in Ponyville to help us stop the Tantabus," Kairi said.
"Luna, do you know a spell that can combine everypony's dreams into one?" Twilight asked.
The blue alicorn tapped her hoof to her chin in thought. "...Perhaps. I can create a shared dream everypony can enter. But with a small town like Ponyville? I have never done anything like that, and it will take all my power just to keep the dream held together."
"Then let us handle the Tantabus," Riku said. "We don't have much time if that free-roaming nightmare is in the others' dreams as we speak."
"Ok. I will do anything to end this," Luna said. "I am not allowing the Tantabus to escape into the real world. Twilight, you and your friends go back to sleep, and I shall do the rest." The six mares reluctantly fell back to sleep, Spike having passed out a while ago as it was late in the night, snoring loudly at the foot of Twilight's bed. "At least I won't have to add six more dreams to combine with the rest from the six of you."
"Just leave ol' smoky to us," Sora said, patting his hoof against his chest. "It won't be able to handle six Keyblade wielders at once now that we aren't split up in separate dreams."
Nodding her head, Luna flapped her wings and hovered in the air once more. Concentrating hard, she lit up her horn again and unleashed several more threads of white aura from the tip of her horn, seven of them snaking down to the sleeping mares and baby dragon while the rest spread out from the ceiling of Twilight's bedroom, making their way out into all of Ponyville and all the sleeping ponies of Ponyville. The Keyblade wielders could see Luna cringe, straining to hold together so many dreams at once into one massive dream.
"Alright, let's enter this gigantic dream world." They held out their Keyblades and created a portal into the huge dream Luna created, Sora, Riku, Kairi, Aqua, Terra, and Ventus jumping in to help put an end to the Tantabus's attempt to escape into the real world.
The six Keyblade wielders dove down through the dreamscape and flew into the massive dream Luna created that housed all the dreams of everyone in Ponyville. The landscape was the town itself in a night setting, and they could already see some of the dreams coming to life from the rest of the town: muffins with wings quacking like ducks, a giant Derpy Hooves wandering about trying to catch the flying dream muffins, and everything else that involved how one's imagination would be if it ever came to life.
They landed in the middle of the square, seeing the shocked looks on everyone's faces once they saw the six humans among the dream town of Ponyville. Ignoring the odd looks, hoping they would think this was what they imagined in their dreams like how the other ponies were, they looked around for Twilight and the rest of their friends.
"Well, at least we have an excuse to tell everyone why we look human," Sora said. "Anything can happen in a dream."
"And they think we look strange?" Ventus asked. "Take a look at Lyra and Bon Bon." He pointed out the two mares down the road. More specifically, they were both one mare; the upper halves of their bodies conjoined together, where it was hard to tell how they functioned with two heads on both ends. "And how does that work if the both of them dream the same possible dream?"
"...Don't question it?" Kairi said with a shrug.
"There you are!" The Mane Six and Spike ran into the square after spotting them drop down into the dream. "Where's Princess Luna?"
Above the town, a sphere of translucent light slowly lowered down into the square. Inside of it was Luna, the spirals of her horn still glowing as she struggled to keep her spell in place. The other ponies noticed the princess of the night, some of them bowing to her while they all wondered why everyone was in the same dream.
"There is no time for bowing, my friends!" Luna said. "There is something coming! Something terrible!" She gasped as she saw the Tantabus out in the distance, knowing it would be here, but it was far bigger than it seemed after entering Twilight's dream. "No...It's already here!"
Everyone looked in the direction the alicorn was, all of Ponyville gasping in shock as they murmured worriedly about what the starry mist monster was. Its body slightly shifted into a mimic of Luna every so often, almost as if it was another version of Nightmare Moon. Whatever dreams it managed to breach had given it far more power, but now that it was in a large space of a dream, there would be no chance for it to run away. Before the Keyblade wielders were able to engage it, the Tantabus unleashed its power and not only created a bunch of random nightmares to further terrorize the ponies, but a large group of Dream Eater Nightmares as well.
"Dream Eaters!? The Tantabus knows how to create Dream Eaters!?" Riku exclaimed in surprise.
"Then let's fight fire with fire!" Sora let out a loud whistle as he called upon all of his and Riku's Dream Eater companions. They did manage to recreate the ones they lost against Vanitas, though they weren't as strong as the rest of their older Spirit brethren. "Keep all the ponies safe from the Nightmares and the monsters the Tantabus is making! And protect Luna if they decide to go after her!"
The Spirits all nodded, following his commands as they let out their cries. Three of them stayed and flanked Luna, an Aura Lion, a KO Kabuto, and a Skelterwild volunteering to protect the alicorn as she kept the dream together. Luna tried to fire a beam of magic into the Tantabus to finally catch it, but all of her strength was used to hold the dream and keep it from collapsing.
"Luna, let us handle the Tantabus!" Kairi said. "Holding this dream is taking up all your power just to keep it up!"
"And we'll be able to help!" Rainbow said.
"No, you guys try to help the Spirits keep the others from getting hurt by the Nightmares!" Aqua said, everyone suddenly stumbling as one of the houses turned into a living monster. "And anything the Tantabus is creating to scare them further and give it more power!"
"But we're dreaming!" Rainbow argued. "We can do just about anything and be anything we want!"
Aqua wanted to argue further, only to hear someone call for help as the flying muffins turned into nightmares and cornered a stallion. That stallion was Big Mac, and to Sora's surprise, he had a horn on his forehead, apparently having dreams of being a unicorn.
"Is that Big Mac as a unicorn???" Sora questioned, pointing at the eldest apple sibling.
"Ah know," Applejack said. "Didn't think he'd have weird dreams like that." Seeing him cornered, she hoped Rainbow Dash was right and their dreaming can help stop the Nightmares and the Tantabus. "Big Mac, y'all can do anything in a dream, remember!?"
Big Mac remembered where everyone was and decided to take his little sister's advice. His body began glowing as he now bore golden regalia and grew a pair of wings, turning into an alicorn. Sora was stunned speechless out of shock, along with the rest of the group as he flapped his dream wings, launching himself in the air as he blasted the nightmare muffins with a powerful magic blast. Aqua blinked in surprise, all of them watching the stallion whoop as he flew around shooting Nightmares to help the Spirits.
"...Ok, maybe you guys can help, as long as you're careful," Aqua said.
"Have you seen the dangerous stuff these girls have been through?" Sora questioned.
"...Fair point. Let's go!" The group ran forward, making their way to the Tantabus.
The fastest of them went ahead: Sora, Riku, Ventus, Rainbow, and Pinkie running, Flowmotion dashing, or flying through the town. The others tailed behind them, bounding across the rooftops or taking the low ground, dealing with Nightmares and terrifying nightmare creatures getting in their way. The Tantabus created a sword out of its astral form, but it used it on the air in front of it, tearing a hole in the dream realm that reached the real world.
"It's going to escape!" Rainbow called out.
"No it's not!" Riku said. "Ven!"
"On it!" Riku and Sora stopped and readied themselves as Ventus approached them.
The younger of the trio jumped into their hands, both Sora and Riku giving him a large boost through the air and followed after him through Flowmotion. Ventus performed a Thunder Surge, the circle of electricity around him shocking the Tantabus as he phased through its body, stunning it and stopping it from tearing the wall of the dream open further. Sora and Riku tried to seal the hole up using Blizzaga spells, encasing it in ice until the dream mended itself thanks to Luna's magic.
The rest of the group ended up getting sidetracked no thanks to the powerful Nightmares attacking the other ponies. Some of the Spirits needed help being revived, mostly the newly replaced Spirits that weren't strong enough to handle the tougher Dream Eaters. Needing more help stopping the Tantabus and stopping the nightmares from spreading around Dream Ponyville and make it stronger from their fears, Twilight hovered over the rescued ponies.
"Everypony, we can't do this on our own!" Twilight said. "We need all of your help as well!"
"But how can we help!?" Carrot Cake asked as he stood beside Cup Cake and their foals. "We don't have magic, speed, or skills like all of you!"
"That's because this is a dream world!" Aqua said. "Unlike in the real world, you can do just about anything you want! It's your dream, so you make it how you want it to, not the Tantabus!"
Slightly intrigued, what won the ponies over was Spike taking the first step. He imagined himself as something else, his body shimmering as he grew to a larger size. When the light faded, he was now a cliched version of a heroic warrior with hulking muscles on his arms and chest, a chiseled jaw, some slight armor and a cape, and wielded a lance in one hand. Most of his friends gawked and shook their heads at the strange figure he gave himself, but he didn't pay their looks any mind.
"Well, if you're gonna dream, dream big, right?" he asked before jumping onto Giant Derpy's back, using her as his mount as the duo flew off.
The others soon followed Spike's example and soon joined in to fight. While Sora, Riku, Ventus, Pinkie, and Rainbow worked together to try to stop the Tantabus from breaking free, none of their physical attacks even phased the nightmare creature. Luckily, magic seemed to work, but it still continued to tear holes in the dream to escape. Rainbow decided to dream herself up as Zapp from the Power Ponies comics while wielding her dream Keyblade to help the three Keyblade wielders with her barrage of lightning magic, but the Tantabus was resilient and determined to get out no matter how much damage it sustained.
"This thing just doesn't know when to give up!" Ventus said. They watched as the Tantabus used part of its body to create a pair of scissors, cutting yet another hole to try to escape from. Before it could try to squeeze itself through, Spike and Derpy arrived, the transformed dream dragon using his lance to slice the gaseous creature, managing to distract it. "Spike!?"
Riku facepalmed at the new look Spike gave himself. "Oh my god...I'd prefer him to be a baby dragon, not a stereotypical knight with a face like that."
While the Tantabus tried to escape in another hole left unopened from its earlier attempts, Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo ran up toward it. "I got this!" Scootaloo said as she made her wings grow five times bigger than their normal size and flew up. Using her longer wings, she flapped them hard, creating a powerful gust of wind that sent the Tantabus flying away from the torn rift. "Yeah! Take that, you weird smoke thing!"
"Nice job, Scoots!" Rainbow cheered, praising the filly before hurrying after the Tantabus to keep it distracted.
So far, everyone was managing to hold their own against the Nightmare Dream Eaters and the Tantabus. They kept the nightmare distracted and shoved it away from the tears, which were quickly sealed back up in various ways. The Tantabus itself didn't seem to show any signs of slowing down or weakening, which meant finding some way to keep it trapped will finally put an end to its futile plans to escape.
"Everyone, let's hit this thing together!" Aqua called out to her friends. "We're ending this now!"
The rest of the Keyblade wielders nodded as they leapt up to the roof of a building around the Tantabus. They jumped forward, rearing their blades charged with elemental spells to stun it long enough for Luna to finally destroy it. The lunar princess was still safe inside her magical sphere, kept safe by the Spirits who protected her, but her hold on the dream was getting weaker and weaker by the minute.
"Urgh! I...can't hold onto this dream much longer!" she said, tears welling up in her eyes as she would end up failing stopping the Tantabus again. "Equestria will fall because of me!"
No sooner had she said that, the Tantabus suddenly grew bigger in size. It then slapped away the attacking Keyblade wielders with incredible speed, the six humans too distracted from watching it suddenly grow stronger as they were sent hurtling across Dream Ponyville. Everyone else was stunned at its gargantuan size, no more Dream Eaters around to attack them, but the Tantabus was now strong enough to break out of a dream even if it was sealed by several protective spells. The wielders all stood up, groaning in pain, confused as to how it got so powerful right as they were about to strike it.
"Uhh, is it just me, or did that thing grow after Luna said that?" Spike asked aloud.
"...It did," Aqua muttered. She recalled the Tantabus suddenly getting a growth spurt when Luna blamed herself for causing this trouble back in Rarity's dream. Now it grew more and gained more strength after everyone heard the alicorn blame herself for Equestria's downfall. Looking over to the distressed mare in the translucent sphere of light, she could see the tears threaten to fall as she continued holding onto the dream. "It's not just fear that gives the Tantabus strength...
"Her guilt for her past is making it even stronger..." Looking back at the now gargantuan nightmare, fully retaining its mimicked body of Luna, it used its ethereal horn to slice open an even bigger rift. They needed to stop the Tantabus and get Luna to stop blaming herself before it was too late. Spotting Sora after crawling out from one of the buildings he crashed through, she ran over to him as she called out to everyone in the dream. "Everyone, don't let that nightmare get out! Pour in everything you've got and keep it in this dream!" The others voiced their agreements and all charged in, including the Spirits. Before Sora could leap back into action, Aqua grabbed his arm. "Sora, you need to help Luna."
"Is she alright?" Sora asked.
"No. And that's the problem," she said. "The Tantabus is feeding off her guilt. That's where it keeps getting its strength from. I saw it happen in Rarity's dream; she blamed herself for making the girls suffer from their nightmares, and I thought I saw it grow in size a little. Turns out my theory was true now that we all saw what happened after Luna blamed herself for dooming this world."
Sora was a bit shocked, but he let out a sad sigh. "She's still upset about what she's done...Celestia told me at the Gala that Luna was hiding something and she was worried she might have still held some kind of grudge or was upset about something she didn't say out loud." Looking back at the Tantabus, everyone doing their hardest to push it back and seal up the large rift it created. He then turned back to Aqua and nodded his head. "I'll help her."
"Thanks, and hurry," Aqua said. "Even we have our limits, and with how strong the Tantabus is growing at this rate, Luna's guilt just might destroy Equestria."
Sora nodded again and ran over to Luna while Aqua leapt off the buildings to join her comrades in stopping the Tantabus. "Luna!" he called out, skidding to a halt in front of her, pressing his hands against the magical barrier around the alicorn. "The Tantabus is connected to your guilt! It keeps getting stronger every time you feel bad about what you've done!"
"If that is true...then, perhaps that's how it grew strong enough to escape in the first place," Luna said, trying not to break down in tears and lose her concentration on her spell. "I created the Tantabus to give myself the same nightmare every night when I sleep."
"What!?" Sora exclaimed in shock. "Why would you do that!?"
"To punish myself for what I have done as Nightmare Moon," Luna said, her tears flowing down her cheeks. "To always remind me to never forgive myself for how much Equestria has suffered because of me! And now I've only made things worse bringing this fate upon everypony!"
"Luna, you made a mistake in the past!" Sora assured. "It wasn't your fault that things turned out that way!"
"Yes it is!" Luna shouted with a sob. "You don't understand, Sora! Because of my actions, I have almost brought Equestria into the fate of darkness several times! I had to throw Sombra into the darkness after he almost took complete control of the Crystal Empire, where he came back a millennium later to almost succeed again! I almost killed my older sister when the darkness of my anger turned me into Nightmare Moon! And now I'm going to plunge our kingdom, our whole world, into darkness again from my own punishments of my past!" She fell to her knees and sobbed more, her guilt still feeding the Tantabus as the others trying to stop it were failing. "I'm not better now than I was then..."
"Luna, you are NOT Nightmare Moon!" Sora argued. "You're trying to stop the Tantabus! You're nothing like your darkness!" He couldn't phase through the barrier around the alicorn, and he didn't want to risk attacking it if it was connected to her and could throw off what concentration she did have. "Please, Luna, you need to let all this go! Everyone forgives you for what you've done. Celestia, the girls, everyone in Ponyville, even I forgive you..."
"He wouldn't," Luna muttered, his words not reaching her as she continued crying.
Sora knew who she meant, but he knew Sombra would never turn away from her. He needed to get Luna to talk to Celestia about this if they manage to win and assure her over and over again that everything that happened was not her fault. Looking back, the Tantabus only continued to grow, its body already stepping one foot in the rift that was trying to be sealed back up.
"Luna..." After feeling like it would be a lost cause, Sora noticed something glowing from his peripheral vision. Looking toward the source, it seemed to be coming from Luna's wedding ring, the crescent gem shimmering white and glowing brighter. "Huh?"
The light soon became blinding as Sora shielded his eyes. Luna noticed the shining light coming from her horn and looked up, unsure what was happening, but she couldn't help but feel a familiar presence, though it was slightly different. Suddenly, the light shot out from the ring around Luna's horn, the crescent gem disappearing into it as it zipped off through the town. Flying out to where the Tantabus was, the light sped by the rest of Ponyville trying to stop it, a long, jagged blade sliced through the nightmare's limb, letting out a distorted shriek in pain as it backed away.
"What in the world was that!?" Ventus asked as he voiced out what everyone was thinking.
Everyone watched in awe as the light shot up into the sky, using the same blade and stabbed it into the rift, sealing it back up as it fell down to the ground. As it touched down, the light began to form into an equine shape as it slowly faded away. The savior was revealed to be a gray unicorn stallion with a wavy, windswept black mane and tail, his cutie mark a blue crystal. His sword held in a red aura had shifted colors, the blade appearing to have been made of real, clear crystal, a small light shimmering inside shaped like a crescent moon. Riku, Kairi, and the Mane Six gasped in surprise, recognizing the stallion just from his coat and manestyle.
"No way," Rainbow uttered.
"That's...impossible," Rarity muttered in shock.
Sora ran past the ponies as he ran ahead to see what that mysterious light was. When he saw the stallion, he skid to a halt and stared in utter shock.
"...Sombra?" The stallion's ears perked up and turned his head to face the dreaming townsponies and six humans. Unlike their first encounter with him, Sora recognized his facial features as the Sombra he spoke with before he died from the Crystal Heart's light: a normal horn, green eyes, not a single trace of evil or darkness from the grin he wore on his muzzle. "W-What?...You're alive!?"
"It appears I am," Sombra said. He turned around, and on his chest was something new that surprised the Keyblade wielders and the Mane Six; he bore the sigil of a Dream Eater, but there was also a crescent moon over where his heart lies. "Sora, I thank you for granting my request. When Luna wore the ring I planned to propose to her with, I suddenly felt...alive, and yet not at the same time. But, while she always wore it, I could see, hear, and feel everything she did...Even her emotions."
"But...how!?" Sora questioned again. "Your heart and body shattered and you disappeared forever! You were practically dead!" As the teen wracked his confused mind over the possibility of Sombra's revival, he slowly looked over at Ventus, then turning back to Sombra at the possible solution was. "...Unless...the ring...You put your heart and soul into making it for her, right?"
"Of course I did," Sombra said. "I wanted to give her something special for when I asked her to be my bride. My heart is hers to hold, and, in a sense, I put as much love and care into it."
It began to make sense. Similar to how Ven's heart managed to survive when his light found Sora, a piece of his light that wasn't in Sombra's heart before it shattered must have found its way to Luna, never knowing that that piece was inside of Luna's ring. But instead of being a normal stallion now, he was a Dream Eater; Luna's Dream Eater.
"This is...astonishing," Aqua said. "You told me Sombra had died, but before he was affected by darkness, part of his light must have entered the ring unintentionally. Love between two people, or ponies, that is this strong...it must be some sort of miracle for you and Luna."
"...I'm not sure I understand any of this at all, but I will take your words for it, being experts in this field of knowledge," Sombra said. Hearing the Tantabus growl as it reformed its severed limb, everyone remembered what they were facing and prepared to fight it again. It somehow seemed to have shrunk in size a small bit after Sombra slashed it with his crystal sword. Sombra walked past everyone, leering at the nightmare as he held a hoof up to them. "Rest yourselves, friends. I shall deal with this creature of nightmares on my own." Holding his blade out in front of him, he waited for the Tantabus to make the first move. "...Luna, why did you bring yourself such torment?...Fear not, my love. I shall ease your pain, as I have done in the past when you were in misery."
The nightmare reared up on its hind legs and slammed its hooves down on Sombra. He parried the hooves, his blade glowing white, sending the Tantabus stumbling backwards. Sombra leapt forward as the Tantabus landed back on all fours, slicing his sword forward through the ground, sending a line of white crystals in front of him and climbing up the nightmare's leg. The crystal blade glowed brightly as Sombra thrust his weapon into the first crystal, creating a chain reaction of explosive light trailing up the Tantabus's leg, making it roar in pain as the light singed its body.
As it staggered back, Sombra rushed forward, a streak of light following behind him as he ran up the Tantabus's left leg. While slicing at the nightmare's limb as he climbed up it, everyone stared in awe at the stallion's prowess as each blow made the Tantabus shrink in size. Just as he reached its neck, Sombra was smacked back as it formed a hammer with its body. The unicorn stallion flipped back on his hooves and landed on the ground.
"Sombra, let me help!" Sora called out, running up to the stallion to stand beside him, Keyblade at the ready. "If you're a Dream Eater, maybe we can combine our powers to finally stop the Tantabus!"
"Is that so?" Sombra asked. "Do you only mean fighting side by side or actually combining our abilities into one?" Sora and Sombra quickly blocked another stomp from the Tantabus, the teen's Keyblade glowing a similar white just like the stallion's own blade. With a hard grunt, they both shoved the nightmare's hoof away from them, hearing it grunt in pain from the burning pain of the light it tried to snuff out. "...I am guessing this answered both my questions."
"How about we talk after this is over?" Sora suggested.
"Right. We can catch up on lost time after." Holding his blade out, the duo rushed forward and split up in different directions around the Tantabus.
Growing desperate, the nightmare unleashed every ounce of power it still had after most of it was chipped away by Sombra's attacks, sending dozens of Nightmare Dream Eaters in their path to protect it. They were easily wiped away by the light aura from both fighters' weapons with just one swing. It then shot out sharp tendrils out from its body to try to pierce through them, but the unicorn and human were pretty agile and evaded each one thrust down on them, even slashing through them and weakening it further.
"Sombra!" Sora called out, running toward him as he went underneath the Tantabus.
Sombra understood what the Keyblade wielder needed from him, part of him seeming to understand the idea he had. As soon as they stood beside each other, Sora activated a Link with Sombra, both of their weapons shining brighter. The light alone singed the Tantabus, but the duo suddenly turned into a streak of light, teleporting at blinding speeds as they struck every single part of the Tantabus, too slow to avoid them with its size and unable to see them in time. Each dual slash made it shrink more and more until it was only the size of the buildings in Ponyville.
Sora and Sombra split apart into two separate lights, skidding across the ground before running toward each other again for one more move that will end it. The unicorn stallion met with Sora underneath the Tantabus again, this time shoving his blade down into the ground, crystals quickly covering the earth around the Tantabus. Quickly pulling out the sword, the entire area turned into a massive crystal of light, trapping the nightmare inside it. Sora pointed his Keyblade up into the air, firing a beam of light at the peak of the giant crystal, splitting it into smaller beams like a prism as it completely engulfed everything inside it. The blinding light forced everyone to shield their eyes as they heard the Tantabus let out a roar of agony before it stopped at the sound of the crystal shattering to pieces.
Once the light faded and everyone could see again, they all gasped in awe as the whole town sparkled with shimmering shards of crystals floating around them. In the center of where the giant crystal was, Sora and Sombra stood completely unharmed, though they were both looking down at something in front of them. Laying on the ground was the Tantabus, now at Luna's size, and incredibly weak. It struggled to stand, looking up at its foes, but as it tried to attack, there was no power left in it to create anymore bad dreams or Dream Eaters to stop them.
Sora was about to run up to the weakened Tantabus and slay it, but Sombra stopped him, holding his sword out in front of him. "No. Don't kill it. This creature needs to return to Luna." Despite how much trouble the Tantabus caused, Sora relaxed himself, trusting Sombra in dealing with the nightmare. The stallion approached it, trying to back away and run, but he turned his blade into a rope, wrapping it around the Tantabus's neck and pulling it back toward him. "No use fleeing this time. You're going back, and never causing her grief ever again."
Luna stared in awe as she watched the fight against the Tantabus in the middle of Dream Ponyville. She had no idea what had happened, knowing she didn't cast any spell while she continued keeping the dream whole. What brought her anxiety after the light shot off was the gem of her ring had disappeared. Now the dream was snowing shards of crystals from the large one that suddenly appeared around the Tantabus and possibly killed it.
"What is happening?" Luna questioned herself. "What was that light? And what happened to the gem on my ring?"
She didn't have to wait long for answers as she saw everyone in Ponyville coming back to the square. She even saw the Tantabus, surrounded by the Keyblade wielders, but what shocked her the most was who was holding onto a crystal leash that kept her creation from escaping. Luna didn't want to believe who she was seeing guiding the Tantabus. All of Ponyville stopped once they reached the square, the Mane Six, humans, and Sombra stopped around Luna's sphere that held the dream together.
"It has been such a long time, my love," Sombra greeted.
Her ears drooped as more tears began flowing down her cheeks, finally hearing Sombra's voice again after what felt like an eternity. "...S-Sombra?" The stallion nodded his head. Luna didn't want to believe it, thinking that this was someone who dreamed him up, but she was able to tell who and what was a dream or not. It was really him, and he bore the symbol of a Dream Eater on his chest as well. "...H-How?...Y-You were-?"
"Destroyed by the Crystal Heart. Yes," Sombra said. "I do not understand how I still exist, but the bearers of the Keyblade say part of my light managed to survive, despite my heart and body being destroyed by the light."
"There's always a light deep down in everyone's hearts that can never go out," Sora explained. "I really thought Sombra was dead...but, we think that light deep within his heart had found its way into your ring."
"I believe their words, being the more experienced of us with the power of one's heart, but I think we can both agree that it's some kind of miracle," Sombra added. Luna was practically overjoyed, happy to have her beloved stallion return, even if only in the dreaming world. Her joy melted as he gave her a serious look, tugging the starry nightmare forward, making it stagger to the ground in front of him. "Luna, why must you torment yourself so?"
Luna felt ashamed, lowering her gaze from Sombra's, and everyone else's. "...I-I wanted to punish myself..."
The guilt of her past weighed on her again, making the Tantabus grow a little. "Enough!" Sombra shouted, tightening the hold around the Tantabus's neck, choking it into shrinking it back down. His yell startled Luna, though he didn't show any anger toward her, or even the Tantabus; Sombra seemed worried and pitied her. "You do not deserve such a thing. I know why you created this infernal nightmare, but somepony like you does not need to be hurt more than you already have."
"B-But I almost destroyed Equestria again!" Luna argued.
"It was an accident," Sombra assured calmly, stepping closer to Luna's magical barrier. "Everything you have done in the past has already been done. It was not your fault you had turned into Nightmare Moon; the fault lies with the ponies of your life who were either not there for you or didn't care. Your older sister, myself, your subjects from a millennia ago." Luna looked down sadly, unable to let go of the loneliness she had felt back then when no one appreciated her except for Sombra, Celestia ignoring her, and the dramatic breakup the couple had when the stallion was afflicted by the power of darkness. "Times have changed now, and now you are respected like you wished to be back then.
"Every single one of your subjects from this town alone look up to you, and you have made many friends of them. Even on the holiday dedicated to your alter ego, Nightmare Moon." The alicorn looked out to the townsponies, all of them becoming friends with her after her first Nightmare Night. Despite how awkward it was to celebrate a holiday involving scaring everyone half to death, she got used to how everything goes and even found a fan in Pipsqueak, the little colt there in the crowd waving his hoof at her. "Everyone forgives you for the past, and even for creating this creature who managed to get loose from your own dream. We forgive you, but you need to forgive yourself and let the pain of the past go as you look toward the future. Do you trust us and believe what we see you as today?"
Seeing all the looks on everyone, none of them showed any anger toward her for having the Tantabus nearly escape and destroy their home or constantly haunt their dreams every night. She was so blinded by her own mistakes, she didn't believe everyone would forgive her. It had been several years since anyone a thousand years ago would actually remember seeing what she had done as Nightmare Moon, and she's made friends with someone like Sora, easily able to make friends and risked his own life protecting Twilight and her friends' and saved her from her darkness.
Luna gave Sombra a small grin, finally deciding to not let her past mistakes haunt her for the rest of her life. "I do."
The Tantabus let out what sounded like a groan, but Sombra silenced it as he kicked the nightmare forward. "Get back to where you belong," he said, releasing it from its leash.
Unable to escape now, the starry doppelganger walked into Luna's barrier and inside her, back to where it belonged. Luna looked out to her friends and now revived lover before her magic finally gave out, dropping the large dream as everything faded to white.
Back inside the castle, Twilight, Applejack, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Spike woke up, morning already here as the sun shone through the windows. Luna rested in the middle of the room, heavily exhausted after using up so much energy, but she had a smile on her face as she appeared to be dreaming. Appearing through the light were the Keyblade wielders, this time safely exiting instead of getting flung out like last time.
"Well, looks like Luna's finally forgiven herself for what she did as Nightmare Moon," Twilight said. "And...Sombra's still alive."
"Only now, he's a Dream Eater," Riku added. "...Is it even possible for someone to have lost their heart to become a Dream Eater?"
"I'd rather not try to find answers about anything involving revivals of how strong one's heart can be," Aqua said. "Xehanort's return just complicated matters, Ven's light being inside Sora's for all these years is something I still can't wrap my head around...I guess part of his light could have been subconsciously transferred, but even then, it would take forever just to figure out how it's possible for someone to come back at all after losing their heart at least once..." Aqua sighed and leaned against one of the beds. "...Master Eraqus probably won't come back. Neither of the Keyblade wielders in the Keyblade War would come back. So many questions, and no answers..."
"Maybe it is a miracle," Sora said, looking down at Luna as she slept peacefully. He had a pretty good idea what the alicorn was dreaming about, but as much as he wanted to find out what was going on in her dream, it was probably something only meant for her and Sombra. "How about we talk about this somewhere else? And maybe get something to eat? I'm starving."
The others agreed, making their way out of the bedroom quietly as they let Luna rest.
Inside Luna's dream, she sat on a small island in the middle of a lagoon, the evening sky clear with bright stars and the full moon giving some light to the dream earth below. Sombra sat beside her as they looked out beyond the water, nightly flora growing on different islands as they sat under a flowery tree with purplish-pink petals. The two had sat in silence after Dream Ponyville was finally released, though it was Luna who was mostly quiet.
"Are you alright, Luna?" Sombra asked. "I had expected more tears from our reunion."
"I think I'm fine," she said. "...I still can't believe you're alive, Sombra." She leaned down and nuzzled the stallion, who returned the gesture as they moved closer to each other. "I really missed you."
"So have I," he said. "I hope you can forgive me for that letter I gave you. I didn't want you to see me as that monster."
"...I was hurt, but after a thousand years, I understand why you did that." Luna let out a sad sigh, resting her cheek against Sombra's. "...So many regrets...If only things didn't turn out this way."
"Even if a change in our lives had occurred, I would not have lived as long as you or Celestia has. But, as what I am now known as a Dream Eater, I'm probably as immortal as you." Sombra looked down at his chest, rubbing his hoof against the symbol now forever marked on his body. The crescent moon over his heart was not like the sigils on any of the other Dream Eaters, but as he pressed his hoof against his chest, it nearly gave way into his heart. He silently pulled out the gem from the alicorn's ring, which was what had connected him to Luna and possibly gave him life again. "Maybe now, we can finally be together without anything getting between us again."
"I would love that," Luna said with a smile.
"Then I would love to ask you a question I was dying to tell you before this mess started." Sombra stood up and faced Luna, holding out the gem he cut to use as his fiancée's wedding ring. As she looked at him, he kneeled down and offered the crescent gem. "Princess Luna, will you marry me?"
She already knew her answer the first time she saw the gem, but instead of remembering it as a memento of a lost lover, now it held its intended meaning, even if it was just the two of them in the dream realm. "Yes. Ever since we had been together, I had wished for you to say those words to me."
With a wide grin, Sombra placed the gem back in its place on top of the ring worn on Luna's horn. For the first time in what felt like forever, the betrothed couple moved closer and shared a kiss. It was just as memorable as their first way back then, becoming more passionate as their hooves roamed over each other's bodies. Before it got too heated, Luna pulled away, both of them panting as they stared into each other's eyes.
"Why did you stop?" Sombra asked.
"Umm...I'm asleep in Twilight's bedchambers," she answered. "Perhaps we can hold off on anything too physical until I am in my own room?"
"I think I can wait," the stallion said with a seductive smirk. His horn glowed, Luna suddenly yelping as she felt something pinch her flanks, her face turning pink in embarrassment. She leered at him with an angry pout, unflinching as he gave her muzzle a light kiss. "Not sure how much patience I have left in me. A thousand years without relief can be very aggravating." Sombra chuckled and nuzzled Luna again, giving her soft kisses on her neck every once in a while to help her lighten up, which worked as she leaned her head toward him with soft moans rumbling in her throat. After giving her neck a little attention, he slowly trailed his way back up to her muzzle, planting a gentle kiss upon her lips. "...So, when do we tell your sister?"
"...About what?" Luna asked nervously.
"About me being alive," he said. "And when we can plan your dream wedding. I already plan on making Sora my best stallion."
Ignoring how their wedding will be planned out, Luna was really worried how Celestia would take the news about Sombra's return as a Dream Eater. Not only that, but she also needed to tell her the truth about how she had been feeling after fearing the worst about their relationship as sisters. If ruling a kingdom was difficult, then trying to be honest with her own older sister about how the guilt of her past continued haunting her felt like diving off a cliff without wings. She let out a sigh and looked out to the water, wondering how the princess of the sun will react.
"...I'll talk to her later this evening before she goes to bed," Luna said. She was given a serious look from her fiancé, not letting her bottle up anymore secrets. "I swear, I'll tell her. Don't give me that look."
"I'll be sure to remind you about it every hour," he said. Relaxing a little, Sombra laid down beside Luna and rested his head along her neck, looking out at the reflective light of the moon in the lagoon. "But, for now, I want to spend this time with you."
Luna rested her head in her hooves as she looked out at the vast lagoon water, content and safe with Sombra by her side once again. "I love you."
"I love you, too," he responded back, nuzzling her neck as the couple rested in the dream world.