“Now what?” asked Twilight as the three reappeared in the Sisters’ ruined castle, moonlight pouring through the shattered roof.
Reaper closed his eyes and stood stock-still for several moments. He flickered faintly, as if a mist were passing between him and the Princesses.
Luna and Twilight furrowed their brows, and sat down.
“Um, Princess Luna?” Twilight said.
Luna turned her head: “Yes, Twilight, what is it?”
“You mentioned having made your own share of darkness. Was the Tantabus a special kind of darkness?” Twilight asked.
Luna puzzled for a moment: “Hmm. Yes, I suppose so, in a way. I could conjure intensely deep darkness that almost rivaled that of the Pit. Sometimes it would move of its own volition.”
She shifted uncomfortably and looked away: “You saw some of that in our last encounter with my alter ego…”
“Oh,” Twilight replied, “um, was it the thin smoke that rose to the ceiling?”
Luna nodded. “The fog was simply a dream effect--that is no different today. But the smoke I would actually briefly imbue with some of my essence in order to allow it some free reign.”
Reaper opened his eyes and perked up his ears.
Twilight then asked, “And that shadowy ghost by the window? Was that formed from moonlight? I notice a lot of moonlight in these nightmares. It’s kind of the signal that a dream is turning bad, isn’t it?”
Reaper slowly turned his head toward the two alicorns, eyes wide, nostrils flaring slightly.
Luna looked puzzled: “Yes--well, yes to the moonlight indicating a dream was shifting to a nightmare: that was typical. But I never imbued it with power or physicality. Darkness was my tool. What ghost?”
Reaper was now breathing rapidly, ears straining forward, trembling slightly.
“Well, at the end, I was looking away from the, um, action,” explained Twilight, blushing, “and I saw a ghost glimmering slightly at the edge of my vision. It was next to the window, and almost washed-out by the moonlight.”
Reaper exploded: “That’s it!”
Twilight shrieked in surprise, toppling backwards, and Luna sprang to her feet, horn ablaze.
“What in Tartarus are you shouting about?!” Luna cried.
“The “ghost,” as Twilight called it!” he replied, “And your ability to give independent action to darkness--smoke in this case!”
He beckoned the Princesses to the portal banner, and looked up: “Luna, we’re going to touch our horns to your temple again. We need to see exactly what Twilight saw, the way she saw it!”
Luna shuddered: “Reaper, I’m not sure I can go through that again so soon after we just--”
“Dammit, Luna!” Reaper replied, “We have the answer, well, an answer--a vital answer--within our grasp! I swear you two can take a break as soon as we get a better look at Twilight’s “ghost!””
Luna hung her head and sighed: “Very well. Let us go back to see what we must.”
The three reemerged in the fog-smoke shrouded room, Nightmare Moon again mounted atop Zephyr’s shriveling body, their hips and flanks pressed hard together, her head thrown back in dark ecstasy, droplets of hot sweat flying from her face.
Luna grimaced and repositioned herself before the bed. Twilight and Reaper swapped positions from the previous visit, and touched horns to Luna’s temples as before. She gritted her teeth and let the scene begin to creep forward slowly.
Reaper squinted at the edge of the window, letting his eyes play up and down its frame: “Gotcha, you bastard!”
“You can see it, too?” Twilight asked, trying to avoid looking at the entangled bodies, focusing instead on the smoke surrounding the head of the bed, now peeling off the wall like living, Stygian wallpaper.
“Yes,” he answered, “Luna should be able to, as well, if she focuses.”
Luna closed her eyes: “Yes. I, too, see a shape--ghostly indeed. Unicorn?”
Reaper agreed: “Right, and given the silhouette, I’m going to say a stallion…”
Luna grunted: “I’m even more fatigued this time. Have we seen enough?”
Reaper took one last look: “You’ve had a good, long look at that smoke and the darkness that worked its way in behind the smoke, Twilight?”
“Yes,” she replied.
Reaper leaned back away from Luna: “Then let’s head back to Canterlot and fit some of these puzzle pieces together!”
Twilight straightened up, too: “Gladly!”
Luna’s eyes hardened as her restraint over the scene broke down, and Nightmare Moon began again to dismount from Zephyr’s quivering, dying body, a trail of his life’s last fluids smearing down the inside of her leg.
Luna fired a blue-white magic bolt at her dark mirror image, collapsing the scene as though a light switch had been thrown.
“Bitch,” she growled.
The companions reappeared in Luna’s dreamscape home for a moment, then awoke on their cushions in her Canterlot chambers again. The light from the west window had failed, and deep shadows filled the room.
“It appears we have been gone longer than we originally anticipated,” Luna said, magically lighting various lamps and sconces about the chamber.
“Yes,” Reaper agreed. “I assume you both need something to eat at this point. I’ll fade out for a few minutes so you can send your guard for some food.”
Twilight sank back and sighed: “I could really use a bite!”
Luna concurred: “That is most appreciated, Reaper. Guard!”
One of Luna’s guards tentatively stuck his head around the corner of the chamber’s entrance.
“Yes, your Highness?” he replied halfheartedly.
Luna beckoned to him with a hoof: “Please come in. Reaper has removed himself from our sight.”
The guard stepped in gingerly and looked warily right and left: “OK, but I can still feel him!”
“Yes, yes,” Luna replied impatiently, “we simply need you to run to the kitchens and fetch back some fruit and bread.”
The guard turned and beat a hasty retreat from the room.
Twilight shouted after him: “And another carafe of that cider!”
Reaper reappeared next to Twilight, who gave a start: “That’s creepy! You’re just there, like you’ve been there forever and I simply lost track!”
He shrugged: “This is why I avoid being around regular ponies as much as possible. It’s very unnerving or even frightening for them."
Twilight took a deep breath and settled back down: “So what is that “ghost” shape? Is it just a phantom or spirit, or is it really a unicorn?”
Luna spoke up first: “I would take it for a real unicorn, shrouded in a cloak or spell that allows him to be largely invisible, or perhaps transparent.”
Reaper nodded: “I would agree with that. That Void was clearly directed. It formed-up behind the smoke tendrils, subsuming them, mimicking their shapes.”
“But they didn’t blend perfectly. That’s what I noticed the first time through the scene,” Twilight responded.
“Exactly,” Reaper concurred. “The Void he’s manipulating is too dark even for Nightmare Moon to mask over.”
Luna shifted nervously: “But I was clearly too distracted to notice…”
“Or care,” Reaper interjected. “It looked like you noticed something at the last, but didn’t find it interesting enough to investigate. You may have even thought it was some heightened effect of your own.”
Luna’s ears drooped, and she bit at her lip: “That is likely true. I had little concern for my own actions, let alone those of the nightmarish sprites of smoke and shadow I would conjure.”
Reaper nodded: “That was his trick, then--he knew Nightmare Moon would be too wrapped-up in whatever scene she was generating to pay attention to a little extra shadow or smoke, or what have you.”
“But he--our phantom unicorn--was faintly visible. Wouldn’t that have worried him?” asked Twilight.
Luna shook her head, and stood up: “No. I paid even less attention to the light, since it played little to no part in any of my schemes.” She walked toward the chamber’s vaulted entrance.
Reaper looked up at the ceiling, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes: “So, we had a unicorn out there who was piggy-backing on Nightmare Moon’s worst depredations, and taking ponies’ spirits at the moment of their deaths, either by causing the death--Firebrand--or by grabbing a departing essence at the moment of death--Zephyr.”
Twilight and Reaper glanced toward the entrance as they heard Luna thank her nervous guard for delivering refreshments: “I shall take them from here--thank you!”
Reaper continued: “And in either case, Nightmare Moon would be unaware. When the Void took Firebrand, Nightmare Moon had already launched herself skyward, assuming her dark, crashing wave would end the nightmare. But we now know our killer’s tool must have been part of that wave.”
Luna levitated trays of fruit and bread between herself and Twilight as she settled back down to her cushions. Reaper took the refilled carafe from her and poured two goblets for the Princesses.
“And as for Zephyr,” he concluded, “though Nightmare Moon made a first-rate succubus, and did indeed end Zephyr’s life, it was our phantom killer who used his Void to remove the old pegasus’ spirit from the world.”
“But why?” asked Twilight, “What was--or is--he getting out of this?”
She bit down on an apple, and cocked her head slightly, looking back and forth between Luna and Reaper.
Luna sighed: “I know what Nightmare Moon derived from it, but I cannot believe the killer’s motives were the same. I do not understand his use of this Void, and I also cannot fathom how he has lived this long!”
Reaper settled on his cushion: “I believe I have a story that may be instructive. When you two are done with your repast, we’ll head to my “Waiting Room” where I can better illustrate the tale.”