My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship

by Danieru

103. Nightmares

It was dark...

Star Twinkle was standing there in, what seemed like, absolute nothingness. He wondered how he got there and looked all around, trying to figure out what was going on. As soon as he took a step though, the ground began to shake. "Wha-wha-what is going on!?" He said in a panic.

Then, something was appearing in front of him, something really big and familiar. It was the Storm Fortress, the airship that the Storm Wings used to fly through Equestria. It was there, right in front of him all of a sudden. He asked himself how he managed to not notice it earlier, given its size.

Three ponies came diving down from the fortress and landed in front of him. It was Cyclone Wing, Steel Wing, and Hurricane Wing, the leaders of the Storm Wings. They all had very serious and battle-ready expressions on their faces, causing Star Twinkle to get a little bit confused and even nervous. They used to be enemies but now they were redeemed but judging from how they looked at him, that did not seem to be the case.

Soon, another pony appeared behind them, which was weird because nopony was standing there before. Star Twinkle recognized that pony as well. It was Mystic, the previous leader of the Storm Wings, and he looked more sinister and evil than ever. Seeing him was certainly bad news.

"What is going on here!?" Star Twinkle asked. "Why are you with him again!?" He added, his question being directed towards the three brothers.

Mystic was anything but a friend, heck, not even an ally to the three Pegasus ponies, after all the things that he put them and the Storm Wings through. In fact, Star Twinkle was pretty sure that they all hated him. But now, they stood there, just like a while ago, when they were forced to work together. Before he Star Twinkle could figure out what was going on though, mist started to cover the four ponies, and soon, Star Twinkle as well. He covered his eyes and closed them for a moment, only to find out that here was somewhere completely else now, in a place that he knew as well.

The Forgotten Castle...

It was the same place where he fought against the Outcasts. And as soon as that crossed his mind, there they were. Mystic was standing there still but he was soon accompanied by Rosa, Tagma, and Wildheart. They also looked as if they were not here to have a friendly talk just like the Storm Wings.

And of course, Star Twinkle was pretty confused about all this. Now it was the Outcasts that were in front of him, ready to attack, from what it looks like. Why were those four together again in the first place, is what Star Twinkle was asking himself. Rosa and Wildheart were wandering around Equestria, Tagma was out there on his own, wandering around Equestria, and Mystic was now, with his escape from the Canterlot dungeons, a criminal on the loose. It was almost as if they were back to being evil again, the way they back then when Star Twinkle first met them.

Star Twinkle felt intimidated. He had no idea what was going to happen next and took a few steps back just to be safe. That is until he noticed something or somepony behind him. He turned around and saw Fade, the one behind the actions of the Outcasts. He was supposed to be a stone statue before he vanished from Canterlot during the attack from Tirek. His appearance here certainly confused Star Twinkle.

But there was no time to react...Fade glared at Star Twinkle and dark magic was surrounding him. The Earth Pony tried to escape but he soon was completely surrounded by dark magic, making it impossible for him to escape. He got scared and could only see the serious expression on Fade before he closed his eyes in fear.

...

A few seconds later, once nothing happened, Star Twinkle opened his eyes again. He quickly noticed that he wasn't inside the Forgotten Castle anymore. This time, he was in Ponyville. For some reason, Star Twinkle knew that something else was coming up again and without much delay, that thought proved to be right.

Only a few meters away, Summershine stood there with his eyes focused on Star Twinkle and his mouth forming a sinister grin. The stallion's purple eyes turned red, fire started to appear and it began forming a ring around him and Star Twinkle, trapping them both inside. It was very similar to the meeting that they had not too long ago while Twilight was fighting against Lord Tirek.

Star Twinkle knew that there was a battle coming for him and he clenched his teeth nervously. He didn't know what to do but to fight Summershine, the pony that he knew was his friend. Everything just happened to fast and he was simply overtaken by it but he had no choice. He closed his eyes and transformed, making a horn appear on his head, and was ready to fight.

...

But he was no longer in Ponyville. This time, he was in Canterlot, in the garden next to the castle. He remembered staying there for a while after Twilight's coronation ceremony. As soon as he was aware of that, he had a pretty good guess what was happening next. Another familiar pony walked up to him from behind. The term "familiar" was probably not the best word to describe it though because he didn't know who that pony was exactly. It was the pony in the black armor, that showed itself back then after Twilight's coronation. The pony that attacked him while he was alone.

Star Twinkle locked eyes with the pony and they both kept looking at each other for a while without saying a thing. It was pretty tense but also a little bit calm as if they both understood each other in some kind of way.

"I don't know who you are but..." Star Twinkle started before pausing for a moment. He didn't know how, he didn't know why, but he was sure of one thing. "I know you...right?" He asked confused.

Summershine was a pony that he was supposed to know but his memories were erased by exactly him for some reason. That meant that there was a possibility that there were more who were erased from his memories. Maybe the pony in the black armor was one of them. Maybe there was a reason for this pony to not show his or her face. He didn't know why he came to this conclusion but somehow he knew. Something was telling him that this pony was someone he should know. It had to be like this.

The pony in the black armor did not respond, nor did it show any reaction to Star Twinkle's words. The two just continued to look at each other silently for what felt like an eternity.

...

"Huh?"

He was awake. Star Twinkle laid in his bed, his eyes open, and his mouth as well due to the confusion of what happened in his dreams. He was sitting up in his bed and sighed in relief.

"Morning, Comet," he said, greeting his pet goldfish.

Comet did not reply and stared blankly in the distance...

It was another one of those nights were Star Twinkle was haunted by nightmares. He did not want to admit it but he was actually getting used to those. He got so many nightmares it was almost funny, he did not like having them but they just appeared so often that he just accepted them. They usually made little sense to him the more he tried thinking about them so he just pushed them away as soon as he woke up. That was much easier. If he would spend the rest of the day thinking about them, he would not get anything done after all.

With this mindset, Star Twinkle left his house to attend a meeting with his friends.

Later...

Today, Star Twinkle and his friends agreed to meet up at Carousel Boutique. They all brought their pets as well to take care of them. Rarity set up everything to prepare a little grooming day. It sure was handy that all of them had pets for an occasion like that. There was not much too take care of when it came to Comet since he was a fish with not too many desires but Star Twinkle still decided to join the girls.

He expected the rest of his friends to be a little bit more excited about this day but much to his surprise, all of them seemed a little bit out of it. They looked very tired as if they didn't get too much sleep last night. Funny, since Star Twinkle could not sleep well too last night.

Rarity was just now brushing her cat, Opalescence, but in the middle of it, she seemed to have dozed off for a moment and accidentally scratched her back. Of course, Opalescence did not appreciate that too much and jumped up in anger and away from her owner.

"Oh, my! Oh, I'm sorry," Rarity apologized, her voice sounding really tired. "I didn't get my normal beauty sleep last night..." she added while she rubbed her eyes for a moment.

Twilight overheard that as well. "You know...I didn't sleep well either," she said followed by a yawn.

The girls all nodded and agreed to those words. It must have been the same for them as well, just as Star Twinkle thought.

"I'm totally beat too!" Pinkie Pie then said while cartwheeling around the room, showing her how "beat" she was at this moment, which was not much different from her usual self.

Star Twinkle lowered his eyebrows. He did not get too much sleep as well but he did not feel too bad, at least not as bad as the girls. He figured that it was because he was no stranger to weird dreams or nightmares anymore. He did not get that many nightmares but because of his memories being kind of a mess, they did pop up occasionally so he was most likely hardened up to get a little sleep every now and then. His hooves did not slip up at least, which could not be said by his friends.

Another mishap was about to happen as soon as Applejack tried to brush her dog, Winona. "All right, Winona. Time for your brushin'," the mare said as she grabbed a brush from a nearby table, only to mistake it with Pinkie Pie's pet alligator, Gummy.

Out of reflex perhaps, Gummy was biting the dog's ear. Gummy does not have any teeth yet but Winona still did not appreciate this action and shook him off and right on Twilight's pet owl Owlowiscious. This caused some chaos in which Twilight got knocked away while Owlowiscious tried to shake of Gummy.

Applejack quickly admitted to her mistake. "Oops. I guess I'm too plumb tuckered out to do this right," she said embarrassed.

And she was not the only one. Everyone could barely hold their eyes open and focus on their pets. They were simply too tired to do anything right.

Fluttershy then explained why she was in this state after releasing a healthy yawn. "I even went to bed early last night... but then I had a really scary nightmare," she said.

The rest of the group was pretty quick to pick up on that. "Me too!" Everyone said in unison.

"Uh, only, you know, I didn't think mine was that scary!" Rainbow Dash then added, trying to act tough again.

Twilight was not having any trouble sharing her thoughts about her dream though. "Well, mine sure was. There was this blue smoke monster and..." but then she stopped in the middle of the sentence after she realized how everyone was looking at her with a shocked expression. "What?" She then asked confused.

"I dreamt about a blue smoke thingy too!" Fluttershy said.

"Me too!" Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity said.

Twilight then looked over to Star Twinkle, expecting him to say the same thing. The stallion quickly realized that and smiled awkwardly. "Y-yes! Me too!" He then said, straight out lying to Twilight. There was no smoke monster in his dream after all.

Of course, there was something that all of his friends experienced, all with the exception of him. As usual. Star Twinkle didn't know if he should be happy or mad to not be part of this. He did have a nightmare last night if he remembered correctly, but there was no blue thing like the girls said. Would it make a difference if he was part of this? He didn't know the answer to that but he sure wished to get an explanation of why he was left out, like so many other times when it came to things like this.

The group didn't notice how Star Twinkle was thinking about those things, much to his delight, and continued to focus on this blue-thing-dream again.

Rainbow Dash was not too concerned. "So what? Probably just a coincidence," she figured.

"That's an awfully big coincidence," Twilight threw back.

Spike was quick to point out that he didn't have this problem. "Huh. I wonder why I didn't have that nightmare. I slept great!" He said, earning him some glares from everyone after the last sentence.

"So then, what could've given us all the same nightmare?" Rarity then asked.

"I don't know, but I do know who might," Twilight said before she looked over to the little dragon. "Spike, could you send a scroll to Princess Luna?" She asked.

"Sure! All set!" Spike replied before he took out a feather and a scroll.

Twilight then started. "Dear Princess Luna, last night my friends and I all dreamt of a creature made of blue smoke. I'm sure you're very busy, but (yawn) when you have the chance, please let me know if you have any idea what it could mean. Yours, (yawn) Princess Twilight Sparkle." "You can leave out the yawns," she added.

Spike wrote down every single word, rolled the scroll shut, and then blew fire on it, sending it to the princess. Now all they could do was wait for an answer to know what to do next.

SLAM!

The door to Carousel Boutique was opened only seconds after Spike sent the letter and to everyone's surprise.

"Which of you saw the creature of blue smoke in your nightmare?!" The princess asked in a rush as she stormed inside the boutique.

"Wow," was the only thing Star Twinkle could say after seeing Princess Luna appearing in record time like this.

"That was fast," Fluttershy added.

But since Princess Luna was already here, Twilight just explained the situation to her directly. "We all saw it," she said.

"Not me!" Spike added, much to the dislike of everyone, except Star Twinkle.

In order to not get suspicious, Star Twinkle asked what was on everyone's mind. "So what exactly is this...blue-smoke thing?"

Princess Luna then explained the situation to everyone. Apparently, this blue smoke monster is called "Tantabus" and it is a creature that came from Princess Luna's nightmares. Yesterday, it escaped from her nightmare while she was seeing the six girls in her dreams, which is why it appears in their dreams now. It also has a parasitic nature and wants to infect and corrupt dreams.

Hearing news like this was certainly making the group feel a little bit nervous. Spike, however, was pointing out something else.

"Whoa-whoa-whoa. So what you're saying is... you dreamt about all of them, and not me?" He asked before he started to whimper a little bit.

Star Twinkle began to get nervous. He knew that Princess Luna's next words would be: "Everyone except Star Twinkle". If what she said was true then the girls only saw the Tantabus in their dreams because Princess Luna saw them in their dreams but Star Twinkle didn't saw it, meaning that he didn't appear in her dream. It would lead his lie to get exposed quickly and put him in a pretty awkward situation.

But that did not happen. Princess Luna didn't even look over to Star Twinkle as if she was hinting at that he wasn't in her dreams. She just ignored Spike's words, causing Star Twinkle to exhale in relief.

Rainbow Dash was the next to pick up on this matter, and she did not seem worried at all. "Uh, so Smokey gave us bad dreams. No biggie," she said casually with no worry in her voice.

Princess Luna, however, knew a lot more and was willing to share her knowledge so that everyone would understand the situation that they were in. "I saw that the Tantabus had grown more powerful, but I did not realize that power was enough to enable it to escape my dreams. If its power grows, it could very well find a way to escape into the real world. It could turn all of Equestria into a living nightmare!" She explained.

The others could practically imagine the situation that the princess explained to them and it made them all feel rather unease, even Rainbow Dash this time.

"Okay, okay, okay, I take it back! That does sound bad! Really bad!" She said nervously.

But the princess was trying her best to calm everyone down again. "Do not fear. I already have a plan to deal with this situation. All it needs is some preparation," she assured.

Princess Luna then explained to the group what needed to be done and of course, everyone was doing what she demanded. But the plan needed to be executed later this evening to work which meant that the group still had to wait a little bit, and knowing that the Tantabus was roaming free did not sound too inviting to get a nap in between, much to everyone's dislike.

Later that evening...

Everything was set for Princess Luna's plan. Everyone was supposed to be inside Twilight's castle, in her bedroom to be exact. The group was just done placing a bunch of beds inside the room, one for each of the ponies. They also started to all lay down in one of them. It was then when Star Twinkle recapped the whole plan once more.

"Okay, so the plan goes as follows," he started, in order to not have misunderstood anything so far. "We all go to sleep so that you can enter our dreams and take care of the Tantabus?"

"Precisely," Princess Luna replied.

Star Twinkle casually shrugged his shoulders. "Sounds like a pretty good plan to me," he said, being fully supportive of this plan. For once, he had to do something that he already liked doing, sleeping, but it also sounded as if there was not much else he needed to do. He was actually looking forward to all of this.

So was, Pinkie Pie, who jumped on her bed excitedly. "Ooh! It'll be like a princess sleepover!" She said.

Twilight began tucking herself into her own bed as well. "Speaking of princesses, aren't you gonna ask Celestia for her help as well?" She asked.

"There is nothing my sister can do," Princess Luna replied. "She has no power in the realm of sleep. Only I can move from dream to dream. I am afraid nopony can help me tonight," she explained.

"Even us?" Applejack asked.

"Especially you. You have all suffered so much because of me. You need only slumber while I hunt the Tantabus in your dreams," she said, determined to make those words become reality.

As a princess, she felt responsible to do that. She was also blaming herself for this whole situation, making it hard to accept help from others. But just like she said before, in the realms of dreams, she was probably the only one who had the power to do anything anyway.

But Spike still wanted to help in some way. "I know you said nopony can help, but I'm no pony! I'm gonna stay up and watch over you guys just in case!" He said.

"Aw, thank you, Spike!" Twilight replied.

The rest of the group did not seem to be against Princess Luna's plan as well. In fact, they were looking forward to it too.

"One good thing about not sleepin' well last night – shouldn't be too hard to fall asleep now," Applejack figured before she got comfortable and closed her eyes.

That was until she got interrupted by Pinkie Pie, who just appeared next inside Applejack's bed. "Are you kidding?! This is so exciting, I don't know how I'm ever going to—" The mare said excitedly before already dozing off in the middle of her sentence. Applejack was way too tired to be bothered by the mare next to her so she just decided to close her eyes as well.

Star Twinkle was already asleep while this happened. He had no trouble going to sleep now and after a few minutes, his friends were asleep as well. It was just like Applejack said, not being able to sleep earlier made it quite easy to doze off now.

Only Spike and Princess Luna stayed up, the latter one preparing everything. The princess flew up in the air and used her magic, seven magic strings came out of her horn which then was all touching the foreheads of the sleeping ponies. She connected herself with them to access their dreams now. The Tantabus was inside the dreams of those ponies, so the only way to find it was to go inside their dreams. Something like this was no problem for her, she was the Princess of the night after all.

Inside Star Twinkle's dreams...

Before Star Twinkle went to sleep, he actually didn't expect to have another nightmare this time around. The chances of having two nightmares in a row were pretty slim, he thought. The Tantabus might have invaded the dreams of the girls but not Star Twinkle's so he was safe from that too.

But strangely enough, he did have a nightmare again...he just did not realize it yet...

The stallion stood in the middle of the road of Ponyville. He didn't know how he got there or why. The town was pretty empty and he wondered why that was but he was also not bothered by it. In fact, this was a pretty recurring dream, him being alone, with nopony around him in an empty location, this is usually what his dreams would look like.

And as usual, there would be something or someone who would haunt him in those dreams, just like the day before. It didn't take long until someone else appeared in front of Star Twinkle but the way this pony appeared was a little bit weird. Some kind of portal appeared in front of him and the pony coming out of it was someone he saw in his last dream as well, the pony in the black armor.

"You again?" Star Twinkle said almost unimpressed and bored as if he expected this pony to appear again.

Remembering how his last dream went, Star Twinkle expected the armored pony to stay there silently again but much to his surprise, the pony came charging at him as soon as it came out of the portal. Star Twinkle didn't know how to react to this and had no chance to defend himself in time. He was about to get tackled, or whatever the armored pony tried to do to him.

The armored pony focused some magic in its horn and fired a beam right before it was about to come in contact with Star Twinkle. The beam, however, was missing Star Twinkle, much to the stallion's surprise. The armored pony then positioned itself behind the stallion. It was then that Star Twinkle noticed something behind him. A blue mist was right behind him and from the looks of it, the pony in the black armor was shooting at it while Star Twinkle was just piecing everything together.

"Wait...is that the Tantabus?" Star Twinkle asked after he laid eyes on this thing for the first time. It did fit the description of Princess Luna and the rest of the girls though. The question was just how it appeared in Star Twinkle's dreams now. It did not appear in his dreams before after all.

The creature was preparing another attack and this time, Star Twinkle got ready in time. He transformed into a Unicorn and was ready to defend himself. The Tantabus was coming towards him, or at least that's what he thought. The Armored Pony moved to the side and the Tantabus was following it.

"It's going after this pony?" Star Twinkle wondered while he watched the armored pony trying to get away.

The armored pony seemed to be the focus of the Tantabus, which did confuse Star Twinkle a little. This pony was part of his dream after all so why would it go after it. He assumed that since it was part of his dreams, the Tantabus saw it fit to corrupt the armored pony and making the stallion's dream worse.

Those questions needed some answers but before he could figure them out, a light showed up right above the heads of the two ponies. The light quickly revealed itself to be Princess Luna who was now there to take care of the Tantabus herself.

"I will take care of it!" The princess said with determination before she charged at the mist-creature to fight it.

But the Tantabus was ready for that. It created a wall of fire in front of it, making Princess Luna back away. Needless to say, Star Twinkle did not appreciate the fire spreading in Ponyville and how it slowly came towards him. It was not the first time he saw Ponyville burning in his dreams but that did not make the situation any better for him. He still was afraid and backed up further, causing Princess Luna to use her magic to save the stallion. She created a bubble around the stallion that levitated up into the air, keeping his save from the fire.

In the meantime, the Tantabus was taking this opportunity to escape through a portal. Princess Luna was following it right behind, leaving both Star Twinkle and the pony in the black armor behind. Star Twinkle was safe inside this bubble and the other pony was just looking up to him from below without saying anything. The Earth Pony just looked back with a confused look on his face.

"Just who is this pony? Why did it appear in my dreams?" Star Twinkle asked himself.

The two looked at each other for a while until they were interrupted by the flames. They started to rise higher and higher until they were at the same height as Star Twinkle and slowly surrounded him. There was nowhere for him to run since he was high up in the air inside a bubble. He got scared and crawled into a ball shivering at the sight of this.

"Help!" He screamed in fear, hoping that somepony would come to his aid now.

...

All of the seven ponies gasped and opened their eyes again. They were awake now after experiencing all their personal nightmares. Spike, who was skipping some time by reading a book, noticed how everyone was awake again. "What happened?" He asked confused before he rushed over to Rarity's bed. "Are you guys okay?"

Everyone looked rather uncomfortable. All of them woke up in the middle of their dream after things got too scary or extreme in their dreams. Just by looking at each other, they could see that everyone was experiencing a rather bad dream as well.

"That... that was terrible!" Fluttershy said while she tugged herself under her sheet. "I-I never want to have that nightmare again!"

"Me either!" Rainbow Dash said, while nervously rocking back and forth on the spot. Star Twinkle could only imagine how bad her dream if she was acting like this.

Spike then asked the most important question. "But Luna caught it, didn't she?"

This is when Princess Luna was descending from the above their heads, her face showing anything but a happy expression. "I am so sorry, my friends. I failed," she said in regret. "It will be back to infect your dreams the next time you sleep," she further informed the ponies, much to their dislike.

"Great..." Star Twinkle said bothered. He already was having a lot of nightmares at an annoying rate so there was definitely not a lack for more for him. He was not looking forward to this. His friends were actually a little bit more shocked than him.

"Oh, no!" Is all that Fluttershy could say after hearing Princess Luna's words.

Applejack looked bothered as well. "Yeah. I reckon I could live without seeing that thing ever again," she said.

"But you will," Princess Luna said up in her face. "Again and again, every night, until it grows powerful enough to infect the waking world!" She further informed, which was not helping anyone in the room to calm down at all. They could really go without Princess Luna making them even more nervous now. "After what I did as Nightmare Moon, the fact that I am once again responsible for harming others is more than I can bear," she said in regret and with a frown on her face.

But not one inside this room was blaming the princess for this. "It'll be okay! Everypony makes mistakes!" Pinkie Pie said, keeping up a positive attitude about this situation.

Still, Princess Luna had more bad news coming towards them. "As long as none of you dreamt about another pony, the Tantabus remains confined to your dreams. I still have a chance to catch it before it's too late," she explained.

Star Twinkle did not like hearing this. "How are we supposed to do that? That doesn't really sound like something that is in our control," he figured.

"I know, right?" Pinkie Pie agreed. "Besides, after Princess Luna left my dream, I did happen to dream that I was eating a giant ice-cream cone with all of Ponyville while taking a test we hadn't studied for," she said casually. "See, what'd I tell ya? Everypony makes mistakes!"

Princess Luna slowly formed a shocked expression on her face. Now she was the one who was getting nervous and almost scared just thinking about the future of Equestria. It also didn't help that Twilight was having the same realization and decided to share it with the group.

"But that means the Tantabus could be turning every dream in Ponyville into a nightmare!" She said.

But, as if things weren't too bad enough, there was still more bad news. "It is far worse than that," Princess Luna said. "Infecting all those dreams gives it more and more power. Soon it will be able to escape into the real world and infect Equestria with its nightmare plague!"

The seven ponies did not like the sound of that one bit and just decided to help Princess Luna with this. "Then you must let us help you stop it before that happens!" Rarity said determinedly.

"But how?" Fluttershy asked. "The Tantabus was able to escape Luna when it only had six dreams it could get to!" She pointed out.

The princess of the night was well aware of that already. "It is true. With so many dreams to hide in, I do not know how I can catch it," she said.

That is when Twilight managed to come up with an idea. "What if everypony in Ponyville were having one dream?" She asked.

Star Twinkle figured that this was a good idea as well. "Yes, that way, the Tantabus won't be able to run away anymore. Can you do something like that?" He then asked Princess Luna.

The Alicorn princess did not reply at first, in fact, she was throwing a thoughtful expression at the stallion as if she tried to figure something out. Having Princess Luna staring at him, made Star Twinkle feel a little bit uneasy.

"Just like with you and this other pony," she then said out of the blue with a serious expression on her face.

Star Twinkle did not understand. "What?" He asked confused.

The princess continued to look at him confused and a little bit unamused. "Who is this pony with the black armor?" She then asked.

Hearing that, caught the attention of everyone else in the room. "The pony in the black armor?" Twilight asked, having not heard about that matter for a while now. Of course, she remembered that pony from what Star Twinkle told her.

Princess Luna then explained what was bothering her. "While I entered your dream, I noticed something. You and this pony both shared the same dream," she said, much to Star Twinkle's confusion. "When I followed the Tantabus, it did not bring me to your dream as I expected but instead to the dream of this other pony, where you happened to be as well," she further explained.

Star Twinkle still did not understand and tried to lay it all down once more for himself. "So the Tantabus was escaping to the dream of the pony in the black armor? And I was inside that dream instead of...well, having my own?"

"As I said, you two shared the same dream but it seems like this other pony was the one the Tantabus was after," she figured.

Thinking back about it, Star Twinkle could swear that he figured that out as well. The Tantabus did go after the armored pony instead of him, that much he noticed as well. If what Princess Luna said before then the Tantabus only appears inside the dreams of those who she saw inside her dreams, and since Star Twinkle did not have a dream about the Tantabus before, he just assumed that he was not part of the princesses dream. But Princess Luna assured him that he did appear inside her dreams as well, much to his confusion.

"Just who is this pony!?" Star Twinkle wondered. "Every single time! Why are all those complicated things only applying to me!? Can't some unexplained things like this happen to someone else!?"

Star Twinkle was standing there thinking about all this while everyone was staring at him confused because he didn't say anything. He felt a little bit embarrassed but eventually, he reminded everyone about a more important matter.

"Anyway, can make everyone experience one shared dream or not?" He then asked.

Princess Luna was aware that defeating the Tantabus was more important now as well and decided to put this matter aside for now.

"I... can create shared dreams, yes, but for so many ponies at once? I have never done anything like that. The amount of power it would take..."

The princess was having her doubts about this plan. Not because she thought it wouldn't work but rather that she was able to pull it off. She doubted herself, something that the rest of the group did not. In fact, everyone was admiring how Princess Luna tried to take care of all this without any help from anyone.

"Well, it is worth a try, isn't it?" Fluttershy said, pretty much speaking out the mind of everyone else in the room. No one wanted to experience a nightmare with the Tantabus as the main actor anymore so trying out Twilight's plan is all that was left to do for them.

And Princess Luna shared that thought as well. "Of course," she replied. "I will do anything to end this, including accept your help. I cannot allow the Tantabus to escape into the real world. All of you must now go back to sleep and hope that I can create such a dream," she explained.

And so the group went back to sleep again. They were still a little bit nervous to enter their dreams again with the Tantabus waiting for them but eventually, their tiredness overwhelmed them and they fell asleep. All that needed to be done now was for Princess Luna to connect the dreams of everyone in Ponyville...

In the dreamworld...

As expected, Star Twinkle was finding himself in Ponyville. It was dark, unlike whenever Star Twinkle dreamed about this town. This meant that Princess Luna most likely succeeded with her shared-dream plan.

And what a dream it was...

There were some strange things going on in Ponyville. Ponies who grew to the size of giants, ponies with balloons for a head, best friends joined together as one, ponies rowing through the sky, definitely things that were "normal" in a dream.

Star Twinkle walked around the town. He saw a bunch of familiar faces, all of them being ponies who lived in Ponyville. He knew that this was the doing of Princess Luna to fight the Tantabus, which still didn't seem to have appeared yet.

"There you are!" Twilight then said towards the stallion. She was accompanied by the rest of their friends. "It looks like Princess Luna did it!" She said as soon as she laid eyes on her surroundings and saw all the ponies that lived in Ponyville. Of course, after she got behind the fact that everything looked rather weird.

One of those ponies was Big McIntosh, who joined the group as well. After seeing all those weird ponies, Applejack was just glad that her brother looked normal. "Big Mac! Boy, I'm glad to see somethin' familiar!" She said in relief. But then she noticed something unusual on him as well. Her brother had a horn on his forehead, making him into a Unicorn.

"Eeyup," the stallion replied proudly before he shot a giant apple out of his horn, sending it flying over the buildings of Ponyville.

"If the apple's fly this low, it usually means it's going to rain soon," said Steel Hammer as he walked up to the group of ponies. "Hey, there!" He greeted them casually.

Star Twinkle was about to say how relieved he was to see Steel Hammer but then he kept an eye out to see if there was something strange about him as well but that didn't seem to be the case.

Before the two could exchange words though, Princess Luna was finally appearing. She descended from the sky and was inside a magic sphere while also keeping some magic strings around her horn, possibly to keep the dreams of everyone together. "Ponies!" She said, her voice echoing through the whole town, making her appearance known to everyone.

"Princess Luna!" The majority of the ponies in town said as soon as they saw their princess appearing in front of them. And of course, all of them bowed down soon after.

"There is no time for bowing, my friends!" Princess Luna then said with a pressing manner in her voice. "There is something coming, something terrible!" She warned them. But then, almost on cue, the Tantabus showed itself. It was a lot bigger than before, big enough to be the size of a castle. "No, it is already here!" She then said as she pointed towards it, making all the ponies in Ponyville aware of its presence.

The Tantabus let out a big growl, sending shivers down the spines of everypony in town. The scared faces are what made Princess Luna more determined to fight it again. "I am so sorry! I brought this upon you! But I will end it now!" She said before she shot a magic beam at the creature.

The attack did push back the Tantabus for a moment but for some reason, Princess Luna could not keep it up for long. She seemed exhausted and not able to do anything for a moment. The Tantabus though was not defeated and started terrorizing Ponyville, all while Princess Luna was too weak to do anything.

Star Twinkle and the rest of the group ran up to the princess. "Princess, what's wrong?" Twilight asked.

Princess Luna grunted. "It... is taking all my strength just to hold this massive dream together! You will have to stop it! I truly wish I did not have to ask this of you!" She explained.

The Tantabus was simply too much for Princess Luna to handle alone. She saw it as her responsibility to stop this monster but there was no way for her to do that now. She needed help but fortunately, that is exactly why everyone was here.

"Then you're in luck," Twilight replied determined.

"Yeah! We're already on it!" Rainbow Dash agreed, getting really excited for some action.

But not everyone was too informed about the situation to follow what this was all about. "So...what exactly is going on here?" Steel Hammer asked. "What exactly is this thing?" He asked.

Star Twinkle explained. "Long story short, this is a dream, and we have to defeat this thing before it escapes to the real world," he summarized.

Steel Hammer did look a little bit confused. "Okay. that sounds like a pretty cool dream," he then casually replied. "Then let's go!" He said before he started following the Tantabus to fight it.

The green earth Pony was now the one who was confused. "I think...he did not understand how serious this situation is. As long as he is helping though," he figured before he joined his friends as well.

The Tantabus was already at work. It could transform anything inside this dream into a more twisted and scarier version of itself. The first thing it did was to transform the buildings. The windows became eyes and the doors became mouths, arms came out of the walls and grabbed everyone in reach.

"Please! I'll pay you anything!" Filthy Rich said in a panic, being one of those unfortunate ponies who was trapped inside the claws of one of those houses. All that he received though was an angry roar coming from the house.

Luckily, Rainbow Dash was not too far off to rescue him by kicking the house in the face and freeing Filthy Rich.

Similar things happened all over the town. Houses came to life and grabbed the ponies who lived inside of them. Twilight used her magic to fight them off and even Fluttershy was helping out a lot by transforming herself into a vampire-bat pony, just like back then, when she and her friends were dealing with the fruit bat situation on Sweet Apple Acres.

Being inside a dream sure was handy. Everyone could do whatever they wanted after all. Applejack was noticing how her brother was surrounded by flying muffins and reminded him of this fact as well.

"Big Mac! You can do anythin' in a dream, remember?" She said to him.

This is when Big McIntosh did...something...

In very flashy fashion. Big McIntosh was surrounded by light while stars were in his eyes. The light soon made some golden horseshoes appear, and some gems on his horse collar. On top of that, there was now a tiara on his head and wings started to grow on his back. He transformed into some kind of magical Alicorn Princess. He simply slapped the muffins away with his wings and flew away having the most fun of his life.

Steel Hammer just watched this happening a few meters away from him. "Cool! Now my turn!" He said excitedly.

"What, are you gonna turn into an Alicorn as well?" Star Twinkle asked amused.

"You'll see!"

The brown coated stallion then pulled a hammer out of nowhere and started to blew it like a flute. The ground then started shaking. The cause of that was the Iron Hammer, Steel Hammer's, and Star Twinkle's workshop. It started to come to life as well. But it was not the doing of the Tantabus which caused that, it was Steel Hammer. The anvil-shaped building was growing metallic legs and stood up, there were also two arms coming out of it from the sides. It looked like a giant anvil-shaped robot now.

With a huge jump, Steel Hammer was leaping towards it, there was some kind of cockpit opening up in the middle of it and the stallion sat down inside of it. "Mega-Iron-robot ready!" He said accompanied by a flashy pose before he sat down and started to ride this giant thing.

Two giant hammers then came flying down from the sky and landed next to it. The robot grabbed both of them with its hands and wielded them as weapons. "Attack!" Steel Hammer screamed, his voice echoing from inside of this robot. Star Twinkle then saw the robot charging at one of the houses from the Tantabus and attacking them.

"Okay, that was kinda cool," Star Twinkle admitted.

But no matter how good their ideas were to fight off the Tantabus, there were more and more objects that became alive. Soon Star Twinkle and his friends would not be able to keep up saving everyone while also taking care of the Tantabus. And the more dreams it ruined, the more powerful it would become. Once it would become strong enough, it will try to escape to the real world and turn it into a big nightmare.

And that is what happened next...

The Tantabus created a sword with its mist and literally sliced a hole in the dimension and tried to go through it. "It's trying to escape!" Star Twinkle screamed, in the hope, someone would hear his words in time.

Twilight was already on it. She focused her magic to shoot at it before it would escape. A magic beam was fired at it and the Tantabus backed away again while Princess Luna closed the hole again a few seconds later.

"Good job, Twilight!" Star Twinkle said happily.

"That wasn't me," Twilight then replied, wondering about who was shooting the Tantabus just now.

The horn of the pony who shot it was still glowing as it revealed itself to the group. Star Twinkle quickly panicked a little and took a few steps back. It was the pony in the black armor.

"You!?" Star Twinkle said in shock.

The armored pony did not reply and kept looking at Star Twinkle silently. That was until Princess Luna was releasing some painful straining noises. "Hurry, my friends!" She asked of them all.

Star Twinkle looked back at the pony in the black armor. There were no attempts of this pony to attack neither him or anyone else besides the Tantabus. This led Star Twinkle to ask one question.

"Are you gonna help us?"

There was no nod coming from the pony, nor was there an answer but as soon as the pony in the armor was locking its sight at the Tantabus again, he knew that it was going to help them. It was a confusing situation for sure, especially since this pony seemed to be more hostile towards Star Twinkle but right now they all needed as much help as they could get no matter from where it came from.

In fact, Fluttershy was about to get some more help. She walked up to a bunch of citizens. "Please, we need your help too!" She asked them.

"Fluttershy's right!" Twilight added as she ran over to the ponies. "We've all got to work together to stop it from escaping!"

"But how can we help?" Mr. Cake asked, who was one of the ponies in this bunch. "Nopony in Ponyville has your magic or your speed!" He said as he pointed towards Twilight and Rainbow Dash.

"That's true... in Ponyville!" Rainbow Dash replied.

"But this here isn't Ponyville! It's a dream!" Applejack added.

"Yes, you can do whatever you want," Star Twinkle further added.

Those words were only supported by Big McIntosh who happened to fly by at this moment, and Steel Hammer who was wrestling a house nearby inside of his big robot.

"And not just any! This is your dream! Anything you can do in your dreams, you can do now!" Twilight explained, encouraging the citizens of Ponyville to act now.

The first one to act was Spike. He grew in size and changed into a more muscular version of himself, wearing an outfit that would be fit to a prince or a chivalrous knight. "Well, if you're gonna dream, might as well dream big, right?" He said before he jumped on one Pegasus pony, that was the size of a building, riding her into battle against the Tantabus.

It did not take long until the rest of the ponies joined in as well and let their creativity run wild. Spike used a lance to cut through the mist creature while flying past it with the Pegasus Pony. Filthy Rich attacked as well by surfing in the air on his money while shooting coins at the creature. All the attempts of the Tantabus to leave this world were ruined. The Cutie Mark Crusaders walked by the scene as well and Scootaloo grew a gigantic pair of wings and blew the Tantabus away with a strong gust of wind. Next was Rainbow Dash, who transformed into Zap, one of the Power Ponies, and created a tornado around the Tantabus to keep it in place.

"It's working!" She said victoriously.

"But it's not enough!" Twilight exclaimed. The Tantabus simply came out of the tornado from the top and escaped this attack.

"Then do more! This is a dream, remember?" Pinkie Pie said, prompting everyone else to join in.

Soon, Twilight joined the fray by restoring her old library and shooting books from it at the Tantabus. Applejack was transforming into Mistress Mare-velous, another member of the Power Ponies, who used her magical lasso to pull the Tantabus away from another hole in the dimension again, a hole that was then fixed by Rarity who used a giant sewing needle to close it again. In the meantime, Fluttershy was riding a big monstrous rabbit, which strangely resembled Angel in a way and charged at the creature as well.

Seeing how everyone was working so hard, Star Twinkle was trying to come up with something as well. He was not too creative right now, especially since there was so much going on but he knew how he could fight, and that was by transforming, not into a Unicorn or a Pegasus but an Alicorn. He took a little page out of Big McIntosh and decided to take this chance to transform into one as well, something that was not in his power before.

"As long as I can do something, it should be alright!" He said before he flew up at the sky and started charging a magic beam. Another attack added to the bunch of this should help out plenty enough after all. "Eat this!" He said before he fired.

BLAAAAAST!

A gigantic beam of light was shot at the creature, sending it back flying quite a mile, much to the surprise of everyone. Star Twinkle had no idea what just happened, he did focus quite a lot of magic in this beam, yes, but this beam was pretty big, and it looked like there was quite some power behind it as well. It was just a little bit smaller than what Twilight shot at Lord Tirek after she got the magic power of all Alicorn Princesses.

"Wha...?" Was the only thing Star Twinkle could reply at this moment.

The Tantabus was quickly aware of the danger that Star Twinkle was now and decided to go after him instead. Being still surprised at this moment, the stallion could not react in time but luckily someone came to his aid. It was the pony in the black armor., who created a shield around itself and Star Twinkle, preventing the Tantabus from attacking them.

"T-thanks," Star Twinkle replied.

The two were flying next to each other and both started glowing. Light was surrounding them. They both focused some more magic from their horns and aimed straight ahead towards the Tantabus. The shield was removed and soon after, the two shot each a beam at the creature. Needless to say, they were both pretty big and hit hard, severally knocking the Tantabus back.

Star Twinkle couldn't help but smile after seeing how well he and this other pony managed to work together like this. They both earned several cheers from the ponies of this town, who were all happy to see the Tantabus defeated.

Princess Luna had to much trouble focusing on her magic and didn't notice all of this happening, all she could do was telling everyone how things were going on her end.

"I cannot hold this dream together much longer! Equestria will fall because of me!" She said with a straining voice, while tears started to run down her cheeks.

Shortly after, the Tantabus was acting up again. It got up again, grew in size, and was ready to fight again, causing everyone to be on guard once more.

"Am I crazy, or did it just get even bigger after Luna said that?" Spike asked.

Twilight noticed that little fact as well and came to one conclusion. "I think it's feeding off your guilt, Princess Luna!" She said.

Princess Luna noticed that as well and she did not seem happy about it. "If that is so, then perhaps that is how it grew strong enough to escape in the first place! I created the Tantabus to give myself the same nightmare every night..." she said accompanied by some panting noises. "...to punish myself for the evil I caused as Nightmare Moon!"

"But why would you do that?!" Fluttershy asked confused while she got more and more nervous after seeing the Tantabus growing even bigger now. It was around five sizes bigger than Ponyville right about now and took the form of a Pony. It also started walking through a giant hole in the sky to escape this dream.

Princess Luna continued to explain her actions. "To make sure I never forgave myself for how much Equestria suffered because of me! But it seems I have not learned my lesson, for now, I have only made you suffer more!"

"But that means you might just be the key to stopping all this!" Twilight pointed out.

"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash agreed while she tried fighting off the Tantabus. "If it gets strong because you feel bad about what you did as Nightmare Moon, then you just gotta stop feeling bad for what you did!" She advised.

That was easier said than done, however. "How can I forgive myself? I am no better now than I was then. My creation is about to turn the world into a living nightmare!" She said, while more tears started to run down her face.

"Yes, but unlike Nightmare Moon, you are not trying to make this all happen!" Star Twinkle pointed out.

"Exactly!" Twilight agreed. "Look at what you're doing! Nightmare Moon would've wanted the Tantabus to turn Equestria into a nightmare! You're doing everything you can to stop it! Don't you see? That proves you're not the same pony you were then!"

Star Twinkle couldn't agree more. "You are you, and Nightmare Moon is Nightmare Moon! You might have been the same pony at one point but now you are two different ones!" He pointed out.

Twilight continued. "Everypony knows that Nightmare Moon is in the past! We all trust you, Luna! Do you trust us enough to believe we're right?"

Princess Luna stopped crying for a moment. Her sadness was no longer overwhelming her, she now felt happiness. She was happy hearing how everyone was looking at her in this way and that nopony was blaming her for all this. They might have hated or feared Nightmare Moon but they certainly did not think about Princess Luna this way. They all respected her, not because she was their princess but rather because she wanted so bad to keep everyone safe, even if it meant she had to do it alone. But that is not the case right now. Everyone was helping her out now and supported her to help to save Equestria.

Princess Luna smiled. "...I do!" She then said happily.

The situation changed. The Tantabus shrunk in size again after her doubts were removed. The creatures slowly moved closer to the princess and walked inside her magic sphere, becoming one with her again.

Another smile was formed on the face of the princess. "Thank you. Thank you all," she said happily.

Shortly after, a bright light started to engulf all of Ponyville. Everyone somehow knew what that meant. The dream was about to end and they would wake up again. Fitting since the situation was handled again.

Before the light made it impossible to see anything anymore, Star Twinkle's eyes caught a glimpse of the pony in the black armor in the last moment. This was the same pony that attacked him way back unless there were more of those ponies wearing this armor around Equestria. This pony was an enemy, is what Star Twinkle thought, maybe it still is and just wanted to keep Equestria safe from the Tantabus. No matter what its reason was, it did help out now. All of that did not matter to Star Twinkle though, all he wanted to know was one thing.

"Who are you?" He said quietly before he eventually woke up again. There was no answer coming from the armored pony, as expected.

The next day...

It was early in the morning. Aside from the adventure in the dream world with Tantabus, everyone seemed to have slept well. Star Twinkle and his friends woke up in Twilight's castle again, and as soon as the morning tiredness went away, everyone knew what happened inside their dreams.

"Luna did it!" Twilight said after gasping in surprise.

"She sure did!" Applejack said. "Only... I'm not exactly sure what she did," she added.

Twilight explained it once more. "Luna created the Tantabus to punish herself! The worse she felt, the more power it had! But once she finally forgave herself for what Nightmare Moon did..."

"Poof!" Spike finished.

"Huh," said Star Twinkle. "She was blaming herself for the things in her past and tried to atone for them like this. She just needed to accept that she was different back then," he figured. "Where is she anyway?" He then asked.

It did not take long until they found her sleeping in the middle of the room peacefully. Of course, the group did not want to wake her up and tried to be as quiet as possible.

"Huh. Wonder what she's dreaming about now," Spike said.

Shortly after, Steel Hammer entered the room, with a confused look on his face. "This is where you all are. Boy, I had a really weird dream," he said as he rubbed his neck.

Everyone giggled after hearing that. "Let's hear it. But try to be a little bit quieter. someone is sleeping right now," she added.

After that, everyone dreamed normally again. Star Twinkle's occasional nightmares did not stop though, he also asked Princess Luna about the armored pony but she could not help, she had no idea who that pony was either. It was no use, Star Twinkle could not figure out who it was so all he could do was to find out eventually. Hopefully, sometime later the answer would come.

Author's Note:

There was a lot that I left out in this episode. I usually like to show everything as long as Star Twinkle is part of it, I could have just shown the dreams of the others but that would have all remained unchanged so there was no point in that.

It did force me to write some custom stuff into it though, as you could clearly tell. Lots of stuff with this mysterious armored pony. I will not try to hide it, you saw the thumbnail of this story already I hope (For Season 5) which includes this pony as well. You will find out the identity of it by the end of this season, this much I tell you.

That means you will have not too much time left to guess who it could be.

Who do you think is this armored pony?
Is it good or evil?
Is it someone new or someone you came across already?

I would love to hear your theories about this pony, I really do ^^.

And yes, I know the identity of it and I'm not making one up in the last second when the time comes. I plan terribly ahead. I already have key events far in the future planned out ^^.
And no, I'm not telling you.

With all that said, please consider leaving a review or some other kind of feedback and make sure to follow me or this story to always be up to date with everything that I upload.

See you all in the next chapter.
Bye Bye ^^.

Reading Order:

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship Season 1 + 2(Chapter 1 - 53)

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship - Diary of The Storm Wings

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship Season 3(Chapter 54 - 65)

Equestria Girls - The Legend of Friendship

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship - Outcasts

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship Season 4(Chapter 66 - 91)

Rainbow Rocks - The Legend of Friendship

The Legend of Friendship - Harmony

My Little Pony - The Legend of Friendship Season 5(Chapter 92 - 117)