One if By Land: Part 10
Of course, the best way to make sure something was interesting was to do it yourself... Spike started looking through his options. True to his system's word, the title [Bearer of the Golden Bit] did absolutely nothing and had no descriptive text. Toggling between all of his various titles didn't provoke any kind of reaction from the ponies in the car along with him... But come to think of it, he did have one power that claimed even untrained bystanders would notice its activation.
Spike took a deep breath and settled himself down into the 'spirit of battle', as his Discipline called it. His mind focused on preparing to fight, measuring out the space around him and taking stock of his own health. Without any target in mind or a need to respond to pressing danger, his thoughts simply drifted from their normal peaceful flow into a different state.
One of his claws curved and pressed into a near-fist, while the fingers on his other side spread out open and flat. That paired posture made sense and seemed almost automatic, for reasons he didn't understand. It was closer to an instinct. There was something there, but he couldn't comprehend it-
Before he even had a chance to think more, all the heads in the car whipped around as one: Luna seemed furious until she realized the source of the disturbance. Rarity had a pensive expression, Pinkie was grinning (moreso than usual), and Piercing kept his expression neutral in that measured military way. A second later he heard Arcane slide open the door behind him and step back inside, so quiet that he might have missed it if he weren't using his powers.
Twilight just quirked her head to one side while staring at him, maybe the most subdued of them all.
"Spike, was that-"
He quickly detoggled out of that state, hands relaxing along with his entire body.
"Aheh, sorry all! Just, uh, testing some things. You know how it is with new toys!"
Rarity smiled at him with an unfamiliar seriousness, which was contrasted by the familiar tone she then used to address Princess Luna.
"Well, so long as there's no harm in it. But that does remind me: You haven't properly introduced everypony to your companion, have you Princess?"
Spike's jaw almost dropped as he watched the resulting exchange: Princess Luna's ears actually pinned back, and the otherwise bombastic ruler of the night turned away from her subject without saying anything. Rarity continued to hound the royal without restraint, apparently used to this behavior. Just what had Luna's stay at the Boutique been like these past weeks?
After a few whispered pushes back and forth Rarity began pouting and raised her voice again.
"Oh come now, you did say it was going to be one of your highest priorities."
"Yes, although I had been assuming you would expect a more formal occasion for such-"
Half of Equestria's highest power had her concerns waved off with a dainty white hoof.
"Psh, surely not! Pinkie Pie can absolutely back me up on this: Not everypony wants their introductory... party, as it were, to be the most ostentatious of events! Isn't that right Pinkie?"
His marefriend (*insert very mature and masculine mental squee here*) backed away at that, mostly for show. Her performance of fleeing was immediately stopped by her chair, although she made sure to shoot Rarity her best nervous glance while scooching backwards (fruitlessly) repeatedly.
"I make it a personal policy to never get in the middle of romantic arguments, Rares!"
This time it was the unicorn's turn to blush and sputter, relieving some of the pressure on Luna: The Princess giggled at the joke, or at least giggled and played it off as a joke. Spike wasn't sure if he just had the topic on the brain like Pinkie's excuse from earlier, or if he really was noticing some... tension? Tension between the alicorn and the dressmaker.
Rarity finally got back enough of her composure to reply, albeit barely.
"Pinkie! I thought we made this clear at the, the platform! That is not at all what. I mean, we. That-"
Luna laid a hoof on the table right next to Rarity's own, just barely avoiding direct contact.
"What Rarity is trying to say is that she appreciates your levity but we do not currently have that sort of arrangement."
"Y-yes. Well said. Although do not think I've forgotten my original point, Princess!"
Luna heaved a theatrical sigh and looked around the traincar. It was well into her domain and hours, and there was nopony else to be seen apart from their party. Maybe there were other conditions, or some unspoken conversations involved? Regardless, she was eventually satisfied with the situation and stood up, her horn lighting with magic.
"I suppose you are right: A private introduction in a controlled environment would be better for her than a more jubilant debut. Although I do suspect we will need to make one of the vaunted Pinkie Promises as promissory for a future welcoming party. Not that this would mark her first time in or around Ponyville environs..."
Pinkie nodded to that happily, although her words didn't quite match her actions.
"I do like a good mystery buildup before an introduction! And it's gotta be a special one if you're gonna teleport somepony onto a moving traincar: Twilight told me that's pretty tricky stuff."
Spike had personally jumped to a different conclusion, and his assumption was supported by the way Luna's shadow stretched and twisted in the glow cast by her horn.
"I never said anything about teleportation... Nor did I mention a pony at all. Rise up, little one."
A trace of silver stroked up from the base of Luna's skull and covered the entire spiral of her horn. Dragon's Mind failed him once again, the spell too strong or too specialized to be copied. Soon the Princess' mane cracked and whipped in the air, casting a wild and flickering shadow in extension of her natural one. Then that shadow burst and bubbled up from the floor of the train car before taking on a coherent form. Flat darkness twisted its way into three dimensions while maintaining the rough outline of Luna's body. Finally it began collapsing down and inwards until it fully coalesced.
The first reactions were from both of the Ammos: Laughter. Pinkie followed suit, and Twilight did her best to restrain herself but still ended up chuckling. Spike just looked with curiosity at the form of the train car's new occupant: A few solid feet of manifested darkness, looking for all the world like a pony-shaped hole in space. A hole into space? Her body was studded with stars and rimmed with faint blue-black light. 'Her' was the operative word because this creature was emphatically female.
To be more specific, Luna's shadow had taken on an exact copy of Rarity's appearance, right down to its perfectly coifed squiggle-coil of a tail. The title overhead made their new guest's identity clear (for Spike at least).
[Me And Your Shadow]
The Tantabus
LV ???
Rarity leaned over from her seat and hugged her doppleganger, pulling the silent creature down onto one of the cushioned benches. The Tantabus seemed to take this in stride even as Luna's cheeks puffed out from exasperation and frustration. Apparently she'd seen this appearance theft coming?
"I must admit that she has taken a liking to your form."
The form in question fluttered her eyes at the Princess, smiling coyly.
"Well isn't that only natural darling?"
Luna's composure continued to break down, and Spike had to hand it to Rarity: She just had that effect on ponies. It would explain a lot about why a creature without form of its own might seek to imitate her, although he had a feeling that this particular case might have deeper roots...
"Observe."
He got back very nearly nothing. It said a lot about the still-unknown level gap between himself and Luna that her creation was so far out of his league. As for the little information he could find... Well, maybe his powers had a nuanced sense of humor? Maybe the Tantabus itself was so powerful that it could present false data to Observe, and also had its own feel for comedy?
Perhaps one (or both) of them simply had the same reaction most ponies did to 'will they / won't they' romantic tension and wanted the entire thing to be over with. Regardless of the reason behind it, the Tantabus' description had exactly one piece of readable text:
This reborn creature of shadows has frequently taken the form of Rarity Belle in the months since her introduction to the physical world. This is often used to provide a comfortable pillow and sleeping partner for the Princess of the Night while they both go about their shared duties.
...Might be for the best if he didn't bring up that discovery to anypony. Maybe privately mention it to Luna? Some light ribbing and a little discussion about the topic could make for a good foothold into Cadance's step of his Benediction quest. Either that or it would be a recipe for getting disowned: It seemed like he'd stumbled onto sensitive secrets. Eh, it was Luna! She'd probably take it in stride.
Probably.
When Spike looked back from the description, Princess Luna had already finished introducing the Tantabus to the Ammos. Over the course of the next half-hour (maybe more like twenty-two minutes once they took breaks for drinks and snacks) he and the mares who had been there explained the entire situation of their initial meeting with the Tantabus. How Luna's self-recrimination and guilt had been given form with a spell to keep her perpetually tormented. How last year the creature escaped her dreams and into those of Twilight and her friends, and from there into all of Ponyville.
How, in the end, Luna found it in herself to forgive... herself. What followed that was Luna's addition to the story, a little personal addendum none of them had been privy to. It explained a lot about why the Tantabus existed as it did now. Rarity was blushing before the Princess even got into the story proper, but also made no move to stop her.
After the disaster had been resolved and everypony else had gone back to find proper sleep, one pony among the crowd had stopped Luna for a conversation. The two of them spoke and the mare (an obvious figure even before Luna dropped Rarity's name with the look of a storyteller expecting shock on her audience's faces) explained that she had something to show the Princess, something related to the problem they had just solved.
It turned out that this mare had an uncanny sense of fellow-feeling and commiseration with Luna's form of self-inflicted torture. So she took Princess Luna into her home and business, in order to expose her own personal Tantabus.
At this point Rarity herself stepped in and haltingly explained the details, probably wanting to keep the retelling as controlled as possible. Just off of her bedroom in the Carousel Boutique was a walk-in closet, one that saw very little use but very regular consultation. The entire space was lined with suits, dresses, designs, and other relics of her craft, with a clear space in the middle so somepony could enter and immerse themselves in the surrounding works.
It wasn't an archive of achievements or a scrapbook of success. It was Rarity's shame embodied. Guilt given form. These were all of her worst failures, and she looked at them every day. Dresses that went out with errors and gaps, designs that were fatally flawed by the time of submission, even things as simple as accessories that went out of style before she could complete the work. Rarity had a very good idea of what it felt like to punish yourself over past mistakes, and while the magnitude could never compare? The depth of a pony's emotions didn't work that way.
The two of them had probably talked about it after that, but in this retelling neither of them deigned to explain what was said. They claimed Luna had simply thanked her, wished her well, and returned to Canterlot. The hour had grown late (more honestly early but from the other end) and it was time for everypony to rest.
And rest they did: Luna had the first peaceful night of sleep since the Nightmare, and Rarity also slept more soundly than she had in months: Just telling somepony lifted a portion of the weight.
That next day (unbeknownst to each other) they both took action to reverse their past decisions.
Rarity kept her closet of damning designs and properly studied them, figured out the real issues and learned lessons from each one. Some stayed in the closet to remind her, experiences or ideas worth revisiting in the future. Others were laid to rest, their failings now really understood as outside circumstances or uncontrollable variables. It was obvious in retrospect! Then again, so was the idea that she had been too hard on herself for far too long.
Luna took her spell, originally made for torture and self-flagellation, and reexamined its core conceit. While it had been named and made as a creature of nightmares, there was no reason it had to stay as such. If anything, its budding self-awareness and desire for freedom was proof of potential for it to be greater, to be real. So she spent a few months working and refining the magic until the spell she had recalled into her dreamscape was able to take a new form.
This immediately led to Arcane ribbing her liege about whose form exactly, and Spike had to resist making a follow-up joke based on his own knowledge. Within moments this led to the casual air coming back into the car, everypony chatting excitedly and interacting with their newest guest.
Jokes and new meetings aside, that story had helped flesh out the events of the night. It even gave them all insight into how Rarity and Luna had grown past some of their issues together. If he hadn't seen the description of the Tantabus with Observe, he might have taken their closeness in stride as a natural progression. It was just a matter of shared trauma and mutual passions!
Except Spike had seen the description, so he knew there were at minimum one-sided feelings, almost certainly romantic ones. And since he did have that quest for Cadance (plus a lingering personal need to see Rarity happy), it would be in his own best interests to help push things here and there. Maybe he could even get Pinkie Pie involved and work out some party-powered plans!
Regardless of what he thought might be between those two, this was not the time or the place. Not only was the train car emphatically public (despite it currently being populated solely by their group), he had to take better care of his own problems before worrying about somepony else. They only had a scant day in Canterlot to accomplish a lot of preparations, and he was hoping to get the jump on several steps of his Benediction quest...
Plus he'd already had improbably convenient run-ins with Twilight, the Ammos, Princess Luna and Rarity in the last few hours. It wasn’t like arriving in Canterlot would put yet another weird disruption onto the list before he even got to see Princess Celestia again, right?
...Right?
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Rarity x Luna... Sweet
The obvious reaction is to chew Spike out for tempting fate at the end there, but I'm wondering if he's genre savvy enough to realize that and actually wants something to go wrong.
Good chapter
Ever heard of Murphy's Law, Spike?
Gamers absolutely love this law.
Surely Spike has learned not to think these things without intending their consequences by now.
Rarity has a cat, Luna has a Tantypuss?
Still, how to skill that Observe up? Needs more range of size to observe the realms in more scales?
Am I the only one who think this paragraph felt wrong on so many levels?
11007332
*gamers collectively groan*
Is [Dragon's Mind] automatic or does Spike have to consciously activate it?
Cool, nice to see a benign Tantabus making friends with Princess Luna.
I hope the Tantabus visits Spike in his dreams, perhaps due to sensing Spike's [Dream Affinity] and curious why his magic feels similar to Mama Luna.
Tantabus:
"Unca Spike!"
Spike:
Pinkie: (dramatic voice) "Dun dun DUNNN!!!"
I love the unexpected turn of events. The blooming romance and character development is awesome!
Spike can have use for the Tantabus. Perhaps the next Discord dream could be witnessed by it.