Those Left Behind

by the7Saviors

A Monster's End

This was it.

The only ones left were myself... and the Tantabus.

For several heartbeats, there was nothing but complete and utter silence as I stood there in that desert clearing. The voices had fallen deathly quiet, waiting the same as I was for something—anything to happen.

Then something did happen.

My gaze snapped upwards as I heard what sounded like a muffled bang somewhere ahead of, and above me. The muffled bang came again, a bit louder this time.

Then sounded again, and again, and again in a steady rhythm, getting a little louder each and every time. Then, after a few minutes, the muffled bangs became sharper, and a sound akin to cracking glass soon accompanied it.

By this point, I could feel the ground shake with every repetition—the very air around me beginning to vibrate with the sound.

The voices began speaking to me then—one chorus repeating what I already knew.

It was coming.

The Tantabus was making itself known, and judging by the effect it was having on the atmosphere, it appeared to have more power than I initially thought.

But what was it doing?

Where would it appear from?

I soon found my answer as one particularly loud crack split the air. My eyes snapped towards the sound just in time to see a large fracture appear in the air above me.

With each successive bang the fracture split further and further.

It was trying to break its way out of... what? What was beyond the fracture? What could I expect from something like this?

It was then that the voice of the Night Princess herself whispered to me.

She told me of the monster's desperation. She told me of its attempt to force the entirety of the Dream Realm into reality.

She told me this could not happen under any circumstances, for even though the world had ended, the consequences would reach far beyond this ruined, dead planet.

She warned that the effects would be felt across space and time... and it would cause the end of all things if I failed to stop it here.

The Tantabus could not be allowed to merge the two or there'd be much more at stake than just this already dead world, and so it was I that had to enter the Dream Realm.

Still, the Tantabus' actions confounded me.

If it were to rend space and time asunder by merging the Realm of Dreams with reality, would it not suffer the same fate as everything else?

Was this its last act of spite against me?

In any case, I had no time to dwell on it, as the fracture was beginning to widen into a hole. With no idea of what to do, I let instinct take over and flew towards the massive fracture.

If I had one hope in that moment, it was that my status as the Avatar of Retribution allowed me to follow my prey anywhere and everywhere, no matter where they ran, and no matter where they hid.

As I neared the fracture, I zeroed in on a small portion of the fracture that had opened up into the Dream Realm. After that, several things began to happen at once.

My body flashed with a blindingly bright light and I felt myself slow to a crawl before I stopped completely. My vision went black and in what felt like an eternity, but was probably less than a second... I was in the Dream Realm.

As with the brief struggle I had with Luna, I was able to become a thin ray of light and enter the Dream Realm at lightspeed.

Two things I noticed immediately, were the constant low rumble that reverberated through my very being, and the absolute lack of light anywhere aside from myself.

Before I got a chance to get a proper look at my surroundings, a loud cry similar to my own rang out and I found myself seized by some great force and yanked forward.

In an instant I was face-to-face with two monstrous black and white eyes and a massive mouth three times my size. The mouth opened up and roared into my face, its gaping maw full of far too many razor sharp teeth to count.

I was pulled forth again by that invisible, yet unassailable force, and directly into the giant maw—the roar and the rumbling both cutting off as the mouth snapped shut.

For a moment, there was nothing but darkness and silence.

Then I found myself back on solid ground somewhere in the dead land of Equestria. Confusion took hold and I looked left and right, trying to find any trace of where the Tantabus had gone.

The sound of shifting coarse dirt caught my attention and I turned towards the sound. As I watched, something began to dig its way out of the ground. A few seconds later there was a high pitched shriek, then, all at once, a dark form shot out of the earth. I took a step back and tilted my head in bemusement.

It was a pony.

It looked wrong—its body tall, blackened, and almost skeletal in appearance. Its eyes were bright, glowing red orbs not unlike my own, and it trotted towards me with twitchy jerky movements.

It howled again and more ponies like itself began rising out of the ground. I swept my gaze over every single one as they emerged.

Dozens of them appeared, either rising out all at once, or pulling themselves out hooves first. The sound of inequine screams filled the air as I quickly became surrounded by the skeletal black ponies.

Somewhere within the mess of noise I heard a small voice.

It took me a second, but I was able to recognize the voice as that of a certain farm filly. She recognized these creatures and told me of where they came from.

It turned out the filly had been right all along.

Nevertheless, I didn't dwell on it as I let out a cry and charged forth. I didn't get very far before another voice shouted within me.

It was the panicked angry scream of the Night Princess.

This was a dream.

Her voice spoke of my situation and how it was merely a distraction. She didn't need to say anything else, as I knew exactly what the Tantabus was trying to distract me from.

The skeletal ponies closed in, but I ignored them entirely as I let out another cry. I took to the air and focused all my power into a single point for a few seconds before my wings flared out.

A searing wave of light burst forth, vaporizing the ghoulish ponies and everything beyond them. Somewhere in the distance I heard what sounded like a roar of frustration.

One blindingly bright flash of light later and I was once again in the pitch black void that was the Dream Realm. The Tantabus was nowhere to be seen and the constant rumble was getting worse.

I was running out of time.

With every passing moment that I was here in the Realm of Dreams, I could feel it trying to reject me. A being like me wasn't welcome in this place, and the only reason I had even been able to enter was due to reality leaking in from the fracture.

Or at least, that's what the Night Princess had whispered to me.

After a moment's thought, I decided that I needed to find the fracture on this end. If I found the fracture, I would no doubt find the Tantabus.

I had entered through the fracture, but the Tantabus' interference had caused me to lose sight of it. I closed my eyes and tried to think of where the fracture was.

An image appeared in my mind—not of the fracture, but of the Tantabus itself, in its true form. Its dark unicorn-esque shape, exactly like that of Luna's starry mane, was crouched low—though I couldn't tell if was trying to be threatening or if it was merely tired, given that it had no discernible features save for the many stars within it.

its outline flickered in and out of existence occasionally, much like with what happened to Discord. With that though, a realization hit me then.

It really was getting weaker.

The fact that it was desperately trying to break reality by unleashing the Realm of Dreams upon it, along with how it hadn't tried to trap me in another dream and now hid within my own mind was telling.

With that realization came another.

As far as I had seen, the Tantabus had only ever made three appearances in reality. The first when it had originally been released due to Luna's failed sealing spell and the second was when it was posing as the Moon.

The third and final time it had appeared was when it had drained me of my magic.

I could only surmise that it had spent too much energy and hid itself away in the Dream Realm—choosing instead to break us down and corrupt us through the manipulation of the Realm of Dreams itself.

The forms the other Princesses had taken were a result of the Tantabus' direct influence, though they had most likely been fueled by their own magic going out of control.

Over time it had lost more and more power, and eventually it got to the point that it had enough power to invade our minds and affect our magic, but not much more than that.

The Tantabus itself was on its last legs, and I intended to finish it off one way or another.

I couldn't reach the Tantabus while it hid itself in my mind, but it couldn't attack me either. I would've assumed it wouldn't be able to survive there, given what I was, but apparently that wasn't the case, and it was perfectly safe.

A minute passed as I thought, and after exhausting every option I came up with as unfeasible, I scrapped those thoughts altogether. In the end I did the one thing I knew would work for sure.

I waited.

The Tantabus couldn't break through the barrier between dreams and reality while it was hiding, and I didn't need to worry about flagging strength like the Tantabus did.

I could still feel the Dream Realm trying to force me back into reality, but even if it succeeded, I'd just bring the Tantabus with me and finish it there.

Either way, the Tantabus would eventually grow too weak to stay in my mind, and when that happened, this would all be over.

I myself didn't sit idle however. I needed to find that fracture so I could make it back to reality. As I searched, I began to realize it would actually be better to escape now, while the Tantabus was in my mind.

But what if it escaped before I could make it through? And for that matter, could it read my mind? I closed my eyes once more and, sure enough, the Tantabus was there. It didn't look like it had moved, though its form was far more faded than when I had last checked.

Then it vanished.

My burning red eyes snapped open and I quickly swept my gaze left and right. It didn't take me long to spot the Tantabus.

It wasted no time in fleeing from me, and I wasted no time in giving chase. I wondered just where it had intended to go in this endless void, but then there was a flash further up ahead and like a beacon in the darkness, the fracture appeared.

It was shrinking.

Not only that, but the loud rumbling was growing quieter. I didn't know how the Tantabus had managed to hide it from me, but it either had given up on hiding it any further, or had lost too much power to keep it hidden.

Whatever the case, it was now rushing towards the fracture with all the speed it could muster. I gave another cry and pushed myself to go faster.

It was clear, that trying to break the barrier had used up a significant amount of the Tantabus' waning power, and the only reason I could think of for it to be fleeing towards the fracture was a last ditch effort to finish what it started.

I didn't give it the chance.

With both the Tantabus and the rapidly closing fracture straight ahead, I decided to kill two birds with one stone. I focused on the dark being ahead of me and, with one last cry, my body flashed and I shot forward at lightspeed.

In an instant, my jaws closed around the Tantabus and I used my remaining momentum to push myself through the small gap in the Dream Realm.

Another flash later and I was back in Equestria. I lifted my head and turned just in time to see the fracture close completely.

And that was that.

The Tantabus was no more.

The voices within gave triumphant cries, the sound of them making me reel slightly. The ones who had fallen had now been avenged, and I felt an overwhelming fullness that I had never experienced before.

The hunger had all but vanished... for now.

I returned back to my alicorn self and straightened up before looking around. I didn't know what exactly, but I was expecting something to happen.

Yet nothing did.

I looked to the sky and saw that neither the Sun, Moon, nor Stars had returned to their rightful places. The unnatural darkness still hung in the air and a bitter wind carrying the scent of ash still blew across the arid wasteland that was Equus.

Although my hunger had been sated, I could still feel the darkness around me. I frowned in confusion, puzzling over why nothing had changed upon devouring the Tantabus.

While I didn't expect the world and everypony in it to just come back to life, I did figure that at the very least, the unnatural darkness would abate with the Tantabus' defeat.

Did this mean it was coming from somewhere else? Or was it a side effect of the Dream Realm bleeding into reality?

And what about the heavenly bodies?

Where were the Sun, Moon, and Stars?

That's when a horrifying thought came to me. In eating the Princesses of the Sun and Moon, had I inadvertently done something to affect the Sun, Moon, and Stars themselves? Had I done some irreversible damage to the natural alignment of the heavenly bodies?

Was it my fault they still didn't rise?

I attempted to ask the voices, but the Princesses didn't know either. This was a mystery I had no way of solving now. If the voices didn't know, then there was nopony left to ask.

They may be able to help you, but they can't tell you everything...

I stood there, staring at the sky as I thought. I was well and truly alone now, with only the restless, jubilant voices to keep me company. While the voices bellowed their victory, I myself felt no such joy in my own accomplishment. I had a task to accomplish, and with it done, I had no more purpose.

I didn't mind though—I couldn't mind—but without anything or anypony to wreak vengeance upon, it would only be a matter of time until I met whatever fate awaited a host that couldn't fulfill its duties.

The thought didn't scare me.

If anything I was more interested as to what would happen. Would I wither away and die? Would the Spirit completely take over my body? Would the voices within consume me as I consumed others?

So many possibilities.

It seemed that even through everything I had been through—all the loss, pain, despair, misery, and the emotional purge my transformation had caused...

...there was still a little bit of the old curious Twilight Sparkle left in me.

Comments

[FanficReader920]

And there it is. The Tantabus is gone. That was a great final fight! The next and last chapter will be the moment of truth. Was my theory correct? Or is it something wise entirely? Either way, great story!!

[Forestfire34720]

Hmm, interesting end.

At least Twilight has the voices to keep her company until her own end. Not really anything to do now. Though... maybe she’ll want to go and wander around Tartarus? Explore it now that she doesn’t really seem to have much to fear from it anymore. After all...

...there was still a little bit of the old curious Twilight Sparkle left in me.

[Golden Fang Ryu Shenron]

It seemed that even through everything I had been through—all the loss, pain, despair, misery, and the emotional purge my transformation had caused...

...there was still a little bit of the old curious Twilight Sparkle left in me.

So there is...

[Dark Feather]

And now for the fat pony to sing.

[Silver Thread]

I didn't give it the chance.

With both the Tantabus and the rapidly closing fracture straight ahead, I decided to kill two birds with one stone. I focused on the dark being ahead of me and. with one ]last cry, my body flashed and I shot forward at lightspeed.

I'm guessing you need the it there, and the period should be a comma.

This story's too good to have distracting typos in the way.

[Aether Spark]

She could find a way to open a portal to another realm.

[undedzer0]

It took me a second, but I was able to recognize the voice as that of a certain farm filly. She recognized these creatures and told me of where they came from.

It turned out the filly had been right all along.

Is this a reference to Story of the Blanks?

[the7Saviors]

10492961
Yes! I'm surprised it took so long for someone to point this out actually.

[The Ohvist]

10492966
I got it the moment I read it.

[darklight731]

She has the combined knowledge of hundreds of people. Will she use it to try to rebuild the world? Or will she let all rest for eternity?