Episode 19: Do Princess Dream of Magic Sheep?
Episode 19:
Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep
The Lion and Pony Guard are all charging on all four hooves and paws with the flyers flying alongside them across the hallways. They were on their way to stop their latest enemy all while hoping they can pull through as always.
Inside the throne room of the old castle, Princess Luna stood on her old throne awaiting patiently as she hears the sound of hoofs and paws growing louder in her direction. She knows that help is arriving her way. Beside her a strange floating creature made out entirely of purple smoke and night-like substance appeared similar to a previous nightmare episode from a previous movie. The look on her face makes it clear Luna was expecting it.
"Greetings, Tantabus. I am ready. Do your worst."
The Tantabus then shielded the sun that was seen behind the princess, causing an eclipse and the darkness to surround the night princess. She could feel the darkness growing within her once more.
All twelve friends stopped before the throne and gasped in horror as they all arrived in time to witness what is happening before their eyes.
"Princess Luna's turning into Nightmare Moon. Again!" Twilight stated.
“We got to stop it!” Kion also declared.
The creature of the night laughed at them triumphantly as Scar’s laughter is heard once more as he appeared before them in the shadows with his eyes glowing red. He looked on them relishing his revival once more as he got his magic working ready to unleash on them.
But the Lion and Pony Guard were ready for all of that.
"Yeah? Well, we've got the cure for that!" Rainbow Dash confidently said as they all huddled together just when Scar unleashed his magic against them.
With Twilight’s eyes glowing white, a huge white blinding light engulfed the crew. Once it cleared up, they all now had their shining Rainbow Power transformations they had when they restored the Pride Lands and Equestria to its previous glory after Scar was defeated.
Instantly, colorful rays were aimed at the creature, but their magic seemed to have no effect on the creature or Scar as the latter managed to force them back without effort.
Scar simply shook his head rather amused. “Big talk and little cure you got there. You all done?”
Twilight simply replied. “No. Not yet.”
She increased the power of her magic at the same Kion did along with the latter narrowing his eyes as he prepared to use the Roar on them. When it happened Nightmare Moon’s triumphant attitude was replaced with shock when the Tantabus did something she never expected.
"Wait! What is it doing?!"
Upon realizing what is happening, Scar decided it was best to cut his losses and teleport away from the scene before it could get worse for himself as the creature managed to tear open a hole into the very fabric before disappearing into it. NightMare Moon was horrified.
"No! It's gone!" Nightmare Moon shouted in horror just when she is suddenly enwrapped by the combined powers from the Great Kings of the Past and Rainbow Magic. In ten seconds flat, she has returned to being Princess Luna.
After recovering from it, Luna was left in a state of shock with what the Lion and Pony Guard just did as they all welcomed her in a group hug, all cheering and celebrating their victory.
Luna gasped once she opened her eyes and awake from her dream. Unlike anyone who have her mind she is not happy about it.
"What? My dream ended... happily? That. Cannot. Happen!"
On another bright and sunny day at Carousel Boutique, the Pony Guard’s all together for their pet grooming day. Rainbow Dash cleaning Tank’s shell, Twilight was brushing Owlowiscious, while Fuli, one of the sole Lion Guard member here, was doing the same with her little cat friend, with Applejack doing the same for Winona, with Rarity doing the same for Opal, with Fluttershy doing the same for Angel.
"Ooh, this is amazing!" Pinkie Pie said as she hoped around the shop.
Rainbow Dash yawned. "Yeah, Rarity. Thanks for setting all this up." She tried to be happy but could not mask how tired she really is. She had dark circles under her eyes along with the Lion Guard crew present with the sole exceptions being Pinkie Pie and Bunga (at least they are trying to be).
"A grooming day for our pets really was a great idea." Fluttershy said also tired herself while she and everyone else tried to mask the same feeling they are all experiencing.
Rarity continued to brush Opal's tail but slowly started to doze off, not watching where she was brushing. The sharp ends of the comb touched Opal's rump causing her to scream in pain. Rarity ended up waking up because of it with the first thing she sees is her terrified pet cat hanging for life on the ceiling.
"Oh, my! Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't get my normal beauty sleep last night…"
Opalescence still angrily hissed back at her in response.
Bunga having somersaulting his way by them commented. "I can tell. You guys don't look so good." He yawns himself. “Whew. Come to think of it I didn’t think I got much sleep last night.”
Twilight yawned. "You could say that again because I didn’t sleep well either.“ She said also sounding very tired and sleepy. “How about you Fuli…? Fuli?” Everyone turned their heads turned to her…who was already snoring while cuddling close to her kitten friend like they’re very close together. “What do you think? Should we wake her?”
Everyone thankfully decided to shake their heads against it. “Nah!”
“Ooh, ooh…” Bunga said before being interrupted by Twilight who froze him with her magic along with Pinkie. She shook her head against the obvious idea on their minds. “…I mean, never mind. We’ll let her sleep for now.”
“Good idea…” Fuli muttered in her sleep much to the honey badger’s surprise. “…because I definitely need it.”
“Wow.” Rainbow commented with another yawn. “Guess I’m not the only who hasn’t gotten enough rest here, am I?”
The others all said “uh-huh.” in agreement.
"I'm totally beat too!" Pinkie happily commented as she and Bunga somersaulted across the room.
Applejack was just about to fall asleep when her dog’s barking got her sudden attention. "Alright, Winona. Time for your brushing'." She placed her hoof across the table trying to grab a brush, only to miss them and accidentally grab Gummy instead. She ended up dozing off again which resulted in Gummy biting on Winona's ear, making her yelp in pain and caused her owner to wake up again.
Winona shook her head to get Gummy off, and the littler gator jumped onto Owlowisious's head. The owl flew up, trying to get the gator off, accidentally knocking Twilight who tripped and fell into the bathtub for their pets.
Applejack realized her mistake and Winona rubbed her ear on the counter but not without frowning at her. "Oops. I guess I'm too plum tuckered out to do this right."
There was a knock on the door with Kion, Beshte, and Ono (who slept on the former’s back) all walking inside with Kyoga using her magic to help them stay awake and on their paws.
Rarity having noticed this was the first to comment. “Good heavens! You guy’s too!”
“Yep.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Affirmative.”
“Afraid so.”
Applejack then said as she figured along with everyone else. “Don’t tell us. Bad dream that keep ya up all night?”
“Yep.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Affirmative.”
“Afraid so.”
Kion yawned as he tried to fight off the urge to sleep as he tried to explain. “And that’s even after I went to bed early last night.”
Fluttershy yawned. “Me too! But then I had a really scary nightmare!”
“Really?” Kion asked with his eyes opened wide in response.
"Me too! Uh-huh!" Everyone else replied at the exact same time.
"Uh, only, you know, I didn't think mine was that scary!" Rainbow Dash commented, trying to put on the brave act.
“Doubt it.” Fuli commented seeing through her attempt to insist otherwise while still sleeping.
"Well, mine sure was." said Twilight, who was now wet from the bath water, "There was this blue smoke monster and…" She briefly stopped when everyone including Fuli (minus Spike and Kyoga) stared at her with shock, "..what?"
"I dreamt about a blue smoke thingy too!" Fluttershy commented first.
"Me too!" The others stated in agreement.
Rainbow Dash only scoffed, as she moved to place her hooves behind her head while lounging in midair, "So what? Probably just a coincidence."
“Awfully big if you ask me.” Fuli commented while shaking her head.
“She’s right.“ Twilight agreed as she stepped out of the bathtub with Spike handing her a towel to dry off with. "And the thing is given we all experienced something similar beforehand it’s more than just a simple coincidence."
Ono yawned as he woke up and moved to stand on the hippo’s back. “I mean it makes sense given the whole Nightmare Moon fiasco along with the whole Midnight Sparkle and Nightmare Rarity attempted takeover. No offense…” He quickly added.
“It’s okay, darling.”
“None taken.”
They both replied knowing full well it wasn’t an insult aimed directly at them.
Spike however was confused. “Huh. I wonder why I didn't have that nightmare. I slept great!" He said rather proudly.
“Maybe because you weren’t involved in any of the dreams everyone else had related to them.” Kyoga answered while eyeing the little dragon against basking about being able to sleep over them.
“But what you?” Kion wondered as he turned to face her. “Why were you affected?”
“Because I have managed to develop a close bond with the pony who used to be Nightmare Moon even though I wasn’t there when it happened.” She then turned to Twilight hoping she has an explanation for that given her role in their previous sleepless night episode. “Any idea how else?”
"I don't know," Twilight commented unsure of the answer herself before smiling of a way to find out the answer. ", but I do know who might. Spike, could you send a scroll to Princess Luna?"
"Sure!"
Once Twilight was done drying herself, Spike placed the towels down and grabbed a paper and quill.
"All set!"
Twilight spoke up first while Spike wrote down every word, "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" She briefly stopped to yawn, "when you have the chance, please let me know if you have any idea what it could mean. Yours," She yawned again before continuing. "Princess Twilight Sparkle. You can leave out the yawns."
Spike sheepishly grinned as he scratched off the 'yawns' he had written before rolling up the scroll and breathing fire to magically send it to Princess Luna.
The door immediately flew open and the princess of the night arrived…right after she sent the letter.
"Which of you saw the creature of blue smoke in your nightmare?!"
"Wow. That was fast." Fuli commented finding herself surprised.
"We all did." Twilight said on behalf of everyone in the room.
“Not me!” Spike reminded everyone rather smugly which earned him glares from Twilight, Fuli, Kyoga, and Kion.
“Ugh, we know!” They all replied simultaneously.
“I mean…never mind.”
“Good choice of words.” Kyoga commented while patting him on the back for widely knowing when to put down the shovel.
"So you've encountered the smoke monster too?" Kion asked turning his attention back to the night princess who walked inside the boutique looking on feeling very guilty and regretful with what has happened just recently.
"The Tantabus is a creature of my nightmares. It escaped from my slumbers yesterday." She explained.
"But how did it get into ours?" Fluttershy asked with worry.
"The Tantabus is like a parasite. My dreams must no longer be enough for it. Now it seeks others to infect and corrupt. It must have learned of you twelve from seeing you in my dream."
“But your majesty…” Ono commented with his input on the matter. “…Luna…” he quickly corrected himself hastily after reminding himself that this is a casual visit not a royal one. “…Kyoga wasn’t there when you were Nightmare Moon.”
“True. But I’m sure she had told you by now we grew a close bond together ever since we first met.”
“Yes, though I do wonder how I was affected and how I saw it in my dreams.” Kyoga said rather sternly and annoyed as her shifted to Twilight once more, who groaned in annoyance in response.
“Okay yes. I had a hand in influencing some of her dreams back when I was becoming Midnight Sparkle and I’m sorry for that.” She admitted rather angrily. “But that doesn’t mean I had anything to do with this!” She pointed towards the dark circles around her eyes as proof before turning around with crossed arms.
“Okay, okay….” Kyoga backed off. “…I’m sorry.” She sighed acknowledging that she was too quick to act on frustration due to her own lack of sleep.
“Me too.”
“Um…about that…” Bunga spoke up rather reluctantly while dragging his feet on the ground and having his upper claws behind his back. “…I may have been the one to have dreamed about you. Fighting Rainbow Dash after she unintentionally insulted you from when we’re all trying to warm up to you as a friend.”
“Really?” Both Rainbow and Kyoga spoke together highly surprised.
“Yep. With me as a referee and a spectator alongside Spike.”
“Really?” Spike spoke next as he realized. " Whoa-whoa-whoa. If that’s true then how come I didn’t have trouble sleeping last night?”
“Probably because this Tanatabus creature didn’t find you very interesting.” Bunga replied the best way he can hoping he can avoid glares and scowls from the others. “I mean, really. Considering he didn’t face off against Nightmare Moon, what reason did this creature have to gain from messing around with his nightmares?”
While they predictably did give him the look at first, they softened up after silently realizing it is actually true and he is right for once.
“Um…not any reason I can think of.” Applejack honestly admitted. “Shoot. I can’t believe that there’s actually a good point.”
He then proudly and smugly placed his arms on his hips. “Well they don’t call me…”
“Bunga.” Kion shook his head against saying another word.
“Please stop right there.” Twilight also interjected. “We don’t need to go through all of that again for the third time.” Before Bunga could speak up. “Regardless whether it’s the charm or not.”
Moving aside from that Rainbow shrugged in response to the current issue at hoof and paw. “Uh, so Smokey gave us bad dreams. No biggie."
But Princess Luna shook her head insisting otherwise. "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!"
The current mood everyone was feeling suddenly became grim with that explanation. Rainbow's attitude did a whole and literal 180 upon hearing the grave severity of the situation. "Okay, okay, okay, I take it back! That does sound bad! Really bad!"
“Indeed.” Luna firmly stated.
“So that being said…” Twilight spoke next. “…I think the best course of action is for all of us to have a sleepover together.”
“You mean…” Pinkie eagerly asked as Twilight nodded.
“Yes, Pinkie…” Twilight nodded. “…my castle, at sundown tonight.”
“Yes!” Bunga pumped his fists in the air as Pinkie leaped up in the air in excitement.
“Woohoo!”
“Great.” Fuli replied as she went back to sleep alongside her cat friend. “Wake me up until then.”
“Aw to hay with it.” Ono groaned before falling asleep himself. “I can’t take much more of this tired eye stuff tonight. I’m going to get some shut-eye now.”
As the cheetah resumed sleeping Bunga once more asked. “Are you sure we should…”
“No.” Both Kion and Twilight firmly answered while shaking their heads against it.
“But what about…” He pointed to said kitten snuggled up next to her.
“Talk about this and you’re dead.” She interuppted with her eyes closed.
And that was enough to get the honey badger to stop talking.
To both Fuli and Ono, sure they might have some bad dreams, but it’s worth being able to endure them if it means catching up on sleep.
That night at Twilight's castle, her bedroom was all set up and arranged for the Lion and Pony Guard to sleep in.
"We've prepared everything exactly as you requested." The alicorn told Luna as she floated though the center of the room ready to help her friends.
"Good. As you all slumber here, I will pursue the creature into whichever of your dreams it infests."
Pinkie Pie jumped onto her own bed ready to do it. "Ooh! It'll be like a princess sleepover!"
"Speaking of princesses, aren't you gonna ask Celestia for her help as well?" Twilight asked as she got into her own bed.
But the dark blue alicorn shook her head against it. "There is nothing my sister can do. 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."
"Even us?" Kion 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 felt someone tug on her long sparkling blue mane and saw it was Spike when she turned in his direction.
"I know you said nopony can help, but I'm no pony!" He crawled up onto one of the extra beds so he can look at everyone from above. "I'm gonna stay up and watch over you guys just in case!"
“And so can I.” Fuli vowed as she moved to circle around her friend’s beds.
“I can keep watch while you’re all asleep, too.” Ono also vowed as he flapped up into the air.
"Aw, thanks you guys!" Twilight said very appreciative of the kind gestures of the two of them.
Applejack stretched and yawned. "Well, one good thing about not sleeping well last night, shouldn't be too hard to fall asleep now." She then got startled and freaked out when Pinkie Pie suddenly popped up from under her sheets.
"Are you kidding?! This is so exciting, I don't know how I'm ever going to—" Instantly, Pinkie fell asleep and was now snoring.
One by one, everyone got themselves comfortable in their beds and fell asleep while Spike, Ono, and Fuli all watched over them.
After most of the Guard fell into a deep slumber, Princess Luna spread out her wings, activating her magic. The lines of her horn glowed to reach the very tip. Twelve glowing white streams appeared, attaching themselves to the foreheads of the ones deep in slumber.
A soft wind surrounded Luna as she began traveling into her friends' dreams starting with Rarity's…
In her dream she is currently creating new and identical fancy pink dresses with each and every one of them going on matching pony-quiens.
"Oh! This is simply divine! How avant garde!" She remarked to herself as she gets a good look at her work.
“Glad you feel that way, Rarity.” Said dress-wearer commented as she cackled and revealed herself as the malicious jackal leader. “Because we are in the mood for dinner with you tonight!” One by one the other jackals all turned their heads towards her all grinning and sporting their vicously hungry teeth ready to feast on a circled and surrounded unicorn.
Given that this was all unexpected, she could only look on in shock and worry as she finds herself outnumbered by predators out for her blood.
"Forget avant garde! I should have said 'en garde!"
The jackals all came right at her all at once, but Rarity managed to leap over them and blast them away with her magic.
From above a strong gust of wind appeared and sent the jackals all flying away with the sole exception of Rarity who used her magic to keep herself firmly planted into the ground. When she looked up she saw something floating down towards her. A moon coated alicorn shape belonging to Princess Luna who appeared to her in her normal form.
"It is here!"
She spotted the Tantabus moving around disguised as one of the jackals who along with the others have recovered and managed to circle around the two ponies once more.
Rarity had her hooves and horn ready for a fight. “All right. You want to fight and bring it.” She motioned for the jackals to try to make a move on her with every single one of them all very quick to pounce on the offer.
Doing what her dear friend Twilight do in a tight situation like this she charged on ahead giving one of the jackals a good magic blast to the face while performing a split-kick on the two jackals right in front of her. As soon as she went ahead the remaining jackals all ended up dogpiling each other by accident.
The Tantabus appeared again as one of the jackals their leader, Reirei, trying to make a sneak attack on the unicorn. She managed to bite onto her dress before being zapped into unconsciousness by the night alicorn. The jackal dropped to the ground but not without getting a good tear on the unicorn’s beautiful dress.
"It was such a pretty little chiffon...! What kind of monster would do this?!" She cried out in pain while on her knees.
"The Tantabus."
"Then let's stop it!" Rarity got back up, ready to resume the fight, but was stopped by Luna who flew up with a raised hoof.
"No, please! I don't want you to suffer anymore because of me. I will catch it."
She flew after the creature, which created more jackals to leap down to attack her. Luna zapped each of them away as she came after the Tantabus, but it was enough to buy itself an escape route, thus preventing Luna from going after it.
"It has jumped into another dream! I am sorry, but if I am to stop it, I must follow it where you cannot."
"Go!" Rarity insisted.
Luna broke the dome, allowing her to fly out of the unicorn's dream, who then turned around to fight more of the nonstop and numberous jackals still ganging up on her.
"I should be able to handle things here." She said bravely…before seeing the nonstop growing and rising numbers surrounding her. "I hope…!"
As always, Pinkie Pie was happily jumping up and down along with trotting her way across various locations she has visited before. First it was a meadow, then a cave, followed by a mountain with a dragon, and then Cloudsdale. All the while she sang,
"La-la-la-la-la! Whee! Whee, ha-ha! La-la-la-la-la!"
During the Cloudsdale sequence, Princess Luna appeared before her. "I followed the Tantabus here. Now I need only find—"
Pinkie leaped again and the scenery once again changed. This time, at her home bakery Sugarcube Corner.
"Sorry, can't help it! An idea pops into my head, it—" She then gasped when she spotted something that caught her delightful attention. "Ooh, cake!"
She was just about ready to take a bite, unaware that the Tantabus has already infiltrated her dream. It went inside one of the cakes while Pinkie had her back turned, transforming it into a hideous monster with various eyes that splattered its frosting all over Pinkie Pie.
"Ew, cake!"
More and more cakes came to life, some with bat wings and others with sharp fangs. Once the cake exploded, revealing Princess Luna within it. Using her magic, she created a force field around her and Pinkie before expanding it causing all of the cakes to explode leaving nothing but splattered icing around them. Luna then saw the Tantabus enter a cake box. She leaped forward for it, only to suddenly hit a large crystal statue of Spike due to the scenery changing into the Crystal Empire.
"No!"
"Sorry!" Pinkie apologized.
Luna zapped at the sky and escaped into another dream. Pinkie Pie leaped once last time, now in Ponyville with a giant ice cream cone standing in the very center of town.
"Who wants ice cream?!"
The townsponies all appeared all smiling in agreement.
Fluttershy's dream was nothing more than what she would wish for any day outside of her cottage, a day in the Pride Lands, spending time with the friendly critters friends there from the smallest gecko to the biggest elephant to the tallest giraffe.
"It's so nice to be able to get together and have fun for once."
The Tantabus then tapped on Angel bunny's tail, causing him to grow intensely in size, frightening away everyone who all ran for the hillss. Fluttershy spun around and gasped to see her pet rabbit roaring at her like he had just appeared from the gates of Tartarus.
"N-n-n-n-nice… giant... evil Angel…!" She screamed in terror, only to be rescued by Princess Luna right when the monstrous bunny was about to kill her with his claws.
The two hovered above and Fluttershy wiped away her sweat, "Phew! Oh, thank you, princess!"
But Luna had no time to spare some words as she went after the Tantabus again who went into another’s dream, leaving Fluttershy to fight off the horribly transformed Angel off with nothing but her flight and hooves alone.
Applejack happily sighed as she polished her brightly red and freshly grown giant apple with her hoof. "Now this is what I call an incredible dream."
The Tantabus appeared once more, this time destroying every tree it touched. One of the flowers on one of the tress grew larger, to reveal Luna manifest herself. She gasped once she spotted the Tantabus aiming at Applejack's apple.
Applejack quickly tried to lasso and reign in the creature, but all the lasso accomplished was causing the creature to split in two instead. From there, the apple was helpless when the Tantabus flew right inside of it causing it to turn into a dried and rotten apple core all while Luna flew inside of it in order to keep pace with the Tantabus.
Next thing she sees is Beshte at home at the mud pit along with the other hippos all enjoying themselves where the Lion Guard’s Strongest is accompanied by two female hippos who is shown literally soaking in the attention they were giving him.
“No, stop, really.” Beshte kindly insisted. “You’re both too kind!”
Even still they couldn’t help but throw him compliments as they flirted with him together.
“But it’s true, Beshte.”
“You’re so strong!”
“So big!”
“And so handsome!”
“That’s true! I am the Strongest!”
The girly hippos giggled as they both gave him kisses on the cheeks much to the alicorn’s bewildered expression.
“Oh hi, your majesty.” He greeted upon seeing her. He then added when he saw that she was still processing what she is seeing. “Um, it’s a little complicated.”
Unfortunately, things got a little more complicated when the Tantabus had merged itself inside the girl hippo’s, causing them to glow sinister purple eyes and their tongues to come out of their mouths like poisonous snakes.
“Uh-oh.”
He was left unable to run to escpae when the hippos leaped onto him and attacked him when the water turned into purple sticky goo. The hippos roared at him with Luna quickly using her magic to take down the Tantabus-controlled hippos. She then sprung magic up into the sky to make it rain so Beshte can free himself from the sticky tar trapping him. Once he was free he quickly ran out of the pond and to dry land for safety.
The Tantabus quickly managed to morph back into a stream of magic before fleeing from Luna who pursed it out of the hippo’s dream.
The next thing Luna knows is when she appeared in the next dream, the Crystal Empire stadium where the Equestrian Games where held. There she finds Rainbow Dash there, fighting off against the Outsiders. She punched and kicked each and every one of them like it was a stroll through memory lane being able to take down them effortlessly no matter what angle they try use against her.
"I can see the Tantabus has already turned your slumbers into a nightmare!" Luna remarked already feeling worried yet confused while seeing that Rainbow Dash isn’t feeling troubled at all.
"What are you talking about? This is one of my favorite dream!" She said as she swiftly dodged the hyenas and jackals when they all tried to dog pile her. As the pile grew taller and taller, she climbed up the tower higher and higher until she stopped at the very top of the now defeated army.
But her recently acquired victory over the Outsiders literally became overshadowed when the Tantabus appeared over her head from the sky. The skies darken with thunder and lightning crackling across the kingdom with Scar’s head appearing from the dark clouds and sinisterly laughing from above.
With the evil lion’s influence the Outsiders suddenly transformed bigger and meaner, and appearing in darker colors. Instantly the pupils in their yellow eyes disappeared and they were all sporting bare and vicious looking teeth to match their newly transformed and equally vicious appearances. Immediately and just under ten seconds flat the Outsiders dog-piled Rainbow instead with Scar’s head overseeing their success.
“Go ahead do your worst!” Rainbow defiantly said to the lion glaring down on him with his trademark evil smirk. “I’d rather die than beg for mercy!”
Scar simply chuckled in response. “Big talk, little pony. But I actually have something even better in mind for you. After all there are some things in life that are WORSE than death!”
With the magic surrounding this dream the dark scenery turned into something more bright and colorful, something that would have Pinkie Pie singing very comfortably to the tune if she was in it. A brightly colored meadow with candy trees, frosting branches with sunflowers all sporting big eyes all dancing and singing to the tune of "This Old Man".
“We are such happy flowers
We will now sing for hours
Aren't we unbearably cute?
Watch me solo on this flute.”
Rainbow Dash screamed in terror truly now living in limbo right now all while the Outsider are all holding her down now appearing as the sunflowers singing to her right now.
During the brief distraction where Luna saved Rainbow Dash, the Tantabus quickly made its escape with the former pursing it at full speed.
In the next dream, it is where Diamond Valley was once a lust and beautiful terrain back in the past.
The blue sky, the green grass, the peace and harmony spread out through the land, every animal resident all getting along swimmingly. Back in the good old days for Kyoga and her siblings, back to a time where the three siblings had no scars and all limbs to have around. In addition a time where they had a complete family and when everyone was happy.
Kyoga when she was much more cheerful took the time to stretch out her limbs and claws ready to take a nap in the sun…
…at least for a good minute.
Suddenly, the skies turned dark gray with clouds forming over the blue sky. The residents all scattered, fled, and all hid around the nearby hiding spots as the fateful storm that brewed over the place approached them. To Kyoga’s horror and sadness, it was Scar and his followers with the former laughing wickedly.
Kyoga bared her claws alongside her siblings and parents as they try their hardest to fight off these conquering lions as their leader charged first. Despite his lean and scrawny appearance at the time, he still is a force not to reckon with as he bared his teeth and claws ready attack the lions trying to stand up to him.
But just as he leaped up to attack the lions, Princess Luna appeared to intercept and tackle him across the grass. After a few seconds of tumbling across the field they broke apart before glaring down at one another fiercely patiently waiting for making their next move.
After a few seconds, Scar moved to attack first swiping a his claws at her a few times. The alicorn was able to miss each and every attempt before giving him a good blast of magic to the face to knock him backwards.
The lion growled in response before getting back up and charging with vigorously as he managed to swipe his claws and force Luna backwards with each hit he threw at her in retaliation. It was only when Luna used her magic once more that she was able to force Scar off of her body and sent him flying away from Diamond Valley that she was finally able to win this brief skirmish. But by then she spotted the Tantabus make her escape yet again.
“Go! We’ll hold him off!” Kyoga assured just when she spotted Zira and the Outsiders make their charge inside Diamond Valley with Luna quick to take her word for it by quickly pursing the Tantabus.
At that moment Scar had recovered and managed to stand up to carry out what he did all those years ago, leaving Kyoga nothing else she can do other than fight to her last breath while giving it her all.
Next up is Bunga’s fantasy where he is dreaming around being the Bravest in the Pride Lands while proving his worth by fighting off the Outsiders in the Outlands. To him, it was every he would want to do if he was allowed to do so, being able to unleash his fearlessness and strength on those who try to threaten the very balance of the Circle of Life and he was doing very well at it. It especially helps that he is surfing is way down the lava stream from the Outlands Volcano while doing it.
But his fun got cut short when the lava from the stream boiled up from the ground level rising over Bunga’s head like a huge tidal wave was about to wipe and burn him out courtesy of the Tantabus’s sudden appearance.
“Going sssomewhere, Bunga.” Ushari’s voice hissed to him as he appeared on the very top of the lava stream with malicious intent to see to that he is killed right on the spot.
Unable to control his steering anymore Bunga quickly ducked out of the way to nearby solid ground where he finds himself by the vengeful hyenas ready to make a meal out of him.
“Finally! Now we got you, Bunga!”
“Yeah! Time for lunch!”
“Lunch?!”
“Yep, come to papa!”
The lava still appearing as tall with Ushari still on top as the tidal waves prepared to come down hard on the hyenas along with the terrified and helpless honey badger with full force.
“That’s a very big stream of lava!” Bunga fearfully whimpered for once.
“Oh don’t worry, Bunga! This will only hurt a lot! Just like all of the times you’ve hurt me!” Ushari malevolently returned all while sinisterly and laughed with murderous triumphant.
“Oh, no!”
“Oh, yes! And I am sure going to love this part of the job!”
Luckily for him, Luna emerged from the shadows and then quickly blasted the hyenas and the traitorous cobra aside with his magic before using her magic to force the lava to back off and then lower back to the ground with full force. Just when Bunga smiled very thankfully for her saving his dream life she spotted the Tantabus make its escape once more.
Next up is Kion’s dream where the Princess of Night finds the new half lion and alicorn prince flying over the scope of the Pride Lands to oversee the peace kept in the kingdom. So far it was like any peaceful day in the Pride Lands, kindly greeting the friendly faces through every home he passes by to checking up on how they are doing so far.
Today itself happened to be a good day by his standards, no major trouble at first sight…at least until his attention was drawn by evil laughter from a very familiar voice in the Outlands just floating over the borderline and in front of the Outlands Volcano.
“Scar!”
“Sorry to spoil your happy day, Kion. But I can’t have any little lion cubs mocking about ruining my plans to take over here.”
“No! It’s not happening, Scar!”
Scar unimpressed had fire appear from his paws and immediately struck his grand-nephew square in the chest. He then floated to hoist the neutralized cub with his magic before hoisting him over the nearby stream of lava.
“Let me go!” He yelled as he struggled to free himself.
“Oh I will in just a few seconds. Watch and learn.”
It was there the Tantabus made its appearance well known as he makes the volcano erupt a massive amount of lava in its wake all of it heading on over in the Pride Lands direction.
“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!” He screamed upon witnessing this and finding himself plummeting to his death with the lava stream right in front of him.
Just like the others facing certain doom, Luna was there to rescue him along with quickly sending magic to freeze the lava before it could even cause harm to anyone in its path. Of course like the previous attempts the Tantabus was quickly to free itself when it broke itself free from the ice and cooled lava and then floating away to the nearby escape door in the blue skies in the Pride Lands. Luna after making sure Kion was okay and transferred to safety in the Pride Lands, quickly moved to fly after it in order to keep up her attempts to stop it.
Twilight's dream was in a large library, filled with books of all kinds. The place where her biggest passion lies in...if said books didn’t suddenly fly right out of the shelves with evil bat-like appearances.
One of the books opened up, allowing the Tantabus to come through causing Twilight turned around and gasped in horror. Quickly regaining her composure, Twilight jumped away from her seat and started working her magic on them blasting each and every one of them with it before bolting for the nearby glass window in order to make her escape.
Once she was free she found the books were now still pursuing her. Undeterred, she quickly turned around with a flip-over maneuver to give one of the most explosive spells she’s got at her disposal in order to incinerate them into ashes along with accidentally blowing up the library in the process of doing so.
Just then and before she could react and fix that error, she found herself covered in the shadows when she saw the Tantabus appear right before her ready to attack. But before the Tantabus could catch her by surprise, Luna quicklyy appeared in front of her, shielding her fellow princess from the monster’s attack.
"Luna!"
Using her magic, Luna managed to turn the Tantabus into pure crystal, keeping it contained. She turned her head, sharing a triumphant smile with Twilight. But the Tantabus was able to quickly break free from its prison.
Not only that more books with bat-like wings appeared before them along with Scar himself in his demonic half lion and half alicorn form. Scar himself looking down at the two alicorns smirking evilly before working his magic from his horn aiming a fully loaded surge of magic right at them just when the Tantabus escaped.
Everyone gasped as they all woke up, getting Spike, Fuli, and Ono’s attention, who were all pacing around the room and reading books to pass the time.
Spike quickly rushed over to Rarity as he asked everyone…"What happened? Are you guys okay?"
Fluttershy was the first to express the terror she felt from what she just went through in her dreams. “That…that was terrible!"
Bunga was the next comment sure finding it more than what he asked for in his life. “I'll say! I never want to have that nightmare again!"
"Me neither!" Rainbow Dash stated in agreed as she rocking back and forth like she was completely traumatized.
Twilight and Kion both woke up with their hearts racing along with sweating due to having relieve their worst nightmares coming to surface.
"But Luna caught it, didn't she?" Ono asked.
Princess Luna descended downwards from the ceiling, looking at them all very regretful and unable to confirm it. "I am so sorry, my friends. I failed. It will be back to infect your dreams the next time you sleep."
"Oh, no!" Fluttershy trembled as she covered herself with her blanket already fearing the worst.
"Yeah. I reckon I could live without seeing that thing ever again." Applejack commented thinking otherwise.
"But you will." Luna asserted as she shook her head. "Again and again, every night, until it grows powerful enough to infect the waking world!"
“Hevi Kabisa!” Kion said in alarm. “You mean it get worse and worse from there?!”
“Indeed it will.”
Everyone turned their heads towards Princess Celestia when she appeared inside the room.
“Celestia!”
"Sister?!!" What are you doing here?!”
“Finding out of what you’ve been hiding from me. After I saw that you’ve been avoiding me when I tried asking you of how your night was recently, I felt it was time that I find out for myself. And now I know.”
Luna's head lowered in shame upon realizing the jig is up. "I'm sorry, but I didn’t want you get involved. This was my mistake and I’m the only one who can fix it."
"Luna--"
"After what I did as Nightmare Moon, the fact that I am once again responsible for harming others is more than I can bear. I'm the one who needs to set things right and I need to do this alone."
Of everyone in the room who was left silent for a good ten secons, both Twilight and Celestia especially looked on very impacted by that statement as they both have been there and done that before and could very well relate to her plight.
"It'll be okay!" Pinkie Pie assured in an attempt to help comfort her. "Everybody makes mistakes!"
"As long as none of you dreamt about anybody else, the Tantabus remains confined to your dreams." Luna explained. "We still have a chance to catch it before it's too late."
"Phew, that's good to hear! Although after Luna left, I did happen to dream that I was eating a giant ice-cream cone with all of Ponyville and then shared it with the new air nation while taking a test we hadn't studied for. See, what'd I tell ya? Everybody makes mistakes!"
Everybody's jaw dropped in horror upon hearing that. Not only will everypony in Ponyville would be infected by the Tantabus, but also every Pride Lander as well, thus giving it the power it needs in order to take over the world.
“You did WHAT?!” Fuli calmly yet angrily exclaimed.
“Yep.” Pinkie’s smile faded upon seeing how angry and menacing she is looking. “Uh Fuli, you okay?”
“Yep. Just peachy.” She replied without raising her voice. “I just need to excuse myself for a moment.” She moved to walk off to the emergency fire exit she installed so she can quickly leave the castle.
“Here.” Twilight offered her up a pair of earmuffs. “You might want these.”
Pinkie did as she was told even though she wondered why she needed to put them on. At the same time Fuli took a deep breath…
“F….”
The scream along with a church organ piano had many birds scattering across the area along with waking up every single pony and Pride Lander from both worlds. Upon hearing it everyone was in complete shock with what they had just heard.
“Good heavens! That’s the loudest profanity I ever heard!” Zito commented highly surprised by the word itself.
After making her way back towards up the slide and back to the bedroom, she made sure she got it out of her system. “Okay. I’m good now.”
"But that means the Tantabus could be turning every dream in Ponyville into a nightmare!" Twilight exclaimed in terror.
“Not only that, everyone in the Pride Lands will be affected by it!” Kion also exclaimed in the same tone.
"It is far worse than that." Luna further explained. "Infecting all those dreams gives it more and more power. Soon it will be able to escape into the real world and infect both Equestria and the Pride Lands with its nightmare plague!"
"Then you must let us help you stop it before that happens!" Rarity bravely insisted.
"But how?" Fluttershy asked. "The Tantabus was able to escape Luna when it only had nine dreams it could get to!"
"It is true." Luna agreed. "With so many dreams to hide in, I don't know how I can catch it."
Twilight pondered for a moment before coming up with a suggestion, "Hmm… What if everypony in Ponyville were having one dream?"
Luna's ears perked up, "I… can create shared dreams, yes, but for so many ponies at once? Including the Pride Landers? I have never done anything like that. The amount of power it would take…" She felt her sister’s wing drape over her shoulder.
"Something that only one but two alicorn sisters can do together. With our magic combined we can take on the Tantabus just like we did with past foes we’ve encountered before." Upon seeing that her younger sister was still reluctant in accepting her help she added. “Please sister, I want to be able to help you as much as everypony and everybody.”
Luna turned to Twilight who gently insisted that she takes her up on her offer. “Coming from the mare who lived in isolation from home for over a month when at her lowest point, you may think you’re alone Luna, but you’re not.” She smiled as she gave the heartfelt she was once given and needed to be convinced into returning and staying back home where she belongs. With friends and family to help comfort and encourage her to be the best pony she can be.
After letting it sink in for a few seconds she spoke her mind. "All right.” Luna accepted her words. “I will do anything to end this, including accept your help." she turned to the others, "All of 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 we can create such a dream."
The Lion and Pony Guard did what the younger alicorn sister asked of them. Even Fuli, Ono, and Spike slept to help their friends. Both sisters placed the tip of their horns together as the orb of magic circled around them with numerous white strings growing from their combined horns, extending from the castle to all across Ponyville and the Pride Lands.
The dream spell was activated once more.
Mtoto was one of the first to open his eyes to the strangeness he was seeing. It looked like Ponyville and Equestriae had merged together as there was no portal separating them. The Pride Landers, including Simba and the royal family were all looking on in confusion trying understand their current surroundings. Ponies were also all looking around equally confused with the abnormal atmosphere around them.
Muffins with wings flew above the sky, several earth ponies could swim in midair, Lyra and Bon Bon realized that their lower bodies have been merged together as one. Truthfully they weren’t really bothered by it as they bonded more closely than ever because of it.
As Simba is trying to absorb his surroundings before he bumped into something. It was Derpy appearing as a large giant, who meowed like a cat at him in response.
“Okay…” The lion king honestly had no words to say back at her and probably for the best though. Just then he spotted his son along with the rest of the Lion and Pony Guard approaching them. “Kion! Twilight! What is going on here?”
“Nothing to worry about, Dad.” He quickly assured. “None of this real.”
“It is all a dream, where everyone and everypony’s fantasies come true here.” Twilight added.
Applejack saw Opal chase after a very small version of a stallion who then shuddered in disgust upon seeing it. Ponyville and the Pride Lands combined in the dream realm was bizarre beyond anyone’s imagination. She spotted a famailar pair of hooves accompanied by a face she recognizes.
"Big Mac! Boy, I'm glad to see somethin' familiar!"
However, her relieved delight turned into surprised shock when she saw that not everything about him was exactly the same…mainly because he has a long unicorn on his forehead.
"Eeyup." Using his magic, Big Mac created a giant apple that hurled across the sky.
“Poa!” Beshte commented looking on at the stallion very impressed. “Now that’s what I call strong dream power right there!”
“No kidding” Bunga agreed…all while flying and running around at super-fast speeds that would make the Guard’s Fastest left very impressed at the very sight of it.
And true to their intial reactions after getting over their shock, they were indeed impressed and in awe at the sight. After all, it’s always nice to see a new speedy flying buddy to hang with even if it’s a dream.
“Oh, yeah! Who’s the Fastest now!”
“Still me!” Rainbow and Fuli both looked on now annoyed and unimpressed upon seeing that he is now being a show-off.
"Ponies! Pride Landers!"
Princess Luna’s voice echoed across the dream land where her and Celestia’s horns are still glowing together and individually, floating in the sky while shielded in a bright glowing forcefield.
"Princess Luna! Princess Celestia!"
Everyone all bowed before the two sisters.
"There is no time for bowing, my friends!" Luna urgently exclaimed, "There is something coming, something terrible! No, it is already here!"
Everyone screamed in terror once they saw the Tantabus appear before them, now even larger and more intimidating than before. The very sight of it caused great fear amongst everyone, the same kind of fear striken in their hearts on par with Scar’s intimidating appearance alone.
"I am so sorry!” Luna remorsefully apologized. “I brought this upon you! But I will end it now!"
In a desperate attempt to end this, the night princess shot a white beam at the Tantabus in hopes of destroying it for good. But it did very little in stopping it with the only thing accomplished from it is leaving Luna panting heavily and very nearly exhausted, complete with sweat dripping from her forehead as the Tantabus continued terrorizing everyone.
"Luna, what's wrong?" Kion asked.
Luna grunted as both she and Celestia struggled to maintain control over everyone’s dreams. "It… is taking all our strength just to hold this massive dream together!"
“It’s now up to you and your friends to stop it, Twilight.” Celestia said to her protégé.
"I truly wish I did not have to ask this of you!" Luna regretfully told her faithful friends.
"Then you're in luck." Twilight stated confidently in assurance.
"Yeah! We're already on it!" Rainbow Dash winked at Ono and the two nearby ponies flew after the Tantabus together, followed by the other fliers from the Pride Lands.
The Tantabus quick to cause terror and chaos amongst the dream realm turned a house into a living monster as well having Mzingo and his flock swooping down with dark and demonic appearances swarming around it to prevent anyone from stopping its rampage. During the chaos, the monster house managed to ensnare Thurston with his tentacles.
“Panic and run! Panic and…” The monster instantly shoves a sock down his throat to shut him up.
“You know…” Rainbow Dash remarked upon witnessing this with Ono. “…we could just not save him.”
“Tempting, but it violates our creed.” Ono reminded.
“Fine.” Rainbow swooped in and kicked the monster's face, causing it to drop the jumpy zebra, who could only let out a muffled scream before being caught by the rainbow-maned Pegasus. “You’re welcome.” She quickly said before flying off.
Another one of the monster houses had a stallion in its mouth, who tried to keep it from eating him by using his front hooves to keep its jaws from snapping shut on him. Twilight quickly rushed over to his rescue by firing a beam of magic before unleashing a set of punches and kicks to send it falling on its back and crashing into multiple pieces of broken wood and bricks. The stallion managed to free itself only to wind up falling without a safe landing. Luckily for him, Beshte quickly leaped over and allowed the stallion to land on his back before letting him slide down safely onto the ground.
One of the Pride Landers, Laini found herself in the crosshairs of another monster house’s foot. Fluttershy thought really hard and changed herself into Flutterbat to bite the monster's foot, causing it to cry out in pain and release Laini so Fluttershy could take him to safety. And when the monster house tried to retaliate he finds himself bitten by Fuli who has also transformed into Fulibat in the other foot causing him to collapse and crash into the ground after losing his balance.
“I don’t think so!” Fuli stated with a triumphant smirk.
Ma Tembo attempted to ensnare the Venus fly trap with her trunk but ended up getting her trunk ensnared instead by the vines. Just as it was about to bite her, the plant was suddenly shredded into pieces by the claws of the lion prince before backhanding the plant pot away and onto the ground.
“Phew! Thank you, Kion!”Ma Tembo gratefully said to the leader of the Lion Guard.
Now there were deadly plants along with flying muffins on the rise for an aerial attack where both Fuli and Applejack are working together to try to control them from harming the ponies they tried to take captive. Applejack spotted her brother down below, who was surrounded by the flying cupcakes which were anything but sweet.
"Oh, no! Big Mac! You can do anythin' in a dream, remember?"
Realizing this, Big Mac used his imagination. His body became engulfed with a golden aura. In an instant he had transformed himself into an alicorn, complete with royal golden horse shoes, golden collar, jewels, flourishes, and a royal golden crown, to go with his new matching red wings.
"Wheeeeee!"
While Applejack was happy for her brother as he flew around with glee, Ono looked on blinking in confusion.
Turning some of his friends. “Did we just see…?”
“Big Macintosh transform into an alicorn.” Fuli finished looking just as confused.
Beshte deciding it was best to leave it at that considering it’s just a dream just said. "Like my dad always said, live long enough and you’ll see everything.”
Rainbow flew down towards them to get them to focus at the task at hoof. "Come on! If that Tantabus thing turns any more of this dream against us, we'll be too busy saving lives to catch it! And it'll grow powerful enough to escape into the real world!"
"How are we even gonna know when it's able to escape?" Ono asked.
Everyone else stopped what they were doing to see the nightmare creature, growing bigger in size now using itself as a sword to tear open a portal into the sky and marching its way out.
“Never mind. Forget I asked.” Ono quickly said while mentally berating himself for having a big beak there.
Both Twilight and Kion quickly worked together to form a combo blast at the creature, forcing it to back away. Once that was done, Luna then used her own magic to seal up the opening as fast as she could.
"Hurry, my friends!"
“Since this is a dream…” Fuli said as she started to use her own imagination. After a golden glow, she appeared now gaining a pair of Pegasus wings complete with pony ears and extended black hair on her head. “…I think it’s best that I do it in style.” She stated with a proud grin much to both Rarity and Rainbow’s astonishment.
“Well said, darling!”
“All right!”
Rainbow moved to fly alongside Fuli as they both pursed the Tantabus. They attempted to charge, ram, and claw at it, only for it created a hole that caused the two to fly right through it instead as its counterattack.
”Please, we need your help too!" Fluttershy implored of the whole crowd of towns ponies and Pride Landers.
Kion, Kyoga, and Twilight tried zapping at the creature, but it still didn’t stop it in its tracks.
"Fluttershy's right! " Kion said as he addressed everyone in the dream realm. "We've all got to work together to stop it from escaping!"
"But how can we help?" Bupu asked unsure about that claim. "In case you didn’t notice, none of us have your magic or your speed!"
Rainbow and Fuli were quick to fly over to correct him on that matter.
“That's true... in the real world!"
“But here in the dream realm…anything’s possible!”
Bic Mac flew by, zapping the flying muffins with his horn in agreement. "Eeyup!"
"And not just any! This is your dream! " Twilight addressed to the crowd, speaking strongly as she did. "Anything you can do in your dreams, you can do now!"
Spike got the idea and snapped his fingers. His body glowed and turned himself into his knight in shining armor appearance he depicted himself in his everyday fantasies right down to the muscles, cape and armor.
"Well, if you're gonna dream, might as well dream big, right?" He jumped up onto the giant Derpy ready to ride her like a medival hero. "Hi-yah!"
Derpy flew up with Spike riding on her while Commander Meelo rode on Pookie while shouting, "CHARGE!!!!!!!"
The townspeople cheered with glee knowing that their imagination alone has the power to stop the monster in its tracks.
The Tantabus once again tore open another gateway, but both Spike along with Shauku and Gumba while riding on Kambuni extended their swords, flying at the creature and managed to cut it into many, many, pieces.
Simba charged on ahead with mighty alicorn wings of his own, unleashing a super strong force of his own Roar to send the many pieces of the Tantabus flying off into the mountains. It was a proud moment for himself, as it was something he could never have imagined doing in the real world in his life.
The creature after quickly reforming and recovering from the attack, tore open another portal into the real world, only this time Scootaloo imagined herself with gigantic wings and flew upwards, using the winds to push the creature away to which Rainbow Dash smiled proudly at her in response. And liking the idea already, Rainbow imagined herself into her Power Ponies form, Zap and spun around the Tantabus alongside Fuli, working together at super-fast speeds to subdue it on top of a strong and powerful vortex.
"It's working!"
"But it's not enough!" Fuli quickly noticed before she and Rainbow were blasted aside when the Tantabus managed it free itself from the tornado. Upon seeing this Luna was feeling even more mortified and disheartened because of it.
"Then do more!" Pinkie shouted. "This is a dream, remember?"
Bunga getting the idea, imagined himself eating a can of bugs with spinach mixed into it. Then he imagined himself gaining instant muscles on his arms along with a muscular chest and abs after eating it. Once he had that super-fueled body build he proceeded to launch himself up towards the Tantabus and managed to grab it by the tail and yanked it hard into the ground.
He then proceeded to slam it into the ground side by side many times, all while having fun with it. But the Tantabus was quickly able to adapt and slip out of its grasp. Luckily for Bunga, Beshte was there to slam a huge rock in it’s path to keep it pinned to the ground.
Despite the two working together using their super strength to restraint it was still able to break free and caused the rock itself to explode sending both boys flying backwards. Kyoga quickly caught Beshte with her magic while Ono quickly caught Bunga just when he was face first with the sharp and pointy rocks in front of him.
Twilight then used her imagination to bring the destroyed Golden Oak Library back to life and summoned the books to fly out and attack the Tantabus. At the same time Applejack also changed into her Power Ponies persona and used her lasso to pull the creature away from the new opening while Rarity quickly stitched the opening closed with her own magic.
Both Ono and Hadithi working together led the entire flock of birds in the Tantabus’s direction who all relentlessly charged and pecked at it. The night creature was felt forced to retreat because of the birds attacking at it non-stop before splitting apart again in order to get them to back off.
Ma Tembo and the elephants including Ma Tembo grew into giants before using their trunks to lasso and restraint the Tantabus in place while the rhinos and hippos are charged at it with full force resulting in the creature getting repeatedly trampled. Then what followed was Fluttershy taming her demonic monster bunny into attacking it, along with Fuli commanding a flock of bats in its direction to swarm all over it.
For once the Tantabus was left no wiggle room as he is attacked from angles from everyone present in the dream realm it looked like they might actually be able to pull it off. But even with everyone's help, Celestia and Luna kept on struggling to keep this dream together. It was getting to be too much for them to handle to the point Luna was starting to break down in tears.
"I cannot hold this dream together much longer!" she said while straining to keep her horn’s magic going. "Equestria will fall because of me!"
The Tantabus roared, causing everyone to back away and fall to the ground with Spike and Ono the only ones still flying.
"Am I crazy, or did it just get even bigger after Luna said that?" Spike asked.
“Nope.” Ono shook his head. “It really did just happen just as she said that.”
“Oh, good.” Bunga sighed in relief. “She really had me there.”
Kion caught onto this too, as he came to the same conclusion. "Of course! I think it's feeding off your guilt, Princess Luna!"
"If that is so, then perhaps that is how it grew strong enough to escape from my control the first place!"
"Say what now?!" Applejack asked before gasping when the Tantabus tore open another opening.
"What else are you not telling us, Luna?" Celestia inquired.
Luna continued crying. "When NightMare Moon returned the memories of my past evil doings came back to haunt me. So, I created the Tantabus, a creature only I could control, to give myself the same nightmare every night since. I never believed it would take on a will of its own."
"But why would you do that?!" Fluttershy asked while the Tantabus grew larger in size, to the point the monster angel bunny was now frightened by its appearance.
"If it hadn't been for my jealousy, Scar never would have come back from the dead in the first place, and he never would have returned, turned Twilight against each and every one of you, and taken control of the entire world. I--I couldn't let that go unpunished! But it seems I have not learned my lesson. Now, because of my foolishness, I have only made you suffer more!"
The heartbroken princess got down on her knees, covering her face in shame while the Tantabus grew larger and larger alongside the opening. The creature began to take on the shape of a unicorn shaping up to Luna's figure.
Twilight, Kion, Kyoga, Bunga, Rainbow Dash all gathered around the two sisters.
"But that means you also might just be the key to stopping all this!" Bunga pointed out.
"He's right!" Rainbow Dash agreed with Kion. "If it gets strong because you feel bad about what you did as Nightmare Moon, then you just need stop feeling bad for what you did!"
"How can I forgive myself?" Luna asked, still crying. "You all suffered because of my past mistakes, even after I had tried so hard to put it behind me. I am no better now than I was then."
"That's not true!" Twilight exclaimed asserting otherwise. "You were the one who came all the way outside of Equestria to help me regain the courage to return home after what happened with Scar! I was in a very dark place back then but you never gave up on me!"
"Because you deserved that forgiveness. I don't! And now my creation is about to turn the world into a living nightmare!"
“Don’t say that!” Twilight shook his head against that statement. “Because if anything you’re not the only who’s made mistakes. In fact, because of me Scar regained control of the Pride Lands and nearly did the same for all of Equestria had I not stopped him at the last possible second.”
“Which wouldn’t have happened had we taken the extra steps in checking up on you to make sure you didn’t turn against us.” Kion added.
“Which also wouldn’t have happened if we had stuck by you after your brother chewed you out and banned from his wedding the first time around.” Rainbow further added still feeling very remorseful over the event itself.
Bunga also rose one his claws up to chime in. “Because of me, I ended up causing that snake Ushari to turn against us by constantly giving him a hard time when I shouldn’t have.“
“And you’re realizing this now?” Ono asked.
“Hey!” Bunga shrugged in defense. “Having bad dreams help finding out about your biggest regrets!”
“Not to mention, that I did nothing to help soothe the tension you were feeling when it was all happening right under my nose and right in front of her.” Celestia further confessed. “I could have prevented this all from happening, but I didn’t and I have regretted not trying to make amends with you every day since then.”
"Point being…" Kion continued to get through to the remorseful alicorn. "We all did things that we regret, but we've learned from our mistakes. And you can do the same right now because you have the power to end it here and stop what you’re doing!”
“I did at first…” Luna admitted. “…but after seeing the damage Scar had caused after I brought him back from the dead out of impulsiveness…I…I just couldn’t live with myself!"
The Tantabus slowly started making its way out into the real world. Time was running out with the clock ticking down to the last thirty seconds.
"But look at what you're doing!" Twilight further implored of her to look into her own heart to get her to forgive herself for what happened in the past. "Scar and 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! Everybody who knows you knows that Nightmare Moon is in the past! We all trust you, Luna! Do you trust us enough to believe we're right?"
Luna looked up, the Tantabus was nearly out just ten seconds away from escaping, but once she turned and looked into the eyes of her friends who are showing nothing but friendly love and forgiveness in her direction before facing her own dear sister, who gently wrapped her arms around her like any loving sister would do.
“Celestia…I…”
“It’s okay, Luna. I’m sorry.”
"I'm sorry too."
"Do you forgive yourself now?"
"…I do!" Luna smiled as she did so.
The Tantabus cried out in shocked horror, suddenly feeling weak and no longer able to escape the dream world. Both the Tantabus and the portal the former was about to cross over shrunk. The portal closed completely and Luna stood up as the now unicorn-shaped and sized Tantabus walked towards her. The creature merged into her body, completely vanquished, leaving the creator now feeling whole as one.
Luna sighed in relief while smiling in gratefully that this was all finally over, and it was all thanks to everyone around her and especially her closest friends and family.
"Thank you. Thank you all."
Twilight was the first to wake up when she felt the warmth of the sunrise shine on her face with her eyes opening. She gasped and sat up with a happy smile as she declared. "Luna did it!"
The friends yawned and stretched as they got out of bed one by one after waking up.
"She sure did!" Bunga agreed but then added sounding rather confused himself. "Only… I'm not exactly sure what she did."
"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 said while mimicking a cloud literally going up in smoke.
Kion being the last one to get out of his stood up and stretched his paws, claws, and wings felt as happy as someone accomplishing another successful mission. “Wow! And just like that I feel better already!”
“Like succeeding in another mission to protect both the Pride Lands and Equestria.” Fuli asked with a knowing smirk.
“Exactly, Fuli!”
"Shh…" Celestia gently asked them all to keep quiet as she wrapped her wing over her sister who is now peacefully sleeping.
Everyone in the room went, "Awwwww…"
"Huh. Wonder what she's dreaming about now." Spike asked.
Kion smiled. "Whatever it is, it must be a pretty good one."
For the first time in a thousand years, Princess Luna has finally come to terms and has gained a sense of peace after moving on from what she did as Nightmare Moon and was now sleeping under the comfort of her older sister to which she had never done in many, many, years. And it was a heartwarming and peaceful sight to behold.
Later that night, Twilight upon acting on her previous suspicions moved to pay Tartarus a late night visit. With a quick teleportation while no one was around and awake to see her she was there in an instant.
Using her magic she was able to enter the heavily-guarded jail along with personally assuring the guards that she is a princess so she can be allowed clearance to investigate. With her top priority in mind she went to where the clones of Scar, Zira, her pride, Chrysalis, her changelings, Ushari, and the skinks are all held inside.
There she noticed they were all sleeping soundly, contently, and fully satisfied with their current environment. Even while approaching them they didn’t even bat open an eye in her direction. Not a word, not an open eye, peep, or anything that they would normally do while she’s around them.
To her it didn’t make any sense. Either they’re all deep heavy sleepers to any vistior they came across. Or more accurately as she analyzed from the drained magic from the other prisoners along with the threateningly growls in her direction from the many creatures that are wishing the very name of their prison upon her the truth in front of her…
Upon leaving Tartarus her eyes now widen in alarm even as she found herself face to face with the now awake alicorn princess herself along with Rainbow Dash.
“What do you find, Twilight Sparkle?” Luna asked.
“Scar and his followers who were imprisoned here have escaped.” She answered with fear in her eyes…
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No description at the end? How’ll I know what’s coming next?
11594782
My bad, I forgot to put together up until now. Should be up now.
11594792
So what’s the name of the next chapter to come anyway. Oo, is daddy gonna get another power up?
11594839
You’ll find out soon enough.
Man, Scar is living up to his name if he keeps appearing in all these dreams.
Also glad Celestia was involved in this. She really should have been in the original episode.
And now that they know for certain Scar is free, what next? I fear what could happen if they keep their friends in the dark for too long. And I don’t mean physical damage wise.
11594851
You mean find
Based on what that little description said, I’m guessing daddy’s planning something big; like, really big. Am I right?