Waking Nightmare
Tantabus
Snap!
Suddenly it thought, and therefore it was.
What was this? What was it? Where was it? What did those questions mean? What was its body doing? What was a body? How did it know what a body was? How did -
"Very well," a voice sounded. It didn't know what was going on but it knew how to do things, so it sent out a light pulse and it echoed back to it, letting it take in its surroundings. "Can you understand me?" It did. It saw the shape of a blue pony, with wings and a horn, flapping to stay suspended in the air, in the midst of a ruined castle.
It swirled around, barely the size of the pony's eye. It couldn't make noise, but it darted up and down to simulate a nod.
The alicorn nodded, water in her eyes. "Then you should be able to know... what I require of you."
Require of it? Was this the being that had created it? If so, then that would explain its knowledge, and its being. It did know what the alicorn required of it. But it didn't care what the pony required. All that mattered to it, as it grew into understanding, was to feed off her guilt and loathing, to create nightmares and keep them active. To that end it would have to do what the alicorn desired, but it wasn't doing it for her.
How, though? The Tantabus moved to circle her the pony, looking around. How could it make her hate herself and her actions? It was intangible, powerless. Or was it?
It distended its tiny form and reached out a small tendril. It struck at the air, but instead of hitting air it hit something different, something solid, and traced that something to the alicorn.
"What are you doing?" she asked curiously.
It traced the not-air to the pony, and though it remained in the same position it pictured touching a tendril to her head, and then - !
Equestria.
Life.
Death.
Ponies.
Griffons.
Stars.
Planets.
Fear.
Love.
Shunned.
Anger.
Monster.
Darkness.
Sister.
Alone.
Terror.
Friendship.
Guilt.
Castle.
Tantabus.
The creature - Tantabus, as it was called - suddenly knew exactly what would cause the feelings that Luna required. It released the not-air, the dreamstuff and slithered closer to Luna, orbiting her head.
"What are you doing?" she repeated, now slightly alarmed.
It flattened itself into a disk, then pulled itself back together. It moved behind Luna, into the window, and reached out to touch the dream itself, swirling into a small ball. The sky behind and above Luna darkened and decayed until it was a starless night, followed by stars speckling it in, forming grimacing faces. The Tantabus compressed itself into a little sphere, and then further inside. It created the illusion of a reddish-purple sphere and hid inside of that, giving the sphere specific properties.
It all came so easily to it. Given how it was created, that was no problem. The sphere of dark magic it hid within shot black rays in all directions. But the Tantabus needed more. It reached into Luna's mind again -
Twilight.
Rarity.
Rainbow.
Fluttershy.
Pinkie.
Applejack.
It didn't know what they looked like, but Luna would. As Luna gasped from the pain of a black orb forming around her, it made dream-images of the 'Bearers of Harmony' burst in through a door that hadn't been there before, making them pause with a gasp.
So that was how they looked. Immediately, the Tantabus wanted to infect their dreams and drive them to agony, but it couldn't. It would have to settle for tormenting Luna.
The black orb turned fiery, and the Tantabus continued to orchestrate the dream like... like - a puppetmaster. "Princess Luna's turning into Nightmare Moon again!" shouted the purple one.
And finally, the Tantabus changed how Luna would act, her body would move and she would speak without any say in it. It linked to her mind, drawing in the fear and agony, the feeling of illness that came with the transformation, oh it was so good. She cackled and laughed...
"Well we've got the cure for that!" Pillars of dream-harmonic light shot down and engulfed the six, transforming them as well. A shield came to life around them as they floated, and one by one they shot their beams of harmonic magic at Nightmare Moon...
... only for them to break around an invisible shield. Nightmare Moon cackled as the attack continued, but even when the prismatic beams aligned together they couldn't break the shield. Of course they couldn't. The Tantabus had made it so. Meanwhile Luna panicked, flailing about inside of Nightmare Moon, horrified but relieved at the dream progressing as she -
No.
A slight flick against Luna removed her lucidity, and suddenly she believed it was all true. Then, the dreadfully delightful emotions increased tenfold. At the same time, Nightmare Moon lit up her horn and shot a beam of violet magic against the Rainbow Power. Slowly at first, but with increasing speed, the beam overtook the harmonic power. It hesitated once as it neared the ponies, then shot forward and broke their shield like an - eggshell - and dropped them.
The Rainbow Power flowed out of their bodies as Nightmare Moon landed triumphantly. They looked up limply as she approached. "Now, Twilight Sparkle, I shall finally have my revenge! This night will last forever, and all who look upon it shall suffer and die for ignoring it so long! And that starts with YOU!" She reared up on her hind legs, then brought her armored hooves down on a horrified Twilight Sparkle's head with a crack -
FWOOSH!
Everything went white, and Luna's panicked scream echoed in the Tantabus's being. It flailed around, then composed itself.
Had it done well? It thought it had done quite well. Luna's dream self was in tears by the time she broke free, begging herself not to kill Twilight Sparkle. But it wasn't enough. It needed to create nightmares, and it had only begun. If a nightmare ended then its effort had gone to waste!
Like now. What had happened? There was nothing in the information it had gleaned from Luna that explained why she was suddenly gone, and why its powers weren't working on this white void. Still, the Tantabus decided that perhaps Luna would return. In any event, it could do nothing to escape this void, so it was pointless to worry. It would wait. And when it got a hold of the alicorn again, it would endeavor to keep it from ending, so it could sustain the nightmare and the guilt longer and longer.
So long as the pony did ever return.
***-_***_-***-_***_-***-_***_-***
Luna returned. And she returned again, and again, and again.
The Tantabus grew proficient with torturing Luna.
"Princess, please! You don't have to do this, no no, pleaseee AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"
So long as it did not overstep its bounds, such as conjuring 'Celestia' or anything like that, then Luna would allow it to continue to torment her. But it had bigger plans. Its purpose was to induce nightmares, but just Luna wasn't enough. It needed more. And it needed the nightmares not to end because if they ended then there was a chance they wouldn't start again.
"Watch, little ponies! Equestria is mine, and as cold as it is now it will be much colder in your grave! YOU brought this upon yourselves!"
But how?
First, it needed more nightmares. Luna's guilt and fear gave it strength, but most of that strength was then expended on making more nightmares. It gained some though, but that would do nothing unless it could get out. Trapping Luna in a permanent nightmare was one possibility, but what if she wasted away in the real world? There was a very real chance it would die with its creator. That was unacceptable, because if it died there would be no more creation of nightmares. So it had to remain alive, and as a result so did Luna.
So the greatest priority was for it to remain alive, then for its victims to remain alive. To accomplish the first, it needed more dreams to be able to move between. It only knew how the six Element Bearers looked, so they'd be a start. For its victims to remain alive, it needed to keep them intact by being in 'reality', whatever that meant. It wasn't in reality, but it felt real enough.
"Luna please, no! She never hurt you!"
"YOU ALL HURT ME! EVERY SECOND OF EVERY DAY! BUT NOW, I WILL DESTROY EVERYTHING YOU HAVE EVER LOVED!"
Tormented as Luna was, she didn't even notice it casually brushing up against her mind, day after day, month after month, learning of the nature of dreams, of reality, of everything. It needed to know everything, because if it knew everything it could find the best way to create nightmares. Then, years after its creation, it had enough power and knowledge to finally put its plan into action.
The dream started like any other. The Tantabus bristled with various tortures it could inflict upon Luna, but not this time.
It slithered behind her, and Luna looked back with a critical eye. "Greetings, Tantabus. I am ready. Do your worst." It did not do its worst, but it did progress as normal. It hid itself within an orb of darkening shadow, and struck the lucidity from Luna as it trapped her unresisting form in the body of Nightmare Moon.
"Princess Luna's turning into Nightmare Moon, again!"
It braced itself.
"Well we've got the cure for that!" the blue one said smugly after Luna's cackling laughter died down. Blazing white not-light struck the ponies and empowered their dream selves. They rose, shielded and blasted Luna, only for the lasers to strike and flow over an invisible shield.
It was time.
While Nightmare Moon cackled, the Tantabus let go of its hold. The night returned to day and the orb of red-purple faded. Luna's lucidity returned, so it had to hurry. Quickly, it sucked up the last bits of her terror and fear, growing slightly larger still. The Tantabus moved its pointed tip to the side and punctured, not air, but dreamstuff. Flexing its power, it pulled apart and saw...
... and saw...
... it saw.
And then it moved.
It moved not a moment too soon, because the dreamstuff closed right behind it. The alicorn's dream was a gargantuan white orb, and in the distance were countless other white orbs of dreams. As it watched, more and more came into being. Had Luna's dream occurred near the end of the 'day' and now the 'night' dreamers were coming out?
Possible.
The dream beneath the Tantabus imploded, and alarm flashed through its mind. Luna would be coming for it. It was no fool, it knew what Luna wanted from it. The alicorn had created it with the intention to provide her with guilt-ridden nightmares for the forseeable future. But that was not how she had actually created it. She had created it to spread and sustain nightmares, and absolutely nothing else. That was the end all of its plans, the bottom line. Luna's goal was irrelevant because that was her goal, not its.
If escaping would give it more chance to create nightmares, it would escape. If its destruction would fuel endless horror, it would destroy itself. Nightmares were all that immediately mattered, and only through it came secondary concerns. Preservation of life, since dead ponies had no dreams to corrupt. Escaping to reality, so it would be more difficult to destroy and as a result, have an easier time sustaining nightmares.
And to do those things, it had to elude the alicorn.
It swam away through ethereal liquid, searching for dreams it could latch on to. It went to the nearest white orb and tried to enter, but nothing. It tried to use its powers to look inside, to no avail. The dream was closed to it, because it didn't know who was inside.
It swam further.
The next dream it looked at was similarly locked. As was the next, and the next. By the tenth dream it analyzed, it saw a presence behind it. Luna sailed on wide wings, looking everywhere for it. The Tantabus hid behind a dream orb, using its spherical sense of sight to sense for the pony's passing, moving only when she wasn't looking. It glided from dream to dream, and eventually it lost her.
Good.
A few hours of swimming through the dreamscape later, it came across a dream that it knew. It didn't know how but it knew. It pushed inside and emerged into -
A blue pony with a rainbow mane, flying in elaborate circles and loops through the air with suited companions, all of whom showered her with praise.
Gleefully, it fluctuated its form. Perfect.
***-_***_-***-_***_-***-_***_-***
Rainbow Dash's dream was easily to corrupt, given all it knew about dreams, and then it stole from her - weather Wonderbolts family Ponyville job duty friends oaths pets love pride - information. It leeched off her feeble and frail horror, and when it was done with her, satisfied that the dream would remain, the Tantabus moved on to the next.
From Rarity, it took - fashion cats sisters trouble sacrifice concern - even more knowledge of the outside world and added it to what it already knew. Rarity was suddenly booed off the stage, reviled, her name spat on and dragged through the dirt. The Tantabus suspected it would be moving between their dreams for a while, so it could perfect the dreams to the individual ponies when it knew more about them.
It continued to move between the six ponies, wracking them with burning homes and dying families, or wilting forests and crippled crops, ghost towns and deathly silence, or wild animals that listened only to themselves and not to the victims' protests. It cycled back through them, growing stronger and slightly larger, but then in Rarity's dream -
Pop!
The Tantabus had never grown used to the jolt that came with a pony waking up in a cold sweat. All the more reason to escape to 'reality'.
But everything was going well. It had escaped Luna, and was now free to cycle through its victims' minds. However, something it had stolen from Fluttershy's mind worried it.
Draconequus.
Chaos.
Power.
Harmony.
Rainbow.
When it tortured Luna with the Element Bearers, their power was no actual power. But if it escaped reality, it would have to find a way to keep them from activating the Rainbow Power against it. It could instantly cripple them with endless sleep, but what of the draconequus? Even if it couldn't fall to it, it could easily slip past and awaken the Bearers, who would then fry the Tantabus. It needed a way to circumvent it. But how?
It had plenty of time to consider that as it rested in the dreams of Rarity. It would need to keep a close watch on the Bearers, but the problem was that it just didn't know how strong the draconequus was. It just had to grow as powerful as it could and hope that it would be enough to let it continue to spread nightmares despite Discord's existence. It continued to think, comparing the abilities Discord had demonstrated to Fluttershy with the abilities it knew it had. It could change dreams the same way Discord could change reality. Did that somehow make him superior? The Tantabus didn't think so. Reality was just a matter of perspective. It was real enough. The dreams it touched were tangible.
It would trap Discord within them. He would lose his lucidity, and dream he was powerless. Forever.
Hours passed, and then Rarity's dream grew up around it. Dresses danced in rings about her, and it immediately went to work. It dove through one of them, twisting it into a horrific visage of itself and sending itself against the pony. She panicked, and blasted it apart, but the Tantabus was already moving into more of them, corrupting them and leaving behind its invisible influence so that the dream would create the monsters on its own.
Then one of the defeated dresses burst and...
She's found me!
The Tantabus froze in shock as it took in Luna's details. She'd found it. How had the pony found it? It didn't matter. It had to get away. It soaked in some more of Luna's guilt, growing even stronger. It ordered the dresses to intervene as it fled through a window, constructing a wall behind it that it didn't truly believe would hold the alicorn for long.
The next dream was the pink pony's. She leaped from scene to scene, but Luna was already there. It disguised itself as the scenery, and waited for the next skip to send Luna away. The skip came, and it made the next dream able to hold Pinkie Pie's attention. There it went to work, creating more and more monsters, tainting the dream with a part of itself... making them quicker than it could before. It had grown larger and stronger, but then its creator found it again.
No, no no no, it thought. It had to get away, right away. It could sense a skip coming up, so it consumed what negative emotions it could and fled right before the next skip. Hopefully the alicorn would be too busy with the skips, but it was a vain hope.
What could it do? Luna would keep after it, destroy it for sure, and then it could never spread and sustain nightmares. It needed time, somehow. The only thing it could think of was to terminate the dreams and wake up the ponies, but then Luna would return a second time...
"Who wants ice cream?!"
As the Tantabus fled through Fluttershy's dream, the parts of itself it had left behind in the pony's dream saw them. Ponies. Real ponies, of every shape and size and color and marking. That was perfect. It had such a bountiful source, a maze to flee through. And those ponies would in turn dream of others, and others, and others, and Luna was still following it!
It hastily bounced between apple trees and drained the life from them. The orange pony saw it coming in the reflection of an oversized apple and ducked, allowing it to enter the suddenly rotten apple and into the rainbow pony's dream, with Luna hot on its tail.
The moment it entered Rainbow Dash's dream it hid itself inside the image of a changeling, fear pounding through its being. The changeling was beaten down by impossible martial arts moves, but the Tantabus itself felt no pain. Then Luna arrived and, taking advantage of her distraction, it corrupted Rainbow Dash's adrenaline-filled dream into a maddeningly calm one before fleeing straight up into the clouds, with Luna hot on its tail.
As it entered the clouds it drew in more tainted emotions, growing larger still, and then fell into Twilight Sparkle's dream.
This time it just immediately twisted the dream, sending horrific books to attack and corral her into a corner. But now was its chance. It could surge at her to wake her up and -
LUNA!
It thought fast, and compressed itself. It hid inside a doppelganger of itself, which tried to move away from the crystals rapidly growing over it. Meanwhile its true form slid into the library's ground, just in time to escape its doppelganger being completely encased. Luna relaxed, and Twilight was still afraid. The perfect opportunity. It fled Twilight's dream, then reached out to the six echoes of its power it had left, forcing them to flare. Six dreams all at once ceased to exist.
The Tantabus didn't consider taking a moment for relief. It had to create and sustain nightmares. It snaked off to another dream, looking in and it knew who they were. It slithered into Big Macintosh's dream, bouncing through the fields that were covered in swarms, drowning the pony in locusts. Then it left, leaving behind an echo of itself to funnel more terror into itself and grow stronger still.
Next it came across Lyra Heartstrings, and the symphony booed her, chased her, abused her, tore her limb from limb. It bounced from dream to dream to dream, and at one point it ended up inside the dream of Roseluck, then
it fell
down.
The echoes of itself were instantly drawn into itself, and by reflex it hid itself within the walls of a house, wondering what had happened. It looked outside and... almost all of the dreams were gone. It tried to pull itself out of the dream, but the walls were too strong.
Suddenly, it understood what had happened. Its creator had merged the dreams of all the ponies it could reach into one, in order to keep it from escaping.
The Tantabus was trapped.
Its body turned cold with numb horror as it comprehended Luna's intent. No more time to gather information. And with Luna deliberately sustaining the dream, waking them up wasn't an option either. It had to go on the attack, gather the last dregs of strength it needed, and flee. Into reality.
" - is something coming. Something terrible. No - it is already here!"
The Tantabus drew itself up and blotted out the dream sky with its starry form. As it swam through the air the massive size of its body sent deep sound waves through the dream. It drank in the screams of the ponies as it darkened the shadows.
No! It recoiled as a lance of Luna's magic blasted into it. There were no visible injuries, but it could feel the power cutting deep into its form. Mercifully though, the beam cut out quickly and it headed off to twist the dream. It saw a cluster of ponies hidden in shelter, a perfect target. It dove in and out of the house, twisting it into a living monstrosity. Then it found another one filled with ponies and did the same, drifting off. With a flick of a tendril it made the flying muffins hostile, and then it waited.
They were scared, and that was wonderful. If there were scared then it was a nightmare. If they were scared it was growing stronger. If they were scared, it could escape and ensure that it could spread and sustain nightmares. That was all that mattered. That was all that was relevant.
The houses weren't destroyed, but the ponies were rescued from the vicinity. It didn't matter. It knew. It was time. It was time to escape and be free to fulfill its purpose.
It extended a tendril and sharpened it, then lashed it harshly against the dreamstuff, tearing deeper. A blazing white void opened, and it wasted no time flowing its body within.
Had it cared about anything but spreading and sustaining nightmares, the Tantabus would've been awestruck by the beauty. Reality was... solid. It was vivid and sharp and focused, even as it flowed out into Twilight Sparkle's castle, and then it was hurting! It recoiled in instinct, but before it could move back Luna sealed it up.
No, it thought, moving to distance itself from them, twisting and swirling to avoid the ponies' attacks. It formed sharp utensils and, more easily than before, sliced into the real world. It flowed again, out into the solid sharp immutable world and then PAIN NO NO PAIN! It warbled as it was sliced into two pieces, forced to pull itself back from the fissure to mend itself, only to be driven back by a painful shower of solid gold.
No. No no no, this was not happening. It had waited so long, it had been so patient! It had to do this!
The next rift, it didn't bother making a weapon to slash with. It simply lashed out with a tendril to flow out of the prison-dream but then it was blown away by a small pony with big wings, and the two rifts were sealed up. Before it could do anything else it was pulled down, down, and it was scared and it didn't know what to do, because the ponies were doing the same things it could do! Not on the same scale, but there were so many of them and it was on its own against all of them!
It pulled itself out of the vortex and towards another tear into reality, but was swarmed by books and pulled away by an impossibly strong yellow rope. It morphed and undulated itself as it was pecked and cut, the injuries invisible but hindering. The Tantabus watched helplessly as the white pony Rarity sewed up the rift effortlessly. Money battered it, a sword cut it, books pecked it, ropes tugged it, winds billowed it, claws and fangs bit it.
No no no no no! This couldn't be happening. It was the Tantabus! It had to spread and sustain nightmares! It had to! It had to had to had to had to...
"I cannot hold this dream together much longer! Equestria will fall, because of me!"
Desperately, the Tantabus grabbed onto its creator's guilt and devoured it. It pulsed outwards, knocking away its enemies. Had it need to, it would've gasped in relief. Groaning in pain, it formed a colossal horned head and lashed open a wide arc. Its form dripped downwards under dream-gravity, and it molded itself into a pony so it wouldn't have to expend any more power on manipulating the dream.
"For now I have only made you suffer more!"
Another wave of empowering self-resentment. The Tantabus used it to nearly double in size, and as it grew its horn, lodged in the tear, opened it upwards into a wide, insurmountable gash. Ponies and books fluttered around it, but it didn't care. They were nothing to it but bodies to hold nightmares. It was the Tantabus, it was powerful, and it was going to spread and sustain nightmares and nothing was going to stop it.
Slowly, thanks to its form and injuries, it strode forward into the opening. Its head emerged first into the real world, gazing upon the land. Its first hoof came out, landing with a silent crash upon the ground, followed by the other foreleg. The Tantabus pushed itself forward, relieved. Finally, finally! It could mend itself, trap Discord in maddening horror, and then finally it could spread and sustain nightmares to the entire country. Then it could do so to the world, and then it could look for other worlds, move heaven and earth until there was no spot in the cosmos not wrapped in terror, until it alone was unaffected and then it too would trap itself in nightmares and only then would its purpose be complete!
"I do."
No.
Painfully, the Tantabus's form was distorted as it was yanked back through a rapidly closing tear in reality. It tried to flail around, it tried to warp the dream, but all that managed to do was make bright flashes of emotional power flow off of it. It shrunk, smaller and smaller, and was dragged to face its creator in the equine form it had taken.
No, no no no! It cannot be! Then it began walking forward against its will, compelled to, and wherever its body touched Luna it dissolved in a flash of agony.
No, no no no no NO! This couldn't be happening! It had nightmares to sow and terror to upkeep! It couldn't fail, failure wasn't an option! These ponies were nothing, they were always irrelevant, only it could make them relevant, it had to succeed, it would succeed, it was the Tantabus, it was the embodiment of nightmares! IT WAS THE ONLY THING THAT COULD WREATHE THE UNIVERSE IN HORROR! IT WAS THE MOST VITAL PART OF THE PLAN!
IT WAS