Hiding in the shadow of the Id, away from the metaphorical searchlight of the Ego, unknown to the White Unicorn that called this realm his Mind, a small sliver of magic, unfit to even be called a living being, parsed through the information of the mind, tapping into the senses of the Unicorn it hid inside.
And it shuddered at the idea of this being its end, or at least it would have shuddered had there been a body to shudder.
The Magical Reminder named Tantabus struggled to use the little sentience it had, attempting to devise a solution that would guarantee its own continuation.
It did not want to cease.
The owner of the mind it currently hid inside was under the effect of a dream spell.
Through the memories of its original host and creator, the Moon, Tantabus began to comb through her vast knowledge of dream spells, as it attempted to devise a way to wake up the White Unicorn.
Simply waiting for the spell to run out of magic was too risky, Tantabus noted, especially with the dangers of the Everfree Forest and Platinum Manor. It also noted that the spell could take multiple hours, if not days, till its effect would cease.
Tantabus was grateful to the White Unicorn for at least killing the Unicorn who cast the spell, making sure that he would not return to refuel the spell.
After minutes of parsing over the memories of the Moon, Tantabus came to a decision.
Floating its imaginary body through the psychic realm of the mind, it delved deeper into the depths of the unconscious world before it reached what would have been considered the entrance to the dream, if it had an actual physical form that is.
The unconscious world had no physical form outside the one consciously given by the mind it existed. And seeing as the White Unicorn was not currently giving the unconscious world a form to be represented by, a Mindscape, Tantabus had to gently guide the subconscious to give it form, if only temporarily, so it may interact with the mind.
For a brief few seconds, the nothingness that was the unconscious world was given form, and with it, so did Tantabus, now able to interact with the mind more than the simple viewing of memories and mental concepts.
Tantabus found itself standing atop a large flat circle, standing in front of a ginormous golden statue depicting a Human and a Unicorn, Kingfisher the Man and Blueblood the Prince, the statue towering over the circular platform Tantabus stood upon, reaching far into the empty sky.
Between the statue and the platform was a translucent bridge, leading towards the open and outstretched Hand of the human, where a glowing orb floated. Tantabus noted that this was where the Consciousness would reside, and would this were normal circumstances, all it would have needed to do was reach the statue and touch the orb for the White Unicorn to wake up.
This was not a normal circumstance, unfortunately for Tantabus.
Turning their back to the statue, it saw two more bridges extending far away from the platform, climbing down in the directions of two different platforms, both much larger than the ones it found itself standing on.
On the faraway platforms, Tantabus could make out vague shapes and colors as the mindscape constructed them in real time.
Tantabus noted that one Pillar represented the idea of what the White Unicorn thought others wanted him to be, the False self, built as an Ideal to achieve with the goal of subsuming the True Self.
While the other pillar represented the True self, not what the Unicorn thinks he should be, or what he believes others think he should be, but a physical representation of what his self actually is.
Tantabus noted the sight of more translucent bridges branching off from the platforms of the True and False selves, heading deeper into the mindscape.
Tantabus did not have the time to walk through the mindscape; it needed to act swiftly.
With a thought, it guided the formation of the Mindscape in order to build itself a shortcut. And as quickly as the thought exited its non-existent mind and entered the mindscape of the White Unicorn, a small purple orb on the platform it stood on, floating in the air just a meter away from it.
Unluckily, giving the unconscious world a physical form and actively shaping it are two vastly different actions.
With the appearance of the purple orb, a mental security system activated itself.
A being that was not the White Unicorn actively interfering with the Mind is a threat to the Self, and Tantabus, unlike Lord Tirek, did not have a physical body to escape to in order to evade the mental securities, nor did it have the magical strength to overpower the mind's protection.
The platform began to crumble, the Mind attempting to kill the Mindscape Avatar in which Tantabus currently existed.
In most circumstances, being killed in the Mindscape would simply kick the victim back into their own bodies in the physical world while suffering a magical backlash, the severity of which depends on how deep into the unconscious world the intruder was before being kicked out.
Tantabus did not yet have a body in the physical world; if it were to be kicked out of the White Unicorn's mind, it would cease to exist.
It did not want to cease.
So as the platform continued to crumble beneath it, Tantabus reached out and grabbed the purple orb, feeling the series of thoughts and ideas that were considered its conscious being sucked into the orb. And before it found itself completely devoured by the purple orb, Tantabus reverted the mindscape into the unconscious world it was before gaining physical form.
And seeing as without a physical form, there was no way an intruder could continue dwelling inside the White Unicorn's mind, the mental security of the mind returned to its lax state, no longer searching for an intruder.
Not knowing that the intruder was currently entering the Dreamscape, deeper inside the unconsciousness.
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Standing inside a grocery store, a small girl looked at the glass window of a freezer holding frozen foods, watching her reflection.
Her hair was a purple so dark it almost looked black, long enough to reach her lower back, she wore a purple dress that seemed to be glistening like a night sky full of stars if looked at from the correct angle, her eyes were cyan, the same color as those belonging to the Moon that created it. She looked down at her legs, seeing a pair of white sandals.
She looked back at the reflection in the grocery store freezer, moving her thin pale arm and placing it on the surface, watching her reflection mimic the action.
Even if temporary, even if it was the creation of a dream, for the first time in her existence, she had it.
Tantabus had a physical body.
"Hey, Kid, are you lost?" Tantabus turned to look at the voice that called out to her, watching a tall blonde man with his hands on a shopping cart look down in her direction, his ice-blue eyes meeting her moderate cyan.
Tantabus tried to open her mouth to talk with the man, but she froze as she felt something wet slide down her face. She looked up, expecting to find a leak from the ceiling, maybe a problem with the freezer's cooling system.
Tantabus felt her body tremble, her mind racing to figure out what was happening.
Did the Mind's defenses detect and capture her? Was her own consciousness splitting apart from her actualized form in the Unconscious world? Was she simply overthinking?
And then, as she was attempting to figure out the wet sensation on her face, she realized.
She felt something, an actual physical feeling. The feeling of a tear streaking down her face.
She was crying.
And with the realization that she was currently experiencing emotions that she was not created to feel, she collapsed onto her knees, her eyes turning into waterfalls of tears as she trembled and cried out to her heart's content.
She should not be able to feel, to cry, to touch; she was created as nothing more than a magical reminder. Her continued existence was little more than a mistake on the part of the Moon. Her previous actions were merely instinctive and symbiotic attempts to keep the owner of the Mind she resided in alive, an attempt to continue her own existence.
Her own life.
She was more than a simple alarm; she could feel the moisture from the tears down her face, the fabric of the dress she wore, the temperature from the grocery store freezer, she could see through the eyes in her head, and she could smell the tall blonde man that stood in front of her.
And most importantly, she could cry.
She had emotions, she had senses.
Even if they were temporary, even if it was nothing more than a dream, even if all of these things were to disappear when she returned to the unconscious world once the White Unicorn woke up.
Tantabus was Real.
The very fact that she was now crying, overwhelmed with emotions, proved it.
Tantabus existed.
And she did not want to cease to exist.
"I'm fine..." She managed to say through her tears, "I'm not lost." She wiped the tears from her face and looked back at the familiar-looking man.
She would find a way to wake him up, she would make sure he wouldn't remain trapped in this magical dream, she was sure of it.
She was created to interact with dreams; outside of the Moon herself, there was likely no one better suited for this task.
"I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be."