Parcly Taxel: In the blackness ahead of me came a whirlpool of purple with faint stars dotted around, similar to the tantabus’s appearance. The whirlpool’s centre grew larger while its edge folded over; a hemisphere of night sky developed into a full sphere enveloping me. After the last patch of pure darkness closed, those spots drew closer. Though nightmares are supposed to represent subconscious fears, my initial encounter with Spindle had totally erased them from memory, so when the membrane reached my muzzle I felt nothing save for a slight tinge of curiosity. I took it on with my eyes open.

Everything was still for a minute. Then the purple field rolled down to reveal a cosy wooden cabin perched on a high mountain above the clouds. A layer of frost had deposited on the windows, showing behind them two shelves stuffed with arcane and modern books alike. The summit, where a portal swirled, stood a few metres above the cabin.

“Isn’t this my dreamscape?” I wondered. “How could I have survived a tantabus possession unaffected?”

Spindle: I called her in and introduced her to a phoenix whose feathers burned dark. “I believe this is what the tantabus fragment turned into,” I explained, “and so far it looks friendly. Want to give it a pet?”

Parcly put her hoof on the phoenix’s back, and it immediately morphed into a small floating stream. We followed its course down the mountain and through the cloud cover…

Parcly: …where the scenery facing me was nothing short of surreal! The clouds rained white ribbons of mist, which became rivers upon reaching the rainbow-coloured ground. Peafowl called their mating songs, switching gender by laying down or picking up feathers that were in continual flux with said ground (males have the fluffy rainbow feathers, while females are prim and covered in brown).

Exploring the rest of the land below the clouds showed several more surreal scenes, each of them beyond my control and initially a bit unsettling. Having seen them all, I sat next to a peacock and was dragged into the rainbows, whereupon I woke up.

Fluttershy: So the phoenix gives you the wildest dreams – but if it came from the tantabus, can it escape into our world?

Parcly: It is a fragment, yes, and it has enough power to escape. Let me show you! [Rift crackles open and the phoenix flies through it, landing on Fluttershy’s hoof]

Fluttershy: Wow, it’s such a cutie! I guess you can keep it as a pet, but what about the name?

Parcly: I’ll call it Kino – the German for cinema, inasmuch a lucid dream feels like a movie you’re starring in. Since the tantabus is genderless, so is this phoenix.