I Will not be Contained

by Eon333MS

Dark Dreams

Princess Celestia sat on her throne awaiting the arrival of Study Guide, whom she had requested to come see her. Finally the massive doors to the Throne Room opened and out stepped the unicorn known as Study Guide. He stepped forward and bowed to the Princess, and asked "Your majesty, may I ask why you summoned me here."

"You may Study Guide. I summoned you here because I wish to know what you plan to do in the future. You were one of the few ponies stationed at Darklight Labs who was allowed to keep his position, yet you continue to remain here in Canterlot. Why?" Celestia inquired.

"Your majesty I-I, I'm just not ready to go back there. After all that happened to Jake while he was in that place, it-it just feels wrong to start working there again so soon. I-I just don't feel right about it." SG said shaking his head back and forth from time to time.

"I see. Perhaps a vacation would do you some good. In fact maybe you could help me out with something while you're at it." Study Guide cocked his head at this. "Study Guide how would you like to vacation in Ponyville, and visit your friend Jake?"

Study Guide grinned at the suggestion "I'd be happy too, but what exactly is the favor you want me to do?"

"Well you see Study Guide, while Tempest Reason was very wrong to do what he did. He was right about one thing. As much as I don't want to believe it Jake could possibly pose a significant threat to Equestria. I need somepony to keep an eye on him just in case he decides to turn against us for any reason."

Study Guide was a bit shocked by this, "Your majesty I don't believe Jake intends to bring any harm to Equestria. Surely this won't be necessary."

"I don't believe Jake intends to bring harm to Equestria, but we do need to be prepared in case the worst should happen. Nopony else knew this but Jake actually had some potions in his possession that would help him escape from here."

"What? Why didn't you tell anypony?"

"I wasn't aware he had them for quite some time, and when I did learn of this I realized that if he was going to use them to escape he would have done it by now. So I decided to wait and see what would happen in the future."

Study Guide pondered the princesses logic "I----- I suppose that makes sense." he said stretching out the "I"

"Now tell me will you be willing to do this for me?"

Study Guide thought it over, he didn't like the idea of spying on one of his friends, but deep down he knew the Princess was right. But even still could he do it? Well technically Jake would never actually know about it, and there's no way Jake would ever do something to hurt Equestria anyway. "Alright I'll do it. But I don't like it."

Celestia's face grew stern "I'd be surprised if you did."

"I'll start packing immediately."

I woke up early this morning. It had been a few days since the party, and today I had to get to work early. Somepony was out sick at work which meant that I had to work a double shift for them. At least I was getting paid double what I usually got.

When I finally finished work for the day the CMC came up to me. They wanted to know if I could somehow help them get their cutie marks.

"Hey Jake do yah think yah can help us get our cutie marks?" Applebloom asked.

"How would I help exactly?" I asked.

"Well you could come with us to the clubhouse so we could find out if our cutie marks have something to do with you." Scootaloo said.

"Girls I really don't think that'll work." I said.

"Why not?" Sweetie Belle asked.

"Well because I'm not from your world, the fact that I'm here at all is pretty much an accident, or just dumb luck. Why would your cutie marks have something to do with something that doesn't exist on your world? And I'm not going to be staying, so even if your cutie marks have something to do with me, if I leave and you don't have your marks then you won't have a chance to get your cutie marks and that wouldn't be right. There's no way your cutie marks have something to do with something that will be gone before you know it. It just doesn't make sense for your cutie marks to have something to do with me. Do you understand?"

The CMC's heads drooped, clearly disappointed but they nodded yes. I smiled at them and attempted to cheer them up but suddenly a voice behind him said. "Well the human beast is now crushing the dreams of young fillies, I still can't believe anypony would've let a monster like you into our town." I knew this voice. It belonged to a mare named Silver Charade, and she was one of the ponies in Ponyville that despised me. She and Filthy Rich were the worst, but at least Filthy Rich never went out of his way to insult me. Silver Charade seemed to take joy from insulting me, and what's worse is that her special talent is motivating crowds, she would get ponies that were indifferent towards me to start harassing me alongside her.
I turned around to look at her she had a silver and white mane, with a tan-yellow coat. Her cutie mark was a pony speaking on a stand to a crowd of other ponies who were cheering. She was a unicorn.
"Don't you have something better to do Silver?"

"Not at the moment, besides somepony needs to convince Ponyville of the truth." Silver said in an icy tone.

"Hey leave our friend alone." Applebloom said.

"Don't talk back to your elders little girl." 'Didn't she just accuse me of being rude to them? What a hypocrite.' I thought.

"Applebloom stay out of this." I said sternly.

"But she-" Applebloom started.

"Applebloom let it go." I said.

"You can't tell little fillies what to do in our town beast." Silver declared.

I turned my gaze towards her "My name is Jake."

"I don't care if your name is Princess Celestia, you're still a monster." She stated.

I clenched my fists tightly. She was really getting on my nerves. I hate it when people hold themselves above others. 'Keep it together Jake, she isn't worth it. Don't strike out at her, keep your cool. You're better than this. SHE IS WRONG.' I opened up my hands again, and bent down on one knee to speak to the CMC "Girls you better get home, I don't think it's smart for you to stick around here any longer." I could tell they were getting ready to argue but I interjected. "Don't worry about me I'll be fine, just get yourselves home."
"Hey didn't you hear what Silver said?! You can't tell our fillies what to do." I recognized that voice, it was Berry Punch. 'Great now she's taking Silver's side too?' I thought as I turned in her direction. And received a flying bottle in my face *crash* "Dah!" I screamed, that really hurt. I regained my senses and looked around to see that a crowd had gathered around me pointing hooves and muttering to each other. This didn't look good.
Next thing I knew all the ponies around me started picking up things and throwing them at me. I called out to them "Stop you'll hit the children!" but my voice was drowned out by all the cries of "Get out of our town!", "Disgusting creature!", "Stay away from those fillies!", "Monster!", "Take this!", and "We don't want you here!"
I looked over at Silver Charade, she was smiling, she was enjoying this. A rock struck my elbow. "Aahh!" I looked down at the CMC I couldn't just leave them here to get hurt from the mob. I knelt over them and did my best to shield them from the oncoming projectiles.
Applebloom looked up at him "What are we gonna do Jake?"

Sweetie Belle added "Yeah."

Scootaloo suggested "Jake you should get out there and teach them a lesson." Deep down a part of me wanted that, but I knew I shouldn't, besides Silver would only turn this against me by talking about how I attacked the ponies, she might even exaggerate and accuse me of teaching violence to kids.

"No listen to me. Here's what we're going to do. I'm going to count to three." I winced when a rock struck my back. "When I say three you girls run straight to Sweet Apple Acres, don't stop for anything, I'm going to run to Twilight's Castle."

"But you won't-" Applebloom started but I interrupted

"I'll be fine I've survived worse. Ready?" The CMC nodded their heads "One, two-" before I got to say three a voice called out "What in tarnation is going on here!?" 'Applejack.'

The pelting stones stopped and all eyes including mine turned to Applejack. She wasn't alone, the rest of the Elements were with her along with her brother Big Mac, but there was someone else, someone familiar. It was Study Guide! "Ah asked a question and ah want an answer." Applejack's voice carried a message with it that sent a chill through down the crowd-ponies spines "don't mess with me" Nopony spoke up. Twilight stepped forward and addressed the crowd.

"What happened here? I demand to know." Her voice was just as stern as Applejack's "Somepony speak up!" Still no one spoke. "Jake can you tell me what happened here?"

"Well ummm...-" I started to answer Twilight but Silver interupted me.

"Hold on now, this scoundrel is no doubt going to give a biased point of view of things." she huffed.

"Oh, are you volunteering to explain things then?" Twilight asked, a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"Well yes as a matter of fact I am. Ahem, I just happened to be passing by when I noticed this brute being cruel to these poor fillies. I decided to intervene, and the surrounding ponies came to help me."

Twilight's eyebrows raised "Is that what really happened?" Most of the background ponies nodded. "I wasn't asking you" Twilight snapped "Jake is that what really happened?"

"You're going to ask the beast what happened, especially after what he did?!" Silver said outraged.

"Why yes as a matter of fact I am. I intend to hear both sides of this scenario whether you like it or not." Twilight answered back. Silver humphed in response. "Now Jake tell us, is what Silver said true."

I stood myself back on my feet and began to speak "I suppose some of what she said could be true if you look at it from her point of view. However let me tell you what happened from my point of view. The CMC came up to me after I had finished work for the day, and asked me to help them find their cutie marks. They thought that perhaps their cutie marks had something to do with me, however I convinced them that this was not the case, and that's when Silver showed up. She accused me of crushing their dreams and continued to throw various insults at me. Then others gathered around and took her side. They began throwing rocks and various things at me, and either didn't realize, or just didn't care if the CMC got caught in the crossfire."

"That's not true, Princess Sparkle you can't believe the word of this creature over the word of your own ponies." Silver declared.

"His word is just as valid as yours is Silver Charade. In fact I'm more inclined to believe him than you since he has become a friend of mine. However I believe I have a very simple solution to find out who here is telling the truth." Twilight retorted.

"And what would that be your majesty?" Silver scoffed.

"We ask the CMC what happened. Applebloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo who's telling the truth Jake or Silver?"

The three fillies announced all at once "Jake is telling the truth!"

"Your majesty you can't take the word of three fillies who are clearly afraid of the wrath of this creature over the word of-"

"I most certainly can. It is a well known fact in town that you constantly harass Jake just because he's not a pony. Your word has hardly any credibility in my eyes. Now as for the rest of you gathered around here, how many of you actually feel the same way about Jake as Silver Charade does?" Twilight addressed the crowd. Half of the ponies who threw rocks at Jake, including Berry Punch slowly hung their heads in shame, guilt plastered on their faces before turning and trotting away.
"Now as for the rest of you, I will be making a note of what happened here and if something like this happens again there will be severe punishments."

Applejack decided to speak up "Yeah ah can't believe ya'll would do somethin so... mean. All them things ya'll said about Jake weren't true why ah'd trust mah sister with Jake more than ah trust any of you tah look after her."

Big Macintosh added an "Eeyup." to her statement.

"That goes double for me." Rarity declared.

"Yeah Jake's way cooler than any of you. Scoots deserves a friend like him." Rainbow stated.

"Yeah your all a bunch of meanie Mcmeanie-pants's." Pinkie screamed.

"You all really should know better, especially after what happened with Zecora." Fluttershy declared.

"Now as for you Silver Charade." Twilight began. "If you ever cause a disturbance like this again, so help me I will mute your voice for the rest of the year. Do you understand?"

Silver nodded her head a clear look of disdain on her face and turned to leave, but not before having one final say. "This creature will bring ruin to Ponyville, and I will prove this to you, then you'll be sorry." Then she and the other ponies left.

Twilight turned her attention to Jake noticing his injuries "Jake you look hurt, I can use my magic to heal you."

"That's okay Twilight, I'll be fine." I reassured.

"Jake you're bleeding, stop being a foal and let Twilight help you." Fluttershy said speaking up out of concern for her friend.

"Really I'm fine." I said tending to one of the cuts I'd received from a thrown rock.

"Jake please it'll only take a second to heal you." Twilight pleaded.

I sighed "Not taking no for an answer are you?"

"Nope." Twilight said smirking.

"Alright then." I submitted. I heard the sound of Twilight's horn charging, then releasing, and suddenly I felt a lot better. I rubbed my arms over where my wounds used to be and didn't feel any pain.

Now Twilight decided to rub it in "There that wasn't so bad was it?" I shook my head. "Why were you so against me using magic to heal you anyway?"

I sighed again. "I just don't feel right about using magic to heal my wounds, it still feels a bit unnatural to me, since magic doesn't exist on my world." The elements nodded theirs heads in understanding.
Something I had wanted to ask for a while suddenly came back to me. "Hey AJ there's something I've been wanting to ask you for some time."

"What is it sugarcube?" Applejack asked.

"Back when you all first tried to capture me, everyone looked to you to decide whether or not I was telling the truth about not hurting Fluttershy. The scenario we just witnessed brought that memory back to me, and I was wondering do you have some kind of ability to tell if someone's lying or not?"

Applejack chuckled. "Ha-ha. Not really sugarcube, it's a bit complicated. You know about the Elements of Harmony right?" I nodded yes, and she continued. "Well ah represent the Element of Honesty, and over the years I've become pretty good at guessin when somepony's lyin or not, but ah'm not perfect."

"Oh I see. So you can't really tell if someone's telling the truth, you're just a really good guess."

"That's right sugarcube." Applejack replied.

"But I have another question for all of you."

"Yes?" Twilight asked.

"Why did you guys show up when you did, not that I'm complaining but is there a reason you happened to be traveling there at that time?"

"Actually there is I had received a letter from Princess Celestia that someone we knew would be coming off the train to Ponyville today to come and see you. I gathered up all of the girls and we went to the train station to find out who was coming. It turned out to be Study Guide, who apparently is on vacation right now and decided to see how you were doing, isn't that right SG?" Study Guide nodded his head and Twilight continued. "After that we started heading back to look for you when Big Mac came running up to us saying there was some kind of riot in town and we came to investigate. I'm sure you can guess the rest." Twilight finished.

"I see, well nice to see you again Study Guide. What brings you here?"

"I see, well nice to see you again Study Guide. What brings you here?" Jake asked me curiously.

'Princess Celestia brought me here to spy on you.' I thought, but I couldn't say that so instead I said "Well I was given a vacation and I figured why not check up on my new friend? So that's exactly what I did. How are things with you, aside from the whole angry mob attack thing?"

"Things are okay for the most part. I'm still getting adjusted to living with ponies though." Jake answered.

While he answered I thought over what I had just witnessed happen. Jake had been abused and mocked by those ponies. But despite all of that Jake didn't seem mad at all, like he had just let all of that go and it no longer bothered him. If there was any doubt I had before about whether Jake could be trusted or not it was now gone. No pony- er person with malicious intent would've let those ponies get away with what they did without even a little consequence, because they would have had nothing to gain from letting people walk all over them. They would have at least pressed charges or something. But Jake didn't, Jake just let it all go. Why? Because he knew his friends had his back, he didn't have anything to prove to those other ponies. There's no way Jake could be evil. 'I'm definitely writing to the princess about this.'

I smiled at my friend and told him "You're cool Jake. Real cool."

The next few days weren't nearly as hectic as the day with Silver. I still had to work a double shift since that pony who was supposed to do the early shift was still sick. But I was finally done work today. I said good-bye to Derpy and went back to Twilight's Castle. 'Hmmm maybe I should start looking for my own place to stay, I don't want to be a burden to Twilight for the rest of the time I'm here.' When I came into the castle I looked around for Twilight before I remembered she had gone to Rarity's boutique along with her friends for a grooming day with their pets. Oh well I didn't need Twilight for anything important anyway.
I went up to the guest room and started reading one of the books Twilight had lent to me. Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone. Don't tell anypony but these books are kind of over-rated. I mean they're not bad by any means, just I've read much better books on Earth that are way better than these, but get less praise. Maybe its just different tastes between ponies, and humans. Anyways back to the story...

Pinkie Pie hopped all around the room of Rarity's boutique saying "Oooohhh. This is amazing!"

Rainbow yawned, and then agreed with Pinkie Pie. "Yeah Rarity, thanks for setting all this up." After saying this Rainbow went back to washing Tank, her pet tortoise's shell.

Now it was Fluttershy's turn to compliment Rarity "A grooming day for our pets really was a great idea." She said in her quiet voice.

Applejack petted her dog Winona, Rainbow scrubbed Tank, Fluttershy cuddled Angel, Twilight brushed her pet owl Owlowiscious's feathers, Rarity brushed Opalescence's tail, and Pinkie... well she was Pinkie. However one thing all the ponies had in common was that they all seemed a little sleepier than usual.

In fact Rarity began to doze off while brushing Opal's tail with her magic and accidentally poked the cat in the backside with her comb. With a loud "Mmmmeeeeoooowwww!" The cat leap straight up into the air and grabbed onto one of Rarity's archways with her claws. "Oooohhhh MY! Oh I'm sorry." with a yawn Rarity continued "I didn't get my normal beauty sleep last night." Opal hissed at her and Rarity recoiled a bit.

The Twilight spoke up with a yawn "You know. Yyaaawwwnn. I didn't sleep well either."

The others muttered and groaned in agreement except for Pinkie Pie while Opal slid down one of Rarity's curtains tearing it up. Then Pinkie Pie cartwheeled across the room and spoke in her normally cheerful voice "I'm totally beat too."

Winona barked waking up Applejack "Alright Winona time for yer brushin." Still half asleep AJ reached for Winona's brush but instead grabbed Pinkie's pet toothless alligator Gummy, who was just resting on the table. She held gummy in front of Winona with her hooves and Gummy chomped on Winona's ear. It didn't really hurt Winona since Gummy had no teeth, however the dog whimpered slightly and immediately shook her head viciously to get the alligator off of her.
Winona's shaking sent Gummy flying right onto Owlowiscious, who immediately panicked and flew into the air wildly, bumping into Twilight knocking he into a tub of water, and knocking over the stand he had been resting on. Applejack spoke up while all of this was going on "Oops. Ah guess ah'm too plum-tuckered out tah do this right." Winona gave AJ a hard stare after she finished rubbing her ear on the table. Meanwhile Pinkie began following Owlowiscious still carrying Gummy on his head.

Fluttershy yawned and then spoke "I even went to bed early last night. But then I had a really scary nightmare."

All the other Elements immediately exclaimed "Me too!" all of them had shocked looks on their faces, except for Pinkie Pie who was smiling, and Twilight's mane was soaking wet as she leaned out of the tub she had fallen in.

Rainbow Dash immediately tried to sound confident again. "Yuh, only, you know I didn't think mine was thaat scary." She boasted.

"Well mine sure was. There was this blue smoke monster and-" Twilight started to say but stopped and recoiled when she noticed everyone staring at her mouths agape. "What?"

"I dreamt about a blue smoke-thingy too." Fluttershy informed nervously.

"Me too." The others except for Rainbow added their faces frowning except for Pinkie who was still smiling.

"So what?! Probably just a coincidence." Rainbow said shrugging it off leaning back and relaxing in mid air.

"That's an awfully big coincidence." Twilight said climbing out of the tub.

Spike walked over carrying towels for Twilight to dry off with which she gratefully scooped up with her magic and began drying herself off. "Huh, I wonder why I didn't have that nightmare. I slept great." Spike said with a grin earning glares from Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash. Rarity broke the silence by asking "So then, what could have given us all the same nightmare?"

"I don't know. But I do know who might." Twilight started then continued her voice getting slightly more tired as she went on. "Spike could you send a scroll to Princess Luna?" Twilight finished as she laid her wet towel back onto the pile of towels in Spike's hands where she had gotten it from.

"Sure." Spike threw the towels he was carrying aside and brought out from behind his back a scroll and quill. "All set."

"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 Yyaaawwnn, when you have the chance please let me know if you have any idea what it could mean. Yours yawn Princess Twilight Sparkle." Twilight said walking in front of her friends as she dictated to Spike what to write. Once she finished she added "You can leave out the yawns." Spike smiled sheepishly turned to his right slightly and quickly crossed out the yawns he had already written into the scroll. Then he rolled up the scroll and wrapped it with a seal, then released his dragon fire breath to magically send it to Princess Luna. The scroll turned into smoke and drifted off towards Canterlot.
Immediately after the door burst open to reveal Princess Luna "Which of you saw the creature of blue smoke in your nightmare?!" she exclaimed.
The others stared blankly and Pinkie's jaw dropped slightly for a moment before Fluttershy spoke what everyone else was thinking "Wow. That was fast." Rainbow and Pinkie smiled at Luna.

"We all did." Twilight answered.

"Noott mee." Spike cut in.

Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash all said together. "Uhh. We know."

"So you've encountered the smoke monster too?" Twilight asked.

Luna began walking in and started explaining what the blue smoke creature was. "The Tantabus is a creature of my nightmares." She said her head hanging low. "It escaped from my slumbers yesterday."

"But how did it get into ours?" Fluttershy asked nervously.

Luna's head hung low and her eyes had a sad look in them, but she answered Fluttershy's question "The Tantabus is like a parasite. My dreams must no longer be enough for it. Now it seeks others to infect and corrupt." Luna's voice grew increasingly more concerned as she spoke. "It must have learned of you six from seeing you in my dream." Luna turned around unable to look her friends in the eye after what she had brought upon them. First Nightmare Moon, and now this. She had created the Tantabus to force herself to have the same nightmare of her becoming Nightmare Moon and torturing her friends over and over as a self punishment for what she had done to Equestria. Now she had once again put her subjects in danger even if it was unintentionally.
She was so grieved by this that she barely noticed when Spike approached and asked. "Whoa whoa whoa. So what you're sayin is, you dreamt about all of them, and not me?" Spike's eyes teared up feeling neglected and he whimpered a bit.

Rainbow half yawned half spoke "Uh so Smoky gave us bad dreams. No biggie."

Luna shook her head and spoke again. "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." Luna stared wide eyed away from her friends as she finished her description of what could happen if the Tantabus became too powerful.

"Okay okay okay. I take it back. That does sound bad. Really bad." Rainbow exclaimed grabbing the side of her head with her hooves as she imagined what might happen.

Well that's enough reading for tonight, I hope Twilight falls asleep better tonight than she did last night. Speaking of Twilight, she had come in a little earlier to tell me she was having a sleepover with her friends. 'How cute.' Princess Luna was here also, to help them take care of some kind of dream problem. I have no idea what that means exactly but if Luna's involved along with dreams, then I probably want to stay away from it. Her ability to watch over peoples dreams unnerves me severely. I told her I don't want her peeking into my dreams unless I say it's okay. She seemed to be concerned and in a hurry, I could tell she wanted to talk to me about the matter, but whatever was going on must've been too important. Well I'm just gonna go to sleep.

"We've prepared everything exactly as you requested." Twilight said as she led Luna and the rest of the Elements to her sleeping quarters.

"Good, as you six slumber here, I will pursue the creature into whichever of your dreams it infests." Luna flew into the room to get out of her friends way once Twilight opened the large crystal blue doors.

Pinkie hopped towards, and into her bed saying "Ooohh! It'll be like a princess sleepover."

The other Elements quickly followed her example and got into their own beds. "Speaking of Princesses, aren't you going to ask Celestia for her help as well?" Twilight asked as she tucked herself into her own bed.

"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'm afraid nopony can help me tonight." Luna said pacing about somewhat.

"Even us?" Applejack asked after she put hung her hat on the bedside.

"Especially you. You have all suffered so much because of me. You need only slumber while I hunt the Tantabus in your dreams." Luna placed one of her wings over her heart as she said this. Suddenly something yanked on Luna's mane. Looking down she saw it was Spike trying to get her attention.

"I know you said nopony could help, but I'm no pony! I'm gonna stay up and watch over you guys just in case." Spike sat down on his bed and held his eyes open with his claws to emphasize his point.

"Ohh thank you Spike." Twilight said sweetly, and sleepily.

"Yawn. One good thing about not sleepin well last night, shouldn't be too hard to fall asleep now." Applejack said and rolled over to her left to get in a more comfortable sleeping position.

Suddenly Pinkie popped out from under AJ's covers surprising and said "Are you kidding?! This is so exciting I don't know how I'm ever going to-" immediately after saying the word to Pinkie fell over onto AJ's pillow sound asleep snoring like an elephant. Applejack inched away from her friend slightly and went to sleep.

The other Elements quickly fell asleep as well and Luna realized the time had come for her to act. She brought out her wings and flew into the air. Her horn began shining with a crystal white light which wrapped around her horn and spread to the foreheads of the Elements of Harmony, meaning she could now enter their dreams directly.
Luna decided to search Rarity's dream first, Rarity was wearing a yellow sleep mask with red outlines and two pink butterflies on it. The white line of magic emitting from Luna that led to Rarity pulsed with Luna's presence and a white sphere of magic traveled down it entering Rarity's dream.

She had failed. Princess Luna had failed her friends yet again. She had pursued the Tantabus through all six of the Elements dreams. She began with Rarity who was dreaming of flying dresses that she could admire and adjust. However the Tantabus had quickly changed these beautiful dresses into monsters that tried to harm Rarity. Rarity fought back and Luna came to her rescue insisting that she should handle the Tantabus.
Luna pursued the Tantabus, but it escaped into Pinkie's dream. Pinkie was walking through different environment singing "la la la la" as she went. Whenever she hopped she was in a completely different place. Luna had trouble keeping up with her since the world kept changing but Pinkie finally came to a stop in the middle of a sweet store where she could try various cakes.
However the Tantabus had laid a trap for her turning the cakes into monsters that even Pinkie Pie wouldn't eat. Luna once again came to her rescue but the Tantabus escaped once Pinkie changed the locations again.
This time the Tantabus entered Fluttershy's dream. She was dreaming that instead of her taking care of the animals the animals were taking care of her, Angel bunny in particular was now gigantic and grooming Fluttershy. Suddenly the Tantabus infected Angel turning him into a giant monster bunny with sharp purple claws, cyan striped demon horns, a purple chest with a cyan-ish patch of fur above it. Luna rescued Fluttershy from the monster just in time to see the Tantabus escape... again. This time into Applejack's dream.
Applejack was dreaming of tending to her apple orchard and taking special care of the biggest apple there. The Tantabus entered her dream and immediately began causing all of the trees in the orchard to wilt and die. Luna emerged from a blooming flower just in time to see the Tantabus cause Applejack's massive apple to rot and escape into Rainbow's dream.
Luna followed it through the apple and emerged to into a cave where Rainbow Dash was fighting off hordes of changelings. Naturally Luna thought that this was the cause of the Tantabus interfering with Rainbow's dream, until Rainbow assured her that this was not the case. Suddenly the entire area changed from a dark dangerous cave, into a an adorable paradise with ice cream trees, cupcake bushes, candy rocks, and singing flowers. The flowers began singing to Rainbow in an adorable thought slightly creepy voice about how cute they were. Rainbow clutched her head and screamed at the top of her lungs when Luna spotted the Tantabus and chased after it. It seemed to be getting larger but that didn't sway Princess Luna she chased it all the way to Twilight's dream.
Twilight was sitting at a desk in a massive library reading books that literally flew off the shelves and right to her exactly when she needed them too. The Tantabus emerged from one of the books in the library and began infecting some of the flying books. The books grew bat wings and began chasing Twilight. Suddenly the Tantabus itself charged at Twilight from the opposite direction and she was trapped. Luna jumped in front of Twilight just in time to save her and began pushing the Tantabus back with magic. Luna trapped the Tantabus inside of crystals but noticed Twilight being harassed by more flying books as well as slimy crawling books. Suddenly the crystals that trapped the Tantabus began cracking and glowing with white light. The Tantabus escaped and caused everypony to wake up from their dreams with a gasp.

Spike noticed that the girls had woken up and immediately put down the book he was reading and ran over to Rarity's bedside as she took off her sleeping mask. "What happened! Are you guys okay?!"

"That-that was terrible.I-I never wanna have that nightmare again." Fluttershy said as she began shivereing from fright.

"Ugh. Me either." Rainbow said rocking back and forth.

"But Luna caught it, didn't she?" Spike asked nervously.

"I am so sorry my friends." Luna began as she floated back down to the ground her voice filled with regret. "I failed. It will be back to infect your dreams the next time you sleep."

All the ponies there closed there eyes at the news. "Oh no!" Fluttershy exclaimed and buried herself under her covers.

"Yeah. Ah recon ah could live without seein that thing ever again." Applejack said waving her hoof for emphasis.

"But you will. Again, and again every night. Until it grows powerful enough to infect the waking world." Luna walked over to the window as she continued. "After what I did as Nightmare Moon. The fact that I am once again responsible for harming others, is more than I can bear."

"It'll be okay." Pinkie reassured. "Everypony makes mistakes."

"As long as none of you dreamt about another pony the Tantabus remains confined to your dreams. I still have a chance to catch it before it's too late." Fluttershy was still shivering under the covers as Luna said this.

"Phew. That's good to hear." Pinkie announced. "Although after you left I did happen to dream I was eating a giant ice cream cone with all of Ponyville, and taking a test we had to study for. See what'd I tell ya, everypony makes mistakes."

Luna's face took on an expression of both shock and worry. She clenched her teeth and began wondering what to do.

"But that means the Tantabus could be turning every dream in Ponyville into a nightmare!" Twilight exclaimed.

Luna trotted forward. "It is far worse than that. Infecting all those dreams gives it more and more power. Soon it will be able to escape into the real world and infect Equestria with its nightmare plague."

"Then you must let us help you stop it before that happens." Rarity declared gesturing with her hooves.

"But how? The Tantabus was able to escape Luna with only six dreams it could get too." Fluttershy said holding her cheeks.

"It is true. With so many dreams to hide in, I do not know how I can catch it." Luna said discouraged.

Twilight pondered the situation for a moment. "Hmmm. What if everypony in Ponyville were having one dream?"

Luna's head shot up at the suggestion. "I can create shared dreams, yes. But for so many ponies at once? I have never done anything like that. The amount of power it would take."

"It is worth a try. Isn't it?" Fluttershy asked nervously holding her covers closer.

"Of course. I will do anything to end this. Including accept your help." Luna answered. "I cannot allow the Tantabus to escape into the real world. All of you must now go back to sleep. And hope that I can create such a dream."

The Elements as well as Spike; who was snoring, went to sleep in order to allow Luna to proceed with her task. A transparent sphere formed around Princess Luna as she flew into the air casting the enchantment to bring everypony in Ponyville into a shared dream... and everybody.