//------------------------------//
// Dark Dreams part 2 
// Story: I Will not be Contained 
// by Eon333MS 
//------------------------------//


*Jake sleeping soundly in Twilight's guest bedroom*


Jake was dreaming of what he hoped would be his future. He was dreaming of finding a way out of Equestria and back home to his family. Princess Celestia had finally found the location of Earth and had the means to send him back there. Jake was currently standing in Canterlot Castle surrounded by his friends. He said his final good-byes to everyone and stepped towards the portal Celestia created that would send him home. Suddenly the portal and everything around him vanished in a flash of white. Jake had to shield his eyes from how bright it was but then suddenly everything went from white to black. 
Jake opened his eyes and discovered that he was lying on the grass in an area just outside of Ponyville. "How the heck did I get here?!" Jake asked aloud. "Wasn't I sleeping in the castle? What's going on?" Jake got too his feet and looked around. "Yeah this is definitely Ponyville. But why would-" Jake stopped when he noticed there were some odd things happening in the town, even strange for Ponyville. 
"Are those flying- muffins?" He said as he watched various muffins with wings fly through the town keeping away from a giant Derpy. "And wait are Lyra and Bon bon fused together? WHAT'S GOING ON?"
Jake tried to get a grasp on what was happening, which was difficult since everything happening was impossible! There were tiny ponies being chased around, one in particular being chased by Opalescence, gigantic ponies, walking street lamps, a pony rowing a boat through the sky, Berry Punch's head turning into a balloon. What! WHAT! WHAT!
Jake finally saw something he recognized when the Elements of Harmony walked into the middle of town. "*Gasp* Princess Luna did it!" Twilight exclaimed. 'Princess Luna? Jake thought. 'OOOOOHHHH. So that's why everything's so weird, this is all a dream, and it's pretty freaking trippy. But wait a minute I asked Luna not to involve me with any of her dream magic things. I'm going to have to have a talk with her once this is over.' 
The Elements were getting use to everything as well when suddenly Princess Luna floated down from the sky in the center of town surrounded by a white aura and shouted to get everyone's attention. "Ponies!"

"Princess Luna!" Almost all of the ponies spoke at once and gathered around the princess bowing to her. Jake started to approach until he noticed Silver Charade amongst the group. The sight of her got Jake thinking, 'The ponies probably don't want me to be involved in this. In fact they don't even seem to notice I'm here. It's probably better it stays that way. Magical dreams are problems they probably want to solve without me. I'd better just leave.' Jake turned and ran behind the nearest building keeping out of the townsponies line of sight. He was feeling slightly depressed at his decision to stay away but convinced himself it was probably better this way. If they need him he'll help, until then leave them alone.

Jake snapped back to attention when he heard Luna speak again. "There is no time for bowing my friends." All the ponies looked up at her when she said this. "There is something coming. Something terrible, *gasp*. No! It is already here!" Luna pointed her hoof towards the sky. The large blue smoky form of the Tantabus towered over the ponies' homes creeping towards the center of town. "I am so sorry I brought this upon you!" Luna shouted sorrow clearly etched in her voice. 
This confused Jake 'Wait what? She brought this creature here? Then why doesn't she just get rid of it? She is in control of this dream isn't she? Is she playing some sort of game?' Luna continued shouting "But I will end it now!" Luna fired a beam of lightning from her horn at the Tantabus, but the beam quickly fizzed out dealing no visible damage to the Tantabus.
Without anything to stop it the Tantabus began chasing the ponies around. The Elements ran up to Princess Luna to find out what was wrong. "Princess! What's wrong!?" Twilight asked concerned.

"Uh. It is taking all my strength just to hold this massive dream together. You will have to stop it!" Luna answered intensely. "I truly wish I did not have to ask this of you!"

Twilight looked at Luna, and then smiled at her friend. "Then you're in luck."

"Yeah we're already on it!" Rainbow declared, then immediately snapped into action dashing ahead towards the Tantabus. Her friends quickly followed.
Jake was pondering over everything Luna had said. 'She can't stop the creature? Didn't she create it? Luna wouldn't try to harm anyone intentionally, and she regrets the creature being here, so it was an accident? And she needs everyone's help to stop it. OOOHHH.' Jake thought as he realized why Luna had brought him here. 'I guess I can forgive her if that's the case. Still how can I help them?' While Jake thought about this he watched the Elements go into battle with the Tantabus.
The Tantabus flew through a house and turned it into a monster once the Tantabus passed through it. The house grew two large blue striped legs, the windows became mouths, and eyes appeared near the mouths. Near the top of the house one window had been turned into an eye, and there were two large orange bat wings beside it.
The Tantabus brought another house to life a little different from the first one. The top part of the house turned into a sort of gremlin thing and one of its arms popped out of the house holding an Earth Pony named Filthy Rich, who pleaded for it to let him go. "Please I'll pay you anything." He said holding up one measly bit. The gremlin-house-thing roared in his face and was then kicked in the head by Rainbow Dash making a karate noise. The gremlin thing dropped Filthy Rich and Rainbow flew down and caught him.
"I got you."

The Elements worked hard to save the ponies from the monsters. Fluttershy changed into a vampire bat pony, 'What?' and saved a pony caught in a house monster's foot. But what was probably the strangest save of all was when Applejack tried to save her brother from the flying muffins by telling him that this was a dream and you can do anything you want in a dream. Big Mac concentrated and suddenly changed into an alicorn, complete with jewelry. 
Jake gasped, 'Could I do something like that? Maybe I could help that way.' Jake wanted to help, but something held him back again. For some reason he felt like he shouldn't involve himself directly in this battle, but they needed his help why was he hesitating? Jake grabbed his head as he argued with himself about what to do. While he did so in the distance he began to notice something nobody else did. The Tantabus wasn't just focusing its attack on Ponyville, it was preparing to attack from the Everfree Forest as well. Timberwolves, manticores, and all kinds of monsters Jake had never seen before were charging towards the town. Jake looked back, nobody noticed what was coming, the ponies would be caught unprepared and then they'd be overrun. Somebody had to do something.
Jake ran towards the Everfree forest trying to come up with a plan, what could he do against an entire army of monsters? Jake stopped to think 'Okay, I'm in a dream, and I can do pretty much anything in dream so what can I use to combat these things? Hmmmm... Well if I'm gonna fight with anything I can imagine, I might as well go all the way.' Jake envisioned in his mind himself in an incredibly advanced armored suit and suddenly a bright blue light appeared at his feet. 
The light slowly began rising up his body and as the light progressed up his body the places the light passed over were being replaced with a mechanical exo-armor exactly like Jake was imagining. The armor was a shiny royal blue, it fit over Jake perfectly. The feet of the suit were circular with spiked points all around it. The legs were reinforced with sturdy armor which protected him and also allowed freedom of movement. The chest was bulky in some areas and had a large cannon in the center. On his back was a massive rocket-pack with dual laser blasters on the top of it pointing upwards. The shoulders had bulky armor and were covered in spikes. The left arm was armored with a small laser blaster attached onto the hand capable of firing multiple types of beams. The right arm was the same down to the elbow, however the rest of the arm was surrounded in a plasma-laser-beam arm cannon. Jake's head was covered with a visored helmet  which had an advanced heads up display that would help him fight the monsters.
With the suit on completely covering him from head to toe Jake stared out at the approaching horde of monsters and discovered another problem. ‘Even with this high-tech suit I’m still incredibly outnumbered. Hmmm. But who says I have to fight this battle alone?’ Jake immediately imagined allies to help fight alongside him. In a flash of light there were various robots standing beside him varying in shape and size. One of them resembled Jake’s exo-armor exactly except for the head which instead of a helmet there was a robots’ head. 
With his own army to back him up Jake turned his gaze towards the oncoming horde. “Charge!” Jake shouted and began running towards the monsters. The suit he was wearing enhanced his speed as well as his strength so he got there a lot faster than he normally would. As soon as he was within range he began firing lasers at the closest monsters. He took down two timberwolves, and two other creatures he didn’t know the name of which looked like a mixture of different creatures combined into one. 
Jake activated his rocket-pack and lifted off into the air. He flew over towards a massive timberwolf followed closely by four other robots, and together they blasted it with a continuous beam incinerating the timberwolf in seconds blue smoke dissipating from its body. 
Jake landed back on the ground and spotted another creature that was much taller than most of the others. It had multiple heads and was covered in brown scales, it was slowly walking towards Ponyville. ‘A hydra.’ Jake fired multiple laser blasts at the hydra however the hydra didn’t even flinch. “Alright then I guess I’ll have to do this the hard way.” Jake ran up closer to the hydra and aimed his left hand at the hydra, firing a beam that attached itself to one of the hydra’s heads like a grapple. Jake pulled with all of his might and the hydra tipped in his direction and eventually fell over.
With the hydra down Jake and several robot comrades climbed on top of the hydra attacking it with various melee weapons, such as laser swords, saws, and cutters. The hydra fought back biting at the metal beings tearing two of them off of itself, but the others easily avoided the attack and continued to strike the hydra until it vanished in a mist of blue smoke. 
Jake looked back towards Ponyville. The Tantabus had grown much larger than when he had last seen it, but the ponies were also fighting back a lot harder than they had before. Jake saw Filthy Rich flying around on a cloud of coins ‘typical’ Rainbow Dash had changed into one of those power pony characters Spike had shown him in his comic collection when Jake was still new to the town.
They all seemed to be holding the Tantabus back but they wouldn’t hold out if these monsters made it to Ponyville. Jake turned his attention back to the battle before him just in time to see two large timberwolves lung at him. Jake was knocked to the ground as the timberwolves tried to bite through his armor. Jake threw one off of him and blasted the other in its face. Jake stood to his feet and began blasting all nearby monsters. A timberwolf fell, then a manticore, followed by a dozen more creatures all vanishing in a puff of blue smoke.
Jake spotted another hydra and charged at it, leaping up into the air and punched one of its many heads. Jake then twisted around and blasted another head as he flew through the air. Jake grabbed a head and began yanking it backwards trying to flip the beast over, but the hydra swung its head down to the ground dragging Jake with it. Before Jake could get up the hydra stomped its foot onto him attempting to crush him. Jake pushed up as hard as he could but was unable to get the hydra’s foot off of him. 
The hydra pushed down harder, Jake knew he had one chance left and began charging his chest cannon building it up to its full power. Jake released the energy in one powerful burst and the hydra immediately tore its foot off Jake howling in pain. Jake followed up his attack by flying up to one of the hydra’s heads and stabbing a laser blade through its eye. The hydra screamed in pain again and struck out blindly trying hit Jake, but Jake was already back on the ground charging his laser sword even stronger. Jake pierced through the hydra’s scales and ran along the ground underneath the hydra dragging his blade through its flesh with him. The hydra’s underbelly split open from the cut and the hydra fell to the ground. It then vanished into a cloud of blue smoke. 
Jake ran forward into the horde of monsters grabbing a timberwolf twisting around and flinging it into another. He dashed through all monsters that got in his way, blasting, stabbing, punching, etc.. They were finally pushing the monsters back, less than half remained. Jake charged his core blaster and fired four bursts at some of the larger monsters taking them out.
Jake looked back towards Ponyville, the Tantabus was even larger now, and seemed to be trying to walk through some kind of vortex, and something was happening between Luna and the Elements. ‘What’s going on?’ Jake wondered. He had to find out. “Hold the line here my friends. I’m going to the town to see if I can help.” The robot whose body resembled the shape of Jake’s exo-armor looked at Jake and nodded signaling that he’d heard the message. Jake turned and ran towards Ponyville.


*Princess Luna and the Elements*


The Tantabus was tearing a hole through reality that would allow it to enter the real world. Twilight acted quickly and used her magic to drive it away from the hole, and Luna followed her up by using her own magic to seal the hole back up, although this clearly put a strain on her. "Hurry my friends!" Luna called out and the Elements ran after the Tantabus.
Rainbow flew at the Tantabus and charged through it dealing no damage. "What the!?"

Fluttershy trotted up to the ponies assembled in town "Please! We need your help too." She pleaded. Twilight ran behind her and tried to blast the Tantabus with her magic but it just shot through the Tantabus doing no harm.

"Fluttershy's right. We've all got to work together to stop it from escaping." Twilight said.

"But how can we help?" A pony named Carrot Cake asked standing next to another pony named Golden Harvest aka Carrot Top. "No pony in Ponyville has your magic, or your speed." Carrot Cake said fluently pointing at Twilight then Rainbow Dash correspondingly.

"That's true." Rainbow Dash boasted striking a relaxed pose in mid air. "In Ponyville."

"But this here isn't Ponyville. It's a dream." Applejack reminded.

Big Mac flew by blasting flying cupcakes as h went. "Eeeyuup."

"And not just any, this is your dream." Twilight announced trying to motivate the ponies. "Anything you can do in your dreams you can do now." She said putting her hoof down.

Spike thought to himself then snapped his fingers/claws and transformed into a "tall, more muscular version of himself" with a cape some armor and red boots. He leapt through the air and landed on Derpy's back, kicked his heels into her to get her going and she reared up... meowed? And then took off with ponies cheering behind her, then they took off after her to help.
The Tantabus made another attempt at escaping into the real world, creating another hole in the dream-scape. Spike conjured a lance with his imagination and pierced the Tantabus with it, slicing through it as Derpy flew through the air. The Tantabus recoiled from the attack and was then struck by a blast of coins/bits from Filthy Rich who was riding on a cloud of bits.
The Tantabus tried to escape again creating another hole in the dream and attempting to slither through it. The cutie mark crusaders noticed this and Scootaloo sprouted massive wings, then flew up towards the Tantabus. When she was close she flapped her wings hard creating a wind current that forced the Tantabus out of the hole it was attempting to escape through.
Rainbow Dash flew up near Scootaloo and grinned her way. She then transformed into the power pony known as Zapp and used her elemental super powers along with her speed to create a tornado by flying around the Tantabus causing it to be trapped in the vortex. "It's working!" Rainbow called to her friends.

"But it's not enough." Twilight exclaimed pointing a hoof at the mini-tornado that held the Tantabus. The Tantabus suddenly oozed out of the top of the vortex with an eerie sound. Luna stared at the Tantabus completely shocked that it had become so powerful.

"Then do more this is a dream remember!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed. Twilight ran towards the area in town where the Golden Oak Library used to stand. She imagined the library in its full glory and suddenly the library tree was restored. Twilight turned around an angry look on her face and pointed a hoof towards the Tantabus as the door to the library opened and an army of books came flying out to attack the Tantabus.
Applejack transformed herself into the power pony named Mistress Mare-velous and wrapped her golden lasso around the Tantabus yanking it away from escaping the dream through another hole in the dreamscape. A magical needle and thread appeared and sewed the hole back up.
Rarity nodded her head and then backed up shocked as a large and monstrous Angel Bunny stomped through town next to her being directed by Fluttershy who stood proudly on top of his head.
Luna watched all of this struggling to hold the dream together, tears were streaming down her face. "I cannot hold this dream together much longer! Equestria will fall! Because of me." The Tantabus suddenly forced everypony attacking it away and started to take a new shape.
"Am I crazy or did it just get bigger after Luna said that?" Spike asked aloud.

"I think it's feeding off your guilt Princess Luna!" Twilight shouted above the howling wind that had started after the Tantabus grew.

"If that is so, then perhaps that is how it grew strong enough to escape in the first place." Luna said.

AJ/ Mistress Mare-velous flipped onto the top of a building. "Say what now!" She shouted as the Tantabus made another hole in the dreamscape and attempted to crawl through it.

"I created the Tantabus to give myself the same nightmare every night. *pant* To punish myself for the evil I caused as Nightmare Moon."

"But why would you do that?" Fluttershy asked as she and Angel started to cower away from the growing Tantabus as it stretched out closer and closer.

"To make sure I never forgave myself, for how much Equestria suffered because of me. *sniff* But it seems I have not learned my lesson. For now I have only made you suffer more." Luna sniffled.

The Tantabus grew and changed its shape into a giant unicorn and with its horn tore a MASSIVE hole in the dreamscape preparing to make its escape into the real world.


*Back to Jake*


Jake made it to the edge of the town but again that feeling that he shouldn’t involve himself in this fight presented itself and he stopped just outside the town. But this was close enough to hear what was going on.

"I cannot hold this dream together much longer! Equestria will fall! Because of me." He heard Luna cry as he crept closer hiding behind a building. Jake sensed a deep despair in Luna's voice and thought to himself. 'What? Luna was blaming herself for all of this, even now? Besides how bad have things really gotten?' Jake looked towards the sky hoping to catch sight of the Tantabus. That wasn't a problem. 'Oh.'
Jake stared at the Tantabus wide-eyed, it looked incredibly large from this angle. There were ponies gathered around it trying to fight it, but suddenly it got even bigger and forced all the ponies around it away. 'WHOA!' Jake saw Filthy Rich fall to the ground bits falling around him.

"Am I crazy or did it just get bigger after Luna said that?" Spike asked aloud. 'It did.'

"I think it's feeding off your guilt Princess Luna!" Jake heard Twilight shout. 'What?! What does Princess Luna have to feel guilty about? Nightmare Moon? That was a long time ago and everyone forgave her.'

"If that is so, then perhaps that is how it grew strong enough to escape in the first place." Luna said. 'What does she mean?' Jake thought.

"Say what now!" Applejack asked.

"I created the Tantabus to give myself the same nightmare every night. *pant* To punish myself for the evil I caused as Nightmare Moon." Luna cried. 'What! Luna that- what- just no, you can't be serious.' Jake exclaimed in his head.

"But why would you do that?" Fluttershy asked as she and Angel started to cower away from the growing Tantabus as it stretched out closer and closer.

"To make sure I never forgave myself, for how much Equestria suffered because of me. *sniff* But it seems I have not learned my lesson. For now I have only made you suffer more." Luna sniffled. Jake just stared and felt his heart turn cold. 'Luna no you shouldn't put that much guilt on yourself like that. No one should have to carry a burden like that. Luna no one blames you, you need to stop blaming yourself.' Jake thought, but his face scrunched up as a voice in his head said "You hypocrite. You do the exact same thing holding guilt over things that no one would blame you for. Heck I bet if you had the power to give yourself the same nightmare every night you'd do it, you feel exactly the same way she does." 
'That's exactly why I don't want anyone else carrying this kind of a burden its too much for anyone.' Jake thought back but the voice wasn't done.
"*scoff* Then why do you carry it you still hold onto the tiniest flaws in your life and hold them against yourself when no one else does." The voice mocked.
'I do that so that I remember never to make those mistakes again.' Jake  answered. This wasn't an excuse and Jake knew it, but it got the voice to shut up.
Jake looked back up at the Tantabus to see that it had grown even larger and had even taken the form of a dark unicorn. It was now using its horn to pierce through the dreamscape and make an attempt at escaping the dream.

"But that means you might just be the key to stopping all this." Twilight called out to Luna. Jake looked up at this 'Yeah Luna listen to her you can stop this.'

"Yeah! If it gets strong because you feel bad about what you did as Nightmare Moon, then you just gotta stop feeling bad for what you did." Rainbow Dash declared as she flew around the Tantabus accompanied by some of Twilight's books. 'Come on Luna listen to them your friends are right please, don't make the same mistake I have.'

"How can I forgive myself? I am no better now than I was then. My creation is about to turn Equestria into a living nightmare." 'No Luna don't.' Jake thought when Luna said this. 'She's not getting it I've got to help her somehow.' 
"*scoff* You're not getting it either." The voice in Jake's head mocked 'Shut up!'
Jake looked up at the Tantabus, he'd never make it to Luna before it escaped, but he had to talk to her somehow. ‘This is a dream so maybe I can’ Jake concentrated really hard on sending a thought to Luna “Luna can you hear me?” 

“Jake what-“ Luna started to answer.

Jake hadn’t expected an answer so soon but he still caught on quick enough to interrupt Luna’s telepathic thought. “Yes it’s me. I’m speaking to you through telepathy. Listen to what I have to say. STOP IT!”

"What-"

"Stop it, you need to listen to your friends. They're right, you need to let this go, you're only hurting yourself and inevitably your friends become affected by this too. Just let it go it's not worth torturing yourself we all know you're a good person really."
"Hypocrite alert! Hypocrite alert!" The voice in Jake's head uttered Jake ignored it.

Luna sensed something was wrong with Jake "Jake are you okay?"

"Yes I'm fine." But something didn't seem right to Luna like Jake was hiding something, something bothering him that had been bothering him for years,... something... familiar.

"But look at what you're doing! Nightmare Moon would've wanted the Tantabus to turn Equestria into a nightmare. You're doing everything you can to stop it." Twilight said as Luna and Jake were communicating telepathically and Luna heard every word. "Don't you see that proves you're not the same pony you were then. Eveypony 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 listen to them, trust them Let it all go, please trust your friends." Jake telepathically requested of Luna. 'I sounded so sappy.' Jake couldn't help but think to himself.

Luna looked around at all of her friends and suddenly smiled. "I do." Suddenly the Tantabus jerked back from the hole in the dreamscape it was halfway through its face twisted and contorted. It began shrinking, with white sparks flashing around it, and making moaning sounds as it did so.
Eventually it became about the same size as Princess Luna still maintaining its unicorn form. It walked forward through Luna's magical aura-sphere and merged into her disappearing forever. "Thank you. Thank you all." Luna said and with her magic brought the dream to an end.

*with Jake in Twilight's guest bedroom* 

A rooster crowed in the distance waking Jake from his sleep. 'She did it atta girl!' Jake mentally cheered. Then he stopped to think about what had just happened. It was either the most insane dream ever, or it was real. And if it was real then what other amazing things did this world have in store? Would he even want to leave?
Jake immediately corrected himself of course he'd want to leave he had family to get back to. But... Why not bring them here? Simple this wasn't our home, it's fun to visit but eventually all the amazing things here would eventually get boring. Earth might not be the best place but it was his place and where he belonged.

*Princess Twilight's sleeping chambers*

A rooster crowed in the distance waking Twilight from her sleep. "*gasp* Luna did it!" the others ponies stretched and yawned when she said this.
"She sure did. Only ah'm not exactly sure what she did." Applejack admitted.

"Luna created the Tantabus to punish herself. The worse she felt the more power it had." As Twilight said this pike crawled up onto her bed next to her. "But once she finally forgave herself for what Nightmare Moon did-"

"Poof!" Spike exclaimed spreading his arms out for emphasis.

"Shhh." Fluttershy said holding a hoof to her lips. She then motioned towards the floor where Princess Luna was sound asleep.

"Huh, wonder what's she's dreaming about now." Spike said.

Princess Luna was dreaming a peaceful calming dream. Her own dream for the first time since before Nightmare Moon. She rested on a comfortable bed beneath a tree of large pink flowers with glowing anthers. Luna was sleeping in her dream she was relieved to finally be free of the guilt she had held so long and that the Tantabus issue was over. But she was relieved for another reason as well. She was also relieved because she finally knew how she was going to make it up to Jake for all the trouble she had caused for him when Tempest. She could finally set things right.