I Will not be Contained

by Eon333MS

Do Humans Dream Of Magic Sheep?

Jake was lying down on the grass, just staring out into space. He had a lot on his mind following the events of the previous night. He watched ponies go about their everyday activities, but for some reason felt unable to be cheerful. Luna's inner guilt that she had dealt with had reinvigorated his own guilt that he'd tried to keep buried, and now it was stronger than ever. But of course he couldn't let anyone know that, he just needed to work this out on his own like he always did.
Jake shook his head. He'd get over this; he always did, he just needed to keep his emotions in check like he always had, only letting them out when it was appropriate, and even then only in small amounts. But doing this also allowed him to think things through rationally most of the time, which is what he felt he needed to do. Jake stood up and decided to go back to Twilight's castle when Rainbow flew by "Hey Jake what's goin on?" She asked.

"Nothing much. I was just about to head back to Twilight's castle." Jake answered his voice distant.

"Hey are you feeling okay Jake?" Rainbow asked concerned.

"Yes Rainbow everything is fine." Jake answered still somewhat distant.

"Are you sure? Cause you seem kinda down, and I don't like it when my friends get mopey."

"I'm not mopey Rainbow Dash, now if you'll excuse me."

"Come on Jake what's eatin ya?"

"I told you I'm fine okay? Now can we please drop the subject?" Jake asked his voice slightly angry 'Keep it together Jake keep it together.'

"Jake come on tell a friend what your problem is." Rainbow pleaded.

"*sigh* You're not gonna leave me alone until I tell are you?"

"There's a reason why I'm the Element of Loyalty Jake." Rainbow said with a smirk.

"It's just something I need to deal with okay?" Jake's voice clearly demanded that Rainbow drop the subject but of course Rainbow wasn't one to back down.

"I'm not leaving Jake."

Jake stared at her long and hard, he could tell Rainbow was serious about not backing down, but should he really break down and tell her? The stubborn part of him wanted to leave, but as he thought about it more and more he wondered what the point was. He finally decided to talk a little if only to get Rainbow off his back. "I've been thinking about everything that happened with Luna and the Tantabus last night."

"Why?" Rainbow tilted her head.

"What happened with Luna makes me think about some things that occurred in my life." Jake said solemnly.

"What you mean, like things you feel guilty about?"

"...Yes, things like that. It bothers me a lot whenever I mess up."

"Is that all?"

"All I'm willing to talk about."

"So there is something else!"

"Something you're not going to find out."

"Jake you can't just hold whatever it is inside you." Rainbow called but Jake was already walking away. "Jake come on!" Jake didn't acknowledge her and just kept walking. Rainbow sighed she was worried about her friend something was clearly bothering him and he wouldn't talk about it. She wasn't sure what to do, but maybe her friends would know.
Rainbow turned and flew towards Sugarcube Corner to find Pinkie since she'd probably be able to help her round the others up the fastest.

"So something's been ailing Jake has it?" Applejack asked. Rainbow had gathered all of her friends together with the help of Pinkie and informed them that she knew Jake was troubled by something, but she didn't know what.

"Yeah but he wouldn't talk about it. He only said he was feeling guilty for something." Rainbow said.

"Well that doesn't sound so bad Rainbow. I mean everypony feels guilty at some point or another." Twilight reassured.

"Yeah but this was different Twi. I couldn't shake the feeling that it was something besides guilt that was bothering him. I mean it felt like he was closing himself off from feeling anything, and then when he snapped at me for pressing the issue... I saw something in his eyes. It was like he hated himself for getting angry, I don't mean it like he felt sorry for raising his voice, although I'm sure he did, I mean it's like he was punishing himself... kinda like what Princess Luna was doing with the Tantabus." Rainbow paused for a moment thinking it over. "He shouldn't have felt as bad as he did, I mean I pressed the issue more than he was comfortable with so he had a right to snap at me."

"Now Rainbow ah don't think you're bein fair to yerself. But ah git what yer sayin about Jake, it does sound like somethin's botherin him more than it should from your description. What do you think Twi?" Applejack asked.

"Weeelllllll....... We could all just be overreacting, but now that I think about it Jake has been keeping to himself more than he usually did." Twilight answered slowly.

"What do you think we should do?" Fluttershy asked.

"Ooohhh, ooohhh! How about we throw him a party to cheer him up" Pinkie said excitedly with an already huge grin growing even larger on her face.

"Um I don't think that's the best idea Pinkie. I mean he clearly doesn't want to talk about whatever's bothering him, and last time you threw him a party he didn't actually get all that excited." Rainbow said with a hint of nervousness.

Pinkie's mane deflated. "He didn't like the party I threw for him?" She asked her eyes tearing up, she hadn't noticed how little Jake had enjoyed the party so this news came as a shock to her.

Applejack placed a hoof on Pinkie's shoulder to comfort her. "Now don't you fret none sugar cube some ponies just don't like parties."
Pinkie sniffed and nodded her head. "We should get back to the matter at hoof. Twi any ideas as to what we should do?"

Twilight stopped and thought long and hard for a while. Finally she said "I think we should contact Princess Luna for her help. Jake mentioned something about this affecting him after the whole event with the Tantabus right Rainbow?" Rainbow nodded her head while she flew in mid air, and Twilight continued "Therefore I think it might be possible Luna might have some idea as to what's bothering him." The others agreed and Twilight had Spike send a letter to Princess Luna requesting her help.

Luna trotted around her room eagerly. Her room was a beautiful midnight blue color with purple red-violet drapes beside the windows, and a lovely bed to sleep in. She was a bit excited since soon she was planning to help Jake with his problem she had learned about. His problem of always taking his mistakes too seriously and never letting them go. Always holding them against himself and trying to be perfect all of the time, which is impossible. She would help him see this and hopefully cure him of his troubles. Suddenly a scroll appeared before her wrapped tightly in a red ribbon.
Luna untied the scroll with her magic and upon examining it discovered it was a message from Princess Twilight Sparkle requesting her to help aid Sir Jake. Luna pondered this for a moment, she had wanted to help Jake all on her own, but one of the things she learned from the Tantabus incident was that she should place faith in her friends. She concentrated her magic on sending herself to Ponyville and vanished in a bright flash of light.

Twilight and her friends sat around waiting to get a response from Luna. None of them had expected her to suddenly appear in the room after a bright flash of light. Twilight stepped back when she saw it was Luna, she'd been expecting her to reply in a letter rather than just showing up without a response. She shook her head and addressed Princess Luna. "Luna I take it you read my letter?"

"Yes Twilight; and I too am most disturbed for our friend Jake." Luna replied solemnly.

"Princess do you have any idea what could be troubling Jake?" Twilight inquired hopefully.

"I believe he is suffering from some form of self induced punishment. He feels like nothing he does is ever good enough and never moves on from his mistakes, constantly reminding himself of what he may have done wrong... much like I did by having the Tantabus give myself the same nightmare over and over."

"But he was there in the dream with us shouldn't he have learned just like you did?" Rainbow interjected.

"I fear he is more stubborn than I was, still telling himself that he needs to feel this way to make himself a better person."

"Then what should we do?" Twilight asked.

"I have a plan to help Jake see the truth of the matter. I was going to do it all on my own but seeing as all of you are concerned for Jake as well, I would be ashamed not too let you help."

"What is it?"

Luna beckoned the Elements to come closer and explained her plan to them.

Jake walked through the town of Ponyville still bothered by his own belittling thoughts. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't shake the feeling that he wasn't good enough, not as a friend, not as anything. But he was also bothered by one lingering question, 'Why don't you just let it all go?' Jake told himself that he needed to hold onto his guilt so that he could learn to never make those mistakes again. Even though he knew he would most likely fail, heck he'd probably end up doing something wrong the very next day as most people tend to do no matter how small a thing it is.
This was what bothered Jake the most, why couldn't he be perfect?! Why did he have to mess up so much despite how much he hates doing that? Jake sighed he had to clear his thoughts 'Remember the guilt but don't let it consume you otherwise you make mistakes.'
As Jake walked through town he spotted a familiar face coming towards him, a face he really did not want to see. Silver Charade.
"Well well if it isn't our resident monster." She said in her tone that gave off a false air of authority. Jake turned and walked away 'Whatever you do, do not let her get to you. That's exactly what she wants you're best option is too ignore her.' "You know it's rude to walk away when a pony is talking to you." She called after him,

Jake turned to face her. "It's also rude to insult people to their face" Jake said and then just kept walking.

Silver followed him continuing to spray insults at him, but nothing she said even caused Jake to flinch. He simply replied "Didn't Twilight warn you to stop attacking me like this or she would take away your voice?" Silver just stared at him hard as they kept walking, her tactics weren't working on him. 'Fine if I can't attack you one way I'll attack you in another.' She thought and once she was in range reared up on her hind legs and slammed her hooves into Jake. Jake saw the blow coming but didn't have time to react. Her hooves slammed into him and knocked him to the ground causing him to roll over.
Silver decided to seize this opportunity to strike a low blow "You think yourself equal to us ponies? Look at you lying in the mud and filth, you're absolutely pathetic! And I'll bet the rest of your kind is even more pathetic. You 'humans' are nothing but beasts, the other 'humans' are probably even less tame than you." Silver's plan was if she couldn't insult him directly then why not insult those close to him to see how he reacts. As she gazed upon Jake she saw something she had never seen before in him, rage, pure rage.
When Jake heard what she said several thoughts ran through his head but one in particular above them all 'She just insulted my race. My entire race!' Jake got to his feet and stared Silver down. Unable to control his actions he charged forward and punched Silver on the side of her head. She fell to the ground and landed on her side, Jake stepped back as realization of what he'd just done sank in. Silver grinned as she got back on her hooves, she had won.
Jake suddenly heard voices behind him chanting "Menace! Menace! Menace! Menace! Menace! Menace! Menace! MENACE!!" Suddenly Twilight and her friends were behind Jake and he turned to face them.

"Jake I can't believe you would do something like this, I actually thought you could live amongst us, clearly I was wrong." Twilight spat at Jake.

"But Twilight I didn't mean to I just-" Jake started but was interrupted by Twilight again

"I don't want to hear it, what you've just done is proof of how you feel towards ponies."

"No I really don't-" Jake was interrupted again by Rainbow Dash this time.

"I should have finished you when we encountered you outside the Everfree Forest!"

"Wait you're all-"

"Jake how could you? You seemed so nice, but you were just taking advantage of us." Fluttershy said.

"No I wasn't-" Jake started but was interrupted by Twilight again.

"Jake I have no choice now but to put you down. You cannot be allowed to live in Equestria anymore."

"Twilight please listen to reason!" Jake pleaded fear growing in his voice. But Twilight just charged her horn and fired a beam of magic into his chest. The beam forced Jake off his feet and sent him plunging off a cliff onto the sharp rocks below. 'Since when was I in front of a cliff? Jake thought as he fell despite his impending doom. Then he screamed as he fell and braced himself for the impact closing his eyes.
When he opened them he discovered he was somehow floating above the crowd of ponies that had gathered to watch him fall 'What the? What the heck is going on?' None of the ponies seemed to notice Jake as he floated above them listening o what they said.

"I'm glad he's gone, how soon would it be until he turned on the rest of us?" Twilight said.

"How do you feel Fluttershy?" Applejack asked.

"I hate him. I can't believe I ever thought he was something better than a monster."

"At least he's gone for good." Twilight said.

"Twilight! I'm right here!" Jake shouted but none of the ponies heard him. Suddenly a bright flash of light appeared behind Twilight and Princess Celestia emerged from it.

"Twilight I'm proud of what you've done here. Jake had become an evil creature of hatred and needed to be put down." Princess Celestia declared.

"Thank you Celestia. But what do we do now?" Twilight asked her mentor.

"I shall have a statue built to remind us all of why we loathe Jake so much. It will serve as a lesson for all of us." Celestia declared.

Jake just stared at this scene in shock. For the first time in is life he was completely broken. Speechless, mortified, confused, shocked, and unable to control himself Jake curled into a ball and wept "No nonononononononononononononono. This can't be happening" 'Was he a ghost? Had he died from the fall?' Jake looked up and suddenly he was in Canterlot where there were was a statue below him shaped exactly like him. "The plaque on it read Jake Darrison the human. A symbol of what happens when we allow evil to consume us." Jake turned around suddenly there was a crowd of ponies standing there. The ponies all at once began picking up various objects and flinging them at the statue of him. Jake's jaw dropped how had he become so hated amongst the ponies so fast? "NO! PLEASE STOP!" He cried but it only got worse.
Time flew by ponies stopping every once in a while to throw objects at the statue, eventually centuries went by and the statue began rotting away until nothing was left of it, not even dust. That was it the last remnant of his existence gone now he would never be remembered, not even as a hated monster. If there was anything worse than being hated, it was being forgotten, and that's exactly what had happened to Jake, he had been both hated and forgotten, all because of one little mistake. But none of this made any sense, how could time have gone by so quickly? For one thing, how did Princess Celestia know what happened when she wasn't even there?
Suddenly Jake realized something he should probably have figured out a while ago, this was a dream, well more correctly a nightmare. Jake eased up when he realized this, but he was still very disturbed by everything. But the nightmare wasn't over yet, suddenly Jake was back on Earth several years after he had disappeared. He'd been officially declared dead and his wife and kids were suffering without him. The town judge had become even worse than when Jake had left Earth, and was spreading his influence through the rest of the world. This was the last straw, Jake couldn't take anymore "Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP PLEASE!" He screamed to the heavens. And it did stop, everything went white and Jake heard a voice in his head. "So do you understand now why you can't afford to screw up? Why others will only suffer for your mistakes, these could be the consequences of your actions if you allow yourself to make even one small mistake.' You can't let that happen, you have to be perfect!"
Jake's head hung low, he couldn't think straight after all he had just seen. But the voice, was it wrong? Jake had always tried his absolute hardest to never mess up, to always be the good guy no matter what. But even good guys make mistakes, and nobody's perfect. But still he had to try to be perfect, he couldn't forget the mistakes he had made, he needed to remember them constantly so he would remember not to make them again. He would try to be perfect no matter what it cost him.

'Yes, I understand.' Jake thought.

Suddenly another voice in Jake's head called out to him."Wait! Do you really think that's what's best for you? Never allowing yourself to feel happiness, is that what you truly want for yourself?

Jake thought it over for long time. Finally he answered back 'No, I don't know what I really want to do. But I do know that I won't hurt anybody else if I keep myself in check, so for now I'm going to stick to what I know works. Now then I think it's time we all woke up from this dream, don't you?'

Thank Celestia they had arrived when they did, Jake was in the middle of a nightmare that was causing him turmoil. The nightmare was an unusual one, but she understood what it was about. Jake was afraid of being hated, of being forgotten, and of being a failure. 'Was this how he normally felt?' Luna hadn't seen anything to suggest this sort of behavior from Jake... Or had she simply not noticed it?
Luna watched Jake end his nightmare and she immediately initiated her plan to help him with newfound urgency. Her horn glowed a bright white and the area around her changed.

Jake closed his eyes expecting to wake up from his nightmare, but when he opened his eyes all he saw was darkness. Was it still night time? Then he noticed that whatever he was laying on didn't feel like a bed. He quickly got up and tried to figure out what was going on.
There was nothing, just darkness as far as the eye could see. Jake couldn't even see the ground he was standing on, he might as well have been floating in an empty void, heck maybe he was just floating in an empty void and couldn't tell. Another strange thing was that despite the fact that there was clearly no light anywhere, Jake could still see his own body as if it were broad daylight whenever he looked at his arms or any part of his body. . . strange.
Jake started walking around looking for something, anything to explain his situation, this was probably just a dream but there wasn't much he could do at the moment. Suddenly Jake's foot bumped into something that rolled in front of him at the impact. He bent down and discovered it was his metal pipe that he had carried with him since his escape from Darklight labs. Just like his body Jake could see the pipe clear as day. He picked it up and held it in his hands for a moment, a feeling of familiarity rushing over him. He brushed it aside and began looking around.

"Hello human." Said a menacing voice from behind, a voice Jake was well familiar with.

"Tempest!" Jake spun around anger fully present on his face. What was HE doing here in his dream? "What are you doing here?" Jake growled.

"What do you think I'm here for? I'm here to eliminate you." Tempest said and charged his horn firing a beam of magic at Jake. Jake dodged sideways and lowered his arms gazing at tempest with a look of pure rage as his pent-up anger towards Tempest came back to him. Why had he let this scumbag go? He didn't deserve that, Jake deserved his revenge. . . so why had he let him go? 'Because I can't let my feelings get in the way of making the right choice.' But as soon as he thought that Tempest fired more magic at him bringing his rage up again.
Jake ran forward and bashed Tempest over the head knocking the unicorn off his hooves, what did it matter what happened here? This was a dream the choices he made here didn't matter, there were no consequences. Jake ran over to Tempest's limp corpse, Tempest tried to fight back with magic but kept missing since he couldn't aim in the position he was in. Jake started beating Tempest until the unicorn finally stopped shooting. As Jake lifted his pipe one more time he stopped and looked at what he was doing even if it was only a dream it was still wrong, he had to stop now. But just at that moment Tempest made one last attempt to hurt the human charging his horn for a powerful blast, out of instinct Jake brought his pipe down on Tempest's head. . . killing him.
Jake lay there stunned at what he had done, he had lost control after all this time he finally lost control. Jake felt absolutely abysmal. How could he have become so angry as to do something like this? He asked himself this question over and over and tears started welling up in his eyes for the first time in years. Jake forced himself to stop crying, he had to pull himself together so he wouldn't do this again. There was no time for crying. Suddenly Jake heard a noise behind him, and turned around to see Tempest again perfectly fine, but not just one Tempest rather three.
If there was any doubt in Jake's mind that he was dreaming before it was gone now, staring at the three Tempests in front of him he became angry all over again, some part of his mind tried to get him to unleash his anger since clearly his dream was trying to let him relieve some anger by taking it out on Tempest. So why not go all the way? As he thought this he focuses his mind on the metal pipe in his hands and it begins to change shape becoming a huge Gatling gun. Normally a gun like this would have been heavy to lift, but for Jake it was light as a feather. He points the barrel at the closest Tempest and fires round after round obliterating him, then proceeds to do the same to the other two.
More and more Tempest's appear around him only for Jake to shoot them down, eventually Jake got tired of using the Gatling gun and throws it on the ground causing a massive shockwave that only effects the Tempest duplicates. Jake then starts blasting the Tempest duplicates with anything he can think of, beams from his hands, mind waves, telekinesis, anything. Until he suddenly stops and looks at his hands, what was he doing, this didn't solve anything, and honestly it didn't even make him feel any better. He'd gone off the deep end twice in less than one hour, this had never happened before, why now? Was his buried hatred of Tempest too strong for him to overcome? Suddenly Jake heard a new voice speak out to him "Sir Jake?" 'Luna?'
Jake turned and indeed there stood Princess Luna, the princess of the night herself. But she wasn't alone alongside her were the Elements of Harmony, Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. What were they doing here?

"Sir Jake I know you must be confused." Luna tried to console Jake, but he just stared right through her, he was looking at the elements taking in their shocked expressions, had they seen what he just did? Were they judging him? "Sir Jake there is something very important that you must know about."

Jake didn't hear what she said right away, when he did he turned his head and asked "What is it?"

"Do you recall the Tantabus? The creature that haunted my dreams?" Luna began.

"Yes, what about it."

"The Tantabus apparently escaped and has now infected your dreams."

"What!" Jake exclaimed.

"Sir Jake you must stop the monster before it is able to consume your dream." Luna said solemnly.

"But I haven't seen any sign-" Jake didn't finish what he was going to say, for he was interrupted by a large amount of blue smoke rising out of the ground and causing a tremor. Jake recognized the blue colored smoke.

"The Tantabus." Twilight cried.

Jake stared not able to fully comprehend this. "Wha-how did it get here?" Jake stuttered.

"I'm not entirely sure sir Jake, but I think when you telepathically linked with me during the shared dream in Ponyville, the Tantabus may have left my consciousness and entered yours." Luna tried to explain.

Jake processed this information "Sooo. . . What do I do?"

"You need to stop it."

"How?"

"Do you remember how the Tantabus feeds off of an individuals guilt?" Luna asked to which Jake nodded. "Therefore it must be feeding off the guilt you feel towards something. But only if the guilt you feel is excess. Sir Jake in order to stop the Tantabus like I did, you need to let go of your excess guilt."

Jake turned to face her somewhat angry "What are you talking about?"

"Jake. . . I believe there is something bothering you deep inside, something you won't forgive yourself for. Speaking from personal experience whatever it is you shouldn't let it bother you to such an extreme."

Jake looked away. "It's not something."

"Jake please-"

"It's somethings."

Twilight decided to interject at this moment. "What could possibly be bothering you this badly?"

Jake just looked away again.

"Jake please tell us you shouldn't hold something like this in." Twilight and the other pleaded.

Jake stared at the ground away from Luna then quickly turned towards the Tantabus with a fully loaded minigun and fired at it. the bullets forming holes within the rift of blue smoke until it vaporized. "There problem solved."

"No Jake that didn't destroy it-"

"I know, but it did slow it down." Luna and Jake stared quietly for a moment.

"*sigh* Sir Jake please whatever allows you to feel this much guilt must be dealt with, your guilt is even stronger than mine was."

"Or you know maybe I'm just more stubborn about it." Jake pointed out, then suddenly the earth began to shake again and the Tantabus shot out of the earth in the shape of a giant scorpion. "Just my luck, I hate scorpions." Jake raised his minigun and took aim.

Jake fired his minigun at the monster scorpion as it attempted to charge him. Luna, and the Elements joined in the fight to stop this creature, Twilight, and Luna blasting it with their magic, Rainbow Dash bashing it at high speeds, Applejack lassoing its legs, Fluttershy and Rarity distracting it by flashing it with magic and flying in its face. In response the titanic scorpion raised its massive claw and slammed it down on the non-existent ground where Fluttershy, and Rarity had been. Fortunately they were able to move away in time before the claw struck them.
Jake concentrated hard and imagined himself being able to fly. He flew up above the scorpion and changed the minigun into a harpoon gun, and fired four harpoons straight into the scorpions backside, without reloading. Unfortunately Jake failed to notice the scorpion tail swinging at him as he was suddenly swatted out of the air. The tail hadn't pierced his skin but he fell to the ground hard bouncing and sliding on impact. Jake managed to get back to his feet and saw Princess Luna approaching him to make sure he was okay. "I'm fine Luna, go help the Elements."
Suddenly there was a large crashing sound. Luna and Jake looked behind them and saw that the giant scorpion was attacking the Elements by firing dark blue lasers from its claws and tail. The lasers missed the Elements but the shockwave managed to knock them off their hooves. Jake imagined a gigantic laser cannon and fired at the scorpion before it could finish off the Elements.

Rainbow Dash saw what Jake did and called out "Thanks Jake!"

Princess Luna turns to look at Jake and says with a smirk. "Shall we rejoin the fight?" When Jake nodded she turned and flew back at the scorpion whilst Jake had given himself some hover shoes and hovered after her.

Then Jake began to wonder "Luna why can't I just dream the Tantabus out of existence?"

"Unfortunately such an act cannot be done."

"Why?"

"Dreams can grant the dreamer and beings like myself some powers, but they cannot wipe another being from existence, if they could then the Tantabus could have imagined us all into oblivion by now." Princess Luna explained. At this point Luna Jake were close enough to start fighting the Tantabus-scorpion again. Twilight and her friends had managed to get back to their hooves and joined Jake and Luna, together they would surely bring this beast down. Jake used his imagination to give himself a laser blaster, and he also imagined eight robotic drones (which looked like large gems with circular rings rotating around them).
The drones flew around the scorpion and together blasted a continuous beam at the Tantabus weakening it while Jake did the same with his own laser blaster. Rainbow Dash flew around the scorpion and rammed into it at various points not giving it a chance to hit her. Applejack got up close and personal by bucking the scorpion in its face while avoiding its teeth. Rarity trotted behind the scorpion and used her magic to bind its tail to the ground. Fluttershy flew beneath the scorpion avoiding its massive claws as they slammed the ground, she struck at its sensitive legs. Pinkie Pie meanwhile danced all over the scorpion without a care in the world just barely avoiding its attacks as well as friendly fire, and pulling various objects out of her mane which she used in multiple ways such as throwing confetti in the Tantabus' eyes.
Twilight focused her magic into holding the scorpions claws still. She had a plan to weaken the scorpion but she would need Luna's help to do it. She could feel the strength of the Tantabus-scorpion desperately trying to break free, but before it could she called out to Luna "Princess Luna blast the scorpions claws while I'm holding them firm!" Luna heard Twilights cry and charged her magic to its fullest potential, then with a scream she unleashed a magical beam that pierced through the scorpion's claws and kept going.
The mighty scorpion now with two useless appendages howled in pain and took several steps back from the attack. It then stared at its opponents with pure hatred and let out a howl so loud it forced everyone there to cover their ears and Fluttershy's and Twilight's wings froze up because they couldn't focus on flying and they crashed to the ground. Jake's drones were destroyed or crashed from the shriek and Jake himself was knocked off his feet his laser flying out of his hands. When Jake got back up he saw a sight that filled him with dread, Tempest again, but not just one, there must have been at least eighty of them.
Jake couldn't do anything but stare as his most hated enemy stood before him, even the ponies were too stunned to do anything. The Tempest standing closest to Jake charged forward and knocked him to the ground, then placed his hoof on Jake's throat. "You don't belong here! You're not a pony! You're not like us! Anything that's not a pony cannot be trusted, but something like you. . . You're the biggest monster of them all! You need to be stopped before you hurt anypony!" All of the eighty Tempest's chanted this together in a monotone rhythm. They all charged the magic in their horns and pointed it at Jake. "And now it ends!" Jake was in a panic his mind instinctively thought of something to defend himself with, and suddenly an automatic handgun appeared in his right hand. Without thinking he aimed the weapon at Tempest's head and fired. . . It was so easy. So dang easy to pull the trigger. 'Why didn't I just put a forcefield around myself? Or create a shockwave that would send Tempest flying? Or something that wouldn't have killed him, I've done that too many times already.'
The other Tempest's stopped and looked at what Jake had done, they watched as the bullet plowed straight trough Tempest's skull a splatter of blood shooting out of the hole, and the Tempest's lifeless corpse falling over. Once that was over with they slowly turned their gaze back to Jake and began speaking in that same monotonous tone from before "Do you see? This is why you're a danger to us all! This is why you cannot be allowed to be free! This is why you need to be put down!" Once those words hit Jake he became overridden with a train wreck of guilt. But worse yet the Tantabus-scorpion growled and suddenly its claws reformed as if it just gained a significant supply of power.
The Tempests all lowered their horns at Jake once again prepared to blow him away once and for all. Jake wasn't sure what to think or do.

"Jake don't just sit there!" Rainbow Dash called out. "Do something!"

"Jake they're wrong about you!" Twilight cried.

"Come on Jakey wakey don't let them bully you around." Pinkie chanted.

"Jake, please get up." Squeaked Futtershy.

"Jake listen to us please!" Rarity cried.

"Sir Jake! You must take action now!" Luna demanded.

"Consarnit are we jus gonna sit around here and do nothin?" Applejack stated and then charged at the group of Tempests. The others followed after her and Rainbow managed to beat Applejack there with her speed. Rainbow tackled the first Tempest that was in reach, then immediately flew up and tackled another one. Applejack joined her leaping into the crowd of Tempest's and bucking them. She grabbed two that were standing next to each other in her hooves and bashed their heads together. Rarity created a magical rope which she used to tie up a group of Tempests. Twilight grabbed a group of seven Tempests with her magic and began spinning them around in a circle. And then everything took a turn for the worse. The Tempests turned away from Jake and started fighting against them.
Twilight found herself being trampled by at least four Tempest clones, Applejack was held in place by two tempests pulling her front hooves in opposite directions. Rarity had accidentally gotten herself tied up in her own magical rope and now several Tempest's started approaching her. A Tempest grabbed Rainbow by her tail and smashed her into the non-existent ground, but before Tempest could do any more harm to her Princess Luna came to her rescue shooting magic beams at Tempest. Fluttershy tried to use her stare to stop them but it had no effect. In desperation she called out to Jake to help her friends.
But Jake didn't hear her, he couldn't really hear anything right now. What he could hear were the voices in his head as he tried to figure out what to do.

"Give up Jake. Tempest is right about you. The moment you came here you caused nothing but trouble. Remember that nurse you drugged when you made your escape? Or how about all those guards you injured when you didn't really have too? Face it Jake you're better off dead."

"You could've done better. You can always do better, but you don't, you fail to be your best almost every time, and everyone else suffers for it, including those you left back on Earth. You can't make up for this, give up."

"You knew what would happen if you messed up. Which is why you needed to be perfect all the time. But you failed, and now there's no time left. It's time for your retribution."

"Jake, don't give up. You never give up. You make mistakes yes, but if you just give up then you'll never be able to fix your mistakes."

"A hopeless cycle is a hopeless cycle. Even your death will end up hurting others. So really you can't do anything right, your always gonna screw something up."

"Jake none of this matters now, you're needed. You need to finish this fight."

"What a joke. You'll just screw this up too somehow."

"Jake, you idiot stop being so stubborn. Deep down you know you'll never be as perfect as you desire to be. You know that you've been going about this the wrong way, so why do you continue? Please let your stubbornness go and move on."

"No, you must always strive to be perfect, completely flawless one-hundred percent of the time! You must remember every one of your flaws and make sure you never forget any of it. Hold on to the past so you never make those mistakes again. You're mistakes ruin you, and you cant escape this."

"No Jake, you have to let go of your mistakes from the past because they don't matter anymore. You need to move on, don't forget your mistakes, but don't let them weigh you down either."

Jake opened his eyes, looked at the situation before him, then gave one final thought. 'My personal feelings are trivial. I am flawed, but I will fix this because it is the right thing to do.' With that thought Jake's head cleared and he was able to focus on the task ahead. Jake stood up and imagined a pump action shotgun in his hands. He cocked the weapon and aimed it towards the Tempest who was hunkered over Rarity. 'what are you doing?' Jake thought but he ignored it. He fired knocking the Tempest away from her and watched it vaporize, he then turned to the Tempest's who were attacking Twilight and blasted them setting her free. Princess Luna had successfully rescued Rainbow Dash and Applejack and rejoined the rest of them alongside Pinkie and Fluttershy.
Jake stared as what remained of the horde of Tempest's surrounded them and suddenly realized that he could wipe them all out in a single blow. He slowly raised his fist and slammed it to the "ground" sending a shockwave that made every last Tempest disappear in a puff of blue smoke. Jake looked around relieved that his friends were now finally safe for the moment. But his relief would not last long. 'Do you realize what you just did? You just murdered every last one of them.' suddenly a glowing vision of Tempest's face appeared and began speaking to him. "You're a murderer, Jake the human!" 'No! No I'm not I swear!' Jake tried to convince himself but the voices wouldn't let up and neither would Tempest.

"Do you think you can just get away with what you've done without any consequences?!"

"You failed again you screw-up."

"You can't go a single minute without messing something up"

Stay strong Jake never give up.

Feeling some new strength for a brief moment Jake spoke up. "I have to do this it's the only thing I can do."

"You don't really believe that do you?!" Tempest shouted forcing Jake to his knees clutching his head as the voices returned in full force.

"GET OUT OF MY HEAD!" He shouted.

The Elements of Harmony watched in horror unable to comprehend what was going on. Slowly they all turned to Princess Luna in hopes she knew what was going on, Rainbow, AJ, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and finally Twilight. "Princess Luna do you know what exactly is happening here?" Rainbow asked.

Princess Luna stared hard at Jake for several moments before finally turning to face Rainbow and answer her. "Psychological warfare. The Tantabus is trying to defeat Jake by striking at his weakest point. His uncertainty of whether he has done the right thing or not."

Rainbow stared in disbelief "What but why does-"

Twilight interrupted her "Is there anything we can do to help him?"

Princess Luna nodded quickly. "Yes we must hurry and get his attention, make him see reason." So the ponies tried calling out to him.

"Jake can you hear us?!" Twilight called. Nothing.

"Oh dear. Umm Jake please answer us." Fluttershy begged. Nothing.

"Sir Jake those thoughts you are hearing in your head are nothing but lies please see reason!" Luna called.

Something.

"Why do I mess up? Why can't I just be perfect?" Jake lamented.

"Nopony is perfect Jake, and that applies to more than just ponies." Luna tried to ease Jake's misery.

"What about your sister? I haven't seen her do anything wrong." Jake said, then immediately regretted it.

Luna stared at Jake for a moment not fully comprehending what he meant. "Jake surely you know better than that. My sister is as fallible as anypony. In fact not so long ago she and I had a quarrel over a wedding present."

Jake just stared at his feet. ". . . I guess I know that, but still why?"

"That's the way things are, we just need to accept that." Luna calmly replied.

". . .I know. . ." Jake sighed. "But. . ."

"But what Jake?"

Jake's voice became very monotone as he said "I am weak."

When Applejack heard him say this she remembered the time Jake told them of all he had been through. "Jake that just ain't the truth. Ever since you arrived in Equestria you've had to deal with so much torment. But no matter what happened to you, you never gave up. You know why? Because you are strong!"

Jake spoke again "I am cruel."

This time Fluttershy responded "Jake you've had many opportunities to harm others, and sometimes you even would've been justified. But no matter what you always tried to avoid that. You are anything but cruel, you are kind."

"I am stupid."

Twilight Sparkle responded with "Jake if you were stupid you would never have escaped from Tempest, or come as far as you have. You are not stupid, you are smart."

"I am selfish."

Rarity was appalled at what Jake was saying about himself and now took her turn trying to reassure him. "Jake, you must cease this defeatist attitude at once. You are not selfish, when my little sister and her friends were in danger you gave everything you had to save them. You are gracious."

"I am a shame."

Pinkie Pie jumped in when she heard this "Are you crazy Jakey wakey? How can you be a shame when you've done so much to help others. You have nothing to be ashamed of. You are great!"

"I am cowardly."

Rainbow Dash jumped in "Okay Jake this putting yourself down stuff has gone on long enough. You're no coward, especially after everything you had to face while you were fleeing from Tempest. You are brave!"

"I am evil"

Now Princess Luna stepped in "Sir Jake I know this isn't really you saying this. Do not listen to those voices in your head. A few mistakes does not make one evil it is your choices that define who you are, and you are not evil Jake, you are heroic!"

Jake heard this and finally started to come to. "I am . . . . . . . flawed. . . . . . " Finally he stood up. "But I always try to do the right thing." He looked at each of the ponies with him. "Thank you all for giving me the boost I needed in my darkest hour." With that said Jake turned toward the Tantabus once again. "Now I've got to finish this."

"Jake we should stop it together." Luna tried to say but Jake held up a hand.

"No, just like only you could stop the Tantabus by letting go of your guilt, only I can stop it now." Jake stared at the Tantabus now fully reborn as it roared and charged at him. The ponies screamed but what happened next was something unexpected. When the Tantabus reached Jake it became a barrier of blue mist that separated the ponies and Jake.
When Jake opened his eyes he realized he was in the center of this barrier, and upon examining his surroundings he realized he wasn't alone. On the opposite end of the "room" was a dark blue shadowy figure that apart from the color looked exactly like Jake himself.

"Who-who are you? What are you?" Jake demanded.

"I am you. everything about you down to the tiniest flaw. And the reason why you should give up this foolish fight." The figure spoke.

". . . No. No you're not me, you're the Tantabus."

"True, but I am also you."

"What do you mean?"

"I have access to all of your memories, your personality. Essentially I am you."

". . . What did you mean by the reason I should give up?"

"You are trying to save your own worthless existence. Even now you doubt yourself. You think you'll never be good enough to make a difference. You're a hopeless being fighting for a hopeless cause. That's why you should give up."

"That's true, except for one small detail. I'm not doing this for myself. I'm doing this to save all of the other ponies in this world from you. If you really knew everything about me you'd know that."

"Ah yes your nobility. Look where that's gotten you so far." The Tantabus suddenly morphed into Jake as a little kid wearing a white shirt and black pants. "One day little Jake Darrison had his first real encounter with what the real world was like. One of your friends from school was being bullied and you came to help. You yelled at the bullies to stop but they just stared at you for a moment before one of them turned back to your friend and attempted to punch him again. The boy ducked and the bully's fist struck the support beam of the little playhouse they had dragged your friend to. The bullies made it out but your friend was trapped underneath rubble and passed out."
"You immediately ran to help your friend out of the rubble. You dragged his unconscious body clear and that's when the teachers arrived. You remember who they blamed for the incident right? Of course you do."

"What does this have to do with anything?"

"This was the beginning of your desire to make the world a better place. It was days before the teachers believed you or even your parents especially since the bullies wouldn't admit to anything. It literally took your friend waking up in the hospital days later to tell his side of the story for the teachers to believe you. This was the defining time in your life, it was your first experience with how the world could really be. And it's what inspired you to later become a cop."

"What does this have to do with anything?"

"You'll see. Moving up a few years, you have your job as an officer and you have done quite well for yourself. Of course that doesn't last long does it? It isn't until the judges sentence that one kid unfairly that you're finally ready to admit that something suspicious is going on. You confront your fellow officers about it-" Jake tenses up at the memory. "You expected them to agree that what the judge was doing was beyond absurd, that it was downright wrong. You didn't expect the response you got. Not only did most of them not seem to care, but some even claimed that you were in the wrong for standing against the judge. You said that it was insane to think that way. One of them punched you. You couldn't comprehend this at first, then you figured it out. They were in on it. He punched you again, you punched back, HARDER. You knocked him on the ground, some of the others joined in the fight. You had a lot more experience than they did and you held your own. But of course four unconscious officers at your feet doesn't paint the prettiest picture, and it's not like any of the others were going to stick up for you. You slowly began to realize just how high in power the judge was, and that there was nothing you could do to stop him at this point. Things only got worse for the boy after that and you blamed yourself for it." Jake ran forward and grabbed the tantabus clone by his shirt collar

"How do you know this stuff?! How?!" Jake screamed.

"Oh but I haven't even gotten to the part that bothers you most. What bothers you most, is that for a moment you even started to wonder if you were wrong" Jake stared at the Tantabus. Then delivered an uppercut to its jaw "Shut up!" The Tantabus fell on its back.

"The truth hurts doesn't it? You're goody-two shoes act has brought you nothing but suffering."

"I said shut up." Jake shouted again.

"Then of course there's all the incidents with Tempest. Just think of all the times you could have done something different. You could have tried to get Princess Celestia's attention the first time you saw her. Or you could've convinced him to let you go, turned yourself in to Celestia's guards."

"Shut up!" Jake shouted again. This time Jake ran forward and started to punch the Tantabus' face over and over. "How do you know all of this?! Answer me!"

"You ruined Tempest's life. You keep trying to convince yourself that it wasn't your fault, that he got what he deserved. But you can't quite accept that can you? It's all your fault and you know it. Now your stuck in some alternate reality separated from all you've ever known, all because of your goody-two shoes routine. This is what being the nice guy gets you." Jake tries to raise his hand to punch the Tantabus again, but as the words the Tantabus spoke sink in he slowly lowers his fist an stares at the ground. The Tantabus lifts its hand to Jake "Just give in, let all of your guilt flow free. And it'll all be over. You won't have to worry about another thing."

Princess Luna, Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash ran as fast as they could toward the mist. When they got there they tried to break through or at least catch a glimpse of whatever was happening inside. None of them could see through the barrier of blue smoke.

"Jake! Hey Jake can you hear us!?" Rainbow Dash called out. No answer. She started pounding on the barrier with her hooves. Nothing happens but she keeps trying. She looks over at her friends desperately hoping that they're having better luck than she is, but none of them seem to be faring any better. Applejack tried to break through with her hind hooves, but they just glanced off the barrier. Even Princess Twilight and Luna's magic seem to have no effect. Enraged Rainbow hits the barrier again, but this time something happens. Parts of the barriers mist breaks apart and now she can see inside. "Hey girls! Over here!" She called out earnestly.
The others came rushing over as fast as they could. Inside they could see Jake hunched over the Tantabus and punching it over and over. "Yeah give it to em Jake!" Rainbow said rooting him on.

"I don't think this is going to make a difference." Luna stated as all the other ponies turned to stare at her. "Remember we only stopped the Tantabus when I let go of the guilt I had been feeling over everything I had done as Nightmare Moon. I think Jake needs to let go of whatever's bothering him before the Tantabus can be defeated." Luna explained.

"It's all your fault and you know it. Now your stuck in some alternate reality separated from all you've ever known all because of your goody-two shoes routine. This is what being the nice guy gets you." The Tantabus said.

"What's it talking about?" Twilight asked nervously.

"Remain calm Princess Twilight everything's under control." Luna said reassuringly.

"Just give in, let all of your guilt flow free. And it'll all be over. You won't have to worry about another thing." The Tantabus beckoned. Jake did nothing.

Twilight couldn't stand it anymore. "Jake don't listen to it!" But Jake couldn't hear her.

Jake slapped the hand away. "I can't give in to you."

"Can't? Or won't?" The Tantabus mocked.

"Both. If I give in to you then lots of others would suffer. I won't let that happen." 'Yes!' Twilight thought to herself.

"But you still can't let go can you?" the Tantabus cackled. 'What?' Twilight thought confused and shocked.

". . . No. I'm afraid that if I let go of my guilt I'll lose my resolve to be better."

Twilight's ears drooped. This was why Jake lived with such torment? Because he was afraid of being free from guilt? She couldn't stand it. "Jake no please. You're my friend, and I don't want to see you put yourself through unnecessary punishment."

"Twilight?" Jake said as he recognized the voice of his friend.

"Jake I understand you wanting to better yourself. But don't you realize that you don't need to keep feeling guilty to better yourself. By holding onto your guilt means you never move past your mistakes. You'll always remember them but not for the right reasons. Please you need to move on and forgive yourself. You shouldn't forget your mistakes but you shouldn't let them haunt you either. You told me you believed in a Creator. Let me ask you, do you think he would want you to feel this way about yourself?"

Jake stares into space, his eyes and expression showing he was deep in thought. He sat there for what felt like an eternity. Until at last he made his final decision. He stood up and faced the Tantabus one last time. "Be gone harbinger of torment. My guilt no longer has any hold on me and therefore you have no place here." And with that said, the Tantabus gave one last menacing stare before the barrier and the Tantabus faded into mist, never to be seen again.
Jake turned around to be met with six ponies leaping towards him ready to smother him with hugs, and they very nearly did just that especially Pinkie Pie, along with excess chatter about how glad they all were that he was okay. Jake just let it all happen, he felt more free now than he had in years.
Princess Luna watched this spectacle from a few feet away. She regretted having to break this up but she had one last important thing to discuss with Jake. "Excellent work everypony, and human. As much as I wish we could celebrate more, Jake there is something I feel I must explain to you before I go." Luna gazed at all the sad faces on the Elements. "Do not look so sad my little ponies the night is still young. I shall return you to your proper dreams so that you may have a pleasant sleep. I just need to explain to Jake what I explained to you before." The ponies nodded their understanding. Luna smiled and her horn started to glow as the Elements became transparent and disappeared altogether returning to their own dreams.

Jake looked at Luna confused as to what she could want to talk about. "Luna just what is it you need to talk about?"

"I think I should start at the very beginning. When you communicated with me telepathically when we were stopping the Tantabus in the shared dream. I could sense within you troubles similar to the one I was going through at the time. However I also noticed that unlike myself you never moved on from those feelings." Luna began

"What does this have to do with anything?" Jake asked inquisitively.

"I'll explain shortly. Now do you remember the time when I didn't trust you and put you in the Canterlot dungeon?"

Jake started at the memory. "Yes, that is sort of hard to forget."

"Well I know I apologized to you privately for that, and you accepted. But I still felt like I owed you something to make up for it but I didn't know what I could possibly do for you to help make it up to you. However once I saw that you were suffering from the same problem I was, that's when I figured out how I wanted to help you. Jake what I'm trying to say is that this entire scenario with the Tantabus was set up by me."

"What do you mean? How?" Jake asked surprised and confused.

"You see Jake if you wouldn't give up feeling guilty when you saw me do it. There was no way I'd be able to convince you myself. I started to plan out a scenario that would show you why holding onto your guilt the way you have is not wise, and convince you to let it go. I created an artificial Tantabus."

"An artificial Tantabus?"

"Yes. Basically this artificial Tantabus would act like its predecessor in the way it fed off of your guilt, but it would only appear to be gaining power, it wouldn't actually be getting any stronger. It would only appear to do so until you gave up your feelings of guilt. I had control over everything except for the creatures free will. And if things took a turn for the worse I could use my magic to make it disappear." She looked at Jake studying his expression then smiled. "You didn't think I would unleash such a danger a second time did you?" She said with a smirk.

Jake was stunned to say the least. "But what if I hadn't given up my guilt? What then?"

"As I said I would have used my magic to get rid of the Tantabus. Then I would have explained things to you like I am doing now, except it would be a little different. If you would've wanted I could have made you forget the entire event but that's neither here nor there."

"So . . . There never was a danger?"

"No the artificial Tantabus had no real power to threaten anypony."

"But how did it know so much about me?" Jake asked.

"The Tantabus did have the ability to access your memories. But do not worry no one else knows your memories, not even myself."

Jake stared blankly for a moment taking all of this in. He clenched his fists slightly and slowly turned his head away. Luna was upset thinking that she may have offended him, but then Jake turned back towards her with a smile on his face. Luna stared for a second puzzled. "You're not mad?"

Jake thought before responding. "By all rights I should be. You lied to me, and you manipulated me into a situation where a monster was able to harass me and torment me with things from my own past." Luna's ears drooped and she lowered her head. "But I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel better than I have in years because of it."

Luna's eyes lit up. "Do you really mean that?"

"Yes. I'm very grateful to you. But if you don't mind I think I'd just like to go to sleep and dream about my family."

"Rest assured I can do that." Luna said and she charged her horn. Within moments Jake had vanished from this shared dream and into his own personal dream. With her work done Luna set about returning to Canterlot castle.

Princess Luna gracefully landed through the window into her own room. Her wings folded back to her sides and she was giddy with anticipation to tell her sister of her success. She did not expect Celestia to suddenly swing her large doors open at that moment her voice desperate. "Luna where have you been? I've been trying to reach you for hours!"

"Why sister? What's wrong?"

"It's the Royal Canterlot Labs. Somepony broke in."