Death Isn't the End

"Well, you can check that off of the list" I say to the group of fillies.

"Once we get back to the club house, we can start coming up with more awesome ideas!" the orange filly says, I never really got any of there names. I look up at the sky and notice that it's getting dark out, I should probably bunk over at Twilight's tonight, too tired to even use my powers... Damn I'm getting old.

"I can't go with you girls, I got to get some shut eye, but maybe tomorrow." I say as I see the disappointment in their eyes.

"Okay, see you tomorrow Jake." The white filly says.

I begin to make my way but before towards the library but before disappearing around the corner I turn to the girls and give one last wave goodbye.

"Jack's powers should be filled back up with all the destruction we caused. And I wonder how he's going to fare without me being there...? He hasn't slept alone since I came into the picture and I really worry about the little guy." It was true, I worried about Jack. Even though he may be wiser than his age lets on, the things he's seen. It just ain't right. I shake my head dispelling the thought.

"He's going to be fine, what could go wrong?" I say with the library in my sights.

Location: Canterlot Castle, Personal Room PoV: Jack

"That was so sad!" Dust Bunny cries as she levitates another tissue to her face.

"Yeah... it really was." I say struggling not to join Dust Bunny. I really never could stand seeing someone cry. That and the movie, only makes it harder. As Dust Bunny begins to finish crying as she clears up the last of the tears she gets up from the couch and turns to me.

"This was really nice... thank you." she says trying to keep the tears from coming back. I look towards her and say.

"It was no problem at all, hey how about a movie again tomorrow, you could bring the rest of your co-workers here in the castle. We could make this room into a theater." I say envisioning it out in my head, as I stand up from my seat on the couch.

"Really? You would let me bring my friends along?" She asks.

"Yeah, just make sure to get them to bring snacks, I don't think I could keep bringing my own. It was hard enough to get hem here either way." I say shrugging my shoulders. Dust Bunny wraps her forelegs around my waist as she stands up on her hind legs.

"This is going to be so fun! I'll tell everyone when I get the dorm. Which actually now that I think about it is actually only a couple doors down." Dust Bunny says with a blank look on her face.

"Convenient, I'll see you tomorrow, I got to get some sleep." I say as I feel a yawn coming on. Jesus I'm getting old. Dust Bunny nods and turns to the door.

"Have a nice night Jack."

"You too Bunny." I say as I watch her exit the room. I fist pump in private. I just made a friend that isn't one of the Princess'.

I leap back onto the couch and put my hands behind my head and let the next movie play out the beginning sequence. I think my life is going to be good from now on, nothing could ever bring me down. I think as the sweet embrace of sleep takes me.

Location: Unknown PoV: Jack Age: 14

"Okay kid, it's your time to shine." Someone says from behind the door.

"Okay, hold up a second just need to readjust the specs." I say holding onto the piece of eye wear that will be my best piece of equipment from now on.

"Kid, you better get out here now while you have the time, or we're going to send you back, you hear me?"

"Okay okay, I'm coming!" I say getting up off the floor and putting the glasses on.

I enter a room filled with computers filled with data, images and video feed from the soldiers head cams.

"Welcome to the base of operations, we were told you were the best out of training and you get to command you're first squad of troops. Nothing major, just some recon. You do well and maybe you can keep doing this, and if you fail? Well, there's no room for failure in here son."

The room was filled with people, they all had their eyes on me, some faces I couldn't read, others, they looked like they didn't even want me here.

"Okay, so what squad do I get command of...?" I ask trying to avoid eye contact with anyone and everyone. Suddenly a voice sounds over a system in my shades.

"That would be us kid, the squad names Roaring Sun, don't ask about the name because it wasn't my idea." I hear someone else sound off from the glasses.

"Hey! It's a cool fucking name, alright?"

"Man, in your dreams."

"Knock it off ladies, listen, your jobs simple, if they get into a jam help them out, if they don't, your jobs even simpler, sit back and relax."

"Okay." Is all I say.

"Good, now you guys are coming up on an abandoned coal mine, our intel suggests that somebodies been in there. We need to go in, see if there is any evidence that people have set up camp and get you the hell out."

"Okay everybody, let's move out!"

Everything went perfect, no hostiles, no civilians, nobody. The video feed I was watching from my glassed let me see what ever the soldiers could see. So far, everything was quiet. A little too quiet. They made it into the town and looked all over the place but nothing suggested that people were there. So they decided to move into the mine itself. It was just big enough to let them in, but it was single file. They kept making their way down into the mine nothing changing. The light that had been supplied by the sun was now gone and the only light was coming from flashlight the troops carried.

"If the intel was correct they should have been up in the town, not down here." I say shaking my head. Something I noticed was that from the opening of the mine all the way down to where ever they were in it, a sprinkler system lined the roof of the cave. I finally let my paranoia get the better of me.

"Guys get out of there now!" I yell into the microphone.

"What the hell's going on kid!? What are you talking about?"

"Look up, and tell me if you see what I'm seeing!"

"Okay, I see sprinklers, what the hell does that mean?"

"Why the hell would they put a sprinkler system in a tunnel that's barely big enough for a grown man, let alone a fire?!"

A moment of silence before the video feed turns the other way and I hear yelling over the specs.

"Everybody get the fuck out of here! It's a trap!"

"Get the fuck out! Now!" I was not having this be on my hands.

At this the other video feeds turned back the way they came, but were stopped when they heard a rumbling coming from the ceiling. They all looked up to see that the sprinkler system was rattling as if something was rushing down it's pipes. And before they knew it, a greenish mist poured down from the ceiling and began to envelope the soldiers. The next thing that was present was the coughing, violent coughing and hacking. Everybody had space between each other so I had full view of what the mist was doing to them.

After the coughing came the vomiting. It was either lunch, blood, or a mixture of both that the soldiers were vomiting. Not long after, came the screaming and the writhing as the soldier in front of the camera began to claw at his skin as if trying to remove something, begging for it to stop. His skin began to turn black as he clawed, still small amounts vomit and blood poured from his mouth.

"Get the feed off!" One of the people in the room screamed. "The kid doesn't need to see this!" Most were frozen with faces the color of green, others were frantically trying to shut the connection off. And me? I just sat there. Sat there, while my first and most likely last squad died before my very eyes. My mouth was hanging open from what filled my vision, the only thing I could see, was my squad. The camera had long hit the floor of the tunnel but was still aimed at the man in front of it. His face locked into a silent scream, as bits of black flesh were torn away, blood was still pouring and the contents of his mouth had long fallen out. As if they had rotten away.

The glasses were removed from my face, the image gone but still there. I turned to look at everyone else in the room. They all were still looking at me, their expressions all the same. A look of worry.

"Hey kid..." A man said from right beside me. I turned to look at him and what I saw brought the images back to crystal clear view. The man in front of me was in the same state as my squad. Skin charred black, flesh dangling from parts of his face. He put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed as he said in a raspy voice, "It's all over."

I jolted upright from the couch and was met with the sight of a crowd of ponies, the Princess's were seen also. I scanned the crowd but something was off, there was other people, just standing there, faces I knew, they were all of my previous squads. I was drenched in sweat as I looked at the faces in the room with me. The faces from my time on earth though, I had thought they were dealt with.

I hear Dust Bunny speak up, "Jack? Are you alright?" I don't say anything though. Looks of worry were apparent over all of their faces.

"Out." I say quietly.

"Is there something you might want to talk about?" Celestia leans in from her position.

"Everybody. Out. Now!" I yell pointing towards the door. Everybody but Luna and Celestia walked out of the room.

"Jack, you need to talk about this, what is going on?" Celestia asks as she takes a step forward.

I snap my fingers sending them out with the rest of the ponies in the hall way, a look of surprise dawns on their faces as the door to the room slams shut and locks.

"What the fuck is this!?" I shout looking at one of the soldiers.

They all look at each other but only one replies back.

"We don't rightly know, but it may have something to do with the separation."

"But why are you here right now, I thought Project Nightmare handled all of this!"

"Again, we don't know, we only know what you know right now."

"Raaagh! Fuck me! I'm gonna snap some necks if someone doesn't fucking give me an answer!" I say throwing a fist the wall, putting a crack in the marble.

"Sir calm down! Remember that the Project fixed all of this, you don't want to relapse, especially in a peace loving place like this." He says looking around the room.

"Don't you think I know this already!?" I take a deep breathe and try to relax.

"You said it was because of the separation, Jake will be here today or tomorrow and all of this will blow over, I'm sure of it." I say putting a smile on my face.

Location: Golden Oaks Library PoV: Jake

"Jake! Wake up! You're needed up in Canterlot, it's an emergency!" I hear Twilight shout from behind the door.

"I already know, I'm dressed and ready to go! Get in here!" I say shouting at the door.

A group of ponies came through the door, there were the Elements of Harmony and Spike. I grab most of them by the barrel and the others latch onto me. "Hold on tight!" I say as we teleport out off the room, leaving behind a cloud of confetti and a bad smell.

We burst through a set of doors and begin running through the hallway and make a left turn.
"What's going on? The letter I got said there was something wrong with Jake!" Twilight said as we ran down a corridor to a set of stairs.

"I'll tell you later, but first. We have to get to Jack before he relapses!" I look to the top of the stair way.

"Twilight can you get us up there? It'll save us time." I say looking at Twilight, she nods and her horn lights up with magic.

We burst through another set of doors and continue to run, this time we spot a crowd of ponies and the Princess' all looking at the door to Jack's room. We come up along side the crowd and Celestia notices me and makes her way to me.

"What's going on, the maids heard him shouting and screaming in his room so they got the guards, and apparently the guards came to me when they said they couldn't get him to calm down or wake up, Why is he acting like this?"

My eyes don't leave the door while I say, "Do you remember how I said we were in the military as some form of teacher or leader?"

"Yes...?"

"Well, the first squad of soldiers Jack led, they died in a small tunnel from a chemical weapon."

"Grief is one thing but why is he acting like this?"

"Our technology is more advanced than your own, the stuff Jack was using allowed him to see what the soldiers were seeing, hear what the soldiers were hearing, basically, put him in the battle without actually putting him in the battle."

"He saw first hand accounts of a lethal chemical weapon being put to use on real people, his other squads though, that's a story for another time." I say as I listen to the shouting continue from the room.

"He began to grow violent with his teachings, they put him on training the recruits and he sold the leaders this bullshit idea about how he could make them the best. And they bought it, they gave him full jurisdiction to do what ever he wanted with the squads he taught. When one of the recruits stepped out of line and disobeyed him because of his age, the kid broke his arm in two different places and sent him to the firing range, and told him to make no mistakes."

"He would have night terrors every night, most of the time he would stay up, days on end. So his nightmares were accompanied by hallucinations, the kid went mad."

Visible cracks began to grow on the marble walls as crashes were heard from the room.

"He grew more and more violent each day until one day, he got out of control and he was sent to Project Nightmare." My eyes still didn't leave the door as more and more shouting and screaming was heard.

"He had to stay awake while his body was partially numbed and strapped down to a table, as the doctors opened his skull, removed a chunk of his brain and hooked a chip up into the section that was removed. And right now, it looks like the chip is cleaning the place out."

"What does that mean?" Luna asks from her position next to Celestia.

"All of the stored terrors are working their way out from the chip and into his mind while the chip resets for further use."

"Again, what does that mean?!"

"His mind and body are in overdrive as he's trapped in some kind of day-mare... I honestly have no clue what to do, this is the first time it's happened in a while, it's probably best just to let it play out."

"But wait a minute, I thought that you helped him with this kind of stuff. Couldn't you just help him now?"

"Right now? That would be horrible. The chip stores whatever it deems to be damaging inside of it. Right now it sucking all of that in and releasing it outward. If I were to try and help him, the very essence of what I am would cycle trough the chip and then into him and outward." I shudder at the thought.

"Well, somponies got to do something!" Dust Bunny yells out looking at me, Luna, and Celestia.

"Wait! You said that he was in some kind of day-mare, correct?" Luna says. I nod my head at this. "We are the Princess of Dreams, We could try and get Jack out!"

"I don't know, last time I tried that, I had ended up fighting him in his own head. Even though I am what I am, I still lost. His mind, his domain."

"Still worth trying though!" Luna says as she grabs my arm and her horn lights up. The next thing I knew was the feeling of falling asleep.

"Wow, you do know that we could have just walked into the room he was in right?"

"I wanted to see what he was seeing. It might help us help him."

"Well, there he is, help him." I say pointing towards the sitting figure of Jack.

"Hi Luna, Hi Jake. What brings you to the neighborhood?" Jack says from his position in a chair facing towards Luna and I.

"You have to wake up Jack! Everypony is worried about you!" Luna says taking a step towards Jack.

"No, I'm not waking up until these bouts of self hatred are over with. And that's going to finish in a couple of hours."

"Luna. I don't think we're in his dreams." I say stepping forward towards Luna as I look around the room.

"Very astute there Jake. A round of applause." He says giving off a gold clap.

"Then, where are we? I took us into his dream!" Luna says as she looks back at me.

"And I took you somewhere else, Luna and Jake?"

"Oh fuck me..." I say as the realization hits me.

"Welcome to the workings of Project Nightmare!"