"Hush Now, Quiet now, it's time to lay your sleepy head~" She sounds soft and caring, if a bit out of place with her timing.

'Fluttershy..' He doesn't want her to start, as nice as her intentions might be to try to sing him to sleep. He doesn't want to go to sleep, but she seems to continue to push it.

"Hush Now, Quiet now—"

He thinks objectively, momentarily. 'Great..' She continues with her singing.

"—it's time to go to BED." That last word lingers with anger, as if she gritted her teeth when she said it. He wonders to himself, 'Why is she angry?' Daniel debates on whether he thought that or said it accidentally. As he opens his eyes ready to ask her if she's alright, he sees something unexpected standing above his chest.

"Drifting..off to sleep.." It mutters it's words in it's varied pitch voice, mimicking Fluttershy as an abomination in a pony-like figure, it lies above him with it's warped limbs to his sides in deformed shapes. He can hear a sort of creaking, a light grinding metal sound as it tilts it's head, mimicking her behavior like earlier. Staring at him, inches away with it's non-existent eyes; it continues it's eerie variation of her lullaby as Daniel closes his eyes, his limbs frozen in fear as he can hear it's flesh ungulate with a subtle moistness that makes his skin crawl.

"Leave the darkened life..behind you.." Daniel doesn't dare to turn his head, it continues with it's eerie chatter. "Drifting..off to sleep.." Daniel can feel a burning pain where he knows his scar is, he pleads to himself in a blanket of fear as it feels like his wound is re-opening.

"Please god..make it stop.." The abomination, despite it's supposed position over his chest while he's lying on a bed, he can hear it below his right ear; behind him.

"Let the joy of dreamland—FOUND YOU!" He feels something jut into his stomach, he yelps in pain as the bed seemingly disappears, he lands 2 feet or so onto the ground on his back, holding his stomach. To his surprise, he feels no blood and can't feel an opening, he starts to hyperventilate as he repeatedly pats his chest to make sure. Daniel holds his head and listens as he gets up onto his knees, waiting for it to strike again if it does. He's afraid; he's back where he doesn't want to be. He tries to shut it out, shut the fear aching in his body, his mind tries to motivate him to stand up as his legs shake.

'Get up...Get up.' He follows his own advice and attempts to stand, his knees wobble a bit but he manages to balance himself. Placing his right hand on his chest, he closes his eyes and tries to calm his breathing before he starts to panic. He takes one breath in, hearing footsteps behind him, one breath out. One breath in, he hears something else, one breath out.

That breath isn't his.

Feeling a precise strike to the back of his head, "GAAH!" he grasps his head as he stumbles forward onto his stomach, the abomination's pacing choosing to get immediately violent. Dazed, Daniel tries to worm himself away using his legs to push himself away, he's surprised when he feels the blood rush from his body straight to his head. He's left upside down, grasped by his ankle and lifted off the ground, trying to piece together what he's experiencing from his sudden assault along with his sudden new orientation. He blurts out, still closing his eyes, jumbled up from the feeling of being forcibly hung upside down. "Oh fuck me.."

He attempts to wriggle his way out of it's grip, he decides to open his eyes and looks up suspiciously as it seemingly just holds him up in place. He kicks and puts the bottom of his foot beneath it's neck and kicks; No dice. It doesn't budge, and it doesn't seem to like his struggling. The abomination steps to the left and roughly lets him go with a weak toss onto the ground. Daniel lands on his shoulder, he rolls over and gets on one knee to face it, it's body is in it's usual shape; a copy of his own body and clothing with a warped head with waves of flesh strewn about it's non-existent face. Disturbingly, it's right wrist snaps backwards and what seems like rebar slowly starts to poke it's way out from the stub, rapidly jutting out as if it was being hammered out. Daniel repeats his same panicked maneuver, this time on his feet, backing away slowly as it starts to take steps towards him; brandishing it's rebar-like arm as a weapon to it's side.

Unexpectedly, his back hits against an invisible wall, he thinks 'Oh, fuck you!' as he panics at the sight of it approaching closer. The void doesn't appear to be in his favor, warranting more of the nightmare's needs than his own, Daniel hugs the invisible wall with his back ready for what's to come, namely the rebar spike that's replaced it's hand. He suddenly hears something a little jarring, another voice yell out with an echo that sounds like thunder, it spooks him and seemingly the abomination as well.

"Enough!"

The void shakes in the wake of the female voice, the abomination slowly turns behind it, Daniel picks up his head and looks as well at a tall figure with four legs approach the abomination with a steady pace. Daniel suddenly feels the invisible wall seemingly disappear, he stumbles a bit from hugging it, but he keeps looking onward thinking to himself, 'Is that a..pony?' It doesn't seem so, the figure's too tall to be a regular pony, pegasi, or unicorn. Evidently it seems to be a mix of all 3 as it steps out of the darker part of the void, it's head wrapped with a dark cloak and a horn through the opening hood, large wings unfold and spread as the cloak seems to untangle itself and fall to the invisible floor. Yeah, that's a pony; a tall one at that. A name comes to mind, but he can't put his finger on it.

It comes into view into the void's light , it's in an overall shade of dark blue with a long flowing spectral-like mane flowing like a flag, despite no wind in the void. Daniel assumes it's a she, analyzing her long body structure and the curves along with it, not counting the eyelashes and what seems to be her mane curving along the top of her head in a freelance-like style. 'The heck is she..' She seems to be walking clear towards the abomination. Strangely, she stops in front of it and stares at it clearly in it's non-existing eyes, saying to it passively,

"Deep seeded." She peers and continues walking, Daniel expects her to bump into it, but she instead seems to phase and walk clear through the abomination, it's grotesque body warps and falls apart at the disturbance in it's physiology. Daniel backs up again, thinking to himself as he watches the pieces flop onto the floor and seemingly disintegrate. 'That is.. un-nerving..' He didn't expect that to happen, nor is he sure what to be afraid of now; the abomination or the pony that just seemingly killed it. She addresses him as she approaches him.

"Sir Daniel, I presume." She stops in front of him, he's not used to being talked to by someone this tall, she sounds oddly regal in her mannerism.

He illogically replies to her, "You.. are the first thing I've met to meet me at eye level." He seems strangely intrigued by her size, not having met a pony of this height before. He's used to looking down instead of forward, a force of habit he's grown used to.

She doesn't seem to have expected that kind of statement, but she instead stays collected at his strange reply and continues, "You are of what Twilight spoke of you." It takes a couple of seconds for him to register what she just said with her strange dialect, she continues. "You are a tad, sarcastic? Is that correct?" Does she not know the definition of sarcasm? He thinks to himself, 'This is..weird.' as he thinks on it, she looks oddly familiar with her blue color. He musters out a question as he ignores her question, "I'm guessing you're..Lunar?" She raises one of her eyebrows, her lower brow with a light touch of what seems like light blue eye shadow that blends lovingly well with her overall body color. She replies, confident in her answer.

"I will assume so." He guesses she means the sarcastic question instead of referring to the previous question. "You may call me Luna, Sir Daniel." She assumes he knows her description, Twilight having told him after her initial attempt to help him back in Canterlot failed, it seems he's forgotten her explanation though. He feels.. off on how to feel, one moment cowering in fear from the abomination, the next confronted and conversed by a tall blue pony with wings and a horn. He steps away and shakes his head, she seems to read his body signals and answers him without him asking the question. "I can assure you that you are asleep, but I am not a dream."

Daniel can't help but feel amused by that statement, as serious as it sounded. 'Is that supposed to be a self-proclaimed compliment or something?'

He then quickly realizes he should be a bit more respectful when he remembers Twilight's lesson to him about basic pony history, especially Luna, when she and someone named Celest can raise the sun and moon at will. He panics in his mind when he recalls the specific ability to banish someone to a celestial body, like the moon or possibly the sun. 'Oh fuck, did I just insult a god..' He puts his hands up, trying to be friendly and understanding about it, but instead comes off as awkward. "Ah..haha, I'll take your word for it." He then starts to wonder if she can read minds, if she can raise the moon, why not that?

She raises her eyebrow again, curious about his choice of words and how he said it. Daniel feels a little at ease, enough to ask her something else. "I'm guessing you're Twilight's..solution? Err, Princess Luna?". It feels strange to address her that way, but she answers him regardless of his feelings about it, used to the royal title.

"Yes. Though perhaps we should both apologize on our..absence. You have not been asleep consistently for a long time." She seems to have only been able to help him when he would go to sleep, though his fear has been keeping his incentive to sleep at a minimum. She glances around the void and states, "I shall free your consciousness, it seems..clouded." She closes her eyes, a blue magic glow infuses and floats about her horn, suddenly the black around them begins to seemingly tear itself apart. 'Oh shit' he thinks to himself, watching the background drastically change, the black void tears away and disintegrates to reveal a light blue and white background to this area.

"Whoa.." He's a little astounded, the area becoming vividly brighter instead of cloudy and confined. The black void comes up and seems to segment away, Luna suddenly opens her eyes, both flash with an extreme glowing bright white. Daniel backs away from her, remembering the irrational pony god fear. Her magic envelopes the tears floating in mid air, suddenly they all disintegrate as she focuses; leaving the area in a much more soothing light blue and white with a low ankle-high white fog. He asks himself a question aloud, "Was this place always this.. bright?" Luna closes her eyes and they seem to flash back to normal, her magic dissipates and she lightly smiles, answering his sarcasm.

"This is your consciousness, Sir Daniel. Or at least a confined part of it, as best as I could describe to you." Again with the Sir title, he's not used to it. Daniel comes to the realization that he's been struggling with this abomination in his consciousness, though he doesn't know exactly what that entails. Back to the whole pony god standing next to him, he asks,

"Did you just..get rid of that thing?" He seems hopeful in that question, he expects a happy answer to his seemingly resolved problem.

Instead, Luna shakes her head, disapprovingly saying, "I can not fix what isn't broken. Just as the same that I can not make a problem go away with just a thought, this is your mind."

He asks in his meta mind, 'What? Then what are you here for?' Daniel asks aloud instead.

"Then..what did you just do? Didn't you just kill, or get rid of that..thing?"

She plainly states to him without dancing around the subject, "I can not get rid of that part of you." Daniel freezes at that answer, what did she just say? She continues, "You need to face your fears, even if it disturbs you so." She glances at him, hoping he'll pick up on what she's saying. Sadly, he does not, and she is forced to have to explain it in further, but not in anymore comforting detail. She gives her explanation, "You are repressing memories, Daniel." She steps towards him, facing him directly. "And that thing you describe is an embodiment of those emotions, from those memories."

She looks uncomfortable, seemingly angry as she explains further. "Anger. Hate. Resentment. All powerful emotions that you've tried to forget." Daniel takes a step back, his head starts to feel weird as she explains it further, Luna glances to the right for some reason. Daniel looks over too, seeing the abomination standing across from them, without it's rebar hand; it's just standing there watching. He feels uncomfortable, but Luna continues, giving her insight as she stares at the abomination. "It seems that another part of you won't let you forget."

Disturbingly, the abomination repeats a line said by Twilight in it's twisted pitched version. "It's for your own good.."

He thinks to himself 'The fuck is this?' He steps back away from them both, he thinks she's crazy, messing with his head and encouraging that thing to torment him some more. Daniel says objectively, "Get that thing the fuck away from me." Luna looks down and closes her eyes, she looks annoyed at his response as she suddenly bangs her hoof on the light ground. Daniel feels the floor shift, he nearly falls over as the scenery changes to a strangely familiar setting, what looks like a small home.

"Whoa!..waahh! The heck are you—" he recognizes the place, it's a small apartment. "..wait, this is my—" He's interrupted by a splitting pain, bringing him down to his knees. It's not pressure, but a precise stabbing pain enveloping his head, forcing him to yelp in pain as his ears ring. "A-Agh.." He grits his teeth, the scenery starts to wobble and eventually starts to dissipate away as he struggles on the ground.

Luna focuses, seemingly keeping the scenery stable with her magic as she walks over, explaining to him his situation. "You don't even realize you're doing it, that is why it keeps hurting." Her expression changes to a sympathetic look, she speaks a little softer. "Daniel." She looks down at him, waiting for him to acknowledge her, he glances up as his head feels like it's splitting in half; somehow managing to catch her words. "You need to remember. You need to make yourself remember." She uses her magic to barely pick him up by his shoulder, she finishes her grim explanation as he seems to regain his footing on his own. "Or else you'll keep torturing yourself."

'The fuck is wrong with you..' His head throbs, he suddenly feels compelled to ask aloud as he comes to a realization. "...the fuck is wrong with me?" The splitting pain seems to die down immediately as he calms, having room to think about what she's saying. He places his right hand to his face, thinking things over and over again as he peeks through his fingers at the background. "Ugh.." He feels sick to his stomach, something feels wrong.

He knows this feeling, it's the same he's had when he went with Twilight to Manehattan and he got entranced by the construction site, where he realized he used to work before in a similar setting; He's remembering. The scar on his front starts to burn inexplicably as he looks around the apartment, he tries to ignore the burning as he recognizes the place, recognizing the small kitchen, the couch, the LCD TV that he bought at a yard sale. People, cars, work, his schedule, his room, his—

"Danny."

Daniel freezes, hearing a familiar voice, his stomach balls again lower into his abdomen. He turns around and looks, seeing a familiar face, it's not what he expected. It's himself, sitting on the couch, his hands between his legs while sat leaned forward. Daniel listens, he hears the voice call out again.

"Hey, Danny! You're late, what's up man? You there?..come on man, pick up the phone!" It's his answering machine on a tabletop, the other Danny stays sat on the couch grudgingly. Daniel asks aloud at Luna, "What is this?.." She doesn't seem to want to answer, allowing him to just look on as she stands afar from the scene.

"I can't cover for you, alright? Just call back to work when you get this."

The machine makes a high pitched beep in confirmation of recording the message, the other Danny seems to just sit there indiscriminately ignoring it. Daniel walks over in front of the couch and takes a look at himself, crouching down to get a better look. He looks angry with dead eyes, staring at Daniel, but more specifically at nothing directly in front of him. Daniel steps away and takes a look around, objects begin to change, things seem to have broken; the apartment's a mess. He takes another look at himself sat on the couch, he spots something eerily familiar clasped in his right hand, a wine bottle. It looks almost empty.

'What the..' Has he been drinking?

Tic.

Tic.

Tic.

Tic.

Tic.

With himself being so quiet, he can hear a clock above the small fridge in the mini kitchen ticking away. Suddenly, the other Danny stands up and yells angrily, which echoes throughout the small room. "SHUT UP!" He throws the bottle at the clock which phases clear through Danny's body as he instinctively ducks. Both the clock and bottle break, the clock falls off it's hinge and lands on the floor, the glass in it's face cracks from the impact and a shard breaks off along with the shattered wine bottle pieces that scatter all across the wall and floor. Daniel steps back, disturbed seeing him self act this violent at such a subtle thing, the other Danny suddenly starts weeping and goes down on all four's crying on the couch. He looks like a mess, rightly so with everything else broken or damaged in the apartment. Daniel thinks, trying to piece things together, asking aloud.

"Was this..how I was?.." He feels uneasy, adding on. "...is this how I am?" He starts to feel empty, that balling feeling in his stomach feeling like it's hollowing himself out. Suddenly, Luna steps in and addresses Daniel.

"We need to go back further, Daniel." She stomps her foreleg on the ground again, the floor and background whisks itself away, Daniel feels disoriented as he realizes what the background has changed to. It's actually not much different at all. It's the apartment, in better shape and intact now. Daniel looks around the room, the couch is turned the other way towards the tv, he sees the other Danny watching a movie of some kind from behind. Daniel walks forward cautiously and walks around, observing his much calmer self. He suddenly sees something else which makes his stomach drop, he hears a soft voice call out.

--

"Danny?.." The other Danny looks down to his right, a girl lying down along the stretch of the couch, lying on a throw pillow beside his lap. She continues, with his attention grabbed. "Do you think maybe you could change the channel?..it's kinda loud.." The other Danny smiles and reaches for the remote, changing the channel while also moving her long black strands of hair out of her face.

He apologizes with a light hearted smile, "Sorry..did I wake you?".

She softly nods, closing her eyes and shuffling herself deeper into her sleeping position on her left side. Consequently, the other Danny lowers the volume on the tv drastically, eventually just turning off the tv altogether. He places his hand on her cheek, gently stroking it as she softly smiles, she lightly slaps his hand and joyfully asks him to stop. "Danny! Stop it! I'm trying to sleep..I have classes tomorrow."

The other Danny puts his hands in the air, passively complying and says, "Alright, alright. No action movies for me, and apparently no cuddling.." Perfect bait, that she seems to knowingly take.

She gently reaches up and grabs his right hand, pulling him down and says to him face to face. "I didn't say that..fine, fine." She lightly kisses him along his lips, he kisses back and sits back up, letting her lie back down. He offers,

"I'll drive 'ya if you want, I don't have work until later tomorrow."

Waving one of her hands beside her hip, she goes along with it. "Okay, just..please let me sleep. I have to be there early, classes are around seven." She settles back in, tucking her left arm partially beneath her side for warmth, the couch apparently is comfier than it looks.

The other Danny leans back and places his arms along the top of the couch, asking one more question, "Seriously? Wait, seven AM or seven PM? You think it's safe to be out in the park that late?" He's uncomfortable about by that kind of class in general, they mostly take place outdoors.

She doesn't seem to want to deal with his worries again, though she seems to enjoy their little banter back and forth with her meek smile she's hiding, she puts her right hand up and spreads her fingers, muttering. "PM. Night. With a group Danny.." The other Danny puts his hand outward, holding her hand in his own, she seems to follow where he's coming from and holds each other's hands. A loving moment, if just a passive one to have when living together as a couple. She says some sincere words, some that makes Danny's heart go aflutter.

"I love you, Danny..~" The other Danny leans back down and kisses her once more, replying with a warm smile.

"I love you too, Grace~"

--

That word. That name. It feels wrong for him to remember it. It feels wrong to feel solace from hearing her words. Daniel feels his stomach with both of his arms, the scene starts to de-saturate and blur as he feels sick to his stomach, eventually it all disappears into one big blur. Luna walks beside him, observing the situation and commenting on it.

"You had a lover." She glances over to him, she seems strangely calm.

Daniel tries to compose himself, his stomach feeling like it's tearing into itself and rolling around with the remains, asking her a golden question as he comes to terms with learning his past through these strange flashbacks. "How did I go from..this, to what I saw?" Luna looks down, telling him honestly.

"You won't like it. I don't like it." She looks at him square in his eyes, speaking honestly. "But you need to see it." She stomps her hoof once more, the background shifts and blurs as it changes, Daniel's prepared and stays balanced this time, albeit it's still a jarring experience. He's suddenly in the dark, outside of his apartment, seeing the other Danny and Grace step outside down from their apartment building's front steps, both clad in heavy padded coats. Daniel assumes they're cold, the other Danny steps around a car, which Daniel seems to recognize all too well.

--

Danny shuffles around the car and grabs his keys from his pants loop, unclipping the key ring, he opens the door and leans inside. He leans toward the passenger seat, clicking it's own unlock button as he almost falls over the arm rest. Grace opens the passenger seat, stepping inside and closes the door beside her, she rushes Danny a bit.

"Come on, we gotta go, we gotta go! I gotta be there in like 5 minutes!" She takes her backpack off of her coat, unzipping it and checking the contents inside. "I..think I got it all." Danny whimsically thinks, 'Oh yes, she thinks she has everything'. He tries to dismiss his inappropriate thoughts. She zips it back up and places it on the car floor, Danny sits in the driver's seat and closes the door beside him. He explains to her, seemingly a little angry.

"Sorry, locks don't work right..I got a raw deal on this stupid Corolla." Grace replies passively, "Well.. at least we have a car. Come on, we gotta go Danny, I was supposed to be early and I overslept!" Danny complies and puts the key in the ignition, it spurts a few times as the headlights flicker, it doesn't seem to want to start. He keeps trying, saying aloud.

"Come on..come on you piece of.." It finally spurts once more and the engine revs, he looks behind him and backs the car up steadily as he looks for oncoming traffic, eventually pulling away down the street. Driving through the city streets, Danny decides to ask as they stop at a stoplight, "Park, right? South or West end?" Grace quickly answers him, "West end. Just..watch it, I want to hurry but I don't want you speeding." It seems she doesn't want a speeding ticket this late at night, she complies and points clear down the street, assumingly at the park's edges in the distance as they pull away from the streetlight. Danny sees the green light in the distance, he's undisturbed as the path seems clear, it turns yellow as they're about to pull up at the park's entrance. A thought flickers in his head, 'Shit..fuck it.' as he puts his foot the pedal and tries to make the yellow light and turn quickly before it turns red, no cars are pulled up from their point of view. He figures they're late enough as is.

The car's gravity suddenly shifts to the right, their orientation takes a new angle as the car flips to it's side and Danny's door collapses inwards, their airbags deploy as they skid momentarily on their roof and the front window pane cracks and shatters from the weight.

A truck from the left had the same idea.

--

Daniel closes his eyes as the scene fast forwards, he hears sirens start to blare from the distance, seeing the white and red flashing. He blurts out, holding back tears, "Enough.."

Luna glances at him, he repeats his previous request. "..I've seen enough.." He turns away and starts walking away, eventually the scene starts to dissipate back into the cleaner light blue void, but smidges of black void tendrils begin forming again around them as he holds his arms when he starts to shake. He sneers as he begins to lightly cry, ripping on himself.

"I'm such a fucking idiot...I'm such a ..fucking.." He gasps and sniffs, the blackness begins to form around them again as he gets steadily more upset and angrier. "I didn't want her to get hurt and I..just..." He releases his arms and punches to the right, hitting an invisible solid mass that seems to ripple and encourage the blackness to envelope into his consciousness faster. "I made such a big..a big.." He drops down to all four's and tries to finish his sentence.

"..such a big fucking mistake.."

Daniel looks to his left, the other Danny in the same pose, holding his head, drunkenly angry at himself as he weeps on the couch. The other Danny said it before he could. The scene sets back in, rapidly progressing back to shortly after the other Danny threw a bottle and began weeping on the couch, where Grace used to lay. Luna sounds disappointed as she repeats one of her previous quotes, more fitting now than it was before.

"Hate. Anger. Resentment. Where do you think that had gone?" She stomps the ground again, Daniel doesn't bother to try to get up as the scene blurs sometime into the morning, back into the apartment. He watches from the ground as he hears a familiar sound.

--

Ring-ring. Ring-ring.

Ring-ring. Ring-ring.

Ring-ring. Ring-ring.

Ring-ring. Ring-ring.

The other Danny rolls himself beside the couch, hung over from drinking last night, he works his hand over the couch towards the table and grasps the phone's handle. 'Ugh..fuck me..' He works his thumb over the button, a small beep as he asks sloppily out loud. "Ugh..hello?.." The person on the other end sounds concerned.

"Danny, dude, get over here. You're going to get fired if you miss another day, your grieving days are up, you have to get over here now. I know it's hard, but you need to get over here." His head aches, pressure starts to clamp down as the voice on the opposite end finishes their request. He manages to word out, "Yeah..I'll be..ergh, right there.." He presses the button and mutters again, "..fuck me.." he has to go to work in this state or else. He stretches his arms, he slept in a bad position and frankly he feels like a mess, he heads towards the small bathroom to shower and get dressed for work.

"This is..fucking..bullshit.."

The scene shifts rapidly to the sidewalk, bright orange signs and plastic protectors clad around the edges, Danny's supposedly helping put up some scaffolding as the rest of the crew build some main supports beside them, them already starting to lay down rebar and intertwine them after they laid down concrete slabs. He thinks objectively, seeing his behavior as a mistake since he hasn't been showing them he can do it responsibly. 'Course they'd trust me with it...and I fucking show them I don't care about my progress..fucking idiot..' Danny's head is throbbing as he walks up the wooden planks upwards, he can hear countless saws and trucks coming in and out of the site. He heads to his work area, at least 2 stories high as they begin to lay down some support for the scaffolding itself, he grabs a nearby pair of ear muffs to muffle the sounds in the background and a nail gun above a portable tool chest. He feels nauseous, being this high with his current condition, his head still hurts.

"..."

He stays silent as he kneels and takes several planks and nails them together parallel to an opposite board, beside a thin steel plate to keep them supported for future walkways. He thinks of his usual schedule, his due pattern he's learned. 'Plank in place..parallel..balance..trigger..' He puts the nail gun to the plank and pulls the trigger, a crisp spurt of the mini rotor inside spikes the nail clear into the plank and through it, the nail head stops it. Danny lifts it out of place and places it to the opposite end, repeating his due process in his head, his mind feels dull.

'Place..parallel..balance..' He pulls the trigger, another nail shoots through, then another on the corner. Another to the other corner. Something feels wrong. He moves to the next one, placing the plank again, repeating his pattern. 'Place..parallel..' He pulls the trigger too soon, the nail goes askew into the wood plank, almost missing entirely. He mutters, upset with himself.

"Fuck." He slides the nail head into the rail at the bottom of the nail gun and yanks, forcibly pulling the incorrectly placed nail out. He mutters to himself again, angry at his simple mishap. "Another fucking mistake." He feels empty, he gulps as he finishes, continuing on with his work as he thinks over his words over the next hour.

"Another.."

'Place..'

"..fucking.."

'..parallel..'

"..mistake."

'Balance.'

He drops a board and it falls down below, ricocheting across one of the rebar supports facing upward and settling between them, like a game of Plinko, only laid flat. He doesn't have a chance to yell out to watch out to anybody, but luckily for him it seems no one saw, not that he'd doubt them feeling the need to yell at him anyway. He bangs the bottom of the nail gun against the plank below him, angry at himself again. Danny just decides to sit, setting the nail gun aside as he just tries to think. 'I'm not able to do my job..' Setting his knees upward and his elbows on his upper knees, he holds his forehead with both of his hands, trying to figure out what to do as levels of guilt start to infest in his stomach. Unwisely, he starts to give in to his emotions, he balls a fist and grips onto his hair and yanks, it hurts but he doesn't seem to care. Opening his eyes, his heart rate increases, he stands up steadily and starts walking with the nail gun in-hand.

"It's my fucking fault." He mutters to himself. "It was fucking me.." Things start to blur, his head starts to feel the familiar pain, pressure clamps down as the background steadily paints itself in vivid colors and plasters it. He starts walking down an incomplete walkway, another worker yells at him to warn him.

"Hey..hey that parts not stable! Hey!" The worker stands up and reaches outward, gripping onto the back of Danny's vest, Danny suddenly turns the nail gun towards him. The worker lets go and puts his hands up, slowly backing away as several others come over to try to coax him down. One of the others with protective goggles in the back puts his hands forward, pleading to Danny to put it down.

"Whoa, whoa, calm down buddy. We're trying to help you!"

Danny walks off towards the edge of the unfinished platform, he can feel the wood start to bend. He looks at the other workers, pleading for him to calm down, repeatedly saying to lower his nail gun. Angry and depressed thoughts flood his mind, it screams at him repeatedly. 'It's your fault..it's your fault..it's YOUR FUCKING FAULT SHE'S DEAD' In the moment, Danny drops his nail gun to the other workers' momenatary relief, it falls down the 2 stories, the handle getting caught on a piece of rebar facing upward. One of the others try to coax him further, as it's becoming slowly apparent what he's trying to do.

"..come on..don't make it so hard on yourself." A worker gestures for him to walk back, putting his hand forward then scooping back repeatedly. Danny shakes his head and starts to tear up, pathetically saying to all of them, certain about his choice.

"You can't fucking help me.." The workers shake their heads, repeatedly wording no as he takes a step backwards.

--

Daniel looks away as his former self makes impact, the rebar jutting clear through the top of his stomach. Daniel places his hands along his scar, it burns with a fiery intensity as he looks back, seeing the other Danny lightly grip the rebar and slowly go limp as the life drains out of him. Daniel falls backwards, landing on the ground staring up at the consciousness now becoming the void again; his feelings influencing it's current state and enveloping it in black. He comes to the realization and says it aloud, he doesn't care if Luna hears it, he feels compelled to say it.

"..it was my fault..it was my..fucking..fault.." He closes his eyes and starts to weep, quietly crying to himself as Luna fades away the grisly sight of the other Danny, impaled on a rebar piece where his scar now exists. She closes her eyes, feeling sympathy for his rough reality check and how he must feel. She argues in her mind that it's a cold way to show him, but he had to know if he was to get rid of his nightmares. She asks him, despite his debilitating depressed state he's in.

"Do you see what the other part of you wanted you to see?" Luna picks him up again, but he doesn't seem to want to stay standing. His limbs feel numb and cold as he just flops over back onto the ground without incentive to stand. He feels dead inside as he thinks over her words minimally, 'The other part of me...that thing..' He opens his eyes and looks up to his left, seeing the abomination just stand there, he understands now.

His hate. His anger. His resentment of his choices. The part of him that hates himself, a part that wanted him dead. That didn't want him to hurt anyone else. It wouldn't let him forget, hate is too strong of an emotion to just simply forget. Luna knows it and tries to connect with Daniel with her knowledge on the matter.

"I know resentment all too well.." She looks up towards the black enveloping his formerly clear mind, she continues. "..but we must move on and forgive ourselves for our mistakes. Anger will cloud your mind and keep you grounded." Luna puts down her hoof and gently tilts his head upward, he sees the black nearly enveloping the light and blue above. "You can not let anger cloud your judgment, like it did before. Or you'll become something.." She looks towards the abomination. "..else." Her eyes, she's remembering her own monster she had become before, for once Daniel notices her visually sad.

Daniel rolls onto his stomach and pushes downward, he keeps thinking over his actions before, he fell so far. Not just the fall, but he fell so far away from how he was because of guilt. Because of hate. Because he was angry at himself. He didn't want to live. It was angry.

He still is.

"I can't forget.." He states as he stands up and closes his eyes, finishing his statement as he faces Luna. "..but..I can forgive.." He gulps, he feels at ease as he turns towards the abomination, trickles of anger spur inside of him as he approaches it. It's been torture, it's been trying to force him to remember all this time, but he wouldn't because of how it's made up with. Hate, anger, resentment towards himself. The abomination simply stares at him as they face each other, Daniel holds out his hand towards it's chest and puts his hand over where the scar is, instead the abomination's body warps as his hand touches. It falls apart with one last quote, words that will stick with him no matter what.

"It was your fault."

"...I know it is.." His consciousness starts to fade, the background starts to de-saturate as Luna starts to walk away, her job done to guide him. He's resolved his problem, but he will have to live with the truth of it. And he thinks he'll be okay with it, as he lets out a semi-happy tear, he smiles as he starts to cry hysterically.

'Urgh..' He feels immediately dizzy and falls backwards, upon impact, he opens his eyes.

--

He's awake, to a fairly unusual sight; he sees a yellow creature asleep clasped to his side, her mane's in a mess, but she otherwise looks very comfortable as she sleeps. Looking around, he's awake in his room and it's sometime late into the night, maybe somewhere around midnight; he's not sure. He whispers, realizing he's awake.

"Flutter..Fluttershy.." His right arms been clasped onto, so he gently shakes her shoulder with his left hand, her closed eyes starts to twitch as she wakes up. Daniel assumes she must have been asleep for a long time, she quietly yawns as she blinks a few times, she looks up in a bit of mild surprise.

"...oh.." She mutters, shyly still clasped to his side. "..hi..D-Danny.." She darts her eyes away, her cheeks ablush with red as she stays clasped with a sense of fear at what he's going to say next. Her thoughts flood with, 'Please don't notice..please don't tell me to go away..p-please don't pet me right now..~'

He quickly panics as he sees her face, clad with the abomination-like head, he thinks 'Oh fuck me' as he grips her neck, thinking his nightmare isn't over. She gasps as she's lifted upward, her eyes explode in fear, he's seeing something she doesn't understand and she flares her wings, squealing as she's held by her friend off the ground. Daniel stands up, still holding her by her neck, he sees the abomination, not her. He pulls her to his face and says angrily,

"You're..not..ME."

"Hu..h-huh..!"

She's afraid.

Author's Note

Whoa, that was a lot to type, but happy with the end result!

PLEASE provide feedback in the comments, would love it and feel like I need some, is mostly imperative really. I will say this is not the last chapter, as the ending implies.

Is currently 1:50 AM at the time or typing this, spent the past half an hour overlooking the chapter, making sure I didn't make the same mistake as before. Also at the time of writing this, 838 views :D Again, thank you all of you who have read and followed this far.

Please, if you can, the people who follow and/or not follow who just happen to read this on a whim. Comment below on how you think this chapter went, whether the decision to reveal the above was fitting or not, or otherwise with your feedback!

Edit: Whoops, forgot the link to the cute! In this case, only mildly concerning.

https://derpibooru.org/658326?scope=scpe4590d708800806e02f8dc7fe031ab522568d5307