--

"Agh."

Daniel struggles a little, the throbbing having started after the shock had worn off, a dull pain emanating throughout his face.

The kind, but observably careful nurse tilts his head forward when he starts to pull it back, re-affirming her previous suggestion as he sits in a hospital waiting room for treatment.

"Tilt forward and keep your head still, hun." The light yellow earth pony assumes the correct procedures would be the same with a human regarding a nosebleed, quickly rechecking her statement by tilting his head back in place while silently instructing him to hold a piece of thick gauze to the bottom of his nose, motioning with it gently clasped in her teeth.

"Huld vit thur jently." She muffles her own words with it clasped in her teeth, but Daniel understands the gist and grasps the gauze with his fingers, holding it as she instructs below his nostrils while the blood continues to slowly flow and stick to it. He observes his temporary caretaker as she turns to gather another bundle of gauze from the adjacent room across the hall. She has a yellow tone to her coat and a mix of light blue in her mane, as well as light touches of blue eye shadow to match, a distinct set of colors paired with an audibly familiar-sounding accent. Daniel is handed another bundle of gauze on his lap upon her return, and given another simple set of instructions. The nurse holds her hoof up to her snout, explaining.

"Just keep yourself tilted forward and replace it when it's soaked." The nurse gives an impartial smile, an attempt at comfort for such a late night visit. "We'll wait for it to stop if it's not a fracture."

She turns and begins to trot away, looking back towards him sat on some comparatively tiny chairs at his stature and size, her expression returning to impartial.

"I'll go get you some ice, hun. Then get to seeing if we can take an x-ray." The nurse heads out of view down the hall, leaving Daniel to wait for her return.

He thinks 'Great..' as he flips over the blank side of the blood-stained gauze, the blood flow slowing but still leaking. He rotates his tongue inside his mouth and can taste an iron-like residue sitting in his mouth; his own blood having seeped into the back of his throat a bit on the way to the hospital.

'Could have been worse..' He thinks back, quickly passing his judgment on the situation at hand.

".. fuck me. It's worse, now." Characteristically saying his thoughts aloud, an observer from the check-in section chimes in to his particular choice of words, a familiar palette of purple and dark lavender coming into focus in the corner of his eye.

"Dan, who are you talking to?" It's Twilight, but her tone has since improved from uneasy to troubled. Daniel answers honestly, and bleakly.

"Talking to myself—" He flips over the gauze inside out, preparing a new piece simultaneously when the time comes to replace the current bundle. "—but, that's nothing new." He attempts to lie back in his seat, with near instant regret as he feels trickles of blood come down to the back of his throat, forcing him to reel forward and cough into the gauze.

"--Eugh, fu--!!" He stops himself from blurting a common expletive aloud for any nearby hospital staff in the hall to hear, though they obviously don't know human swears. Twilight glances at him, waiting for any additions, but instead he apologizes for his awkwardness.

".. oh. Sorry. Forgot about the..." He points to the partially swollen bridge of his nose, lightly purple with very visible swelling beneath the skin. The answer sates her curiosity, she asks a vague question regarding his health.

"How do you feel?" Twilight quickly clarifies her answer as the nurse from earlier walks back into the waiting room, passively acknowledging her as she trots over to her patient with an ice bag hanging from her clenched teeth. Daniel has a brief thought on how being 'sterile' works with every pony, minus unicorns, using their mouths as make-shift hands to grasp things.

"Sorry for making you wait, but..." The rest goes unsaid, Twilight having given Fluttershy priority treatment compared to Daniel's injury. Twilight steps back to give the nurse some room as she props up one hoof on the seat, being able to reach up to his face. Daniel grabs the bag before she could instruct him on what to do next, placing it on the bridge of his nose, the pain slowly dulls as the blood's flow gets halted. He sighs lowly and turns to Twilight, answering her with a slightly nasally voice from the cool pressure over his face.

"Better now." He turns towards the nurse next and thanks her under his breath. "Thank you."

'I guess I should apologize for bleeding on the counter too...' The thought crops up from him thinking back to them first arriving with Fluttershy to this clinic, but it is almost effortlessly scooted away to the back of his mind.

Before she can reply, a loud-ish beep comes from down the hall, grabbing her attention. The nurse nudges the bundle of gauze on his lap closer toward himself, saying nothing that needs to be conveyed anymore, hopping off the seat and trotting away down the hall to a more likely needed patient.

Twilight blows air through her nose, answering a question she suspects he will ask anyway.

"She's doing... better. I don't know. She's still shaken up." Twilight walks up beside Daniel, sharing what she's been told as he waited outside.

"Her nurse said she shows signs of being emotionally unstable'." Daniel gives her a look, her having put some emphasis on that specific word, his expression lacking any sort of hostility. More of regret.

She clarifies, unnecessarily.

"She's still upset over what happened, and about what both of you did to each other. She kept asking to see you, but I told her you were fine and she shouldn't worry. They're trying to get her to relax and sleep." She glances her eyes towards the doorway entrance of the clinic, ending her explanation visibly uncomfortable. "I... I don't know how I'm going to tell everypony. About... all this."

Daniel doesn't relish the concerning and damning thought, about him having hurt her while having some sort of mental delusion. A welling pain gathers in his stomach as he attempts to calm himself down.

"Just...do what you gotta do, there's no changing what happened and what they might think of me. It's better they hear it from you, or me, than the hospital staff when they get here." He clarifies the statement in his own head.

'Or what they already think of me, actually.'

Twilight shifts her cheek to one side, almost defiantly.

"They should, but right now I want to find whatever it is that attacked her, and I'll need everypony else with me if it's as dangerous as it seems. I want to end this." She takes a familiar quadrupedal heroic pose Daniel has seen before, usually when referring to literature subjects or something intense of her interest.

"........" Daniel stays silent, coping and being unable to come up with words to convey what he's thinking, Twilight not noticing and picking off from where she left off.

"Just stay here, I'll be back in a bit, I need to wake everypony up for a search party." Twilight begins to turn, as Daniel asks her something abruptly.

"... Twilight, should I--"

Daniel's heart skips in a chilling surprise as he hears an abrasive response.

"No."

Twilight turns her head bolt upright, her expression unchanging from her seriousness a split second ago, looking straight to his eyes. Daniel peaks open his mouth, stunned for a moment, before finally closing it with no protest or hinted sarcasm in his next statement.

"... I understand." Daniel sits silently, peaking his head continually down, depressed.

Twilight takes a moment to comprehend what's been said, as well as picking up a very uneasy air being flooded into the empty waiting room, something she can't avoid or fix in such a limited. She tightens her lips in an emotion Daniel can not understand, before turning away towards the door, disappointed in herself this conversation has to end this way.

Her horn begins to glow a steady purple as she closes her eyes, brows still furrowed as she focuses on a location, her face shows a brief grimace before the room glows in a brief but stunning flash of light as she teleports away to a far away location. Presumably, towards one of the other girls.

Daniel holds his head low just as she leaves, grasping his forehead firmly with his eyes tucked in his wrists, trying to hold back tears as his breath heaves in and out silently. A looming thought enters his mind, a horrible reality he expects he will face.

This is how this ends,with her respect first...'

He slumps further in his seat, inadvertently grabbing the attention of the pony manning the front desk in a glancing notice, as he continues to dwell even further into his despair. Burrowing his fingers through his hair and trudged against the skin hidden beneath, he begins to shake at the thought of being vilified and disparaged by those who took him in.

'... everyone...'

--

The girls run hurriedly through the dark field, Twilight lighting the way brightly with her horn.

"Over this hill, come on!" She shouts, her attention grabbed by a blue streak speeding above. "What, no! Rainbow!" Twilight shouts aloud, running alongside the rest of the main six, Dash having already sped ahead with an overwhelming rush of adrenaline before Twilight could say anymore.

'Rainbow, slow down!' Twilight screams in her head, running alongside Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie through a darkened field a ways away, Dan's house not being within sight range of Ponyville at this distance.

Landing hard on the front deck of Daniel's small home, scanning along the perimeter, launching herself upwards with her hind legs and wings in tow, Rainbow Dash perches herself along a gutter line pacing.

"Come on, come on, come on." Rainbow mutters to herself impatiently, waiting for the others to catch up as she grows increasingly wary.

'If I get my hooves on whatever hurt her, I'll, I'll--' She tells herself this flustered mantra repeatedly, her thoughts calmed as Twilight enters within view, her horn glowing a bright purple luminescent hue with magic-- a spell of some kind that becomes readily apparent. Various indentations appear along the dirt path leading up to the walkway of Dan's home, showing layers upon layers of footsteps having been taken in the past, herself attempting to find traces of whatever may have been around aside from Daniel's.

"Twilight?" Rarity speaks up abruptly, calmly attempting to grab her attention as Twilight lowers her head downward, trying to hone whatever smaller tracks may have been trudged. Pinkie skirts around the bushes, scanning determinedly with as much intensity as Rainbow, taking a hidden lead as she peeks through bushes with Rainbow now skimming overhead the tree line.

"Twilight!" Applejack speaks in a more direct tone, immediately garnering focus, her finally snapping out of her focused zeal with the magic dissipating as well. "Tell us what's goin' on, what're we looking for?" She pleads, them all having been told barely any information in the rush she took gathering them all for a search party.

"Anything that could lead us to whatever came after Fluttershy, and what might have been terrorizing Dan as well all this time. Look for anything out of the ordinary." Twilight taking on a leadership role, concise and straight forward as they'd come to expect.

The two simultaneously nod, going separate directions in tow, Rarity employing a simple lighting spell to light the way while scanning the ground and Applejack pairing with Twilight as she continues highlighting steps in the dirt, finding multitudes of humanoid shoe tracks but no trace of anything unusual.

Applejack peers down at a scuff in the dirt, piecing together it's a hoofprint, extending her hoof out and measuring the distance between steps she determines it's some pony smaller than her at least.

"... hm." She takes a mental note, continuing their search.

Several minutes go by with them skimming the perimeter of the home with nothing found, Twilight leading the four as they begin to step to Dan's front door, ready to storm the front door. Twilight suddenly extends her left hoof to the side, looking down at shattered glass, following a trail to the front window a few feet away.

"Careful." Twilight warns, stepping carefully between glass pieces, the occasional shard shattering beneath their hooves.

'Fluttershy...' Twilight laments on what she sees, seeing tiny specks of red alongside several shards of class, evidence of injury that she had already seen on her friend. As she peaks open her mouth to comment on it, she looks back at the window, then back downward at the glass. Extending her hoof outward again, she motions her friend to stand back. Mildly surprised, they step back, perturbed at her sudden change of behavior as she furrows her brows upward sadly.

With magic, she picks up the pieces and joins them loosely together, placing them in a flat plane vertically along the broken pane and frame. Her eyes widen, discovering the many pieces are the majority of the window, but broken outward and not inward.

"That... that can't be right." Twilight mutters to herself, placing the many tiny shards in a neat pile scooted at the porch wall and out of the way of being stepped on. Her friends look to her expectedly, as she gives a reluctant addition. "She said something broke in, but that can't be right!" She looks worriedly into the home from the broken window, Rainbow having not been prompted, already goes ahead and enters Dan's home through the front door. Pinkie and Rarity step inside cautiously following her, Applejack stopping to examine the door, noticing a lack of any sort of scuff or scratch marks past the normal wear and tear of a door's regular use. Twilight steps to the front door frame, being stopped by Applejack as she blocks the doorway with her hoof.

"I can tell right off the bat something's bothering you, and more than you're lettin' on." Applejack having felt the tension hanging on Twilight, attempts to plead with her again, but is stopped as Rainbow begins to pull a recliner chair back upward-- Twilight stepping in to intervene in what she thinks had played out.

"Rainbow, don't just turn over Dan's stuff." She abrasively states, to slight confusion from Dash.

"What? I didn't do it, it was already knocked over." Rainbow explains, finally placing the seat back upward, heaved upward in tandem with her flying. Twilight looks perturbed, offering a short but concerned rebuttal.

"It was?" Twilight asks, to no readily available answer from anyone, putting that concern off to the side as she closes the door behind her and Applejack, with the wind outside having picked up, a click to the door lock seals it reliably shut.

"I'll keep looking outside." Rainbow states, as she flies cautiously through the now open window, back outside and into the darkness to scout from above. Now separated, but Rainbow more optimally fit to check the area around the house during their search, Rarity pitches in a comment; a note of concern over what physical scene they can manage to put together.

"That seems unlike young Daniel to do such a thing." Rarity paws her hoof on the wood floor, seeing a clear scuff and scratch mark. "Twilight?" She grabs her attention, pointing at two scuffs made by the bottom of the recliner, as it was seemingly dragged across with force. Twilight begins to levitate the chair in place, slowly dragging the chair just above the scuffs, it matching the striations parallel.

"That'd be that. So..." Twilight places her hoof to her chin, piecing together a scene.

'If something broke in with force from outside, it'd have knocked over the chair, and glass would have been all over the floor. But it's not...'

Pinkie begins to explore the rest of Dan's home, entering the kitchen, her ears perked and attentive for anything out of the ordinary. Keenly, she spots a saddlebag on the counter above, hopping on to her forelegs and gripping the bag in her teeth. Dragging the bag down, she places it onto the floor and inspects it's content, consisting of bundles of teabags and a crumpled piece of paper. Curious, Pinkie nips onto the piece of paper in her teeth and flattens it back into place with her hooves, she notices a humanoid figure crudely scribbled onto a very worn out page-- making out a humanoid head but little else other than very messy words written across the bottom like observations notes. Spotting the origin of the paper, she grasps a notebook pad tucked to the side. Something feels familiar to her about it, as she reads the contents.

'Wasn't his fault?'

'He won't stop talking in his sleep, making it hard to feed him'

'Maybe he's still distressed, or still in shock'

'He won't stop crying and refuses wake up'

The dates move on from weeks, back down to days at a time.

'Better now, still has trouble sleeping'

'Broken leg is healing, looks like I set it right, waiting on his recoverynow'

'Let litter of mice sleep in that fallen birdhouse, they seem happy'

'He woke up, he looked confused, his name is Dan'

'He's nice, but strange'

'He looks peaceful when he sleeps around me, but he always looks--'

Various smudges are strewn across and obscure whatever else is written, Pinkie flips over to the other side of the paper, noticing this is a page from a notebook-- the other side has been drawn and written and erased so many times over that it was indistinguishable.

She recognizes the writing, bearing Fluttershy's tiny writing style, they're reminiscent of notes she takes on sick animals, but the page seemed separated from her notepad. Unsurprisingly, this appears to be describing Dan, as Pinkie continues to read through the actual notebook.

'Why doesn't he recall anything?'
'Is it better if I don't bring it up?'
'I don't know what to do, I feel guilty somehow'
'I told him I'm here if he needs to talk, I hope he is okay'

The notes look smudged down several lines, Pinkie peering and barely able to read the rest. Twilight peeks in, noticing Pinkie on top of a saddlebag, specifically Fluttershy's saddlebag and watches silently as Pinkie continues reading, the notes more closely paired and along the same days.

'Had nightmares again, Angel woke me up to comfort me'

'Bad dreams stopped, dreamt of Harry, he was funny in it'

A little scribbled heart appears next to the line, the rest of them are within a few days of each other.

'Treated a cute bunny that wandered in with a sprained leg, but it left the next morning without saying goodbye'
'Visited Dan today, he seems better, introduced him to my friends'
'Had a scary nightmare again, I thought Angel bruised my cheek trying to wake me up, I don't remember anything'
'Drank some tea, am feeling better, Angel won't say it but I forgive him'
'Fixed a bat's broken wing, but it left in the morning too'
'Maybe some critters are scaring them off, shame on them'
'I asked Harry to sleep outside, but I don't remember telling him that, I felt bad so I'll make him a honey and maple sandwich'

Pinkie stops reading, becoming increasingly uncomfortable as she reads into the notes Fluttershy has taken, focusing on Twilight as she comes into focus out of the corner of her eye. She trots on over, noticing a distressed look on her face as Pinkie holds out Fluttershy's notebook outward open hoof.

"Huh?" She mutters, grasping the book. Twilight, flipping through and reading the same lines while levitating it, reads further as the notes get closer and closer on the same day.

'Visited Dan, he's getting along with Pinkie a lot, happy to see him integrate'
'Had a nightmare again, Angel didn't wake me up this time'
'Ran out of my feel-better tea, I asked my squirrely friends to sleep with me tonight'
'Squirrely friends said I twisted and talked a lot when I slept'
'I asked them what I said, they said I used swear words like Dan tries to hold back, but I don't know any though'
'I didn't know Danny swears'

Twilight looks concerned, motioning over to Applejack and Rarity to join reading.

'How long has this been going on?' Twilight thinks to herself, confused as to why this kind of mental anguish hasn't been shared with any of her friends as far as she knows.

They all continue reading, Rarity putting her hoof to her mouth in concern, Pinkie sitting anxiously, Applejack laden with uncertainty as she stands above them.

'Found the bunny from before with a sprained leg, asked why he left so suddenly'
'He said I told him to leave, but I don't remember it, I'm worried for Mister Bat now'
'My squirrely friends don't remember me helping Mister Bat'

A line looks roughly erased and smudged, the page ends the highlighted month with an ominous line.

'I don't remember treating a Mister Bat'

The front door of Dan's home suddenly shakes in the front room, breaking the silence of the house and causing the 4 to jump simultaneously in shock.

"Eep!!" Rarity eeks out a quick cry, Applejack and Twilight frozen in surprise as they turn their heads in the door's general direction, Pinkie's ears perked and alert as they all stand and slowly make their way to the kitchen doorway.

"What was--" Rarity whispers, but is immediately cutoff. Applejack attempts to say something as well, but is equally shushed by Twilight, Pinkie scooching low to the ground slowly out of the doorway.

"....." They all stand silently, waiting by the doorway, abruptly the door shakes again.

"That could just be RD, 'ya did lock the door." Applejack whispers to Twilight sensibly, but she retorts with a key piece of information.

"... but then she'd just fly through the window." Twilight's worry comes out as she says the line, coming to realize what she's just said as well.

Tensions heighten as they hear slow methodical steps along the outside porch, wood creaking as pressure is laid on the outside, Twilight listening closely to the creaks and how they sound.

'One step...another... another...'

Twilight's horn glows with a bright purplish energetic hue, determining whatever is outside must be bipedal, Pinkie lying flat against her back along with Rarity on the opposing side of the doorway. Spotting a dark figure creep in from the side, Twilight ducks her head behind cover, lowering her hoof down and back to her mouth with a shushing motion. She emotes with her mouth, as she hears something crawl through the broken window, slumped and with a noticeable presence.

"Five..." Twilight silently motions with her mouth, adding to it. "Four..." The others nod, ready to leap into action on cue, as they hear slow steps slowly approach.

"Three.... Two..."

Silence floods the room, as they anxiously await.

"..............."

A creak sounds, all four simultaneously leap out from the doorway as Twilight blinds the room in a bright light from her home, a loud high pitched noise sounds out and pierces their ears.

"YAAAAAHH!!" Fluttershy falls backwards onto her back, the wind knocked out of her lungs, as her friends come to realize whom they have encountered as she squirms dizzily on her back with flailing wings.

"Fluttershy!?" All four simultaneously shout, catching the attention of one wary pony outside, Rainbow Dash peeking in from outside and just as surprised at the sight. Unfortunately, the same can not be said for the yellow Pegasus pony, now scared out of her mind at the sudden shock as she begins to hyperventilate and grasping her chest while breathing through her teeth and nose.

"Haah, ahh, hauhh!!" She gasps, as she's raised from her back by Rainbow, now sitting upright.

"We're so, so sorry! We thought you were--" Twilight pauses, unsure how to finish this sentence, instead lightly petting Fluttershy's back in an attempt to calm her down along with Rainbow, Pinkie and Rarity fanning her face with Applejack's hat.

"Gyeh.. Hahh..." Fluttershy begins to recollect herself, asking under her hollowed breath, "W-W-What are you all doing in, hauh, Dan's h-house?"

Abruptly, RD chimes in, defiantly and direct.

"Are you kidding? We're looking for whatever hurt you! And Twilight said you were in the hospital! Why are you here?" Rainbow asks, continually petting her close friend's back trying to coax an answer. After a solid minute of support from her friends, Fluttershy manages to speak up.

"I..I thought Dan would be here. He isn't?" Fluttershy asks, confused, to the group's dismay after reading the many uncomfortably scribbled notes minutes ago she had taken and seemingly hidden. Twilight answers her, being the only one that can, and curious herself.

"He's in the waiting room, I wanted you to go to bed, and I asked him to leave you alone.... did he--" Twilight looks and sounds concerned toward her, but receives an equally concerning look and sense of tone and urgency.

"N-No, the receptionist said he left after you did, I took a nap, and checked myself out and--" Fluttershy tilts her head with wide eyes as Twilight respectfully interrupts her, believing it to be for her own good.

"Come on." Twilight holds Fluttershy by the shoulder, alongside her friends and escort her outside Dan's home and make their way back towards town.

An uncomfortable silence grows around them, Applejack and RD nearing Twilight, as Pinkie and Rarity stand beside Fluttershy in support, meanwhile she seems just as confused at the situation as a whole as the rest of them.

"...where is he, Twilight? What did he do to her?" Applejack whispers, concerned with a foreboding sense of dread. Her answer is none more comforting, Pinkie inadvertently picks up on this conversation.

"I don't know, maybe I was too harsh, I--." Twilight defeatedly answers, as they near the outskirts of Ponyville, stopping her worried line of dialogue.

'Dan, please don't do anything drastic.' She pleads to herself alone. 'For everypony's sake.'

--

Along the train lines, Daniel approaches a short stairway leading up to the wooden platform, stepping clear over onto it as he shifts a pack on his back, patting a side pocket dutifully pieced and sewn together by Rarity for his size, confirming a bundle of bits jangling inside.

'About 100 bits huh.' Dan laments to himself, trying to calculate how far he could go along the train line, only having Manehattan and Canterlot as a frame of reference for travel, both spaced very differently in terms of distance. As far back as he can remember, he didn't even pay for the trip to Canterlot, Twilight copped for that examination trip. He hadn't time, nor the mind, to pick up anything from home and feels forced to make due with what he could scrounge up on hand. Stepping to the ticket window, he spots a pony laid back sitting in a swivel chair, a light bronze-coated unicorn levitating a magazine with a light blue magic hue lazily as he hears him approach.

"Where you headed?" The pony asks, showing little concern or attention to the other individual on the opposite end of the ticket window, continuing to read with the magazine raised between them both. Silently grumbling at an awfully familiar sight back in his own world, he mutters to the rude ticket booth pony.

"... as far as the train can take me at this hour." He answers, holding back traces of emotion, but the pony picks up a different message from the exchange entirely with an amused outlook.

"Ha. What, getting away from the Ms?" The pony places down the magazine with a smirk, briefly turning to type the amount into a register before he spots the large part of a torso with Dan leaning down to be able to face the window. The pony jolts in place, surprised and having expected to see another pony, smiling nervously.

"Ghhk! Aha.. ha, uhm, one second please." The pony nervously folds the magazine to the side, tapping an amount into the register and printing out a ticket to a destination, speaking aloud to him.

"That'd be, uhh, San Palamino." The pony nervously smiles, a bundle of counted bits being slid across the glass opening beneath the pane of the window, the pony grasping via levitation magic and placing it on the counter cautiously as he slides the bits into the register.

'Why do I always get the weirdos?' The pony silently protests, as Dan picks up the ticket, stepping to the side out of view and sitting on an ill-proportioned bench now waiting for a midnight train to somewhere he's never heard of.

"..." Dan stays silent, clasping his head back into one hand on his knee, trying not to think about what may follow all this. Instead, focusing on using what he has to make a life separate from those he cares about, believing he himself is a danger to their safety.

'It's better this way, right?' He tries to reason to himself, time trudging along agonizingly slowly, as he's left alone with his thoughts and memories he'll have to try to put aside in what he deems a better outcome for his friends. The train nowhere in sight, as he checks the estimated times on the ticket for stops, surprisingly it should have been here by now.

'It's not like they'll miss much, they got along before, and they're...' Dan chokes up at the reality of it. '... stronger than I am.' But accepts it.

A realistically brief time passes, before Dan spots a light far off into the distance come into view, and begin to shine and highlight the station. He stands, stepping behind the painted border safety line, as the train blows it's characteristic air horns while approaching from a distance.

"A new life, huh..." He mutters to himself, feeling air brush past as the mass of the train slows and passes just past the platform, coming to a stop. The doors open on their own, a gush of hot steam shoots from the wheels, settling and rising upward from the gap. A pony in a train cap waits just outside alongside him, motioning for a ticket. Dan holds out the ticket, it appears the train pony is less judgmental of who rides, he surmises as long as they have a ticket. A piece is clipped off the ticket and handed back, this transaction complete, at least for this stop, which is a multiple stop ride.

Taking a deep breath, Dan steps onto the train car, seeing he's all alone inside.

'Course.' Spite runs through his head.

The belittling thought crosses his mind, as he takes a seat on the wide booth-like seats near the window, glancing outside for a few minutes, taking in the sights one last time. Ponyville lit up only slightly, home lights inconsistently dotted off or on in the distance, scarce miscellaneous lights lighting up the distant background as he looks into the commercial part of town. He crosses his arms, holding in emotions that continue to run through him uncomfortably, being compelled to look at his temporary home once more.

The train whistle blows, and the doors begin to close, separating him from his past life as the floor shuffles movement stirs. The wheels turn, the train making a chattering noise as it gets in-rhythm, it picking up a steady speed as Daniel watches the station pass by.

"..." Sitting silently, he watches landmarks pass one by one, spotting Twilight's literal treehouse library before finally the train passes Ponyville limits and he starts to see fields, eventually forestry, that obscures the way.

'It's... better this way.'

He affirms to himself, closing his eyes once more, the overwhelming drive to sleep overcoming his senses.

--

"Princess? W-What a pleasure!" A lab-coat pony speaks up from a worktable, alongside his co-workers, which all simultaneously bow before Luna, she seems less formal as she raises her hoof assuredly to them.

"There is no call for such formality. Stand, if you so please." Luna beckons them back onto their hooves regally, to slight confusion.

'All three of you should be asleep, rather, I should say.' Luna comments on their workload taking them well into the night, concerned for their sleep schedule versus their work schedule. One of them speaks up, being as polite as they can be to their highly esteemed but unexpected guest.

"I'm sorry for my forwardness, but, why have you graced us with your presence, your majesty?" One of the researcher ponies tuck a beaker and stack of papers to the side, tapping a seat by a worktable for the princess to sit, but to no return response from her.

"I wish to see what you have attempted to learn from our fair Daniel, I pray you may yet have found something of importance." Luna suggests seeing what research notes they have gathered, the ponies excitedly trot around the research wing of the building and each gather notes and drawn depictions of various parts of anatomy of this first human they have ever seen. Luna bows her head with a small smile.

"Thank you." She genuinely greets them, a sense of admiration and excitement flooding into the room, none of them having expected to come into contact with royalty or garner such attention for their research. Shuffling through the many papers, she reads what looks like a graph vaguely labelled 'Activity'. Luna asks aloud to one of them.

"What is this depicting?" She levitates the graph over to the ponies, the unicorn of the group grasping it with their magic, excitedly reading and explaining the contents.

"This is a measure of the Ser Daniel's brain activity, we ran him through a multitude of tests." The pony proudly explains, adding onto it. "But personally, I feel they weren't taken with a lot of accuracy, because our equipment is less compatible with his... unique biology." The research pony beside her looks mildly annoyed, belittling his work that he had done in front of the princess, keeping up a now strained smile in proximity to the princess. She adds on again.

"We very much intend to examine him again soon, with his permission of course, and--" The research pony is interrupted as Luna levitates a similar graph paper toward her again.

"Explain this, please." She politely asks, but it communicates as displeasure, the trio of research ponies beginning to look nervous. Another speaks instead, the previous one being awestruck, he grasps it in his hooves.

"W-Well, that is a test we normally give unicorns, we believe we may have picked up some unrelated spectrum data, as he showed more activity than we'd have expected, say from an Earth Pony, or a Pegasus. Since they lack any sort of magical prowess harnessed like Unicorns use, we assumed that--" The research pony is interrupted by Luna's commanding voice again.

"I am aware of this test, we use it to measure the initial aptitude of unicorns at my sister's school." Luna peers at it, worryingly. The third and final research pony, flies up to her with his hooves cusped at his torso.

"Princess, I-I'm sure we could refine our results, in given time and--" The pony is cut off immediately, Luna raising her foreleg.

"I wish you to take the test on me, while I sleep." Luna asks, but subtly demands, as the ponies look to her confusedly. The unicorn asking her to clarify.

"But.. princess, we don't need to see your aptitude, we know you are among the higher powered uni-- alicorns." The unicorn pony's hurried speech is halted, as Luna displays a determined expression.

"Please, humor me." Luna smiles warmly, the ponies scooting their legs nervously, unsure what to make of this strange display.

"O-Of course." The unicorn says. "We're on it!" The ponies excitedly and proudly say at once, spending the next half an hour setting up equipment.

Luna lies immobile on a stretcher bed, fast asleep, with a multitude of diodes and medical equipment pasted onto parts of her head and wired to a machine which reads brainwave activity.

Entering the dreamscape, Luna parts away the darkness through her lucid controlled state, scouring for a dream in particular she suspects to be active, searching for Daniel. In reality, the research ponies monitor her brainwave and magical output, showing a minimal variation as the needle writes steadily with only the faintest jitter. A research pony takes notes, saying aloud her observations.

"Reads as normal, as any pony, or alicorn... why did she ask us to do this?" She asks the others, as they simply shrug, they dutifully continue monitoring activity.

"Help! HEEEELP!!" Luna hears a cry from an adjacent dream bubble, spotting a young pale-yellow coated filly running, she enters the dream with fervor and observes the background. It's dark, laden with white tiles, and empty hallways, the young filly runs towards and accidentally bumps into Luna as she attempts to warn her.

"Oof!" The young pegasus filly rubs her head and eyes, spotting Luna towering above, and she excitedly stands up on all fours. "Princess Luna!" Her excited outburst is interrupted by a bellowing noise coming from down the white yet dark hallway, the filly hiding behind Luna's hind legs shaking.

"Ecccchhhhh..." A sloshing fleshy sound emanates from the hallway, Luna peering with her magic glowing bright blue along her horn, ready to banish this nightmare.

In reality, the researchers see Luna's readings spike, then irradiate steadily at an increased pace, the researchers continuing to take notes as Luna continues her encounter with a nightmare. Expectedly, Luna sees the silhouette of a pony, limping and jaggedly pacing toward them, Luna taking this moment to speak to the filly.

"What is that, little one?" She asks, moving her eyes but not her head down toward her, the filly timidly shivers and speaks.

"I-I don't know! I was dreaming, that I went to the carnival, then I was walking and when I turned I-I was here." The filly hugs Luna's leg, relying on her to keep her safe, her being pat on her head warmly by her protector.

"It's alright now. It wasn't your fault." The pony silhouette's head twitches in place while ghastly muttering loudly , stepping better into view, the filly closing her eyes to not see the monstrous creature, twisted around the neck with no facial features or ears to speak of. But in the shape of a pony with appendages, bruises present in large purple splotches, clashing with the fleshy texture of it's 'skin'. It speaks again, nonsensically, just as disturbingly.

"It's better this way."

Luna steps forward, the filly shivering in place, trying not to stare at the monstrous creature as the princess approaches it.

"Return to whatever dark pit of the mind you have emerged from!" Luna states, magic emanating and dispersing the many materials the background is made of, abolishing the setting as it fades away into miniscule wisps of conjured up thought and interpretation. The creature shakes torpidly, then actively, before finally being dispersed entirely by a decisive step from Luna as her eyes light up brightly to illuminate the darkness.

The researchers see a high spike in her brain activity, especially her magical activity, as it slowly comes back to a steady and normal reading.

The background of the young Filly's dream fades back into a carnival-like setting, playfully colored cobblestone tiles replacing the dirty and sterile setting, the walls disappearing and excited ponies trotting all around, cheerful and happy music starting to play. The young filly opens her eyes, seeing a happy setting once again, excitedly rushing to her protector and flying upward.

"Thank you, thank you princess!" She warmly hugs Luna's head, nuzzling her cheek against her's, merrily spotting the dream depiction of her family and rushing back towards them as they present a bag of popcorn to her. Luna smiles, but quickly returns back to the dreamscape, stepping through an existential plane back into the dream world where she can now look around once again.

"An unusual nightmare." Luna ponders about the specifics of that dream, assuming the young filly may have had some feeling of guilt manifesting itself in her dreams, but is interrupted again while looking for Daniel's dream by another cry for help, shrieking from a young colt. She has no time to peer into what's going on, running clear into the dream's existential plane, Luna shocked to see what she sees.

"AHHHH, AHHH!!" The young earth pony struggles, being held up by a pony-like monster, looking strikingly similar to what she just banished in another dream. She bolts towards the monster pony, it's chest opening up into a gaping tan-colored maw about to consume him, the pony struggling and crying as it nears his head.

He suddenly gets teleported out of reach and behind Luna, surrounded by a magic shield bubble, Luna taking a moment to observe the monster pony and more specifically the setting, it showing the exact same background of hospital tiles and hallways, the monster pony doesn't move from it's previous stance where it was holding up the pony. It instead, cricks it's neck, snapping as it turns to face Luna, it shuffles it's limbs back down to all fours and seems to stare, before finally saying something familiar.

"YOU'RE ALRIGHT NOW." It steps forward again, the pony stepping to the side, asking aloud at his savior.

"What in Celestia is that thing!?" Panicked and shaken, he sits upright and stays put, feeling safe in the shield bubble. Luna, however, doesn't feel so calm, actually giving him an answer.

"I.. I don't know what this is. How can you two be having the same nightmare!" Luna doesn't question the situation any longer, seeing this creature as a clear threat, she charges the monster with an inspired charge and impales it along her horn. The monster pony makes no more sounds as it burns away, becoming nothing but immaterial substance, as the dream fades to Ponyville.

In reality, the researchers watch her readings, seeing a familiar pattern, the research pony grabs her previous notes on Daniel and compares the two. She double checks it, then re-checks it, handing the notes and graphs to her colleagues as she makes audible observations.

"That can't be right, Duly, you sure you calibrated this right for the princess?" The unicorn researcher worriedly looks over her equipment strapped to her head, the research pony replies more calmly.

"Yes, I triple-checked it, not that this'd be any sort of danger to her or anypony for that matter, it doesn't do anything but read her vitals!" He reasons, but seeing the same thing the rest are seeing.

"Then WHY is she so distressed?" The research ponies scramble to understand these readings, comparing these brain activity spikes to Daniel's spikes, which were depicted very similarly. An abnormality they blamed on misaligned equipment that was incompatible, but it appears these 'abnormalities' they share.

"Take it off her." One research pony drops a clipboard and grabs the headgear attached to her, slipping it off along with the taped diodes on the sides of her forehead.

In the dreamscape, Luna senses a disturbance from her physical body, waving at the pony she just saved as his dream re-enters it's normal state.

Luna re-enters reality, waking up from her own induced sleep, blinking tiredly and rubbing her eyes. She feels as if she had a full night's sleep, despite the monstrous depictions of ponies she has banished. Her vision still blurry and out of focus, she keeps her eyes closed, rubbing her forehead with her hoof.

"What happened? Why did you stop?" Luna asks, commandingly. The research ponies look to each other, confused.

"I-I'm sorry princess, your brain activity and magic levels we're spiking, we thought you were troubled." The unicorn researcher apologizes, despite having done what they thought was the correct course of action. Luna, unexpectedly, chuckles to herself.

"I can handle anything the dreamscape can throw at me." She opens her eyes, the silhouettes of the researcher ponies coming into focus. "I assure you I am--"

Luna's heart skips a beat as she spots warped faces of the researcher ponies, guttural and bellowing phrases being muttered and obscured, deepened and pitched discomfortingly.

"Are you alright?" A silhouetted monster pony asks, as Luna flies upward with her wings extended and her magic ablaze.

The research ponies back up, nervously cornered against a worktable, as Luna's eyes glow with intensity and an angered sneer is present on her face.

"P-Princess!?" The researcher pony shrieks as Luna's horn colored hue becomes blinding.

A wave of magical energy disperses from Luna's horn, propelling waves of papers, chairs, equipment, beakers, and the ponies themselves off their feet and across the room away from Luna. The magical wave of energy passes through the walls, and out the window, shattering the building's windows and many outlooks, grabbing the attention of many ponies in the distance and multiple guards on patrol late at night nearby.

The room grows silent, as fragments of glass and equipment settle on the floor, Luna landing on her feet with her vision still obscured and her magic still bright an intense, she speaks in her royal canterlot voice, prompted to by this repeated encounter with these monstrous ponies.

"Begone dark machinations of the mind!! You do not--" Luna's vision comes back, her eyes widen in horror as reality sets in.

"... hah.. hah..."

She lowers back down onto her hooves, her mouth agape gasping, beginning to shake in the wake of her telekinetic blast she has wrought on these innocents.

A haunting phrase echoes in the back of her mind.

"It wasn't your fault."

Author's Note

Well this was a surprise, deciding to finish up this story, because it's been hanging out in the back of my mind for a time. Literally, been like 4 years.

Added to and corrected the grammar a bit from where I last left off this chapter, probably translates a lot after you read it past a certain point.

This. Was. Interesting. Because it's a neat peak at the past, and how much I've changed up how I write compared to back then! I tried to emulate how I wrote before, I hope it reads a bit better than how I structured everything before. Or if it reads just as it did before, welp, tell me and I'll see what I can improve.

Also, very unsure if I should go back and try to restructure earlier chapters of the story, or the whole thing, both because I'm apprehensive having to change it, and it'd take a pretty long time to re-read and fix all over again... heh.

Thank you to the few who may have stuck around to be able to read this, after being gone for a time (count it, 3 times now), nice to come back to something I've been meaning to come back to. I hope you may have enjoyed this extra chapter, and if you did not, well it's been a long time and there's a natural disconnect and I'll gladly accept if things are pretty different. Plus, to be frank, moved on quite a bit to how I was back then, so the translation would be spotty anyhow.

Also the whole, sad parts, and all.

Again, thank you to whomever reads this, glad to have entertained some people in the past, and hope I can try to continue to do the same in the future. If there is a call for it, or if I manage to get some inspiration, I plan to end this story with one more chapter-- this story is actually a bit too long for my tastes, and I have a fair picture on what separate story to make as a continuation or sequel. Because let's be honest, there's a lot of chapters, I don't want to add more with more and more characters.

More on this in a blog post, which I feel is better for explaining things more frequently than... not at all.

I feel this title says a lot by itself.