1 month, 3 weeks, 1 day

1 month, 3 weeks, 1 day

Tic.

Tic.

Tic

'You again...' He thinks to himself.

Tic.

Tic.

Tic.

Daniel grabs a pillow, met with an angered tone,

"Don't even think about it!" She whisks the pillow away from his hands and levitates it above out of his reach, Daniel states annoyed,

"I need that you know." She retaliates with more of a sound argument and annoyed tone,

"You wouldn't have wanted to throw it then, would you?" He darts his eyes away and replies a bit embarrassed,

"Yeah, I guess n-" He's interrupted as the pillow limply drops onto his face, he's on the floor next to the bed with a nostalgic sight of a bundle of blankets he's lying on. Only this time, they're a little fancier and don't smell like sugar, as appealing as that'd be right now. Twilight huffs air through her nostrils, she tones down her attitude, looking over the bed and says sincerely to Daniel,

"I would have gladly given you the bed you know.." Daniel jokingly smirks and remarks,

"Yeah, but you didn't."

She looks fittingly irritated at his blatant mocking of her good gesture, she takes the pillow again and bops him over the top of his head with it. Darn unicorns and their freaky magic. He extends his arms and blocks the next blow, pleading sincerely,

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding! You looked stressed is all, so I set up shop down here." As more and more time goes on, Daniel starts to realize that he's -below- their stature a majority of the time instead of towering -above- them like he should at his height. She releases her magic's grip, letting him continue talking as he places the pillow back behind his head. As he lies back down, he asks,

"You looked really stressed earlier, what was that all about? When we found out the news and when we came inside here?"

She turns away in the bed and stares at the ceiling, contemplating what to answer with. She decides to be honest with him, saying,

"I don't take making mistakes well... It's one of my fears, especially big mistakes." Twilight takes her own bed's pillow and covers her face with it, practically smothering herself, knowing she won't get any sleep at this rate. She mutters something muffled beneath the pillow's inner fluff, probably something moody, which Daniel seems to not delve into about. He vaguely says,

"I know the feeling." He's inadvertently giving her more bait, which she subconsciously bites onto. She uncovers her head, her mane a mess. Twilight inquires,

"How much was this room again?" Daniel looks away, answering,

"Four hundred.."

She looks surprised, just laying back down and closing her eyes, knowing she'll end up paying it back later. She suddenly realizes something, asking further,

"...four hundred for the room, or four hundred for the week?" Daniel stretches his right arm, placing his hand over his face, he wipes it and sternly suggests,

"You can stop worrying Twilight, it's already over with." She looks unobjectively at him and adds on,

"I'll pay you back at home, alright? When we get back..don't let me forget." He's tired of her asking about the pricing and just waves his hand, turning himself away in his little makeshift bed, closing his eyes. He doesn't care, just so long as she doesn't worry about it. Twilight seems satisfied, if a bit conflicted with his answer, turning away in her own bed and brushing away her messy mane with her front leg. She thinks to herself before she closes her eyes,

'I'll ask him about it tomorrow..I can't let this slip away.'

--

Something feels wrong. Something doesn't feel right..something is out of place. That balling feeling in his stomach returns, it's not pain but a pressure he feels in his abdomen, feeling uneasy and a bit nauseous. Daniel opens his eyes, he's sat down holding his head between his legs, something's amiss. The ground's black, he knows this feeling, he's in his nightmare again. He balls his fists, knowing the abomination can't be far behind; he stands and looks around the black void. He says,

"Come to mock me again? To try to bring me down?" He taunts it, wanting it to come at him again, he's started getting tired of this same routine over and over, almost every night, though it hasn't visited in a while. He has to fight back, he -has- to, to make it go away. It's just nightmares, nothing more, they can't harm him. He holds out his arms with open hands at his sides, taunting it out loud once more,

"Well? What're you going to do now?" He hears something grumble behind him, he turns around with closed fists at his side, he sees something else as startling. He sees the cab pony, his face and the passenger's face warped and bent about the base of it's skull, it yells out at Daniel like before in the street with a gross variation of the pony's voice,

"Hey blockhead, watch where you're going! Get out of the road!"

It's voice warps and deepens and pitch throughout the sentence, the passenger says nothing. The moment Daniel thinks about stepping aside out of it's way, it fades into the void like everything else. He sighs, realizing it's trying to taunt him using today's sights and problems. He half expects a monstrous Letti to appear, but he's met instead with a sidewalk fading in, the same Twilight yelled at him to go to, but it's empty. It chose later in the day this time. Daniel looks angrily at it, deciding as he's thinking,

'I won't play your game..'

It suddenly speeds towards his feet, stopping suddenly as the edge knocks the front of his boots, he trips and falls forward onto his stomach onto the pavement.

'Fuck you..' he thinks angrily, pushing down with his open hands, making himself stand back up. It won't give him the choice, it seems. The scene looks familiar, he realizes it's trying to guide him to the construction site earlier. He suddenly feels uncomfortable, compelled to get away but he doesn't know why. He puts his hand in front of his eyes as scaffolding starts to fade in, he doesn't want to see it. He hears a voice, the abomination,

"LOOK. AT. IT." Daniel feels a mass of force hit him in the back, trying to get him to look as he falls forward, this time onto dry dirt. He continues to cover his eyes, his stomach feels queasy and he tries his best not to look. The feelings overwhelming, he doesn't want to look at it. The abomination yells at him again,

"LOOK AT IT!"

He feels a force to his right leg, he flinches and it forces him to open his eyes, he's not in the dirt anymore. To his relief he's back in the hotel room, it's morning and-

"AGH!" He grabs his lower right calf, pain ringing throughout his leg, he just kicked the bed's edge and hit it on his calf. He painfully says out loud,

"F-Fuck.." Twilight peeks from the bathroom door, brushing her teeth with a complimentary toothbrush, she mutters with toothpaste in her mouth,

"W-Wath is ith?" He yells out, answering her,

"My f-" He corrects himself, he -should- be saying that a lot less. He continues, "My leg, I kicked and it woke me up..ugh.." The pain starts to die down, he hears Twilight in the bathroom spitting out into the sink. She walks back out, her mane brushed and back in order, himself still a mess. Daniel kneels and props himself onto his feet using the bed, it's wrinkled again. She looks a little irritated, using her magic to make it again. Daniel remarks, limping slightly as he walks past her to the bathroom,

"Shouldn't a maid be able to do that?" She ignores his comment, folding up his own strewn about blankets as well as he enters the shower, closing the small door to the room. Halfway during, he thinks,

'What did I pay for if -she- does the maid's job..'

He exits, washing himself off with the small towels, pretty much just hand towels at his size. Daniel looks at himself in the mirror, staring at this stomach scar. The stitches have healed by now but it still has plenty remnants of healed over skin, the incision bordered with pink and a very light shade of red imbued in the flesh. He puts his hand on his scar, feeling the edge and running his fingers along it end to end. He doesn't feel much of anything now, but-

Twilight knocks on the door, interrupting his pointless examination of his scar, saying confidently, "We're going. We're -not- staying for a week, train or not we'll make our way back." She doesn't say how though. He thinks angrily to himself,

'Then what the heck did I pay for??'

They make their way down to the lobby, he gestures for -her- to go to the manager. He says,

"You wanted to leave early, you go ahead and tell 'em.." She rolls her eyes but silently agrees, talking to the manager and checking themselves out. She tries her best not to think about the pricing, not asking how long they booked the room for. Making their way down the street, Twilight tugs at his shirt as they're about to round the corner. She twitches her head to her left, gesturing him insistently to look. Daniel refuses subconsciously, focusing on the crosswalk as it's about to turn green. He suggests,

"Twilight, you wanted us to go. Let's -go-. " She gets impatient and grasps onto his collar with her magic, turning his torso, he balls a fist at his waist annoyed at her as he gags,

"Gah! Why'd you do th-" He looks up above her, seeing a scarily familiar area, scaffolding. Is he asleep again or? He darts his eyes back down at her, her face is normal, she just stares at him and gestures again to look. Daniel looks again the construction site, the ponies barely having made much progress, laying down more foundation. He closes his eyes, feeling the balling in his stomach again, he only opens his eyes when he hears a familiar disturbing request,

"Look at it." Twilight says insistently, copying the same words the abomination had said briefly in his very short nightmare. She's trying to get him to continue from yesterday, wanting to know why he was so fixated on it as it seemed to have sparked a reaction before. She probes with a question, with an open journal at the ready,

"Dan, think hard. What do you remember?"

He stays silent, staring at the scaffolding and it's construction workers, he blocks out her question. Twilight waves the journal in his face, seeing him stare blankly at the site, he looks frightened. In his mind, everything is a blur, but pressure isn't clamping down on his head, everything else is fading away with only the construction site remaining. The balling pressure in his stomach grows, he can't look away, he feels something he can't put his finger on, but it's strongly working it's way through his stomach to the rest of him. He starts to fall backwards, but his knees collapse and he lands on his hands as he slowly sits down, eyes still glued to the scaffolding in particular. He grabs his legs, looking past them, watching the ponies as they work.

"Dan, Dan." She waves in front of his face, not sure what to make of this type of reaction. She starts to worry, but writes down these notes in her journal anyway, trying to keep up with his behavior. She asks again,

"Dan, how do you feel?.. What are you looking at over there?" Twilight sits down beside him, trying to match his line of sight, spotting a leader among the construction ponies instructing several and pointing at a support beam. Dan suddenly mumbles under his breath,

"They're 1 foot thick...not counting the rebar supporting inside.." She thinks to herself,

'...what?'

Confused about what he just said or why he said it, she thinks back, what the heck is rebar? She ponders quickly while writing down what he just said, remembering rebar's a support for concrete. Twilight looks to confirm, seeing a manager direct several others somewhere on the second floor of the scaffolding, as they knock down one of the few remaining supports. Some gruff male ponies pick up and drag away the debris by hoof, hauling them away in small carts. Twilight asks him, though he seems to be in some sort of trance staring at them,

"...does this all look familiar to you?" She hopes to have a breakthrough, but he just sits there, staring. He doesn't look frightened anymore, but he won't stop staring, Twilight starts to get worried. She nudges his arm, trying to snap him out of it.

"Can you hear me? Dan." She resorts to grasping his shoulders and giving him a light shake, he seems to drift out of the trance a little with a quick few blinks, a little back in reality. She asks again,

"Dan? Why do you keep st-" Daniel interrupts,

"..I did that.." She looks confused, and rightly so, him pointing at said ponies hauling debris away in carts. She asks, putting some thought into it,

"Was..this was your job?..I mean, before Fluttershy found you?" Daniel lightly nods, holding his head in his palms. Twilight writes down this note, Daniel answers,

"From what I think I remember, yeah." He remarks angrily, "Pay was shit too.." He grips his hair, angry at the memory, but lets go shortly after straining his head. Twilight resists her compulsiveness to add -that- vulgar note, writing down the rest. Twilight inquires,

"Anything else? Anything?" She's at the ready to write down anything else, a little eager at his openness, albeit him being a little frustrated for some reason. Dan pleads with her a little annoyed, his hair in a mess,

"Twilight, please stop asking me about..this." He tries to shun any further memories, the balling seeping back into his guts. He figures he's said enough, but she seems to want more. Twilight insists,

"Think hard, I need you to work with me, it's for your own good." Dan thinks to himself angrily,

'You're not a fucking therapist..' She insists again, explaining,

"Look, I'm writing down everything you say and remember because..you need help. Some special kind of help."

Does she think he's crazy? Daniel looks offended, standing and pointing focused on her, the rest of the world seems to fade back into the void and the edges of his vision seems to blur. Twilight steps back, looking at his finger, then back at him wondering what exactly he's doing. He exclaims, hushed under his breath,

"I don't need -help-, what I need is to not be pestered to remember something when I don't -want- to remember." Twilight argues, saying,

"Don't you -want- to remember how you were before Fluttershy found you, and how you got here? I want to know because-" she's rudely interrupted, Daniel remarks,

"Not this!" He points at the construction site, he explains further unable to explain the emotion he's feeling, "Remembering this is making me feel...I don't know, it feels like something's trying to wiggle around in my stomach and work it's way out, but.." He seems to calm a little, but not in a better way, looking frightened again. He wipes his face and stays silent, realizing the world is fading out again, Twilight's face starts to change.

'I'm not asleep, I'm not asleep, I'm not asleep..'

He tries to calm himself down, telling himself in his mind not to act crazy, the thing in front of him isn't real. Twilight's not a monster, neither is all this black void trying to envelope his sight. Meanwhile Twilight stares at him, wondering what's going on through his head, maybe she should explain further. She places the journal back in her saddlebag, saying,

"Alright, we'll.." She compromises, so much wanting to get more out of him, but she sees he's going to breakdown at this rate. "-..we'll go if it upsets you this much." She looks to him, determined, adding, "I want to show you what I gathered these for. It's..not a doctor, I promise." She thinks to herself,

'At this rate maybe I should consider that too..'

Daniel closes his eyes, trying to take in those words. He agrees in his mind, though not saying it,

'Fine, fine..' He shakes his head, the void and warped flesh enveloping her face starts to fade at the thought of her promise. Something just doesn't sit right with him, he's thankful she can understand that. Twilight grabs his arm with her magic, insisting for them to start walking. Daniel calms a little, and thinks to himself, wanting to say it.

'Don't stress yourself over me Twilight, I don't want you ending up stressed the way I do..'

After half an hour of walking later, they reach the train station, but it seems mostly scarce. Daniel comments on the fact while looking around,

"You think there'd still be ponies rioting over there not being a train coming in for a week." Twilight darts her eyes away, saying nervously,

"Yeeaaah.." She thinks,

'What the heck is taking them so lo-'

To Daniel's surprise, he hears a train horn blare from down the station. It's coming from the opposite direction. Daniel points with his right hand on his waist,

"Err, Twilight..train." Twilight finds this a good time to explain, she pokes his leg to get his attention and says,

"I sent a letter to Ponyville last night using, well.." She flares up the magic around her horn, continuing, "They decided to help with the repairs, so it got fixed a -lot- earlier." She smiles and continues, "Train's been running to and from all morning." She gestures around the area, conveying there's very few ponies compared to yesterday. Daniel turns and faces the train, simply asking,

"They seriously got the track fixed in a night?" Daniel walks over to the door and grips the handle, opening the door.

Suddenly something familiar and pink pops out and leaps out, attaching itself to his face. He yells out, shocked,

"GAH!" He falls backwards onto the train station hard floor, a face full of pink fur too much to take, he hears a familiar high pitched squeal as he moves to try to yank it off of himself,

"Eeeeeeee!~" Twilight rolls her eyes whimsically, amused by the sight. She answers,

"Well, they had a little help.." A little pink pony as help? That all?

"Ha! Told you that's the first thing she'd do." That overly confident tone sounds familiar. Muffled by the layer of pink mane around his face, he hears another voice,

"Pinkeh, 'ya can get off of the feller now. Gotta let 'em breathe." Daniel asks out loud, still muffled by the pink pony seemingly trying to assimilate with his face with her nose,

"Dersh, Erplejick?" Applejack insists again, gesturing her hoof to her left side for her to move away,

"Pinkeh, let 'em breathe!"

Consequently Pinkie hops off his head, Daniel gasps a little, dazed by the amount of minor nuzzling he just got underneath the bundle of pink mane.

"Beh!..Augh.." He coughs, smiling at the fact he sees them all step off the train, minus Dash and Fluttershy which fly out of the train's windows, though Fluttershy seems to choose to remain quiet. Rarity doesn't seem to step out, but Daniel focuses on the other four. Daniel sits up and stands, addressing them all,

"Whoa, didn't expect any of you to come. Or..all, apparently! Rainbow, Applejack." He nods to acknowledge them, Dash asking,

"Sooo, did you two enjoy your night together?~" She tries to tease, to no real avail with either Daniel or Twilight. Dash seems disappointed by this lack of reaction and blows a strand of her mane out of her face instead, in a manner defeat. Twilight steps in and says sincerely,

"I'm so glad you all could make it!" She examines them all, noticing one missing out of the bunch. "Where's Rarity? I don't see her." Applejack answers a little moodily,

"She's still sleepin', the trip interrupted her 'beauty sleep' or somethin' so we just let her sleep it out in one of the cars... Also didn't bother lending a hoof when it came to haulin' some track out. " Applejack's interrupted by a sleepy, if not still elegant voice from the train's window,

"Oh, don't act so boorish, Applejack." Rarity softly starts to yawn, her mane only slightly a bit out of disarray from the trip. She kindly asks,

"Aaauhhh..hello Daniel, how are you this fine morning?" Daniel feels the back of his neck and answers nervously,

"Uh, surprised more than anything now..heh." Pinkie smiles and asks him with a hopeful expression,

"Did I surprise you~?" Daniel smiles and nods, adding on,

"Yes Pinkie, you did surprise me pretty good." Pinkie smiles widely all the same, her ears perk up and one twitches, obviously pretty happy to see Daniel again, despite it only being one day. Applejack smiles and rolls her eyes,

"Alright 'ya two, you both can get to know each other on the train. Twilight, you had somethin' important to do with Daniel, 'member?"

Twilights nods, pulling his sleeve and conveying she wants him to come onboard. She explains,

"Yes, and we need to go right away. We're late enough for your, well, 'appointment' in Canterlot. We better get going, we can all talk on the way back."

They all step back on the train, Pinkie takes a seat next to Daniel and clings close. Twilight's about to sit opposite from them, upon seeing Pinkie start getting her ear scratched by Daniel, she very subtly slides back out of the seat, thinking to herself,

'Nope, nope, nope, not getting stuck in the middle of that again..'

She's still thinking she saw them kissing weeks ago. She leaves them alone in the train car, Pinkie jumps up and holds Daniel's head close as she gets continuously scratched behind her ear. She makes the strange noises again, closing her eyes and softly asking in a comforted trance,

"Mmmnnn..how are you Danny?.." She takes some solace in the mild luxuriance he's giving, she lowers herself down and lies on her back along his lap. She looks up with her bedroom eyes, he remarks,

"You know, the longer I spend here, I realize how much I sleep on the floor.." He sees she's serious, he eventually picks up on it an answers honestly,

"Uh, I'm fine Pinkie. Especially with you all here to keep me company on the way home." He runs his hand along her head and down her mane, she all the while smiles warmly and wiggles a little, getting comfortable with her head on his lap. She turns her head away, he knows what that means. He runs his fingers through her mane and back down behind one of her ears, Pinkie mildly wiggles and smiles, enjoying the feeling through her body language as he resumes scratching the lower part of her right ear. Daniel jokingly asks, a little entertained by the physical response,

"You really do enjoy that don't you?" He stops scratching to wait for her to respond, she just takes a soft grip of his arm and holds his hand in place. She answers with a semi-seductive mutter and a display of same vibrant blue bedroom eyes,

"Aaahhnn..more than you know..~"

'..alrighty then, I'll just..continue..' He can't take those blue eyes looking at him like -that-, he darts his eyes away and resumes scratching behind her ear, eventually she closes them and relaxes in his lap again. She gently but steadily stretches her hind legs out, rubbing her thighs against each other as she continues to wiggle and get comfortable, Daniel sees them rub against each other and starts to get nervous. He tries to address it as he continues to scratch,

"Uhh..Pinkie." He suddenly hears the train whistle sound, he feels the whole train car shake and it seems the train begins moving. She turns her head towards him with her eyes closed,

"Hmmm?..~" He continues with the question,

"What, uh, what are you doing with your legs?.." She opens her eyes again and stares with her bedroom eyes, answering,

"Sretching..~" He panics on the inside, he laughs nervously trying to stop the building sweat starting to come up across his face,

"Ah..haha..so that's what you're doing.." He's surprised by a tugging force to his shirt, he's brought down a little lower, forced to put one knee on the seat. She pulls him down insisting,

"Lie with me..~" He thinks to himself,

'Uh, uh ,uh!' This feeling feels familiar, he beginss panicking his mind. 'P-Pinkie, the others are on the train too in the next car over, control yourself!' he screams in his head. He tries to pull away but she has her hooves wrapped around his neck, she keeps staring at him. A familiar, but unexpected voice asks out loud across the train car suddenly,

"Pink, Dan!"

'Oh dear god, don't let them see us..' It's Rainbow, just entering from the other side of the car across from them. He tucks his legs in on top of the seat and ducks, trying to stay out of sight with the backs of the seats blocking her line of sight of them. Pinkie seems to snap out of her sultry tone, she's about to say something out loud to address her friend when Daniel suddenly covers her mouth to stop her. She blushes as he thinks to himself,

'See what you did, see what you do when you want to do...-that-, here? Shush you inglorious pink pony..' They both stay silent as Dash asks out loud again, confused not seeing them in the train car,

"Hellooo? Where are you guys?" She leans slightly to her right, trying to spot them, but to no avail. She sighs, walking back into the other car, disappointed that she couldn't tease -them- a little. Daniel takes this opportune moment to whisper disapprovingly at her,

"What are you doing? You want them to catch us like this?" She smiles underneath his hand and gently nips his hand, saying,

"Oh, Daniel, I didn't expect you to be this..f-forward..~" There's the bedroom eyes again..

He's dumbfounded, whispering to her,

"Me?? What about you!" she silently giggles and answers,

"I just wanted to lie down with you silly~" She stretches out her legs, they're between his legs as he's on all four's over her while she's lying on her back on the long seat. She explains further,

"The ride here took a few hours, so I got all stiff.." She stretches again and retracts her legs, rubbing them together again and saying in her sultry tone,

"B-But I didn't know you wanted to lie with me like..like -this-..~" She thinks to herself, exploding in her mind while trying to stay calm and collected on the outside as she gushes at what she thinks is him coming onto her.

'ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh!!~ Doesn't he know that everypony's in the other car?..~"

'Abort, abort!' he yells at himself on the inside.

He didn't mean to instigate a move on her, confusing her teasing and toying with his mind for -her- making a move on -him-. He explains nervously,

"P-Pinkie, I think your misunderstood my intent..I-I didn't mean to imply so strongly that I wanted to..erm.." He looks down, he realizes he's on all four's hovering on top of her, having covered her mouth while they're alone in the train car a minute ago. Perhaps he should have checked his own body language first before criticizing Pinkie's so silently. She replies a little nervously,

"I-I don't mind if that's what you mean..h-heh..~" She pulls him closer with her hooves around his neck, their noses about to touch and her mane so elegantly crushed beneath her head and back, blanketing the seat. Daniel's heart begins racing along with Pinkie's, both trying to stay collected and calm, both also about to explode from the inside from varying emotions. He feels her warm breath against his face, she can feel his overwhelmingly sized body hovering just above her, both stay silent and just stare at each other; confusing their own intents and body language for something else.

"Danny..~" She clasps her hind legs gently on his waist, locking them in on top of each other.

'..Oh boy..' he thinks.

'..whoa nelly..' she thinks.

Author's Note

Plight. By definition: a dangerous, difficult, or otherwise unfortunate situation. Often used to describe a specific type of problem or ongoing problem on a global or individual scale.

Whichever part you decide to associate that with is your own choice. :D End bit is definitely an..unfortunate situation to be in, but not the definition above.

Sorry for this being a few days late, some stuff I had to take care of and I couldn't put myself in the mood to write for the life of me. Couldn't find the time to get myself into a theme especially. Chapter was originally supposed to end a little more 'eventfully' to sat the least, but I figured something a little bit more implicit could replace it after it being able to think on it.

Interesting note, not once yet have I detailed Dan and Pinkie kissing once. Just a lot of hugging and nuzzling. A boops! My favorite line for this chapter is,

"Daniel asks out loud, still muffled by the pink pony seemingly trying to assimilate with his face-"

I also learned that I broke 500 views, so am happy on that note :D Thank you all again for reading thus far, will try to be a bit more attentive in the near future. Will try working on the next chapter in the morning. Is currently 11:10 PM at the time of writing this message.