Crippled, Beaten and Broken.

Chains and hooks embedded in marred flesh.

Maggots squirming in a wet, raw wound.

Zap, howling in abject agony as a shadowed set of talons tore him open from groin to gullet.

Raw muscles scorched by hot iron.

Chitinous pinchers probing within a wailing mouth to uproot teeth

Zap screaming and pleading as he was pulled into the lustful embrace of a twisted creature.

Vomit spilling from a mutilated mouth.

Tears.

Shame.

Howling laughter from a gaping maw.

Princess Luna tore herself free of the dream, hurling herself backwards as she did. She landed hard, too stunned to process the jarring pain.

What had she seen? What kind of vile thing commit such atrocities against another living, breathing being? The lunar diarch shuddered violently as the phantom screams of their guest echoed in her ears.

Luna looked down at Zap, who was still whimpering softly in his sleep, the sweat from his fever glistening on his pale face.

I haven’t cleansed him. she thought sadly, and I don’t know if my mind can withstand any deeper exploration into his without his permission.

So, with a small, miserable sigh, Luna did the only thing she could think of to do.

Ryan found himself roughly pulled from the agonizing grasp of his nightmares by a silver-shod hoof belonging to Celestia’s nocturnal sister.

“Wake up, Zap. Thou must wake up!” she said urgently.

The second that he got his bearings and recognized his guest, the sickly human pulled away slightly, his weakened muscles tensing in preparation of some new torture.

However none came, as Luna smiled relievedly when she saw him look around, “Oh, thank heavens. I am deeply sorry, but I had to wake thee.”

“Wh-why?” asked Zap, looking around the white room, wondering what he’d see in the thin shadows that lurked in the corners; To his immense relief there was nothing but duly-painted wall.

Luna’s smile disappeared and she hung her head, “I am so sorry, Zap, but I was unable to cleanse you of your nightmare.”

Zap’s attention-and gaze- snapped back to his visitor, “What do you mean, y-your highness?”

“As the Princess of the Night, my job is to monitor and ease the nightly suffering of my subjects with my powers, but I am afraid that I was unable to affect thine dreams.”

Zap bowed his head and allowed the room to go silent.

“What did you see?” he asked at length, his voice carrying a sorrowful tremor.

“I….I am not sure” said Luna, suppressing a shudder, “but it was horrific; a menagerie of torture the likes of which I have not witnessed in thousands of years.”

Zap whimpered and Luna drew closer to him, laying a comforting hoof on his shoulder, thinking that a few fragments of the nightmare remained, but what he said next filled her blood with ice.

“Those weren’t dreams.”

Luna balked, then asked him what he meant, hoping that he didn’t mean what she thought he meant.

“They were memories.”

Oh no. thought Luna, holding a wing to her mouth, feeling the blood drain from her face. She looked at her charge and all at once understood the reason for his disturbing change in attitude.

Zap looked down at his lap, and at his gnarled hands, and started to cry.

Luna saw his distress and did the only thing that she could think to do: she wrapped both forelimbs and wings around him, and held him tightly as he wept into her coat, feeling tears of her own leaking out of her eyes.

“I don’t know what to do.” he sobbed, “I want to go crazy again, I don’t want to remember what the master did to me. I don’t want to sleep-please don’t let me sleep!”

“Shhh” soothed Luna, “I will help thee stay awake for now, but thou shallt need to sleep again, otherwise….otherwise thou wilt lose thine life.”

“C-can’t you cast a spell to keep me awake?” he asked, his eyes wet and pleading, his sharp teeth worrying his pale lip.

Luna sighed, then said, “I can, but I will only do this once. I should be able to figure out another way to aid thine sleep during that time.”

Zap smiled at her and Luna saw the sincere happiness through those fangs.

“Thank you.” he said.

Luna nodded and gently released him, “Thou art most welcome.”

Whatever moment the two had was ruined when Zap’s stomach growled like an angry lion, the suddenness of the sound making the human and the alicorn flinch.

“It appears as though someone is hungry.” said Luna with a smile.

Zap nodded, “Yes, very.”

“I shall get thee something myself, art thou alright to be alone?”

Zap nodded.

The Lunar Diarch got to her hooves and left the room, leaving Zap alone to savor the brief amount of peace that he’d had.

His peace abruptly vanished when he remembered something.

He looked down at his hands and slowly raised a finger to his eyes.

Back on the train…..it had to be the aftereffects of those Elements, right?

He put his finger in his mouth and bit down, only stopping when he felt the blood start to coat the back of his throat.

He couldn’t taste the blood.

He couldn’t feel the pain.

Something had happened to his senses.

He was numb.