Sessions
This story takes place after one or two months after the main events. You decide
The young pony mare sat in her office, reading a book to pass the time, waiting for one of her new patients to arrive for his session. She had heard a lot about her new patient. He wasn't exactly a pony, nor was he anything from Equestria. She heard that he was a human, a very young human, who was brought here by the mane six. She also heard that he was abused by the one who was supposed to protect him, his father.
She sighed, as she pulled out his case file that his new guardian, Rainbow Dash had the mayor of ponyville make for him. With the help of Princess Twilight, Rainbow gave the mayor the details of what happened to Drake. She just looked at it, with mixed feelings. She felt bad for Drake, and what happened, just like she did with all of her other patients that went through some sort of, or even the same time type of trauma.
The mare also heard that ever since he got here, he was having some sort of "problems" due to his trauma, and this was something she had dealt with before, she wasn't no stranger to it.
I wonder how the human mind works, is it like or ponies mind, or is it different...? The therapist thought to herself. Will this be different then the others that I worked on..? Will it be more difficult...? She shook her thoughts away, when a loud knocking came from the door. The door opened, revealing another mare, this one having a small bright smile on her face.
"Your new patient just arrived, will you see them now?" She asked, and the therapist mare nodded her head.
"Yes, send him in." She replied. The other mare nodded, as she closed the door, and went to go get her new patient. She sat on one of the sofa's in the room, as she waited for her new patient, Drake.
Rainbow Dash had just landed in front of a building, after flying down from her cloud mansion. She had somepony, or more like someone on her back. That someone was the human child that she adopted, whose name was Drake. Many of the ponies of ponyville had met him, and thought he was a small, well mannered child. However, that wasn't always the case with him. There was something wrong with him, and that's why they were at that building that Rainbow landed in front of.
"Alright, we're here." Rainbow Dash said, as Drake got off of her back. She looked down at him, with a hopeful look. She hoped that doing this would help the child, which she overtime started to grow a mother and son relationship. As they walked into the building, they were greeted by a mare, and when she saw them, she put on a smile, already expecting there arrival.
"Hello," She greeted, walking up to the cyan mare. "You must be Rainbow Dash, and this must be Drake...." Drake waved his hand with nervousness in response. Rainbow gave somewhat of a cocky smile towards the mare.
"Hi, we're here to see the therapist." Rainbow said, looking down at Drake. "It's for my adopted son here." She rubbed his back with her hoof. The mare smiled, as she turned to the door.
"I'll go get her." She said, as she walked to the office door. Rainbow looked back down at Drake, this time having a look of concern on her face.
"I know that you're totally a awesome little dude, and that you can do this by yourself, but...." Rainbow Dash stopped for a minute, before continuing. "Are you sure that you want to do this by yourself? You really don't have to, I can come in there with you if you want me to...." Drake let out somewhat of a warm smile towards her.
"Yeah, I'm sure. "Drake said. "After everything that's happened, I just really, really need to do this, if I'm ever going to be normal..." Hearing this made Rainbow's heart ache, which was rare for her.
"Don't be down on yourself like that, believe me it isn't your fault." Rainbow said, as she lightly hugged Drake. "I will always think of you as the coolest little human I met, and I'll always think of you as my son. Even though I'm not too big on therapy, I think it's a great way to get over what happened." Drake once again smiled, as he returned Rainbow's hug.
"Thanks mom." He said, and Rainbow even with her tomboy and tough personality, she just couldn't help but to let out a soft smile. The mare came back to them, with that same smile on her face.
"She'll see you now." She said, before walking back behind her desk. Rainbow gave Drake one last pat on the back.
"Good luck in there little buddy." She said, Drake nodded. He gulped down his nervousness, as he walked up to the half opened door. He let out a breath of air, before opening the door all the way, revealing the therapist mare, who was drinking a cup of warm tea.
"Hello there, you must be Drake." The unicorn mare set down her tea with her magic, as she pointed a hoof over to the other sofa in the room. "I've heard a lot about you, please sit." Drake did as he was asked, and sat down on the other sofa, as the unicorn gave him a look of joy.
"I'm glad you came," She started. "This shows that you're serious on getting better with your mental health, and I'll be happy to help you with that." Drake just looked down nervously. He hadn't really talked with any other ponies besides the mane six and Rainbow Dash, so he was definitely unsure about talking with this pony. She noticed this quickly, as she usually did with her other patients.
"Don't worry, you can trust me," She said again. "All we'll be doing is talking. Talking about what's been bothering you, no medicine, no forms to fill out, just simple talking." This earned Drake's trust a little, though he wasn't completely convinced. The therapist pony levitated two cups, and poured tea in both of them.
"Have some of this, it'll relax your nerves." She said, levitating a cup over to the young child. He grabbed the tea, and slowly took a sip of it. The therapist was fascinated by this human, but she shook those thoughts away, as she knew that she was meant to be helping him. "My name is Dr. Crystal, or Crystal Blade, which ever one you prefer." She then took a quick sip of her own tea, as Drake was about to say something.
"My name's... Dr-Drake..." He said, with a hint of insecurity in his voice. Crystal Blade set her tea down, as she warmly smiled at him.
"That's nice to know." She said, even though she already had his name. She put on a serious face however, before saying more. "Now, I want you to tell me what happened. How you came to this world, and what your problems are right now that I might be able to help you with." Drake got a look of uneasiness again, and Crystal just gave him a reassuring smile, which pushed him to tell her his tale.
"W-well, ever since I was born, my dad hated me, b-because my mom died giving birth to me..." He started, as tears began to fall, as memories of all the beatings, all of the pain and suffering his father caused began to come back to him. "He w-would hit me, and call me n-nothing but a little mistake. I-I believe that he really wanted to kill me, b-but he never did..." This made Crystal's heart ache, as she only once ever had to deal with a case of a parent doing something like that to a colt, but last time it was over exaggerated, as the parents last time didn't hurt her patient , but just grounded him a lot for misbehaving. This time was different. There was real abuse going on here.
"Keep going, I'm listening." Crystal said, as Drake just slowly nodded, as he continued.
"Then, o-one day, after school, I hid in a alleyway, to hid f-from my dad, and t-that's when my n-new mom found me....." Drake continued. "She was a pony, and I b-brought her back to my house to stay with me, until she could find her friends, b-but while she was there, m-my dad came back home, and was about to do something v-very bad to me, but she saved me..." Drake sighed, as he didn't really want to tell her the next part.
"B-but me dad got a hold of her, and there was knife on the table..... I just panicked, and...." He couldn't hold it in anymore, as he let the stream of tears flow down his face. Crystal could feel emotions of sadness weal up inside her as well, she was feeling bad for the young human.
"It's alright, I believe that it also wasn't your fault. It can happen to the best of us." She said, putting on a smile to make Drake feel better. "If you would like to continue, then please do, I want to help you anyway I can, and the best way of doing that is if you can talk with me." Drake understood, as he continued his story, even if it was hard for him to do so.
"Well, after that, we left my house, and we found all of mom's friends that she had. The night they were all there, I nearly jumped off a cliff because of a nightmare that I had, where some weird and scary version of mom said that no one would ever love me, and a lot of voices were telling me to end my life, but mom saved me again. She said that the version of her in my nightmare wasn't real, and that she would care for me from that point on." Drake smiled at that, and so did Crystal. However, she knew that his story didn't end there, if it did, then he would have no reason to be there.
"Tell me what happened next, after you came to Equestria." Crystal Blade said. Drake sighed as it was a bit of a long story to cover.
"Well, after we got back here..." Drake started explaining his story to Crystal, as she slowly started to learn what was going on in the young child's mind.
Flashback...
Rainbow's eyes started to open, her vision once again returning to her, as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes. It was daytime outside, but something looked different, yet familiar to her. It was at that moment she realized that she was back in Equestria. She swiftly looked around, and saw that all of her other friends were there as well, along with a seventh one, that wasn't a pony.
"Uh.... What just happened....." Twilight asked, rubbing her head, trying to relief some of the pain she felt in that certain area.
"I think we're back...." Rainbow Dash replied, as her other friends began to awake from there short lived slumber.
"I feel tires! What happened?!" Pinkie said, bouncing around. It seemed like she wasn't all that tired, but then again she was bouncing slightly slower, but it was barely noticeable. They all turned their attention to the groan of a young colt that their eardrums picked up.
"Wha..... What happened...?" Drake asked, as he got up. His eyes grew larger however, when he saw that everything around him looked like a cartoon. Everything was colorful and pretty to him, but his real life appearance didn't change.
"Drake!" Rainbow Dash said, hovering in front of him. "Are you okay?" Drake nodded, looking around the world, and down at his hands too.
"Yeah, I'm fine...." He said, looking around the area they found themselves in. "This place looks pretty!" They all chuckled at that.
"Well, this is your home now, we hope that you'll enjoy it." Rainbow Dash said, with a smirk, but happy smile. "Like I said before we left, you can stay with me, but I'll probably have to move out of my cloud mansion, but that's fine with me." Her friends all gave her a approving nod.
"Thank you, mom...." Drake said. He wasn't used to calling her that yet, and neither was Rainbow however, it gave her a warm feeling whenever he called her that, and the same was for him.
"What will you do with your cloud house? "Drake asked, and Rainbow already had an idea.
"I think I'll just sell it to some Pegasus who wants it, I guess." Rainbow replied, patting him on the back. Drake was curious about what her house looked like. He'd never seen a nice looking house before, let alone one that was made out of clouds.
"Before you sell it... can I maybe.... Have a look inside it?" He asked, with somewhat of a pleading voice, though it wasn't very clear. "I've never been inside a house made out of clouds before... I just think it's kind of cool." Rainbow smiled once again at the child.
"Of course you can." She said, looking at Twilight. "Twilight knows a spell that can let you walk on clouds for three days only, so we could do that." Twilight nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, I can perform the spell on all of us, so that all of us can go." She said, with a soft smile. "I have the spell memorized in my mind, and once were done looking at Rainbow's house, I can send a letter to Celestia saying we're back and that we brought you here with us." They all once again nodded, as she began to focus her magic on her horn, as it started to glow with a lavender light. The same light appeared around all of the ponies except Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Drake.
Once Twilight stopped using her magic, they all slowly lost their glow as well, but were a bit surprised to see that it didn't have any effect on Drake.
"That's weird, it didn't work for you," Twilight said, looking at the young child. "I did the spell on you too, I wonder why it didn't work." Rainbow quickly stepped into the conversation.
"Well, he doesn't need that spell in order to see my house." She said, with a confident look. "He can just ride on my back up there, it's will work just as good as that spell." Twilight was unsure, due to the risk of him falling off, leading him to fall through the clouds.
"You have to be extremely careful if you let him ride on your back up there, he does have a chance of falling off, you know." Twilight said, and Rainbow understood the risk.
"Don't worry, Twilight. I'll be twenty percent more safer with him." Rainbow informed, as the rest of her friends giggled.
"I guess we should get going... If you don't mind...." Fluttershy said, rubbing her foreleg with her other one. They all nodded, as they walked out of the open field they found themselves in. As they were walking though, Drake noticed something. It shocked him, but the rest didn't notice his shock. He saw a dark, shadowy figure in the distance, watching them. The weird part about it was that, it looked like it was a human.
"What the.....?" He said, looking back in confusion, but by then, the figure was already gone.
"Kid? What's wrong?" Rainbow asked, turning around, noticing he was looking at something, something she couldn't see.
"Nothing." Drake quickly replied, turning around to face the cyan mare. "I just thought I saw something strange out there.." He pointed a finger out towards the open field, and again, there was nothing there. Drake shrugged it off, as he turned and started walking with the others again.
"Where is your house anyway?" Drake asked, looking around, rubbing the back of his head. "I know it'll be in the sky because it's made out of clouds, but where in the sky?" Rainbow chuckled at this.
"Well, why don't you hop on, and we find out for ourselves?" Rainbow said, as she let Drake climb onto her. Twilight and Fluttershy were already good, but Twilight needed to levitate the others so that they could also get up. They all got into ready positions, as they all took off from the ground, and started to fly upwards, towards the cloud mansion. The flight was short lived though, as her house was close from where they were at.
"Wow! We got here fast!" Pinkie said, as Twilight let her step onto the clouds of the house, along with the rest of her friends she was levitating. Rainbow landed in front of the door, making sure that Drake couldn't fall off, as she slowly opened the front door to her house. Pinkie didn't need to use the door, as she just bounced through the walls, which they rolled their eyes at a bit at her antics, but the giggled as well. They stepped into the cloud mansion, as Drake looked around in awe.
"This is so cool...." He said, words couldn't describe how he felt at that moment, even though he couldn't actually feel the clouds, it was still a awesome sight to look at.
"Well, this is my house after all." Rainbow Dash replied, as she looked around the area, for what seemed to be the last time. "I guess selling it is the best choice for you to live with me..." She sighed, as she walked forward. However, what she forgotten was the lump in the floor that she had to get fixed, but always forgot to do so. She tripped just a little, not even falling on the clouds, but the sudden jolt caused Drake, who was no longer holding onto Rainbow Dash, to fall off.
"DRAKE!!!" They all shouted, bit they stopped however, when they all realized that Drake was still there, and he didn't fall through the clouds.
"What the...." He said again, as he hopped a little on the clouds. He couldn't fall through.
"Wait, but I thought that Drake couldn't walk on clouds?" Rainbow asked Twilight, the confusion clear in her voice. Twilight was also confused. Drake wasn't a Pegasus, he was still human, so how could he walk on clouds?
"I don't know..." She replied, then she remembered something before they teleport-ed back to Equestria. Drake was holding onto Rainbow Dash. It was just a theory, but it could be the reason why Drake could walk on the clouds.
"Rainbow Dash, remember how Drake was holding onto you when I was taking us back here? " Twilight asked, and Rainbow nodded, her memory of that was clear.
"Yeah, I remember, but what does that have to do with anything?" Rainbow Dash asked, and Twilight had somewhat of an answer.
"Well, maybe when we were teleport-ed, some of your DNA mixed with some of his." She replied, Rainbow Dash was still confused however. "You see, Drake was next to you when we came back to Equestria and somehow, some of your DNA mixed in with some of his, and since you're a Pegasus, that gave him the ability to walk onto clouds." It was still confusing, but Rainbow Dash sort of understood what Twilight was saying.
"So that's why the cloud walking spell didn't work, it was because he could already do that, right?" Rainbow asked, and Twilight just nodded. "Will he grow wings? Can I teach him how to fly?" Twilight was unsure about these questions, as she wasn't sure if he would grow any wings.
"I don't know Rainbow." She said, rubbing the back of her head. "I guess only time will tell." Rainbow nodded, understanding. She looked back down at Drake, a smile crept across her muzzle.
"Well, I guess you'll get to live here then." Rainbow Dash said, wrapping a wing around the small form of the child. "I'll just have to move my house closer to the ground so that it'll be easier for you to get to." Drake let out a smile, as he wrapped an arm around her neck.
"Thank you...." He said, and the others dawwed at this. Rainbow looked at them, with an irritated, yet embarrassed stare for showing her soft side.
"Don't tell anypony about this!" She said, and the others just did the motion of zipping their mouths closed with their hooves. "Alright then, I think I should start moving my house closer to the ground." As she said that, she quickly flew outside, and they all felt the house start to move down, slowly as to not injure them.
Drake had something on his mind, like he usually did, though this time it was about the thing he saw earlier. The weird shadow thing.
I think I know what that thing is.... He thought to himself, as he looked around the house a couple more times. He smiled, as he knew this is where he would be living. He would be living with the pony who saved him. I wished for a new mommy, and I got one...
End of Flashback.
Crystal leaned in through out Drakes story. She thought it was most interesting, and somewhat adorable at how he described his mother and son relationship. What got her really curious however, was the dark shadowy figure that Drake said he saw. She already had a couple theory's of what it could be.
"I'm so happy for you that you're living with the element of loyalty now, but what I really want to know, is what was that shadow thing that you saw?" She asked, and Drake looked down at his hands. The thought of that thing just made his skin crawl, it was horrifying to say the least.
"That monster...." Drake started. "I don't know why it wants me to die, I don't know why it wants to hurt me, but it doesn't, and it scares me thinking about it! I don't even know if that thing is real, or if it's just something that I came up with in my mind, but it's always there, watching me." Crystal put on a serious face, as she knew that Drake wasn't lying. She could tell when her patients were lying.
"I believe that this shadow monster that you say you see is real, I do." She said, now putting on a warm, comforting smile. "I also believe that it can;'t just go away, no matter how much you try to ignore it." She knew of other therapist that said ignoring stuff like this would make them go away, but that just wasn't the case.
"Y-you do...?" Drake asked, looking up at her. She smiled, as she replied.
"Of course I do." She said, before adjusting herself in a more comfortable sitting position. "Now, I want you to tell me what this shadow monster is doing to you that scares you so much." Drake let out a sniffle, as he started to explain what it did.
"W-well, it's like my father, but it doesn't look anything like him." He started, as Crystal Blade started to write down what he was saying. "It says that all I am is a waste, and sometimes, when I'm near it, I feel a lot of pain, like someone was hitting me really hard." She wrote down everything that he said.
"Thank you for telling me that." Crystal said, as she placed the notebook and pencil she was writing with. "I know that must have been hard, talking about things you don't want to talk about, but this is how ponies heal, it's bound to work on humans to." She then leaned back into her sofa.
"Y-yeah..." Drake agreed, looking around the office. He noticed that there were a lot of bookshelves, and all of them were filled with books. "Why do you have so many books?" Crystal let out a smile, seeing that Drake was starting to open up more and more to her the longer this session went by.
"I really like to collect books, it's just a hobby that passes the time for me." She said, walking up to one of the bookcases. "My house no longer has enough room to keep all of these books in, so I just keep the ones that don't fit inside my office." She walked back to the sofa, glad she made some sort of trust bond with him.
"T-that reminds me of Twilight..." Drake replied, with a small smile. Crystal also knew that Twilight was one who liked to collect books, maybe even more than she did.
"I know," She said, with a smile accompanying her face. However, she remembered why he was there, to fix his broken mind. "What happened after that? When was the next time you saw the shadow?" Drake gulped, knowing what happened next. It was burned into his mind.
"Well...."
Flashback.....
It was a week after Drake came to Equestria, and quit a lot happened since his arrival. He started to go to school, and he made new friends, three in particular, whose names were Scootaloo, Applebloom, and Sweetie Belle. He hadn't seen the shadowy figure since the week he had arrived there. His new guardian and mom, Rainbow Dash, was mostly busy, working on the adoption papers and with her job, but she promised that after she was done with all of that, she would spend her time with him.
It was another day after school, and Rainbow Dash was working on some paper work for Drake. For some reason, the mayor gave her a lot to work with, so that's why she was busy. Since he didn't want to go home and disturb her, he asked if he could spend time with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, and she said that it was fine with her.
The school bell just rung, indicating that school was now over for the day, so all the students started to walk out of the school, Drake being one of them. He looked around for the CMC'S, and quickly spotted them making their way out of the building. When they saw Drake, they quickly made their way over to him.
"Hey Drake!" They all said, in their usual hyper active selves.
"Oh, hey...." He replied, waving his arm nervously. Even though he considered them to be some of his closest friends, that didn't stop the fact that he had only met them a week ago, and that he wasn't really used to this world yet made it hard for him to interact without being nervous.
"So, are you ready to go to the clubhouse?" Applebloom asked, and Drake in response just nodded his head. They all let out a loud YAY! It caught Drake off guard, but he was sort of expecting it, it still shocked him though.
"Sorry..." They apologized, causing Drake to let out a warm smile.
"It's alright. I just wasn't expecting it, you don't need to apologize." He replied, causing the three fillies to beam with joy. They all started to walk off towards the said clubhouse, when they heard a voice of a familiar filly.
"Look, it's the blank flanks and the monkey boy!" The voice of the school bully, whose name was Diamond Tiara, along with her friend Silver Spoon. Drake let out a sigh. Not a tired, or even a heavy sigh, it was an annoyed sigh. He was annoyed with these bullies, he was never scared of them, he just found them annoying like they were looking for some sort of attention.
"What do ya want, Diamond Tiara?" Applebloom asked, she too was annoyed at Diamonds teasing.
"Oh nothing." She said, before putting on a devilish smile. "I'm just here to remind you that you're still blank flanks, right Silver Spoon?" Silver Spoon nodded.
"Yeah Diamond." She said, getting a similar that her friend had on. "I don't think they will ever get their cutie marks, except maybe for being total losers, and monkey boy over here can't even get his cutie mark, so that makes him meaningless in life!" The two fillies laughed, as the CMC'S lowered their heads, but Drake wasn't amused.
"Is that the best you can come up with?" He asked, crossing his arms, and giving the fillies a disapproving look. They stopped their laughing, and shot a glare at him.
"What was that?" Diamond Tiara asked, putting a hoof on her ear. "I think monkey boy is trying to say something, but I don't know what because I don't speak monkey!" The two once again burst out into laughter, as Drake took a couple of steps towards them.
"Listen..." He growled, causing the fillies to once again put a halt on their laughter. "I don't care about what you say to me, no matter how much you try, do you want to know why? Because I've faced horrors you could never imagine, I've been through stuff that you could never understand. I had someone in my life who hurt me more than you two could ever dream of. I wont listen to any of your teasing, but you will NOT make fun of those three, do you understand?" The fillies, now a bit shaken up by his little speech, just nodded their heads, as they ran off.
The CMC'S just stood there, in shock about what had just happened. Drake rubbed his head, as he felt a little headache coming on.
"Sorry about that...." He said, rubbing the pain away. "I got a little carried away, I just hate seeing others getting picked on because something stupid." The CMC'S looked at each other, concern filling their eyes. They didn't know about the horrors that Drake went through. They also noticed that Drake didn't really talk with other boys, he just mostly talked with them, and some of the other fillies in the class.
"Drake... Are you alright...?" Sweetie Belle asked, with a soft, caring expression.
"Yeah, what did you mean by horrors that you could never imagine?" Scootaloo asked, and Drake got a little tensed by this.
"I don't really want to talk about it right now." He said, as he looked at them. "Anyway, lets get back to the clubhouse." With that, they all nodded, walking in the direction it was at. The CMC'S also noticed that he was looking down at the ground while walking. There was something wrong with him, that was for sure.
The walk there was mostly quit, deadly quit, as all the noise around them just seemed to disappear, as if it never existed at all. Finally, after that awkward walk, they reached the clubhouse, where the CMC'S tried to come up with all sorts of different ideas to achieve them.
"Well, we're here." Scootaloo said, as she and the other made their way up into it. Drake still had his head lowered, as he entered the clubhouse with the rest of them.
"Alright, this Cutie Mark Crusaders meeting is now in order, let me do row call really quick, Scootaloo?" Sweetie Belle called out, and Scootaloo replied with "Here"
"Applebloom?"
"Here."
"I'm here, and Drake?"
""Here" He said, Sweetie Belle putting on a smile.
"Alright then, I guess since everypony and human is here, lets get started on what we should do today...." Drake wasn't really listening, as he was just looking out the crusaders window, watching the wind blow, and all life move around him. As they were talking, he noticed something move in the distance. The thing that was moving, was some sort of shadowy figure, the same one that he saw on the first day he arrived. He let out an audible gasp as he fell back in shock when he noticed it.
"Drake?! Whats wrong?" Applebloom asked, walking over to help him up, and so did the rest of the crusaders. He looked out the window again, and saw that the shadow was gone again.
"I thought I saw a weird shadow thing...." He replied, now getting a little paranoid. "I'm sorry if I scared you..." The CMC'S poked their heads out the windows, bit they didn't see anything.
"Girls! I know what we can get out cutie marks for..." Scootaloo said, and it seemed that they all had the same idea.
"CUTIE MARK MONSTER HUNTERS YAY!!!!!!" They shouted, Drake covering his eyes in the process. "Sorry Drake." They said as he got back up.
"It's fine," He said, looking at the three. "Yeah, we can try to find that weird thing, but we might not be able to." They let out a softer yay, as all four of them walked out of the clubhouse. As they left, they looked around for any signs of it, Drake wasn't really even sure if he wanted to find it. What would it accomplish? In his mind, it seemed like it would make him gain nothing.
"Hey Drake....." Sweetie Belle said, causing him to snap out of his thoughts. He looked down at the white unicorn, who once again had looks of concern in her eyes. "We know somethings bothering you, and when we asked our sisters why you were brought here, they said that they shouldn't tell us, because it might scare us...." The rest of them nodded in agreement. Drake in response to all of this, let out a heavy sigh, as he stopped in his tracks, and just plopped himself onto the ground.
"Drake...?" Applebloom asked, as he looked up at the three of them.
"You girls deserve to know what happened to me, you really do," Drake started, as he let out one last sigh. "That's why I'm going to tell you everything that happened, and why I always seem sad..." After saying this, he went on to explain everything his father did to him. All the abuse and everything else just came washing out of him like a waterfall. Once he was done with his explanation, the CMC'S just stood there, stunned, not sure of what they should do.
"D-did that really happen to you?" Sweetie Belle asked, and Drake nodded. They couldn't believe it, they didn't want to believe it, but judging by his face, he wasn't lying to them.
"Drake.... We're so sorry..." Applebloom said. She didn't know her parents very well, but just the thought of a parent doing that to their own child made her shake. All three of them walked up to the human child, and all three of them wrapped him into one big group hug. Drake didn't feel cold at that moment, like he was before. Instead, he was feeling warm and fuzzy, the complete opposite of cold and alone.
They all started apologizing at once, saying things like, "We're so sorry we made you say that." and "We shouldn't have asked." Drake just smiled, as the group hug broke.
"It's alright, it's just something that's painful to remember." He said, as he got off from the ground. "Anyway, lets get back to looking for that thing." They all nodded in agreement, as they continued to make there way down the trail, just like they did when they were first coming to the clubhouse. They decided to split up, Scootaloo going with Drake, and Sweetie Belle going with Applebloom.
"Maybe it went this direction?" Sweetie Belle suggested, pointing a hoof one way, while Drake thought it might have went the other way.
"What about this way?" He suggested, pointing the other way. Sweetie Belle put her hoof up in thought.
"I think we should split up, and check both directions." Sweetie Belle suggested, and Drake didn't seem to mind that idea.
"Yeah sure, lets do that." Drake replied. They both walked down the paths they choose, Sweetie's going into a somewhat clear field, while Drake went into a path that had a lot of trees surrounding it.
"Well, this is a dark part of the forest..." Drake said to himself, as he continued to walk down the path. While walking, he started to get the feeling. The feeling like something was watching him, using the shadows of the trees as cover. Drake looked around, but saw nothing. Not another soul was in sight.
"Hello....? Is anyone out there?" He asked, looking at some trees. There was no response, except for the silence of the small area of trees that Drake thought was a forest. He shrugged it off, and turned to start walking again, but instantly froze in place. There, standing in front of him, was the shadowy creature, it's white glowing eyes staring at him with hatred. This caused Drake to take a few steps back, fearing the monster.
It started to walk closer and closer to the child, who just kept backing up in fear. The closer it got, the more Drake could feel pain come from inside his head. It hurt so bad that it caused him top fall on his knees, holding both sides of his head with his hands. The monster seemed to have an arm, it used it to reach out towards Drake, and it seemed like it was going to go towards his neck.
"Drake?" A familiar, raspy voice called out. It was a voice that he had grown to love, as it belonged to the pony that saved him. As soon as she called out his name, the pain in his head vanished, and so did the creature.
"Mommy!" He shouted, latching himself onto Rainbow Dash, who had just landed on the ground .
"Whoa there, little buddy." Rainbow said, wrapping a wing around him to try and calm him down. It worked, as Drake stopped his tears. "That's better, now tell me what happened?" Drake looked up at her, still having some tears sting the sides of his eyes.
"Th-there was a monster that tried to get me." He said. Rainbow, knowing that there were timber wolves near, gave him a serious look.
"What did this monster look like?" Rainbow asked, with a serious tone in her voice.
"It was all black, and it had white eyes. It looked like it was a shadow." Drake said. The next part he said after that shocked Rainbow Dash. "I...It looked like a person!" A person. Not a pony, but a person. This set off alarms in Rainbows head, as she knew how crazy the humans back in his world were.
"Are your friends alright?" She asked, and Drake nodded. He was sure that the monster didn't get them, due to it attacking him. "Alright, I'll get my friends to search for this shadow person thingy, don't you worry. Come on, I'll take you home first." With that, Rainbow let Drake get onto her back, but not before getting the crusaders, and leading them back to Applejack's, and explaining what happened to her.
After that, she took him back to her cloud house, which wasn't that far off from the ground. Once they were inside, Rainbow, knowing that she couldn't leave him alone, told him that Lyra and Bon Bon would come over to keep an eye on him , due to them living near her cloud house. With that, Rainbow flew out, leaving Drake there. He didn't mind of course, he knew that she had to find this monster, otherwise something bad could happen to ponyville.
As he walked around, accompanied by Rainbows pet turtle Tank, he walked around the house. He walked by and saw a desk in the living room. He read the papers on it to the best of his ability. He could read it pretty well, due to him having a very high reading level in school.
I Rainbow Dash, here by claim to take full responsibility of the 5 year old human child, Drake Dash, into my full and loving care, If help is needed to take care of him, I'll have the help of my friends, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight, or any of my other friends if needed to be supervised.
Drake smiled, as he could tell that his new mom put a lot of work into this, with the help of her friends of course. It looked like she just got done finishing it, as the ink she used hadn't dried off yet. Suddenly, he felt something replace the feeling of happiness inside him. It was emptiness, not only that, but what seemed to be darkness.
He walked inside the kitchen, and saw the cabinet that Rainbow kept the silverware in. He walked over to it, as he did notice the shadow watching him through the window, but he paid it no mind, as he opened it, as pulled out a kitchen knife. He didn't cut himself, he didn't hold it close to his neck or anything like that. Instead, he just stared at it.
Suddenly, he quickly put the knife back, as he heard the front door open, and the voice of Lyra calling out.
"I'm in here." Drake said, getting back his normal not sad personality. He had no idea what had came over him, but he was happy now that those two were there. Lyra did like to research humans, but she wasn't overly obsessed with them like the other ponies say she is. She did believe that humans existed in another universe, but never had prove, until Twilight said she saw them. That's why he liked her, because she knew a lot about humans, he felt like he could relate. The two mares came into the kitchen, not knowing what Drake was just looking at.
"Hey, ready to have a fun time?" Bon Bon asked, and Drake just nodded, following them into the living room.
End of Flashback
Crystal looked intently at Drake. She knew he had problems, but suicide? That hadn't been attempted by any pony in over 500 years, even though she knew he done that, it still shocked her to say the least, but she knew she had to stay on track with this healing process for Drake.
"I don't know why I did that... But it scared me... I didn't like holding that knife, it just felt... wrong..." Drake said, looking down at his hands, as he felt nothing but sadness come over him, which made Crystal even more concerned for his well being.
"I'm sorry to hear that, but it's good that you're telling me this," Crystal said, with a light smile. "It shows that you want to solve your problems, and not have them continue." Drake seemed to believe her, as he just nodded as a response. Crystal thought she should ask about the friends he made here that were his age.
"Can you tell me about your friends? The Cutie Mark Crusaders?" Crystal asked. Drake, who was still looking down at his hands, let out a sigh.
"My friends?" He asked, looking up, and she nodded. "Well, There's Scootaloo, the first one I met. I met her when me and mom were walking in ponyville, and we ran into her. Mom is like a big sister to her, so they started talking and stuff, then she told her other two friends about me, thats how I met all of them."
Crystal gave out a nod, while writing things down in her notes. Once she was done, she looked back at Drake.
"How come you don't have any colt friends?" She asked, and Drake thought about that as well. Whenever a colt tried to talk with him, it would usually be the same. He would excuse himself for no reason.
"I guess I just don't talk with them that much. I don't know why though." Crystal had an idea why however.
"Thank you for telling me this," She said, with a smile. "Before we continue our session, I want to ask you something that might be personal to you. What is your biggest fear?" Drake put his hand to his chin in thought. There were all sort of things that scared him, but he couldn't pick the one that scared him the most.
"I really don't know, there are a lot of things that scare me, that just picking one wouldn't be enough...." He said, as he tried to think. There was his father, but he knew that he was already dead, but that he was the cause of his death. He killed his father.
"I guess my worst fear is hurting the ones that I love, and because I killed my dad, I'm afraid that'll happen again, but this time it would be much worse than just my father...." Drake replied, lowering his head once again. Crystal wanted to ask more about the shadow monster that caused him to get a headache, but she wasn't sure if that was the best thing to do.
"Would you like to continue your story, or do you want a little break?" She asked, still with a soft, soothing voice. Drake shook his head, as he realized he had to continue.
"I want to continue..." He said, looking directly at her. "This next part, is when everything really started to go bad..."
It had been about a month after that incident happened with the knife, and things for Drake were really good. In fact, there were amazing!! He had the coolest Pegasus pony as a mother, he lived in a bright colorful new world, everything seemed perfect. That was, until night rolled around. That's when things started to change. He would sneak into the kitchen, and grab that same knife, and it always happen after the shadow figure appeared in his room, though it no longer gave him a headache, and filled him with something.
Darkness.
Sometimes, he would just stare at it, doing nothing but just that, but there was one time, where he did cut the skin on his arm. It felt painful the first time he did it, but the feeling of that no longer existed. Instead, every cut that went into his arm, felt like he was being freed. Freed from all the horrible memories that was stored within him, freed from all the pain his father caused. But after that happened, he did feel the pain in his arm, and the pain of still knowing what he'd been through.
He was going into the kitchen, and he got the knife with ease. After that, he went back into his room, without making too much noise. After he got back, he just looked down at the knife, like he did with most nights. The shadowy monster was watching him, not doing anything, except for just standing there.
As Drake looked at the knife, he began to hear the voice of the shadow start to speak.
You are nothing...... You'll never be anything..... The voice sounded a lot like Rainbow Dash's voice, except a lot darker around the edges.
Who would ever want you......? I regret having a son like you....Kill yourself..... Just die.....! Drake let tears fall from his eyes, as he just looked at the knife. He sighed. He did truly believe that was Rainbow Dash. He believed that she hated him, and just felt pity on him, That's why she took him in, but she didn't really care, he knew it.
He put the blade up to his neck, and was about to slit his throat, to end his misery, when all the sudden, the door opened, and the lights turned on, making the shadow go away.
"Drake, are you- DRAKE?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Rainbow asked shocked, as Drake got up, dropping the knife.
"I'm doing what you told me to do...." He said, looking down at the ground. Rainbow just looked at him, with a confused look plastered on her face.
"What...? I never told you to do that to yourself! What gave you that idea...?" Rainbow asked, then she noticed the cuts on his arm. "Why did you cut yourself on your arm...?" She already knew the answer. When Twilight was doing some research on him, they learned that his blood veins were there, an if they were to get cut....
"You tell me to do this every night!" Drake said, his voice getting higher. "I always hear you tell me that I'm nothing but a waste of space, and I deserve to die! I'm sorry of you hate me.... I didn't know I was in your way." Now Rainbow could really feel the tears. No matter how big her tough personality was, not even that could stop the tears from stinging in her eyes.
"Oh Drake...." She said, pulling him into a hug. "I would never tell you to do that. You don't deserve to die. I love you like a son, don't think otherwise." Drake was silently sobbing, as he hugged back. After a while, he looked up at her, still with tear filled eyes.
"I'm so sorry..... I just heard your voice in my head and-and I thought it was really you and-" He was cut off by Rainbow Dash, who covered his mouth.
"Shhh, you don't have to say anything." She said, looking down at him. "I'm going to get you the help you need, for now, you can sleep with me tonight." Drake just nodded in agreement. Rainbow picked up the knife, and flew back into the kitchen, and put it back into the cabinet where it was supposed to be, before they both headed back into her room. They both fell asleep pretty quickly, but it wasn't all that restful for Drake.
Drake's eyes shot opened, as he looked around. It seemed like he was in some sort of decaying building, that was extremely dark . He looked around the area, and he saw once again, just like when he was in the human world, a weird, evil version of Rainbow Dash, though he could only see her red glowing eyes, but he knew her voice all too well
"You just couldn't listen, could you?" She said in a growl, getting closer to him. Drake turned around, and started running. As he ran, the hallway started to light up, he saw a lot of pictures hanging on the wall. All of them depicted one of the mane six doing something horrible to him, like making him suffer through the same pain he did, or shooting him with magic, or even making him kill himself in front of a crowd, and they were all smiling.
Soon, at the end of the hallway, he saw a door, that was slightly opened. He turned and saw the speeding Pegasus gaining on him. He turned, and gained some speed, as he just continued to run. Soon, he made it, he had just barley beaten the chasing Pegasus, He was safe.
He had no idea where he was, but that was due to the fact that it was dark. The room was soon lit up though. Not by a light bulb, or the light outside, but by a flaming fire. He turned around, but saw that the door disappeared. He turned again, and saw that in front of him, there was a staircase, and on that staircase, was what seemed to be a seventeen yeah old girl, and she was human.
She was looking at a painting on the wall, she had a beige sweater on, with reddish-brown jeans , also wearing common shoes. She had black hair, with white skin, and from what he could barley tell, was brown eyes. Drake, with no other option, started to walk up the flaming staircase, to greet the girl. He could feel the heat around him, causing his head to grow wet with sweat. Once he was close enough, it seemed like the girl noticed him.
"I was expecting you...." She said, turning around to have him face to face. She was a pretty girl, for all that it was worth at least. "You're Drake Parker, right?" He let out a gulp, and nodded as a reply.
"Y-yeah, and who are you...?" He asked shakily. She seemed to be harmless, but it was hard for him to trust her, when they were both on a flaming staircase and she was the one who probably started the fire in the first place.
"Right now, it doesn't matter who I am, what matters is who you are, and the problems that you have." The girl said, looking away for a moment, before looking back at him. "I also been through abuse with my father. He... He did really horrible things to me, and I always felt like it was my fault and that I deserved what happened to me..." She paused for a moment, before continuing.
"Truth be told right now, I'm dead. I died a while ago, back in 1993. I became so distraught about myself, that I thought the only way out was for me to commit suicide." She once again went silent, Drake had a question.
"There was no one that cared about you? Not even a little?" He asked, and the girl did know of someone who did try to save her.
"There was one man who tried." She said, recalling the memory. "However, in the end, he just couldn't save me, because I was in too much distraught to think straight, so I ended up ending my own life anyway. It was a mistake, because now I am forever trapped here, in this endless limbo, on this burning staircase. I'm surprised I managed to get into your dreams." Drake looked up at her, not really sure if what she was saying was true or not, but he somewhat believed it.
"But, why are you telling me this?" Drake asked, the girl already had a good answer.
"First of all, you're too young to die, and second, I don't want you to be punished just for trying to escape from the depression and the pain that you have, like I did." She replied. "You have people, or ponies... That care about you. Don't ever forget that." Drake was about to say more, the girl turned around, and walked up the staircase. He wanted to follow her up, but he couldn't because the fire spread across the staircase, making her unreachable.
"Goodbye.... For now...." She said, before a bright light flashed before Drake's eyes. Once he opened his eyes, he saw that he was in sort of a dark room, but he remembered where he was. He felt a wing lay over his body, letting him know that he was in Rainbows room.
He let out a sigh of relief, as he smiled to himself.
I will get the help that I need. Drake thought to himself. I hope that I can get ride of that shadow monster, and hopefully, it will leave me alone, and stop telling me to kill myself... He sighed, as he snuggled in closer to Rainbows body, her comforting fur against his own body.
"Goodnight mommy... I'll make you proud...." He said, before drifting off to sleep once again.
End of Flashback...
"That's why my mom brought me here." Drake said, finishing his story of all the mind breaking events that happened to him ever since he came to Equestria. Crystal nodded, writing all of that down.
"Is that all the times you've encountered that shadow monster?" She asked, and Drake nodded. After finishing writing down her notes, she placed her notebook down onto her desk.
"What should I do?!" Drake asked, with a desperate voice. "I don't know how to get rid of the shadow monster, and it keeps telling me to kill myself! What do I do?!?!" Crystal gave him a reassuring look. From everything that he told her, she could tell exactly what was wrong with him.
"It's quit simple what you do now." Crystal replied, sitting up in her chair. "You need to face your fears." Drake gave her a confused look, as she continued. "That shadow monster represents your worst fears, and the only way for you to get better, is to face it, and accept the fact that your father hurt you in many bad ways, and manage to get passed that."
Drake then understood. He understood what that monster was. In fact, he could see it behind Crystal, but it no longer looked like a shadow. It looked like a dark version of his father, and he did not look happy to see him at all. Crystal noticed the color drain from his face, and she knew that it was in there. Even though she couldn't see it, she knew that Drake could, and that he was the only one who could see it in the first place.
"Remember, face it. Face your fears, and let go of him." Crystal said, giving him a reassuring look. Drake got up, and started to back up, causing his father to run towards him, and to shove him to the ground. Crystal got up, in shock at what she just saw. It was worse than she thought. However, she heard the voice of someone. Drake.
"I'm not afraid of you!" He shouted in the presence of the creature. He couldn't escape form it, as the door was locked, and Crystal used a spell to mute their conversations outside the room, meaning that not even Rainbow Dash, who was waiting out there, couldn't hear him.
The monster grabbed him by the neck, and started to lift him up off the ground. No matter how much Crystal wanted to help him, her magic just couldn't affect him, no matter how much he tried.
"FACE YOUR FEARS TO MAKE HIM GO AWAY!!!" She shouted to him, as Drake stared down the monster.
"You're.... Dead...! I killed you.... It wasn't my fault.... It was yours!!! I don't blame myself anymore....! Because IT WASN'T MY FAULT!!!!!"Suddenly, he dropped the small child, as a bright light surrounded him. Just like that, it just vanished. Drake sat up, and looked around, shocked at what just happened. Did that really just happen?
"Drake? Are you alright?" Crystal asked, going over to his aid. She pulled out a hoof, which he took. She pulled him up, and Drake brushed off his clothes.
"Yeah... I-I'm fine...." He said, and she smiled at him.
"Do you feel better?" Crystal asked, and Drake nodded. "Great, now that your fears are gone, there is a few things that I should recommend you do, before you leave." Drake looked at her, waiting for what she would recommend for him. "I think you should try to talk to more colts, just so you can put your trust into them, so you can forget about your father. Second, whenever those voices ever come back, just talk to somepony that's close to you." She smiled, as she got the keys from her desk, and used them to unlock the door.
Rainbow Dash, who was reading a Daring Do book, looked up, and saw Drake walking out, along with the therapist.
"There's my little buddy!" She said, sounding extremely happy to see him smile again. "How was your talk?"
"Oh, we made a lot of progress. In fact, I think he wont think about suicide anymore, right?" Crystal asked Drake, as he walked back over to Rainbow Dash. He nodded, causing Rainbow to let out a smile.
"That's good to hear! No, it's great to hear!" Rainbow said, patting him on the back. Crystal nodded, with a smile.
"If you need anything else at a later time, don't be afraid to come back" She said. Rainbow looked down at Drake, with a smile.
"Come on, lets go do something, now that you don't think about your past anymore." Rainbow said, as Drake got onto her back, and they both left the building. Crystal Blade saw her fly off, with her human son. She sighed, as she had thought about adopting a child before. With Drake however, it seemed like there would be some obstacles with raising a foal. She would have to think about it more, and she would, after she made Drakes document. She made it to her desk, and started writing the document.
Patient #512
Name: Drake Dash
Description: The more time I spent with this patient, the more I could feel his pain. What Drake Dash has been through, it's just something that nopony should ever go through, it this might be the first creature here to have a tragic story like this. His father blamed him for his mother's death, even though it wasn't his fault that she died during child birth, this would explain why he doesn't talk to colts at all. His fear of male figures comes from his father, who was the shadow monster that Drake was seeing. However, the fact is that magic is strong in this world, and because of that, if anypony like Drake had a shadow monster delusion became so real to them, it would be able to affect them, like it did with Drake. There is another thing interesting that he mentioned. The girl on the burning staircase in his dreams. It can't be his birth mother, not only does he not recognized her, but she said to him that she committed suicide, with a fire. Who is she? I might never know. Drake however, will probably heal in time, we can only hope. If he doesn't heal soon, he'll have to come back.
She sighed, as she put down the quill she was writing with down. She waited for the ink to dry, and after that, she rolled it up, and put it in a cabinet. She let out another sigh, as she picked up the book she was reading before Drake came there, and she just began to read again, as she was thinking about that maybe... She could be the mother to a foal as well.
The End
Author's Note
Hope you enjoyed this.
