Fractured Memories

by cccvvvttt

Rating: everyone
Tags: Twilight Sparkle, Sad, Main 6, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Cutie Mark Crusaders, Diamond Tiara, Slice of Life, Human
Length: 23518

...

This is a re-imagining of Free at Last https://www.fimfiction.net/story/401389/free-at-last

Published 2018-09-23 01:40:01 UTC
Last updated 2019-02-07 14:53:13 UTC

Prologue

The Events take place during season three.

Prologue.

He made his way down the street at a slow pace, his hands resting inside his pockets, as he continued. It was a normal, hot day in the summer. Most other people would be in their houses, with the air conditioning on, or swimming at the local pool center in town, but not him. Instead, he decided to just take a walk. His name was Zachary. He was a six-year-old child living in the state of California. He didn't have that many friends to hang out with, so you could call him the loner type.

He was the kind of kid who liked learning. He knew a lot more things than most kindergarteners knew because he read more books. As he made his way down, he saw the side of a building with two doors on it. One of them was a boys restroom, the other one was for girls. He felt something in his bladder. He needed to go.

He made his way to the door and went inside. As soon as he went inside, his nostrils were hit with a putrid smell.

"Ah..." He gagged. The bathroom was old, dirty, with some graffiti and missing floor titles. It was clear that no one had bothered to clear the bathroom in a long time. He put the top of his shirt over his nose to try to block out the smell. He made his way to the stall and went inside. After a few moments, the sound of the flushing toilet could be heard, as he left the stall. He went to the sink and looked at the broken mirror. It looked like someone got frustrated over something, and punched the mirror, in return breaking it.

He looked at his reflection, with an emotionless look stuck to his face. He wasn't normal. Most six-year-old he sees at his school is overly happy. They get excited over normal things like lunch, and they play around, laughing, crying, all of that. However, when it comes to him about these things, he just doesn't care. He doesn't get excited about lunch, nor does he play with the other kids. While he does cry sometimes, it's not because he tripped, or lost a treat in his packed lunch, it's for a different reason.

"Uh..." He sighed. He didn't know what to tell himself. To make this feeling to go away, or to make him feel like he actually fitted in, he just didn't know what to tell himself. "What can I do..." He asked himself. He stared at the reflection in the mirror. He backed away from his reflection and left the bathroom. He started the cycle again. Walking down the road, with that same blank stare on his face.

This time, however, something was going to break the cycle. He walked until he found the entrance to a small forest. Just like all the other days in summer, he would walk through this forest. He entered through the dirt covered path that was always there before, but something seemed... off. The paths pattern seemed to be different.

"I don't remember it being like this..." He noted to himself. Not only that but just the way it looked. It looked a little bit more colorful, more bright. It was definitely strange. Zachary just shrugged it off. He thought he was just seeing things, or some other explanation he didn't know. He started to make his way down the path, his footsteps could be heard from a short distance. There was a sudden feeling inside of his chest. He didn't know what it was, nor where it came from. It felt supernatural to him. He pushed the feeling aside as he thought about his destination. The library. He had a membership card that let him get access to all the books he wanted. He read books about certain things on the world, books way higher up compared to his age. He couldn't remember the last time he actually read a nice book that was meant for his age.

He was so lost in his thoughts, that he didn't even realize that everything around him was starting to change. The trees, the grass, even the sky was starting to have a more colorful shade. It was even starting to look more cartoony. As soon as he realized this, he stopped in his tracks.

"What the...?" He said to himself, as he looked around at his surroundings. Everything was different, even the shape of the trees was different. They were thicker than before. He swiftly turned around, and everything behind him also turned into this colorful version of his world. Did he also turn into this? He looked down at his hands, ad they seemed normal, but he couldn't be too sure.

It was like he went through a portal, a portal that was now gone. He felt like he couldn't go back. Even though he was almost as smart as someone who would be in fifth grade, and he was still different from most other children, he still had a lot of stuff in common with them. He still had the same amount of fear and childlike properties like any other six-year-old besides being extremely happy on most days.

His breathing became heavier, as the fear of the unknown crept up his spine. How could everything change in an instance? It seemed to be impossible, though, at the same time, it wasn't.

"S-should I turn back...?" He began to question himself. He was thinking about it, that was until he had to come to a halt. He came across a ravine inside the ground, with a staircase leading down inside of it, however, there was another thing interested in it. There was a bright, glowing light in it, which was tempting to go down and investigate the strange glow, He gave in to the temptation.

Zachary carefully made his way down into the ravine, careful not to slip or fall down. Eventually, he made it to the bottom. He got a good look of what was inside the glowing light. It looked like some sort of tree. It looked like it was made out of some sort of crystal, but he couldn't be sure. It felt like it was calling him, urging him to touch it even once. He couldn't explain it, but he decided to go up to it. The closer he got to it, the more the light disappeared, and he could see more clearly.

"I wonder what it feels like..." Zachary wondered as he reached his hand out. As soon as he felt it come into contact with his hand, an image appeared for a split second. He couldn't make out everything he saw, he barely saw what the image was. The only thing he saw was a flash of white, with something purple in the middle. He didn't know what it was, the only thing he could make out of it was that it was purple. The flash scared him and he started to run up the long staircase. He ran out of the ravine and just kept running. He didn't know what direction he was going, ad he didn't really care. He ran and ran until he found another thing. A Clearing.

He was finally out of the forest, in a place that he still didn't recognize.

"What's happening to me...?" He asked himself. He looked around for anything or anywhere he could go to in order to get some sort of help. He saw what seemed to be a village in the distance. He went towards the direction of the small little town to seek the help that he wanted. He was coming closer and closer to the village. So close, that he could see movement from people. Wait no, there were not people. Did they look like... horses? It was confirmed when he got close enough to see them walking around. He stood there, froze. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. No humans, just ponies. Some had wings, others had horns, and some had neither. He just stood there, observing the colorful ponies, until one of them noticed him standing there. She gave a confused look, before saying, "Hello?"

Zachary started to run the other way again.

Author's Note

Hi, you don't have to read the other version to know what this one was about, but if you want too, you can. Also, some of my keys are broken, so I have to press down on them really hard I order for it to process. Sometimes, Grammarly won't pick it up, so if you see some, then please tell me.

Chapter 1

Twilight was sitting in her library. She didn't have a lot to do, considering all of her plans that she did have were already done. So, today was a relaxing day for her. Sitting back, reading a book that she randomly picked from her bookshelf. As her eyes followed the words on the paper, she had a bored look on her. She had already read this book, along with almost every single book in the library. She thought about other things she could do.

Maybe I can go talk to my friends... No, they told me that they were all busy today. Spike went out to Rarity's to help her with the new line up she's been working on Twilight's eyes were no longer on the book she was reading, but on her surroundings. The most that was in there was her bookshelves.

"Maybe I should go out..." Twilight wondered to herself. She could go out for a walk and get a good stretch, plus she could get a few things from a store. It would be better than sitting in the library reading books that she had already read. She closed the book in front of her and went to the front door. She used her magic with little effort to open it.

Twilight felt the nice cool breeze against her face, as she stepped outside. She looked around at the ponies walking around. It looked like everyone was enjoying there day, making Twilight crease a small smile. she always enjoyed seeing ponies having a good day. As she walked, she felt like she was missing something. When she realized that, she stopped in her tracks and thought about.

What could I've missed? Wait, my saddlebag. Dang it, I could have picked up some stuff up. Twilight thought to herself, as she mentally slapped herself for forgetting it. She thought about going back to go get it, but was it really worth it?

I'll just get some groceries later. I'm too tired from reading all day, I just want to have a nice walk. Twilight thought. She sighed and kept walking, saying hi to any ponies who she ran into. As she walked towards the exit to Ponyville, her eyes caught sight of a crowd of ponies near the entrance and exit to the small town. Her face turned to confusion, as she heard the noise of chatter coming from the ponies. She walked up to the crowd to see what all the commotion was about.

"What's going on over here?" Twilight asked one of the ponies in the crowd. A pony turned around, her face was hard to read. It was a mix of confusion, concern, and other expressions that she couldn't read.

"Somepony's been saying that they found a creature outside of Ponyville." The pony replied. Twilights interest peaked when she heard this.

"What did it look like?" She asked. The other pony thought for a moment, before replying.

"From what I heard, it was small, like a colt or filly, it was standing on two legs, had no fur and was wearing what I would think is clothes, and it had some sort of look of horror in its eyes. That's what I just heard anyway..." She answered. Twilight closed her eyes and thought about it. There weren't that many creatures in Equestria that were bipedal, let alone ones without any fur. It would explain the clothes.

"Hmmm, where is it now?" She asked the pony.

"I don't know..." She replied. "After it saw us, one pony tried to say hello, but it ran off before she could ask it if it needed help or something." This was something new for Twilight. A possible new species here in Equestria, that sounded like something she could research.; However, there was one thing that would stop her from doing that.

The pony said that it had a look of terror in its face. If this was true, then that meant it was afraid of all the ponies possibly. Twilight wouldn't just study it without its consent, that would be a horrible thing to do. It would also make it feel like it's in a hopeless situation, which isn't good for the mental state of mind. If she wanted to study it, she would have to earn its trust and study him in a way that wouldn't hurt him.

"I guess I could try to find it..." Twilight said out loud, though the pony she was speaking with was already gone. Since she had no pony to stop her, and she didn't want to go back to the library right now, she decided she could at least try and find it. She put on a determined look, as she walked outside the town, in search of the creature.

As she did, another thought popped into her head. The pony also said it was small like a colt or filly. Could it be a child? If that were the case, she couldn't leave it out all by itself if it had no one else to take care of it. But it also could be dangerous. She just didn't know, and she wouldn't know until she found it.

Hopefully, it's nearby, while it would be interested to study it, I also want to make sure it's safe out there Twilight thought, as her search for the creature began.

Zachary was in the forest again, looking at a lake he found. He stared at the reflection he saw, with a sigh. He had a lot to think over. Did he really see that? A town full of ponies, who were talking? There was only one thing he could really think of. The way the forest changed when he walked through it, maybe he crossed over to another world. It would explain the way everything just changed, but the question was how did he get here. Why is he here now? It didn't make sense.

Maybe I should try to talk to them, maybe they're nice... He thought in his head. Then again, not everyone he met was nice. They could be dangerous. Who knows, they could throw fruit at him just for walking into town and not doing anything to provoke them. What other choice did he have? Stay out in this weird forest all night with no shelter in the cold, or try to talk with them.

I don't know what to do... Zachary mentally sighed to himself. The only pony who did talk to him simply said "Hello?" Before he ran off in a panic. After staring at his reflection for a while, he decided to get up and try to get out of the forest, which seemed to be darker than he remembered. He remembered the name of the forest because someone left a sign on one of the trees near the entrance. It was called the "Everfree Forest" It was a weird name for a forest, but he wasn't one to judge.

He started to walk on the trail again, the sounds of his footsteps crunching rocks was somewhat loud. Loud enough to attract something to him. As he walked, his nose could pick up the smell of something. Something that reminded him of the smell in the bathroom he was in earlier, but worse than that. It made him want to puke. He used his shirt to cover his nose, but that couldn't block out the smell. He turned around to look for the source of it, and let out a small horrified gasp.

In the darkness, rested a pair of green, glowing eyes staring back at him. His eyes winded, as his legs seemed to have a mind of their own, as they started bolting in the other direction. As he ran, he heard heavy footsteps behind him. He turned his head, and his heart dropped. There was a tall. wolve figure made out of dark wood, its green eyes staring hungrily the smell of its breath was almost unbearable.

"Ah!" Zachary screamed as he felt a claw come into rough contact with his back. Thankfully, it wasn't enough to make him bleed, but it did hurt, and it did ruin his shirt. He ran off the trail and hid behind a tree. The Timberwolf lost sight of him. It turned his head left to right, trying to locate its prey.

Zachary was keeping his mouth covered, trying to stay as quiet as possible. The Timberwolf was getting closer, and closer to the tree he was hiding behind. He looked around for anything he could use against it, and all he could find was a rock. He came up with an idea. He quickly picked up the rock and threw it in a random direction. It caught the Timberwolf's attention, and he ran in the direction of the noise. As soon as it was out of sight, Zachary got up and started to run again. It was harder to do so, as his back was in pain from the strike the Timberwolf did to him. He felt water in the corner of his eyes, as he just ran. It was going to get dark soon, as he just decided the best thing was to get back to that town he found. It was the only option he had, he just hoped they weren't going to be as horrible as that wooden wolf. Right now though, for the first time, he felt hopeless.

As Luna's moon shined down on Ponyville, there was Twilight, who was walking around. She had been searching for the creature for hours but came up with nothing. She searched ponyville, The everfree, everywhere. She wasn't sure if she missed him while searching in one of the locations, but she was too tired to continue her search. So, she was on her way back to the library, wanting nothing more than to just lay down, and get some sleep. The library came into view, it wasn't that far. When she reached the door, she heard something. It sounded like whimpering. A young colt to be exactly, and it was coming from the side of the library.

"What is that...?" Twilight asked herself, as she made her way to the side of the large tree. What she saw, was a small shadowy figure. That was the source of the whimpering. As she gets closer to it, she could make out more distinct features of it. It was small, had no fur, and was wearing clothes just like the pony said earlier, but she noticed something about the clothes. It looked like something clawed into his shirt. It didn't take long for him to notice her presence, and once he did, he gasped and got up, trying to back up, but due to the pain, he fell back down.

"P-please don't hurt me...!" He pleaded with her. Twilight was shocked. This was the creature they were talking about. Her determination to find out about it as almost gone, as she could sense the fear in him. She had no idea what to do. She thought about what Fluttershy would do. The creature obviously didn't feel safe around her yet.

As Twilight wanted was to ensure that everything was going to be okay. Twilight snapped out of her thoughts, her attention turned back to the small thing, who was still on the ground, and was still crying. Twilight put on a soft smile, she approached the creature.

"Hey... Hey, it's okay..." Twilight tried to comfort him as best as she could. Zachary looked up at her, his fear seemed to disappear as he looked up at her. Something about her seemed familiar. Like he met her before, but he just couldn't remember where. His mind calmed, as he realized that this pony wasn't going to hurt him. He had met people before who gave him bad vibes, but she didn't give him any. He got up onto his feet, flinching as he felt pain travel up his spine. Twilight noticed this, a look of concern washed over her face.

"What happened to you... Are you okay...?" She asked, and Zachary looked up at her.

"Y-yeah... something clawed me in the woods..." He replied, rubbing his arm. Twilight had a good idea of what it was. Just by looking at the slash in his shirt, she could tell it was a timber wolf. She decided to try and introduce herself.

"My name is Twilight Sparkle... Do you have a name?" She asked the young child. It took a little bit for him to responded, but he did eventually.

"My name is Zachary Baker... I'm six..." He said. Twilight gasped. She knew he was young, but she didn't think he was that young.

"Six?! And you're all alone out here?" Twilight asked, and Zachary just nodded. She couldn't just leave him out in the cold, so she felt like she was responsible for this creature, until either his parents came back or something else happens.

"Well, Zachary, why don't you stay with me for a bit, until we can find whoever is taking care of you, I would feel bad if I left you out in the cold..." She said, with a soft smile. Zachary, seeing no other option, just nodded his head in agreement. Twilight smiled warmly at him.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you. Promise."

Author's Note

Each song I put in Here is supposed to symbolize something, Here is the first one.

You guess what this one means.

Chapter 2

Author's Note

Here is the next song

READ THIS!!!! Some mature themes around the middle of the story.

Chapter 2

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you. Promise." Twilight said as she helped Zachary get up. He still wasn't entirely sure if she would hurt him or not. She was much bigger than him, he only came up to about half way up her foreleg, so he was short compared to her. But something about her deminer made her seem friendly. It was clear that she didn't want to hurt him, she just seemed too friendly and nice to want to do something like that.

Twilight lifted him up with her magic, which sort of surprised him, but he calmed when he saw Twilight's gentle smile, signaling it was alright. She put him onto her back. They walked to the other side of the library. He was shocked to find out that this was an actual building. When he wandered into the town, he thought it was just a normal tree, but it was an actual building. It was hard to see any good details in the tree, even with the moonlight, it was still hard to make out any good details on the tree. He guessed that ponies do different things than humans, they are talking magical ponies after all.

They reached the front door of the library, as Twilight used her magic to open the door. Zachary expected this, due to her being a unicorn, but seeing her open something with magic gave him a strange feeling that he could only describe as a mixture of shock and amazement. He put those feelings aside, as the door opened, and he felt the warm air flow against the front of his body. The lights flashed on, as he got a better look inside.

It was just as she said it was, a library. He saw a variety of books that he never heard of before. As he and Twilight entered the library, he felt a small, yet audible rumble in his stomach. He felt his face grow red from embarrassment. Twilight figured he might be hungry, but she couldn't be sure since he was a different species after all. "Are you... Hungry...?" She asked, her voice still had kindness. Zachary nodded his head. Not knowing what a creature like that would eat. "What... Would you like to eat?" Zachary thought about it for a bit, before realizing he was craving a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich.

"Can you make a PB&J...?" He asked, still nervous and unsure. Twilight smiled down at him.

"Of course I can." She replied. "I'll have it ready for you in a few minutes." Zachary let out a small grin. It had been a long while since he had something really good to eat. He was starting to grow warmer towards Twilight. He still wasn't sure, but he was starting to trust her a bit more now. She smiled back, as they both walked in the kitchen. As she entered, she didn't see Spike anywhere, so she thought he was either still at Rarity's, or he was upstairs sleeping.

I guess I'll have to make this myself. Twilight thought to herself, as she opened the cabinets to get the ingredients out. As she started to get the sandwich ready, Zachary sat down at the table. As he waited, his mind traveled off elsewhere. He started thinking. Thinking about how something like this could even happen. He just walked through a forest, like he did any other day. There was something different about today though, but for some reason, he couldn't remember what it was.

"All right, all done." He heard Twilight's voice, which interrupted his thoughts. She made her way to the table and sat down with him. She slid the plate over to him, which held the perfectly made Sandwich. He picked it up slowly and took a small bite. "How does it taste?" He smiled, as he swallowed the bite.

"It's really good, thanks!" He said as he took another bite, this one was bigger than the last one. She smiled, glad that he enjoyed the meal she prepared for him. As he ate, Twilight was thinking about the questions she should ask him. She did still want to get to know what he was, what others like him did, and some hobbies of his. She normally would have been prepared for something like this, but she just didn't find the time to think of conversation.

"So... um...." She started, thinking about what to say. "You're six-years-olds?" Zachary looked up at her and nodded.

"Yeah, I turned six a month ago..." He replied as he bit into the sandwich yet again. She nods, understanding.

"What kind of species are you?" She asked the other question.

"I'm a human..." He replied, remembering the books he read about his kind. Twilight was getting more and more interested with each answer she got.

"What do you like doing in your spare time?" Zachary was quick to answer.

"I like reading books and listening to music..." He replied, not knowing what else to say. Twilight seemed to lit up at this.

"Me too, I love reading!" She replied, with a smile. "If you couldn't tell already, I really like books." Zachary understood, she did live in a library after all. The next question Twilight was going to ask was one she was wondering ever since she found him.

"Where are you from?" She asked. Zachary remembered his old neighborhood, his old school, his old house, and most importantly, he remembered the name of the state.

"A place called California." He said as he finished the last of the sandwich. "I was walking through a small forest near my neighborhood, when everything started to change, then I ended up here." He said. He slightly moved in his chair, when he felt a pain in his back, which made him yelp.

"Are you okay?" Twilight asked a worried expression washed over her face. Zachary sat still, waiting for the pain to fade.

"Y-yeah..." He said, the pain slowly fading, only coming back at the slightest movement. "It just hurts a lot..." A frown formed on her face.

"Here, let me take a look at it." She suggested. Zachary was a bit hesitant at first. The memory of the Timberwolf attacking him was still fresh in his mind. He shuddered at the thought. He didn't want the pain to be there anymore, so he decided to agree. He turned around, and Twilight lifted his shirt with her magic and looked. It was extremely red, with some skin torn, but luckily it wasn't bleeding.

"That looks like it hurt, that Timberwolf must have been scary..." She said. Zachary looked back at her, with a confused look on his face.

"You mean a giant wooden thing?" He asked, and Twilight nodded.

"Yeah, they live out in the Everfree, is that the first place you were at when you came here?" She asked.

"I found a sign in there that said it was the Everfree forest." He said as Twilight continued her examination on the mark. "I guess that's where I was..." Twilight smiled, knowing that the injury could have been a lot worse.

"Hmmm, well we can make this better easily..." She said, as her horn lit up. Zachary felt something on his back. It was a nice, warm, soothing feeling. Slowly, he felt the pain evaporate, finally granting him the relief he desperately desired.

"What did you do to my back?" He asked curiously. Twilight smiled at his curiosity.

"It's a healing spell I learned back when I was a filly." She said as the shirt fell back down over Zachary's torso. He turned around, being grateful for her healing technique.

"Thanks, I feel a lot better now." He said. Twilight felt proud of herself. Even though it was a simple spell, and couldn't heal open wounds or broken limbs, she was happy that he no longer had to feel pain, thanks to her.

"You're welcome," she replied, Zachary smiled, ad Twilight smiled back. Suddenly, they were interrupted by the sound of knocking at the door.

"Who's that?" Zachary asked. Twilight looked back at him, still with a soft smile.

"I'm not sure, but it's probably somepony I know, don't worry." She replied. Zachary took note how instead of saying someone, she said somepony. Twilight made her way to the door as Zachary following closely behind. Twilight used her magic to open the door. When she did, she saw five ponies that she recognized. Her friends.

"Hey, Twilight." They all said, not noticing Zachary, who was hiding behind her foreleg.

"Hey, girls." She replied. She noticed that Spike wasn't with Rarity, which confirmed that he was upstairs sleeping, considering he had nowhere else to go or do. "What brings you, girls, here?" They all looked at each other, before looking back at Twilight.

"Well," Applejack started. "My little sister thought she saw you bringing some sort of creature like thing... So we wanted to check it out..." Twilight thought she was being watched by somepony, she guessed she was right.

"Your sister is right." She replied. There faces changed to ones of interest. Twilight turned around, and gave a reassuring smile towards Zachary, giving him a single that he could come out of hiding and so he did. Her friends looked curiously as he came out from hiding behind Twilights foreleg.

"What... is that...?" Applejack asked. "Who is that?" Asked Rainbow Dash. "What happened to his clothes?" Asked Rarity.

"This is Zachary," Twilight said. "He's a human that I found. He was all alone out here, so I brought him in. He's only six years old." Zachary, now fully out in the open, gave a small wave towards them.

"H-hi..." He said, his nervous nature was clear in his voice. They were shocked at the facts. He was a six-year-old never before seen creature, and he knew the same language they knew. There was a silence between them, and so Twilight decided to break it.

"Why... Don't you girls come inside." She suggested. Her five friends agreed and came inside the library.

Once they all came inside, they all went into the kitchen and sat down at the table.

"Can I get you, girls, anything?" Twilight asked, and they shook their heads. They all already had dinner before they got here.

"So, you just found him by the side of your library?" Fluttershy asked and Twilight nodded in response.

"Yeah, he got attacked by a TimberWolf earlier." They turned their attention back to Zachary and that's when they noticed the back of his shirt had a claw mark through it.

"Did he get hurt?! Is he okay?! Does he need to go to the hospital?!" Pinkie rambled. Twilight quickly shook her head.

"No," She started. "The wound luckily wasn't anything too serious, so I just used a simple healing spell to numb the pain, though it was probably scary for him to be in that situation." She looked at Zachary, and he nodded his head.

"Y-yeah, I thought it was going to..." His voice trailed off. He didn't want to imagine what would have happened to him had he not escaped.

"Okay, well that's good!" Pinkie replied. "So how did he get here?" This was when Zachary himself responded.

"I was walking through a forest, w-when everything started to change." He started. "Everything was starting to become more colorful, and then next thing I knew, I was here..." The mane six all looked at each other.

"Well, I think we should all introduce ourselves to him." Rarity said. "I'm Rarity, I own a fashion shop, and I love to design clothes, it's also what I do for a living. It's nice to meet you, little one." Zachary let a small smile form on his face, as he gave the fashion designer a small wave.

"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie, but you can just call me Pinkie!" Pinkie said, in her normal hyperactive self. "I like to throw parties for all of my friends, and I just love being around other ponies! It's nice to meet you! I should throw you a big Welcome to Equestria Party!" Zachary again gave a little wave. Equestria, he never bothered to ask what this place was called, he just must have forgotten to ask.

"Okay, we can hash it out later..." Twilight replied. It would be nice to have a welcome to Equestria party. The next pony to introduce herself was Applejack.

"Hey there, little feller, my name is Applejack." She started, reaching out her hoof for a handshake. Zachary also reached out his hand and grasped her hoof, accepting the greeting. "Ah live and work on an Apple orchard just on the outskirts of Ponyville. It's nice ta meet ya, Zachary." He nodded.

"It's nice to meet you too, Applejack." He replied, with a soft smile. After her introduction, it was Fluttershy's turn next.

"Hi... My name is... Fluttershy." She said, in her usual quiet voice, similar to how Zachary was. "I like to take care of all the little creatures that are in the forest." Zachary nodded. He also was someone who liked animals, so there were similarities between him and Fluttershy.

"It's nice to meet you too Fluttershy" He replied with a small smile. Fluttershy smiled back at him, as the last pony to be introduced walked up.

"Heya kid, my name is Rainbow Dash. I'm a wonderbolt and I like to go extremely fast. Nice to meet ya!" Rainbow greeted, hovering over to him. He gave a small nod, now knowing all of Twilights friends and their personalities.

"My friends are probably some of the best ponies you'll meet," Twilight said towards Zachary. "There really nice and even helped save Equestria. Though, most ponies in Ponyville are nice, so you don't have to worry about that. My friends might be the ones to help you the most in a sticky situation." She looked back at them, with a soft smile.

"Before you girls came here, I was just asking Zachary a few questions about himself and what not. He was really good at answering them." Zachary nodded in agreement, before realizing something. They probably wouldn't keep him here. They might either send him through the forest to get back to his world or do some sort of spell. He didn't know why, but he didn't really want to go back. Was it because they're magical talking ponies and he just finds that amazing or was it something else? He just couldn't remember.

"So um, what are you going to do with me?" Zachary asked Twilight. She looked back at him, going into thought. She felt like walking him back through the Everfree forest wasn't an option, since she had been there many times and not once has that ever happened to her, so this was probably a rare event. Plus, the forest would be too dangerous for him to go in again, considering what happened the first time. There was probably a spell that would need some powerful magic to do something like this, so if she did find a spell, she would need the magic of maybe three alicorns. Until then though, he would need a place to stay. Twilight, already feeling somewhat attached to the child, decided that if he wanted to, he could stay with her until then.

"There might be a spell that could send you back to your world, but I would have to look in the library for it, which could take a while, so until then, you can stay with me if you'd like." She told the small child.

"A-alright..." He said. For some reason, he felt like he didn't want to leave. It was probably because he didn't really have any friends back in his world, and he finally made some here. "Do you have a bathroom I could use?"

"Sure," Twilight responded. "It's right over there." She pointed at a door. Zachary replied with a quite "Thank You" before walking to the restroom and going in. As soon as he walked inside, he walked over to the mirror, using a stool to get up higher for a better look at his face. He didn't have to go to the restroom, but for some reason, he just stared at his reflection, with a blank expression. He felt like he done this before, but he must have forgotten for some reason.
It probably happened after he came here, or maybe it was something the TimberWolf did. All he could remember was that he lived in California, and a few minor things, but he couldn't remember anything from his personal life.

Whatever caused this, he wasn't going to get his memory back by standing in the bathroom. Plus, he didn't want to be in that bathroom any longer. As he exited, he could see Twilight and her friends, getting out blankets. Twilight noticed him, and let out a warm smile.

"We decided to have a sleepover tonight," Twilight said. "Tomorrow, we'll see what we can do to bring you back, don't worry." Zachary nodded, appreciating the concern she had for him, and that she actually seemed to care about his well being. They were all bringing there pillows and blankets upstairs to her room, so he followed them up there. As soon as he went up, he saw one bed, and a basket, which looked like it already had an occupant of someone that was green, but he couldn't really see his face at all.

"Who's that?" Zachary asked, pointing at the small dragon in the basket.

"Oh, that's Spike. He's my personal assistant. Who... Well likes to sleep a lot, to be honest." Twilight said, with a giggle. Zachary nodded, looking around the ponies setting up there sleeping spots but noticed that he didn't have one.

"Um... here should I sleep?" He asked, with uncertainty. Twilight did notice that she didn't really have any extra blankets or pillows.

"If you want, you could sleep with me tonight." She suggested.

"Really? Would that be okay?" Zachary asked, and Twilight nodded. As all of her friends lied down and covered themselves with the soft and warm blankets, Twilight herself got onto the bed and gave a gesture for Zachary to come over to her. He did so and got into the bed with her. Se pulled him into a warm embrace to get him comfortable, She covered both of them with the blanket with her magic.

"Goodnight Twilight..." Zachary said, leaning into her chest for warmth. She smiled, feeling a warmth in her chest. She felt a growing warm in her chest, as she seemed more and more attached to the child.

"Goodnight Zachary," Twilight said softly, as she closed her eyes, drifting off to sleep, cuddling the small child, keeping him warm from the cold.

Zachary felt something hard and cold against his back, as his eyes slowly opened, his vision returning to him. Though it didn't seem to matter, due to the fact that it was obscure from some sort of thick fog. As he got up, he looked around his surroundings. He saw some buildings, ones that looked like they were in his worlds instead of the ones in Equestria. He felt small particles of something falling on him. He reached his hand out as one of the particles fell on his hand.

It was snow.

"What the...? How is it snowing?" He asked himself. He thought he was back in California, but he guessed he wasn't due to the snowing. He decided to walk around, trying to find someone to explain the mysterious fog and the snow. As he walked, he thought he heard someone or something in the distance, so he decided to go for the noise. He started running, starting to feel creeped out by everything.

"What should I do, what should I do...?" Zachary wondered, but his thoughts were cut off by the sound of something in the distance. A loud, ear piercing siren. It was loud, and it only got louder and louder every second, as the world around him suddenly started to change. That's when he really started to run. As he ran down the street, he saw that one of the doors on a building was opened.

He quickly ran inside and closed the door behind him. Inside the building, there was nothing but pure darkness. He couldn't see anything, as he fumbled around, trying to find some sort of light or anything to clear away the darkness. Eventually, he did come across something, or more like someone. There was a woman, standing in the dark, for some reason he could see her clearly. She had black hair, a blue shirt, and jeans. It looked like she hadn't had a good shower in a while, her hair dirty and unkempt, with some dirt covering spots on her face.

"Why did you let me die, Zachary?" The women asked, throwing Zachary off guard. He didn't recognize the women, then again, he did forget a lot of things when he came to Equestria.

"W-what...?" He replied, confused at what she exactly meant.

"You heard me." She said. "You let me die, I don't understand. Even after everything I tried to do to let you live, you let that happen to me." Zachary was silence from shock until he mustered up the words he wanted to say.

"B-but I never met you... How could I-I have anything to do with that?" He chocked. He truly didn't remember who she was, but this answer seemed to make her angrier.

"You don't remember me?!" She nearly screamed. "I know you, I've known you for a long time now, up until you let me die, how can you not remember me?!" Zachary felt the tension build up in his back, as he tried to back up, but it seemed that he could no longer move.

"I just don't remember you, m-maybe you got me confused with someone else?" He suggested, making the women frown.

"How many other six-year-olds do you know that have the name Zachary Baker, because I only know one, and it's you..."She replied, with a slight growl, as she walked up to him. "I asked for your help, and you didn't help me. You never helped me, even after all I did for you, even after I begged you ever cared about me. You killed me, and I should have never cared about you." Zachary didn't know what to say. Could he really be responsible for this woman's death, a women that he never even remembered meeting, but he might have... He just didn't remember.

"I'm... Sorry if I did something... To cause that...." Zachary tried to apologize, but she wouldn't accept it.

"Sorry?! Well sorry isn't going to bring me back, is it?" She asked, with a spiteful tone. She let out somewhat of a frustrated sigh, before looking intently at him. "You couldn't save me then, let's see if you can save me now." With that, she turned around, walking further into the darkness. Zachary, not knowing what else to do, decided to slowly follow the woman.

After a few minutes of nothing but walking in the pitch darkness, he could see a light bulb, shining over a certain, lighting up the area, revealing a door. When the women reached the door, she turned around.

"You can never save me, you lost your chance. Goodbye." She said, before opening the door. Zachary could feel the wind from inside the pitch dark room. It was chilling cold, deathly cold. The women didn't seem to be phased by this, as she entered the room. As soon as she did, however, the door slammed shut, the light bulb blowing out. Zachary felt panic wash over him as he heard a noise of what seemed to be something screeching against the road, before the deadly sound of something heavy crashing.

The door slammed open, but not to reveal a dark room. It revealed the site of a car accident. One care smashed into the other, a blaring horn is loud and clear in the distance. Zachary didn't really have time to take it in, as the door slammed shut again, leaving him in pitch darkness. He felt ice chilling air form around him, as he began to shiver at what had just happened. After a while, he heard something behind him. Footsteps.

His body was frozen in place, as he felt that he couldn't turn around. He felt something touch his back, as he felt a few quick flashes of things he couldn't make out flash before his eyes.

Zachary awake, cold sweat covering his forehead, as he breathed in heavily. He realized where he was, and remembered everything that happened before that terrible nightmare. He felt a comforting warmness next to him. He looked up, the moon shining light on the pony sleeping next to him, cuddling him. He didn't mind though. It was a comfortable position, and she was keeping him warm. He really liked this. He ever expected this kind of kindness to come out of anyone... Or anypony in this case. He felt grateful for what she was doing for him. With that, he drifted off to a more peaceful sleep, wondering what the next day would have In store for him.

Chapter 3

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 4

Zachary walked to the house, a look of pain and sadness was clear on his small face. He opened the door, letting himself in. Sixth graders had called him horrible names and said other stuff to him. They said stuff like he was a waste of fresh air, nobody liked him, and that he shouldn't even go to the school because he was a lost cause. His father was sitting on the couch, reading the daily newspaper that had arrived only a few moments ago. Since the electricity was out because of a storm the other night, he couldn't watch TV or use his laptop. He looked up from the paper and could tell that there was something wrong with the small child.

"Hey kid, what's wrong?" He asked the tone of his voice was a concerned one. His son looked up at him, with a tear coming out of the corner of his eye.

"Those Six graders were saying mean things to me..." He started. "They... They said that I was a lost cause and shouldn't even go to school and that I-I was a waste of fresh air..." His father put his hand up to his chin in thought. It was true that he knew a lot of bullies at the school since this wasn't the first time this happened. The last time it did happen, he said to tell the teachers and that would get them to stop, but he guess the teachers didn't really do much. He got up from his comfy couch and walked over to his son. He got down to eye level with him, with a small smile forming.

"Those teachers didn't do anything the last time you told them?" He asked, and Zachary shooked his head.

"All they did was tell them to stop and to be nice to me, but that just made it worse I think...." He replied. His father came up with an idea that might make the bullying stop.

"Son Listen," He started. "Those bullies don't know what they're talking about. They think that just because they're bigger than you means that they're better than you, but let me tell you something. They're not. You should stand up to those bullies. If they want to smack talk you, then smack talk them back." Zachary looked away in thought, thinking about it. He did want to say stuff to them back, but he never knew what to say.

"But what do I tell them?" He asked. "What if they start to beat me up, or call me dumb again?" His father smiled at him, before getting up.

"I can teach you what to say." He said, before thinking of another thing he could do. "If those bullies call you dumb again, then prove them wrong. Become smarter than them and prove that they're the dumb ones." Zachary nodded.

"Alright, I guess I can do that." He replied, making his father smile.

"Good, now come over here, and I'll teach you a few comebacks." They walked over to the couch and started practicing some things he could say.

I will prove that I'm smarter than them. I'll read and study hard. Zachary thought as he and his father began to practice what he could say to those bullies, which would hopefully end the torment they've been giving him.

As Zachary, along with the mane six walked down the pathway, he remembered. He remembered that he did get bullied and his dad did help him to defend himself from the said bullies. He looked up at Twilight, who was walking along with him. She did tell him that if he remembered anything, to tell her. So he did.

"Hey, Twilight..." He started, getting her attention. "I remembered something that happened in my world... Something my dad taught me..." Her face seemed to lit up once he told her.

"Really? What did he teach you?" She asked the eagerness in her voice could not be mistaken.

"Well, when I was in school, I would get bullied by these six graders." Zachary started. "They would just call me mean names and make me feel bad about myself." Twilight looked down at him, a look of worry on her face.

"That's awful." She replied as the child continued.

"I told the teachers, but they wouldn't listen to me because these kids were really well most of the time. Since they couldn't do anything, my dad told me I had to stand up for myself. He taught me what to say whenever they would say those things to me. I just remembered that day I came home and he taught me." He finally finished. Twilight seemed intrigued by the way his father taught him to stand up for himself. But how did this memory just come back to him? Surely there was a reason. Then she remembered seeing those two fillies she heard were bullies with them.

"Were those two fillies making fun of you?" Twilight asked. "The pink and grey one?" Zachary nodded his head in return.

"Yeah, they were making fun of... The CMC'S were they?" Twilight nodded in response. "So those two were making fun of them and then I started to feel something. It was like this burning anger just rising up in me, so, I stood up to them." He said, still not sure why that feeling came over him. Twilight smiled at him.

"Well, it's always good to stand up to a bully." She replied. "Bullies are just ponies looking for attention." Zachary nodded his head with agreement.

"Yeah..." He replied.

"Do you remember anything else?" She asked, Zachary, shaking his head. Twilight was a little disappointed but was still happy that she did get more information about what Zachary's home life was like.

"So, where are we going next?" Zachary asked, causing Pinkie's face a lit up with an idea.

"Oh, we can go to Sugar Cube Corner!" Pinkie said with enthusiasm. "I don't think the cakes are there right now, so we can just hang out there and we'll get to know him even more!" Twilight wasn't sure, however. She still wanted to show him around so he could get to know everypony, but getting to know him better seemed like a good option as well.

"Alright, if it's alright with Zachary that is," Twilight replied, looking down at him, waiting for an answer. Zachary thought about it for a bit, before deciding he would rather get to know these ponies better first before he met a whole lot of other ponies.

"Yeah, I guess we can go to Suger Cube Corner." He replied, which made Pinkie's day.

"Yipee, come on, let's go!" She said, starting to bounce with her movements. Zachary wondered how she could have so much energy and never seem to run out of it. That didn't seem to matter all that much, as they continued their way down the path.

It didn't take that long to make it to the small bakery. On the way, as expected, there were a few ponies who took notice of Zachary but didn't really seem to mind that much. When they reached the bakery, Pinkie held the door opened for them. It was empty, due to the fact it was close, as the cakes were taking a vacation with their foals. They sat down at a booth that was big enough to fit all of them.

"So," Twilight began. "Zachary told me on the way here that he remembered his father teaching him how to stand up to bullies that were, well bullying him." The small child nodded his head.

"Dude, bullies are like the worst thing ever!" Rainbow Dash said, remembering standing up for Fluttershy back in flight school. "Don't let them drag you down. You're most likely better than them."

"Thanks, Rainbow Dash," Zachary replied, appreciating her words of encouragement.

"No problem kid." She replied, with a smirk. Twilight looked at Zachary, noticing his tattered torn clothes.

"Hey Rarity, do you think you can make him an extra set of clothes?" Twilight asked. "It must be uncomfortable in those ones and I don't think he wants to take them off." Zachary shook his head, confirming that. Rarity's face lit up at this.

"Oh why yes, of course, I can make an extra pair for him!" She replied. "I would need to measure his body size and all of those other things I need to do. It might take some time to make a lot of other pairs, but just one pair I could be done with it within a half hour... Probably..." That's when Pinkie's face lit up as well.

"Hey, we should also plan a party for him!" She said with enthusiasm.

"Pinkie, you've already mentioned that you wanted to do that... Several times..." Twilight replied, looking at her friend, making the pink pony giggle.

"I know, but we still should plan it!" Pinkie said.

"Well, alright then, let's talk about it," Twilight replied. As they started talking, Zachary looked around at them, with a small smile forming on his face. It had only been a day since he met all of them and already they were throwing a party. He wasn't sure, but he thought he never met anyone like that in his world. They're so nice Then, he looked down at the table, which had been cleaned shiny right before the cakes left, allowing him to see his reflection in the table.

"We should invite ponies so they can meet him and we can put out snacks and balloons and stuff like that!" Pinkie said, breaking Zachary from his thoughts.

"Yeah, but maybe we should ask him what he wants..." Fluttershy suggested, causing all of them to turn their attention towards him.

"Yeah, what do you want for the party little fella?" Applejack asked. Zachary thought about it. He didn't really want or need that much.

"I don't really mind." He replied. "You can do what you normally do when making a party... I guess. I don't want to seem spoiled or anything..." Twilight shook her head at that statement.

"Don't worry, you're not spoiled, we just want you to have a good time here in Equestria." She started. "If you want though, we can have some decorations up and invite some other ponies you can meet." Zachary nodded, agreeing with that idea.

"But we still need to know where it will be at... and what time..." Spike finally spoke up.

"Right, Pinkie, how much time do you need to get this ready?" Twilight asked. Pinkie giggled.

"I could have it ready in a matter of seconds if I wanted to, but I would still need to send out invitations, so I would say around tomorrow noon would be good." She replied.

"Alright, do you girls want to go to my boutique next so I can make him a new set of clothes?" Rarity asked. They all nodded in agreement, especially Spike, as they walked out of Sugar Cube Corner.

Celestia's sun was no longer out, as Luna's moon shunned down upon them. After they wet to the boutique, everypony had something important they needed to do, so Twilight along Zachary and Spike of them went back to the library. The rest of the day was uneventful. Twilight sent a letter to Celestia informing her about Zachary, however, she hasn't responded to it yet. After that, they spent the rest of the say reading the first book in the Daring Doo series.

Once the sun settled down and it became Luna's night, they all had dinner, everyone was tired. After doing some other things, they went to bed, Zachary falling asleep next to Twilight again. He, however, would not have a peaceful night.

Zachary was standing at the door again. The door that lady entered in his last dream, where he saw the car wreck. The lady was nowhere in sight. Zachary seemed to have a shocked expression on his face, as he continued staring at the carnage. Suddenly, the door slammed shut and the entire room lit up.

"What the..." Zachary mumbled as he looked around the torn up room. It looked like a small hotel room, with two beds and a tv on a desk. There were a mess papers on the mold covered floor, the torn up walls sent shivers down his spines. He looked at the two windows in the room, not being able to see anything through them but darkness.

While one of the windows were shattered, the other one had a message scribbled onto it with a red marker. It said, "Don't leave the room, Zachary." The person who wrote had there name smeared below the message. However, he could only make out some of it due to it being smeared. The first letter was "W" though.

Zachary froze as he heard the door behind him creak open. He turned around but saw no one. Outside the door, was a hallway. It looked familiar to him somehow, though he wasn't sure how it related to him. Seeing no other options, he walked out into it, despite the message warning him not to.

As he walked out and down the straight hallway, there was a turn that he had to take in order to progress further into the hotel. As he turned the corner, he saw quick flashes. What he saw in them was a first-person point of view of him running down the hallway and into the elevator. He rubbed his eyes, making the vision leave his eyes. This hallway was shorter, but at the end of it, he saw an elevator, with a small screen on top, the number counting the floors the elevator passed.

Once it hit the fifth floor, it stopped. Zachary just stood there, looking at the elevator with dismay. Then, the doors slowly creaked open and what he saw in there, made him want to scream. The thing was twitching uncontrollably. It looked humanoid, but he could tell it wasn't. There were four belts wrapped tightly around his head. It looked painful, but what looked like it hurt even more than the belts, were the sharp blade poking out all over its torso.

It moved out of the elevator. After he passed one of the lights above him, it blew out, leaving the creature shrouded in darkness. At first, the light's going out were slow, but then, they suddenly began going faster. That's when Zachary found the ability to run again, as he bolted down the hallway, trying to escape the monster. The sounds of light bulbs shattering were growing and growing, which made Zachary feel hopeless of escaping it.

He was so close, he just needed to reach the room and shut the door behind him, he just had to go a little further. But, he didn't make it in time. He felt the creature grab him into its cold grip, as he felt pain through his back. He screamed, but no one heard him, or so he thought. However, the shock from the nightmare was powerful enough to make him wake up.

"What the... why is this happening to me?!" Zachary wondered as he looked at the pony sleeping next to him. "This is just like last night... Maybe something is wrong with me. Maybe Twilight can fix it... Yeah, I'll ask her tomorrow..." Zachary reassured himself, however, his body was too shaken up to let him go back to sleep. He didn't know that there was another pony who saw his dreams. One that was a blue Alicorn. One that he would probably meet tomorrow. Hopefully, she could help him into what is happening to him. Hopefully.

Author's Note

Here is the next song.

Luna and His Dream

Five minutes earlier...

It was a normal night for Luna. She was doing her duties, making sure everypony was having a good nights sleep. She just finished checking most of the dreams in Canterlot, with a few ponies having nightmares, in which she helped them overcome the night terrors. After finally completing that task, she moved onto Ponyville, a place filled with ponies that had amazing dreams, or a small minor night terror.

As she went to see the dreams of the citizens of Ponyville, she remembered helping Scootaloo with her fear of Rainbow Dash not accepting her. She smiled at the memory. Moving through their dreams quickly, checking up on them, she came to one dream in particular. It was coming from the same new visitor she saw the other night.

"This is from the same pony as before..." Luna said to herself, remembering the disturbing dream they had the other night. She had no idea what happened at the end, but it seemed like whatever that women creature was, it was blaming a small child for something, before walking into a door, where two big metal things collided. She tried to get the child's attention, but as soon as she touched him, he woke up.

Luna didn't really think of it at first, thinking it was just her imagination, though the feeling that dream gave her never really left her.

"Maybe this dream can shed some light on the situation." She said to herself, before closing her eyes and entering the dream. Once she felt that she was inside the dream, she creaked her eyes opened. It looked like she was in some sort of small room, with nothing inside but a door and noises coming from the other side of it. She walked over to the door, trying to hear what the noise on the other side was. She heard the voice of what sounded like a small colt.

"Don't go out?" It asked, with confusion. "Who wrote this on the window? Why would they even tell me not to leave?" Suddenly, Luna heard the door open and whatever was in the other room leaving. She saw this as her time to enter the other room, As she did, she found only a torn up mess of what seemed to be some sort of hotel room.

"I wonder where that colt went..." Luna said to herself, drawing her attention to the opened door that leads into a hallway. She saw a small bipedal creature making its way down the hallway. She followed slowly behind. She wanted to see if this was the source of the dream, or if somepony was dreaming of this creature. As she got closer to him, he turned a corner, disappearing from her field of vision.

"Where is he going...?" She whispered quietly to herself, as she also turned the corner. She froze, as she saw him standing still. He seemed to be in shock over something. She looked down the hallway, trying to see what it was that he was so shocked about. What she saw was a metal door with a line down the middle and something above it.

There was a screen counting down numbers to something. Once it reached floor seven, that metal door split apart, revealing a creature.

Luna gasped, as she laid eyes on the monster. It looked like it was in some sort of pain. Three things that looked like straps were wrapped tightly around its head, drawing a red liquid from its skull and sharp blades were poking out of the torso.

"What in the world?!" Luna gasped, as it started moving. The child said something under his breath, being too incoherent to hear. As soon as it moved under a pair of light bulbs, they blew out. The child slowly started to back up, but as soon as he did, the monster moved faster, causing the lightbulbs to go out faster and faster.

The child started to run the other direction at a fast pace. He right past Luna, too afraid and shocked to even notice her. Luna quickly turned her head to his direction, about to shout for him to wait, but she heard the creature's footsteps getting closer and closer and the lightbulbs going out faster and faster.

"I have to run!" Luna said to herself, taking off in the same direction as the child. He turned the hallway, as she also did. "Hey wait!" The child didn't hear her as he just kept running. Luna tried using her magic to teleport in front of him, but for some reason, her horn wasn't working. She tried using her magic to make the creature go away but to no avail.

"What the...? Why isn't any of my magic working?!" She shouted. In the midst of all the confusion, she didn't notice the creature ran right past her, leaving Luna in the darkness. She stood still, not daring to make a single sound, as the creature at this point could be anywhere.

Her ear's failed her, as she couldn't even hear its footsteps anymore. Did it move ahead of her? Did it go somewhere else? She didn't know, that was until she heard an ear piercing scream coming from further down the hallway. She turned her head to the direction and without thinking about it, started to run to see the source of the scream.

She got closer and closer to the source. She felt like she could reach out a hoof and touch whoever was screaming, but before she could, the dream ended, throwing her back out. She looked around the dreamscape, with a shocked look on her face. Those screams weren't ones of terror, they were ones of pain and suffering.

What in Celestia's name is going on?! I have to go to Ponyville tomorrow. I need to find out what's happening... Luna thought. She would deal with it tomorrow, but for now, she still had a lot of work to do.

Author's Note

This chapter isn't really a chapter, just a point of view from a different character. I'll have to do chapters like these when I'm busy with school and stuff.

Chapter 5

The sun rose above ponyville, just as it did all mornings. Twilight felt something moving against her. She opened her eyes to see where it was coming from, only to see the small child shivering against her, his eyes were red from the dream he had experienced. Twilight, however, didn't know this yet.

"Zachary... What's wrong?" She asked softly. Even though her voice was soft and tender, it still startled him.

"What?! Oh..." Once he realized that it was just Twilight, he calmed down. "Sorry... I just had a nightmare and couldn't go back to sleep." Twilight's face turned into a curious one, as she asked.

"What was your dream about?" Zachary looked down, his nightmare was still fresh in his mind. He didn't want to remember it, but as he looked up, he saw Twilight, with a reassuring smile that made his nerves go down.

"I... I saw this monster that chased me through a hallway." He started. "I tried to get away from it, but it caught up with me. I felt pain as soon as it caught up with me and that's when I woke up. It seemed so real..." Twilight had a stunned look on her face.

"Wait, you actually felt the pain?" She asked, Zachary nodding. Twilight was shocked, to say the least. It wasn't uncommon for ponies to feel emotions inside their dreams, like love or happiness, but to feel pain? That was a new one.

"Yeah... I don't know why I did..." He replied, making Twilight go into thought.

Maybe Princess Luna could explain this. Helping foals with their dreams is her duty after all. She looked down at Zachary and saw that he was staring back.

"So... What are we going to do today?" He asked, making Twilight giggle a little.

"Don't you remember? We're going to throw you a "Welcome to Equestria" Party." She replied, jiggling Zachary's memory.

"Oh yeah. I remember now..." He started. "But, what will we do before that?" Twilight put her hoof up to her chin in thought.

"Hmm, I actually don't know. I spent so much time thinking about the party that I didn't think about what we would do before that." She continued to think about it. "What I do know we can start out with is breakfast." Zachary nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, that sounds good," Zachary replied. Twilight smiled as she got out of the bed. He tried to follow suit, but as soon as he got out of the bed, he tumbled to the ground.

"Oh my gosh," Twilight said, turning her attention to him. "Are you okay?" Zachary slowly and stumbled his way up.

"Yeah... I'm just really tired." He replied as Twilight helped him the rest of the way up. "Sorry..." Twilight couldn't help but be concerned for the child.

"Don't worry Zachary." She said. "If you want, you can take a short nap after breakfast..." He wanted a nap. He felt like he needed it after being deprived of sleep. However, there was a problem with the idea that made him worried to go to sleep.

"But what if I have another nightmare? What if it's so bad that I won't sleep tonight? What if-" Zachary cut himself off as soon as he felt Twilights hoof on his shoulder.

"I know what it's like to be worried about the outcome of things, but it will be alright." She started. "If you do end up having another nightmare, then we can talk to somepony that I know. They could help you with these nightmares." This was enough to calm Zachary down.

"Thanks, Twilight..." Zachary said, with a yawn. "I'm so tired..." He couldn't stay awake any longer. He fell forward, Twilight managing to catch him in time.

"Zachary?!" She said, with a concerned voice. She looked down at him. He was breathing softly, with a small smile on his face. She couldn't help but smile back. She let out a small sigh. "You should rest a bit..." She softly lifted him up with her magic and put him back on the bed, tucking him in.

Twilight started to feel it again. Like she had a connection to the child, the warm feeling in her chest returning. She let out a small giggle as he started to lightly snore. "Sleep well, we have a big day ahead of us." She said, heading downstairs to get breakfast.

Spike was again already awake when Twilight came down the stairs. He had already finished making breakfast. He looked over to her direction when he heard her hoof steps.

"Hey, Twilight..." Spike started but stopped when he noticed Zachary was missing. "Um... Where's Zach?"

"He didn't get enough sleep last night, so he's sleeping." She replied. Spike nodded, understanding.

"Alright," Spike said, before remembering something. "Oh yeah, Princess Celestia replied to you." He handed the letter that he got only a few minutes ago and gave it to her. Twilight picked it up using her magic, before reading into it.

My pupil Twilight,

This discovery you made has interested me. So has your invite to his party. I would love to meet him, he sounds interesting. I haven't told Luna about the letter you sent me last night, so she might or might not be there. We can also see about finding a spell for him back home. I'm sure his parents are worried about him.

Thank you, my student.

Sincerely,
Princess Celestia.

Twilight was grateful that Celestia would be there, but didn't fully understand the possibility of Luna not showing up. Was it because of her not knowing about it before. Maybe, however, she didn't have time to think about it right now. She was hungry and she had a long day ahead of her.

"So Spike, what did you make?" She asked, walking back into the kitchen.

Zachary crept his way out of his room. He wanted to be as quiet as possible. He had woken up in the middle of the night and wanted water. The only problem was his dad. He was awake and Zachary didn't want him to discover that he was up past his bedtime. He slowly made his way down the hall and into the kitchen. He saw his father on the couch, with a bottle of liquor in his hand.

Zachary made his way to the kitchen and went to the fridge. He slowly opened it, getting out a large container of water. He walked over to the counter, getting a cup out. However, he forgot to shut the fridge door. As soon as he was done pouring his water, he heard the familiar beeping noise that goes off when it's is left open for too long. He tensed up, as he heard his father get up from the couch. He heard him make his way to him. All Zachary could do was stand still like a statue.

"Zachary... What are you doing in here? You should be in bed..." His father said, in a low, hazed voice. He had one bottle too many.

"I...I was just getting a glass of water sir..." Zachary replied. He saw the glare in his father's eyes.

"You said you wanted to be smarter than those bullies at school. You even started studying grades higher than yours. So tell me, why are you up late on a school night?" He asked.

"I...I just told you why..." Zachary studdered. "Please... Stop drinking all of that, you scare me when you do..." His father gave him a confused look.

"W-why...?" He asked, in the same tone of voice.

"Because..." Zachary started. "You're not the same when you drink that stuff." He said, with a small tear in his eye. His father's eyes went wide when he realized that his son was right. He let the bottle drop out of his hands and onto the floor. It shattered upon impact, leaving the liquid to soak the floor.

"I-I'm so sorry..." His father said, putting a hand on his forehead. "I know I need to stop a-and I will. Promise..." He said, stumbling backward. "P-please just get to bed, I need to think..." Zachary did what he was told, quickly rushing back to his room, with a worried expression stuck to his face.

Zachary awoke with a jolt, sitting straight up, looking around the room. He was back in the Golden Oaks library. He let out a relieved sigh, before thinking more about the dream he had.

"Why do I keep seeing visions like that...?" He asked himself. "Why was my dad drinking in that memory... What is causing all of this to happen?" He didn't want to think about any of that though. So, he decided to make his way downstairs. As he descended the stairs, he heard voices.

"Yeah, He's asleep upstairs right now. He didn't get that much sleep." That voice sounded like Twilight.

"Oh, well the party's ready," The voice of Pinkie said. "Even though it's thirty minutes from now." He heard a giggle after that.

"It's 11:30 already?" Twilight asked.

"Um yeah," The voice of Rainbow Dash said. "Did you lose track of time?" Zachary finally made it down the stairs and saw that Twilight was there with all of her friends.

"I guess I did..." Twilight said, with embarrassment.

"No problem," Rainbow replied, before turning her attention towards Zachary. "Hey, here he is now." They all turned to look at him.

"Hi, guys..." He said, giving them all a small wave. Twilight could tell that there was something up with him. He looked down about something. He no longer looked tired, just that something was nagging at him.

"Hey, you woke up!" Pinkie said, bouncing over to him. "Your party is going to begin soon! Aren't you excited?!" Zachary gave out a small nod. Rarity then walked over to him, holding something with her magic. It was a small pair of clothes, just big enough to fit him.

"Here you go darling, I hope you like this pair, I worked very hard on it." Rarity said. Zachary took a look at the pants, then the shirt.

"It's... It's awesome! Thank you so much Rarity!" He said, feeling some of his energy come back due to the excitement.

"You're most definitely welcome dear." She replied, both glad and relieved that he liked the clothes that she worked so hard to make.

"So," Twilight said, making Zachary turn her attention towards her. "Why don't you go into the bathroom and try it on?" Zachary nodded, before running off to the bathroom. As soon as he entered, her friends turned their attention back to Twilight.

"I'm so happy you found him Twilight, I couldn't imagine him being all by himself out there," Fluttershy commented.

"Yeah," Applejack started. "Ah wonder if we'll be able to send him back to where he came, though ah'm a little worried about that." Twilight suddenly felt her nerves shoot up at Applejack's statement. She didn't know why.

"Yeah, hey girls?" She said, "The princess will be at the party. She wants to meet him." They all looked at each other, with calm expressions.

"Well, I'm sure that she'll like him," Rainbow said. "He's totally twenty percent cool." Twilight, along with the rest of them agreed with that.

"Yeah, I know... I guess I'm just a little bit worried." Twilight said.

"Don't be sugar cube," Applejack said. "I know she'll like him." Twilight gave her a smile of appreciation. Meanwhile, in the bathroom, Zachary just finished putting on his clothes, before looking in the mirror. He once again saw his reflection, but that's when he noticed something about it. He looked different. He decided it was the new clothes and walked out of the bathroom.

He walked back over to the group of ponies. They once again looked at him, they all had a smile on their faces.

"You look so much better with those clothes Zachary," Twilight commented.

"Thanks..." He replied, with a small smile.

"Um, guys?" Spike said, grabbing the attention of the ponies. "I know we have time, but since we're not going to really do anything else, do you just want to head down now?" None of the ponies needed to brush their manes or anything, as they either did it last night or this morning.

"Sure, let's get there early." Twilight agreed. With that, they all went out the front door and made their way to Sugarcube Corner.

Sometime Later...

The party at Sugarcube Corner had begun. Ponies from the town were gathered in the bakery. Pinkie had once again done an excellent job getting her party ready. The entirety of Sugarcube Corner was decorated with the usual balloons, confetti, and a banner that said: "Welcome to Equestria!" The Mane Six, along with Zachary was over at a table, anticipating the arrival of Princess Celestia.

"I wonder where she could be..." Twilight wondered. She thought that the Princess was just being held up and was going to arrive a bit late.

"I don't know," Rainbow Dash said. "Maybe we should let the other ponies met Zachary real quick?" Twilight, seeing that the Princess was going to be late, nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, that sounds good." She replied, getting up from where she was sitting. "Who should we have him meet first?" Twilight looked at her friends, but before they replied, they heard the voices of three little filly's.

"Hey." They said, causing the group to turn around. there before them, was the CMC'S. Zachary let out a smile, glad that they came.

"Can we hang out with Zachary?" Scootaloo asked. Twilight nodded.

"Yeah, we were going to introduce him to some other ponies, but you can come along too." She replied, making the CMC'S faces bright up.

"Alright!" They all said. So, The Mane Six along with the CMC'S started to wander around the store, looking for ponies to meet. They found a couple of them. The first pair they talked to was Lyra and Bon Bon.

"What is he called?" Bon Bon asked when they walked up to them.

"His name is Zachary," Twilight replied. "He's a human and we have no idea how he got here, but for now he's going to stay with us until we can find a way to get him back to his world." Zachary gave out a small wave towards the two ponies.

"Hi there," Lyra started. "My name is Lyra and my friend's name is Bon Bon." They gave him a small handshake, before leaving them to do whatever it was that they needed to do. They met a few other ponies, like Derpy Hooves, a DJ that they called Vinyl, and a Pony who played the cello named Octavia. After meeting all of those ponies,m Twilight let Zachary separate from the group to hang out with the CMC'S.

"So," Sweetie Belle said, as they walked towards their own table. "Did you do anything interesting after you left?" Zachary just shrugged.

"Not really," He started. "Besides a few nightmares, nothing has really happened..." The CMC'S looked at each other, now with looks of concern on their faces.

"Nightmares? What kind of Nightmares?" Applebloom asked. Zachary was about to respond when they heard the familiar voice of Diamond Taira.

"Look at that, the blank flanks made it..." Zachary let out an annoyed sigh, as he and his new friends turned around and saw the filly, along with her friend Silver Spoon.

"Why are you here?" He asked, making Diamond smirk.

"My daddy brought me here. He said that we were going to meet some sort of new creature, so I figured it was you. Not like you're that special" She replied.

"Really?" He replied, not caring for whatever insults she had planned. "Well nice talking to you." He turned around and tried starting a conversation with the CMC'S. Diamond stood there, dumbfounded. She scowled, walked up to him and roughly poking him on the back.

"What?" Zachary said, turning around annoyed.

"Stop ignoring me!" She nearly shouted. Zachary just turned without saying anything. "I'm trying to insult you!" The CMC'S looked shocked that this was working on Diamond. This only made him facepalm.

"Don't say that out loud..." Zachary replied. Diamond looked confused.

"Why?" She asked.

"Because..." He started. "Stating what bad thing you have planned is stupid. Now I know you're going to try to insult me, so now I can easily ignore you because you're just trying to hurt my feelings and let me just say that you suck at it." He turned towards his friends again."So, do you guys like the party?" Zachary asked the CMC'S. "Yeah, I think Pinkie Pie did a great job." Diamond looked over to the CMC'S.

"Get that monkey to stop ignoring me!" She demanded. They all looked at each other, before looking back at her.

"Diamond, ah don't know if you noticed, but he doesn't care about what yer saying," Applebloom stated. "Even though it was pretty obvious, ah mean he even said it out loud..."

"Yeah," Scootaloo started. "He doesn't need you bothering him, so why don't you leave if you don't like him or the party."Diamond was getting angrier.

"I do like the party!" She shouted. "But I-"

"But you don't like who the party's for." Sweetie Belle said. "So you should just leave!" Diamond huffed.

"Fine, but this isn't over." She started to turn around. "That "thing" you for some reason like hanging out with isn't worth my time. He would probably just get in the way of everypony." With that, she left them alone, walking out of the building with Silver. Zachary shook his head, wondering why they still made fun of him.

"Hey... Are you okay?" Sweetie asked, snapping him out of his brief thoughts.

"Yeah..." He replied. "I just don't get why they target me. I don't care about what they say, they're just so annoying." He stopped for a moment, before continuing. "I wonder why her friend didn't talk at all during that..." He stopped as he suddenly felt something in his gut. He knew this feeling. He felt it before, but he couldn't remember. What caused the sudden gut-wrenching feeling was unknown to him, but maybe it had something to do with what Diamond said.

"So..." Scootaloo interrupted his thoughts, causing him to look back at her. "What do you want to do now?" Zachary could only shrug as his response.

"No clue. Diamond kind of ruined the mood of the party." He replied. "But we shouldn't let that get us down, so do you guys want to go get some food?" They all looked at each other, nodding.

"Alright," They said, starting to make their way over to the table with food and cake. They each got a plate, getting the food they wanted. Zachary got a slice of cake, along with some salad. The CMC'S also got pieces of the cake, along with some other items. Applebloom got a slice of apple pie, Sweetie Belle got some hay cake, and Scootaloo got a hay burger. They decided to sit at an empty table away from most of the others.

"How has staying with Twilight been?" Applebloom decided to ask Zachary, wanting to start up a conversation.

"It's pretty good." He replied. "It's warm there, I like the library, how it's a tree," He stopped for a moment. "Twilight's been so nice to me. She lets me stay with her, she sometimes likes to read to me, and she even lets me sleep in the same bed with her." The CMC'S looked at each other, with knowing looks.

"Zachary..." Sweetie Belle said. "I think Twilight is starting to get attached to you." Zachary looked at her, with a raised brow.

"Yeah," Applebloom started. "My sister liked to do that with me when ah was younger." The others nodded in agreement. "This might sound crazy, but I think Twilight is starting to see you like yer... her own little brother, or even her son." Zachary looked shocked.

"Really? You think so...?" Zachary didn't admit it, but he started to see Twilight as a parental figure. He never felt this much affection from one person or pony in this case. Even though he didn't remember. They nodded in response.

"Yeah, ponies we are attached to do those kinds of things for us." Sweetie Belle said. "I think Twilight really does care about you." Zachary smiled and nodded as a thank you for them. He was about to say something else when all the sudden a gasp interrupted his thoughts.

"Look, the princesses are here." A pony somewhere in the room said, gaining the attention of Zachary and the CMC'S. They looked at the entrance of the bakery and saw that indeed there were two alicorns making their way inside. One was white, with a flowing mane and tail that had bright colors. The other one was dark blue and while her mane and tail were also flowing, hers was the same color as her fur, with dots that seemed to represent stars. They gave out small waves to the bowing ponies, whilst looking around for Twilight.

"Princess Celestia and Luna!" He heard the shout of Twilight, which drew the attention of the two Alicorns.

"Hello, Twilight Sparkle." She replied, happy to once again see her student. "What a lovely party you have going on here, but may I ask where is this creature that you discovered ?" Twilight looked around, until she eventually spotted him, still hanging around with the CMC'S.

"He's right over there," she said, pointing towards him. "Zachary, can you come over here?" He was nervous to meet a princess of all ponies, let alone two of them. He turned around to look at his friends, who just nodded for him to go forward and that they would go with him. At least that's what he hoped they would do. He calmed his, nerves as he began to walk over to them. Twilight could sense that he was nervous, so she put on a reassuring smile.

"It's okay. they're nice. You don't need to worry." Twilight said. This made Zachary's nerves go all the way down.

"Oh, so this is who you mentioned in your letter?" Luna asked, Twilight nodding in response.

"Yeah, I found him a few days ago. He was a little injured from a Timberwolf, but I healed him up. Could have been a lot worse." She replied. "His name is Zachary. He came through a forest in a place called California" Luna could tell just by looking at the child that it was the same one as the night before.

"So, did Zachary have any sort of nightmares?" Luna asked, making Twilight nod.

"Yeah, He told me about one he had this morning." She said. "It made him stay up the rest of the night. I was kind of hoping that you could help us out with that problem." Luna just simply nodded.

"Yeah, we should find out what's causing these nightmares to happen." She replied as they all started to talk about it.

It was again late in the night, the party had just ended a few moments ago. Twilight, along with Zachary, the Mane Six, and the CMC'S all shared their ideas to the Princesses about the nightmares. Whilst they couldn't figure it out, Luna promised to keep a watchful eye on the child during his dreams. speaking of him, he had fallen asleep sometime during the party, so he was just resting on Twilight's back as she and Spike made their way back to the library.

"I can't wait to get to sleep like Zachary over there," Spike said with a yawn.

"Yeah, that party was long... and exhausting," Twilight replied, as they made it to the library. After the conversation about the nightmares, Zachary got to know a lot of things about the royal sisters, and he warmed up to them very quickly, which lead to everyone having a good time. Twilight's friends were going to have a sleepover, but they were all too tired, so they went back to their own homes instead.

"Finally, we're here," Spike said as Twilight opened the door with her magic, causing the dragon to run right upstairs and into his basket. This made Twilight giggle, as she followed suit. She tucked Zachary into the bed, with a warm smile on her face. She wasn't going to bed just yet.

"This is so exciting!" She said, making her way downstairs. She needed a book. "I know I had a book about it somewhere... Ah!" She said, pulling out the book. It was labeled Tips and tricks on how to take care of your foal.

"It will be easy to raise him once I know everything I need to-" She suddenly cut herself off as a realization hit her. Zachary's parents in his world are probably still there and are waiting for his return. Even though he didn't remember, Twilight thought that this was the case and once he did, they would have to send him back. She let the book drop to the floor, as tears started to well up in her eyes.

"Oh no..." She said to herself, walking over to a nearby desk. She couldn't help, but to start sobbing lightly at this fact. Once he left, she would most likely never get the chance to see him again. A spell to send him back would be powerful for one pony to handle, and she wasn't even sure that his people would accept her. She continued her sobbing, not knowing that she woke up Zachary.

"Twilight... What's wrong?" He asked as he finished his trip down the stairs. Twilight shot her head to look at him, quickly wiping her tears away.

"Oh... N-nothing." Twilight replied, getting rid of the remaining tears. "I-I just thought of something sad." Zachary gave her a look of concern, before thinking about something that might cheer her up.

"Do you want a hug." He asked, holding out his arms. Twilight slowly felt a smile return to her, as she nodded her head, going up to him, pulling him into an embrace. As she hugged, she went to her thoughts.

If we do find a spell that can send him back, and if we can perform it, then I want to spend as much time with him as I can before he has to leave. She thought, now with a face of determination. I promise that. I promise.

Author's Note

Next song.

Also, sorry it took so long.

Chapter 5.5

Sometime later...

It had been some time since his mysterious arrival in Equestria and a lot has happened since then. Twilight got a book containing Starswirls unfinished spell, in which she tried to complete. However, it failed, then she had to fix the elements of harmony when her friend's destinies were changed, which had also caused her to finish Starswirls spell. After that incident, Twilight was granted wings, becoming an alicorn. Everyone was proud of her, including Zachary. Zachary, he hadn't been here that long, yet Twilight feels like he could be her own son, even though she needs to send him back.

She made a promise to spend as much time with him as possible before she could never see him again. That's exactly what she's been doing. Every single night, she would read him a book. It would mostly be Daring Do, but on occasion, it would be different. She would bring him along doing important things with her, like getting her shopping done, or going on a small adventure and learning something. She enjoyed those moments and she could tell that Zachary did too. She really didn't want him to leave. Many thoughts entered her mind about all the bad outcomes that could happen.

What if we send him to the wrong place? What if someone tried to hurt him? What if- Her thoughts were immediately cut off once she felt the small child against her foreleg. She remembered what she had been doing. Twilight began to read a book to him when it was early in Lunas night, however, it didn't stop him from going into a soft slumber, leaning against Twilight's foreleg, using it as if it was a soft pillow. She couldn't help but smile when she felt his head lean against her foreleg.

"You must be tired..." She said softly, using her magic to lift him up, she started making her way up the stairs. Once she made her way to her bedroom, tucking him into the bed. "Good night, Zachary," She placed a small kiss on his forehead, before walking out of the room. Downstairs, Spike was doing something else when Twilight came back down.

"Hey Twilight," He started, noticing Zachary was missing from her side. "Where did Zachary go?"

"He was tired, so we wet to bed early." She replied. "What are you doing?" Spike pointed to the comic book that was lied flatly on the desk.

"Just doing some reading before heading off to bed." He replied, before getting up to get his comic. "I need some shut eye... Good night Twilight." With that, Spike was already up the stairs. Twilight couldn't help but give out a little smile. She let out a sigh, as she went to one of her shelves to pick out a book to read, due to the fact that she didn't feel tired at all. It didn't take her long to find one she liked and instantly began to read.

She didn't get far into her reading, as she was interrupted by knocking on her door. She put her book down onto the desk, before going to answer it. When she opened the door, she saw her friends, who all had looks of concern on their faces.

"Girls... what's wrong...?" Twilight asked, hoping that whatever her friend was worried about wasn't too serious. That's when Applejack spoke up.

"Um, Twilight..." She started, the look from her eyes remained. "Ah found a book at my house... and it has a spell." This at first got Twilight very interested.

"What kind of spell. Is it good?" Twilight asked. Applejack gave out a sigh, before saying.

"The spell... is to get Zachary back to his own world..." Twilight felt her heard drop instantly.

"Oh..." She said, looking away from her group of friends. "That means his time here is up... We'll never see him again! Girls, I don't want him to go!" Twilight said, with tears creeping in the corners of her eyes. Her friends walked inside the library to comfort their friend.

"Ah know..." Applejack said. It wasn't hard for any of them to admit that they had grown attached to the child ever since his arrival in Equestria, but it seemed that it was time to let him go.

"Listen Twilight." Rainbow Started. "This is going to be hard on all of us, including me. We all have to be strong, can you do that...?" Twilight looked at her friends, uncertain at first, but then realizing that he would most likely be happiest with his family.

"Alright..." Twilight said. "What do we need to do...?"

Chapter 6

"Ow..." Zachary groaned as he started to awake from his sleep. He sat up, looking at his surroundings. He could only let out a small gasp, realizing where he was. He was back at his room, back in the house that was in his world.

"How did I get back here....?" He wondered. Everything was in the exact order he had left it in. The room was dirty, clothes were thrown all over the floor, his sheets tangled with his legs, and the small TV his father allowed in his room was still on, showing a dark blue screen. The fact that he was back here without him knowing how he even got back there is strange enough, but there was another thing he noticed. Something that he didn't remember being there before. The pillow he had. Whilst the pillow looked normal, it felt wet. Since his father never allowed him to drink in his room from what he did remember, it didn't make sense on why it would be wet.

"I guess I can try to leave..." Zachary said to himself. He got up, walking towards the door. He felt the cold air on his face as soon as the door was opened. The hallway looked nice as if someone had just cleaned it. He started to walk into the hall, an uneasy feeling creeping up his spine. He took in a deep breath, before walking into the hallway. It didn't take him long before he found an old radio, sitting on a desk.

"Where did that come from...?" He wondered. "I don't remember having that..." There was a soft noise that was too quiet to comprehend. Seeing the knob for the volume, he turned it up and was surprised at what he heard.

'It has been a few months since the disappearance of Zachary Baker, a six-year-old child living in Lompoc in the state of California. So far, there have been no leads to where he disappeared to. Law enforcement suggests him to be a runaway, due to the fact that...'

Before the newsman could finish, the radio cut out completely, and all that was left was static.

"So they know that I'm missing...? That's shocking..." Zachary said before a look of disbelief crossed his face. "Of course they know I'm missing! I've been in Equestria for a few months, why wouldn't they know I'm missing...?" He shrugged off his thoughts as he continued forward, seeing a door at the end of the hall, along with something else. A noise of something groaning.

"What the...?" Zachary stuttered, gulping the lump in his throat down, before moving on. The noise got louder the closer he got to the door. He could tell that it was coming from his right. When the noise became as loud as it could, it suddenly stopped, making Zachary freeze. He turned to look to his right and gasped.

The monster that he had seen in a previous dream was standing at the end in the middle of the hall, which seemed to be wider than any normal hall. The creature, however, looked like any normal human being. The only difference is that his face was slightly blurred, making him seem faceless. In front of him on the floor, was broken glass that looked like it came from a bottle, though there were only a few pieces.

"Is it going to hurt me...?" He wondered, but before he could even say anything to the monster, it vanished into thin air, leaving Zachary access to the door it was standing in front of. He just stayed there, frozen for a bit, not knowing what he could really do at that point. The only thing he could do was go through the door. So, that's what he did.

He walked up to it slowly, eventually reaching it. When he opened it, however, he was once again shocked by what he saw. He saw that he was at the beginning of the hallway again. "What...? But how...?" He turned around to go back, to see if the beginning leads to his room or the door that he found. When he did, however, all he saw was a pitch black darkness. So, he could only continue moving forward at this point.

When he walked in, the hallway looked different. It looked a lot less clean than before. The walls had some sort of mole on them, barely noticeable, but still there. There was some debris on the floor, but there wasn't a lot. The hallway still looked somewhat decent.

He continued the same path seeing the same things he saw before, including the radio. It was telling the same news story, but it sounded more distorted. When he got to the place the monster was standing, he appeared again. This time, the clothes that it was wearing were torn, with some sort of stains in them, there were some cuts on its arms and legs, drawing out a red substance. The face was even more blurred out than before, with one belt tied tightly around its head. The sharp blade sticking from the side of its torso was causing it pain, yet it didn't make a single sound. There was even more broken glass in front of it then before as well.

With a gulp, Zachary started walking towards it, a smell of something rotting crept up into his nostrils. When he was in front of the monster, it didn't do anything provoking, so Zachary had no trouble getting around it. He walked up to the door, a crack running down the center of it. He pushed it opened slightly, his eyes growing wide at what he saw.

The hallway was now a complete wreck. The mold was covering the majority of the walls, the debris was everywhere, and it felt like the floor would give out under his feet at any moment, causing his moment to be slower than it normally is. When he reached where the radio was, there was nothing but loud static. It was starting to get to a point where it was unbearable. He tried to turn it off, but the button wouldn't work. He tried unplugging it, but the noise still persisted. He had enough at this point, so he picked up the radio and with one throw, managed to break it completely. Zachary began to feel dizzy. It came out of nowhere and as soon as it happened, it stopped.

"Why is this happening to me...?" He asked himself, wishing that someone would get him out of here, but something told him that no one was going to try and save him. That he would be left in this place to rot. To be forgotten. The idea of that happening made the poor child shudder from fear. He wanted to turn around and run. To try and escape from this hallway, but the darkness was behind him, stopping him from doing that.

"I just want to go back to Twilight..." Zachary whimpered out, before taking in a breath, continuing his way down the hallway. He once again found himself face with the monster and once again, its appearance changed again. There were an added two belts added on the head of the creature. Its clothes were none existent at this point, there were even more cuts and bruises and the flesh on its skin was beginning to rot, and the one blade that was in his torso multiplied all over its body. The glass in front of it also multiplied, this time the pieces were stained along with the monster.

Zachary walked past the monster again, getting to the door. When he tried to open it, however, it was locked.

"W-what...?" He whispered to himself. "How could it be locked?! It wasn't locked all the other times, why is it now. Please let me out!" He pleaded, but the only thing that heard him was the monster, who turned to face him. Zachary didn't turn around in time, as he felt himself getting impaled by the blade on its torso. He let out a scream, one that nobody heard.

Zachary let out a gasp, as he frantically looked around the room. It was just a dream. Once he realized this, he let out a relieved sigh.

"Why do I keep having this nightmare...?" He wondered. He hated his night terrors. They would only seem to come on random occasions, and barely any of them seemed to be at all related. He decided to just try and forget about it and go downstairs. Before he could even make it out the door, it opened, revealing Twilight, along with her five friends, and Spike.

"Oh... You're already awake..." Twilight said, her voice sounded worried, but Zachary didn't know why.

"Twilight... Is something wrong...?" Zachary asked. Twilight let out a deep sigh, before saying.

"Zachary... We found a spell... One that will let you go back to your world." Zachary didn't expect that to happen> He was quite frankly shocked to learn this.

"Really?" Twilight simply nodded.

"Yeah... It needs the power of four alicorns, so we have to get Celestia, Luna, and Cadence first." She said. She looked away from the child, before looking back, tears threatening to escape from her eyes. That's when Zachary figured out what was wrong.

"Twilight..." Zachary was cut off when he was pulled into a tight fuzzy embrace.

"I'm going to miss you..." She said. Zachary realized that if he went back to his world, there was a chance that he would never see her again or any of them for that matter.

"Me too..." Zachary said, hugging back, also feeling tears fall from his eyes. The rest of them joined in the hug, a hug that they stayed in for a while. When they did eventually break it, they all looked at each other.

"Alright.," Twilight said, looking at Spike. "Write a letter to Celestia telling her that we need her, along with Luna and Cadence to get Zachary back home to his Family.

Zachary felt his world crash when she said that. He felt his body become numb to all other emotions except for one. Fear.

"No... No No No No NO!" He started shouting, placing his hands on the sides of his head, trying to stop the flashes of memories that started when Twilight said that word. Everypony in the room was looking at him, all with confusion.

"What's wrong, Sugarcube?" Applejack asked. Before she could get a response, Zachary ran out of the room. He ran down the stairs and out through the door, while Twilight and her friends just stood there in shock.

"What just happened...?" Rainbow eventually broke the silence.

"Shoot! We have to get him!" Twilight said, not knowing why they didn't stop him from running out. They tried to quickly follow suit with him, but by the time they were already out of the library, he was already gone, leaving the mane six confused.

"Why would he run away from us...?" Twilight asked herself, nopony however, had the answer to that question.

As Zachary ran out of Ponyville and towards the Everfree forest, he was blinded by flashes of memories. Memories that he has forgotten and were now coming back to him with a powerful force. He was about to enter the forest when a voice behind him stopped him.

"Oh, look who it is." Diamond chuckled, as she saw Zachary turn around in a panic. She had followed him when she saw him leaving the town. "Why are you out here at this time of night. Don't you know that they're dangerous things in there, or are you just too stupid to care?" Zachary fell to his knees, gripping the sides of his head, trying to get the flashing to stop.

"Diamond Tiara... I don't care about anything that you say to me!" Zachary shouted, getting back up. "I don't care about your insults, I don't care about the way you treat me, and I don't care about you! Get that through your thick skull before you drive me crazy with your: "Oh look, I'm making fun of ponies because I'm rich and I can get away with it." logic!" With that, Zachary ran towards the forest, leaving a shocked and confused Diamond Tiara.

As he ran into the forest, the flashed in his mind seemed to fade the deeper he got in. The flashes eventually stopped, causing him to stop running as well. He started taking in breaths, whilst looking around the area he found himself in. That's when he realized that Diamond was right. He did run into the Everfree forest.

"Oh no..." He said as he started frantically looking around, only to realize that he was lost. "No... Why did I have to run away?! Now I'm lost and they'll probably never find me in here. I'm probably going to get eaten by one of those Timberwolves things!" Zachary felt like he was about to cry. He didn't want to get trapped in here. That's when he heard the noise.

The sound of heavy footsteps that broke the silence made Zachary intimidated by them. He quickly hid behind a tree, hoping that whatever was making the noise wasn't aware of his presence. That was crushed when he felt an arm from behind the tree grab his throat.

"Ah... No!" Zachary struggled, trying to fight his way out of the grip. Eventually, he managed to break free, but when he turned around to see his attacker, he froze. The monster from his nightmares revealed itself, looking the same as it did when it attacked him in his last nightmare.

"You're real?!" Zachary shouted, but he didn't have time to stand around. He had to escape from the demon. He started running, the monster quickly following behind him. "Someone, please help!!!!" The monster was gaining on him. The closer it got, the more Zachary feared for his life. He made a turn, getting off of the trail and falling into a ditch. The monster luckily didn't see him go off the trail as it looked around with confusion.

Even though his lungs were burning, he held in his breath, not wanting to reveal his position. Luckily for him, he didn't have to hold it long, as the monster ran down the trail, thinking Zachary had somehow outrun him. He took in a breath, finally being able to relax after the ordeal.

"How is that thing even real?!" Zachary asked himself. "I thought it was only in my nightmares..." He stopped talking once he realized the situation. "Oh no, I ran away from Twilight! Why did I do that?! She doesn't know where I am or that there's a monster chasing me!" His breathing became heavier as he looked around the area, trying to see something that might calm him down. The only thing he saw was the darkness, with some light coming from the moon, though it was mostly blocked by the large trees.

"I have to find my way out of here somehow. I know that I will-" His head throbbed with pain as more flashes of light crossed his vision. He tried to get up, ignoring the pain. He manages to get on his feet, but it was hard to bear the pain due to everything that happened. As he made his way through the forest, the flashes became less and less frequent. This would have made Zachary feel better, is it weren't for the voices of someone familiar speaking to him.

You're worthless. Pathetic. I wish you never came into my life. The voice sounded like an older male.

'Who's there?" Zachary shouted. His shouts were answered by more harsh words.

You bring nothing good to this world. You should have never been born. If I could go back, I would have just left you on the side of the street, to be forgotten by everyone. No one truly loves you. Zachary gripped his head tightly, trying to silence the voice.

"Stop it Stop it Stop it!!!" It seemed to work, as he could no longer hear anything. He felt relief as he was about to continue his journey, only to be greeted by the same voice, but this time what it said was different.

Believe in yourself. Don't let those bullies at school get you down. You're amazing, don't let anyone else tell you otherwise. This made him confused, the voice was just mocking him a minute ago, now it was being nice to him?

"Where are you? Why were you saying those mean things?" Zachary asked looking around to find the location, but couldn't find it anywhere. He felt his head start to throb again, as the voices continued.

Worthless

Great

Pathetic

Amazing

Wish you were never born

Don't listen to the bullies.

I hate you Zachary

I love you Zachary

Zachary!

Zachary...

Zachnary!!!!

"STOP!!!!!" He screamed to the top of his lungs, hoping to silence the voices. However, because he did that, the monster easily found him. It didn't make its presence known until it pulled a blade out from its torso. Sneaking up behind the young child, he took the blade and used it to slash his cheek, nearly avoiding his eyes.

Zachary let out a scream of pain, falling back, looking up at the creature as red liquid poured from his cheek. The monster took a few steps back, Zachary wanted to run, but it seemed that his legs failed him. The creature shook its head before a deep quiet voice came from it.

"No more regret..." It said, before lunging at the poor child, who just barely managed to dodge its attack. Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to stop it. Thankfully for Zachary, his legs decided to start working again. He got up and bolted in the other direction. He picked up a rock and chucked it at the monsters head, stunning it for a bit. Zachary managed to keep running until he got to a cliff.

"No..." He said as he realized he was cornered. He thought that he was going to die here. That no one would find him, that he would never see Twilight or her friends again. He would never taste Pinkie Pie's treats, or help Fluttershy take care of her animals, or even have a bedtime story read to him by Twilight. It seemed like all of those things were going to happen anyway, since they were about to send him back to his world.

Zachary quickly turned around after hearing the monster's footsteps, only to be greeted by the atrocity itself.

"No... P-please don't hurt me!" He shouted, but the monster didn't listen. Instead, it grabbed Zachary by the throat and pulled him up, turning around to walk back into the forest. He struggled against the monsters strong grip, trying to punch him where his face would be, hoping it was some sort of weak spot. Before it could start walking, Zachary managed to grab onto one of the belts around its head. He managed to get it off, which seemed to hurt it.

The monster let out a screech of pain, before dropping the child. It backed up, gripping its head. It backed off to the edge of the cliff before it lost its balance. With nothing to grab onto, it plummeted off, letting out one last scream, before becoming silent. Zachary took in a bunch of breaths, before realizing the pain all over his body was now gone. He placed a hand on his cheek, the one that the monster slashed. The weird thing was that the cut was no longer there.

"What...? B-but how?" He asked himself. Deciding that he didn't want to know, he turned back, walking back, hoping that maybe he could find his way out without any more trouble.

"Why would he run in there?" Twilight asked as she looked at the entrance to the Everfree forest.

"Why would he run away at all?" Rainbow replied. After Zachary ran off, they all went looking for him. They thought he might be somewhere in Ponyville, but they eventually found out that wasn't the case. Diamond Tiara had told them that he ran into the Everfree forest.

"Ah don't know, but there might be something wrong with him." Applejack said. Twilight looked at her friend, with a worried expression.

"Yeah, and after that letter from Luna telling us about his most recent one, I also think that there might be something wrong." She replied. "All I care about right now is finding him. He could be hurt out there." Spike walked up to her, with a confident smile.

"Don't worry. I'm sure he's fine." He said, trying to reassure her. "We'll get him back." Twilight smiled at him, appreciating his words.

"Alright then," She said, with a sigh. "Let's go and find him." They all nodded, before running into the forest. It didn't take long to find him. He was walking down the trail, with his head down. He was going slow and didn't even notice them until he looked up. As soon as he saw them, his face light up, as he ran up to Twilight, hugging her.

"Twilight. I'm so happy you're here!" He said, the purple pony hugging back.

"I'm so happy to see you!" She replied relief washed over her knowing Zachary didn't get hurt. She pulled away from the hug, putting on a serious expression. "But, why did you run away? We were all worried!" Zachary looked away for a bit. He really didn't want to tell her. He knew what those flashes were now. After the monster fell off the cliff, he knew what they were, now Twilight wanted to know and he didn't want to see how she would react.

He let out a deep sigh, looking up at her.

"Because... I remembered. I remember everything.

Zachary was in his room, just like he was on most days. He was trying to avoid one person, but that never worked. It certainly wasn't about to work today either.

"Zachary, get in here now!" He cringed at hearing the voice. He let out a sigh, before getting up. Leaving his room and going down the hallway, he saw his father, with his favorite beer in his hand. The same beer that ruined him.

"Yes, sir?" He asked, not wanting to stay there any longer. His father had an angry expression on his face. Zachary could tell that he had too much to drink. His father pointed at a large stain in the rug.

"Would you mind telling me what this is?!" He asked, making Zachary sigh.

"That stain has been there for a week and I already told you that I can't get it out." He said. Even though his voice was calm, his father didn't see it that way.

"No, it hasn't!" He shouted, making Zachary back up against a wall. "If it was there for a week, then why haven't I noticed it before?" Zachary just remained silent, as his father looked at him. "I know why, it's because you're stupid! You are the dumbest person I have ever met! You slip up on something as a stain in the rug!" Zachary was now getting scared.

"But I do everything you ask me to!" He said, almost shouting. "Why are you so-" His last sentence was cut off when the bottle of beer his father indulged on was thrown at him. Zachary managed to dodge it, but as it shattered against the wall, one of the shards nearly cut his cheek. Once his father realized what he had done, he stepped back a little, before shaking his head, whispering something too quiet for him to hear. He looked up at his child, with the same anger.

"Get out of here and don't you even think about coming back until it gets dark!" His father shouted, before leaving the room. Zachary could fell tears trying to escape from his eyes, but he wouldn't let them. He decided to try and think positively. He could go on a walk and who knows. Maybe he could end up in a better place, or at least stay away from his father for a little bit. There was one place that never failed to make him feel better. The library. He grabbed his membership card, before heading out. Hopefully, things would be better for him. Hopefully.

To say that Twilight was shocked would be an understatement. She was horrified. Never has she or any of her friends heard about such cruelty towards a child. How could someone do that? She could only look down at the child, who was just a crying mess.

"He... He did so many other horrible things to me." Zachary said, falling to the ground. "He hit me with his belts, he would call me the worst person in the world, and just a lot of other things!" He got up and looked back at her. "I'm so sorry I ran away. The memories just kept coming back, and I panicked!" He looked away again, tears falling from his eyes. "I think he was right... I did deserve everything that happened to me and I should feel ashamed for thinking otherwise. No one in my world wants me."

Twilight felt something shift in her once again as she opened her wings and pulled him into a tight embrace.

"Hey, it's okay... Don't cry." She said softly, as he buried his face into her chest. "Zachary, whatever the reason he had for doing this to you, you didn't deserve it. No colt deserves to be treated that way, that goes especially for you. You're one of the nicest colts I've ever met. So don't ever think that you deserved that treatment at all." Zachary looked up at her, then at all of her friends.

"Yeah kid, you don't deserve that. You're super cool, don't let anyone else tell you otherwise." Rainbow said. TGhe others nodded in agreement. They all had mostly the same things to say. Zachary couldn't really listen though, as he was filled with happiness from their words and the way they said them. He smiled at them, before saying.

"Thank you..."

"Of course!" Pinkie said. "We should throw another party now that you don't have to leave!" They all laughed.

"Yeah, but we should talk about it later, alright?" Twilight said as they all nodded in agreement. She looked back down at Zachary, a soft smile still upon her face. "Come on Zachary, let's go home."

Author's Note

One more chapter here is the next song.

Final Chapter.

The walk back to the library felt longer than when they went to the Everfree forest. Maybe that was because they weren't running, or something else. Whatever the reason, Twilight along with her friends made it back to the library, after learning the truth about Zachary, who was on Twilights back, staring up at the sky. There was a question that was bugging his mind.

"What's going to happen now...?" He asked himself, not realizing that he said it out loud. Twilight face turned to one of uncertainty. She truly didn't know what to do with Zachary.

"I'm not sure..." Twilight replied. "Do you know anyone in your world that could take care of you?" Zachary shook his head.

"No... No one ever paid any attention to me. The only person I ever really talked with was my father..." Zachary said, shuddering at the thought of him and that monster he encountered. Twilight felt something inside of her, which she could not understand.

"Don't worry." She said, with care inside of her voice. "I'm sure we can figure something out. Everything will be alright." Zachary just nodded and stayed silent for the rest of the walk. It didn't take too much longer for them to get back to the library, but once they did, Zachary had already fallen asleep on Twilights back. She looked back at him with a sigh, before heading up the stairs to her room along with Spike, who was struggling to stay awake.

"Twilight... Is it alright if I go to bed?" Spike asked, rubbing his eyes.

"Yeah," Twilight replied. "If he wakes up, then tell him we're downstairs." She put Zachary under the covers, making sure he was in a comfortable position, before looking back at Spike. "I need to talk with my friends..." With that, she headed back downstairs. As she walked, she had both the feeling of relief and uncertainty. She was happy that they found him before anything bad happened, but at the same time, she wasn't sure what the experience would do to him. She never heard of anything like his situation before, what he had been through before he came to Equestria. How would it affect his mind?

"Do you think he's going to be okay?" Twilight could hear one of her friends talking as she finally made it back to them.

"How do you think he's doing Twilight?" Fluttershy was the first to ask. Twilight looked at her friends. the uncertainty she felt was clear.

"I... I can't be sure..." She replied, looking down at the ground. "It's hard to believe that anypony or anyone could go through something that horrible..." She sighed, looking back up at her friends. "Now... I don't even know what to do..."

"Well, we can't send him back to his world anymore." Applejack said. "He said it himself, he doesn't have nopony else there." They all looked at each other, trying to think of something, anything that could work. That's when Twilight remembered what happened a little while ago. She tried reading a book on how to raise foals, but after remembering that they would have to send him back, she had completely forgotten about it.

"Girls," Twilight said, getting their attention. "Zachary has been through a lot and you're right AJ, we can't send him back." She stopped for a moment. "That's why I think I should let him stay here with us... So that maybe we could be his family..." She wasn't sure how her friends would respond, but after looking at their faces, she could tell that they agreed.

"I think that's a great idea Twilight." Applejack said.

"Yeah!" Rainbow started. "We could be there for him and always make sure he's alright, unlike that jerk father of his..." The thought of his father just made Rainbow want to kick him in the face.

"I could throw him birthday parties, invite him to parties, and he could even help me with parties!" Pinkie Pie said, jumping up and down with excitement.

"I could make new clothes for him." Rarity said. While it might be a challenge since she had only done dresses for ponies, she had confidence that she could do it.

"I'm sure that he would fit in with everyone else, even if he isn't a pony," Fluttershy said, with a smile.

"Ah agree," Applejack said. "We'll all make sure nothing bad ever happens to him." Twilight looked at her friends, a grateful smile was present on her face.

"Alright... If you girls don't mind... I think he should stay with me since he has been staying here."

"Of course we don't mind." Applejack said. "Besides, ah think he would also like to stay with you." Twilight nodded.

"Thank you, girls." She said as they all got into a group hug. "Do you want to have a sleepover tonight?" They all nodded. "Alright then, we can sleep in my room. There are some sleeping bags up there." She turned around, heading up to her bedroom, her friends following behind. Once they got there, she got them from under her bed. They were about to set up, but they stopped when they heard Zachary mumble something in his sleep.

"I wish someone cared about me..." Twilight along with her friends. They didn't know what to make of it until Twilight spoke up

"Sweetie..." She said softly, walking towards the bed. "Somepony does care about you. Me and my friends... Please don't ever forget that." They all joined Twilight, surrounded the child as if comforting him. After a while, they all went to set up. Twilight didn't need a sleeping bag. She crawled into bed with the child, holding him into an embrace. As they shared the bed, sleep manage to reach Twilight, along with everypony else in the room.

Zachary once again found himself in another horrible situation. This time, there was just darkness all around him. He couldn't move, all his nerves stopped working. What made things even worse is that his father was somehow in front of him.

"H-how did you get here...?" Zachary asked, trying to back up, but his nerves betrayed him.

"Shut up..." His father replied, in a mumbly slur. "Why did you have to come and ruin my life...? I was happy, but you just wouldn't stop crying... Now your mother is gone... all thanks to you..." Zachary was shaking by then, not knowing what to do.

"I'm... Sorry..." Zachary replied, fear being his strongest emotion.

"No one cares about you and no one ever will." His father replied. "You'll just be forgotten."

"I wish someone cared about me..." Zachary said, curling up into a ball. His father walked towards him.

"It's such a shame... I wasted six years of my life trying to care for you. I don't know where you are now, but I hope I never see you again, you worthless child." That's when Zachary heard a voice that sounded familiar.

"Sweetie... Somepony does care about you. Me and my friends... Please don't ever forget that." Zachary felt like he had a revelation, as he stood up and looked his father straight into the eye.

"No, you're wrong. I'm not worthless. Maybe there are no people who would care about me, but I've met new friends that aren't humans do care about me." Zachary said walking towards his father. "I'm not going to let you hurt me anymore. You're no longer in my life, I'll just forget you even exist." He was now standing right in front of his father, his face was unreadable.

".........." His father remained in silence.

"Aren't you going to say anything...?" Zachary asked, finding that the silence was unsettling.

"..... You're such an idiot..." His father replied. Zachary was about to ask what he meant, but he was cut off when he felt a pair of strong hands grab his shirt. He gasped as he was suddenly lifted off the ground and came into eye level with his father.

"Do you honestly think I can't hurt you anymore? Just because I won't be there, doesn't mean you'll just be able to forget about me. I'll stay in your mind forever. I will still torment you with memories that I won't let you forget."Zachary started shaking, whilst trying to escape the strong grip.

"I W I L L M A K E S U R E Y O U N E V E R F O R G E T!!"

Zachary once again awoke with a gasp. He looked around, the only light in the room was coming from Luna's moon. He let out a sigh, knowing that he was once again safe. He felt something warm and fuzzy against him. He came to know this as Twilight's fur, whenever she would have him into a hug. Still, though, that dream he had was disturbing to him. He wanted to forget about his father. He wanted to forget and have it never come to his mind again, but he knew that most likely wouldn't happen. All he could do now is try to go back to sleep, as more and more memories of his father came back to him. He would try to ignore it, after all, it was the only thing he could do.

"Hey Zachary, wake up." He could hear Twilight's voice talking to him. He groaned, opening his eyes, looking up to see Twilight smiling. "How did you sleep last night?" His vision fully came back to him, as he looked and saw that Celestia's sun was now raised, shining down upon Equestria.

"I slept good last night, I guess." He replied, getting out of bed. Twilight kept her smile, as Zachary got onto his feet. "What time is it...?"

"1:30." She replied. Zachary had a look of shock on his face.

"I slept in that long?!" He asked, making Twilight nod. "Wow... How come you guys didn't wake me up?"

"We were getting something ready at Sugarcube Corner for you," Twilight responded. "Sorry we didn't wake you up, but we wanted to keep it a surprise." Zachary nodded, understanding.

"So when are we going?" Zachary asked.

"We're going right now. We've got everything ready for you." Twilight replied. Zachary nodded, wondering what the surprise could be.

Maybe it's another party Pinkie decided to throw. Who knows... He thought. Twilight left the room to let him get dressed. As soon as he got his PJ's off and his normal clothes on, he looked at the mirror, seeing his reflection. Though, something about seeing it this time seemed different.

"What's so different about this one...?" He said to himself. He just couldn't put his finger on it.

Something's going to be different...

Walking to SugarCube Corner, Twilight and Zachary were making small talk about stuff like books and some other things. Both were nervous, Zachary was nervous for the surprise. He was curious about what the surprise would hold for him. Twilight was nervous if he would even like the surprise at all.

"We're here," Twilight said, looking at the building in front of them. Zachary could smell frosting and hear soft whispers from inside the building. It was just as he thought. A surprise party. "Are you ready?" Zachary only nodded, as Twilight opened the door. Inside, the light's were all turned off, but as soon as he stepped inside, the light's went on, revealing the rest of the main six, along with Spike.

"SURPRISE!!!" They all shouted. Zachary looked around and saw confetti scattered across the floor, balloons were floating up to the ceiling. There was a banner, with words that said something Zachary didn't expect.

Welcome Home

This made Zachary go into a small shock. Twilight said the party was for him, so he managed to connect the two.

"This... is for me?" He asked, making all them say 'Yeah. Twilight walked over to her friends, turning to face Zachary.

"Zachary, when I first met you, you were so scared and alone." Twilight started. "I've grown attached to you. I've felt the need to protect you. To... raise you..." She stopped, levitating a folder over to him. He grabbed it and looked at it. The word on it said "Adoption".

"Wait, you mean...?" Zachary said but stopped when he saw Twilight give a small nod.

"I want to adopt you." She simply said. Zachary couldn't move, he was in too much shock. They all gave him a concerned look.

"Are you-" Twilight was cut off by Zachary running up to her, and hugging her. This threw her off guard, but she soon smiled, as she hugged back.

"Can I call you... Mommy?" He asked, now it was Twilight's turn to be shocked. It quickly went away as she replied.

"Of course you can, sweetie."

"I love you, mommy," Zachary said softly.

"I love you too sweetie," Twilight replied. "Mommy loves you too..." They all gathered around to get into a hug.

Maybe my dad was wrong Zachary thought, remembering his dream. Maybe I can move on from what happened to him. Maybe I can have a better life Zachary said, a smile coming across his face.

Things will get better

Author's Note

Final ending song