Helping You Forget
Chapter 4

Daniel heard the low grumbling of the grotesque monster that was surely after him. He rounded a corner in the corridor and found himself in a dark, empty room, lit only by a small candle in the middle of the darkness. Daniel advanced towards it, with his own shadow looming over him. A loud roar came from the darkness behind him and he span quickly to face it. Big, fleshy webs were consuming the area behind him. He froze in fear as the disgusting anomalies surrounded his position.

As if it a guardian angel in hell, Daniel drew closer to the candle light, comforted by it.

He averted his gaze towards the candle light, not wanting to witness the all consuming Shadow circle his position. He soon came to realise that the candle’s flame was that of a small girl. Her face was worried and upset, and tears became clearly visible as Daniel observed the flame at a closer distance. The girl was crying. He recognised the girl’s blonde hair and soil-covered face. As his memory opened, so did his sense of dread.

Suddenly, the eyes of the girl turned viciously towards Daniel’s own. She was no longer worried or upset. Her pupils filled with fire and rage. She was dreadfully angry. Daniel began to withdraw at the new expression of the little girl. She dug her way into his very soul and was biting out huge chunks of it.

As Daniel began to retreat into the darkness, the face let out an ear-piercing screech, causing Daniel to throw his hands over his ears. The familiar ringing sound filled his ears...

... and so did the familiar screeching sound of the Gatherers.

Daniel turned to face the torso and dislodged lower jaw of the Gatherer. Instantly, his expression went from worried to deeply terrified. Without a second thought, Daniel ran into the darkness, ripping at the huge webs of the Shadow.

You need to wake up...

Daniel heard that. He briefly stopped in his retreat, but soon forgot all about the incident and continued running.

He was terrified. His breathing was heavy. Beads of sweat were forming on his forehead. His body was sticky from the web and the pint of sweat dripping off of him. He turned to see a guest room with a once luxurious bed (its sheets now torn and ragged and covered in blood) surrounded by two separate closets. A chest of drawers with its contents pulled out stood against the wall near the bed and underneath a window with a dim light coming through. A strangely familiar setup. Daniel moved towards it and flipped one of the drawers. A tinderbox lay underneath it. Quickly, Daniel opened it and lit one of the matches inside. All of the candles in that room were no longer burning, and so the room itself was very dark. Only the dim light in the window allowed him to see anything. Daniel stumbled around, trying to find a candle that he could light. He found one next to an old wooden door.

As soon as he lit the candle, he spotted the door and went through. He was then greeted by an empty void, and the only way to pass over it was by a path of floating stones. Cautiously, he began to creep his way across, lightly tapping the stones ahead to make sure they did not fall when touched. As he continued to advance over the empty abyss, he silently told himself: “Don’t look down. Don’t look down.” He did not take heed to his own words and felt light headed. The void he stood above had no end. To fall into it was to fall for eternity. That was a fate Daniel would rather avoid. Unfortunately, Daniel began to lose his balance after peeking into the void and felt himself falling to his side. He struggled to keep balance, but it was no use. The sensation was definitely familiar.

Screaming, he fell and fell and fell...

Suddenly, something came into view. It rippled throughout his vision and engulfed the whole void as far as the eye could see. Something was splashing nearby and soon he realised that he was falling into water. This water was not uninhabited, however, and the splashing got nearer to his landing point. A loud roar made the water vibrate violently and small waves began to rise. Daniel knew what inhabited these waters. The Kaernk.

Suddenly, a large tidal wave formed to Daniels right. It grew higher and higher. Eventually, Daniel came crashing into the water and the Kaernk came splashing after him. It was safe to say Daniel was terribly frightened for his life at this point.

He was surrounded. Kaernk to the left of him, tidal wave to the right of him. Daniel waited for the eventual clash of the two forces, with him in the middle. His knees became wobbly and gave way underneath him. He collapsed onto his knees and began to weep. It was over. A small, piranha-like fish jumped at his head and he felt the tidal wave clash with his back. He was gone, but this has happened before.

“It is no use.” Daniel told Twilight after he had awoken and calmed down. Any hope of eliminating this nightmare he had before had died now.

“Yes it is!” She claimed. “In fact, this is the perfect time to try again!” That confused Daniel. He didn’t exactly feel tired now.

“What are you talking about? I have failed for today.”

“No! You are aware that you are awake now, so why not remind yourself that? When you are asleep again, you should remember that you reminded yourself that you are asleep now.”

“I do not follow Twilight.” Daniel bluntly stated.

“Basically, remind yourself that you are going to fall asleep again and that you must recognise that being out of bed means you are asleep.” Twilight looked very hopeful that this was going to work.

“Ok... I’ll try Twilight.” Daniel declared reluctantly.

“Good!” She replied, gently laying him back down. “Now sleep.”

Screaming, he fell and fell and fell...

Suddenly, something came into view. It rippled throughout his vision and engulfed the whole void as far as the eye could see. Something was splashing nearby and soon he realised that he was falling into water. Hold on. Water? Where did this come from? Last he remembered he was lying on Twilight’s couch.

Daniel stopped mid fall. Suddenly, everything became clear. He wasn’t awake at all, this was all a dream. The Gatherers, the Kaernk, the nightmare itself. Even the Shadow. Daniel could very well forget all about it. None of it was going to harm him anymore. The Shadow had accepted him. The Gatherers and the Kaernk were dead. Brennenburg was gone. The nightmare could bugger off.

Daniel gently touched down onto the floor. The floor was no longer covered in water, but in glistening grass and vibrantly coloured Damascus roses. Daniel had always liked them. Sure they reminded him of the potion, but with this “Lucid dreaming” he could forget about using that silly potion.

Daniel turned to see three familiar fillies trotting up to him with smiles painted onto their faces.

“We knew you could do it Daniel!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

“Not a doubt in tha’ world!” Applebloom declared.

“Now go on big guy, live your life like you wanted!” Scootaloo instructed. Daniel happily obliged. As he jogged off into his dream ecstatically, the three entities sighed.

“I feel bad.” The entity disguised as Applebloom admitted. “I don’ wanna do this to ‘em. Look at ‘em all jolly and such. It just don’t seem right.”

“It is the only way. His very presence is corrupting the world these ponies live in. He must be removed or purified before it is too late.” The entity posing as Sweetie Belle informed her comrade.

“I don’t mind, but I kinda feel bad about that whole ‘live your life’ thing. It’s just giving him false joy.”

“Agreed. There is nothing to be jolly about now. Apart from one thing. His success has assisted our progress in keeping his mind-world under control. If he keeps this up, we won’t have to permanently remove him from Equestria.”

“Then le’s hope he keeps this up then shall we?” And with that, the three nodded in agreement and ripped a curtain out of their way, revealing the same purple, cracked world as before, only less cracked.

“It was a wonderful experience!” Daniel claimed to Twilight. “I have never experienced such joy in all my life! I could do absolutely anything! I could fly, make wonderful structures by touching a tree and create life at the click of my fingers!”

“I know Daniel. I have done it before.”

“Even when I woke up I felt reinvigorated. I felt ready to take the day on by storm.”

“Daniel...” Twilight was getting irritated. It was joy to her ears at first, but his constant ramblings were getting a bit annoying.

“I must inform everyone of my happiness immediately!”

Twilight didn’t quite register what he had said. She was very near to blacking out at the concept of having two chatterboxes to deal with (the other being Pinkie. How Daniel managed to keep all of the Pinkies yesterday under his control all at once confused her still).

Whilst Twilight stared into space, Daniel joyfully jogged, arms swinging strongly with his legs, out of the door, ready to burst out with joy in the form of speech to everyone he met.

All Twilight heard was silence after that.

When the quite unfamiliar noise reached her eyes, she perked up and searched the area for Daniel. He was nowhere to be found. Where had he got to? She suddenly locked her eyes on the open door of the library. ‘Oh no...’

Daniel practically ran throughout the town, calling out to everyone familiar he met, telling them of his absolute joy (much to their displeasure. Each and every one of them became flushed with embarrassment). Daniel was being rather awkward as he jogged throughout Ponyville and his motion was extremely camp. But he cared not, for he was still in his own little world of joy caused by the enlightening dream.

Then he came across Lyra.

The sight of Daniel waving to her and jogging happily towards her was an unusual sight indeed. It even scared her a bit.

“Why hello Lyra! How are you this fine day?!” He screamed in her direction as he closed the gap between them. Lyra slowly began to back off.

“Uh... fine I guess.”

“Fine? What cause is there to be fine rather than ecstatic? The sun shines and the birds chirp their hearts out and you claim to be fine? I believe you not!” Lyra was baffled. His speech was all weird.

“Uh... ok. Can you speak Equestrian please? Or English, or whatever you called it?”

“But I am my good friend! This is the very same language you speak! You seem unsure this morning. Are you certain you are fine? You seem quite unnerved to me.” This was the truth. Lyra was shaking with fear slightly. Daniel was speaking quite loud you see, and everypony in Ponyville was watching the conversation unfold.

“She's scared ‘cause of you human! Leave her alone!” Somepony called from the crowd. Daniel was unsure of what to think of this. He had upset one of friends, and now his emotions were kicking him for it. Gently, he knelt down and put and hand on Lyra’s head.

“I am terribly sorry Lyra. Can you please accept my apologies?” He asked hopefully.

“I guess...” Lyra answered, still shaking.

“You shake still; my apology has not been accepted. Please, do not follow me, I will take my leave now.” And with that, he walked off into the distance to sulk somewhere.

Meanwhile, Twilight was frantically searching for the very same human. She eventually came across somepony who had been in the crowd.

“He just scared Lyra half to death and walked off somewhere. That’s all I know.” Is what they had said.

Twilight knew what lucid dreaming could do to you. You start the day off nice and happy, but even the slightest hitch could cause a rapid emotion change. All Twilight had to do was find Daniel and make him happy again. That was going to be a bit more difficult for her to do than it would for Pinkie. Immediately, she searched for Daniel in isolated places, where he was likely rethinking on his own actions, cursing himself for them.

And that is exactly what he was doing. He had found a small hill on the outskirts of town to sit upon and reflect on his earlier actions, cursing himself for every small action. He expected to sit there forever till he forgave himself, but what he didn't expect was a pink blur zoom in from the side and stop in front of him. This pink blur, of course, revealed itself to be Pinkie, frowning slightly at Daniel.

“Why are you upset?” She asked him after a short pause.

“How did you find me all the way out here... in fact why were you looking for me?”

“My Pinkie Sense told me one of my friends was upset! I had to find out who! So I found you.” She said proudly, suddenly with a huge smile on her face.

“I see.”

“So,” She started, the frown returning, “Why are you upset?”

“I would rather not say.” He stated.

“Ooh! A guessing game I sense! Ok then, you can’t get rid of your nightmares? You miss somepony? You’re depressed for some unfathomable reason? You upset a friend?” Daniel’s head twitched slightly.

“Oh! So that’s what it is huh?”

“Yes,” Daniel said suddenly as his head shot up and stared at Pinkie, “How did you know?”

“You twitched.” She stated bluntly. Daniel didn’t press on further.

“So!” She said, “I’m gonna make you happy again!”

“Oh really?” He replied. “How do intend to do that exactly? I cannot see how anyone can redeem my happiness again. I was happy at first because I had rid myself of the troubling nightmare and had an enlightening lucid dream as a result. I woke up feeling jolly, but then the incident caused me to switch to a gloomier feeling.”

“What happened?” She pressed on.

“I scared Lyra with my jolly expression. Shouting I was. Queer I acted. I cannot forgive myself. Is it that happiness brings sadness to others?”

“Don’t worry Danny-man! Someponies think I’m weird, but I don’t care about that. I’m just happy that I have friends to care for! I’m sure Lyra still likes you, she was just a bit shocked that’s all.”

“Are you entirely sure?” Daniel asked.

“Could never be more certain!” She declared. Daniel’s eyes lit up.

“Then it is settled!” He began. “I shall not care of such trivial matters ever again! I am happy once more!” He shot up onto his feet again. “Thank you Pinkie!” He said as he turned to her a picked her up in a rib-crushing hug. “You are a most enlightening speaker! I feel as if I could sing!”

“Really?” Pinkie beamed.

“Most certainly! Let this hill be our stage and we be the actors!”

Meanwhile, Twilight had watched the whole event. She had got there just after Pinkie, and she was most amused when she heard Daniel’s singing.

It was only later on when Daniel wrote in his journal about the day’s events.

Day 8

What a fool I have been today. While I had crushed my nightmare, I began sharing my joy with everyone else in Ponyville. It was not long before I began to scare ponies with my joy, and upon becoming aware of this, I grew upset and enraged with myself. But Pinkie told me to not worry about the whole thing and to instead put it behind me. Lyra is still my friend after all and I consulted her on the matter aft

Daniel dropped the quill as he looked up. What he saw was not what he expected. The world had changed. The wood work was rotten and dark, the light was non-existent and cobwebs could be seen everywhere. It was an eerie sight. Daniel could see the ghosts of the walls on the floor and dust consuming the air. That wasn’t the only thing consuming the room. A macabre web of flesh leaked its way into the room through the door and it began to cover the walls and replace the homes of spiders. With the web, in floated a Gatherer with blue auras around its hands. It turned to him and made a strange gurgling sound. A chill found a path down Daniel’s spine.

He turned to the stairs to see a small, child that resembled a young Gatherer. Its jaw was still intact, but its teeth were daggers and the claw was bigger than its coconut shaped head. Both abominations advanced slowly towards him, and Daniel felt his heart drop deeper and his head felt fainter with each step he took backwards.

Soon enough, the Gatherers were practically on top of him, and their foul stench filled his nostrils. Sweat dripped off of him and his legs grew too heavy to move. Soon enough, he fell to the floor with a crash as he knocked his head on a Bookcase and a table.

Author's Note

Let the Darkfic begin!

I know this chapter was a bit awkward (it pained me almost to write it and its the only one I have had to come back and edit to a more major degree to my liking because it was such a weird chapter), but I feel most of the silly stuff has been put behind us for now.