//------------------------------//
// Ch. 2: Equestria? 
// Story: A Phantom in Equestria 
// by Gigglingskull 
//------------------------------//


A Phantom in Equestria Chapter 2: Equestria? 
  


==========================Sometime Later with Danny========================== 


Slowly consciousness returned to Danny and as it did, his eyes opened. He expected to see the dreary white walls of his horrible cell, but was happily surprised, confused, and suspicious to see that he was in a forest.   

His mind was such a mix of emotions that Danny just laid there, not believing what his eyes where showing him. He expected that at any moment the forest would be somehow torn away and he would find himself back in his cell, waiting to be tormented. The fear of returning to that hell was so strong that Danny didn't move a muscle. He worried that if he moved, the forest would disappear and Danny couldn't let that happen. Even if this paradise was just an illusion, it was still an escape from the living hell his life had become. 

But after a long time of nothing happening, it finally sunk into his mind that what Danny's eyes were telling him was actually truly happening.   

Tears formed in his eyes as he weakly said “I'm f-free.” From the sound of his voice, it was clear that a long time had passed since he had spoken. He was so happy that he didn't notice that his body felt strangely off. After a few moments of taking in the view of his freedom, Danny tried to get up, only to fall flat on his face.   

Sitting up on his behind, he said “Ow, my face.” Bringing his hand up to rub the pain away, he froze when he saw his hand . . . . or what used to be a human hand. Instead he saw what looked like a tannish yellow colored hoof. “What the?” Looking at the rest of his body, he saw that his hand wasn't the only thing to have undergone a dramatic change. 

Looking around, Danny saw a small pond that he could use as a mirror. He slowly got up, unused to his body's changes, and made his way to the water's edge on all fours. What he saw caused his brain to stall and stop working for a moment. 

Starring back at him was a small colt. It was weird in that he still sorta looked like himself a little. His midnight black mane and tail were long and ratty. He was still only skin and bones. He still had all his scars, only now they were a slightly off color from the rest of his  tannish yellow coat of fur. They weren't really noticeable from a distance, but the closer you got the more apparent they became. His left eye was still his usual icy baby blue color. The right still had the scar and was an milky faded blue color. And honestly he couldn't tell if he looked like a boy or girl horse thing. He didn't know if this was because he wasn't familiar with the horse thing species or if he was androgynous. 

Basically Danny still looked the way Clockwork found him before sending him away. . . . just now the child was a young pony. 

Sighing, Danny took in his new form and shrugged. “Well . . . This isn't the worst thing to happen to me. . . . .” Shuddering, he remembered what that scarring event actually was. “And if this is the price for freedom, I'll gladly take it.” He slowly got to his hooves and started walking away. Which felt strange since walking on all-fours threw him off a little. But Danny was resourceful, quickly adapting to his new way of transportation and situation. 

There wasn't a destination set in his head, Danny didn't know where he was after all, but he wasn't going to stay out in the open. Experience had taught him that it wouldn't be long before he was attacked by something. That was just how his luck always went. 

As he was walking, Danny took in the forest around him. It almost felt like he was in the Ghost Zone. There was a spooky and magical air to the area. This helped to calm him. Humans tended to not feel comfortable in the Zone, but being half ghost made the dimension feel almost like home to Danny. The only thing stopping him from thinking he was in the world of the dead was that he could see the sky and it was clearly not that of the Ghost Zone.    

What Danny didn't know was that while he was looking around, he had managed to stumble into a pack of timber-wolves. They were creatures made out of wood and plant life magically fused together into an elegant predator body, shaped very similar to wolves. Surrounding the small colt completely, the wooden pack of wolves started to growl as they moved out of the shadows.   

Upon hearing the sound, Danny took a fighting stance. But still being weak from his time with the GIW, Danny's atrophied muscles gave out and he fell to his knees. Knowing there was no way for him to fight back, Danny closed his eyes and simply laid down in a small ball. . . . waiting to be torn apart.   

A few tears ran down Danny's cheeks. “After everything I have done and experienced . . .  After somehow escaping that living hell . . . I'm still going to die? . . . It's not fair. . . . If only I had some more time . . . With the ghost suppressors gone, my healing could finally kick back in full force and get me back to fighting shape.” But it hadn't been long enough for his healing to return to full power so he wasn't ready for a fight. In his current condition, Danny wouldn't even put up a challenge to the Box Ghost.   

Danny was so out of it and sure he was going to die that he didn't notice that the growling had stopped almost as soon as it started. The largest wolf separated from the pack and headed towards the small colt. This one had lily flowers growing along the creature's back. There was a single flower growing behind her right ear, making it look like it had been placed there on purpose. The flowers and body shape helped to show that this wolf was a female. She looked down at the small defeated form at her paws. It would be so easy for her to devour the colt (one bite would have been enough for her to swallow Danny whole) and from what she could sense from the pony, her power would increase greatly. Timber-wolves ate the living to gain power from their souls and magic. Not that they actually devoured the souls. It was a process that pony kind didn't understand. Any pony who got close enough to study the method, usually got to experience the painful process first hand. Timber-wolves could just eat any meat or vegetation to survive, but they wouldn't get more powerful by doing that. 

And judging from her size, this particular timber-wolf had eaten a lot of ponies in her time. 

There was something else, besides power, she could sense from this little colt. There was something special about this pony that was calming and made her want to snuggle him as if he was one of her own cubs. But underneath this aura, she felt a great pain in the colt's heart and she wanted to help him. And she knew that the other members of her pack could feel all of this too.   

So instead of eating him in one bite, she laid down next to the pony and started to nuzzle him.   

Opening his eyes, Danny was shocked he wasn't  being painfully torn apart and eaten. What the wolf was doing felt nice and it had been so long since he was touched in a pleasant way. So very long since kindness of any kind was sent his way. The only thing he had been receiving was pain, suffering, and torment. With tears in his eyes, Danny leaned into the timber-wolf's side, accepting and  enjoying the comfort.  Besides being kind to him, the creature sort of reminded Danny of Wulf a little and that helped him to trust the wooden creature.   

Seeing Danny's tears, the wooden wolf licked them off his face, causing the colt to giggle. He didn't notice the small from her mouth since his emotions were drawing all of his focus.   

Once he calmed a little, Danny felt something else familiar from the wolf. It took a moment, but Danny realized what the feeling was . . . . since he had experienced something like this before. 

A few weeks before the GIW had captured him, Danny had told Jazz, but not his friends (They were dating at the time and growing distant from him. He now knew why. . . . .  Not that it helped anything), that once he had crashed in the forest after a fight and had passed out. When he had awoken a short time later in human form, there was a mountain lion laying next to him. He would have freaked out, but his fear was pushed to the side by his confusion and curiosity. The large cat was nuzzling him and purring. The predator was genuinely acting like a giant kitten that just wanted to snuggle. So he slowly raised his hand and petting its head.  

When told this, Jazz had yelled at him over the phone for being so reckless. “Your hand could have been ripped off!?”    

Danny defended himself by saying he had . . . he struggled for a moment to think of the right word . . . sensed, is what he came up with as he gave a helpless shrug (not that Jazz could see it). “I sensed that the animal wouldn't hurt me.” 

This caused Jazz to pause her rant in thought just long enough so Danny could continue telling her what happened.   

The large feline had reacted by pushing into his touch, begging to be petted. This really excited Danny. It wasn't everyday he got to pet something that normally would have attacked and torn him to pieces. Plus he had always wanted to own a pet (Danny couldn't have one of his own since his parents would most likely end up killing it somehow) so he always took the time to cuddle any animal that let him. 

Eventually Jazz got over how reckless her little brother was after about 23 straight minutes of lecturing him and said “This probably has something to do with you being half ghost.” 

Together, Jazz and Danny talked about it over the phone and formulated some tests that the ghost boy could try safely at the zoo. The test boiled down to Danny going into the animals cages and seeing what they did.  Jazz was a little worried, but realized that her brother would be safe since he could use his intangibility and invisibility to keep himself out of harm's way. After he reported back to her with the results, Jazz theorized that Danny had a calming effect on animals. It worked slightly better on more dangerous animals for some reason.   

“It is the only thing that makes sense,” she explained to him. “Why else would every animal try to snuggle with you.” She wished she could have gotten pictures of what he said happened. “I can't believe he was hugged by a polar bear, kissed by a leopard seal, rode a hippo, and had a cobra begging him to be petted . . . I didn't even think snakes HAD the capacity for that kind of thing.” 

Their tests, after Danny convince Jazz it would be okay (not that she could have actually stopped him since she was away at college), moved on to include several different spectral animals. It shockingly worked with them too. In fact, it worked even better with them than the normal animals. They talked it over and came to some conclusions. When Danny had encountered an animal ghost in the past, he simply attacked the creature. They in turn sensed his hostility and reacted in kind. If he simply approached them calmly, they too would want to cuddle with him. After a short snuggle session, Danny could lead the creature back to the Ghost Zone. But they had to be true animals on the inside. Creatures like Vlad's vultures, that were only animals on the outside, couldn't be instantly tamed by Danny like true spectral animals were.   

This had its cons and pros. It took a bit longer to calm the ghost animals and return them home, than simply fighting and capturing them. It did make the encounters more pleasant. (This did help a little with the whole best friends growing distance with him thing. Though the animals could never truly replace spending time with someone who could actually talk with him.) But it didn't decrease the number of spectral animals coming to the human world. In fact, it increased the visits. Danny would encounter several returning creatures that simply came to snuggle with him again and ended up attacking the town in frustration when they didn't find him right away. Basically the animal ghosts were throwing tantrums. 

After a bit of time, the wolf stop nuzzling Danny, bringing him out of his thoughts and back to the present. The wolf then encouraged the small colt to stand up. Not having anything better or at all to do, Danny weakly got up and slowly followed her. She lead him through bushes and around trees. But the trail was never to much for Danny to cross on his own and the pack never moved to fast to lose the slow moving pony, the lily covered timber-wolf made sure of that.   

Eventually they arrived at some apple trees. One of smaller timber-wolves climbed the tree, grabbed one of the apples with it jaw without puncturing the fruit, and went over to Danny. It dropped the fruit in front of him and looked expectantly at the colt. Danny looked at the fruit for a moment. Danny didn't know why, but ever since he became half ghost, apples had become his favorite food. And it wasn't just the actual fruit, anything that smelled or tasted like apples made his mouth water.   

Without hesitating, Danny lowered his head and took a bite. When the taste registered to him, Danny felt his mind melt from pleasure. It was the best apple he ever had. He quickly wolfed down the apple, core and all. Another was placed in front of him and it was gone even faster then the first one. When a third was placed in front of him, Danny had to hold himself back. He still wanted to eat, but his stomach was already painfully full. It was because while in the GIW's “loving” care, they starved him until his stomach shrunk. So while his mind craved more food, fearing that he wouldn't get more, his stomach couldn’t actually hold anymore without making him vomit all of it back up. 

Seeing that the colt was done, the large wolf bend down and ate the uneaten apple. The timber-wolf and her pack then started leading Danny through the forest again. He followed since they were so nice to him .  . . and he had nowhere else to go.   

As they were traveling, Danny saw different creatures moving in the shadows just out of sight. They weren't there to attack. Their reason for being there was that they had sensed Danny. It was obvious that he was powerful, like a predator, but with a calming aura that made the dangerous and magical creatures want to cuddle him. But the aura projected by the timber-wolves told the other creatures to stay back or the pack would attack. 

The female timber-wolf stopped walking and Danny saw that they were standing in front of some sort of hut build inside of a hollowed out tree. There were tribal masks hung up and bottles tied to the branches with vines. The place had an African tribal feel to it. The timber-wolf knew that the pony that lived here could help the hurt colt. 

Danny questionably looked at the timber-wolf and she nudged him towards the tree hut. Danny took the hint and started to move towards the door. Each step he took, Danny could feel fear creep into his core and grow. By the time he was standing in front of the door, the fear had grown large enough that the colt was shacking. Close to having a nervous breakdown, Danny just stood there. He was scared of meeting the person behind the door. People had tortured him, causing him to develop a fear of being around anybody.   

This fear didn't apply to animals since Danny knew they wouldn't hurt him because of his calming effect he had on them. Plus he knew that if he was nice to them, the animals would return that kindness. 

The female timber-wolf, sensing his fear, stepped up to his side and nuzzled him. Danny's shaking decreased, but he was still too afraid to knock. Seeing this, the wolf gave him a chance to calm down. After a long time of Danny doing nothing, she decided to take matters into her own paws since the colt was still too scared. She started scratching at the door to get the attention of the healer pony inside. 

When Danny saw what the wooden wolf was doing, he was quick to react. “W-wait . . . N-no,” Danny begged to the wolf in fear as he moved closer to her side. “I'm n-not . . .”

“Wait a moment for I'm coming,” a voice said from the other side of the door, cutting Danny's fearful pleading off. “So you can stop your drumming.” The obviously female voice was deep and mature sounding. It was also a bit sensual and calming. In fact, Danny found his shacking stopping. The voice was musical to his ears and slightly relaxed him even though Danny was still scared of the unseen woman. 

There was a rustling noise on the other side of the door before it opened. Standing there was a zebra with a mohawk. She had gold bands around her neck and her front left foreleg. There were large golden hoops in her ears. There was a spiral surrounded by triangles on her flank. The design looked like a tribal sun.   

Not expecting guests, Zecora was stunned by what she saw on the other side of her door. There was a small foal (a bit smaller than Apple Bloom) standing pressed to the side of a very large timber-wolf. She wasn't sure what she was surprised by more, the amount of scars on the young pony and their malnourished condition or that the timber-wolf was just standing there and not trying to eat the said pony.   

Looking at them, Zecora decided that there wasn't anything unusual about the wolf . . . . . besides her large size . . .  but there was definitely something different about pony on the other hoof. It took a moment, but she could sense a great spiritual power from the foal. It was a cold feeling that made a chill go up Zecora's spine. The only reason she could sense the energy was because she was more experience with the spiritual side of the world. She was sure no one else, besides the Princesses and maybe Twilight, would even sense it without touching this pony. 

Zecora had never seen a live creature with this kind of energy before, only from the dead. It was like the pony was alive, but dead at the same time. If she wasn't as experience as she was, Zecora would have assumed that what she felt was dark magic not spiritual energy. The two forces while completely different things where very similar. 

But that wasn't the only thing she noticed. Looking over the pony's small body, Zecora couldn't tell if they were a colt or a filly. They were too androgynous in appearance to tell. Plus the horrible condition of the pony helped to further conceal this fact. “Hopefully they will speak soon and reveal their gender. That way I won't become an offender.”  This lead her to observing all the scars over their body. She couldn't help wondering what had happened to this young one to give them so many horrible looking scars. “Some of these haven't even been on his body for a year. What could have given him wounds so severe?” 

But the worst thing Zecora noticed was their cutie mark. What her eyes saw drew all of her focus, filling her mind with horrible thoughts. If she wasn't convince before, Zecora now knew for sure that this pony's past wasn't a pleasant one.  

The mark was completely black and unrecognizable, marking them as a Forsaken. . . . A pony who, for whatever reason, had to give up their special talent. Usually these ponies were devastated sad creatures that held no motivation to do anything. They had to be taken care of or they would die simple by not eating or drinking anything.   

If she wasn't as experienced as she was, Zecora would have hugged him as she sobbed. It was painful to see any pony, especially one so young, as a Forsaken. But something told her that being too forward like that would have cause him to flee. So she kept the look on her face friendly. Though she was smiling, that didn't make her any less upset on the inside, she just hide it well. 

The situation was so unusual and unsettling that Zecora got a little lost in her thoughts. She would have continued staring at the colt, but a deep menacing growl broke her out of it. 

Danny had backed away from the zebra in fear. The way she was looking at him reminded Danny of the way some of the scientist from the GIW facility looked at him as they uncaringly observed him . . . . especially his mother. The only reason he hadn't bolted was because of the wooden wolf next to him. The timber-wolf had moved slightly forward and was ready to attack. She had sensed his spike in fear and didn't like it one bit. She was acting like he was one of her cubs and that made Danny feel better. . . . . but only a little. 

“Little one please forgive my rudeness,” Zecora said in an apologetic tone once she realized what she was doing. “I did not mean to show such crudeness.” She moved to the side and gestured with her hoof to the inside of her house. “Come inside and rest. I really think that would be for the best.” 

Danny's fear decreased hearing the zebra talk. “I like her rhyming, it sounds nice and makes her seem a little silly.  . . . I wonder if she is doing it on purpose? . . .I guess I can try trusting her  . .  just a little. . . . ., but will not be letting my guard completely down.” He began to calm a little and entered the hut. His fear was almost gone. He was afraid of people not animals . . . or ponies in this case  .  . . and this aided in him trusting Zecora.   

Once in the middle of the room, Danny froze when he saw the wolf hadn't followed him into the hut, instantly worrying him. “Is this some kind of trap?” 

Seeing the colt worriedly looking at the timber-wolf, Zecora said “Let your worry come to an end, you are with a friend.” When Zecora looked at the timber-wolf, she received a glare and growl that threatened pain if anything happened to the small colt. “Your friend can't enter where I dwell.” Danny look questionably at Zecora. “It's because of a spell.” Zecora cast a confused look at the wolf. “Timber-wolves aren't usually this sweet. They normally hunt for pony meat.” 

“Really?” Danny looked back at the timber-wolf in surprise. Yes he knew he had a calming effect on animals, but he didn't know it was this powerful. Though his body had changed, Danny was still his clueless self on the inside after all. After a moment, he turned to look at the zebra. “He and his pack were really nice and gave me some apples.” 

The timber-wolf shot a hurt look at Danny (that went unseen by him) for thinking that she was a male. She thought she looked pretty, especially with her flowers, and being called a boy made her feel ugly.   

Zecora saw the upset look the wolf was making. Turning to the colt, she said “There is something I need to tell, before this wolf raises some hell. If you don't want HER to wail, than remember that she is female.” 

When Danny comprehended what the zebra was saying, he moved faster than Zecora knew a pony in his condition should be able to. Standing next to the timber-wolf, Danny hugged and nuzzled her. “I'm sorry. I didn't know you were a girl, but I should have. You are so slender and graceful.” He moved back a few steps and looked at her. “And you have such nice flowers. ” Wagging her tail, she gave him a lick, showing that he was forgiven. Danny didn't recoil at her awful breath. It was hard not to considering his enhanced senses, but Danny didn't want to offend the wolf again. “I should give you a name . . . .” He saw the flowers growing from her body. “How about Lily?” 

The newly named Lily barked happily to show her pleasure at the name. 

“Lily clearly likes her new name,” Zecora said from the middle of the room. “Now come back here so we can do the same.” 

Danny gave Lily one more nuzzle before heading back inside. He was a little confused by Zecora's words. “It almost sounds like she wants us to rename each other? No, that doesn't sound right. . . .What she wants does have to do names. . . maybe she wants to know my name?” 

“I am Zecora,” she gestured at herself, “and I live in this big tree,” she held out her hoofs. She lowered them back to the ground and looked at Danny. “Now your name please give to me.” 

“I'm Danny,” replied the colt. He couldn't help smile at her. He may not completely trust her, but she was nice and he enjoyed her rhyming. “And I kind of want to give her chance, . . . unlike those at the GIW gave me.” He blushed a little before shyly saying, “And I like your rhyming.” 

Zecora returned the smile. Though his voice didn't give away his gender, his name did. She also thought Danny looked adorable being all shy and blushing. “That is very nice of you to say, many don't like it and wish for me to go away.” 

Danny could relate to that. Some of the ghosts didn't like him simply because he was half alive. The same thing happened with some humans, but because of his dead side. “I'm sorry to hear that.” He looked downward as he remembered what it was like to be discriminated against for something that couldn't be helped. 

“Please don't be sad and frown.” Zecora lifted his chin and looked into his eyes. She could see the colt truly felt for her. “I don't let it put me down.” Zecora sent a caring smile at him, hoping that it would convey how much she appreciated that he cared about her feelings.  Seeing him return her smile, Zecora went over to her shelves and grabbed a few things.   

As Danny watched her picking things up, he couldn't help wondering how the zebra was actually holding them with her hoof. It wasn't like a hoof could actually hold something. The limb didn't have the necessary features to do so. As he tried to wrap his mind around this puzzle, Zecora mixed the ingredients she had gathered together in a cup before returning to Danny's side.     

“Please drink this brew.” Zecora held the cup out to Danny. “It will help you.” 

Danny's fear spiked at being offered something to drink. He slowly backed away. He had decided to trust Zecora a little, but not enough to drink some kind of strange brew from her. There was no knowing what the bubbling pink stuff would do to him. The liquid could be poison for all he knew. 

Seeing Danny's suspicion, Zecora said “It is good not to trust right off the bat.” She looked at the cup in her hoof. “This is not poisoned and I can prove that.” Zecora took a drink from the cup before making a big show of swallowing. Once finished, she turned towards Danny and said “You may still think of me as a stranger, but please believe I will not cause you any danger.” She held the cup in Danny's direction again. “This is made with a special nectar. It is very helpful to a specter.” 

“W-what-t?” The trust that Danny was showing her was completely shattered and replaced with fear. He was scared that she would hate him for what he was. That was what his time with the GIW taught him . . . .  That he was a freak of nature, an abomination of science, and didn't deserve friends. People would fear and want to hurt him when they found out what he was. People would eventually turn on him like his friends and parents did. 

So right now, Danny was absolutely terrified of Zecora and what she would do to him. 

Zecora saw that the colt was horribly afraid and tried to calm him down. “I do not want to a bad host, but I know that you are a ghost.” Her voice was smooth and comforting, but it didn't help. Danny still looked like he would bolt out the door at any moment.  “Listen to what I have to say.” She took a step towards Danny and held out her hoof towards him with the intention of comforting and reassuring him that everything was okay. “Please don't . . .”   

But before the zebra could finish speaking or get any closer, Danny ran out of the door.   

This left Zecora standing there with her hoof held out in his direction. “. . . run away.” A dejected look came to her face, showing just how saddened she was. She hadn't wanted to scare him away. “I could sense a great pain in his heart.” A few tears left her eyes. “I wish I could have given him a fresh start.” Whipping the tears from her eyes, a determined look came to her face. “There is no time to slack. I'm going to go bring him back.” She was going to help the little colt no matter what.   

And to do that Zecora couldn't just leave him in the Everfree Forest. It wasn't that she feared that something would hurt him. No. From the power she sensed radiating from him and the way the timber-wolves acted towards Danny, she had a feeling he wouldn't be hurt . . . . . Physically that is.  . . . Mentally was a different matter. She knew that left alone, his pain and fear would grow and consume his mind. If that happened she feared what Danny would turn into. 

Zecora bolted to the door, only to stop when she saw Lily and the rest of the pack standing outside her home, growling. There was no way out past the growling and clearly angry timber-wolves. “This is going to be a bit of a setback, for I don't want to end up a wolf snack.” 

Lily didn't know exactly why the colt was so afraid, but she knew it had something to do with the Zecora. Since she couldn't get to the zebra while she was in her hut, Lily was not going to let Zecora leave for a while. So instructing her pack, who felt similarly to her, the wolfs surrounded the hut. This would help the colt get way. Lily was worried about Danny and was afraid of the trouble he could get into, but she would have to trust he would stay safe. Something told her he would be fine and she could always track him down later. 


================================With Danny================================ 


Danny was blindly running through the forest with no idea where he was going. He ran through bushes and jumped over fallen trees. The only thing he knew was that he had to get away from the zebra and avoid what horrible thing Zecora would do to a monster like himself. Along the way, he saw glimpses of creatures that he reminded him of things he had read about in one of Sam's many mythology books. If he wasn't so scared out of his mind, Danny would have stopped and admired them. 

Eventually, the colt's muscles started to give out and he slowed down. Breathing hard, he pushed himself to continue even thought his muscles were screaming for him to stop. Finally Danny simply couldn't continue and collapsed in a heap. He stayed there for a long time. When he had recovered enough, Danny slowly and unstably got to his feet. By this time, the moon was high in the sky. 

Looking around, Danny could see an old castle in the distance and figured he would head in that direction. The structure could prove to be a place to hide in where no one would find him. He had to cross an old rope bridge to get there. 

When Danny was standing in front of the castle and looked up, he couldn't help thinking the place was the perfect location for a haunting. He cracked a small smile at the situation. A scared and tired ghost using a creepy place to hide. The structure looked to be falling apart. It reminded him a little of the castles from the Ghost Zone . . . just less ghostly looking. “Parts of it are missing the roof. . . . I wonder if any of it can still provide shelter from the elements?” 

Slowly entering the structure, Danny looked around. He had no problem seeing. The full moon's light illuminated some of the inside of the building since there was so many holes in the ceiling and broken windows. Where there wasn't any moon light, Danny's natural nocturnal vision helped him to see. 

He had calmed down from Zecora discovering what he was. It helped that he thought the castle was absolutely cool looking. It distracted him from what happened. The place seemed normal enough, except for the main doorway and ceilings. They were so high and big that he couldn't think of anything that would have a problem entering the castle. 

Danny decided he would explore so he could see if the place would make a good shelter for the foreseeable future. Looking around, he saw many old tapestries. There seemed to be two themes going on in them. The first one had warm colors, the sun, and a white horse with wings and a horn. The second had cold colors, the moon, and a dark blue pony with wings and a horn. He liked the moon theme better of the two.   

Eventually, Danny came across a large room with many entrance ways and intersecting hallways. At the other side of the room was a staircase that lead up to two thrones, each below a banister of the two themes. Between them was a large hole in the wall. 

Continuing to explore, Danny came across a large library with a long table in the center of the room. He looked around for a few moments before deciding to sit down since he was getting tired again. Going over to one of the chairs at the table, Danny struggled to get in. It was obviously made for a pony much larger than himself. Plus he was still a bit unused to his body and felt weak. 

The small colt eventually made it into the seat, but in his struggles to get on, he knocked the chair back and off balance. Danny closed his eyes as he fell, waiting for the pain of his landing. But after a moment of not hitting the floor, the colt opened his eyes and saw that the chair was tipped back without falling. 

Before he could question this, the sound of old gears turning could be heard. Danny jumped off the chair and took a battle stance, only to fall. “I'm still too weak to defend myself. I need more rest to recover fully.” He then heard a scrapping noise as the bookshelves to his side opened, revealing a room behind them. “This place has secret passageways? . . .  I have to watch where I step or I might activate a trap or something.” 

Getting up, Danny peeked inside the room. It looked like a small personal room. There were pillows on the floor, a couch, some shelves built into the walls filled with books and a pedestal in the middle of the room with a single book on it. He slowly entered the room. Looking around, he saw a small lever on the wall next to were he entered. Having an idea of what it might do, he tried to reaching it. 

But Danny wasn't even close to touching the lever even by standing on his back hoofs and stretching out his front hoofs as far as he possibly could. “Curse how small I am.” So collecting the little bit of strength he had left, Danny gave a jump and barely caught the lever with his front left hoof.   

So happy at finally having something go his way, Danny didn't even question HOW exactly his hoof was holding on.   

His weight wasn't enough weight to pull down the lever, causing Danny to mentally curse about the reduction in his size. Jerking his body downward, he got the lever to lower after several failed attempts. 

The small colt fell to the floor in a heap as the bookcases closed, sealing up the room. After slowly getting up and wishing he wasn't so weak, tired, small, and in pain, Danny looked around and saw that the room was sealed with no way out. He wasn't scared. In fact, he thought this would be perfect. While he slept, the colt wouldn't have to worry about anyone getting to him. But if someone did find out where he was and tried to get the small colt, Danny would be awoken by the sound of the bookcases scrapping as they moved.   

With his mind put to rest that he could sleep peacefully and safely, Danny went to the couch and laid down.   

Sleep found him quickly, but his dream land wasn't as peaceful as Danny would have liked the place to be. In fact his nightmare was the worst thing he had ever experienced. It even challenged nightmares about his experience with his future self. The dream was so horrible, it was brought to the attention of a certain princess of the night.