The Meeting with the Moon
Chapter 43
Knight had been fighting all morning to keep his eyes open. A few days had passed since the snowball fight, and while his nightmares haven’t been as bad as that night, that didn’t stop the nightmares from assaulting his mind. It had gotten to the point that he just tried to stay up. While he was able to fend off sleep for the night, his heavy lids were no match for his arch nemesis…math.
Knight liked Cheerilee. She was nice, always had a smile on her face, and never laid a hoof on him unless it was to comfort him. She was always happy to help him every time he needed with his school work. And her voice was always very calming and cheerful.
Though no matter how nice she was, her lectures about math never failed to bore Knight to no end. No matter how short they were, they always seemed to drag on for hours on end. Combine his boredom with his lack of sleep, and he was not in a good position.
He had managed to catch himself multiple times. Though even with Apple Bloom’s help, he couldn’t escape sleep forever. When Knight joined the class, Cheerilee gave him a chair and a small table set up on the side of the room that he could use as a desk since he was too big to fit in the desks. To make it easier for him, Apple Bloom suggested that her seat be changed so that she was sitting next to him. That way he would be close to a familiar face during class. Even with her proximity to him, Apple Bloom couldn’t prevent it. One second he was still battling his heavy lids, the next his head was resting on the table; eyes closed, and his chest slowly rising and lowering.
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Knight felt cold as he slowly walked through the cave. The clack of his hooves hitting the cave floor echoed through his ears. Every now and then he would step in a small puddle made by water dripping from the ceiling. There was a fairly dense fog lingering throughout the entire cave, making it hard to see more than a couple meters ahead of him. He could barely see the walls, but he could see them well enough to see the blood that stained them every so often.
After a few minutes of walking, he heard sounds echoing through the cave. It was faint at first. He didn’t know what to make of the sounds at first, so he cautiously got closer. As he did, the noises became easier and easier define. They were sounds he had become very familiar with over the years.
They were the sounds of torture.
The sound of a pony grunting and yelling in pain. The sound of a pony’s flesh being struck by a hard, solid object. The sickening crack of bones being crushed by the sheer force of the blows. They were all sounds he had been forced to endure throughout his life.
Knowing what the sounds were made him stop in his tracks. He began shaking as the guttural grunts coming from the tortured pony continued to assault his ears. He tried to turn back to get away from the sound, but some ghostly force grabbed hold of his body. He fought against it, but it quickly pulled him further into the cave, closer to the tortured pony.
He was deposited at the end of the tunnel he was walking through. He slowly rubbed his head as he slowly got to his hooves. After shaking his head, he noticed a couple things. The first thing he noticed is that he was standing in front of a wide open room in the cave. The fog seemed to be even denser in this room. Because of this he couldn’t even begin to guess how large the room was.
The second thing he noticed is just how quiet it was. The sounds of torture no longer filled the cave. The silence unnerved him even more than the sounds did. He swallowed the lump in his throat. “H-h-hello? I-is anypony…”
A loud, sickening snap filled the air, interrupting him. It was followed by the sound of something being thrown and landing a few feet in front of him. Knight could only stare into the fog at the spot the sound came from. He could feel sweat running down his face as he continued to stare. He didn’t know what to suspect, all he knew is that he wasn’t going to like it. As if by magic, the fog started to part, but only in that one spot. It was slow, but the small area in front of him became more and more visible. His eyes widened in horror as the fog finished parting. Tears quickly began welling up in his eyes.
Lying in front of him, in an ever increasing pool of his own blood, was AJ. His body was covered in burn marks, deep cuts and gashes, and ugly bruises. All four of his legs were bent in impossible ways, and in multiple places ensuring that they would never heal properly, if at all. AJ’s cutie mark had been branded over by a symbol that was very familiar to him. His chest had taken a lot of punishment also, to the point where it looked like it had been caved in slightly. His face was barely recognizable anymore. It was so battered and beaten it would have been impossible to tell who it was if not for the cutie mark. The most disgusting part of it was his neck though. He now knew what that loud snap was before he was thrown. His neck had been snapped and twisted a full 360 degrees, and was limply hanging from his body now.
Hot tears poured down Knight’s cheeks. He was practically hyperventilating as he stumbled towards the body. He crouched down and poked the body as if to make sure it was real. He was shaking at this point as the sound of his sobs filled the cavern. He lifted the limp body and hugged it to his chest as he cried.
“Hmhmhmhmhahahahahahaha!”
Knight’s eyes got wide as the laughter filled the room. He looked up from the body in his hold to see that all the fog in the room was starting to come together and converge in the middle of the room. An impenetrable cluster of fog had condensed in the middle of the room.
After a few moments, a dark plumb leg pierced through the cluster. Knight was pretty sure he felt his heart skip a beat at the appearance of the leg. Another leg pierced through before the two of them planted themselves on the floor of the cave. The muscles tensed up as the legs began clawing at the cave floor to pull free from the fog. After enough pulling a terrifyingly familiar face broke free from the fog. Nightshade had a disturbingly calm look on her face as she pulled the rest of her body free. It didn’t take much longer before she was standing in front of Knight.
Her eyes slowly opened. Instead of a piercing yellow like he expected, her eyes were instead a deathly white. A cruel smile started to form on her lips. “My precious Knight Wind. You can never escape from me. My gaze will always find you.”
Dragging AJ’s body away from her, Knight backed away from the bat-winged pegasus. “Y-y-you can’t be here! You’re dead! I-I-I saw you die!”
An evil laugh filled the cavern. “Even in death my gaze is eternal.”
Before Nightshade could take another step, she was dispersed by a bright light from behind her. She, along with all the fog she had come from, quickly dissipated. Knight gasped as he felt AJ’s corps shift in his hold. Looking down, he saw the bleeding cuts and gashes starting to close up. The rest of his wounds also began to repair themselves. As disturbing as it was, Knight couldn’t take his eyes off of his body as his neck slowly righted itself and mended. The instant his neck righted itself, his eyes shot open as he took a long, loud draw of air. After he took a few more breaths, AJ fell limp again. This time though, he had just fallen into a deep sleep. His chest was rising and falling slowly as light snoring could be heard coming from him.
Knight’s ears twitched as he heard some hoofsteps walking towards him. Looking up he saw a midnight blue figure standing before him. She was imposing, but her presence seemed to calm him some how. Her horn glowed blue before another bright flash of light surrounded him before everything went white.
********************
Knight’s eyes shot open. He quickly lifts his head and begins to look around the room. As he scans the room, he noticed something a bit odd. Everpony seemed to be looking at him in surprise. Nopony said a thing. Even Cheerilee looked like she didn’t know what to say. That’s when he noticed that it wasn’t really him they were staring at. It was the pony that was standing directly in front of his desk. He blinked before turning his head.
“It’s good you’re finally awake Knight Wind,” Princess Luna said in a somewhat stern, yet comforting tone. She turned to Cheerilee. “I apologize for the intrusion, but I must ask that you give Knight Wind permission to leave school early today. We have some pressing matters that we must take care of.”
Cheerilee nodded slightly. She was still getting over the shock of Princess Luna randomly teleporting into her classroom. “O-of course your highness. He’s more than welcome to leave early if you need him for something. Is there anything else I could help you with?”
Luna shook her head. “No, I’m only here to pick up Knight Wind. Now if you’ll excuse me, we must be getting to the farm.” She turned to Knight who still looked like he was trying to piece everything together. “Come, we have much to discuss today.” Knight slowly nodded his head before standing up from his chair. As he walked next to her, she extended her wing and lightly wrapped it around him as a calming gesture.
********************
“Ah’m commin’!” called Big Mac as he heard somepony knock on the door. He quickly downed what was left in his cider mug before placing it back down on the table to answer the door. The smile he had on his face quickly turned to surprise as Luna’s visage filled his sight. “Princess Luna?” He quickly gave a bow before speaking. “Well what can ah do for ya, yer highness?”
Luna always found herself smiling whenever she came in contact with he big red stallion. Even though it was usually just in passing when he made a delivery to the castle, he was always so kind. “We’re looking for AJ. Do you know where I could find him?”
“AJ?” Big Mac put a hoof to his chin as he thought. “Ah could be wrong, but Ah think he’s still clearin’ th’ snow from th’ Cutie Mark Crusader’s clubhouse. He said he was hopefully goin’ ta finish today.”
Luna nodded in appreciation. “Thank you Mr. McIntosh. Now, where would I find this clubhouse?”
“I know where it is,” Knight said from behind Luna.
Big Mac blinked before looking behind the princess of the night. “What’s Knight doin’ here? Ah thought he was supposed ta be at school?”
“We have some things we need to discuss, so I asked his teacher if he could be excused for the rest of the day. She was happy to let him have a break from his studies,” Luna said as she motioned to Knight.
“She got me out of having to learn math,” Knight said under his breath. He had a slight smile on his face.
Big Mac nodded in understanding. “Alright, Ah’ll just go get th’ lesson plans fer th’ day an’ do a bit of homeschoolin’ once yer done with yer little talk,” he said with a knowing smile. Knight’s smile on the other hoof dropped from his face completely.
Luna smiled brightly. “Wonderful! A good education is one of the most important things a pony can receive. Well, we should get going. You said you knew where the clubhouse was?” she asked as she turned to Knight. He was to busy sulking to pay attention.
Big Mac chuckled to himself before pointing north of the farm house. “Just keep walkin’ north through th’ trees. You’ll find it after a couple minutes.”
Luna followed his hoof before nodding. “Thank you for your assistance Mr. McIntosh. I hope that one day the two of us will be able to have a meaningful conversation,” she said as she started to lead Knight into the trees.
Big Mac nodded his head as he waved goodbye. “Ah’ll be lookin’ forward to it.” After he two of them were out of sight, he closed the door. “Hey Applejack, do ya know where mah scarf is? Ah need ta take a trip ta school?”
“Oh Celestia, what did Apple Bloom do this time?” Applejack asked as she poked her head out from the living room.
“Nothin’, this time,” he said with a chuckle.
********************
As Big Mac said, it didn’t take very long before the clubhouse came into view. And as he had said, AJ was hard at work removing the snow from where it shouldn’t have been. With the use of a ladder, he had gotten onto the roof of the building and was scraping a heavy load of snow off the top.
The look on his face was less than pleasant. As they got closer, they could hear him grumbling about something. Luna could only imagine that it was something about the snow. It had been snowing quite a bit lately. She had no idea why the weather team had so much snow planned this early in the season, but she wasn’t going to complain. She did love her snow angels.
“Fucking weather ponies, with their fucking snow, and their fucking weather plans, and their not letting me finish this fucking job, and their…” Out of the corner of his eye he could see a weather pony flying around to make sure there were no holes in the clouds for the coming snow later in the day. “Hey weather pony! Fuck you!” he shouted as he raised an angry hoof into the air.
Luna could only laugh. “Such language! Is that the type of language they teach you in the human world?”
Not expecting the voice, AJ jumped. As he landed, his hooves slipped out from underneath himself, causing him to start sliding off the roof. He slid down and off the roof, quickly plummeting towards a pile of snow he had made. Just before making contact with the snow, he was stopped in midair. After blinking his eyes a few times, he turned his head to see an upside down, giggling Luna and a surprised Knight standing there watching him.
“Luna! Hello! What are you doing here?”
Luna giggled before righting the indigo unicorn and placing him back on the ground. “I’m here to talk with you about Knight Wind’s little nightmare problem. You did send me that letter the other day, did you not?”
AJ looked a little shocked. “Well, I did send you the letter, but I didn’t expect an answer for at least another week. If I’d have known you were coming I would have set something up.”
“I thought we agreed that you don’t be so formal with me,” Luna said with a chuckle.
“I know, but just telling Big Mac and Applejack to expect another pony for dinner wouldn’t be too formal, would it?”
“I suppose not. I’ve never had any Apple family cuisine. Is it any good?”
“Is it any good?” AJ said in disbelief. “Oh that’s it; you are so invited to dinner one of these days. You haven’t lived until you had one of Big Mac’s pies, or one of Applejack’s fritters.”
Luna couldn’t help but giggle. “I’ll be sure to make some plans then. For now, we should hurry to the library. I would like to show you the information I gathered over the last few days after studying his dreams,” she said as she motioned to Knight.
“Y-you were studying my dreams?” Knight said; the fear was obvious in his voice.
“I asked her to Knight,” AJ said with concern in his voice. “I’m worried about you. About all the nightmares you’ve been having, so I asked Luna if she could do anything for you.”
“That’s actually one of the things that we must discuss. So if you wouldn’t mind, Twilight will be expecting us.” Without waiting for a response, Luna’s horn sprung to life. The three of them became engulfed in light before they were teleported away.
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AJ’s eyes spun in his head as the three of them appeared in front of the library. He held his head in an attempt to make everything stop spinning. “Why did I ever want to learn how to teleport? I don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.”
As Knight went over to make sure he was okay, Luna just ignored him as she knocked on the door. After a bit, the door was answered by a living bundle of blankets. “W-w-w-who is it?” asked the blankets.
Luna just blinked for a moment as she tried to figure out what was going on. “Spike? Is that you?”
“W-w-w-who else would i-i-it be?”
“Why do you look like an animate bundle of blankets?”
“B-b-because the h-h-heat’s out in the l-library. T-t-the heater started making a lot of noise, and i-i-it suddenly started getting cold.”
Luna put a hoof to her chin. “It could just be the nexus core, but if it was making noises before hoof I doubt it’s something that simple. If it is the core, maybe it needs to be re-energized, or maybe even replaced.”
“P-p-p-please, you have to do something!” Spike said as he poked his head out from the blankets. “Twilight refuses to do anything because she’s afraid to ruin something.”
“If it just needs to be re-energized, it would be a quick fix. If it needs to be replaced though, that could take a bit longer to…”
“Spike, close the door!” Twilight said as she started coming down the stairs. “It’s already cold enough in here without you letting out all the…” Twilight stopped mid sentence when she finally noticed the ponies standing there. “Princess Luna! Oh, I’m sorry the library looks so bad right now. Not a lot of things have gotten done since the heat went out.” Twilight herself was wearing her full set of winter gear.
“Don’t worry Twilight Sparkle, I understand completely. If you’d like, I could see if I could fix your heater for you. That way you wouldn’t need to wait for somepony to come fix it.”
Twilight’s eyes got wide. “No no no, it’s fine. You don’t have to do anything like that. The repair pony should be here later today. It’s nothing you should have to…”
“But I insist,” Luna said as she walked into the library. “Especially with Spike living here, this building should never be this cold.” She turned to the other two ponies she was with. “Are the two of you coming?”
“I’ll be right in. Just waiting for my stomach to catch up with me,” AJ said as he tried not to blow chunks.
“Right! Spike, show me to the heater!”
“Gladly!” Spike said with a bright smile.
********************
Luna came up from the basement with a smile on her face. She was wiping some dirt and grime from her face with a rag as she looked over at Spike. He was happily curled up on the couch as heat once again filled the library. It still wasn’t up to a comfortable level for a reptile, but given enough time and he’ll finally be able to get rid of his blanket cocoon. Hearing voices coming from the kitchen, she made her way to join the group.
The first thing she noticed when she walked in was AJ letting out a big yawn as he nursed a mug of hot chocolate. Knight was laughing slightly, and Twilight was rolling her eyes. “You’re still staying up all night, aren’t you?”
“No!” AJ said defensively. The look Twilight gave him said it all. “Maybe.”
“I can say with absolute certainty that he hasn’t been getting very much sleep,” Luna said as she stepped up behind him. AJ looked up at her to see her looking back at him with a stern look.
AJ looked down with a sigh. “You think I haven’t tried? I can’t help it.”
“I know you care about Knight’s well being, but that doesn’t mean you should completely ignore your own,” said Twilight. Luna nodded her head at her words. “Besides, I don’t think Big Mac would be too happy to know that you’ve been staying up all night again.”
A small thud sounded through the room as AJ’s head hit the table. “He already knows. Already got scolded for it. Ditzy wasn’t exactly too thrilled about it either. I had to play dress up with Dinky all day, and I wasn’t allowed to say no to whatever outfit she picked. If you would have told me a few days ago that I would have spent all of yesterday crossdressing, I would have laughed in your face.”
“Do I want to know?” Twilight asked with a smirk on her face.
“No. Unless, of course, you’re into that type of thing,” he said with a small smirk in an attempt to catch her in an embarrassing predicament.
“It depends on the stallion really.”
Both AJ and Twilight blinked before turning to Luna. She had a simple smile on her face. “A stallion like you would just look silly in a dress,” she said while pointing at AJ. “You’re too masculine to make it look good. Now, if you were to take a stallion like…” Luna’s eyes scanned the room before falling on Knight. “Take Knight Wind for example. He’s smaller, and more petite than AJ is.”
Memories of Knight in his Nightmare Night costume flashed through both AJ’s, and Twilight’s heads. They looked at each other and shared a look that said, ‘let’s not mention that to her.’ Knight on the other hand looked very uncomfortable to be put in the spotlight.
“Speeeeeaking of Knight, would we be able to get started? I’d like for him to be able finally start getting some sleep.”
“Of course.” Luna used her magic to discard the rag before turning the kitchen into a mini lab. The table was gone, and all but one of the chairs turned from wood, to big, cushioned chairs. The chair Knight had been sitting on had turned into a big plush couch, the type you’d find in a psychologists office.
As for Knight himself, he was looking awfully confused. He had absolutely no idea why his chair had turned into a couch for no reason. “What…just happened?”
AJ smiled as he adjusted in his now much more comfortable chair. “Don’t worry about it. Luna just used a bit of magic to make things a bit more comfortable for us.”
Luna nodded as she took a sip from a cup of tea. “I don’t understand how you can stand those wooden chairs. They’re so uncomfortable compared to the chairs I’m used to. And let’s not even begin to compare it to my new gaming beanbag chair. Nothing will ever be as comfortable as that.” She let out a depressed sigh. “I guess one good thing did come out of my room being destroyed.”
“Yes, well I really don’t need anything to extravagant. The chairs suit my purposes just fine,” Twilight said as she cleared her throat. “So, my choice of furniture aside, what did you figure out while studying Knight’s nightmares?”
“Yea. Don’t skip on any of the details,” AJ quickly added.
Knight turned to AJ and Twilight with a questioning look. “Studying my nightmares?”
Twilight nodded. “In an attempt to try to get rid of your nightmares, we asked Luna to watch over them.”
“Every night I made sure to visit your dreams,” she said with a nod. “Normally if I saw somepony having a nightmare I would do what I could to bring them out of it. In this instance though, to help find the root cause of your constant nightmares, I watched how they played out.” Her horn came to life as a giant, over stuffed folder popped into existence. “I took very detailed notes in case you’d like to read them.”
Twilight’s eyes grew wide and started to sparkle as she eyed the folder of notes that Luna had placed on the table. “Look at all this new reading material!” she said as her smile grew to near Pinkie Pie levels.
AJ and Knight, on the other hoof, looked at the folder with disbelief and horror respectively. “Could we just get the shortened version? That looks like an awful lot of reading,” AJ said in an attempt to get to the answer they were looking for quicker.
“Of course. Just let me get everything set up and we can begin.” Without another word, Luna’s horn began glowing again. A projector materialized from out of nowhere next to Knight’s couch along with a canvas screen for it to project onto. Two wires with suction cups on the end came from the projector and attached themselves to Knight’s temples.
“W-what’s all this for?” Knight asked as a third wire attached itself to his forehead.
“Instead of explaining everything I witnessed, I figured it would be best for you to witness the nightmares for yourselves. Please make yourself comfortable Knight Wind. Just lie back and relax. Let me take care of everything.”
Knight, not sure if he wanted everyone to know what was in his nightmares, was about to start protesting. Before he could sit up, he felt a hoof on his shoulder. Looking over, he saw AJ reaching over from his seat; silently urging him to do what Luna said. Knight returned the look with one of fear. “But what if…I-I don’t want you to think any differently of me.”
“Is that why you haven’t wanted to talk about this?”
Knight slowly nodded his head. “If you knew what they were about, maybe you’ll be scared of me. M-maybe you won’t wanna be my friend anymore.”
AJ could only look at Knight with a slight look of hurt on his face. After all they’ve been through, he thinks a few nightmares would change anything between them? “They’re just nightmares Knight. Even if they are a bit…disturbing, they will never be real. They’re just bad dreams.” Twilight said with certainty in her voice.
“Yea, what she said,” agreed AJ.
Before Knight could respond, Luna cleared her throat; drawing all attention to her. “As ‘fake’ as nightmares are, you may want to wait till you actually see them before waving them off as ‘harmless.’” Her eyes turned to Knight for a moment before her horn came to life again. The shades fell over the windows leaving them in the darkened room before the projector sprung to life. Knight squeaked lightly in fear as he felt the magic snaking its way into his mind. After a second, the screen lit up with light before a still image appeared on screen. “I believe you’ll soon see why there’s something more to nightmares than ‘just a bad dream.’” Before anyone could respond, the still image came to life.
********************
The projector finally shut down as the last of the nightmares finished up. Aside from the sound of Twilight finishing her own set of notes, the room remained mostly silent. Luna’s eyes remained closed as she took a sip of her tea; letting everything they had just witnessed sink in. Knight had remained relatively silent since it started. At this time he was trying to avoid eye contact with the rest of the group.
Twilight let out a sigh as she let the quill fall to the table. She turned her head to look at everypony else in the room until her eyes fell on AJ. His eyes were wide. He looked a little pale, and was trembling slightly. “AJ?” She lifted a hoof and placed it on his shoulder.
AJ gasped and jumped away slightly from the contact. He fixed his fearful eyes on Twilight for a moment before letting out a relieved sigh. “Oh…just you. Sorry, seeing Nightshade again just brought up some…less than happy memories.”
Twilight’s ears fell as she tried to think of something to say. “Now do you see that there’s more to a nightmare than ‘just a bad dream?’” The two of them looked over to Luna. They looked into Luna’s knowledgeable eyes before nodding silently. “Would it be safe to assume that on an average day, Knight seems happy and care free?”
“For the most part, yea,” AJ said with a nod. “Especially since it started snowing.”
“I like snow,” Knight said in a low voice.
“Given what’s happened to him, and the contents of his nightmares, I’d say it’s all an act. Well, most of it anyway. Chances are he just puts on a happy face, a mask so to speak, so nopony worries about him.”
“That sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it?” Twilight said to AJ with a raised brow.
“Hush you. This isn’t about me…for once.”
“Not wanting to make everypony worry about him at every moment, he formed this emotional mask to hide everything. Essentially an attempt to block out any and all memories of what happened to him. Unlike AJ, whose mask was shattered in a fit of explosive rage and sadness when memories of his trauma were brought up…” AJ suddenly felt small as he swallowed a lump in his throat. “Knight’s is being slowly chipped away by his dreams. If the nightmares don’t cease, there is a chance he may eventually break.”
“Is there anything we can do about it? Maybe there’s some dream spells that are so secretive that even Twilight doesn’t know about. Spells other than the Dream Walker that aren't considered dark magic?”
Luna shook her head. “Unfortunately not. Even if there was, the most I would be able to do would be stop the nightmares. It wouldn’t stop him from being haunted by his memories of what happened. We’d be treating the symptoms, not the disease so to speak.”
“And before you say anything, no. There are no spells that can erase memories,” Twilight said before AJ could even begin to come up with the idea.
“That’s what you think,” Luna said under her breath.
“Hmm?”
“Nothing,” Luna said with a simple smile. “Even if there was such a spell, it would be extremely dangerous.” Knight’s ears perked up at this. “We would be tampering with ten years worth of memories. For a pony like my sister and I, that would be nothing. That would be nothing but a mere speck of our millennia long lifespan. For Knight, we would essentially be deleting over half of his life from existence. Something like that would be traumatizing beyond belief, and would probably leave him in a vegetative state that he may never recover from as his mind attempts to piece together what memories it still has. If he was lucky enough to stay with us, he would essentially revert back to the mentality of an eight year old, seeing as how that would be the last memory his mind would be able to latch onto.”
Knight’s eye twitched at the thought. “I-I-I vote for a different plan. I don’t wanna be a vegetable.”
“I’m not going to turn you into a vegetable,” AJ said with a sigh. He just sat there in silence for a minute to think things over. “So…is there anything we could actually do? Cause, to be blunt, it sounds like we’re shit out of luck.”
“Off the top of my head, no,” Luna said, her voice heavy. “The best thing you could do for him right now would be to get him some sort of professional help. I hear there’s a great psychologist in Trottingham. I could set something up for you if you’d like. She does make house calls.”
AJ let out an irritated grunt. “A psychologist. Just what we need, some shrink we don’t even know poking around in his head. Somepony who probably hasn’t been in a fourth of the situations she claims to know so much about. ‘So, for years you were tortured, raped, mind fucked, and beaten within an inch of your life on multiple occasions by some psycho bitch with a god complex? Tell me, how does that make you feel? Oh really? Well that’s just fine and dandy. That will be 200 bits for this consultation. How does THAT make you feel?’” he said with a condescending tone and smile
The other three ponies in the room just stared at the angry pony in silence for a few seconds. “Sooooo that’s a no?” asked Luna. AJ could only facehoof.
“It wouldn’t hurt to at least try it,” Twilight said with a light glare.
“What makes you think she’d be more qualified to talk with Knight about this than me?”
“The fact that she has a collage education for exactly this type of situation?”
“I’ve had personal experience with what he had to go through. Same with Shadow. The three of us could get together and talk things out. Probably be good for all of us in the end.”
“I’m guessing she also has more tact about how she approaches things. I highly doubt she’d be as blunt as you, instead easing him into things. And when I talked to Trotsworth about it, he said that Shadow is already getting help for what happened. He seems to be making a lot of progress. Apparently Tenderheart minored in psychology, and was more than happy to help him out.”
AJ let out a sigh. “I know. Trotsworth told me all about it. It doesn’t change the fact that I went through four psychologists, none of which did me any good.”
“What did you need a psychologist for?” asked Knight.
“I-uh…I’ll tell you later.”
“So what will it be? Shall I set up the appointment?” asked Luna.
Knight didn't know what to do. On one side he's never really discussed, in detail, what exactly happened to him all those years. Getting that out may do him some good. On the other hoof, AJ's his best friend and caretaker. Not only that, but he's had personal experience with, not only what happened in the encampment, but also with psychologists. He claims they don't know what they're talking about, and that they're worthless. He also had to take Twilight's words into acount. She seemed to be a pretty smart pony, and seemed to think Luna's way was the better choice.
Knight cleared his throat and took a deep breath before finally speaking. "I...I think I wanna try Luna's idea."
"That's a good choice," Twilight said with a smile. "I'm sure with time she'll be able to help you through everything."
"Indeed," agreed Luna. "I'll be sure to set something up as soon as I get back to the castle." She looked at AJ who had a slightly annoyed look on his face. "Is something wrong?"
"No," he said in an unconvincing tone. "I just hope this shrink is as good as you say. I don't want this all to be one big waste of time."
"I'm sure everything will be fine. For now, I must be getting back. I told Tia I'd only be gone for a couple hours."
"Thank you for all the help princess," Twilight said with a slight bow. Despite how informal the situation was, she still felt the need to show her respect.
"Do you know how much this shrink will cost?" AJ asked before Luna could leave.
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Want to know just how many bits will be 'wasted' on the visit?"
He fixed Twilight with a glare. "Whether or not they will be wasted is yet to be seen. I just wanted to know how much I should set to the side for this."
"I'm not sure, but i'll send you a letter with the price on it once everything's set up. I shouldn't waste anymore time. Goodbye my little ponies." With a smile her horn came to life. A flash of light engulfed Luna before she disappeared from the room.
Once Luna was gone, a loud sigh filled the room. "This can only end well," AJ said with a touch of venom in his voice.
"Oh will you get over it?" Twilight said in annoyance. "The choice has already been made, so you may as well bite the bullet."
"I know. It's Knight's choice in the end, and I won't take that away from him. He's old enough to make his own decisions." He looked at Knight who just smiled back. "But with my experiences, can you really blame me for thinking this won't work?"
"I suppose not."
A growling could suddenly be heard throughout the room. AJ and Twilight both turned to Knight who's face almost matched his hair. "I-I-I was taken out of school before we could eat lunch."
"I guess it is getting to be that time. Let's get back home. They should have started lunch by now."
"Okay!" With the prospect of food, Knight happily trotted into the other room to get his winter gear on.
Twilight giggled, but AJ had a more serious look on his face as he slowly followed. "...I'm not going to let this drop yet. There's gotta be more I can do," he said quietly.
"What's that you're grumbling about now?"
"Huh? Oh, nothing. I'll see you later Twilight." He said before exiting the room.
****************************************
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It updated?
......
m.quickmeme.com/img/9b/9b58299db1318c93af607eeda2514e2e6e5203586c9b8a5b6656f294e01b1c7d.jpg
Happy to see you back, dude. You earn a
-{yay!}
Shit hit the fan when a physiatrist is mentioned.
AJ can sometimes really a stubborn idiot. Give the girl a chance! This is not the world you know!
I wonder if Knight will ask about Lunas earlier comment:
I mean the thing with the Human World. So far we know, Knight Wind, Shadow and Ditzys parents dont know about AJ being a former Human. I'm just curious how they will react.
BUAAHAHHAAHAHHAAHAH LOL YOU,MISTAKE??! YOUR AMMAZING!
3720036
HNNNNG!
RIGHT IN THE CHILD HOOD!
Oh, look it's back. can;t wait for more. How have you been man? life treating you well? still enjoy writing?
Sigh, you have any idea how long I have waited for this? Now it is here I think I can jump over the moon! But there is still more to wait for!
Yay It was updated. lol make sure to keep up the work.
I'm so happy to see this updated
just found this story, and I must say it's amazing
3720943 Your awful
Face punchy, that's how it makes me feel.
3726018 thank you for telling me about that video. It now haunts my dreams.
Poor Knight has trouble in the night that might be solved by a psychiatrist.
I really love the story but Ditzy seems out of character now because she ain't doing the normally clumsy person i mean when you first introduced her into the story you did this well but know she is all like never hit something by mistake and i don't personally like dream sequences but thats my opinion about the dreams other than that friggin' awesome story
I like it when AJ admits he wants Big Mac to get it on with him if he was a mare
It;s been so ling since this updated. I was so confused at the beginning when they were looking for AJ but then
was right there. I had completely forgotten the main character.
Hey can anybody explain what happen to Shadow Breeze while they were trapped with Nightshade I'm sorry if it is really obvious but I can't really tell for sure thanks!
3789798 Nebulous essentially turned him into his own, personal slave. Like Knight Wind was to Nightshade. One thing to note about Nebulous is that he was a bit more...sexually driven than Nightshade was. So when he got his own, personal slave, he wanted to mold him to suit his wants and desires. Unfortunately for Shadow Breeze, that included regular incidents of copious amounts of molestation and rape.
This is just an idea, but reverting Knight to a foal like A j was sounds promising - He wuld forget his whole experiance with those monsters. But then he'd also forget his new friends
3909991 Yes yes it is... or is it fated.
3914246 It was obvious.
4001763 You're welcome!
iambrony.dget.cc/mlp/gif/75280%20-%20animated%20cherry%20dizzy_twister%20episode_30%20gif%20Hubble%20luna_eclipsed%20season_2%20spider%20Spiders.gif
So Many Words. I'm in heaven!
4007825 Guess it's just a Coinisidince
i'm only on chapter 29, but you cannot stop writing this story! please dont! it has a better plot than memory pending!. not it's sequel though... the sequel is baws
4019129 I have no plans to stop writing
4024979
good!
DONT
4026485 The problem comes that since i got hired at Walmart, been fired recently so maybe things will go back to normal, I've had no drive to do any writing. On days I worked, i spent most of my time sleeping, and on my days off, I had so many things to cram into those days that I couldn't do on the days I worked that I couldn't fit it all in. Third shift kills your social life, and your free time.
4028820
i have no ground to speak from in response to that since i've never had a job before.
so i hope everything turns out for the better?
4029098 Another as in some other pony.
4078670 If Celestia or Luna left Canterlot to help out every time AJ made an oops, they would never get anything important done. They would end up having to move the castle to Ponyville just to make things easier for themselves. Besides, compared to everything else that's happened, aside from the poison joke, this is tame. Not really worth their time.
4155528 yes
Excellency of it's own caliber, which disturbingly reminds me of my own work, which makes it all the more enjoyable a read for me :D
It has just the right balance of humor and smexiness with flank-loads of hairible puns (Pfft...I love them) and character development. Thus far I have greatly enjoyed this tale, and will be eager to read some more.
I especially love the focus of AJ and Ditzy (Is best pegasus <3
) as a couple, and so far my favorite "arc" is the "Carrot Top needs love" segment, because from early on I was like "When is poor Carrot going to get boned? She needs it." 
i must say i just started reding this story up till now and i gotta hand it to ya it's really adorable little dinky doo
When Are we getting another chapter
Just as a heads-up a Psychologist asks questions and provides therapy, a Psychiatrist prescribes medications. I also agree with AJ, it was a waste of money and it didn't help at all and my Psychologist committed suicide.
I know the gang had a bad experience with it and it's an easy out, but why not give Knight the option of a fresh start by using the regression spell on him? I know it's basically the same as using the memory spell, but at least he would have the body to match the erased mind.
Just my two cents
6504279
That kinda spell is pretty messed up because your essentially killing someone because everything that makes them, them is gone