That monster reminds me of the Dog Beasts from Silent Hill.

9227921
Quite close at the inspiration!

Heck of a story... took me a while to fully get into it, but I'm glad I stuck with it. The grammar has nicely gotten better with time too.

9256604
#1 reason I feel the need to restructure the beginning part of 'Time to Think', if only for future passerby's sakes, it's just that I need to work up the drive to re-read and restructure it all; would take a lot of time and effort.

Happy to know you managed to trudge through that (in hindsight) rather painful formatting and grammar I had back when, 4 years now

What might you have liked, or disliked (including the grammar haha) if you don't mind me asking? Feedback is important especially after the years disconnect.

9259959
Well, as far as dislikes are concerned, I'm not sure why we started out in the middle of the story and then suddenly flashed to the beginning. With the frequent passing out and waking up somewhere else, I thought the plot twist would be that Daniel has dementia or something. The mystery of what exactly was wrong with him and how it affected other ponies was also kind of dragged out, but that might be just me. It kind of made it peculiar that with these constant headaches and nightmare issues, that he even found the time to fall in love or that the ponies found the time to connect with him and not worry about the fact that he appeared to be going insane.

I like the characterisation of everybody, and whilst I know I complained about the mystery being dragged out, I do like that the fic takes its time and doesn't rush things, which would be worse. I'm still not really sure what to make of Fluttershy's obsessiveness. Am I supposed to like her or not?

9260061
The time skips are one of the things, among several, that I need to set in order. Many being unnecessary, or disjointed enough that the reader can't get a bearing, believe me I can't remember what I was thinking back then either :T

And you're not too all that far off with that dementia theory, though now you know it may be more complicated, taking on some more elements--which are tied even to the apparition(s)/entities he had seen before when (literally) falling on a knife while with Pinkie and almost strangling Fluttershy while unknowingly awake and hallucinating, because of what he thinks he sees. If unclear, should say they're not ghosts or demons, but sure do seem to operate on some disturbingly similar means.

And if curious about the finding the time to befriend ponies, or in Dan's case finding a relationship that he's now no longer sure is possible to even start (though he did get a brief playful lick from Pinkie), the easiest way to point it out is to say that time has already passed by months from the time he's arrived, and they're up in the air when it comes to getting to know each other, being in that middle-ground of acquaintanceship of being at ease. The amazed experience about learning about ponies and the world had already mostly passed.

Now, why they seem so lenient to his erratic and at one point hallucinogenic and violent behavior is actually a subtle thing that'll be hinted and addressed in the next story, and something you may have already noticed is that the other 3 (Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow especially) are not at all as lenient to Dan when the news of what he did came to light; meanwhile Twilight, Pinkie and Fluttershy were seemingly much more calm about it, and almost dismissive about it, even though they really should be much angrier. Fluttershy, especially, should be more shook.

I'll state it in this spoiler text, if you care to read it instead of waiting for it to come up later in the next story, the first chapter being posted (relatively) soon: Daniel, like Luna, is capable of processing other's thoughts and transgressions into other forms as an empath. While Luna is calm and collected with her skill that she has mastered, Dan is blatantly unaware of his own ability and is unintentionally influencing ponies within proximity of him, most viscerally when he's asleep, but it's not limited to just ponies in their dreams; but also while they're still conscious. Specifically, he can even do it by touch, which is my way of saying why every pony seems to melt when being pet and cradled :^)

His most 'active' state was when he was injured and being treated by Fluttershy, being the one with the most close contact, and is the most effected one out of them all as a result, warping her logic and her perception and inhibitions immensely to one point she badmouths Pinkie in her head and acts on the same thought. Heck, you may have even noticed that rather uncomfortable part with her nudging herself against a pillow, which is normally one of those kinds of thoughts you keep buried deep in the back of your head. Up until Luna underlined what was causing that mental block and helped her unwind it, naturally.

Twilight and Pinkie are beginning to undergo the same effects, just more subtly; this is hinted by the lines they keep mistakenly saying out loud instead of thinking quietly, being unable to differentiate the two. Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow are largely unaffected by not being around him much at all, but the frightening encounter with the nightmare creature all together being enough to induce a temporary hallucination, that by itself isn't there.

Edit: Whoops, forgot to add, no not really-- Fluttershy's behavior isn't meant to be desirable here, and if it seems unnatural, it's because it is.

9260263
but i like this Fluttershy :/