Chapter 2: Therapy
It was the fifth night in a row that I woke up from another nightmare. I didn't want to wake Fluttershy up anymore, so I began sleeping on the couch downstairs. I sat on the sofa, rubbing my eyes.
"Goddammit," I muttered to myself. "What do I gotta do to get rid of this?"
I sat there for a little while just catching my breath, my heart was pounding. I was soaked in sweat, and didn't feel like I could go to sleep. Then I remembered the journal Twilight gave to me. I had been writing in it since she gave it to me. I opened it and quickly jotted down as much as I could recall, but the nightmare was fading.
Since I was awake, and since I was covered in sweat, I felt like getting up. I walked back and forth in the living room. I had literally nothing to do but walk. I walked over to a clock on the wall and squinted at it. It was only 1:37. I walked outside, looking for something to do.
It was cool outside, and there was dew on the grass. It was a clear night, no clouds. You could see all the stars, and there was a full moon. I slowly drifted up and onto the roof, landing gently at the top. I sat on top of the cottage, staring at the stars, and staring at the moon. I thought it was funny that there was a full moon, or that there was a moon at all. Being a saiyan, the moon is supposed to turn me into some giant monster if I stare at it. But, because I didn't have a tail, I wasn't affected by the moon at all, not in the slightest.
I sat there, thinking. "What am I gonna do about these nightmares?" I thought to myself. "I can't keep going like this. There has to be something I can do. I have to figure out why I'm having these nightmares, why I'm so freaked out."
After about an hour sitting on the roof, I jumped down, went inside and went back to the couch. I tried to get some sleep, but almost every hour I woke up in terror from another nightmare. I was honestly starting to get sick of it. But it didn't stop me from trying to go back to sleep every time. Eventually morning came, and I could finally get up.
My alarm clock was going off, but I was already awake. I walked over to the couch and turned off my alarm clock. I was in the kitchen making breakfast when it went off. In the time I had been here I learned how to cook a bunch of different vegetarian type foods. I miss meat so much, beef, pork, chicken, turkey, but not so much fish, which sucks since there's plenty in the streams around Fluttershy's cottage. Either way, I was finally able to satisfy my saiyan appetite now that I could cook things that had, well, what's the word I'm looking for, flavor.
"Good morning Dako, how did you sleep?" Fluttershy asked, yawning. She had come down the stairs about five minutes after my alarm went off, I guess she heard it.
"Good morning Fluttershy. I didn't sleep much better than the other nights, in fact, I think the nightmares are getting worse." I said to her.
"Oh, my poor Dako." She said, walking over to me.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. Here, have some breakfast." I said bringing a plate to the table.
"Dako, oh my goodness, have you seen the circles under your eyes!?" She said worriedly, staring at me.
"Huh? Oh, I'm fine, don't worry about me. Saiyans like me are tough, we can handle lots of things, watch." I said to her.
I slowly put my hand on the frying hot skillet, completely unharmed, then I took my hand off of the skillet, and showed her I was fine. I heard her gasp.
"Dako, please don't do that!" She said.
"It's okay, I told you, I'm fine. Now, go ahead and eat up. I've already eaten, I'm about to go see Twilight for my therapy session." I said to her, leaving the kitchen.
I walked over to the side table next to the couch, where my clothes were folded up and ready for me. I got dressed and ready to go.
"Alright baby, I'm heading out." I said to her, yawning.
"Dako, please don't tell me you're going to fly." She said with worry.
"Well, yeah, I don't see anything wrong." I said.
"Dako, you're too weak, just, teleport over there." She suggested.
"I'm fine, trust me. I don't have to flap wings to fly, I use my energy." I said to her, even though she already knew.
"Well, you're already sleep deprived. How can you have any energy for flying?" She asked.
"Okay, it's a combination of energy, and will power. Like lifting a heavy weight, if you really want to lift it then you will." I said. "Don't worry about me, I'll be just fine."
As it turned out though, I wasn't, "just fine" because on my way over to Twilight's I suddenly lost the strength to keep going, and fell. As I was pretty tired, and was straining to just stay in the air. I took a few breaks; landing so I could stretch, catch my breath or something, and then continue on. But just as I was approaching Twilights tree house I simply lost the strength to fly, I began falling. I was already moving forward, but I began falling, and ended up crash landing on the balcony outside of her bedroom window.
"Ah!" I heard her scream. I stood up slowly, trying not to fall over, and saw her walk up to the window. I smiled at her, embarrassed about the whole thing.
"Dako, what happened, did you forget how to fly or something?" She said, giggling, then gasping. "Dako, have you gotten any sleep?" She said, suddenly noticing the circles under my eyes.
"Oh my god." I said under my breath. "I'm fine! You guys worry about me way too much!" I groaned.
"Come inside and lie down right now! Before we start our therapy lessons I'm gonna make you take a nap or something." She said, motioning for me to come in.
I sat down on her bed. It was the best thing I could focus on at the moment, a bed. I won't lie, although I'm tough and all, I was incredibly tired, and if there was one thing I wanted most in the world right now, it would be a bed. One that I could just lie down on, shut my eyes, and drift off to sleep.
"Twilight, if I take a nap I might have another nightmare. So if I do take a nap then you might want to be ready for that spell of yours." I said to her, lying down on the bed.
"Okay, I'm ready right now, you just go to sleep and get some rest, I'll join you as soon as you fall asleep." She said.
I slowly fell asleep. It was strange, I was actually having a nice dream for once. I was having a picnic with the others. Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Twilight, Fluttershy, and I were all having a picnic together. It was a nice sunny day. We were eating our own sandwiches, telling jokes and laughing, pretty much having a great time.
"Hey Twilight, can you pass me a cupcake?" I asked her. She levitated one over to me, winking as she did. I figured that it was the real Twilight, but she was sharing my dream so she could see what was going on.
We were all fine until the sky got dark out of nowhere. There was a dark cloud that came out from over the forest. The wind picked up and began blowing everything away. I stood up against the sudden storm as the others ran, all of them except for Twilight. She stood by me, watching.
The entire picnic was blown away at this point. I could feel it wasn't just a storm, there was something else inside it, something evil. I jumped up and into the air, ready to attack the storm. Lightning bolts lashed out all around me, but I dodged every single one of them. Then a haunting memory hit me. I remembered the storm that first brought me here. I was suddenly filled with panic as I saw the funnel of a tornado coming towards me.
I instantly spun around to head back to the ground, but no matter how hard I flew I couldn't get away from it. I was inches from the funnel, it was all over. I was about to be sucked back out of this world. I kept going at full power, but I made one little slip, and got sucked into the funnel. I could see the ground below me receding quickly, as I was pulled into the darkening tunnel.
I sat up in Twilight's bed, breathing heavy and covered in sweat like always. I heard Twilight gasp as she sat up in the chair next to me. She must've fallen asleep too while she was in my dream. She was breathing hard as well.
"Dako, what are we gonna do to fix you?" She said hopelessly.
"I wish I knew. So, what can you conclude from that session?" I asked her.
"I'm not sure. I know from the first time you came to visit I could feel a strong feeling of helplessness, and fear. From this one and the others, you felt a sense of weakness." She said, trying to recall past sessions.
"I don't get it, I'm the strongest thing in Equestria next to Princess Celestia." I said confused.
"Dako, I don't think these are exactly fears or personal shortcomings. I think these might be a warning of things to come. Remember the dream about Canterlot? You could hear laughter from someone you never saw. You keep writing down in your journal about a mysterious spiky haired guy who's way stronger than you. And that tornado thing? Do you see what I'm talking about?" She said.
"I think so. But, what does it all mean? I mean, put simply." I asked her.
"I think there's something coming. You know it deep down, but you don't know what it is. Also, you feel like whatever is coming, you're powerless to stop it. In comparison you feel weak against it." She said.
"What does that mean? I'm already a lot stronger than I was when I got here. What could be stronger than me?" I asked.
"I don't know. But I don't think it'd be a bad idea for you to train for this thing. If I were you I would prepare for the worst." She said.
"So, what can I do?" I asked.
"It seems to me that the best thing you can do is, 'work out'." she said.
"Huh. Well, I guess if I'm gonna work out, I'll need your help." I said.
"What kind of help?" She asked.
As it turned out, I was much stronger than most gyms could handle. Every place I visited didn't have enough weight for me, I could easily lift it all. And trying to lift boulders or other things would be inconvenient due to the fact that I wouldn't be able to get a good grip on them. Instead, I got Twilight to put a spell on my wristbands in order to make them heavier.
For a while, it would feel like I was walking around in a heavy environment, like the surface of Saturn, or another big planet with strong gravity, but it would all pay off in the end. For now I just decided to head back to Fluttershy's, and I felt just a little rested after the nap at Twilight's.
The flight home was a lot easier than the flight to the library, except for the weight on my arms, I could hold them out in front of me, or to my sides, I just let them dangle. Twilight made each armband magically weigh about 200 pounds each which we agreed should be plenty, although now I was starting to regret it.
I finally made it home and landed outside the door. I strained to lift an arm to the doorknob, then opened the door.
"Hey Fluttershy, I'm Back!" I said, walking in.
Fluttershy was lying on the couch, and the lights were dimmed a bit.
"Oh, hi Dako, sorry about the light, I got a headache and needed to turn them down, but I'm fine now, you can turn them back up." She said.
"Okay, just a second." I said, trying to lift my arm to the switch on the wall.
Fluttershy looked a little concerned when she noticed the effort I was putting in just to lift my arm. I hit the switch, and tried to let my arm slowly fall back down.
"Dako, are you alright?" Fluttershy asked.
"Yes, of course I am, why wouldn't I be?" I asked.
She got off of the couch and walked over to me.
"Well, you seem, weak. Are you sure you're ok?" She asked.
"Yes, Twilight just magically made my wristbands weigh about 200 pounds each, that way I can get stronger. We figured my nightmares were because I felt weak and unable to protect Equestria." I explained.
"Oh Dako, you're not weak, why would you think such a thing?" Fluttershy asked.
"I don't, but subconsciously I do." I said, walking to the other room.
Fluttershy followed me. As I stood there thinking, staring at the back door I felt Fluttershy tap my wrist with her hoof.
"Yup, these wristbands should help me get stronger in no time, and all I have to do is go about my normal business and daily life!" I said.
"Are they really heavy, to you I mean?" Fluttershy asked.
"No they're heavy heavy, watch." I said, slipping one off of my arm.
It fell to the floor with a heavy thud that shook the floor and made the floor board bow inward a little. I bent over and struggled to pick it up off of the ground and slip it back over my arm.
"Dako, I don't think that's safe." Fluttershy said.
"Don't worry, it's quite alright. Now, let's go and do something so I can get stronger." I said, walking out the back door.
I struggled to lift an already otherwise heavy bag of chicken feed and carry it over to the chicken coop. I took it inside and began pouring food into the chicken feeder, then grabbed the eggs in a basket sitting inside the coop. I walked out of the chicken coop then went to check on the rabbits in their cages.
"Dako, I really think you should let me do all of this, I think you're doing to much at once." Fluttershy said flying over beside me.
"Don't worry, I'm perfectly fine. If I get tired I'll rest, but for right now I'm ok." I said, trying to reassure her.
I kept working for about an hour. Slowly getting used to the wristbands new weight, but not necessarily getting stronger just yet.
After work I walked back in the cottage and sat down on the couch, taking my wristbands off and setting them on the floor. I moved my arms around effortlessly, they felt incredibly light now.
"Wow, imagine how strong I'll be after a couple of weeks!" I said.
"Dako, I just want you to be careful." Fluttershy said, sitting down on the couch next to me.
"I know honey, I will be." I said, hugging her.
Fluttershy wrapped her forelegs around me and squeezed me. Then she leaned back a little bit, and kissed me on the lips. I jumped back a bit slightly surprised.
"Fluttershy? Are you, alright?" I asked her.
"Oh my goodness, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to, I just, did you not like that?" She started frantically.
"Whoa, it's ok, everything's alright, you just surprised me" I said.
Out of all the times we had cuddled or hugged each other she had never done this. I had kissed her on the head before, and she kissed me on the cheek, but she never kissed me on the lips before.
"So, you did like it?" She asked.
"Well, I'm not going to lie to you, yes." I said.
She smiled a little.
"Oh good, I was worried that I made a mistake, or that you'd think I was weird or-." I interrupted her.
"No Fluttershy, I wouldn't think that. To be honest I didn't know what to think at first, you took me by surprise." I said.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I was just worried about you recently, and with all the nightmares you've been having and then going to Twilight I just-." I interrupted her again, this time by kissing her back on the lips, holding there for about two seconds, then pulling back.
"Don't worry about me, I'll be just fine." I said to her.
Her face started to turn just a little bit red. But otherwise she didn't seem too shocked.
"I love you Fluttershy, and you know that. And you know I wouldn't do anything too reckless, because I don't want to scare you, and I'd never want to leave you." I said.
"Come on Fluttershy, let's go to bed, it's late." I said, picking her up in my arms.
"Ok." She said, putting her forelegs around me, hugging me again.