(Drakalian's POV)

"Drak, are you sure that you want to-" Began Twilight, only for me to quickly cut in.

"I'm sure Twilight. I won't rest until I get something out of this." I stated, panting from all the constant headaches I have been getting. She was also rather tired, sweat beading down her forehead as she took deep breaths, her mane and tail a bit frazzled from the effort.

It has been three days since my first 'normal' day in Ponyville, and for the most part, it was...rather quiet. After the embarrassing moment with Rarity and Rainbow, I went back to the library and continued to read some more of their history before getting too tired to read anymore, causing me to turn in for the night. The next day, I woke up to a similar sight as the day before, with Spike waking me for breakfast. As I went downstairs, I noticed Twilight was there...along with a book. It was then that she told me she felt ready enough to start trying out the spells in the book to try and regain my memory.

The first try...wasn't that good, for it knocked me out, causing both Twilight and Spike to panic a bit...well, mostly Twilight. I finally woke up an hour later with some water to my face. After that, while Twilight was a bit uncertain about continuing, I was able to convince her otherwise, and after a good thirty minutes of recovering, we went at it again, this time with less passing out and more headaches...but it was a start.

This went on and off for the past few days, with me taking a break every so often to read on one of the history books Twilight has, or to just walk around the area...while making sure I stayed close to the library and avoiding the more crowded places. More often than not, the spells would result in a minor to major headache, sometimes I would even get a bit of a nose bleed, but that would be it. No memories resurfaced, nothing was recalled. Despite this, I continued to ask Twilight to continue, even after she thought it wouldn't do us any good.

"Drak, I know you really want to remember...well, everything, but...I'm not sure this is the best way to go about doing it." She said, sitting down as she floated a glass of water to drink from, before taking a few more deep breaths to relax herself. She had been calling me Drak more often than my full name these past few days as well, after Pinkie came up with it. Of course, her logic was sound, since it was easier to say than Drakalian, so I didn't really argue with them about it, deciding to let it stick.

"Do you have any other ideas?" I suggested, only to get silence from her. "Then let's go at it again."

"Drak, we've been over this fifteen times just today, and it's barely noon. We should really stop and just think things over, reevaluate the situation and-"

"And I told you that I want to keep going." I snapped, causing her to flinch from my tone. Realizing how stern I was being, I took a few more deep breaths of my own before sitting down on the floor. "I...I'm sorry Twi, I just...I just really want to get my memories back and...and this is all I have for hope of even thinking about getting them back." I said, giving her an apologetic look.

"I understand, but constantly going at it like this, it can't be good for anyone, especially you." She said, giving me a look of concern, having quickly recovered from my outburst.

"Doesn't that sound familiar." Spike commented from his place on the couch, where he was busy reading one of his comics. Twilight just gave him a deadpanned look before looking back at me pleadingly.

"Just...let's just take a break for today, and I can reevaluate the spells before going at them again. Maybe I can adjust it in a safe way so that we actually do get a result. That...and I need to rest so I can recharge my magic" She states.

I remain silent as I think over her offer. After calming myself down a bit, I realized that she was right, it doesn't help to just keep on going when nothing is happening, and my head has been hurting more and more with each spell that we did. However, I just got the feeling that this next one would be it, that this time I would get my memories back, and it was this constant thinking that told me to just push on. Looking up and seeing the worry that was easily plastered on her face, I sigh as I finally admit defeat. "Ok, I guess we can pause for now..."

The unicorn smiled and was about to say something when I quickly added, "After one more try. I just...I just have this feeling that it will work this time."

She sighs as she shakes her head, looking around for an answer before looking back at me. "Why can't you just take a break like every pony else." She says softly, a small frown on her muzzle.

"Hypocrite." We both looked at Spike as he said that, seeing the dragon still not looking up from his reading. After a few moments of staring, he finally looks up and blinks as he sees us looking at him. "What, I meant in the book. She was being a hypocrite, saying she saves others by stealing from them." He states, seeming to be serious about it. He then looks at us for a few more moments before adding, "I could read the passage if you-"

"No no, it's fine. We believe you." Twilight replied, sighing as he gives a small shrug before returning to the comic. With that, she returns to look at me with a softer look before replying, "Ok, we can try one more time, but no matter what happens, we stop for the day, deal?"

"Deal." I agree, moving back to the stool as I sat down, sitting up straight and looking right at her. "I know it will work this time, I just...I can feel it."

Smiling slightly, she just nods as she closes her eyes and her horn starts to glow. After a few moments of glowing, the magic slowly starts to stream from the tip and towards my head, my eyes following it until it was right before me. Closing my own eyes, I felt it touch my forehead...before sinking in.

Immediately, my head starts to lightly throb as it feels something invading my mind, the purple sparkles slowly wandering around, and it even seemed as if I could see shadows of those sparks flashing before my eyelids. I slowly focused on where they were moving, like Twilight has told me to do when we started, just following them as they picked through my mind. Soon, it reaches the spot where there was nothing, an empty abyss, and it starts to dig in. This time, the pain starts to increase, but I just clench my hands and focus on something else instead of the pain in my head, waiting...waiting...

Suddenly, a jolt shoots through my spine, causing my back to arch as I give a shout of surprise, my eyes flying open as I look around in slight panic. This...this was new. Twilight also seemed to have noticed this as I heard her call out, "Drak, what happened?! I'm going to cancel the spell!"

I could feel her starting to bring the spell back, but I quickly shouted, "Wait, I...I see something..." This was enough to cause her to pause, the magic in my mind staying still. "I...my eyes are open, but I...I see white. It...it's a bright day."

"What else?" I heard her ask, the worry seeming to have vanished from her voice. I could even hear the chair shift a bit as I assumed Spike was also watching this take place.

"Mountains...lots of them. A...a mountain range perhaps? I'm...deep in them, their peaks surrounding me. Wait..." I slowly turn my sights around, everything still fuzzy, like a dream, but at the same time, it felt so real. I then looked down as I saw something new. "There's...red. Red something...splotches. Paint maybe?"

"Hmmm...maybe you were helping to build something..." Twilight wondered, but otherwise remained silent. "What else?"

"Movement." I stated, starting to see a bit more. "Too...fuzzy to tell, but it's...someone...something? Wait, there's another thing, larger...moving towards it...towards her..." I slowly fall silent as some of the images start to sharpen, the second moving object becoming a bit more clear. "An axe...moving...moving towards it...towards her..."

"Her? Who's her?" Twilight asked quietly. "Drak, can you see them?"

"I...I'm moving closer...closer...too close. I'm...I'm between them both." For some reason, despite being in the way of what I assume to be a large axe, I felt strangely calm about the whole thing. It was just a memory. No harm can come in a memory, like a dream...right? "I feel the axe against me...in me..."

"I don't think that's a good thing." I heard Spike state, worry in his voice.

I look down, more curious than worried, seeing more red on the ground. In my mind, I reach to where the axe was, rubbing it before looking at it curious, almost dreamily at it, finding more of that red paint. Than it clicked.

"It's blood."

As soon as I said that, I gave a sharp, long cry as incredible pain shot through my entire shoulder, almost like someone was trying to cleave my arm off of my body. I shake so much, feeling every fiber in my being cry out in shock, wanting the torture to end as I fall down to the floor, writhing in pain, my entire left side of my body felt like it was on fire, the red blood covering everything. I hear a cry of alarm and soon, everything starts to melt away, the images receding...but the pain remained...the constant, agonizing pain. I struggled to get up through it, but I felt something pushing me down, pinning me to the ground. Growling, I tried to get up again, needing to...no, having to get up, to fight through the pain...only for the force to push me down harder, followed by something pinning me over my body. I tried to remove them with my hands, but that just caused something else to grab my hands and pull them over my head, preventing me from using them to remove whatever was keeping me down.

"Drak, snap out of it! It's just in your head! Please...stop!" I heard yelling, a female voice...and then slowly, the pain started to subside, my struggling getting weaker by the second, before I finally stopped, the force still keeping me pinned down to the ground. I breathed heavily as I just laid there, my head throbbing as it was finally the last of the pain to leave me, my shoulder finally feeling back to normal besides a small ache. Slowly, my breathing relaxed, my senses coming back into focus...and I could hear breathing right above me, from two different beings.

Opening my eyes, I winced at how bright the room was, and after blinking a few times, I saw both Twilight and Spike looking down at me, the unicorn having pinned me to the ground using her body, while the dragon had my hands held in his claws, keeping them away from Twilight. I blinked as I tried to recall what in the world just happened, the confusion must have been obvious on my face, causing them to give even more worried looks.

Before I could even say anything, Twilight was the first to speak. "What's your name?"

I blinked, unsure what she was talking about. "Um...w-what are you-"

"What's your name." She repeated, with a bit more force behind her words.

"Um...D-Drakalian. Twilight, you're scaring me here, what-"

"What's today?"

"Wait, why do I-"

"What's. Today."

"Uh, T-Tuesday. We were doing a mind spell in your home before I...before something happened." I replied, feeling even more worried. Thinking that she was going to ask me another question, I was surprised, but relieved, when she instead let out a relaxed sigh.

"Oh thank Celestia, you're ok." She says, her muscles finally relaxing as she slowly lets out a breath that she must have been holding in without realizing it. "I...I thought I worsened your memories for a second Drak." She admits.

I just remain silent as I looked up at them both, Spike's expression having also softened after my questioning. After a few more moments of silence, I finally asked, "Did...did it work."

Spike was the one to reply this time. "Well...depends. Does falling of your chair and squirming on the ground in pain count as a success?" He asks, removing his claws from my wrists, letting me rub them a bit. For a tiny baby dragon, he sure is surprisingly strong.

"Squirming on the...wait, what happened?" I asked, looking at them both in confusion.

They looked at me, worry on their faces again, but this time not nearly as much as before. "Do you...what was the last thing you remember?" Twilight asked.

I blinked as I furrow my eyebrows in concentration, before they widened in shock. "I...I was sitting on the chair, you were doing the spell, and then an axe...an axe..." I blinked as I fully realized what that meant. "I...I remembered something. It's...it's not much, but...but it's a memory. I...I know it. It worked!" I said, smiling up at her, only to frown when I saw that she didn't return the smile. "W-what...why am I not sitting in the chair?"

"Because, like Spike said, you fell off of it and started to squirm, shouting and crying out for...for somepony." She says, still looking down at me from where she sat. "Everything was going well, and you were telling us what you were seeing...than you suddenly grabbed your shoulder like your wounds had reopened, and began to cry out and yell in pain. We...we had to restrain you before you could really hurt yourself." She explains.

I blink as I finally start to look around, seeing the stool to my side as it was toppled over, most likely from me falling down. Taking a deep breath and then exhaling, I looked up at her with worry as I said, "I...I'm sorry, I didn't-"

"Drak, it's not your fault. You didn't have control over yourself, so don't worry about it." She explains, giving me a reassuring smile.

"Well, technically it is, cause he did want to go one more time, but you told him not to, cause it wasn't good for his mind." Spike added, causing us to both stare at him, me with a slightly bemused look and a raised eyebrow, while Twilight had more of a deadpanned look to it. "What? It's true."

After a few moments, she just sighs as she looks down at me. "Well, regardless of what happened, I'm just glad that you're ok." She says, looking back down at me with a smile.

We were all quiet for a good minute, the three of us just trying to wrap our minds around what just happened before, with a small yawn Spike stands up as he gives a stretch.

"Well, that was fun and all, but I think I've had enough excitement for now. If you need anything else, I'll be upstairs taking a nap." He says, and before either of us could say anything else, he gives us a wave and walks up the stairs, soon out of sight. Once he was gone, we just looked back at each other, and this time, I realized just how Twilight pinned me to the ground.

She was straddling me, her hind legs on either side of my waist, while her forelegs where right on my shoulder, one of them pinning my right shoulder down, while the other one was placed on my arm, away from the bad shoulder, but still keeping me in place. She was also sitting right on top of my upper thighs to most likely prevent my legs from kicking around during my struggles, but in this position, and with my mind more clear, it was...rather compromising.

"Um...d-do you pin all your subjects down like this when they are in danger of hurting themselves?" I asked, clearly a bit embarrassed, but otherwise I remained motionless, not wanting to make any sudden movement that could cause me discomfort...or 'comfort.'

Twilight blinks in confusion as she looks down at me, before her eyes go wide as she looks at how she was holding me down. "N-No! I was...I was tired from using all my magic from our testing that I...I couldn't pin you down with it safely, so I just...d-did the next best thing." She states, clearly flustered, her cheeks slowly gaining more color as she looks at anything but me now. I just give a small smile, finding it rather funny with how flushed she was getting, despite me being in a similar state. Not wanting her to feel too uncomfortable, I reached around with my right hand and placed it on her hoof, giving it a small squeeze as I moved my other hand up to get her to turn and look at me again. By doing this, I gently slid her hoof off of my arm, causing her to fall a bit closer to me, making both of us blush even harder as we looked at each other.

"Well...you at least look comfortable." I replied in a partially joking manner, trying to ease the tension between us. She remained silent for a while before finally a small smile appeared on her lips again.

"Well...it's not that bad I guess." She replies, keeping her eyes on me, causing me to blush a bit more, which in turn got her to giggle. Soon, our eyes finally connected, and this time, I didn't look away. I gently rubbed her cheek, and she just nuzzles into my palm, the stress from our previous situation finally lifting away from us. As I slowly started to look at her in the eyes, I felt...relaxed. More calm than anything else, and for some reason...I knew she felt the same way. I then noticed something flicker behind her eyes. I started to lean in a bit closer, wanting to get a better look at it-

"Ok, who's ready to start their daily-!" Started a voice, before it was just as quickly stopped. We both rapidly turned to the source of the sound, which revealed it to be Rainbow Dash, a workout headband on her head. She was frozen with a hoof in the air as she just stared at us in confusion, blinking a few times as if not sure what she was seeing, before finally lowering her hoof down as she just looks at us.

We all remained silent for a good long time, the minutes feeling like they were slowly ticking by, before finally, the rainbow mare breaks the awkward silence.

"You know, it might be more comfortable if you two were on a bed rather than on the floor." She states, a small smirk on her face. This quickly snapped both of us out of our surprise as I quickly and rather clumsily got off of the floor, with Twilight jumping off of me.

"N-no, you got it wrong, w-we were doing a spell when he...he was..and I had to restrain him...or he would..." The purple mare began to say, only for Rainbow to just wave her hoof dismissively at her.

"Sure, that's what happened. Never took you to be the 'restraining' type though." She says, giving her a waggle of her eyebrows. This in turn just caused the purple unicorn to blush even more, which I didn't think was even possible as I looked on at the two of them.

Twilight continued to try and sputter out some sort of explanation as to why she was on top of me, but it didn't seem like the cyan mare was going to be listening to them anytime soon. So clearing my throat to get both of their attentions, I asked, "So...besides barging into people's homes unannounced, what else are you here for?" I asked.

Seeing that she had bothered the bookworm enough, she smiles as she spreads her wings and flies over to me. "First of all, it's a library, not just her home, and second, what do you think? Our workout! I got the whole thing planned out now, and thought that, since I had yet to do my own workout today, why not have us both workout together. Unless, you guys have any more 'tests' that you need to do?" She adds at the end, giving me a wink.

I did my best to keep a straight face, but going by the heat rising in my cheeks, I don't think I did good. I looked over at Twilight, who had mostly recovered from the moment, and despite the small blush still on her cheeks, she was giving me a small smile and a nod, seeming to be agreeing with her friend, so with a sigh, I looked back at the pegasus. "Well, besides walking around town or reading history, I don't really have much else to-"

"Great! Let's get going then!" Exclaims Dash, reaching to grab my hand and start tugging me towards the door. However, I quickly pulled out of her grasp before rubbing my wrist again. When are they gonna stop pulling me everywhere?

"Wait a moment, just...give me a sec, ok? I need to recover from the tests." I said, before shooting her a look warning her to not add on to that.

Thankfully, it seemed that she knew when to stop with the teasing, so she gives a small shrug and a nod of agreement. "Fair enough. I'll be waiting outside for you getting warmed up." She says. With that, she gives a wave to Twilight before flying out the door, thankfully closing it behind her.

We then stood still for a good few minutes, neither of us saying anything, not even bothering to look at each other. The tension was slowly growing the longer the silence drew out, and finally, I was starting to get too uncomfortable and wanting to break the silence, I turned to say something to her, only to realize that she had done the same. We stared at each other for a few more moments before she finally spoke up.

"We don't tell this to any pony else, right?"

"Tell what to any pony else?"

"Exactly."

Next Chapter: Chapter 18: Learning Curves Estimated time remaining: 8 Hours, 7 Minutes