Dr. Wolf sat quietly in his chair, simply enjoying the silence between meetings. The only noise breaking the serenity was the ticking of the clock. Even one who helped others with their stress, tension, and upset needed their own downtime once in a while to keep themselves grounded. Given his workload, it was a precious thing for the busy therapist to have any downtime at all.
His solitude soon ended though, with a knock on his office door. As the bipedal canine rose and opened the door, he looked up out of instinct. Instead of an adult pony looking down at him, the small wolf's eyes were greeted by the wall and the top of several little ponies’ manes. He readjusted his line of sight and found himself staring into the orange eyes of a young yellow Earth Pony. His sensitive nose told him, by the smell of their perspiration, that the three had been doing some strenuous activity. Strangely, they also smelled of tree sap, among other things.
“Yes?,” Dr Wolf greeted.
The little Earth Pony filly's eyes widened in amazement as she took in the sight of the unusual creature before her, “Woah! You weren’t kiddin. He actually is a wolf.”
“Told ya so!” replied the orange pegasus next to her, giving a victorious grin and a playful nudge with her elbow.
Dr. Wolf gave a small, amused smile. He was accustomed to being looked upon with curiosity, but there was always something about childlike amazement that never lost its charm. “Well, hello there. Is there something I can help you three with?” he asked politely, giving the same welcoming smile he tried to give all those who knocked on his door.
The white unicorn foal looked at him cautiously, keeping a small distance from the white wolf in front of her, “Uh, he doesn’t bite... does he?”
The doctor gave a small chuckle. “Heh, of course not. Despite my appearance, I can assure you that I am very different from other Wolves, and I strive to create a safe and welcoming environment,” he explained, keeping his tone relaxed and welcoming, his body language nonthreatening.
The unicorn relaxed, and in a moment stood by her friends and shared their child-like excitement and energy.
The orange pegasus came closer to Dr. Wolf, eyes examining him closely. “Fluttershy told us about you. So you're some kind of 'psycho' doctor, right?” she asked, giving a confused look as she tried to say the word.
“Uh...The technical term would be clinical psychologist. And yes, I spend my time listening to ponies talk about whatever’s troubling them,” Dr. Wolf moved aside and invitingly held a paw towards his office. “Why don’t you come inside my office, and tell me what’s on your minds.”
The three fillies grinned ear to ear, looking to one another in wide-eyed excitement.
“Thanks, mister!” the little yellow Earth Pony announced.
The trio sped past their host fast enough to make his fur blow a little bit. Dr. Wolf closed the door and walked over to his chair, picking up his clipboard and donning his reading glasses as the three fillies made themselves comfortable.
“My name’s Applebloom, and this here is Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle,” the little Earth Pony introduced, pointing her hoof first at herself, then the pegasus, and finally the unicorn.
The unicorn gave an enthusiastic wave while the Pegasus merely lifted her hoof and gave what looked like a mimic of a salute.
Applebloom continued, “We wanna see if our special talent could be giving ponies advice and stuff. Maybe then we could be...”
The three took a deep breath.
“Cutie Mark Crusader Psychologists! YAY!!” all three yelled at the top of their lungs.
Dr. Wolf's ears pinned, not out of anger or upset, but simply in response to the surprisingly high volume the trio had managed to reach, making his sensitive ears ring.
Despite that, the psychologist managed to maintain his composure and respond in an even, calm tone, “Well...it is good that each of you are very interested in learning. Though becoming a Doctor takes many years of training and discipline. I would advise that you-”
“Hey, have you actually read ALL these books?” Sweetie Belle interrupted as she approached the bookshelf, eyeing it curiously. The little unicorn put her hooves on the second shelf so she could get a closer look at the books nestled there. She scrunched her face in concentration as she tried to read the various titles.
“Some of them, but a lot of these are for reference,” Dr. Wolf answered with a small smile at the filly's curiosity. He could certainly sympathize with wanting to know what a book may hold.
Applebloom put her hooves on the armrest to get closer to her host. “Cool! You must be pretty smart,” she exclaimed enthusiastically. Before Dr. Wolf could reply, Applebloom pointed to the clipboard in his paws. “I want to try this too. Can I borrow yer glasses and that clipboard, mister?”
Despite being the actual canine in the room, Dr. Wolf found himself on the receiving end of better puppy dog eyes than he believed he could manage. “Well... I suppose, as long as you’re careful with them,” The white wolf gently took off his glasses and put them on the little filly's head.
He found it somewhat amusing that despite the two of them being around the same size, the glasses still seemed a little small on the pony, due to her large eyes. He waited for her to adjust the eye wear before carefully handing her the clipboard.
“Thanks! And don’t you worry about that. Ah’ll be real careful,” the little pony replied with a wide grin as she took a seat on the couch normally reserved for patients. She fumbled the board for a moment before managing to position it properly in her hooves.
Dr. Wolf simply retrieved a spare clipboard. It paid to be prepared after all.
Applebloom cleared her throat, doing her best to make herself look professional. She put the pen in her mouth and made an effort to look as though she were in serious thought and consideration.
“Ahem, ahem...And what brings you in today?” she asked to no-creature in particular, her voice a bit more over the top than it should have been. “What's that? You say yer big sister won't take you seriously, or trust you to take care of yerself? That must be real tough. Sisters can be such a pain in the flank, can’t they?”
The doctor watched quietly as Applebloom spoke, intently jotting down notes all the while.
Sweetie Belle giggled excitedly and hopped around between them. “Hey yeah, and maybe I can be your secretary!” the small filly exclaimed, leaping up on the couch's armrest and taking a prim and proper stance. “Ahem, ahem, Dr Bloom is in. Please be here by 1 o'clock.”
The little unicorn turned and noticed the somewhat disheveled desk, with lots of papers stacked in piles, “Oh, and I guess a secretary keeps the office tidy too. I'll help you clean up some of these old papers.” She leaped up onto the desk, knocking some of the papers down.
Dr. Wolf managed to avoid cringing as Sweetie Belle grabbed several of the papers in her mouth and gleefully put them through the shredder next to his desk, reducing them to nothing but illegible mulch.
He still managed to keep his voice calm and even as he replied. “Oh... Miss Belle, if I could just ask you not to destroy thos-”
“Hey Doc, can you use your super-awesome 'psycho' skills to help me find my special talent?” Scootaloo interjected, putting one hoof on the armrest opposite from Applebloom to boost her up, and using the other to point insistently at Dr. Wolf's clipboard.
Never one to be able to resist helping somepony in need, the psychologist turned to the orange pegasus, even as the sound of shredding paper echoed in his ears. “Uh... well Miss Scootaloo, maybe first we should discuss why you feel it is so important to find your special talent. Perhaps this is the sort of thing that you just need to let happen, rather than try to force it?” he replied in as helpful a tone as he could manage.
The orange pegasus rolled her eyes and scoffed. “That's what everypony says! Seriously, can't you do some sort of psykka-nasis or something?”
The canine psychologist did his best to avoid being distracted by the sound of the two fillies playing with a paper shredder and clipboard behind him, and managed to take in everything being said by the small orange filly asking him for help.
“You mean psycho-analysis?”
“Yeah, that.”
Whatever Sweetie Belle had been shredding was finished as the shredder fell silent.
“Haha! This is kind of fun. I could get used to being a secretary,” the small unicorn laughed, her hooves clattering noisily on the desktop as she jumped with excitement.
“And how do you feel about that?” Applebloom questioned in her best over the top psychologist imitation. “We’re going to try something new today. Tell me about your foalhood....”
“Anything yet girls?” Applebloom finally said, in a tone that was more her own.
Scootaloo turned her head and looked at her flank with optimistic excitement. Dr. Wolf looked back to see the other two mimicking their friend's action like a mirror.
All three found nothing but blank fur.
Sweetie Belle pinned her ears in disappointment. “Nope. Still no cutie mark.”
Scootaloo gave a dejected sigh, pinning her ears. “Well, what could we be doing wrong then?” she asked, all three looking down at their hooves.
Dr. Wolf tapped his chin, looking thoughtfully at the situation surrounding him. “I think it is important for each of you to realize that helping other ponies with their problems takes a lot of patience and persistence. So, if each of you would like to learn more about being good listeners, then I would recommend finding a member of your family and just spending a good ten minutes asking questions about how their day went. You might be surprised to see how much good it can do,” he explained slowly and clearly, trying to condense down his rather complex job to something three impressionable young foals could perhaps understand.
Scootaloo cocked her head in confusion, the other two trotting over and joining their friend.
“Wait. So you’re saying that all you do is... listen? Not giving advice and telling ponies what they should do?” she asked, scratching her head with a hoof.
“Well, it’s more like a process of letting ponies talk out their problems, and then the solution can often come out of that. I kind of help them give themselves advice,” the wolf replied, giving a small smile. He remembered so many sessions with ponies, some of whom naturally did expect him to have all the answers from the get go, only to be a bit frustrated to merely be met with more questions. But ultimately, if they were just told answers without having to dig a little themselves, they were likely to view what was said as simply a lecture to ignore.
Scootaloo gave an excited grin...that then dissolved a bit into confusion and disappointment.
“Wow! That’s.... kind of boring....”
Applebloom scratched her head with an uncertain look. “I dunno...I suppose I can talk to ma sister sometimes, but tryin' to talk to Big Mac only gets maybe one or two words out of him at a time. And if I show Granny Smith that I want to listen to her, she starts gettin into stories about her past, and then forgets what she was even talkin' about halfway through,” the young foal explained, giving an irritated look at whatever memory was running through her head.
Sweetie Belle gave a scoff. “Heh, that’s nothing. If I try asking Rarity about her day, she just starts going on and on about all the dresses she’s been working on, and what goes into all the designs; the stitches, the fabrics, the complementary colors... and then before you know it, you’re her mannequin!” the small unicorn explained, assuming a mocking, lady-like voice and posture as she listed the things her sister would say.
Scootaloo scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Well, this didn’t really seem like my thing anyway. So yeah, no cutie mark. What should we try next?”
Sweetie Belle rubbed a hoof under her chin. “How about...Cutie Mark Crusader Surgeons!”
Scootaloo and Applebloom's faces lit up like Hearth's Warming Eve trees.
“Hey yeah! That sounds like a much cooler way to help ponies,” Scootaloo announced.
Applebloom pointed dramatically in the direction she believed to be that of the hospital. “To the Ponyville Hospital! Oh, here’s yer glasses back mister.”
The little filly gently took the glasses off her own head and laid them in the paws of Dr. Wolf.
“Let’s go!” Sweetie Belle announced loudly before Dr. Wolf could reply.
In a tri-colored blur, the three fillies exited the room so quickly the scattered papers blew as if caught in a wayward breeze.
Quiet returned to his office, and Dr. Wolf surveyed the damage. His clipboard and glasses were indeed unharmed, as Applebloom had promised, but he was fairly certain that the couch was a tad bit muddier than it had been when the trio entered. The floor also definitely had more papers littered about, and of course, Sweetie Belle had shredded quite a few of them. Thankfully, the doctor had a good memory when it came to what he'd read and written. So it wasn't a huge issue, but simply a time consuming one.
Still, he liked to think the trio might take his advice to heart, or had at least gotten a chance to get something off their chests that had been festering. Sometimes simply talking about a problem could do a world of good.
Dr. Wolf still gave a small smile as he looked in the direction the trio had left. “Ah...to be young again...and also a pony...” he remarked, as he collected the scattered papers and placed them back on his desk in a neat pile. The psychologist then put a paw to his chest, taking a deep, calming breath in before letting it out slowly. “It’s good to be helping...”
Author's Note
This story had been inspired by the fan art piece created by Starbat many months ago. When EquestriaDaily posted their "Friend Off Revival" contest, I felt driven to write up a video script with Starbat, and it got turned into a completed story here on FimFiction with a little help from Godzillawolf. For my first attempt at a My Little Pony story, I think it turned out rather nicely. But what do you think?
