The next day came and went like a swift dream. Exist saw to it that his normal duties were finished on time before seeing his patient. Paperwork, doctor’s assistance, etc… Short odd jobs done around the facility were finished before he had time to think.

Dealing with Zephyr was a stark contrast to the previous days he had dealing with the lazy pony. He had a hard time going anywhere and refused to open his eyes unless forced. He went on and on about his dreams, and about how everything felt moist and apple-like. Zephyr described it as though the world around him was literally made out of the white, moist inside of an apple; even down to the sound he made when walking down the hallways. Not to mention his fits of being unable to speak properly, and only saying the word apple. Exist couldn’t help but feel a bit of remorse for the pony, but not enough to truly feel forgiveness in any capacity.

The end of the week arrived: Friday. After spending another full day with Zephyr and his illness, Exist wanted this all to end. Zephyr had suffered enough, and it was high time that this charade ended - even though it was somewhat amusing. Now having the time to think about Zephyr’s predicament, the yellow pony began to worry about the permanent effects of this affliction.

Entering the room, Exist found Zephyr Breeze curled up on his bed like usual. Despite this, however, Zephyr seemed to be shaking a bit. Nervously, the pony didn’t dare look at Exist or anything in particular, for he knew it would be a sight that would burn into his mind.

“N-Nurse…” Zephyr managed to utter, “...Am I going to be this way f-f-forapple?”

Exist unfurled his change of sheets and carefully placed them at his bedside, “Well… I personally don’t think so. I’m expecting a full recovery really soon.”

“I- hope so.” Zephyr winced, getting out of the way of the apple skins that were being pressed into his bed of plush apple flesh. “...I swear, I didn’t come here with this mental thing. I-I’m sorry! Oh dear Celestia, I’m sorry for thinking I could get away with all that… I didn’t expect this to happen to me!”

“I know, I know.” Calmly, Exist pat Zephyr’s back with a genuine care in his voice, “I forgive you.”

While there was no way to tell whether this confession came from a place of manic desperation or genuine regret, Exist was willing to take what he could get. Still, there wasn’t a way he could stop the hallucinations himself.

Right on cue, there was a knock at the door. In a swift few motions and movement throughout the room, Exist opened the door and let in Fluttershy. The mare rushed to Zephyr’s side and tried her best to comfort her brother. A soft hoof slowly ran up and down her brother's backside.

“Oh, I hope you’ll be alright, Zephyr!” Fluttershy said, “You've suffered too much…”

With that, a flash of light revealed a metal cooking pan just above Zephyr’s head. It quickly fell down onto his skull, and made a comedic clang noise with his noggin. The pan disappeared into a puff of smoke as it finished its action. Instantly, the pony was knocked out as both witnesses gasped at the sudden slapstick.

“D-Discord?! You didn’t have to HURT him!” Fluttershy yelped as the draconequus slid out from under the covers. “Oh no oh no, I hope he’s alright…”

Discord made a raspberry with his mouth as he scoffed, “Pfffbt, that shouldn't have hurt him. I just got rid of his problem. ...I believe a thank you is in order, actually.”

“....” Fluttershy looked up at the draconequus with a scrunched look to her face before lamenting with a sigh, “Well, I’m sure he’ll just think it was all a bad dream.”

“Erm, on that note, he’s not going to have lasting damages, is he?” Exist looked over his notes.

“Absolutely not. Ooother than an irrational fear of apples for a few years, he’ll be just fine.” He looked down at Fluttershy, who had given him another one of her ‘looks’, “I-I promise! I swear!”

“Alright. I’ll let the doctors know he’s cured and we’ll process his information - and you can get him out of here. Is that alright with you, Fluttershy?” Exist said, filling out a few forms on the counter next to him.

Fluttershy nodded, sitting next to her brother’s resting body. Her eyes laid on him with a look of relief but slight contempt hazed her pupils; knowing how much trouble he had been causing lately. She closed her eyes and shook her head with a short huff. There was a lot of work to be done, regardless of this whole debacle.

“I will take my leave then, my lady.” Feigning a dapper look, Discord bowed before Fluttershy before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

Moments passed as Exist filled out his paperwork. However, a few signatures were needed, “Could you sign these really quick?”

“O-Oh yes.” She smiled, trotting right over.

Her hoof took the quill as she began to sign her name. In the meantime, a question was at the tip of Exist’s tongue, “So, uh… Wasn’t Discord supposed to be a statue? I thought, er, he was just a concept… a myth?”

Her smile didn’t fade, “Yes, he was a statue! Princess Celestia and Princess Luna trapped him in stone a really long time ago after he took over Equestria. Erm, he broke out a few months ago, actually. Do you remember when the clouds were all cotton candy?”

Exist patted a paw against his chin in thought before suddenly remembering the fun, sticky clouds that tasted like chocolate which surrounded his home for a few hours, “Yes! Although, I didn’t have work that day, so I just spent it eating the yummy cotton candy chocolate. Haha.”

“Huh?” Fluttershy was bewildered by the positive memory he had endowed -and the fact that he had a tangible memory of the day to begin with- she couldn’t help but ask, “You didn’t… get affected by anything? Your personality was fine?”

Exist pursed his lips for a moment, looking back into his memory, “Hmm… Nope. Other than the clouds being made of cotton candy, and raining upwards at random times with chocolate, I was pretty ok. ...Oh! You know, there was this big rip in the sky that revealed a colorful, swirling vortex. It kinda reminded me of those old movies where the bad guy tries to brainwash an entire city with giant screens, but… eh. Didn’t work, I guess!”

Fluttershy shrugged and said, “Well, okay. If you had fun, I guess that’s a good thing that came out of his ...incident. ...Anyway! Um, he’s not evil anymore, and he is trying really hard to be a good person, so…”

He glanced to the side and smiled sheepishly, hiding his blush, “He’s fine. I l-liked him.”

There was an audible sigh of relief as the mare put the quill down, “I’m glad. Sometimes he’s such a hoof-full.”

The only thing the griffequus could do was nod as he took the paperwork with him. Saying he’ll be right back, he brought the papers with him in a hurry. Signs of a growing infatuation were imminent as he giddily flew down the hallways.

This giddiness only lasted a few instances before the realization of his unfaithful thoughts provoked a feeling of dread in him. Knowing the current date, he found it hard to reconcile his untrustworthy feelings. He felt there was something wrong, and he needed to talk to coltfriend as soon as possible.
....

All of the clocks in town struck on Exist’s usual meetup time. The Brie Cafe quickly came into view as Exist rounded the corner, and his lover was in sight once more. The red maned mail-stallion made a small smile as Exist approached. He seemed to be wearing a light-grey hoodie today instead of his usual mail-stallion attire. A tired, wary smile pulled Exist close into a short hug just parallel to the front of the cafe.

The stallion led Exist inside, and within a few short conversations and hellos they were properly seated. A window overlooked the curvy, cloudy downtown of Cloudsdale proper. Celestia’s golden sun began to set as the cool, autumnal day was almost over.

Care Package, now sitting with a cup of coffee in front of him, spoke up, “How did work go? You mentioned that you had an assigned patient?”

“Well, there’s lots of things I still need to tell you but… yeah, that’s the most recent thing going on. Erm, it was Zephyr Breeze. He was a huge handful to deal with.” Exist fidgeted with his cup of hot chocolate, thinking about Zephyr’s guests. “L-Luckily, he’s going home with his sister. So I’m grateful for that.”

“Heh, that’s good.” He took a sip but paused, “Wait a minute, that Zephyr Breeze? The super lazy pony who lives with his parents?”

“Yes! Him! Ergh.” Exist shook his head, “If it wasn’t for Fluttershy and her friend, I don’t know what kind of state I’d be in right now.”

He circled his drink with his hoof, looking into the dark coffee abyss as he said, “At least you’re in good spirits…”

“...Are you ok?” The griffequus tried to place a paw on Care’s hoof but it retracted before they could touch, “Your letter made me think you wanted to talk to me about something. Usually, you write something like ‘I can’t wait to see you’-”

“I think we both know what’s going on.” Care Package looked away from Exist, and outside the window, “This is… what, 2 months now since we’d last seen each other?”

Exist looked down, huffing out air, “...I know. I’ve been thinking about it too.”

“I don’t want to lock you down anymore, Panache. Well… that’s not quite right.” The pegasus sighed, “There’s a lot of ponies at work that have been talking with me a lot. I want to… do stuff with them, but I feel like I’d be hurting your feelings.”

“No no, it’s okay.” Exist couldn’t smile, “I know what that’s like. I’ve been… having thoughts like that too.”

“So you agree then? We should… move on?” The mail stallion nearly crushed his coffee cup.

There wasn’t much need for words. Exist nodded with a lump in his throat. He had known this would happen eventually, but it just wasn’t something he wanted to instigate. No matter what happened, he knew he would feel upset, but it wasn’t fair of him to just leave things the way they are. He didn't hate the mail-stallion, no, it was just that things would be different now.

“Alright then.” Care Package nodded, taking another sip of his coffee. “But, we can stay friends, right?”

“Oh yes, absolutely.” A bit of relief flushed through Exist’s body, “You can come over whenever you want, and all that. We could even go out for coffee like this every so often!”

Care Package nodded with a tightening in his throat catching his tongue. It had been a long time since they’d seen each other. There was an unfamiliar feeling about them, and to be honest, the only thing he could really think about was the sexual escapades they would fly through in the past. Details about who Exist was, were muddled in the mail-stallion's physical desires, and realizing that illuminated the way into the future.

The sun set further into the horizon. Minutes turned to hours as their meeting ended in the time between. All that was left to hang onto was a gifted polaroid photo. Exist, now heading home with a heavier heart, felt the world changing around him. A wash of bliss and agony was paved in the sky he flew, while the sounds of the past haunted his hall of memories.

He clutched the polaroid photo in his paw as he opened his front door. As always, his home was a toasty but empty place that always greeted him everyday with open arms. His wings pulled him from the ground and up to the locked safe in the recess of his house. Opening it, a large book of photos laid in wait. Naturally having an empty slot he put the polaroid in. Not before giving the photo a light kiss, though.

Author's Note

I hope what I have here wasn't too fast paced. I didn't think it was necessary to drag out the apple thing too long - I'm pretty sure you got it. Haha, this isn't supposed to be a horror story or anything.

As always, thank you for reading so far! <3