An Inner Desire

Francis Da Prato was sitting on his black coach in his house: he was very tired because he camed from a stressing day as medic: first he did the monthly visit at the local kindergarten, then suffered the the torture of Sisyphus against a lady who he was convinced that her son had took some kind of rare disease (Munchhausen Syndrome much?)while he had only few lines of ferver and nothing else; he was forced to get an overdoes of pharmas for avoid to damage further a kid who got injured by playing with a grater: the kid used  it as violin  and other annoying things of the same type.

This day was generally common in his doctor's life, but that day felt to think about his past.

Specifically, how he decided to became a doctor : all started when he was still a child : he dreamed about "curing kiddies" but those weren' t innocent kid's dreams : he dreamed to cut off limbs and torture them, either their mind or body, then, when grow up, he started to tame them bit by bit, until at 14 he stopped t them from his mind and finally gave them a name “Mind Stalkers”, but he didn' t destroyed them: they influenced his choice of University some years later, in s strange desire remaining, who was masked as “Mercy” and made Francis quite acid in relationship.

The dreams themselves showed time to time again, but they failed every time to act: Francis's mind was used to keep it at the bay until the logical part pushed the Mind Stalkers back to its rotten hole in the mind... or the psychopharmas were at hand to stop him from damaging the patient.

After that he returned to his boredom : he tried to watch the TV , but he turned it off 10 second after , he tried to create some particular food for dinner , but noticed that the noodles didn' t seemed very new : when he took a look to the expiry date , he saw that the noodles expired in the 1920 , and the chicken seemed rescued from the Titanic because it was molded in an incredible way, thus, Francis trashed the chicken and ate the first edible thing in the range of ten meters: oranges, carrots and canned meat.

After having dinner, Francis went to bed quite early : he wasn't a nocturnal person.

Francis, after reading some pages of a book, closed the book, charged the old alarm clock and closed his eyes.

Suring the night  dreamed a light tunnel, then a series of little equine figure, who seemed arguing with each other about something of not understandable to his ears.

When Francis woke up, as first move,  tried to check the hour on his old clock: he moved aimlessly the arm, until he realized that somehow the night table was  a lot bigger, softer, and at the same level of the bed.

Francis finally opened up his eyes, and saw where he was: under a tree, on a lawn, in the outskirts of an unknown town, whose architecture was extravagant enough to tell that wasn't anything near the human architecture saw by him: there was a proper treehouse, a house who seemed exited from a fairy tale, and.. somehow, the buildings had bizarre proportions.

“Oh no, not again, I hate when the pharmas cause THIS kind of side effect: very realistic and yet surreal dreams, and... colored horses?”

Francis saw two little horses, one with a green fur and another with a yellow fur strolling around, seeming unaware of him.

“Alright, I think that this time I got an overdose... oh well, if my mind wants to play this way, so I will do. Now, what I have at hand?”

Francis looked around him and saw what he had : two baggage s, a doctor's bag and little pile of K rations stoked over one of the baggage s.

As first thing, Francis looked what was in the baggage, but the answer didn't surprised him: clothes, plain clothes, along with three bottle of water.

Then he watched in his doctor bag for see if, eventually, could keep practice in dreams, and listed all the equipment, who included, over the normal equipment, four doses of anti-rabid vaccine and operation needle and wire.

After doing the check out of his possession, he started to walk towards the town, hides by hides, spacing from shady corners to run thought, in order to find out what his mind was requiring.

His arrival wasn't noticed by anyone... of human: in fact, the whole town seemed more noisy now, but none of the sounds seemed coming from a human, they seemed more... equine.

“Wait a minute... the colored horses who I saw before.. they didn't seemed painted ponies, like some people does... and even if, all is quite surreal here, my mind will never do such a thing... I'm not sure that all is just a dream....”

His thoughts were interrupted by a scream of surprise coming from behind him: he rotated the head, and saw that the green pony saw before was pointing at him, and it attracted a little group of that ponies

“Oh crap, better move on, adrenaline, at you the honor of canceling the pain and the fatigue”

Francis looked for way to exit from the dead end where he was, until, desperate, he tried to climb out the wall: he placed his hand in the bricks, then he launched himself over the wall along with his possessions: the doctor bag was strongly placed in his hands, and the baggage s flew behind him, for then land not too far from Francis landed: he took them and tried to place fast the K rations in the pockets of his jacket, then he tried to place the doctor's bag over in his armpit, but he failed in the attempt, and he saw that the ponies where almost near, he gave up and placed it over a baggage; then he started to run very fast for avoid the capture by ponies, who screamed behind him things like :

“Oh look !”

“Is he normally so shy?”

“So majestic!”

Francis shrugged in his mind “I'm certain that your hearth would be a great sacrifice to the Sun god...”

When Francis finally didn't saw anymore the chasers, he moved in the woods and kept walking in its borders.

After a long amount of time, Francis saw that was midday, and he felt hungry: because all he had was a K ration, and he didn't had a lighter, Francis finally gave up and tried to have a contact with the inhabitants, no matter how strange it could be.

On the way to the Apple Orchards

Applebloom was exiting from school for meet her friends at the usual spot, at the club treehouse, when she was intercepted Scootaloo, who said :

“Hi Applebloom”

“Hi Scootaloo”

“Did you heard the latest news from the town ? Lyra and other ponies saw a.. how it was called.. “Humanee” while it was with a baggage, a doctor bag and some metal boxes labeled as “Razione K”: an hypotesis says that it was the day's loot because the humans are kleptomaniacs, others's hypotesis is that he got everything from the junks and that everything was going to the landfill anyway. It escaped, but it was magically tracked just before disappering, and it seems that it is heading for the Apple's orchards”

“Sound cool, why we don't try to get some facts about it? It might guide us to our cutie mark!”

“Oh yes! We will contact Sweetie Belle and we will meet that human”, then the couple moved to the treehouse.

When Scootaloo entered in the treehouse, she found Sweetie Belle waiting for her :

“Hi Sweetie Belle”

“Hi Scootaloo, so, what's our plan today?”

“I and Applebloom decided to go to Apple Orchards for have a first contact with a human.”

“So, you are telling that we should come to take a look? But how you could be sure that it isn't dangerous? I mean, and if it is a foal-eating monster?”

“Oh, don't be a chicken, if we will get in danger, we will eventually call for help!”

“But it might be so fast that it could catch us before even we could breath!”

“Seems legit, but since it wasn't that fast when the human escaped from the crow, I think that is quite safe”

“Well, ok, after all”, then the two went down the tree.

Some time later, in the middle of the apple trees, Sweetie Belle with a telescope was tracking the moves of the human: it moved on two legs, the upper part was covered by a tan fur full of creases and on one of its “arms” had a white stripe with a red cross on it, similar to the one found on many nurses cutie marks, but it was only red, while the other one had a white stripe too, but it represented two golden arrows upside-down ; it had black limbs resembling an hoof, but with five extensions, over them where was a red star; its lower part was partially tan, partially black and over its “muzzle”, a pair of glasses was there.

The Sweetie Belle's watching was interrupted by a thump: she broke her attention, and saw Applebloom with her hooves in the air: she said

“Ugh, I lost the equilibrium while I was on the tree”

“And now something hurts?”

“Argh.. yes...”

“Where is the hurt?”

“In a knee...”, the last phrase was followed by the sound of fast moving of... something.

Sweetie Belle turned her head, and saw the human coming very fast where they were, she freak out “Help! Help! Someone! Help!”.

Sweetie Belle screamed for a long minute, but no one came, thus, she asked to Scootaloo to call help, when..

“Who called a medic ?”: the voice was deep and yet smoothing, then Sweetie realized who talked : the human did !

“Ca..can.. you talk?” said Sweetie Belle

“Of course yes, sweetie, why I should not.?

Anyway, what's your name, little filly?”

“Applebloom... please... don't hurt me...”

“Of course not! I'm here to help! After all, I'm a medic”, Applebloom tried to crawl away, but she was immobilized by the “medic”, who said

“Now, where it hurts?”, Applebloom stood silent in fear, and remained so for two long minutes: the others two tried to counter attack, but they were pushed gently way, until the pain in the knee was too much and gave up

“My knee.... it hurts”

“Does it hurts if you move it ?”

“Yes...”

“Oh dear, alright, now, I guess that you destroyed your sinew in fall, thus, I will need to carry you to the hospital, but, you know, I can't do it now: could you please find for me someone for transport her while I will look at her ?”

“And how we could be sure that you won't eat her?”

“Oh come on, did the human here eats babies or something? Find someone and we will think about it”

“Yes.. do it.. please...obey to him...” , Scootaloo noddened and went to town for find help.

Francis's Perspective

Francis felt in his head a voice, a scratching voice... “You have done well, Francis... soon, their lives will be scarred, and I will feast on their shattered innocence and dreams...”

“No! You cannot do such a thing! You are a monster created by my desire of revenge against the doctors in my childhood.. and you grew up alone! I can still handle you without that pills!”

“No, you can't... they are... so surrendeful.. and fragile to cut... mmmm, I'm already thinking about the result...”

“Freak! My limbs are under the control of my logical part, not yours! ”

“But in a world where the logic isn't an everyday thing, she is beaten up....”, then Francis felt his head colder and colder, until...

“Now you will say that you  operate her.. without anesthetic...  and trying to making it scarier as possible....”

“Gahaaaw, my mind... it hurts! Damn you! Damn you!”.

Once that his rational part was sunk in the abyss, Francis started to feel a prick in his hands, and started to talk to Applebloom :

“Now, Applebloom, the only thing that I can tell you about your next operation, is that will be RACKING! “

“Wh-wh-what? R-r-r-acking ?” , Applebloom started to tremble, in his mind Francis hear a laugh, and his hearth freezed for a moment for the pity, the mind stalkers continued

“Yes, this operation cannot be done with anesthetic.. therefore, you will be awake, with lots of needles in the body and other stuffs...”

Applebloom cried loudly for the fear, and finally his mind stalkers retreated, so Francis started to caress her in hope to calm her down, and started to told things for make her comfortable :

“See the full part of the glass: more the pain, more the gain for you at the end!

Plus, if you will pass throught that pain, you will shrug off everything else!”

Applebloom watched him in the eyes

“Doc.. do not tell me lies... I will suffer more and more...”, then she returned in her crying.

After twenty minutes that seemed infinite, the orange filly with wings and the horned white filly returned, and with her there was a white mare with a distinctive nurse cap on her head: the white mare dropped her jaw for few seconds before coming down, asking Applebloom what happened and taking her on her back.

Francis went behind them for see where they were going: he did the usual sthealth path for follow them, but finally he reached the clinic without begin seen.