An Inner Desire

On the way to the clinic

Francis was moving on the same route of the white mare who picked up Applebloom before: the mind stalkers wanted their part of blood, and they wanted it badly, thus, Francis followed them

Some time later, he arrived at the clinic : he thought that he was lucky to not be seen anyone during his travel: after all, he was quite big, and in a town where everyone is a pony, a bipedal creature is easy to spot.

Nobody was there, thus, he felt sure to run in it for find the nurse and ask her more info about the situation of the sinistrated little filly.

Soon after spotting her, Francis left the baggage in the hall and ran to her, and asked

“So Nurse, what is the situation?”

The nurse didn't took it well, and said

“Who are you?”

“I am the doctor that assisted the patient Applebloom after the accident”

“The fact that you say that you are medic doesn’t make you so...”

“Alright..”, Francis went in the hall and looked for the degree for demonstrating that he could practice the medical profession.

Before Operation, waiting room

Nurse Redhearth was accompanying Applebloom to the waiting room of the operation room: the waiting room had red seats and on the walls there were paintings of various type and size; all this color contrasted with the mood of the wounded filly, who was still terrified to go under the knife of such a creature.

“Are you nervous Applebloom ?” asked Nurse Redhearth

“Yes.. a bit.. after all he said that I will suffer during operation..”

“Oh, come on, that's false! I'm certain that he was joking at the bad time!”

“But what if ?”

“Then its medical license is doomed”

“I hope so... so, if all goes right, how it will be done ?”

“First, you will wear a green coat, then he will give you a shot...” at the word “Shot”, Applebloom stopped to listen and freezes in fear : she was trypanophobic to an incredible degree, and the only thinking cause her to tremble.

When Francis showed up and called her name, Applebloom was picked up by Francis, who watched her in the eyes, and thus making Applebloom more nervous .

The operation room was of a bright white, and it was full of strange machines, some recognizable, others not: in the mind of the yellow filly, an imagine of her hooked at one of machines while.... “examinated internally” by another flashed in her mind, and that wasn't reassuring , at all.

When Francis finally placed her on the operation bed, there was a tense silence: nothing, not even the buzz of the lamps broke the silence, and this eroded her.

Finally the human moved to a metallic dish and took a needle: Applebloom panicked, and tried to cover herself with  her hooves and screamed of fear, but in vain: the needle passed, and it hit her lower body, and the filly could not help but see the syringe filing of blood and urine.

Applebloom wondered the reasons of such an action, but she didn't had much time: Francis took the scalpel and opened the flesh of the knee.

The resulting pain stormed all over the wounded filly, and this caused a general contraction of all muscles: she was immobilized by her own body! She tried to relax, but the pain was too much, and the fact that Francis was heading for her chest didn't helped : in fact, Francis opened Applebloom's chest, and showed all the guts to the world: Applebloom watched in horror what was going on in her body in front of her eyes, and she almost fainted : her beating hearth seemed a sack full of puppies who were going to be drowned in water; the lungs moved very fast and never stopped and, finally, the other guts seemed rats who were escaping from a sinking boat.

Applebloom started to scream to Francis to stop and she prayed in her mind :

“If I ever offended you, if I ever caused mayhem and broke the harmony, if I ever did a bad thing.

Save me and I will pay for my actions.... “

At first the pray seemed ineffective, rather, Francis charged her with a needle and thread: scared over an incredible degree, she tried to crawl away but she was stopped : she cried and was preparing to say “Goodbye” to every beloved one when... she didn't felt her hearth so strong anymore.

Took by curiosity, she opened her eyes  and saw that Francis was bowed over her knee, and he was uniting two white stripes one with another: all the process was hurting, but not much as before, thus, she didn't crawl away, but still cried of fear.

When the human finally placed the bends over her wounds, Francis said

“It's all over, you can go...”she didn't move: she was so surprised by a so sudden change of behavior, that she could not help but staring at him.

Francis took her in its arms, and treated her like a newborn : in a normal situation, that would offend Applebloom, but on the moment, she felt so... relaxed by that actions, that she didn't protested and in a mechanical answer, she placed her hooves around its neck .

Some time later, the Nurse Redhearth saw Applebloom exiting from the operation room, an what she saw surprised her : all over the filly's body there was bends, lots of bends, and they were stained with blood and Applebloom had a look similar to the people that they experimented a “NTDE”.

Indignated, the Nurse headed to Francis and said

“We must talk”, then she pushed Francis in the closet and said

“Alright, what in name of everything is holy here happened? She didn't seemed exited by a knee surgery! It seemed that Applebloom was hit by the debris of a bomb! “

“Well, it's simple: split personality”

“A what?”

“Split personality : instead of having only one side of the same person, you have two who changes time to time”

“And how it justify THAT?”

“Alright: I have two personalities : Francis Da Prato, the sane one and the “official” personality and the “Mind Stalkers”, the “unofficial personality” : both of them act in the same way in front of adults and out of a medical contest.... but in a medical  contest with children and foals, all changes :

While Francis Da Prato is merciful and wants to do the best thing possible, the “mind stalkers” want only to cause scars both in mind and body, for a desire of revenge that I can't explain.

Now, the only explanation for the existence of this split personality is this : when I was 1 year old, I tripped down a bed and hurt badly, and when I woke up, the surgeon’s faces appeared in my view, and that was the first step; the second step was at 8 years: I needed an operation for cut off some pieces of stomach, they told me beforehand that during the operation I was going to be asleep.. pity that they gave me a placebo, and I suffered like a dog during the whole thing.

At that point, the “mind stalkers” appeared: they caused dreams where I cut the limbs of various kids, and where I scared them to an incredible degree telling lies about the operation.

I  eventually stopped them, but when I became a medic, they returned: this time, they wanted to do it for the reals; now, that could be a problem.. but the psychopharmas where every time at hand, and thus they could not act. Now, stuck in this world, in a dream, thus where the sane part's greatest feat, logic, cannot help and without that medicines, they overcome and they want to act.

I hope I was explanatory enough for you, Danke”

Nurse Redhearth was surprised and didn't said a thing about the topic, but she got that the human needed a roof, some psychopharmas and an ear and said

“That's.. very interesting...now, I guess that you don' have a home, and I want to help you : I will offer you a room and some supplies of psycho just in case”

“Considering how I am placed, why I should decline ? OK!”, then Francis changed his clothes.

When the Nurse Redhearth returned in the waiting room, there was still Applebloom, who said

“Nurse, I hoped that you knew tha I cannot move...”

“Yes, yes, I know, I just asked explanation from Francis”, the nurse picked up Applebloom and placed her on the back

“What explanation ? For what he did to me ?”

“Yes”

“And why he did that things to me?”

“He wasn't in himself while he did the operation”

“What do you mean? He was still him both at the start and the end!”

“He has a split personality: basically, sometimes a part of his brain takes the control and does things that he doesn’t want to do in a normal situation, and this included the operation”

“So the operation wasn't needed at all?”

“No, it was needed, but only on the knee, and not with you aware”, Applebloom sighed and stood silent for the whole walk to the Apple Barn.