An Inner Desire

by Daxn

Rating: mature
Tags: Dark, Human, Sad
Length: 12994

Francis Da Prato, a medic, finds himslef in Equestria after an overdose of pharmas...

Francis Da Prato, a medic, finds himself in Equestria after an overdose of psychopharmas for avoid the strike of a split personality looking for young blood every kind… human or pony, it doesen't matter, if at the end of the day, a scar of some kind is created.
Now, blocked in this world where the logic part cannot stop his dark side, will Francis keep himself in the ranks or he will fall under the influence of his split personality ?

If you feel uncomfortable with stories about medicine going in a bad way, don't read: it will have it QUITE often.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2013-03-24 08:05:10 UTC

The Mad as Arrived

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.

I used to be a filly like you ( Victim)

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.

When the pipsqueak worths

Some time later, Nurse Redheart's house

After he placed his supplies in the guest room of the nurse's house, Francis took a better look to the house : the guest room was white and resembled an hospital room, and on the wall there was a painting of an EGC covering the wall closet, with a piece of paper, on it it was written “Cure: sleep for 8 hours everyday. Until: forever”

Francis grinned to the irony of Nurse Redhearth and exited from the room.

Because he was very hungry, he went to the kitchen and opened one of the K Rations and cooked what was inside : canned meat and pasta.

While he was eating the canned meat, Francis was surprised by the Nurse Redhearth coming from downstairs : Francis tried to hide somewhere the can of meat, before he heard

“Ahaha, Francis, why you bother to hide it? I know that you eat meat, and, honestly, I'm not worried about it”

“Well, just in case you go nut... you know, I don't do what my host forbid me, and knowing that you are likely herbivore...”

“Until you don't try to eat one of us it's fine”

“Anyway, how you find out it? I mean.. none of the K rations was open”

“Not too hard to tell: the baggage are not of fabric, they are of leather: generally the carnivore and omnivore intelligent creatures uses leather clothes”

“Ah, right, didn't remembered. Anyway, I guess that you don't want a dead weight in the house, thus, I offer my services in exchange of a bed and a hot dinner.”

“Mmmm, yes, after all it will cut down my work in the clinic, now, what is your specialization? The  degree wasn't helpful...”

“Well, I guess that here I will be called a “Micronippotrician”, even if technically I am a Pediatrician.”

“I'm afraid that I must decline then: your personality shows up when you are with foals in a medical  context, and the fact that IS your work and you can do it without hurting too much only with special kinds of drugs...”

“Actually I rember what is the active principle: I must only find it somewhere...”

“But the name might change!”

“True, then we will try with the same kind of psycho drugs used here for stop the psychopaths !”

“Ahem...”

“Yes?”

“That kind of drugs are very rare... and they are given only under statal permission”

“Alright, crap: the whole thing will be too long to be done”

“But I have an idea..”

“Yes?”

“We will use some medicaments mixes, and see what are the effects...”

“No can do, I don't want to kill myself that way, or powering the split personality either”

“Mmmm, I guess that the only thing that could work will be asking for a  crude chemical composite from the local scientist...”

“If it is needed, then why not ?”

“Well, finally we came to a conclusion: I will be out for some time, meanwhile, could you please run the clinic for me? If you cannot do something , just redirect them!”

“As you command, my helper”, then the Nurse Redhearth exited from the house with a bag of money on her bag and a notebook.

Francis meanwhile prepared his outfit and moved to the Clinic: this time, thought, forgot about the fact that only the Nurse Redhearth accepted him: a group of ponies almost overrun him, and stand up only because he was big, otherwise, he might be trampled by the horde of equine.

The crow did an incredible noise, comped mostly by unintelligible questions.

Francis tried to move on, but he could not without stomping someone: sighing, he said

“What do you want?”, the crow screamed to unison

“WHERE ARE YOU FROM ? WHY YOU ARE HERE? WHY..”

“Ok, ok, I will answer, but please, a question at time”

A black stallion came in, he opened the mouth and... a roar was heard

“What are you doing to my guest?”

“The human... is your guest?” said a green mare, who seemed resenting the nurse

“Yes, problem? He will be here until he will go away... in some way...”

“Oh, yes? Could tell more about him ?”, the nurse said “no” with head, and gave Francis the International Sign for saying “Go to the established place”.

Francis arrived to the clinic with a devastated look in his face: after all, begin attacked by a crow wasn't an everything thing.

Three hours later, the turn ended, and Francis returned to his shelter: the first thing that saw was the Nurse Redhearth writing on some papers something, Francis went near and asked

“So, Redhearht, what's going on?”

“Rember that horde of ponies earlier? Well, they gave me this charts talking about my short life with you, and I'm answering to them”

“Alright, and how about the chemical composition ?”

“It's ready, but I still need to calculate when and how much you must take every day”

“Given the actual situation, I think that is more important to calculate the quantity: I will answer to this charts for you.”

“Well, ok.”, she went away and entered in the basement.

Meanwhile, Francis compilated the charts and closed the pieces  of paper in a postal folder.

The next day, Ponyville Elementary School

Pipsqueak was suffering, a lot: his lower tummy hurt, and his head pulsed since he left the house, and nothing, NOTHING seemed work: he tried to drink much cold water, but didn't help; he tried to do not think to it, but the pain was too much; he tried to place in awkward positions but this caused only more pain

He was going to ask to the teacher to come back home, but he feared one thing : going to the doctor.

The thing was already scary for him even before, but now, from what their classmates told him, in the clinic there wasn't the sympathetic Nurse Redhearht anymore... or anyone know for the matter; instead, there was the human come the day before: from what Applebloom told him, the human, called “Francis Da Prato”, was a monster : if a foal falls under the knife, the foal will be cut open and touched everywhere, before receiving medical attention.

But the telling didn't stopped there: Applebloom told that Francis feeded of fear and pain, and that the above-mentioned emotions, if experimented by a foal, are the most delicious food, thus, the human search them actively, and tried with every way to have a foal under his scalpel.

Thought made Pipsqueak sweat cold, and meanwhile the pain pulsed even more, the teacher seemed noticing his behavior and said

“Pipsqueak! Are you OK ?”

“Y..y..y..es”

“It doesn’t seem “ok” to me! Do you feel bad ?”

Pipsqueak gulped, and said without thinking

“I don't feel well...” before fainting.

When Pipsqueak opened his eyes, he was on the chairs of the clinic, laying down.

With his eyes he scanned the room, but no one seemed here, until he heard a sound of hooves on the floor: he rotated the head and saw the Nurse Redhearth: she went near Pipsqueak and said

“Alright, little colt, you have appendicitis, and we need to remove part of your organs, but fear not: you will be asleep during the operation”

Pipsqueak still didn't calmed down: who knows if Francis will give it in a excruciating way, or places so much tranquillizer that he could not move anymore after the operation.. the outcome could be limitless...

Few moments later, Francis showed himself : he wasn't so scary at a first look, but never judge a book by its cover... Francis spoke up

“Well, Pipsqueak, it's time to sleep: hold still for a moment and I will give you the anesthetic by needle”

Pipsqueak widened his eyes and tried to run away in fear, but failed and he was hold still by Nurse Redhearht,  Pipsqueak said :

“Tu quoque Ruberam Cordem, amice mihi?” , before starting to slowly relax and finally sleep....

Francis's perspective

“So, Nurse, where is my dose of chem?”

“Here Francis: take it and move on!”

Francis took in his arms Pipsqueak and placed him on the operation bed carefully, then he took the scalpel and..

“Not too  fast, Francis, I need to give...” the mind stalkers where interrupted by a riding army, who pushed back the split personality, the stalkers tried many times to overcome, but they badly failed.

Francis opened the foal's body and looked for the part to remove, but he could not remove it it: clearly, the pony's anatomy wasn't identical to the human one, but the last thing that wanted to find out was that the appendix was the 50% of the intestine, at first he panicked, until, while cutting it in random places, found out that the damaged part was recognizable because was colored by a sick green... Francis quickly moved to cut it out, before he heard a yawn : Pipsqueak was awake!

Francis was surprised, and took by panic, he started to cut off the piece without caring about what Pipsqueak was saying, until he felt a warmth going over his shoulder: he watched what was, and the answer wasn't something of comfortable...

The first muscle that lost its stiffing in the foal's body was the bladder, and the resulting panic caused Pipsqueak  to relax it, with this nefarious effect....

Francis shrugged it off and finished the to close the wound: after all, it happened many times, especially with very scared subjects.

Pipsqueak's perspective

Pipsqueak was terribly embarrassed : he lost the control of the bladder, and peed on the medic, and now he was trembling imagining what would be the punishment for that:

“Would he cut off my bladder? He will cut more of me  What?” , when the Francis's arms embraced him, Pipsqueak reacted with a little kick, who missed the target, then he said

“Please Francis... don't hurt me.. it was an accident...”, the answer shocked him

“Aahah, do you really think that I will bother for that little accident? It is common, especially between scared foals, but I must say that you stood quite calm when you awoke: you have impressed me, really”

Pipsqueak smiled of joy and thanked Francis for the compliment.

Dirty Tiara and Wrong Mixes

Nurse Redhearth House, early evening

Francis was returning at home after the end of the turn and for having lunch: while he was eating, Redhearth showed up, sat down and said

“So, Francis, did the chem worked? “

“Of course yes ! You didn't saw how not only he wasn't crying or anything, but he was HAPPY ?

Anyway, did someone bothered you with that silly questions about your life with me? ”

“Yes... unlucky, they are so annoying : I mean, I became famous for THIS?”

Francis laughed

“Now I'm waiting the gossip in response  to this radio silence about our relationship: it will be bloody hilarious”

“Yes, I already imagine it: “Nurse Redhearth sleeps with the human! New creature incoming?” or “The sweat of the humans could cure everything?””, Redhearth laughed.

Some time later, Francis was searching something to eat in the Redhearth's fridge, but didn't found anything of edible: hay and parasitic grass where everywhere, there weren't anything that Francis could eat, not even a vegetable, thus used again part of his K ration and wrote on a piece of paper :

“Buy some mushrooms and carrots: I cannot eat the grass”; then he went to bed, before noticing a piece of paper over the closet...

Francis grapped it and saw what was: it was a text, it said :

“Due the fact that the active principle of the medicament is almost illegal, the supplies of that mix   of pharmas will be limited and scarce: for now, we will use a cheaper and more legal mix.

Your savior Nurse Redhearth”

Francis let down the paper shocked : the active principle without side effects for stop psychopaths was illegal, and that was needed it for stop him, he started to worry, until he remembered that there was still a stock in the basement, thus he relaxed, changed his clothes, launched over the bed and had a hard sleep.

The Next Day, on the streets of Ponyville

Applebloom was hanging around the town with one of her leg strapped to the body : after the cruelty act of Francis, she was forced to limping for a month with one of her leg unusable.

To add the insult to the injury, Pipsqueak, who passed under the scalpel of the human the day before, said that what she told wasn't true, at all; and Applebloom feared for her reputation.

Appelbloom started to argue about the topic :

“So, you are telling me that he isn't a blood lust freak, but a kind creature? Are you sure that he didn't took off part of your brain ?”

“Of course! He didn't punished me for having peed on his shoulder...”

“Maybe because it's a fear reaction, and know that needs to dirty his hands for gain the  emotion of the fear ? “

“It can be, but... he  was nice with me! I mean, if Francis is a monster, then he would not rewarded me for begin brave! I mean...”

“Something tells me that Francis has preferences... I want to find out why there were so different behaviors between my operation and yours... “

“How about coming with me this afternoon to see his explanation? It might be interesting !”

“I would decline in a normal circumstances, but I am too much curious for do so”, then Applebloom headed for her usual friends, and started to organize their routine for today, this included the arrival of all the three at the clinic after having another round-up at the clubhouse.

In Clinic, Early Afternoon

Francis was very busy : between a mare who seemed the pony counterpart of the mother with the  Transferred Munchhausen Syndrome met two days before and clusters of hyperactive foals who were almost unstoppable and stuffs like that, he didn't even heard the door knocking.

Francis ignored the knock, until, annoyed, he opened the door: all expected but see the waiting room void and Appelbloom, Pipsqueak and other two fillies in front of him.

Francis asked “What do you desire from me? And how did you drove off that horde ?”

Pipsqueak said “Nothing of special: just telling them that you were busy elsewhere and thus they needed to go to Nurse Redhearth instead.

Anyway, we came here for asking some questions...”

“You took me in the worst moment: could not you came later ? Anyway, speak up”

“Well, it's about your difference of handling between Appelbloom and me: she told me that she was operated awake and opened everywhere on the body: care to explain why?”

Francis sighed: it was the moment to tell them why he wanted to cut open the young lings.

He cleared his throat and said

“The reason: it's hard to tell. In short, I have two different behaviors: one is the one that you seeing : sane and kind, this personality is the default one; but when I am in a medical context with foals involved, then my second personality shows up: it's sadistic, rude and very snitch.

I didn't lost my medical license mostly because I had a special kind of medicines stopping me to act in a bad way and had the logic as backup for my sane part; but here, a dream, my logic falls, and only the primitive emotions stands against the split personality and no medicines were available.

When I operated Applebloom, my split personality was on, and, as you know, damaged her.

When I operated Pipsqueak, I took a mix of chemicals replicating the effects of the “medicines”, thus, stopping me from hurting.”

“It's just unfair! For a mix of chem, I almost lost a leg!”said Applebloom with an angry tone

“You would be still hanging around with a leg strapped to your body anyway, but you would not need to change the bends over the chest. Plus, I'm really sorry for what I have done to you, Applebloom”

Applebloom said nothing about it, and went away angry, saying

“See you later....”

Francis said “I guess that's concludes our talking: now let me go back to work”, the group went away without protesting.

Two weeks later, Clinic's Radiology Waiting room

Diamond Tiara was shocked by the news coming that day: from the results of the x-rays took , the reason behind her... “wet secret” and her smell in the last days, was quite.. weird : she had the most of her intestine full of poo, and this caused a compression of her bladder, who could not keep in the urine, whatever was the condition....

The whole thing alone was embarrassing, but the cause was even more, luckily, no one was going to know it: in the same day she was going to have the “brown rock” extracted from his intestine and free to return to her usual hybris.

Nurse Redhearht went near her and said :

“A sphincter of steel, uhu? Pity that damaged your bladder, don't worry, thought: the mass will be extracted soon”

Then some steps where heard: they didn't seemed a pony walking... they seemed more a walk of a two-legged creature, Diamond Tiara rotated her head, and saw who was : he was Francis, topic of discussion in the pas days by the other classmates: he didn't seemed so much terrifying, nor seemed even a medic!

Diamond Tiara grinned a bit before saying :

“I hope you rember the duty of profession secret: I don't want to tell you what could happen to you if you broke it...”

“I already know, now, before we start...”

Francis's Perspective

“I need to drink something”, Francis asked for the glass of medicines, drunk it and...

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He felt a cold in his in mind, he let the glass shatter on the floor  and heard the mind stalkers : their voice wasn't anymore low and scratching... no, it was loud and terrifying.

“Thanks a lot Francis, you have empowered me....” they said

“What? How?”

“Nurse Redhearth gave you the same drugs taken by the viking berserk, and that powered me!”

“No! It cannot be real ! It cannot be real!”: that were the last words of his logical part before falling in the shadows.

Francis asked to Nurse Redhearth “What composition is this ? It powered up my split personality! I cannot..stop...”, then Francis launched over Diamond Tiara and throw her on the operation bed.

The mind stalkers didn't even asked kindly to do something like before: they simply acted without any permission by his sane part.

The stalkers talked “Now, Miss Crap Tiara, I will saw through your flesh!”

The hand took a scalpel, and charged the lower  torso of Diamond Tiara, for then open it horizontally: she screamed of pain and kicked left and right around the air, in hope to stop him, but in vain.

The next thing that the split personality did was taking eight needle and placing them in the spaces between the fingers, for then jumping over the filly: she tried to crawl away, but she wasn't enough fast, and mind stalkers managed to some drain blood and part of the poo: the whole thing was disgusting for the sane part, but he could not act, and he was forced to see how his split personality was spending its time.

The action of the needles kept going for ten minutes, then the mind stalkers, bored, took a scalpel and said :

“I don't think that you need that white thread connected to the bladder...”, then it cut out the nerve, causing a massive backlash of pain on Diamond Tiara, who was crying like a little baby.

“And that, and this! And this one too!”: every sentence was a thread cut, until nothing controlled anymore the bladder, at that point, a river of urine united with blood went everywhere in the room.

As final act, the split personality said “And now the grand finale.... did you pooped in the last days? No? Then I need to CUT IT!”, and the mind stalkers passed the scalpel in the sphincter, and did a vertically cut all along it: at that point, the sane part closed his eyes and tried to forgot what was going on. The only thing that remembered was the split personality cutting all over the filly's body.

When finally the mix wore down, what was left was a disaster: Diamond Tiara seemed a mass of grinded meat, body fluids of every kind flooded the floor and Francis looked like a butcher.

Francis, again sane, took thread and needle and patiently stitched up Diamond Tiara, who groaned of pain at every point made.

When he placed the last bend around her, she stood crying desperately, thus, no contact was possible, so Francis simply picked her up.

When he exited from the operation room, Francis let down Diamond Tiara, and said to the father :

“I'm sorry, but due... complications, your daughter now is incontinent and needs to wear diapers, day and night: I hope that  you could handle such a situation. Dr. Francis close report”

Then he left the room quick as possible for changing his clothes.

Some time later, in the Nurse Redhearth's house, Francis asked :

“Alright, Redhearht, I know that wasn't your fault, but...can you please explain me how you could take the chemical with THE OPPOSITE EFFECT?”

“I'm sorry Francis, but that was the economic system...”

Francis widened his eyes in surprise and said “De La Fia ! Change part of the composition, and you will have a radical change of effect.”

“I see"

"By the way, where you got that? What was the composition of the effective mix?”

“I don't rember very well, but surely we cannot gain the elements.”

“Alright...”, Francis shook his head, prepared his spartan dinner and went to bed with sense of guilty for what he done in the afternoon.

At the Elementary School, the next day

Diamond Tiara could not believe it : she, the finest filly of Ponyville, forced to wear diapers like a one year old filly, non-stop, IN FRONT OF OTHERS.

She tried to wear a long dress for hide it, but failed: the father didn't hesitated to give to the teacher the change in front of everyone, IN A TRANSPARENT SACK !

What was in was recognizable by everyone: a big pack of diapers, labeled unmercifully “Frilly Diapers”.

The rage against her father of Diamond Tiara was so big that she messed herself without even noticing.

When she did so, someone pointed out the smell, and everyone watched Diamond Tiara, then they started to call her names, like “filthy rich and diapered” and “money pooer”.

Fed up by the behavior of everyone and desperate to an incredible degree, Diamond Tiara tore off the diaper and launched it over the crow: the act of desperation wasn't watched well by both her father and the teacher.

Then Diamond Tiara broke off in an inharmonious chant, loosely based on “Fortuna Pango Vulnera” :

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“I was once the respected

the nine piece of this classmates

But when a mad men

cut off

my control of my sphincter

And I started to wore diapers

I fall

But, blank flanks and poor over me

beware from the fall

because in the luck's wheel

on the axis is wrote

“Hecubam Reina!”

The singing didn't stopped the teacher from expelling her from the class, but at least she let the wrath steam pass through.

The same day, Nurse Redhearth's house

Francis felt incredibly annoyed and more snitch than the normal: the chemical mix took the day before forced his mind a state of total incoscience about his acts, and thus, damaging in a unfix-able way the life of a young ling; Francis thought that he could do something for avoid it, but he didn't know what he could POSSIBILY do for avoid that damage: he felt simply in the mood for blaming himself.

Around midday, someone knocked the door of the house: Francis said

“Who is?”

“I am Filthy Rich, father of Diamond Tiara, and wants to discuss about the events of yesterday...”

“Go on”, Filthy Rich entered in the house with a look of superiority, who caused repulsion to Francis.

The stallion said “I hope you have a good lawyer, because I will sue against you”

“For what? Attempted foalcide under effects of hallucinatory substances? Do you know that the chemical mix who caused the breakdown was made of TOTALLY LEGAL SUBSTANCES?”

“Yes: you still tried to kill her, if it wasn't for Nurse Redhearth...”

“You are wrong, sir : the mix caused a berserk, I cutted her everywhere without control, then it wore off and could act normally: that's how happened”

“My daughter says the opposite”

“The fillies and the foals can construct a fake memory, if you ask them frequently the same thing, and it's the case of your daughter”

“It isn't the truth! My little jewel is honest, how dare you say that she is a liar?”

“I'm not saying that she is a liar: I'm saying that you should take the info carefully.”

“And still that doesn’t justify your acts: we will see soon!”

“Yes, in tribunal, with your pride in a body bag”, the last phrase seemed the soft part of the stallion, who said

“HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT? DO YOU WITH YOUR ARE DEALING WITH?”

“No, and honestly, I don't care”

“PITIFUL ALIEN! YOU CAME HERE TO HUNT DOWN EVERY YOUNLING HERE AND SHAPING IT AS YOU LIKE!”

“Or maybe I am your karma punishment: you are so pride that a cosmic force said “Enough” and sent me to humiliate you and your daughter with a painful and embarrassing problem”

“BETTER BE PRIDE THAN A SADISTIC  BEGIN !”

“If you grew with the blind, you will be blind, and so, in a world where everyone is, to some degree, sadistic , you begin one”

“You didn't justified! You are just worsening your situation!”

“Funny thing: I'm classified as “Borderline insane”, guess what does it means...”

“Nothing!”

“Nope, it means that it will be a lower punishment than the one received by a sane one doing the same thing.”

“You are playing with the fire.. be careful to do not take a burn...”

“Well, good luck trying to execute me for doing something to your daughter....”, Filthy Rich went away smashing the door: in the process, two pieces of wall fall down.

Some time later, Nurse Redhearht returned from the turn, and asked to Francis why two pieces of wall were missing, and Francis explained the whole conversation with Filthy Rich, when he finished, Redhearth said :

“I knew it: if you touch Diamond Tiara, her father will try to execute you in every possible way.”

“I see, anyway, any news about the medicines ?”

“Yes, a new chem mix had been found: this time is more powerful, thus no mental breakdown if taken.”

Francis nodded and went in the kitchen for doing some tea.

Meanwhile, out the Elementary School

“Hey, now how does it feels begin the target instead of the executioner, money pooer ?” said Applebloom to Diamond Tiara, who tasted her own medicine that morning.

The pink diapered filly answered

“You won't say the same thing if you had passed through what I passed !”

“I passed that experience, and it wasn't pleasant, but I can tell one thing for sure: you deserved it: your past deeds and pride sent you to this fate: a slow, painful moral death.”

“Well, I guess that he gave you anesthetic, like every medic does with a blank flank”

“Nope Diamond: I was fully awake, and felt the pain in all its power.”

“Are you sure that pain wasn't when Francis gave you the tranquilizer? I know that you are soo terrified by the needles that you could exaggerated the pain caused to a needle to incredible degrees.”

“Diamond, stop begin proud of yourself and accept defeat: you lost your status of sacred cow and you fell in the “common people” mud “

“I'm not still part of the ο πολλοί !”

“The what?”

Diamond Tiara sneezed of pride and said

“Something of too much refined for you...”, before, ironically, wetting herself.

Ten minutes later, Diamond Tiara returned home, still angry for the events of that day, she ran in her room and sat down on her bed and rated about how the last events were unfair to her eyes :

“Francis... damn you... you damaged me...for no reason at.. no reason.. at.... all”

The rating continued for a long time, until the father come in and said

“What's the problem, jewel? Are you in anger for that mean doctor ?”

“Yes! It's not fair! A worthless filly wasn't hurt at all, while I need to pass under this humiliaton !”

“Don't worry, soon he will pay for his deeds”

“How ? I mean....”

“I will use a cause against him: he will lose the possbility of act as medic for the rest of his days...”

“That's a relief...”, she sighed.

The Dream of Fly

Three Days later, Nurse Redhearth's house

“So, Redhearth, do you have already took my Certificate of  Insanity ? I know that sooner or later that proud stallion will try to skin me, and the last thing that I want to do is lost my medical license for THAT, plus, I'd like to avoid further problems about that”

“Don't worry, I have it right here, now, as advice for who wants your service and unaware of your condition, I will copy it and place it on the door of the clinic.”

“Seems a good idea, alright, see you later”, Francis took his trench and exited from his home.

In the afternoon, after a normal routine of check ups, Francis peeped over the waiting room, seeing Scootaloo lying down with some tears on her face, Francis went near she and asked :

“What's the deal Scootaloo ?”

The orange filly high ed her head and said with a very sad voice :

“They told me that I will never fly... because my wings are affected by dwarfism... so I came here in hope that you could fix that...”

Francis widened his eyes, and with sheepish smile said “I don't know if I can help you in this... I can try to contact someone for some artificial wings,  but I doubt that someone does them, otherwise, I'm certain that you will be already flying freely... but if they told you that you have wings dwarfism, well, then let me a week for find a way for implanting working wings, creating them  and I will help you in this”

Scootaloo smiled and said : “Well... thanks”, then she went away.

At night, Francis looked for an anatomy book for get some info about how implant the wings... and how : after all, he wasn't trained for do such things.

After almost an hour  of looking in the Nurse's library, Francis found it out, and looked for the “Wings” section : he read it for hours and tried to memorize the parts of the brain used for moving wings, and, finally found out a solution; now it was only matter of time and mixes to decide the fate of Scootaloo, if a total fail, a painful staus quo or an improvement.

The next day, Francis did a deep search in the clinic about the artificial wings : he looked in the stockpiles, but in vain, so he tried to see if a combination with an artificial leg and some feathers could work, but he quickly realized that was too heavy for let Scootaloo fly : even if a decade passed since the last time, he still remembered how the birds fly, and knew that needed something of light, flexible and yet durable; so Francis took some rubber tubes, placed in them an iron thread, and prepared a small motor for see how it worked: Francis saw that the composition worked, but it was still too much fragile, so he simply took a pen and wrote a note about buying aluminum tubes.

Five days later, trying after trying, Francis finally finished the construction of the artificial wings : they were a bit crude, but they surely worked, and the aesthetics could arrive after : now it was the moment of implanting them.

Francis waited the arrival of Scootaloo, and for the first time, the expression was the one of agitation rather than fear: maybe she was thinking about how she will fly like every other element of her species, maybe she was thinking about she had the guts to undergone under a radical transformation by her own will or God knows what....

Scootaloo's view

Scootaloo was very excised about gaining artificial wings : she was going to fly like every other pegasi, and she was going to show everyone that she had the guts of undergoing this operation.

Scootaloo smiled at Francis and said :“So, Francis, what's the plan ? “

“Well, first, you will be anesthetized on the back, then I will cut off your wings for replacing them, then, when the anesthetic will wore off, I will try to place the artificial wings with various means and in different places, until you can move them”

Scootaloo asked shocked

“What ? I will be awake for the whole operation ?”

“Yes, after all, what I need to do is just cut off your wings without you unwary, after that, I need you awake anyway”.

Scootaloo's mood passed to fear mixed with tense, but then she shrugged it off, thinking about the outcome.

A minute later, Francis returned with a needle, and used it on the filly's flank : Scootaloo didn't felt immediately the back anymore, thus, she was transported by Francis in the operation room.

After she was placed, Scootaloo saw Francis drinking a glass full of a green-red liquid : the medicines! Scootaloo sighed of relief, and laid down slowly.

Some minutes later, Scootaloo watched what was going on her back, and saw that her flesh wings were gone, and instead, two surrogates of wings where there : they looked like to two plastic folders bound toghter with a tube than actual wings, Scootaloo commented :

“Francis, are you sure that this can work ? I mean...”

“I'm certain, now, because you are awake, could you keep your back open a bit ? I can't...”

A snap was heard, and Scootaloo hissed of pain.

Francis said “Now... alright... I place this in the muscle... deep like this... could you try to fly please now ?”

Scootaloo tried, and she saw surprised her : she could fly... but when she tried to land on the four hooves, she could not do it. Scootaloo asked “Is it normal ? Or...”

“CRAP! I fixed a problem and created another one!”

“What are you saying ? Are you meaning that...”

“Wait a minute...” Scootaloo felt the Francis's hands going in the cut and painfully placing some pieces of the back... then Scootaloo could stand up : barely, but she could.

“Now, I guess that I broke accidentally your spine : I managed to fix it partially, but it seems that it didn't improved a lot...”

Scootaloo said “Well, it's fine for me: now please close the cut”, and so Francis started to close it up...

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and when he finished, Scootaloo tried to fly away: when she saw that it wasn't an illusion, she started to cry of joy : now she could emulate her idol, and with iron wings, no less.

Three Days later, Scootaloo showed to the world her new wings : not anymore the two unuseful dwarfen limbs of flesh on the back, but two steel plates, strong enough for lift  her  and still  enough light.

When Scootaloo flew for the first time in front of everyone, no one could belive it : in three days her wings grew more than in her six years of life, and was surely quite fast : she seemed finally ready for begin accepted by her birds of feather.

The Death won't touch the spirit

Four Days later, in the Clinic.

Francis had reached the balance : he wasn't anymore attacked by that pesky stalkers, and his experiment on Scootaloo polished his reputation among the community : he was considered now a “Crazy Doc”, not a full-made psycho.

The situation seemed going forever, and Francis though that, after all, living in the dream wasn't bad,  so he didn't looked anymore for a solution for getting off, but soon the situation was going to change : meanwhile he was playing around with a pen, the emergency bell rang : Francis  dashed to the door, and saw who rang the bell : a light blue mare with a conical mane who was carrying a very little baby : the aforementioned baby was crying desperately, and his lip was badly bleeding.

In Francis's mind, the memoir of him suffering the same pain as the patient passed in his mind : him, as 1-year old, trying to follow his mother, only to fall, and lost awareness, and waking up in the Operation room, and seeing the ( at the time) scary faces of the surgeons, and losing again consciousness.

The Mind Stalkers screamed “YES ! The Cycle is going to start !”

“What cycle ?”

“You will eradicate that disturbing memoir and me... only by doing a similar thing to him !”

“But he will have my same mind problems !”

“In fact, I will only move from your mind to his”

“Monster ! You have no idea about how much hate you, and, honestly, thinking about the result of my action by your command makes me sick”

“It's bound to happen... you can't escape the Fate, as him cannot flee from the knife”

“Because I didn't tried to break the chains... you will see, freak, and trust in me, it's going to suck for you”

“Keep talking, weakling, you won't go anywhere”

That said, the Mind Stalkers vanished.

Francis returned to the situation, and asked :

“Alright, madam, what happened ?”

The mare talked with a trembling voice :

“My son fall on a iron spike... and the spike cut his lip. I tried to get off the spike from his lip, but it seems that worsened the whole thing...”

“Alright... give me some time, I need to take some equipment...”, then Francis ran in the Nurse Redheart's part, and looked for the compassionate mare: he looked in the waiting room; in the true clinic and so on, and finally found her in the underground part of the building.

“Nurse, do we have some strong psychopharmas for me ?”

“Yes... but are you sure the they are needed ? The after-effect is quite grave...”

“I don't care about the effect of running off ! Not only it's an emergency, but my split personality is determined to take over... and the normal psychos surely won't help !”

The white mare hissed of annoy and said :

“Alright, alright, what happened Francis ?”

“The situation is this: a mare has arrived, carrying her son, who is bleeding badly by a lip. The situation is the same that caused to me to get the split personality in the first place, and my mind stalkers, after offering me the freedom in exchange of the sanity of the foal, they decided that will have his blood, no matter what”

Nurse Redhearth lowered her eyes, went in a door labeled “Experiments” and took off a big red-glowing canister.

“This is the X-5HHJK molecule AKA “Bloodstopper” : this molecule stops all the emotive functions for the brain, causing to act like an alexanderpath”

Francis took the canister and spayed some of the molecule in his mouth carelessly, and said :

“Sorry, that was needed, now I must run !” and ran away.

When Francis arrived in the waiting room of the operation room, what he saw  was... weird : the baby wasn't crying anymore, and was playing with is his wound, causing more blood spilling, ignoring the mother that was trying to stop him from playing with the wound.

Francis thought to a hallucination, then remembered that maybe the  adrenaline was already pumped in, so was likely that the patient didn't felt anymore the pain...

Francis swiftly ran on the foal, took him, hooked up to the ECG ( now without a cry of fear by the little one)  and prepared himself to sew up the wound.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=5BRCI-Oqjak]

But, when Francis was going to place the first point of suture, the Mind Stalkers appeared, and their voice was very loud and powerful, they said :

“HERE THE FOAL DESTINED TO START A CYCLE OF PAIN, SOMETHING THAT WILL BE LOOKED UP BY NUMBERLESS PSYCHIATRIST AND NEVER UNDERSTAND, SOMETHING OF GREAT AND POWERFUL !”

The logical part :

“Freaks ! You are coming at the bad time : I'm ready to fight you face to face, and show to the world that I'm not a psycho, but only a man with a troubled past !”

“IT'S NOT TRUE ! YOU ARE ONLY A PITIFUL MEMOIR OF WHEN YOU WERE A STUPID KID THAT BELIVED TO THE FAIRIES ! A VOID SHEEL TO FULL WITH THE GLORIOUS BLOOD !”

“YOU are the empty shell, and you are the shell of a senseless hatred ! You are only a miserable pile of fanatical shit ! A bunch of bad spirits seeking young blood only for call in more ! But I have the weapons now : the emotions where my biggest problem in pest battles, but now I have a new ally : Bloodstopper, and soon I will operate without any emotion, only moved by the proportionality and the sense of duty !”

The ECG beeping was growing stronger and stronger, fastening the Francis's heart.

“Fool ! Your hubris will soon kill an innocent life ! He can keep living, if you decide to obey to me ! Choose : death or scarred life ?”

“Keep talking, so Bloodstopper will trash you”, and so it was : a otherworldly voice said :

“Bloodstopper stops weak emotions ! Bloodstopper kills mean  shadows !” and the Stalkers screamed of pain.

When Francis finally exited form the mental argument and took a look to the situation, he saw that all was on the edge : the blood was everywhere, the ECG beeped very fast and the baby was, naturally, crying.

Francis, now moved by Bloodstopper, started to sew slowly the lips, calming down the foal, who ignored the pain in his lips for watched the needle going in his flesh : when Francis finished, the foal clapped his hooves... and took with the magic the needle

“Don't !” said Francis to the foal: he tried to retake the needle, but the unicorn  reacted with an outburst that made Francis fall: nothing happened to Francis, but surely the foals wasn't going to do something safe with the needle... Francis got up, and saw  what was going on : the foal had placed the needle in the stomach, and he was, predictably, crying : in a normal situation, Francis was going to get off the needle and petting the foal, but because Bloodstopper caused the total annihilation of every emotion for twenty minutes, he simply got off the needle and took the baby in his arms, and when he reached the door, the foal launched the needle in the Francis's shoulder : the needle didn't damaged anything of important, but the pain was enough to make him drop the patient : the foal fall, and Francis could not do anything but watch him fall, only for then see if he was okay.

When the foal reached the ground, Francis went down to the floor, and tried to check if he was okay.. only to see that the effect of Bloodstopper ran out and see a blinding light,  hearing a voice saying :

“Congratulations, Francis, you have defeated your worst enemy.

What you saw wasn't a dream : it was another dimension altogether: I launched you in this dimension with a logic different from ours for see how you were going to react, and you amazed me : not only you stood sane when it was needed, you were a karmic regulator for that town, and, judging by what your patients say, you aren't scary in your methods , at difference from how you are considered on Earth.

But everything has a price : that foal died soon after your disappearing, but that didn't tarnished your reputation : they instead thought that the foal was too pure for that sinful life.”

Francis then woke up in his bed, with the clock saying “6 a.m.” : he got up, and saw something of strange on his night table...

“This is our gratitude” : a little album with the photos of the fillies and the foals encountered in his trip in that land.

Francis smiled, dressed up, and chose to keep that photos in his office, remembering the time when he was a legend among the underage ills and wounded.

At the Ponyville Cemetery

Youtube Video

The day was bright in terms of light, jarring with the events of the last few days in the Cakes family : Pound Cake died falling from the arms of Francis Da Prato, the only available surgeon that day : Nurse Redheart saw him disappearing while carrying the foal, but no one believed in her, and the majority thought that was an accident happened in the operation room, something along the lines “the surgeon tripped while carrying the foal, and the weight of the surgeon suffocated the foal”.

For the first time in years, Pinkie Pie was “sad” for the loss, but, considering her nature, it was likely that a sober funerary banquet was planned that day, and on the Pinkie's face there was still a weak smile.

Ms. Cakes was desperately crying, and Mr. Cakes was absent because he wanted to “explain” to Pumpkin Cake what happened to he brother, even if it was likely that Pumpkin cake wasn't going to understand the whole situation.

Pinkie Pie placed on of her hoof on the Ms. Cakes, and the pink pony said :

“He is gone... but this is the desire of the Fate... and nothing would reverse that... and the Fate was cruel enough to take him in his Life Spring... but at least it left him enough time to show to the world his personality : his joy de vivrue, his...”

“Enough, Pinkie... it was my fault for not begin enough careful... not enough protective...” when this words were said, a letter  flew in front of Ms. Cake : the letter had the CMC symbol on it, and on it it was wrote :

“For Ms. Cake”

Ms. Cake opened it, and read what was written in it :

“This is my last message, before I will left this place.

I, Francis Da Prato, killed accidentally killed Pound Cake after getting too much psychopharmas.

I'm certain that you are now crying on his tomb, sowing your grief for his death and thinking about the Fate that gives and take off things. The truth ? His death wasn't wanted by the Fate : I severed the chains of Fate, and stopped an endless cycle of blood and pain.

The explanation is simple, lady : my madness saw that the Pound's situation was eerily familiar to the one experienced by me when I had his age; and the split personality wanted his blood for creating a cycle who saw him cutting open other foals once adult, causing more disturbs in the foals and so on... that was wanted by the Fate, because my split personality has a link with the future.

But I didn't gave up, and decided to risk : I took a powerful medicine, and operated in safety.

But when he launched at me a needle, I lost the control of my arms, and dropped him : I was going to save him, but something sucked me off from here, and carried me back home.

I apologize for my act, but I hope that you understand that he didn' died for nothing.

Your Mad Medic.

Francis Da Prato”

Ms. Cake watched the letter, and her heart laughed : the death of his son wasn't totally a waste, a unuseful death, but a noble death for a cause.

I used to be a filly like you... (Executioner)

In the Clinic

Nurse Redhearth was carefully placing Applebloom on the clinic's bed: the situation seemed at first the usual exaggerated scratch took by the three fillies while they did tree climbing, thought from what Applebloom told, it wasn't, because the knee was painful to move, and the creature who called itself “Medic” seemed to agree.

“So, Applebloom, are you sure that you cannot move your knee ? I Don't want to trigger a fake alarm”

“Yes.... is it true that while I will be operated, I will be awake?”

“Who told you such a thing? Of course not! The anesthetic will be there!”

“But..but..”

“But what?”

“The human told me so... and his face was too much serious to be joking at the bad time...”

“Well, it's oblivious that it told a lie.”

Applebloom sighed of relied, but it lasted for few seconds: from the backdoor, the human returned, this time it headed for the Nurse Redhearth :

“Alright, nurse, keep calm and listen to me : from what I could tell on the site of the incident, the knee had its sinew, but I didn't had any tool better at hand: could you please find one for me?”

Redhearth gasped, then,  regaining equilibrium, said

“Who are you to tell this things? Telling that you are a medic doesn’t make you so...”

“Alright...”

The creature opened one of its baggages and showed a piece of parchment: it attested that “Francis Da Prato”, that was the human's name, had gained the degree in Medicine, specialization “Pediatria”, and that was allowed to practice the medical profession.

The nurse watched it with a doubtful look before giving up, and saying

“Oh, well, even if I never heard about “Università di Roma”, all seems legit.

Now, back to our primary topic : I will find one, but what you will do?”

The Francis's eyes shone

“The possible operation...”

Ten minutes later

Francis looked for a closet where place its clothes and put on the operator y mask, the lab coat and the shoe covers: after looking for a long time, he found it behind the former operation room: he took off his field jacket, a Cold War soviet residuary: it cost many euros when he bought it, but the cost was worthy: after all, it gave to his already big figure a more authoritative look and it was warm and comfortable.

Then he looked for a shoe cover, but didn't found anything that fir to his boots, thus, Francis searched in one of the baggages a pair of rubber hospital  clogs, but didn't found it; frustrated, he simply took two shoe covers and applied it on his bare foot: not too much comfortable, but better than nothing.

When he was ready, Francis went outside the room and called for Applebloom : she was wearing a patient coat and she had a scared look on her little face.

His mind stalkers hissed of pleasure “Oooh, what a leisurely see! A scared filly who will suffer! Wonder what will be the outcome of this...”

Francis sighed, took in his arms Applebloom and waited the worse from his mind.

After a tense silence, the mind stalkers gave the order to take a needle from the metallic dish, and use  the needle for taking some blood without any apparent reason.

Applebloom shrunk for the fear and tried to cover her eyes against Francis, but in vain: the strong arms of him were too much for the filly's body, and the defense was broke.

The needle was placed in the lower torso: in a desperate attempt to stop the maneuver, the hearth of Francis forced a miss from the arm with the needle, but in vain: the syringe hit the lower torso, and started to fill with blood and urine took from the Applebloom's bladder, the filly started to cry, and said with a whiny voice :

“No! No! I prefer to lost the leg ! Please ! Don't hurt me.. don't hurt me....”

“NO!”, then the mind stalkers moved one of the arms to the scalpel, for then starting to open the knee: the soft flesh  on the knee was rip apart, and the bone was showed to the external world: took by the blood lust, the Francis's body, controlled by the split personality, opened with the scalped another cut, this time on the chest, but without pushing too much in: after all, they didn't wanted to kill her.

The show disgusted the sane part of Francis: the hearth was beating at an incredible rate IN FRONT OF HIS EYES, the lungs inhaled and exhaled air very fast and the intestine was a terrifying mess strolling around the cut.

Applebloom broke down in a right cry : she screamed

“WHY? WHY FRANCIS ? WHY ? I THOUGTH THAT WAS A SIMPLE OPERATION ! CLOSE ME! CLOSE ME! LET ME GO HOME! LET ME GO!”

The sane part could not stand anymore: it overcome the mind stalkers and took the needle and the thread fast, and said

“It wasn't my fault! Hold on, you will be out of here, just don't..”, he could not end the phrase that Applebloom tried to crawl away, damaging her organs, in a desperate attempt to escape from him.

Francis could not stand this, and took from her back, hold her down, placed the organs in again and sewed the chest cut with a fast pace.

"Doc.... It hurts... help...." Said Applebloom sobbing.

"It wasn't my fault, now keep calm and relax: it will hurt less."

"Ok...", then she returned in her sobbing

The operation passed then to the whole reason : the sinews.

Francis took the extremities of the broken sinews and united it with the thread, then he closed the cut, placed a series of bandages and said

“It's done, you can go”, but Applebloom didn't moved, instead, she stood still on the bed, with her eyes wet of fear and trembling.

Took from pity, Francis took her in his arms and tried to calm her down

“Calm down, it's finished, it's all finished" said with a smooth voice, then he felt the Applebloom's hooves around his neck: he took it for an hug and smiled.