//------------------------------//
// Chapter 7: Daily Life & Disappointment 
// Story: The Night Janitor 
// by Knox Locke 
//------------------------------//

Pinkie Pie didn't teach any morning classes, so for the past month or so, Knox had been spending his mornings with Pinkie (swiftly dodging any attempts she made to get him to discuss family) and going to Trixie's office in the afternoon for therapy. Life seemed pretty good.

Occasionally, Pinkie would get Knox and some of her other friends together to play a game of extreme Hide & Seek. Pinkie always volunteered to seek first, and the hiders were allowed to hide ANYWHERE. Knox had been paying close attention to which hiding places had impressed Pinkie the most. That unicorn, Rarity, had hidden deep within the gem caves just outside of Ponyville, but Pinkie had still found her. A pegasus named Rainbow Dash had chosen to hide on a cloud high above Ponyville, but she had been found, too (With the help of some balloons, but found nonetheless). An earth pony named Bon Bon played with them once, and she had hidden in the far reaches of the twisted labyrinth that is Granny Smith's wax museum, but Pinkie found her as well.

As the thought of Granny's wax museum entered his mind, Knox tried to shake it off. He used to like going there, but Granny Smith had recently added a new sculpture to the 'Villains of Equestria' wing: a small pegasus filly.

Knox was currently sitting in Trixie's office, having spent that morning with Pinkie and Rainbow Dash. This session started like all the others: Trixie either brags or complains for a while, but Knox had recently noticed that Trixie had a very strange way of slowly yet seamlessly going from a show off, braggart, and all-around obnoxious unicorn to what Knox had since labelled her 'cares-about-others mode,' in which she asked insightful questions that bordered on philosophical, gave halfway-decent advice, and truly LISTENED. Then, she'd make some comment about her being great and/or powerful to remind you who you were talking to, and seamlessly slip back into listening.

Right now, she was almost done with her end-of-session tooting of her own horn, but she stopped for some reason as Knox rose to leave.

"Wait," she said softly, "if you don't mind us running a little over on time, I'd like to ask you one more question."

This wasn't right. She was in cares-about-others mode. Trixie never ends sessions in cares-about-others mode. He silently sat back down and nodded his approval of one more question. He didn't expect the next thing Trixie said to be, "Are you mad at Cozy Glow?"

"What do you mean? Of course I'm mad! I lost my friend!"

"I know that, but that's not what I asked."

She was right. She already knew he was mad. They'd covered that dozens of times. She knew he was furious over the loss of his friend. She was asking if he was mad AT his friend.

He tried to think back on this year of hatred and longing, but he couldn't remember ever actually being mad at Cozy for what she'd done. Upset that she'd done it -- yes. But never angry. The most negative emotion he could even muster towards her was sheer disappointment.

"No," he finally said after several minutes had passed, "I'm not angry. I'm just disappointed."

Trixie laughed a little to Knox's surprise. When she saw his questioning glance, she said "Sorry, it's just that, when you said that, you sounded just like a disapproving father!"

Knox actually grinned at this comment. Way back during their late night talks in the school library, Cozy Glow had often accused him jokingly of talking to her as if he were her father.