I really need to calm down. My brain feels a little too warm as if I didn't calm down soon, that warmth will start a fire. I just wondered through the maze-like halls, I didn't care if I was completely lost or not. In fact, I lost track what time it was. But the only thing I cared about was calming myself-
“Julius?”
Down. I looked to my left to a room with an open door. Though it, I saw a very familiar face. “You seemed stressed,” she says. “You wanna come in? My door is always open to you.” I blinked a few times. N-No. I’m having another hallucination again. She can’t be here.
I reached into my pockets to grab out the bottle, “Julius? Are you okay?” She asked getting up from her chair.
“No, of course, I’m not okay,” I muttered. “Look, can you just not talk to me at the moment Doc, the past hour or so has been driving me off a cliff.”
“Julius, tell me what’s wrong,” she said stepping out of her office. “Is Dr. Mindweave mistreating you again?”
“No. He’s not here, and neither are you.” At this point, I took the cap off and tipped it over for one of the pills to fall out.
“I just want to talk, and something is clearly bothering you.” At this point, she was standing right in front of me. “And even if I’m a hallucination, you know as well as I that talking out your problems does tend to help. I promise, nothing bad will happen, just please, step into my office.”
I looked at her and the pills in my paw, “If you say something bad or something weird happens I’m taking these.”
“Then come inside,” she escorted me into her office. I must say, her office seemed to be just as I had remembered it. Calm walls painted in a soft purple with a few thick windows looking out. Her desk was an antique French table that I think she said survived the Revolution of 1789. On it was a few papers, a cupful of pens, and the little plaque of her name. Doctor Foxwit. There were a few diplomas here and a picture of sunset there. And in a corner of the room near the low bookshelves were her simple chair and a couch big enough to lie on. “Take a seat if you please,” she said to me as she picked up a clipboard.
I myself wasn't too convinced that this is really her office, for all I know, I might be in a janitors’ closet or something. And that chair might not be there, so just to be sure, I snapped my claw for a couch. Nothing happened. So I took a seat.
Foxwit closed the door and went straight to her seat while saying her usual: “So Mr. Disc, would you please tell me what’s on your mind today?”
“Look Ms. Foxwit, everything was going well until things just went downhill recently.”
“What happened?”
“Well, here I am taking a few students on a kind of field trip to someplace where I've only been once before right? That we had a kind of schedule until those three showed up.”
“Who?”
“Those Crusaders, Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo; those three suddenly popped out of nowhere. I thought that we can still do this given this unexpected surprise. I thought that they would be able to be responsible in such a new place, but what did they do? They endangered themselves by setting off enough explosives to take half a Walmart out! Don’t worry; they’re fine thankfully, but… ugh!”
I think I heard a door opening; I looked over to the door to find it still closed, must be nothing then.
“Anyway Doc, I dragged them back home, and not without giving them a good scolding before sending them off. And I just couldn't believe what they've done! I mean, they just endangered themselves and who-knows-how-many-lives for the sake of that little movie of theirs. I mean, these three can accomplish anything that they set their minds to, I know that. But what they did was completely thoughtless.”
“Why do you care for these Crusaders of yours? Are they family?”
“Family? No, I’m not even related to them.”
“Who are ya talkin’ to?” a third voice said.
“Huh?”
“I said,” Dr. Foxwit said. “Then why do you care about these three so much? You care for them as if they were family to you.”
“Well…” I put my hands over my eyes, still not letting go of the pill. “Look, it’s… It’s complicated.”
“I've got time.”
“Sure you've got time, but I don’t know how to explain it.”
“Seriously, who are ya talkin’ to?” I looked around, I’m certain someone else is in the office with us.
“Then explain away, why do you seem to care about them so much?” Foxwit asked.
“Why do I care? Look, for Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, I don’t even know them all too well, to be honest. But Applebloom on the other hand though… She’s just, well, relatable to me.”
“How so?”
“Well, sometime back I had to substitute for a teacher who was sick at the time. Teaching younger kids than I am used to, but I've done it before you know.” She nodded, “Anyway Doc, during lunch, I overheard Applebloom arguing with some rich snobby kid. For the life of me, I can’t remember what her name was from the top of my head, but I remember her making a comment that she seemed to really care for one of her friends, Scootaloo right? Well, then she said a slur that I was unfamiliar with so I had to look it up. And do you know what I found?”
She shook her head, “I can’t remember what the word was exactly, but I remember what it meant, she called Applebloom a slur name meaning lesbian.” For a moment the room went quiet. “And you know Doc, I couldn't care less if she really is or not. I don’t care if her little crush on one of her best friends is genuine or simple puppy love. You know as well as I that I can be very strict when it comes to bullies like that brat because… I know what it’s like to be… different from everyone else.”
“What did you do then?”
“What then? I punished the brat and I had a talk with Applebloom. I told her that if she wanted, I would keep her secret only between us. She thanked me of course. We talked a while until she accidentally asked if I had a family. After I told her that I don’t, that I can’t remember anyone pass the bits and pieces of my mom, she opened up that her parents died when she was just a baby. And… Doc, I don’t expect you to understand this, but, in that moment of sympathy I guess, she became more than a friend to me.”
“Then what is it?” she asked in an unusual southern accent.
“Doc, I don’t expect for me to have kids anytime soon, but to me… Applebloom and her friends became as close to a real family as far as I could remember. They all look up to me as if I was their dad without them calling me that.” I sighed, “Maybe it was because of this that… I don’t want them to get hurt is all.”
“Ah would have done tha same.” I looked up seeing that both Applejacks were in the room.
“That’s it!” I swallowed the pill. I closed my eyes for a moment to wait until the hallucination to go away. Afterward, I opened my eyes to see that I was lying on a couch, but the office gave way to a bedroom with both of the Applejacks standing there.
“How much did you two heard?”
“Jus’ enough,” they both answered.