The Night Janitor

by Knox Locke

Chapter 6: Genuine Interest

In preparation for the next day's therapy session, Knox had elected to go to bed at around the same time he would usually be leaving for work, but he wasn't even partially surprised by the nightmare that woke him less than four hours after he'd finally drifted off to sleep. It was the same nightmare he always had.

Well, here he was, sitting upright on his bed in the dead of night. He wasn't going to fall asleep again, but you probably knew that already. Instead, he floated a random book off of his nearby shelf and began to read.

---

When morning finally came, the suspended janitor clambered out of bed. First, he went to his front door, grabbed the newspaper that lay there, and proceeded to immediately turn around and place it in the nearby recycle bin. He'd done this with every single newspaper he'd received since the one that broke his heart. His next stop was the bathroom. Hey, everypony does it, right? Then he combed his mane, ate an apple, and prepared to leave the house.

It would still be hours before he had his therapy session with Trixie, but he had nothing else to do at home, so he wandered the streets of Ponyville aimlessly until he heard a somewhat familiar voice say, "Hey again, stranger!"

Knox turned around to find himself face to face with an earth pony with a big, poofy mane standing less than a foot away from him.

"Oh," he stammered, suddenly stumbling over his words, "Hi Pinkie Pie."

It was then that he realized she'd just referred to him as 'stranger.' That's right, he hadn't told her his name, had he?

"I'm Knox," he said quickly.

The hours passed by as Pinkie and Knox had a very colorful conversation. He'd hardly gotten a word in edgewise, but he didn't really care. He found something about the way that Pinkie spoke to be utterly entrancing. That's on top of the fact that most ponies would carry a conversation with Knox for around three minutes before they habitually excused themselves for 'that other thing they had to go do.'

He specifically remembered a time less than a month ago when he'd been talking to a group of three fillies. He'd been enjoying the pleasant conversation, but then one of the fillies looked at her front hoof, which had no watch, and said, "Look at the time! I've got to... um... do my homework!"

She looked eagerly over at one of her friends, who quickly said, "Oh, yeah! And I've got to... go to the dentist! Yep! Go. To. The dentist."

Both of them turned anxiously to the last filly. If the schoolfillies hadn't been actively trying to ditch him, he knows for a fact that he would've busted out laughing when the little filly, definitely trying to play off of what the others had said without thinking it through, practically screamed, "I'VE GOTTA DO THE DENTIST!"

Knox was pretty sure the filly had been blushing when her friends ran off with her trailing slightly behind.

Yet here, in the present, was this beautiful pony, currently concluding her thoughts on the latest of seventeen different subjects they'd been discussing. Then she did something that made him want to run screaming again. She asked, "so, what's your family like?"

He frantically looked around, searching for any lifeline that might save him from this quickly sinking ship. He got one when he spotted a clock. "Sorry," he said, "I've got a therapy session in ten minutes."

Then he walked off towards the School of Friendship. He grinned slightly as he realized Pinkie hadn't stopped smiling since their conversation had begun.