unfinished story: Living nightmare


                                            >You rub your temples, unsure if it's a joke or not. Your patient is called Rock Bottom.

                                            >Height: 3'7 foot, weight: 200-ish kilo

                                            >And he's having nightmare issues...

                                            "Riiiiight..."

                                            >Either it's a joke, or you're going to see the fattest dwarf you've ever seen.

                                            >Clearing your throat, you walk down the corridor toward the waiting room and you open the door.

                                            "Mister Rock Bottom?"

                                            >A man over 6 feet tall gets up... So does his pony. You have seen your fair share of patients that thought they were something else, so you're not surprised the secretary wrote 3'7. Now, what is weird is that usually, blind people wear glasses.

                                            >"Alright Rock Bottom, it's the doctor Anonymous, you'll be able to talk about your nightmare issues with him."

                                            >"Ah! The irony of talking about dreams in a dream, man, what a bore..."

                                            >Keeping a straight face, you look at the man.

                                            >"Please Doctor, do something about him, I beg of you..."

                                            >There was a sad resignation in his eyes. You knew the man was able to put his pony down; he had come to term with it. He prepared himself for the worse scenario possible, but he still had that glint of hope in his eyes. He was still ready to try one last time.

                                            >You put a warm smile on your face and wave them to come in. If only it would have been a blind man and his pony, that would have been manageable, but nooooo…

                                            >A horse… Your patient is a fucking horse. You treat humans, not horses! You’re sure that Carl, your superior thought it was funny, but it isn’t. You can’t just… They need Pony psychiatrists, not human ones. Of course, they’re all in Equestria and that man probably wants to keep his pet to compensate for something he lacks…

                                            >You open the door to your office and invite them to sit. They both sit on a chair. The master looks at you worried and the pony doesn’t even seem to care. You shrug. However, it tells a lot about the relationship. The guy is not the one in power or he doesn’t want his relationship to be based on it.

                                            >”Hey, I bet if I throw myself out of the window, I can fly!" Says the Earth pony before trying to jump down 17 floors. Luckily, the man pulled his halter up, forcing him to rear, preventing him from galloping toward your office's windows. Although it would have solved many problems, it wouldn’t be good for your reputation.

                                            >He glares dagger at his owner before sitting down on his haunches, on the ground and looking away. “Whatever…”

                                            “So, Rock Bottom, how are you going?”

                                            >“Feeling like I’m in a nightmare…”

                                            “And how would you define *a nightmare*?”

                                            >He turns his gaze toward you with a hint of malice in his eyes. "The nice thing about nightmares is that you eventually wake up from them. Horrible things happen in nightmares, you can die, you can be tortured, you can have bugs crawling under your skin or parasites coming out of your pores... However, the relief you feel when you wake up, sweating like a pig under your blankets, is a real bliss to have. You are back in reality, and everything that happened to you was but a bad dream...

                                            >"In my case, my reality is Equestria, I am with my friends, laughing, smiling, happy; we sometimes even share some cider after a long day of work. We talk about everything, and we talk about nothing. It doesn't matter what we're talking about, just being with one another is enough.

                                            >"But suddenly, the nightmare surprises me and here I am; in your office, beaten, bruised, a collar around my neck, famished and all alone. Stripped of my Pony dignity. Every night, it's the same dream, I have to smile for a weird monkey, I have to smile, and I have to work every day until I taste blood in my dried mouth. I have to bend over when ordered to, and the only things I can do are gritting my teeth and moving my tail out of the way..."

                                            >He rolls his eyes. “At least, that weird one hasn’t laid a hand on me yet. He tries to be all friendly with me like I’m his pal or something, but Silver Oak told me that it was just me getting used to these nightmares, that it’s just my brain trying to tell me that it’s okay to submit to humans, heh, as if… Naaaaan, I’m not going to let my guard down. So come on, DO YOUR WORST!” He shouts, extending his forelegs in the air, gritting his teeth, frowning, showing extreme hostility.

                                            >The man had been wringing his hands up until now. When your gazes meet, he lifts is hands in the air and shakes his head, claiming he did nothing.

                                            >The pony sighs, looks out the window and continues. "Nightmares can be so horrible sometimes, I am so glad it's all really just in my imagination... Tomorrow, Silver Oak told me we are going to have some cake with the herd; strawberry, my favorite, I cannot wait."

                                            >You think you got the gist of the situation… Carl is so going to get it once your shift ends, since you’re probably going to have to get the man to understand that having a pony is per se a really bad substitute for human interactions. You take a pen out of your pen mug and your notepad before getting comfortable on your chair.

                                            “So, do you remember when those nightmares appeared for the first time…?”