Trapped In Canterlot

by TartarusFire

C40 - More Amber Than Before

Thankfully, the guards had not fallen asleep on top of each other, so nothing awkward was to come of it.

The bad news was that for some reason, the kitchen staff were permitted to keep working, but none of the ponies who delivered the food was still staffed during the speech. So, Evershade and Deepsky had woken up a couple hours early, looking for the eight o’clock dinner.

Caedes woke up from her short coma as the waiter brought the dinner carts in. The main dishes were hot, steamed bots of stews and vegetables while there were sautés of fruit and garnished dishes... not to mention the lowest shelf of each cart was covered with desserts.

"Deepsky?"

"I’m not sure I can answer your question if it is.. dirty or related to food."

"Why did we ever want to leave if we get served like this every day?"

"Uhh. Mmm, good question." He decided to call for a third opinion. "Nurse, why did we want to leave again?"

The nondescript nurse called back to them, "Your paid leave only lasts as long as you’re unable to walk about. Which, medically speaking, has run out. Your partner is well enough for a cast, and you are well enough anyway, so yeah. Leave soon before you have to pay your own bills." Her form became darkened and moved backwards without walking as she mentioned paying bills.

"Ah—" A spooked tear formed from Evershade’s eye. "I’m scared."

"Me too buddy, me too." Deepsky comforted by supplying a shoulder rub.

They looked over after their shared moment to find Caedes just staring at the food, with a hoof hovering in front of the cart, which was just out of reach.

"Oh, um, ‘Sky, push that cart next to Caedes. I don’t know why the delivery pony didn’t do it, but there’s like three feet of space between her bed and the food."

"What? Why me?"

"Because you failed earlier." He shot him a ‘you know what I mean’ look.

"Unless..."

"Unless?"

"This is just a ploy to get me away far enough to cheat on your fruit diet?"

"What? No I mean—"

"Really? You’re going to make excuses while a filly is unable to eat? Cold."

"Grrr." Evershade stood up and walked over with a little too much force in his hoofsteps. "Here ya go." The cart made a little squeaking sound. He trotted back even more perturbed. "Satisfied?"

"Mhm. Very."

"Pass me the sauce."

"That’s your third bowl of Eggplant Parmesan. I’m not giving you nay more sauce."

"Why?" Evershade’s pupils expanded disproportionately. "Do you not like me?"

"Ahh, Puppy eyes!" Deepsky faced away. "This is about your diet. Do you or do you not want to lose weight?"

"My health doc said I had six percent body fat.. and most of it is my belly. I’m so out of shape!"

"Don’t flail like that, you’ll hit me. And belly fat? I always thought a little was good. You know, poking a steak versus poking a pillow, am I right?"

He was lost thinking about how steak goes with pillows. "What?"

"You’ve seriously never heard? Wow, you’ve been sheltered. So anyway, this is a secret. Come closer." The scooted together, sharing a secret like school foals. Deepsky lowered his voice, "You know, when we’re little, we’re a bit pudgy for a lot of reasons, but belly fat was always kind of a gray area. My group family liked it for tummy tickles and raspberries. Let me put it this way, poke a tough steak and poke a pillow; which one is softer? Because belly fat is a pillow, it makes tummy tickles and raspberries fun. So don’t give it up, what if the opportunity comes again?"

"Oh, oh OH!" Evershade friendly punched Deepsky, "Dang. Man, that’s really smart. I wish I knew that earlier. I was a little pudgier down there."

"I’m a walking dispenser of violence and hug stuffs!"

"..."

"Don’t stare at me like that. It applies to you too."

A facehoof was the only logical respose.

It had been a nice long dinner. An hour had passed which had started the next shift, revealing both of the night guards’ favourite nurse: Vein.

"Hello every pony, how are you doing?" She gazed around and returned the friendly waves and smiles from the two darkly colored patients. And Caedes was... what was she doing? She just had her head lolled to the side, unmoving from a bowl of food. "Caedes?"

Vein rushed over to Caedes and started taking vitals. "Seems normal, except for the whole, head thing. Breathing, has a pulse, and has apparently jus eaten. Perhaps an food allergy? Crap." She grabbed Caedes in magic and hauled tale to the treatment table in the lobby.

"What’s going on?" Bone Saw looked up from his magazine.

"I think she’s having an allergy attack from something she ate. I think it was some of the stuff in the bowl. Do you know what it is?"

"No clue. I’d say she’s sleeping, but after jostling her like that, it could be any number of things, not just a food allergy. Seems kind of strange to be a food allergy if her usual vitals are normal."

"But I found her like this next to a bowl of food. It seems the most reasonable; occam’s razor."

"Occam’s razor? Really, after everything that’s happened, food is your bet?" Saw started to get snippy; he had not slept very well the previous night or day. "List all the trauma and damage she sustained. Occam’s razor my flank. I’m thinking of—"

A tiny voice carried up from the table. "No..."

"She’s conscious?"

"How. are.. you here?" Caedes couldn’t look up, she gazed at her hooves while prone on her back. "I threw it.. And then you stepped in it, and you..." Shallow breaths followed. "You came in. And then you.. caught the post – under your neck... How are you here?"

The doctor and nurse sort of stared at their patient for a moment. It was as if she was explaining how Vein was.. gored on a bedpost?

"Vein? I think now’s a good time for that psychologist Celestia sent to be let in now."

"Agreed."

Author's Note:

I was writing this and I found that I'm still in the territory between serious and not serious. Well, I guess that's how several of these have been so far.. a few more won't hurt