//------------------------------// // Refreshing // Story: Madness // by Mochas Dungeon //------------------------------//         Star woke up to the warm smile of Mind over him. “Miss Jewel, were you watching me sleep?” he said before a yawn.         “No, I just got here.  You didn’t answer so I let myself in and was about to wake you.  You’re really cute when you sleep.”         “Thanks, you too.  Wait, that wasn’t right,” he said as she giggled into her hoof, “I mean you’re cute, not about the sleep thing.”         He rolled to his belly then forced himself up.           “Well, it’s dinner time and I was thinking of going somewhere out.  Not that I don’t appreciate the food here, but there’s a metropolis and I’d like to show you a real meal and maybe a walk through a park.”         “Oh,” he blushed slightly and pawed the floor, “I don’t actually have any bits on me.  I save them for when I retire.”         “Star, you do know it’s traditional for the mare to pay, right?” she said tapping the floor between them to get his attention.         “Well, yes, however I was raised by stallions who were big into stallionism.”         “Stallion rights activists?  That’s rare, and now you think you have to pay?  Fine, let’s go Northern Prench and each pay for… oh yeah, no bits.  Let’s compromise,” she offered gesturing for him to go first, “I’ll pay this time, you pay before you leave, that way it’s more of a debt than a date.”         “A date?” he said stopping suddenly and gasping as she bumped into his flank with a gasp. “I didn’t think of this as a date, oh my.  Um, is everything okay?” he asked looking back to her.         “Y-yeah, just bumped your cutie mark, you’re fine, right?”         “Yes, Jewel, I’m great.  A lot of ponies have been looking at my flank lately, is there something wrong with my-”         “We’d better hurry,” she interjected, “it’s already getting to be busy time and I have a couple places in mind that’ll fill up quickly,” she said hurriedly taking a fast trot ahead of him.         With a warm smile that turned to a grin he followed her as they made their way to the front; a cart was ready and hitched to a mule for their transport.         The meal was hot and fresh, the best meal he’d had in recent memory.  The walk through the park was the perfect evening.  He forgot about all of his problems as they meandered through around a lake in the park         “Miss Jewel, you’re the most refreshing creature I’ve seen in decades.  Outside my work, all I do is sleep and prepare for the next assignment.  The ministry keeps us so busy, the traveling psychiatrists.”         “Oh, they have those now?”         “What?” Star asked looking to the mare who’d pursed her lips and was walking ahead like an automoton. “Are you alright?”         She nodded and blinked several times before she broke the silence. “I’m sorry, Doctor Star, I’ve been thinking a lot and, I just find your methods to be amazing.  How can you get them to open up so well?”         “Ah, well,” he started as she exhaled a breath of relief, “I just look at their files and put myself into their shoes.  How, exactly, would I react under their circumstances?  What would I feel?  What would I do, and most importantly, who I’d want to tell it to.  I simply become the pony that they want me talk to.”         “Well, it’s unorthodox but it works.  Perhaps you can submit a study to the journal?”                  “You know I’ve tried, but they always send my clinical reports back citing author discrepancies,” he snorted in frustration, “what am I missing?  Why do they treat me like an inexperienced fool when I’ve dedicated a career and my life to helping ponies?”         “Please, calm down,” Mind said softly stopping and looking at him.  Her horn alit and he felt a tug on his tail, stopping him.  He looked back to her with a bit of frustration before he saw a certain smile on her muzzle.           He turned and trotted close to her and leaned in, closing his eyes.         A few seconds later he felt her press her lips to his and he felt his knees tremble.           “Wow,” he whispered opening his eyes and gazing into hers, “I can’t remember my last kiss, so I have to say that was the best ever.”         “There’s more where that came from.  Let me show you to my apartment in town, here.”         With a heavy gulp he nodded slightly and followed her to finish their walk.                  “Go~od Mo~orning!  Keeping things, orderly? Huh, get it?” Star said jovially nudging his orderly.         “Uh, yes.  I assume you had a decent night out then?”         “Sir, a gentlecolt never tells…” he looked around the hall outside his room before pulling the orderly in, “but I’m no gentlecolt.  We had a fantastic time!  The best I think I’ve ever had, oh,” he sighed falling to the cold floor, “oh, I feel like a colt again.”         “Well, that’s a nice change of pace from your usual self.  What brought this on?”         Star covered his muzzle and giggled while rolling side to side and kicking his rear legs in joy.         “...Oh my!  Seriously?!  Mind Mend?  And you?!” he fell onto his flank and looked at the older stallion acting like a colt in love.         Star rolled to his side and looked at the orderly. “Mister Toes, that is exactly what happened,” he said with a wide grin, “three times,” he tapped the floor thrice as he wiggled his eyebrows.  He fell onto his back and looked to the window, closed and the morning sun bringings life to the world.         “Not only that,” Star said sighing, “but I had a thought of giving up my job and moving into the city.”         “Well, let’s not take it too far too fast.  First, you have to cook her dinner.”         They chuckled. “Yeah, I know the job of a good house husband and I’d have to show her my skills; of which I have none.  And I’m not well versed in practical herd relationships past readings.”         “I have a lot of experience, and I know she won’t want to be in a herd with you so quickly.  One mare is fun, everyone you add just makes it harder,” Toes advised, “if you choose to be the homer then you have that many plus the foals to care for.  If you work then you have to play a part in scheduling chores and care for each other.”         “Wow,” Star said, “you’re experienced in this, are you part of a herd?”         “No, but my parents are part of a multi-herd pasture.”         Star sat up and looked at the orderly. “Really, now?  How’s that work out?”         “You mean five families living on the same land in a giant marriage?  It wasn’t bad until the schedules got mixed up; then it’d be a time of trouble for everypony,” he said looking into the distance, “and then there’s the time the mares are in heat,” he shuddered.         “Hm, perhaps I can ask you for advice when I do start a herd, until then I have to ask something that’s been on my mind and something I’ve been avoiding.”         “Doctor Star, my name is from a joke a minotaur once told to my mother.  Something about finding a table in the dark.”         “Ohh,” Star nodded, “Stubbed Toes, now I get it.  I think I’ll just stick to ‘guard’ and ‘orderly’.  I don’t feel comfortable speaking of opposable appendages.”         Toes smirked and stood up, looking out the window as well. “But you’re comfortable talking about your sex life with a certain stranger?”         “Touche again, orderly.  However I have a simple belief; always trust a yellow pony.  I’ve never met a bad yellow pony and I don’t think I have yet.”         “I feel like that’s a bit colorist, but I know what you mean.  Anyway, it’s Friday and your sessions with all your patients are today.”         Star groaned and placed his hooves to the side of his head. “Sometimes I just want to take a year off, maybe fifty.”         His orderly laughed. “Yeah, I feel the same way sometimes; these patients can be a lot of work.  But seriously, we have to go and get breakfast and get ready.”         Star groaned again. “I just want last night to happen again.  Wasn’t there a unicorn that mastered time travel?  Couldn’t she help me?” he asked as he got up again and began to walk to the door.         “Her name is Twilight Sparkle and no, that’s just a rumor.  Just like the ones where she’s actually Celestia’s daughter, or the one where she took over the world and made us all forget.  There’s another that she’s in a herd with her friends.  Rumors are rumors, sir, don’t believe them.”         “I heard a humorous rumor that she was, is, a creature from another world that eats magic,” he chuckled, “but the way the world has been in the past year since Nightmare Moon turned back into Princess Luna.  It makes me worry.”         “Why’s that,” the orderly said as he opened the door and led Star into the hall.         “Because if they’re going to fight another monster, how many ponies or other creatures are going to flood our system again?”         The orderly stopped and stared ahead. “Oh, Celestia.  The Nightmare Moon thing flooded us for weeks, what the tartarus?  Why would you say that?  It’s an omen!”         With a final quiet laugh, Star closed the door to his room and began his day.