"So, how did you enjoy the hypnotherapy?" Watchful winks at me conspiratorialy.
"Laik a good sleep."
"Knew it would work," he gives me a victorious smile and nods his head to the mostly empty hallway, "We've got half an hour until lunch. Is there anything you want to do?"
Eat, mostly.
"Ken Ai get a snek at d bar?"
"You didn't take one before the yoga?" he smacks his forehead, "Riiight, we went there early. My bad, the bar is closed an hour before any mealtime so that patients don't ruin their appetite," he thinks for a moment as we walk down the main staircase, "You know what? You've had two treatments already, is there anything you'd like to add to your room? You know, like a yoga mat or... you've had hypno, so... canvas and some brushes?"
That sounds like a good idea. Perhaps if I practice drawing, doctor Mind's therapy will be more effective since my pictures will make at least some sense.
"D drawing teenks wud bee kool, Ail trai to draw moar den stikk ponees."
"Great! I'll bring and install the set to your room before lunch. You can take a short break until then, walk around the gardens or something. It's your free time."
We're on the second floor where the patient rooms are. There's plenty of ponies just sitting around, looking outside, reading, or sometimes chatting in small groups. Most of them are wearing patient collars like I am, but some have the same clean warden shirts as Watchful. I don't feel like taking a nap in my room after the refreshing, umm, sleep I went through with Expanded Mind, and I don't want to bother anypony around.
"Ken Ai help yoo?" I ask Watchful.
"You really do like helping ponies, don't you?"
"Ponees are awsum so Ai trai to bee useful to dem."
He quickly turns around and waves his hoof at me to follow. We take the staircase two more floors down and end up by a large metal door that Watchful unlocks with a key from a keyring he takes out of his saddlebag. The halls that open to us are clean, well-lit, and completely empty. As opposed to patient floors where there is natural light, potted plants, and decorations, this place is being maintained with surgical no-nonsense precision.
"Alright, that way I won't have to go twice anyway. You can take the brushes, I'll take the canvas stand. Chiseled Chin would make me scrub the toilets if I loaded the heavy stuff on you."
Been there, done that. I'm not really sure why that is a problem, though. The guards at the barracks have always kept them decently clean on their own aside from dirty hoofprints. I once saw a stallion snort some white dust from a windowsil there. Unorthodox cleaning method, but who am I to judge?
"Ai yoosed to doo dat too," I nod knowingly.
"With a toothbrush? The head nurse is terrifying when angry. I heard she used to work at some military base for several years before ending up here. Besides, some of the pills the patients take here make hell in their bowels. I've seen stuff that glowed!"
"Prettee. Ai hed to yoos d lantern wen d lites went aut once."
"It crawled up my toothbrush and ate it!"
Watchful, the unlucky PTSD warden, stops talking, glancing at door after door as we pass. Produce storage, lost/found and confiscated, drug storage A, drug storage B, old document storage, loading bay, modules.
"Here we are," Watchful pulls the keyring out again. The 'modules' door leads to a short hallway with doors on both sides and at the end. We take the door marked 'painting'. Watchful straps a canvas stand with thick, heavy base bearing several holes, likely for screws, on his back.
"Grab a bag from there," he points to a shelf full of small containers wrapped in plastic. They are sets of three brushes of varying thickness packed together with white packages of basic paints. Watchful notices me examining the entire pack from all sides, "The colours aren't top notch because they have to be made from non-toxic things so that patients don't hurt themselves if they eat them."
"Hav yoo ever kleend-"
"Yes, they 'leave behind' rainbows. Enough of that, please."
I shrug, so much for learning more about the craft of keeping things clean. Watchful must not want to share some trade secrets, I guess. With all the things ready, we leave the storage.
"Want the training mat as well, since we're already here?"
My everything still aches from exhaustion. I think one session per day is enough.
"Not nau."
"Alright, let's get this up to your room."
It's difficult for him to lock all the doors behind us with the burden on his back. I, on the other hoof, am not that troubled, so as I watch him fumble with the keyring at the main cellar door, I offer help as I so often do.
"Ai nou hau too yoos kees."
He looks at me, then at the keyring dropped on the floor, then shakes his head, takes it with his mouth, and balances on three legs with the heavy stand on his back while using one foreleg to look for the right key. He succeeds on the fourth try, and hides the clanking iron ring into his saddlebag again.
"Sorry, Greyscale, I know you mean well, but if anything happened to it for any random reason, it would mean really bad things for me."
"Soree."
"No, no, it's fine, thanks for the offer and such. Chiseled Chin would have me 'pegged' for demotion," he chuckles.
"Okey."
"My ass is on the line."
"Okey."
"Literally, from what I heard from one unlucky young warden."
He winks at me as if I was supposed to know what he's talking about. I don't want him to think I'm too unintelligent to carry a pack of paints and brushes, so I just smile and nod. That way he doesn't have to bring all the equipment upstairs to my room on his own.
Back at my new home on the second floor, I observe Watchful's skillful and practiced process of fastening the thick base of the canvas stand into a deep indend which I identified before as a place where some room accessory would be installed. He wipes the sweat off his brow when he's done, and stretches.
"Phew!" he peeks out of the room into the main hallway, "aaand we still have five minutes to lunch. Don't know about you, but this sure made me work up some real appetite."
My stomach rumbles as he mentions food. A simple salad for breakfast seemingly eons ago is all but a memory.
"Ai cud eet a hors."
"A griffon in disguise, eh?" he smirks.
"Aim not, but a ponee cold Dreezel mite bee."
"Drizzle, the nympho?"
"Shee traid too eet mai feis and wonted to eet moar."
He snorts, biting his lip.
"Yeah, yeah, I'm sure she did. She didn't do anything weird to you, did she?"
"Shee hugged mee. Shee's a nais ponee... or seekret greefon."
"Oh good-"
"Den shee leeked mai muzzel and went all woozy and sum wordens dragged her away. Ai teenk all d hugging meid her sleepy."
"Riiiight, let's keep it at that. Hugging is fine, too much licking isn't. Be careful around her... she... her condition is really bad."
"Aim not leeking anyponee. Ken Ai help her?"
"Good, and no. Doctor Insight is doing what he can, even cooperating with doctor Bright Eye from Ponyville mental asylum who is a specialist, but Drizzle is in real trouble. Even if she gets out of here eventually I doubt she's in for more than a prison."
That super nice pegasus lady? A prison?
"Wot deed shee doo?"
"I don't think you would understand. You seem to be a bit... blank regarding physical contact."
That's true. The guards didn't really punch me much, thankfully, just threw things at me mostly.
"Ai laik ponees being happee. Maybe Ai ken say sumteenk nais to her."
He leans closer and lowers his voice.
"Look, I'm telling you this just so that you don't say something really stupid now that I didn't keep my damn mouth shut. Drizzle's thirty, she didn't realize she had 'a condition' for a long time when she was a teenager, she just believed she was a... party mare. Her uncontrolled... partying left her with a son. Father was nowhere to be found. She and her family took good care of him, but the colt once told Drizzle's parents how things were at home with his mother by accident. He had no idea what he and his mother did together was wrong. Drizzle loved her son very much... too much. Her illness didn't allow her to understand that what she was doing for the colt after he reached puberty was bad for him. She just wanted him and herself to be happy."
"Ai dun understand. Deed shee hurt him?"
"In a way, yes, but she didn't mean it in the slightest. Just be nice to her. She's an extremely kind pony with a bad illness who doesn't deserve what awaits her outside. And please, for the love of Celestia's enormous plot, don't breathe a word about what I just said to a living soul."
"Okey."
She's not a bad pony, she just did something bad on accident. I broke tons of things at the barracks since I'm not too coordinated and while I tried, I couldn't fix them all. Oh well, if Watchful is worried about me talking then I won't. I'll just be nicer to Drizzle even when she's trying to taste my flesh. Maybe she's not a griffon in disguise but she's been bitten by a zombie and now she's trying to keep the infection under control! Probably not, though, she smelled really nice and fresh, zombies are supposed to rot and stink.
"Aaaand just on time," Watchful smiles as we reach the lunch room, "Now that you know how to get your food, just get in the line and go for it. I'll be sitting at the wardens' table."
The queue is long, but the reward of a much more fulfilling platter of food is definitely worth it. With the tray hanging on a strap around my neck, I look around to see the warden table full. Another, much more careful examination reveals an empty corner table. Just for me, yay!
I almost topple the small plastic cup with pills I got along with the pile of pastries, vegetables, and some fruit as I dig into my lunch. I also almost miss when a second tray lands next to mine, followed by a voice dripping like honey and twice as... sticky.
"I just love a pony who knows how to use his mouth."
Looking up with a lettuce leaf sticking out of my muzzle, I quickly munch it down and smile at the sky-blue pegasus whose coat is dotted with white blots of rain. Drizzle chuckles at my display, dark blue, well-styled mane flowing down her neck.
"I lernd to eet wen Ai wos a colt, I teenk."
"Heh heh, how about eating out?" she winks at me, leaning closer and closer.
I look outside through a glass section of the wall leading to the snow-covered gardens.
"Eesn't eet too cold aut dere? Ai meen all d snow end such."
"Honey, you wouldn't find a warmer and more accommodating place then my box," her giggle rings like little bells.
"Oh," I nod in understanding, "Ai hed a boks too. Eet wos worm end aut of d rein. Too bed Ai set eet on fayr end-"
She pushes her chair right next to mine and leans against me. So warm. Then one of her hind legs wraps around mine. Despite what's going on under the table, Drizzle is simply eating her lunch, so I should shut up and do the same. I liked my box, but this place offers free food, so that's a definite upgrade. Speaking of food, time to finish my share.
I feel a hoof running down my neck, barrel, and inner thigh. Drizzle has chowed down her lunch in record time and is getting al pokey again. Well, at least she's not trying to eat my face, for now.
"Wanna keep an old mare company for a while?"
Thirty isn't old, even when she's a mother. The toned pegasus' form is definitely pleasing to look at. I'm absolutely sure that where I'll be a victim of one yoga class per day, Drizzle does a lot more exercise much more frequently.
"Yoo ar yung end prettee, mees Dreezel. End reely frendlee too."
She spins me towards her on the chair and now that my back is turned towards the rest of the cafeteria, she licks her hungrily grinning muzzle. She DID just eat a ton of food, but with her fitness regime it might not have been enough.
"Wanna be much more than friends?"
And here it comes, she licks my nose, pushing herself harder and harder against me.
"Yoo meen laik best frends?"
"Ohhh yesss," another lick, "You, me, and junior here," she slowly rubs my crotch, soft frog of her hoof wet with my nervous sweat, "I want you so bad."
I look down and facehoof mentally. She doesn't want to eat me, she wants to BE me.
"Yoo wud bee a stallien, mem. Wai wud yoo wont to bee a stallien wen yoo ar a prettee maer? I em dum and kleen stuff, but yoo ar fit, frendlee, end smart."
"No, no. I want to ride you into the sunset, honey."
Pushing her away, I drop from the chair and bend my legs. I get it now, she's so tired she can't walk or fly. Silly me.
"Hop on, mem. Ai ken kerry both yoo and Steeches... wit breaks. Umm, end yoo kant see sun een d wintr enywey."
She stares, biting her lip.
"Ou, soree. Ai haev too teik mai peels. End yoo too, mem," I return up onto my chair.
Hmmm, the yellow one is there as well. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to take it just this one time?
"Don't even think about it," I hear Stitches whisper into my ear, "Hmm, that might work. Eat the rest, then leave the yellow one in your mouth and kiss her."
"Kees?" I mumble.
"Did I hear right, my little draft stallion?" Drizzle's ears perk up instantly, her cup of pills already empty and a dopey smile on her face, "I'm gonna suck you dry."
"Steel tearsty? Yoo ken teik anoder glass of joos at the countr, mem," I swallow most of my portion along with orange juice, then leave the yellow one on my tongue just like Stitches said, "Doo yoo kees a lot of ponees heer?"
"Not enough, hun, they won't let me, but nopony is looking this way, and even if they did they wouldn't see a thing."
"Yoo ar a nais ponee end soft end Ai laik yoo in a wey. Doo frends kees?"
"Friends with benefits, hun, from now on. Kiss and bang."
"Helfkaer end dental? Wait, fayrworks too? Wot?"
She sloppily shoves her tongue into my mouth, sucking on mine and accidentally downing my melting pill along with a mouthful of our mixed saliva. She breaks the kiss, swallowing again. Her eyes unfocus, and a string of drool comes out of the corner of her mouth.
"Oh yes, double yellows. She's gonna sleep well tonight... and tomorrow," Stitches chuckles.
I catch Drizzle before she keels over and breaks something on the tiled floor, and put her on my back. She starts nibbling on the hair of my coat.
"Mom loves you, Raincloud..."
I was right, she WAS exhausted and still hungry.