Attachment

When one settles into a routine enough, time can feel like it's zipping by, even when one is just riding the waves of the day as it comes.

It's only been over a week since she was admitted to the hospital, and Cozy is slowly adapting. Worse still, she can feel her brain shifting, like removing a bottom block from a Jenga structure. Every hug, every kind word, every good thing done for her strikes a chord within her that she knows is related to not having a maternal figure to look up to. She knows it's all in the name of reforming her and making her good.

She wants to hate it.

But "hatred" seems to be turning into more and more of a construct nowadays, and she finds that she doesn't get angry as much as she used to.

Yesterday found herself gifting to Cadance a drawing of the two of them playing in a small field of grass together. Today, she will be rewarded with a surprise, and she's positive she knows what it is.

A spring in her step accompanies her and two other nurses as she begins to make her way towards the therapy room. She's never been a happier filly, knowing what's about to come. She's going to be free. She's going to have control again. The control she gave up when she found herself in this hospital is being gifted back to her, and all because she was good.

Cadance waves her inside and she hops through the entryway, the two nurses following suit. She eagerly sits in front of Cadance, looking up at her with big wide eyes.

"Ooh, someone's excited!" Cadance says. "Bet you figured out the surprise already, huh?"

"Yeah!" Cozy grins. "I'm ready!"

With a giggle, Cadance steps back and lights up her horn. With two sharp bursts of light blue magic, the chains binding Cozy's hooves are broken, and with a tendril of magic gently circulating her wings, the enchantment on them is released. Almost immediately, Cozy tries to take flight, flapping her wings and lifting herself into the air.

"Hey, it's working!" She lands. "Does this mean..."

"It doesn't mean you're discharged from the hospital yet," Cadance says. "You'll be kept here for the next two days to make sure you're cured and to make sure there aren't any other underlying health problems we need to address." She clutches a hoof to her cheek and smiles. "Though you will need to continue your therapy sessions with me as part of aftercare."

Cozy knew that Cadance had gone into some tougher subjects with her only a couple days ago. Particularly, Cadance was interested in knowing about her past with her mother, and Cozy relented only because she was in her truly warm embrace. She told her everything, nearly every detail -- but came to her senses and made sure to leave out how her mother died. That would ruin the whole plan, after all.

Cozy nods. "Okay." Her eyes grew watery. "But can I still go outside?"

"Of course you can, sweetie. Right after therapy."

The old Cozy would have thrown a fit right then and there. The new Cozy lets her expression twist into anger for only a few moments before it relaxes, and she takes a deep breath. "Okay. That sounds good."

For the next hour, she settles her head into Cadance's chest fur as the older mare asks her more about her personal life and even shares anecdotes from her own. As bizarre as it seems, Cozy trusts her. Moreso than her bitch-ass mother, and moreso than her runaway dad. Leaning on her, it's almost like she's pulled into a trance.

"I wish I could stay with you all the time. I wish it would just be me and you, all the time."

The thought slips out, but it catches Cadance's attention all the same. She looks down and rubs Cozy's mane with a smile as she whispers, "I know, dear. I do too."

It takes both nurses to pry Cozy away from Cadance when therapy is over, and when she's put back in her room, she buries her head under her pillow and cries.