A mare of medium build, coat a dirty white, eyes that looked of gold, and a long, thin mane of pure black was sitting on a bench in a bland white hallway. She was sitting in this hallway in a building in New Canterlot to get some things off her chest. The name of this particular building didn't stick in her head for very long... only long enough to find it.
Boredom had begun to sink into this mare's very soul about twenty-three minutes into her wait to be called. This psyche dude is taking FOREVER!How long does it take to flip through some papers? Another half-hour trudged by at a maddeningly slow rate when a door by her bench opened. On the textured window of this door was the name "DR. PHSYCHE MEZZO" in old, black letters. Once it was fully opened, a stallion in a brown suit stepped out.
He looked at the file in his left hoof again, then over to the mare on the bench. "Ms. Gold Light?" Phsyche's voice was deep and had a type of strong presence to it, the kind that was made for radio or speeches or movies.
"That's me," Gold Replied. Her voice was one that sounded both motherly, one you would always trust, and harsh, one that demands attention and has the potential to create fear in another. Gold got up onto all four hooves and turned to see the stallion that owned the name on the door. Psyche was a tall stallion with a slender build. His mane was combed over to fall down one side of his head. The colors of his mane were similar to the first holder of the element of loyalty, only of darker shades that also looked to be slightly muted. His coat was a heavy purplish-brown that was also muted that really went well with his suit... and his eyes were a contrasting bright cyan.
Gold gave him a quick look-over and calmly asked,"What took you so long?"
"I was using that time to glance over your file. From what I've plucked out, you've led a pretty interesting life Ms. Light... did you know that?"
"I should know that. It is my life after all." Gold said as she was made her way into the room she would be sharing with Psyche for the next few hours. It looked like the typical psychologist's office setup. There was a bookcase with some empty portions here and there that took up the entire right wall. Facing that bookcase a couple feet away was a red couch whose farthest arm was more elevated and padded than the other, obviously meant for the ponies who wanted to lie down during the session. In a corner not far from this couch was a comfy looking chair that was meant for the psychologist.
The left side of the room was surprisingly empty (compared to the other side). Only two small filing cabinets, a medium-sized desk, and a portrait occupied that space. That portrait portrayed the six original Elements of Harmony in their shining golden armor. They were standing underneath the heads of the Princess of Old and Viscari Luna.
Psyche followed Gold into his office and said the thing he always said first, ”Take a seat on the couch, or lay down. It doesn’t really matter...” Gold walked over to said couch and laid down on her back, her long mane and tail either wildly spread under her or draping over the side. Psyche was at his desk, gathering some scattered papers that held information on his current “patient.” I don’t like that word, he thought, sounds like I’m either evaluating her or I’m about to open her up!
He sighed, tapping Gold’s folder against his desk a few times to straighten out the papers inside, and walked over to his chair. Once he was comfortable in his seat, Psyche opened the file in his hooves like one would a book, and began. “So, Ms. Light, I’m just gonna read out the file and have you confirm or deny information, just in case somepony got something wrong. Make sure to fill in any gaps as well.”
With a nod, Gold said, “Let ‘er rip doc.”
There was a moment of neutral silence that hung in the room of the earth pony veteran and the pegasus psychologist; a kind of awkwardly comfortable silence. Gold looked over at Psyche, who seemed both shocked and deep in thought. She pull him out of that daze with repetitive claps and saying, “Yo! Equestria to Psyche! What’s wrong with my birthday?”
Psyche jumped a tad and cleared his throat. “Nothing, nothing at all... its just rather strange for a pony to be born on Nightmare Night is all.” Gold rolled her eyes at that obvious tidbit of information. “Now then, lets continue.” He flipped over to another page. “You are currently married and living here in New Canterlot. Correct?”
“Yeah, but we’re considering moving to my home town. At first she was so stubborn about staying here so she could get those issues of her stupid little... wait,” Gold rolled over on the couch slightly to face Psyche, “do you have problem with me being married to another mare?” She finished that with a sound of genuine worry and a look to match.
Psyche leaned in and calmly asked, “Am I free to express my opinion to its fullest extent?” When he received a nervous nod from Gold... his wings popped up stiffly into their upmost position.
This elicited full-blown laughter from Gold Light. Once her laughter calmed down to tolerable levels, she took on a sultry position and put on her best bedroom eyes. Then, in a... seductive tone, asked, “What if I told you I was bi?”
Now, Psyche’s wings were stiff for real, and a blush shone brightly through his fur. That got Gold laughing even harder than before. In fact, she was laughing so hard she rolled off of the couch and was gripping her sides in an attempt to keep them attached to her body. The psychologist blushed harder and shakily replied, “C-could you p-please not do th-that! My male brain is sensitive to that kind of stimuli!”
“Nah, you’re just a horny bastard.” Again... laughter.
“Um, did I mention that you are paying me to watch you be an idiot right now?” Gold stopped dead in her tracks when she heard Psyche say that. “Please, don’t stop, its fun to be paid for watching my patients laugh at me.” It was then Psyche’s turn to laugh as Gold scurried back onto the couch with a stoic, but strained look on her face.
“Proceed.” Gold said quickly.
“Haha, okay, it's interesting to know that you are very... open, in terms of relationships and still chose to marry a mare.” He tapped his chin with a hoof a couple of times. “Just out of curiosity, what is your, for lack of a better term, ‘relationship ratio’?” Gold shot him a questioning look and Psyche so he clarified, “The amount of mares compared to stallions you have dated.”
“Huh, never really cared to think about that. Um... I think for every stallion I dated, there were two mares. Yeah, that sounds right.”
“Again, damn curiosity, what is it about mares that you seem more attracted to?”
Gold thought on this for a couple of minutes before coming up with what she thought was a solid answer. “They just seem more... attractive in general. The body, the mind, and the heart of a mare just speak a little louder to me.”
Its nice to be getting to know one of my ‘patients’ rather than just absorbing their problems, Psyche thought. “Well then, lets continue with th-”
“What about you Psyche? What sex are you into?”
This caught the pegasus off guard a little. None of his other patients had ever asked him... well, ANYTHING! “Say what now?”
“Okay, I’ll ask again, this time slowly. Are. You. Straight. Or. Gay?”
To his surprise, Psyche was a little unsure. He had seen one stallion before, and he was pretty nice, but that was only one stallion in a sea of mares. “I got to try being gay once but, though it was nice, I still prefer a slit over bojangles and a shaft any day.”
His euphemisms had Gold holding back a laugh for the ages, but still, she got his point. “I guess I can kinda relate.”
“How so?”
“I prefer plastic to the real thing for some reason.”
They gave each other a stern glance before erupting into a laughter that would last a good ten minutes. Once they calmed down to where they could coherently talk again, Psyche spoke up, “Oh DAMN! I like you already!”
“Same here dude! I thought you’d just be some boring psychologist, but nope, you are AWESOME!” She held out her hoof and got the hoof-bump she wanted.
“Okay, now we have to get back on track here,” he said as he flipped back to where he was in the folder (it had fallen from his grasp while he was laughing). “Alrighty, so in your immediate family you have a brother by the name of Searing Light and a sister named Red Light.”
“Yep, we used to joke about how my sis’s name sounded like she would be stuck as a crossing guard. Oh how she hated that...” Then, for just a moment, she slipped back into her childhood, remembering all the good times of her and her family in Old Ponyville in the blink of an eye. A moment or so later she shook her head so she could come back into reality.
“It says that she actually did rather good as a military scientist. There’s... nothing else here on her, so I guess she’s still doing good.”
A look of utter fear and sadness washed over her face. She was also shuddering. “I don’t wanna talk about that... not now at least.”
I’ll remember that... “So, with that little background check complete, I would like to ask why you are specifically here.”
Gold summoned the memory of the reason she was sent there by her wife and recited it... well, her own version. “My wife, forgot to tell ya that her name is Ferla, but I call her Fefe, sent me here because she thinks some of the shit that went down in the war is still in my head, and that its still affecting me.”
“Is it?” Those two words from the stallion sparked an entire internal conflict that would rage a good few moments before she finally came up with an honest answer.
“In more ways than one,” she began quietly, “I still haven’t dealt with a... couple things that happened, like the day I found out about the war.”
Psyche gained a look of pure interest and queried, ”What happened on that day?”
As stoic as a pony could be, she answered, “I joined the Equestrian military and got sent straight to boot camp.”
