//------------------------------// // Chapter 33: Trauma // Story: The Night Janitor // by Knox Locke //------------------------------// Cozy had been unable to find Gallus anywhere in Ponyville, so she had no choice but to fly into the Everfree to see if he was at the Treehouse. When she arrived at the crystal mansion, she noticed a light coming through the Griffon's Roost window. Good, that means Gallus is here. She walked in the front door... and screamed in terror. [Gallus' Perspective] Gallus was studying for a test up in the Griffon's Roost when he heard a blood curdling scream emanate from the Treehouse foyer. Then, utter silence. [Cozy's Perspective] Cozy wasn't sure what'd happened. Her mind was going a billion miles a minutes, making it impossible for her to focus. There was a voice yelling something, but she could hardly hear it over the sound of her own rapidly beating heart. It sounded kind of like Gallus, but why was he yelling? "No! Bad, Edith, bad! Turn her back right now!" Edith? The name sounded familiar, but her maelstrom of thoughts prevented her from focusing on it. She tried to ask Gallus who he was talking to, but no sound came from her mouth. Actually, did her mouth even move? She definitely felt like it'd moved, but when she paid attention to where her jaw was, she realized it hadn't moved at all. That's weird. She moved her hoof up to touch her jaw and see why it wasn't moving. At least, she tried to. Much to the contrary, she felt herself not move her hoof up to meet her perfectly still chin. She tried to look down at her perfectly still hoof, but her perfectly still neck wouldn't seem to let her. Not that it would've worked anyways. Her attention was now drawn to the fact that she couldn't see anything. Wait, her mind's wild tornado of thoughts cleared up and let a single message through. Edith. That was the name of... oh, no. 'No! No, no, no, no, no!' she screamed, but her jaw didn't move, and no sound came forth. Now, though, she knew why. She'd been turned to stone. It was only a few moments later that she felt her body relax from its tense position. Another feeling she was all too familiar with. She looked around, now able to see. Gallus was still scowling at the cockatrice, but he turned to face her once he realized how heavy she was breathing. [Gallus' Perspective] Cozy didn't look so good. He didn't know what he'd expected from somepony just freed from stone, but he still felt worried as Cozy moved a hoof up and held it against her chest, which was rising and falling almost too fast to keep track of. Sweat was coming off her in waves, and she looked unfocused and disoriented. Growing more worried by the second, Gallus walked over to Cozy. "Cozy?" he asked, but he got no reply. "Cozy, are you OK?" he asked again, fear permeating his voice as he reached out a claw. No sooner did he touch her shoulder than exactly when she fell hard to the floor. "Oh, no! Cozy!" he yelled, reaching his claw towards her once again. He shook her shoulder, but it was no use. She was out cold. He glanced over his shoulder at his friend's pet. He'd have to deal with it once he got Cozy somewhere safe. [Cozy's Perspective] Once again, she had no idea what had happened. She'd felt a tightness in her chest, and she'd been disoriented, but then everything had gone dark. She could tell she'd been aslepp for a while now, but she could hear some voices around her. One of them she didn't recognize, but the rest were familiar and comforting. "Won't be long now. She should wake up soon." A voice she didn't recognize. "Thank goodness." Knox. "Don't worry about a thing, Cozy." Pinkie. "Please be alright." Sweetie. "She'll be fine, Sweetie." Knox... again. She slowly slipped back into sleep for a while, then woke up with a start. "Where am I? What happened?" she asked frantically. "Calm down, kid," answered Knox. "You had a panic attack. A pretty bad one at that. Gallus brought you to the hospital to get you checked out." Cozy looked from face to face around the room. Gallus was nowhere to be seen, but Knox, Pinkie, and Sweetie were all here. She seemed to be in a hospital room like Knox had said. "How long was I out?" she asked. "Less than two hours," said a nurse as she entered. Her voice matched the unknown one she'd heard in her sleep. "But I'm afraid we can't let you go just yet." "Is something wrong?" asked an obviously very worried Pinkie Pie. "Well, there's nothing wrong with her physically," she explained while looking down at the chart she was carrying, "but we'd like her to meet with one of our therapists down in psychiatric." "Absolutely, Nurse Redheart," said Knox. "Right, Cozy?" 'Oh, goody,' thought Cozy with as much sarcasm as her internal voice could muster. Out loud, though, she said "Sure," in a feigned cheery tone. After speaking to the therapist, Nurse Redheart had led Cozy and Knox to a waiting room. Talking with the therapist hadn't been very comfortable. Since he was a professional, she knew patient/doctor confidentiality, or whatever it was called, applied to her session. He couldn't tell anypony about the session unless there was a serious detriment or danger to her health, but she still hadn't told him what her experience in her stone prison was really like. That feeling of moving your body in your mind, but knowing your physical body hasn't moved an inch in moons. The feeling of seconds passing like weeks, years even. She'd had an eternity worth of torment within the stone, and she'd shared none of it with the therapist for fear he would give her a... "We have a diagnosis," said Nurse Redheart as she walked into the room. "What?" Cozy practically screamed in surprise. "Cozy... You have PTSD." "No," she stated as a fact. She began to pace across the floor, losing herself in her thoughts. "No, this can't be happening. I can't have PTSD! I can't be having panic attacks any time something reminds me of my past! No, this can't be happening! How would that therapist even reach that conclusion? I didn't tell him anything! This wasn't supposed to happen! THIS WASN'T PART OF THE-" She caught her tongue as she realized she'd been talking aloud this whole time. She looked towards Knox, who was teary-eyed and had an apologetic expression on his face. She turned her head to look at the nurse, who was looking extremely worried. She felt her breathing quicken as she quickly tried to piece together something to say. She had to say something, right? But what could she say? She'd just barely caught herself before exposing her plan to these two. Sweat dripped from her forehead as her vision became blurry and her thoughts detached from her. 'Well,' thought her mind to her as she quickly felt a tightening in her throat and chest, 'I guess this is one way to end an awkward conversation.' She didn't even try to fight it as she succumbed to the panic attack. Later that day, she left the hospital with a very worried circle of friends and diagnosed PTSD. Well, it could've gone worse. 'Just another thing I have to account for in my Master Plan,' she thought. 'Who knows? Might make things more interesting.