//------------------------------// // Trauma // Story: Mean and Green // by Gallants //------------------------------// "What happened?" Nurse Sour Grapes worriedly asked as she cleaned the blood up and checked on the bite marks. "I-I don't know," Moth sobbed out, "S-Sabine and I were s-sleeping a-and t-then I heard Enfield scream, I ran in t-thinking it was just an n-nightmare, a-and she was bleeding s-s-so much," she stammered out while trying to catch her breath. Enfield was just letting Sour Grapes cover the wounds as she was comfortable. "I did have a nightmare," she told the mares, "I must've scratched my face during it," Enfield said wincing as the anti-septic was applied to the last of her wounds. "No, these are bites, from like a dog or something, was your window closed?" Sour Grapes questioned, getting a nod from Enfield, "Alright well they're pretty shallow, a few deep penetrations, a few stitches wouldn't hurt," she said poking her head out of the door and asking for some help, "Alright so we'll get you some stitches to help prevent serious scarring, anything I can get you to help you relax and why did you get dressed?" she asked, getting a huff from Enfield. "It wasn't that bad didn't feel the need to run here naked, I've had worse, and there's nothing I'm allowed to do in a hospital," she said, "I'll do a little self-destructive care after school," she told her, thinking on the first huff of her cigar, smiling as a doctor came in and started to help Sour Grapes stitch up the few deep wounds on her cheeks. "Oh no, you're staying home, I can already imagine what nasty things that filly will say to you with bandages all over your face," Moth said recoiling as the thread was pushed through t he filly's skin, "How are you handling this so well? I screamed when I got my first stitches, I was about your age too," she asked fairly engrossed with the only slight winces that crossed the filly's face. "Not my first time," Enfield told her, "hell I had surgery without being put under just my knife sheaths to keep me quiet as four marines held me down so I wouldn't mess up the surgeon's work," she elaborated as they finished up the final stitches and covered them up, "Thanks Nurse Grapes, I'll try to not show back up for at least a week this time," the filly told the mare, "unless I miss seeing you too much," she said with a smirk getting a chuckle out of the nurse. "No, not even if you miss me," Sour Grapes gently chided, "I don't want to see you hurt, now I hope, Roza was it?, I hope she's not causing trouble?" she asked as she threw her gloves away and started to wash her hooves. "Roza will not be causing any issues, she has been cleared and the hammer dropped," Enfield informed her, "Okay Ms. Moth I'm ready to go home," the filly said jumping off the exam bed. Moth nodded gave her thanks to the hospital staff and led Enfield back home. "So what was your nightmare about?" Moth asked as they entered the house quickly causing Enfield to scowl. "I don't want to talk about it," Enfield firmly stated walking to her room before grabbing her lighter and cigar case, "I'll be outside," she told the mare as she stepped outside just as the sun started to rise, "Nightmare Moon?" she mumbled under breath, taking a cigarillo into her mouth and bringing her lighter up she ignited her cigarillo and quickly allowed her mouth to be filled with the smoke, rolling it and thinking back to the calm night watches with Rana by her side as they joked about small things, "I hope you're okay," Enfield said puffing out her smoke a tear rolling down her face. Moth looked out the window, about to do something about the filly smoking, but stopped herself as she felt a claw on her shoulder, "She smokes?" Sabine asked, getting a nod from Moth, "I'll go tell her she can't do that and take her cigarettes," the hen said heading towards the front door. "Don't," Moth said sighing, "I recognize the look in her eyes," she said walking up to Sabine and leading her to the couch, "Back from home, some of the other rebels would have the exact same look when they had just a simple pleasure," using a wing to wipe a tear from her eye Moth continued, "I think not only did her father hit her, I think she was a child soldier, she mentioned having to have surgery without anesthetic and being held down during it," Sabine sighed running her claws over her face. "That explains her independence and why she doesn't want to talk to us about anything," Sabine said looking back over to the window and seeing Enfield walk past it and start down the road, "She wandering again, I'll go keep her company, make sure she doesn't get hurt," she said walking out and opening the front door, quickly catching up to Enfield, "Hey, other than the hospital visit, good morning so far?" she asked the filly, getting a grunt and shrug of the shoulder in return as more smoke pours from the filly's mouth, "you know Moth and I don't like the idea of you smoking," Sabine said hoping to gently pass on that it wasn't okay. "Don't care what you think about it, I rarely smoke as is and after these last few weeks I've earned one," Enfield said as she focused on the flavor and her walk. Other ponies were waking up by this time stepping outside of their homes and with curious eyes watched the filly and griffin that walked down the road, ignoring their stares Enfield continued walking down the road keeping a keen eye on the store signs, "you know my best friend gave me my lighter," Enfield stated quickly getting the attention of Sabine, "We were on night patrol once, and she watched me fail to get my cigarillo lit for about half an hour, she laughed the whole time as the wind kept blowing out my matches," she said tears filling her eyes, "I can still hear her voice, 'clearly a sign from Allah, to quit killing yourself with those," she weakly mimed, "and I told her, 'I'll defy Allah like I defy death, she laughed again and snatched it from my mouth and just played keep away from me," the filly started to shake as she cried stopping and sitting down. "You don't have to tell me this," Sabine said taking a seat and extending a wing towards the filly, who happily took up a spot closer to the griffin who loosely wrapped her wing around her. "No, I do," Enfield choked out, "you know we didn't even know each for a month before we decided we were besties, we both showed up at the same base around the same time, and just sort of clicked," her tears flowed heavily as she removed the half-smoked cigarillo and dropped it to the ground snuffing out the embers with her hoof, "I don't even like those all that much, they just helped me relax, so I only smoked once a month maybe twice depending what was going on," Enfield stood back up, "Now enough feeling bad for me," she said wiping her face, "I want to go to the library," with a somber nod Sabine stood up and kept the filly company. The two made their way through town looking for the library, coming up to a tree Enfield marveled at the design, "The architecture is amazing it looks just like a real tree," she remarked running her hoof against the surface. "Perfectly stained and I think friction locked for the outside," she said not noticing Sabine laughing behind her claw. "E-Enfield," Sabine wheezed out, "i-it's a real tree," she continued unable to hold in her laughter, "Let's just go in and find what you're looking for," she said coughing to regain her composure at the annoyed look Enfield gave her. "I'm sorry for laughing, it wasn't nice," she told the filly looking away. "No need to apologize, if anything we're even for what I said yesterday," Enfield stated walking up and reaching up to grab the door handle, stretching her body to reach it before pulling it down and opening the door, "Let's just find what I'm trying to research," she said walking in almost bumping into another pony. "Oh I'm sorry, we don't normally have ponies coming in this early," a light purple mare said creating more space for Enfield and Sabine to get in, "I'm Twilight Sparkle, current librarian and personal student of Princess Celestia," Twilight introduced herself, "Oh but just because I know the princess you don't have to treat me any different than you would any other pony," she said with a smile. "Good, I wasn't planning on it," Enfield told her with a cold look, "anyways I'm looking to do research on..." she said trailing off while mumbling under her breath, "uhh, Nightmare Moon?" she nervously asked, not expecting a serious answer. "Okay follow me please," Twilight said leading the filly to a small selection of books and pulling one down, before Enfield stopped and looked at the magic section with a frown, "Don't be let down because you're a pegasus, everypony can benefit from learning about magic," she cheerfully said, "and not to brag but I'm a pretty good mage, so if you want to learn and little and need some help you can always ask me for help if I'm here," she told the filly putting the book on the table. "Thanks, but I'm not too interested right now in learning about magic," Enfield told her taking a seat in the reading area and skimming the book, trying to match anything from her dream to this supposed Nightmare Moon.