Sea Dreams

by Odd_Sarge

4 - Mares Waging War

“Go fish!”

Rainbow Dash groaned. “Pinkie Pie, you’re not getting me with that one again.” She tapped the table, and slid her voice smoothly. “I check.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow as much as she raised the stakes.

Rainbow snorted. “That the best you’ve got, cowgirl?”

“I sure did add more to the game than you did, pony girl.”

“Allll in!” Pinkie sing-songed.

The two bickering mares turned abruptly, and stared with wide-eyes.

Having already folded for the round, Reckless munched away on one of her poker chips. “Oh. Brave move.”

Rainbow’s voice cracked. “Brave? There’s nothing brave about that! Brave is the trick I was showing you yesterday, remember?”

“Dangerous, yes.” She nodded firmly toward the beaming party pony. “This brave.”

“What?! But you—”

“I fold.”

The boisterous rainbow shifted her gaze from Reckless, and right back to Applejack. “Are you serious? I bet Pinkie Pie doesn’t even have anything!”

“Ain’t nothing wrong with folding, Rainbow.” She adjusted her hat and leaned back. “It takes a big pony to know when to fold.”

“I’ll show you a big pony, alright.” With a grunt, she laid her forelegs on the table, and pushed her stack of poker chips forward. “Call!”

The air was thick like dripping molasses as Reckless leaned forward. The other three ponies at the table watched on, all in various states of anticipation, although Rainbow’s anxious hoof-biting and wing-flutters overshadowed the others. After a moment of struggling, Reckless finally flipped the last card on the table.

“Ooo!” Giggling, Pinkie laid her cards out for everypony to see. Her beam was infectious, and it spread to Applejack, then Reckless. “That’s a good hoof right, Applejack?”

“You said it, Pinkie.” The ‘cowgirl’ leveled her grin on Rainbow Dash. “Well?”

“...I lost.”

Applejack snorted and laughed. “You’re still in, sugarcube.”

“But I lost to Pinkie Pie!”

“Yes.” Reckless crunched, and swallowed. “She take your chip all time.”

“She does not!”

Pinkie giggled. “I do, silly!”

As the poker table devolved into yet another round of playful banter, mostly predicated on Rainbow Dash’s woes, Sea Swirl laughed.

“I can’t help but point out that Reckless is eating the poker chips.”

Turning to Nurse Snowheart, Sea Swirl smiled. “They’re crackers. They play with them.”

“Oh. That explains the sprinkles... slightly.”

“Yeah...” Sea Swirl sighed in warm reminiscence. “Pinkie Pie started bringing them after Reckless ate an ante’s worth.”

“Of actual chips?”

“Yup. It’s just one of her things.”

Snowheart held a hoof to her head. “Please, do let me know if there’s anything else she’s been eating.” She looked around with worry (there really was no need, the only other pony close enough to listen was Screw Loose, who was presently residing in her office within the blankets of the couch), and leaned in. “That’s one of the things we were monitoring for while she was in the hospital.”

“I don’t understand why she was in there to begin with. The guards didn’t lay a hoof on her, she laid into them.”

“Well... I really shouldn’t say anymore.”

“Oh, right, patient-doctor confidentiality and all that. Of course.”

Snowheart sighed, and looked back to the game. She tried to smile; Sea Swirl could see the very real effort the mare was putting in. “She’s better now, and with friends, she’ll get even better.”

Sea Swirl shuffled in her seat. “That’s my hope, too.”

A pause passed. Intermittent laughter echoed.

“...but I suppose, you are her friend. Maybe... we can trade.”

“Trade?”

Snowheart made a little motion with her hoof. “I’m not the doctor.”

“Oh.”

She tittered, then went on. “And Reckless doesn’t really mind the talk. She’s very open about her past. Proud, even. But... it’s not exactly something you approach her asking. She paints, well, broadly.”

“Like how when it seems like she’s not being vague, but she really is.”

“Mhm. It only comes naturally. We don’t want to force it, but we can’t exactly treat her if she doesn’t come out of her shell.”

After a quiet round, the poker table surged with lighthearted bickering once again.

“So, what are you offering?”

“Collaboration, really. You just so happen to be the perfect pony to help her on the path. We’ve painted a wide enough picture to see that there’s a lot buried in her thoughts. But it’s not all ‘within reach’, so to speak.”

“She was in a war,” Sea Swirl stated flatly. “She saw things nopony should’ve had to go through. Of course she has a lot on her mind.”

“We know. But how she acts now is just her hiding. And it’s not healthy.”

Sea Swirl tilted her head. “She’s been getting along fine. She just met Applejack the other day, and here they are putting Rainbow Dash down as a team.” She frowned. “If she’s pretending to be the pony she’s not, then she’s doing an impeccable job.”

“Well...” Snowheart tapped her forehooves together, and leaned back into her cushions. “Yes. She’s stonewalled, a mare of sheer will. And that’s what worries us.”

“Meaning?”

“She needs to find a way to be on her own. She relies on others to give her purpose, and follows orders to the letter. That’s why we have her and Screw Loose in this living space. They’re both a short trot away from assisted-living for the rest of their lives, do you understand?”

“Assisted living?” Sea Swirl blinked, and allowed her eyebrows to curl with open worry. “But... I thought she was getting better?”

“She is getting better. But she needs a push more than ever. If we could figure out where her trauma lies...”

“She’s not traumatized.”

Snowheart took a moment to relax her withers. “She actively represses her memories. If she never gets the word to face them, then she’ll never accept it as a part of who she is.”

“Then maybe this is her second chance. Look at her right now. I see a pony who fits right in.”

“And I see a mare who’s content to keep her fight to herself.”

Sea Swirl turned to Snowheart. The nurse was watching Reckless, her face stretched by no small display of pain.

“All I ask is that you talk to her a little more about her history. But not about the land she claimed to live in, because we’ve exhausted our options there. She needs help working through who she believes she is.”

“Who does she think she is?”

“If I knew the answer to that, I wouldn’t be sharing our worries with you.” Snowheart stopped briefly, then lowered her head. “I’m sorry if I’m making you uncomfortable.”

Sea Swirl took a deep breath. “Don’t take this the wrong way, but I really hope you’re wrong.”

“Don’t be. That’s more than fair.” Snowheart put on a tight, throat-locked laugh. “I would love to be wrong about this diagnosis. But it’s a situation we’re not properly equipped to deal with. Something better dealt with between friends.”

“I can’t make any promises. Not ones I can keep.”

“And I can’t force you to do anything. Again, I’m only asking that you think about it.” The nurse ran her hoof along the inside of her foreleg. “So please, give it some thought.”

Sea Swirl didn’t manage a real reply—she nodded, and that was that. Snowheart was a good mare, and her heart was definitely in the right place: Reckless did need a friend to help her. She just needed the right kind.

The mares watched as the table’s argument came to a finality. The table was set upright, the hooves were dealt, and the blinds were paid.

Below her sea of blankets, Screw Loose kicked away, whining slightly in some foreign dream.

Sea Swirl quietly excused herself from Snowheart, and moved to comfort the nightmare-addled mare. She knew those dreams. Evidently, Reckless did, too.

As Sea Swirl’s hoof smoothed over Screwy’s covered back, she whispered soothing nothings. She tried to make them meaningful, to be more than cooled words. In a few spare moments, the kicks wound down. For the moment, the nightmares peeled back to puppy-dog dreams.

Sea Swirl leaned back, her rump placed square against the floor, and silently watched over her friend. She wished she had the strength to do more; she needed the same kind that kept Reckless brave in the face of so much hardship... and trauma. Sea Swirl’s gaze wandered back to the game.

Maybe, all she had to do was ask.

Comments

[Venerable Ro]

“All I ask is that you talk to her a little more about her history. But not about the land she claimed to live in, because we’ve exhausted our options there. She needs help working through who she believes she is.”

It's difficult to work through your war-torn past when your psychologist refuses to believe you're actually an isekaied veteran.

[TangyTango]

No place for a soldier, especially when everypony refuses to believe your broken ponish ramblings of war. Poor girl.

[Torrific]

A beautiful story with beautiful characters. I look forward to reading more

[redmar]

This is not an easy job for Sea Swirl but hopefully she can help Reckless.