“Hey!” a female voice pierced the darkness of the collapsed building around me. “Hey!” it called again.

“Serial number 34-216-964-45, Captain-” I muttered under my breath before something slapped me across the face.

“Hey!” Weiss’s voice shocked my eyes open, my Dragon Eye illuminating her white body in the waning night light coming from the moon beyond my poor excuse for a window. “What was all that?” she demanded, looking at me in all concern.

“What- where am I? What’s going on?” I demanded, looking around my surroundings feverishly wiping my sweaty brow on the back of my hand.

“You’re in the Canterlot Dungeons, same place that you’ve been in for the last month or so!” Weiss whispered back before hopping down to light a torch sconce with her breath.

With the torchlight illuminating the room more, I was able to ground myself once again and calm myself; still panting heavily.

“What were you dreaming?” Weiss climbed up onto the bed with me and cuddled into my embrace, acting like a service dog or stuffed toy in place of.

“My previous life.” I replied after I'd gotten to the point where I could speak clearly and calmly. “Specifically the first time I technically died.” I added, lifting up a corner of blanket to wipe my face off better.

“Was that from that Afghan place you were talking about yesterday?” Weiss looked up at me from below, pulling my blankets up over the two of us for comfort.

“Yeah. My squad was ambushed and killed, I was the only survivor and only barely at that. The building I was holed up in was destroyed by an explosive while I was on top of it and emergency evac only barely found me some eight hours of being buried under rubble later with a chunk of metal sticking out of my side.” I explained, going over the results of the memory and dream.

“Wow, and I thought I was having a bad day after that thing with Spike.” Weiss remarked in shock and concern. “Are you going to be okay?”

“Yeah, I think I'll be fine.” I mumbled, not entirely convinced of this.

Suddenly a sudden burst of sound had me up and at arms with a chisel in my hand, ready to defend myself.

“Who’s there! What’s going on!” I called out, getting into a low crouch to approach the cell door. “Identify yourself!” I demanded, rounding the corner in a defensive stance.

Movement behind me!

I twirled on my heel and brought my empty palm out and around the neck of whatever was behind me. Continuing the spin I dragged the rather heavy body over my hip and planted it firmly into the ground while the chisel blade leapt forward and pressed against a furry throat.

Male? Must be a beard. Taliban? Gotta be. I raised the chisel up to strike as the body beneath me squirmed.

“Wait!” a female voice demanded as a flicker of light appeared at the tip of a blue horn. I halted the plunge of the blade as the light became brighter to reveal a terror stricken Luna beneath me, eyes wide in horror of the weapon in my hand.

“Princess?” I asked more of myself as I cautiously removed my hand from her neck to wipe at my eyes and clear the falling sweat and, i’ll be honest here, tears. Sure enough, Princess Luna was sprawled out under me with a knife about to plunge into her throat held by me.

Not Taliban. Not male. Not even human.

I reeled backwards and dropped the chisel, out of reach from where I could reach it again. Weiss appeared and retrieved the potential weapon before scurrying out of reach again, clutching the shining metal blade in her claws.

“I- I wanted to make sure you were alright!” Luna explained, turning her head to look at me from where she laid on her back. “I saw what was happening in your dream and I came down to check on you!”

“I- I nearly-” I stuttered, crawling backwards on my hands and feet into the wall. “I thought you were-” I all but broke down right there as I hugged my knees to my chest. “Then what was that sound?” I demanded, looking up from my position at the two females in the room.

“It was the thunder outside!” Weiss replied, tending to Princess Luna to ensure her good health.

“Wasn’t there just a storm?” I shouted back through tears, thrusting a hand towards the outside world as another clap of thunder echoed through the caverns followed shortly after by a flash of lighting.

“It wasn’t long enough so they had to do another one.” Luna explained, sitting up where she was. Neither female approached me. “What’s going on with you?”

“I- All those people I killed… All those kids!” I mumbled as fresh tears streamed; or were those the old tears? I wasn’t sure. “That kid I got killed…” My mind went back to the Sergeant and the Corporal who had been on my squad at the time. I curled back up again and wept into my clothes, thoroughly soaking them through.

“I don’t know what to do!” Weiss whispered to Luna in concern. Luna looked back at Weiss in a similar fashion as both females watched me.

“Excuse me?” Weiss asked after a minute. “Can I help?” I looked up at the small girl through watery eyes for a bit.

“I don’t know.” I mumbled back before resting my chin in my arms wrapped around my knees.

“Can,” Weiss took a breath, making me do the same. “Can I touch you?”

I thought for a moment, staring at the shadows at me feet cast by the light on Luna’s horn. Slowly I nodded in reply. Weiss gave a small smile as she gingerly placed a hand on my arm, ensuring not to rake her claws over my skin in the process.

“Can I sit next to you?” she asked warmly. I nodded again, keeping silent. The baby dragon removed her hand and sat down against the wall with me before gently placing her hand on my side, making me tense up as the flames of the metal rod protruding from my side ignited once again. “Oh, I'm sorry!” Weiss exclaimed, pulling her hand back again.

“Is-” My tiny voice almost couldn’t break the silence of the cavern.

“Yes?” Princess Luna remarked, crawling forward to me on her stomach. “Is there something you need?”

“Is there some way to play a song from my memory?” I requested, looking up at the alicorn before me. “I can’t play it myself because it needs instrumental accompaniment but it helps.” I wiped my eyes off on my sleeve to clear away the water buggering up my vision.

“I don’t believe so, no.” Luna replied, dropping my face into my knees again. “But if you can provide what the instrument notes sound like, I might be able to synthesize something for you.”

“I-” I choked down a fresh wave of tears. “I’ll try.”

~~~

Over the course of the next hour, Luna and I had managed to orchestrate one of the few songs I could remember that would help; strangely enough it was a song from a video game I'd played so long ago, but whatever helps right?

“Do you want me to play it now?” Luna asked through weary eyes as the sun began to peek through the cell windows.

“Yes please.” I requested, having advanced to a semi-recovered state.

“Oh! Wait just a second!” Weiss popped up and ran off into her room. The sound of items falling and clattering together had me tilting my head before Weiss reappeared with a Jade in claw. “If I remember correctly, I can enchant this Jade to replay anything it hears!”

“That’s handy.” I noted as Luna looked at the dragon and her stone in confusion.

“I do not recall any such spell to do that with.” the Princess announced with furrowed brows.

“That’s because it’s not a spell, it’s dragon fire!” Weiss explained with a roll of the eyes. “If you want, we can record this song for the future!”

“I would appreciate that.” I replied with a small smile and a yawn. Weiss nodded in reply and turned back to Luna.

“When I breath on this, play the song.” she instructed before taking an impossibly large breath. Letting out a slow burn lick at the stone, Luna fired up her horn and began combining all the layers of the song we’d just orchestrated.

~~~

“That…” Luna’s voice trickled away slowly after the song had been played and burned into the jade stone. “That was beautiful.”

“Yep.” I replied simply as I remained seated against the wall behind me. I yawned, which lead the other two females to do the same.

“My, I had no idea so much time had passed already.” Luna remarked, looking up at the window to get an estimate of the time. “I think I'm ready for a nap.”

“Yep.” I added as I stood up and returned to my room. Dropping onto my bed again, I buried myself as deep under the covers as I could possibly go as Luna and Weiss approached the cell door.

“Do you want us to leave?” Weiss asked in concern, tapping her claws together anxious for me.

“N- No.” I let out in a tiny voice. Luna and Weiss shared a caring glance before entering into my room and crawled up onto my bed.

The girls both dug themselves into my covers, with Luna curling up next to me while I pulled Weiss into my body entirely.

“Try to sleep well alright? I’ll keep watch over your dreams if you’d like; hopefully prevent a repeat?” Luna offered gently, nuzzling the square of my back. I nodded in reply and clamped my eyes shut.

Author's Note

Okay so trying to write a PTSD induced panic attack was a tad difficult for me, however writing an anxiety attack is easier, so I used that. A bit of research later and I find out they're more or less the same and I'd managed to overthink the PTSD a bit to much and I confused myself.

If anyone who takes offense to me writing about PTSD or mental health and thinks I'm belittling it, I'll have you know I'm speaking from experience; Anxiety so you can all bite my shiny metal ass.

For everyone else,
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