Have I ever mentioned how unsettling it is to wake up in an unfamiliar place? Everypony has experienced it at some point, and the initial feeling can be quite jarring.
This author remembers several particular instances of such an experience. It was many years ago in the boisterous, light-soaked boulevards of Las Pegasus.
Las Pegasus: a beaconing lighthouse of cheap booze and debauchery that were the staple of my excursions ashore; the city was an old friend, and a dear companion. The allure of slots and scantily clad mares (and stallions) were a siren song, steering me in from dark waters and long nights at sea in a lonely bed.
And what a companion she was, always ready to empty the bits in my pockets and destroy my ailing liver with drinks. All while she surrounded me with cute mares and stallions with sparkling eyes under each foreleg. Sweet stars, those were the times.
Yet, like a cruel mistress, Las Pegasus always had this bad habit of abandoning me in a blackout stupor. Many times I awakened to unfamiliar surroundings, too many to count.
There was the time I found myself, come morning, passed out under an overpass on the I-95 to Cloudsdale, curled up next to a wild coyote.
Or the time I awoke in the fields of some blasted rock farm in the middle of nowhere, a sharp piece of granite lodged in my side.
The worst yet was waking up with the taste of stale alcohol in my mouth and smelling of old sweat on the floor of none other than Canterlot Castle. It was in the royal kitchen if I remember correctly, my head pounding like a drum, and my mind vibrating like a guitar string. Everything had been hazy, but I swear in my flashes of drunken celebration the night before, I distinctly recalled a blue mare. I think she was dancing with me at one point, but I think I glimpsed her slipping something into my drink. Next thing I remember was being beaten awake by some baker screaming something about a pie.
Now that I think about it, I could have sworn that strange, blue mare in Las Pegasus had wings and a horn.
Where am I going with this sea tale?
I don't really know.
What Bright Shine did know, was that his head was throbbing, and it was dark, and he had awakened to unfamiliar surroundings.
Dredged from the depth of unconsciousness, he had the unexpected but distinct sensation of being crushed. Everything was black, and he couldn't see, but something felt like it was jumping up and down on top of his battered body.
“Jump harder, Brood,” he heard the crackly voice of Gilbert nearby, though a bit muffled. “I can’t get the lid closed.”
“I’m tryings. Couldn’t you have found bigger trunk? How are we evens going to get rid of the body?”
"Just hurry up. My contact will be here any minute, and we need this thing in the back ally for when she gets here," the gryphon ordered. "It's easy for her to look the other way, what with her eyes. Trust me, she's great with deliveries," he spoke. "I told her to deliver this trunk to the bottom of the nearest ravine. Problem solved."
“Hold on you two, the Doc is coming out,” Pepper warned.
“Celestia on a stick, just great,” Bright Shine heard Gilbert chirp. “Maybe she can help us push the trunk outside. This guy is heavy.”
Bright Shine heard a pair of hooves trot closer, though everything was still black.
“I figured you all must have had your hooves full. I wasn’t getting any response from you all inside. Is that my trunk?”
It was Princess Luna, no doubt about it.
“I’m afraid your newest recruit bit the big one, Doc,” Gilbert said somberly. "Biceps over there really did a number on him."
“Such a shame,” she sighed.
What!? thought Bright Shine. Is this where I am? Am I dead? Did that big hunk of muscle really kill me?
He felt pain, pain all over himself. To be more specific, he felt cramped.
Luna's voice continued. “Well, we might as well get him out of here before the patient wakes up. Biceps should be coming to any minute now. Such a pity about Bright Shine, though." He heard a loud sigh. "–Wait," she stopped. "Is he in the trunk? Dammit, why are we using my trunk for the body."
"Sorry, Doc," –Gilbert this time. "It's all that we could find."
"You couldn't have found a rug or something? I liked that trunk," he heard Luna mutter. "Too late now, I suppose. Let's get this trunk into the alley before he starts stinking up the place."
Bright Shine suddenly felt himself lifted into the air. The darkness swinging back and forth. He tried to scream, to call out, but his chest was tight, and only a wheeze escaped his lips.
“Maybes we should checks if he has any belongings on him," he heard Brood's unmistakable accent. "Only so there is less evidence of course,” Brood quickly added.
“Smart thinking, Broodly,” Luna complimented. “Finally, something other than your bat nonsense. Look for anything he has on him while I see to the patient. He's coming around.”
Bright Shine felt himself lowered. There was the rattling of a latch, then light exploded across his retinas. He blinked, adjusting his eyes to the brightness as he held up a hoof.
Light. Life.
"Oh, for goodness sake." Peppercorn was standing over him, her head ringed by a halo from the bright lights of the dream chamber. "Gilbert, I thought you check for a pulse."
"But I did!" the griffon exclaimed, his neck shriveling into his slender shoulders in a puff of feathers. "It's not my fault he has such a flabby neck. You couldn't find a hoofball, much less a pulse."
Bright Shine ran his hooves around the rim of the trunk he was splayed in. "Did you–" He winced, tenderly probing the goose-egg-sized lump on his head while flakes of dried blood fell from around his ear. "Did you guys try to ditch my body?" he croaked, his voice weak and hoarse. "While I was alive?"
Gilbert's eyes grew wide behind his enormous glasses. "What? Us?" He nervously scratched at his molting feathers, unable to look him in the eye. "Of course not. We were just...taking you to the hospital."
Bright Shine rolled out of the box and onto the floor in a heap. "In a box?!" he wheezed, gasping through his battered chest. "You were going to get rid of me in a box. Like the family pet!" He ran a tongue over his bruised lips, wrinkling his nose. "Am I...am I missing a tooth?"
Broodly peeked anxiously from behind the safety of Pepper. "So is he likes a ghost or something?" the bat whimpered. "Or a zombie."
"Get your grubby hooves off me, you disgusting lupine," Pepper hissed, batting away Broodly with her clipboard. "Sweet stars, I can smell you from across the building." She reached down for Bright Shine's head. "Now, let me take a look at that bump, Bright. It looks pretty nasty."
Bright Shine skittered away like a bug out a fire. He stumbled up to his hooves, his head swirling back and forth. "No. No way," he proclaimed. "There is no way you or anycreature at this fly-by-night clinic is laying a claw on me." He backed up, slipping between metal carts and putting his rear against the wall.
"Don't be silly, Bright Shine," Peppercorn tutted. "We need to get that bump looked at."
"Not. A. Chance," he demanded, shrinking back from them. "You ponies are crazy! I'd be surprised if I was the only pony you lunatics had managed to kill. I mean, where did any of you get your training?"
Broodly cocked an eye toward either of his coworkers. "You guys were actually trained? Because I just lied about takings the online course to the Doc."
Bright Shine tore at his wild mane. "Unbelievable," he moaned. "I've been here two days, and in that time, I've been: mauled, drugged, been subjected to my own nightmares, and halfway killed by a roided pegasus. That is on top of being stuffed in a trunk," he pointed out. "If it were up to me, this place would be shut down – buried in fact. I can't even imagine what sort of horrors you are going to leave with Bulk after all this is through," he scolded. "Why, I bet he's nothing more than a brain dead veg–"
He suddenly noticed that Bulk Biceps was sitting up in his chair. It looked at first as if he might have been trying to strangle Luna, the though of which actually could have warmed his heart at the moment. But that was until he saw the tiny drops of liquid streaming down his cheeks.
Tears – he was hugging her. He was – happy.
"Thank you, Doctor," he heard Bulk choking on his words. "I...I can't believe it. How can I ever repay you?"
Luna gently patted the enormous pegasus on the bicep. "Don't thank me. We merely gave you the tools and guidance to make peace with your nightmares," she told him. "But we'll just go ahead and take that insurance; maybe a check, too."
Luna's eyes lit up as she spotted Bright Shine. "By my sister's flaming hindquarters, look who gets to live another day."
"Who?" wondered Bulk, turning toward them. "Woah," he breathed, staring at Bright Shine. "What happened to him? Tiny little guy looks like he was run over by a dump truck."
The chill nighttime air of Canterlot was rendered by a loud pop as Bright Shine and Luna teleported onto the empty boulevard.
"Here we are," the Princess proclaimed in the light of the streetlamps. "Home at last. Just like I promised you. Free of charge: this time at least."
Bright Shine gurgled on the gum-littered sidewalk beside her.
"Woops," she puttered, standing the weakened stallion on his shakey hooves. "Forgot to tell you it can be a little nauseating teleporting your first time."
"I would think–" he pressed a melting icepack to the bump on his head with a wince "–that would have been a good thing to tell me before you ripped me through spacetime."
"It will dissipate soon enough," she promised. "Great job by the way on your first day." She stepped onto the stoop of the apartment, guiding the woozy stallion up the steps. "I wish I had more like you, Bright Shine. Sturdy; able to roll with the punches, both figuratively and literally."
"M-hm," was all Bright Shine could manage. He fumbled for the doorknob.
Luna tiptoed out of his way, her hoofsteps echoing down the empty streets. "So, I'll see you bright and early tomorrow? It's going to be a busy day."
Bright Shine released a heavy sight. "Look – Princess, I..."
He paused, rattling the doorknob to the crumbling, rundown apartment. "I...I didn't lock this," he grumbled. "Why won't you open?" He gave the doorknob several more halfhearted tugs.
"Maybe it has something to do with this?" Luna offered, tearing down a paper taped to the frame. She hoofed it over.
Bright Shine's bleary eyes scanned over the words in the dim streetlight. "What. What! Evicted!" he cried. "I've been evicted!"
"Ouch," Luna flinched.
"My stuff." He crammed his head to the side windows, cupping his hooves and peering inside. "They threw out all of my stuff!"
"Perhaps it was just a clerical error," Luna interjected.
Bright Shine sunk to the porch, the notice crumpled in his hooves as a low moan escaped his lips. "This can't be happening," he croaked. "Where am I going to stay?"
"Any friends or family you could possibly stay with?"
Bright Shine sunk his head into his hooves, the melted icepack rolling down the steps. "Only a creepy uncle in Vanhoover who lives out the back of his van. Snowberry was all I had, and now she's in Fillydelphia, and there's no chance of her taking me in. Not how she left me."
Luna slid beside the dejected stallion. "In that case, perhaps I could give you a place to crash. Until you get all of this straightened out. What do you say?" she said, offering her hoof.
Bright Shine lifted his head from his forelegs, his bloodshot eyes reflecting in the sepia light of the street lamps. "You would do that for me?"
She shrugged, still holding her hoof out. "Of course; my employees are like family, Bright Shine. They might be a bit odd, and sometimes they can be batty, but I've always looked out for them. So what do you say?" She waggled her hoof. "Are you still with us."
Bright Shine lifted his hoof, hesitated. "Honestly, I don't know," he admitted. "For all I know, I might be making the biggest mistake of my life right now," he said, then grabbed onto Luna.
"That's the spirit!" she giggled. "I knew I could count on you." Her horn alighted in a dazzle of blue light. "Hold on."
Instantly, space was torn around Bright Shine as he rocketed through the fabric of reality. The dingy stoop in front of his apartment vanished in a flash, his mind scrambling inside his skull as he tumbled through a light that assaulted every neuron of his brain. It was a violent symphony of every color and sound imaginable, and for a split second, he would recall hearing what the color orange sounded like.
Then, it was over just as it started. The two had arrived in someplace dark and black as absolute night. It was like being in the trunk all over again.
"Just a sec," Luna told him nearby. "Let me get the lights."
Bright Shine could only manage a whimper where he was splayed on the cold, hard ground. His mind still reeled from the teleportation spell, and his body felt weird beneath him. He wondered if all of him had survived the ordeal.
"Where is that bloody switch," Luna muttered off to his right, stumbling through the darkness. "Ah-ha, here we are," she said with a click, the lights overhead blinking to light.
"W–Why are we back here?" Bright Shine wondered as the lights of the dream chamber crackled to life. "I thought we were going to Canterlot Castle."
"The castle?" Luna chuckled, trotting across the dream chamber. "Why would we be going to the castle? Celestia would have my flank if I brought somepony home after what happened last time. Found him sobering up come morning in the kitchen, poor fellow. I was only trying to help him have a little fun. Rumor has it he violated one of the pies. Stars, I miss Las Pegasus."
Luna stooped down, pulling on a ring set into the scuffed floor. The hatch opened with an ominous creak. "You're more than welcome to stay here, though."
Bright Shine cocked his sore head, wondering when the practical joke would be revealed. "Here? Seriously?"
"Go on," she nodded at the ladder leading down the dark hatch. "I had it put in a few years back. Just don't mention it to the zoning board or they'll fine us even further into bankruptcy."
Bright Shine warily descended into the hatch, his hooves clutching the cold rungs set into the concrete walls. He reached the bottom, a solitary, dim lightbulb hanging from a cord barely able to penetrate the gloom.
"Look who's back," Gilbert chirped from the top of a bunkbed pushed in the corner. "Gosh, that bump on the old melon sure looks bad," he whistled.
"What in Tartarus–" Bright Shine muttered.
Luna had reached the last rung behind him. "Sorry to burst in here like this at this hour, Gilbert," she apologized. "But Bright Shine seems to be having a tiny little housing issue. I figured you wouldn't mind if he crashed in the employee quarters."
"Of course not," the half-bird replied, scrambling down the creaky bed frame. "Mi casa es su casa." He threw a foreleg around Bright Shine. "You're going to love it. The diggs here are pretty sweet."
Bright Shine looked around the concrete box, or what he could see in the dim light. Besides the bunk bed with sagging mattresses, the only other piece of furniture was a sink basin and a few mismatched office chairs situated around a varnish-stripped table. The walls dripped with condensation, the air humid with the air conditioning that rattled in the dark ceiling. It made his skin crawl.
And something was hiding in the corner. Was that a drum set? It looked like it had been scavenged from the side of the road.
"Well, I'd better let you all get some sleep," Luna yawned. "Busy day tomorrow. I want you up bright and early, Bright Shine," she called back as she disappeared through the hatch. "There is so much more for you to learn."
With a bang, the hatch slammed shut, the lights of the dream chamber above them gone. The room suddenly seemed so much darker with its meager lightbulb.
Bright Shine slowly turned back to the griffon. His beak was stretched in a wide grin, his glasses barely hanging to the tip.
"Sooo," Bright Shine cleared his throat. "You live here?"
"Yeah, it's pretty sweet." Gilbert took a fluttering hop back to the top bunk. "This is going to be so awesome to have a roommate." He gave a happy chirp, bouncing on the bed, the frame releasing a tormented squeal. "I've got the top bunk, but you can have the bottom one. We can stay up late and play games and tell stories, like how we thought you were dead and we nearly dumped your body – sorry by the way – and we can watch scary movies, just as long as we don't wake up Broodly, he hates it when I wake him up."
"Broodly?" Bright Shine cocked an eyebrow.
Gilbert pointed a claw to the darkness overhead. "Oh yeah, he can be a real crab if you wake him up. He gets all–" Gilbert scrunched his face into a fearsome, open-beaked hiss.
Bright Shine scanned the dark ceiling, seeing no hint of the bat pony. But when he lended an ear and listened, he heard it: a low and fitful murmur of some creature. He was up there, somewhere, hanging from whatever pipe or crack he could latch onto. Bright Shine slowly became aware of the rush of blood through his veins, and he instinctively covered his jugular area.
"You don't have to worry about that," Gilbert chuckled. "He'll only suck on your neck if he likes you."
"Thank you, Gilbert. That doesn't make me feel any better."
With heavy eyelids and a sore head, Bright Shine settled on the bottom bunk. It creaked in reply.
And as he pulled the slightly musty covers tight around him, his mind wandered in the first provocations of sleep to the thought of Bulk Biceps. He had been hugging Luna, thanking her. He had seemed so...vulnurable. Could her treatment have actually helped him.
Above him, Gilbert reached up and clicked the light off, plunging the room into darkness. Somewhere overhead, the AC rattled and Broodly's sleepful, undistinguishable mutters continued.
The bunkbed creaked. "Hey. Bright Shine? Are you still awake?" Gilbert whispered.
The air released through Bright Shine's nostrils. "What?"
"I was just thinking," the griffon pondered aloud. "Since we're now living together – I mean, we share the bunk bed – doesn't that make us, like, brothers?"
Bright Shine rolled over, covering his aching head with the lumpy pillow. "Go to bed, Gilbert," he groaned. "Please, it's been a long day."
"Because I think it would be cool if we were, like, brothers. I mean, we have Broodly, but he says he would rather sit on a spear than be related to me. I guess what I'm trying to say, Bright Shine, is that if we are brothers," Gilbert whispered, his voice carrying around the basement. "I don't want you to touch my drum set."