Broken

by Bicyclette


Chapter 6

Shining regretted taking that step immediately, as a sharp shock of pain shot straight up his leg along with the pained sound of metal moving in a clamping manner. He gritted his teeth, holding back the need to scream in pain like his body’s survival instincts demanded, knowing that despite being inside of what he assumed was some sort of hospital, there was nothing here with good intentions. Hence the bear trap he had just stepped on.

Shining slowly looked down, confirming his suspicions. On the positive side, the trapping instrument was as rusted as all the metal around him, so much of its force and sharpness had been lost, so his leg would survive the ordeal.

Before he could think better, he tried using his magic again, but once more, the only thing he got was a wave of pain coming from the back of his skull as his eyes saw firelights.

“Right, broken horn. How could I forget?” He said to himself before reluctantly using his mouth and teeth to pry the bear trap open. To be fair, he was suffering from some sort of amnesia. 

Remembering that ─ironic as it sounded─ Shining recited what he could remember from before as a sort of mantra as he worked on the bear trap.

A picnic basket. A maple tree, upon a hill. Royal Glen Park, in Canterlot. The leaves there were the colour of an auburn mane, a very familiar auburn mane. An auburn mane that belonged to a pony that was angry with him. That blamed him for something he had done out of desperation. That had asked “How could you?” from somewhere. That it was probably looking at him right now. From somewhere.

Shining finally managed to release the bear trap from his leg and quickly removed the limb from the instrument’s biting range. A close inspection revealed that, luckily, the metacarpus wasn’t broken, but he was bleeding a considerable amount, he would need bandages, soon.

Shining decided that he had wasted enough time and started moving, checking the floor in case of more traps set out for him, and the surrounding for any kind of medical elements or at least a clean enough cloth that he could use to cover his wound.

Then he remembered ─again, amnesia is complicated─ the other thing he was looking for since he broke out of his restraints. He was looking for words. written words that he could read over and over again. A form of checking if dreams and illusions were real that Twilight taught him long ago.

However, he started to doubt the method. He was in pain. Trying to use his horn was painful. The blood seeping from his wound felt real. This should mean that he was awake. That all of this was real. 

Looking around once more, seeing the destroyed hospital reeking of blood and rust, he wondered if maybe he was trying to convince himself that he was dreaming.

It didn’t take him long to reach the end of the hallway, where he found himself in front of a T intersection, leaving him a choice of left or right before continuing his meandering.

He also found one of the things that he was looking for. 

There were three simple words scratched into the wall.

Twilight’s method said that if things were a dream, each time he read something, the words would be different.

However, each time he read the three words, the three words remained the same.

Sending the same uncomfortable message.

“Please Wake Up”