I opened my eyes, peering into the inky blackness of the room I was in. Looking around, I felt the sweat start to bead down my forehead and my heart beat faster in my chest. My blood pressure raised as I pawed around on the floor looking for anything that could help me get my bearings. Eventually, I ran my head into a wooden object and after a couple seconds, discovered it to be the door. As I fumbled for the knob, I felt my wings strain against my restraints. What the hell, I remember taking them off, but I must have drunk enough to not remember putting them back on. I grasped at the clasp on the restraints. Why was the buckle so damn big, it’s only a couple of inches. Pulling the straps loose and tearing the restraint off, I let my wings beat softly in the small dark room. I felt like this has happened a few times before.
Finally grabbing the knob, I turned and pushed the door open.
I was standing in my room, but not the room I went to sleep in. Walking into my room back at my old house with my adoptive family, I felt a rush of fear and panic swamp me. I could hear the pigs outside and sister in the other room, practicing her magic. It was dark in the room and the moon was bright outside. Did not help to stem the flow of mass panic I was enduring, but something was off still. Turning around, I finally caught of look at myself in the mirror hanging on the wall. I was much shorter, and younger too. I turned around to my back and found that my scar and my mark were nowhere to be found. So I was not yet eleven, and I must have been dreaming, but everything seemed all too real. It really did feel like I have been there...or here.
Walking over to the door out in the hall, I quietly turned the knob and stepped out into the hall. I could hear voices talking downstairs, sounded like my father and two voices I did not recognize. The male had a low, powerful tone to his voice, while the woman had a more high class, almost regal quality. Almost like the royalty in the movies. They were arguing, about another woman, did not catch her name. The unknown man was yelling to my father, talking about how he needed to take care of something. His yelling got quieter as footsteps led towards the door and ceased after the slam from the front door. Seconds later there was a loud pop and then silence.
After a couple of minutes in the silence, there was a small flick and the sound of a cigarette lighting up. Seems like my mother was back. Great, I need to get back into my room before either of them find me.
“What are you doing out past your bedtime? You know what mom will do if she catches you.” a hushed voice whispered into my ear. I leapt up into the air and almost landed flat on my wings and back, if it wasn’t for a pink aura encircling me.
“Trixie, why would you do that? You almost made me give myself away.” I growled, struggling under the magic.
“Just looking out for you, I won’t be around here much longer. Get back to bed, now.” She commanded, releasing her magic, but before I could right myself, I dropped to the ground with a loud thud.
“What’s going on up there?!” My mother shouted at the top of her lungs. Trixie darted back into her room while I laid in a jumbled mess on the floor. “Go see what that shit kid is doing out of his room, and make sure he knows what happens when he gets out of line.”
The quick hard step of my father rushing up the stairs terrified me to no end, my blood rushed through my veins from my head into my throbbing wings and down to my feet. My impulse was to just get up and run to the window and fly away from here, but I couldn’t move. Frozen in fear as I was. I could hear my mother shouting all the while and the footsteps getting closer. My father stormed into the hallway where I was laying.
“What are you doing out here boy?” he shouted as he gripped me and slammed me into the wall, his green eyes dazed over, and yet still piercing straight into mine. “You know what happens to kids that get out of line. And who said you could take off your restraints? Was it Trixie? Oh, she will get what’s coming to her.”
He raised his hand, ready to strike. I braced myself for the blow, it seemed so familiar. The first smack knocked me into the ground, the flesh on my face numb from his palm. Standing over me, my father looked down and tightened his hand into a fist. Bringing it down, I clenched my eyes and shielded myself with my wings and hands. I kept my eyes closed, waiting for the strike, but it never came. After another minute or so, I finally opened my eyes to my father, standing there. Frozen in his stance, barely inches from my face.
Then out of nowhere, a woman, dressed in dark blue with large wings appeared over me. She looked down at me with a sort of disdain, but after a second something that I couldn’t decide between pity or caring. She then placed her hand on my chest. It felt cold to the touch. A single tear crept from her eye. Standing up, the woman walked down the hall and gave me one last stare. Unnerved, I just couldn’t look away from her. That is, until she snapped her fingers and I felt my father’s fist collide with the side of my face. I felt my breathing stop as my jaw fractured, my heart pumped but I couldn’t gasp at all for air and my world quickly went to black.
I bolted up in bed, my head throbbing terribly and my throat feeling incredibly dry. Wiping the sweat off of my forehead, I placed my hand on my jaw, feeling for any fracture or break. I sighed heavily in relief. All I felt was the knot from when it was broken a long time ago. After feeling nothing new, all I could think about was what a hangover I had. How much did I drink last night, it must have been a lot to feel this terrible or to have that ridiculously realistic dream. My thoughts kept going to green eyes and a silent tear, but other than that the dream quickly slipped out of the front of my mind.
I could barely remember what had happened after everyone left, but I vaguely remember something about mining and cigarettes and lots of vodka. Looking over on the night table, I saw the culprit of this massive hangover, two bottles of vodka and a bottle of wine. I must have had more than I thought I was capable of. Laughing to myself, I rolled over and came face to face with a sleeping Rarity.
Rarity. Right here, in my bed. Well, shit. Someone is going to kill me. Most likely Dash, since she helped me put her to sleep on the couch. She’ll probably think I took advantage of her. Not to mention what the others will do when they find out about this. My mind started to play tons of scenarios, all of which end with me somehow dying in an increasingly gruesome way. Great, went from panicking about one girl being mad at me to having five or six of them crushing my head in with a frying pan. My breath became shorter and shorter each passing second. I slowly moved off of my bed, hoping not to wake her up. The ramifications of what could have happened last night will probably be the last thing that might not have actually happened but still could have happened and what am I thinking? Oh crap, this is really bad. Really, really bad. Yep, that’s it, I am going to die today. In my disorientation of my mass quiet panic attack, I tripped on my keyboard’s power cord and slammed into my nightstand and knocked the bottles off, which clanked loudly onto the floor.
Rarity immediately shot up in my bed. Looking around, I could tell she was confused, very hungover as well. Her hands started to move throughout her hair, in what looked like an attempt in brushing out the tangles as she looked around the strange room she had spent the night in. As she scanned the area coming closer to where I was now sitting on the floor, I shrank down and folded my wings over my face in a sorry attempt in hiding myself. I could feel my face start to burn with embarrassment, the sweat bead on my forehead and my wings rustled as my panic shot through my whole body.
As I covered my face with my wings, I could barely see two sets of fingers grip the sheets followed by purple hair careening over like a waterfall. Then a pair of eyes came to meet mine. I closed my eyes as hard as I possibly could and tensed up like my life depended on it, because it did at this point. A few seconds passed in silence, then a soft rustling on the bed and a small giggle. Opening my eyes, I saw a pair of sapphires only inches away from mine.
Rarity giggled yet again, “They really are a lovely shade of lavender.” She placed her hand on my wing that I had covering my face and gently caressed the feathers. “Soft, like silk. Just did not expect them to be brown. I was slightly disappointed, darling. I was hoping that they would match your hair. But alas, some things are just not meant to be.”
Still laying on the ground, completely dazed, all I could manage to make in the way of noise was a slight murmur, much like a toddler caught with his hand in the cookie jar. But she just smiled and slid off the bed and cuddled up next to me.
“Besides, it is very rude to leave a lady sleeping alone when it is so cold. Your feathers make such excellent bed warmers.” She said very groggily, as if trying to fight the urge to fall back asleep.
“I guess, I didn’t dream last night then.”
“No, you did not. Although, with the amount of the drink we both had, I can see why you do not remember exactly what happened.”
Rarity pulled herself off of the floor and then proceeded to levitate me up with her magic. Placing me on my feet, she laid herself back down on the bed and wrapped herself up in one of the comforters.
“Ahhhh much better, not as soft as I would have, but still very warm.”
As she said this, I walked over to my keyboard and noticed it was on. I palmed my forehead so hard I could feel the impact in the tips of my toes and feathers and the stinging in my palm only helped to increase my panic.
“Please tell me I didn’t play drunk last night.”
I looked back to Rarity, who had managed to quickly fall back asleep in bed. She looked like a dream. Her chest rose and sunk underneath the the covers, her hair still looked a little messed up from last night but still was in her wonderful curls. I noticed her jacket draped over the back of my chair, next to my coat and restraints.
Grabbing my coat off the seat, my restraints fell to the floor with a small thud. Acting instinctively, I grabbed them off the floor, removed my shirt and started to strap down my wings. As I was doing this I took mine and Rarity’s coats and hung them up in the closet. Closing the door, I glanced at myself in the mirror that hangs on the door. Looking at myself, bound down in the leather and cloth and metal that had been my torture for years, I noticed the slight rustling and shifting of my wings. I mean, I could always feel some slight discomfort, but I had never noticed how much my wings were strained.
I just stared at them for I don’t know how long, although it felt like hours. It occurred to me in that moment, that for all these years, why I had continued to hide them. It was not shame or fear, but rather habit. I did use to fear what people would think if they knew, so kept them hidden the first year of freedom from my adoptive parents. After that it just became so habitual to wake up early and strap them down that the routine was muscle memory. Even when I was at the orphanage, I tried to hide them because of the older kids. They would pull out feathers and pin them to the ground. Just random things that would basically be hell, but I thought it best to stop dwelling on dreams and the past. I had new friends, great friends. Rarity was the first to ever say anything nice about my wings. Called them magnificent even.
After a couple minutes of thought, I unstrapped my restraints and slung them off into the bottom of the closet, never to put them on again. I beat my wings a few times in relief about never being bound down again. I decided to make a bit of food for the both of us, if she had any kind of headache like I had, then she would need it almost as much as me. Walking out of the room, I slowly closed my door to not wake her up and hopefully not Dash either. I turned around and saw something I feared the most. Dash, just floating there looking at me with a scrutinizing look.
“Well, well, well, what do we have here,” she smiled slyly, “Let me guess, breakfast?”
I laughed nervously and nodded. She flew past me and went into the kitchen and I followed suit.
“Someone is finally taking good to their wings now huh, and why is that?” she felt like an older sister to me, asking questions about my first day of school.
“I guess a late night cigarette and some memories can make you remember something special.”
“I’ll bet. Not gonna lie to ya, she has been trying to get information about you out of me all week. Ever since you decided to make her your personal crash test dummy.”
“What did you tell her?” slightly worrying.
“Nothing much, I barely know you as it is. All I know is that you are a peg that studies music and plays the piano, which you should do more often, if I may say so.”
“Well shit, that does mean I did play it last night.”
“Better than wallowing in self pity all the time isn’t it?”
“I do not wallow in self pity.”
Dash gave me a look as though I surely had to have been joking and just stated, “Well then, what do you call all this week?”
Without missing a beat, I replied, “Studying.” That, in fact, earned me a swift smack to the back of the head from Dash.
“You need to be out more anyway. Look at what one night has done for you. For one, you actually smiled last night for the first time in a week. You went from living in a car to having tons of friends and three, you have a girl that has been trying to see you all week, sleeping in your bed. Right. Now.”
Standing at the stove, I just stared down at the pan of eggs I was making. She was right, completely right. For far too long had I kept myself blocked off, whether it be with my emotions or using a heavy coat. This last week had been the most liberating week of my entire life. I felt light and happier. My wings were out for the entire world to see and I couldn’t care less.
“Yea, I guess you could say that it has done me well.”
“Hopefully you don’t go back into that depression. Because that being said, she’s not a perfect one, but she is a great girl and a wonderful friend of mine. She would give you the world if only you asked and want nothing in return. If you do anything, and I mean Anything to hurt her, so help me I will bash your wings into a door so hard in a door I will shear them off. Understood?”
“Got it.” I said, slightly gulping at the small peg floating in front of me, menacingly motioning the slamming of a door.
“Good” she said handing me a pan and a couple eggs “Now get going, the amount of booze you both drank, she will be needing one hell of a pick me up.”
As I hastily finished cooking myself and Rarity a simple breakfast of toast and eggs, Dash started to play some of her fast paced rock and started dancing all over the room. Laughing and trying not to get run over by the flying girl, I headed back towards my room.
“Wait,” Dash said as I placed my hand on the knob, “ You gotta Pinkie promise that you won’t let Rares down.”
“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye” I recited and followed the motions, “I won’t hurt her.” I said as I closed the door.
I sat down on the bed and gently nudged the sleeping Rarity, “Wake up. Got you something to eat.”
“hhhhhmmmmmmm not right now Sweetie Belle, it’s too early to feed you.”
She groggily opened her eyes and looked at mine. “Oh” she smiled at me and nuzzled into my side. She smiled at me as she took the plate and juice I got for her, as I laid down next to her as we ate breakfast and talked about nothing in particular at all.