Fluttershy

Zoe

I felt small movements on my back, like fingertips trailing down my spine. I was lying down, my eyes closed. My mom was probably waking me up for the first day of school, but I wondered why my alarm didn't go off. The fingertips on my back made my spine feel stiff, and sore, like someone had bruised it.

"Highness, it's time to get up." I heard her say. Her voice sounded different, like she had a cold or something, but I chose to ignore it and kept my eyes shut.

"Highness? That's a step up from Sweetie Pie that you always call me." I laughed, my eyes still closed tight.

"Princess Quinn, you need to get up." The voice said again. This time, I was puzzled. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion, but I still didn't open my eyes.

"Who's Princess Quinn?" I asked.

"You are, highness. Are you ill?" The voice said. I slowly opened my eyes, but my mom's face didn't appear. Instead, it was a person I had never seen before, and she had long pointy ears. Her clothing was covered in sparkles and jems, almost like a genie. I sat up quickly in my bed, startled at the sight of her. 

But it wasn't my bed. It wasn't even my room. It was much larger now, and the bed was triple the size of my own. I pulled the odd covers over my body, my head still above the seams. The window was larger too, and had a balcony. This was NOT my room. And the woman standing next to me was NOT my mother.

"Let's get you out of that bed and get you dressed, Highness." The woman with the long ears said. I jumped back as she started to grab the covers.

"Don't touch me." I said. She looked a little confused, but she backed off.

"Are you alright, Majesty?" She asked. She seemed to listen to my every word, so I used all that I could to get her out of the strange room.

"Get out. I will........dress myself today." I said. The woman looked confused, but my words worked, and she obeyed. When she closed the door, I threw off the covers.

My pajamas were gone. All that was left was a blue silk night gown. My hair was even braided behind me, in a tight pull up point on the top of my head. I charged out of the bed, running to the window. Out on the balcony, all I could see for miles were tall trees and massive rivers. Not the houses I had lived around.

"Where the heck am I?" I asked. The more I stood out and gazed over the major wooded area, the more my back hurt like someone had whipped me and left scars and bruises. I rubbed my shoulder with my hand, but that was a terrible mistake. Pain shot through my entire body like a volt of lightning. I swallowed a scream, just in case if the woman was outside of the door, listening.

Walking back into the room, I found the mirror and tore off the night gown, staring at my back. What I saw horrified me. (And in the not-so good way.)

My back was covered with a ginormous purple bruise, filled with scratches that looked like I was running through a forest. Around the edges of the bruise, it faded into a yellow-blue mix of my skin, and even touching it felt like a knife to my ribs and spine. But that wasn't even the worst of it.

Two very long slits were slashed into my back, like, to the bone. I didn't know why they weren't bleeding, or why I wasn't dead, but I knew that they were there, and they were very close to killing me themselves. With a gentle fingertip, I put my pointer finger to the edge of one of the slits. Whimpering in pain, tears running down my cheeks, my lip bitten by my white teeth, I slowly inched my finger into the slit. I had to pull whatever was in the slits out of my body.

It felt like fire ants were crawling into my body and eating me from the inside. It felt like lava was being poured down my throat. My entire body was on fire and there was no way for it to escape. Finally, my finger touched something inside. I used my thumb to grab it and tried to pull it out, but it wouldn't budge. It was almost like the object was connected to my body, and every time I tugged, it felt like I was ripping out my skeleton.