When the Circus Came to Town

I woke up to the sound of clinking. I tried to open my eyes, but only the right one opened, the other was swollen shut. Everything was a blur. I blinked a few times to try and focus my view. It worked a little, I could make out the outline of a bed with protruding springs to my left, a desk near a window in front of me. I looked around for what made the clinking noise. I couldn't make much out due to my vision, but it was clearing up with every minute that passed. Eventually I found it. A small glass bottle that must have rolled under my desk. I picked it up and it had a cork in the top. I tried to grip it with my teeth but my head hurt so much that I couldn't put any strain on my body, lest I experience vast amounts of pain. I decided that it would be best to try and wait it out, to open the bottle later. I placed it in the top drawer of my desk, hidden from sight.

So I got up onto my bed with it's protruding springs and closed my eye.
Darkness and hurt were all that were left to me.

***************************************************

I have no idea how much time passed since I fell asleep, but I know that my strength and vision came back, even if only slightly. I went over to the desk and pulled the top drawer out. The bottle rolled to the front and made a clinking noise. It seemed to have a small object inside of it, and I wanted to find out what it was. I tried my teeth one more time to pull the cork out, but the now larger lump on my face made that impossible. Then I tried my front hooves, my lack of depth perception made it difficult to do, but with a lot of time and determination I managed to uncork the bottle. I immediately tipped it upside down and shook it to extract the contents.

Then there was a noise at the door, like a key sliding into place.

I quickly threw the bottle in the drawer and closed it. It couldn't have been more than a half a second between when the drawer closed and the door opened. My mother stepped in with a small bale of hay. She threw it in my room and without a word, closed the door and locked it.

I could feel my soul shatter then and there. Not even my own mother would talk to me.
But I was alone to see what was in the bottle.

I dove back into the drawer to find it, and when I did I snatched it up and found that the object within was halfway protruding from when I tossed it in the drawer. It was a sheet of paper, rolled up and stuffed in there. I pulled it out and unrolled it. It had a note.

Ironhoof,

I'll be back for you, I don't know when, but hold fast to yourself and don't lose it.

It might be all you have left.

-Lily

She didn't use Squirt. She remembered that I hated it.