That's What Brothers Are For

Brothers.

We have all had one right? If not, you’ve at least had a friend who is so close to you, you consider them family. My brother however – went missing last week. It was just after me and him had a huge argument, we said we hated each other – we said we never wanted to see each other again. I now regret saying that once hearing about his disappearance. But I wasn’t going to just let him run away from me, I did daily searches for him, I asked ponies if they had seen him…they all said no. But nothing was going to stop me finding him.

I could only blame myself for what had happened to him. He’s more sensitive than me, I didn’t mean anything I said to him, but what I did say cannot be undone. As I searched Ponyville for him, the storm was hitting hard down on me. The rain was smacking against my coat, as my mane was dripping wet and was also hanging down in-front of my eyes. The small cottage like houses had their windows closed and their lights were on from inside the windows. I was the only one outside in the streets of Ponyville; therefore I couldn’t ask if they had seen him…I was alone on this one.

Remembering the argument he and I had brought a tear to my eye, hearing the yelling voices inside my head, remembering how we were shouting at each other as if we were enemies – I began to tear up from it.

“You’re nothing. You have no value!!!”

“Tornado, please, stop saying those things!!!”

“Well no-pony cares about you, welcome to life, Shimmering, where nothing is easy!!!”

“Shut up!!!”

“No, you deserve to hear it, I don’t like you…in fact I hate you, when I leave, I want you out of my life!!!”

“Y-you don’t mean that surely…”

“Of course I do, you mess things up, you never fight your own battles, and all you do is wait for ponies to do your dirty work – I’m sick and tired of it!!!”

“Shut up…”

“Make me!!!”

“Okay…fine. Tornado, you’re the worst brother I could ever have, all you do is try and control my life, but you can’t control what is not yours. Therefore, I am leaving…I never want to see or hear from you again!”

“Fine, go! GET OUT OF MY LIFE!!!”

I suddenly stopped, after remembering the fight me and him had last week, I silently cried to myself. Why did I have to do that? He was right, not me. I was controlling his life as if he was some kind of puppet; I didn’t mean to…I just wanted him to be safe. Unfortunately I drove him over the edge. Trying to shake the tears away, I continued my search for my missing brother before stumbling across a small alleyway. The brick walls at either side were covered in spider webs, dust, and some of the red bricking was missing.

However, knowing he wasn’t going to be here, I slowly ventured on down the alleyway in hope that I would be able to get some leads to where he could be. Unfortunately, I knew I wouldn’t. As the tears mixed in with the drops of rain coming down my cheeks, I kept my head looking down at the cold hard wet ground as my hooves splashed in the puddles.

Feeling an overwhelming guilt, that there were unfortunately no leads to the brother I had been searching for, I had given up completely. I just had to accept the fact that he was gone now…gone forever. I reached the end of the alleyway, feeling the rain hit me harder than ever, before falling down and sitting against the corner. The cold of the harsh rough brick wall bit into my back. I buried my face into my hooves, sobbing lightly and cradling myself inside my wings. There was a small sewer grate below me, the rusted metal stabbing into my flank softly. Not too painful, but I could feel it.

I then opened my eyes, realizing the sewer grate was there. I sniffled, before crawling away from it and seeing the Equestrian Flag engraved onto the steel. It was the Equestrian Sewer corp. I grabbed two handles that were on either side of it, before trying to remove it from the small hole it was fitted into. I felt it move slightly, the rubbing metal screeching. I shivered, before managing to remove it from the manhole it was jammed into.

I slowly climbed onto the rusty, decaying, ladder before climbing down slowly into the darkness. Darkness did indeed shroud me, but the dim light from the outside world managed to light up my way slightly. Once reaching the bottom, the cement textured floor below me was a dull cream color covered in bits of chunky waste from the stream next to me. Yuck! I slowly walked my way through the sludge that surrounded me into the darkness ahead, yet hearing snickers and chuckles of ponies ahead, I quickened my pace to try and see if it was him.

I ran down the sewer, chasing the sound of the laughter. I slowed down when I saw a faint shimmer of light and a shadow… I came to a corner and peered around it. There, hanging from the roof was a large lantern. Below this was a chair; strapped to it was my brother Shimmering Honor. He had his head down, eyes blackened from a good beating. His pristine blue coat was a mess, covered in red stains. His wings were spread out behind him and tied to the floor, his forelegs strapped behind the chair.

“Well well, Mr Shimmering Honor!!!” Said one Earth Pony, “looks like you have gotten a little bit in over your head.” The Stallion laughed as he lifted a wrench in his mouth, dropping it down on my brother’s left wing, the sound of bones shattering filled the tunnels. Shimmering didn’t even flinch. He looked up at the three stallions surrounding him.

“You won’t ever get out of here alive,” he spluttered. The stallions look at each other and laughed.

“Oh and who is going to stop us…you!?” Said another stallion, his horn glowed as it picked up a large rock and flung it at Shimmering, it caught him square in the stomach. Again my Brother didn’t flinch. The three stallions kept laughing. My blood boiled, my heart rate increased and a twitch shot through my wings… I stepped out into the open and made myself known.

“Don’t hurt my brother!” I said in a low voice, the stallion nearest me turned around.

“OH...look here, this little runt of a Pegasus wants us to leave Shimmering alone” Laughed the Pegasus Stallion. This made my blood boil more, my wings spread wide, a growl in my throat, I shouted at the stallions.

“LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE!” This time two of the other ponies looked shocked, the third just laughed harder.

“What are you going to do little Pegasus?” The stallion laughed. I looked over at my brother, his head had dropped again, but he looked up at me and evil grin on his face, his pupils had shrang and his mane covered his right eye. I saw his right wing move...it came free of its bindings.

“I am going to kill you,” I said under my breath, Shimmering’s forehooves where free now.

“And how do you plan on doing that then?” Asked the Unicorn on the left. Hind legs freed, Shimmering Honor Stood up, his left wing was limp.

“By breaking your necks,” Shimmering said, the Earth pony to the right turn in time to see a flurry of blue as Shimmering shot at him, wrapped his hooves around his head and twisted it sharp to the right, popping noises emanating from the neck, a look of shock frozen on the Stallions face. I rushed forward and flapped my wings, taking flight, hooves outstretched; I planted them into the Unicorns face. Knocking him over, I used all my force to push down, slowly crushing his skull.

“No...No wait, please. No nononono...Aahhhhhhhh!” Came a scream; I turned around to see the other Pegasus try and run away, my brother in chase, the wrench in his mouth. I turned to the Unicorn under my hooves to find him dead. I flew after my brother and the last Stallion.

We rounded corners, up small inclines and slid down slopes, but the stallions luck soon ran out. Dead end, quite literally. He looked left and right to see if there was a way out, but my brother slowly advanced on him, giving a small chuckle….

“No, please, no no no, please don’t…” whimpered the Pegasus, he was now curled up in a ball in the corner, tears rolling down his cheeks.

“Should have thought about that before you abducted me.” My brother said and raised the wrench.. Thud. A spray of red covered the walls and one set of lungs stopped breathing.

It had been a week since the incident in the sewer and Shimmering and I are now on better terms with each other that time apart had both hurt us. We never wanted to go through something like that again. The arguing stopped and soon we were living peacefully in Ponyville again.