Brothers

Written by tomer3391
Edited by Aphotic Hope

---------------Rafael dream--------------

Darkness was all there was. No light, no hope, just darkness. Rafael had woken up to this aggressive darkness. His sweaty palm continued to secrete the liquids of anxiety and fear as two red angry eyes opened and loomed overhead. There was a low growling as the eyes stared at Rafael, unblinking.

The creature above Rafael moved closer to him. Rafael’s heart began to beat harder, louder, faster. His heart was practically beating in his throat, threatening to murder Rafael’s hearing. The creature continued to edge closer and Rafael couldn’t take it anymore
“Why? Why do you hunt me in my dreams?! What did I ever do to you?!!”
Rafael desperately called out into the darkness, half-expecting a reply from the monstrous beast.

As Rafael’s voice reached the monster’s ears, it stopped its descent and chuckled slowly. Out of the darkness, Rafael was able to make out the creature’s balled-up hand, appearing from the lightless wisp. The hand and arm looked of something mixed between human and reptile, an abomination. The hand opened slowly, revealing its contents and almost stopping Rafael’s heart completely. In its palm, the creature held three tickets that were stamped in blood. These tickets were the same tickets that one of his best friends, Tommy, had.

--------------- Equestria: Week 1, Day 4, Time: 4:00AM---------------

Rafael shot up from his mattress and kicked the covers off him screaming. The shrill yell echoed off throughout the room. Rafael’s breathing was labored and shaky as he rubbed his face with his hands. Rafael gulped and looked out the window, peering into the dark. This was the third night that Rafael had woken up screaming in the middle of the night.

Twilight had heard mumbling coming from Rafael’s room and came to check on him a little bit ago. Every time Twilight had attempted to wake Rafael’s sleeping form, the only reply would be a kick to the muzzle or an ear-piercing scream. She had given up and fallen asleep at the foot of the bed, but the recent scream woke her and made her jump.

Twilight began thinking to herself, ‘Rafael had told me that he had nightmares, even at a young age, but he never had any kind of unrest while he was in the hospital.’ Twilight quickly shot out a spell from her horn, sound-proofing Rafael’s room so that no other ponies would awaken because of him. Twilight sighed and said to herself, “This is getting out of hand. I’ll contact Princess Luna tomorrow and see if she can help Rafael out.”

Twilight had a last glance at Rafael before leaving his room and returning to hers. She lay on her pillow as the darkness of slumber overcame her. Her last thoughts were hopes that she could help Rafael get rid of his nightly terrors forever.

---------------3 hours later----------------

Rafael was in the shower, like always, trying to forget last night’s nightmare. He was a wreck, physically and emotionally. Rafael sighed and spoke to himself, “Even here I can’t get a peaceful night of sleep.” He rubbed his eyes and groaned lightly. “Well, time to welcome the new day…” Rafael finished rinsing himself off and shut the water off, dried himself, and donned the clothes he came to this land with.

After his morning routine, Rafael yawned and headed into the main room of the library, seeking a book to read while the rest of the residents of the tree happily slept.

“Ahh, what should I read today…” Rafael hummed and looked at the shelves that were organized by labels.

“Fantasy… Hmm, nah. I don’t feel like Da-Daring Do. Sci-fi? Nope. Hmm, what’s this?” Rafael pulled a hardcover book off of a shelf and peered at the cover. The cover was one that Rafael would depict to be magic. “Maybe I can do magic…” Rafael laughed as he said that, “No way…” But still, Rafael was gleeful at the possibility that he could become a super human. Not just any super human though, a super human that gets the girls. Human girls, mind you…

“Hmm, alright. Let’s see… I think I’ll start by trying a telekinesis spell. Here it says that even an infant can cast it. Ha, can’t be too hard for me.” Rafael shuffled over to a table and sat down, laying the book down to try magic on. Rafael closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths before concentrating. He began grunting and groaning in concentration, and eventually frustration, as a purple alicorn follow by a small purple dragon began trotting down the stairs. Halfway down, the two stopped and looked at Rafael’s ordeal.

Rafael stopped with his sound effects and breathed coolly, nervous that nothing had happened. Like ripping a bandaid off, Rafael pulled his eyes open to look at the book. To his complete disappointment, nothing had happened. Rafael groaned in defeat, but heard a chorus of laughter emit from behind him. He swiveled his head and looked up the stairs to see Twilight and Spike sitting on them laughing hard.

“D-D-Did you *hehehe* see him?” Twilight asked Spike.

Spike, almost falling off the stairs, replied, “I *hehe* did. He looked like he *hehe* was trying to *hehehe* take a shit.”

The two continued to laugh at the embarrassed human with a pretty red-hot blush going.

“That’s me-me-mean *hehe* Spike!” Twilight and Spike began to break down as the laughter continued to consume them. Before long, the two tripped over their laughing and tumbled down the stairs and hit the ground with a loud thump. Unfortunately for Rafael, they were still laughing.
Rafael rolled his eyes and sighed, “Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up now. Get it out of your system.” The irritated human tapped his foot for a few seconds as the pony and dragon began to recover, look back at the human, and break out into another hysterical laughing fit.

Before he knew it, Rafael was laughing at his stupidity as well. The laughing must’ve been contagious because all three of them were having a hard time breathing through it.

“Alright. So now that we’ve all had our share of laughs, let’s get serious for a second,” Twilight said firmly, “Spike, I need you to go down to Rarity’s so she can start making Rafael some actual clothes. He can’t walk around in that hospital gown.” Before Spike could take off, Twilight gave him a small sheet of paper that had some information regarding Rafael’s dimensions.

Twilight turned to Rafael and said, “Alright, so. I spoke with Princesses upstairs and I have two things to tell you. First, they said that they were happy to see you on your feet! Second, Princess Luna informed me that she will be coming to meet you in the evening.”

Temporarily ignoring the news from the princesses, Rafael asked, “Twilight, you didn’t have to send Spike out to do my dirty work. I’m sure that if Rarity and I talk again, she’ll understand my ordeal and look back on it as some silly tale. Also, who’s Princess Luna?”

“The Princess of the Night! Why do you ask?” Twilight answered and asked, hoping for a jovial first meeting between Rafael and Princess Luna.

“Er, no reason. No reason at all. I already know my lines for the princess. All I have to do is wait, and play them out.” Rafael got up and began walking over to the library’s front door. Without turning back, Rafael called, “I’ll be back home during the evening then.” Rafael waved a hand in the air and strolled out the low door.

Rafael was looking around, walking down random streets. “Let’s see, where is Rarity’s store thing?” Rafael asked to himself as he passed by the same house for the third time. Three young fillies also passed that same house for the third time, not too far behind Rafael.

Continuing to follow slowly, Applebloom turned to her orange pegasus crusader and asked, “Scootaloo, are ye sure that butterflah nets will be enough to catch that monster?”

Scootaloo snickered and replied, “Don’t worry! Even though he’s bigger than the nets, he’s a monster and we all know that monsters are stupid.” Scootaloo grinned while pacing next to Applebloom.

“Hey, wait a second.” Sweetie Belle looked beyond the monster and saw the Carousal Boutique. She cocked her head and asked quietly, “Umm, girls? Why’s the monster walking to my house?!”

Rafael looked up from the trail to find a finely decorated Carousal Boutique before him. “Aha! Found it!” He jogged on over to the structure and opened the door. Inside, were an elaborate array of outfits, donned on scattered pony-shaped mannequins. After vaguely looking over the outfits, Rafael raised his hands to his mouth and cupped them before yelling into the store, “Rarity! Could you come here for a sec?”

The white unicorn’s invisible voice called back, “Just a minute, darling!” A minute later, Rarity began descending the steps in the back and looked up at Rafael, recognizing him. She sighed and spat at him, “Oh, it’s you.”

Rafael heard the venom in her tone and tried a shot at diplomacy, “Look, Rarity. I know that we got off on the wrong foot –“

“Hoof.”

“Hoof… We got off on the wrong hoof, but all I want to do is start over and become friends.” Rafael braced himself for a counter-measure from Rarity.

Rarity took a deep breath and replied, “Very well. I was anticipating an apology. I accept your apology and the fact that all this bad blood was completely your fault.” Rarity’s face still bared a hint of irritation, but Rafael was willing to live with it.

Unfortunately, Rafael had to open his fat mouth open and say, “I wouldn’t snap at you if you were to invade my personal space and touch me all over.” Rarity gasped and her face went red with anger.

“Well, I never! That’s it! Get out of my shop and I don’t want to see you here again!” shouted Rarity and turned around to buck Rafael out.

Rafael dodged the buck with millimeters to spare and responded hotly, “Fine! I’ll never come back to this old dump again!” Rafael hurried out the door and slammed it behind him. There was a loud bang, probably something colliding with the shut door and an agitated scream emanated from the building behind him.

Rafael made his way back into the streets of Ponyville when he heard three small voices behind him. It wasn’t like he was in a bad mood or anything. Regardless, Rafael spun around and almost had a heart burnout from what he saw before him.

All Rafael could mutter was, “C-c-c-cu-cute.” The three fillies looked up at the monster before them in the most menacing pose that they could strike up.

Unfortunately for them, Rafael saw it as the most adorable pose that they could’ve ever stricken up.

The three voices yelled out in unison, “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS MONSTER HUNTERS! YAY!” The three fillies leaped up at Rafael in an attempt to catch him in their nets.

Rafael let the little foals have their fun and played along saying, “Oh no! You got me!” Rafael said in fake worry. He got to his knees and began coughing and fell to the floor, pretending to be unconscious.

“Yes! We got it! Alright, let’s take the big thing over to Rainbow Dash now. She’ll kick this thing into next week!” Scootaloo cheered to her comrades.

Hearing Rainbow Dash’s name made Rafael’s blood run cold. Rafael and Rainbow Dash also held a grudge against each other and Rafael didn’t want to completely destroy his day so he quickly got up and pulled off the nets.

“Nope. None of that.” Rafael turned away from the Carousal Boutique and began fast-walking. The Cutie Mark Crusaders yelled as their convict attempted to flee and chased him. Looking back, Rafael told them, “It’s nothing personal. I’d rather just not meet Princess Luna with a black eye.”

The Crusaders continued to follow after Rafael. The yellow filly with a red bow looked at the orange filly and whispered, “I told you the nets wouldn’t work!”

“Sorry, kids. I’ll play with you another time! I’m actually kind of busy at the moment.” Rafael began to take his fast-walk into a jog, and then his jog into an outright sprint. The sprint completely left the CMC in the dust.

The clouds of dust behind Rafael slowed the CMC until they couldn’t keep up at all.

“Aw… Horse apples. We lost him.” Sweetie Belle looked down at the dirt between her hooves in defeat.

Applebloom put a hoof on Sweetie Belle’s shoulder and asked, “The nets didn’t work, so what do we do now?”

"The nets didn't work what do we do now?" Applebloom asked her friends.

Scootaloo adopted an evil smirk on her muzzle and looked at her friends. She asked, “Why not ask for some help from Rainbow Dash?”

“Now why in the world would Rainbow help us?” Applebloom asked Scootaloo as Sweetie nodded with similar logic.

Scootaloo stamped a hoof and asked, “Girls, do you want your cutie marks? Do you?!”

“Well, yes.” Sweetie replied.

Scootaloo chuckled to herself and replied, “Good. Alright, I’ve gotta plan to get us our cutie marks for sure! Hehehe, here it is. First, we have to tss tss tss ---.”

Scootaloo began to lay out her plan to her friends and after the discussion they all jumped up and clopped each other’s hooves, excited.

------------------Sweet apples acres---------------

After his escape from the three earnest fillies, he aimlessly walked up to Sweet Apple Acres where Applejack hired him. At first he wasn’t too keen on the idea, but after a glimpse at his miniscule muscles, he decided that it would help recompose his physique.

“So, uh, AJ. I think I met your sister today… I have to tell you, she’s real adorable.” Rafael began in an attempt to initiate small-talk.

Applejack replied friendly, “They sure are!” From the tone of voice, Rafael could easily tell that Applejack was quite proud of her sister.

Behind Rafael, he heard a rash voice yell, “I knew we shouldn’t trust you, you freak!” Rafael turned around to see Rainbow Dash floating a little ways up with her hooves crossed.

Rafael could only sigh. He asked, “What do –.” Before Rafael could even get half the question out, Rainbow had soared down and bucked Rafael into a tree. Before Rainbow could connect a second blow, Applejack got in the way.

“Now, you listen here, Rainbow. You didn’t have to go n’ do that. Whah in the hay would you even buck ‘im?”

“What? Applejack, why’re you take his side?!” Rainbow yelled at Applejack in disbelief, but Applejack ignored the question and looked back at Rafael. He had slid down the tree he made impact with and fell on his face. He was still eating dirt when Applejack looked back at him.

Applejack redirected her attention to the pegasus in front of her. “Alrighty then, you need to listen here, Sugarcube. Just tell me what Raf over there did to yeh that made you get yer clouds in a bunch.”

Rainbow harrumphed and crossed her hooves again. She blew some of her mane out of her eyes and shot, “Scootaloo said that he was tryin’ to hurt the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

“Alright, Rainbow. Look at ‘im. He wouldn’t even hurt a flah. I’ve been workin’ with him for a lil while now n’ he didn’t lie to me, not once.”

Rainbow simply growled, “Fine, but that doesn’t change anything!” Rainbow swiveled mid-air and just flapped away.

Once Rainbow was out of earshot, Applejack trotted over to Rafael’s motionless figure and asked, “You ‘kay there, Sugarcube?”

Rafael finally decided that it was a good time to pull his face out of the dirt. He chocked and coughed some dirt up and replied, “Yeah, I’m fine. The only thing hurt here was my pride.” Rafael slowly got up to his feet and brushed some dirt off clothes. Rafael sighed and continued, “Listen, Applejack, I’ve got an appointment in an hour, so I think I’ll be heading out now.”

Rafael looked up to the skies and flinched as a little pain in his ribs began to make itself known. Rafael shrugged it off and took note that the skies were showing hints of orange painted here and there. The sun was beginning to set.

“Alright, then. Seeya later Raf. Take care, yeh hear?” Applejack called to Rafael as he made his way to the gateway leaving SAA.

“Ugh, what a day. Maybe I should’ve just stayed at the library…” Ralph thought aloud. He was trudging down a trail, holding his ribs in a self-hug.

He found the library, but before he could make his way to it, three familiar voices spoke up behind him.

“Alright, girls! The monster is weak and tired. Let’s get him now!” Rafael turned around in time to catch the nets in his hands and yank them from the grip of the CMC.

“Hey! Give them back!” Scootaloo shouted at the monster and growled.

Without a hint of emotion, Rafael aligned the three nets in his hands and snapped them over his knee.

Raphael point his finger at all three of the fillies and shouted, “Because of you, I got bucked into a tree! Stay away from me!”

The three fillies’ eyes began to shimmer with wetness. Each one broke into a loud sob and began to flee from Raphael’s presence.

“Damnit, me and my big mouth. No, don’t go.” Raphael followed after the CMC but halted as he saw them run into the forest. That forest. The forest of his dreams. These weren’t just any dreams, these dreams were nightmares. Rafael broke into a panic and beads of sweat began to accumulate on his forehead. Rafael shook his head and made his decision. He kicked off and chased after the fillies.

-------------The Everfree-------------

Fearing that Rafael would catch them, the three fillies ran erratically through the trees. Finally, after they had galloped a while, they slowed their pace and caught their breaths.

Sweetie asked the posse between gulps for air, “Do… Do you think we-we lost him?”

After a little while, Applebloom finally answered, “Ah think so. I don’t hear any hoofsteps.”

Scootaloo nervously asked, “Uh, girls? Where are we?”

As a response, there was a sudden growl in the shrubs near Sweetie, well not anymore because she screamed, ran and hopped up onto Applebloom. All three fillies saw a pack of timberwolves materialize from the bush, the stench they secrete finally reaching the fillies’ noses.

Although, the odor was very disgusting, the fillies’ fear was more compelling on the mind than the odor was. There was a single alpha with five smaller timberwolves trailing behind it.

The wolves branched out and surrounded the fillies and slowly edged closer, seeking to secure an easy kill, or three.

A hungry wolf couldn’t wait anymore and leapt at the frightened prey, only to get its face smashed aside. The rest of its body shattered into disarray across the dirt. The five remaining timberwolves immediately directed their attention at the assaulter, to find an even better prey than the little fillies.

Rafael flew out of the shrubbery and landed a few feet away from the shaking fillies. He boldly held a stone in one hand, and a thick stick in the other.

“Stay away from the ponies!” Rafael shouted at the wooden wolves.

As the wolves charged him, Rafael let out a battle cry and threw his stone, knocking another wolf out of the fight. With a little more time, Rafael took hold of his stick with both hands, smashing another timberwolf’s head in. Unfortunately, two of the damned predators had snuck behind him.

Before he could react, the two attackers sunk their teeth in his left leg and his right arm, the arm with the stick.

There was an ear-piercing crack as Raphael’s arm snapped, bending it irregularly as he dropped the stick. Rafael’s leg was bleeding as the wooden teeth of the timberwolf punctured through the skin and muscle, heavily reducing Rafael’s dexterity.

"Hey! Leave him alone!” Scootaloo shouted at the wolves. They pulled off of Raphael and snarled at the fillies for intervening. This gave Raphael enough time to grab the wolf at his arm into a headlock and pull the wolf’s head off. With his other leg, Raphael kicked down and flattened the other wolf’s head.

The last wolf was the alpha. It snarled and growled at Raphael before charging. Raphael got up to his feat and picked up his stick with his left hand and holding it out in front of him like a spear. The alpha leapt at Raphael and got punctured by the stick, through where it’s heart would be. Raphael had stopped the wolf with his mass and pulled the stick upwards, ripping through the wolf’s chest and splitting the wolf’s back and head in two.

Raphael took in a deep breath and dropped his stick. He knew that he couldn’t feel the intense pain in his arm and leg yet because the adrenaline was telling his brain to ignore it, but he knew he’d be feeling it later. Three fillies trotted over and leapt onto Raphael, crying. Raphael took a glance at his arm and saw something puncturing it. He shook his head to clear his blurred vision to see his own bone, piercing the skin, causing blood to leak everywhere.

Before he knew it, Raphael fell over with the fillies atop him, and passed out due to the immense blood loss. The three fillies began to call for Raphael, but all he heard were muffled words. Without comprehension, Raphael was disconnected from reality.

One by one, the wolves began to glow in green magic and the sticks began to crunch back together, recreating the wolves. With no other hope, Scootaloo could only shout out for Rainbow Dash.

-------------Dream-------------

Rafael woke up in an empty abyss. The only thing inhabiting this void was Rafael and a single mirror before him. Rafael advanced towards the mirror and put his hand on it. Instead of meeting a solid surface, Rafael’s hand flowed through the mirror as if it was liquid. Soon after, the rest of his body followed suit and passed through the mystical mirror.

-------------Reality-------------

Rafael’s body twitched and he shot up into a sitting position, shooting the fillies off of him like a catapult. Instead of just sitting up though, Rafael had shot completely up and began charging the reincarnated wolves at full throttle, all the while screaming. Before he could do anything though, a blue beam shot down from above the canopy and completely disintegrated one of the wolves.

The rest of the wolves whimpered and turned tail. Rafael still chased them to secure their complete destruction, but a dark blue pony fell from the skies and landed in front of him.

“Fear not, young ones! We have arrived to save thee!” Luna shouted with her Royal Canterlot Voice. Rafael wasn’t faltering though, he continued to charge towards Luna, who was about to shoot another beam at him. Unfortunately, Rafael made contact with Luna before she could and both of them fell over.

Rafael tumbled a little after the collision and tumbled straight into a nearby tree, attacking the tree trunk with his face. Rafael stopped moving and remained motionless.

Luna got up and shook her head. She looked backwards at Rafael and realized that he had never been awake whilst charging. He was simply acting upon instinct.

In front of her, Luna noticed the three fillies that were catapulted. They were on their haunches and balling their eyes out.

The fillies all shouted at the princess in unison, “PLEASE HELP HIM!”