Brothers

October woke up to Jason shaking his shoulder. "Bro, get up. We need to head back and get our things," whispered Jason.

"Alright, alright, I'm up, I'm up," October mumbled with a disgruntled moan as he threw the pillows off of him.

October looked out of the window to see that the sun hadn't quite even risen above the horizon yet, which was certainly usual for him at this point to wake up at such a time, even if someone still had to get him up. He got out of bed, feeling a bit groggy from the dream. It seemed so real to him, yet it was just a dream.

"I'm going to tell Rarity that we'll be getting our things, alright?" said Jason in a hushed tone.

"Alright, let's just hurry up before the entire town is out and about," replied October as he stood to stretch the sleep from his body. Jason nodded quickly before quietly leaving the room to head upstairs to Rarity's door.

Jason came back down about a minute later and joined his brothers, who were waiting at the door. He gave them the go, and Matthew peeked out the door, looking this way and that to make sure that they wouldn't be seen. Matthew gave the all clear and they exited the building with little to no noise. Almost as soon as the door was closed the three of them shot into the air, kicking up silent dust behind them with a powerful rush of wind. Jason led the way back as he had a better memory that the other two and he had been the one to better scout around there shelter, so if anything looked familiar, he would know.

They arrived at the cave within the span five minutes or so and quickly gathered their respective gear. Matthew took up his Mini 14 Ruger, Jason, his KRISS Vector, and October pick up his m134 Minigun...yes, he had a Minigun. October hastily stuffed his tripod in his backpack, though his ammo bucket wouldn't fit. October looked to his left to see Matthew and Jason putting away their dog tags and preparing to leave. He fingered his own tags a bit as memories came back to him before he too took them off and put them in a side pouch before joining his brothers. They carried their backpacks on their bellies, seeing as how it would prevent them from flying otherwise, and rocketed back to town in as short amount of time as possible

They arrive back at the Boutique only three minutes later. Regardless of their weaponry weighing them down a bit, the town was clear ahead of them, whereas their cave was harder to find in all the trees. There still wasn't anyone out at the time, so they had minimal difficulty heading into town, though they did make a bit of noise with all the equipment they carried with them.

As they entered the Boutique, they smelled something burning. October handed his things to Matthew before he headed to the kitchen where the smell originated from to find a little, white, unicorn filly with a pink and purple striped mane and tail attempting to cook what he assumed was breakfast. He also noticed that whatever she was cooking was indeed on fire and was catching onto several nearby objects.

In that split second, October clapped his wings together in front of him, creating a powerful gust of wind that put the fire out and knocked the filly on her rump. The little filly looked around in confusion until her eyes rested on October. She began to hyperventilate and was about ready to scream before October crouched down a bit and held out a hand.

"Shhhhh, it's ok. Rarity is letting us stay. You don't need to scream," October said in a soothing tone, just assuming that the pieces would fall into place for her.

The filly calmed down at the mention of Rarity's name and began to take several, large, calming breaths. "O-okay. So who are you then, and what do you mean 'we'?" asked the filly, still evidently in a bit of a fright.

"My name is October. I have my two older brothers with me: Matthew and Jason. They're in the other room. So what's your name if I might ask?"

"My name is Sweetie Belle. I'm Rarity's little sister. You know, you look kind of like a pegasus, but different." Sweetie Belle said with a new found curiosity that dashed away any fright she may have still had.

"So I've been told. Say, you need some help cooking breakfast there, Sweetie Belle?" asked October, looking at the charcoal that sat in the pan

"Yeah, I guess I do." she replied with a bit of a huff. "I was going to try and surprise Rarity by making her breakfast again, but it turned out pretty bad."

"So, what's burning?" asked Jason as he and Matthew walked into the room. "Oh, hello there," said Jason with a bit of surprise at seeing the little one.

"Matthew, Jason, this is Sweetie Belle; Rarity's sister. Sweetie Belle, these are my brothers; Matthew and Jason. So as I was saying before, what were you cooking?" asked October.

"Pancakes," Sweetie replied as she too took a gander at what remained of her cooking. "Or at least, that's what it was supposed to be."

"Pancakes huh? I can help with that," said October as he began grabbing ingredients from various places that Sweetie directed him to and put it all in a large bowl.

Rarity came down stairs a a few hours later to find the brothers and Sweetie Belle sitting around the dining table eating pancakes.
"Well, well. Look who's finally up. We made some pancakes for you." said October as he high fived/hoofed Sweetie Belle, who seemed rather proud of the pancakes that lay on the plates.

"Well thank you. I see you've got your things," said Rarity, looking at the Army gear with interest and confusion as she sat down around the table. "After I make some new clothes for you three, I had in mind to show you around town - if you don't mind that of course," she continued as she took her gaze away from their firearms.

"Um, Rarity?" asked Matthew, "are you sure that's a good idea. Keep in mind that - according to you and Sweetie at least - our likes have never been seen before." Which isn't all too surprising. Matthew thought to himself.

"Oh don't make such fuss about it. You're sure to get a welcome party," said Rarity with a knowing smile, which made the three brothers give Rarity some skeptical looks.

Sweetie Belle walked back into the main room of the shop after having insisted that she took care of the dishes. Though Rarity was rather hesitant to leave the girl alone for too long with fragile pieces of porcelain, it did give her the time she needed to make the clothes she promised the three brothers. Within a matter of minutes, the seamstress had measured, shaped, cut, and sewn three pairs of shorts with a lace on the inside to secure them to the waste. Rarity's work was amazing. She crafted simple, grey shorts for each of them to match their new fur by request, but regardless of the 'dull color' as it Rarity put it, it was still amazing. The fabric for one felt softer than silk, though it was still thick yet surprisingly breathable. You could barely see the seams without squinting but they were still there nonetheless and made very sturdily.

"Well, now that you are dressed...semi-appropriately, let's take a tour of the town. I still can't believe you picked the grey though. Such a dull color," remarked Rarity once again.

October rolled his eyes with a smile at her words. Having only known her for less than a day, she was apparently quite a generous girl with a knack for being ever so complimentary, and to further it all, she was already getting them a tour of her home town. This behavior seemed strange compared to anything the brothers would have considered usual back home, but they were certainly not ones to complain about such hospitality.

They headed out the door with Sweetie waving them off to keep watch on the boutique not knowing what exactly to expect from the townsfolk and all, but what happened almost as soon as the four of them stooped out from the shop was precisely what they had anticipated. Practically half the town stopped what they were doing and stared at the three big, muscled beasts that loomed over their local seamstress.

"Don't worry everypony, they're new here as you may have noticed. There’s nothing here to worry about at all," Rarity announced and, to the brother's surprise, most of them went back to their daily lives as if nothing happened, though, many of them did however give the brother a few more sideways glances of curiosity as was expected.

They walked through the town to the big purple castle that appeared to be made of crystal. This was the same castle, as October noted, that they had spotted the other day in the distance with its massive lavender walls, golden crown and shining star.

"I told my friends before I went off to bed that we would meet here today, which was...actually after I said I would be going to bed, but it was important enough," Rarity stated as the four of them walked through the massive doors, concluding October's thoughts as to why she would have slept in so late as well as someone going through the front door the previous night. They went down several long hallways and up a flight of stairs, and then through another massive doorway, entering into a room with six large - what appeared to be thrones - and one small seat located in the center of the room surrounding a circular table. It was rather curious, because from standing outside the castle it seemed that something of this magnitude would never be able to fit in a structure so small. Not regarding this however, October brought his attention to the center of the room. There were five ponies sitting on five of the thrones, while there was a small green and purple dragon sitting in the small seat, leaving only one seat empty. Rarity jumped up into this seat and looked at each of her friends.

"Matthew, Jason, October, these are my friends: Twilight Sparkle, Spike, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack. Girls, this is Matthew, Jason, and October," Rarity said in introduction.

There were 'Hello's' 'Hi's' and a 'Howdy' from the throng of mares while the brothers greeted them in a likewise manner.

After being personally introduced, having a bit told about each of the mares, brewing some tea for all to enjoy, (Rarity's idea), and having a Pink Party Pony's mouth magically zipped shut, Twilight brought to the floor her first question. "What are you, if I might ask?"

"Well," Jason began, "according to the mythological beliefs of the Ancient Greeks - and although it would seem to me physically impossible to be so - as I have indeed stated before, we are anthro pegasi; the term meaning literally from the Greek: Anthropo-Pegasos; Human-Pegasus, or, perhaps if you prefer, half human and half pegasus. These days however, we like to refer to the Latin in our language, but Greek terms still stuck...that and they're more original."

Most of the occupants of the room gave Jason blank stares, leaving only the sound of a spit-take.

Twilight, being the one to spit out her tea, had an interjection to make. "What! Humans! Pegasi! Humans are mere fairy tales and myths to keep foal from misbehaving! Even if they do exist, their genetic code would have be so drastically different from a pegasus that it would be a simple impossibility for there to be a hybrid between the two!...Oh, oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to explode like that," Twilight said when she saw all the eyes in the room on her.

"That...is pretty much what 'Mister Science' just explained...just...with different words. I still am not entirely sure what happened to us or why," replied Matthew after Twilight had calmed herself. "We've been here for about a week or so. Before we arrived, we were just normal looking humans, but we were dragged through - or more like sucked in - what now seems to have been, some sort of wormhole when we had a bomb dropped on us in battle."

This brought up a few more questions that Twilight didn't hesitate to ask with narrowed eyes. "In battle? So are you three some sort of Royal Guard, and what's a bomb?"

This time October decided to step in - him being the one well versed in his weaponry. "You could say that we are a form of guardians, but to be more precise we're soldiers. And a bomb is a device that uses solid flammables inside a large, metal, aerodynamic, container that is dropped from above the enemy. On impact, it will light the flammable substance, creating pressure inside the container. The pressure becomes so immense that it can't be held anymore and forces the container to break open and fly apart. What this does is it sends small fragments of metal flying everywhere, killing anyone or anything that happens to be nearby. If not delivering fatal damage, it will at least cause a significant enough damage to move some enemy soldiers out of the fight, even if just temporarily."

"That's...well, amazing," Twilight responded with an astonished tone, yet, a bit horrified, "But how would you get 'sucked in' if the purpose is to explode?"

"That's just it. Somehow, our enemy had the ingenuity to create this 'implosion bomb'; although how it works is beyond me," Matthew chimed with Jason and October nodding in agreement.

"Hmm. It's still just so amazing to know that humans truly do exist. The Princesses of course will need to hear of this. Um, Jason? You said something about...Greeks and Latin? What are those?

"Ah, yes well, the Greeks are just another kind of humans. The ancient Greek people, from whom we get many of our English terms, lived hundreds of years ago. They were a people obsessed with theories, science, and philosophy." Twilight perked up a bit at this information as Jason continued to speak. "They lifetime of the ancient Greeks had effected many nations around them in ways such as beliefs, habits, lifestyle, and language. As for Latin; that's the name for the language that the Romans usually used. Romans lived in a City called Rome, of course, which is located in a country called Italy. Not everyone in one, single country spoke the same language however, as the Romans spoke their language: Latin, with many other dialects spoken throughout Italy. Just as the Greeks (who the Romans conquered I might add), they have also effected the world around them. The language that we use is mostly influenced by the Latin language, which by the way is where we get the word 'Anthropomorphic', meaning 'half Man form'."

Twilight was delighted to say the least to be speaking with one who had an extensive knowledge of history and science to share who could speak so fluently with it. "I've also noticed your terms are different from some of ours, for example: somepony, nopony, and you say somebody, or nobody."

"Yes. For one, this is obviously a different planet (or so it would seem unless we it is proven otherwise) with the dominant species being a type of equine and if I had to guess, I'd say your species are called...Equidae Caballus? so I suppose using the terms you use makes sense. We, on the other hand, are of the species of the Homo Sapiens, the dominant species of not only our home planet Earth, but also of the universe. The term we use: somebody, nobody, everybody, each have the word 'body', implying not only humans, but any other type of being. We do use terms with the word 'one' attached as well. For example, to take the words I used before, we say: someone, no one, everyone. So it's just a general word for 'people'."

"You're actually quite close for guessing our species, but the unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies make up the Equus Caballus, not Equidae. I can see why you would have concluded to that though. Anyway, you say your kind is the dominant species of the universe. What makes you think so highly of yourself?"

This time October stepped in, putting a little pride in his words. "We know this because we are for cleverer than other beings, hence our technology advancement, and we were created in the image of the one who created the universe itself. Actually - to be completely honest - humans even challenge Him at one point. Of course we lost, but that's what humans will do sometimes. We are the smartest beings to exist, but we can be so stupid sometimes. And this I say on the basis of documents written about our histories, not by my own witnessing of course."

"Wow," respond Twilight, hiding her great level of surprise, "pretty audacious, aren't you? Challenging Adonai Himself?"
Matthew tilted his head and craned his neck back a bit in surprise. "Adonai? First of all, you know who He is? Second, why do you have Hebrew words in this world?"

Twilight took her turn to be surprised and said, "Well, firstly, yes, we know. It's no mystery to me who He is, though many ponies deny His existence all together. Also, I don't know what Hebrew is, that's just older Equestrian. Some words just haven't changed with time. What do you call Him?"

"We simply refer to him as God," Matthew stated, getting a bit of a shelved lip from Twilight as she thought.

They spoke more in depth for some time of what each of them did, some Equestrian history, which Twilight took the liberty to tell them just about everything she knew, while only Jason really gave his full attention. They talked mostly of Earth, the current situation it was in, and the most recent events to have taken place in Equestria. Twilight had even decided to set a scheduled to have a meeting with the Princesses in Canterlot the day after the next in fact, with a detailed letter for how important it seemed to her that they arrange a meeting for them.

Pinkie Pie was constantly peppering questions about what they liked to eat because she was going to throw them the 'biggest-most-fantastic-delicious-super-duper-Welcome-To-Ponyville-Party'...ever.

October smiled as the hyperactive ball of fluff crawled all over him with her question. She suddenly went silent and backed away from him. To this they all frowned while Applejack asked, "Pinkie, what's the matter?"

"Carnivores?" she practically whispered with what almost sounded like spite rather than fear. All eyes turned to the three brothers.

"D-do you eat meat?" asked Twilight with a bit of concern in her voice, having herself never had a good time with meat-eaters other than Applejack's dog.

"Well yes..." Matthew began before he was interrupted by Rarity fainting and Twilight throwing up on the floor. Fluttershy jumped to help the ill feeling alicorn while Rainbow and Applejack were looking a bit queasy. Pinkie on the other hand simply shivered a bit as she tried to take her mind off of the prospect so as to keep her infectious smile.

"Whoa, okay, we aren't going to eat any of you. I mean come on. We may be brutal and ruthless but we have rules. Don't eat things that can talk back...unless it's a parrot," October said with a bit of a laugh in his voice.

"Actually, not only are we meat eaters, but we are also capable of consuming many types of plant matter as well, making us not simply carnivores, but omnivores," Jason said in hopes to cheer them up a bit, which it did.

"I'm so sorry about this," Fluttershy apologized for her friend as Twilight still looking a bit green while the yellow mare rushed off to get the mess cleaned up. Rarity on the other hand was being attended to by Spike as she hadn't recovered. Things were a little hectic after that.

It took about an hour for the dust to settle again. Twilight explained that meat-eaters were often very hostile and also gross. It wasn't just the fact that they ate meat that displeased her, but her experience with a griffin. As she explained it, watching a poor sheep getting devoured scarred her for life.

After some time had passed,Twilight looked out of one of her massive windows and just then realized how late it was. "Okay everypony, I think it's time to get to bed. Matthew, Jason, October, it was an honor to meet you - even if we didn't take you dietary needs too well."

The throng left the castle while the three brothers followed Rarity back to the Boutique where they promptly collapsed in the guest room.

"Uuuuuuugh! I can't believe that took all day," October said with a bit of exasperation.

"I rather enjoyed it myself. I don't get the opportunity to converse with one of such high intellect very often you know," Jason said happily.

October turned to face Jason, "Are you saying I'm not smart?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Jason immediately received a well aimed pillow to the face. Jason caught the pillow, though not before it hit him and threw it back at his little brother. The fight only escalated from there as pillow after pillow was sent sailing across the room until they were all laughing at their own silliness. Now being tired out from their horse play, they each snuggled into their respective places and swam off to blissful unconsciousness.

October stood with his hooves planted in the hot, desert sand once again. The wind whipping at his eyes and skin as he strained his eyes only to see that there was nothing in sight but sand, not helped by the fact that it was also rather dark this time. The ground then shook with a might tremor as the monstrous crack in the ground that he had seen the night before widened, spitting flames as it did so. A hand reached out of the crack, clawing at the sand and holding on to the ledge with a fierce hold. Then a deep, rumbling voice with the purest of evil boomed from everywhere.

‘I will find you.’