Brothers

"Why?" Fluttershy asked with teary eyes.

"Why?" October replied, getting a little steamed that she would ask such a ridiculous question, as he never had the best temper to begin with. "Maybe because there was a fifty foot tall hydra jeopardizing your towns safety. Maybe because you obviously couldn't handle it on your own. Maybe its life was taken so yours wouldn't have to be!"

"But it didn't know what it was doing!" Fluttershy yelled back.

"What!? Your trying to defend something that just about killed everyone in the town, then criticize me for stopping it!?"

"It was under somepony else's control, could you not see that?"

"Look, there are rules that, whether anyone likes it or not, are to be follow, one of which is if an animal hurts someone, they get punished; kill or even threaten to kill, they die on the spot. That aside, what about being 'under someone else's control'? How does that make any sense?"

At this point the rest of the Main Six joined Fluttershy. Rainbow Dash flew right up in October's face and shouted, "What kind of rule is that!?"

Matthew interjected for October by saying, "Would you slap Princess Celestia because she told you to do something you didn't want to do?"

"No! Duh," retorted Rainbow Dash.

"Because?" Matthew offered.

"Because she's a princess you dodo!"

"Right. In other words, she's your boss. If you were to do such to her, don't you think you would be punished? Or perhaps if you were to make an attempt to kill her..."

That was all that was needed for Rainbow Dash to see the hole in her argument.

"But it wasn't under it's own control!" Fluttershy interjected, glaring at the three with a fearsome fire.

"How was I supposed to know that? And you still haven't told me how that's a possibility," October replied in a bit cooler of a tone.

Fluttershy dropped her glare, looked at the ground, and began to sob. The other five of her friends ran to her side as an attempt to comfort her.

Jason, who had be standing quite the entire time, broke his way in. "Sorry, Fluttershy, but being human, it's a natural compulsion to permanently rid ourselves of a threat no matter what. As the stories you have relayed to us said, ponykind tries to make nice. I mean, there's no shame in that, but the problem tends to come back. We saw the danger and got rid of it...permanently, and perhaps many more that may have come from that."

Fluttershy looked up at Jason, who was smiling a bit, making her smile in return.

"It's okay, Jason *sniff* I understand," she said, trying not to cry more.

October looked back to the mass of meat that was once a magnificent beast. "Maybe we should clean up the mess before morning. There are bound to be more than a few Timber Wolves willing to strode into town for some free food."

"I agree. Um...I don't suppose any of you ponies would like to help?" Matthew asked hopefully. October could actually see the crowd cringe and a few even gag at the suggestion. "Oh boy," he mumbled. But then to his surprise, he heard a joyful, silly voice call out.

"I will!" he looked up to see a grey, pegasus mare with a blonde mane and tail smiling at him. Derpy Hooves was her name. Then he saw a chestnut stallion with a green bow tie and brown back-spiked mane tug on her tail a bit. Matthew flicked his pony ears forward, taking just a few moments to pay attention the to scene before responding.

October turned his attention to Derpy. "Thank you...Miss Hooves was it?" The mailmare gave a few quick nods. "Thank you. Any, *Ehem* 'pony' else?"

This time three more stood out. Lyra Heartstrings (well...and Bon Bon...kinda), Vinyl Scratch, and Big Macintosh, all saying roughly the same thing, "I will!"

Little by little, more and more ponies joined the volunteers, until quite literally the entire town was willing to help.

"Alright!" shouted October for all to hear, "this is a big animal and therefore has to be cut apart to move it!" He could tell the poor ponies were trying not to gag, "so logging saws will be necessary. Once that is done we need to move the body parts into the woods...deep into the woods so that the wolves will get rid of it A.S.A.P. without being too close to town!" again they tried not to gag. "So then, we need three groups! All the unicorns in one group with the saws, one group off all the earth ponies with the ropes, and a group of all pegasi with ropes to keep the load off the ground! We need to get the parts over the trees, unless you want to try pulling trees down?"

All of Ponyville got right to work with the orders given. As they were busy with there jobs, the three brothers kept hearing the passing by ponies talking about them and how brave the "Iron Brothers" were as opposed to how cruel. The three looked at each other chuckling.

They decided that they would help saw, then help to lift the parts with the rest of the pegasi. Although the majority of the town were indeed female, they certainly didn't disappoint when it came to manual labor.

Limb after limb was cut and dragged away, until all that was left was the torso. "Alright!" shouted October, "I need everybody to help with this last part!" he looked around at the ponies of the town, seeing all of them with their heads down with exhaustion.

Octavia Melody, of all mares, jerked her head up and shouted, "Then let's get to it! I certainly wouldn't wish to be dog food tonight!"

Suddenly, each and every one of them were on the move again, tying ropes around the body of the dead hydra and hitching the ropes to each pony. Even the unicorns were pulling while using their magic to tug.

"One two three!" The brothers shouted as the crowd pulled and shouted back.

"HEAVE!"

Foot by foot, the rest of the hydra's carcass was dragged to the pile of hydra parts in the forest. Fortunately, the many ponies trudging their way through the forest while carrying the stench of death and making all that noise kept everything dangerous away. It was a good thing, too, being that the children were puling alongside their siblings and parents, and having little fillies and colts could be dangerous enough. But, with as many numbers as they had, the children were safe enough.

As they reached the massive gut pile they lifted the body up to the top where they made a bowl shape with it's other body parts to fit the torso.

"Alright!" October shouted untying the rope around his shoulder, as did everypony else , "On three we drop it!" He waited for a bit until he saw that they had untied all their ropes. "One, two three!" They let the body of the beast drop into the bowl of it's limbs.

There was one pegasus mare however that didn't get the rope undone in time and was jerked down with the weight of the hydra's torso. Matthew, being the first to notice, dived for the yellow mare at a blinding speed. He caught the pegasus just as he planted his hooves into the severed tail of the hydra as one of the heads came tumbling down in their direction. With no time to move out of the way, he pushed her to the ground and made a body dome with his wings spread to cover her as the head of the beast made impact with it's target.

"Gah!" Shouted Matthew as his back bent under the weight of the head while the pegasus whimpered underneath him. "Are you alright?" He whispered to her, to which she made a quick nodding motion.

"Matthew!" came the voice of October. His brothers, as well as several other ponies, had rushed to help him before the head hit them, but came a bit late.

"Oh, Matthew," Jason said, seeing the gashes on his back.

"Is it bad?" asked the mare under Matthew. Matthew looked back down at her and, under more careful examination, he could see she also had a pink mane and tail to accompany her yellow coat, a triple umbrella cutie mark and brilliant amber eyes.

"Hm? Oh, um, I'm not sure. Hey guys? How bad is it?" he asked his brothers as he got up with the mare blushing a bit in his arms.

"Well," said October with a chuckle, "Ya may need a few stitches."

"Oh, ok. Not too bad then?" he said with a chuckle of his own. He looked back at the pegasus in his arms and asked, "What would your name be if I may ask?"

"Oh, um, uuuuh...Parasol," she replied, blushing again.

"Well, nice to meet you Miss Parasol."

"Just Parasol is fine," she corrected.

"Alright then, Parasol," he responded with a warm smile, where as she blushed harder. "Are you ok?" he asked.

"Um, yes. You just...you saved me," She said quietly. Then, she suddenly hugged him. The crowd went, 'Aaaawwwwwww!' making the both of them blush.

Jason chuckled a bit as he turned around to the throng of ponies asking, "Any, uh, pony here do medical?"

"Oh! I do!" came a voice out of the crowd. The voice of which belonged to none other than nurse Redheart.

"Thank you, Miss Redheart. Have you ever done this outside of the hospitable?" asked Matthew as the nurse approached him.

"Yes," she replied, "plenty of times in fact. Most of which were very recently, what with the battle with Nightmare Moon, then Discord, and then Tirek."

"Well thank you, Miss Redheart. That seems like quite the job," said Matthew as he set Parasol down.

"Why not just get him to the hospitable? Wouldn't that make it easier?" asked Parasol.

"No," the nurse replied, "Because it's a bit of a walk - or even if you flew it would take a bit - back to town and we don't want that muscle to be exposed like that for that long. Plus it might hurt him and/or hinder him for getting back to town, only worsening his current situation."

"Oh, right," Parasol said looking at the ground, thinking about it a bit.

"Uh, Parasol? Are you ok?" asked October.

The pegasus sighed and said, "I guess. I just feel kinda stupid sometimes, not thinking of things like that. Wouldn't it be common sense to realize that bringing him to hospitable could hurt him like this? Apparently not for me."

"Hey," Matthew took over again, "You know saying that you're stupid isn't going to help a thing?" he said lifting her chin as there was rubbing alcohol being poured in the wound and a sewing needle went into his back, making him cringe.

"I couldn't even get that rope untied in time," she rebutted, avoiding his eyes.

"Yeah well, October...made the knots. He makes knots that not even Jason can understand. Plus you've got hooves."

She finally looked him in the eyes, "You don't think I'm stupid?"

"No of course not. I think silly would be the right word, but not stupid. Actually, I'd wager to reckon that you're a lot smarter than you give yourself credit for."

"T-thanks," she said as she blushed and hugged him again.

"Owowow!...carefull."

"O-oh, sorry I didn't mean..." she stammered as her wings shout out and blushed profusely.

"Ugh, t's fine, Parasol," Matthew replied through gritted teeth.

"...Wow..." said Jason as Parasol trotted off hastily while October suppressed his laughter.

"Wow what? Ow," he said as the needle went in again.

"You honestly don't see it?" asked Redheart giggling.

"See what?" Matthew asked, trying to sound clueless.

"She likes ya knucklehead," said Vinyl as she made her way in.

Matthew coughed several times, chocking on his own spit. "Pardon me!?" he more or less shouted, which was followed by a collective crowd shushing him.

"Oh come on," Vinyl continued, "it's kinda obvious. I mean the blushing, the wings. What, you don't like her?" she asked with smirk and a hinted suggestiveness.

Mathew deadpanned at her.

He then continued to get barraged by teases about how cute he thought Parasol was, who had thankfully flown off by now. Rarity of course was the teasing leader, and she was quite good at it too.

"Ok. Stop teasing him," said Redheart as she finished up the stitching.

"Thank you Redheart," said Matthew as he slowly got up.

They began to follow the path of Parasol towards Ponyville, all the while the three brothers listened in on what all the ponies were talking about....yeah, they were talking about the brothers mostly.

Twilight and her friends gathered together with the three of them as she said, "All the ponies here seem to really look up to you guys, especially the little colts and fillies."

"I noticed that as well," added Rarity, "You three seem to have quite the - how do you say - authoritative, motivating, hope giving effect? Yes, I believe that's it," she beamed.

"Uh well," began Matthew, "we tend to have...that kind of effect on others quite a lot apparently. I'm not too sure why. But as long as us three stand together and show others how to push, they seem to really want to push. It's a part of being human really. I guess you just need to know how to do it."

They walked in silence for some time before Rainbow piped up, saying, "So, Twi, you gonna send a letter to the princess about this?"

"Well I suppose I had better. I would be very convenient for her to know about this before we showed up," Twilight replied." Seeing as how we're back, I think I'll get started on that letter then."

Indeed they were back in town. All the ponies headed to their respective homes to get to bed, as it was quite late, or rather early now. Some, however, stayed with their friends, since many of the homes had been destroyed. The three brothers follow suit and headed for the boutique with Sweetie Belle walking with them and Rarity hugged up against Matthews leg.

"So, Matthew," Rarity asked "what do you think of Parasol?"

"I thought we dropped that already," he retorted, as, indeed, he watched Parasol herself walk into her house and shut the door, her wings still stuck out.

At seeing this, the four others of the company began to laugh a bit, making Matthew blush.

"Oh come on guys, now your just being mean."

"On the contrary my dear brother," stated Jason, barely holding his laughter "we are merely being observant."

"Oh come now, darling," Rarity interjected, "you don't have to keep it covered. You do think she's pretty don't you?"

"Cover what? I just met her. Besides, just look at me," Matthew said, motioning to himself, "And look at her. Even if...IF mind you. Even if I liked her the way you teased it to be, I wouldn't work. I'm human remember? Well, for the most part anyways."

"Oh darling, love conquers all!"

"Rarity I don't!...ugh!"

"Well, what do you think of her?' Rarity asked persistently.

"She's yellow," Matthew deadpanned. The unexpectedness of the comment made the group laugh.

October's happiness suddenly drained and his smile fell as he remembered the lose of his sister for the second time that night.

"We should uh, get to bed." October said as they arrived at the boutique and he held open the door letting them all walk in.

Sweetie Belle stopped before going and asked, "October? Are you ok?"

He paused for a moment before saying, "I'm fine Sweetie, thanks."

At hearing this, she hopped through the doorway happily, leaving October to literally duck in.

October followed his brothers to the guest room, and sat down in the bed. He pulled his backpack off the shelf, and took from it a fancy necklace. It had a sliver serpentine chain to put around the neck and the pendant of it was a silver skull of a four point buck with Celtic knots designing it all over. It was incredibly detailed to the point where it looked quite real if looking at it right. He flipped it over, and on the other side was engraved a name: "April Iron". He clutched the necklace and laid down in the bed, closing his eyes, slowly drifting off to sleep.

In his dream, just as that last two, everything was in color as opposed to it's usual black and white. This time however, he wasn't in a desert, he was in a forest - a forest he knew quite well. This place was practically a back yard to him and his siblings. He remembered the old giant oak that he now stood before. This was the oak that the forest grew around; the oak that they would climb up and down all the time; the oak that he broke his first bone on. He chuckled to himself as he remembered that summer.

He heard the laughter of little children running up behind him. October quickly turned round to see something that took him by surprise. He took in a sharp breath as his eyes went wide. It was his brothers, his mother, his grandfather, and...sister...This was his childhood. Well, early teens really. He fell to his knees, watching as they ran up to him as if to embrace the man, only for the apparition to pass through him. He sucked in a heave of air as his wings sprung out in surprise. It's just a dream. He thought to himself as he got back up.

His memories piled even further as he remembered the three years before this day in his life. The war had taken his father away from him - the very same war that he and his brothers carried on to fight. But this memory was also the same year that their grandmother died of a heart attack, thus grandpa Richie coming to live with them. This was the first summer in a long while since they had grandpa visit. They were just too excited to wait to finally show him the Old Oak in the middle of the forest. That was what he was seeing now.

The children tried to hurry grandpa Richie over, who was purposely going slow for them. When they made it to the tree, Richie looked up at it with an impressed 'Humph'. The bows of the tree were the size of truck, and the trunk was the size of a two-lain road.

After play for awhile around and about the monstrous tree, they decided to go home, much to the children's disappointment. They first let April out of the tree, then October, then Jason. Just as Jason hit the ground they heard a grunt.

They all snapped their heads to the left to see a good five hundred pound, five foot black bear. This was no ordinary black bear though; this was the monster of the bears in the forest; this was Big Momma. Maybe not the most intimidating name ever thought of, but everyone around those parts knew just what the name stood for.

Now most people would run at the sight of this over sized beast, but the first thing that came out of grandpa Lynette's mouth was, "Matthew, get the bag!" Lynette was their mother, you see.

Upon hearing this, Matthew monkeyed up the tree until you could only see a dot of him within a matter of seconds. October's child self, along with Jason and April scurried around the tree, baiting the bear in circles, while Richie and their mother Lynette came up behind the bear, but keeping their far distance. Despite Richie's old age he was still had that umph of youth in him.

As the bear became confused as to which bait to take, Matthew dropped out of the tree, wielding in each hand, an M-48 Tomahawk. Matthew landed solidly on the bear and planted one ax into the neck of the bear and the other in the nose. The bear reared up, throwing Matthew off.

"Oi!" Shouted Richie, who was now holding a five foot, handmade spear, as Jason showed him where they kept them. "Come and get me!"

Big Momma, completely ignoring the old man, turned on Matthew, who was still on the ground.

"Shoot," Richie mumbled as he ran at Big Momma, stabbing her in the side.

October smiled as he watched this memory continue. He watched as his child self, along with Jason, April and his mother, ran at the bear from all sides, each piercing a hole in it's side with their own spears, causing the bear to go down.

Big Momma was hardly moving at this point, allowing Matthew to walk up to her, bringing one ax up high above his head, and bringing it back down hard on her head, leaving the beast motionless.

"Yeas!" shouted Richie, "We got Big Momma! Woohoo!"

"Let's get a picture before we forget!" Lynette squeaked with excitement before whipping out her ever-present iPhone, though she was also quite shaky, as was the rest of them.

The sound faded out but the scene could still be viewed as he could see the joy on his family's face. October looked about in confusion, before seeing a cloaked figure to his right.

The figure was in a plain, human shape, that much was obvious, but for some reason, if he looked to the opening in his hood, it was completely black. "Remember your courage little one. For their entire races will depend on it."

"Wait! What do you mean?" October asked. But before he got an answer, the dream faded into black.

October woke up suddenly before the rooster, still holding that necklace. He looked at the necklace, then put it on and got up out of bed.

"Weird dream," He said aloud.

October, seeing that he was the only one up this morning, decided to get a nice shower and make breakfast to clear his mind.

"Man," he said as his stomach rumbled a bit, "I wish they had bacon."