//------------------------------// // 9. Disclosure // Story: Gifts and Curses // by flamevulture17 //------------------------------// [Chapter 9] Disclosure Warm air was replaced by a cool breeze. Darkness turned to a shower of light that illuminated everything in view. What was once silent, is now buzzing with ambient noise and a particular mosquito ring. The green grass riddled with objects that used to be in a small dark room just moments ago. Same thing with the blueish toned unicorn laying on the same ground as the scattered mess of several old toys and stuffed animals. Andrew squirmed around, trying to find his balance in the mess that was his baggy clothes. Still so unsure of himself, he did not want to remove his attire for the habit of feeling naked if he did. It would feel unnatural. He was quick to feet, but slow on his sense of reality. Everything was a white blur for a while, like when you turn in a bright light on in your face when only moments prior being shrouded in complete darkness. Either it was a significant blow to the back of the head, or the eyes just needed to adjust. The sudden change of environment and lack of a headache made it clear that he need not to worry about his condition, but where he ended up. The freaking out would have to wait until he could see again. There was nothing Andrew could do for his eyes as they needed to heal themselves. However, his vision came back much quicker than before when he noticed his surroundings in mere seconds after blackout. The green grass, a brown wooden fence, and... an apple tree. Great! He's in the back yard again. Either something was messing with his him, or he was delusional. Or both. Instant teleportation is known to do that, at least in some science fiction universes. It's unclear whether that applies to this reality. “Brilliant! Just brilliant,” he said to himself sarcastically. Andrew found it easier to stand up than before and his eye sight returned to normal shortly after discovering what happened. He didn't recall ever hitting the floor from a small height like before or from an angle. Nor did he do anything that might have caused harm to himself or someone else. All he did was wait for his friend Dale to resolve any conflict that his brother Alex evidently had his emotions bottled up inside from the last incursion at Dale's house, because the last thing he remembered was what he expected. Alex burst in the room, screaming at Dale. It lasted only a moment when suddenly everything became white in less than half a second. Next thing he knows, Bam, he's in the backyard again. None of this is going as planned, starting with waking up this morning. Wondering what to do next, Andrew thought of how he was going to reveal himself to his little brother now, if at all. It seemed like teleporting had postponed that for several more minutes. He started to have doubts if her wanted to reveal himself to Alex anymore because the more he thought about it, the more he was unsure if his brother could handle it. Seeing a living unicorn pony the first time was a lot to take in, especially if you are well educated enough the know that they didn't exist. Neither did magic, but he'd save that for later. It has only been a minute or two since he was in the closet and Dale and Alex were most likely still in the room together. Andrew wondered if Dale opened the closet door yet. Since he was not there to give the signal, it was not a good sign of progress. Dale must be confused and worried at this very moment. There was no way of getting inside the house with hooves and his hooves lacked fingers to chuck a pebble at the window to get their attention. There was another option, but there was no way he was going to attempt to climb up to the roof of the first floor extension that reached his bedroom window. Too dangerous. Besides, he couldn't pull it off without a latter or the right stature to do so. Out of all his preferred options of getting back inside, one last idea was most considerably his least favorite. - - - “The moon? Really?” Alex made sure his sarcasm reflected his feelings. “Um... …” Dale trailed off, trying to find the right words that didn't give to wrong impression. “Did he like, magically teleport there?” Alex suggested as a joke. “You could say that,” said Dale as he looked back at the empty closet, thinking of where his friend could have gone to. He had a feeling it wasn't anything to worry about too much. “Daaale.” A voice filled his head that seemed to call his name. I grew distinctly louder with every call. Then to a point where it was too loud the be from his imagination. He looked at the annoyed boy across from him, who was also staring back at him. Just then, the voice seemed to stop after five cries for his name and had a striking resemblance to someone he knew. The both of them waited a few more anxious seconds. “Hey Dale!” Both guys bolted from their seats and ran to the window, attempting to find the source. Alex pushed Dale aside and opened the window pane as fast as he could. Dale got back up and in return shoved the eager kid aside to get an equal view of the backyard. They found the field of grass to be void of anyone who might have been yelling for Dale. They scanned the surrounding neighborhood yards, but still found no source. Alex retreaded inside, hoping that they weren't crazy. Before Dale was about to the same, he noticed a yellow stuffed bunny being hurled across the lawn. This made Dale pause. Thankfully, Alex was not around see it. Another stuffed animal came flying out from underneath him, this one a white a dog with black spots and black ears. He leaned further out the window, but could not get any further unless he stepped on to the roof below. Several more various objects followed the first two plushies as they landed on the grass, just shy of the apple tree. Dale turned around to find the room to be empty. Alex must have gone to the bathroom or something. It's not like him to just give up so easily. Now that the coast was clear, he careful mounted the window frame, slipped through the square hole, and gently put his feet on the dark brown roof panels. He was scared that the weak frame would be too unstable and cause him to tumble off the roof to the ground below. Fortunately, he kept his balance on the side of the house and used the wall for support. He neared one corner of the house and climbed down the wooden trellis that spanned twelve feet to the patio. - - - Andrew ran out of toys and animals to kick onto the grass. He knew that if he was standing in the middle of the yard in broad daylight while Dale and Alex looked out the window, it would leave all of them with more problems then they can handle. They had enough deal with as it is. Moments after running out of ordinance, he heard a noise above him on the roof and slide to the right. The garden trellis started to shake and a saw his best friend climbing down from the roof. A bit unnecessary, but whatever. “Oh good, you're not dead,” Dale smirked. “What?” “Never mind. What happened?” “Isn't it obvious?” “No.” “Oh. Well what does it look like?” “You teleported again.” “Ya huh.” “You scared the crap outta me,” Dale said. clutching his chest. “My bad. So where's Alex?” Andrew asked. “I don't know. I think-” … All of a sudden, Dale's eyes grew so wide that is was painful. His eyes were locked onto something through the sliding glass door behind his unicorn friend. With Andrew's back against the door and completely exposed, he was unaware of how careless they were. Dale was still frozen and Andrew feared the worst. He slowly turned his head and his body around, hooves making light taps on the concrete patio. The next thing he found was his younger brother standing halfway down the hall from inside the house that had a clear view of the backyard. The little boy also froze, with a mug in his hand and his jaw open wide. The next couple seconds became to most frightening of all between the three of them, but was only shown through stares in the horrified faces. No amount of valiance could prepare them for what happened next. Suddenly, the black mug that Alex had slipped through his fingers and fell to the floor. A loud clank followed as the fragile ceramic cup shattered into hundreds of pieces. Without a word, Alex instantly jolted the other direction and ran up the stairs. “GET HIM!” shouted Andrew, and with athletic like abilities, Dale instantly sprinted after the boy. The sliding glass door was already unlocked, but it took time away from stopping Alex from whatever he was going to do. However, in seconds, Dale ran as fast as he could down the hall and up the stairs, with Andrew close behind. Dale leaped up every third step in order to catch the fleeing kid. Halfway up the stairs, he heard a door slam shut in front of him. When he cleared the staircase, he looked around the hall, but had an idea where the little rascal could have gone to so fast. He paused to catch his breath, then heard the clink of a hollow metallic object coming from behind Alex's bedroom door. Dale was about to kick the door down or use some other kind of forced entry, when just then, the door quickly opened to reveal an enraged looking 12-year-old holding a baseball bat. “Where is he!?” exclaimed Alex, breathing heavily in apparent hostility. Right then, Andrew finally made it to the top and popped his big head around the corner to his right to check to see what was going on. “You!!” roared Alex once he eyes the blue-green unicorn. He began to run toward Andrew with all his might. “NO!” shouted Dale as he stopped the little boy in his tracks with his own body. “Get back!” Dale proceeded to shove Alex backwards, inching more and more towards Alex's bedroom. He was much heavier than the little guy, so it was easy enough to hold him back. Alex's hands were frantically flailing around in his struggle to break free from the teen's grip. As they reached the door frame, Alex's right hand hit the wall as they entered and released the bat that hand was holding. Now in the most daring move not to serious injure the poor kid, Dale used his remaining strength to pin him down to the floor without actually tackling him into the ground. It ended with a heavy thud that resonated throughout the room. Alex continued to struggle, but this time he had his eyes closed and clutching both hands onto Dale's left arm. He was no match for a guy 20% larger and five years older than him. Even though is was a useless effort, the little boy just kept squirming with his eyes closed, while murmuring incoherently to himself. The room got substantially quieter when Andrew trotted into the room and gently closed the door with his hind hooves. When the sound of the door closing met the ears of the crazy youngster, his eyes popped wide open and he lifted his head to take another look at Andrew. Alex lay his head back down on the carpet and sat still for a moment before grabbing a pillow that was conveniently right next to him, and throwing it at Andrew just to make sure he wasn't completely insane. The pillow hit the unicorn in face with marksman precision, but Andrew just shrugged it off after it landed on the floor. He squinted at his little brother. Alex started to laugh as if he was crazy. The kind of laugh one does when hoping they haven't lost their minds. However, the person holding him down tried a diplomatic approach. “Listen here bud, we don't need you making thing worse than they already are.” Alex looked away in annoyance as Dale spoke. “This is not his fault. I was just afraid of him like you are when I first saw him like this. We were just figuring out what to do next and we could use your help if you just promise you won't go all homicidal on us again. Got it?” Alex turned his head to Andrew, then back to Dale. He did have a lot of time to think about it, but it was better than being held against his will on the floor. He took one long deep breath. “Yeah sure.” “Say it like you mean it.” Dale raised a fist to be a little more intimidating, but was clearly bluffing. “Okay okay, geez, don't hurt me.” Alex cried. Dale was hesitant to let him go, but he knew the kid had understood well enough to maintain control of himself. He released his grip on the boys shoulders and helped him off the floor by offering a hand. He then backed up to Andrew, who was sitting on the floor next to the bedroom door, wondered how it could have gone differently. There was not much he could do about the events that occurred up to that point, so he just played along and made the best of it, even if that meant making decisions that changed future events. Alex became so tired of the struggle that he fell back on his bed in a reclined in a relaxing position, like what you would do when reading a book in bed. He put his hand on his forehead, pushing his hair upward to take one long look at his brother, who was undoubtedly a small pony. Marvelous. “So...” began Alex as he trailed off, expecting one of them to give an explanation. “Why?” “We don't know,” said Dale. “Can you, um, talk?” Alex asked his brother. “Yeah,” Andrew chuckled. “Why? You think I couldn't?” “Of course, I am to assume that all horses speak when I meet them. It's just all so-” “Confusing?” suggested Dale as he took a seat on a stool near the foot of the bed. “Yeah that. You know you didn't have be all secretive about it. You could have just... you know... told me.” “That's why I kept it to myself,” stated Andrew. “I was pretty damn scared when I looked at myself in the mirror this morning. I had good intentions to hide. It still seems completely impossible. Plus, I was just as doubtful as the both of you were the first time you saw me. The way you guys acted was what I was afraid of.” “Well I would have understood if you didn't run away from me.” “Understood!? You think I asked for this!?” Andrew raised his voice, while an unnoticeable tear started forming in his eye. “You think I wanted to be like this? All day I've been trying to return to normal and I don't know how to do that. I just want this to end.” As Andrew spoke, Dale noticed a few things on the shelves vibrate as if shaken by an earthquake. They abruptly went still when his stressful friend finished talking. He suspected his theory of it being an emotional response from Andrew to be correct. He remained silent to observe the conversation the two brothers continued to have. “Okay sorry bro, I didn't mean it that way, honest. It's just that I wouldn't have been as aggressive as I was earlier.” “I don't blame you man. I guess there was never a right way to react to something like this. Even I thought I was dreaming or just really lost my mind. But hey, it's not all that bad when I think about it. Only you and Dale here know and it is still a well kept secret between us, unless I teleport again.” “You WHAT?” Alex uttered in surprise. “Oh, uh, I forgot to mention about the magic part of all this. “Magic!?” Andrew raise his right forearm and placed his hoof on his head, above his eyes. Alex's was visibly confused until leaned forward and squinted his eyes at the pony's hoof. He was on the other side of the room, so it was hard to make out any detail of Andrew's enlarged head. Shortly enough, he realized why. Alex's eyes grew wide. He shook his head a few times just to make sure he eyes didn't lie to him. “You're a-” “Unicorn? Yes, I know they're not real, ...or at least they were before today.” “Magic!?” Alex repeated. “But that's not-” “Possible? Apparently that's not all. Remember when I asked you if you heard a loud noise last night?” “Yeah, you seemed pretty sca-” Alex paused, then gasped in realization. “Is that what turned you into... this?” “Probably. Dale and I were just thinking about that at his house when you showed up and gave us quite a scare.” “Is that why you just disappeared on me?” said Alex with extreme curiosity. “Magic!?” “Will you stop saying that?” Andrew grew annoyed. “Besides, there is no other explanation. Right Dale?” Andrew turned to find his friend just stating off into space. “Dale!” “Huh what,” he responded, snapping out of his train of thought. “Oh, yeah.” “What are you doing?” “Oh nothing, I was just... thinking.” “Of what?” “Of... … … it's not important. Carry on.” Andrew stared at him funny for a moment more before continuing. “Like I said, no other-” “CATCH!” “Wha-” *whoosh* Andrew was caught off guard and as soon as he turned to Dale, a large hardcover book came flying at his face. Fortunately for him, fast reflexes kicked in and he ducked just in time. The book just missed his head with a small gust of air rushing right past his left ear. The book hit the wall behind him with a moderately loud thud. The angry unicorn looked up at Dale. “What the hell man! Are you nuts!? You trying to kill me?” “Sorry, I thought it would provoke you to-,” he said with a small chuckle before being interrupted. “To do what? Disappear again? Do you want that to happen?” Andrew was facing his friend now. “When you put it that way, no. But it seemed to work, your horn is glowing,” Dale pointed out, crossing his arms with a smirk on his face. “Huh?” Lyra spent the last several minutes sifting through all of her old stuff. She was having trouble finding what she was looking for. She looked through all the drawers and boxes left behind when she moved out. It's been quite a while since her last occupation of the room, so she tried her best to remember all her secret hiding spots. As Lyra searched, Twilight made herself comfortable near the bookshelf. She found that it was filled with books much older in physical appearance than those in her own library. Spike found a comfortable spot on Lyra's old bed, which she happily allowed. Pinkie was curiously following the blue-green unicorn around, wondering what thing she wanted to show to Twilight. Not a word about the investigation had been mentioned around Pinkie Pie, who may spread the word faster than Rainbow Dash can fly. Twilight did not want that to happen even the slightest. “Ah ha! Here it is,” said Lyra form inside the small closet of the room. Pinkie Pie started jumping up and down. “Yay! You found it! You found it!” She stopped bouncing. “What did you find?” “This!” remarked Lyra as she turned to reveal a peculiar looking flat circular object that nopony in the room recognized. “What is that?” asked Twilight. She stopped reading the book in front of her and trotted over to her excited friend. “This is...” She paused. “This... is... … well I don't exactly know what it's called, but I think I know what it does. I've never seen anything quite like-” “It's a flying saucer!” Pinkie interrupted. Both unicorns gave the party pony a comedic look as if it was a silly thing to say, but they knew it was nothing short of a mystery. “Or a hat.” “How can this possibly be a hat for anypony?” Twilight said using her keen common sense. “It's not a hat,” said Lyra. “I think it may be a record of some kind.” “Ooh, like the ones Vinyl has? But those are bigger and a different color. Or maybe this one is a toy for little fillies to play with,” suggested Pinkie. “I don't think it's a toy, Pinkie, but I have to agree with her that they are not the same as a regular record. That doesn't even look like it can hold any recorded audio on it,” Twilight pointed out. “Whatever this thing is, don't you think it's cool?” Lyra asked. “Where did you find it though?” “In the closet, silly Twilight.” Pinkie said, giggling. “No, Pinkie.” She turned back to Lyra. “I mean, where did it come from originally?” “In the closet,” repeated Lyra. “Wait, really?” Twilight said confused. “Yeah, it was tucked away in a really old box I found here in the closet when I was a little filly. The box was filled with a bunch regular things, mostly books and old paper, but this was the only thing in there that stood out. I don't have the whole box with me, I took that to Ponyville. I left this here just for real safe keeping, just in case I needed to dig it up sometime in the future.” “So you waited all this time just to show me?” Twilight felt flattered. “Well, I didn't know if it was ever going to useful, so I didn't bring it with me when I moved out. I still don't think it's useful, I just wanted to show you more evidence of-” Lyra stopped herself from finishing her sentence with the realization that Pinkie Pie was listening very closely. “You know what I mean?” It took a little while for Twilight to catch on to why Lyra avoided to mention humans until she turned around to see Pinkie in her 'curiosity' mode. She'd been leaning her head in to hear every word they spoke, as if it was the most interesting conversation ever. Something was different about Pinkie that threw them off. “Oh, right,” responded Twilight. “So, you think it has cool stuff on it?” Lyra asked. “Have you tried it before?” “There isn't anything WE have that can properly extract anything off this little disc, assuming there is any kind of hidden information on it. A record player might work, but I don't have one. It just seems so advanced, I can hardly believe this is even possible.” “Whatever it is, it probably won't help us.” “Help us with what Twilight?” Pinkie interrupted. “Oh- uh... um, you know...” Twilight stuttered. “What I meant to say was that it's not really relevant to why we are here.” “And why are we here Twilight?” Pinkie continued. Her simple questions made Twilight hate herself for accidentally saying the wrong words. Pinkie was smarter than she thought, waiting for the right moment when Twilight would talk about her reasons for going to Canterlot without telling anypony. Twilight looked at Lyra, who was looking back at her with alarming eyes. They hoped Pinkie would not be around long so they would have more privacy, but Pinkie displayed a keen interest in their mission and was eager to stay as long as forever lasted until she extracted every bit of information she could from the two unicorns. Twilight did not want to tell the truth just yet, but also didn't want to lie. Fortunately, Pinkie was not Applejack, so there was some way to stall for more time. So, Twilight made up her mind. “Well...” She paused. “You see, I'm here because-” “They're investigating a magical surge that occurred last night and The Princess wants to keep it a secret by having Twilight and Lyra help her out,” said a male voice, cutting her off. Twilight froze the moment that information echoed throughout the room and bounced into the ear of everypony present. “Spike!” she yelled at the purple dragon who appeared unamused as she elevated her voice at him. “What? I'm just telling the truth. Besides, I think Pinkie already knows,” Spike finished as he drifted off to a light sleep, again. Pinkie Pie just stood in place with a blank face as if she was letting it all sink in. Both Lyra and Twilight knew that when she came across something she didn't expect, it took several seconds for her to deeply ponder before reacting. She didn't look all too surprised, except when a smile “Is that why Princess Luna went to see Bon-bon?” Pinkie asked. Lyra perked her ears up as she heard her roommate's name. This got her even more curious about Luna's motivation for stopping by her parent's house. After all that had happened that led them to some dead ends, this one was least expected. “Why would she go to my house?” she said. “I mean, I have nothing of value but the books and notes I brought with me.” “I don't know. I didn't even know Luna was in Ponyville. I found out when I felt somepony making a Pinkie Promise. I got there as just before I heard what the secret was.” “You did?” Twilight questioned. “Yeah! Bon-bon even forgot how to do it, can you believe it? When I showed up, she went all quiet like. Then when Luna was done, I asked her where you were, Twilight. I'm not supposed to know their secret, so when we got the edge of town, she took off. I overheard them talking about Lyra, so I come to Canterlot to say hi to her mom and dad. When I get here to greet them, they tell me a cool story about their grandpapi, a founding pony of Ponyville. Then you show up here. What a weird day, huh?” Both unicorns stood in silence after Pinkie's speech on Luna's visit to Lyra's house, for which they were clearly unaware of, especially Lyra. The part about the member of her family being a founder of the town she currently lived in was definitely new. There wasn't anything back home that the Princess might have gotten suspicious for this investigation, assuming she was after something to help her understand more on the magical surge, or just making a highly unlikely casual visit. Twilight was the first to regain her composure after being exposed to so much info at once. “Lyra's great grandfather?” “My grandfather?” Lyra repeated. “Yeah! Dewey said he was the first in your family. That's weird. I guess he was like some super special pony from very far away. They don't know either. At least not everything. Do you know, Lyra?” “I know very little about him. I also don't know why he was important enough to bring up. What else did they say?” she replied. “Not much. Once we stated talking about it, they asked me about you,” Pinkie replied. “Me?” Instead of curiosity, Lyra became confused. “Yeah. They wanted to know what you're like, asking some questions about your personality. Very pinkuliar.” Pinkie finished with a hoof on her chin, pondering some more. Lyra did not say another word, for that she was just was confused as Twilight, whom contemplated their situation the entire time. They felt that this investigation was going all over the place, branching off into different directions where it was difficult to tie it all back together. Certainly Pinkie's news wasn't helping, but it did give them more things to think about, which may result in too many distractions. Even with the amount of confusion that filled the room when three ponies conversed, they could still hear faint, muffled voices coming from downstairs. The conversation between the Princesses and Lyra's parents was not quite over yet. “Oh. Well thank you for that interesting story Pinkie,” said Lyra. “I'm sure it's nothing too important.” “Pinkie, do you know anything else, anything at all, that strikes you as odd about all this?” asked Twilight. “Um... lemmie think.” She squeezed her eyes shut with exaggeration. “Nope. Unless you count that round thing.” Pinkie pointed at the disc that Lyra found, which was lying on the desk ever since the got off topic. “Oh yeah, I almost forgot.” Lyra levitated the small, shiny disc near to her face to take a closer look. “So you don't know who that box belonged to? The one that held that disc?” “Not a clue.” “But you lived here your whole life, it must have had a previous owner. Maybe somepony from your family. Your grandfather perhaps?” “I don't think so. From what I know, he lived in the room across the hall, and only for a small period of time before he moved to out to find a new home. Apparently, now I know where he went. He might have taken everything with him.” “A descendant of his maybe?” “Maybe. I'm sorry, but I don't know anything more than you do at this point.” Lyra grew tired the longer she had to wait for everything to come together. The Princesses were all she had to find out more about her family, if she was somehow connected to all this excitement. She slumped back a little at her apparent uncanny behavior, hoping her lavender friend would understand her stress. “It's okay. I get a little carried away with all these questions. I understand if you don't have the answers. So we'll just have to wait and see what Luna and Celestia have acquired from their important conversation.” Twilight moved to Lyra's side to truly express her sympathy. “It won't be long till we have everything. We just have to be patient with this.”