//------------------------------// // 12. Secrets // Story: Gifts and Curses // by flamevulture17 //------------------------------// [Chapter 12] Secrets Before long, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna agreed to tell Lyra about her grandfather simply because she had a right to know. They assumed she knew anything beyond the ordinary about him rather than an old rumor of his unnatural nature. The decision was for all four of them, including her parents, to fill in the necessary details to avoid giving the wrong impression. Even though it wasn't exactly bad news, more over the kind of information only five other ponies in Equestria knew. Lyra's mother volunteered to summon her daughter from her room and was asked to have Twilight Sparkle, Spike, and Pinkie Pie join them. She made her way up the staircase and down the hallway to Lyra's old bedroom. Once she stood before the closed door, she didn't hear any voices from inside. If they were simply having some sort of conversation, surely the old wooden door wasn't capable of absorbing even a whisper. She waited for several seconds for any sign if the room was indeed occupied by the ponies that tagged along with the Princesses, especially the pink one. Cirrus gently knocked on the door three times. She heard a frightened squeal from behind the door. A few seconds later she heard hoofsteps get louder and eventually reached its peak. The door opened with a purple aura surrounding the doorknob and she was welcomed by Twilight Sparkle, the famous pony who defeated Nightmare Moon and Discord from taking over Equestria with the Elements of Harmony along with her five friends. It was the first time she got the met her, even after she'd been friends with her daughter, Heartstrings, for the investigation. She felt humble in her presence. “Greetings, Ms. Sparkle,” she said nervously. “Princess Celestia has requested my daughter to join us downstairs for an important matter we'd like to discuss.” Right then, she heard another, very faint squeal, from somewhere in the room. From her vantage point, more than half the room was obscured by the door and the rest by Twilight. The purple unicorn didn't say a word. “Is Heartstrings here?” The lavender unicorn simply nodded, but didn't move another muscle. “Is something wrong?” Lyra's mother leaned in a bit. Her small smile turned into a frown. For a couple of seconds, Twilight just stared at her, almost like she was scared. It was noticeable in the emergence of sweat running down the left side of her face. She came to her senses when she finally stepped out of the way and opened the door further to let her in. A strange first impression, Cirrus thought. She stopped in the middle of the room, but saw no sign of her daughter. The only other soul in the room was a small baby dragon snoozing peacefully on the bed. Twilight remained by the door, but seemed to be more calm and collected than at first sight. Her first guess was that she was hiding somewhere. - - - 2 minutes earlier... “Humans?” Lyra finally managed to say after being caught by surprise when Pinkie Pie said the same word. “Yeah. There were other weird words like London and England, like names of super secret places I never heard before, but humans is a biggie. Everypony I know doesn't know those words, and I know a lot of ponies. I mean, I know a lot of ponies in Ponyville, not so much in Canterlot, or anywhere else really, just Ponyville. Do you know what they mean?” Pinkie's eyes bounced all over the place until her question had her stare back at Lyra. “Did you say anything to Luna?” Lyra asked Twilight with great concern. “No, I didn't, I couldn't have anyway, you were with me the whole time. I barely said anything to her.” “Then how does she know?” “Oh, oh,” Pinkie bounced once more. “She went to see Granny Smith.” “The Apples knows about them too?” Lyra cocked her head a little. “How many other ponies should I know that knew about humans all along?” “I don't know. Maybe Fluttershy or Rainbow Dash, oh, I think Rarity-” “It was a rhetorical question, Pinkie,” Lyra cut her off. “Oh, right,” Pinkie giggled. “Silly me.” “Well, we can't just go on asking everypony we know about them. That would defeat the purpose of keeping it a secret.” Twilight pointed out. “So, Pinkie...” “Yes, Twi?” Pinkie Pie fluttered her eyelashes at her purple friend. “We need you to keep it between us, okay?” “Okie dokie loki.” “Though, it appears to me that we've already failed, now that the Princess and Granny Smith know.” “It might not be that bad,” Lyra said. “I mean, we didn't tell them. They probably don't know more about them than we do and I know enough to give a lecture on them.” Twilight gazed at her, slightly offended. Lyra took notice. “Sorry. What I'm trying to say is, we shouldn't worry too much. We still have a job to focus on.” Lyra felt confident that she was right. She'd hate for her personal life to get mixed up with their mission in gathering information about the energy surge the night before. Or rather, things would get too complicated to deal with if it turned out that it had something to do with her. All she needed was to not let her fear in personal involvement get the best of her. She looked back at Twilight after having her head down in silence, whom was taking too long acknowledge her statement. Then Twilight's head shot up. “But if Princess Luna went all the way to Ponyville to talk to Granny Smith for this valuable information, only to figure out that the information she needed was not in a book, but rather the history that began with your great grandfather, wouldn't that link you to this investigation?” “Oh.” Lyra wasn't expecting to be brought down by logic again. Somehow, she felt like she always knew, but didn't want to admit it to herself. “What about the surge of magic last night near Ponyville?” “So, what really happened with this scary magic?” Pinkie gasped. “Who did it? Did it go kaboom? Did it gobble up anypony?” “We don't know much about it, Pinkie,” said Twilight. “We're just as puzzled as Princess Celestia.” “But I didn't hear anything last night. I was sleeping.” “We all were,” Twilight stated. She didn't hesitate to explain the details to Pinkie Pie, whom already knew too much anyway. “All we know is, the pony who first detected it was Princess Luna. She told Princess Celestia about it and they tried finding what happened. When they realized they had too much to search through, they called for our help and told us to not tell anypony. That's how we ended up here. Well, here in Canterlot anyway.” “Until we find all that we can find about this phenomenon, the Princesses still need our help,” Lyra concluded. Suddenly, the sound of faint, muffled hoofsteps echoed. It came from the other side of the door and got progressively louder with each step. Even Pinkie remained silent for the long seconds they stood to listen in on the hoofsteps. Lyra's chest grew cold in fear. It meant one of two things; the long conversation was finished, or they weren't quite done yet, but found out that Pinkie spied on them. Hopefully it wasn't bad news, but she couldn't help to think it was. Lyra's heart dropped when the clanks of the hoofsteps on the hardwood floor in the hall had stopped directly at the door, eagerly awaiting- *Thud thud thud* “Eeep!” Lyra cried. She quickly zipped into her closet without without a sound, closing the door enough to leave a small opening. Little did she know, Pinkie disappeared after her in a completely opposite mood, leaving Twilight to handle whatever the startled the mint-green pony. So much for not worrying so much. A failure of dignity on Lyra's part to Twilight's amusement as she simply sighed and headed for the door. In the dark and gloomy closet, Lyra's limbs were shaking and her mind racing. She thought she might have been overreacting. Still, when she heard Pinkie say the word 'human', the first thought that came to her was that her little secret was being passed around in such a way that it reached Princess Luna in one day. She might have been over thinking the situation a bit. The soft breeze in the closet was unsettling and.... wait. “Pinkie Pie!” she flinched at the sight of the pink face closely behind hers. Lyra managed to voice her fright in a loud whisper. “What are you doing in here?” Pinkie giggled. “Can I hide with you? Are playing hide and seek? Who's IT? Is it-” “Shhh!” “Oh yeah, too noisy, got it!” “Shhh!” The hiding ponies anxiously waited to see who was at the door. It could only be one of four ponies, two of which she assumed brought troubling news. Lyra placed her ear closer to the open crack of the closet door. She heard nothing for a few seconds. “Lyra?” The voice of her mother cried out from inside of the room. Right then, Lyra no longer felt discomfort, but relief of unguided fear. “Mom?” She pushed her head out of the stuffy closet to find a familiar pony in the center of the room. “There you are, dear. Why are you hiding in the closet?” As a show of embarrassment, Lyra stepped out of the closet with her head down and eyes closed. “We're playing hide and seek,” said a bubbly voice as Pinkie Pie bounced out the closet after Lyra. Cirrus gave them a confused look, but before she could ask, Twilight trotted up to her energetic friend. “Pinkie? Why don't we let these two be alone for a while?” she suggested, leading her away. “That won't be necessary, Ms. Sparkle. The Princess wishes for you all to join us.” “All of us?” Twilight asked. “Yay!” Pinkie suddenly jumped into the air, grinning ear to ear. “We're having a party!” She began bouncing around the room, and out of nowhere, a shower of confetti rained down on their heads. All ponies, including Spike, looked up in astonishment as thousands of tiny pieces of colored paper fell from the ceiling to the floor. Lasting only for a couple seconds, all eyes turned to Pinkie Pie with blank expressions. The whole room went completely silent as if the most awkward thing just happened. “I'm sorry to disappoint you, Miss Pie, but this isn't a party,” said Cirrus. Pinkie gazed closer at the other pairs of eyes staring at her and saw that no pony was having fun. Lyra and Twilight shook their heads and Spike had his claws on his hips. The stillness of the air and lack of a party had drowned out the smile on Pinkie's face, to a less happy, yet more understanding complexion. Without a word of confirmation from Pinkie, Twilight swiftly started toward the door. “Well, we better not keep the Princesses waiting,” she said. “Come on, dear,” Cirrus said to Lyra. “Everything will be explained more clearly.” Each pony, and Spike, headed out the door and down the hallway to the stairs. Lyra hesitated at the foot of top step when a second thought rolled into her mind, before being deliberately poked by one of Spike's claws. She eyed to little dragon standing by her side. He stepped back a little, intimidated. “Sorry, I thought you might still be a... a... … whatever Pinkie said before. Do you believe her?” “I guess we'll find out soon enough.” With that, she reluctantly continued down the stairs after her mother, with Twilight in the lead, and behind all of them was Pinkie Pie. For the time it took all them walk from one room to the main room where the royal sisters and her father had been patiently waiting, it felt to Lyra like the first day of school. All who were around her were familiar faces, but somehow the thought of something completely new to be learned made her both nervous and happy. When they finally reached the living room and caught sight of Princess Luna and Princess Celestia casually sitting on the large couch, it surprised her that she felt like it was her first meeting with royalty. Even after spending a good number of hours in a secret part of the castle with Princess Celestia, it was amazing how mixed emotions could affect a pony's mind. Her heart rate elevated and her fur coat stood on end. However, she consciously regulated her breathing and controlled the flow of thoughts in her mind instead of letting them bounce all over the place. One by one, each pony found a comfortable spot to sit for what would potentially be the most interesting conversation they would ever have. Celestia and Luna sat next to each other on the sofa, Lyra's parents across from them, Twilight and Pinkie on the only remaining couch for two. Lyra simply stood in place right next to Twilight, with Spike closely beside her. “You don't want to sit, Ms. Heartstrings?” Luna asked. “I think I'll just stand.” “Would you like to hear how your family is the most interesting thing we've come across in a very long time?” Princess Celestia delicately said. “Really?” Lyra's gaze shot towards Celestia. “Most certainly. We just want to share it with you since you are a part of it and have a right to know,” Celestia added. “It's your choice to be comfortable, we'll do the talking.” The questions were inviting, but Lyra didn't think she'd be surprised of the news they were willing to give ever since Pinkie Pie's exaggerated story. Also due to the fact that her sense of reality was more open to crazy ideas than most every pony she had met, and each one of them had been highly educated to a degree that put them as the smartest minds in Equestria. Her knowledge might even rival that of Princess Luna, or push it as far as Princess Celestia herself. For Lyra, being smart wasn't as great as it seemed. Usually it was crudely seen as being stuck with a life of study and a lack of social life. However, her intelligence might have been caused by what the royal sisters where suggesting they'd talk about themselves with many ponies to witness. The only seat left was the small couch for a single pony, to the left of where her parents sat. Lyra looked at everypony in the room who were all looking back at her. It made her nervous for everypony to observe her every move to get herself comfortable, but it also gave her an idea to provoke a response with a very simple sitting position that she was used to. It was the perfect opportunity, with the perfect sets of eyes to sit down like a human would. She felt very confident in the process and put on a meek smile as two royal alicorns, her own parents, and her closest friends watched her position herself onto the chair with her body upright, hind legs in front, and forelegs resting by her side. … An eerie silence filled the room, enough to hear chatter of outdoor passing ponies. “Why do you sit like that?” Her mother was the first to react, breaking that silence. “It's how humans sit,” Lyra responded. She thought I'd be a good idea have their focus on her knowledge of her hobby rather than a boring talk on her family heritage for which she decided to push aside. That moment, she wanted to demonstrate just how interested she really was in humans. “It's comfortable.” “Humans? What do you know about them?” Luna shot her attention closer to the the unicorn's posture. To Lyra, it was surprising when the Princess didn't ask 'how', but rather more interested in 'cool, tell us more'. “So you DO know?” she said. “But why you?” her father stepped in. Lyra shrugged. “I guess it was in my nature. Does that make one of them?” she tried joking. “That's quite an interesting conclusion, Ms. Heartstrings,” Celestia nodded, but then shook her head. “But I don't believe you are. You see, we have come to learn that your family tree may not have been entirely equine due to the sudden manifestation of your great grandfather. From what my sister has been able to gather and a little bit of history research, you are not completely equestrian.” Lyra's expression almost vanished, but the emotion she carried internally was strong with fearful joy. Perhaps what scared her the most was it to be true, but didn't know why it made her feel a certain way. Twilight's face also showed signs of surprise. “We apologize if it shocks you, Ms. Heartstrings,” Celestia continued. “But it is clear to us that you and your mother,” she glanced at Cirrus, then back at the blue-green unicorn. “Are partly of that different race.” The eyes of Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, and Spike lay fixed on Lyra while she remained sitting in her chair in an abnormal way. For Twilight, it was a secret she never thought she'd hear about her most unusual friend. Spike simply observed the way she sat and compared it to his own posture for when he sat the same way. Pinkie Pie, on the other hoof, was not surprised to have heard the same news and kept still in her seat, avoiding being disrespectful to every other pony if she went bouncing around the room, showing everypony how thrilled she was that Lyra was, in fact, half alien. “Somehow, I always knew,” said Lyra with her head lowered, while kicking the air with her short hind legs back and forth that didn't quite touch the floor. “But how does that help with what I was here for in the first place?” she stated, wondering what her family had to do with anything. “Well,” Luna spoke up. “I previously thought that the mysterious surge the night before near Ponyville exhibited similar properties as that of the first mysterious surge over a century and a half ago that occurred here in Canterlot. Our current state of harmony proved that to be untrue. We know that each of these events were different and possibly unrelated, especially the one in Canterlot. Let just say that things weren't going so well the first time,” she turned to Celestia. Princess Luna hinted a time in history that sounded important to ears of Twilight Sparkle, whom wasn't familiar with anything bad that happened around that specific time in any book she read. Since it would have taken too long to explain everything, Luna left no room for questions. “It was then that I figured, with the help of my sister here, that this event is different. I'm not certain what kind of magic it was or if we'll ever have a chance of knowing if it changes every time it happens, assuming it might sometime in the future.” “I agree,” Celestia nodded. “I know most ponies believe that our magic is the most powerful in all of Equestria, but in truth, we only posses a small fraction of the whole spectrum and are able to control an even smaller portion. There is so much more to magic that just us ponies. There is such magic that seem to violate the most physical laws of space-time, and we have no idea how or why. So, I must say that, because this is such a difficult task for us handle and I do not want to spend too much time on what could be a futile effort, so our work on this case is too insufficient to continue.” “What!?” Luna retorted. “We're just gonna give up? But we can still find a way to explain this?” “How do you suppose we do that, Luna?” Celestia argued, slightly taken back by her little sister's defense. “We, uh... we-” Luna stammered, then paused to think about her sisters words. However, she didn't want to let such an interesting subject slip through her hooves. “I'm not sure yet, but I can gain more knowledge on what young Lyra knows on these other worldly creatures we mentioned.” “Humans?” Lyra responded in place of Celestia. “Yes, them,” Luna smiled at Lyra for being so passionate when she spoke. “I'm sure it won't be a waste of time. Please, sister?” Princess Celestia took a few moments to think while the rest of the ponies sat quietly, waiting for a reply. It had always occurred to her that, whatever made her sister happy, she was happy. For her to take away that interest in knowledge would be like taking away a toy from a foal that has become so emotionally attached to said toy. The Solar Princess sighed. “If you wish, sister. I apologize if I was being to direct. I realize it is not my sole choice to cancel this endeavor unless we both agree, nor was it my intention to force you to conform. For that, I am sorry. However, because I must attend to some important duties as Princess of the Day, so I will leave the investigation to you. Fair enough?” As if it was the most power apology she ever made to anypony, Luna grinned from ear to ear and, without warning, lunged over to embrace her only sibling with a hug. “Thank you, sister. I forgive you.” With that, they smiled at each other then finally turned their little ponies. Celestia stood up from her seat on the sofa. “Now, I must get back to my own work,” she stated. Celestia then put her attention on the oddly seated unicorn. “Ms. Heartstrings, would you care to help my sister by continuing the investigation?” “I'd love to.” “Wonderful. You may both collaborate with one another when you are ready. It will be an off-the-record case from now on. With that said, I trust everypony in this room with confidentiality, including you Ms. Pie.” Princess Celestia made sure each pony understood with the way she spoke in a friendly, yet active tone. Pinkie Pie angled her head back, raising her chin, and raised a hoof to her forehead. “Yes ma’am!” Celestia giggled, accomplishing the pink pony's mission of making at least one pony smile before the end of the day. Apparently it took a simple gesture of a salute to succeed. Plus one for a smile, and plus one for it being the leader of Equestria. Princess Celestia began walking toward the front door to leave, but came to a halt and stood before her personal protégé. “Would you like for me to arrange a formal transport to take you to Ponyville?” she asked. Twilight looked up at her mentor. The purple unicorn felt tiny compared to the Princess, but didn't let in belittle her too much to give a polite refusal. “That's alright Princess, but I think I want to stay with Lyra and Luna and help them out to the best of my abilities.” “I thought you'd might,” Celestia giggled. “You're not mad at me, are you Princess?” Twilight added. “For what?” “Oh, um...” Twilight felt embarrassed for letting Pinkie Pie spy on them and looked away blushing. “Uh, I just thought you were aware that-” The white alicorn put a hoof to Twilight's shoulder, cutting her off. They looked at each other for a brief moment, then Princess Celestia winked at the concerned purple unicorn. Twilight had a feeling that the Princess knew about it all along, but the simple subtle gesture was her way of saying 'don't worry about it'. “Very well, little ponies. I will be in the royal castle if I am needed.” Celestia opened the door with her magic, stopped halfway out the door, and turned her head back inside one last time to say one final thing to the resident owners. “And thank you for a most pleasant conversation. I'm glad that we've been able to help you with uncovering the mystery that continues to surround your family.” “Thank you, Princess,” replied Lyra's father. Without a moment to soon, Celestia formally nodded, exited the residence, and quickly flew off towards the castle. Andrew paced around his room in a slow panic. Even though his mind raced and his abnormal breathing overwhelmed him, his horn did not respond to his actions. For the first time, he wanted his horn to glow again and take him somewhere other than his room. More eyes in the house were at risk of being exposed to a non-existent creature that turned out to be their naïve high school friend. He also hoped Dale was doing a decent job of stalling them so he would have more time to escape. The more Andrew thought about it, the more he wished to be normal at that very instant. Seconds later, the sound of bare footsteps came running up the stairs and disappeared at the the top when met with the carpet. A young figure whizzed past his half open door in a blur and the Doppler shifted sound of loose jeans rubbing against each other with each step made it clear who it was. He heard his little brother cry out for him in the room down the hall. Andrew stopped pacing and stared at his door, waiting for his only sibling to figure out the only place left for him to be and peek in the room. Alex didn't find the blue unicorn in his bedroom. His next thought was almost obvious. He left his room and cautiously walked down the hallway up to Andrew bedroom door and stuck his head around the corner. “There you are.” Alex entered and closed the door behind him. “So, what do we do now?” “I don't know,” Andrew sighed. “I, just, don't, know.” “Well, there isn't much time to get outta here. Might as well think of some way to ditch this place,” suggested the youngster. “You have any ideas, smart guy?” Andrew chuckled. The look his little brother's face was ready to rage. Fortunately, Andrew would be keeping his head for now when Alex simply gave him a stink eye and sat down on the bed. Andrew giggled once more, then continued to pace in circles back in a paranoid state. For less than a half a minute, they remained quiet to allow each other think and to listen to the progress down at the front door. When what felt like an unusually long silence was broken by the start the sudden start of a conversation, time seemed to flow again with relief. Andrew began to think if Dale wasn't capable of keeping the attention of his other two friends from realizing that he was keeping a secret. A very bizarre secret. After listening to the faint voices from the other part of the house for a good twenty seconds or so, maybe his best friend was doing better than expected. “I got it!” Alex said, bringing Andrew's attention back to their own problems. “You got what?” “A way out.” “And what is it?” Alex stood up from the bed and suspiciously stepped toward the only shelf of books that Andrew owned, facing the wall. “I do THIS...” Right then, Alex swiftly turned around, lunging a hardcover Star Wars novel at the anxious unicorn. Without a word, Andrew quickly dodged the incoming projectile with ease, barely missing his head. Thankfully, it hit something soft and landed on the floor, suppressing a loud noise that otherwise would have been heard throughout the house. He retracted back to his previous position and gave his brother an unconcerned look. Alex still had arm extended from throwing the book and a fake smile on his face to express his innocent mistake. “For a moment there, I really thought that you had a brilliant idea,” Andrew jived in an unaffected earnest face. Alex's head dropped after watching his plan fail and comforting words from a magical creature. A weak attempt at Dale's idea was sure to suck anyway. He sighed and collected himself from his pose. “Well, I don't know what to tell you other than jumping out the window. Unless you want to do that thing where you-” “There's not enough time for that,” Andrew interrupted. “I know, just saying,” Alex shrugged. They went silent for a few seconds. “So there is nowhere to run, huh?” “Looks like.” Alex scanned the room for more options. “You could hide, but when your friends find out that you're avoiding them, they'll tear this place apart to find you.” “I know.”Andrew took a moment to double check the weight of his only decision. “I- uh, I guess you know what that means.” The youngster let out a sigh, followed by a turn of the head, followed by a nod. Alex didn't think their situation would escalate this high, even after contributing to making a bad impression with the way he acted at first. It scared him the second he laid eyes on a pony his size, standing just outside the glass door in front of Dale. His first thought was that it was a trick and couldn't control his fear by using violence. Now that Alex and his transformed brother were facing an even greater danger, that encounter seemed like child's play. Neither of them had any idea how these other kids would react when they see what happened to Andrew. “I should be scared,” Alex said. “But I don't know why I'm not. I think it's because I'm more curious than afraid. I mean, I'm sure nobody else has had a person they know turn into a unicorn. To me, it's kinda cool, even though it is very hard to believe.” “Maybe for you, but I just want to change back, like right now. Seeing how I can't do that, and every time something happens, my life gets worse. I have a feeling that something supernatural is playing with me. I swear, if I find who did this, I- … I… I… I don't know.” Andrew couldn't think of a good way to settle a feud, nor was willing to announce weak threats considering how much of a coward he was towards people who had strength and power over him. “Right now, I am of risk of a few things. I might lose half of the only friends I have, or I might lose my life in two ways. So I have no other choice but to take those chances.” “What are you gonna do?” “Nothing. We just wait. You don't have to be here when it goes down.” “Nah man,” Alex smiled, walking over to Andrew's desk. He sat down in the chair to show his intentions. “I'm ain't going nowhere. You might need me to punch your friends in the face if it goes that far.” “IF it comes down that,” Andrew stated. Alex proceeded to violate his brother's privacy by opening up the gray laptop that was asleep on the desk in front of him. The screen start-up menu was not password protected and a short jingle went off when it logged on. “Hey!” Andrew rebelled. “Don't worry bro, I'm just peeking. Hey, what's this?” - - - Peter and Steven broke into laughter. Dale remained quiet. Of course his friends wouldn't believe him. He expected them to laugh, but was off with his predictions when both of them suddenly stood up to approach him. “Okay dude,” Peter said, lightly hitting his hand on Dale's shoulder. “You need to work on your jokes, and we'll just join Andrew in his room, sound good?” At that moment, Dale blocked their path as they started up the stairs. “What gives? You can't be serious,” Steven reacted. “Tell me you're joking.” “I wish I was.” Dale swallowed what little saliva he had left in his mouth from nervousness. “Whether you're telling the truth or not, another reason why we're going up there to make sure you're not full of crap.” “No.” Dale stood his ground, which was mistake from the start. However, he tried to make his facial expression as lamented and serious as possible. Either he was going at it the wrong way, or it was the perfect order of business to keep his friends busy. Whatever the case, it was a matter time until they went at it the hard way. “Come on, just be honest with us, what is going on between you two today? Did you two plan this? Did you both forget of purpose that we were gonna hang out today, only to come up with a lame joke? What is so important that you can't tell us what's going on?” Steven handed out his suspicions all at once. Peter crossed his arms in agreement. “Okay fine, I'll go get him.” Dale started to walk up the stairs, but when he got halfway, he heard the footsteps of both his friends follow him. “Oh no no no, it's fine, I'll do it myself,” Dale waved his hand and motioned back down a few steps to stand in their way. “No you won't. We're not that stupid,” Peter refuted. “Look, we're coming whether you like it not. Just don't make us do anything we'll regret.” Steven and Peter knew it wouldn't be right to go ahead and fight their way through to get someone in their own house, unless they were the cops. This also didn't appear to be anything more than a game, than something that needed law enforcement. Dale paused for second, then shook his head and whispered, “I can't believe I'm doing this.” The three teenagers walked the rest of the way up the stairs at an unusually slow pace. Since Dale was the lead and wanted to stall as long as possible, he cleared one step every two seconds. Twelve steps to the top and all that differed between reality and insanity was ten feet and a door. - - - Andrew's heart raced when his ears were met with the sound of shoes colliding with the squeaky wood of the staircase. If the next minute was to be his last before at the mercy of more company, all he wanted to do was feel calm during that time. He lifted himself off the uncomfortable position on the floor and jumped on his bed next to his duffel bag still filled with all his personal things. He felt strange having to stand on all fours instead of laying on his back as usual. Also, the size of his clothes rubbed ill-fittingly all over his fuzzy greenish coat and tail as they covered most of his body. He turned around to face the closed door to anxiously await the chaos of revealing a great secret to rain down in the place where it all began. Alex, however, did not move from the chair. He did not turn around, nor did he seem to aware of anything but the chess game he started playing on his brother's laptop. On a side note, Alex almost deleted an unsaved document that caught Andrew by surprise for completely forgetting about his chemistry homework, but realized that he could no longer finish it in his current state, nor was he willing to. He swore under his breath and turned away to forget about it again, pushing it out of his mind for being of very little concern compared to what he was waiting for. Alex thought that if having a unicorn for a brother wasn't a big deal, maybe the same kind of thinking could be applied among other people, if those other people were willing to accept anything. The sound of footsteps stopped at the top of the stairs for the reason when someone reached the carpet covered hallway that suppressed noise. At that instant, Andrew's mind went into a mist. His focus became stirred, blinking furiously to ease a discomfort that developed in his large, yellow eyes. A sizzling pain suddenly arose in his head with a soaring ache that was unbearable for a few seconds, then immediately went away as quickly as it came. Andrew felt odd when his hearing began to muffle out ambient noise as if he was going deaf in mere seconds. The strangest sensation of weightlessness followed as his head began to hurt again. With so much pain being thrust upon his body, he couldn't keep his eyes open and squeezed them shut. He heard a voice from in the room, but could not make any sense out of it. He put his hooves to his face to try and cope with the pain. His heart pounded furiously. Alex found Andrew to be struggling with something mentally. His brother looked like he was in so much agony all of a sudden. It wasn't a good sign. “Andrew! Hey you alright?” he said. No response. The distressed unicorn appeared to be having a seizure, but one that did not involve the body to uncontrollably flail. There was nothing he could do to help Andrew out because he had no idea what was wrong. As Andrew was at the mercy of sudden cranial torture, his horn began to hiss, glowing brighter and brighter. Alex became nervous and stepped back in panic as the blinding light radiated from his brother's horn. - - - Dale, Peter, and Steven stopped halfway to their friend's room when they heard the voice a young kid from behind the door. Right away, Dale realized that something didn't seem right. “Is that Andrew's little brother?” Peter asked. “It came from-” “Andrew's room.” Steven finished the sentence. “I know, I heard it too.” They stood in silence, waiting for another voice to sound off. Instead, a peculiar stream of white light poured through the bottom of the door. It quickly got brighter than the natural daylight. So bright in fact, they had to squint their eyes. It was almost too bright to have their eyes open. “What's going on Dale!?” said Steven within in the blanket of while. “Oh no.” Dale's heart sank. He immediately sprinted to the door with both his friends followed closely behind, fearing the worst. - - - Alex could see nothing but white. Even with his eyes tightly shut, the intense light penetrated his eyelids, attacking his pupils. He didn't know where he was in relation to anything else in the room. An extremely high-pitched ring deafened his ears, but not loud enough silence the racket of a doorknob rattling. *BANG!* As the bedroom door swung open, an extremely loud thunder roared rattled every wall of the room, including the floor and the ceiling. Vibrations resonated throughout the house as if it was about to collapse. The floor shook in the wake of the burst. A small pulse threw Alex backward as a direct result of the loud blast. He was lifted into the air a couple of feet and violently slammed into the fragile structure of a bookcase behind him, crashing to the ground face first along with several books hitting him on their way down. The three who were standing at the door also felt a slight shock wave that pushed them backward as well, causing them to loose their balance, knocking them off their feet. Not quite as fierce as that of Alex. … Just as everything was engulfed in a heatless fire that lasted several seconds, everything suddenly went still. No light. No noise. Silence. Realizing what had just happened, Dale quickly got to his feet and ran inside to find Alex laying lifeless on the ground. The entire situation that plagued every part of the room shocked him. Ignoring the mess, he knelt down next to Alex and carefully flipped the unconscious child over, checking for a pulse. A spot of dark red developed on the left side of Alex's head. He turned his head at his friends, barely collecting themselves off the floor. “Guys, get over here now!” he shouted. “We have a problem!” Peter was enormously confused on what exactly occurred to him. A loud voice was calling for him inside the room they were thrown from and when he saw Dale standing over the body of young Alex, he instinctively snapped to his feet and hurried to his side. “What happened!?” Peter started panicking. “What does it look like, Alex is dying over here,” he yelled. “But go down to the basement and alert his mother. Ask her where the first aid kit is. Tell her it's urgent, tell her everything if you have to.” Without any more questions, Peter darted back out the room and out of sight. Steven finally came to, realized what happened and ran to Dale's side without a word. He quickly pulled out his cellphone and dialed for emergency services. Dale was unprepared with his basic aid to care for Alex as he waited for emergency paramedics to arrive with the right equipment to further assess the extent of the injuries. All they could do was to stop the bleeding of the open wound right above Alex's left ear that may have caused a concussion. When Peter was gone, Dale held Alex's head up with both hands as Steven preformed a rudimentary method of CPR, having only basic training through high school level health class. Dale almost shed a tear for the small boy. He was more concerned with Alex's life than with what happened to Andrew. He motioned his head around the room and found the bed to be in the only undisturbed state. A frown and overwhelming fear infested his judgment for his next move. “Steven, can you hold up for a moment?” he asked. “What?” Steven ceased with pressing down on Alex's chest. “I need to check something.” “There is no time for that.” No matter how aware of the situation he was, Steven had no idea what to do and sat still regardless, staring down at Alex's body. However, despite lack of proper training and emotional composure to slow his slight panic, his CPR performance had worked and Alex began breathing again, but still in comatose. Ignoring Steven, Dale grabbed a pillow that was conveniently right next to him and slid it under Alex's head in place of his hands. He stood up and took a deep breath. Dale stepped toward the window, careful not to touch anything with his crimson painted hands. The very sight of blood trickling down his fingers made him extremely apprehensive. His eyes scanned the area of the backyard, including the surrounding neighborhood yards for anything out of the ordinary. He tried looking for a distinct blue-green figure that he rightly assumed would have ended up in the backyard again. Nothing.