//------------------------------// // Chapter one: an (un)expected guest // Story: Brothers 'N Antlers // by Elkia Deerling //------------------------------// Wham! My hooves flew off the typewriter and into the air. The sound of the slamming door caught me off-guard, as did the someone who was wriggling his way inside. Of course I expected him to arrive any day now, as the weather was becoming worse and worse, and winter was in full swing, painting the landscape white. But I still jumped. I swear I tapped the roof with the tip of my antlers. ‘Greetings, brother.’ While Alces huffed and puffed as he shuffled inside, I patted my chest in a futile attempt to calm my heart down and slowly turned around. ‘Hey there, Alces.’ Alces Roameling, my brother, dragged himself inside, knocking over a few of my many piles of books with his heavy knapsack. He decided that a bed made of the books that had fallen down was a suitable spot, and flung his pack right on top of that. ‘Would you please watch out, Alces?’ I said, ‘those are vintage.’ Alces snorted. ‘Vintage? Those are heavy, useless and unnecessary, and will only slow you down on your travels.’ ‘Then you can be glad you’re not a reader, and I can be glad I’m not a traveler,’ I said. A cold gust of wind punched through my doorway, carpeting my floor with an extra layer of snow. The cold hit me right in the face. Instantly, despite my winter coat and my sweater, I shivered. ‘Could you please close the door?’ Alces turned around and waved his head at the general direction of the door. He was obviously trying to slam it shut very loudly with his antlers, but he had already shed his, very recently, I guessed. When he realized that too, he bucked and kicked the door shut—loudly, of course. After I flinched, I decided to bid him welcome with a fine tradition of Elkish hospitality. No matter how loudly he slammed doors, he was still my brother, and a visitor in my house. ‘Would you like a cup of tea, brother? You must have been freezing trying to get here. It looks so cold outside.’ Alces shook himself, flinging half-molten snow in every direction. I bit my lip as I saw some of my books getting bombarded with the many droplets. ‘You call that cold?’ he said, ‘plowing your way through the walls of snow in the Bugbear Territory is cold. You haven’t seen cold until you’ve tried that out for yourself—which we have.’ I stood up from my desk, and headed towards the fireplace, where a kettle hung over a crackling little fire. While I turned around, I looked into my brother’s eyes. The same fire that burned in my hearth burned into his eyes too. The cold hadn’t extinguished it. ‘I know we have,’ I said, ‘but you know I don’t like to talk about that. Let’s keep everything positive in my little cabin, ok?’ Once again, Alces snorted. He turned around himself, grabbed a chair, and sat down at the table. When I put two porcelain cups with flowers on them on the table, Alces turned them around in his hooves many times while I poured the tea. ‘Do you like them?’ Alces nodded. ‘I got them from Miss Rarity Belle, after I helped her with a slogan for her boutique in Ponyville. It goes like this: “Carousel Boutique: fashion to admire. You’ll find your heart’s desire.”’ Looking at me as if I just said a very, very bad word, Alces said, ‘Please don’t tell me you’re still meeting ponies? After everything that happened? After everything we have been through? After everything—’ I slammed the teapot on the table. ‘I said, no bad memories in my house, brother. If you want to talk about our past, then I know an excellent psychiatrist who can help you figure things out.’ ‘Let me guess, a pony?’ Alces growled. ‘Well… yes, but a very nice gentlecolt, who will surely give you a—’ Alces took his cup. ‘Never mind.’ ‘Very well.’ I grabbed mine, and took a sip. Even though Alces tried to keep his face neutral (and, in my opinion, very angry and unwelcome), I saw he was enjoying the tea. ‘It’s good, isn’t it? I managed to brew together that same flavor we always enjoyed on those cozy nights at the Shimmering Eye. It took me a while to find the right combination of herbs, as they don’t have Glitterleaf in Ponyville. But judging from your face, I can see that I accomplished my mission.’ A few swigs later, Alces finished his tea. Eyeing the cup as if it did something wrong, he said, ‘It was good. Almost like the old times, the carefree times.’ Somehow, I knew he was going to talk about the past, which would inevitably result in talking about the nasty things that happened. I decided to change subject quickly. I poured some new tea in an attempt to keep my brother distracted, and then asked him what was on my mind. ‘Speaking of missions, how is yours going? Have you found the—’ Alces shook his head. ‘I traveled close to the mountains this time. Hay, I could practically see the Dark Lands on the other side of the mountains! But I kept my distance as I combed out the area. No tracks, no marks, no scat, no signs of fires, snow huts, nothing. It’s like the whole herd, every elk, deer, and reindeer fled into the Dark Lands themselves.’ I let my gaze fall. ‘I’m very sorry to hear that, Alces. You would almost think that they did just that, but you know they would never do that. Maybe… maybe they don’t want you to find them.’ ‘Of course they don’t,’ Alces said. ‘You and I both know about the curse, and you and I both know that I defy that curse. Still I wonder if the herd knew I was on them. If they really did, then they did a damn good job at covering their tracks.’ ‘Well, we are creatures of the wilderness…’ Alces paused. In one swig, he finished his tea. I saw how he looked around at the interior of my cabin. Surely he took the time to watch the books everywhere. I’ll admit, it was—and is—quite a mess. It looked as if every single object in my cabin had been used as a bookshelf—not just the many bookshelves. But besides books, there were many other objects too. Things like paintings of beautiful landscapes, statues with their abstract shapes, a telescope for staring infinitely at the stars, a big checkers table to play games with the occasional visitor, cabinets with clothes, food and drinks, an ornately carved bed to dream the night away, and a piano I had absolutely no talent for. All those and many more objects created the chaotic but homely feeling I always adored. Only my two tables were book-free. One was the drawing table, and the other my writing table, where I did what I like to do: writing. ‘At least I am a creature of the wilderness,’ Alces said after a long silence. I frowned. ‘Hey! I still am.’ Turning his spirit-filled gaze towards me, Alces said, ‘When was the last time you left your cabin?’ I smiled, as I thought the answer came to me. Then I realized it didn’t came to me. Then I realized I didn’t even know the answer. Then I realized I hadn’t been out of my cabin for at least a week… or maybe two? Obviously, Alces noticed my hesitation. He crossed his forelegs. ‘Just as I thought.’ My eyes were all over the place, searching for an excuse. ‘Well, eh… you know I never really liked to travel much.’ Alces rolled his eyes. ‘Yeah, sure Elkia.’ Then he looked around the messy living room again, judging and judging and judging. ‘Where did you even get all this stuff?’ I waved my hoof. ‘You know, a bit of this, a bit of that. Most of it I got as presents for helping other ponies. I helped quite a few.’ ‘Yes, I can see that,’ Alces said. For a third time, he eyed the many objects, but this time, his gaze stopped at my little writing corner. ‘What are you doing here in this place anyway? It must be boring to spend all your time locked up in this wooden blockhouse.’ I stood up abruptly. ‘This is my little wooden blockhouse, Alces. I can entertain myself here just fine. Not everypony needs to be a traveler, you know?’ Standing up too, Alces met my gaze. ‘Then what is it you do here?’ ‘I write, and I help other ponies with their writing-related problems.’ ‘You still write…’ ‘Yes, I still write. It is still my passion and my talent, and whatever happened is not going to stop me from having fun with the hobby—the job—I like most.’ ‘Writing?’ Alces said. ‘Writing.’ I said. We were not fighting. My brother and I fought only rarely, unless we practiced dueling with our antlers, something that I didn’t even like to do. We were different, yes, very different even. But I tried to keep the peace as often as I could. Yet, now there was some tension in the air. Tension means stress and negativity, and I didn’t want that. The tea was all gone, so I had to do something else. Turning around, I walked over to my writing corner, and sat myself down on the cushioned chair. I quickly changed the stub of candle with a fresh, straight one, and then turned towards Alces again. ‘Come, Alces, then I can show you what I have made.’ With obvious revulsion, Alces shoved his chair next to me and stared at the typewriter on my desk. I was not going to wait for him to ask, because he would never do that. ‘I’m writing a memoir,’ I said. ‘In fact, I’ve just started.’ ‘What’s a memoir?’ Alces asked. ‘Does it have something to do with memory?’ ‘It does.’ I grabbed my glasses and put them on my muzzle. ‘A memoir is a collection of stories about things that have happened in your past. Memoirs are made to prevent the writer from forgetting very important things, or to pass on knowledge and life experience from one elk to the other.’ ‘So you’re writing about what happened to us?’ Alces said. I shook my head. ‘I’m just going to write a short bit about my—our—childhood. The positive memories, in particular. You can help me if you want, then we can have two main characters,’ I said with a chuckle. Something seemed to change within my brother. He stroked his beard for a few seconds, then looked at me and said, ‘Very well. I will help you with your “memoirs.” How far did you get?’ I swiveled my ears. Was I hearing this right? Alces wanted to do something creative? I guessed his latest journey had somehow changed him, even though he hadn’t shown it when he barged into my cottage like that. Didn’t matter. I shook my head a bit, and then let my eyes go over the letters. ‘I have just tried to explain a bit about the Shimmering Eye, but it’s just so difficult to explain it to—’ Alces recoiled, then shot to his hooves. His chair toppled over. ‘What?! You’re going to tell about the Shimmering Eye?!’ Raising my hooves, I tried to calm my brother down. ‘Don’t worry, Alces. I’m not going to give the precise location or something like that. Besides, the ponies that had taken part in all of the naming ceremonies took the magical oath. The secret will remain safe.’ But Alces still stood aghast. ‘Then why are you writing about it in the first place?’ I stood up, picked up the fallen chair, and put it back on its four legs. ‘I just feel it is necessary for the reader to know about the Shimmering Eye and what it can do. The next chapter will be about our naming ceremony, where we got a taste of the magic ourselves. Writing about the naming ceremony is a perfect way to demonstrate the Eye’s powers. And besides, our naming ceremony is one of my most precious memories.’ Alces slowly walked back towards the chair and sat down. I sat down on my chair too. ‘Well… maybe we can edit it out, or use another name,’ I said. ‘There’s always the second draft.’ I could see Alces weighing those words in his mind. ‘There’s always the second draft,’ he whispered. He knew I liked to say that. Shaking his head, he took a decision. ‘Very well. We’ll edit it out. I… I can see why you chose that particular time to start your story. The naming ceremony truly was something beyond description.’ I chuckled. The tension was out of the air. ‘Do you see now what a titan’s task I face? How in Equestria am I going to describe something so extraordinary?’ Alces licked his lips, and then looked me in the eyes. ‘I think I have some words for you.’