Sunset let his brother settle himself into the dark couch and sat in front of him on the hard floor. Powder was barely keeping his eyes open; they were bruised, crusty, and weary. Sunset began thinking about the last time he had seen his brother. It was a heartbreaking moment for them both.
“I…I need help…” Powder said flatly, sniveling slightly. His left under-eye muscles twitched noticeably with each word. Sunset gave a curious look to his gray brother and sighed at his words and deathly appearance.
Powder looked like either a shell or a ghost of his former glorious appearance. His gray coat appeared more white than anything, and his blue eyes were blood shot to the point that they looked more like the coat of Jesiah. The feathers in his wings were ruffled, hanging off slightly, and some took a black tint of dying to them. His pure white mane was both thinning and reversing its colors with his coat. All of these things Sunset had seen before, but the healthy gray Pegasus gazed upon his brother’s flank.
Sunset remembered the day Powder received his Cutie Mark. Powder loved children and had made it clear to many ponies, yet no one wanted him near their families. Powder had offered to help babysitting the next door neighbors’ children for the weekend alongside their mother who reluctantly agreed out of dire need. Their mother had begun having her episodes of insanity and Sunset had to restrain her back at their home, leaving Powder to care for the children himself. Two days later, the parents returned and Powder had taken such good care of the children that he was offered money.
Of course, Powder denied it. “It’s my special talent to love and care for children,” he said and in a single flash of bright light, a brand in the shape of a foal rattle appeared on Powder’s flanks.
But now it looked more horrifying. It had taken the distorted form of a mace, ready for war.
Sunset looked over his brother and said, “You want help?”
Powder nodded helplessly and wildly, not closing his eyes for even a second.
Sunset began thinking of everything Powder had done to deserve help for his mental condition, but with each positive thoughts were three more negatives, including one that was nearly unforgiveable. Insane or not, nothing could redeem Powder for what he did.
“Why should I?” Sunset snapped.
“You just said you’d never hurt me…” Powder said with a small smile, hoping that using Sunset’s words against him might aid him.
“Yes, but I don’t have to help you either.”
There was a silence in the room, bitter and cold. The two siblings looked to the floor in thought. Powder’s only thoughts were of the things he saw out of the corner of his eyes, yet when he turned to look, they would always disappear, laughing at him evilly; all the while, Sunset was forcing himself to think of reasons to help his brother.
“Why…why can’t you just help yourself? There’s a hospital down the street…”
“I’ve tried!” the sickly Pegasus yelped in pain. “But every time I try the things come back and talk to me. They keep saying that if I stay away they’ll leave me alone, but they never do! But I can’t stop listening to them! Please take me there! Force me, hold me down, stab my leg if you have to!” Sunset chuckled at the thought of stabbing his brother’s leg. “Oh god! They’re talking to me! No no no no no no no no…”
Sunset looked at his brother curiously, watching him writhe and fall into a fetal position on the couch. He rocked back and forth, whispering to himself. Sunset leaned forward to hear what he was saying.
“Go away Harbinger. You have the moon. Go away Harbinger. You have the moon. Go away Harbinger. You have the moon.” Powder’s eyes were shut tight as he sang his mantra.
Then a pang of curiosity shot through Sunset. Harbinger. Jesiah knew something about it, but Sunset didn’t want to ask any more about it. Now he kind of wished he had. Maybe it would have shed light on what Powder was rambling about.
“Who is Harbinger?” Sunset asked his cowering brother.
“They keep talking!” his brother screeched.
“Who is Harbinger?”
“They want me to hurt Bubby…” Powder’s childish nickname for Sunset.
“Who is he?!”
“They want me to hurt people, to hurt the children! Please. I can’t hurt them. Don’t make me hurt them. Not the kids…”
It was as though he couldn’t hear and it only infuriated Sunset more, but he knew there was nothing he could do. His brother was lost for now.
“They want me to hurt Melody. No! No! Not her! Please…just stop!”
Melody. Sunset almost hit his brother for uttering the name, but when he listened to his brother’s pleas to end his misery, a sudden and undesired feeling of guilt and pity washed over him. This Pegasus was the last true family Sunset had left and was his brother as well. How could he be thinking of just letting him suffer?
But what Powder did was unforgiveable.
Maybe moving on is better? We both did that with Dad?
He hurt her.
She forgave him too.
He took her away from me!
She never wanted me!
That’s not true!
Stop!
“Go away Harbinger. You have the moon.”
Sunset looked over his brother’s pathetic and pitiful form, on his side crying into his hooves. He took a few cautious steps forward and placed a hoof on his brother’s shoulder. Powder’s crying slowly ceased and he looked upon his brother, eyes looking the sanest they had in years.
“The clinic won’t take you in right now,” Sunset said, bringing his fearful brother into a soft embrace. “We can go tomorrow morning.”
Powder only nodded. He couldn’t bring himself to speak.
“Let’s get you in bed.”
+++
Sunset felt the grasp of cold air stab at his wings—freezing his wings to his sides, throat—making it difficult to breathe, and eyes—allowing for little true, un-blurred sights through. His coat of dull fur barely kept him warm. It did not matter that his journey was only twenty feet out of his home. Sunset shuffled through the small blanket of snow upon his lawn and saw the tracks he had been making all day by walking around the lawn as well as two other pairs of hoofprints; one set belonged to Jesiah obviously as Sunset could see the soft grace with each step and the equal spacing while the second set was jagged and disharmonious to the rest. The hoofprints indicated that whoever made them was not in their right mind and should not have been out in the cold. They were Powder’s.
Sunset shuffled through the snow, jumping hoofprints already set in order to prevent his hooves from being completely frozen by the time he got to his neighbor’s door. He noticed once stepping on the patio a bucket of paint that still had wet drippings along the side. Curiously, Sunset stepped back onto the lawn and looked at the second half of the duplex home. It had been repainted completely and finely. The new beige paint made Sunset’s home look like the other half’s former, ghostly self.
Sunset felt a little jealous of his neighbor’s home; it was beautiful on the inside, even if by terrifying standards, and on the outside.
At the front door, Sunset reached forward to knock but the door swung open immediately, rushing warm air from the still burning fire onto his wings, throat, and eyes. He gasped and cooed at the feeling of warmth and, without thinking of consideration, jumped through the door, shutting it behind him.
The gray Pegasus looked all around himself, but could see no sign of Jesiah anywhere except his fedora on the piano ahead of him and a strange feeling of his presence...no, a presence near him.
“Um…hello?” Sunset called out worriedly.
“I’m upstairs!” Jesiah’s voice rang out through the house.
“Upstairs?” Sunset whispered to himself. “There are no upstairs.”
“Sorry! I meant attic! Still not used to being in a house.”
There wasn’t an attic either. Well, one that was accessible. It had been blocked off from the inside, a strange occurrence but Sunset never questioned it.
Sunset blindly followed his memory to where the attic doorway was. There was a door with a latch that had been snapped by something red—as there was red on the latch—and the door was gaping open, revealing a set of stair that led to the attic entrance. He scaled the stairs quickly but found the entrance to be blocked by awkwardly stacked boxes. They were stacked too tall for him to fly over it and the inconvenience made him groan. Starting with the small wooden crate at the top, Sunset began digging his way through the boxes.
“What are you digging out of here?” Sunset hollered, but when Jesiah didn’t reply, he became worried. “Jesiah?”
The attic was cold and dank. Sunset did not like being there. It was dark except for the single lamp hanging from a rusty hook in the rafters. There was a large bundle of boxes that seemed to be empty.
“What’s with all the boxes?” Sunset said, half-expecting the silence that came.
There was a creaking from above Sunset in the rafters but when he looked up he saw nothing. Literally. It was all pitch black and the light from the lamp was being swallowed by the abyss.
Creak…
“Who’s up there?” His voice cracked slightly, unsure of his situation. Yet he braved his fear and thought for a moment. He blew out the flame in the lamp and allowed his eyes to adjust to the diabolical blackness of the storage-loft.
A silhouette hung from the rafters, huge and monstrous. It was darker than the dark, and it frightened yet intrigued Sunset. It looked like it had massive arms that dangled from its triangular body, but Sunset couldn’t be sure as he strained his eyes to view the creature in the dark. But the longer he stared at the form against the dark, the more Sunset came to realize that it was looking back.
“Jesiah?” Sunset whispered fearfully, hoping that it was all a trick. “Is that you?”
The soft sound of hooves clopping against the wooden floor to the beat of “Requiem” startled Sunset. Not by its abruptness, but because of his sudden realization that what he was looking at was not Jesiah.
The scared Pegasus stepped back with each hoof hitting the floor in sync with his racing heartbeat. He fell back into the pile of boxes and saw Jesiah’s large Pegasi form. His blue eyes glowed against the darkness. Jesiah put the boxes back up where they had been prior to Sunset’s intrusion.
“Your eyes…” Sunset started.
“I can see in the dark,” Jesiah whispered straining. He looked at Sunset and put an invisible hoof to his chest. “Listen to me. That thing is an assassin. Nopony knows that I own this place so they must be after you.”
Sunset’s mouth gaped. “What?”
“Shh…Okay? It won’t attack unless it knows that we can both see it. Right now it thinks that I haven’t seen it. You looked at it for too long.”
“What the hell is that thing?!” Sunset exclaimed silently. His heart raced at the thought of death. Whatever that thing was, it was real and obviously present for ominous purposes.
“It’s called an Ytrium. It’s not from Equestria. Actually, it’s native to Tartarus, but a few get out every now and then.”
“What…um…” The only things that Sunset could think of—whether they be brought upon by his inert fear of the dark he had displaced as a filly or the simple fact he didn’t know what it looked like in completeness—was whether it would kill him and then eat him or eat him alive or something along the lines of it being a ponyeating monster.
“And no, it won’t eat you…” Jesiah replied as though he read Sunset’s mind. Again.
“Then why is it here!?” Sunset yelped quietly.
“I can’t really explain that right now. We are underneath a being that can think and kill. The question is how long it’s been waiting here.”
“What do you mean?” Sunset, despite fearing for his life, was complete intrigued by the entire situation. There was monster from Tartarus in his attic and a supposedly immortal Pegasus next to him that can see in the dark with glowing eyes.
“The door is blocked on your side of the attic and you always lock your doors. Someone obviously wants it to look like you let somepony in and they killed you. That way it would draw attention elsewhere so it decided to go through my half of the house, but like I said the entrance to your half via attic has been blocked…”
“Why doesn’t it just move it?”
“The Ytrium aren’t strong, they are fast. The metal bars in the door would require the strength of fourteen of me. And let’s just say that I’ve arm wrestled bears. By the way, don’t look up.”
Sunset raised an eyebrow and felt a wisp of foul, warm breath against his mane. He shook in his place and did not dare look up. He would surely scream if his fears had been confirmed.
“The good thing is that these boxes are light and we can just move them tonight.” He wasn’t whispering anymore and it frightened Sunset to the point of wanting to break into tears.
Sunset looked at Jesiah stupidly. “What?”
The red Pegasus gave a wink, yet Sunset still could not follow.
“By the way, did you hear about the dog that would only attack its prey if the prey saw it? Also, there was this crazy fellow, Doug I think his name was, that had a magic act and would sometimes use the fire to go back to his friend’s home.”
Sunset nodded.
“Oh, I almost forgot! My hat’s on the piano. Would you mind going and getting it please?”
Sunset nodded a second time and, still shaking, shuffled through the stack of light boxes. When he jumped through the attic doorway, he raced down the stairs and at the base of the stairs he heard a screech of primal anguish and…
Kaboom!
Sunset saw nothing after that. Something slammed into the back of his head, but the explosion had sent his unconscious body flying backwards.
+++
The grandmaster piano burnt to a charred crisp in front of Sunset as a small, fragile, gray form dragged him by his left hoof. It was a slow and steady crawl, but they were inching near the exit. Sunset, vision blurred by waking, saw his twin half of the house missing chunks of wall, the fireplace shattered, and things burning. Above was a bright blue light that was covering him and his savior.
“We have to get him out of here!”
Sunset began to think about the past several hours of his life. It had happened all so fast. A musically gifted Pegasus who knew Sunset more than he knew had waltzed into his life as though it were by complete chance; Sunset knew it wasn’t by chance. Chance is false. There’s only do or don’t.
Just like Sunset didn’t have to go and see Jesiah to tell him that Powder was back. He didn’t have to go and find out there was something trying to kill him. But he did.
It wasn’t chance that Sunset had picked the home that was twins with Jesiah’s. In fact, Sunset remembered his mother telling him to pick the place so they could be relatively close to one another. Had his mother been in on his father’s lies as well?
What if they weren’t lies at all?
Sunset’s mind raced with thoughts as he was slowly pulled into the cold snow outside. He felt himself being lifted onto somepony’s back and carried away like that.
A thought came through Sunset’s head that frightened him more than the creature that was to kill him. Had Jesiah been the one sent to kill him? He said the creature had been waiting for a long time but why hadn’t it just attacked. Unless the creature was supposed to protect Sunset from Jesiah!
Sunset shook his head at the idiocy he was imagining. Jesiah was far too kind and childish to be a killer.
“What happened?” Sunset heard his brother’s voice crack fearfully. He felt his brother’s hoof on his chest as they pulled him.
“I kind of blew up a monster that explodes when it dies…”
“What?” Powder said confusedly.
“Well, the Ytrium carry a lot of energy and that’s why they’re great killers so when they die, they expel most of it…”
The bright light above descend slowly and Sunset lost consciousness with one thought probing the back of his mind:
Why had Powder acted so casually about Jesiah’s explanation?
And why was Powder even trusting Jesiah in the first place?
…
…
And why was he thinking of the name “Luna” again?