The Elder Brother

by Yoni


Godly intervention (Redone)

Depressed

There is no better word to describe your feelings. You simply stay in your room, completely ignoring the outside world as you constantly beating yourself up, blaming yourself for your stupidity and naivety.

Every day is as hollow and grey as the next. You go to school, say a few words when you are forced to answer a question, go back home, and stay in your room until the next day. 

Tia and the rest come to visit you every day, trying to lift your spirits up. Sometimes it works, but most of the time you sulk in your own sadness.

You remember one day in particular, just two days after the rejection; you were staring at the wall, doing nothing but breathing, when suddenly, there was a single knock on the door. You opened it to reveal no one, only a small muffin lying on a letter. You picked up the letter and read…

For no reason, aside from the reason of it being reasonless

A friend


To this day you are unsure who’s the muffin was from, maybe one of the maids. Of course, it wasn't enough to completely cheer you up, but it was a start.

You look at yourself in the mirror and try not to cringe. Your hair is all messy and you have bags under your misty eyes. All your clothes are wrinkled and you're pretty sure that you haven't taken a decent shower for a while now.

You take a quick glance at a nearby watch, it reads four and a half in the afternoon.

"Three, two, one…"

As you finish the countdown, you hear the door to your room being flung open. You let out a halfhearted chuckle, your sister becomes predictable.

"Tia, can we please skip todays cheering session, I'd rather be alone…"

"No."

"Tia, that wasn't a-"

"No!"

"Tia, I-"

You stop your rambling as a golden aura envelopes your entire form and lifts you a few inches off the ground. You magically turn around to see Tia and the rest all look at you with looks of utter annoyance.

You chuckle nervously at all the angry faces "Ahh, hey guys. What's up…"

"Brother…" Tia says in a low growl "You know we're all your friends, right?"

"Right."

"And that we care about you, a lot."

"I guess so."

"And that this is a safe circle, where you can tell us everything."

"Where are you going with this Tia?" You ask dreadfully.

"This is an intervention, Brother. We're all here because we are worried about you and we're sick of seeing you like this."

You scowl but otherwise remain still, not that you have much choice in the matter "This is horseapples, I just need some time for me. Let me go!" you demand, receiving some angry huffs from aurora.

The others nod and you can see Chrissy using her own magic to open the door to your bathroom, stepping inside. A few moments later you feel yourself being levitated towards the bathroom, the sound of running water reaches your ears as your eyes widen in realization.

"Oh no! Oh no, no, no, no, no. Tia! Put me down. NOW!" You yell. Tia flinches at first. Never in her entire life had you screamed at her like that. Not even when she accidently turned your hair pink. But she quickly pulls herself together; she was doing this for you, even if you don't know it yet.  

"Sorry big brother, but you stink, and we can't talk with you smelling like that." 

Chrissy pokes her head from inside the steamy bathroom "The water's ready." She disappears into the bathroom again.

As you unwantedly enter the bathroom, you can see your impending doom. A bath full of hot water and soap.

You try to wiggle yourself free to no avail as you hover above the bath. It takes all but one second to completely strip and plunge you into the hot wanters.

You can no longer feel Tia's magical grasp on you as you give all your friends the mother of all death glares.

You can feel a few trickles of water from above and see Daring Blitz sitting on a mini cloud with a smug look on his face.

"Is this really necessary?" you give him a deadpan look.

"Yes, it's so you won't leave," he says, kicking the cloud beneath him and shocking you with a mini lightning.

You rub your head where the lightning struck you "That was uncalled for," you complain.

"Oh shush you big wimp," says Chrissy as she squeezes a hooful of shampoo onto your hair and using her hooves to rub. Star Swirl makes sure that the water temperature stays just above warm as Tia pours more scented salts into the water, bathing the room in a calming smell. Meanwhile, Aurora holds you down gently so you wouldn't get soap into your eyes while Chrissy scrubs your hair. You occasionally locking eyes with each other as you both blush and look away.

You try to wiggle yourself towards the edge of the bath a few times in order to make a run for it, but Daring Blitz is more observant than you give him credit for, if zapping you everytime isn't proof enough.

Once you are as clean as one can possibly be, your friends allow you to exit the tub and dry yourself. You step out from the bathroom sparkling clean before moving to your wardrobe, picking a tunic at random and slipping it on. You take a seat on your bed as your friends take seats all around you. You can’t help but feel slightly annoyed at their intrusion, but you forgive them nonetheless.

"And now, talk."

"Tia… I really don't feel like talking about this."

"Well lucky you, it wasn't a request," says Chrissy. She hisses at you in what you guess is supposed to be a threatening manner, but it was more cute than anything.

You sigh and lower your head, no easy way out of this one, it seems "Fine, you want to know how I feel? I feel like an idiot, like a complete and utter idiot. I’m sick of this, I’m sick of being me. I just want to be a pony like you guys, instead of this misshapen… whatever I am. I should've known that nopony can love me."

As the words leave your mouth, you feel something colliding with your cheek and sending you tumbling to the floor. You look up while holding your cheek, Aurora is next to where you sat moments ago, her hoof locked in an incriminating posture.

"That's was the stupidest thing you've ever said to us, and you've said a lot of stupid things."

There are a few murmurs of agreement from the rest. Tia was the only one not looking at your eyes, she never liked seeing you in pain. Wait, is that blood!

You move your hand from your cheek and into your field of view and sure enough, your hand is ever so slightly bloodied.

You hear a few gasps of shock as you look up to meet the frightened looks on your friends' faces. By the look of utter shock on Aurora's face, you guess it wasn't deliberate.

"I… I'm…" she stutters, tears brimming in the corners of her eyes. She didn't mean to land such a powerful hit on you, but when you said all those awful things about yourself, she just lost control.

You lift yourself off the floor and make your way silently towards your bathroom. You wince slightly as you wipe the wound with a damp towel, but the cut itself isn't too serious, it'll heal in time. You know Aurora will never hit you out of spite, but ponies' hooves are tough and your skin is much more delicate.

You walk back into your room to see Aurora crying her eyes out on your bad. You smile sadly and move to comfort her, taking her in your arms and letting her cry into your shoulder. Funny, your friends came here to help you, but instead you are the one doing the comforting.

In that moment you realize something. When you distanced yourself from your friends, you did not only hurt yourself, but them also. They need you just as much as you need them, and they were having none of that. Realizing your mistake, you tighten your arms around Aurora until her crying is reduced to a few sobs here and there.

"I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry," she apologize profusely. 

"That's okay, Aurora. I needed that."

Aurora chuckles halfheartedly as the rest of your friends huddle closer, letting you know what you mean to them through their actions.

Meanwhile

Gaia and Solaris were at the doctor's office. Gaia was feeling weak in the past couple of months. It was worsening when her son was lost in the city and subsided only a little when he returned.

But the last few days were the hardest so far.

"I do not understand, doctor. I have been eating regularly for years now, but I cannot seem to lose all this extra weight," Gaia says. She isn't self-conscious, by any chance, but her growing weight is a source of concern.

The doctor instructs Gaia to lay down as he examined her, his horn flaring for a few seconds before talking "Seems like you might have a parasite." He concludes.

"Like a tapeworm or something?" Solaris asks worriedly.

"Can you do anything about it?" Gaia interjects, dread creeping over her.

"Only for about a month or so. After that it becomes illegal to remove, except in a couple states.

"But don't worry. Many mares learn to embrace this parasite. They name it, dress it up in tiny clothes and arrange playdates with other parasites."

The couple looks at the doctor as if he is mad before he speaks again, "Congrats! It has your eyes."