//------------------------------//
// Memories 
// Story: The Elder Brother 
// by Yoni 
//------------------------------//

"Ow! Dammit Luna, not again!" you yelp as you pry Lulu off of you. 

"Wha- what?" she asks sleepily.

It's the third time this month Lulu has been dream walking into your room and bites your nose.

You rub the sore organ as you glare at your little sister. She looks back at you with a look of shame plastered across her face.

"S-Sorry, I can't help it," she says quietly, trying to hold back a few tears with little success.

You sigh and wrap your arms around her. She was always a tad bit sensitive. The biting wasn't that bad at first. In fact, it was cute and you didn't mind that, but as soon as Lulu started growing teeth, things quickly changed from cute and innocent to painful and annoying. 

~Flashback~

The wailing kept you awake all night. It was because of Lulu, the small filly usually cries herself to sleep and your parents are clueless as to why this was happening. The fact that the royal family's chambers are so close to each other doesn't help with muting the sounds of Lulu's pained cries, and it's keeping you from having proper sleep.

You stand up from your bed and rub your eyes, checking the clock. It was two in the morning. You decide to have a little trip to the kitchen and fix yourself something to eat, seeing as you're already awake and probably won't be heading to sleep anytime soon. At this time, you envy Tia for being a heavy sleeper.

You slowly make your way towards the kitchens, mommy's moon lighting the halls with a dim silver-ish blue color that you grew to love and adore so much. Ten minutes later, you have a ham sandwich in your hand as you chew slowly.

Lulu's cries were getting stronger; signaling one of your parents is approaching with the wailing menace.

"Oh! Morning son, I thought you were asleep." comes the voice of your beloved father. He was carrying Lulu on his back, still crying.

"I couldn't. Too much noise," you say absent mindlessly, biting a big chunk from your sandwich and chewing.

"I'm sorry for that. Little Luna is crying again, your mother and I can't figure out what's wrong with her. We suspect that she may be ill."

Daddy sighs as he levitates a bottle of milk towards your wailing sister while simultaneously filling two glasses of orange juice, one for you and one for him.

Unfortunately, little Luna doesn't want the bottle, and pretty much smacking it out from her mouth. But instead of continue crying, she's looking at you.

Daddy looks at you, then at Luna, and then back at you "I think she wants you."

Now it was your turn to look between daddy and Luna, her eyes never lost that mesmerizing glint that pierced your very soul. You nod sleepily and open your arms. Daddy levitates Luna towards you; the small filly extends her hooves towards you mid-way.

You safely secure your arms around Luna before daddy lets her go from his magic grasp. Surprisingly enough, Luna simply looks at you. She's not smiling nor crying, simply staring at you.

Then, without any warning, she pounces on your face and latches on your nose. You fall back on your bum out of surprise, but Luna doesn't let go.

"Hahaha. I think she likes you, son." Your dad takes a sigh of relief.

Luna stayed like this until she fell asleep…
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"Come on Lulu. Stop crying, today is special after all." You smile at her, ruffling her mane in a way you know she hates. Suddenly, her eyes go wide and so does her mouth.

"Oh right! Happy birthday, bro!" She jumps up and down on your bed excitedly. You shake your head from side to side and smile, catching your little sister mid jump and tucking her beneath your armpit upside down.

Lulu doesn't seem to notice or mind as she keeps rambling about all the cool stuff your family could do on your birthday. 

The walk to the dining hall was far from silent but you don't mind. In fact, you enjoy the small talk, even if it is one sided, mostly.

You let Lulu go mid-way and tell her to go ahead of you. You know your entire family is probably waiting for you in the dining hall to surprise you, so you decide to let Lulu be part of it.

By the time you round a corner, Lulu is already gone, she sure can ran fast. You chuckle inwardly when you think back at all the times you spent together with Tia and Lulu.

The two were truly a blessing, even when you fought with each other. As of now, you can only think about the good things you experienced with them, lifting your spirits and adding a small, albeit a bit silly, skip to your walk.

You approach a set of double doors that led to the dining hall. As you come closer, you deliberately make your steps louder so everypony could hear you coming. Surely enough, as soon as you rest your hand on the polished handle, you hear a lot of 'shhhh' from the inside.

You shake your head slowly while smiling "Silly ponies," you mutter as you open the doors.

"SURPRISE!"

You jump back from the sheer volume of the shout. Even when you knew about the upcoming surprise party, your heart had other plans, such as missing a few beats and scaring the shit out of you.

Your family, friends and almost all of the castle's stuff members are inside the dining hall, which was decorated with colorful streamers, balloons and a giant banner with your name on it in big, colorful letters.

Mom and Dad approach you and give you a hug. Mom then proceeds to kiss you on the cheek. You smile when your parents step back, only to be immediately assaulted by your two sisters. Tia gives you a hug of her own while Lulu jumps onto your head slumps against it.

You chuckle and walk towards the table, still with the living hat on your head. There, you can see your friends, all four of them. Mom was a little upset that you didn't even try on making more but you preferred it this way.

As you get closer, you can't help but think of how they all grew from when you were younger. Chrissy became much taller for a mare her age, almost double the size. She also supported some kind of hormone glands at the top of her head that highly resembled a crown.

Daring Blitz turned to be a bulky pegasus. He had a tendency to get himself into trouble and always sought something exciting to do.

Star Swirl became more practiced and skilled in the arts of magic, though he still had a tiny puberty hair on his chin and above his upper lip. You always liked to tease him about it.

Honey Aurora developed as well. She is slightly taller with much more curves, you notice. Now that you think about it, she's in the forefront of your mind ever since that day.

~Flashback~

You write frantically the answers to the question as fast as you can. Stupid tests, you hate them, and you hate your teacher for surprising you with one. History was hard enough as it is, but this, this is just being cruel.

Luckily, you are a good student, not as good as Tia, though. Even if she is a few grades lower than you. You hand over your finished test and get out of class. The test was during the final hours of school and the teacher said that whoever finishes early may leave.

You move down the halls when you hear grunting, followed by a yelp. Curious, as well as concerned, you turn toward the source of the sound and what you see boils your blood.

It was Chrissy. She was being cornered by two colts. You know these two, they're the hall monitors, they abused their power, threatened to beat up colts for their lunch money and even going as far as antagonizing little fillies.

As to why Chrissy was inside the school parameter, it was because she wanted to learn as well. Seeing as her home didn't offer the same level of education, she decided to morph into a filly and attended school every day. How she got busted was beyond you, not that you pay it much attention, from obvious reasons.

When you see the look of utter terror on Chrissy's face, something ignites inside you.

"Hey! Leave her alone!"

The two colts turn around and their glare becomes harder.

"So, this bug is a friend of yours? Figures, you freaks," Says one of the colts.

You see Chrissy cringe at the word 'Freaks' as a few stray tears land on the floor under her, her head low in shame.

"Say that again, I dare you, I double dare you!" you demanded. To see Chrissy like that, hurt and dejected, it makes you clench your fists and grind your teeth.

"Or what? You call your monkey friends and throw bananas at us." The two colts snicker.

At that moment, Chrissy felt a twinge of anger rising inside of her. She was always got picked on, whether somepony saw her in her changeling form, but you were still the number one most hated being, just for being so different.

"Take that back or I'll make you eat those words!" Exclaimed Chrissy.

The two colts turn around and Chrissy immediately regret saying anything. The look of utter hatred in their eyes burns ever brighter.

"Shut your mouth, Bug!" The colt to her left raised his hoof and struck Chrissy in her eye.

Then, without a warning, all hell breaks loose. You could contain yourself no longer when you hear the cry of pain from your friend as you interject the colt to the ground, punching furiously.

You only managed to land a few good hits before you felt immense pain on your side and fell to the ground, clutching the sides of your chest.

The other colt struck you with his hooves directly to your ribs, breaking few of them. The punch wasn't lethal, but ponies' hooves, combined with your tender skin, equals broken bones.

"You bucking ape! You broke my muzzle!" the downed colt roared. Even through the pain, you manage a small smirk.

The two colts approach you, one bloodied, and one flaring his nostrils. You prepare yourself to more pain when you hear someone shout, then, the world goes black.

When you wake up, you find yourself back in the royal infirmary. You try to stand up when you feel something soft press against your head and gently forces you back to the soft and inviting pillow.

"You shouldn't stand yet, just rest." You hear a gentle voice; it belonged to none other than Aurora herself.

"Huh? What happened?" You ask.

Aurora smiles gently and speaks slowly and quietly "You got hurt pretty badly when you confronted against these jerks. I saw what happened and confronted the colts myself. After that I called one of the teachers and they rushed you to the hospital, after they stabilized your condition they sent you to here."

Now that you think about it, she does have a black eye and a few bruises on her barrel.

"You got hurt."

Aurora smiles and says "You mean, just like you got hurt when you defended Chrysalis?"

Your eyes widen at the mention of Chrysalis' name.

"Is she alright? She didn’t got hurt too badly, is she?" You asked frantically.

Aurora shakes her head "Don't worry, she only got a small bruise on her left eye, but other than that, she's fine."

You take a small sigh of relief and relax your posture.

"You were really brave, you know," Says Aurora "You stood up for a friend and even got hurt doing so. I only regret not coming 
sooner; I could've stopped all this."

You smile and place your hand on top Aurora's head "Don't feel bad Aurora. You couldn't have stopped this no matter what you did, if anything, it was my fault for not being strong enough to protect you."

The two of you lock your eyes on each other; a small blush appears on the both of you.

"You probably should go back to sleep."

"Yeah, I should."

"I-I should go, bye."

"Bye."
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You smile at all the good memories you shared with your friends and family. You don't care about being different anymore, you don't care that a lot of ponies resent you for being you. The only ponies you care about are the two ponies that raised you as their own, the two fillies that shared your good and bad times with you, and your friends that stood by your side until this very day.

Unknown to you, two mares developed feelings for you. Chrissy and Aurora both see you in a completely different way after that fateful day. Though you're too innocent to notice the gentle signs the two often dropped.

You move closer to your birthday cake. Your name is spelled with frosting and below that, two numbers shaped candles stood lit. The number eighteen…