A knock echoed throughout an empty cottage on the top of a mountain, a place where nopony would call home no matter who or what they were. Not even the strongest bear would be able to weather the cruel and vicious conditions this mountain had to offer, except one. As the knock spread out throughout the house a large, bright green pony stirred, he hopped out his small bed, a dim fire lit next to it, and slowly made his way to the entrance, which he had to admit, was getting a bit too big for him.
"Who is it?" He said gruffly, his voice barely more than a rumble as the knocker almost seemed to disappear, not answering for a little bit, though the large pony was patient, he did have a long time until he had to do actual stuff. He shrugged and turned away before he finally got an answer.
"It's me, don't tell me you forgot about your own brother in the span of a week since his last visit," the voice replied with a small hint of laughter, "I guess the great and powerful Pine, who can't use his horn and yet stands as tall as his mother, has a serious case of memory loss!" the voice mused, making Pine do a complete 180 and open the door.
"You actually remembered," he said softly, his large body even bigger than the size the door was made for, "Did Candy.."
"Yes she did, though, she couldn't bring it herself, y'know, she's gettin old, can't perform as much miracles as she wishes she could, even that vacation back in Canterlot couldn't make her young again. She couldn't stand the cold winter there, she cares a lot about you, so does Torch, especially since they found out about your.. Thing. Why don't you go home and visit them Pine, they miss you," he went on, walking into the house with a pouch of bits being thrown on the floor by Pine, who was laughing silently in the middle of the cottage.
"Guess my visit is way overdue, take the bits. Use them to buy some more things for Candy and Torch, I want you to label them, "TO the best parents ever, FROM: The stallion in the mountains.' sounds quite nice doesn't it?" Pine said regally, acting all fancy as he turned to his brother, a smile on his bearded face. "Cmon Blue, tell me you can do at least that!"
"Sure I can, if you want to look like a creepier version of Sweet Pine, cmon, 'Stallion in the mountains?' Sounds like a cheap way of saying, 'Your son who says he loves you but hasn't visited since the beginning of the year..' Cmon Pine, it's been seven months, you need to visit them, and give the present yourself," Blue Torch said, leaning against the door. "And you need to renovate, this place is emptier than Dusks flute case."
"Whatever, at least I can actually do something useful, what do you do, teach rowdy foals and fillies?" Pine teased, grabbing Blue Torch and giving him a noogie, though he didn't hurt him too well. "I'll go down there in a little, just wait up for me at home, I need to find a way to actually get out of the doorway without it breaking," Pine said, staring outside with a shiver.
"Just make sure you don't forget to stay for a week, you need to catch up with us, I think Burning Light'll be there.," Blue Torch said, walking out the door and closing it with a soft creak before it fully closed, leaving Pine there in the empty cabin, the fire by his bed starting to burn out.
"Maybe I do need to redecorate," he softly said, turning around to open a small hatch in the corner of the room, big enough to allow him to fit in without trouble, though he did get his mane stuck sometimes, though it didn't really bother him, it was something he had gotten used too. His mane was to marvel at, since it almost always looked good even though it looked extremely messy.
With a loud THUD he landed on the ground, staggering to his feet he was quickly met with a pair of eyes staring at him, a large toothy grin right below. "You came back dear brother, I was wondering when you'd come back, when you would free me," the face snarled slowly, making Pine kick it square in the nose, a light overhead lightly shining up the place. The light patter of blood filled the still quiet of the room as Pine got ready to speak.
"You shut up, it was bad enough when I had to tell Candy and Torch that you're dead, harder enough to keep you hiding down here, shut away. I should've killed you when I had the chance," Pine retorted, kicking the figure again. "You behave yourself, I'm heading out," he said, turning around to leave, "And if I find out that you escape, or mess anything up, I will personally dig a grave for you and bury you inside,
"Got it?"
"Yes sir," Sweet Pine replied, groaning as the lights turned off, leaving him in the pitch black darkness, to be alone. Once more.
Pine burst out his door, obviously not caring that he had weeks worth of repairs to do, as he made his way down the mountain, the crunching of the snow creating a soft noise throughout the atmosphere, the clouds that rested tiredly on the mountain getting further away as Pine climbed down the mountain, In terms of navigation, he was the one you could trust to not lead you to a cold, painful, icy, or high death. He knew the mountain inside and out, from the caves holding fresh spring water, to the sharp rocks that plague the mountain like sickness, he knew exactly where to go.
With his navigation, he also knew where his old home was, the house that the rest of his family lived in, away from the other ponies, sheltered by the dangerous mountain conditions that the ponies beneath them dared not to go through, for fear of their lives. His family stayed, used to the harsh conditions from the top, while enjoying the serenity and grace of their location near the base of the mountain, only scaling it to see Pine, and to see the grave that he had planted for his brother, Sweet Pine.
As he neared the base of the mountain, the air seemed to go still, the wind had died down to barely more than a soft whistle, snow seemed to stop where they lay, and animals ceased to even breathe, and the low crunching of snow seemed to get ever so louder. With a flick of his head, Pine could barely see an outline of a creature, shrouded with a blanket of snow, with eyes that went to a slit as it rushed towards him, fully charging at him with the intent of doing harm, with a spear?
Pine quickly put up his hoof and allowed the spear to jab him through the arm, before twisting it in a way that would both break the spear, and allow him to use it himself, though after he did this, he threw it away, far off into the distance. "What…" he said to himself, watching the spear dissolve into a goopy black mess. He walked towards it, poking it only to realize that if was almost molten, feeling the heat mere moments before touching it. The blackish goop melted the snow, then the ice that lay beneath it, then, the rocks, it managed to stay hot enough to make a large dent in the rocks.
This made Pine worry, whatever this thing was, it certainly wasn't anyone he knew, friendly or not. If it was someone that he had interacted that hated him, they wouldn't have something like that. He turned around to look at his attacker, who looked like he had been covered with the goop himself. With a snap one of his hooves launched forward, leaving Pine stumbling as he barely dodged out of the way, tripping on his hooves and falling to the ground, the ice cracking beneath his massive weight.
The tentacle quickly changed direction, wrapping itself around Pines leg, causing him to scream loudly as steam rose from his leg, which soon smelt of flesh as it wrapped around tighter, not only cutting off all feeling in his leg, but burning it off at the same time, the tentacle going around tighter as more of his leg got burnt. At the end of it all, the tentacle smacked the now almost cut off leg, taking it clean off the rest of the body, and retreated back to its owner, who made his way down the mountain, leaving Pine there, a bloody, knocked out mess.
When he eventually came too, he found himself still on the mountain, inside his cabin. He moved three of his hooves. Everything's there, then he moved the final leg, the stub of it anyways. Thanks to the tentacles… hot properties, it had already been cauterized, which meant that he hadn't lost much blood. He wiggled it around, observing his environment while doing so, concluding that he had been brought back to his home somehow, somehow…
He turned to his fire pit and spat up a fireball, one of the perks to being part dragon he liked to think, but to others it was something to be feared for. It wasn't his fault his mother was half dragon, he just got the fire breathing part of that little dragon genetic pool. His sister, who he wanted to see before he went to his parents house, got the wings, and the moodiness of some, though it wasn't certain it was genetics. He had always teased her about it, though both had agreed to stay away from teasing or making fun of their dragon-like parts.
One question still remained though, how was he able to be brought back to his cabin, when he was barely halfway down the mountain where ponies would not care to look? He heard a creeking come from the corner of the cabin, which had strangely been fixed, the wood looking fresh and the door was even adjusted to fit him, and he wasn't planning to fix the hole he had made when he sprinted through the door.
He saw the shape of somepony there and slowly got off the bed he was laying on, shifting his weight to account for the fact that he was missing a leg. Despite him balancing himself more he kept on stumbling over and over, making the walk to the figure a lot less dramatic than he had hoped for. As he finally neared the corner, the figure stepped out, the red eyes immediately telling Pine who it was, much to his anger.
"Well, looks like I'm the one who did the saving this time brother." Sweet Pine huffed, sitting down in front of Pine, his grey coat very slightly visible with the dim light offered by the flame next to Pines bed, his expression not one of evil intent, but with actual concern. Of course Pine didn't care, he did deserve to be locked up in that small cellar-like area, so he swung at Sweet Pine, missing by a lot when he moved off to the side.
"What are you doing out of the cellar, how did you even get out? The shackles were tightened every day so there's no possible way that.." Pine started, interrupted by a hoof against his mouth.
"Brother, hush, I'll inform you later, but right now, you need to recover. Celestia forbid you die because of an infected wound, I haven't even gotten around to treating it, so crawl your way back onto your bed, and let me treat that missing leg before it takes care of you." Sweet Pine said, much to Pines disagreement, as Sweet Pine picked him up by a hoof, and dragged him back over to the bed.
"Once I'm able to walk properly again, the first thing I will do is go after you, beat you senseless, then make sure that you're stuck in a grave. That is a promise Sweet Pine." Pine growled, somewhat surprised that the much much smaller Sweet Pine could pick him up with ease, though he attributed it to whatever Sweet Pine did in the past. "I haven't forgiven you, and I won't no matter what," Pine said, Sweet Pine rolling his eyes.
"Oh I know you wouldn't, neither would anypony who survived what I did, though, there wouldn't be too much of them, despite my eyes being bad, I can see with my visions, but yeah, I don't think I'll be forgiven for what I did anytime soon, but not for now dear Brother, you need rest." Sweet Pine said softly, "I'll see what I can do for your leg, just sleep. Think of whatever it is you like."
Pine sighed, but couldn't help but follow his orders, closing his eyes, exhaustion overwhelming him, making is transition into the dream realm easier than it always would. Sweet Pine stared at his brother and turned to the door, opening it softly, soft snowflakes falling on his grey pelt as he walked out, camouflaged well with the snow, and closed the door behind him.