Taking to Responsibility

Taking to Responsibility

Just as dusk was settling in, the unicorns of the Crystal Kingdom's Magic School were looking over the crystals that Glave and the returning troops brought back with them by Prince Soul Stone's orders. One unicorn tried to cast a spell on the crystal holding the black alicorn. Once the spell hit its target it was absorbed. Then a black line of magical energy reached out of the crystal and touched the unicorn that cast the spell, knocking him unconscious. The crystals holding both alicorns then shattered and they slowly started to rise off the ground from where they fell. "Go get a medic unit from the hospital and inform Lieutenant Glave that they’re awake." barked one of the unicorns.

The black alicorn was the first to his hooves. He then shook his head violently, and then proceeded to look around the room. He saw the shock and awe in the eyes of the unicorns around him as he stretched out his legs and wings. His gaze then fell to the unicorn on the floor. He rushed over asking "What happened to him?"

The unicorns looked at him in confusion, and then one stepped up and said "He tried casting a spell on your crystal and it was absorbed. Then black magical energy came out and touched him. He was rendered unconscious."

The black alicorn then swung his head around looking at his brother and yelled, "Get over here! This unicorn needs your help. I've done it again."

The white alicorn, who was just finishing stretching out trotted over and looked at the unicorn. Just then Glave and the medic team came into the room. "All right, we’ve got a unicorn down and no one knows why. Plus the alicorns brought here on Soul Stone's order were badly wounded. I want them treated and back to full health. Now!" Glave barked out her orders. She and the medic team stopped in their tracks once they saw the two alicorns. They were fine, not even a scar on their bodies anywhere. This shocked Glave most of all because she saw the wounds those two had and they were severe.

The medic team went to work on the unicorn that was unconscious but couldn’t find anything wrong with him. The white alicorn bent his head down to the medics and said "Please move aside? I can help your friend." The medics did as they were asked and then the white alicorn slowly moved his flowing mane into the unicorn lying on the floor. Light began to come out of the unicorn and soon he opened his eyes. Standing back up shaking his head he slowly moved to where the others were standing.

"What just happened?" Glave asked. Not being able to understand what just happened.

"Well you see my brother here unwillingly takes magical energy from anything that has it even the world around him unless I am near. You see his body feeds off of the energy and also lets him cast what few spells he knows. When your friend there cast his spell against the crystal my brother was in, his natural feeding and self-preservation instincts took over. He then ate all the magical energy from the unicorn, knocking him out. My body makes massive quantities of magical energy and I can give it to those my brother feeds from, like I just did. Though sometimes I can't control who or how much energy I give them. That is why my brother and I are always together. He feeds off me and we keep our abilities in check. Oh, we would greatly appreciate you not telling anypony of what you just learned." the white alicorn replied, turning to look at his brother who was now blushing and rubbing the back of his neck.

"Sorry everypony." the black alicorn sheepishly said.

Everypony in the room looked shocked beyond all belief. Glave then broke the silence and asked "We will not tell anypony, but just who are you two? What was that thing I saw you turn into back at the battle field and why the hay are you not injured anymore? I mean, you don't even have any scars and I saw your wounds, they were bad!"

"Oh, please do forgive my rudeness. I am White Light the Magic Bringer and this dark pony behind me is my brother..."  White Light said before he was cut off.

"Dark Heart the Magic Eater!" Dark Heart said in a dark and menacing tone. The other ponies in the room slowly took one step back as Dark Heart raised his head and flared out his wings.

"Brother, enough!" White Light said stomping a hoof near his brother.

"What? I was just trying to have a little fun with them." Dark Heart said with a creepy smile on his muzzle.

"Please don't mind him. He may look mean and scary, but he's a good pony at heart. I can't recall the number of times he has begged me to let him go help someone, even if it was just to get into a fight." White Light said with a smile as he looked back at the others. "Now as to your other questions, that thing as you put it, is what my brother and myself turn into when we are in grave danger or are pushed to our limits when we are trying to help those in need. As you have seen, after it happens we go into a type of sleep to recover our energy and heal our wounds. The crystals that form around us are a defensive mechanism. It’s unbreakable until we are ready to come out."

"Thank you for clarifying." Glave said.

"So where are we and how do we get out? I'm ready to go home." Dark Heart asked bluntly.

"You are in the Magic School located in the Crystal Kingdom. After your timely rescue at the battle field and falling into your sleep as you put it, the princes and princesses agreed that we could not leave you there like that, even more so because we did not know what became of the enemy. It was agreed that you would be brought to the Crystal Kingdom so you would feel comfortable while recovering from your wounds. You see, out of the four great kingdoms ours is the only one that has all three pony races living together peacefully. Now here is the hard part…" Glave said looking to the ground tears forming in her eyes.

"What is wrong miss…?" Dark Heart asked raising her head with his flaming mane.

"Glave, My name is Glave your highness." Glave replied while amazed she felt no heat or pain from his touch.

"Highness?" they exclaimed in shock as both brothers looked at each other.

"Yes, you see Prince Soul Stone died making sure you were brought back to the kingdom safely. Upon hearing this news the king said to prepare for the funeral. When I went to get him, I found him dead. You see, he lost his wife while their son was being born and now with the loss of his only child, the king was overwhelmed with grief. He took his own life. After hearing what we told him of you and whatever Soul Stone put in his letter to his father. The king left a note saying we were to make both of you our new kings." Glave said.

"No, this is not our problem!" Dark Heart said stomping a hoof to the ground cracking the floor. This made everypony jump.

"But we are leaderless. If you do not take the throne, there will be a power struggle in the city. Not to mention once the other three kingdoms learn of this, they will all start fighting to try to claim our land for their own. The ponies of the Crystal Kingdom would not survive the infighting and the war from the other three kingdoms. Please, you must help us!" Glave begged.

"No, we cannot..." Dark Heart began to say but was cut off by a hoof to the jaw from his brother.

"Damn you brother! We would not be in this mess had you not begged me for us to help them." White Light said, very much angry while glaring at his brother.

"HAD I NOT BEGGED YOU TO LET US HELP THEM, THEY ALL WOULD HAVE PERISHED! YOU SAW THE BEAST THAT LAY IN WAIT FOR THEM JUST AS I DID BROTHER, AND IT WAS EVEN STRONGER THAN WE FIRST THOUGHT! STRONG ENOUGH TO MAKE US GO INTO THAT FORM JUST TO SAVE OUR FLANKS!" Dark Heart screamed in a voice so loud that it hurt everyponies’ ears, say for White Light, even breaking the windows in the room. Everypony looked very scared now as Dark Heart’s eyes turned from blue to red and the white of his eyes turned black. His pupils even turned to that of a dragon. His flaming mane and tail growing bigger and now giving off great heat as he bared dark flaming fangs at his brother.

"I'm sorry brother, you are right. Now please calm down, you are scaring everypony. I'm sorry everypony, my brother has a short fuse even at the best of times and tends to let his temper flare up." said White Light. Dark Heart then took several deep breaths and calmed down, his mane, tail and eyes also returning to normal.

"That is quite all right. I can see your brother is very strong willed and passionate about what he does." Glave replied with a weak smile.

"Thank you. Finally somepony gets me." Dark Heart replied, while shooting his brother a nasty look.

"Though really we understand that you need a leader and we are somewhat to blame for what happened to your king and prince, I can honestly say that having us would be a bad idea." White Light said.

"Oh, and why is that?" Glave asked.

"Well you see, we all agreed that it would be a bad thing to let the world know of us. Seeing as there are very few and we are quite strong...." White Light replied. Then with his mouth hung agape, he facehoofed and thought to himself, "I so just bucked up." but before he could go on Glave stopped him.

"Whoa, hold it there, you mean to tell me there are more? There are others of your race out there that are just as strong as you?" Glave asked very shocked.

"Way to go hoof for brains!" Dark Heart said scornfully, while busting his brother in the back of his head knocking him into the ground and cracking it. “You just blew the biggest secret of our race; we have had for millennia!"

"Yes, but now so did you!" White Light said hitting his brother.

"Just how old are you two?" Glave asked.

"Well, our race has been around for just as long as all the others have. We've been hiding in the background helping but always staying out of sight, till today. Though to answer your question, me and my brother are in fact twins and have been around for… what is it, a good two hundred years now brother? Give or take a few decades."  Dark Heart said looking at his brother.

"Yes, and that is still very young." White Light replied. Glave and every unicorn in the room stood there with their mouths agape at the shock of this news.

"Holy pony feathers, you two are really that old?" Glave asked, her mind still completely blown.

"Yes we are. I mean our mother was one thousand and fifty years old before she passed away from illness." Dark Heart replied. He and his brother laughed at what they saw. If Glave and the unicorns’ jaws could go any lower they would have hit the floor.

"Now as I was saying. Yes, mine and Dark Heart's brothers and sisters all agreed that we should still stay hidden from you normal pony folk for many reasons, but we did change one rule so that we could start to help you out more. In older times we were not allowed to help at all unless it was extremely dire, but we were to stay hidden at all costs. Now with us known, others will start to come out of the woodworks and not all of us are keen on helping the other pony races." White Light said.

"We were hoping to walk away from this with nothing bad happening. I was simply going to erase the minds of all that saw us like I do every time." Dark Heart said while smiling.

"You were going to do what now?!" Glave shrieked.

"Oh, it’s perfectly painless; you just wake up and have no clue who you are. Oh man, do you remember that king a hundred years back? He was such a hoot." Dark Heart said while laughing and rolling on the ground, crying. White Light simply put a hoof to his forehead greatly trying to repress his laughter.

"But I… we… it's just that…" Glave said trying to form a sentence.

"Oh don't worry; it's far too late to do that now." Dark Heart said finally getting off the floor.

"Now I know you need a king, but you must really think about this. Not only would we be breaking our own laws to help you, but with more of our race coming out into the open things could get very hectic. Is that what you really want?" White Light said.

"Yes. Even after all you have told us I feel you are the best hope for our kingdom, even more so now than ever. Besides like you said, it’s a little too late for damage control now." Glave replied.

"Not really, I was just saying that for your sake. Just a little fast flying and memory draining spell and all will be right as rain." Dark Heart said. White Light again slapped his brother in the back of his head.

"Never the less, my answer is still yes." Glave said with more confidence in her words than before.

"Then it has been settled. Though it goes against our better judgment and laws, we shall act as your rulers till you can find one suitable enough to take our place so we may go home." both brothers said simultaneously.

It has been twenty long years since that hellish war and the two brothers were made kings. Though they looked, not one of the nobles that served under the old king thought themselves good enough to replace Dark Heart and White Light. Under their rule the Crystal Kingdom was flourishing beyond what any could have hoped for.

The first few years were hard for the brothers. The outcry from the ponies was very bad and the fact the brothers had to learn how to run and maintain the kingdom did not help anything, though over time Dark Heart and White Light won them over by aiding all the ponies of their lands and by shows of power when dealing with the dangers of the frozen wastelands. Dark Heart, having seen the way the earth and pegasus ponies fought knew they needed work. After showing his power on many missions, he was finally able to talk the troops into taking on his own training and after a few years the troops were better than ever. White Light was asked to head the Magic School after he added his vast volumes of magical knowledge to their archives and improved the unicorns’ ability to use and control magic twofold.

Even with the power of the Crystal Kingdom increased by so much, beasts and raiders from the frozen wastes that surround the kingdom still attacked. Though thanks to this power boost, the ponies of the Crystal Kingdom on several occasions asked their new rulers if they could start to try to colonize more of their land. After giving this much thought and finding ponies and nobles willing to lead them, White Light and Dark Heart finally said yes. It was these few outlining colonies that made the kingdom grow so well.

Over the years many nobles from all over tried to convince White Light and Dark Heart to marry their daughters, even Princess Violet and Starlight showed up, though none never got as far as a first date, for not one of them seemed right in the eyes of White Light, let alone Dark Heart. This fact concerned the ponies of the Crystal Kingdom greatly, for even though their kings were powerful they had no heirs to carry on once they died, if they ever did.

Over the years White Light had started to watch over the day. He would hold talks with the dignitaries after he had finished listening to the day time petitioners. Dark Heart watched over the night. He did this out of love for his ponies for he knew night was the best time to attack and he was the stronger of the two. Also he knew the ponies of the land loved him, but they also feared him. Dark Heart was the strongest and was quite fierce, though what made the ponies fear him most was his temper. He was easy to anger and even harder to calm down. Once he was mad, his temper would soar to the surface and sometimes even cause him to rage shift. Every now and again he would go out into the wastes to cool down. Though Dark Heart was truly happy because even though most feared him, he still had plenty of ponies come see him to petition to their king of the night.

One night a mare came to Dark Heart and said, "My lord, I am..."

"Please come closer, I will not hurt you little mare." Dark Heart interrupted.

The mare did as she was asked and spoke again. "My lord, I am from the outline colony that found the silver and has been mining it." The mare said.

"Yes my dear, what seems to be bothering you?" He asked.

"Well my lord, raiders have been taking the silver and killing any who try to come to see you or Lord White Light.

"WHAT! WHY DID YOU NOT USE MAGIC TO SEND A MESSAGE?" Dark Heart roared as his eyes flared with anger, and the mare cringed and backed away a bit. "Wait, I'm sorry! Please don't go..." Dark Heart said.

"They are stopping our magic with theirs’ my lord and I barely made it here alive." the mare said.

"My lord, should I assemble some troops and head out to deal with this?" a guard asked stepping up to the throne.

Dark Heart walked down the throne and gently nuzzled the mare on her neck and said "No, I will take care of this myself and no one is to follow me. These raiders will pay for hurting my ponies. Understood?" The mare smiled.

"Sir, yes sir!" the guard said with a bow.

"Please, hop on my back and show me where you last saw the raiders." Dark Heart asked and the mare did so. Then Dark Heart took off into the air and going to where the mare pointed.

That morning, just after White Light was finished speaking with petitioners he was magically summoning a table into the room so he could sit and speak with the dignitaries when Glave came running in. White Light asked, "What brings the captain of the guard here in such a hurry?"

"My lord!" stops and breaths heavily "I just got the report from the night watch. A mare came and told Lord Dark Heart that raiders were taking the silver from the mines and killing any that tried to leave to tell us. They were also using magic to block our ponies’ magic." Breathing heavily still. "Lord Dark Heart put the mare on his back and went off with her with no troops and told no one to follow him. That is all I have to report."

"That damn fool! He is a ruler now yet he still wants to do things like we did before. Go get some troops and head out to..." White Light was interrupted.

"That will not be needed brother, I'm home and well." Dark Heart said though no one could see him.

"Well, I'm glad to hear that you are fine. What of the raiders?" White Light said.

"All that I found are now dead or are not long for this world, though they bore the mark of Nightshade. I fear his men still linger in our lands." Dark Heart said while limping out of a shadow on the wall. He was covered from head to hoof in blood and had some nasty looking gashes on his body. The worst on his front right hoof and was keeping it off the ground as he limped in.

"My Lord, you’re hurt!" Glave said in a gasp "I'll go get a medic."

"I'll be fine with some rest Glave, do not fret over me. Brother, I'm going to get a bath and rest, I am so tired." Dark Heart said with glee in his voice.

"Fine brother, but please show some manners, we have guests here today." White Light said and with a hoof motioned to the dignitaries.

Dark Heart turned and looked at the shocked faces of the dignitaries and slammed his hurt hoof to the ground making it bleed and stood proud. "I’m sorry you had to see me like this and hear of the news this way, please forgive my rudeness." he said. He then turned and walked off not showing the limp he had.

White Light laughed at his brother's display. "What is so funny Lord White Light? Your brother is hurt and could be mentally scared, he just said he killed many ponies." said the earth pony dignitary.

"My brother is too proud and stubborn for his own good. He will never show pain or weakness in front of anyone other than Glave and I. Plus I know my brother will never be scared by what he does to those he sees as an enemy. He is a warrior to the core. He revels in the blood and gore he causes, showing no mercy to anyone. He has been like that since he was little and fell in love with the pain he can bring to the battlefield." White Light replied.

"I see; that's how it is then." the earth pony dignitary said.

"Yes it is. Though he is kind and gentle at heart and will never hurt anyone without just cause, the anger and hatred will never leave him, it is his true power. That is why he does not speak with you just yet. My brother has a short fuse even at the best of times. Does he not Glave?" White Light said.

"Indeed my lord. Dark Heart is very kind, but I have never seen somepony turn to rage as fast as he does. Nor have I ever seen somepony do the things he does on a battlefield or anypony that can match his might." Glave answered while blushing something fierce.

"I do hope you and your rulers will be attending our annual New Year’s Festival and New Year’s Gala again this year." White Light said.

"Yes." all the dignitaries replied.

"Good, that will be all. We shall not meet again till then, so unless you have anything else to add I bid you a good day." White Light said as he turned and started to walk away. "Glave, get them a troop escort home. Then meet me in the library, we have plans to make for the festival and the gala." he said looking over his shoulder.

"I'll get right on it sir." Glave said with a salute. "If you dignitaries will follow me, I'll get you set up with our best troop escort." she said walking out the door.

White Light walked to the bathroom in his brother's room and walked in seeing Dark Heart being washed by two hoof maidens. "How are the gashes and your hoof brother?" He asked in a casual tone.

"Just fine, already healed. I'll just be sore for a few days is all. How are the dignitaries and Glave?" Dark Heart replied.

"The dignitaries are fine, shocked but fine. Glave is okay as always, though she is still smitten with you." White Light replied.

"Which is why I left her with you as the day guard commander. Though I have yet to find a night guard commander, but don't worry I will brother and soon." Dark Heart said.

"Okay brother, just try to stay clean and out of trouble please?" White Light asked.

"I'll try, but no promises." Dark Heart laughed. A laugh came from White Light and both the hoof maidens at this remark.

"It is good to see you smiling and having fun my lord, it has been some time." one of the hoof maidens said.

"Well, it has been some time since I have tasted the sweet bliss of battle my dear." Dark Heart replied.

"That is true my lord." she replied

"You may go, I am done." Dark Heart said stepping out of the bath with a puff of fire, drying himself off.

"Yes my lord." both hoof maidens said as they left.

"I'll be in the library if you need me brother. Go get some rest so you can stand as vanguard tonight." White Light said.

"I will brother, good day." Dark Heart replied. White Light then left and made his way for the library.