The Rising of the Brothers of Light and Dark

The Rising of the Brothers of Light and DarkByDarkHeart the MagicEater and LunashonorguardArt by2135DProofreading and EditingByxZeroSoulx

Long ago, before the rule of Celestia and Luna or Discord’s fall from power, the land was divided between four kingdoms. The kingdoms of earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns. The last was the Crystal Kingdom which was the only land to have all three kinds of ponies living peacefully together. The four kingdoms were normally at odds with each other but now were united under one common goal. War, and to be free of the enemy that now plagues their lands. Savage war ponies from across the sea had claimed an old castle and were using it to send troops and supplies throughout the four kingdoms for months. The enemy had stolen the princes and princesses of each kingdom and were holding them hostage at the old castle. The kingdoms had sent troops to cut off communication with the castle so no reinforcements could be called for as they tried to get the stolen children back.

It was a cool summers day with a light breeze blowing through the land, but if one were to look on a lush green plain by the sea where the old castle stands, all Tartarus was breaking loose. The savage war ponies were holding their own in the old fortress for hours now against the ponies of the land. From the castle walls, arrows were being fired into the air at pegasi as they tried to land on the wall from the air. The archers taking notice of the approaching siege towers began to fire arrows at the ponies pushing them. Picking them off one by one. On a small hill a bit away from the castle the invaders could see some unicorns but could not tell what they were doing. Just then a volley of fireballs was sent flying at the castle walls. One of the archers turned and yelled to a pony on the ground "Load the trebuchets and prepare to fire!" The pony saluted and ran to the back of the castle to where the trebuchets could be found.

The unicorns continue to weave great spells of fire and launched them at the castle, trying to bring down the walls. Arcane Bolt yelled through a spell to make himself louder, "Hold the spells longer, they need more power before you launch! Make sure your aim is true, we don't want to hit one of our own out there!" Then the old unicorn called on his magic and made a barrier to protect his fellow mages from the incoming boulders that were flying out of the castle. The invaders had started to bombard the unicorns now. The shield did not make it up in time and four of the unicorns were killed.

The earth ponies were slowly making their way to the castle walls behind siege towers trying to get inside. They were however held at bay by the hail of arrows the invaders were letting loose. Any that tried to come out from behind and move the siege towers forward were soon picked off.  One soldier came out of the tower and saluted another before speaking, "Rune! Sir, we can't move the siege towers any further. The archers on the wall keep killing our ponies. We have nopony equipped with heavy armor to move the tower without fear of death."

Rune looked on to see that nine of his troops had been slain trying to move the towers. He looked to the sky then yelled as loud as he could, "Twister, can you do anything about those archers?''

Twister soon landed as fast as she could, while dodging a few arrows next to Rune. Catching her breath she said, "I'm sorry Rune. We are doing the best we can, but we're having a hard time as well trying to get through those arrows. Every time we try to dive our way in from the cloud cover they start shooting our way the moment they see us." She then pointed to the sky as her troops made another attempt to land and deal with the archers. As always it failed and this time two pegasi were downed and soon killed by the invaders. The mangled corpses were thrown over the wall. The air was thick with the smell of blood. sweat and death.

Rune looked around the battlefield at the corpses of their ponies and with a heavy sigh said, "Damn it. This has been going on all day and we've made little to no head way. Call for a full retreat, we need to get out of here before we lose any more ponies." Twister then flew high in the sky and blew on her horn. All that heard the call then began a full retreat. As the last of the ponies were leaving the field of battle an arrow with a note landed next to Rune. He picked it up and made his way over the hills to the nearby camp they had made in the forest that very same morning.