The Rising of the Brothers of Light and Dark

The following morning Twister sounded her horn and all the troops lined up. Twister and Arcane bolt stood in front of the troops looking at them as Rune paced back and forth. He stopped and spoke loud and clear “As you all may know the troops from the Crystal Kingdom arrived last night and lost ponies defending the camp from an enemy ambush. In the skirmish Commander Clear Skies was slain. Do to this unfortunate event we will be taking command of the Crystal troops. Pegasi you will be going with Twister move out and get your orders from her. Unicorns you will be with Arcane Bolt go see him for your orders and earth ponies you’re with me.” With that the groups divided and moved apart to go over their battle plans.

“Crystal ponies step forward.” Rune barked. The Crystal earth ponies soon lined up in front of him. “Seeing as you are equipped with heavy armor you will be put on the sides of the siege towers. It will be your task to move the siege towers into position. The archers on the wall are very skilled and I lost a lot of good ponies trying to move the towers, but with your heavy armor you have no reason to fear them. Once the towers are in place move into the enemy base and and let all hell break loose.” Rune saluted his troops and they did the same.

“All right here is the battle plan pegasi. We will go up into the clouds, once above the enemy base I want you Crystal archers to fire at the enemy on the wall. You need to keep them busy long enough for me and my troops to land. Once we are down and dealing with the enemy come and join the fray. Is that understood!” Twister barked. All the pegasi saluted her and she did the same to them.

Arcane Bolt just smiled as his troops lined up. “Good now that you’re here we can begin. I was informed that you Crystal unicorns are adept in shielding and healing magic, but are not well versed in battle magic. Is this correct?” They replied with a simple nod of their heads. “Ok then seeing as there are six of you I shall need four of you to assist the bombardment teams. I shall teach you a simple spell to boost the power of the unicorns you will be assisting. With that said I need the two strongest shield casters to help me guard the bombardment team safe from the trebuchet fire coming from the castle.” With that said two of the Crystal unicorns step to the side. “Good now you four pay close attention this spell is very easy to do.” Once Arcane was done showing them how to do the spell they were off with the rest of the troops.

Moments later they began their attack on the castle again. A few of the earth and pegasi ponies were downed on their way to the battlefield by the archers. Though thanks to the reinforcements from the Crystal Kingdom the attack was going well. The unicorns were able to put more power into their spells and brought down a small section of the castle wall. Thanks to the heavily armored crystal knights, they were able to push the siege towers into place. Though the crystal knights looked like porcupines with all those arrows embedded into their armor. Rune was the first out of the siege towers. The runes on his legs glowing giving him more power as he was hacking away at the savage ponies from the beyond the sea screaming "Charge!"

Now that the battle was in full swing again and the archers under heavy assault, by the Crystal archers. Twister and her troops were able to get onto the wall and flank the enemies along with the ponies from the siege towers. Off in the distance you could hear Arcane Bolt yelling, "Group one get into that castle and aid our allies as you see fit! Group two with me! Now spread out and tend to the wounded. Treat the more severe injuries first!"

Rune was laughing as he split the skull of one of the enemies as he thought, "We've won! The battle is ours!" Just then the loud bellowing of a horn could be heard and the ground began to tremble. Rune looked around and saw a dark purple unicorn standing on top of the tower blowing the horn. The unicorn had a crown upon his head, it was Nightshade. Just as Rune moved to go after Nightshade he heard a loud roar, some screaming and saw the flare that Arcane Bolt was to launch. He turned to see what was going on and froze in sheer terror at what was happening. There was a heavily armored Ursa Major rising out of the ground.

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Just moments before Arcane Bolt and his group were running around the field looking over their injured for any that needed aid. As he was trying to save the life of a pegasus that took an arrow to the chest, he heard the bellowing of a horn. Just then the ground right under his hooves began to move. It looked like a small hill was forming and kept getting bigger till he was well above the castle. The ground began to slide away as a loud roar and the scream of his troops filled the air. He was then falling toward the freshly moved earth. In a split second he shot the rainbow flare high in the sky just in time before he hit the ground and was knocked unconscious.

Rune was soon snapped out of his frozen state by Twister when she screamed, "Run you fools!" The Ursa roared as it ran up to the castle. With one swipe of its claws, it threw ten ponies up into the air and leveled more of the wall. The ponies were dead before they hit the ground. A few were split in two from where they were hit by its claws.

Twister was blowing the horn for a full retreat and Rune was yelling, "Get away from it! Run! Run for the forest!" The Ursa continued to swing it's paws and thrash about injuring and killing more ponies.

Rune stood his ground against the beast as he yelled to his troops, "Run, I'll hold the beast here!" He picked up a spear with his rune glowing more brightly and threw it, piercing the beast deep in its nose. The beast roared in anger, and brought its paw down trying to kill him. Rune however just barely rolled out of the way, but the force of the blow however sent him flying into the rubble of the broken wall, hitting his head hard and knocking a large rock from the wall landing on his back left leg. This would have kill him if the protective rune on his armor had not softened the blow leaving him stunned. With bleary vision and a broken leg he could barely make out his surroundings as the Ursa lifted it's paw again, ready to bring it down on Rune himself.

Rune looked to the sky in rage. "Where are those two!? They said if we called they would come!" He looked up as the beast was bringing its paw down full force. Rune closed his eyes waiting for the end to come. Smiling knowing he gave his life so more of the ponies could flee but the end did not come. Rune opened his eyes thinking he should be dead to barely see a young snow white pony next to him. He looked around to see a dome of golden light stopping the killing blow, but only just. It wavered under the force of the beast's blow, though the white pony was slightly bleeding from the side of his mouth because of the shock wave caused when the beast hit the shield.

The white pony then smiled at Rune and said "Sorry we're late; my brother is really hard to wake up. Are you okay?" Rune looked at the pony in awe and confusion only to yell when the dome began to crack. The white pony with a strain in his voice then yelled, "Brother, do it now!" Rune heard a loud booming noise. Then all of a sudden the Ursa was knocked down on it's side.

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Moments before, the ponies that had gotten to the forest edge turned to look at the carnage, seeing Rune stand his ground before the beast. Then getting tossed aside after hitting it in the nose with a spear. The Ursa was just about to kill Rune and Twister was screaming,

"Nooo!" being held back by her troops as it brought it's paw down, throwing dust into the air with the blow. She let out a sigh of relief when the dust had settled and she could see an orb of light around Rune and one other pony stopping the killing blow.

Then she heard somepony shout "Brother, do it now!" All of a sudden a loud booming noise filled the air. Everypony turn to see a huge black fireball ripping through the sky. The blazing ball smashed into the side of the Ursa Major's head, hurling it to the ground. They all cheered at this sight, but then were struck with fear when the beast began to get back up. Though pieces of the helm that guarded it's head fell to the ground as it stood.

Now under the falling piece of metal Rune was shocked by what he just saw through the still standing but cracked ball of light. Once all the metal fell to the ground the white pony undid the spell and Rune saw the Ursa hit by the blazing fireball again, this time in the jaw knocking it onto its back. Rune's vision was now clear and he saw what he thought to be a black pegasus come out of the fireball. The pony landed next to him and the white pony that saved his life. He could now see that there was something off about them. They both had pegasus wings and a unicorn’s horn. Rune had never seen anything like them before in his life.

Just as Rune was about to speak, he was tossed onto the back of the white pony by the black one. The black pony then said, "Brother, take this pony to the others I saw by the forest edge. He needs healing and I saw unicorns in the group. I can hold my own against this beast till you return." With a quick nod of his head the white pony was off. The black one then turned and saw the Ursa was getting back up. With a quick jerk of his neck to pop it the black pony roared, "Come get some, monster!" and attacked the beast once more.

By the edge of the woods, the ponies looked on in awe as the Ursa was knocked to the ground time and time again. Though it did hit the black pony a few times plowing him into the ground, the pony would just get up and charge again. Soon the white pony landed, laying Rune on the ground and said, "Come quick, I need a healer. This pony has bad head injuries and a broken leg."

Rune could hear two voices shouting for others to move out of the way. It was Twister, who hugged him, after slapping him the moment she got to him and Arcane Bolt who just woke up after being knocked out. Twister looked up to say thank you but the white pony was already flying back to battle. Arcane Bolt began to heal Rune as he tried to get a good look at the white pony but failed. All the ponies looked on as the white one began to blast the Ursa with spells, throwing up barriers to defend when the beast was sure to land a hit and was still taking some damage.

The battle was fierce, neither side wanting to give an inch, but the commanders could see the two ponies now fighting the Ursa alone were losing. The beast had just caught the black one with a good hit launching him toward the forest. He hit the ground, digging into the earth as he slid. Everypony gasped as they knew no pony could have lived through a hit like that, but what shocked them more was that after the dust had settled, he crawled his way out of the ground, bleeding from one bad gash down his side. Everypony there now got a good look at the black pony and Arcane Bolt had a look of utter disbelief on his face. The black pony coughed up a lot of blood before growling as his coat began to turn crimson red, "Damn beast. You will not be rid of me that easily." Snapping his dislocated wing back into place, he took off after the beast again.

“Rage shift.” Arcane whispered.

Rune saw the look on Arcane Bolt's Face and asked "What is wrong my friend, do you know what that strange pony is and why is he red now?"

"Yes I do, but I thought them to be only myth till now." he replied, then asked "Tell me, does the white one look like the black one?" Rune was puzzled by his friend’s words but answered with just a nod of his head. Arcane Bolt then told everypony what he knew, "They are alicorns! One of the most rare and powerful of the pony races. The black one turned red because he rage shifted. It is a unique ability to us unicorns. When we are overcome with rage, and if we have substantial magical power our body's color changes. We get stronger and gain more power for a short time."

Twister asked "What does this mean Arcane?"

"That we are privileged enough to be in their presence, and we may live through this battle to save the princes and princesses with their help." he replied. All the forces watched in awe as these two alicorns traded blow for blow with the Ursa Major. With each hit both the alicorns and the Ursa became more tired. Each hit was as strong as the last. The brothers tore into the Ursa with all they had, landing some gruesome blows, though the Ursa did the same. The battle went on till night fall, but it looked like the Ursa was going to win. In the end, the brothers could not stand up to the Ursa's might and were pinned under it's paws. The beast then tried to crush the life out of the two alicorns. Just as they were about to die, something happened. The two alicorns each turned into a ball, one black and the other White. Both flew high into the air and mashed together.

Rune asked "Arcane, what is going on?" slightly covering his face with his hoof because the light and force of the shockwave made when the balls smashed together was too much.

"I don't know, throughout all my studies I've never seen anything like this." he replied. Then suddenly as the light appeared it was gone, but now in its place was a new alicorn. This new alicorn was two colors. Split right down the middle, the left half of it's body was white with three black wings. The right side was like looking into an inverted mirror for it's body was black on this side with three white wings.

The alicorn then said in a voice that hurt the ears of Ursa Major and all of the ponies listening, "You shall not take another soul this day beast, not while I have the power to stop you! Now begone!" After it finished speaking it shot a beam of swirling black and white magical energy at the Ursa, tearing it's armor asunder and launching the beast, a few yards away. The beast along, with the invaders went running for their lives. The fight ended a swift two minutes after the two alicorns transformed. The new form split back into two balls again and landed on the ground. The ponies by the woods came running over and cheering with all their might, but that soon stopped once they saw their saviors looked half dead. They laid on the ground, breathing heavily and cringing from their wounds. They were covered in small scratches and scrapes, but they also had a few very bad gashes that were bleeding badly.  A pool of blood began to form around them.

Rune, now limping to them with the aid of Arcane Bolt and Twister asked, "Are you both okay? You look like you’re on your death beds."

"We are fine, just used too much power." was all the white one could say before he passed out and a sort of crystal cocoon formed around him.

"Need to rest... So tried…" the black one replied before he too was encased in a crystal cocoon.

"What is going on Arcane? We need to help them, they save our flanks." Rune barked.

"It will be okay; you heard them just as I did. They are fine Rune, they just need rest. So don't yell at Arcane." Twister snapped.

"But then what's going on with them?" Rune replied.

"I believe that this is a form of defense to keep them safe when they're recovering from that form they turned into. It looks like it drained them of all they had to save themselves and us." Arcane said. Though everypony could tell he was guessing.

One of the soldiers stepped up, "Sir, what now?"

Rune thought for a few moments and said, "Twister, you take three fourths of the troops and see if you can find the princes and the princesses. The rest of you, make two stretchers. We are taking these two to the camp and guarding them till we are given our orders by our respective royal ruler's child." Everypony saluted and went to their assigned tasks. Once at camp with the two alicorns, the troops got the fires going and waited on good news from Commander Twister.