The Meeting
"Sombra! Come on, we have to moving!" a voice echoes through the dark woods. Two dark grey colts emerge from the shadows, the owner of the voice the larger of the colts.
"I'm tired, Noctis." the smaller colt, who doesn't even have a Cutie mark, replies.
"I know, Sombra, I am too. But we can't stop here." Noctis tells his younger brother, his horn glowing black as he moves a large fallen branch out of his brother's way.
The two colts were from the Frozen North, where war raged between the Alicorns and the Draconequuses (Draconequusi? Does anyone know the plural form of Draconequus?). Obscuro Noctis and his younger brother, Sombra, had been forced to flee from their war-stricken home after their parents were killed in an explosion. Both colts were quite young, Noctis having only recently earned his Cutie mark while Sombra still had none.
Noctis watched his younger brother struggle through some brambles that he had easily gotten around thanks to his bat-like wings. Noctis' and Sombra's father had been an Alicorn, but his kind had bat-like wings instead of the feathered, pegasus-like wings other Alicorns had. Sombra had not inherited his father's wings, but had inherited their mother's crimson eyes. His horn glowed again, and Noctis gently picked his younger brother up, placing the younger colt on his back, spreading his wings just enough to ensure Sombra wouldn't fall off.
"Sleep now, Sombra." Noctis whispers, searching for a path that would hopefully lead them to a cave or other form of shelter. Noctis looked back in the direction they had come, back in the direction of the Frozen North, their kingdom. They had been the princes of the Frozen North. Now they were just two young colts running from a war. They'd get back someday, Noctis was determined that they would.
Noctis noticed a cave a little ways off the path and trotted towards it, careful not to jostle his sleeping brother too much. The cave was large and seemed empty from the entrance. Noctis entered, raising his wings protectively around Sombra, who was beginning to stir. Ears perked, the dark grey colt walked slowly forwards, careful not to let his hooves make any sound on the stone floor. A sound echoed from somewhere within the cave and Noctis turned towards it, only to find two other ponies, which, upon further inspection, he found to be fillies and Alicorns.
"Who are you?" the larger filly, her coat pure white and her mane light pink, asked suspiciously, while the smaller filly, with a dark blue coat and lighter blue mane, hid behind her.
Noctis eyed the fillies as he felt Sombra sit up on his back. "I'm Obscuro Noctis, of the Frozen North, and this is my younger brother, Sombra."
"I'm Celestia." the white filly said, then moved aside to reveal the younger filly behind her.
"And I'm Luna." the younger filly said.
Noctis and Sombra eyed Celestia and Luna, noticing their wings and horns.
"You're Alicorns?" Sombra asked, leaping off his older brother's back.
Celestia nodded. "We had to leave our home because of the war." she said softly.
"We did, too." Noctis replied
"What happened to your parents?"
"They...were killed." Noctis closed his eyes as he remembered his father pushing him and Sombra into a safe area before hurrying to find their mother. That had been when an explosion of magic struck the palace, destroying it completely. The only thing that saved Noctis and Sombra had been a shield Noctis had managed to put up with his magic, something he had only recently mastered.
"I'm sorry." Celestia murmured softly. "You can stay with us." the filly added.
"And why would we want to do that?" Noctis asked, "Your kind is the reason we're here in the first place!"
"It wasn't our fault!" Luna chimed in.
"Besides," Celestia continued. "It'd be safer travelling together. Safety in numbers, after all."
"They're right, Noctis." Sombra said.
"Fine. We'll travel together." Noctis sighed, deciding that the white filly had a point.
"Are you hungry?" Celestia asked, her horn glowing gold as she passed a few apples to the colts. "I know they're not very fresh, but its something."
"Thank you." Noctis replied curtly, his own horn glowing black as he took the apples, handing one to Sombra and taking a bite from the other.
Celestia and Luna watched the colts eat the apples hungrily, both fillies wondering when the colts had eaten last. They didn't appear to have any form of possessions on them. And both seemed quite thin, Noctis especially. Celestia guessed he'd given most of whatever food they'd found on their journey to Sombra, something she could understand, she often did the same, allowing Luna to have most of the little food they had while only having a small ration herself.
Sombra yawned and Celestia noticed that the colt seemed to be no older than Luna, perhaps six or seven years old. Noctis spread one of his strange, bat-like wings around Sombra.
"You can sleep over here, its safer farther away from the entrance." Celestia said.
Noctis stood, gently picking Sombra up with his strange black magic, and trotted over to a spot in the corner of the cave, where he set Sombra down and lay down in front of his brother in a protective manner, one bat wing spreading to cover the smaller colt.
Celestia and Luna both trotted to their designated sleeping spot and lay down in a manner similar to Noctis and Sombra, Celestia covering Luna with one white wing.
