Blood Brothers To The End

"Twilight..." spoke Lewis, his voice low and quiet.

"What is it Lewis?" Twilight asked, confused by his sudden shift in tone.

"Pass me that book." Lewis said, whilst pointing towards the second book down.

The book in question was a hardback bible style book. It was large, easily over 600 pages long and had the old fashioned, wizarding style cover. It was brown leather, with small golden chains attached to it, one on the top half, one on the bottom. Each chain had a single padlock with no keyhole. On the cover of the book, lay a symbol, and some markings that Lewis couldn't make out, it almost looked like another language. The symbol itself was a sideways facing, simplistic, minimalist fox head. It was a deep orange, with red highlights in certain areas, giving slight definition to the head.

"Why do you want this book?" asked Princess Celestia, her eyes narrowing in apprehension.

"I would just like to have a quick read, that's all." spoke Lewis, his eyes never once leaving the book.

"Well, if he gets a book, i want one!" intervened William, his natural rivalry with his brother, unconsciously influencing his actions.

"I don't know" said Twilight "These books are infused with magic, i don't know what would happen if you were to read one..." Twilight spoke uncertainly.

"I don't really mind about the consequences." spoke Lewis, his tone becoming more aggressive, his eyes once again never leaving the book.

"Well if you get that one, then i want..." William contemplated which one he wanted, though there wasn't much choice "That one!" he exclaimed, pointing towards the last book in the pile of three.

This particular book was again, hardback and leather, although this one was steel grey. The books title, simply said, Draconeqium. On the book was a similar style of chain, only bronze, and once again, without keyholes. The Draconeqium also had a symbol on it. it was a dragons eye, vicious and snake-like, but it seemed too real, like it was actually a creatures eye at some point.

"I still don't know." said Twilight in confusion "What if you get hurt by the magic, or worse, we get hurt as well, what if releases a monster or traps the town in magic or sends it to another dimension or..."

"Twilight." spoke Princess Celestia softly.

Almost immediately, Twilight shut up.

"Calm yourself Twilight." spoke Celestia, her eyes no longer holding worry, instead they held curiosity "I believe it is up to the owners of these books to decide whether or not to read them."

"She's right Twilight, you cant just take another pony's stuff because you feel like it! That would be super duper mean!" said Pinkie Pie, seemingly appearing out of nowhere.

"Wait pony..." William said, his mind trying to process the information it had received.

"Yea pony, why what did i say?" asked Pinkie in confusion

"Sorry its just, we uh, don't really know what you mean by that..." asked William, all the while, Lewis was still staring intently at the book.

"Oh that's right, you don't know our anatomy! We are descendants of ponies, 4 legged quadraped creatures that roamed the plains of our planet Equus." said Twilight in a dictionary like fashion "Our race evolved from those quadraped creatures, to what we are now over millions of years. We are Anthroponites, or Ponies for short." Twilight said, in a pleased manner, quickly glancing at Celestia in approval.

Across the room, Luna was nodding in approval. Celestia simply stared at Lewis, analyzing him like an experiment.

"OH, we know what Ponies are, we have them on our planet, just not as evolved as you are, we evolved from Monkeys you see." Replied William, displaying his knowledge of human ancestry.

"your planet has Ponies too! But why aren't they evolved like us?" asked Twilight, her eyes sparkling with curiosity.

"I don't know, maybe they lacked the right circumstances or something." William said in a manner that caused Twilight's jaw to drop in awe of his complete lack of care.

"B-b-but you don't even know..." blubbered Twilight.

"No, why would i? I'm only fourteen." William said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

All this time, Twilight was unaware that the books previously wrapped in her magic, were now in Celestia's hands. She was handing the second one to Lewis.

"Thank you." said Lewis, his eyes meeting Celestia's for a moment.

Within them he saw plans and schemes involving himself and his brother. Plans so well thought out, it was like she had been thinking about them for years. It was brief, but for a second Lewis swore he could see the faintest of smiles on Celestia's lips.

"Wait, PRINCESS!" shouted Twilight in frustration "What are you doing?"

"Simply giving these two young men what belongs to them, besides, they cant read them. There are keyhole-less padlocks on them." Celestia replied, her voice giving of the faintest hint of mischief.

However, Lewis simply smiled as he had already realized something they hadn't. The padlocks didn't have keyholes. Because instead, they had touch pads. Small, almost unrecognizable touch pads in the shape of a thumb. Celestia took notice of his smile as she handed William his book.

"Sweet!" exclaimed William "I wanna read it! Lewis, how do i get these chains of?" William asked, grinning ear to ear.

Lewis leaned over and whispered into Williams ear about the the touch pad locks.

"OOOOHHH! That's awesome, but how?" asked William his face the picture of awed.

"No clue." Lewis said.

"Alright then lets get this show on the road!" exclaimed Pinkie.

"Show? What show Pinkie?" asked Twilight.

"That one." replied Pinkie, staring at the two brothers.

Celestia and Luna had positioned themselves at either side of the brothers, Luna seemingly clued in on what might happen. Lewis and William simultaneously placed their thumbs on each padlock, each one sliding undone with a mechanical chink. The chains slid into themselves, vanishing from sight, most likely with magic. Lewis and William opened the covers of their respective books, all the while, Twilight, her friends, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia stood by in waiting, unprepared for what may happen.

Within the each books front cover lay a single hand outline, with some sort of rune in the middle.

"Lewis..." William said quietly.

"Do it..." said Lewis in response.

The Princess' tensed as the two brothers place their right hand on the rune marking, fingers spread apart.

Immediately, the books shone with golden light, the two brothers were engulfed in the light, their skin began to change to gold, even their clothes did the same. The Princess' covered their eyes, as did Twilight and her friends. The glow calmed, but only by a little to reveal the two brothers suspended in midair, the arms and legs spread wide like a star, their eyes open but with a godlike white light shining from them, all the while, the two books floated in front of them at arms length, the golden glow still shining brightly as the pages of the books flicked past at lightning speed. Wind tore around the room, throwing books and papers everywhere. Both the Twilight and her friends were screaming, whereas the Princess' began trying to contain the storm of magical energy surrounding them.

"LUNA" screamed Celestia "The magic fluctuations are too strong, i cant contain the magic!"

"KEEP TRYING" replied Luna at the top of her lungs.

Suddenly, Lewis turned to Celestia slowly, his arms now by his side.

"BE CALM, WE ARE IN CONTROL." spoke Lewis, his voice echoing loudly, almost akin to the royal voice.

William had turned to them as well, his face stoic and calm.

"WE WILL NOT LET YOU COME TO HARM" William said, his voice all too similar to Lewis' voice.

The storm stopped immediately. The golden glow dissipated into nothingness. The books stopped flickering on a single page. The last one. The rune from the front cover was also on the back, a circle with a hexagon in it, each small segment between the hexagon edge and circle edge had a number of smaller runes within. dead center was the picture from the front cover. The runes glowed brightly, suddenly, each brothers right hand had the respective rune hovering slightly over the outer palm. Their bodies, began to change.

Lewis' muscles began to define, his hair began to grow ever so slightly. Two, Brown furred, white tipped fox ears popped from his head, his blonde streak changing to white. At his waist, Two Brown furred, white tipped fox tails slid out from the hem of his trousers. His jacket changed into a single black hooded cloak. His eyes became more cat like, his pupils dilated to slits, his iris' a beautiful shade of shimmering gold.

William began to change as well. The rune on his hand began to change colour, from gold to dark orange. Suddenly, two massive fiery wings sprung from his back. They were dark grey dragon scales with literal fire as the skin between the spinal pieces. From his head sprouted two, large, dirty yellow horns. They pointed to behind him whilst curving down slightly at the tip. His eyes changed to that of a lizards, the iris' a flaming orange, like flowing lava. Williams physique changed as well, just the same as his older brother, his body began to define, his small layer of fat hardened into raw muscle. The wings closed in, and with a light rustle, thy shifted into a black hooded cloak, identical to Lewis'.

The two brothers floated down to the floor once more, the books closing and landing with a hard thud on the floor. The brothers breathed in whilst, all present stared in awe.

"Sister, do you feel it? Raw magical energy, and a kind i cannot recognize..." Said Luna to Celestia.

"Yes, i feel it, one is like a raging fire, one like a silent spirit. Yet with the fire i feel, a cool breeze, the brittleness of bark, the speed of lightning strikes and... ...the cold embrace of death. its the same with Lewis, i feel not just a silent spirit, but i feel, the keenness of a hunter, the speed of sound and yet, i feel, raw power, godlike in form. This worries me so." said Celestia in reply.

"Well?" said Lewis "What do you think?"

"This power, is this what the voice was talking about?" replied William.

"WOAH, look at you bro, you look half dragon!" exclaimed Lewis.

"What about you! You look half fox!" Exclaimed William in a similar manner.

"OH MY GOSH!" Twilight yelled "You two have magic now? I must study the effects!"

"No Twilight, there is no time, Lewis, what did you experience when you touched the book?" asked Celestia.

"Not much, but i did feel a flood of knowledge, another language, spells and incantations, something called Blood Destruction and another called Astral Movement, then a Night-stalker vision spell and various combat techniques. I fell like i just absorbed the knowledge of a thousand warriors and mages all at once, but i cant remember all of it, only the basics. the more advanced stuff is clouded, like fog." answered lewis, looking at his cloak, and feeling his ears and tails. To his surprise, he could feel them, like they were a part of his body.

"Its the same with me. I remember tons but its cloudy, but i distinctly remember names, Tiamet Lord of Fire, Lindworm Master of nature, Fafnir bringer of the thunderclap, Typhon the souring Wind and Bahamut, the dragon of death. All i know is that these five names each belonged to a legendary dragon, but i don't know from where." interjected William, doing the same as his brother and admiring his physique.

"Well, right now we do not know what to do with you, so you shall have to return to Canterlot with us." said Celestia.

"But Celestia, you cant just take them away, not without letting me study them!" Twilight wined.

"Twilight, you will be able to study them in due time, but right now we need to ensure they can control this new power." Celestia said in such a way that no-one could raise a single word against her.

"Fair enough, Twilight could you hand me the three books, oh and the satchels as well please." said Lewis.

"Yea ok i guess..." replied Twilight, a frown on her face "Here you go, take care i guess..."

"We promise to visit Twilight!" exclaimed William whilst he and Lewis grabbed their respective items "That's a promise!"

"Alright then but swear you will come back!" Twilight said.

"We do swear." said both William and Lewis simultaneously.

Pinkie's left eye twitched.

"Let us go." said Luna "There is much to discuss."

"Indeed." concurred Celestia as she walked out the door "We should head back right away so we can get started on..."

Celestia stopped in her tracks.

"Oh no." she said staring at the mountain where Canterlot resided.

The two brothers looked up to see the city and in it, a huge nine headed serpent creature stomping about. Even from where they were they could make it out, and they must have been several miles away, at least ninety.

"What is that?" asked William in horror.

"Tis a fully grown Hydrys Serpantes, or hydra for short. We do not have much time, we must stop it! To Canterlot!" Luna exclaimed.

Luna and Celestia got into a black carriage and sat down ushering the two to get in.

"Lewis, with this power do you think we could..." William was about to continue when he was cut off by Lewis.

"William, we were given this power for  reason." Lewis said, his face the definition of determination "Lets go save a city..."