Blood Brothers To The End

'Tweet tweet' the sound of chirping birds awoke William from his slumber. He sat up in the large, circular bed, pulled down the silvery bed sheets and sat up. He yawned and stretched his arms up wide.

"Good morning me." he said to himself, a euphoric smile on his face. He'd had a pleasant dream.

"Now then" he mumbled as he crawled out of the large bed, a hand resting on the beds top posts for support "What's on the agenda for today?"

"Not much i would say." came an all too familiar voice. It was Lewis, slowly rising from his bed across the room. He had the same silvery sheets and the same circular bed. William pondered for a moment just how the castle was able to afford such amenities.

"Welp we can't sit around and do nothing with the sun so bright!" he returned, gazing out of the large glass and wood doors, which led to the shared balcony. The sun was indeed bright, so bright that the two brothers had to squint to see anything.

"Well at least its not too early, about 11ish i would say." a slight purple mist appearing for a second before vanishing from Lewis' eyes. He had just calculated the time based on the suns position in the sky. Damn he was good.

"So" William asked whilst grabbing some clothes from the wardrobe to the left of the bed "What shall we do?"

"How about we take a tour of the city, after all, its not everyday you land in a new world, might aswell explore abit." Lewis said as he also grabbed some clothes from the identical wardrobe. 'Such intricate designs' Lewis thought as he pulled out a rather plain looking golden shirt. However if you were to look closer, you would see small lines of silver cloth, skirmishing across the surface of said shirt, creating brilliant patterns that, when placed in the right light, would glow and shine rather spectacularly. Lewis moved the shirt out of the sunlight and proceeded to change the light blue pajamas he had been wearing to said shirt. He also grabbed some slightly ripped at the knees jeans to boot.

"Wow, these clothes look totally over the top." said William from across the room.

Lewis turned to face him and saw William looking down at the clothes now adorning his body. He was wearing a dark grey button up shirt with rolled up sleeves and some dark red chinos.

"Nice choice, really makes the blue in your eyes stand out." Lewis said in a neutral tone

"I can't tell if your taking the piss or not..." William said, unsure on whether his brother had just complimented him, or insulted him.

Suddenly, a loud knock on the door startled the two brothers from their rather enlightening conversation.

"Excuse me sir's"  came a monotone voice through the large steel doors to the bedroom "The highness' have requested you come down and join them for breakfast. Would you like a preview of the menu before you go down?"

"No thank you, we will be down in a moment." replied Lewis, picking up his black cloak and wrapping it around his neck. Apparently the cloak can't change back into the jacket he was wearing before he gained all that magical energy from the book. Thinking about the book, Lewis turned to the dressing table to check on it. He waltzed over and took a glance at the title. Thanks to the magic and knowledge he had obtained, he was able to translate the language to English in his mind. It said Emperium Kataranica which roughly translated as, The Kitsune Empirica. The book contained untold amounts of knowledge on the ancient Kitsune race which once wandered a planet known as Valen. Lewis was mildly upset that he would never get to meet the race that discovered all these amazing magical techniques.

"C'mon." came Williams voice from the doorway.

Lewis turned to the door to see William halfway through, waiting for Lewis to follow.

"Lets go." he said.

"Yeah sure." replied Lewis, placing the book in his black hole satchel.

Lewis was rather pleased he had remembered to bring said satchel with him to Canterlot, as the previous night, before going to bed, he had experimented with it, to see how it worked. As it turned out, the satchel worked like a request system. you could place whatever you wanted into it, regardless of size, as Lewis had found out by placing the entire wardrobe within the confines of said satchel. He then tried to get it out and realized that by visualizing what he wanted, so long as it was in the satchel, he could simply pull it out. Pretty neat, but boy did he have some devious plans for this bad boy.

Lewis grabbed the satchel and slung it over his shoulder, he then proceeded to join William in the doorway as they followed one of the awaiting guards to the dining room. William had grabbed his cloak before leaving too, but nit his satchel.

"I can't wait to explore the city, i hope we get to see some cool stuff!" William exclaimed, his shoes tapping on the cold marble floor.

"I'm sure we will have a great time." Lewis spoke, absentmindedly admiring the stained glass windows in the corridors.

"Where should we go first?" asked William, grinning at the prospect of adventure.

The guard escorting them then proceeded to speak "Perhaps you should go to the mane street shopping center, they have tons of shops and maps and other such things, i'm sure you could go there and get lost for hours." the guard hadn't even turned to face them when he spoke, perhaps he wasn't allowed to? Who knew, well besides him and the other guards, and the Princess' and probably the other citizens, ok off topic.

Lewis contemplated the idea for a moment before simply saying "sure, could be fun."

"Thanks for the suggestion sir!" spoke William to the back of the guards head.

"Not a problem, anyways, we're here." as the guard said this, the trio rounded the corner and came to a large marble archway that led into another rather spacious room. This particular room stretched perhaps half the length of the room they were in the previous night. Within the room lay a large feast hall style table, and about a dozen chairs. At the head of the table sat Celestia, quietly sipping tea and reading a newspaper. Round the corner on her left, Luna was playing with her food, pretending her salad was an ocean and her fork, a boat. It looked like parent and child.

Both princess' perked up at the sound of William and Lewis entering the room.

"Ah good morning, i trust you slept well?" asked Celestia, placing her tea on a fancy looking place mat, and dropping her newspaper. She had a rather noticeable grin.

"Yea we had a great sleep, and as always the sun comes and ruins that slumber." spoke Lewis sarcastically.

Celestia's grin dropped into a slight frown "You don't like the sun?" she asked.

"Nah i'm just messing, i like the sun and the moon both the same." said Lewis smiling with his eyes closed.

Both Celestia and Luna's eyes went wide, grins adorning both their features.

"Splendid! How kind of thee to say!" Luna rejoiced.

"Well, i suppose we should ask you to sit down, i'm sure you have plans for the day." Celestia said, the grin still evident.

"Indeed we do your highness', oh wait, sorry, Celestia." William said, his slip-up causing him to turn red. Like a beetroot.

"Hehe" giggled Celestia quietly "Its quiet alright. So, what plans do you have?"

"Well, the guard who brought us here suggested we go to mane street shopping center." Lewis said as he watched a waiter bring out a plate of food. He smiled when he saw it was a simple cheese sandwich. He pickled it up and took a bite.

Celestia nodded "Yes that does sound like a good idea, but you cant go without some money to spend, that would just be silly, here take this."

Celestia then proceeded to conjure up a small brown pouch filled with small gold coins.

"These are bits" explained Celestia "They are the currency of this  nation and are a necessity to doing anything."

Lewis took the pouch and then proceeded to drop said pouch into his satchel, the money vanishing from sight.

"That was good!" exclaimed William, finishing the last bite of his sandwich before swallowing rather loudly.

"Yes it was, now then i suppose we should get going?" Lewis said, standing slowly from the chair he had been sat in.

"Alright, lets go shopping." said William as he jumped from his chair, waving to the two Princess' as they were escorted out of the castle.

It had only taken 10 minutes for the two of them to make their way though the hustle and bustle of Canterlot's high street. They had made it all the way down to the Mane Street Shopping Center. The building was exceedingly large, almost too large to be a shopping mall. It was more akin to the castle, and that was just the outside. It had beautiful white wash walls and simple yet stand out marble columns in silver. It had an entirely glass roof and if you were high enough, you could probably see everyone within. As the two stepped towards the doors, William's stomach growled.

"Woah, the sandwich not enough this morning?" asked Lewis, smiling at the gastric outburst.

"Uh sorry, but no. I need more food. And fast!" William replied.

"Well look, there's a coffee shop just at the front there, see it?" Lewis said, pointing out a small coffee shop nestled into the wall near the entrance to the mall.

"Yes, food!" William exclaimed as he ran towards the shop.

"Hey wait!" cried Lewis, following suit.

As they ran, they failed to notice the pony sitting in the shade with a newspaper, who proceeded to fold up said newspaper and walk away, the ponies cap tilted slightly down so as to avoid showing their face.

William ran at full speed, through the sliding doors of the Mall, huh, sliding doors.. and straight into the coffee shop. Lewis took notice of the name, Coffee Thyme.

The shop itself wasn't too big, but it had enough space to move around in. The interior was a stylish maroon red with multiple red highlights around it's only room. It had dark mahogany tables and dark wicker chairs. There were about 7 tables and some bar stools at the counter in the back left. The smell of coffee was strong here.

"i think we should sit here." William said as he jumped onto a wicker chair right in the center of the coffee shop.

"Sure, sounds good." Lewis said, taking a chair opposite him.

The coffee shop was eerily quiet and empty, it seemed as though the shop had been abandoned when some tip tapping came from behind a door at the back of the shop. The door swung open to reveal a cream furred, brown maned girl wearing a white button up shirt with the top two buttons undone, and a black knee length skirt. She was holding a small circular black tray that was most likely used for waitress-ing or whatever it was called. She hadn't noticed the two new customers.

"Alright what now, I've stocked the kitchen, again, I've checked the restroom to make sure it's clean, again. I think that's it. God this job is so boring i just wish something interesting would happ..." the waitress slowed her speech to a halt as she stared at the two hairless creatures, that happened to be staring right back. She had no idea how to react.

"H-h-hello there, m-my name is M-Milky Latte, H-how can i h-help you?..." she stuttered, unsure of what to do next. She knew that a customer or two may appear at this time, but not two hairless creatures, she was contemplating calling mall security.

"Hi, we'd like to order some coffee and snacks. We were told to check out the mall by the princess'." explained Lewis, a slight smile on his face. He'd only seen this reaction when they stepped out of the castle gates. The guards had simply gawked at them.

"Oh my Celestia, I'm so sorry, let me get you a menu!" Milky Latte exclaimed.

She quickly dashed round the corner of the counter and straight to the table the two brothers were sat at. She handed them a thin board with a few pieces of paper clipped to it.

"I am so sorry, i didn't even know you were with the Princess'. Wait, they aren't coming are they? Oh my gosh this place is a total mess, i need to clean, I'm gonna be in such trouble if the princess' think the store is ..." Milky Latte was stopped in her panic attack by Lewis holding his hand over her mouth.

"Relax, the Princess' aren't coming, it's just us. They gave us some money and let us out of the castle to explore. We were still hungry after breakfast so we stopped off here. Does that explain everything alright?" said Lewis, slowly removing his hand from the girls face. She was flush red.

She had just made a scene in front of the Princess' friends. Celestia forgive her.

"Right, sorry for over reacting." she mumbled, beet red.

"Its quite alright Milky, may i call you Milky?" said Lewis, chuckling lightly.

"Yes that's quite alright Mr?" responded Milky, looking Lewis up and down in wonder. She had never seen a fur-less pony before, it was quite intriguing.

"Lewis. Just Lewis" he responded, a smile on his face.

William hadn't been paying attention at all, he was too busy staring at the menu, wondering what all the flavors were like.

"Hey, can we order now?" he asked, his voice mixed with a hint of longing as he stared at the coffee machine behind the counter.

"Sure, I'm ready when you are." said Lewis in reply, glancing at his menu for a second. He already knew what he wanted.

"Alright" said Milky, standing up a little straighter with a small smile on her face "What can i get ya?"

"I want an espresso shot please!" exclaimed William, grinning slightly. He never got to have espresso back on earth.

"I'll just have a herbal tea please." said Lewis, looking at William's excited face for a second, and smiling.

"Sure thing, they will be right out!" spoke Milky, smiling as she walked round the counter to get the drinks.

As she was preparing them, she took the time to examine the customers. The two looked really out of place, their short, scraggy black cloaks clung over their rather expensive looking clothing. They looked similar, but not entirely. She couldn't fathom why. They both had the same sky blue eyes, and similar coloured mane's, though the younger ones was more akin to dirty blonde than brown. They both seemed relatively happy, the older, being more calm and mature. The thing that bothered her most, was the fact that they radiated a fierce aura from them. It warranted confidence and strength, but it wasn't smug, rather, dependent. Almost like they wouldn't be this way without each other. They seemed familiar, and then she remembered the Hydra attack from the day before. Thanks to help from the Unicorn Mage Academy and the royal guard, the damage had been repaired relatively quickly, and the city's atmosphere returning to normal, just a few short hours after the attack ended. She had remembered reading a report in the newspapers this morning about two strange creatures fighting the Hydra, single handedly, without any help from the guards. The two creatures had all but annihilated the Hydra within minutes of arriving on scene, The reports spoke of two male, fur-less creatures soaring from the heavens and devastating the Hydra in mere moments. How had she not seen it? Two strange creatures wander into the coffee shop, right after a large monster was defeated by two unknown creatures. Their affiliation with the princess' couldn't be mere coincidence, these two must have been the ones who defeated the Hydra.

"Eh-hem.." came a quick short burst of noise, shaking Milky from her thoughts. Lewis was stood in front of the bar, watching in worry as Milky let the steaming hot coffee miss the cup entirely and land in the collection tray.

"Are you okay, Milky?" he said, a little worried she may have passed out on her feet.

"What, oh my goodness, i am so sorry, i drifted off and completely forgot about the drinks. I promise this wont happen again!" she yelped, begging for forgiveness with her eyes.

"Not a problem, we don't mind waiting for the next batch." replied Lewis, an amused smile on his lips.

"Hey Milky!" came a new voice from the door to the shop.

Three women walked in. One had light blue fur and a two toned, light blue and dark blue mane. She had dark blue eyes and was wearing some dark blue jeans and a small, white crop top. She also had a dark grey jacket on.

Next was a mint furred girl with two toned, white and mint green mane. This girl had shining golden eyes, similar to the gold Lewis had when he transformed, only not so 'radiant'. She was wearing a light green partially see through flowing dress top, with a small white undershirt. She had some light blue jean shorts on,

The third girl was white furred, with a single tone, baby pink mane. She had light blue eyes and was wearing a white button up shirt, a denim jacket and a small, floral, pink skirt.

"Oh hey guys, its good to see you!" said Milky as she walked round the counter to her friends, immediately forgetting both the coffee and her train of thought. She ran over and gave them all a hug, in group formation.

"I can't believe that you cam this early, my shift doesn't end for another 10 minutes, and besides i have customers." she said grinning, before her face dropped as she remembered, she had customers.

"Oh my Celestia" she said, turning to the rather confused looking William and the chuckling Lewis "I completely forgot you guys were here, let me get your drinks!" with that, Milky ran round behind the counter and began pouring the coffee again.

"Not a problem, like i said, we can wait." Lewis said, William nodding in the background.

"Well, well" came the same voice as before. It was the blue furred girl, and she had walked to the counter alongside the other two "A stallion with manners, that's what i like to see, so what's your name?" she asked, eyeing the taller boy up, and glancing at the younger one.

"Lewis and it's a pleasure to meet you Miss?" Lewis responded, stretching out the last word in anticipation of an answer.

"Minuette, and these are my friends." The girl now known as Minuette said, waving her hand at the other two girls there. The mint girl introduced herself first.

"Hey, my name is Lyra, Lyra Heartstings. It's nice to meet you!" she said, a smile on her lips.

"Heya" came the other girl "My name is Twinkleshine, and it's so good to meet you. I hope its not too much trouble, but, you two look familiar. Where you in the news?" she asked, her eyebrows askew.

"I don't think so, unless you count facing a Hydra news worthy." Lewis said in a rather monotone voice.

"Wait i was right?!" screamed Milky, who had been listening in the whole time "I thought you seemed familiar! You two were the strange creatures that fought that Hydra yesterday!"

"No way!" exclaimed Minuette

"You killed the Hydra? Just the two of you?!" asked Lyra in shock.

"Yeah we did!" exclaimed William, now moving up to the bar "And it was awesome!"

"What my brother is trying to say is that, yes, we were the ones who defeated the hydra, why?" Lewis said, glancing at his brother, who had puffed out his cheeks in annoyance.

Lyra looked at both Minuette and Twinkleshine for a moment. All three grinned and turned to the brothers.

"What are you doing today?" all three questioned simultaneously.

Milky Latte nearly dropped the cup she was holding when they asked that. She was about to berate them for asking such a thing when she was interrupted by Lewis.

"Well" he said "By order of the princess'. Just looking around."