Author's Note

Breaking Point is an er... interquel, I think they're called? It's an expansion on exactly what happened in the pre-Nightmare days of Prince Artemis from my gender-flipped story Brotherhood.

There are four chapters written. I will, as always with these stories, post a detailed summary of how the story would have ended once I have posted the four existing chapters.

Breaking Point 1 - Stress Factors

It was raining.

Artemis wasn't certain if he had caused the rain or not. It was night, so he had a certain influence on the sky. And he had definitely caused storms on purpose before. But could merely feeling like it ought to rain make it actually begin raining? He should ask Starswirl what she...

The chariot carrying that particular thought came to yet another catastrophic impact with the stone monument that stood before him. It felt as though all his thoughts circled back to it now, crashing against it, breaking to pieces on its immovable stone. After so many years, he thought, how is it that I still do not know how to deal with losing a friend?

Starswirl was dead. His one and only mortal friend was gone. Solaris was the only other being in all the world that he could rely on now.

As if that thought had summoned him, Solaris soared down out of the dripping sky to land next to Artemis. The rain didn't seem to touch him, his golden mane still flowed on the invisible solar wind, just as it always had. Artemis' own silver-blue mane could do the same, if he wished, but he didn't want to just brush off the rain. It suited his mood. So his mane was plastered to his neck, and his tail hung limply behind him. The soft sparkle of stars that usually illuminated mane and tail had blinked out as well. Were it not for the fact that he bore both horn and wings he might have looked like a normal, mortal pony, standing in the rain, mourning.

Would that I were. Would that I could die too.

"She will be missed by many," said Solaris softly. "She was very wise."

"She was my friend," said Artemis simply, and leaned against his brother's side.

Solaris spread one wing over him and nuzzled him. "I know."

No you don't know, thought Artemis with a faint, familiar bitterness. How could you know? You have a hundred friends. Do you even notice when one of them dies? I only had one and now she's gone. You have no idea what that's like. But he said none of that. He only leaned against his brother's side and took what comfort he could in his presence. However much Solaris failed to understand him at least he was there. He would never die and leave Artemis to face the world alone.

Artemis trotted through the corridors of the palace. He wondered, as he walked, why his rooms had been placed so far from Solaris'. They were on on exactly opposite wings, in fact. Was it some mad, symmetrical whim of the architects? He hadn't designed the palace, it had grown up more or less organically over the centuries. He frowned as he tried to remember exactly when he'd moved into his current rooms and why. After so many years of memories, little details sometimes escaped him. Especially things that happened while he was working on a project. He thought he could recall being very annoyed at having to move while in the middle of working on a particularly grand mosaic. That had probably been it.

"Sorry your Majesty!"

Artemis started, returning from his mental meandering to see that he'd very nearly run over a palace servant. Before he could say that it was really he who should be apologizing, the mare had scurried off down the corridor.

He shrugged and continued to Solaris' rooms. Once there he knocked with brisk enthusiasm.

A pony opened the door. It was not Solaris. Artemis blinked at that. Why was another palace servant in his brother's rooms?

"Your Majesty. May I assist you?"

"Uhm. Yes. I'm here to talk to Solaris."

"I see. One moment."

The door shut practically in his face, and Artemis was left standing in the hallway, wondering if he should be offended. Then the door opened again, and this time the pony stepped aside. "Come in your Majesty."

"Artemis!" Solaris was standing in the center of the spacious room. Artemis looked around, finding it strangely empty. His own front room was where he worked on those projects that were too large for the little desk in his bedroom but too small to require requisitioning space elsewhere in the palace. So it was crammed with all kinds of artistic and scientific paraphernalia. Solaris obviously didn't use his front room for any such thing. Artemis wondered what it was for, in that case. "What brings you here? And so early for you as well! It's barely mid afternoon."

"I'm working on a new project right now. I just had this idea, you see, and I thought I might discuss it with you."

"Ah. Of course. Unfortunately my day is very full today. Perhaps you could come back tomorrow? I have a few free moments just before sundown." He smiled. "That time of day should suit you a little better as well, I would think."

"Oh. Well... yes, certainly." Artemis nodded.

"The royal duty takes up so much of my time. I'm sure you know how it is."

Artemis nodded again. Though he didn't know, not really. He did spend quite a lot of time on the empire's paperwork, it was true. He was the final head of a great many columns of bureaucracy, and he had to check at least a sampling of all that work. But it didn't really take that much out of his day, nor his night. Solaris did none of that. What he did was talk with ponies. Endless meetings, endless social events, endless receptions for ambassadors, endless common courts. Artemis knew that some of it, at least, was essential. But he couldn't help but feel that a lot of it was just an excuse for Solaris to have fun. He thrived on social gatherings.

"I'll just be going," he said somewhat awkwardly, and turned and left. The spark of enthusiasm about his new project sputtered in his heart. What good was creating if he had nopony to share his creations with?

He sighed as he made the long journey back to his own rooms. He knew there was a point to creation beyond sharing with other ponies, he had been making art of one kind or another since before ordinary ponies even existed. But he had come to enjoy sharing what he made with a few special friends over the years. Especially Starswirl. Starswirl had been one of the few ponies who matched Artemis' broad enthusiasm for all forms of art and knowledge. Artemis had often burst into Starswirl's chambers in the middle of the night, in the grip of some grand idea, and Starswirl had always been immediately afire with her own contributions, her own ideas spinning and sparking from Artemis'. That was what art was truly about, those times when it became something greater because it was shared. Artemis felt a tight knot of pain in his chest. Starswirl was gone.

I can still share my ideas with Solaris. Not in the middle of the night, obviously, I guess I'll have to suit myself to his schedule. But at least there's still somepony there for me.

"...and then the sunlight is focused here, see? I think it would be hot enough to burn things even. I just have to build the mirror, and I haven't figured out how to do the curve properly. Merely holding it with my magic while it cools hasn't been precise enough yet."

Solaris nodded distractedly. "I see. But why would we need a mirror to focus the sunlight? I can do that myself if there should be some reason for it."

Artemis frowned, his ears flicking back for a moment. "Well... it's not really about what can be done with it. It's about seeing why. The reasons, the way the light acts, the way the glass is. It's knowledge. Knowledge is always valuable."

Solaris sighed. "True, true. And forgive me if I don't give your notions all the attention they deserve, brother. But the political situation is very delicate right now. The Minotaur ambassador is here right now. There is a great deal of tension building between the Minotaurs and the Gryphons to the east, which is all complicating the situation here a great deal. There's been talk of territorial concessions, and even threats of war, and I do not need yet another war with the Minotaurs right now."

"No, of course not."

Nearly an hour later Artemis headed back to his own chambers, his head full of bits and pieces of the current diplomatic situation. They had never returned to discussing his sun mirror. Back in his rooms he flopped down onto his bed and heaved a sigh. That his brother cared for him he didn't doubt, but Solaris obviously was not going to be the source that creative, collaborative spark he needed in his work.

Well... surely there was some pony out there that he might collaborate with? Surely in all the many thousands of ponies in the empire there was one who could be his friend? There must be at least one. He'd made friends before, after all. Mostly by accident and at the instigation of other ponies, admittedly, but it had happened. He just had to find somepony to befriend, that was all.