Chapters Ink had been an archivist all his life. The spindly stallion had written about histories, documented the rise and fall of heroes, and the story of countless ponies. Today, however, today he sat nervously. He'd received a summons, a call to put history to rights and to document the true history of the land of Equestria.
Not the central state, or the border fiefdoms of The Crystal Plane or the deep forests of the Zebra. No, no, today he sat, quill in hand at a writing table, in the presence of something far bolder. The room wasn't complex, a simple writing chamber in the Kings' palace that Canterlot was built around.
Stone walls adorned with art depicting events he did not know, a simple fireplace, a few plush chairs dotted around. None of that truly drew his attention truthfully. Not today.
Standing by the fireplace, basked in orange light, stood a figure. Near twice Ink’s height, and near twice his sheer girth, the mighty figure stood with hands clasped behind his back, piercing orange eyes staring into the fire, alight with an inner hue somehow brighter than the flames.
The hulking figure was adorned in a white and gold dress uniform, the kind you'd see generals, and leaders of old wear, when addressing their troops, or foreign dignitaries. His square jaw was cut with a perfectly trimmed beard of fiery reds and oranges, cutting clear against his perfect white pelt and mixing into the flowing flame that was his mane.
King Solaris was an imposing figure. Despite standing still, upright, bold and stiff, staring at those flames, idle. He was... well, like the sun. Stationary to the casual observer, yet coiled, barely contained. A single lash to obliterate half the world with but a glare. Ink was unsure if the warm heat on that side of the room was from the fire, or the King himself.
Ink shook his head, prying his eyes from the King to look across the room to one of the couches, where sat the other ruling power of their world. Lunaris, the Star Prince himself. The two cut a strange image in the room; Solaris basked the room in heat and power, Lunaris seemed to drain it all away, cool, chill and calm dominating the air around him.
He sat, lounging almost, in one of the armchairs. The Prince was as opposed to his brother as one would expect from the avatars of night and day, his pelt a deep dark blue-grey, face cut clean. But, like his brother, he wore a clean uniform, deep blue trimmed in white, with buttons on the shoulders and a chain from one of the chest buttons connecting to, what Ink assumed was, a fobwatch in his pocket.
His mane was... oddly mesmerizing. Nearly white around his head, yet fading to the deep onyx of night towards the end and a beautiful star-filled blue between the two, shifting and swirling about itself. Never stationary, never calm. At times, it was like he was enshrouded in space itself.
The Prince peered at Ink, his slitted eyes narrowing as he focussed. Lunaris swirled a deep dark fluid in a small glass, presumably a whiskey or a bourbon of some sort.
"You've no idea why we called upon you, do you, Archivist?" asked Lunaris, watching Ink clutching at his quill.
Truthfully, he didn't, but he'd been sat at a writing desk, and had prepared to take diction regardless. He felt rather self aware, as he was far out of his comfort zone sharing a room with these two.
Lunaris must have noticed his nerves, because he smiled, a soft gesture, but it put the pointed barbs of his unnatural fangs on display, glinting against the dark of his fur. "Be at peace book-keeper, you've predicted our purpose well. You are here to take note," he said, trying to reassure the nervous author as he peered at the writing supplies Ink had pulled out without prompting.
"You are here..." he began, sitting up and taking a soft sip of his drink. As he opened his mouth to speak again, Solaris turned, those burning bright eyes fixing on Ink, causing his concerns to spike again.
"What my dramatic brother is trying to say, is that you are here to write the tale of our history. From the fall of the Fae, to the modern day, every event, the fall, the betrayals, and the victories. We have seen many who claim to understand our history, yet seen none have had the simple nerve to ask the two who were around for it all," he explained, voice far deeper than his brother’s, like the rumble of stone on stone, each syllable seeming to echo around the room.
Lunaris sighed, sitting forward as he drank the last of his beverage, before sitting the empty glass aside. "That we might correct these false histories and enlighten the general populace, this saga is to be printed at the expense of the treasury, and be available at no cost to any who ask it." Lunaris added, flicking his head to somehow 'correct' the unruly nebula of a mane he sported, which had started to drift across one of his eyes.
"The histories we have are wrong? Where has the story of our world deviated from the truth?" Ink asked softly, slightly dumbfounded that some of the things he knew, might not be correct at all. "Large parts of it, entirely incorrect, and there is but conjecture as to the origin of myself and my brother." Solaris said simply, turning back to the fire after shooting a brief look at the Star Prince.
Lunaris relaxed back in his seat, one leg folded over the other while he stretched his wings out. The sheer wingspan of the darkened feathers almost crossed the room, the inside of his wings speckled with shifting stars and blue hues.
Ink was transfixed for a brief moment before he drew them back in, the simple gesture but a stretch to him, and a display of otherworldly beauty to all others. "Perhaps that is where we should start... the beginning. The fall of the old world, and the rise of the Alicorn, the birth of our magic." Lunaris said, which elicited a soft nod from Solaris. "Indeed we shall. Take heed archivist, and listen well, for I am not given to repeating myself. Should you need rest, request it and you may retire for a time. Let us get this done right, not simply swiftly." The king said. Before taking a soft, deep breath, and beginning to recall the tale of his birth, the fall of the old world... the time before.
Sky Light stood in the doorway of his modest village hut, and stared up at the sky, dumbfounded... Barely a teen at some 12 years old. He wasn't sure what he was seeing was real. It was barely dawn, yet the night sky was alight with what could only be described as... colours.
There had been a sound, a great resounding crack, as if the world itself had been struck by lightning everywhere at once. Many had roused from their homes, groggy, to find the Fae that normally filled the land had dissipated. Their essence seeming to fall apart.
He stood there, having watched Oelander, one of the fae he knew, turn to face him before simply fading into nothing, the soft green that had once been his glow melting away to join the swirling essence in the sky.
Something was wrong. The world had, according to his mother, been ruled by the Fae for centuries... millennia perhaps. For them to simply vanish. What was happening?
His brother appeared with his mother as he watched. Embrace had raised the pair alone, their father having been a 'passing vagabond' according to her, leaving her to raise Sky and Bright alone.
Bright was the same age as Sky, yet stood a head taller. Brilliant white blue fur standing out in the strange pseudo day. "We have to find out what's happening to the Fae... what that noise was, we..." Bright started, before Embrace's soft hand landed on his shoulder. "Relax Lance, the Fae work in mysterious ways, I am sure this is all according to their plans. Go back to sleep, I will see what has happened." She said, calm, relaxed... even in this, the strangest thing Sky had ever seen, their mother kept her cool.
Bright frowned, brow dipped as he looked to the stars for a moment, before sighing and turning to look upon their mother. "Please, let me come with you, I don't want to miss out... and there could be danger." he said, earning a smile from their mother. "I have survived this long, I will be fine." She said.
Bright Lance sighed, and nodded, turning to return to the house while Sky Light stared up still, the young pegasi resisting the urge to take flight and see how high the colours flew. The quiet murmur of their village being the only sound that disturbed the dawn for them.
The simple wooden door to their cottage opened behind him, followed by a heavy thud. he jumped at that and spun, just as his mother gasped. Bright had collapsed, crumpled on the floor just inside the doorway to the house, shaking. "Bright!" Called Embrace, spinning and running towards her fainted son, before an incredible heat overtook the air, wind whipping and stirring as it flowed in, and towards Bright Lance.
She got close, barely a meter away before she stopped, holding an arm up. The colours in the air had changed, the brightest hues, the whites, the brilliant oranges, and yellows flowing down, and converging on Bright, causing hot, burning air to burst from him, flowing away as if from a great fire, too hot to get close to.
Brights still idle body had become a silhouette of white, burning bright like the sun itself as the furniture around him. The door, their modest couch, the thatched roof of the house, all burst into flames, their home cast into the fire. "Go get a pail from the well!" Embrace called pointing towards the village square as she paced, panic taking her as she watched her son's body be taken by the fire, unable to make out for the light.
Sky nodded and turned, panic overtaking him as he turned and sprinted off towards the square to fetch water. Something was happening, bright was in his prime, strong, sturdy... how could he simply faint.
"Moon and Star, Space and Night, Thy guidance choose thee..." a voice whispered in Sky's ear. He dismissed it, the sound of the voices mixed, like a crowd of whispers, echoing away from the sound of wind and his thundering heart in his chest. He barely turned a corner away from his home as he felt something strike, like a wall, a pressure.
His entire body squeezed on all fronts be something immense, something beyond his words to understand. "Dark night and magic unbound, seek thee a vessel." the voice repeated. He was stuck, his muscles would not move, his body refusing to obey him as momentum carried him to the floor, collapsing as his bother had.
He was dead, he'd been struck by an arrow or... a falling rock had hit his head or something. He was so cold, everything so cold. Yet thoughts continued, he could feel the world around him still. But that pressure, that pressure persisted, crushing him.
"Worthy we find thee, be at peace and embrace us" the voices whispered, mixed in his mind with the unmistakable sound of his brother, of Bright Lance, screaming in pain. A feral, anguished, agony-filled scream, beset with wails of panic and fear from his sweet mother.
He had to rise, to get the water from the well, to help. "Rest, you will stand yet." the voices said, stronger, louder. Sky closed his eyes, desperately trying to will his body to move. he had to help, he had to... to. Pain. Pain struck, everywhere, all at once. As if his body were cast into the most brutal of chills, tossed unclothed into the most brutal of colds.
He cried out as his brother did, pain overtaking every sense he had. It was all he felt, all he knew. His world was one of agony as he passed out.
Embrace sat on her knees, tears streaming down her face as she watched the burning embers of her home shift in the heat of the fire passed. Bright had been in that, she couldn't save him.
A few villagers were behind her, trying to figure out how to crack the great shell of black ice, hard as stone that had formed around Sky. In a moment, her world had collapsed. One minute, she stewed breakfast for the two sons she loved above all else, then the Fae had vanished, her sons had passed away, and her home had burned down.
The ruins were cold, ashen, and empty. Grapevine, her sainted neighbor had strewn a blanket around her shoulder, and sat beside her, as if she could possibly console such a tragic loss. The sky had returned now, the soft blue of morning reminding her of her own Sky... the one she had lost.
"I spoke to the town chaplain... and he has no answers, the fae are gone, something changed last night that we don't know. A few others in the village passed out but. Nothing like your sons. I don't know what to say." Grapevine said, the soft purple pony doing her best to take Embraces mind off things. There was nothing she could say that would.
It was some hours later when the embers finally settled, that a call came. The ruins had shifted and a figure had crawled from them. Embrace had let hope blossom in her heart as she crawled from grapes home where she sat in her misery. Somehow she had hoped that Bright had somehow survived, yet as she stepped free and looked to the rubble.
Bright was not who she saw. Ashen, dirty from having crawled from the wreckage of her home, there stood a stallion. twice her height, fur a pure, brilliant white like the sun above. Flowing mane of greens, pinks, yellows... soft eyes, muscled and strong. He was unlike another she'd ever seen. Not discounting the horn that sprouted from his head, a long, pointed implement, ringed with a soft inner light. She'd never seen anything like it, nobody in the village had.
Onlookers who had been passing by stood around, huddled up in fear or confusion as the hulking figure looked around, confused. Eventually, his piercing purple eyes fixed on Embrace, whose breath caught in her throat. He spoke, a single croaked word, deep and powerful voice carrying it into her ears. "Mother...?"
Some hours later, Embrace sat on one of the benches in the town square, silent, mind refusing to work. Her sons were... alive? In a sense? Both were changed, and both stood by the town well in barely sufficient loincloths, their old rags of clothes having not even close to fit them now.
The villagers were wary, afraid of them. They quietly spoke to one and other about their experience. Where once stood Bright Lance and Sky Light, stood two other stallions like none other the world had seen.
They knew things, things they did not before the event this morning. Bright had said he had woke to the word... "Solaris." and the small spear that had once adorned him as a mark, had been replaced by a brilliant orange sun. So he had taken it as his name, much like Sky had.
He hadn't earned his mark yet, but after this, he had grown a moon, and the... what would they be? Spirits? Demons? She did not know. But they had called him Lunaris, and so he had taken that to his name also.
Solaris sighed, he had reached his hand into the well to take a drink, and the water had boiled around him, likewise, his brother had frozen a chunk around his hand, and had needed to chip it away on the stones of the well itself. The pair had become pariahs.
Privy to different experiences but, changed irreparably so. The two knew what they had confirmed to each other, and had not told another soul yet. The Fae were gone.
Their king had tried to seal their magic to this world, and in the process, overwhelmed the ley lines that connected his people, rending their souls that bound them to this world, like an entire race of waterskins, filled to burst, all at once. Each time one had burst, the others had bore the burden of the power they left behind, making yet more overwhelmed, and a chain reaction had, inevitably... wiped out the race in a single evening. Their king being the last to fall, causing the great crack that had woke ponykind from its slumber.
"We need to reveal what happened to them, the people need to know what has happened." Lunaris said, idly trying to pick bits of ice from his hand as he spoke in a hushed tone, his eyes had changed, slits like a feline, and he had grown fangs.
A strange change that Solaris had not undergone in like. "No, our new form is already too alien to them all, you can see how they're looking at us, it's making me uneasy. If we tell them that too there will be panic. We can't just announce the entire ruling class has been obliterated, they might blame us, we'd be stoned and hung." he said, and Lunaris found himself nodding.
It was too dangerous right now, perhaps in the future. "Besides we should..." he started, turning to look at their mother. Embrace hadn't spoken since the two had awakened, changed. She simply sat there, staring at the floor, hands clasped in her lap, wordless.
Lunaris stepped over and rested a hand on his mothers' shoulder, squatting to look her in the eyes. She did not meet his, she stared through him, at the floor still. "it's me, it's Sky, I'm okay. Bright and I are okay, we just... grew up really really fast. We can rebuild the house now, especially with how strong we are now. It's going to be alright." he consoled, to no reaction.
She just sat, shallow breaths and unblinking, dry eyes. Lunaris sighed, pain blossoming in his heart as he stood again, releasing his grip on his mothers' shoulder to find a handprint of cool frost had formed, and she had not even reacted to it. That worried him, he hoped she would recover but... there seemed to be no guarantee.
Solaris had wandered off, perhaps to try speaking to the others in the village, to calm folk and remind them that they were still, just ponies. If something new in this world. Wielders of what the Fae had commanded.
These two held Magic in their horns. The land was changing, the world was. The empire of the Fae, gone in a night, and the reigns of history would now be in the grip, of the ponies.
The brothers stood before the fortress, uncertain. The last months had been strange for them. 13-year-olds blessed with power, knowledge, wisdom, and bodies beyond that of many others.
The vacuum left by the Fae had been filled swiftly, worship of the otherworldly had changed to the worship of them. Then they had learned to shift the sun and craft the night, and worship had turned to admiration, to need.
The populace left without guidance had latched onto them to lead them in these uncertain times. The Fae were truly gone, all knew that now, and in that gap... they had left one thing. Their home, Oberons' fortress on the mountain.
The two stood at its door, left ajar, webbed and dusty as no pony had had the nerve to enter its hallowed halls since the fall. Behind the pair was a great host, some two hundred 'followers'. Ones they had at first insisted they were not worthy of, but had grown to accept.
Among them mostly, were unicorns, the newer race who had been raised with them. Dozens across the realm who had been born with the same magical gifts as the brothers now wielded, if weaker.
Solaris had taken to his role, he'd always been strong of will but given a new power, new wisdom, and purpose. He'd truly stepped into it, Lunaris was still unsure, following his brother, measured and reserved. testing his powers more, careful and cautious.
He turned, back to the gate, a single wing out, using it as a backdrop for his arm. He wordlessly called for quiet with the simple motion, and the crowd of their loyal gave it quickly. "You all know this structure, the house of the late Oberon, King of the once Fae. Within is housed their knowledge, and their seat of power, their throne. It is the center of what was once their kingdom. If we are to survive, to thrive, and to hold this world as they once did, we must know what they never taught us. You are all in your teams, some of you will track to their libraries, others still, their smithy, their armoury, the treasury. An untold wealth remains here that none have dared to take for their own for fear of the Fae's return. We know not such fear. Walk in their halls with us, and you will know courage." he called, half-shouting his words, which echoed effortlessly across the crowd. His new might carrying to his voice as much as the rest of his body.
A few scattered cheers and hollers mixed with the peaceful nods and prayers to him. Prayers... Prayers to Lunaris and Solaris for guidance, as if they were not mere teenagers wielding a power so far beyond their understanding.
Still, Solaris made good on his word, turning and pushing the great doors to the castle open, letting daylight spill into the dark, unlit halls. Magical lamps that had once glowed brightly now lay, resting uselessly on the floor.
The only light came from the soft flicker of torches held by disciples as the pair wandered in. Solaris took point, as he often did. Lunaris simply followed, the dark stallion very much his brothers' shadow. He seemed ill at ease, not having taken to his new place as Solaris had. The Halls were beautiful. None here had seen them before, but soft gasps of awe echoed out from many.
Within the hour, the crowd outside had dispersed, taking torches and chalk into the halls to map out the paths, a small group had set up in the main hall just inside the gate, drawing out maps as teams came back and forth to give information, measurements and other reports. Solaris and Lunaris had moved off alone, and found the throne room.
It had not taken them long to find, something had guided them, spirit... memories not their own, magic? They couldn't name it. But it did guide them well. They stood at the foot of a small staircase, beset before a pair of thrones, Titania and Oberons' thrones.
Solaris turned suddenly, eyes fixing on Lunaris, who held the torch for the pair. "What...?" The moon stallion asked, as his brother fixed him with a glower. "You spoke, but I could not hear you." Solaris said, which caused Lunaris to frown. "I didn't say anything... are you hearing echoes from the others?" he asked, Solaris peering back the way they came. "No no, it..." he said, before Lunaris heard it too. "My throne, beset with dust, useless." Said the voice, without body, without gender or purpose, as if nothing but words, written into their minds. Both brothers started to look around, searching for the source of those words.
When they came again, the pair stopped, looking at each other, the words came from within. "I once called this hall home, from here I directed the world, unconcerned with the lives of those so far below, you workers... ponies." it said, lifeless. Emotionless.
"It is Oberon, his memory gives our power agency its own." Solaris said, with such certainty that Lunaris simply... believed him. It was hard to dissuade the force of will his brother had become.
"You were our tools, fit to craft the land and sky for us and little more." the voice continued, as Solaris moved to step up towards the throne, ascending the stairs that, as far as they knew, no pony had ever ascended before.
"To see you taking what we made, it wounds me. Yet this was my own creation, my mistake. I am without power." The impression echoed in their minds. Lunaris watched as Solaris circled the great golden seat, beset and engraved with jewels, stones, crystal, and precious metals... a handful of that seat would be worth more than their tiny village had and would have ever known.
"The stone hungers, I can feel its need..." Solaris said, fingers tracing a vein of diamond beset into the throne, converging on a gem set into the headrest. "Hungers for what?" Lunaris asked, peering up at the throne, and his brother, whose fingers had stopped on that gem, gently pressing against it.
"I don't know, but it pulls on me, on something in me. As if asking me to..." he started, before pausing, furrowing his brow and focussing. His horn came alight, soft white-pink magic enveloping it before it flowed down, across his head, into his neck, shoulder... along his arm, and then into the diamond. Solaris grunted lightly, as if pushing against something, and then the room came alight.
The diamond veins in the seat lit with white light, which flowed into the floor. A moment later, the dusty crystalline lamps that adorned the floor, having fallen from their casings, were given life. One by one they burst with steady cool white light, lifting into the air, and floating back into the small pointed white cases they once occupied, a few cries of fear echoed from outside the halls as fearful ponies, Lunaris assumed, saw the impending return of the Fae in the sudden life breathed into the palace.
Lunaris cursed and ran from the room, dropping the torch to the marbled floor, leaving it to snuff itself out. Solaris remained, watching his brother go to console and calm the ponies in the halls, assuring them that it was their doing, not the Fae.
The solar stallion sighed, the small effort to infuse life into this castle having needed a push. He had no idea what he had done. Nor if he should have done it, it simply felt right. He simply knew what to do. His mind sorting an ancient Fae's memory to guide him.
His thoughts turned inward, trying to address the power, the memories as he had on occasion done in the past few months. "What do I do with this strength, this power. Am I to raise and lower the sun and little else?" he asked of it. For a moment, no response. He persisted, trying to feel for it, listening.
"You rule... as we did." it eventually answered, as if reluctant, unwilling to admit that it was the turn of Ponykind to run the world. Solaris nodded, looking to the throne, the beautiful hall of marble, tapestry, and magic.
Within it all, he found peace. Purpose in mind. Yes, he was given this to guide the world, and guide it he would. He smiled, a soft half-smile as he stepped around, and sat in that throne, feeling the soft cushion beneath himself.
"My throne... gone." Oberons image echoed in his mind. Solaris frowned a little, not able to hear Lunaris elsewhere in the halls. So he sat back, and focussed, trying to coalesce his essence, the magic that flowed, to re-assemble the cognition of Oberon. He felt it take form, scattered memories collection to thoughts, to feelings.
"I... why? Why do you..." Oberon spoke, with more emotion than ever. Only to be cut off as Solaris used his mind to swipe a great wave of magic across that collection of cognizance. Like a great wind across a delicate house of cards, shattering the connections freshly made, scattering cognition, to thoughts, to feelings... to nothing. He destroyed what tiny fragment was left of the Fae, destroyed the memories, wiped magic clean. Then sat back on his throne, and smiled.
Lunaris felt the soft guidance in his mind simply stop suddenly. He had been helping a unicorn back to his hooves after he had fallen in surprise at the lunar stallions' appearance. He shook himself and helped the young man up, then bade farewell and made his way back to the throne room, where he found Solaris sitting in a throne, lost in thought.
"Did you feel the memories fade?" Lunaris asked, stepping up the foot of the stairs. Solaris nodded, grimacing slightly. "I did, we are alone with what we have now. No greater power left to guide us..." he said. Lunaris nodded, taking a slightly shaky sigh. "So the world now rests on the shoulders of two malformed teenagers. I pray we are up to the task." he said, before looking at his brother, lounging on a throne.
"The disciples could use some guidance... your help would be welcome if you are quite done resting." he joked, flashing a rare smile and wink up at Solaris before turning to go and help with the exploration.
"It's not been terribly easy since the fae fell. Are you sure you can actually provide us with the security you promise?" The old farmer asked.
Solaris smiled, the soft, warm smile he'd been practicing in the mirror for the last few weeks. It had been a month since they took ownership of the castle, which they were calling their home; Canterlot. The food stores within had lasted them, and would continue to do so for a time, but Lunaris had made a fair point. They could not simply reside in their hall, they had to find a way to create a hold, an area of land for themselves, if they were to truly survive in the new world.
So, after a few weeks of reading and practice, the pair had struck out to the farms around Canterlot to convince them to join, to contribute to the new Equestria and help lay the foundation for what was to come. In return, Solaris and Lunaris would have to, at some stage, dispatch with the bandits that had made easy ploy in these reaches, now that the Fae were not around to peacekeep.
"We are plenty capable. My brother and I are new in this world, making our own way as you are. To not use the strength gifted to us to protect those less able seems a waste. We seek to establish a kingdom, a new society with ponykind at the reins." Solaris said softly, trying to speak in a calm, and relaxed way. Inwardly... he was actually rather anxious about all this.
Not weeks ago he was a teenager, now to the best of their knowledge now, he was the closest thing to god in this world, and it fell to him and his brother to create a kingdom, to rule the world, to protect all within. It was quite a tall ask.
The farmer seemed to think for a time, taking a deep breath and staring at his modest farm, within a short walks’ distance from the small town they were starting. Solaris briefly looked back at Canterlot, dotted with tents and campfire smoke stacks around the pristine white marble of the castle, followers were slowly travelling to join the burgeoning settlement as word spread.
The farmer finally spoke. "Aye... reckon I've little choice, c'nsider m'farm yours Solaris. I'll talk t'yer scribe and sort rates and all." he said, slouching a little, as if removing a weight from his shoulders.
Solaris smiled that warm smile again, and reached down to plant a hand on the farmers’ shoulders. "I thank you, as small a gesture as you might think this is, it will help us build trust in others. Once we prove we can protect you, we can more easily swing more to this realm. Your crop will go well used." he said, before nodding for the small pegasus he'd kept behind him to proceed forward with their proposals.
His role done here, he turned and went to move to the next farm, he had three more to visit.
Once he was out of earshot of the farmer, he let out a huge sigh, shaking himself as he let the pent up nervous energy be worked from his body. His heart was in his ears, thundering with nervous energy. It was going to be a long day. He hoped Lunaris was faring better.
It was evening by the time the brothers met again. Lunaris had raided the castle armoury and found them both some plate that had, just barely, fit on the massive stallions. Even then they looked a little silly, mismatched plate and strap covering them, they looked more like barbarians than the noble warriors they'd hoped.
"This is dangerous and foolish." Lunaris groused, adjusting one of the mismatched sections around his midriff. Solaris stood beside him, feeling at a massive longsword that he suspected might have been one of Oberon's guard’s weapons. To most of the ponies, it'd have been a massive two handed affair. To him, he held it like it was a mere dagger, barely a weight, despite its length.
"We need to prove ourselves, the ponies worship will not last forever." Solaris said, turning to meet his brother’s eyes. Solaris saw the worry in those eyes. Unlike his brother, he had been training to be a guard as the Fae fell. Lunaris had been looking to apprentice under an astrologist, a great irony that was considering where they stood now. "I'll do most of the work, you just need to watch and learn. I'll keep you safe." Solaris said, putting a hand on Lunaris' shoulder.
The star stallion nodded, turning to look out at the campfire that they could make out from atop the hill they had agreed to meet on. There was a soft glint of iron reflecting in the light of that fire around the camp. The bandits, for the last few weeks they'd been making a fuss, stealing and killing around Canterlots outside, no doubt convinced they could make off with riches.
It ended tonight.
Solaris moved, simply choosing to walk to the camp rather than use their wings. The two rather stood out in the air, so the bandits may yet disperse. Walking, they were barely noticeable, for the trees and bushes hid any glint from their armour as they approached.
"Dunno who you great glinty fucks think you are, but you should turn around." A voice grunted from behind a tree.
The pair stopped as an older stallion stepped free, holding a shortbow, trained at Solaris' chest. Lunaris froze in place, while Solaris... somehow, kept his composure and spoke.
"We are Solaris and Lunaris, of the sun and moon. You have been pillaging from our lands and we are here to bring an end to that, we wish to speak to your leader," he said resting a hand on the pommel of the sword he had sheathed at his side. He did not draw it, instead simply held the old stallion’s gaze.
He was grizzled, a soft scar on one of his arms, mane greying in patches. He stood for a long moment, silent, watching the pair. Eventually, he lowered his bow and nodded. "Fine, follow me, any funny business and the boys will give a new meanin' to 'holy'," he huffed, returning the arrow to his quiver and thumbing over his shoulder, he clearly did not mean to turn his back on the two.
Solaris simply nodded, calmer now than he had been chatting to farmers. Lunaris by contrast, stuck close to his brother’s side, ears pinned back in obvious concern. The pair moved, walking past the cautious ranger, who fell in behind them as they stepped towards the camp.
The border guard didn't give them trouble, parting to allow them between a pair of tents and up to the main campfire. There sat a hulking lump of a... lady? Dishevelled armour, a great axe at her side, resting on the floor.
She peered up, deep red eyes fixing on Solaris. Under her armour, they could see patches of deep grey fur and muscle; she clearly earned her post as the leader of this band of brigands.
"What the fuck are they doing here, Dust?" She growled, eyes fixing on the ranger who had brought them in.
"Said they wanted to talk, boss, figured it couldn't hurt," he admitted, shuffling uncomfortably under that angered gaze.
Solaris did not wait to be prompted. "Indeed. We've come to talk, not fight. Leave these lands and we will forgive your transgressions, or you may lay down this life and take up arms with us. We will have need of strong sword arms." He said, confident, steady, serious. His bright orange eyes fixed on their leader as she turned back to stare at him.
She did not stand, she sat still, uncaring, holding a stick with which she occasionally prodded at the flames. "That’s it? ‘Please leave or maybe work for me?’ That’s your plan?" she asked, a faint hint of mirth in her voice.
Solaris did not share that mirth, he stood still, hand on the pommel of his blade. "It is that, or we will be forced to remove you. There are bigger problems in our lives than a minor band of renegades." he said, a faint spit of bitterness in his words.
Lunaris had perked up, calming his nerves at the confidence Solaris had put on display here. He'd never so much as held a weapon... he didn't even bring one. Solaris was that confident?
The bandit leader rolled her eyes at that. "What're you gonna do? Swing that great useless blade of yours around? You'd get a bolt to the head before you fell so much as a single idiot." She sneered, thumbing over her shoulder at one of the tents, outside of which sat another stallion under a hood, cradling a menacing looking crossbow.
Solaris' brow dipped lightly, the faint outline of a frown forming. "So you will not leave, and you intend not to join us?" he asked, voice not full of the sting Lunaris had expected, but… was that pity? Sadness, even?
"Nah, don't think we will, kindly fuck o-" they started, before their words were cut off by a cry of agony.
The brigand leaders’ head shot up from the campfire, and Lunaris spun to see the ranger that had brought them to the camp, clutching his head, enveloped in a soft orange glow.
Solaris' magical grip.
The pair had been experimenting with their new power, and so far had little control over it yet. Still, it seemed Solaris was intending on that effect.
The poor rangers’ eyes burst into flame, black smoke pouring from his mouth, nose, and ears as the stench of cooked flesh filled the air. It was but a moment or two, but Lunaris felt it took too long regardless. The smell hit his nose, and he wretched.
Solaris remained imperious, staring at the body as whatever he did came to an end, the body crumpling on the floor, mind burned out, dead without but a motion from the sun stallion. The brigands had, as anypony else, not been prepared for magic like that.
It was still barely a month or so new to this world, after all. He turned and re-fixed his gaze on the commander, who was staring wide eyed at the corpse.
"You didn't even move... w-what did..." she started, only for Solaris to cut her off.
"We are not without power all on our own. I make one final offer. Leave, join, or be destroyed. Should you choose the latter, I will douse this entire camp in my fire, and you will be forgotten." he said, cold, steady.
Something had gone to his head, the power perhaps, the responsibility. Lunaris barely recognised the stallion before him now, his supposed brother. An answer was long in coming, but eventually, the bandit camp leader stood, tossing their stick onto the fire with a shaky hand.
"Pack up body, we're goin' north. Now." she said, before she shot Solaris a single, long glare, and moved into the camp proper, barking hurried orders at bandits who had only bore witness to Solaris murdering one of their own.
Nobody stopped them as they left the camp, nobody followed them. Lunaris hadn't known what to expect, but this had not been it.
Once they were a distance away from the camp, Lunaris asked to stop, he had to speak. "You just... you just murdered that pony. The scream, that pain. Could you have not done it more gently?" he asked, surprised at how energetic he was, and the brutality Solaris displayed.
"Anything less and they'd not have gotten the message. I had to make it clear, it would not have been a fight, it would have been a slaughter." he said, still cold.
"I'm sorry. I should've warned you but... I got there, I saw danger in every set of eyes, I worried I could not so easily protect you and I went too far. Come, let us go home. We should sleep, make use of your night," he spoke, wrapping an arm around his brother to bring him into an affectionate hug.
Lunaris was still unsettled, but it was reassuring to hear that Solaris still retained some humility and control, for now. He would have to watch him carefully.