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 King’s 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 would see generals or leaders of old armies wear, when addressing their troops, or foreign dignitaries. His square jaw was cut with a perfectly trimmed beard of fiery reds and oranges, contrasting 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 shaved clean. Like his brother, he wore a 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, a deep red wine from all the archivist could tell.
"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. Potentially a dangerous assumption. He felt rather self conscious, 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 that 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 setting 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? Have the written histories we already have deviated so far 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 the prince drew them back in, the simple gesture but a stretch to him, and a display of otherworldly beauty to the archivist. "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. 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 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 truly real. It was barely dawn, yet the night sky was alight with what could only be described as... colours. Endless, boundless colours, as if a tray of paints had been thrown across a watery canvas.
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, patrolling, corralling, enforcing their law… 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. Why did they vanish? Who was causing this… What was happening?
His brother emerged from within his 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 light of a not quite 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 seemed so composed.
Bright Lance 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. It was no surprise to hear it for Sky Light. His brother had been training in the spear and blade with some of the guards. He’d always wanted to help. "I have survived this long, I will be fine." She said softly, comforting his concerns in the way only a mother could.
He sighed, nodded, and turned to return to the house while Sky Light stared up still, He knew the both of them were fighting to resist 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.
Bright Light turned away from his brother and mother, there was a pause in the air, as if all of life held its breath, frozen for an instant before there was a resounding, meaty thud. He jumped at the sound and spun, just as his mother gasped. There was a body on the floor where… where... Bright had collapsed, crumpled on the floor as if the life had simply left him, he twitched, shaking lightly, soundless, unable to breathe. "Bright!" Called their mother, turning to reach for her fainted son, before an incredible heat filled the air, wind whipping and stirring cloth and hair as it flowed into their home, and towards Bright Lance.
She got close, barely a meter away before she stopped to hold an arm up to protect herself. The heat flowing in a moment ago had changed, now cascading out from Brights barely moving body.The colours in the air had shifted too, the brightest hues, the whites, the brilliant oranges, and yellows flowing down from the sky, flowing through the door and converging on Bright. It looked as if colour collided with him and burned, searing the air about them.
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, casting their home into an inferno. "Water! Go get water!” Embrace called, pointing towards the village square as she shifted from side to side, pushed back by the heat, fighting her urge to dive in to save her smoldering son. Panic took her as she watched his body be taken by the fire, unable to make out his features for the light surrounding him.
Sky ran out, 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 die or faint like that?
"Moon and Star, Space and Night, Thy guidance choose thee..." a cacophony whispered in Sky's ear. He ignored it, the sound of the voices were mixed, like a crowd of whispers, echoing away in 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 his chest, like a wall, a pressure that took him from all angles.
His entire body squeezed on all sides by something immense, something he couldn’t see, but could only feel. "Dark night and magic unbound, seek thee a vessel." the voices repeated. He was stuck, his muscles would not move, his body refusing to obey him as momentum carried him to the floor, collapsing like his Bright Lance had a moment ago.
He was dead, he'd been struck by an arrow or... a falling rock had hit his head or something. That had to be it. Did death take this long? Were the empty voices the last thing he would hear? He was so cold, everything was so cold. Yet even as he swore his life ended. He continued to think, 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 snow and ice.
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 eternal, endless agony until he eventually 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 that had now passed. Bright had been in that, she couldn't save him.
A few villagers were around her, trying to figure out how to crack the great shell of black ice, hard as stone that had formed around Sky, her other son. 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. It was a numbness that took her, not a vast wave of hate or pain but simply, nothing.
The ruins of her life were cold, ashen, and empty. Grapevine, her sainted neighbor had strewn a blanket around her shoulders, 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 gone, everything she’d known.
It was some hours later when the embers finally settled to dust and smoke, that a call came. She’d been moved to her neighbors living room, away from the wreck she couldn’t help but stare at but now… The ruins had shifted and a figure had crawled from them. Embrace had let hope blossom in her heart as she crawled from Grapevines home where she had 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, body muscular and strong. He was unlike any 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 another 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.
Sky hadn't earned his mark yet. Unlike Bright, villagers told that Sky had simply frozen over in an orb of ice colder than anything imaginable, only to emerge as it shattered like a butterfly from a cocoon.Despite not having a mark before , he had grown a moon sigil, and the... what would they be? Spirits? Demons? Neither of them knew. But they had called him Lunaris, and so he had taken that to his name also.
Solaris, as some internal force had compelled him to call himself, sighed. He had reached his hand into the well to take a drink, and the water 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, somehow, what they had confirmed to each other, and had not told another soul yet. The Fae were gone .Not just the ones in the village… all of them.
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. They’d quietly asked the other on this theory that had simply emerged, as if an inserted memory into their minds. They had the same notion, the same knowledge of the event. An event they had not seen, or known to be possible, yet now knew with certainty.
"We need to tell everyone what happened to them, 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, small ones, but there none the less.
A strange change that Solaris had not undergone in like. "We don’t even know what -we- are. You can see how they're looking at us, like we’re monsters. If we tell them that too they’ll all panic and string us up. We can't just announce that an entire race has been obliterated, they might blame us." he said, and Lunaris found himself agreeing, despite how much he didn’t like it.
It was the advent of a dangerous time, perhaps in the future they could be more honest. "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 ground. "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 ar. It's all 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... that frosty handprint didn’t bode well.
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 them. Even if they were something new in this world. Wielders of what the Fae had commanded.
These two held Magic in their horns. The land was changing, the whole 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 that had once held the king of the fae, uncertain. The last few months had been strange for them. Once teenagers blessed with magical power, knowledge, wisdom, and strength beyond that of many others, now something new.
The vacuum left by the Fae had been filled swiftly, worship of the otherworldly faefolk had shifted to the worship of the brothers. Solaris and Lunaris. They had learned quickly to move the sun and craft the night, and worship had turned to admiration, to need. The very cycle of night and day had been thrust into their hands
The populace, left without guidance, had latched onto them to lead them in these uncertain times. The Fae were truly gone, everyone knew that now. All that was left of them was their home, Oberons' fortress on the edge of the highest mountains base.
The two stood at its door. A door that they’d left ajar, covered in spiderwebs and dust as no pony had had the courage to enter its hallowed halls since the fall. Behind the pair was a great mass, some few hundred 'followers'. Ones they had at first insisted they did not deserve, but had grown to accept the aid of nonetheless.
Among them mostly, were unicorns, the newer race who had been raised with them. Hundreds across the realm who had been born with the same magical gifts as the brothers now wielded, if not quite as mighty. Before the fall of the Fae, there were no such people.
The travel time had had an effect on the brothers. Solaris had taken to his role, he'd always been strong willed, but given a new power, new wisdom, and purpose… He'd truly fit the new form he wore. Lunaris was still unsure, he mostly stuck to following his brother, measured and reserved. testing his powers more, careful and cautious.
Solaris turned his back to the portal, a single wing out to one side, using it as a backdrop for his arm. The following crowd hushed and halted. He wordlessly called for quiet with the simple motion, and the crowd, be it through fear or adoration, gave it quickly. "You all know this structure, the house of the late Oberon, King of the 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 know your teams, some of you will find 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, and their wrath. We know not of such fear. Walk in their halls with us, and you will know courage." he announced, half-shouting his words, which echoed across the crowd. His new might carried to his voice as much as the rest of his body. Lunaris couldn’t imagine this months ago, maybe a soldier sure but to command, to lead as Solaris had taken to. It was like he was always meant for it.
A few scattered cheers and hollers rose with the peaceful nods and prayers to them. Prayers... Prayers to Lunaris and Solaris for guidance, as if they were not mere teenagers wielding a power 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 useless 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 stepped just behind him, the dark stallion very much his brothers' shadow. He seemed ill at ease, not having taken to his new place as confidently as Solaris had. The Halls were beautiful. Nobody here would have seen them, or anything the like. Unblemished marble inlaid with beautifully complex swirling patterns of crystal and gold. A few gasps came as light danced along the artistic architecture. The brothers remained quiet, moving ever forward, their presence banishing the darkness. In solarisis case, quite literally. No torchbearer needed to be near him, his fur simply shone like the sun he moved. Lunaris didn’t send his away, despite the ability to see in darkness as if it were daytime. Not that he had told anyone of that perk just yet.
Within the hour, the crowd outside had filtered in, taking torches and chalk into the halls to map out the paths. Using the chalk with them to mark where they had come, the way back, and to draw crude maps on walls to help others orient. A small group had set up in the main hall just inside the doorway, drawing out a single, massive map as teams came back and forth to give information, measurements and other reports. Solaris and Lunaris had moved off alone to seek what seemed to call them both. The throne room.
It had not taken them long to find, something had guided them to it, spirits? Memories not their own? Magic? They couldn't name it. But it did guide them well. The subtle whispers had turned them from corner to corner until they found the massive, opulent chamber. The walls beset with jewels, more gold, black and white stone in contrast of beautiful patterns. None of it interested them. Not from there they stood. The foot of a small staircase, topped with a pair of thrones, Titania and Oberons' thrones.
Solaris turned suddenly, eyes fixing on Lunaris, who started at the sudden movement. "What...?" The moon stallion asked, as his brother fixed him with a glare. "You said something." Solaris said, which caused Lunaris to frown. "I didn't say anything... Are you hearing echoes from the others?" he asked, Solaris pausing to peer back the way they came. "No no, it..." he said, before Lunaris heard it too. "My throne, host only to dust, useless." came a voice, just a voice. Genderless, emotionless, nothing in it indicating what it was, as if nothing but words, written into their minds. Both brothers started to look around, searching for the source.
When the words came again, the pair stopped and looked at each other, the words came from within. "I once called this hall home, from here I directed a 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 its own mind." Solaris said, with such certainty that Lunaris simply... believed him. It was hard to argue with his brother now. When he spoke, you simply believed he knew what he was saying.
"You were tools, fit to craft the land and sky for us and little more." the voice continued, as Solaris moved 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 ruined our 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 stones hunger, I can feel their need..." Solaris said, fingers tracing a vein of diamond set into the throne, converging on a gem placed within the headrest. "Hungers for what?" Lunaris asked, peering up at the throne, and to his brother, whose fingers had stopped on that gem. The sun stallions fingers gently pressing against it. Lunaris wasn’t sure what to make of his brother. Maybe these new bodies were changing them in more ways than physical, he’d become someone new these last months… maybe he really had become someone else, truly.
"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 seemed to burst with light.
The diamond veins in the seat filled with white light, flowing along the channels of precious stone into the floor. A moment later, the dusty crystalline lamps that adorned the floor, now resting on the floor, inert and out of their casings, were given life. One by one they exploded with steady cool white light, lifting into the air, and floating back into the small pointed marble 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 Solaris had breathed into the palace.
Lunaris cursed and ran from the room, worried that those who had followed them, promised safety, would be afraid and flee. Solaris remained, watching his brother go, apparently uninterested in the common folk.
The solar stallion sighed, the small effort to infuse life into this castle was almost instinctive. 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 through an ancient dead king'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, not that his brother had known. Lunaris was too worried about the details. "What do I do with this strength, this power? Am I to raise and lower the sun and little else?" he asked it. For a moment, no response. He focussed, 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 smiled, looking to the throne, the beautiful hall of marble, tapestry, and magic.
Within it all, he found peace. Purpose. Yes, he was given this throne, this strength, to guide the world, and guide it he would. He sighed, clarity filled him as he sat in that throne, feeling the soft fabric accept him from below. He’d never felt a cushion before...
"My throne... gone." Oberon's voice echoed in his mind. Solaris frowned a little, not able to hear Lunaris anymore, he must have gone far. So he sat back, and focussed, trying to coalesce the kings essence, the magic that flowed freely about the brothers, to reassemble more of Oberon. A stronger cohesion of the image that lived in their minds. He felt it take form, felt as scattered memories, ruined collections of thoughts, feelings of hatred, all collected… he could almost see the ghostly visage of the former ruler before him.
"I... why? Why do you..." Oberon spoke, with the first tinge of emotion Solaris had heard him use. Confusion. The sun stallion cut him off. An instinct pushed him suddenly, he used his mind to swipe a great wave of magic across that collection of cognizance. Like a storm across a delicate house of cards, shattering the connections freshly made, scattering it all as it came together, tentatively reforming in vulnerability, to nothing. He destroyed what weak fragments were left of the Fae, destroyed the memories, wiped that tainted magic clean. After a moment, left in the silence, even the impression of Oberon that had resided in his very soul, was gone. The age of the Fae was well and truly, over.
Lunaris felt the soft guiding voice in his mind simply stop suddenly. He had been helping a unicorn back to his feet after he had fallen in surprise at the lunar stallions' appearance around a corner. He frowned slightly, pushing the sudden feeling of emptiness aside as he helped the poor fellow up, then made his way back to the throne room, where he found Solaris sitting in a throne, lost in thought.
"Did you feel the voice fade?" Lunaris asked, stepping up the foot of the stairs. Solaris nodded, grimacing slightly. "I did, we are alone with what we have now. Nothing 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 hope we’re enough." he said, before looking at his brother, lounging on a throne.
"The disciples could use some of your confidence... 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. Unaware of what had just transpired.
"It's just been so dangerous since the fae fell. Are you sure you can actually provide us with the security you promised?" The old farmer asked.
Solaris smiled, the soft, warm smile he'd been practising in the mirror for the last few weeks. It had been a month since they took ownership of the castle, which they had come to name Canterlot. The food stores inside had kept well. Dried meats and such that would continue to do so for a time, but Lunaris had been insistent that they look outward sooner rather than later. They could not simply reside in their shiny new gilded hall. They had to find a way to create a hold, an area of land for themselves, if they were to truly take the place of rulers in this new world.
So, after a few weeks of reading dusty old tomes found in the library, and a not insignificant amount of practice, the pair had struck out to the farms around Canterlot. Their goal was relatively simple. To convince them to trade their crop, for protection from their army, more an improvised militia currently. They would word it as starting to contribute to the new Equestrian state, and to 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. The militia were in no state. Most of them barely knew what end of the weapon was to be held. Many were learning, but right now, the brothers were all they had.
"We are plenty capable. My brother and I are still figuring things out, making our own way just like you. But, to not use the strength gifted to us to protect those less able seems a waste. We want to establish a kingdom, a new society with our kind in control." Solaris explained, covering his frustrations. He wanted to be with his troops, helping train them, feeling that new sensation that… thrill of battle. He gave the farmer that practiced, understanding tone his old fae commander had never used with him, only with others of his ilk.
Barely out of teenage, to the best of their knowledge, he was the closest thing to god in this world, and it fell to him and his brother to mend, to rule the world, to protect all within. The challenge excited and terrified him in equal measure. They had been blessed. The library in the castle was full of tomes on farming, construction, metallurgy, baking… dozens of skills that nobody had taught to his kin save a lucky few. They would have to wait to use most of them, for now many of his loyal needed to learn to read from the few blessed among them.
Solaris realised he hadn’t been focussed on the moment, but had let his mind wander to their greater task again. Thankfully the farmer seemed to be lost in thought as well. Taking a long moment to stare out before releasing a deep breath as he turned to look at his modest farm, merely a short walk from the camp around the castle that would, he hoped, slowly blossom into a capital city. Solaris briefly looked back at Canterlot, dotted with tents and campfire smoke rising around the pristine white marble of the castle, more and more were slowly travelling to join the burgeoning settlement as word spread.
The farmer finally spoke, breaking the contemplative silence. "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 he could finally release the tension he had been holding.
Solaris smiled that warm smile, and reached down to plant a firm, strong hand on the farmer's shoulder. "I thank you, as small a gesture as you might think this is, it will help us learn to work together again. Once we prove we can protect you, others can be convinced more easily. Your crop will go well used." he said reassuringly. He wanted folk like this to feel as if they were part of a grand design. They very much were.
His role done here, he turned and went to move to the next farm, he had three more to visit. Busy work. Tiring, yammering busy work. Important busy work he knew. But something in his blood had called him. The other day he had ‘sparred’ with some of his new militia and felt a rush he never had. The danger of it, the risk, the knowledge that he could so easily take a life… it lived in his mind. He took a breath to steady himself. To quell that eagerness as it was replaced by the strange nervous energy he felt when approaching the next farm. Lunaris should’ve gone out to do the talking, he hated talking.
It was evening by the time the brothers met again. Lunaris had been cataloguing 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 stupid." 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, it'd have been a massive two handed affair, barely wieldy as a weapon at all. To him, it felt like it was a mere dagger, barely a weight he noticed, despite its size.
"We need to prove ourselves as more than just symbols and talkers, the worship around us will not last forever." Solaris said, turning to meet his brother’s eyes. Solaris saw the worry in those endless blues. Unlike Lunaris, Solaris had been training to be a guard as the Fae fell. His younger brother had been looking to apprentice under an astrologist, a great irony considering what he now controlled. "I'll do most of the work, you just need to stand and look menacing. I'll keep you safe." Solaris said, giving one of the blue princes biceps a jovial slap of encouragement.
The night stallion nodded, turning to look out at the campfire that marked the camp of the bandits that had been pestering the farmers around their home for the last few weeks. They stood atop the hill they had agreed to meet on, Lunaris having brought arms and armour for them from the castle. There was a soft glint of metal reflecting in the light of that fire around the camp. Solaris figured that would be the glint of their own arms and armour in the firelight. Hopefully the pair didn't’ stand out as much as the camp did. Then again, Solaris’ very fur glowed a bright white. He’d be a great standing torch in this evening light. He sighed, more talking. Maybe. Inwardly, he hoped they would resist. His brother hoped they could be shoo’d away. Solaris itched to prove himself on something more substantive than an errant ghostly visage of a dead king.
Solaris got the pair moving, simply choosing to walk to the camp rather than use their wings, neither was a particularly graceful flyer just yet. The two rather stood out anyway, so the bandits may yet disperse, deciding not to risk a confrontation with the pair.
"Dunno who you great glinty fucks think you are, but you should turn around." A voice grunted from up a tree beside them. The hills weren’t completely open, they should’ve expected a watcher to be posted nearby.
The pair stopped as a young stallion stepped free, holding a shortbow, trained at Solaris' chest. He wasn’t particularly armoured, mostly loose leathers. Normal peasant fare, unchanged in these newer times. Lunaris froze in place, mouth half open in surprise. Solaris meanwhile, barely broke his stride. Confidence blossoming in his heart. The idea of a fight, the challenge stoked him. He did stop after a few steps. He had half a mind to ignore the bow wielding stallion and continue walking, but his brother's pause made him stop. He turned to address the newcomer.
"We are Solaris and Lunaris, of the sun and moon. You have been pillaging from our lands and terrorising our people. We are here to bring an end to that, who is your leader?" he said, resting a hand on the pommel of the sword he had sheathed at his side. There was no need to draw it, not yet, instead he simply held the young stallion’s gaze.
He was a ragged looking lad. A soft scar on one of his arms, eyes slightly sunken. His body showed signs of hunger, wear and exhaustion. Bone showed in a few spots. His eyes were faintly sunken in and the lines of his skull were starting to show around his face. Either the bandits weren’t eating, or they weren’t very successful. The emaciated stallion stood for a long moment, silently watching the pair. Eventually, he lowered his bow and nodded. "Fine. follow me, any funny business and me and the boys will give a new meanin' to 'holy'" he huffed, returning the arrow to his quiver and thumbing over his shoulder, Solaris recognized that distrustful look, he had learned not to put his back to others, this stallion was not well treated. He gestured the brothers towards the camp proper.
Solaris simply nodded. Oddly, when he had been chatting to farmers he had been more afraid. Right now, all that was at risk was his life, and he was perfectly calm. 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 other guards on the outskirt didn't give them trouble, parting to allow them between a pair of tents and up to the main campfire. It wasn’t much by way of a “camp”. Half a dozen mixed tents, a few logs for benches around a campfire with unidentifiable meats and pulses on skewers quietly cooking. Not many folk were around. One was asleep in a tent, a few other sloitered nearby, where was only one around the campfire. A muscular, grizzled, well fed and well trained looking woman. Despite her dishevelled armour, scars and general air of danger. Including a great axe at her side, resting on the floor, Solaris didn’t react to spotting her. Lunaris backed up a little, as if scared of simply being nearby. Inside, the thrill of battle rose, a challenge…
She peered up at the pair slowly, disinterested. Her deep red eyes fixated on Solaris. "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 angry gaze.
Solaris did not wait to be prompted to speak, he inserted himself. "Indeed. We've come to talk, not fight. Leave our 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 capable hands in our growing army." He said, confident, steady, serious. Just like he practised. He’d been using the farmers today to perfect his tone but inwardly, he hoped she would refuse. His bright orange eyes met hers again as she looked at him with disdain.
She didn’t move from her seat, she sat there uncaring and unchallenged while holding a stick which she used to occasionally prod 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’s that, or we will be forced to remove you. There are bigger problems in our lives than a haphazard gaggle of bandits." he said, a faint spit of bitterness in his words. That… he had also practised.
Lunaris had perked up, the confidence Solaris had put on display seeming to calm his nerves. He'd never so much as held a weapon... he didn't even bring one. Was Solaris’ confidence that infectious? Not important right now. He had to focus on this unnamed woman. The next obstacle.
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 of my idiots." 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. It was already loaded and cocked.
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, trying his best to contain the excitement. Finally, finally a test. "Nah, don't think we will, kindly fuck o-" they started. Solaris didn’t let her stop. He had spent the entire conversation feeling around himself with this new magic. Tomes he had read in the last few months giving him insight into just what he could do. A strong sense of… spirit? Energy? Soul? He had no idea what it was, but he felt strength, and had assumed it must have been her. Focussing for a moment, willing his power into her, commanding the very being. Ignite. Burn. Become as ash.
The bandit leader’s head shot up from the campfire. She was unharmed, but there was a scream. Solaris and Lunaris spun to see the ranger that had brought them to the camp, clutching his head which was enveloped in a soft orange glow. Solaris' magical grip. He hadn’t cast his spell on her. He’d thrown it upon a starved man, and couldn’t stop it for the shock he felt locked him into it. Unable to summon the mental command to half the flow of magic.
The poor ranger’s eyes burst into flame, black smoke pouring from his mouth, nose, and ears as the stench of cooked flesh filled the air. Pure horror for but a moment or two. The smell hit his nose, as Lunaris wretched. Solaris remained imperious. Thrill and disgust clashing inside his mind as he robbed a life as an example. Thoughts of those this might spare clashing with morality of a life no longer lived as he stared at the body, whatever he had done to it was fading. The body crumpling on the floor, insides a crusted, singed mess, dead without so much as a twitched finger from Solaris. Such was his power.
He turned to see the horrified face of their leader, once so disinterested and confident, now wracked with terror. "You didn't even move... w-what did..." she started, only for Solaris to cut her off. " I make one final offer. Leave, join, or you will not be around long enough to see the ashes fall." he said, cold, steady. Inwardly, he congratulated himself on his tone. He felt a little forgiving, but he knew they would flee. As if on cue, 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. Possibly waiting for the agony of fire to engulf her. When it did not come she jogged out of the camp proper, barking hurried orders at bandits who had only bore witness to Solaris murdering one of their own. They didn’t take their tents, their gear, chairs and bedrolls. They all just… fled.
Once they were a distance away from the camp, Lunaris asked to stop, he had to speak. "You just... you just murdered him. The scream, that pain. Could you have not done it more gently? Could you not have done it at all?" he asked, Solaris was surprised at how energetic he was about it. "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. He was starting to worry that the power had come at a price the pair would pay over a very long time…
