The Rising of the Brothers of Light and Dark

by Dark Dienen

chapter 3

Rune sat calmly as he honed the edge of his blade. Since Arcane disappeared into his tent to check the message crystal for any traps, there was little else to do but wait. Seeing as that was the case, he decided it was a good a time as any to sharpen his sword.

As the whetstone was drawn along the surface of the steel, the metal rasped in accompaniment. Rune found the steady action oddly relaxing. Or it would have been had it not been for the restless pegasus in the tent with him.

“Twist, if you don’t stop pacing like that, I’m afraid I will have to nail your horseshoes to the ground.”

“Well, what’s taking Codger so long?” Twister asked for the umpteenth time, ceasing her pacing much to Rune’s relief.

“I’m certain he’s going as fast as he’s able,” Rune replied, not looking up from his task. “I know you are anxious, but be patient.”

“I wouldn’t mind being patient if I knew how long he would be,” Twister complained.

“He will be as long as he will be. Just keep calm.”

Twister grumbled something unintelligible under her breath, but thankfully did not resume her pacing. “Mind if I ask you something?” she asked after a moment of silence.

“Go ahead.”

“Why do you sharpen your sword everyday? Won’t it hold an edge?”

Rune smile and chuckled a little. “Nervous habit I picked up. The night before my first battle, I was nervous about my sword not being sharp enough. After spending half the night sharpening it, I managed to relax enough to get to sleep. I’ve been doing it ever since.”

Rune could feel more than see her quirk her eyebrow in confusion. “And that helps?”

“Has for years.”

The silence was only broken by the rasping of stone and metal before Twister spoke again. “Got an extra one I can use?”

“You can use this one” Rune replied, offering the whetstone to Twister, “I was about to start cleaning the blade anyway.”

Twister took the whetstone as she settled next to Rune. She removed the hoofblades attached to her forelegs and began the process of honing them.

As Rune wiped the surface of the blade with an oilcloth, he caught glimpses of his reflection in the steel. His brown mane sat in a constant state of disorder on his head, falling about unevenly. His tan coat was markless save for the runes upon his legs and barrel and a single scar across his muzzle.

“Admiring the scar I gave you?” Twister asked, her voice smug with self assurance.

Rune gave her a lopsided smile. “I won that fight, in case you don’t remember,” he shot back playfully.

She gave a snort of laughter. “You got lucky and you know it. If it wasn’t for my training you, you’d be hopeless as a fighter.”

Rune had to chuckle. “True, and don’t think I don’t appreciate it.”

“I can’t have you dying on me. I could still make fun of Codger, but he doesn’t reply to it half the time.”

Rune couldn’t help but laugh. It was almost comforting to know that even in someplace as grim as this, a laugh could still be found.

“You know, it’s funny,” Twister remarked after a second, “When I heard about the Crystal Kingdom, I thought it was a fake. I mean, the idea of all kinds of ponies living together sounds like a bad joke. Now…”

“Makes you wonder what we were missing before,” Rune supplied for her, sheathing his sword.

“Yeah,” Twister replied, “and you know something? If somepony had told me five years ago I’d be fighting alongside earth ponies and unicorns, I’d have called them crazy. Makes you wonder what was wrong with us for not seeing it before. Could I see that oilcloth, please?”

As Rune gave it to her, a curious thought occurred to him.

“Hey Rune, you alright?”

“I was just wondering if things were gonna go back to how they were before the horses showed up.”

“How do you mean?”

Rune gave a small shrug. “Let’s face it: the kings aren’t getting along as well as we had hoped. When Crystal Skies told me of this ‘cooperation,’ she confided in me that part of the plan was to not only end this war, but all the wars between us. She and King Cold Stone had hoped to show the other kings that much more could be accomplished through supporting each other rather than competing against each other. Given how the meeting went, you can see how well that endeavor worked.

“That got me thinking that, once this whole business is over, we would all be back at each other’s throats. Even if we can manage to save the heirs, it will be a matter of time before we will be ordered to kill each other.”

Things were silent before Twister began chuckling. “That’s one reason I don’t envy you smart ponies your brains.”

Rune looked at Twister while cocking an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Let me ask you something: what if a stone were to fall from the sky and kill you where you sit?”

Rune racked his brain a moment before answering, “Is there a point to this?”

“Why worry about tomorrow’s problems? We have enough of those for today. Besides, for what its worth, I don’t want to fight you. None of you.”

“Really?” Rune asked curiously, “I thought you liked fighting.”

“Only my enemies,” Twister clarified, “and call me crazy, but if I trust you enough to bind my wounds in front of you, then you automatically become my friend.”

“And you do get a lot of wounds,” Rune replied insightfully.

“Scars make me look cool,” Twister replied unashamedly, “One thing I’m curious about: why did Crystal tell you and not me or Arcane?”

“To be fair, she was drunk at the time. Seeing as that was the case, I wasn’t sure how she’d feel about me telling that to others, so I kept it to myself. Besides, I think Arcane may have figured it out for himself.”

“He does seem to be two steps ahead of everypony,” Twister agreed. Pausing for a moment, she began to snicker. “You want to hear something funny? We pegasi thought that you earth Ponies could actually force plants to grow when you like and the unicorns made the sun and moon rise and fall with their magic.”

“You mean Arcane admitted that they can’t use magic like that?”

“No, Codger said it was possible that unicorns could move the sun and the moon if they had to, but seeing as they moved by themselves, such a feat was unnecessary.”

“That sounds like him,” Rune agreed, “However, you want to hear something even stranger? Earth ponies thought you pegasi could control the weather.”

She snorted. “Nah, we can sit on clouds, but that’s about it. Although, I did hear something about a pegasus that managed to force rain out of a cloud using something called ‘elemental magic.’ I never saw it though.”

Rune’s face fell as the earlier topic reared its disturbing head in his mind. “Hey Twist, what would you do if we were ordered to fight each other?”

Twister gave it a bit of thought. “Try to convince you and Codger to desert with me to the Crystal Kingdom to stick it to Funnel Cloud.”

Rune couldn’t help but laugh at the sheer absurdity of the idea. “Oh yeah!” Rune managed to gasp between breaths, “I bet he would love that!” This only served to cause Twister to laugh along side of him. They continued for several minutes before they noticed Arcane standing in front of them and watching the scene with an enigmatic expression on his face.

“I hate to interrupt this joyous ruckus, but I’ve finished.”

“About time you got here, Codger!” Twister replied, getting to her hooves with Rune following her example.

Not rising to her challenge, Arcane used his magic to lower the flaps of the tent again. He then removed an arrow with a small cotton pouch from his satchel. “The good news is that nothing here seems meant to cause us any harm.”

“Wait a minute! What I wanna know is how’d that thing get here in the first place?” Twister asked, “And how come they ain’t using more like it on us right now?”

Arcane raised an eyebrow in amusement. “To answer your first query, the arrow had an acceleration spell placed upon it. Rune, would you care to explain the latter portion of her question to her?”

“They don’t use those arrows on us because they don’t have to,” Rune explained, “As long as they hold the heirs, they don’t need to get to us.” Twister looked unamused, but accepted their answers. Rune turned to the archmage. “Arcane, if you would.”

The elderly unicorn gave a curt nod in response. Using his magic, Arcane produced a small pink crystal from the pouch. Placing it upon the table, he activated it in a glow of power. Immediately, the figure of a horse appeared over the crystal.

His coat was pitch black, like a moonless sky at midnight. His long, straight, greasy mane was a shade lighter than his coat and fell about evenly along his neck. He wore red regalia about his body, giving him an almost regal appearance. He would have passed for handsome had it not been for two traits.

The first being his horn. It jutted from his forehead, longer and straighter than any unicorn pony horn could have. However, unlike most unicorn horse horns, it had been filed to a fine point, only adding to his menacing appearance.

However, what truly made him stand out from any other being they had seen was the lifeless gaze of his eyes. Staring into them was the equivalent of staring into a blackened pit. There was simply nothing there. Even having never seen this stallion before, all these factors made it clear who he was.

“Good evening, Commanders,” the stallion said, his voice carrying like honey poured over thunder, “Allow me to introduce myself: I am Nightshade, Terror of the West.”

Twister flew up to the image, effectively coming muzzle to muzzle with it, and glared at him. “Why don’t you cut with the formalities, come out of that stone shell of yours, and fight like a pony!” she half-growled, half-yelled at the image.

“Twister, he can neither see nor hear you,” Arcane supplied, “This is a message crystal, not a communication crystal.”

When she turned to the unicorn, her mouth opened. “I wanted to see how you’d react,” Arcane supplied, causing Twister to close her mouth. “I took the liberty of pausing the message for your benefit. Shall I continue it?”

Twister shifted her glare between the illusion of the horse and the unicorn before nodding her consent. As the message continued, Nightshade’s expression soured.

“I stand before you… disappointed in your course of actions. The most recent of which being your recent and unwarranted attack. After I have been gracious enough to extend my hospitality to your princes and princesses, you have the tactlessness to punish me for my good will. Even after I have allowed you the means of having them returned to you,I am perceived as a villain.”

Nightshade’s expression took a dark undertone that was not unnoticed by the commanders.

“As a result, my patience and generosity has reached its limit. I now submit to you these demands: If you wish these juveniles-” Nightshade spat the word as though it had an ill taste to it “-relatively unharmed, I wish for the unconditional surrender of the Pony Lands to me. And, in retaliation for your foolish and ill conceived actions, these demands must be met by Midsummer’s Eve or I will see their corpses fed to the crows.”

Nightshade then smirked as he spoke.“And, should you doubt the sincerity of my words, I have included a small token to show the extent of my displeasure. You shall doubtlessly find it included in the same parcel as this was.” Nightshade’s image was dismissed by a curt nod, allowing the image to fade into nothingness.

Rune looked to the bag the crystal had come in, eyeing suspiciously along with Twister. Arcane, taking the pragmatic approach, lifted it into his magic. After a second or three of rummaging, he removed a small piece of folded canvas from it.

Lifting an eyebrow curiously, Arcan began unfolding the canvas. Reaching the center, Rune felt his eyes widen then narrow at its contents: four pieces of flesh.