A Tale of Two Brothers

by Zonagon

Chapter 2

Author's Note:

Warning!
The following gets VERY dark and disturbing.
Reader discretion is advised.

A Tale of Two Brothers
Chapter 2

A thunderstorm roars outside the window of a red stone room. The room itself is filled with mostly only the essentials one needs, so only a bed besides the desk off to the side that is secretly filled with hair tonic. The room itself is cold and lacks any sort of warmth for a sleeping pony. Despite this, resting upon the bed was a stallion who possessed gold-like fur, dark brown mane, and a brown goatee to match. Helios was practically a young adult at this point, and his separation from his mother and brother have been many years ago...

~Many Years Ago~

The cart had led him to a cold mountain where a society of Griffins lived, here in their city of Griffinstone. The buildings were gray and cold, and the sky reflected that grayness back down on the city. It was also starting to drizzle on his head. Helios looked out upon the gruff faces of the griffins who happened to pass by. Guards were patrolling everywhere alongside their beefy citizens, never had Helios encountered such strong looking creatures before. The cart finally stopped in front a griffin female who was clad in golden armor, she looked over the young foal, Helios, and muttered something under breath.

"Welcome, Prince Helios!" She dramatically shifted the dreary tone to a more lighthearted one. "My name is General Gale, it is a pleasure to welcome you here to our fair city!"

"H- hello, are you my?-" Helios begins to say until Gale cuts him off.

"Your teacher? Why yes, of course!" She pulls Helios with her to the inside of the stone fortress before them as the Griffinstone guards gather Helios's things to bring to his new room. "You will remain here as my student until you are ready to become the leader that con protect your ponies from whatever danger that may come!

The two enter the main hall of the Griffinstone Barracks that is filled with banners, griffin statues, spears and other weapons, and Griffinstone guards going about their daily routine. General Gale goes on to tell Helios about her role as the defender of the great city of Griffinstone, how she goes about performing her tasks as defender of the city, and how she managed to earn that title in the first place. She continues this until they reached the door leading to Helios's new room right next to all the other rooms belonging to the Griffinstone guards. He knew it was his because the door had a label with his name on it.

"Welcome to your new room, your Majesty!" She opened the door to reveal an unimpressive red stone room with a bed and a desk furnishing it. "Now I know it doesn't seem like much, but the first step to being a great leader is making due with what you currently have!"

"Really?" Helios asks her as he walks into his new room.

"Well, technically it's knowing how to properly beat up your foe on the battlefield, THEN making due with what you currently have!" She admits.

"Oh." He responds.

"How about you settle yourself in right now and..." Gale abruptly stops when she takes a good look at Helios. "Has your mane always been brown?"

Shocked, Helios brushes his hoof through his mane to find out his brother's dark red tonic has started to fade out from his hair. He feels deep melancholy when he thinks back to that time when he stupidly drank one of his brother's potions and it turning his mane brown. Nocturn was so scared that if he tried to fix it, he'd end up making it worse, so instead he gave Helios a tonic that when applied to his hair, he would regain the appearance of having a red mane. The rain must have washed it away wile he was outside. He turns to see Gale waiting patiently for him to respond to her question.

"Y-yes, it has been brown this whole time." He admits, though technically he has no idea when it turned back.

"Oh, okay." She settles herself back to how she was a moment ago, therefore she is cheery again. "You can settle yourself in here for tonight, but early tomorrow morning your training will begin!"

She swiftly turns out the door to leave Helios to his thoughts. He didn't notice it before, but the guards had placed his bag filled with his brother's tonics behind the door. Helios gathered the tonics and hid them inside the desk for good measure. He didn't want to use them anymore but he still wanted to keep them so he can look back and remember his brother who was no doubt a million miles away from him. Slowly trotting to his new bed, Helios wrapped himself in his blankets and looked out at the pouring rain outside. It was as if the sky was mimicking his aching heart.

~Present Day~

It was quiet in this dark library, not a soul was stirring, except for one curious mouse hungry for a speck of food. It scampered across the stone tiles after losing track of where the kitchen was. This place was like a maze for the non-magical, like the mouse who had found the vague smell of some nearby food. It scampered until it found a loaf of untouched bread being illuminated by a candle as they both sat upon a reading desk. The mouse quickly scampered to the table and crawled up the leg to meet the bread face-to-face, however just before it could sink it's teeth into the bread, a small bolt of lightning stuck the mouse quickly turning it to ash.

Sitting at the table was a stallion dressed in a deep black robe, with only his ghostly blue eyes peering out of the dark folds of his hood. He looked out at the small pile of ash on the table, and blew it away so he can continue reading. Before he did however, he recast his rejuvenation spell on the bread so he can continue his hobby of exterminating rats as he read through his spell books, and just like clockwork he sensed another rat had found it's way into his very dusty library...

~Many Years Ago~
~Again?~

Nocturn didn't bother looking out on the village of Satyrs the cart was passing, he didn't bother seeing their shabby little huts that barely keep them warm at night, and nor did he bother finding the downtrodden faces of these poor Satyrs. All he saw was the towering castle that was said to be home to a guild of unicorns who were very powerful in the art of magic. The castle sat far and high away from the village filled of its indentured servants, who have no doubt been under the tyrannical rule of these unicorns for generations.

Nocturn however, cared little for their sins against Satyr-kind, but what he did care for was what their plans were for a unique foal like himself. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Upon opening them again, he saw the security runes of the unicorns. They were following the cart, or more specifically, Nocturn himself. He looked out to the gates of the castle and saw the presence of greed, malice, and a slimmer of self-doubt. These unicorns were pathetic, but he would have to make due with them for the time being. No matter how much he wants to crush their spirits.

The cart finally stopped at the gates where almost the entire unicorn guild greeted him; Nocturn had been able sense the exact number of unicorns present in the castle, and had sensed that the masters of the guild were enjoying their skyward view of the young child with the illusion of power they assumed they possessed over the foal. Nocturn felt like he was guiding himself out of sewage as these surrounding obnoxious unicorns began to poke and prod into his personal life, but only met with cold silence.

Upon entering the castle, he discovered numerous satyrs garbed in servant attire, and are bowing in silence to him and the throng of unicorns behind him. At least these creatures know how to treat a guest, Nocturn thought to himself. Now if only he could ditch these obnoxious... He turned his head to see the unicorns behind him insulting and mocking the satyr servants as they followed the young Prince. What deplorable creatures, Nocturn said in his head. What exactly do these so-called magical experts have to teach him of all things? How to be an insufferable jerk to a respectable satyr?

Finally he had made it to the doors leading to the guild leaders. Now he can ditch these stupid... Nocturn looked all around him to see that the entire mob of unicorns had suddenly vanished! They were there just a second ago, so what exactly happened? He nervously entered the court room to see twelve elder unicorns sitting in a booth raised up in the air, and a gallery of unicorns spread all across the room. They all had devious and annoying smiles on their muzzles, as if they were silently mocking the young Prince.

Nocturn payed them no heed and kept his gazed fixed on the unicorn elders in the booth above him. The elders welcomed him to his new home as their newest student of magic. Nocturn will learn how to harness magic for the betterment of pony-kind and learn how to be a master strategist in order to bring the ponies victory whenever or where ever they will be. He would be the leader in the shadows, always plotting to keep pony-kind the dominant race in the world. Nocturn however cared very little for their plans for him and for the so-called "Good of Pony-kind", if he had his way there would be NO pony-kind whatsoever.

"Do you understand, my student?" One of the elders asks him in a commanding voice.

"Yes, my master." Nocturn responds in monotone.

~Present Day~
~Again~

The entire castle was quiet, and not a soul has disturbed its silence in ages, all except the lone stallion in the dusty library who has been devouring the knowledge of every last book in the library. From spell books, story books, and everything in between. He has stopped eating long ago due to his discovery of the true nature of Alicorns such as his brother and himself. Now the only residents in this castle are himself, the rats who scurry about the halls, and the frozen statues of long dead unicorns.

Outside the castle is a different story however, what once lived a small village of huts and sickly satyrs now stands a massive and thriving town of satyrs living their every day as if it were their last. When once food was scarce, now it is distributed from the farms that once fed the inhabitants of the abandoned castle far above their city. In the center of their city stands the statue of an Alicorn foal that had brought this age of prosperity to them, and as tradition: the satyrs plant beautiful flowers around the statue and at the castle gates as an offering of thanks to the pony who saved them.

Nocturn himself cared little of what the satyrs would do with their lives after he banished them from this deplorable castle, for the only reason he had spared them was of how they had shown such respect to him in his younger years. Never the less, he was quite pleased to see them flourish without the disturbance of those vile unicorns who are now the frozen statues that decorate the castle halls. But he knew one thing he had wanted to accomplish for so many years now, something that has gnawed the back of his mind for ages. He wanted revenge on those three ponies who took his mother and brother away from him...