“We're not actually brothers, you know.” There was a faint flush on Prince Artemis' cheeks as he spoke.
“Oh?” Dusk Shine raised just one eyebrow, a little inquisitive gesture that he almost had to have picked up from Solaris, who did just the same thing when he thought he was being clever.
Artemis chuckled. “No. We were never born in the conventional sense, after all, so we can hardly be brothers when we have no parents and were not raised together.”
Dusk frowned faintly, thinking through things as he always did. “I see. But then why...?”
“Why call ourselves brothers? Because it's the closest word we have, I suppose. Because it's easier to say 'brothers' to curious ponies than to explain a complicated series of relationships that developed over several thousand years.”
Dusk shifted uncomfortably at the reminder of how very much older Artemis was than he. He didn't quite know what to think about that, in light of recent events. He distracted himself from his discomfort with another question. “So then if being brothers is what you developed into, what were you in the beginning?”
Artemis' aqua eyes grew unfocused as he cast his mind back. He rolled onto his back, tucking his wings against his sides as he did, and stared contemplatively up into space. “In the very beginning, we were enemies.”
Lightning strobed and thunder boomed overhead. Below, a lava flow crossed the land, spewed from a distant volcano. Hot air rose from the flow, sulfurous and turbulent. Riding that air, between the roiling clouds above and the boiling heat below, two forms circled on broad, feathered wings. One was pure white, his mane of fiery gold. The other midnight blue, his mane a pale blue-silver. Both bore horns upon their brows, alight with magic.
They lashed out at each other with raw power, shoving and pushing, one rising and then the other. The white alicorn was winning for the moment, pushing the darker one back and down towards the lava. The dark alicorn panted, straining to put every bit of power he could into pushing back, but it was no use, his enemy was stronger.
Suddenly a thought came to him. His magic blinked out for an instant and he shot backwards and down, coming dangerously close to the red-hot molten stone beneath him. But his horn lit again before he hit it and he soared upwards, free of his enemy's magic while his enemy was off balance from the sudden lack of resistance. His own magic reached not up to where the white alicorn was recovering his balance, but down to the flow below. It grasped a pony-sized glob of liquid and flung it skyward.
With a cry of surprise the white alicorn only just dodged the molten missile. “So that is how you will fight, you coward?” he called. “Very well!” He sized an even larger scoop of lava and hurled it at his opponent. The dark alicorn had expected it, and dodged the massive but clumsy blow easily. That gave him another idea, and he once more reached for the flow. This time, however, he sent a stream of small balls, that cooled into rock even as they flew. With so many in the air, it was harder to dodge. The white alicorn blocked some of them, but a few got through; smoking-hot rocks hitting his pristine hide with stunning force. He faltered as one struck his wing, and began to fall from the sky.
“Ha!” cried the dark alicorn. “This time I shall defeat you once and for all!”
“Never,” came the shouted response. “I will never yield! Not till the end of time!” Despite his brave words he continued to spiral down. His horn lit again, propelling him across the sky, away from the lava flow towards the relatively solid ground beside it. His hooves settled to the ground and he folded one wing, but the other remained spread, too damaged to be folded.
The dark alicorn dove, horn still aglow, his power reaching out to shove the lighter. But the other's horn lit too, and once more they were locked in combat, pushing and tugging at each other. With four hooves braced on the ground the white alicorn was actually harder to move, though he also could not dodge. But he managed, now that he was expecting it, to block several further attempts to repeat the various tricks with flung lava.
Finally, panting, his horn's glow dimmer now, the dark alicorn landed too. But he was by no means ready to concede defeat. He charged at the white alicorn, and they met horn to horn in a shower of magical sparks. The white alicorn was the taller of the two, and his horn was longer. So it was not long before he was shoving his slightly smaller rival back. He pushed harder and harder until the midnight blue alicorn's heels were at the edge of the lava flow.
The smaller alicorn gritted his teeth and stopped there, straining, pushing back with all he had.
It was not enough. With one last, convulsive effort the white alicorn suddenly pitched him backwards, tumbling him off his feet entirely and into the red-hot molten rock. The swift flow swept him away even as it closed over him and he vanished.
Lifting his head in weary triumph, the battered victor's horn lit once more. The swirling storm above began to calm. The thunder and lightning faded, and far off, near the horizon, the clouds began to break up, revealing a dark, empty sky beyond.
The sun came up.
“You have only won for now!” came a distant voice. The white alicorn turned to see that his rival, his fur blackened and his wing feathers crumpled and scorched, had pulled himself out of the lava flow some distance down stream. “Night will fall again!”
“Not this time. This time the sun will shine forever!”